Nashville Scene 7-30-20

CITY LIMITS: PUBLIC HOUSING WORKERS WANT PROTECTIONS AS THEY CONTRACT COVID-19

JULY 30–AUGUST 5, 2020 I VOLUME 39 I NUMBER 26 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

FOOD & DRINK: TALKING WITH OUR LADY OF THE BAKE, LISA DONOVAN PAGE 16

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BEST OF NASHVILLE VOTING IS NOW OPEN!

At the centennial of the 19th Amendment, we remember the Tennessee women who fought for the right to vote — and consider those who continue the battle today cover.indd 1

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 30 – AUGUST 5, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

CONTENTS

JULY 30, 2020

5

18

Walk a Mile: In the Footsteps of the Suffrage Movement ...................................5

Staging a Comeback

CITY LIMITS

In the seventh installment of his column, J.R. Lind retraces the 1914 path of Nashville’s suffragists

BY J.R. LIND

Public Housing Workers Want More Protections as They Contract COVID-19 ...6 At least 13 MDHA employees have tested positive this month

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

Pith in the Wind .........................................6

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

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THEATER

Talking with arts leaders about the future of Nashville theater

BY AMY STUMPFL

20 ART

Crawl-ish

Social and political art takes over Nashville’s gallery walls in August

BY JOE NOLAN

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BOOKS

SPORTS

She Had a Dream

Game On

As the Predators enter the postseason, do they look as good as they did in March? Who can say!

Freedom Faith examines the little-known influence of civil rights leader Prathia Hall

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB: Save Our Stages Act Proposed to Aid Independent Music Venues White House Leader to Tennessee: ‘Close Your Bars’ Chef Julia Sullivan Converts Henrietta Red to New Carryout Concept The Governor Can Demand to Know the Truth in Two Death Penalty Cases

BY DAVID DARK AND CHAPTER 16

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BY J.R. LIND

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MUSIC

COVER STORY Suffragette City

In the City ................................................ 22

Votes for Women ........................................8 A new exhibition at the Tennessee State Museum celebrates the centennial of the 19th Amendment — and the women who fought for it

Daniel Tashian and Burt Bacharach turn pop to their own purposes on Blue Umbrella

BY EDD HURT

Position of Strength ................................ 22 With his latest tracks, Tim Gent makes himself stronger than ever by opening up

BY ERICA CICCARONE

BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

Talking with Fisk University Professor Linda Wynn about Black women’s pivotal role in the suffrage movement

Hailey Whitters talks managing her burgeoning country career on her terms

For the Record ......................................... 10

The Waiting Is the Hardest Part............. 23

BY LORIE LIEBIG

BY ANDREA WILLIAMS

The Spin ................................................... 24

The legacies of the women’s suffrage movement are plentiful, but there is more work to do

BY LORIE LIEBIG AND STEPHEN TRAGESER

The Marathon Continues ........................ 11

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Marcus King Band, JayVe Montgomery and more

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BY BAILEY BASHAM

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FILM

CRITICS’ PICKS

Build your own streaming Kelly Reichardt film festival, watch Muppets Now on Disney+, get into the music of João Gilberto, make a library list of great detective novels, get lost in the weird, disturbing world of Chefclub Instagram videos and more

Primal Stream XIX .................................. 25 A brand-new Helmut Newton doc, a haunted disco and more, now available to stream

BY JASON SHAWHAN

Fighting Mad ........................................... 26 A new documentary about the ACLU lacks deeper context

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BY STEVE ERICKSON

Lady of the Bake

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

FOOD AND DRINK Talking to Lisa Donovan about gender in hospitality work and her brand-new memoir

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

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7/27/20 6:25 PM

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FROM BILL FREEMAN BROKEN CAMPAIGN PROMISES: TRUMP, NATIONAL DEBT AND THE TENNESSEE SENATE RACE The gloves are off in Tennessee’s GOP Senate primary race.

Bill Hagerty in particular has come out swinging with the kind of exaggeration and bad-mouth tactics that backfired in recent campaigns — those of Diane Black and Randy Boyd in the 2018 gubernatorial election are just two examples. The lopsided mudslinging isn’t surprising. The new GOP establishment has invested millions, and President Donald Trump bestowed one of his “bulletproof” endorsements on Hagerty before the former ambassador to Japan even declared his candidacy.

The increased negativity reflects the surprising rise of Manny Sethi, a medical doctor who has rapidly gained ground against Hagerty. According to a recent Trafalgar poll that has received national attention, just three percentage points separate them. That’s a considerable feat — earning that much trust against a well-funded, Trump-endorsed GOP establishment candidate who has been a fixture in the backrooms of Republican politics for years.

Complicating the race, of course, is what COVID-19’s impact on voter turnout will be.

Many potential voters might decide it’s not worth the hassle or risk, so candidates can rely only on committed voters who are earnestly seeking change. The nod would go to Sethi if we’re identifying the GOP candidate who’s built the most organic and sincere support base among voters.

His old-fashioned grassroots campaign, done without the establishment support Hagerty depends on, has crisscrossed Tennessee in his big orange bus, meeting people from Memphis to Kingsport and all towns in between.

Likability also seems especially important in this primary. Sethi’s commendable attributes have successfully identified him as the intelligent, sincere and hard-working candidate. He’s supported the GOP platform, yet also positioned himself as the candidate promising change against establishment politics.

Hagerty has not done the same. He was amusingly termed the “Thurston Howell III” candidate by Sethi’s chief strategist — a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Gilligan’s Island snooty millionaire. Indeed, Hagerty may very well have banked too much on Trump’s endorsement. This election season’s impact on Trump’s supposed “golden touch” is noteworthy. Trump’s endorsement helped wash Marsha Blackburn back into the D.C. swamp and straight into the U.S. Senate in 2018, for example.

Recent primaries, though, indicate that Trump’s endorsement power may be waning. The human toll from the virus and its economic woes may have made even more voters fed up with Trump’s brand of politics. Two GOP candidates in neighboring Kentucky and North Carolina who proudly displayed their “endorsed by Trump” badges were defeated in their primaries in recent weeks. Tennessee’s GOP Senate primary has been identified by national media as an example of where it could happen again.

Perhaps a Trump endorsement should not be called a wave anymore. The term “whirlpool” might be more accurate — once candidates are sucked into the Trump whirlpool, they’re stuck. These elections are showing us that voters want a likable, trustworthy candidate who will fulfill campaign promises efficiently and thoughtfully.

Once the chosen candidate emerges from the Republican primary, the race between the GOP winner and the chosen Democratic candidate will be closely watched. On the Democrats’ side, the capable James Mackler is currently in the lead. Mackler is a U.S. Army veteran, and his stated mission is “to restore respect, honesty, and, most importantly, integrity in Washington.” The campaign for the full November election will be Tennesseans’ opportunity to weigh these candidates against their party platforms and campaign promises.

Despite years with a thriving economy at his disposal, Trump has completely failed on his grandiose campaign promise to eliminate our national debt, instead ballooning it to extreme levels. Washington continues to take on more debt, with apparently no regard for the damage it’s bound to cause down the road. Conservative GOP candidates — from the local level all the way to Washington — scream about fiscal discipline, yet they spend like there’s no tomorrow. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.” Put simply: Your actions speak so loudly, I cannot hear a word you say.

Our country’s Monthly Statement on Public Debt from the U.S. Department of the Treasury puts our debt at a staggering $26.5 trillion as of June 30. No matter how you slice it, Trump has completely reneged on his promise to eliminate our national debt. He hasn’t even chipped away at it, instead adding $5.2 trillion in debt, according to a Newsweek story published in May. Trump is on par with the most debtincreasing presidents in history, Republican or Democrat.

Voters who are constantly worried about their jobs, homes, families and health don’t have the patience for snide political tricks.

Trump manipulated people’s desire for change to his advantage when he vaulted into office in 2016. That same desire for change is coming full circle, with many who once supported him waking up to realize that Trump’s vision of America isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Republican voters in Kentucky and North Carolina realized it. Tennesseans may realize it too.

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

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 30 – AUGUST 5, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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CITY LIMITS

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT

In the seventh installment of his column, J.R. Lind retraces the 1914 path of Nashville’s suffragists

BY J.R. LIND | PHOTOS BY ERIC ENGLAND

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THE ROUTE: Fifth Avenue North to Broadway.

Broadway to West End. West End to Centennial Park.

ABANDONED SCOOTERS: 30 CRANES: 28

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

T

he Nashvillians who led the famous women’s suffrage march in 1914 were a sharp bunch. For one thing, they scheduled their parade for May 2. Contemporary newspapers noted the pleasant weather, perfect for a shuffle from the Tennessee State Capitol to Centennial Park.

Following in their footsteps isn’t so easy in 2020, particularly in late July. Middle Tennessee’s infamous summer humidity doesn’t relent, nor does Nashville’s sidewalkencroaching construction or the apparently nearly constant updates to the city’s premier urban park.

Rather than following the exact route laid out by Anne Dallas Dudley, Juno Frankie Pierce, Carrie Chapman Catt, Catherine Talty Kenny and others (more on their efforts in this week’s cover package, which starts on p. 10), this month’s walk — twice as long as normal — began instead at the Houck Building at 240 Fifth Ave. N., which served as headquarters for the Nashville Equal Suffrage League and was the rally point for its members the morning of the parade. Built in 1889 by the Jesse French Piano Co., the ornate building is well-maintained on the upper floors, a reddish-beige paint scheme giving it the look of terra cotta when the early-morning sun strikes it.

At the time of the 1914 march, Fifth Avenue was Nashville’s chief retail district.

But the Nashville Equal Suffrage League showed a spark of prescience — 46 years later, the Woolworth’s lunch counter was the site of the first sit-ins of the city’s civil rights movement, marking Fifth instead as an epicenter of activism.

Long before either event, though, Fifth

Avenue was the site of accomplishment for a remarkable Black woman. In 1840, Sarah Estell, a free Black woman, ran one of the city’s most popular ice cream parlors and sweet shops. For two decades, her “ice cream saloon” near St. Cloud Corner was a favorite stop for businessmen as well as parishioners at nearby McKendree Methodist.

St. Cloud Corner sits on one corner of one of the city’s most architecturally interesting intersections. Across Fifth is the Fifth Third Center, and across Church from there is Downtown Presbyterian Church, which neighbors the Cohen Building. All four are, to some degree, Egyptian Revival. The church, built as a copy of the Karnak Temple, is the truest example — in fact, one of the most notable examples of the style anywhere — but all the aforementioned buildings show hints of the style, which was in fashion for a relatively short period of time in the mid-19th century. Built in 1986, some 130 years after the peak of Egyptian Revivalism, the Fifth Third Center (which once housed a YMCA on its uppermost floors) is a sort of post-modern take on the form.

It’s evermore difficult to see the Ryman

Auditorium while descending Fifth these days, what with the influx of shimmery towers all around (and the construction that forces view-interrupting street crossings). But it stubbornly remains where it has served as Nashville’s most venerated venue since 1892. Well, venerated except for during the 20 years it was abandoned. And it wasn’t venerated by Roy Acuff, who wanted it torn down when Opryland opened. And it was almost the victim of a massive car bomb in 1979 (a nearby strip club was the actual target). But still it stands, empty at the moment, like most other venues, but no doubt coming back.

Blessedly, Lower Broadway is largely empty at this early hour too, but for a handful of stroller-pushers and perambulating

downtown workers. If bright sunshine and wide-open spaces are really the key to fending off COVID-19, 7:45 a.m. is a good time to walk through the Neon Canyon. Twelve hours or so later ... not so much.

The Suffs made their turn onto Broad at Sixth Avenue, having marched down Capitol Boulevard (now named for Dudley). It is not a path followable today, with the former convention center blocking the way. Construction continues there on, among other things, the forthcoming National Museum of African American Music.

Over the scramble crossing at Fifth and Broad — far less nerve-racking in the morning than when Broad is abuzz — sits Bridgestone Arena. Hockey isn’t back at the Tire Barn, but the Smash Car — festooned in the colors of the Predators’ playoff opponent, the Arizona Coyotes — is ready for the sledgehammer nonetheless.

The suffrage marchers encountered much support on Broadway 106 years ago.

Mayor Hilary Howse declared a half-holiday for the city, whatever that means, and the “working girls” (a term that appeared in The Tennessean’s recap, and not as a euphemism) who couldn’t get the day off rained yellow roses from the windows of the office buildings and stores that lined the street.

Today, the street is lined with orange cones, and yellow roses are nowhere to be seen — though yellow tape blocks sidewalks in front of a building advertising “rentable living,” because apparently Nashville is incapable of using the word “apartments.”

At the top of the rise of Broadway, construction cools, and a streetscape of architectural mishmash begins. There’s the staid Classicism of the Masonic Hall, which hides an opulent interior (or anyway, so say those who’ve been within). Hume-Fogg is a limestone castle. First Baptist Church and Christ Church Episcopal are in various versions of Gothicism, as is the old Customs House (opened by President Rutherford B. Hayes; during his visit to Nashville, he’s said to have enjoyed the vices of Printers Alley, drawing the ire of his famously teetotaling wife “Lemonade Lucy,” who allegedly berated the president from the stage of one of the alley’s venues). And then there is the boorish Brutalism of the Estes Kefauver Federal Building, a building so bland and charmless there’s little doubt why it’s named for a man famous for trying to ban magazines featuring pin-up models.

An entrepreneur, perhaps looking for a side hustle during Covidtide, has no such qualms about the commerce of titillation, having posted a flier with a phone number urging passers-by to “hit me up” for, well, sexting, apparently.

Across from the Frist Art Museum is more construction, which can now continue without remorse. When the project began, the British Museum pulled its loaned collection of priceless Roman artifacts, worried that the blasting would destroy the treasures.

Broadway flies over the actual railroad gulch nearby (officially the Kayne Avenue Yard), though this morning, few trains are there, the coal haulers having long since made their way through town. Another gulch is visible at George Davis and Broadway: that which was blasted out to lay down Interstates 40 and 65, creating a physical break between downtown and points west. The layers

nashvillescene.com | JUNE 18 – JUNE 24, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CITY LIMITS of limestone make it obvious why construction in these parts is so teeth-rattling.

Prices are down on the used cars at the lots between the interstate and the “split,” where The Nashville Sign desperately continues its bid to be A Thing.

The Suffs took the right fork to go down West End. Then as now, there was no Lake Palmer. In 1914, it was because no one had yet blasted down scores of feet for a project that wouldn’t be finished. In 2020, it’s because, finally, blessedly (except for those who enjoy casual water in the middle of their city), buildings are going up where, for years, Nashville’s most famous abandoned building project turned into a lake.

