Nashville, the first full day

We all trickled into Nashville on Sunday 1/13, so we continued our orientation this morning as a whole group.  The Media Mobilizing Project gave a presentation on the Head Start program, including a documentary they produced about the Pennsylvania Head Start system.  It prompted some excellent discussion about the purpose of education, the agency of poor parents, and the limitations of government-funded programs.  

We headed off to the Nashville Public Library, and met up with representatives from the Nashville Homeless Power Project and from the Living Wage campaign at Vanderbilt University.  After a short presentation by each organization, featuring documentaries created about their struggles and brief Q&As, we divided into two groups.  

One group went with Megan Macavaez, of Jobs With Justice and instrumental with the VU living wage victory, and Diane Faires, a student at Vanderbilt Divinity School who has been organizing with other VU students on behalf of the people who hold the lowest-paid jobs at their school.  The other went with Clemmie Greenlee, Tony, and other staffers and friends of Homeless Power on a tour of downtown Nashville, focusing on sites where homeless folks gather, or used to before they were pushed out.  

We came back together for dinner at Woodmont Christian Church, where we're staying.  Joining us were some of our new friends from Homeless Power, along with representatives from The Magdalene Project.  Magdalene is a two-year residential community in Nashville helping women recover from a history of drug abuse and prostitution, and providing them with job training through the production, marketing, and sale of their line of earth-friendly body care products, called Thistle Farms.  Our first speaker was Becca Stevens, an Episcopal priest and the founder of the Magdalen Project.  Cynthia, a graduate of the program, shared her very moving story with us, and then presented the product line they had for sale.  

After the presentation and the purchasing of lotions, lip balms, and so on, many of us headed to the home of Tallu Schuyler's family, where we partied and sang freedom songs and generally unwound from a very long day.  Many thanks to the Schuylers for their art and hospitality!