Any vendor of The Contributor can accept VENMO as payment. Technology is a barrier to those experiencing homelessness. Many of our vendors don’t have phones or bank accounts, or use online commerce. Thus we simplified the VENMO process by using one account for all vendors. This means YOU MUST IDENTIFY YOUR VENDOR when using VENMO. Here is the skinny on how to do it right.
#1 You must have a VENMO account. Sign up at www.venmo.com if you haven’t already.
#2 SCAN THE SQUARE QR CODE in the top left corner of the cover of this paper using your phone or tablet camera. Then press the button that appears once it has been recognized.
#3 CLICK the blue “Pay or Request” button on the screen with The Contributor yellow and black logo.
#4 TYPE in the amount you wish to pay. The paper costs $2. Tips are welcomed. Vendors get all the money you send and can pick it up the next business day at our office.
#5 Most importantly, TYPE YOUR VENDOR’S NAME AND BADGE # in the “What’s this for?” box. Then hit the PAY button. Their name and 4 digit badge # should be written on the front cover of the paper below the QR code. You must
identify them to insure they will get the money. First name, last initial and 4 digit badge # will ensure that a vendor with a similar name doesn’t get confused for your vendor. You can also leave feedback in this field. But always identify the vendor. If they didn’t write their name or badge # on the cover of this paper, please describe where they were and what they looked like. This usually can identify them.
#6 HIT THE PAY BUTTON.
#7 The FIRST TIME you pay anyone using VENMO you will be asked to enter the last 4 digits of their phone number. Type 6829 in this field. Our phone number is (615) 829-6829. Or, you can scroll down and skip this step. (VENMO wants to protect you from sending money to the wrong person with a similar name. The next time you pay a vendor using our account, you won’t be asked to verify again.)
#8 ALWAYS TAKE THE PAPER HOME WITH YOU. When vendors sell out, the satisfaction of having a business that sells out its products begins to sink in! Vendors who sell out, come back to our office to buy more. This helps our vendors meet their sales goals. And, it is there that we can meet with them, give them their VENMO payments or mail and work on solving their barriers to housing and life’s goals.
#9 Friend us on VENMO and leave feedback. Open the app and click on “Me” at the bottom. Then select “Transactions” to see your payments. Click on the payment to The Contributor in your transaction list and then click on our icon at the top of the screen to see all of those transactions between us. On this page you can “Friend” us and click on the speech bubble icons of all your payments to leave feedback on your experience. Constructive feedback and praise help encourage our vendors to do their best.
The Contributor, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering individuals experiencing homelessness through economic opportunity, is pleased to announce the appointment of Amber B. DuVentre as its new Board Chair.
DuVentre brings a wealth of experience and a commitment to community service to her new role. Currently serving as the Risk Manager at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, DuVentre has demonstrated exceptional leadership abilities and a passion for improving the lives of others throughout her career. She has served on The Contributor’s board for two years.
"I am honored to assume the role of Board Chair at The Contributor," said DuVentre. "I am deeply committed to the organization's mission of empowering individuals experi-
encing homelessness.”
Prior to her tenure at Meharry Medical College, DuVentre played a pivotal role in Nashville's COVID-19 response efforts, serving as the logistics leader for all drive-through testing and vaccination centers for three years. Her dedication and expertise were instrumental in ensuring the smooth operation of these vital public health initiatives during a challenging time.
Before joining Meharry Medical College, DuVentre worked at her alma mater, Murray State University, where she served as the Coordinator of Domestic and Graduate Recruitment. In this role, she recruited students from across the Midwest and Southeast regions, contributing to the university's growth and diversity.
DuVentre's professional background is complemented by her
extensive involvement in competitive public speaking, leadership training and city planning. She is a published author, having contributed to two public speaking textbooks, and holds membership in several professional organizations. DuVentre is deeply committed to giving back to her community. She is actively involved with organizations and agencies focused on literacy, college planning, career development, and addressing housing insecurities.
DuVentre assumed her role as Board Chair in April 2024 and is looking forward to bringing her unique blend of leadership, expertise, and passion to the organization as it continues its important work.
“I look forward to working with our dedicated team to drive positive change in our community,” DuVentre said.
Terry Vo is a first-term council member who has already left an impression through strong leadership. Vo, whose parents immigrated from Vietnam, is a founding member of the inaugural Metro Council Immigrant Caucus, which she also chairs and shares membership with other Zulfat Suara, Jeff Preptit and Sandra Sepulveda.
“We want to identify and promote issues of concern to immigrants in Nashville, Davidson County,” Vo said. “We want to promote diversity and inclusiveness in governmental decision-making processes. We want to nurture leadership development within and among groups that reflect the changing demographics of Tennessee. And we want to serve as a resource for the dissemination of information, and reports that relate to and/or impact immigrant communities.”
As a member of the 2024 class of the Next Gen Global Leaders Network of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, Vo’s leadership is also recognized at the international level.
How would you describe District 17 and its constituents?
I describe District 17 as a microcosm of the entire county. We are really lucky. District 17 is dynamic. There is a lot going on here. We have a university, we have public housing, we have a stadium, we have growth but not everywhere, and we have music venues and hospitality. My constituents’ median age is 30; and 62.8 percent of the population is white, 47.7 percent are black, 4 percent are Asian, nearly 5 percent are Hispanic/Latino, and then about 4 percent are two or more races. I feel honored to represent District 17.
What are your top goals for your first term in Metro Council?
I would really love to make significant progress on a grocery store or access to healthier food options for the area of my district that is a Food Apartheid. It’s really important to me to use this term because it’s not a food desert. Deserts are natural, and what we are facing is not. There is nothing natural about large, low-income areas not having access to affordable, healthy food options. This was a result of systematic and racist policies. So, my top goal is to bring a grocery here. But if I can’t do that in four years, then I would like to make significant progress toward it.
Two, I want to increase green space for my constituents in District 17, I’m going to fight for that.
Three, I really would like to have affordable housing and housing for all types of community members.
And I want to focus on cleaning the district. Clean-ups are really important initiatives. Cleaning streets is something everyone can participate in. It brings peo -
ple together because you usually pick up litter with other people. My hope is to build connection amongst neighbors, and I really want to increase civic engagement. That’s really important to me because I want people to feel connected to their local government.
Last month the Metro Council approved the Master Developer Agreement between Metro government and The Fallon Company to develop 30 acres on the East Bank. You serve on the Metro Council’s Ad Hoc East Bank Committee. What is your feedback on the progress of the East Bank development?
The reason it was unanimously approved through Council was because of the proactive work and positive partnership between the Mayor’s Office and Metro Council. The Mayor’s Office didn’t have to share all those details. But by doing so, it [ensured] the Ad Hoc Committee members had a voice. We could share it with our constituents and the county at large, and we could talk about it and people could watch. I think being proactive is always better than being reactive. And I think we prioritized things that the community said they wanted like affordable housing, [access to] health care, and complete streets. Those are all included in the plan and are not an afterthought.
I’m really proud that we are prioritizing this project for every Nashvillian, not just certain groups. The goal was for anyone to have access to go to the East Bank. Of course, people living there need to be a priority, and we need to ensure that if we have child care, it is accessible to them.
Otherwise, we’re failing them.
I think the process was really important. Meeting with Fallon, having conversations, being really open, for me that was really important. I think we should keep our priorities strong and tight and keep inching forward on those priorities and not forget what’s most important in any development.
Are there any opportunities you would like to see Metro pursue when it comes to housing and inclusive development?
In terms of housing, I would love for Metro to think outside the box. You know, do something we have never done and be willing to look to other local governments that have a similar problem that are addressing the housing crisis and see how successful they’ve been. For example, in Montgomery County in Maryland, it’s a suburb right outside of DC. They have more than a million residents and they decided to address their housing shortage by building social housing. They worked together with private developers, but it’s still owned by the county, which I think is important. They built a great mixed-income place that’s publicly owned. I love [this example] because they built new 268-unit apartments, and they’re 97-percent leased today. That to me is incredible. There is a need for it. And they have great amenities, too. I think we have to break our image of what we think public housing is and that everyone deserves a great place to live. And that we can be supporting that.
We often think about state preemption but on our own land, we get to make the
• Arts, Parks, Libraries, and Entertainment, Vice Chair
• Planning and Zoning
• Ad Hoc East Bank
decisions. And I think that’s a really great opportunity to actually solve some big problems that maybe we can’t in other ways. So, I’m hoping that we can [explore] what we have and use the land that we have. And build partnerships so that we can increase the offering and address the crisis in a way that clearly the private sector will not.
I think we have an opportunity, too, with inclusive development. How do we really build up BIPOC developers and give them opportunities? I really hope that we can be a leader in this space.
