Please join us on April 20, during the 2013 Old Oak Festival for writing workshops in flash fiction and contemporary poetry. Workshops will be hosted by Jan Matthews, visiting assistant professor of English; Dr. Clay Matthews, assistant professor of English, and several upper-level creative writing majors.

Jan Matthews is the author of a fiction chapbook, “Hush” (Sundress Press, 2012), and a collection of poetry, “It Would be Quiet” (Prime Mincer Press, 2013). Clay Matthews is the author of three poetry collections: “Superfecta” (Ghost Road, 2009), “RUNOFF” (BlazeVox, 2010) and “Pretty, Rooster” (Cooper Dillon, 2011).

Workshops will be hosted in Tusculum College’s historic Virginia Hall. Please find a schedule of events below:

9-11 a.m. – Flash Fiction Workshop with Jan Matthews

11 a.m. – 1 p.m. – Lunch will be provided. Take some time to tour the campus and explore the Old Oak Festival

1-3 p.m. – Contemporary Poetry Workshop with Dr. Clay Matthews

 

Please email Jan Matthews at jmatthews@tusculum.edu with any questions.

A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, plus jazz, bluegrass, folk and more will be featured at the 2013 Old Oak Festival at Tusculum College, set for April 19-21.

The arts and music festival will span three days and will feature something for everyone, including music, art, theater and creative writing, as well as gallery and museum exhibits on the Tusculum College campus.

“On stage, the festival will present the sounds of the region with a wide variety of music from bluegrass to jazz to regional and local vocalists and musicians,” said Susan D. Crum, associate vice president for institutional advancement and coordinator of the event. Music will include bluegrass, rock, gospel, jazz, folk, contemporary Christian and acoustic performances.

Scheduled bands include local favorites the Threetles, a Beatles tribute band, Tusculum College rock band Original Copy and Jimmy D, playing blues, straight up. Also in the lineup are soul and R&B group the Scat Cats and Bootleg Turn, playing their version of hillbilly rock. The Tusculum College Jazz Band will take the stage, as will the Stoney Creek Cloggers and protégé fiddler Carson Peters.

A new addition this year is Shiloh, a group of Tusculum College alumni who played on campus during 1970s. The group will play primarily rock music and include Herb Rupert, George “Shadow” Winterbauer, Wayne Hensley and Steve Swicker, who each still play professionally, only not as a group. This is a reunion appearance for the band at their alma mater.

Sunday will feature a variety of Christian music, including Strong Ties, a blue grass gospel group, The Foundations and the Dugger Band.

Many other groups and individual artists are set to perform throughout the weekend at a variety of venues. For a full music schedule, visit www.oldoakfestival.org.

For the younger crowd, there will be two nights of dancing. Friday night will feature a Silent Disco and Saturday a Dubstep concert. Both will be held from 7-10 p.m. in Chalmers Conference Center in the Niswonger Commons.

The arts and crafts show will offer everything from watercolor paintings to handmade quilts.

“This year is a dramatic increase in the number of fine arts and crafts vendors who will participate in the festival,” said Crum. “Visitors will have a wide variety of items to choose from, including custom jewelry, wood crafts, handmade furniture and sculpture.”

Other items include barn wood frames, walking sticks, handmade children’s clothing, baskets, candles and many handmade items. Vendors will be both indoors and outside.

Sponsors for this year’s event include The Greeneville Sun, WQUT-Radio, WXSM Radio, WIVK Radio, WNML Radio, WOKI Radio, 106.1 The River, Holston Valley Broadcasting, WJHL Daytime Tri-Cities, Morristown Radio Group, Merle FM Radio, WVEK Radio, WKPT, WTFM, Kingsport Times-News, WGRV Radio, WIKQ Radio, WSMG Radio and WCYB-TV.

A variety of food will be offered. Expected this year are vendors selling pretzels, hotdogs, corn dogs, kettle korn, strawberry shortcake, ice cream, pizza, baked goods, healthy wraps, spiral-cut French fries, barbecue and more.

