Issuu

CITY LIMITS: GOVERNOR’S BILL ELIMINATING HANDGUN PERMITS MOVES FORWARD — WITH RESISTANCE

MARCH 25–31, 2021 I VOLUME 40 I NUMBER 8 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

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MUSIC: BLACK AND MULTIRACIAL BRO-COUNTRY STARS ARE PAVING THE WAY PAGE 32

THE

PEOPLE 0 1 2 2 ISSUE

DANCER ERIK CAVANAUGH

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NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

CONTENTS

CITY LIMITS

Walk a Mile: Granny White Pike ...............6 In the 15th installment of his column, J.R. Lind explores the area surrounding the Battle of Nashville Monument BY J.R. LIND

Pith in the Wind .........................................8

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

Guns Blazing...............................................9 Gov. Lee’s bill eliminating handgun permit requirements is moving forward, though not everyone is on board BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

COVER STORY The People Issue 2021

Dancer Erik Cavanaugh .......................... 10

A talented 27-year-old Nashville transplant aims to show the world that ‘dancers come in all sizes’ BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

Transit Advocate Brenda Pérez .............. 11 Walk Bike Nashville’s community engagement coordinator looks at the intersections of class, immigration and transportation in the city

Producer David R. Ferguson................... 21 The audio master brings a lifetime of experience to records by Sturgill Simpson, Margo Price and many more BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

The Fever is an understated, almost mystical glimpse at an outsider’s life

FOOD AND DRINK The Gig Is Up

A new app with Nashville connections wants to change how restaurants hire BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

CULTURE

BY ASHLEY CURRIE AND URBAANITE

After years in New York, Edward has made an auspicious return home

BY ERICA CICCARONE

Community Journalist Veronica Salcedo .................................... 15 The Mexican-born reporter uses social media and videos to reach Nashville’s Spanishspeaking population BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

Author David Dark .................................. 16 The Belmont professor and lifelong Nashvillian wants to decompartmentalize human expression BY STEVEN HALE

Artist Nuveen Barwari ............................ 17

The university’s new president comes from, and now leads, a place ‘where a lot of history was made’ BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

BY NATHAN SMITH

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

MARKETPLACE

Nashville Moves Into Vaccination Phases 2a and 2b Koi Sushi and Thai to Open Elliston Place Location Tennessee’s White Supremacy Problem

ON THE COVER:

Dancer Erik Cavanaugh Photo by Daniel Meigs

A historian weaves the story of Nashville hot chicken with a chronicle of race and real estate BY KIM GREEN AND CHAPTER 16

MUSIC

So Bro ...................................................... 32

Looking at the impact of Black and multiracial bro-country stars like Jimmie Allen and Kane Brown The Scene’s music writers recommend recent releases from $avvy, Belly Full of Stars, Charlie Treat and more

Fisk President Vann Newkirk ................. 20

Down With the Sickness ........................ 36

Whose Hot Chicken Is It Anyway?

BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

BY MEGAN SELING

The Station Inn’s J.T. Gray Has Died

BOOKS

BY MARCUS K. DOWLING

The rising folk-pop performer hopes to ‘serve the global community’

BY JASON SHAWHAN

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB:

Talking with Jessica Easter of Abounding Grace Birth Services

The grad student’s assemblages of found objects reflect her cross-cultural upbringing

Singer and ‘Sensitive Stoner’ Joy Oladokun ................................................. 18

Primal Stream 47 ................................... 35

Dig through Alexander Calder’s archive, observe the 25th birthday of Superdrag’s Regretfully Yours, catch up on this year’s Best Picture Oscar nominees, listen to Color Me Country Radio, check out the MTSU Theatre 6x10: 10 Minute Play Festival, watch Do You Know Black? on YouTube and more

CRITICS’ PICKS

BY AMY STUMPFL

Gallerist Clarence Edward ...................... 14

FILM

For the Soul: A Nashville Doula’s Call to Serve

How a Tennessee native went from speechlanguage pathologist to rising voice-over talent

35 Indonesiansploitation, a Nightmare on Elm Street ripoff and more, now available to stream

Voice-Over Artist LaQuita James ........... 12

BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

MARCH 25, 2021

Another Look ........................................... 33

Write About Now ..................................... 33 Girls Write Nashville passes the pen, the mic — and during COVID, the ‘record’ button — to young women BY MEGAN SELING

The Spin ................................................... 34 The Scene’s live-review column checks out Sadler Vaden at The 5 Spot BY CHARLIE ZALLIAN

SCENERY

Arts and Culture News From the Nashville Scene Looking for the latest on art and culture in Nashville? Subscribe to Scenery, our weekly newsletter that covers visual art, theater, comedy, books, film and more.

Subscribe at nashvillescene.com/subscribe nashvillescene.com | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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FROM BILL FREEMAN MASK UP, GOVERNOR: LEE’S COME-SEE-US TWEETS FROM LOWER BROADWAY REVEAL POOR LEADERSHIP Earlier this month, Gov. Bill Lee shared a welcome to Nashville visitors that has raised questions about his leadership choices — with good reason. Lee tweeted a video of himself ambling around Lower Broadway, without a mask, touting that Nashville is open for business. As The Tennessean reported, the “maskless Lee [was] mingling with honky-tonk and shop owners, chatting with people outside and shaking hands with a musician in close proximity.” This could make it appear to outsiders that Nashville has no mask rules in place, when in fact the city’s mask mandate still stands. In response to the scrutiny, Lee’s staff released a statement saying “established policies were respected.” Not true. While Nashville is definitely open for business, we are still in phase 3 of an established four-phase system — a phase in which masks and social distancing are still in effect. Indeed, masks are still required when walking on Lower Broad, and in the governor’s video and photos, he is shown not respecting that requirement. As WKRN reported, police are still “handing out citations for violators,” yet Lee appeared without a mask. If many visitors follow suit, that will keep police officers busier than they need to be. If the governor wanted to make his announcement from downtown, which is reasonable, he really should have followed the rules — as he would expect every Tennessean to do. A picture is worth a thousand words, and Lee’s broadcast was a slap in our faces as he wandered unmasked and shaking hands with people in an area that requires masks and social distancing. Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told The Tennessean he was “very disappointed” with Lee’s behavior. “We are [at] a critical inflection point in our struggle against the pandemic,” said Schaffner. “While we are vaccinating more and more people, we need to continue to wear our masks and participate in social distancing for a little while longer.” Even if someone is fully vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommends masks be worn in public settings. As Dr. Schaffner noted, we have vaccines but COVID-19 is still here. On Monday, the Metro Public Health Department Department reported that there were 1,985 cases of COVID-19 still active; nearly 12,000 Tennesseans have died due to the virus, including at least 855 Nashvillians. Further, the Nashville Post reports that, as of last week, only 10.5 percent of Nashville residents were fully immunized — and about the same percentage of Tennesseans. Since vaccinations have arrived, some people have become complacent, and too many are undecided on taking the vaccine — which could be a result of partisan beliefs or misinformation. On March 18, The New York Times reported

that Republicans tend to underestimate COVID-19 risks while Democrats tend to exaggerate them. Those underestimating COVID believed the illness “was killing fewer people than either the seasonal flu or vehicle crashes” when in fact COVID “has killed about 15 times more Americans than either the flu or vehicle crashes do in a typical year.” Those who exaggerate the dangers of the virus thought 20 percent of COVID patients had been hospitalized when it’s actually closer to about 1 percent. The main point of the Times story: “Information can help.” Facts show that COVID “has already killed more than a half-million Americans and continues to kill more than 1,000 per day. Underreaction has been the bigger problem with COVID — but it has not been the only problem.” We need accurate information, and we need our actions to reflect our knowledge. But we don’t always see that happening. Some still feel their rights are being infringed when they’re asked to wear a mask. But we wear seatbelts for the same reason we wear masks — to keep ourselves, our family members and our community safe. As parents, most of us would ensure that our children are strapped in before even pulling the car out of the driveway. Sure, we can choose not to wear one — but it’s the law and it keeps us safe, so we wear it. The governor’s actions were disappointing. We have worked long and hard to prove we are a city that cares about its people, community and the safety of our visitors. To reiterate Dr. Shaffner’s thoughts, though vaccines are here, COVID is also still here. The governor would have shown real leadership had he made the announcement while wearing a mask, welcoming visitors but asking them to stay safe while having fun. He compounded his failure of leadership with an official statement that willfully ignored Nashville’s rules.

Bill Freeman Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and Home Page Media Group in Williamson County.

Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Associate Editor Alejandro Ramirez Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editor Jack Silverman Staff Writers Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, William Williams Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Marcus K. Dowling, Steve Erickson, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steve Haruch, Geoffrey Himes, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Chris Parton, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Abby White, Andrea Williams, Cy Winstanley, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Editorial Intern Diana Leyva Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Matt Masters, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Events and Marketing Director Olivia Britton Promotions Coordinator Caroline Poole Publisher Mike Smith Senior Advertising Solutions Managers Maggie Bond, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Advertising Solutions Manager Jeremy Aparicio, Olivia Bellon, William Shutes, Niki Tyree Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Advertising Solutions Associates Aya Robinson, Price Waltman Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Corporate Production Director Elizabeth Jones Vice President of Marketing Mike Smith IT Director John Schaeffer Circulation and Distribution Director Gary Minnis For advertising information please contact: Mike Smith, msmith@nashvillescene.com or 615-844-9238 FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman VOICE MEDIA GROUP National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com

Copyright©2020, Nashville Scene. 210 12th Ave. S., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37203. Phone: 615-244-7989. The Nashville Scene is published weekly by FW Publishing LLC. The publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one paper from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first initial and last name (no space between) followed by @nashvillescene.com; to reach contributing writers, email editor@nashvillescene.com. Editorial Policy: The Nashville Scene covers news, art and entertainment. In our pages appear divergent views from across the community. Those views do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $150 per year for 52 issues. Subscriptions 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.

