The Contributor: August 30, 2023

BY JUSTIN WAGNER PG. 10

Contributor Board

Kerry Graham, Chair • Amber DuVentre, Chair Elect • Christine Doeg , Secretary • Cathy Jennings • Demetria Kalodimos • Jerome Moore • O. Wade Nelson, Jr. • Waddell Wright • Robin Kimbrough-Hayes • Jim Shulman • Tom Wills • Drew Morris

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Vendor Writing

Contributor vendors write in this issue about Charlie Strobel, camping legislation, Riley Baxter and voting.

Question & Answer

Contributor writer Judith Tackett asks two members of Vanderbilt Homeless Health Services a few questions.

y expertos de todo el país y más allá se reunirán en el Loews Sapphire Falls Resort de esta ciudad para casi tres días de inspiración, networking y exploración de oportunidades comerciales. Un Escenario Inspirador La energía vibrante y la diversidad cultural de Orlando servirán como el telón de fondo perfecto para esta conferencia visionaria. Desde los atrapantes parques temáticos hasta la rica herencia cultural que caracteriza a la ciudad, los asistentes se verán inmersos en un ambiente que cataliza la innovación y la determinación de la comunidad empresarial hispana. Explorando Oportunidades de Negocios El objetivo central de la conferencia será brindar a los participantes un escenario propicio para explorar nuevas oportunidades comerciales. A través de paneles de discusión de vanguardia y sesiones interactivas, los asistentes tendrán la posibilidad de aprender sobre las últimas tendencias empresariales, estrategias de crecimiento disruptivas y prácticas empresariales sostenibles. Con la participación de oradores destacados de diversas industrias, la conferencia ofrecerá conocimientos invaluables en una variedad de temas cruciales.

Por Yuri Cunza Editor in Chief @yuricunza La Noticia + The Contributor

8 La Noticia, one of the leading Spanish-language newspapers in the nation, brings Spanish content to The Contributor WHAT

$2 $0.25

VENDOR SELLS PAPERS CUSTOMER TAKES PAPER VENDOR BUYS PAPERS

WE DO Buying more papers grows & legitimizes a vendor's business, allowing the vendor to apply for housing.

WHO WE ARE

The Contributor is a nonprofit social enterprise that creates economic opportunity with dignity by investing in the lives of people experiencing homelessness and poverty.

Starting in 2019, our C.O.V.E.R. Program (Creating Opportunity for Vendor Employment, Engagement, and Resources) was the natural expansion of our mission of removing obstacles to housing. We now offer full case management, assistance with housing and rental expenses, addiction recovery, health insurance, food benefits and SSI/SSDI assistance. We see the one-stop-shop team approach radically transforming a vendor's image of self and their place in community.

Since we started in 2007, more than 3,200 different vendors have purchased $2.3 million worth of The Contributor and sold over six million copies, generating over $15 million in income for themselves.

Take the paper, change a life. Read the paper, change yours.

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inclusión y la diversidad impulsan la innovación y el crecimiento económico. La Conferencia Nacional de la USHCC de 2023 es la reunión más grande de líderes empresariales hispanos en Estados Unidos. Reuniendo a las Cámaras de Comercio Hispanas locales, líderes empresariales hispanos y socios corporativos para fomentar el desarrollo económico hispano para la economía estadounidense en general. Cada año, los asistentes a la Conferencia Nacional participan en debates interactivos con líderes empresariales, miembros del Congreso, la Casa Blanca y otros miembros que representan a los 5 millones de empresas de propiedad hispana en nuestro país. El tema de la conferencia USHCC este año es "El futuro es ahora: Elevando las empresas latinas para el mañana" La agenda incluirá business matchmaking, paneles dinámicos y presentadores, una emocionante sala de exposiciones y, para resaltar el cierre, la gala anual y ceremonia de premios. La organización indicó que anunciará más USHCC President and CEO Ramiro Cavazos, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Jerry L. Demings, Mayor of Orange County, Florida, U.S Congressman Darren Soto and Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Metro Orlando President and CEO Gaby Ortigoni, announce the upcoming conference next month.

Moving Pictures

Joe Nolan writes about Darren Aronofsky’s confounding, unforgettable at

Haggard • Linda Bailey •

B. • Justin Wagner • Ridley

II • Judith Tackett • Yuri Cunza • Jen A. • Lisa A. • Mr. Mysterio • Chris Scott Fieselman • Joe Nolan

SEPT. 14, 2023

Early Voting began on Friday, Aug. 25, and runs through Saturday, Sept. 9. Find more info on times and locations here.

Please Vote Nashville has updated its voter guide with all the information you need for this runoff election. Download it here!

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!

Doeg • Joe First • Andy Shapiro •

Reilly • Ann Bourland • Laura Birdsall

Marissa Young • Matthew Murrow • Gisselly

Cathy Jennings Executive Director

Tom Wills Director of Vendor Operations

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Ree Cheers SOAR Manager

Andrew Terry IV SOAR Referral Specialist

Rachel Ternes Housing Navigator

Andreos Chunaco Housing Navigator

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Jesse Call Operations Consultant

Raven Nye Director of Housing Initiatives

Justin Wagner Resource Coordinator & Reporter

Barbara Womack

Advertising Manager

Amanda Haggard & Linda Bailey Co-Editors

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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

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The

Has anyone noticed all the work crews around lately? They are EVERYWHERE, slowing traffic and sometimes bringing it to a complete stop all in the name of neighborhood improvement, construction, you name it.

Well, lately they’ve been at my spot on a regular basis pouring a new sidewalk (which is a trip hazard), laying Google fiber cables, installing new traffic lights and repainting the crosswalk at the light (the old one had faded away). I admit, they can be VERY helpful to the community and often bring added benefits to an area once their work is completed.

In the meantime, they can also be harmful to a vendor’s business. For me one day recently that could’ve definitely been the case.

All I can say is, it pays to be nice to people.

Just the day before I’d complimented Dave on his very shiny black truck. The following day, I arrived at my spot. It was all clear, not a worker in sight, but that didn’t last for long.

When the work crew arrived, one of them told me I was going to have to move so they could put their big earthmoving machines on the sidewalk.

Just then a man walked up and gave me a firm handshake and said, “I’m Dave. You said you liked my truck yesterday, and I thought I’d introduce myself.”

I excitedly said, “I remember you. It just took me a minute because I didn’t see your truck!” (Sadly, I often recognize a person's vehicle before the person/people in it.)

The other worker began to explain that he’d just told me I’d have to move because I was interfering with their work.

Dave said, “She was here before us, right? So, I think we are interfering with her work! I think we can figure out a way to make this work, don’t you?”

The other worker responded, “But boss, she’s…”

After receiving a scathing look from Dave he said, “I guess we can make it work,” though he wasn’t very enthusiastic about it.

Dave told them to take good care of me, and they did!

As the day progressed I told them I was really beginning to feel like a member of the crew. All

A Helpful Work Crew

BY NORMA B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

I needed was a hard hat, jokingly saying I like hats! (You rarely see me without one!) Just then I noticed one of the workers had one that said, “Mama Tried.”I immediately pointed to it and said, “I need that one.” And you can bet I sure did try to get it. Well, at least a picture with it, but unfortunately I was unsuccessful.

Now normally the work crews make me leave, then move the traffic to the middle lane, but instead this time they made it so the traffic had to stop in front of my chair before deciding to change lanes to go straight ahead or turn left.