Signs of an overheated real estate market and an economic downturn: Multiple “For Lease” storefronts and a billboard where even Sperry’s, which has never wanted for well-heeled customers, is advertising. First Bank posts a sign telling its customers the lobby is closed “until futher notice.” Surely the sign’s been up for months, so let’s say “futher” isn’t a typo (because certainly it would have been corrected), but rather a nod to the disappearing Old Nashville accent — that of newsman Larry Brinton and Ed Stratton, the voice who called Emma’s “the SU-poo-lative florist.”

The Suffs would have passed the Cathedral of the Incarnation, though it wouldn’t be officially opened for services until July 1914. Catherine Kenny may have nodded and smirked as she passed; a devout Catholic, Kenny nonetheless bucked the views of her church and many of its members by being a tireless advocate for suffrage.

The women would have walked by the Tennessee Governor’s Mansion, then on West End near the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel and the Caterpillar Building. Gov. Ben Hooper was — rather unusually for the time — a Republican, and was the home’s

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG:

occupant in 1914. Hooper was a progressive, pushing for compulsory education and requiring women be paid directly by their employers (many companies at the time paid the women’s salaries to their husbands).

There’s not much in the record for his feelings on suffrage, though his last surviving child, Janella Hooper Carpenter, told The Newport Plain Talk her sister would give pro-suffrage speeches in the mansion at the age of 9. Carpenter was 105 when she died in 2014.

West End rolls past Vanderbilt University here. It seems the university hasn’t been tending to its famous trees — magnolias and ginkgos, most notably — In These Times, but the unkempt branches provide muchneeded shade along the sidewalks in steamy summer weather.

Just as West End nears its flatiron intersection with Elliston, it passes the Homewood Suites, which is notable only for the piece of public art at the center of its roundabout entrance: a large guitar, topped by smaller guitars, topped by what appear

PUBLIC HOUSING WORKERS WANT MORE PROTECTIONS AS THEY CONTRACT COVID-19 At least 13 MDHA employees have tested positive this month

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

W

hen one Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency maintenance worker contracted COVID-19 earlier this month, he blamed his job.

He spends his work days going into the homes of public housing residents to fix appliances and complete other jobs — dozens each week.

“Yeah I worried,” says the maintenance worker, who asked for anonymity citing fear of losing his job. “I worried every day I went to work. No matter how hard you tried to cover yourself up, to wrap yourself up or to protect yourself with the PPE, I still got it.”

He is one of 13 MDHA employees known to have contracted COVID-19 this month, six of them in the maintenance department. That is a marked increase from the months preceding — four staffers tested positive before June 30.

MDHA workers and their union representatives at Service Employees International Union Local 205 are asking leadership for hazard pay but have been rebuffed.

“We’ve been really asked to risk our lives, and it

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doesn’t seem like that matters,” says Maya Matthews, a union steward and housing specialist at MDHA who has not tested positive for the virus. “We really do care about housing as a human rights issue, but we have families to protect as well.”

“While hazard pay is not a substitute for a safe workplace, we strongly believe that MDHA should recognize the extraordinary contributions these ‘essential workers’ are making, not just with words but through additional compensation,” SEIU Local 205 President Brad Rayson adds. “Making sure that MDHA is taking all available steps to keep employees safe from COVID-19 is our number-one goal. SEIU members are dedicated to serving all MDHA residents, but they understandably want to do it safely.”

Jamie Berry, communications director for the MDHA, says there had been conversations about hazard pay but that workers were not eligible for existing federal coronavirus pay programs.

“I do feel like we’ve taken appropriate steps to protect residents and staff,” Berry says.

to be Sputnik chandeliers festooned with music notes, all of it spinning around. It’s a head-scratcher, but at least there aren’t any nude folks on it.

The women wrapped their march with a series of speeches — praised by both The Tennessean and the Nashville Banner — in Centennial Park. Today there’s a historical marker near the Centennial Arts Center, and an Alan LaQuire statue featuring depictions of Anne Dallas Dudley, Abby Crawford Milton, Frankie Pierce, Sue Shelton White and Carrie Chapman Catt is near the Parthenon.

The ongoing revitalization at Centennial Park makes accessing the latter a bit of a chore, what with having to determine which roads and trails are open and unblocked by chain link. But like a fight for equality, it’s well worth the longer walk.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

Among those steps were reducing visitors to properties, offering voluntary testing to residents and eliminating nonemergency maintenance calls.

Without the last step, Berry says, far more residents would have been exposed to the infected workers this month. She says the MDHA notified 30 households that infected maintenance workers had been in their homes, but that number could have been as high as 1,000 or 2,000 were it not for the elimination of nonemergency work orders.

“The maintenance folks are the only ones that are in the kind of job that you can’t do long distance, but if they weren’t fixing people’s toilets, that would be even more of a health and safety issue,” says AtLarge Councilmember Burkley Allen, who chairs the Metro Council Affordable Housing Committee. “Based on what I’ve heard, it seems like they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”

In addition to hazard pay, the workers are seeking coronavirus-related training, education for residents and better access to protective equipment.

(Berry says MDHA has provided proper equipment throughout the pandemic.) Without those measures, Matthews and the maintenance worker contend, MDHA properties, home to thousands of Nashvillians, could become a “catalyst” for the pandemic in the city. Berry says they know of only 17 residents who have tested positive, but there is no reporting requirement.

“I’m not optimistic that we’re doing what we can,” Matthews says. “We’re barely doing what we should.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx visited Nashville this week and said if Tennessee wants to stave off logarithmic case growth, the state needs to mandate masks and shut down bars. Gov. Bill Lee said while he takes Birx’s guidance seriously, shuttering bars statewide isn’t in the cards. OK then. … When he shut down pedal taverns, pedicabs and limousines through the end of July, Mayor John Cooper said the order wouldn’t apply to the larger “transpotainment” vehicles (party tractors, tow-behind hot tubs and the like), as anything weighing more than 10,000 pounds was regulated by the state.

After what must have been some intense legal research, Cooper eventually found he was able to ban the barges and did so in the latest salvo in the battle against COVID-19. Nevertheless, pictures of the party wagons operating and full of maskless revelers peppered social media in the days after Cooper’s declaration. Bars remain closed and restaurants that serve alcohol are still required to close their doors at 10 p.m. Despite these rules and the Metro-wide mask mandate (and increased enforcement of same, particularly downtown), Nashville’s rolling five-day average stood at 346 at the beginning of the week, with the positive test rate at a pandemic-high 12.4 percent. … About 40 people from the ongoing demonstration at Legislative Plaza protested outside the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, demanding the release of their compatriot, who was identified only as “LJ.” The demonstrators said the man has been held since his arrest July 17. Niti Sharon, a legal observer and legal liaison with the protesters, called the charges against LJ “bogus.” Among the charges was a parole violation. Sharon says Metro police arrested LJ on a warrant shortly after state troopers had arrested and released him earlier that same day. “They just made it really hard to get him out,” said Sharon, referring to LJ’s bail. “It’s the whole story of house-less people being victimized over and over again.” … Bill Hagerty launched an attack site on Dr. Manny Sethi, his opponent in the Republican U.S. Senate primary, saying Sethi’s nonprofit, Healthy Tennessee, has connections to such nefarious actors as Dr. Alex Jahangir, Nashville’s COVID-19 Task Force leader. The site tries to connect the dots between these evil liberal doctors and Sethi himself, accusing the latter of trying to implement gun control by researching a curriculum for Metro schools that aimed to reduce gun violence injuries and death. Hagerty’s site also refers to Sethi, a Coffee County native, as “Massachusetts Manny.” Hagerty’s first job was with Boston Consulting Group. … A report from London’s Catholic Herald said the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville paid $65,000 in May to a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by a priest while attending Aquinas College in 2017. The diocese, according to the report, never opened a formal investigation, and the priest returned to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, where he is now seeking a voluntary laicization, effectively ending his pastoral career. … Advocates for two men — Sedley Alley, who was executed in 2006, and Pervis Payne, who is on death row — are urging Gov. Lee to order DNA testing that could exonerate the pair in the murders they were convicted of in the 1980s.

In Payne’s case, it includes bloody bedclothes, the existence of which were withheld from the defense in his trial.

NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND EMAIL: PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM, @PITHINTHEWIND

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 18 – JUNE 24, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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SPORTS

GAME ON

As the Predators enter the postseason, do they look as good as they did in March? Who can say!

BY J.R. LIND

O

ne of the perpetual joys of the Nashville Predators experience is the delightful weather that tends to roll in during the first round of the NHL playoffs.

It’s perfect for pregame gatherings on bar patios and in parking lots before the cacophonous walk down Broadway to Bridgestone Arena.

There will, of course, be none of that this year.

For one thing, Middle Tennessee’s August weather is not so much “delightful” as “what would happen if Satan and a sauna manufacturer with a history of industrial accidents collaborated on swamp design.”

And of course, there is no bar-patio gathering, and tailgates must be conducted exclusively at home — preferably with only family members present, and with everyone standing at least six feet from the grill, and contact-free beer tossed from the cooler with a Rube Goldbergian contraption made from a pooper-scooper and a series of pulleys.

Broadway is more contagious than cacophonous lately, and there’s no reason to go since the Preds will be taking on the Arizona Coyotes in Round Zero of this “season’s” NHL playoffs (officially, it’s the Stanley Cup Qualifying Round) in Edmonton. The Predators finished sixth in the Western Conference, while the Coyotes made the 24-team field by finishing 11th. The teams split their two regular-season meetings and are squaring off in the playoffs for the first time since the infamous What-Happens-When-aRussian-and-a-Belarusian-Break-Curfewin-Scottsdale second-round series in 2012.

This time, though, it’s the Coyotes in turmoil. For reasons still vague, their wunderkind general manager John Chayka abruptly resigned just days before the team was to depart the desert for Alberta, prompting a brusque response from the owner that Chayka “quit” on the team (a far cry from the usual “wish him luck in his future endeavors” gibberish that usually accompanies such news). Beloved former Predator Steve Sullivan will act as the team’s general manager in the meantime.

There’s no way of knowing how this will affect the Coyotes on the ice, but what we do know is: 1) Taylor Hall, Oliver EkmanLarsson and Phil Kessel are all pretty good; 2) the ’Yotes still have trouble scoring, though their goaltending is solid; and 3) Brad Richardson still plays for the team after all these years.

Somehow, we may know even less about the Predators. After a decent start, the team cooled considerably as fall gave way to winter, and they were joint last in the Central Division at the end of 2019.

Peter Laviolette was fired a week later and replaced by John Hynes. The timeshare arrangement in the crease between

Finns Pekka Rinne and Juuse Saros began tilting more to the latter’s favor, and the youngster responded by posting one of the league’s best save percentages in the weeks before play stopped in early March.

In fact, Saros posted back-to-back shutouts in a home-and-home against Dallas in the penultimate and antepenultimate pre-pause games.

The Predators overall were playing well before the pandemic stopped things, though the old adage about backing the hot team in the playoffs probably doesn’t apply, given the fact that nearly five months will have passed before the team plays a meaningful game.

The goaltending question is the biggest one facing the Preds. Yes, Saros was sharper during the regular season, but is he still after the time off? Sure, Rinne is a sentimental favorite, but historically he’s been underwhelming in the postseason (he posted a .930 save percentage during the Cup Final run in 2017, but in five of his eight postseasons, he’s been .909 or worse).

Offensively, Nashville is likely to continue its spread-the-wealth approach.

Ten players finished the shortened regular season with 10 goals or more, though only Filip Forsberg had more than 20. (Nick Bonino, inexplicably, finished second in goals with 18.) Even Rinne put one in the net this season. (Remember? That was cool.)

Though both played better after Hynes’ arrival, forwards Kyle Turris and Matt Duchene have largely underwhelmed this season. For any prolonged playoff success, Hynes will need both to bolster the scoring behind the apparently resurrected line of Ryan Johansen, Viktor Arvidsson and Forsberg.

Captain Roman Josi was easily the team’s best player (Bonino’s unexpected theatrics aside), and was rewarded by being named a finalist for the Norris Trophy — which will be awarded whenever this season ends to the league’s best defenseman.

Playoff-bound teams were permitted to bring 30 players to the league’s two bubble cities (Edmonton for the West and Toronto for the East), and Hynes and general manager David Poile made few shocking decisions for the traveling party.

Purported future sensation Eeli Tolvanen made the list, but beyond that, the extra bodies are extra beefy, with forward Michael McCarron at 6-feet-6, 232 pounds, and defender Jarred Tinordi at the same height and two pounds lighter — making a formidable tag team, if not a particularly dazzling scoring duo.

But ultimately, Hynes’ most important decision is the choice between his two Finnish netminders. Does Saros finally take over permanently, or does Rinne have one more bit of magic left behind that wholesome visage?

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SUFFRAGETTE CITY At the centennial of the 19th Amendment, we remember the Tennessee women who fought for the right to vote — and consider those who continue the battle today

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

EMMA ROSE SMITH (CENTER) AT THE JUNE 4 TEENS FOR EQUALITY RALLY

Votes for Women A new exhibition at the Tennessee State Museum celebrates the centennial of the 19th Amendment — and the women who fought for it

BY ERICA CICCARONE

O

n June 4, more than 10,000 people marched from Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park to the state Capitol bearing a Black Lives Matter banner and signs memorializing George Floyd and Breonna Taylor — two Black Americans who had

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recently been killed by police. The protesters made speeches, read poetry and met police clad in riot gear who were stationed outside bars and restaurants on Lower Broadway.

The peaceful protest was organized by six teen girls: Nya Collins, Jade Fuller, Kennedy Green, Emma Rose Smith, Mikayla Smith and Zee Thomas.

“I wanted to support my friends and be a good ally,” says 15-year-old Emma Rose. “I recognize that racial injustice is a thing, and I wanted to use my voice to lift up the POC community — their voices.”

Calling themselves Teens for Equality, the group planned a second event for July 4, which brought out thousands once again.

For Nashvillians, the young women brought a sense of triumph and hope during a year marked by a destructive tornado, a global pandemic and civil unrest.

The teens are continuing a centuries-long tradition of Tennessee women claiming public space. This month, our nation celebrates the centennial of the historic ratification of

the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, sit on juries and run for public office across the country. The deciding vote occurred right here in Nashville, when suffragists from Shelby County to Johnson County convened alongside national leaders to make the final push for a federal amendment. This week, the Tennessee State Museum opens Ratified! Tennessee Women and the Right to Vote, a comprehensive exhibition that details the rich history of women’s activism.

