Nashville Scene 3-13-25 by FW Publishing

BY HANNAH HERNER

WITNESS HISTORY

This double-breasted western suit, embellished with rhinestones and embroidered clovers, was made by Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors for Skeets Yaney, a performer and radio personality nicknamed “The Golden Voice Yodeler.”

From the online exhibit Suiting the Sound: The Rodeo Tailors Who Made Country Stars Shine Brighter

artifact: Courtesy of Jean Lochirco artifact photo: Bob Delevante

State Executions to Resume Under New Lethal Injection Protocol

Reduced guidelines withhold key aspects of the process from the public BY ELI MOTYCKA

O’Connell Proposes First Transit Improvements

Mayor eyes $60 million in roadway, planning and technology spending BY ELI

MOTYCKA

Athletes Unlimited Proves Nashville’s Appetite for Women’s Basketball

The pro women’s league just wrapped up its season at Municipal Auditorium BY COLE VILLENA

Pith in the Wind

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

COVER STORY

Meet Me at the Mall

With the development of the former Global Mall site currently underway, we take a look at how Nashville’s evolving retail landscape affects teens BY HANNAH

HERNER

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Date Night: Park Cafe and Lola

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Sisterhood

Bridgett M. Davis remembers her sister’s strength and struggles in Love, Rita BY WHITNEY BRYANT; CHAPTER16.ORG MUSIC

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Nashville’s OmenBringer is working to change a decades-old narrative BY ADDIE MOORE

The Spin

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Sierra Hull at Brooklyn Bowl BY MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER

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STATE EXECUTIONS TO RESUME UNDER NEW LETHAL INJECTION PROTOCOL

Reduced guidelines withhold key aspects of the process from the public

BY ELI MOTYCKA

TENNESSEE HAS NOT carried out an execution for more than five years — partly by choice, and partly by necessity.

One afternoon in 2022, when it became clear that the Tennessee Department of Correction had violated or otherwise ignored aspects of the state’s 99-page lethal injection protocol, Gov. Bill Lee stopped the scheduled execution of Oscar Smith hours before he was set to die. The ensuing chaos prompted calls from advocates and lawyers for an official moratorium on executions — which the governor eventually imposed — and an official review of the secretive punishment still practiced by just a handful of states and even fewer sovereign nations.

Smith’s abruptly canceled execution in April 2022 pulled back the curtain on the state’s disturbing pattern of lax oversight, procurement struggles and improper screening that has enabled Tennessee executions by lethal injection. At Lee’s request, attorney Ed Stanton III compiled his meta-analysis of TDOC executions into a scathing report that revealed an execution system flawed both by the methods and the people it relies upon.

In addition to the suffering moral and political credibility for those who, like Lee, stand behind flawed executions, straying from or ignoring protocol could implicate the state in constitutional violations. The state cannot guarantee the proper functioning of expired or tainted chemicals, potentially subjecting victims to torturous and protracted deaths. Lethal injection has the highest incidence of botched executions, supporting what advocates point to as the death penalty’s fundamental contradiction: There is no humane way to kill a human.

The scandal set off a legal and bureaucratic sequence that has produced a new TDOC commissioner, a slimmed-down lethal injection protocol, expanded powers for the state attorney general to advance executions in court, and

four new execution dates for this year alone. For more than two years, Stanton’s findings and Lee’s apparent apprehension suspended executions and even appeared to threaten the future of state killings. Previous questions about credibility and legality seem to have expired with time, giving way to a renewed state urgency to carry out death sentences.

The governor appears satisfied with the reduced guidelines recently presented by Frank Strada, the TDOC commissioner brought in by Lee two years ago at least in part to get executions back on track. Strada came from a similar post in Arizona, one of the few states still practicing executions.

The new protocol reads even more quickly than its page count suggests, thanks to liberal redactions throughout its 44 pages. Strada’s work appears deficient when compared with Stanton’s robust criticism of the previous protocol, the logical jumping-off point for someone looking to make improvements. Each execution commands a large staff separated into an escort team, restraint team, special operations team, IV team and physician, led by the warden and commissioner. Among other criteria, participating individuals are selected for their ability to maintain confidentiality.

Several major pharmaceutical companies refuse to sell chemicals or equipment for use in executions per corporate policy, and Tennessee has shielded its entire chemical procurement process from public view. The Drug Enforcement Administration has seized Tennessee’s lethal injection chemicals in the past, and difficulty securing such chemicals has created a so-called gray market involving overseas drug manufacturers and compounding pharmacies. The unreliable supply chain may lead to longer storage times, risking potency and further necessitating proper testing and jeopardizing a viable execution. Redactions obscure various

O’CONNELL PROPOSES FIRST TRANSIT IMPROVEMENTS

Mayor eyes $60 million in roadway, planning and technology spending

BY ELI MOTYCKA

MAYOR FREDDIE O’CONNELL has proposed an early batch of transit-related projects targeting fare subsidies, bus efficiency and signal upgrades. The 11-point spending plan, which totals roughly $60 million, shows urgency from O’Connell while the mayor’s office juggles several outstanding unknowns. The mayor does not yet know the future of critical federal fund-

other personnel, equipment, roles and steps. But perhaps the biggest knock against transparency comes in the introduction, which empowers the commissioner to alter or ignore aspects of the process if he deems it “necessary” to deviate from protocol.

I believe that Gov. Lee takes seriously this grave responsibility — if you want to call it that — of the government,” says Stacy Rector, executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, a statewide advocacy group. “He has said numerous times that if the state is to have the death penalty, it needs to be done in a way that is transparent and that the public can have confidence in. I do not believe this protocol provides that. I hope that Gov. Lee will take a hard look at what he’s been given and recognize that this is not what he asked for.”

Rector also anticipates that the protocol will prompt litigation, which could potentially stall or postpone executions. A recent decision by the Tennessee Supreme Court allowed the state attorney general to control post-conviction appeals, the legal avenue for individuals on death row to contest their sentences. The ruling empowered AG Jonathan Skrmetti to argue against death penalty appeals and clarify execution dates from the court, which Skrmetti promptly requested.

Multiple sources tell the Scene that they believe Lee, a devout Christian, is personally uncomfortable with bearing responsibility for executions. Lee has indicated in comments to the media that he sees executions, which he refers to as the “law of the land,” as a responsibility of his office. Lee has not spoken publicly about the state’s swift push to schedule killings and did not respond to the Scene’s request for comment.

In the past six months, conservative Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has used reprieves and postponements to keep executions off the state schedule until after his current term ends, citing ongoing

ing that may affect departments citywide, he told reporters on Friday. The overarching transportation initiative, known publicly as “Choose How You Move,” is still interviewing final candidates for an executive leader, a process O’Connell has controlled directly. The $60 million eyed by O’Connell — sales tax proceeds that voters legally OK’d for transit in November’s referendum — follows projections from his finance director and has not actually been collected yet. Even the mayor’s press release, sent minutes before 5 a.m. on Friday, indicates an eagerness to get moving.

Funding would initiate planning for several larger projects, like a new downtown transit center south of Broadway, modern traffic signals and expanded eligibility for free and reduced fare subsidies. O’Connell also proposes money for 12 new buses and “39 miles of street infrastructure” — a broad category that includes sidewalks and bike lanes.

A new curbside lane in Midtown and a “queue jump” on Murfreesboro Pike take first steps toward drivers’ new normal — negotiating limited

“

“I HOPE THAT GOV. LEE WILL TAKE A HARD LOOK AT WHAT HE’S BEEN GIVEN AND RECOGNIZE THAT THIS IS NOT WHAT HE ASKED FOR.”

—STACY RECTOR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF TENNESSEANS FOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE DEATH PENALTY

uncertainty with the pharmaceutical supply chain. Lee paused executions with the same justification but will presumably oversee at least four more executions before the end of his second term.

Smith now has a new execution date: May 22, 2025. He will die by a single intravenous chemical, pentobarbital, rather than the “three-drug cocktail” mandated by the previous protocol — a combination of sedative midazolam, paralytic vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride, which initiates cardiac arrest. The federal Department of Justice recently abandoned its use of pentobarbital after a review found that the chemical was reasonably suspected to cause “unnecessary pain and suffering.”

Smith will be joined this year by Byron Black, Donald Middlebrooks and Harold Nichols, all of whom received 2025 execution dates at the request of Skrmetti. ▼

roadway space with purple WeGo buses. These projects will enable buses to bypass traffic, improving transit travel time. Money will begin work on Nashville’s first “all-access” corridor, a comprehensive plan to remake Main Street from the East Bank to Eastland. O’Connell wants the travel time equation to shift in favor of public transit but does not have specific ridership goals. “ There are broad goals that expect and anticipate ridership increases,” O’Connell told the Scene Friday morning. “ We’re expecting special-event rides to pick up, and we’re expecting core system rides to pick up. We’ll see, probably as we bring a chief program officer online, some of those specific targets.”

WeGo ridership data from October, November and December 2024 show a 5 to 7 percent increase over the previous year, with about 8.1 million total trips.

The Metro Council will consider the official funding request, which O’Connell has filed as supplemental budget legislation. ▼

ATHLETES UNLIMITED PROVES NASHVILLE’S

APPETITE FOR WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The pro women’s league just wrapped up its season at Municipal Auditorium BY

COLE VILLENA

WHEN CONFETTI FELL in Municipal Auditorium on March 2, it was a celebration of four weeks of basketball excellence from Dallas Wings forward Maddy Siegrist. The second-year pro was crowned as the top individual performer of Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball, a professional women’s basketball league that made its home in Nashville this year.

But the season finale that day was also a joyous occasion for fans of the game in general. AU Pro Basketball’s first year in Nashville drew record-setting crowds for the league and gave fans in the Volunteer State a chance to see top-class women’s hoops in their backyard. The league helped fuel a wave of renewed interest in pro women’s basketball in the city, where a team of investors announced a bid for a WNBA expansion franchise just days before AU tipped off.

“I think that Nashville’s a really great spot,” Siegrist said following the AU finale. “The food, the music — who wouldn’t want to come here?”

League officials clearly agreed. On Feb. 28, they announced a multiyear deal to make Nashville the league’s home for the foreseeable future.

“What I continue to say is that this market — specifically, the state of Tennessee — has shown that they can show up, and they will show up for women’s basketball across the collegiate landscape,” AU’s vice president of basketball Megan Perry told reporters after the season finale. “They’ve proven that they will show up here for professional athletes. There is a strong demand, and we’re just excited to be able to meet that demand.”

