Nashville Scene 11-3-22

IT

BY KELSEY BEYELER

AT

CITY LIMITS

D. PATRICK RODGERS

BY HANNAH HERNER

BY STEVE CAVENDISH, NASHVILLE BANNER

BY BETH WALTEMATH, CHAPTER16.ORG

BY KELSEY BEYELER

CRITICS’ PICKS

Crafty

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

BY ERIN M c LAUGHLIN

BY LORIE LIEBIG

BY JOE NOLAN

PET

Editor-in-Chief

Ciccarone,

Beyeler,

Eli Motycka, William Williams, KateLynn

Herner, J.R.

Contributing

Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Steve Erickson, Nancy Floyd, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Kashif Andrew Graham, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steven Hale, Steve Haruch, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Craig D. Lindsey, Margaret Littman, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray,

Nolan, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl,

Sanders, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan,

Sicinski, Nadine Smith, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Abby White, Andrea Williams, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian

Editorial

Photographers

Meigs

Graphic

Daryani

England, Matt Masters,

will be posted every Thursday and delivered by third-class mail in usually five to seven days. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, any issue(s) could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Send your check or Visa/MC/AmEx number with expiration date to the above address.

In memory of Jim Ridley, editor 2009-2016

BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

Fifty-eight percent of registered voters turned out in Davidson County in the 2018 midterm election, with 54 percent voter turnout statewide. Those numbers jumped to 65 percent and 69 percent, respectively, in 2020. As recently reported by Tennessee Lookout, voter registration numbers throughout the state have been about average or just below average this year, indicating that Tennessee voter turnout will be low this go-round.

The final day to early vote in Davidson County is Thursday, Nov. 3, with Election Day following on Tuesday, Nov. 8. Below, find some context, analysis and stray observations about everything Nashvillians will find on the ballot when they enter the voting booth.

GUBERNATORIAL RACE

Republican incumbent Gov. Bill Lee has refused to debate his Democratic challenger Jason Martin, recently telling the Chattanooga Times Free Press he is instead working “really hard to stay focused on being the governor.”

Lee is of course heavily favored to win in deep-red Tennessee, having earned roughly 60 percent of the vote to former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean’s 37 percent in the 2018 gubernatorial race. Though Martin — a 47-year-old critical-care doctor and

Southern Alabama native — doesn’t have the name recognition or the war chest Dean did, he told supporters at a campaign event last month in Franklin that “Gov. Lee is on the run right now, and this race is absolutely winnable.” Pragmatists aren’t so sure.

Some of Martin’s campaign platforms include accessible health care and Medicaid expansion, reproductive rights, decriminalization of small drug offenses, gun control and LGBTQ rights. Though Lee refuses to debate, he has recently issued statements condemning the Pediatric Transgender Clinic at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and encouraging Tennesseans to vote yes on Amendment 1 (more on that below). That’s not to mention this year’s controversy surrounding Lee’s friend and adviser, Hillsdale College president Larry Arnn, making disparaging comments about public school teachers.

As usual, a number of independents — including perennial candidate Basil Marceaux — are also on the ballot.

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

Of the four constitutional amendments on the ballot, the first has by far garnered the most attention. Amendment 1 aims to codify Tennessee’s right-to-work law, which allows workers to opt out of unions, even if they benefit from union-negotiated contracts.

In states with these laws, unions have less bargaining power. Gov. Bill Lee and his predecessor — fellow wealthy business owner Bill Haslam — have been stumping for the passage of Amendment 1, with Lee even recently issuing a misleading letter claiming that if the amendment doesn’t pass, “hardworking Tennesseans will be FORCED to fall in line, pay union dues, and join organizations that give payouts to political cronies.” This is false, in part because Tennessee has had a right-to-work law on the books for decades, and the failure of Amendment 1 would do nothing to change that.

Amendment 2 clarifies the state process involving line of succession should the governor die, resign or be removed from office. Amendment 3 would remove the so-called “punishment clause” from the constitution, prohibiting slavery outright. (As currently written, the state constitution prohibits slavery unless someone has been convicted of a crime, in which case they can be submitted to involuntary servitude.)

The state constitution prohibits ministers and priests from holding a seat in the state legislature, even though this rule has not been enforced since the U.S. Supreme Court declared the provision unconstitutional in 1978. Amendment 4 would officially remove this prohibition from the state constitution.

U.S. CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT RACES

At the beginning of the year, Tennessee’s Republican supermajority carved up the state’s 5th Congressional District, prompting longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper to retire. Cooper — part of a political dynasty that includes his brother, Nashville Mayor John Cooper — noted that he didn’t see a path to victory in the gerrymandered 5th.

Democratic state Sen. Heidi Campbell

of Nashville is nevertheless giving it a go, battling Republican Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in the redrawn 5th, which now contains slices of Davidson, Wilson and Williamson counties, as well as all of Marshall, Lewis and Maury counties.

Campbell has beaten a Republican in a tight race before, knocking incumbent state Sen. Steve Dickerson out of the District 20 seat back in 2020. Ogles has avoided debating Campbell, though he did recently welcome Sen. Ted Cruz and other far-right characters to a campaign event in Franklin, where the focus was on inflation, the IRS, transgender athletes and border security. Campbell’s campaign has focused on Ogles’ opposition to government-funded programs and reproductive rights, and her recent FEC filings show a spending edge over her opponent.

Meanwhile, Democrat and engineer Randal Cooper is taking on Republican incumbent Rep. John Rose in the 6th Congressional District, while Democrat, nonprofit leader and longtime community center director Odessa Kelly is battling incumbent Republican Rep. Mark Green in the 7th. Kelly was initially aiming to primary Jim Cooper before the 5th was redrawn. The Republicans are favored to retain their seats in both districts.

STATE LEGISLATURE RACES

Races in Davidson County’s mostly blueleaning state House and Senate districts are largely uncompetitive. In the state House, Davidson County Democratic candidates Rep. Bo Mitchell (District 50), Rep. Bill Beck (District 51), organizer and activist Justin Jones (District 52), Rep. Vincent Dixie (District 54), Rep. John Ray Clemmons (District 55), Rep. Bob Freeman (District 56) and Rep. Harold Love Jr. (District 58) are all running unopposed. Incumbent District 60 Rep. Darren Jernigan will face Old Hickory Republican Christopher Huff, while Republican Dia Hart is angling for incumbent Democratic Rep. Jason Powell’s seat.

In the newly redrawn District 59, Democratic Rep. Jason Potts has decided not to seek a third term, citing a demanding schedule and an inability to pass legislation as part of the state’s Democratic superminority. Democrat Caleb Hemmer and Republican Michelle Foreman are battling for the seat in the redrawn district. Hemmer is a native Nashvillian and a former aide to Gov. Phil Bredesen. Foreman, a Brentwood Academy and Lipscomb University graduate, is a registered nurse. Hemmer recently told the Scene he thinks it’s important to elect “serious people who have a background of experience of working in government and working across the aisle and getting things done, like I have.” Foreman did not respond to the Scene’s interview requests.

In the state Senate, Republican incumbent Sen. Mark Pody is running unopposed in District 17, while independent Rueben Dockery is challenging District 21 incumbent and Democratic Minority Leader Sen. Jeff Yarbro. Equity Alliance co-founder Charlane Oliver won a competitive Democratic primary in August, and is heavily favored to defeat Republican Pime Hernandez for the District 19 seat.

GOV. BILL LEE

JASON MARTIN

JACOB ELIE (LEFT) AND BEN ELLIS

INCLUSIVE COLLEGE

BY HANNAH HERNER

Ben Ellis and Jacob Elie are fourth-year Vanderbilt University students. They’re both set to graduate spring 2023, and both are unsure what they’ll do once that happens. They meet weekly on campus to study, Elie — a student mentor — as a part of his class on human development and Ellis as a part of Vanderbilt’s Next Steps program.

In 2010, Vanderbilt became the first university in the state and among the first in the country to create a higher-education program for students with intellectual or developmental disabilities with Next Steps. Lipscomb University created its own program in 2014 called Lipscomb IDEAL, and this fall, Tennessee State University began its pilot year for a similar program called Tiger Edge.

Both Lipscomb’s and Vanderbilt’s programs take up to 10 students per year, though the demand is significantly higher than that. Selecting those students is the hardest part of Misty Parsley’s job as director of special education programs at Lipscomb.

“We’re really looking at students who want to be here, who are motivated to be more independent, to have a job,” Parsley says. “We want students who want to work and who want to have a high quality of life when they leave college.”

Many inclusive higher-education programs, like those at Lipscomb and

TSU, are two years. Vanderbilt bumped its program up to four in 2014. Next Steps program director Tammy Day says from the beginning students asked why it was just a two-year program. “One student said to me, ‘Well, you know, it takes us longer to learn than the others, so why aren’t you giving us four years?’ ” Day says.

Ellis has already completed six out of a total of seven internships and says his current internship checking packages in the mail room on campus is his favorite. As a fourth-year, he is working on his independent-study project and navigating the campus solo. He chose video editing as his focus, prompted by his love for Star Wars.

What all the inclusive higher-education programs in Nashville have in common is a mix of unique-to-the-program life skills courses and typical courses, with augmented syllabi to better suit the individual student. By the end of their time enrolled, students transition away from the soft-skills courses and into internships. Along the way, each school partners students with disabilities with peer mentors like Elie for studying and social connections. The goal is to prepare students to have a job and independence in the community.

Back in 2010, Vanderbilt was the only school that applied for a three-year pilot grant to introduce a college program for people with disabilities. Next Steps has since earned a certification as a Comprehensive Transition Program, meaning that it meets

a level of rigor allowing students access to federal and state funds.

While college has gotten more inclusive for those with disabilities over the years, there are still bridges to cross. Next Steps students are not yet in the dorms, and not fully a part of Greek life, Day explains.

Think College Institute for Community Inclusion sets best practices, and the state’s eight programs also compare notes at Tennessee Inclusive Higher Education Alliance quarterly meetings. However, there is no accreditation or overall governing body for inclusive higher education.

“We want more college options for students with disabilities,” Lipscomb’s Parsley says. “I don’t mind that Vanderbilt and now TSU are right down the road. Because our students have a choice now, they can apply at all three of our schools, and then they get to choose what’s the best fit for them and their family, just like most of us did when we went to college.”

Lipscomb students can live on campus, and at TSU, the two students enrolled in the pilot program live in the new campus dorm. Another thing that sets TSU’s Tiger Edge program apart is the number of peer mentors per student, explains Gregory Morrisette, assistant program manager: They have one who serves as a roommate, another for academics, and another for social outings.

“I think it’s important because they get a different piece of the experience living on campus,” says Morrissette. For Tiger Edge, the goal is to grow the program over time. College was important enough for Ellis and his family that they drive 65 miles from Macon County for classes.

“For other students who want to do this,” says Ellis, “I say you can do it.”

WEEK

After nearly a year of high-profile, highdollar negotiations, Mayor John Cooper and the Tennessee Titans have the framework for a new lease that includes the construction of a $2.1 billion domed stadium for the team. Of that, the city would be on the hook for $760 million. Cooper sent Metro councilmembers a terms sheet — nonbinding conditions satisfactory to both parties, for review ahead of accompanying legislation. Glossy renderings of a redesigned East Bank and “Stadium Village” followed a day later, building the hype for what would be the second-mostexpensive stadium in the world. … After formally ending a never-quite-official bid for mayor, Hal Cato, formerly the CEO of Thistle Farms, announced he would replace outgoing exec Ellen Lehman as head of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. The CFMT functions as an intermediary between nonprofits and donors and works closely with the city to coordinate and disburse philanthropic efforts. In September, Metro Councilmember Courtney Johnston requested an audit of the foundation to better understand its role in disbursing funds meant for disaster relief. … Gov. Bill Lee drew criticism for an open letter attacking labor protections and claiming that Tennesseans will be forced to join unions if voters choose “no” on Amendment 1, an effort to enshrine right-to-work laws in the Tennessee Constitution. … Texas Sen. Ted Cruz hosted a rally in Franklin for GOP congressional candidate Andy Ogles, who’s taking on Democratic state Sen. Heidi Campbell for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District Cruz and Ogles avoided talking about reproductive rights, instead reaching for talking points on gender identity, American geopolitical weakness, and ad hominem attacks aimed at Biden administration officials. … Eight months after Mayor John Cooper successfully won approval from the Metro Council to buy the Global Mall in Antioch for $44 million, negotiations with Vanderbilt University Medical Center drag on. The city, which would function as a landlord for more than 800,000 square feet of space, signed a letter of intent with VUMC in March but has struggled to land a lease that works for both parties. Cooper is also juggling negotiations with Speedway Motorsports Inc. about bringing NASCAR to The Fairgrounds Nashville amid trying to close the Titans’ billion-dollar deal. … Contributor Betsy Phillips explains the inherent hypocrisy, absurdity and cruelty of Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s recent bullying campaign targeting transgender women. Thin on policy solutions, Blackburn — alongside many figures in the GOP like Ogles and Cruz — has adopted transgender bullying as a central part of her political messaging ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND

EMAIL: PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

TWEET: @PITHINTHEWIND

Higher-education opportunities for students with disabilities are growing in Nashville

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

BY STEVE CAVENDISH

This story is a partnership between the Nashville Banner and the Nashville Scene. The Nashville Banner is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization focused on civic news and will launch fully next year. For more information, visit NashvilleBanner.com.

per hour. McMullen billed at $460 per hour and associates at his firm for less. Their contracts were not bid out.

When Republicans on the Davidson County Election Commission voted to place 4 Good Government’s second anti-tax charter amendment on the ballot in 2021, it triggered numerous court cases. But because Metro opposed the charter amendment, the commission hired outside counsel instead of using Metro Legal, the commission’s usual source for legal services.

