Maryville College play to bring awareness to autism
Autism is extremely prevalent in the modern world. Recent studies show that as many as one out of every 68 Americans is on the autism spectrum. Despite the fact that there are so many individuals with autism, many people still do not fully understand autism. While neurotypical people may never understand what an individual diagnosed with autism deals with, Jennings Kelley’s senior project hopes to shine some light on just that. For her senior thesis project, Kelley is directing the play titled “The Other Room” by Ariana Blayde. “The Other Room” is a short play that was written in 2012 depicting an average day for Austin, a 16 year old with autism who has difficulty engaging in conversations with his peers. Kelley picked this play with the hope of showing just how important it is to get rid of...
Read MoreThe Road Home
Every spring the Maryville College Concert Choir embarks on a special adventure to share the gift of music with all different kinds of people. One year the concert choir went to Washington D.C., and other years we found our way to both North and South Carolina. Each year the choir goes somewhere different, and every four years we travel abroad to the beautiful country of Scotland. This year we decided to travel a little closer to home. We decided to take a Tennessee Tour around all over the different parts of Tennessee. We traveled to big cities such as Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis. We also found ourselves in smaller rural areas such as Pikeville and Tullahoma. We began our trip with the traditional send-off concert, which was located in the William Baxter Lee Foyer of the Clayton Center for...
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Upcoming artist in residence: Chris Barnard
Coming soon, creator Chris Barnard will be joining us as our annual artist in residence for a week. From April 23 to 26, there will be opportunities abounding to interact with Barnard as he works with a number of our students to create collaborative pieces ranging from portraits to collages. After speaking with Carl Gombert, Professor of Art at MC, it seems that Barnard hopes to focus on complicated race relations from the past, present and future that exist in east Tennessee Barnard himself is an artist and professor at Connecticut College who creates paintings that deal with political constructs or many of the complicated relationships that exist within society. Whether it’s idealist depictions of landscape encompassed with underlying, contradictory American ideas, or spaces that also represent current social issues, Barnard’s works are truly thought-provoking while remaining visually captivating....
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“Black Panther” in the age of hype
In 1988, veteran filmmaker Martin Scorsese released “The Last Temptation of Christ” to worldwide controversy. The film portrayed Jesus Christ as a savior who didn’t have to be a savior: a God-man fully capable of giving up his divine mission so that he could live out his licentious thoughts and wed Mary Magdalene. The film was protested and condemned by leading religious figures and institutions, and it was banned in many countries for what was deemed its blasphemous message. A constant question that swirled around the film upon its release was: “Is it a bad movie that is only garnering positive reviews because it is breaking religious taboos, or is it actually a brilliant movie that is getting a bad reputation because of its irreverent approach towards sacred subjects?” In our culture — fully born and bred with...
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Celebrating Black History month with X-Night
waited to hear some amazing poetry. On the evening of February 21 the X-night — formerly known as poetry night — took place as part of the celebration of Black History Month. This was only one of many events in February for Black History Month, each celebrating the diversity and inclusivity at our school. X-Night, formerly known as poetry night, was given a name change in honor of Xavier Sales, a Maryville College student who passed away suddenly on May 8, 2017. Xavier was a senior in the year of his passing, and the loss was a large blow to many fellow students and faculty members. He was a bright presence on campus, and all who knew him were pulled in by his warm spirit and energetic personality. The re-naming of this event, along with other tributes around...
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The Womb Spooners to release album
Womb Spooners is a local band featuring the up-and-coming artists Kate Lane, senior Liz Lane, and junior Hannah Wilson. The band defines their genre as folk-punk, and they describe their sound as “folk with angst lyrics and some dry humor.” They band was greatly inspired by bands such as AJJ, The Mountain Goats, They Might Be Giants and Fire and Frenzy. Originally under the name Special F, twins Liz Lane and Kate Lane began the band when they were in high school with another member. However, the band became just the twins before they added Wilson as a bassist a year ago. The band changed their name to Womb Spooners as a joking play on the song entitled “Dream Weaver” but chose to keep the name because of the memorability. Their first album is currently in the works and...
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