Athletes Unlimited was founded in 2022 to give professional women’s basketball players a place to ply their trade stateside during the WNBA offseason. The league uses a unique scoring system that emphasizes efficient individual performance, and the champion each season is

an individual player rather than a team. Siegrist established herself as a contender from opening night on Feb. 5, averaging 24.3 points per game on the court and eventually setting a record for AU points in a season.

Sydney Colson, a two-time WNBA champion who will suit up alongside Caitlin Clark for the Indiana Fever next season, says domestic opportunities for players are especially important. The WNBA will welcome the Golden State Valkyries as an expansion franchise this upcoming season, and teams in Toronto and Portland in 2026.

“The more situations that we have stateside for players to play and for it to be competitive, the better the expansion teams will do,” Colson says. “In 2026, you’re going to have to fill 24 roster spots with new players, and it’s helpful to WNBA GMs and coaches to be able to come here and see players.

“I’ve said this so many times, but AU got me back into the W,” she continues, referring to the

WNBA. “Just being able to show I still had life in my legs, that I could still go, still compete.”

Crystal Bradford earned a training-camp contract with the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces following strong performances in Nashville and will hope to walk a similar path to Colson. She was the runner-up in a league that included several WNBA players and champions, including Lexie Brown (Los Angeles Sparks), Kierstan Bell (Las Vegas Aces), Kia Nurse (Chicago Sky) and Alissa Pili (Minnesota Lynx).

But no players got louder cheers throughout the season than Alysha Clark — who played at Mt. Juliet High School, Belmont University and Middle Tennessee University before becoming a three-time WNBA champion — and sisters Izzy and Dorie Harrison, who suited up at Hillsboro High School before playing at Tennessee and Lipscomb, respectively.

“To play here in Nashville professionally is honestly a dream come true,” Dorie Harrison told the Scene in February. “A lot of Nashvillians might argue that it’s overdue. I think it’s in perfect timing, especially with the bid just made for [proposed WNBA team] Tennessee Summitt. AU’s a perfect way into that market to get people interested. And Nashville’s excited, man.”

The league’s numbers backed up Harrison’s point. A press release announcing the AU’s return to Nashville reported a 77 percent growth in attendance, 97 percent growth in merchandise sales and 69 percent growth in social media engagement compared to previous seasons hosted in Las Vegas and Dallas.

“I don’t think it’s just a moment — I really think it is a movement,” says Perry. “We have numbers to back what we’ve known all along, and so we’re just really excited to have some proof of concept to offer and build upon.”

Additional reporting by Logan Butts. ▼

Private cameras, such as digital doorbell systems and parking lot security trailers, may soon get linked into a citywide network overseen by the Metro Nashville Police Department. The integrated video database would have to comply with certain guardrails per new legislation advanced last week through the Metro Council, though the vast amount of surveillance power has inspired dedicated opposition from civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups. Councilmembers narrowly rejected a previous version of a police contract with security firm Axon, which sells the video technology under the brand name Fusus despite support from Mayor Freddie O’Connell. New compliance regulations appear to pave the way for O’Connell to bring another contract to buy the software and hardware necessary to build the video network, which would be made up of video feeds across the city volunteered by crime-wary residents and business owners.

Titans legend Eddie George announced plans to leave TSU’s football program to take the head coaching job at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University. After retiring from professional football, George earned civic recognition around Nashville for his role as a stage actor and public figure. The former Heisman Trophy laureate now demonstrates a steadily rising coaching career that will bring allpro NFL experience to a midsize football program in Ohio, where George excelled as a running back with Ohio State University in the 1990s.

Nashville has an opportunity to honor Black civil rights legend Rev. James Lawson, writes Scene columnist Betsy Phillips, as the city approaches one year since his death in June 2024. Phillips lays out the logic of renaming 21st Avenue for Lawson, who was kicked out of Vanderbilt Divinity School in 1960 for participating in racial justice protests, and compares the honor to the city’s decision to rename a downtown cross-street after Rep. John Lewis. Portions of 21st Avenue stretch from Buchanan Street in North Nashville, hem Vanderbilt University and run through Hillsboro Village before becoming Hillsboro Road.

PHOTO: DAVID RUSSELL

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NORTH NASHVILLE

IN ANTIOCH IN the 1980s and ’90s, Hickory Hollow Mall was the spot. The 1.1 million-square-foot behemoth opened in 1978 as one of the state’s first two-tiered malls. At the time, it was the largest retail space in the state too, surpassing the now-for-sale RiverGate Mall, which opened in 1971.

Teens would flock to Hickory Hollow’s food court, The Food Garden, to get Angelo’s Picnic Pizza, or to the arcade The Gold Mine (later known as Tilt and then Galaxy Arcade) to play games. Upon opening, the on-site movie theater was playing Grease. In its heyday, the mall had 137 tenants, but that number dwindled to a mere 12 stores in 2012, earning Hickory Hollow’s status as what’s known as a dead mall — a deteriorating, low-traffic shopping center, also known as a ghost mall. While local entrepreneurs sought to revive the center as Global Mall at the Crossings around that time, the site officially closed in 2019.

Metro Nashville purchased the mall site in 2022 for $24 million and its accompanying office building for $20 million, with plans to redevelop the site finalized in summer 2024. By the time Mayor Freddie O’Connell took office in 2023,

BY

HANNAH HERNER

the interior of the mall was in “terribly, terribly rough shape,” and it was extremely unlikely to return to its mall status, says Alex Apple, spokesperson for the mayor’s office.

As demolition begins on the former Hickory Hollow Mall, many Nashville natives are reminded of their teenage memories. With fewer traditional malls and some restrictions on mall access, where will teens of today make their own memories?

“I LIKE GOING to the mall,” says Stratford High School student Miriam Martinez Medina. “I like window-shopping. It gives you something to do. I don’t like being at home, so I like going out, and if going to the mall is my last resort, then I’ll go. I like seeing new things. I like seeing what’s up-to-date. That interests me, even if I don’t buy anything.”

Martinez Medina attends an after-school program called Top Floor through the nonprofit Martha O’Bryan Center. If she’s not participating in Top Floor or the nearby ACE Mentor Program to learn more about careers in construction, engineering and architecture, she’s riding around looking for a place to eat with friends. If

With the development of the former Global Mall site currently underway, we take a look at how Nashville’s evolving retail landscape affects teens

that doesn’t work out, they’ll hit up Opry Mills mall.

Going to the mall alone is a no-no, at least according to a sample of four Stratford High School teens. Getting food from Auntie Anne’s and Panda Express? That’s a yes. Two of the Stratford teens have their first jobs at a mall. They say they sought out mall jobs because they pay better than fast-food jobs.

“They get paid a lot more and they have to put up with a lot less,” says Stratford student Langston Glass Jr.

As of September 2021, people younger than 18 must be accompanied by a parent or another adult after 3 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays at Opry Mills. Management tells the Scene this policy may apply to “other select days as deemed appropriate by shopping center management” as well. The Mall at Green Hills and CoolSprings Galleria do not have such restrictions.

The restrictions are for safety purposes, according to a statement from Opry Mills: “We continuously invest in our industryleading safety and security program, and the introduction of a Youth Supervision Program

supports these efforts. … Requiring adults to accompany youths during specific hours at the center aims to create a safe and family-friendly shopping environment for our shoppers.”

Alexandra Lange, author of Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall, tells the Scene that malls instituting curfew hours is relatively common, and not an especially new trend. Minnesota’s massive Mall of America was one of the first to create such a policy in 1996.

“Freaking out about teens and malls actually has been going on for quite a while,” Lange says.

A 19-year-old shooter opened fire at Opry Mills in 2020, but there were no injuries. In December 2023, a fight between teenagers led to a false shots-fired call and evacuation due to the sound of metal chairs hitting the floor — three teens were arrested for disorderly conduct. In February, when a domestic violence altercation broke out at Chili’s, mallgoers panicked and exited the mall in a rush.

But according to Lange, incidents like these loom larger in people’s minds thanks to TikTok.

“If teens are fighting at one mall in America and it goes viral on TikTok, then people immediately extrapolate that to ‘teens are

fighting at all the malls in America,’ and the mall owners freak out and start instituting these policies,” Lange says.

In her book, Lange writes that the curfew policies are not enforced evenly across races. After the Mall of America policy was instituted, teens of color almost immediately won a lawsuit related to inequitable policy enforcement.

“I think that teenagers — because they’re loud, because sometimes they’re a little bit more indiscriminate in their movements, because they do lack some of the impulse control that adults have — are felt to be threatening by adults, especially when they’re in groups, even if they’re basically just hanging out and goofing around,” Lange says.

Teenager Teroz Dowell feels the weight of this sentiment. “Kids and people around our age tend to go to the mall and they get into fights, make a bunch of threats that they shouldn’t make, and do a bunch of crazy stuff,” he says.

Davidson County Juvenile Court Clerk Lonnell Matthews says juvenile crime has been declining overall since 2013. There are certain types that are going up, he says, including property crime, vandalism, theft and burglary. But more serious crimes like aggravated assault and homicide have seen rates decline or stay the same in the past decade. Matthews believes in the old adage, “Idle minds are the devil’s playground,” so he says it’s important to make sure young people have positive, welcoming

“These days, when it comes to malls, only the strong survive.”

—Alexandra Lange, author of Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

school programs — or dining out with her friend group. As of this year, students weren’t allowed to loiter in the Stratford building after school or leave the cafeteria unattended to eat lunch.

“I think it has to do with the type of environment you place yourself in,” Martinez Medina says. “I feel like, if somebody places themselves in an environment where they see people do all these bad things that are crimes, and it becomes so normalized to them that they think it’s right, then they go and do it because they saw other people do it.”

Teens are cognizant of adverse childhood experiences and struggles at home too — circumstances that can make a person more prone to crime.

“Sometimes it’s positions that you don’t put yourself in, that you’re born into,” says Stratford student Glass. “Sometimes you gotta steal to make a living.”

Matthews says restrictions on teens can be a trauma response to violent incidents that loom large in people’s minds — whether at a mall, a bus stop, a park or a school. In the spring of last year, a teen shot and killed another teen at a park in Bellevue. A teen shot and killed another teen at downtown Nashville’s WeGo bus station in November. In January of this year, a teen shot and killed another teen before turning the gun on himself at Antioch High School.

“I think we have to really have some serious dialogue around that so that we can comfortably address, recognize and acknowledge the trauma, but also look for resolution,” Matthews says.

“How do we restore? How do we get over the harm that we experience that even puts us in a position to think we have to put up these safeguards, or we have to put up these barriers, or these guardrails for young people?”

Matthews says teens lose an opportunity to learn about social interaction when they are shut out of public spaces.

