Portfolio Moved

As I’ve moved to a permanent domain name, so has this portfolio.  To find an updated portfolio, please direct your browsers to this link. Don’t worry. It’s still in the same blogging format with a new theme. The posts will be out of order, so I’ve provided publication dates as well.

To get to my main domain name, go here.

Jazz festival celebrates musical legacy

June 22, 2008
The Tennessean

With an act every hour — a total of 11 — musicians kept the party going Saturday at the Jefferson Street Jazz and Blues Festival.

Vendors packed the event, displaying their merchandise for customers to see.

“We sell by advertising,” said Larry Boyd, pointing to his table of fragrant funnel cakes, chicken strips and sausages. “This saves people from going to the stores to get something to eat.”

The event, sponsored by Jefferson Street United Merchants Partnership, attracts artists to the festival to perform for thousands of dedicated jazz fans.

One of them is Sharon Hurt, the partnership’s executive director.

“I don’t think that we can ever pay back or celebrate too much in honor of the legacy we’ve been left,” she said. “This is a celebration for the North Nashville community.”

As Hurt danced to the music, other fans joined in, laughing and enjoying the melodies from the stage.

The eighth annual festival, which charges no admission, takes months to plan, but Hurt said she couldn’t imagine not being a part of it.

“The bottom line is not about money,” she said. “It’s showing love and unity in the community. There’s so much musical history in the community.”

From the 1940s through the early 1960s, the Jefferson Street area emerged as one of America’s celebrated districts for rhythm and blues and jazz. The area underwent an economic boom with numerous theaters, nightclubs, eateries and family owned businesses opening, all in walking distance of one another.

“This helps preserve our music heritage,” said festival-goer Megan Morton.”This is a huge part of what Nashville has been about.

As the music continued to flow, vendor Shawn Vaughn said he was excited to be a part of the festivities.

“This helps the city come together as one, and that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

Second Harvest cuts mobile food deliveries

June 27, 2008
The Tennessean

This is going to be a tough day for Carolyn Pociask.

Pociask, the director of missions for the Lascassas Church Food Bank in Rutherford County, has to tell her clients that a mobile food pantry from Nashville will be cutting services in the rural community.

“It’s going to be devastating,” she said. “I don’t know how they’ll take it.”

Second Harvest Food Bank is dramatically scaling back its Mobile Pantry program, which serves 46 counties including Davidson County. Rising food and gas prices are forcing Second Harvest organizers to cut deliveries in needy communities. The organization will continue to serve some areas on a limited basis but less often.

“It’s certainly not a lack of interest, but it all comes down to dollars and cents,” said Kelli Garrett, program services manager of the Second Harvest Food Bank.

The Mobile Pantry started two years ago as an effort to reach families in rural areas with limited transportation and communities where help agencies were sparse. During the first year, the program made 20 trips a year around the region.

Then, in October 2007, Second Harvest got a $350,000 grant from the state Department of Human Services. That allowed the program to expand and the Mobile Pantry made more than 120 trips to the Middle Tennessee region. But that was a nonrecurring grant. Without that funding, the Mobile Pantry will return to making only 20 deliveries in the 2008-09 year.

“It’s a reality we’re faced with,” said Matthew Bourlakas, chief operating officer of the Food Bank. “We’ve been trying to find other sources of revenue, but right now, we’ve scaled back to do only 20 more of these pantries.”

According to Bourlakas, the pantries generally carry about 10,000 pounds of food, all items a family might buy at the grocery store. One Mobile Pantry trip serves 300 households.

“A box of food doesn’t seem like much, but that box of food each month for a family really helps them make it through,” Garrett said.

“We’re really struggling to get food into the rural counties where people really need it,” Bourlakas said. “We’re just hopeful we can find a way to keep moving forward.”

The Food Bank is accepting monetary donations to help fund the program. For details on how to help, call 329-3491.