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October 7 - 21, 2026 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 2

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NEWS

This historic bell is mounted outside the East Side of the Tennessee State Capitol. Along with several downtown churches, this bell was rung at 10 a.m. on Sept. 30, the original time and date Christa Pike was scheduled to be executed. Many attended this bell ringing ceremony from the national group Death Penalty Action. PHOTO BY ALVINE

Tennessee’s Latest Botched Execution Leaves Christa Pike Alive Pike would’ve been first woman 200 years executed by the state BY MIKEIE HONDA REILAND AND STEVEN HALE Christa Pike was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. Instead, she is the state’s second death row inmate in a matter of months subjected to an unsuccessful attempt at a lethal injection. On Sept. 30 at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institute, following a day of legal wrangling, the state tried and failed to execute Pike for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Pike’s lawyers announced that she was still alive. Gov. Bill Lee said he will postpone the state’s lone remaining execution in 2026. Gary Wayne Sutton was scheduled to be executed on Dec. 3. Lee also said he will commission a “comprehensive, third-party review” into Pike’s execution. After 8 p.m., the Knoxville Federal Public Defender’s Office confirmed that Pike had been given both doses of pentobarbital but that her heart hadn’t stopped. Their office immediately filed with both the federal district court and the Tennessee Supreme Court for a stay

of execution and an order for TDOC personnel to perform life-saving measures. At 9:15 p.m., an ambulance and a fire truck pulled up to the prison, lights flashing, interrupting the media witness press conference. Assembled media sat in near silence for five minutes, watching and filming the ambulance. Several of the witnesses appeared shaken by what they’d seen. “We have a lot of questions,” said John North, a media witness from Knoxville who attended Pike’s original trial, during the press conference. “And the Department of Correction has a lot of answers they need to provide the public.” TDOC didn’t provide many answers. Just as they did after Tony Carruthers’ aborted execution in May, the agency declined to address the media after the fact. Unlike Carruthers’ execution, when Dr. Mark Walton Fowler could not establish a central line, the media witnesses said the curtains actually opened, and they saw Pike on the gurney.

After 11 p.m., TDOC emailed the following statement: “The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office. The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility.” The botched execution occurred at the end of a long day at Riverbend. Around 9 a.m., an hour before the execution was originally scheduled, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit granted Pike a temporary stay. The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office immediately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which eventually vacated the stay around 5:50 p.m. in a 6-3 decision. But that flurry of legal filings, media witnesses said, was “just the tip of the iceberg” of an unprecedented day.

October 7 - 21, 2026 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 3

Media witnesses said they were allowed into the witness room at 6:26 p.m. After the curtains opened, Pike spoke what she thought would be her last words. “I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life,” she said. “And that is with love.” Pike said she loved her detractors as much as she loved the people who were on her side. “I’m at peace, I’m ready to be free. This is a happy day,” she finished. She repeated, with Rev. Mikey Noechel, her spiritual advisor, “May you be at peace. May you be kind and gentle to yourself.” Later, she addressed the same message to the media witnesses, the “people behind the glass.” Through the early stages of the process, witnesses were surprised by how much Pike talked. She and her spiritual advisor sang a song with the words “I love you.” Witnesses described the process as “out of sorts from the get-go.” For the most part, witnesses said, Pike labored but did not appear to be in distress.

NEWS

At one point, she said a spot on her arm felt like it was about to burst open. “Does it happen like that?” she asked Noechel. “Relax,” he told her. “I’m trying,” she said. She smiled and laughed, and a tear rolled down her right cheek. At some point, Pike’s breathing became labored, then rhythmic. At 7:46 p.m., the curtain closed, and her spiritual advisor was asked to leave. At 7:49 p.m., the curtain lifted, and Noechel was allowed back into the room, implying that TDOC intended to try again. Soon after, Pike began to snore. Her snoring grew louder, and TDOC shut the curtain again at 8:05 p.m. Despite requests from witnesses, the curtain remained shut, with witnesses only able to listen to the process, until 8:53 p.m. At that point, the mic from the execution chamber cut out, and the warden asked the media witnesses to exit the room. Pike was still breathing. Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol calls for two 50-milliliter syringes of a pentobarbital solution, both of which Pike received. What the protocol doesn’t address is what happens when you give someone two doses, and they’re still alive. At 9:28 p.m., the ambulance left the prison, trailed by two white TDOC vans. “I am not afraid to die,” Pike wrote in a letter included as part of her clemency petition ahead of the execution. “I’m only nervous about the process.” 6th Circuit Steps in Early Shortly before she was scheduled to be executed in the morning, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals granted Pike an 11th-hour stay. Pike’s appeals were mostly exhausted, including a late Sept. 29 denial by the U.S. Supreme Court and earlier decisions by the Tennessee Supreme Court and Gov. Bill Lee allowing the execution to move forward. The motion Pike’s attorneys made was not a new habeas petition, but rather a contention that the state changed its position on her childhood abuse. “She states that the State recently reversed its litigation position that she is a liar who fabricated sexual abuse,” the order reads. “Pike contends that the State’s concession of her history of child sexual abuse and rape ‘erodes the foundation’ of her state court proceedings.” During the special master hearing in August, a lawyer from the state said: “The state does not dispute the terrible things that Miss Pike suffered. I think everybody in this courtroom wishes that those things had never happened to Miss Pike.” The appellate court found that a stay was necessary to resolve the issue. Read the appellate court decision here. Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office immediately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which dissolved the stay at 5:50 p.m.

Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol calls for two 50-milliliter syringes of a pentobarbital solution, both of which Pike received. What the protocol doesn’t address is what happens when you give someone two doses, and they’re still alive.

Execution Brings Larger Protest On the morning of Sept. 30, far more people were on the protester lawn than usual — more than 60 on the “against” side of the fence, where the crowd is usually about half that size, and at least 15 on the “for” side, which often has only one person. The case also drew a much larger media presence, reflecting national interest. On the pro-death penalty side of things, a mother and daughter had traveled all the way from Manitoba, Canada, to be in Nashville on the day of Pike’s execution. They have been following her case for three decades and felt it was important to show up in person. Two Tennesseans spoke of the abuse Pike dealt with as a child. They felt the uniqueness of the case — Pike’s gender and, even for Death Row, the intense trauma of her childhood — were why more pro-death penalty protesters felt called to show up. “It wasn’t right,” said one protester, referencing Pike’s childhood, “but this still needs to happen.” “People over there,” said one man, gesturing to the other side of the fence, “if their 19-year-old daughter was almost decapitated and had a pentagram drawn on her chest, they’d feel a lot different.” Amanda Buck traveled from the Tri-Cities to stand on the “against” side of the fence, arriving at 3 a.m. on Sept. 30. She said she could’ve skipped paying for her motel room because she couldn’t sleep. She spent a decade in prison for drug charges and knew Pike well. Early in her sentence, Buck got in trouble and was sent to segregation, where she met Pike. She said that Pike made sure she had food and pens and paper. Eventually, Pike gave her a tattoo on her neck through the fence that separated them — chikara, the Japanese kanji character meaning “strength.” Once they knew each other well, Pike

sent Buck her case files, which included photos of the crime she committed. Buck was stunned. “It was some morbid stuff,” Buck said. “It was hard to get past that.” Pike didn’t initially express remorse, just saying that she didn’t know how to feel. Buck felt like she could get through to her. Buck knew, she said, “She’s got to turn over her life, or do something.” Buck decided to stay in segregation for two years to try to help Pike. Eventually, Buck said, Pike did arrive at remorse, for the act and for taking part of Slemmer’s skull. Buck spoke of Pike’s turn toward Buddhism. “She was a child, misled, trying to fit in,” Buck said, referencing the murder Pike committed. She acknowledged that Pike took the skull and said she didn’t carve the pentagram. “I don’t feel like she was the ringleader,” Buck said. “I don’t feel like it was fair the way the sentencing went.” “It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done,” Pike wrote as part of her clemency petition. “Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime.” After time in a Nashville halfway house and a return home to the Tri Cities, Buck said she has turned her life around. She recently messaged Pike thanking her for what she put into her. Buck now has a tattoo on her forearm that reads “Christa.” “You could see a little darkness,” Buck said of Pike, “but the light was more.” Buck and a friend planned to release 31 purple balloons at the time of Pike’s death, one for each year she spent in prison, all in Pike’s favorite color. They weren’t allowed to bring the balloons into the fenced area, so they said they planned to release them at Love Circle, possibly in celebration of the stay.

October 7 - 21, 2026 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 4

A Terrible Crime and the Aftermath Pike, 50, was scheduled to be the first woman executed in the state of Tennessee in over two centuries. She was sentenced to death for Slemmer’s murder in 1995, when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and a friend named Shadolla Peterson tortured and killed Slemmer in the woods. Pike — who was convinced Slemmer, a Job Corps classmate, was trying to steal Shipp, her boyfriend — was 18 at the time. Shipp was 17 and sentenced to life in prison, and Peterson turned state witness and avoided jail time. Police later found a fragment of Slemmer’s skull in Pike’s jacket pocket, and two other Job Corps classmates said Pike bragged to them about the murder and the souvenir. In August, Special Master Judge Mark Ward announced he would not block Pike’s execution. Ward had been appointed to hear arguments about whether or not Pike’s medical and psychological conditions would cause a torturous death, violating the Eighth Amendment right to avoid cruel and unusual punishment. At a three-day hearing, Pike’s attorneys also pointed to the sexual abuse and trauma she was subjected to as a child. She suffered from bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. After evaluating Pike, clinical psychologist Dr. Bethany Brand described her case as “truly extreme.” In an amicus brief to the Tennessee Supreme Court, a group of experts said that Pike’s execution could cause her to “feel and believe that she is being raped to death.” Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, told the Banner that her daughter volunteered with the Special Olympics and helped children with disabilities at her school in Florida. She loved to build and take apart computers, and one of her favorite T-shirts read “computer geek.” Martinez made the shirt into a teddy bear, which she still has today. Over the years, Martinez said, the state of Tennessee has intermittently returned her daughter’s remains. Eventually, because of the memories of her daughter, Martinez and the rest of her family felt they had to leave town. “I couldn’t take the area anymore,” she told the Banner. “There’s too many memories. The school, the skating rink, the movies, it’s just all there.” Despite fundraising efforts from a victim’s advocacy organization, Martinez and her husband didn’t have enough money for plane tickets to Nashville. But they made the 600-mile drive to witness Pike’s execution, she said, “so I can remember that she is gone and I don’t have to fear that she’s going to pop up somewhere.” This article first appeared on the Nashville Banner website and is republished under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

PIECES OF POETRY 87

Your Life and Mine

The Loneliest Man in the World

Doing what I have to do? To get me there. Time is of the essence. Very little to spare. Going down a lonely road, That’s taking me where? I know? I really need to be? I’d Love to find the time? To be with you? And I can see that, You have probably, Been thinking it too? But I’ve got my problems? And so do you, And there’s nothing we can do about it? It’s just the way it is?

