We Are North Nashville Podcast: The History Of Exclusion

Have you ever thought about the highways that weave through our cities? Why are they where they are… and what, or WHO, may have been there before?  It’s a familiar story … that federal highways were routed directly, and often purposefully, through Black and brown neighborhoods. 

We Are North Nashville tells how a federal highway tore through one Black community - families were displaced, homes demolished, and now gentrification threatens what remains. Neighborhood resident Simone Boyd and journalist Andrea Tudhope share the voices of nine elders who managed to stay through it all. 

We Are North Nashville, a multimedia storytelling project created to
honor and preserve the wisdom and lived experiences of North Nashville elders, is releasing two bonus episodes that will serve as the final chapters of its powerful project.

Launched in 2024 and led by artist, writer and community organizer M. Simone Boyd, We Are North Nashville has woven together oral histories, essays, portraits, and community gatherings.

At its heart, the project has always been about neighbors talking to neighbors — elders who lived through racialized terror and systemic destruction, and the new generations who continue to carry on and reimagine North Nashville’s spirit today.


We Are North Nashville was born in the wake of Simone’s mother-in-law’s passing — a loss that sparked a realization about how easily stories can slip away, and how urgent it was to preserve them now. These bonus episodes carry that mission forward.

The first bonus episode, which debuted on September 12th, features children and grandchildren of North Nashville — from the 1980s to the present — reflecting on a lineage of poets, makers, and leaders nurtured from the community’s enduring love. On September 19th, listeners will
also hear longtime elders and newer residents consider what it means to show up for one another: reminding us, in today’s divisive times, that neighborliness still has the power to heal divides and create belonging. These final episodes link past and present, celebrating North Nashville’s resilience and spirit across generations.
The project is supported by Andrea Tudhope, an award-winning journalist who has spent her career amplifying community voices, and Steve Haruch, an acclaimed writer and editor whose work has appeared in outlets like The New York Times, The Atlantic, and NPR’s Code Switch.

To mark the conclusion of the podcast, We Are North Nashville will also host a sunset celebration on October 21st, 2025, gathering community members to honor the stories shared
and the elders who gave their time and wisdom.

We Are North Nashville: The Podcast is about the lives of elders who call North Nashville home — in their own words. It’s about how they’ve kept joy alive in their neighborhood in spite of all
the challenges it has faced. It’s about the history that newcomers to the city don’t always know, or even think to ask about. Not only that, but it’s about walking the streets and still seeing the ways people held this place together, even when city planners set about tearing it apart.


This is a show about North Nashville. It’s also a story about the United States, where Black communities have been cut apart, razed, and deprived for generations in the name of “progress”
that did not include them. Most importantly, We Are North Nashville is what happens when the people who live history get to tell it.

We Are North Nashville is a two-year multimedia, interdisciplinary storytelling project, with a goal to gather, document, and share wisdom and sacred knowledge from North Nashville community elders to fortify us for the uncertain future ahead. This project will also redistribute wealth via resources raised for the project back to community members.