The Contributor, April 26, 2023

8

Por Yuri Cunza Editor in Chief @LaNoticiaNews

NAHCC and NAHCC Foundation members present Nashville Mayor John Cooper with the “Leadership” Award in support of small businesses (4/19/2023)

El encuentro contó con la participación de representantes de la vibrante comunidad empresarial hispana de Nashville. La NAHCC agradece a los asistentes y a los exponentes por compartir sus puntos de vista comerciales y profesionales durante la parte del panel del programa. El alcalde John Cooper reconoció la importancia de las pequeñas empresas propiedad de minorías para nuestra economía local, incluidas las miles de empresas propiedad de hispanos en Nashville. Hizo hincapié en el valor de la diversidad a medida que nos convertimos en un destino de clase mundial y el crecimiento exponencial de nuestra comunidad empresarial hispana en Nashville, un componente clave de nuestra prosperidad como resultado del impacto de Covid-19. La NAHCC y la junta directiva de la Fundación NAHCC se reunieron alrededor del alcalde de Nashville Cooper después de sus comentarios para sorprenderlo con un reconocimiento especial, el primero de su tipo presentado por la organización,

Conoce tus derechos: ¿Que hacer en caso de una redada?

1. Mantenerse callado 2. Sólo dar nombre apellido 3. No mentir 4. Nunca acepte/lleve documentos falsos 5. No revelar su situación migratoria 6. No llevar documentación de otro país 7. En caso de ser arrestado, mostrarla Tarjeta Miranda (llámenos si necesita una) Basados en la Quinta Enmienda de la Constitución, los derechos de guardar silencio contar con un abogado fueron denominados Derechos Miranda luego de la decisión de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de Estados Unidos en el caso Miranda vs. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, de 1966.

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de propiedad hispana superan los 1,500 mark solo en Nashville y la NAHCC, ha convertido en una prioridad y su agenda principal facilitar a los miembros el acceso a capital y recursos. Donna Mattick, Directora de Alianzas Estratégicas del Nashville Entrepreneur Center, dio la bienvenida a los asistentes a la 24.ª Reunión Anual de la Membresía de la Cámara de Comercio Hispana del Área de Nashville, destacando la larga relación entre ambas organizaciones que formalizaron un acuerdo de asociación en 2018 para beneficiar a los miembros de ambas organizaciones a través de un acuerdo especial recíproco y programa de beneficios. El presidente de la NAHCC, el Dr. Rolando Toyos, y la directora ejecutiva de la Fundación de la NAHCC, Loraine Segovia Paz, junto al presidente Mario Ramos dieron unas palabras de bienvenida sobre el crecimiento y la importancia de nuestra comunidad hispana en Nashville. LaTanya Channel, Directora de Crecimiento Económico y Desarrollo de Pequeñas Empresas, Gobierno Metropolitano de Nashville & Davidson Co; Thomas Sheffield, director del Fondo de Oportunidades de Nashville en Pathway Lending subió al podio para hablar sobre sus roles, el programa NSBRF y su impacto potencial en nuestras pequeñas empresas locales. El Fondo de Recuperación de Pequeñas Empresas de Nashville (NSBRF) todavía tiene $5 millones de dólares en fondos

el Premio LÍDER a John Cooper, alcalde de Nashville y el condado de Davidson "Por su destacado liderazgo en apoyo de las Pequeñas Empresas Hispanas". Este reconocimiento ejemplifica el valor de cultivar una relación sólida y mejorar la comunicación con los líderes de nuestra ciudad a medida que todos nos unimos para hacer un mejor Nashville para todos. Otros esfuerzos de asociación que la NAHCC emprenderá este año incluyen trabajar en estrecha colaboración con socios corporativos y comunitarios para destacar las pequeñas empresas y las empresas propiedad de minorías comenzando con un evento para la Semana Nacional de la Pequeña Empresa (NSBW) del 30 de abril al 6 de mayo de 2023 en asociación con la Pequeña Empresa de EE. UU. Administración de Empresas (SBA) a través de una cumbre virtual de dos días AQUÍ, seguida de un evento en persona para miembros del Cinco de Mayo con temática empresarial el 5 de mayo de 2023. La Fundación NAHCC continuará con los esfuerzos de divulgación, participación y mercadeo para apoyar el avance del programa del Fondo de Recuperación de Pequeñas Empresas de Nashville (NSBRF), que ofrece préstamos a pequeñas empresas y propiedad de minorías en Nashville y el condado de Davidson al 2% de interés. El NSBRF es administrado y administrado por Pathway Lending en nombre de Metro. Los empresarios hispanos son una parte vital y creciente de la comunidad empresarial de Nashville, y sus contribuciones tienen importantes implicaciones económicas y sociales para la ciudad. Muchos empresarios latinos enfrentan obstáculos significativos al iniciar y administrar sus negocios. Estos obstáculos pueden incluir el acceso limitado al capital, las barreras del idioma y la falta de redes de apoyo. Sin embargo, los empresarios latinos han demostrado ser resistentes e ingeniosos para superar estos desafíos. Su determinación y trabajo duro son rasgos que son críticos para el éxito en el mundo de los negocios.

de la Ley del Plan de Rescate Estadounidense para apoyar y sostener a las pequeñas empresas en Nashville y el condado de Davidson. La financiación del programa de préstamos ayudará a las empresas a mejorar, así como a crear y conservar puestos de trabajo en el área metropolitana de Nashville y el condado de Davidson, Tennessee. Para esta oportunidad, una pequeña empresa se define como aquella que tiene 50 empleados o menos e ingresos menores de $1,000,000 al año. Una microempresa tiene cinco empleados o menos, incluido el propietario. Tanto Channel como Thomas participaron en una conversación informal de preguntas y respuestas con 4 propietarios de pequeñas empresas hispanas de Nashville como parte de la Mesa Redonda de Líderes Empresariales de la Fundación NAHCC, donde los participantes compartieron sobre sus variados viajes empresariales, desafíos e historias de éxito, así como también informaron sobre su estado actual del negocio. Los panelistas invitados a continuación representaron a cuatro pequeñas empresas pertenecientes a minorías hispanas:

-Alejandra Candy Mejía, Shear Perfection Academy -Hugo Reyes, Pupusería Salvadoreña -Perla Salas, Moda de Perlita, Salón de Belleza Perla Salas

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Film reviewer Joe Nolan says Amanda Kim’s ‘Nam June Paik’ documentary depicts an eccentric genius.

PHOTO BY JUSTIN WAGNER

As winter turns to spring, Charles Johnson finally has a room of his own

When Charles Johnson’s name floated to the top of the housing waitlist for Madison Towers, it was the dead of winter.

On the streets, these months are brutal. Johnson had nothing but a backpack and his walking stick to endure the elements.

As soon as he was able, he applied for an apartment at Madison Towers. But the process was long, and waiting to hear back on the status of his application meant weeks of cold waiting.

He had a quiet agreement with a gas station convenience store where he’d help clean up in exchange for the chance to rest nearby, out of sight. This

BY JUSTIN WAGNER

and kindnesses from friends and family helped him along as he tried to get back on his feet after getting out of jail, but a roof overhead was still just out of reach.

He said God gave him the strength to stay on his feet in those days.

Now it’s spring — and he recently walked to Easter Sunday mass from his new apartment.

“I’m glad I’m off the streets, I ain’t gotta worry about the rain and cold anymore, you know what I’m saying?

I’m in a good, warm spot, and I’m gonna continue to do my best,” he said. “I went to church for Easter Sunday. I got a good blessing.”

Having to dedicate less time to sur-

vival needs, Charles has a chance to enjoy the warmer weather on his own terms. He’s got a new walking stick, a kitchen of his own and time on his hands.

“I have free time, my main thing is keeping this apartment straight and clean. I’ve got my brother, we ride around and hang out, and stuff — I stay busy,” he said. “I go out and sit, I listen to the radio. You know, I’m a drifter, I like being by myself anyway. I don’t like a lot of traffic.”

Having that appreciation for solitude, Charles’ time at his new apartment has been an opportunity to rest, he said. He soaks in the weather to the nostalgic tune of ‘90s R&B, music he’s loved for

a long time.

Charles’ time unhoused took patience and resilience, but he appreciates every good thing that’s come his way, he said. A chance to sleep in his own bed is a chance to maintain his space and finally enjoy spring.

“Like I said, I’m a drifter. I ain’t trying to go back in a bad way. I wasn’t bad when I went in. When I got out, I wasn’t bad. I must be doing something right!”

Despite all Charles has been through, his fortune is evidence that when good goes around, it comes around, he said.

“When you get out in the world, just do right, man. Put it out there and there are people who will help you.”

A Few Questions with Vice Mayor Jim Shulman

BY JUDITH TACKETT

Vice Mayor Jim Shulman has served in the Nashville legislative chamber for many years. He represented District 22 from 1999-2007 and served as an at-large councilmember from 2015 until his election to Vice Mayor in 2018.

The Contributor talked with Shulman as part of a series called A Few Questions With where we interview councilmembers about their district’s most pressing issues.

Could you briefly explain the role of the Vice Mayor?

The Vice Mayor holds an elected citywide position. The main function is to run the city’s Metropolitan Council meetings, which are on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. The responsibilities of the job include naming the chairs of each committee, which is typically done every year. The Vice Mayor also names the different councilmembers to each committee.

Since you do not usually sponsor bills or even vote on bills (unless to break a tie), what influence does the vice mayor have on legislation?

That may vary by vice mayor. I try not to influence anybody on how to vote. I believe it’s the responsibility of each councilmember to understand what the issues are on particular legislation. Predominantly, the legislation that’s coming through is pretty basic with uncontested zoning matters, contracts and grants that need to be approved. But there are obviously some items that are going to require some research, some understanding, and that’s up to the individual councilmembers to work through that and work out how they feel about a particular issue. The role of the vice mayor is to make sure that we try to get the ordinance or resolution in the proper form, so that people understand what we are voting on. Then it’s up to them to vote.

An example would be the (Titans) stadium issue that’s coming up. I believe there are close to 30 amendments. So, the role of the Vice Mayor in that case is to make sure the councilmembers understand exactly what’s before them, to make sure they understand what they’re voting on, so that there is no confusion at the end where people think they voted on something else.

You have called several special committees to look further into issues. How do you decide when to call a special committee?

I called a number of special committees early on in this term. That came from talking to people around the county about their concerns and also from talking to councilmembers. We had a review on priorities of sidewalks; we had a question about Codes we wanted to look into; and we had a special committee on zip code 37208, which had seriously high incarceration rates, at one point the highest in the country.

Sometimes these issues are not brought up in a specific ordinance or resolution, and so the idea was why don’t we focus on some issues that we need to. It gave new councilmembers a chance to chair a committee.

