VOICES OF RESILIENCE: THE TOURING EXHIBIT
A Nashville Environmental Justice Initiative Story Archive
Voices of Resilience is a multimedia storytelling exhibit that centers the people most impacted by a shifting climate — often first, and often hardest. Through intimate oral histories, original art, and community collaboration, the exhibit brings together the stories of those who are not waiting for the world to catch up to what they already know: that resilience is not just surviving — it's building something better, together. This is their story. And it belongs to all of us.
EXHIBIT HISTORY
Voices of Resilience: The Exhibit has been on the move - and the journey is just getting started.
2025 EXHIBITIONS
The exhibit made its debut in the summer at John Early Museum Magnet School, where an incredible opening panel brought together community, scholarship, and story for the very first time. It was a fitting launchpad — a school full of young people who deserve to see themselves reflected in the climate conversation.
The tour continued with a stop at TSU's Brown Library, where the exhibit found a natural home alongside Tennessee State University's deep commitment to environmental scholarship and community history. The year rounded out with back-to-back showings at Vanderbilt's Black Cultural Center and the K.C. Potter Center — spaces that center the very voices this project was built to honor.
2026 EXHIBITIONS
This year brought a beautiful evolution. At Arcade Arts, the exhibit expanded beyond the gallery wall with programming like Spinning Yarns — an interactive craft and storytelling event that invited visitors to become part of the story themselves. This is what community-centered exhibiting looks like.
This summer, The Curb Center at Vanderbilt welcomes Voices of Resilience in June and July, followed by the galleries of West End United Methodist Church — two spaces that reflect the breadth and spirit of Nashville's engaged community.
2027 EXHIBITIONS
The exhibit's next chapter promises to be its most celebratory. Centennial Arts Center will host Voices of Resilience in January and February, and the tour will close in April at The Frist Museum — in beautiful alignment with Earth Month — marking a fitting culmination for a project that has always believed in the power of art to move people toward a more just and resilient future.
PAST EXHIBITS
- John Early Museum Magnet School | Summer 2025
- TSU Brown Library | 2025
- Vanderbilt Black Cultural Center | 2025
- K.C. Potter Center, Vanderbilt | 2025 ✓
- Arcade Arts Gallery 56 | Jan-Feb 2026 ✓
- The Curb Center at Vanderbilt | June 1 – July 29 2026
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
- West End United Methodist Church | 2026
- Centennial Arts Center | January – February 2027
- The Frist Museum | April 2027 (Earth Month)
ACTIVATIONS
Each time Voices of Resilience arrives at a new host site, we celebrate with a community launch event — an evening to hear from the storytellers themselves, engage with the art up close, and learn more about the science and lived experience behind these powerful narratives. We invite you to come see this important project in person, and to become part of these stories yourself.
PROJECT COLLABORATORS
Voices of Resilience is a deeply collaborative project. Co-led by Tennessee State University's Departments of Environmental Sciences and History, the exhibit is shaped by curator Evan Brown and Metro Historic Commission's Jessica Fitzpatrick. Our Bridge Facilitators — Kamilah Sanders of Greater Than Equal, Jaffee Judah of Recycle Reinvest, Vanderbilt's KC Potter Center, and Rebuilding Together Nashville — bring years of community trust to this work, creating the space for those most impacted by climate change to tell their own stories, build their own solutions, and lead the way forward. We are here to listen.
TSU PARTNERS
Dr. Reginald Archer, TSU GIS
Dr. David Padgett, Environmental Justice (advisor)
Dr. Learotha Williams, Historian (advisor)
Jessica Fitzpatrick, Metro Historic Commission
Evan Brown, Curator
BRIDGE FACILITATORS
Recycle Reinvest
Greater Than Equal
Rebuilding Together Nashville
KC Potter Center at Vanderbilt
Black Cultural Center @ Vanderbilt
PROJECT STORYTELLERS
TASHA A.F. LEMLEY
Tasha A. F. Lemley brings a lifetime of listening to this work. With experience as a homeless outreach worker, nonprofit director, and social entrepreneur, she has spent decades photographing and interviewing unhoused people across the South — because she believes stories deserve to be told. From storyfinding to field reporting, tape syncing to mixing, Tasha is drawn to projects that lift up marginalized people and communities.
For Voices of Resilience, Tasha served as a skilled interview facilitator and photojournalist, bringing deep care, curiosity, and creativity to every conversation. She guided each oral history with empathy and intention, creating space for authenticity and genuine connection. Her portraits do more than capture faces — they capture spirit, making the invisible impacts of climate change visible and deeply personal.
DR. MEGAN JORDAN, SOCIOLOGIST & ARTIST
Dr. Megan Jordan - known as Dr. Meg - is a Southern, self-taught artist working at the intersection of art, social justice, and research. A National Award-Winning multidisciplinary artist, community organizer, and researcher, she holds a PhD in Sociology from Vanderbilt University and calls Nashville home by way of Huntsville, AL.
Dr. Meg's creative practice is rooted in whimsy, imagination, wellbeing, and the interconnectedness of all people — weaving these threads together to explore themes of justice, healing, and collective action. She uses art as a tool for community engagement and collective problem-solving, driven by a deep belief that creativity can — and does — drive social change.
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Voices of Resilience is made richer by the work of Nashville-based artists who have loaned their voices, lenses, and creative practices to this project. Their contributions deepen the exhibit's local roots and expand its visual and emotional landscape.
Alexis Jones & Sophia Eisenbart Macias
Collaborative artists who worked alongside Dr. Megan Jordan on several of the exhibit's most powerful mixed-media pieces, including Mending the Gap, 2 Degrees, and The Next Supper. Their contributions bring additional texture, craft, and community spirit to works that are already among the most talked-about in the collection.
DaShawn Lewis
Photographer whose work centers Black life, place, and community in Nashville with intimacy and dignity.
Joseph Patrick II
Photographer whose archival pigment prints explore themes of freedom, water, and the natural world.
Joshua Mundy
Filmmaker whose short Brick by Brick weaves narrative and place into a moving meditation on community resilience.
Danielle Myers
Multimedia artist whose Wildflower Project explores identity, ecology, and the persistence of life.
Mike Lacy
Artist whose work Time Is Whip We Hold bears witness to displacement and the lived experience of unhoused Nashvillians.
John Early Museum Magnet Middle Schoolers
Young artists whose collaborative textile work reminds us that the next generation of climate stewards is already building something beautiful.
All supplemental works are available upon request. Lending fees may apply. To inquire, contact the Voices of Resilience curation team.
To learn more about Voices of Resilience: The Exhibit, contact Stephanie Roach at stephanie@urbangreenlab.org.