Eventually they did have to move me and my chair. This time down to the light, where once again, the people had an opportunity to stop. That is, unless the light was green. Not bad, huh?

I got bored just sitting there waiting/hoping people would stop, so I decided I’d go see just how far the work zone went. That's when I met Patrick. He was the safety officer of the crew. He came up to meet me as I made way to my former place of residence (the Suburban Extended Stay) now known as Rudy’s Studio.

He came up to me and said gruffly, “Ma’am you’re killin’ me. I CANNOT have you walking up and down through here with all this equipment out here!”

I told him I understood, but continued, “In my defense, I can’t exactly walk on the sidewalk, your equipment is on it.” I assured him I’d stay behind the orange cones, but I could tell this was non-negotiable for him.

He did offer to bring my chair to me at the end of the work zone (and near the end of my map badge territory) and I initially, I said "OK," but after I thought about it, I changed my mind (which is a woman's prerogative) and walked back toward my chair with a couple of escorts following closely one on each side saying, “We’re going to keep you safe.” And they did. In fact, they kept an eye on me the rest of the day making sure I didn’t get into any more trouble.

Scott (another member of the work crew from upstate New York) managed to keep me hydrated throughout the day. Each time I finished a bottle of water, he’d suddenly appear with another one! I easily went through a six pack that day. (Of water, NOT beer!)

Then, around 2:45 they were FINALLY done for the day. They said it was ALL mine, but before they left Patrick approached me with yet another water and apologized for getting SO upset with me — “But if you’d seen what I have in these streets…” his voice faded.

I told him, “It’s OK. I understand. You were just doing your job.” He said, “Will you just please take this?” (Meaning the water — he even gave me an extra one for my granddaughter.) “So I don’t feel SO bad?”

With that, we went our separate ways. ThankfulIy I was done for the day too! It was

Sales Tips For Vendors

BY NORMA B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

1.) Be Yourself. People can usually tell when you’re not being real with them

2.) Maintain good eye contact.

3.) Greet EVERYONE in a friendly, positive upbeat manner — even if others DON’T extend that courtesy to you. (This includes people who say offensive things/ gestures.) In time, you may win over your worst critic or others who are watching/ listening to what you say and do. (I know it’s happened to me several times.)

4.) Get to know your customers so you can point out specific articles of interest

to them in the paper.

5.) If you see something you like — a pet, a hat, sunglasses, an outfit, or even their car — say something. But again, BE YOURSELF! For instance, if you don’t like dogs, don’t pretend that you do, THEY CAN TELL! It’s a great way to start a conversation, and can often lead to a sale.

6.) Write/do artwork for the paper. That way you have more invested than money, and you receive the extra added bonus of getting paid for your work. Your customers will be eager to see/read something YOU personally contributed to the paper

and it will increase sales. (Also, if you do write for the paper be sure to carry a few of those with you for people who may have missed you article(s).)

7.) Help others see the real value of the paper by explaining what the paper has done for you personally.

8.) Don’t hesitate to explain the purpose of the paper to those who ask.

9.) Offer your customers other products like bumper stickers. We have two. One says, “I Brake for The Contributor,” and the other says, “I Read The Contributor.”

time for me to go pick up my granddaughter from school.

Oh well, as Scarlett O’Hara said, “Tomorrow is another day.” But then they told me they’d be back tomorrow too, UGH!

I think I’ll try to sell someplace closer to my granddaughter’s school. Hopefully it’ll be more productive. I’m certain it’ll be A LOT less running back and forth!

I’m sure the work crew from LA Construction and Drilling to whom this story is dedicated will be relieved that they don’t have to keep me safe for another day!

10.) Protect your investment. Make sure your papers are presentable. Look at your papers, bumper stickers, books etc. Are they in good condition? Would you want to buy one of them?

One final tip: When you’re out selling the paper DO NOT spend all your time when you’re working on your phone or playing games on it. If you ignore your potential customers, they will ignore you too! As with starting any new business, building a customer base takes time. Consistency is key, but if you apply these tips, customers WILL come and sales WILL increase!

This is what my spot looked like Thursday morning/early afternoon. The big mound of dirt is is where my wheelchair usually sits! PHOTO BY NORMA B.

The History of the Unveiling of the Alex Haley Museum

BY RIDLEY WILLS II

When Lamar Alexander was running for election in 1978 for governor of Tennessee, he adopted the strategy of walking 1,022 miles from Mountain City to Memphis visiting and speaking with people along the way.

On his trek, he wore a redchecked flannel shirt. Part of the plan was for him to walk from Covington to Henning, Tenn., near the end of his walk. There, the State of Tennessee was dedicating the Alex Haley Museum in what had been the home of Alex’s maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Will E. Palmer, where he spent several years of his boyhood. Charlie Howell, a Commissioner in Lamar’s cabinet, invited me to fly to West Tennessee in a state plane for the ceremony. I was delighted to go.

Several folks had been bussed out from Memphis for the occasion. On the front porch of the one story house with an attic and dormer window above, were a half dozen or so octogenarian African American men singing gospel songs. That was beautiful. All of a sudden, Charlie and I noticed slowly walking toward us two older men. They were holding hands, and they stopped a few yards in front of us and asked “Are you from New York City?”

Some minutes later, Lamar arrived and the ceremony started. It was important for the state to buy

the modest house and convert it into a museum honoring Alex Haley. Alex, when a boy sitting on the front porch of his grandparent’ home in Henning, listened for hours as his grandmother, Cynthia Palmer, and his aunt, Elizabeth Murray, spoke about their family history, reaching all the way back to the African named Kunta Kinte.

In 1976, Alex, a journalist, wrote a novel that tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th Century African adolescent who was kidnapped in Africa, sold into slavery and transported to North America. It follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the United States down to Haley. The release of the novel combined with the hugely popular television adaptation, Roots , released in 1977, led to a cultural sensation in the U.S. The novel spent 46 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, including 22 weeks as the No. 1 hit. It stimulated interest in African American genealogy and an appreciation for African American history.

The Tennessee State Legislature took an interest and appropriated the funds needed to convert the Palmer house into a museum. When Haley died in 1992, he was buried on the grounds of the museum, whose site manager today is Richard Griffin.

ALEX HALEY MUSEUM

A Few Questions with Vanderbilt Homeless Health Services

The Contributor talked with Dr. Jennifer Joy Hess, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University, and Sophie Druffner, Ph.D. student for Community Research and Action at Vanderbilt, as part of a series called A Few Questions With. In this series, we interview local politicians, department heads and city leaders about their work.

Hess has been exploring the possibility to collaborate with Contributor vendors to form a Consumer Advisory Board as Vanderbilt University develops its Homeless Health Services, a collaborative approach to bring health care to people experiencing homelessness and transitioning out of homelessness where they live.

Dr. Hess, tell us a little bit about the vision and goals of the Vanderbilt Homeless Health Services. How did it come about and when will it launch?

Dr. Hess: Previously at Vanderbilt, there had been a street psychiatry service. Dr. Sheryl Fleisch was trained in street psychiatry and came to Vanderbilt and established that program, which did fantastic and lasted from 2016 to 2019 until Dr. Fleisch departed. Unfortunately, there was not enough momentum at Vanderbilt to keep the program going. I came to Vanderbilt in 2020 and am working in the emergency department. People experiencing homelessness are folks that we sometimes have a hard time treating. Often we see these patients coming back in because they were unable to receive follow up care while living on the streets.