“Interpersonal skills, I definitely think some of that can be lost when we don’t give young people access,” Matthews says. “It’s not just the restriction — it’s giving them the freedom to try out social skills as they’re developing.”

environments to hang out in after school.

“Some people probably instead of hanging out at the mall with their friends and at least having a space where they can just not be bored, they’ll turn to other things like going out and drinking or doing drugs or something — doing things they shouldn’t do — when they could just go to the mall and at least not make, like a crazy choice,” Dowell says.

But it’s not just about boredom. Matthews says it’s very important that teens have a sense of belonging, in a group and outside of school. He says that need is a reason why some teens turn to gangs.

Stratford student Martinez Medina echoes the sentiment. She finds her belonging at after-

THESE DAYS, when it comes to malls, only the strong survive, says Lange. She notes that it’s not surprising to see some close, because the country has been “over malled” since the 1980s — meaning the United States has too much retail space per capita compared to other industrialized countries. The closing of Hickory Hollow Mall and the possible sale of RiverGate Mall, for example, could simply mean that there were too many malls in proximity.

Nashville youth can at times struggle to find after-school activities. Matthews recalls that in his youth, downtown Nashville wasn’t much of a destination, but he and his friends could go to Laser Quest — a now-shuttered laser-tag facility on Second Avenue. He and his fellow HumeFogg High School students could go to Manny’s House of Pizza for lunch. Then they had the Opryland USA theme park.

“When you were a teenager, you wanted to

PHOTO: ANGELINA

CASTILLO

HICKORY HOLLOW MALL, 1978

GLOBAL MALL ENTRANCE, MARCH 2025

CONSTRUCTION

GLOBAL MALL, MARCH 2025

work at Opryland because on Sundays, they closed the park and all the workers got to go in for free and ride all the rides, and you got to bring three or four friends with you,” Matthews recalls.

Skating rinks and bowling alleys have dwindled, especially in Nashville, where commercial rent continues to rise alongside residential. Matthews points to all-ages music venue Rocketown as a good option, where kids feel like the space is just for them.

“Do I feel like my kids, especially as they head into their teenage years, have enough opportunities for them to have a really positive social life within Nashville?” Matthews says. “Probably not, at this point.”

Teens can hang out in the park if the weather allows, or play sports at a community center. But not all teens are interested in sports. Despite Nashville Public Library locations offering dedicated spaces for teens, those might not appeal to all, either. The mall provides a lot of necessities for teens — a space that can be accessed without a driver’s license or money for entry. There are public restrooms and shelter from the elements. And as Stratford’s Top Floor college and career coordinator Josie Greene points out, the buy-in is low, which is important for teens who may be responsible for a portion of the household income.

“Even for myself, I can’t afford to go bowling every weekend,” Greene says. “The light bill obviously has to be the main concern, so bowling or skating, or other things that are going to cost money, are going to be secondary.”

Business owners behind the early malls of the 1950s and 1960s wanted teens to come, even hosting fashion shows and teen dance parties. Arcades were instituted in malls in the 1980s to give teens their own space and segregate them from the typical mom shopper.

Teenagers like Dowell would love to play some old-school arcade games. Because the Dave & Buster’s at Opry Mills keeps the same youth policy as the rest of the mall, high schoolers were denied the opportunity to go there after prom. While several barcades like Game Terminal and Pins Mechanical Co. allow teens in during certain hours, others like UpDown and No Quarter don’t allow teens at all.

“Arcades were initially seen as a way to have teens at the mall, attract teens to the mall, but kind of keep them in their own space,” Lange says.“The idea of having an arcade behind a curfew really doesn’t make any sense at all. … It is depressing that this thing that is fun for young people then gets separated out from the young people who probably need it the most.”

“If I’m thinking about it from the perspective of a teen, I’m probably agitated that every time I walk in here, you’re gonna ID me, or you ask questions about my parents,” says Matthews. “I’m just trying to go to Dave & Buster’s to play some video games.”

COUNCILMEMBER JOY STYLES — whose District 32 is home to the Global Mall — says part of the space’s new plan will be to honor the mall’s memories, including photos supplied by the public and even a mini

LONNELL MATTHEWS

“Interpersonal skills, I definitely think some of that can be lost when we don’t give young people access. It’s not just the restriction — it’s giving them the freedom to try out social skills as they’re developing.”

—Davidson County Juvenile Clerk Lonnell Matthews

museum of sorts. If you mention the Hickory Hollow Mall to some longtime Nashvillians, you’ll be flooded with stories, Styles says — of first jobs, Santa and Easter Bunny photos, shopping for school dances.

The plan balances a desire for a community space with retail where Metro can profit via leases. When it’s done, Styles says, it’ll be a place for all people to congregate again, and will include artist housing, green space and walking paths, in addition to a WeGo transit hub. There is already a library, a community center, a

playground and an ice rink on site. Youth are a priority in the new development, she says.

“The community input process involved very heavily requesting things for youth to be able to do after school,” Styles says. “So you will see on the site some youth mental health services as well as youth socializing activities.”

Mayor’s office spokesperson Apple reiterates that the forthcoming site is intended for everyone.

“The Global plan is to transform this old mall site into a walkable, regional destination that,

yes, whether you’re a young person, a retiree or anywhere in between, you would find this a place that enhances your quality of life,” he says. “That enhances the feeling of community, regardless of which necessary feature you’re most interested in.”

As a nearly 30-year-old from a rural area, I personally seem to have missed the heyday of the mall. But I did have a brief obsession with the music video for “I Think We’re Alone Now,” which features footage from ’80s pop star Tiffany’s mall concert tour. The choice to tour malls was made because the artist, 15 at the time, needed a safe place for teen fans to gather that wasn’t a bar. The trend continued into this millennium with events like teen fans of Twilight gathering at malls to meet the movie’s stars.

The mall can also introduce teens to new ideas and cultures, Matthews says.

“You have this great diversity that lives here, and it’s all about meeting new people, finding out about different cultures and backgrounds and different ways of living,” he says. “And if you don’t build those interpersonal skills, if you don’t really get to interact with some freedom, maybe you lose those opportunities to be able to share and grow from.”

“Can you make places safe and make it welcoming?” asks Matthews. “I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive.” ▼

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

Enrico

Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings

SUNDAY, MARCH 16

MUSIC [SQUARE BIZ] COROOK

The songs of Pennsylvania-raised, Nashville-residing musician corook address big themes like family dynamics, body image and death itself, but the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist couches their concerns in some of the most gorgeous pop imaginable. Corook’s new full-length committed to a bit builds upon a pair of brilliant 2023 EPs that connected post-Taylor Swift confessional songwriting to the tradition of harmonically advanced pop as practiced by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Prince and Todd Rundgren. The songwriting on committed stands tall with previous corook tunes like “CGI” from Serious Person (Part 1), which recalls late-1970s Prince. Similarly, committed features swanky funkpop amalgams like “Blankets,” a song about fun things to do under a blanket with a person you love. The music on committed is singular, but what’s fascinating about corook’s mastery is how easily a Berklee College of Music graduate commands a brand of pop that connects 2025 with both 1975 and 1985 without sounding the least bit retro. Sometimes corook reminds me of the great ’80s R&B singer Teena Marie, minus the melodrama that sometimes bogged down Marie’s albums — corook should cover “Square Biz.” It’s a wonderful album, and it gets better as the songs turn more serious; “Death,” about finding joy in the certainty that nothing lasts forever, might be my favorite track. Comedian Kel Cripe opens.

EDD HURT

8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.

THURSDAY / 3.13

MUSIC [KISS ME AGAIN] GRACE ENGER

Singer and songwriter Grace Enger hit in 2021 with “WYD Now?” — a busted-relationship song she wrote with fellow New York University students Daniel Alexander and Sadie Jean Wilcox. As recorded by Wilcox, “WYD Now?” is notable as a relationship tune that’s also about songwriting and the music business itself — the song mentions an absent boyfriend who seems to be making money off the music the song’s narrator has written. A similar psychological

NASH YARN FEST PAGE 18

acuity is present on Enger’s excellent 2024 EP

The Alchemist, which finds her taking cues from 1970s folk-rock and ’90s indie rock. Enger gets into post-Joni Mitchell territory on the record’s “3D,” which features the extended chords and strummed acoustic guitar accompaniment that folk-rockers have used since time immemorial. The Alchemist recalls the work of any number of slightly funky folk-rocking pop artists, as on the album’s “A Year From Now,” which could be a lost track by Tracy Chapman or Joan Armatrading. After playing well-received shows supporting Maisie Peters and Laufey in recent years, Enger brings her first headlining tour to The Basement. Maybe she’ll cover Sixpence None the Richer’s 1997 pop-rock hit “Kiss Me,” which has been a part of her set list on early tour dates. Singer-songwriter Jake Minch opens.

EDD HURT

BOOKS

[FROM THE STAGE TO THE PAGE] ALICE AUSTEN: 33 PLACE BRUGMANN

You may know Alice Austen for her work as a playwright and screenwriter. She’s a past resident of London’s Royal Court Theatre, and her plays include an acclaimed adaptation of

George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Water, Cherry Orchard Massacre and Girls in the Boat — the latter of which tells the story of the first U.S. women’s Olympic rowing team. Austen’s 2019 film Give Me Liberty earned the John Cassavetes Award (given to the best feature film made for less than $500,000) at the 35th Independent Spirit Awards. So I’m eager to check out her debut novel, 33 Place Brugmann. Described as “a love story, mystery and philosophical puzzle,” this thoughtful tale follows the colorful residents of a Belgian apartment house leading up to, and during, the Nazi occupation during World War II. As the neighbors’ lives become more and more intertwined, they will discover “the restorative power of love, courage and art in times of great threat.” Austen will be on hand to discuss her new title at Parnassus Books, in

conversation with fellow author Lindsay Lynch. The event is free, but registration is required.

