September 19, 2007 As you all know, the 2007 Festival was a rousing success. We're going to keep this News page up for now as an Archive, but for all current news, events, and a place for you to comment and add pics, go to our new Yahoo group . If you'r not already in, join today! September 13, 2007 It's official: the Festival this year, will be co-hosted by Rita Frizzell, who will be a familiar face to those of you who have attended previous Festivals; and our own Skip Ewing. The weather should be cool and comfortable for the Festival Saturday, and we'll be under a tent, just in case. The new Buddhist Festival t-shirts are in, and they're beautiful. They'll be on sale at the Festival for only $20; be sure to stock up, as your t-shirt money, as well as your donation, helps make sure we can hold future Festivals. Be sure to sign up at the entrance table at the Festival to be put on a mailing list (email only!) for updates, hopefully including next year's event. And finally, there won't be food available on site, so feel free to bring your own or stuff yourself before you come. Come early, stay late, and strive with diligence! September 4, 2007 Our 2007 schedule is now available here. Please join us for all or part of the event! And don't forget that our special opening meditation for peace begins at 11:00 a.m.! August 21, 2007 More speaker news! More speakers! We recently added a second Theravada speaker to the line-up! Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano, who has spoken on behalf of the Insight Group at a previous Nashville Buddhist Festival, will speak again. So we now have six scheduled speakers, in addition to yoga, music, and co-ordinator panels. During the co-ordinator panels, representatives of the five sponsor groups will try to respond to your questions about Buddhism, from the points of view of their respective lineages. So get your questions ready now! August 16, 2007 Speaker news: Two of our Speaker pages have been updated. The page of Rev. Taiun Michael Elliston has been updated to reflect his completion of his second dharma transmission from Shohaku Okumura-roshi earlier this month; you can read about it in this article which originally appeared on the front page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on August 3. Also, One Dharma member Tom Nielson will appear onstage with One Dharma Nashville founder Lisa Ernst during her presentation; I understand we will be treated to a poem. It just gets better and better! August 15, 2007 The Festival is only thirty days away now, and all of our players are in place! You should be starting to see flyers and postcards for us all over Nashville; in addition you'll be seeing some print ads and maybe even an interview or two! If you'd like to help with the promotion campaign, please contact us! August 1, 2007 I have just been in contact with Aretha McKinney Blevins of 12South Yoga , and 12South has fully come on board for the Festival! Please check out their website and Aretha's bio page ; we are very happy to have her and 12South join us in what is shaping up to be an extraordinary event on Sept. 15. That makes two yoga presenters and studios involved for the Festival, and with the recently added speakers and music (see prior items, below) we are now fully stocked to deliver the best Nashville Buddhist Festival ever. So mark your calendars now, you don't want to miss this one! July 29, 2007 We just added Skip Ewing's speaker bio. Skip, one of our Board members, will be speaking on behalf of the Nashville Mindfulness Center, our Thich Nhat Hanh group. This completes our speaker line-up, although I am told another speaker may be added before the Festival, so keep checking back! July 27, 2007 We are proud to announce the Nashville Insight Mediation speaker: Venerable U Pannasiha . We don't have a whole lot of bio, but please take a look and get a little info on the Theravadan tradition at the same time, since the rest of the Festival participants are Mahayana schools (except One Dharma, which embraces the teaching of both vehicles, as well as Vajrajana). I understand that we should have some flyers and promotional materials available in the next couple of weeks, so if you are interested in promoting the festival, let us know !