So, there was a group of four of us — two emergency physicians, a Med-Peds physician, and a surgeon — who connected with Open Table Nashville and People Loving Nashville, and they started telling us of some of their needs and their resources. We started putting our heads together, and it’s taken a while to gain some momentum.

But as we started talking about what our mission and vision would be to bring health, not just medicine, to those living on the streets, help educate and develop empathy among the providers, and to really create a system so that when the patients touch Vanderbilt we can create the loop of care to meet not only people’s immediate medical needs but follow up and provide high quality care.

In this whole process, when we share the vision, it feels like people at Vanderbilt get very excited to come on board. There is a med student group and undergrads that want to collaborate. We hope to not only improve the health care system within Vanderbilt to serve people experiencing homelessness but also instill empathy in health care providers. We hope this will carry over so that wherever health providers are, they understand the barriers to someone experiencing homelessness getting care and understand how to connect people with community services that could lead to obtaining housing.

When you talk about systems, what do you focus on specifically?

Dr. Hess: The system we’ll have most control over will be within the VUMC (Vanderbilt University Medical Center). But it’s pretty clear that

BY JUDITH TACKETT

we cannot work in isolation. We have reached out to Neighborhood Health to collaborate. We realize we need to be able to seamlessly connect the care that’s been given to people experiencing homelessness whether that’s in the hospital or the specialty care at Vanderbilt or at Neighborhood Health in primary care clinics. It is also important to connect with Park Center to help us out with other resources such as housing navigation, or to connect with Open Table Nashville, and others to provide comprehensive services.

So, there is an internal system we have to build at Vanderbilt, and we also need to learn how to work with partners outside of Vanderbilt to truly develop a comprehensive health approach which includes linking to housing and other services.

Sophie: In developing this program, we’re thinking about the entire health care system. As part of that we are looking to create a Consumer Advisory Board and take an equitable approach. We are exploring how we can collaborate with different providers and also help people with lived experience provide insight to improve the system.

Dr. Hess: Some of the people who are most excited about this are educators. There is an opportunity to go beyond teaching somebody the facts to show them the human aspects of medicine. We hope to create a bi-directional learning environment that could happen at the Consumer Advisory Board (CAB). Medical students could help teach CAB members how to do a resume and offer tips for a job interview. And CAB members in turn could teach students what it actually means to live on the streets, and then we have this learning that could happen back and forth that you can’t get just in the clinic.

What is the budget, and do you have all the funding already?

Dr. Hess: We are currently working on building the budget. We’ve been working with our finance team to think through the patient stories and combine that with data. We want to build our team and provide services while creating a service model that may save the hospital some resources by reducing health costs that occur with high-needs populations. Our

budget will include costs to put a team together to provide medications and supplies, to connect to other partners, and to meet social needs.

Minimum staffing you’re looking at to get launched?

Dr. Hess: Some of our staffing model will change depending on our ability to connect with Park Center. Through that potential partnership, we probably can leverage cost through some of their SOAR (SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery) and housing navigation programs.

But we still need a case manager, a social worker, and then we would like to have some community health workers, who would be people trained in basic health knowledge and have some experience with homeless services. We’d love to get a program manager who can help with the logistics between different departments and keep track of the financial aspects of the program. Physicians and nurses will also be a part of the program and come from different specialty backgrounds

Eventually we hope to grow the program based on efficiency we can show.

We met and spoke at The Contributor, specifically about how you seek input from people with lived experience. Why do you think it’s important to always include the voices of the people we’re trying to serve?

Sophie: What we want to go for here is for the people with lived experience in homelessness to be able to tell us where people are, what wounds are prevalent when living outdoors, and how community organizations work together from their perspective. We find it very helpful to get their impressions of how systems in Nashville work or don’t work for providing health and homeless services.

When it comes to navigating the system of homeless health care, we need their user experience. So, we really want to leverage their expert advice through the Consumer Advisory Board.

Dr. Hess: In any systems work, the more input and feedback you can have from different angles, the better you can design the model you are trying to build. Without the appropriate input you can end up with a model that delivers unintended consequences. Especially in equity

work, you have to intentionally bring the voices of the vulnerable and people you want to serve to the table from the very beginning.

What are the next steps for you to make Homeless Health Services happen?

Dr. Hess: We started mapping out the timeline and are getting very close to pitching the budget. Our aim is to become a sustainable service line within the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

We also continue to meet with vendors from The Contributor in our efforts to launch the Consumer Advisory Board and learning from the people with lived experience as we design and finalize the program.

Sophie: We’re also working with potential partners such as Park Center, Open Table Nashville, People Loving Nashville, the Vanderbilt School of Nursing, and Vanderbilt’s Peabody College. We want to create a cross-sector collaboration and are seeking input from all these groups and more. As we get off the ground and grow, we’ll create more formalized partnerships.

Dr. Hess: When street psychiatry was done previously, , Vanderbilt had an amazing team. Unfortunately, when Dr. Fleisch and key members of her team were not able to stay, the program was not sustainable. We want to learn from this and build a system that is integrated and sustainable long-term. Unfortunately, systems building is a slow process.

Sophie: We’re learning a lot from our partners and from people with lived experience. Dr. Beth Shinn (a national homelessness expert teaching at Peabody College) has been extremely helpful for us to better understand the local landscape.

Anything else?

Dr. Hess: We aren’t doing this for the fame. We are passionate because we witness inequities. Our goal is to treat people with dignity and respect. We are all human and just one decision away from being in a similar scenario. Ultimately, we would love to work ourselves out of a job because we solve the systemic problems such as addiction and access to affordable housing. We believe housing is healthcare.

Learn More About Importance of Housing-Health Initiatives

Homelessness cannot end when we don’t find a way for different systems to work together seamlessly. This becomes apparent when we examine the importance of improving the connections between healthcare and housing sectors to address homelessness.

Homelessness is extremely unhealthy, and in many cases lethal. According to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, which is headquartered in Nashville, as well as other research organizations, the life expectancy of people experiencing long-term homelessness is at least 15-20 years shorter than that of the general population.

Even though this is a known fact, it is still an uphill battle in many places for the health and homelessness sectors to work closely together. Hospitals nationwide struggle with the question of how to discharge people without a home to go to where they can recover. In the most extreme cases, we hear of stories where people are released to the streets in their hospital gowns in the middle of the night and show up in front of a local shelter, which is often not equipped for recuperative care.

During the height of the COVID pandemic, I coordinated with hospital case managers on appropriate discharge locations for people experiencing homelessness who needed to recover and isolate but were not sick enough to remain in the hospital. The city of Nashville implemented a plan to provide isolation beds. But those beds are no longer available and recuperative care and/or medical respite beds offered by nonprofits are still underfunded.

A recent case study published by Community Solutions and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement explored the approach of a nonprofit systems change agency called Journey Home, which serves the Greater Hartford area in Connecticut. Journey Home recently hired a homeless medical liaison within their homeless response system. When an individual expe -

BY JUDITH TACKETT

riencing homelessness is identified within a hospital, this liaison position serves as a point of contact to help hospital case managers refer people to housing navigation and other support services. Connecticut hopes to build that needed bridge between the health care and housing systems.