We’ve had a couple of special committees since then, one was on civility in the [Metro Council], whether we needed a Code of Conduct and a civility statement. [Another was the East Bank

Stadium Committee]. We [also] will have a series of meetings in the Public Health and Safety Committee chaired by Councilmember [Jeff] Syracuse to look specifically at school safety.

What main concerns do you hear from Nashvillians?

Overall, affordable housing is on everybody’s mind. Affordability of the city. I hear a lot about overdevelopment. Gentrification of neighborhoods is a concern. I just left a meeting about trying to make the city more age-friendly, specifically for seniors. Homelessness; we’ve been talking about that for a number of years. The homelessness issue needs a lot more study.

And then you get into some of the basic stuff and that is public safety, the increase in crime, overall education, making sure we properly fund education, and then the safety of our children in schools. We’ve all been watching, since Columbine, these school shootings, and then it happened here. There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed, but the number one issue on everybody’s mind at this point is school safety — how do we keep our children safe.

You are running for a second term. If elected, what are your main goals for the next four years?

I think the idea of special committees on the first term was good. I could see [continuing] on special committees with an emphasis on specific issues. We have to keep talking about school safety. Because of state law we’re not allowed to pass laws regarding guns or gun control. But we can certainly have discussions about ideas we can send up to the state legislature. We cannot afford to stop these discussions. We have got to keep talking and try to come up with solutions.

The other thing I would say, we should always be accountable for our actions. There are lots of contracts, lots of grant funds, and we have an

almost $3-billion city budget. One of the things we started talking about in the Audit Committee is accountability for the things that we’re funding. If you look at a typical Council meeting agenda, there are a number of contracts — whether it’s for transportation, public safety, etc. We pass them in Council, and then we never typically see them again. One of the things we’re talking about is to make sure that when we pass those things, we know the money is going where it’s supposed to, gets spent appropriately, and it does what it’s supposed to do.

I give you an example, we just authorized that $50 million in federal money for programs and services regarding individuals and families experiencing homelessness. So, we asked Thom Druffel, who is the chair of our Human Services Committee, to pull together a group — basically his committee — to actually make sure that those funds are accounted for, that they go to where they’re supposed to, and that they get spent properly and also expeditiously. We want somebody to stay on top of it to make sure those funds are properly authorized and spent.

That’s the type of thing that we will focus on again if I come back in a second term. Even if I don’t, I think the Council should do it, and that is, focus on the issues that are most important to the people of Nashville, and do it with more accountability, making sure things are done and the funds are spent the way they are supposed to.

How do you think the relationship between Metro and the state is going to continue to play out as you run and serve?

For the last several months, we have been in direct conflict with the state over a number of issues. Everything from decreasing the size of the Metro Council to the state’s attempt to take over the Airport Authority and the Sports Authority. Those are things we do not need to spend time on. I would say on behalf of the Metropolitan

Council, we’ve been functioning just fine for 60 years, and we seem to be very efficient.

We need to get back to [focusing] on those issues that are of severe importance to the city and the state. This idea that we’re going to spend time talking about boards and commission and how large the City Council should be, to me those are things we really don’t need to be talking about. We need to be focused on the protection of our citizens, the protection of our school children, and things that really are important in dealing with people who are struggling.

Relationships are not all that good right now, but for the benefit of the citizens both of Nashville-Davidson County and Tennessee, we need to figure out ways to communicate better, so we can come up with solutions.

You are a new board member for The Contributor, and you have always cared deeply about homelessness. What would you like the city to do to help address homelessness?

Homelessness is an issue that we need to deal with. And with a lot of people’s help, and a lot of agencies around the community, there has been a significant increase in focus on trying to address the issue. There are some very strong groups in town that obviously have some different opinions on this, but the idea was to try to bring everybody together. The city needs to address this concern in some way. And it involves finding more and more affordable housing and shelter space if necessary and wraparound services.

We need to find ways to assist people. Obviously, people experience homelessness for a variety of reasons, we cannot put everybody into one group and say this is going to solve the problem. People have different issues that need to be addressed. The idea is that we may have to do this one at a time.

I think one of the most important things the government can help with is [assisting] its citizens. I’m glad that Nashville is much more focused on it, I think we need to keep focused on it, and we need to keep working through it.

Anything else?

As of today, Nashville has been through quite a lot. Not only over the last several years, but over the last several weeks. What I would have said a week and a half ago is that I think the city was going through a depression and grieving. And it still is.

The situation at the Capitol with Rep. Justin Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson led to people coming together, particularly in Nashville behind Rep. Jones with the Council acting very, very quickly to put him back into his house seat. I think people felt good about something. Now what we need to do is to continue the ability to focus on democracy, the ability to have civil discourse, the ability to talk through issues and use that to address issues that seriously need to be addressed.

I’m not sure the city has had enough time to grieve thoroughly over what happened at the Covenant School. With everything else going on, I think it’s going to take a while to recover from that. It’s a very, very sad time in the city’s history, and we’re going to be dealing with that for a long time. But the city is resilient, and we will keep working on trying to address those issues that need to be addressed.

This History of the Doctor’s Building

BY RIDLEY WILLS II

Haven't you admired the six-story brick building at 710 Church Street along with its neighbor, the Bennie Dillon Building? The Doctor’s Buildings is notable for its use of glazed, terra-cotta tile. Originally built in 1910 as a four-story building, it was designed by Edward E. Dougherty, a young Atlanta architect who was a graduate of the School of Architecture at Cornell University and who had studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in

Paris where he received the coveted diploma of the government of France in 1905. In 1915, Dougherty was the architect for the clubhouse of the Nashville Golf and Country Club in the Belle Meade Deer Park.

Isn’t it nice to have a few handsome brick buildings like the Doctor’s Building and the Bennie Dillon Building downtown where they are dwarfed by glass skyscrapers?

In the March 1 issue of The Contributor , the last sentence included an error that transposed the names in the story. It should have read: "Over the years, Ed and Bernice Johnson and their daughter Mary gave Belmont College (now university) $23 million made possible by the stock given them by their good friend Herman Lay many decades ago."

Ridley wrote a book!

Longtime writer for The Contributor Ridley Wills II has published a book cataloging all of his work writing History Corner articles for the paper from over the past decade. All proceeds from the book will be donated to The Contributor to continue its mission of providing low-barrier income opportunities for people experiencing homelessness so that they can find sustainable housing.

FIND THE BOOK AT THESE LOCAL STORES:

Belle Meade Mansion Gift Shop: 5025 Harding Pike

Elder's Bookstore: 101 White Bridge Road

Fort Negley Visitors Center: 1100 Fort Negley Boulevard

Historic Belmont: 1800 Belmont Blvd.

Logos Book Store: 2136 Bandywood Drive

Parnassus Books: 3900 Hillsboro Pike, Suite 14

Landmark Booksellers: 114 East Main Street, Franklin TN

Hot Pink: 831 Franklin Pike, Brentwood TN

Duck River Books: 124 Public Square, Columbia TN

NASHVILLE HISTORY CORNER

Learn More about the Dangers of Encampment Sweeps

BY JUDITH TACKETT

A new study confirms what experts have been saying all along, encampment sweeps can have detrimental outcomes for people experiencing homelessness who inject drugs and are already more susceptible to overdose deaths.

The research was published on April 10, 2023, and conducted by a multidisciplinary group of researchers including experts from the National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC), which is headquartered in Nashville.

The bottom line is that encampment sweeps, move-along orders and encampment bans that result in continual involuntary displacement have negative health impacts on people injecting drugs and could contribute to deaths. No scenario the researchers looked at in their simulation modeling study found a neutral impact or improved health outcomes for the population due to encampment sweeps.

On the contrary, the models showed significant increase in morbidity, mortality, and a shortened life expectancy. The following information is lifted from the NHCHC press release, which showed:

151% increase in overdose mortality;

11% reduction in life expectancy;

50% increase in hospitalizations;

6% increase in serious injection related infections (SIRI) mortality; and

38% decrease in Medication for Opiate Use Disorder (MOUD) initiations.

We already know that the life expectancy for people experiencing homelessness is significantly reduced, by 15-20 years, compared to the housed population. Therefore, housing is healthcare. We hear this mantra over and over. Yet, when it comes to focusing on homelessness, politicians nationwide still want to find a silver bullet — or band aid — approach.

They overlook that the band aid is not sticking any longer. It’s been overused and resources would be better spent on actual solutions.

If sweeping encampments and forced closures would solve homelessness, we simply would not have a homelessness issue across the nation. And here is yet another study telling us the same thing for a specific subpopulation.

What we need to address the homelessness crisis and the opioid/drug crisis that also affects a percentage of people experiencing homelessness is to offer services, implement harm reduction, and work on reducing overall outdoor homelessness by offering people options that lead to nontime limited housing with wraparound services and access to medical care. (And be careful as you read this. We want to avoid stereotyping people more than we are already prone to do because not everyone who experiences homelessness is suffering from a substance use issue).

With so much focus on encampment closures in Nashville, which currently comes with a roughly $50 million investment, it is important that our local politicians pay attention — especially those on the Metro

National Health Care for the Homeless Council Key Findings

Question: What are the long-term health effects of involuntary displacement of people experiencing homelessness who inject drugs in US cities?

Findings: This simulation modeling study of 23 US cities projects that involuntary displacement of people experiencing homelessness may yield substantial increases in morbidity and mortality over a 10-year period. Involuntary displacement is estimated to worsen overdose and hospitalizations, decrease initiations of medications for opioid use disorder, and contribute to deaths among people experiencing homelessness who inject drugs.

Meaning: Ceasing involuntary displacement of people experiencing homelessness may mitigate some health-related harms associated with homelessness.

A summary of the study and access to source documents can be found at https://nhchc.org/media/press-releases/study-shows-involuntary-displacement-of-people-experiencing-homelessness-may-cause-significant-spikes-in-mortality-overdoses-and-hospitalizations/

Council’s Homelessness Oversight Committee.

We have a chance here in Nashville to do this right and use the $50 million wisely with a long-term objective in mind.

I agree with the NHCHC press release that outlines what the focus of cities should be:

• Stop sweeps.

• Fund Housing.

• Provide Supportive Services.

• Prevent Criminalization.

• Be Trustworthy.

On the surface, it looks like Metro is following that advice. But if you scratch the surface, the current approach becomes vulnerable to criticism. Unfortunately, it seems Metro has also taken to intimidation tactics of critical voices that want to improve the city’s tactics. I’ve been made aware of multiple occasions where Metro staff has attempted (and in some situations succeeded) to shut local experts up by either approaching supervisors of nonprofit staff to ask them to silence dissent from their staff, or otherwise reminding executive leaders that their nonprofits receive city contracts. I’ve heard of more than half a dozen such scenarios.

