NASHVILLE, Tenn.-MashUp, a Nashville-based non-profit organization, is hosting 24 gatherings for Black LGBTQ+ Nashville residents between Sept. 18 and Dec. 4. Events include an ancestor altar workshop, a grief potluck, jazz nights for adults over 50, sexual health dinners, a spiritual series and a World AIDS Day luncheon. The events are organized in collaboration with community leaders, nonprofits and local residents.
Most places meet people in one piece. A clinic sees the body, a church sees the spirit and a club sees the joy. MashUp builds programming for the whole person: the spiritual, sensual, professional, social and emotional self. That matters for a community asked again and again to split itself. In a Center for American Progress study, 83% of Black LGBTQ+ people said discrimination had harmed their wellbeing, compared with 61% of white respondents. A third of religious LGBT adults report conflict between their faith and their identity.
Partnership is how a small team does this much and it is intentional. MashUp brings its programming into spaces the community already trusts and builds each gathering with the people who know that ground best. This fall that looked like:
Remembrance: Rooted in Remembrance, an ancestor altar workshop with Larkspur Conservation (Oct. 13). The Hoodoo Heritage Festival in Madison, presented by The Majik Trap with MashUp as a partner (Oct. 24). The Living Table: Remembrance, an intimate potluck with Nashville Grief and Ashewil Holistic Concierge where 10 to 15 neighbors shared a meal and stories of loved ones they have lost (Nov. 1). The community ancestor altar at the People’s Pride 615 Picnic and Field Day, for the second year (Nov. 7).
Spirit: The Clearing, a new series on spiritual discovery through story with Scarritt Bennett Center’s Racial Justice Ministries.
Connection after 50: Timeless Jewels jazz nights at the Nashville Jazz Workshop, programming made for Black LGBTQ+ people 50 and over.
Honest conversation: Dining Dialogues and Breaking Bread dinners on sexual health and chosen family with The Haven at The Rainbow Room plus monthly Mindful MashUp Healing Circles on addiction and impulsive behaviors.
Culture: The opening of the Jackie Shane Archive with Vanderbilt Special Collections and Nashville Black Pride and an intergenerational community installation for all ages at the African Street Festival.
“We are three people. We could never do this alone and we wouldn’t want to,” said Jerry Ivery Esq., CEO of MashUp. “When partners bring what they know and we bring our community, people get to show up whole. That’s the model. Every piece of a person deserves care and it takes a village to give it.”
The model shows results. In 2025, 95% of participants in Timeless Jewels, MashUp’s programming for Black LGBTQ+ people over 50, reported feeling connected. Dining Dialogues drew 233 people to eight dinners and 90% left with new or deeper knowledge. Every participant in The Wholiness Project reported a sense of belonging. Since 2023 MashUp has built a network of 64 community partners and its Mindful MashUp program has provided over 300 hours of free therapy, saving participants $47,000.
“My research work and this community tell the same story,” said Dr. Brian Marshall, MashUp founder and chief of data and media strategy. Marshall also directs the Community Engagement Research Core at the Meharry Drug User Health Research Center in Meharry Medical College’s Department of Community and Family Medicine. “Isolation and shame show up in the body. They show up in who goes to the doctor and who stays home. A potluck where people can name their grief out loud is public health work. So is a jazz night where people over 50 can be fully themselves.”
Funders back this way of working. MashUp’s work is made possible by the generous support of core funders including ViiV Healthcare, Laughing Gull Foundation, Music City PrEP Clinic and the Yarbrough Family Foundation. MashUp’s revenue doubled in 2025 to $622,331 and 80% of its budget goes back to local Black and queer businesses and professionals.
MashUp is a Black-led Nashville nonprofit built for the whole Black LGBTQ+ person: the spiritual, sensual, professional, social and emotional self. Founded in 2017, MashUp creates networks of care by and for its community through programming like Timeless Jewels, Dining Dialogues, The Wholiness Project, Mindful MashUp, the EJR Leadership Institute and MashUp Weekend. Its promise fits in four words: Bringing every piece home. Learn more at mashupnation.org.
