Shopper Blog: Hey Bear Café welcomes Knox Pride for a night of Bingo

FARRAGUT

Hey Bear Café welcomes Knox Pride for a night of Bingo

Nancy Anderson, Shopper News

Knox Pride stepped out of South Knoxville to hold a Bingo night at Hey Bear Café on 9036 Middlebrook Pike.

John Camp, executive director of the Knox Pride Community Resource Center and CEO of East Tennessee Equality Council – dba Knox Pride, a 501(c)(3).

“We’ve been doing fundraisers to help fund all of our services provided free to the community. We’ve been doing Bingo at South Press on Chapman Highway for about two years.

“Hey Bear Café was gracious enough to help us expand on our Bingo event and fundraising. They’ve been a great community partner supporting us and coming to our events. We’re happy to be at Hey Bear Café to support them,” said Camp. “We do a lot of important work, but we also do fun events we consider to be community outreach, and we plan to be at Hey Bear again in the near future.”

The first thing most people think of when they think of Knox Pride is the Knox Pride Fest and Parade.

About three years ago, the Equality Council, which was established in 2006, knew it could do more for the community, so they opened the Knox Pride Center in South Knoxville.

The Knox Pride Center offers 30 weeks of life skills classes including basic intro to cooking, how to build a resume, how to interview for a job, budgeting, cleaning, and self-care. Knox Pride will also help with home and car maintenance. They partner with a number of organizations to help at-risk youth.

“We do monthly markets at the Knox Pride Center featuring queer and minority owned businesses, but the largest portion of what we do is our mutual aid,” Camp said.

“We have a food pantry and a personal care pantry. We have an outdoor refrigerator that’s free for everyone featuring 100 premade meals a day. We have satellite pantries at South Press Coffee Shop and the downtown YWCA.

“Last year we provided 10,000 pounds of free food to the community. This year with our partnership with Second Harvest we’re looking to provide about 20,000 pounds to the community. There are no barriers no requirements. If you are hungry, you’re hungry. If you need clothes, you need clothes. Whether you are queer or not we’re here to help for free.

“It’s the same with our thrift store. If you need clothes, it’s free. If you’d like to pay something, that’s OK; if not, that’s OK too.

“Both the food pantry and the Thriftique is a shopping experience, not a handout, although both are free to the community at large.”

When he says “equity,” Camp means everyone not just the LGBTQ+ community. Camp said the phrase “LGBTQ+” is now passé and the phrase “queer” can be used instead.

“ 'Queer community’ is OK now instead of all the letters. It’s a more blanketed statement. Although either one works. You don’t have to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual to be part of the queer community.

“Allies are very important to us.

“We can stand up for ourselves, but having allies stand with us really makes a difference,” Camp said.

Info: www.knoxpride.com

HALLS

For young parents, Lil Yogi's in business to help, not judge

Al Lesar, Shopper News

When a teen mom walks in Christina Bogart’s store, it doesn’t take long for her to feel comfortable.

Colton makes sure of that.

Colton is Christina’s 15-month-old son and the official greeter at Lil Yogi’s Children’s Blessings (6923 A Maynardville Pike, next to UPS) in Halls.

Bogart walked in those shoes. In fact, the 20-year-old Central High School graduate (Class of 2021) still vividly remembers what it was like.

“I know what it was like to be young and pregnant,” Bogart said. “Every month that goes by you’re getting bigger and bigger. You know people are looking at you.

“I learned none of that really matters. As long as I’m healthy and my baby is healthy, that’s all that matters.”

Bogart said her mission with her store is to provide affordable clothes and toys for the people in the community who need it.

“We’re a family store,” she said. “If someone comes in and wants to tell me their story, I’ll listen. If they want to hear my story, I’ll tell them. We might end up crying together.”

Giving an affordable option

Bogart’s story is a rollercoaster of emotion. During her high school days, she was a dedicated softball player.

“I was always an outgoing kid,” she said. “It was easy to make friends.”

A serious back injury in the game ended her playing career.

“I had a rough patch in high school,” said Bogart, who graduated in December of 2020, before her classmates. “For a while, (doctors) weren’t sure if I would walk again.”

She regained her ability to walk and left for a small college in Georgia. Bogart came home pregnant and on her own.

“I always knew I wanted to do something with kids,” Bogart said. “I worked at a day care and saw how expensive that was. I wanted to open a store that had things everyone could afford.”

In July 2023, six months after Colton was born, Bogart opened the doors of Lil Yogi’s as a thrift shop.

“At first, I was skeptical,” the single mom said. “It took a while to get the word out. Once people heard about me, (the business) blew up.”

The store’s first location was 1,000 square feet. It was able to move next door, more than doubling the room.

Not there to judge

The business model Bogart uses is simple: Unless it’s brand new, nothing costs more than $5. The thrift store concept allows for either donations or store credit being given for items dropped off.

“(Running a business) can be mentally exhausting,” Bogart said. “I can’t count the times I cried at work. There’s a lot involved in setting the price where I’m able to make money, yet it’s still affordable.”

Bogart said if a clothing item comes in stained or with a little hole in it, it will be kept off the sales floor in a box so they can be given out in an emergency for no charge.

