Scruffy City Stories

Burke Brewer, who as CEO and co-founder along with partner-in-crime Victor, has willed the Modern Studio into existence. Born and raised in Knoxville, Burke came onto the entrepreneurial scene from a series of interesting and unique experiences. Along with running the Studio, she heads Modern Seamstress, where she empowers other women through online and in-person sewing courses. Burke also works with disabled adults and youths to find meaningful work. Kicking butt and taking names, it’s clear that she’s on a mission to make Knoxville a better place. Here’s the rest of her story.

Meet Joshua Peterson, the founding artistic director of River and Rail Theatre Company, a non-profit theatre here in Knoxville, TN. Get behind the scenes with arts, culture, and theatre and learn about River and Rail's incredible buy-one-give-one model to help share performing arts to more communities and cultures inside Knoxville.

Happy Halloween! Today, you'll meet one of Knoxville's nicest guys. Ryan is an artist. His craft? Beer. Over the years, I've gotten the chance to drink many a beer brewed or inspired by Ryan. Pure beer happiness. I caught up with him to see what he's got going on since moving back to Knoxville. Three words: Round Six Brewery. Bookmark it or save it to your notes app. It's coming, and it's going to be awesome. Here we go. Let's meet Ryan Worthington.

Magic. That's how this Scruffy City Story starts. Meet Haseeb Qureshi (aka HQ): a licensed attorney who's hacked his way into startup life and music tech. Using HQ's app, Audiohand (more on this later), I started the recording on my phone. Lo and behold, HQ's phone starts recording also! Magic. One of Knoxville's up-and-coming names, HQ is about to take this world by storm.

Today, you’re going to meet one of my all-time favorite creative people. Meet Ethan Beyer: a front-end developer who designs and builds websites. He’s also an incredible graphic artist who has worked with me on a number of projects. An artist who values the process over the end-result, Ethan is someone you want to know.