Mayor David Briley announced a bold plan to attempt to increase the aff ordable housing stock in Nashville. Will it work?
The
Vendor Sandy T. is learning how to be a grandfather by thinking of the one who helped raise him.
Vendors have shared their thoughts on bullies, affordable housing, sales techniques and smiles.
Jordan Peele’s latest offering, 'Us,' is a horror story with a message. In theaters now.
Contributor Board
Cathy Jennings, Chair Tom Wills, Bruce Doeg, Demetria Kalodimos, Ann Bourland
Linda Bailey • Amanda Haggard • Tom Wills • Barbara Womack • Tiff any M.
• John H. • William B. • Ridley Wills II
• Sen. Steve Dickerson • Vicky B. • Joe Nolan • Jackie S. • Victor J. • Harold B. • David Clinecasso • Cynthia P. • Julie B. • Loum O. • Mr. Mysterio • Ariel Lebeau
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 • Michael Chavarria
Will Connelly, Tasha F. Lemley, Steven Samra, and Tom WIlls
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
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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 “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 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-to-seven times as profits in the pockets of our vendors. Thanks for contributing.
El periódico que usted acaba de pagar fue primeramente comprado por alguien mas, de otra manera no existiría. Así es como funciona The Contributor. Un vendedor que está sin hogar pagó 50 centavos por este periódico y después se lo vendió a usted. Al comprarlo y llevarlo con usted, usted animo a este vendedor a comprar otro. BOOM! Esa es la solución. Ahora continúe leyendo. Este periódico tiene algo que decirle. Los periódicos vendidos en la calle proveen ingresos para las personas sin hogar e inicia una conversación sobre lo que es la falta de vivienda y la pobreza. En el 2007, los fundadores de The Contributor se reunieron en una librería pública en Nashville para formar uno. Y como golpe de un rayo, le llamamos The Contributor para dar a entender que nuestros vendedores eran “contribuidores para la sociedad,” mientras que los consumidores podrían contribuir a su trabajo. Pero, el trueno siempre tarda más que el rayo. Nos llevó tres años, pero Nashville nos acogió como ninguna otra ciudad en el mundo. The Contributor se volvió uno de los periódicos de calle más vendido en el globo. Y hoy el 50 por ciento de nuestros seis meses o más de nuestros vendedores titulares han encontrado casa. BOOM! Ha llegado el trueno.
JENNINGSThe Contributor es una empresa social sin fines de lucro muy diferente. Nosotros no servimos comida or proveemos alojo de emergencia. No contratamos gente en pobreza para crear productos or proveer un servicio. En vez, nosotros vendemos periódicos a las personas sin hogar para que ellos trabajen por ellos mismos. Nosotros los entrenamos como vendedores, ellos se quedan el dinero que se ganan, y ellos pueden comprar más cuando necesiten reabastecer su inventario.
Nuestros mas grandes aficionados no entienden esto. Como un rayo sin trueno, ellos ven la humanidad de el vendedor pero no comprenden el modelo. Un ejemplo: En el 2013 durante un evento de recaudación de fondos, uno de los representantes de una de las fundaciones más grandes de Nashville, exclamó: “Soy un gran aficionado, y es por eso que nunca me llevo el periódico.” Al cual nosotros respondimos: “Y es por esa razón por la cual estamos recaudando fondos.” BOOM! Y se escuchó el trueno! El pagar por el periódico y llevárselo hace que nuestro sistema funcione, el no llevarse el periódico rompe nuestro sistema. Y el vender el papel dos veces no da fondos para el periódico, pero da fondos para casas y causa cambio. BOOM! Nuestros vendedores reportan sus ventas para calificar para alojamiento subvencionado y hasta para una casa regular, depósitos e hipotecas. Ellos no consideran el que usted compre el periódico como una “contribución” pero más lo consideran como una venta.
Cuando se les acaba, ellos compran mas y asi logran establecer un negocio rentable. Hasta que lograron hacer estas ventas, muchos de nuestros vendedores nunca habían experimentado el placer de ver una inversión generar ganancias. Y cuando logran hacer esto, da un sentido de Liberación! Ellos se han vuelto contribuidores de su propio destino, y Nashville la ciudad de el trueno y el rayo. BOOM!
Ahora que te has vuelto nuestro SEGUIDOR, vuelve te en un ABOGADO o un MULTIPLICADOR. Ya eres nuestro SEGUIDOR, porque sabes que al llevarte este periódico sabes que esto hace que nuestro modelo funcione. Compraste el papel y lo estas leyendo. Ahora nuestro vendedor está a una copia más cerca de venderlos todos. Que emoción!
Ahora que te has vuelto nuestro ABOGADO cuando presentes a tus amigos a tu vendedor favorito, siguenos y comparte nuestro contenido en social media, contactanos cuando seas testigo de un vendedor actuando de manera extraña o fuera de carácter. O explicale a tus amigos porque ellos deben de llevarse el periódico cuando ayuden a un vendedor.
Te puedes volver un MULTIPLICADOR cuando abogues por nosotros, Y directamente dones a nosotros o te vuelvas un anunciador o patrocinador de The Contributor. Nuestra fuente de ingresos consiste en ventas de 50 centavos hechas por nuestros vendedores, igualadas por contribuciones, venta de anuncios, y patrocinios de multiplicadores como usted. Porque nuestros vendedores son dueños de negocios, las donaciones que den son dinero que es invertido y multiplicado en sus bolsas. Cada dólar donado se multiplica de cuatro a siete veces en la bolsa de nuestros vendedores. Gracias por Contribuir.
The Nashville Athena Program Committee held its 29th Annual Athena Award Program on March 28, 2019 at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The Nashville Athena Award Program is a unique CABLE event, organized through the collaborative efforts of local women's organizations in partnership with local businesses and individual sponsors.
Andrea Perry, chairperson of the Athena Awards and Scholarship Program said, "Athena provides Nashville CABLE with the opportunity to feature nominees who use their vision and persistence to excel professionally while blazing trails for others. This year we are recognizing two amazing women by giving them awards in separate categories."
The Traditional Athena Award, which celebrates women who demonstrate excellence, creativity and initiative in their professions and who continually mentor other women was presented to Mendy Mazzo, Senior Vice President of
Business Development at Skanska U.S.A. There were 26 nominees in this category.
The second award given was The Athena Young Professional Leadership Award which was created to highlight emerging women leaders between the ages of 25-40. This award was given to Brenda Gadd, founder of Rethink Public Strategies. There were 25 nominees in this category.
