Sunrise - Summer 2025 - LDG

MUSAY IS A COMMUNITY

I’ve been told that when people build companies the companies actually become a different form factor of that person. In other words - who the founder is, and what is important to them, is transformed into the product or service they build. When made manifest the company and the founder have many of the same attributes and the company fulfills an unmet need of the founder. I thought that was ridiculous; I was wrong.

MUSAY may be the discovery and intelligence network for Arts & Culture that exists as a two sided marketplace to benefit Consumers and Arts & Cultural Institutions but it is - at its heart - the community I always wanted.

MUSAY is where the curious, erudite, free spirited geeky child that I was, (and likely still am), can find a place that feels like home, (libraries, science, art & fashion museums come to mind!) with people who “get me”. It is a place where writers, poets and artists like Darius can find the courage to share their creative process and it is a place where everyone can find something that informs and uplifts.

AND IT’S GROWING

Today MUSAY is welcoming three new people to the team, a new intern from TSU and two new adds to our grass roots growth marketing team; one of whom is a rock star marketer who made her mark doing the same for a dating app you would all know. More on that shortly!

We’re also looking for a senior level Full Stack Developer (let us know if you know anyone or are one!) and we’re also hiring Data Science Interns from universities here in Nashville.

In closing - as the photo below so beautifully illustrates - community is built one note, one sentence, one conversation at a time. Thank you for being a part of ours.

Onward!

“Community in a Community” from a walk in Nashville, TN - LDG 2025

BARING MY SOUL

The Creator’s Guide to Poetry- Darius Coleman

Sometimes when I write a post, I know exactly how it’s going to go before I write it. 

A little jokey joke to start out. A few quick bullet points, a mention of my previous note and a little tease at the end to wrap my project in a cute bow. Send it off to my editor and regroup for the next one. 

This one is one of the hardest in this series to write, because there is not a “right” or “wrong” way to write poetry.

Art is something that drastically impacts my life in a way that is hard to put into words. It feels really intimate to open the door to the inner workings of my creative process. I actually got so nervous about this article I considered moving on from it. I was going to just start the next series I had planned. That was until I had a conversation with MUSAY’s founder, Laura. 

Laura expressed her belief and her trust in my work and me, and how she was excited to see what I would come up with next. That type of trust and praise for my work is a feeling that I want the artists and writers that read this to be able to experience. 

I’ve talked about MUSAY specifically in how it interacts with museums and all cultural institutions  over and over again. What I haven’t mentioned is the community side of what MUSAY is about, and what it is trying to build: a safe, inclusive place for people, especially Gen Z. It is being built to offer support and comfort in a communal way is something that my generation in all honesty hasn’t received. 

So, without further ado, welcome to the Creator’s Guide to Poetry: How In Tarnation Do I Do This? 

This final installment will be more about my own creative process, so it won’t be a long read, but it’ll be filled with quick tidbits and ideas for you to use yourself (if you so choose). Because of this, there also won’t be structured bullet points like my earlier pieces. This'll be more of a freewrite. With that being said, let’s talk about how I started coming up with ideas for poetry to begin with. 

There are two kinds of people in this world: There are story people, and there are theme people. I am a story person. When you are making a poem from scratch, most likely you either go into the writing process with a specific emotion or theme in mind, or a story that you are telling. 

You might not think that this is something that matters, but it absolutely does. It can be hard to capture a story or type of story you want to tell at any random time, so it might be more useful for you to wait until you are in more of a “flow state” in order to do so. It’s hard to pull from certain stories if you aren’t in the specific moods. However, some people say the same for theme. I say keep both as tools in your toolbox. Basically, know how you find the emotion to write your best work, and put yourself in places to feel that emotion safely in enough time to do said work. Pick your tools, and focus on getting to those.

Another way that I keep things fresh is that every week I go back and read my old poetry. For example, I published a book almost a year ago called I Free Me (available on Amazon, by the way) and every week or so I go back and read my favorite poems from it. It’s really important to keep your best work close to your heart as a creator. Sometimes when you experience writer’s block or feel as if you aren’t doing as well as usual, you can forget how good you are and what you can do. 