The cost for litigation ran to $891,586 over 14 months. According to records obtained by the Nashville Banner through the Tennessee Open Records Act, the bills show most of the litigation was paid at the highest rates, and that many charges and practices that frequently would receive pushback in the corporate arena were approved by DCEC Chairman Jim DeLanis.

Vanderbilt professor James Blumstein, who was brought to the commission by DeLanis, billed $534,832 as the lead counsel for the DCEC litigation. Because Blumstein is a full-time academic, he requested that the commission hire some legal assistance in areas such as research and court filings.

Law firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings and partner Austin McMullen were selected for that role. After two flat-fee consulting agreements totalling $40,000, Blumstein billed his work at a rate of $800

In all, Blumstein and Bradley represented the commission in six different cases, four of which were stayed by the court pending the outcome of the main case, Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County et al. vs. Davidson County Election Commission. Metro won that case at both Chancery Court and the Court of Appeals. The Tennessee Supreme Court declined to hear the commission’s appeal Oct. 4.

In discussions during the public meetings, election commissioners expressed to Blumstein and McMullen that they hoped less crucial work could be pushed down to associates whenever possible, because they bill at much lower rates.

Of 1,461 total billable hours by all attorneys, 1,202 were billed at the top rates (599 by Blumstein, 603 by McMullen), while just 259 hours were charged at lower associate rates.

In order to contain costs during litigation, many corporate general counsels issue guidelines when they engage attorneys about what they will and won’t pay for.

In a survey of seven such guidelines, the Banner found a number of common themes: no block billing (each action by attorneys should have its own recorded time to make it easier for a client to evaluate the work), no paying for attorney communications, no paying for research or Westlaw online research, and no paying for two attorneys to perform the same work.

Five of the seven invoices submitted by Blumstein were almost entirely block billed. An entry from May 20, 2021, for 6.67 hours, for example, contained nine different tasks. That’s $5,336 worth of legal services with no

distinction between their lengths. Entries from Bradley were broken down almost entirely by individual tasks.

David Anthony, a Nashville attorney who frequently works with corporate clients, explains why businesses often set guidelines for billing.

“The primary reason large companies or institutional clients dislike block billing is that it’s hard to vet the value of the work provided or, more simplistically, it’s hard to tell if the specific task took the amount of time that’s being billed,” Anthony says. “By breaking down billable work into itemized units, it forces the billing party to ‘show their work’ and also makes it harder to hide overbilling in ambiguous time entries.”

Communications are another area in which corporate litigants often scrutinize costs. When asked about phone calls between Blumstein and the firm helping him, DeLanis tells the because “Bradley and Professor Blumstein were not in the same firm and the guidelines you refer to (that are sometimes used) would not apply.” As a result, 17 different phone calls were double-billed to the election commission by Blumstein and McMullen.

Similarly, corporate clients frequently decline to pay for multiple lawyers to attend the same meetings. When asked why both Blumstein and McMullen billed to attend DCEC meetings, DeLanis said “Bradley and Professor Blumstein were not attending the public meetings as spectators but were there to advise the commission in their legal capacities.”

Research is another area in which businesses often decline to pay. “I am informed that the bulk of the research was absorbed, but that some of the research involved special databases that were not absorbed,” DeLanis says. Research appears throughout billing entries from Blumstein. Bradley charged for research, as well as $2,435 in Westlaw database fees, but also provided more than $28,000 in discounts throughout its billing.

Because DeLanis is DCEC chair and the person responsible for reviewing its bills, the Banner asked him why the commission agreed to pay Blumstein $800 per hour if he needed a substantial amount of backup instead of hiring a firm from which the costs could be better distributed.

“Professor Blumstein is an authority on election law,” DeLanis replies.

The charter amendment never appeared on a ballot.

BY KELSEY BEYELER

STARTS AT THE CRADLE’

THE PEACE CENTER at DuPont Hadley Middle School feels like a kind of oasis. With its teal accent wall, pink string lights, lots of art and floor lamps that resemble fish tanks, it provides an atmosphere for students and even teachers to cool down and work through issues that arise at school. Posters on the wall raise questions like, “How can we make sure this doesn’t happen again?” and, “What’s needed to make things right?”

This is one of many peace centers throughout the district’s middle and high schools — similar spots in elementary schools are called advocacy centers — designed to administer restorative practice strategies that enhance students’ social and emotional learning while also reducing exclusionary forms of punishment like detention or suspension. Though behavioral approaches and spaces like these existed in Metro Nashville Public Schools before the COVID-19 pandemic, the district has been implementing a district-wide rollout of these spaces to continue addressing students’ mental health.

“Our primary focus is a lot of proactive work, dealing with things on the front end,” says MNPS coordinator of restorative practices Anthony Hall. “In this space … we can help kids to get regulated, help them to work through whatever conflict they might have [and] get them back in class, because the goal is to have them back in class.”

The approach is also intended to enhance academic performance and divert students from receiving more serious consequences for misbehavior, including arrests.

The possibility of student arrests has been on advocates’ and parents’ minds due to an increased police presence this school year, though it’s not a new conversation. School resource officers — MNPD-employed officers who are assigned to middle and high schools — have been around for years. But MNPD Chief John Drake announced in August that, alongside SROs, law enforcement presence surrounding schools would be at the “highest levels ever.”

The approach is a response to the Uvalde, Texas, shooting that left 19 Robb Elementary School students and

two teachers dead in May. Chief Drake’s announcement also included the formation of a “safety ambassador” program, which will solicit retired police officers (and others) to return as unarmed, plainclothes security for elementary schools. MNPS Director of Schools Adrienne Battle has not given a specific date as to when we’ll start seeing safety ambassadors in schools, but she tells the Scene that they’re expected to start “as soon as possible.” Alongside the safety ambassador program, MNPD has created a new school safety division — though the department did not fulfill the Scene’s request to interview the new division’s director of training, Scott Byrd.

Increased school security has sparked

community debate involving what’s known as the school-to-prison pipeline, or the disproportionate tendency of students of color and kids from disadvantaged backgrounds to end up incarcerated. Once a child comes into contact with the justice system, their chances of future run-ins increase significantly. Even before a student is ever arrested, factors like absenteeism, socioeconomic status, academic performance and disciplinary history create an increased likelihood that they will enter the justice system. And these factors disproportionately affect students of color and those with disabilities. So what is Nashville doing to address it?

THE HEIGHTENED SECURITY presence around MNPS stems from the desire — and the responsibility — to protect students and staff while they’re in schools. Though the Uvalde shooting put that desire front and center, it was just one of more than 500 mass shootings that have taken place in the United States this year alone. Just last week, a gunman killed a student and a teacher at a school in St. Louis. Days before the Uvalde massacre, one teenager was killed and another injured during a shooting at Riverdale High School’s graduation ceremony in Murfreesboro. During the 2021-2022 school year, around 16 guns were recovered in MNPS. In the three months of this school year, at least seven guns have

Students of color and students from disadvantaged backgrounds have a disproportionate rate of incarceration.

Here’s a look at the school-to-prison pipeline.

THE PEACE CENTER

DUPONT HADLEY

SCHOOL

PHOTO:

been recovered in schools, and several people — including students — have been arrested for threatening violence at schools.

Ask community members the best way to protect kids from internal and external threats, and you’ll receive a wide array of answers. While some would like to arm teachers (a move that Battle does not support), others prefer to rely on trained law enforcement professionals. Still others disagree with having cops in schools altogether.

The Nashville Organized for Action and Hope coalition states on its website that the organization is “campaigning to replace SROs with money for counselors, social workers, and positive discipline methods.” But that’s not something MNPS can fully control. While the SRO and safety ambassador program is a collaboration between the school system and the police department, Battle tells the Scene that “MNPD leads the hiring, the placement, the training and so on for the officers that are in our schools and are patrolling.” The safety ambassador program will rely on education-oriented federal COVID-19 relief money, though it’s not clear how it will be sustained after that funding runs out. The same is true for some of the district’s mental health initiatives.

“What has happened with the school shootings, I think that’s a no-brainer,” says elementary school teacher Wamon Buggs on having police in and around schools. Buggs currently works at Robert Churchwell Museum Magnet Elementary School, though he’s also worked as a court officer for a criminal court judge and as a teacher, coach and assistant principal at multiple schools in and outside the Metro system. He also played in the United States Football League in the 1980s.

“I would respect what a parent has to say, but at the end of the day, [it] may not be a good idea not to take that seriously,” says Buggs. “[Students] deserve to be given a quality education in a safe environment.”

Critics of SROs argue that they do more harm than good and aren’t always successful in protecting students from outside threats. Take the Uvalde shooting, when SROs and other law enforcement officials demonstrated failure on multiple levels. SROs have also been known to use excessive force on students. Recent bodycam footage from a Chattanooga SRO reveals the officer pulling the hair of a student and pepper-spraying him at school when he wouldn’t take off his backpack.

But SROs are not a monolith. While some mishandle student interactions, others have been successful in supporting them. A video made last year for an SRO who retired from Hillsboro High School includes 20 minutes of former students and colleagues thanking the officer for his service and sharing positive memories of him.

Officer Fredrico Pye, an SRO at PearlCohn Entertainment Magnet High School, says he considers his job a calling.

“We have that rapport and that relationship with these young people, and we know their background, as opposed to sending [a case] out to persons that don’t have that hands-on experience with them, we’ll keep it in house,” says Pye. “A lot of times we deflect from enforcing, because I think that a lot of times [it can] be a very detrimental and traumatic experience for

a young person. So yeah, we try to restore in-house.”

When asked by the Scene what he wishes critics understood, Pye responds: “Have an open mindset, be objective. Also, just as we as officers try to be communityoriented officers, I hope those individuals kind of become a part of the community.

If they have a concern or an issue with that community, come in and watch and observe and … see the demeanor, see our interactions with our young people. So just [become] knowledgeable as opposed to judgmental.”

But Pye has indeed arrested students. Critics are concerned that police presence in schools leads to increased and disproportionate student arrests. While the Scene was able to obtain juvenile arrest data, neither the Davidson County Juvenile Court, MNPD or MNPS could provide exact numbers on how many arrests have been made at schools — it’s not something that is intentionally, specifically tracked. Additionally, the information that the juvenile court was able to provide came with a disclaimer that it may not exactly reflect MNPD’s data. The Scene was not able to obtain MNPD juvenile arrest data in time for the publication of this story. Even so, the numbers obtained by the Scene clearly indicate one thing — Black youth are being arrested at significantly higher rates than their white peers in Davidson County.

Just as young people of color are arrested at higher rates than their white peers, they are also disciplined at higher rates in schools. Once a student is suspended, the likelihood of coming into contact with the juvenile justice system increases. Should that happen, their likelihood of being arrested in the future also increases.

“There’s a stigma that’s put on them,” says Juvenile Court Clerk Lonnell Matthews. “When they go back in class, their peers are looking at them [like] they’re the bad student. … The other teachers are responding in a way that the child becomes stigmatized and labeled. And eventually, that becomes affirming to the way that that child carries themself and behaves.”

In 2014, the city received funding from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University for a program called Positive and Safe Schools Advancing Greater Equity — or PASSAGE. The goal of the program was to connect city leaders in hopes of identifying and eliminating discipline disparities. Nashville was one of four cities that received this funding, along with Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

“The only reason we got the grant was [because] we were one of the top school systems in the nation on the disparity in discipline,” says Juvenile Court Judge Sheila Calloway.

Though PASSAGE was able to facilitate citywide conversations on discipline, “the data has kind of faded into the black again,” says Juvenile Court Administrator Jennifer Wade.

“It would be my hope that, whether it’s the [school] board or whether it’s Metro Council, that there’s a push to reactivate it and get it back to intentionally following data and making sure that people [are] reporting what they need to report,” says Calloway.

With an increased police presence at MNPS and the lingering trauma of the ongoing pandemic, one could argue that the need to review data and set specific goals

ELEMENTARY

OFFICER

around disciplinary equity is greater than ever. Students have not been immune to the tragedies of the pandemic — some lost family members, while others had to stay home in potentially dangerous situations or take care of siblings while their parents worked. That trauma — compounded by the nationwide conversation about racial injustice, increased attention on police killings and constant news of mass shootings — is something that students carry into schools with them.

A 2019 investigation by The Tennessean found that, even with the work of PASSAGE, MNPS’ disciplinary disparities remained. While school district discipline data is more accessible than juvenile arrest data — you can access it instantly via MNPS’ open data portal — it’s not entirely reliable either. The Open Data Portal Behavior Data Guide states: “The district is not liable for any deficiencies in the completeness, accuracy, content, or fitness for any particular purpose or use of any public data set, or application utilizing such data set, provided by any third party. Data may be updated, corrected and/or refreshed at any time.”

The latest behavioral data set from January 2022 indicates that, throughout the district, the highest rates of suspension are attributed to students with disabilities, African American students and economically disadvantaged students.

IT’S NOT A COINCIDENCE that disparities in discipline data are similar to those of youth arrest data. There are many factors in a child’s life that can quickly compound and lead to suspensions and possible arrests, and they’re present long before the child enters a school building.

“The school-to-prison pipeline starts at the cradle, because of inequitable health care, lack of resources for mothers in marginalized communities … lack of proper nutrition [and] untreated trauma starting at birth,” says Kathy Sinback, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee. “So even prior to being school age, we see kids who are not getting the resources that they need. And the neurological development between 0 to 3 is really the most critical time in a child’s life. And then what we see is those inequities

that are happening between the cradle and preschool continue on and actually get exacerbated once the child enters the educational system. Then they are already at a disadvantage when they walk in, and then that disadvantage is not effectively addressed in the school system.”

