CCM and Koinonia Historic Marker Dedication

Here are the remarks made by Nancy VanReece at the unveiling of the Historic Marker on July 25, 2019

In December of 2018, we tuned in to watch the Kennedy Center Honors. Cher was being honored, Philip Glass, the creators of Hamilton, fellow Oklahoma turned Tennessean Reba McEntire, and Jazz legend, Wayne Shorter.

As the tribute band was being introduced for Wayne I heard; "On Percussion; “ Alex Acuña!”

I turned to my wife and I said, "Alex Acuña— remember him — he was in the band Koinonia! I may still have a blue cassette somewhere ", making a 1980s joke about Sparrow records signature blue cassette tapes.

Joan said, " Koinonia! - that was the coffee house on 16th. I played there once." Quite honestly, in our 31 years of marriage, it was the first time I realized, well, that 31 years had gone by. Time does that.

After our Koinonia flashback, I did some quick searching online to see if there was any history written down. - Thank you, Brian Mason for keeping an archive.

I called Tim Walker at the Metro Historic Commission and asked if there were any markers at all in the city recognizing the cultural and economic impact of CCM and Gospel Music in Nashville.

There was not. When Jesus music came to Nashville, it landed at the corner of 16th & Grand.

I moved to my CCM marketing and radio promotion agency to Nashville in 1986. With all its success, it is easy to forget that CCM evolved out of a movement of people dedicated to being faithfully countercultural. At the time, they were rebels who tested the boundaries of Sunday church with rock-n-roll and long hair, resistant to the idea of being labeled as the “frozen chosen.”

It was a generational movement of young people who inspired renewed relevance of practicing one’s faith, even when it led to cutting against the grains of orthodoxy and tradition.

I was, and still am, very proud of my work in the industry from 1983-1997.

Amy, even though I was a sophomore at your husband's alma mater, Northwest Classen in Oklahoma City at the time, I saw you play in 1980 at Midwest City High School. It changed my life.

Music does that.

It has been my honor to have played a part in the creation of this Historic Marker.

Long before. Taylor Swift had 1989, we had the lyric from a song named “1974"

We were young,

And none of us knew quite what to say,

But the feeling moved

Among us in silence anyway.

Slowly we had made

Quite a change

(lyric by Amy Grant)

Thank you all for being here on this beautiful day.

The Metro Council Resolution Marking this event and the 50th Anniversary of the Dove Awards

Video of the Presentation of the Resolution

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Upon this occasion, my friend Jennifer Knapp, who I work with the Inside Our Fatih Foundation, and I offered this Op-Ed which ran in The Tennessean:

Mikey Bernal, David Ewing and Michael Burch photographers

Contemporary Christian music changed Nashville, but it's not without shortcomings | Opinion

This week, the Nashville Historical Commission, in partnership with Metro Council and the Gospel Music Association (GMA), unveiled a marker on Music Row which recognizes the musical legacy of Koinonia Coffeehouse, Belmont Church and the Contemporary Christian Music industry (CCM). 

Koinonia Coffeehouse proved to be the gathering place of some of the CCM’s most seminal artists and Christian label execs. In that space, many prayed, sang and created with such significance that an entirely new musical genre was born! Can you grasp the significance of that? There’s jazz, rock-n-roll, country, but before then, nothing recognizable as what we call “Christian music” today. 

It is only fitting to sincerely recognize and celebrate how consequential CCM has been to both the spirit and economy of Music City. From a small gathering of a few Jesus People, some 50 years ago, CCM evolved into a significant commercial industry. This legacy includes the emergence of a distinct economy and job market that has certainly benefited Nashville. But more profoundly, their path is one which has impacted, if not helped create, our current American Evangelical Christian culture. A culture that is beginning to acknowledge its ugly heritage of religious harm in the form of racism, homophobia, colonization, patriarchy, and more, yet still struggles to break the yoke.   

Over the years, thousands have come here, eager to dedicate their lives for something greater than themselves. The faith-based businesses of Nashville have provided many wonderful vocational opportunities beyond clerical ordination. It’s a career path unusual compared to most other professions because being Christian is the implied prerequisite. However understandable this practice appears to be, it has resulted with the unfortunate by-product of fostering discrimination and can be hostile to those who don’t toe the line. More ideological than spiritual in terms of its influential reach, CCM has the capacity to quickly transmit and model some really damaging trends. 

The reality is that people lose jobs in this town when they stray too far from the flock, in ways not dissimilar to being excommunicated from church. It’s hard to rock the institutional boat, even if you really want to. The gatekeepers of Christian businesses, musicians, sometimes, all the way down to the mailroom--they all have to be concerned with consumer confidence if they want to remain gainfully employed. This makes it really challenging to move the needle around here.

As the pioneers of CCM’s past and the leaders of today receive this honor from our community, we are hopeful they will remember the spirit of where it all began. Accepting the accolades of this legacy means also accepting responsibility for your influential role in shaping Christian culture as we know it today.

With all its success, it is easy to forget that CCM evolved out of a movement of people dedicated to being faithfully countercultural. At the time, they were rebels who tested the boundaries of Sunday church with rock-n-roll and long hair, resistant to the idea of being labeled as the “frozen chosen.” It was a generational movement of young people who inspired renewed relevance of practicing one’s faith, even when it led to cutting against the grains of orthodoxy and tradition. 

