Calendar of Events

n February 2022, thousands of people will celebrate Douglass Day, an annual event held to celebrate the birthday of Frederick Douglass. Members of the public are invited to join this celebration by joining us at the University of Tennessee for a series of events to honor Douglass and to contribute to Black literary history!

Our plenary address by Professor Gabrielle Foreman will be "Frederick Douglass and the Politics of Trust: Black Organizing, Black Wealth, and the Failure of the Freedman's Bank," on Thursday, February 10, 3:30 PM in Student Union 270 or via Zoom.

The main event will be the Frederick Douglass Day Celebration and Transcribe-a-thon on Monday, February 14, 12 PM - 3 PM, Student Union Room 262 and via Zoom. We will be logging on to DouglassDay.org to help transcribe records from a little-known chapter of African American history called the Colored Conventions. It’s a way to celebrate Black History Month with a digital twist!

Sponsored by UT Departments of English, History, and Africana Studies; UT Humanities Center, UT Libraries, UT Special Collections, Division of Diversity and Engagement, and Council for Diversity and Inclusion.

https://english.utk.edu/events/fdd.php

The Vienna Boys Choir

Thursday, February 10, 2022, 7:00 p.m. Tickets $10

Tellico Village Community Church
130 Chota Center, Loudon, TN
www.tellicochurch.org

A new open mic event is in Knoxville and the February show promises to be phenomenal!

Shoe Game and RheaSunshine presents Collectively Speaking. Hosted by RheaSunshine Knoxville's Laureate. Our featured Headliners are Bluz from Charlotte, NC a four-time Emmy Winner & Slam Master and Dasan Ahanu from Raleigh, NC a public speaker & spoken word artist. This month's Rising Star is Knoxville's own Lelani who will be sharing a few of her favorite poems. Since we're Collectively Speaking be prepared to grab the microphone to share some of your favorite poems. You will be encouraged and supported by local Poetry lovers from the area. Seating is limited so get your tickets today.
https://www.eventbee.com/v/collectively-speaking/event?eid=282107355#/tickets
https://www.rheacarmon.com/

At 1205 N Central Avenue (Central Cinema)

Thursday, Feb. 10, 7 p.m.
Clayton Performing Arts Center
Free, no ticket required

Hardin Valley Campus of Pellissippi State: 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville, TN 37932. Information: 865-694-6405, www.pstcc.edu/arts

The University of Tennnessee School of Art is sponsoring exhibitions, at the Ewing Gallery, the Downtown Gallery, and the Student Union Gallery, celebrating the work of comic artists, some of whom are graduates of UT. The School is also hosting two lectures:

Lecture: Stacey Robinson, Thursday, February 10, 2022, 7:30 PM via Zoom

As part of A Serious Look at the Funnies: 100 Years of Comics, Artist and scholar Stacey Robinson will give a virtual presentation on his professional practice in the field of comics and his creative research on the topic of Afrofuturism. Using comics, graphic design, posters, and branding he asks, "What is Black? What is the future of Black people? What does that future with Black people look like?

Robinson is a professor of graphic design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and one half of Black Kirby, a collaborative project with comic artist John Jennings. https://tennessee.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAlcuigqDopHdMH3PRXIXefsmIwn2_bsKZQ

The Ewing Gallery at the Art and Architecture Building is hosting, A Serious Look at the Funnies: 100 Years of Comics beginning January 24 through February 28, 2022. The exhibit examines 100 years of comics and comic history in America. Showcasing political cartoons, underground comics, graphic novels, and daily strips, this exhibition borrows from the collection of Denis Kitchen, cartoonist, publisher, and founder of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and from the University of Tennessee Special Collections.

These examples span 100+ years of comic history with the earliest work dating from 1906 and the most recent work dating from 2015. Noted artists from Denis Kitchen’s collection are Robert Crumb, Harvey Kurtzman, Peter Poplaski, Trina Robbins, Al Capp, Will Eisner, Richard “Grass” Green, and Ernie Bushmiller. Additional artists include Stacey Robinson, John Jennings, Brad Kahlhamer, Paolo Rivera, and Joseph Delaney as well as artists whose work is being shown at the other two galleries.

https://ewing-gallery.utk.edu/

Faculty/Guest Recital: Performed by pianists Joanna Kim, Sanghie Lee, Miya Suen, and Chih-Long Hu, this concert features piano ensemble music from Europe, Asia, and America.

