TAKING PRIDE IN KNOXVILLE— MOST OF THE TIME
JUNE 16, 2016 KNOXMERCURY.COM V.
2 / N. 24
Is UT’s Pride Center the real casualty of a law defunding the Office of Diversity and Inclusion? | BY CLAY DUDA
NEWS
Business Dispute Puts Downtown Eatery, Developer at Odds
JACK NEELY
Searching for Knoxville’s Elusive Gay History
MUSIC
The Unlikely Career of Punk Survivors Pere Ubu
OUTDOORS
Learning About Those Other Big Inhabitants of the Smokies
VA LU E S | E DU C ATION | SE RVICE
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 16, 2016
June 16, 2016 Volume 02 / Issue 24 knoxmercury.com
CONTENTS
“ Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” —Voltaire
NEWS
12 L e Spat
Is Starbucks going to replace the French
Market Crêperie on Gay Street? That’s a rumor that’s been making rounds in recent weeks, and it’s also one of the most recent sticking points in an ongoing, public dispute between French Market co-owner Allen Tate and building owner Rick Dover. Clay Duda files lots of records requests.
14 Q uestioning Diversity
COVER STORY
In the aftermath of the state Legislature’s defunding of the University of Tennessee’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, some students and faculty members have been raising questions about how the school is interpreting and implementing this new law. In particular, they’re concerned over the dismantling of the UTK Pride Center. Considered an integral resource for students and employees, its advocates question why it was the only one of four diversity departments to entirely lose its funding. Why were the offices closed earlier than may have been required? Could more have been done to save it? And was it targeted even though it wasn’t specifically named in the law? Clay Duda reports.
Pressing Forward
We’re doing it! And although we’ve completed our fundraising campaign, you can still pitch in if you’d like to: gofundme.com/pressforward2016.
DEPARTMENTS
OPINION
A&E
4 Letters to the Editor 6 Howdy
8 Scruffy Citizen
18 Program Notes: Tina Tarmac and
Start Here: Believe It or Knox!, Public Affairs, Quote Factory PLUS: “Photo Recollection: Knoxville Streets,” a photo series by Holly Rainey.
38 ’Bye
Finish There: Sacred & Profane by Donna Johnson, Crooked Street Crossword by Ian Blackburn and Jack Neely, Spirit of the Staircase by Matthew Foltz-Gray
Jack Neely finds little record of Knoxville’s gay history.
10 Small Planet
Patrice Cole gives us a slice of (wild)life on Candies Creek.
13 Muscle for Mussels A trio of artists and accompanying
volunteers started sweating out an artistic celebration of freshwater diversity this week along the Third Creek Greenway. Roger Peet, a Portland-based artist associated with the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, has begun work on a 175-foot mural that will become a permanent piece of the CBD’s national endangered species mural project, as Thomas Fraser reports.
CALENDAR the Burns get fired up.
19 Shelf Life: Chris Barrett finds
Charlie Chaplin on Blu-ray to be sublime.
20 Music: Joe Tarr talks with ’70s
Cleveland punk-rock survivors Pere Ubu.
21 Movies: April Snellings makes a
repeat visitation to The Conjuring 2.
22 Spotlights: PrideFest returns to
World’s Fair Park, and the Silversun Pickups get all shoegaze-y at the Mill and Mine.
OUTDOORS
36 Voice in the Wilderness
Kim Trevathan attends a kids’ class on bears at Elkmont Campground in the Smokies.
June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3
LETTERS Delivering Fine Journalism Since 2015
RISKS AND BENEFITS
Your article “H-Town” [cover story by Clay Duda, June 2, 2016] quotes Mitch Mutter, medical director of special projects for the Tennessee Department of Health: “We know today that you can’t relieve pain with them [opiate painkillers], you can only improve function, and you can get addicted.” While the medical community is reassessing the use of opiates for chronic noncancer pain in light of the problems of tolerance and addiction, there is no serious dispute that opiates can in many cases effectively relieve both acute pain and the pain of terminal cancer. I hope that Dr. Mutter’s misleading blanket denial that opiates can provide pain relief does not discourage patients from seeking advice from qualified medical staff concerning the risks and benefits of opiate painkiller use. Eliot Specht Knoxville
A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TAKE ON THE WHOLE SMART METERS THING
A new dish would come to my mother like a flash of lightning. It would be from exotic to domestic, a dish she’d not need a recipe for. I remember one with curry goat meat, and another with shrimp. And there was a dish she did with red potatoes, and lucky for her, I love potatoes. But with the many dishes she sprung upon my brother and I, it could never take away the feeling of being had: that we were the first to try the new meal. Some were successful and some were not. But my brother and I had a sinking feeling of being used as lab animals. She was our mother and we loved her, and did what she asked of us, even if we were to be the first to try out the poison. I think about that even after years passed. “Guinea pigs” is a unique term of saying “We need a cure and you’re the guys to test this new and unique experiment. No matter how much money was wasted on it. You’ll be the first to try it out, and if survivable, will live to tell the story.” 4
KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 16, 2016
The days of invention have long gone. What I mean to say is, there is no more striving [in] getting an invention to work. The number of trials and error getting the new product to stand on its own legs is gone. We are still creating newer things, but nowadays, it takes a day or two getting them into market. There’s no more tinkling with an invention in one’s own lab, and when the effort put into the invention has paid off, that’s when it’s brought out to the stage. Today, inventions are taking a collaborative means, grouping everyone in this project. Our output depends greatly on the effects of the invention (which in some parts have not been researched enough), which can bring monstrous results to an unknowing public. Which can be, if not caught, chaotic. In Rachel Milford’s “Cellular Concerns” [Guest Ed., May 26, 2016] she points out serious areas using KUB’s “smart” meters. I’ve learned a lot, but I also like to add to why “smart” meters may also have a spiritual impact, as well. Besides those who see the “smart” meters as a health risk, I as a Christian see these meters as a growing government interference. It’s not a health reason why I object to the “smart” meters. My growing concern is, if we object to having the meters, will Tennessee punish those who refuse to go along with the program? Will they add extra tax or extra anything because one doesn’t feel comfortable about government knowing what we use and what electrical appliance has used up more than its share? Or will it be when one uses more Christmas lights—and those don’t use the meters—will our bills be an extra burden to bear at someone else’s expense? It’s not a health thing. This too can also be a spiritual thing. And if the project is successful, will it then spread like apple seeds to other states. Apple seeds is a nice term: the Mark of the Beast is not. So I remember fondly my mother trying out her new dishes on my brother and I, but I think of these
“smart” meters just like those dishes. In a way the feeling of being first slowly creeps back to my mind. Note: California is the first state to try out “smart” meters. Lavel T. Wideman Knoxville
CORRECTION
The June 9 classical music column on Aram Demirjian, the new music director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, misstated Demirjian’s age. He is 30, not 29.
EDITORIAL EDITOR Coury Turczyn coury@knoxmercury.com SENIOR EDITOR Matthew Everett matthew@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jack Neely jack@knoxhistoryproject.org STAFF WRITERS S. Heather Duncan heather@knoxmercury.com Clay Duda clay@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTORS
Chris Barrett Ian Blackburn Brian Canever Patrice Cole Eric Dawson George Dodds Lee Gardner Mike Gibson Carey Hodges Nick Huinker Donna Johnson
Rose Kennedy Catherine Landis Dennis Perkins Stephanie Piper Ryan Reed Eleanor Scott Alan Sherrod April Snellings Joe Sullivan Kim Trevathan Chris Wohlwend
DESIGN
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR GUIDELINES
• Letter submissions should include a verifiable name, address, and phone number. We do not print anonymous letters. • We much prefer letters that address issues that pertain specifically to Knoxville or to stories we’ve published. • We don’t publish letters about personal disputes or how you didn’t like your waiter at that restaurant. • Letters are usually published in the order that we receive them. Send your letters to: Our Dear Editor Knoxville Mercury 706 Walnut St., Suite 404 Knoxville, TN 37920 Send an email to: editor@knoxmercury.com Or message us at: facebook.com/knoxmercury
ART DIRECTOR Tricia Bateman tricia@knoxmercury.com GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
Charlie Finch Corey McPherson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
David Luttrell Shawn Poynter Justin Fee Tyler Oxendine CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 706 Walnut St., Suite 404, Knoxville, Tenn. 37902 knoxmercury.com • 865-313-2059 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR & PRESS RELEASES editor@knoxmercury.com CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS calendar@knoxmercury.com SALES QUERIES sales@knoxmercury.com DISTRIBUTION distribution@knoxmercury.com
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Terry Hummel Joe Sullivan Jack Neely Coury Turczyn Charlie Vogel The Knoxville Mercury is an independent weekly news magazine devoted to informing and connecting Knoxville’s many different communities. It is a taxable, not-for-profit company governed by the Knoxville History Project, a non-profit organization devoted to exploring, disseminating, and celebrating Knoxville’s unique cultural heritage. It publishes 25,000 copies per week, available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. © 2016 The Knoxville Mercury
Happy Father’s Day A few stories of Knoxville’s fathers Lawrence Davis Tyson, who had been commanding troops at the front, was excused from active duty to search for his son. According to reports, it was Gen. Tyson himself who, rowing among the inlets of Scotland, discovered his son’s body. He and his wife, Bettie, chose to memorialize their son with the gift of a park to the city of Knoxville, under the condition that the city airport always be named for their son.
By some accounts, the national holiday was prompted by the Monongah mining disaster of 1907, which killed more than 360 men, most of them fathers. There was an attempt to start a Father’s Day there in 1908, but the holiday didn’t become nationally known until much later. Knoxville was celebrating Father’s Day by 1924, when Watson’s on Market Square ran a newspaper advertisement headed, “Buy Dad a TIE for Father’s Day.”
Playwright Tennessee Williams had a troubled relationship with his own father. The writer was gay, a fact that his troubled father Cornelius, who was a member of a prominent old Knoxville family. When Cornelius died in Knoxville in 1957, the playwright attended the funeral and burial at Old Gray. Many years later, he described that event and his relationship with his father in an essay called “The Man in the Overstuffed Chair.”
Father’s Day evokes lots of memories of interesting Knoxville fathers. Knoxville was founded in 1791 by the authority of the Father of our Country, President George Washington. It was the territorial capital, administered by the War Department. Knoxville’s most famous literary work is James Agee’s Pulitzer-winning novel, A Death in the Family. It was about the 1916 death of his own father, whose name was also James Agee. The author, who became famous in his lifetime mainly as a journalist, was only 6 when his father was killed in a car accident on Clinton Pike, one century ago last month.
Col. James Churchwell Luttrell (1813-1878)
was one of Knoxville’s most durable mayors of the 19th century, with an administration that covered the Civil War era. But he was also the father of two other mayors, Samuel B. Luttrell (1844-1933), and James C. Luttrell, Jr. (1841-1914).
When he was first elected mayor in 1854, James Churchwell Luttrell (1813-1878) started a family tradition. He was elected again in 1859, and served for eight years, throughout the Civil War and afterward, as one of the longest-termed mayors to that time. Later, both of his sons became mayor: Samuel B. Luttrell in 1879 and the younger James C. Luttrell in 1885.
Agee was not the only Knoxville author to write a memorable story about a father’s death. James White, the early settler regarded as the Image courtesy of Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection Frontier humorist George Washington Harris, father of Knoxville, is the source of the name of a cmdc.knoxlib.org sometimes recalled as a founder of the Southern parkway and of the reconstructed “fort” along its Gothic style, wrote an irreverent story called path. His son, though, was much more famous “Well! Dad’s Dead.” Including a bizarre slapstick nationally. Hugh Lawson White was a U.S. senator, description of the burial of protagonist Sut Lovingood’s father, it first appeared onetime president pro tempore of the Senate, and significant candidate for in the Knoxville Press & Messenger in 1868. president in 1836. Sometimes fate goes the other way, and a father is called upon to memorialize children who died too young. Father Charles McClung McGhee, a wealthy railroad magnate, memorialized his daughter, Lawson McGhee, in the name of the public library he established in 1885. It still bears her name today.
When Congressman Leonidas Houk died accidentally after swallowing arsenic in a downtown drugstore in 1891, his son, attorney John C. Houk (who, like his father, wore a mustache) succeeded him.
The Knoxville airport is also a memorial by parents to a child who died young. McGhee Tyson was a nephew that Lawson McGhee didn’t live to meet. Though known in Knoxville mainly as a golfer, he was a Navy airman lost in the North Sea in the final weeks of World War I. When he was missing, his father, Brig. Gen.
Many years later, the same seat later passed directly from father to son, when John James Duncan retired in 1988, and his son, John James Duncan Jr., better known as Jimmy, was elected. Hence the Second District’s representative in Congress has been John James Duncan for 51 years.
Source: Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection
The Knoxville History Project, a new nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion of and education about the history of Knoxville, presents this page each week to raise awareness of the themes, personalities, and stories of our unique city. Learn more on www.facebook.com/knoxvillehistoryproject • email jack@knoxhistoryproject.org June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 5
Illustration by Ben Adams
HOWDY
Believe It or Knox! BY Z. HERACLITUS KNOX HENRY GIBSON (1837-1938), a popular Knoxville judge, represented the Second District in U.S. Congress for 10 years. A survivor of the horrific New Market train wreck of 1904, he soon thereafter retired from politics and surprised his Republican friends by writing a mystical book-length epic poem called The Maid of Redenfayn. Chapters include “The Dome of Doom” and “The Chant of Omnunmo.” Increasingly eccentric in later years, he lived to the age of 100. Passengers wait to board the bus on Broadway. PHOTO RECOLLECTION: KNOXVILLE STREETS by Holly Rainey (loveh865.com)
QUOTE FACTORY “ I could care less about Cassius Clay—or Muhammad Ali—or any other athletes or celebrities. It was not part of my official duties.” —State Rep. Martin Daniel (R-West Knoxville) in an interview with Tom Humphrey’s Humphrey on the Hill blog, offering his perspective on his own tweets about Muhammad Ali’s “black cloud” last week. Daniel went on to blame an unnamed staffer for the tweets, apparently entrusting his public pronouncements to people with poor judgment.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
6/17 GRAND OPENING: THE DEVIL’S RACETRACK FRIDAY
11 a.m., Baker Creek Preserve, Urban Wilderness (3700 Lancaster Dr.). Free. Remember that whole crazy social media campaign last year to win a $100,000 grant from Bell Helmets to build something called a “gravity trail?” Well, we won, and it’s done! Come for the ribbon-cutting, stay for the gnarly downhill ride. On Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m., there’ll be guided rides, kids rides, Alliance brews, and food trucks. 6
KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 16, 2016
The original 1885 LAWSON MCGHEE LIBRARY, now known as the Rebori Building, on the 100 block of Gay Street, is the first public library in East Tennessee. It has a clay Mercury head sticking out of the front! One of Knoxville’s first sports was bowling. PETER R. KNOTT’s Bowling Saloon was familiar on Market Square in the 1850s.
6/18 FESTIVAL: WE LOVE DISTRICT 1 DAY 6/19 PRESENTATION: ZAEVION DOBSON 6/20 FUNDRAISER: SOLSTICE SUPPER SCHOLARSHIP SATURDAY
Noon-6 p.m., Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum (2743 Wimpole Ave.). Free. The East Side finally has a festival to call its own: We Love District 1 Day, a celebration of all the cultural and historical things that make East Knoxville unique. Knoxville Opera will kick things off at noon, followed by Mayor Tim Burchett and a posse of politicos. Then there’ll be exhibitors, food trucks, a bike raffle by the Kickstand co-op, and kids stuff.
SUNDAY
1:30-4 p.m., The Foundry (747 World’s Fair Park Dr.). $50. The nonprofit Beta Theta Boulé Foundation is hosting an inaugural Father’s Day luncheon to celebrate eight Knoxville area men who have demonstrated strong fathering skills, leadership, educational achievement, and civic responsibility. It will also present the first Zaevion Dobson Scholarship to a local high school student. Tickets: natfoster01@gmail.com.
MONDAY
6-9 p.m., The Standard (416 W. Jackson Ave.). $65. OliBea owner/chef Jeff DeAlejandro and chef Winter Hose are cooking up a vegetarian Solstice Supper—the 5th annual fundraiser for CAC Beardsley Community Farm—by using produce grown at, you guessed it, Beardsley Farm. Proceeds will support the farm’s efforts to address food security issues in Knoxville. Info: beardsleyfarm.org.
aubreysrestaurants.com
ALL NET PROCEEDS BENEFIT CUREDUCHENNE June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 7
SCRUFFY CITIZEN
Sojourn Among Shadows Knoxville’s gay history may never be obvious BY JACK NEELY
H
istory supplies a handy perspective to almost every current issue. Crazy, angry gunmen, for example. We’ve had them in Knoxville since the saloon era, they always made the papers, and they were often described in vivid detail. (They usually just had one to six bullets.) Gay Pride is a rare exception. It may remain mysterious. It’s next to impossible to write with confidence about the hidden lives of people who dwelled in the shadows before living memory. Sometimes allegations come out in public divorce documents. Sometimes we can read between the lines of a criminal charge. Sometimes you can connect some dots. However, when one’s sexuality is hidden from family, neighbors, and coworkers in their own time, it’s even more obscure to historians. Before 1950 or so, we know very little about gay culture in Knoxville with certainty. Knoxville gay history is still in the closet, and may remain there. A few Knoxvillians left clues for biographers. Among them was the best-known artist in Knoxville history, Beauford Delaney, who was gay, although I’m not sure that fact was the main source of his struggles or inspirations. Another was Tennessee Williams, who never lived in Knoxville but was nonetheless hailed locally as “Knoxville’s own” early in career, because his family was so well known here. (His Aunt Ella was one of downtown’s most beloved figures, 75 years ago.) In his autobiography, America’s best-
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known gay writer recalled that he became aware he was different from other boys on a trip to Elkmont around 1920. There’s Jackie Walker, the Fulton High football star who became an All American on the Vols’ 1970 team, the first black to achieve that honor. He died of AIDS in 2002. Less obvious are the dozens of prominent Knoxvillians who were eccentrics, who often remained single, and about whom an octogenarian lady might startle you with a whisper, “people say he was queer,” or “she wasn’t interested in men, you know.” And that would be that. A good reporter pries. Often a friend doesn’t. You hear things, observe things, so much that you become almost sure about your conclusions. It’s not necessarily the duty of the historian to out the dead. I’m pretty sure it’s not mine, anyway. What remains, though, is the strong impression that gays have been prominent in Knoxville politics and culture for most of the city’s history. Compounding the challenge is the fact that terminology is inconsistent over the years. Before the 1960s, words like “gay” and “queer” were words most often used for qualities other than sexuality. Even the word “homosexual” hardly existed until Knoxville was more than a century old. Take whatever word you choose, comb through the records, and you may not find much. I wish I had taken better notes, years ago, when, looking for something else, I was surprised to encounter a
short reference in an antebellum newspaper, describing two men living together “exactly as if they were husband and wife.” They lived on the northwest side of downtown, along old Asylum Avenue I recall, and they were described in a two or three-paragraph story purely as a curiosity, a believe-itor-not sort of thing, no cause for outrage. I think it was in the 1850s. The library files on gay issues are scant for well over a century after that. The Knox County Public Library’s “From Paper to Pixels” archives, which start in 1922, aren’t complete yet, and the digital scanning process sometimes skips a relevant word here and there, so we can’t take absence of a reference as proof of absence in the original newspapers. But what does it mean that there’s not a single mention of the word homosexual for 14 years after 1922? Maybe I’m using the wrong keyword, I thought, so I tried less sensitive terms. The word pervert appears only in wire stories, and then mainly to refer to rapists and murderers of women and children. A 1929 story describes Boston’s moral crusades against literature that includes “portrayal of a moral pervert or sex degenerate.” Knoxville had no obvious policing of that sort. There are a few references to sodomy indictments, but only a couple that aren’t associated with a more serious charge, like rape. The first time the word homosexual appears in the News-Sentinel, it’s in a short book review in 1936, about a novel called Sojourn Among Shadows by Murrell Edmonds, a Virginia author who explored the complexities of Southern culture. The young writer’s obvious talent, the reviewer clucked, was “worthy of a better subject.” Just after that, we start seeing a great many references to gays, almost always in a regretful tone. It wasn’t
Southern Baptist preachers who were criticizing homosexuality in the Knoxville News-Sentinel. It wasn’t Republican county commissioners, either. It was a Freudian psychologist from Chicago named Dr. George W. Crane, who wrote a syndicated advice column. Homosexuality, he explained, was something for parents to worry about and prevent. “So it is with homosexuals,” went a Crane column in 1938. “They are in love with each other and don’t want to change. But they are indulging in juvenile behavior and would be far happier if they would grow up, emotionally.” For a quarter-century, Dr. Crane explained homosexuality to Knoxvillians. It was a “stage” that everybody went through around age 9 to 12, and from which everyone should emerge. Over and over, Dr. Crane told Knoxvillians that we were all homosexuals when we were young. Knoxville seems to have received that news quietly. In the late 1940s came the Kinsey Report, with its estimates that homosexuality might be much more common than previously assumed. And, almost simultaneously, revelations that the U.S. State Department was full of homosexuals, and that fact made them vulnerable to Soviet blackmail. In a column opposing eugenics, Dr. Crane once cited Jesus’s defense of a “female sex pervert” from stoning. But religion hardly comes up in connection with homosexuality at all until 1957, in the foreign-news column, when the wire services reported that the Archbishop of Canterbury, in London, protested the proposed easing of old English anti-gay legislation. As all this information and misinformation came across in the daily newspaper, Knoxville is never more than an observer, quiet, inscrutable. ◆
It’s not necessarily the duty of the historian to out the dead. I’m pretty sure it’s not mine.
