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| Nu mb er 4 | Febr u a r y 17-Ma r ch 3 , 2 021

UNSUNG BLACK HISTORY

IN THE ISSUE 4

Contributor Board

Tom Wills, Chair Cathy Jennings, Bruce Doeg, Demetria Kalodimos, Ann Bourland, Kerry Graham, Peter Macdonald, Amber DuVentre, Jerome Moore, Erik Flynn

LOCALES - POLÍTICA - INMIGRACIÓN - TRABAJOS - SALUD - ESPECTÁCULOS - DEPORTES Y MÁS...

12L a N ticia 15

GRATIS Febrero/2

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2021

www.hispanicpaper.com

Año 19 - No. 324

“DONDE OCURREN LOS HECHOS QUE IMPORTAN, SIEMPRE PRIMERO... ANTES”

Nashville, Tennessee

Pruebas de detección y viajes internacionales durante el COVID-19

Hace un par de semanas realicé un viaje que debido al estado severo del tiempo se convirtió en uno de multiples escalas inesperadas en el esfuerzo de la aerolínea, en la que tenía mi itinerario, de resolver las cancelaciones de vuelos a mi destino final. Esto que Por Yuri Cunza La Noticia me ocurrió en el aeropuerto de Chicago, Editor inChief Illinois, me causó una @LaNoticiaNews gran incertidumbre y preocupación al enterarme que existe una regulación, en este estado, de requirir una cuarentena obligatoria a la llegada. Si por alguna razón tuviese que salir del aeropuerto para esperar un próximo vuelo, tendria que acogerme a esta regulación. Esto sin declaración jurada (esta orden entró en duda, hubiese causado un impacto dramá- vigencia el 26 de enero del 2021). tico en mis planes de viaje, y mi economía, además de mi agenda de ocupaciones per- Recomendaciones después de su viaje sonales y de trabajo. Todo esto es muy Hágase una prueba de detección 3 a 5 importante considerar sobre todo para iti- días después del viaje Y quédese en casa nerarios que incluyen salir de Estados y cumpla una cuarentena voluntaria de 7 Unidos con planes de regreso. días después de viajar. Incluso si el resultado de su prueba es ne“Si planea viajar al extranjero, deberá gativo, quédese en casa y cumpla la cuarealizarse la prueba de detección dentro de rentena de 7 días. los 3 días previos a viajar a los Estados Si el resultado de su prueba es positivo, Unidos (EE. UU.) en avión o deberá pre- debe aislarse para proteger a otras persentar una prueba con resultado negativo sonas y que no se infecten. ante la aerolínea antes de abordar el avión Si no se hace la prueba de detección, lo o prepararse para presentar la docu- más seguro es quedarse en casa y cumplir mentación de recuperación (una constancia una cuarentena voluntaria de 10 días de una prueba viral reciente con resultado después del viaje. positivo y carta de su proveedor médico o de un funcionario de salud pública en la que Evite contacto con personas con mayor riesgo de enfermarse gravemente por 14 se indique que está autorizado a viajar). días, se haga una prueba de detección o no. El 12 de enero del 2021, los CDC (Centros de Siempre siga las recomendaciones o requisiControl de Enfermedade) anunciaron la tos locales y estatales de viajes. emisión de una orden que exige que todos los pasajeros provenientes del extranjero Preguntas frecuentes del público: que llegan a los EE. UU. en avión se reali- ¿Este requisito alcanza a los ciudadanos cen una prueba de detección a más tardar 3 estadounidenses? días antes de la salida de su vuelo y presen- Esta orden rige para todos los pasajeros, de ten una constancia de una prueba con 2 años de edad o más, que viajan a los EE. resultado negativo o una documentación UU. en avión, incluidos los ciudadanos y que demuestre su recuperación del COVID- residentes legales de los Estados Unidos. 19 a la aerolínea antes de abordar el avión. Los pasajeros que viajan en avión también ¿Los ciudadanos extranjeros ya no están deberán confirmar que la información pre- sujetos al decreto presidencial de restricción sentada es verdadera mediante una de viajes si pueden presentar una prueba

Foto: Yuri Cunza

In Memorium: Dr. John

Decriminalize Homelessness

La Noticia + The Contributor

Longtime Contributor Vendor Dr. John passed recently. Staff members share memories of him through the years.

Nashville looks for alternatives to traditional policing. How will it effect the unhoused community?

La Noticia, one of the leading Spanish-language Conoce tusthe derechos: newspapers nation, ¿Que hacerin en caso de una redada? brings Spanish content to The Contributor. 1. Mantenerse callado 2. Sólo dar nombre y apellido 3. No mentir 4. Nunca acepte/lleve documentos falsos 5. No revelar su situación migratoria 6. No llevar documentación de otro país 7. En caso de ser arrestado, mostrarla Tarjeta Miranda (llámenos si necesita una)

por

Basados en la Quinta Enmienda de la Constitución, los derechos de guardar silencio y contar con un abogado fueron denominados Derechos Miranda luego de la decisión de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de Estados Unidos en el caso Miranda vs. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, de 1966.

Con excepciones específicas, varios decretos presidenciales suspenden y limitan el ingreso a los Estados Unidos de aquellos ciudadanos extranjeros, ya sean inmigrantes o no inmigrantes, que han estado físicamente presentes en alguno de los países específicos durante un periodo de 14 días antes de ingresar o intentar ingresar a los Estados Unidos.

Para obtener una lista completa de los países y enlaces a los decretos en el sitio web de la Casa Blanca, visite Viajeros con prohibición de entrada a los Estados Unidos.

¿Los territorios estadounidenses se consideran países extranjeros? No, la orden de presentar documentación de un resultado negativo en la prueba de detección del COVID-19 o un certificado que acredite su recuperación del COVID-19 no alcanza a los pasajeros que llegan en

Vendor Writing

Por ejemplo, si el vuelo de un pasajero es a las 1 p. m. de un viernes, el pasajero podría abordar con una prueba con resultado negativo que se haya hecho a cualquier hora el martes anterior o después. ¿Qué es una declaración jurada? Una declaración jurada es una declaración, escrito, anotación u otra representación de conformidad con 18 U.S.C. § 1001 que confirma que la información proporcionada es verdadera. ¿Esta orden se aplica a los cruces fronterizos terrestres? No, los requisitos de esta orden solo se aplican a los viajes aéreos hacia los EE. UU.” (CONTINUARA...) Con información de: www.espanol.cdc.gov Envíenos sus sugerencias por e-mail: news@hispanicpaper.com

In this issue, vendors write about God, delivery drivers, and one vendor continues narrating the adventures of her pet mouse.

Contributors This Issue

Linda Bailey • Amanda Haggard • Hannah Herner • Ron Wynn • Maggie Youngs • Joe Nolan • Barbara Womack • Matthew Lavietes • Jack Graham • Ridley Wills II • Yuri Cunza • Mr. Mysterio • Sherlyn Serrano • Jen A. • Paul A. • John H. • June P.

Contributor Volunteers Joe First • Andy Shapiro • Michael Reilly • Ann Bourland • Patti George • John Jennings • Janet Kerwood • Logan Ebel • Christine Doeg • Laura Birdsall • Nancy Kirkland • Mary Smith • Andrew Smith • Ellen Fletcher • Richard Aberdeen • Shayna Harder Wiggins • Pete MacDonald • Robert Thompson

ww w.ju ane se.c om jua ne seUSA@gmail.com

Cathy Jennings Executive Director Tom Wills Director of Vendor Operations

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!

Hannah Herner Staff Writer Jesse Call Housing Navigator Raven Lintu Housing Navigator Barbara Womack Advertising Manager

The Contributor now accepts Venmo! Scan the QR Code to the left , or find us: @The-Contributor! Make sure to include your vendor’s badge name and number in the description. If you bought this version digitally, you can still leave your regular vendor a tip. Email Cathy@thecontributor.org for more information or with questions!

Amanda Haggard & Linda Bailey Co-Editors Andrew Krinks Editor Emeritus Will Connelly, Tasha F. Lemley, Steven Samra, and Tom WIlls Contributor Co-Founders

Editorials and features in The Contributor are the perspectives of the authors. Submissions of news, opinion, fiction, art and poetry are welcomed. The Contributor reserves the right to edit any submissions. The Contributor cannot and will not endorse any political candidate. Submissions may be emailed to: editorial@thecontributor.org Requests to volunteer, donate, or purchase subscriptions can be emailed to: info@thecontributor.org Please email advertising requests to: advertising@thecontributor.org

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PAGE 2 | February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

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February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 3

VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

Contributor vendor Dr. John Holder dies at 66 BY AMANDA HAGGARD

Contributor vendor and longtime Nashvillian John Holder died in early February. He was 66 years old. Everyone called him Dr. John. He was skilled at chess and loved to fish. He said he loved to sell the paper so he could meet good Christians. He started selling the paper in 2009. In 2020, Dr. John lost the spot where he sold his papers and his favorite place to eat: Demos in downtown Nashville. The restaurant closed as it lost customers during the pandemic. He had recently secured housing — Executive Director of The Contributor Cathy Jennings said she was feeling like things might finally start to work out for Dr. John. “His death is sad for me because I had hope that he had a chance,” she says. Jennings spent a lot of time with Dr. John recently — his new home was close to hers and they had developed a system when she came to the door so he knew it was her, three short knocks and one long one.

“He was a chess player,” she says. “He knew the Queen’s gambit and the Kings. He earned money in prison by hustling chess matches and told me he’d teach me for $20 a game.” He liked cheap menthol cigarettes, cherry beer and scratch offs and enjoyed listening to B.B. King and other “old school music.” He always wanted to visit Guam, where a friend of his lived. Director of Vending for The Contributor Tom Wills remembers Dr. John as a “fiercely independent man” who took pride in and loved being a vendor for the paper. “He camped off some railroad tracks, if memory serves me correctly, and was haunted by vendor Billy White who was hit by a train nearby in 2014,” Wills says. When The Contributor asked him what his pet peeve was, he said, “people dying on the street from freezing or heat exhaustion.” Arrangements for a memorial for Dr. John have not yet been made.