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NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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nashvillescene.com | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

CITY LIMITS

GRANNY WHITE PIKE In the 15th installment of his column,

J.R. Lind explores the area surrounding the Battle of Nashville Monument

Walk a

Mile

Ferguson

BY J.R. LIND Avenue

White Pi ke Granny

Bel

mo nt B

oul e

var d

with J.R. Lind

Battlefie

ld Drive

Once a month, reporter and resident historian J.R. Lind will pick an area in the city to examine while accompanied by a photographer. With his column Walk a Mile, he’ll walk a one-mile stretch of that area, exploring the neighborhood’s history and character, its developments, its current homes and businesses, and what makes it a unique part of Nashville. If you have a suggestion for a future Walk a Mile, email editor@nashvillescene.com.

arely has a monument been as peripatetic as the Battle of Nashville Monument. These days, the graniteand-bronze monument overlooks a pleasant slope between Battlefield Drive and Clifton Lane, just south of Interstate 440 and where 12th Avenue South changes its prosaic designation to the far more romantic Granny White Pike. The monument was originally dedicated on Nov. 11, 1927, at the intersection of Franklin Road and Thompson Lane. All but its pedestal was toppled by a tornado in 1974. (The original pedestal is still standing, tucked near some apartments.) In the 1980s, the construction of the 440/I-65 interchange and the realignment of Thompson Lane with Woodmont Boulevard left the original site unsuitable for restoration. For years, the damaged statue sat in storage. In 1999, it finally went back up at its current location, close to the location of the right flank of the Confederate lines in the 1864 battle. The monument is the focal point of a simple amphitheater, and on this March morning, a smattering of daffodils rings the park. Also included is a basket oak certified as a “witness tree” by the Tennessee Landmark, Historic and Heritage Tree Registry (which exists). The monument is rather unusual, and not just because it’s been quite mobile compared to most other monuments. It was sculpted by Giuseppe Moretti, an Italian who also sculpted the statue of Cornelius

THE ROUTE: From the Battle of Nashville Monument, north on Granny White Pike. Left on Ferguson Avenue, left on Belmont Boulevard, and left on Battlefield Drive, continuing back to the starting point. CRANES: 0 ABANDONED SCOOTERS: 2

Vanderbilt at the entrance to the eponymous university and the famous Vulcan statue in Birmingham (cheekily — forgive me — known as the “Full Moon over Mountain Brook”). The Battle of Nashville Monument is one of few from the Civil War that commemorates soldiers from both the Union and the Confederacy. An angel yokes together two horses, representing the two armies joined together to fight in World War I. Rather than the Lost Causeism of the various Odes to the Confederate Dead that are ubiquitous on the sides of courthouse square statues throughout the South, the verse on this monument, penned by John Trotwood Moore, sings the praises of unity, ending with a supplication: “Let The Past Be Past: Let The Dead Be Dead. — Now And Forever American!” There’s no sidewalk along Granny White as it gently slopes toward 440 — just a wellworn trail on the shoulder. That feels rather appropriate, though. The road is named for Lucinda White, who ran a tavern — famous for its applejack, among other things — between Nashville and Franklin. White left North Carolina in 1800 — the family lore said she had an ox, a spinning wheel, her two orphaned grandchildren and an enslaved person — and after a brief time in Knoxville, settled on 50 acres south of Nashville in Hollow Tree Gap, on the road between Nashville and Franklin. Her inn and tavern became a stopping place and watering hole for lawyers who had to go to and fro the two county seats, and she became well-known and much beloved. Later, Sen. Thomas Hart Benton told her story on the floor of the U.S. Senate as an example of the utility of giving land to the poor. (A man named McCrory essentially gave White the acreage, with which she established her business.) It was an embryonic formulation of distributism a half-century before Leo XIII wrote Rerum novarum. Despite being wedged between the density of Green Hills and 12South, this little stretch is pleasantly open with long tracts of as-yet undeveloped space, allowing the vine-

NASHVILLE SCENE | FEBRUARY 18 – FEBRUARY 24, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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Saturday, March 27 at 5:00pm Temple Seder – 1st night

Sunday, March 28 at 5:00pm Family Seder – 2nd night

Tuesday, March 30 at 6:00pm LGBTQ+ & Allies Seder

These virtual events are open to the entire community at no charge. Please access The Temple Hub (thetemplehub.org) to RSVP. For more information on all of our Passover Programming please visit thetemplehub.org or www.templenashville.org nashvillescene.com | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

CITY LIMITS

covered oaks and strong-smelling Bradford pears room to grow. Oddly, this is due, at least in part, to 440 and its bizarre history of best-laid plans. Originally, 440 was intended to truly be a parkway, with commercial traffic prohibited (count the semis to see how successful that proved) and with the right-of-way including a greenway. This was intended as something of a salve to the well-heeled neighborhoods through which it would be routed. The trucking ban didn’t last long, and the greenway remained a forgotten scheme for decades, though the easements for its construction remained. Now Metro is committed to fulfilling that promise, and in a remarkable show of foresight not usually associated with Nashville’s political class, the city actually held onto the land rather than giving it away tax-free to some corporate doodad. After the dip as it crosses 440, the road — now 12th Avenue South — rises up toward Sevier Park, a rolling expanse crisscrossed by running trails and sprinkled with playgrounds. Sevier Park opened as a park in 1948, but the history here is far longer. At the center of the park is the Sunnyside mansion, built by Mary Benton in the 1850s. Mary was the cousin of First Lady Sarah Polk and the widow of Jesse Benton, one

of the few men who definitely got in a duel with Andrew Jackson. Coincidentally, also involved in that duel was Jesse’s brother, the aforementioned Thomas Hart Benton. The Benton brothers both left town after their 1813 pistol fight with the future president. (Jesse said he would no longer “live longer among people who gave such political preference to a man like Andrew Jackson.”) Thomas became a prominent Missouri politician and Jesse a landowner in Texas and Louisiana. After the latter’s death in 1843, Mary moved back to Middle Tennessee and built the home that still stands. It changed hands a number of times, usually between various branches of Mary Benton’s family tree, and it was stuck between the two armies in the Battle of Nashville. (There are still marks from Minié balls on the porch columns.) It eventually came to be home of

prominent dentist L.G. Noel, who sold it to Granville Sevier, the grandson of Mary Benton’s niece, who’d lived in the home. When he died in 1945, Sevier’s heirs sold it to the city. It’s now home of the Metro Historical Commission. Sunnyside represents just one of the many generations of architecture that exist on the street. There are new builds, which asymptotically approach talland-skinny status but hew enough to the Craftsman look of their neighbors to not be jarring. There are also modest brick ranches stubbornly holding out against the gentrification that’s spread from the neighborhood north toward downtown. As we turn onto Ferguson, the Craftsman cottages swell into Craftsman castles, some of which are obviously modern rebuilds of the classic style. Twitterpated squirrels chirp on what patches of lawn still exist after the contractors pushed Metro’s setback rules to the limit. The homes do have character, though, and individualism — a blessed respite from the repetitious design that’s sucked the soul out of so many changing neighborhoods, rendering them little more than high-priced Levittowns. One home on Ferguson is a charming cacophony of additions clinging to a Cape Cod, of all things. Tudors emerge as Ferguson meets Belmont, here a pleasant tree-lined thoroughfare with sidewalks and side yards, less densely packed than it is nearer to the name’s-the-same university. There’s the Nashville Chess Center and the Sound Emporium, the latter originally the recording studio of Cowboy Jack Clement where they churned out hits, every one a yellow Sun record from Nashville, as The Lovin’ Spoonful sang. Christ the King Catholic Church and its attached parochial school are across the street from the famed Martin’s Bar-B-Que. This morning, the restaurant’s smoker must have already completed its work, for there is no smell of hickory, and the only haze in the air comes from the jackhammers of the road workers up ahead at Polly’s Marathon gas station. The station’s curvilinear look and big windows show its vintage is from the charming time when even filling stations had character. No promises, but it seems like they may even offer full service at Polly’s. Belmont rises over 440 here, passing what once was the Sunshine Market, an early purveyor of health food. The building is now the home of School of Rock Nashville and an Iron Tribe Fitness outpost. Junipers — what we in Tennessee often call red cedars — form a gateway onto Battlefield, where the lots are bigger and the homes are newer than they are farther north. Still, that swath of open space, destined perhaps once again for its designed purpose as a greenway, hugs the beige walls meant to muffle the sound of 440’s bustle. Another battle may also be in the offing. Yes, there are new homes, large and imposing. But those old ranches are stubbornly hanging on. There’s not likely to be a John Trotwood Moore to versify on the outcome of this battle, but his dream of cooperation and peaceful coexistence is a sentiment worth remembering. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG: On Monday, Nashville moved into the next phase of vaccine distribution. Phases 2a and 2b allow people age 55 and older and critical infrastructure workers — like those in utilities, social services and transportation — to receive their jabs. … Thousands showed up Saturday at Nissan Stadium for Metro Nashville’s drive-thru vaccination event, where the Metro Public Health Department administered doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine to eligible residents. Among the attendees were Mayor John Cooper, Coronavirus Task Force chair Dr. Alex Jahangir and some of Nashville’s most recognizable sports mascots. The Scene’s Daniel Meigs took plenty of photos, which you can find on our site. … Hundreds of Nashvillians turned out for a vigil on Sunday honoring those killed in the March 16 shootings in Atlanta. Among those gathered at the Metro Courthouse were members of API Middle Tennessee, the Greater Nashville Chinese Association, National Asian Pacific Islander Women’s Forum, Tennessee Chinese American Alliance and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. Musician Wu Fei also performed a piece on the guzheng, while prayers were offered by representatives of both the Nashville Korean Presbyterian Church and the Thai Temple in Murfreesboro. Eight people were killed in last week’s attacks, six of them women of Asian descent. … After the shootings in Atlanta, which were perpetrated by a white man, Sen. Marsha Blackburn posted a tweet saying China was to blame for the coronavirus — a line that former President Donald Trump often employed, and one that activists believe sparked an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes and harassment during the pandemic. Contributor Betsy Phillips notes the tweet demonstrates a problem with Tennessee’s political leadership — one of not just racism, but white supremacy. As she writes, “Racism is a hatred of people of different races than you; white supremacy is the belief that white people are and should be at the top of everything.” And the problem isn’t just visible in Blackburn’s Twitter spewing, but also in state Republicans’ struggle to keep the bust of Confederate general and early KKK leader Nathan Bedford Forrest at the Capitol. … State regulators on Friday suspended Tennessee Action 24/7 — a legal sports gambling outfit with ties to locally based payday lending company Advance Financial — just as the lucrative NCAA basketball tournament was getting underway. An investigator for the Tennessee Education Lottery’s Sports Wagering Advisory Council told the regulatory body that he had found evidence of money laundering and fraud on the betting app. … Speaking of the NCAA tournament, contributor and Belmont alum Steve Cavendish made the case for letting smaller schools into the Big Dance. He suggests, for instance, giving automatic bids to regular-season conference winners and tournament winners and expanding the field. NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND EMAIL: PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM TWEET: @PITHINTHEWIND