If you want to find yourself a Princess? You’ve got to become a Prince. Stand out in a crowd, And remove all doubt, You’re Original, Unique and Different. If you’re looking for Love, From somebody else? You’ve got to start, By Loving Yourself. You’re trying to hide, What’s not - Right - Inside, Hoping? Nobody can tell?

Written by Chris Scott Fieselman, Vendor #0015

You’ve got Your Life … And I’ve got Mine … And the two were never meant to intertwine. I wish that we could be more than a fantasy, Or a memory that fades with time? But? … You’ve got Your Life … And I’ve got Mine … Time marches on for everyone. Dancing to the beat of a different drum. But make no mistake? A day will come will come? When they wish that they had found someone? Commitment to becoming? More than friends? I’ve been through that, Unpleasant Experience? Takes too much work, To end up being hurt, And right now, I can’t do it, again? Please try and understand? You’ve got Your Life … And I’ve got Mine … And the two were never meant to intertwine. I wish that we could be more than a fantasy, Or a memory that fades with time? But? … You’ve got Your Life … And I’ve got Mine …

Written by Chris Scott Fieselman, Vendor #0015

But, Somewhere Out There? Is a woman who cares. A one in a million girl. Who’ll find it in her heart? To want to Love, The Loneliest Man in the World … Now, don’t despise, The things in your life, That come from the hand of God. He’s trying to do, a work in you, To make you more, Than, what you are? He’s not about to give you, A precious gift, That you’re, Just - Not - Ready - For? You can settle for less, Then the very best, Or you can, Wait Upon the Lord. Cause, Somewhere Out There? Is a woman who cares. A one in a million girl. Who’ll find it in her heart? To want to Love, The Loneliest Man in the World …

I may always regret it, And never forget it, The Day? We went our Separate Ways? But, C’est-las-vie, If we were meant to be? We may meet again someday?

When it seems, Like it’s taking forever. Things are getting worse, Instead of better. Like a miner, Who’s been searching, For a Heart of Gold. It takes time, To make a Diamond, From a Lump of Coal … Whoa … Oh ... Oh …

Cause, Somewhere Out There? Is a woman who cares. A one in a million girl. Who’ll find it in her heart? To want to Love, The Loneliest Man in the World …

THEME: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 23. User’s “getaway” 60. Code word for K ACROSS 61. Mauritania’s East- 24. Sun-dried brick 1. Trampled 25. Water wheel 5. Dashboard unit, acr. ern neighbor 8. “Be quiet,” onomato- 62. Soda pop container 26. Intense anger 27. Painter’s prop 63. Ems follower poeically speaking 28. Angler’s basket 64. Highest point 11. Clean the white29. Former Russian board, e.g. leaders DOWN 12. Morally wicked 32. Snatch 13. Former anesthetic 1. *Piano has at least 33. Toothy fish 15. Bad luck precursor ____ pedals 36. *Lute family in16. Banned apple spray 2. Part of a glass, pl. 3. Leading oil-produc- struments 17. *Ringo Starr’s 38. “Perfect” Buddhist ers’ grp. instrument, pl. 40. Theatrical prompt 4. Indicate 18. *Home of the 5. Home to Teatro alla 41. Former Portuguese bagpipes money 20. Big one, at 7-Eleven Scala 44. Edible herb 6. Popular core exer21. Contemplate 46. Brain teaser cise 22. Jewelry stone 48. Like average Jane 7. Deer social group 23. Hindu queens 49. British peers 26. Something earned 8. Synagogue 50. Prefix for “beyond” 9. Cannabis plant 30. Tokyo, formerly 31. *Riddim pair music 10. Store posting, abbr. 51. Any minute, arch. 52. Type of fish net 12. Old-fashioned genre 53. Daytime TV procarry-on bag 34. Spock’s famous gram 13. Straight ones in body parts 54. Enameled metal35. *Animal, source of drafter’s toolbox 14. *Louis Armstrong’s ware violin bow strings 55. Federal Communi37. Scott Joplin’s “Ma- instrument cations Commission 19. “And Then ____ ple Leaf ____” 58. *Standard number 38. Away from port (2 Were None” of strings on guitar 22. “Wow!” words) 39. Not much (2 words) 40. Post-graduate journey? 42. Always, to a poet 43. Baby bear (2 words) 45. Beach-comber’s collection 47. Choler 48. Popular pie nut 50. Glazier’s unit 52. *Flute player 55. Pointy teeth 56. 36 inches 57. Sticky stuff 59. Hot ____ buns

October 7 - 21, 2026 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 5

NEWS

NEWS BRIEFS Government Funding Shifts Put Large Nonprofit Job Pool, Income at Risk An analysis from think tank ThinkTennessee and the Boyd Center says that Tennessee’s large nonprofit sector is at risk due to government funding shifts. The nonprofit sector in the state supports 725,000 jobs and generates $59 billion in income, according to the analysis, and it also adds $2.9 billion in state and local tax revenue each year. The analysis, More Than Mission: How Tennessee’s Nonprofits Drive Jobs, Income, and Tax Revenue, produced in partnership with the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville looked at nonprofits’ presence and spending across all 95 counties, the jobs and income their operations support, and how much of the sector depends on government grants, according to a release. “Tennessee’s nonprofits are best known for the services they provide to our communities, but this analysis shows they are also a major economic engine – employing our neighbors, buying from local businesses, and reaching every county in the state,” said Erin Hafkenschiel, president of ThinkTennessee. “With so many nonprofits relying on government grants to keep their doors open, recent funding shifts don’t just threaten the services communities count on — they put the state’s economic growth at risk too.” AMANDA HAGGARD Nashville Public Library Expands Board Game Collection The Nashville Public Library has expanded its board game offerings to 440 games. In just a few short years since 2021, the collection went from just 30 games to 440. Library card holders can choose everything from Sorry! to Settlers of Catan. According to the library, the program

is very popular: Library patrons have checked out games more than 6,900 times. “The Library collection offers a wide array of items — including our newly expanded Board Game Collection — giving people yet another way to experience the library beyond just books,” said NPL Director Terri Luke. “We love seeing how this program encourages people to gather, relax and connect with one another, and we are incredibly grateful to Mayor O’Connell and Metro Nashville for the investments that made this possible.” The board games are housed at the Main Library as well as at 10 branches: Bordeaux, Donelson, Edgehill, Edmondson Pike, Goodlettsville, Green Hills, Hadley Park, Hermitage, Looby and Madison. Library patrons can check out two games at a time for up to three weeks — either in person or online for delivery to the patron’s branch of choice. AMANDA HAGGARD Metro Issues Notice that Home Energy Assistance Disrupted by Lack of Federal Funding The Metro Action Commission issued an alert to Davidson County residents that they would not be able to provide utility assistance through Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) for an undetermined amount of time. The Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA), which administers LIHEAP funding statewide, notified Metro Action on Sept. 30 that the agency has not yet received the federal funds necessary to begin the 2027 LIHEAP program year, according to a Metro release. “As a result, Metro Action is not able to pay for utility assistance at this time. Residents may still submit an application; however, THDA’s system will place all applicants on a waiting list until the federal funding is released. Applicants will also receive guidance to contact United

Way’s 2‑1‑1 Center for additional community resources during this temporary funding gap,” the release reads. THDA will offer some supplemental payments for eligible households from the existing program year. Once those payments are finalized, THDA will determine whether any remaining funds can be rolled over to help agencies navigate the period before new federal funding becomes available. Federal restrictions on rollover funding, combined with high application volume, have contributed to uncertainty regarding the availability of temporary funds. “Metro Action understands how difficult this delay is for families facing utility disconnections or already without service,” said Lisa Beverly, Director of Communications & Engagement. “We are communicating this update as quickly as possible so residents know what to expect and where they can find additional support while we await federal funding.” AMANDA HAGGARD Nashville Democrat Sues Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Over Committee Suspension A Tennessee Democratic state senator has sued the chamber leader over her committee reassignment and travel reimbursement restrictions implemented after she protested from the Senate Floor during a recent special session to redraw the state’s U.S. House map. At the end of a May special legislative session to redraw and gerrymander Tennessee’s U.S. congressional map so Republicans could net an extra seat in this year’s midterm election S tate Sen. Charlane Oliver of Nashville stood on her desk and unfurled a banner in protest.Republican lawmakers divided the predominantly Black city of Memphis across three congressional seats to create a map in which the party is favored to win all nine of Tennessee’s U.S. House districts. Lt.

