The Contributor (https://thecontributor.org/category/features/page/5/)
Wendell Segroves, a skilled craftsman and a former member of the Metro Homelessness Commission and Homelessness Planning Council, moved to Old Tent City in 2004. Wendell and his dogs. Photo by Steve Samra
“There were only five people there and I had to be invited in,” he said. “It was Nashville’s best kept secret.”
In those days, the camps were spread out. “We kept to ourselves,” explained Wendell.
… this land had served as a sanctuary for unhoused residents for over 40 years. It was never just a camp.
Darla the dog came to visit us in the fall of 2008. It was when we lived in that little duplex right by the train tracks with car-glass and graffiti in the backyard.
One of the most powerful men in Tennessee was indicted for murder a more than a hundred years ago.
Rico X has worked with young people throughout his career and recently was named the chief mission delivery officer of the Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee.
Identical twins Danny and Michael Philippou started their filmmaking careers creating wrestling videos in their Adelaide, Australia, backyard when they were 11 years old.
Looming federal funding cuts to permanent housing programs could end housing assistance for tens of thousands of people nationwide, including some Nashvillians.
What we didn’t expect was to be so touched and ultimately impressed by the stories that were shared.
If you were to drive one mile south of downtown and hang a left on Anthes Drive which snakes down to the Cumberland River, you would find over 20 acres of land that are now fenced off and flanked with barbed wire and “no trespassing” signs. Over the past 40 years, thousands of unhoused Nashvillians have called this land home. Before it was closed by city officials in June of 2025, the area was endearingly, and somewhat notoriously, known as Old Tent City. On my first visit to the camp in September of 2008, thick morning fog held around trees, emanating from the riverbank. I walked the well-worn footpath with other outreach workers past the Music City Star tracks along an old chain-link fence.
When I saw the trailer for Friendship, I thought it looked like a new, fun Seth Rogen-style comedy about male friendship, male loneliness and male stupidity. Sold!