The Contributor: January 16, 2019

Moving Pictures

IN THE ISSUE

8

11

14

Hello, Dolly

Country music legend Dolly Parton muses on writing new music, fighting for women and relying on her faith.

Free Cyntoia

Governor Bill Haslam granted Cyntoia Brown clemency on Jan. 7. Contributor vendor Mary B. remembers meeting a teenage Cyntoia in prison.

Negotiating Nature

Contributor Board

Cathy Jennings, Chair Tom Wills, Bruce Doeg, Demetria Kalodimos, Ann Bourland

Contributors This Issue

Linda Bailey • Amanda Haggard • Tom Wills

• Vicky B. • Jennifer A. • Harold B. • Victor

J. • “Wild” Bill W. • Jamie W. • Joe Nolan

• Holly Gleason • Alvine • Mary B. • Mr. Mysterio • Tharanga Yakupitiyage

Contributor Volunteers

Cathy Jennings • Tom Wills • Joe First

• Andy Shapiro • Michael Reilly • Ann Bourland • Patti George • Linda Miller •

Deborah Narrigan • John Jennings • Barbara Womack • Colleen Kelly • Janet Kerwood • Logan Ebel • Christing Doeg • Laura Birdsall

• Nancy Kirkland • Mary Smith • Andrew Smith • Ellen Fletcher • Anna Katherine Hollingsworth

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

Mailng Address

The Contributor P.O. Box 332023, Nashville, TN 37203

Editor’s Office: 615.499.6826 Vendor Office: 615.829.6829

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IPS outlines some of the statistics and the solutions to halt land degradation, climate change and decreasing biodiversity.

Cathy Jennings Executive Director

Andrew Krinks Editor Emeritus

How ‘The Contributor’ Works

BY TOM WILLS, CO-FOUNDER

The paper you just paid for was bought by someone else fi rst, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. Th at’s how Th e 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! Th at’s the solution. Now keep reading. Th is paper has something to say to you.

Street papers provide income for the homeless and initiate a conversation about homelessness and poverty. In 2007, Th e Contributor founders met at the Nashville Public Library downtown to form one. In a strike of lightning we named it Th e 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. Th e 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.

Th e 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 “donation.” 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 Th e 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-to-seven times as profits in the pockets of our vendors.

Thanks for contributing.

PHOTO BY JOHN JENNINGS

Metro Council votes down bill that would ban ‘Contributor’ sales to cars

STAFF REPORT

In a rare move, the Metro Council on first reading voted down a bill that sought to ban newspaper sales to cars. Typically, the council passes every bill on first reading and discussion of the bill comes up on second or third reading.

The council voted 24-5 against the measure — five members of Metro Council abstained from the vote.

Metro Councilman Steve Glover proposed the bill that would’ve ban sales of newspapers to cars claiming that

the practice was dangerous — though he’s been unable to show any examples of that being true. Glover brought the same proposal three years ago, and that attempt also failed.

“The Contributor has a longstanding commitment to vendor safety training,” says Cathy Jennings, Director of The Contributor. “The renewed confidence of the council has inspired us to undertake closer relationships with public safety agencies and explore opportunities to improve.”

Several council members spoke against the bill at the meeting, including Fabian Bedne, Anthony Davis, Mina Johnson, Bob Mendes, Freddie O’Connell, Dave Rosenberg, Colby Sledge and Brett Withers. Johnson called in the meeting to kill the bill on first reading.

In the contentious Metro Council meeting, Glover vowed to take his fight to the state, saying that he’s already talked to his friends in the legislature.

VENDOR WRITING

Why We Do What We Do

BY VICKY B., FORMERLY HOMELESS VENDOR

I recently heard a member of Metro Council say, “Nashville is booming and so is the job market. They can get a job,” while on a popular news program. Mr. Councilman: Selling The Contributor is a JOB! It's a job we can do without fear of being fired over and over again. It's a job many of us do because we're physically or mentally unable to work a “regular” eight-hour job, 40 hours a week.

For myself it's a job I can do. It's a job where I can set my own hours without having to call out sick because of my back, feet and hip problems or if I'm having issues with my diabetes. Not having medical insurance prevents me from getting assistance for these health issues. Let's be honest. There aren't many places where I can lie down if my back gets so bad from standing on a cement floor or worse have to go home and miss work. I've found other jobs, but after working there parttime (38 hours a week) I either have to quit because of the pain or I get fired for having to call out sick too may times.

Mario, a Contributor vendor, said, “I'm physically unable to be on my feet at an eight-hour day job. Selling The Contributor allows me to be able to sit when I need to. I have back and hip problems and I do physical therapy three times a week. I’m able to work at my own pace and take as many

breaks as I need to. It's a job that I can do.” Mario recently was able to purchase — yes purchase — a home. Not rent. Purchase. He pays the mortgage by mowing yards in the spring through fall and selling The Contributor in the winter.

