Vendor Mary B., remembers her friend and former Contributor vendor Luther B. who passed away last year.
The Belcourt remembers legendary British director Nicolas Roeg—who passed away last November, by showing, Walkabout
Nashville Photographer, Alvine, shares some throw back images from a 2007 action for more affordable housing in Nashville.
Fabi Reyna, edits, She Shreds a groundbreaking magazine that is a revolutionary platform for female guitarists.
Linda Bailey • Amanda Haggard • Tom Wills • Mary B. • Joe Nolan • Vicky B.
• Ken J. • Victor J. • Alvine • Julie B. • Norma B. • Mr. Mysterio • Ann-Derrick Gaillot
Cathy Jennings • Tom Wills • Joe First
• Andy Shapiro • Ann Bourland • Linda Miller • Patti George • Michael Reilly • John Jennings • Barbara Womack • Amanda Haggard • Linda Bailey • Colleen Kelly • Janet Kerwood • Logan Ebel • Bruce Doeg
• Demetria Kalodimos, Christine Doeg • Laura Birdsall • Vanessa Perez • Nancy Kirkland
Editor Emeritus
Will Connelly, Tasha F. Lemley, Steven Samra, and Tom Wills Contributor Co-Founders
Editorials and features in The Contributor are the perspectives of the authors.
Submissions of news, opinion, fiction, art and poetry are welcomed. The Contributor reserves the right to edit any submissions.
The Contributor cannot and will not endorse any political candidate. Submissions may be emailed to: editorial@thecontributor.org
Requests to volunteer, donate, or purchase subscriptions can be emailed to: info@thecontributor.org Please email advertising requests to: advertising@thecontributor.org
The Contributor P.O. Box 332023, Nashville, TN 37203
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Copyright © 2018 The Contributor, Inc. All rights reserved.
BY TOM WILLS, CO-FOUNDER
The paper you just paid for was bought by someone else first, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. That’s how The Contributor works. A vendor who experienced homelessness paid 50 cents for this paper and then sold it to you. By buying it and taking it with you, you’ve just encouraged that vendor to buy another. BOOM! That’s the solution. Now keep reading. This paper has something to say to you.
Street papers provide income for the homeless and initiate a conversation about homelessness and poverty. In 2007, The Contributor founders met at the Nashville Public Library downtown to form one. In a strike of lightning we named it The Contributor to infer that our vendors were “contributors to society,” while their customers could contribute to their work. But, thunder from lighting is always delayed …
It took three years, but Nashville embraced us like no other city in the world. The Contributor became the largest selling street paper per-capita on the globe. And today 50 percent of our six months or longer tenured vendors have found housing. BOOM! The thunder has struck.
The Contributor is a different kind of nonprofit, social enterprise. We don’t serve meals or provide emergency shelter. We don’t hire people in poverty to create products or provide a service. Rather, we sell newspapers to
homeless people who work for themselves. We train them to sell those papers to you, keep the money they earn, and buy more when they need to replace their stock.
Our biggest fans don’t always get this. Like lightning without the thunder, they see the humanity of the vendor but misunderstand the model. Case in point: In 2013 during a funding crunch, a representative of one of Nashville’s biggest foundations exclaimed, “I’m such a big fan that I never take the paper!” We responded, “Well, that’s why we are in a funding crunch.” BOOM! Thunder was heard. Taking the paper makes our model work — not taking it breaks it.
And selling the paper twice doesn’t just fund the paper, it funds housing and change. BOOM! Our vendors report their sales to qualify for subsidized housing and even for standard housing deposits and mortgages. They don’t consider your buying the paper a “contribution.” It is a sale. When they sell out, they buy more and build the paper trail of a profitable business. Until making these sales, many of our vendors had never experienced the satisfaction of seeing their investment pay off. And when it does, it liberates! They have become “contributors” to their own destiny. And Nashville has become a city of lightning and thunder. BOOM!
Now that you are a SUPPORTER , become an ADVOCATE or a MULTIPLIER
You are already a SUPPORTER because you know that taking the paper makes the model work. You bought the paper and you are reading it. Now your vendor is one copy closer to selling out, which is exciting!
Now you can become an ADVOCATE when you introduce your friends to your favorite vendor, follow us and share our content on social media, contact us when you witness a vendor in distress or acting out of character, or explain why others should pick up a copy and always take the paper when they support a vendor.
And, you can become a MULTIPLIER when you advocate for us AND directly donate to us or become an advertiser or sponsor of The Contributor. Our income stream is made of 50-cent- at-a-time purchases made from our vendors, matched by contributions, ad sales and sponsorships from multipliers like you. Because our vendors are business owners, your donations are seed-money investments in their businesses and multiply in their pockets. Every donated dollar multiplies four-toseven times as profits in the pockets of our vendors.
Thanks for contributing.
KEEP BUYING THE PAPER. Every paper counts. Every issue you purchase, take and read is a part of their success story.
VOLUNTEER YOUR TIME. Our vendor office is a great place to get to know vendors. We have no employees and we're entirely managed and distributed by volunteers, Go to thecontributor.org/volunteer to find out how to volunteer.
CHAMPION. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Share your stories about interacting with vendors on social media.
GIVE. Our newspaper and vendor services program depends on the community — on you — committing to our vendors. Go to thecontributor.org/donation to pledge your support.
