Community Calendar

Actress Anne Van Curen transforms into Emma "Grandma" Gatewood to describe what it was like to be the first woman to solo hike the Appalachian Trail in 1955. Smokies Life Branch Out event. Great Smokies Welcome Center, Townsend, Tenn. Cost: For Park Keepers, $45; to join and attend, $85 (Park Keeper basic membership $40 + event registration $45). Info – SmokiesLife.org/branch-out-events or email: membership@smokieslife.org.

New Food Pantry now available to neighborhood and surrounding areas twice a month. Every 2nd Thursday of each month we will be giving away non-perishable goods and personal care items. On the 4th Thursday of each month we will be serving a hot meal.

Knox SOUP — Supporting Outstanding Unique Projects - is a community dinner where four local individuals or groups pitch projects that could make Knox County stronger, more connected, and more vibrant. Enjoy soup, salad, bread and dessert, hear the ideas, then vote for the project you want to help fund. Suggested donation: $5.

Have a community project idea? Proposals are welcome from throughout Knox County. Submit your proposal by October 27, 2026 for consideration at the November dinner.

Thursday, November 5, 2026 • 5:30 p.m. doors open, 6:00 p.m. program
Knoxville First Presbyterian Church, 620 State Street

Couture Opera marks its fifth season with an unforgettable evening that blends five artistic disciplines together to celebrate imagination, transformation, and the enduring power of the human spirit. Award-winning architecture, fashion, opera, historic preservation, and storytelling converge for a magical experience.

Flights of Fantasy unfolds in five breathtaking acts - from innocence and awakening through darkness, metamorphosis, and ultimately, triumph. The event is set within the beautifully restored Sanitary Laundry Building, a Knoxville landmark that has itself been transformed by MHM Architects from an industrial icon into a vibrant center for creativity and community. The evening celebrates the extraordinary ability of both people and places to reinvent themselves.

Proceeds support Knoxville Opera’s artistic and educational programming, making this an evening of design and discovery that benefits the community.

Attire: All That Glitters
Black tie. Metallics. Jewels. Sequins. Sparkles.

The Oak Ridge Community Band will perform a Veterans Day concert on Sunday afternoon, November 8, at 3 pm in the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church, 1101 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge. This is a FREE event, and all area veterans have a special invitation to attend and be recognized for your service to our country. Our program directed by conductor Bill Kerr will include familiar and loved patriotic songs in honor of all our veterans. Visit our website at www.orcb.org for more information and also see our facebook page at www.facebook.com/OakRidgeCommunityBand.

Honor the stories of those who have served through an extraordinary evening of music at Voices of Valor.

Presented in partnership with the Cathedral Concert Series at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, this special Veterans Day concert welcomes the U.S. Army Chorus as a featured performer. The program also brings together Knoxville Opera’s military chorus, Military Voices of East Tennessee (MVET), Knoxville Opera soloists, and the Tennessee Wind Symphony for a moving celebration of service, sacrifice, resilience, and hope through opera, American classics, patriotic favorites, and choral music.

With the growing awareness of holistic and complementary approaches to personal balance and inner growth, the concept of transformation through spiritual practices is gaining increased attention.
Bruno Groening (1906-1959) brought a simple message: there is a higher power that is the basis of all living things. He showed how this power can be absorbed freely to transform body and soul.
Since 1979 the Bruno Groening Circle of Friends has continued to pass on his Teaching on living in harmony with natural and spiritual laws.
Speakers will include Mrs. Brigitte Hutter from Germany and Mr. Jan Skopic from the Czech Republic.
The event is open to all who are interested.

Student Orientation Session for incoming students: We will review all the essential information to ensure a successful start, including Academic policies, Attendance requirements, Dress Code and our digital Learning Management System. You will also get a guided tour of the campus and classrooms to help you find your way around, alongside dedicated support to set up your new laptop. We look forward to sharing some fun moments together as well!

Opened in 2015, the Ross Medical Education Center Knoxville campus is located just about a mile from the intersection of I-75 and I-140, right off of Kingston Pike in the Windsor Square shopping center.

New Food Pantry now available to neighborhood and surrounding areas twice a month. Every 2nd Thursday of each month we will be giving away non-perishable goods and personal care items. On the 4th Thursday of each month we will be serving a hot meal.

Blount Mansion’s Semiquincentennial Celebration Lecture Series with Dr. Katy Chiles - Phillis Wheatley and the Black American Revolution

This lecture is sponsored by The National Society of Colonial Dames Knoxville Town Committee to honor America’s 250th Anniversary!

Blount Mansion is proud to present Dr. Katy Chiles of the University of Tennessee. She will speak on ”Phillis Wheatley and the Black American Revolution.”
Phillis Wheatley was a Black poet enslaved in Boston during the American Revolution.

This talk discusses how her poetry takes up the themes of liberty, freedom, and slavery and how she started the African American literary tradition.
Katy Chiles is an Associate Professor of English and Affiliate Faculty in Africana Studies at the University of Tennessee. Her first book, Transformable Race: Surprising Metamorphoses in the Literatures of Early America was published by Oxford University Press, and her scholarship has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Antiquarian Society. With Professor Cassander Smith (University of Alabama), she is Co-Editor of Early American Literature.

• Lecture will start at 6pm
• The special speaking event will be at Blount Mansion Visitors Center, 200 West Hill Avenue, Knoxville TN 37902.
• Limited free parking onsite
• $10 Donation suggested at the door. Cash and card accepted
• RSVP to Rose@BlountMansion.org