DEATH

Dr. John Holder submitted this poem in 2015. It’s based on a passage from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare Cowards die many times. But the valiant taste death but once. Of all the things, it seems most strange to me that man would fear death, a necessary end. It will when it will.

PAGE 4 | February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

NEWS

Mistrust and mobility slow COVID-19 vaccine push for North America’s homeless BY MAT THE W L AVIE TE S AND JACK GRAHAM With the coronavirus pandemic showing no signs of abating in the United States and Canada, some cities have begun vaccinating their homeless — an effort clinicians warn will be challenging given the incomparable circumstances they face. Homeless people’s mobility, tendency to mistrust the vaccine and focus on more immediate needs like finding food and warmth all make it harder to protect them against COVID-19, health experts say. “The struggle [homeless people] go through every day to survive, on the streets or in the shelters, has a real immediacy to it,” said Dr.Jim O’Connell, president of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP). “As many people have told me, ‘a little virus’ doesn’t seem frightening to them because they face death every day and the virus is just one of the many things they face,” said O’Connell. The BHCHP, a non-profit which provides medical services to the Northeastern city’s homeless population, has vaccinated roughly 200 homeless people and 300 staff since the program started in late January. The group is expected to administer about 3,500 doses of the Moderna vaccine in shelters across the city within the next month. Similar rollouts are underway in other cities around the continent. So far, New York City has vaccinated more than 500 homeless people and staff who serve them. Over 730 of Montreal’s homeless population have been vaccinated to date, according to official figures.

Vulnerable Since the pandemic started pummelling the globe last year, advocates and physicians have been urging lawmakers for greater protections for the homeless. Without regular access to healthcare, homeless people are often much more susceptible to chronic medical conditions, which may predispose them to a more severe illness from COVID-19. Sheltered homeless people in New York City were 75 percent more likely to die from COVID-19 than the city’s general population, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy group. Pandemic shutdowns have also cut off homeless people’s access to public spaces, such as restaurants and libraries, that they usually use to stay warm and wash their hands during the day. And packing homeless communities into overnight shelters has too become a problem, due to concerns over social distancing. People eat together, share bathrooms and often sleep on beds within several feet of one another. “On one hand, you have higher individual vulnerability because of health,” said Tim Richter, chief executive of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness. “But people experiencing homelessness can’t follow public health measures: social distancing, staying at home, isolating, accessing healthcare when you need it, hygiene.” In response, some cities throughout North America have moved people off of the streets or out of shelters into hotels to alleviate concerns over spreading the virus. Under former US President Donald Trump,

cash-strapped cities were promised 75 per cent of the money to pay for the hotels and were not given a timeline of when aid would run dry. Last month, President Joe Biden vowed to reimburse cities for the full cost of the hotels and fully cover the costs through September. In Canada, the federal government has made extra funding available for provinces and municipalities to prevent the spread of the virus among its homeless. Ottawa announced in December it would spend an additional $300 million to help local communities. Compliance So far, clinicians and advocates say they have been successfully able to find homeless people a group that is largely distrustful of healthcare providers - who want the vaccine. However, they caution that things may soon change. “The first 25 per cent is always easy. We had no problem recruiting for the first number of clinics that we had to deal with,” said Sam Watts, chief executive of Montreal homeless charity Welcome Hall Mission. “But, as we’re moving along, it’s harder and harder because there are some people who don’t want to get it for a variety of reasons,” he said in a phone interview. Some are afraid of needles, others believe in a variety of conspiracy theories that question the safety of the vaccines, or have mental health issues, like paranoia, that impede them from complying with vaccine rollouts, explained Watts. Marty Hames, the spokeswoman for Circle the

NASHVILLE HISTORY CORNER

WELLINGTON ARMS APARTMENTS BY RIDLEY WILLS II Wellington Arms Apartments, 4225 Harding Road, was one of the first high-rise apartments built in Nashville.When the seven story building was built in 1939, it was considered one of the strongest and best built residential buildings in the city. My grandmother, Elizabeth (Mrs. Matt G.) Buckner lived there for a couple of years before her death Feb. 15, 1947. My wife, Irene Jackson Wills, sold Girl Scout cookies there

when she was a student at Robertson Academy in the 1950s. Her grandmother, Irene Morgan (Mrs. William C) Weaver lived there at the time as did several of Irene’s elderly great aunts. Nearly everyone living at Wellington Arms then knew who Irene Jackson was and gladly bought a box of Girl Scout cookies, making it easy for her to be the leading GIrl Scout cookie salesman at Robertson Academy. In the 1950s, Mr. and Mrs. R. D.

Stanford owned Wellington Arms. They sold the property, then in a park-like setting, for $1,350,000 to a group of Nashvillians, including Robert D. Short, Jr., his son, Robert H. Short, and attorney Lewis H. Conner, Jr. A few months later, the new owners converted the 52-unit complex into condominiums with leases of from six months to a year. Quite a few years ago, the owners sold the land in front of the building along West End and shops and small stores are located there today. This robbed Wellington Arms of its park-like setting, but the condominium is still popular with high ceilings and attractive rooms.

February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 5

City, a non-profit that provides healthcare services to the homeless in Phoenix, Arizona, echoed similar concerns about vaccine compliance. “Just like you’re going to find people in the general population that are not going to want the vaccine or they’re not going to want to see a doctor when they’re ill, the same exists within the homeless population,” she said. None of the groups the Thomson Reuters Foundation spoke with were making vaccinations mandatory for the homeless people they serve. Slow the spread Other barriers include a lack of internet access to sign up for online vaccine portals, a lack of transportation to vaccination sites and difficulties tracking down homeless people to give them the second dose of the vaccine, health experts say. The consequences of not getting the vaccine rollout right can spread beyond homeless populations and to entire communities, warned O’Connell at the BHCHP. At the start of the pandemic in late March, O’Connell and other Boston researchers found a 36 percent positivity rate among homeless people. “Most people recognize that if homeless people have the virus, they’re walking all day and passing it (around),” he said. “If you’re riding the subway and there’s a homeless person and they have a 30 percent chance of having the virus, you want to protect yourself as much as that person.” Courtesy of Reuters / Thomson Reuters Foundation / INSP.ngo

The New Christian Year Selected by Charles Williams

Charles Walter Stansby Williams (1886–1945), the editor of the following selections, is today probably the third most famous of the famous Inklings literary group of Oxford, England, which existed in the middle of the 20th century, and which included among its ranks the better-known and longer-lived Oxford Dons J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. First published in 1941, this series of profound quotations, encompassing all walks of life, follows the sequence of the themes and Bible readings anciently appointed for contemplation throughout the church's year. It is hoped that the readings reproduced here will prove beneficial for any who read them, whatever their place in life's journey. — Matthew Carver

ASH WEDNESDAY

1ST MONDAY IN LENT

2ND FRIDAY IN LENT

IN our repenting commonly we make such haste as we take away before the fruits come. But if there happen to come any, is not this even our case? Our tears, if any, dry straight; our prayers, if any, quickly tedious; our alms indeed pitiful; our fasts, fast or loose upon any the least occasion; and so our repentance, if any, poenitentia poenitenda, "a repentance needing of another, a new, a second repentance to repent us of it." To repent us of our repentance, no less than of our sin itself. Lancelot Andrewes: Sermon on Ash-Wednesday, 1624.

THERE is no wrath that stands between God and us, but what is awakened in the dark fire of our own fallen nature; and to quench this wrath, and not His own, God gave His only begotten Son to be made man. God has no more wrath in Himself now than He had before the creation, when He had only Himself to love . . . And it was solely to quench this wrath, awakened in the human soul, that the blood of the Son of God was necessary, because nothing but a life and birth, derived from Him into the human soul, could change this darkened root of a self-tormenting fire into an amiable image of the Holy Trinity as it was at first created. William Law: Christian Regeneration.

MY will, therefore, He took to Himself, my grief. In confidence I call it grief, because I preach His Cross. Mine is the will which he called His own, for as man He bore my grief, and man He spake, and therefore said, "Not as I will but as Thou wilt." Mine was the grief, and mine the heaviness with which He bore it, for no man exults when at the point to die. With me and for me He suffers, for me He is sad, for me He is heavy. In my stead, therefore, and in me He grieved Who had no cause to grieve for Himself. St Ambrose: Of the Faith.

1ST THURSDAY IN LENT LEAD us not into temptation . . . Power is given against us in two modes: either for punishment when we sin or for glory when we are proved . . . But when we ask that we may not come into temptation, we are reminded of our infirmity and weakness in that we thus ask, lest any should insolently vaunt himself, lest any should proudly and arrogantly assume anything to himself, lest any should take to himself the glory either of confession or suffering as his own. St Cyprian: On the Lord's Prayer.

1ST FRIDAY IN LENT WHEN thou attackest the roots of sin, fix thy thought more upon the God whom thou desirest than upon the sin which thou abhorrest. Walter Hylton: Scale of Perfection. WE know no Gospel without salvation from sin. John Wesley.

1ST SATURDAY IN LENT SOLOMON saith, "Man goeth to his long home." Short preparation will not fit so long a journey. O let me not put it off to the last, to have my oil to buy when I am to burn it, but let me so dispose of myself, that when I am to die I may have nothing to do but die. Thomas Fuller: Good Thoughts in Bad Times. HUMAN nature is so subject to deception that it can frustrate, by some pollution or other, almost every dispensation but death. Sarah Grubb: Journal.

FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT HE who will follow him must forsake all things, for he renounced all things so utterly as no man else hath ever done. Moreover, he who will come after him must take up the cross, and the cross is nothing else but Christ's life, for that is a bitter cross to nature. Therefore he saith, "And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me, and cannot be my disciple.” But nature in her false freedom, weeneth she hath forsaken all things, yet she will have none of the cross, and saith she hath had enough of it already, and needeth it no longer, and thus she is deceived. For had she ever tasted the cross she would never part with it again. Theologia Germanica. IF you take away due fear, you take away true love. Donne: Sermons.