In 2015, Nashville attempted to create a multi-system collaboration effort called Hospital to Home. We even hired a Metro staff position as a liaison. The endeavor failed because we lacked a solid and functional homelessness data system, which is necessary to support coordination of housing services. Pivoting, we shifted our focus to building our local Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) as well as creating a functional coordinated entry process within the homelessness response system. Once those tools were in place, the COVID pandemic hit, which actually provided a blueprint of how the different sectors can successfully collaborate.

Unfortunately, some of the Metro leadership did not focus on lessons learned in the homelessness arena and returned back into their departmental lanes or, as I would call it, to a status quo, reactionary focus to gain quick political wins in regard to homelessness.

Yet, with a new, well-staffed Office of Homelessness in place now that works under the Mayor’s Office and with the upcoming administration change, I have hope that the strategic focus can shift quickly to longterm, sustainable solutions. In real terms that would mean that an incoming mayor can strengthen cross-departmental collaboration and explore how Metro can help convene needed community partners to improve access to housing and health care for people experiencing homelessness and create sustainable solutions.

“Partnerships don’t just happen,” wrote Stuart M. Butler and Marcella Maguire for the Brookings Institution in a 2022 article.

“They need ‘connective tissue’ — an infrastructure supporting frequent and systemic level collaborations — to help form the partnership and hold it together over time.”

If we want to truly make a difference in ending chronic homelessness and ensuring we have a system that is capable of assisting people with access to housing quickly, we cannot continue to be mostly reactive. Thus, the new Metro leadership has to find a balance between being reactive to current emergency needs (which in homelessness are always present) and sustainable solutions that include the identification and creation of permanent housing opportunities combined with long-term support services.

In actuality, the federal, state, and local governments know what to do and where to invest to ensure people’s health and housing needs are met. However, keeping sectors separated allows for minimal, short-term investments in band aid solutions that result in quick political wins. Building a sustainable approach that links different systems comes with a hefty, long-term investment plan that may pay off in 10-20 years big time for a community.

At this point, band aids don’t stick anymore, and we cannot afford at the local levels to wait until the necessary fundamental policy changes at the national and state levels are implemented to permanently end homelessness. Thus, the following areas are starting points for the incoming administration in Nashville to consider:

• Explore the coordination between the different sectors starting with the examination and improvement of how the different Metro departments and committees dealing with health, homelessness, and housing issues coordinate their services to the most vulnerable neighbors.

• Convene health providers and hospital leaders to develop a private funding mechanism to support medical and recuperative care beds for people ex-

periencing homelessness.

• Create coordination positions that are hard to fund in the private and nonprofit sectors to focus on cross-sector collaboration across systems. Start by looking at Connecticut’s homeless medical liaison and the process they implement to link the hospital and homelessness sectors.

• Improve communication and transparency because effective collaboration is built on trusting relationships where people working in different sectors feel heard and see themselves as equal partners.

• Finally, engage the Homeless Planning Council and other relevant Metro boards to understand each others’ area of expertise, and educate them to properly oversee and support Metro employees to become the best public servants they can be. The Metro oversight structure needs to provide accountability and ensure we continue to focus on systems improvement and filling needed gaps through community wide engagement.

Finally, the new administration must truly endorse Housing First by actually implementing evidence-based practices.

With the right leaders building trust and helping guide the local efforts, Nashville is in a good position for a cross-sector effort that not only reduces homelessness for some of the most vulnerable of our neighbors but also helps the bottom line of our local health system, especially hospitals.

After all, we cannot forget that people who are able to maintain their health are housed. Or in other words, housing is a fundamental part of health care.

To read about a new private sector collaboration that focuses on linking health care and housing for people experiencing homelessness, read our Q&A about the proposed Vanderbilt Homeless Health Services.

“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.

LOCALES - POLÍTICA -

G R AT I S

Agosto/3 2023

“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.

- SALUD - ESPECTÁCULOS - DEPORTES Y MÁS...

L L a a N N ticia ticia

Conferencia Nacional USHCC: Explorando Oportunidades y Conectando Negocios

Del 24 al 26 de septiembre de 2023, Orlando, Florida, se convertirá en el epicentro del espíritu empresarial y la colaboración mientras la Cámara de Comercio Hispana de los Estados Unidos (USHCC) organiza su muy esperada Conferencia

Nacional 2023. Miles de líderes empresariales, emprendedores y expertos de todo el país y más allá se reunirán en el Loews Sapphire Falls Resort de esta ciudad para casi tres días de inspiración, networking y exploración de oportunidades comerciales.

Un Escenario Inspirador

La energía vibrante y la diversidad cultural de Orlando servirán como el telón de fondo perfecto para esta conferencia visionaria. Desde los atrapantes parques temáticos hasta la rica herencia cultural que caracteriza a la ciudad, los asistentes se verán inmersos en un ambiente que cataliza la innovación y la determinación de la comunidad empresarial hispana.

Explorando Oportunidades de Negocios

El objetivo central de la conferencia será brindar a los participantes un escenario propicio para explorar nuevas oportunidades comerciales. A través de paneles de discusión de vanguardia y sesiones interactivas, los asistentes tendrán la posibilidad de aprender sobre las últimas tendencias empresariales, estrategias de crecimiento disruptivas y prácticas empresariales sostenibles. Con la participación de oradores destacados de diversas industrias, la conferencia ofrecerá conocimientos invaluables en una variedad de temas cruciales.

Colaboración y Networking

La conferencia USHCC 2023 priorizará la colaboración y el conectar como aspectos fundamentales para el éxito empresarial. Las sesiones de networking cuidadosamente diseñadas proporcionarán un terreno fértil para que los líderes empresariales influyentes, los visionarios de la industria y los emprendedores ambiciosos se reúnan y establezcan relaciones duraderas. Estas conexiones no solo enriquecerán las perspectivas comerciales, sino que también podrían dar forma a alianzas estratégicas para un futuro próspero.

Tecnología e Innovación

La conferencia se sumergirá en la intersección entre tecnología e innovación, destacando cómo estas fuerzas impulsan la evolución empresarial. Las conversaciones sobre transformación digital, inteligencia artificial y estrategias de marketing en línea proporcionarán a los asistentes información de vanguardia sobre cómo aprovechar las últimas her-

Conoce tus derechos:

ramientas y tendencias para lograr el éxito empresarial en la era digital.

Empoderamiento Empresarial y Diversidad

El empoderamiento empresarial y la promoción de la diversidad continuarán siendo temas clave en la conferencia. Se celebrarán casos de éxito inspiradores protagonizados por empresarios hispanos en diversas industrias, enfatizando cómo la

inclusión y la diversidad impulsan la innovación y el crecimiento económico. La Conferencia Nacional de la USHCC de 2023 es la reunión más grande de líderes empresariales hispanos en Estados Unidos. Reuniendo a las Cámaras de Comercio Hispanas locales, líderes empresariales hispanos y socios corporativos para fomentar el desarrollo económico hispano para la economía estadounidense en general.

Cada año, los asistentes a la Conferencia Nacional participan en debates interactivos con líderes empresariales, miembros del Congreso, la Casa Blanca y otros miembros que representan a los 5 millones de empresas de propiedad hispana en nuestro país. El tema de la conferencia USHCC este año es "El futuro es ahora: Elevando las empresas latinas para el mañana". La agenda incluirá business matchmaking, paneles dinámicos y presentadores, una emocionante sala de exposiciones y, para resaltar el cierre, la gala anual y ceremonia de premios. La organización indicó que anunciará más detalles inspiradores en los próximos dias.

