Little Owl - New Schedule

Little Owl Music & Arts Festival Schedule of Events
Bios for several of the Porch Stage performers follow
1:00-2:00 Dance demonstration from “Emerald Hips Belly Dance Instruction” teacher Suzanne Rambo. She will also do hooping.

1-2p Chattanooga Kirtan Band in the field including the following instruments: Native American flute, Vocal, Sitar, Harmonium, Tabla and Jymbe drums,and other percussion.)

1:00-2:00 Raptors arrive and set up
2:00-2:45 Birds of Prey Raptor show by SOAR

Orchard Stage
NOON Opening song by Gilbert Sewell & welcome by Bill Fisher
12:10 Bob Carty, Announcements/giveaways
1:00 Hara Paper
1:30 Frank Eaton
1:40 Announce the raptor show
2:00 Raptor Show
2:30 Uncle Lightning
3:00 Jack Pine Savages String Band w/ Gilbert Sewell/poster contest winner announced
3:30 Troy Underwood
4:00 Jerre Haskew
5:00-6:00 Dalton Roberts
6PM –over--

Porch Stage
12:00 Robin Burk 
12:30 Jim Pfitzer
1:00 Grant Fetters
1:30 Michael Gray 
2:00 Raptor Show
3:00 Finn Bille
3:15 ` Christyna Jensen
3:30 Marcus Patrick Ellsworth 
4:00 Janie Dempsey Watts
4:20 Dr. Susan Hickman
4:40 Ray Zimmerman 
5:00 Ginnie Strickland Sams
5:30 Peggy Douglas

Ray Zimmerman – Master of Ceremonies
Ray Zimmerman's performance poems, including “Sign” (AKA “Mercury”), “No Hair,””Madness,””A Special Place” and “Ham and Rye” have delighted audiences and won prizes in poetry slams. He is the executive editor of Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Poets. He is also a former president of the Chattanooga Writers Guild and won Second Place in the 2007 Poetry Contest of the Tennessee Writers Alliance. Ten days after undergoing coronary bypass surgery, he read his winning poem, “Glen Falls Trail,” at the awards ceremony of the Southern Festival of Books at Legislative Plaza, Nashville, Tennessee. Jeff Biggers, Associate Editor of the Bloomsbury Review, favorably reviewed Ray’s Chapbook, Searching for Cranes, in his end of year roundup article. He organizes poetry readings at Chattanooga venues. Ray was the subject of a feature article in the September 2008 issue of Blush magazine.

12:00 Robin Burk – wooden flutes and hand pan drum
Robin Burk is a multi-instrumentalist from Chattanooga, TN. She enjoys playing the Native American Style Flute, Ethno-Fusion flutes, Handpan, Steel Tongue Drums, and various melody and rhythm instruments. Robin is a member of the Smoky Mountain Flute Circle and the newly formed Chattanooga Flute Circle. She has played onstage at Track 29, Camp House, New Dischord music festival, Musical Echoes music festival (Ft Walton, FL), as well as other locations, including churches and festivals throughout the Southeast. Robin was awarded first place in Allied Art’s 2011 PARK(ing) Day completion. For more information:

12:30 Jim Pfitzer
Jim is a storyteller and writer who has performed and taught workshops from coast to coast. His personal stories cover topic ranging from too-close-for-comfort black bear encounters, to the significance of sweet tea in southern society, to explorations of the mad artist within. Pfitzer says "he would rather paddle a canoe than drive a car and prefers watching birds to watching television." When he isn’t telling stories, Pfitzer keeps bees, grows mushrooms, and carves wooden spoons. He is currently working on a one man show exploring the life and work of conservationist and ecologist Aldo Leopold. For more information or to read Pfitzer’s blog visit www.jimpfitzer.com.

1:00 Grant Fetters
A reoccurring dream kept Grant awake for several nights until he recounted this dream to his wife. The dream was about a Grasshopper that wanted Grant to tell his story. With the encouragement of his wife, Grant started to write about “Horace the Hopper.” This story is about a small green Grasshopper that wants to see the world and what he experiences on his journey.
Grant is an accomplished speaker in Toastmasters, he uses his speaking skills to give programs and book readings to children in the area. He belongs to several writing groups from Knoxville and Chattanooga, and in his spare time, Grant is a Design Engineer in the automotive industry and lives in Madisonville with his wife Sharon and their four cats.

1:30 Michael Gray
Michael Gray an author, story teller, musician and accomplished liar has performed at Memphis in May, The Dogwood Arts Festival, Mountain Fest, Wide Open Floor, Wordfest (producer/director) and on WUTC. His short stories published in Trout Unlimited; Land of Waterfalls; Chattanooga Parent; and Religion and Spirituality are taken from experiences growing up in a small East Tennessee town and on a family farm (as well as an imagination that is at times far too active). His book Life: Through a Child’s Eyes was published in 2005.

2:00 Break for Birds of Prey Show

3:00 Finn Bille

3:15 Chrystina Jensen

3:30 Marcus Patrick Ellsworth – Spoken word artist, slam and performance poet, author of When the World was Round

4:00 Janie Watts Spartaro

4:20 Dr. Susan Hickman

4:40 Ray Zimmerman – Biography Above

5:00 Ginnie Strickland SamsGinnie Sams is a writer, a poet, a storyteller, and a lover of the arts. Personal family history provides Ginnie with material for her unique adventure stories and mid-life fairy tales. She has performed before audiences as far ranging as Zimbabwe and Costa Rica, and within the United States in Chattanooga TN, Atlanta GA, and Los Gatos CA.
Ginnie is well known in Trenton, GA as one of the original Trenton Beatnik poets. She reads her themed poems at a variety of Chattanooga poetry and music venues, including St Elmo’s Living Room, the now extinct Rockpoint Books, the Chattanooga Writers Guild, and the Audubon Bird Sancuary.
Ginnie lives in Rising Fawn with her calico cat Wootchie, but don’t you dare call her the cat lady.

5:30 Peggy Douglas
Peggy Douglas is a poet and performance artist, autoharp player, and Appalachian clogger. Her poems have appeared in Kakalak Anthology of Carolina Poets; Bleeding Heart Anthology of the Knoxville Writer's Guild; the University of Maine’s Binnacle Poetry Journal; Maypop: the Tennessee Writers Alliance Journal; Glass: A Journal of Poetry; The Light of Ordinary Things Anthology by Fearless Books; Chantarelle’s Notebook; Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine; and Still: Literature of the Mountain South. Her chapbook, Twisted Roots, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2011 and she was a recent poetry finalist for the Still: Literature of the Mountain South literary contest.
Tom Brown, who plays banjo and harmonica will accompany her. Tom has played banjo and harmonica with several bluegrass groups over the years. He has injected a healthy dose of traditional bluegrass songs to the group's repertoire as well as his original compositions which he refers to as "slightly bent." He was selected in 2003, 2004, 2006 and again in 2007 for the ASCAP Sponsored Songwriter Showcase at the International Bluegrass Music Association's World of Bluegrass trade show. His songs have been recorded by Jeanette Williams, the Barker Brothers, Earl Brackin, and by the award winning Canadian bluegrass artist Janet McGarry.

Reading in Knoxville

Reading at a Senior Citizen center next Tuesday. Half of the audience will be younger than I am.

Our reading at Humana will take place this coming Tuesday, March 6 at 10 AM. Their community center is located at 4438 Western Avenue, 640 Plaza, Knoxville, TN 37921. The number for the center is 865-329-8892.