1ST TUESDAY IN LENT THE darkness is not hidden even from itself; though it sees naught else it sees itself. The works of darkness follow it, and there is no hiding place from it, not even in the darkness. This is "the worm that dieth not"—the memory of the past. Once it gets within, or rather is born within though sin, there it stays and never by any means can be plucked out. It never ceases to gnaw the conscience; feeding on it as on food that never can be consumed it prolongs the life of misery. I shudder as I contemplate this biting worm, this never-dying death. I shudder at the thought of this being the victim of this living death, this dying life. St Bernard: On Consideration.

THE FEAST OF ST MATTHIAS The kingdom of heaven suffers violence from warm love and living hope, which conquer the Divine Will, not as when man overcomes man, but conquer it because it chooses to be conquered, and, so conquered, again conquers by its own benignity. Dante: Paradise. Jesus does not regard in Judas his enmity, but the order of God, which He loves and admits, since He calls him friend. Pascal: Pensées.

2ND SATURDAY IN LENT BLESSED whoso loveth thee, and his friend in thee, and his enemy for thee. For he alone loses none dear to him, to whom all are dear in him who cannot be lost . . . Thee none loseth but who leaveth. St Augustine: Confessions. J ESUS , while his disciples slept, wrought their salvation. He has wrought that of each of the righteous while they slept, both in their nothingness before their birth and in their sins after their birth. Pascal: Pensées.

SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT HE seeth all our living here a penance, for kind loving in us is to him age-lasting penance in us; which penance he worketh in us, and mercifully he helpeth us to bear it . . . For this penance goeth never from us till what time that we be fulfilled. Juliana of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love. ALTHOUGH Christ died as man, and His holy soul was separated from His spotless body, nevertheless His Godhead remained unseparated from both—from the soul and from the body. St John Damascene: On the Faith.

2ND MONDAY IN LENT

2ND WEDNESDAY IN LENT SORROW for sin and sorrow for suffering are ofttimes so twisted and interwoven in the same person, yea, in the same sigh and groan, that sometimes it is impossible for the party himself so to separate and divide them in his own sense and feeling, as to know which proceeds from the one and which from the other. Only the all-seeing eye of an infinite God is able to discern and distinguish them. Thomas Fuller: A Wounded Conscience.

. . . THE justice of God is subtle, as searching, as unsearchable; and oftentimes punishes sins of omission, with other sins, actual sins, and makes their laziness, who are slack in doing that they should, and occasion of doing that they should not. Donne: Sermons. WHEREIN I find you, there I will judge you. Apocryphal Sayings, quoted by Justin Martyr.

2ND THURSDAY IN LENT

2ND TUESDAY IN LENT

. . . THE trust by which this woman was tried is: to love her Saviour more than her sin. Ah, there was perhaps one who loved Christ more than father and mother and gold and goods and honour and reputation, and yet loved his sin more than his Saviour, loved it, not in the sense of willing to remain in it, to continue to sin, but in the sense of not being quite willing to confess it. Frightful this is in a sense, but it is true, and every one who has merely some little knowledge of the human heart can verify it: there is nothing to which a man holds so desperately fast as to his sin. Kierkegaard: Three Discourses at the Communion on Fridays.

MEN perish with whispering sins, nay with silent sins, sins that never tell the conscience they are sins, as often as with crying sins: and in hell there shall meet as many men that never thought what was sin, as that spent all their thoughts in the compassing of sin. Donne: Sermons. LONG I mistook seeing the end for being in the way. Patmore: Life.

Sponsored by Matthew Carver, publisher

PAGE 6 | February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 7

FEATURE

The Road to Decriminalizing Homelessness in Nashville

Nashville’s criminal justice system turns inward for alternatives to traditional policing BY HANNAH HERNER Joseph Bryant, a Black man experiencing homelessness, was the first person in Nashville arrested for refusing to wear a mask. Hours after his arrest in August 2020, Mayor John Cooper announced that it would be then-police chief Steve Anderson’s last day on the job, ahead of his scheduled retirement in October. Two days later, the second charge for “County Board of Health Violation” went to a man experiencing homelessness, too. There was only one person charged with “escape from quarantine” in 2020, a man who jumped the fence at the Nashville Fairgrounds overflow shelter. An investigation by The Contributor confirmed that there are charges that disproportionately affect our neighbors on the streets, even during a pandemic, when charges were down overall. Protests against police brutality in 2020 challenged cities around the country to rethink the purpose of the police force. The city, police, courts, Sheriff’s office and state organizations have switched up their approaches in the last two years. How will these changes serve people experiencing homelessness?

does not believe that charges such as public intoxication, obstruction of passageway, public indecency and criminal trespassing necessarily affect people experiencing homelessness disproportionately. “It’s not just the displaced citizens, but we actually have people that come here and visit that can be charged with trespassing,” he told The Contributor. The Contributor looked at data on the four charges mentioned to Chief Drake to note how many people experiencing homelessness were charged compared to how many listed an out-of-state address. Those who listed an area shelter as their address were counted as homeless for this story. In 2020, 56 percent of all charges for obstructing a passageway went to people experiencing homelessness. None went to tourists. Eleven homeless people were charged with public indecency, while no out-ofstaters were charged. The number of people expereincing homelessness charged with public intoxication nearly doubled that of visitors — 390 to 198. Forty percent of criminal trespassing charges went to people experiencing homelessness. That’s 391 charges, compared to 35 charges from out-of-state visitors. The total number of arrests for criminal trespassing is down significantly from last year. From January to October 2019, there were 724 arrests for trespassing from people experiencing homelessness. In the

*** In late November, interim police Chief John Drake, a Nashville native who has been with the department for 32 years, officially became Nashville’s second Black chief of police. Drake has stated that he

In 2020

56% 11 of all charges for obstructing a passageway went to people experiencing homelessness.

NONE went to tourists.

homeless people were charged with public indecency, while

out-of-staters were charged.

same time span of 2020, there were 364 arrests on this charge. MNPD says that’s due to COVID-19, during which officers have been encouraged to issue citations rather than arrests. Trespassing charges were also brought against Black people experiencing homelessness more than white people who are homeless: 213 to 174. That’s 55 percent of criminal trespassing charges brought against those who are Black and homeless compared to 45 percent of the homeless population being black, and 28 percent of Nashville’s general population being Black. Since he became chief, Drake has assigned a quality of life team, whose goal is to make friends with those experiencing homelessness and work with area homeless service providers such as the Salvation Army and Metro Homeless Impact Division. “There’s a lot of factors to people who are displaced,” Drake says. “There’s mental health, there’s drug addiction and there’s other issues. I feel the best approach is to connect those to services where we can. There still are situations where we have to make an arrest if a crime has been committed.” New alternatives introduced during the pandemic The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office introduced an alternative to jail in 2020 called the Behavioral Care Center and Nashville also launched the Homeless

The number of people expereincing homelessness charged with public intoxication nearly doubled that of visitors:

390 198 TO

Court this year, which is a separate docket just for those experiencing homelessness. Sheriff Daron Hall says the jail is 80 percent men and 20 percent women (they do not have a category for those who are nonbinary), and about 30 percent are diagnosed mentally ill. Many are there awaiting court dates after failing to appear in court or pay fines owed, things that Hall admits are especially challenging for those experiencing homelessness and/or a mental illness. “The number one reason a mentally ill person was coming into the jail system in Nashville is because they failed to do something we shouldn’t have asked them to do anyway,” Hall says. From November through January, a total of 3,672 people were sent to jail in Davidson County. The BCC served 50 total since it started accepting patients during its pilot phase in late October. Karla West, spokesperson for the sheriff’s office says this is because COVID-19 lowered the number of people being brought to jail total, therefore affecting the number eligible for the Behavioral Care Center. The Behavioral Care Center staff come from the sheriff’s office, but did not previously serve as police officers. They spent two weeks training in behavioral health, mental health, trauma-based care, and de-escalation. They don’t use the term “inmate” or “officer,” and will be using scrubs instead of traditional uniforms. “It’s not a uniform with a badge on it and an in-charge persona. This is more of a sup-

40% of criminal trespassing charges went to people experiencing homelessness.

391

That’s charges, compared

to charges from out-of-state visitors.

PAGE 8 | February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

Trespassing charges were also brought against Black people experiencing homelessness more than white people who are homeless:

213 174 TO

FEATURE

portive team member trying to help you get your life in order,” Hall says. “Everything looks different, feels different, because we want to treat you and decriminalize the illness.” People can stay at the care center for up to 30 days. Under contract, the person cannot be released to the streets, Hall says. They have to be released into the hands of someone else, with two weeks of any needed medication in hand. Nashville’s Homeless Court was held at area shelter provider Room In The Inn for the first time in August. This once-monthly docket is filled with people who were charged with misdemeanors like those investigated above, and also hosts area service providers in an effort to get those on the docket connected to needed services. So far it’s helped between two and eight people each month. At the helm is Judge Lynda Jones. “Many people who experience homelessness do not use drugs and do not have addictions when they are thrown into the streets,” she told The Contributor. “We are preventing some people from going down that dark path by connecting them to much needed resources early.” The limits to treatments through criminal justice Alternatives like the Behavioral Care Center and homeless courts have their limits, says public defender Emily Herbert. She says her clients often choose a plea deal before getting to utilize either one. They don’t know exactly how long treatment would take or what it would entail, so they choose the more transparent route of pleading guilty. Herbert specializes in helping clients navigate services like these. She admits it can be very difficult to offer an alternative narrative for her clients who are homeless. They did, in fact, break that law. But that doesn’t mean the way that the law being enforced is fair. “They exist in a world that has worked pretty hard, I think, to make it practically illegal to be homeless,” Herbert says. “That effort is to make these individuals invisible, quite frankly.” One of the biggest struggles with her homeless clients is staying in contact with them, especially to remind them of important dates. If they fail to appear in court, it’s harder for them to get a pretrial hearing. When they don’t get that, they’re under the “really powerful coercive pressure” to plead guilty just to get out of jail, she says. People don’t know exactly when they’ll be released if they do choose to enroll in a treatment plan. “They just want to be done with it. They’ve been screwed over time and time again for just existing,” Herbert says. “They may not want to embrace this wonderful help you came up with.” Still, she says alternatives like the Behavioral Care Center and homeless court can be helpful, as some thrive under the oversight and structure that comes with it. As far as the Behavioral Care Center, she’s hopeful. So far, clients gave positive reviews. However, she believes the money is better spent in long-term supportive housing for people with behavioral health issues.