Mary Ann, 73, also a Contributor vendor says, “It's something I can do at my age. I can't stand a lot but, I always have something to sit down on when I need to. The Contributor helps me pay for my housing and food. If it weren't for The Contributor I'd be living on the streets.”

Selling The Contributor can also open up many doors and make much needed connections in the community. Melinda, a former Contributor vendor, found a job with a local landscaper while selling the paper. The chances of her finding that connection without the help of The Contributor are slim.

Norma, a vendor with Cerebral Palsy, is able to work around her granddaughter’s school schedule. Believe it or not, being on disability doesn't pay for everything. She recently moved from a hotel to an apartment and money she makes from selling The Contributor helps her get through the month.

Many of our vendors aren't able to work a “regular” job because of health or mental issues that companies just can't deal with or don't want to deal with. I remember getting

fired for having anxiety attacks where I had to leave right away. I was fired for calling out because of my back and feet issues. The Contributor allows me to have my own safe business where I can work around my health issues.

Many vendors have also discovered other talents such as writing and creating art. Taking away this income would debilitate us even more and would create more problems.

When I hear a councilmember talk about safety issues I really think they are confusing us with panhandlers. We carry paper, not cardboard. We sell a product, not ask for a hand out. We purchase a product to resell. We are businessmen and businesswomen earning a living, paying taxes and paying our own way.

So please when you speak about Contributor vendors don't mix us up with what some of us did before finding a family and a business at The Contributor. When you speak about the fatalities in your district please speak the whole truth. Neither one of them were Contributor vendors.

Trust me when I say I'm sorry you were held up at the light because of a newspaper sale and wish of wellness. Maybe if you saw us as the businessmen and women we are, then you could be a part of the solution instead of the problem.

ODE TO ODD

JENNIFER A.

“You’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and, gosh darn it, people like you!”

Studies show that starting each day in front of a mirror delivering a positive affirmation of your worth to the world, doesn’t work, And may, in fact, have the opposite effect.

BECAUSE, LET’S FACE IT, YOU’RE ODD!

You’re not like the other children. You were absent from school the day the other boys and girls learned to be properly socialized; because of an asthma attack, or the dog ate your orthopedic inserts, or to catch up on events in Pine Valley. No make-ups.

You were raised in a beer joint where the Coca Cola was so cold it exploded in your mouth sending a lava stream of foamy bubbles up and out your nose as all the assembled drunks mocked you— including your dad.

You took your First Communion, sans veil, in a blue dress because your mother, (a Christian Scientist before the conversion) didn’t realize the significance of the white dress and veil. No one ever offered you a hand, a leg up, a pat on the back, the benefit of any doubt, comfort from night terrors, help with your homework, an ounce of encouragement.

You applied your own bandages, read the classics,

grew your hair long, learned to order take-out, to lie convincingly without talking, to keep your head down. You know the comfort of headphones and the sting of icy stares.

Your fish has left the water, You’re chimera with a nose ring and a pronounced limp. You answer to, “hey, you”. They think you’re irregular, unconventional, and strange-an anomaly wrapped in a deviation from the norm.

So prove them right, Embrace the exceptional, extraordinary you. An original outshines a copy every time. Pull those pants on over your pajamas, put some fresh Hello Kitty tape on that break in your glasses, turn the mirror to the wall and shout,

“I AM WHAT I AM!”

God knows You’re plenty good enough.

THIS YEAR

HAROLD B.

We're out of the house Walking kinda straight A little bit tired But feeling great

Trying to get there Instead of here Staying on the right path And being good... this year

CHOICES WE MAKE

VICTOR J.

Choices we make are good. Choices we make are bad. But at the end, The our choices make the world go round.

EYEBALLS

BY “WILD” BILL W. HOMELESS VENDOR

“I heard you’re a marvelous dancer, Lash. How come you always take the elevator?”

I LOVE MY CATS

JAMIE W.

Even though Tucker passed away We will always love him now. We have a new kitten

She’s four months old.

Her name is Paisley.

When we first got her Pressley and Lilly hissed and growled at her, But now they are the best of friends. They run up and down the hallway. They sound like a bunch of horses running up the hallway.

Tommy says they are running a roller derby, but what can I say… They are my babies and I love them even though Tucker is gone. His memory will always be with us. We will always love him.

And Tommy says Pressley and Lilly are teaching Paisey all of the ropes

And they love to run up the hallway.