Para mayor inforación visite: www.ushccconference.com

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

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)

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.

USHCC President and CEO Ramiro Cavazos, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Jerry L. Demings, Mayor of Orange County, Florida, U.S Congressman Darren Soto and Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Metro Orlando President and CEO Gaby Ortigoni, announce the upcoming conference next month.

Foto: Yuri Cunza

Por Yuri Cunza Editor in Chief @yuricunza

Photo

Junkdrop will find a new home for your old furniture, far from the landfill

When COVID-19 cases first flooded the United States, countless lives were fundamentally shaken. Walter Hindman, now founder and owner of Junkdrop, was no exception, having just graduated from college and in need of a job at the height of pandemic panic.

Hindman had to leverage his situa -

BY JUSTIN WAGNER

tion however he could — and in a locked down city full of cramped apartments and denizens unable to leave their rooms, he found fortune in his truck.

“We originally just started as me and my pickup truck taking people’s stuff,” Hindman explained. “I graduated in 2020 from Auburn and then lost my

job due to COVID … I had to figure out what I was gonna do. In the meantime, I had a pickup truck.”

Posting on Facebook and NextDoor to advertise his services, Hindman took to cleaning out people’s homes of old assorted items they no longer wanted, but struggled to ethically or quickly

dispose of. He was soon inundated with second-hand couches and cookware; however, much of it was completely usable. It just needed a home that would get some mileage out of it.

That realization — and an old connection of Hindman’s — would come to shape Junkdrop.

“I volunteered at the Oasis Center in high school and I just said, ‘hey, I know you guys have this rapid rehousing program…’ the houses usually come completely unfurnished. If any of these recipients need any of this stuff, I’ll go deliver it. That idea just kind of took off.”

Junkdrop’s mission had become clear: more than junk disposal and storage, Hindman would offer a service which streamlined donations, directly taking unwanted home goods and furniture to the doorsteps of low-income apartments in need of furnishing

“It just seemed like there was a big demand,” Hindman said. “We partner with five charities here in Nashville, we’ve got six guys full time and a bunch of trucks.”

That only scratches the surface of Junkdrop’s operations in Nashville, which have rapidly blossomed from a rough proof-of-concept to the largest junk removal business in the city.

Once they receive a donation, their team sorts through what is and isn’t suitable to reuse at their warehouse. Anything that can’t be salvaged is recycled or disposed of, but the rest is delivered to clients of Junkdrop’s partnered nonprofit organizations.

Charles Johnson, a former vendor with The Contributor, is a client of Junkdrop who recently moved into his first apartment after years of homelessness. He described the service as a “blessing.”

Johnson said the experience was seamless and quick — despite the Junkdrop team

needing to squeeze a studio’s worth of furniture into an elevator to the eleventh floor.

“When they came, they were real nice, respectful,” Johnson. “They’re good people … you just don’t know, man. It’s a blessing.”

For employees like manager and logistics coordinator Patrick Brunner, the work is as varied — and occasionally hectic — as it is fulfilling.

“It’s a lot of fun driving around with the guys, you’re out and about and everything’s different,” Brunner said. “You’re just chipping away, trying to do a good thing.”

Hindman echoed the sentiment, whether they’re taking in old dressers and cutlery or something more exotic.

“We’ve seen it all … a few weeks ago, we

did a job for some prolific hunter in Brentwood. He gave us like four elk heads and a humongous moose head,” Hindman said.

But although he oversees the company’s ongoing development as they expand operations into Austin, the most focal aspect of the job for Hindman is still making deliveries to people who may not have been in housing for years.

“At the end of the day, this isn’t our stuff. This is our clients’ stuff, and our clients didn’t just give it to us, they paid us to take it. And they paid us knowing in the back of their minds, this is the service they’re paying for: to get that reusable stuff to people that need it. Our clients are really the ones paying it forward. We’re just the middlemen.”

“I had to figure out what I was gonna do. In the meantime, I had a pickup truck.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JUNKDROP

He has the experience necessary to start on day one building a Nashville for Nashvillians that gives everyone a safe, affordable neighborhood to call home.

He will institute a housing-first model to create a network of highly accessible transitional housing in locations that also offer supportive services for physical, mental and economic health.

He is focused on basic services like reliable trash and recycling pickup, improving traffic flow, filling potholes, and preventing stormwater flooding.

He led the creation of the Office of Homeless Services which will coordinate resources to assist Nashville’s unhoused.

A

mayor for all Nashvillians.

Freddie O’Connell will be a mayor who puts Nashvillians first.

The Charles Strobel memorial issue of The Contributor was a big seller at my spot. I sold out in record time. Most everyone who bought one remarked at what a great man Charlie was and how much good he had done for everyone in Nashville and beyond. So I went to town to buy some more at the office.

As the bus pulled into Metro Center, I noticed that there was a large group of people holding signs calling for an end to gun violence in Tennessee outside one of the doors to the Cordell Hull legislative office building. They all seemed animated and ready for the events of the brutally hot day, God bless them! But I don't imagine ANY NUMBER of people we could turn out to protest our legislator's blind indifference to the horror of what's going on in our communities relating to guns would make one bit of difference to what the legislature will eventually fail to accomplish.

One interesting, but little mentioned, item

The State of Tennessee

BY JEN A., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

on Gov. Bill Lee's special session agenda is a call to use involuntary commitments to lock up folks deemed a danger to themselves or others.

Instead of temporarily taking away the guns of dangerous people, we'll just confine them in a mental health facility until they calm down. These involuntary commitments could apply to anyone the legislature wants them to. Like you, for instance, even if you don't own a gun and aren't a threat to anyone.

This is a notion proposed by the far-right Cicero Institute's senior fellow, Judge Glock, and sent to all Republican legislatures across the country to deal with homeless citizens. This involuntary commitment strategy was a part of proposed bills HB1192/SB1334 until it was stripped from the House bill after a hue and cry from homelessness advocates. The bill is still active in the Senate and will be taken up again when legislators return in January. We couldn't go through a session of the Tennessee

So Electric If….”

The new citywide unofficial contest sparked by commuter and school choice congestion

It is time to accept the fact that parents do not have enough spoons in their drawers to challenge the school choice mandate in Nashville. Rather than demand that each school be up to par, properly funded, filled with top notch teachers, and serving all the students in the neighborhood or even those who need to bus there from other areas due to integration needs, plus the fact that so many people are never going to willingly let go of their private vehicles, because the vehicles serve as napping/eating/ living/trash storage areas as well.

BY LISA A., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

Let’s just get electrified about what we can do instead!

To make the contest slightly more challenging, we’ve scraped off some of the low hanging fruit:

YOU’RE SO ELECTRIC IF…..

• You drive an electric scooter/ bike/car to work.

• You had NES give you an energy audit and put in weatherstripping.

• You’ve invested in an all electric firetruck or several for your town.

• Your school/ kids’ school has wrangled a contract to use ‘day-

Kid's Corner

legislature without them taking a swipe at the homeless.

But now, using homicidal gun owners as cover, maybe the involuntary commitments the legislators wanted to inflict on the homeless will sail through with little resistance from the general public. Look how clever our Republicans are! And is it a coincidence that Tennessee just asked the federal government for a waiver to use Medicaid money to fund new mental health initiatives? Aren't Republicans always screaming, "Get DC out of Tennessee!"