A parade and welcome ceremony will be held on Saturday at noon at the Rankin Hall stage, and at 2 p.m., officials from the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council will be on hand to recognize the Tusculum College old oak tree as an official historic tree. The large, white-oak tree that the festival is named for has officially been added to the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council’s Tennessee Landmark and Historic Tree Register.

An old-time outdoor church service will be conducted by a circuit rider on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. The service will re-create the feel of the frontier church experience. The service is open to the public and will be followed by traditional and contemporary gospel music performances throughout the day.

In addition to arts, the festival will feature a number of local and regional writers. Participating authors include Joe Tennis, Emory Raxter, Ray Rowney, Lisa Hall, Bruce Stafford, Matilda Green, the Bachmans (P.B. and Amanda), Keith Bartlett, Bob Laws, Wayne Zurl, George Sample and Susan D. Crum. Copies of the Tusculum Review will also be available for purchase.

Storytelling has been added to the festival this year, with everything from Mother Goose tales to Cherokee and Appalachian tales. Storytellers on the agenda include Molly Catron, Linda Poland, Pam Miller, Jeff Straton, Madge Rohrer, Marjorie Shaefer, Judy “Butterfuly” Farlow, Leon Overbay, Kate Agmann and Saundra Kelley.

In theater, there will be three performances during the festival of “5 X 10,” written by students and Wayne Thomas, chair of the Department of Fine Arts and associate professor of English. Show times are 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, April 19 and 20, and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

“5 X 10” presents five, 10-minute plays. The shows will be performed in the Behan Arena Theatre in the Annie Hogan Byrd Fine Arts Center. The plays will be under the direction of Thomas and Frank Mengel, Arts Outreach technical director and instructor of theater.

There will be a Tusculum Review Launch Party on Friday, April 19, at 4 p.m. in the Shulman Atrium. This event will feature the poetry of Nate Pritts and Jan LaPerle.

The Tusculum Review, the college’s literary journal, features fiction and nonfiction, poetry, drama and art. Copies of the 2013 edition will be available at the event.

Pritts, who served as judge for The Tusculum Review poetry contest this year, is the author of five books of poetry, most recently “Sweet Nothing.” His poetry and prose have been widely published online and in print, as well as on barns. He has been published in the Southern Review, Forklift, Ohio, Court Green, Gulf Coast, Boston Review and Rain Taxi where he frequently contributes reviews. He is the founder and principal editor of H_NGM_N, an online journal and small press. He is from Syracuse, N.Y.

LaPerle, visiting assistant professor of English, joined the Tusculum faculty in the English Department in 2011. She has had numerous works of fiction and poetry published in various magazines and journals including the Tusculum Review. Her most recent publication is “Hush,” a collection of poetry released earlier this year. LaPerle has received her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing as well as a Bachelor of Arts in English with honors from Southern Illinois University.

The Clem Allison Gallery at the Rankin House will feature the work Amanda Hood, visiting assistant professor of art at East Tennessee State University. Hood’s exhibition will be in the gallery April 11-20. Hood’s work was selected as the cover art for this year’s Tusculum Review. On Saturday, April 20, a reception will be held for Hood, which will be paired with the annual Curtis-Owens Literary readings, featuring students J. Phillip Reed, a senior from Florence, S.C., and Ben Sneyd, a senior from Greeneville, formerly of Unicoi. Reed and Sneyd won the literary prizes this year. The reception and readings will be held on the Rankin House lawn beginning at 3 p.m.

Gallery hours during the festival will be Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. the Gallery will not be open on Sunday.

The Big Box experience will be held in the Pioneer Gym continuously during festival hours. The Big Box project is an exhibition of video art created by Chris Jacek, assistant professor of digital media, and students in the digital media department. In the Big Box experience, projection is used to create an enclosed video room that offers both surround sound and surround vision.

The Big Box experience is free of charge.