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June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 9
brown pelicans, they are a striking sight. They keep their distance from people and houses, preferring to move and rest in a tight group in open water or closer to Chickamauga Wildlife Management Area on the south shore. Sometimes they stay for two weeks or more, other times a single night. This spring upwards of 300 white pelicans spent a few days alternately clumped into tight, white islands and fanning out across the water to fish. Their slow, smooth dipping of beaks seems choreographed, perhaps to avoid startling the fish they are about to swallow. Several hundred small gulls, Bonaparte’s I think, spent a few weeks slaying the small fish concentrated in Candies Creek’s main channel two years ago during low pool. That abundance of food also attracts double-crested cormorants, some of which are adapting to life in this region year-round. They tend to fish in small groups and are powerful swimmers, staying underwater for up to twenty seconds and traveling twice that many feet before surfacing. Another former migrant who has decided to stay all year is the Canada goose, and several nest each spring on the wooded islands along Candies Creek and the Hiwassee River. Their honky chatter echoes across the still water some evenings. Lately we see them quietly cruising by in extended family groups with their buff-colored young.
SMALL PLANET
Exile on Candies Creek Life in a birders’ paradise, far from the city
I
miss Knoxville, I really do. When Doug and I both had to make a job move in 2009, I thought surely we would be back in a few years. That hasn’t happened yet though I refuse to give up hope. But one thing I didn’t expect during my exile from Knoxville is the birders’ paradise we’ve lived in for almost five years: Candies Creek in Bradley County. Candies Creek flows into the Hiwassee River just downstream of the paper mill in Calhoun. Chickamauga Lake backs up there to form a wide, shallow embayment that teems with fish, large and small, in every season of the year. That constant food supply and some state-protected habitat along parts of its shoreline make it very popular with waterfowl and fish-eating birds. The royals among these are the great blue herons, the most ubiquitous year-round residents. Hardly a day goes by that one isn’t poised at the corner of our boat dock or stalking the edge of the lawn. I’ve counted as many as 40 great blue herons at a time hanging out among the stumps exposed by winter low pool. I’ve marveled at how large a fish those birds can swallow, seeing its fishy form distending that long, narrow neck on its way down. Fewer in number but more dramatic to watch are the ospreys that hunt hawk-like from great heights. Once a fish is spotted, the osprey
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 16, 2016
drops out of the sky with startling speed, hitting the water with such violence it is almost surprising to see it rise back up into the air, often grasping a fish so large it can hardly be carried aloft. We see bald eagles more often in winter than summer. The eagle’s massive build and menacing expression seems to make the great blue herons uneasy when one drops in to see what’s going on. You might not think of our national bird as a scavenger, but eagles will eat any freshly-dead fish or ducks they find along the shores. Ducks pass through in spring and fall, occasionally in small flocks, more often just a pair or single individual. Canvasbacks, pintails, grebes, and ring-necked ducks might spend just a night resting and eating. A few dozen chubby coots looking like black, swimming chickens will bob and preen under the boat dock for a day. A flock of hooded mergansers might stay a week or longer, swimming and diving after small, schooling fish as a coordinated group. Our resident duck species, the woody, doesn’t eat fish and is thus more tasty and seems to know it by its extreme shyness toward people. White pelicans are new seasonal visitors that show up in increasing numbers each spring and fall. Three or four years ago the first flock of six appeared in the middle of the embayment one morning. Much larger than
Photo by Patrice Cole
BY PATRICE COLE
The distinctive call of sandhill cranes is more common here some years than others. The wildlife refuge that hosts the sandhill crane festival is about 7 miles away as the crane flies. Last year, during the two weeks leading up to their spring migration, they gathered by the hundreds each evening to roost on the mudflats within sight of our house. This spring we hardly saw or heard a single crane. And that’s something that keeps life on Candies Creek embayment so interesting. With each year’s seasons there are predictable cycles embedded with surprises. You can just about mark your calendar for the day the barn swallows return each spring. Then again there will be the surprise appearance of something we’ve never seen before, like the pair of rails that visited our dock for several days last summer. There seems no pattern at all to when the kingfisher will be a daily presence or when it will go unseen for months. These are just the birds we see when gazing toward the lake. All around us are the field and forest dwellers as well. I’m grateful to be able to call this place home for now, even if I do have to drive 75 miles to pick up a Mercury. ◆ Patrice Cole taught biology, ecology, environmental planning, and sustainability at the University of Tennessee and Pellissippi State Community College. Small Planet examines local issues pertaining to environmental quality and sustainability.
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Join us at the
Ramsey House Annual Meeting Tuesday June 21, 2016 at 5:30 pm East Tennessee History Center 601 S. Gay Street
Author Jerry Ellis will have a meet and greet along with a book signing. A light supper will be available at 6:15 pm, with a program to follow. This event is open to the public. Mr. Ellis is the author of Walking the Trail; One Mans Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears. He was the first man in modern history to actually walk the 900 miles that the Cherokee followed. He sold all of his worldly possessions and slept in woods or fields for most of the journey.
Tickets for Ramsey House members $20, non-members $25. For reservations please call 865-546-0745. Historic Ramsey House 2614 Thorngrove Pike, Knoxville, TN 37914 www.ramseyhouse.org
June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 11
Photo by Clay Duda
Le Spat A business dispute puts downtown eatery, developer at odds BY CLAY DUDA
I
s Starbucks going to replace the French Market Crêperie on Gay Street? That’s a rumor that’s been making rounds in recent weeks, and it’s also one of the most recent sticking points in an ongoing, public dispute between French Market co-owner Allen Tate and building owner Rick Dover. The short answer is no. Starbucks isn’t going to replace downtown’s go-to crêperie. But a Starbucks is slated to open in the same building, in the lobby of the Hyatt Place hotel, once current renovation work on the Farragut building wraps up next spring, Dover says. But that explanation hasn’t stopped the rumor mill. After Tate took to social media last week voicing concerns that Dover was trying to squeeze his business from the space it has occupied since 2008, many saw it as a coming-of-age battle for downtown. As the city’s core continues to (re)gain momentum—and property values continue to rise—could the mom-and-pop mainstays that have long contributed to its quirky charm and revitalization be forced out by corporate behemoths looking to edge
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into the market? Taking to the French Market’s Twitter and Facebook, Tate posted a series of updates accusing Dover of “trying to force us out of business and cancel our longterm [sic] lease without compensation!” Among his grievances, Tate alleges that Dover Development has made a number of slights aimed at making business more difficult, such as moving curbside garbage cans, rescinding a sidewalk seating agreement, and even going as far as to file complaints against the restaurant with the Knox County Health Department, city of Knoxville Fire Marshal’s Office, and city building code inspectors. “It’s just typical landlord intimidation,” Tate says. The most noticeable recent development may be a large plywood wall blocking off a portion of the sidewalk and creating a sort of tunnel entrance to the business that was constructed last week. Plexiglass windows have since been added offering a view of the restaurant. Dover says the wall and other recent changes are all necessary parts of renovating the nearly 100-year-old building. As
part of the work, the entire building must be brought up to current building and safety codes, and the plywood covering is necessary for pedestrian safety as contractors work to repair some terra cotta tiles on the building’s face over the next three weeks. Still, Tate said he would have liked to see the use of more transparent scaffolding that allows foot traffic underneath—the type common in many construction zones in cities like New York—to limit impacts to business. “We’re absolutely no trying to squeeze him out,” Dover says. “The French Market is a great tenant. They’re an asset for downtown and I don’t want to get crossways with them. I’m sure they’re frustrated [with the construction] and I’m very sorry for the inconvenience.” Records show that Dover Development building superintendent Jack Shrode did file a series of detailed complaints against the restaurant with health and fire inspectors in mid-March, according to documents obtained by the Mercury through a Tennessee Open Records Act request. He also filed an in-person complaint with city building inspectors on June 7, after the business dispute became public, according to city spokesman Eric Vreeland. Dover contends the complaints were made as part of routine renovation work. “He’s just doing his job,” Dover says. “Please keep in mind that we’re doing major renovation work to a historic building—to the tune of $20-plus-million—and I’m not interested in spending that money and doing 99 percent [of needed renovation work] while someone else has egregious code violations in the same building. French Market occupies 1/200th of the building, but that’s doesn’t exempt them from code. I’m not going to have somebody staying in a hotel with a fire hazard down stairs, or a health hazard, or any hazard.” A 23-page complaint typed on Dover Development letterhead was submitted to the Knox County Health Department detailing 12 alleged health violations in the eatery. The complaint was made just two days after health inspectors paid a routine visit to the restaurant, giving it a near-perfect health score of 99. A follow-up inspection in response to the complaint noted no serious violations, but did include a few
suggestions for the restaurant. A separate 27-page, 13-count complaint was sent to the city’s Fire Marshal’s Office around the same time. At Shrode’s request, the fire inspector listed the subsequent inspection on June 1 as “routine” and not in response to a complaint. “We don’t automatically do routine inspections unless someone calls with a certain reason, and they have a certain reason,” says fire inspector Sonny Partin. During the walkthrough, Partin noted a series of minor violations and corrective actions to be taken within three weeks, most of which have already been resolved, he says. A city building inspector noted three minor violations that need to be corrected, two of which were also cited by the fire inspector: removing extension cords and taking down an exit sign. It also noted that the type of lock on the restaurant’s front door would need to be changed. In the emails, Shrode says the company is concerned about the potential impacts the alleged restaurant violations could have on final engineering approval on the building. “We are very reluctant to proceed with the final engineering when the potential of major re-work could be looming due to violations,” he wrote. In April, Dover Development and White Lodging announced plans to convert the long-vacant former Farragut Hotel building into a new 165-room Hyatt Place hotel. The city’s Industrial Development Board approved a 25-year Payment in Lieu of Taxes (or PILOT) agreement that could save the developers $7.29 million. Dover is also seeking a 30-year, $2.7 million tax incremental financing (or TIF) agreement with the city to redevelop the Pryor Brown garage building at the corner of Church Avenue and Market Street. That arrangement would first need approval from the Knoxville City Council and Knox County Commission. During a press conference announcing redevelopment plans earlier this month, Mayor Madeline Rogero commended Dover Development for taking on a list of high-profile, but tough renovation projects, including work on the Farragut Hotel, and converting the old Oakwood School and soon the old Knoxville High School to senior living facilities. ◆
Two pedestrians pass on the Third Creek Greenway as muralist Roger Peet confers with Asheville-based artist Trish Tripp at the site of the planned Center for Biological Diversity mural that will serve as a celebration of the endangered and threatened mussels and fishes of the Tennessee Valley.
Photo by Thomas Fraser
Muscle For Mussels Artists and volunteers work on a new mural along Third Creek Greenway to highlight endangered species BY THOMAS FRASER
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trio of artists and accompanying volunteers started sweating out an artistic celebration of freshwater diversity this week along the Third Creek Greenway. Roger Peet, a Portland-based artist associated with the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, arrived in Knoxville on Sunday to begin work on a 175-foot mural that will become a permanent piece of the CBD’s national endangered species mural project. The multi-hued painting will honor the pink mucket and other endangered and threatened mussels and fishes of the Tennessee River and its tributaries. Priming was completed Monday along the city pedestrian and bicycle path that connects the southern tip of the Cumberland Strip to the University of Tennessee agriculture campus and Fort Loudoun Lake beyond. It will be the largest mural in the series to date, says the center’s senior
scientist Tierra Curry. “We want to help people realize all of the cool endangered species that live in their neighborhood,” she says. The pink mucket will be the centerpiece of the installment, but other mussels (the sheep nose and rabbitsfoot), and Tennessee Valley fishes such as the blotchside log perch and citico darter, will also be featured. “The Tennessee River is a world hotspot for freshwater biological diversity and the Center is working to save the many amazing endangered species that call it home,” according to the center’s description of the mural. The city of Knoxville provided a $2,500 matching grant toward the mural (agreed to before the Old City mural meltdown that prompted a review of the city’s public arts projects), which will be the latest in a series of nine CBD-sponsored public artworks celebrating regional endangered species across the country. They include murals of a
dwindling caribou herd in Sandpoint, Idaho; monarchs in Minneapolis; Arctic grayling in Butte, Mont.; the watercress darter in Birmingham, Ala.; and the gray whale and yellow-billed cuckoos in Los Angeles. Knoxville Parks and Recreation Director Joe Walsh says the project was reviewed and approved by the Public Arts Committee, and will be a unique addition to the city’s greenway system. Walsh says the retaining wall— below the Alcoa Highway/Cumberland Avenue exit ramp across the creek from University Commons shopping center—has been little more than “a target for graffiti for a long time.” Its location by the creek—a chronically polluted urban waterway that has long been the subject of scientific attention and community cleanups—will serve to “brighten up the area.” There are other pieces of public art along the greenway, but this is the first such mural, Walsh says. “This is something unique, and hopefully it will catch on.” Peet, who is also a printmaker and member of the Pittsburgh-based arts cooperative Justseeds, was joined Monday by artists Merrilee Challiss, of Birmingham, Ala., and Trish Tripp, of Asheville, N.C. for final priming and reconnaissance. The three are contracted by the CBD. “It’s definitely the biggest one in the project,” Peet says on a lunch break Monday—not quite “as simple and forgiving,” as other projects. This is the eighth such mural he has done, all of which convey either an ecological or social justice theme. He says his work not only highlights specific concerns—in this case the plight facing freshwater mussels and the fishes that often live symbiotically with them—it also conveys a message of solidarity. “It reminds people they have allies, and there are other people (who) think like they do,” Peet says. He adds that this mural’s “subject matter is totally appropriate to the creek right there.” Indeed, the area bustled with life one recent warm spring morning. Fish broke the waters of the creek, kingfisher chattered and
undulated down the waterway, and a family of geese walked through dewy clover on the fringe of the heavily used greenway. Chris Irwin, a Knoxville attorney, environmentalist and civil rights activist, has been cleaning and sandblasting—with the help of other volunteers—the giant retaining wall at the downstream side of the Tyson Park rugby field for several weeks. He is hosting Peet. “It’s a great deal for Knoxville,” says Irwin, who was approached by CBD to serve as the project’s local point man. Curry says the mural will be painted via a sort of “paint by numbers” system that will allow community groups and individuals to easily participate. Peet says the goal is to complete the artwork by June 28. A celebration marking the mural’s completion is planned for July 10 at Tyson Park, according to Curry. Representatives of Conservation Fisheries Inc., Tennessee Clean Water Network, and the Harvey Broome Chapter of the Sierra Club, all of which have assisted with the project, will also be present. Curry says Gerry Dinkins, curator of the UT McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture mussel collection, has also contributed his expertise. The pink mucket is a federally listed endangered species that has seen its Ohio and Tennessee rivers basin range dramatically reduced by the creation of reservoirs such as Fort Loudoun Lake and other Tennessee Valley Authority impoundments. It relies on fish for larval reproduction, and is susceptible to fluctuations in some fish populations as well as sediment pollution. But it is guaranteed to live on in Knoxville—in art, anyway. “I think it’s going to be beautiful,” Irwin says. “We need more beauty in this world.” Curry says Irwin has served as the project’s “force of nature,” shepherding the concept onto concrete. When complete, the mural will convey a dire message with artistic subtlety, Curry says: “We are in the middle of an extinction crisis and people aren’t even aware of it.” ◆ For more information on the mural celebration or how to get involved, email Tierra Curry at tcurry@ biologicaldiversity.org; or go to biologicaldiversity.org or the Facebook event page. June 16, 2016
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Is UT’s Pride Center the real casualty of a law defunding the Office of Diversity and Inclusion? | BY CLAY DUDA
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Members of the Pride Ambassadors, a UT student group, meet with school administrators about the fate of the Pride Center two weeks after it was defunded and destaffed in response to a new state law. The students were hoping to get answers about actions taken thus far and when—or if—the center might reopen.
Photos by Clay Duda
he way all of this has been done just seems shady,” Johnathan Clayton tells the school administrators sitting across the table. “This is one of the simplest laws I’ve ever read, but it doesn’t seems like UT’s actions align with the law.” Clayton is among a half dozen students crowded around a small picnic table in a courtyard outside Melrose Hall on the University of Tennessee campus, looking for answers. On the other side are three school administrators: Vice Chancellor of Student Life Vince Carilli; Dean of Students Melissa Shivers; and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs John Zomchick. This informal encounter, surrounded by sprouting clovers and crab grass on a muggy summer’s evening, is the first sit-down meeting the Pride Ambassadors have managed to get with school officials since UT’s Pride Center saw its funding eliminated and its staff removed more than two weeks ago—a move that UT officials say was necessary to comply with a newly passed state law defunding the Office of Diversity and Inclusion over the next fiscal year. The Pride Ambassadors, an LGBT student group with ties to the center, has pushed hard since then to find an alternative to disbanding the Pride Center’s staff and funding. “I don’t think members of the administration have sat around and said ‘let’s see what we can do to hurt the Pride Center,’” Carilli counters. “We’re working on a way to support the center that doesn’t circumvent the law, but that’s something we’re going to have to work out over the summer.” While the University of Tennessee has continued to tout its support for diversity publicly, some students and faculty members have been raising questions about how the school is interpreting and implementing this new law. Why were the offices closed earlier than may have been required? Out of four departments under the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, why was the Pride Center the only one to lose funding? Could more have been done to save it? And was it targeted even though it wasn’t specifically named in the law? Right now there are still more questions than answers. UT officials say they’re still trying to figure things out as well, though given the legal environment there’s
only so much they can do. “When I have those answers I’ll be happy to provide them to you,” says Margie Nichols, Vice Chancellor of Communications and Marketing. In recent years the school has stressed its commitment to diversity on campus, creating the Office of Diversity and even adding diversity as the sixth core goal in the university’s push to become a top 25 research institute by 2020, among other things. The Vol Vision 2020 document, a guidebook to help the university reach its lofty objective, notes that exposing students to different cultures and a diverse opinions is essential for future success, yet UT remains less diverse than many of its peer institutions. “While UT is making progress, the total number of students from diverse populations remains small,” the report reads. White students now make up about 74 percent of undergraduate students, down from 84 percent in 2010. The number of African-Americans attending UT has remained flat at 7 percent during that time, while students identifying as Hispanic, Asian, and multi-racial have
risen to each make up about 3 percent of the student population, 9 percent in all. Just 2 percent of all undergraduates are international students. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion was created to help further that mission, to raise the school’s profile among more diverse populations, and to help integrate existing diversity efforts into different departments and the university’s culture. It also provided university-wide oversight for UTK’s diversity councils and commissions. Overall, the ODI and the Pride Center are just two pieces of a much larger puzzle, Nichols says. “The reality is that it’s everybody’s job to ensure we have diversity on campus,” she says. “This in no way diminishes out support for diversity on campus. That responsibility will just fall on different places.” But the Pride Center in particular was an integral resource for students and employees, advocates say, noting that people identifying as LGBT have historically been a target for discrimination. Campus Pride Index, a website that rates schools on LGBT policies, gave UT just two out of five stars, citing inadequate policies,
counseling and healthcare resources, retention efforts, and other indicators. (UT earned three stars for “support and institutional commitment,” its highest mark on the report, but also earned some points for having a Pride Center in operation.) “I think the lack of support that has come from administration has been disappointing” [since all this started happening], says Anna Masson, a UT sign language interpreter working with the Pride Ambassadors. “When you say nothing in the face of injustice you take the side of injustice.” Some aspects of UT’s push to become more diverse have raised ire from state lawmakers. Most recently a series of blog posts to the ODI’s website—one encouraging the use of gender-neutral pronouns, another in December advising staff to “ensure your holiday party is not a Christmas party in disguise”—triggered a deluge of grandstanding at the statehouse, eventually contributing to the current funding debacle. But this isn’t the first time. In 2013, UT pulled funding for Sex Week, a week-long program covering a wide-range of sex-related topics from discussions on sexuality to abstinence, after blowback from conservative legislators over student fees being used to fund it. (UT changed its policy to allow students to opt out of paying fees to fund the event.) Sex Week was one of a handful of programs specifically defunded by the new law this year, leading some to speculate that it may have been the Legislature’s goal all along. Others say it seems political will was focused on the removal of Vice Chancellor of Diversity Rickey Hall, or perhaps the Pride Center was the likely target. It all depends on who you ask, but in the end all three were defunded by the law. June 16, 2016
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Hundreds of UT students and supporters hold a demonstration and march through campus in April opposing a state bill that would defund the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. That bill became law without a signature from Gov. Bill Haslam on May 20.
AN EASY TARGET?