February 10 at 8 p.m.
Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall, Natalie L. Haslam Music Center

UT School of Music: Unless otherwise noted, concerts are FREE and open to the public. The Alumni Memorial Building located at 1408 Middle Drive on the UT campus. (The James R. Cox Auditorium is located in the Alumni Memorial Building.) The Natalie Haslam Music Center is located at 1741 Volunteer Blvd on the UT campus. In-person events that take place in the Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall, or the James R. Cox Auditorium, also have livestream options. So if you're not able to be with us in-person for those events, you can still join: https://music.utk.edu/events/live.php

*For individual or small group performances, please check the web site or call the day of the event for updates or cancellations: 865-974-5678, www.music.utk.edu/events

Set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity, scientist Dr. Givings has innocently invented an extraordinary new device for treating "hysteria" in women (and occasionally men): the vibrator. Adjacent to the doctor's laboratory, his young and energetic wife Catherine wonders exactly what is going on in the next room. When a new "hysterical" patient and her husband bring a wet nurse and their own complicated relationship into the doctor's home, Dr. and Mrs. Givings must examine the nature of their own marriage, and what it truly means to love someone.

We love this play for its humor, honesty, and magical healing.

*Production contains sexual content and partial nudity.

Preview: Feb. 9
Performances: Feb. 10-13, Feb. 18-20, 24-27

River & Rail Theatre, 111 State Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-407-0727, www.riverandrailtheatre.com

Beginning Monday, Feb. 7, The Arts at Pellissippi State presents Muriel Condon: Fabric Print and Quilt in the Bagwell Center for Media Art Gallery. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays.

Condon, a printmaker who is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Tennessee, curated a fabric quilt print exchange with fellow printmakers from across the United States in 2021. Each printmaker, including Knoxville’s own Jake Ingram, contributed works on 12-inch by 12-inch fabric quilt squares, which Condon then pieced together.

“The overall installation touches on the tension between collaborative and individual art, two-dimensional vs. three-dimensional art, fine art vs. craft and objects that we use,” said Pellissippi State Professor Herb Rieth.

Condon received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Montana State University in Printmaking and Painting in 2016 and has studied and served at Frogman’s Print Workshops in Omaha, Nebraska; the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia; and Whiteaker Printmakers in Eugene, Oregon. Before moving to Knoxville, she also participated in the Print Arts Northwest’s Emerging Printmaker residency and was an instructional assistant for screen printing at Linn-Benton Community College in Oregon.

Muriel Condon: Fabric Print and Quilt will be on display until Friday, March 4. The Bagwell Gallery is on Pellissippi State’s Hardin Valley Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville.

Information: 865-694-6405, www.pstcc.edu/arts

Reception Friday, February 11, 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Artists’ talks at 6:30 pm.

What: REFLECTED NARRATIVES
Works by graduate students, faculty and staff from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Printmaking Program. Free and open to the public!

This exhibition presents prints and related works by graduate students, staff and faculty from the University of Tennessee Printmaking Program. The Printmaking Program in the UT School of Art has been ranked among the top graduate programs by US News and World Report for more than 20 years. Courses included intaglio, lithography, relief, monotype, book arts, and screen print. The program encourages students to work with the entire printmaking toolbox, from traditional to digital processes. Emphasize is placed on the importance of making work with processes and materials that inform and develop conceptual ideas.

Our program is enriched by the diversity of backgrounds and educational experiences as reflected in the listing below:
Zoe Brester-Pennings, 2nd Year Graduate Student (BFA, Sonoma State University)
Danqi Cai, 2nd Year Graduate Student, (BFA, Maryland Institute College of Art)
Gino Castellanos, 1st Year Graduate Student (BFA, Florida Atlantic University)
Muriel Condon, 3rd Year Graduate Student (BFA, Montana State University)
Anthony Huang, 1st Year Graduate Student (MFA, Savannah College of Art and Design)
Noah Lagle, 2nd Year Graduate Student (BFA, University of Vermont)
Beauvais Lyons, Professor of Art (MFA, Arizona State University)
Elysia Mann, Printshop Technician (MFA, University of Tennessee)
Althea Murphy-Price, Professor of Art (MFA, Temple University)
Haley Takahashi, 2nd Year Graduate Student (BFA, University of Colorado, Boulder)
Chloe Wack, 1st Year Graduate Student, (BFA, Towson University)
Koichi Yamamoto, Professor of Art (MFA, University of Alberta)

More information about the artists in this exhibition may be found on the UT School of Art website (https://art.utk.edu).