Both the President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library and the Doak House Museum will be open to visitors during the festival and will have special activities planned for adults and children.

Come join the President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library and a Confederate States of America Recruiting Officer on Friday, April 19, from 2-5 p.m. and Saturday, April 20, from 10 a.m. t o 3 p.m.  Lt. Col. Mack Cothran will be recruiting civilians into the army and informing visitors of local Civil War events, people and duties as recruits tour a Civil War tent with personal effects. Local visitors can also receive passes to freely cross CSA lines in Greeneville.

Cothran, originally from South Carolina, has been living in Baileyton for the past seven years. During the past 28 years, he has traveled throughout the southeast participating in living history events and re-enacting Civil War battles. He served in the U.S. Navy is active with the Battle of Blue Springs.

There will be children’s activities and an Olde Time Photo Booth outside the President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and historic Doak House quilts will be on display Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free tours of both museums will be available both days.

The festival will feature face painting, frontier-era toys and games and a llama exhibit. The Children’s Corner behind McCormick Hall will offer origami, lawn croquet, karaoke, balloon decorating and a puppet show.

The Antique Automobile Club will have vehicles on display throughout the weekend.

There is no fee to attend the festival. Hours will be Friday from noon until 9 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. and Sunday, April 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, contact the Office of Institutional Advancement at 423-636-7303.

Bring a lawn chair and enjoy the entertainment. Service animals are welcome; however, no pets allowed. Coolers and alcohol are also prohibited.

For updates and more information, visit the website at www.oldoakfestival.org or on Facebook at www.facebook/OldOakFestival.

 

A launch party for the 2013 edition of The Tusculum Review will be held on Friday, April 19, at 4 p.m. in the Shulman Atrium on the Tusculum College campus as part of the 2013 Old Oak Festival.

The Tusculum Review, the college’s literary journal, features fiction and nonfiction, poetry, drama and art. This year’s event will present the poetry of Nate Pritts and Jan LaPerle. Pritts’ work will appear in the new issue.

The event is free and open to the public. Copies of the new issue will be available at the launch party.

Pritts, who served as judge for The Tusculum Review poetry contest this year, is the author of five books of poetry, most recently “Sweet Nothing.” His poetry and prose have been widely published online and in print, as well as on barns. He has been published in the Southern Review, Forklift, Ohio, Court Green, Gulf Coast, Boston Review and Rain Taxi where he frequently contributes reviews. He is the founder and principal editor of H_NGM_N, an online journal and small press. He is from Syracuse, N.Y.

LaPerle, visiting assistant professor of English, joined the Tusculum faculty in 2011. She has had numerous works of fiction and poetry published in various magazines and journals including the Tusculum Review. Her most recent publication is “Hush,” a collection of poetry released earlier this year. LaPerle has received her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing as well as a Bachelor of Arts in English with honors from Southern Illinois University.

According to Dr. Clay Matthews, assistant professor of English at the college, Tusculum College is one of only a few undergraduate colleges in the United States that offers students the opportunity to work for an international literary journal.

The Tusculum Review offers students the chance to learn and refine their skills as reviewers of literature, critics of visual art and editors of the written word. These opportunities provide students with unique qualifications for graduate studies and employment in publishing.

“It is a great experience for them as future writers, editors and publishers,” said Wayne Thomas, editor of the journal, chair of the Fine Arts Department and associate professor of English. “We hope everyone will come out and enjoy these great writers and celebrate the art of creative writing.”

The event is part of the Old Oak Festival, featuring fine arts and crafts on the Tusculum College campus, April 19-21. The festival offers something for everyone, including music, art, theater and creative writing, as well as gallery and museum exhibits on the Tusculum College campus.

In addition to the launch party for the Tusculum Review, the Old Oak Festival will present the art work of Amanda Hood, visiting assistant professor of art at East Tennessee State University, whose work was selected for the cover of this year’s review. Hood’s exhibition will held at the Clem Allison Gallery at the Rankin House April 11-20.