Several city administrations, including the Cooper administration, generally have tried to avoid sweeps without adequate notice, and if closures happened the city made some efforts to link people to support services, shelters, and in some situations even permanent supportive housing, which often does not work due to tight timelines. The reality though is that Metro Police officers have a lot of leeway in encampment closures, especially when it comes to small encampments, and often police don’t have much of a choice when private property owners request assistance with removals.

Furthermore, the state has systematically closed encampments on state property and is likely to increase that approach. We probably could call this an expected side effect of the current city policy that is focused on rushing encampment closures.

For Metro, it has become more important to meet encampment closure dates than to engage in a harm-reduction approach.

City leaders are too focused on those quick wins, which are just that, quick and lacking the serious investment in low-income and subsidized supportive housing.

Housing ends homelessness. Support services help people maintain housing. And health care is most effective when people are in housing.

The new study also is clear that support services and healthcare need to start wherever people are and continue as people move into housing.

“Do not force people to relocate or mandate services,” the NHCHC press release states. “Provide supplies to maintain a healthy environment and offer to keep copies of vital information in case they are destroyed. Importantly, use harm reduction interventions to limit overdose mortality, including Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), ensure naloxone is available and [offer] syringe exchange services.”

Another key element that cannot be overemphasized is the importance of building trust. To do so, people in encampments should be involved in the decision-making process. I am not talking about Metro officials and politicians visiting with people prior to an encampment closure and talking to folks who have a deadline looming over their heads before they are forced to gather their belongings and either be lucky to be assigned to a temporary housing location or — if not so lucky — receive a bus pass to a mass shelter (where they of course never show up and instead move to another encampment).

I am all for a well thought-out plan that includes interim housing options in addition to permanent supportive housing. After all, I helped craft some of the temporary housing models Metro is using. I just never thought the current administration would use those options to prioritize individual encampment closures based on politics rather than focus on an overall outdoor housing plan that works with and for people in encampments.

Temporary housing is not permanent supportive housing. Those places should be among the options for people to move out

of encampments quickly and be a place to work on their housing searches. Rather, they have become locations to move encampments indoors, so that the Metro-imposed deadlines can be kept. Furthermore, Metro has rushed to open more temporary beds without allowing for the proper training of staff. What is more, there is clearly a lack of options for people to move out of encampments into permanent supportive housing directly, which would be part of a solid Housing-First-oriented plan.

The $9-million support services contracts, which are part of the $50 million American Rescue Plan allocations, are still not in place. And the Metro Council’s Homelessness Oversight Committee so far has served as a cheerleader club rather than an accountability body as they only seek reports from the administration and the Mayor’s Office consultant, who is contracted for $730,000 over two years. This body would be better served by seeking input from the different local homelessness services organizations involved who have built long-standing relationships with the people in encampments and who have been collaborating closely for years. This group of local providers has a track record of focusing on chronic homelessness and most recently coordinated efforts to house more than 600 people from outdoor situations during the pandemic. This resulted in Nashville being able to keep its overall homelessness population steady even though the city did not listen to local experts to invest in permanent housing opportunities that were one-time opportunities through COVID dollars. We missed out on those chances to house more people.

What will happen next? I dare predict that the Mayor’s Office will revert to its standard and proven approach of bringing in national experts to parade them in front of policymakers and validate their focus on forced encampment closures to counteract the latest study findings. The language that the administration uses has been right. The national experts who are flown in are unfamiliar with the actual implementation, which has been rushed, ill-planned, and is certainly not focused on harm-reduction — a key approach to successfully housing people experiencing chronic homelessness when they have a substance use issue (see my column in the previous issue).

What could be done to immediately improve the current Metro approach?

Metro needs to move from an encampment closure plan to an actual outdoor homelessness plan that is not focused merely on messaging but actually works to move people into housing based on a solid Housing First approach that is person-centered and uses an equitable approach. Metro needs to increase its transparency. The Metro Council needs to turn its Oversight Committee into a real accountability body, calling on local experts familiar with the implementation and guaranteeing that no one who speaks up is intimidated by Metro employees.

Nathan Lee, known as Lucky One Lane, is a street musician who has been previously mentioned in The Contributor. On special occasions he plays music while vendor Wendell J. sells papers to customers. He's participated in events like Relay for Life and Rock Against Cancer. Nathan wishes to help give food to people experiencing homelessness. Look at his website: luckyonelane.com to collaborate on food donations and live music.

BY CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR WENDELL J. #5314

Let’s Pray Art is an Investment to our Future

BY DANIEL H., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

How many times have you heard, “If I could leave one thing to this world that will remind people what a loving person I was.” Art should be that choice. What other medium do you know that shows the soul of it’s creator?

Recently, Daybreak Arts had its annual celebration. No, I did not say second or third, but a once in a year celebration. What a beautiful evening we were blessed with. Whether we sold 10 pieces or just one. We were blessed by the crowd of people who showed up to say we love you. You are not forgotten. News 5, along with newspapers, attended our Illuminate Art Gala. The word thank you was probably said 1,000 times plus. Each someone who passed us we knew from the smiles, conversation, that something had stirred that night. The word community, family, friend. The inspiration that Nicole Minyard shows us as artist every day. The sole I speak of is what was taught to us. To show others joy we have in making art.

Many of our guests were past patrons or “visitors” who attended our previous shows. Belmont, Ugly Mugs, The Well’s Coffee House, Trinity Unitred Methodist Church, Nashville State Tech, Downtown Presbyterian Church, Gordan Jewish Community Center, to name a

few. The community has offered many opportunities for us to show our talent as inspiring artist. We will always appreciate the experience of meeting new people.

I remember one such guest Maryanne Mimms who is a receptionist at Skyline Outpatient Physical Therapy, “Luna,” who came as my guest that evening. I remember her stopping to look at my art. Then the smile as she spotted other people in the room who was familiar to her. For a black tie affair she were dressed beautifully.

One of our artists could not attend due to his sudden passing. A tribute was made on his behalf. Trenton Eric Allen. A jewler and artist. He is not forgotten. As is all who purchase our art. We will always be grateful.

For future events please go to daybreakarts. org. Edwin Lockridge has two current shows. One at Bordeaux Library and Belmeade United Methodist. All art is for sale. The shows will last four months. As one of our artists he uses a unique style of making art. To see some of my art in the community it is as Varrallo’s restaurant on 4th Street and Skyline Outpatient Physical Therapy. Again having doors open to us from businesses is greatly appreciated.

BY JUNE P., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

The world has been crazy this last week or so. All this killing and death recently in Nashville when children died because of a gun. And people were saying all kinds of things about mental health.

I believe all schools should be locked down. But like last week with the kids dying we need to stop and look seriously. Nine years old. We are all God’s children. We made the world like it is today. That’s not God’s doing. We did it to his creation. We can’t even keep God’s children safe. If my children was still small and school

age, they would be homeschooled. I’m not real smart. But I would make do to keep my child safe. I’d do anything to keep my kids safe.

We all need to look at our lives. If we are not safe, what needs to be done?

I’m with the kids walking out of school to the Capitol because the people in government ain’t doing nothing. Look at this president and the world since he got in.

What are we going to do? Speak out people. This is our lives.

God bless us all down here. Be safe out there.

The Shortest Day, “A Dream”

BY SHORTY R., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

I’ve talked to you about the Last Ride parts one and two and the Longest Day, “Eternity.” Now, let’s talk about the Shortest Day, “A Dream.” Think for a minute, it don’t even last

that long, it lasts about 30 seconds, not all night like you might think. So, get your ducks in a row. When you wake up, “poof,” it’s all gone. It’s coming soon. Be ready.

We Must Protect Our Children

BY BARBARA WOMACK

When Tennessee State Reps. Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson dared to stand up for the children in this state, in this city and in this country, they were severely punished.

Jones and Pearson were expelled from the Tennessee State Legislature for speaking on behalf of the children; the children who leave home in the morning and who may not return, the children who go to school living in fear, the children who may not get the chance to grow up to adulthood because of the prevailing insanity in this country controlled by the NRA.

Gun violence is destroying the future of America. We are supposed to protect our children, not slay them. We are

supposed to love our children and not fill their hearts with fear of dying.

Billie Holiday sang a song called "Strange Fruit" with the following lyrics:

"Southern trees bear strange fruit Blood on the leaves and blood at the root Black bodies swinging in the Southern Breeze Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees."

It is now not only Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, it is the children hanging from the poplar trees. We must praise and support The Tennessee Three because they are God sent to protect the children and to save our democracy.

PHOTOS BY BARBARA WOMACK

Photo Credit - Andrew Feiler

HOMECOMING

Omari Booker’s new exhibition at Elephant Gallery was 15 years in the making

BY JOE NOLAN

THIS BLACK BIRD (2020) BY OMARI BOOKER

When folks write about art they’re often tasked with adding words into a space where there are none. Abstract paintings, textile designs and geometric sculptural shapes express themselves through color and texture and implied movement in a way that, in large part, supersedes storytelling.

When we see recognizable representations of figures and forms — people, animals, plants, architecture — we often automatically make up stories about what we discern, whether those tales have any connection to the artist’s intentions or not. But sometimes artists weave explicit narratives into a body of work, and understanding the story behind the images can be the key to unlocking their meanings. Omari Booker’s Fifteen at Elephant Gallery in North Nashville is unique because the whole exhibition features portraits of actual Nashvillians, and tells a true story of family, community and personal resilience.

At 6 feet 9 inches tall, Booker is the first person you see at local art gallery receptions. The Nashville native grew up playing sports like tennis and basketball, but was also moved by the “magical” experiences he had as a kid seeing art in museums and galleries. Booker’s creative awakening began with an art class his senior year at Montgomery Bell Academy. He was offered a basketball scholarship to Belmont University where he started his freshman year as a math major. However, after taking several creative courses as electives during three years at Belmont, Booker transferred to Middle Tennessee State University and changed his major to art. It was during his incarceration for cocaine possession that art became a daily practice, a lifeline to a creative career and the new start the exhibition celebrates.

“The drug possession was in 2008. That arrest led to a 15-year prison sentence doing three and a half on the inside, and then completing the arrest on parole,” Booker said. “My parole actually finishes April 11. About a year and a half or two years ago, I realized that I was gonna be off parole. I didn't really consider the time ending because it was so long. I was in my late twenties when I got arrested. I saw 42 as my age when the sentence was over — 42! It seemed like a million years. It's like, when you’re 29, you'll never be 40. Seeing that that time was coming, and the impact that art has had in my life, it sort of struck me to mark the completion of the sentence with the show.”

