ATTORNEYS SAY ONCE-ROUTINE
IMMIGRATION CASES ARE NOW ENDING IN DETENTION
>> PAGE 7
As the city puts emphasis on gun violence prevention, grassroots leaders continue with their longtime work in the community
BY HANNAH HERNER
DANCE: NASHVILLE BALLET CONTINUES ITS SEASON WITH A MAGICAL SWAN LAKE >> PAGE 26 BOOKS: EXPELLED TEACHES LESSONS FROM JAMES LAWSON >> PAGE 27
From Traffic Stops to Check-Ins, How ICE’s Net Is Widening in Tennessee
Attorneys say once-routine immigration cases are now ending in detention BY NICK PIPITONE
Pith in the Wind
This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog Enslaved Memorial at The Hermitage Honors 325 People
Former President Andrew Jackson’s home addresses history of people enslaved at the property, adds further programming BY HANNAH HERNER
Wilson County Leaders Oppose Potential ‘Mega’ ICE Detention Center
Lebanon mayor and Sen. Blackburn say they’re working to ‘rectify this situation’ following heated public meeting BY HAMILTON
MATTHEW MASTERS
COVER STORY
Preventative Measures
As the city puts emphasis on gun violence prevention, grassroots leaders continue with their longtime work in the community BY HANNAH HERNER
Suffs, The Listening Room 20th Anniversary, Unleashed, Rhett Miller and more
FOOD AND DRINK
Date Night: ZieherSmith, Sadie’s and Van Leeuwen
Start with art, then dinner and dessert in Edgehill BY DANNY BONVISSUTO
DANCE
Taking Flight
Nashville Ballet continues its season with
Lessons From Lawson
The zoomed-in portrait of James Lawson’s expulsion from Vanderbilt scrutinizes institutions and the destructive power of a moral crisis BY
MUSIC
Right Round
Rock ’n’ roll upstarts The Runarounds take their act from the small screen to the big stage BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
Stay Gold
Lola Kirke learned to embrace being an outsider BY BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER
The Spin
The Scene’s live-review column checks out Meels at the Station Inn BY BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER
FILM
The Waking World
Michel Franco’s Dreams may spell a return to the erotic thriller — but with contemporary stakes BY SADAF AHSAN
CHECK
Nashville Rep & Nashville Shakes: ‘Fat Ham’ Nashville Repertory Theatre and Nashville Shakespeare Festival present Fat Ham Feb. 13-22 at TPAC’s Johnson Theater. Purchase your tickets today at tpac.org.
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Attorneys say once-routine immigration cases are now ending in detention
BY NICK PIPITONE
IN MINNEAPOLIS, a high-profile ICE enforcement surge drew national scrutiny after multiple fatal shootings and widespread community backlash. But in Tennessee — with the exception of Memphis — ICE enforcement has generally been less visible, focusing instead on jails and detention centers. That, however, hasn’t slowed the arrest rate.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 6,251 people in Tennessee between Jan. 20 and Oct. 15, 2025, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, with the rate of arrests rising throughout the year. From Jan. 20 to May 20, 2025, ICE made 2,509 arrests in Tennessee, about 73 percent of which occurred in jails and other lockups. From May 21 to Oct. 15, there were 3,742 arrests statewide, with 2,754 in detention facilities.
Per capita, Tennessee was among the most aggressive states for ICE arrests in early 2025. Between Jan. 20 and May 20, there were 34.9 arrests per 100,000 residents. Only Texas and Florida ranked higher. This may be surprising to some. Media coverage has generally focused on the most high-profile ICE operations in cities such as Minneapolis and Chicago rather than on the more routine jail-based enforcement happening nationwide. “It’s very hard to report on what’s happening inside jails,” says Wanda Bertram, a spokesperson for the Prison Policy Initiative. “But it’s much easier to report on highly visible public arrests.”
Dozens of Tennessee counties have formal 287(g) agreements with ICE, but jailbased enforcement goes beyond those. A routine traffic stop can lead to booking and fingerprinting, triggering an automatic federal data match. ICE can then issue a detainer and take custody before release. Jail-based detainers are not new — they’ve existed for years, including during the Biden administration. But attorneys working with Nashville-area immigrants say much else has changed since the Trump administration began its deportation push last year. In some cases, ICE has begun detaining immigrants who are doing exactly what the government tells them to do.
“We’ve had so many clients picked up while going to their ICE check-ins and doing everything the right way,” says Kimberly Pedigo, an attorney at Nashville-based law firm Gopal & Pedigo PC. “That didn’t used to happen.”
ICE check-ins are reporting appointments required for some immigrants on ICE’s
nondetained docket. They are often for people released from detention, people under an order of supervision, or others in removal proceedings. The schedule varies by case and office, ranging from monthly reporting to less frequent check-ins every few months or annually.
Usually, these check-ins involve routine paperwork and monitoring. Now, in some cases, they’ve become traps. ICE check-ins have been required for years, and ICE has always had discretion to detain immigrants checking in. But as long as they hadn’t violated any regulations or committed any crimes, most immigrants usually were never detained. That has changed in the past year.
Pedigo says one of those trapped was a 19-year-old from Guatemala with no criminal record. He rode his bike to his ICE check-in in Nashville and was swiftly taken into custody. Like most Tennesseans detained by ICE, he was sent to a detention center in Louisiana.
From there, communication has deteriorated.
“He’s told us they’re treating him horribly and not giving him his medication,” Pedigo says. “The detention officers aren’t communicating with us like they used to. They’re not treating people like human beings.”
Attorneys are also seeing what they call alarming behavior in some local courts outside Davidson County. In Sumner and Wilson counties, they say, judges have been calling ICE themselves when immigrants appear in court. “This raises serious ethical concerns,” says Divyesh R. Gopal, an attorney also at Gopal & Pedigo PC. “Judges are required to remain impartial, and initiating contact with immigration enforcement risks blurring that line. Decisions about notification or enforcement should rest with law enforcement agencies, not the judiciary.”
Nashville-based criminal defense attorney Caesar Cirigliano says the biggest change he’s seen over the past year isn’t a single new rule, but a tightening of the system. This is especially true of bonds. “Even if a judge grants bond, if there’s an immigration hold, they can’t get out anymore,” he says. “That’s a massive difference.” Where immigrant defendants facing criminal charges once bonded out, went back to work, and fought their cases “from the street,” Cirigliano says many now sit in jail for months before getting their day in court. Davidson County technically has a fast-track docket for people with immigration holds, but Cirigliano says that is largely a “fictitious idea” in practice.
USUALLY, THESE CHECK-INS INVOLVE ROUTINE PAPERWORK AND MONITORING. NOW, IN SOME CASES, THEY’VE BECOME TRAPS.
“After six months, they’re like, ‘Get me out of jail — I don’t care if I get deported,’” Cirigliano says. In neighboring counties like Sumner, judges more readily hold noncitizens as flight risks, which triggers ICE. Meanwhile, Cirigliano says ICE is picking up people with DUI convictions after their cases close. “DUIs never used to lead to deportation,” he says. “Now, if they plead to it, ICE is coming.” For lawyers like Pedigo who have spent years helping people navigate the complexities of the U.S. immigration system, the pattern feels cruelly upside-down. “So many of my clients are doing exactly what the law requires,” she says. “They have no criminal record. They’re checking in. They’re waiting for their turn. And now they’re being detained and deported anyway.”
Gopal says the situation many of his immigrant clients face has become a legal catch-22. “This isn’t panic or overreaction,” he says. “It’s a structurally coercive situation.” His first advice when advising clients is to not skip ICE check-ins, even if the outcome may be unfavorable. “Failing to appear can trigger an automatic violation or even a removal order,” he explains. “As unfair as it feels, missing a check-in almost always carries more severe and predictable legal consequences than showing up.”
Gopal also urges his clients to prepare for the possibility of detention even when they’re complying with the rules. He stresses the need for case-specific legal advice every time circumstances change. And finally, he doesn’t sugarcoat the heavy emotional toll.
“This is not a system designed to reward compliance or good faith,” Gopal says. “The anxiety people feel is rational. The goal right now is often not ‘safety’ in the traditional sense, but risk management.” ▼
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is no longer scheduling gender-affirming surgeries for patients, many of whom received the surprise health care update on Friday via VUMC’s communications portal. The decision follows VUMC’s unsteady years-long break with transgender health care that has coincided with political headwinds from the anti-trans conservative ruling party at the state and federal levels. At least one physician who offered the surgeries will also soon leave VUMC for other employment. The hospital system suspended gender-affirming surgeries for minors in 2022 following a state ban on the treatment, which was upheld after reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. VUMC also turned over a list of transgender patients’ health records to Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in 2023. Last year, VUMC gutted its specialized LGBTQ health clinic, a severe blow to transgender health. Previously scheduled surgeries will continue, but many patients are worried about VUMC’s ability to respond to potential complications or provide follow-up surgeries.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a leading national Democrat, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a prominent conservative installed by President Trump, spoke at separate events around Nashville last week. Amid aggressive military posturing against Venezuela and Iran, Hegseth promoted Christian nationalism during his keynote speech at Thursday’s National Religious Broadcasters’ Freedom 250 Celebration, held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. The crowd repeatedly chanted, “Christ is king!” as Hegseth’s speech strayed from minimizing climate change to pro-birth natalism. A few days later, Newsom, who has spent months setting up a 2028 presidential run, appeared at OZ Arts to promote his memoir. Newsom slammed Trump and outlined Democrats’ path to win back governing power in the midterms, which he says will require more energy and outreach to voters who believe that the opposition party is too weak to match Trump’s strongman brand of politics.
The Tennessee legislature heard contentious bills targeting immigration and same-sex marriage last week, stirring public demonstrations and prompting outbursts. In the state House, the Republican supermajority passed a bill sponsored by Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) allowing private individuals and organizations to disregard Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage. A group of immigration bills that would require local cooperation with ICE, increase reporting requirements and impose restrictions on driver’s license testing and eligibility advanced along party lines over the objections of Democratic opposition and protesters, who filled committee rooms. The state is also still weighing legislation to take over Davidson County’s power company Nashville Electric Service after public disapproval of how NES management responded to January’s destructive ice storm.
BY HANNAH HERNER
EACH YEAR, attendees of the Enslaved Memorial Commemoration at Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage lay carnations on a stone wall behind the Hermitage Church, among trees planted in the outline of the Big Dipper. The North Star would have been a beacon to people who were enslaved at the former president’s home — showing the direction to freedom.
