Feature

Homeless Does Not Mean Hopeless

A Nashville Public Library exhibition looks at experiences of unhoused women

BY JUSTIN WAGNER

Painted in a subdued lavender on the Nashville Public Library’s beige walls, these words are a sort of manifesto: Homeless Does Not Mean Hopeless . One which stands for a group of anonymous women in Nashville, all of whom have a story being told in the very same space.

Photographs line the walls — street signs, sunsets, knick knacks scattered on a work desk — all familiar sights in the city. But in this exhibit, they are seen through the eyes of women in Nashville’s unhoused community.

“Having an opportunity to visually represent themselves… well, for any of us to represent ourselves, it helps us participate in a universal conversation,” said Rachel Underwood, who organized the exhibit. “Humanizes our story as well.”

The pieces in the exhibit touch on a number of themes, from identity to hardship to religion, but they all ring with the richness and clarity you can get from a firsthand account.

The unnamed women who created the works are not professional photographers — they are community members, all of whom survive with a story to tell.

One work showcases a yellow road sign that reads, “SPEED BUMP AHEAD.” Its shadow cuts through an unkempt mound of grass hiding a parade of dead trees and distant streetlights. If not a meditation on oncoming hardship, it’s an effective leer at the contrast between Nashville’s gaudy downtown extravagance and its hidden corners.

Another piece shows a cubicle desk corner adorned with little decorations — a Mickey Mouse doll, a muted painting of cherry blossom leaves, a birthday balloon slowly exhaling over a bouquet of pink flowers — and a mirror, which reveals a blank ceiling panel overhead. The digital camera blows out the harsh white light overhead; it’s an imperfect spotlight centered on small pleasures.

Snippets of text link the works together and provide perspective from the women themselves. Many of them meditate on identity, with ruminations like “I have a past, but I’m not my past,” and “I hope that we as women don’t lose ourselves, because who are we if we’re not ourselves?”

It’s a story told with quiet poignance — but crucially, it’s a story told by homeless women, rather than one told about homeless women.

The exhibit, Women of Nashville: An Exploration of Lived Experiences of Homelessness, is the fruit of a Vanderbilt thesis project by Underwood which uses a method of study called photovoice. In photovoice, participants take pictures to communicate their perspective on an issue, and those photos are used to inform discussion with the researchers.

“We went around and did a big roundtable-type discussion, and they each showed their photograph, and then we had a series of questions within the methodology that we ask to generate conversation,” said Underwood. “And that kind of points to what we want to know as researchers, but then we kind of find that the dialog becomes collective.”

Photovoice allows a research conversation, which might typically be bogged down by banal formalities, to become more engaging and fair to the participants, Underwood said.

It’s especially helpful when learning about the homeless community, as their struggles are sometimes mined for privileged entertainment — a phenomenon Underwood likened to colonization.

“I just come from the belief that we can ask questions and understand the best we can as outsiders, but we are not the experts of that experience. We can give aggregates and information, but I believe in hearing from people,” she said. “I have a privilege as a researcher and academic to provide an opportunity for those experiences.”

The 18 women who contributed to the project were left unnamed to preserve their privacy and safety, and to ensure that the exhibit did not become about using their likenesses as a tool for gain.

Underwood’s choice of location was similarly intentional, as the Nashville Public Library is a uniquely welcoming place for those experiencing homeless downtown.

“A library is one of the last palaces of the people,” said Underwood, referencing Eric Klinenberg’s theories on sociology. “It’s a place that is free to go, and that people can stay and may not get kicked out, they have resources and amenities … I wanted to honor that for them, and it’s also an urban center.”

The exhibit remains open until Dec. 30. Though happy to see it on display in downtown Nashville, Underwood is primarily happy to reflect on the experiences she had with the people whose stories are being told.

“I’m proud to be in their lives at that time, and that they trusted me enough to be there. It’s about them.”