Currently browsing: Education

The Artist’s Voice: An exhibition featuring artists with disabilities

July 2, 2008 |

The Artist’s Voice: An Exhibition Featuring Tennessee Artists With Disabilities is on display in the Conte Community Arts Gallery at Nashville’s Frist Center for the Visual Arts. The juried exhibition presents more than 50 paintings, prints, sculptures, digital art and documentary film created by 54 Tennessee artists, who each live with a disability. Admission is free for this exhibition, which will continue through Sept. 14.

The artists and their works were selected by a juried panel from more than 400 submissions. The works featured in the exhibition have an expressive force and sense of beauty that transcend any limitations that might be imposed by their makers’ disabilities. The artists’ personal circumstances often inform their art, as well as their chosen media. Some of the works explore an artist’s daily struggles of living with a disability; others convey a positive outlook, rich with vitality and raw energy that is often achieved through the use of bright, bold color. Intertwining themes of strength, resilience, fragility, contentment and endurance can be seen throughout this exhibition. Though each work stands on its own artistic merit, the individual stories of their creators make the art even more engaging and awe inspiring. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Education, Events | No Comments

Journalist John Seigenthaler to speak at annual Clarksville Writers’ Conference

July 1, 2008 |

Journalist and author John Seigenthaler will be a featured speaker at the 4th annual Clarksville Writer’s Conference to be held July 10-12 at Austin Peay State University. Seigenthaler is the current host of WNPT’s book-review program “Word on Words”.

Joining Seigenthaler will be Young Adult author Tracy Barrett (Anna of Byzantium), author/editor Sonny Brewer (The Poet of Tolstoy Park, Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe: An Anthology of Southern Writers), poet/editor Leigh Anne Couch (Houses Fly Away, The Sewanee Review), poet Blas Falconer (The Perfect Hour, A Question of Gravity and Light), fiction and nonfiction author Joe Formichella (Murder Creek: The “Unfortunate Incident” of Annie Jean Barnes), and novelist Suzanne Hudson (In a Temple of Trees, In the Dark of the Moon). «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Education, Events, News | No Comments

The true cost of pork spending

By James Butler | June 30, 2008 |

Austin Peay State University President Timothy Hall made an announcement Thursday that weighs heavily on the minds of all involved with the University. The Tennessee Board of Regents voted to increase tuition at five of Tennessee’s institutions for higher education by six percent in response to the State government reducing funding by that amount. At first glance this does not seem to be a huge hike as the dollar amount of the increase at APSU is no more than $313.08. What is worse, however, is that even with the tuition increase, Austin Peay is left with a budget deficit to the tune of $600,000, according to President Hall.

«Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Education, Issues, News, Opinion, Politics | 2 Comments

Of pens, peonies and summer rain…

By Christine Anne Piesyk | June 29, 2008 |

‘On the Road in America’ is an occasional column of meanderings and musings, written during my semi-annual sojourn north.

After the first bursts of near tropical heat in Clarksville, the cooling summer rain in Vermont is a gift to cherish. It began last night, after a day of haze and clouds. It ushered in coolness somewhere around sunset, and by nightfall I could hear the raindrops lightly kissing the brick sidewalks, dripping lightly from the eaves. No blustering wind, no storms. Just that gentle rain.

This morning I walked by a bank of peonies, damp and brightened by that rain, slightly bent by the weight of water. The temptation to pick a few stems was strong.

We are a large group this semester at Goddard College, writers all of poetry, prose, fiction and non, memoir, plays and screenplays, even graphic novels. Unlike other residencies here, this one — by its very nature as an MFA writing program — requires a certain amount of solitude in and around such activities as workshops, advisor sessions, seminars, and sometimes heated discussions abut things like style, form, voice, perspective, language… Students meet, interact and retreat for the solitary task that is composition. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Education, Opinion, Spirituality | No Comments

Seeking a true depiction of our history

By Turner McCullough Jr. | June 27, 2008 |

“The Confederate fighting force was white, but much of its support was black.”

When historical fact collides with historical revision, details tend to become obscured.