At this year’s event, held Feb. 21, there were 325 carnations, each tagged with the name of someone who was enslaved at The Hermitage, nearby or at one of Jackson’s other properties. It’s the highest number yet of people recognized by the ceremony, and it’s still growing. Discovering just how many people the former president enslaved and their names is a difficult process. Genealogy and census data, bills, receipts and even calendar entries from Jackson’s archives give clues, historians at The Hermitage tell the Scene
Historian Gary Burke performed an original poem inspired by Alfred Jackson, who was born a slave at The Hermitage and stayed there post-emancipation, ultimately serving as one of the first tour guides at the site. He died in 1901 and was given a funeral at the mansion before being buried near Jackson in The Hermitage’s garden with a headstone reading “faithful servant.” Burke remembers learning about Albert when he visited The Hermitage as a child on a field trip 51 years ago. His story planted the seed in him to become a historic preservationist, he said. (Burke is also known for his work with the U.S. Colored Troops reenactors locally.)
“It’s great that they see a significance in telling the fuller story about what happened here, and that there were enslaved people that dwelled here,” he says. “Their stories need to be known as well as the Jackson family.”
In 2024, leaders at The Hermitage announced they had discovered a cemetery where at least 28 people were buried, all of whom had been enslaved on the property at their time of death. During Saturday’s event, The Hermitage’s chief experience officer Tony Guzzi led a group inside the gate surrounding the burial area, where stones had been placed at the approximate sites of headstones that have been covered by soil over the years. Historical interpreter Nathan M. Richardson, who traveled from Virginia for the event, presented two living-history shows as Frederick Douglass. He also joined the group on the walk to the cemetery, where he recited “Bury Me in a Free Land,” a poem by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.
Richardson is part of The Hermitage’s living-history series and its Black History Month programming. The Hermitage is making an effort to continue such events throughout the year, explains newly hired chief marketing officer Jeffrey Freeman. A Harriet Tubman reenactor is coming to The Hermitage in June, for example.
The Hermitage is the home of the “people’s president” and a Revolutionary War hero, but also the home of the man who enacted the Trail of Tears and enslaved hundreds. There’s a lot to learn beyond a childhood field trip visit, Freeman says.
“We don’t shy away from these topics at all,”
Freeman says. “If anything, I feel like we are leaning into them because it happened. It just is a matter of fact. When you come back in 10 years, how we’re talking about it then will differ from how we’re talking about it now. Honestly, I think that’s just how it’s meant to be.”
“You can say Jackson was horrible, Jackson was great,” adds public programs and outreach manager Tiffany Demmon. “And then there’s a space for that. We’re not trying to tell you how to think.”
Keynote speaker Brandon R. Byrd, author and associate professor of history and African American and diaspora studies at Vanderbilt University, focused a portion of his address on an enslaved woman named Hannah. He explained that eulogies and biographies of Jackson portray her as content with her circumstances, but she escaped the first chance she got.
She was a devout Christian, he adds, and a nurturing midwife, caretaker and maternal figure to the Black youth of post-Civil War Nashville as well as to her own 10 children.
“Hannah was a casualty in the battle of the memory of the Civil War and slavery,” Byrd said. “In Nashville, the city’s papers eulogized Aunt Hannah as the trusted servant of the hero of The Hermitage. They remembered that she always ‘seemed pleased to talk of Master Andrew and his many experiences.’ Meant to conjure an image of slavery as a good, benevolent institution, the obituaries did a grave injustice to Hannah.”
Byrd helped read the 325 names in the roll call,
before the Andrew Jackson Elementary School’s Eagle Honor Choir led the group to the stone wall singing “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” a folk song about following The North Star to freedom.
“To be sure, the members of this community envision a different way of being,” Byrd said. “They were slaves by law, but they struggled in the most mundane, the most ordinary yet spectacular ways, to be somebody else, to be somebody. They grappled with the realities, but never stopped hoping for something better, somewhere better.” ▼
Lebanon mayor and Sen. Blackburn say they’re working to ‘rectify this situation’ following heated public meeting
BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
A REPORTED IMMIGRATION and Customs Enforcement detention center in Lebanon was met with explosive public backlash last week. Longtime Wilson County Sheriff Robert Bryan and County Mayor Randall Hutto stated their opposition to any potential facility in Wilson County.
“I can’t see a positive impact from this [potential facility] whatsoever,” Hutto told the Scene on Feb. 17, speaking in the empty Wilson County Commission chambers following a three-hour-plus meeting — one that saw more than two hours of emotionally charged public comment.
Hutto opened the meeting with a breakdown of his understanding of the potential detention center, which was first reported by the Tennessee Lookout. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson reversed course following the report, saying the agency has not purchased property for an ICE facility in the Cedar City. The initial report cited a DHS statement that boasted some 7,000 jobs and millions in local revenue, all a part of the agency’s $38.3 billion purchasing spree across the country.
“I really do not know if they’re coming or not,” Hutto said during the meeting. “This body tonight can listen to your comments, but they have no vote and no say-so in that.”
Hundreds of people packed the Wilson County Courthouse that night, spilling into the halls. In an overflow room, crowds watched a livestream of the meeting on TVs and huddled around cellphones. More than 40 people spoke out against the idea of an ICE facility, which
was not technically on the meeting agenda. Many called for transparency from local leaders and a commission resolution in opposition to any future ICE facility.
“I am begging you, do not stop representing us,” said Mt. Juliet resident and Democratic state Senate candidate Lindsey Patrick-Wright. “We are asking that you demand transparency from the state, and that you stand with us, your constituents, in making it clear: Wilson County does not want ICE here.”
Among the public commenters were descendants of Americans imprisoned by the U.S. government in Japanese internment camps and Jews forced into Nazi concentration camps during World War II, as well as descendants of American Indians who faced genocide by the American government.
“The treatment of our people is a darkness in this country’s history that continues to this day, and we are seeing this treatment on repeat in immigrant communities around the country,” said Lebanon resident Sabrina Buer, a Tennessee Tech professor and co-director of the American Indian Movement’s Tennessee chapter.
ICE has operated in Wilson County for years. In January, the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office strengthened that relationship by entering into a 287(g) agreement with ICE for the Warrant Service Officer program, which “allows ICE to train, certify and authorize state and local law enforcement officers to serve and execute administrative warrants on aliens in their agency’s jail.”
Despite the increased cooperation, Sheriff Bryan told the Scene he’s not in favor of an ICE facility in Wilson County. “Nobody in that [commission] room wants an ICE facility,” said Bryan.
“I really don’t want to get in the middle of it,” District 10 County Commissioner Tyler Chandler, who also serves as the Mt. Juliet Police chief of police, told the Scene following the meeting, citing his decision not to seek reelection.
“We haven’t changed anything with our approach to working with the federal government,” Chandler said. “What we’re doing today is what I [did] when I started policing 21 years ago, and I don’t see us changing our approach. We focus on community issues, about keeping our community safe, and I’m going to continue to do that.”
Lebanon Mayor Rick Bell weighed in on the issue in a Feb. 20 social media post. Bell “confirmed Immigration
and Customs Enforcement is interested in property along the Highway 109 South Corridor inside the City Limits of Lebanon,” per a conversation he had with senior counsel for the Department of Homeland Security.
“They are in the due diligence phase of a feasibility study,” Bell said. “They have not contacted anyone with the City of Lebanon Utilities or Engineering Departments.” The mayor added that he’s also been in communication with U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
“She is working with us along with leaders of the Department of Homeland Security to rectify this situation,” Bell said. “She too believes that the City of Lebanon is not the right location for this facility. As a conservative Republican, I believe we should have a secure border. However, other than the Wilson County Jail, Lebanon is not the place for any type of correctional facility — ICE or otherwise.”
A Blackburn spokesperson declined to address specifics of the senator’s role in the conversations with DHS, but issued the following statement to the Scene: “Sen. Blackburn supports the incredible work ICE is doing in Tennessee to apprehend, detain, and deport criminal illegal aliens, and she is working closely with local and state leaders as well as ICE to ensure the agency can find a proper placement for a new detention facility.”
County Mayor Hutto gave more details in his own Feb. 20 social media post. Citing a conversation with a DHS representative, Hutto called the proposed facility a “mega center — the largest of its kind in the United States — housing between 14,000 and 16,000 detainees from across Tennessee and surrounding states.”
Hutto reiterated his opposition to the proposal, citing its proximity to schools, churches and day cares, as well as “heavy demands” on infrastructure and local law enforcement.
“From what we know today, this facility would bring more challenges than benefits to our community,” Hutto said. “We will continue asking questions, pushing for clarity, and sharing information as soon as we receive it.”
State Rep. Clark Boyd (R-Lebanon) also offered a statement on Feb. 20: “While I agree with and support the mission of ICE, I firmly believe that Lebanon is not the right place for this type of facility.”
A previous version of this article was published online last week. It has been updated to incorporate new details. ▼
3/19/2026
As the city puts emphasis on gun violence prevention, grassroots leaders continue with their longtime work in the community
BY HANNAH HERNER
AUTHOR DANIELLE BIGSBY-MATLOCK’S latest book features 66 poems — each one honoring a different Middle Tennessean who was killed by gun violence. She’s up to her 11th volume now. Bigsby-Matlock began writing in 2015 in an effort to keep her nephew’s memory alive after he was killed in 2010.
Her books include high-profile cases like those of Nashvillians Jocques Clemmons and Daniel Hambrick, who were both killed by Metro police officers. She remembers Vastoria Lucas, a 19-year-old killed on a basketball court in her old neighborhood in 2017, as well as the four victims of 2018’s Waffle House shooting. Her latest volume also includes the victims of the March 2023 Covenant School shooting and from last year’s shooting at Antioch High School
“Gun violence is such a big problem in our country, and I feel like sometimes it’s painted as a race thing,” says Bigsby-Matlock. “But gun violence affects all races and ethnicities, so I don’t single out any race. I cover it all. I cover school shootings, I cover police killings, I cover neighborhood violence, I cover it all.”
The issue was already close to home, but landed even closer years after her nephew’s death. Bigsby-Matlock and her daughter were in their kitchen as gunshots rang out in their backyard — they dropped to the ground, and ultimately were not harmed. But that was the last straw. Five years ago, Bigsby-Matlock and her children moved out of the James Cayce Homes in East Nashville, about 30 miles north to Gallatin.
“There was no other choice,” she tells the Scene. “Gun violence left us no choice.”
a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly. Despite the shooting being the impetus for the session being called, ultimately, no meaningful gun reform was passed. With gun control off the table in the state, the work of preventing more entries in BigsbyMatlock’s books falls on the city and grassroots organizations.
GUN VIOLENCE prevention work can be difficult to measure — how many incidences could have happened but didn’t? As Metro invests in more public safety programs, the city builds on the work of grassroots community leaders who have invested in the work for years, whether those grassroots leaders are in the room or not.