The Athena Awards are held every year during Women's History Month in March.
The purpose, according to Perry, was to "honor exceptional women leaders who inspire others to achieve excellence in their own professional and personal lives."
"We are thrilled to highlight the achievements of women throughout Middle Tennessee as well as support the advancement of our youth through the provision of scholarship opportunities."
The Athena Scholarship Program awards young women in Middle Tennessee scholarships for continuing their education.
WE’RE HONORED TO SUPPORT THE CONTRIBUTOR AND TO CHAMPION GOOD NEWS IN NASHVILLE.
In a recent Contributor vendor meeting, the staff asked us to share our opinions. Now, I myself have many of those, most of which I dare not even mention in today’s society. But I do have one which I feel anyone reading this article will both appreciate and agree with.
I have to assume that you, the reader, are either Contributor staff, a vendor, or that you purchased a paper. Therefore, as the purchaser of a paper, you had to both acknowledge and speak to a vendor and hopefully in a kindly manner. Now each vendor has their own style and way of selling papers. My intersection happens to be traffic that has exited the interstate and I have two complete lanes of vehicles. And I
make it a game to try to smile and wave at every vehicle that comes through my light in both lanes. And if I had to guess, I would say that only between 10 and 15 percent of people acknowledge me and wave back. And having sold papers for a couple of years now, I truly value the people that offer me that.
I truly believe that no matter where a person is in life, we should all treat each other kindly and respectfully. And some days, those smiles mean more to me than actually selling a paper. My circumstances are and should be irrelevant when it comes to this. However, collectively, human beings have a tendency to make them a factor. And I cannot stand when a person turns their
nose up at me or stares anywhere but my direction to avoid me. When I’m having a bad day, that smile can make all the difference. And it’s such an easy thing to offer. Plus, it’s FREE!!! So what do you have to lose?!
So I ask you all to remember that no matter who the person is or what they have going on, they are all still equally people and take the time to give someone’s day an uplifting gesture. And if you know anyone that passes by a vendor, mention this to them too. Because change only happens with action. And I hope to be a positive imprint on the world every day. Imagine what an awesome place it would be if everyone did just that!
God tells us directly to do unto others.
So even if you don’t have a dollar to give, give the gift of love and kindness. Maybe, in turn, whoever you give it to will pay it forward. And I believe that in doing just that, my life, both here on Earth and in the afterlife, will be rewarded. And it’s so cheap, how could I not invest?! And in writing this, if I may change one person’s perspective, then I have succeeded!
Like I said in the beginning of this article, most opinions I keep to myself. But I feel that this one is worth sharing and stressing. And if you have a rebuttal to this then I’ll smile and wave twice as hard as you! Because all the dollars in the world couldn’t buy the warmth a kind hello gives my heart.
God says in his word that, “God blesses us that we may bless others.” Many times I wondered why as Christians many just “walk on by.” Sounds like something the rich man practiced. All this time Lazarus laid at his gate, each time too and from his home, he saw Lazarus and he just walked on by. It’s not the example that Jesus taught in his word. Bad example.
Peter and Andrew was on their way into the synagogue and saw a lame man lying on his mat. He couldn’t walk. Peter
said to him, “I don’t have money but I give you what I have.” He healed the lame man and told him to take up his bed and walk. Another example was the good Samaritan. The Samaratin was on his way to another land, and on his way he saw a man who had been beaten lying beside the road. He stopped, got this man to a doctor, paid his bill and told them that if there was anymore cost he would pay it when he came back through on the way back from his trip. These are the ways, the exam-
ples Jesus taught. Many of us Americans don’t practice being compassionate to our neighbors.
Instead, they just “walk on by.” Even though God convicts their hearts in the process, still they ignore what they see.
A couple of months ago, I was on the MTA bus, going back downtown to the Room in the Inn to purchase some more papers. I got off the bus and I noticed a guy in a wheelchair as he got off and I was already running a bit early, 30 minutes to be exact, before The Con-
tributor opened after lunch. So, as the guy in the wheelchair started across the street, I got behind him and pushed the wheelchair. I asked him where was he headed, and he said to the Mission. So I pushed him to the front door of the Mission and told him, “You have a good day.” It’s practices as these Jesus taught that we should practice. We shouldn’t just “walk on by.” There are many other ways we can be a blessing to our neighbors. If you love your neighbor, they come to your heart automatically.
My name is William Boyd and I’m one of The Contributor’s vendors. I’ve been with them a little over a year. And I’ve really done a lot of things to help myself because of The Contributor. I’ve made, not a whole lot of money, because it’s not all about money with me, it’s about meeting people and telling my story and this is part of one of my stories. I’m in the process of writing my life story and The Contributor has helped me a lot along those lines. I have made videos for The Contributor, and I love doing that. I sing, I’m 70 years old. I think maybe someday if I live long enough, I might make it in the music
business, and I pray for that, but I don’t want to ever sing in no bars because I’m a recovering drug addict almost 12 years. It’s been a dream for me to be an entertainer for my life. Street entertaining is what I’m doing now and selling the Contributor newspaper. And I love it.
I was eight years old when I learned how to play the spoons. There was a guy at the mental institution I was in from 8-17 come to me and said, have you ever seen someone play the spoons? I said, “No sir, I haven’t.” He said, “Would you like to see me play?” I said, “Yeah man!” So he showed me how to play the spoons and i was really intrigued. I loved
it so he asked me would you like to learn how to play? I said Yeah! His name was Bobby Joe Dune. So I learned how to play the spoons and as I got older, I developed a different style than he thought me. Now I play the way I taught myself. And I said to myself, “Self! If you can play the spoons, you can play the forks!” And then again I said to myself, “Self, if you can play the forks, you can play the butter knives!: and I taught myself how to play the butter knives. And now, I think, maybe, with the Contributor’s help with Mr. John and Tom and the other guys, I think that these folks who are younger than me can help me so much.
the Contributor is one of the best things that’s happened to me in my whole life. I consider mysef part of their family and I consider them part of my family. You knwo what, my daddy had a saying before our company would come and meet. He’d say, “Y’all come and that means y’all come and see us when you can.”
Y’all have a very blessed life and if you like what you hear or what you read, please give the Contributor a call. And if you feel like you want to donate to The Contributor and build it up in Nashville, it would be so mostly appreciated. Bye bye.
