Nashville Scene 6-18-26

OWNERS FACE

CONFUSION OVER SIGNAGE

>> PAGE 7

SPORTS: MIDDLE TENNESSEE’S TIES TO JAPAN BRING SAMURAI BLUE TO NASHVILLE

>> PAGE 8 CULTURE: NASHVILLE’S JUNETEENTH CELEBRATIONS CONTINUE TO EVOLVE >> PAGE 25

How ceramicists are takingover Nashville’s art scene

BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

WITNESS HISTORY

This Harmony Cremona belonged to Stan Gill, father of Country Music Hall of Fame member Vince Gill, who included a photo of the archtop guitar on the cover of his 2025 EP 50 Years from Home: Secondhand Smoke.

From the exhibit American Currents: State of the Music

artifact: Courtesy of Vince Gill

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NEWS

Sign of the Times

A new law permitting some use of sandwich boards may help small businesses — but other signage complexities remain

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

Southern Samurai

Middle Tennessee’s deep ties to Japan bring Samurai Blue to Nashville BY LOGAN BUTTS

Pith in the Wind

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog Dr. James Crowe Wants to Plan Ahead for the Next Pandemic

The Vanderbilt immunologist is seeking funding for 100 antibody treatments BY HANNAH HERNER

COVER STORY

Clay Mates

How ceramicists are taking over Nashville’s art scene BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

CRITICS’ PICKS

Come What May Chrissy Chlapecka, Actors Bridge Ensemble: Honour, Blue June Music Fest feat. Phosphorescent, Paz Suay: Anew: Elementary and Secondary Practice and more

FOOD AND DRINK

Sweet Legacy

Lokelani Alabanza gives the cold facts about Black America’s contributions to ice cream in her new book Ice Cream Queen BY MARGARET LITTMAN

CULTURE

Freedom Rings

Nashville’s Juneteenth celebrations continue to evolve BY HANNAH HERNER

ART

Only in Dreams

The Frist’s new surrealism exhibit offers an expansive reckoning BY ANNIE PARNELL

MUSIC

For Their Next Act

The Protomen go to 11 on Act III: This City Made Us BY LANCE CONZETT

Human After All

Talking with The Human League’s Philip Oakey about more than four decades of interwoven threads in the fabric of pop music

BY JASON SHAWHAN

The Spin It’s a ’Roo Age BY SCENE STAFF AND CONTRIBUTORS

FILM

New Old Testament

Adrian Chiarella’s queer horror debut Leviticus is disturbing — in many senses of the word BY JASON SHAWHAN

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ARMOR FOR SLEEP AT THE BASEMENT EAST Catch Armor for Sleep live at The Basement East on July 5 at 8 p.m. Experience an energetic night of powerful performances and unforgettable music. Get tickets today at thebasementnashville.com.

NASHVILLE PRIDE KICKOFF PARTY Nashville Pride will host a kickoff party June 23 at 6 p.m. at the Virgin Hotel. Enjoy an evening of live entertainment, a cash bar and a chance to celebrate Pride weekend. Buy your tickets today at nashvillepride.org.

SUMMER ROLL OUT BAKERY CRAWL RETURNS IN JUNE Baked on 8th will bring back the Summer Roll Out Bakery Crawl this June. Enjoy a special menu item at more than 20 bakeries in Nashville. For more information, follow @bakedon8th on social media.

Details and tickets at shows.eastsidebowl.com.

THE COVER: Ash Atterberry; photo by Eric England

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SIGN OF THE TIMES

A new law permitting some use of sandwich boards may help small businesses — but other signage complexities remain

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

DANNY GREENBERG WAS surprised when he received a letter from Metro Codes in October of last year: Remove the sandwich board signage in front of Flour Your Dreams Bakery and Café or face a $60-per-day fine.

Greenberg and his wife Tania Salas opened the brick-and-mortar scratch bakery on Dodson Chapel Road in Hermitage in 2023. The cafe has good permanent signage, but the way the strip mall building and parking lot are set, it can be hard to see from the road. So Greenberg bought a folding-frame sandwich board. He put it out at 7 a.m. and brought it back in at 2 p.m. when the bakery closed. He placed it on the grass easement near the sidewalk so it wouldn’t block access. For months there wasn’t a problem. Plenty of customers told him they hadn’t known Flour Your Dreams was there until they saw the sign.

When he got the Codes letter, Greenberg called Councilmember Jordan Huffman, whose District 14 is home to Flour Your Dreams. Huffman was also surprised.

“We’ve got bigger fish to fry in Nashville than picking on small businesses that are trying to advertise things,” Huffman tells the Scene

Greenberg says Huffman made some calls to Codes, and after a few days told him he could put the sign back out.

“Then, one day I see [someone from] Codes taking photos of the sign,” Greenberg says. “And he says, ‘You have already been cited. I don’t know why you are not listening.’” Greenberg got Huffman on the phone again, this time to talk to the inspector from Codes, who refrained from issuing a fine. But that wasn’t a permanent solution. So Huffman set out to change the law.

“I never thought in a million years that I would be drafting legislation on A-frame signs, but here we are,” Huffman says. “I don’t write legislation

just to write it. There has to be a sufficient need.” Huffman says research shows these signs can increase business revenues by 5 to 15 percent.

Huffman’s legislation passed in May, allowing small businesses to have such signage in the right of way with certain restrictions. The Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure is developing a permit program for sandwich boards, but does not currently have a timetable for when they will be available. That’s according to Brendan Scully, public information coordinator for NDOT. This is good news for small businesses looking for ways to reach customers in an increasingly competitive city. The change does not, however, allow sandwich boards on private property, says Jessica Shepherd, administrative services division manager for Metro Codes’ Zoning Help Desk.

Melanie Mills was surprised when her landlord told her she could not have a sandwich board on the grass or the porch in front of The Makeup Altar, her business in East Nashville, noting that Codes had asked for the signage to be removed. Like Greenberg, Mills put signs out when the business was open, highlighting daily events such as tarot card readings, and brought them inside when the store was closed. The Makeup Altar is located in a Victorian house on South 11th Street in East Nashville’s Five Points — without the signs, she says, some people don’t realize it’s a business. Putting them on the grass would help bring people in while keeping signs off the sidewalk, where they could obstruct the right-of-way. Like Greenberg, Mills says customers have told her they learned about the business from the sandwich board.

Many small business owners are frustrated. Some spoke to the Scene on condition of anonymity, concerned that if their names appear

in print, Codes inspectors might stop by. While they see the new A-frame signage change that Huffman ushered in as progress, some say the various regulations regarding signage are confusing and they feel restrictions are enforced with small businesses but not with record labels, Broadway behemoths or corporations. One Music Row nonprofit, for example, was told by Codes that it needed to remove a banner with its business logo from in front of their building — near where many Music Row record labels fly banners celebrating chart-topping songs. Banners require a permit, according to Shepherd, the cost of which is based on the sign’s cost. The minimum permit fee is $55.

Others note the plethora of sidewalk graffiti ads painted in high-traffic areas, often promoting concert tours, album releases and sports franchises like the Tennessee Titans. Earlier this year, Live Nation apologized for a promotion in which ads for its forthcoming Nashville venue, The Truth, were stenciled on the sidewalk in front of some indie venues. Live Nation quickly had those ads removed. The massive ticketing, touring and venue management corporation did not return the Scene’s messages about other stenciled ads for tours that remain. Live Nation and other companies often use third-party firms for sidewalk graffiti ads.

NDOT’s Scully says stenciled sidewalk graffiti ads are not permitted and are illegal. “In the past, NDOT has issued sidewalk encroachment permits in a very limited capacity for these activities,” he says. “However, we are no longer issuing any permits for advertising decals or painted applications on sidewalks. No advertising is permitted on sidewalks.”

NDOT jurisdiction covers sidewalks in the public right-of-way. Sidewalk graffiti on private sidewalks does not require a permit, according to Shepherd. Small business owners note that while private sidewalk graffiti ads may be allowed, murals on buildings and painted names of businesses on windows may require a permit.

Lauren Swedenborg co-owns Lykke Haus Curated Vintage, a store and showroom for other vintage proprietors on Trinity Lane. She says she cannot afford to rent space on Gallatin Road or elsewhere with higher foot traffic, so good signage is crucial. “Having signage upfront tells people you are open,” she says, adding that she

thinks the increase in revenue is more than the 5 to 15 percent Huffman cites.

Before she opened two-and-half years ago, Swedenborg hired local artist Ellie Caudill to paint the Lykke Haus name on the windows, and Swedenborg painted a mural for a neighborhood small business crawl on the Jones Avenue side of the business, with her landlord’s permission. After the mural and window painting were completed, she was told by a Codes inspector that there could be fines associated for not having permits for both murals and windows, although he could not tell her the amount of the fines. She also had a sandwich board that she was told to take down, but when the law changed, she was allowed to put it back out.

Swedenborg doesn’t mind paying for permits and says she had good relationships with Codes in a previous career. But she is discouraged by what she sees as a lack of clarity in what’s required and by a perception that the burden of these regulations often falls on small businesses.

“When we are not allowed to write the name of the business on the window without a permit, that is starting to seem like a money grab,” she says.

Codes’ Shepherd says updates to sign ordinance 17.32.065 now require a permit to advertise on windows, such as paint on windows. Swedenborg was told her windows are grandfathered in, but she would need a permit if she were to change them in the future. Because the mural on Jones is for an event, it too can stay. But if she were to paint a mural with the business name or logo, she would need a permit. According to Shepherd, those are one-time — not annual — permits.

Swedenborg notes that even $55 fees can add up for small businesses, but more than the fees, she says she struggles with the changing regulations and the difficulty of getting accurate information.

Shepherd suggests business owners reach out to the ZHD (zoninghelpdesk@nashville.gov) before signing a lease to understand what may be allowed in terms of signage at that location. However, a sign permit will not be issued until the use has been established by permit.

“As we continue to grow as a city, we have to update our laws,” Huffman says. “Our city, the Metropolitan City of Nashville, was founded in the early ’60s, and a lot has changed since then. Hermitage was a cow field in the early ’60s.” ▼

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NEWS: SPORTS

SOUTHERN SAMURAI

Middle Tennessee’s deep ties to Japan bring Samurai Blue to Nashville

BY LOGAN BUTTS

FOUR YEARS AGO this month, Nashville was passed over as a host city for the 2026 World Cup. It was a blow to soccer fans across the region after months of Music City being discussed as a candidate for one of the final spots on the list.

But even after having been passed over by FIFA, Nashville still has an integral part to play in the World Cup proceedings. To the delight of the region’s large Kurdish population, Nashville SC up-and-coming midfielder Ahmed Qasem was chosen to represent Iraq. There are watch parties popping up across the city, from Plaza Mariachi and Fogg Street Lawn Club to Chapstick and even the home of Nashville SC — Geodis Park itself. Most notably, the famed Samurai Blue have made Nashville their home base during the monthlong tournament.

As the World Cup takes place in cities across North America, the Japanese Men’s National Soccer Team — or the Samurai Blue, as they’re known around the globe — has been practicing at NSC’s 60,000-square-foot training facility in Antioch, flying back to the city between each of its matches. The team and its parent organization, the Japanese Football Association, began scouting out Nashville as a potential base camp for this summer’s World Cup more than a year ago … despite the city not being on FIFA’s approved list of home-base sites. According to those involved in the recruitment process, it was down to Nashville and one or two other cities, including Austin, Texas. When Japan’s three group stage matches were revealed to take place in the Dallas area and in Mexico — rather than World Cup locations closer to Nashville like Kansas City or Atlanta — many thought the team would elect to stay elsewhere. But the city had an ace up its sleeve.

Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s chief of staff Masami Tyson is a native of Japan. Tyson happened to be giving a speech at an international conference in Tokyo in the fall of last year as deliberations between Nashville and Japan were ongoing. She carved out some time to visit the JFA headquarters to give them the “hard sell.” When the JFA made a reconnaissance visit to Nashville, Tyson gave them a presentation, in Japanese, about the long history between the city and Japan.

“I used to work for the state, and I was in charge of recruiting foreign companies to Tennessee, and a big bulk of them are Japanese,” says Tyson. “And then, of course, I’m from Japan, so I had a lot to say about how it would be a great fit for the soccer team.”

According to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development — where Tyson spent nearly four years as the global director of foreign direct investment and

trade — more than 200 Japanese-owned companies operate in the state. Global businesses like Nissan and Bridgestone have situated their American headquarters in the Nashville area. The investment has led to many jobs in the region, but also to an influx of Japanese people moving to Middle Tennessee, bringing elements of their culture with them. That cultural familiarity was a major part of what sold the Samurai Blue on Nashville, despite a lack of geographic proximity to their match sites.

“I think it speaks volumes for our city,” says Deana Ivey, chief marketing officer for the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, which acted as the liaison between the JFA, Nashville SC and the city.

The team’s official traveling party — consisting of 23 players, legendary Japanese manager Hajime Moriyasu and his coaching staff, trainers, nutritionists, JFA delegates and more — is already a large crew. But approximately 150 members of the Japanese media have also made the trip to North America for the Cup, and they’re all calling Nashville home this month as well.

“Japanese TV is interesting — it’s like it used to be here,” says Tyson. “We do have cable TV in Japan, but it’s not as prevalent, so most people just watch the same five or six channels. … They will report about the team every day in June, but the media delegation also asked me about what kind of stories they could run about Nashville while they’re here.”

It’s a priceless level of international exposure for a city that’s aiming to be more global. Both Tyson and Ivey mention the influence on the potential addition of a direct flight from BNA to Tokyo in the future.

“Having stories in Japan and across Asia, it helps our marketing, and one of our priorities is international growth, bringing in more international visitors,” says Ivey.

Thanks to a freewheeling style of play, rootable rosters and a knack for punching above their weight, the Samurai Blue always seem to be the neutral fan’s rooting interest every four years during the World Cup. They’re the perfect team for any soccer skeptics (or FIFA haters) to check out. Maybe you’ll even find yourself at a bar in Nashville, alongside the many local Japanese fans, screaming, “Vamos, Nippon!” ▼

A long line of impassioned Nashvillians formed outside the Howard Office Building downtown on Thursday to voice their support for rigorous data center regulations in Davidson County — as proposals to allow construction of the tech facilities stir controversy at both the local and national levels. At what ultimately became a six-hour Metro Planning Commission meeting, residents urged the commission members to support Metro Councilmember Rollin Horton’s zoning ordinance seeking to impose restrictions on the location and operations of data centers in Nashville. The legislation comes in the wake of a plan to build a data center on the campus of Fisk University as well as a proposal to construct a facility next to the Nashville Zoo — both have led to public outcry. On Monday, Mayor Freddie O’Connell signed an executive order supporting a temporary moratorium on the development of large-scale data centers.

On Saturday, the Nashville City Cemetery Association dedicated a bench memorializing the enslaved people who are buried in the cemetery — including at least 24 people enslaved by the city of Nashville. Scene opinion columnist Betsy Phillips was one of the speakers at the ceremony, and she shared her remarks in the latest installment of her column. “Today, we have a place to come and grieve for the people the city enslaved,” Phillips told the crowd gathered at the cemetery. “But I also want to tell you that, even with the little information we have, we know these 24 people — who were mostly strangers to each other at first — watched out for each other, that they took care of each other the best they could, and we can assume that they were the ones who buried each other here.”

Metro Nashville and the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority plan to file a federal lawsuit to fight a new law giving the state control of the MNAA board starting July 1. Mayor Freddie O’Connell has directed the Metro Department of Law to file the lawsuit against the state of Tennessee over a second attempt “to take over control of the Metro Nashville Airport Authority Board.” Metro attorneys have taken the case all the way to the Tennessee Supreme Court and are still waiting on a final ruling after arguing that legislation from 2023 unfairly targeted MNAA.

DR. JAMES CROWE WANTS TO PLAN AHEAD FOR THE NEXT PANDEMIC

The Vanderbilt immunologist is seeking funding for 100 antibody treatments BY

HANNAH HERNER

DR. JAMES CROWE has watched public health officials scramble each time a new virus surfaces. The director of the Vanderbilt Center for Antibody Therapeutics and his researchers are working on a new strategy they’re calling AHEAD 100: get treatments ready for the 100 viruses most likely to cause a pandemic. They do this by producing antibodies — the proteins created by the human body to fight viruses.

The lab had produced antibodies for the hantavirus not long before a variation of the virus caused three deaths and several illnesses aboard a cruise ship in May. His team also prepared a treatment several years ago for the Bundibugyo virus, a strain of ebola responsible for a recent outbreak that caused more than 100 deaths in Congo over the past month.

The catch is, while Crowe’s lab can systematically prepare antibodies — and has done so for around 40 of its 100 targeted viruses — it takes $40 million to put each one through clinical trials and prepare it for the public. Crowe says he hasn’t been able to get traction to prepare all 100, which would take $3 billion to $4 billion, so his team is writing grants for one at a time. Crowe spoke with the Scene about his research process and predictions for future outbreaks.

What are you watching out for right now when it comes to viruses? If a person comes in contact with mosquitoes or ticks or an animal like a bat, an animal virus can cross over. Typically animal viruses don’t grow very well in humans, but some of them do, and then some of them will mutate after they are in one person, so that they gain the capacity to do human-to-human transmission. And that’s when you get really concerning outbreaks.

What we used to do is try to think, “Maybe we can guess the next one.” I’ve sort of given up on that question, because it’s impossible to predict the next one. We switched from trying to think of a short list of the next ones to this program we called AHEAD100.

What does it take for the antibody therapy to be fit for public use? There’s different stages in drug or vaccine development, and we specialize in the very front end. A virus occurs, we go all over the world and find someone who has survived that. We enroll them in a research project under informed consent. If people want to participate, they give us blood, and then we sort through the white blood cells — sample through millions of cells, looking for a needle in a haystack, and we find a B-cell [i.e., a type of white blood cell] that’s rare in that person, but probably helped them survive it.

Once we have the genes, it’s like a recipe, and

we can essentially go to the lab or even a factory and use that gene from one person to make the exact same natural antibody and give it to other people. People call that the discovery phase or the research phase.

The next step is to prepare it so that it would be safe to give to another person, and that’s where we usually get stuck, because that next step is about $40 million.

What are your thoughts on the hantavirus? We had great antibodies, and the government knows we had them, because we did it under a government grant. … They just decided that the outbreak would be contained with public health measures — so quarantine and distancing and all that — and it probably will contain it.

In the last several months we had already made antibodies for measles, and there was a big measles outbreak in the United States. We had already done hantavirus — there’s an outbreak on a ship. Two weeks later there is a big Bundibugyo virus outbreak. We’d already done that. I’m not happy that the outbreaks are occurring, but I would say that it validates the strategy of AHEAD100, because if you have 100, then the one that outbreaks is going to be on your list, and that happened the last three outbreaks. We were ready, we had the drug — it’s just we did not have the manufactured drug materials.

Should this funding come from private entities or the government? I think it’s going to take commercial parties, the government and nonprofits to all partner together with different pools of money to get this done.

Is there anything else you want to add? I acknowledge that it feels tiresome to have to keep talking about infectious diseases. People don’t want to talk about it more, and they wish it would go away, but the problem is the viruses aren’t listening. The viruses are going to happen anyway. I think we have to acknowledge that everyone’s fatigued with thinking about it, but that doesn’t justify not doing anything about it. We wish we didn’t have to worry about this, but the fact is we do. ▼

June 4 – August 27 | 5 – 9 PM

A relaxing summer escape awaits every Thursday night. Enjoy an eclectic mix of music , seasonal cocktails , food trucks , and favorites from Perenn at Cheekwood , all set among the gardens in full bloom. Upcoming performers include The WannaBeatles, Charles “Wigg” Walker, Paul Childers, and The Shirt Tuckers. Reserve tickets at cheekwood.org.

How ceramicists are taking over Nashville’s art scene

BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

IT’S JUNE IN Nashville, and it seems like there are ceramics in every gallery.

At Julia Martin Gallery in Wedgewood-Houston, Ash Atterberry has set out a display of ceramic tulips around a grass-green mound. Each tulip can be picked up and placed inside the tiny hole on top of the mound in something like an art-gallery version of planting a flower. The work is called “Pick a Flower, Leave a Flower,” and the first 10 visitors to the gallery will get to keep a tulip.

Downtown at Tinney Contemporary, a ceramic vessel from César Pita is given center stage in Hear, Hear! — a group show of work made during the inaugural residency at Arcade Arts. Pita’s ornate piece is installed on a pedestal, and its polished surface shines as radiantly as the mirror-like gallery floors.

A connective spirit runs through the growing cluster of Nashville artists working with clay. Perhaps that’s the reason clay has attracted some of the city’s most compelling artists. But just as important as that connection is the medium’s playful spirit, its outsider status and the ritual involved in making ceramics. The artists we profile here are just a few of the many ceramicists who make up an interconnected web of craftspeople with an outsized influence. Clay invites experimentation and collaboration. The sense of community among ceramicists runs deep — ritual is embedded in the process, as is an awareness of lineage and the makers who came before. Despite its rich traditions, clay is still often overlooked within the fine arts. But that marginal status might be the medium’s greatest strength, because it’s in the margins where change often begins.

Ash Atterberry Handwings

Ceramics handwings.com

ASH ATTERBERRY IS originally from Illinois, and she left home to study ceramics, moving frequently throughout her 20s. She lived in Arkansas, Seattle and California before moving to Tennessee, where her friend Rebecca Blevins, also a ceramicist, had recently set up shop.

“I’ve always thought of myself as an artist, just with the medium of clay,” Atterberry tells the Scene

“One thing about ceramics,” she explains, “is that it is harder to do on your own. It definitely is easier with a community, plus it’s more fun with a community. I think that that’s really special about ceramics. I also like drawing and painting and taking photos, and those all kind of exist somewhere within my work. But for me, nothing feels finished until it’s in clay.”

She is inspired by folk art, and the mundane things that people tend to overlook. A ceramic dish called “Smoke Plate” looks like it might be a self-portrait. A blond woman with a cigarette in her mouth is ensconced in a wispy line of smoke that works like a halo.

Atterberry is one of three ceramics artists who have been part of Julia Martin Gallery’s six-month artist residency, and seeing all their work together makes it clear just how ubiquitous ceramics are. Megan Curtin subverts traditional nude sculpture to make vessels that are part Venus of Willendorf and part Bauhaus costume party. In a neighboring room are Brooke Gillon’s moody miniature stoneware vessels “Tear Jar 1” and “Tear Jar 2,” and a massive offering bowl shaped like Medusa’s head.

“The world is so uncomfortable now,” Atterberry says. “It’s so hard to look at the things that are happening around us and just see such horror. When I’m making these things, the feelings I’m having aren’t necessarily sweet and cute and fun, but it’s my way of digesting the world, and looking at the things that bring me comfort, the places I’ve spent time that I think are beautiful.”

“I’ve always felt clownish — I’m just really goofy, and so I think that just kind of naturally comes out. I feel like all the critters have some sort of like humor to them as a comedic relief.”