Pressley is teaching her Roller Derby, But Paisley is such a well behaved kitten she’s something else... A Mess.

“Cause I’m afraid of stares.”

Watching ‘The Shield’

BY JOE NOLAN Film Critic

One of the most groundbreaking television shows of all time focuses on a tragic anti-hero who makes a deadly decision in the pilot episode of the series. The decision damages everyone around him including the very people he claims to protect. Its several award-winning seasons of consistently high-quality television establish a small-fry cable network as a major original programmer. The series’ charge is lead by an intense, Emmy-award-winning performance by a comedic actor who seized his role as an opportunity to show he could also play the hardest of the hard.

You’d be forgiven if you guessed that I’m writing about Breaking Bad, which is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its debut this month. In fact, I’m talking about The Shield, another show on the FX network that ran from 20022008, and which, in retrospect, looks a lot like a trial run for Walter White’s science-teacher-goes-Scarface series, which debuted the year The Shield ended with a classic finale episode. While the 10th anniversary of its debut offers a great reason for re-visiting the brilliance of Breaking Bad, a new Blu-ray release of the complete series of The Shield gives viewers a chance to revisit — or discover for the first time — the show that gave us television as we know it today.

While Walter White’s school teacher gone drug kingpin is a dark turn to follow, its rivaled in Los Angeles Police Detective Vic Mackey’s

(Michael Chiklis) hellish descent which begins — literally with a bang — in the first episode of The Shield. Television cop shows are staple programming available in wide varieties from the “just the facts” procedural dramas of Dragnet to the cop-shop hijinks in copper comedies like Barney Miller. Whether dour or daffy, the two things police TV always gives viewers are good cops and bad criminals. That was true right up

until March 12, 2002, when the implicit contract between a police show and its viewers was completely shattered in The Shield’s pilot episode. There had never been an anti-hero like Vic Mackey on television, and we’d have never seen The Americans, Sons of Anarchy, House of Cards or even Breaking Bad if Vic Mackey hadn’t fired that first, shocking shot. No spoilers.

Detective Mackey and his elite gang-fighting squad — the experimental Strike Team — were inspired by the real life scandals that rocked the LAPD in the 1990’s. The Shield was originally marketed as Rampart after the LAPD division in which 70 police officers were implicated in misconduct in one of the most widespread cases of police corruption in U.S. history. The Shield finds its roots in these intense real-life dramas, but the show is a classic for how it brings its stories the small screen: The Shield shows us corrupt cops, but it presents them as the protagonists we’re used to rooting for, plunging viewers into nerve-wracking scenarios where the boundaries between right and wrong, good and evil, and cops and criminals disintegrate entirely. The Shield

also amps-up the moral tension with a heavy dose of brutal violence and the nervous, roaming handheld camera shooting that gives the series its charged signature look. All of this is brought to life by a stellar cast of regulars that included Walton Goggins and C.C.H. Pounder in addition to Chiklis, and Academy Award-winning guest stars like Glenn Close and Forest Whitaker.

In addition to all 88 episodes over seven seasons of The Shield, the new 18-disc Blu-ray box set includes more than 10 hours of bonus footage. Highlights include a cast anniversary looking back on the show’s finale 10 years ago, and a “Beyond the Badge” featurette that contextualizes and celebrates The Shield’s indelible impact on contemporary television.

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

BY HOLLY GLEASON

“As a writer, I have to leave my heart open,” Dolly Parton begins. “That’s why I have always said I never could harden my heart, even against hurt or anything. Because as a writer, if you harden your heart, you’re not going to feel all that emotion you need to feel, and you won’t be to write what people feel.

“I always say I’ve strengthened the mus-

cles around my heart, but I’ve never hardened it.”

In person, Parton is tiny. Lots of blond hair, bright make-up, sparkly clothes and high heels. But what makes the quick-to-joy superstar seem so much larger than life is the way a room lights up when she smiles — and the light that seemingly emanates from her wherever she goes.

No wonder she can hold her own on the movie screen with Jane Fonda, Julia Roberts, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Lilly Tomlin, Queen Latifah, as well as the sexiest symbols Burt Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone and Sam Shepard. Her live shows melt from frenetic bluegrass to classic country, gospel, R&B — and yes, massive country crossover songs smashes “9 To 5” and “I Will Always Love You.”

Equal parts welcoming Mother Goose and wisecracking Mae West, Parton forged fame by writing. Complicated emotions, heartbreakingly clear memories of her Appalachian

childhood and the conflicting realities of being a woman in a man’s world defined her songs, as her empathy, insight and understanding hit people right where they needed to feel.

