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A FAMILY PORTRAIT PA R T F I V E O F S I X
SAINT CECILIA (THE PRAYING CITY) PA R T F I V E O F S I X
ON THE COVER On the eve of her thirteenth birthday Rose Jensen returns to her favorite Nashville park, Percy Warner. One of the grand city parks in America, for Rose, Percy Warner has long been a place of respite from her inner-city apartment in a dangerous Nashville neighborhood. For Rose the park is a temple.”
When a deadly tornado tore across Al Baugh’s neighborhood in North Nashville on 3 March 2020 uprooting trees and tearing apart houses his house was spared. He credits his yard angel and God. FR OM TH E JO UR NA L: Al’s house. He was A tree collapsed on the front of out when it standing in the door trying to get him. “See where it happened. His wife’s angel saved re she was sittin’. come down?,” he said. “That’s whe a man said the If that post would have came out .” After workers whole house would have collapsed el on the stump. cut the tree Al said he put the ang it beside her. put and Picked up her broken wing said, ‘Thank you, “I got up. I put her right there. I Baby. Thank you.’”
AL’S ANGEL
SAINT CECILIA (THE PRAYING CITY) PA R T F I V E O F S I X
At top, a chef serves guests during a charity food fair at Fat Bottom Brewing Co. in The Nations neighborhood of Nashville, autumn of 2017. Middle, with the whole world seemingly locked down due to the pandemic toddler Bradley Bars shares a laugh with his mother Alex while receiving his very first haircut, courtesy of neighborhood Barber Jessica Ratcliff, on the Bars’ back porch in West Nashville, April 2020. Bottom: Members of Friendship Church in The Nations, pictured here in 2017, said “No” to selling the property. They said it is important for new Nashville to have access to the old so they will stay and be good neighbors.
SAINT CECILIA (THE PRAYING CITY) PA R T F I V E O F S I X
H A S FA I T H I N F L U E N C E D T H E D E E P P E RS O NA L I T Y O F NA S H V I L L E ? A small anonymous group of Nashvillians (and a couple of outsiders) spent the last two and a half years working to discover the soul of Nashville today, and to record it. Authentically. Objectively. Not as a promotion or a commercial venture, but as a family portrait. IT IS NOT ALWAYS THE PICTURE YOU EXPECT.
The intent is to understand who we really are, separately and together. What is the character of this city that has made it magnetic for so many? And what are we becoming? Things no census or annual report will ever say. Nashville is a city of believers. We don’t all believe exactly the same things, but we do seem to believe in God, doing good, and each other. Visitors and newcomers o en observe that, beyond our reputation for entertainment, tourism and business growth, Nashville is an overwhelmingly and unexpectedly kind, nice and hospitable city. They also say they have never seen so many places of worship in one place in their lives. “A Church, Mosque, Synagogue or Temple on every corner!” So, is it possible that our generosity of spirit has indeed been shaped by our city’s centuries-old spiritual leanings? A benevolent side-effect of our environment, consciously and unconsciously steeped in faith? Faith is born of Wonder and Awe. And in this issue, tales of Wonder and Awe abound. From the unifying moment of a community gazing together at the solar eclipse, to one man’s personal quest for a “Matador’s Spirit.” An inner-city child’s return to a “wonderland” park that is her temple. And the terrible awe and generous service of survivors in the a ermath of our tornado. As well as the origins of our music in the vespers and hymns of the Sisters of St. Cecilia (Patron Saint of Music) and the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Gospel, and bluegrass. But Faith is also born of Need. And we have needs here as well. Nashville has always been a praying city. And we pray that the deep a itudes of wonder and faith that have motivated Nashville for generations to engage in generosity and kindness will also move us to meet/a end to/solve the needs of each and all of our neighbors today.
In North Nashville across the street from the historic Maxwe ll House Hotel there is a gated campus of rolling lawns and colonial brick buildings: The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Motherhouse (founded: 1862. Name d for the Patron Saint of Music). Each night the Sisters of St. Cecilia gather in their vaulted chapel and sing their prayers, unbeknownst to most of Nashville. They have been doing so for 150 ye ars. Like the world famous Fisk Jubilee Singers from nearby Fisk University, founded around the same time, the two groups sing from a shared spirit of faith common to this town and so reveal a deep part of the personality of the city of Nashville.
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Above, students pay tribute to the famousgFisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University durin ck a black history ce lebration at McKissa Middle School in Nashville, February pictured 2018. At right, Fisk Unive rsity, here in 2019, is one of the oldest universities in Nashville--founded in 1866. Like manyt, Nashville universities--Be lmont, Vanderbil Trevecca, Aquinas College, Lipscomb-- a Fisk was born of faith and has hadof the significant impact on the personality city of Nashville.
