Calendar of Events

Variego3 @ UT Knoxville, Monday, February 20 at 5:30PM in the UT School of Music Powell Recital Hall.

Inspired by Jimmy Giuffre, the Variego3 has a chamber music vibe with a woody sound. “It's a true joy to hear this amazing ensemble of world-class musicians interact with one another, feeding off of each other's chemistry and ability to create massively infectious, yet classy and understated melodies. Whether you are a fan of modern jazz, or you prefer the old guard, you'll certainly be impressed. This group has got so much to offer, and they bring an unprecedented level of charisma to this genre today.” Jazz Corner

At UT Powell Recital Hall, the trio will present its album “Recompensa” that features a series of original compositions and versions of standards that transit the fine line between jazz, free improvisation and the music from el Rio de la Plata.

There is not a cover for this show.

For more information visit https://www.dominoensemble.com/copy-of-projects-1
UT School of Music: Unless otherwise noted, concerts are FREE and open to the public. Venues: Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall in the Natalie L. Haslam Music Center, 1741 Volunteer Boulevard.

MONDAY, FEB 20 | 7PM

DISCOVER THE MUSICAL STORY OF TENNESSEE FROM THE ONES WHO ARE WRITING IT!
Join us for the Tennessee Songwriters Week Knoxville Showcase presented by Visit Knoxville and the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development Monday, February 20 at the Bijou Theatre.

Regional singer songwriter competition winners from throughout East Tennessee will play original songs in hopes of winning the night and the opportunity to perform alongside other state winners at Nashville’s historic Bluebird Cafe.

Past winners of the Knoxville Showcase include Travis Bigwood and the Lonesome Doves, Adeem the Artist and Tyson Leamon… ALL of whom will perform as part of the February 20th event. Enjoy the music of these artists and the stories behind their songs.

https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1B005E31C32A7C80

Bijou Theatre, 803 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information/tickets: 865-522-0832, https://knoxbijou.org/

Monday February 20
8:30 AM – 2:30 PM

Join us as we learn about the wonderful wormy invertebrates that are quietly at work around us every day, enriching the soil that sustains life on earth and recycling the leftover biomass from season to season.

The Muse Knoxville, 516 N. Beaman Street, Knoxville, TN 37914. Information: 865-594-1494, www.themuseknoxville.org

3:30 PM EST via Zoom
Register for the link at tiny.utk.edu/DLS-Houser

On February 20, Heather Houser, a professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, will give an online public talk titled “Wondering as Refusal in Childfree Discourse.”

The 2020s are a time of opting out, of saying no, of saying not so much. The trend to be childfree fits this impulse as it also speaks to worries about climate crisis, economic strain, and social injustice. This talk examines this trend as a form of refusal that instigates, on the one hand, firm declarations of choice and freedom and, on the other, dilated processes of wondering. Black feminist and reproductive justice scholars have heartily critiqued the former. What can we say about the latter in an era of opting out? I take up wondering as a mode of reproductive thought and action in which contorted grammar and weird forms of potentiality show some of the complexities of the childfree trend.

The lecture is free and open to the public and will be held virtually as a Zoom webinar. Register for the link at tiny.utk.edu/DLS-Houser.

About the speaker:
Heather Houser is Mody C. Boatright Regents Professor in American and English Literature at The University of Texas at Austin; she teaches and writes about the environment, science, and 21st-century U.S. culture. Her books are Infowhelm: Environmental Art & Literature in an Age of Data (2020) and Ecosickness in Contemporary U.S. Fiction: Environment and Affect (2014), and she is a co-founder of Planet Texas 2050, a climate change grand challenge at UT Austin. She's currently working on two projects: Striving, a set of personal essays on class, gender, reading, and dance, and Childfree: Reproduction Amid Climate Crisis, a book about how reproduction and climate change are impacting each other today.

865-974-4222 or https://humanitiescenter.utk.edu
@UThumanitiesctr

UTK Creative Writing Series with Chen Chen will take place in the Lindsay Young Auditorium on the first floor of Hodges Library on February 20 at 7 pm.

This event is free and open to the public.

Chen Chen is the author of two books of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency (BOA Editions, 2022) and When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017), which was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors. His work appears in many publications, including Poetry and three editions of The Best American Poetry. He has received two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from Kundiman, the National Endowment for the Arts, and United States Artists. He was the 2018-2022 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence at Brandeis University and currently teaches for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College and Stonecoast.

Lindsay Young Auditorium, Hodges Library,
1015 Volunteer Blvd
Knoxville, TN 37996

When playwright Katori Hall discusses The Mountaintop, she often mentions her mother, Carrie Mae Golden, who was in Memphis the night King gave his final address. Carrie Mae heeded her own mother’s advice didn’t attend. She regretted it for the rest of her life.

The Mountaintop imagines a world where King and a mysterious hotel maid (named “Camae” for Hall’s mother) finally get to meet. This is a story of King the man, not the myth; a moving portrait of his humanity.

Run time: 90 minutes with no intermission
Doors at 6 PM, show at 6:30 PM at Student Union Auditorium, Rm 180, 1502 Cumberland Ave
https://riverandrailtheatre.com/

Silas Reynolds is a self-taught artist from Morristown, TN, known for his bold and vibrant abstract paintings. He currently resides in Knoxville, TN, where he continues to create his energetic works of art. As a second-generation artist, Silas had a passion for creativity from a very young age and began drawing as a child. It wasn't until his mid-twenties that Silas commenced painting, and he quickly became captivated by the freedom of abstract expressionism, which allowed him to express himself in a unique way. He uses bold colors and shapes over multiple layers to create depth and texture, using acrylic and spray paint as his primary mediums. He draws inspiration from nature, fashion, and design and is influenced by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Alex Brewer. Silas believes that art is open to interpretation and encourages viewers to explore their own personal meanings and connections within his pieces.

Silas will be opening his show in our Guest Gallery this Saturday from 2 to 5pm. Come see his incredible work and hear his story of his work.

Hours: Friday through Sunday 11am to 5pm

Pivot Point Gallery, 15 Emory Place, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-248-0050, www.pivotpointgallery.com

February 17 - March 5: THE MOUNTAINTOP by Katori Hall

What was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. thinking about as he sat on his stiff, polyester-covered bed at the Lorraine Motel on his last night alive? Did he have any idea what was about to happen? What would he have wanted people to know about him? Katori Hall takes a stunning look at all of these questions and fills them in with brilliant imagination in her play THE MOUNTAINTOP. A speech, a storm, a visitation, a vision: how does a hero's journey end?

Tickets: https://www.simpletix.com/e/the-mountaintop-by-katori-hall-tickets-116042

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

The classic story tells of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and be loved, the curse will end and he will be transformed to his former self. But time is running out. If the Beast does not learn his lesson soon, he and his household will be doomed for all eternity.

Performances are Thu-Sun; tickets at https://knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com/tc-events/beauty-and-the-beast/

Knoxville Children's Theatre, 109 E. Churchwell Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-208-3677, www.knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com

Art Exhibit at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, Free and open to the public
Reception Fri Feb 17, 6-7:30 PM with artists' talks at 6:30 PM

Lisa Kurtz
I have made wall pieces out of clay since way back in graduate school. Before I made pottery, I painted, so I often think of these wall pieces as clay canvases or clay landscapes with texture. I also like to add mixed media to some of my wall pieces, such as driftwood, shells, and other found objects. All my clay wall art is wired on the back or mounted on wood and wired so that it hangs easily - just like a painting would. I also love to make clay wall pouches, which can hold water and be used as wall vases for flowers. I have worked with clay for over 40 years and fell in love with the fluid and impressionable characteristics of this wonderful medium in college. Rocks and water have always inspired me. I love the streams running through the mountains, and I also love the ocean. I am fascinated by the effect that water has on the earth and the calming effect water has on people. The textures and colors in water, sand, sea birds, shells, rocks, and marine creatures inform my work and my glazes. I mix up all my own glazes and am often tweaking them to highlight the textures that I put on my pieces. My goal is to infuse my work with the peaceful feelings that water worn rocks, landscape, and waves give to me and share those feelings with others through my art.

Kate McCullough
I began painting in watercolor about 20 years ago after a 35-year hiatus from art. Initially my studies at Villa Marie College and SUNY College at Buffalo included general design, art history and oil and acrylic painting. When I returned to painting, I decided that watercolor was a medium that I would like to explore. I immediately fell in love with it and I have not looked back. I started with courses with Marcia Goldenstein and Whitney Leland at UT and then moved on to workshops at Arrowmont with Don Lake and Sue Archer, Kanuga with Linda Baker and Don Andrews, Cheap Joe’s with Linda Kemp, three workshops with John Salminen and a couple with Paul Jackson. I presently teach a watercolor class at the Fountain City Art Center. I am the former president of the Knoxville Watercolor Society, a member of the Art Market Gallery in downtown Knoxville, a signature member of the Tennessee Watercolor Society.

Gallery hours: Mon-Thu 9:30-4:30, Sun 9-1.
Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Gallery, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37918

Fountain City Art Center, 213 Hotel Ave, Knoxville, TN 37918. Hours: Tue-Thu 10 AM - 4 PM. Information: 865-357-2787, www.fountaincityartcenter.com

Fans of artist Tom Wegrzynowski can see oil paintings from both his “Lucky” series and his “Entertainment” series in a new exhibit at Pellissippi State Community College. “All for One or Whatever …” is the artist’s first exhibition that combines pieces from both his bodies of work, “a visual dialogue that presents new opportunities for finding meaning,” Wegrzynowski said in an artist statement for the show.

The new exhibit is on display through March 2 at the Bagwell Center for Media and Art Gallery, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays or by special appointment. All exhibits in the Bagwell Gallery are free and open to the public.

A closing reception with the artist is scheduled for 3-4 p.m. Thursday, March 2.

Wegrzynowski is a full-time instructor of Art and Art History at the University of Alabama, where he received his Master of Fine Arts in 2006. He has exhibited his work regionally and nationally and won several awards including the Reese Museum Award in 2022 International FL3TCH3R Exhibit: Social & Politically Engaged Art, East Tennessee State University. Wegrzynowski’s exhibit at Pellissippi State includes 19 oil paintings from his “Lucky” series, which explores history, mythology and how mutable these structures are when placed in the service of power, as well as from his “Entertainment” series, which allows Wegrzynowski to paint in a faster, more spontaneous way. “The first Entertainment paintings, or ‘panels’ as I think of them, were each executed in one sitting, sometimes in as little as an hour,” Wegrzynowski explained, as opposed to the works in the “Lucky” series, which could take months or even years to complete. “Most of these images were taken from screen captures of television commercials or movies, creating fragments of meaning. As such, they create opportunities for a more expansive investigation of the space between representation and formal abstraction.”

Hardin Valley Campus of Pellissippi State: 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville, TN 37932. Bagwell Center Gallery hours: M-F 9-5 or by appointment. Information: 865-694-6405, www.pstcc.edu/arts