After a spending just over a year as the education reporter, Juliana Kim is leaving WPLN News to move to Washington, D.C. Before Kim officially leaves the newsroom, she sat down with This Is Nashville host Khalil Ekulona on Tuesday to talk about her most memorable stories.
This Is Nashville host Khalil Ekulona: What has stood out to you about covering education here?
Juliana Kim: I think education reporting is, at the crux, very emotional compared to other beats. … I think about my sister who just had a baby and the way that she worries if she’s holding her baby too tight or she worries of her her baby’s eating enough food. I think that feeling translates for all the parents and teachers and just everyone who’s involved in the school system and just kind of, you know, teaching the next generation of folks. I just say that because I think what makes this beat really tough is that everyone really does believe that they have the best interest for kids, and the answer is sometimes murky and complicated. I also, in return, try to approach education reporting with that degree of sensitivity and responsibility that the folks that I interview have.
KE: You didn’t just report on education. One of your stories that I think a lot of listeners will remember was about a family in Waverly who owned the only Chinese restaurant in town. How did you find that story?
JK: After our initial coverage of Waverly, I was looking back and reading other newspapers when I stumbled upon an AP photo of a worn-down, flooded Chinese restaurant. And I thought, “What? There are Chinese Americans who lived in this town?” I was reading back on all of our coverage and just wondering if there was anyone quoted who was Chinese. I just had a million questions, not just about how they’re doing now, but what was their life like in Waverly?
I just think about my own experience as being Asian American in Nashville and the kind of the trials that came with that. And I couldn’t imagine … about what it was like to be an Asian American family, one of the few in a smaller, kind of more rural town like Waverly. So I just spent months trying to track them down. Like, I literally asked everyone and anyone if they had known this family or who might know this family. And there were a lot of moments where I was like, “Oh, should I just give up?” But then I was at a bar with our newsroom director, Emily. And I was like, “I’ve been trying to find this family and I don’t think I could find them.” She’s like, “Oh, well, you know, I know this person. Why don’t you just email them?” And I was like, “Oh, I have emailed so many people. Like, I don’t think this is going to work.”
Then I emailed them, and it turned out that they had reached out to someone who reached out to someone who knew them. It was just this kind of whole community effort, which I think is a really good example of what local reporting looks like. It really takes a lot of people from the community to even make one story happen.
KE: What drew you to this story (about the Piggly Wiggly on West End)?
JK: So I actually live near this Piggly Wiggly grocery store.
KE: Is that your normal grocery store?
JK: In some ways, yes. You know, something that struck me about Piggly Wiggly, this particular one. It’s not just that I grew close with the grocery clerks who kind of started to know me by name, but there was also this kind of warmth among the customers, like there was this close-knit community. It’s almost like if you’re going to shop at Piggly Wiggly, you’re going to know everyone here. You’re going to know the folks, the customers, who come here on a daily basis. And that’s kind of what happened to me.
I realized this is a really special place that kind of reminded me of the bodegas in New York and just the way that you’re not only expected to talk about your day and, like, share your life, but you’re also expected to come back and continue to just grow with these folks. So when I heard it was going to close, I mean, I was just I was personally heartbroken. I still actually talk to Ken (Blair), and I still talked to Lee Gattis, who was a manager there. … I promised Ken that we would share some soju together because that’s something that he drank when, I think, he was in like the Korean War.
So just what drew me was the people.
KE: You also did some extensive reporting on the AAPI communities here in Nashville. What was that like for you?
JK: Just really rewarding. You know, I just it’s weird to say, but I think I took a lot my Asian Americanness for granted before I really moved to Nashville, and I didn’t really think much of it. I think this pandemic has really forced me in a good way to reflect on my identity, not just to myself, but in proximity to other communities of color, to just other people. I feel less like I’ve reported on this community and more like I have been on this self-discovery journey of like what it means to be Asian American, what power and what obstacles that holds with the people in Nashville. That’s something I’m just going to forever be grateful for.
KE: What was it like for you connecting with fellow Asian Americans who had also come here from all over the place?
JK: It’s honestly always going to have such a special place in my heart. I just feel so honored to have heard everyone’s different stories about why they came here, how they came here, and what it’s been like. It’s just been truly one of my favorite moments and truly what defined my experience in Nashville. I just hope it’s just the beginning, and that I’m going to continue on with that curiosity and just real commitment to tell stories about my community.
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