“There’s a fundamental problem in using the legal system as a method by which we are going to ‘help people’ in our society. We don’t agree with that in the public defender’s office,” Herbert says. “When we’re choosing to fund the criminal legal system, we are absolutely criminalizing poverty and homelessness and behavioral health issues.” Growing alternatives in Nashville At the Crisis Treatment Center, which opened in late 2019 at the Mental Health Co-Op, about 60 percent of the population served is homeless. This is for obvious reasons, says Jacob Henry, supervisor of emergency psychiatric services at Mental Health Co-Op — they have a lot of stressors. “One of the main reasons for building the facility was to deter someone who is homeless from just getting arrested,” he says. Those in need of acute psychiatric services can walk up, or ride the bus over, and some referrals come from emergency rooms. Police can bring someone in to the center, or

call and have the mobile crisis response unit come to pick the person up. Many times, police call ahead of time to consult with the team at Mental Health Co-Op., Henry says. At the time of press, the Co-Op did not have data available for how often referrals come from police. The Crisis Treatment Center itself is an observation unit, where people will spend less than 24 hours. At most, a person could stay at the center for about a week — three days at the adjacent Crisis Stabilization Unit, and three more at the Intensive Intervention Center, also known as “respite.” Henry says the goal is to stabilize them to the point that they’re not an immediate threat and get them back to outpatient care as soon as possible. Studies show that that’s the best course of action, because their everyday lives aren’t centered around a facility. “A person’s everyday life is not built around staying in a secluded facility,” he says. “The best treatment is to give them coping skills so that they’re able to manage their everyday life.” A team disbanded At one time, Metro Homeless Impact Division had a team of people called the

Nashville Outreach Team on Encampments, which was meant to serve as first responders alongside or instead of police. Metro Homeless Impact Division said it did not keep track of how often this team responded to crises with or without the police. MHID does still have two outreach specialists, but does not have N.O.T.E. anymore. Judith Tackett, director of the Metro Homeless Impact Division says the organization has shifted its efforts away from street outreach, which is down by about 40 percent. MHID has shifted toward case management for those staying at Metro’s COVID-19 overflow shelter at The Fairgrounds Nashville. She says police precincts regularly reach out to the Homeless Impact Division when they receive complaints about homeless encampments, and when outreach workers respond, the police do not go with them. “We approach people from a service point of view to checking whether they are

linked to services, and if they are not, we work on making that service connection,” Tackett wrote in an email. “In addition, we also make people aware about the nature of the complaint that was made and discuss how we can help remedy a situation. Our ultimate goal is to link people to services that lead to permanent housing.” What could be — Oregon’s leading example CAHOOTS, (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On the Streets) an outreach team more than 30 years running in Eugene, Ore., has been getting a lot of calls lately, inquiring about how to make an alternative to policing like theirs work in other cities. When you call 911 in Eugene, the call can be routed to traditional first responders like the police or fire department, or to CAHOOTS, a casually dressed team of mental health professionals and medics specializing in serving those experiencing homelessness, mental health struggles, or both. CAHOOTS members also carry police radios, so they can intercept calls for known homeless neighbors, or call for backup other times. Sometimes the police

February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 9

will go first if there’s a weapon believed to be on the scene, and once things are secured, CAHOOTS can go in and help. In his four years as a medic on the team, Daniel Felts says he’s only had to call police in for backup four times. “When social workers are embedded with law enforcement, I’m sure there are some absolutely phenomenal people who do incredible work. Same goes for law enforcement,” Felts says. “I know officers and crisis negotiators that are extremely humanistic and skillful, and arrive at what is the absolute best is for everyone. That doesn’t change the fact that there are broad historical traumas that get triggered when a police officer is responding, or when you’re showing up with a police officer.” He says the biggest challenge is the call log piling up with people calling for wellness checks on people they see sleeping, or even just sitting outside. A lot of times the person in question isn’t even there anymore when CAHOOTS rolls up. As they’re dealing with more acute crises, welfare checks often get pushed hours down the line. To remedy this backlog, Felts said he would like to see community members more willing to ask their neighbors on the streets if they need something, or to check from a distance if their chest is still rising. “Every time that one of those calls comes in, and the member of the public is concerned about the welfare of someone else, there has to be a response,” he says. “Quite often, we get inflicted on people. And sometimes it’s the same person multiple times in a shift, and that gets really taxing for them and for us, because we have already checked in, we know that they don’t want or need anything from us, they are safe with themselves.” Felts says the key to making a program like this work is buy-in from the community, and especially the emergency dispatchers. The future in Nashville Nashville’s Chief Drake said he’s looking for funding for a crisis intervention team composed of police officers in plain clothes, which would be different from a model like CAHOOTS. “Historically, when a person is in crisis, the uniform tends to escalate the situation,” Drake says. “So if we can have an officer in plain clothes co-responding with a mental health expert … You want to be able to de-escalate, to talk them down, but you also want to be able to respond in case that person decides they want to do harm to people.” More than housed people, and certainly more than tourists, people experiencing homelessness get in trouble for using the bathroom publicly, drinking alcohol, being on someone else’s property or in someone else’s way. New mechanisms to make the criminal justice system more equitable are popping up around Nashville. These options focus inside the system, as our neighbors on the streets continue to look for ways to survive outside.

UNSUNG BLACK HISTORY

National Museum of African American Music is a can’t miss treat BY RON W YNN Nashville now boasts another stellar addition to its glittering legacy of institutions that have rightly earned it the nickname Music City. It’s the home of the nation’s premier entity that recognizes and pays homage to the vast array of idioms that comprise America’s Black musical tradition, and indeed have helped define and establish the nation’s entire musical structure and heritage. The National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM), located directly across the street from the Ryman at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Broadway (510 Broadway), is a visually spectacular building whose design rivals that of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., as well as the previously built Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. But the 56,00-square-foot facility is also different from other museums or structures designed to honor specific styles such as state Halls of Fame or museums established for jazz, blues or R&B. NMAAM covers 50 genres and/or sub-genres of Black music, starting with sounds created in Africa that the earliest slaves brought with them to these shores, and extending right down to contemporary beats created on 21st century technological instruments utilized to accompany the verbal creations of contemporary rappers. The unif ying theme that underlines everything is One Nation Under A Groove, as well as the central corridor titled Rivers of Rhythm. The premise of both is reaffirmed throughout the various presentations, displays and exhibits visitors encounter. While picking five special displays or highlights is a super tough task, we select these as indicative of the museum’s overall quality and ability to convey a detailed and impressive look at so many different aspects and areas of Black music, while also showing how those have affected the entire course of American history and culture. A yearly membership to the Museum is available for only $25. That’s an incredible bargain for the opportunity to have multiple visits to this fabulous place. It’s currently open to visitors only on weekends due to the pandemic, but once things return to some degree of normalcy, they anticipate the museum being open seven days a week. There are also expansion plans for an eventual gift shop, and space for both periodic and traveling exhibitions that will be housed for short-term visits. The first is one devoted to the Fisk Jubilee Singers in honor of their upcoming 150th anniversary celebration. That’s slated for later this fall.

2. Interactive displays Every gallery has a specific name, from A Love Supreme for the jazz gallery to One Nation Under A Groove, which is also the name of the museum’s largest space devoted to R&B, both historic and current incarnations. But before entering each gallery there’s an interactive display that allows visitors to trace the music’s development, identify innovative and historic performers, have vital moments and concerts recalled, and also have that genre’s ties to modern day happenings reaffirmed. It’s a quick and easy excursion through decades of history, and done in colorful and unforgettable fashion. The displays also include photos, audio and video samples. 3. Remarkable exhibits and displays Numerous greats have provided items and memorabilia to the museum. These range from personal instrument items such as one of B. B. King’s trademark “Lucille” guitars or a custom trumpet used by Louis Armstrong to actual on-stage outfits worn by Nat King Cole or a dress from the period Billie Holiday performed. There are signed contracts from premier musicians, candid and in some cases seldom or never seen photos of iconic artists, rare 78s, 45s and 10-inch album covers and recordings, concert programs, and many other extremely rare and treasured items chronicling Black music innovation and evolution. 4. DIY opportunities NMAAM doesn’t just document and display the music’s scope and impact: The museum allows visitors to contribute to it if they choose. Anyone who enjoys gospel and wants to add their voice to a chorus can do so by coming into the gospel gallery and joining in with Dr. Bobby Jones and the Nashville Super Choir. Or you can improvise and fit your licks into a tune in the jazz exhibit. Create your own blues scenario or offer your own rap lyrics as well. All of these can be done with ease, and give the option of not just viewing history, but making a little of your own.

1. The Frances S. Guess Theater This 190-seat theater is the initial stop for museum visitors. There they see an introductory film designed to provide a quick entry into NMAAM’s central mission: showcasing the entire array of African American idioms, showing their connections to past

and present events, offering perspectives on key figures and linking them to potential future developments. In the coming weeks the theater will also be home to various special programs and presentations ranging from speeches and seminars to film and video events and specials.

PAGE 10 | February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

5. RF bracelets Every NMAAM visitor also gets a radio-frequency identification bracelet. Anyone who then either participates in any of the DIY performances or goes to the interactive displays can download their performances or a song list from the displays online for others to see and hear, or just as a memento of their visit. Any of the musical performances are recorded as well on the bracelet, along with the playlists. Get updates on upcoming events and other news at nmaam.org.