Following the Covenant School shooting in 2023, gun violence was center stage during
There were 50 gun deaths in Davidson County in 2025, and 237 non-fatal gunshot injuries, according to MNPD data. (Suicides, suicide attempts and accidental shootings are excluded from those numbers.) Overall, Nashville saw 35 percent fewer gunshot victims last year compared to 2024, and violent offenses overall fell to their lowest point since 2013, as the Nashville Banner reported
In the past year, MNPD has ramped up its Group Violence Intervention work in partnership with the Urban League of Middle Tennessee and the Metro Public Health Department. The trio of organizations meets on a weekly basis to discuss group-involved crimes, and gives an individual warning from law enforcement along with resources from social service providers to those involved in shootings. The program operates under the idea that a large percentage of violent crime in any major
city can be attributed to a very small percentage of the population, and furthermore, just a few groups. Gangs are groups, but not all groups are gangs, explains Anthony Brooks, MNPD’s captain of alternative policing strategies.
“If this program works the way it’s supposed to work, then my office would not need to be involved at all after that, because the idea is for it to stop,” Brooks tells the Scene
Roughly 87 percent of the people the program contacted (including those incarcerated) have not reoffended, and around 60 percent of those who weren’t incarcerated did not participate in any more crime following the visit from the program, Brooks tells the Scene
The GVI program is part of an overarching public safety theme at Metro in the past year, which also saw the creation of the Office of Youth
Safety and the Community Safety Task Force. Rasheedat Fetuga is the founder of Gideon’s Army, a grassroots violence-intervention group. She wasn’t asked to be a part of Metro’s task force, despite being the first organization in Tennessee to introduce a community violenceintervention model back in 2018.
Fetuga isn’t bitter about this, though. There’s an important distinction between group violence intervention and community violence intervention. The former is connected to police; community violence intervention is not. She’s spent the past 15 years creating restorative justice programs in Metro Nashville Public Schools, working on programming in juvenile courts, helping with disaster relief during Nashville’s March 2020 tornado and most recently, creating Gid University and BlackOut
North Nashville.
Community violence intervention centers people with lived experience, and that includes people who have had their own run-ins with the criminal justice system. Gideon’s Army has taken heat over the years for working with community members who have been convicted of crimes. (That includes coverage from NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams that Gideon’s supporters have called a smear campaign.)
Gideon’s Army’s 2016 “Driving While Black” report called out racist practices in MNPD traffic stops, which the department vehemently denied at the time. Gideon’s Army is still awaiting a $750,000 grant from the city that it was awarded in November 2022.
“If we’re looking at strategic peace building and building a just peace, it means calling out the harm caused by structural violence while also being on the ground and providing direct services,” says Fetuga. “That’s where a lot of the conflict comes, because systems don’t want to necessarily change or hear about the harm that is being caused, and people within the systems take it personal — not even understanding that for us, it’s not personal.”
Even before Gideon’s Army there was
Clemmie Greenlee, founder of Nashville Peacemakers and a prime example of someone using her own lived experience to try to steer others down a positive path — especially following the shooting death of her son in 2003. She was burned by a 2010 federal investigation, which alleged that a gang held meetings at the site of her former outreach project. She maintains that the center did outreach to gang members, but was not affiliated with them.
Greenlee has not gone without praise — At-Large Metro Councilmember Zulfat Suara recently brought a resolution honoring her grassroots work earlier this month. But the praise does not always translate to dollars — especially dollars with no strings attached, Greenlee tells the Scene. She’s frustrated with partners who won’t work with her in the evening, when youths most need something to do, or who insist that she bring kids to their spaces rather than meeting in her neighborhood, North Nashville. Greenlee and the Nashville Peacemakers take a no-frills approach, asking youth to join her home economics courses, or Guitars and Not Guns — a new “gang” she runs in the back room of the Rock United Ministries in North Nashville.
found that of people born between 1980 and 1986 in Nashville’s 37208 ZIP code, 1 out of every 7 was imprisoned in their 30s. At the time, it was the highest rate in the country.
Lonnell Matthews was born in 1979. It was his younger brother’s death by gun violence in 2006 that launched him into a life of public service. He now serves as Metro’s juvenile court clerk, co-lead of the Community Safety Task Force and co-founder of nonprofit My Brother’s Keeper Nashville.
According to MNPD data, the 37013 ZIP code in Antioch saw nine shooting deaths last year, while 37115 in Madison saw six shooting deaths. The 37207 in the area bridging East and North Nashville (including the Talbot’s Corner neighborhood) saw five, and 37211 in the southern portion of the county saw four. North Nashville saw three homicides by gun.
Matthews says while that 2018 report caused some harm, it also showed a community that had unmet needs in the midst of being threatened by gentrification and displacement.
“Let’s pay extra care and attention and be strategic and intentional on how we put resources into that community,” Matthews says. “But let’s not stereotype the people that are living in that community based on a historic report. Let’s really give them the opportunity to thrive that we give to people growing up in other communities in Nashville.”
But Greenlee knows that with her street credibility, she could do even more. In the past, she pitched to former Mayor David Briley a $50,000 grant and 90 days doing outreach her way. She promised to lower violence by 75 percent in Nashville — not just in her own neighborhood.
“Why hasn’t nobody called me on my bluff?” Greenlee asks.
“We got to quit asking all these folks who went to college and all that for four, five years — studying intervention and prevention and poverty and homelessness and gun violence and all that,” Greenlee says. “It ain’t all about the stats no more. It’s about people’s stories.”
Greenlee’s services focus on kids ages 12 to 16 — and that’s by design. Those years were hell for her, she tells the Scene. She says she quit school during sixth grade and nobody came looking for her.
“There wasn’t nobody there for me, there wasn’t nobody guiding me,” she says. “Why would I be sex trafficking at 12? Why would I have a baby at 13? Why am I put out of school? Why am I running in and out of juvenile? Why did I end up in prison at 18?” A 2018 STUDY by the Brookings Institute
For My Brother’s Keeper Nashville, it’s important not to just interrupt what’s known as the school-to-prison pipeline, but to create new pipelines. My Brother’s Keeper was an initiative created by President Barack Obama in 2014, focused on providing opportunities for boys and young men of color. Matthews’ Nashville branch recently hired longtime teacher Marc Anthony Peek as its first executive director using funds from the Davidson County Juvenile Court. He will lead the organization’s “cradle-to-career” continuum.
The continuum starts with kindergarten readiness, then reaching third-grade reading level, then graduating high school ready for college and career, followed by post-secondary training or education and, finally, employment.
A sixth milestone is key: If a young person veers off the path with any of the first five milestones, they need a second chance to get back on track. Peek says as a young person, he struggled in school.
“I was very unkind to a lot of people, and people still stood by me,” Peek says. “One of the ways in which I say thank you to them is by doing this work, by creating these pathways, by standing in place of individuals, to be able to advocate for them, to remove barriers to their success.”
Helped along by Matthews’ leadership in the juvenile justice system, Peek sees My Brother’s Keeper as a convener. When two organizations won’t hold proverbial hands, MBK will hold hands with each of them.
“We can help people to see that there are people that are connected in all of these
organizations, that are believing the same things that they believe in, and perhaps we can begin to build some bridges through those levels of communication,” Peek says.
INSIDE A FORMER convenience store in North Nashville, the next iteration of Gideon’s Army is brewing. When completed, BlackOut North will offer a recording studio, games, a performance stage, a kitchen and a hot bar. It’s all run by youth, and according to Fetuga, what local youth wanted was a safe space where they could hang out in the evenings. The kids are part of and alumni of Gid University, a two-year leadership program wherein North Nashville youth affected by gun violence learn conflict resolution, social emotional skills and service leadership, and complete community service projects.
Inside a room wrapped in a cloud mural, Fetuga tells the Scene it’s time for her to build herself back up. She may be preventing a lot of loss, but she’s still experiencing loss — including the losses of young people she’s formed relationships with at Gideon’s Army. And all while being undersupported by the city, she says.
“These have been my gifts to the children of Nashville, and so now I really have to think about what is best for the children in the community, but also what’s best for me,” Fetuga says. “I don’t want to live my whole life giving and fighting, giving and fighting. It’s never been where there’s been a full embrace where I can just exhale and flourish, exhale and expand.”
Greenlee’s next step, meanwhile, is to launch a podcast called Tough Conversations. One of those tough conversations: how differently things have gone for the Covenant School families compared to the 40 or so mothers in
Greenlee’s Mothers Over Murder organization — a group of mostly Black mothers who have lost a child to gun violence. Greenlee started the group in 2014 to help her sister, who had just lost her son to gun violence.
Following the Covenant School shooting in 2023, several funds were set up within a matter of weeks, and the school is on track to raise the $85 million needed for a new school building. It hurts to be treated differently, Greenlee says, and she wishes the two groups would band together to continue the advocacy work Mothers Over Murder has done over the years at the state level.
“We got to sleep in the same house that some of our kids got killed in,” she says. “One of my mothers’ kids got killed in the backyard. So what do you think she feels when she’s got to open her back door? So she doesn’t feel like she should have raised some money to move somewhere?
Half the people in the project, their kids got killed in the front yard, so they got to come out that door every morning to go to work.”
Of the 50 victims of gun violence in 2025, nearly 65 percent were Black, heavily disproportionate numbers compared to Nashville’s population. The victim’s ages skewed young, with 28 of them between the ages of 18 and 30 and four under 18.
“What did [the Covenant School shooter] lack?” Greenlee asks, challenging the public reaction to the Covenant School shooting as opposed to gun violence elsewhere in Nashville. “Because every time one of us gets killed, they were on drugs, they were poor, daddy locked up. They put themselves in that position. Look how they live.”
While there are kids and communities in Nashville that need extra care and attention,
longtime leaders in gun violence prevention remind us that when someone is killed, that’s someone’s child — and it’s quite simply not the victim’s fault.
“No one was born into low grades,” Matthews says. “No one was born into incarceration, no one was born into unemployment. The conditions and the environments that they grew
up in set them up for being categorized that way.”
“People see it as a youth violence issue, when it’s actually structural violence that is causing the issues,” says Fetuga. “I think it’s easy to put the responsibility on the kids and individual behavior change, but we’re not addressing the root causes.” ▼
“We got to sleep in the same house that some of our kids got killed in. One of my mothers’ kids got killed in the backyard. So what do you think she feels when she’s got to open her back door?”
