By Ardent Brownfield
Hello! 你好! Bonjour! Buongiorno! 안녕하세요! ¡Hola! こんにちは! Guten Tag! Olá!
This year, Tiger World Fest will be held on Thursday, April 17th, from 11:00am to 1:00pm. Tiger World Fest is an annual Chattanooga State event where we come together as a community to celebrate our shared cultural richness and diversity. Located at the Chattanooga State amphitheater, you’ll have the chance to explore unique cuisine, enjoy live dance and drum performances, and dive into a panoply of free activities. Grow your own lucky bamboo, observe henna artists at work (or try it out yourself!), and then come visit us at the library!
What’s the library bringing to Tiger World Fest?
We’re happy you asked. As the campus’ cultural hub, the library has its own hidden treasures. Beyond books that whisk you away to far off lands, we offer digital tools for exploring the world from wherever you are.
Planning a study abroad trip this summer? Check out CultureGrams, our newest database that takes you on a virtual tour of more than 200 countries. It answers your top questions on all things history, customs, and everyday life. Want to brush up on a language—or start a new one? Try Mango Languages, a free-to-you resource that offers over 70 languages. Move through Italy with confidenza this summer.
And don’t forget to pack your earbuds! Our Contemporary World Music Database lets you experience the rhythms of every continent—reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanized jazz, Arab swing, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gagaku, and more. Witness the concentricity of how culture shapes music and music shapes culture.
Looking to get lost in another culture this summer?
We wouldn’t be a library if we didn’t have book recommendations at the ready. Check out these reads online or in person:
- From The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov: Fly over a surreal Russian city filled with poets, devils, and talking cats—on a broomstick! Welcome to Soviet satire at its wildest, where the line between real and fantastical disappears.
- From One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez: Step into a magical village in Colombia where time folds, ghosts whisper, and history repeats itself. Macondo is more than a setting—it’s a universe of myth, memory, and revolution.
- From Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See: Wander the lantern-lit remote provinces of 19th century China, where tradition and beauty shape every moment—from the ritual of foot binding to the hidden language of women. Through the eyes of two laotong, we glimpse a world both breathtaking and bittersweet.
- From The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy: Wade into Kerala’s lush backwaters, where forbidden love and childhood memory unfold in poetic fragments, exposing caste and colonial legacies.
- From Pachinko by Min Jin Lee: Weave through bustling Osaka markets to ravaged, war-era Korea. This sweeping generational saga follows a Korean family navigating identity, resilience, and discrimination in Japan.
At Tiger World Fest and beyond, you can experience a library without borders–where books, music, language tools, and cultural stories connect us to the world at large, all from right here on campus.
Your next great adventure might begin right here—in the library.
Ciao!
- Ardent
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