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    24 Hours In Nashville, Without A Care For Hot Chicken Or Country Music

    by Dewan Gibson November 24, 2019
    written by Dewan Gibson

    I recently spent 24 hours in Nashville with the goal of avoiding country music and culturally-appropriated hot chicken. My first stop was Frist Art Museum. It was hosting a Frida Kahlo exhibition and showing murals by local artists. I’m already familiar with Frida’s work and was more interested in the murals. I was about to pay $15 for admission, or actually, say I was a college student and pay $10, when I saw a large TV screen displaying a map of the murals’ locations throughout the city. I figured I’d get a more authentic Nashville experience by viewing the street art in its original locations, even if that meant going to some pretty rough neighborhoods.

    I’m not one of those guys who yells, “I go to any hood and get respect!” Well, I say things along those lines when alone in my car listening to gangsta shit. But I don’t run into trouble when traveling. Maybe it’s because I smile a lot and wear cardigans. This time was no different, though some guy did block my car in with his just as I was about to leave an old lot near the mural. I waved and said “How’s it going!” He nodded his head, moved his car, and that was that. I’m guessing he thought I was someone else. People say we Lightskins look alike. 

    Here are some of the murals I saw while wandering around Nashville. The first picture is from the Frist Art Museum hallway. Also, to get an idea of the gentrification in “new” Nashville, check out the picture of two very different adjacent homes. I wonder if those neighbors know each other. 

    Unmask 'em mural by Elisheba Israel Mrozik in Nashville, TN.
    "Ride Norf" mural by Norf Collective.
    "Wake up!" mural by Norf Art Collective in Nashville, TN.
    Hip new home next to dilapidated home in Nashville.

    After my art walk, I drove to 12 South. It was your typical hipster neighborhood: weak chins covered by face fros, craft beer, indie shops, white women wearing interesting glasses. I ate chicken soup and tacos at Bartaco. Really nice staff at that restaurant. Maybe they were exercising covert dine-and-dash prevention, but four different workers asked if I needed anything. It felt like the last waitress was going to address me as “My Lord.” Pretty heavy for a taco shop, but I’ll take it. 

    Mexican chicken soup from Bartaco in  Nashville, Tennessee.

    A rain and sleet prevented me from further exploring 12 South, so I bought a last minute ticket to the Vanderbilt basketball game. A great seat was only $6 via StubHub. 

    Funny enough, Scottie Pippen was there. Yep, the Scottie Pippen who dunked on Patrick Ewing and told Spike Lee to sit his ass down. His son plays for Vanderbilt. Junior’s smaller than dad, in both nose and height, but he’s a good player as a freshman. The boy has court vision and a veteran calm to his game. 

    View from the six dollar seats at a Vanderbilt University men's basketball game
    Scottie Pippen in the crowd at Vanderbilt basketball game.

    Unfortunately the student body didn’t seem to care for the game. I expected thousands of yoga pants-wearing coeds to be there, but it was mostly just a few hundred older folks. I’m talking people old enough to remember Vanderbilt’s first women’s basketball team, whose picture I saw in the arena. 

    Group photo of Vanderbilt's first women's basketball team.

    After the game, I finally checked into my hotel. I stayed in the hip Hilton Suites in downtown Nashville. It’s very Ikea but with a co-working space on the main floor. I had a power nap that almost turned into a full night’s sleep, but I forced myself up and out since I was only in town for a night. 

    Hilton Suites room in downtown Nashville, TN.

    I walked down to Broadway, Nashville’s main strip for nightlife. It was a Monday–Veteran’s Day–but most of the bars were crowded. I was recovering from a bad cold and three-day NyQuil binge and didn’t want to drink. I told myself just one beer and back to the hotel. Of course I had two whiskeys and a beer within 20 minutes of being at some bar featuring an R&B cover band. The alcohol hit me hard and led to me to produce this award-winning Instagram video about a rare snowfall in Nashville. 

    View this post on Instagram

    Didn't expect snow and sleet in Nashville. Only brought a sweater and a smedium t-shirt that accentuates my svelte frame.

    A post shared by Dewan Gibson (@dewangibson) on Nov 11, 2019 at 9:38pm PST

    I woke up at 6:30 a.m. the next morning for a walk downtown. I had read the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge was a must-see. I wouldn’t say all that, but it allows for a good view of the Cumberland River and the stadium where a mediocre NFL team plays its home games. If you happen to be on the bridge when it’s icy, as I was, you may be lucky enough to see a guy bust his ass…TWICE…while riding a scooter. 