For the first year, Metro will open emergency shelters at 28 degrees instead of 25 and some shelters will allow dogs.
Nonprofit Open Table Nashville will this year start canvassing at 28 degrees: Volunteers and nonprofit staff go out and connect with people experiencing homelessness to offer rides to shelter or hand out items like handwarmers, blankets, socks and hats to people who won’t come to emergency shelters. (See Page 8 if you want to help with canvassing efforts.)
“On these nights, we work to find the people left out in the cold, build relationships with them, and empower them to know their options to stay warm and alive,” Open Table says. “Winter outreach canvassing is focused on preventing exposure-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths. Our outreach workers are also out during the daytime hours taking supplies to campsites, helping people get to shelters, and helping people navigate the resources and apply for housing.”
Metro’s new pet policy is in place to encourage people who may not leave their campsites during the extreme cold temperatures because they don’t want to leave their pets.
At Shelby Parks Community Center, where emergency shelters open in below-freezing temperatures, pets are allowed, but have to be kept in kennels. Pet owners can leash walk their pets, but only to and from the kennels. (Metro also notes that service animals take precedence and that pets cannot interfere with a service animal in any way.)
Metro says that if you see someone outside in the extreme cold temperatures, you can let them know that shelters are open.
“There have been enough shelter beds available in our community this winter and many are still unused,” Metro’s website reads. “Nashville Rescue Mission has available beds and is accessible 24/7 when the weather is at freezing temperatures.”
You can also give someone a bus card to help get them to shelter or hand out items like hats, handwarmers, socks, gloves and emergency survival blankets.
LEVEL 1: NOV. 1-MARCH 31 (these services are always available)
Room In The Inn
Location: 705 Drexel Street. Phone number: 615-251-7019 Day Center: 6 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Winter Shelter:
Men need to be at 705 Drexel by 3:30 p.m. Women need to be at 705 Drexel Street by 11:30 a.m.
Families should contact Room In The Inn by phone first (615-251-7019) Youth and Young Adult (18-24) sheltering on Wednesday for November and for March. Check in 4 p.m. (all other months, see LaunchPad section)
Nashville Rescue Mission
All men will have to stay at the men’s campus. The women’s campus shelters unaccompanied women and women with children.
Men’s Location: 639 Lafayette Street Phone number: 615-255-2475
Women’s Location: 1716 Rosa L. Parks Blvd. Phone number: 615-312-1574
LaunchPad Youth Sheltering (18-24 year olds) is offered through LaunchPad on the following nights:
Sunday – West End United Methodist Church, 2200 West End Ave, 37203 Monday – Boys and Girls Club, 916 16th Ave. North, 37210
Tuesday – City Road United Methodist Church, 701 Gallatin Pike South, Madison, 37115 Thursdays – City Road United Methodist Church, 701 Gallatin Pike South, Madison, 37115
Wednesday (starting December through February only) – Boys and Girls Club
Doors at LaunchPad open at 8 p.m. – Reservations can be made Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. by calling 615-983-6911. When capacity is reached, youth ages 18-24 will have to go to the Nashville Rescue Mission or other shelters. Capacity during nights above 32 degrees Fahrenheit is 20 youth.
Oasis Center
Unaccompanied youth ages 13-to-17 should call the Oasis Center hotline at 615-327-455 (24/7). Any youth ages 13-17 who is a runaway or experiences homelessness can come or be brought to the Youth Shelter at Oasis Center, 1704 Charlotte Ave., 37203 for safety planning.
DURING LEVEL 2:
(additional services activated at 32 degrees Fahrenheit)
WeGo Public Transit
WeGo Transit System (formerly known at MTA) activates a limited number of special Cold Weather Cards. These Cold Weather Cards are only accessible through community outreach workers. Outreach workers determine who the people are in outlying areas in Davidson County who will utilize the public transportation system to access shelter when temperatures are below freezing. Metro is not handing out these cards and there is no phone number to gain access to these bus cards.
Nashville Rescue Mission
Additional beds will be available in the chapel areas at the Men's Guest Services and Women's Guest Services.
Day hours will be extended. The bar list will be overlooked (except for violent offenders).
DURING LEVEL 3:
(additional services activated at 28 degrees Fahrenheit)
Metro Metro will open an extreme cold weather shelter at Shelby Park Community Center, 401 S. 20th St, Nashville, TN 37206.
75 beds are available: only for couples, people not utilizing Mission/RITI shelter system Service animals are permitted at all Metro sites.
Nashville Rescue Mission
Extended day hours at both locations. Bar list is overlooked (except for violent offenders). Additional beds will be available in the chapel. Cold Patrol starts (2 shifts: 3 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.).
Room In The Inn
Secures additional congregational beds. Extends hours of day center. No bags will be removed. Suspensions overlooked on case by case basis.
LaunchPad
Increase youth bed capacity by at least five beds
Metro Police & Office of Emergency Management Provide outreach and wellness checks after hours (the Downtown precinct dedicates a van and two officers).
Open Table Nashville & other Outreach groups and volunteers
Canvassing at night starting at 7 p.m. (coordinated by Open Table Nashville).
DURING LEVEL 4:
(special situation such as freezing rain, extreme snow)
Metro's Emergency Operations Center may be partially or fully activated.
Possible additional response(s) may include assistance with cold patrol, sheltering, messaging, transportation, etc.
