Free! Issue Three
April/May 2015
Free! Issue Three | April/May 2015
CONTENTS
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Fiber adventures
A youthful fiber artist creates fabulous apparel with a new twist. by debra dylan
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4 5 6 7
RETHINKING VESTAL KNOX GREEN REFUGEES’ HERO CELEBRATE EARTH DAY HIAKU 15 LOCAL POET POETRY CALENDAR 16 FIERY FUNGI
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North knox b&b stays busy
A busy bed & breakfast treats its customers well in North Knoxville. by Judy blackstock
the jules verne world of pollinators
The curator of education at the Knoxville Zoo explains the important mission of pollinators. by carol ann borges
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the streetniks’ poetry revolution Graffiti artist *JETO describes how and why she started a new art form. by debra dylan
For more content and videos,please visit Knoxzine.com about the cover: Photographer Aric Morgan captured model Rachel Harness in a creation by Catie Morgan, a young fiber artist we feature in our cover story this issue. See page 8 for details. Editor Debra Dylan Managing Editor Buck Kahler Graphic Designer Deb Hardison Contributors Judy Blackstock | Carole Ann Borges | Paul Clouse | Debra Dylan | Kate Jayroe Photographers Judy Blackstock | Buck Kahler | Aric Morgan Ad Sales Debra Dylan | Gregg Lonas Cover Photograph Aric Morgan Photography Fashion Catie Morgan/Sassafras Fiber Arts Model Rachel HarnesS © 2015 Nolpix Media, LLC. Knoxzine is a project of Nolpix Media, LLC, a locally based multi-media company.
New to KnoxZine is Deb Hardison, who has been crafting the printed word for more than three decades in Knoxville. She designed dozens of publications at Whittle Communications from ‘82-’92, and later redesigned HGTV Ideas Magazine, Knoxville Homes & Living, and EvaMag. She’s most recently created extensive collateral and advertising for The Episcopal School of Knoxville and Emerald Youth, and whenever possible, looks for ways to support, inform and enlighten the East Tennessee community through print and online. You can follow her on Instagram, like her on Facebook, and find out more at debhardisondesign.com. three
Rethinking Vestal Pausing to reflect on South Knoxville and the work that still needs to be done. By D e b r a Dy l a n Photo by Toby Koosman
For the past three growing seasons, Jack Herranen and Chelsea Voelker, of Place Based Productions, have been farming in Goff Holler in deep South Knoxville. They recently received permission to farm a small plot of land approximately one block from Vestal landmark, King Tut’s restaurant. Chelsea says, “We were drawn to South Knoxville because there is a lot of land available for farming, and the idea of connecting people to the land comes from knowing that is the very thing that has the power to start healing the wounds that are present here. Jack says, “There is a wave of social unraveling. There is a pill epidemic. There is a lack of environmental justice over the four superfund sites in this relatively small area.” Chelsea says, “ It is slow to get to know your neighbors. Some neighbors are dealing with serious problems. It takes time and trust.” Jack continues, “But, there are also positive, almost forgotten sublayers to Vestal. There are gardeners and small farms. There is a Friday morning picking session at the community center. There are old school values, and a wellspring of local history.”
What’s New at Vestival
The 15th Annual Vestival, an arts and heritage festival and fundraiser for the historic Candoro Marble property, is on Saturday, May 9 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. During the festival’s planning phase, Jack says, “It was time to pause and critically reflect about Vestal and the work that still needs to be deepened. There is social, political, and historic four
value here.” Chelsea says, “History will be woven throughout the entire grounds of the festival. This year we are replacing the annual Mother’s Day brunch with a free, community wide brunch with food supplied by local farmers.The brunch begins at 11 a.m. and there will be big hearty dishes like scrambled eggs, grits, and biscuits and gravy.” Also new this year is a Skills Station with demonstrations of traditional artisan crafts. In addition to the live music and art vendors, there will also be a history revival tent with Vestal artifacts, stories, and art. School and neighborhood groups and individuals are invited to share their memories. Since late February, Place Based Productions has been collecting Vestal related stories. Chelsea says, [All new stories] “told at Vestival will be archived. We plan to keep the history alive even after Vestival.”