Harry Kagan harrykagan.com

ATTERBERRY’S “SMOKE PLATE” would fit perfectly in Harry Kagan’s studio. He’s an artist and musician who developed an interest in ceramics relatively recently, after spending time in Mexico visiting his mother-in-law.

“I had kind of fallen out with painting,” he explains. “It wasn’t motivating or inspiring me anymore. But something about the gloss and the elemental aspect of tiles was appealing.”

In the style of traditional Talavera ceramics, Kagan paints his clay tiles with images you might imagine were made along the margins of a composition book. Sometimes the tiles simply contain phrases — “New Age Music” and “Sublime Sun Tattoo” are good examples of Kagan’s tongue-in-cheek style. Making a hyperspecific reference inside something as utilitarian as ceramic tile is inherently funny, but Kagan is remarkably serious about clay.

“It helped me revive my artistic, and even spiritual, practice,” he says, crediting his friend Jess Cheatham, who runs the hugely influential Salt Ceramics, with recently giving him a crash course on how to throw clay on a wheel. “The physical elements that you’re working with — water and earth and air — they’re forcing you to work at their pace. You can’t really cheat.”

This is a common experience among clay artists — there’s a ritual to working with clay that almost every ceramicist connects with. For Kagan, it’s an antidote to living in contemporary times.

“Modern society has made me such an instant-gratification hog,” he says. “It’s a humbling experience to allow yourself to be surprised by how things turn out.”

In an essay about ceramics, legendary art critic Peter Schjeldahl wrote: “Ritual is use plus contemplation.” So while making a ceramic mug is a type of ritual, for example, using that mug for your morning cup of coffee is a ritual as well.

“From an art industry standpoint, it’s a really fulfilling way to offer accessible art objects to people,” Kagan continues. “The utilitarian aspect of pottery and of ceramics is another key to why it’s not given the same sort of artistic attention that painting has. Because it’s like, ‘Oh, well, this is going on my shelf in my kitchen, and I’m using this to drink coffee out of.’ And for me, I’m like, ‘Yeah, isn’t that incredible?’”

CÉSAR PITA’S CERAMICS practice has traveled all across Nashville. He was one of the inaugural artists-in-residence at Arcade Arts, and he worked as a teaching artist at Buchanan Arts. Most recently, he had a yearlong residency at The Forge, which provided him with the space to build large-scale sculptures for restaurant Maíz de la Vida in The Gulch.

This level of infrastructure is vital for ceramics artists who are just starting out.

“It’s not like you can just buy an easel and some paints, and set up in the corner of your bedroom,” Pita explains. “You need a well-ventilated space, you need this really expensive equipment. So a shared community is great.”

That connection to community is integral to Pita’s practice.

“I think clay, for me, has a very rich history,” he explains. “It’s something that’s been in the hands of a lot of my Mexican ancestors and a lot of my family, and it’s something that I always choose to use and kind of honor. Using the clay colors as the final finish, instead of putting a gloss and clear glaze over it, and celebrating the different darker skin tones.”

Pita’s work falls into two broad categories — vessels and sculptures. But even Pita’s vessels are sculptural. Take, for example, “Nuestras Manos, Nuestra Tierra,” the piece currently on display at Tinney. It’s a traditionally shaped vessel with a rendering of a man with a bandanna wrapped around his face, surrounded by a flowering cactus motif. This over-the-top treatment is reverent and shows off the artist’s attention to detail. That’s a hard-earned skill, and something Pita wishes more Nashville-based artists would experiment with.

“Artists need to take more risks,” he says. “There’s a correlation between the power of art and the effects that it can have on people in communities. I think about the superhero line: ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ Art definitely has a lot more to offer than just being cool.

“It is scary to be different — especially in our political climate,” he continues. “But I think playing it safe is a big detriment to anybody’s community.”

LaKesha Lee

Artist and faculty fellow at Watkins College of Art at Belmont University instagram.com/lakeshasart

LAKESHA LEE IS a multimedia artist with an ebullient personality, and it makes sense that she’s drawn to the communal spirit of ceramics. Although she incorporates multiple disciplines in her practice — including textiles and photography — clay is the medium where she’s currently finding the most resonance.

“I started looking into the location where my family came from in Alabama,” Lee explains from her studio at Belmont, “and how my great-grandmother was a field slave up until she was 4 years old. I thought about how my family and my ancestors had been field slaves, and how they died in that soil, and how by creating these vessels, I’m re-creating them into the vessels, as the life that lives within the piece.”

Lee arrived in Nashville almost exactly a year ago — she has been a faculty fellow at Watkins College of Art at Belmont University since 2025 — but she found the ceramics community to be immediately supportive, both inside and outside academia.

“The ceramics community is amazing,” she says. “The support from [Raheleh] Filsoofi at Vanderbilt — amazing. The support from The Clay Lady — amazing. People are very supportive. If you’re in need of help, people show up. They want to see you thrive.”

Her vessels have an undeniable organic quality, and Lee experiments with unconventional finishes to push her practice even further. For her current work, she has used bronze pigments and shoe polish to achieve a deep copper sheen in her clay. The effect is almost bodily, a quality she highlights by adding long seams that work like partially healed wounds.

“When you touch clay, it is so malleable that you’re able to leave fingerprints in it,” she says. “It’s like if someone hits you and they leave a bruise, your body feels that and reacts to that. And so I was also thinking about epidemiology, and the way that our bodies keep the score — if your mother experienced trauma while she was pregnant with you, you will also have that fear or that trauma, because it’s been passed down to you physically into your DNA.

Virginia Griswold

Artist and executive director of Buchanan Arts Center buchananartscenter.org

“GEOGRAPHICALLY, WE’RE IN the clay belt,” Virginia Griswold explains from the garden outside Buchanan Arts Center, where she acts as executive director. “There’s this really amazing, rich history of using ceramics here to make functional wares, for survival.” She is inspired by historic figures like David Drake — known as Dave the Potter — an enslaved man who wrote his name and verses of poetry into the pots he made, subverting historical ideas of enslaved people as illiterate and potters as unproud.

“Clay is affirming,” she says. “When your finger presses into the material, it reflects that presence. It’s also very forgiving. … And because it’s a humble material, I think folks bring less pressure to the experience of working with it. It really lends itself to a communal atmosphere. It doesn’t have the pressure and the weight of a ‘fine-art’ material, and maybe it doesn’t even have the weight of art history in the same way.”

There are ceramics studios throughout Nashville, and many clay artists hop around from place to place. On one stretch of Gallatin Avenue in East Nashville, for example, Nashville Pottery is just a few minutes from Potluck Teahouse. Longtime Nashville ceramicist Danielle McDaniel, better known as The Clay Lady, has a multibuilding campus on Lebanon Pike. Buchanan Arts is in North Nashville, and Griswold is quick to point out the relationship the studio has with the historically Black community in that part of the city. “Clay lends itself well to overcoming barriers,” she explains. “It’s egalitarian in that way.”

The turn toward ceramics isn’t unique to Nashville, but it has taken hold here in a way that feels distinctly Southern — rooted in a sensibility of authenticity and craftsmanship. Griswold believes it’s something the city should embrace more fully.

“That’s the perennial problem with our city — there’s a lack of support or understanding. Nashville brands itself as this sort of everyman city. You know: humble, Southern, country music. I think these are all the sort of things that align with craft and tradition.”

She wishes support from the government and art patrons would extend out of community appreciation, but laments that the connection isn’t quite there yet.

“But it could be,” Griswold says. “And pretty easily, I think.” ▼

THURSDAY / 6.18

FILM

[HE NEEDS HIS EYES] BLEAK WEEK: DANCER IN THE DARK

MUSIC

[I’M SO HOT] CHRISSY CHLAPECKA

THURSDAY, JUNE 18

FILM [MAY DAY]

COME WHAT MAY

“I’m fat. Fat but funny. I’m a swell dancer. I’m goofy, fun, 5’10” in every direction. Got a lot of hair. What else do you want to know?” That’s how Ralphie May introduces himself in archival footage at the beginning of Come What May, a new documentary about the late, great comedian. But in another clip early in the film — this one pulled from footage recorded closer to May’s 2017 death — the outgoing stand-up is more candid: “I’m a very flawed and imperfect man.” May was born in Chattanooga, grew up in Arkansas and died in Las Vegas, but the comedian spent many of his years here in Nashville, where the onetime Last Comic Standing runner-up developed a reputation not only as an unapologetic and often selfdeprecating comedian, but also a selfless and generous individual. Co-directed by David Gantz and May’s widow Lahna Turner, Come What May features interviews with Jay Leno, Bob Saget, Jay Mohr, Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Smith and several other comedy icons alongside May’s family and friends, peeking behind the curtain to explore May’s life in comedy and career on the road, as well as his struggles with addiction. On Thursday, the Belcourt will screen Come What May, followed by a post-screening discussion with Turner. D. PATRICK RODGERS

8 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT

2102 BELCOURT AVE.

PAGE

As the Belcourt proceeds to bum moviegoers out with its first-ever Bleak Week (as part of the global network of arthouses partnering with L.A.-based American Cinematheque’s annual downer-fest), the theater booked perhaps the most depressing-ass Lars von Trier movie (in glorious 35 mm!) for night two. Fresh from putting Emily Watson through hell in Breaking the Waves, the Danish troublemaker puts Björk, that Icelandic manic pixie dream girl, through the wringer in this surreal 2000 tragedy. She’s Selma, a movie-musical-loving Czech immigrant living and working in 1960s America. She’s also saving up for her son’s eye operation, so he won’t lose the sight she’s also losing, due to a hereditary disease. Von Trier knew what he was doing when he got together with the art-pop princess; along with coming up with eccentric music for the elaborate, shoton-digital video dance numbers, she gives a heart-shattering performance — think Giulietta Masina in La Strada, but without the clown makeup — as a joyful girl whose American Dream keeps getting interrupted by the real America. Bring all the gotdamn Kleenex.