—Clemmie Greenlee, founder of Nashville Peacemakers
FEBRUARY
FRIDAY
MARCH 13 AT
55TH
From platinum-selling chart-toppers to underground , household names to undiscovered gems, Chief’s Neon Steeple is c bringing the very best national and regional talent back to Broadway. pl hi f’ N h t om cha ons, t
om a s, eeple committed mmi
2.7 Ultimate Eric Church Experience - The Outsiders Album Anniversary Show
2.9 Dallas Moore, Daryl Wayne Dasher w/ Special Guest Jimmy Dasher
2.11 Tyler Hilton & Kate Voegele: Celebrating The Music Of One Tree Hill w/ Special Guest Gina Miles
2.14 A Special Valentines Evening with Karen Waldrup 2.15 Heartland
2.16 Buddy’s Place Writer’s Round w/ Ryan Larkins, Alex Hall, and Smithfield
2.18 Chase Rice - Unheard Songs, Unforgettable Hits
2.19 Ashley McBryde: Postcards From Lindeville
2.20 Ashley McBryde: Postcards From Lindeville
2.21 Made In America - A Tribute To Toby Keith
2.22 Hot Brown SmackdownBilly Strings Afterparty
2.23 Chief’s Outsiders Round w/ Skyelor Anderson & Ben Kadelecek and Guests Max Boyle, Jacob Lutz, Ryan Mundy, Luke Stevens
2.26 Uncle B’s Damned Ole Opry Presents “Banned From The Grand: The Songs Of Cash, Hank, & Other Grand Ole Opry Exiles”
2.27 Aaron Nichols & The Travellers - Chris Stapleton Tribute
2.28 Waymore’s OutlawsRunnin’ With Ol’ Waylon
ART [GLEAM-IN’] GLEAM
While Winter Storm Fern affected countless houses and families throughout the country and right here in Nashville, it also took its toll on the local art scene. Cass Contemporary and other businesses near its 409 Chestnut St. location were damaged in the storm and its aftermath of electrical outages amid frigid temps. The chaos of January has prompted the gallery to pivot its current exhibition to an online virtual display and a benefit for neighbors who are still recovering from the disruptive ice and snow. GLEAM includes work by a roster of three international street artists whose varied practices are connected by materials and their effects. Alex Bacon, Drew Merritt and Leon Keer make figurative, representational work, but GLEAM is more concerned with the way these artists use various types of paint and techniques to play with reflected light. Keer’s popinspired acrylic paintings on shaped wooden panels steal the show for me, demonstrating how an artist can engage impeccable representational technique while still engaging with advanced formalist concerns. GLEAM includes top-shelf, one-of-a-kind paintings along with limited editions of more affordable prints. A portion of exhibition sales will be donated to Hands On Nashville’s Winter Storm Recovery Fund. Check out the show at casscontemporary.com/gleam JOE NOLAN THROUGH APRIL 25 ONLINE AT CASSCONTEMPORARY.COM/GLEAM
Visit calendar.nashvillescene.com for more event listings
[ONE-MAN SHOW] RHETT MILLER
Rhett Miller’s 2025 A Lifetime of Riding by Night might be the Old 97’s singer’s most reflective album to date. Producer and Old 97’s bassist Murry Hammond adds piano and Mellotron to a set of tunes Miller renders in a modified folk-rock style, while Miller’s gift for writing deeply philosophical songs that combine alt-country narratives and pop sensibilities shines through on “Be Mine,” in which Miller gets overheated onstage when a fan begins observing him: “I was wrestling with a one-man show / You had nowhere else to go,” he sings. A Lifetime contains some of Miller’s most affecting vocals — he had successful vocal cord surgery after he recorded the album — and his songwriting is canny and immaculately crafted, as you can hear on the gorgeous “Ellie on the Wharf.” Nashville songwriters Nicole Atkins and Caitlin Rose each co-write a song with Miller, and the great alt-country auteur proves he’s as good at being reflective as he is rocking out with Old 97’s. Miller and Old 97’s have been making superb music for more than 30 years — I never travel far without the band’s 2010 masterpiece The Grand Theatre, Volume One, though your favorite might be 1999’s Fight Songs or 2014’s rocked-out Most Messed Up Singer Lizzie No, whose latest album is 2024’s Halfsies, opens. EDD HURT
7:30 P.M. AT CITY WINERY
609 LAFAYETTE ST.
FRIDAY
MUSIC
[IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR] PRISON AFFAIR W/D. SABLU & FAMILY DOG
With their jittery rhythms, ultra-low-fidelity recordings and phallic-nosed mascot, Barcelona’s Prison Affair are just off-putting enough to keep squares at a distance. Nashville folks may be aware of Prison Affair from their split with locals Snooper, but the quirky DIY unit has been grabbing attention worldwide with their choppy synth noise. The Spanish trio, who steal much of their sonic inspiration from 8-bit video games and warped cassette tapes, has an aesthetic like a novelty sweater — cartoonishly fun, but also sort of itchy and uncomfortable. But their campy charm and audio experimentation make Prison Affair
a must-catch. The bill will also feature New Orleans maniacs D. Sablu. The band has the allover-the-map punk stylings we’ve all come to expect from Delta punx and freaks. Some tracks sound lifted from an old Thrasher Magazine Skate Rock comp, skipping to bleaker moments of drum machine minimalism, peppered with covers of songs by Discharge and Rudimentary Peni — all recorded on a Yamaha MT400 tape machine. Get there early for Nashville’s Family Dog, because their new 7-inch is selling out fast, and you’re going to want that slammer in your collection so nobody calls you a poser. P.J. KINZER
8 P.M. AT DRKMTTR
1111 DICKERSON PIKE
[LUNCH AND LEARN]
Going out and meeting others in the neighborhood doesn’t have to be a big investment of time or money. And it doesn’t have to involve going out at night. Midday Muse is a new daytime event series held on the last Friday of the month at Short Stories, the lobby cafe and bar at Waymore’s Guest House in East Nashville. The idea behind Midday Muse is to be an intentional pause in your day: Pop over for an hour and learn from experts on a variety of topics. The original launch of Midday Muse in January was postponed due to Winter Storm Fern, so the February event with matchmaker Nadine Jimenez-Langagne is the series’ kickoff. Jimenez-Langagne will present her thoughts with “From Swipe Fatigue to Intentional Human Connection,” an exploration of why modern dating feels exhausting and how to build a support system that makes dating feel easier and more successful. Midday Muse events are free, but online registration is required.
MARGARET LITTMAN
11 A.M. AT SHORT STORIES IN WAYMORE’S GUEST HOUSE
811 MAIN ST.
broadening the groundwork for today’s beloved catchall guitar-strummin’ genre, Americana. Featuring performances from Dan Tyminski, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and others, the project barnstormed the Grammy Awards in 2002, winning Album of the Year. Now a handful of O Brother collaborators join a new class of Americana storytellers — including Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle and Sarah Jarosz — for a one-night celebration of the album’s 25th anniversary. In addition to Strings, Tyminski, Tuttle, Harris, Krauss and Jarosz, the lineup includes Old Crow Medicine Show, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, O Brother actor Tim Blake Nelson and the Del McCoury Band, among others. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER
600 OPRY MILLS DRIVE
ART [IN THE WEEDS] BILLY RENKL: THE WEEDY GARDEN
While many Nashvillians are still processing the aftermath of ice, falling trees, single-digit temps and bureaucratic snafus, Billy Renkl’s new show at Lusk is brimming with the warm hope of springtime and a reminder that nature can heal as surely as it can harm. The Weedy Garden is a new collection of 21 of Renkl’s intricate collage illustrations originally created to accompany a children’s book of the same name written by Renkl’s sister, former Scene staffer and current New York Times columnist Margaret Renkl. The illustrations — like the book — celebrate native plants and warmweather seasons in the South. They also embrace something of an English approach to gardening, defined by a loose dance between cultivating and cooperating, curating and coexistence with weeds, wildflowers, bugs and bunnies. JOE NOLAN
OPENING RECEPTION 4-7 P.M.; THROUGH MARCH 28 AT DAVID LUSK GALLERY
516 HAGAN ST.
FILM
[ALL THINGS MERGE INTO ONE] WEEKEND CLASSICS: ROBERT REDFORD:
As part of their retrospective to honor the late, great Robert Redford, the Belcourt is screening — in 35 mm — A River Runs Through It, Redford’s loving adaptation of Norman Maclean’s semi-autobiographical story about his and his brother’s relationship in early20th-century Montana, spending their time outdoors fly fishing. The film is one of the best examples of Redford’s talents behind the camera, and stars a young Brad Pitt in a pivotal early role. I had the pleasure of attending the Sundance Film Festival last month for its final year in Park City, Utah, where Redford founded
the festival and the Sundance Institute in 1981 to create a community for independent filmmakers and give them a voice. Redford’s spirit was very much felt at the festival. I went to a panel featuring directors Richard Linklater and Gregg Araki, who began their careers with films at Sundance; the pair swapped stories about meeting “Bob,” and about how kind and genuine he was. The volunteers’ official jackets had patches with “In honor of Robert Redford” printed on them. Redford’s earnest, deeply felt film about Maclean’s lessons of courage and grace in the face of uncertainty and tragedy seems an extension of Redford’s own upright character and lasting legacy. LILLY LUSE 11:45 A.M. FEB. 28 & MARCH 1 AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
FILM
[I AM STILL A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW] 25 YEARS OF O
A quarter-century ago, T Bone Burnett and a band of ragtag roots musicians reminded the world that old-time music isn’t only for oldtimers. On the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, these artists captured lightning in a banjo, propelling bluegrass, folk and traditional country into the mainstream spotlight and
HOUSE
The Long Players return to the 3rd and Lindsley stage Saturday night for a re-creation of Tom Petty’s 1989 solo debut Full Moon Fever. It will be the third time the world’s greatest tribute band has performed the five-time platinum record, the last time being in 2015. “The Long Players have done many of Tom Petty’s records over the years, and it always seems like such a good fit for us as musicians and fans,” says group co-founder/ringleader Bill Lloyd. “He’s a perennial.” As always, the band — guitarist Lloyd, guitarist Steve Allen, drummer Steve Ebe, bassist Doug Kahan (subbing for Brad Jones), keyboardist Seth Timbs and percussionist Paul Snyder — will be joined by a number of guest vocalists. Saturday’s lineup of singers includes John Cowan, Tommy Womack, David Mead, Joe Blanton, Todd Sharp, Chris Church, Zach Lindsey, Philip Creamer, Jonathan Bright and The Prickly Pair (Mason Summit and Irene Greene). After performing Full Moon Fever in sequence, The Long Players and their guests will play a set of other material by Petty. “It will be some fun things people want to do, and we’ll make sure to play some more of his hits,” Lloyd says. DARYL SANDERS
8 P.M. AT 3RD AND LINDSLEY
818 THIRD AVE. S.
[BARK OF THE COVENANT]
The Nashville Humane Association — one of our city’s longest-running nonprofits
— is celebrating its 80th birthday this year. That’s eight decades of caring for, housing and rehousing pets in need, while offering services like vaccination and spaying and neutering. And for nearly two decades now, the NHA has been supporting that mission with its annual Unleashed event, a fundraiser featuring cocktails, a multicourse dinner, a silent auction and, most importantly, the main attraction: a runway show that pairs local “celebrity walkers” with adoptable shelter pets. This year’s local celebs include state Rep. Justin Jones and Melissa Joan Hart (Nickelodeon’s Clarissa herself), among others. Guests are encouraged to bring their own dogs to the event, and this year’s theme is “Barks & Bonfires” — “think glamping, scout vibes, and a spark of Nashville style,” say event organizers. Hey, themes are great, whatever you need. I’m just here for the puppies. Get your tickets via nashvillehumane.org D. PATRICK RODGERS
6 P.M. AT THE HILTON DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE 121 FOURTH AVE. S.
SPORTS [KICK IT]
The SheBelieves Cup, a yearly international invitational tournament held in different cities across the United States, returns to Geodis Park in March for the event’s 11th edition. The United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) will face Argentina at 4 p.m., with a match between Canada and Colombia kicking off the double-header at 1 p.m. The four teams will then travel to Columbus, Ohio, and the New York City area (Harrison, N.J.) for the final two dates in the 2026 iteration of the cup. The SheBelieves Cup last visited Geodis in 2023, when the USWNT blanked rivals Japan 1-0 thanks to a goal from star forward Mallory Swanson. If Swanson is suited back up in the Stars and Stripes for this year’s match, check the stands for her husband, ex-Vandy Boys shortstop and MLB All-Star Dansby Swanson of the Chicago Cubs. The event should be a good preview of four teams likely to be in next summer’s Women’s World Cup. LOGAN BUTTS 1 & 4 P.M. AT GEODIS PARK 501 BENTON AVE.