From day one Donna Braquet knew the Pride Center might someday fall in the crosshairs of state legislators. “From the very moment we opened in February 2010, the same day we opened [then-state Senator] Stacey Campfield posted something about how terrible it was that UT had this place for these [LGBT] people on campus,” recalls Braquet, who has served as director since the center’s inception. “For the first few years we were very careful, and we were even told to be stealth-like because if we garnered the attention of the Legislature it would be over.” But as time went on and the Pride Center became more integrated into the school’s fabric, those worries began to subside. In 2013, when the Office of Diversity and Inclusion was formed and Rickey Hall was hired as the school’s first Vice Chancellor of Diversity, the Pride Center was brought under its umbrella, earning status as an official administrative office for the first time. Before that it had been overseen by the Chancellor’s Commission on LGBT People. Its budget remained small, operating on about $4,000 annually (not including salaries). A graduate assistant and up to 10 federally funded student workers staffed the office during the week. ODI started pitching in to cover 25 percent of Braquet’s salary as director, a simple funding shift since she is already a full-time position as an associate professor in Universities Library. Hall was hired to lead the ODI with a focus on recruiting and retaining more diverse students and staff since UT lagged behind peer institutions on that front, a move Chancellor Jimmy Cheek said at the time was needed to make the university a “more robust academic environ16
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ment” and a “more welcoming—and more interesting—place for us all.” Today, UT still lags behind many peers in measures of diversity, but its focus as a part of the Vol Vision 2020 plan may be a testament to its importance. (There are no federal standards or specific requirements to become a top research institute, but instead a number of statistics and other indicators are compared with schools around the country. Generally, the accepted annual ranking comes from U.S. News and World Report.) The center’s core focus has always been support for LGBT+ students and faculty. Over the years it grew to include a regular roster of programs such as a weekly series of discussions groups, an annual Ally Week focused on raising awareness of LGBT issues and support, Pride Week events, and a lavender graduation ceremony. For LGBT students, a main draw has been its resource as a meeting place where they could connect with other like-minded peers or work through issues. It’s a place to find support and acceptance, as its tagline alludes: “you belong here.” Then, in August 2015, something
did catch the attention of state legislators. All it took was a blog post recommending the use of gender-neutral pronouns (like “ze” “zim” and “hirs”) that some transgender people prefer. Written by Braquet, the original article was sent out in a newsletter and posted on the ODI’s website. Several media outlets misconstrued the posting as a university policy or directive, and mostly conservative state legislators decried it as political correctness run amok and garnered national headlines. Within a few weeks, university President Joe DiPietro announced the post would be taken offline, saying the controversy was “like nothing I’ve seen.” “I think for the past year we’ve been sort of targeted, and by that I mean LGBT students and employees. Ever since that gender-neutral pronoun article went up at the end of August, and that’s sort of what started this whole spiral,” Braquet says. “Once the university took down that article, these students have not felt the same since then. They’ve felt attacked and abandoned because at that point they knew this university was not with them.” While that wasn’t the only
sticking point with state legislators, it caused enough uproar to earn a specific mention in H.B. 1066 and S.B. 1912, two sister bills that became law last month without a signature from Gov. Bill Haslam. In December, another blog post, this one encouraging staff to “ensure your holiday part is not a Christmas party in disguise,” earned heated remarks from more conservative state lawmakers. Some called for Hall’s and Cheek’s resignations. Hall would eventually resign, on May 19, the day before the bill defunding his office became law. He accepted a similar position with the University of Washington. “I am not opposed to creating an environment where students of all backgrounds can find a place. However, this is NOT what the so-called Office of Diversity is doing,” Rep. Micah Van Huss, one of the bill’s sponsors, posted on his LordPickle Facebook page in December. “They are not celebrating diversity, they are wiping it out. It is the office of Political Correctness.” Neither Van Huss nor Sen. Todd Gardenhire returned calls seeking comment for this story.
PASSED INTO LAW
A variety of bills taking aim at UT circulated through the Legislature this past session. One called for removing the entire board of trustees and making new appointments, while the original bill introduced by Van Huss would have used the money funding the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to pay for “In God We Trust” stickers for law enforcement vehicles. The resulting bill that did muster enough political support to become law totals just two paragraphs, taking aiming at a few hot-button issues and the ODI’s budget. The first section of the law dictates that state money not be spent to support the use of gender-neutral pronouns, promote or inhibit religious celebrations, or fund or support Sex Week, the annual event focused on sexual health and research put on by the group Sexual Empowerment and Awareness at Tennessee (or SEAT). “That’s really a free speech issue, as we’ve tried to explain a number of times,” says Bonnie Ownley, president elect of UTK’s Faculty Senate. “We still have a lot of questions about it, like if Sex Week can still be held on campus or if that
would be considered university ‘support.’ We just don’t know.” Those questions and others prompted the Faculty Senate to form a special task force seeking answers. It’s managed to schedule a public forum with university administrators on June 17, 1 p.m. in the Hodges Library Auditorium. Thus far university officials have said they, too, are still trying to figure out exactly what the law means and how to implement it. That mostly means working with legal council, and even having UT attorneys liaison with the state’s Attorney General’s office if necessary to hammer out a legal interpretation, UTK officials say. The second part of the bill restricts state money from being used to fund the Office of Diversity and Inclusion for one fiscal year, from July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017. According to UT’s own figures that’s about $446,000, which includes all salaries and operating costs for the ODI and the Pride Center. That money will instead be redirected to fund minority engineering scholarships, nearly doubling the amount of scholarship money available at least for one year. Scholarship awards for the next academic year have already been issued, and it’s still unclear how the money will be awarded or tracked since there is currently no specific fund for minority engineering scholarships. Instead, the roughly $500,000 in scholarships the College of Engineering offers annually is pooled in a central fund and divvied out depending on a number of criteria, such as student’s home county, school, academic performance, need, and other factors, according the college’s Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs Masood Parang. “Most of those students receiving scholarships may be minority or some are female students, but there is very little distinction,” Parang says. “There’s no dollar figure set aside for any specific group.”
OVERSEEING DIVERSITY
Three other departments also operated under the Office of Diversity and Inclusion; most of them had more varied funding sources, and either received no money or a much smaller percentage directly through the ODI. Those departments would be shifted to report to different offices and keep
functioning, Chancellor Jimmy Cheek announced in an email May 20. The Office of Multicultural Student Life now reports to the Vice Chancellor for Student Life; the Office of Equity and Diversity answers to the chancellor; and the Educational Advancement Program reports to the Office of the Provost. Each of those offices have different objective related to diversity. The Office of Multicultural Student Life has a mission similar to the ODI’s, but is geared specifically towards helping students academically by offering tutoring and book loan programs, peer mentoring, leadership development, workshops, and supporting cultural programming. The Office of Equity and Diversity handles discrimination complaints and is tasked with ensuring the university complies with various state and federal anti-discrimination laws and regulations, including Tennessee’s Title VI Program and federal Title IX. The Educational Advancement Program is primarily charged with administering Student Support Services grants made through the federal Department of Education. Four commissions were also reassigned to report directly to the chancellor, including the Commission on LGBT People, which oversaw the Pride Center before being absorbed by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. “The Pride Center will remain a gathering place for students, but it will no longer be staffed by university employees,” Cheek wrote. The Pride Center space does still exist as a room in Melrose Hall, though it’s no longer staffed or recognized as an official administrative office of the university. In addition to the Pride Center, only the Educational Advancement Program received money directly through the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, though like all departments they’re funded through the university’s central budgeting process. Educational Advancement Program Director Ronald McFadden say his department received about $40,000 from the ODI last year to meet a federal match on stipends awarded to some low-income students to help offset college costs and also to help fund a summer research institute from students looking to continue on to graduate school. A breakdown of the ODI’s budget provided the university included $20,000 in awards, but didn’t offer a more
detailed report on expenses. It’s unclear where the additional $20,000 may have come from in that budget.
$14,000 LESS
It took an act of Twitter for the Pride Ambassadors to get a meeting with school administrators. The whole encounter was scheduled through Twitter direct messages, a non-traditional arrangement that left both school officials and students a little perplexed but makes sense given the outspoken stance the Ambassadors have taken since the ODI and the Pride Center were shuttered. Like most everyone else, they’re just looking for answers. But students affected by this haven’t sat idly on the side lines. The Pride Ambassadors, UT Diversity Matters, and other student groups have staged demonstrations and taken a hard stance against what they see as injustice perpetrated through state law. Since the center was shut down, an online fundraising campaign has collected more than $8,000 in donations to help fund operations and, perhaps, re-staff the office. A recent donor contributing $500 as “Rickey Hall” left this note: “‘They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.’ Whether there is an office or a center, keep fighting. We are on the right side of history.” Hall could not be reached directly for comment. Former Pride Center Director Braquet estimates it would take as little as $14,000 to reopen the center. That money would go to cover a $4,000 operating budget and $10,000 for a graduate assistant to oversee the eight to 10 federally-funded student workers assigned to the office each semester. Braquet, who has her salary paid through University Libraries, says she’d be happy to return as a volunteer director (as she has in the past) until financial issues were ironed out, though administrators have never given that option. UT spokeswoman Margie Nichols says the university is committed to keeping the Pride Center as a resource for students, it just has to figure out how to do that within the scope of current legal restrictions. “We’re examining the future of the Pride Center,” she says. “We just haven’t made a decision about what the future is yet, but there will be a future.” ◆
Public Chapter No. 1066 Here it is, in its entirety: the state law that defunds the University of Tennessee’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion for the next fiscal year: By Representatives Van Huss, Sanderson, Keisling, Jerry Sexton, Holt, Cameron Sexton, Calfee, Matthew Hill, Alexander, Rogers, Doss, Goins, Timothy Hill, Powers, Daniel, Harry Brooks, Womick, Ragan, Kevin Brooks, Sargent, McDaniel, Durham, Lollar, Hulsey, Byrd, Weaver, Terry, Zachary, Butt, Lynn, Sparks By Senators Gardenhire, Kelsey AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 9 and Title 49, relative to state funds. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE: SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 9, Chapter 4, Part 51, is amended by adding the following language as a new section: State funds shall not be expended by the University of Tennessee to promote the use of gender neutral pronouns, to promote or inhibit the celebration of religious holidays, or to fund or support sex week. SECTION 2. All funds in the budget of the office for diversity and inclusion at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, for fiscal year 2016-2017, shall be reallocated in the university’s budget and used by the university solely for scholarships to be awarded through a minority engineering scholarship program. Any funds from the budget of the office for diversity and inclusion that are not used for minority engineering scholarships in fiscal year 2016-2017 shall remain in the scholarship program for use in future fiscal years. SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.
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A&E
P rogram Notes
CD Burner Tina Tarmac and the Burns crank out a new, even rawer EP
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t the end of 2014, Tina Tarmac and the Burns released a fivesong self-titled EP that we described as “a full-on ear assault of raunchy, no-bullshit hard rock of a sort that’s becoming more difficult to find in these sensitive times.” On the disc, the local power trio, fronted by bassist/veteran scenester/first-time vocalist Sara Washington, explored the territory where punk, power pop, metal, arena rock, and glam rock come together, to stirring, uncomplicated, and loud effect. It’s taken more than a year to get another recording out of the band, but a second EP, also self-titled, is finally on the way. (How to tell the difference: The cover of the 2014 Tina Tarmac and the Burns had a red background with black text and artwork; the new one has a black background with red art.) “This time last year, we were playing a lot in order to make a name for ourselves on the local scene,” Washington says in an email interview. “We played five shows in and out of Knoxville in the span of seven
recording to reflect the human aspect of the performances—impromptu guitar screams, raw vocals, and driving drums. The angst of the lyrics finds a home in these human aspects of the instruments, and it’s really a good fit.” Tina Tarmac and the Burns will hold its EP release show at Pilot Light (106 E. Jackson Ave.) on Saturday, June 18, at 9 p.m., with support from Mass Driver and Realm (“our favorite hard rock bands in Knoxville!” Washington says). Admission is $5. (Matthew Everett)
weeks. Although we got to play alongside some of the most talented bands Knoxville has to offer, it took a toll on the songwriting process. It takes a lot to prepare for a live performance and so after the summer ended, we decided to stop gigging for a while and reassess where we stood.” The band worked up five new songs last summer and fall: “Exoskeleton,” about “breaking out of a repressive shell,” Washington says; “Love Hammer,” an “appreciation of the working man”; “Rabbit Hole,” about “the painful joy of addiction”; “Road Song,” about “the freedom of motorcycle riding”; and “Earthworm,” an ode to “good old-fashioned sex.” During the winter, Washington and company went back to Joel Stooksbury’s Soundtrack Black Studio in Sevier County, where they recorded the debut EP. “He understands the sound we’re looking for,” Washington says of Stooksbury. “We wanted this recording to be raw instead of the polished sound that’s on most hard rock recordings these days. We wanted the
We wanted this recording to be raw instead of the polished sound that’s on most hard rock recordings these days. human aspect of the performances. —SARA WASHINGTON of Tina Tarmac and the Burns on her band’s new EP
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Shelf Life: Charlie Chaplin
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Music: Pere Ubu
Photo by Mark Gunnar Quist
We wanted the recording to reflect the
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Blond Bones Few of Days Just who or what Blond Bones is depends on when you ask, or when you see them perform—sometimes it’s a duo, sometimes it’s a full band. They call it “a music collective,” and the group’s history reflects that loose collaborative vibe. Blond Bones was first put together to back singer/songwriter Joey English, who then took a break from making music, so songwriters Christian Barnett and Joseph Rebrovick kept the name, recruited some friends (including English, whose sabbatical didn’t last long), and recorded this debut EP. Few of Days is both modest and ambitious—it’s a concept EP, something you don’t see often. Over 23 minutes of reverb-heavy indie folk, Barnett and Rebrovick tell the story of a Southern family facing all the troubles fictional Southern families face: poverty, guilt, betrayal, modern disconnection, addiction to pills and booze. It’s all pretty po-faced Appalachian Gothic 101—depressing, nostalgic, stuffed full of biblical allusions—the title comes from the book of Job, in case you missed the existential/spiritual stakes here. The music, too, is a little too familiar. Whispered verses give ways to big dramatic choruses, often interrupted by late Wilco-style experimental, atmospheric mid-song interludes. It’s crafted to feel intimate, but the lack of subtlety smothers any real personal connection to the songs. There’s a lot of promise on Few of Days—English shows off some excellent guitar-playing, and Barnett’s mid-range voice is suited to moody music with big melodies. Barnett and Rebrovick also display real talent for complex arrangements, but the ones on Few of Days aren’t served by the demo-quality recording here. And that’s probably the best way to think of Few of Days—as a demo. It’s an early sketchbook from a young band that’s full of potential but will only benefit from experience. (M.E.)
Movies: The Conjuring 2
Shelf Life
A&E
it clear he’s the one to watch.. And the quality of the restored footage is fantastic. It seems less like history or nostalgia than like access to a new world.
don’t Miss These REGiOnal books!
CITY LIGHTS (1931)
Tramp Life Charlie Chaplin on Blu-ray at Knox County Public Library BY CHRIS BARRETT
I
t may seem incongruous to pursue silent fi lms—fi lms made using cameras which were often unsteady, hand-cranked at low and inconsistent speeds, and which have suffered variously in attics or archives for a century or so—in editions remastered for low-compression/high-defi nition viewing. It may seem so, that is, until you do. Until the late 1920s, the only audio information related to fi lms consisted of music, generated erratically and independently of the projector, usually by a live pianist of unreliable skill. The entire narrative content of these fi lms is contained in a fl ickering series of rapidly changing still photographs. The better those images look—the greater the level of discernible detail—the easier and more pleasant it is to engage with the story and its tellers. In the case of a storyteller like silent-era Charlie Chaplin, subtlety and nuance are everything. Chaplin slays on Blu-ray,
and his work is worth the fuss and time spent rewatching.
CHAPLIN’S ESSANAY COMEDIES 1915
These 17 comedy shorts were made 100 years ago, and the restored versions represented here have been more than a decade in the making. They are worthwhile for a few reasons. When Chaplin left Keystone Studios (where Mack Sennett hailed him as “just the greatest artist who ever lived”), he made history by signing a contract at Essanay for $1,250 per week. Of course, he would be handsomely paid to make other sorts of history over the next several decades. The Chaplin you meet here is the emerging genius, still in the shed, so to speak, testing and trying. His skills and physical vocabulary do not separate him much from his co-stars. But his promise is obvious. In the early frames of several of these fi lms, before any action or pratfalls, Chaplin’s radiant magnetism makes
Chaplin directed, starred in, and scored this silent feature as Hollywood moved its money and talent to talkies. It’s a brilliant fairy tale about love and lessons and ways of seeing while not seeing, and posterity has proven the wisdom of Chaplin’s judgment. Virginia Cherrill portrays the blind flower girl for whom Chaplin’s Tramp endures boxing, prison, and the vexing friendship of a drunken millionaire (Harry Myers) who only recognizes the Tramp when he’s sloshed. The acting here is the opposite of what you fi nd in the Essanay shorts. Chaplin mimes blushing, among other subtle human expressions and emotions that black-and-white photography should not have been able to capture. James Agee thought that the ending contained the best acting ever seen on fi lm. It’s hard to argue while you have it fresh in mind.
The Final Season The Perserverance of Pat Summitt
MaRia M. CORnEliUS $29.95 / Available Fall 2016 Call 800-621-2736 to Preorder
Southern Appalachian Farm Cooking
A Memoir of Food and Family RObERT G. nEThERland $29.95 / Available Now
THE KID (1921)
Chaplin’s fi rst feature may be his fi nest fi lm (which, again, he directed, starred in, and scored). The Kid introduces the 7-year-old child star Jackie Coogan, whose casting risked diminishing the Tramp’s mystique in a couple of ways. Coogan could nearly match Chaplin in silent charm and pathos—his infant-left-in-limousineby-unwed-mother character offered some automatic, maybe unfair advantages—and the kid might have easily upstaged a less confident and competent star. And by playing opposite Coogan, Chaplin couldn’t help but tip his hand by revealing how often he mesmerizes viewers by simply becoming a child. The visible bond between father and adopted son is sweet but not too much so, and no sensible person would envy the social services types who endeavor to come between them. And, again, the quality of restored footage is impressive and transporting. ◆
Jeff Daniel Marion Poet on the Holston
EdiTEd by JESSE GRavES, ThOMaS alan hOlMES, and ERnEST lEE $24.95 / Available Now
Sailing with Farragut
The Civil War Recollections of Bartholomew Diggins EdiTEd by GEORGE S. bURkhaRdT $53.95 / Available July 2016 Call 800-621-2736 to Preorder Facebook “f ” Logo
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ThE Univ ERSiTy Of TEnnESSEE PRESS June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 19
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Music
A Jagged Line The unlikely career of underground rock survivors Pere Ubu continues into its fifth decade BY JOE TARR
D
avid Thomas didn’t set out to be a singer. “I was going to be a guitar player but it hurt my fingers,” says the founder and only constant member of iconic Cleveland postpunk band Pere Ubu. “There’s not a lot of thought that went into this.” It’s hard to take the last comment seriously, especially when, a few minutes later, Thomas explains how he approached singing early on— which was, in fact, very thoughtfully. “I was going to have certain ideas—I was a white kid from the suburbs, so I wasn’t going to take anyone else’s culture,” he says, noting that he didn’t want to emulate blues singers. “At that point, I was very strict with myself.” Thomas was part of the groundbreaking Cleveland rock scene of the mid-’70s that spawned a number of now legendary acts. He co-founded the short-lived Rocket From the Tombs, which also launched the careers of Peter Laughner and the Dead Boys’ Cheetah Chrome and Johnny Blitz. From the ashes of Rocket From the Tombs, Thomas formed Pere Ubu, which plays at Pilot Light on June 22. The Cleveland/Akron scene has been rightly mythologized. The bands that came out of it—Rocket From the Tombs, Pere Ubu, and the Dead Boys, but also the electric eels, the Pagans, and Devo— can still sound surprising today. Was there something in the Cleveland water? “[Cleveland] clearly was part of
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 16, 2016
my youth in my serious development years,” Thomas says. “You’re not locked in that place in your life, but you’re formulated. We were pretty locked into the ethos of what we were doing, which was fairly distinctive. We were serious about making music.” Although often lumped into the American punk movement, Pere Ubu has more in common with the New York art-music scene, drawing inspiration from the Velvet Underground, jazz, musique concrète, and books and theater (the band’s name is a reference to an 1896 avant-garde play by the French symbolist Alfred Jarry), all while also incorporating pop melodies, strangely funky rhythms, and Thomas’ idiosyncratic voice. Thomas thought he and his contemporaries were the future of rock music. “We foolishly, naively believed that rock is an evolutionary force,” Thomas says. “In artistic terms, it was supposed to go somewhere. It was headed in a literary way. You had Television, Tom Verlaine, the Residents, and some others you’ve probably never heard of. These were smart people. The music was not ‘baby, baby’ anymore. The ideas had moved to an incredibly different plateau. That’s where it was supposed to go.” Although Pere Ubu never had much commercial success, they became critical darlings, with a surprisingly long-lived career. Through various incarnations, they’ve released 16 studio albums. Thomas has been remastering and rereleasing
these in vinyl box sets. Elitism for the People 1975-1978, released last year, collects Pere Ubu’s first two albums, The Modern Dance and Dub Housing (both from 1978), its early singles, and a live set from Max’s Kansas City. The new Architecture of Language 1979-1982 includes New Picnic Time (1979), The Art of Walking (1980), Song of the Bailing Man (1982), and a disc of bonus material. Thomas and the band plan to continue releasing these box sets, although they will have to skip over four albums from the late ’80s and early ’90s because of copyright issues. The “fourth” box set, compiling three albums from the mid ’90s, is expected this fall. On this tour, the band is performing music from the first two sets. “We play two to three songs from each album—it’s all spread out,” Thomas says. “It gets very draining, because you’re jumping around psychologically. The first couple of shows was like being slapped on the face with a piece of meat. But we settled into it. You can get used to anything.” But it’s also been gratifying, Thomas says, to go back through the old records. “I know these albums inside out, every moment, but I endlessly find new things,” he says. As he was putting together the first box set, Thomas says the overwhelming reaction he had was that he and his bandmates had been right all along—particularly about his singing. “I still get this nonsense about how I squeal and wail and howl,” he says. “Since I’ve been working on these box sets, I struggle to find places where I’m squealing or howling. I always had an inferiority thing about this, thinking I must be out of tune.” But there is a fair amount of muttering, moaning, and yelling in the music, which melds with the existential themes in the lyrics. Listening can evoke claustrophobia, paranoia, anxiety—and at times joy and sorrow. “I’ve recorded over 200 songs— one, maybe two or three, are personal,” Thomas says. “I hate that singer/ songwriting crap. Self-expression is evil. It’s not about me. It’s a story. The
songs might have been about some existential state, but the sound itself was the state. If we’re writing about angst, the sound was angst—it was angst itself.” Thomas says he actually wanted to sound like Roy Orbison. He may not have Orbison’s vocal range, but the range of emotions he covers is every bit as impressive. “Singing should reflect the nature of human consciousness,” he says. “People don’t think in straight lines. There’s a jumble of doubt and assurance. I wanted to put all that in there.” ◆
WHO
Pere Ubu with Obnox
WHERE
Pilot Light (106 E. Jackson Ave.)