CRAIG D. LINDSEY

7:30 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

Queer activist, pop star and social media personality Chrissy Chlapecka is coming to Nashville for her Girl on the Moon Tour — expect a night filled with pop, pride, glitter and hot-pink everything. Chlapecka came onto the scene by posting TikTok videos in 2019, gaining a massive following by becoming the face of “BimboTok,” which transformed the derogatory “bimbo” stereotype as people started to reclaim the word. Chrissy’s music is all about inclusivity, body positivity, LGBTQ rights and hyper-femininity. Some of her best-known songs (and some of my favorites) are “BRAT,” “Aria” and “Andromeda,” and they’re all likely to be on Thursday’s set list. The upbeat sound and flirty lyrics will make anyone get up and dance. Drag queens are a big influence in Chrissy’s look and sound, as she wears glamorous wigs and bold makeup and has a captivating stage presence. Witnessing Chlapecka’s energy is a perfect way to celebrate Pride Month. EMMA PICKETT

8 P.M. AT THE END 2219 ELLISTON PLACE

COMEDY

[HEYNONG MAN] COMEDY BANG! BANG!: GROUND BEEFING TOUR

Within the minds of every devoted Comedy Bang! Bang! fan exists a complicated, perpetually evolving directory of characters,

catchphrases and bizarre turns of phrase. Over 17 years and nearly 1,000 episodes, the improvcomedy podcast and its host Scott Aukerman (a comedy writer behind Mr. Show, Between Two Ferns: The Movie and much more) have introduced listeners to scores of characters, most of whom arrive with their own lore. From children’s performer Big Chunky Bubbles and “Smooth Criminal” Al A. Peterson (both played by frequent guest Paul F. Tompkins) to cowboy poet/monster hunter Dalton Wilcox (Andy Daly), entrepreneur Entrée PeeE Neur (Saturday Night Live alum Ego Nwodim) and beyond, CBB has an extremely deep bench of lovable freaks with strange intersecting backstories. Performed on the fly by gifted improvisers who frequently take things off the rails, it’s the kind of podcast that will make your partner say, “What the hell are you listening to in there?” Until, eventually, they join you in your fandom. On Thursday, Aukerman, Tompkins and other “Comedy Bang! Bang! All-Stars” will bring the Comedy Bang! Bang! Ground Beefing Tour 2026 to downtown Nashville’s Category 10. Expect a night of deranged, delightful lore. D. PATRICK RODGERS

8 P.M. AT CATEGORY 10

120 SECOND AVE. N.

[BEAUTIFUL FREAKSHOW]

THEATER

BUBBLEGUM

THEATER’S

ANNUAL PRIDE SHOW

Bubblegum Theater Company is back at it this weekend, taking center stage with its third annual Pride show. As always, Bubblegum promises to live up to its cheeky moniker — “Nashville’s most beautiful freakshow” — by serving up a joyful celebration that showcases everything from music and comedy to clowns, burlesque and Bigfoot. Hosted by Bubblegum artistic director Jack Stell and the fabulous Ivey, special guests include Lane Scott Jones, GrandmaFun, TúPOC Improv, Nadia Vaeh, simp goddess, Arily Michele, Allie Thomas, Kash James, Miriam Kirk and more. Plus, Sydney Williamson has curated a cool multimedia art gallery to be presented in conjunction with the show, featuring queer and BIPOC artists such as Chase Williamson, Starr Thorne, Unbannable Books, Whois Jordan, Ember Tharpe, Kenieha Boren, Vocal Creative Studio and Charis Williamson. Buckle up, Nashville — it’s going to be a wild and wonderful ride. And best of all, proceeds go to support two very deserving nonprofits, Nashville Launch Pad and Gideon’s Army. AMY STUMPFL

JUNE 18-20 AT THE DARKHORSE THEATER 4610 CHARLOTTE AVE.

FRIDAY / 6.19

FILM [WHAT’S IN THE BOX]

BLEAK WEAK: SEVEN

The Belcourt is joining independent theaters across the country this week in celebrating all that is grim, gloomy, dark, desolate and hopeless with Bleak Week. Our local arthouse, in partnership with L.A.-based nonprofit American Cinematheque, has dialed up some of the

most brutal cinematic experiences — many of which you can read about in this week’s Critics’ Picks section. As someone who loves a bleak ending and an oppressive, almost suffocating atmosphere, I’m looking forward to a screening of David Fincher’s first of several serial killer thrillers, 1995’s Seven. They don’t make pop art this gross, unflinching and downright devastating anymore. It’s a shame, because given American society’s obsession with serial killers and police procedurals, you’d think we could get more propulsive, well-crafted horrorcrime mash-ups than whatever fanfic that Ryan Murphy is belching out on Netflix. If you’ve never seen it before, and somehow have never had the iconically bleak ending spoiled for you, now is your chance to see it on the big screen.

LOGAN BUTTS

8 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT

2102 BELCOURT AVE.

[SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE]

THEATER

ACTORS BRIDGE ENSEMBLE: HONOUR

Actors Bridge Ensemble closes out its 30th anniversary season this weekend with the Nashville premiere of Joanna Murray-Smith’s celebrated play Honour. Written in 1995 — the very same year ABE opened its doors — it’s a meaty work that follows the sudden collapse of a 32-year marriage. Described as “darkly comic, highly poetic and uncompromisingly savage,” Honour takes on timeless themes of love, betrayal and sacrifice, making it a natural choice for ABE. But beyond the script itself, there’s also an interesting lineage at work here. You see, this production of Honour is being directed by Lori Triolo, an award-winning actor, director and master teacher who studied under Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. And starring in the title role?

None other than ABE co-founder and producing artistic director Vali Forrister, who has led Nashville’s only dedicated Meisner training program for the past 30 years. The rest of the cast is also Meisner-trained, including Ross Bolen, Caroline Conner and Jillian Rice. It’s an exciting lineup and a fitting milestone for one of Nashville’s most respected theater companies.

AMY STUMPFL

JUNE 19-28 AT THE ACTORS BRIDGE STUDIO 4610 CHARLOTTE AVE.

SATURDAY

/ 6.20

FILM [TA-DA!]

BLEAK WEEK: WALL-E

You might not expect that sweet, 2008 robot romance WALL-E to be part of the Belcourt’s Bleak Week. Andrew Stanton’s animated, mostly silent love story between the titular trash compactor and a slim-thick droid was another Oscar-winning achievement from the Disney/ Pixar alliance. But remember, this adorable tale is set against a dystopian backdrop where the planet is a desolate trash heap and the people are slothing it up in a spaceship — rocking color-changing jumpsuits, developing cankles,

and buzzing around in souped-up flying gamer chairs, each of them living in their own virtual bubble. (Just writing that sentence made me miss the good ol’ days when sci-fi movies got the future wrong.) Since this screening is scheduled between a Béla Tarr film and the black-andwhite version of The Mist, I guess the theater wanted to give marathon audiences something colorful (and hopeful) in the middle of this monochrome misery. Nevertheless, WALL-E still presents an unsettling, gluttonous glimpse of what could happen if we keep living through our mobile devices, regularly ordering Uber Eats, refusing to touch grass. CRAIG D. LINDSEY 5:30 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

MUSIC

[CROSS THE WATER] ANANA KAYE

It’s not an official release party, but Anana Kaye’s show at The 5 Spot Saturday night will be the singer-songwriter-keyboardist’s first Nashville performance of songs from her superb new album, Are You There? Released on

March 20, Are You There? is her first full-length album as a solo artist. It’s an atmospheric and achingly beautiful record that addresses the twin themes of war and grief — she experienced both as a native of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. The album was produced by Charlie Chamberlain and co-produced by Kaye and her husband, songwriting partner and guitarist Irakli Gabriel, who is also a native of Georgia. It’s the follow-up to Whispers and Sighs, the duet album released in 2021 that she recorded with the late, great singer-songwriter David Olney. Kaye and Gabriel will perform material from both albums on Saturday, as well as something from one of her earlier EPs. Their set will also feature some songs not yet released. “Like most artists, we also want to play the new songs,” Kaye tells the Scene. “So we’re gonna play a few songs that are not recorded yet.” Jazzy singersongwriter Blonde Bullet is also on the bill. DARYL SANDERS

6 P.M. AT THE 5 SPOT 1006 FORREST AVE.

From platinum-selling chart-toppers to underground , household names to undiscovered gems, Chief’s Neon Steeple is committed to bringing the very best national and regional talent back to Broadway.

JUNE LINEUP

6.3 Ashley McBryde Trybe Fan Club Party 2026 SOLD OUT

6.4 Quartz Hill Music Group Takeover: 2 Lane Summer, Matt Cooper, Ben Gallaher, Spencer Hatcher, Lakelin Lemmings, Stevie Woodward, Special Guest Adam Sanders

6.5 Nashville Cats Takeover: Ryan Kinder, Tyra Madison, Landon Parker, Cooper Ramsey, Adam Warner

6.6 The Kirby OrganizationTakeover: Callie Twisselman, Sundance Head, Jenna Paulette, Thomas Gabriel, Lou Ridley

6.10 Caitlynne Curtis, Special Guest: Tristan Roberson

6.12 Aaron Nichols & The TravellersChris Stapleton Tribute

6.13 Strait Country TributeThe Ultimate George Strait Tribute

6.14 Larry Gatlin, Rachel Thibodeau

6.16 Buddy’s Place Writer’s Round w/ Janelle Arthur, Smithfield, Chuck Wicks

6.17 Shotgun Granny featuring Dan Tyminski, Kevin MaC

6.18 William Michael Morgan

6.20 Julie Roberts - 20th Anniversary of Men & Mascara

6.24 Uncle B’s Damned Ole Opry Takes on Alabama - The Band Not The State w/ Drake White, Reid Haughton, Thad Cockrell, Dee White + Special Guests!

6.27 David Cook

6.28 Wayne “The Train” Hancock, Special Guest: Scott Southworth

[BIRDS APLENTY]

MUSIC IN THE MEADOW: SWAN DIVE W/JIM HOKE

Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary kicks off its annual Music in the Meadow concert series Saturday evening with a performance featuring pop duo Swan Dive — Bill DeMain and Molly Felder. They will be joined by multi-instrumentalist Jim Hoke. “Hoke has played on all 10 of our records,” DeMain tells the Scene. “So he’s definitely an honorary member in good standing.” Swan Dive has won fans across the globe — they’re literally “big in Japan” — with their brand of classic pop influenced by Burt Bacharach, bossa nova and jazzy soul. Although they never broke up, the duo went on hiatus for nearly a decade when Felder moved to Washington state. They resumed performing when she moved back to Nashville two years ago and recently released a single “Stop Buying Things,” their first new original music since 2014’s Soundtrack to Me and You. DeMain says they will perform “Stop Buying Things” Saturday night, but that will be the only new song in their set list. “We’re coming up on the 20th anniversary of one of our favorite records called Until,” DeMain explains. “It was a bossa nova record, so we’re going to be kind of leaning on that. We thought that would be really nice music for an outdoor summer evening.”

DARYL SANDERS

7 P.M. AT OWL’S HILL NATURE SANCTUARY

545 BEECH CREEK ROAD S., BRENTWOOD

MUSIC [PICK UP THE TEMPO] BLUE JUNE MUSIC FEST FEAT. PHOSPHORESCENT, MXMTOON & MORE

The Blue June Music Fest lineup looks like producer John Vincent III’s dream blunt rotation. To welcome the summer solstice, the singer put together a wildflower mix of musicians highlighting folk, Americana, country and roots. Headlining the festival is Phosphorescent, the alias of singer and songwriter Matthew Houck, whose fragile, psych-tinged rock is a gift to experience live. He’s been using his unbelievably emotive voice since the early Aughts, around the time the rest of the festival performers were born. Mixing the ranks of YouTube and TikTok together, this graduating class of indie folk includes internet pop princess mxmtoon and Kate Stephenson, who uses her classical upbringing to turn breakups into beauty. There’s also Gen-Z heartthrob Ethan Regan from North Carolina, and Nashville darling Emma Andersen — both of whom have new albums coming out later in this bountiful month we call June. TOBY ROSE

7 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT EAST 917 WOODLAND ST.