What are your thoughts about the Mayor’s proposed Transit referendum? We really need to support his plan. I think it’s a good foundation for what we need to address, so that hopefully, in the next phase we can do more. To be one of four cities in the nation that doesn’t have dedicated transit funding, tells you [we are behind]. We need a strong foundation, and we need our community members to get … to their home safely. I used to live in Brisbane, Australia. I didn’t need a car [to get to my university]. It was a five-minute ferry ride. I hope we can continue to push and be creative and find solutions for us and address them as quickly as possible. I would love for a 15-year plan to be completed in 10 years.
Anything else you’d like to mention?
I really want people to know that being a Councilmember is a full-time job with poverty pay. Many councilmembers work multiple jobs to be able to survive in this city. The current makeup of our Council is 30 to 72 [years of age], but we don’t have anyone in our 20s. I want to encourage young people to say that their place is not only to [go to] the ballot to vote but also to be on the ballot. Only two people on our Council, out of the 40, are renters. Yet over half of our population here in the county are renters. We need to understand why that is, what the issues are, and have better engagement.
We have issues and we have things that are going on, and we need the people who are living it to have a voice and more of it. I encourage other people to see themselves in these decision-making roles and that being an elected official is possible, and you don’t need to wait until you're 40 or 50, you can do it today.
Today I want to introduce a nine-part radio series I am co-producing called In My Place, which aims to provide information and education on housing and homelessness with a specific focus on Nashville’s approach to homelessness much like my columns here do.
At its core, In My Place is a housing show that takes a deep dive into the different aspects of what happens when we do not have access to housing for everyone in our communities. Frankly, without access to housing, homelessness won’t end. Yetx the lack of investment in low-income housing has become a national crisis, and listeners of our first episode may recall that for every $100 increase in the median monthly rent, cities can likely expect an increase in homelessness of about 9 percent, according to a 2020 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
This may spell doom for a booming city like Nashville. But the reality also is that cities with coordinated efforts and a focus on actual, longterm solutions have shown promising results and were able to stem the tide. Nashville has invested $50 million in dedicated federal funds to reduce homelessness. In addition, the city has more than doubled its local budget to address homelessness. In My Place focuses on overall concepts and approaches to homelessness and examines, in a hopeful way, what works.
When Tasha A.F. Lemley and I developed the show, we wanted to create a space that answers the question of what needs to happen to solve homelessness. Our goal was to take this opportunity and provide a solid overview of what makes homelessness such a complex issue. Each episode tackles a different aspect of what it means when people lose housing, why they lose housing, and how governments, nonprofits, and the private market try to tackle the homelessness crisis. But we also wanted to offer hope and show successes and what it means on an individual level when people are able to transition out of homelessness.
Tasha and I settled on the name In My Place because we liked the dualism of its meaning. The literal meaning refers to a person finding their place. But being “put in one’s place” also refers to displacement, which is a common experience for our unhoused neighbors.
The show is divided into three segments. First you hear from national experts whom we invite to frame a specific topic. Once the topic is discussed, we invite local guests to talk about their work in Nashville, what they do, the difficulties of their work and how they implement solutions. The final segment provides a last word from a guest commentator with lived experience who has been listening to the show.
In our first three episodes, we covered homelessness research and what it means to be unhoused, the Housing First philosophy, and how people move from street to housing in our current system. Our next episode, which airs May 28 at noon on This Is Nashville on WPLN (90.3 FM), we will take a closer look at the interconnectedness of health care and homelessness.
In My Place is funded through a partnership with Pinnacle Financial Partners, and specific episodes have already been promoted nationally by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and Community Solutions — both organi-
BY JUDITH TACKETT
zations were represented on the show.
If you wonder why you are familiar with Tasha Lemley’s name it is because she’s a founding member and a former executive director of The Contributor. She and I share two passions — homelessness and journalism. Thus, when we had the opportunity to collaborate and create In My Place, a dream came true for me.
Fundamentally, The Contributor is about elevating the voices of those of our neighbors who are often pushed to the brink of society, overlooked, or blamed for their desperate situations. Giving voice means acknowledging each other, hearing each other, and eventually listening to each other to find common solutions. The Contributor creates opportunities for people who are building their own microbusiness by becoming paper vendors. In addition, roughly 35 percent of the paper is written by vendors.
While In My Place is not connected to The Contributor, through our work with this paper, it was a no-brainer for Tasha and me to include the voices of people who have experienced and lived through homelessness in every episode of In My Place. We launched the show with an all-experts panel of people who had experienced homelessness. Each episode also includes a commentary from the field, meaning that Tasha interviewed someone who is still experiencing homelessness or has recently transitioned to housing. As mentioned earlier, we invite different guest commentators to sit in the studio with us and listen to the show as we produce it. Then we invite them to the microphone to share a last word with our audience about what they have learned from the show and what they would like to hear more about in future episodes.
What stood out to me is the focus each of our guest commentators has provided about the importance of support services. They all seem to agree that while access to housing is the foundation and must be the top priority,
we cannot neglect the importance of assistance with mental health, health care, and community connections once people move into housing. The transition from long-term homelessness to an apartment can be tough and people often feel lost and disconnected. Simple tasks like turning on a stove or microwave can feel daunting for some people who are still adjusting from daily survival to maintaining housing.
While we hear the same message from government officials, nonprofit experts, and researchers, it feels different — more real — when it comes from a first-person experience. Our guest commentators may talk about their mental health needs, their insecurities, their loneliness, and they truly connect directly with us, the listener.
Through In My Place, we hope to bring voices to the table that show the difference in how any of us talk about homelessness. Each guest has a specific viewpoint. All of them may be needed, but every time I leave the studio after the show, I understand a little bit more how none of what we do matters if we do not truly listen to the people who live through and survive homelessness.
Whereas my commentary through this column may be critical and hopefully educational, it is my perspective. In My Place, on the other hand, provides a forum where you hear directly from the different guests to form your own opinion. I think both approaches have their place and can spur conversations.
Homelessness has become a hot topic across the nation. Most cities and counties struggle under the pressure of NIMBYism. NIMBY stands for Not In My Back Yard and has resulted in the hyper-politicization of homelessness with governments trying to implement quick solutions, which simply don’t exist. Moving people out of sight is not a solution — unless it results in permanent housing (with the support to help
The next episode of In My Place will focus on the connection between healthcare, housing and homelessness. Listen to WPLN 90.3 FM at noon on May 28, 2024, or sign up for the This Is Nashville Podcast.
people maintain housing).
We hope that In My Place can help educate people of how collaboration, systems building, and data-driven approaches can assist in helping people access permanent housing options with the right support quicker. I also hope that the show will help cut through the political rhetoric that has taken over so many cities including Nashville and end up overpromising and under delivering at the detriment of people’s lives.
Ending homelessness is not easy. But we also must realize that in the United States, the deep affordability crisis, the deep disparity between rich and poor, and racism are the fundamental causes of homelessness. Personal decisions may contribute to someone losing their housing, but too often systems like foster care, criminal justice, inadequate health care including mental health care and the lack of living wages are designed in a way that unfortunately have made them main drivers of homelessness. If we want to prevent homelessness, it is imperative that we fix the social fabric of our support systems. It will take political will at the local, state and national level to truly invest in the citizens and residents of this country.
My hope is that In My Place helps spur the conversation in a hopeful and thoughtful way, so that we all can advocate for more accessible housing for all our neighbors.
The show will run through October and airs on This Is Nashville on the last Tuesday of each month.
If you’re not terribly poor, try to schedule a weekend in D.C. to represent those of us who are too poor to attend. Alternatively, you can sign up to attend online.
The Poor People’s Campaign has a branch in Tennessee. Note: You don’t have to be poor in order to advocate, sponsor, or participate.
As we have learned, our own health and financial well being is woefully dependent on the financial health of our poorest. Remember how the economy perked right up and continued to thrive during and after the pandemic because we looked after our poor folk very well at that time, with infusions of money, free internet, free medical care and the like.
To join the Tennessee Poor People’s Campaign, visit: www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/ committee/tennessee/
Rev. William J. Barber was born in the early sixties and still remembers Martin Luther King’s Assassination.
His parents brought him to North Carolina after having moved North, because they felt Integration was that important.
Reverend Barber has been a passionate advocate for poor people’s rights ever since.
Reverend Barber instigated “ Moral Mon-
Scan this code to participate in the march from here or in D.C. www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/mm2024/
days” in response to racist and classist agendas that have been broadcast consistently over the last 40 or more years, resulting in a “ Moral Majority” that is actually in the minority.
Reverend Barber has helped poor and marginalized communities reclaim words such as “morality “ for themselves, letting love, inclusion and equality back into the public dialogue.