BY RIDLEY WILLS II
David Lipscomb moved to Davidson County with his brother, William, in 1857. They purchased a 643-acre farm in the Graves Hollow section of Bell’s Bend. Tolbert Fanning, whose Franklin College David had attended, sold them the land which, except for 75 acres of bottomland, was wooded. On their property David built several crude log houses. In the summer of 1862, he married Margaret “Mag” Zellner, from Maury County. She cared for her own garden, cooked, sewed, played the piano and drew skillfully. The couple owned slaves — despite owning slaves, David Lipscomb spoke out against slavery from the pulpit. There was a steamboat landing in Bell’s Bend named for David Lipscomb. From there, corn, cord wood, cotton, grain and lumber would be shipped to New Orleans.
Brother Lipscomb used to preach from the river bank near the landing and later built a little church in the bend.
After Union forces occupied Davidson County in 1862, David and Mag moved to Lawrenceburg, Tenn., because it had been less touched by war. David taught school for a session at Eagle Mill in Lawrence County. After the school term ended, David and Meg, then pregnant, moved back to Bell’s Bend. There they lived in a log house Lipscomb built earlier on a small plateau. He enlarged it to include two rooms on either side of a dog trot. On Sept. 23, 1863, Mag gave birth to a son, whom they named Zellner Lipscomb, for her family. Nine months later, while teething, Zellner became ill. His father tried, but failed, to get a physician as
they lived in such a remote area. Zellner died June 26, 1864.
The Lipscombs moved from Bell’s Bend to a two-story house on a 110-acre dairy farm on Granny White Pike four miles from town. Lipscomb purchased it for $10,600 in 1883. He kept their Bell’s Bend Farm which was substantially smaller than the 643-acre farm he and William bought in 1857. William had sold his interest in 1866 and David had given his nephew, David “Davey” Lipscomb Jr., part of what remained as a wedding gift in 1881. It was not until the 1890s that Lipscomb sold what land he had left in Bell’s Bend. The purchaser was Dr. J. H. Ward, a close friend and a co-worker at the Nashville Bible College that Lipscomb founded with preacher James A. Harding in 1891.
The first time Sandy sat down with me to do a vendor spotlight was about seven years ago. We were both fairly new to The Contributor. We reconnected recently at a Contributor paper release to talk about what’s been happening since the last spotlight.
What's been going on Sandy?
Well, my wife Elizabeth had a double cardiac arrest, November 26 of 2012. She passed away for 10 minutes during the first one, and was revived by the paramedics on the city bus and then went on to have a second one at the hospital.
That’s a big deal.
Yeah it was was. It was huge. Scary. When I got to the hospital my pastor was there waiting for me. The doctor told me what was going on and I was weak after that.
I asked if I could see her and prayed over her with my pastor. And I said, “God if you got to take her, go and take her. Me and the boys will be ok.”
My pastor said that is surrender for you to hand her over like that. I said well she’s not mine, she’s God’s and I’m just fortunate enough to have her in my life. But she made it through, thank God.
Later on, I ended up getting a driver’s license and got a vehicle and now I work for a hotel and recently became a grandfather a year ago.
What’s it like being a grandfather?
Well, when we was first told that his girlfriend was pregnant, I was like how do I become a grandfather? What do I do? Then I thought about all the things my grandfather did with me and I said I’ll do the same things with her that he did with me from discipline, to guidance, to nurturing, to be a good person.
What kinds of things would you do together?
We’d go fishing, we’d get out and split wood for the winter. We’d just get in the truck to go somewhere, just to go. No purpose or nothin’.We’d build stuff together, as I got older. He taught be how to plow a garden. If I needed discipline, I got it, but he would also tell me why he was doing it.
He taught me that it was important work hard and just try to do the best I can at something, and if you can’t get it figured out, ask. He taught me to be punctual. That was always by big thing from the time I started working.
It sounds like the things you learned from him, you still carry now.
I lost my way for a while. But I never forgot what he taught me. Or the things that we would do together.
Did you take a break from selling the papers?
I didn’t really take a break, I just cut back because of my work schedule. I mainly sell on Sundays at First Baptist Church at 7th and Broadway. I may occasionally do a Friday at my old spot downtown on 4th and Commerce.
My main thing is the people that I deal with at my church and downtown. I can’t let them go. These people have been there for me when I was at my lowest when my wife was sick. And I thought, ok if they sit there and back me during my time, you know, that I was really struggling to figure out what was going to happen next, then they are going to be there every step of the way and I can’t let them go.
It sounds like an important community.
It is. Just knowing I have people who have got me means a whole lot. You don’t get that very often.
It sounds like your faith is very important to you. What keeps your faith so strong?
Because of all I’ve been through in my life. Especially my childhood. Going through two years of abuse and being told that it was my fault that my mother got killed that’s always in the back of my mind still. But I don’t have the nightmares from it anymore. That keeps me going because I remember my stepfather telling me I’d never amount to anything, but here I am selling the newspaper.
If I can make it through that, and God was there by my side, and my grandparents were praying for me, then he had a reason for me to still be on this earth. I know fully well that not everybody believes in God, but I know I do and I’m not ashamed to say it.
I look back over since moving here in 2010 and how much I’ve evolved. I never thought I’d get my drivers license back and now I have the world at my disposal pretty much. I can leave whenever I want to instead of waiting 30 minutes for a bus to show up.
She’s doing better. I don’t think she’s ever going to get quite back to the way she used to be, but she’s better.
"I WAS LIKE HOW DO I BECOME A GRANDFATHER? WHAT DO I DO? THEN
I THOUGHT ABOUT ALL THE THINGS MY GRANDFATHER DID WITH ME AND I SAID I’LL DO THE SAME THINGS WITH HER THAT HE DID WITH ME..."
It is a real treat to write a series of articles about Tennessee’s General Assembly. While the first installment may be a bit dry, over the next few weeks, we will look at the General Assembly, how ideas become bills and then follow a bill from conception to enactment into law.
As with our federal government, state government in Tennessee is divided among three co-equal branches: executive, judicial and legislative.
Tennessee’s legislative branch is the Tennessee General Assembly. Our General Assembly has been in existence since 1796 and, like 48 other state legislatures, has two chambers. Our chambers are the House and Senate and we are constitutionally mandated to have 99 members of the House and not more than one-third that number of senators.
Legislators in Tennessee are part-timers. Many, if not most of us, have other jobs.
There are doctors, lawyers, realtors, farmer and pharmacists who spend three-four months a year in the General Assembly.
Senators represent just over 200,000 constituents and serve for four year terms that are staggered so that seventeen are contested in years when the gubernatorial race is on the ballot and sixteen are contested in years where the presidential race is contested.