SUNDAY / 6.21

[SLIDIN’ INTO HOME]

MUSIC

DIARRHEA PLANET

During their initial run from 2009 to 2018, Diarrhea Planet made a teenage dream of what a rock band ought to be into reality. The

Nashville punk-pop guitarmy gestated in the dorms of Belmont University and grew into an international touring machine that brought a lot of people together, despite starting as a kind of joke with a scatological name japing at experimental noise bands. DP played a significant role in bringing Nashville rock to the world in the 2010s, through a blend of songs that are often genuinely thoughtful (setting aside their early fan favorite and forever signature “Ghost With a Boner”) and a beast of a rhythm section. And of course, they brought an absolute explosion of guitars attacking sweet-sour hooks and anthemic riffs with a barrage of throaty power chords, pinch harmonics, fretboard tapping and controlled feedback. After touring on their third album — 2016’s Turn to Gold for storied local indie Infinity Cat Recordings — they laid down their axes while they were ahead and went out in a blaze of glory, but have popped up when the stars aligned (including a Bonnaroo tent show in 2023 that they warmed up for with, uh, a headline gig at the Ryman). Sunday night, they’ll take over Eastside Bowl with assists from two Music City punk-ish rock bands on the rise, Gremlins and Ghost Town Remedy. STEPHEN TRAGESER

7:30 P.M. AT EASTSIDE BOWL

1508 GALLATIN PIKE S., MADISON

[BE YOUR GIRL]

MUSIC

ZOË DOMINGUEZ

Singer-songwriter-guitarist Zoë Dominguez closes her Southern mini tour with a show in her hometown Sunday night at The Basement. Dominguez now lives in Memphis, so it will be the first opportunity for Nashville fans to hear her perform material from her solo debut Out the House, which was released in May 2025. On Out the House, the former Queens of Noise lead vocalist moves beyond her punk rock roots, and the result is a hooky modern rock record that showcases her exceptional songwriting. Songs like “Be Your Girl,” “Boy I’d Wanna Be” and the two singles from the album, “5-10-100” and “Leave Me Now,” demonstrate a sophistication you wouldn’t expect from an artist in her early 20s. Sunday night, Dominguez and her band — lead guitarist Mason Romanak, bassist Coral Dawley and drummer Joey Eddins — headline a triple bill of women rockers that includes poppy alt-rocker Lily Crow and shoegaze artist Jane Leopardo. “It’ll mostly be Out the House,” Dominguez says of her set list for the show. “And we have two new ones that I’ll be playing — the next two songs I’m planning to release as singles. The lead single is called ‘Multiplex’ and the other one is ‘Elizabeth’s Gun.’” DARYL SANDERS

9 P.M. AT THE BASEMENT 1604 EIGHTH AVE. S.

FILM [THE CRUELEST SIDE OF WAR] BLEAK WEAK: COME AND SEE

Whenever I engage with a war film, I find myself thinking of the quote from French New Wave director François Truffaut: “I don’t think I’ve seen an antiwar film. Every film about war ends up being pro war.” War is a common subject in film — the grand scale, the epic

drama, the interminable violence. It’s hard not to turn these events into propagandized, glorified tales of bravery instead of what they truly are: ghastly horrors. However, 1985’s Come and See is a different beast entirely. This is the one film I’d use as an antithesis to Truffaut’s argument. Director Elem Klimov pulls no punches when it comes to war, placing us in the headspace of a young boy, hungry to fight on the front lines of World War II for the Soviets. What transpires might be one of the most harrowing losses of innocence ever put to film. If you can stomach only so much of Bleak Week at the Belcourt, and can choose only one movie to see, make it this one. It’s intense, but it’s one of the truest antiwar films ever made. IAN MATTHEWS 4:40 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT 2102 BELCOURT AVE.

MONDAY / 6.22

ART [ONCE AGAIN] PAZ SUAY: ANEW: ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY PRACTICE

Valencia-born, Nashville-based artist Paz Suay brings a quietly rigorous sensibility to her first Nashville solo show at Coop Gallery. Anew is rooted in Suay’s background in architecture, art education and the sun-blasted Mediterranean landscape of her homeland. The exhibition reflects Suay’s interest in the visual alphabet and her background as a graphic designer. She organizes Anew around two connected series: Elementary Practice, which explores the foundations of form through restraint, repetition and deliberate selections of materials, and Secondary Practice, which expands the language of the initial series through scale, gesture and greater freedom. Together they describe an evolving examination of visual form built from fundamentals that ultimately inspire personal style. These ambitious multimedia works include drawing, painting, collage, ceramics, paper and wood in a palette that ranges from chalky whites and slate blacks to clay reds and earth tones. Suay’s exhibition is supported by a Metro Arts Thrive Grant and pops up for three days only. JOE NOLAN

JUNE 22-24 AT COOP GALLERY

507 HAGAN ST.

WEDNESDAY / 6.24

MUSIC [ON VACATION] JOE

JACKSON

Back in the 1980s, writers often compared the English singer, songwriter and keyboardist Joe Jackson to contemporaneous singers like Elvis Costello and Graham Parker. I never understood the comparison — unlike the soulobsessed Parker and the sometimes soulful Costello, Jackson wasn’t exactly an R&B stylist. Jackson’s breakthrough came with his 1982 album Night and Day, which combined salsa with pop and jazz. For my money, that album’s “Steppin’ Out” and “Breaking Us in Two” are prime examples of super-schlock that earn

their right to be earworms and thus big hits — Jackson has always been a real pro. I find Night and Day more durable than his early work, which isn’t as dense — or as crazy — as Costello’s 1978 This Year’s Model or Parker’s 1979 Squeezing Out Sparks. His new album Hope and Fury registers as a great example of Steely Dan Lite, right down to the guitar solos and the general air of frustration with the demands of the modern world. I mean that as a compliment — Jackson really inhabits his jazz-salsa-poprock fusion, and his tricky chord changes and mutated song structures have their pleasures. On the record’s final cut, “See You in September,” he goes to the beach for a brief vacation, and he sounds like he’s earned one.

EDD HURT

7:30 P.M AT THE RYMAN

116 REP. JOHN LEWIS WAY N.

FILM [POINTED]

THERE GOES THE POINT SCREENING

The Green Ray Books has made itself a destination not just for beautiful books and gifts, but also for hosting creative events in its intimate parking lot tucked just behind Gallatin Pike. On June 24, you will have the opportunity to witness the first screening of a new dance film, There Goes the Point, from Emma Morrison and McKay House. Both are members of Garage Collective, a movement group that has performed at several venues and galleries around Nashville in the past few years, from The Blue Room at Third Man Records to OZ Arts. There Goes the Point draws on both dancers’ experience with movement work, combining spoken word and comedy to explore the relationship between the conscious and subconscious mind. ML MEADORS

8 P.M. AT THE GREEN RAY BOOKS

3237B GALLATIN PIKE

FILM [I’M GONE]

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is a tough watch. In David Lynch’s cult-classic prequel, we spend the film falling more in love with Laura Palmer throughout her final days — all the while knowing the grisly ending that awaits her. But the film provides something that the TV series doesn’t. While Twin Peaks captures perfectly how one person can mean so many different things to different people, Fire Walk With Me gives us the ability to actually know and follow Laura, instead of piecing together her life from afar. Plus, there’s additional lore and threads to chase for die-hard fans: What happened to Annie Blackburn? Who was Teresa Banks? And why is David Bowie putting on a Southern accent? It’s not technically screening as part of the Belcourt’s Bleak Week series, but it’s fitting that Fire Walk With Me shows at the theater on June 24, one night after that series wraps. Local nonprofit attorney and domestic violence advocate Tiffany Trussell will give an intro. ANNIE PARNELL

9 P.M. AT THE BELCOURT

2102 BELCOURT AVE.

SWEET LEGACY

Lokelani Alabanza gives the cold facts about Black America’s contributions to ice cream in her new book Ice Cream Queen

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

LONG BEFORE SHE had a book contract or even an idea for what kind of book she might write someday, Lokelani Alabanza collected archival photos, cookbooks and ephemera by and about Black food writers. It wasn’t until Alabanza came to Nashville to take a job as the pastry chef at the Hutton Hotel that she started exploring tomes like The Jemima Code by Toni Tipton-Martin, which provides a look at more than 150 years of African American-authored cookbooks. Culinary school skipped over their contributions, and Alabanza says exploring them was an eye-opener.

Then, in 2018, Alabanza learned about Sarah Estell, a free Black Tennessean who made and sold ice cream from her saloon in downtown Nashville in the mid-1800s. At the time, Alabanza was working at Hattie Jane’s Creamery, and the Metropolitan Historical Commission asked her to make an ice cream

flavor honoring Estell.

“All this time I was living here and making ice cream, completely unaware that Estell, once called Nashville’s ‘Ice Cream Queen,’ was doing the same 175 years before me,” Alabanza writes in her brand-new book Ice Cream Queen: Flavors From Black America’s Past, Present & Future

The book features 100 ice cream flavors, with recipes (Alabanza has created more than 300 during her career), along with stories and history about the people and tastes behind the flavors. It includes photographs of brightly colored, actual ice cream, all made by Alabanza, who churned 50 flavors in eight days. Ice Cream Queen is the culmination of Alabanza’s years of research about Estell, her lifelong love of cooking and stories, and her ice-cream-making expertise. During the pandemic, Alabanza left Hattie Jane’s to start her business, Saturated Ice Cream — Nashville’s maker of CBD-enhanced,

plant-based ice cream.

“Why was I collecting all these photos?” Alabanza says. “I don’t know, someone was just telling me to do it.”

“It was a big thing, just changing people’s perspective of ice cream,” she says. “A lot of it was that I want you to know that Black America has been touching [ice cream] for a long time, and nobody knows that.”

In her book, Alabanza explores the significance of ice cream in Black America, its historical roots and its cultural importance. She breaks down how sugar got to the U.S. and the intense, back-breaking work enslaved people did to grow and harvest sugar cane on plantations.

“We had to tell that story of why sugar got here, and people skip over that,” she says. “I want you to know that this was terrible, but it gave us something that we now love. Like I say in the acknowledgments, if you don’t want to

Appearing 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 19, at Parnassus Books with Caroline Randall Williams and 4 p.m. Thursday, June 25, at Loeffler Randall (with ice cream!)

read your history, then I’m going to feed it to you.”

But you certainly won’t feel force-fed as you read Alabanza’s prose. The history, including the hard stuff, is woven expertly with personal stories — both her own and those of significant figures in Black ice cream. She traces the legend of the history of butter pecan to a response to the Jim Crow Era, and Black people being denied vanilla ice cream. Mint chocolate chip was invented in 1973 as part of a contest for a dessert for Princess Anne’s wedding. Alabanza’s recipe suggests using spirulina to get the green color without artificial food coloring. The strawberry pretzel salad — the first recipe she knew she would include — came from a dish a family friend made when Alabanza’s younger sister was born.

“I love an ice cream memory,” Alabanza says. When she has events, including a book tour to promote Ice Cream Queen, she starts by asking the audience to share their ice cream memories.

Alabanza grew up on the West Coast — but her grandmother was from Cleveland, Tenn., so she had a connection to Nashville and Southern cooking and preservation before she moved to town. Nashville, she says, was essential to the book’s creation.

“Otherwise, how would I have known that

Sarah Estell existed? Nashville played a major role in this book, and Nashville created the space where I was haunted by the ghost of this woman. I was definitely called here.”

In addition to delving into Estell and the history of Black America and ice cream, the book offers Alabanza’s expertise on making the best ice cream, featuring suggestions on the right equipment to buy and recipes with modifications for making vegan versions. Black Americans have higher rates of vegan diets than the rest of the population, and Saturated Ice Cream makes plant-based ice cream. There’s even a vegan option for Nashville hot chicken ice cream.

These days at Saturated, the ice cream is manufactured, so Alabanza does not make ice cream all that often anymore.

“I just made some last week, and then it was fun to make it today with a group of teenagers who hadn’t seen an ice cream machine before. I was laughing because I said, ‘Oh, I gotta look at the recipe in the book, because I don’t make dairy anymore.’ It’s been great.”

“There was a time when I was just churning it out, and it is still a part of who I am,” she says. “It’ll always be there, but now it’s becoming this book form, so it’s a different journey I’m going on now.” ▼

CULTURE

FREEDOM RINGS

Nashville’s Juneteenth celebrations continue to evolve

BY HANNAH HERNER

THE FOUNDING FATHERS signed the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago, freeing the United States from the rule of Great Britain. But it would be 87 more years before Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring enslaved people were also free. Two-and-a-half years after that — on June 19, 1865 — the news finally reached Texas. In 2026, Nashvillians continue to expand how Juneteenth is recognized. Events at the Tennessee State Museum and Centennial Park — both this Friday, June 19 — encompass a variety of celebrations, from living history reenactments to fireworks displays.

