Scenic Roots

(River City Company) On Friday evening, the lighted boat parade returns to the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga. It begins at 7 PM - after Chattanooga Green and Ross’ Landing host Reindeer on the Riverfront starting at 4 PM - before fireworks at 8 PM. Dawn Hjelseth is with River City Company.

(Steven Miller / Creative Commons) Once again, the time is here for this year’s EPB Holiday Windows - and the Festive Forest - in downtown Chattanooga. At 5 PM on this day before Thanksgiving, the displays will be unveiled in the windows on the Broad and Market Street sides of the EPB headquarters building - with the Festive Forest across the street in Miller Park expanding from fifty trees during...

(MAINx24) (Aired Thu 11/21/24) MAINx24 is around the corner. The 24-hour festival, held on the first Saturday in December, showcases Main Street and Southside Chattanooga with a parade, music, food and more - all organized by community residents, merchants and friends. I spoke with Monica Kinsey of MAINx24 - and Shane Morrow of RISE Chattanooga.

SCUBA Claus at The Tennessee Aquarium. (The Tennessee Aquarium) (Aired Thu 11/21/24) The day after Thanksgiving, Holidays Under The Peaks arrives at the Tennessee Aquarium in downtown Chattanooga. The celebration of all things aquatic - from the IMAX Theater to the Aquarium’s electric eel to SCUBA Claus - runs through December 29th, with the Aquarium closed on Christmas Day. Alison Pryor is the Aq...

The Grateful Gobbler in 2023. (The Grateful Gobbler) (Aired Thu 11/21/24) Time to get your gobble on. This Thanksgiving Day, the Grateful Gobbler 5K Walk / Run returns for its 25th year in downtown Chattanooga. Participants will gather in Coolidge Park before the Gobbler begins at 8 AM. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Maclellan Shelter for Families, an emergency homeless shelter at th...

Townsend Atelier (Townsend Atelier) (Aired Thu 11/21/24) Original artwork from the Chattanooga area is on display and available for the holidays at Townsend Atelier. This year’s Annual Holiday Portfolio Show and Sale is Saturday from 10 AM to 2 PM, with a First Dibs session on Friday from 5 PM to 8:30 PM, in The Arts Building at 301 E. 11th St. Peggy Townsend is co-founder and co-owner of Townsend...

(City of Chattanooga) (Aired Thu 11/21/24) When Chattanooga holds citywide elections next March, voters will decide this question: Should employees of the City of Chattanooga live within the State of Tennessee? William Newlin of Chattamattters explains the reason behind the upcoming referendum that could change Chattanooga’s city charter. _____ Chattamatters is the civic storytelling project at Th...

Chattamatters: Residency for city employees on the ballot. “Holidays Under The Peaks” at The Tennessee Aquarium. The Grateful Gobbler on Thanksgiving. MAINx24 in December. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

Emma Collins (Scenic City Shakespeare) “All the world’s a stage - and all the men and women merely players.” Emma Collins knows well those words from William Shakepeare’s “As You Like It.” She is the co-founder and education director at Scenic City Shakespeare, which performs here in the Chattanooga area - and she is one of the Wolf Trap teaching artists at the Arts-Based Collaborative here on our...

Cam Pritchard (Cam Pritchard) These days, whatever your interests, there’s a podcast waiting for you. How can podcasters connect with their audiences to deepen their engagement - and deliver the metrics that can monetize their content as a business? Station is a tech startup here in Chattanooga that offers a way. Cam Pritchard is co-founder and CEO of Station, one of the companies supported by Bri...

“A Sailor’s Son” at Sculpture Fields at Montague Park in Chattanooga. (Sean Paul Lorentz) Thirty five years ago in California, an earthquake damaged the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The span was torn down and replaced - and in the years since, the salvaged steel has been awarded to artists to repurpose and create something new. Sean Paul Lorentz used some of that steel to...

Sean Paul Lorentz on “A Sailor’s Son” at Sculpture Fields. Podcasting at the next level of business with Station. When embracing the arts spurs the freedom to learn. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

Part of a 60-foot-long steel wall that lists the known names of enslaved people at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Virginia. (monticello.org) How we talk about land shapes what we do - and what we don’t do - with land. Thomas Woltz says “The land is full” - and “We have a responsibility to let the land tell its stories.” He is owner and senior principal of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects -...