House members represent one-third as many Tennesseans and serve two year
terms such that every member is up for election in every even-numbered year.
Viewing our General Assembly through a political lens, one would see that both chambers are heavily Republican. In the Senate, there are 28 Republicans, 4 Democrats and one Independent; in the House, the split is 73 Republicans vs. 26 Democrats.
In the next installment, we will look at the problem of recidivism in Tennessee and one way we might go about addressing it.
The word affordable gets thrown around a lot in advertising and in media. It suggests that anyone can afford the suggested item. Take for instance rentals in the area advertised as “affordable” that require you to be making three times the suggested rent. So with an apartment renting for $1,200 per month, you’d need to be making $3,600 per month. Most jobs downtown that don’t require a degree are service workers making maybe $11.00 per hour on a 40 hours week that’s $440 gross. Monthly that’s only $1,760. So basically Nashville is saying yes come work here, but forget living here it’s out of your league. The outlying areas are just as bad. Apartments in Hermitage and Madison cost upwards of $950 per month. With Nashville's massive growth, the need for more and more affordable housing has increased. What was once an affordable place to live has grown into a place you don’t
even want to look at to live unless you make a six fi gure income. Th is leaves out those working, but not making a living wage and our friends experiencing homelessness. On March 26, Mayor David Briley announced an aggressive move to take care of this affordable housing problem that has only gotten worse over time. Mayor Briley announced a $750 million dollar project that will span over the next 10 years to bring together these citizens that are in desperate need for housing that is affordable and also to renovate MDHA properties in need of improvements. Now i’m not a politician and those who know me know I’m not really into politics, but this certainly has my attention. So many times Nashville has built one affordable housing complex just to need four more. The wait lists fi ll up with incredible speed leaving more and more out of reach of decent housing. Under this aggressive move, Nashville will commit $500
million from public funds and $250 million in private sector funds. Th is is by far the most aggressive move I’ve ever seen to get a handle on the homeless and low income issues that only continue to rise everyday. In many cities and states across the U.S. I have yet to see the commitment to get citizens the housing they so rightly deserve at a price they can afford.
Judith Tackett, director of the Metro Homeless Impact Division stated, “Adding low-income aff ordable housing units to Nashville’s housing stock is a huge win for our community! Now we must work to improve our coordinated entry system to help our most vulnerable neighbors access housing. We can end homelessness for a lot of people.” With such a community effort in place we can do this and do this right.
Home Street Home (HSH) Ministries stated, “It’s a move in the right direction but it doesn’t do nearly enough to address the
immediate crisis that the homeless community faces. A 10 year plan is good but, when there are 100+ dying on the streets each year, we need something to happen now.”
The non-profits will have to continue their mission and private donations will still be needed until this plan is completed. My hope is that Nashville will be the role model for other states to follow in this aggressive approach instead of wishing the problem away or creating laws to make it harder on homeless people. Yes there will be those who think trees are way more important than human suffering but eventually I feel that this plan will provide housing and give dignity to so many low income families and homeless people. If we all do our part this can be a reality. Yes there will be those who will make it difficult, but we can get past those to make it a reality. It would be great to call Nashville the “affordable city” instead of the “it city.”
ver the past decade, Nashville hasn’t been able to keep pace with the amount of affordable housing the city needs. As the city continues to experience an influx of new residents, the problem gets worse and worse. A housing report released by Metro Nashville in 2017 said that Nashville’s affordable housing shortage would be at a deficit of nearly 31,000 units by 2025.
A new plan out of Mayor David Briley’s office is aiming to cut into that number a bit — the “Under One Roof 2029” plan announced at the end of March wants to, “significantly accelerate the city’s efforts to address housing needs.”
And it has a big number attached to it: Briley, whose announcement comes as he’s
Orunning for mayor, wants to invest $750 million into affordable housing over the next decade. He says the plan could create at least 10,000 units of affordable housing.
"Nashville is thriving in many ways, and that is a good thing, as growth creates better-paying jobs and generates revenue for schools, roads, parks and libraries,” Briley said in a release. “Yet the true measure of a great city is how it treats all of its citizens — making sure growth is balanced by continuing to invest in people. The Under One Roof 2029 initiative will help ensure we all move forward together.”
"When people talk about affordable housing, they can mean different things depending on their circumstances and needs," Briley said. "Shelter is the most extreme and urgent need, but living near work and being able to keep a roof over your head while earning even the most modest fulltime wage are also critically important.”
A release from the Mayor’s Office
outlines the plan in the following terms:
• $350 million investment of city funds in the Metro Development and Housing Agency to accelerate the Envision process and, in turn, add more than 5,000 new units on MDHA properties. This includes adding approximately 1,000 deeply affordable units (about a 20 percent increase). MDHA will also preserve and revitalize its existing 2,800 deeply affordable units, complementing the 5,000 new units.
• $150 million investment of city funds in the Barnes Fund — representing a 50 percent increase above current funding levels, which is projected to help fund the creation of at least another 5,000 affordable housing units throughout the city.
• $250 million challenge to the private sector to step forward with matching dollars. In an effort to better facilitate private invest-
ment in affordable housing, the Mayor’s Office is exploring a number of avenues, including the creation of an affordable housing Real Estate Investment Trust.
Skeptics of the plan — most notably John Ray Clemmons, Briley’s opponent in the mayoral race — say that the plan might not fully address the issue.
“In six years, Nashville is estimated to have a 31,000-unit shortage for middle-class and low-income families,” Clemmons said in a statement “This constitutes a crisis and requires bold leadership and innovative, substantive action. Unfortunately, the Mayor’s plan falls short in both respects.”
Clemmons also took a bit of a dig and called Briley’s plan “a newfound focus on affordable housing.”
“As our city has prospered, too many Nashville families have been left behind and displaced from their neighborhoods,” Clemmons said.
GRAPHICS FROM THE UNDER ONE ROOF WEBSITE, UNDERONEROOF2029.COM, DETAIL THE GOALS OF THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING PLAN AND COMPARE IT TO CITIES SIMILAR TO NASHVILLE.
District 19’s Freddie O’Connell and AtLarge Councilmember Bob Mendes both question where exactly the money will come from.
The portion of funds that will be used to speed up the Envision process, which includes transforming Cayce Place, Edgehill Apartments and Napier and Sudekum into multi-income communities, would be a $350 million investment into MDHA. Mendes has questioned whether that means the Envision process was behind to begin.