Sinback has decades of experience in this realm. She’s worked as a juvenile public defender, a juvenile court administrator and an attorney for both MNPD and MNPS. “We know what we need to do,” says Sinback. “I think everyone who’s working in this space of the school-to-prison pipeline — whether it’s educational administrators, police, courts, mental health providers, community organizations — we all know what kids need, but we continue to not provide them with what they need. And I think that’s where the disconnect is.”

Addressing inequities that contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline is work that extends beyond education. It means equitable access to health care, housing, nutrition, mental health support, enrichment opportunities and more. Those needs apply not just to students, but also their families. Wamon Buggs connects it all back to funding.

“You don’t put [in] the resources, you’re going to have the issues of people not being able to really do anything to take care of themselves and be successful,” he says. “It costs a lot of money to live in Nashville. It may be, what, 80-plus-thousand dollars for an individual to survive and thrive living in Davidson County? When you look at the population of kids that we serve in the 37208 ZIP code and look at their incomes and you do the math, it’s almost impossible to do what you need to do to experience what life has to offer, or what Nashville has to offer, for that matter.”

According to unitedstateszipcodes.org, the median household income in 37208 is $22,409. Research from the Brookings Institute states that this ZIP code, which is in a predominantly Black area in North Nashville, as of 2018 had the highest incarceration rate in the country for those born between 1980 and 1986. It also listed the childhood poverty rate at 42 percent, and the college attendance rate at 30 percent.

Pearl-Cohn High School is located in the 37208 ZIP code. Ninety-one percent of its students are Black, and 14.2 percent of its African American students have been suspended, according to MNPS data from January 2022.

Statistics such as these are the result of multigenerational socioeconomic factors and long-standing racist practices like redlining and the construction of I-40, which tore through North Nashville a half-

century ago with devastating economic consequences — consequences planners wanted to forego in whiter parts of the city. Throw in Nashville’s rising cost of living and the gentrification that is displacing many families, and you can begin to understand how students could act out in school and face subsequent punishment. While these factors are prevalent in North Nashville, they are not isolated there.

Leaders at both MNPS and the juvenile

“THE SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE STARTS AT THE CRADLE, BECAUSE OF INEQUITABLE HEALTH CARE, LACK OF RESOURCES FOR MOTHERS IN MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES … LACK OF PROPER NUTRITION [AND] UNTREATED TRAUMA STARTING AT BIRTH.”

— Kathy Sinback, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee

KATHY SINBACK

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

court are aware of this, and working to prevent compounding disciplinary implications by employing community supports, social and emotional development, youth-led courts that handle disciplinary matters, and other restorative justice practices. Just as peace centers exist to prevent exclusionary consequences in schools, Wade tells the Scene that the juvenile court tries to divert low-risk cases to other community partners that can provide mental health support or family conflict resolution.

Says Calloway, “When you look at recidivism rates — the rate that youth come back into the system after they’ve been arrested or they’ve been brought into the system — those youth that we divert from the system, the recidivism rate [is] around 6 percent, versus those youth that we keep in the system, that we keep on some type of supervised probation or send to the Department of Children’s Services … those recidivism rates are at least 20 percent and above.”

The Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center tends to hold youths who are deemed a high to medium risk to the community. After their trial, they may be routed to the Department of Children’s Services, which is currently understaffed and overwhelmed. Some youth sleep in offices because there aren’t places for them to be housed.

“Decades of poor policies by politicians have led to this crisis,” reads a statement from a DCS worker via a recent press release. “Bill Lee has only made it worse. All of the problems with the department fall on the shoulders of frontline staff. You’re not going to see anyone from ‘leadership’ helping to sit with these kids. There are no beds, no showers, no nothing for these kids except what staff purchase for them out of our own pockets.”

Gov. Lee has been vocal about culture-war scenarios like the Pediatric Transgender Clinic at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital following unfounded claims of child mutilation by right-wing activist Matt Walsh — but he hasn’t been vocal when it comes to the DCS situation. When asked for a statement from the governor, a spokesperson redirected the Scene to a statement from DCS Commissioner Margie Quin: “Like many employers across the country, DCS has been impacted by workforce shortages. We have addressed the issue through consistent pay raises for case workers and will continue to deliver the resources DCS needs to protect children.”

Lee’s response to school safety has been lukewarm. Following the Uvalde shooting, he signed a school safety executive order featuring guidelines on security and support from the state. Last week he released a “Safety Toolkit” designed to get families engaged with school safety. Lee has not, however, addressed gun access — in 2021, his administration loosened gun laws despite opposition from law enforcement agencies.

“We’re kind of accustomed to doing what’s necessary for Metro Nashville Public Schools,” says Battle. “We don’t wait for an executive order. … We have a larger city issue, state issue, national issue with regards to the safety in our communities, and the [gun] access that our young people have.”

PREVENTING YOUNG PEOPLE from entering the school-to-prison pipeline requires a holistic community approach. This starts with recognizing students’ trauma and emotions rather than seeing young people merely as data points. Calloway notes that she’s “very careful about calling them children. They’re all our children — I think ‘juvenile’ gives it a very negative connotation.”

It also means making sure young people have access to food, safe schools and support from caring adults who are willing to address the root causes that lead to misbehavior and disciplinary actions. However, these ideas can’t be fully addressed without proper support — a matter that MNPS, DCS and other entities are struggling with.

“[Restorative justice] really doesn’t help,” says one teacher who wishes to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation. “It’s good in theory, but in practicality, it’s really not.” This teacher agrees, however, that the approach would be more effective if schools were fully staffed with enough counselors.

While research by groups like the Justice Research and Statistics Association sup ports the effectiveness of restorative justice practices, the approach needs resources and community buy-in before it can be fully re alized. Addressing students’ mental health is also a form of addressing school safety. In the absence of full, proper funding and staffing for MNPS and other organizations in Nashville, community members can step up to support the city’s children. This can include volunteering with or donating to organizations that work with youth, tutoring or mentoring students, and advocating for change from city leaders.

“We have had the conversation about the school-to-prison pipeline for a very long time, even when I was a young person in school,” says Matthews. “Acknowledging and being aware that the pipeline exists is one thing. Working on ways to dismantle it is another task that is really going to take the will of everyone. It’s going to take a push from community, but it’s also going to take leaders to be able to just have the where withal to say, ‘Hey, we want to fix this. And we want to get it right.’ ”

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

JUVENILE COURT JUDGE SHEILA CALLOWAY

FILM [POETIC JUSTICE]

INTERNATIONAL LENS: WHO WILL REMAIN?

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that poets can’t be badasses. Just look at Abraham Sutzkever (1913-2010), once hailed by The New York Times as the “greatest poet of the Holocaust.” During World War II, Sutzkever pulled off such heroic feats as smuggling weapons, hiding literature and artwork in ghetto walls, and fighting occupying forces as a partisan. And he did all of this while turning out powerful Yiddish poetry that captured those terrifying times. In

the 2021 doc Ver Vet Blaybn? (Who Will Remain?), filmmakers Christa P. Whitney and Emily Felder chronicle Sutzkever’s life by accompanying Israeli actress (and Sutzkever’s granddaughter) Hadas Kalderon to Lithuania. That’s where she learns more about her granddad’s early warfilled days, and turns one of his pieces into a stage show. Whitney and Felder will take part in a virtual post-screening discussion, along with Justin Cammy, professor of Jewish studies and world literatures at Smith College. Allison Schachter, associate professor of Jewish studies and English at Vanderbilt University, will serve as moderator. As with all the screenings in Vanderbilt’s International Lens series, admission is free. 7:30 pm at Sarratt Cinema, 2301 Vanderbilt Place

CRAIG D. LINDSEY

Despite the pandemic throwing a wrench in the works of the whole music business, Knoxville-raised and Nashvilleresiding rock songsmith Briston Maroney has been exceptionally busy over the past five years. Though still in his early 20s, he’s displayed a keen ear for exploring

complicated emotional terrain with indelible melodies and the sweet-and-sour crunch of post-Strokes rock across a handful of EPs and singles. He made a big level up with his 2021 LP Sunflower, which he recorded with producer John Congleton and which features co-writes with Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra and Dan Wilson of Semisonic and Trip Shakespeare. He’s toured extensively since the release, headlining clubs on his own (including a date at The Blue Room at Third Man Records recorded for an excellent live LP) and opening this summer for Rainbow Kitten Surprise at li’l ol’ venues like Red Rocks. And the songs keep coming. Thursday and Friday, Maroney returns to his adopted hometown to headline both nights of a two-night mini festival at Brooklyn Bowl featuring rock bands with thoughtful songwriters. It’s called Paradise, after a great recent single that’s about figuring out what really matters. Thursday’s show is all-ages, and the lineup features Sunflower Bean and The Greeting Committee, as well as a solo set from Annie DiRusso. Friday’s show is for ages 18 and up, and features Indigo De Souza, Michelle and a solo set from Cece Coakley. Nov. 3-4 at Brooklyn Bowl, 925 Third Ave. N. STEPHEN TRAGESER

FRIDAY

[SHELTER FROM THE STORM] WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND UNAFRAID

You may know Sarah Treem from her award-winning work as a writer and producer of TV shows like In Treatment, House of Cards and The Affair. But Treem is also a respected playwright, known for creating compelling roles for women. That certainly seems to be the case with When We Were Young and Unafraid, which opens this weekend at Actors Bridge Ensemble. Set in 1972 — back in the days before Roe v. Wade and the Violence Against Women Act — this intriguing drama centers on Agnes, a no-nonsense woman who runs a small bed-and-breakfast off the coast of Seattle that doubles as an underground shelter for victims of domestic violence. Daryn Jackson directs a terrific cast, including Stacey Hucks as Agnes, along with Landry Rose, Kyla Ledes, Colin Kurtis and Katie Kelly. Nov. 4-13 at the Actors Bridge Ensemble Studio, 4610 Charlotte Ave.

MUSIC [HOT ROD]

ROD M c GAHA QUINTET

Trumpeter Rod McGaha’s talents are extensive and varied. He’s had spectacular success in the jazz, country

and gospel worlds, and was also a featured soloist with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Some of his past collaborations include stints with Kenny Rogers, Bebe and CeCe Winans, Shelby Lynne and Max Roach. After establishing his greatness on stages from Chicago to New York, McGaha has become a fixture on the Music City scene, and this weekend he leads a superb all-star band at Rudy’s that will feature Jody Nardone on piano, Don Aliquo on sax, Jon Estes on bass and Nioshi Jackson on drums. It’s a night not to be missed — a chance to hear contemporary and classic jazz performed by some of Middle Tennessee’s finest improvisational artists. 8 p.m. at Rudy’s Jazz Club, 809 Gleaves St. RON WYNN

DANCE [UP CLOSE AND IN PERSON]

NASHVILLE BALLET PRESENTS LIVE IN STUDIO

A

Fresh off the success of its magical season-opener Cinderella, Nashville Ballet is back with more of an intimate performance, presented in its own studios. Live in Studio A promises a uniquely immersive evening of dance, with audience members enjoying an up-close look that not many ever get to experience. The program includes George Balanchine’s incredible masterwork The Four Temperaments (with music by Paul Hindemith) and the much-anticipated return of Paul

[WHEN YOU GET TO MY AGE] BRISTON MARONEY PRESENTS: PARADISE

AMY STUMPFL

Vasterling’s evocative Seasons (featuring the music of Antonio Vivaldi, recomposed by Max Richter), plus the world premiere of Four Loves by the ballet’s associate artistic director Nick Mullikin. Seasons and Four Loves will be accompanied by a live chamber ensemble, conducted by music director and principal conductor Ming Luke and featuring the 19-year-old international violin sensation Yvette Kraft. It’s a great lineup, and guests can even enjoy complimentary beer, wine and signature cocktails. Nov. 4-13 at The Martin Center for Nashville Ballet, Studio A, 3630 Redmon St.

STUMPFL

[MAGIC TO DO]

THEATER

PIPPIN

Tosha Marie first established TMProductions in 2021 as a “collaborative performing arts complex,” providing much-needed space for Nashville artists. Now this growing company is staging its own production of Pippin, featuring a solid mix of new and familiar talent. With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Roger O. Hirson, this Tony Award-winning musical follows an impressionable young prince as he searches for something more extraordinary and fulfilling in his life. Directed and choreographed by Tosha Marie (with musical direction by DaJuana Hammonds), the cast includes Ja’Naye Flanagan as the Leading Player, Konnor Thurman as Pippin, Bakari King as Charles, Bryan Royals as Lewis, Ashley Wolfe as Fastrada, Amos Glass as Berthe, Lauren Proctor as Catherine, Alex Hillaker as Theo, and more. And be sure to keep an eye out for more information on pre-show performances, curated by Found Movement Group and The Nashville Dance Guide. Nov. 4-12 at TMProductions, 630 Rundle Ave.

STUMPFL

SHOPPING

SATURDAY / 11.05

[WE’RE CRAFTY] CRAFTY BASTARDS

Since 2014, we at the Scene have been proud to host one of the city’s best artsand-crafts events, Crafty Bastards. The fall edition of our free fair takes over West Nashville’s OneC1ty this weekend, where you’ll be able to check out the wares from more than 100 vendors — among them Atelier Glass Studio, Black Sheep Goods, Friendly Arctic, Hello Disco, HiFi Cookies, Hot Sauce Nashville, Nashville Blanket Project and many more. Truly, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, and shoppers will be able to peruse everything from jewelry and art to clothes, stickers, CBD products, bags, pantry items and glassware. There will also be food trucks, a photo booth and a curated selection of cocktails and beer, so ready your holiday shopping list and head to OneC1ty. Find more details at craftybastards.com. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 5-6 at OneC1ty, 8 City Blvd D. PATRICK RODGERS

[TRAINS, AUTOMOBILES]

MUSIC

PLAINS

Nineties country music has been in the midst of a comeback for a minute now, with current-day artists drawing upon the poppy, infectious sounds of that era in their own work. Jess Williamson and Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield get in on the ’90s game with their new project Plains, whose debut album I Walked With You a Ways dropped in October. The pair will stop at Brooklyn Bowl on Saturday in support of that album, which marries the acoustic pop-folk of Waxahatchee with the slick, rhinestone-studded sensibilities of the early works of Shania Twain and Trisha Yearwood. Williamson and Crutchfield are natural duet and harmony partners, a phenomenon also reminiscent of fellow ’90s hitmakers The Chicks. Asheville, N.C., singer-songwriter MJ Lenderman will open. 8 p.m. at Brooklyn Bowl, 925 Third Ave. N.