When YA author Julie Murphy was looking for an inspiration for her overweight teenage protagonist in Dumplin, it was Parton’s songs that provided verve, sass, acceptance and rump kicking. For Parton, an avid reader and the founder of the Imagination Library, which sends a book a month to children across Tennessee, myriad states and around the world until they’re 5 years old, her music’s role in the 2015 novel was a special kind of thrill.

“I feel for everybody about everything,” she offers, leaning across the small sofa in her manager’s office. “I am everybody, all the time. As a writer, I really get involved with what people go through, how they — whether they’re gay, whether they’re lesbian, whether they’re black, or white, or gray. I know everybody is who they are, and they should be allowed

to be that! So, I just feel for everybody, about everything. And I’m able to express that, because my heart is so open to people.

“… I was honored when the book came out. Everybody said, ‘There’s this great little book, and it’s about you! ’ Somebody said, ‘You should adapt that, and make it into a movie!’ I said, ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that. That’d be self-serving. I’m just flattered and very honored to have a book somebody wrote about me and my music.’”

Things have a way of turning around for the woman who’s won or been nominated for Oscars, Tony Awards, Grammys, American Music Awards, as well as being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement honor. Beyond the entertainment world, the East Tennessee songwriter has received the Kennedy Center Honors, the Library of Congress’ Living Legend Medal and the National Medal of the Arts from the President, all recognizing her contribution to culture.

With that kind of momentum, it wasn’t long until someone else — Jennifer Anniston — optioned Dumplin’. And it wasn’t long after the producers came calling. Parton, who wisely believed the story of a young overweight girl needed to center on her self-acceptance and discovery, had her own ideas

“When they called to see if I’d be involved, I said the only way I could without it seeming self-serving and egotistical would be to maybe write a theme song, or be involved with the music.”

They asked if Parton would be willing to work with Linda Perry, a dark kohl-eyed alternative rocker who looks half urchin, half high-fashion chimney sweep. The woman whose life is being serialized into a series of Netflix fi lms had no idea who the producer/songwriter was, but was willing to try.

“I wasn’t even familiar with her 4 NonBlondes group,” Parton admits with a corkscrew giggle that spins to the ceiling. “I live my life in another world. There was a vague memory of hearing the name, but I didn’t know anything about her. There was only going to be one new song…”

Perry, however, knew everything about Parton. Though their facts were polemic, their creativity ignited a flood of writing, a rush of collaborators on the old songs. Plus, Parton had a soft spot for the characters in the film.

“I was emotionally attached to it, and really tried to make the songs serve the movie,” Parton explains, eyes flashing like a rhinestone under the long lashes. “But I also had personal things, like a song called ‘Push & Pull.’

To me, that was based on the relationship with Jennifer (Anniston, playing the former beauty queen mother) and her daughter (played by Danielle Macdonald). But one of my sisters was going through the same thing with her daughter. They’d just go back and forth, back and forth. It inspired me to write about that particular emotion of just trying to use your own control to control the other person. It became very personal to me….

“I really tried to teach, to show, to have people think like, ‘What are you doing ?!’ We’re supposed to love each other. We don’t have to understand all that we know; if we look, why can’t we just love each other?

“I’m not a silly person. I know how that goes. But people don’t even try.”

Growing quiet, she adds, “I think people are just blind without knowing it sometimes. If you can open their eyes, and throw a little light in the darkness they don’t even realize they’re in, through music we can do a lot of things.”

Parton knows the power of songs. After half a century of truth telling, she realizes her music can change people’s hearts.

Leaning a little closer, she almost confides. “I wanted these songs to touch people in a way that maybe they haven’t thought of before. All my life, I’ve always loved the underdog. I’ve always been prone to go to the unusual. I love different people. I love the spice of life, the variety. I’m drawn to unusual people. I’m drawn to help people up if they feel down, and I’m prone to stand up for somebody who can’t stand up for themselves.”

The glint has turned to fire. In a world of media trained celebrities flogging the latest project, Parton’s passion burns through. With “Girl In The Movies” from Dumplin’ being nominated for the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards, as well as being shortlisted at the Academy Awards for Best Original Song alongside songs from blockbusters A Star Is Born and Black Panther, this isn’t mere movie fodder in terms of the Smoky Mountain songwriter’s life.

Perry got it.

“We are completely different people,” Parton concedes. “So different, yet we’re almost alike on the creative level. We were just natural. She’s got a great ear for music and has some great melodies. Because I write my own music, you can kind of get stale — or stuck to where your melodies can only go so far.”

Again, the excitement rises in Parton’s voice. The natural brightness lifts in her voice, the lilt bounces just a touch more. Anything that ignites her music makes Parton happy.