Kid’s Corner Created by Mccollonough Ceili

October 7 - 21, 2026 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 6

Gov. Randy McNally, an Oak Ridge Republican and also Senate speaker, suspended Oliver from the Government Operations Committee following the session and reassigned her to the less powerful State and Local Government Committee. Oliver is also not allowed to receive a per diem for legislative work and is not allowed to use state funds to attend legislative conferences. “ When I stood on my Senate desk, I did it because the legislature swiftly moved to silence the voices of Black Tennesseans,” said Oliver in a news release. “An injustice of that magnitude demanded an equally urgent response. As the only Black senator representing Nashville, I carry the voices of people who have been pushed to the margins of this state’s policies for generations.” Th e Lookout reached out to a spokesperson for McNally, and he didn’t respond by the time of publication. Tennessee lawmakers implemented a midcycle redistricting after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that states with a history of racial discrimination were no longer required to draw majority-minority U.S. House seats. A seat that included all of Memphis was Tennessee’s last majority-minority district, after Republicans broke up Nashville’s congressional seat in the 2022 redistricting cycle. B efore 2022, Republicans held a 7-2 advantage over the Democratic Party in Tennessee’s congressional map. The GOP upped its advantage after 2022 to 8-1 and is now expected to win all nine, as each district is a seat President Donald Trump won by at least 20 percentage points. T rump won Tennessee in 2024, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris winning around 35% of the vote.The Campaign Legal Center is representing Oliver in the lawsuit, and she’s a co-plaintiff with four of her constituents. ADAM FRIEDMAN | TENNESSEELOOKOUT.COM

A FEW QUESTIONS

Q&A with Kelly Walberg

VP of Marketing & Communications at CFMT Talks Nonprofits, Community Engagement BY JUDITH TACKET T Kelly Walberg is a communications strategist whose leadership has influenced and guided Nashville’s philanthropic giving and the nonprofit sector for decades. Walberg serves as the vice president of marketing & communications at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT) and her areas of expertise include building effective community partnerships, crisis management, stakeholder engagement, media relations and brand storytelling. She is the recipient of the 2024 Women of Influence award by the Nashville Business Journal, a member of the Rotary Club of Nashville, has been actively engaged with Nashville’s VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster), Hands on Nashville, the Community Resource Center and other local community organizations. You have been with the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT) for more than 15 years. In a nutshell, what is CFMT? CFMT is Middle Tennessee’s philanthropic home. We connect generosity with 35 years of community knowledge, relationships and resources to help people make a greater impact through their giving and to help build a stronger region. Essentially, we work alongside donors and nonprofits. But we also bring people together around opportunities and challenges that are bigger than any one organization can address on their own. There is power in numbers, and with this building that we’ve been able to move into in the past three years, I’ve seen that work become more and more apparent as different organizations, community leaders, nonprofit organizations, and generous donors can sit in the same building together and address those issues. CFMT moved to a new location and hired Hal Cato as the CEO four years ago. How did CFMT change under new leadership? My answer to that will change day-to-day. At its core, we still have the foundation. We still have this place where those who have charitable dollars and want to give through us in order to support nonprofits in many different issue areas, that work is still happening. We still have our own grant-making process. Some donors come to us and create funds and entrust the Community Foundation’s local expertise and diligence to identify which nonprofits are addressing particular issues and allow us to give their dollars away through an annual grant making cycle. The biggest change with our grant making is that in the past, we would have given perhaps 300 to 350 grants to individual nonprofits. But our grant-making team has adjusted the way they do grant making. So now it’s about 95 grants per year through that community impact grant making cycle. But these grants are for much larger dollars allowing for deeper impact. Also, one of the biggest changes that I’ve seen is how we are showing up in the com-

munity and a lot has to do with this building. We now have space for 501(c)3 nonprofits to be able to use to facilitate board meetings or planning sessions or a lot of different types of important conversations to move the needle. That’s allowed us to also build more meaningful relationships with the nonprofit sector in Middle Tennessee. Lastly, I would say the types of initiatives are just shifting toward what the needs are. We have focused on the early childhood education sector for a long time that has grown and expanded. Now we’re looking at the Unified Housing Strategy and partnership with the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and seeing how we can better support the housing issue in Middle Tennessee alongside our Nashville Catalyst Fund that supports developers that are trying to maintain or support affordable housing opportunities. We’re just doing a lot more table setting where we’re bringing community leaders around the table and trying to do cross-sector work, whether it’s through business or academia or nonprofit and our funder community. I see a lot of relationships becoming stronger and stronger because of the central location that our building has provided us to be able to have more of those conversations. Talk a little about the Tennessee Nonprofit Network. What is it and what made you want to join as a board member in 2025? The Tennessee Nonprofit Network is a statewide association, and it’s here to serve and strengthen the nonprofit sector across the state. So, I have gone from helping serve the Middle Tennessee region to now being able to learn from the entire state of Tennessee. We know that across the state, the landscape changes, the needs change, and we can do so much when we learn from each other. The Tennessee Nonprofit Network connects these nonprofits with resources, it connects them with learning opportunities, advocacy, and also with one another to build relationships. It helps make the case for how essential nonprofits are to the health and strength of our communities. I joined the board because I believe in the role nonprofits play here in Tennessee. We’re at this moment in time where there’s trust that’s beginning to erode, and we’re trying to rebuild that trust in what the nonprofit sector is. The fact of the matter is that nonprofits are part of the infrastructure of our communities. They feed families, they educate our children, and they care for our neighbors. When you mention that trust is beginning to erode in nonprofits, can you elaborate on that? I think that it came from the changing landscape in January of 2025 when nonprofits and foundations were put [increasingly] under a microscope. There was a narrative that changed around whether or not the sector’s dollars and the donor’s dollars were being put to the intended use.

There is still a perception with some that people who work for nonprofits should be volunteers and shouldn’t get paid. But some of the work that nonprofits do is some of the hardest work that we come across on a day-to-day basis. What the Tennessee Nonprofit Network is hoping for is to be able to shift that perception. What are the biggest challenges nonprofits face and what opportunities do nonprofits have to adapt to those challenges? This question [encapsulates] much of what we talk about here at Community Foundation and the Tennessee Nonprofit Network. I think that first we have to start changing the way that we think about nonprofits because they are an essential community infrastructure. By that I mean they employ people that contribute significantly to our economy and provide services that Tennesseans rely on every day. I’m talking billions of dollars every year [to help with] food, housing, health care, education, the arts, etc. So one question is, What happens if nonprofits aren’t here? The needs that they address would not disappear. Someone would still need to feed the family or help that child or care for a neighbor and that responsibility would fall somewhere else in the community. And that’s why the challenges facing our nonprofits now should concern all of us. The second thing is workforce capacity and burnout. You see that everywhere and this feeling of burnout is a scary thing for those who work in the nonprofit sector. We need to look at more competitive compensation, professional development and leadership. There are a lot of nonprofit leaders who have been doing this work for a long time, and they’re getting ready to retire. So we need to make sure that there’s a workforce in place that could fill those spaces and do it as well as they’ve been doing it, if not better. Finally, the third challenge I would say is navigating an increasingly complex environment while also strengthening public understanding and trust in the sector. Nonprofits need to communicate more clearly about who they serve and about how they use their resources. It’s about transparency, and the more transparency we can give in the work that we’re doing, the more likely people are going to be generous with their hard-earned dollars. We also need to know what impact nonprofits are creating and the role that they play in both the economy and our communities. You are the founder and driving member of Press Forward Middle Tennessee. What is Press Forward, why did you decide to form a local chapter, and what are the main goals? Press Forward is a national movement and also a network of local chapters. We’re working to strengthen local news and information, so communities have access to the trusted information they need to thrive. That’s it in a nutshell.

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Now, Press Forward Middle Tennessee is our local chapter, and it’s housed here at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. It focuses on the specific and unique needs of the communities in our region. The decision for me to form a chapter came out of the simple realization that local news touches almost every issue that we care about. Whether we’re talking education, public safety, health, housing, economic opportunity, local government or quality of life. We need people to stay connected because reliable information of what’s happening around them helps them make informed decisions and participate in communities. But the infrastructure that allows us to do that has been shrinking dramatically. We knew we couldn’t just assume that we understood what Middle Tennessee needed when it came to access to local news or even how they prefer to receive that critical information. And because our region includes rapidly growing cities, rural communities, longtime residents, newcomers and communities, that historically have not always seen themselves and their experiences reflected in local media, we decided that when we launched the Middle Tennessee chapter to help with the intersection of how philanthropy supports local independent news and information, we wanted to make sure we started by listening. Over the past year, we began building relationships with these independent newsrooms and providers. And we have started to conduct community research across the 40-county region that we serve at the Community Foundation. I’m hoping to be able to bring new philanthropic investment into local journalism to make certain that the voices and the information needs of our communities help shape what can come next … because without trusted local information, it becomes much harder for communities to understand their challenges and identify solutions and work together to create change. Lastly, we have seen that when people stay connected to what’s happening in their community, they’re more likely to be civically engaged and want to be a part of the system that makes our communities stronger. Do you have any insights yet from the survey? We have a few insights and right now our partner at the Sycamore Institute is going through what we have learned. We ended up having more than 1,400 individuals take the survey, we offered it multi-language, but there is going to be a second phase to cover some of the gaps we still see. We launched the survey in May, which was not good timing for when schools are in session. And so sometime later this fall, I’d really love to cover that 13- to 17-year-old and then 18- to 29-year-old [population] so we can have a better [view of that]. There’s still some more work to be done, but the deeper-dive details that are currently happening right now with the Sycamore Institute, and we hope to be able to put a full report out there in October.