(Back to Birding) (Aired Thu 11/14/24) “Back to Birding” is a podcast by Luke Thompson and Patrick Higgins. I heard about it earlier this year when I met Luke - then a student at The Baylor School here in Chattanooga - when I visited his class, taught by Mike Kelly. Back in August, I had a chance to speak with Luke.

Cast members of this year’s production of “The Snow Queen” at Creative Arts Guild. (Creative Arts Guild) (Aired Thu 11/14/24) This time of year, “The Snow Queen” reigns once more in Dalton. Creative Arts Guild and Ballet Dalton present a full-length ballet of the fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen that journeys through the seasons. This year’s production of “The Snow Queen” premieres on Thursday...

(UTC Theatre Co.) ( Aired Thu 11/14/24) Imagine a diner. It’s in rural Kansas - the heart of the heartland - about twenty-five miles west of Kansas City. The diner is a refuge for bus passengers waiting out a snowstorm in the 1950’s - the setting for “Bus Stop,” the play by William Inge. It’s also the latest production from the students of UTC Theatre Co. opens Tuesday, November 19th at 7:30 PM in...

The Beat Of Motown (The Beat Of Motown) (Aired Thu 11/14/24) Motown, the record company founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. in Detroit, powered soul music through the 1960’s and beyond to become one of the most successful Black-owned businesses in this country. This weekend, “The Beat of Motown” comes to Chattanooga - a show with singers and visuals that will highlight twenty-two of Motown’s greatest hits...

“The Beat of Motown” - on stage at the Jewish Cultural Center. Getting real at a Fifties diner: “Bus Stop” from UTC Theatre Co. “The Snow Queen” in Dalton. The “Back to Birding” podcast. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

An 1818 letter from Catharine Brown, a Cherokee student at Brainerd Mission in Chattanooga - part of “Records of Removal” on display at the Chattanooga Public Library. (Chattanooga Public Library) The story of the Trail of Tears runs through what is today Chattanooga. In the late 1830’s, Cherokee and Muscogee families were rounded up in this area, held at Ross’ Landing and other internment camps n...

Aid workers from CNP Haiti, delivering food on the scene. (Children's Nutrition Program of Haiti) (Aired Weds 11/13/24) For more than twenty-five years, a nonprofit based here in Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley has helped women and families to break the cycle of malnutrition in southern Haiti. Over the years, the work of the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti has endured crisis after crisi...

Monique Kuykendoll Quarterman (The Enterprise Center) (Aired Weds 11/13/24) The Enterprise Center partners with the City of Chattanooga, Hamilton County and the State of Tennessee with the goal of “uniting people, organizations and technology to build an advanced and inclusive future for the region.” Think of Tech Goes Home, HCS EdConnect and Chattamatters. This summer, Monique Kuykendoll Quarterm...

The Enterprise Center’s Monique Kuykendoll Quarterman. Dr. Anany Prosper of the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti. “Records of Removal” at the Chattanooga Public Library. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

(Museum and Cultural Center at 5Points) To tell the story of the Ocoee region here in Southeast Tennessee, you have to tell the Indigenous story. On Saturday, December 7th, the Museum and Cultural Center at 5ive Points in Cleveland will host something new: the Whispering Giants Intertribal Native Festival, from 10 AM to 5 PM. Lucy Rymer is the Museum’s executive director. Rain Ironknife Moore is d...

At this year’s Sunday Showcase from the Performing Arts League in the UTC Fine Arts Center. (Performing Arts League) Where does fashion meet theater this week here in Chattanooga? For the Performing Arts League, they meet “On The Town.” That’s the title of a new event for the League - this Friday, starting at 11 AM at The Walden Club - to support the scholarships and grants that the nonprofit prov...

(PatricksPhotos.net / emptybowls.com) Empty Bowls is a community-led effort to curb food insecurity around the world. Here in the Chattanooga area, Be The Change and Scenic City Clay Arts presented the event last year - and on Wednesday, they’re back for more, at The Signal starting at 5:30 PM. Sydney Guerrette is founder of Be the Change. Her mom, Deirdre Catlett, is its operations director. Sara...