“I’ve never worked with a woman before! I’ve never worked with a female producer. And she’s gay; she’s [a] lesbian, so I’d never worked so closely with anyone like that on a creative level. It opened up a whole lot of — she has her own take on how people don’t accept, all through the years.”

You won’t find Parton preaching, backing political candidates or throwing down for causes. Her gospel is her life. Her witness is her music. For Dumplin’, the new songs offer hope and aspiration, while the classics get recast. Whether it’s a stone country trip through “Dumb Blonde” with Miranda Lambert, a funky horn punctuated shuffle for “Two Doors Down” with Macy Gray and Dorothy, a hushed gospel invocation of “Here I Am” with Sia or an almost emo “Here You Come Again” with 15-year old newcomer Willa Amai,

up, boxes of clothes from the welfare or just for poor people — and there was a pair of red high-heeled shoes. They were high, but I was a little, and I thought they looked little, and I wanted them so bad.”

It’s hard to believe the little girl with hair like corn silk who started singing on WIVK’s “The Cas Walker Show” at 10 being anything other than darling. But self-doubt has its way of preying on what’s missing, making it more important than it is. For one of a dozen children, born to a sharecropper and a homemaker mother in poor health, she was acutely aware of the material things they lacked, but also empowered by the love and the faith her family put in her.

That faith pushed her to Nashville, where she released Hello, I’m Dolly in 1967. She walked away from a successful partnership with Porter Wagoner to seek broader horizons in California, and gave the world “I Will Always Love You.” She anchored her own television show, made acclaimed films, recorded with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris in the late ’70s, then created the Grammy Album of the Year nominee Trio in 1985. She bought an amusement park called Dollywood, graced the cover of Rolling Stone when it was still an alternative force and lifted people up all the while.

“9 To 5,” her tour du force movie debut, has been adapted as a musical in London, while being updated for 20th Century Fox with the original Fonda/Parton/Tomlin troika attached. For a woman who isn’t prone to politics, the original showed more about feminism than a fistful of Ms. magazines. The play, which opens in London’s West End in February boasts “Mr. Boss,” another tell it like it is bit of Dolly deliciousness.

“We’re still having trouble with equal pay, and with harassment, and all that… but I think it’s good these things have been brought to the forefront. When they asked me to write something for it, I wrote this. It says, ‘I love men, don’t get me wrong/ I’ve always had one of my own/ I know there’s some really good ones/ Then there’s you…’ “It’s tough. I love men, I really do. But, I love all this, this movement. I think women should be allowed to do everything, but I don’t want them to do it at the expense of other people. I’ve been married 54 years, and there are a lot of wonderful men who’re supportive of women in business. But there’ll always be an imbalance unless we try to get a better balance.

“So women need to stand up for who we are and be proud of what we are, for our best work and get our best pay. Those are things we should always be fighting for. It’s not just a movement to me… I just love to write about what I know. I promote women in my way. I’m always there, I just don’t have to make it an issue; I live it.

“Sometimes you’re better being an example than trying to fight a battle. Although we have to do it all different ways, however we get it across. My way has always been to address it naturally and honestly, just let it be part of my personality. Just be it.”

Parton’s been spinning these kinds of dreams into gold, platinum and kindness for decades. Not dwelling on the past has set her free to run freely into the future, doing the impossible and making music that rings as startlingly true today as her songs always have. Still she marvels at the ride.

Parton’s songs contain — as Walt Whitman proclaims — multitudes. One listen to “Why,” with Mavis Staples, is a full-on revival. While Perry, movie studios, record companies all had their vote for the guests; Parton’s choice was the dusky voiced soul singer. Dobro bending notes over a choogling beat, the pleasure is palpable on what may be the clearest articulation of Parton’s ethos ever recorded.

“See, I’m old school. I loved the family and their music,” Parton says of the Staple Singers. “A lot of my songs are influenced by their sound and their feel. Like when I wrote ‘The Seeker’ years ago, it had kind of that smothered soul feel. But this one, too, I wrote to have that feel.

“Just to have her next to me, singing, it was one of the thrills of my life, knowing how much I loved her, her Dad with that big old guitar back in the day. I said, ‘You be Mavis! You sing whatever you want, and you dart in on me if you want to. You sing under me, all over me, around me. You just sing.’”

Hard to imagine Parton has enough wonder to still get excited by making music with her peers. It’s that infectious curiosity and hunger for life that spirits her forward. It’s the same desire that captured a young girl now transformed into “Red Shoes.”