Continued Community Building
On April 11, square dancing returns to the Candoro Marble grounds. These dances occur every second Saturday of the month from spring through fall. This first dance will be preceded by a Cattywampus puppet show and a pot luck dinner beginning at 6:30 p.m. Chelsea says, “This is a good primer for Vestival.” The South Knoxville Alliance will also be presenting a Spring Artist Tour on the same date. On April 24, the Carpetbag Theatre’s Salon Series will present emerging performing artists at the Candoro Marble building. Jack says, “Everyday we are working toward a restoration of community and health.” D
GREEN Neighborhood Environment
By Debra Dylan with Paul Clouse
EAST Knoxville
Robert Hodge
Knoxville Botanical Garden & Arboretum is home to a huge load of zoo poo. Robert Hodge, Director for the Center of Urban Agriculture, says this manure is from the Knoxville Zoo’s herbivo-
An East Knoxville gardener. rous animals. “This waste used to be dumped in a landfill. It’s a phenomenal mixture of carbon and nitrogen. [This manure has been at the garden for over 6 months], so it is ready to be used by our spring gardeners. We look forward to acquiring enough to share with the community.” The Center of Urban Agriculture was created two years ago with a generous capital grant from the City of Knoxville. It is comprised of five gardens on the Botanical Garden’s land. One garden is used by the University of Tennessee for educational outreach. The other four gardens are community gardens. Hodge says, “Our goal is for people to feed themselves and others. We are aware
Bearden
The owners of Bearden Bike & Trail, located in the Earth Fare shopping center, have created an environmentally friendly business. The shop’s conscientious design includes flooring made from 100% recycled materials. Co-owner Jim Wiggin says the store’s large exterior sign “is all LED and has huge energy savings.” Several sleek, 3-paddle ceiling fans spin constantly during business hours. Jim continues, “You wouldn’t think anything turning that slowly would matter, but it holds down the heat and cooling costs quite a bit.” Jim says, “Ninety percent of the store’s trash is cardboard. We typically haul one truck load of cardboard to the recycling center per week.” The shop’s owners encourage a healthy lifestyle by hosting group bike rides on Tuesdays beginning in April. Jim says, “These rides are good for new riders who feel intimidated about riding alone. We invite anyone who wants to join us to bring their bike and meet at the store around 6 p.m. We leave promptly at 6:30 p.m. That’s pretty much our only rule except you have to have a helmet.”
South Knoxville
Under the leadership of Executive Director, Anna Chappelle, Marble Springs State Historic Site regularly hosts unique events including traditional skills/crafts workshops, and an award-winning Stargazing program with Gary Nolan, a former Adjunct Professor of Astronomy. This spring, the site also celebrates its 5th farmers’ market season. In 2012, thanks to the support of Chappelle, Assistant Director Ashleigh Oatts, and the site’s Board of Directors, Marble Springs’ grounds keeper, John Gammon, succeeded in earning a State of Tennessee Certified
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KNOX
we are located inside a food desert. We hope to have a summer farmers’ market with our participating gardeners. We also want to help people starting community gardens in their neighborhood or a garden on an inner city lot. “We have completed a high tunnel greenhouse for market gardeners to use. We restored a greenhouse that was connected to an old building, and we have a small greenhouse for plant cultivation. Renovation is about to begin on three buildings: an education cottage, an indoor farmer’s market, and meeting/office space. For more information, please contact Robert Hodge at 865-591-8677 or farmingurbanknoxville@gmail.com
John Gammon at Marble Springs. Arboretum, Class 1, designation for the historic site. With the help of an urban forester and a TVA forester, the required 30 trees were identified and each tree was labeled with its scientific and common name. Looking ahead to achieving a Class 2 designation, Gammon and Oatts already created a visitors’ trails guide and tree identification map of the arboretum. This year, Gammon hopes to earn the Class 2 certification after he plants five additional native trees and updates the tree identification map. Once completed, the site will meet the state’s requirement of 60 identified and labeled trees. Gammon has created a wishlist of trees, which includes additional fruit trees, like the Common Pawpaw and a Downy Serviceberry. The site already has an elderberry tree and a persimmon tree. He says, “Last year we couldn’t collect the Elderberries fast enough and the birds ate all of them, but we were able to make a nice persimmon pudding.” A Class 3 designation requires 90 different species of native trees, and Gammon is already in training to become the required on-site arborist. Thanks to Ruth Ann Hanahan and Roy Arthur of the Stock Creek Watershed Task Force, Marble Springs received a grant to take the native grass area back to its original seedbed. Gammon says, “We need to kill off the modern grasses and get rid of the privet and honeysuckle in order for the original seedbed to grow back.” If you are interested in donating native tree seeds or seedlings (1 to 2 feet tall) to Marble Springs State Historic Site & Arboretum, please identify the plant, and e-mail grounds@marblesprings.net or call 865-573-5508. D
15TH ANNUAL
VESTIVAL A HISTORY REVIVAL live music traditional skills demonstrations free brunch history tent
SAT. MAY 9 11AM-7PM
rain or shine free admission
[$5 DONATION SUGGESTED] five
REFUGEES’ HERO By K ate J ay r o e
Photos by Irina Popova Photography
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eni Kidd teaches English as a second language to international refugees. She teaches class twice a week at Light Mission Pentecostal Church in the Lonsdale neighborhood. She prepares these men and women, from diverse nations and ages, many victims of trauma, for citizenship tests. A mother of five herself, nurturing and communicating are simply a part of her life. Humble and personable, Deni exudes a calming and welcoming energy. She feels she learns more than she instructs, while in this safe and sacred place. In addition to having a conversation with Deni, I was able to attend one of her classes. In Light Mission Church’s sanctuary there is a festive atmosphere. The students were kind, quick to learn and to laugh, and so incredibly appreciative. Deni brings her students juice and coffee, knowing that many pupils walk to class. Deni taught a lesson of vocabulary, numbers, and phrases and monetary skills found in many jobs.