BRITTNEY MCKENNA

PIPPIN

NASHVILLE

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

MUSIC [THE L-SHAPED THIRD MAN] CEREMONY W/GEL

Sonoma County’s best-known punk outfit, Ceremony, has aged into something far more transcendent than their hardcore roots would imply. Formed as a powerviolence throwback, the band ripened into a sound more in tune with the New Order song that was their namesake. The quintet has managed to overlap blazing riffs, spacious beats, anti-authoritarian sentiments and pedal-mangled guitar tones into its 18-year run. Their pulsating new 12-inch dance single, released by Relapse Records, sounds like a nod to both the No Wave jazz and disco of ’80s NYC and the baggy beats of Madchester in the ’90s. The contrasting B-side is a minimal synthesizer track, with more of a repeated riff than a discernible melody. Show up on time, because the ultra-dissonant cacophony of Gel will scratch the itch of the fans who still long for heavy, fast hardcore. 8 p.m. at The Blue Room at Third Man Records, 623 Seventh Ave. S. P.J. KINZER

MUSIC [FLYING HIGH]NNAMDÏ

Although you could render some of the songs on Chicago avant-rap-pop musician Nnamdï’s new album Please Have a Seat without the keyboards and studio effects he favors, the elaborate production may be the point of his music. Nnamdi Ogbonnaya grew up in the Chicago suburbs and began playing drums and bass in indie-rock bands 15 years ago. On his own, he’s a pop musician who works in an area that’s partly defined by rap and partly just plain weird. Some commentators have compared him to George Clinton and Frank Zappa, and there are moments on his 2020 collection Krazy Karl that suggest he’s listened to Zappa records like Uncle Meat in tandem with, say, the later Beach Boys and Funkadelic’s One Nation Under a Groove. The Krazy Karl track “White Savior Sequel” comes across like hyperactive prog with hints of ’60s vocal groups and Zappa’s patented disjunctions. Krazy Karl is accomplished experimental music — the keyboards spiral out of the frame, and

Nnamdï proves himself a worthy exponent of the anti-groove approach perfected by Zappa and The Residents. Things get more straightforward — and more tuneful — on Please Have a Seat. Check out “I Don’t Wanna Be Famous,” which features my favorite line on the album: “Now they caught me flying, I ain’t going back to coach.” Opening will be fellow avant-rap singer Joshua Virtue and Nashville popsters Volunteer Department. 7 p.m. at Drkmttr, 1111 Dickerson Pike EDD HURT

SUNDAY / 11.06

Since the mid-’90s, vocalist Ledisi has consistently succeeded both commercially and artistically with a hybrid sound that’s equally rooted in R&B performance flair and jazz technical expertise. Her earliest albums saw Ledisi honing her style while exploring a variety of material ranging from original compositions to holiday music. She’s also a marvelous actress, having portrayed Patti LaBelle in the BET docudrama American Soul, and most notably the gospel legend Mahalia Jackson twice — in 2014’s Selma and this year’s Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story.

On Sunday, Ledisi will perform tunes from her 10th album, a tribute to Nina Simone called Ledisi Sings Nina — and she’ll be accompanied by the great Nashville Symphony Orchestra. 7:30 p.m. at the Schermerhorn, 1 Symphony Center

MUSIC [VOCAL MASTER] LEDISI AND THE NASHVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

WYNN

PHOTO: RON T. YOUNG

PHOTO:

DENNIS ELLIOTT

LEDISI

NNAMDÏ

CRITICS’ PICKS

FOOD & DRINK

[EVERYTHING’S KOSHER] KOSHER NASHVILLE HOT CHICKEN FESTIVAL

Most Jews start schvitzing at the thought of hot chicken. But this is Nashville, bubelah! We put hot chicken on the map and proudly host the world’s only Kosher Hot Chicken Festival. Now in its seventh year, the annual holiday features a wide array of live music, vendors, additional kosher food options, a beer garden and activities for kids. The main event has a mix of amateur and professional chefs, including representatives from Hattie B’s and Hurt’s Hot Chicken. Each team will be offering its own take on Nashville hot chicken while adhering to kosher laws. Winners will be selected for hot and mild chicken, plus a People’s Choice Award. So if you’re in line to vote on kosher hot chicken, stay in line! Noon-3 p.m. at the Gordon Jewish Community Center, 801 Percy Warner Blvd.

LOWENFELS

MONDAY / 11.07

MUSIC [UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE] CELEBRATING DAVID BOWIE

The 1973 release of David Bowie’s Pin Ups marked the star’s return to his roots in the British Invasion, which had peaked in 1967 with now-classic albums by The Beatles, The Kinks and The Who. The covers on Pin Ups seem rote today, though he deserved to hit the charts with his version of “Sorrow,” previously cut by The McCoys and The Merseys. Bowie’s 1980 album Scary Monsters caps a run of late-’70s records that seem like the exhausted — but blissful — recollections of a big star who used his leisure time to devote himself to experimental rock. Monday’s installment of the long-running Celebrating David Bowie show features another great ’70s pop experimenter, Todd Rundgren, along with guitarists Adrian Belew and Angelo “Scrote” Bundini, who fronts a crack band. The band’s recent performances have included pretty much the Bowie songs you’d expect in a revue of this kind, and that’s as it should be. From the Beatlesesque soundscape of “Space Oddity” to the post-Elvis Presley R&B rip “Golden Years,” Bowie moved in tandem with the moods of the ’70s as deftly as Elton John — “Golden Years” and “Fame” outdo both Presley and James Brown, not to mention John Lennon. Like the songs of Ray Davies and Peter Townshend, Bowie’s tunes — and his slightly cracked, theatrical singing — help define British rock as a universal language of its own. 7:30 at the Schermerhorn, 1 Symphony Place EDD HURT

TUESDAY / 11.08

MUSIC [THANK U, NEXT] CMT NEXT WOMEN OF COUNTRY: CELEBRATING THE MUSIC OF LORETTA LYNN

Loretta Lynn’s death in early October left an unfillable void in country music, as the 90-year-old legend’s music and career did much to shape modern country as we know it. It’s only fitting, then, that a new generation of women artists should come together to pay tribute to Lynn, whose

complicated brand of feminism (though she herself may not have called it that) did much to advance the plight of women artists in the genre. Via its Next Women of Country program, CMT arranged a stacked lineup of artists to honor Lynn, including acclaimed songwriter Erin Enderlin, exciting up-andcomer Tiera Kennedy, veteran performer Wendy Moten and rising star Caylee Hammack. While Lynn’s passing will surely hang heavy over the evening, it should be a joyful affair, celebrating and paying homage to some of country’s most important and influential music. 7:30 p.m. at City Winery, 609 Lafayette St. BRITTNEY MCKENNA

WEDNESDAY / 11.09

BOOKS

[HOLD ME, THRILL ME]

BONO: STORIES OF SURRENDER

The mononymous Bono is coming all the way from Dublin to make a stop in Nashville, supporting his book Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, released Nov. 1. Bono says he has some “stories to sing” as well as some “songs to tell” in this event. In a big U2-fan household, Bono was the subject of many questions (why the sunglasses all the time? How did he climb up that stage at Live Aid?

Do they know it’s Christmas?). This book — and this event, Bono: Stories of Surrender — is sure to answer questions much deeper than that, about the singer’s life in Dublin, the death of his mother at a young age, his years of activism and two philanthropic foundations, and of course the formation and success of U2. Bono is one of the great frontmen of our time, so I’m sure he’ll find a way to make even a thick book entertaining. 8 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N. HANNAH HERNER

FOOD & DRINK [SMOKIN’]

& BARREL FESTIVAL

Sure, you can get a

of

of

do

get? Real, honest-

smoke! Luckily, the Scene presented Bacon &

Festival has (slightly)

to achieve your minimum RDA of smokiness, from the char of the barrels that add color and flavor

CRITICS’ PICKS

to whiskey as it lies mellowing in repose and also in the preservation method that transforms simple pork belly into delicious bacon. Both products will be center stage at this evening-long food and drink festival at the Loveless Barn, and the price of admission grants guests the chance to sample 15 whiskeys and bacon dishes from a host of favorite local restaurants. There will also be live bluegrass plus beer, wine and cocktails available for purchase. Smoke ’em if you want ’em! 6-9 p.m. at the Loveless Barn, 8400 Hwy 100 CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

MUSIC [THIS BEAUTIFUL HELL] RINA SAWAYAMA

April 2020 was undoubtedly a brutal month. And yet somehow Rina Sawayama still managed to drop a debut album that swept across the music world, delighting fans and critics alike with a strange entanglement of electropop and punk rock. The two standout hits from that album, Sawayama, “Xs” and “Comme des Garçons (Like the Boys),” each bring completely different sounds, a common theme throughout an album full of wideranging experiments and thoughtful departures from the expected. And yet Sawayama remains a wildly immersive experience throughout, held together by Sawayama’s playfully seductive charm. Her latest album, Hold the Girl, continues to dive deep into experimental pop music, even tapping into some Southern influences with the lead single “This Hell,” which Sawayama told BBC Radio 1 was deeply influenced by Southern mainstays Kacey Musgraves and Dolly Parton. Wednesday’s show will be the Japanese-British modelturned-pop-star’s first time playing in Nashville, and considering her recent Southern influences, it’s bound to be special. 8 p.m. at Marathon Music Works, 1402 Clinton St. CONNOR DARYANI

MUSIC [UNDERWATER MOONLIGHT] THE CHILLS

Health and career problems haven’t kept Martin Phillipps from his work as the singer and songwriter of New Zealand pop band The Chills, who make a rare Nashville appearance Wednesday night at City Winery. Phillipps has led many versions of the band since it formed in 1980, with their 1996 album Sunburnt essentially a Phillipps

solo album. By any standard, Phillipps is a major songwriter and bandleader. It’s a somewhat melancholy fact that the plight of the high-level pop conceptualist he bemoans in his 1992 song “Song for Randy Newman Etc.” — Phillipps calls up Newman, Nick Drake, Scott Walker and Syd Barrett as examples of artists whose ambitions have sometimes outrun the ability of their audiences to understand them — applies to Phillipps himself. That’s unfair to a writer and singer who can crystallize ephemerality itself, as in The Chills’ 1990 song “Heavenly Pop Hit,” their only foray into the U.S. charts and one of the most gorgeous singles ever released. “Heavenly Pop Hit” and its accompanying album Submarine Bells mark the commercial zenith of Phillipps’ career, but the three studio records he’s cut over the past decade demonstrate his skill at long-form songwriting that’s humane and fatalistic. The Chills’ 2021 Scatterbrain is a record about death, among other things — Phillipps makes his move as a great pop poet of transience on songs like “Hourglass” and “Caught in My Eye.” Opening will be postrock band Unwed Sailor, who have a new album, Mute the Charm, set for release next year. 8 p.m. at City Winery, 609 Lafayette St. EDD HURT

[LEGACY OF BRUTALITY]

MUSIC

NAPALM DEATH W/BRUJERIA & FROZEN SOUL

In a scene where a band’s entire existence often spans less time than it takes to growl “You suffer — but why?” extreme grinders Napalm Death and Brujeria have managed to make lengthy careers. Coming from Birmingham, England, and Tijuana, Mexico, respectively, Napalm and Brujeria have used malevolent guitar tones and outrageous velocities to express the darkness of the world around them — the industrial wasteland of post-WWII U.K. and the drug wars just south of the U.S. border. Both bands also inject a certain levity and humor into their bleak outlook. The terrorizing twosome will bring Texan openers Frozen Soul to The Beast, with its red-dirt take on Neanderthal death metal. 8 p.m. at The Basement East, 919 Woodland Ave. P.J. KINZER

GET IN THE RING

Don Hernandez opens Pinky Ring Pizza with a plan for nonalcoholic drinks and unusual pies

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

Don Hernandez has helped open a lot of restaurants and bars. A food and bever age industry veteran, he’s worked at The Patterson House, for 21c Museum Hotels, and at both B1281 and The Hart, outlets at the BentoLiving hotel in WedgewoodHouston. In October, he turned the key on a first: the first restaurant he has owned. Not only that, it was also the first restaurant he’d opened since becoming sober.

Several months ago, Hernandez, a career bartender who served as vice president of the local chapter of the U.S. Bartenders’ Guild, stopped drinking. These personal and professional firsts are framing his vision for Pinky Ring Pizza, his new restaurant in Madison. He wants Pinky Ring to be a fun linchpin to the Madison community, a place where people can hang out after work or school, or grab a slice and a nonalcoholic beer before heading to the soon-to-open Timberhawk Hall or the farmers market at Amqui Station.

