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The Carpetbag Theatre's executive/artistic director Linda Parris-Bailey is coordinating activities to celebrate the theatrical company's 40th anniversary.

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The next time someone ridicules poetry, remind them that we use abstract language to talk about things that cannot be said. Music, painting, poetry - these are how we talk about pain and loss. It's Carpetbag Theatre's mission - making art from suffering.

On the eve of the Carpetbag Theatre's 40th Anniversary Homecoming Celebration in October, there's no rest for Linda Parris-Bailey. The group's artistic director was at a social justice workshop the troupe is participating in at Berea College in Kentucky when she was rousted by a phone call to talk about the growth of the venerable theatrical company that started out as a good idea with no money and is now an institution - that still needs money.

Parris-Bailey was with several other Carpetbag members teaching classes and presenting multi-media presentations as part of the Brushy Fork Institute training program for community leadership. It is the group's third consecutive year participating in the Brushy Fork seminars. This kind of melding of culture and art with social justice by way of storytelling is in itself kind of the story of Carpetbag Theatre. Founded four decades ago when Wilmer Lucas, a playwright at Knoxville College, and his wife, Cleo, a history professor and visual artist, answered the muse, Parris-Bailey came along "after the organization's groundwork was in place," she remembers.

"I always had an interest in writing and that turned to performing at some point," Parris-Bailey says, describing how she grew up in a family that valued music and theatre. "I came along at a time when Carpetbag Theatre was still in its infancy. I was right out of college and looking for an organization to work with. I wanted to work in an ensemble. They gave me the freedom to work in theatre in a community-conscious way. It was a merging of interests. My biggest contribution in the beginning was simply shaping us into a (theatrical) company."

Parris-Bailey speaks movingly about networking with similar groups around the country and hearing countless tales of abused workers, ailing elderly and otherwise politically and economically disenfranchised folk. Specifically poignant were stories of "environmental racism" which grew out of cases involving workers given hazardous materials jobs without adequate safeguards. These, working in conjunction with Junebug Productions in New Orleans, turned into the play Nothin' Nice.

Carpetbag Theatre was founded by Wilmer Lucas, a playwright at Knoxville College, and his wife Cleo, a history professor and visual artist.

"These stories are sometimes extremely moving, sometimes extremely funny. They are old people's stories. Tragic stories; stories about bad health. The stories of all the people we meet, all of it becomes a part of what moves and motivates us to continue our work. Sometimes it's about history, like Dark Cowgirls and Prairie Queens (inspired by the experience of black women in the Old West) and Red Summer (about fatal racial rioting in Knoxville in 1919). Sometimes, it's stories that touch our hearts like Between a Ballad and a Blues." The latter, an interpretation of the life of string jazz genius Howard Armstrong, partially debuted three years ago at the inaugural commemoration of Armstrong's life, the Louie Bluie Festival in Campbell County where he was from, and has been performed in excerpts since. Parris-Bailey is emphatic about a lot of things, but this is quite clear - "Our mission is to document the real stories, in art, that haven't been told."

Everybody in the troupe has multiple duties. Margo Miller is chief operating officer, or, as she prefers, "COO," but she performs, too.

"One of the main reasons I returned to Knoxville from D.C. after eight years was to be closer to my home and my family. Carpetbag Theatre is part of that family. I started right out of college as a stage manager and understudy for their tour in Oakland, Calif. Gradually, I became more involved, and before I knew it, I was hooked, through the thick, thin, good, bad, and beautiful. From the days of touring three and four times a year, to performing on Broadway with the company back in '97 in Dark Cowgirls, to continuing to work in the office even at one point when funding was cut, and I didn't get paid for a brief period. To be a part of a company that helps to tell stories of those who normally are silenced, overlooked and unheard is a powerful thing," Miller enthuses.

"There were several times that it felt like we pulled all-nighters to get the work done, but it was always more than worth it. Goodness, we would laugh together, eat together, cut up, and fuss, and we still do these things," says Miller.

The seminars at Berea College last month with the Brushy Fork Institute - an Appalachia-centric social justice and community advocacy organization-provided impetus in the development of Carpetbag's new adventures in mixed media. For those instructive productions, "we created a multi-media piece combining live performance with individual and ensemble work and music, plus digital storytelling." Asked to explain the latter, Parris-Bailey says, "digital stories are short narrative films created on computers. These are personal narratives involving just that person telling it-they write the text and do the voice-over and animate or illustrate it. We've put together a series of these and combined live and recorded performance simultaneously." Examples of this hybrid performance genre will be presented at some of the anniversary events this month. The biggest of these will be Saturday, Oct. 10's all-day "Picnic in the Garden" at Knoxville Botanical Gardens and Arboretum. Performers will include Tennessee Children's Dance Ensemble; Taloni Steward of Holistic View International; Artece Slay (theatrical performance); poets from BlackSunshine Arts 'n' Entertainment; Stephen "Seed" Lynn, Black Atticus and Starr (spoken word); well-known local jazz singer Kelle Jolly; a poetry-music performance by Donna Uma Aisha Brown; violinist Samuel Thompson; Horace Earl Smith's musical review "A Tribute to Love;" a theatrical performance by Bert Tanner; and newspaper columnist Bob Booker will deejay "Oldies but Sho' Nuff Goodies." Carpetbag Theatre members will present excerpts from original works Dark Cowgirls and Prairie Queens; Ce Nitram Sacul; Red Summer; SWOPERA (A Spoken Word Opera); Nothin' Nice; Cric! Crac?; Southern Sankofa-Flyin' Home; and Between a Ballad and a Blues. Paula Larke will host the event. Attendees to this free event should pack a picnic, the kids and some blankets for the all-day party.

CBT's 40th anniversary will be celebrated all month with an art exhibit at the Emporium Center for Culture and Art, 100 S. Gay St., Knoxville, Tenn. 37902. An opening reception is set for Oct. 9 5:30-8 p.m. at Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr., Knoxville, Tenn. 37916. Oct. 10's "Picnic in the Garden" will be 11 a.m.-8 p.m. at Knoxville Botanical Gardens and Arboretum, 2743 Wimpole Ave., Knoxville, Tenn. 37914. There will be a "Jazz Brunch" Oct. 11 at East Tennessee History Center, 601 S Gay St., Knoxville, Tenn. 37901. Carpetbag Theater hosts "Cafe Noir: Open Mic" 7 p.m. First Fridays at the Black Box Theatre, 100 S. Gay Street downtown. CBT is a member of the National Performance Network and is hosting that organization's annual meeting in December. For additional information or to send donations to the non-profit Carpetbag Theatre, Inc., write to 100 S. Gay Street, Suites 106 and 114, Knoxville, TN 37902 or call 865-544-0447 or visit Carpetbag Theatre