The famous part of the Tennessee story centers on the arrival of Carrie Chapman Catt, director of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in Nashville.

Coordinating with our state’s suffragists (known as the Suffs) and keeping a close eye on the detractors (known as the Antis), Catt engineered the final weeks of the movement from her room at the Hermitage Hotel. In the end, it was Harry T. Burn, a young lawmaker from McMinn County, who cast the decisive vote on Aug. 18, 1920. Swayed by a letter

from his mother Nebb Burn, Rep. Burn voted for ratification, surprising the Suffs and Antis alike.

But before national organizers came to Nashville, Tennessee women had been campaigning for suffrage for decades.

“I really wanted to look at women and their participation in public life broadly,” says Miranda Fraley-Rhodes, the curator of Ratified! “The story of the suffrage movement to me is just so much more meaningful if you consider the context of women’s activity — how they were connecting with their communities and with their governments starting early in the state’s history, early in the nation’s history.

“We look at how women’s intersections with public life and with government impacted their worldviews, from women with lots of different perspectives, and my hope is that we show why women wanted the vote,” Fraley-Rhodes continues. “I don’t think the answer to that question should ever be assumed, so we really lay the

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RATIFIED! TENNESSEE WOMEN AND THE RIGHT TO VOTE

PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND

groundwork for that.”

Instead of creating a linear path with the exhibit, the museum opted for a more exploratory approach — which also lends itself well to social distancing. Visitors can move through the two expansive galleries exploring artifacts, photographs, maps and wall text, plus clips from Nashville Public Television’s documentary By One Vote: Woman Suffrage in the South.

The design firm Solid Light steered clear of era-specific fonts and design styles, opting instead for big, bold text and mural-size portraits of the women who campaigned

for the vote. The museum blew up archival photographs that show the women marching, working and writing. These graphic elements give the women of the movement an indomitable presence — as if their victory was certain and their work destined to be documented on museum walls.

Exhibition designer Daria Smith says the layout is like a scrapbook, and it should give visitors different options: browse the largescale murals and prominent artifacts for key facts and figures, or examine primary sources and detailed text panels to absorb as much as possible. Fraley-Rhodes and intern

Aubrie McDaniel found a suffrage story in every county in the state, and these are available in a newspaper-like pamphlet that visitors can take home. You can also find these stories via the exhibition’s online component, Ratified! Statewide!

The exhibition notes early national leaders Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but the emphasis is on Tennesseans.

The first of the galleries focuses on the years leading up to the vote, with Tennessee women like Sarah Childress Polk and Hannah Richards entering the public sphere.

Throughout the Civil War and Reconstruction, both Black and white women organized in their living rooms and churches. By 1919, there were more than 79 suffrage leagues in the state. Among the Tennessean pioneers were Catherine Talty Kenny, the Chattanoogan who organized women in every congressional district to petition legisla-

tors prior to the 1920 special session; Juno Frankie Pierce, a founder of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, community organizer and education advocate; Anne Dudley, whose hooting and hollering in the legislative chamber caused the Chattanooga Times to ask, “Who knew the little mite of a woman could possess such vocal powers?”; and Sue Shelton White, the National Women’s Party member who was arrested and jailed at protests in Washington, D.C., and whose more radical strategies ruffled feathers among mainstream Tennessee Suffs.

The second gallery includes a show-stopping display depicting a suffrage parade — photographs of the women wearing white clothing are affixed on panels suspended from the ceiling, and a 1925 Ford Model T leads the way. This gallery documents the ratification, with plenty of artifacts and primary documents to explore about Burn, Catt, and the historic victory.

But the promises of the amendment were unfulfilled for thousands of American women — women of color — and Ratified! does not shy away from this fact. But the exhibition also shows Black and white women working together. Pierce and Kenny organized across the state to elect a pro-ratification slate of candidates in the 1919 statewide election — and they succeeded, laying the groundwork for a more favorable legislative body the following year.

There is no single suffrage story. The history is made up of thousands of stories — personal, public and political — that are scattered across the country. These stories continue today, as women organize to fight restrictive voting laws that disenfranchise Americans and leave the promise unfulfilled. That ongoing work is as strategic and energetic as that of the early Suffs.

As for Teens for Equality organizer Emma Rose Smith, she plans to run for office.

“It’s important to have women in political positions so that our voices can be heard,” she says. “Voices of women, voices of LGBTQIA people, voices of people of color who can speak on their own issues. … If we have candidates like that, it will definitely encourage people to vote, and I think it would encourage more change.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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For the Record

Talking with Fisk University Professor Linda Wynn about Black women’s pivotal role in the suffrage movement

BY ANDREA WILLIAMS

Initially, the suffrage movement was closely linked to the abolition of slavery. Can you talk about the link between Black rights and women’s rights? When you look at social movements, what you find is that women’s movements generally come after social movements pushed forth by, and for, African Americans. You have the abolitionist movement, that starts around the 1830s, maybe just a little bit before. Then you have a women’s movement that starts, and you can look at Seneca Falls in 1848. If you look at the modern civil rights movement — what comes after the modern civil rights movement? The women’s movement. And I think you can probably even take that into the present day. Everybody thinks Black Lives Matter started last year, or the year before. But it started a little bit before the #MeToo movement.

I think [the women’s suffrage movement followed the abolition movement] because women were second-class citizens too. They were going to bat for another suppressed group, and they realized, “Well, I’m just as suppressed as they are.” So they decided, “I’m out here fighting for that cause, but

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PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

F

rom its launch in the mid-1800s, the women’s suffrage movement was fraught with challenges and controversy, as most pivotal moments in history often are. But with Harry Burn’s tie-breaking vote, cast on Aug. 18, 1920, none of those troubles mattered anymore — at least not to many of the women who’d finally witnessed their wildest dreams made manifest. Indeed, while awash in the victorious glow of the franchise, those women — mostly white — used their pens to draft a version of women’s history that was formed in their own image. In the process, they erased the Black women who made it all possible.

Professor Linda Wynn of Fisk University has worked tirelessly to tell the stories of too many Black women whose efforts were directly responsible for the 19th Amendment’s ratification, but whose names have been largely lost to time. For those women, gaining the right to vote wasn’t about wresting independence from an abusive husband or an overbearing father. It was a small but mighty step toward equality for the entire Black race, the opportunity to advocate for neglected Black children and marginalized Black men — men who were still struggling to cast their own ballots. In a phone call with the Scene, Wynn discussed the complicated but constructive relationship between Black and white suffragists. In so doing, she also reminds us of the dangers in whitewashing history.

PROFESSOR LINDA WYNN I’m suppressed, so I’m going to fight for women’s rights too.”

But there were white women who didn’t agree with the 15th Amendment because it gave Black men the right to vote before the white women received it. Yes. That is the amendment that, as you said, splintered Black women and white women — or further enhanced the dissent.

For example, I think Susan B. Anthony made the statement, “I would cut off my right arm, this right arm of mine, before I will answer the ballot for the Negro and not for the woman.”

As they moved toward the first part of the 20th century, white women were trying to gain the right to vote, and they would have been looking at Southern states — remember, most of the Southern states had not voted to ratify the 19th Amendment. So in order for them to get those states on board, they had to sort of follow the principles of the lost cause; they had to look at the South and its ubiquitous racial climate. And it became a big problem.

So how did it happen that Tennessee — a Southern, former slave-holding state — became the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment? It was a quid pro quo. Suffragists wanted as many people as possible to support the amendment, and there was a fairly large contingent of Blacks in Nashville who were for it.

You’ve got the women’s clubs — for example, the National Association of Colored Women was formed in 1896 by Mary Church Terrell, a native Tennessean, and the organization’s first convention was held in Nashville. You have Fisk University; you have Tennessee State; you have Meharry; and you have a well-rounded Black middle class.

Booker T. Washington spent a lot of time here because he was friends with [Black politician and civil rights activist] J.C. Napier. By 1904 you had [One Cent Savings Bank], a Black-

owned bank that is still the oldest Black bank in the nation. So you have all of these coalitions being built in Nashville. Then there was [educator and activist] Frankie Pierce and [physician] Dr. Mattie Coleman, who registered 2,500 Black women to vote [in the 1919 municipal election].

White women were not unaware of what was going on in the Black community, and they realized that they needed the organizational skills of Black women. They knew they had an interest, those women had an interest, and maybe those interests were one and the same. So while we may not affiliate socially, we can work together politically because we have the same goal.

deal that Coleman and Pierce were making.

I think oftentimes we don’t realize, as a populace, that your vote is your voice in terms of policy. Those who you send to state legislatures, to the U.S. Senate, to the U.S. House of Representatives, and to local offices enact the laws that ultimately become policy. I think Coleman and Pierce understood that, and I think they were looking at potential policy. They knew that if they wanted a school and a state department of child welfare, that had to come through a legislative process. So Pierce was telling white women what [she and Dr. Coleman] wanted. We will help you [gain the right to vote] if you will help us do that.

Right. And the interests of Black women extended beyond the right to vote. What Coleman and Pierce really

Black women were so critical to the ratification of the 19th Amendment, but their stories have been largely forgotten. Why is it important, 100 years later, that people fully understand their role? When you look

wanted was a vocational school for delinquent girls. Prior to them having the vocational schools, Black girls that got into trouble were basically thrown in jails with adults. So that was the deal that they struck with the white women.

If you look at that 1920 convention [the first of the Tennessee League of Women Voters, held in May], Pierce used that opportunity to lay out her vision for linking women together across racial lines. When she spoke, the question was, “What will the Negro woman do with the vote?” And she gave them a very clear and concise answer.

She said, “Yes, we’re going to work with you, and we will stand by you, white women.

We’re going to make you proud of us; we’re going to help you help us and yourself.”

Do you think that the school took precedence over the vote since — in many areas, especially in the South — restrictions like literacy tests made both the 15th and 19th amendments largely theoretical for Black voters?

I don’t think the school took precedence over the right to vote. I think that was the

at those who were doing the writing about the suffrage movement, especially from an academic point of view, it was basically white writers. And I’m going to say what I say to my students sometimes: White folks don’t have to stop and think about you. They don’t think about whether somebody else was involved. They’re busy trying to narrate their story from their perspective, and their perspective is very narrow. They don’t know the conversation Black parents have to have with their children about what to do if the police stop you. Whites don’t say to their children, “If you go in the store, don’t put your hands on anything that you’re not going to buy, because the floor walker will say you’re stealing.” That’s what I mean when I say they don’t think about you. They have the privilege of not thinking about you. So I think it’s important to know about the involvement of Black women simply because Black women were involved.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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The legacies of the women’s suffrage movement are plentiful, but there is more work to do

BY BAILEY BASHAM

W

ith a curtain at their backs, Erica Hayden and her dad stood in the cramped booth at their local polling station.

It was a small space, and Hayden’s dad was marking his paper ballot as his daughter watched wide-eyed. Once Hayden’s father had cast his vote, the two stood by as her mother entered and did the same. Hayden marveled at the size of the high school where voting was being held. She watched as the other voters moved between check-in tables and disappeared behind curtains.

Hayden, who is now a professor of history at Trevecca University, says she didn’t always understand what was happening when she went with her parents to vote, but still, something about the process struck her as meaningful.

When Hayden turned 18 and was able to vote in her first presidential election, she says, some of the magic was gone — the ballot boxes and the curtains were replaced with electronic machines with buttons alongside corresponding candidate names.

Still, the moment had weight; it felt significant. And years later in 2016, as she prepared to cast her vote for who she thought would be the first female president, the significance was even greater.

“It was so exciting to be able to have the opportunity to vote for a female candidate,” says Hayden. “To vote at all is really an honor and a privilege, especially because you can look around the globe and see that the right to vote is not something that is granted to all women. It’s a gift we’ve been given, and you don’t want to take that for granted. This isn’t something we’ve even had for that long.”

Indeed, this year marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment’s ratification, which granted women the right to vote. To commemorate the centennial and celebrate the unwavering pursuit of social change, the Tennessee State Museum is opening Ratified!

Tennessee Women and the Right to Vote, the Nashville Public Library will unveil the virtual exhibit Votes for Women on Aug. 18, and more events are planned around the city. (See a list of those on the right.)

Hayden says the legacies of the women’s suffrage movement are plentiful — and they go far beyond just her ability to walk into her polling station and freely cast her vote.

Since the ratification of the 19th Amendment, much of politics has been shaped by the votes of women. According to a Brookings Institute report from February, women have consistently outvoted men since 1980 — women made up 58 percent of voters at

MARGARET V. LALLY VOTES IN NEW YORK CITY, 1918

as transformative as the ratification was, she thinks calls to commemorate the centennial fall flat in some ways. As with so many historical movements, Black women and other marginalized people were there doing the work for progress, and as has so often been the case, they were largely left out of the record. Though their names and stories are not remembered, Johnson says she still feels them in the legacy.

“Knowing what they had to endure to get us to where we are now feels so [moving],” says Johnson. “They put us one step closer to the finish line, but the reality is we still

have a long way to go. We can and will use the tools they left for us, but it feels like running a relay race where you have to run faster and faster with each leg. My focus is to take the baton from them and run faster, so when I pass the baton to the person next to me, they’re even closer, if not already there. We have come too far, and so many people have sacrificed so much — lives, family, time, livelihood — we cannot stop now. It’s like Nipsey [Hustle] said. The marathon continues. We celebrate the good, and then we keep going.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

Centennial Celebrations Around the City Ratified! Tennessee Women and the Right to Vote is on view at the Tennessee State Museum through March 28.

Opportunity and the Open Road: Women’s Suffrage and Mobility is on view at the Lane Motor Museum through May 31.

Saints or Monsters: Political Cartoons of the 19th Amendment is available online via the Nashville Public Library, and you can take part in the library’s “I Ring the Bell” campaign to celebrate the centennial at library.nashville.org/research/ votes-for-women.

Nashville Opera’s One Vote Won will premiere online Sept. 25-27, highlighting the stories of suffragist Juno Frankie Pierce and civil rights activist Diane Nash.

We Have a Vision: Nashville Women From the Centennial to Suffrage is on view at the Parthenon through Jan. 13.

The Hermitage Hotel has historical artifacts related to the 19th Amendment on view in the lobby, and will host a Suffrage Tea Series, Suffrage Sundays and more.

We Count: First-Time Voters is on view at the Frist Art Museum through Jan. 3.

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PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, LC-DIG-GGBAIN-26590

The Marathon Continues

this year’s Iowa caucus.