MONDAY / 3.2
FILM [HARLEM SHUFFLE]
MUSIC CITY MONDAYS & NASHVILLE: A CITY ON FILM: COTTON COMES TO HARLEM
It may surprise you to learn that Shaft wasn’t the first Black detective novel adaptation (directed by an artist of color) to appear during Blaxploitation’s early days. Released in 1970, a year before Shaft, Cotton Comes to Harlem had actor/playwright Ossie Davis making his directorial debut, bringing to the screen Chester Himes’ 1965 installment from his Harlem Detective series. This flick gives us not one,
but two badass Black investigators: Coffin Ed (Raymond St. Jacques) and Gravedigger (Godfrey Cambridge), a pair of surly, snarky rule breakers who are among several parties searching for a stolen $87,000, hidden in a bale of cotton. Unlike the serious-as-a-heart-attack Shaft, Cotton is an action-packed buddy comedy. It also features early appearances from Sanford and Son star Redd Foxx (playing — I shit you not — a junk man!), Blazing Saddles sheriff Cleavon Little, and Nashville-raised veteran actress Helen “I Love the Reefer” Martin. Belcourt historian/archivist T. Minton will introduce the film, which will be shown in glorious 35 mm! CRAIG D. LINDSEY
8 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.
THEATER
[KEEP MARCHING] SUFFS
Suffs arrives at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center next week, not only promising a great evening of theater, but also offering a potent reminder of our place in history. Based on the women’s suffrage movement — and Tennessee’s vital role in the ratification of the 19th Amendment — this Tony Award-winning musical “explores the triumphs and failures of a struggle that’s far from over.” Featuring book, music and lyrics by Shaina Taub, Suffs opened on Broadway in 2024, earning Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score. It’s packed with clever, often-empowering songs, performed by an all-female cast. I’m eager to see how the city of Nashville is portrayed onstage. (Keep an eye out for scenes featuring the Hermitage Hotel, which served as headquarters
for both pro- and anti-suffragists.) Nashville audiences also can look forward to a special InsideOut Dinnertime Discussion at TPAC on March 5, looking at how Suffs brings this unique chapter of American history to life. Christin Essin, a professor of theater history at Vanderbilt University, will moderate a discussion with Suffs producers Jill Furman and Rachel Sussman, along with Rebecca Price from the Nashville Public Library’s Special Collections. AMY STUMPFL MARCH 3-8 AT TPAC’S JACKSON HALL
505 DEADERICK ST.
[LISTEN UP]
Over the course of its two-decade history, The Listening Room has moved to progressively bigger digs, settling in 2017 in a 350-seat space that was formerly Nashville’s International Harvester showroom. At the time, founder Chris Blair told the Scene, “I’m tired of moving,” and noted he’d locked in a 15-year lease. The singer-songwriter haven has played its part in cultivating the careers of one of Music City’s most important cultural resources, including hosting the Song Suffragettes all-woman writers’ round since its launch in 2014. However, the party to celebrate The Listening Room’s 20th anniversary is too big for it all to fit inside the venue. March 3, it heads down Broadway to the Ryman with country stars HARDY, Mitchell Tenpenny and Jo Dee Messina on the bill. More special guests are promised, and considering the number of musicians who’ve gone on to success as pro songwriters or even marquee artists after cutting their teeth at The Listening Room (see: Billboard chart-topper, three-time CMA Award winner and Grand Ole Opry member
Carly Pearce), the range of folks who might come through is impressive. STEPHEN TRAGESER 7:30 P.M. AT THE RYMAN
116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.
MUSIC
[BREWS BLUES] THE GUTHRIE
The Guthrie Trapp Trio began an extended Wednesday night residency at The 5 Spot on Jan. 7, and it’s already become “a thing.” First of all, you have the trio serving up some mindblowing instrumental music that blends blues, jazz, rock, country and bluegrass into something frontman Trapp calls “roots fusion with a twist.” Then on top of that, you never know who might show up to sit in with the group. “We’ve been playing as a trio for about five years — me, an amazing drummer Jordan Perlson and a bass player that’s been here for a long time, does a lot of session work, Tim Marks,” Trapp says. “We like to play as a trio, but we also like to get a lot of special guests out.” So far, the special guests have included John Oates of Hall & Oates fame, session guitar ace Tom Bukovac, former Trigger Hippy vocalist-bassist Nick Govrik, organist Jimmy Wallace (The Wallflowers, Joe Walsh), vocalist-organist Adam Wakefield and guitarist Jack Ruch. In addition to the special guests, the trio has attracted some celebrated spectators to their Wednesday shows, including Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Billy Gibbons. “Guthrie Trapp — he’s off the chain, man,” says Gibbons. DARYL SANDERS
8 P.M. AT THE 5 SPOT
1006 FOREST AVE.
BY DANNY BONVISSUTO
Date Night is a multipart road map for everyone who wants a nice evening out, but has no time to plan it. It’s for people who want to do more than just go to one restaurant and call it a night. It’s for overwhelmed parents who don’t get out often; for friends who visit the same three restaurants because they’re too afraid to try someplace new; and for busy folks who keep forgetting all the places they’ve driven past, heard about, seen on social and said, “Let’s remember that place next time we go out.”
I HAD ALL the ingredients for sauce and meatballs, a surplus of mini marshmallows for hot chocolate and a full fridge and pantry. That was the extent of my ice storm prep. The Friday night before it hit, my husband Dom and I had a let’s-get-out-while-we-can dinner with my fatherin-law Lou, who assured us over eggplant stew at Noôsh that he’d be fine with his portable generator should anything go sideways.
By Monday, he was not fine. Without power in a big house, he was cold and willing to brave the roads between his house and ours for warmth and a meatball or four. By Wednesday, when his neighbors texted that the power was back on, he was nowhere near fine: The pipes above his kitchen burst and his ceiling was on the floor in standing water.
Lou wouldn’t commit to moving in with Dom and me. He brought enough clothes for a couple days and stayed packed, his bags and briefcase at the foot of the bed. After a few days, he set up his vitamins on the desk and put a few short-sleeve button-down shirts and American flag ties in the closet. He didn’t want to take up too much space, but he’d let me feed him. So a few Friday nights later, when Dom was out of town, Lou called to say he’d be home for dinner. It’d been a hard week of contractor meetings, insurance claims and watching strangers box up his life and put it in the garage. I told him that’s fine, but we’re going out.
Lou is not a man who goes to art galleries: He goes to work, the bank, Kroger, church, golf courses and the same restaurant over and over, which drives me nuts. I’ll stroll through a gallery on vacation, but it rarely occurs to me to visit one in my own town. It’s impostor syndrome: If I can’t afford to drop thousands on a painting or sculpture, do I even deserve a peek?
“Shut up and look,” said Scott Zieher of ZieherSmith in Edgehill, adding that walk-ins who purchase are rare and the majority of sales are made by appointment. “Best free entertainment in the world.” Scott and Andrea Zieher (formerly Smith) opened ZieherSmith in New York’s Chelsea art district in 2003 and relocated to Nashville in 2019. I met them in 2021 — not as gallerists, but as fellow baseball parents sharing
bleachers and concession-stand candy all over town. When they opened ZieherSmith last year, I stopped by on my way to a doubleheader in Nolensville. There were kids making bead crafts by the front door while people chatted in small groups. There was no pressure to buy. No snooty snobbery. Just good art and good people.
Lou and I attended the opening of Yanira Vissepo: On the Mountainside by the River. We marveled at the intricate layers of black linen cutouts atop canvases that, Andrea explained, Vissepo stained herself. We made two trips around the main room, taking it all in, then perused the T-shirts, books, tinned fish and tiny strawberry magnets in This National Life, the makers’ gallery/gift shop on shelving that’s a work of art itself. In less than 15 minutes we were in and out, high on the creativity of others.
STOP 2: SADIE’S
In nicer weather, I’d make the 12-minute walk from ZieherSmith to Sadie’s, but it was drizzly and cold, and my boots were not made for walking.
whipped feta and two more with the hummus and roasted mushrooms that inspired me to do a little seat dance after my first bite. It could’ve been a hearty vegetarian meal on its own.
I met Lou for the first time over dinner at the Cool Springs Buca di Beppo in 2003. Dom, then my co-worker, flirted his way into a restaurant review, so I told him to meet me with a big group so we could eat the house down family-style. He brought his parents Lou and Lucy, his sister Laura (who was pregnant with twins) and his roommate Chris. I’ve eaten a million meals all over the country with Lou since, but never just the two of us. So I only found out over matching Yasmin cocktails of rum, plum, fig and cardamom that he shucked oysters at a Florida restaurant during high school to pay for the 1966 Chevy Nova he bought at 16. I learned between bites of pomegranate salmon kebabs — which I thought might be too sweet, but totally weren’t — that he made $1.25 an hour at the A&P, but they’d only give him part-time hours. So Lou went to the Oyster House, where he made 25 cents less but could work 70 hours. We talked about the couple of dates he’s gone on since Lucy died in 2021, and how the women his age seem “so old.” He asked me good questions in return, like where I worked in college (International Deli, Tuscaloosa, Ala.), why a girl from small-town Franklin would choose a big SEC school where she didn’t know anyone (long story), and would I like some of his chicken souvlaki (yes please).
If the ladies are at Sadie’s and the gentlemen are at Jack Brown’s, everyone comes together at Van Leeuwen (van-lou-inn), next door to Sadie’s in what was once NoBaked Cookie Dough. Now
Instead I drove three minutes, scored a spot along Villa Place and parallel parked so smoothly not even Lou could think of a way to improve upon it.