To find out more about how you can participate, the National Council of Churches is a sponsor of this Freedom March.
http://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/
Nashville’s City Parks are true Community Hubs.
Sure, everyone knows you can go to a city park to walk your dog, let the kids stretch out a bit or have a picnic.
But did you know our community centers, located within our city parks (usually) have free senior programs, after school programs, summer camps, showers, pools, game rooms, lounges, libraries, craft and art rooms, dance floors and lots of warm friendly neighbors who look out for each other, make play dates, dance together, swim together — you get the idea.
All the small town/village activities you may have given up to join the big city are available at your nearest Metro Community Center.
O.K., so maybe not all, but a good game of Spades with real people sure beats playing a bot. Plus, how much safe and sober public space for play is there in a city, really?
I mean the free kind.
Let’s be clear: Our tax dollars are paying for it, so it doesn’t cost up front.
So if you really want to “belong” in Nashville, give your nearest Metro Community Center a look/see.
Steven Hale lays bare the humanity of those condemned on Tennessee’s death row
When readers first meet condemned prisoner Stephen West in Death Row Welcomes You , we learn that he spent, “the overwhelming majority of his life in the custody of people who wished him dead.” Born to an alcoholic in a mental institution, he was raped before age five, starved, beaten just for breathing, and was once tortured by being made to sit naked in the snow, author Steven Hale writes. His mother told a family member, “If I could kill him and get away with it, I would.”
Little wonder, then, that West went on to abuse alcohol and drugs himself, committing a heinous crime at age 23 while drunk and high. He was convicted along with his McDonald’s co-worker Ronnie Martin of raping 15-year-old Sheila Romines and then killing the girl and her mother, Wanda. The conviction came after his accomplice admitted to authorities that West was not involved in the murders. But “Steve’s jury never heard a tape of Ronnie admitting that he was the one who stabbed Wanda Romines and her daughter to death,” Hale writes. “The jury also never heard about the horrible and damaging abuse Steve suffered at the hands of his parents.” The kicker: West was sentenced to death while Martin was sentenced to life and will be eligible for parole in 2030.
West was also severely mentally ill. Despite pleas to Gov. Bill Lee, a man who campaigned on “his faith in a redemptive Christ,” as Hale puts it, West died in the electric chair on August 15, 2019.
West’s was one of several executions that Hale witnessed as a reporter for the Nashville Scene and The Appeal , a nonprofit news outlet focused on criminal justice reform. The experience took a toll. “I felt sad and angry and tired,” he writes of the night of West’s execution. “What had we just watched? A man who grew up poor, hungry, abused and mentally ill, put to a violent death by low-paid prison employees while the state’s most powerful officials, Attorney General Herbert Slatery and Gov. Bill Lee, stayed far away.”
With vivid and deep reportage spanning several years, Death Row Welcomes You enlightens readers not only by conveying the “waking nightmare” that West and other death row inmates suffered before they made the worst decisions of their lives, but
BY BY LIZ GARRIGAN | CHAPTER16.ORGalso by revealing the arbitrary nature of the death penalty. No logic can explain why West is dead and Martin will be eligible for parole in a few years. But as Hale notes, Tennessee is one of 27 states that allows capital punishment for people involved in a violent felony that resulted in death, “even if they didn’t kill anyone themselves.”
Hale tells the stories of these men alongside those of prison volunteers and reform advocates, some of whom have known the prisoners for decades and consider them friends. The man executed before West was Don Johnson, whose childhood was equally tragic. Convicted of killing his wife, Johnson served three decades on death row and became an ordained deacon in the church. Gov. Lee, as he did with West and two others, denied requests for clemency, and Johnson died by lethal injection on May 16, 2019. He decided to forgo a final meal and asked instead for his friends and supporters to feed the homeless.
Longtime prison reform advocate Joe Ingle, who features prominently in the book, joked to Hale that Bill Lee and Dylann Roof, the Charleston Mother Emanuel AME Church shooter who killed nine people, have something in common: they both kill ministers. “We’ve had two Christian governors and they’ve participated in killing more people in Tennessee than any governor since 1955,” Ingle told Hale, referring to Bill Haslam and Bill Lee. “I’m ready for an atheist governor.”
Death Row Welcomes You should be required reading for anyone interested in social justice, politics, and the law. Beyond humanizing the condemned and crediting the people who work tirelessly to help them, it exposes dark political truths about Tennessee’s most powerful men, chiefly current Gov. Bill Lee. He used his faith as a campaign prop, frequently touting his involvement with a Nashville prison ministry as he sought the state’s top job. That connection was emphasized so thoroughly, in fact, that the men on death row were actually “rooting” for him to win, Hale writes.
But in the end, Lee has presided over four state killings. Only the COVID-19 pandemic and the state’s oversight shortcomings have stopped executions for now. “Don’t come to
me with ‘I’m a Christian,’ and turn around and kill people in the electric chair or on the gurney,” Ingle told Hale. “It’s politics. It’s got nothing to do with justice or mercy or Jesus.”
To read an uncut version of this review — and more local book coverage — please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.
Kiley Reid, author of 2019 sensation ‘Such a Fun Age’, is back with her new novel ‘Come and Get It’. Thrive Detroit reviews.
Kiley Reid, author of 2019 sensation Such a Fun Age, is back with her new novel, Come and Get It, recently selected for Good Morning America and Michigan Public (formerly Michigan Radio) book clubs.
Reid is already known as a master of messy, real stories that hint — and sometimes shout — about money, class and race, and how they intersect with our social interactions. This time, the setting is the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where Reid formerly lived and worked and which she calls one of her favorite American cities.
Millie Cousins, 24, who is Black, has returned to her studies after taking a break to be with her sick mother, and to her resident assistant job in what is known as the least-desirable dormitory. She takes her job very seriously, at least at first. But then things start to unravel.
Millie has been preparing for her future, meticulously planning and saving to buy her own house while still an undergraduate. Despite the dorm’s lack of popularity, there are plenty of young female residents with access to money, including the only other Black woman on the
BY LAURIE FUNDUKIANfloor (who is not interested in a friendship with Millie, dispelling any myth that they must “stick together”).
One of the disrupters of Millie’s focused life is Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer who is on a one-year contract after escaping her marriage of convenience with an inconsistent dancer and is focusing on teaching and writing. She meets Millie when a few of the students in Millie’s dorm respond to her call for student interviewees for her new project about weddings and money. But during the interviews, Agatha gathers more than she bargained for and quickly abandons the notion of writing about weddings, focusing instead on an unexpected study of characters. She also abandons the appropriate nature of her relationship with Millie.
As research for the novel, Reid interviewed 30 college students — some of whom were privileged southern college girls, and some of whom were not — and used a few direct quotes from them. One standout is a young woman who received a legally dubious “practice paycheck” from her dad’s business for years; another a collegiate baton-twirler who was the golden girl at another
university until one bad decision turned her into a pariah and she transfered to Arkansas. Reid’s personal experience of being a resident assistant
herself in college also offers up some authenticity. The novel is full of impulsive bad decisions that derail characters’ paths. Some readers may judge these characters harshly, but Reid weaves them together with a sophistication that helps to illustrate that we are all “this close” to doing the same in a complicated situation. The heroes aren’t who they seem, either. One small action and outcome can change who they — or we — thought they were.
Money also plays a central role, and supermarket chain Target even shows up as a minor character, with Reid interjecting some social commentary on our need for stuff and how collecting can be both a comfort and a problem. Reid wanted to title her novel Suey, also spelled “sooie,” a call used by farmers to summon hogs and fans of the school’s athletics teams, the Arkansas Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs — and there is a pig on the cover, but her publishers pushed for Come and Get It. One can’t help but imagine the humans in that call, responding to the lure of money.
Courtesy of Thrive Detroit / INSP.ngo
‘From Rights to Lives’ surveys the evolution of racial justice movements
After more than 250 years of slavery and nearly a century after the passage of 13th Amendment, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s forced the country to live up to the guarantees afforded by the Constitution. From gaining access to the ballot box to federal protection from domestic terrorists to the desegregation of schools and universities, African Americans finally began to experience something resembling legal equality. Yet such equality did not mean equity, and most African Americans trailed their white counterparts in terms of wealth, health, longevity, educational status and much more.
In the decades since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968, civil rights activism took a backseat to people determined to roll back the successes of the movement. Growing class divisions, exploding economic inequality, and the fraying of the democratic fabric wrought by these changes and the arrival of the internet led to an illiberal moment. By the time Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, the country had dispensed with any notions that it had somehow reckoned with the demons of its past. Politicians and activists, especially on the American right, openly engaged in racial dog whistling. State-sponsored violence against African Americans seemed to take off anew as law enforcement officers killed citizens in states from New York to Florida to Kentucky to Illinois to Missouri to California, often under suspicious circumstances. These worrisome developments led to the founding of the Black Lives Matter movement.