WHEN
Wednesday, June 22, at 9 p.m.
HOW MUCH $25
INFO
thepilotlight.com ubuprojex.com
Movies
The Haunting James Wan follows one horror masterpiece with half of another in The Conjuring 2 BY APRIL SNELLINGS
I
caught some flak for calling 2013’s The Conjuring a masterpiece, but I stand by it. In a glut of found-footage junk and instantly forgettable Mad Libs-style supernatural potboilers, here was a haunted-house movie carefully engineered for maximum impact—a bone-chilling rallying cry for studio horror that proved audiences still had an appetite for expertly crafted, stripped-down, character-driven scares. Even if it ultimately alienated many viewers with its cornball religious hokum, it’s still one of the best mainstream horror films in recent years. What needs to be said up front is that The Conjuring 2 is a vastly different kind of movie. Its predecessor was quiet, measured, and contained; this one is loud and chaotic, all about stuffi ng in as many spookhouse frights as possible—and with a bloated running time that blows past two hours, that’s a lot. There’s some great stuff here, most notably in the masterful fi rst hour, which contains some of the best scares director James Wan has ever orchestrated. But as the movie wears on and builds to a manic third act, its embarrassment of ghouls proves more exhausting than exhilarating. The Perron family of The Conjuring got off easy—those light-
weights only had to fend off one long-dead witch. This time around, after a brief and effective stopover in Amityville, N.Y., professional demon-botherers Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) are called to London to help a family besieged by poltergeists, devils, and a shape-shifting storybook monster right out of The Babadook. The fi lm is based on the famed Enfield haunting of the late ’70s, which kicked off a media sensation when 11-year-old Janet Hodgson (played here by a terrific Madison Wolfe), her three siblings, and their single mom claimed to be tormented by the restless spirit of a crotchety ol’ deader named Bill Wilkins. The first hour of the movie bounces between the escalating nightmare going down in the Hodgsons’ rickety London council house and the equally nerve-rattling visions that are plaguing Lorraine Warren in the Connecticut home she shares with Ed and their young daughter. It’s a testament both to Wan’s playfulness and to his faith in his audience that the Warrens and the Hodgsons don’t actually share a scene until nearly halfway through the film. The movie is at its best during this lengthy setup, with Wan flexing his muscles in a series
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of drawn-out, pitch-perfect scares that draw on primal childhood fears and reinvigorate threadbare horror tropes. But Wan made the utterly gonzo Furious 7 between these two Conjuring installments, and too many of those action-movie sensibilities are on display as the fi lm gradually shifts from hair-raising, understated simplicity to jarring, CGI-heavy set pieces. However well crafted these sequences may be, it’s a disappointing shift for viewers who relish the lean, old-fashioned frights on display before the fl ick goes full Poltergeist. There’s also less attention paid this time around to the story’s internal logic, leaving too much room for the kind of lunkheadedness that was so pleasantly absent in the fi rst chapter. Like the Perron family, the Hodgsons are bound to their house for economic reasons, so they can’t just leave. But maybe they could at least get rid of the haunted death chair that no one but a malevolent ghost uses anyway? And raise your hand if you’d choose to decorate your study with a painting of the demon-hell-nun who’s been showing up in your nightmares. Those lapses in common sense are nothing, though, compared to the script’s eventual willingness to double down on silly spiritualist gobbledygook when it’s time to send its heavies back to hell. But thanks to the immense appeal of its two leads, the movie never goes off the rails altogether—Farmiga and Wilson are obviously having a lot of fun, and the chemistry between them is always a pleasure to watch. For all its flaws, Wan’s uneven sequel manages to raise gooseflesh at least as often as its dumb get-thee-behind-me dialogue rolls eyeballs. It’s not the great horror fi lm its predecessor was—in fact, it’s so upbeat in its depiction of familial solidarity and religion as an unwavering source of strength that I’m not sure it’s ultimately even a horror movie at all. In some ways, it’s more akin to a really effective (if punishingly long) episode of Goosebumps. But when it works— and, really, a great hour is far more than most studio horror manages these days—The Conjuring 2 is funhouse gotcha! kitsch at its fi nest. ◆ June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 21
MUSIC
Thursday, June 16 MAC LEAPHART WITH KIRA SMALL • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE THE SPARKLE MOTION BAND • Last Days of Autumn Brewery • 6PM KELSEY’S WOODS • Regal Cinemas Pinnacle Stadium 18 in Turkey Creek • 6:30PM • Part of the Sounds of Summer concert series. • FREE LAFEVER • Market Square • 7PM • Bringing heat to modern pop music, with a twist of retro R & B, and soul – LaFever is sure to provide a fun night on the Square. • FREE STEVE KAUFMAN ACOUSTIC KAMPS CONCERT SERIES • Maryville College • 7PM • In conjunction with his annual summer camps for guitarists, fiddlers, and other acoustic musicians, award-winning guitarist Steve Kaufman hosts two weeks of concerts at Maryville College’s newly refurbished Alumni Gym. The lineup includes Kaufman, Cary Fridley, April Verch, Mike Dowling, Clint Mullican, and more than a dozen other musicians. June 13-24. Visit flatpik.com for more info. • $15 THE TRONGONE BAND • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE BLUE MOTHER TUPELO • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM PETER KARP • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 8PM DIVIDED WE STAND • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM KEITH MEAD WITH DEAR BLANCA, FALLOIR, AND BAT HOUSE • Pilot Light • 9PM • 18 and up. • $5 HONEY AND HOUSTON • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Original Americana quartet that blends country and blues influences with sweet “sister” harmonies and a little taste of gypsy on the side. STONE BROKE SAINTS WITH THE VALLEY OPERA • SoKnox Studios • 7PM • Part of SoKnox Studios’ Thirdsday series of live-streamed concerts. ALPHA DOGS • Wild Wing Cafe • 8:30PM • FREE Friday, June 17 BRANDON FULSON WITH THE MOON AND YOU • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-aweek lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE ALIVE AFTER FIVE: BOYS’ NIGHT OUT • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • The summer series of Alive After Five premieres with 11-member Carolina beach music band. • $10-$15 THE MALIBU DIAMOND BAND • Last Days of Autumn Brewery • 7PM STEVE KAUFMAN ACOUSTIC KAMPS CONCERT SERIES • Maryville College • 7PM • In conjunction with his annual summer camps for guitarists, fiddlers, and other acoustic musicians, award-winning guitarist Steve Kaufman hosts two weeks of concerts at Maryville College’s newly refurbished Alumni Gym. The lineup includes Kaufman, Cary Fridley, April Verch, Mike Dowling, Clint Mullcan, and more than a dozen other musicians. June 13-24. Visit flatpik.com for more info. • $15 SPARROW FULLER • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • FREE JASON EADY • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE 22
KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 16, 2016
SEASONS OF ME WITH DIVIDED WE STAND, TRANSPARENT SOUL, AND SHADOWED SELF • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • East Tennessee hard rock. All ages. • $5 AN EVENING WITH JASON MRAZ AND HIS GUITAR • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Jason Mraz has quietly amassed a youthful, diverse, and vibrant fan-base throughout all parts of the globe. Since getting his start in coffeehouses in his adopted city of San Diego, Mraz has brought his positive message and soulful, folk-pop sound to rapt audiences around the world through his recordings, vibrant live performances, and philanthropic efforts. • $45-$59.50 EXIT 60 • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM PAM KLICKA • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE GROOVE JUNCTION • Brackins Blues Club ( Maryville) • 9PM TREETOPS WITH AGORI TRIBE AND UNAKA PRONG • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM REED TURCHI AND THE CATERWAULS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Raised in the Swannanoa Valley just outside of Asheville, North Carolina, Reed Turchi grew up playing piano, focusing on boogie woogie and New Orleans styles before becoming infatuated with slide guitar. While learning Hill Country Blues (RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Mississippi Fred McDowell) firsthand in North Mississippi, he founded his blues-rock trio “TURCHI,” which released its debut album Road Ends in Water in 2012. Called “everything a blues fan could want” (LA Examiner), the album featured guest Luther Dickinson on three tracks. THE WILD THINGS • Preservation Pub • 10PM CHELSY STEPP • Wild Wing Cafe • 6PM • FREE BAMM • The International • 9PM • San Francisco songwriter Taylor Brooks teams up with East Tennessee’s Heather Maples— singer-songwriter, popular regional headliner and 8th-generation daughter of the Smoky Mountains — and together with keyboard wizard Mark Meyer, create a serious blend of classic rock, country and original music delivered with energy, style and fun. The kickoff for Pridefest 2016. 18 and up. • $5-$10 BETHANY AND THE SWING SERENADE • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE SCOTT STEVENS • Wild Wing Cafe • 10PM • FREE Saturday, June 18 THREESOUND WITH NOAH LARSSEN • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE START ME UP: THE ROLLING STONES TRIBUTE • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6PM • $15 JON CHAMBERS • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • FREE GAELIC STORM • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Gaelic Storm is back with their 12th studio album, once again delivering the foot-stomping, eclectic mix of tunes that has established the band as one of world music’s premier live acts. “Matching Sweaters” infuses traditional Celtic music with modern influences, updating the genre for a new generation of fans raised on rock, country, and folk. These 12 brand new tracks straddle the line between tradition and innovation in the world music format, making “Matching Sweaters” an absolute must-have. • $23 BRANDON FULSON WITH MATT HONKONEN AND HANDSOME AND THE HUMBLES • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Brandon Fulson is an Americana country singer songwriter. Originally from Cumberland Gap, Tennessee he now resides in Knoxville. All ages. • $5
NELLIE PEARL • Preservation Pub • 8PM KITTY WAMPUS • Paul’s Oasis • 9PM • Classic rock, blues, and R&B. • FREE BETTER DAZE • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM THE CHUCK MULLICAN JAZZ BONANZA • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE DUNAVANT • Brackins Blues Club ( Maryville) • 9PM BILLY STRINGS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM TINA TARMAC AND THE BURNS • Pilot Light • 9PM • On its self-titled debut EP, released in 2014, the band offers a survey of classic ’70s and ’80s rock—proto-punk, punk rock proper, power pop, arena-ready hard rock. You can hear echoes of the Ramones, Kiss, the Runaways, Patti
Smith, the Dictators, Sonic Youth, and Cheap Trick in the Burns’ hard-charging, melodic riff rock. A cover of the Shangri-Las’ deep cut “Heaven Only Knows” gets a treatment that’s halfway between early Clash and Joan Jett. It’s so straightforward and accessible that it defies description beyond just “rock ’n’ roll.” 18 and up. • See Program Notes on page 18. AL SCORCH • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE THE EMPIRE STRIKES BRASS • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM THE BURNIN’ HERMANS • Preservation Pub • 10PM THE MERRY JAYNZ • The Birdhouse • 7:30PM OLIVIA LANE • Wild Wing Cafe • 10PM • Garnering media attention for her effervescent personality and
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CALENDAR
Thursday, June 16 - Sunday, June 26
PRIDEFEST World’s Fair Park • Saturday, June 18 • noon-8 p.m. • Free • knoxvillepridefest.org
Knoxville’s annual celebration of LGBTQ pride takes on extra significance this year—probably more than any single civic observance should have to bear. Knoxville’s long-running PrideFest has, in recent years, started to seem like evidence of almost universal acceptance for East Tennessee’s gay community. But the mass murder of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando, Fla., last weekend is a shocking reminder that there’s still a long way to go. So count on PrideFest to be more complicated than usual this weekend. The mood is bound to be weighted with grief, reflection, worry, and political and moral outrage. But don’t feel bad about having fun, either—celebrating freedom is part of the fight against fear and oppression. Beer and dancing won’t change what happened in Florida (or the reactionary fears running rampant in state legislatures), but we can use this weekend to honor the people who died there Sunday morning and declare that violence won’t win. It’s been a long time since a pride celebration in Knoxville felt as openly political as this one will be. As usual, PrideFest starts at 11 a.m. with the Pride Parade, running from the 100 block of Gay Street to World’s Fair Park. The festival proper includes food and drinks, vendors, information booths, and thousands of people. (There will also be expanded security from the Knoxville Police Department.) And there’s a full day of entertainment planned, featuring Knoxville Opera, the Knoxville Gay Men’s Chorus, the pop-rock duo God Des and She, Britney Spears impersonator Derrick Barry, Miss Gay American 2010 Coco Montrese, local ’80s cover band the Pop Rox, and the country singer Chely Wright. (Matthew Everett)
26
Spotlight: Silversun Pickups
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7:30
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Thursday, June 23 SNAKE BLOOD REMEDY WITH GRANDPA’S COUGH MEDICINE • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE DOUG AND DOUG • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 6PM JAMES AND EMMA • Regal Cinemas Pinnacle Stadium 18 in Turkey Creek • 6:30PM • Part of the Sounds of Summer concert series. • FREE THE JAKOB’S FERRY STRAGGLERS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • The Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers draw freely from old-time, bluegrass, country, jazz, rockabilly and swing styles to create their tight, high-energy string band music. • FREE ENSEMBLE SWING TIME • Market Square • 7PM • Come swing the night away with this 16-piece big band featuring original arrangements made famous by Glenn Miller, Harry James, the Dorsey Brothers and other great bands from the Swing Era. • FREE STEVE KAUFMAN ACOUSTIC KAMPS CONCERT SERIES • Maryville College • 7PM • In conjunction with his annual
SEASON SUBSCRIPTIONS
OCTOBER / 7 / 2016 THE NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND 50TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR
HAVANA CUBA ALL-STARS
OCTOBER / 13 / 2016
7:30
PM
PM
7:30
DECEMBER / 2 / 2016 THE HOT SARDINES HOLIDAY STOMP
ONCE
JANUARY / 11 / 2017
7:00
PM
PM
7:30
JANUARY / 21 / 2017 ERTH’S DINOSAUR ZOO LIVE
CHEERS LIVE ON STAGE
FEBRUARY / 4 / 2017
7:30
PM
7:30
FEBRUARY / 7 / 2017
KORESH DANCE: 25TH ANNIVERSARY: CLASSIC KORESH
7:30
MARCH / 3 / 2017
THE FIVE IRISH TENORS “A SALUTE TO IRELAND”
7:30
PM
Tuesday, June 21 JOSH FIELD WITH WILL PAYNE HARRISON • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE IRENE KELLY • Wild Wing Cafe • 5:30PM • FREE STEVE KAUFMAN ACOUSTIC KAMPS CONCERT SERIES • Maryville College • 7PM • In conjunction with his annual summer camps for guitarists, fiddlers, and other acoustic musicians, award-winning guitarist Steve Kaufman hosts two weeks of concerts at Maryville College’s newly refurbished Alumni Gym. The lineup includes Kaufman, Cary Fridley, April Verch, Mike Dowling, Clint Mullcan, and more than a dozen other musicians. June 13-24. Visit flatpik.com for more info. • $15 EVERY TIME I DIE WITH THE BAD DUDES, THE CREATURES IN SECRET, AND FAULT LINES • The Concourse • 7:30PM • Every Time I Die have never been an easy act to categorize and that’s one of the key reasons why the band’s fans have never turned their back on this innovative act’s unique brand of music. While the band
STEFANI REEDER WITH THE DEER • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 6:30PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE TENNESSEE SHINES: THE DUPONT BROTHERS • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7PM • Nimble finger-style guitar work and snug harmonies make Burlington, Vermont’s The DuPont Brothers a remarkable discovery for listeners. • $10 STEVE KAUFMAN ACOUSTIC KAMPS CONCERT SERIES • Maryville College • 7PM • In conjunction with his annual summer camps for guitarists, fiddlers, and other acoustic musicians, award-winning guitarist Steve Kaufman hosts two weeks of concerts at Maryville College’s newly refurbished Alumni Gym. The lineup includes Kaufman, Cary Fridley, April Verch, Mike Dowling, Clint Mullcan, and more than a dozen other musicians. June 13-24. Visit flatpik.com for more info. • $15 THE HUNTER SMITH TRIO • The Bistro at the Bijou • 7PM • Live jazz. • FREE AL SCORCH • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • Balanced on wedges of punk, old-time string band, American and European folk, and soulful balladry, Al is an entertainer, road warrior, storyteller, and one helluva musician. His second album and Bloodshot debut Circle Round the Signs is built on a sonic framework sharing an intersection with the Bad Livers’ lawless next-gen take on traditional country & bluegrass, and Black Flag’s burn-it-all-down revolt and breakneck tempos. • FREE THE ZAC FALLON PROJECT • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM GEORGIA FLOOD WITH THE DEER • Preservation Pub • 8PM JOE THE SHOW • Wild Wing Cafe • 8:30PM • FREE PERE UBU WITH OBNOX • Pilot Light • 9PM • 18 and up. • $25 • See story on page 20.
