Scenic Roots

Here in Chattanooga, Skill Up is a series of courses to help workers upgrade their skills for better jobs while still getting paid to go to school. It’s a partnership between Chattanooga State, the Benwood Foundation, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and local employers. Last month, the Regions Foundation - the philanthropic organization of Regions Bank - donated 90,000 dollars to support...

SoundCorps - the nonprofit that supports musicians in the Chattanooga area - recently created a new program to increase access to the training and technology involved in professional grade live streaming. It is called “Bandwidth.”    Stratton Tingle is executive director of SoundCorps.  

Michael Mathis of Regions Bank on Skill Up for better jobs. SoundCorps’ Stratton Tingle on Bandwidth for musicians. Glass House Collective - and a Jewish documentary series. These stories - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”          

A conversation on this moment of reckoning for America. Beverly Foster of the Walker County Remembrance Coalition. Cecil Williams III on "The Adventures of Cecil." These stories - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”  

(Alan Shikoh / Facebook) Richard Winham shares a performance by guitarist Alan Shikoh, recorded last fall downtown at The Chattanooga Public Library.        

(Performing Arts League / Facebook) The Performing Arts League here in the Chattanooga area supports young people who want to participate in the performing arts.    Tomorrow and Saturday, from 3:30 PM to 9 PM, the League and UTC’s Performing Arts Program will share online a “Video Showcase of Young Performers” - featuring actors, dancers, instrumentalists and singers - to help raise money for the...

(Andrew Najberg / Facebook) Andrew Najberg is a poet - and a lecturer on our campus, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. His collection of poems - “The Goats Have Taken Over The Barracks” - will be released in March. Next Thursday, at 6:30 PM on Zoom, Andrew will read from his collection, joining fellow poets Jeff Hardin and Jesse Graves for an evening of poetry.  Details on Andrew’s websi...

(Bird Fork Farm / Instagram) Alysia Leon and Stephanie Martin are the co-owners of Bird Fork Farm, up on Cagle Mountain near Dunlap. Their produce is certified naturally grown for the Chattanooga area and beyond - which means they use no synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers or GMOs in what they grow.

(The DEO Clinic) The DEO Clinic in Dalton, Georgia provides free health care services to people with low incomes and no insurance of their own. Over the summer, Heather Donahue became the clinic’s executive director - in the early months of the pandemic.        

Heather Donahue, executive director of The DEO Clinic. Alysia Leon and Stephanie Martin, co-owners of Bird Fork Farm. Poet Andrew Najberg - and the Performing Arts League. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”    

(northwestgeorgianews.com) Back in the fall, Walker County became the first county in Northwest Georgia to install a lynching memorial. It’s a marker on the grounds of the Marsh House in LaFayette:  the Memorial of Reconciliation, Peace and Justice. Beverly Foster leads the Walker County Remembrance Coalition, which led the campaign to create the marker. What you will hear is part conversation - a...

(Creative Commons) A week after the rioting and deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol in Washington - and on this day of the vote in the House of Representatives to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time - we want to share a conversation that included two scholars on our campus: The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.   Chandra Ward is assistant professor of sociology here at UTC - and Jo...

A conversation on this moment of reckoning for America. Beverly Foster of the Walker County Remembrance Coalition. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”          

(The Adventures of Cecil / Facebook) A few years ago, Cecil Williams III of Chattanooga decided he wanted to live more - despite his physical challenges.     Back in 2003, he and his cousin were injured in a head-on collision, totaling his car and leaving him with a fractured right wrist. A year later, a doctor diagnosed Cecil with a nerve disease that would worsen over time - weakening his limbs...

(Nathalie DuPre) A climber here in Chattanooga hopes to help create a Black-led guide service as one way to make the sport more diverse. Heath Rowland at Ground Up Sales works with climbing brands throughout the industry and outdoor retailers here in the Southeast. Before the holidays, I spoke with him - and Brandon Belcher, a climber based in Atlanta whose own story inspired Heath to take action....

(University of South Carolina Press) Rob Simbeck is one of the most widely-read naturalists here in the Southeast. Back in the fall, I caught up with the Nashville-based author about his latest book, "The Southern Wildlife Watcher:  Notes of a Naturalist." He tells the stories of three dozen creatures - common and not so common - around us, from the hummingbird and the bald eagle to the bullfrog t...

(MLK Neighborhood Association of Chattanooga / Facebook) In 1969, the year after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, The Unity Group was formed here in Chattanooga. Over the decades, the group’s activists have pushed for Black candidates to win local elected office in this city and in Hamilton County, advocated for a national holiday for Dr. King - and more. This year, because...

The Unity Group of Chattanooga’s virtual MLK Week. Author Rob Simbeck on “The Southern Wildlife Watcher.” A guide service for Black climbers - and Cecil Williams III. These stories - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”  

(findaband.com) Richard Winham shares a virtual performance by A Tale of Two - a duo in Nashville described as “a couple of steamy storytellers with a penchant for Southern gothic tales and bluesy Americana” - for the Mountain Spirit Acoustic Series at the Isis Music Hall in Asheville, NC. (First aired Mon 9/28/20)

Here in the Tennessee Valley, rare minnows are in trouble. How does that affect our ecosystem - and what can be done?   Back in the fall, I spoke with Bernie Kuhadja, an aquatic conservation biologist at the Tennessee Aquarium’s Conservation Institute here in Chattanooga.   

(SBMCC / Facebook) More than a decade after it opened in a former church, the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center in Alabama will be renovated this month. The museum remembers nine Black teenagers - four of them from Chattanooga - who were falsely accused of raping two white women while traveling through Jackson County, Alabama by train in 1931. The defendants were held in Scottsboro during...

A renovation for the Scottsboro Boys Museum in Alabama. The Tennessee Aquarium’s Bernie Kuhadja on rare minnows. Mountain Spirit Rewind:  Nashville’s A Tale Of  Two. These voices - and more - on this edition of “Scenic Roots.”          

(The Tennessee Ruminators / Facebook) In this encore episode of “Scenic Roots:  Live In The Library,” Richard Winham shares a performance by The Tennessee Ruminators - John Rawlston and Kathy Veazey - recorded live downtown at The Chattanooga Public Library.  (First aired:  Fri 11/13/20)

(ABC@UTC) Paige Retchko is a dancer who believes in how what she teaches can inspire and empower students - transcending age, culture and abilities. During her seven years at Creative Arts Guild in Dalton, Georgia, she helped build and produce “The Snow Queen” - its annual classical ballet.   I spoke with Paige about her work as one of the teaching artists in our community through the Wolf Trap pr...

(Chambliss Center for Children) Chambliss Center for Children here in Chattanooga is now partnering with a nonprofit in Northeast Tennessee to provide a “comforting, loving space” for children in state custody who are waiting for a foster placement.      I spoke with Katie Harbison, president of Chambliss - and Ronda Paulson, the founder of Isaiah 117 House. The Chambliss website is:  chamblisscen...