BY DARYL A. CARTER | CHAPTER16.ORGHistorians and other scholars have begun putting these contemporary events in the context of the larger Black freedom struggle in the United States. A new anthology edited by historians Françoise N. Hamlin and Charles W. McKinney Jr. gives academics and lay people alike fresh ways to consider both the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter. From Rights to Lives: The Evolution of the Black Freedom Struggle is a timely collection of essays which illuminate seminal issues of race, class, activism, insurgency and more, demonstrating just how complex and difficult social movements really are and the ways they’re impacted by factors such as respectability politics. Equally important, this book gives readers a look into the myriad ways structural racism, white supremacy and national issues manifest into violence and inequality against Americans of color.
The book includes eight essays on a range of topics, from Charity Clay’s “Sincerely, Your Grandparents’ Hands,” which explores similarities between “the Trayvon Martin Generation of #BlackLivesMatter and the Emmett Till Generation of the Civil Rights Movement” to David V. Mason’s consideration of the ways photographers — especially white photographers — inevitably shape and distort perceptions of the activism they record in his essay “The Ambivalence of Activist Photography.”
“Revolts of the Black Athletes” by Scott N. Brooks and Aram Goudsouzian surveys how athletes have contributed to the struggle for Black equality and equity even as the world of sports continues to illustrate the persistence of
American racism. Althea Legal-Miller’s “’We May Have to Defend Ourselves’” examines the history of sexual violence against Black women by police.
A postscript by editors Hamlin and McKinney looks closely at the activist response in Memphis to the 2023 police killing of Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop. Once again, critical questions about race, class, and state power were raised by the murder of a motorist — this time by Black police officers. The deadly beating and its aftermath illustrate how some things have changed, yet much remains the same:
The events that proceeded from this unnecessary and fatal encounter followed a similar pattern to previous moments: the bottomless rage and despair of a family and a community; activists convening to respond; city and law enforcement officials circling wagons, scrambling to create an “official” rendering of the incident, and asking for “calm”; political triangulation; the arrival of national media; mass-based protests. The Nichols murder became the latest real-time scenario that illuminated all of the perils and prospects of the movement work we hoped to chronicle in this book.
Crucially, the authors and editors take time, space and technology into consideration in their analysis of historic and contemporary movements. It is important to understand just how much organizing techniques and communication have grown and evolved and how those changes have altered the nature of civil disobedience since the era of the Civil Rights Movement. Tireless on-the-ground organizing by figures like Bayard Rustin has given way to an environment where tech-savvy individuals with access to an iPhone and social media platforms can trigger mass public demonstrations.
A much-needed contribution to the field, From Rights to Lives serves to deepen our understanding of the Black experience in the United States as a dynamic narrative, updated regularly as the nation shifts and changes.
For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.
In late April, I attended a community conversation titled "Mental Health: Identifying the Problem," held at Geodis Park. While the event was educational, featuring discussions on various aspects of mental health, it largely overlooked deeper systemic issues that create and exacerbate mental health crises — issues critiqued with hard data and heartbreaking stories in Rob Wipond's recent book, Your Consent Is Not Required.
Wipond's investigative work exposes the often-coercive nature of psychiatric interventions and the troubling expansion of mental health laws that infringe on individual rights and autonomy. Through existing research, Wipond reveals how the psychiatric industry, under the guise of assistance, often results in harmful outcomes like forced drugging and involuntary detentions. These practices undermine personal autonomy and self-determination and are predicated on outdated claims, such as the widely discredited “chemical imbalance” theory of mental disorders.
The book presents accounts that are not anomalies or one-off events in Nashville’s approach to mental health, such as patients being detained and forcibly treated based on superficial assessments during crises, often worsening their conditions rather than improving them. These narratives challenge the prevailing notion that institutional care and forced interventions are required or necessary for safety. Instead, these practices lack substantial evidence supporting their effectiveness, and Wipond argues that such approaches reflect deeper cultural prejudices and serve more as mechanisms of social control than genuine healthcare solutions.
Wipond's book is required reading
BY WILL CONNELLYfor anyone involved in mental health advocacy or policy. He urges a reevaluation of how we address mental health, advocating for a shift away from these coercive practices and toward a more empathetic and human rights-based approach. It is a call to recognize the often-invisible harms inflicted in the name of treatment and to advocate for a system that truly respects the voices and rights of those it aims to serve.
However, beware of raising your voice after reading this book. By engaging with these critiques, you may encounter personal and professional risks. Wipond’s work sheds light on the pervasive and often punitive nature of the mental health system, a system that does not kindly regard those who challenge its foundations. Historically, individuals (patients included) who have dared to expose the flaws or contest the status quo of medical practices — especially within psychiatry — have faced significant repercussions. Critics can find themselves marginalized, facing loss of credibility, professional ostracism, or even job termination. This reality demands bravery and courage to speak out and the need for a supportive community that values and demands transparency and reform in mental health practices.
Wipond's Your Consent Is Not Required provides insights for rethinking our approach to mental health care. This book challenges the status quo and makes an urgent call for reform reminding us that our actions in mental health advocacy and policy must align with the principles of empathy, respect and dignity for all and align with the promise in the Hippocratic Oath: “first, do no harm.”
If the name Wes Moore rings a bell, it’s likely because as the governor of Maryland, he has recently been in the news in connection to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore. What you may not know is that he penned a book in 2010, which describes his upbringing in the 1980s in Baltimore and intertwines the story with that of the other Wes Moore who grew up in — also in Baltimore — around the same time. The author discovered this when he read an article about the other Wes Moore who was wanted for murder. He eventually reached out to him in prison, and the resulting book is a thought-provoking reflection of how two kids of the same name, both struggling throughout their youth, have taken different paths. One ended up in prison, the other is now governor of Maryland. JUDITH TACKETT
If you are seeking a religious and spiritual approach to building community, Neighborliness is a book for you. Anchored in the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself” Docusen dives into explaining how individuals and churches can lead and serve in a time of extreme division. He doesn’t shy away from addressing racism and economic disparities. This book turned into a movement, and after having met the author and visited the community he worked in in Charlotte, N.C., it is clear that this book is a guide to living together as neighbors.
“Why is there so much poverty in America?” These are the first words of the prologue in the most recent book by Desmond. If you have read his previous book “Evicted,” you already understand that this author immerses himself into his topics. Now you learn he grew up poor and while he’s been researching poverty and writing policies for years, he now dives in to examine why America has not made more progress on fighting poverty. Desmond makes a personal and compassionate plea, showing us that we all have a part to play in winning the fight against poverty.
Look, guys. It's been a long year already and it's going to get longer. We're reading Chaucer this summer. The beloved English poet, whose Canterbury Tales come to life in Burton Raffel's classic and delightful translation, does not ask much of us. Unlike Shakespeare and Milton, Chaucer adores his subjects and always seems himself slightly drunk. For spiritually exhausted 21st century laborers living in the heart of the American empire, the Canterbury Tales are fun, distracting, and serve as an enduring invitation to try to actually relax for once. Six hundred years later, one gets the sense that Chaucer loves not only the subjects of his opus, but his readers too. That includes us, so consider your beach read settled. A good selection for Hoboscopes connoisseurs. LAURA BIRDSALL
Alice Randall, a songwriter, author, and Vanderbilt University professor, has spent most of her life dedicated in one way or another to schooling people on country music. In My Black Country, she outlines the inclination of Music Row institutions to discount Black writers and their insistence on erasure of Black artists, particularly women, in the genre. Randall knows all too personally that the country music industry, and the world, can be tough on a Black female songwriter. Even as she earned a spot as the first Black woman to co-write a No. 1 country hit with Trisha Yearwood’s “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl),” most people wouldn’t know the song was written by a Black mother desperate to figure out who she was. Luckily, you can get that whole story here. The book builds on the idea of the first family of Black country music, identified by Randall as DeFord Bailey, Lil Hardin, Ray Charles, Charley Pride
If you’re wondering why I’m recommending a book set in New York, just follow me for a minute. Nashville author Erica Ciccarone started writing this fiction novel before she became a journalist. The story follows a reporter with a rollercoaster career (high highs, low lows) as she explores grief and truth and mystery involving a crooked health care professional from Nashville (imagine) and a crime-fighting seagull. Especially as a writer who lost my own editor to a heart incident, the story at-times feels like a funhouse mirror of some of the Nashville experience. Fellow writers in the area may feel similarities to their own newsrooms — though her inspiration came long before her desire to investigate and write news stories, Ciccarone nails the reporter experience. And while the book is dark, the story is both funny and engaging. AMANDA HAGGARD
Founding editor of ‘The Contributor’ explores the legacies of white supremacy, private property and police
When I served as editor of The Contributor (2008-2013), part of my work entailed meeting up with our vendors and other unhoused Nashvillians and listening to — and sometimes helping them narrate, write, and share — their stories of life on the streets. It didn’t take me long to learn that one of the most common experiences that people struggling to survive without permanent shelter endure is harassment from those who supposedly “serve and protect” us — police.