At the Tennessee State Museum, each of this year’s celebrations connects to TN250, a statewide campaign commemorating the nation’s founding. The museum’s interpretation of the theme is its Tennessee Voices exhibit, which highlights Tennesseans who have made an impact on bringing the ideals of freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to fruition.

“It does connect with Juneteenth in the ongoing process of realizing freedom,” says Tranaé Chatman, curator of social history at the Tennessee State Museum. “At the point that the Declaration of Independence is signed, people are still enslaved, so it has a meaning for some people and then a non-meaning for others. So we celebrate Emancipation Day, or the day that people were freed from slavery as an extension of those foundational ideals of

liberty and justice.”

The museum is also set to offer a full slate of activities starting at 10:30 a.m. on June 19, including living history performers, a children’s story time and crafts, tours of the exhibits, and a performance from the Sankofa African Drum and Dance Company.

“Juneteenth is ultimately a day of celebration,” Chatman says. “It’s the end of slavery. It’s a big day for people realizing that freedom. We want to focus on that specifically, but we’re a museum and we’re focused on history, so we have to be able to provide the context of it as well.”

In 1980, Texas became the first state to recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday, and it became a federal holiday in 2021. Nashville’s tradition is still evolving, building on strong Emancipation Day celebrations in the state on Jan. 1, the date the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, as well as Tennessee’s official Emancipation Day on Aug. 8 — that’s the date many East Tennesseans typically celebrate, Chatman points out.

“It’s always time for new traditions — especially ones that are really important, like this one,” Chatman says. “I think the tradition is definitely still evolving.”

Local media personality and event organizer Big Fella has been instrumental in that evolution. Due to construction at Fort Negley, his company Fellavision’s Juneteenth615 event will move this year to Centennial Park — a first

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Juneteenth Celebration 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Friday, June 19, at the Tennessee State Museum

Juneteenth615 5-9:30 p.m. Friday, June 19, at Centennial Park

for the event, which began in 2018. Big Fella measures success through how many local families host their family reunions — and how many local high schools host their class reunions — at the event. This metric makes it clear that the community is embracing Juneteenth, even as the state and federal governments’ attempts to dissolve DEI policies caused several sponsors to drop out. Plus, Big Fella explains, Centennial Park is a more expensive venue than Fort Negley, but as a free event, Juneteenth615 doesn’t earn any ticket revenue.

“I’m nervous about next year,” Big Fella tells the Scene, “because at the rate the sponsors are declining, and the rate that we’re growing, we’re in a scary place. It’s hard to stop the growth when it’s going so good, and it’s becoming such a part of the community, but I’m afraid that we will outgrow our ability to get new sponsors.”

The event, which starts at 5 p.m., is set to include two stages of performers, including Common Hymnal and T-Ran, in addition to food trucks and vendors. The Nashville African American Wind Symphony will accompany fireworks to cap off the night.

“There’s no barrier to entry for anybody, you don’t have to have anything, you just gotta want to come and celebrate freedom in America,” says Big Fella. ▼

PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENTS FOR TICKETS & UPDATES

THURSDAY, JUNE 18

6:30 PM ANDREW SEAN GREER with LINDSAY LYNCH at PARNASSUS Villa Coco FRIDAY, JUNE 19 6:30 PM

LOKELANI ALABANZA with CAROLINE RANDALL WILLIAMS at PARNASSUS Ice Cream Queen

SATURDAY, JUNE 20 10:30 AM

SATURDAY STORYTIME with TONYA ABARI at PARNASSUS Juneteenth

6:30 PM

LIZ GRIFFIN with HANNAH WHITTEN at PARNASSUS The Sorcerer and the Swan

THURSDAY, JUNE 25

SATURDAY, JUNE 20 10:30 AM

SPANISH STORYTIME HORA DE CUENTOS EN ESPAÑOL at PARNASSUS

WEDNESDAY, JULY 1 6:30 PM

BEATRIZ WILLIAMS with ARIEL LAWHON at PARNASSUS When You Loved Me

3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14 | Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 953-2243 Shop online at parnassusbooks.net

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ONLY IN DREAMS

The Frist’s new surrealism exhibit offers an expansive reckoning BY

WHAT DOES IT mean for surrealism to turn 100? Though the boundary-breaking movement’s fascinations with dreams and the subconscious strike at something universal, its artistic definition has historically been narrow. Confined to a specific scene in 1920s Paris, we often associate surrealism with familiar names — Joan Miró, René Magritte, Salvador Dalí. But these men aren’t the only dreamers, and recent explorations have sought to place surrealism in a more expansive context. In 2021, renowned London gallery Tate Modern launched Surrealism Beyond Borders, which broke the movement out of its preconceptions to explore its influence on a global scale. That exhibit laid the groundwork for International Surrealism From Tate: Fifty Years of Dreams — on view at the Frist until Aug. 30.

Fifty Years of Dreams pairs icons with underrecognized contemporaries of the surrealist movement, along with later artists whose work connects with its philosophies. Malangatana Valente Ngwenya, a Mozambican painter whose work is often exhibited under the mononym Malangatana, said he “found himself” in the tenets of surrealism. His “Untitled” from 1967 is like a technicolor Guernica — a roughly 50-by75-inch canvas of contorted bodies grimacing and eating each other. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Mexican artist Kati Horna’s photograph “Untitled From Ode to Necrophilia, Mexico City 1962 (Leonora Carrington)” captures a haunting rest.

Instead of arranging these works chronologically or regionally, Fifty Years of Dreams structures each room by loose themes — a nonstrict organization that allows the pieces to speak with each other. The room titled “Desire: Sleeping Venus” considers the politics of desire and the gaze. In a 1944 painting by Paul Delvaux, also called “Sleeping Venus,” naked women writhe and pose as a skeleton watches. One figure — the only woman wearing clothes — seems to look directly across the room at Dorothea Tanning’s 1976 painting “Murmurs,” where monstrous feminine forms curl and drape into a crescent moon. Elsewhere in the exhibition, young girls float through a hallway like they’re underwater in Tanning’s 1943 “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.”

It’s an exhibit that holds a lot at once, shedding a particular new light on surrealism’s thorny elements. Dalí’s embrace of fascism, which placed his work in direct conflict with the movement’s liberatory roots and led to his exclusion from the Parisian group, is a fascinating context from which to consider his gruesome 1936 work “Autumnal Cannibalism.” But there’s room for humor too: Magritte’s 1937 work “The Future of Statues” takes the viewer’s gaze to the ceiling, where a sky-blue bust floats, bedecked with puffy white clouds.

The expansive reckoning creates a potent

ANNIE PARNELL

conversation with contemporary artist Anila Quayyum Agha’s exhibition Interwoven, located in the gallery next door. There, the Pakistani artist plays beautifully with light and shadow, literally illuminating invisible forms of women’s labor through full-room installations with handicraft techniques.

In their own ways, both exhibits ask us to peer through the veil — and to sit with what you find there. ▼

International Surrealism From Tate: Fifty Years of Dreams Through Aug. 30 at the Frist Art Museum

INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM

The Women of Country presents GIRLS NIGHT OUT featuring Hannah Dasher, Ashland Craft, Kelsey Lamb, Jenny Tolman, Charly Reynolds, Molly Lovette, Stephanie Quayle & Andrea Vasquez

WMOT Roots Radio Presents Finally Friday featuring Chloe-Beth, Roger Clyne & Madam Radar

615 The Move Presents Juneteenth Celebration featuring Raquel Jackson, Laia Jone, Sa'Mia Mosley, Joey Richey, Nacole, Kim Flemming, Craig Robinson, Jessica Taylor & More!

Backstage Nashville! Daytime Hit Songwriters Show featuring Frank Myers, James McNair, Ryan Larkins, Ray Stephenson with Shelby Raye + Julia Hutchinson

Nicki Bluhm + Jack Blocker (895 aLIVE) The Petty Junkies

Bluebird on 3rd featuring Rebecca Lynn Howard, Carolyn Dawn Johnson & Rachel Thibodeau with Ryan Jacobs + Carly Zimmerman The Time Jumpers

Tim Miner & Friends featuring Benjy Gaither, Tabitha Fair, Chip Davis, Zach Gonzalez & Chris Rodriqeuz

Jake Hoot + Jamie Floyd with special guests Pia Toscana, Boys Club for Girls & Matt Bloyd

Satisfaction

Sweet tea Dance: Nashville Pride Closing Party Supernova - A tribute to oasis w/ Eddy Gonzo & The Gardeners Armor for sleep w/ spanish love songs and flycatcher

Amy ray Band w/ Kristy Lee the music of george harrison

Intimo Nashville Presenta:

MUSIC

FOR THEIR NEXT ACT

The Protomen go to 11 on Act III: This City Made Us

BY LANCE CONZETT

“WHEN’S ACT III COMING OUT?”

That question dogged The Protomen for nearly 17 years — effectively since the final dying notes at a sold-out Mercy Lounge show celebrating the release of Act II: The Father of Death in 2009. That is, until last year, when the band announced they would release their first album of original music (and the latest expansion of their original story based on characters from the Mega Man video game franchise) since the Obama administration.

On Act III: This City Made Us, The Protomen return to what they do best: operatic synth rock that plumbs the depths of dystopian science fiction, 1980s arena rock and the dying art of the guitar solo. But was it worth the wait? And does Act III scratch the same itch for uninitiated rock opera lovers as it certainly will for devotees who have waited patiently to hear how the story continues?

Let’s recap the story in advance of the band’s massive album release party happening Thursday through Saturday. They’ll be performing their three albums in the chronological order of the story, with Act II the first night, Act I the second and Act III as the finale. Brilliant scientist Dr. Thomas Light has been exiled from the City, framed for the murder of his beloved Emily. He’d been driven to despair over his hand in creating a technology that eliminated jobs and gave rise to a technofascist rule that has a habit of disappearing dissenters via masked goons. (This story definitely doesn’t have any relevance in the Year of Our Lord 2026.)

Light funnels his regret into the creation of two successive metal sons to wage war against his former research partner, Albert Wily. One son, Protoman, is seemingly torn to shreds in front of a slack-jawed populace. The other,

HUMAN AFTER ALL

Talking with The Human League’s Philip Oakey about more than four decades of interwoven threads in the fabric of pop music

BY JASON SHAWHAN

WITH THEIR CAREER coming up on five decades long, The Human League is more than the Fleetwood Mac of electronic music — though that’s a fair and equitable comparison for beloved bands who completely reinvent themselves from the inside out with an infusion of new members and a shift in perspective. The group is part of the enduring scene of England’s Sheffield, the setting for the soul-shattering Thatcher-era film Threads that also gave us Def Leppard, Pulp, Whigfield, ABC, Cabaret Voltaire and Arctic Monkeys. Both The Human League and Heaven 17 (who arose from HL’s 1980 schism) have been part of the global pop music discussion across multiple genres for multiple decades.

Megaman, fights his way through cybernetic hordes on a quest to avenge his brother, only to discover that things were not what they seem. He abandons his quest and the people he thought were worth saving, leaving the humans to fend for themselves.

Here’s the thing about The Protomen, though: You don’t actually need to know any of that to get swept up in their grand project. Act III doesn’t hold your hand through the lore (though physical copies do include a libretto in the liner notes). But neither does Tosca. It’s the emotional swings of the music and the band’s resolute commitment to bigger, more expansive sounds that makes Act III a successful continuation of The Protomen’s legacy.