AMY STUMPFL

6:30 P.M. AT PARNASSUS BOOKS

3900 HILLSBORO PIKE

FRIDAY / 3.14

[WE’VE MET BEFORE]

FILM

DAVID LYNCH:

A RETROSPECTIVE: LOST HIGHWAY

The thing you need to know about the late David Lynch’s 1997 whatzit Lost Highway is that it’s told from the perspective of a crazy person. (David Bowie’s “I’m Deranged” doesn’t play during the opening credits just because it sounds cool.) Bill Pullman plays a paranoid avant-garde saxophonist named Fred Madison who goes to prison for allegedly killing his wife Renee (Patricia Arquette). He literally escapes his existence by transforming into a studly grease monkey (Balthazar Getty) who gets involved in a murderous scheme with a blond-haired moll (also played by Arquette) who looks a lot like the dead wife. Lost Highway was Lynch’s big comeback after flopping with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me in 1992, dipping his toes back into weird waters with this fucked-up film noir (inspired by the O.J. Simpson case!). Just like Fire, Highway was underappreciated upon release — Siskel and Ebert’s negative reaction famously became part of the movie’s marketing campaign. But I like to think the film was a twisted test run for Lynch, a chance to work out some kinks (in every sense of the word) before he wowed and baffled audiences with Mulholland Drive. It’s playing as part of the ongoing David Lynch: A Retrospective, and will be preceded by the short film “Six Men Getting Sick.” Visit belcourt.org for showtimes.

CRAIG D. LINDSEY

MARCH 14 & 18 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

[WE’RE ALL KN-IT TOGETHER]

CRAFTS

NASH YARN FEST

Nashville’s fiber arts community is gearing up for the return of Nash Yarn Fest, a oneday event bringing together knitters, crocheters and textile lovers from across the country. The weekend kicks off with an opening night party on March 14, where attendees can mingle with fellow fiber enthusiasts, enjoy handcrafted cocktails and participate in a special Q&A with world-renowned textile designers Arne & Carlos. Known for their vibrant, Nordic-inspired knitwear, the duo will share insights into their design process and creative journey. On March 15, the main event will offer a diverse marketplace featuring fiber vendors from more than 20 states, Canada and the United Kingdom. Attendees can browse a stunning selection of hand-dyed yarns, luxury fibers, sustainable textiles and one-of-a-kind crafting tools. Local and international artisans alike will be showcasing their work, offering festivalexclusive colorways, limited-edition kits and special discounts. In addition to shopping,

festivalgoers will have the opportunity to learn from industry experts through a lineup of hands-on workshops and live demonstrations including A Very Special Fashion Show, a collaboration with Modern Daily Knitting and Madelinetosh to create a brand-new kind of yarn that won’t leave you spinning! For those looking to expand their skills, connect with fellow crafters or simply stock up on their favorite materials, Nash Yarn Fest is a mustattend event. Whether you’re an experienced fiber artist or just getting started, the festival promises a weekend filled with creativity, inspiration and community. KELSEY YOUNG MARCH 14-15 AT THE FAIRGROUNDS NASHVILLE 625 SMITH AVE.

MUSIC [WHAT’S YOUR SIGN] NASHVILLE SYMPHONY: SCHUBERT’S ‘UNFINISHED’ AND ZODIAC SUITE

The Nashville Symphony is back this weekend with an intriguing program that pairs beloved classical works with a rarely performed jazz suite. The acclaimed Austrian conductor David Danzmayr makes his much-anticipated Nashville debut, opening the program with Golijov’s “Sidereus” (a musical interpretation of Galileo’s “Starry Messenger”) before digging into Schubert’s popular “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8. And jazz lovers can look forward to the return of pianist Aaron Diehl, as he brings his fabulous trio for a performance of Mary Lou Williams’ groundbreaking Zodiac Suite. Blending elements

of jazz and classical music, this unusual suite features 12 pieces — each inspired by a different astrological sign and paying tribute to some of the musicians and artists born under them. Williams was a fascinating figure, and a driving force within the world of jazz. Her work ran the gamut from big band and bebop to sacred music. She wrote and arranged for the likes of Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington, and served as a teacher and mentor to Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and more. Diehl’s passion for Williams’ work is welldocumented, including his own 2023 recording of Zodiac Suite with the orchestral collective The Knights. AMY STUMPFL

MARCH 14-15 AT SCHERMERHORN SYMPHONY CENTER 1 SYMPHONY PLACE

ART [PAIR OF KINGS] KINDRED SPIRITS & DAVID C. DRISKELL & FRIENDS

There’s a photo of David C. Driskell, the influential artist who succeeded Aaron Douglas as the chair of the art department at Fisk University, perched on a stool in his studio at Fisk with a painting just over his shoulder, clutching a handful of paintbrushes and looking into the camera’s lens. The photo was taken in 1966 — the year Driskell was appointed to his position and the year that Kindred Spirits: Intergenerational Forms of Expression, 19661999 takes as its starting point. The show is a comprehensive exhibition of archival images

KINDRED SPIRITS

MARCH 29

SEAN McCONNELL AND DAVE HAUSE WITH SPECIAL GUEST GINA VENIER

APRIL 18

CLEM SNIDE WITH ABE PARTRIDGE

APRIL 23

DEAD BOYS WITH BURN KIT

APRIL 26

WEBB WILDER ALBUM RELEASE PARTY

and other documentation that frames the timeline of Driskell’s tenure at Fisk, and it speaks to Driskell’s legacy of collaboration in several notable ways. First, the exhibition itself will be installed across two separate venues — the Frist Art Museum and Fisk University’s Carl Van Vechten Art Gallery. Second, it shares space in the Frist’s upper-level space with a companion show, David C. Driskell & Friends: Creativity, Collaboration, and Friendship, which includes work by luminaries such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Peter Clarke, Jacob Lawrence and Kara Walker. But perhaps most importantly, it is a collaborative curatorial venture between Fisk University’s current gallery director Jamaal Sheats and the Frist’s newest associate curator, Michael J. Ewing. Both Sheats and Ewing are graduates of Fisk’s art program, following in Driskell’s footsteps. The pair of exhibitions, Ewing writes in the Frist’s gallery guide for the exhibition, serves as a testament to Driskell’s “enduring legacy of creating community, fostering kinship, and elevating the contributions of artists, academics, and the development of new generations.”

LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

THROUGH JUNE 1 AT THE FRIST ART MUSEUM 919 BROADWAY

SATURDAY / 3.15

MUSIC

[MOMMY GONNA KNOCK YOU OUT] SOCCER MOMMY

Nashville’s own Sophie Allison, aka Soccer Mommy, has been on tour for most of 2025 in support of her superb fourth album Evergreen, which was released in October. The acclaimed indie rocker and her band — Rodrigro Avendano (keys, guitar), Julian Powell (guitar), Nick Widener (bass) and The Features alum Rollum Haas (drums) — will conclude the North American part of the tour with a show in her hometown Saturday night at Brooklyn Bowl. If Soccer Mommy’s recent concerts are any indication, local fans can expect a healthy dose of material from Evergreen, with about half the show coming from the album, including the record’s four singles — “M,” “Driver,” “Abigail” (her ode to a central character in the Stardew Valley video game) and “Lost,” which was the writer’s choice for Best Single in the Scene’s 2024 Best of Nashville issue. The remainder of the set is divided equally between material from her three previous albums and includes a number of fan favorites, such as “Your Dog,” “circle the drain,” “yellow is the color of her eyes” and “Shotgun.” Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Hana Vu will open the show. DARYL SANDERS

8 P.M. AT BROOKLYN BOWL

925 THIRD AVE. N.

[PESTS, BE GONE!]

PLANTS

THE CHEEKWOOD GARDENING SCHOOL: ORGANIC PEST CONTROL

Gardening is the most magical of hobbies. You put something in the ground, completely forget about it, and then weeks later, something pops up to offer you scent, color or sweetness. It also

can be a battle of wills against bugs, heat, rain and critters. The Cheekwood Gardening School offers an ongoing series of classes, taught by Master Gardeners of Davidson County and Cheekwood experts, to help you fight those battles. On the calendar this week is Organic Pest Control Strategies, wherein you’ll learn environmentally friendly methods, such as companion planting, to keep insects and other pests off your precious tomatoes. Register online via cheekwood.org and check out the whole season’s worth of topical classes. Your yard will thank you. MARGARET LITTMAN

NOON AT CHEEKWOOD ESTATE & GARDENS

1200 FORREST PARK DRIVE

[AMERICAN MAN]

MUSIC

RON POPE

Proudly independent and deftly sincere, Ron Pope is a working-class songwriter worth spending your time with on a Saturday night. A longtime player in the folk-roots-rock scene, Pope closes out his expansive Neon & Glass Tour with a hometown show at The Basement East. The gig comes in support of Pope’s new album American Man, American Music, released last month on Brooklyn Basement, a New York-born, Nashville-based label co-founded by the singer. On his website, Pope shares about the album: “This is an ode to the life I’m living now, the journey it took me to get here and all the people I’ve known and loved along the way.” Listeners hear the outcome on tender folk moments, like the fiddle-and-guitar tune “I Pray I’ll Be Seeing You Soon,” and fist-raising heartland-rock cuts, such as the anthemic album standout “Klonopin Zombies.” Support on the bill comes from buzzworthy indie artist Denitia. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER

8 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST

917 WOODLAND ST.

[THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN]

FILM

DAVID LYNCH: A RETROSPECTIVE: LYNCH/OZ & THE WIZARD OF OZ

Anyone with only a cursory awareness of David Lynch’s work might wonder just what the hell The Wizard of Oz has to do with the famously avant-garde auteur’s filmography. The short answer is: a lot. As recounted in the 2022 documentary Lynch/Oz, the man behind Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet once told a crowd of cinephiles, “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about The Wizard of Oz.” Most fans know that few things beguiled and transfixed Lynch as much as the splendor of Old Hollywood, and his work is packed with direct and indirect references to Victor Fleming’s groundbreaking 1939 film — from the aesthetic (like Laura Dern’s red shoes in Wild at Heart) to the thematic (various characters’ longing to return home). As part of the theater’s ongoing series David Lynch: A Retrospective, the Belcourt will show both the aforementioned documentary Lynch/ Oz — directed by Alexandre O. Philippe — and Fleming’s cinematic masterpiece. The pair will show as a doubleheader midday Saturday, with more screenings of The Wizard of Oz to follow Saturday night and Monday evening. Visit

for

SATURDAY AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

MONDAY / 3.17

[CARS IN YOUR CONSOLE]

CARS

FIRST PERSON FANTASIES: VIDEO GAME CARS

Are you both a gamer and a gearhead? Have you ever dreamed about cruising around in your favorite video game vehicles, but in real life? Lane Motor Museum has curated a unique exhibit featuring several cars from its collection that can also be found while driving the virtual roads and racetracks of popular racing video games series such as Gran Turismo, Forza, iRacing and more. One such example is a 1985 MG Metro 6R4, which is featured in the Colin McRae Rally/DiRT franchise as well as Forza Horizon 3 and Forza Horizon 4. The British-made machine had risen to top-contender status in the world of rally racing before safety concerns banned all Group B models from that era of competition in 1987, thus making this pristine vehicle something of a rare treat for automotive enthusiasts. Make sure to arrive early — all admissions also include live automobile demonstrations each day at 11 a.m. JASON VERSTEGEN THROUGH JAN. 26, 2026, AT LANE MOTOR MUSEUM 702 MURFREESBORO PIKE

TUESDAY / 3.18

[MY MY]

THEATER

MAMMA MIA!