Again and again, year after year, our friends would tell me utterly baffling stories of trying to sleep, sit, stand, eat, use the bathroom, and otherwise mind their own business when police began to harass them, telling them to move along, or even citing or arresting them and taking them
BY ANDREW KRINKSto jail — all for having no place to lay their head. The sheer injustice of it all ignited my moral indignation and commitment to building a world without such injustice, and I haven’t looked back since.
In 2013, my last year at the paper, I collaborated with our co-founder, former executive director, and excellent photographer Tasha A.F. Lemley for a special issue on the criminalization of homelessness in Nashville. I pulled arrest records and police affidavits for more than a dozen unhoused folks who were cited or arrested for existing in public — for “breathing air,” as one man I interviewed put it — and Tasha took stunning photographs of each person in the exact place and position they were in when police accosted them. The experience of inviting criminalized people to share their
accounts of being confronted and captured by agents of the state because of their state of dispossession forever shaped how I see our city and our nation in this era of racial capitalism.
Indeed, the conversations and relationships that I was privileged to partake in as editor at The Contributor impacted me so deeply that they went on to shape the trajectory of my subsequent graduate studies in theology and religion, as well as my community organizing and teaching in pursuit of a world of safety and abundance beyond police and prisons.
All of these things also animated the long writing of my book, White Property, Black Trespass: Racial Capitalism and the Religious Function of Mass Criminalization, which finally comes out this August from NYU Press.
Listening to firsthand accounts of the criminalization of people without housing in our city led me on a quest to better understand why it is that states of precarity — poverty — also register to the state as states of criminality: why, in other words, is it a crime to be poor? My pursuit of an answer to that question led me to a decade-long exploration of the European Christian theological roots and ongoing legacies of white supremacy, private property, and police. I am proud of this book, and hope readers of The Contributor will check it out. It can technically be classified as a work of “academic” scholarship, but, committed as I am to accessible writing, I am hopeful a wider audience can learn something from it. You may even find a few stories from Contributor vendors past and present inside its pages.
“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.
El año 2024 está dejando una huella imborrable en los cielos de Estados Unidos, con la llegada de tormentas solares y auroras boreales que han maravillado a observadores de todo el país. Un evento particularmente notable ocurrió en el estado de Tennessee, donde los residentes del centro de Tennessee tuvieron una experiencia única al presenciar las luces del norte en una noche de viernes.
Las Auroras Boreales hicieron una rara aparición tan al sur como el norte de Alabama y partes de Mississippi, gracias a lo que se llama una tormenta geomagnética. Los afortunados espectadores que lograron ver este fenómeno compartieron fotos con WSMVNashville. Todo esto fue posible gracias a una muy rara tormenta geomagnética de categoría G4 en el sistema solar, que nos permitió ver los coloridos resultados en el cielo.
La tormenta geomagnética está compuesta por un viento solar muy fuerte que fuerza a protones y electrones cargados, emitidos por el Sol, a ingresar al campo magnético de la Tierra. Los vientos solares deben canalizar los protones y electrones hacia la atmósfera terrestre a través de los polos norte y sur. Para nosotros, en el Hemisferio Norte, ingresan a través del Polo Norte, de donde proviene el apodo de "Luces del Norte" en referencia a la Aurora Boreal.
Los protones y electrones luego chocan con varias moléculas en la atmósfera, y a través de esa colisión, crean her-
mosos colores en el cielo. Los diferentes colores creados dependen de cuántos kilómetros alcancen en la atmósfera y qué tipo de moléculas están colisionando, como oxígeno y nitrógeno.
Según afirma el afiliado de NBC, WBIR, la última vez que se pudo observar la aurora en Tennessee fue en noviembre de 2004 y en enero de 2005, después de ráfagas de plasma solar que causaron tormentas solares igualmente severas.
Aunque las Auroras Boreales fueron un regalo para muchos, debido a la tormenta geomagnética, la Administración Nacional Oceánica y Atmosférica (NOAA) advirtió que el clima espacial extremo podría desencadenar problemas para los usuarios de tecnología, según informa CNN.
Este evento nos recuerda la magnificencia y la imprevisibilidad de los fenómenos naturales, así como la importancia de estar preparados para adaptarnos a los cambios que traen consigo. Las tormentas solares y las
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. Conoce tus derechos: ¿Que hacer en caso de una redada?
1. Mantenerse callado
2. Sólo dar nombre y 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)
auroras boreales no solo nos asombran con su belleza, sino que también nos recuerdan la conexión intrincada entre el Sol, la Tierra y el universo en el que habitamos.
Es fundamental comprender que, si bien las auroras boreales son un espectáculo visual sorprendente, su origen está en fenómenos mucho más complejos y poderosos, como las tormentas solares. Estas erupciones en la superficie del Sol pueden liberar cantidades masivas de energía en forma de radiación y partículas cargadas, que pueden afectar diversos aspectos de la vida en la Tierra.
Uno de los impactos más evidentes de las tormentas solares es su capacidad para interferir con las comunicaciones y la tecnología. Las partículas cargadas pueden perturbar las señales de los satélites, interrumpir las redes de comunicación e incluso causar daños en los sistemas eléctricos y electrónicos. Por lo tanto, aunque las auroras boreales pueden ser un espectáculo
visual impresionante, también es importante reconocer los posibles riesgos asociados con la actividad solar intensa.
En este sentido, la investigación y el monitoreo continuo del clima espacial son fundamentales para comprender y mitigar los impactos de las tormentas solares en nuestra sociedad cada vez más dependiente de la tecnología. Agencias como la NOAA y la NASA juegan un papel crucial en el seguimiento de la actividad solar y en la emisión de alertas tempranas sobre posibles tormentas solares y sus efectos.
A medida que avanzamos en el siglo XXI, es probable que presenciemos una mayor frecuencia e intensidad de tormentas solares, lo que podría llevar a un aumento en la actividad auroral en latitudes más bajas de lo habitual. Esto significa que más personas tendrán la oportunidad de maravillarse con las luces del norte, pero también resalta la importancia de estar preparados para los posibles impactos en la tecnología y la infraestructura.
Este evento nos recuerda la magnificencia y la imprevisibilidad de los fenómenos naturales, ofreciendonos un recordatorio espectacular de la complejidad y la belleza del cosmos, así como recordarnos sobre la importancia de estar preparados para adaptarnos a los cambios que traen consigo. Las tormentas solares y las auroras boreales no solo nos asombran con su belleza, sino que también nos recuerdan la conexión intrincada entre el Sol, la Tierra y el universo en el que habitamos, destacando la capacidad del universo para sorprendernos y maravillarnos una vez más.
Envíenos sus sugerencias por e-mail: news@hispanicpaper.com ó 615-567-3569
The big pack has 9 mega-rolls which it says are equal to 12 regular rolls. But the small pack has 6 ultra-rolls which are equal to 12 mini-rolls. You can also get this double that has 12 super-rolls which are apparently the same as 18 mega-rolls but they look smaller than the ultra-rolls so I’m suspicious. Are you taking notes, Gemini? Sometimes this grocery store algebra makes me realize just how little is expected of me. This distracting math keeps us consuming and obsessing and helps us forget about the real pain happening in the world. Grab a pack of the store brand and let's find a way to help.
Do you ever think, Cancer, about all the things that have changed in the world just since you’ve been alive? I don’t know how old you are, but if you’re reading this, you’re probably older than, say, The Masked Singer. That show premiered in 2019 so if you were around before that you were born into a world where singers went around unmasked nearly all the time. We can barely imagine such a time anymore, but masking singers is still a relatively new concept. Imagine how many other things might change in your lifetime, Cancer. You could never predict the wonders you’ll experience. Try to enjoy miracles as they arrive.
I just started playing that new video game where you’re a snail and you have to get all the way across the school playground without getting stepped on. It took me 44 tries of getting squished by the tetherball players before I figured out I have a “snail faster” button. It was another 31 tries after that before I learned how to use my “power shell.” And that was just level one! I’m way better now and it reminds me, Leo, that it really is true what they say about try, trying again. Whatever you’re practicing, you’ll get better.
My grandfather was the kind of person who would start telling a joke as soon as the elevator doors closed. He loved a captive audience. By the time we all got to the 12th floor, he’d be handing out business cards and promising to come to your son's graduation. He meant it, too. You and me, Virgo, we’re more the type to stand in the corner reading the instructions on what to do if the elevator doors won’t open and checking the date on the most recent cable inspection. And the world needs people like us. It really does. All I’m saying is, don’t ignore the guy next to you who’s trying to make friends. You’ll need those, too.