“I’ve had some young mothers come in that I can tell ...,” Bogart said. “I’m not here to judge, I’m here to help when I can.

“I want everyone who comes in the door to be comfortable. I want them to feel happiness when they enter.”

That’s why Colton’s presence is so important.

“When someone walks in, he’ll give a shriek and run around,” Bogart said. “In the morning, when we pull up in the driveway, he knows where we are and he’ll have a big smile.”

Lil Yogi’s Children’s Blessings is open 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9:30-5 Saturday.

NORTH KNOXVILLE

Annual Rossini Festival fills two days on Market Square

Jack Coker, Shopper News

On April 20 and 21, Knoxville was treated to the annual Rossini Festival, hosted by Knoxville Opera. Expanded to two days, it filled its new site on Market Square with dance, jazz, chamber, choral, barbershop and opera music.

“The real point of the festival is as a multidisciplinary festival,” explained Jason Hardy, general director and CEO at Knoxville Opera. “Opera is a casserole of all the arts, because we include visual, movement, singing, orchestra and all that stuff.”

Unlike years past, the Rossini Festival was not permitted to be on Gay Street. Hardy explained that as downtown became more popular, “it became difficult with the hotels and such on Gay Street. At some point the city no longer approved us to be on Gay Street because they didn’t want to close that street anymore.”

The Rossini festival played host to a wide variety of performers. “It’s mostly local to the East Tennessee region,” Hardy said. “We put out a call for performers and we provide the venue at no cost to them. We love to celebrate the local art and culture ecosystem.”

No longer able to use Gay Street, the Rossini Festival expanded to two days, which helped attract more international food vendors and alleviate the tight setup and tear-down schedule. In years past, Hardy said, “We used to load in on midnight Friday night, start at 10 a.m., shut down at 8 p.m. and be packed up and gone by 3 a.m. the next morning. It was an endurance test for all of us.” Expanding to two days was a huge success, allowing more time for performers.

While the two day schedule worked well, there was some frustration with not being permitted to close Gay Street. Hardy said. “It was very strange that not even a week after we were told that we couldn’t close Gay Street, the city announced the initiative to close Gay Street. And nobody came. If you’re gong to close it, invite us!”

Up next for the Knoxville Opera is “Cendrillon” by Pauline Viardot at the Bijou Theatre on May 3, 4, & 5, and world-renowned tenor Lawrence Brownlee in concert at the Tennessee Theatre on June 29 presented in collaboration with the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

OPINION

Remembering the gifts from my father

Leslie Snow, Shopper News

My father loved my mother deeply and beautifully. He loved her kind heart and her soft-spoken nature. He loved the way she nurtured everyone around her, always asking questions, never drawing attention to herself. She was his ideal woman, gentle and good, thoughtful and sweet.

And that’s why my father and I butted heads when I was growing up.

I could never measure up to my mother. I wasn’t gentle enough or kind enough. I wasn’t self-sacrificing or sweet. I was assertive like he was, and he considered that a failing on my part.

For years we didn’t get along. For years, we didn’t have the kind of relationship I wanted. Our similarities made us chafe. We both preferred my mother’s softness to our own boldness.

Sometimes people would remark on our similarities. They’d hear me make a sharp retort or share a strong opinion and they’d say, “You’re just like your father.” I would vehemently deny it. He made me angry as a child and I didn’t want to be like him. I wanted to be more like my mother, but it wasn’t in my nature.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon planting small shrubs and perennials in a plot of hard earth I’m determined to transform into a planting bed. I carried the plants and bags of soil down a long winding path by myself. I knew it would have made more sense to wait for my husband to come home, but I was determined to do the heavy lifting by myself.

I stood on the shovel, using all my weight, until I felt the packed dirt loosen. I used a trowel to dig out rocks. I used my hands to fill each hole with rich dark soil until my back and legs ached and I could barely catch my breath.

And when the work was done, I thought of my father.

He would have liked this adult version of me. He would have smiled at my determination. He would have admired the strength hidden in my small arms. He would have been proud of me for doing the work myself instead of asking someone else to do it for me.

I remembered a younger version of my dad then, laying flagstone and gravel to create a path around our wooded lot. I pictured the way he wiped the sweat from his brow using the hankie he always kept in his pocket. I saw his mischievous smile and the way he raised one bushy eyebrow before he cracked a joke. I could see myself in my father and it filled me with gratitude instead of anger. Gratitude and sadness.

I wish I could have told him how proud I am to be like him. I wish he could have known how thankful I am for the stubborn determination that makes me believe I can do hard things. I adore my mother, but I am like my father.

I never got to say those words to my dad in a way he could understand. By the time I was old enough and mature enough to recognize the gifts he had given me, dementia had taken most of his memory. We had the conversations, but he didn’t understand them. I said all the right words, but he couldn’t retain them. Then he was gone.

As the afternoon sun faded on the day, I looked at my garden and sent my love for my father out into the universe. It made me miss him, but it made me feel closer to him as well.

Leslie Snow may be reached at snow column@aol.com .

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Shopper Blog: Hey Bear Café welcomes Knox Pride for a night of Bingo