The late Dr. Paul Kwami was the music director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers for 28 years. He passed away in September 2022. Before his death, Dr. Kwami recorded an interview for a documentary project about Nashville music venues, which has not been heard until now. This week's episode, drawn from Banner Executive Producer Demetria Kalodimos' archives, also features the Fisk Jubilee Singers in their first-ever performance at the Bluebird Cafe.

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When the Banner needed someone to sketch the recent trial of Glen Casada and Cade Cothren in federal court — where no cameras or digital devices of any kind are allowed — we turned to artist Paul Collins. His courtroom sketches, created on paper with pencil, marker and other dry materials, brought the trial to life for our coverage, along with several other Nashville outlets.

Paul knew from a young age that he wanted to be an artist, but his parents didn't necessarily agree with that choice. Still, he found a way into a career, eventually combining his love of art with something else he'd always wanted to do: teach. Paul's recent work has been increasingly public, including free "vote" signs and a large-scale art book project called the Unbannable Library.

Guest: Paul Collins

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Phil Bredesen is a big believer in the public good. As mayor of Nashville, he pushed to create more public spaces, like the downtown public library. He also sought to invigorate the core of the city, in part by bringing big-time sports to town. (Wait until you hear the story of how he got to the final handshake on an NFL franchise.) As governor of Tennessee, Phil worked to acquire and preserving public land.

These days, fishing and grandchildren occupy more of his time than they once did, but he keeps his ear to the ground. And while he doesn't always like what he hears, he's still interested in finding common ground among folks who might otherwise disagree. His podcast with former Republican governor Bill Haslam is indicative of the centrist thinking that got Phil elected as a Democrat in a red state.

Guest: Phil Bredesen

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Music historian Don Cusic has played many roles — songwriter, producer, novelist, professor. (Not to mention putting in a stint at a newspaper in Cookeville many years ago.) Decades ago, he pulled into Nashville in an old VW bus that doubled as his home until he found his footing writing about music.

Since then, Don has written 28 books, ranging from a biography of Roger Miller to an encyclopedia of cowboys. His latest delves into the life of one of Nashville's most influential figures. Chet Atkins: Mr. Guitar took Don more than a decade to write, and is informed by both research and his personal proximity to the late songwriter, producer and instrumentalist.

Guest: Don Cusic

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Five years ago this week, Watkins School of Art, Design & Film held a socially distanced commencement ceremony amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It would the last in the school's 185-year history, as it later merged with Belmont University. Steven Womack taught at Watkins for 25 years, and he details his time there — and the school's demise — in a memoir titled Death of a College.

Before he ever stepped into a college classroom, Steven was a writer (inspired first by Robert Penn Warren) of multiple novels, beginning with Murphy's Fault and including many mysteries after, including a Nashville-set series featuring the detective Harry James Denton, and the newly released stand-alone, Blood Plot.

Guest: Steven Womack

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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With the state of Tennessee set to restart executions this month, federal public defender Kelley Henry is even more busy than usual. Her client Oscar Smith is the first man scheduled to be killed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Her team has exhausted its legal options, and Smith is set to be executed on May 22. He will spend 14 days on death watch, instead of the customary three.

The drug that will be used to carry out that execution, pentobarbital, is not without controversy, and the state has not disclosed where or how it obtained its supply. Henry has pressed for transparency, claiming that the state should not be able to hide the identity or identities of whoever supplied the drug. Whatever the outcome, Henry is determined to keep fighting for the rights of "her guys" — a fight she has promised herself to continue as long as she lives.

Guest: Kelley Henry, supervising assistant federal public defender

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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This week, the Metropolitan Social Services department released a report based on its annual community needs evaluation. The title of this year's report: "The High Cost of Low Wages in Nashville." Coinciding with the release of the report, the department hosted a community gathering at West End Community Church, featuring a panel discussion on the report's findings and possible solutions.

Guests

Credits

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This week, Tennessee Highway Patrol said it made close to 500 traffic stops — coordinating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a sweeping effort to find undocumented immigrants along state roads. Troopers made 12 arrests, and 94 people were detained for reasons related to immigration. The enforcement actions created anxiety and uncertainty in Nashville's Latino communities and raised questions about what Nashville officials knew, and when.

Banner reporters have spent the week talking to people affected, attending community meetings, accompanying lawmakers and observing activity outside the Nashville ICE field office. In this special episode, state government reporter Sarah Grace Taylor, metro reporter Stephen Elliott and criminal justice reporter Steven Hale talk about what they've seen and heard, and what we still don't know.

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Guests: Sarah Grace Taylor and Stephen Elliott

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Andrea Tudhope

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Major Jackson is the author of six poetry collections, including, most recently, Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems. He is a professor at Vanderbilt University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Coming to Nashville to teach was a homecoming of sorts — he spent many summers here as a child.

For two years, spanning 443 episodes, Major was the host of the podcast The Slowdown, which gave him the space to introduce new poems and poets to a devoted audience on a daily basis. He recently stepped down from that role, and joined Demetria to talk about his career, his inspirations and what comes next.

Guest: Major Jackson, poet, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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Michael Shane Neal knew from an early age he wanted to be an artist. But there were no artists in his family, so he wasn't sure how he'd turn that into a career. After taking classes in the basement of a dormitory at Lipscomb University, he had a chance meeting with someone who knew the famed portrait artist Raymond Kinstler. And after a trip to New York, a mentorship was born.

Shane credits Kinstler with showing him the way to an artist's life. And since then, he's painted everyone from John Lewis to Sandra Day O'Connor, Morgan Freeman to former Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen. It's painstaking work — sometimes taking months of sittings, sketches and many, many conversations. It's in that process that, Shane says, he gets to know the essence of a person in order to convey it on canvas.

Guest: Michael Shane Neal

Host: Demetria Kalodimos

Producer: Steve Haruch

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