“It’s my modern day ‘Coat of Many Colors’,” Parton enthuses. “Even though they refer to the red shoes in the movie, and in the book… When I was a little kid and we lived up in the mountains, we had nothing. No electricity, or anything. They used to send clothes

“I’m always amazed by what’s going on now, that I’m still around and that a lot of these people look up to me. You always worry you can’t be that good, you can’t be all that. You worry people love to lift you up just to slap you down. I am really just a regular person, just doing my thing – and I’m not trying to do anything but live my life the way I see fit. And if that’s touched people, is an inspiration, then that makes me feel good.”

The morning is turning to afternoon. There is a recording studio filled with people waiting to hear the tracks, and Parton’s using the time to make final tweaks to Dumplin’. Having opened her heart, though, she wants to give people a glimpse into the power she draws on, and caution them about where they invest their own lives.

“I’ve always been a religious person, or spiritual, but I don’t like idol worship for anybody. In this world, sometimes we worship people — and things. I always ask God just to let me lead people to Him. If somebody sees something in me they love, let them see it’s that God light to direct them to something better.

“Don’t lift me up, because I’m the biggest sinner as anybody. I’m not perfect, just trying to be as honest and open as I can be. My whole life has been built on that, positive thinking and dreams, just believing that I could do it. That goes back to “through God, all things are possible, and all things are possible to those who believe.

“You can have it if you can believe it.”

“All my life, I’ve always loved the underdog. I’ve always been prone to go to the unusual. I love different people. I love the spice of life, the variety.

I’m drawn to unusual people.

I’m drawn to help people up if they feel down, and I’m prone to stand up for somebody who can’t stand up for themselves.”

I MET CYNTOIA BROWN AT THE TENNESSEE PRISON FOR WOMEN

BY MARY B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

I remember the day I met Cyntoia Brown. They had just banned smoking at the Tennessee Prison For Women here in Nashville. Cyntoia was housed on the 2nd level. I was housed on the 1st floor. We both were in Unit 3 East. I can remember it like it was yesterday. When I saw her I didn’t know her story. However, I knew the little girl must have a sad story. She was as quiet as a little church mouse, shy and OMG scared to death. She was a scared and hurt little girl, and didn’t look to be but 13 years old. And I was thinking to myself, why in the world is she in population? She should have been housed in Unit 3 where they house minors, people with disabilities and those on death row.

When I found out she was 16, I was super surprised. Even though she looked scared, I knew in my heart that she could and would hold her own. I can’t remember how long I

was there with her, but it was at least 2 ½ years.

Cyntoia received a life sentence in for killing a 43-year-old man who’d hired her for sex. She had been living in a South Nashville extended stay motel with a drug dealer who she said forced her into prostitution for drug money.

Cyntoia did not have an easy childhood. She had an abusive stepfather and acted out in school. All the things that happened to her as a child had to be building up for years and years. She had no one to share the things that happen to her so she had no choice but to keep it to herself.

Johnny Allen, a 43 year-old real estate agent, picked up Cyntoia on Murfreesboro Road, near where she was living. They stopped at Sonic and then went to his home. She started having a feeling that this man would harm her if she didn’t do as

he said. At some point Mr. Allen reached over on his side of the bed, and Cyntoia was in fear that he was reaching for a gun to hurt her. Her first reaction was to get the handgun from her purse and shoot him.

Eventually, she was sentenced to life in prison not eligible for parole until after her 69th birthday.

Cyntoia has never denied the fact that she killed this man. Her words were, “I executed him.”

On Jan. 7, Gov. Bill Haslam granted Cyntoia clemency. I felt relieved when I heard the news. Activists have worked for the last decade to get Cyntoia released, saying her sentence was too harsh for her age. In the last year, her case gained national attention when celebrities (like Kim Kardashian and Rihanna), law makers, and activists brought attention to it on social media.

I’m left wondering, why in the world did it take Governor Haslam so long to grant this young lady clemency? She deserved to be granted clemency. She has been locked up enough. This is a girl who was the victim of sex trafficking and was thrown out there at a young age and forced to be an adult. While in prison, Cyntoia got her associate’s degree through the LIFE program at Lipscomb University. She’s also expressed interest in helping other young girls walking in the same shoes she has walked in.

After having served 15 years in prison, Brown will be released to parole supervision on August 7, 2019. In a press release, Cyntoia expressed her gratitude to Gov. Haslam.

”I will do everything I can to justify your faith in me,” she said. “I am committed to live the rest of my life helping others, especially young people. My hope is to help other young girls avoid ending up where I have been.”

NASHVILLE ACTIVISTS MARCH IN THE STREETS DOWNTOWN URGING GOVERNOR HASLAM TO GRANT CLEMENCY TO CYNTOIA BROWN. PHOTOS BY ALVINE.