NASHVILLE SCENE | FEBRUARY 18 – FEBRUARY 24, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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CITY LIMITS

GUNS BLAZING Gov. Lee’s bill eliminating handgun permit requirements

: Winners’ Reader poll

is moving forward, though not everyone is on board BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

ov. Bill Lee and Republican allies in the Tennessee General Assembly are seeking to eliminate requirements that Tennesseans carrying a handgun pass a background check and complete safety training. With Republicans in the supermajority in both chambers, it’s been mostly smooth sailing so far, and the Senate last week approved the legislation. As of press time, it was still making its way through the House. But widespread support for the bill among Republicans in the legislature did not preclude debate. There was the typical dissent from Democrats, like Memphis Sen. Raumesh Akbari, who called the push an “unnecessary and dangerous move.” Tennessee law enforcement agencies overwhelmingly oppose doing away with handgun permits, saying it will make their jobs more difficult when they encounter someone with a handgun. But that did not sway Tennessee Republicans, who usually seek to appear pro-police. “We love and respect our law enforcement officers, but there’s been very few bills that have recognized the rights of citizens of this state to carry that law enforcement has not opposed almost unanimously,” Sen. Mike Bell (R-Riceville) said during one debate. Even among conservatives there was some disagreement, as a trio of Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the measure on the Senate floor. Sen. Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin) — perhaps committing apostasy within the Tennessee Republican Party — said during committee debate that he supported Moms Demand Action, a pro-gun-control organization lobbying against the bill. He ultimately abstained from voting the bill out of committee but said he was “struggling” with the prospect of people carrying handguns without any training. “We don’t require training for other constitutional rights,” Bell said. But the real fight has been between those supporting the bill and those who think it doesn’t go far enough. Fringe progun groups like the Tennessee Firearms Association and the National Association for Gun Rights have been attacking the bill and its pro-gun backers. For one, the new bill applies only to handguns, not all firearms. The bill also includes exceptions for people convicted of stalking and DUI charges as well as for those under 21 years old. Businesses and other private establishments could still post notice that weapons are not allowed on site, and gun owners would be expected to comply. “This is the biggest bite of freedom we can get in one chunk,” House Majority Leader William Lamberth said during one committee debate. Bell, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and carried the bill, said that

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anonymous attacks compared him to proregulation California Democrat Dianne Feinstein — despite Bell’s position as one of the most hardline anti-gun-control lawmakers. Other lawmakers have proposed what they call “true constitutional carry,” as opposed to the watered-down version under consideration now. But there’s little energy behind those efforts, as Lee’s proposal continues its progress toward becoming law. Sen. Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield) is among those seeking “true constitutional carry,” and though he voted for the bill, he said his work on loosening gun restrictions was “absolutely not” done. Bell said repeatedly that he still encourages Tennesseans to seek training, even though it would no longer be a requirement. If the bill passes, the state’s handgun permitting system will remain in place, despite the proposed elimination of any need for it. The bill is projected to cost the state millions of dollars, in part because of lost permit revenue, but also because it includes penalty enhancements for gunrelated crimes including theft. Democrats have been unsuccessful in their attempts to stop or weaken the bill. One effort sought to keep the permit requirement in place while eliminating any cost to individuals, but Republicans shot it down. Asked by Democratic Sen. Brenda Gilmore of Nashville how people would know whether those carrying handguns had received any training, Bell responded with a shrug. “We literally have no assurance, but that’s what comes when you have a freedom that’s guaranteed under the Constitution,” he said. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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nashvillescene.com | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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THE

PEOPLE 0 1 2 2 ISSUE Our profiles of some of Nashville’s most interesting people, from an inspirational plus-size dancer to a voice-over artist, a rising folk-pop singer and more

DANCER ERIK CAVANAUGH A talented 27-year-old Nashville transplant aims to show the world that ‘dancers come in all sizes’ BY D. PATRICK RODGERS

ive or six years ago, dancer Erik Cavanaugh — then in his early 20s — “never saw the point” of Instagram. He would post performance shots and videos here and there, plus the occasional selfie. But mostly, he didn’t give much thought to the platform. Then, in 2016, Cavanaugh was chosen to be part of the casting process on NBC’s America’s Got Talent. He posted a short performance clip on Instagram — a 15-second video, all that the platform allowed at the time. The clip was picked up by The New York Post under the headline “Check out the moves on this burly ballet dancer.” Soon media outlets from Huffington Post to the Today show were sharing videos of Cavanaugh’s stirring performances. Suddenly, he went from a few hundred followers to roughly 6,000. “I never imagined myself in the limelight,” says Cavanaugh. “I never really pursued the thought of being a well-known dancer or having a giant Instagram platform. I only made my Instagram the year prior, so I was very late to it. And so I was gifted this opportunity, so I decided to take it and run with it.” Though Cavanaugh was not ultimately selected to proceed on America’s Got Talent, he continued to accrue more and more followers, posting videos with the hashtag #DancersComeInAllSizes. Now he’s at roughly 257,000 followers on Instagram and 404,000 on TikTok, and his videos have garnered tens of millions of views. He regularly posts messages of body positivity and inclusivity in the dance world, alongside videos of himself performing flying leaps and splits while accompanied by the music of Lizzo, Fergie, Sia, Olivia Rodrigo, Shakira and others. Sometimes he shares videos of himself dancing in outlandishly tall platform boots that, let’s be honest, many of us couldn’t walk a straight line in. Cavanaugh, a Pittsburgh native, first began training in dance when he was 16. He lived in New York for “a hot second” before relocating to Nashville in October

2019, and he now teaches at the Millennium Dance Complex. Before the pandemic, he also did a lot of traveling with his work — which he hopes to continue in short order. “For a lot of artists, it was very hard this past year, because our jobs did go away,” he says. “I had several jobs lining up that disappeared because of the pandemic. So I’ve been very fortunate that having this social media platform allowed me to stay very present in the entertainment world.” A quick scroll through the comments on Cavanaugh’s posts shows countless fans and supporters sharing how they’ve been inspired by his defiance of conventional body standards and his messages of diversity. “I realized I had almost a duty to create a platform and a space for people who don’t fit into the societal norms of a dancer, or even as a gay person,” he says. “They now could have someone to reference or look to, to say, ‘No, I can do this because Erik is.’ ” “It’s not even just plus-size dancers that I’ve connected with,” he says. “It is actors and singers and anybody really in the entertainment world that doesn’t fit what we typically see … in the magazines or in the movies or on TV. So it’s been great being able to reach so many different entertainers, from small up-and-coming ones to even larger ones that have done major work.” Cavanaugh says he’s had followers — often young people and their parents — who’ve been inspired to stick with dance in the face of bullying and discrimination. He’s also aware of older followers who’ve returned to dance as a hobby after years of inactivity. “Body diversity is definitely my biggest goal, but I don’t want to just stop there, because there is still so much to go,” he says. “Even when it comes to our skin color in the dance world. A lot of people think just because Misty Copeland was moved to principal [dancer] in American Ballet Theatre, then we’re good. But we still have a lot of work — there’s still a lot of microaggressions toward everyone in the dance world that doesn’t fit in the white, cis normalcy that we’ve kind of created.” Even for viewers who don’t know much about the culture or the technical aspects of dance, Cavanaugh’s videos can indeed be quite moving. Just as moving is the 27-year-old’s dedication to his message. “My biggest goal is to try and show that stereotypes were meant to be broken, and that limits were made by people who found themselves limited.” Photographed by Daniel Meigs at Millennium Dance Complex. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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THE PEOPLE ISSUE 2021

TRANSIT ADVOCATE BRENDA PÉREZ

Walk Bike Nashville’s community engagement coordinator looks at the intersections of class, immigration and transportation in the city BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

o political or social issue really exists in a vacuum — just ask Brenda Pérez, who is happy to explain how the worlds of transportation, immigration and class intersect regularly. Some of it is pulled from her own experiences as an undocumented immigrant navigating carcentric Nashville. “One of the reasons why I started riding my bike in adulthood was [because] I was working at a grocery store that was like two-and-a-half miles from where I lived,” Pérez tells the Scene. “And it felt like really risky behavior when I was driving a car because I didn’t have a license, and at that time there were some stricter laws … that allowed for a more direct collaboration between police departments, sheriff’s departments and ICE. So people in Nashville were getting picked up and deported for things like driving without a license.” She says she would get stressed just sitting in the driver’s seat. “My body would tense up and it’s just like, ‘Do I need to do this, or are there other ways?’ So I got a bicycle and started biking to work, and it was fun!” She started experiencing other parts of the city, navigating greenways on her bike. As the new community engagement coordinator of Walk Bike Nashville, a transit advocacy organization, she wants locals — especially those from working-class and immigrant communities — to experience the same. “The ability to move around is just such a freeing, beautiful experience.” Pérez’s family arrived in the States in 1989 when she was 6 years old, relocating from a border town in Mexico to a border town in Texas. In 2001, they moved to Nashville. Pérez calls herself a “Dreamer with canas,” or gray hair, and an “undocumented Nashville native,” referring to how long she’s been in the city. And thanks to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, Pérez was ultimately able to get a driver’s license without the threat of deportation. Before joining the team at Walk Bike Nashville in September, Pérez worked with immigrant rights and labor rights organizations. She notes that a lot of the communities she worked with in the past — workingclass folks and immigrants — are the ones who are often most affected by transit issues like cuts to bus service. She wants to pursue how those issues interact and overlap. “Issues of walking and biking and pedestrian advocacy, they feel so down-the-road, when we think of … the struggles that people have around wages and housing,” says Perez. “But the street collects a lot of our stories, and having the infrastructure such as sidewalks connects our neighbors, connects our neighborhoods.” Starting a community-focused job during a pandemic is, unsurprisingly, challenging — especially when reaching out to Black and Latino communities that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, says Pérez. At the same time, she wanted to encourage folks to get outside and enjoy healthy activities like walking and biking. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers outdoor activities much safer than indoor ones.)

