July is packed with exhibitions, programs, film screenings, and opportunities to explore East Tennessee history and culture.
What’s Your Tenn-I-See? Thursday, July 16 | 6:30 – 8:30 | East Tennessee History Center
The East Tennessee Historical Society and the Knoxville Writers Guild invite the community to the launch of Declaration: I Am Tennessee, a literary project created in celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary.
Initiated by Knoxville Poet Laureate Linda Parsons, the collection brings together poems and short prose from 30 Knox County writers reflecting on the ways Tennessee has shaped their lives, identities, and experiences. The result is a powerful and deeply personal portrait of East Tennessee, capturing both the region’s beauty and its complexities.
Featured readers and performers include Jan Loveday Dickens, Donna Doyle, Bethany Lemons, R.B. Morris, Linda Parsons, Nancy Brennan Strange (with songs), Todd Steed, and yours truly.
Days in the Sun with TAMIS : Thursday, July 16 | 6:30 | Central Cinema | Free
Join the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound (TAMIS) for its monthly screening series at Central Cinema.
This month’s program, Days in the Sun, celebrates summer through a charming collection of amateur films from the TAMIS archives. The screening features cookouts, road trips, gardens, holidays, backyard adventures, and countless sun-soaked moments captured on home movie cameras between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Following the free TAMIS presentation, Central Cinema will screen the classic road movie Easy Rider.
What a difference 50 years makes: 1976 On display through July 26 at the East Tennessee History Center
With all the current buzz surrounding the upcoming Semiquincentennial, it is easy to forget (or if you’re young enough, not even realize) just how heavily invested the United States was in the 1976 Bicentennial. Nationwide celebrations and programs abounded, and Knoxville, true to form, threw itself wholeheartedly into honoring the past. Today, the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection and the East Tennessee History Museum preserve a treasure trove of artifacts from that era, a selection of which will be on display throughout the month of July in the museum’s streetscape outside the Rogers-Claussen Feature Gallery.
The exhibition is sponsored by UT’s Denbo Center for Humanities and Arts, the Knox County Public Library, and the East Tennessee Historical Society, and curated by DCHA Associate Director, Katie Burnett. “1976: Knoxville Celebrates the American Bicentennial” features photos of Knoxville’s parades, the Bicentennial Park dedication, the Bicentennial Train Wagon, and more!
Just for fun: Take a look at Knoxville in 1986
The Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound recently posted an interesting artifact from 40 years ago to its YouTube channel. “Knoxville: Take a Look” is a 1986 video created by Johnston & Millsaps Advertising and Rowland Productions on behalf of the Greater Knoxville Chamber of Commerce to promote the city’s growth and entice businesses to move there. It’s interesting to compare the messaging in the video to the talking points we hear about our rapidly growing city today. Even more interesting is seeing what the city looked like in 1986, what’s changed in the past 40 years and what remains. And keep an eye out for a few familiar faces and an ear tuned to the video’s theme song, an ode to Knoxville that is definitely of its time.
Mary Pom Claiborne is assistant director for marketing, communications and development for Knox County Public Library.
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