With the power of the women’s vote becoming greater and more evident, Hayden says it’s important to understand the legacy left by the early suffragists who paved the way for women voters and policy makers now.

“Women of the 21st century are standing on the shoulders of the women who had seen and spoken on these issues decades before,” she says. “I think looking for ways to advocate for others is an important part of the legacy. You can look at a lot of social issues in the past decades since women have gotten the vote and see how women may have swayed opinion or shaped outcomes, particularly in who they vote for and the platforms of those candidates. In recent elections, women have become a demographic category important to candidates, and I think we’ll continue to see women as an important bloc for candidates to try to persuade.”

Kathleen Pate, education specialist for the Clinton Presidential Library, says that when celebrating the work of the early suffragists, it’s important to see the full scope.

The 19th Amendment’s ratification was only the beginning. Native American women did not get the vote until the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act, and Black men and women were still working for enfranchisement 40 years after that. It wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that Black people were able to fully participate in the voting process. Since that legislation’s passage, vital parts of the act have been invalidated, allowing some Southern states to change voting laws without federal approval.

“When we think about the legacy, I think it’s important to not say we are celebrating,” says Pate. “We know that the 19th Amendment did not extend women’s suffrage universally. We know that Black men and women were largely prevented from voting and that Native American women did not get the vote until 1924. The amendment was a significant step, but it was in no way the solution. Even now, there are lots of obstacles between some people getting to vote.

Some are purposeful, and some are structural. Voting is a right, a responsibility, but it’s certainly a privilege that not everyone has the opportunity to exercise. I think that’s part of the legacy and part of what we need to address next.”

Tequila Johnson says that’s where she hopes to help. Johnson is the co-founder and co-executive director of The Equity Alliance, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that empowers people to take action around issues that affect daily life.

Johnson, who is Black, says she doesn’t remember the first time she voted. No one made a big deal of it, and she thought she was just doing what was expected of her. It wasn’t until the election of President Barack Obama that she began to understand the impact of her vote. Now she says her vote is her voice.

“When you think about the average patriotic American white man, they are very proud to be American,” says Johnson. “They know this is their country. They feel entitled to have a voice and a sense of ownership, but my ancestors fought and died for it. No matter who you stack up against me or how much money they throw at the vote, they still go to the ballot box equal to me. My vote is my power.”

Johnson says the legacy left by suffragists who fought for the vote is powerful, and

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7/27/20 6:22 PM

ANNOUNCING OUR 2020 LINEUP!

PRESENTED BY

IT’S BACK!

AUGUST 6

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

AUGUST 13

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AUGUST 20

COMING SOON!

AUGUST 27

COMING SOON!

FRE E FUN FILM S

The Nashville Scene is excited to announce our new drive-in movie series, Movies in the Park-ing Lot!

This August, join us at oneC1ty, where — instead of bringing a blanket or a chair — you can pull up your car and enjoy four movies under the stars!

Each week we’ll be screening a fan-favorite film FOR FREE, and guests can order a delicious picnic dinner and sweet treats.

V I S I T W W W. N A S H V I L L E M O V I E S I N T H E PA R K . C O M F O R D E TA I L S O N H O W T O W I N PA S S E S A N D T O L E A R N M O R E !

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out A Hobby Gone Wild, the long-awaited, Tennessee’s role as the 36th and final state photo-heavy book about the collection. to ratify the amendment.) Meanwhile, Nashville’s Lane Motor Museum is shining STEPHEN TRAGESER a light on the ways in which women’s perspectives helped shape advancements [HI-HO] in transportation with Opportunity and WATCH MUPPETS NOW ON DISNEY+ the Open Road: Women’s Suffrage and When we last left The Muppets, Jim Mobility. The exhibit offers a close-up look Henson’s prized creations appeared in a at vehicles like the “safety bicycle” of the meta-savvy Larry Sanders Show rip-off on late 19th century (represented by a 1935 ABC (also called The Muppets) in which Hirondelle Rétro-Directe bike from the Miss Piggy was a divalicious talk-show Lane collection). It’s got two wheels of equal host and Kermit the Frog was her muchsize — as opposed to the pennyfarthing with beleaguered showrunner/ex. It lasted only its giant front wheel — and we just know it one season — probably because audiences as “a bicycle.” The bike precipitated realized they just could go back a turn away from restrictive and watch The Muppet Show Victorian fashion via the if they wanted a proper Rational Dress Movement; portrait of puppets playing EDITOR’S NOTE: also, its relatively low out the backstage chaos AS A RESPONSE TO THE ONGOING cost made it easy for that goes on behind a TV COVID-19 PANDEMIC, WE’VE CHANGED THE FOCUS OF THE CRITICS’ women to be mobile variety show. Speaking PICKS SECTION TO INCLUDE ACTIVITIES and to organize as the of variety, that’s exactly YOU CAN PARTAKE IN WHILE YOU’RE suffrage movement took what Kermit and the gang AT HOME PRACTICING SOCIAL off. Another highlight of are back to doing, with DISTANCE. the exhibit is a 1918 Ford a new six-episode series Model T — inexpensive and premiering Friday, July easy to repair, the Model T was 31, on Disney+. According to marketed heavily to women and press notes, this weekly program widely used by suffragettes. See the whole will be unscripted, with various Muppets exhibit on display through May 31. The going the improv route and doing bits like museum is open with restrictions to keep game-show parodies, zany experiments (you visitors safe during the pandemic — see know Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker are lanemotormuseum.org for complete details. all over that) and interviewing celebs like Since tours of the vault (where many more Seth Rogen and Aubrey Plaza. So chances cars that can’t fit on the main floor are are, unlike The Muppet Show, the chaos kept) are very limited, be sure to check will be front-and-center this time around.

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[I TASTE LONDON IN THIS CAKE]

BUILD YOUR OWN STREAMING KELLY REICHARDT FILM FESTIVAL

Can you believe it? This is our 20th straight build-your-own-streaming-filmfest Critic’s Pick — four-plus months of responsible quarantining means we’ve had plenty of time to dive deep into the catalogs of an array of diverse and talented filmmakers. For this installment, let’s go with Kelly Reichardt, a writer-director whose filmography is small but fiercely unique in its depictions of hardship and individualism. Though not as acclaimed as her later works, 1995’s River of Grass (currently free to stream with an Amazon Prime membership) caught the attention of critics with — as The New York Times’ Stephen Holden put it — its “sense of suffocating ennui.” From there, jump forward to the 21st century and take your pick between 2006’s Old Joy (available to The Criterion Channel subscribers) and 2008’s Wendy and Lucy (free on Prime). The former is about a painful, meaningful relationship between humans and features Will Oldham (aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy), while the latter is about a painful, meaningful relationship between a woman and her dog and features a great performance from Michelle Williams. Up next is Reichardt and Williams’ follow-up collaboration, 2010’s Meek’s Cutoff (free on Prime), which is based loosely on real historical events taking place on the Oregon Trail in 1845 and is possibly the strongest film in the director’s catalog.

Reichardt’s next two films both have (surprise!) pretty heavy themes: 2013’s Night Moves (free on Prime) and 2016’s Certain Women ($5 on Prime). Both are great, but neither is as essential as Reichardt’s brand-new First Cow, a tale of hardscrabble frontier life in 19th-century Oregon that is available via a number of purchase options. As I put it in my recent review (“Why Buy the Cow,” July 16, 2020), that film is gripping, beautiful

and sad, and probably the best new film I’ve seen this year. Plus, it features a gorgeous score by Nashville native William Tyler.

D. PATRICK RODGERS

CARS

FILM

WENDY AND LUCY

[QUEEN OF THE ROAD]

SEE OPPORTUNITY AND THE OPEN ROAD AT LANE MOTOR MUSEUM

Celebrations around the U.S. are honoring the people who helped give women the right to vote via the 19th Amendment.

(See this week’s cover story for more about

OPPORTUNITY AND THE OPEN ROAD

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[FAKE CAN BE JUST AS GOOD]

WATCH THERE ARE NO FAKES ON AMAZON PRIME

A lurid underworld is discovered when a painting sold at a gallery for $20,000 is alleged by museum curators to be counterfeit, spurring the buyer to seek the truth. That’s the premise of Canadian documentarian Jamie Kastner’s 2019 film There Are No Fakes, which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Taking us from upscale parts of Toronto to deep inside Ontario’s rarely visited interior — with some of the kookiest, shiftiest characters to grace the small screen this side of Tiger King as our guides — Fakes is a gripping, shocking exposé of the ethically challenged world of high-end art sales. It also explores Canada’s shameful dehumanization of its indigenous people. There is easily enough material here for a miniseries, but Kastner and editor Michael Hannan masterfully condense a many-tentacled story into a tight two hours — which, in the age of the neverending Netflix docudrama, is appreciated. Trust me on this one.

[TEENAGE RIOT]

CHECK OUT TEENS TAKE THE FRIST!

The resilience of a teenager in crisis can be inspirational. From the student survivors of the 2018 Parkland, Fla., shooting and their quick pivot to gun-reform activism, to Greta Thunberg’s environmentalism in the face of staunch opposition, to Nashville’s own Teens for Equality protest organizers, the trope of a surly, unaffected teenager is quickly becoming updated. Teens are getting shit done. At the Frist, an online exhibition is giving the young demographic another platform to express themselves through visual art. Teens Take the Frist! showcases more than 50 artworks in various media, all created by students from Cheatham, Davidson, Robertson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson and Wilson counties. The online component is relatively low-tech, and simply gives audiences the option to click onto a student’s name to access a jpeg of the artwork, its dimensions and a brief description. But the size of the exhibit is what makes it so impressive. The exhibit remains up through Sept. 13, and it’s a delight — check it out at fristartmuseum.org.

LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

TEENS TAKE THE FRIST!

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look at vegetables and vegan cooking. Terry sees produce, legumes and grains as hearty and worthy of being the stars of the plate, much like an omnivorous chef looks at beef and seafood. In the recipe for Big Beans, Buns and Broccoli Rabe, Terry simmers large, creamy corona beans with potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, ginger and a blend of cumin, allspice, thyme, chipotle and more to make a savory, messy, belly-filling sandwich inspired by a South African dish called bunny chow. For Grilled Spring Onions With Lemon-Thyme Oil (served with stewed red lentils and creamy cauliflower), he chars the spring vegetable on the grill with lots of herbs and salt, like you would a steak. The best part? He pairs every recipe with a song.

Listen to “Live Your Life” by Malaysian

[SUMMER SUN]

GET INTO THE MUSIC OF JOÃO GILBERTO

In his 1998 book on the 1960s, The Sixties, English historian Arthur Marwick defined the era as the period between 1958 and 1974. Marwick’s schema makes sense to me, and it’s certainly true that pop music gets cooking between 1958 and 1960. In North America, Ray Charles and James Brown were laying the groundwork for soul music, and blues guitarist Elmore James recorded his most incisive work around 1960. Meanwhile, Brazilian guitarist and singer João Gilberto invented what I think is the first true modern pop style, bossa nova, on essential recordings like “Chega de Saudade” and “Desafinado.” Gilberto, who died in July 2019, perfected a syncopated guitar style that added jazz harmonies to the cut-time rhythms of samba, and he remains a misunderstood musician. His early-’60s recordings with his then-wife Astrud Gilberto and saxophonist Stan Getz are emblems of a sophistication that may have sounded quaint in the era of Brown and The Beatles. At his best — on his superb 1973 self-titled full-length, which the guitarist cut at Rudy Van Gelder’s famed New Jersey studio — Gilberto is a minimalist master.

Start with João Gilberto, and then explore his equally classic late-’50s and early-’60s music. EDD HURT FOOD & DRINK

“CARE FOR CREATION,” SCHUYLER CRICHTON, SARAH COTE, HANNAH MARIE DIXIE, ABIGAIL HERNON, ANNA CLAIRE LOONEY, CECILIA PHILLIPS, LOREN PLOSA, ANNA BURNS ROTH AND DEDE UMEUKEJE

EXPLORE LONDON’S MEAN STREETS THROUGH RAPMAN’S FILMS

English polymath Andrew “Rapman” Onwubolu’s Blue Story is a gritty, heartbreaking and graphic drama about warring gangs from the South East London boroughs of Peckham and Lewisham, and a pair of best friends from opposite sides caught in the crossfire. With characters speaking in slang so thick it requires subtitles and the rapper-director dropping in periodically to recap the story in musical form, it’s the first film ever to simultaneously evoke John Singleton, Stephen Sondheim and Dizzee Rascal.

Blue Story (streamable via Amazon Prime for $4.99) is a feature-length adaptation of Onwubolu’s earlier three-part YouTube saga Shiro’s Story, which is basically the same concept — love, hate and betrayal in London’s outer fringes, with anguished narration from Rapman and plot twists upon plot twists — but made fully DIY, racking up a million views in its first five hours.

Like the West Baltimore streets of David Simon’s The Wire and dilapidated Neapolitan projects of its Italian counterpart Gomorrah, Blue Story and Shiro’s Story offer a trustworthy window into an urban milieu that’s not for the faint of heart, unflinchingly depicting how cycles of violence affect entire communities — not just those who fall into them. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN MUSIC

CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

[SOUTH-EAST SIDE STORY]

[VEGGIE TALES]

BUY BRYANT TERRY’S COOKBOOK VEGETABLE KINGDOM

I’d hardly call it a bright side, but one not-terrible aspect to this global disaster is having the time to sharpen your kitchen skills. For that, author and James Beard Award-winning chef Bryant Terry deserves thanks. His new book Vegetable Kingdom has changed the way I

pop star Yuna while making Creamy Sweet Potato Leek Soup With Puffed Black Ginger Rice; dance along with A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario (Remix)” while frying some smashed potatoes to be served with his Sweet Corn Relish. (I have a giant jar of that relish in my fridge right now. I eat it by the spoonful when I’m too lazy to make a real lunch.) May you never suffer through a pile of boring, lackluster steamed vegetables again. MEGAN SELING BOOKS

FILM

CRAIG D. LINDSEY

FILM

Premieres Friday, July 31, on Disney+

ART

CRITICS’ PICKS

[WHODUNIT]

MAKE A LIBRARY LIST OF GREAT DETECTIVE NOVELS

I’ll admit it: As an MFA grad, I once averted my eyes from genre fiction.

