In today's report: Often, discussions of access to funding for start-up companies revolve around venture capital or angel investors. But there is a whole universe of small businesses that will never attract that kind of attention. Since 2014, the Knoxville Area Urban League has been running a program designed to help scrappy entrepreneurs hone their ideas and get them off the ground. It also provides small but crucial cash awards to the winners of a pitch competition. We stopped by last week for the presentation of those checks to winners Lance Williams and Monica Smith-Albright — proprietors of nascent clothing and baked-goods businesses respectively — and talked to them about their plans and dreams. They also heard from one of the program's key sponsors, entrepreneur and University of Tennessee President Randy Boyd.
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Our social media feeds filled up over the holiday weekend with Knoxville residents frustrated by the volume — both in decibels and frequency — of illegal backyard fireworks displays. From Compass' vantage point in North Knoxville, where smoke settled above rooftops and the smell of black powder was pervasive, the rockets' red glare and concussive booms did seem particularly intense this year — as were the Facebook and Twitter posts from pet owners and others pleading for respite.
Knox County Commissioner Justin Biggs must have been looking at different metrics of public opinion, however. On his campaign Facebook page yesterday, he suggested changing the ordinance that prohibits the sale of fireworks anywhere within the county.
"Given the dollar amount spent on fireworks outside of our county, would you a Knox County citizen agree with legalizing fireworks in the county?" wrote Biggs, who is running for county trustee in 2022. "If we can get enough support and the proper language from legal then I will sponsor this ordinance change. Tell me what you think."
As of Monday afternoon, responses were overwhelmingly positive, with a common theme being the impossibility of enforcing the existing ordinances. Neither the Knoxville Police Department nor the Knox County Sheriff's Office encourage people to report violations via 911, essentially conceding that it is hard to know where any given firework was fired from.
Knox County is currently bordered by large fireworks stores just outside county lines to both the east and west.
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University of Tennessee journalism professor and former Knox County Commissioner Mark Harmon said Monday that he will challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett next year.
“We need a congressman who is going to stand up to bullies and the mob and the powerful, and doesn’t give them what they want,” Harmon, a Democrat, said in a phone interview.
Harmon was a liberal voice on Commission for two terms, and he gave damning testimony in the Open Meetings Act trial in 2007 that resulted in a jury finding that some of his fellow commissioners violated Tennessee’s sunshine law during the Black Wednesday scandal. He humorously embraced the nickname “University Twit,” bestowed on him by Republican Commissioner Greg “Lumpy” Lambert.
Harmon’s congressional campaign is in a “soft opening” mode, with a formal kickoff to come in the fall. As first reported by conservative blogger Brian Hornback, he participated in Farragut’s Independence Day parade in a car adorned with a “Harmon for Congress” banner.
This will be Harmon’s second run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1998 he lost to incumbent Republican Rep. Mac Thornberry in Texas’ 13th District when he lived in the Lone Star State. Like Tennessee’s 2nd District, which has been in the GOP fold since the Civil War, Texas’ 13th District is heavily Republican.
Burchett, a Republican former state legislator and Knox County mayor, was first elected to Congress in 2018, succeeding longtime Rep. John J. “Jimmy” Duncan Jr., and was re-elected in 2020. Both times he defeated Democrat Renee Hoyos.
“I know it’s a near impossible task,” Harmon said about the prospects of unseating an incumbent Republican in the 2nd District, “but somebody needs to do it with flair and energy.”
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Suttree, Cormac McCarthy’s iconic novel set in 1950s Knoxville, is the inspiration for a film set to debut on Thursday at Lakeshore Park.
The Big Ears Festival, with support from the Aslan Foundation, is hosting Suttree’s Knoxville: A Hymn to the Past in Film & Music, a free outdoor multimedia experience that includes a live performance by some of Knoxville’s most accomplished musicians.
“Knoxville is fortunate to have a novel such as Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree as one of its defining works of literature,” Dawson said in a statement. “The semi-autobiographical novel serves as something of a map of mid-century Knoxville. Real people and places are recognizable throughout the book, some bearing their authentic names, some slightly disguised.”
The film will be projected onto a 40-foot-wide screen and scored live by poet and musician R.B. Morris, guitarist Greg Horne and bassist Daniel Kimbro; jazz singer and ukulele player Kelle Jolly with saxophonist Will Boyd; balladeer, guitarist, and folklorist Jake Xerxes Fussell; and guitarist and composer Bill Mackay with banjo player and old-time music expert Nathan Bowles. Morris will also read key passages from the novel during the performance.
Suttree chronicles the experiences of Cornelius Suttree, who turns his back on a life of privilege to live on a dilapidated houseboat and fish the Tennessee River. Suttree navigates Knoxville's downtown among the city's outcasts and eccentrics.
Dawson said TAMIS’s collection of films and photographs capture images of the city around the time Suttree takes place. “The film compiled from those images for this project is not meant to replicate the narrative of the book, but instead give a semblance of what Knoxville might have looked like through Suttree’s, and by extension McCarthy’s, eyes at the time,” he said.
The performance takes place on the main lawn at Lakeshore Park. Admission is free. Music will start at 8 p.m. Thursday and the film with live score will follow at 9 p.m.
There will be ample free parking on-site. Sweet P’s Barbecue will offer food and beverages, along with Captain Muchacho’s and Fai Thai food trucks.
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Created by fashion designer Tory Burch to support women entrepreneurs, the program provides a year of education, workshops and networking opportunities as well as a $5,000 grant. Orozco, who started her business in 2016 in New Jersey and moved it to a West Knoxville location in 2019, was selected from more than 1,000 applicants.
Little Postage House specializes in unique mailed products, from vintage postage stamps to hand-printed invitations. As its website announces, "We LOVE snail mail and want your mailings to look like pieces of art!"
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Artist's rendering of North Knoxville on Sunday night. |
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