To achieve his vision, using local ingredi ents when possible and always mixing things up with new menus and fresh approaches, Hernandez tapped Wes Scoggins, aka the Jewish Cowboy, to run the culinary program as executive chef. Scoggins has been do ing pop-ups around town — at Rosemary & Beauty Queen, Culture + Co. and elsewhere — and he and Hernandez struck up a friend ship. Scoggins hopes to open his own restau rant in Nashville in the future, and working at Pinky Ring is allowing him to stretch his creative wings. There’s a stack of cookbooks near the front door, and if you get a few min utes with Scoggins he’ll share thoughts on ev erything from the best flour for pizza dough (King Arthur) to vegan alternatives and how to get the perfect char on a crust. Working side by side with Hernandez is also giving him a master class in opening a restaurant and all that entails, from finding investors to working with landlords to hiring and training staff.

One of Scoggins’ first acts was to con vince his brother Kameron, also a chef, to move to Nashville from Texas to work in the kitchen. He’s not the only family member who is pitching in at Pinky Ring. Hernan dez’s partner Karen Kops, who also owns Poppy & Monroe — the Germantown nail salon that is a favorite of Best of Nashville voters — has been instrumental with the aesthetic and branding of the restaurant, not to mention working behind the counter on friends-and-family night.

Hernandez’s dad helped him with a com plete renovation of what was once a modest Sir Pizza location. Now there’s a deck out

front, with six picnic tables surrounded by planter boxes that Scoggins plans to fill with herbs, microgreens and produce he can use in the kitchen; lettuces will be coming in soon. From the deck you can look through a window and watch dough being made with the restaurant’s carefully cultivated start ers (named Miriam and Delgado). A walkup window allows you to grab a slice to go.

Inside is a row of counter seating, with live plants hanging from above, light-pink walls and modern dark-green tiles Hernandez rescued from overage from a project at the BentoLiving hotel. There’s also a matching green sidewalk out front. Posters from local printer Boss Construction hang on the walls.

Pinky Ring doesn’t look like a pizza joint of the past, and its menu won’t look conven tional either, particularly when it comes to nonalcoholic drinks. When Hernandez got sober he started to notice how few options there were at his favorite haunts.

“I’d be offered a strawberry soda,” he says. “I wasn’t drinking strawberry soda before, and I’m not going to drink it now.”

Pinky Ring’s coolers are filled with nonalco holic beers, and Proxies nonalcoholic wines should arrive soon. A tap has been installed to serve other nonalcoholic options from a keg. Once Pinky Ring gets its liquor license,

there will be both craft cocktails and craft mocktails on the menu. As someone who has spent much of his career mixing drinks, Hernandez says, he wants to create an envi ronment for both drinkers and non-drinkers to socialize together with ease. “Sometimes you may feel uncomfortable around drink ers because you don’t have a drink in your hand. So we’re looking at how we can meet in the middle and bring everyone together.” He’s also considering programming with a nearby recovery center.

Scoggins is at work on a menu that will also foster connections. As he, Hernandez and their team have been opening Pinky Ring, folks have stopped by to share their memories from Sir Pizza as an after-school hangout and community gathering place. Hernandez and Scoggins feel they can build on that. Pizzas will run the gamut from a traditional vodka sauce to a spicy red and a white sauce with mushrooms. Look for lamb on a Mediterranean pie and seasonal veg etarian slices. (Think asparagus or squash roasted in miso butter.) Scoggins plans to set up his smoker in the alley, which will allow him to make brisket pizza. At Rosemary & Beauty Queen in Five Points, Scoggins was known for his vegan dishes, so there may be some plant-based choices too.

The team in the kitchen is making 20inch pies from which Pinky Ring will sell large individual slices. If you order a whole pie, those will come as 18-inch pizzas. On Sundays, Scoggins says, it’ll be like going to your grandma’s house. “We’re going to have a special menu with an Italian Ameri can dish,” he says. Pizzas are cooked in a specialty pizza oven (designed by a Swedish firm with an eye toward Old World Italian pizza ovens), which gets the right char on the pizzas.

Pinky Ring serves lunch and dinner six days a week (closed Mondays) and will not offer the traditional delivery of most pizza spots. You can order pies to go, however, and they’ll be setting up to sell at bars around town, including the nearby Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge. Hernandez knows how hard — and important — it is for bars to keep customers in house, even when they get hungry.

As for the name? “A lot of pizza places have Mafia names, and we’re not into that,” Hernandez says. “This is wholesome, good food. We’re not nostalgic for gangsters, but this is nostalgia for what the gangsters would have had nostalgia for — basically, their nonna’s cooking.”

EMAIL

PINKY RING PIZZA

414 GALLATIN PIKE S.,

MADISON

PINKYRINGPIZZA.COM

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

MOCK TRIAL

Sampling some of Nashville’s best nonalcoholic specialty drinks

BY ERIN M c LAUGHLIN | PHOTOS BY ERIC ENGLAND

If all you know about nonalcoholic beverages is the term “mocktail,” it may be time to level up on your zero-proof knowledge and expect more from sans-booze specialty drinks. Jon Howard — bar director at Sean Brock’s Audrey — says there’s nothing funny about his restaurant’s nonalcoholic beverage program. Audrey strives to do much more than simply omitting alcohol from a standard cocktail, and they’re not alone.

TURMERIC COOLER, CAFE ROZE

This drink is a triple threat. It’s lovely to look at, it tastes complex, and it might even make you feel better, since turmeric has been known to ease digestion and inflammation. It begins with a house-made paste, combining turmeric, nutmeg, star anise and other spices, and is mixed with a dash of simple syrup and hot lemon water. The rusty carrot-colored liquid is poured over ice and served in a Collins glass, topped with sparkling water and a thin slice of orange that’s dried to a crisp. At first its flavors are tart and bright, then a peppery depth emerges, making the drink compelling sip after sip while a mild effervescence quenches the thirst. It’s a beverage you’ll return for.

More bars and restaurants across town are taking time to design thoughtful and delicious NA beverages for their bar menus, using flavor-rich ingredients, fresh produce and elevated, zero-proof spirits. Since people like to drink craft beverages for more than just a head change, makers are translating the culinary experience into what they do with their nonalcoholic beverages as well. Here are six examples from Nashville’s celebrated food and beverage scene.

RHUBARB SPRITZ, TWO TEN JACK

Much like Two Ten Jack itself, this beverage is flirty but sophisticated. Rhubarb is a red, bitter stalk veggie that, for the purposes of this concoction, has been distilled into a sour-sweet drinking vinegar and combined with bitter aperitif, East Asian citrus and ginger seltzer. The result is a subtly sweet treat. The blushy bubbles are served over ice and presented in a stem glass. Though slightly piquant, the off-sweet citrus flavors drink easily and complement Two Ten’s delicious, eclectic cuisine.

BRIGHTON BEACH, THE FOX BAR & COCKTAIL CLUB

In one of Nashville’s most lauded craft-cocktail clubs, it’s hard not to smile when they slide this drink in front of you. The Brighton Beach arrives in a tiki glass, complete with nugget ice, a metal straw and, of course, a festive bit of tropical foliage. Made with Seedlip Spice 94, coconut cream, madras tincture, pineapple, lemon stock and ginger seltzer, this is a smooth and sweet, ultra-drinkable delight. It tastes like a coconutlime liquid dream cloud — a sweet escape in a single sip to plenty of good vibes with no hangovers.

CUCUMBER MINT FIZZ, ETCH

When you’re craving something light, hydrating and clean-tasting, this is your beverage. The Cucumber Mint Fizz’s simple but aromatic ingredients cleanse the palate, readying your taste buds for the intricate flavors of chef Deb Paquette’s award-winning fare at Etch. Muddled cucumber, citrus and mint deliver a spa-fresh zest that lifts the spirit. Served over ice with sliced citrus in a Collins glass, it looks like a sexy tonic with a twist while the taste is pure, crisp Zen.

LEMONGRASS AND GOOSEBERRY ZEROPROOF COCKTAILS, AUDREY

Just as the traditional bar menu is based on fresh seasonal produce at Audrey, the same goes for their NA mixed drinks. This means you may not find the same beverage available on any two nights. Expect interesting, mood-conscious flavors, ingredients that have meaningful origin stories and elements paired to feature anything but a basic alcohol alternative. The menu is presented in a bountiful basket as whole produce. You select the fruit or veggie you’d like your beverage to feature, and they build it using no more than three ingredients. They extract nectars, muddle or distill the produce and combine it with various liquid elements, pouring everything into a hand-blown glass, made especially for Audrey and for your enjoyment. The lemongrass beverage I sampled was made from homegrown lemongrass, combined with a ginger cordial

and Pentire Adrift (a nonalcoholic spirit). It was served steamy-hot in a green rocks glass. The flavors were subtle — lemon, sage and spice with a light, milky finish. A warm and soothing fall libation.

It’s rare to encounter a gooseberry in real life, much less find it on a craft-beverage menu. Rich in antioxidants, the little golden bulbs were irresistible sitting in their paper-lantern-like leafy shells. The fruit was muddled and strained, mixed with an NA Sobre Tequila and a jasmine tea syrup. Flavors were sweet and robust with notes of plum and silky guava. The presentation was exceptional, in a short tumbler over a large, hand-chipped hunk of ice resembling a magic meteorite. If a good part of the reason people visit bars is for the ritual care that goes into making and enjoying the drinks, there was nothing missing from this nonalcoholic offering.

EMAIL

the Nashville Scene for our bi-annual Craft Fair

fall fair will feature 100 curated artisan vendors showing off their homemade goods including home decor, clothing, pet goods, jewelry, pottery and so much more! Guests can enjoy activities, giveaways, live music, craft cocktails, craft brews and indulge in food truck fare. Come get a jump start on the holiday

giving season and shop ‘til you drop at Crafty Bastards!

November’s First Saturday means live music, paintings from Alabama and the holidays starting early at Coop

BY JOE NOLAN

WEDGEWOOD-HOUSTON

The Wedgewood-Houston First Saturday events have been a lot quieter since Infinity Cat Recordings left its headquarters at 467 Humphreys St. several years ago. We can still mostly count on a local band playing on the front porch of Julia Martin Gallery dur ing opening receptions, and WXNA DJs help keep The Packing Plant scene popping, but we’d love to hear more music — weird, sexy, sacred, raw and delirious music — in the heart of Nashville’s contemporary art scene.

Obviously wanting to hear more and dif ferent music in Nashville isn’t the biggest ask in the world, and the Chestnut Street Concert Series is already expanding the aural options at the crawl. The series started in October, and the November concert is free for all ages and includes the funky synth country of The Kentucky Gentlemen and the cinematic soul grooves of instrumental duo Mount Worcester. The show opens at 8:15 p.m. Saturday with the propulsive pop of the actually indie Twen The title song of Twen’s most recent release, One Stop Shop (for a Fading Revolution), sets spilled-wine arrangements against jangly guitars to raise a glass to the apocalypse. The Chestnut Street Concert Series happens at the bandshell at The Outfield, which incorpo rates the iconic guitar-shaped scoreboard from Greer Stadium — former home of the Nashville Sounds — in its design.

KT Hamlin opens Repurposed at Open Gallery on Saturday night. Hamlin is a recent Lip scomb grad, and this plainly titled exhibition of eco-conscious fashion features feminine skirts and dresses made from secondhand and recycled materials such as grocery bags, curtains and denim scraps. Opening reception is from 6 until 9 p.m.

Senza Nome means “nameless” in Ital ian, and this new exhibition at Modfellows’ Wedgewood-Houston outpost proposes a kind of Dogme 95-esque manifesto that in terrogates the decision-making processes of collectors, as well as the often overlooked rituals of the art market. Senza Nome is a group exhibition circumscribed by a trio of rules that bind the various artists’ creative processes, while also unifying them in a solidarity of the marketplace: Every work is based on the 12-by-12-by-1.5-inch wooden panels the gallery provided to the artists; all the work will hang anonymously in keep ing with the exhibition title; and — here’s the kicker — every work will be sold for the same price. I’m not opposed to a bit of gallery gamifying when the rules are as pro vocative and irreverent as these. The Dan ish filmmakers who created the Dogme 95 film rules (the “Vows of Chastity”) required directors to be uncredited, and hopefully

Senza Nome will result in panels as inspired as The Celebration, or as poetic as Julien Donkey-Boy. Opening reception is from 5 until 8 p.m. on Saturday night.

Nashville-based artist Elise Drake refers to her latest creations as “bas-relief text works.” The utilitarian phrase conjures stuffy images from architecture textbooks and art history documentary YouTube rabbit holes. Utterbox opens at Julia Martin Gallery on Saturday night, but instead of a dusty and an cient display of Egyptian hieroglyphics or a stone sermon in medieval Latin, Drake’s new series debuts unmistakably contemporary works that employ resins and tinted plasters to craft modern messages in candy-store palettes. This display conveys poetic mes sages like, “I create memories with you in my dreams. I wake to be reminded you are a ghost.” But what comes through loud and clear is the sensual overload of Drake’s tex tual forms and colors, suspended deliciously between painting and sculpture. Opening re ception is 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday night.

Coop is downshifting for the rest of the

year after a memorable 2022 run in an ex panded new gallery space. Instead of pro gramming gallery exhibitions in November and December, Coop is aiming to be your first stop when you shop for artsy, creative and one-of-a-kind gifts this holiday season. The gallery’s Holiday Coopla artist markets will run every Saturday in November from noon until 8 p.m. When Coop made its move to its much larger — and more expensive — gallery space in The Packing Plant this year, it was followed by a very successful push to add a whole new rash of artists to their membership roster. This indoor bazaar will serve as a great way to get to know more about Coop’s newest artists, while also of fering holiday shoppers a chance to give friends and family works from their favor ite local creators.