There’s a reason Mamma Mia! ran for 14 years and 5,773 shows straight on Broadway; it’s just so fun. The lighthearted yet heartfelt story of mothers, daughters, besties and escapades combined with ABBA songs hits every time. While you won’t be able to take in the beauty of the fictional Greek isle Kalokairi during a Nashville stage production, you will be able to enjoy the larger-than-life characters you’ve come to know and love through the 2008 movie adaptation. A little tidbit from my days behind

the scenes in musical theater (as a waiter at the now-defunct Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theatre): ABBA insisted that the background vocals be sung live just behind the curtain, so you’ll be hearing that at this weekend’s performance too. A description from TPAC’s website calls Mamma Mia! the “ultimate feel-good show,” and I’d have to agree. After seeing a performance of this show, even the stuffiest audience member will be dancing out the door, and any newcomers will be adding ABBA to their regular rotation. For showtimes visit tpac.org. HANNAH HERNER MARCH 18-23 AT TPAC’S JACKSON HALL 505 DEADERICK ST.

WEDNESDAY / 3.19

MUSIC [CHIEF’S CHAT] SALUTE THE SONGBIRD LIVE RECORDING FEAT. MAGGIE ROSE & MOLLY TUTTLE

Raise a glass to the six-string storyteller this week at Chief’s, where soul-rock songwriter Maggie Rose hosts bluegrass picker Molly Tuttle for a live taping of the Salute the Songbird podcast. Tuttle joins Rose’s recurring show during a red-hot streak of creativity and acclaim. Tuttle’s last two LPs — 2022’s Crooked Tree and 2023 follow-up City of Gold — earned her and backing band Golden Highway a pair of Grammy Awards for Best Bluegrass Album. This year, she has collaborated with Ringo Starr onstage (at the Ryman Auditorium and Grand Ole Opry House, no less) and in studio as part of his new country project, Look Up. Chief’s website describes Salute the Songbird as Rose hosting “candid conversations with her female musical heroes about their lives in and out of music, challenging the status quo, and changing the game for those coming up behind them.” I’m not sure you’ll find a better excuse to visit Lower Broadway on a Wednesday night.

MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER

7:30 P.M. AT CHIEF’S ON BROADWAY 200 BROADWAY

belcourt.org

showtimes. D. PATRICK RODGERS

FIRST PERSON FANTASIES: VIDEO GAME CARS

Live Music at ON BROADWAY

From platinum-selling chart-toppers to underground icons, household names to undiscovered gems, Chief’s Neon Steeple is committed to bringing the very best national and regional talent back to Broadway. From pla

3.7

3.8

3.12

MARCH LINE UP

3.6 Eric Paslay’s Song in a Hatw/ Cam, Lindsay Rimes

Billy Montana, Jet Harvey, Ben Wagner, Ryan Jacobs

Dalton & The Sheriffs: Dalton Presents The Zac(h)s

Mark Irwin, Clay Mills, Jen Schott

3.13 Wade Hayes

3.14 William Michael Morgan

3.15 Keith Sykes

3.16 Pick Pick Pass w/ Kevin Mac, Thom Shepherd, David Tolliver

3.19 Salute the Songbird with Maggie Rose, Special Guest: Molly Tuttle

3.21 Julie Roberts

WRITERS’ ROUNDS AT CHIEF’S

3.22 Josh Ward

3.24 Buddy’s Place Writers’ Round w/ Adam Hambrick, Brett Sherocky, Twinnie

3.26 Uncle B’s Drunk with Power String Band feat Bryan Simpson w/ Madeline Edwards, Brenna Macmillan, Elvie Shane

3.27 Terry McBride

3.28 Aaron Nichols & The Travellers - Chris Stapleton Tribute

3.29 Kaitlyn Croker - “Trouble I Chase” Release Party Free Show

TICKETS AT

At Chief’s we understand that great music is born from the heart and soul of it’s creators, which is why our writers’ rounds are dedicated to celebrating the brilliant minds behind some of today’s most iconic songs.

Cigarettes & Pizza

Salute the Songbird with Maggie Rose

PARK CAFE AND LOLA

Keeping

it real

with cocktails, random bar talk and tapas in Sylvan Park

BY DANNY BONVISSUTO

Date Night is a multipart road map for everyone who wants a nice evening out, but has no time to plan it. It’s for people who want to do more than just go to one restaurant and call it a night. It’s for overwhelmed parents who don’t get out often; for friends who visit the same three restaurants because they’re too afraid to try someplace new; and for busy folks who keep forgetting all the places they’ve driven past, heard about, seen on social and said, “Let’s remember that place next time we go out.”

I’M TRYING TO get out of my house and into the world more often. Working from home is 99 percent awesome with the 1 percent downside that I spend too much time in my own head. So when I interact with an actual human being while walking the dog or checking out at the grocery store, I feel rusty and wonder if what I’m saying makes any sense — or if people are just smiling and nodding until they can politely

move away from the crazy lady who’s yapping too much because she never talks to anyone.

It’s with this intention in mind that I asked my husband Dom, who needed to run a few errands before our latest Date Night, to drop me off at our first stop on his way. I wanted to be the anonymous woman at the bar for a half-hour just to see what magic the universe would send my way. The universe did not disappoint.

STOP 1: PARK CAFE

In the 24 years since Park Cafe opened, it’s been dark outside and packed inside every time I’ve visited. So being there for the happy hour — 4 to 6 p.m., in the daylight before the dinner rush — made me feel a little naked. I took a seat at the bar, set my purse on the spot to my left for Dom and ordered an $8 Sunset Margarita (tequila, triple sec, sour, lime and pomegranate juice) while listening to a conversation the man to my right and two ladies were having about

gutter cleaning. I am a champion eavesdropper; I only wish there were a way to monetize this gift.

The man was clearly a regular: The bartender called him by name and random passersby stopped to say hello. After the two ladies paid their tab and left, Mr. Regular turned to me and asked how I managed to look tan on the first sunny, warm day of 2025. I explained that I’d just taken a long walk in a tank top and that my skin soaks up the sun quickly. Then he asked my alltime favorite question.

I hope you don’t mind me asking, but … are you Jewish?

As a woman of Italian and Middle Eastern heritage, I used to get this question all the time when Nashville was less ethnically diverse. Then people stopped asking, likely out of fear of being canceled or perhaps because they just never looked up from their phones. I love when people ask me this, because they’re always

genuinely curious and it never fails to jumpstart an interesting conversation. In this case, Mr. Regular and I started there, then moved on to DNA testing; his dog; a rally he attended at the Capitol (with his dog); Franklin in the ’70s and ’80s; a book he read; the book I brought with me to the bar in case I was bored; his long-ago divorce; and how important it is to get to the bar at Sperry’s in Belle Meade right at 4 p.m. if you want a seat.

In the middle of our easy back-and-forth,

Park Cafe 4403 Murphy Road parkcafenashville.com

Lola 4401 Murphy Road lolanashville.com

GOAT CHEESE PIZZA AND HUMMUS PLATE AT PARK CAFE

SUNSET MARGARITA AT PARK CAFE

PHOTOS: ANGELINA CASTILLO

Dom texted that he was making his way through traffic, so I ordered him a Cuke Duke (cucumber vodka, spicy bitters, orgeat syrup, soda, lime) and two appetizers to share from the happy hour menu.

Shortly after Dom arrived, Mr. Regular bid us goodnight, prompting Dom to ask if he’d been hitting on me. While we drug thick squash and carrot wedges through a nice plate of hummus mixed with pesto, I explained that it didn’t feel that way. I think we both just needed to talk to someone. Dom, who is a card-carrying member of the Anti-Mayo Coalition, wouldn’t touch the goat cheese pizza because Dijonnaise was listed as an ingredient. Too bad for him — that hint of mustard, mixed with the warm goat cheese, rosemary, caramelized onions and almonds, made it memorable.

Park, as the locals call it, was a chef-owned restaurant until late 2023, when it was bought by the hospitality group that also purchased Germantown Café, but it still feels like a neighborhood hang and hasn’t been stripped of its soul (or, thankfully, its green chile mac-andcheese).

STOP 2: LOLA

Lola is right next door to Park Cafe, but I never pass up an opportunity to stroll the Murphy Road strip that starts with a coin-operated laundromat and ends with a life-size yellow longhorn bull right before the roundabout. I love that a few steps separate you from adopting a puppy, doing a load of whites and buying either a cold Sun Drop or a $50 pair of earrings. That’s the Nashville I know and love.

Part of the Siège Hospitality restaurant group that has Kalamatas and Santo in Green Hills and Epice in 12South — all of which are Mediterranean — Lola stands out with Spanish tapas. It

fills a niche in a walkable area that already offers Italian, Mexican and barbecue.

The space is striking: It reminds me of Epice in that white walls and a few design details let the people and food add the color, plus the ever-important patio vibe. But Lola is newer and sleeker, with tall ceilings and more natural light. Day or night, it’s one of those beautiful spaces that makes everyone in it beautiful by association.

Dom and I toasted not with a drink, but with the Veggie Gilda, two small skewers with an olive, cornichon, pepper and cube of cheese on each — possibly the smartest $4 dish in town. Then we scooped Tomatoes Tartare, basically

a sexier version of salsa, onto sesame crackers and used our forks when the crackers quickly ran out.

Thanks to fantastic pacing, crispy artichokes followed with crispier bits of basil in the bottom of the bowl, which I ate with my fingers; then it was local mushrooms in Parmesan cream, cured egg yolk and kimchi broth. In the glow of string lights, I couldn’t tell the difference between slices of fish and citrus in the tuna crudo, which made every bite a fun surprise.

From our spot on the patio, which was enclosed and heated (for now), we finished up with a Crèma Catalana, a Spanish version of crème

brûlée that expertly pairs the unlikely flavor combo of espresso and lemon. Dom wanted to crack it all beforehand, but I preferred to crack the citrus-sugar crust with each bite. Something about that sound is so satisfying.