Gallery hours: 10-4 Monday, 10-3 Tuesday and Wednesday. Ring doorbell to enter. Masks required.
Where: Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Gallery
2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919

The WordPlayers of Knoxville will tour an original production, The Ends We Seek, to schools, community colleges, and churches during February. This one-act play with music by Ethan Norman, is a work of historical fiction, which moves between actual events in the 19th and 20th centuries. The play vividly and powerfully illustrates how major historical events -- Lincoln's election and Emancipation Proclamation, as well as the movement for civil rights inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- impacted the lives of ordinary individuals and families. With sharp dialogue, inspired by true stories, and with captivating musical interludes, The Ends We Seek personalizes and humanizes the experience of ordinary people swept up in the events of history.

Supported by an Arts Builds Communities Grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission through the Arts and Culture Alliance, The WordPlayers' 15th Annual Black History Show Tour will have 14 performances in 12 different venues across 8 TN counties.

Schedule of Free, Public Performances:

Feb. 6, One Life Church, 2900 Knoxville Center Dr., Knoxville, 4:00 PM
Feb. 8, Roane State – Harriman, O’Brien Theatre, 276 Patton Ln., Harriman, TN, 11:00 AM
Feb. 9, Central Baptist Bearden, 6300 Deane Hill Dr., Knoxville, 6:00 PM
Feb. 16, Walters State – Claiborne County, Auditorium, 1325 Claiborne St., Tazewell, TN, 2:00 PM
Feb. 17, Walters State – Morristown, Lyceum, 500 S. Davy Crockett Pkwy., Morristown, TN, 6:10 PM
Feb. 19, Oak Valley Baptist, 194 Hampton Rd., Oak Ridge, 4:00 PM
Feb. 20, Fifth Avenue Baptist, 2500 E. 5th Avenue, Knoxville, 4:00 PM
Feb. 21, Walters State – Greeneville, Lyceum, 221 N. College St., Greeneville, TN, 6:10 PM
Feb. 22, Walters State – Sevier County, CAPE 104, 1720 Old Newport Hwy., Sevierville, TN, 4:00 PM

Info: www.wordplayers.org, call 865-539-2490 or email wordplayers@comcast.net.

The Ebony Imagery Series began in 1984 with the showing of a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian service which carried the same title. It was curated by David Driscoll, noted Art and Art History Professor at the University of Maryland, who came to the Art Center to speak about the art and artists during the original showing. Along with the Smithsonian exhibition, the Art Center mounted a collection of work by local African American Artists which by all accounts was as compelling as those from the national art scene. We reprised the exhibition in 1989 and held it annually for a few years before settling on a biennial exhibition.

The 2022 exhibition is the nineteenth in the Series. During that time we have seen many wonderful artists whose work moved us. Some are still with the exhibition today, some have passed away and their voices are sorely missed, and new artists to the series add new perspectives. We expect wide range of both two and three dimensional media that will include some traditional forms like drawing on paper, clay sculpture, and oil on canvas to more contemporary media that utilizes new products or traditional products in new ways. Regardless of the technique, sometimes in spite of the technique, these artists bring us fresh, emotionally charged perspectives that move us.

We hope to host a closing reception March 19th from 2 to 4 PM and hope to see you there.

Oak Ridge Art Center, 201 Badger Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Tu-F 9-5, Sa-M 1-4. Information: 865-482-1441, www.oakridgeartcenter.org

Opening reception Friday Feb 4th, 5-8
Show will be up till March 12th

214 Magnolia, 214 W. Magnolia Ave, Knoxville, TN 37917. Friday 5-8, Saturday 12-5, and by appointment, via IG button, during the week: https://www.instagram.com/214magnolia/. 865-337-7106 or https://www.214magnolia.com/