“What kind of books do you like to read?” people would ask. “Literary fiction,” I’d say, repressing an eyeroll, to which the earnest asker would reply, “What’s that?” Thankfully, I came to my senses later in life when I discovered Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins series. In the first of 13 books, Devil in a Blue Dress, Easy is a Black World War II vet living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, recently let go of his factory job because his white boss thought he was “uppity.” As if by a gravitational force, Easy gets pulled into the life of a hard-boiled detective, and his cases intersect with historical moments in American history like the Red Scare, the Watts Rebellion and more. Easy is a harddrinking, smart-as-hell gumshoe with a healthy sexual appetite — which adds some spice to suspenseful storylines. For a more wholesome read, check out the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. Dobbs is a

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[PHISH FOOD]

LISTEN TO PHISH’S THE MAN WHO STEPPED INTO YESTERDAY

By and large, Phishheads are most enthusiastic about the concert experience — being part of a crowd, waiting eagerly to see where the improvisational jams will lead. While the pandemic means you’re able to experience live Phish only via concert tapes (something the band is leaning into with its weekly Dinner and a Movie streams, which include donation links to charitable causes), it’s rewarding to take a look at the bandmembers as intentional composers, too.

One standout is a project called The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday. Frontman Trey Anastasio conceived the piece as a musical and submitted it as his undergraduate senior project at Goddard College. In the tale, retired soldier Col. Forbin steps, Narniastyle, through a door into a land called Gamehendge, where the people (who call themselves The Lizards and are “practically extinct from doing things smart people don’t do”) are organizing to overthrow the dictator Wilson. It’s a cautionary tale that touches on the stubborn tendency of human nature to be complicated, and doesn’t end with an easy answer. Anastasio never staged the play, though Phish recorded the suite of songs and narration as a delightful kind of audio storybook. The recording has never been officially released, but it’s easy to find as a download or stream. The songs, though somewhat nonsensical on their own, have become beloved parts of Phish’s repertoire, and several more of their tunes are set in the Gamehendge universe. The band played the suite at five shows between 1988 and 1994 — recordings of those are easy to find as well, and they showcase the band’s improved musicianship over time. And if you’re compelled to go really deep, a PDF of Anastasio’s thesis paper, including an essay and handwritten music notation, is also on the web. STEPHEN TRAGESER

[READ ALL ABOUT IT!]

CHECK OUT BROADWAY-THEMED BOOKS

One of the few silver linings of our current “pandemic pause” is the fact that I’ve been able to catch up on my reading — and that includes a lot of Broadway- and theater-related books. There are plenty of great memoirs and biographies — including Jerome Robbins, by Himself: Selections From His Letters, Journals, Drawings, Photographs, and an Unfinished Memoir (by Jerome Robbins and edited by Amanda Vaill); Life Isn’t Everything: Mike Nichols as Remembered by 150 of His Closest Friends (by Ash Carter and Sam Kashner); and Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch (by Alexandra Jacobs). Theater-history lovers will appreciate Listening for America: Inside the Great American Songbook From Gershwin to Sondheim (by Rob Kapilow) and Rise Up!: Broadway and American Society From Angels in America to Hamilton (by Chris Jones). And for those who’ve been spending a bit more time in the kitchen these days, Sugar, Butter, Flour: The Waitress Pie Cookbook serves up show-stopping recipes from the hit Broadway musical. All these titles and more are available at the Nashville Public Library — visit nashville.library.gov to see what’s available at your local branch.

AMY STUMPFL

FOOD & DRINK

MUSIC

whip-smart “psychologist and investigator” who has set up shop in London. Her past is revealed through flashbacks — she managed to climb from the servant class to be a college-educated, self-supporting woman, but in the middle of her journey, she served as a nurse in World War I. Her practice blends psychological analysis with time-tested detective work and a strict moral code, and the books have depth while remaining fun to read. If you find British accents enchanting, I recommend listening to these as audiobooks. Finally, you can’t avoid Raymond Chandler when you’re on a detective-novel binge, and you shouldn’t. First published serially in pulp magazines, Chandler’s novels maintain that pulpy goodness, as antihero Philip Marlowe dodges femmes fatales, gives seedy gangsters their just deserts, and looks past red herrings to crack cases. The novels evolved with noir cinema, and some of the film adaptations are truly wonderful. You can start with the first Marlowe adventure The Big Sleep, or jump to my favorite, The Long Goodbye. All are available at the library, which is offering curbside pickup, ebooks and digital audiobooks. However, early voting locations are suspending curbside pickup until Aug. 10, so check the website, library.nashville.gov. ERICA CICCARONE

THEATER

CRITICS’ PICKS

[EAT IT]

GET LOST IN THE WEIRD, DISTURBING WORLD OF CHEFCLUB INSTAGRAM VIDEOS

When I first clicked on Instagram’s search tab, I was hoping to lull myself into a restful slumber by watching soothing cookie-decorating videos. The anxiety of the day melts away, at least briefly, the longer I watch royal icing flood onto animal-shaped sugar canvases. But one night my dessert dreamland was invaded. A French food account called Chefclub (@chefclubtv) popped into my feed. It was mesmerizing and perverse. I couldn’t look away. In the first video I watched, someone’s hand did this weird hot dog magic, and then began to shred several dogs into long, thin strips with a paperclip. Yes, a paperclip.

The pile of processed meat-worms was then mixed with some beaten eggs and … pressed into a waffle iron?? There was more! Shredded cheddar cheese was melted down with a bottle of Heineken and, while still bubbling, poured over the tall stack of wiener waffles. WHAT?! I hated it. Then I clicked through for more. Another video shows Chefclub making meat and veggie kebabs, gathering them together like a keto bouquet and rolling them into a log, using a blanket of cheese and bacon to hold the whole thing together. And to make Cordon Bleu Boules, they used the cap of a ballpoint pen (?!) to inject balls of fresh mozzarella with pesto. I don’t even want to tell you what they’ve done to burrata — beautiful, innocent burrata. Every recipe builds upon itself like a real-life Cheesy Blasters jingle, and I’m often left with more questions than answers, like: How much did those five wheels of brie cheese used in the “La Tour De L’apero” video cost? And why you always gotta jiggle those hot dogs like that, Chefclub?! I hate it. But I can’t escape. It’s kind of like this pandemic. MEGAN SELING

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FOOD AND DRINK

LADY OF THE BAKE : Winners’ Reader poll

VOTED BEST FOR 15 YEARS!

Talking to Lisa Donovan about gender in hospitality work and her brand-new memoir

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

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Voted Best in Nashville 6x!

LISA DONOVAN

“S

top letting men tell your story.”

After eating her cajeta ice cream and apricot dessert at an event, Mexican cooking expert Diana Kennedy said those words to pastry chef Lisa Donovan.

That admonishment resonated with Donovan, who then embarked on a multiyear examination of her culinary career and her life experiences both in and out of the kitchen.

The result of that OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL introspection is Our HUNGER

BY LISA DONOVAN Lady of Perpetual PENGUIN PRESS Hunger, Donovan’s 304 PAGES, $28 intensely personal but also universal FACEBOOK LIVE EVENT new memoir, out 6 P.M. TUESDAY, AUG. 4 Tuesday, Aug. 4, via Penguin Press. While Donovan has been working on her first book for years, it includes a lot of themes that many of us are grappling with in this complicated, quarantined 2020 — looking at our beliefs and the power structures around us, and trying to figure out what we’ve misunderstood and where we can be of use.

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“I am a woman of a certain generation, and I was raised and told you can do anything if you just work hard enough — if you showed up and worked hard enough,” Donovan tells the Scene. But in professional kitchens, she increasingly felt like her hard work was not enough. Donovan’s skill with dough wasn’t enough to combat what she found to be pervasive barriers to advancement or even a decent income.

“Why did I think for so long that I could subvert the system?” she says.

Donovan underscores that she doesn’t want to come off as a victim — and she doesn’t — while still pointing out gender inequities in kitchens across the city and the country. “Women don’t get to show up and do the work the way men do,” Donovan says.

Donovan worked at Husk Nashville under Sean Brock and at City House under Tandy Wilson, after getting her start at Margot Café and Bar thanks to Margot McCormack.

She was also the chef and owner of Buttermilk Road, a series of insidery and wellregarded pop-up suppers from 2009-2012 wherein diners were encouraged to show up solo and engage with people they didn’t know over the dinner table.

The book has been highly anticipated in food circles. In 2018, Donovan won a James Beard Award for an essay in Food & Wine magazine, “Dear Women: Own Your Stories,” which in rapid-fire succession mentioned her own sexual assault and abortion, as well as harassment and inequity in restaurant kitchens. The tone of that essay is reflective of Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger.

Throughout her decades finding herself as a daughter, wife, mother, friend, chef and writer, Donovan was inspired by many Nashvillians of stature at various junctures, including McCormack, Brock, Wilson and Alice Randall. She repeatedly thanks and praises her mentors and friends for inspiring her and supporting her. Seeing the people and places of Music City throughout the book, which travels across borders and through Donovan’s life, from childhood to the present, could make Nashvillians feel some ownership and connection to these personal stories.

Donovan is known for pastries that fuse time-honored Southern recipes like hand pies and “church cakes” with French baking techniques. She uses both sweet and savory ingredients, and has an appreciation for local produce and a willingness to be open to the traditions of others. Her story of learning to appreciate those aforementioned apricots — a fruit that tastes great in California, but not always in the South — is the quintessential Donovan telling. It’s revealing in the way in which she learns something new, funny and foul-mouthed, and connected to both food and people.

The book is a memoir and does not include recipes. It skewers not only the gender inequities in hospitality culture, but corporate ownership of restaurants, which she feels allocates money in all the wrong places: When you have wealthy partners who are somehow willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on light fixtures, or handmade linen napkins from their best friend in Charleston, and truly, horrendously bad art before they even open their doors, but cannot see their way to paying their cooks a living wage or establishing health-care benefits for them or supporting them as human beings rather than merely as

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FOOD AND DRINK

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

a means of profit, you take an already complicated and outdated caste system of workers and destroy the fibers that keep them tethered to their already complicated work.

Some of Donovan’s motivation to re-examine her experiences and her beliefs came after getting a piece of advice: “The trick was a simple one: undo your miseducation.”

That’s a line Donovan attributes to Randall, the award-winning writer and writer-inresidence at Vanderbilt University, who has been teaching that topic for years. (The phrase is a nod to the album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.) It’s another theme for 2020, as we all try to better understand topics on which we were misinformed. Donovan is appreciative of how Randall used her legendary cookbook library (thousands of tomes) to show Donovan the roots of the Southern recipes she loves: It wasn’t white women who were hostesses who created them; it was the Black women who worked for them. “My indignation came only because I was ignorant,” she writes. “This was obvious information. How did I need to be shown this?” Donovan also explores her own background, including that of her mother’s Mexican roots and the ways in which Mexican traditions were present and absent from her upbringing.

Donovan is as talented a writer as she is a baker. Certain phrases are to be set aside and savored like one of her City House cookies: The lowboys creak and buzz, keeping all the leftover mise en place cool in the quart containers with their perfectly cut blue tape labels on their collars, looking like little schoolboys standing at attention with their perfectly pressed lapels.

While the book catalogs Donovan’s successes and frustrations, her emotional and intellectual awakenings, it is also a love letter. First to John, her husband and the sculptor behind Tenure Ceramics, which makes place settings for several restaurants in town. Donovan recounts their vision for their careers and their family before they were married, decades ago, and then demonstrates how they achieved that vision despite financial and other hurdles.

It is also a love letter to her children, and Donovan cites her daughter Maggie as one of her motivations for speaking out about institutions that don’t honor the accomplishments of women.

Finally, the book is a love letter to Nashville. Donovan moved frequently as a child, and growing up in a military family, growing roots and feeling connected to a geographic place has been powerful for her.

“This is where my family has lived for almost 20 years,” she says. “I raised my kids here. So many things about Nashville are unlike anywhere else in the world, how interconnected we all are. The way this city turns toward each other in real times of crisis is really second to none. The community in this city will almost break your heart it is so good. I will always have wanderlust, and I will always be a traveler, but Nashville is home.”

Parnassus Books is hosting a remote conversation for the book launch through a Facebook Live event with Donovan and songwriter Allison Moorer on Tuesday, Aug. 4, at 6 p.m. Signed copies of the book are available at Parnassus and The Bookshop, both of which offer contactless pickup.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PANDEMIC. PROTESTS. MURDER HORNETS. THIS IS NOT THE YEAR TO LEAVE THINGS TO CHANCE.

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THEATER UPCOMING/ONGOING VIRTUAL CONTENT █

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OZ ARTS SCHOOL DAYS

STAGING A COMEBACK

Talking with arts leaders about the future of Nashville theater

BY AMY STUMPFL

W

ithin days of the COVID-19 shutdown in March, local theater companies began fielding a barrage of questions from concerned patrons. When will performances resume? What does this mean for ticket holders? Four months later, struggling arts organizations face an even more pressing conundrum — how to survive, and what to do until it’s safe to gather once again.

“As a nonprofit, we rely on ticket sales and donations,” says Jennifer Turner, Tennessee Performing Arts Center president and CEO. “And as a Broadway presenter, we also rely on that intricate ecosystem of New York shows and multi-city tours to supply our product. COVID stopped all that in its tracks.”

In fact, TPAC is projecting a loss of $5.6 million in earned revenue due to COVID-related show cancellations and postponements from March 2020 through January 2021.

“It’s tough, but our focus is to be flexible and creative,” Turner says. “Our education team is looking at multiple options — from virtual programming to having teaching artists in nontraditional or outdoor venues.

We look forward to reopening when it’s safe to do so, and recently announced our abbreviated Broadway season, which opens in February. But we’re also developing digital content, such as our new TPAC Salon Series, which has been a lot of fun.”

Other organizations also are hard at work, adapting existing programs and developing new content for online audiences.

The Nashville Shakespeare Festival put

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together a virtual Bard’s Birthday Bash in April, along with a May Zoom premiere of a new mash-up play called Jesters Dead: A Top Gun Shakesparody. More recently, the company introduced a monthly book club built around the popular Hogarth Shakespeare series, and has plans for The Summer Online Shakespeare (SOS) — a virtual celebration/fundraiser slated for August.

Of course, digital programming presents its own challenges — from technical glitches to figuring out how to monetize the virtual experience. But most artists remain determined.

“There’s certainly no substitute for live performance, but we’ve had great response to our virtual programming,” says Denice Hicks, NSF’s executive artistic director. “We’ve taken our Shakespeare Allowed series online, as well as Apprentice Company training and individual coaching. And because it’s online, it’s available to a lot more people.”

As artistic director of Studio Tenn, Patrick Cassidy also recognizes the value of such content. In April, the company launched a virtual talk show called Studio Tenn Talks, and plans to host a Virtual Variety Show in August. But Cassidy is particularly proud of the new Virtual Education Program, which covers everything from summer camps to master classes and private lessons.