Act III is, by all measures, an escalation. On Act II, the band cribbed from spaghetti Westerns and Ennio Morricone scores. For Act III, they literally hired Morricone’s longtime collaborators, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. On Act II, Gambler Kirkdouglas appeared as a featured vocalist. She carries nearly half of Act III, coming in like a valkyrie in a beehive, easily keeping up with Raul Panther III’s formidable lead vocals. Kirkdouglas’ expanded role is part of what makes The Protomen of 2026 exciting. At this point, the band’s lineup feels as locked-in as it’s ever been, crystallized in the crucible of a daunting schedule of tours and conventions. You can hear that unity in the dazzling Thin Lizzy-style guitar theatrics on “Calling Out.” The band has never sounded tighter than they are here.

Act III hits its apex with “Light’s Last Stand,” a Springsteenian triumph culminating in a wailing saxophone break from Tim Cappello (who is perhaps best known as the shirtless saxophonist from The Lost Boys, though he’s performed with many others including Tina Turner and Peter

Through it all, frontman Philip Oakey has been serving impeccable songcraft, visionary design, and a willingness to reflect and refract the world around with style, grace and an unflinching eye on global politics. Getting a chance to talk to one of the greats is always an intimidating delight, and Oakey spoke with the Scene via phone earlier in the spring in advance of the band’s Opry House performance on Sunday, which will also feature Alison Moyet and Soft Cell. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I’ve never spoken to someone who had a No. 1 single in both the U.S. and the U.K. — which really meant something when “Don’t You Want Me” came out in 1981. What was it like for you to have a transatlantic smash hit? Scary, because we [sensed] that we would stop being in charge of our own careers at that stage. We’d managed to do three albums more or less the way we wanted to do them. And we knew that we would start getting so much advice that it would be hard to ride that storm. And it did turn out that way. It was baffling, because we really did have about 10 years

THE PROTOMEN, 20TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW 4/27/24

Gabriel). This song is in direct conversation with “Breaking Out,” another Boss riff from the last record, and it leans into hanging their specific mythos on familiar sounds. The band’s love of ’80s sounds and structures is obvious across their entire discography, but they steer away from feeling like pastiche retreads. Their sound is distinctly their own, with their influences amped into the stratosphere.

That’s the magic trick of The Protomen: seeing a guy in a scuffed-up motorcycle helmet sing like Freddie Mercury against a bed of soaring guitars and John Carpenter synths and being immediately captivated. Panther’s voice, improbably, has gotten only more dynamic over the years, and his shifting personas across the record — from Light to Megaman to Wily and back again — have distinct tones and textures. It’s technically dazzling in a way that you’d never expect from a band that could easily coast on its high concept and rabid fan base.

where we were a little lost. We knew we weren’t as good as people thought we were.

As chaotic as that time must have been for you, some of that work is incredible and endures. I’ve heard people cover “Louise” in dive bars here in Nashville, a big country music town, and it goes over like gangbusters. I would love to hear that. … My girlfriend actually asked me about that last night — if “Louise” was meant as a sequel to “Don’t You Want Me.”

And I said, “Yeah, it’s the same two people.” Apparently that was the legend for a time.

Do you think it’s fair to call “Don’t You Want Me” the national anthem of the ache of love? Yes. I don’t think anyone has ever said “ache” before. I’m always surprised that people don’t notice that it’s a power politics song. It’s a man trying to control a woman when he does not really stand a chance. And so often people will say, “Oh, it’s just a bit of a love song.”

The glorious, martial, cold sound of it reinforces that so well. It’s always an electrifying moment when you’re at karaoke, and you’ll see a couple sing

In an age when rock music is out of favor in the pop mainstream, The Protomen are giving it to you big, loud and covered in silver facepaint. Listening to Act III is like having pyrotechnics go off in your face. It’s as big a record as has ever been recorded by a local rock band — and maybe bigger than any rock band that’s come into fashion over the past 20 years.

In press materials, the band has said this story arc has concluded with Act III. But like all Protomen albums, it ends on a down-note cliffhanger, suggesting that there’s more story to tell and a final fight to be won. So with all that said: When’s Act IV coming out? ▼

it — and as they’re singing, they’re realizing what the song is really about, and you see it becoming awkward in real time, in a beautiful way. There’s a lot awkward about us.

“Together in Electric Dreams” is a beautiful song, an anthem really. I don’t know if this was the case in the U.K., but in the U.S., particularly during the HIV and AIDS plague years, a lot of DJs would play that as their last song of the night. It was a dedication to those lost and something aspirational, a hope for something beyond all this. I don’t think anyone has ever mentioned that. I’m glad you said it. The basic story behind it was to do a happy song for the end of a film

[Steve Barron’s 1984 Electric Dreams]. [Giorgio] Moroder wrote it and said to the director, “Who can sing this song in a way that will make people leave the cinema in a good mood?” And Steve Barron suggested me. So I’m glad it’s been more than that. In the wake of the COVID pandemic, a lot of people have forgotten the devastation that HIV and AIDS caused for so many communities. And anything that connects to remembering that is good. Jumping around a bit, what’s the story with your appearance on “What Comes After Goodbye” by Respect? I think they were just some people we knew.

MUSIC: THE SPIN

IT’S A ’ROO AGE

BY SCENE STAFF AND CONTRIBUTORS

Find all of our daily coverage of Bonnaroo at nashvillescene.com/music, featuring contributions from staffers Julianne Akers, Hamilton Matthew Masters, Annie Parnell, D. Patrick Rodgers and Emily R. West; freelancers Grace Braswell and Victor J. Reed; MTSU students Lily Agee, Lauren Blake, Canaan Chavis, Nick Hoeksema, Jesse Jones, Zoe Kuhn and Bailey Lowe; and their teacher, Scene contributor Matthew Leimkuehler, and his editorial assistant, Scene contributor Cole Villena.

THE RAIN-OUT at 2025’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival left a lot of Bonnaroovians somewhat apprehensive about Bonnaroo 2026. This year’s marathon multi-genre fest, which ran June 11 through 14, was a trial by fire (and mud) for the procedural tweaks and site improvements fest organizers announced following last year’s debacle. Not everything was an unqualified win. A Thursday evening power outage affected about half of The Bonnaroo Farm for a couple hours. Fans grumbled about the call to move That Tent into the same field as the main What Stage, citing sound bleed and how a Friday morning shower quickly turned that area (and many other parts of the festival site) into a smelly mud pit for the weekend.

Storms again caused delays on Saturday — as well as Sunday, when the deluge lasted long

I had the world’s tiniest record label [Superealism], with one record by a gospel band called Eliakim, and Malcolm [Walmsley] had produced the record. So as a favor a few years later, I said “I’ll sing on your record.” And I wish it had been more listened to.

Did you ever get to travel on the Concorde? No, I didn’t, and I’m such a geek that the Concorde looms in my mind. Sometimes I think that’s what proves we’ve gone backwards, in that we used to have a really fast airplane, and now we don’t. And there’s something very sad about that.

enough that some sets were canceled. Despite all that, fans’ desire to build a community for a few days and enjoy a heaping helping of live music together let Bonnaroo 2026 end on a high note overall. Here are some highlights from our time on the Farm.

Aside from performances at the Plaza stages in the campgrounds and a surprise-announced late-night Skrillex show at The Other, the only other shows Thursday were at What Stage. Grunge-y, New Wave-y band Spiritual Cramp kicked off the action while a still-small crowd of Bonnarooivans grew in a steady stream. A little while later, rapper and singer Vince Staples had fans in the palm of his hand with songs from his rocking latest LP Cry Baby

The power outage, delay and resulting pareddown visuals didn’t faze Four Tet, the project of British electronic artist Kieran Hebden. Samples flowing from lush strings to PinkPantheress lyrics created a dynamic mix of mellow and high-energy vibes — the perfect thing to usher in the evening and calm frustrations. Thick clouds of smoke rolled across the stage and Bonnaroovians packed in tight, cheering for headliner Skrillex’s long-awaited return to the Farm after more than a decade. The electronic producer and EDM figurehead’s performance united longtime fans and first-time attendees. After Friday’s rain, festivalgoers tiptoed and waddled bandy-legged through the fresh mud. The day’s theme was rock ’n’ roll characterized by punk ferocity and in plenty of cases socially conscious thoughtfulness. Brits like Lambrini Girls and Wet Leg, Australia’s The Chats and buzzy Baltimore outfit Turnstile kept the energy at its

That feeling definitely informs your track with the Pet Shop Boys, “This Used to Be the Future,” which I love and should have been a single. I always wanted to try and do a ballad with the Pet Shop Boys. Whenever I would see Neil [Tennant] I would tug at his shirt and say, “We should be the new Righteous Brothers.” Maybe we’re not too old for that.

You’re all still working and making great stuff. I’ve always found it really funny that ZTT Records ripped off their record classification system from The Human League. It all has to come from somewhere. Paul Morley, ZTT’s director of marketing and media, was one of our early champions, so they were very welcome to it. He definitely helped us, so we helped him. He is a great writer — his collaboration with Grace Jones on her autobiography is stunning. On your ’90s run at EastWest Records, I want to thank you for introducing me to the work of Martin Freeland (Man With No Name), because that remix of “These Are the Days” was my way into Goa trance. It’s fascinating and inspiring how The Human League’s songs have remained part of musical culture by your work being in dialogue with that of other musicians through the years. “Love Action (I Believe in Love)” is an anthem. But look at the way Utah Saints transformed it into their track “Believe in Me,” and then later incorporated “Love Action” into a remix of another of your songs, “Tell Me When.” Then “Love Action” became the cornerstone of George Michael’s “Shoot the Dog,” one of the most politically angry pop songs of the

peak. Wednesday left it all on the floor at their ’Roo debut, with frontwoman Karly Hartzman showcasing her incredible way of building the energy of a song with her vocal dynamics. Rapidly rising New York indie rockers Geese rewarded intrepid fans by belting songs from 2023’s 3D Country as well their jammy, more tenderhearted 2025 LP Getting Killed. A singalong to the poignant “Au Pays du Cocaine” juxtaposed with a meme-able moment when frontman Cameron Winter shouted out a totem depicting an overflowing cauldron of semen

Tony Blair-George W. Bush era. That was a different time, but the work endures. Those songs are still with us. That art is still with us. I don’t want to get too academic about it, but I think pop music is like language. The way that it develops and incorporates what came before. And then all of a sudden, 20 years later I realize I stole something from an Iggy Pop record at some stage and then just forgot. That’s why copyright in music sometimes worries me. I mean, I quite like earning money, but we all depend on the people that have gone before, and we owe it to the people that come after, to give them a chance to add their stuff to it. That’s my thoughts on pop music — it’s just people talking to people across the years.

I was going through my CDs in preparation for our conversation, and man, “Heart Like a Wheel” hits way harder these days. And sadly, that’s the world, I guess. The longer you look at it, the more you start to think nothing seems to change. We think things are going in a peaceable direction, and they’re not. But I think there is some comfort there, because people have always survived. And the worst and scariest things that have happened, people have managed to survive.

The cycles of history can be comforting and terrifying. I am among many who are very psyched to see you and Susanne and Joanne when you come to Nashville. We can’t wait. Nashville was the first place I ever saw fireflies. I had heard of them, but I was walking through Nashville, and I saw them flying around the trees, and I was amazed. ▼

(“Bowl! Of! Cum!” chanted the crowd, as we checked off “R-Rated Totem” on our Bonnaroo Bingo card), kinda summing up the Geese ethos. The Strokes headlined, bringing the experience of 28 years and a half-dozen albums as a rock band with almost their entire original lineup intact. Frontman Julian Casablancas leaned into his now-familiar onstage candor, pacing the stage and peppering the set with banter and stray observations. A note-perfect rendition of “The Modern Age” transported us back to 2001, and the set peaked with the

WEDNESDAY

explosive combination of “Reptilia” and “Last Nite.” Atlanta’s King of Crunk Lil Jon kept the party going late into the night, as fans formed a conga line and would not let the muck slow them down.

