A group of UT students and faculty with a love for jazz shared the love at a yearly charity event called Jazz for Tots. From 7-10 p.m. on November 26, groups of student musicians performed a concert for the small price of an unwrapped toy donation.
While Jazz for Tots won’t come around again until next year, you can find out more information on how to get involved with Toys for Tots on the organization’s official website.
After maintaining notoriously low voter turnout over the last few decades, young Americans are finally raising their voices. Leading up to Election Day on Nov. 6, voters under the age of 30 hit the polls in record numbers.
Dana Lok’s work has been said to bridge the gap between the two arts of painting and theatre. Through use of vivid and detailed visuals, her paintings place viewers on the stage — observing the subjects from two-dimensional and three-dimensional perspectives.
This semester, students of the UT School of Art have the opportunity to learn directly from Lok in a classroom and studio setting as she participates in the school’s Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program. The program, launched in 1982, invites one artist per semester to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in drawing and painting. The artist is selected through a nomination and interview process.
Lok is an alumna of Columbia University and is based in the Brooklyn, N.Y. area. She has been part of numerous of group exhibitions in N.Y., as well as in a wide range of countries including Italy, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. She says that her transition to Knoxville life has been unique and fulfilling.
“I really feel like Knoxville’s this awesome college town where a lot of stuff seems to be up and coming,” stated Lok. She added that the students’ eagerness to showcase and share their work has helped to create “an extremely vibrant and supportive visual community.”
Jered Sprecher, a professor of painting and drawing at the School of Art, says that the AIR program allows students to form bonds with artists that they may later see in galleries, on magazine covers, and teaching at prestigious universities.
The program places an emphasis on bringing in emerging artists from outside the university to engage with students in the realm of contemporary art, often focusing on ideas stemming from influential areas such as NYC, Chicago, and LA.
To learn more about Dana Lok and past artists to participate in the AIR program, visit the UT School of Art’s website.
Broadway Ave. in North Knoxville was missing its usual traffic this past Sunday, but was instead buzzing with bikes, games, and a lot of memory-making. Open Streets Knoxville is a community engagement event that took place this past Sunday, featuring an array of activities and entertainment that continued for roughly a mile down Broadway. The event occurs twice a year – once in the spring and once in the fall.
The next installment of Open Streets will take place in Spring 2019.
At the “Cultural Appropriation vs. Appreciation” panel and open forum hosted by UT’s College of Communication (CCI) last week, panelists and audience members dove into the topic through use of personal anecdotes and celebrity examples such as Miley Cyrus’ controversial performance at the 2013 Video Music Awards.
To watch the recorded livestream of this panel and several others, visit the UT College of Communication and Information’s YouTube channel.
Each Saturday morning from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., the Knoxville community gathers in downtown’s Market Square to enjoy the Market Square Farmers’ Market. Vendors at the event typically include craftspeople, farmers, small business owners, and musicians. Market-goers have plenty of options as the area is also enclosed by Market Square’s many restaurants and shops.
Take a look at some of the sights and sounds of the Sept. 8 Farmers’ Market:
Students who made the decision to join the board for Sexual Empowerment and Awareness at Tennessee (SEAT) have found themselves under widespread public scrutiny this month. Even faculty members associated with the organization have fallen under fire from parents, community members, and public figures in light of SEAT’s most recent and most popular program.
SEAT is the University of Tennessee organization responsible for hosting “Sex Week,” a week-long event featuring seminars and entertainment centered around the promotion of sex positivity and healthy sexual behaviors.
Sex Week 2018 took place from April 6-12. This year’s lineup of programs included “Masturbation Nation,” “Black Liberation Through Sexual Pleasure,” “Butt Stuff 2.0,” and many others, with an average of at least five different programs a day.
Universities nationwide have instituted some version of Sex Week, including Ivy League institutions such as Yale, Princeton, and Harvard. However, few of these institutions have seen as much widespread controversy on the matter as the University of Tennessee. With issues in the realm of both funding and ideological differences, Sex Week at UT has been discussed on a national level.
The local discussion of the event is just as volatile. Sex Week has been equally debated within the university community, notably among the students, themselves.
Explore: UT students react to Sex Week 2018
UT’s Sex Week co-chair, Julie Edwards, said that while the backlash has been a defining obstacle for SEAT since the event’s origin in 2012, the conflict this year mainly started with an opinionated post on evangelist Franklin Graham’s Facebook page.
