Deborah Levine is Editor in-Chief of the American Diversity Report. She is a Forbes Magazine top Diversity & Inclusion Trailblazer and an award-winning author of 15 books. She has been recognized by the Women's Federation for World Peace and the TN Economic Council on Women. She was featured on C-Span/ BookTV and her published articles span decades in journals & magazines: American Journal of Community Psychology, Journal of Public Management & Social Policy, The Bermuda Magazine, The Harvard Divinity School Bulletin. A former blogger with The Huffington Post, she is now an opinion columnist with The Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Technically, Arwen Lewis inhabits our blue planet, but so much about her belongs in the celestial realm. First and foremost, her earthily angelic voice (just listen and you’ll know that’s not a contradiction in terms). Then there’s her lineage: The granddaughter of Oscar-winning actress Loretta Young and Tom Lewis who created the Armed Forces Radio Network during World War II. She is the daughter of Peter Lewis, a founding member of ‘60s psychedelic cult heroes Moby Grape, she’s been part of the creative cosmos all her life. So it’s no surprise that Arwen’s new OMAD EP is called Under the Stars—or that a slice of sonic heaven is poised to enter your heart, mind and soul.
Arwen creates music in the professional realm for the pure love of creating art, and because of the community that she has found in the world of music and performance. She not only performs but also works with other musicians. including organizes concerts. She is also the host of a music podcast on Pantheon Podcasts called The Arwen Lewis Show. Arwen looks forward to creating new music in the future and exploring the realm of alternative music with nuances of classical and jazz.
Watching the news this weekend was another exercise in political upheaval. I was grateful for a brief intermission on CBS with its “Sunday Moment in Nature”. Seeing the beautiful mountain scenes and watching the birds up close was heart warming, and much needed. But I needed more so we hopped in the car and drove over to Fort Oglethorpe. I wanted to revisit one of my favorite places, the old log cabin that belonged to the Native American Chief John Ross. The surrounding ponds with their fountains were truly a gift and I hoped that they would have still have birds flocking to them. Continue reading Welcoming Moments of Nature – by Deborah Levine→
I originally planned to write about the massive number of politics-oriented texts that I’ve been getting on my phone. They were unsolicited and annoying, regardless of which candidate they’re promoting. I know that many of you were inundated with these texts and shared my concern. When I searched online for directions on how to stop all this, I discovered that the Federal Trade commission doesn’t block political campaign texts and calls. Political campaigns are run by legitimate organizations that know how to go around the rules meant to stop robocalls and robotexts. I was going to share the advice of a blog, “How To Survive the Election Year and Political Text Spam That Comes With It”. But so much changed with the weekend assassination attempt.
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It’s always a pleasure to go to Miller Plaza, listen to the music and watch folks set up stalls for a festival. The activity this past weekend began at 5pm so I got there a bit early to watch them get ready. Everyone setting up looked happy even in the intense sunlight and a few kids even hopped, skipped and jumped around. I admire these younger folks doing their best with a temperature over 90 degrees. Us older folks are especially vulnerable to these heat waves and even standing in the shade made me sweat like mad. I’m thinking that climate change deniers and Supreme Court justices should stand with me. Maybe a little heat exhaustion would have them promote laws and projects to protect us.
Our middle-aged kids came to visit us and we wanted to do something special with them. But with the temperature in the mid-nineties, none of us could tolerate being outside for long. Fortunately, Chattanooga has wonderful opportunities to have fun indoors with full-speed air conditioning. Given our long-time fascination with political artifacts, we were eager to check out the exhibit, Path to the Presidency, hosted by the public library’s Local History and Genealogy Department and presented by the Robert L. Golden Institute of Art and History.
After the attempted assassination of former President Trump, will there be renewed discussions around gun control? Gun violence researchers saying that there’s a contagion effect with every incident encouraging copy cats, little progress has been made.
On Memorial Day, we not only remember, but also honor those who gave their lives in service to our country. We grieve with their families whose loss will never be forgotten. I’m fortunate that my father survived his military service in World War II. But last week, I spoke to an Army veteran via Zoom whose new movie, The Keeper, taught me that suicide means Memorial Day includes more veterans than you think.
It’s always a pleasure to attend community festivals that combine great fun with service to those in need. Over the weekend, I attended several of these events and I’ll be smiling over them for weeks. The first of these events was Derby Day on Saturday at the East Ridge Local Coffee. Derby Day was a fun way to support the East Ridge Needy Child Fund. This amazing organization does the important work of making sure that East Ridge children have shoes, clothes, toys and a food basket for the family.
It was super exciting to be invited to the annual conference of Project Voice which has taken place in Chattanooga, home to the country’s fastest internet since 2016. Project Voice looks at artificial intelligence, but not the traditional artificial intelligence (AI) that analyzes historical data and makes future numeric predictions. Rather, the focus is on conversational and generative AI, terms I hadn’t heard until sitting in the conference. Conversational AI can hold two-way interactions with humans by understanding and responding in text or speech. Generative AI can take prompts and create all kinds of stuff that never existed before but are indistinguishable from human-generated content. I started to feel overwhelmed by this new information.
Technically, Arwen Lewis inhabits our blue planet, but so much about her belongs in the celestial realm. First and foremost, her earthily angelic voice (just listen and you’ll know that’s not a contradiction in terms). Then there’s her lineage: The granddaughter of Oscar-winning actress Loretta Young and Tom Lewis who created the Armed Forces Radio Network during World War II. She is the daughter of Peter Lewis, a founding member of ‘60s psychedelic cult heroes Moby Grape, she’s been part of the creative cosmos all her life. So it’s no surprise that Arwen’s new OMAD EP is called Under the Stars—or that a slice of sonic heaven is poised to enter your heart, mind and soul.