How big is the refugee population in Knoxville?
It’s huge. People have no idea. They don’t even know. I teach right in the heart of Lonsdale. We have a huge Burundi, Ugandan, and Rwandan refugee population here. Many only have the clothes they are wearing, no possessions. Many women arrive with only a passport in their bra. And we’ve been helping many more Ukrainian refugees with the recent conflicts in their home nation. My six
husband and I helped in three orphanages there. It definitely gives me a global perspective. It gives me compassion to know each refugee’s story. So, I teach English to them, and I love that. I just love it. In five lessons, I have a student, who didn’t know “hello,” [now] having a conversation with me.
So, by the fourth or fifth class you’re noticing a big difference?
Oh, yes! The students begin to understand my personality, begin to know that I really care, and they just start waking up. It takes a while to build trust, but by the fifth or sixth lesson they start to tell me some things about their past. One student has her baby swaddled on her back with a Kanga (a traditional African garment). She’s from Kenya. It’s so fascinating to learn their culture as our communications evolve. It’s interesting to see how they change, too. Teaching the word “dancing” was so great. To teach an adult how to speak, or read, is different than teaching a child. There are already associations that are set in place. One woman popped right up and just started dancing. She just smiles so big now. I imagine it is therapeutic for these refugees, too.Yes, and for me! (laughs) I get told, “thank you” so much. It’s really lovely, and it’s heartfelt. It was so solemn when I started, but now I have to bring it in a bit because there is so much laughter, which, in many ways, really is like medicine. I think many of them are just excited to know someone who cares.
Are these predominantly women refugees, and if so, are they often overburdened mothers?
Yes. Right now, I have one man in my class, but I have twelve women. I love how the women start to really come out of their shells. It helps relieve the pressure put on them as women. I love that they can have fun in my class. We do have volunteers for childcare, during the lessons. There are babies, toddlers, from all over the world. When we learn numbers one through ten, I ask, “How many children do you have?” Typically: Eight, nine, and many have lost one, often to war-related causes.Two of my students told me they still had children in Africa. One is missing four children, the other [is missing] two. [They] are praying and wanting to be reunited with their lost children. Please, if you run into a refugee, be slow to judge and open your arms wide. They have been in a battle most of us would not survive.
Tell me about the Ukrainian refugees.
I once had the opportunity to reconnect a woman from Moldova with her mother. I got to be a part of that. We picked her up and she stayed at my house for a month, to visit her daughter. They call me “the fighter” in Russian, because I advocate for them. The Burundi call me “the teacher,” but to the Russians, I’m “the fighter.” Several years ago, when I first started working with Ukrainian refugees, I had them all to my house for dinner. A Ukrainian student of mine, who allowed me to use her story of being sex trafficked in Moldova, to spread awareness, she said: “No one really cares about the Ukraine population here. We are isolated.” So, I invited them all to dinner and we ended up having forty people! They all brought the most delicious food. We had food for days after. About half of them couldn’t speak English, but there was conversation the whole time. Everyone stayed until really late in the night. They were so thrilled that an American invited them to dinner. Some of them have been here for ten or fifteen years and no one has tried to get to know them.
Well, I think sitting down at a meal is a really easy and sort of an instant way to transcend cultural boundaries. Absolutely. And eating different foods that you aren’t used to. There were traditional Russian dishes, my husband smokes a turkey, and I have a son who’s a chef making sushi! (laughs) I’m this great cake maker. I love it. It’s a lot of work to have so many people in your home. We just drag furniture from wherever in the house we can find it. Even though everyone can’t understand each other’s languages, there’s so much conversation happening. It’s incredible.
It’s a really powerful thing you’re doing, that takes a lot of compassion.
I don’t think just anyone would do this. Certainly. I’m glad God made me passionate. I tend to focus on the positive, through my own individual efforts. If you can’t communicate, you can’t even tell a doctor what is wrong with you. You can’t really shop for the food you like, [and] you can’t get a job. Language is a currency for advancement. D If you are interested in helping Mission of Light Community Changers, donations of food, clothes, shoes, and gently used toys can be dropped off at Little Sisters Wonderland at 5311 Clinton Hwy. For store hours call 865-216-5602.