Sadie’s is all warm grays, whites and beiges, lamps, plants and big banquettes that run the length of the restaurant, plus a patio that hugs the corner of Villa and Edgehill. It’s a calm, subtly beautiful space that doesn’t strike me as overly feminine, but on multiple visits I’ve noticed men are in the minority while women of all ages sip espresso martinis together. Meanwhile, a steady stream of guys file into Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint across the street.
Lou, the only person (and certainly the only Italian) I’ve ever known who eats for fuel and not for pleasure or comfort, said “This pita is so good” three times as he ran torn-off pieces through the sweet and savory whipped feta strewn with honeycomb, edible flowers and pomegranate seeds. Can I describe these full discs without using the word “pillowy”? Yes. They were spongy and substantial and have ruined floury, flat store-bought pita for me forever. We received two with the
ZieherSmith 1207 South St. ziehersmith.com
Sadie’s 1200 Villa Place sadiesnashville.com
Van Leeuwen 1200 Villa Place vanleeuwenicecream.com
a chain with locations in many states across the country — and three here in Nashville so far — Van Leeuwen started as an NYC food truck in 2008. By the scoop and pint, they sell French ice cream (made with eggs) and vegan ice cream (oats, cashews) in flavor combos like Strawberry Matcha Latte, Black Cherry Chip, Earl Grey Tea and Honeycomb. I was pleasantly surprised by the brownie in the Peanut Butter Brownie Honeycomb — it was dense and cakey, not just a brown blob of vague brownie-ness. Lou, who’s usually a peanut butter guy, had the Mint Chip, which was originally white with brown specks until Van Leeuwen recently added a green hue. After catching up with Dom on the phone when we returned home, I fell asleep without saying goodnight to Lou. When I woke up the next morning, there was a notebook-paper note under my door in his all-caps combo of cursive and block print: Thank you for an enjoyable night out. Food and company was outstanding. —Lou. ▼
BY AMY STUMPFL
SWAN LAKE IS easily one of the most iconic works in the ballet canon, celebrated for its striking visuals, technical precision and, of course, Tchaikovsky’s sweeping score. But at its core, Swan Lake is also just a love story — albeit a deeply tragic one — that’s filled with passion, romance, betrayal and sacrifice. And as Nashville Ballet prepares to stage this beloved masterpiece for the first time since 2018, artistic director and CEO Nick Mullikin says it’s that authentic approach to storytelling that anchors the company’s production.
Inspired by the original works of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov and featuring fresh choreography and story adaptation by artistic director emeritus Paul Vasterling, Swan Lake follows the lovely Princess Odette, who is cursed by an evil sorcerer and forced to live out her days as a swan.
“As with all of Paul’s ballets, the narrative storytelling is just fantastic,” Mullikin says. “It’s such a captivating story of hope, humanity and overcoming adversity — all the things we look for in our own lives, I think. But there’s also this wonderful idea of working together to make a change that really resonates with me. The idea that a group of individuals can band together to fight an evil force, to change their circumstances — I find that really powerful, and quite moving.”
Mullikin says he is also moved by Tchaikovsky’s timeless music, which he calls “absolutely breathtaking.”
“I’ve always loved the music,” he says. “It’s so rich, so amazingly beautiful. And we’re fortunate to have the Nashville Symphony playing with us at every performance. Most ballet companies simply do not have that opportunity, and
we’re very grateful for their partnership — and really excited for audiences to experience their incredible artistry.”
Adding to the excitement is the number of principal-role debuts happening this weekend, including Lily Saito and Colette Tilinski, who are alternating in the dual role of Odette/Odile. James Lankford and Jorge Emilio Peña will alternate as Prince Siegfried.
“We have such an incredibly talented group of artists,” Mullikin says. “And what’s interesting is that each dancer brings something unique to their character. The Odette/Odile character has such richness on both sides of the equation, so it’s been a lot of fun to see how Lily and Colette have approached the work, and how their personalities come through in different ways. It’s such a difficult role — so demanding, both physically and artistically. It’s a remarkable test of stamina, skill and resilience, but these dancers are more than ready and so willing to take on the task. It’s been a joy to work with them.”
For Tilinski, it’s all about trusting her training and committing fully to the storytelling.
“I grew up watching and admiring so many incredible ballerinas in these roles, so being given the opportunity to step into them myself feels very meaningful,” says Tilinski, who grew up in Atlanta and joined Nashville Ballet’s second company in 2017 before being promoted to company dancer in 2020. “One of the biggest challenges of Swan Lake is clearly portraying the contrast between good and evil, and making that transformation feel believable. Odette is soft and lyrical, yet strong, with movement that is deceptively difficult and controlled. Odile, on
the other hand, is sharp and cunning, requiring a different physicality, energy and presence onstage. Shifting between these two extremes within the same ballet has been one of the most demanding artistic challenges I’ve faced.
“Technically and physically, the ballet requires enormous stamina,” she continues. “Each role includes a pas de deux, variation and coda — including 32 fouettés in the ‘Black Swan’ — which has pushed me to a new level of endurance. But being cast in these roles has given me confidence in my ability to lead, to tell a story and to fully dive into a character.”
Saito agrees, noting that dancing the dual role of Odette/Odile has been “a dream of mine since I was 8 years old.”
“Performing this role demands a high level of technical precision while also pushing artistic boundaries,” says Saito, who is originally from New York City and has been with Nashville Ballet since 2018. “Dancing two drastically different characters in one ballet requires a complete shift. How you move, how you approach each step, how you express body language and slight choices in facial expressions make a world of a difference.
“Having the opportunity to perform this role truly means the world to me,” she adds. “I’m especially excited to perform the Black Swan. Odile is incredibly fun to portray. She embodies a bold, commanding energy that challenges you to dance at your highest level. It’s an empowering role that demands your full potential, both technically and artistically. Completing the grand pas de deux brings such an exhilarating sense of accomplishment, and I can’t wait to experience that rush onstage.” ▼
The zoomed-in portrait of James Lawson’s expulsion from Vanderbilt scrutinizes institutions and the destructive power of a moral crisis
BY ELI MOTYCKA
PEOPLE TALKED DIFFERENTLY then, and more of them read newspapers, but much of Benjamin Houston’s short and laser-sharp Expelled: James Lawson Jr. and Vanderbilt University feels eerily familiar 60 years after Vanderbilt kicked James Lawson out due to his involvement in Nashville’s civil rights movement.
After brief but thorough biographical and historical context, Houston zooms in on February and March 1960, as civil rights organizers escalated a campaign against segregated downtown lunch counters. A big fundraising drive was looming, and on March 3, 1960, the Vanderbilt board of trustees’ executive committee — guided by ever-fuming conservative James Stahlman, publisher of the Nashville Banner, along with influential Nashville attorney Cecil Sims — voted unanimously to expel Lawson. At the time Lawson was a graduate student at Vanderbilt Divinity School, and the board cited his “mass disobedience of law as a means of protest” in the expulsion.
Houston’s book adds insight and depth to the always-growing body of civil rights scholarship. This documentation has become even more important as the era’s firsthand witnesses enter and pass through old age, like Lawson, who died in 2024. Nashville civil rights figures C.T. Vivian and John Lewis both died in 2020, and Ernest “Rip” Patton died in 2021. Others — Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette — are in their 80s.
Expelled’s fine-grain focus also allows readers to see two more mundane but critical developments that surrounded the flashy, newsmaking moments to which the civil rights era is often reduced in school history books. First, the time and experiences that formed Lawson’s commitment to nonviolent civil disobedience and the slow, methodical years over which Nashville’s civil rights movement formed, trained and built internal trust. Second, Expelled shows an institution fumbling its way through defective moral and practical calculus as it hopes to save face and curry favor among its perceived constituents — in Vanderbilt’s case, the South’s white elite.
Houston’s depiction of Mayor Ben West — who was suddenly unavailable as activists’ “Big Saturday” lunch counter sit-ins roiled the city on Feb. 27, then equivocating and evasive in a subsequent meeting with local Black ministers — shows the same misguided leadership. In addition to commanding the city’s white-sympathizing police force, West reportedly drew equivalence between civil rights protesters and segregationist militant John Kasper, a Klansman — both threatened his devotion to the status quo. This exact false balance, better known today as “bothsidesism,” was a favorite pillar of contemporary Nashville news coverage.
Vanderbilt Chancellor Harvie Branscomb’s
strengths were raising money and staking out “middle ground,” in the words of desegregation scholar Melissa Kean. Branscomb steered the university slowly, cautiously, “gingerly” toward integration — a precondition for federal grants, writes Houston. The second relevant administrator, J. Robert Nelson, dean of the Divinity School, facilitated communication between higher-ups and Lawson, whom Nelson held in high regard as a student — though he ultimately chose not to risk his professional standing to protect Lawson.
Houston heaps praise on Lawson himself, portrayed throughout Expelled as the only main character with a clear conscience and consistent principles.
“Not a single white person in this book understood Lawson fully on Lawson’s own terms or using criteria faithful to Lawson’s own perspective,” Houston writes halfway through.
The media is a central force in the book, earning attention from Houston for how they shaped and guided public opinion primarily against Lawson with smear campaigns and bad-faith arguments. Houston posits Stahlman’s Nashville Banner as a key mouthpiece that enabled Lawson’s ouster. The era’s confusing, sometimes conflicting federal, state and local laws governing segregation, and their selective enforcement, also echo through the decades. Attorney Sims’ guidance on this front allowed the university to manipulate the gray legal and statutory landscape to slow-walk integration and, later, to ma-
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Expelled: James Lawson Jr. and Vanderbilt University By Benjamin Houston Vanderbilt University Press 120 pages, $21.95
neuver university processes against Lawson. Houston’s punchy book, published by Vanderbilt University Press this month, follows up on his first study of the Nashville civil rights movement, 2012’s The Nashville Way, which pays specific attention to social etiquette and civility as a veneer for moderates’ complicity in propping up white supremacy in midcentury Nashville. It took just a few months to reveal the shortsighted political missteps of Branscomb and West, the poisoned legacy of racist Stahlman and the ideological bureaucracy of Sims, as the civil rights movement gained ground throughout the spring. West was forced to make a public concession to integrate lunch counters after the bombing of Black civil rights attorney Z. Alexander Looby’s home in April 1960. Meanwhile, Vanderbilt faculty, specifically within the divinity school, imploded amid fallout from Lawson’s expulsion. Branscomb fought a brief campaign to readmit Lawson before authoring his own confusing resolution in June. Several faculty resigned that summer, students withdrew, and bad press piled up. A chill spread across campus, plunging Vanderbilt into an existential crisis. Nelson became paranoid and ultimately lost his position as VDS dean. In this way, careful strategic nonviolence by Lawson — who trained the activists integrating lunch counters in Nashville but did not sit with them himself on Big Saturday — forced Nashville, Vanderbilt and the South to face its own moral crisis. ▼
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Presents Finally Friday featuring Brit Taylor, Whitney Fenimore & EG Kight
Piano Men: The Music of Elton John and Billy Joel
Backstage Nashville! Daytime Hit Songwriters Show featuring Gordie Sampson, Brice Long, Ray Stephenson & Will Jones + Julia Hutchinson
The Long Players performing Tom Petty’s “Full Moon Fever” featuring Tommy Womack, Todd Sharp, John Cowan, David Mead, Chris Church, Joe Blanton, Zach Lindsey, The Prickly Pair, Philip Creamer & Jonathan Bright
Billy Allen + The Pollies with Kristina Murray
The Time Jumpers
The Improvised Story Co. Presents A Night of ComedyWhere famous friends tell true stories, then less famous friends make them unforgettable!
