Steve Haruch

4 days ago | nashvillebanner.com | Demetria Kalodimos |Steve Haruch

Rev. Matt Steinhauer was among the dozen or so clergy who interrupted a House committee meeting earlier this week by reciting the Lord’s Prayer. He was eventually escorted out by Tennessee State Troopers. What brought Matt to the Cordell Hull State Office Building that day was a belief that public education is for everyone, and that the bill under consideration β€” which would allow school districts to turn away or charge tuition to undocumented children β€” goes against the teachings of Jesus.

1 week ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steve Haruch

When Humanities Tennessee announced that its grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities had been terminated, it sent shockwaves through Nashville’s literary community. NEH funding, which amounts to about $1.2 million annually, supports programming that includes the Southern Festival of Books and the book review site Chapter 16. In the wake of the news, other NEH grantees around Middle Tennessee checked their inboxes and their spam folders, relieved to find no such termination notice.

1 week ago | nashvillebanner.com | Demetria Kalodimos |Steve Haruch

Middle Tennessee weather can be unpredictable — and dangerous. When things get iffy, a trio of “suburban dads” keeps the information flowing. But once the watches turn to warnings, they really get serious: That’s when they start livestreaming on YouTube, tracking storms in real time and letting their audience know when to shelter and when it’s safe to carry on. Nashville Severe Weather started as a Twitter account to keep locals informed of potential rainouts and worse.

2 weeks ago | nashvillebanner.com | Demetria Kalodimos |Steve Haruch

Growing up in Johnson City, Tenn., Mo Sabri could look out the window of his parents’ house and see cows. He grew up listening to Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. He played baseball and football. It was an all-American childhood in many ways. Add a guitar, and all of this sounds like the perfect backstory for a country music singer — except for a detail or two. Mo’s parents immigrated from Pakistan, and he grew up Muslim.

3 weeks ago | chapter16.org | Sara West |Steve Haruch |Ed Tarkington |Sarah Norris

Ask anyone what defines Southern literature, and the answer is likely to include the importance of place – the land from which our stories spring. But for years now, I’ve wrestled with how many stories have been excluded from this regional designation, how many people have lived just as fully off the land even as they were denied the right to call that land their own. Memphis native Dolen Perkins-Valdez knows this disconnect.