LEARN MORE ABOUT

Learn More About Food Stamps BY JUDITH TACKET T

About 95,000 Tennesseans lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), widely known as food stamps, in the year after Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) in July 2025. SNAP is a joint program between the federal and state governments. Administrative costs used to be split 50-50 between the federal government and a state. But starting Oct. 1, 2026, states, including Tennessee, saw their administrative cost share increase from 50 percent to now 75 percent. In order to accommodate the change, the Tennessee legislature set aside an extra $58 million for the current fiscal year for the Department of Human Services (DHS), which administers SNAP. Administrative costs are estimated to increase to a total of $77 million in future fiscal years. This increase in administrative costs will save the federal government dollars but put a significant strain on future state budgets to continue the country’s largest anti-hunger program, which helps about one in eight Americans each month or more than 40 million people. History of the Food Stamp Program The first Food Stamp Program, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers the program, was established in 1939. The program was a response to widespread unemployment coupled with surplus food from farmers that starving Americans were unable to afford. The program served about 20 million people. The program ended in 1943 because conditions had improved so that it was no longer deemed necessary. Then, in 1961, President John F. Kennedy created a Food Stamp pilot program, which in 1964 was made permanent by President Lyndon B. Johnson. According to the USDA, the Food Stamp Act of 1964’s purpose was to strengthen “the agricultural economy and [provide] improved levels of nutrition among low-income households.” The new Food Stamp Act also brought the pilot program under Congressional control. The way the program works is that the USDA establishes eligibility requirements within the federal law, whereas state agencies, such as DHS in Tennessee, are responsible for enrolling eligible people and issuing the SNAP benefits each month. The administrative cost of the program is shared. And this share has now increased from 50 percent to 75 percent for states while currently the full cost of benefits is still covered by the federal government. However, starting next year — on Oct. 1, 2027 — the recent federal changes under the OBBB Act will require that states that are found to have a certain level of administrative errors will also need to pay a portion of the benefit costs. Advocates argue that this is not sufficient timing to adjust for Tennessee and could create

additional budgetary burden for Tennessee that could be rolled onto the customers, so to speak. It may be too early to venture whether it will result in additional SNAP benefit losses for people in need. Error rates, according to the Tennessee Justice Center, are generally not referring to fraud but to administrative mistakes such as miscalculations or typos. Here is how the error rate penalty will work for states: Let’s say Tennessee had an error rate of 10 percent, like it did in 2024 and 2025. Then the state would have to pay for about $71 million that year out of its own coffers. If the error rate is zero, then the federal government would continue to pay for the $71 million in benefits. Some states received a two-year extension for this upcoming law around the error rate to go into effect. Tennessee did not and will have to figure out how to reduce error rates significantly by next year. How does SNAP work? SNAP is calculated based on a federal formula that considers income, asset limits, residency rules and work requirements. The highest possible SNAP benefits for a one-person household currently are $306; for a family of four, it can go up to $1,203. Once a person or family is deemed eligible and the monthly amount is calculated, payments are sent monthly via electronic benefit transfers (EBTs), which essentially is a debit card for SNAP benefits. Recipients can use these cards to purchase groceries. Starting in December of 2025, Tennessee restricted SNAP purchases of soda and candy items. SNAP also cannot be used to buy alcohol, tobacco, medicines or non-food items, such as cleaning supplies, pet food or hygiene items. Main Changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill affecting SNAP Advocates quoted in different outlets such as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBBP), the Tennessee Justice Center, and the Harvard Kennedy School all agree that changes in the OBBB, which Congress passed in July 2025, are the main driver of the significant loss of SNAP enrollments and warn that states are not prepared. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the changes in the OBBB will reduce federal spending on SNAP by about $186 billion over the next decade. Sara Bleich, a professor of public health policy at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, said in a 2025 interview with the Harvard Kennedy School that reduction would signify about 20 percent of the current funding level. In fiscal year 2025 alone, the United States spent about $101.7 billion on SNAP. Five significant changes under the OBBB, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), are:

1. Expanded work requirements for able-bodied adults increased from 54 years to 64 years. Adults aged 1864 must work at least 20 hours per week or use these hours for education or training purposes or volunteering to remain eligible for SNAP benefits beyond three months in a three-year period. In addition, previously existing exemptions under the work requirements that existed for Veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and youth aging out of foster care were scratched. But new exemptions were put in place for Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Indigenous peoples and tribal members. What this means for people experiencing homelessness is that they will only be eligible to receive SNAP benefits for up to three months within a three-year period if they cannot meet an 80-hour-permonth work requirement (which includes hours spent on education or volunteering). 2. The SNAP-Ed Program, which focused on providing nutritional food for school children, was eliminated. The program provided $536 million nationwide, of which Tennessee received $5.8 million. 3. Non-citizen eligibility was restricted, meaning that refugees, those in asylum, and human trafficking survivors will lose access to SNAP. 4. The administrative cost share increases as described earlier; and 5. The benefit cost sharing will be implemented next year based on a state’s payment error rates, also described above. “The impacts of the harmful 2025 Republican reconciliation law and other policies are already on display,” wrote Sharon Parrott, CBPP President, in a press release mid-September. “Since July 2025, the number of people receiving SNAP has fallen by roughly 5 million (12 percent), and based on data from 25 states, it is likely that well over 1.5 million children have lost food assistance. “The sharp nationwide drop in enrollment doesn’t coincide with labor market strengthening, suggesting it is largely policy-driven,” Parrott said. Understanding the Paperwork Burden Bleich explained in her interview with the Harvard Kennedy School that the “expanded work requirements create a significant paperwork burden, as affected individuals must submit monthly documentation to the state, which must then review and process that information.” This increase in paperwork does not bode well for states like Tennessee that will need to attempt to reduce administrative errors and typos within the next year. The CBBP reported that “research has shown that administrative burdens can lead to procedural denials, where applicants are rejected not due to ineligibility,

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but because they are unable to navigate the complex application and eligibility recertification processes. A large percentage of applicants are unable to complete the necessary steps to secure benefits, resulting in missed assistance and increased risk of food insecurity.” The Contributor spoke with Sarah Champion, a housing stability and community resource guide for our newspaper vendors, who has been working with vendors to apply for their SNAP benefits. She said she started right when the work requirements were announced but were not quite in play yet. “The biggest change I’ve seen is that there’s suddenly this work requirement and nobody seems prepared for it, including on the technology side. So that’s been really cumbersome,” Champion said, describing in detail how many clicks and double verification the DHS portal requires. If a person does not have the same phone number that was used for their previous verification and application, then the process gets complex. To get into the portal, you have to use the email with your password, and then there is a two-factor authentication where you get a verification code sent to your email. Then you verify your email, then when you log in, you have to go to your email and get a secondary two-factor authentication code,” Champion tried to explain to me, while I was getting lost already. “If you’re an elderly person, that’s a lot.” In essence, by the time people finally get logged in, they then have to submit a ton of verifications like rent receipts or utility bills. These are difficult documents to get together, especially for people who are still or have experienced homelessness, and that’s why The Contributor assists vendors in the process. At the end of the process, there is an interview, which must be scheduled. “You have to know what they’re going to ask for, and that feels like it is often changing depending on how the individual agent conducts the interview … where you reverify everything,” Champion said, going into more explanation that after missing one interview slot and ending up on a twoand-a-half-hour hold on the phone, she learned to space out interview time 90 minutes apart. The minutiae of the actual process show how difficult it is for people with disabling conditions, people who cannot simply miss work, people who are not technology-savvy and people who are elderly to simply maneuver the process to receive SNAP benefits. Keep in mind, I only highlighted some of the details Champion explained. While the SNAP program is a measure that helps millions of people stay in housing, the policies and processes demonstrate how difficult it is for families below the poverty line to access the help they need.

MINI VOTER GUIDE

The Power of the Vote

As vastly different candidates fight to lead the state, voters still have the power BY AMANDA HAGGARD As many in Tennessee wondered how the state would handle its failed execution of death row prisoner Christa Pike on Sept. 30, gubernatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn used the opportunity to get in front of voters with her solution. “Bring back the electric chair,” Blackburn posted on X the morning after the botched execution where the state delivered two injections of what should have been fatal doses of pentobarbital. (Read more about Pike on Pg. 3.) Pike was taken away in an ambulance and given life-saving care as the state doesn’t have a plan for when two doses of the injection do not work. This comes just months after the state botched Tony Carruthers’ execution. Though Blackburn goes on in her post to tell folks that as governor she would be sure to “deliver justice swiftly,” the state already employs her solution. Though people sentenced to the death penalty before 2000 already had the choice of the chair, the state officially made it a backup to injections in 2014. Not unsurprisingly, democratic candidate for governor Jerri Green feels differently about the situation. “The state botched this execution because the Attorney General rushed this process, even after the execution of Tony Carruthers failed just four months ago,“ Green said in a statement. ”There is a lack of transparency around drug testing, as well as qualified and ethical personnel — but the fact of the matter is: the death penalty has always been inhumane, expensive, and biased. “As a public defender, I’ve met a few too many people who were wrongfully convicted on death row who were later exonerated. As Governor, I would put a moratorium on all future executions. If we say we are pro-life, that means we must be anti-death penalty.” Gov. Bill Lee has already paused executions until January — one scheduled for Dec. 3 will now be pushed back. Lee has launched an investigation into the execution, but the results will be left for the incoming governor to reckon with. This stark difference between how the two top contenders have responded to this is just a parallel for every other issue that faces the state. Blackburn, as usual, shows up to deliver the most barbaric solution, albeit in a way that plays to a group intent on making others suffer. Green releases a thoughtful statement that mostly goes by the wayside because it’s not a four-to-fiveword call for increased violence or treachery.