Celebrate Earth Day at Knoxville’s 16th Annual EarthFest By Jennifer Linginfelter
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t’s a sunny spring day in downtown Knoxville. Local bands prep to take the stage, food trucks serve regionally-sourced cuisine, UT students browse through vintage clothing at a Goodwill pop-up shop, kids are learning about the environment while they craft tote bags out of old t-shirts, and there are no trash cans in sight. This is how Knoxville celebrates Earth Day. Over the past 16 years, EarthFest has become East Tennessee’s premier Earth Day event. And it’s not simply a celebration of the planet. From an interactive educational scavenger hunt, to kid-friendly activities and a fuel-efficient car showcase, EarthFest has something for everyone. EarthFest 2015 will be held on Saturday, April 18 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at
World’s Fair Park. There will be over 100 exhibitors and attractions, and as always, it’s a free, zero-waste event for the whole family, including your pets. So what exactly is a zero-waste event? First off, there are no trash cans. Instead, waste stations located throughout the festival offer recycling and composting opportunities for everything distributed at the event. In order to minimize waste, exhibitors and food vendors agree to control the types of materials they sell or distribute. Frisbees are used as plates, individually-wrapped items are prohibited and water stations are available to refill bottles. In 2014, the day-long event sent less than 3 pounds of waste to the landfill. In addition to live bands, this year’s EarthFest will feature entertainment by Max-A-Pooch, a unique dog who enjoys cleaning up litter and promoting recycling. He will demonstrate his talents throughout the day with litter clean up performances and routines. Other onsite events will include an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for most simultaneous cloth diaper changes, a Medic blood drive, and interactive youth learning area. In the youth area there will be lots of free activities for kids to learn about reuse and going green. Also be sure to complete a scavenger hunt card while at the event. Prizes will be given away every hour. So mark your calendars and come celebrate Earth Day at EarthFest 2015. For more information, including a detailed list of sponsors, bands, onsite events and scavenger hunt prizes, visit www. knox-earthfest.org. D
Hiaku -Donna Doyle In dreams, irises adorn me, shawl my shoulders. Bees festoon my hair. Today, I make time for not looking at my watch. Hours drizzle honey.
Dear squirrels, teach me which dreams to hoard, which branches will hold my landing. seven
Fiber Adventures eight
BY DEB R A DY L AN Photos by Aric Morgan Photography
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youthful fiber artist, purchased her first angora rabbit, Princess Flufferbutt, at a fiber festival. Her brother makes buttons out of fallen tree limbs, and her mother creates sheep related gifts. This sounds like a reality television show, but it’s not. This Seymour, TN, family has a passion for fiber, photography, and animals. And by fiber, I mean yarn, not shredded wheat. ~ How She Got Started ~ Catie Morgan, inspired by her mother, began dabbling in crochet. She got off to a slow start making crooked and uneven scarves, but she kept practicing and expanding her skills. Next, her mother gave her a drop spindle kit. Catie says, “It’s a primitive, basic way of spinning. It took me awhile to pick it up and use it. It sat on my dresser for three months. I finally picked it up again, watched YouTube videos, and figured it out. It’s all about getting the twist of the wool. When my mother gave me chunky art yarns, I loved using them so much, I knew I wanted to learn how to make art yarns.” ~ Beginning to Spin~ At a llama shearing event, Catie met a woman who taught her how to use a drum carder on the llama fiber, and how use a spinning wheel. “The woman couldn’t believe how quickly I caught on to spinning. The used spinning wheel she gave me became the first in my collection. I learned different techniques of spinning and kept building it up. It’s crazy what you can do with fiber. I like to add in crazy things like pom poms or decorative wire garlands.” ~ Dying to Learn More ~ “While I don’t have my own sheep right now, we are actually looking for a farm to move to, so we can raise our own sheep, alpacas, llamas, etc. I even want a Highland cow.” An experienced rab-
bit owner, Catie acquired three angora rabbits to harvest their fur every three months. She says, “Their fiber grows one inch per month.” This quest for animal fiber is for hand-dying the wool she spins. “I began using an acid dye on wool and plant fibers. It adheres to the fiber very well. When I use cotton, I use a fiber reactive dye. I love dying. It’s a lot of fun. I use mason jars to dye my wool. I put powder dye on top of the wool in a jar. Next I put a 1/4 teaspoon of a vinegar solution on different sections. I can’t control where it goes.” ~ Knoxzine’s Cover Photo ~ Catie’s brother, Aric Morgan, photographed Rachel Harness, also from Seymour, wearing one of Catie’s custom crocheted halter dresses. “The top in the cover photo was crocheted with store bought acrylic yarn. The skirt is a vintage skirt that I found. I like to reuse vintage materials. Sometimes I make the skirt myself. I enjoy sewing patchwork. “My crocheted tops are not lined. I crochet thick enough so you cannot see through it. On tops, I frequently use cotton or bamboo yarn because it holds
Catie Morgan up better. To care for hand crocheted clothing, you hand wash it, ring it out, and it lay flat. Yarn will soak up water and it will stretch, but it will go back to normal when it dries.” ~ Sassafras Fiber Arts ~ Catie’s work can be purchased at http://www.sassafrasfiberarts.com or at music festivals. “My brother makes wood buttons and drop spindles, and my mother makes sheep related cards and hair accessories. I sell these items in my booth. I also teach fiber arts classes. It’s awesome to go to a festival and see someone wearing something that I made. “Now that I’ve been doing this for years, and putting a lot of effort into my work, I realize what separates a beginner from an experienced fiber artist: It is the thought you put into a project before you start. It’s about the different steps you take until you get that finished project. A lot of people crochet and use cheap yarn from Walmart. When you spin your own yarn-taking fiber from a sheep (or other animal), washing it, dying it, and spinning it-it’s so satisfying. D Rachel Harness displays a hand dyed and hand spun crocheted purse.
