💰 NES’s hefty storm damage bill

🌨️ NES Contends With Winter Storm’s Aftermath

In the wake of Winter Storm Fern, Nashville Electric Service is suspending all disconnections and late fees through June, and providing unlimited payment arrangements through December. The NES board will be conducting an independent review of the utility’s storm response. [Nashville Scene]

• NES will also donate $1 million to Nashville’s storm recovery fund. [Donately]
• Winter Storm Fern caused NES between $110 to $140 million in damages. [🔐 Nashville Business Journal]
• FEMA has yet to approve individual assistance for storm-related damages, though Tennessee has requested it. [🔐 The Tennessean]
• Many local parks remain closed due to storm damage. Check out images from Radnor Lake and the Warner Parks. [Instagram]

📚 Book Bans Come to Middle Tennessee

Could book bans happen in Nashville? On today’s City Cast Nashville podcast, award-winning children’s book author Christina Soontornvat explains why more book bans are happening in Tennessee, and how parents and community members are responding. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

🚨 Woman Detained While Applying for a Green Card

After the Department of Homeland Security approved her Form I-130 — the first step toward a Green Card — Antioch dental assistant Terez Metry was detained. She and her mother fled Egypt in 2011 during the Arab Spring, when Metry was 13. Metry has no criminal record, and is married to a U.S. citizen. [Nashville Banner]

• Friends have started a GoFundMe to cover Metry’s legal fees. [GoFundMe]
• Brentwood High School students recently held a walkout in protest of ICE. [🔐 The Tennessean]

🖤 Local Museums Added to Civil Rights Trail

The Jefferson Street Sound Museum and Museum of Christian and Gospel Music have been added to The U.S. Civil Rights Trail, which comprises more than 130 stops nationwide. [Tennessee Lookout]

• The Museum of Christian and Gospel Music opened last year. [Museum of Christian and Gospel Music]
• With the latest Nashville additions, Tennessee has 17 stops on the trail. [Civil Rights Trail]

This Sunday, Feb. 15, local classically trained composer, singer, and master of the guzheng Wu Fei will perform at Blair School of Music’s Ingram Hall in celebration of the Lunar New Year. I interviewed Wu Fei ahead of this free performance to learn more about how Nashville has shaped her music.

How has living in Nashville impacted your music?

“The people here have changed everything about my music and life. I came to the city because I was working with the banjo player Abigail Washburn on a record produced by Béla Fleck. They taught me most of what I know about bluegrass and American traditions, and they also welcomed me and my family so warmly that we moved here. My formal education covered all kinds of classical and global folk music, but almost no American music at all, so Nashville has been a crash course!

“The legacy of Nashville’s music has inspired me: Everyone I’ve met and worked with in the music circle really puts in the work. People know how to grind: They tour relentlessly, they practice relentlessly. It’s a noble thing to contribute to this musical tradition.

“But it’s not just the music industry folks. I have never felt so welcomed anywhere, and I’ve lived everywhere from Beijing to New York and Boulder. One after another, ordinary people have gone out of their way to help me, and this has been humbling and inspiring as an artist. I was taught to make music in an imperial palace, but in Nashville I learned to make music for my fellow humans, to be giving and not to be selfish.”

How do you plan to celebrate the Lunar New Year?

“My parents live in Nashville with me, my husband, and our two kids. As Northern Chinese, we will make homemade dumplings on the first day of the New Year of the Horse (Tuesday, Feb. 17), and hang lots of red lanterns around the house and spring festival couplets (decorative red paper strips with auspicious poetry) on the doors. We’ll also let off some fireworks.

“The Lunar New Year (aka Spring Festival) lasts for 15 days. Each day we are supposed to do certain traditions, but my family will just eat a lot of Chinese food. We will be calling our family members and friends in China and around the world to wish them good health and a prosperous new year.”

What can people expect from your performance on Sunday?

“The concert starts at 3 p.m. But at 2 p.m., the Ingram Hall lobby will open for a Lunar New Year celebration with cultural exhibits and activity booths, including Chinese drumming by the Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville.

“The concert is my suite for guzheng and voice, “Moon Hunter.” The guzheng is the 21-string Chinese zither, which has been played for around 2,500 years. “Moon Hunter” draws on the singing form of ancient Chinese poetry, and weaves improvisations together with traditional guzheng repertoire, folk songs, and Chinese opera. I’ll briefly tell the history or talk about the significance of each piece of music.

“Nashville-based, Asian American artists will join me for the second half of the program on several songs. The concert includes a video installation by visual artist Erik Sharpnack. At the end, we all join together to sing “The Moon Represents My Heart 月亮代表我的心,” a beloved Chinese love song that is popular all over Asia."