Puppet practice
The Glass House Collective and residents of the Glass Street neighborhood invite the public to join in the 3rd annual Glass Street LIVE festival on Saturday from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. The Glass House Collective will join with the National Park Service, the Shaking Ray Levi Society's Wayne-O-Rama project and community partners for a celebration of the cultural history and revitalization of the East Chattanooga neighborhoods.
This year the annual festival will feature music curated by Jazzanooga, food, entertainment, pop-up shops, games, bounce house fun and more. Kicking off at 11 a.m. with a parade featuring music, fun and 12-feet tall puppets, the event celebrates the culmination of the community's efforts to partner with the National Park Service to reclaim access to the Sherman Reservation and is timed to coincide with the Centennial year of the National Park Service.
Representing the Civil War generals who marched up the Sherman Reservation during a pivotal battle, the puppets, whimsical, oversized parodies of General Cleburne and General Sherman, will be carried by students and residents of the Glass Street community and were created by four-time Emmy Award-winning artist Wayne White. These puppets are a part of a yearlong installation being produced at Tenn Arts by the Shaking Ray Levi Society, a 30-year-old organization dedicated to increasing opportunities for art education in schools and throughout the community.
Mr. White, a Hixson native, has carried his love of his hometown and its history throughout his award-winning career and is creating enormous interactive sculptures and puppets that will engage students, entertain residents and tourists and engage people of all ages in the robust history of the region through his whimsical and powerful art, said officials.
"The fighting that took place on the wooded hill above Glass Street in 1863 was more than a struggle between two armies," says Superintendent Jon Bennett. "The lives lost at Orchard Knob, on Lookout Mountain and along Missionary Ridge 153 years ago in the Battles for Chattanooga were among hundreds of thousands of casualties in a Civil War that changed the course of American history."
Today, families and communities across the country are fighting battles in a new war, reclaiming their neighborhoods in a struggle against crime, poverty and violence. The Glass House Collective and the Glass Street LIVE organizing partners work with students, businesses and residents to engage and inspire, creating opportunities and revitalizing this historic part of the Chattanooga community and invite the public to this family festival.
For information call Teal Thibaud at 605-5950 or visit online at www.glasshousecollective.org or the Glass House Collective Facebook page.
The Glass House Collective hosts the Glass Street LIVE festival Saturday