On that same point, I recommend that you don’t touch your work at all until you finish it. When you start a project, don’t let the curse of perfectionism stop you from creating something. It’s better to crawl somewhere than move nowhere. It’s so easy to get into your own head, especially once you‘ve already started creating work. That’s why reading past work can help so much. Instead of revising your work before it’s finished, you should work on something that you have finished if you need a mental break. Come back to finish your work whenever you are ready for that battle. It’ll be a much better product. 

If you're like me, you might remember in middle school and late elementary school having to annotate every little thing you or someone else wrote. Having to go back and circle words and write little thoughts on things I felt like I already understood used to drive me crazy. The reason for doing this, however, was pretty important. 

While that module stunk, something that helped me a lot while I was learning how to write poetry was to annotate and dissect poems I liked. I’d print them on paper, and mark the paper all the way up with thoughts and questions and ideas. 

A big thing for your own writing experience is knowing what type of poetry you like and why, and what type of poetry you don’t like and why. This is your artform. Take the parts you like, and leave the ones you don’t. Keep the pages that you annotate so that in the future you can look back on them and continue to work with what you like and don’t like.

Another great way to build on this is to find artists that are near you (or artists that you like; the DM button exists on all social media) and ask to share work and help each other revise and test new pieces of work. This was not only a great way to get better, but it used to get me so hyped up to see someone who I’ve worked with create something beautiful. 

My final important tip is to when you are writing, try and create a space around you that fits the energy that you are thinking/feeling. It is really hard to write a sad psalm while you are sitting in a happy family coffee shop basking in sunlight. It’s really hard to write or think about writing something happy while you sit in your room with all the windows and doors closed. 

The surrounding area of your work definitely affects how you write and think. Think about how you would perform the poetry you are writing and where it would be. Again, if you are writing something sad, you wouldn’t perform that poetry in the daytime in sunlight. However, that point also means that who you workshop with also matters in terms of their energy and spirit. 

An Inspiration for Poetry?! Summer 2025 - LDG

If you have a friend that struggles routinely with relationship issues, showing them a poem that details your own relationship issues might make them feel like they aren’t alone, but that means that the feedback you get might be more tailored to the feel the poem gives them, not the word-for-word things you can do to make it better. 

Sending it to someone who is in a happy relationship will allow them to detach themselves from the emotional moment and analyze the poem as a piece of art meant to be revised. Personally, I think showing your poems to different types of people will give you the best chance to make the best artwork! Especially if you keep the old versions of your work for safe keeping and personal growth. 

Finally, I just want to say thank you so much to every person who has read this series to the end, especially those who don’t even write poetry. I promise I’ll be back to offer fun, weird tidbits and history after this post. 

I felt the need to help the artist community that MUSAY is building as much as I could as a random guy who writes poetry. I hope that this not only helps current poets continue writing, but pushes new people into the wonderful artform that I have called home for years. 

Thank you for allowing me and MUSAY to express that communal love and interest into this art form, it means the world to me and everyone here at MUSAY that you were willing to share the few minutes that you have with us, fostering the community we are so happy to build. 

Take care, be back soon! 

About Darius Coleman

Darius doesn’t just see the world. He feels it — deeply. He takes it in so it can surprise him, challenge him, and ultimately inspire him to dream, to write, to create. Whether it’s prose or poetry, sports or culture, Darius’s voice is one you must hear. A 2025 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Tennessee State University’s School of Mass Communications, Darius is only getting started and MUSAY is overjoyed he’s starting here.

Follow us on Instagram!

MUSAY connects you to your scene in Nashville — no matter the vibe, we’ve got picks for you.

About MUSAY

MUSAY is an app that transforms phones from isolation devices into discovery tools to  connect people with cultural experiences they never knew they needed — creating community around shared moments of awe while helping cultural institutions thrive.