“[The post was] basically saying that, like, we’re living in sin and we’re destroying the sanctity of marriage and whatnot,” stated Edwards.
Edwards then added that the post’s popularity led to an influx of emails to Chancellor Beverly Davenport asking her to put an end to the ordeal, which Edwards claimed was only a small part of the elicited public response.
“Our Facebook page gets anywhere from two to ten messages a day saying that we’re a disgrace to the University of Tennessee, that people are so glad that their children aren’t coming here, and that we should be ashamed,” Edwards said.
Such controversy has led to logistical issues for SEAT, as well, as it previously caused the withdrawal of a significant portion of Sex Week funding. Today, amidst abstinence-only statutes for Tennessee sex-ed and university budget cuts, the organization still struggles to find stability in the source of its funding.
The Student Programming Allocation Committee (SPAC) is facing a nearly $200,000 cut for the upcoming school year, putting Sex Week and all other student-funded programming at risk of losing a portion of their financial support.
The budget cut follows a proposition by UT’s Vice Chancellor Vincent Carilli and Student Government Association President, Morgan Hartgrove, to establish a fund to cover traveling expenses for student organizations.
Owen Flomberg, a member of Campus Events Board (CEB) at the university, says that while the money will indeed be removed from the SPAC pool, the establishment of the travel fund is not definite.
Flomberg added that the major cut will encompass roughly a fifth of the funds currently allotted to SPAC. He stated that while the loss of funds will affect major campus programming entities like CEB, there is still uncertainty as to how exactly it will affect them.
“The structure of how this money will be allocated is still up in the air,” Flomberg said.
According to Edwards, Sex Week is particularly in danger when it comes to this cut. With the ensuing controversy each year, she claims that she and fellow members of SEAT find themselves having to fight even harder for their share.
The emphasis on abstinence-only education in Tennessee schools plays a part in the negative public stance on Sex Week, Edwards said, specifically when it comes to the 2012 Gateway Law. The bill mandates sex-ed with an emphasis on abstinence until marriage.
“It just states that any gateway sexual behavior is not allowed to be taught in Knoxville County public schools and it’s purposefully left vague,” she stated. “A gateway sexual behavior can be anything — it can be eye contact.”
Edwards attributes this legislation to an existence of more conservative values in the state of Tennessee, which she said overshadows the importance of proper sexual education for students.
“Their prioritization of religious values puts a lot of people who may not share those values at risk,” Edwards said.
The public upset resulting from Sex Week has put more than student health at risk, however, when it comes to the privacy of its organizers.
Sex Week has even caught the attention of members of the alt-right, leading to what Edwards described as harassment towards students and faculty involved with the event.
“We had someone from an alt-right ‘news’ media source on Facebook sharing pictures of our members and opening them up to public criticism,” Edwards stated. “He’s tried to make it a point to come to our events, and because we’re student-funded, we’re not allowed to deny anyone entrance, not even from the public.”
In spite of this cross between criticism and financial uncertainty, Edwards and her fellow SEAT members claim that their main concern is providing a safe space for student conversations about sexual health and well-being. The success of the program, she stated, lies in the sense of solidarity and friendship between those who organize it.
“I’m convinced that the only reason Sex Week is still so successful is that we bring in people who are our friends,” she said.
Along those lines, Edwards’ message to those who don’t support Sex Week and its mission is one of understanding and common ground.
“We really are coming from a common place if you boil it down,” Edwards said. “We just want people to be safe and to be healthy and we want to help them do that.”
At the start of each month, Knoxville comes alive with art, music, and ideas at Downtown Knoxville’s First Friday ArtWalk. The year-round event, hosted by Visit Knoxville, is a local celebration of arts and culture.
The First Friday website affirms that the tradition began approximately 14 years ago and has expanded in recent years. Most facets of the event are free and open to the public, but visitors also have the opportunity to purchase art pieces and refreshments.
As the ArtWalk encompasses far more than one location, visitors are able to catch the Knoxville Area Transit trolley at its Green Line stops for free transportation between Gay Street, Market Square, and the Old City.
At the Emporium Center, one of the ArtWalk’s main hubs, visitors are offered complimentary hors d’oeuvres and three floors’ worth of exhibitions to browse. Artists remain with their work to answer questions and to do live demonstrations.
The venue is managed by the Knoxville Arts and Culture Alliance, a non-profit organization that is responsible for selecting artists and collections to exhibit. According to the Alliance website, exhibitions are unveiled at First Friday and remain in-house until the last Friday of each month.
