Calendar of Events

A Most Tolerant Little Town with Dr. Rachel Louise Martin at East Tennessee History Center on Monday, September 18, 2023 - 6:00 to 7:00pm.

When most Americans think about the history of school desegregation in this country, they think of Little Rock, Arkansas and the nine students that attended Little Rock Central High School in 1957. However, there is a lesser known story, the one of Clinton, Tennessee. In September 1956, Clinton High School became the first school in the former Confederacy to undergo court mandated desegregation. Join historian and author Dr. Rachel Louise Martin as she weaves together accounts of students, parents, teachers, and administrators to reveal this Civil Rights story which is little known regionally as well as nationally. Her book, A Most Tolerant Little Town, serves as a poignant reminder of the steep cost of trying to rewrite history and the heavy burden on those at the front lines of movements for justice.

Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Rachel Louise Martin, PhD, is a historian and writer whose work has appeared in outlets like The Atlantic and Oxford American. She is especially interested by the politics of memory and by the power of stories to illuminate why injustice persists in America today. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Reserve your seat at https://easttnhistory.org/events/most-tolerant-little-town.

East Tennessee Historical Society, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Museum hours: M-F 9-4, Sa 10-4, Su 1-5. Information: 865-215-8824, www.easttnhistory.org

Family festivals, musical performances and guest speakers are among the events Pellissippi State Community College has planned for Hispanic Heritage Month – and all are free and open to the public. Themed “Todos Somos Familia” (We Are All Family), Hispanic Heritage Month at the college will celebrate the rich and beautiful complexity of Latino and Hispanic culture at Pellissippi State as well as recognize the importance of the contributions of Latino and Hispanic culture to the local community and the world.

Keynote speakers Karen Ocon-Mora, community schools site coordinator for Knox County, and Megan Barolet-Fogarty, director of youth and family engagement for Centro Hispano de East Tennessee, will kick off the month’s festivities Tuesday, Sept. 19, with an address on “Familia: Relationships and Resilience in Latino Culture.” The event will be held 10:30-11:15 a.m. in the Goins Building Auditorium on Pellissippi State’s Hardin Valley Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, and livestreamed on Zoom.

Families have two opportunities to come out to Pellissippi State for festivals including games, activities, food and a screening of the film “Encanto” at sunset: 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, on the college’s Hardin Valley Campus and again 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, on Pellissippi State’s Strawberry Plains Campus, 7201 Strawberry Plains Pike

And don’t miss a lively performance by Knoxville’s own Latin jazz band Candela on Wednesday, Sept. 27, in the Hardin Valley Campus Courtyard. Candela will play 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., and refreshments will be served.

For a full list of Pellissippi State’s activities planned for Hispanic Heritage Month, including concerts and lectures, visit www.pstcc.edu/hispanic-heritage. To request accommodations for any campus event, call 865.694.6411 or email accommodations@pstcc.edu.

A collaboration between the Clarence Brown, the Institute of American Civics, the departments of English, Classics, History, and Theatre at UT, and the international research group the R/18 Collective.

Cato is the play Washington staged at Valley Forge after that 1777-78 winter. It is set in north Africa in 46 BCE, as Cato braces for the invasion of Caesar and imperial Rome. It's about how a republic slips into empire and becomes vulnerable to dictators. The play raises key questions for our time about the nature of citizenship and the challenges of keeping democratic institutions healthy.

Sep 16, 19, 20 & 21 at 7 PM and Sep 17 at 2:30 PM
Each performance will run for about 1:15, after which there will be a brief panel consideration of one of the key questions listed here, followed by a time for the audience to talk to each other about that question. We hope it will model the kinds of conversations we need to have to find our way forward in these times.

Tickets are free but need to be reserved in advance: https://tiny.utk.edu/cato
The conversation after is a chance to bring our community together around issues that matter to all of us.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2023 AT 5 PM – 9 PM

Hola Hora Latina is proud to continue the Frutos Latinos exhibit to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Local Hispanic/Latinx artists will showcase their artwork to celebrate their cultures and traditions. Guests can then vote for their favorite art piece in person! On view Sep 1-13 at HoLa Hora Latina, 100 S. Gay Street, Suite 112, Knoxville, TN 37902.

On September 14, the Frutos Latinos exhibit is moved to the Knoxville Museum of Art to mark the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month where it will remain until October 15.

***The deadline to submit an art is August 25, 2023. Applicants must send an artist statement and details of their piece. For more information contact, enrique.cruz@holafestival.org
Information: 865-335-3358, www.holahoralatina.org

Art Exhibit at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church
Free and open to the public
Reception Friday, August 18, 2023, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Collector’s talk at 6:30 p.m.

Show: August 13 - October 4, 2023
Gallery hours: 10-3 Monday through Thursday and 10-12:30 Sunday
2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37918

Sylvia and Jan Peters have been collecting art for more than five decades, including notable works by Chicago-based African-American artists Fred Jones, Steve Walker, and Dale Norman, and a lithograph by Charles White. The exhibit includes paintings in a variety of media, prints, and photographs.

As educators, Sylvia and Jan Peters advocated for arts in community and educational programs in Chicago. Since moving to Knoxville in the early 1990s, Sylvia has been involved with the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, the Links, the 100 Black Women, and the Knoxville Botanical Garden. She initiated the Delaney Project and Days of Dialogue.

Of their early days in Chicago’s art world, Sylvia said, “We held Sunday Salons at our home where artists were invited to eat, drink, and discuss their work. It was almost an out of body experience to participate in these discussions. Richard Hunt, Ralph Arnold, Margaret Burroughs, William Carter and many others visited our home.”