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By Renuka, May 22, 2013 3:31 pm

May 22, Tennessean, Nancy DeVille

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By Renuka, May 17, 2013 3:12 pm

May 17, DigitalJournal.com

Nashville, TN (PRWEB)

This summer, renowned puppeteers and performers from all over the world will make their way to Nashville, Tennessee for the 2013 Nashville International Puppet Festival June 21-23 at the Nashville Public Library and surrounding area. The festival is free and open to the public.

“We have a top-tier library system, and this festival will be like no other happening anywhere else in the country this summer,” said Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. “This one-of-a-kind festival will showcase our library and our city to 25,000 visitors from around the country and the world.”

The library hosted Nashville’s first international puppet festival in 2008, which attracted more than 18,000 people. New this year is the Puppet Festival Parade. The parade will wind down Church Street through the Arts District and feature performers with stilts, unicycles, floats, vintage cars and puppets.

Tickets for the International Puppet Festival are free, but limited and are on sale now. Patrons can reserve advance tickets for a $2.50 convenience fee.

The library will hold two special events in collaboration with the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum and Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

The debut performance of Wishing Chair Productions’ “String City: Nashville’s Tradition of Music and Puppetry” will take place June 20 at the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum. Tennessee Performing Arts Center will present a performance by world renowned puppeteer Phillip Huber June 22. Known for his work with marionettes in “Being John Malkovich” and in Disney’s “Oz, The Great and Powerful,” Huber will perform “Suspended Animation.” Tickets are $30 in advance online or $40 the night of event and on sale now.

Featured performers include Phillip Huber Marionettes, Velo Theater from France, Dragon Art Studio from China, Kawasemi-Za from Japan, Sombras Chinas from Argentina and Dresdner Figurentheater from Germany among others.

The marionette tradition began at the Nashville Public Library in 1938 when Tom Tichenor performed a rendition of “Puss in Boots.” Seventy-five years later, marionette shows are still performed at the downtown library on Friday and Saturday mornings by Wishing Chair Productions, the library’s very own puppet troupe.

To find your next vacation sweet spot explore tnvacation.com and join other Tennessee travelers following us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/5/prweb10742912.htm

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By Renuka, May 16, 2013 9:02 pm

May 16, Nashville Scene

June 1: Readings from Apocalypse Now: Poems and Prose of the End Days at Nashville Public Library (11 a.m.) and East Side Story (2 p.m.)

June 21-23: Nashville International Puppet Festival
This offer has strings attached: the Nashville International Puppet Festival, well on its way to becoming one of the city’s premier arts festivals. Puppet troupes from China, Germany, Japan, Argentina and France set up at the downtown Nashville Public Library for three days of performances that stretch the limits of imagination and material. Featured guests include master Phillip Huber, perhaps best known for devising the china doll for Oz the Great and Powerful. —JR

Link to article: http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/from-beyonc-to-bob-dylan-puppets-to-poetry-a-nashville-summer-sampler/Content?oid=3401389&showFullText=true

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By Renuka, May 16, 2013 3:13 pm

May 16, WTVF-TV News Channel 5

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Dollar General announced Thursday that they have awarded $1.2 million in grants to 42 local nonprofits and literacy programs.

The money will provide education and help children, adults, and families in the community learn to read. About $350,000 will go to the Nashville Public Library’s limitless library program with Metro Nashville Public Schools, which provides free books to children and teens.

“In life there are very few gifts that can last a lifetime and the one gift that you can give somebody that never goes away that continues to grow that helps them personally excel and professionally excel is literacy,” said Denine Torr with Dollar General.

Another $350,000 will also go to the YWCA’s GED program.

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By Renuka, May 13, 2013 2:21 pm

May 13, TNVacation Triptales blog, Amanda Stravinsky

You’re going to want to mark your calendars for one of the biggest, eclectic and creative events of the year. Nashville will awaken in a lively display with marionettes in parades and shows around town as part of the 2013 Nashville International Puppet Festival June 21-23 hosted by the Nashville Public Library.

Free and open to the public, the library and surrounding area will transform into a vibrant, family-friendly carnival with live music, a street fair and lots of puppet performances. The Puppet Festival Parade is new this year and will feature performers on unicycles, stilts, floats, vintage cars and, of course, puppets. The parade will snake its way down Church Street and through the Arts District.

Puppet troupes from France, Germany, Argentina, Japan and China will come to Nashville to share their talents in shows and events. Kawasemi-Za, the troupe from Japan, will perform “Silent Poems,” a show with no words that animates the puppets in such a way they almost seem alive as they convey various emotions and timeless, meaningful messages. The German troupe, Dresdner Figurentheater, will present the classic “Peter and the Wolf” for adult and children audiences. Sombras Chinas, the Argentinian troupe, will perform “No Toquen Mis Manos” (“Don’t Touch My Hands”) through Chinese hand puppetry that combines music and hand movements instead of words to tell a story. Vélo Theatre troupe from France uses “object theatre” as a way to interact with the audience. By definition, object theatre uses everyday objects rather than constructing theatrical puppets; for example, a box of spoons could become a village. They will perform “And Then He Ate Me” and “There’s a rabbit in the moon.” Dragon Art Studio from China will present “Images of China” which is a series of short scenes based on traditional and not-so-traditional Chinese tales.

