Wednesday, March 27th, 2019
By: September Max Today, four years ago, I survived the most extreme, and, ultimately, the last suicide attempt I’ve made. Not sure how. Or why. But, here. Me. Now. Four years later. The sun was brighter today. I didn’t notice until I did. Four. That’s lifetimes ago. That’s different iterations of the same September Max
Tuesday, October 30th, 2018
Cover photo by: Kelsey Smith Article by: Teryn Dixon When I was 10 years old, a man barged into my church and opened fire on my congregation during a production of the musical Annie Jr. Nine people were...
Thursday, September 27th, 2018
Photos by: John Messner Article by: Debra Dylan “When I was sixteen, a man taught me black and white photography, and I started working at a newspaper. That was over thirty years ago,” says John Messner. Today...
Monday, December 12th, 2016
By: Cindy Moffett “They shot me.” Weeks later, Mark Runge still sounds stunned. On Sunday, November 20, after a 22-hour drive from Maryville, Tenn., high school teacher Runge reached Standing Rock, North Dakota. There the Oceti Sakowin,...
Monday, November 14th, 2016
By: Kate Riffle Roper As a white mother of two black children, three white children, who all have a white father, I have something to say. Racism exists. It is real and tangible. And it is everywhere,...
Friday, April 29th, 2016
By: Paul Clouse From the back lot of the Wampler’s Farm Sausage facility in Lenoir City, TN, Ted Wampler, Jr., says a new technology is being tested that could have global implications. It is called a Cellulose...
Friday, September 11th, 2015
By: Janelle Hamrick In the corner of a small, typical neighborhood street in Chattanooga, Tennessee, sits a nondescript brick home that could be easily overlooked. Inside those walls, people are nearing the end of their lives, and...
Friday, September 11th, 2015
By: Debra Dylan “I am from Liberia in West Africa,” says Hawa Ware Johnson. “We didn’t expect our country was going to war, but in 1990 we had a civil war. It was really bad and all...
Friday, September 11th, 2015
By: Kate Jayroe Photo by: Irena Popova Photography Deni Kidd teaches English as a second language to international refugees. She teaches class twice a week at Light Mission Pentecostal Church in the Lonsdale neighborhood. She prepares these...
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2015
By: Debra Dylan At the end of her maritime memoir, Dreamseeker’s Daughter, Carole Ann Borges was 19, married, and pregnant. She was also a high school drop-out due to her family’s lengthy aquatic adventure. After obtaining her...
Tuesday, September 1st, 2015
By: Carole Ann Borges Margo Miller, the Executive Director of Appalachian Community Fund, is a woman on top of her game. The path from a tiny farm with an outhouse, to overseeing a large non-profit organization, wasn’t...
Monday, August 24th, 2015
By: Debra Dylan THE BOOK Ellie Laks’ memoir, My Gentle Barn, is a triumphant love story. Against significant odds, author Ellie Laks’ childhood dream of a healing sanctuary for abused and forsaken animals became a reality. The evolution...
Tuesday, August 18th, 2015
By: Donna Johnson I was riding a bus downtown when a young woman approached me. Her hair was in dreadlocks, and she was wearing fuschia leggings, black Mary Jane shoes, and a sweatshirt that said “Uncommon” on...
Tuesday, July 7th, 2015
By: Donna Johnson Billy stands on top of an eight-foot ledge in front of Summit Towers, the high rise, subsidized apartment building in downtown Knoxville where we both live. It’s mid-November and he is dressed in plaid...
Friday, August 8th, 2014
By: Barbara S F Davis Danyelle Sutton was incarcerated in 2010 for a surprising number of felony convictions. She had an expensive addiction. If you meet her on the street now, or drive up to the window...