MDHA, of course, is happy to received the extra funds.
“Today’s announcement is an extraordinary step forward for the city. Mayor Briley’s leadership is enabling us to leverage local dollars for the benefit of those most in need in Nashville,” said Charles Robert Bone, chair of the MDHA Board of Directors. “Getting federal, state and local dollars to work together will enable us to get many more families into the homes they need. It also will put Nashville at the forefront of affordable housing efforts across the country.”
Briley’s announcement says that “the local investment will allow MDHA to seek additional federal dollars to expand the number of affordable housing units built, creating more than 5,000 new homes at MDHA properties, with at least 1,000 ‘deeply affordable’ units for those facing the most acute need plus another 1,600 affordable and workforce housing units.”
Some have also wondered whether the part of the plan that requires the private sector to pitch in will pan out. It’s been a wish of advocates for a long time that those with more fi nancial means, particularly those in the real estate world, in the city would donate to help with the affordable housing crisis. If they haven’t so far, then why would they now? The ask is also large: $250 million from the private sector would take some big commitments.
Briley’s announcement indicates that “the Mayor’s Office is exploring a number of avenues to facilitate greater private-sector partnership and investment in affordable housing. The Mayor has also
committed to personally working with private-sector leaders to advance those discussions.”
In short, Briley thinks he can be the catalyst that finally makes the private sector kick in some cash.
The other piece of the puzzle is a $150 million injection into the Barnes Fund, which the Mayor’s Office says can create 5,000 units of affordable housing.
“The Barnes Fund plays a critical role in empowering nonprofit housing developers to work with the city to create more affordable housing opportunities for people. It’s public-private partnership at its best,” said Kaki Friskics-Warren, chair of the Metro Housing Trust Fund Commission, which oversees the Barnes Fund. “Th is significant, ongoing commitment of public dollars to the Barnes Fund will help build capacity within the nonprofit development community and kick it into higher gear than ever.”
Briley also wrapped the already announced $25 million for housing for people experiencing homelessness into his announcement. The $25
million will go toward building 100 units of permanent supportive housing, which will be attached to a homeless service center downtown.
Also wrapped into the funding release was the announcement of an MDHA staff member dedicated to the Under One Roof initiative. Matt Wiltshire, who was the director of the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Community Development, will now take on the role as MDHA’s Chief Strategy and Intergovernmental Affairs Officer. According to the Mayor’s Office, Wiltshire will oversee “MDHA’s overall strategy and strengthening coordination of public and private partners.”
Despite concerns about where the money comes from and whether the plan is “bold” enough — and the perceptions of making the announcement during an election cycle — steps toward affordable housing are needed and beyond due. Over the next decade, as the city continues to sprawl, we’ll see whether $750 million is near enough to fix the problem.
The folk-horror cinema sub-genre is best exemplified by a trilogy of films: Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General (1968), Piers Haggard’s Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) and Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973). These are each very different movies, but all three share a theme about the power religious superstition holds over human communities isolated by geography. Folk-horror films often speak to the pre-Christian era when those isolating geographies — mountain ranges, deep woods, oceans — were empowered by fearful believers as the wild, natural dwellings of fairies, monsters, witches and devils.
Recent films like A Field in England (2013) and The Witch (2015) have fans of woodsy and wicked pictures proclaiming a full-on folk-horror revival. And if you can’t get enough of possessed peasants, menacing mountains, and the bubonic plague, Hagazussa is for you. This film sets a slow early pace with long Tarkovsky-esque shots that meditate on the grinding slow pace of Middle Ages rural life. But before this film ends we’re treated to a Mandy-esque climax filled with hallucinatory atmospherics. An intense score courtesy of the Greek avant-rock trio, MMMD, supports it all — imagine a minimalist chamber ensemble playing death metal.
A little girl named Albrun lives in a small log cabin on a humble farm with her mother who is dying of bubonic plague. There is no husband-father around and the Christians in their community shun Albrun and her mother. Albrun becomes a single mother herself and raises her daughter in the same small room where she grew up. Albrun’s cruel neighbors mock her, before she’s lulled into a false friendship and brutally assaulted for being a pagan. That’s the last straw for Albrun who goes mad in a frenzy of vengeance as she fully embraces her outsider status and gives us some of the most deeply disturbing footage I expect to see in film this year.
It’s almost unbelievable that Hagazussa is director Lukas Feigelfeld’s film school graduation project and his debut feature. Some might not care for the loose plotting of Hagazussa — the film offers a haunting mosaic of striking set pieces rather than a more traditional story structure. But,
paired with the director’s go-for-broke visuals, this debut heralds the arrival of a cinematic visionary. Feigelfeld also wrote the film’s script, but Hagazussa wouldn’t work as well as it does if not for Aleksandra Cwen’s chilling turn as Albrun, and the luminous lensing of cinematographer Mariel Baqueiro who works with natural light to evoke the horrific atmospheres of a woods at sundown and misty mountainsides at dawn.
Hagazussa was released across the Atlantic back in 2017. Now the film will get a limited U.S. theatrical release, and it will also be available on DVD and Blu-ray via Dopplegänger Releasing and Bloody Disgusting. Nashville isn’t currently scheduled for a big-screen stop, but the Blu-ray release on April 23 is definitely recommended for folk-horror fans. I’m a little obsessed with collecting movies on disc, but it’s the package and the extras that make a given release worth the shelf space. This home version
of Hagazussa looks and sounds great, and extras include: the “Interference” short film by Lukas Feigelfeld, select and deleted scenes from the film, a director commentary track, and a music video from MMMD.
I haven’t had a chance to watch the movie along with the commentary or to watch the deleted scenes. It will be interesting to see how much these extras flesh out the more mysterious aspects of Hagazussa . So much of this movie takes place in low light, just before the sun disappears behind a mountain peak. Many European folk traditions held that twilight opened a door between this world and the next. Like the best folk-horror movies, this film seems a part of both.
www.joenolan.com.
Major Ethan Frizzell is not low key. He is a big man with a big voice and he wears a uniform — all the time. He doesn’t close his emails “Sincerely yours” or “Best regards.” He closes each and every one with “For progress, Ethan Frizzell, Major.”
