Behind the scenes: ‘This Is Nashville’ and the gift of listening

Tasha Lemley

From left to right: Monti Herring of STARS Nashville; Najar Aziz, teacher; Sri Ganesha board member Naga Rajan; Evelyn O’Neal with the Puppet Truck.

For our upcoming daily show, This Is Nashville, transparency is important. So, we want to take you behind the scenes as we build this show from the ground up. This is the second in a series of blog posts introducing our team and letting you in on the process.

I’m coming up on my 20th anniversary of moving to Nashville and reflecting on this already epic fall-turning-wintertime. Being a multimedia producer for This Is Nashville has taken me places in Middle Tennessee that, even after two decades here, I’ve never been. Lately, I’ve visited the streets, and people’s homes and businesses to get diverse perspectives on this city that we share. 

I’ve heard stories that are familiar to my experience as a Nashville resident and many more that are not. 

Left to right: April Frazier Camara, president and CEO of National Legal Aid & Defender Association; John Taylor, tour guide at the Nashville Parthenon; Kayla Phillips, unhoused Nashvillian; Robert Crawford, with Street Works.

There’s such a grace in getting to be quiet and listen to:
a refugee dreaming about her hometown in Iraq;
one lawyer reliving her story of a man on our death row who inspired her life’s work;
a tour guide venting about the city’s growth and its threat to his favorite historical cabin;
an unhoused man crying because we’ve rejected him;
a metro employee fighting cancer and, at the same time, helping preserve our history;
a man using his recovery to “breathe life” into others with substance misuse disorders;
a puppeteer choking up talking about the children she meets and their very tired caretakers;
another man eating his fill and saying goodbye to his childhood diner;
a long time campsite resident giving advice about staying alive as the temperature drops;
a busker finding mental health in the middle of chaos;
a man answering the knocks on one of the most vulnerable doors in Nashville;
and a host of musicians and performers celebrating their culture with some fantastic jazz.

I’ve laughed and cried a lot already during this process and am looking forward, with gratitude, to sharing all of these stories with all of you.

Please share yours and join us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Tasha A.F. Lemley is a multimedia producer for This Is Nashville, a new daily show launching early 2022 from WPLN News. Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Instagram at @tasha_is_nashville.