When Mena Gamil and Makarious Mesak were assigned a project in freshman seminar, they wanted to finish the quarter with a good grade. But the teens were swept away by a big idea: solar sidewalks. Their project got the attention of the local leaders, and they learned that they could have a voice in how the city grows. Betsy Littrell, an architect and sustainability advocate, interviews them and takes us on a tour of her tiny urban farm. Check out our illustrated GIF by Lauren Cierzan www.wehomepodcast.org.

Big Picture People

WeHome gets strangers talking in the rapidly changing Nashville neighborhoods of Wedgewood/Houston and Chestnut Hill. We ask people to tour each other’s lives and tell each other stories, and we capture their interactions here with original music.

Ruben Torres moved to the South Nashville from Mexico with his family when he was in fifth grade, and they quickly met up with some do-gooders who were out to help families in need. Now, Ruben is a youth mentor at Humphreys Street Coffee and Soap Company, which hires neighborhood high school students to learn the trade. Sterling Wright is a rising star chef who still comes back to the community where he grew up to address some of the community's biggest issues, like poverty, hunger, and violence.

The Mentors

Brent Coursey has always had a passion for breathing new life into old things. He opened Woodstock Vintage Lumber in 1996 and moved to the Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood in Nashville a few years later. He tells the Woodstock story to Ann Clawson, who opened Clawson's Pub and Deli in 2014 with her husband, Jens. Ann also has a knack for making old things shine, and her restaurant is as comforting as a grandmother's living room. Meet Brent, Ann, and a slew of small businesses in Treasure Hunters.

Treasure Hunters

What happens when you put a developer and an affordable housing activist in the room together? Odessa Kelly is the director of Napier Recreation Center and a leader in the movement for affordable housing and economic equity in Nashville. She interviews Ed Henley, a Nashville native who has worked with the city on large civic projects such as Music City Center and Tennessee State Museum. They find common ground in Unicorns.

Unicorns

Joe Bradford had already survived poverty, prison, and kidney disease when a little girl asked him to be her father. Now, "Papa" Joe runs a ministry called Elijah's Heart out of the community center in J.C. Napier Place homes, and he coordinates efforts to feed hungry kids and their families in South Nashville and around the city. He is interviewed by Joshua Martin, a rapper who grew up in the community and is using his music to uplift youth.

Big Picture People

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