UNSUNG BLACK HISTORY

Two nonprofits team up to share Black business stories in Nashville BY M AGGIE YOUNGS In honor of Black History Month, Equally Red is teaming up with Matthews Mission to share the stories of various Black businesses in the Nashville area. Equally Red was founded by the Campbell family: Curt, Kimmy and their adult children Sydney and Brit. As racial tensions were highlighted during the summer of 2020, their family felt called to respond and believed they were in a unique position to do so as a biracial family. Their desire as a family is to share the stories of people from a variety of backgrounds, believing that there is great power in listening to people’s experiences. Equally Red is founded on the idea that all people of all races, ethnicities, and abilities, share the same blood — blood that is equally red. “This is a conversation for anyone who has made a judgement about someone’s appearance or where they came from or something they can’t control,” says Sydney Campbell. The family desires to normalize and facilitate simply being around and getting to know those who are different from oneself. They share these stories through both video and blog posts. Some of these stories thus far have included conversations with Maria Lopez, who discussed her experience of childhood in Columbia and of adoption, Jackson

Dreyer, a pop and soul musician, and Michael Dada, a local business advisor. Post pandemic, Equally Red hopes to encourage people to learn from others different from them by hosting local events that feature the food, music, and stories of people from various cultures, races and abilities. NFL wide receiver Jordan Matthews started a nonprofit Matthews Mission in 2016. The mission began as a way to give back to the communities that shaped him: Huntsville, Philadelphia, and Nashville — all major influences in his upbringing and football career. The framework of his mission can be summarized through the acronym FEED (Feed the hungry, Educate the children, Empower the family, and Donate to those in need). Inspired by Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason, Matthews has a strong passion for mentorship and, through Matthews Mission, has developed a mentorship program in Philadelphia. Passionate about the power of long term relationships, he says, “The only way to change the world is through investment.” Matthews’s wife Cheyna now joins him in the mission. He says Cheyna, “empowers people simply by being herself,” and has greatly contributed to the focus and direction of Matthews Mission alongside Matthews’s mother. In response to the highlighted racial tensions of the last year and in cele-

INSTAGRA M: @equallyred @thematthewsmission FACEBOOK & YOUTUBE: EquallyRed WEBSITE: www.equallyred.com bration of Black History Month, both organizations have come together to create the Black Business Awareness Initiative. The purpose of the initiative is to highlight black businesses during the month of February on social media while also engaging with those businesses. Together, the organizations have created a short video series bringing awareness to five different black owned businesses — Shugga Hi Cafe and Bakery, Polish Nails Concierge, Pivot Technology School, AthElite Performance, and Emerson Grace Boutique. In each of these videos, Jordan Matthews and Sydney Campbell give viewers an inside look to a business and hear from the business owners. “Sometimes, when discussing racism in America, it can be hard to find concrete ways people can step in, but we can not escape the conversation regarding money when it comes to race,” Matthews says. “We can’t escape the

February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 11

tangible numbers of the racial wage gap, and we wanted to promote a practical action step that people can take.” The goal of the initiative is to encourage viewers and readers to go to these businesses and enjoy the products and services for themselves. Matthews added that there often can be a stigma associated with Black owned businesses, and that the only way someone can break these perceptions is by visiting themselves. In addition, Equally Red and Matthews Mission have created a GoFundMe with a goal of $25,000 to raise support for the five businesses featured in the video series during the month of February. “In creating the GoFundMe, we did not want to treat the businesses like charity, but I think that we can all agree that COVID-19 has put people in some hard situations,” Matthews says. Sydney Campbell says she hopes people will take action and talk to new and different people. “Educate yourself, but also understand that education alone doesn’t humanize people,” Campbell says. “Identify your bias, even if it’s really uncomfortable, and then go out and find those people who are different from yourself. You don’t feel guilty for how you were born, you feel guilty for not using your privilege.”

UNSUNG BLACK HISTORY

Sharon Kay, the first woman to run 88 WFSK, is a local radio hero BY BARBAR A WOM ACK In l973 the Fisk University radio Station WFSK (formerly WRFN) became the first African American FM radio station in Nashville. At that time, all the DJs and hosts were Fisk men until 2005 when then President Hazel O’Leary felt that there needed to be female representation at the radio station instead of an all male cast of characters. That female representative was Sharon Kay, who was hired as General Manager of Jazzy 88 WFSK that year. Kay is an award winning veteran broadcaster who brought WFSK from a mediocre local college radio station to one that today is world renowned especially in the world of jazz and other genres of music. Kay is also well known for being host of the popular radio talk show, “What’s the 411? with Sharon Kay,” which began in 2001 at 92Q Cumulus Media while working as a news anchor and talk show host. “My show is one of the longest running talk shows in Nashville and is considered a staple among this city’s long-running talk programs.” Kay says. “My syndicated talk show has been part of the African American Public Radio Consortium which makes programming options available to public, community and HBCU stations.” Kay has been a multi-award winning media professional for more than 40 years with stints

in radio, television, newspaper, and web-based services. In 2016, she was given the Headliners & Heroes Award for Media Excellence from the Nashville Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalist. “In 2015 I was honored as a Woman of Legend & Merit in Media by Tennessee State University and in 2009 I was named Nashville’s

Best Radio Station General Manager at the 13th Annual Achievement in Radio Awards, making me the first African American to receive this award,’ she said. Since arriving in Nashville from Topeka, Kansas in the mid-l980s, Kay has served as a news anchor and talk show host for WLAC Radio, and at 92Q Cumulus Media, as well as

Black History Facts BY BARBAR A WOM ACK

1. The Freedom’s Journal, which advocated the abolition of slavery and attacked anti-Black sentiment, appeared on March 30, 1827, in New York, N.Y. It was the first Black Newspaper. 2. In 1952, the University of Tennessee admitted its first Black student. 3. The First edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published March 20, 1852. 4. Howard University was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1857. Howard has produced some of this nation’s most notable Blacks including Vice President Kamala Harris. 5. The first Black person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was Ralph Bunche in l950 for his efforts in the Middle East. Other Black people awarded the Nobel Prize include Dr. Martin Luther King and Bishop Desmond Tutu.

a weekend associate produce at WSMV and writer and photographer for several newspaper groups and conducted freelance writing assignments for several local newspapers. Aside from being a mother and a grandmother, Kay has found time to serve on and chair numerous local, national and international boards and she has volunteered with dozens of organizations from feeding and clothing the homeless to raising donations for non-profit organizations. “I have a long history of being a community advocate and my show is a reflection of my keen desire to keep the Nashville community informed not only about politics but about the best in music with a strong emphasis on jazz,” Kay says. WFSK 88.1 FM is a gem in this community that has been elevated to one of the top radio stations in Nashville and among this nation’s HBCUs thanks to its General Manager Sharon Kay and her crew. “WFSK has evolved from a ‘traditional college model’ of student led to today being community driven,” Kay said. “We need community support in order to continue to do what we do in this city and we want to continue to elevate this station and Fisk University nationally and internationally with the Nashville community as our driving force.”

to receive a Grammy Award in l958. 16. Hattie McDaniel was the first Black to win an Oscar for her role as “Mammy” in Gone With The Wind in 1940.

6. Sammy Davis, Jr. was the first Black entertainer to sleep in the White House.

10. Maya Angelou was the first Black inaugural poet at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1993.

17. Jack Johnson was the first to win the Heavyweight Boxing Championship of the World in 1908.

7. James McCune Smith was the first Black person to obtain an M.D. Degree in 1837 from the University of Glasgow in Scotland as he was unable to pursue his educational goals in the United States.

11. Ma “Gertrude” Rainey, of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, was the first Black to sing the Blues in a professional show in 1902.

18. The first Black slaves were brought to America in the 16th century and were mostly from West and Central Africa.

8. In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives and she was the first woman to seek nomination as the Democrats’ presidential candidate in 1972. 9. In 1992, Ernest Jackson of Nashville was the first Black Pilot to fly the 747 Air Force One presidential plane as he delivered it to Andrews Air Force Base for use by then President George W. Bush.

12. The first Black owned Hospital was Provident Hospital in Chicago. It was established by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams in 1891. 13. Toni Morrison was the first Black woman to receive the Nobel Prize for literature in l993.

19. In 1881 the state of Tennessee passed the first Jim Crow law to require that railroads be segregated. 20. The first colony to legalize slavery, and to forbid use of “unjust violence” in the capture of slaves, was Massachusetts.

14.Todd Duncan became the first Black to become a member of the New York City Opera by performing in an all White cast of Pagliacci.

21. The Harambee House in Washington, D.C., was the first large hotel designed and built by Blacks in 1977. It is now owned by Howard University and operates as the Howard Inn.

15. Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald were the first Black man and woman

22. In 1921 Bessie Coleman became the first African American female

PAGE 12 | February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

pilot and the first to have an International Aviation License. 23. Nat King Cole was the first African American to host a network Television program under his name in l956. 24. George Washington Carver became the first Black scientist memorialized by a federal monument in the United States. He produced more than 400 different products from the peanut to potatoes and pecans. Some of his creations are a dandruff cure, leather dyes, paint, pesticides, washing powder, glue and newsprint paper. 25. Stacey Abrams is nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for her impactful work during the 2020 election in the State of Georgia. The Nobel Committee likened her actions to other winners as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Abrams’ efforts to complete King’s work are crucial if the United States of America shall succeed in its effort to create fraternity between all its people,” said Lars Haltbrekken of the Socialist Party of Norway’s Parliament. “Her work follows in Dr. King’s footsteps in the fight for equality before the law and for civil rights.”