Our two-top was just beside Lola’s bar. That gave me a lovely view of Maher Fawaz, Siège Hospitality co-owner, who stopped in for a pulse check, and — in stark contrast — a man on his laptop Slack messaging in one tab and scrolling $2 million properties on another, sadly preventing anyone from getting to know him or learning anything about his ethnic heritage and the cleanliness of his gutters. ▼

CRISPY ARTICHOKES AT LOLA

TOMATOES TARTARE AT LOLA

VEGGIE GILDA AT LOLA

PHOTOS: ANGELINA CASTILLO

YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD TAPROOMS

REP YOUR CITY

REP YOUR CITY REP YOUR CITY

REP YOUR CITY

REP YOUR CITY REP YOUR CITY REP YOUR CITY

REP YOUR CITY

Scene!the

REP YOUR CITY

ART PAPER SOURCE

Emily Holt’s reclaimed paper artworks are an abundance of little discoveries

BY CAT ACREE

IN 2006, AMERICAN poet Linda Gregg published the essay “The Art of Finding” in praise of finding poetry rather than crafting it.

“I believe that poetry at its best is found rather than written,” she writes. Gregg defines finding not as happenstance, but as locating what she calls the “resonant sources” that already exist deep inside you. “Your resonant sources will be different from mine and will differ from those around you. They may be your long family life, your political rage, your love and sexuality, your fears and secrets, your ethnic identity — anything. The point is not what they are but that they are yours.”

I find myself thinking of Gregg’s resonant sources and their “provoking, instigating, germinating, irradiating” powers when considering work from folks like Emily Holt or Jodi Hays — multimedia artists whose materials come from scraps, off-cuts, byproducts and even their own disassembled art. These artists’ sources are such clearly poetic, generative forces, so resonant that you can practically hear them screaming, like the cicada-nuns in Holt’s latest solo show, Lossless Found at Julia Martin Gallery.

Playfulness and spontaneity have always been at the heart of Holt’s creations, whether she’s working with scrap wood or scrap paper, whether assembling booklets or sculptural creatures or dioramas. Lossless Found primarily features paper assemblages, though you’ll notice some coaxial cable and wood, among other materials. Some are like giant tapestries, others more like framed dioramas. Some very clearly look like a theatrical scene (A castle! A house!), and others are more abstract. All of them are delicate and whimsical.

In her artist statement, Holt describes one of her resonant sources for the Lossless Found showstopper, “Esplanade Promenade,” a floor-to-ceiling tapestry hanging from a battered white baluster. She writes about one of her first times traveling far from her home in Memphis, when she first visited New Orleans at the age of 13 and saw that it was “like no other place on Earth.” Thirty-six years later, in the summer of 2024, Holt chose to make the city one of her resonant sources, with daily walks up and down Esplanade Avenue, into the French Quarter and even a dip through City Park. “Esplanade Promenade” is two long

pieces of paper with oscillating cutouts, but something about their curling edges and the way the pieces are barely in contact with each other feels exactly like transporting yourself to another place.

Holt’s mixture of handmade elements (eyeballed scalloped cutouts, natural paper, painted elements) and machine-made elements (perfect circles, zigzag sewing machine stitches) encourages the viewer to stand a nose away or less. One of my first moments of discovery in Lossless Found was noticing that the backs of some of the pieces are neon pink, so they glow slightly from behind. It’s a delight when an artist is able to re-create the little thrill — that “what could this be?” feeling — of discovery. Imagine your eye falling on something incredible on the ground, and realizing that people had been walking past it for days; the pink glow is like that feeling.

She uses color in abundance, but its absence is equally divine: The four color-blocked cicadas (“Cicada Sister Miriam,” “Cicada Sister June,” “Cicada Sister Flo” and “Cicada Sister Elvira”) feel like bold characters, and the color-drained cascading “Veil” feels most like an artifact or relic, perhaps the closest to being most recently stumbled upon. Strips of player-piano roll-paper appear in the flip-book layers of “Climb,” and those mechanically punched holes offer a little magic to the tiny hand-punched holes throughout all the pieces in the show. What if all of Lossless Found were fed into a player piano? What

Lossless Found Through March 29 at Julia Martin Gallery, 444 Humphreys St.

songs would it play?

Holt, a longtime teacher at the University School of Nashville who earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from MTSU and a master’s in fine arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, writes about how her “viewer is cast as an actor,” and her folded, layered structures feel much like theatrical scenes in that way. “River House” stretches out before us; we are knee-deep in the middle of Holt’s river, and her folded triangles point us downstream. “Travers,” a tapestry that’s been opened (a red cord hangs to the side, like a pulley to change the set dressing) to reveal a tumbling scene of towers and hills, is nothing less than a myth whose story I would like to know.

Gregg’s resonant sources are like beans in a fairy tale: “They are present as essences. They operate invisibly as energy, equivalents, touchstones, amulets, buried seed, repositories, and catalysts.” They’re boundlessly regenerative, something that can be folded and refolded, cut and resewn, just like Holt’s artwork in full playfulness mode. ▼

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SISTERHOOD

Bridgett M. Davis remembers her sister’s strength and struggles in Love, Rita BY

WHITNEY BRYANT

BRIDGETT M. DAVIS’ memoir Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy is a tribute to Davis’ extraordinary older sister Rita — who died of lupus in 2000 at 44. It is also a chronicle of the systemic racism that likely hastened her death, and an attempt to answer the heartbreaking question Davis raises in the prologue: “Why couldn’t I save her? Why didn’t I?”

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SATURDAY STORYTIME with NASHVILLE CHILDREN'S THEATRE at PARNASSUS Dino Time!

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6:30PM EMMA DONOGHUE

with CAT BOCK at PARNASSUS The Paris Express

6:30PM

FRIDAY, MARCH 28

ALLIE MILLINGTON with KRISTIN O'DONNELL TUBB at PARNASSUS Once For Yes

Davis — who focused on her mother in her earlier memoir, The World According to Fannie Davis — uses memories, letters and interviews with Rita’s friends to create a vivid portrait of her sister: her resourcefulness, perseverance, elegance and unflagging care for her loved ones. Rita was a test driver, an amateur belly dancer and special education teacher. She was the first in her family to graduate from college, moving from Detroit to Nashville — the Davis family’s “ancestral home” — to attend Fisk University.

As an adult, Rita’s resilience was challenged by a racially motivated firing and a real estate scam that targeted Black homeowners. In each case, Rita fought back and won. No matter what obstacles she faced, she maintained her generosity and kindness. Of her sister’s remarkable ability to connect with people, Davis writes, “It’s what I envied and admired about Rita, in equal doses.”

The sisters’ relationship was complex, evolving from childhood jealousy to mutual admiration to the powerful bond that developed as they navigated the deaths of their parents and siblings. When their father was hospitalized for hypertension-related heart disease, the family was confident he would get proper care. That faith persisted when Rita was diagnosed with lupus. “I thought we were lucky to be that kind of Black family, with resources and access,” Davis recalls. However, their father died in the hospital at age 51. Rita and Bridgett’s three siblings and their mother also died prematurely, all of preventable causes.

To explain how theirs became a “family story of tragedy,” Davis supplements her narrative with research on racism’s effects on the health of Black Americans, especially Dr. Arline T. Geronimus’ Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society. Davis posits a connection between her loved ones’ deaths and a lack of curiosity and empathy on the part of the medical establishment toward Black patients, especially those with obesity, addiction or autoimmune disorders assumed to be controllable through lifestyle changes.

Despite the sisters’ closeness, the burden of caring for and burying their relatives fell on Rita, who returned to Detroit while the author moved to New York to begin her career. Davis

speculates that unremitting stress and grief hastened the progression of Rita’s lupus. She also reflects with rigorous honesty on the reasons for her infrequent trips to Detroit during Rita’s decline, as well as her willingness to believe Rita when she downplayed her failing health in their frequent letters and phone calls.

In the final section of the memoir, Davis includes the letters she wrote to Rita after her death, which poignantly reveal her own struggles with loss and grief. About a year after Rita’s death, Davis wrote: “It’s so difficult to live without you. I am not who I was one year ago. … So begins my new life, beyond your transition: this is it. It’s going to be like nothing else I’ve lived, and something I can’t even imagine.”

In the end, Love, Rita offers not one but many answers to Davis’ question, “Why couldn’t I save her?” This complexity is fitting in a memoir that celebrates an individual’s life while intertwining it with the discriminatory social and eco-

nomic forces that cut it short. Thanks to Davis’ vivid portrait of her sister’s grace and courage, the reader is left agreeing with the author’s assertion that “Rita’s life mattered, and it keeps mattering.”

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

Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss and Legacy

By Bridgett M. Davis Harper, 384 pages $29.99

AARON LEE TASJAN & FRIENDS featuring BOBBY BARE JR., RICKI, DONI SCHROEDER, BRIAN WRIGHT, JON LATHAM, KIM RICHEY & JULIA CANNON

BLUEBIRD ON 3RD featuring RYAN LARKINS, MARLA CANNONGOODMAN & BRICE LONG with TRAE SHEEAN AND PIPER MADISON

THE LONG PLAYERS performing Steve Millers LP “FLY LIKE AN EAGLE” featuring JOSEPH WOOTEN, JOE BLANTON, JONATHAN BRIGHT, WARNER HODGES, MAC LEAPHART, KEN MCMAHAN, DAVE PERKINS, SUZI RAGSDALE & MICHAEL REYNOLDS

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FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIK

Little Rock’s RWAKE returns after 13 years

BY SEAN L. MALONEY

THE WEIRDEST THING happened when I listened to The Return of Magik, Little Rock, Ark., metal wraiths RWAKE’s first album since 2011: I got the warm fuzzies. It wasn’t what I was expecting — this is, after all, one of the most terrifying doom outfits to ever haul a body of work out of the backwoods of Southern music. But the magic is in fact back, more fearsome and furious than ever on the sprawling new double LP from Relapse Records.

Return of Magik takes the band’s spellcraft into both more intimate and more cosmic places while they summon the monster riffs that have been crushing underground audiences for decades. The Scene caught up with co-vocalist Brittany Fugate and guitarist John Judkins to talk about the process of recording and finding the magic in the work before they bring the ritual ear massacre of a release celebration to Eastside Bowl’s The ’58 on Friday.

“Our life force is being able to come together as a unit and create such beautiful and honest things,” says Fugate. “It’s the fuel of life. … It’s so important to be able to have that outlet — just, like, all of it. It’s just so important to our souls to have that.

“And at the end of the day, it’s such a cathartic experience for all of us that to pick out the favorite part of it is almost impossible to me because, again, it’s just such a cathartic experience that you need it and you just love it so much.”

For Judkins, a Middle Tennessee native and longtime local heavy rocker now based in Miami, this album marks his first contribution to the band’s recording process. He joined the group around the release of their previous epic Rest. But his history with the band goes back even further.

