A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

An All-American Movement

July 25, 2011 Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which he delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington, is widely considered among the greatest speeches in American history and a high point of the civil-rights movement. But its deserved fame has long obscured the hundreds of thousands of people who also participated in the march: black teenagers from Alabama, white ministers from Kansas, celebrities from Hollywood, and activists from Harlem, all of them gathered in a peaceful demonstration for equal rights unlike anything ever seen in America. In Nobody Turn Me Around: A People’s History of the 1963 March on Washington, newly out in paperback, Charles Euchner, a Chattanooga native and graduate of Vanderbilt University, has written the story of that day from the perspective of these important, if anonymous, participants in the march. Chapter 16 recently spoke with him by phone.

An All-American Movement

The Uses for Freedom

July 20, 2011 Acclaimed novelist Reynolds Price died on January 20, 2011. Six months later, Robert Cheatham, president of Humanities Tennessee, recalls his former college professor and friend of nearly fifty years and introduces Chapter 16’s publication of an interview he conducted with Price in the 1991 issue of Touchstone magazine. Owing in part to the controversy surrounding a National Endowment for the Arts grant to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, their conversation—titled “Censorship, Literature, & Public Education”—focused on the issues of sex and censorship and the role of the artist in contemporary culture.

Living by the Grace of Inspiration

July 19, 2011 Memphis native Richard Tillinghast has been traveling the globe and writing critically acclaimed poetry for more than four decades. Recently returned to the United States after several years in Ireland, Tillinghast answered questions from Chapter 16 about his various roles as poet, translator, critic, and citizen of the world. Tillinghast will give a reading on September 27 at the University of Memphis, followed by an interview on September 28. He will also appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 14-16.

Living by the Grace of Inspiration

Rehabilitating Butterfat

July 18, 2011 For Jeni Britton Bauer, the creative force behind Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, butterfat is a blank canvas on which to explore a palette of exotic, tantalizing flavors: Salty Caramel, Wildberry Lavender, Cherry Lambic, Bangkok Peanut (cayenne pepper, coconut, honey, and peanut-butter ice cream). Her first store outside of her home state of Ohio opened in Nashville a few weeks ago, coinciding with the publication of her first cookbook, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams At Home. The book, which has made The New York Times bestseller list, explains how to make foolproof versions of Jeni’s fabulous flavors at home. It also reveals a business firmly in step with current food trends: artisanal production and locally sourced, farm-fresh ingredients. Bauer will demonstrate recipes and sign copies of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home at Williams-Sonoma in the Mall at Green Hills in Nashville on Thursday, July 21, at 3 p.m.

Rehabilitating Butterfat

Soaking Up the Voices

July 15, 2011 A Lee Martin novel combines the fast pacing and suspense of a thriller with the craftsmanship and lyricism of literary fiction. One of Martin’s chief tactics is the drawn-out reveal: his characters cling to their secrets as long as they can, unburdening themselves slowly, layer by layer. In Martin’s fiction, revelation can lead to punishment (prison, retribution, outcasting), but it also, almost always, leads to freedom. We are only as sick, his fiction argues, as our secrets. Lee Martin will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. Today he talks with Chapter 16 about his work.

Soaking Up the Voices

Putting a Mustache on the Mona Lisa

July 13, 2011 Marilyn Kallet, Lindsay Young Professor of English at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, has always been interested in Surrealism, but translating Benjamin Péret’s The Big Game has proven the most challenging—and most rewarding—of her forays. Kallet will read from the book on July 17 at 3 p.m. at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville. Also reading will be poets Jeff Daniel Marion and Donna Doyle.

Putting a Mustache on the Mona Lisa

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