With that in mind, in the fall Walk Bike organized a few community rides along Murfreesboro Road in South Nashville to get people on their bikes, introduce folks to the organization and teach them a bit about bike safety. (Pérez also notes that Murfreesboro Road was a dangerous road for pedestrians last year.) But her job also involves working with and supporting groups who are already in these communities doing transit advocacy work, like the local chapter of Black Girls Do Bike, an organization that promotes cycling for Black women and girls. There are many challenges facing working-class

commuters, many of whom rely on a public bus system that has endured service cuts. Pérez says it’s important to prioritize their voices when looking for solutions. “We already know that there are so many things that need to be fixed,” she says. “And sometimes there’s a gap between what professionals think that a community needs versus what a community wants.” It might not be bike lanes but crosswalks, for example. Transportation policy can get dense and wonky, but for Pérez, it also comes down to issues about joy and freedom — the right to go outside and safely

move about and have fun. “Just being able to ride your bike, to go outside to the park, take a walk — we deserve to have those beautiful moments too,” says Pérez. “We deserve to have moments of joy and rest and to create beautiful memories with our families and neighbors because we are able to go outside. “Asking for this infrastructure and these investments … it’s really just asking for a better, more dignified place.” Photographed by Daniel Meigs at Hadley Park. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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THE PEOPLE ISSUE 2021

VOICE-OVER ARTIST LaQUITA JAMES How a Tennessee native went from speechlanguage pathologist to rising voice-over talent BY AMY STUMPFL

sk LaQuita James what she does for a living, and you’ll get a simple answer: “I talk — all day long.” But as with most things, the story of how James became an in-demand voice-over artist and audiobook narrator is just a bit more complicated. Originally from Decaturville, Tenn., James first moved to the area to attend Middle Tennessee State University, where she received a degree in speech and theater, with a concentration in communication disorders. A certified speech-language pathologist, she later earned a master’s degree at Tennessee State University, and spent many years working with patients in skilled nursing facilities. After college, James got involved in the local theater scene, performing with companies such as The Larry Keeton Theatre, SistaStyle Productions and KB Productions. After landing a small part in a music video, she found an agent and started working regularly in film and television, with supporting roles in Hap & Leonard, Still the King, Nashville and more. She’s also a regular participant in Middle Tennessee’s 54 Film Fest, and won the festival’s Best Supporting Actress award for her work in the 2020 short film “Raised by Wolves.” “There’s a real rush that comes with live performance,” James says. “I love the way it stretches and challenges me. And I especially enjoy taking on all the different characters — the idea that I can put on a costume and just be someone else for a bit.” But it wasn’t until about seven years ago that James got into voice work. She was talking with a friend at a local party when a stranger stopped her. “She said: ‘Excuse me, do you do voice-over work?’ When I said no, she said: ‘Well, you should.’ Turns out, she was a voice-over casting director in New York City. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, that sort of thing just doesn’t really happen to people, right? But it did.” Intrigued, James started doing her homework, and eventually recorded and edited her own demo, in which she read a scene from Kathryn Stockett’s bestseller The Help. “I ended up booking three major publishers with that little demo,” James says with a laugh. “And things just sort of took off from there.” Since then, James has narrated projects for TIME, HuffPost and Reuters, as well as audiobooks for Audible, Hachette Audio, HarperCollins and other wellknown publishers. Notable titles James has voiced include the Caldecott Honor Award-winning book Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora and the bestselling The Girlfriends’ Guide to Pregnancy by Vicki Iovine. She also can be heard voicing the role of Katrina in the popular audio drama Margaritas & Donuts. James still works in speech pathology, although she has moved to more of an administrative role these days. But most nights, you’ll find her burning the midnight oil, recording her latest project. “I’ve always been a night owl,” she says. “I worked the second shift in college, waiting tables at Cracker Barrel, and I don’t think I ever really got out of that schedule. But I like to record late at night — it’s quiet, and there aren’t many distractions.” And while that daily shift from the clinical to the creative may seem like a stretch, James says there is plenty of common ground.

“My work as a speech pathologist has helped me in so many ways. My understanding of speech patterns helps me tremendously in learning different accents, and I also just have a better sense of how to care for my voice. And, of course, my work as an

actor carries over to my voice-over work as well. When I narrate an audiobook, it’s like doing a play all by myself — I get to play all the parts, bringing each of the characters to life. “It’s been sort of a crazy journey and totally

unexpected, but I love it. I’m approaching it like Shonda Rhimes’ book, Year of Yes — I’m just trying to embrace the opportunities and enjoy the ride.” Photographed by Eric England. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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THE PEOPLE ISSUE 2021

GALLERIST CLARENCE EDWARD After years in New York, Edward has made an auspicious return home BY ERICA CICCARONE

t starts as a familiar story. A local boy dreams about moving to the big city. He works hard, strives for success and plans a departure from his hometown. His new home is his Emerald City. He accesses the things his hometown didn’t offer — job opportunities galore, culture, creative people of all stripes. For six years, Clarence Edward managed artists, curated exhibitions and supported galleries in the New York spaces he’d dreamed of — Chelsea, SoHo, Brooklyn. Edward lived in the Queens neighborhood Long Island City, across the street from PS1, the contemporary art space that houses exhibitions, projects and performances. Established in a long-dormant Romanesque Revival-style public school building in the 1970s, PS1 was a pioneering alternative space where artists could free themselves of the institutional goals of galleries. It’s cleaned up since the Museum of Modern Art brought it under its umbrella a little more than 20 years ago, but it still has that feeling of experimentation and collaboration. Edward loved it. But in March 2020, the story changed. New York became the epicenter of the pandemic, and for the first time in years, Edward was forced to slow down. He had begun to dream bigger — not to support galleries, but to have one of his own. He missed his family. Over Thanksgiving weekend, he decided to move home to Nashville. One day late last year, Edward was helping an Atlanta fashion company find a retail space. He walked into the side door of a salmon-colored brick building on Gallatin Pike in Madison, the storefront of which is rented by check-cashing business Easy Money. As soon as Edward saw the exposed beams and concrete floor inside, he knew he’d found it — not the retail space for a fashion company, but the future home of his gallery. At 3,000 square feet, Ce Gallery gives Edward plenty of space to play. He soon got to work cleaning it up, painting, hanging curtains and installing lights. In the expansive mezzanine, Edward has created an intimate atmosphere, with large couches, dim lighting, a stereo system and small bar. Having a comfy place for conversation, artist talks and even corporate meetings — the gallery has already hosted one — only adds to the experience. He’s invited musical guests to play at Ce too, and he and collaborators recently put together a pop-up market for local artists and entrepreneurs to sell their goods. He soon found his first artist, Alex J. Reyes, to display paintings in the ground-floor gallery. They planned a one-day pop-up show, but word spread quickly, and Edward found there was enough interest from the public to keep Reyes’ work up a bit longer. Fittingly, the show was a send-off for Reyes, who made his way to New York shortly after. Edward has been able to shepherd him through the move, connecting him with New York art-world folks to get started. Edward is driven by supporting artists like Reyes. “That’s what makes me excited,” he says, “being that middle person, helping people transition to those higher levels of artistry, however they think it is.” When at the University of Memphis, Edward would rent out vacant buildings for art shows. “This was all an accident,” he says. “I had to come up with an internship in college. All my friends were artists, and I was the one with the job who was organized.

I thought, ‘Let me rent this building out and create space for their work,’ and I’ve just been doing it since. I didn’t know it was a thing until right after I graduated and I went to Art Basel — like, ‘Oh, this is really a thing thing. I could really make this a career for life.’ ” Even as a youth, Edward found solace in the arts. As a member of his school’s band, he found a sense of family and security away from home. “It saved so many

of us,” says Edward. “With all of the issues in the world, we had each other. We also had a focus. Art is a focus.” This feeds into his desire to make Ce a place where people feel they belong, especially LBGTQ people. In New York, he found his community at places like Bushwick’s performance-fueled nightclub House of Yes, and an art collective and party engine that celebrates the lives of queer and trans people of

color called Papi Juice. “I remember living in Nashville and being a kid and having nowhere to be fully satisfied,” says Edward, “and then going to New York and having so many options. I want to be a person who offers that to others.” Photographed by Daniel Meigs at Ce Gallery. Paintings by Alex J. Reyes. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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THE PEOPLE ISSUE 2021

COMMUNITY JOURNALIST VERONICA SALCEDO The Mexican-born reporter uses social media and videos to reach Nashville’s Spanishspeaking population BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

eronica Salcedo has known she wanted to be a journalist since she was an 8-year-old in Zacatecas, Mexico. She got her first opportunity at a radio station when she was 14, and stuck with the career as an adult. “At first I studied law, because there wasn’t a journalism school in the city,” she tells the Scene in Spanish. But Salcedo soon began studying in Chihuahua. She later landed a job in Aguascalientes, and then in Mexico City, acquiring experience in television and radio. In 2015, her husband received a job offer in Nashville, and the couple relocated. “My passion is journalism, so I started Nashville Noticias,” she says, referencing the online publication she launched in late 2015. There were some

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Spanish-language newspapers and radio programs when she arrived, she says, “but nothing visual … nothing on video.” She saw a gap and it motivated her, not just as a Spanish-speaking reporter, but as a news consumer as well. “I needed information too,” Salcedo says. “And I got involved with the community, and they told me that there was a real lack of information.” Since launching the online outlet, Salcedo, who serves as the news director, has been all over town covering topics from fires to small businesses to protests, not to mention interviews with local advocates and community leaders — all to bring information to Nashville’s Latinx population. The endeavor attracted a sizable following, with more than 274,000 followers on Facebook. While the outlet’s website is regularly populated with articles (nashvillenoticias.com), it’s the numerous videos on social media featuring Salcedo that really set Nashville Noticias apart. Salcedo says the decision to produce live videos helped the outlet get more information out at a faster clip. “We’re generating more and more information every day,” she says.