“When I first arrived in January, my hope was that we would eventually be able to expand our educational offerings,” says Cassidy. “It was definitely on my radar, I just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. But we had a virtual musical theater contest in April — just as a fun thing for people stuck at home — and the response was so great, we decided to keep it going. We had our first camp in June and nearly doubled the number of participants in July. It gives me hope.

God may have closed a major door, but a lot of windows have opened.”

Such resilience is common among theater artists, says Mark Murphy, artistic director at OZ Arts Nashville. “It’s encouraging to see

just how flexible and responsive we can be.”

For Murphy, that means engaging patrons with a wide range of content — from performances to educational segments. In May, OZ presented the world premiere of This Holding: Traces of Contact — Jana Harper’s dance, visual art and music collaboration, which was originally conceived as a live performance, but was reimagined for film due to the shutdown. Then there’s the Brave New Art Podcast, as well as OZ Arts School Days — a new series of short instructional videos designed for families to enjoy together.

“We need the arts in times of crisis,” Murphy says. “And I think the arts will play a key role in our collective healing process.”

So what will live theater look like postCOVID-19? A recent article in the The Guardian highlighted wider theater seats, equipped with “a removable transparent acrylic screen.” Other reports talk of overhauling HVAC systems to maximize airflow and reconfiguring common spaces such as lobbies and bathrooms.

Local conversations seem to center on flexible seating, smaller audiences and digital box offices. TPAC had great success delivering mobile tickets through the official Hamilton app earlier this year, so eliminating touch points — like tickets and playbills — seems doable. Meanwhile, OZ — which is still recovering from damage it took during the March tornado — is considering a variety of seating and social distancing models.

“We’re determined to make use of our warehouse space in some form and are exploring various configurations to ensure social distancing,” Murphy says. “Largescale productions have been moved to 2021, but we’re still looking at some solo shows and smaller events. It’s challenging, because you don’t want to lose the magic and intimacy of live performance. But I think this period of isolation has forced us to re-evaluate everything — who we are as an organization, why we do what we do. Honestly, I’m excited to see what new works — and even new art forms — may come out of this strange time.”

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Kindling Arts Festival, in partnership with The Barbershop Theater, presents Lil Amanda Is a Potty Mouth. Created and performed by Amanda Card and Madeleine Hicks, the program incorporates whimsical elements of puppetry, film and more. 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13, via Kindling Arts Festival’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.

The Nashville Shakespeare Festival presents The Summer Online Shakespeare (SOS). Like its traditional Summer Shakespeare program, this event will feature music and performances from favorite NSF actors, plus a special announcement. 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20, via nashvilleshakes.org.

Nashville Rep’s Broadway Brunch at Night offers an evening of music and entertainment, featuring a lineup of theatrical talent. Nashville favorite Megan Murphy Chambers hosts the online event, which includes a silent auction. 7 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 23, via broadwaybrunch.org.

The Nashville Shakespeare Festival hosts a monthly Virtual Book Club to discuss the Hogarth series — a collection of modern retellings of Shakespeare’s plays written by contemporary authors. August’s selection is New Boy by Tracy Chevalier.

7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26, via nashvilleshakes.org.

The Studio Tenn Virtual Variety Show promises a wide range of acts, including local and international talent. Artistic director Patrick Cassidy hosts the event, which includes an online auction. 7 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 27, via studiotenn.com.

With Studio Tenn Talks: Conversations With Patrick Cassidy, the artistic director talks shop with big names from Broadway and beyond. Upcoming guests include Kelli O’Hara and Jason Alexander. 7 p.m.

Sundays via studiotenntalks.com.

The TPAC Salon Series features a mix of arts-related conversations, demonstrations and more. Learn more at TPAC’s Facebook page. 7 p.m. Tuesdays.

Actors Bridge Ensemble hosts a weekly Script Reading Book Club, which includes a virtual “table read” and discussion of favorite scripts. 6 p.m. Thursdays via actorsbridge.org.

Daniel Jones, producing artistic director of Kindling Arts Festival, agrees, pointing to the July premiere of Sweet Relief: Dances for the Wash Room. Kicking off the festival’s new Kindling Flares series, the virtual dance program included original works from rising choreographers — all performed in their own bathrooms.

“It sounds crazy but makes sense in the context of quarantine, capturing the isolation and stir-craziness we’re all facing,” Jones says. “This is a difficult time, but it’s also an opportunity to think outside the box and explore nontraditional formats.

I love the idea of multisite performances and drive-in events — ideas that push the limits of traditional theater. That’s inspiring.

That’s the sort of thing that’s going to keep us going.”

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IT'S TIME TO CELEBRATE! VOTE FOR THE BEST OF NASHVILLE!

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ART

CRAWL-ISH

Social and political art takes over Nashville’s gallery walls in August

“OVERSEAS ROMANCE,” NUVEEN BARWARI

BY JOE NOLAN

N

ot long before press time, the Scene confirmed that there would indeed be another virtual art crawl for First Saturday in August. And while we’re all still waiting to get back to proper crawlTHIS MONTH’S VIRTUAL ART ing, you can always CRAWL PREMIERES call the gallery to set 6 P.M. SATURDAY, AUG. up a time to drop in.

1, ON THE NASHVILLE For August, art in GALLERY ASSOCIATION’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL. Nashville focuses on social issues and the political landscape, and the highlights include works that range from personal to global, from solemn to irreverent — and sometimes all of these at once.

Channel to Channel’s new group show features artists who make engaging work about identity and the environment, while never forgetting that big messages can also be hilarious and stylized. The title — Hot Cheetos: Activism and Junk Food — is emblematic of these artists’ capacity to make spicy, salty and even sexy art while engaging in conversations about social justice, the immigrant experience and the environmental impact of modern life. The show includes work

by Nuveen Barwari, Courtney Adair Johnson and Marlos E’van.

David Lusk Gallery opens Heed this weekend.

This is another group show that reflects on both vast inquiries and pressing issues. Maysey Craddock’s gouache paintings on found paper bags ask big questions about the cyclical duality of the natural world. Craddock’s stylized representations of trees, rivers, roots and vines blend together into an examination of massive natural systems over vast time periods marked by growth, decay, death and rebirth. Ashley Doggett’s historical narratives about slavery and white supremacy are right on time in our current

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social climate, and the artist’s varied multimedia approach finds her continually refashioning fresh conversations for these times. Leslie Holt’s painted surfaces reflect a deep interest in topics like psychology and mental illness. Holt combines abstracted color fields with embroidered brain scans that reveal illnesses like schizophrenia, PTSD and depression. Rob Matthews’ latest work finds the artist bringing his technical hand to explorations of crises we associate with America’s decades-long wars in the Middle East: forced migration and terrorist assassinations. Matthews uses graphite, paint and collage techniques to create stylized lines and frantic cross-hatching, as well as detailed depictions of apocalyptic imagery from music history and the Bible.

The Breathless show at The Red Arrow Gallery is the biggest group show opening this month. The exhibition takes Nashville’s most recent tornado trauma, the city’s struggles with the COVID-19 lockdown, and Nashville’s Black Lives Matter protests, and offers a local lens on social and environmental issues that are impacting humanity all over the country and the world. The show will include painting, photography, textile work and more by Barwari and E’van, as well as Bethany Carlson, Paul Collins, Lindsy Davis, Amy Dean, Georganna Greene, Jodi Hays, John Paul Kesling, Desmond Lewis, Marcus Maddox, Duncan McDaniel, Pam Marlene Taylor, Dax Van Aalten, Tara Walters, Ripley Whiteside, Christopher Wormald and yours truly.

August’s virtual art crawl will also include offerings from Tinney Contemporary, Unrequited Leisure and perhaps a few other venues. It will post to the Nashville Gallery Association’s YouTube channel at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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BOOKS

Support Local.

SHE HAD A DREAM

Freedom Faith examines the little-known influence of civil rights leader Prathia Hall

BY DAVID DARK

R

ecording artist Brian Eno once toured a sprawling Russian art exhibit that made him uniquely aware of all the little-known painters who coexisted with the alleged immortals. Every genius, he noted, worked within a scene of thoughtful people cultivating, through the expenditure of their own creative resources, a new world of possibility. Eno gave the phenomenon a name: scenius. “Genius is the talent of an individual, scenius is the talent of a whole community,” he said in a 2015 lecture. There is no genius, we might say, without a scenius.

FREEDOM FAITH: THE WOMANIST VISION OF In Freedom Faith: PRATHIA HALL The Womanist ViBY COURTNEY PACE sion of Prathia Hall, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA Courtney Pace PRESS 332 PAGES, $39.95 invites us to dwell within a similar concept regarding a figure whose gift of insight has functioned as a rhetorical touchstone against racism for more than half a century.

For many within the scenius that came to be called the civil rights movement, Hall’s claim to fame has long been the fact that Martin Luther King Jr. borrowed (with her permission) the line “I have a dream” after hearing her speak it aloud repeatedly at a prayer meeting in Albany, Ga., in 1962.

But as Pace reminds us, this bit of trivia is only useful insofar as it serves as a compelling entry point for taking fuller measure of Hall’s witness as a minister, activist and academic. Hall’s vision of “freedom faith,” Pace contends, helped dissolve the popular division of religion and politics for generations of leaders and laborers in the struggle for equality and human rights.

Pace gets right to it in showing us why Hall was a presence to reckon with, and in doing so she illuminates neglected tensions among the thousands of Americans who risked life and limb in acts of nonviolent resistance to white supremacy during the late 1950s and early 1960s. For instance, footage of the trampling, tear-gassing and torturous beating ordered by Sheriff Jim Clark against marchers in Selma, Ala., on Bloody Sunday in 1965 is well-known, but Pace gives us Prathia Hall’s account of the immediate aftermath. Hall recalls the scene that day in Selma’s Brown Chapel, which had been converted to an impromptu refuge and hospital. Fearing that some marchers, bleeding and brutalized, might be tempted to seek violent retribution against white people in Selma, one member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference tried to lead the injured in song, singing the words, “I love Jim Clark,” and insisting that failure to do so sincerely meant that they wouldn’t see Jesus upon dying.

Hall was incensed by this and said so.

Save the dishwashing for later.

Visit nashvillescene.com for our daily takeout picks.

She called it an instance of “spiritual extortion” and “an abuse of people’s faith.” By her lights, freedom faith isn’t a denial of legitimate rage but a transformation of fear into courage. Against oversimplification or the spiritualizing away of real grievances in the struggle for justice, Hall saw every encounter as an opportunity for “mutual educational exchange” — and the life of freedom faith as one in which people “live in an oppressively crushing system without being crushed.” Having suffered incarceration and been shot at under a violent regime sustained by people who claimed Christianity, she was well studied in the fact that misconceptions of God, love and forgiveness serve to justify a wide array of brutality.

For Hall, that brutality was also evident among leaders of her own church who denied her call to ministry: “The same God who made me a preacher is the same God who made me a woman. And I am convinced that God was not confused on either count.”

Her path to becoming the first female Baptist minister in Philadelphia was hard won, as she was often caught between an abusive husband at home and a culture that rejected her vocation as unbiblical. But in this, she located herself along a trajectory of women who have sustained church life for centuries despite marginalization: “Many women

are being battered from the pulpit for their faithfulness to the church.”

For this sin of oppression, she called upon male leadership to repent, and many did.

This was the fruit of her commitment to a tradition she refused to quit. “The Baptist church is going to have to deal with me,” she insisted in 1997. “Some of us have to remain in the recalcitrant church. Everything we know about God is that the living God is not a bigot.”

Pace, a professor of church history at Memphis Theological Seminary, places Prathia Hall among a pantheon of elders, alongside her friend Jeremiah Wright (who officiated the marriage ceremony of Barack and Michele Obama but was later disavowed by the president for denouncing the United States government) and the late Rep. John Lewis, who described Hall as “one of the founding mothers of the new America.” In an age when appeals to generalized faith often serve moral unaccountability in our everyday politics, it’s encouraging to imagine that Prathia Hall’s commitment to freedom faith might yet again serve as a righteous example.

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

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MUSIC

IN THE CITY

Daniel Tashian and Burt Bacharach turn pop to their own purposes on Blue Umbrella

BY EDD HURT

L

ike many current pop records that take their cues from the past, the new EP Blue Umbrella skirts pop’s eternal content problem by concentrating on style. In this case, it’s a great style, and the content comes along with it. Daniel Tashian — whose co-production of Kacey Musgraves’ 2018 full-length Golden Hour helped create a pop album that doubles as a country record — collaborated on Blue Umbrella with pianist and composer Burt Bacharach, whose harmonically rich pop tunes helped define an influential strain of 1960s music. Blue Umbrella goes down easy, but it’s not retro.

Tashian and Bacharach recorded Blue Umbrella at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios in June 2019. For Tashian, who has lived in Nashville since 1984, working with the great songwriter — the new record is 92-year-old Bacharach’s first release of new original songs in 15 years — was an opportunity to revisit music that has become part of pop’s lingua franca.

“Bacharach’s music was one of the fundamental elements in the universe of music,” says Tashian from BLUE UMBRELLA OUT his Nashville home.

JULY 31 VIA BIG YELLOW “Mainly, the use DOG MUSIC of half-step major sevens and nines is something I find very pleasing to my ear. I asked Burt, ‘Is this part too dissonant right here? Should I try to straighten that part out? Is it too sophisticated?’ He said, ‘Nope.’ ” Born in Norwalk, Conn., in 1974, Tashian grew up in a musical family. His parents are Nashville’s Barry and Holly Tashian, themselves fine singers and songwriters who have played country, bluegrass and rock music. Along the way, the younger Tashian has released a solo record, 1996’s T Bone Burnett-produced Sweetie, and he’s also written songs for the likes of Josh Turner and Lee Ann Womack. In addition, Tashian has led a pop-rock band, The Silver Seas,

POSITION OF STRENGTH

With his latest tracks, Tim Gent makes himself stronger than ever by opening up

BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

2

020 has been a strange year for Tim Gent.

On one hand, the Nashville rapper and songwriter has dealt with the year’s unprecedented difficulties: March’s tornado, nationwide protests for KEEP UP WITH GENT ON racial justice and the INSTAGRAM, TWITTER AND COVID-19 pandemic, the FACEBOOK FOR UPDATES last of which has dealt a ON HIS NEW SINGLES SERIES particularly tough blow to

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DANIEL TASHIAN (LEFT) AND BURT BACHARACH since 1999.