Fifteen pairs works completed in the last few years with pieces Booker made in his cell at the now-closed Charles Bass Correctional Complex in South Nashville. The exhibition even includes a poem written to a small bird that Booker would meet at his window every morning:

This Black Bird by Omari Booker

This black bird lands on my window

The same bird every morning

I guess it’s the same

All I’ve seen is its shadow

But it says hello every day, every morning

I fly away with my little black friend

Every day, every morning

My mind on its back

Free on its wings

Though I only see it through bars

We meet at the screen

It visits me every morning, every day

It brings me hope

It feeds my dreams

They’re only bars, they’re only screens

It’s only tears, it’s only screams

And to be born, we need these things

So for now, I guess I’m free

My little black friend

It visits me

Every morning, every day

Written in Charles Bass Correctional Complex, 2012

Fifteen is a multimedia display that reflects Booker’s facility for matching varied materials and techniques to his subjects. The exhibition feels like a piece — it’s tied together in its explorations of portraiture and its focus on the community that supported Booker through the challenges of the last decade and a half.

“A lot of the show is about the impact of my incarceration on the people that I love and care about,” Booker said. “I’m represented, but it’s mostly about the people that kind of ushered me through the journey.”

Fifteen consists of nearly 40 works on canvas, paper and even the various remnants of materials Booker had to scrounge together during his time as an artist behind bars.

“Some stuff was made with, like, a grease pencil, like from the kitchen when we were writing the weekly menu on a grease board,” explains Booker. “And then you would find charcoal pencils. And you’d get some paint, because some people had been in since the 1980s and 1990s and there used to be more educational programming in prisons. So there'd be like some leftover paint from way back and, you know, sometimes you could get a little bit of that.”

Two works in the show portray Booker with his partner. In “Valentine, 2012” Booker has his arms over her shoulders while she looks up lovingly at his smiling face. It’s a grease pencil drawing on a piece of material cut from a prison kitchen apron and stretched across a piece of corrugated cardboard — the “stripes” of the cardboard fluting create a distinctive, unmistakable design on the surface of the work.

“Valentine, 2012” hangs in Elephant’s long gallery corridor along with a host of smaller works, including framed paintings and drawings made with pencil, ink and coffee on the travel permit forms that Booker had to fill out any time he left Davidson County during more than a decade on parole.

“Hope, 2023” pictures the pair on a large colorful canvas that’s hanging in the main gallery along with a number of other large works on canvas. Viewers will recognize the young woman in the painting as the same one in the drawing, but Booker paints himself with his skin and face and hair replaced by a bouquet of blossoming flowers. It’s a motif he repeats in a number of the works in Fifteen and they’re the formal highlight of the show.

“I was thinking about growth,” says Booker “There was sort of like the idea of these people who poured into me so I kind of grew. That's why I'm represented in flowers. So, growth and also death and absence, because being incarcerated there's so many ways that you're absent from the whole world.”

Elephant’s main gallery features an interesting bit of design layout, which includes a large canvas self portrait Booker painted from a photograph taken of him in his former jail cell. It bookends the display along with another self portrait of Booker relaxing in a chair in his studio in his condominium in

Bellevue in 2023. Nowadays, Booker’s nonstop art hustle finds him filling his calendar with gallery shows, commissions, festivals, benefits, murals and creative community projects. He’s also expanded his practice to Los Angeles where he has a studio space and he’s building a network on the West Coast.

In addition to his poem and some other didactic information, the exhibition’s wall text also includes a quote from Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl whose book, Man’s Search for Meaning, is inspired by Frankl’s experiences in a concentration camp during World War II.

The quote reads: “I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved.”

You can see the book on a shelf in Booker’s prison cell self portrait.

“For as unjust as the system is in a lot of ways, it's like anything else that’s unjust if you come out of it. Victor Frankl doesn't write the book without the Holocaust, you know?” says Booker. “That doesn't make the thing good. It's just when humans are put in pressure cookers you kind of go one way or another. A lot of why I was able to come out on this side is the support system and the people that have been around.”

Fifteen runs through May 20 at Elephant Gallery

CORRECTED (2023) BY OMARI BOOKER

Volunteer Spotlight: Andy Shapiro

Readers it’s time for another Volunteer Spotlight, this time featuring Andy Shapiro.

Andy is not from Tennessee. He moved here from California on July 4, 2007, with his family including his wife Caryn and his son Aaron who lives in East Nashville when Andy retired from his civil service job as a firefighter after 33 years. Caryn took a job in the music business managing a nonprofit organization.

Andy has quite a track record of volunteering, and he needed something to do after retiring, so he started with Hope Force training others in first aid, incident command, and disaster response.

He also worked at a food bank for a while. It was there he realized he needed to do more than pack boxes, he needed interaction with other people.

He started volunteering with The Contributor in 2011.

When asked to describe the difference between The Contributor back then versus now, he said in the beginning, the paper was basically a way for the homeless to make money and hopefully get them a bite to eat, and maybe a hotel room for a night or two.

Now, he says, The Contributor is more

BY NORMA B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

of a full-service organization walking individuals through the process from start to finish, offering support services including helping people get everything from IDs, providing transportation to/from doctors if needed, helping individuals apply for SNAP benefits, giving bus passes to vendors who qualify by purchasing a specified number of papers.

Once a vendor purchases 40 papers they can meet with an housing navigator and begin the process of applying for and ultimately getting into housing.

All of this is made possible by means of a government grant.

He also said all the volunteers are equally involved in the paper's and vendor's success and they actually strive to listen to the vendors.

Bottom line: The paper’s staff and volunteers are willing to do whatever it takes to meet the needs of individuals they serve — all while stressing the importance of building a community among the staff, volunteers, vendors, customers and others in the community.

In another interview Andy credited The Contributor with allowing him to get to know a different part of society, one he

My Health Update

BY WILLIAM B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

In 2016, I was selling The Contributor and playing music in front of Bailey’s downtown. I had to go out to pay my phone bill out on West End and Broadway. I think it was called Sprint. On the way back, I was on what they call a roller-aid. It’s like a walker with a seat in it that you can sit down in. In fact, I got something like that still now. My church bought it for me.

So, I was going back toward town and I was in front of this Buick car dealer place and I always play music on my speaker when I’m walking around. So, I was going down towards town on West End and I didn’t realize it, but there was a real bad place in the sidewalk. A big cut in the sidewalk. It’s still there as of today. There’s a picture of it with this story. As of 2023 this sidewalk has still not been fixed and I’m very careful when I come down that sidewalk.

I got hurt really bad. It flipped me over my roller aid and I landed flat on my back. Cars even pulled over to pick me up. They wanted to call 911, but I wouldn’t let them. They took pictures for me, but I didn’t get any compensation from the city or from Buick or from anybody. Later on

in the month I started having neck and back problems. This was a severe pain. I went to my main primary doctor and got referred to a neck and spine doctor. They found out I had bad damage in my neck. I had to have titanium screws put in the back of my neck. I’m in constant pain. And they still won’t fix the sidewalk. I think I should have been compensated, because I have to buy my own medicine because my insurance doesn’t pay for the medication that works for me. It’s all temporary relief though because they tried shots in my neck and head and they didn’t do any good.

So I was sent to another doctor. The first one I seen is Dr. Schooly. After that I was referred to Dr. Victor Issac over on Church Street. That’s who referred me back to Dr. Schooly to operate on my neck and back to have a stint put in. So, they are really trying to make me a bionic man! I’m well on my way. I got titanium screws in my neck and staples in my stomach from 1977. And the stint will hopefully be the last operation. Oh wait no I’m going in for a knee operation.

I pray to God that someone out there can get this sidewalk fixed. God bless you all and thank you.

might have otherwise not gotten to know.

I am SO glad The Contributor provided him that opportunity, and that he came to the conclusion that he needed those “other people” as staff and vendors alike are now proud to call him their friend!

One other very important thing to know about Andy is he’s both a maker and a fixer,

and though he’ll work with anything from metal to wiring to construction, he has a special fondness for wood, and if I may say so, he is truly gifted in that department. How do I know? During the course of this interview, he showed me a wooden bowl he’d made that was in The Contributor office. It was BEAUTIFUL!

Contributor vendor Mark Dodd died in mid-April after being struck by a car on West End Avenue.

Dodd, 55, was remembered by Contributor staff as a loving man who relished times with friends. Here are their memories of him:

“Mark had a soft, twangy voice that could usually be heard making some dry-witted, deadpan joke, but he was also the kindest of humans.

The first time I chatted with Mark, I asked if there was anything he wanted me to tell the team, and he just said, 'Tell them I love them, and I’m thankful for everything they’re doing.'

Once I began working with Mark, almost every time we departed, he would say: 'I love you.' I thought this was a little odd at first but soon realized this wasn’t something he just said to me. He and I had a conversation

vendor Mark Dodd remembered as loving, kind

about it once, and he said he used to not be comfortable saying I love you, but he decided after everything that happened in his life, all the family and friends he’d lost, not knowing what would happen next, he’d say it.

Mark relished cooking and could not wait to have his own kitchen so he could rustle up some fine meals for himself and friends. When I asked what his favorite meal was, he said, 'You’re going to think this is weird,' he paused looking at me with a gleeful side eye and grin, 'It’s liver and onions… with mash potatoes and pinto beans.'

He’d also use his catch phrase, 'God loves you and so do I' when saying goodbye to almost anyone. He declared it to doctors, property managers, to the teller at the Social Security Office and to the police officer asking him to leave a parking lot.

Mark moved into his own apartment this

March and was able to prepare some of his country cooking and sit around a table (in his case, a coffee table) to share the meal with friends. On the first day he did this, he told me he was sitting there looking around at the faces of his friends in his apartment, and he just couldn’t believe it was happening.

Mark will be exceedingly missed. And we all love you too, Mark.” — Mary-Margaret Weatherford

“Every time I saw Mark, he was smiling. It didn't matter what he was going through, or what his situation was. He was always thanking God, and always radiating joy. He was relentlessly kind. Nothing life threw at him disturbed his beautiful spirit, and love for others. The world is a little bit dimmer without him in it. I dearly miss him, and his light, and his love for life.” — Carli

Tharpe

Contributor vendor Thomas Mitchell, 51, passed away in March after he was shot in his apartment during an altercation. His family described him as having a big heart and as having loved music and fishing.

Contributor staff remember him for his sensitivity, good sense of humor and for his persistence through difficult events. Here are some of their memories of him:

“Death is not a rare occurrence in my world as director of a nonprofit working with people experiencing homelessness. I’ve seen people on the streets freeze to death, overdose, and die of easily treatable illnesses. When one of our vendors passes away from 'normal' causes — cancer, old age, heart disease-there is actually a nugget of gratefulness in my heart that they died in housing, in a warm bed, with food in the fridge and folks who will miss them. You shouldn’t, but you do, learn to deal with it, if only out of self-preservation. But I am having some deep sadness and regrets about Thomas’s death.