DOWNTOWN

The Browsing Room Gallery at Downtown Presbyterian Church keeps giving gallerygo ers a reason to crawl downtown, despite the thinning of the Fifth Avenue gallery

scene after the closure of Rymer Gallery — not to mention the purchase and ongoing renovation of The Arcade. This Saturday night, the gallery proves it’s totally shaken off the lingering ennui of its pandemic shutdown with a deft display of formalist painting. Birmingham, Ala.-based painter Alex McClurg’s Present is a series of acrylic and spray-paint works on canvas. Local gallerygoers might recall McClurg’s name and work from group exhibitions at The Red Arrow Gallery in 2019. McClurg’s in terlocking geometric designs are applied in layers that recall digital image processing or older graphic and printing techniques. The results are precisely painted patterns full of retro vibes — geometric abstracts that read like circuit board landscapes or early concept art from Tron. This display of medium-to-small canvases is a perfect fit for The Browsing Room, and it’s probably the best painting exhibition opening on Sat urday night. Here’s hoping we see more of McClurg’s work in Nashville.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

“PRESENT,”

ALEX M c CLURG

THE BROWSING ROOM GALLERY AT DOWNTOWN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF WHAT YOU MIGHT BECOME

BY TINA CHAMBERS

KEVIN WILSON

e were responsible for one of the weirdest mysteries in American pop culture,” admits Frankie, the protagonist and narrator of Sewanee author

Kevin Wilson’s latest novel, Now Is Not the Time to Panic. In the summer of 1996, 16-year-old Frankie meets Zeke, who is new to their small town of Coalfield, Tenn. The two misfits bond over their dysfunctional dads, both of whom have abandoned their families, and their mutual creativity. Frankie is a writer, working on her first novel — a dark twist on the Nancy Drew books she loves. Zeke illustrates comic books and has big ambitions: “ ‘I want to be an artist,’ he told me, like we were both admitting that we weren’t human.”

Soon Frankie and Zeke decide to collaborate on a poster. Much to her surprise, Frankie comes up with the words almost immediately: The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us. “There was

UNFIXABLE BEAUTY

Ross Gay incites revolutionary thinking through sharing joy, fruit and poetry

BY BETH WALTEMATH

Bestselling author, poet and professor Ross Gay is a devotee of the wild and wondrous elements that grow in the garden or the classroom and surprise us in poetry or community.

His latest book, Inciting Joy, is organized around 14 reflections he calls “incitements,” with topics like accompanying a dying father, planting an orchard, playing pickup basketball and unlearning white supremacy.

“Isn’t the point of beautiful art — again, like a person, like a life — that it is unfixable and unfixing?” writes Gay. “That it changes as we change?” When we escape the mastering mentality of what he calls the brutal economy, joy inspires us and we incite more joy

this little voice in my head,” she explains, “and it was telling me what to write down. And I knew that this little voice, this tiny, insistent voice, was not God and it wasn’t some muse and it wasn’t anyone in the world except for me.” Zeke provides a suitably edgy illustration. And they top it all off with a sprinkling of their own blood — but no signatures. Frankie has access to a copier, so they make hundreds of copies with which they proceed to blanket every conceivable surface of their town, all while making sure no one is looking.

It isn’t long before their impromptu art installation is the talk of the town, but things take an ugly turn when rumors begin to spread of the “satanicdrug-sex cult” behind the posters. Soon there are armed vigilantes patrolling the streets, and when violence inevitably erupts, the chaos in Coalfield attracts national attention. The rest is history, specifically the Coalfield Panic of 1996, a phenomenon that inspires clothing lines, TV programs, musical artists, award-winning journalism and much more. In other words, it goes “viral” before the word even exists as a cultural concept. Yet Frankie and Zeke remain anonymous. Frankie laments, “I had wanted people to care, to notice, but I hadn’t

wanted them to put their own hands all over it, to try to claim it. But how do you stop something like that?”

As readers of Wilson’s previous novels and short stories can attest, the mind of Kevin Wilson is a very interesting place to visit. Now Is Not the Time to Panic is primarily a story about the power of art and the tendency toward obsession. “We’d created meaning where there was none,” Frankie says, “but, I don’t know, isn’t that art? Or at

least I think it’s the kind of art that I like, where the obsession of one person envelops other people, transforms them.” Wilson contrasts the purity and magic of making something new with the double-edged sword that is notoriety — the way the creation takes on a life of its own in the world, regardless of its creators and their intentions.

At the end of their fateful summer, Frankie and Zeke are parted, but each goes on to live in fear that their authorship will be discovered and their own lives transformed in ways they do not relish.

The advance copies of Now Is Not the Time to Panic included a note from Wilson on the origin of Frankie’s provocative lines for the poster, which were given to him by a friend after his freshman year at Vanderbilt University. He writes, “In some ways, writing the book offered the chance to remember the summers of adolescence, when you feel trapped in your own body but vibrating with the possibility of what you might become.”

Frankie understands that feeling. Despite the unanticipated consequences of the poster’s fame, she admits, “And if I start to lose a sense of myself, if I start to drift outside my life, I take the original poster and I make a copy … and I go somewhere, anywhere in the entire world, and I hang it up. And I know, in that moment, that my life is real, because there’s a line from this moment all the way back to that summer, when I was sixteen, when the whole world opened up and I walked through it.”

For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

in others. Gay draws on the ways that sports, gardens, literature and companionship loosen the shackles of capitalism’s productivity mindset and “rejoyn” us to gracious and life-giving ways of being.

In a chapter about the organization of a nonprofit to start an urban orchard and plant trees that would not bear fruit within the lifetime of some of its board members, Gay reveals the beauty in volunteering together:

The inefficiency, the incompetence, the ineffectiveness, the dismal rate of production, the off-taskness, the wandering, the flabbiness, the consensussing, the play, the listening, the dreaming, were just ways of being together. It was hanging out, it was growing closer, it was mycelial, its product was itself, its product was connection, friendship, it was care … that was the product, which is to say the product was our needs offered to each other, held to each other, held by each other.

Each statement Gay makes chooses a syntax that is not sloppy but subversive. It is common in his prose to count eight commas, two em dashes and a colon — or several semicolons and italicized phrases — before stopping in astonishment at the period. “And if you haven’t noticed, I am a fan of the digression,” Gay acknowledges in friendly candor. His prolific use of asides and footnotes reveals that he views the relationship between writer and reader as dialogical and evolving.

Like his philosophical propositions, Gay’s prose disrupts the paternalism, perfectionism, false objectivity, individualism and other symptoms he sees as manifestations of white supremacy, especially in academic settings. He dances between the formal text and the informal subtext. Each chapter is written with first-person narration, but the footnotes, which can

extend from half a page to nearly three, are offered in the second-person direct address. In his commentary, Gay proposes playful challenges like “I have to tell you” and “You can tussle with the word [I used]” and “now go write your poem.” The equitable way that he cites friends, aunts, neighbors, comedians and poets suggests Gay doesn’t seek to be a solo voice but rather a host for communal wisdom. His style, at times intentionally casual and unwieldy, is larger than stream of consciousness. His voice bubbles over like a buddy in the stream of conversation — invitational and infinite.

With joy as his muse, Gay tries not to be the lonely artist in search of an ideal but a community organizer inciting us to change what could destroy our capacity for greater connection and care for life. In a meditation on the dehumanization of school and the reclamation of learning through joyous bewilderment, Gay offers his ars poetica in rhythmic prose: “Don’t we often need and love, some of us anyway, that art asks more than we could ever answer ... and in so doing, unfixes those of us who encounter it?”

The beauty of this book is not what happiness it helps us find, but what mentalities and habits each incitement invites us to unfix. Joy, like beauty, cannot be produced by human beings who fixate on achieving it; joy must be stirred up within and between us.

For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.

Kevin Wilson’s latest novel considers the transformative power of art

Six One Trïbe cooks up a beautiful stew of Nashville rap on Trïbe Over Everything

BY P.J. KINZER

Even if you’ve been told how to get to recording studio East Side Manor, it’s easy to miss the driveway, hidden in plain sight along a residential street in Inglewood among canes of towering bamboo that look like they’re block ing the wind for another yard.

Make your way down the curved stretch of gray pea gravel, and eventually a grand residence reveals itself. Walking up from my parking spot on a particularly warm October afternoon, I no longer feel like I’m anywhere near Gallatin Pike, but rather in a secluded artist commune in some exotic locale. A friendly group greets me from their seats around a long picnic table, and audio engineer Aaron Dethrage, who’s been texting me to coordinate this meetup, offers a welcoming handshake. He walks me across a large stone patio, past a soot-stained firepit and into the facility that, among many other things, serves as home base for Nashville hip-hop collective Six One Trïbe. The room is full — of people on nearly every surface that can double as a seat, of snack foods spread across an octago nal table, of recording gear flanking two large mixing boards.

This is where the group and their many collaborators have been at work for a long time, creating an array of projects includ ing their debut full-length album Trïbe Over Everything, which they’ll release Friday. It doesn’t take long to understand that Six One Trïbe takes the term “collective” very seri ously, and describing themselves as a family who chooses each other is a common re frain. Most of the contributors to the album are in the control room with me. The first to say hello is Quai, a rapper and producer who has his own album due soon. To his left, Gee Slab leans against a mixing board. Slab is the co-founder of the collective in a formal sense — he and Dethrage launched the LLC

LIKE AN OLD HAND

Emily Nenni makes classic country look effortless with On the Ranch

BY JACQUELINE ZEISLOFT

Hailing from the Bay Area, Emily Nenni is a longtime Nashvillian. On her 2018 debut album Hell of a Woman, Nenni’s songwriting summons the emotional range of greats like Dolly Parton and Gillian Welch — offering self-aware tunes that are lippy, funny and disarmingly vulnerable. The record was self-released and largely

together — but he’s also a producer and the rapper that listeners hear first on the al bum’s lead track, “They On Notice.”

“A word we use a lot around here is ‘ecosys tem,’ ” Slab says in his robust Middle Tennes see drawl. He comes across like the group’s wise elder statesman. “It’s just an ecosystem of creativity — pushing one another to be bet ter, over and over again. And through that, people shine bright in their own light.”

Before my visit, three singles have been released in the run-up to the album: the driv ing “Wholotta,” the grooving, nimble “We the Wave” and the kinetic “Carbon Copy.” Combined, there are four producers and 13 rappers on the mic on these three tracks alone. Every cut on Trïbe Over Everything has at least three MCs, while some tracks feature as many as eight. The artists are fairly dispa rate in style, but their familiarity with one an other is the connective tissue that makes the work cohesive. The continuity from track to track is like a beautiful stew, where each chef has chosen specific spices that complement the ingredients everyone else is bringing. The resulting flavor is distinctly Southern and uniquely Nashville.

“Different flavors coming into the same pipe,” says Tripgod F’RF’R (read: “for real,

flew under the radar, but she began building a devoted fan base who knew what she had to offer. Her second LP On the Ranch, out Friday, is an irresistible vintage-country masterwork. It will receive a more robust release from Normaltown, an imprint label of New West Records.

Nenni wrote On the Ranch in the early pandemic days. Like many of us, she found herself with extra time on her hands. Her waitressing hours were cut back, and she was in a creative slump.

“I thought if I wasn’t working my full-time job, I’d have a lot of time and energy to write,” Nenni tells me by phone. “But the pandemic wasn’t a very motivating time.” She and her collaborator Mike Eli decamped to a Colorado ranch near the Great Sand Dunes where Eli’s wife was working as a wrangler. Safely away from any COVID hotbeds, the two sank into the laid-back rhythms of ranch life and wrote a record.

for real”). He’s a jovial jokester, and he’s all over Trïbe, both on the microphone and the beats. He greets everyone who steps through the door with a hug and a smile that extends the entire width of his face. “We’re showing that Nashville is that new melt ing pot of flavor. All these artists that are around me right now are the great flavors that make this dish so outstanding.”

“When you count up everybody who’s worked on this project,” Dethrage notes, “like everybody, everybody — it’s like 55 or 60 peo ple attached to the project at this point.”

I ask for a headcount on Trïbe’s active rappers, and the soft answer is about 16. But there are about as many collaborators func tioning as featured guests on tracks across the album and their various solo projects.

“It’s more of a label-slash-production company,” says Slab. “I can’t just say it’s just artists, because that would be unfair to ev eryone else who contributes to what we do.”

Continuing around the loose circle in the control room, rapper and fashion designer 3van 9rey sits next to Negro Justice, who currently holds the Best of Nashville title belt in the Hip-Hop Album category. Chosen Family, the solo album he released in the spring, features most of the Trïbe crew. HB

Recorded at Laughing Hearts Studios in East Nashville, Nenni’s album is a collection of wry classic country songs with polished production and some ’70s-vintage touches. Filled with riled-up guitar jams and forlorn waltzes, On the Ranch nods sonically and lyrically to traditional Western music. Nenni’s effervescent voice persuades the listener that the ranch is the place to be, where fulfilling hard work is juxtaposed with blissful leisure. On the title track, she sings, “Kitchen is for two-stepping and catching mice / Afternoons are for off-roading and not thinking twice.”

Ah, the simple life. Yet challenges do surface. In “Useless,” Nenni craves ranch-hand tasks and, in a larger sense, a purpose: “Won’t you give me just a little something to do and I’ll be satisfied?” This buoyant tune is full of frustration. She sings, “I’m useless if you ain’t got no use for me.” Nenni found

Mandela never announces his role in the group, but rather his enthusiasm to be in volved. “It’s a beautiful thing to be in here,” Mandela says. “And a beautiful time with all these great artists — something as au thentic as it gets.” To my right is wordsmith and guitarist BLVCKWIZZLE, who radiates confidence as he introduces himself. It’s clear that the members of the crew are each other’s biggest fans.

To my right sit PesoTaxin and Mack, the young duo behind Redeye Films, who func tion as the video production team within the Trïbe orbit. The whole group is pass ing around a tablet displaying stills from the cult-themed video for the track “Same Beast, Different Monsters,” shot around EastSide Manor the night before. As the photos go from hand to hand, each member expresses so much admiration for the work the others do. Everyone on the team is an equal — rappers, producers, designers, edi tors — each just as important as the other.