The first time I met him was at one of the “Reframing Dialogues” he organizes: lunches with guest presenters that engage the audience in rethinking how they think about “hard subjects.” It worked; I’ve been to several “Dialogues” and I have spoken with Major Frizzell many times discussing poverty, homelessness, chutes, ladders, and journeys. When he proposed sponsoring a column for The Contributor, I was excited — not because I always agree with Major Frizzell, but because Major wants to talk about the “hard subjects” with you, our readers. I work with our neighbors experiencing homelessness, poverty and distress every day. I share their joys, successes and also their losses. Progress for them, and for us, will only happen when we talk about the “hard subjects.” Major Frizzell invites you, and so do I, to thoughtfully consider the questions he poses and feel free to respond to cathy@thecontributor.org or Major Frizzell's Blog at http://salvationarmynashville.org/
With much gratitude for your continued support of our vendors, Cathy Jennings, Executive Director of The Contributor
I like mowing my neighbors’ lawns. Just the other day I had the opportunity to mow the lawn for another neighbor. Well, that now makes four lawns besides my own. Two of the neighbors I haven’t met yet — however, they don’t seem to mind and with my battles of work, it was the highlight of my week. A kind act to four households, that are diverse from mine, without expectation of reciprocity. Wait, that may not be true. When we moved in 20 months ago, our seventh home in 21 years, one neighbor came out and shared that we would be prayed over and cared for because we were their neighbor. A Tennessee welcome for sure.
After mowing, I used GPS to come into the city and meet with people who have lived without housing for more than 21 years. “The Homeless,” I am told. That is a curious thought to me. I am definitely a modern nomad, identified as neighbor, who still refers to the wrong city in speeches, and takes a moment in the morning to remember my place in the world. Then, there are those who have been living in shelters, tents, under bridges, and in shadowed corners who have lived here longer than I have lived in any city. They are “those experiencing homelessness,” (now doesn’t that sound better?) and I am not. So I challenge associates to recognize such persons as socially displaced. People got
really passionate! “Just call them Homeless! That is what they are!” The emotional anger that poverty provokes is interesting and can be discussed in another article.
So, being new to the city, and preferring to use creative abrasions to rub people just the
wrong way for progress, I have questions for you.
Might we recognize those who live near us as neighbors? Might we recognize that social, economic, and environmental factors increase the displacement of our neighbors from homes and neighborhoods? (So does free food, free shelter, and free length of stay, by the way.) If we then see each other as neighbors, some displaced and others distressed, but all Tennesseans, then might we pray for each other? Care for each other? Might we love our neighbor as ourselves?
There is a benefit to mowing so many lawns nearby. The whole neighborhood is refreshed together. It is my gift of thanks to my neighbors. I now extend my thanks to you for welcoming us to your neighborhood as well.
Major Ethan Frizzell serves as the Area Commander of The Salvation Army. The Salvation Army has been serving in Middle TN since 1890. A graduate of Harvard Kennedy School, his focus is the syzygy of the community culture, the systems of service, and the lived experience of our neighbors. He uses creative abrasion to rub people just the wrong way so that an offense may cause interaction and then together we can create behaviorally designed solutions to nudge progress. Simply, negotiating the future for progress that he defines as Quality of Life in Jesus!
JACKIE S.
When you contribute to the Contributor, You always contribute to the vendor’s cause. And while permanent housing is the goal for all, Not every vendor’s cause is the same. Some became homeless that have never had a drug, alcohol or criminal issue, and had good jobs/careers,
Some vendors have families they’re trying to support, And their husband’s income alone isn’t enough.
Before you question why a vendor doesn’t get a ‘real job,’ Know some vendors work around their child’s daycare Schedule… and aftercare/extended care might not be available.
Some vendors with families might be bouncing from Hotels to missions just so there can be at least a few days a week where the family can be together, Especially if the child is too young to understand, Know some vendors are conservatives, And just might listen to the same station you do, Anyone can become homeless for any number Of reasons… (But) if you are fortunate enough to have The ones you love with you you will never be homeless.
Love is stronger than any medicine that they have love is what can make you feel like you have the power to do anything you need to do.
God is love.
HAROLD B.
Our priorities are in order those that come first there will be no hunger There will be no thirst
Let's stand today for what pleases us we continue to serve God And follow Jesus.
BY CYNTHIA P., VENDOR
My dad always told me that people bully you because they’re trying to make themselves feel better because there’s something wrong in their lives that they don’t like so they bully other people so they can feel better. What do you think? Let me know. Why is it that people have to bully you? And make you feel like you’re nothing and call you names and put you
down so they can feel better. People need to think with their mind. Before they open their mouth. Let me know what you think on the subject. What do you think about people bullying the disabled or anyone for that matter.
Write in to editorial@thecontributor. org, and I will answer your questions or comments in future ditions of the Contributor.
JULIE B.
Why doesn’t Nashville have more homeless shelters? We need more housing for homeless people People complain about homeless people but what do you really do? Do you ask what you can do? No.
Nashville just complains about homeless people. Well I have a question for you. It’s not what the homeless can do for you, what can you do for the homeless?
Being a Contributor vendor is a great opportunity for myself. Since I started selling, I have been an exciting guy to my customers. My customers like my smile on my face and how I raise my hand as a symbol of love to drivers to force out their smile to me. As you know, smiling to customers causes love in the heart of customers (and sometimes thereby causing their hand to reach into their bags to pull out money to buy a paper from me.)
Usually as an entrepreneur person, the customers like bodily movement. So as a Contributor vendor, I dance to my customers as I move along my line of cars. Most customers put music on and as they enjoy I enjoy along with them encouraging them to give me money for the paper.
Lastly, the world is crazy because some customers tend to be at the top of the world, and look at me like I am not human however, I am always kind for them too.
CYNTHIA P.
I saw God wash the world last night with his sweet showers on high, And then, when morning came, I saw Him hang it out to dry.
He washed each tiny blade of grass and every trembling tree; He flung His showers agains the hill, and swept the billowing sea.
The white rose is a cleaner white.
The red rose more red, since God washed every fragrant face and put them all to bed.
There's not a bird, there's not a bee that wings along the way, but is a cleaner bird and bee then it was yesterday.
I saw God wash the world last night. Ah, would he had washed me as clean of all my dust and dirt as that old white birch tree.
So you’re lying in your bed, just about to fall asleep and your upstairs neighbor comes home. He clomps up the stairs, slams his door and stumbles around enough to take you from your peaceful precipice into full-alert. Then the floor shakes a little bit as he sits down on his bed. You brace for the familiar impact. Bam! One of those monster work boots he wears hits the floor. Then your whole body tenses and you’re waiting. Waiting. You’re waiting for that other shoe to drop, Aries. But here’s the thing about the other shoe — we just don’t know. Maybe he’s already asleep with one shoe still on. Maybe he forgot to wear both of them to work today. Maybe he remembered you were down there and set it down kindly and sweetly leaving you to wait. You can’t know what’s going on up there. Stop trying to guess and get back to sleep.