Other performers include Phillip Huber, who is best known for his marionette work in “Being John Malkovich” and Disney’s “Oz, The Great And Powerful;” Wild Goose Chase Theater which introduces eclectic puppetry through the use of cardboard and everyday objects; Puppets to Go which will perform “The Frog Prince” with rod and hand puppets; Nationally-renowned and two-time grant recipient from the Jim Henson Foundation for his solo productions of “Suitcase Circus” and “Pinocchio, Lee Bryan;” and the Nashville Public Library’s own Wishing Chair Productions & The Puppet Truck, started in 1938 by Tom Tichenor, will perform “Ellingtown,” a show that takes the audience through old New York with Duke Ellington, the great master of jazz.

Nashville’s first international puppet festival was in 2008 which attracted more than 18,000 people. Tickets to the festival are free but limited. You can order tickets in advance for a $2.50 per ticket convenience fee.

In addition to the festival, the library will host two special events in collaboration with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Wishing Chair Productions will present “String City: Nashville’s Tradition of Music and Puppetry” June 20 at the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum’s Ford Theater. TPAC will host a performance by nationally-renowned Phillip Huber June 22.

Are you planning on attending the 2013 Nashville International Puppet Festival? What are you most looking forward to? Let me know in the comments below!

Link: http://www.tnvacation.com/triptales/nashvilles-got-the-world-on-a-string-at-the-2013-nashville-international-puppet-festival/

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By Renuka, May 8, 2013 9:03 pm

May 8, Tennessean’s Ms. Cheap, Mary Hance

There are two fun, free events for families worth checking out.

• Today is free day at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art as part of National Public Gardens Day. Just go to the “Better Homes & Gardens” website at http://npga.bhg.com to download a free coupon to present at Cheekwood for free admission anytime today.

This is the only free day planned for this year at Cheekwood, which usually charges $12 general admission, plus $3 parking, so this is definitely a deal.

If you go, you can hear live music in the Herb Garden between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and guided garden tours on the hour. At 1 p.m. there is a special presentation, “On the Horizon at Cheekwood,” where you can hear about some of the things coming up at Cheekwood.

Details: www.cheekwood.org or 615-356-8000.

Wishing Chair Productions begins a run of the Tichenor Marionettes’ version of “The Frog Prince” with shows at

10:30 and 11:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays through May 25 in the children’s theater at the main library at 615 Church St. The free shows run about 30 minutes.

Details: www. library.nashville.org.

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By Renuka, May 8, 2013 5:04 pm

May 8 – Digital Journal, NewsOK, Financial Content, Daily Herald

Nashville, TN (PRWEB) May 08, 2013

Green Hills Library will host Civil War 150, a national traveling exhibition, on display from May 20-June 10. The Civil War is one of most transformative periods in U.S. history. After long-simmering sectional tensions led to seven slaveholding states seceding, the ensuing political strife gave way to war in April 1861. Four years of fighting resulted in 1.5 million casualties making the Civil War the bloodiest conflict in US history. One hundred and fifty years after the Civil War, the voices of soldiers and their families still ring true.

Experience the battle through the eyes of major political figures, soldiers, families, and freedmen. By virtue of letters, personal accounts, and images, learn how people grappled with the end of slavery, the nature of democracy and citizenship, the human toll of civil war, and the role of a president in wartime.    The Gilder Lehrman Institute developed the exhibition to mark the Civil War Sesquicentennial. The Civil War 150 is divided into five panels: The Nation Divides, 1861: The Union is Dissolved, This Cruel War, 1863: Turning Points, and The Price of Victory (1864–1865). Drawing from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, each section traces major events during the Civil War. The Green Hill library is one of fifty sites nationwide selected to host the Civil War 150 exhibition.

Though the Civil War took place one hundred and fifty years ago, people today can still identify with the thoughts and fears of ordinary citizens and soldiers, many of which reflect a humanity that is forever consistent. The library is sponsoring free programs and other events for the public in connection with the exhibition. Visit http://www.library.nashville.org for more information.

Developed by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in partnership with The Library of America, this exhibition was made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The exhibition is part of Civil War 150: Exploring the War and Its Meaning through the Words of Those Who Lived It, a major three-year project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The project is centered on the four-volume Library of America series The Civil War Told by Those Who Lived It.

About the National Endowment for the Humanities

Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities. The National Endowment for the Humanities grants enrich classroom learning, create and preserve knowledge, and bring ideas to life through public television, radio, new technologies, museum exhibitions, and programs in libraries and other community places. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available on the Internet at http://www.neh.gov.

About the Library of America

A nonprofit publisher and cultural institution, The Library of America was founded in 1979 with seed funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation to help preserve and foster appreciation for the nation’s literary heritage by publishing and keeping permanently in print authoritative editions of America’s best and most significant writing. Since then more than 200 hardcover volumes have been published, and the series, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2007, is widely recognized as the unofficial national edition of American writing. More information about The Library of America may be found at http://www.loa.org.

About the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Founded in 1994 by Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization devoted to the improvement of history education. The Institute has developed an array of programs for schools, teachers, and students that now operate in all fifty states, including a website that features the more than 60,000 unique historical documents in the Gilder Lehrman Collection,http://www.gilderlehrman.org. Each year the Institute offers support and resources to tens of thousands of teachers, and through them enhances the education of more than a million students. The Institute’s programs have been recognized by awards from the White House, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Organization of American Historians.

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The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History 19 West 44th Street, Suite 500 New York, NY 10036 http://www.gilderlehrman.org

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/5/prweb10704512.htm