Scenic Roots

From Alex Paul Loza’s mural at La Paz Chattanooga. (La Paz Chattanooga) Jose Otero is an educator - a teacher, administrator and translator - at The Howard School here in Chattanooga. Viri Marin launched the Chattanooga Community Fridge in the Highland Park neighborhood during the pandemic to help fight food insecurity. Xavier Cotto - who works in IT - is an engineer and drummer who started XCeed...

Leslie Jordan, from his Instagram video for UTC students in 2020. (thelesliejordan / Instagram) Leslie Jordan was as beloved as he was Chattanooga’s own. The actor and singer - who won an Emmy for his role on TV’s “Will and Grace” - died yesterday in a car crash in Hollywood. He was 67. During the pandemic, Leslie became a social media star with his videos on Instagram. A gay man who grew up in th...

A girl in costume at a past Día de los Muertos at Creative Arts Guild in Dalton. (Creative Arts Guild) Día de los Muertos - or Day of the Dead - is a Latin American tradition, observed mostly in Mexico, that honors the dead with festivals and celebrations. Each year, it falls on November 1st and 2nd - but Creative Arts Guild in Dalton will celebrate early, on Friday starting at 6 PM. Sarah Murry i...

Cast members of CTC’s “August: Osage County.” (Chattanooga Theatre Centre) The next play at Chattanooga Theatre Centre delves into the dark side of a family in Oklahoma for whom the word “dysfunctional” would be an understatement. “August: Osage County” by Tracy Letts - which premieres on Friday - tells a raw tale of revelations about the Weston family. According to CTC, quote: “The show has extre...

Briana Garza & Ella Livingston (Chatt Taste / The Chattery) Let’s talk about entrepreneurship here in Chattanooga. Briana Garza is owner and founder of Chatt Taste Food Tours. Ella Livingston is owner and founder of Cocoa Asante. We bring you this conversation in collaboration with the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga. _____ Our thanks to Woodson Carpenter and the team at the Founda...

Briana Garza and Ella Livingston on entrepreneurship. At CTC, raw revelations unfold in “August: Osage County.” Remembering Leslie Jordan, Chattanooga’s - & UTC’s - own. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

A scene from “Hamlet” by Scenic City Shakespeare at Greenway Farms in Hixson. (Scenic City Shakespeare) In Hixson, “the play’s the thing.” That’s where Scenic City Shakespeare concludes its production of “Hamlet” on Friday and Saturday at Greenway Farms. Emma Collins is co-founder of Scenic City Shakespeare. Arche Twitty plays Hamlet - and Megan Cobb plays Ophelia.

(green|spaces) Start your engines for this year’s Chattanooga Green Prix. The electric vehicle race for students in more than 40 schools in Hamilton County - from elementary to middle to high school - is on Friday and Saturday at the Riverfront, free and open to the public. Madison Rollings is with green|spaces, the sustainability nonprofit that presents the Green Prix.

(Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors) To reinvent Chattanooga as a city in a park, it takes a plan. The Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors Plan is a work in progress - and on Thursday starting at 5 PM, a public workshop on developing the plan will be held at Avondale Community Center. Blythe Bailey is director of design and connectivity for the Chattanooga Department of Parks and Outdoors.

(rawpixel.com) How are businesses and nonprofits here in Chattanooga fulfilling their commitments to be more diverse and more inclusive in their employment practices? The Community Culture Index aims to quantify the answer - one of the first data-driven efforts of its kind for a city of this size, and a potential model for other cities around the country. Wade Hinton is founder and CEO of Hinton a...

A Community Culture Index for employers in Chattanooga. What’s next for the Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors Plan. “To be or not to be” for Hamlet at Scenic City Shakespeare. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

ARKAI (ARKAI Music) Next week, two string musicians - both trained at Julliard in New York City - will perform here on our campus, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. A free concert by the acclaimed duo ARKAI will be held on Monday, October 24th starting at 7:30 PM at the Roland Hayes Hall in UTC’s Fine Arts Center. Jonathan McNair is the Ruth S. Holmberg Professor of American Music at UTC...

Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly (City of Chattanooga) Live here on WUTC, Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly joined us for our monthly conversation. We started with homelessness - and a proposal to convert the blighted Airport Inn on Lee Highway into 70 units of permanent supportive housing.

Our monthly conversation with Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly. Innovative string duo ARKAI performs next week here at UTC. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

A Gibson guitar. (Songbirds Foundation) Two-and-a-half years ago, the onset of the pandemic forced the closure of the earlier version of Songbirds in downtown Chattanooga. Dagan Beckett captured the story of the world’s most extensive collection of vintage guitars. He is a native of this city, an alum of our campus - the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga - and the director of “Songbirds,” a f...

(Creative Commons) A season for writers here on our campus, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga - as our own Richard Winham tells us.

Jenna DeVries (Jenna DeVries) If you’ve seen any of the concerts this fall at Coosa Mill here in Chattanooga, you know how dark and atmospheric the space can be. The next concert in the series comes just in time for Halloween. Singer-songwriter Jenna deVries will headline “Haute Halloween” at the Mill on Saturday, October 29th - starting at 8 PM. I spoke with Jenna - and with Jules Downum of The P...

Jenna DeVries brings “Haute Halloween” to Coosa Mill. Richard Winham on UTC’s Meacham Writers’ Workshop. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

Dr. Saeid Golkar (Dr. Saeid Golkar) A native of Iran who teaches on our campus here at UTC shares his thoughts on the protests in the country where he was born. Our own Mal O'Connell spoke with him.

(Sequatchie Cove Farm) Russia’s war in Ukraine is a timely reminder of how grain has built and toppled nations and empires for centuries. A panel discussion - titled, “What’s Grain Got to Do With It?” - touches on that history, as well as grain production in our region. Here at UTC, the discussion takes place Friday at 7 PM in the Guerry Center - and on Saturday at 10 AM, the discussion will be ho...

Nina Klimenkova and Arsen Martyshchuk on the UTC campus. (Angela Foster / UTC) This semester, two graduate students from war-torn Ukraine joined our campus, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Arsen Martyshchuk is pursuing a Master of Public Administration degree in the Department of Political Science and Public Service. Nina Klimenkova is pursuing an MBA in the Gary W. Rollins College of...

Grad students from Ukraine, living and learning at UTC. A timely talk for our era: “What’s Grain Got To Do With It.” A long view from the UTC campus on the protests in Iran. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center. (Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center) At the end of this month, 90’s by Nature returns to Chattanooga’s outdoors. This year’s nature party with a nostalgic music twist - presented by TrailBlazUS Outdoors - takes place on Saturday, October 29th, starting at 4:30 PM, at Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center. Moise Baptiste is the found...

The wooden sculpture for this year’s “Fire Up the Fields.” (Sculpture Fields at Montague Park) Visit Sculpture Fields at Montague Park in Chattanooga - and you’ll see a 40-foot tall structure made of wood. Designed and constructed by a local artist, it is the centerpiece of this weekend’s “Fire Up the Fields Sculpture Burn” - a free event for the community on Saturday, starting at 5 PM. Come sundo...

Roberto Venegas, seated in center front, holding a jersey during a visit to The Howard School in 2021. (The Howard School) Roberto Venegas is the CEO of Bliones, a marketing firm that serves entrepreneurs in the Latino community here in Chattanooga. I spoke with him recently during Hispanic Heritage Month, for our series of conversations in collaboration with La Paz Chattanooga: a series of conver...