Scenic Roots

(Bessie Smith Cultural Center) For the start of this Black History Month, the Bessie Smith Cultural Center in downtown Chattanooga on Thursday will host the first of four events - one event a week - throughout February. Elijah Cameron is with the Bessie. (Bessie Smith Cultural Center)

The cast of “Seven Guitars” at Chattanooga Theatre Centre. (Chattanooga Theatre Centre) Across ten plays, August Wilson chronicled the Black experience in this country during the 20th Century. Among the plays of his Century Cycle - each play set in a different decade: “Fences,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “The Piano Lesson.”In the past few years, Chattanooga Theatre Centre has presented plays f...

“Seven Guitars” from August Wilson’s Century Cycle at CTC. BHM at the Bessie; “Origins” at Creative Arts Guild in Dalton. For ETC’s New Beginnings: “Short Attention Span Theatre.” These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

Charles Osgood - on the set of CBS News Sunday Morning. (CBS News) I am here because of a storyteller. Year after year, millions of people across the country would tune in to hear him - and see him. Charles Osgood was the host of CBS News Sunday Morning for more than 22 years - but his first love in broadcasting was radio. I know it well. I worked for Charlie as his final producer in New York for...

From last year’s Sunday Showcase at UTC. (Performing Arts League) This weekend, the Sunday Showcase returns to our campus, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Young performers will display their talents to support the Performing Arts League - starting at 3 PM on Sunday in the Fine Arts Center here at UTC - featuring choral and instrumental music, dance, drama and musical theater. Karen Wil...

(How to Sue the Klan) It happened here in Chattanooga forty-four years ago down the road from our studios today here at WUTC. In 1980, four Black women were waiting for a cab on Ninth St. - now Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. A car driven by a local leader of the Ku Klux Klan passed them. His passengers in the car - also Klansmen - fired shotgun blasts from an open window of the car at the four...

A Chattanooga story: the documentary “How to Sue the Klan.” Sunday Showcase for the Performing Arts League at UTC. For Charlie: remembering broadcast legend Charles Osgood. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

(Artists at Work) Robert Winslow is a documentary filmmaker and journalist here in Chattanooga. For the past decade, his series of films - Southern Dialogues - has tackled major questions in this community and in our corner of the Southeast. In February and March, he will screen the series at Barking Legs Theater here in Chattanooga.

Brandon Bolen (Mississippi College) Credit cards, installment loans and cash advances are examples of what are known as “small-dollar credit products.” Brandon Bolen - an economist at Mississippi College - can tell you plenty about them. This week, he will give a talk on our campus - the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga - titled “Credit for Me, but Not for Thee: Small-Dollar Loans and Intere...

A bike on a trail in Chattanooga. (Outdoor Chattanooga) For the past two decades, Outdoor Chattanooga has connected people in this city with the outdoor offerings around us. Now, it’s looking to the future with a new strategic plan. Gail Loveland Barille is director of Outdoor Chattanooga, part of the City of Chattanooga's Parks & Outdoors.

“Wellness in a Park” banner from Chattanooga Parks & Outdoors. (Chattanooga Parks & Outdoors) A city in a park - and a National Park City - are two phrases we heard last year about envisioning the future of the City of Chattanooga’s Parks and Outdoors. Building on that work continues in the new year. Scott Martin is administrator for Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors.

Scott Martin of the City of Chattanooga’s Parks & Outdoors. A new strategic plan for Outdoor Chattanooga’s next chapter. Next at UTC’s Probasco Lecture: Economist Brandon Bolen. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

“Heads/Tails: Walker & Broadway 4” by Madeline Hollander - part of “Networked Nature” at the Hunter Museum in Chattanooga. (Hunter Museum of American Art) Artificial intelligence. Machine learning. Algorithms. How can we express their potential in art as they reshape art? “Networked Nature” is a new exhibition that connects the dots at the Hunter Museum of American Art here in Chattanooga....

Farmer Alysia Leon holding milky oats at Bird Fork Farm in Sequatchie County, TN. (Food As A Verb) “Stories that feed people” is the media menu at Food as a Verb. The online startup tells the stories of local food, farmers, chefs and restaurants - and the deeper stories behind those stories - here in the Chattanooga area. David Cook - journalist, educator, wannabe farmer and former columnist at th...

Digging into stories of local food with Food as a Verb’s David Cook. Creative connectivity: “Networked Nature” at the Hunter Museum. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

Matthew Dutton Matthew Dutton is a creative whirlwind here in Chattanooga. As an artist, he explores attraction, repulsion and what you might call “whimsical horror” in his work. Explore Matthew’s world in “Beautifully Bizarre” - the latest story by “Greater Chattanooga” from our public media partner WTCI PBS. _____ Watch “Beautifully Bizarre” online at greaterchattanooga.org and on Facebook .

An Intro to Mountain Biking class at Outdoor Chattanooga. (Outdoor Chattanooga) Chattanooga is a magnet for mountain bikes. Miles of wooded trails create a playground for the local cycling community - and attract adventure seekers from across the Southeast. William Newlin of Chattamatters looks at the local mountain biking scene - and the newest set of trails to open here in Chattanooga. _____ Vis...

Part of a Dolly Parton painting by Chattanooga artist Olivia Reckert. (Olivia Reckert / Instagram) For Dolly Parton’s birthday on Friday, the Chattanooga Public Library and Signal Centers are celebrating from … you guessed it: 9 to 5. “Reading 9 to 5” is a Dolly-themed takeover at the Library on Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM that highlights literacy and the singer’s Imagination Library - a book gifting...

High Fidelity Bluegrass Band opens this year’s WoodSongs Dalton concert series on Saturday, January 27th. (High Fidelity Bluegrass Band / Facebook) WoodSongs Dalton is an Americana concert series that supports the DEO Clinic, a health care nonprofit for low-income uninsured residents in the Dalton area. At the end of this month, the series returns with the first of four concerts on Saturday, Janua...

Music that matters at the WoodSongs Dalton concert series. “Reading 9 to 5” on Dolly Parton’s birthday in Chattanooga. From Chattamatters: Shred! The world of mountain biking. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

A glass of beer and books for the WTCI PBS Ale tRail. (WTCI PBS) Buy a pint and raise a glass for our public media partner WTCI PBS here in Chattanooga. WTCI has teamed up with local craft breweries to launch the Ale tRail for people 21 and older. The R in tRail is capitalized in honor of this city’s rail past - and the key ingredient for this fundraiser is fun. Beth Dorsey is business development...

“The Dutch House (Foyer)” by Becky Suss - one of the paintings on display at the Institute of Contemporary Art on the UTC campus. (Becky Suss / Jack Shainman Gallery, New York<br/>) Memories can endure in the homes in which they were made. Crystalize those memories through creativity - and they become art. Ann Patchett - a Tennessee native - wrote the novel “The Dutch House,” set in a fictio...

A portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. by Chattanooga artist Jerry Allen - commissioned by the Bessie Smith Cultural Center for “O King.” (Jerry Allen / Bessie Smith Cultural Center) This year’s holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr. was a few days ago - but next week, the celebration continues here in Chattanooga. “O King” is a tribute to the legacy and work of the civil rights leader and his associat...

“O King” - music and words for MLK here in Chattanooga. At ICA at UTC: From pages to paintings in “The Dutch House.” Buy a pint and raise a glass on the Ale tRail for WTCI PBS. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

Each month, SoundCorps - the music nonprofit here in Chattanooga - showcases five locally-produced songs in “SoundBites,” which supports our own musicians. Stratton Tingle - executive director of SoundCorps - shares the latest SoundBites with us.