MARY B.
When I laugh. You Laugh.
When I cry. You cry. When I smile. You smile. When I wave. You wave.
KEN J.
The Traveller
Who chooses his own His conception, his direction To be free, not feel need No ties, no lies No hurt, no pain His world to gain Restless spirit must move on The Traveller
VICKY B.
Have politics become the enemy of the human spirit?
I thought after the election they'd be back but, nothing. The peace and joy of the Christmas season. I thought for sure they'd be here. Sadly no.
So where did they go?
It can't be misplaced, everyone is born with one.
It's standard equipment.
Mine is still here. Every time my son plays Christmas music When Faith puts her head in my lap, It comes back.
When you drive by with your fur baby. It's there every time I remember how blessed we are. It's there sometimes and I don't even realize it.
Where's your smile?
It's your best feature-Show it off! Make someones day and give them a smile. You know where it is : )
Thus comes the son that vanquish the nothingness of night, stirring the stillness to a crescendo; bringing life from chaos by simple quietness, a sigh of his breath, on a frosty night, a Mother's heart remembered.
time to stop wishing on what you want and just start doing
BY MARY B. Formerly Homeless Vendor
Luther Brewer, better known as “Joe” was a vendor for The Contributor for years. Joe sold out in Bellevue by the soccer fields and the MTA Park & Ride for five or more years. He died in December of last year. The last time I spoke to him he was living on a farm and doing great. Joe always made me smile. He had a heart of gold. The only
times I ever remember him getting mad was when someone was flying signs in his area where he sold papers. That would tick him off.
When I first started with The Contributor, I remember he would wear a red nose in October. With this being said, “Joe” rest in peace my friend. You will be missed. Love Always, Mary B.
There are landlords out there who take advantage of the disabled. At the apartment I live at the management will call you all kinds of names like “stupid,” “ignorant,” and that, “I didn’t have a brain in my head.” And they think they can get away with it. Well let me tell you something this is one disabled person that is not going to take it any more. I am standing up for my rights as a person and as a human being, not a piece of dirt or like trash.
This land lord should be held accountable for their actions and no one that has had a Criminal Sexual Conduct charge should be managing apartments anyway. Who would want someone like that as their landlord? Not anyone I know.
People like me and my friends get taken advantage of all the time whether it is a landlord or a bus driver or a store owner. People like this are out there and we as a community need to start speaking up and letting some -
one know what is going on and how these landlords are getting away with calling the people that live there nasty names and getting away with it. Well no more. This landlord that manages my apartment is not getting away with it. All of Nashville is going to know what they are and how they treat the people that they have in their apartments.
I am speaking out for everyone that ever got bullied, made fun of, that got called names by anyone — including landlords.
REMEMBERING NICHOLAS ROEG
When legendary British director Nicolas Roeg passed away last November, I wrote a remembrance of the filmmaker on my blog. That post recalled highlights from Roeg’s filmography like “...David Bowie's turn as a lonely alien in The Man Who Fell To Earth, Donald Sutherland's searing, anguished performance in the unforgettable Don't Look Now, and the mysterious parable of Walkabout.”
Roeg co-directed the psychedelic crime thriller Performance (1970) with Donald Cammell, but Walkabout was his solo feature film debut. The movie’s startling imagery, hallucinatory editing, and poetic storytelling still mesmerize nearly 50 years on from its 1971 release. Walkabout screens this Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 5 and 6 at the Belcourt.
After the shocking, violent, urban anxiety on display in Walkabout ’s first act, a teenage city girl (Jenny Agutter) and her little kid brother (Roeg’s son, Luc) get stranded in the foreboding expanses of the Australian outback. The pair gets by on their wits and good fortune long enough to be discovered by an Aboriginal boy (David Gumpilil). He shares the meat he’s hunted and teaches them how to draw water from the bed of a dry oasis. In another nod to the plot’s mythic intentions the characters in Edward Bond’s screenplay and in the film itself are unnamed. They’re simply labeled: White Girl, White Boy, Black Boy. The Black Boy is undergoing the titular period of desert wandering and survival that serves as a
rite of passage for Aborignial boys at the edge of manhood. By the time Walkabout reaches its star-crossed climax all of these kids have been transformed. These girl and boy actors are cast as archetypes, but they become fully realized as characters due to the great performances Roeg coaxed from his young cast. Agutter is utterly sympathetic, struggling to take care of herself and her brother, and Gumpilil is as magnetic and tragic as only a brokenhearted teenager can be.
At its poetic best, Walkabout is an enduring, original fable about the tensions between technological civilization and the wild natural world and the people who live in a state of balance with it. Roeg’s myth delivers multiple messages: Walkabout is a teenage coming of age film, and it resonates with everything from The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) to the filmography of James Dean. Walkabout is also a supremely cinematic visual poem that marshals formal filmmaking in service of its rough desert muse. The movie also tells a cautionary tale about living in harmony with nature. There were many hippies headed back to the land when Walkabout premiered six months after The Rolling Stones played Altamont. Unlike other films of that same period Walkabout connects with contemporary audiences because of its timeless themes, but also because its environmental messages are as impactful as ever here in the early 21st century.