Of course I know that old fairy tale about the vain king and the scheming tailor and the imaginary suit that could only be seen by the worthy and the wise. Still, whenever anybody says, “the emperor wears no clothes,” I can’t help but think of Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars movies walking out of the bathroom wearing only a towel and a shower cap. It’s weird, I know. But I have to admit that I find it strangely comforting. I thought it might help you too, Taurus, to remember that even a hopelessly corrupted Sith Lord still might have to towel-off and brush his teeth before beginning his day of tormenting the Jedi and enslaving the galaxy. If that doesn’t do much for you, try picturing Donald Trump in shorts and flip-flops cleaning out the backseat of your car into a dumpster behind an Arby’s. Getting better?
Quick! What’s the heaviest living organism on planet Earth? I’ll give you a hint: It’s 80,000 years old, weighs 6,600 tons, and lives in Utah. No, it’s not your weird uncle Orson. It’s a forest. “Pando” is a forest of genetically identical aspen that all share a single root system. Despite appearing to be thousands of individual trees Pando is, essentially, just one plant. It makes me think of you, Gemini. I know you feel alone this week. I know you feel like one tree in an overwhelming forest, but that’s just because you’re ignoring your roots. You are more connected than you feel. You’re part of something bigger. Stretch out from your deepest parts and you may start to notice that you aren’t so different than those other lonely trees all around you.
You’ve probably heard it said that most people only use 10 percent of their brain. That’s actually just a myth based on a misunderstanding of how different parts of the brain do different things. Even the parts of the brain that we don’t understand or that seem too big for their little jobs are still generally operating at 100 percent. So why do people love to tell you that you’re just using 10 percent? That’s just guilt. Sometimes a sentiment that tries to spur you to live at your potential, just ends up making you feel inadequate. Give yourself a break on all that brain-business. Today you can just try to appreciate what you’ve got and what you’re already accomplishing. Be 100 percent where you are and enjoy the brain you’re living in.
I see you’ve got it all figured out, Leo. You just have to build your brand. Master your growth pyramid. Engage your audience through organic expansion and holistic relationship building. Define your paradigm and list your mission-critical tasks to achieve maximum social currency with value-added storytelling. Once you’ve accomplished all this, then you can finally start making a real impact. But there’s something I need you to do for me, Leo. Throw out all the buzzwords and repeat this simple mantra: “I am not a brand. I am a human being.” Of course you’ve got to make a living and maybe you even have to do it in a world that demands global marketing. But that’s what you do. It isn’t who you are. And it isn’t how you’re going to make a difference in the world. In the end your life is only going to be about your most personal and vulnerable interactions. Skip the self-marketing this week and get to the real relationships with the people who know you the best and love you the most.
In evolutionary biology, there are some scientists who theorize that changes happen gradually. The idea that bit by bit there was a smooth multi-millennial transition from the humble protozoa to the mighty Justin Bieber. Others theorize that changes happen in fits and starts. They call it “punctuated equilibrium.” It’s the idea that change happens relatively suddenly and then things settle back down into a sort of stasis. I don’t know much about evolutionary biology, but I do think that’s how it is with life. So I know that if it feels like things are rough and rocky right now, that’s just the change blowing in. Once you adapt, things will settle back down again, and maybe even get easy. Then they’ll get hard for a while. And so on. These dramatic moments pop up all of a sudden and we seldom see them coming, but you’re going to make it to the next phase. And even the next one after that.
You’ve packed quite a bit into that old refrigerator, Libra. It’s impressive how much you can get in there and you certainly are well-stocked for the future. But I’ve got to say, its getting a little moldy toward the back. I think you may need to change your approach. Keep the freshest things toward the back and the less fresh things–like that leftover eggplant Parmesan from Thursday–move it to the front where you won’t forget it. It’s the same way you need to think about your work this week, Libra. All that stuff at the bottom of your to do list that you’ve been pushing back, go ahead and bring it to the top. Knock out the things you’ve been avoiding and if anything is too old and moldy to finish, go ahead and throw it away.
It was hard work getting all those seeds in the ground. But now all those shoots have developed into seedlings and you can just sit back and wait for the vegetables to start pouring in, right? Unfortunately, not. You did the planting, but now you have to do the upkeep. Sowing the seeds gets a lot of credit, but weeding, pruning, protecting your plants from bugs and squirrels; that’s the work of gardening. You’ve done a lot of good work to get things started, Scorpio. But this season is about seeing things through to the end.
Why do athletes always make such terrible actors? You take a person who is amazing in his or her chosen field of sportsing and general physical achievement and you put them in front of a camera for a commercial or a skit or a movie cameo and they can barely even pretend to be themselves. It’s like they’ve never seen people talk before. But then you put them back out on the court or the rink or the track and they’ll leave any actor in the dust. Figure out what you’re good at, Sagittarius. Find the thing you want to commit to and stick with it. I’m not saying you have to turn down every offer to be in a Zaxby’s commercial, I’m just saying you’re going to need a day job so you know what you aren’t quitting it for.
I recently read that only about one person per year dies from a shark attack. However, about four people per year are killed in accidents involving vending machines. I guess people just have more contact with vending machines on a regular basis than they do with sharks. Still, if vending machines are killing more people than sharks, it begs the question: who would win in a fight, a great white or a fully stocked Diet Pepsi machine. I mean, Jaws was pretty scary. Do you think there could be a movie franchise based on a killer snack-cracker dispenser? I guess what I’m getting at, Capricorn, is that as much as you worry and take precautions and try to stay out of the water, you never know what’s going to happen to you in the end. Better to grab a Snickers bar out of the machine in the office on your way to the beach, enjoy yourself and let fate worry about the rest.
Man, Aquarius, it’s so hot out there you could fry an egg on the sidewalk! But despite the seeming convenience of cooking breakfast in the public right-of-way, there are probably better ways to fry an egg. Maybe a nice skillet on a stovetop would do the trick. Or go for one of those big flat commercial griddles. That way you could cook up a couple of strips of bacon and maybe some pancakes at the same time and you wouldn’t have to worry about getting dirt or rocks or pieces of old gum in your breakfast like you do when you cook it on the sidewalk. Just a general reminder that while there may be a lot of ways to get the job done, using the right tools tends to yield a better result with fewer complications.