Tim Miner & Friends featuring Benjy 7 Gaither, Tabitha Fair, Chip Davis, Zach Gonzalez, Chris Rodriguez & Daron Maughon
Rock ’n’ roll upstarts The Runarounds take their act from the small screen to the big stage
BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
THOSE WHO YEARN for carefree ’90s and early-Aughts halcyon days — and lately, how could one not — would do well to check out The Runarounds. The show, released to Amazon Prime Video in the fall, follows up director Jonas Pate’s Y.A. hit Outer Banks and chronicles its namesake pop-rocking protagonists over the course of a madcap post-senior-year summer in their pleasant but isolated coastal hometown of Wilmington, N.C.
During The Runarounds’ inaugural eight episodes, things begin inauspiciously. But before long it’s clear that guitarists and co-frontmen Charlie Cooper and Neil Crosby (Will Lipton and Axel Ellis, respectively), lead guitarist Topher Park (Jeremy Yun), bass player Wyatt Wysong (Jesse Golliher) and drummer Bez Willis (Zendé Murdock) are onto something. The group’s repertoire of punkish, heartfelt originals — plus covers of tunes by 2000s titans Franz Ferdinand and Cage the Elephant and newer cult faves like “Kilby Girl,” an indie-soul scorcher from Utah combo Backseat Lovers — becomes bigger, tighter and more compelling with each house party, roadhouse and generator show. The quintet begins to transcend townie-band status and starts looking like a real contender.
The on-screen Runarounds’ unforced chemistry testifies to Pate, a native Tarheel, casting relative rookies — Lipton, who at 23 already has a staggering 329 General Hospital episodes under his belt, is the only exception — with existing
musical histories. Bay Area natives and School of Rock alums both, Lipton and Yun have been friends and collaborators for nearly as long as they’ve been alive.
“Jeremy and I grew up watching Spinal Tap at sleepovers since we were 6 or 7, [and] our KISS cover band played my 8th birthday party in my garage,” Lipton remembers with a smile, speaking to the Scene on a video call from a tour stop in Columbus, Ohio. “The whole neighborhood came out before the cops shut it down.”
Once Ellis, Golliher and Murdock signed on, the nascent quintet learned how to thread the needle between being both up-and-coming actors and legit working musicians. There was never much downtime during The Runarounds’ six-month mid-2024 shoot, between writing, rehearsing and honing their stage show in and around Wilmington — “just trying new things, grinding it out, trying to emulate Hamburg-era Beatles,” says Lipton. As the scripts took shape, Pate kept his young charges on their toes with daily songwriting assignments.
“Jonas isn’t a musician, but his taste goes every which way,” Lipton says. “He’s been an amazing guide for helping sort out our sonic palette. In Episode 4, we’re playing this Fourth of July party, and the character George [the rich, preppy boyfriend of Lipton’s character’s love interest] punches me in the face. So what is a song that would piss the boyfriend off to warrant a punch? ‘Shoelaces’ was that. All flirty and stuff,
effortlessly happy, a little bit of swag, cheekiness. ‘It’s just a song, dude — chill out!’”
The year in which The Runarounds takes place is never specified. But the show’s worn-in look and feel throws it back to when bands on the come-up prioritized practicing over posting, the music industry was still something of a meritocracy, and local kids with good songs and a can-do attitude could chase record deals — and often make them happen.
Like 1996’s similarly optimistic Tom Hankshelmed That Thing You Do!, The Runarounds succeeds thanks to its strong sense of place, relatable characters and more-accurate-than-average portrayals of the biz’s ins and outs. (Gen-X Southerners in particular will get a kick out of Midland tunesmith Mark Wystrach playing Wilmington’s resident guitar-store-managing curmudgeon with a heart of gold, as well as Episode 5, which immortalizes the late, troubled but brilliant Dex Romweber of proto-White Stripes rippers Flat Duo Jets as a Yoda-like figure.) The earnestness and humor with which the guys and their friends navigate universal teenage predicaments — girl trouble, temperamental transport and equipment, parents who just don’t understand — also helps. What may be most important in making the show connect: The songs are good. Close to a half-million monthly Spotify listeners concur. But with Amazon yet to order a second season, the five-piece is taking its act on the road to
prove they’re not mere minor TV celebs but a dynamo live act with lots more to offer than the show’s runtimes allow. They’ll make their Nashville debut Saturday and Sunday at Brooklyn Bowl. As of this writing, tickets were still available to Sunday’s show, as it’s one of a few dates added when the entire nationwide tour sold out months ago. (For those who don’t manage to score tickets, The Runarounds will be back in our area in June for Bonnaroo.)
Asked about where their on-screen counterparts end and the real dudes begin, Lipton’s perspective is insightful.
“We’re portraying a fictional band, but we think of our music through the lenses of our characters, [and] they’re enough like how we actually are that it’s pretty realistic and grounded. The Runarounds ain’t rocket science, that’s for sure — it’s a feel-good movie — but we care how music is represented. We took time creating the songs and capturing them on camera. I feel like the show is quite an ode to music and adventure. I’m proud of it.” ▼
Playing Saturday, Feb. 28 and Sunday, March 1, at Brooklyn Bowl
ON THE DAY singer-songwriter, author and actor Lola Kirke made her Grand Ole Opry debut, she auditioned for a secretive film with the production code name Grilled Cheese. The director, cast and storyline were a mystery; all she knew was that the role required her to sing.
After she booked the role, Kirke discovered that Grilled Cheese was actually a movie called Sinners, directed by Creed and Black Panther auteur Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan. The film, in which Kirke plays Joan, a member of a roving band of singing vampires, now holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations in history.
“Ten-year-old me still doesn’t really understand that I’m in the most Oscar-nominated film of all time,” Kirke tells the Scene
Two weeks before Sinners competes for Best Picture at the 98th Academy Awards, Kirke will take the stage at The Blue Room at Third Man Records on Saturday for a stop on her TMI Tour. The New Yorker turned Nashvillian (who moved to Music City in 2020) will perform songs from her 2025 Daniel Tashian-produced LP Trailblazer and read excerpts from her book Wild West Village, a collection of essays released early last year
“I wrote the book and the record at the same time, so I was like, ‘This is either going to be wildly self-indulgent’ — which it is — ‘or this could be a way of getting at something more universal,’” Kirke says. “I really do believe that the more personal we are with our work, the more universal we get to be.”
The daughter of British rocker and Bad Company co-founder Simon Kirke and interior designer Lorraine Kirke, Lola Kirke had an upbringing that was anything but typical. She once unknowingly interviewed Joan Didion, who her teenage self knew simply as her friend’s “Aunt Joan.” Liv Tyler was her babysitter. David Bowie attended her family’s Christmas parties. Courtney Love both set fire to and flooded the Kirke family’s West Village home. But the themes of identity, loneliness and family explored in both Wild West Village and Trailblazer are universal.
Some of Kirke’s most powerful storytelling centers on family and home, exploring her relationship with her parents (“Marlboro Lights & Madonna,” “Zeppelin III”) and her sisters — artist, actor and director Jemima Kirke and singer-songwriter and doula Domino Kirke. “Mississippi, My Sister, Elvis & Me” was inspired by a road trip to Graceland with her older sister Jemima.
“The longing for my sisters’ love and attention was such a huge part of my experience as a youngest child,” Kirke says. “If I were to write my book now … it would be a completely different book. I think life has a way of writing itself. There are things that have changed the narrative [and] little events that have impacted the larger shape of the narrative that I could have never foreseen. One of those things was this union [and] harmony that I found with both
BY BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER
of my sisters. [‘Mississippi, My Sister, Elvis & Me’] is my postscript to the relationship that I write about so much in the book.”
Waiting decades to see a dream fulfilled is something Kirke is used to. Despite finding success as an actor in films such as Mistress America and Gone Girl and the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle, it was a decade of stops and starts and shattered dreams in Hollywood that led her to create a life-affirming country album and land a role in one of the most acclaimed films of this century. It’s a recurring theme in Kirke’s life and a tenet of Trailblazer: “If I got what I wanted,” she sings on the album’s title track, “I never would’ve gotten to me.”
“When we don’t get what we want — and country music is filled with people not getting what they want, it’s filled with longing — we have the opportunity to have our character grow,” Kirke says.
Kirke also found the complex characters she’d long searched for in Hollywood in the songs of Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells.
“The presentation of femininity in country music is so incredible,” Kirke says. “There’s this very dynamic grit and glamour that’s intrinsic to the founding foremothers of country music. That ability to be both incredibly glamorous and also incredibly authentic and real through the things that you sing about is really exciting to me. That’s a complex character. As an actress, complex characters are really what I look for, and I think they’re really present in country music.”
Country music even had a hand in landing Kirke her role in Sinners. To showcase Kirke’s singing chops, the casting associate sent Coogler the video for “All My Exes Live in L.A.,” in which Kirke appears to stroll down Gallatin Avenue in the nude. (Kirke clarifies with a quip
that she’s actually wearing “full-body Spanx … a far more unflattering piece of clothing.”)
In her book, Kirke reflects on feeling like an outsider in Nashville while attending a disheartening conference hosted by a major music-streaming service. The ’80s and ’90s neotraditional country of The Judds, Randy Travis and Vince Gill that Kirke had fallen in love with was no longer the driving force on mainstream country radio.
“In the years that had passed since I first fell in love with country, the music had changed a good deal,” Kirke writes in Wild West Village. “There were a lot more references to trucks, fishing and trap music than I’d ever really gone in for.” Kirke, who was born in the U.K., yet again began to wonder where she fit in.
“I wondered at the connection between my two passports and my two professions,” Kirke writes. “Had I just run to Nashville because I didn’t know where I’d fit in Hollywood the way I’d once tried to be American after giving up trying to be British? Where would I run to next? Who was I kidding that I was a country singer anyway? I had been desperate to escape the one farm I’d ever spent time on and I was currently wearing loafers.”
These days, Kirke recognizes that being on the outside is sometimes more of an asset than a detriment.
“I definitely feel like an outsider — not just in country music, but music in general. That’s something I’m beginning to feel more at peace with. I spent so much of my life wanting to rectify my outsider status by becoming an insider somewhere. The real remedy for that … is just to embrace that outsider status and don’t give it up for anything. It’s a unique perspective when you’re on the outside.”