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Monday, June 20 MONACO AND ALAMEDA WITH THE WOODSHEEP • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-aweek lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE VIENNA COFFEE HOUSE JAZZ TRIO • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 5PM • Every Monday. Visit viennacoffeehouse.net. • FREE STEVE KAUFMAN ACOUSTIC KAMPS CONCERT SERIES • Maryville College • 7PM • In conjunction with his annual summer camps for guitarists, fiddlers, and other acoustic musicians, award-winning guitarist Steve Kaufman hosts two weeks of concerts at Maryville College’s newly refurbished Alumni Gym. The lineup includes Kaufman, Cary Fridley, April Verch, Mike Dowling, Clint Mullcan, and more than a dozen other musicians. June 13-24. Visit flatpik.com for more info. • $15 CONTINENTAL • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Continental plays a unique blend of rock that draws influences from punk, country, folk, and blues. MONACO AND ALAMEDA • Preservation Pub • 10PM • Denver-based folk. 21 and up. BEN SHUSTER • Wild Wing Cafe • 10PM • FREE
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Sunday, June 19 SHIFFLETT’S JAZZ BENEDICT • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 12:45PM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE JORDAN SMITH • Bijou Theatre • 7:30PM • Jordan Smith is a Republic Records recording artist from Harlan, Ky., and winner of season nine of NBC’s The Voice. • $27-$32 KUKULY AND THE GYPSY FUEGO • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM SNAKE BLOOD REMEDY • Preservation Pub • 10PM KATY FREE • Red Piano Lounge • 4PM • Free celebrates the release of her first CD, Fine Day. J. LUKE • Wild Wing Cafe • 6PM • FREE
started out in the late ’90s hardcore scene, over the past FIND US ClaytonArtsCenter.com LIKE US decade they’ve continued to evolve and push the FOLLOW US boundaries of heavy music, a process that’s culminating with their sixth full-length Ex Lives. All ages. • $17-$20 SILVERSUN PICKUPS WITH BEAR HANDS • The Mill and 2016-2017 SEASON Mine • 8PM • $25-$28 • See Spotlight on page 26. MARBLE CITY 5 • Market Square • 8PM • Live jazz every Tuesday from May 3-Aug. 30. • FREE MR. F • Preservation Pub • 10PM 7:30 SEPTEMBER / 16 / 2016 Wednesday, June 22
APRIL / 6 / 2017
THE WALNUT THEATRE PRESENTS "LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS" BY NEIL SIMON
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powerhouse vocals, Lane is currently featured on iTunes Country New Artist Spotlight and has been selected as an Entertainment Weekly “Breaking Big” artist, one of Rolling Stone Country’s “10 New Country Artists You Need To Know,” and for CMT’s Listen Up Music Discovery Program. • FREE
MAY / 13 / 2017 THE HILLBENDERS PRESENT THE WHO’S TOMMY: A BLUEGRASS OPRY
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 23
CALENDAR summer camps for guitarists, fiddlers, and other acoustic musicians, award-winning guitarist Steve Kaufman hosts two weeks of concerts at Maryville College’s newly refurbished Alumni Gym. The lineup includes Kaufman, Cary Fridley, April Verch, Mike Dowling, Clint Mullcan, and more than a dozen other musicians. June 13-24. Visit flatpik.com for more info. • $15 PINK FLOYD LASER SPECTACULAR • The International • 8PM • Al ages. • $19.99-$24.99 BOBBY LONG • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • New York-based British singer-songwriter Bobby Long will be playing in Knoxville (for the first time) in support of his CD release, “Ode to Thinking” from Compass Records. KEVIN ABERNATHY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM ANDI AND SHANE • Wild Wing Cafe • 8:30PM • FREE LOVE AND THEFT WITH SAMMY ARRIAGA • Cotton Eyed Joe • 9PM • “We wanted to show a different side and make a record that sounds like us,” Stephen Barker Liles says of Love and Theft’s boundary-pushing new album Whiskey On My Breath. “Country music has always been about honest performances and songs that mean something, and that’s the kind of record that we wanted to make.” .18 and up. • FREE DYLAN LEBLANC • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Overwhelmed by the speed his gift would take him, from Applebee’s server to “the new Neil Young” in a matter of months, he walked away from an unlikely major label deal after releasing two critically acclaimed albums. He slipped into a blur of booze and self-doubt. Exhausted and damaged at just 23-years-old, Dylan came home to
Thursday, June 16 - Sunday, June 26
Muscle Shoals, Alabama to write a new life for himself. In between the moments of clarity and a few familiar falls, he also wrote a new album, Cautionary Tale: a collection of shimmering, arresting songs with the same haunting vocals that caught the attention of Lucinda Williams and Bruce Springsteen, now with a sharpened edge honed by hastened maturity. FRAZIERBAND • Preservation Pub • 10PM Friday, June 24 DALE WATSON WITH DANIEL CHAMPAGNE • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE ALIVE AFTER FIVE: LEFTFOOT DAVE AND THE MAGIC HATS • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • Classically trained “Leftfoot” Dave Overall heads up a five-member band that plays a musical gumbo of blues with a dollop of R&B, a splash of funk, and a pinch of Cajun. • $5-$10 BENDER • Wild Wing Cafe • 6PM • FREE GRANDPA’S COUGH MEDICINE WITH SNAKE BLOOD REMEDY • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • Blazing tempos, outlaw attitude, foot-stomping intensity, acoustic wizardry. These things all accurately describe Grandpa’s Cough Medicine’s tongue in cheek approach to bluegrass music. • FREE THE SPARKLE MOTION BAND • Last Days of Autumn Brewery • 7PM STEVE KAUFMAN ACOUSTIC KAMPS CONCERT SERIES • Maryville College • 7PM • In conjunction with his annual
summer camps for guitarists, fiddlers, and other acoustic musicians, award-winning guitarist Steve Kaufman hosts two weeks of concerts at Maryville College’s newly refurbished Alumni Gym. The lineup includes Kaufman, Cary Fridley, April Verch, Mike Dowling, Clint Mullcan, and more than a dozen other musicians. June 13-24. Visit flatpik.com for more info. • $15 BRAD AUSTIN • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • FREE GREGG ALLMAN AND JAIMOE’S JASSZ BAND • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • Gregg Allman is one of the most-acclaimed and beloved icons in rock and roll history. As a founding member of the legendary Allman Brothers Band and in his own storied solo career, Allman has long been a gifted natural interpreter of the blues, his soulful and distinctive voice one of the defining sounds in the history of American music. • $47.50-$94.50 FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE HOT ACTION COP WITH INWARD OF EDEN, INDIE LAGONE, AND BELFAST 6 PACK • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • 18 and up. • $10-$15 NUTHIN’ FANCY • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM THE T. MICHAEL BRANNER CONCEPTET • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE VELVET KING WITH CHALKY AND THE SACRED • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM THE BARNYARD STOMPERS • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM SENRYU, MEOB, AND YUNG LIFE • Barley’s Taproom and
Pizzeria • 10PM THE APPLESEED COLLECTIVE • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • The Appleseed Collective is a four-piece Americana band that’s toured these United States since 2010, serving up songs new and old—barn-burners, old soul jazz, airy mood pieces, bluesy digressions—to crowds hungry for more. • FREE MAE BETH HARRIS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM THE MIKE SNODGRASS BAND • Wild Wing Cafe • 10PM • FREE THE CHARLES WALKER BAND • Preservation Pub • 10PM Saturday, June 25 MEADOW LARK MUSIC FESTIVAL • Ijams Nature Center • 12PM • A day of live music at Ijams Nature Center celebrating the harmony of nature and song. Proceeds benefit WDVX and Ijams Nature Center. Featuring music by Southern Culture on the Skids, Dale Watson, and many, many more. Visit ijams.org. • $20-$35 WENDEL WERNER WITH COLE GRAHAM AND A PAUPER’S PRAYER • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE LOVERBOY • Back Porch on the Creek • 7PM • Loverboy’s red leather pants, bandannas, and big rock sound defined the band’s trademark image and high-energy live show. • $22-$43 JORDAN BENNETT • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • FREE
SKEE BALL TOURNEY! FUNDRAISER FOR WUTK!
WITH EMCEES ROB & DEREK FROM THE FUNHOUSE
PRESENTED BY
®
ThurSDAY, June 16 @ SUTREE’S registration 5pm-6pm - Tourney starts at 6
Teams of two - $10 entry fee all proceeds benefit WUTK! Great prizes for Final 4 teams - Raffle prizes for all
www.TennesseeTheatre.com Streaming 24.7.365 at WUTKRADIO.COM 24
KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 16, 2016
Thursday, June 16 - Sunday, June 26
OUTLAW RITUAL • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • Outlaw Ritual is a three-piece rock ‘n’ roll band that blends a cocktail of blues, country-billy and a twist of punk. It has been said that Hasil Adkins would be proud of these folks blending the street sounds of Brooklyn with the lonesome call of the Deep South. • FREE KISHI BASHI WITH TALL TALL TREES • The Concourse • 9PM • Having collaborated and toured with indie strangelings of Montreal, Regina Spektor, and Sondre Lerche, singer, violinist, and composer, K Ishibashi (aka Kishi Bashi), embarks on a epic orchestral solo project. His solo live show is a dazzling array of looping and vocal/violin gymnastics. K is also singer of the NYC synth rock band Jupiter One. 18 and up. • $12-$15 SOUTHBOUND • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM MARK BOLING • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE LEFTFOOT DAVE AND THE MAGIC HATS • Brackins Blues Club ( Maryville) • 9PM THE ACCOMPLICES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM THE BEARDED • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE JAKE DECKER • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM PURPLE MASQUERADE • Wild Wing Cafe • 10PM • A tribute to Prince. • FREE GIMME HENDRIX • Preservation Pub • 10PM THE BARNYARD STOMPERS WITH THE BARSTOOL DUO • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM Sunday, June 26 SHIFFLETT’S JAZZ BENEDICT • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 12:45PM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE THE STELLA VEES • Star of Knoxville Riverboat • 4PM • Come join the Smoky Mountain Blues Society as they present some of the best known regional Blues Music artists performing on specialty cruises on the Tennessee River. From April through October, blues lovers will convene to celebrate this truly American art-form during a 3 hour Sunday afternoon cruise on the Star of Knoxville Tennessee Riverboat. Visit smokymountainblues.org. • $16-$20 J. LUKE • Wild Wing Cafe • 6PM • FREE PAT BAKER • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM EVAN STONE • Preservation Pub • 10PM
OPEN MIC AND SONGWRITER NIGHTS
Thursday, June 16 VIENNA COFFEE HOUSE OPEN MIC NIGHT • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • Visit viennacoffeehouse.net. • FREE IRISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. • FREE Saturday, June 18 OLD-TIME SLOW JAM • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 4PM • A monthly old-time music session, held on the third Saturday of each month. • FREE Sunday, June 19 FAMILY FRIENDLY DRUM CIRCLE • Ijams Nature Center • 3:30PM • Drumming for kids of all ages on the third Sunday of the month. Bring a drum or share one of ours. Bring a blanket or chair. Open to drummers of all ages
CALENDAR
and levels. Free and fun. • FREE
Doc Isaac, plus Ho-Tron Beatz from Asheville. • $15-$25
Tuesday, June 21 PRESERVATION PUB SINGER/SONGWRITER NIGHT • Preservation Pub • 7PM OLD-TIME JAM SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Hosted by Sarah Pickle. • FREE
Sunday, June 26 LAYOVER SUNDAY BRUNCH • The Concourse • 12PM • Enjoy good eats, refreshing libations, and the most appropriate afternoon tunage in the company of this city’s most dedicated loafers. We’ll be serving our normal brunch in all it’s glory, courtesy of Localmotive. Musical accompaniment by the likes of Slow Nasty, Psychonaut, and a rotating list of special guests. All ages. • FREE
Wednesday, June 22 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OLD-TIME JAM • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Regular speed old-time/fiddle jam every Wednesday. All instruments and skill levels welcome. BRACKINS BLUES JAM • Brackins Blues Club ( Maryville) • 9PM • A weekly open session hosted by Tommie John. • FREE ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC NIGHT • Asia Cafe West • 7PM • Bring an acoustic guitar and a few songs every Wednesday. Sign-up sheet available 30 minutes prior to 7 p.m. start. Three songs or 10 minutes per performer. • FREE Thursday, June 23 VIENNA COFFEE HOUSE OPEN MIC NIGHT • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • Visit viennacoffeehouse.net. • FREE SCOTTISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. • FREE Friday, June 24 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OPEN SONGWRITER NIGHT • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Songwriter Night at Time Warp Tea Room runs on the second and fourth Friday of every month. Show up around 7 p.m. with your instrument in tow and sign up to share a couple of original songs with a community of friends down in Happy Holler. • FREE
DJ AND DANCE NIGHTS
Friday, June 17 HOUSE IS WHERE THE HEART IS • The Concourse • 7:30PM • A monthly community-oriented event consisting of yoga, flow, dance, and play, with music by Gregory Alan Tarrants and J Mo and yoga by Meryl Kerns. • FREE Saturday, June 18 TEMPLE DANCE NIGHT • The Concourse • 9PM • Knoxville’s long-running alternative once night. 18 and up. • $5 Sunday, June 19 LAYOVER SUNDAY BRUNCH • The Concourse • 12PM • Enjoy good eats, refreshing libations, and the most appropriate afternoon tunage in the company of this city’s most dedicated loafers. We’ll be serving our normal brunch in all it’s glory, courtesy of Localmotive. Musical accompaniment by the likes of Slow Nasty, Psychonaut, and a rotating list of special guests. All ages. • FREE Saturday, June 25 THE COSPLAY RIVER PARTY • Star of Knoxville Riverboat • 10PM • The Fanboy Expo is in town the weekend of June 24-26, so we’re gonna do what we do best...throw a party. Dress up as your favorite comic book character, as your favorite video game character, or just dress up as whatever you want and prepare for the best people-watching ever.For this event we’ve got an eccentric and diverse lineup for you. So far on the bill are some insanely talented Knoxville artists such as One Hour Photo, The Gutter Blossoms, East Towards Macedonia, and
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Thursday, June 16-Sunday, June 19 NIEF-NORF SUMMER FESTIVAL • University of Tennessee • The nief-norf Summer Festival (nnSF) is an interdisciplinary summer music festival, bringing together dozens of performers, composers, and scholars to collaborate on the performance, creation, and discussion of contemporary solo and chamber music. The nnSF offers an intensive think-tank environment and presents inspiring and devoted performances of modern music, aiming to encourage both appreciation and support for live music and contemporary art. Through June 20. Visit niefnorf.org for a schedule and more information. Sunday, June 26 RYAN FORD AND ELIZABETH VAUGHN • St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral • 1PM • Ryan Ford, tenor, and Elizabeth Vaughn, piano will perform art songs. • FREE
THEATER AND DANCE
Thursday, June 16 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • Poor Charlie Bucket finds a Golden Ticket in his Wonka Chocolate Bar, sending him and his Grandpa on a magical tour of Willy Wonka’s renowned chocolate factory. One by one, the other children on the tour break the rules, but if Charlie survives the journey, he may find an even greater reward. June 10-26. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: ‘PIRATES OF PENZANCE’ • Carousel Theatre • 7:30PM • The 2016 collaboration between the Tennessee Valley Players and the University of Tennessee School of Music Choral Area is Gilbert and Sullivan’s farce of sentimental pirates, bumbling policemen, dim-witted young lovers, and an eccentric major general. June 10-26. Visit tennesseevalleyplayers. org. • $20 Friday, June 17 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • June 10-26. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: ‘PIRATES OF PENZANCE’ • Carousel Theatre • 7:30PM • June 10-26. Visit tennesseevalleyplayers.org. • $20 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: ‘LEADING LADIES’ • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8PM • In this hilarious comedy by the author of Lend Me A Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo, two English Shakespearean actors, Jack and Leo, find themselves so down on their luck that they are performing “Scenes from Shakespeare” on the Moose Lodge circuit in the Amish country of Pennsylvania. When they hear that an old lady in York, Pennsylvania, is about to die and leave her fortune to her two long lost English nephews, they resolve to pass themselves off as her June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 25
CALENDAR beloved relatives and get the cash. June 3-19. Visit theatreknoxville.com. • $13-$15 ENCORE THEATRICAL COMPANY: ‘FOLLIES’ • Walters State Community College • 8PM • The time is 1971, and theatrical impresario Dimitri Weissmann hosts a reunion of ex-Follies performers in his crumbling theatre, setting the stage for a parade of brilliant pastiche numbers, including “Losing My Mind,” “I’m Still Here,” and “Broadway Baby.” Amid the reminiscing, two middle-aged couples confront some unpleasant truths about their past and present, and come face to face with the future. A true theatrical event, this legendary masterpiece is considered by many to be the greatest musical ever created. June 10-26. Visit encoretheatricalcompany.com. Saturday, June 18 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM and 5PM • June 10-26. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre. com. • $12 TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: ‘PIRATES OF PENZANCE’ • Carousel Theatre • 7:30PM • June 10-26. Visit tennesseevalleyplayers.org. • $20 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: ‘LEADING LADIES’ •
Thursday, June 16 - Sunday, June 26
TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: ‘PIRATES OF PENZANCE’ • Carousel Theatre • 7:30PM • June 10-26. Visit tennesseevalleyplayers.org. • $20
Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8PM • June 3-19. Visit theatreknoxville.com. • $13-$15 ENCORE THEATRICAL COMPANY: ‘FOLLIES’ • Walters State Community College • 8PM • June 10-26. Visit encoretheatricalcompany.com.
Friday, June 24 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • June 10-26. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: ‘PIRATES OF PENZANCE’ • Carousel Theatre • 7:30PM • June 10-26. Visit tennesseevalleyplayers.org. • $20 ENCORE THEATRICAL COMPANY: ‘FOLLIES’ • Walters State Community College • 8PM • June 10-26. Visit encoretheatricalcompany.com.
Sunday, June 19 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 3PM • June 10-26. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 ENCORE THEATRICAL COMPANY: ‘FOLLIES’ • Walters State Community College • 2PM • June 10-26. Visit encoretheatricalcompany.com. THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: ‘LEADING LADIES’ • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 3PM • June 3-19. Visit theatreknoxville.com. • $13-$15 TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: ‘PIRATES OF PENZANCE’ • Carousel Theatre • 3PM • June 10-26. Visit tennesseevalleyplayers.org. • $20
Saturday, June 25 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM and 5PM • June 10-26. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre. com. • $12 TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: ‘PIRATES OF PENZANCE’ • Carousel Theatre • 7:30PM • June 10-26. Visit tennesseevalleyplayers.org. • $20 ENCORE THEATRICAL COMPANY: ‘FOLLIES’ • Walters State Community College • 8PM • June 10-26. Visit encoretheatricalcompany.com.
Thursday, June 23 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • June 10-26. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12
Sunday, June 26 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 3PM • June 10-26. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 ENCORE THEATRICAL COMPANY: ‘FOLLIES’ • Walters State Community College • 2PM • June 10-26. Visit encoretheatricalcompany.com. TENNESSEE VALLEY PLAYERS: ‘PIRATES OF PENZANCE’ • Carousel Theatre • 3PM • June 10-26. Visit tennesseevalleyplayers.org. • $20 Photo by Rebekkah Drake
SILVERSUN PICKUPS The Mill and Mine (227 W. Depot Ave.) • Tuesday, June 21 • 8 p.m. • $25 • 18 and up • themillandmine.com or silversunpickups.com
Every three years, Silversun Pickups unleash a fresh batch of shoegaze-y rock, refining their approach with only subtle tweaks. A decade after their debut album, Brian Aubert’s nasally yelp and psychedelic guitar remain the quartet’s signature elements, still evoking a slicker version of Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins. The band took their most substantial leap with their fourth album, last year’s Better Nature. Working with major-league rock producer Jacknife Lee (U2, R.E.M.), Aubert and company augmented their signature bombast with programmed beats and cushy New Wave synths—a risky but noble attempt to keep their music fresh. Silversun Pickups will bring arena-sized expansiveness to the Mill and Mine’s intimate club atmosphere, marking the venue’s second official concert following pop-rock act Haim earlier this month. Experimental indie-rock band Bear Hands, which released its third album, You’ll Pay for This, in April—will open the show. (Ryan Reed)
26
KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 16, 2016
COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD
Thursday, June 16 THIRD THURSDAY COMEDY OPEN MIC • Big Fatty’s Catering Kitchen • 7:30PM • We will showcase local and touring talent in a curated open mic of 6 to 8 comics. The event starts at 7:30, and there is no charge for admission. The kitchen will be open as well as their full bar. • FREE Friday, June 17 THE FIFTH WOMAN POETRY SLAM • The Birdhouse • 6:30PM • The 5th Woman Poetry slam is place where all poets can come and share their words of love, respect, passion, and expression. It is not dedicated solely women but is a place where women poets are celebrated and honored. Check out our Facebook pages for the challenge of the month and focus for our poetry every month. Saturday, June 18 MARBLE CITY PERFORMANCE COMPANY: ‘TEASE … IF YOU PLEASE’ • The Bowery • 9:30PM • A varieté showcase with a bit of burlesque. Visit marblecityperformers.com. • $10 Sunday, June 19 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic. Monday, June 20 QED COMEDY LABORATORY • Pilot Light • 7:30PM • QED ComedyLaboratory is a weekly show with different theme
every week that combines stand-up, improv, sketch, music and other types of performance and features some of the funniest people in Knoxville and parts unknown. Free, but donations are accepted. • FREE Tuesday, June 21 EINSTEIN SIMPLIFIED • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • Einstein Simplified Comedy performs live comedy improv at Scruffy City Hall. It’s just like Whose Line Is It Anyway, but you get to make the suggestions. Show starts at 8:15, get there early for the best seats. No cover. • FREE OPEN MIC STAND-UP COMEDY • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM • Doors open at 8:30, first comic at 9. No cover charge, all are welcome. Aspiring or experienced comics interested in joining in the fun email us at long branch.info@gmail. com to learn more, or simply come to the show a few minutes early. • FREE Wednesday, June 22 FULL DISCLOSURE COMEDY • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Full Disclosure Comedy is Knoxville’s long-form improvisational troupe, bringing together community members for laughs and overall general merriment. Thursday, June 23 SUGAR HIGH! COMEDY SHOW • Sugar Mama’s Bakery • 8PM • A new comedy showcase at the brand new home of Sugar Mama’s on the 100 block. No cover. • FREE Sunday, June 26 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic. BRIAN REGAN • Tennessee Theatre • 7PM • Brian Regan has distinguished himself as one of the premier comedians in the country. The perfect balance of sophisticated writing and physicality, Brian fills theaters nationwide with fervent fans that span generations. • $48.50 COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD • June 26 • Upstairs Underground Comedy • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic.