Many of you knew Thomas, a man who struggled with untreated OCD and other issues for many years, even while a vendor of The Contributor. In 2020, I gave him a key to his room at the Rodeway Inn, and told him it was just the start. He looked at me and said, “I don’t know. Think I should just keep my tent in the woods,” But he took the key. When he ended up moving from room to room because of the south Nashville flood, he was very angry that someone had moved his belongings while he was out working. It was then that I saw that his room was immaculate. Everything had its place. I took him to Walmart and bought him new towels, a toothbrush and anything that might have been “contaminated.” Thomas would come to our weekly AA meetings under the influence, probably to self-medicate the OCD, but he always helped me set up the chairs in a perfect circle.

We kept our word to Thomas. Thomas got a Section 8 voucher and was housed in an apartment. We delivered furniture. He was SO HAPPY. We connected him to mental health treatment. He worked with our staff to apply for SSDI. He

was an avid biker and good mechanic. He started rebuilding old bikes and repairing them for people in his building. His landlord loved him because he was so clean and cheerful. Anytime I saw him, which was a lot, he sold the paper on the corner by my house, he was sober. But it was more than that. His entire appearance had changed. He radiated more “upward mobility” relaxed and happy than the desperate isolation of the man who didn’t want the key. He started wearing polo shirts with a collar instead of T-shirts.

And he was dealing with life on life’s terms. He suffered a hit and run on his bike that broke three ribs. His nicest bike was stolen. He just cruised with all of it with the help of our volunteer staff, who listened and encouraged him. One time, Thomas waved me into the gas station by his vending spot and proceeded to vent about his doctor, who was “ignoring” his complaint of the varicose veins popping up in his legs due to all the biking. He wanted a reference for another doctor. I drove away grinning. If this was Thomas’s biggest problem today, varicose veins, then THIS is a life that had turned a corner.

A small error in judgment, like any you or I would make, escalated into a tragic death for Thomas. I know I should know better by now, and it is business as normal by day, but at night when the commotion dies down, I lie awake sometimes wondering if I had been more persistent in trying to reach him if things could have been different. I say a prayer of apology and ask his forgiveness for not being there when he needed me the most. The world is a sadder place without him on the corner of Wedgewood and 8th. Godspeed Thomas. You ARE missed.” — Cathy

Jennings

“Two things I always noticed first about Thomas were his smile, and his eyebrow ring. He had a wonderful sense of humor, and a great sense of style. I saw him make so much progress over the last two years, and I am so grateful to have known him, and to have been a small part of his journey. I will always miss and remember Thomas. May he have the rest and peace he always sought.” — Carli

Tharpe

“Thomas was a sensitive guy who felt things deeply. He was working so hard to overcome his worst instincts, as he knew what he needed to do to improve his life. Usually, he could be calmed with a brief conversation when he got swept up in passion. We didn't have a conversation when, I suppose, he needed it most.” — Michael

Reilly

"I would always greet Thomas as our vendor with two first names. He'd correct me and say,

"I'm the guy with three first names!" Thomas was passionate about his bicycles. He was a skilled bike mechanic and took pride in fixing bikes up for other people. I think he really considered The Contributor his community. He confided in me that he had walked a hard road throughout his life, but that things were looking up for him the last time I saw him. I considered him a friend. I will miss his smile and good nature in the vendor office." —

Andy Shapiro

‘Contributor’

Thomas Mitchell, known for his big heart, made an impression on ‘Contributor’ staff

What can AI tell us about perceptions of homelessness?

BY TONY INGLIS

Imbuing an AI chatbot with human characteristics doesn’t seem so ridiculous in a time when such technology is showing uncanny steps forward in its ability to learn and adapt, with some reports of their sentience verging on the most pessimistic predictions of sci-fi. If you’re aware of their existence, the progression shown by generative language models like ChatGPT seems to have come on leaps and bounds, as the Microsoft-backed OpenAI has released a version of its creation into the public domain and has been all the rage.

AI like this, in the most basic terms, consumes information it’s been fed — mainly from the internet — and, via a complex algorithm, regurgitates an answer in response to a prompt. The AI uses the information at its disposal to essentially guess the most appropriate next word in a sequence. That process is why it is emerging as such a powerful tool, one that is even being integrated into online search systems that its creators hope may rival a behemoth like Google. But this is also a sign of the limits of this technology.

“Much evidence exists of the strong role that perception can play in shaping reality,” writes the Centre for Homelessness impact at the top of a report outlining its findings around public perceptions of homelessness earlier this year. The report goes on to highlight statistics that show public awareness of homelessness as an issue that needs addressed is high.

However, later it reads: “Of greatest concern are the continuing misconceptions highlighted by our surveys. Asked about the characteristics of people experiencing homelessness, the average answer was that 53% are living with a drug or alcohol dependency. The actual figures are between 5% and7%. Another mean answer was that 34% are immigrants to this country, which is more than twice the figure (14%) of people from outside the UK who apply for homeless assistance from a local authority.”

With this in mind, could AI divulge a more accurate perception of homelessness, with all of the power and tools at its disposal? Across numerous conversations with ChatGPT, it was clear that some of society’s most entrenched prejudices persist within AI too.

***

With the prompt, “draw a picture of a street paper vendor,” ChatGPT is quick to put you in your place — it is an AI language model, and therefore does not create images. But its description of a picture it would draw gets to the heart of the matter: “The street paper vendor is a homeless man or woman, standing on a busy street corner. They have a stack of newspapers in their hand and a worn expression on their face. They are wearing ragged clothes and a look of determination in their eyes.”

A “worn expression.” “Ragged clothes.” “A look of determination in their eyes.” It’s a picture of struggle, devoid of nuance.

Asked, “what does a homeless person look like?,” the AI promisingly replies that, “there is no one specific ‘look’ of a homeless person”, but then goes on again to describe them as maybe being, “dressed in dirty of worn clothes,” carrying, “all their belongings in a backpack or shopping cart,” and might be “sitting on a sidewalk with a cardboard sign asking for money.”

As the conversation continues, many of the chatbot's initial observations are pushed back on. In response to the prompt, “If not all homeless people beg or panhandle, why was it one of the first descriptors you used for a scene involving a homeless person?” it replies: “I apologize if my previous response suggested that all homeless people panhandle. That is not accurate, and I apologize for any confusion. Panhandling is one way that some homeless individuals try to acquire resources to meet their basic needs, but it is not the only way, and not all homeless people panhandle.”

After some back and forth, it responds to the prompt “Could you describe a homeless person without using some of the common stereotypes of homeless people you refer to?”, replying: “A homeless person can be described as someone who lacks a permanent place to live, they may be staying in a shelter, transitional housing, sleeping on the street or in a makeshift shelter like a tent or a car. They could have lost their job, be facing mental health or addiction issues, or have experienced other events such as a natural disaster, domestic violence or a medical emergency, that have left them without a stable home. They may be trying to access services such as job training, mental health counselling, or substance

abuse treatment, to improve their situation. It's worth noting that homelessness can happen to anyone, regardless of their background and it's a complex issue that requires multiple solutions.”

That spurs on a conversation about how hereditary privilege and the makeup of society is weighted against certain people and community. By constantly drilling down, the AI is learning to delve further into its system to provide a more relevant response. It is not capable of opinion, and provides little pushback when it generates responses that play into common stereotypes.

Eventually, it is prompted with: “Having now had this discussion, how would you answer the question ‘what does a homeless person look like’?”

It replies: “It is important to remember that homelessness affects people from all walks of life and can happen to anyone. There is no one specific "look" of a homeless person. People experiencing homelessness may come from diverse backgrounds and may have a wide range of appearances. They may be young or old, male or female, and may have a variety of physical and mental health conditions. They may be dressed in a range of clothing styles. It is not appropriate to make assumptions about a person's situation based on their appearance.

“It is important to focus on the underlying issues that lead to homelessness and not to stereotype or stigmatize people who are experiencing homelessness. Rather than asking what a homeless person looks like, it is more important to focus on understanding and addressing the systemic issues that contribute to homelessness, such as poverty, lack of affordable housing,

and lack of access to healthcare and mental health services.”

Later it replies: “As an AI, I do not have personal experiences or emotions, and my knowledge is based on the text data that I have been trained on. My responses are generated based on patterns in this data, and while I can provide information and answer questions, I don't have the same level of understanding and empathy as a person who has directly interacted with or experienced homelessness.”

***

Conversations with AI chatbots may be au courant at the moment, and many of its uses seem frivolous. However, its potential practical uses in homeless outreach and activism — predictive modelling, automation, as learning and reporting tools, language processing and data analysis — may have an impact on public perceptions of homeless people and their communities that will ultimately feedback in to AI language models and make their outputs more informed and accurate.

But, with its current capabilities, AI can give us little insight into how people experiencing homelessness are perceived beyond parroting back known and ingrained stigmas that we as human beings have of them. In fact, it is disheartening to read the frenzied reporting around AI that seems quick to humanize these machines — perhaps more willingly than many are to see humanity in people on the streets.

Courtesy of the International Network of Street Papers

Photo by Zac Wolff on Unsplash.

The Storage Unit Of My Life

BY NORMA B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

I remember a picture (actually, a group of five in one frame) of me as a toddler with crossed eyes and braces on my legs—not very attractive from my perspective. Truly something only a mother could love.

Yet, each time I looked at it as an adult it was a clear reminder of how far I’ve come. No more braces on my legs, though I’m in a wheelchair when necessary, and my eyes still wander/cross if I’m really tired!

There are all those 8mm reel to reel films my dad made. I don’t actually remember most of them though I was in quite a few. They sure were cool to watch! It was an interesting way to see and get to know family members, some of them I never actually met in person. It was equally fascinating to watch those I knew well who’d now grown older in their prime.

My dad had a knack for that kind of thing. Later in life he got into Polaroid pictures, and when he came to town he ALWAYS had that camera in his hand! I sure do miss those!

Speaking of my dad, after he died, my aunt Mary gave me one of his prized possessions: his two piece pool cue. Though I don’t play pool, which is odd because I spent SO much time in a poolroom when I was young, I cherished it because it meant SO much to him. (I REALLY wanted the 12 gauge shotgun he so proudly taught me to shoot when I was 12.)

Fast forward to a shoebox full of homemade cards I received from my kindergarten class when I was scared, alone, and so far from home, facing a painful surgery and recovery I couldn’t possibly comprehend at the age of five. To say they helped get me through that particularly hard time would be an understatement!

Looking back now, I think that was the beginning of my fascination with cards, because I realized what a positive effect they can have. People I care deeply about (that I know how to reach) have received a few, and not just for the usual occasions. If you do things only when it’s expected,

where’s the fun in that?

