VENDOR SPOTLIGHT
IN THE ISSUE 7
10
9
Contributor Board
Tom Wills, Chair Cathy Jennings, Bruce Doeg, Demetria Kalodimos, Ann Bourland, Kerry Graham, Peter Macdonald, Amber DuVentre, Jerome Moore, Erik Flynn
11
Contributors This Issue
Music City Sounds
Roling Roling
Ode To Odd
Fast Side
The birds that sing Tug boat sounds The river runs on The crack of the bat Nashville sounds.
Up against the wall Hanging, untangling Peaceful lying smooth My substance dangling Giant fingers start to pull
No one ever offered you a hand, a leg up, a pat on the back, the benefit of any doubt
I would sit on the fire escape and write poems they weren’t very good
Amanda Haggard • Linda Bailey • Hannah Herner • Paul Collins • Yuri Cunza • Ken J. • Anita S. • Jen A. • Lydia Macklin • Michael “The Scribe” G. • Ray Ponce de Leon • Glen N. • Candy L. • Ed Galing • Joe Nolan • Mr. Mysterio • Tyrone M. • John H. • Logan M. • Victor J. • Brian B. Contributor Volunteers Joe First • Andy Shapiro • Michael Reilly • Ann Bourland • Patti George • John Jennings • Janet Kerwood • Logan Ebel • Christine Doeg • Laura Birdsall • Nancy Kirkland • Mary Smith • Andrew Smith • Ellen Fletcher • Richard Aberdeen • Shayna Harder Wiggins • Pete MacDonald • Robert Thompson
Cathy Jennings Executive Director Tom Wills Director of Vendor Operations
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!
Hannah Herner Staff Writer
VENDOR SPOTLIGHT: JUNE P.
Jesse Call Housing Navigator Raven Lintu Housing Navigator Barbara Womack Advertising Manager
The Contributor now accepts Venmo! Scan the QR Code to the left , or find us: @The-Contributor! Make sure to include your vendor’s badge name and number in the description. If you bought this version digitally, you can still leave your regular vendor a tip or donate to the vendor relief fund to help vendors affected by COVID-19. Email Cathy@thecontributor.org for more information or with questions!
Amanda Haggard & Linda Bailey Co-Editors Andrew Krinks Editor Emeritus Will Connelly, Tasha F. Lemley, Steven Samra, and Tom WIlls Contributor Co-Founders
Editorials and features in The Contributor are the perspectives of the authors. Submissions of news, opinion, fiction, art and poetry are welcomed. The Contributor reserves the right to edit any submissions. The Contributor cannot and will not endorse any political candidate. Submissions may be emailed to: editorial@thecontributor.org Requests to volunteer, donate, or purchase subscriptions can be emailed to: info@thecontributor.org Please email advertising requests to: advertising@thecontributor.org
The Contributor P.O. Box 332023, Nashville, TN 37203 Vendor Office: 615.829.6829
Proud Member of:
BY HANNAH HERNER In the last month, June P. has been experiencing the excitement of having her own place to live while also experiencing the grief of losing her mother. After she’s done selling papers near Osbourne’s Bi-Rite on Belmont Boulevard, she lies down to watch Law and Order in a bed that used to belong to her mom. Her feelings are incredibly mixed. “I love it. I love it. It’s up on the tenth floor, the high floor. You can see everything,” June says. “I’ve been lazy. My mom passed away a couple months ago, so I got her bed. I just lay in the bed and watch TV. I clean. I’ve lost like 25 pounds since she died. So I’ve just been trying to eat a lot.” After a year of living in her car, June P. got her own apartment through a Section 8 voucher. The process was delayed a couple of months by
HAVE YOU DONE ANY GOOD IN THE WORLD TODAY?
COVID-19. A connection she gained through fellow Contributor vendor Gary E., also known as Pops, paid off. “I had been going up there every once and a while to his apartment, hanging out because I didn’t know anybody really,” June says. “The manager there would see me going in and she’d joke like ‘you need to go in there and get him up, make him go to work.’ I had filled out my Section 8 papers and everything and she said, ‘no you have to fill them out for the property.’ She said ‘I’ll let you know when I’m taking applications.’” That manager called June the night before the applications opened and arranged to have her fill out the application in her office the next day. “If it hadn’t been for her, I don’t know,” June says. June P. grew up in Nashville with her seven
brothers and sisters. They lived on Nolensville Road and Old Hickory Boulevard on a hill that was replaced by a church. “We’d been real close until mom passed,” June says. “There was a lot of arguments. You know how it is, that many kids. We still haven’t had a service for her. There was a lot of fighting and arguing and it kind of grew us apart.” Growing up, June was very shy, and mostly kept to herself. She was very close to both of her parents and spent lots of time with her father before he passed away 30 years ago at the age of 52. That closeness is evidenced by a tattoo on her left arm. She also kept The Contributor readers updated on her mother’s condition and wrote tributes to her, in addition to her usual short musings and artwork. “I used to keep a journal and I stopped that,
I don’t know why. My writing and drawing kind of gets stuff out of me that I don’t talk about to other people,” June says. “I can get it all on paper. I do a lot of that at night when I can’t sleep.” June says working for The Contributor has helped her to come out of her shell. “When I started working The Contributor, I didn’t know how to talk to people,” she says. “I didn’t know how to communicate. It’s helped me open up and talk to people, which was real hard. It’s helped me a lot to stand up for myself, stop letting people run over me, use me. I have a lot of customer friends at the store that I’ve gotten real close with. A lot of people that God’s put in my life that’s helping me. And I’ve met them through selling papers.” Now her customer friends can be there for her when her typical support system isn’t.
SIGN UP
SERVE
SHARE
@ justserve.org
in a project
#justserve
Printed at:
Follow The Contributor:
PAGE 2 | July 8 - 22, 2020 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
Copyright © 2018 The Contributor, Inc. All rights reserved.
Provided as a free service by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
July 8 - 22, 2020 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 3