FESTIVALS
Thursday, June 16 RAMADAN COMMUNITY IFTAR • Knoxville Botanical Garden • 8PM • The Muslim community of Knoxville requests the honor of your presence at our sixth annual Ramadan Iftar, a traditional fast-breaking dinner, with honored guest and keynote speaker, Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero. • $20 Saturday, June 18 KARM DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL • Concord Park • 8AM • At the KARM Dragon Boat Festival paddlers commit to raise pledges to support the many life-saving programs that KARM offers to the homeless in Knoxville. • FREE WE LOVE DISTRICT 1 DAY • Knoxville Botanical Garden • 12PM • Join us for a free, family-friendly event open to the public to encourage residents to take notice of all the wondrous happenings in East Knoxville-District 1. Organized by local resident and activist Michael Covington, We Love District 1 Day aims to pay tribute to District 1’s historic venues and tourist attractions with informational booths, fun activities for all ages, entertainment and more. • FREE LAVENDER FESTIVAL • Historic Jackson Square (Oak Ridge) • 8AM • Celebrating the “Herb of the Year,” artisan crafts, local foods, live music and more, the Lavender Festival is
CALENDAR located in the beautifully renovated Jackson Square, which now features a fountain and pleasant sitting area in the center. For a complete list of vendors and more information about the Lavender Festival, please visit www.JacksonSquareLavenderFestival.org. • FREE KNOXVILLE PRIDEFEST • World’s Fair Park • 11AM • Knoxville’s PrideFest is an open celebration of music, entertainment and speakers focused on promoting equality and inclusion of all people. Featuring entertainment by Cheryl Wright, Pop Rox, Coco Montrese, Derrick Barry, God Des & She, Knoxville Gay Men’s Chorus, and Knoxville Opera.The annual PrideFest parade returns this year alongside the festival. Trophies will be awarded to the top three floats which use the festival’s theme of Love Won. Visit knoxvillepridefest.org. • FREE KNOXVILLE BREWFEST 2016 • Downtown Knoxville • 4PM • Breweries, beer and enthusiasts from all over will gather for a Summer afternoon sampling fresh beers of all colors, styles and flavors. Knoxville Brewfest will be held outdoors near the historic Southern Railway Terminal on Depot Avenue, Knoxville, Tennessee. • $50 Thursday, June 23 KUUMBA FESTIVAL 2016 • Now in its 27th year, Kuumba Fest brings African culture to the heart of Knoxville with a variety of activities. Visit kuumbafestival.com. Friday, June 24 KUUMBA FESTIVAL 2016 • Now in its 27th year, Kuumba Fest brings African culture to the heart of Knoxville with a variety of activities. Visit kuumbafestival.com. HOPS IN THE HILLS • Now in its second year, Maryville’s celebration of fermentation brings together over 20 local breweries and live music in the scenic gateway to the Smoky Mountains. 21 and up. Visit hopsinthehills.com. • $10-$80 FANBOY EXPO • Knoxville Convention Center • 12PM • Featuring appearances by William Shatner, Ric Flair, Neal Adams, and dozens of other film, TV, and comics guests. Visit fanboyexpo.com. • $17-$50 Saturday, June 25 KUUMBA FESTIVAL 2016 • Now in its 27th year, Kuumba Fest brings African culture to the heart of Knoxville with a variety of activities. Visit kuumbafestival.com. HOPS IN THE HILLS • Now in its second year, Maryville’s celebration of fermentation brings together over 20 local breweries and live music in the scenic gateway to the Smoky Mountains. 21 and up. Visit hopsinthehills.com. • $10-$80 FANBOY EXPO • Knoxville Convention Center • 10AM • Featuring appearances by William Shatner, Ric Flair, Neal Adams, and dozens of other film, TV, and comics guests. Visit fanboyexpo.com. • $17-$50 MEADOW LARK MUSIC FESTIVAL • Ijams Nature Center • 12PM • A day of live music at Ijams Nature Center celebrating the harmony of nature and song. Proceeds benefit WDVX and Ijams Nature Center. Featuring music by Southern Culture on the Skids, Dale Watson, and many, many more. Visit ijams.org. • $20-$35 Sunday, June 26 KUUMBA FESTIVAL 2016 • Now in its 27th year, Kuumba Fest brings African culture to the heart of Knoxville with a variety of activities. Visit kuumbafestival.com. FANBOY EXPO • Knoxville Convention Center • 11AM • Featuring appearances by William Shatner, Ric Flair, Neal Adams, and dozens of other film, TV, and comics guests. Visit fanboyexpo.com. • $17-$50
FILM SCREENINGS
Monday, June 20 THE BIRDHOUSE WALK-IN THEATER • The Birdhouse • 8:15PM • A weekly free movie screening. • FREE MONDAY MOVIE MADNESS • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM • Campy horror, thrillers, and more every week. Plus beer! • FREE FANTASTICK! FILMS SUMMER SERIES • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 7PM • Join us on select Mondays this summer for local films and filmmaker Q&A and discussions and a featured nationally or internationally acclaimed film. Features include John Legend’s Can You Dig This? (May 23), More Than Honey, directed by Markus Imhoof (June 6), and Genevieve Bailey’s documentary I Am Eleven (June 20). • $10 Tuesday, June 21 TWIN PEAKS VIEWING PARTY • The Birdhouse • 7PM • Bi-weekly viewing parties for every single episode of the cult TV series. Attendees encouraged to dress as their favorite characters. Trivia, Twin Peaks-themed giveaways, donuts and coffee, plus some surprises. Trivia begins at 7:00pm with viewing to follow at 8:00pm. • FREE Thursday, June 23 NOKNO CINEMATHEQUE: ‘STRANGER THAN FICTION’ • Central Collective • 8PM • An IRS auditor (Will Ferrell) suddenly finds himself the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire life, from his work, to his love-interest, to his death. • FREE
SPORTS AND RECREATION
Thursday, June 16 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES THURSDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10AM • Join Cycology Bicycles every Thursday morning for a road ride with two group options. A Group does a 2 to 3 hour ride at 20+ pace; B group does an intermediate ride at 15/18 mph average. Weather permitting. cycologybicycles.com. • FREE FLEET FEET GROUP RUN/WALK • Fleet Feet Sports Knoxville • 6PM • Join us every Thursday night at our store for a fun group run/walk. We have all levels come out, so no matter what your speed you’ll have someone to keep you company. Our 30 - 60 minute route varies week by week in the various neighborhoods and greenways around the store, so be sure to show up on time so you can join up with the group. All levels welcome.fleetfeetknoxville.com. • FREE NORTH KNOXVILLE BEER RUNNERS • Central Flats and Taps • 6PM • Meet us at Central Flats and Taps every Thursday night for a fun and easy run leading us right through Saw Works for a midway beer. • FREE RIVER SPORTS THURSDAY EVENING GREENWAY BIKE RIDE • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Every Thursday night from 6 to 7:30 join River Sports Outfitters on an easy paced, beginner friendly Greenway Ride. Bring your own bike or rent one for $15. Lights are mandatory on your bikes from September through March. After ride join us at the store for $2 pints. riversportsoutfitters.com/events. • FREE KNOXVILLE BICYCLE COMPANY THURSDAY GRAVEL GRINDER • North Boundary Trails • 6:30PM • Join Knoxville Bicycle Company every Thursday evening for their gravel grinder. Meets at 6:30 pm at North Boundary in Oak Ridge, park at the guard shack. Cross bikes and hardtails are perfect. June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 27
CALENDAR Bring lights. Regroups as necessary. Call shop for more details. Weather permitting - call the store if weather is questionable. knoxvillebicycleco.com. • CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES THURSDAY GREENWAY RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:30PM • Join us every Thursday evening for a greenway ride at an intermediate pace of 14-15 mph. Must have lights. Weather permitting. cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE Friday, June 17 RIVER SPORTS FRIDAY NIGHT GREENWAY RUN • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Greenway run from the store every Friday evening from 6-7:30 pm. Work up a thirst then join us for $2 pints in the store afterwards. riversportsoutfitters.com. • FREE Saturday, June 18 UT ARBORETUM FATHER’S DAY HIKE • University of Tennessee Arboretum (Oak Ridge) • 8:30AM • Just two days before the first day of summer, this is a great occasion to get some outdoor exercise with your children of any age. Wear clothes appropriate to the weather and good shoes for outdoor walking. This is a free event, but we welcome donations to help support the UT Arboretum Society and its programs. To learn more about the Arboretum Society, go to www.utarboretumsociety.org. For more information on the program, call the Arboretum at 483-3571. • FREE KTC SHARPS RIDGE SCUTTLE TRAIL RACE • Sharps Ridge Memorial Park • 9AM • Sharps Ridge Memorial Park has some of the best views of the Knoxville skyline, just off of Broadway in North Knoxville. The Appalachian Mountain Bike Club is currently developing the trails at
Thursday, June 16 - Sunday, June 26
Sharps. When finished, the proposed trail system will have an estimated 8 miles of singletrack trail. But we’re going to throw a curve ball at trail runners with this first-time event. In an effort to attract more road runners to our sport, we’re making this a combination road/trail race. We’re planning on starting a little over a mile from the park, enough to stretch our legs on some fairly flat pavement, before hitting the relatively strenuous climbs up to the crest of the ridge. TENNESSEE ASSOCIATION OF VINTAGE BASE BALL • Historic Ramsey House • 12PM • Vintage base ball, played according to the rules and customs of 1864, returns to Tennessee for its fourth season, offering 55 regular season matches in 2016. • FREE Sunday, June 19 KNOXVILLE HARDCOURT BIKE POLO • Sam Duff Memorial Park • 1PM • Don’t know how to play? Just bring your bike — we have mallets to share and will teach you the game. • FREE SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: • Smoky Mountain Hiking Club • 1PM • Rich Mountain Trail to John Oliver Cabin and Ice Cream! We will park at the entrance to Cades Cove to walk the 2.8 roundtrip to the John Oliver cabin and back. Then we might take the short walk to the campground to walk the .8 mile Pine Oak Nature Trail loop. Finally, we just may have to take in some ice cream at the brand new store and gift shop. Hike: 3 to 4 miles, rated easy. Meet at Alcoa Food City, 121 North Hall Road, at 1:00 pm. Leader: Priscilla Clayton, sigmtngirl@earthlink.net • FREE Monday, June 20
KTC GROUP RUN • Mellow Mushroom • 6PM • Visit ktc.org. • FREE BEARDEN BEER MARKET FUN RUN • Bearden Beer Market • 6:30PM • Visit beardenbeermarket.com. • FREE TVB MONDAY NIGHT ROAD RIDE • Tennessee Valley Bikes • 6PM • The soon to be famous Monday night road ride happens every Monday. We usually split into two groups according to speed. Both groups are no-drop groups. The faster group averages over 17mph and the B group averages around 14mph. • FREE Tuesday, June 21 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES TUESDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10:30AM • cycologybicycles.com. • FREE HARD KNOX TUESDAY FUN RUN • Hard Knox Pizzeria • 6:30PM • Join Hard Knox Pizzeria every Tuesday evening (rain or shine) for a 2-3 mile fun run. Burn calories. Devour pizza. Quench thirst. Follow us on Facebook. • FREE CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES TUESDAY GREENWAY RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:30PM • cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE Wednesday, June 22 KTC GROUP RUN • Runner’s Market • 5:30PM • Visit ktc.org. • FREE FOUNTAIN CITY PEDALERS SHARPS RIDGE MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE • Fountain City Pedaler • 6PM • Visit fcpedaler.com. • FREE TVB EASY RIDER MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE • Ijams Nature Center • 6PM • On Wednesday nights we hit the local trails for an easy-paced mountain bike ride. Riders of all skill levels are welcome, and if you would like to demo a mountain bike from our shop this is a great opportunity to
do so. Rides are weather permitting. If the trails are too wet, we do not ride. Check out our Facebook page or give us a call at 865-540-9979 for more info. • FREE
ART
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts 556 Parkway (Gatlinburg) APRIL 27-JUNE 25: Arrowmont staff exhibit, featuring artwork by Jeda Barr, Nick DeFord, Kelly Sullivan, Vickie Bradshaw, Bill Griffith, Kelly Hider, Jennifer Blackburn, Ernie Schultz, Heather Ashworth, Laura Tuttle, Bob Biddlestone and Jason Burnett. MAY 21-AUG. 20: Arrowmont’s annual instructor exhibit. Art Market Gallery 422 S. Gay St. MAY 31-JUNE 26: Artwork by Pat Herzog and Diana Dee Sarkar. An opening reception will be held on Friday, June 3, at 5:30 p.m. Bliss Home 24 Market Square JUNE 3-30: Photography by Brian Murray. An opening reception will be held on Friday, June 3, from 6-9 p.m. Downtown Gallery 106 S. Gay St. JUNE 3-AUG. 19: Through the Lens of Ed Westcott, an exhibition of photos taken by the official photographer
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Downtown Dive
410 W. Jackson Ave., Knoxville (865) 281-1738
Thursday, June 16 - Sunday, June 26
for the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge. East Tennessee History Center 601 S. Gay St. APRIL 16-OCT. 30: Come to Make Records, a selection of artifacts, audio and video recordings, and photographs celebrating Knoxville’s music heritage and the 1929-30 St. James Hotel recording sessions. Emporium Center for Arts and Culture 100 S. Gay St. MAY 13-JUNE 27: Tennessee Watercolor Society 35th Biennial Exhibition. JUNE 3-24: Through Our Eyes, paintings by Kim Emert Gale and Janet Weaver; A Mosaic Journey, glass art by Judy Overholt Weaver; and the fourth annual Knoxville Photo Exhibition. Envision Art Gallery 4050 Sutherland Ave. JUNE 10-JULY 8: The Nature of Power, paintings by Marc H. Cline. Fountain City Art Center 213 Hotel Road MAY 20-JUNE 16: Fountain City Art Guild Spring Show and Sale. Knoxville Museum of Art 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive MAY 6-AUG. 7: Full Stop, a large-scale installation by painter Tom Burkhardt, and Contemporary Focus 2016, with artwork by installation/video/sound artist John Douglas Powers. ONGOING: Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in Tennessee; Currents: Recent Art From East Tennessee and Beyond; and Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive JUNE 4-AUG. 28: Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas. ONGOING: The Flora and Fauna of Catesby, Mason, and Audubon and Life on the Roman Frontier. Westminster Presbyterian Church 6500 S. Northshore Drive THROUGH JUNE 26: Artwork by Donna Conliffe and Ann Dally.
FAMILY AND KIDS’ EVENTS
Thursday, June 16 KIDS IN THE ARTS SUMMER CAMP • The Birdhouse • 10AM • A week-long event to enhance your child’s summer experience by deepening their appreciation and learning of various arts forms including writing, art, media arts, games, comedy improv, storytelling, meditation and movement and more. • $300 LITTLE LEARNERS • Blount County Public Library • 10:30AM • Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30 a.m., “Little Learners,” recommended for ages 3-5. Interactive sessions focus on language acquisition and pre-literacy skills incorporating stories, music, motion, play, crafts and more. • FREE CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 1PM • For middle and high school students, with coach Tom Jobe. • FREE LEGO CLUB • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • LEGO
CALENDAR
Club will take place in the children’s library. Kids will complete different-themed and timed LEGO Challenges, as well as have some time for free building. The library will provide the LEGOs, so all you have to bring is your imagination. • FREE Friday, June 17 KIDS IN THE ARTS SUMMER CAMP • The Birdhouse • 10AM • A week-long event to enhance your child’s summer experience by deepening their appreciation and learning of various arts forms including writing, art, media arts, games, comedy improv, storytelling, meditation and movement and more. • $300 A NIGHT AT THE MCCLUNG MUSEUM FAMILY SLEEPOVER • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 7PM • Join us for a Night at the McClung Museum–a family sleepover event and one-of-a-kind opportunity to spend the night with dinosaurs. Explore our “Dinosaur Discoveries” exhibit after hours, take a flashlight tour, and enjoy games, crafts, story time, and more. For children 5-11 with adult caregivers. Call 865-974-2144 for any other questions or to process payment over the phone.• $50 ETTAC FRIDAY FUNDAY • East Tennessee Technology Access Center • 9AM • For parents of children with and without disabilities, the East Tennessee Technology Access Center opens its doors to them during the summer through July on Fridays with lots of activities to keep them entertained and stimulated. For children age 5 to 10. Parents must register for all sessions by the Thursday before the session. Call (865) 219-0130 and press 3, email lorriec@ettac.org, or go to www.ettac.org. • $5 ETTAC BABIES AT PLAY • East Tennessee Technology Access Center • 1PM • For parents of children with and without disabilities, the East Tennessee Technology Access Center opens its doors to them during the summer through July on Fridays with lots of activities to keep them entertained and stimulated. Babies at Play, for newborns to age 5, will be held June 17 and July 15. This is an Early Intervention and Pre-Kindergarten play group. Parents must register for all sessions by the Thursday before the session. Call (865) 219-0130 and press 3, email lorriec@ettac.org, or go to www.ettac.org. • $5 S.T.E.A.M. KIDS • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • For grades K-5. Every week will be a different adventure, from science experiments to art projects and everything in between. Materials will be limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. • FREE Saturday, June 18 UT ARBORETUM FATHER’S DAY HIKE • University of Tennessee Arboretum (Oak Ridge) • 8:30AM • Just two days before the first day of summer, this is a great occasion to get some outdoor exercise with your children of any age. Wear clothes appropriate to the weather and good shoes for outdoor walking. This is a free event, but we welcome donations to help support the UT Arboretum Society and its programs. To learn more about the Arboretum Society, go to www.utarboretumsociety.org. For more information on the program, call the Arboretum at 483-3571. • FREE CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 10AM • For middle and high school students, with coach Tom Jobe. • FREE THE SCIENCE OF SPORT WITH MR. BOND • Blount County Public Library • 10:30AM • A hands-on science program about sports science where children can learn about hand-eye coordination experiments, lung capacity, Bernoulli’s principle, aerodynamics, balancing miracles,
sweet spot on rackets, aerodynamics and much more. Children can also make their own bouncy balls to take home. This event will take place in the Sharon Lawson Room. • FREE Monday, June 20 DIG IT! FUN WITH FOSSILS CAMP • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • For ages 9–11 (rising 4th, 5th, and 6th graders). June 20–24. For more details and registration information visit the Summer Camps page on our website: mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/ education/families/summer-camps/. • $110 Tuesday, June 21 LITTLE MASTERS CAMP • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 9AM • For ages 4–5. Art projects to take home, stories, and guided activities are inspired by the works in our exhibition of decorative arts. June 21–23. For more details and registration information visit the “Summer Camps” page on our website: mcclungmuseum. utk.edu/education/families/summer-camps/. • $35 LITTLE LEARNERS • Blount County Public Library • 10:30AM • Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30 a.m., “Little Learners,” recommended for ages 3-5. Interactive sessions focus on language acquisition and pre-literacy skills incorporating stories, music, motion, play, crafts and more. • FREE DIG IT! FUN WITH FOSSILS CAMP • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • For ages 9–11 (rising 4th, 5th, and 6th graders). June 20–24. For more details and registration information visit the Summer Camps page on our website: mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/ education/families/summer-camps/. • $110 Wednesday, June 22 LITTLE MASTERS CAMP • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 9AM • For ages 4–5. Art projects to take home, stories, and guided activities are inspired by the works in our exhibition of decorative arts. June 21–23. For more details and registration information visit the “Summer Camps” page on our website: mcclungmuseum. utk.edu/education/families/summer-camps/. • $35 BABY AND ME • Blount County Public Library • 10:30AM • Recommended for ages 2 and under. These lapsit sessions for baby and caregiver feature short stories, action rhymes, music and pre-literacy tips and tricks for caregivers. It is also a great time for caregivers and babies to socialize. • FREE DIG IT! FUN WITH FOSSILS CAMP • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • For ages 9–11 (rising 4th, 5th, and 6th graders). June 20–24. For more details and registration information visit the Summer Camps page on our website: mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/ education/families/summer-camps/. • $110 Thursday, June 23 LITTLE MASTERS CAMP • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 9AM • For ages 4–5. Art projects to take home, stories, and guided activities are inspired by the works in our exhibition of decorative arts. June 21–23. For more details and registration information visit the “Summer Camps” page on our website: mcclungmuseum. utk.edu/education/families/summer-camps/. • $35 LITTLE LEARNERS • Blount County Public Library • 10:30AM • Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30 a.m., “Little Learners,” recommended for ages 3-5. Interactive sessions focus on language acquisition and pre-literacy skills incorporating stories, music, motion, play, crafts and more. • FREE DIG IT! FUN WITH FOSSILS CAMP • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • For ages 9–11 (rising 4th, 5th, and 6th graders). June 20–24. For more details and registration information visit the Summer Camps
UPCOMING EVENTS BETHANY & THE SWING SERENADE
JUNE 17
AL SCORCH
JUNE 18
TENNESSEE SHINES PRESENTS:
THE DUPONT BROTHERS
JUNE 22
SPEYCIDE & COOKIES
JUNE 23
THE APPLESEED COLLECTIVE
JUNE 24
FULL EVENTS CALENDAR AT JIGANDREEL.COM 865-247-7066 June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 29
CALENDAR page on our website: mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/ education/families/summer-camps/. • $110 CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 1PM • For middle and high school students, with coach Tom Jobe. • FREE LEGO CLUB • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • LEGO Club will take place in the children’s library. Kids will complete different-themed and timed LEGO Challenges, as well as have some time for free building. The library will provide the LEGOs, so all you have to bring is your imagination. • FREE Friday, June 24 ETTAC FRIDAY FUNDAY • East Tennessee Technology Access Center • 9AM • For parents of children with and without disabilities, the East Tennessee Technology Access Center opens its doors to them during the summer through July on Fridays with lots of activities to keep them entertained and stimulated. For children age 5 to 10. Parents must register for all sessions by the Thursday before the session. Call (865) 219-0130 and press 3, email lorriec@ettac.org, or go to www.ettac.org. • $5 DIG IT! FUN WITH FOSSILS CAMP • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • For ages 9–11 (rising 4th, 5th, and 6th graders). June 20–24. For more details and registration information visit the Summer Camps page on our website: mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/ education/families/summer-camps/. • $110 S.T.E.A.M. KIDS • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • For grades K-5. Every week will be a different adventure,
Thursday, June 16 - Sunday, June 26