Hoboscopes

CAPRICORN

Why is everybody always trying to get their ducks in a row? I think they look nice all spread out. You know, like, some of them out in the water with their ducklings and a couple up in the grass looking for bugs or bread or whatever ducks eat. Maybe yours aren't quite lining up this week, Capricorn, but I still think they look nice. Enjoy the view.

AQUARIUS

I'm finally cutting the cord. I'm getting rid of my cable TV and buying a cheap antenna. I'm giving up the infinite options of 24hour news and reality-junk and going back to whatever local morning shows and daytime soaps are floating through the ether. I think this is a good week to simplify, Aquarius. Maybe fewer options will make it easier to choose.

PISCES

I recently found out that catfish taste with their skin. There are more taste buds on the outside of a catfish than on a human tongue. So if you lick a catfish, he’ll taste you more than you him. I guess you’re pretty sensitive on the surface too, Pisces. This week, think of your sensitivity as an advantage rather than a liability. And don’t lick a catfish.

ARIES

I get lost a lot. I've gotten lost in big cities and on the trails in the park. But lately I mostly just get lost like you: all turned around on the floor of my own basement, sitting between stacks of photos of how my life used to be, looking for some path out of the past. This week, Aries, take what you learned in those dark woods and bring it back into the present. Just walk toward the light. It’s right up the stairs.

TAURUS

Are you tired of being put on the spot? Are you sick of being asked direct questions that you couldn't possibly answer with confidence or authority? I've got a something for you to try, Taurus, it's been working for me my whole life. Nervous laughter. Nothing lowers expectations or wraps up a conversation faster than a little nervous laughter and some mumbled conjunctions and prepositions. You can try it today!

GEMINI

My grandfather always used to say, “Any problem that can be solved with money isn't much of a problem.” I always thought he just said that because he had a lot of money. But this week, Gemini, I think you may find that it's actually true. If the worst thing you have going on is a lack of funding, you can probably turn your list of troubles upside down.

CANCER

I just found an amazing list of 13 cold-weather life-hacks that will keep you safe from the polar vortex! All you need are two toilet paper tubes, 16 binder clips, an old lampshade, and a good warm winter coat. Mostly just that last one. Sometimes the most obvious answers are the best ones, Cancer. Whatever you're facing this week, don't be too quick to disregard the old stand-by for the new and untested.

LEO

The first-century philosopher Philo said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is carrying a great burden.” This might be because he lived in the first century, when people were more likely to have to walk around carrying heavy things because forklifts hadn’t been invented and cellphones were much larger and heavier. Or maybe he was being metaphorical. In any case, be kind.

VIRGO

You’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the past, Virgo, about how much simpler everything was. How there was less to worry about. But was the past really better or do we just remember it that way? If you assume, instead, that the past was just as complicated as the present, that probably means that in the future you’ll mostly just remember the good things about this week. Why not start focussing on them now?

LIBRA

Understanding is a long and twisted road fraught with barriers and blocks. It’s a hard path to walk. Forgiveness is a good shortcut. It may feel like cheating, but once you’ve reached your destination, Libra, you can take the long road back. Once you’ve forgiven, it’s easier to understand all those things that had seemed so difficult before.

SCORPIO

It was in the second week of January in 1967 when Dr. James Bedford became the first person to be cryogenically preserved. Just a few hours after his death, his body was frozen in the hope of someday being thawed and resurrected. Reminds me of you, Scorpio. I know you think that eventually some future somebody will come along and thaw you out of your sub-zero emotional cryo-chamber. I guess that’s possible, but it seems more likely that you’re going to have to do it yourself. Get defrosting, friend.

SAGITTARIUS

Every time I have a great new and original idea, it only takes one quick web-search to discover that somebody else already thought of it. Google can be downright debilitating to creativity. That’s why, Sagittarius, you need to be less concerned about originality and more concerned about execution. Anybody can think of a great idea, but not everybody can actually get it accomplished. Follow your ideas to the end this week.

NEGOTIATING FOR NATURE

BY THARANGA YAKUPITIYAGE

According to a raft of experts, the only way for the world to halt land degradation, climate change and decreasing biodiversity, is by negotiating a new deal for nature. IPS outlines some of the most frightening statistics and the solutions that have been suggested.

Wildlife is being wiped out in an unprecedented rate, and it’s our fault. But a new deal could provide a new pathway forward.

Concerned over the rate of biodiversity loss, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is calling for a new deal for nature and people in order to accelerate and integrate action between three core areas: biodiversity, land degradation and climate change.

“The trends are shocking. We are facing a decline which is unprecedented and its accelerating,”

said WWF’s Director General Marco Lambertini.

“This is a global issue. Almost no country is completely exempt,” he added.

And it’s not just the iconic species like pandas, elephants and tigers, he noted.