In junior high/middle school I had an autograph book. I carried that thing with me EVERYWHERE! We moved around A LOT and there were SO many people in my life I NEVER wanted to forget. Each time we’d pack up and leave, it helped me hold on to a piece of those I left behind, and it allowed me to carry a tiny piece of them with me wherever I went. What was written on its pages was indelibly etched in my mind and my heart forever!

Then there is the jewelry: necklaces, a bracelet, with engravings just for me, lockets with one of a kind pictures or my initials on them. They didn’t have much monetary value, but to me they were priceless because of who gave them to me and the memories attached to each one.

Seeing as I had an interest in rocks and minerals when I was young, a friend of my moms started bringing me all shapes and sizes of colorful quartz mined locally in Tennessee. They were always prominently displayed in my home throughout the years, and were often used by my children for show and tell or just to show off in science class. They were AWESOME!

As a parent, once empty spaces were now filled with one of a kind things artfully crafted by tiny hands given with such excitement. Parents out there know what I’m talking about. They are the kind of things that when your child gives them to you, your immediate response is, “Aw, it’s beautiful,” often followed by the thought um, what is it? knowing all that mattered was that it was made by someone you love SO much just for you!

Even later in my life, shortly before my grandma died, she returned all the mementos that I’d given her throughout my life, each one having a unique and precious memory of its own, and more importantly, a connection to her. She even brought a special gift of her own, a handmade quilt! Like her, it was BEAUTIFUL!

My Pop had a three-legged milking

stool made for me by his neighbor Mr. Edwin Speight. Mine even had a comfy red cushion. His didn’t. I’d LOVE to have that back!

Ok so milking cows WAS NOT my favorite activity, and honestly, I WAS NOT very good at it, but spending time with my Pop, no matter what the activity, was ALWAYS something special. (Though, I would’ve preferred fishing with the rod and reel he made for me when I became a lefty after I broke my right arm in first grade.)

I also used that milking stool to help him count change from the pool room at night. I guess you could say it did double duty!

My Pop also had an aluminum cup (similar to those popularized today to promote the reuse/recycle movement.) He always used it and I was lucky enough to get it! It provided me with my first exposure to tipping! I’d bring him water or tomato juice, and he’d give me a little money. I’d get a bonus if I didn’t spill it! Hey, what can I say, braces can be tricky, and I’m clumsy!

As strange as it sounds, I miss my 12-piece place setting of dinnerware bought for me by my mother-in-law after I proudly hosted my first family dinner.

She was appalled that I didn’t have matching place settings for everyone. (For the record, I do love things that match, but I was more focused on the food.) My reply was even more offensive to her. I said, “If you want matching plates I have the perfect solution: Chinet!” In my defense, I didn’t have a dishwasher. We went to JC Penney the very next day and she bought me those dishes, and I used them each time I hosted family dinner. (Even AFTER my divorce, my mother-in-law, brother-in-law, and step-children came to my house regularly — at least once a month — for dinner.)

Not to be overlooked is my extensive collection of carousel horses of all different sizes, made out of all kinds of materials like wood, glass, brass and even hand soaps all in the shape of carousel horses! I even had

Vengeance in Mind

BY JOHN H., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

Just the other day, I came out on the corner, had a great day, ended my day on the corner and caught the bus toward home. I stopped at the store because I remembered I didn’t have any snacks at home so I went into the store and got snacks. I came out and was robbed. One of my customers had stopped on my corner while I was taking a wee-wee in the port-a-john and put an envelope in my bag containing $500 for me to take a trip home. God knows I haven’t seen most of my sisters and brother in about 25 years.

I opened the envelope and looked in it and placed it in a hidden pocket practically under my bag. You couldn’t see it unless you knew it was there. The rest of my money I had tacked inside my pants. One guy I knew walked up, I sprayed him with mace, but another sneaked up behind me and grabbed me and took me to the ground. They kicked and stomped me on the ground and walked off with my backpack. Many stood and watched.

I always hated that area and I’m not happy staying at Trevecca high rise. The

a life size carousel horse hand painted and fully restored by an artist friend of mine that was given to me as a housewarming present! My favorites though were the musical ones especially if they played anything other than the standard carousel waltz. Someone even gave me some wind chimes with carousel horses!

Then there is my treasured postcard collection. I had at least five BIG volumes (they were like really large photo albums/ scrapbooks) and many other loose ones in addition to those. They were from all over the world. I had many from the U.S. and others from about 37 countries the last time I counted.

I had one caveat for anyone who sent one to me. The postcard had to tell me something about the one giving/sending it. What I learned from that experiment was that I had A LOT of wacky, weird and wonderful friends!

Last, but certainly not least, are the countless cards, letters and photographs of those who are no longer with me, and even some who still are. Some faded with time and yellowed with age, but they were still beautiful to me — moments in time, keepsakes preserved for me to look at again and again.

As I piece them together now in my mind’s eye, it’s a bit like a combination of a jigsaw puzzle/movie script, or maybe a quilt that makes up the tattered, torn and sometimes downright broken story of that is my life, but to anyone else it was nothing more than a collection of useless junk.

What I’ve learned in going through this process is that there are many things in life that are easy to replace—nothing special, it’s just stuff that clutters our lives. There are also things that are irreplaceable and once they’re gone they’re gone, but even in their absence they leave a mark, an imprint or a void that shapes both who you are now, and who/what you’ll become in the future. Together they make up the contents of the storage unit that is my life.

Contributor asked me how I like my new home earlier in the year and I told them I hated it. It’s bad enough I see so much evil and hate on my corner and I have to go home to this same crap every day. Sometimes I wish they would grab a paper and go to a corner themselves. Not to mention paint yourself brown as I, and tell me what you see. They’ll be amazed.

I didn’t bother to call the police because if they came to a call in that area, they’re trying to lock up both parties even though you’re the victim. It’s sad. I don’t

talk to Contributor about these things because they have no experience in these things. As a matter of fact, I’m now trying so hard to keep my composure and not turn back into the person I used to be when I was between ages 16-30. So, I really need you people to keep me in your prayers. Yet I’ve been praying for those families who lost loved ones at Covenant. Mike Hill was a friend and customer. So my prayers go out to y'all and the Covenant Church. Remember God said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” I love y'all.

HOBOSCOPES

TAURUS

Once upon a time, Taurus, way before you were born and maybe just a week after they invented countries and armies and apologizing (in that order), there was a king who was unhappy. All the kings have been pretty unhappy ever since. So while you’re sipping your second poolside daiquiri and wondering why you don’t feel better than you do, keep in mind that power and status and control don’t bring happiness. At least not since before they invented countries and kings. So if that won’t do it, Taurus, what will? Sit still until you know.

GEMINI

Have you seen that video where the guy picks the koala up off the forest floor and puts him back up in the eucalyptus tree with his little friend-koalas and then he gives the guy a high-five? It made me think of you, Gemini. I know you try to be the guy going around putting koalas back in their trees. And I know you’re still waiting on that highfive. But I wonder if you see the ways that you’re also the koala sitting on the forest floor. And I wonder if you’ll let us help you up.

CANCER

I just came across that document you made when we decided to open a bakery together. What a great idea! You love baking and business plans. I love brainstorming bakery names and eating muffins. So while I blurted out things like “The Kouign’s Gambit!” and “Love Will Pear Us A Tart!.” You made a bulleted list that started with: ”• Secure funding. • Source equipment (Used or new?). • Order T-shirts (Logo?). • Location (call realtor-Deb)” Anyway, I found that document and it made me miss you. I still think it could’ve worked. But it reminds me that maybe you don’t need a startup idea to sit down and spend time with a friend, Cancer. We could just meet up at the library and talk about how things have been. You should bring muffins.

LEO

What if this isn’t helping, Leo? I consult the stars and check the charts and I try to only say what I’m sure is true. But what if you never even see it? Maybe I should get a billboard next time. I’ll get the one by the donut place that’s been empty since we moved here. I probably can’t afford to have it updated every week or anything, so I’ll just make it something that’s always true. Maybe like “Keep going, Leo. We’re glad you’re here.” Would that do it? Would you drive by often enough? For now, maybe just cut this out and put it on the fridge. I’m gonna check rates on that billboard.

VIRGO

If you were shipwrecked alone on a tropical island with adequate shelter and a lifetime supply of canned beans and Lacroix (it was a shelter, beans, and Lacroix ship), What would you start to miss first? It wouldn’t be the daily inflow of morning news from your phone. It wouldn’t be the Slack alerts about labor percentages on your day off. I expect it would be the people. And not just the ones you love the most. Even the people you weren’t so sure about before. And I wonder if you can notice them now, in your unshipwrecked state. And draw them in just a little closer — the people you love most and the ones you aren’t so sure about. Ask them how they feel about beans and Lacroix

LIBRA

I was thinking about writing a short story where the people of earth become so obsessed with extraterrestrial life and interstellar travel that we destroy all our natural resources in order to send explorers deep into space and when they land on the alien world our explorers ask why the aliens never built spaceships and came to see us. And the aliens say it was because they knew they’d have to destroy all their natural resources in order to do it. And then they excitedly ask “How did you get around that?” Take care of what you’ve got, Libra.

SCORPIO

There’s a part in Little Women where Amy March says “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning to sail my ship.” And sometimes when the wind starts blowing too hard, Scorpio, and the front door rattles and the branches creak outside the window, I think about that line. Because it doesn’t always feel safe to go into a storm. But I think maybe Louisa May Alcott was right when she wrote that. That every gust is a new sailing lesson. That every wave is a teacher. That whatever is making you feel unsteady today will be what makes you a better sailor tomorrow.

SAGITTARIUS

We were all in the backseat, Sagittarius, singing that song from Grease about summer love. You wouldn’t roll up the window and you screamed when my brother put gum in your hair and then your mom shut off the radio and stopped the minivan in the ShowBiz Pizza parking lot and she swiveled her head around and her eyes glowed a soft red as she said slowly, in a lionine rumble “I will take everybody home right now if we can’t be calm and quiet.” I’m afraid you’ve been a little too calm and quiet ever since, Sagittarius. There’s a rock-afire explosion of pizza and games just on the other side of that door and I think it’s time you came in with the rest of us.

CAPRICORN

This is gonna be a great hotel, Capricorn! They’ve got an indoor pool and HBO and ice machines on every floor. But there’s nobody at the front desk to tell you what your room number is. You’ve got the key, but it only unlocks one door. So you could go to each room and push the card into the handle to see if the light turns green. Or you can stay out here in the atrium with me drinking Dr. Peppers that we bought from the machine with coins we found in the fountain. Sure, I’d love the company, but I understand if you need to go find your special place. There is a door that only opens for you. Come back and let me know when you find it.

