This story is featured in the May/June 2024 issue of ESSENCE.
It’s a cold afternoon in Nashville. The sky is clear. The sun is out. When a ray catches your skin, you feel relief—but when that moment fades, the chill returns, bringing a full-body shiver that can’t be controlled. It’s unusual weather for this region of the country. It’s the deep South. Middle Tennessee is typically tolerable this time of year. Climate change? Maybe. As a native New Yorker, I manage as best as possible in a cozy cashmere hoodie, a highlighter beanie and Uggs.
During the pandemic, a wave of creatives like myself fled densely populated cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and New York for this new Nashville. Job flexibility, cost of living, homeownership dreams and a burgeoning arts and cultural scene that embraces Black and Brown talent make it an attractive place to settle. When you zoom out like that, weather is trivial.
The Larkins were ahead of the wave.
Ashley, a psychotherapist and artist, and her husband, Shabazz, a multidisciplinary artist, uprooted their family and moved from the Greenpoint neighborhood in Brooklyn to Nashville in 2018, seeking refuge in their home state of Virginia along the way. “Two weeks turned into six months. Six months turned into a year,” she tells me of the family’s decision to return to the South. “We had to go back to where it felt like home.”
And although the journey home looks different for each of us, for this couple, home is a place of belonging. It’s a practice. It’s something and somewhere they tend to. Constantly.
In this season, Ashley is making space for herself by nurturing her needs with the same effort and intention she pours into her family’s sacred dwelling.
“Home as a space and home within are synonymous,” she says, softly, but with authority. “I set up my space to support my well-being, my belonging and my creativity. I need this space to take care of me—and I also want my sons and husband to feel empowered and seen.”
The Larkins and their boys—Royal, 9, and Legend, 7—live in a southern cottage townhome on the eastside of town. The trilevel, three-bedroom crib features decorative coffered ceilings and crown molding, creating depth and detail throughout the open space.
“This home is ours,” Ashley declares when I probe about their stance on homeownership. “It’s a space we get to cultivate and curate on our terms. That’s agency and autonomy. Shabazz and I didn’t grow up in a family that had all the wealth tips and tricks to pass down to us. We didn’t understand the value of buying a home—we didn’t know how you did it.” Until they did.
When you enter their 2,565-square-foot abode, “Impervious”—a Shabazz Larkin masterpiece—grabs you in the foyer. The 60″ x 72″ acrylic on canvas memorializes the iconography of twins in Yoruba culture, signifying a powerful presence and a source of protection.
In the living area, books, African sculptures and textiles, potted plants, a brass trumpet, and mixed-media art are scattered about. An ancestral wall—the family’s nook to honor and remember their forebears—displays framed moments in time, featuring the couple’s grandparents and deceased family members they never got to meet.
“We have all these ways we try to create moments to remember in our space,” Ashley says. “I don’t just want beautiful things; I want people to feel something when they come into our home,” Shabazz adds. “People give space power. When we realize our space is a blank canvas for intention, we have the opportunity to imbue it with meaning and love and all the things that make a home beautiful.”
An open floor plan allows Royal, Legend and their remote-controlled gadgets to move about freely. The living room melds into the dining area, dining area into the kitchen—and in the far back is a sunroom that was recently converted into Ashley’s office. Her personal sanctuary is flooded with light. “I have a quiet sense of peace in this room,” she says. “Between you and me,” she adds with a conspiratorial wink, “this is the best room in the house.”
When curating their space, the couple typically allows the room to reveal itself based on the art they’ve chosen for it. More than a dozen original works by Shabazz are propped, hung and slung across their home. “At one point, we wanted to treat our space like an intimate art gallery—so when folks came over, it was just a natural engagement with the art,” she says.
Ashley admits that at times, she feels insistent on having a finished, put-together home. But in those moments, she gives herself a reminder: “That’s not real. Home is not a destination—it’s a practice that’s constantly evolving.”
“Wherever you are, there you are—so be there,” Shabazz sums up. “Love wherever you are now, even if it’s not your dream home. Put those nails in the wall and move all the way in.”