There’s also a community-newsletter vibe to the site — there are calls for volunteers, filmed ads from sponsors, and notices about people who are sick or facing tough times. Salcedo enjoys the altruistic side of Nashville Noticias’ work, raising awareness for people in need. “Sometimes it’s support for families that need money for funerals, people who are sick and don’t have access to funds,” she says. “We try to help those people and get the community get involved.” Like other journalists around town, Salcedo has been busy covering the pandemic, which has hit Latinx communities in Nashville and across the country especially hard. In addition to reporting, she’s also done some direct assistance, helping distribute food and masks to folks in need. In 2020, Nashville Noticias formed a partnership with WPLN, Nashville’s NPR affiliate, wherein a reporter from the station offers information and analysis on local and national politics. “We’re really happy with the partnership because we want to do even bigger things,” says Salcedo. Nashville Noticias also works with the local Univision outlet, Channel 42. Salcedo takes the job seriously, and she says that sometimes means 14-hour days for her and her nine co-workers. But the community has responded positively to the hard work. “People like that we are committed to our work,” she says. “That this isn’t just a hobby [for us]. ... It is

a beautiful profession, and I’m in love with the work I do.” There have been personal challenges along the way as well. Salcedo lost her mother and father in 2019. She says they were always supportive of her, and taught her the value of hard work. “It was very difficult to lose them both in a year,” she says, noting that it was hard to get back to work after their deaths, but she knew it was what they wanted for her. “My mother told me, ‘I don’t want you to stop for anything. I want you to continue on.’ ” Salcedo has also seen people struggling in the communities she covers — “I wish I had a magic wand and could help anyone who needed it.” But she’s seen a lot of strength in Nashville’s Hispanic community, especially the immigrants building new lives in a new country. “A lot of us arrive here without families … and here in this country we find friends who become our family, and that creates a spirit of belonging. We find places to work, places where we can feel useful, from women working in hotels to men working in construction. … When we find that spirit, that place of belonging, I think that’s when we truly decide to stay here in this country, continue forward and strive for our children and our futures.” Photographed by Eric England at Plaza Mariachi. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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THE PEOPLE ISSUE 2021

AUTHOR DAVID DARK The Belmont professor and lifelong Nashvillian wants to decompartmentalize human expression BY STEVEN HALE

ot five minutes have passed during a visit with David Dark at his 12South home before he offers a cup of coffee and references The Simpsons, Radiohead, The Matrix and the Book of Revelations in the same sentence. The joy in his voice — and the smirk on his face — reveals his love for this sort of intellectual mischief. For Dark, a 51-year-old Belmont University professor, author and very active Twitter user, the goal is to recognize that there are no real borders between religion, politics and culture. The truth, he says, is that they’re all part of the same stew. And it’s more fun that way anyhow. “I think [Marshall] McLuhan and Shakespeare and William Blake and the prophets help us see that culture is all the time, and everything all the time,” Dark says. “And a phrase that I sometimes use as well is ‘one human barnyard.’ If you want to say: ‘Jimmy Fallon, stay out of politics. Donald Trump, stay in your lane.’ Too late. There are no lanes. We are all matter-

ing in one way or another, we’re all lifting our voices, broadcasting, in one way or another. So reality is interdisciplinary, and human expression does not fall into the pockets or the compartments that we use to avoid despair.” He emphasizes the point with a recent example. “A man who once body-slammed Vince McMahon on camera commandeered the birther movement for his own reasons, and then assumed control of the Republican Party, which he still has, and then for four years commanded the United States military,” Dark says. “Our desire to compartmentalize what happened does not serve grasping what happened or what is happening.” Twitter, where the silliest thing you might see all day often sits beside the most profound or the most tragic, is a perfect platform for someone like Dark, who insists we can find the sacred or the profane anywhere. If you scroll through his feed, you’ll see him deploying aphorisms like “There are so many ways to love God,” or conversely, “There are so many ways to hate God,” to make this point. “Nashville is driven by marketed God talk, and there’s a power play whenever God comes in,” he says. “And I think of that as using God’s name in vain. When I say, ‘There are so many ways to love God,’ and I’m referring to a literacy program or feeding people or the vaccination, I’m trying to take back God from people who think that they’re tighter with God because they

believe in God.” The word “gospel,” he notes, simply means “good news.” Dark has spent the better part of his life arguing that “all good culture is gospel.” A lifelong Nashvillian who grew up in the Church of Christ, he says he was forced to make an argument for the things he loved. At home he was enthralled by The Twilight Zone and Star Trek, while at church he was met with questions about whether he should even watch television at all. “I didn’t think that which was marketed as ‘of God’ was any more or less ‘of God’ than Prince or Public Enemy,” he says. This sort of “good news” from unauthorized sources led Dark to reckon with the ideas he inherited. He attended Franklin Road Academy, which he notes was originally a segregation academy — “It was more than that, but it was at least that,” he says. That is where he started to learn that we can’t escape our history. “I hesitate to even say it, but I guess I will,” he says. “At FRA you can find pictures of my homecoming dance when I’m 17 years old, and there’s a Confederate flag right behind me. I thought nothing of it. I saw Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and I began to think something of it.” Dark’s phrase and oft-used hashtag for describing the Trump era and the forces at play throughout it is “White Supremacist Antichrist Poltergeist.” He feels that term “does more than ‘Christian nationalism’ and ‘white nationalism’ in terms of getting to the bottom

of a spirit that controls things.” For Dark, Twitter is a way to lob rhetorical bricks not at other people but at faulty categories or cones of silence. He is a dedicated advocate of Reality Winner, the former intelligence specialist imprisoned for leaking classified materials to The Intercept in 2018. In Winner, Dark sees “a decorated veteran, Christian who has been muzzled by our government for almost four years,” and someone who has few advocates because she does not fit neatly into anyone’s preferred box. It’s that affinity for people that are hard to classify that drew him to the subject of his forthcoming book for the University of Texas Press. Explain All These Controls: U2 & the Inner America will be, he says, “an argument for U2 as a gift to the species.” Dark confesses some discomfort with praising a multimillionaire like Bono and acknowledges that U2’s refusal to quit “has made them insufferable to so many.” At the same time, he says, “I also know that I owe a lot of my own moral literacy to what they’ve been laying down.” It’s a perfect subject for an intellectual explorer like Dark, who believes the actions of a church can be profane, just as a sci-fi novel or an album from an ’80s rock band can be sacred. The good news is everywhere, if you’re open to finding it. Photographed by Eric England. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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THE PEOPLE ISSUE 2021

ARTIST NUVEEN BARWARI The grad student’s assemblages of found objects reflect her cross-cultural upbringing BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

bout a year ago, artist Nuveen Barwari called up a friend she’s known since the fourth grade to make a confession. Her middle initial M. did not actually stand for Madison, as she had told everyone it did. It stands for Mohammed. “No fucking way!” her friend laughed, likely impressed at the tenacity with which children can cling to their stories. Barwari isn’t sure why she picked Madison for her middle name, but a reference to the fourth American president and the so-called Father of the Constitution acted as a veil to protect her from the Islamophobia that she recognized even then. She was in kindergarten when 9/11 happened, but she was old enough to notice a shift. “The number of hate crimes, and the fear, increased,” she tells the Scene. “Even today, when something bad happens, my family gets worried — ‘I hope the guy who did that wasn’t Muslim, because that’s going to be hard on all of us.’ ” If you try to imagine what a heavy burden that could be for a 5-year-old, you might start to get a sense for where Barwari’s artwork comes from. A Nashville native, she currently splits her time between here and Knoxville, where she’s in graduate school at the University of Tennessee. Her family is Kurdish, and she moved with them to the Iraqi part of Kurdistan from sixth grade through 11th grade. Though that’s only a handful of years, they’re formative ones. Barwari’s aesthetic of layered identity is deeply rooted. Take, for example, her use of Persian rugs in her artwork. An early piece she made as an undergraduate featured a skateboard with a worn rug affixed to the deck — a combination of her Kurdish heritage and the culture she grew up with in Nashville, which she describes as heavily influenced by the skater scene. She’s similarly drawn to the ideas of international markets as a place of overlapping commercial and social interaction. “I’ve been using the structure of a bazaar to help me describe my practice,” says Barwari. “That’s simply the closest thing to reality to help me articulate what it is. The Merriam-Webster definition is something like, ‘a place in the Middle East that sells miscellaneous goods in stacks and rows.’ … But it’s more than just a place of commerce. Sure, there’s rugs and fabrics and spices, but people go to the bazaar for more than just things. Sometimes you go to the bazaar and you leave with so much more — there’s love, poetry, sorrow, protest. If you look at my work, it’s the same. “The markets are a space of shared activity,” she continues. “I’ve found a great amount of comfort in these spaces, because they look and feel like the ones back home, but they’re not. Same with the materials that I use — they look and feel like the ones back home, but they’re not.” Barwari describes her artwork as being assemblages of found objects, but she says the word “found” is a misnomer. “I honestly feel like the materials find me,” she says. That’s similar to the way identity is built, she says. “Making a home away from home results in a lot of settling for what is around you. I don’t have full agency in what I make in the studio, it really depends on the materials that have come to me.” Other Kurdish families in Nashville donate to Barwari used rugs, which she uses as raw material in her work — ripped to bits, strung up with yarn, stacked into piles, layered with sequins or empty bags of Cheetos. She considers it a collaboration with the rugs, and with the patterns they create. “Lately I’ve been looking at patterns as maps,” she says. “In Kurdish, it’s pronounced naxsh, which literally means pattern. But when you say naxsh de Kurdistan, that means the map of Kurdistan.” The rug, for Barwari, is a symbol for her homeland, and it’s also a movable thing that can change identities depending on its placement. Sort of like the initial M., and how sometimes it stands for Madison, sometimes Mohammed. Photographed by Daniel Meigs. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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THE PEOPLE ISSUE 2021

