Audio Postcard From My Neighborhood

I grabbed my mic one day, as my boyfriend and I headed out to walk his dogs in my East Nashville neighborhood. We hoped to meet the man behind a garden we’ve seen getting bigger and bigger during the pandemic. In five blocks I met (at a distance):

D’Angelo Ross and Richard Cartmell, construction workers who every day fear they’ll infect their families, including Cartmell’s “brand new grandbaby.” They’d like citywide testing data before Nashville re-opens, they are not down with tattoo parties, and they too wish they could work remotely. But as Cartmell says, “I can’t jackhammer this hole out from home.”

D’Angelo Ross would love to be on vacation right about now.

Sierra loves the love she now gets from customers, though she says, when all this began many were initially cold to delivery people like herself. She gets her temperature taken every day at work, and has no gripes about any of the deliveries she’s had to make. Not even the 37.5 pounds of toilet paper she brought to a home in rural Tennessee.

A thank you to front-line workers in an East Nashville home

Scot Sax and the Pre-Quaranteens (i.e. his daughter Josie) are holding live concerts every day at 6pm at 1808 Ordway Place, in East Nashville. The musician-filmmaker has been holed up with his family since March 12. The only person from the outside world who’s allowed in is their nanny. He says at the rate it’s growing, his neighbor’s garden will be a Whole Foods soon.

Scot Sax and the Pre-Quaranteens

Dancer-photographer David Flores and his roommate wanted to build two garden beds. One month later, they’re up to a dozen, built using scrap wood from homes hit by the deadly March 3 tornado. They’re sharing the more than 50 types of fruits and veggies in their community garden with neighbors and fellow dancers who have been left jobless in the pandemic.