Blue Umbrella gives Tashian the harmonic space that Nashville songwriting tends to squeeze out of the picture. For Tashian, working with Bacharach — the songwriters began collaborating in Los Angeles in early 2019, after Tashian garnered a pair of Grammys for his production and songwriting work on Golden Hour — feels like a validation of his songwriting aesthetic.

“It’s been a struggle to learn it, and I think I really have learned the value of great collaborations and how they take on another dimension,” he says. “When I first got signed [to Elektra for the release of Sweetie], singer-songwriters were a part of my life. I was really into the folk scene.”

With Bacharach’s unmistakable piano leading the way, Blue Umbrella updates his signature sound. On now-classic Bacharach songs from the ’60s, lyricist Hal David created an idealized United States as viewed from a vantage point of middle-class leisure.

For example, the duo’s “Do You Know the

Way to San Jose” and the sublime 1970 B.J. Thomas hit “Everybody’s Out of Town” hint at the darkness that lies beneath the veneer of American consumerism and good cheer — but they are also exemplary pop tunes.

Tashian proves himself a suitably languid vocalist throughout Blue Umbrella. Every song sports a chord change that opens up the performance, and the record moves along at a medium tempo. On “We Go Way Back,” Tashian and Bacharach write succinctly about friendship: “Anyone who knows us / Knows we’re buddies / Yeah, that’s a fact / ’Cause we go way back,” Tashain sings. It’s the most affecting track on the EP. Elsewhere, “Whistling in the Dark” finds Tashian walking in the rain, alone in an unnamed city. The track ends with two minutes of a stark two-measure figure, played by a string section, that repeats until the song comes to an end. Like “Everybody’s Out of Town,” the song is beautiful and subtly melancholy.

Tashian’s point of view as an observer,

lost in the romance of the big city, works perfectly within the structures of Bacharach’s innovative music. Like other composers who helped revolutionize the sound of pop music in the ’60s — Brian Wilson, Antônio Carlos Jobim and Jimmy Webb — Bacharach expanded songwriting in ways that were unimaginable a decade before.

Tashian, who also released his second children’s record Mr. Moonlight earlier this year, tells me that Blue Umbrella is a stop on his journey as an all-purpose songwriter.

Talking to him, I get the sense that he’s a pop adept in love with the idea of creating music by using time-honored conventions.

In the New New Nashville, Tashian’s career suggests that the old country music capital might be ready for some California-style sophistication.

“After the project, Burt said, ‘Man, you really made a believer out of me about Nashville.’ I felt really proud, because that’s a testament to Nashville.”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

musicians. On the other, he’s flourishing professionally.

At the top of the year, Gent inked a publishing deal with pop powerhouse Prescription Songs, a partnership that has already netted him songwriting cuts and vastly expanded his network. In May, he dropped his first official new project since 2018, the four-track EP In Every Fall. In June, ESPN named Gent its Artist of the Month, and the rapper scored top-tier TV placement for his recently released single “Teammates.”

“I did not plan for the year to be taking place this way,” Gent tells the Scene via phone, laughing. “I miss doing shows the most. I’ve done a couple of virtual shows, which have been fun but feel more like rehearsing. … I have been spending more time with my family, which is a positive thing from this madness.”

While Gent is eager to get back to performing for an audience, he’s made use of his time in quarantine to work on new music and plot future plans for his quickly rising career. Right before the COVID lockdown, he set up a home studio and has been able to record

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MUSIC police brutality. But he decided to do so at the urging of those in his inner circle.

“Being sensitive to other people’s feelings and opinions, in the midst of expressing yourself freely and creating art, can definitely get a little sticky,” he says. “But I’m getting a little older. And I have a son.

I’m very honest with my son — he’s 4 — while still respecting and understanding that he’s a child. With that in mind, I try to go with my gut. If it don’t feel right, I don’t do it.”

“Twelve” draws from Gent’s experiences in a way he describes as being newly vulnerable and more personal than his earlier work, including his acclaimed 2018 project Life Away From Home. One verse describes “police pulling up to my mama’s” and leaving “the house in shambles.”

He’s been working at the process of opening himself up, and you can hear it in more recent work

that’s already out. The final track on In Every Fall, the powerful “What I Think Of Pt. 2,” also draws from real life in its frank depiction of what Gent felt when his younger brother was shot (not fatally, thankfully) last year. Gent was again hesitant to share the track, but ultimately decided it was a story worth sharing.

“It flowed out like water, as far as writing,” he says.

“But recording it, and the emotion I get from it, it’s tough sometimes. … But that was a step for me. Even the music I’m writing now, I look at my life, and things I wouldn’t have said a year or two years ago, I’m a little more comfortable saying. Since I did that, it’s been easier for me to pull from my life and be a little more vulnerable.”

Since signing with Prescription, Gent has grown more open to co-writing and adopting a collaborative approach to putting together projects. “I look on Drake credits, and there’s 20 writers,” he says jokingly.

Despite his widening network, he still works closely with longtime collaborators like Bryant Taylorr and Jamiah, the latter of whom played a major role in the evolution of Gent’s sound.

“You’re gonna hear that in the new stuff: teamwork and Jamiah,” he says, laughing.

What the rest of 2020 will look like is still a question mark for most of us, but Gent is excited to get new music out and hopes to find himself performing for live audiences as soon as he can. He has several new projects on his radar — including two song placements in the upcoming Netflix film A Violent Heart — and is constantly writing.

“We’re definitely in limbo because of COVID,” he says. “So just letting the reins loose and unloading the clip, having some fun. I’m really excited for that, for sure.”

cific to Whitters’ experience, but can apply to just about anyone, as she sings, “I didn’t come this far / To only get this far.” Released in 2019, the track helped Whitters break through to a bigger audience. Though she’s yet to appear on a Billboard chart, positive reactions to the song from fans, critics and other artists (like Maren Morris and Brent Cobb, with whom Whitters has toured) have made her one of the most buzzed-about talents in the country world.

Acting as a magnifying glass on the complicated business of living is a thread that runs through the songs on the record. Many

more of the stories in the tunes also come directly from Whitters’ life. She dated and got burned by “The Faker,” learning along the way that “Fancy clothes just don’t dress up ‘cheap.’ ” Afterward she drowned the pain of a broken heart, as she sings in “Red Wine & Blue.” She tackles the messy, raw edges of life as a woman that she’s navigated on her own with grit and poetic poise. But she’s also attuned to the value of what you can learn from others. The phenomenal “Janice at the Hotel Bar” is all about the transmission of lived wisdom. It shares some territory with “The Days,” a song about the beauty of com-

monplace experiences that we all have, but may not take enough time to appreciate.

“Last year there was so much momentum — I was just so busy, and this year was teed up to be even busier,” says Whitters. “In a way it’s interesting, because I am being forced to practice what I preach right now, really take a step back and make the most of my situation.”

Whitters’ talent has led to her songs being cut by stars like Alan Jackson, Little Big Town and Martina McBride. The songs on The Dream were co-written with some of the best in the industry — heavy hitters like

his own music whenever inspiration strikes.

“That’s been a blessing,” he says. “Usually I would outsource to record or go do sessions. So being able to have my own setup has definitely given me some peace of mind, being able to tap in and work on the rollouts.”

Gent is currently sitting on a treasure trove of new and unreleased music, some of which he’ll include on a deluxe version of In Every Fall, slated for a Sept.

4 release. Leading up to the rerelease, Gent plans to drop a series of new singles, beginning Aug. 7.

One of those new songs is “Twelve,” a gauzy, introspective track built on the refrain, “99 problems / The police is one of them.” Gent wrote “Twelve” in 2016, but notes that the track’s message resonates deeply with current events. He explains that he never wants to capitalize on tragedy, and was reluctant to release the song amid protests against systemic racism and

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART Hailey Whitters talks managing her burgeoning country career on her terms

BY LORIE LIEBIG

PHOTO: HARPER SMITH

“M

owing the lawn seems to be my designated chore here,” Hailey Whitters tells the Scene, as a rooster crows in the background. She’s speakTHE DREAM OUT NOW VIA PIGASUS RECORDS ing with the Scene by phone from her family’s farm in Iowa, where she’s spent the past few weeks. “My parents have several acres, so it takes a few hours to do. I’ve been pulling vegetables from the garden every night to make dinner with. It feels good to kind of get back on the land and slow down a little bit.”

The singer-songwriter was all set for a dynamite year of touring behind her second album The Dream. The LP is a rock-andsoul-kissed slice of contemporary country, and a fine showcase for Whitters’ strongyet-gentle, somewhat Kacey Musgravesesque voice, as well as her outstanding songs. On March 10, just after a deadly tornado tore through Nashville and just before the live music industry began to shut down in response to the coronavirus, Whitters took the stage for a sold-out release show at Exit/In. The concert was a milestone for an artist who’s struggled to make her music heard in Music City.

“It’s been such a long journey for me in Nashville,” Whitters says. “I’ve kind of had a love-hate relationship with it, and the release of this record really got things turning for me.”

After more than a decade in town spent waiting tables and writing songs and feeling like she could do so much more if given the chance, Whitters channeled all her frustration into the song “Ten Year Town.” The track, co-written with Brandy Clark, is bracingly honest and affecting. The story is spe-

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MUSIC

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Lori McKenna, Nicolle Galyon and Hillary Lindsey. Still, as Whitters became more determined to put herself in the spotlight, she repeatedly found herself shut out.

“I was taking a lot of label meetings last year, and I actually stopped, because I just felt very uninspired by what was happening with a lot of them,” says Whitters.

Instead of trying to mold herself to meet industry expectations, Whitters opted to start Pigasus Records, her own imprint in partnership with Big Loud Records and Songs & Daughters. The name is a nod to John Steinbeck, one of Whitters’ favorite authors, who used the emblem of a pig with wings as a symbol of his perseverance.

Many people would see staying independent as a big risk, but Whitters saw it more as a means of survival.

“I’ve just had to blaze my own trail, I guess, because I’ve been told ‘No,’ or ‘That can’t exist,’ or ‘That’s not the way we do it,’ ” Whitters says. “In hindsight, I don’t think there’s any other way that I would have had it.”

While the pandemic continues and she’s unable to tour, Whitters is reconnecting with her roots — working on the farm, sipping coffee on her parents’ front porch, driving down the back roads of her town. All the while, she’s using her free time to embrace everything that comes her way and collect more stories.

“I’m not consciously sitting down with a pen and paper writing songs, but I think that I’m living and having conversations with people and people watching. In a way, I’m going to the well and finding inspiration by just living life.”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THE SPIN STREAM INSIDE YOUR HEART

BY LORIE LIEBIG AND STEPHEN TRAGESER

I

n normal times, the best way to beat the beginning-of-the-workweek blues would be to head out to a local show. With most places you can see music in Nashville still shuttered, buzzed-about Southern rocker Marcus King is bringing that much-needed boost to a new livestream series benefiting MusiCares called Four of a Kind. In the first installment of the series, King and his muchloved Marcus King Band played songs from El Dorado, King’s soulful solo record, produced

by Dan Auerbach and released in January.

For the second show in his run on July 20, the 24-year-old South Carolina native played solo with an acoustic guitar and packed his set list with songs that had special meaning.

King kicked things off with just his acoustic guitar for a rendition of “Remember” KING FOR A DAY: MARCUS KING

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from MKB’s 2018 album Carolina Confessions. He also dedicated the honky-tonkready “Guitar in My Hands,” from 2016’s The Marcus King Band, to co-writer Rocky Lindsley, a standout North Carolina musician (and a Nashville session player) who died in March. Then, King sent out his take on the Blaze Foley-penned “Clay Pigeons” to the late John Prine, who famously covered the song on 2005’s Fair and Square.

King kicked things into high gear by inviting Maggie Rose to the stage to perform a new song with the working title “Bipolar Love.”

Next, King’s bandmates came out for “What Makes You Tick,” a groovy track from Rose’s forthcoming record (title and release date TBA). Here, it put a spotlight on King’s prodigious six-string talent with a mindmelting solo at the end. Then they tackled “People Get Ready,” the 1965 song written

by Curtis Mayfield that became an anthem for Black Americans during the civil rights movement. Timely and powerful, it was the first of several reminders during the stream of the vital public conversation going on about racial justice right now.

“I’m an in-progress human trying to figure out 7 billion other in-progress humans, which means I’m wrong a lot of the time,” said Chaz Cardigan with a laugh, speaking to the camera during a brief pause in his July 22 livestream. “I write about that! I write about being wrong a lot of the time — and trying to have fun along the way, and unpack some stuff.”

The Kentucky-born purveyor of intro-

spective electronic dance-pop tunes was introducing “DOIDOIT,” the third song in a set of 10 he played as part of the Scene’s No-Contact Shows series. He had no way of knowing that he was about to obliquely illustrate the case he’d made about the complex nature of humanity. He’d just switched from acoustic guitar to keyboard, and while he could hear the sound in his in-ear monitors, it wasn’t coming out over the stream, and he gave the viewers an unintentional a cappella rendition of the single. Judging from the chat panel, the crowd loved it. Not only was Cardigan in great voice, but it was one of those moments of serendipitous excitement that stand out in streaming shows.

The separation necessary to cope with the pandemic robs musicians of so many of the tools they have for connecting audiences to the constant flow of communication that makes up good music. But Cardigan, a seasoned showman though only in his mid20s, rolled with the punches, so the focus was on the songs and why he writes them: to confront the challenges, contradictions and anxiety of being constantly in progress.

The intricate acoustic-demo arrangements he played highlighted the mutability of the songs. With the song’s alt-rock-esque underpinnings, it wouldn’t be hard to hear someone like mainstream country star Keith Urban playing “Not OK!,” a standout from Cardigan’s recent EP Vulnerabilia.

That underscored the universality of Cardigan’s message, a highly relevant one in our chaotic time, that it takes effort to give

yourself grace — but it’s worth it.

For July 23’s installment of No-Contact Shows, we presented an audiovisual project from JayVe Montgomery, aka Abstract Black.

(You can see it at nashvillescene.com/music.) A significant part of Montgomery’s background is in jazz, but he’s committed to expanding that tradition’s horizons rather than solidifying a limited set of ideas about what it is. He specially prepared an episode of a series he calls Fragments, which begins with Montgomery filming himself making sounds with instruments and objects. During the episodes, he processes the audio and video at the same time, to have the audio effect the video it’s related to.

For this iteration of Fragments, Montgomery worked with blown-glass bottles, a mug, a fife, a baritone saxophone, a metal clarinet and even the sound of snoring.