Walking back to Metro Center down Rep. John Lewis Way I saw a group of men dressed in black with guns strapped to their hips. One had a shield strapped to his back with a bright yellow insignia of a far-right group. They turned up toward the Capitol. I heard that the Proud Boys unfurled a banner on the railing in front of the Capitol. Who invited them? I wonder if all the fine, privileged, churchgoing

Tennesseans who marked their ballots for legislative Republicans knew that they were voting for roving bands of armed vigilantes in their communities.

I couldn't help but think what dear Charlie would make of such a threatening display on the streets of his beloved Nashville. I know he'd quote Isaiah, "And a little child will lead them"

And so, In the names of Jamayla Marlowe - 3, Taliyah Frazier - 4, Evelyn Dieckhaus - 9, Hallie Scruggs - 9, William Kinney - 9, and the scores of other children torn to pieces by guns in Tennessee, we demand that the legislators fix what they have broken. Put an end to the proliferation of guns in our communities. Strengthen background checks. Make safe storage mandatory. Do everything in your power to protect our children from the lone gunman on a twisted mission with an AR-15. You were elected to keep our children safe. Do your job!

DREAM FRAGMENT

By Lisa A.

lighting’ in your classrooms to save millions per year in electricity costs.

• You turn off all charging stations before going to work

• You turn your desktop and other devices all the way off at night.

What do you have in mind? How can we electrify ourselves into action? Scoop up funds to make sure Nashville stays way ahead of the energy curve? We can’t wait to find out what all us brilliant Nasvillians come up with!

Illustration By Jen A.

I am a fortress ruin[ed]

All the hard hair raising edges rounded

On the edge of the sea on a cliff in the soft blowing winds. Sculpting me with their loss. Decades of dawnbreak bugles, midnightrounds, evening sortees wash into the drink.

Parts of me swirl out on the tide. Granite dust.

I am gathered by eager farmers building a green world. My foundations remain, dungeon washed clean by the salt sea

“You’re

The New Christian Year

Selected by Charles Williams

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

13th Wednesday after Trinity

WONDERFUL is the depth of thy words, whose surface, see, is before us, gently leading on the little ones: and yet a wonderful deepness, O my God, a wonderful deepness. It is awe to look into it; even an awfulness of honour, and a trembling of love.

St Augustine: Confessions

IT is imperfection in Religion to drudge in it, and every man drudges in Religion if he takes it up as a task and carries it as a burden.

Benjamin Whichcote: Discourses.

13th Thursday after Trinity

THE things of God are not made ours, by a mere notion and speculation; but when they become in us a vital principle, when they establish in us a state or temper, when the things of God are grounds and principles of suitable operations.

Benjamin Whichcote: Works

RELIGION makes us live like men.

Benjamin Whichcote: Aphorisms

13th Friday after Trinity

LET us, at all times, take each the burden of the other, and let us suffer for each other even as our Lord suffered for us; but let us examine our souls unceasingly.

The Paradise of the Fathers

AS a man raises himself towards Heaven, so his view of the spiritual world becomes simplified and his words fewer.

Dionysius the Areopagite: Mystical Theology

THOU, O God, canst never forsake me so long as I am capable of Thee.

Nicholas de Susa: The Vision of God.

13th Saturday after Trinity

NEITHER Creator nor creature can be without love, but if this love is turned aside to evil, then the creature goes against the creator . . . A man may love evil by willing evil to his neighbors in three ways: For first, he may hope to be prosperous through his neighbor's degradation; and again, he may himself fear to lose power, grace, honour, or reputation because of his neighbour's advancement, and may therefore be miserable at that advancement; and again, he may feel himself injured by his neighbour, and wish to be revenged, so that he sets himself to seek out the other's hurt.

Dante: Purgatory

Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

SILENCE is not God, nor speaking is not God: fasting is not God nor eating is not God; onliness is not God nor company is not God; nor yet any of all the other two such quantities. He is hid between them, and may not be bound by any work of thy soul, but all only by love of thine heart. He may not be known by reason, He may not be gotten by thought, nor concluded by understanding; but he may be loved and chosen with the true lovely will of thine heart.

An Epistle of Discretion.

SAY with Christ "Cross, cross," and there is no cross. For the cross is no more a cross once you say joyously: "Blessed cross, there is no tree like thee."

Luther: Letters.

14th Monday after Trinity

WITH this sight of the blessed Passion, with the Godhead that I saw in mine understanding, I knew well that it was strength enough for me, yea, and for all creatures living, against all the fiends of hell and ghostly temptation.

Juliana of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love

SHE cried again, "O Love, no more sins! no more sins!” And her hatred of herself was more than she could endure.

St Catherine of Genoa: Life.

14th Tuesday after Trinity

THINK no further of thyself than I bid thee do of thy God, so that thou be one with him in spirit as thus, without any separating and scattering of mind. For he is thy being, and in him thou art what thou art, not only by cause and by being, but also he is in thee both thy cause and thy being. And therefore think of God in thy work as thou dost on thyself, and on thyself as thou dost on God: that he is as he is and thou art as thou art; so that thy though be not scattered nor separated, oned in him that is all, evermore saving this difference betwixt thee and him, that he is thy being and thy not his.

The Epistle of Privy Counsel

OUR spirits are comfortable (praised be the Lord!), though our present condition is as it is.

Oliver Cromwell: Letters.

14th Wednesday after Trinity

ASK ye for the greater things, and the small shall be added unto you: and ask for the heavenly things, and the earthly shall be added unto you. Quoted by Origen as a traditional saying by our Lord.

ON the same day, seeing one work on the sabbath, he said unto him: Man, if indeed thou knowest what thou doest, thou art blessed: but if thou knowest not, thou art cursed, and a transgressor of the law.

Apocryphal New Testament.

14th Thursday after Trinity

WHEN the loving kindness of God calls a soul from the world, He finds it full of vices and sins; and first He gives it an instinct for virtue, and then urges it to perfection, and then by infused grace leads it to true selfnaughting, and at last to true transformation. And this noteworthy order serves God to lead the soul along the Way: but when the soul is naughted and transformed, then of herself she neither works nor speaks nor wills, nor feels nor hears nor understands, neither has she of herself the feeling of outward or inward, where she may move. And in all things it is God Who rules and guides her, without the meditation of any creature.

St Catherine of Genoa: Life

14th Friday after Trinity

THIS restful travail is full far from fleshly idleness and from blind security. It is full of ghostly work, but it is called rest, for grace looseth the heavy yoke of fleshly love from the soul and maketh it mighty and free through the gift of the holy ghostly love for to work gladly, softly, and delectably . . . Therefore it is called an holy idleness and a rest most busy; and so it is in still-

ness from the great crying and the beastly noise of fleshly desires.

Walter Hylton: The Scale of Perfection

THE Way is God.

Boethius: Consolation of Philosophy, translated by King Alfred.

14th Saturday after Trinity

GOD hath created nothing simply for itself: but each thing in all things, and of every thing each part in order hath such interest, that in the whole world nothing is found whereunto any thing created can say, "I need thee not."

Hooker: Sermons

THE Will of God is the necessity of things.