Hand dyed and hand spun crocheted hats and vest from Sassafras Fiber Arts. nine
By Debra Dylan ten
B&B
STAYS BUSY
NORTH KNOX
marble hill inn, old north knoxville
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BY J u dy B l ac ksto c k
eggs Benedict.” Other amenities include a swimming pool (seasonally) and use of cruising bicycles to ride around the neighborhood. The McDaniels have hosted people from Japan, Switzerland, China, England and France. The University of Tennessee draws parents and students from all over the United States who are scouting out the school, while sporting and music events also add guests to the register. Even though Doug and Faith work full-time jobs, they have earned an Airbnb “super status” for prompt attention to reservation queries and for their guests’ positive comments. Faith says, “Every once in a while we will book ourselves in for a weekend and have the place to ourselves.” The McDaniels also offer an Airbnb full house rental with their University Bungalow. A bargain at $99 per night, this charming south Knoxville home is convenient to the Univeristy of Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains. Read more about the The Marble Hill Inn on Knoxzine.com.D
Judy Blackstock(3)
n the first year the McDaniel family opened their home to paying guests, they hosted 450 people over 260 nights. Their Marble Hill Inn is advertised on Airbnb.com, an online bed and breakfast service connecting hosts and travelers from around the world. Doug and Faith renovated this 1915 two-story Arts & Crafts bungalow located at 125 East Glenwood Avenue. It is a City of Knoxville Historic Landmark Home. Two bedrooms are available to rent : The Maxwell and The Library. Each room is pet friendly, smoke free, and available for $89 per night. Guests enjoy hotel quality bedding, a coffee bar, Wifi, and seating for relaxation and reading - there are no televisions. The living room has a billiard table and piano, and while a TV is mounted on a wall, it is turned on only by request. A gourmet breakfast is included with an overnight stay, and Doug says, “We check with guests to see if they need specific breakfast foods, and we can offer them Kosher, vegan, gluten free, paleo, or pescetarian. A specialty is salmon and
(L-R) Doug, Jacob and Faith McDaniel. Doug tidies The Library room. Faith shows off the Inn’s charming bathroom.
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By C arol e Ann Borg es
The Jules Verne World of Pollinators
Steven McGaffin gives us look at the way nature works through symbiosis.