The piece begins with a gentle, meditative sound like a sustained breath over a perception-bending glitchy video. Sounds like the undulating hum of summer cicadas come in as a series of text blocks begins to cycle, with messages calling for an end to systemic racism and police violence, including: “Defund police,” “Officer = Overseer,” “Remove racists’ statues” (which becomes “remove racists”), “Fulfill the Declaration of Independence,” “Decolonize your mind,” “Americain’t,” “Amerishould” and “Americould.” The feeling that’s transmitted is of an overwhelming array of complex forces aligning and moving in the same direction.

EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

7/27/20 4:58 PM

FILM

PRIMAL STREAM XIX A brand-new Helmut Newton doc, a haunted disco and more, now available to stream

BY JASON SHAWHAN

THE EMPEROR’S NEW GROOVE Her parents are long dead, so there’s an absence of straightforward answers. But she’s got her trustworthy friend and business partner Dini (Marissa Anita) along for the ride, so whatever secrets are held by the village of Harjosari, they’ll figure it out. We’ve got unspeakable curses, some wayang shadow puppetry that is essential to the plot (will gouts of blood spatter the performance screen? Maybe!), sins of the family, baroque gore, ghost children, a little bit of Oldboy, some folk horror and a magnificent central performance from Basro.

THE EMPEROR’S NEW GROOVE ON DISNEY+

HELMUT NEWTON: THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL

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y criticism with anyone who won’t wear a mask in public at this point is, “How can anyone be so cavalier with the lives of others?” Is it ignorance or evil? Anyway, here are this week’s streaming recommendations, with 18 previous editions just waiting for you here in the Scene’s archives.

HELMUT NEWTON: THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL VIA BELCOURT.ORG Crisp lines. Strong bodies. Striking themes. The work of German photographer Helmut Newton has helped define the look of high fashion for decades, and if nothing else, Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful is like a museum tour through some of the most indelible images of the past 70 years led by a particularly lively series of docents. If you’ve seen Eyes of Laura Mars, you’ve got a visceral acquaintance with Newton’s work — he took the titular character’s photographs in that film. But that affinity for statuesque, authoritative women intersecting with uncertain states of being runs through so much 20th-century art, up to as recently as The Neon Demon back in 2016. Newton has been acclaimed and questioned for so long that, following his 2004 death, it makes sense to try to figure out his legacy. Director Gero von Boehm has made an ingenious choice for this compelling, spry documentary, letting Newton be the only male voice in the discussion. For

interviewees, the focus is kept on women’s voices: Newton’s delightful and fascinating wife (of 56 years at the time of his death) June, subjects from throughout his career (including Grace Jones, Charlotte Rampling, Marianne Faithfull, Isabella Rossellini, Hanna Schygulla, Catherine Deneuve and several of the greatest supermodels of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s), and colleagues like Anna Wintour. But that’s the smart and perceptive choice, and these women carry on a lively and informative debate about this polarizing figure in the history of fashion and art. Rest assured, there are images that show no fear in getting utterly tacky as well as some of the finest portraiture ever put on film. This is the perfect documentary for a post-boozybrunch Sunday pandemic afternoon.

IMPETIGORE (PEREMPUAN TANAH JAHANAM) ON SHUDDER

We stan Ursula, let’s get that out of the way up front. There are lots of great Disney villains, and it would be a big old lie to pretend that we don’t stan Pat Carroll’s Ursula the Sea Witch of The Little Mermaid. But let’s be real, y’all. Eartha Kitt’s Yzma is the greatest Disney villain of all time. And that’s not to diminish Patrick Warburton’s superlative sidekickery as golden retriever-esque henchman Kronk, because the two play perfectly off one another. But in a film as pleasantly zippy as 2000’s The Emperor’s New Groove, rescued from the ashes of several different concepts and quilted together into a wacky comedy, the wrong villain could have set the whole endeavor to collapsing like an ill-tended cake, and Kitt grasps the film with Yzma’s prehensile eyelashes and never lets go. David Spade is fine as the bratty and clueless emperor who mostly learns a lesson. John Goodman, as always, is a reliable force of human decency. The animal characters are great (imagine if rightnow Pandemic You could communicate with the squirrels), and the look of the film is fun. But anytime Yzma and Kronk are on screen, everything levels up exponentially.

So take the 78 minutes and pay tribute to one

of the most tenacious and iconic performers of the 20th century, and perhaps find your own groove in the enervating doldrums of the current world. And if you’re so inclined, the TikTok tributes to the “Pull the Lever” sequence are inspired and a worthwhile way to kill a few minutes. If you can find a copy of The Sweatbox, Trudie Styler’s 2002 documentary of the utter insanity that went into making this film, check that out — it’s a very important film.

BONES ON TUBI Ernest Dickerson’s simultaneous tribute to Blaxploitation social horror (think J.D.’s Revenge or Sugar Hill) and the work of Mario Bava is a magnificent work of operatic cinemascope splatter. In 2001’s Bones, maggots fall like rain, dimensional portals open hither and yon in a haunted disco, blood gets spilled like daiquiris at a sloppy tiki bar, and there’s a moment when time itself unwinds and Pam Grier stands in a room of a thousand candles as the years themselves are unmade — she glows with 1973 mojo after having spent the rest of the movie in early-Aughts old-age makeup. Snoop Dogg plays the beloved gangster Jimmy Bones, who was betrayed by several former associates in league with corrupt police, and when some enterprising multiracial kids decide to turn his old nightclub into the new hot spot, well, things get crazy. Symbolic retribution abounds, as does refreshingly icky gore.

With Katherine Isabelle from Ginger Snaps in a supporting role.

Bonus: THE GUEST ON NETFLIX The Guest is streaming on Netflix, and if you ever wanted to watch something that honestly engages with American militarism with wit but without pity, that’s the one.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

BONES

Indonesian director Joko Anwar hit the global horror scene hard in 2017 with Satan’s Slaves (Pengabdi Setan), a remake/ reboot/sequel of one of the seminal films in Indonesian genre cinema. Now he’s back with two new films hitting the domestic market at the same time: 2019’s superhero epic Gundala, and Impetigore, which is one of those films that blindsides you with an absolutely relentless opening sequence that’s going to stick in your subconscious for a while after you see it. Maya (Tara Basro) is a tollbooth attendant who, after a disturbing night at work, has to do some investigating into the village she spent her childhood in.

nashvillescene.com | JULY 30 – AUGUST 5, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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he Fight plays like a supercut of some of the worst moments in American culture from the past few years: the socalled Muslim ban; the Trump administration’s fight to deprive LGBTQ people of their THE FIGHT PG-13, 96 MINUTES civil rights; Brett AVAILABLE VIA VIDEO ON Kavanaugh’s rise to DEMAND FRIDAY, JULY 31 the Supreme Court; the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va.; ICE putting children in detention facilities.

But that very topicality is part of the reason this documentary on the American Civil Liberties Union falls flat. To anyone who has paid attention to the news since Trump has been elected, this material will be extremely familiar. In 96 minutes, the film cuts back and forth between four cases fought by the ACLU. Any of them could have formed a substantial feature on its own. So could the history of the ACLU, or the current debates around free speech. Jamming all of this into a brief documentary results in a shallow montage of soundbites.

The Fight begins with protests over the travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries in early 2017. From there, it quickly follows several other cases fought by the ACLU. Simultaneously, the organization defended the right of trans people to serve in the military, teenage girls to get abortions, and undocumented immigrants to file asylum claims without being separated from their children.

Directors Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman and Eli Despres aim to convey a nervous urgency. Perhaps inspired by The West Wing, they don’t skimp on scenes of their subjects striding down the hallways of the ACLU’s New York office, shot from the back with a handheld camera. They also film the lawyers preparing while riding in trains and cars. Not permitted to shoot inside courthouses, the filmmakers commissioned me-

diocre animation to illustrate those scenes.

We don’t learn much about the lawyers who appear in The Fight as people — they’re profiled only in the context of their work.

A montage shows them receiving hateful emails and voicemails. But what does it feel like when your job involves people telling you that you must be a pedophile, or that you want to kill children? We don’t really get to know. If they have a particular personal reason to feel passionate about the ACLU’s work, it’s only discussed in platitudes. The Fight gives very short shrift to the group’s history before Trump’s election, condensing it to two brief sequences. Few people are likely to know that the group’s first samesex marriage case was argued in 1970, but the film offers no real information about it.

Ahead of 2017’s “Unite the Right” rally, the ACLU sued the city of Charlottesville, Va., to allow the event to take place. Instead of the rally being an odd historical footnote, it led to the murder of Heather Heyer, many other people getting seriously injured and a national realization of the dangers of white supremacy. The ascendancy of Trumpism and the lack of barriers to speech on social media made many leftists question the merits of First Amendment absolutism, but the ACLU has simultaneously defended the Westboro Baptist Church’s right to harass people with homophobic picket signs and trans servicemembers’ right to a job. Some new ACLU members who joined as a reaction to Trumpism were dismayed to realize that the ACLU is a libertarian, not a leftist, organization. Famously, the group defended the right of neoNazis to march in Skokie, Ill., in 1977.

The events in Charlottesville led to a debate about the relationship between speech and power — but that debate gets about five minutes of screen time. The Fight ultimately plays as promotion for the ACLU, relentlessly upbeat even on causes whose outcome is ambiguous or still up in the air. The fact that I — an ACLU member since 2017 — support the organization with my own money and think their work is invaluable does not mean I find a 96-minute commercial for them to be compelling cinema. Just imagine the thorough institutional portrait Frederick Wiseman could have painted with access to their offices and trials, as well as a three-hour runtime, and the faults of The Fight are glaring.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 30 – AUGUST 5, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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Non-Resident Notice Fourth Circuit Docket No. 20D530

CROSSWORD

DAVID N BONDS

EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ ACROSS

1

1

1950s-’60s sitcom nickname

13

5

Chaps

17

9

They take dedication to write

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Specialty

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Wolf’s gait

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A chair might hold one

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Droop

41

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Huff

20

Totally does the trick

23

Really stand out

26

What makes the Impossible Burger possible

51 56

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“___ That Good News,” 1964 Sam Cooke album

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66

28

Train maker

30

Shred

32

Golfer Poulter with three P.G.A. Tour wins

35

2001 comedy starring Reese Witherspoon

37

Dum-dum

38

Like hedgehogs

39

Twice-chewed food

40

“___ makes the going great” (old ad slogan)

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40 43 46

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Informal title of respect

49 53

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36

Evening hour in Spain

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She performed “We Shall Overcome” at the 1963 March on Washington

DOWN 1

Traveler’s item

51

Biotech crops, e.g., for short

52

Home of Daniel K. Inouye International Airport

40

Crawl space?

53

Observe

42

Hooted and hollered

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Up the ___

Language with five tones

55

Coalition

59

Saving option, in brief

Efficiency symbol, in physics

3

Durable transport, for short

43

4

Perspective

45

60

5

Nervously awkward

Key near the space bar

Gift that much thought is put into?

6

Author Leon

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Foreign denial

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Long-distance call

Products of some plants

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Fill

9

Actress Elizabeth of the “Avengers” films

42

Reporting internal wrongdoing

44

Chemical suffix

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Like ___ knife through butter

10

Goodwill receptacle

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Completely amazing, in slang

12

49

Small island

Egyptian god of chaos

50

When doubled, a 2010s dance

14

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21

Sushi order

Act riskily … or what three answers in this puzzle do

22

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Blood bank need

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Shopper’s stop

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Corn product

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Out of this world

25

Mountie’s ride

62

Very

29

Big Apple inits.

63

Bluesy James

30

Arctic native

64

Trunk

31

9 to 5, e.g.

65

Makes a case against

33

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34

“Enough!”

A H O Y

M A D A M

A L E X A

N A M E

E L I E

R A T S

M U T T

A L L E G L A R A M O T S E L T T E O A F W S T O T R E K S

F R A Y A E R O E N E C K R L O O I S K E Y R R O S E CAR VAN SEMI TRUCK BUS O T T O L E U R T I E A M F T R A F F S I L O Y A L E

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon GENEVA HOUSTON. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after August 13, 2020 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on Setpember 14, 2020. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Richard R. Rooker, Clerk Deputy Clerk By: W. North Date: July 16, 2020 Jessica Simpson Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 7/23, 7/30, 8/6, 8/13/20

IN THE CHANCERY COURT FOR MAURY COUNTY, TENNESSEE AT COLUMBIA Adoption Case No. A-022-20

ADOLFO OBREGON and wife, JULIE OBREGON Co-Petitioners,

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon MAXINE ROSALES BONDS. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after August 20, 2020 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on September 21, 2020. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Richard R. Rooker, Clerk M. De Jesus, Deputy Clerk Date: July 23, 2020 Jane Ellen Cassell Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 7/30, 8/6, 8/13, 8/20/20

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v.

TERESA KATHRYN MORAN Respondent.

ORDER OF PUBLICATION

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE K U B O

GENEVA HOUSTON

and

Obvious

49

vs.

B.W.B. and wife, C.D.L.B. Petitioners,

2

R&B singer Gray

crossword_7-30-20.indd 27

LEGALS

PUZZLE BY AMANDA CHUNG AND KARL NI

67

910 Non-Resident Notice Fourth Circuit Docket No. 20D156

37

45

41

51

31

42

52

MAXINE ROSALES BONDS

12

JAMES BROWN

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Scary story?

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vs.

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NO. 0625

M U S S E P U A M S P B U O P O R E I C S H H O

I N T E R S T A T E

S T A N

C O R D

A O R T A

Y E M E N

A J A R

K A N S

S M E E

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/ crosswords ($39.95 a year).

Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.

It appearing from the Petition, which is sworn, that Respondent Teresa Kathryn Moran cannot be located upon diligent search and inquiry so that ordinary process of law cannot be served upon her; service of process by publication is ordered and she is hereby ordered to appear and answer or otherwise defend against the Petition for Adoption and Termination of Parental Rights within 30 days after the date of the last publication of this notice; otherwise, a default judgement will be entered against Respondent for the relief demanded in the complaint.

It is ORDERED that Petitioners be allowed to proceed with substituted service and that this notice shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in Nashville, Tennessee, which is the last known whereabouts of Respondent, once a week for four (4) consecutive weeks.

This the 17th day of July, 2020.

Judge: James G. Martin III By: Lisa L. Collins Sup. Ct. No. 16035 (615) 269-5540 Attorney for Petitioners NSC 7/30, 8/6, 8/13,& 8/20/20

Non-Resident Notice Fourth Circuit Docket No. 20D530 DAVID N BONDS vs.

MAXINE ROSALES BONDS In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon MAXINE ROSALES BONDS. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after August 20, 2020 same being the date

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