MUSAY believes people, especially Gen Z, deserve more than endless scrolling through other people's lives and has engaged them in its design process.  The result is an App that gets people off their sofa and off their screen by helping them find things to do that fit their vibe; with all the things to do being at museums.  

© 2025 MUSAY Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Edgar Allen Poe may be a legendary poet, but MUSAY’s Darius Coleman says that doesn’t mean you should try to write like him. (Photo credit: Ken Weideman)

You Belong!

In a nod to last week’s post - to tumble joyfully down the rabbit hole of discovery is even more fun if you can grab a friend and do it together IRL!

The world fascinates me, and if you know me (and by reading this blog you’re getting a glimpse), you’ll know how excited I get when I see something I think you’ll like too.

When I find someone who finds joy in what I do, it makes me feel more connected to them and more grounded in my own space. I feel as if I “belong.”

Gen Z (aka the loneliest generation) craves this feeling of belonging and the connection it brings. It’s the reason MUSAY is being redesigned - by Gen Z  - to help them find places they can go to meet others who want the vibe and the experience they’re seeking.

Today’s post by Darius Coleman beautifully illustrates the power of museums to build community through belonging and connection. They’re places where artists and people of all stripes (poets, mathematicians, historians, dancers, painters) are welcome to meet and share their craft. For more on this, keep reading; we’ve also dropped some resources and ways for you to discover your own path to poetic connection at the end of the article.

As always - thank you for being part of MUSAY’s journey. We are grateful for you!

Editor’s Note: Today is the first of a two-part series from MUSAY’s Darius Coleman about how he approaches his published poetry as well as tips and tricks for writing your own poetry.

One of the ways I came into contact with museums in college was through poetry. 

Of course, I was already writing poetry then. I was already on my way to the first poetry collection I’d publish under my own name. My professor was not only an amazing poet; he was an amazing photographer and musician. 

A lot of his work was sold in museums. A lot of his poems were displayed in museums around the United States. That was how he got the monetary freedom to volunteer to teach our small group for little to no pay. 

Poetry and museums have been tied together for years. Artists (yes, poets are artists as well!) would perform or share their work there. It was a place to workshop ways to tell their stories and speak their minds with likeminded people. Poetry got me this job: MUSAY’s wonderful founder saw something beautiful in the poetry I sent as a writing sample. In museums, poets saw the community that the MUSAY brand and guests all around the world represent. 

Why am I going on this spiel?

Many people have told me that they’ve always wanted to write poetry, but didn’t know how. They didn’t know where to start or if their writing was going to be good. 

And I want to change that!

My idea is to give you some of my best tips as a poet myself — whether it is the writing of poetry, the reading of it, poets that you should be more familiar with, or anything in between. Hopefully these will help you enjoy writing in a way you’ve never been able to before.

Welcome to the Creator’s Guide to Poetry, Part 1: Word for Word, Bar for Bar. 

One of the first lessons I learned when I started writing poetry took place in my second class at Tennessee State University. I sat in the second row, copying notes on different poetry forms. At the end of class, we got our first poems back that we had written and edited.

When the professor handed mine back, a bunch of words were circled on the page. There was, I felt, a randomness to which words were circled and picked and which words were not. Written on the top of the page was a statement that made me a better poet every time that I wrote from that moment on:

Every word needs to be there for a reason. 

One of the first mistakes that a lot of poets make early is trying to be too profound and replicating famous poets like Edgar Allen Poe by writing in ways they don’t understand. 

If I wrote this post in Old English, it wouldn’t work. Not only would you be unable to understand what I am saying — but because it’s written like that, the barrier to entry is high and my points would not get across. 

When you write a poem, you should make it a goal at the end of your writing phase to circle certain sentences and words and ask yourself three questions: 

1. Why did I write this?

2. Is it crucial to the main point?

3. If I remove it, should I replace it? 

For example, let’s look at a poem from a couple of years ago that I wrote. This is the original version:

I sit in my room. 