During the month, the Emporium also showcases several specific artists. April’s featured collections included “Expressions” by Derrick Freeman, an artist diagnosed with autism, as well as “Creativity and Parkinson’s,” a gallery of pieces by several artists diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
Pam Radford, another artist who hosted a studio in the Emporium during the ArtWalk of April 6, filled her space with works completed by both herself and her mother, Sandy White. Radford stated that she and her family have lived in Knoxville for six years.
Radford and her family aren’t the only ones to come from elsewhere and find themselves exploring Knoxville’s art scene. She mentioned the fact that the First Friday ArtWalk has attracted the attention of more than just the local community.
“We get a lot of different people coming in from all over,” Radford said. “We’ve had people, you know, from other parts of the world come in that were visiting Knoxville.”
The First Friday ArtWalk not only connects artists with art enthusiasts, but also connects artists with other artists. Such was the case when painter Bobbie Crews gained inspiration for one of her latest pieces from jazz artist Kelle Jolly.
“This one of Kelle Jolly, I did a few weeks ago when they had the Women in Jazz Festival and she was out here singing,” said Crews.
The First Friday ArtWalk runs between approximately 5 and 9 p.m. at the discretion of each venue. A list of all of the establishments that took part in April’s ArtWalk can be found on the Downtown Knoxville website.
Next month’s First Friday ArtWalk is scheduled to take place on May 4 at 5 p.m.
Often referred to as the “Bible Belt,” the U.S. South boasts a population in which approximately 70 percent of adults identify with some denomination of Christianity. Of the seven included states, several have claimed to be the “buckle” of this notorious belt.
Explore: The U.S. Bible Belt Story Map
Statistics might speak in favor of Tennessee for this nomination. According to the Pew Research Center, more than 80 percent of the Tennessee population alone is Christian, leaving less than 20 percent to fall into some other religious or non-religious category.
While the number of religious and non-religious organizations on the University of Tennessee’s campus is expansive and of a wide variety, only a fraction of them have much presence in the public sphere.
The most accessible database of these groups can be found on the UTK Campus Ministers Council website. However, only one of the organizations listed is not Christian in nature, even though countless other faiths have assembled on campus.
This might be due to the fact that the Campus Ministers Council is not directly affiliated with the university, but perhaps also to a widespread lack of representation for religious and non-religious minorities.
What does this mean for non-Christian religions?
Especially for students like Dena Baker, an officer of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) on campus, this means that her organization has become a family.
“We want to teach people about Muslims and who we really are. We try to put on a good face for everybody,” Baker said. “Also, we just want to help people.”
With such a mindset of cooperation and understanding, students like Baker and her MSA companions are agents of change both on campus and in the world at large. However, it’s uncertain as to how much the world will be willing to change its mind for them.
Since the infamous attacks taken out on the U.S. by Islamic terrorists in 2001, anti-Islamic sentiments have risen as part of a phenomenon commonly known as islamophobia. This islamophobia has taken root in some of the more conservative parts of the country, which makes the Bible Belt a major breeding ground for these hateful sentiments.
Baker confirmed that she has felt very secure in her religious identity in the Knoxville community. Still, she stated that the MSA has experienced prejudice in the past. One of the more shocking examples Baker cited is that of students stepping on the Quran.
“Stuff like that has happened; we just try to be as mature about it as possible and to spread love instead of hate,” she added.
What about those who don’t practice a religion?
Believe it or not, the story is not much different. According to Michael Parker of the Secular Student Alliance (SSA) at UT, one advantage is that it’s much harder to ID an atheist who wears no religious garment or visual symbol such as a hijab.
“You’re going to face adversity when you’re different — whether that be race, religion, sexual orientation, or a million other things,” said Parker.
However, similar to Baker, Parker maintained that he feels accepted in his non-religious identity as both a citizen of Knoxville and member of the campus community. He mentioned that this tolerance might be due in part to the open-minded nature of most college campuses.
As he grew up in a smaller and more conservative Tennessee town, Parker still has memories of not being accepted for his beliefs. This fact makes it even more important that he and anyone else can openly express themselves within the SSA.
“We want to give people a place to come in, talk, share opposing values without having to worry about any kind of backlash,” he stated.
Why is Christianity so normalized in the first place?
“What we call the Second Great Awakening was not exclusively centered in the South, but one of its major epicenters was here in this region.”