It’s more like a church than a playground here,” says Mandela. “I feel like this is a healing place. I don’t even know how to put it. These people come here, and I’ve learned to love every one of them like family.”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

work on the ranch, serving breakfast and dinner, babysitting the boss’s kid and bottle-feeding a baby cow whose mother had gone missing in a wrangle. Being a part of the ranch’s daily operations was a respite to her aimlessness.

“I wasn’t able to play music throughout the pandemic,” she says. “So being able to find purpose outside of what I really wanted to do, but couldn’t for a year, felt good.”

Traces of legendary country crooners like Willie Nelson and Roger Miller linger in every quippy line and artful pedal-steel solo. “I appreciate a playfulness with lyricism,” she says. “In the Mornin’ ” shows Nenni smooth-talking a one-night stand into cooking her breakfast and lending her his coat before she breezes out of town. In this one, Nenni is the casanova, subverting your typical male-centric ideas around cowboys.

On the other side of the coin, she’s an expert in slow tunes that drip with sadness. “To have a really vulnerable, sensitive song that just comes out of nowhere on a record is one of my favorite things,” she says. It’s also my favorite thing about Nenni’s music — the moments she lets her guard down, like on “Leaving,” when she sings, “I haven’t missed you / You haven’t missed me / And I’m just leaving.”

On the Ranch sidesteps corny cowboy kitsch thanks to Nenni’s ingenuity as an artist and writer. Her songcraft upholds country’s cultural lineage in the same sincere way that Margo Price and Sturgill Simpson have, putting Nenni in the camp of Nashville country artists with staying power. Her roots in the Nashville country scene go deep: In 2014, she moved to Nashville ostensibly to attend Belmont University.

“I used going to school as kind of an excuse to move,” she explains. “I knew I wanted to play music, but I didn’t know in what capacity. I wanted to write, but I didn’t know if I had the guts to perform in front of people. I moved there to learn.”

Instead of continuing at Belmont, Nenni enrolled in the College of Santa’s Pub. Singing with the legendary house band Santa’s Ice Cold Pickers on Sunday evenings may not have yielded a degree, but the experience was invaluable. “I can’t emphasize enough how much singing at Santa’s has influenced me as a musician,” Nenni says. “You learn so much.”

Before 2014 was over, she debuted her original material at the very first Honky Tonk Tuesday Night at American Legion Post 82 to a crowd of six people. These days, the event boasts weekly lineups of the finest country musicians in town playing to a house packed with folks eager to two-step. “I love playing to people who just want to dance,” she says.

Soon, she’ll be heading very far south — to Australia, in fact — opening a string of dates with fellow phenomenal country songsmith Joshua Hedley starting in late November. But you’ll have a chance to do-si-do at a pair of release parties for On the Ranch here in town at another revered country songwriter haunt: Nenni plays Nov. 10 and 11 at Bobby’s Idle Hour.

THE CHRYSALIS OPENS

BY BRITTNEY M c KENNA

Rayland Baxter’s new album If I Were a Butterfly opens with his voice, though not how you’re likely used to hearing it. A young Baxter

is singing a song called “If I Were a Butterfly” in that joyous, unself-conscious way only kids can, alongside his sister, with the recording gently fading into the album’s title track.

That glimmer of youth is fitting for where Baxter is in his life. The much-loved Nashville-raised musician is not the same person he was when he made his 2018 album Wide Awake. In the intervening years, he has toured extensively, endured a pandemic and spent a year living in an old rubber band factory. Most significantly, he lost his father Bucky Baxter, a celebrated pedal-steel player whom the younger Baxter calls his “twin flame.”

Once he wrapped up touring after Wide Awake, Baxter began poring over his notes and voice memos, which he used to capture melodies, images and song ideas while out on the road. He began piecing those bits into songs in the fall of 2019 while living in a basement apartment in Inglewood, during an especially prolific three months.

“That’s when I hunkered down in my basement … right there by Nikki Lane’s store [High-Class Hillbilly],” Baxter explains. “And I stayed down there for three months, pretty much through New Year’s. I remember watching the fireworks, walking up from the basement into the backyard. And I was there for three months. I counted at the end of it, and I wrote like 130 songs.”

In mid-January 2020, Baxter packed up his things — he outfits his living spaces with an easily movable assortment of artwork, instruments, lyric notes and other pieces of inspiration, calling it “Camp 49” after a beloved spot in Nova Scotia he visited with his father — and moved into a space at Thunder Sound Studio in Franklin, Ky. He recorded for two months and made his way back to Nashville, only to find out that the COVID-19 pandemic had thrown the music industry into free fall.

“The day I drove back to Nashville was March 13,” he says. “So I call my buddy Eric Masse, who I did my first two records with and has just been, like, a rock of a friend. He was like, ‘You don’t know what’s happening, do you?’ I’m like, ‘No, what the fuck is going on?’ He’s like, ‘Dude, that shit is real.’ It’s not

like we didn’t have internet up there. I just chose not to [look]. I chose to watch Dances With Wolves on repeat.”

In May 2020, Baxter’s father died unexpectedly. Two years later, that event still has him feeling somewhat unmoored, but grieving cracked Baxter open personally and creatively. He explains the experience brought back the “golden light” he only occasionally felt within himself before. He also had what he calls a “very important spiritual moment” the night his father passed away, sharing that the elder Baxter visited him in a dream to tell him goodbye.

“When I woke up at, like, 8:30 in the morning, I found out he had passed after I had the dream,” he says. “I think my dad knew that I would not take it well if he didn’t get to say goodbye.”

After bouncing around the country — Los Angeles, then Austin, Texas, among other locales — Baxter landed back at Thunder Sound, where he lived by himself for a year with occasional visits from friends and collaborators. He finished the album during this period of solitude, a fitting balance to the highly collaborative studio sessions he’d had at the album’s outset.

Baxter’s most recent prior release is another project informed by grief, an

excellent 2019 EP called good mmornin, on which pays tribute to the late, great rapper Mac Miller, who died a year earlier. On the EP, Baxter and his band tackle seven songs by Miller, whose intricate arrangements and introspective lyrics lend themselves well to Baxter’s own sensibilities while also offering room for loving interpretation. Baxter imagines he and Miller could have been good friends, and asserts that the experience of recording his songs — and working through their arrangements with his band — made him a better musician.

“I learned a lot about where my mouth should be at a microphone,” he says. “And how much I can lean on my voice to get a point across. And I learned how to quickly direct a band to get to something that I was feeling good about and moving back and forth to. It was good training wheels.”

Armed with this new knowledge, Baxter entered recording sessions for If I Were a Butterfly with greater confidence in his ability to navigate the studio. He coproduced the LP — his first time producing a project — with Tim O’Sullivan (Grace Potter) and Kai Welch (Molly Tuttle), before eventually spending time alone with the songs. A who’s-who of musician friends joined the trio in the endeavor, including singer-songwriter Lennon Stella, Alabama Shakes bassist Zac Cockrell and iconic Motown percussionist Mz. Bobbye Hall. His late father contributed pedal steel to the record, too, making for an especially meaningful contribution in the wake of his passing.

The resulting album is Baxter at his most ambitious. The tough-to-classify psychfolk of his earlier releases is outfitted with heavier rock influences and unorthodox, pleasantly surprising flourishes of gritty psychedelia and cinematic strings. “Graffiti Street” pairs Baxter’s knack for crafting hooks with pedal steel and a Rubber Soul esque riff, while “Billy Goat” is a spacey, stomping take on a breakup song. Single “Rubberband Man,” a nod to Thunder Sound’s history as a rubber band factory, is melodic rock at its finest. It’s his fullest artistic statement yet, one that manages to show the full breadth of Baxter’s interests and influences across a taut 10 songs.

“My goal as an artist is to create something that cuts through all sides of the spectrum, and right through the middle of the road. And I think it’s very difficult to do. At least, what I consider a record should be perfection to some to some extent, you know? And I don’t know if it’s a perfect record. I don’t know if a bunch of people are gonna like it. It’s not even down the middle of the road. It’s just like a very unique portrait. And it sounds the way I am.”

EVERY HEART COULD

BY LORIE LIEBIG

In the days ahead of the CMT Music Awards in April, posters were qui etly pasted on walls, and billboards went up across East Nashville advertising a surprise local show by history-making country duo The Judds. More details came in the weeks that followed: An October show at Bridgestone Arena would conclude The Judds: The Final Tour, a reunion roadshow and public fare well for the beloved and highly influential mother-and-daughter act, which dissolved in the early 1990s.

Heartbreakingly, the carefully designed revival did not happen as planned. On April 30, the day before The Judds were to be in ducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Naomi Judd died by suicide at age 76. Fol lowing the devastating and unexpected loss, many figured the tour would be scrapped. But at a public memorial at the Ryman just a few days after Naomi’s death, her daugh ter and duet partner Wynonna Judd said she would continue to sing and confirmed that she would move forward with the concerts as a gift to their dedicated fans. In late Oc tober, word went out that more dates would be added to the tour, including a massive show Nov. 3 at Middle Tennessee State Uni versity’s Murphy Center, to be filmed for a special that will air in March on CMT. The venue hosted the final date of The Judds’ last tour together in December 1991.

Although Naomi was not by her side

physically on Friday, Wynonna was far from alone as she finally took the stage at Bridge stone. The sold-out crowd let out one of the loudest cheers I’ve heard in my many years of attending shows at our friendly neighbor hood enormodome. Judd took her first of many poignant pauses during the night as a wave of emotions flooded in.

The set began with a moving rendition of “Had a Dream (For the Heart),” a song recorded by Elvis Presley, among others, and released in 1983 by The Judds as their debut single. After moving from a tiny perch in the back of the arena floor through the energized crowd to the main stage, Judd shifted gears and took on some of the duo’s more fast-paced hits, including “Give a Little Love” and “Girls Night Out.” During this run, the evening’s special guest, Trisha Yearwood, made her first appearance. Soon they became a trio with fellow country hit maker Martina McBride, who’d warmed up the crowd earlier. Her powerhouse opening set was filled with her biggest hits like “A Bro ken Wing” and the anthemic “Independence Day.” McBride also included a cover of Loretta Lynn’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough (to Take My Man)” in tribute to the legend, who died Oct. 4 at age 90.

Mourning the loss of a loved one is a pain ful and complicated process for anyone, but the weight of moving forward without your mother and creative partner is a burden that can’t be carried alone. Judd’s band (includ ing her husband Cactus Moser), friends and fans all played key roles in supporting her throughout Friday’s performance. Wyn onna appeared during Brandi Carlile’s July shows at Ascend Amphitheater, and Carlile dropped in on Friday to return the favor. After surprising fans by joining in on “Let Me Tell You About Love,” Carlile quietly stepped in on backing vocals during the deli

cate “Guardian Angels” and “Young Love (Strong Love).” Carlile and Judd both have mighty singing voices, but each knows how to be a pillar for others; Carlile was a source of strength without ever stealing the spotlight.

Judd & Co. rolled through a 20-song set, mixing many of the duo’s most-loved tunes with a few of her own solo hits, like her take on “I Saw the Light” and “She Is His Only Need,” both of which appeared on her self-titled album in 1992. She then invited her sister Ashley Judd to join her onstage for a moment of reflection. Ashley fought back the tears while sharing memories of their mother, along with resources for those whose loved ones are struggling with their mental health. Carlile, Yearwood and McBride then joined Ashley arm-in-arm for The Judds’ anthemic “Love Can Build a Bridge,” one of the most soul-stirring trib utes in a night full of them.

After a short pause, Wynonna made her way back to the stage to encore with three more of the tunes she and Naomi had made enduring hits. She leaned heavily on fans, who were more than willing to take over singing for most of “Mama He’s Crazy” and “Grandpa (Tell Me ’Bout the Good Old Days).” Then, as the lights dimmed, Carlile hopped behind the speakers at stage right with her cellphone held high and its flash light turned on, signaling to fans to mirror her movements.

Within moments, the entire arena was glowing as we waved our phones from side to side. Judd, clearly moved, started off the night’s final number, The Judds’ 1984 No. 1 hit “Why Not Me.” Carlile, Yearwood and McBride joined in as Wynonna savored the last few cathartic moments in what had be come a place of healing.

EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

WHEN IRISH EYES ARE SOBBING

BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY

The Banshees of Inisherin is set in the early 1920s, during the Irish Civil War, on a remote island off the coast of Ireland. But throughout the movie, all I could think of was how much this place reminds me of Twitter.

Just like that social media black hole, Inisherin is a community running on toxicity, ignorance and bad vibes, filled with nosy gossips, perverted guys, asshole cops and people who basically don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. At the center of all this are two friends, Colm (Brendan Gleeson) and Pádraic (Colin Farrell), who have an abrupt falling-out. It seems Colm has grown tired of his colleague’s dimwitted but decent demeanor, opting to spend more time composing songs and rounding up other musicians to play at the nearby tavern. This sends poor Pádraic into an emotional tailspin, and he spends most of the movie trying (and failing) to get back in his ex-pal’s good graces. Unfortunately, Colm lets dude know he would literally rather cut off his fingers than kick it with him.