I made some oatmeal this morning and as I was scrubbing the bottom of the pot I saw something strange. Instead of my own blurry reflection I saw a startlingly clear view of another kitchen. A different sink full of different dishes. Turns out the bottom of my oatmeal pot is a portal that allows me to view the bottom of an oatmeal pot in Coeur d'Alene Idaho. It was fun at first. I’d wave to the couple in the other kitchen as we all prepped our daily oats. I showed them around my apartment once, but there isn’t much to see. It’s so strange, Libra, the ways we find to connect with each other. But it reminds me of the value of sharing a meal. And that we should never stop trying to be known.
Remember that summer when you went to the lake nearly every day? Remember the summer when your car air conditioner went out and you just kept a cooler of ice in your passenger seat? And the summer when you decided to see every movie that came out but then you got caught bringing burritos into the movie theater and they banned you? What about the summer when your brother found six kittens we had to find homes for but you ended up keeping two? Or the summer when your dad got sick and you had to cancel your trip? This summer’s gonna be different than all those, Scorpio. Just keep your eyes open and remember that none of this ever lasts.
I don’t know, Sagittarius. Should I get my bike out this summer? I used to really enjoy riding up and down the paved trails in the park. But getting to the park is a lot scarier. There’s cars to dodge and debris in the bike lanes. I know a guy who ended up in the hospital from his tire catching on the gutter. But every joyful action has an equal and opposite risk, Sagittarius. And nobody can stay safe forever. I think we have to balance caution and living. Could you help me get this bike chain back on? And have you seen my helmet?
I think of cicadas as nature’s bagpipes. One droning note lays down in the background while the complex melody of life plays out all around. Also like bagpipes, they’re a beautiful miracle of evolution that does start to wear one down after a while. But the one guarantee, Capricorn, is that all of this will pass. The heat, the drone, the feelings that you feel today. They’re here for a season. So tune in to the present as much as you can. And don’t be shocked when it’s gone.
I remember the first time, Aquarius. The explosive energy as the band finished one of our favorites. The singer shouted “Thank you, goodnight!” and waved as the guitarist threw another pick into the crowd and they all walked off stage. Me and you stood there screaming and clapping. We chanted “one more song!” again and again until they came back out, timidly, for another three-song set. It was magical, Aquarius. But now I always see it coming. The standing obligation leads to the inevitable return. It’s getting late, can’t we just skip this charade? Drop your cynicism for today, Aquarius. Stand and clap and shout. It’s good for you. As good for you as music.
Oh, I get it! You put a quarter in the cart and then if you return the cart you get your quarter back. Pretty smart. Why don’t we do this with more things? Surely folks would return just about anything they borrowed if the barrier for entry was low, the penalty for failure was an acceptable loss, and the reward for success was a return to status quo. I mean, I would. We probably won’t convince the Honda dealership to let us borrow cars for a quarter, but maybe we can start by lending what we already have. If you need my shovel, or my jumper cables, or my hair clippers come on by. We can even skip the quarter.
I’ve noticed lately that whenever I have to talk about something hard that’s happening in my life — like loss or pain or illness or disappointment — I get to the most uncomfortable part in my story and then I pause and just trail off into “but, I guess it’s not so bad” or “it could be worse” or something equally dismissive. It’s really hard to just sit in those realities, Aries. For me it’s much easier to trail off into an ambiguous better future. But maybe this week let's practice being where we are. Noticing the hard things and what they feel like. Expressing our fear and our grief when the opportunities arise. And pausing before we jump to vague solutions.
Don’t look now, Taurus, but there’s a spider right by your foot. Wait! Don’t step on it. It didn’t do anything to you. Spiders are the good guys! It’s probably just here to keep the bugs from eating your azaleas. When something uncomfortable arises, the easiest thing is to react and squash it. But sit with it for a while longer today. See if you might find a reason that discomfort showed up in the first place.
62. Nicholas II of Russia, e.g.
63. Key next to spacebar
64. Where users review DOWN
1. Fa follower
2. Between Ohio and Ontario
3. *Opposite of on land
point opposites (2 words)
20. A pinch between the cheeks
21. Earth tremor
22. Before skip and a jump
23. Constantly worry about something 26. More infinitesimal
30. Catch a wink
31. One weber per square meter, pl.
34. *Pre-recorded 35. Deed hearings
37. Cribbage piece
38. Bread spreads
39. Plural of focus
40. Making the way, in a way
42. "I Like ___," 1952 campaign slogan
43. Of somber color
45. *Like bride's accessories (2 words)
47. 60 mins., pl.
48. Indiana ball player
50. One of Three Bears
52. *Day periods (2 words)
55. Vernacular
56. Part of church
57. Soap bubbles
59. Type of small salmon
60. Bound
61. Domingo, Pavarotti and Carreras, e.g.
4. Fluffy dessert
5. Hillsides in Scotland
6. Anti-seniors sentiment
7. *Opposite of awakward and clumsy
8. *Door instruction (2 words)
9. Fairy tale opener
10. Flat-bottomed boat
11. Bambino
13. Not like #26 Down
14. Popular breakfast item
19. MCAT and LSAT, e.g. 22. *Hers
23. *Switch positions (2 words)
24. Louisiana swamp
25. Glasses, for short
26. Three biblical sages
27. A logical connection (2 words)
28. Extract a memory, e.g.
29. Stitch again
32. R&R spots
33. Tolstoy's given name, in Russian
36. *Irwin Shaw's title opposites (2 words)
38. Checked out
40. Pimple fluid
41. Marked
44. Speak like Pericles
46. *Not airtight
48. Teacher's pet, e.g.
49. Balance sheet entry
50. *Cons
51. Muslim honorific
52. Facts
53. Donned
54. Nervous biter's victim
55. College assessment test, acr.
58. Janitor's tool
BY
CHRIS SCOTT FIESELMANPieces of Poetry 25, R-U Grateful 2-B Alive? Blessed with another, Nashville Sunset, I could never possibly afford. From up on the 4th floor, Out there by the airport, A stone’s throw away, From Briley Parkway, Some wealthy people, Would probably be, More than willing to pay... ( $ ) A whole lot of more money for. The price of this life, Is the cost of your chores, And Consistently, Constantly, Moving Forward, Never knowing, What’s in store? Still yet unexplored, Because... What’s mine as a Songwriter? Is Yours.
Pieces of Poetry 25, R-U Grateful 2-B Alive?
I know where I’m going, To sleep tonight. So many don’t, And that’s not right. “That’s their Problem. That’s their Plight. Good night, Sweet Dreams, And God Bless You. Go to sleep and please... Try to stay out of sight”
A Pioneer, Could make it from here. So why not allow, What so many, Desperately, Need right now... An opportunity, Through a New Frontier, To turn their life around. To move on from, Having Nothing... To becoming, A Part of Something... To be standing upon, Common Ground. To find Peace, Hope and Rest, Through The Eagles Nest, An American, Lost and Found...
BY
WRITTENWell... I remember what, My Dear Old Dad would say, When troubles and obstacles, Came his way. Like a tree that would bend, And not break in the wind. A Righteous Man, Falls seven times, And Rises Again...
So, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, That doesn’t matter much...
Fill your heart with - Love - Love - Love, And don’t you hold no grudge... Don’t let a little difficulty - Cause you stress. It’s not a big problem - Just a little mess.
So, Don’t Sweat the Small Suff... And it’s all Small Stuff, Yes it is, it’s all Small Stuff...
Now, upon us all, a little rain must fall, And it’s all just a part of life. You Roll with the Punches, Hang On and Have Fun, Because, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. You don’t learn a lot, On those Mountain Tops, Though it’s, not a bad place to be. But, Patience and Faith, And whatever it takes, Can only be learned in, The Valley...
So, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, That doesn’t matter much...
Fill your heart with - Love - Love - Love, And don’t you hold no grudge...
Don’t let a little difficulty - Cause you stress. It’s not a big problem - Just a little mess.
So, Don’t Sweat the Small Suff... And it’s all Small Stuff, Yes it is, it’s all Small Stuff...
Well, I said it before and I’ll say it again. You don’t know how the story goes or how it ends. So, enjoy The Adventure, as much as you can, Because, it’s just another, Learning Experience...
So... Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, That doesn’t matter much...
Fill your heart with - Love - Love - Love, And don’t you hold no grudge...
Don’t let a little difficulty - Cause you stress. It’s not a big problem - Just a little mess. So, Don’t Sweat the Small Suff... And it’s all Small Stuff, Yes it is, it’s all Small Stuff...
