I'll Take You There

Before there were guidebooks there were just guides--people in the community you could count on to show you around. I'll Take You There is written by and with the people who most intimately know Nashville, foregrounding the struggles and achievements of people's movements towards social justice. The colloquial use of 'I'll take you there' has long been a response to the call of a stranger: for recommendations of safe passage through unfamiliar territory, a decent meal and place to lay one's head, or perhaps a watering hole or juke joint. In the pages that follow, more than 100 Nashvillians 'take us there,' guiding us to places we might not otherwise encounter. Their collective entries bear witness to the ways that power has been used by social, political, and economic elites to tell or omit certain stories, while celebrating the power of counter-narratives as a tool to resist injustice. Indeed, each entry is simultaneously a story about place, power, and the historic and ongoing struggle toward a more just city for all. We hope the result is akin to the experience of arriving in an unfamiliar place asking directions, and rather than simply getting pointed in the right direction, receiving a warm offer from a local to lead us on, accompanied by a tale or two.