The air is stuffy

I need air

Early morning air. 

So I exit my room and begin to walk 

I stop on a set of stairs

Stairs that lead my eyes directly to three trees. 

One Tall

One Sturdy

One Old. 

So there I sit. 

Luckily, we also have my revision notes. This was my first time revising it, and while I was proud of myself for the entire poem, the beginning felt choppy. There was no rhythm (keep this term in mind) to the words, and we as readers aren’t sure where the story is going. Look at the following changes.

I sit in my room

where the air is stuffy.

I feel like I can’t breathe

I need air

the early morning air. 

I exit my room and begin to walk, 

walk until I feel tired

I stop on a set of stairs

stairs that lead my eyes directly to three trees. 

One Tall

One Sturdy

One Old. 

So there I sit. 

I made only three changes, yet it already moves more smoothly and feels more poetic. The first change was to add two lines: “I feel like I can’t breathe” and “walk until I feel tired.” These give the audience a clear picture of why the subject is doing something. 

The second change was the punctuation. Something that you subconsciously recognize but don’t think about often is that every time a line breaks, you take a mental breath and break. That break changes, depending on if there is a comma, a period, or nothing. 

Poets that use punctuation well are able to control how you read and hear a poem in your head. For example, even with a line break “I sit in my room / where the air is stuffy” reads better than “I sit in my room. / Where the air is stuffy” because there is a pause in time and in the statement. 

The third change I made was putting another line between the three trees, and “so there I sit.” This was an important change, because the poem itself would end up being named “But still I sit.” Establishing this phrase with an extra space gives readers more time to understand that line as important. 

Those were only three changes made, but they were changes that incrementally made the poem better by putting focus on each line and giving a reason for why it’s there. 

Sometimes the reason doesn’t even need to be super important to one person or another. There have been many times that I’ve placed lines in certain spots just because I like them. I like nice wordplay and metaphors, so some of my poems have lines that I find fun and interesting in the context of the story. Poetry is an open canvas. You have the autonomy to pick whatever you want and when. 

This is how museums served poets of the past. It’s a safe space to tweak their words into something beautiful that they could then perform or publish. Museums also are a great place to learn more about the art form itself. 

In fact, I’d like to give and show you not only a bunch of different forms you can use for your writing, but also different literary devices to spice up your poems. 

But that’ll be for next time.

About Darius Coleman

Darius doesn’t just see the world. He feels it — deeply. He takes it in so it can surprise him, challenge him, and ultimately inspire him to dream, to write, to create. Whether it’s prose or poetry, sports or culture, Darius’s voice is one you must hear. A 2025 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Tennessee State University’s School of Mass Communications, Darius is only getting started and MUSAY is overjoyed he’s starting here.

Museums for Poets

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” are words known to all, but they were written for a museum exhibition catalogue to raise money for the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal by poet Emma Lazarus. The poem is now on display at the Museum of the City of New York (one of my NYC havens).

Poetry is intentionally incorporated into museum spaces - a few to discover are listed below:

US Holocaust Memorial Museum

National September 11 Memorial Museum

Emily Dickinson Museum (poetry workshops, anyone?!)

American Poetry Museum

The Homewood Museum at Johns Hopkins University (poetry workshops in Baltimore, the city of Edgar Allen Poe!)

Instagram post

About MUSAY

MUSAY is an app that transforms phones from isolation devices into discovery tools to  connect people with cultural experiences they never knew they needed — creating community around shared moments of awe while helping cultural institutions thrive.

MUSAY believes people, especially Gen Z, deserve more than endless scrolling through other people's lives and has engaged them in its design process.  The result is an App that gets people off their sofa and off their screen by helping them find things to do that fit their vibe; with all the things to do being at museums.  

© 2025 MUSAY Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Credit: Candice Estep

WHY MUSAY EXISTS

To tumble joyfully down a rabbit hole of discovery on the heels of finding a “whoa, this is cool” museum treasure is, for curious people like me…a high.