SINGER AND ‘SENSITIVE STONER’ JOY OLADOKUN

The rising folk-pop performer hopes to ‘serve the global community’ BY MEGAN SELING

eleasing the widely praised, banger-packed full-length In Defense of My own Happiness (Vol. 1) over the summer just wasn’t enough of an accomplishment for Joy Oladokun, apparently. For the past several months, the folk-pop singer-songwriter has continued to produce a steady stream of new songs from her East Nashville home studio. Each one is its own timely and eloquent response to the upheaval that has plagued us all over the past year. In September, for those struggling with the grief and isolation brought on by the pandemic, Oladokun released the encouraging R&B tune “If You Got a Problem.” It’s an optimistic number about comforting and finding comfort in those around you. Think of a less cartoony version of Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.” In October, to recognize her fellow

Black Americans living in fear as the country’s streets churned with protests and police brutality, Oladokun shared “I See America,” an incisive anthem with a stirring chorus: “When I see you / I see love / I see America / I feel your pain / I share your blood / I see America.” “Look Up,” released in November, is a poignant reminder that, as the singer wrote on Instagram, “There is freedom above us and beauty within us.” December brought us “Mighty Die Young,” a sparkling piano ballad haunted with the inevitability of death. Song after song, with every tortuous and unpredictable turn of what we will forever remember as the Lost Year, Oladokun was there offering comfort. “It’s the Nina Simone quote, right?” Oladokun tells the Scene by phone from her Nashville home. “Like, artists are supposed to reflect the past. And

if Nina had Ableton, had my laptop, had the little setup I have here, we would’ve been hearing from her all the time. “And a fair record contract,” Oladokun continues with a laugh. “If she had all those things we would’ve been hearing from her all the time. And I think the reason I am at my current state of outputting so much is just because there’s a lot happening! Internally I’m doing a lot of work, and the world is changing, and fighting for change.” The world is also starting to take notice of Oladokun. Though she’s been at it for years — she signed a publishing deal with L.A.’s Prescription Songs in 2016 — Oladokun has had something of a meteoric rise in recent months. In January she announced she was chosen as one of YouTube Music’s Black Voices for 2021, which earned her face a spot on a giant Times Square billboard. Her somber ballad “Breathe Again,” in which her warm, sweeping vocal range is on full display, was played for millions of viewers during a January episode of the popular NBC drama This Is Us. She made her daytime and late-night TV debuts too, appearing on Today and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in February. Making her new level of success even more enjoyable to watch is the fact that Oldaokun balances her talent and vulnerability with goofy humor and BFF

vibes. On social media she discusses Boyz II Men jams with Jason Isbell, posts photos of her dog Joni, dunks on controversy magnet Morgan Wallen and shares selfies taken with well-rolled blunts — a hobby she has celebrated with a line of “sensitive stoner” merchandise. Oladokun is giving us her whole self, and hoping to inspire us to be our whole selves too. “I think sometimes we get scared that if people learn more about us they won’t want to be around us,” she says. “My life in its current state is proof that the opposite is true. On Vol. 2 [of In Defense of My Own Happiness, scheduled for release later this year], there’s a song about my dad and what it was like to grow up with a dad that openly disliked queer people. That is vulnerable, but I also know that I am not the only person who has a dad who would say things about gay people that were awful, not realizing that their kid was gay. “I do feel like a sense of calling and camaraderie for people who have also been through similar things or had events that evoke similar emotions of loneliness and stress,” she adds. “I feel a responsibility to serve the global community in that way. I think it has been really, really beautiful.” Photographed by Nolan Knight. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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THE PEOPLE ISSUE 2021

FISK PRESIDENT VANN NEWKIRK

The university’s new president comes from, and now leads, a place ‘where a lot of history was made’ BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

ann Newkirk took over as interim president of Nashville’s Fisk University in August — the school dropped the interim tag earlier this year. It was a tumultuous time for the university and its new president, whose predecessor abruptly left amid abuse allegations. Newkirk was leading a college for the first time as it sought to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campus. He was also doing so on a social-justice-focused campus long known for churning out prominent Black activists, as a wave of anti-racist protests consumed the city and the country. But, it seems, he was in the right place at the right time. Newkirk is a historian by training, with a focus on lynchings and mob violence. “I grew up in Eastern North Carolina, where a lot of history was made,” Newkirk tells the Scene. “And so I heard all kinds of stories growing up. Some of those stories I didn’t believe. They were ghost stories.” Newkirk became interested in history because of those stories, he recalls. On the way to earning two master’s degrees and a doctorate, he learned more about the history that had been passed down by his family and community. “I started doing research and finding that many of those stories that I thought had been just pure tales were true,” he says. During Newkirk’s time in academia, he also developed a specialty in college accreditation, which led to his first encounter with Fisk University. He consulted for the small private HBCU, but wasn’t quite ready to leave his native North Carolina for a full-time role in Nashville. That changed a few years later when he accepted a job as provost at Fisk. “The rest,” he says, “is history.” But consulting on accreditation matters was not Newkirk’s introduction to Fisk. Coming from a long line of HBCU students, he was well aware of the university and its famed alumni. And as a historian specializing in racial violence, he learned even more — anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells was once a Fisk student, for example. That institutional history is what Newkirk hopes to build on in Fisk’s next decade. He has normal growth targets for the school’s next few years: nearly double enrollment to approximately 2,000 students, add more satellite campuses like the new one in Clarksville, and continue to add undergraduate and graduate degree programs. But he also wants Fisk to maintain and burnish its reputation as a leader in social justice. That work starts at the John R. Lewis Institute for Social Justice at Fisk, newly renamed for one of the school’s most famous and beloved graduates. Newkirk plans to add a doctoral track to the school’s already-unique master’s in social justice program. “We’re known as the birthplace of social justice for Tennessee — indeed, the nation,” Newkirk says. “We want the social justice part that we’ve been known for to become one of our lamplights. That’s what we’re going to be known for in this city. We want to make sure that we keep that torch in front of the university and keep that torch in front of the folks in Nashville to know exactly who’s pushing the envelope to get this university and to get the city to where it needs to be.” Perched in his office in Cravath Hall, Newkirk oversees a campus where people as influential as Diane Nash, Nikki Giovanni and W.E.B. Du Bois got their start. He thinks the school is currently educating another generation of likeminded thinkers, but he also recognizes the role Fisk has played in history. “It means that we were doing something right,” Newkirk says. “We’re producing people who are concerned about their fellow man.” Photographed by Eric England at Fisk University. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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THE PEOPLE ISSUE 2021

PRODUCER DAVID R. FERGUSON The audio master brings a lifetime of experience to records by Sturgill Simpson, Margo Price and many more BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

f we were in a world where liner notes were more widely read, it’s unlikely David R. Ferguson would need much introduction. The veteran record producer and audio engineer has played vital roles in bringing to life widely loved recent albums from country and country-adjacent artists. With Sturgill Simpson, he co-produced Tyler Childers’ Purgatory and Country Squire, and with Simpson and Margo Price, he co-produced Price’s rocking That’s How Rumors Get Started. He’s also co-produced several albums with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, including Early James’ Singing for My Supper, John Anderson’s Years and Kendell Marvel’s Solid Gold Sounds. Ferguson mixed Simpson’s Grammy-winning 2016 album A Sailor’s Guide to Earth and produced both of the Kentuckyborn songsmith’s Cuttin’ Grass bluegrass LPs. “It’s all about the performance — every bit of it,”

says Ferguson one recent unseasonably warm winter morning. He’s got one arm propped on the mixing console in the small studio on his property in Goodlettsville. “Just keep doing it until they get it right.” How do you know when it’s right? “Well, that’s something that takes time,” he says with a laugh. Before Ferguson was born, his family moved to the Nashville area looking to get into the music business, and as a youngster, he played bass and guitar in a variety of bands. In 1981, around the time he turned 19, he took a job running errands at Cowboy Jack Clement’s Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa. The studio — which was badly damaged in a 2011 fire but rebuilt prior to Clement’s death in 2013 — takes up the top floor of the legendary producer and songwriter’s Belmont Avenue home. Currently owned and occupied by Clement’s nephew Bob Clement, Cowboy Arms has been beloved since the 1970s for its combination of purposeful design and relaxed atmosphere. Within a year of Ferguson taking that job, he found some empty time on the studio’s calendar and recorded a band. On hearing his work, Clement fired him. But he immediately rehired him to work under Cowboy Arms’ chief engineer Jack “Stack-a-Track” Grochmal, a tape-machine wizard who’d worked at big commercial studios in Los Angeles like The Record Plant. As Ferguson learned on the job from Grochmal

over the following decade, the top-tier songwriters and players who frequented the studio — like Johnny Cash and John Prine — grew to like and trust him. “There was not too much ‘traditional’ about Cowboy Clement’s except scheduling and being on time and that kind of stuff,” Ferguson recalls. “But there’s the unspoken rules of how you conduct yourself in a studio situation and communicate with musicians, knowing how sessions work. Just knowing musicians and how to use them is a real key. You just work and work and work, and hope something happens [laughs] — or you get lucky. If all else fails, get lucky.” In the 1990s, Ferguson began working with Cash on his American Recordings series under producer Rick Rubin. Sessions continued until just before Cash’s death in 2003, and the sixth and final volume was released in 2010. In the early 2000s, the Music Row building housing Ferguson’s studio Naughty Pines was sold, and he had to move out. Prine asked if he’d like to go in with him on a space in the former Neuhoff meatpacking complex in Germantown. Prine mostly used the facility, which was named The Butcher Shoppe, as an office and a place to keep his pool table. But Ferguson and his trusted engineer Sean Sullivan made many records there, including Kurt Vile’s Speed, Sound, Lonely KV. One of Ferguson’s favorite memories of the spot is working on Standard Songs for Average People, a 2007 album of duets between Prine and bluegrass hero Mac Wise-

man. The two recorded their verses casually, seated across the studio’s kitchen table from each other. But the building was sold, and following Prine’s death in April, Ferguson had to close up shop again. At least Ferguson and Simpson got to bring in an all-star bluegrass band to make Simpson’s Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1 before the gear had to be packed up and moved out to Ferguson’s house. As work slowed down during the pandemic, Ferguson began to put the finishing touches on an album of his own that he’s been working on for years. Nashville No More spotlights his gently weathered voice and performances from some of the A-list players he’s worked with, and is expected to be released by Fat Possum Records sometime in 2021. It’s a collection of songs that caught Ferguson’s ear during sessions with other artists. Some were released but have been forgotten; others were recorded but left off of the other artists’ albums because they didn’t fit. The songs all exemplify a spirit of collaborative creativity encouraged in places like Cowboy Arms and The Butcher Shoppe that Ferguson sees fading away as the city changes. He’s hopeful, however, that the musicians and producers working here can cultivate something new that’s just as good. “Someone’s going to add something to it. It’ll evolve.” Photographed by Eric England in Ferguson’s studio. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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Noteworthy Neighbors Nominee: Samaria Harvey Leach Nominated by: Jihan

“Samaria has been feeding the North Nashville kids since the beginning of the pandemic, throughout the summer and does it with a gracious heart. She is feeding kids through her window, which she calls the Window of Love.” She gives out lunches and books and encourages literacy through her program. Most times she feeds kids with her own funds and never complains. Please check out what she is doing in the community by searching “Window of Love” on Facebook.”