Calvin: Institutes

Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

THE one supreme, unchangeable rule of love, which is a law to all intelligent beings of all worlds and will be a law to all eternity, is this, viz., that God alone is to be loved for Himself, and that all other beings only in Him and for Him. Whatever intelligent creature lives not under this rule of love is so far fallen from the order of his creation, and is, till he returns to this eternal law of love, an apostate from God and incapable of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now, if God alone is to be loved for Himself, then no creature is to be loved for itself; and so all self-love in every creature is absolutely condemned. And if all created beings are only to be loved in and for God, then my neighbour is to be loved as I love myself, and I am only to love myself as I love my neighbour or any other created being, that is, only in and for God.

William Law: The Spirit of Prayer

15th Monday after Trinity

THERE is always some advantage in making men love us. Human life is thus only a perpetual illusion; men deceive and flatter each other. No one speaks of us in our presence as he does of us in our absence. Human society is founded on mutual deceit.

Pascal: Pensées

WE have done nothing . . . if we have not purified the will in the order of charity.

St. John of the Cross:

Ascent of Mount Carmel

15th

Tuesday after Trinity

LOVE is careful of little things, of circumstances and measures, and little accidents; not allowing to itself any infirmity which it strives not to master, aiming at what it cannot yet reach, desiring to be of an angelical purity, and of a perfect innocence, and a seraphical fervour, and fears of every image of offence; is as much afflicted at an idle word as some at an act of adultery, and will not allow itself so much anger as will disturb a child, nor endure the impurity of a dream. And this is the curiosity and niceness of divine love: this is the fear of God, and is the daughter and production of love.

Jeremy Taylor: Holy Living

GREAT love is also pliant and inquisitive in the instances of its expression.

Jeremy Taylor: Holy Living

HOBOSCOPES

VIRGO

Sometimes I start to feel like I don’t matter to anybody but then I remember that mosquitoes absolutely love me. They can’t get enough. I’ll be sitting in a circle with four people and a dog and the mosquitoes are only on me. I’m covered in them. Maybe I just have better tasting blood than other people. Maybe that’s what my mom meant when she said I was unconventionally attractive. In any case, Virgo, I hope you remember that you matter too. If you haven’t found the ones who value you, keep looking.

LIBRA

Step right up, Libra! Throw a dart and win a prize! Pop one balloon and you can take your pick from the case. Pop three and you get anything on the top shelf except the Scooby Doo or the lamp. Take 5 darts for 10 tickets or 11 darts for 20! Hey! Come back, Libra! Aren’t you even gonna try? Ah. I get it. You’re saving your tickets for the rides. Smart kid. Experiences are a better investment in the future than keychains and plastic dinosaurs.

SCORPIO

My photo app made me a slideshow of the time we went to the butterfly preserve. The alert on my phone said “Check out this memory!” And it was just a bunch of pictures of you flailing your arms around every time a butterfly tried to land on you. It played “I Hope You Dance” while slides of you being escorted off the property for “aggressive movements toward butterflies” flashed across my screen. Sometimes the most precious memories aren’t the ones you expect, Scorpio. I hope you never lose your sense of wonder.

SAGITTARIUS

It pretty much goes the same for everybody. First you get born.Then you get older. This is exciting at the start. You get some height and some licenses and a graduation or two. Then it gets a little out of control. You get older than you thought you’d be when you still hadn’t done all the things you still haven’t done. Then you get older. You get older until you’re exactly as old as you are right now. And you think about when you got born. And you wonder if it all should have gone a different way. But now is always when you’re starting from, Sagittarius. You can’t take it back, but you can take it forward. Keep going. I’ll go too.

CAPRICORN

Hope can be a tricky thing, Capricorn. Some people think it’s dangerous. Because the bigger it gets and the more specific its objective, the more ways it can go wrong. If I hope for “peace” then I might learn to look for peace in any circumstance. But if I hope for “cool nunchucks” then I’m unlikely to be appeased by anything less. Maybe that’s why Emily Dickinson said that the thing with feathers sings a “wordless tune.” Keep hope in your heart, Capricorn. But if your hopes remain unmet, try going a little broader.

AQUARIUS

Sometimes I just stand and watch the slushy machines inside the gas station. There’s a red one, a blue one, a cola one and a clear one. And they’ve each got a plastic piece inside that goes around and around in rhythm. I guess it agitates the slushy stuff. Keeps it all mixed together and properly aerated. Honestly, I’m not really sure. But when the slushy comes out of the machine, it’s cold and spacious and fills up the jumbo straw with so much flavor and sensation. And I think of you, Aquarius, and the way that you feel agitated and mixed-up. But when you finally give us what you’ve got it’s a vibrant reflection of you. Don’t hold back.

PISCES

What kind of lonely are you, Pisces? Is it the regular mild kind where there’s just nobody around. Is it the medium spicy kind where there’s people around, but you don’t feel known? Or is it the habanero explosion kind where you’re surrounded by people who know and love you but there’s still something hollow and unmet deep inside? Whichever you’ve got today, Pisces, know that the burrito of vulnerability tastes best when you can share the specificity of your loneliness. If you don’t see anybody to share it with, tell it to the speaker at the drive-thru window.

ARIES

Why does fall always feel like a new beginning? It’s an ending for so many things in nature, but it feels like a beginning to me. Like we made it through the intensity. We got through the worst of the heat that the sun could throw at us and we’re still here. I mean, you certainly are, Aries. You got through all of that and more. So we get to start again. And maybe this time it will go just right.

TAURUS

They tell me I brush my teeth like a house painter and I floss like I’m jumping rope. In short, Taurus, I’m doing it all wrong. “Smaller, faster strokes!” they say. “Less slack in the line!” they demand. Don’t they understand I’m an artist? But this horoscope isn’t just about me and my dental hygienist, Taurus. Who’s been asking you to change lately? Maybe they’re wrong. Maybe you’re right. But at least give yourself a good long look in the mouth before you decide.

GEMINI

I heard they made a full-sized giraffe out of butter. I think it’s at the state fair. They used different shades so it’s got spots and they textured it with tiny butter-combs so it even looks like a real giraffe up close. People ask why they would do that but I just wonder why they didn’t do it sooner. You’ve got a gift, Gemini. I don’t know what it is, but if you get started now you could probably have something ready for next year’s state fair.

CANCER

Ok audience, give me a profession. Go ahead, just shout it out. Alright, I think somebody said “plumber?” Let’s go with that. Now we need an event. Alright I heard “birthday,” I heard “graduation,” I heard “wedding?” Yes! Let’s make it a plumber’s wedding and what’s the situation? Of course! The rings don’t fit. Alright, Cancer, act it out! I’m just kidding, Cancer, you don’t have to do anything the audience says. You don’t even have to stay on stage if you don’t want. Whatever people told you to be, they were just guessing.

LEO

I swear that crossing-guard has it out for me, Leo. They blow the whistle as soon as they see me! I’m not even in the zone yet, and I’m already down to 14 miles per hour! I crawl through here and they glare right into my eyes waving that little stop sign. And then they’re all smiley with the car in front of me! She was going way faster! Sometimes we forget, Leo, that this scene isn’t about us. It’s not even about the car in front of us. It’s about helping the people who need it the most. It’s no fun to feel singled-out but we might have forgotten about the kids in the crosswalk.