MUSAY was founded because I realized younger and more diverse populations would not have the joy of “whoa, this is cool” discoveries or rabbit hole journeys unless they were invited into museums in ways that worked for them...via mobile, with friends and with content that’s relevant to where they are in that moment. MUSAY 2.0 was designed by Gen Z for Gen Z, so…more on that in a couple of weeks!

For today - if you enjoy discovering new things that you can tell someone else about - then you’re going to have fun with today’s read.

Thank you again for your support of MUSAY!

LISTENING WHEN HISTORY WHISPERS

Today’s post by Darius Coleman reminded me of the story of Belle da Costa Greene - the founding librarian of my beloved Morgan Library in NYC; a story I didn’t know until last year after being a fan of the Morgan for almost 20 years.

Call it a delayed rabbit hole journey - but Belle da Costa Greene is one of the most celebrated and widely respected librarians in history, and I dove in to learn as much as I could. As a woman in the early 1900’s, Bella defied every expectation of what a woman “should” be and is responsible for identifying, sourcing and negotiating almost every deal for the illuminated manuscripts and books in J.P. Morgan’s library. She was also passing as white.

The J.P. Morgan Library wouldn’t exist without Belle da Costa Greene, and the library celebrated her with her own exhibit last year. I suspect there are more stories like hers that are currently still whispers waiting for someone to take the time to listen and then share them - more loudly - with the world. Darius’ story is one of these - enjoy!

A Note From Darius: This is the second installment of a two-part series on the importance of museums holding up the truth of history that can get lost in time.

(ALMOST) LOST TO HISTORY

In my last post, I talked a lot about Jackie Robinson, and for good reason. It’s always important to broaden your horizons as an avid writer and reader, and this work has been a way for me to do that. Originally, this article had nothing to do with the man I am about to name; it was just Jackie and nothing else. 

Then I started to research and found a name I had never seen before. He was a person who seemed integral to the history of baseball but was largely unaddressed in any form of media before or really after his appearance. There are only a few scholars who created enough information for me to write this article about. Thanks to experts like them — who not only feed us knowledge but are also integral to museums — we have that story. 

Jackie Robinson is not the first Black man to ever play in the MLB. That “honor” goes to Willam Edward White. 

William isn’t a person you can find a lot of history on. In fact, because of the time and place of his birth and the facts surrounding it, there are very few things that we know for sure about him. In fact, even the conversation about if William was Black to begin with was something that was lost to history for almost 100 years after he played his one and only game of professional baseball in 1879. Bruce Allardyce of the Society for American Baseball Research is one of the few who have written in-depth about White.

Back in the day, the rosters of MLB teams were very small — 11 players, compared to 40 now. There were many times that when a player got hurt, his team would pay another player for a day to trot onto the field and leave once the original player returned from injury. On June 21, 1879, according to Allardyce, the crowd for the Providence Grays and the Cleveland Blues had no idea that they were watching the first Black man ever to play in MLB. 

Because for 60 years, William Edward White was white. 

As I mentioned earlier, there isn’t much information on William. We know he was born in Georgia in October 1860. We know that his father, a white man named Andrew Jackson White, was not only an extremely wealthy banker but also part of the Civil War as captain of the 3rd Georgia Infantry Battalion. We also know that Captain White had a child, William, with his mulatto “servant.”

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the fact that William was born a slave. Because by rule around the South, generally being any part Black meant you were fully recognized as Black. While Captain White would send William and his two siblings to school and also leave them a large sum of money in his will, he would never be near them. 

This is the story of William’s life. There isn’t too much conversation about him. To most people of the time, William was just any regular white man. He never even played pro baseball again. 

But the numbers didn’t lie: That boy was elite.

According to the 1880 Spalding guide, a resource for baseball statistics, White had a .488 batting average at Brown University. That was the best average of any college player listed. And the next year, he was ranked the 18th-best college player. Yet for some reason, he only picked up a baseball one time as a pro. He opted for many other odd jobs, like being a draftsman, freighting agent, clerk, and bookkeeper.