At first glance, contemporary audiences might jump to judge Walkabout as an exploitative tale made of magical messages delivered
by noble savages. That discussion might still be worth having, but Walkabout is simply not so superficial a film. Walkabout is wondrously free of moral messaging and sophistry. Instead it prioritizes its deep dive explorations of the mysteries of human communication, and its psychedelic evocations of the spiritual consciousness that seems to permeate even the most mundane moments of life in the bush. The film doesn’t try to offer the final word on clashing cultures. Instead is offers only a vivid capturing of the damage that might register along the borders that separate the man-made and natural worlds. Walkabout is also one of cinema’s great reminders that for all kids everywhere, growing up is hard to do. Go to belcourt.org for times and tickets.
Sometimes it seems really tough to engage with our communities — to find ways to help that don’t seem overwhelming. The truth is that a lot of times helping to better your community is hard work. But, we promise, it’s worth your effort. Here are a few things to get you started:
Every time you buy a paper from a badged Contributor vendor, you invest in a small business owner. Contributor vendors work extremely hard to build their businesses and meet their goals. Not only should you buy the paper, you should take it with you. It’s a simple, 30-second task, but it builds up people in your community.
WHERE: Find vendors all over Nashville while driving or walking downtown.
Volunteer to canvass in the winter with Open Table Nashville.
Open Table Nashville, a nonprofit, interfaith community that disrupts cycles of poverty, journeys with the marginalized and provides education about issues of homelessness, goes in search of people experiencing homelessness in the cold. When the temperatures drop, their team attempts to find people who may not know about or be able to get to emergency shelter by themselves. Whether you go out one night or volunteer on a consistent basis, this is a great way to learn from some of the compassionate people in the city.
WHERE: Go to opentablenashville.org for more details.
Most of us know of one or two people in our lives who could use a little company. It can be tough in the hustle and bustle to make time for them — especially the ones who might be a little more difficult to be around. But it’s important to provide intimacy and friendship to people, particularly those who won’t ask for it. Take 30 minutes, an hour or an afternoon to just be with someone.
WHERE: You know where.
The Southern Alliance for People and Animal Welfare, a nonprofit focused on helping people with their animal friends, is small, but mighty. SAFPAW’s biggest needs are Walmart gift cards, dry pet food, tents and sleeping bags. Right now, they’re also looking for a transport vehicle — if you have a van you’re looking to part with, here’s your chance to get a big good deed out of the way.
WHERE: Go to safpaw.org for more details.
Dress for Success, a nonprofit focused on empowering women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools, has a really easy way for you to help your community this year: Give your gently used or almost new professional clothing items. That blazer you bought for an interview and never wore again? Give it. Those shoes you wore once and decided to hide in the back of your closet? Yeah, give those too. Have a few bucks to donate so the organization can thrive? Also a great idea.
WHERE: Visit dressforsuccess.org for more details.
Sometimes it’s as simple as a retweet to show your support or firing off a quick Facebook post. There’s a ton of social capital to be utilized right at our fingertips. Think it’s kind of screwed up that the city gives a lot to developers? Tag the mayor or your councilmember and tell them. Your local paper allowing some whack takes in their pages? Email them and let them know on Twitter. It might seem trivial, but I promise people are paying attention to what shows up in their mentions and on their timelines.
WHERE: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and any other new app.
Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee helps provide meals in 46 counties in Middle and West Tennessee. They collect food and work with partner agencies to deliver food to people in need. You can organize a drive at your school or workplace or get a group of folks together to go help sort food, clean or help with various other tasks at the organizations warehouse.
WHERE: Go to secondharvestmidtn.org for more details.
We admit, this one is tough, but packs a lot of punch for helping the community. When you have the opportunity to speak up about something, practice doing it. Uncle Rascal kind of a racist? Maybe find a way to tell him. Aunt Kathy constantly defending bigoted public officials? This is your year to tell her why that’s an issue.
WHERE: You know where.
Launch Pad is a volunteer-based organization that wants to ensure youth aren’t sleeping on the street — with a focus on being an affirming space for LGBT youth. You can volunteer to help with dinner, keep watch overnight, be a shift supervisor or help with laundry. You can also purchase items from the organization’s Amazon wishlist that will get sent directly to them.
WHERE: Visit launchpadnashville.com for more details.
You know that little spiel they give when you’re about to take off on an airplane? The whole thing about putting your oxygen mask on first before helping other people? You have to do that in your everyday life too. If you’re planning on improving your community, you’ve got to take care of you first. Take a walk, meditate, drink a glass of water, stop what you’re doing for five minutes and just be. Whatever it is that gets you recharged, do it.
WHERE: You know where.
THESE IMAGES ARE FROM THE HOMELESS SLEEPOUT ACTION FROM MARCH 21, 2007. THE ACTION WAS ORGANIZED BY THE HOMELESS POWER PROJECT, WHO WERE DEMANDING 200 NEW AFFORDABLE HOUSES BE BUILT IN NASHVILLE. MORE THAN 100 PEOPLE PARTICIPATED AND APPROXIMATELY 15 WERE ARRESTED, INCLUDING CHARLIE STROBEL, FOUNDER OF ROOM IN THE INN; DON BEISSWINGER, LONGTIME ACTIVIST; JOHN ZIRKER AND CHERI HONKALA, NATIONAL HOMELESS ADVOCATE.
I just hate when people carelessly drop their unwanted trash on my corner!