An ice tray full of warm water will freeze faster than one full of cold water. I learned this in the sixth grade from Ms. Linsey–a flustered student-teacher who was trying to demonstrate how to use the scientific method. The freezing phenomenon is called the Mpemba effect, named for the Tanzanian student who published his ice-tray research in 1969. The strange thing is that the phenomenon is contrary to the laws of thermodynamics. Nobody really knows why the warm water freezes faster. From Aristotle to Descartes to Mpemba to Ms. Linsey, everybody has theories. But nobody has figured it out. So, Pisces, remember that in this age of smartphones, satellites, and nanotechnology, science still doesn’t understand what’s going on in your freezer. Why not ponder that over an icecold glass of lemonade?
In the first minutes of Jordan Peele’s new film Us, a father prods his young son with a joke as they arrive at their family’s beach house for a summer getaway: “Knock knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“You.”
“You who?”
“Yooohooo!”
Dad yodels the punchline playfully, to nobody’s amusement but his own. It’s a perfect eyeroll-worthy dad joke, as well as a foreshadowing of the terrifying crisis soon to arrive at the Wilson family’s doorstep: a troupe of dead-eyed doppelgängers in their own image, out for blood.
“You who?” indeed.
We’ve come to expect this thoughtful balance of meta-humour and existential terror from Jordan Peele, the comedy star turned Oscar-winning writer and director of 2017’s zeitgeisty Get Out Peele says his comedy credentials sharpen his skills as a horror storyteller.
“I’m realizing horror is the dark doppelgänger of comedy. They have the same DNA,” he explains. “They’re both about noticing how reality interacts with absurdity. They’re both about rhythm. They’re both meant to evoke a visceral response; a mini catharsis of some sort.”
The acclaimed, genre-bending Get Out follows a young black man as he is taken hostage by a white family whose cloying
fetishization of his race comes to reveal many more sinister intentions. After setting the bar high with his debut feature, Peele has outdone himself with his second.
Us focuses on the Wilson family — Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o), her husband Gabe (Winston Duke), their teenage daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and son Jason (Evan Alex) — whose summer trip to Santa Cruz takes a harrowing turn. Adelaide intuits something amiss. Soon after, the Wilsons’ disturbing counterparts arrive, culminating in the most suspenseful home invasion scene this side of Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (1997). A rollercoaster of terror, violence and expertly deployed comic relief ensues, through to a chilling conclusion.
Us successfully cartwheels the line between humour and horror. One of the movie’s most grisly scenes, for example, is also one of the most upbeat — blood is shed to the bouncy tune of a Beach Boys song, played by “Ophelia,” a clear analogue for Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa. The film uses more conventional horror tactics than the psychological slow burn of Get Out, but the cultural critique Us invokes is more nuanced. Like the iconic genre films from which Peele draws inspiration — films like George A Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) — the narrative can stand as a timeless story in itself, but the underlying social analysis is what
resonates, and is what will surely cement Us as a contemporary cultural touchstone.
“Th is movie has to be a popcorn fi lm that you can enjoy if you don’t want to think,” says Peele. “And it also has to operate on a level of an intellectually engaging fi lm that you can peel back the layers to. What I fi nd is when you give people both of those options, they tend to engage on the elevated level.”
Th at level, Peele explains, is the reflection of today’s society. In Us, Peele literalizes the concept of self-reflection by creating a scenario in which people are confronted by the most ruthless version of themselves. The fi lm asks us to grapple with the fallout.
“We as human beings possess this tribalism in our nature that causes us to fear The Other,” he observes. “We are much quicker to point our fi nger outward than we are to point it inward.”
But what happens when The Other is quite literally us? Peele’s hope is that “people will be ready to look inward.”
Winston Duke, who plays the father Gabe, relishes the fi lm’s subversive qualities, too.
“In a genre where blackness is usually the fi rst casualty, the American dream substitutes for that,” he says. “[Social constructs] become the things that are captured and interrogated and forced to defi ne themselves to survive. What does it mean to be American?”
Acknowledging the “pantheon of doppelgänger horror” that recurs throughout fi lm and folklore, a theme that Peele says “is all about self-reflection and looking at our dark side,” the fi lmmaker wants Us to push these
ideas even farther. “It’s one thing to look at our individual demons. It’s another thing to look at our collective demons and see that we, us, are capable of a different level of evil when we get together than of anything else on the planet.”
The red-clad, scissors-wielding doubles in Us — known as The Tethered — have a special relationship to their earthly counterparts; the more we learn about them, the more we’re led to question who the real enemy is.
“By the end, there is a big question mark in terms of what is good and what is evil,” Peele says. “Maybe there is something about those labels
that betrays our ability to fight what we call evil.”
The glue that binds his complex narrative is the fi lm’s outstanding cast. In their roles as the Wilson children, rising stars Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex each gets to shine. As Gabe, Winston Duke stands as the emotional totem of the fi lm, persistently relieving tension in his family even as the chaos intensifies.
But it’s Lupita Nyong’o’s performance that will be most remembered. Her two characters — Adelaide Wilson and her doppelgänger Red — demand incredible physical and emotional nuance, and yet she disap-
pears so seamlessly into both roles it’s easy to forget they’re played by the same actor.
Both Adelaide and Red embody grace and rage, but manifest them in remarkably different ways.
“Figuring out their physical vocabulary was key,” Nyong’o says. “The physicality is a manifestation of their emotional state at any given time.”
Her preparation included taking ballet lessons to reflect Adelaide’s backstory, and working with a vocal therapist to craft Red’s unique affectation. “[Jordan] described [Red] as being both ‘queen’ and ‘cockroach.’ Th at really spoke to me,” says Nyong’o, when I ask about Red’s unnerving mannerisms. “The idea of being very still, very present, like a queen, but also being able to scurry and surprise.”
We see this contrast in one of the fi lm’s climactic confrontation scenes: Adelaide twirls, sweats and screams as she tries to strike Red, who appears to evade her effortlessly.
“I’m so grateful to [Jordan], because he really did give me a good road map to create these characters,” Nyong’o explains.
“He was always intent on both of them being three-dimensional, and getting a balanced perspective of both characters.”
With Us, Jordan Peele has once again given audiences an exhilarating jolt of surreal storytelling, and an invitation to examine perils rooted in our own reality.
As Nyong’o says: “The power that horror gives us is the chance to collectively exorcise some darkness.”
Courtesy of Th e Big Issue Australia / INSP.ngo