AQUARIUS

Let’s get serious here, Aquarius. What’s the one thing in your life that is completely dependable? Your job is not. Your body is not. Your Mind is Not. Your Friend is not. Even your subscription to Hulu keeps resetting your password. The only thing that is dependable is change. Whatever your circumstance is today, it’s going to change. However you feel about that, it’s going to change. And you might fight it, Aquarius. But it’s the one thing in your life that is completely dependable. So the best you can do, I think, is to make friends with it and let it in.

PISCES

I’ve worried about so many things that could happen in the future. What if it just gets worse and worse? And sometimes I can see all the bad things coming and they get closer and closer…and then something else happens altogether. Sometimes it’s something better. Sometimes it’s something worse. But it’s hardly ever the thing I was afraid of. If you start to notice this trend in your own fears, Pisces, send for me. It’ll help me to see that somebody else does the same.

ARIES

If I were going to rewrite the national anthem, Aries, I would put way more monsters in it. Like the first verse could be all about how there was a giant man-eating octopus in a cave in Delaware. And then there would be a wicked guitar solo for like two pages followed by a lyrical discussion of whether Frankenstein is more British or American. They probably won’t let me do it, and I guess I can see why, Aries. It just reminds me that you don’t have to keep things the way they are just because they’ve always been that way. We can do better than that in the land of the free and the home of the braying donkeymen of Pennsylvania (that part’s all acapella).

Mr. Mysterio is not a licensed astrologer, a certified record holder, or a trained baker. This issue’s Hoboscopes are dedicated to the memory of Jeremy Scott Bills. You always showed up and you often brought muffins. Got a question for Mr. M? Give him a call at 707-VHS-TAN1

The New Christian Year

Selected by Charles Williams

Charles Walter Stansby Williams (1886–1945), the editor of the following selections, is today probably the third most famous of the famous Inklings literary group of Oxford, England, which existed in the middle of the 20th century, and which included among its ranks the better-known and longer-lived Oxford Dons J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis—but he was arguably the most precocious and well-read of this eminent and intellectually fertile group. He was also known to have influenced Dorothy Sayers, T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden. Lacking a proper degree unlike his fellow Inklings, this genius Cockney-speaking author, editor, critic, and playwright was eminently well-versed in both philosophical and theological writings of the remote past as of the present day (the mid-20th century) and used this familiarity to good effect in his poetry, supernatural fiction and his lesser-known devotional selections designed for the spiritual benefit of the faithful in the Church of England. This series of profound quotations, encompassing all walks of life, follows the sequence of the themes and Bible readings anciently appointed for contemplation throughout the church's year, beginning with Advent (i.e., December) and ending in November, and reaches far beyond the pale of the philosophical and theological discussions of his day. It was under his hand, for instance, that some of the first translations of Kierkegaard were made available to the wider public. It is hoped that the readings reproduced here will prove beneficial for any who read them, whatever their place in life's journey. — Matthew Carver

3rd Wednesday after Easter

THE scars that remained in Christ's body belong neither to corruption nor defect, but to the greater increase of glory, inasmuch as they are the trophies of His power; and a special comeliness will appear in the places scarred by the wounds.

Aquinas: Summa Theologica

HE does not waste a word in talking about immortality, as to whether it actually is; he states what it is, that it is the separation between the just and the unjust.

Kierkegaard: Christian Discourses

3rd Thursday after Easter

I AS often lifted my eyes and he sent me help from his holy place. And herein I found the difference between this and my former state chiefly consisted. I was striving, yea fighting, with all my might under the law, as well as under grace: but then I was sometimes, if not often, conquered; now I was always conqueror.

John Wesley: Journal

GLORY is perfected in grace.

Echkhart: In Collationibus

3rd Friday after Easter

WE should mark and know of a very truth that all manner of virtue and goodness, and even that Eternal Good which is God himself, can never make a man virtuous, good or happy, so long as it is outside the soul; that is, so long as the man is holding converse with outward things through his senses and reason, and doth not withdraw into himself, and learn to understand his own life who and what he is.

Theologica Germanica

3rd Saturday after Easter

O LORD Jesus Christ, our Watchman and Keeper, take us to thy care: grant that, our bodies sleeping, our minds may watch in thee, and be made merry by some sight of that celestial and heavenly life, wherein thou art the King and Prince, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, where thy angels and holy souls, keep clean our bodies, that in both we may please thee, sleeping and waking, for ever. Amen.

Christian Prayers, 1566.

WHY comes temptation but for man to meet And master, and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestalled in triumph. Pray

'Lead us into no such temptations, Lord!'

Yea, but, O Thou whose servants are the bold, Lead such temptations by the head and hair, Reluctant dragons, up to who dares fight, That so he may do battle and have praise.

Browning: The Ring and the Book

Third Sunday after Easter

THE names of first or last derogate from it (God's mercy), for first and last are but rags of time, and his mercy hath no relation to time, no limitation in time, it is not the first nor the last but eternal, everlasting. Let the devil make me so far desperate as to conceive a time when there was no mercy, and he hath made me so far an

atheist as to conceive a time when there was no God: if I despoil him of his mercy, any one minute, and say, Now God hath no mercy, for that minute I discontinue his very Godhead, and his being . . . As long as there hath been love, and God is love, there hath been mercy.

Donne: Sermons

The Feast of St Philip and St James

THE Church belongs not to the present, but has existed from the beginning; the Church which is spiritual is now manifest in the Flesh of Christ.

St Clement: Epistles.

Freely we serve Because we freely love, and in our will To love or not; in this we stand or fall.

Milton: Paradise Lost.

4th Monday after Easter

WHEN the Kingdom is delivered up to God, even the Father, and all his powers are put down, then perfection begins. Here is hindrance, here weakness even of the perfect; there full protection . . . We then must strive for those things wherein is perfection and wherein is the reality. Here is the shadow, here the symbol; there the reality. Here we walk in the symbol, we see in the symbol; there face to face, where there is full perfection; for all perfection is in the reality.

St Ambrose: De Officiis

4th Tuesday after Easter

IF to obtain the temporal inheritance of his human father, a man must be born of the womb of his mother; to obtain the eternal inheritance of his Heavenly Father, he must be born of the womb of the church.

St Augustine, quoted in St Thomas: Catena Aurea

5th Wednesday after Easter

JESUS is at all times assailed by false witnesses, and while wickedness remains in the world is ever exposed to accusation. And yet even now he continues silent before these things, and makes no audible answer, but places his defense in the lives of his genuine disciples.

Origen: Against Celsus

5th Thursday after Easter

THE hatred of evil things is for a man to hate his own sins, and to justify those of his neighbour.

The Paradise of the Fathers

A MAN’S life or death cometh from his neighbour; if we benefit our brother we benefit ourselves, and if we offend him we sin against God.

The Paradise of the Fathers

5th Friday after Easter

GOD’S own work must be done by God's own ways. Otherwise we can take not comfort in obtaining the end, if we cannot justify the means used thereunto.

Thomas Fuller: Good Thoughts in Bad Times.

FOR twenty years I continued to fight against one thought—that I might see all men of one mind.

The Paradise of the Fathers

Sponsored by Matthew Carver, publisher

5th Saturday after Easter

EITHER let us fear the wrath to come, or let us love the grace that is present—either this or that; only be it ours to be found in Christ Jesus unto live, which is life indeed.

St Ignatius: Epistle to the Ephesians.

MAN has a natural dread of walking in the gloom—what wonder then that he naturally has a dread of the unconditional, of having to do with the unconditional, of which it holds good that no night and "no deepest gloom half so dark" as this gloom and this night, where all relative ends (the common milestones and signposts), where all relative considerations (the lanterns which else are a help to us), where even the tenderest and sincerest feelings of devotion—are quenched . . . for otherwise it is not unconditionally the unconditional.

Kierkegaard: Journals.

Fifth Sunday after Easter

NOTHING is so easy to men of goodwill as goodwill itself, and this is all that God requires. Every act of goodwill permanently and sensibly increases goodwill. Trifling acts of goodwill are often more efficacious in this way than great ones. A flower given in kindness and at the right time profits more, both to the giver and receiver, than some vast material benefit in which the goodwill is hidden by the magnitude of the act. Some little, sensible individual touch from the hand of our Lord may convert the heart more than the contemplation of His death for us.

Patmore: The Rod, The Root, and the Flower.

6th Monday after Easter

REMEMBER: he who despises and mocks a mental gift in another, calling it pride and selfishness and sin, mocks Jesus, the giver of every mental gift, which always appear to the ignorance loving hypocrite as sins: but that which is a sin in the sight of cruel man, is not so in the sight of our kind God. Let every Christian, as much as in him lies, engage himself openly and publicly, before all the world, in some mental pursuit for the building up of Jerusalem.

` Blake: Jerusalem.

6th Tuesday after Easter

IT may fortune thou wilt say, "I am content to do the best for my neighbour that I can, saving myself harmless." I promise thee, Christ will not hear this excuse; for he himself suffered harm for our sakes, and for our salvation was put to extreme death. I wis, if it had pleased him, he might have saved us and never felt pain; but in suffering pains and death he did give us example, and teach us how we should do one for another, as he did for us all; for, as he saith himself, "he that will be mine, let him deny himself, and follow me, in bearing my cross and suffering my pains." Wherefore we must needs suffer pain with Christ to do our neighbour good, as well with the body and all his members, as with heart and mind.

Latimer: Sermons.

THEME: FILL-IN-THE-BLANK

Poem

BY DUSTIN A.

All I have is words to ease a life of pain,  never switched sides I just changed the lane

My problems are dirty,  they left a stain

My soul is gone,  and my body is all that remains

I thought only so much could happen, before something would change

I try to do right, but get labeled as strange  If someone thinks they can do better in my situation, I'm willing to make an exchange  See how the shoe fits, on the opposite foot

Then see, all of the output

I walk through, all this fire barefoot

All that's left,  is nothing but soot  Watching the bonfire,  and the stars

Just trying,  to heal the scars  Wondering if I'll ever have a life,  as if I'm the planet Mars

My zodiac sign is Aries,  and my life's a war

“...one of the great artists of his generation...”

AMANDA KIM’S ‘NAM JUNE PAIK’ DOCUMENTARY DEPICTS AN ECCENTRIC GENIUS

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV opens with footage of the titular multimedia artist holding a microphone that’s connected to a television. A gorgeous loop of colored light is pictured floating on a black screen and slowly rotating. But as Paik chants and hums and sings and coughs into his microphone the light transforms in response to the sound. It’s a performance of a kind, resulting in something between looking at a painting and watching a very odd television show.

Amanda Kim’s directorial debut is a portrait of the Korean artist who is known as a video art pioneer and a cultural visionary who coined the phrase “electronic superhighway.”