I don’t care if it’s just a little something you throw out the window as you go down the road or if it’s a full garbage bag that you somehow “lost” off your truck, (There’s one of those right across the road from me that’s been there for months.) Either way it’s disgusting!
One such incident occurred on a Friday. I came out to sell magazines and found a rather large black trash bag full of rotten food, spoiled milk, old juice cartons, and other things like that. The smell was horrible!
I was not prepared to deal with this situation. I didn’t have my broom and dustpan or a bag large enough to hold all that mess so I did the next best thing. I let all the businesses in the strip mall (at least the ones on the lower level) know it was out there and hoped someone — anyone — would clean it up.
I didn’t go out to sell on Saturday because that’s usually the day I set aside to spend with my granddaughters Avani, 10 and Lillie, 3. On Sunday afternoon as I prepared to go out it looked like it might rain, so I went back to get my bags to protect my magazines, and I figured I’d grab my broom and dustpan and a garbage bag or two just in case the mess was still there — and it was! I got right to work cleaning it up, and of course it started to rain!
Honestly, I really wanted to call it quits, but I figured you’re already out here just go ahead and get it over with. Obviously no one else was going to do anything about it.
By now, the stench was unbelievable and the crud was ground into the pavement
so much the rain (which was coming down pretty steadily) was having little-to-no effect on it. I got as much of it up as I could.
Those passing by on the sidewalk gave me $1 or $2 not for the magazinebut because they didn’t have to walk through all that trash at the entrance of the strip mall. Even some who passed by in cars asked, “Are they paying you to do this?” I said, “No, but I’m out here all the time, and I don’t want to look at it, and I sure don’t want to smell it, and I doubt anyone else does either!” A few people gave me money a for magazine and a little extra for my efforts as a street sweeper. Others just gave me something for cleaning up the unsightly mess. Sadly, I made more money as a street sweeper that day than as a Contributor vendor!
Fast forward a few days and the landscaping crew that are actually paid to take care of the area came to work. There were still a few trash items around that I was unable to reach even with my cane. Rather than picking those items up, I watched in horror as they mowed over a styrofoam cup, a paper cup, and a potato chip bag turning it into colorful confetti, and making it look worse than it had before.
I was annoyed seeing that. When one of the workers came over to talk to me I told him I didn’t appreciate the fact that they’d made it look worse not better. He then sent his “supervisor” over to talk to me. I shared my concerns with him and his reply only irritated me more. He said, “Well, it really doesn’t matter because it’ll just be messed up again tomorrow.”
At that moment, it was as if something
inside me snapped! I said, “Well it matters to me, because I broke my back trying to clean up a mess here on Sunday and I don’t appreciate anyone making my little corner look bad!”
He responded, “Well, we’re not out here on Sundays — just Tuesday through Saturday.” I told him the mess I cleaned up had been there since Friday and that they’d obviously missed a big spot. I had filled a 13 gallon trash bag with all I’d picked up! He said, “You’re normally really nice to us, but today you’re being a real b***h!”
He asked what he could do. I quickly replied, “Your job!” I informed him that if he failed to do his job properly, that I would be more than happy to inform the businesses in the strip mall, or perhaps the people who lease the spaces there of his in ability to do so, even going so far as to provide pictures so they could see for themselves. I mean someone is paying for his substandard work. He repeatedly asked me not to do that saying that he’d just been made a supervisor and he wanted to keep his job. I said, “Then I suggest you get busy” He did so, begrudgingly.
As exasperating is that whole ordeal was, something even worse happened that day, at least in my opinion. As I walked along picking up trash — some of which they’d blown out of the grass and onto the curb — a carload of young men stopped as I was making my way back to my chair and said, “Look what we have here: trash picking up trash.” They proceeded to dump their trash at my feet.
In that moment, so many comments raced through my head to make in response to theirs,
however, none of them Christian. Thankfully, none of them crossed my lips. Ever since then though, I must admit I’ve found myself wondering, if I am trash for picking up other peoples’ trash, what does that make you for so nonchalantly discarding it at my feet?
Oh if you only knew how much it hurts me to bend over and pick things up! Still, I do it because I firmly believe in leaving something better than I found it. I take that pretty seriously. Once when I was having trouble traveling on the sidewalk in my wheelchair, I rented a weed eater from Home Depot and cleaned up the debris with a little help from my friends. (We filled 7 large garbage bags with all the stuff we found.)
That makes me supremely confident that I am not the only one who feels this way. Doug from Jack-in-the-Box helps me keep my spot clean, and there’s a couple of landscapers who’ve helped me get some branches out of the way after big storms on more than one occasion. All of which is greatly appreciated!
Here’s a good rule of thumb to go by: 1. If you don’t want it in your vehicle there’s a good chance I don’t want it on my corner! 2. If you have a small bag of trash you’d like to dispose of, feel free to hand it to me out the window, and I will be more than happy to take care of it for you. Please DO NOT just throw it at my feet — it’s far more difficult for me to pick up that way.
God gave us a beautiful place to call home, why not do what we can to make our little corner of the world the best it can be?