MOVING PICTURES

‘Scandalous Notorious Genius’ ‘THE WITCH OF KINGS CROSS’ PROFILES AUSTRALIAN ART AND FEMINISM PIONEER, ROSALEEN NORTON BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

A tagline on the website of Director Sonia Bible’s new Rosaleen Norton documentary labels Norton a “Scandalous Notorious Genius.” The film opens with a montage of period footage and images of the real Rosaleen Norton cut-together with a dramatized occult ritual shot in black and white and featuring a half-naked actress standing-in for Rosaleen. Bible’s mixing of contemporaneous footage, new interviews with Norton’s surviving friends and creative peers, and re-enactments isn’t exactly revolutionary, but it really works for her subject: The footage and interviews are full of eye-witness revelations about Norton, her beliefs and her art; and the sexy, kitschy dramatizations speak to both Norton’s DIY creative work ethic and her self-conscious understanding about how to titillate and shock audiences with outrageous images and behavior. Norton was granted her first solo exhibition at Rowden White Gallery in the library of Melbourne University in 1949. Within a few days the police shut the show down and charged Norton with displaying obscene imagery. The press were drawn to the story and Norton made

herself into an instantly infamous celebrity who explained her pagan philosophy and defended her art as expressions of the spirits that visited her in her trances. She explained the symbolism in her works, but didn’t apologize for its sexual content, and when she went to trial she won her case. Norton lived in the Kings Cross neighborhood in Sydney. Kings Cross was a red light district as well as a place that attracted actors, artists, musicians, mad geniuses and bohemian eccentrics of all stripes. After her Melbourne exhibition Norton was alternately celebrated and reviled as The Witch of Kings Cross for the rest of her life. “All our time was spent working and drinking,” Norton is quoted in voice over. “Also begging, borrowing, stealing and occasionally buying food.” Norton worked as an artist’s model while developing her trance-inducing techniques with incense, darkness, wine and her vivid imagination. She struck-up a relationship with a brilliant gay poet named Gavin Greenlees. Homosexuality and witchcraft were both illegal in Australia and the pair were bonded in their mutual creative and spiri-

tual pursuits as well as in their statuses as social outlaws. Norton and Greenlees found opportunities to display and publish their work, but their cupboards were often bare aside from the endless cups of tea Norton poured for guests. Their apartment building was known for illegal liquor sales, orgies, violent lovers’ spats, and under-the-table gambling. Norton and her neighbors were regularly harassed by police and charged with vagrancy violations — the crime of not having enough money to support yourself. But what Norton didn’t have in exterior comforts, she made up for in nurturing her rich interior life on a steady diet of mythology, Jewish mysticism, astrology, and theosophical methods and philosophies.

Norton advocated a radical individuality informed by an occult practice steeped in non-traditional sexuality and expressed in shockingly graphic imagery. In hindsight it’s not surprising that Australia’s conservative Christian culture in the 1950s was more than a little provoked by the artist and her entourage. Norton’s books were censored. Her exhibited works were seized and literally burned by authorities. But what if Norton had emerged a dozen or fifteen years later after youth culture took over the world? The artist and witch’s visionary gift was almost a generation ahead of itself, and even though she was somewhat neglected and dismissed in her own time we

February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 13

can now see echoes of Rosaleen Norton throughout popular culture and contemporary art, but also in various strains of feminism and in society’s shifting perceptions of sexual orientation and expression. Norton died isolated and impoverished in 1979 with no reason to believe that her work would live long after her passing.

The Witch of Kings Cross is streaming on Amazon, iTunes, Vimeo and GooglePlay.

Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.

LA NOTICIA “The Contributor” está trabajando con uno de los principales periódicos en español La Noticia para llevar contenido a más lectores en Middle Tennessee. Nuestros vendedores de periódicos han pedido durante mucho tiempo que nuestra publicación incluya contenido que apele al interés de residentes de habla hispana en nuestra comunidad.

“The Contributor” is working with one of the leading Spanish-language newspapers La Noticia to bring content to more readers in Middle Tennessee. Our newspaper vendors have long requested that our publication include content that appeals to the interest of Spanish-speaking residents in our community.

LOCALES - POLÍTICA - INMIGRACIÓN - TRABAJOS - SALUD - ESPECTÁCULOS - DEPORTES Y MÁS...

L a N ticia 2021

GRATIS Febrero/2

Escanee esta imagen para ver La Noticia newspaper edición bilingüe digital

www.hispanicpaper.com

“DONDE OCURREN LOS HECHOS QUE IMPORTAN, SIEMPRE PRIMERO... ANTES”

Año 19 - No. 324

Nashville, Tennessee

Pruebas de detección y viajes internacionales durante el COVID-19

Foto: Yuri Cunza

con resultado negativo o una documentación de recuperación? La orden de los CDC no reemplaza los decretos presidenciales. Por consiguiente, el hecho de presentar una prueba de detección del COVID-19 con resultado negativo o una documentación que demuestre su recuperación del COVID19 a la aerolínea antes de abordar el avión no exime a los ciudadanos extranjeros de las restricciones de viajes incluidas en los decretos presidenciales. Con excepciones específicas, varios decretos presidenciales suspenden y limitan el ingreso a los Estados Unidos de aquellos ciudadanos extranjeros, ya sean inmigrantes o no inmigrantes, que han estado físicamente presentes en alguno de los países específicos durante un periodo de 14 días antes de ingresar o intentar ingresar a los Estados Unidos. Para obtener una lista completa de los países y enlaces a los decretos en el sitio web de la Casa Blanca, visite Viajeros con prohibición de entrada a los Estados Unidos. ¿Los territorios estadounidenses se consideran países extranjeros? No, la orden de presentar documentación de un resultado negativo en la prueba de detección del COVID-19 o un certificado que acredite su recuperación del COVID-19 no alcanza a los pasajeros que llegan en

Conoce tus derechos: ¿Que hacer en caso de una redada? 1. Mantenerse callado 2. Sólo dar nombre y apellido 3. No mentir 4. Nunca acepte/lleve documentos falsos 5. No revelar su situación migratoria 6. No llevar documentación de otro país 7. En caso de ser arrestado, mostrarla Tarjeta Miranda (llámenos si necesita una)

por

ww w.ju ane se.c om jua ne seUSA@gmail.com

PAGE 14 | February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

avión a un estado de los Estados Unidos desde un territorio estadounidense. Los territorios estadounidenses incluyen a Samoa Americana, Guam, las Islas Marianas del Norte, el Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes de los Estados Unidos. Si viajo desde un estado o territorio de los Estados Unidos a otro estado o territorio en USA, pero tengo una escala en un país extranjero, ¿igual debo hacerme una prueba de detección antes del primer vuelo? Si reservó un itinerario desde un estado o territorio estadounidense hacia otro estado o territorio estadounidense y el itinerario implica tomar un vuelo de conexión en un país extranjero, no es necesario que se haga la prueba de detección. Un ejemplo de esta situación sería un itinerario reservado entre las Islas Marianas del Norte (territorio estadounidense) y el territorio continental de los Estados Unidos, a través de Japón. ¿Por qué la orden especifica 3 días y no 72 horas? ¿Qué se considera 3 días? El período de 3 días son los 3 días anteriores a la salida del vuelo. En la orden se expresa como 3 días en lugar de 72 horas para aportar mayor flexibilidad al viajero. Al usar un plazo de 3 días, la validez de la prueba no depende de la hora del vuelo ni de la hora en que se realiza la prueba. Por ejemplo, si el vuelo de un pasajero es a las 1 p. m. de un viernes, el pasajero podría abordar con una prueba con resultado negativo que se haya hecho a cualquier hora el martes anterior o después. ¿Qué es una declaración jurada? Una declaración jurada es una declaración, escrito, anotación u otra representación de conformidad con 18 U.S.C. § 1001 que confirma que la información proporcionada es verdadera. ¿Esta orden se aplica a los cruces fronterizos terrestres? No, los requisitos de esta orden solo se aplican a los viajes aéreos hacia los EE. UU.” (CONTINUARA...) Con información de: www.espanol.cdc.gov Envíenos sus sugerencias por e-mail: news@hispanicpaper.com

YOUTH VOICES

ENTREVISTA CON BECKY WARREN

Q&A WITH BECKY WARREN

SHERLYN SERRANO

Hola soy Sherlyn Serrano, soy de México, y entrevisté a la cantante Becky Warren sobre el tema de las personas sin hogar. 1. ¿Cómo te inspiraste para hacer el álbum sobre personas sin hogar? “Una vez compré un periodico a una persona y el se llama Sean, y pensé que la historia de Sean sería interesante, y me gusta escribir canciones con historias de otras personas y pensé que podría hablar con Sean y otras personas sobre su historia.” 2. ¿Conoces en tu historia personas sin hogar o solo las has visto de lejos? Antes de crear el álbum nunca conocí a ninguna persona sin hogar pero cuando conocí a Sean me inspiré para ser el álbum con su historia. Cuando conocí a Sean fue cuando me inspire para hablar con otras personas sin hogar para aprender sus historias. 3. ¿Por qué decidiste hacer canciones sobre ese tema en especial en vez de hacer un artículo Escribir canciones es lo que más me gusta, pienso que las canciones tienen la capacidad de enseñar a más personas las historias de las personas sin hogar, muchas personas no les gusta leer un libro o un periodico, pero a muchas personas sí les gusta escuchar música. 4. ¿Crees que tus canciones puede cambiar los pensamientos de la gente para ayudarlos Espero que sí, es lo que realmente me gustaría, que la gente escuche mis canciones y sepan las historias de las personas sin hogar. Yo tenía muchas ideas incorrectas sobre esas personas y cuando hablé con ellos, aprendí que muchas de mis ideas eran incorrectas. Tengo la esperanza de que otras personas escuchen mis canciones y cambien sus ideas sobre ellos. 5. ¿Has ayudado a personas sin hogar dándoles comida o dinero? Me gusta pagar el periodico cuando ellos lo venden y aveces me gusta darle dinero a las personas sin hogar, pero usualmente compro el periódico a esas personas. 6. ¿Qué piensas sobre la ley de penalización que pusieron sobre que es ilegal que la gente viva en las calles? Es muy malo lo que está haciendo la ley á las personas sin hogar, cuando yo hablé con las personas sin hogar para aprender sus historias,

aprendí que hay muchas razones para no vivir en un albergue. Las mujeres, muchas veces, no se sienten seguras en esas casas y los hombres también han tenido malas experiencias.

Hello! My name is Sherlyn Serrano, and I am from México. I interviewed the songwriter Becky Warren about people who are experiencing homelessness.

7. ¿Podemos hacer algo para cambiar esa ley? Hay organizaciones que están trabajando para cambiar esa ley pero no han tenido mucho éxito. Hay muchas personas que viven en carpas en la calle y la organización (se llama Open Table) trata de cambiar esa ley para que esas personas que viven en las carpas, se queden.