North Nashville

Nominee: Nick Laparra Nominated by: Orion Pahl

“When the tornado hit in March of 2020 Nick led crews in North Nashville, buying several chainsaws and coordinating clearing trees off homes of the elderly. He started a WhatsApp group that became a central hub for action. A need would arise and within minutes people would respond with resources, time, and insights. As Covid hit, he cocreated ‘Zero Covid’ and has been leading the effort to minimize the impact of the virus around the world, but also in our state and city. He is currently working on a “donate your stimulus check if you have been ﬁne ﬁnancially and don’t need it” fund and pooling the money to provide payments for the college loans of black and brown therapists. He is a good neighbor that gives a damn about the health of our community.”

Nominee: Abby Sparks Nominated by: Lindsay Sisco

“Abby volunteers and serves the state in so many ways but during the pandemic, she turned her baking skills into weekly fundraisers, “Challah for a Cause,” supporting a different organization each time with the sale of a delicious variety of homemade challah! She kept our sense of community aﬂoat while we were separated by the pandemic and is an all-around inspiration!” 22

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

Bellevue

Over the last few weeks the Scene has been hosting submissions from Nashvillians to highlight someone from their community who has done good work this year in their neighborhood — or beyond. After an overwhelming response of entries, we’re going to turn Noteworthy Neighbors into a monthly series to continue to share these inspiring stories! Each month we’ll select different Nashvillians and highlight them in print and online. These are just a few of our initial submissions, so stay tuned for more!

Nominee: Debra Roan

Nominated by: Alanna Quinn-Broadus

East Nashville The Gulch

Visit nashvillescene.com/ NoteworthyNeighbors to see more stories and submit a Noteworthy Neighbor of your own!

“Ms. Debra has always been a very friendly and kind neighbor but this pandemic really showed me what a loving and generous person she truly is. When everything ﬁrst began to shut down I was in full panic mode. As a touring musician I was watching my entire life vaporize in real time and was grappling with the overwhelming uncertainty of 2020. I will never forget Debra calling me and saying “Well Alanna, I don’t mean to get in your business but I wanted to know if y’all needed any money. If it means keepin’ your lights on, y’all let me know if you need anything.” It was enough to bring me to tears. As time went on we would ﬁnd grocery bags full of fresh produce or drinks on our front porch. Debra was always checkin’ on us - making sure we were taken care of. She hired me to take care of her lawn for the summer and put money in my pocket...she lives her life with an abundance of love and service and brings depth to the hollow cliche “if there were more people like her, the world would be a better place.” I am so grateful that I just happened to buy the house next to her.”

Nominee: Abdou Ka ih Nominated by: Lisa Kaas Boyle

Murfreesboro

“I cannot imagine a better neighbor than Abdou Kattih, a pharmacist in Murfreesboro, founder of Murfreesboro Muslim Youth. His organization was founded to organize Muslim immigrants to be of service when National leadership was dismissing the value and contributions of Muslims and spreading fear. Abdou has organized peace marches, relief for tornado victims and for the hungry. Most recently he organized a community project that distributed over 1,500 sandwiches to local people in need and in shelters. He is a constant source of goodwill and generosity. He continues to inspire me and so many others.” nashvillescene.com | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

— Felice Bryant In a note to husband Boudleaux, left inside one of their songwriting ledgers, now part of the Museum’s collection

Boudleaux and Felice Bryant wrote a long list of enduring hits centered around matters of the heart—“All I Have to Do Is Dream,” “Bye Bye Love,” and “Love Hurts” among them. Their own love story both informed and sustained their creativity and success—a success that landed them in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Learn more about the Bryants in the exhibition We Could: The Songwriting Artistry of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, open now.

DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE Visit CountryMusicHallofFame.org to buy tickets.

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

CRITICS’ PICKS [DESTINY FULFILLED]

TUNE IN TO A READING WITH POET DESTINY O. BIRDSONG

with more seasoned arts professionals. Such is the case with the Middle Tennessee State University Department of Theatre and Dance’s upcoming MTSU Theatre 6x10: 10 Minute Play Festival. Presented in collaboration with Nashville Repertory Theatre, this virtual festival features six new short plays written by playwrights from the Rep’s Ingram New Works Project and directed by MTSU student directors. The lineup includes “Your Feets Too Big” by Jonathan Alexandratos (directed by Gavin Strawnato); “As You Dyke It” by Riti Sachdeva (directed by Layla Bahmanziari); “How to Be a Widow” by Tori Keenan-Zelt (directed by Liv Hendrix); “Between” by Riti Sachdeva (directed by Sean McDevitt); “No Ghosts” by Nate Eppler (directed by Zoe Zent); and “Human Resources” by R. Eric Thomas (directed by Maggie Shivers). You can catch the MTSU Theatre 6x10: 10 Minute Play Festival streaming live via MTSU’s Facebook page. To learn more, visit mtsu.edu/theatreanddance. 7:30 p.m. March 25-27 and 2 p.m. March 28 via MTSU

THEATER

ERICA CICCARONE [THE ART OF COLLABORATION]

CHECK OUT THE MTSU THEATRE 6X10: 10 MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL

Collaboration is a driving force in the world of theater, but it’s also an especially powerful educational tool, offering students the opportunity to put classroom theory into action while working

FILM

Va., and the ill-fated gorilla Harambe, whom some Americans audaciously wrote in on the ballot during 2016’s presidential election. But the poems that have stuck with me most are the ones in which the speaker wrests her body from the grips of assault and disease, and attempts to heal. Birdsong is also an incisive essayist, having published prose in The Paris Review, Catapult, our humble pages and many more publications. Birdsong earned both her doctorate and MFA at Vanderbilt University, and she’ll read and discuss her work as part of the Vanderbilt Creative Writing Visiting Writers Series. Register via at vanderbilt.edu/creativewriting. 7 p.m. Thursday, March 25, via Vanderbilt

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THE INHERITANCE

director Ephraim Asili described it to BOMB magazine as being part of “a genre that I am self-defining as ‘political science AMY STUMPFL fiction,’ exploring models for living in the very near future.” Based on Asili’s own [MOBILE HOME] DIG THROUGH ALEXANDER CALDER’S experience in a Black radical collective, the film tells the story of a young man ARCHIVE who inherits a big Philadelphia townhome Just in time for the expansive survey from his grandmother, and instead of exhibition Alexander Calder: Modern selling it to investors, he and his girlfriend From the Start, which opened last week create a collective of Black radical artists, at the MoMA, the Calder Foundation has activists and thinkers. It’s a collage of unveiled a phenomenal digital research Black life that, as my friend and Scene archive of the artist’s work that was three contributor Jason Shawhan said, demands years in the making. A recent ArtNet report a bibliography. The residents of the described its kitchen-sink breadth as doing House of Ubuntu read Angela Davis and “for hardcore Calder-heads what IMDb Audre Lorde, Amiri Baraka and Malcolm does for movie buffs,” which is a perfect X. On a large chalkboard in the house’s comparison. It’s free to access, and gives common area, they write quotations by a digital home to almost 1,500 works of Calvin Hernton, Kwame Nkrumah art and ephemera — many of which and Thomas Sankara. They pay were previously unpublished tribute to Shirley Chisholm or otherwise rarely seen — EDITOR’S NOTE: with a clip of her stumping all highly organized and AS A RESPONSE TO THE ONGOING COVID-19 PANDEMIC, on the presidential campaign beautifully presented. We’re WE’VE CHANGED THE FOCUS OF trail. All the while, the talking mobiles of course, but THE CRITICS’ PICKS SECTION TO residents try to institute also chips of marble inked INCLUDE ACTIVITIES YOU CAN the philosophies of these with miniscule marks and PARTAKE IN WHILE YOU’RE AT HOME. freedom fighters while finding called fertility goddesses, wire consensus. But as happens in sculptures, stories about Calder’s many collectives, consensus can family, even a handful of ashtrays be hard to reach. They disagree about he made out of tin. Go to calder.org and everyday rules like whether they’ll wear prepare to lose yourself in Calder’s world. shoes in the house, as well as weighty topics, If you’re hooked, check out MoMA’s virtual like whether Black people should learn lecture and panel discussion, which starts at how to defend themselves with guns — but 7 p.m. Thursday, March 25. MoMA curator their impassioned arguments are always Cara Manes will be joined by Alexander S.C. about moving forward and finding a way Rower, president of the Calder Foundation to live their ideals. Ubuntu invites visiting and the artist’s grandson, to discuss Calder’s speakers, including several members of work and the exhibition. Visit moma.org for the Philadelphia Black liberation collective details — registration is free, but you need MOVE. The MOVE house was bombed to sign up in advance. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER by the police in 1985, killing 11 members, including five children and the group’s [PHILADELPHIA STORY] founder John Africa. (See Jason Osder’s RENT THE INHERITANCE VIA THE 2013 documentary Let the Fire Burn for BELCOURT that devastating story.) Nevertheless, When The Inheritance premiered at The Inheritance stays pretty light, more the Toronto Film Festival in September, ART

“I think poetry can make survival possible,” poet Destiny O. Birdsong told the Scene in October, upon the release of her debut poetry collection. After reading Negotiations, I can’t help but agree. The collection is peppered with scorching rebukes of American culture and politics. It is also undeniably enchanted by American art and literature of the past and present. The poems contain references and allusions to Toni Morrison and Cardi B, Langston Hughes and Bernie Mac. Birdsong touches on 2017’s Women’s March, that same year’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville,