Jace Gregory, 12, enters a new chapzeterd in his life as he prepares to be bapti at Temple Baptist Church in North Nashville, August 2019.
JAC E I S B A P T I Z E D
ECLIPSE
In August of 2017 we witnessing the total ec shot the first official photos for this “ a fitting beginning folipse of the sun from their west/north We Are Nashville” story: Children r our story. Nashville neighborh ood. Wonder: It is
FROM THE JOURNAL: July 2018: The first person we met for this “We Are Nashville” story was Joshua Smith, a man in search of what he calls “The Spirit of the Matador.” Joshua had just returned from running with the bulls in Spain and was preparing to train as a bull fighter. Now here we are with him in California watching him pursue his dream. By day he is a Nashville restauranteur. But in his other life he is a global adventurer.
SAINT CECILIA (THE PRAYING CITY) PA R T F I V E O F S I X
Ryan Bult built a dream. He didn’t set out to build it. It was an extension of how he lives. He hangs out with people. He cares about them. So he built them something. A “dream center.” Literally a place for people to gather and socialize and serve and study. And dream. Ryan chose as his address the Preston Taylor neighborhood, one of Nashville’s notorious gang neighborhoods. And Ryan made sure that he lived outside in the neighborhood with his new friends. During a neighborhood Christmas party Ryan organized in December 2017 a young girl cautiously approached Santa Claus standing in the parking lot. She stood in front of him as if stunned. She whispered to her brother that she had never ever seen Santa Claus. She said, “I didn’t know he was real.” When finally she dared to approach him she wrapped herself around him as if she would cry.
T H E TO R NA D O
After the storm what remains? The deep rooted things. And the people and trees young enough to bend. The old things stabilize the ground for the young and flexible, and together they pick up the pieces. Top: North Nashville resident Erin Oprea roamed Monroe street serving neighbors and coordinating service volunteers the morning after the deadly Tennessee tornado of March 3. Middle: A few miles north of Nashville London, 10, inspects the damage at the historic home of her greatgrandfather, David Young Sr., 90, in hard hit Donelson.
Church t tis ap B l el w pe Ho of s er b em m , e ov Ab d sing in Germantown gather to prnaythan r te af y da e w do n su at � ce ra G g “Amazin olly M e ll vi h as N t as E , t gh ri t A . o ad n the tor in d n sta ff sta d an s er n ow re sto en Gre t as E er rm fo r ei th of or ri te in ed oy the destr nado. tor e th r te af k ee w a n tio ca lo e ll vi Nash
, Je rry nd la od wo ic bl pu a in , le vil sh Na of t ar he e In th . He built it with a Ev e wif s hi d an f el ms hi for me ho a ilt bu e. He his own hands because he had to have astypl.”acIt eistoaslivnice as was on the streets. He calls it “Hobo Dyna ge. Here he is in any summer camp or primitive hunting lod-working shop. January 2020 after completing his wood
g vin ser try nis mi a h wit rs tee un vol o wh , ock url Sp n Lillia d the Nashville’s home less (pictured at bottom), sai ve home less are not all without means. Manyghhacos small incomes, even jobs. But due to thgee t hicaught int ofa living and other circumstances they . So they end cycle they can’t get out of by themselevvesen to build a up staking out a safe places to rest or camp. At right: A woman sleeps on a publStic. bench at the intersection of 9th Ave. and Church
A FA M I L Y P O RT R A I T : A S I X - PA RT S E R I E S T H E A M E R I CA N D R E A M A N D H O T C H I C K E N (THE HEART OF THE CITY) T H E A M E R I CA N D R E A M PA RT T WO ( T H E E X PA N D I N G C I T Y )
ROSES’ TEMPLE
In February 2020 on the eve of her thirteenth birthday Rose Jensen returned to her favorite Nashville park, Percy Warner, to play in the trees of her “temple.” Middle: The best dressed take the stage for their awards during Nashville’s “Best Dressed Ball” at Marathon Music Works in downtown Nashville, November 2017. The annual event benefits The American Cancer Society.
T H E B I RT H O F A S O N G ( T H E L OV I N G C I T Y )
THE SECRET LIFE OF A HOUSE (THE PERMANENT CITY)
SAINT CECILIA ( T H E P R AY I N G C I T Y )
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BIG E MEETS MISS CLARE ( T H E C I T Y U N I T E D)
THE TEAR
FROM THE JOURNAL: 4 June 2020: “Cameron Smith, 19, cried as protestors chanted at police officers during their march down Broadway in Nashville. Her tear was the true protest because it was not a protest for or against anything except the pain itself. I felt her tear was the most innocent and profound protest a person could make–it was the essence of every protest ever uttered.”