North Nashville: A Conversation About Art & History

Artist and Southern Word mentor Shawn Whitsell sits down with poet and journalist Michael Diallo McLendon and historian and storyteller Thaxton Waters to discuss the art and history of North Nashville. We’ll be discussing Black Nashville’s community from its founding on the Cumberland River in 1796 to the current. Nashville has had a significant visual arts culture that we will unravel together.

Thaxton Waters a Nashville, Tennessee native who finds his muse living and working in the South. With an artist father and a teacher mother, Thaxton has been exposed to the arts as long as he can remember. Following in his parents footsteps as a painter and educator, his work focuses on the rise, decline, and reinvestment of historic communities surrounding Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU). Working in this capacity allowed him to be the Art Gallery Curator & Coordinator of the Nashville Public Library, also the Founder of Art History Class Lifestyle Lounge & Gallery, as well as organizing community art crawls, pop-up exhibitions, and cultural programming.

Michael Diallo McLendon has worked as an actor, poet, and journalist for over 20 years. McLendon, who formerly served as the Official Voice of Bounce TV-Nashville, was nominated for a Stellar Award for his first spoken word project, The Diallo Experience. He has appeared in various plays, webisodes, television shows and films including A Raisin In The Sun, The Rules of Messing Around, Homicide Hunter and Bearfruit Film’s summer adventure film Little Savages. Most recently he received the Best Music Video Award from the TECH JXN Film Festival for his music video, The Forgotten Ones, which grapples with the issue of homelessness. McLendon has also directed a short film titled Byers Remorse and a documentary titled The Bitter River. For more information, visit www.michaeldiallomclendon.com.

Shawn Whitsell is an actor, director, playwright, and poet who is founder of the Destiny Theatre Experience. He has worked with a number Nashville-based theatre companies including SistaStyle Productions, Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theatre, Nashville Repertory Theatre, Nashville Children’s Theatre, Tennessee Women’s Theatre Project, and Street Theatre Company. Shawn also teaches drama for a number of arts institutions as well as a local prison. He recently served on the board of directors for Preston Taylor Ministries. He has received a number of awards and recognition for his works in the arts, including the NAACP 45 Leaders Under 45, Stay On The Go 40 Under 40 Award, and The First Night Star Awards.