May 19, 2022
When Joseph Gutierrez moved to Nashville in 2017, he started to ask himself some honest questions about his new city. He wasn’t sure what the city meant to him, and vice versa. To explore these questions further, he started to have conversations with other local folks from the Asian and Pacific Islander community, and realized there was an existing lack of awareness and understanding about their cultures and identities. In response to the rising anti-AAPI hate crimes following the pandemic, Joseph and his community felt compelled to do something to help—and they believed the power of stories had the opportunity to make a big difference.