The Jefferson Street Poet

The Poet

James C Floyd was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1946. In 1963 he left Pearl High School to join the army as a paratrooper. After an honorable discharge in 1968 he returned to Nashville and worked in various jobs including Central State Psychiatric hospital. In 1972 he was arrested with three others for armed robbery and later convicted, spending the next three years in Tennessee State Prison, followed by a year in Atlanta Federal prison, Georgia. Whilst incarcerated Floyd studied creative writing and completed two years of college, received a certificate in Braille and formed a prison writers' group. Upon his release in 1977, he could find no employment. He started his own landscape gardening business and attended a creative writing course at Watkins Institute two nights a week. He continued to pursue his writing and published two anthologies - 'Some Gentle Moving Thing' and 'Feelings, Emotions and Other Binding Chains'. He has also produced several poetry videos, performed in his play, "By and By," and read his poetry at numerous events, venues and educational institutions. James’ work in the community, as an adjunct professor, substance abuse counselor and as a speaker to young people of all ages endear him to students and educators alike, amazed by his journey from abject and wretched addict and criminal to a shining example of human excellence. 

We believe the story of James “Jimmy” Floyd, because it reflects our own stories. That's why we have worked tirelessly to capture the essence and energy of his experience with The Jefferson Street Poet. To convey the story not just of one man, but of Nashville, Tennessee and America. With candor, wit, and wisdom that can only be derived by experience, James C. Floyd brings to life and exemplifies all that Jefferson Street was and forever shall be, in the hearts of so many, as his poetry and writings honor the Black, and human experience.

Jefferson Street

Jefferson Street in north Nashville, Tennessee, is an historic center of the city's African-Americans and from the early 1800s until the 1960s was a bustling and thriving community.  Fisk University, Meharry Medical College and Tennessee State University, all within walking distance as well as some of the oldest Black churches in Tennessee provided the neighbourhood with a spiritual grounding and excellent education. Jefferson Street also had a buzzing entertainment scene with several clubs attracting the best soul, jazz and R&B artists, as well as being a center for the Nashville sit-ins in the 1960s. But in 1968 the construction of Interstate-40 cutting right across Jefferson Street led to the community's social and economic decline. Neighborhoods, businesses and the cultural fabric of the neighbourhood was forever changed. The north Nashville of 2023 is so different from the north Nashville that once was- as gentrification and gerrymandering creates a Nashville that is a global tourist destination. Shamefully, it is also home to one of the most dubiously recognized zip codes in the United States, where, according to the Brookings Institution, the 37208 zip code in North Nashville has the highest incarceration rate in the US at 14%! These are static indicators of life in a community that was undermined by policy and politics shaped by consideration for everything except the people living there. This documentary will be told through the eyes of James C Floyd, who had a paper route on Jefferson street and longtime residents in the area who are facing past challenges and future uncertainties of their North Nashville neighborhood.