Blackburn refuses to hold town halls or engage in debates, but attends large events to wave on camera — and in some cases gets booed. Green is all over the state at small, medium and large venues meeting with potential voters. While Blackburn leads the most recent polls in the state, Green is not that far behind. In September, The Progress Fund, a political action committee supporting Green, polled 600 likely voters and their survey put Blackburn at 45 percent, Green at 36 percent, David Hatley, a conservative-leaning independent, at 10 percent and independent Lauren Pinkston at 2 percent. In the last election, only 38 percent of all registered voters cast a ballot in the gubernatorial election, and even that is a small subset of the overall pool of voters who could be registered but are not. A substantial increase in voter turnout in Davidson County alone, where only 36 percent of voters cast a ballot, could make a huge difference on Election Day. If Blackburn wins, in many ways things in the state will stay the same. While Lee may

PHOTOS BY ALVINE not post as bombastically on social media, his policies and positions and Blackburn’s do not differ. And, unfortunately, if Green somehow

pulls off a win, her fight against the Republican supermajority in the Tennessee General Assembly will have only just begun.

MINI VOTER GUIDE

DEMOCRATIC

Governor REPUBLICAN

MARSHA BLACKBURN

www.marshablackburn.com

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn has been in Tennessee politics since 1998, when she was elected to serve on the Tennessee State Senate. The focus of her campaign has been protecting what she describes as Tennessee’s values of “faith, family and freedom.” She emphasizes border security, parental rights in education, economic growth, strengthening law enforcement and limiting government regulation. Her recent campaign ads

focus on lessening the Chinese influence on America. Blackburn highlights her experience representing Tennessee in the U.S. Senate and positions herself as someone who will keep Tennessee “America’s conservative leader.” She has also stressed and promoted her proximity to President Donald Trump and his policies, and she has faced recent pressure as she refuses to answer any questions from the media or debate her opponents on stage.

JERRI GREEN

www.greenforgovernor.com

Jerri Green’s campaign website highlights her background as a Memphis city council member, attorney, mother and public servant. She says her priorities include making government work for everyday Tennesseans by improving healthcare access, increasing economic opportunity, reducing violent crime

and strengthening support for working families. Green emphasizes expanding af fordable healthcare, raising wages and ensuring state government serves residents rather than powerful interests. Her campaign presents her as a pragmatic Democrat.

INDEPENDANT CANDIDATES Misam Abidi Dean Brewer Ray Brown David Hatley Wendell Jackson

Charles Van Morgan Eddie Lee Murphy Lauren Pinkston Victor L. Scoggin Dave Seeman

Karl Knox Smithson L. Webb Taylor Robert C. Vick

United States Senate REPUBLICAN

DEMOCRATIC

BILL HAGERTY

MARQUITA BRADSHAW

U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty is the only Republican candidate on the ballot for the Aug. 6 primary. On his campaign website, he calls himself “Trump’s top ally in the Senate.”

Marquita Bradshaw is a longtime environmental activist and community advocate from Memphis. She ran against Hagerty in 2020, and while she lost, she was the first Black woman in Tennessee to earn a major political party nomination. She also ran for Senate in 2024.

INDEPENDENT Tharon Chandler Jeremy Dean Hearn Robert Jones James William Macon III Yoshi D. Matthews David Sutman, Jr. Catherine Barcel “Barcy” Whitson

www.marquitabradshaw.com

www.teamhagerty.com

United States House of Representatives DISTRICT 4

DISTRICT 6

REPUBLICAN

DEMOCRATIC

SCOTT DESJARLAIS

VICTORIA BRODERICK www.victoria4tennessee.org

www.johnnygarrettforcongress.com

www.croleyforcongress.com

Incumbent Scott DesJarlais has a long history as a legislator in Tennessee. He calls himself a “strong advocate for small government.” In the past, he has faced controversy for being recorded asking a mistress to have an abortion after promoting staunch anti-abortion policies as a legislator.

Victoria Broderick works in the logistics and technology industry, and says she entered politics after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Her website outlines a run based on equity, affordability, community safety and freedom.

Johnny Garrett’s run has focused on his alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda. He currently serves in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

INDEPENDENT

Mike Croley says on his campaign website that his run is built around listening to constituents. He focuses on affordability, accountability and action and highlights his background as an engineer as a policy building strength and encourages people to reach out and ask issue-specific questions rather than issuing talking points.

Jacob Kristopher Anders Clay Faircloth

Christopher B. Monday Angus Purdy

www.scottdesjarlais.com

REPUBLICAN JOHNNY GARRETT

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DEMOCRATIC MIKE CROLEY

MINI VOTER GUIDE

DISTRICT 7 REPUBLICAN

DEMOCRATIC

MATT VAN EPPS

DARDEN COPELAND

Incumbent Congressman Matt Van Epps from Nashville has no Republican challenger. Epps won narrowly over Democratic Rep. Aftyn Behn in a special election in fall of 2025.

Darden Copeland says his working class upbringing led him to wanting to restore accountability in Congress. His website outlines his work as a business owner and entrepreneur.

www.mattfortn.com

INDEPENDENT Andrew J. Koontz Lowell Reynolds

www.dardenforcongress.com

Tennessee State Senate DISTRICT 17 REPUBLICAN

DEMOCRATIC

MARK PODY

LINDSEY PATRICK-WRIGHT

Incumbent Sen. Mark Pody has served in the legislature in both the house and senate since 2010. He owns a small business in Murfreesboro. His website emphasizes his conservative leadership and his goal of protecting “family values” and Constitutional rights.

Lindsey Patrick-Wright doesn’t have a campaign website, but her social media accounts say she is a librarian running to “make Tennessee better for all of us.”

www.markpody.com

No website available

Tennessee State House of Representatives DISTRICT 52

DISTRICT 55

REPUBLICAN

DEMOCRATIC

REPUBLICAN

DEMOCRATIC

MICHELE VETTER

JUSTIN JONES

JAYLA THOMAS

JOHN RAY CLEMMONS

Longtime District 52 resident Michele Vetter says on her website that she’d like to reduce partisan divides as a legislator. Her campaign says that she’d like folks to feel more involved at the local level and wants to bring the “community back to the Capitol.”

Incumbent Justin Jones is nearly a household name in the nation after being kicked out of the legislature as an advocate, elected to office, expelled by his colleagues and then coming back again as a legislator. Jones is a long-standing, deeply rooted local advocate who says he’s working to promote justice in many different areas.

Jayla Thomas is a business leader, energy infrastructure professional and a Nashville Affordable Housing Trust Fund commissioner. Her campaign’s focus is on affordability and responsible growth as well as protecting workers from “unchecked AI-driven job displacement.”

Incumbent John Ray Clemmons has for a long-time focused on bipartisan problem solving in the legislature. His website highlights the need for lowered costs for families, better resources for public education and investing in infrastructure.

www.mvetterforall.com

www.votejustinjones.com

INDEPENDENT

www.jaylat4tennessee.com

www.johnrayfortennessee.com

Martez Coleman

DISTRICT 59

DISTRICT 60

REPUBLICAN

DEMOCRATIC

REPUBLICAN

DEMOCRATIC

BILL HANCOCK

MARK PROCTOR

EVA ANGELINA ROMERO

SHAUNDELLE BROOKS

www.markproctortn.com

www.electevaromero.com

Bill Hancock is a sixth-generation Tennessean who has worked in healthcare and real estate as well as a community volunteer. His website focuses on capping tax increases and increasing public safety as well as protecting seniors from scams.

Mark Proctor was a Captain, Major and ended his service as a Lieutenant Colonel for the Tennessee Highway Patrol. His campaign is focused on keeping communities safe and affordable living as well as government accountability.

Eva Angelina Romero is a Gov. Bill Lee-appointed commissioner for Tennessee Housing Development Agency. Her platform has focused on freezing property taxes for seniors and capping future property tax increases as well as improving local roads. She is also a former history teacher.

Incumbent Shaundrelle Brooks is seeking re-election on a platform of public safety, violence prevention, mental health, affordable housing, healthcare and support for working families. On her website, she highlights passing Akilah’s Law, supporting accountable policing.

www.billhancockfortn.com

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www.brooksforstatehouse.com

VENDOR WRITING

Remembering Dimitri

Contributor vendor Dimitri Oliver passed away on Sept. 3 B Y C A R L I T H A R P, C O N T R I B U T O R H O U S I N G S T A B I L I T Y G U I D E & S N A P C O O R D I N A T O R My heart sunk to my feet when I heard that Dimitri had passed on. Sometimes in this work you meet someone who really touches your heart. Dimitri was one of those folks. He never gave me instructions, but he taught me how to do my job better and showed me new perspectives. I helped give him a hand up, and our work together poured into me as well. Everyone has something to offer if we are willing to accept it. My time and work with Dimitri are things I will treasure forever. Dimitri was remarkably sweet and patient with me. As a case manager, I often have to give a lot of bad news or neutral news that, given the time sensitivity and urgency of this work, can be equivalent to bad news. “We’re

still waiting to hear back about your voucher,” “I will reach out to this person again for you,” “Let me check on that,” “We’re just in a waiting period right now,” “This is the best I can do right now.” These are statements Dimitri heard from me over and over again for reasons beyond either of our control. I pushed so hard to speed past these obstacles, but the wait was just so long. I witnessed him face tragic news and injustice with grace and kindness. Whatever news I gave him, he showed me compassion. He never blamed me, and he rarely became irritated or upset with me. He was honest with me about how he felt while being careful not to place the weight of it on my shoulders. When new challenges arose, he did not despair. He just

asked, “What’s next?” In the end, I finally got to give him the news he was waiting for. With The Contributor’s help, I was able to help Dimitri move into his place in May of this year. He was so happy. During the housing pursuit, he said to me, “If I’m going to die, I want to die in a place that’s mine.” It was the deepest desire of my heart to help him achieve that. I thank God that I was able to be a part of it. Dimitri got his dream. He did it, we did it, God did it. Thank you, Lord. I am going to miss Dimitri so much. It was an honor to be able to walk with him these last few years. I pray that he is experiencing ultimate peace and freedom from pain at the feet of Jesus. I look forward to catching up with him there someday.

