WPLN reporter Rose Gilbert takes a journey through the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan and into generations of one Kurdish family.
The Country In Our Hearts, Ep. 1: The Enemy Within
WPLN’s Rose Gilbert dives headlong into one family’s migration odyssey from Iraqi Kurdistan to Nashville.
My meeting with the first female mayor of Halabja, Kurdistan
My first impression of Halabja is of narrow, mostly empty streets; I imagine everyone is inside somewhere, out of the blazing sun. I have a chance to interview Mayor Nuxsha Nasih, who made headlines in 2016 when she became the first woman to be appointed mayor here.
A road trip through Iraqi Kurdistan: checkpoints and deep political divides
Halabja is known for its excellent pomegranates, but it is best known as the site of a devastating 1988 chemical attack that killed thousands of Kurdish civilians, and injured thousands more.
Two Nashville restaurants make coveted New York Times list
The New York Times’ much-anticipated, annual restaurant list dropped Tuesday. And of the 50 featured spots from across the country, two Tennessee establishments made the cut.
Heading farther into the field than ever before
In just a couple short weeks, I will be traveling to Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan and Nashville’s newest sister city.
For Nashville’s Kurdish community, clothing and culture are interwoven
For Nashville’s Kurdish community — a people whose culture has historically come under fire — clothing is a tangible way of preserving their traditions.
A new wave of Kurds fleeing Turkey bring their own sound to Music City
Nashville has the largest Kurdish population of any city in the U.S., and most are from the Iraqi region of Kurdistan, also known as Bashur. They arrived in waves starting in the 1970s, with the largest influx prompted by Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaigns in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
What is a ‘sister city’? Nashville prepares for cultural exchanges with Erbil, the capitol of the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
A partnership roughly a decade in the making is about to become official: Nashville and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, are in the homestretch of formalizing a relationship as “sister cities.” Erbil would become Nashville’s tenth sister — a designation that involves travel, cultural and professional exchanges.
22 stories that brought us joy in 2022, from the WPLN newsroom
Not everything we cover is serious. Here are the stories that made us smile this year, and we hope they’ll give you joy, too.
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