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Soulful Dudes

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In the 1990 hip-hop anthem “Fight the Power,” Chuck D of Public Enemy slammed Elvis Presley. Elvis may have been “a hero to most,” but for the militantly conscious rapper, that “sucker” was a “straight-up racist,” lumped with the conservative icon John Wayne. 

The lyrics evoked the long, complicated debate over Presley’s legacy: Did his music bridge a racial chasm, or did he steal from Black artists? In Before Elvis, Preston Lauterbach flips the frame on this question. He explores Elvis through the lives of the Black musicians who shaped his style. Lauterbach is the acclaimed author of books that explore the history of Black music and Black Memphis, including The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll, Beale Street Dynasty, and Bluff City.

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Learn More About Community Organizing

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Federal edicts and missiles over these past couple of weeks have created chaos among nonprofit organizations, state and local agencies and others who are focused on serving people who struggle to make ends meet. Among some of the confusion created by the White House was the threat of halting a large portion of federal grant funding that Congress has allocated for agencies serving some of the most vulnerable populations in our nation. It remains unclear what direction the federal government intends to take next. Add all the uncertainty from the federal level with the Tennessee’s legislature’s approach to target marginalized populations and those who offer support, no wonder that fears and tensions run high. The question becomes, what can we do after an election that reinstated representation we have at the state and the federal government?

Black and white image of Cumberland Furnace, an old wodden building next to a railroad crossing.
Features

Cumberland Furnace

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Many Nashvllians know that ironmaster Montgomery Bell (1769-1855) had an iron forge at the Narrows of the Harpeth in Davidson County 30 miles west of Nashville. Many have launched a canoe there. Far fewer know much about Cumberland Furnace, which Bell purchased for $16,000 in 1804 from James Robertson when he moved to Tennessee from Lexington, Ky. The wilderness tract included beech, elm, walnut, chestnut, oak and pine trees needed to make the charcoal to fuel the forge. Bell systematically purchased additional land, much of it in nearby Montgomery County, where he received permission from the county court to erect a ferry across the Cumberland River 10 miles east of Cumberland Furnace.

Movie poster of Look Into My Eyes. It features an illustration looking into the window of an apartment building. In the window is a woman sitting at a table illuminated by a candle.
Features

‘Look Into My Eyes’ documents contemporary loneliness and the supernatural

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Most Nashvillians will know filmmaker Lana Wilson for her Taylor Swift documentary, Miss Americana (2020). Wilson also directed the Brooke Shields documentary Pretty Baby (2023) as well as an examination of extremism and abortion in America (After Tiller, 2015), and a meditation on suicide in Japanese culture (The Departure, 2017). Wilson’s new movie, Look Into My Eyes reads like a blend of the filmmaker’s curiosities with interesting personalities and particular cultural trends. The movie was released by A24 in September and it’s now streaming on MAX. Look Into My Eyes is a mosaic portrait of a handful of psychic readers in New York City.