Asking For Help: The Big Taboo BY FREEPRESSGMA., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

You may think that asking for help is easy for homeless people. You see them out there flying signs and asking for money, accepting water and food. But believe me the pain and shame and hard work of standing out and asking for things overcomes any comfort that might come from asking for real help. What do I mean by real help? I mean finding a caseworker. Being able to know where to turn in Nashville to ask for help with shelter, doctor visits, dental work and other things that most of us take for granted. When I was homeless, I didn’t know

where to turn. It was another person who had been homeless who helped me out, not a regular housed person. So I’m speaking to both the housed and the unhoused when I say: please research how to be of most help. Many homeless people are arrested for the first time because they are homeless. Criminal trespassing in a car while sleeping, having one’s car impounded, and then being put in jail creates a criminal record which then follows that person around and makes it even harder to find stable housing, work, and general help. Once a person has had above a class E felony, they cannot get food stamps.

This can be corrected over time, but it requires the help of a parole officer or a social worker. This is a general rule that was meant for people who were abusing the food stamp system, but unfortunately, it falls on ex-cons as well. Black homeless folk are especially prone to being harassed by police, questioned and given charges that they must then go to court for. Just the effort and the presence of mind that it takes to get to someplace like the Contributor or to a social worker and ask for help can be daunting to a person who is getting by on almost no sleep and must

look for water and food each day. Although a person who you have been passing water, food and money to might not be asking you for additional help, consider whether you are willing to ask them if they would accept housing if it was offered. Make contact with one of the organizations that helps people get housed and see if you can put the two together in a meeting. After all, inviting a homeless person into your car to take them to a place that can actually help them would be the same as in ancient times inviting a stranger into your home to break bread.

The Doors of Life That We Enter BY MAURICE B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

E.M.A.G. is the true aspect of how people live life. E for endurance that keeps one moving throughout challenges. M for mindset that shapes how one handles success and difficulties. A for actions that turn dreams into progress. G for goals that give life direction. In the card game of life, we do not choose the hand we are dealt, but we can decide how to play it. Some people begin life with strong advantages, while others must learn how to succeed with fewer opportunities. What matters most is using what we have wisely and refusing to give up. Every decision can affect what happens next. We must think carefully, remain patient and learn from our mistakes.

Sometimes we must sacrifice something temporary to reach a more important goal. Just as every chess piece has a specific value, every person has a purpose and a place in life. As we shake and roll the dice of our lives there’s unconditional and unexpected events that can change everything. We cannot control every roll, but we can control how we respond. Success is not determined only own luck. It also requires courage, faith, wisdom and perseverance. In the E.M.A.G, life may deal the cards, move the pieces, and roll the dice, but we still have the power to make meaningful choices. True victory is not having a perfect life; it is continuing to play with hope, purpose, and determination. As we enter

various stages of our life journey and we begin to grow it’s important to determine if we’ll choose to constantly play the amusing games of challenges and or take the sincere avenues of our lives. The “Elite/V.I.P” players enter through the front doors and the poor players find their ways through the cracks or crevices and or back doors of establishments. The games are recurring cycles in which there’s always something that’s there to get one started. For instance, one alcohol beverage turns into two and then two turns into four and four turns into more. The challenge becomes that of hiding certain circumstances and situations that need to be resolved, and it becomes a factor of functional using and the challenge of using another gateway to

October 7 - 21, 2026 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 12

ignore accountable responsibilities that come to the forefront. Some smoke what many call “herb/weed,” something that was created by Allah/God. Many will use this as an excuse to say it’s not harmful because it comes from the Earth, but any time a person’s mind is befogged behind anything that’s used out of context isn’t that of Allah/ God’s will and or laws. Speaking of laws, yes, there’s laws and rules of the land that we humans are to follow without a doubt by His word. The rules may change, but to examine and realize that Allah/God’s law never does is shows that one is living in reality. Those that live within the gambling challenges of matrix, those that dibble and dabble inside and outside the rules must know that rule “35” is real!!!

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October 7 - 21, 2026 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 13

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FUN

HOBOSCOPES LIBRA

I’m from the olden times, Libra. When VHS tapes were an exciting technology we could use to watch the best movies from 18 months prior in the comfort of our own living room. But now whenever I see VHS tapes as a plot device, they’re intended to be creepy. Wavy lines move down a grainy, dimly lit scene and the paranormal investigators lean forward. Was it a message from the other world? My dad would have just knocked the top of the VCR a couple times and turned up the brightness on the screen. There we go. It’s just “The Last Starfighter” again. If things are feeling too eerie this week, Libra. Give the old machine a jostle and turn a couple dials. I think things might be clearing up.

I wasn’t expecting to end up in a mysterious corn maze today, and, yet, here I am. Three turns in and already feeling a little lost. Maybe I should go back to the start? Let’s see, was that a left and two rights or two lefts and a right? Or was there an extra turn before the…oh, I see, it’s a dead-end. Well, Aquarius, we know going backward isn’t the way to get to what’s next. So let’s see what’s at the end of this row and then…ah. Right. Another dead-end. This doesn’t mean we won’t get where we’re going, Aquarius. It just might take a little more trial-and-error than we’d planned for. Maybe slow-down your expectations. You’re in the mapping phase. You can take your time.

GEMINI

Have you tried that new brunch place, Wake Apnea? I heard they have a fantastic seasonal pecan-pumpkin-roll-gingerbread-and-butter French toast that is guaranteed to leave you stunned and slumped in your booth for at least two hours after eating. Just be sure to scan the parking code before you take the first bite. But if all you want is to stop feeling your life for a couple of hours, Gemini, I’m gonna recommend you skip the brunch and try sitting in unsatiated silence for 20 minutes while you experience the movement of your breath and observe the flow of your thoughts. It’s kind of the opposite of french toast. You’ll feel everything. But if you aren’t trying to avoid it, it takes on a different flavor. Is that nutmeg?

PISCES

SCORPIO

My drive home from work usually involves passing lots of chain-restaurants, quickly-constructed new homes, and some rundown apartment complexes. So today I was surprised to see new signs that said things like “Corn Maze — 1 Mile” and “Can You Escape The Corn Maze?” and “Terrifying Corn Maze — Next Left.” And then, Scorpio, I couldn’t believe it. There was a corn field. Right where the Best Buy and the IHOP used to be, I think. Sometimes, Scorpio, the signs are telling you exactly what’s coming, but you still have a hard time expecting it. And, ready or not, it seems you’ve arrived. So I guess I’ll pay the guy $18 and we can both head into this maze. Hope I’ll see you on the other side. I think you’re ready.

SAGITTA R IUS

I was in the produce aisle when I caught a whiff of something spicy and magical. So I weaved between the apples, onions and avocados until I found it. A cinnamon broom! Amazing! But what are these things for? It’s not a great broom. Kinda falls apart when you sweep with it. You can’t eat it. Is it just supposed to sit in the corner and smell good? Why don’t they make more scented tools? A nutmeg dustpan? A clove shovel? Anyway, I shouldn’t be allowed at the grocery store, Sagittarius. And you should add something to your life that’s frivolous and maybe smells good. A cardamom chainsaw? We’ll see.

CAPRICORN

AQUA RIUS

You survived today, Pisces. I know you didn’t think you would. And there might have even been a little bit of relief to the idea that you wouldn’t. But you did. And now here you are. And there’s this whole other next day sprawled out in front of you. What do you think you’ll do with this one? I think you’ll do more than just survive it. I think you’ll stop seeing this as one more day to make it through and start to see it as a gift to be fully lived. And I hope you’ll move toward the places that fill you up and the people who love you. Survival was a good start. Now let’s do living.

ARIES

I was just settling-in to my comfy chair for a long evening of indecisively switching shows on my TV when I heard a mighty “Fuhplunk!” just outside my front door. I jumped. What could have made that sound? But then it dawned on me. Last week I ordered a weighted-blanket online. It must be here. Sounds like it weighs a lot. I hope it isn’t blocking the door. And I hope that when I drape the weighted blanket over myself, it covers me with a deep sense of being held and protected and smooshed. But before I open that box that may change my life forever, I wanted to remind you, Aries, that there is a sense of warmth and weight and comfort just on the other side of whatever you’re feeling. Because it’s in you already. “Fuhplunk!” Go and get it.

CANCER

I took down the halloween box from the storage closet because I thought I could have fun decorating the apartment real quick. I took out the skull-shaped laser pointer my old cat Vember used to love. Then there was the vampire-dog costume that Fajita used to wear on our long fall walks. And the one remaining wolfman glove that my brother made — he used to chase me around the house when we were kids. Maybe this box is sad? I love the fall, Cancer. But there’s always a little extra grief here too, hidden under the crunchy leaves. So we let it come. And we hang the plastic skeleton in the doorway and feel whatever shows up.

LEO

Well, there goes the sun. I really didn’t expect to still be in this corn maze after dark. But if we’re going to be lost out here all night, at least we’ve got each other, Leo. Right, Leo? Leo? Oh. I guess I lost you back there somewhere. I’m pretty sure I’ve been down this lane already. Maybe a few times? All these turns in the dark and I’m all alone and I’m getting creeped-out. Why did I pay for this? And what if I never make it home? Why was I born? Oh, wait! There you are! Standing by the sign that reads “Exit,” waving a flashlight. Sometimes it’s hard to keep going when your head starts spinning in circles. But, I guess it’s just one step after the other and, eventually, you’re through.

TAURUS

Last night I dreamt you and me were working in some kind of candy-skull factory. There was a long conveyor belt and my job was to control the speed. These little boxes would come down the conveyer belt and you had to put skulls in them. And you kept missing the boxes and knocking them off onto the floor. But then you’d look at me and say, “Go faster. I want it faster!” So I’d turn up the speed and the mess would just get worse. Anyway, Capricorn, it reminded me that I think you’re doing a great job, but you’re allowed to slow down if you want. You’ve got plenty of time before my alarm clock goes off.