The recent living history enactment at our own Fort Defiance/Bruce was embroiled in some controversy. The presence of African Americans as Confederate soldiers was highly disputed. Some claimed this an accurate representation of historical fact. Sadly, research has shown it was not quite so. The record shows that despite the obvious advantage such a measure would have given the South, the Confederate leadership steadfastly opposed slave emancipation and arming to defend the South.

Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne, CSA

One the Confederacy’s most brilliant strategists, Major General Patrick Cleburne, a division commander in the Army of Tennessee, in 1864, proposed freeing slaves who agreed to fight for the South. He was not a slave owner himself and cared nothing for slaves or the institution of slavery. He did, however, wish to secure the establishment of the Confederate States of America.

As Cleburne saw it, the South was denying itself a tactical resource which the Union Army was utilizing against it at every turn as it gained more territory and ground the South into otherwise inevitable defeat. In his proposal, Cleburne admitted that only way to win Black support of the Confederate cause was to grant freedom to the slave and his family.

«Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Education, Issues, Opinion | No Comments

Kick crime to the curb

By Christine Anne Piesyk | June 27, 2008 |

I’ve been looking over the two years’ worth of notes I’ve kept for story ideas, all rooted in what I have observed within the Montgomery County boundaries. From a distance, a temporary vantage point in the northeast, and the rest of the time from the porch of my home in Clarksville, I’ve followed the shootings and killings and robberies in Clarksville, the ones that happen in the dead of night, the ones that happen in broad daylight in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and a string of crimes in between. Crimes of inebriation or addiction, crimes of passion or hate, crimes of despair, crimes of rage, crimes rooted in poverty and need, crimes anchored in greed Am I the only one not surprised?

I feel the strongest sympathy and sadness for the families, the residents involved, the innocent bystanders with lives sometimes forever shattered. But I do believe this escalation in violent crime is a tragedy waiting to happen, one that will repeat itself many more times if the city, the schools, the police and all of us — everyday citizens — don’t become involved in our community, if we fail to stand behind a call to get tough and enforce the laws already on the books, and toughen up the sentencing and cut off the “deals” that spew offenders back onto the streets with minimal sentences and penalties too easily shrugged off. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Education, Issues, Opinion, Politics | No Comments

AARP: A resource for seniors, ‘boomers

By Rev. Charles Moreland | June 22, 2008 |

AARP (American Association of retired Persons) is a national organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for senior citizens. Clarksville has a dynamic AARP chapter where an enthusiastic groups of people age 50 and meet socially and serve the community with a variety of social actions.

AARP is political but non-partisan, and wields considerable influence on state and federal legislation, serving as the voice of their demographics. They do so without endorsing specific candidates and they remain issue oriented.

To educate and inform their membership. AARP publishes a monthly magazine with the largest circulation in America. the March/April edition got my attention with the cover photo of a smiling Jack Nicholson, one of the outstanding actors of our generation.

Besides an insightful article on him, the magazine from cover to cover offers articles with practical information. Two articles in particular that apply to many of us involve dealing with stress: “Riding Out a Recession” and “Finding Faith” (a search for spiritual peace). «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Education, Events, Issues, Opinion | 1 Comment »

Scott Ritter: Dealing with Iran

June 21, 2008 |

It’s happening in Louisville, Kentucky, but it would be worth the travel from Clarksville to join former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter and special guests Lizzie West & Baba Buffalo for a lively discussion about the “War on Terror” with Iran in the crosshairs. Ritter will speak at The Clifton Center, 2117 Payne St. in Louisville on Thursday June 26th, 7:30pm. The subject: how to deal with Iran.

In an interview with Amy Goodman on April 28, Ritter stated:

“There is no doubt in my mind that the US is planning right now, as we speak, a military strike against Iran.” Ritter warns that such an attack is unnecessary, and if launched, could provoke a massive response with catastrophic consequences to millions of people, including Americans.

“The most important thing to know about Scott Ritter is that he was right.” — Seymour Hersh

Ritter famously and accurately argued in 2002 that Iraq no longer had WMD when he spoke in Louisville that year. He now recommends diplomatic engagement with Iran, and supports local and national efforts to pass resolutions urging President Bush to refrain from ordering any military attack against Iran without explicit Congressional authorization. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Education, Events, Issues, News, Politics | No Comments