Scenic Roots

(Clear Life Recovery, an addiction treatment center in California) Last year, 226 people here in Hamilton County died from drugs, according to the County’s Health Department. Seventy-two percent of those drug-related deaths involved fentanyl, which can be up to 50 times stronger than heroin - often mixed with other drugs. Hamilton County is among local governments here in Tennessee receiving money...

Hamilton County’s Innovative Response to Opioids Grants. Music at Mizpah with the Emily Nelson Rodgers Quartet. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

Matt McGauley (Tennessee Housing Development Agency) Sometimes, a career path is anything but a straight line - even if the path seems logical in retrospect. Just ask Matt McGauley. He’s the president and CEO of FTC Development - formerly known as Fidelity Trust Company - the fourth generation to lead a family business that is the oldest real estate firm in Chattanooga. Last month, we talked about...

Dr. Stephanie Young (Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga / Facebook) “Together We Can” is one of the most successful college scholarship programs for public high school students in this area provided by the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga. Since the Foundation established the scholarship in partnership with the City of Chattanooga in 1992, more than 1,500 students in Hamilton C...

(CALEB) Near the end of August, the City of Chattanooga under Mayor Tim Kelly’s administration released its first-ever Housing Action Plan, a roadmap of recommendations to tackle the affordable housing crisis - including homelessness - and expand homeownership in this city. As the City Council weighs in on the plan, so are community groups such as the nonprofit CALEB: Chattanooga in Action for Lov...

Dr. Larry Sargent, preparing Beth Wilson for her mid-face surgical procedure during the film of “Beautiful Faces.” (Holt Webb Photography) “Beautiful Faces” is a new documentary that explores the extraordinary work of a surgeon here in Chattanooga through the journey of three of his patients and their families. The surgeon is Dr. Larry Sargent, the founder and director of the Craniofacial Center a...

The new documentary “Beautiful Faces” - coming to UTC. Feedback on an affordable housing roadmap for Chattanooga. Scholarships that build bridges to unlock opportunities. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

Banner for “Art / Contour.” (Chattanooga Ballet) This weekend, Chattanooga Ballet brings four contemporary ballets from four world-class choreographers here to our campus. “Art / Contour” is Saturday starting at 6 PM - and Sunday starting at 3 PM - at the Roland Hayes Theater in the UTC Fine Arts Center. Brian McSween is CEO and artistic director of Chattanooga Ballet. My’Kal Stromile, a dancer an...

Laurel Rhyne (UTC) Laurel Rhyne teaches students in the School of Nursing here on our campus, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. On Friday, she will talk about her role beyond the classroom - as what is known as a “sacred passage doula” - during the Demystifying Death conference, presented by Welcome Home of Chattanooga with the UTC School of Nursing as a sponsor. Friday’s conference runs...

UTC’s Laurel Rhyne on the work of a sacred passage doula. “Art / Contour” from Chattanooga Ballet on the UTC campus. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

(all that improbable blue / Creative Commons) Cities shape the music that is made in them. Think of the music that has emerged from Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga across genres and generations. How can - and should - music help drive what cities are and what they can be? Shain Shapiro tackles that question in his book “This Must Be the Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better,” recently publ...

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” is the next play for the centennial season at Chattanooga Theatre Centre. The play by Edward Albee - published, produced and debuted on Broadway in 1962 - opens Friday at CTC, starting at 7:30 PM, appropriate for mature audiences. Wendy Tippens plays Martha. (Chattanooga Theatre Centre)

George Singleton (George Singleton) George Singleton is a storyteller from the South and of the South whose stories reach beyond this place we call home. This fall, there’s a bumper crop from the writer in Spartanburg, South Carolina: “The Curious Lives of Nonprofit Martyrs,” a collection of short fiction, published by Dzanc Books - and “Asides,” a collection of essays, published by EastOver Press...

A double batch of new books by author George Singleton. Reality vs. illusion in CTC’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga (Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga) For this episode of "One for All," Dr. Shewanee Howard-Baptiste of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Dr. Quincy Jenkins of Chattanooga State Community College. Woodson Carpenter (Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga) Dr. Shewanee Howard Baptiste (Angela Foster / UTC / University of Tenness...

(Etienne Giradet / Unsplash) Chattanooga is a storytelling town - and storytelling has a home throughout the Tennessee Valley. A recent example of storytelling on our campus - the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga - is Narrative 4, a global storytelling organization that works with educators, artists and students to make connections, break stereotypes and spur positive change. Narrative 4 use...

"Ardent" by Andrew Light at Sculpture Fields. (Sculpture Fields at Montague Park) If you’ve ever visited Sculpture Fields at Montague Park here in Chattanooga, maybe you’ve wondered about the artists behind the sculptures that are all around you. What stories can those artists and their sculptures tell you? This weekend, Sculpture Fields hosts Fire Up the Fields - its annual sculpture burn - on Sa...

The third and final part of our Sculpture Fields convo series. Changing the World with Stories: Narrative 4 here at UTC. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

From “Love Gets a Room,” one of the films in this year’s Chattanooga Jewish Film Series. (Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga) The Chattanooga Jewish Film Series returns this weekend. Five films - all award-winning, all Jewish-themed from France, Israel, Poland and this country - will be screened in person at the Jewish Cultural Center and available virtually over the next five weeks - starti...

A child preparing food with a Little Nest design. (Little Nest) Cat De Vos is a mom and an entrepreneur here in Chattanooga. Her story of balancing motherhood and navigating a career transition to create her own business - Little Nest, a business to help families reorganize their homes according to Montessori principles - was featured just a few weeks ago in The Washington Post . Cat De Vos (Littl...

“Renegade” by Chakaia Booker - installed at Sculpture Fields in 2021 (Sculpture Fields at Montague Park) This weekend here in Chattanooga, the largest sculpture park in the Southeast hosts its annual sculpture burn. Fire Up the Fields is Saturday - starting at 5:30 PM - at Sculpture Fields at Montague Park in the Southside neighborhood. The vision for the future of Sculpture Fields looks bright -...

Part two of our conversation series on Sculpture Fields. Meet the mom and entrepreneur who founded Little Nest. Five weeks this fall: The Chattanooga Jewish Film Series. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

Dr. Cynthia Orozco, holding a copy of her book on Alonso S. Perales in 2022. (The Cuero Record (Cuero, TX)) He was a lawyer, a diplomat - and an activist for civil rights for Mexican-Americans. Alonso S. Perales was born in San Antonio - and his life and work spanned the first half of the last century. A few years ago, Dr. Cynthia Orozco wrote a book about him: “Pioneer of Mexican-American Civil R...

An aerial view of Sculpture Fields at Montague Park. (Sculpture Fields at Montague Park) More than a century ago - in 1911 - Mary Thayer Montague donated 49 acres of pristine land to the City of Chattanooga for use as a park. But by the 1940’s, the park in the Southside had become a construction landfill. Later, Montague Park was used for recreation: kite competitions, motocross racing, softball t...

Part I of our conversation series on Sculpture Fields. The life of a civil rights advocate for Mexican-Americans. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”