For many people, the RV is a symbol of the freedom of the open road, but for those living permanently in their vehicles the horizons often seem closed off. Affordable housing just isn't being built fast enough to keep up with the demands of the economy. LA has become over run now with RVs in parking lots and along residential streets. They have been chased away by the police, but now the city seems to be taking a different approach. Instead of sending the police they are sending outreach workers to help those people. It's gotten to be so bad that some cities have passed ordinances that no overnight parking is allowed for RVs. Like in LA we are starting to notice the same thing happening in Nashville. For about a year before we got the RV I had done a lot of research on living in an RV. I had found article after article about the homeless living in California and
making RVs their homes. I kept coming across articles of the homeless living in older travel trailers and RVs for homes out in LA and how it got them off the streets and into a more stable shelter. Living full time on the west coast makes more sense with the winters being warmer.
Carl S., 37, a cook at JB's Pourhouse, recently became homeless after a break up and is trying to get an RV to live in. He'd been living in a tent until the employees put him up in a hotel to get him out of the cold. He's even started a GoFundMe account that he adds money to himself from his paycheck.
“Rents have gotten so far out of range for so many we need to come up with new ideas to call home,” Carl says. “We keep coming up with ways to live and it's being torn down just as fast. If we can't make room for the homeless how can we ever end homelessness? RVs
have become a way for the homeless to end living in a tent and taking a next step forward while waiting for affordable housing. “
Colorado has taken the approach of “tagging” vehicles, which is simply taking descriptions and plate numbers and then towing them if they are still there 72 hours later. Longmont, Colo. is also experiencing the same thing with an upswing in the homeless living in RVs. It's become so congested with “no overnight parking” that the city has asked many RV dwellers to move along and not welcome them in. Kevin from California posted to an RV Facebook group, “It's the fault of the homeless. They've ruined it for us all. We can't find places anymore to park for free before the authorities chase us off.” Kevin has been living in his RV for 22 years now.
People working low income jobs have also been turning to RVs for full time living. Living in an
RV can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it.
"Rents are just to high and most times there's nothing left after rent is paid," said Alberto from California. "Living in an RV allows me to have a safe place to live and save money.”
Many homeless find deals on used RVs and fix them up and what can't be fixed they work around. A retired musician, John, used to live in his van, but is now fixing up an RV to possibly move to Florida next year.
“RVs use to be just for the rich and retired, but there are some good deals out there. I'm hoping to be able to travel back and forth from Florida to TN,” John said. “I can live in this RV on my disability check and for me that's affordable, but not if I can't find free places to park.”
On Dec. 21 at 7:45 p.m. John got a knock on his door from a security guard who said, “You need to leave here, the company doesn't want you here.”
I cracked! Already! I couldn’t keep up with the burden of all my New Year’s resolutions and I broke one. And then I broke another one. And now I've broken all 16 and I have no hope of having a good year! But wait a second, Capricorn. Jan. 1 is just a day. I could start again right now. Maybe I can clean them up. Refine them. Maybe 16 was a bit much to begin with. Maybe tomorrow is just as good a day to start new resolutions as any day out of the year. Maybe you can make a couple, too, Capricorn.
Janus is the ancient Roman god of openings and doorways, new beginnings and New Years. He is often depicted as having two faces. One looks forward into the future, the other backward toward the past. As you step through this wide-open doorway into a New Year, you’ll probably either be looking forward or looking behind. But the two-faced Janus reminds us that you can look more than one direction. Learn from what’s behind. Hope for what’s ahead. Your gaze can be in both directions even as your feet move forward.
Everybody is looking forward into the future this week! I think it’s a great time to look back. How about you make a list of the five best decisions you made last year. Make a list of the five people you most enjoyed spending time with. Write down the five things you’re most grateful for. Once you understand a little more about your recent past, you’ll have a different perspective on your immediate future.
If you think about it, the New Year is the worst time to make resolutions. I mean, you’ve just been through all this holiday madness and you’ve been bombarded with people. You’ve been totally booked and travelling and your work schedule is all messed up. How could you possibly know what kind of person you want to be in the New Year? I’ll tell you what Aries, set yourself some time aside for Jan. 27. Put it on the calendar. That should be a great day to take a couple of hours, take stock, and decide what you want to work on. Until then, you’re doing just fine.
You tried a lot of new things in 2018! Actually, I thought you’d never stop trying new things. Between all the travel and jobs and projects and hobbies and classes, you stayed pretty busy all year, Taurus. And that’s so great! But this year, I think you’re going to want to narrow your focus a little bit. Think about all your new experiences. Pick one or two that meant the most and put extra energy there.
When I was a kid, my favorite thing in the whole world was watching the garbage truck come down the street picking up all the garbage cans. Roll, stop, grab, flip, out comes the garbage. The truck just knew just how to do it right every time. You’ve got plenty of garbage in your bin, Gemini. I’d even say it’s full. It’s probably time to let the truck come and take it all away. You don’t need that stuff anymore.
Things can change a lot in a year. For instance, if you set down this newspaper and did a pushup right now, you’d probably have an easier time doing two pushups tomorrow. And if you did two pushups tomorrow, you’d probably have an easier time doing three the next day. You can even take a day off in between. You’d still get better. At least a little bit better. But what if you don’t care about pushups? That’s fine. Pick something you do care about. Do a little bit today and a little more tomorrow.
There’s lots of important work to do at the beginning of a new year — so much to get in order. You need to check your pantry for expired food, clean out your closet and your medicine cabinet, schedule a physical and a dental appointment, write Christmas thank you notes, change your smoke-detector batteries. And if that doesn’t sound like appealing work, I’ve got a better idea. How about you give yourself a little time to do nothing. Take this week to reflect and listen. Save the busy-work for February.