BY BOBBIE JEAN SAWYER
THERE ARE SOME MOMENTS in Nashville when you become acutely aware that you’re witnessing something special. A couple songs into Meels’ sold-out Feb. 17 show at the Station Inn, I took a look around at the crowd and was struck by how fortunate we all were to witness such a dynamic artist make her debut as a headliner. Plus, not every gig features a lineup of dancing puppets and a jig doll named Tiny Gilligan, who both opened and closed the show.
The puppets were courtesy of banjo player Phoebe Sanders, who’s become a social media favorite for her performances with Tiny Gilligan, a traditional folk jig doll (named for and modeled on Bob Denver’s bucket-hatted TV character) who dances along as she plays. Sanders opened the show alongside Gilligan and the collection of puppets she has made: a raccoon named Milk Jug, a vulture named Nestor and an indefinable (yet adorable) creature named Pebby Bear Sanders’ irresistible dose of joy and whimsy was the perfect lead-up to Meels, who released her latest record Across the Raccoon Strait on Jan. 30 via Lost Highway. After kicking off the set with “Vultures,” Meels took a moment to celebrate her first show as a headliner — anywhere, not just in Music City.
“This is surreal,” Meels said. “I’ve never played a show that’s all mine, and it feels so special to be doing it here at Station Inn, such an iconic venue in Nashville.”
Though Across the Raccoon Strait is less than a month old, Meels treated the audience to a couple tunes that haven’t been released yet: the bluesy jaunt “Smokey Bear” and “Awesome Possum,” a lilting number about an on-again, off-again relationship.
Meels describes her blend of country, folk and bluegrass as “critter country,” a nod to her
hometown of Mill Valley, Calif., and its diverse wildlife. “I grew up in such a naturally beautiful place with millions of animals, so using animals as metaphors for my life just felt really natural,” she told the Scene earlier this month
She paid tribute to her hometown, which she called “the most beautiful place on earth,” with a performance of “Old Mill Valley.” Not unlike Dolly Parton’s “Tennessee Mountain Home,” the song captures the universal feeling of longing for home by sharing remembrances of the flora and fauna specific to the region.
After a haunting performance of her breakthrough tune “Willow Song,” Meels invited Nashville singer-songwriter Belle Frantz for a buoyant cover of Parton’s own “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind.”
Many of Meels’ songs sound like they could be fables, fairy tales or lullabies passed down from generations ago. In “The Wizard,” she uses the imagery of toads and bugs to describe her experience with obsessive compulsive disorder, while the rollicking “Oh Deer” is a lesson about the futility of trying to tame a being’s wild nature.
Meels’ performance of “Lonely USA,” a barnburner that hearkens back to The Stanley Brothers, showcased Meels’ virtuosity — and how she and her band can absolutely shred. Meanwhile, the tender “Marsha June,” which tells the story of her 86-year-old grandma, a California free spirit who hosted naked parties and had a monkey named Clementine, highlighted Meels’ gift as a singular lyricist.
“She’s the coolest woman that I know, and I felt compelled to honor her in song,” Meels said. “Everything in this song, all the lyrics you hear, are true.”
She closed out her set with the boisterous “Out West,” during which Sanders returned to the stage with Tiny Gilligan, who got miked up and served as the percussion for the song — and he even got his own dance solo.
As Meels, her band and Tiny Gilligan took their final bows, the crowd gave them a standing ovation. It may have been her first headline gig, but it certainly won’t be the last time Meels absolutely charms a crowd. ▼
Saturday, February 28
FAMILY PROGRAM
Billy the
Makes It
9:15 am · FORD THEATER
Saturday, February 28
WRITERS ROUND On the Rise featuring Grayson Lane, Elli Rowe, and Amelie Sampson 11:30 am · FORD THEATER
Saturday, February 28
MUSIC AND CONVERSATION
Photographer Ed Rode with Tony Arata, Matraca Berg, and Don Henry 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
Sunday, March 1
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Harry Clark 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, March 7
SONGWRITER SESSION
Jeremy Spillman NOON · FORD THEATER
Saturday, March 7
NASHVILLE CATS
Jerry Douglas 2:30 pm · FORD THEATER
Saturday, March 7
HATCH SHOW PRINT Block Party
3:00 pm and 6:00 pm HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP
Sunday, March 8
HATCH SHOW PRINT
Family Block Party 10:00 am · HATCH SHOW PRINT SHOP
Sunday, March 8
MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT
Sarah Jory 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER
WITNESS HISTORY
Locals Kids Always Visit Free
Plan a trip to the Museum! Local youth 18 and under who are residents of Nashville-Davidson and bordering counties always visit free, plus 25% off admission for up to two accompanying adults.
Michel Franco’s Dreams may spell a return to the erotic thriller — but with contemporary stakes
BY SADAF AHSAN
MICHEL FRANCO’S Dreams is a study in power, appetite and the violence of restraint — a sleek, unnerving erotic drama that feels both of-the-moment and like a daring callback to the sorely missed erotic thrillers of the ’90s.
Jessica Chastain plays Jennifer, a formidable American business executive whose wealthy family pours millions into arts institutions across the globe. She moves through the film in immaculate monochrome, with a tight bun and clacking heels. While perpetually flanked by assistants, she is forever entering and exiting rooms where decisions are made and money changes hands. The message is clear: She is control incarnate — curated, disciplined, untouchable.
But along comes Fernando (Isaac Hernández), a young, undocumented Mexican ballet dancer whom Jennifer first meets via a Mexico City dance company bankrolled by her family. He is her seductive counterpoint: always draped in a thin layer of sweat, thick curls unkempt, shirt untucked. After their first night together, Jennifer leaves him a wad of cash and a key. Like an alley cat that got the good milk, he keeps on crawling back. And that works for Jennifer; she loves having him in her home, funding him, feeding him, fucking him. Quickly, it becomes an intimacy that feels less like partnership than possession. In fact it feels maternal, proprietary even. We eventually discover that Jennifer cannot have children of her own — Fernando is very much a kept boy. A fantasy, really.
When Fernando eventually realizes Jennifer will never claim him publicly as her boyfriend, he pulls away. He wants to make it in America on his own terms. That withdrawal punctures Jennifer’s carefully curated world. And from there, the two begin an erotic dance: She stalks him, manipulating him back into her life; he can’t resist her — on the stairs, on the kitchen counter, on the floor.
But in winning back her toy, Jennifer gets sloppy. Upon discovering the relationship, her father tells her, without tact: “I’m happy that you help immigrants. You know, I’m all in for that. But there are limits.” In other words: Toys and boys are fine, but anything more? Not in this rarefied
air. Just like that, as Fernando is positioned to take the lead in a major new ballet in San Francisco, ICE comes calling at the stage doors.
It’s the beginning of an end that feels destined from the start. Whether Jennifer and her family are talking business in the boardroom, being flown or being fed, Mexicans are serving. They are the janitors, the cooks, the waitstaff. And Jennifer is no romantic hero; when Fernando chats in Spanish with a waiter, she grows incensed that he’s left her out of the conversation and insists he speak only English around her. Meanwhile, to register even a simple sentence in her lover’s language, she’s a slave to Google Translate. Even desire, the film suggests, is controlled by empire.
Tonally, Dreams is sparse and soft-spoken, simmering with dread. The eroticism is charged, hungry and occasionally uncomfortable, but so are the stakes. In today’s political climate, the sex feels risky, even a little indecent, freighted with questions of consent and class. At times, the symbolism veers toward heavy-handed, but the intimacy at the film’s core is undeniable, giving it a pulse many contemporary thrillers lack.
One of the film’s sharpest truths comes from Fernando’s friend, who cuts through the hypocrisy with brutal clarity: “Fucking gringos, man. We cross the border, we wipe their asses, and they’re fine with that. But you take a job from one of them, and they kick you to the curb.” It’s a sentiment that’s never hit harder.
Dreams may not be subtle, but it is precise — beautifully shot, emotionally bruising and unafraid to show the audience how we’re complicit in this system. It’s an erotic thriller with real consequences, where lust curdles into ownership and desire exposes the rot beneath liberal benevolence. Confronting, yes. But also necessary. ▼
Dreams NR, 98 minutes Opening Friday, Feb. 27, in
35 Cut (in)
1 Purchase of ice cream or cream
ale
5 Cognac label letters
9 Escapade
14 Goddess depicted with cow’s horns
15 “Hey, look who’s here!”
16 Film without much wardrobe, informally
17 Watch sound
18 Happens
20 Left in
22 Ingredient in a zombie
23 Late ___
24 Anxious
25 Francis Ford Coppola’s alma mater, for short
26 Org. that watches television
27 Tackling the task at hand
31 Dump
32 Unceasingly
33 Hotel room coolers, for short
34 Band with the 2008 platinum single “Electric Feel”
38 Flabbergasted feeling
40 Prefix meaning “heavens,” as the name of a planet suggests
42 Low
45 Result of missing the boat
49 Activist who was Time’s 1963 Man of the Year, familiarly
50 Sweeping
51 Seth of Apple TV’s “Platonic”
52 Furious feeling
53 Rescue squad pro
54 Country whose seven-letter name can be spelled using only onepoint Scrabble tiles
56 Striking through
59 “___ what I’m talkin’ ‘bout!”
60 Standard
61 Lead-in to -drome
62 Oversupply
63 Full of energy
64 ___ Mix
65 Catch a glimpse of DOWN
1 Tools requiring two people
2 “Am I wrong about that?”
3 “Please, I know better than that”
4 “You know better than that”
5 Sotto ___
6 Sporting flats, say
7 Omega, in physics
8 Approximately 84% of American women have at least one
9 Early ancestor
10 (The) OK
11 With 42-Down, they tell you when to stop and go … as seen in this puzzle’s theme
12 Bees, but not birds
13 Trig ratio
19 Kick butt, so to speak
21 Like a run that sends the game into extra innings, say
25 Buffet table item
28 ___ de plume
29 Increase one’s intensity
30 “Hard pass”
34 Mal de ___
36 Channel with the longtime slogan “We Know Drama”
37 Legal setting
38 37-Down order
39 Roused
41 Turn to mush, maybe
42 See 11-Down
43 Loved every second
44 The New York Islanders in the early 1980s, e.g.
46 Early pop music’s ___ Brothers
47 Honorific title
Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/ wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.
48 Pestering type
49
54 Mark’s successor
55 Put away
57 Space between here and there
58 French word between two surnames
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STATE OF INDIANA
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SS: IN THE ELKHART COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT
CAUSE NO. 20D06- 2510MI-000461
DORIS LUCINDA REYES
ORELLANA, Petitioner, and GIL ARMANDO GONZALES
GUEVARA, Respondent. SUMMONS BY PUBLICATION
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ATTEST: Clerk of the Elkhart Court
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