For three decades in the US Census, according to Allardyce, William was listed as white. Because even though racism was rampant down in the South and even in the North, familial history was harder to confirm. If you looked white and then appeared in a city, there was no way for most people to tell you had Black heritage unless you told them. 

Only William knew he was the first Black man to play pro baseball. To everyone else, he was just a bright-eyed kid playing a baseball game for a fist full of dollars. 

I wonder if his mother ever got the chance to know that her son accomplished such a historic feat. If she ever even got to see her son again once his father had paid for him to be sent to school. I wonder if she ever knew that her son died of blood poisoning on March 29, 1937. Not just as a Black man, but as the first slave-born man to ever put on a glove for a MLB team. 

But I think I know the answer. And I bet you do too.

Maybe this is why William only allowed himself to be Black in reference to the census of Chicago in 1920. We will never know how William looked at himself. Did he see himself as a mixed man? Did he see himself as a Black man who happened to be white-passing? Or, to William, was he just a white man playing a white man’s sport? There has been talk of a possible conversation William and his father had, where his father might have told him to identify as white when he went up to high school and William just kept that. We will never know. 

This story represents something special to MUSAY. A person whose story was lost in history was brought back by groups of scholars and people who cared. And one day, I hope that his story will be broadcast even more, with the help of museums and people like you reading and interacting with them. Supporting your local museums and the researchers that work with them ensures that stories like William’s are told.

Thank you so much for reading.

About Darius Coleman

Darius doesn’t just see the world. He feels it — deeply. He takes it in so it can surprise him, challenge him, and ultimately inspire him to dream, to write, to create. Whether it’s prose or poetry, sports or culture, Darius’s voice is one you must hear. A 2025 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Tennessee State University’s School of Mass Communications, Darius is only getting started and MUSAY is overjoyed he’s starting here.

Follow us on Instagram!

MUSAY connects you to your scene in Nashville — no matter the vibe, we’ve got picks for you.

About MUSAY

MUSAY is an app that transforms phones from isolation devices into discovery tools to  connect people with cultural experiences they never knew they needed — creating community around shared moments of awe while helping cultural institutions thrive.

MUSAY believes people, especially Gen Z, deserve more than endless scrolling through other people's lives and has engaged them in its design process.  The result is an App that gets people off their sofa and off their screen by helping them find things to do that fit their vibe; with all the things to do being at museums.  

© 2025 MUSAY Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Cooperstown, N.Y., is where Jackie Robinson’s legacy is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. (Credit: fotoguy22)

Welcome back to the weekly MUSAY! I hope you all had a great 4th and are leaning hard into the back half summer!

NEW WIRES - NEW HIRES! 🙌

Counting down to MUSAY’s beta relaunch means new wires and a new fractional CTO to turn them into product - Brad Hefta-Gaub! Brad started coding when he was 12, was one of the first 20 employees at Real Networks and he SWEARS he likes working with companies in the “messy middle, the stretch when things are unclear, fragile, and very real.” That’s definitely MUSAY, and we’re thrilled that Brad is here!

Our Instagram community continues to grow and this post about Cheekwood here in Nashville got picked up by…Cheekwood…as did this one about NMAAM! 🎉

Next week, we’ll have more on our Data leadership team and on two exciting new partnerships.

DO YOU KNOW WHY SPORTS FANS LOVE MUSEUMS?

Do you know why Sports fans love museums? Because they’re called Halls of Fame! When I tell people about MUSAY, they always think of art. But art museums, while magnificent and important, represent only 41% of museums accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and about 6% of the 35K museums in the USA. Most museums are - in fact - focused on history, science, and stories about the things people are curious about…like pizza, jazz, birds, ice cream, etc…! (Accreditation can be expensive and time consuming, so not all museums can afford it.)