“Well, I’ve known these guys since ’97,” Judkins explains. “I was in an old death metal band called Denial of Grace, and they played, we opened for them. It was at [long-shuttered Nashville record shop and venue] Lucy’s. … I remember being like, ‘What the fuck’s going on?’ [Co-vocalist Chris Terry] is talking about speaking to the insects so they can carry the story — our songs — to whenever the world ends. … And I was a 16-year-old little country boy from McMinnville. So I’ve always had a respect for them, built in from that mystery.

“The difference between being younger and being older is [your] appreciation changes,”

he continues. “You realize that you’re not invincible, and that you actually do love life and living. And so appreciation changes. So, of course, you appreciate people more and what you contribute.”

Return of Magik has a drawling take on folk horror and esoteric earth magick — something like A24 in the Ozarks. The group builds a world from a dense, often cataclysmic clash of textures. In opener “You Swore We’d Always Be Together,” an Erik Satie-like pastoralism cedes to sludgy quicksand suffocation, before ethereal slide guitar weaves its way in and more skull-crushing riffology dominates the soundscape.

The title track wastes no time opening up the pit in our blackened hearts, with pummeling beats and a vocal duel that’s as intense as it is dynamic. The narrative and harmonic arcs twist and turn, burning like a wicker man in a fogshrouded forest — each song drifting dangerously close to burning the whole world down.

“We’ve always been more of a live band,” says Fugate. “To truly be a part of that ritualistic experience through a live show where it really connects that way … to be able to go and have

that experience for us and to give that experience to other people.”

“I’ve just been itching for this opportunity to really be a part of the writing process in earnest, and then the recording process,” Judkins explains. “I can say that [my bandmates are] my brothers and sisters. To get this record out there has been really important for me just to kind of solidify how much I love this music, how much I love these people, and to be involved with it in the most official capacity as possible.”

Which brings us back to the warm fuzzies. That weird vibe that runs underneath this pulsing slab of progressive doom? Turns out it’s love and friendship. For all of the spooky vibes and portents of destruction, you can hear this six-piece having a blast, escalating and elevating the madness in the way that old friends so often do.

“At the end of the day, there’s no substitute for the six of us getting onstage and the energy from that, coupled with the energy of the room,” Fugate says. “We absolutely love it and crave it and need it. I think we need it now more than ever. I think the world needs it now more than ever.” ▼

Playing 8 p.m. Friday, March 14, at The ’58 at Eastside Bowl

PHOTO: JONATHON OUDTHONE

GOOD OMEN

Nashville’s OmenBringer is working to change a decades-old narrative

BY ADDIE MOORE

WHEN VOCALIST AND lyricist Molly Marie Kent plotted the grassroots rise of OmenBringer during the COVID-19 lockdown, she dreamed of making metal shows in Nashville more gender-inclusive with a band that’s danceable and accessible yet witchy and heavy.

“We have all types of ladies that come to our shows,” Kent says. “We have straight gals, queer gals, trans gals. We try to get all of them up to the front of the stage. I tell them, ‘Come up to the front — ladies to the front.’ Everybody kind of moves out of the way and lets these girls come up and be in the front, which is so much fun to flirt and engage with them from the stage. They write our logo, our rune, on their chest and come take pictures with me afterwards. It’s just really fun cultivating this coven, because then I have all of these nice girls that I send memes to on Instagram.”

As Kent’s Bikini Kill-esque stage banter reminds us, metal is not the only outsider rock genre that’s guilty of historically being a boys’ club. It just happens to be the space in which Kent’s working to change a decades-old narrative.

“If the venue ever has sketchy parking or anything like that, we always tell the girls, ‘Hey, any of us will help you get to your car safely,’” Kent adds. “People know that and know that they’re going to have a good time. And they know they can bring their girlfriends and they’re going to have a good time. That’s how we’ve grown so much organically, is just lots of community love and love back and forth, reciprocating from the stage to the audience.”

Kent has established that OmenBringer is for everyone with the help of bandmates Cory Cline (guitar), Mario Galati (bass), Spookie Rollings (rhythm guitar) and Tyler Boydstun (drums).

“They’re all such strong, wonderful people and kindhearted, good guys that are not only kind and wonderful but extremely talented,” Kent says. “Everybody in my band plays more than one instrument or can sing or can write or knows how to record.”

OmenBringer built enough local support since debuting in 2022 to land at the top of the Scene’s 2024 readers’ poll for Best Band. They did so by chasing rock stardom with the stage theatrics and memorable hooks and riffs of classic rock — not by pigeonholing themselves into any extreme metal niche.

“I always describe to everybody that we are the next KISS,” Kent says. “We are taking up the torch from KISS — like, performative and metal

but party music and rock ’n’ roll. We’re out here to make a big impression and give people what they want — if they want what I want, that is.”

OmenBringer’s growing fandom has been maintained in part because each local show gets billed as a can’t-miss event by Kent, a supreme self-promoter.

“We have people that have been to every show that just love us,” she says. “All of them will be able to attest that we have never played the same show twice. We do different songs at every show. We do different things. We have gimmicks that we do for songs and stuff, but we really try to keep it fresh for our local audience. We’re going to start touring this year a little bit, so we’ll come up with a more cohesive stage show that we just do every time when we’re out of town. But we’ll always keep it really spicy and fresh in town because there’s so much competition, so you have to stand out and be good and have something more to offer than you’re just going to get up there and play.” ▼

MUSIC: THE SPIN

THE ONLY PLACE FOR ME

BY MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER

FRIDAY NIGHT, Sierra Hull went tiptoeing across a high wire of bluegrass excellence with help from a few friends.

Hull, a prodigious mandolin picker and singer-songwriter from Byrdstown, Tenn., celebrated the release of her aptly titled album A Tip Toe High Wire with a sprawling set of string-band music at Brooklyn Bowl. To commemorate the new songs, Hull invited a rotating cast of collaborators to join her, including banjo legend Béla Fleck guitar ace Molly Tuttle and multi-instrumentalist Justin Moses (who’s also Hull’s husband).

Playing 8 p.m. Friday, March 14, at Exit/In

High Wire is the first album in five years from the 31-year-old musician. She released the LP independently after parting from Rounder Records, the label that signed her as a can’t-miss 13-year-old who was catching fire in bluegrass circles. She toasted the new record the best way an artist can: by playing it start to finish, with some catalog classics thrown in. Backstage a half-hour before her set, Hull likened release day to a birthday, in part because of the well wishes that roll in.

“There’s a part of me that feels most at home when I can share my own music,” Hull told the Scene. “That’s

PHOTO: DECLAND MCQUEEN.

when you can, in some ways, give the fullest piece of yourself.”

Onstage, Hull and her four-piece group (Avery Merritt on fiddle, Shaun Richardson on guitar, Erik Coveney on bass and Mark Raudabaugh on drums) wasted no time digging into the songs and showmanship that make them — alongside fellow genre-pushing artists like Billy Strings and the aforementioned Tuttle — a must-see ticket in bluegrass today. The show balanced freewheeling fun with sincere storytelling. One moment, the band was swapping riffs while the crowd howled along to rowdy instrumental “Movement 3,” a fan favorite (that’s also part of a concerto commissioned in 2022 by the FreshGrass Foundation) played early in Friday’s show. Before they knew what hit them, Hull was silencing onlookers with album closer “Haven Hill,” an earnest tale that wouldn’t be out of place in an intimate afternoon jam.

After opening the show with “How Long,” a song from her 2020 album 25 Trips, Hull and company offered a selection of older songs before setting their sights on High Wire. The album begins with “Boom,” a song whose head-bobbing groove gives way to a chorus marked by layers of harmonies.

“I’ve been looking forward to tonight for quite some time,” Hull said from the stage before the album segment. “I’ve been living with this music for a while, but now we get to give it to you.”

Stephanie Lambring, a stop-you-in-your-tracks

indie songwriter, opened the show with a solo performance of her unvarnished songs that give attention to life’s everyday struggles. Both her “Fine” and “Hospital Parking” floored the audience. Lambring returned to kick off the parade of guest appearances in Hull’s set with a rendition of High Wire’s “Muddy Water,” a tune Hull introduced as “peeling back the layers” of a person until the truth shows.

Later, Tuttle joined in on harmonies and guitar for the life-on-the-road tune “Let’s Go,” while Fleck added his banjo touch to “E Tune,” a crowd-pleasing instrumental whose studio version he also performed on. But no song hit quite like “Redbird,” an indie-folk ballad dedicated to Hull’s late grandmother, in which she sings: “Redbird out my window / Won’t you take me with you when you go?”

After High Wire, Hull returned to her catalog, with a little support from the crew, of course. Tuttle and Fleck joined for “Black River,” a haunting number highlighted by the latter’s banjo skills. Tuttle assisted on upbeat country tune “Best Buy” before Fleck returned for a rollicking rendition of his instrumental “Stomping Grounds,” during which Hull and the band embarked on an extended jam while the crowd stomped along.

The ensemble briefly exited before their one-song encore, a mandolin-and-fiddle take on Tears for Fears’ “Mad World.” Hull and her group make the ’80s pop staple their own, providing a fitting end to nearly two hours of confidently treading the tightrope between tradition and innovation. ▼

Saturday, March 15

SONGWRITER SESSION

Canaan Smith

NOON · FORD THEATER

Saturday, March 15

POETS AND PROPHETS

Natalie Hemby

2:30 pm · FORD THEATER

Sunday, March 16

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Emerald Rae with Oisín Cooke and Eamonn Dillon 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Thursday, March 20

EXHIBIT OPENING RECEPTION

color SHADE

5:00 pm · HALEY GALLERY

Saturday, March 22

HATCH SHOW PRINT

Block Party

9:30 am, NOON, and 2:30 pm HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP LIMITED AVAILABILITY

WITNESS HISTORY

Museum Membership Receive free admission, access to weekly programming, concert ticket presale opportunities, and more.

Saturday, March 22

MUSIC AND CONVERSATION

Meet Luke

Combs’s Band

The Wild Cards 11:00 am · FORD THEATER

Saturday, March 22

INTERVIEW

Chris Kappy Artist Manager 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER

Sunday, March 23

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Vickie Vaughn 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, March 29

SONGWRITER SESSION James House NOON · FORD THEATER

FAMILIAR FACES: SIERRA HULL

Black Bag R, 93 minutes

SPY VS. SPY

Black Bag is both spy story and surly soap opera

BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY

“IT’S THAT BRANDY and Kanye song!”