Mr. Mysterio is not a licensed astrologer, a certified improv coach or a trained crossing guard. Listen to the Mr. Mysterio podcast at mrmysterio.com Or just give him a call at 707-VHS-TAN1

THEME: BACK TO SCHOOL

More or Less

WRITTEN BY CHRIS SCOTT FIESELMAN

Keep it real if you represent, The way one should treat his fellow man. I believe, “We The People” can part, With a small piece of land, We should all receive, Just for being an American. What’s Affordable Housing? When you start out with nothing. Longing for something, Other than suffering. We all need someplace to begin again, Because, Homelessness is never planned. Sometimes things just happen, And you end up where you land. We all need something worth believing. Some wonder what, They will be receiving. Others want every moment, To be spent on achieving, Instead of living on, Other people’s leavings. The rich get richer, And the poor are born to suffer, With Not Enough. Is that a cause worth fighting for? It takes a lot of Love...

Challenges

WRITTEN BY CHRIS SCOTT FIESELMAN

Time is your most precious commodity, When the time you spend, Makes a big difference to somebody. I’m Grateful that someone, Somewhere out there needs me. I feel like a blind man who claims, “I Can See!”

Trying to teach people how to be happy, By being the example they need me to be. A man who one day hopes to achieve, To teach others, What it truly means to Believe.

So many come to make it and then disappear. Someone no one remembers was even here. What happens in your life, Is just the price that you pay, For the costly lessons learned along the way. The truth is the truth and fact is fact. You can only go forward, you can’t go back. It’s way too late by now, To throw in the towel, By backing out or thinking ‘bout, Turning Around.

ACROSS

1. *Medical school entry requirement, acr.

5. *Atlas image

8. Hula dancer's necklace

11. German money

12. Ready for picking 13. Nerd

15. Like many Brothers Grimm stories

16. Month of Purim 17. *Some exams 18. *Laptop and books container 20. Fastens a fly 21. Licorice-like herb 22. *Teacher's favorite 23. Like hot lava

Cassava, pl. 30. Chapter in history 31. Deadly 34. DEA agent 35. Second person singular past of "do," archaic 37. Greet, to a dog 38. Be in harmony 39. Inwardly 40. Opposite of pluralism 42. Even, to a poet 43. *Academic planners 45. *High predecessor 47. PassÈ

64. Piece of cake

DOWN

1. Actress Ryan

2. Larry David's "____ Your Enthusiasm"

3. Bizet's "Habanera," e.g.

24. Circular gasket

Words spoken that evoke emotion, In a Homeless Newspaper, And a crazy notion that those with less, Can be worth a whole lot more.

Micro Housing... Tiny Homes...

How small is too small?

How much is not enough?

What’s definitely necessary? Need it to live, Can’t do without it, Important stuff?

What makes a simple?

Small dwelling a home?

Part of a community, Instead of being alone. Where people there ask you, “How are you doing?”

And really do care what happens to you.

I can’t afford to find a way out, And so many know, What I’m talking about. They call this “The Land of Opportunity”

That’s what I truly want this to be, For everybody.

To make life a fair fight, And an American Right, And me trying to do it, Through Poetry.

So much just up ahead, That has yet to be found. Where you’ve been, where you are now, And where you’re bound.

As bad as it gets, it can always get worse, When it’s not what you expected, Or what you deserved.

If you did the best you could, No matter how much it hurt.

Consider it the test you had to go through first. You’ve got to give credit where credit is due, When you’re better off, Because of what you went through.

Put yourself into another man’s shoes, Who’s accustomed to suffering and singing the blues, And ask yourself, “What can I possibly do?” The next step is up to you...

Life should be fun for everyone, By seeing how much work has yet to be done, And being a part of what’s yet to come. Justice for all and not just for some. Can an un-armed man?

A stranger in a strange land, And his foolish attempt to take a stand, Against those who always hold, The Winning Hand.

Ever possibly - hope to - succeed in the end?

Probably not a chance...

But... You never know my friend... So here we go again... Taking on Challenges...

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Darren Aronofsky’s confounding, unforgettable ‘The Fountain’ at The Belcourt

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

Darren Aronofsky is the most audacious filmmaker of his generation — his movies range from relentlessly challenging to nearly incomprehensible. But he’s paradoxically managed enough mainstream success to continue attracting top talent and to regularly appear on award season red carpets. Most recently, Aronofsky’s The Whale (2022) saw Brendan Fraser win the Oscar, Critics' Choice Award and SAG Award for Best Actor. But the film’s depictions of obesity and the sentimentality of its script divided critics and audiences.

These split reactions are to be expected from a filmmaker whose debut feature, Pi (1998) is an unrelenting psychological thriller about mathematical number theory, the Kabbalah, Wall Street, sex and spirituality. It ends with the protagonist driving an electric drill into his temple. Or does it? From the very beginning, Aronofsky isn’t for everybody. The director achieved more mainstream success with The Wrestler (2008). And his masterpiece, Black Swan (2010) opened the Venice Film Festival to an extended ovation, and won Natalie Portman an Academy Award for Best Actress. But just when he was positioned to cement his place in the canon, Aronofsky improbably delivered a science fiction take on the biblical story, Noah (2014). He followed that film with mother! (2017) — possibly the most off-the-rails psychological thriller of all time.

Classic Aronofsky.

Before mother! , the auteur’s craziest movie was an epic romance called The Fountain (2006). The film scores an almost perfectly predictable split 53% among critics on Rotten Tomatoes with Roger Ebert calling Aronofsky “one of the rare originals among the recent class of new directors” before relenting that the film is probably not a success “for most people.” The Foun -

tain focuses on Dr. Tom Creo (Hugh Jackman) and his wife, Izzi (Rachel Weisz). Izzi is an author dying from a brain tumor. Tom is a surgeon who is desperate to save her life by synthesizing a cure from the bark of a tree found in Guatemala. Rachel is trying to finish a book about a Spanish conquistador named Tomás Verde who is sent by Queen Isabella to Central America to search for a mythical Mayan Tree of Life. Izzi’s book is titled, The Fountain and Jackman and Weisz also play the conquistador and the queen. Tom ultimately writes the final chapter of Izzi’s book in which a 26th century astronaut named Tommy is traveling through space inside a transparent sphere. He’s taking the Tree of Life to the Xibalba nebula – the Mayan origin of the universe. Space Tommy is an amalgam of Tom the surgeon/authorof-the-book’s-last-chapter and the Tomás character created by Izzi. The Tree of Life, relocated to the sphere/ship, contains the spirits of both Queen Isabella and Izzi. Jackman and Weisz also portray this iteration of the couple.

The Fountain jumps backand-forth between these characters and their story lines to tell a tale about love and mortality. It blends a costume drama, realist cinema and mind-blowing science fiction into a film like a hall of mirrors. The central story is told through intimate scenes in quiet closeups, but the fictional scenes shimmer with sumptuous visuals from swashbuckling in the jungle to swooshing across the galaxy. I’d bet that most of The Fountain ’s cult of true believer fans were seduced by James Chinlund’s production design and Matthew Libatique’s wildly original and varied visual stylistics before they fully understood all the poetic connections between the movie’s story lines. The Fountain doesn’t look like any

other movie. Its go-for-broke style and hallucinatory editing caught me by surprise the first time I saw this film. It’s undeniably that Aronofsky has a vision here, and viewers who go with The Fountain ’s flow will find its story mostly making sense by the film’s final, fantastical frames.

Whether you love The Foun -

tain or you only know the film by its infamous reputation, don’t miss the chance to see it projected on 35mm film at The Belcourt on Sept. 6 at 8 p.m. Go to www.belcourt.org to watch the film’s bonkers trailer and buy your tickets.

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