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lies masquerading as bees? Flowers that grow to fit and vibrate their body at a certain frequency that mimics the the exact shape of certain insects? Bees that control frequency of the wind, the plants will release their pollen just the vibrations of their wings in order to seduce a flow- for them. Scientists have discovered that if they plant tomato er into releasing its pollen just for them? If you delve plants but exclude bees, they will not produce fruit as well.” into the world of pollinators, you soon realize that science Steven McGaffin’s delight in the way plants and insects have fact often trumps science fiction when it comes to unusual evolved body parts that fit perfectly together is both childcreatures and fantastic plots. Steven McGaffin, Curator of like and reverential. “Some butterflies,” he explains, “have Education at the Knoxville Zoo, is an intense man whose pas- evolved a short proboscis while others have evolved long ones sion about pollinators is contagious. Most of in order to reach the nectar inside different us see nature from a romantic point of view. flowers. If you hope to attract specific butWe thrill at the sight of a swallowtail butterfly terflies you have to know which plants are drifting over our flower beds. We hang feeders the best hosts.” to attract colorful birds, and we write sentiOne of his biggest concerns is the dwinmental poems about them. What really matdling Monarch butterfly population. It has ters, as McGaffin points out, are the amazing declined 90% since the 1990s. The main relationships between pollinators and their reason for this is the almost complete eradhost plants. One third of our food sourcication of milkweed, the sole food source es need to be pollinated, and according to of the monarch butterfly. The other is our CropLife, International, “The total economic fondness for grassy lawns. “A lawn to a value of insect pollination in 2005 was $210 pollinator is like a desert,” McGaffin says. billion, almost 10 percent of the total value of “People think they are helping by planting agriculture used for human consumption.” butterfly bushes, but that is not helping at The hoverfly is a prime example of nature’s all. The butterfly bush is actually an invasive Steven McGaffin use of illusion. “Some flies,” McGaffin says, exotic. It is not a good plant to plant because “have similar markings and are mistaken for bees. They in- it will spread and compete with native plants. The mimosa, habit different ecosystems around the world and are consid- for instance, is another example. Hummingbirds will feed off ered the second most important group of pollinators after it, but there are better indigenous plants to attract hummingwild bees. While it is true that bees carry more pol- birds. When an indigenous insect or bird sees an exotic species len at one time, these flies compensate for that it might not recognize it at all. If it can’t lay its eggs on it, by being lighter. Because they are quick- the next generation is doomed.” The pollinator garden that er, they can make a greater number Steven McGaffin maintains at Sarah Moore Green School of flower visits.” Hoverflies feed occupies two 15 X 10 foot beds and a circle about 9 feet in dion aphids which also makes ameter. The beds contain orange milkweed, purple cone flowthem a beneficial garden res- ers, common milkweed, bluestem grass, switch grass, black ident. Another amazing eyed Susans and tall coreopsis. “The idea for the garden,” he feat of evolution is the way says,” is for the school to teach about symbiotic relationships some bees trick plants into re- and interdependence.” Building and maintaining a pollinator leasing their pollen. “These bees have fig- garden can be an interesting project and studying about polured out how to pollinate tomato plants. Tomato linators and their hosts can be an eye-opening adventure.A plants are technically wind pollinators, but they great resource for learning about native plants in Tennessee produce flowers that kind of hang down. The can be found at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at bees figured out if they hang onto the flower https://www.wildflower.org. D
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photos courtesy of *jeto (6)
By D eb r a Dy l an
The Streetniks’ Poetry Revolution Tagging poems in public places as a new art form.
Literary graffiti artist *JETO says the Streetniks “are a new generation of writers who dare to post their poetry in public places.” She coined the term Streetnik while thinking about beatniks and peaceniks. “Since I share my poetry on the street, that makes me a Streetnik.” All it takes to be a Streetnik is to adopt a street name, write poems on scrap paper, and “tag” your poems in a public place. *JETO says, “Because my tags aren’t permanent, they live on through my photos.” View her collection at www.jetotags.com.
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sticker paper from office supply stores. “I don’t recommend using aerosol adhesive because it attracts cops. In Chicago, a cop threatened to arrest me for trespassing and vandalism. I told him I wasn’t spray painting and that I was gluing a poem. At his request, I peeled the poem off of to show him it wasn’t permanent. He asked to read the poem and said, ‘It’s very pretty,’ and then he told me which streets to avoid. [White privilege, yo. -Ed.]
Witnesses
*Jeto says, “I always have an adventure... when I’m out tagging my poems. A homeless woman saw me tagging in the [Old City] Java alley. She asked if I was *JETO. When I said ‘yes,’ she said, ‘I knew *JETO was a woman!’ Turns out this women, who spends her days reading, was temporarily kicked out of the Knoxville Area Rescue Mission for expressing herself with traditional graffiti. “I put a four piece drawing in the broom stall at Sassy
*JETO in action.
The Original Streetnik
“I put a four piece drawing in the broom stall at Sassy Ann’s, and I later saw someone else’s photo of it on Instagram.”
*JETO says, “Thanks to social networking, I have been able to share my work, and reach out to writers from all over the world. The art is slowly but surely catching on, and together we have “tagged” our poems in three countries, seventeen states, and twenty-seven cities. “I’ve only been writing poetry for the past three years. My first poems were rough. I used regular notebook paper. Shortly after posting my first tags, I started getting serious about parchment, walls, bricks, and surroundings.”