Saturday brought a dynamic mix, including rising country aces Waylon Wyatt and Wyatt Flores, tender soul music from Teddy Swims, and emotional electronic music from Aussie-born headlining trio Rüfüs Du Sol Rainbow Kitten Surprise brought a bombastic set of alt-rock anthems to their long-awaited ’Roo return. Southern rock ’n’ soul champions Alabama Shakes, who returned from hiatus in the past year, took What Stage with singer-guitarist Brittany Howard resplendent in a white robe. New material has been trickling out slowly, but Saturday’s show was all about band interplay and fan favorites like their signature song “Hold On.” As a precursor to her Sunday solo set, pop queen and Nashville native Kesha hosted Superjâm Esotérica: The Alchemy of Pop. It was a colorful dance party featuring a mix of acts on some of pop music’s greatest hits, from bluegrass mash-ups with help from Mountain Grass Unit to rockers with Margo Price on drums to the beloved “Weird Al” Yankovic singing Sia’s “Chandelier.” To close out the set, all the guests came back out for Prince’s “Purple Rain,” when — as if by fate — a soft drizzle began to fall. In the wee hours, “Weird Al” shepherded in a peak ’Roo experience with a delirious amount of costume changes, getting the audience to shed their inhibitions and sing along to “Amish Paradise.” Nashville DJ Effin took the late-night crown, closing down the fest’s Where Stage with a sunrise set that saw bleary-eyed ravers mingling with coffee-sipping early risers. Sunday started and ended strong, but fans, bands and crew had to fight through a significant rain delay in the middle. A bit after 2 p.m., Kentucky-born rock duo Girl Tones’ electrifying set was cut short by a downpour. Centeroo was evacuated, and flooded in some parts to the point that pumps had to be hauled in to clear standing water. The length of the storm coupled with the effort to make the grounds safe to navigate pushed back several sets and forced others to be canceled. (Sorry, Blondshell.)

But the gates were back open shortly after 5

p.m. and Japanese Breakfast was one of the first performers to take the stage on the adjusted schedule. The project’s central figure Michelle Zauner was effervescent as she led the band through deep cuts and fan favorites from across her catalog. Meanwhile, devoted fans screamsang along with viral pop songsmith Audrey Hobert, and Clipse — the long-dormant rap duo of brothers Pusha T and Malice — commanded the crowd with older songs and selections from their 2025 reunion LP Let God Sort ’Em Out, which they proclaimed as “still the album of the year.”

As strobe lights flashed across the packed field in front of Which Stage, one thing was certain: Kesha’s back, and better than ever. She followed up Saturday’s Superjam with her first performance as a solo artist at the fest. Liberation was the theme, as she announced that she’s created all-new production for her back catalog following the end of the contract that bound her to producer Dr. Luke despite years of alleged abuse. The set overflowed with songs new and old and costume changes, as well as wishes for a happy Pride Month and a quintessential Kesha salute: “Will you please make some noise for these perfect fucking tits!”

As Bonnaroovians trudged through the muck toward What Stage, folk star Noah Kahan, fresh off the release of The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs, stepped out under the neon green glow of the Bonnaroo sign for the final headline set of the year. He stared into the sea of cellphone lights as he launched into “American Cars,” a stomp-and-holler song from the new LP.

He put his mastery of emotional lyricism and the conversational warmth of his voice on display with tunes like “Orbiter,” a song that explores the importance and beauty of human connection. Kahan also brought out his wit, jibing the crowd: “I just love seeing you guys dance to music that is just so sad.” Near the end of the show, he took the opportunity to pare back his catalog classic “Stick Season” to just his voice and acoustic guitar, turning the fest into a giant campfire sing-along session. The set ended amid a post-rain chill in a glittery shower of fireworks, and teary-eyed fans made their way back to their campsites, already looking forward to rekindling the sense of togetherness next year. ▼

Saturday, June 20

SONGWRITER SESSION Tenille Townes NOON · FORD THEATER

Sunday, June 21

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Charlie McCoy 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Monday, June 22 – Saturday, June 27 FAMILY PROGRAM String City

NASHVILLE’S TRADITION OF MUSIC AND PUPPETRY 10:00 am and 11:30 am FORD THEATER FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Thursday, June 25

MARIONETTES AND MARGARITAS String City

NASHVILLE’S TRADITION OF MUSIC AND PUPPETRY 6:00 pm · FORD THEATER 21+

WITNESS HISTORY

Sunday, June 28

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Mark W. Winchester 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, July 4

SONGWRITER SESSION Smithfield

NOON · FORD THEATER

Sunday, July 5

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT Darin and Brooke Aldridge 1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, July 11

SONGWRITER SESSION Summer Overstreet

NOON · FORD THEATER

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.

6.23

7.3

NEW OLD TESTAMENT

Adrian Chiarella’s queer horror debut Leviticus is disturbing —

in many senses of the word

BY JASON SHAWHAN

A FILM THAT wants to be several different things to a lot of different people, Leviticus has a killer hook: someone relentlessly pursued by a pitiless and cruel entity clad in the guise of whatever their fondest desire is. And because the focus of this film and this being is queer Australian teens, we’re seeing something that we don’t often see in genre cinema. The preferred mainstream conversion narratives tend toward inspirational drama or documentary — either something to be endured and triumphed over, or something to be depicted in order to foment rage. And whatever its relative strengths and weaknesses, Leviticus is not about an easy or clear narrative.

In a desolate stretch of Australia — equal parts industrial decay and strip mall economics — new kid Naim (Joe Bird from Talk to Me) and local floppy-curled scofflaw Ryan (Stacy Clausen) have tumbled into the back-and-forth of something like a high school relationship. They hang out, they explore the weird landscapes around them, they throw rocks at each other (which is certainly a way of co-opting the language of the oppressor), and occasionally they kiss. It’s all very drenched in golden-hour possibility, with that subtle tinge that colors all those feelings with operatic intensity while at the same time holding back … because it’s no big deal, dude. But it is a big deal, both to the town’s religious folk (a fascinating amalgam of dreary sub-Hillsong Protestant music, fellowship hall collectivism and Breaking the Waves-style absolutism that feels tapped into something far older than beige-storefront Christianity) and to queer audiences watching this film — though for completely different reasons. The signs of queerness require intervention, whether it’s something like speech therapy or something like the mysterious “faith healer” who undertakes a simple but deeply unsettling ritual that sets this whole endeavor in motion.

One of the most heartwrenching lessons that any queer person learns is that not everyone in the alphabet family is necessarily on your side. In a just world, you’d see LGBTQ people like Peter Thiel and Sam Altman using their billions to help instead of burning the world. And that’s part of the thread woven through this film’s horrors — an unfixable fracture that tears apart families and relationships because the only way this curse can end is in death … and that’s a really fucked-up message for Pride Month. But it’s also a lesson most people are aware of just by looking around; any sort of social acceptance proves conditional, all too eagerly wrenched back if the prevailing winds decide to embrace something crueler and lazier.

Whatever they tell themselves their motivation is, parents who want their queer kids to be “normal” really just want things to be easier for themselves, rather than wanting to change the world and customs that they’ve lived in and benefited from. That isn’t a surprise when you look around and see organizations that claim the name and message of Christ to justify their grifting, lies and cowardice — and it makes things much easier for those organizations to simply not have any form of other around. There’s a big moral uncertainty at the center of this film, and writer-director Adrian Chiarella is doing an impressive tap dance to keep us guessing what the inciting horror at the heart of this film is — whether it’s the mere existence of these teens in this community, the betrayal of a child by their parent, or the betrayal of a jealous onlooker. This is an untenable foundation, because if you’re going to structure your story in a way that puts these three things on the same moral footing, that’s fucked-up. Chiarella seems to care for Ryan and Naim, but the journey of this film is exacting and a lot to process. It doesn’t feel conventional in structure or narrative, and yet there’s an infuriating gay-bashing that inspires anger at the cliché rather than what it is and what it represents.

Bird and Clausen are both very good, and Chiarella has an unconventional approach that does an effective job of keeping the viewer off balance. Among Australia’s current queer horror vanguard, he’s not a poet like Nicholas Verso or a conductor of emotions like Alice Maio Mackay. (The latter’s 2022 film Bad Girl Boogey accomplishes a lot of what Leviticus serves up but with a more clarified rage and razor-sharp focus.) But Chiarella is certainly making an auspicious debut on the global cinema stage. There’s a choice made at the end of the film, however, that almost derails the whole thing; either this is a closed system or an open one, and the film’s unwillingness to commit either way robs it of myriad strengths. For all my issues, Leviticus is a film that finds the tender and vulnerable parts of the brain and drives unpleasant thoughts directly into the electrified goo therein. It eschews anything coming close to a binary, qualitative response and instead keeps you up at night for too many disparate reasons. “Disturbing” is one of those words that can encompass everything from snuff reels to Project 2025, and it is a word that encompasses Leviticus and its hits and misses perfectly. ▼

Leviticus

R, 88 minutes

Opening Friday, June 19, at the Belcourt

BACK OF THE BOOK

ACROSS

1 Cliff formed by a fault

6 Avoided a tag, say

10 Penultimate Greek letter

13 “My fault entirely”

14 Taste perception first identified in 1908

15 Physics unit named for a physicist

16 Feature that debuted on Page 1 of The New York Times in 1997

18 Confucian “way”

19 Prime breeding environment for mosquitoes

20 Impression on some fancy sheets

22 Puente of “The Mambo Kings”

23 Traveled path

24 At sea, say

27 Powerful fireboat gear

30 Rationalist’s theology

31 Decree

32 Part of an analogy

33 “___’s da breaks!”

34 Lovestruck

37 Flesh and blood

38 Biblical locale guarded by a flaming sword

40 Direction to bow, in music

41 Squeezing (out)

43 Gets bloated, say

45 Pair for a pool

46 Ruthless Athenian lawgiver

47 Tidy up, in a way

48 What collects in a puddle

49 Things often getting free refills

54 Simile segment

55 Broadcasting giant with hundreds of stations

57 ___ Friday

58 Origin of the words “sky” and “scrape”

59 Heather genus that’s also a woman’s name

60 Good periods

61 Former small-sized G.M. cars

62 Compound with a caret-shaped molecule, as depicted by this puzzle’s circled letters DOWN

1 Anatomical containers

2 Thicken

3 Palindrome on an Italian restaurant menu

4 September to April, in the oyster industry

5 Alternatives to hourly wages

6 Ecological concern

7 Trellis piece

8 “If u ask me”

9 Gossip about, informally

10 A peeling that’s appealing?

11 Prolifically posting about one’s kids online, in a neologism

12 Reassuring reply

14 “That … ain’t it”

17 Essence

21 Certain tax-free bond, informally

23 Velocity, e.g.

24 Relatively unusual

25 Had to have right away

26 Races against the clock

27 Travel by pick-up?

28 “The Elder” or “The Younger” Roman

29 Strains to hear?

31 Hemlock relatives

35 Hand, at a hacienda

36 Group with a satellite truck

39 Palindrome on an Indian restaurant menu

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

42 Seven-stringed instrument that gave the guitar its name

44 Ancient book of divination

45 Member of a sluglike “Star Wars” species

47 Presaging disaster

48 Meaty

Rocky

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