After pissing off a lot of Americans with the divisive (and, in my opinion, misunderstood) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, writer-director Martin McDonagh sticks to his home turf — the British Isles — with Inisherin. With vivid

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Our film critic’s thoughts on the best of this year’s New York Film Fest and beyond

BY JASON SHAWHAN

Through a grand confluence of elements in fall 2022, there was an alignment in film festivals. This happened periodically here in Nashville, with audiences in the past stretched to the breaking point by too many options spread too far out, but thankfully that seems to have eased this year. As New York City is the cinephile center of the U.S., they’re set up to better handle lots of options. In fact, I was able to turn my usual (20022019) journey to cover the New York Film Festival into an expansive tear through the NYFF, NewFest and the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. (For more focused coverage on the BHFF, check last week’s installment of my Scene streaming column.) The defining spirit of

help from cinematographer Ben Davis, he creates a picturesque portrait of two men at odds with each other, while the sounds of war are popping off on the mainland. Conflict is all over the place — no one really knows how it got to this point, and it seems things will get worse before they get better.

Of course, McDonagh had to once again pair up Farrell and Gleeson, who played bickering-buddy hit men in the director’s 2008 feature debut In Bruges. Both actors pull off looking like they’ve been around each other for so long, one of them would inevitably want to distance himself from the other. Although Farrell plays the more sympathetic of the two — a needy yet likable lummox — Gleeson also makes us feel for his character. He’s someone who’s clearly going through some things, and would like to be left the hell alone while he’s going through it.

With Inisherin, McDonagh again goes to morbid lengths to tell a black-comic parable about the chaos that ensues when people lose their compassion for their fellow man. Colm and Pádraic’s “breakup” affects other people, including Pádraic’s levelheaded lass of a sister (Kerry Condon), who seems to be the only sane person on the island, and troubled local boy Dominic (Barry Keoghan) who seems to be the least sane.

I’m quite certain McDonagh wasn’t trying to make a period piece that reflects how batshit-crazy our civilization has gotten ever since tweeting came into our lives. But I’ve seen friendships get dismantled online for whatever reason, and Inisherin’s central conflict reminded me how swiftly a relationship (especially a relationship that’s mostly played out on the internet) can disintegrate when people don’t see eye to eye.

Gleeson and Farrell play the types of

people I’ve seen on the interwebs all too often. Colm longs to do something meaningful with his life, eventually distancing himself from “nice” associates like Pádraic, who is content chugging pints, talking about mundane matters and hanging out with his pet donkey. Since social media is filled with folks who are either too self-serious or not self-serious enough (and each party usually condemns the other for it), Gleeson’s and Farrell’s characters seem more like social media avatars. And much like those on social media, they almost destroy themselves and each other in order to prove how right they are. Even though there’s not a smartphone in sight.

The Banshees of Inisherin could very well be the best movie ever made about how social media has warped our lives.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

coming soon to the Belcourt) from Oscar-winning documentarian Laura Poitras, who can’t help but speak difficult truth in all sorts of situations. The film is an exceptional document of the life and work of photographer Nan Goldin as well as an examination of her activism against grotesque pharmaceutical profiteers the Sackler family. Goldin’s group, PAIN, works for harm reduction, destigmatization of addicts, and holding responsible the corporate greed that caused the opioid crisis eating America alive from within. But it’s the way Poitras lets the various aspects of Goldin’s life and art speak to one another that elevates the film from great documentary to humanist triumph, letting the appearance and voices of brilliant artists that we lost in one plague (namely Cookie Mueller and David Wojnarowicz) gain resonance as we confront the subsequent plagues of Oxycontin and COVID-19. There are few unspoken moments that hit with the acknowledged force of lifelong smoker Goldin when she switches to a vape.

any film festival, I find, is the thematic through-lines and internal dialogues that their respective slates seem to be having, and expanding one’s perspective outward yields an even richer playing field. This feels even more the case when noticing the points

where different festivals feature the same film, but in differing contexts.

And if any film spanned contexts and festivals with grace and fire, it was All the Beauty and Bloodshed (Centerpiece of the NYFF, Closing Night for NewFest,

As far as that kind of sustained emotional impact and evolution, it was a remarkable year. Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun (NYFF, also the recent Nashville Film Festival and playing at the Belcourt sometime soon) is a deeply moving exploration of how to reassemble

The Banshees of Inisherin is an accidentally perfect metaphor for social media

the fragments of memory into an approximation of a person no longer with us, but in a manner that’s kicky and vibrant and textured. At times feeling like a junior high riff on Morvern Callar, it’s a subtle and beautiful film that uses “Under Pressure” in a way that simply owns it forever. It’s got the cumulative emotional force of 10,000 Maniacs’ “Verdi Cries,” but for the generation who fixed upon Gina G’s “Ti Amo.”

Coma (NYFF, no U.S. distribution as of yet, which is a crime), the latest film from Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent, Nocturama, Zombi Child), is a dazzling whatsit that explores the liminal spaces that young folks create when isolated from their friends. It’s a pandemic film, but one that actually engages with the emotional issues at the heart of fragmentation and separation. Also, though it isn’t a horror film, it is horror-adjacent and features the scariest sequence I’ve seen in any film so far this year. It’s also not inconceivable that its YouTube personality Patricia Coma could become an actual thing. More than any other film at the myriad festivals, this is the one I want to see again.

And if we’re talking about world-building, special recognition must be offered to Amanda Kramer’s Please Baby Please (NF, coming soon to theaters and streaming). It’s a sensually fraught vision of the 1950s in which everyone is a gender theorist and semiotician and everyone’s looks are perfection. Suse (Andrea Riseborough, with John Waters-heroine hair) and Arthur (Harry Melling) are newlyweds who witness a street-gang attack — but before you can say Scorpio Rising, it seems The Young Gents (that’s the gang) awaken some feelings in the couple. Suse finds herself drawn to hand-to-hand violence, while Arthur is taken by Teddy (Karl Glusman), the leader of The Young Gents and a captivator of all the desires. If you want the meticulous design and out-of-sync-withtime camp of The Love Witch but without the TERFery, this is the film for you. It features a great Demi Moore comeback as well as avant-cabaret icon Cole Escola.

I have been accused of being in the pocket for Albert Serra’s films (Story of My Death, Birdsong) in the past. But his newest one, Pacifiction (NYFF, coming from Grasshopper Film), is like a Michael Mann film that deals with several decades’ worth of political instability and the legacy of colonization on an unnamed Polynesian island. It’s rapturously beautiful and spends the first hour meandering around a plot that’s gradually coming into focus. And when it hits, there is nothing else in global art cinema this exciting and captivating. Serra is one of the modern greats, and this feels surprisingly accessible for adventurous audiences.

Laura Citarella was the producer of 2018’s 14hour epic La Flor, and now she has returned with Trenque Lauquen (NYFF, no current U.S. distribution), a film she directed and co-wrote that digs into

the same vibes as La Flor, but does so in four hours, telling a mystery that keeps reframing and recontextualizing itself as it goes along. My one-line synopsis involved a benevolent collision between House of Leaves and Gone Girl, but even that doesn’t really encapsulate everything that this film gives its audience. If you’ve waited for a film that understands the dark edge of ’80s MOR radio, this film is exponentially rewarding. It’s a great companion piece with Something in the Dirt (see last week’s Primal Stream 83 for a little on that), and hopefully will get some kind of domestic release.

Equally fanciful and sincere is the Brazilian sliceof-life Three Tidy Tigers Tied a Tie Tighter (NYFF/ NF, no U.S. distributor as of yet), which puts its three queer protagonists on an episodic journey through a not-too-distant future São Paolo where COVID is a thing of the past, and the new pandemic involves the atrophy of memory. Still dealing with the grotesque psychopathy of the Bolsonaro regime, our trio is under an unimaginable amount of economic and social pressure, and their adventures are funny and harrowing in equal measure. Three Tidy Tigers also features the most adorable guinea pig to have turned up in a movie in 2022. It complements Carter Smith’s Swallowed (NF, no U.S. distribution as of yet, see Primal Stream 83) in its insistence on grounding financial instability and political anxiety in the realm of actually oppressed queer people, and it likewise understands the body horror that awaits us all when there is no public health structure.

Unrest (NYFF, KimStim has it for the U.S.) from Cyril Schäublin is politically explosive and utterly fearless in depicting the rise of anarchism amongst the workers in Swiss watch factories in the early 20th century. It brings in real-life philosopher and activist Pyotr Kropotkin and makes him a character in the intrigue, as the new technology of photography is used to police physical space and how the factory, because they set the time, claims more and more power. This sounds dry and schematic, but it’s enthralling, and essential for anyone concerned with the way the workplace works.

Joanna Hogg’s The Eternal Daughter (NYFF, coming from A24) is considered part of The Souvenir verse, but boldly fords its own path as a deeply moving story of mothers and daughters as well as a creepy Old Dark House film positively steeped in Hammer aesthetics and eerie Christmas story vibes. Also, Tilda Swinton as the main character and her mom. Adept at working on all the emotions, this is a joyful surprise.

I saw 46 films in my three weeks of film festivalling, so please do visit the Scene online for a whole lot more coverage of heaps more films.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

Non-Resident Notice

Fourth Circuit Docket No. 22D1208

MOHAMMAD ZAHIR NASHIR

vs. MEENA MASOUD NASHIR

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the de fendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon MEENA MASOUD NASHIR. It is or dered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public

Square, Room 302, Nashville, Ten nessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19, 2022. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk

Date: October 19, 2022

Attorney for Plaintiff

NSC 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/17/22

Non-Resident

WILLIAM BRADLEY vs. ANTIONETTE BERRANGE BUKES BRADLEY

In this cause

satisfaction

STEPHANIE E DIXON BARBOSA vs.

EDUARDO BARBOSA SANABRIA

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon EDUARDO BARBOSA SANABRIA. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19, 2022

Defendant

pearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19 2022

It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day Clerk L. Chappell, Deputy Clerk Date: October 20, 2022

Brad H. Frakes Attorney for Plaintiff

copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk M. De Jesus , Deputy Clerk Date: October 20, 2022

Paul A. Rutherford Attorney for Plaintiff

NSC 10/27 11/3 11/10, 11/ 17/22

Non Resident Notice Fourth Circuit Docket No. 22D965

NAVEEN AGRAWAL vs. SUSANA CASTRO CANGA

Resident Notice

Circuit Docket No. 22D1309

LEAH TOUSSAINT vs. KERVENS TOUSSAINT

TN. Can work remotely or telecommute. To apply mail resume to HealthStream, Inc., Attn: Whitney Drucker, 500 11th St, Suite 1000, Nashville, TN 37203. Must reference Job Title & Job Code: 000078.

Court

of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon ANTIONETTE BERRANGE BUKES BRADLEY. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appear ance herein with thirty (30) days af ter NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropoli tan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Ten nessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19, 2022.

It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nash ville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk

Date: October 19, 2022

Robyn L. Ryan Attorney for Plaintiff

NSC 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/17/22

Non Resident Notice

Fourth Circuit Docket No. 22D1293

STEPHANIE E DIXON BARBOSA vs.

EDUARDO BARBOSA SANABRIA

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon EDUARDO BARBOSA SANABRIA. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19, 2022

It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

M. De Jesus , Deputy Clerk

Date: October 19, 2022

James L. Widrig Attorney for Plaintiff

NSC 10/27 11/3 11/10, 11/ 17/22

It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day Clerk

M. De Jesus Deputy Clerk

Date: October 19, 2022

James L. Widrig Attorney for Plaintiff

NSC 10/27, 11/3 11/10, 11/ 17/22

Non Resident Notice Fourth Circuit Docket No. 22A36

MARCUS KENTON MARTIN, et al. vs. JOSHUA WILLIAMS

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon JOSHUA WILLIAMS. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19, 2022

It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day Clerk L. Chappell, Deputy Clerk Date: October 20, 2022

Brad H. Frakes Attorney for Plaintiff

NSC 10/27 11/3 11/10, 11/ 17/22

NSC 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/ 17/22

Non Resident Notice

Fourth Circuit Docket No. 22D428

WENDY ROCHELLE BUFORD TATE vs. CURTIS NILRON TATE

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon CURTIS NILRON TATE. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19, 2022

It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk Date: October 20, 2022

Paul A. Rutherford Attorney for Plaintiff

NSC 10/27 11/3 11/10, 11/ 17/22

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon SUSANA CASTRO CANGA. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 17, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 19, 2022

It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

L. Chappell, Deputy Clerk

Date: October 20, 2022

Robert Todd Jackson Attorney f or Plaintiff

NSC 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/ 17/22

Non Resident Notice

Third Circuit Docket No. 22D1309

LEAH TOUSSAINT vs. KERVENS TOUSSAINT

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon KERVENS TOUSSAINT. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 24, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 26, 2022

It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk

Date: October 26 2022

Roland T. Hairston II Attorney for Plaintiff

NSC 11/3, 11/10, 11/ 17 11/24/22

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon KERVENS TOUSSAINT. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after NOVEMBER 24 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on DECEMBER 26, 2022

It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk

M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk

Date: October 26, 2022

Roland T. Hairston II Attorney for Plaintiff

NSC 11/3, 11/10, 11/ 17, 11/24/22

Multiple positions available in Nashville, TN. Amazon.com Services LLC seeks candidates for Program Manager II. Define and build products, features, programs, and platforms that facilitate the customer journey from driving demand and adoption, creating unique customer experiences across all channels (online, offline, mobile, etc.), and engaging with customers. Domestic and international travel 15% of time. Qualified applicants should apply at https://www.amazon.jobs/en/ referencing Job ID 2269856.

HealthStream, Inc. seeks an Advanced Software Solutions Developer in Nashville, TN to design, develop, and maintain software products. Reqs. MS+2 or BS+5 yrs. exp. 100% telecommuting role. Reports to HQ in Nashville, TN. Can work remotely or telecommute. To apply mail resume to HealthStream, Inc., Attn: Whitney Drucker, 500 11th St, Suite 1000, Nashville, TN 37203. Must reference Job Title & Job Code: 000078.

EARN YOUR HS DIPLOMA

For more info call 1.800.470.4723 Or visit our website: www.diplomaathome.com

Matt Maniatis