from science experiments to art projects and everything in between. Materials will be limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. • FREE Saturday, June 25 CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 10AM • For middle and high school students, with coach Tom Jobe. • FREE GARGANTUAN GAMING DAY • Blount County Public Library • 2PM • We are taking Teen Gaming day to the next level with bigger games and games that make you think outside the box. See if you can beat a world record on a “Minute to Win It” challenge, learn a new way to play Scrabble, challenge a friend to a game of Dance Dance Revolution, and more. Pizza and drinks will be provided to fuel your competitive side. Bring a friend and challenge each other. This event will take place in the Meeting Room Hallway as well as the Sharon Lawson Room. • FREE
LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS
Saturday, June 18 SUNDRESS ACADEMY FOR THE ARTS READING SERIES • Bar Marley • 1PM • Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA) is pleased to announce the SAFTA Reading Series event of June, featuring authors William Woolfitt, Clifford Garstang, and Lyric Dunagan. William Woolfitt is the
author of the poetry collections Beauty Strip (Texas Review Press, 2014) and Charles of the Desert (Paraclete Press, 2016). Clifford Garstang is the author of What the Zhang Boys Know (Press 53, 2012), which won the 2013 Library of Virginia Award for Fiction, and the prize-winning short story collection In an Uncharted Country (Press 53, 2009). Lyric Dunagan graduated last month with her MFA in poetry from the University of Tennessee. • FREE Sunday, June 19 BIRDHOUSE SUNDAY DINNER POTLUCK AND PRESENTATION: INDIGENOUS HISTORY IN EAST TENNESSEE • The Birdhouse • 6PM • Potluck dinner at 6 p.m., presentation and discussion at 7. Presentation by Julie Reed, UT Professor of Native American and U.S. history, on indigenous history of East Tennessee. Sunday dinner is always free and open to all. Please bring a dish to share— but if you are for some reason unable to contribute food, please just bring yourself, and share in our feast. Children are especially welcome here. • FREE Tuesday, June 21 JERRY ELLIS: ‘WALKING THE TRAIL’ • East Tennessee History Center • 5:30PM • Author Jerry Ellis will be speaking about his 900 mile walk along the Cherokee Trail of Tears as guest speaker for Historic Ramsey House Annual Meeting. • $20-$25 Wednesday, June 22 ANNETTE MENDOLA: ‘BEING MORTAL: MEDICINE AND WHAT MATTERS’ • East Tennessee History Center • 12PM • Join Dr. Annette Mendola, Director of Clinical Ethics, UT Medical
Business
Center, for a discussion of Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. Books Sandwiched In is a program series of Knox County Public Library. • FREE Thursday, June 23 JUNE 23 • Julia Franks: ‘Over the Plain Houses’ • Union Ave Books • 6PM • Book signing with Julia Franks, author of the novel Over the Plain Houses. • FREE Sunday, June 26 DINOSAURS IN THE MOVIES: FACT OR FICTION? • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 2PM • Good science fiction always includes some science and a variable amount of fiction. Join us as Dr. Stephanie Drumheller-Horton, UT vertebrate paleontologist, critiques some famous film dinosaurs as part of programming related to new special exhibition “Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas.” • FREE KEITH STEWART: ‘BERNADETTE PETERS HATES ME’ • Union Ave Books • 2PM • Book signing with Keith Stewart, author of a books of essays, Bernadette Peters Hates Me: True Tales of a Delusional Man. • FREE
CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS
Thursday, June 16 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021
Product awareness
Company goodwill
There’s never been a better time to “go public.” JUNE 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25 AT 8:00 PM JUNE 12, 19, 25, 26 AT 2:00 PM
WALTER STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOR TICKETS, VISIT WWW.ETCPLAYS.ORG OR CALL 423-318-8331 30
KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 16, 2016 WUOT_Ad_5.5x4.25_WhyWUOT_KnoxMerc.indd 1
9/7/15 9:52 AM
CALENDAR or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • This class is an hour of student-led training and review of Capoeira skills and exercises. Come prepared to sweat. Visit knoxvillecapoeira.org. • $10 THIRSTY (FOR KNOWLEDGE) THURSDAY • Old City Wine Bar • 6PM • Join our sommelier, Matt Burke, every Thursday in the cellar of the Old City Wine Bar for our ongoing wine education series. Free to listen and only $20 to partake in the libations. CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: KNIT YOUR WAY TO WELLNESS • Cancer Support Community • 1PM • Whether you are a novice knitter or an old pro, you are invited to bring your own project or join others in learning a new one. Special attention will be provided to beginners interested in learning how to knit and experience the meditative quality of knitting. Supplies provided. Call 865-546-4661. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. FIND YOUR PARK: THE OBED WILD AND SCENIC RIVER • REI • 7PM • Join National Park Service Rangers on to learn about recreational activities, programs, and volunteer opportunities at the Obed Wild and Scenic River. • FREE PORTRAIT AND LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS • Historic Candoro Marble Company • 12:30PM • Portrait and life drawing practice at Candoro Art & Heritage Center. $10. Call Brad Selph for more information (865-573-0709). • $10 Friday, June 17 LYRICS AND LITERATURE WEEKEND RETREAT • Authors, songwriters, and writers of all types are invited to attend the Lyrics and Literature Weekend Retreat in Townsend on June 17-19. All events, except where noted, will take place at the Heartland Chapel. The weekend will include readings from her series of books by NY Times Best Selling author, Dr. Lin Stepp, and a special concert will be presented by Karen E. Reynolds. Visit facebook.com/ lyricsandliterature. Tickets will be available at the door but seating is limited to the first 60 sold. • $20-$45 Saturday, June 18 LYRICS AND LITERATURE WEEKEND RETREAT • Authors, songwriters, and writers of all types are invited to attend the Lyrics and Literature Weekend Retreat in Townsend on June 17-19. • $20-$45 RAIN BARREL WORKSHOP • Ijams Nature Center • 10AM • Would you like free water for your gardens? Come make your own rain barrel. The rain barrel workshop is brought to you by the Water Quality Forum. Cost is $40 per barrel, and advanced registration is required. To register, please contact Kellie Caughor at the UT Water Resources Research Center at kcaughor@utk.edu or (865) 974-2151. • $40 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: MINDFULNESS IN EVERYDAY LIFE • Cancer Support Community • 10AM • Life is full of challenges. What can we do when our lives feel out of control? A practice of mindfulness can help. RSVP. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10:30AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE BEARDSLEY COMMUNITY FARM SUMMER WEED MANAGEMENT CLASS • Beardsley Community Farm • 12:30PM • Our summer weed management class will go over chemical-free ways to control the weeds in your
garden beds. • FREE Sunday, June 19 LYRICS AND LITERATURE WEEKEND RETREAT • Authors, songwriters, and writers of all types are invited to attend the Lyrics and Literature Weekend Retreat in Townsend on June 17-19. • $20-$45 YOGA AT NARROW RIDGE • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 9:30AM • Narrow Ridge invites you to join us every Sunday morning for yoga instruction from Angela Gibson. This class can be tailored to each individual’s ability level. For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE CIRCLE MODERN DANCE BALLET BARRE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 1PM • This open-level barre class is designed to help students build and maintain strength, flexibility, and coordination for ballet technique. This is a great class for beginning and experienced students alike. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 2PM • This class is open to all. Teachers cover basic technique and vocabulary for modern and contemporary dance. The class includes floor and standing work to build proficiency in alignment, balance, initiation and articulation of movement, weight shift, elevation and landing, and fall and recovery. Instruction is adjusted to meet the experience and ability of those in attendance. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE IMPROVISATION CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 3:30PM • Our improv classes offer an introduction to dance improvisation as a movement practice, performance technique, and a tool for creating choreography. Class involves both structured and free improvisations aimed at developing creativity, spontaneous decision-making, freedom of movement, and confidence in performance. No dance experience is necessary—only the desire to move. • $10 ROOFTOP YOGA • Central Collective • 6:30PM • Take your practice outside and breathe in some fresh air. This class will be accessible to all levels, and will include some breath and body awareness at the beginning to help calm the mind and get centered for class. Bring your own mat and enjoy some yoga outdoors on the roof at The Central Collective. Led by Cheryl Maslar. • $10 Monday, June 20 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 5:30PM • Call 865-5772021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. KNOXVILLE KETTLEBELL CLUB BEGINNERS CHALLENGE: STRENGTH AND STABILITY • Bullman’s Kickboxing and Krav Maga • 9:30AM • Have you been looking for a way to get fitter, happier, and healthier? Do you have any nagging injuries and are looking for a program that will accommodate your current level of fitness and also take you to the next level of strength and stability? Join us for this six-week series introducing the ancient strength-training kettlebell workout to make modern life feel better. Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:30 a.m.-10:45 a.m., starting May 23. • $180 SIX-WEEK CREATIVE WRITING INTENSIVE CLASS • The Birdhouse • 6PM • This summer, join journalist and poet Holly Haworth for a six-week creative writing intensive. This very exciting course will focus on establishing a regular practice, honoring the wildness of the entire writing process, writing as discovery, finding your most important stories, making space for your creativity, and June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 31
CALENDAR sustaining inspiration. Entire course is $250. Participants must sign up for entire six-week course. Pre-registration required. Contact instructor Holly Haworth at olmountaingal@gmail.com or at (865) 801.0806. • $250 SUNRISE SOLSTICE YOGA • Central Collective • 7AM • We all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that exercise is just as important. So why not combine a morning treat and yoga? Join Leslie of Yogini Is a Dancer and the Juicery for Solstice Yoga. Leslie will lead a rooftop sunrise yoga class that celebrates the first day of summer, then after class enjoy a rawtte from the Juicery (almond milk, vanilla, dates, Three Bears coffee). Note: Class will move inside in the event of inclement weather. • $20 KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME • Davis Family YMCA • 1PM • Join Master Gardener Amy Haun to learn how to invite pollinators, butterflies and other beneficial insects into your ornamental and vegetable gardens. Call 865-777-9622. • FREE Tuesday, June 21 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • Capoeira originated in Brazil and is a dynamic expression of Afro-Brazilian culture. It is an art form that encompasses martial arts, dance, and acrobatic movements as well as its own philosophy, history, culture, music, and songs. Visit capoeiraknoxville.org. •
Thursday, June 16 - Sunday, June 26
$10 ACROYOGA • Dragonfly Aerial Arts Studio • 7PM • Fly with us! Each class is beginner friendly, incorporating intermediate options for more experienced fliers. New content is explored each week while reviewing components taught in previous classes, providing a space for students to form strong foundational skills in flying, basing, and spotting. Each session ends with therapeutics or Thai massage. Please bring a mat, close fitting long pants, and water. No partner needed. • $15 SIX-WEEK NATURE-WRITING COURSE • Ijams Nature Center • 6PM • This summer, join journalist, poet, and Southern Appalachian naturalist Holly Haworth for a six-week nature-writing course at Ijams Nature Center. Your writing desk will be 300 acres of protected wildlife habitat along the Tennessee River (or, in the case of rain, an open-air covered pavilion at the old Ijams homesite). Entire six-week course is $250. For more information or to register, please contact Holly directly at olmountaingal@ gmail.com or (865) 801.0806. • $250 KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: ROSES IN POTS • Karns Senior Center • 11AM • Master Gardener and Rosarian Brian Townsend will share pointers about selecting and planting roses for patio spaces. Call 865-951-2653. • FREE Generations Genealogy Research Group • Beck Cultural Exchange Center • 5:30PM • Generations Genealogy Research Group is open to people of all ages interested in genealogy and family history. Wednesday, June 22
TENNESSEE VALLEY VODKA • JACKSON AVE GIN • OLD CITY HEIRLOOM CORN WHISKEY
Forget the ugly socks!
GIVE DAD WHAT HE REALLY WANTS! FATHER’S DAY IS SUNDAY, JUNE 19TH
CIRCLE MODERN DANCE INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • A rotation of core members and guest artists of Circle Modern Dance teach this class. They present a variety of modern and contemporary styles, including Bartenieff and release-based techniques. This class is primarily designed for students with a basic knowledge of modern dance technique and vocabulary, but is open to any mover who is willing to be challenged. CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL BALLET CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 7:30PM • This is a basic ballet class open to students of all levels of experience and ability. Students will learn new steps, build coordination and flexibility, and learn choreography. • $10 KNOXVILLE KETTLEBELL CLUB BEGINNERS CHALLENGE: STRENGTH AND STABILITY • Bullman’s Kickboxing and Krav Maga • 9:30AM • Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:30 a.m.-10:45 a.m., starting May 23. • $180 CLIMBING FUNDAMENTALS • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Come learn the basics of climbing every second and fourth Wednesday of the month. Space is limited so call 865-673-4687 to reserve your spot now. Class fee $20. Visit riversportsoutfitters.com/events. • $20 Thursday, June 23 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 PORTRAIT AND LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS • Historic Candoro Marble Company • 12:30PM • Portrait and life drawing practice at Candoro Art & Heritage Center. $10. Call Brad Selph for more information (865-573-0709). • $10 KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • This class is an hour of student-led training and review of Capoeira skills and exercises. Come prepared to sweat. Visit knoxvillecapoeira.org. • $10 THIRSTY (FOR KNOWLEDGE) THURSDAY • Old City Wine Bar • 6PM • Join our sommelier, Matt Burke, every Thursday in the cellar of the Old City Wine Bar for our ongoing wine education series. Free to listen and only $20 to partake in the libations. KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME • Humana Guidance Center • 3:15PM • Join Master Gardener Amy Haun to learn how to invite pollinators, butterflies and other beneficial insects into your ornamental and vegetable gardens. Call 865-329-8892. • FREE Saturday, June 25 IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10:30AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME • Cedar Bluff Branch Library • 10:30AM • Join Master Gardener Amy Haun to learn how to invite pollinators, butterflies and other beneficial insects into your ornamental and vegetable gardens. Call 865-470-7033. • FREE
Schedule a distillery tour with dad online! Tasting Room Open 7 Days A Week 516 W. Jackson Avenue, Knoxville, Tennessee • Phone (865) 525-2372 www.KnoxWhiskeyWorks.com • Get Social With Us: @KnoxWhiskey 32
KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 16, 2016
unday, June 26 S YOGA AT NARROW RIDGE • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 9:30AM • Narrow Ridge invites you to join us every Sunday morning for yoga instruction from Angela Gibson. This class can be tailored to each individual’s ability level. For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE
CIRCLE MODERN DANCE BALLET BARRE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 1PM • This open-level barre class is designed to help students build and maintain strength, flexibility, and coordination for ballet technique. This is a great class for beginning and experienced students alike. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 2PM • This class is open to all. Teachers cover basic technique and vocabulary for modern and contemporary dance. The class includes floor and standing work to build proficiency in alignment, balance, initiation and articulation of movement, weight shift, elevation and landing, and fall and recovery. Instruction is adjusted to meet the experience and ability of those in attendance. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE IMPROVISATION CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 3:30PM • Our improv classes offer an introduction to dance improvisation as a movement practice, performance technique, and a tool for creating choreography. Class involves both structured and free improvisations aimed at developing creativity, spontaneous decision-making, freedom of movement, and confidence in performance. No dance experience is necessary—only the desire to move. • $10 ROOFTOP YOGA • Central Collective • 6:30PM • Take your practice outside and breathe in some fresh air. This class will be accessible to all levels, and will include some breath and body awareness at the beginning to help calm the mind and get centered for class. • $10
MEETINGS
Thursday, June 16 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY FAMILY BEREAVEMENT GROUP • Cancer Support Community • 4:30PM • CSC is committed to providing bereavement services to those who have lost a loved one to cancer. Please contact our clinical staff before attending. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS • The Birdhouse • 6PM • A meeting group for adults who grew up in alcoholic or dysfunctional homes. The group aims to bring emotional healing to those who have been or who are in these situations and have experienced any level of trauma or abuse as a result. Led by Laura Moll, the class is free to attend. • FREE BLACK LIVES MATTER • The Birdhouse • 7:30PM • #BlackLivesMatter is working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. Visit blacklivesmatterknoxville.org. • FREE Saturday, June 18 AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Al-Anon’s purpose is to help families and friends of alcoholics recover from the effects of living with the problem drinking of a relative or friend. Visit our local website at farragutalanon.org or email us at FindHope@ Farragutalanon.org. • FREE 100 BLACK MEN OF GREATER KNOXVILLE • Beck Cultural Exchange Center • 10AM • The 100 Black Men of Greater Knoxville’s purpose is to serve as a catalyst to empower African-American and other minority youth to individually and collectively reach their full potential through maximizing their resources that foster and enhance achievement in education and community and economic
Thursday, June 16 - Sunday, June 26
development. To accomplish this objective, we partner with primary and secondary schools and community organizations engaged in similar activities. Sunday, June 19 NARROW RIDGE SILENT MEDITATION GATHERING • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • The gatherings are intended to be inclusive of people of all faiths as well as those who do not align themselves with a particular religious denomination. For information call 865-4972753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE THREE RIVERS! EARTH FIRST! • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 7PM • Three Rivers! Earth First! is the local dirt worshiping, tree hugging, anarchist collective that meets every Sunday night on the second floor of Barley’s in the back room (when its available) to organize against strip mining, counter protest the KKK and Nazis, to clean up Third Creek and to fight evil corporations in general. Call (865) 257-4029 for more information. • FREE REFUGE RECOVERY • Losel Shedrup Ling • 8:30PM • A peerled weekly group gathering to supplement your dedicated practice (AA, NA, Smart Recovery, etc.) for recovery from addictions of all kinds. Contact David at 865-306-0279 for any further questions. • FREE RATIONALISTS OF EAST TENNESSEE • Pellissippi State Community College • 10:30AM • The Rationalists of East Tennessee focus on the real or natural universe. The group exists so that we can benefit emotionally and intellectually through meeting together to expand our awareness and understanding through shared experience, knowledge, and ideas as well as enrich our lives and the lives of others. Visit rationalists.org. • FREE Monday, June 20 GAY MEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7:30PM • We hold facilitated discussions on topics and issues relevant to local gay men in a safe and open environment. Visit gaygroupknoxville.org. Tuesday, June 21 ATHEISTS SOCIETY OF KNOXVILLE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 5:30PM • Weekly atheists meetup and happy hour. Come join us for food, drink and great conversation. Everyone welcome. • FREE Wednesday, June 22 KNOXVILLE WRITERS’ GROUP • Naples Italian Restaurant • 11AM • Guest speakers read from and discuss their work. All-inclusive lunch is $12.00. RSVP to 865-983-3740. Thursday, June 23 ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS • The Birdhouse • 6PM • A meeting group for adults who grew up in alcoholic or dysfunctional homes. The group aims to bring emotional healing to those who have been or who are in these situations and have experienced any level of trauma or abuse as a result. Led by Laura Moll, the class is free to attend. • FREE Saturday, June 25 AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Al-Anon’s purpose is to help families and friends of alcoholics recover from the effects of living with the problem drinking of a relative or friend. Visit our local website at farragutalanon.org or email us at FindHope@ Farragutalanon.org. • FREE MARBLE SPRINGS STATE HISTORIC SITE ANNUAL MEETING • Marble Springs State Historic Site • 12PM • Marble Springs State Historic Site will host a day of history at the annual meeting of the Governor John Sevier Memorial
CALENDAR
Association with special programming by Ken Cornett. This event will feature a talk by Cornett about his compilation of the history of East Tennessee’s Stations. To register for lunch, call (865)573-5508 or email info@ marblesprings.net no later than Tuesday, June 21. • FREE Sunday, June 26 NARROW RIDGE SILENT MEDITATION GATHERING • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • The gatherings are intended to be inclusive of people of all faiths as well as those who do not align themselves with a particular religious denomination. For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE THREE RIVERS! EARTH FIRST! • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 7PM • Three Rivers! Earth First! is the local dirt worshiping, tree hugging, anarchist collective that meets every Sunday night on the second floor of Barley’s in the back room (when its available) to organize against strip mining, counter protest the KKK and Nazis, to clean up Third Creek and to fight evil corporations in general. Call (865) 257-4029 for more information. • FREE REFUGE RECOVERY • Losel Shedrup Ling • 8:30PM • A peer-led weekly group gathering to supplement your dedicated practice (AA, NA, Smart Recovery, etc.) for recovery from addictions of all kinds. Contact David at 865-306-0279 for any further questions. • FREE SUNDAY ASSEMBLY • The Concourse • 10:30AM • Sunday Assembly is a secular congregation without deity, dogma, or doctrine. Our motto: Live Better, Help Often, Wonder More. Our monthly celebrations feature a different theme every month, with inspiring speakers and lively sing-alongs. To find out more, visit our web page (http:// knoxville-tn.sundayassembly.com) or email saknoxville. info@gmail.com. • FREE
ETC.