Used to be said, “Here today, gone tomorrow.” Now it’s, “Here today, gone today.” - Edwin Lockridge
On Thursday, May 9, Edwin Lockridge (Tony) and I met Peggy Snow at the Monell’s Restaurant. Maybe I should say what used to be Monell’s Restaurant next to the Airport. We were taking pictures of the historic restaurant as a keepsake memory of a place we ate at many times. The memories were overwhelming of how we were treated like family each time we ate there.
Peggy Snow showed up in an older vehicle that reflected a piece of her personality or persona. A woman who believes everything has a purpose. She was there to paint a second oil painting of Monell’s. Recently I spoke with her on the phone to ask if she could tell me a little about herself. “I believe all across the country people were sad to lose the old places” Peggy had spoke to people in her travels across the country.
Ms. Snow describes herself as an artist who does impressionism — open air painting. A public artist who likes to
engage with people, and is sympathetic towards the homeless people who she has painted nearby while doing street art. A portion of her time was spent in Germany, Montana and Connecticut. When asked that someone was to describe something significant about you what would like people to know? “I like to paint out in the country where I can be close to nature.” She feels in harmony with two of her paintings are in the Tennessee Art Museum here in Nashville. The paintings are in their collection, but not necessarily on exhibit. When she recently showed up to what was Monell's, the first thing she noticed was the huge tree that was on the property was shoved over to the ground. It was a huge number of birds that flew around it, not leaving, as if to pay tribute to a friend who gave them refuge and shelter in the history of it loving devotion. When we neglect what is around us, we forget the loving purpose it serves. We must remember this purpose rather than replace it with a piece of land for the airport that no one could care less about. (Watch for a follow-up Part 2.)
BY MAURICE B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDORWithin the overall average means of existence, and the serene landscape with a tree symbolizing the strength and continuity of life, the diverse branches, the soft glow of Nur/light in the background representing hope and faith, are given only to ones of consciousness. Conscious individuals can and will accept and realize that living life is full of our choices and decisions, yeah various choices that are incorrect and but by the grace and mercy of our Almighty Creator God's will that He returns us our limited freewill of our naffs/soul another day to redirect our choices only to make better decisions of and
for our destiny. Whereas a destiny means the future that is destined for a "person or thing, or the predetermined course of events." Decisions are conclusions and resolutions reached after considerations. The factor of considerations is those of Who Am I/You? The best way to find and determine that answer is to find our identity within our Creator's will. We all "Mankind" are created the same in which is of perfection and that's only through and by our Almighty Creator God's will. His will is that of "A serene landscape with a tree symbolizing the strength and continuity of life".
[Editor's content warning: sexual assault]
Our court system is now letting men that sexually assault women go on misdemeanors. You’re letting them out on misdemeanors like it never even happened like they never sexually assaulted the victim.
What is our court system coming to? They let my rapist go free today like he never even raped me like the court didn’t even care that I
was raped by this man like being raped doesn’t matter at all like raping a woman is no big deal. It’s like the court of law is making light of the crime. If someone kills someone are they going to let them off on a misdemeanor and dismiss the case? If someone stabs someone is the court going to let them off on a misdemeanor? Are all crimes going to be dismissed and let off as misdemeanors?
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
Whitsun-Week Wednesday
THE grace of the Holy Ghost is not bound to any law. St Gregory the Great: Dialogues.
NATURE makes man from the child and the hen from the egg, but God makes the man before the child and the hen before the egg. God gives the Holy Ghost before he gives the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Eckhart: The Book of Benedictus.
Whitsun-Week Thursday
WHEN a man here on earth is illuminated by the Holy Spirit from the spring of Jesus Christ . . . there comes into his heart and his veins such joy that the whole body triumphs, as though it were in the Holy Trinity, which they alone understand who have been its guests.
Boehme: Aurora
Whitsun-Week Saturday
IT is the knowledge of the All of God that makes cherubim and seraphim to be flames of divine love. For where this All of God is truly known and felt in any creature, there its whole breath and spirit is a fire of love, nothing but a pure disinterested love can arise up in it or come from it, a love that begins and ends in God. And where this love is born in any creature, there a seraphic life is born along with it. For this pure love introduces the creature into the All of God; all that is in God is opened in the creature, it is united with God and has the life of God manifested in it.
William Law: The Spirit of Prayer.
LOVE knoweth not how to keep a storehouse full of possessions.
The Paradise of the Fathers.
WE confess neither a solitary nor a diverse God. St Hillary: Of the Trinity
IT is this eternal, unbeginning Trinity in unity of fire, light, and spirit, that constitutes eternal nature, the Kingdom of Heaven, the heavenly Jerusalem, the divine life, beatific visibility, the majestic glory and presence of God. Through this Kingdom of Heaven, or eternal nature, is the invisible God, the incomprehensible Trinity eternally breaking forth, and manifesting itself in a boundless height and depth of blissful wonders, opening and displaying itself to all its creatures as in an infinite variation and endless multiplicity of its powers, beauties, joys and glories.
William Law: An Appeal
THE doctrine of the Holy Trinity is wholly practical; it is revealed to us, to discover our high original and the greatness of our fall, to show us the deep and profound operation of the triune God in the recovery of
the divine life in our souls; that by the means of this mystery thus discovered, our piety may be rightly directed, our faith and prayer have their proper objects, that the workings and aspiring of our own hearts may cooperate and correspond with that triune life in the Deity, which is always desiring to manifest itself in us.
William Law: An Appeal
1st Tuesday after Trinity
THERE appeared to me, in the profound and clear substance of that great light three Circles, of three colours and of one magnitude; and One seemed reflected from the Other as rainbow from rainbow, and the Third as it were a fire equally breathed from Either . . . and that Circling which seemed to reflected light, after my eyes had gazed some time, appeared in its own colour to be painted with our (human) likeness . . . Power failed from the high vision; but already my desire and my will revolved—like a wheel moving equally—in the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.
Dante: Paradise
1st Wednesday after Trinity
THERE is no one first principle of evil as there is one first principle of good.
Aquinas: Summa Theologica
CREATION in the creature is only a certain relation to its Creator as to the principle of its being.
Aquinas: Summa Theologica
1st Thursday after Trinity
WE should communicate, not for our souls' benefit, but also to satisfy Our Lord's exceeding longing for us.
Charles De Condren, quoted by Patmore: The Rod, The Root, and the Flower
IF you are the body of Christ and his members it is the mystery of yourselves that is laid upon the altar. It is the mystery of yourselves that you receive. It is to what you are that you say Amen.
St Augustine: Sermons.
1st Friday after Trinity
IT is not according to times or places that we say that the whole Christ is everywhere, as if He were at one time whole in one place, at another time whole in another: but as being whole always and everywhere.
St Augustine: On the Creed
ADORED be thou, Lord, through our sister, the Death of our body.
St Francis of Assisi: Canticle of the Sun
1st Saturday after Trinity
BUT when does flesh receive the bread which he calls His flesh? The faithful know and receive the Body of
Sponsored by Matthew Carver, publisherChrist, if they labour to be the body of Christ. And they become the body of Christ, if they study to live by the Spirit of Christ: for that which lives by the Spirit of Christ, is the body of Christ. This bread the Apostle sets forth, where he says, We being many are one body. O sacrament of mercy, O sign of unity, O bond of love! Whoso wishes to live, let him draw nigh, believe, be incorporated, that he may be quickened.
St Augustine: quoted in Aquinas: Catena Aurea
IN nature the body makes the place, but in grace the place makes the body.
Donne: Sermons.
IT is owned on all hands that we are baptised into a renovation of some divine birth that we had lost. ßAnd that we many not be at a loss to know what that divine birth is, the form in baptism openly declares to us that it is to regain that first birth of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in our souls, which at the first made us to be truly and really images of the nature of the Holy Trinity in unity. The form in baptism is but very imperfectly apprehended, till it is understood to have this great meaning in it. And it must be owned that the Scriptures tend wholly to guide us to this understanding of it. For since they teach us a birth of God, a birth of the Spirit, that we must obtain, and that baptism, the appointed sacrament of this new birth, is to be done into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, can there be any doubt that this sacrament is to signify the renovation of the birth of the Holy Trinity in our souls?
William Law: Christian Regeneration
2nd Monday after Trinity
WHAT is 'spirit'? (for Christ is spirit, his religion that of the spirit). Spirit is: to live as though dead (dead to the world).
This way of life is so entirely foreign to man that to him it is quite literally worse than death.
Very carefully introduced for an hour or so in the distance of the imagination, natural man can bear it, it even pleases him. But if it is brought nearer him, so near that it becomes, in all seriousness, something required of him: the natural instinct of self-protection rises up so powerfully in him that a regular uproar follows, as with drink . . . And in that condition, in which he is beside himself, he demands the death of the man of spirit, or rushes upon him to put him to death.
