Scenic Roots

Warehouse at the Chattanooga Area Food Bank. (Chattanooga Area Food Bank) Food banks across the country are feeling the pinch. Demand is high from the people who need them, as inflation soars and supply chain issues persist. The Chattanooga Area Food Bank - a member of Feeding America - serves 20 counties in Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia. Melissa Blevins is the Food Bank’s executive di...

Pressures on our own food banks, beyond the pandemic. On the road to rebrand, Girl Stance deepens its practice. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

John Dekle, a woodturner in Soddy-Daisy, crafts his next piece. (Cameron McLean / WUTC) Woodturning is a craft that requires specific tools, a certain skill and a lot of patience to carve pieces of wood into items as precise as a pen. Our own Cameron McLean met a woodturner outside Chattanooga. John Dekle with his woodturning setup. (Cameron McLean / WUTC)

(SoLit) This month, nine authors across genres in Chattanooga will gather for a celebration of this city’s homegrown literature. On Thursday, August 25th, Southern Lit Alliance - now known as SoLit - will present the Chattanooga Author Showcase at Stove Works, starting at 6 PM. Lynda LeVan is SoLit’s executive director - and one of the featured authors at the showcase will be Natalie Lloyd, a best...

Children at a Splash Youth Arts Workshop class. (Splash Youth Arts Workshop) Artists Charlie and Iantha Newton created Splash Youth Arts Workshop to offer free art workshops to Chattanooga’s youth all year round. On Saturday, August 20th, the nonprofit hosts the Splash Summer Arts Festival in Miller Park. Charlie Newton (Charlie Newton / Facebook) I spoke with Charlie Newton - and T-RAN, a Chattan...

Charlie Newton & T-RAN on the Splash Summer Arts Festival. Lynda LeVan & Natalie Lloyd on the Chattanooga Author Showcase. Our own Cameron McLean visits a woodturner in Soddy-Daisy. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

Next-gen homes in Chattanooga. (green|spaces) How should we design and construct the sustainable buildings of tomorrow? You’ll find the shape of things to come next week at the Regenerative Design Summit here in Chattanooga. green|spaces, the environmental nonprofit, will host the summit - on Tuesday, August 9th and Wednesday, August 10th - at the Westin Chattanooga. Madison Rollings is green|spac...

A duplex project under construction in Chattanooga. (Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise) Here in Chattanooga and Hamilton County, the affordable housing crisis hits homeowners, homebuyers and renters all at once. How we arrived here began before the pandemic and soaring inflation - and any solutions that will help, whether in the pipeline or proposals for consideration, will take time to make an...

CNE’s Martina Guilfoil on the affordable housing crisis. green|spaces hosts a regenerative design summit. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly, signing the 2022 - 2023 city budget at City Hall. (City Of Chattanooga) Yesterday afternoon, Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly visited our new space here at WUTC - and facing a panorama view of downtown Chattanooga, we sat down for our latest monthly conversation.

Woodson Carpenter (Cam Flaisch / CFGC) Woodson Carpenter speaks with Maeghan Jones and Dwayne Marshall in the latest episode of “One for All” - a storytelling partnership between the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga and “Scenic Roots.” (CFGC)

Back Alley Productions’ cast of “No Exit” at the Mars Theatre in LaFayette, GA. (Back Alley Productions) If you’re feeling existential these days, there’s a play for you in Northwest Georgia. On Friday at 8 PM, “No Exit” - by Jean-Paul Sartre - premieres at Back Alley Productions in LaFayette. Madison Smith is executive director - and one of the founding members - of Back Alley Productions.

Col. Jack Jacobs (Congressional Medal of Honor Society) Jack Jacobs is a retired U.S. Army colonel who served in Vietnam. He is a recipient of the Medal of Honor, this nation’s highest military award for valor. A few days ago, Col. Jacobs came to Chattanooga. He visited the Charles H. Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center - and our campus here at UTC, as part of this summer’s Veterans E...

Director Blake Harris and actress Madeline Young, both UTC graduates, at a rehearsal for the Obvious Dad theatre company production of “Woyzeck.” (Obvious Dad via UTC) Theatre is more than an art - it’s also a business. It takes a creative skillset to turn what’s on the stage into business, so the show that must go on does go on. This fall, students on our campus - the University of Tennessee at C...

(CyberHades via Creative Commons) Sixty years ago, what became the Ochs Center was founded here in Chattanooga. For decades, the nonprofit gathered and analyzed data on the state of this city - from public schools to economic disparities to gang violence. In 2015, the Ochs Center closed its doors - but its story did not end there. Today, the Center has refocused its mission with a new funding mode...

Maryanne Cunningham of Chattanooga’s Ochs Center. Entrepreneurship in theatre – and for veterans – at UTC. The door opens to “No Exit” at Back Alley Productions.

Photos at a recent SnapChatt session. (Epilepsy Foundation of Southeast Tennessee) Here in Tennessee, between 7,000 and 12,000 children live with epilepsy. In this area, the Epilepsy Foundation of Southeast Tennessee is one nonprofit that tries to help them through art, as our own Cameron McClain tells us. Banner for SnapChatt (Epilepsy Foundation of Southeast Tennessee)

Dr. Veronica Herrera (The McCallie School) How to build bridges between cultures? Our own Justin Turner talked to a few practitioners here in Chattanooga. Dr. Veronica Herrera with some of her McCallie students. (The McCallie School)

Jennifer Kearns with a sound therapy patient. (Theta Therapy) On Gunbarrel Road here in Chattanooga, you’ll now find a place that offers sound therapy for healing and stress relief. Our own Richard Winham tells us more. Jennifer Kearns with a sound therapy patient. (Theta Therapy)

Hamilton County Schools logo (Hamilton County Schools) Election day in Hamilton County is a week from Thursday. Early voting is already in full swing - and among the closely watched contests are for the Hamilton County school board. Carmen Nesbitt is education reporter for The Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Carmen Nesbitt, Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter. Richard Winham on sound therapy for healing and stress relief. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots."

A photo in “From Where Loss Comes.” (Charcoal Books) Pradip Malde chronicles experiences of loss and sacrifice, memory and meaning, with his camera. A child of Indian immigrants to East Africa, he and his family left his native Tanzania more than fifty years ago as refugees during the chaos of the 1970’s. Today, Malde is an art professor at the University of the South in Sewanee. He has traveled t...

(visitchattanooga.com) The national surge in COVID-19 infections includes nine counties here in the Chattanooga area considered at high risk for infection by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Elizabeth Fite - health care reporter for The Chattanooga Times Free Press - is monitoring the rise of cases and hospitalizations.

Elizabeth Fite, reporter for The Chattanooga Times Free Press. Pradip Malde of the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”

(Artistic Civic Theatre) “Something Rotten!” is a musical comedy set in the London theater world during the age of William Shakespeare. Two brothers - Nick and Nigel Bottom - are desperate to write their own hit play, until a visit from a soothsayer inspires them to try to write the world’s first musical. Next week, “Something Rotten!” comes to Artistic Civic Theatre in Dalton - premiering on Frid...