Aerosol Adhesive Attracts Cops
*JETO adheres her comical drawings and poems with double-sided Scotch tape, which she buys in bulk, or she uses
Ann’s, and I later saw someone else’s photo of it on Instagram. “The first time I went to the Peter Kern Library [in the Oliver hotel], I thought, ‘If the drinks weren’t so expensive, this would be my everyday drinking place.’ Because I liked the place, I saved my receipt and gave it to a friend who was going to San Francisco. I asked him to tag it at City Lights Bookstore.” One of the owner’s of Retrospect Vintage Store became a fan when she found one of *JETO’s poems on a lamp. She later hired *JETO to tag merchandise for the store’s grand opening. *JETO says she tags stuff all the time at Willow Creek Gallery. “I don’t think they know it.”
A Call to Action
*JETO asks us “to look for our poems, our random bits of paper taped in plain sight, and help make this a universal medium for writers to share their work publicly.” Since April is National Poetry Month, the Streetniks encourage you adhere poems onto public restroom stalls, for the duration of the month. Share the photos of your tags on Knoxzine’s Facebook page. Like *JETO says, “Go forth and tag!” D fourteen
Monthly Poetry Calendar The 5th Woman Special variety show April 18, Carousel Theatre, 8 p.m., $20 Event usually meets 3rd Friday The Birdhouse, 7 p.m., $5 Carpetbag Theatre’s Salon Series special Saturday, April 24 Candoro Marble Building, $5 Knoxville Poetry Slam 2nd Tuesday (April special guest: Asia Project)Open Chord, 7:30 p.m. ($) Knoxville Writers’ Guild 1st Thursday (variety of writing topics) April 2 with poets Art Stewart and Connie J. Greene Laurel Theatre ($2 donation) Poetry Writing Contest, deadline June 30, 2015 For more information see www.knoxvillewritersguild.org/contests Literary Rounds 2nd Wednesday, Preston Medical Library, 5 p.m. UT Medical Center (free) Po’boys & Poets Last Saturday | Big Fatty’s Catering Kitchen, 7:30 p.m., $8, $5 students Poetry Pie 1st Monday, 6 p.m. except in May, meets on 18th Secret City Pies, Oak Ridge (free)
LOCAL POET Hunters of the Heart
One warm winter night in Tennessee, we sat on the tailgate of your pickup truck in the parking lot of the bird sanctuary, talking about the way the trees and all of nature made us feel calm and safe. When we stopped talking, silence slid like a river between us and we drifted into a comfortable separateness. But then you mentioned the deer hunter, out there somewhere in the black night scouting for a clearing where he hopes in the pale veil of dawn a muscular buck will pass sideways across his vision, where he will wait for the rifle’s cross-hairs to find the heart, and we both shuddered, knowing how unfair the world is, sometimes even to ourselves, but also how God gave us trees to rub our dreams against, and would perhaps know by the broken branches that we passed this way once and felt deep gratitude for the warmth of the night and the spirit that enfolded us. - Carole Ann Borges
Change of Season
Like that last bite of ice smoldering on the tongue, weatherman warns of cold snap circling thin March clouds even as the sky begins its spring fall, so many galaxies swelling the grass. I save what I can, unfurl beach towels, sheets holding my daughter’s scent, petal pressed in the secret diary of night. I dare frost to lay a ghostly hand and take what is his or is not. Next morning the ridgeback glistens only with dew, though hollows and karst felt a numbing gray breath. Near the hackberry a rouged azalea, queenly under a percale gown, bloodies the sheet with her flowering. Some gritty soap, hard scrubs, and we are young together, menses unstoppable as white drifts of bridalwreath flooding our banks with time. -Linda Parsons Marion
Reprinted from Birmingham Poetry Review
6 A.M. Pompano Beach, Florida
A gash of red, a sigh of exposed flesh, on my way to teach, I see them, here, there, all along Atlantic Avenue. It seems too early, but they’re out--like long-legged deer strolling beside a river. On the left side of the road a lilac sign flashes: NUDE DANCING.
Pulse Variety Show 2nd Saturday Kristtopher’s, $5
KNOXVILLE SKYLINE, WITH MOUNTAINS
Some doll up. Others offer themselves like crumpled money.
Sundress Academy of the Arts (SAFTA) Poetry readings vary, but usually on Sunday afternoon | The Birdhouse (donation appreciated) June 1214,| Poetry Writing Retreat at SAFTA’s Firefly farm. Contact safta@sundresspublications. com
Architecture steeples the past, pricking our daily shroud of forgetting.
Single-file, they walk with their backs to the rushing traffic.
You, Knoxville, are no exception: lost dreams tend your back yard trees, haunt your furnaces,
When an eighteen-wheeler passes, only their shadows tremble and shudder.
sing in moaning floorboards those hymns forgotten as you tend to business, so numb with what passes
Solid objects turned illusion, by an alchemy of diesel fumes.
for now that roots have become brick and beam, hardwood flooring, sudden bits of cornice and molding,
No shame to lay on them. No guilt either.
lost doorways that make sense the way daffodils make sense. To be expected. Bits of the Smokies burrow in river muck.
This road belongs to all of us. How we walk it is our own business.
Downstream from everything, we build our palace on echoed horizon, horizon piled on horizon, unseen, a compost of mountain cloud, eagle’s realm, and the wind’s blue home. Imaginary, our vistas coagulate,
Safe in my Nissan Sentra, I imagine them entering some dark motel bedroom---the most dangerous arena in the world, wearing only lime-green underpants and heels.
congealing like memories of mud between toes, a sweetly clinging bit of pie across the tongue.
Road warriors, so powerful, no one can touch them without paying.
-Brian Griffin
-Carole Ann Borges
University of Tennessee Writers in the Library “hosts readings by noted authors of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.” This event occurs 2-3 times per month during regular semesters. April 6 , novelist Shannon Burke, 7 p.m., Lindsay Young Auditorium, Hodges Library UT Sex Week, A pril 9, Poems & Songs by Jay Clark, R.B. Morris, Marilyn Kallet, Andrew Dillon, Kali Meister & Darius Antwan Stewart, Hodges Library Auditorium In a Certain Light: Love Poems in the Afternoon, April 13, with Maryilyn Kallet and ClaireDodson, University Center, Room 226, 2:30 p.m.
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FIERY FUNGI Organic Mushroom Farm By Kate Jayroe
Photos Courtesy of Fiery Fungi
F
iery Fungi Organic Mushroom Farm, located in Pelham, TN, in Grundy County, is situated at the foot of the Cumberland Plataeu. Hidden from traffic and the rush of the outside world, these organic, gourmet, and medicial mushrooms will eventually be available at fine dining establishments and farmers’ markets. Drake Schutt, whose ecobiology education from the University of the South in Sewanee inspired him to build the farm, has turned an idea into a ripe year round business. Together with partner Katelin Hawkins, the two cultivate a variety of mushrooms from incubation to harvest in their indoor facility. Several different methods may be employed in growing fungi. Substrates are the materials that mushrooms grow on. The most commonly used substrates are sawdust, fertilizer, or straw. In the first growing months, Drake and Katelin use sawdust and straw almost exclusively. Now, they also use fertilizer from worms, and have been experimenting with many different strains of mushrooms, including: blue, pink, and yellow Oyster mushrooms, Shiitake mushrooms, Agaricus Blazei mushrooms (which have an almond-like taste and are known for their potent medicinal properties), and Piopinni. The fungi cultures they keep and store are clones of particularly aggressive mushrooms that have been collected and then grown by taking a piece of the mushroom’s flesh and placing it on a sterile petri dish covered with agar (a strange, jelly-like substance). When the petri dishes have colonized, sterile wheat grains are inoculated. Drake and Katelin sometimes utilize this first batch of spawn to make another batch of grain spawn, a process called “expanding.” They can use that batch to make sawdust spawn. (It is best to not use spawn that is more than three generations old.) Spawn can then be fruited (King Oyster, mostly) or used to make straw logs (pink, blue, yellow Oysters) which have a higher yield, and are much easier to harvest than sawdust blocks.Shiitakes take about three months after inoculating sawdust blocks. Oyster mushrooms, which vary in strain, may take anywhere between two weeks (for tropicals like Pink Oyster) to one month (for King Oyster and other cool weather varieties). These variations in conditions and grow time means that Fiery Funsixteen
In the grow room, the bags have been inoculated with spawn, but are not yet ready to produce fungus. AT RIGHT: oyster mushrooms. ABOVE:
gi requires ample space and the ability to control temperature and humidity at all times. The farm has two grow rooms. One is dry and hot, (perfect for Shiitake), and one is kept colder and very humid (perfect for King Oysters). With such a carefully planned and scrupulous environment, there’s no wonder why these mushrooms are so abundant in health and taste. Fiery Fungi will also be growing fruits and vegetables this spring. In the past, the business has been a regular at Sewanee and Chattanooga farmers’ makets. Visit their Facebook page to see fantastic photos of all the mushroom varieties they cultivate, and to learn where their products are being delivered in Tennessee. The mushroom farm is located at 392 Charlie Roberts Rd. Pelham, TN, 37366. (931) 467-4470. The farm includes a store with mushroom growing supplies for sale. D
l a n d s c a p e s | p o r t r a i t | c o m m e r c i a l
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Janet Cantrell, national bestselling author of the Fat Cat Mystery series, will be signing the next release, FAT CAT SPREADS OUT, at Books A Million on June 6th beginning at 1 PM. The store is located in Walker Springs Plaza at 8513 Kingston Pike.
The book is also available at janetcantrell.com
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