Kierkegaard: Journals.
2nd Tuesday after
UNLESS a man saith in his heart, "Only God and myself exist in this world," he will not find rest.
The Paradise of the Fathers.
KEEP thy conscience with thy brother and thou shalt find rest.
The Paradise of the Fathers.
Those who are familiar with my writing may know I’ve written about marriage before from a long term perspective. Fifty years to be exact.
I thought it might be nice to look at marriage from the other end of the spectrum, from a couple still in the newlywed stage about to celebrate their first wedding anniversary: Rockmore and Linda.
Linda is a co-editor of The Contributor. She and Rockmore met online on February 2, 2021, and arranged to meet in person a few days later when he adjusted the route of his upcoming travel plans to include a stop in Nashville where she resides.
A long walk led to spending five or six days together.
Linda says it wasn’t just the little things like enjoying conversations with one another, or watching the same tv shows that made their relationship work. It was also the bigger things like caring for people in the same way and perhaps most important of all, the fact that they share the same core values that drew her closer to him.
For his part, Rockmore says from the moment they met there was NEVER any doubt or hesitation on his part. “It was all systems go,” he said. “There were no red flags as far as Linda was concerned.”
Although he obviously didn’t know EVERYTHING about her, what he did know up to that point he loved, and EVERYTHING he continues to learn he loves.
I asked each of them about their partner's most endearing qualities. Linda’s reply?
She said Rockmore often anticipates her needs and the needs of others around him. Another quality she admires about him is that he’s a quick learner and is ALWAYS teaching himself new things. She continued on saying he is very observant, an incredible listener, he’s hilarious and brilliant. High praise from his beautiful bride.
As for Rockmore, he said it was her laugh that initially put him at ease, but that was just a tease. He noted how deeply she feels her own emotions and those of others around her, understanding their needs, providing assistance in whatever way she can, whether it’s in an emotional, physical, or spiritual way and often times in ways they don’t even realize they need.
In a very short time, Linda and Rockmore discovered they had SO much in common. That, in turn, led to even more long conversations, and many interesting road trips in Rockmore’s van.
They’ve had quite a few since they first met, and they’ve spent quality time together, having some unique adventures along the way!
Linda recalled a road trip over a Thanksgiving holiday where they stopped and ate turkey sandwiches together in a gas station parking lot.
Rockmore’s “special times/places” list included sitting and talking on a bench in a Georgia cemetery and an Air B&B in Abilene, TX where he met many other members of her family in a time of difficulty.
I liked his conclusion most of all: “It doesn’t matter where we are as long as we are in a space together. THAT is what makes it SPECIAL!”
So just how did these two decide that it was time for them to take the next step and become man and wife? No, Rockmore DID NOT decide on this by himself. He sought out the help of Linda’s best friend to help determine the things Linda might like best.
Then one day, seemingly out of the blue, they both had a day off together, so they met for breakfast and all the pieces fell into place. As they worked a crossword puzzle together, they engaged in conversation about their relationship, their feelings, and their future and decided TOGETHER just as they have done ALL things since their relationship began that it was time for them to get married, for these two to become one!
(In case you think this proposal is different or even a bit strange, I’ve heard directly from the source herself it was EXACTLY what she’d ALWAYS wanted, the proposal of her dreams!)
I asked each of them after one year of marriage what is the BEST part of being married?
Initially, Linda noted the practicality of filing their taxes jointly, but they both agreed they LOVE that they’re in a partnership, working together as a team, knowing that they are better prepared to handle WHATEVER life throws at them, and that they will be together at the end of the day no matter what.
So far the process has been fun, and they are happy with the arrangement, but they admit it has been an adjustment learning how to compromise instead of handling things each on their own, all the while combining two homes and lives into one.
What advice would they give to those contemplating marriage? They attribute their success thus far to the fact that they waited until they were older to get married (they’re both in their 30’s.) They also noted the importance of communication, stating it is VITAL to the success of ANY relationship you’re in.
They also said ‘they’d, “rather talk through hard things than not talk at all.”
It sounds like pretty good advice to me!
I think it’s pretty clear that they are STILL in the honeymoon phase, and no one knows what lies ahead, but this I DO know for sure, as long as they stay on the path they’re on and lean on each other when things go wrong, they WILL without a doubt remain strong, and there’s NOTHING these two can’t endure!
They met online like so many couples do these days
They are both SO busy, but they made the effort to meet in person face to face
February 2, 2021 was the date to be exact,
I asked Linda if she felt each day was a repeat of the last
She assured me that each day was different from the one before, noting there is ALWAYS something new and different to learn about Rockmore!
After spending some quality time together
It became clear each one to the other that they would have a special place the others lives forever!
That is the story of how the editor and the chef came to be
Now they’re no longer alone on their own
They’re living together as a family
Each one giving the other what they need to be complete
A true partnership in EVERY sense of the word
They bring out the best in each other that’s for sure,
Individually they each possess qualities that compliment one another too They love to entertain family and friends
He being a chef takes care to prepare the menu for such occasions
From simple fare like finger foods to a romantic dinner for two
He knows EXACTLY what to do!
The same is true of Linda too, but in a different way though She is in charge of the entertainment, decor, and the vibe when it’s party time!
The way they share the responsibilities surely make these gatherings fun for ALL who attend!
With only 1 year in and a lifetime ahead
There’s no telling what these two will cook up together
One thing is certain if they don’t like the recipe they come up with at first They can ‘edit’ the ingredients and try again and again til they get it just right
After all life is like a recipe ALWAYS changing for better or worse
Just like they vows the two of them took They have plenty of time to get it right
With only one year in they have the rest of their lives!
Jerry Seinfeld's new Netflix comedy is a celebration of American breakfast. It blends facts and fiction into a pleasing mix that also includes lots of surprises, thanks to a vast cast and a generous sprinkling of celebrity cameos. The film is directed and co-written by Seinfeld. He also stars as a fictional Kellogg executive named Bob Cabana in this story detailing the development of the beloved Pop-Tarts toaster pastries. This movie might have been a straight documentary or even a real life corporate drama like Air or Blackberry. But, Seinfeld makes something more ambitious out of his tart tale. The results have split critics and audiences, and – love it or hate it – the comedian has managed to make the origin story of a breakfast treat one of the most controversial films of the year just as we’re heading into the summer movie season.
Unfrosted is weird: its production design is a hyper-real recreation of America circa 1963; the characters are portrayed like cartoon cutouts; all the jokes are told with a wink. It mixes the actual people and events surrounding the rivalry between the Post and Kellogg cereal empires with a heaping helping of artistic license. The results find the Space Race, the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Zapruder Film all ensnared in service of a story about Pop-Tarts. Movie references to Apocalypse Now, The Right Stuff and The Godfather might catch viewers by surprise, but wait until they see the movie’s spirit animal: a sentient runaway ravioli filled with sea monkeys, developed by Chef Boyardee and a former German Nazi.
I’ve recently found myself defending lots of films that people hate and hating lots of films that people love – I still think David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer is superior to his Halloween reboots, and I continue
to insist that Anatomy of a Fall is the single most boring movie I saw in 2023. Unfrosted works best if you give yourself over to its surreal detailing, the unexpected largesse of its scale, and the picture’s super silly suspension of reality. Seinfeld leaves audiences stuck between a story about the actual American cereal industrial complex, and the fantasy world reflected in the colorful mascots, toy surprises, and back-of-the-box games that make breakfast the most kid-friendly meal on the American menu. In Seinfeld’s vision, Snap, Crackle and Pop are never portrayed as actors with normal names playing mascots, and the Quaker Oats spokesman comes off as a colonial religious fanatic who rails against additives like niacin and rants about the sanctity of pure grain.
The movie boasts a vast cast of characters and cameo performers. Hugh Grant is a real highlight, playing Thurl Ravenscroft as a Shakespeare-trained Brit who’d rather be doing King Lear. The real Ravenscroft was an American who performed Tony the Tiger and coined the catchphrase, “They’re Grrrreat!”
Melissa McCarthy plays a NASA scientist that Bob Cabana lures back to Kellogg to develop their secret tart. She delivers some of the sliest laughs in a film committed to bone dry punchlines. Bill Burr delivers a very good President John Kennedy and Bobby Moynihan is totally committed to his Chef Boyardee character. Dan Levy adds his name to the list of actors who’ve portrayed Andy Warhol. The name Pop-Tart was actually a play on the Pop Art movement that Warhol became emblematic of. Warhol’s work elevated the iconography of everyday consumer culture, changing the world’s understanding of art. He divided the critics and audiences of his time, too.
Unfrosted is currently streaming on Netflix
BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC
