Six weeks ago I attended the opening of the Knoxville Museum of Art’s Knoxville Seven show. Still hanging, it’s a show devoted to seven brash young artists who, from the late 1940s through the early 1960s, challenged mainstream habits in […]
People
Andie Ray, 1967-2015
December 21, 2015
This darkest season is darker with an unimagined loss. Twenty-odd years ago, Andie Ray was a familiar face at the checkout desk at Lawson McGhee Library. Even if you never saw her after that, you’d remember her. Her distinctive features […]
When we tracked Jennifer Niceley down, early this week, she was driving back home from a show at the Nashville club known as the Basement and pulled over near Mt. Juliet to chat. She’s popular in Music City, where she […]
The Redemption of Alex Haley
November 25, 2015
On a rainy night in a crowded restaurant in the Old City, University of Tennessee Professor Robert J. Norrell and I may be the only middle-aged people in the whole room who didn’t watch a single episode of Roots on […]
Frances Hodgson Burnett, the Knoxville Years
November 18, 2015
Frances Hodgson Burnett is often considered a British writer. However, she began her professional writing career when she lived in Knoxville. Her name is known around the world. Her books, several of them still in print, have inspired more than 50 […]
America’s First Black Governor: William Hastie, 1904-1976
November 11, 2015
The William Hastie Natural Area, part of the Knoxville Urban Wilderness, is named for a federal judge who pioneered civil rights and was arguably America’s first black governor. He was born in Knoxville 111 years ago on Nov. 17. When […]
A Portrait of the Artist: Lloyd Branson
November 4, 2015
Lloyd Branson was the first Knoxvillian who made an entire career of art. Though he lived in a practical, industrial city and had no ongoing affiliation with a university or other educational institution, for half a century he somehow made […]
Documentation: Nina Simone, and From Paper to Pixels
September 16, 2015
The new documentary about Nina Simone is making the rounds. It may not ever reach local theaters (it’s a Netflix production, available for streaming), but several weeks ago the Pilot Light, the Old City nightclub that usually hosts interesting live […]
Bruce McCamish’s Facebook-Famous Photos Give a New Perspective on Knoxville
September 16, 2015
Bruce McCamish draws second glances when he’s raising an expensive camera several fathoms above his head on a busy downtown street corner. The slender telescoping pole he uses was actually designed for house painters, not photographers—and when it’s fully extended, […]
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EDITOR
Jack Neely is executive director of the Knoxville History Project. He has become one of Knoxville’s most popular writers and its unofficial historian. Jack is well known for his thoughtful, well-researched, and provocative pieces of long-form journalism, not to mention his books, speeches, and other public appearances...
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123 S. Gay Street Ste. C
Knoxville, TN 37902JACK NEELY
jack@knoxhistoryproject.org
(865) 337-7723PAUL JAMES
Development Director
paul@knoxhistoryproject.org
(865) 300-4559NICOLE STAHL
Administrative Coordinator
nicolestahl@knoxhistoryproject.org
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