On Saturday, April 20, a reception will be held for Hood, which will be paired with the annual Curtis-Owens Literary readings, featuring students J. Phillip Reed, a senior from Florence, S.C., and Ben Sneyd, a senior from Greeneville, formerly of Unicoi. Reed and Sneyd won the literary prizes this year. The reception and readings will be held on the Rankin House lawn beginning at 3 p.m.

Noted historian Dr. Robert Orr will deliver four lectures on the Civil Rights Movement in East Tennessee, 1780 to the 1960s, on four consecutive Tuesday evenings in April at Tusculum College.

The lectures will examine the entire U.S. Civil Rights Movement, from its founding in the churches and schools of Colonial America, through emancipation in the 1860, through the founding of the NAACP in 1909, to the victories of the 1960s. According to Orr, the movement never stopped, and East Tennessee was often in the forefront of the struggle.

Orr currently teaches history at Walters State Community College and Washington College Academy. He holds bachelor and master’s degrees from the University of Tennessee and a Ph.D. from the University of Maine. He was a guest historian on the C-Span American Presidents Series television program on President Andrew Johnson.

The lectures will be held in the Thomas J. Garland Library classroom 112 from 6-8 p.m. beginning Tuesday, April 9, and continuing Tuesday, April 16, 23 and 30.

The April 9 session will kick off with a discussion of 1780 to the Civil War. It will cover such topics as Samuel Doak and his students, the East Tennessee anti-slavery movement, the movement driven underground in the repression of the 1830s, the Underground Railroad in East Tennessee and the underground railroad as a cause of the Civil War.

The April 16 lecture will focus on the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln and Civil Rights, the victory of emancipation, Vice President Andrew Johnson and President Lincoln’s reconstruction plans.

Lecture three on April 23 will focus on reconstruction, the founding of the NAACP, the Andrew Johnson presidency, the end of military reconstruction, the 1875 Civil Rights Law being declared unconstitutional, the late nineteenth century crime wave and lynching at the turn of the century.

On Tuesday, April 30, the final lecture will cover the conflict of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubois, the reconciliation of 1915-16, the struggle against lynching and the modern Civil Rights Movement.

There is no charge to attend the lectures. The series is sponsored jointly by Washington College Academy and Tusculum College. The lecture series is approved as an Arts and Lecture credit event for Tusculum College residential students.

Mary Alice Hill, whose life work made significant strides in the effort to parallel men and women’s sports opportunities in higher education, and Lillian Gonzalez, co-founder of ASafeHarborHome among other organizations, were honored with the Tusculum College “Women of Courage Award” on March 20.

The Woman of Courage Award recognizes women who have made a significant impact in the life of the community.

Hill was recognized for her contributions to female sports, including her lifelong leadership in working toward equal opportunities in higher education for women athletes. She was an international track and field competitor, leading her to eventually train four Olympians and coach record-setting teams.

Beyond her personal achievements, Hill became the first director of women’s athletics at Colorado State University. She also succeeded as the first associate athletic director for both men and women at San Diego State University in addition to working as the athletic director and also the president of the Western Athletic Conference. During this time she was also elected to the prestigious NCAA Council.

Also awarded with the 2013 recognition was Gonzalez, who has made her mark in the community by working with her husband in the founding of two churches, a children’s ministry, a food ministry and hosting Christian radio programs.

In 2008, Gonzalez co-founded ASafeHarborHome, which is a supportive housing program for both victims of domestic abuse and homeless with disabilities. Part of her responsibilities as co-founder included the creation of Charity Treasures Thrift Shop. Proceeds from the thrift shop serve as financial support to ASafeHarborHome.

Dr. Melinda Dukes, vice president of academic affairs at Tusculum College, said, “We have much to celebrate in terms of women. We celebrate their leadership, their courage and their contributions to their communities.”

The annual event is sponsored by the Tusculum College Center for Civic Advancement. The award was first presented in 2004.