1. What inspired you to make an album about those experiencing homelessness? One time, I bought the newspaper The Contributor from a man named Sean and as we spoke, his history interested me. I love to write songs, especially when I get to write the stories of others. This gave me the idea to talk with Sean, and others like him about their stories.

8. ¿Te gustaría participar en alguna protesta para ayudarlos? No se de ninguna protesta, pero sí me gustaría participar en una. 9. ¿Cómo te sientes cuando ves que alguien maltrata a esas personas? Me hace sentir triste y cuando veo ese maltrato hacia esas personas, me da tristeza. Ellos son amados. Esa persona es hermano, hermana, madre de alguien. Deberíamos tratarlos bien. 10. ¿Qué podemos hacer para ayudar a esas personas para que se sientan seguras de estar en las calles? Nosotros debemos usar los talentos que tenemos como usted que está escribiendo esto, entonces debemos usar nuestros talentos para cambiar los pensamientos de la gente. 11. ¿Has llegado a ver niños en las calles? Sí, he visto personas en las calles no he hablado con ellos, pero no está permitido que los niños vendan periódicos en las calles, pero sí he visto. 12. ¿Cómo te sientes cuando ves a niños y sus familias en las calles sin nada de comer? Es muy duro, en especial ahora con esto del covid-19 por que muchos de los niños no pueden ir a la escuela y en la escuela es el lugar donde los niños sin hogar pueden asistir y comer. Es muy triste y difícil verlos pasar hambre. El ‘Youth Voice Column’ es una asociación de The Contributor y Girls Write Nashville. En Girls Write Nashville, y también Loudmouth Community Music, la sección género neutral de la organización, los estudiantes son guiados entre el proceso de escribir, y grabar canciones originales. En este proyecto, los jóvenes escritores ofrecen composiciones, poemas, y sus perspectivas junto a las cuentas regulares de The Contributor.

2. Do you know anyone personally who has experienced homelessness, or have you only seen them from afar? Before making this album, I never knew anyone personally who had, but when I met Sean, it inspired me to make an album including that story. Meeting Sean is what also inspired me to talk to others in a similar situation, to learn their stories. 3. Why did you decide to write songs about this especially, instead of write an article? Writing songs is my favorite thing to do, I think that songs have the ability to teach more people the stories of those without homes. Lots of people won’t pick up a book, or read a newspaper, but a lot of people love to listen to music.” 4. Do you think that your songs have the power to change people’s minds; to help them? I hope so, yes, that’s what I’d really want, that people would listen and know their stories. I had a lot of incorrect ideas about them, and when I took the time to talk to them, I learned that. I have the hope that other people will listen to my songs, and change their ideas about them, too. 5. Have you helped someone without a home by giving food, or money? I like to pay for the newspaper, when they sell it, and sometimes I give money, but I usually like to buy the paper from them. 6. What do you think about the penalty they face that it is illegal to live in the streets? It’s awful what the law is doing to those experiencing homelessness. When I was learning

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their stories, I learned that there are a lot of reasons people don’t want to live in shelters. For the women, a lot of the times, they do not feel safe in those shelters. The men have also speak of poor experiences. 7. Can we do anything to change that law? There are organizations that work to change the law, but they haven’t had much success. There are lots of people that live in tents around town, and that organization (it’s called Open Table) try to change the law so that those who live in tents can stay. 8. Would you participate in a protest to help? I don’t know of any protests, but I would love to participate. 9.How does it make you feel when you see others mistreating those experiencing homelessness? It’s sad, and when I see them mistreated, it brings me sadness. That person is loved, They are someone’s brother, sister, mother. We should treat them that way. 10. What can we do to help people to feel safe? We should use the talents we have. Like you, you are writing this. So, we should use our talents to change the minds of the people. 11. Have you seen children in the streets? Yes, I have seen children in the streets. I have spoken with them, because children are not allowed to sell the newspaper, but yes, I’ve seen them. 12. How do you feel when you see children and their families experiencing homelessness? It is very difficult, especially during COVID-19, because many children cannot go to school. School is the place where those kids go to eat. It is difficult to see them hungry. The Youth Voice Column is a partnership between The Contributor and Girls Write Nashville. In Girls Write Nashville, as well as their gender neutral wing Loudmouth Community Music, students are guided through the process of writing and recording original songs. In this project, youth writers will offer essays, poems and insight to The Contributor’s regular roster of stories.

FUN

HOBOSCOPES AQUA RIUS

Sure, I know that the earth is just a wet ball of sand and molten iron that’s constantly spinning while it makes a destinationless path through a nearly empty cosmos, but it’s still a great place to live. I mean, it’s got kangaroos, and Yo-Yo Ma, and it’s really the only place you can find decent onion rings anymore. What I’m saying, Aquarius, is that sometimes you’ve got to get close up to see the good stuff. You may feel like you’re just the sum of your parts, but the whole can be so much better.

PISCES

You have heard it said, Pisces, that “no news is good news.” But I’ll tell you something, your good news is real news to me. When somebody asks you how it’s going, you don’t have to talk about the infuriating report you heard on the radio about incompetence or the maddening article you just read about injustice. If you want, Pisces, you can just talk about the bird that you saw by the lake. He was so tall and thin and focused on the water. Maybe the real news is that you didn’t let the noise get to you today. If you can find that place, maybe you can share it.

ARIES

Alfred Hitchcock was known for creating terror in the hearts of his audiences. Some of his films are so iconic that the scenes and shots and performances have been referenced and riffed-on in hundreds of movies since. Unfortunately, Hitchcock was also known for creating terror in the hearts of the actresses who worked for him. He was manipulative and abusive and inappropriate. What he made was beautiful and new but how he made it was a mess. It’s not worth it, Aries. Even if your vision is remarkable, it won’t be worth getting there unless you can do it with kindness for those around you.

TAURUS

This horoscope is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and incidents portrayed herein are purely fictitious and any resemblance to actual places, products, or persons (living or dead) is purely coincidental. Except it does remind me of you, Taurus. I just mean that I’m hearing you use a lot of disclaimers lately. Honestly, I think you should just say what you know to be true. If people need clarification, they can ask. I’m just afraid you’re spending so much time imagining how your statements might be taken the wrong way that you’re afraid to say anything at all.

GEMINI

Will that be credit or debit, Gemini? Great! And will you be having that for here or to go? All right. And did you want it in a bag or a box? Good choice! And would you rather be an aging lion stretching out to rest in the desert sun or a young olive tree only just beginning to flower? Interesting. Sometimes, Gemini, the choices are clear and the answers are easy. Sometimes we need to wonder if there might be more options than we’d assumed or if we even need to answer at all. Sometimes there’s more than two choices.

CANCER

Just like most people you know, a bat has five fingers on each hand. Unlike most people you know, a bat’s elongated fingers are connected by a thin membrane that stretches between them to create wings. Can you imagine that, Cancer, you just stretch out your hand and fly up into the night sky? Honestly, I think you could do it. I think you’ve got most of what you need to do anything you want. You have all the basics, you just need to find a way to connect them.

LEO

In 1870 the Bender family moved west to Kansas. A mother, a father, a daughter and a son built a house, opened a general store, and kept an extra room where they could take in travellers for the night. Three years later the entire Bender family disappeared after it was revealed that they had been murdering guests and burying them on their property. They’d killed at least 12 people, some say upward of 20, and then they vanished forever. We don’t always get to know the motives of the people who do the most damage in our lives. Sometimes we never get the whole story. But I’m grateful you’ve been able to travel on past the damage that’s been done. I’m glad to see you’re travelling still.

VIRGO

When I was a kid I went to Yosemite National Park with my grandparents. We went to a lake and there were some older kids with a rope tied to a tree. They would swing out over the water and let go. I wanted to try, and I asked my grandmother to take a picture of me making my jump. I swung out, I turned around and saw that my grandmother still had the camera at her side. I was so disappointed that she didn’t get the picture, I forgot to let go of the rope and instead I came crashing back into

the tree. Sometimes, Virgo, life is better if you just take the jump. Don’t worry about the picture.

LIBRA

When The Wizard of Oz was made, special effects artists had a hard time getting the tornado just right. First they made a big cone out of rubber. It was the right shape, but it was too stiff and wouldn’t f low like a tornado. So they switched to cloth. In the end, they sewed what was essentially a giant sock. The final product is still terrifying. The funnel cloud sways and juts unpredictably. This week Libra, you may need to find a more f lexible solution. Something a little less rigid and more lifelike.

SCORPIO

In October of 1880 a large part of the central United States was hit with a blizzard. Just as it began to thaw, another wave of snow hit. Snowfall after snowfall, freeze after freeze. The “Snow Winter” continued this way for most of six months, finally beginning to thaw in March. Sometimes, Scorpio, it feels like you can’t even stand up before you get knocked down again. It’s been a lot lately. But there is still a thaw coming. You’ll see the sun again.

SAGITTA R IUS

I’m not sure when I became a daily coffee drinker, Sagittarius. At first it’s just a fun and tasty little ritual. You get a hot cup of good stuff and it gives you a little burst of energy. But now if I go a day without coffee I get a headache. Sometimes, Sagittarius, the things that used to help us out start to hold us back. Take a look at your rituals this week.

CAPRICORN

The first daily newspaper comic strip was called “A. Piker Clerk” and it was about a man with a gambling problem. Mr. Clerk would appear in the comic placing his bet on a real world horse race and the following day, after the actual race was run, the character would react to his win or loss in some comical way. It’s a complicated premise for what would eventually become a pretty straightforward format. It can take a long time to learn how to tell your stories, Capricorn, but it’s worth it. If you feel like the people in your life don’t understand you as well as they should, try telling the story again.

Mr. Mysterio is not a licensed astrologer, a trained chiropterologist, or a respected film critic. Mr. Mysterio is, however, a budding intermediate podcaster! Check out The Mr. Mysterio Podcast. Season 2 is now playing at mrmysterio.com. Got a question, just give Mr. M a call at 707-VHS-TAN1

PAGE 16 | February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

VENDOR WRITING

THE QUESTION JEN A.