According the WWF’s recent Living Planet report, populations of vertebrate species have declined by 60 percent around the world in just 40 years.

Freshwater species alone faced a decline of over 80 percent. Such population declines were especial -

ly prominent in South and Central America, where there is 89 percent less wildlife than in 1970.

Among the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss are directly linked to human activities, namely land conversion and overexploitation.

Over 40 percent of the world’s land has been converted or set aside for agriculture alone.

The Amazon, which is home to over 10 percent of the world’s species, has seen deforestation and habitat conversion to make way for agricultur-

Concerned over the rate of biodiversity loss, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is calling for a new deal for nature and people. South Africaís white rhinoceros recovered from near-extinction thanks to intense conservation efforts.

Credit: Kanya DíAlmeida/IPS

al activities such as cattle ranching and soy cultivation.

Though there have been some efforts to halt and reverse such harmful activities, 20 percent of the Amazon disappeared in just 50 years.

In Indonesia, primates are facing a heightened risk of extinction as forests are destroyed to produce palm oil.

“Food production is the single most important driver of wild habitat loss…very few people realise the connection between the food that they eat and the impact it is having on wildlife and wild habitats in the world,” Lambertini said.

But it doesn’t stop there.

According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), unsustainable land management, which encompasses many modern crop and livestock practices, is causing soil and land degradation thus contributing to both desertification and further biodiversity loss.

“With our current trends in production, urbanisation, and environmental degradation, we are losing and wasting too much land,” said UNCCD’s Executive Secretary Monique Barbut in the group’s Global Land Outlook report.

“We are losing our connection with the earth. We are losing too quickly the water, soil, and biodiversity that support all life,” she added.

Lambertini echoed similar sentiments, stating: “There’s not going to be a prosperous, healthy, happy, just future for us in a degraded planet.”

Finding common ground

UNCCD is one of three conventions that were established during the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Its sister conventions include the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Though significant as separate frameworks, Lamberti-

ni highlighted the need for more integration between the three conventions as the three issues are interconnected.

“We are calling for a new deal for nature…that really recognizes those interdependencies and that they need to be integrated — land degradation, climate change, and nature conservation,” he said.

The Executive Secretaries of the three conventions also recognised the intersectionality of the three issues during the U.N. climate change conference in 2017, calling for the establishment of a project preparation facility.

The facility would help promote a coordinated action towards the convention’s common issues and finance large-scale multi-disciplinary projects.

However, little has been mentioned of it since.

Similar to the Paris climate accord, the proposed “new deal for nature and people” would ramp up the international community’s efforts through ambitious goals and targets to halt biodiversity loss and protect and restore nature.

Unlike the majority of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the end date of the biodiversity-related targets under the SDGs is in 2020 and it is expected that many countries will not come close to reaching the targets given current trends.

The new deal for nature would therefore be a post-2020 framework, helping governments to keep up, if not raise, their efforts.

A recent U.N. Biodiversity Conference agreed to begin a preparatory process, marking a first step towards a new framework. However, WWF noted that ambition was weak.

“The world needs to wake up to the risks of biodiversity loss. All stakeholders; business, government and people, need to act now if we are to have any hope of creating a sustainable future for all and a New Deal for Nature and People in 2020,” Lambertini said.

“For this to happen, we need a cohesive vision and strong political will — something [Conference of the Parties 14] has unfortunately lacked,” he added.

The value of nature

The Living Planet Index calculated that nature provides services worth $125 trillion annually while also providing us with fresh air, clean water, food and medicine.

Wildlife play an essential role, and can even help restore and conserve land.

“We often forget that these creatures are fundamental to maintaining ecosystems like forests, oceans, wetlands, grasslands and make services that are fundamental to us,” said Lambertini.

“There is a huge link between biodiversity and their ecosystems…and our fight against climate change,” he added.

For instance, approximately 87 percent of all flowering plant species are pollinated by animals, and crops that are partially pollinated by animals account for 35 percent of global food production.

Primates also help disperse seeds and pollen, helping maintain tropical rainforests which are play a crucial role in global rainfall patterns and carbon emissions reduction.

During the recent U.N. climate change conference in Poland, many looked to natural climate solutions including forests, which help cut emissions by up to 30 percent.

WWF is urging all stakeholders to come together to deliver on a comprehensive framework to help protect the environment by the next U.N. biodiversity conference set to take place in China in 2020.

“It’s time to stop taking nature for granted — we are depending on nature more than nature depends on us,” Lambertini said.

“Don’t leave nature and environmental conservation and climate change as an afterthought, they have to be driving the thinking and the planning at the policy level as much as the economic level,” he concluded.

Courtesy of Inter Press Service / INSP.ngo