    An icy John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge
    Man falling off scooter on icy John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge

    My 24-hour stay in Nashville ended later that morning with a visit to a plantation. Let me explain: I visited my first plantation in Charleston, South Carolina and found the tour, led by the wokest white man this side of Max Kellerman, compelling. But Nashville’s Meade Plantation seemed different. There’s a winery onsite and you can do a tasting tour of the premises. I found that too casual, maybe even a bit festive for such a somber place. Like, they’re really up there harvesting grapes from grounds where the enslaved are buried? 

    I decided not to take the tour but did talk with one of the staff members. She made me feel a bit better about visiting the place. Some of that has to do with her softening me up by saying I reminded her of her grandson, who she hoped would grow up to look like me. That’s probably the most unique compliment I’ve had since a friend called me Skinny Kravitz.

    I drove on the plantation grounds until signs told me to turn around. The home pictured below is where Bob Green resided. He was enslaved but grew up to be a “world-renowned” horse trainer. The training and breeding of the horses, in addition to free human labor, made mad profits for the plantation’s owners. Some of the funds were used to buy more people. Their descendants would continue to live in the slave quarters until the 1970s. Yep, the 1970s.

    Former home of enslaved horse trainer Bob Green, Meade Plantation in Nashville, TN.

    -Dewan Gibson

    November 24, 2019
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  • Escaping Los Angeles With A Road Trip To Paso Robles

    by Dewan Gibson November 3, 2019
    by Dewan Gibson November 3, 2019

    No disrespect to my So Cal friends, and definitely not to guys who wear red or blue and pose for pictures while making arthritic hand signs, but what I find…

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  • What In The Hell Is There To Do In Evansville, Indiana?

    by Dewan Gibson October 2, 2019
    by Dewan Gibson October 2, 2019

    Work has led to me various Midwestern cities that few would visit unless they were being paid to. That’s not to mean they’re unremarkable places. It’s just that no one…

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  • Smoked Meat, Nice Views, and Reefer: A Road Trip Through Central Canada

    by Dewan Gibson August 10, 2019
    by Dewan Gibson August 10, 2019

    GQ, I think, had recommended Metropolitan as the THE spot for happy hour in Ottawa, the first city on my road trip through Central Canada. Supposedly it’s the restaurant where…

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  • Beaches, Segregation, and Crab Rice: A Family Road Trip To Charleston, South Carolina

    by Dewan Gibson June 22, 2019
    by Dewan Gibson June 22, 2019

    The tour guide at McLeod Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina may be the wokest white man since Shaun King. The McLeod family, he explained, benefited from slavery up to the…

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  • I Went To Battle Against Wells Fargo And Won My $400 Bonus

    by Dewan Gibson June 1, 2019
    by Dewan Gibson June 1, 2019

    I called Wells Fargo’s customer service line on a Saturday morning but code-switched into my weekday work voice. “Hi. I’m calling about a checking account bonus that may be due…

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  • My Biracial Son Loves Me Because I Have “Blak Skin” (Among Other Reasons, I Hope)

    by Dewan Gibson May 21, 2019
    by Dewan Gibson May 21, 2019

    I wrote an article for Scary Mommy a few years back that discussed how my tribe of Lightskins are free to choose their own racial identity. The piece went semi-viral…

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  • ‘Don’t Get Shot!’ A One-Night Trip To St. Louis

    by Dewan Gibson May 19, 2019
    by Dewan Gibson May 19, 2019

    I touched the “freeways off” icon on Waze and took the street route from Cathy’s Kitchen in Ferguson, Missouri to Downtown St. Louis. I passed Leroy’s Barbershop. Its large lot…

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  • Taking A Parenting Break With A Short Solo Trip To San Diego

    by Dewan Gibson April 24, 2019
    by Dewan Gibson April 24, 2019

    I love my family. I also like them most of the time. We travel often and laugh a lot and live a comfortable life. But we’re not immune to stressors.…

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  • What To Do When Your Kids Are In A Viral Video (Hint: Make That Money!)

    by Dewan Gibson March 14, 2019
    by Dewan Gibson March 14, 2019

    If you’re one of the few lucky people who follow this blog, you may remember when I wrote of my disgust with Christmas: “Kids should be told that Santa’s fake, and…

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  • Insomnia, Anxiety, And/Or Recently Bust Your Ass While Snow Surfing? CBD Oil May Help

    by Dewan Gibson February 10, 2019
    by Dewan Gibson February 10, 2019

    I’ve had a few recent medical issues: 1) I bruised my tailbone while snow surfing, which is a sport I made up. You stand while sledding with your kids and…

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