I guess I’m hanging in It missed us by about 100 yards I went out on the balcony that night To look up at the blackened sky And saw one edge of the Violently whirling white cloud Throwing out sparks of light And large dark fragments of debris The flagpole out front dipped so I thought it would be pulled Right out of the ground But it held A few days later I followed its path Down Jefferson to the grocery store To take stock of what was scarred Or missing I wished I had worn my heavy boots To better navigate the fallen trees And shards of glass, roofing and Twisted metal What lashed my heart the most Was the scene at the small park Where the children had laughed and played All the beautiful shade trees were felled Their massive roots standing straight up As though searching for one another Yearning to touch as they had for decades Far underground The ancient red brick structures That I often took my bearings by Majestic monuments to bygone days Were blown to smithereens The bricks now mere litter in the streets Like Dresden after the bombing Nashville’s new version of ‘little boxes’ The pox of those dull featureless Apartment blocks that anymore seem to Spring from the earth like dandelions Appeared for the most part unscathed Some blown out windows Paltry landscaping unearthed You know I once went to a small gathering To hear Malvina Reynolds sing I took the children and

THEME: GOLDEN AGE OF TELEV ISION ACROSS 1. *Quiz show whistleblower, ____ Stempel 5. Time std. 8. “____ Like it Hot” movie 12. Walkie-talkie word 13. Wild hog 14. Blender setting 15. Coniferous tree 16. Of long ago 17. Gastric problem 18. *A show that had a Ball 20. Surveyor’s map 21. Changes to a manuscript 22. Mai follower 23. Get a move on 26. *Superman portrayer 29. Knot-tying words 30. Like unskilled work 33. Play with a bow 35. New Mexico’s state flower 37. Will Ferrell’s Christmas classic

38. On the radio 39. Nobel Peace Prize capital 40. Beat around the bush 42. Toddler 43. SAT administrator 45. Software plug-ins 47. Facebook photo option 48. Indulgence of impulses 50. Brees or Barrymore 52. *”Dragnet” sergeant 56. Old Brazilian coins 57. Pakistan’s official language 58. *”Your Show of Shows” comedian Reiner 59. Novelist Zola 60. Not made up 61. *”The ____ of Night” 62. Extinct bird 63. Call minus c 64. Gloom’s companion

I think I was pregnant with Eli at the time She strummed her guitar and We sang ‘Little Boxes’ The children knew all the words We were all having such a merry time Until she stopped And called me out in no uncertain terms For having had the children She said I had wasted my talent That I could have done more with my life... I’m sorry... What was the question?

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DOWN 1. Arizona tribe 2. Bad to the bone 3. Nevada city near Lake Tahoe 4. Warrant for officer promotion with no pay 5. As opposed to stay in 6. Chagall and Anthony 7. 3-pointer in basketball 8. *”Toast of the Town” host 9. Willy of “Free Willy” 10. Track event 11. Always, to a poet 13. Reference to the writer 14. Between larvae and adults 19. Allergic reaction to bee sting 22. ____ Aviv 23. *Ranger’s call to Silver 24. Sunbaked, archaically speaking 25. Wall or pedestal support 26. Kon-Tiki, e.g. 27. One of the Muses 28. Offspring 31. Getting warm 32. Not in good health 34. Tiny leftovers 36. *Abbott’s comedic partner 38. Online purchase 40. *Marjorie Reynolds in “The Life of Riley” 41. Scolding 44. Schoolmarm’s whip 46. Defrosted 48. Popular winter boot brand 49. Put it to the metal 50. Audition tape 51. SWAT attack 52. France/Switzerland border mountain range 53. Carpenter’s groove 54. Ben Affleck’s 2013 Oscar winner 55. Original matter 56. *Buttons or Skelton

VENDOR WRITING

Mercy for the delivery drivers BY PAUL A. My friend who is a waitress Downtown told me that there is no room in the parking garage. So she parked on the street and they fined her a $100 ticket. Which is wrong. They’re charging road tax, for liquor drivers, independent drivers, too. They park for a half hour. The drivers got to pay out of their own pockets. That’s wrong because of the fact that these independent drivers deliver the food

at restaurants, the beer and the liquor. The independent drivers, especially, they should not be charged, I feel, for parking. Because we’re going through a pandemic. And it’s bad enough that these people have to pay out of their pocket for that. That’s wrong. It should be lying on the big companies. The companies are getting money and these independent drivers,

To Live It BY JOHN H., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR I had a customer who came to my corner and even brought a chair to sit and speak to me how I share God’s word to many and live it. Many of us here in the city

of Nashville’s got a problem living God’s word. For many reasons they struggle. One, because of what they’ve been taught from childhood. Two, a very racist en-

My Mouse and Me B Y J U N E P. , C O N T R I B U T O R V E N D O R It’s cold outside so my mouse and me cuddle on the couch with a blanket. My friend called and said that it’s snowing. In about an hour,

my mouse and me got all wrapped up and went out. My mouse made some mittens for his little feet. They’re so cute. Took one of my

How Can We Keep Our Minds Right. BY MAURICE B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

I’m posing that detrimental question, “How can we keep our minds right?” First and foremost one must actually understand that the mind is no more than a mere muscle. When you understand and accept the process of taking care of human anatomy we should all realize that all muscles must be used

and used in an adequate means. Observing the so-called vital circumstances and situations in this world today, we must focus more on the idea that only one entity has all control. As long as we stay closed minded and solely focused on the worldly aspects there isn’t going to be a way out.

they’re not making a whole hell of a lot of money. They got bills to pay, they got families to feed. Nobody’s taking this into consideration. Everybody needs to be on a level playing field. I mean, if you had to park on the street out here, you’d get a ticket for $100 for parking there for a day. That’s superf luous. I understand. They gotta maintain roads and all of that. But where’s the mon-

vironment. Three, many pastors haven’t preached about things they ought, and of course, haven’t spoke the whole truth. Sometimes, I wonder if I always have the courage to live everyday life doing the right thing. Many times I get angry and frustrated, especially when people try to play me stupid. Many times you do everything in your power to ignore them and be a better person

thick socks and sewed him four little mittens. They’re bright orange, so we built a snowman. Lost my little mouse about four times. The last time he was sitting on the snowman’s head. Then, we made snow angels. His was some cutie. Four little footprints waved in the snow. Hope everyone is wearing their mask. We are. Made him one too. Be safe everyone.

To search for the true sense of “Freedom,” which will keep our minds right, is to seek and follow the will of our Almighty God who instructs us to stack up goods not here on earth but for the here-after. We as humans are just so busy doing our own will — which is a limited will — and we are so wired up in doing it that we don’t realize the good and bad things that come about from us doing our own will. For instance, there is an action in life called addiction. This action actually isn’t seen by society’s eyes as something that everyone has, but one way or another we all do have addiction.

ey? I don’t see the money going anywhere. And these waitresses and waiters do not even make minimum wage and they gotta pay this out of their tips, out of their pay. Something’s wrong with that. I can understand the city wanting to get ahead, some kind of way, and balance the budget. With all these taxes you’re charging people, they’re driving the people out of downtown.

even though you know the real truth. But we must live the way God wants us to live. We tease and what not, but what’s really in our heart is love, to be true. Many can’t live it, but believe me, we reap what’s sown. What goes around comes back. On this day Nov. 12, I ask God to please forgive me. I gave it to him a long time ago. But today, I surrender. He knows what’s in

my heart, and I know I have his forgiveness. He promised me that. But from this day on, I’ll walk that straight line. Life’s too short to waste it and end up with Satan when you die. Today is the time for salvation. Live it. Everyday is a day of thanks. Sorry people, Thanksgiving Day is just another day to me. Don’t celebrate it one day but every day.

Valentine’s Day B Y J U N E P. , C O N T R I B U T O R V E N D O R My mou se a nd me t he morning of Valentine’s Day. I give him a chocolate piece of candy. He bought me a lot of

Many have yet to realize and or accept the fullness of the various definitions of addiction, and it’s the reason why someone’s mind isn’t in a state of being right. There have been individuals that have dealt with accepting harsher areas of addictions in our lives, but there are plenty that have yet to accept the minut actions that are actually as bad and harmful as the addictions others have owned up to and become willing to work on in themselves. See, the difference between those that own up and those that hide are only steps into freedom. Those stuck in denial of having an addiction will forever believe that

PAGE 18 | February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

tissues he tore up on the f loor in the shape of a heart. Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone.

they have the answer. Those that are involved in taking steps to figure things out and share their experiences, strengths, and hopes will have a prosperous avenue into doing the next best thing. To me, the ideal thing is to keep the Almighty God of your understanding first. Then, stand firm in changing the things that you can to better yourself. Then accept the wisdom to know the difference bet ween what you can change and what you can not. With all of that, the muscle within one’s head should be strengthened enough to produce the right fundamental choices since life itself is full of choices.

Advertisers of The Contributor put their marketing dollars to work in lives of Nashville’s most vulnerable community. If your business is exploring cause marketing opportunties, consider partnering with The Contributor. CONTACT: 615-499-6829 OR

BARBARA@THECONTRIBUTOR.ORG

The Salvation Army, in partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, invite you to join us in spreading the light of hope to those in need throughout the dark winter of 2021. Each week, The Salvation Army will provide a comforting meal prepared by Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee at one of our locations across Nashville to help combat hunger, loneliness and despair. Safely dispersing the meal each week with smiling eyes, kind words, and the offer of a listening ear, this empathetic human connection can be a lifeline to those struggling through the loneliness and despair of our pandemic reality.

Follow us on Facebook for updates on dates and locations to spread the light of hope in your life and the lives of others.

The weekly visit becomes something to look forward to; the bowl becomes a vessel of nourishment and hope – together sharing the light through the dark. We want our neighbors to know The Salvation Army and Second Harvest are not the only one who can spread this light of hope. We invite those who can join us at our weekly meet ups to then take a comforting meal back to their family or neighbors, furthering the spread of the light beyond the bounds of our campuses.

facebook.com/salarmynashville

There is Light and Life.

February 17-March 3, 2021 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 19