Right now, there are plenty faith rebels “out there” shaping the future of religious culture. Some are queer, cuss, drink and have sex. No different really from the generations before, just less apologetic about ruffling feathers. Some of them know the Bible and Christian history better than their pastors, (if they even have one). They are fiercely “woke,” and deadly serious about social justice as seen through the lens of Jesus. And we’re pretty sure they’ll sing you a song. The question is, when will you hand them a mic? 

Jennifer Knapp, 4-time Dove Award winner and Grammy nominee and Founder, Inside Out Faith Foundation

Hon. Nancy VanReece, Metro Councilmember that spearhead the CCM Historic Marker, Co-Chair, Inside Out Faith Foundation VanReece was also a trailblazer for more than 25 years in the music business and the 2017 recipient for the Stein Award for Public Leadership in the Arts, awarded by the Nashville Arts Coalition.

OAKWOOD PARK. IT'S ABOUT RESPECT

OAKWOOD PARK 2019

Remarks by Councilmember Nancy VanReece from the Oakwood Park Ribbon Cutting, April 13, 2019

Many of you here today have grown up with Oakwood Park, but I didn’t learn about it until the summer of 2011.

I learned that the district that I planned to represent, contained a hilly, 26-acre park with what’s perhaps the city’s most majestic view of downtown Nashville.

Unfortunately, its reputation didn’t end there. My research into Oakwood turned up a review from the Nashville Scene, which contained this memorable description: “We all stood in the Oakwood playground, looking up into the wooded area, and were convinced we were seeing possibly the most unsafe park in Nashville — two paltry swings, a strange elevated pyramid, and a crumbling basketball court, with plenty of places for you to be out of sight if you fell and therefore plenty of places for bad folks to be unseen.”

When I was elected in 2015, I was determined to work with all of you to change that reputation and make Oakwood Park the gem it could be. 

As I began meeting with the neighbors about park improvements. It was clear, after four community meetings, that the original idea to enhance access to the top of the hill and a possible dog park, would need to be in Phase 2.  Phase 1, which we celebrate the completion of today is built for people, for families.

I want to thank the mountain bikers from SORBA of Middle TN whose diligence to preserve trails may have actually saved this park from extinction.  A primitive trail was blazed on the eastern slope to the top of the hill where it ties to one of those existing trails that wraps back down on the west creating a one mile loop for bikers, pedestrians, and yes, dogs (on a leash).

The basketball courts have always been used and they will continue to be.  I want to thank the newly formed Friends of Oakwood Park whose first project will be to continue enhancements to the basketball courts.

We kept the park layout so that you who live here can simply walk over from your homes and start enjoying it, which is what I’m sure all of you will do.  But this work isn’t just helping those of you who live here. The construction agreement for this city project went to a local, minority-owned business.   I want to acknowledge and thank Janet Shands and Pearl Sims from Mutual Contractors for making this park a true destination. In particular, thank you for your work with Tim Netsch and Mark Bradfield of Nashville Parks to save what may be one of the most beautiful collections of natural hardwood forest in the urban core.

But, this work is not just about green space, this is about respect.  The Shephardwood communities surrounding this park have been as forgotten as the park.  It has been my pleasure to  influence  public investment in this place called home.  Now the children that live on Bethwood can walk safely through the park to catch the school bus on Oakwood.  The WeGo bus stop on Oakwood can bring friends to play basketball with after school.

You may have noticed the new, large development in neighboring District 5 bringing hundreds of new families workforce and affordable housing that will also have this amazing park to enjoy.  This balance of mixed income housing is imperative as we work to slow gentrification every time we make an investment for the people that already live here.

The city and I plan to keep improving Oakwood Park in future years. And who knows? Maybe someday we will see that Phase 2 funded to enhance the access to the top of this beautiful protected landscape.

I am overwhelmed by what we have all built together here.

Let’s take care of it,

Let’s use it, 

Let’s respect it, 

Let’s claim Oakwood Park as part of our beautiful city,  at last.

Photos: Chad McClarnon

featured: Councilmember Nancy VanReece, Mayor David Briley, Nashville Metro Parks Director, Monique Odom, Commander Imoff, East Nashville Police Precinct, Shephardwood Neighbors and Friends of Oakwood Park.

OAKWOOD PARK 2015

The Crash, The Rock, It Sings

Very proud to tell this story - From WPLN - Nashville Public Radio PRX The Versify Podcast

VanReece, who has since become the first openly out lesbian elected to a legislative body in Tennessee, shares the pivotal childhood moment and then listens as Nashville poet Kelley Bell turns her words into poetry:

I was wrapped in the colors of nighttime. Sleeping curled until I heard the crash. A blast then short cascade like beads my mother’s feet down the hall. The ‘go back to sleep.’ Then the murmur of voices like any other bedtime …

Credits: This episode of Versify was edited and mastered by WPLN’s Tony Gonzalez, with additional editing by Emily Siner and Anita Bugg, and Susannah Felts. The show is written, hosted and produced by Joshua Moore, a poet with The Porch.

Today’s story and poem were recorded by Sean Clark at the 2017 Nashville Neighborhoods Celebration. The music is by Josh Woodard, Dr. Turtle, Jahazzar, Yair Yona, all found through the Free Music Archive.

http://podcasts.nashvillepublicmedia.org/versify-9-crash-rock-sings/

For Nashville Councilwoman Nancy VanReece, her passion for public service began with an act of intimidation. It was 1968 — and she was 4 — when someone threw a rock through the window of her family home. It was the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and her father, a dentist, had lowered the flag on their porch to half-staff.