R O U N D U P

interested in the possibilities of Black collective power than in America’s very real threats. It sometimes takes on the feeling of a play; Asili usually points his lens from a single angle, and the characters face the camera to perform monologues. The best treat is a poem read by legendary poet Sonia Sanchez about Harriet Tubman. In an interview with Artforum, Asili shares that a conversation with Sanchez inspired the film. “She reminded me that the fact that we are alive, together, making art, and sharing it amongst ourselves was truly the greatest accomplishment one could attain,” Asili says. “Lastly, she gave me one of the warmest hugs I’ve ever felt and said, ‘Keep going, young brotha.’ ” To watch The Inheritance, visit belcourt.org. Available now via the Belcourt’s virtual screening room ERICA CICCARONE MUSIC

POETRY

W E E K L Y

[IMPERIAL ’DRAG]

OBSERVE THE 25TH BIRTHDAY OF SUPERDRAG’S REGRETFULLY YOURS

You know you’re a ’90s kid if you recall the sinking feeling of buying a CD for $18 and realizing the radio song was the only good track. Superdrag’s Regretfully Yours, which was released 25 years ago on March 26, was the inverse. The sardonic power pop of its lone hit “Sucked Out” was actually an outlier of the Knoxville foursome’s first LP. The rest of it followed a Byrds-meets-My Bloody Valentine blueprint that yielded noise-pop nuggets like “Destination Ursa Major” and the unbeatable one-two of “Slot Machine” into “Phaser.” Nashville-based bandleader John Davis remains fiercely anti-nostalgia, and the prolific output of his and ’Drag guitarist Brandon Fisher’s current group The Lees of Memory, which has released four albums in just seven years, backs that up. “If I did my best work at 21, why are we here — just to sit around and think about how cool the ’90s were, and be done?” Davis asked rhetorically in a 2018 Scene interview. Reached for

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CRITICS’ PICKS

CATCH UP ON THIS YEAR’S BEST PICTURE OSCAR NOMINEES

Plenty of film buffs don’t really subscribe to the Academy Awards as the be-all and end-all when it comes to who deserves Hollywood’s prestige and attention. And to be honest, those film buffs have a pretty good point — take the Academy’s long-standing issues when it comes to racial and gender inclusion, or the fact that both First Cow (excellent) and Delroy Lindo’s performance in Da 5 Bloods (also excellent) were snubbed among this year’s nominations. But this year’s list of Best Picture nods is indeed filled with exceptional films, most of which are worth catching up on. If you see just one film from the list of eight, make it Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah, the true story of major Black Panther Party figure Fred Hampton and the man who betrayed him — featuring Best Supporting Actor nominees Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield in two of the best performances you’ll see in this or any year. Unfortunately, that one left HBO Max a couple weeks back, but as of this writing, AMC Thoroughbred 20 in Franklin is showing it once a day, if you’re up for in-person screenings. Significantly smaller in scale but similarly powerful are Chloé Zhao’s Frances McDormandstarring Nomadland (available with a Hulu subscription), Darius Marder’s Riz Ahmedstarring Sound of Metal (available with an Amazon Prime Video subscription) and Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari (available for $20 via Amazon, YouTube and other streaming services). All three are intimate films about resilient outsiders adjusting to new circumstances, and all three are absolutely remarkable. Because Hollywood just adores films about itself, a frontrunner in the

[YOU OUGHTA KNOW]

LISTEN TO THE RINGER’S 60 SONGS THAT EXPLAIN THE ’90S

Have you ever slow-danced to “End of the Road”? Used a No. 2 pencil to fix your Gin Blossoms cassette? Been grounded for leaving Eazy-E in the CD player? If so, the podcast 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s

[TALKING POINTS]

LISTEN TO COLOR ME COUNTRY RADIO

In the past year, there’s been a lot of excellent journalism on how racist attitudes and policies have led to the undervaluing and oppression of Black musicians and businesspeople in country music. In addition to pieces in Billboard, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and elsewhere, I’m proud to be able to point you to articles in the

is for you. In it, staffers from sports and culture site The Ringer shine a light on expected artists — Smashing Pumpkins, Missy Elliott, Temple of the Dog, TLC — but also on C+C Music Factory, Geto Boys and New Radicals. That’s key. These aren’t necessarily the best or worst songs of the ’90s, though some are that. They’re the songs with stories that explain what it was like to live through the ’90s. One episode likens listening to early Metallica to “falling down the stairs — for an hour.” One compares Slash to T.S. Eliot. One explores race and the patriarchy using a

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little song you’ve heard every December since 1994: Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Host Rob Harvilla makes it feel seamless. He’s got the cred — his CV includes stints at Spin, The Village Voice and Napster — and the humor to deliver masters-level research in a lively, approachable way. He’s the music dude you want to have a beer with. Or rather, a Smirnoff Ice. Find 60 Songs via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. ASHLEY BRANTLEY [BLACK MIRROR]

WATCH DO YOU KNOW BLACK? ON YOUTUBE

Have you ever wondered what an allBlack version of The Weakest Link would look like? For those who have, I would like to direct you to a new game show that recently hit the internet called Do You Know Black? In it, a quintet of young, upwardly mobile African Americans — buppies, if you will — casually sits on a stage and answers rapid-fire questions about Black history and culture, asked by host J-Hype. (This Nerf ball of a brotha definitely lives up to his name.) They participate in rounds of questions (and also vote each other off the show) in the hopes of being the last brotha or sista standing, so they can win the impressively bougie collection of prizes that are up for grabs. (The pilot episode had people competing for a oneyear subscription to pro-Black streaming service kweliTV, a three-piece portrait collection and a portrait session with a New York-based photographer/videographer.) This show is definitely a must for those who wanna brush up on their Black knowledge, as well as the white folk who wanna win over Black people with some Afrocentric trivia. CRAIG D. LINDSEY PODCAST

[IT’S AN HONOR JUST TO BE NOMINATED]

Best Picture category is David Fincher’s delightful Mank (available on Netflix), which centers on screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz’s development of the Citizen Kane script and is based on a screenplay by Fincher’s father Jack Fincher. Putting the “dark” in darkhorse is Promising Young Woman (available for $6 via Prime and YouTube, and screening in select theaters), the Carey Mulligan-starring directorial debut from actor Emerald Fennell. That one has its merits, but it also veers tonally from “black comedy” to “tense thriller” to “deeply upsetting,” so your mileage may vary. The Father — directed by Florian Zeller, who also adapted the script from his own play — won’t be available via video on demand until March 26. But that one features Oscar royalty Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman, so naturally it gets a nod. And finally, there’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 (available via Netflix), writer-director Aaron Sorkin’s tale of the legendary revolutionaries put on trial for inciting the 1968 Chicago riots. Sorkin takes some liberties with historical events here, passing most of the narrative through that ever-present lens of selfimportance — which, in my opinion, has only grown more intense and insufferable in the years since The West Wing. But it’s got Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman, and that’s somethin’! D. PATRICK RODGERS PODCAST

FILM

comment more recently, however, Davis softened his stance on Regretfully Yours — but only slightly: “It took me 25 years to start liking it!” he says with a laugh. There are no plans for a reissue, but in case you missed it, Superdrag’s 2000 magnum opus In the Valley of Dying Stars — recorded at Five Points’ iconic Woodland Studios — got the 20th-anniversary vinyl-remaster treatment last year, and the 1,000-LP run is nearly sold out. Go to superdrag.limitedrun.com for that, revisit Regretfully Yours via Spotify, and catch up with Davis’ more recent exploits at his dual Bandcamp accounts, theleesofmemory.bandcamp.com and highbiasacassette-basedoperationtm. bandcamp.com. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

PODCAST

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN

Scene by Andrea Williams, Marcus K. Dowling, Ron Wynn and others that can help you get an understanding of where we are, how we got here and how we might move forward. But the sheer volume of information can feel overwhelming. An excellent place to start is Color Me Country Radio, a program on Apple Music Radio hosted by singer Rissi Palmer. Palmer, who is Black, presents the BIPOC country music experience from the perspective of someone who’s lived it. In one recent episode, she discusses being dissatisfied with lackluster efforts by her label, working to get out of her contract and then finding that all the people who promised to support her wouldn’t return her calls. Palmer also talks at length with some of the people who are shaping this conversation, like scholars Amanda Martínez and Jada Watson, the aforementioned Andrea Williams with musicians Maren Morris and Cam, recent Grammy nominee Mickey Guyton and more. Just as importantly, the conversations are broken up with music by country artists of all races — presenting Black and brown country musicians’ work in context with the music that it shapes and is shaped by. A new two-hour episode premieres every other Sunday night at 6 p.m. on Apple Music Radio (the next one airs March 28), and is available to stream afterward. You have to have an Apple Music subscription to listen. See colormecountry.com for updates, details on Palmer’s Color Me Country Artist Fund and more. STEPHEN TRAGESER

[SEX AND SUSPENSE]

LISTEN TO FATAL ATTRACTIONS

I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention to Film Twitter lately, but every now and then someone brings up the question of whether or not scenes of sex and nudity are essential in contemporary cinema. It makes one wonder how all those young, chaste naysayers — the ones who feel love scenes are just gratuitous wastes of celluloid — would’ve survived the ’80s and ’90s. Ah yes, the good old days, when the erotic-thriller genre was in full swing and actors and actresses often got buttbald-nekkid and nasty on screen. For those who miss those tawdry, sleazy days, may I direct you to the U.K.-based podcast Fatal Attractions, in which critics Matthew Turner, Leslie Pitt, Amelie Thomas and Paul Costello devote each episode to breaking down a classic movie fueled by sex and suspense. The podcast is more than 70 episodes deep now, and they’ve covered all the biggies: films made by such dirtyminded auteurs as Brian De Palma (Dressed to Kill, Body Double), David Cronenberg (Dead Ringers, Crash) and David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive). And of course, they jump on anything starring the one-and-only Michael Douglas (Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct). For all those film geeks with virgin ears — you might not wanna check this out. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

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