A friend of mine just got a new car. He’s super excited about it. He says it’s the car of the future. Runs on sunshine and good vibes. It’s got a brain and a voice and a whoopee cushion in every seat. And I’m excited for him. He worked hard for it. And he loves it. But how long will that new-car feeling last? A month? Maybe three? And then it’s just a car. It’s the same with a new year, Virgo. However you feel about it, in the end it’s just a year. Forget the time. Work on you.
I’d say try to narrow it down to just one, Libra. Every year you think of all these things you want to change about your life in the New Year and you make all those resolutions. This year, do it differently. Maybe just pick one resolution. Write it down. Give yourself some leeway. And if you get to the third week of January and you feel like you’re failing, don’t give up. Just write it down again. Recommit and give yourself another clean slate.
It’s time to get this show on the road, Scorpio. I mean, this has stretched on a little longer than we thought it would. Heading into another year and you started this little project when? I think it's time to go all in, Scorpio. I know you've been trying to get everything just right, but this is it. There's nothing holding you back, just get it done and get on with it. The rest of your year will thank you for it.
People make all kinds of New Year’s resolutions, Sagittarius. They resolve to lose weight, to quit smoking, to spend more time with families, to work harder, to watch less TV, and to swear less. You don’t hear a whole lot of people resolve to be more selfish, but that’s what I’d like you to do, Sagittarius. What do you want this year? What do you need? Find it. Go get it.
Fabi Reyna is the editor of She Shreds , a groundbreaking magazine that is a revolutionary platform for female guitarists. Since being launched in 2013, the magazine has championed itself as being an inclusive space that celebrates female guitarists — a demographic that is often overlooked in the industry. Here, Reyna looks back on five years of success and contemplates what is in store in the magazine’s future.
Five years ago, local musician Fabi Reyna started what would become a revolution.
A guitar player since she was nine years old, she had long been frustrated by the lack of representation of female guitarists and women in the industry. Publications dedicated to the instrument abounded, but their portrayals of women rarely extended beyond the bikini-clad models of Guitar World’s annual Buyer’s Guide issue. Armed with her expertise in the instrument and her conviction that something needed to change, Reyna created She Shreds, the first magazine dedicated to women who play guitar.
With the publication of the first issue of She Shreds in 2013, Reyna bulldozed a space in the industry where women could at last be consistently recognized as culturally significant musicians, luthiers and leaders.
Today, She Shreds is the go-to destination
for anyone looking for robust and nuanced coverage of one of the most popular instruments in the world. Coverage includes interviews with popular artists, such as rapper Little Simz and Satomi Matsuzaki, of experimental rock band Deerhoof, along with profiles of guitar legends of the past, such as glam rock bassist Suzi Quatro and Hawaiian steel guitarist Annie Kerr, and gear reviews. Over the years, it has also put on a number of events across the U.S. aimed at bringing the inclusive space of the magazine out into the world.
In the fall, She Shreds celebrated five years in print with a special showcase at Revolution Hall featuring all female guitarists. While visiting family and working on a story in Oaxaca, Mexico, Reyna talked to Street Roots via phone about the success of She Shreds, the recent fifth-anniversary showcase, and what readers can expect from the magazine as it continues in its mission of highlighting female guitarists, past and present.
How do you think the guitar industry has evolved since you started She Shreds five years ago?
Fabi Reyna: Five years ago, the guitar industry didn’t even consider women to be a community. I would go to these conventions or I would try to get support from different guitar companies and manufacturers, and the question
that I always received was, “Do girls really play guitar? Are they really out there?” And for me it was like, well, yeah, and here’s your 60 pages worth of all these different women across the world that play guitar. So five years ago, for so many people, we didn’t exist. Today, we’re becoming the largest and fastest-growing demographic in the guitar industry. Whereas [back] then we were considered a niche magazine, I’m getting told more and more that, on the contrary, magazines that were historically mainstream are becoming more niche because they specifically cater to this older, male-driven, male-dominated demographic.
Have you seen other guitar magazines shift gears as you’ve become so successful?
For sure. One of the things that stands out to me, and probably a lot of other people, is that three years ago or so, [there was] this image of us and the Buyer’s Guide that Guitar World used to put out annually, and all the models were naked women or bikini-dressed women, so a lot of people referred to it as the bikini gear guide. Someone snapped a photo of our magazine next to that magazine in newsstands, and that photo went viral. It was one of the reasons why I think the conversation gained so much traction. For the first time, that juxtaposition
really just came to light. It was so obvious; you couldn’t really get away from it. Since then, our audience really pushed for that issue to change or to stop being distributed. And a year later, Guitar World said that they were going to stop representing women that way, that they realized that women are musicians and that they’re no longer going to showcase them as only objects. And I’ve definitely noticed a huge shift within all of the guitar magazines. More guitar magazines are putting women on the cover. It’s still not a lot, but it’s more than the two or three articles on women guitarists that they would publish every year. There’s definitely a huge difference in terms of representation.
One of the things I love about She Shreds is that there’s so much focus on women of color and queer women. Can you talk a bit about that?