I guess most people don’t go into a mysterious corn maze in the middle of a work day. But we’re not most people, Taurus. How long do you figure we’ve been in here? Weird that they wouldn’t let us bring our phones. I guess the sun was at about mid-sky when we first realized we were lost and now it’s about a hand’s-width from the horizon. I assumed we’d run into more people in here to ask for tips. That weird tall scarecrow guy wasn’t very helpful at all. What do you think he meant by “No way out” anyway? Sometimes, Taurus, there just isn’t anybody to ask for advice. But I think you can trust yourself on this one. I trust you, too.

VIRGO

Do you ever find yourself standing really close to a mirror in a dimly-lit room? And as you stare into your own eyes do you get that creepy feeling that the person staring back at you is somebody else? A stranger you’ve never even met? Yeah, that doesn’t happen to me either, Virgo. But if it did, I’d stay with it. I’d ask the person in the mirror what they have to tell me about myself. I’d try to find out how my expectations of myself differ from the reflection of reality. Because we’re never exactly who we think we are. And a good stare in a mirror might be a start at understanding that.

Mr. Mysterio is not a licensed astrologer, a registered cornsolver, or a trained haunted mirror technician. Want more? Visit mrmysterio.com Or just give him a call at 707-VHS-TAN1.

October 7 - 21, 2026 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 15

VENDOR WRITING

Miss Mysery

“Why the Beast ‘Gits the Least?”

BY TONY D, GRATEFUL RECOVERING ALCOHOLIC

BY S. LESTER, CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

Oh, You know Me quite well, and I’ve got You mapped out. We’re the closest of pals - There is surely no doubt. Yet, one question have I of the things you put out: Why expect me to eat, when most clearly I pout! Have you ever tried Kibble? Let me school you a Bit. Joe Cool don’t chew rocks, ‘til they get down to grits! As I lie on (your) bed, in my belly it sits. Man, you’ve ate all the fruit, but left me with the pits! Now, let’s get down to business. This is all that I ask: We need Chicken and Bacon, should a real friendship last! Just hold on to that line, And don’t you go too fast; You’re My passenger now, and I’m pressing the gas! Yes, you sure catch-on quick, this could become a thing! Even learn a new trick; Feed the Beast, mighty King! Though I sit “pressing paws”, of no Cease! shall I sing. A new forever Home Stocked with Bacon and Wings!

The Rainy Cliffs of Heaven BY FREEPRESSGMA, CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR You stand below in the bowl of an ancient, now dry waterfall as wide as Victoria Falls Gazing at the rainy cliffs of heaven. Where once you climbed with your lover The ancient limestone firm under your palms. A warm full day, full of color and play. Suddenly a spider launches herself off the cliff in front of you, held in the wind by her silk parachute. Her colony follows her in a mass of shiny drifting bubbles, down to the canopy of fluttering trees below. You know this lover isn’t good for you that you should launch yourself into a new world. But first you have to build your parachute.

BY STELLA S., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

BY STELLA S., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR Peanut butter for the ninety-ninth time ain’t nuttin’ better to do than rock this rhyme. Cigarettes and bread bought with my last dime. But I do know He’s right on time. Covid can suck it one more time! My allergies are killin’ me, and I, I am allergic to Benadryl! Give me a caution sign! Covid suck it on more TIME! I’m up to date on my vaccinations — feel the vibration — My patience with my patients is wearing thin … I need a vacation! But first file my taxes from last year oh dear, what did I do for the last eight years?

“Miss Mysery” (She captured me in liquid form) When you came into my life Found a brand new situation Empty days and lonely nights Filled with bitterness and frustration Walkin’ lonely in the cold And searching for my answer Spent my money on principles And my hopeless crazy dancer I just can’t break the spell that you hold on me You’re Miss Mysery That’s all that you lay on me Set me free, set free Please, please, please

Poetry in Motion

Corona on Ice

The following was inspired by an old song which was originally released in the 1970’s by the rock band “Nazareth”. Even though the title is synonymous, the content dramatically deviates from the original composition. The lyrics are progressive, beginning in my distant past, then addressing my recent past, and culminating in my present, and hopefully permanent state of sobriety. I sincerely hope that it blesses your soul.

Chug, chug, chug went the lil engine that could rev up his engine and move along to his own beat. Up, down, sideways to and fro he lets his whistle blow. Tumbleweed and thistle is moving right past and he has a blast with the wind on his tracks. Jack and Jill climb aboard and the dish and spoon are heavily swoon and invite the cow that jumped over the moon. All aboard! Yelled the captain and every animal climbed on two by two. Clock strikes midnight and that pumpkin starts to unravel the yarn that ol’ Rumple needed to thread his needle in the haystack that Jack needed to get those beanstalk beans to climb to the sky, oh so high, to win that prized cow. Lil Suzie needed a pie and the gingerbread guy says hi! We love the moon and the stars in the sky, but who’s this guy? Orion is his name and he’s really insane for leaving his belt in the sky. This is poetry in motion. What’s all the commotion? Move your body like a loco-o-motion with me.

October 7 - 21, 2026 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 16

All my days were filled with sin And my nights were filled with danger Hollow lies lead to denies If you told me truth, I can’t remember You know I’ve found my way out I finally found my reason I found your greatest weakness To end your wicked season I’ll finally break the spell that you hold on me You were Miss Mysery That’s all that you laid on me I’ll be set free, be set free Free, free, free I shunned my Lord Was caught up in your nightmares Evil screamed at night it seemed Jesus listen to my night prayers I’ll give all I have again I found my way out of sin Now I see, I finally let go No longer stuck in your crazy show I found my Lord And He broke the spell that you held on me You were Miss Mysery That’s all that you laid on me I’ve been set free, been set free Look at me! Look at me! I’ve been set free, been set free Now I’m free, I’m free indeed

VENDOR WRITING

The Drifter: Making the Call

Brad's Brain Busting Book Cipher

BY BRADLEY B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

Merik carried Darren’s phone number in his pocket for three days before he finally decided to use it. Every morning before work, he would take the folded piece of paper out and stare at it. He would imagine different conversations. Sometimes he pictured Darren answering with excitement. Other times, he imagined silence. The worst possibility was that Darren had changed his mind and no longer wanted anything to do with him. On the fourth evening, Merik sat on the steps behind the shelter and pulled out his phone. His thumb hovered over the number. Then he pressed call. The phone rang twice. “Hello?” Merik froze. He recognized Darren’s voice immediately. “Darren?” There was a long pause. “Merik?” Neither of them spoke for several seconds. “I wasn’t sure if I should call,” Merik finally said. “I wasn’t sure if you’d ever call.” Merik looked down at his shoes. “I almost didn’t.”

“I understand.” That answer surprised Merik. There was no anger in Darren’s voice and no attempt to pressure him. “I’ve been thinking about what you said,” Merik continued. “About being sorry.” Darren sighed. “I meant it.” “I know. At least, I want to believe you.” Another silence followed. “I don’t expect things to go back to the way they were,” Darren said. Merik felt something tighten in his chest. “Good,” he replied. “Because they can’t.” Darren didn’t argue. Merik took a slow breath. “But maybe they don’t have to stay the way they are either.” For the first time, Darren sounded hopeful. “Does that mean we could talk sometime?” “Maybe,” Merik said. “But slowly.” “I can do slowly.” They talked for another twenty minutes. Darren told Merik about his life, the mistakes he had made, and how often he had thought about the way he had treated him. Merik listened. He didn’t excuse Darren’s actions, but he also didn’t interrupt every time he heard something painful. When they finally said goodbye, Merik sat

removed, but I have not gotten it done yet. I went from 116 to 90 pounds in the five months since I’ve been in Nashville. My appetite is not good anymore. I work for the newspaper so I’m always on the go. It keeps my mind off my health problems. But I’m doing OK. Some days I just want to give up. I’m here for a purpose. I just don’t know what it is yet. I’m still trying to figure that out.

The Contributor BY L OR A V., CON T RIBU T OR VENDOR

The paper also has stories and poems and a joke in each issue. Life don’t have to be serious all the time. It is good to make people smile and laugh sometimes. I think Linda Bailey is doing a good job putting the paper together. If she can’t get it to work she has Amanda to help her. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for Caring BY DAVID O., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

When I first became homeless after six years in prison for something I was found not guilty. If you’re found not guilty, you should get money for everyday served. After I got out of prison, I was in a car wreck and had

Solve the cypher by using "The Drifter" to the left of this puzzle. Solution will be in next week's issue!

“ 41:2:1 21:9:2 36:1:2 2:12:5 9:5:7 44:2:5 2:22:5 / 44:9:2 44:1:1 / 18:5:4 36:6:3 33:26:3 34:13:1 44:12:6 43:11:1 27:12:3 42:7:4 2:22:1 13:7:2 / 3:6:3 40:2:3 / 15:4:2 43:4:2 14:10:2 6:3:1 , / 37:2:1 35:7:1 2:31:5 1:8:6 34:5:7 44:3:4 1:11:3 / 42:5:2 41:5:2 / 15:4:2 43:4:2 14:10:2 6:3:1 15:4:2 43:4:2 14:10:2 6:3:1 — 18:8:2 1:4:3 44:9:5 / 37:1:3 19:10:2 42:1:2 3:14:5 35:2:1 35:9:1 11:1:5 / 42:5:2 41:5:2 / 15:4:2 43:4:2 14:10:2 6:3:1. ” — / 37:2:1 2:7:2 39:1:3 42:2:5 / 22:1:4 29:4:1 41:5:1 41:3:1 24:3:8 Last Issue Solution: “Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” — Paul Boose

BY SHORT Y R., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

BY ELEANOR S., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

I was recently told by somebody that our paper was getting away from its roots. They said that it has no stories about being homeless. That ain’t the truth. In the first few pages of our paper, we feature stories on homelessness that tell you what’s going on in Nashville and what the state and local government is doing to make homelessness a thing of the past.

