By Logan Langlois NASHVILLE, TN — Working under the locally loved slogan of ‘BBQ so GOOD, PIGS are DYING to GET SMOKED,’ Black-owned restaurant Smokin’ Buttz has been giving their customers the very best in local Nashvillian Barbecue for nearly a decade. “There is nothing that we do that is grilled or anything like that, it is all smoked meat,” said Mylica Cathey, co-owner of Smokin’ Buttz along with her husband John. She went on to describe how she doesn’t believe that smoking meat quickly to order does the food or customer justice and that instead her restaurant prefers to…
Author: Logan Langlois
By Logan Langlois NASHVILLE, TN — Sporting a cheetah-print jacket with matching funky orange and black socks, black 1970s-style pants, black dress shoes, and a quiet smile, former Nashville resident and current Philadelphian musician Ron Gallo sat crisscrossed on the outside porch of the Basement East. In the year 2015, Gallo felt the overwhelming need to get out of Philadelphia for a little while, so he took up an offer made by a friend to rent out a room at his residence and try his hand at the Nashville music scene. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 lockdown onset in 2020…
By Logan Langlois NASHVILLE, TN — The race for the Nashville Mayor’s office is officially underway following the conclusion of the first mayor candidate debate on Tuesday at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. The debate included candidate at-large Metro Council member and former nonprofit executive Sharon Hurt; Nashville newcomer and former AllianceBernstein COO Jim Gingrich; Germantown, downtown and Music Row two-term representative Freddie O’Connell; former Gov. Bill Haslam administrator and Sen. Lamar Alexander campaign chief Alice Rolli; former Metro official working on economic development and affordable housing Matt Wiltshire; and state senator representing Sylvan Park to Antioch, Jeff Yarbro. The structure…
By Logan Langlois NASHVILLE, TN — Thunderous applause erupted across a sizable and energetic Youth Rally crowd at the end of several speeches Saturday, each one passionately advocating for the fight against John Lewis Way being renamed President Donald Trump Blvd. The protest itself was organized by Safiyah Suara, a local Nashville high-schooler and daughter of Councilwoman Zulfat Suara in participation with the John Lewis March Committee. The rally was organized in an effort to raise awareness on how the bill would impact the residents of Nashville as well as how it would continue Tennessee lawmakers’ agenda to refuse to…
By Logan Langlois NASHVILLE, TN — Under the dim lighting of the Tennessee State Museum exhibition room, standing with his back straight, his arms crossed, and a cancer awareness ribbon on his lapel hangs a portrait of a local civil rights legend and former congressman John Lewis. He grew up attending one of the 4,978 ‘Rosenwald Schools’ founded by Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington that helped change the quality of education available for Black children across America. Lewis’s photo portrait is displayed on a corner of the room overlooking the rest of the exhibit assembled by Andrew Feiler, photographer…
By Logan Langlois HERMITAGE, TN — Sitting proudly at the end of a long windy road, next to a harbor of the naturally beautiful Percy Priest Lake, sits the Black-owned and locally-beloved restaurant, Papa Turney’s Old Fashion BBQ. A venture founded by local entrepreneur Mike Turney, who opened the establishment as a food truck ten years ago, with the mission of cooking Bar-B-Que right by utilizing old fashion recipes and techniques. Ever since opening his first food truck, Turney has embraced the philosophy of cooking food right instead of easy and treating customers like family. When these standards are met…
By Logan Langlois NASHVILLE TN — People and families packed themselves inside the McGruder Family Resource Center Saturday, Jan. 21 at 9 a.m. to participate in the expungement clinic hosted by lead organizer Judge Rachel L. Bell. The purpose of the clinic is to help those who come with criminal records and qualify for expungement begin a fresh chapter in their lives. The outreach also works in connecting people with other services often needed by those attempting to re-integrate into society such as food, hygiene supplies and assistance with securing employment. “Most of the people that are here today are…
By Logan Langlois MURFREESBORO, TN — Not many 13-year-olds spend most, if not all, of their free time booking small concerts around their town for local bands they’re not even in. But as long as he’s been a teenager that’s exactly what Joseph Glisson has been doing. Now having just recently celebrated his 18th birthday, Glisson is one of the go-to-guys when it comes to booking concerts across Murfreesboro. His main stomping grounds are in alternative music spaces such as punk or metal, though he’s recently made a splash in the seemingly unrelated spaces of EDM and rap. After breaking…
By Logan Langlois NASHVILLE, TN — With clothes, hot food, and hygiene items in hand and their locally iconic ‘shower bus’ (which the organization built from scratch) now sparingly used, the local community outreach program Shower The People has been adjusting the methods of their community service during the coldest winter days. “It obviously affects… the number of people that are even gonna come out of their tent once it gets dark at night, so we’re not able to engage the number of people we typically do,” said Meredith Jaulin Co-founder and Executive Director of Shower The People. “If it…
By Logan Langlois NASHVILLE, TN — On January 9, Fisk University, in partnership with Nashville Mayor John Cooper, held an event celebrating plans to open an Incubation and Innovation Center named after recently-passed local Black community mentor Darrell S. Freeman Sr. The Center is to be located within the long-standing Burriss Hall and its goal is to carry on the inspirational legacy of the entrepreneurial titan, who after building his own tech company, Zycron Inc., and selling it for millions of dollars, was revered for his giving back to the Black community within Nashville and its surrounding areas. “Having Fisk…