That thought flashed in my head on the Lyft ride home after I saw Black Bag, this month’s Steven Soderbergh film, which is being marketed as a straight-faced Mr. and Mrs. Smith. But after viewing the movie, I realized it reminded me more of “Talk About Our Love,” the mid-Aughts jam in which the R&B princess and the thennot-batshit-crazy rapper assumed the roles of lovers who wade through the envy, jealousy and Haterade of their friends and neighbors. That’s really what Black Bag is about.

As top-tier agents in London’s National Cyber Security Centre, George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett) are a couple who don’t — or shall we say, can’t — bring their work home with them. (Pierce Brosnan, Remington 007 himself, plays their blustery boss.) When one or the other has to instantly attend to business, they lovingly tell their spouse the movie’s title, which is intelligence slang for “top secret.” (Since we’re talking about Soderbergh here, it could also be a reference to The Black Bag, a lost silent mystery from the 1920s about a detective who does some dirty shit to keep a thieving lady he’s fallen for out of jail.)

The couple’s marital bliss is tested when George receives a list of employees who are suspected of stealing a deadly cyber-worm MacGuffin — and Kathryn’s on it. Now, this makes Bag sound like another tale of superspies who deal with danger, paranoia and possible betrayal in both love and war. But once again, this is gotdamn Soderbergh we’re talking about here — the guy who’s always looking to put a fresh spin

on a genre flick. And the spin for this one is it’s also a dramedy about fucked-up relationships. (Remember all those insufferable ensemble ’90s rom-coms that kept winning awards at Sundance? Kinda like that.)

The other suspects on George’s list are coworkers/dinner-date chums who are engaged in less-than-copacetic workplace relationships. Naomie Harris’ staff psychologist is having an inferior fling with Regé-Jean Page’s caddish, ambitious agent, while Tom Burke’s boozehound operative learns the hard way why he should never cheat on Marisa Abela’s high-strung tech wiz/audience surrogate.

Bag is both bitchy and big-headed — an opulent, fastidious mixture of John le Carré and Neil LaBute. Although he’s not averse to doing a straight-up actioner (like when he had Fassbender, Ewan McGregor and Channing Tatum go toe to toe with Gina Carano in that other globe-trotting spy thriller, Haywire), Soderbergh and veteran screenwriter David Koepp (whose CV includes the first Mission: Impossible movie and that Jack Ryan reboot Chris Pine did a decade ago) are more interested in shots that are given verbally.

Soderbergh and Koepp pile on dense dialogue to make it sound like smart, important shit is going down all the time. But it’s the moments when these secret-agent men and women get all catty, cruel and passive-aggressive with each other that turn this spy story into a surly soap opera. The most intense, suspenseful stuff happens when these couples are around a dinner table, knocking back glasses of wine, and revealing secrets that are more personal

than government-related.

As always, Soderbergh — who also served as cinematographer and editor (don’t let that “Mary Ann Bernard” credit fool you!) — keeps things both lean and extra. Black Bag is a tight 93 minutes, but it’s still lacquered up with showroom swankiness. While the workplace scenes are visually drab and dire (Severance isn’t the only thing out here exposing the noxious, never-ending dread of office corridors), the rest is entertainingly bougie. Between the eye-catching locales and the yuppilicious work of production designer Philip Messina and costumer Ellen Mirojnick, Bag may be the first espionage thriller to make some viewers feel like dumb, broke, lonely muhfuckas. (I know a certain crowd might deem it “elitist.”)

Fassbender (studious, stylish and on the spectrum) and Blanchett (adding some witty sheen to her fierce-temptress-with-demons shtick) have a ball playing too-perfect agents in a too-perfect marriage. It’s like they’re doing parodies of the cold, calculating characters they’ve played oh so well in the past. When they’re in bed ready to get it on, it seems more like they’re performing. Even in a seductive spy flick, Soderbergh shows how the most sparkling of couplings still have to bullshit each other sometimes, just to keep the peace at home.

A spicy, sharp-dressed spy yarn in which more tea is spilled than blood, Black Bag shows that even lethal, married government agents have to duck the toxicity and remind each other that — as the wise star of Moesha once sang — they just want what we got. ▼

Sources of fine

Ijeoma ___, author of 2018’s “So You Want to Talk About Race” 17 Air quality org.

Most hip DOWN

Deconstructed, in a way

2 Kamala Harris and Thurgood Marshall vis-à-vis Howard University

3 Benefit 4 Stick it out

22 Catherine ___, surviving wife of King Henry VIII

23 Platform that might update while you sleep

24 Closure

28 Eschew carbs, maybe

30 NASA probe named for a Roman goddess

31 “No problemo”

Balance 34 Drags (in) 35 Arrange? 37 Canine? 39 Diminish, as trust 40 Sense of foreboding

Self-obsession 44 Darth Sidious, e.g., in the “Star Wars” universe

45 Machine learning fodder 49 Hiking?

51 Abraham Van Helsing and John Seward in “Dracula”: Abbr.

52 Zelda console, in brief

5 Drink with a Frosted Lemonade variety

6 Capital ball club, familiarly 7 Medium strength?

8 “What’s cookin’?” response

9 Clock radio feature

10 Rotten-smelling

11 “Your point being …?”

12 Submission to a record executive

13 Parts of a season

14 Become fuller, in a way

19 Serve hot takes

23 Paid no heed to

25 Fail to do something out of fear, with “out”

26 Wonks ... or a candy once owned by the Willy Wonka Candy Company

27 “Street Dreams” rapper

29 Obsequious sorts

30 #35

33 Smart-alecky

35 Ballpark player not wearing a uniform

36 Got a closer look

37 Org. that sells “Go Vegan and Nobody Gets Hurt” T-shirts

38 “Ni-i-ice!”

39 “Mice!”

40 Cost of doing business, maybe

41 Chinese “hello”

43 Rare type of rental car

46 ___ from afar

47 Remnants

48 Classify

50 Comes out of one’s skin

54 “OMG, I’m dying over here”

55 Mother to Apollo and Artemis

56 One-footed jump

57 Record player speed, for short

58 Test for an M.B.A. seeker

59 Air quality org.?

nytimes.com/studentcrosswords.

IN THE CHANCERY COURT FOR THE STATE OF TENNESSEE TWENTIETH JUDICIAL DISTRICT, DAVIDSON COUNTY No. 24-1273-II

IN RE: THE MATTER OF NAME CHANGE OF KALIYHA FINLEY-GRAY BY NEXT FRIEND: PATRICIA GRAY Petitioner, vs. TARVISO FINLEY Whereabouts Unknown Respondent.

ORDER

IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED, and DECREED that the Motion for Service by Publication filed by Petitioner, Patricia Gray, as Next Friend of her granddaughter, Kaliyha Finley-Gray, is hereby granted and it is hereby ordered that Respondent, Tarviso Finley, will be served by publication notice in The Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Davidson County, Tennessee for a period of four (4) consecutive weeks.

IT IS ORDERED.

ANNE C. MARTIN CHANCELLOR, PART II

APPROVED FOR ENTRY:

Marykate E. Williams #041708

CAMPBELL PERKY JOHNSON, PLLC 329 S. Royal Oaks Blvd., Suite 205 Franklin, Tennessee 37064 (615)914-3038 marykate@cpj.law

NSC 3/13, 3/20, 3/27, 4/3/25

NOTICE

Cyndey Gordan:

A Petition For Termination Of Parental Rights And Petition For Adoption has been filed against you seeking to terminate your parental rights to Kamilla Stone. You are hereby ORDERED to appear for hearing on that Petition on March 28, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. at Williamson County Chancery Court, 135 4th Avenue South, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 or to otherwise enter an appearance in this matter. If you fail to do so, an order may be entered against you for the relief requested in the Petition. You may view and obtain a copy of the Petition and any other subsequently filed legal documents in the Chancery Court Clerk’s Office at the address shown above.

3/20/25

NSC

IN THE CHANCERY COURT FOR DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE Docket No. 24-1495-III

COTTAGES AT WILLIAMS BEND TOWNHOUSE CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. ELTON D. FIELDER, Defendant.

PUBLICATION NOTICE PURSUANT ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR SERVICE BY PUBLICATION ON DEFENDANT

By the Order Granting Motion for Service by Publication on Defendant of the Davidson County Chancery Court and signed on March 6, 2025, it appears that the Defendant Elton D. Fielder, owner of real property at 1621 Lincoya Bay Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37214, cannot be located upon diligent search and inquiry and that ordinary process of law cannot be served upon him. Service of process by publication pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 21-1-203 and 204 has been ordered, and Elton D. Fielder is hereby required to appear and answer or otherwise defend against the Complaint for Monetary Damages and for Judicial Foreclosure filed on December 10, 2024 by the Plaintiff Cottages at Williams Bend Townhouse Corporation, whose attorney is David M. Anthony, Exo Legal PLLC, 901 Woodland Street, Nashville, TN 37206, within 30 days after the date of the last publication of this notice; otherwise, a default judgment shall be entered against said defendant in open court for the relief demanded in the petition.

This notice shall be published in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper of general circulation serving Davidson County, once weekly for four consecutive weeks.

Elton D. Fielder, owner

erty at 1621 Lincoya Bay Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37214, cannot be located upon diligent search and inquiry and that ordinary process of law cannot be served upon him. Service of process by publication pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 21-1-203 and 204 has been ordered, and Elton D. Fielder is hereby required to appear and answer or otherwise defend against the Complaint for Monetary Damages and for Judicial Foreclosure filed on December 10, 2024 by the Plaintiff Cottages at Williams Bend Townhouse Corporation, whose attorney is David M. Anthony, Exo Legal PLLC, 901 Woodland Street, Nashville, TN 37206, within 30 days after the date of the last publication of this notice; otherwise, a default judgment shall be entered against said defendant in open court for the relief demanded in the petition. This notice shall be published in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper of general circulation serving Davidson County, once weekly for four consecutive weeks.

By: David M. Anthony, Exo Legal PLLC - david@exolegal.com - (615) 869-0634 Attorneys for Plaintiff NSC 3/13, 3/20, 3/27, 4/3/25

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By: David M. Anthony, Exo Legal PLLC - david@exolegal.com - (615) 869-0634 Attorneys for Plaintiff NSC 3/13, 3/20, 3/27, 4/3/25

TN), WSP USA, Inc.: Cnfr w fld srvyrs, GIS anlysts & engrs to asst in hydrlgc & hydrlc mdlng of riverine systms. Reqs: Bach’s (or frgn equiv)in Civl Engg, Envrnmntl Engg or rltd; 1 yr exp as Watr Resrces Engr, Envrnmntl Engr or rltd. Email resume to jobs@wsp.com, Ref: 7575.

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