CREATED BY BRADLE Y B.

Go Preds!

Oregon

I went to Oregon four years ago in 2021 because my sister’s husband passed away. I kept going back and forth to Texas to visit friends. In 2023 my youngest daughter got killed, so I had to keep going to Texas to get her affairs in order. I still don’t have that done. Four years ago in Oregon I went to the doctor and found out my cervical cancer came back. I was supposed to get part of my cervix

quietly with the phone still in his hand. He didn’t feel magically healed. He didn’t feel like everything was fixed. But he felt lighter. The next morning, Merik told Luis about the conversation. Luis smiled. “How do you feel?” “Scared,” Merik admitted. “But also relieved.” “That sounds like courage to me.” Merik smiled. “I thought courage was not being afraid.” Luis shook his head. “No, courage is being afraid and choosing to take the next step anyway.” As Merik walked to work that morning, he thought about everything that had happened since he first arrived at the shelter. He had experienced rejection, kindness, disappointment, forgiveness and second chances. For so long, he had believed his life was something that had happened to him. Now he was beginning to understand his past might explain where he had been, but it didn’t have to decide where he was going. He couldn’t change yesterday, he couldn’t control tomorrow, but he could choose what he did today. Sometimes, changing your life doesn’t begin with a giant decision, it begins with one small step forward.

to go to the hospital three times. So I had no choice but to go back to work. Thank you Contributor and my customers. Hope will still shine on me. The Lord is my peace. Thanks for caring and saving my life.

The cooler temps means it’s time to watch the Preds. They started Preseason on Sunday, Sept. 20. We lost the game. The new season starts on Oct. 1. Every year I learn something new about the game. Gnash is the Preds mascot, Smashville means Nashville, and when you hear “I like it, I love it” it means we scored a goal. And you might see a catfish in the

middle of the ice. It looks best dressed in a tux and topcoat. It’s a southern thing. Gnash wants to tell everybody to watch the games on the new TV channel 28 called The Spot. I hope we make it to the playoffs. It is time to bring The Stanley Cup home to Smashville.

Ducks

BY L OR A V., CON T RIBU T OR VENDOR I know a place on the west side of Nashville to see ducks. These ducks are the Drake’s Ducks. They are brown and light brown in color. The ducks waddle across the road. I’m glad the cars stop for them when they are crossing the road. I find it relaxing to watch them do their thing. Sometimes I feed them. They like bread.

I know when you think of ducks you think of them on lake shores, not in places away from water. I think it’s funny to see them waddle away. They can fly away too when they get too hot. I wonder if the pavement gets too hot for their web feet? Fly, fly away ducky. Go find some water to cool off.

Joke of the Issue

S U B M I T T E D B Y H O W A R D P. , C O N T R I B U T O R V E N D O R 5 Deadly Terms Used By A Woman: #1 FINE: This is the word women use to end an argument when she knows she is right and you need to shut up. #2 NOTHING: Means something and you need to be worried. #3 GO AHEAD: This is a DARE, not permission. DO NOT DO IT! #4 WHATEVER: A woman’s way of saying “Screw You” #5 THAT’S OK: She is thinking long and hard on how and when you will pay for your mistake. BONUS WORD: WOW!: This is not a compliment. She’s amazed that one person could be so stupid.

October 7 - 21, 2026 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 17

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ABBY R. RUBENFELD Attorney at Law

arubenfeldlaw.com

810 Dominican Drive, Suite 215 Nashville, Tennessee 37228 Telephone: (615) 386-9077 Facsimile: (615) 386-3897

October 7 - 21, 2026 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 18

MOVING PICTURES

Not So Supergirl crashes onto HBO Max BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC When I say “Supergirl crashes,” of course I mean that she’s wound tight on space sake and falls flat on her face. Director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya; Cruella) and screenwriter Ana Nogueira adapted Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s acclaimed 2021-22 comic miniseries for this second film in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DC Universe. Their title character is exactly the role that Nick Nolte perfected in the 1980s — the drunken, disheveled antihero, all scruffy charm and a grumpy heart of gold. Isn’t it weird that a film about a female superhero purportedly reflecting contemporary feminist values actually just borrows a hackneyed dude cliché and calls that a character? It’s superdumb, and it’s the main reason this movie was so badly received at theaters this summer. The film opens on Kara Zor-El’s (Milly Alcock) 23rd birthday. Unlike Superman, Kara actually remembers Krypton and witnessed its destruction firsthand. Her survivor’s guilt and the trauma of losing her parents and nearly her entire race have left Kara adrift. She can’t fully embrace Earth or her red-caped cousin’s heroic mission. Celebrating her birthday with her dog Krypto at a bar in a rough part of the galaxy, she crosses paths with Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley), a young alien girl whose father has just been murdered by a ruthless mercenary named Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts). Ruthye eventually recruits Kara for a cross-galaxy revenge mission. This is essentially the setup for True Grit, which is a pretty great setup. But Gillespie blows the execution, mostly due to Nogueira’s script. It’s a challenge to write the title character, but Nogueira also writes Ruthye as a cipher only capable of repeating herself, always in a helpless state of distress. That might play if the script gave her more emotional depth, but you can say that about all the characters in this movie. Nothing ever feels at stake because nothing ever feels believable. I don’t believe Kara is Nick Nolte. I don’t believe Ruthye is the spunkiest tough girl in the universe when she has to be saved constantly. Those are opposite things, and the contradiction is genuinely confusing. Their interplanetary journey of rocket-assisted revenge takes them across multiple worlds, each with its own alien culture and look, and this is where the film finds firm footing. I’ve read negative takes on the effects, but they really caught my eye. The lived-in look of the exteriors, interiors, and various vehicles felt right out of the original Star Wars, and the plethora of offworld creatures were largely created using practical makeup effects. I loved the old-school look and the designs were mostly impressive. Visual effects were supervised by Geoffrey Baumann, special effects by Paul Corbould, and character prosthetics and animatronics by Legacy Effects under supervisors Lindsay MacGowan, Shane Mahan, and J. Alan Scott. Supergirl takes the audience to interesting places, but then you just want to join some other tour group. Going to see a movie in the theater is inconvenient and expensive when the movie isn’t good,

but when it’s on a service you’re already paying for, maybe Supergirl is worth a look. If you’re a sci-fi effects maven who loves seeing people dressed up as scary monsters, this one might even inspire some Halloween brainstorming.

Supergirl is streaming on HBO Max.

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

October 7 - 21, 2026 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 19

“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.

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L a N t i cia 2026

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Octubre

Newspaper Nashville

Año 24 - No. 444

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

Nashville, Tennessee

Lucía conquista Vanderbilt en su debut en Nashville y recibe el premio “Ganas” de la NAHCC

creación de puentes entre comunidades y el enriquecimiento de la identidad de Nashville como Music City.

a cantante mexicana Lucía G u t i é r r e z Rebolloso, conocida artísticamente como Lucía, hizo su debut en Nashville el viernes 18 de septiembre con una presentación en la Blair School of Music de Por Yuri Cunza Va n d e r b i l t Editor In Chief University, llevando al escenario una @LaNoticiaNews propuesta que combina las raíces musicales de México y América Latina con el jazz contemporáneo.

Originaria de Veracruz, México, Lucía comenzó su relación con la música desde muy temprana edad. A los dos años ya cantaba y bailaba junto a sus padres en Son de Madera, agrupación dedicada al son jarocho. Más adelante inició estudios formales de canto en la Universidad Veracruzana y desarrolló una carrera que ha unido jazz, música tradicional mexicana, sonidos latinos y pop. Su trayectoria internacional recibió un importante impulso en 2022, cuando se convirtió en la primera cantante mexicana en ganar la Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition,

La categoría “Ganas” forma parte de la tradición de reconocimientos de la Cámara a líderes y talentos que se distinguen por su perseverancia, impacto y compromiso con la comunidad. A través de sus Business & Community Excellence Awards y otros reconocimientos especiales, la NAHCC ha destacado durante años las contribuciones de empresarios, profesionales, líderes comunitarios y artistas.

Foto: La Noticia Newspaper Nashville

Lucía captivates Vanderbilt in her Nashville debut and receives NAHCC’s “Ganas” Award

uno de los reconocimientos más destacados para nuevas voces del jazz. Desde entonces, ha llevado su música a escenarios de gran relevancia en Estados Unidos, México y otros países. Su presentación en Vanderbilt marcó su primera actuación en Nashville y fue también uno de los eventos culturales destacados del Mes de la Herencia Hispana. Foto: Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music

Lucía recibe el Premio “Ganas” in Music de la Cámara de Comercio Hispana del Área de Nashville durante su exitoso debut en Nashville, en la Blair School of Music de Vanderbilt University.

Antes de su concierto, la Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (NAHCC) reconoció a Lucía con su “Ganas” in Music Award. El premio reconoce a artistas cuyo talento, determinación y orgullo cultural reflejan el espíritu de ganas: la pasión, el impulso y el deseo de alcanzar la excelencia, superar barreras e inspirar a otros. Para la NAHCC, el reconocimiento también celebra el importante papel de los artistas hispanos en la preservación de tradiciones culturales, la

En Lucía, ese espíritu encuentra una representación natural. Su carrera conecta tradición y evolución: desde el son jarocho aprendido en familia en Veracruz hasta una creciente presencia internacional en el jazz, sin dejar atrás las raíces que han definido su identidad musical. Su debut en Nashville fue mucho más que una primera presentación en la ciudad. Fue también un encuentro entre culturas, generaciones y géneros musicales, y una oportunidad para reconocer a una joven artista mexicana que continúa llevando su voz y su herencia a nuevos escenarios. Lucía llegó a Music City con talento, historia y raíces. Y también con muchas ganas. Envíenos sus sugerencias por correo electrónico: news@hispanicpaper.com|615-582-3757