Culture
Knoxville Poet Laureate Rhea Carmon Introduces Poetry in Motion
April is National Poetry Month and as a part of the celebration, Knoxville’s Poet Laureate, Rhea Carmon, in conjunction with the City of Knoxville and Knoxville Area Transit, is introducing Poetry in Motion. Carmon read some...
Big Ears Festival Returns in 2022; Big Ears Music Returns in April
For many downtown restaurants, hotels and other businesses, the weekend the Big Ears Festival comes to town is their biggest of the year. 20,000 tickets were sold to the festival in in 2019, with fans and...
Moon Taxi to Perform on the World’s Fair Performance Lawn
The World’s Fair Performance Lawn, prepared at considerable expense by the city and ready for use in late 2019, has not seen a major performance since its completion. The pandemic hit just a few months after...
Dogwood Arts: Evolving and Learning Through a Pandemic
I recently spoke with Sherry Jenkins, Executive Director of Dogwood Arts. I asked if she would take me through the last year at Dogwood Arts and speak to where the organization is after a year of...
Business
Proper Popcorn Coming to 29 Market Square
About eight months after Knoxville Chocolate Company closed its 29 Market Square location, a new business is working toward opening at the spot. Proper Popcorn, which has a shop on Kingston Pike (pictured in this article)...
Seoul Brothers: Korean Fusion Restaurant Coming to Downtown
Victoria Scott and Josh Coates are bringing a Korean Fusion restaurant to downtown. Opening a restaurant of his own has always been his dream but doing so with his sister wasn’t in the cards until very...
Ebony and Ivory Plans to Bring Communities Together Over Great Beer
A brewery and tap room is planned for 2300 North Central Street. Owners Chico Dupas and Mitchell Russell are perfecting recipes and making big plans and construction will soon get underway at the location with Sanders...
A Roundup of Local Independent Media
The media landscape has, as we all know, drastically shifted in recent years, both locally and globally. Twenty-five years ago it would have been difficult to imagine a significant city without a daily paper, but that...
Development
An Opportunity to Expand the Urban Wilderness
An opportunity has arisen to expand the Urban Wilderness at the William Hastie Nature Area. Twenty-seven acres of wooded land adjoining the wilderness recently became available and the board of the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club acted...
Plans Set for Kern’s Food Hall + Market
After a long meandering path (I first wrote about it in August 2015, most recently in May 2019), the Kern’s Food Hall + Market is set to begin serious construction by the end of April. The...
Flagship Kerns Opens in South Knoxville
The first of three phases of development of the Kerns Bakery site is complete, with the opening of Flagship Kerns, a 160 unit apartment complex on top of the hill overlooking the Kerns Bakery Building, with...
5th Avenue Plaza Taking Shape
Last August I brought news that Jeffrey Nash was redeveloping a building and the land around it at the corner of 5th Avenue and Central Street, directly across from Knox High Senior Living. Portions of the...
Events
Downtown Knoxville Ten Day Planner (4/11 – 4/20/2021)
As events are opening up, we’re listing a combination of virtual and live events. The rules are the same – if you want your event included, please make a Facebook event, invite me (Alan Sims –...
Downtown Knoxville Ten Day Planner (4/4 – 4/13/2021)
As events are opening up, we’re listing a combination of virtual and live events. The rules are the same – if you want your event included, please make a Facebook event, invite me (Alan Sims –...
Downtown Farmers’ Market Returns with New Twists
It was here, then it was there, now it is here and there. As has every organization, particularly those that attract large crowds of people, Nourish Knoxville‘s Market Square Farmers’ Market was forced to remake itself...
Downtown Knoxville Ten Day Planner (3/28 – 4/6/2021)
As events are opening up, we’re listing a combination of virtual and live events. The rules are the same – if you want your event included, please make a Facebook event, invite me (Alan Sims –...
Life
COVID-19: 4/9/2021 Update (International, National, State, and Local)
Last week for this roundup I wrote: The gist of the following report is that the race continues. On the positive side, we have vaccine distribution increasing and some continued adherence to the guidelines to mask,...
Afternoon Notes
Here are a few quick hitters that I’ve not found room for in a longer article: At today’s work session, the Knox County Board of Education will discuss whether to remove the mask mandate in schools....
COVID-19: 4/2/2021 Update (International, National, State, and Local)
The gist of the following report is that the race continues. On the positive side, we have vaccine distribution increasing and some continued adherence to the guidelines to mask, distance, and so on. On the negative, we...
Canvas Can Do Miracles to Open at 1218 Magnolia
I recently learned that Canvas Can Do Miracles, an organization that has served Knoxville for years, will soon open in its new home at 1218 Magnolia Avenue. I met with Jackie Holloway to learn more about...