Thursday, June 16 MARBLE SPRINGS SHOPPING AT THE FARM FARMER’S MARKET • Marble Springs State Historic Site • 3PM • Marble Springs State Historic Site is proud to present the sixth season of Shopping at the Farm, the Marble Springs Farmer’s Market for our South Knoxville community. The market will be held Thursdays from 3-6 p.m. beginning on May 19 and continuing weekly through Sept. 22. All vendors will be selling fresh, locally-produced products, and artisan crafts. This year we will be allowing the addition of antiques vendors. • FREE Friday, June 17 LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • Offering a wide variety of hand-picked produce, artisan breads, grass-fed beef, natural pork and chicken, farm fresh eggs and farm-based crafts. • FREE Saturday, June 18 MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • The MSFM, a project of Nourish Knoxville, is an open-air farmers’ market located on historic Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. We are a producer only market – everything is either made, grown or raised by our vendors all within a 150 mile radius of the MSFM. Products vary by the season and include ornamental plants, vegetable and herb starts, produce, dairy, eggs, honey, meats, baked goods, jams/jellies, coffee, & artisan crafts. Every Wednesday from 11a.m. to 2p.m. and Saturday from 9a.m. to 2p.m., May 4 – November 19, 2016. Visit marketsquarefarmersmarket.org. • FREE
SEYMOUR FARMERS MARKET • First Baptist Church Seymour • 8AM • Open from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday from June to the second Saturday in October. Locally grown fruits, vegetables, eggs, honey, baked goods and crafts sold by the person who produced it. • FREE OAK RIDGE FARMERS MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM • The market offers seasonal vegetables, herbs, fruits and berries, honey, artisan bread and cheese, grass-fed beef and naturally raised chicken, pork and lamb, farm-based crafts, flowers and potted plants. • FREE BEARDSLEY COMMUNITY FARM COMMUNITY WORKDAY • Beardsley Community Farm • 9AM • We ask that volunteers come dressed for working outside, wear closed-toed shoes, and bring a water bottle. Wearing layers is a good idea this time of year. Our Saturday Workdays are open to the community, so there is no need to sign up in advance. Come for the whole morning or just come for an hour. We look forward to working with you! If you have any questions email us at beardsleyfarm@gmail.com. • FREE Sunday, June 19 BETA THETA BOULÉ FOUNDATION FATHER’S DAY LUNCHEON • The Foundry • 1:30PM • The Beta Theta Boulé Foundation of Knoxville will host an inaugural Father’s Day luncheon to celebrate the contributions of eight Knoxville area men and present the first Zaevion Dobson Scholarship to a local high school student. Proceeds from the luncheon will help fund future scholarships for meritorious high school students in the Knoxville area. The Beta Theta Boulé Foundation is a nonprofit organization affiliated with the African-American professional fraternity, Sigma Pi Phi Incorporated. The Knoxville Chapter, called Beta Theta Boulé, was organized 20 years ago and has a notable record of community service. • $50 GOOD SPORT NIGHT • Central Collective • 5PM • Here’s the deal. You purchase a ticket to a mystery event. Show up to The Central Collective at the specified date and time, and be ready for anything. Past events have included: a live studio game show, an egg drop competition, and a garden party in a castle. These are events for folks who are curious, adventurous, and like trying new things & meeting new people. • $15 Monday, June 20 BEARDSLEY COMMUNITY FARM SUMMER SOLSTICE SUPPER • The Standard • 6PM • Solstice Supper 2016 will be prepared by OliBea owner and chef Jeff DeAlejandro and Chef Winter Hose, and is also brought to us by Moxley Carmichael. The supper will include some of Beardsley’s own produce in addition to locally sourced ingredients. After May 10th, tickets are $65, a group of four is $240, and a table of eight is $450 (plus service fees). Tickets are available at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/ event/2543707. Proceeds from this dinner will support the farm’s mission to address food security issues in Knoxville through produce donations, community gardening, and education opportunities. The supper will be vegetarian, and vegan options will be available upon advance request. The dinner will be served promptly at 6:30 pm. We will serve water, tea, and coffee at Solstice Supper. All guests may bring their own wine. There is no corkage fee. Please email beardsleyfarm@gmail.com if you have any dietary restrictions or needs, to request a vegan option, and for any special seating requests (i.e., You would like to sit with friends who purchased separate tickets). To learn more about Beardsley please visit: www.beardsleyfarm.org. • $65
Knoxville’s BEST live music venue 6 nights a week!
Happy Hour 3pm to 8pm Huge selection of Craft, Import & Local beer Locally roasted coffee
wed JUNE 15 • 8pm stump tail dolly w/ ryan sheley, & Bohannons $5 • All Ages ( metal / country )
fri JUNE 17 • 7pm
Seasons Of me w/ divided we stand, & more $5 • All Ages ( rock )
SAT JUNE 18 • 8pm
brandon fulson W/ matt honkonen, & handsome & The Humbles $5 All Ages ( singer-songwriter )
mon june 20 • 6pm
FANTASTICK! FILMS Summer Series w/ LEIGH ANN JERNIGAN “I am eleven” $5 adv / $10 Day Of all ages ( film ) "Coolest venue in town! Not too big, not too small. Great sound system and audio engineers. Lights show, good food, cold beer and a music store in the back. Oh, and they give lessons, too. Seriously? I still can't believe this place is real." -Austin Hall of Sam Killed The Bear
Knoxville’s Best Musical Instrument Store
8502 KINGSTON PIKE • (865) 281-5874 openchordmusic.com
June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 33
CALENDAR 20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION It’s our 20th Anniversary! We are so grateful to have shared 20 wonderful years of fitting your backpack, adjusting your Chacos and connecting you with the right apparel to get outdoors. In celebration, we are throwing a giant party! We are hosting a week’s worth of festivities to honor you! We are so grateful to you for making us your source for hiking, packing, disc golf, car camping, traveling, climbing, paddling, cycling, and even craft beer. We are not just an outdoor store, but a resource for our community to live a healthy, active lifestyle. As we celebrate our 20th year, we look forward to a future of environmental stewardship, community support, and shared outdoor experiences with you.
FRIDAY JUNE 17
SATURDAY JUNE 18
SUNDAY JUNE 19
FOUNDERS DAY HIKE
CUSTOMER SWAP
FATHER’S DAY CELEBRATION AT THE POINT
TUESDAY JUNE 21
THURSDAY JUNE 23
STAFF ADVENTURE TALES
MIKE CAVE DIVES THE YUCATAN
PINTS FOR A PURPOSE
BENEFITTING TN WILD
SATURDAY JUNE 25
TENT & GEAR TRUNK SHOW
FRIDAY JUNE 24
HOPS IN THE HILLS
BREW CRAWL
SATURDAY JUNE 25
KNOXVILLE OPEN
PRESENTED BY LITTLE RIVER TRADING COMPANY
*Check our Facebook page or our website for more details.
Get ready for your next outdoor adventure here!
2408 E Lamar Alexander Pkwy Maryville, TN M-Fri 9-7pm • Sat 9-6pm • Sun 12-6pm 865.681.4141
725 Watkins Road Maryville, TN M-Sat 10-7pm • Sun 12-6pm 865.983.8095
www.cycologybicycles.com www.littlerivertradingco.com 34
KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 16, 2016
Tuesday, June 21 EBENEZER ROAD FARMERS MARKET • Ebenezer United Methodist Church • 3PM • The market offers hand-picked produce in season, artisan breads and cheese, grass-fed meat and farm fresh eggs. • FREE Wednesday, June 22 MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 11AM • The MSFM, a project of Nourish Knoxville, is an open-air farmers’ market located on historic Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. We are a producer only market – everything is either made, grown or raised by our vendors all within a 150 mile radius of the MSFM. Visit marketsquarefarmersmarket. org. • FREE UT FARMERS MARKET • University of Tennessee • 4PM • Since 2010, the UT Farmers Market has provided a venue for area producers to sell healthful, local food to the greater Knoxville area. This year the market is expanding its community offerings. The UT Farmers Market is free and open to the public every Wednesday from 4-7 p.m. in the UT Gardens off Neyland Drive. Market activities will be scheduled through Oct. 19. For more information about the UT Farmers’ Market you can visit the market website: vegetables.tennessee.edu/ utfm.html or find it on Facebook. • FREE OAK RIDGE FARMERS MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 3PM • The market offers seasonal vegetables, herbs, fruits and berries, honey, artisan bread and cheese, grass-fed beef and naturally raised chicken, pork and lamb, farm-based crafts, flowers and potted plants. • FREE Thursday, June 23 MARBLE SPRINGS SHOPPING AT THE FARM FARMER’S MARKET • Marble Springs State Historic Site • 3PM • Marble Springs State Historic Site is proud to present the sixth season of Shopping at the Farm, the Marble Springs Farmer’s Market for our South Knoxville community. The market will be held Thursdays from 3-6 p.m. beginning on May 19 and continuing weekly through Sept. 22. All vendors will be selling fresh, locally-produced products, and artisan crafts. This year we will be allowing the addition of antiques vendors. • FREE COMMUNITY PARTNERS PINTS FOR A PURPOSE • Little River Trading Co. • 5PM • The next Community Partners Pints for a Purpose will benefit Tennessee Wild. Visit tnwild.org. Brought to you by Little River Trading Co., Blount Partnership, Oboz Footwear, Leki Trekking Poles, Deuter Packs. Thanks to our sponsors 100% of the nights beer sales proceeds goes to the advocate. • FREE Friday, June 24 LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • Offering a wide variety of hand-picked produce, artisan breads, grass-fed beef, natural pork and chicken, farm fresh eggs and farm-based crafts. • FREE TOOTSIE TRUCK POP-UP DINNER • Central Collective • 7PM • The menu features prickly gin fizz, goat adobo with veggies, black beans, and corn tortillas, salad, dessert, and more. Local sources include Knox Whiskey Works, Mountain Meadow Farms, JEM Farm, Jennings Hollow Farm, Ricky Bailey Honeybees, Colvin Family Farm, Seven Springs Farm, and the Fungi Forager. • $65 Saturday, June 25 SEYMOUR FARMERS MARKET • First Baptist Church Seymour • 8AM • Open from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday from June to the second Saturday in October. Locally grown fruits, vegetables, eggs, honey, baked goods and crafts sold by the person who produced it. •
FREE MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • The MSFM, a project of Nourish Knoxville, is an open-air farmers’ market located on historic Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. We are a producer only market – everything is either made, grown or raised by our vendors all within a 150 mile radius of the MSFM. Visit marketsquarefarmersmarket. org. • FREE OAK RIDGE FARMERS MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM • The market offers seasonal vegetables, herbs, fruits and berries, honey, artisan bread and cheese, grass-fed beef and naturally raised chicken, pork and lamb, farm-based crafts, flowers and potted plants. • FREE FRIENDS OF THE KNOX COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 2016 ANNUAL USED BOOK SALE • Chilhowee Park • 10AM • The sale starts on Saturday, June 25, with the Friends Members’ Only Day (you can join or renew your membership at the door) and continues June 26-28. June 28 is bag sale day—$5 for a bag of books. Visit knoxfriends.org. ARTS AND ANTIQUES IN JACKSON SQUARE • Historic Jackson Square (Oak Ridge) • 9AM • Join the merchants of Jackson Square on the last Saturday of each month, as we celebrate local talent and enjoy fresh produce at the Arts and Antiques in the Square. Vendors/artisans will be on the sidewalks selling their latest finds. Live acoustic music from local musician Dave Shepherd begins at 11 a.m. Fresh produce can be found at the Oak Ridge Farmers’ Market from 8 a.m.-noon and as usual Razzleberry’s Ice Cream Lab and Kitchen will be serving delicious meals throughout the day. Come shop with the local mom and pop stored surrounding the square while kids have fun creating their own masterpieces. For more info visit jacksonsquareoakridge.org. • FREE Sunday, June 26 FRIENDS OF THE KNOX COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 2016 ANNUAL USED BOOK SALE • Chilhowee Park • 10AM • The sale starts on Saturday, June 25, with the Friends Members’ Only Day (you can join or renew your membership at the door) and continues June 26-28. June 28 is bag sale day—$5 for a bag of books. Visit knoxfriends.org.
Send your events to calendar@knoxmercury.com
SOMETIMES DISCOVERY STARTS WITH A PATH. Right outside of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is your own o u t d o o r a m u s e m e n t p a r k . We o ffe r m i l e s o f g re e nw a y s p a c e s t o unwind and enjoy everything the outdoors has to offer. From stream side trails, wilddower elds, forests, waterways and open spaces; all loc located within just a few minutes of quaint neighborhoods and downtown. Walk , run or c ycle, the options are endless in the Peaceful Side of the Smokies. You’ll discover that you’re going to need a longer stay.
June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 35
OUTDOORS
Voice in the Wilder ness
Photos by Kim Trevathan
Bear Country It’s never too early to learn about those other big inhabitants of the Smokies BY KIM TREVATHAN
F
ifteen years ago, Richard Hatten was sleeping in his hammock at Elkmont Campground in the Smokies when something bit his arm and pulled him to the ground. A neighboring camper, up late drinking Scotch beside his campfire, heard the commotion and drove the bear away with blows from a broomstick. Having grilled and consumed barbecue chicken earlier that evening, Hatten speculates that the black bear was attracted by the scent on his clothing. From this encounter, Hatten met park ranger Bill Stiver, who helped Hatten conceive and carry out a hands-on educational program for kids at Elkmont, in association with the local chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation. Hatten, youth activity director for the local NWTF chapter, says the program, in its third year, is designed to teach kids about conservation from
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 16, 2016
fisheries and wildlife experts and also to give them an idea of what it would be like to work as a park ranger or in a related outdoor education field. The theme of this year’s event, on June 2, was “Creating Conservationists,” a goal that Hatten connects with the NWTF’s 10-year initiative, “Save the Habitat. Save the Hunt.” The fisheries demonstration, led by Ranger Caleb Abramson, got the kids involved in surveying fish from a stream using electrofishing techniques. After placing a block net upstream, a group of interns employed backpack electroshocking equipment, and the kids followed along with nets and buckets to collect stunned fish. This was learning far from a PowerPoint lecture in an air-conditioned classroom. In chest waders, the kids were splashing around in a stream, handling slippery fish, and having a great time getting involved in data
gathering that takes place every day in the Smokies. Ranger Abramson held up an aquarium-like tank with a rainbow trout and a brown trout (about 8 inches long) in it. As the kids passed the tank around and the stunned fish began to revive themselves, he explained how and when each non-native fish arrived in the park: the rainbow, from California, stocked starting in the early 1900s until 1975; and the brown, originally from Europe, brought in (but not by the National Park Service) starting in the 1960s. The rangers and interns recorded the weight and approximate age of the fish before releasing them into the creek. After lunch, courtesy of Full Service Barbecue, we gathered around rangers Nick Melton and Greg Grieco to learn about the park’s main attraction for the 10 million who visit each year: bears. Between 1,600 and 2,000 of them inhabit the park, said Grieco, though they are under no obligation to stay put, he added. Part of what we learned from the rangers was that bears are essentially lazy opportunists, but that they will travel dozens of miles to return to a place where they found food, such as a relocated bear who returned from Cosby to Chimneys Picnic Area after dining on potato salad there two months earlier. Bears are not stupid, said Grieco, and at least one in the
GSMNP Ranger Greg Grieco (far left) compares a bear skull with a student’s head, while Ranger Caleb Abramson (right) leads a discussion of fish surveying techniques. park has a taste for the German philosopher, Frederick Nietzsche, having left tooth marks (and DNA) on a thru-hiker’s volume of The Twilight of Idols and the Anti-Christ. When Ranger Grieco asked us what we thought the average weight of a bear in the park was, one young man shouted, “One thousand pounds.” “A little high,” he said. The average female, Grieco said, is around 120 pounds, and males are usually between 150 and 175 pounds, though recently a 400-pounder was caught in Cades Cove, hanging around the campground. The big ones, he said, tend to stay away from campgrounds. The rangers showed us the dart guns they use to tranquilize nuisance bears who might be raiding campsites or vehicles. They also showed us how they place identification markers (ear tags, tattoos) on bears, hoping that they look back on the experience and think, “I got darted, tattooed and tagged here. I’m not coming back.” In May, a lean month for bears coming out of hibernation, a man was bitten on the leg by a black bear while in his tent at Spence Field near the Appalachian Trail. He fought the bear
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UNCLE LEM’S MOUNTAIN OUTFITTERS off by punching and kicking him through the tent. His tent and backpack were chewed and torn, and his philosophy reading disrupted by the bear, but he was not seriously injured. He did not have food in his tent. Grieco said that if humans fi nd themselves in a close encounter with a bear, to fight them off with kicks and punches, and do not run or play dead. One student volunteered to help Grieco demonstrate the culvert trap that is used to capture and transport bears to new locations. The metal cylinder is mounted on a trailer and has a trigger mechanism inside at the far end that rangers bait with sardines. After he shut the metal door on the kid, Grieco announced to us: “Hey everybody that’s our presentation for the day. We’re going to take this one 50 miles away.” One kid asked how many bears are “put down” each year, and Grieco said that the park averages around two a year. He said he hopes that rangers will put down less and less bears each year, but much of that responsibility resides with visitors. Students also learned about trail ethics from Maury Hudson, a ridge runner for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Hudson, a thru-hiker who has traversed the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail, taught students the seven principles of “Leave No Trace” and gave them samples of litter to quiz
them on biodegradability. Fishing line, for example, will last 500 years, while an aluminum can lasts around a century. Students also learned how to properly “poop” in the woods by digging a hole 6 inches deep at least 100 feet away from the trail, though in some places you have to “pack it out.” The most important of the seven principles, said Hudson, was “Be Considerate of Others,” an idea that respects the desire of many to fi nd peace and quiet in wild places. Hatten was not seriously injured in his encounter with a black bear, and Stiver told him he hadn’t done anything wrong, but he knows the importance of understanding animals in the park and making sound decisions in accordance with environmental ethics. Hatten invited kids from the city and the country, some from as far away as Scott County, and he sees such programs as a way to bring together people with diverse interests in the outdoors, “tree huggers, hunters, country kids, or city slickers.” He hopes that the educational session at Elkmont will plant the seeds to create caretakers, educators, and responsible outdoor enthusiasts. ◆ A writing instructor at Maryville College, Kim Trevathan is the author of Paddling the Tennessee River: A Voyage on East Water and Coldhearted River: A Canoe Odyssey Down the Cumberland.
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June 16, 2016
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 37
’BYE
Sacred & P rofane
The Dead Zone
A search for momentary escape, a life lost BY DONNA JOHNSON
A
t the door that leads out of the basement entrance of Isabella Towers sits a fat red candle whose flame has burned steadily all night. It rests beside a small bouquet of pink, yellow, and lavender plastic flowers. A metal folding chair with a white, satin cushion waits for people to sit and pay tribute to the resident of Isabella who has recently died. Isabella Towers, a housing project in East Knoxville, is called “The Dead Zone” because no one will deliver food here after dark. It has a reputation for housing dangerous criminals, with all sorts of drug deals going on. This is not totally untrue, for there are drug deals: people selling the prescriptions they get for free from their doctors for $8 a pill, so that they can purchase stronger, more potent drugs for themselves to get high (or die on). But, for the most part, there is no large-scale drug dealing going on here, just minor deals intended to help the person get to a level where life is bearable again. If the buyer is lucky, he might, for a short time (very short), feel something close to hope before dropping back to his normal state of apathy or disrepair. If a drug deal is shady it might end in violence or death, though this is rare even at Isabella Towers.
On this particular evening in early summer, several years ago, a drug deal did go bad and the recipient of the shady deal was thrown through the double-plate glass window to his death four floors below, while the perpetrator was left to slink off to perpetrate further, sleazy deals. “I can’t believe he’s gone,” says a voluptuous girl with blonde hair to her waist, wearing a ragged pink dress and white cowboy boots with fringe. “I know,” says a friend. “Lamont was always so friendly, with a smile for everyone. And they don’t even know who did it!” “Well, would you tell?” her friend says. “You know what they say— snitches end up in ditches.” Her friend nods vehemently and they both light cigarettes and leave the building. Outside it is a gray dusk, with a silver mist settling over the Tennessee River. It is peaceful and lovely, in stark contrast to the violence that occurred earlier. Police have already taken the body away and done a hasty investigation, presumably not the sort that would have been conducted in a rich West Knoxville neighborhood—as if the inhabitants of Isabella Towers are not quite as important. There will only be a
BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY June 16, 2016
www.thespiritofthestaircase.com
short paragraph in the News Sentinel, such as “so and so lived, died, and was buried, the end.” But he was still a person who had a family, was the son of a grieving mother, and was possibly the father of children who will never grow up to know their dad. I had met Lamont only once, two weeks prior to the day of his demise. I had gone to visit my friend, Vincent, and to see the feral kittens playing at the edge of the river. There on the ground where the kittens frolicked was a small, black cell phone. I called the most frequently dialed number and that person informed me that the phone belonged to a man named Lamont. “That’s him over by the elevator,” an elderly woman told me when I returned to the building. “Is this your phone?” I called out to him and he rushed toward me and took the phone. “Thank you, thank you,” he repeated over and over and over, while embracing me. Whenever someone dies, ordinary things suddenly seem to take on
significance, and after I learned of Lamont’s violent death I wondered if there was some higher, spiritual meaning in my finding Lamont’s phone and returning it. I wondered if Lamont had any premonition that this was to be his last day on the planet. Did he look at his reflection in the mirror that morning and think to himself, Quite possibly I will not be alive after today, so I’m going to call everyone I know on my newly found phone and tell them how much they mean to me. And then I had the radical thought: What if we did that from time to time with the ones we love even if it wasn’t our last day? What a concept! But more than likely Lamont thought none of these things. Most likely he stumbled out of bed, threw some water on his face, brushed his teeth, or not, and made his way into the hall to find some sort of sustenance of the chemical kind to make his day more than bearable for a few minutes or hours. And there he probably ran into
Outside it is a gray dusk, with a silver mist settling over the Tennessee River. It is peaceful and lovely, in stark contrast to the violence that occurred earlier.
BY IAN BLACKBURN AND JACK NEELY
ing white lace dresses and white gloves that went up past the elbow, boys fidgeting in white shirts, black pants, and black ties—they stood ready to be lifted up and told to say farewell to Uncle Lamont in his bed of white satin and roses. A large feast was prepared for the family and friends of Lamont, with sumptuous fried chicken, potato salad, yeast rolls, banana pudding, and sweet iced tea. People discussed what a fi ne fellow Lamont was and how he would be missed, until dusk brought stillness and a kind of peace, with only the sound of chairs rocking and the occasional lighting of a match as people smoked their cigarettes, sipped their tea, and slipped into a kind of sleep where things like death and sorrow cannot penetrate, at least for a short while. ◆
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d Operated S n an inc e ow 1 gr
Tyrone, who offered him a few hydrocodone for the price of only $60. “Thanks, man,” Lamont said, handing over the money, only to realize when he looked at the pills that they were only ibuprofen, from which you would not get even the tiniest buzz. “What do you take me for?” Lamont asked as Tyrone began walking away with his $60. “I asked you a question,” Lamont continued, likely running up to Tyrone and pulling at his sleeve. No one saw who did what, only heard the crash as Lamont was thrown through the plate glass window—and then found his thin body in its white shirt and black trousers on the pavement below. Many people went to Lamont’s funeral. He was well-loved by family and friends alike. Beautiful girls wear-
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