Dr. Randal Hepner of the Religious Studies department at UT attributes the predominant Christianity of the Bible Belt to a variety of complex historical events, one of which might be the Second Great Awakening, a religious revival that took place in the 18th and 19th century United States.
Furthermore, after the Civil War, Tennessee was especially staunch in its beliefs, not solely concerning religion, but also in terms of issues such as slavery.
“There was a role played by evangelical Christianity, white evangelical Christianity specifically, in justifying or legitimating the slave trade,” said Hepner.
Several biblical passages have been debated as to whether or not they indicate pro-slavery ideals as it was a usual facet of the biblical era.
This isn’t to say that Christianity was or is inherently supportive of slavery. It is reasonable to say, however, that the predominance of Christianity did not leave any room for traditional African religions, many of which were squelched in the U.S. South as a result of Christianization.
While modern Christian faiths almost unanimously denounce these institutions of the past, Christianization itself is a trend that has stood the test of time.
Christianity isn’t intrinsically bad, it’s just big
Many Christians assert that this spreading of the gospel is a pivotal facet of practicing the religion. Per this ideology, to be a Christian is to enlighten one’s neighbor with evangelical ideals.
Of the many Christian student organizations at UT, Volunteers for Christ (VFC) is perhaps one of the most notorious. As a campus staff intern with VFC, student Bria Bannister says that her life is defined by both practicing her faith and sharing it with others.
“We want people to be won to Christ because we believe that’s what the Bible teaches. That’s what your life is about— worshipping the Lord,” Bannister explained.
Bannister did agree with the notion that there are both positive and negative results of what she called a predominant “Christian culture.” She said that such a culture sometimes causes people to hide their true religious identities.
Knoxville: setting the standard for interfaith dialogue
“I think that you can find people in Knoxville who are as tolerant as people anywhere else in the United States,” said Hepner.
Eboo Patel, founder of a national youth organization called the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), visited UT in February to inform students about the benefits of a religiously pluralistic society.
“The idea of pluralism is being less of who you are in order to better cooperate with others,” stated Patel during his lecture.
It was this lecture that inspired several students from religious organizations around campus to unite and form the new Interfaith Network at UT. The group has a goal of creating a roundtable for constructive interfaith dialogue.
Leaders like Patel and the driven students behind these organizations are changing the narrative simply by starting conversations such as these. In spite of previous and ongoing tensions sparked by interpersonal differences such as religion, universities like UT are serving as a big orange light in the dark.
The question of Earth’s changing climate is one that has been endlessly debated for decades, most notably in the United States. Climate change, a shift in global climate patterns, has been found to be the result of excessive carbon dioxide emissions. Statistics gathered by the National Snow and Ice Data Center say that arctic sea ice is melting at a rate of 3.1 percent per decade — a possible result of the phenomenon.
As part of the Distinguished Lecture Series hosted by the University of Tennessee’s Tickle College of Engineering, students were given the opportunity to learn about an environmentally-sensible initiative piloted by a U.S. giant of scientific research. The lecturer, Fay Collier of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is the Project Manager of the Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project (ERA), a 6-year effort to reduce the environmental impact of commercial flights.
Collier’s lecture took place in UT’s Min H. Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building on Monday, March 5. Entitled “The Value and Challenges of Integrated Technology Demonstrations,” the presentation touched on both engineering and cooperation as Collier also informed students on how to properly work with a team.
“People have different viewpoints, perspectives, and ideas, but ultimately you have to move forward,” said Collier near the beginning of his talk.
Listen: 3/5| NASA’s Fay Collier speaks on team ethic
The ERA project makes a bigger comment on the state of affairs on the more corporate side of the fight against climate change. Of the goals cited in his lecture, Collier mentioned that a universal effort in all research projects should be to link those projects to national goals.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the main purveyor of the goals in question. Per the group’s mission statement on the EPA website, the reduction of environmental risk should be based on the high quality of scientific research for which NASA is notorious.
To this end, Collier discussed two of the more concrete goals of the project: to reduce the carbon footprint of aviation by 50 percent by the year 2050 as well as to contain objectionable noise within the airport boundary. In layman’s terms, Collier’s team worked to decrease fuel burn and to reduce aircraft noise to about the same level as highway noise.
Amidst the ongoing national controversy about potential environmental threats, a project such as the ERA project might serve as a pioneer for future large-scale changes in U.S. industries. To learn more about Collier’s team and the ERA project, read the press release available on the NASA website.
Sway la vie 