When I was a kid and I was trying to learn guitar, it was hard to find visibility as a woman. It was even harder to find visibility as a woman of color. And it was the hardest to find visibility as a queer woman of color. So for me, my mission has always been rooted in showcasing the different styles, backgrounds, origins and genres of guitarists across the world. We definitely don’t even
want to focus on the U.S. We want to focus on stories from all over the world. And I think that those different perspectives really lend [themselves] to a bunch of different identities.
Have your goals, in terms of the type of representation you want, changed during the period of time that you’ve been doing the magazine?
Totally. Honestly, it’s really dependent on my own evolution. Something that I learned a couple of years in is that the magazine isn’t unique and groundbreaking unless I’m listening to myself as a queer woman-of-color musician. And I’m constantly evolving with the magazine as a musician. I get to share my experiences and help others work through their own. And I think it’s really important to focus on the questions of, OK, who really needs this? What visibility is really lacking? What I sort of started realizing the more that I researched and the more perspectives that I’ve put out there is that women of color in genres like hip hop and R&B and indie, jazz — as guitarists and instrumentalists — those are the perspectives that I feel are really important to foster and nurture. And it’s really what I’m working on right now, too, myself as an artist. I’m trying to evolve in those genres as well. I look for these artists that will help me become a better artist myself, and those are the people that I feature.
You’ve gotten so many amazing musicians to be on the cover. Who are some of your dream folks that you would like to have on the cover in the next few years?
There are definitely artists that I look up to, like St. Vincent and H.E.R., who is a hip hop artist who plays guitar, and Lauryn Hill. Those people are all dream cover artists. But something that’s growing for me is to put women on the cover whose stories haven’t really been discovered or told. I’m in Oaxaca right now, and I just met this woman who grew up in this very “women don’t play guitar” culture, and it was really severe – like, “women don’t play guitar here”, but it wasn’t just that. You’d get beaten and you’d get ostracized for going against those norms. She’s close to 80 at this point, and she’s lived her whole life fighting that. Those are really the stories that I feel like I need to tell, and those are the stories that need to get recognition. Because she’s never gotten that recognition, she doesn’t
really understand the value of just how impactful her voice and her experience can be to so many other Mexican women and girls who might not have ever met another woman guitarist from Mexico.
Who have been some of your favorite people that the magazine has covered?
[Legendary Latina pickup winder] Abigail Ybarra is definitely up there. I was so inspired by her story and she was so excited to be getting recognized. It’s such a respect thing. We talk to these women not as a way of using their stories to uplift us, but out of a deep respect [and desire to] to share their stories. And Abigail was one of those people. Les Filles de Illighadad are from Tuareg, and they are actually the first women to play guitar in their town, in the history of their traditional music. So that was amazing as well. And then also we’re about to release this in-depth story on Sylvia Robinson, who is considered to be the “Mother of Hip Hop.” She started the first record label that hosted the first hip-hop artists and she was also a guitarist. She first became famous as [half of the R&B duo] Mickey & Sylvia. She was a guitarist in the ’50s and developed as that. So, to me, it’s so fascinating how deep the instruments of the guitar and bass runs through every lifestyle and every culture and every genre. People really only consider it strong in rock ’n’ roll and indie. So yes, we’re telling the story through women, but we’re also telling the story of just how versatile this instrument is.
Why do you think She Shreds is thriving at this time when so many print publications are shutting down? First, our audience has always been really dedicated to us. The people that buy our magazine, they’re collecting history in a way. A lot of our issues include first-time stories, discoveries, never-written-before, never-known-before type of stuff. That’s exciting to a lot of people. On top of that, we are the only experts in the world on women guitarists and women’s history, specifically in terms of guitar and bass. As the guitar becomes something that women use as a tool to feel empowered and [as they] showcase it onstage and talk about it in interviews, people want to know more about it. We happened to create and evolve something that no one else really understands at this
point. Fender and whoever else is talking about the death of guitar and how women make up 50 percent of new players and 50 percent of consumers — well, that’s awesome, but everyone is still stuck in a place where they don’t know anything about this audience because they’ve been ignored for 40-plus years.
Some brands or endeavors focused on women sometimes feel a little gimmicky or fall into a sort of feel good, marketplace feminism, but She Shreds never does. Have you ever run into the pressure to be that way, especially as you’ve partnered with brands over the years?
Yeah, definitely. And when someone puts that on us, it makes me, as this person, feel really strange, and I notice that I don’t want to do that. Sometimes it’s hard to listen to yourself in those intuitive moments, but I’ve learned that that is what I have to do to push against that. In the end, it puts us in this position where we are leaders rather than followers. And that is something that is really important to me. I constantly want to be growing, and I constantly want to be evolving, and I really constantly want to be creating new dialogue and continuing to push it forward. As soon as something feels like we’re coasting or as soon as something feels like we’re good, it makes me feel uncomfortable. And brands [that work with us] like Red Bull and Fender, etc., really respect us for that. They listen to us. If, at some point, we feel like something is exploitative or using language just to use it, they are like OK, cool. We trust you.
What are your hopes or goals for the next five years of She Shreds?
Previously, I have wanted to just work, work, work and do whatever I had to do to make us really big and make our perspective and our voice as heard as possible. And now I’m really focused on making sure that people see us as experts rather than just some kids who are doing something for fun. We are real experts in this. We’ve been doing this for five years, we know what we’re doing. We know how to evolve it. We know how to nurture it, and I’m going to be focusing on content and partnerships that really show that.
Courtesy of Street Roots / INSP.ngo