“Twisted Roots” celebrates Emma Bell Miles
For some artists, the true value of their work isn’t acknowledged until years—sometimes many years—after their deaths.
Such is the case with poet, painter and musician Emma Bell Miles, who spent much of her life on Walden’s Ridge. Born in Illinois in 1879, she died in Red Bank in 1919. The creative Miles struggled with poverty and a troubled marriage but still managed to produce several self-illustrated books.
Local author and poet Peggy Douglas has written a two-act play, “Twisted Roots,” about Miles, which will be presented at the Mountain Arts Community Center Aug. 1-3. Described as a “series of dynamic monologues set to traditional Appalachian music,” the play, says Douglas, “strives to find the levity in bittersweet and sometimes tragic family experiences in early 20th-century Appalachia, as well as the richness of its natural world and surrounding culture. The performance invites us to integrate and celebrate the past rather than wear it like a bit and bridle.”
“Twisted Roots”
7 p.m. Aug. 1, 2; 2 p.m. Aug. 3
Mountain Arts Community Center
809 Kentucky Ave, Signal Mountain.
(423) 886-1959, signalmacc.org