Tennessee
LIKKERED UP
Dinner, the movies, maybe even a little dancing. No, it’s not a first date. We’re talking about the Potlikker Film Fest hosted by the Southern Foodways Alliance. Always a treat for anyone with an appetite for good Southern stories, the traveling festival arrives at the historic Warehouse Row shopping district in downtown Chattanooga on August 20. This year’s films highlight the influence of international cultures on the culinary traditions of the South, with area chefs in tow for a little live-action eat-along. southernfoodways.com

Texas
MYSTERY MEAT
The classic beef versus pork debate has been known to elicit pretty heated discussions between Texas barbecue fanatics and aficionados from the rest of the South. But folks in the tiny hill town of Brady have their own ideas about what makes for fine ’cue. Every Labor Day weekend for the last thirty-seven years, the town has been hosting the World Championship BBQ Goat Cook-Off (September 3–4). Don’t be afraid. Just get yourself a “goat plate” with plenty of fixins, and prepare to expand your culinary horizons, Texas-style. bradytx.com

Virginia
MOUNTAIN SONG
Author Ralph Berrier’s interest in bluegrass pioneers and twin brothers Saford and Clayton Hall is more than just academic. A reporter and editor at the Roanoke Times, and a fiddle player himself, Berrier also happens to be a descendant of this pair of pickers, born in 1919 in the hardscrabble hills of Patrick County. In his new book, If Trouble Don’t Kill Me (Crown), he gives an illuminating account of their journey from Appalachian poverty to the brink of fame, until World War II derailed their musical aspirations. And though the duo would never regain their prewar prominence, their early careers helped define a genre.

Washington, D.C.
NATURAL BEAUTY
Art and science collide in Losing Paradise: Endangered Plants Here and Around the World, a new exhibit opening in August at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The exhibit highlights the work of botanical artists, who even in today’s digital world continue to play a vital role in documenting the earth’s flora, more than a fifth of which is in danger of extinction. Stop in for a look at forty-five original renderings of endangered plants, such as the Wollemi Pine, thought to be extinct for over two million years before it was found in a remote Australian canyon. www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits

West Virginia
SUMMER SCHOOL
During the three-day BBQ Mastery Weekend (August 22–25) at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, the doctor is in. That would be Ray Lampe, otherwise known as Dr. BBQ, a legend on the professional barbecue circuit and the author of five cookbooks. He’ll walk you through the finer points of the grilling arts, covering everything from steaks and ribs all the way to slow-smoked pork shoulder. Just make sure to save a little room at the end of the hands-on seminar for a farewell feast prepared by the good doctor himself. greenbrier.com

Virgin Islands
HOT STUFF
Apparently, the old adage about everything being bigger in Texas extends beyond state lines. On Saint Thomas, a group of Lone Star State expats puts on the single largest one-day fund-raiser in the entire Caribbean: the Texas Society of the Virgin Islands’ Chili Cook-Off (August 22). Benefiting a group of local charities, the cook-off “started out as just a bunch of braggin’ transplant Texans arguing over who cooked the best chili,” says its president, Erik Ackerson. Today, it draws more than six thousand visitors. There’s even a vegetarian chili division that has developed its own cult following on the island. Try that in Texas. thevirginpod.org