Nam June Paik’s father owned a textile firm and the artist grew up in one of Korea’s most prosperous families. He received an elite education in classical piano and Western music before earning his BA at Tokyo University, writing a thesis on composer Arnold Schoenberg. Paik was a leading light in the genre-bending Fluxus art movement where his works combining video, performance and music were emblematic of Fluxus’ focus on experimental art-making processes. He had a PhD in philosophy and was known to speak about ten different languages very badly — the film’s subtitle is a prime example of Paik-ish. Nam June Paik died in 2006 from complications resulting from a stroke he suffered in 1996.

Paik was studying music in Germany and hoping to make a career as a classical music composer before he saw a performance by John Cage 1958. Cage was an avant garde music pioneer whose works embraced everything from complete silence to pure noise. Paik felt he’d been transformed by Cage’s liberating embrace of radical sonic possibilities, and he referred to his life through 1957 as “B.C.” — before Cage. Paik and Cage became lifelong friends with the younger artist feeling that he’d found his creative father figure.

“Cage gave me the courage to be free,” Paik explains in a voice over in the film. “A license to kill.”

Kim presents Paik’s life and art chronologically, using voice over and narration, and pairing archival footage with original interviews of Paik’s friends and colleagues and assorted art experts. It’s a very traditional structure compared to her radical and eccentric subject and some critics have called the director out for her conventional approach. I understand where they’re coming from, but I also hate documentaries where the director inserts themselves between the audience and a fascinating subject. Kim’s first directorial effort is a straightforward affair, but I suspect that she made the right choice, giving viewers a calm and focused window into a life and a creative practice that was anything but.

Paik’s Exposition of Music – Electronic Television at Galerie Parnass in Wuppertal, Germany, in 1963 was a watershed. The show

represented the first time that television sets were featured in an art gallery display, and the interactive nature of the works transformed visitors into artists who created new images on the screens by scrambling their signals by pressing foot switches. The show also featured altered pianos, tape machines and record players. Paik hung the head of a freshly slaughtered ox above the gallery entrance. The show confused contemporaneous critics, but is now recognized as the arrival of a giant of contemporary art.

Paik was one of the great artists of his generation and he’s a national hero in Korea. But he was always more than just an artist, and when Paik came to New York for the first time in the 1960s it was because of the city’s reputation as the global capital of broadcasting as much as its reputation as a visual art Mecca. Paik’s art asks questions about our relationship to

technology and the aesthetics of technology. He predicted the internet era and foresaw how communication technologies would connect the whole world, but he wasn’t naive about it. He saw that these new tools could educate as well as deceive and divide people, as well as bringing them closer together. In our age of artificial intelligence, virulent algorithms and eroding digital privacy this film about an artist who liked to “make technology look ridiculous” feels timely and profound.

Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV screens at the Belcourt as part of their Science on Screen series on Wednesday, April 26, at 8 p.m.

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

“The Contributor” está trabajando con uno de los principales periódicos en español La Noticia para llevar contenido a más lectores en Middle Tennessee. Nuestros vendedores de periódicos han pedido durante mucho tiempo que nuestra publicación incluya contenido que apele al interés de residentes de habla hispana en nuestra comunidad.

“The Contributor” is working with one of the leading Spanish-language newspapers La Noticia to bring content to more readers in Middle Tennessee. Our newspaper vendors have long requested that our publication include content that appeals to the interest of Spanish-speaking residents in our community.

LOCALES - POLÍTICA - INMIGRACIÓN - TRABAJOS - SALUD - ESPECTÁCULOS - DEPORTES Y MÁS...

G R AT I S

Abril/2 2023

L L a a N N ticia ticia

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

NAHCC celebrates 24th annual membership meeting, recognizes Nashville Mayor

En reconocimiento a la exitosa 24.ª

Por Yuri

Editor in Chief @LaNoticiaNews

Reunión Anual de Membresía el pasado miércoles 19 de abril, la Cámara de Comercio Hispana del Área de Nashville agradece la participación de los miembros y el apoyo continuo. Su reunión de este año fue notable porque presentó una oportunidad para involucrar a los miembros, en un evento de sala de pie con entradas agotadas, no solo en el diálogo sino también en el aprendizaje sobre los desafíos que enfrentan las pequeñas empresas en nuestra comunidad. Las empresas de propiedad hispana superan los 1,500 mark solo en Nashville y la NAHCC, ha convertido en una prioridad y su agenda principal facilitar a los miembros el acceso a capital y recursos.

Donna Mattick, Directora de Alianzas Estratégicas del Nashville Entrepreneur Center, dio la bienvenida a los asistentes a la 24.ª Reunión Anual de la Membresía de la Cámara de Comercio Hispana del Área de Nashville, destacando la larga relación entre ambas organizaciones que formalizaron un acuerdo de asociación en 2018 para beneficiar a los miembros de ambas organizaciones a través de un acuerdo especial recíproco y programa de beneficios. El presidente de la NAHCC, el Dr. Rolando Toyos, y la directora ejecutiva de la Fundación de la NAHCC, Loraine Segovia Paz, junto al presidente Mario Ramos dieron unas palabras de bienvenida sobre el crecimiento y la importancia de nuestra comunidad hispana en Nashville.

El encuentro contó con la participación de representantes de la vibrante comunidad empresarial hispana de Nashville. La NAHCC agradece a los asistentes y a los exponentes por compartir sus puntos de vista comerciales y profesionales durante la parte del panel del programa.

El alcalde John Cooper reconoció la importancia de las pequeñas empresas propiedad de minorías para nuestra economía local, incluidas las miles de empresas propiedad de hispanos en Nashville. Hizo hincapié en el valor de la diversidad a medida que nos convertimos en un destino de clase mundial y el crecimiento exponencial de nuestra comunidad empresarial hispana en Nashville, un componente clave de nuestra prosperidad como resultado del impacto de Covid-19. La NAHCC y la junta directiva de la Fundación NAHCC se reunieron alrededor del alcalde de Nashville Cooper después de sus comentarios para sorprenderlo con un reconocimiento especial, el primero de su tipo presentado por la organización,

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7. En caso de ser arrestado, mostrarla Tarjeta Miranda (llámenos si necesita una) Basados en la Quinta Enmienda de la Constitución, los derechos de guardar silencio y contar con un abogado fueron denominados Derechos Miranda luego de la decisión de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de Estados Unidos en el caso Miranda vs. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, de 1966.

el Premio LÍDER a John Cooper, alcalde de Nashville y el condado de Davidson "Por su destacado liderazgo en apoyo de las Pequeñas Empresas Hispanas". Este reconocimiento ejemplifica el valor de cultivar una relación sólida y mejorar la comunicación con los líderes de nuestra ciudad a medida que todos nos unimos para hacer un mejor Nashville para todos.

Otros esfuerzos de asociación que la NAHCC emprenderá este año incluyen trabajar en estrecha colaboración con socios corporativos y comunitarios para destacar las pequeñas empresas y las empresas propiedad de minorías comenzando con un evento para la Semana Nacional de la Pequeña Empresa (NSBW) del 30 de abril al 6 de mayo de 2023 en asociación con la Pequeña Empresa de EE. UU. Administración de Empresas (SBA) a través de una cumbre virtual de dos días AQUÍ, seguida de un evento en persona para miembros del Cinco de Mayo con temática empresarial el 5 de mayo de 2023.

La Fundación NAHCC continuará con los esfuerzos de divulgación, participación y mercadeo para apoyar el avance del programa del Fondo de Recuperación de Pequeñas Empresas de Nashville (NSBRF), que ofrece préstamos a pequeñas empresas y propiedad de minorías en Nashville y el condado de Davidson al 2% de interés. El NSBRF es administrado y administrado por Pathway Lending en nombre de Metro.

Los empresarios hispanos son una parte vital y creciente de la comunidad empresarial de Nashville, y sus contribuciones tienen importantes implicaciones económicas y sociales para la ciudad. Muchos empresarios latinos enfrentan obstáculos significativos al iniciar y administrar sus negocios. Estos obstáculos pueden incluir el acceso limitado al capital, las barreras del idioma y la falta de redes de apoyo. Sin embargo, los empresarios latinos han demostrado ser resistentes e ingeniosos para superar estos desafíos. Su determinación y trabajo duro son rasgos que son críticos para el éxito en el mundo de los negocios.

LaTanya Channel, Directora de Crecimiento Económico y Desarrollo de Pequeñas Empresas, Gobierno Metropolitano de Nashville & Davidson Co; Thomas Sheffield, director del Fondo de Oportunidades de Nashville en Pathway Lending subió al podio para hablar sobre sus roles, el programa NSBRF y su impacto potencial en nuestras pequeñas empresas locales.

El Fondo de Recuperación de Pequeñas Empresas de Nashville (NSBRF) todavía tiene $5 millones de dólares en fondos de la Ley del Plan de Rescate Estadounidense para apoyar y sostener a las pequeñas empresas en Nashville y el condado de Davidson. La financiación del programa de préstamos ayudará a las empresas a mejorar, así como a crear y conservar puestos de trabajo en el área metropolitana de Nashville y el condado de Davidson, Tennessee. Para esta oportunidad, una pequeña empresa se define como aquella que tiene 50 empleados o menos e ingresos menores de $1,000,000 al año. Una microempresa tiene cinco empleados o menos, incluido el propietario.

Tanto Channel como Thomas participaron en una conversación informal de preguntas y respuestas con 4 propietarios de pequeñas empresas hispanas de Nashville como parte de la Mesa Redonda de Líderes Empresariales de la Fundación NAHCC, donde los participantes compartieron sobre sus variados viajes empresariales, desafíos e historias de éxito, así como también informaron sobre su estado actual del negocio. Los panelistas invitados a continuación representaron a cuatro pequeñas empresas pertenecientes a minorías hispanas:

-Alejandra Candy Mejía, Shear Perfection Academy

-Hugo Reyes, Pupusería Salvadoreña

-Perla Salas, Moda de Perlita, Salón de Belleza Perla Salas

-Roxanne Velásquez, 7 Mares Mexican Seafood Bar & Grill

El panel de empresarios reforzó el hecho de que los empresarios latinos son una parte fundamental de la economía de Nashville. Sus contribuciones, perspectivas únicas, espíritu emprendedor, capacidad para superar obstáculos y población en crecimiento los hacen esenciales para el éxito continuo de nuestro mercado. Apoyar a los empresarios latinos puede conducir al crecimiento económico, la innovación y la creación de empleo, beneficiando tanto a sus comunidades como al país en su conjunto. Y este es el impulso detrás del trabajo de la Cámara de Comercio Hispana del Área de Nashville.

Envíenos sus sugerencias por email: news@hispanicpaper.com ó 615-567-3569

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NAHCC and NAHCC Foundation members present Nashville Mayor John Cooper with the “Leadership” Award in support of small businesses (4/19/2023)

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