BEFORE HANK ARRON, KEN GRIFFEY JR AND DEREK JETER…

When I was a kid, summer meant ice cream from Kimball’s in Carlisle, Mass., backyard barbeques, Ipswich beach days, Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins and, at some point, a Red Sox baseball game with my dad & brother.

Baseball is summertime in America … heck it IS America! From sandlots to city streets to Fenway Park - it’s everywhere … but it didn’t always include everyone. You may not believe this, but some of today’s top-ranked baseball players, (and fantasy team faves), like Jose Ramirez and Elly De La Cruz wouldn’t be on the field today if it weren’t for the courage of one man and those that stood behind him.

This man’s story is the one told today by Darius Coleman and, if you’re a sports fan, you know you belong to a community of people who rally behind home-team stats, data and faves. What you may not know - and may be pleasantly surprised to learn - is that you also belong to a community of people who discover truths inside Halls of Fame and other sport museums.

A Note from Darius: This is a multi-part series on the importance of museums holding up the truth of history that can get lost in time.  

Every year on April 15, Major League Baseball comes together to celebrate one man: Jackie Robinson. 

I don’t think it's necessary to explain the importance of Jackie Robinson. But just to give a refresher, Robinson was the first non-white athlete to play in the modern era of Major League Baseball. Not only was he responsible for the breaking of that color barrier, but he had to push through challenging moments at a pivotal time in American history to continue playing.

Now, I know what you might be thinking: What does this have to do with us today, or MUSAY as a whole?

For years, the U.S. Department of Defense had a page recognizing Jackie Robinson and his service to its military efforts. In response to recent policy changes, this page was briefly taken down before being put back up because of demands from baseball fans and others who care about Robinson’s’s legacy.

Truth is, Jackie Robinson’s road to baseball was set into motion through him being honorably discharged from the military in World War II. The Brooklyn Dodgers’ general manager, Branch Rickey, was looking around for talent as he always did. And he looked at the Negro Leagues as an untouched place of that talent, but knew that whoever he picked to be the man to break the color barrier would have to endure tough hardships. No matter what way you slice it, the pick to Rickey was clear: Jackie was the way, and that was because he knew he could take the hardship.

Why does this come back to the Department of Defense and Jackie Robinson? Branch Rickey, although maybe not purposely, was brothers with Jackie.

Brothers in arms. 

Jackie and Branch served in the military together. There, Branch would watch African Americans sacrifice their time, bodies, and lives for the red, white, and blue, even for a country that didn’t give them full civil rights. That respect not only led Branch to fight for civil rights, but led him to fight the color barrier in baseball as well. 

It was only after his return from service that No. 42, Jackie Robinson, went on to play in baseball’s Negro Leagues. It was only after that that Rickey deemed Jackie the man to break the racial barrier for his team with the minor league Montreal Royals in 1945, and for the Dodgers in 1947. It was only after that that Jackie would over his career rack up a .313 batting average, smack 141 balls out of the park, and add 761 RBI’s (for my non-baseball watchers, runs batted in, or in simpler terms, how many points were scored because Jackie got a hit).

These accomplishments earned him a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which was the first time a Black man earned that honor. It is so imperative to Jackie Robinson’s story that not only was he good, he was maybe the second-best of all time at his position and still is. 

Some of the key places you could hear these stories? Museums.

Museums serve as time capsules for being able to appreciate many things, like history, art, science, and in this case, sports. While information and unlikely stories can, of course, be posted online, these stories can be taken down or changed at any time, as just happened with the story of Jackie Robinson. But just as a sports fan relies on data and stats, a sports fan can also rely on museums to stay the course. Institutions like the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., continue to preserve stories about players of that time period.

History happened, and it lives its quiet truth inside historic, artistic, and sports museums that, by doing right by their heroes, are heroes themselves.

Without them, stories risk getting lost in time. And that’s no fault of Jackie’s. The reason that Jackie is held in such high regard is still true: Jackie broke the color barrier of the time. He was the face of diversity in baseball as a sport and directly led to the influx of Black baseball players from that day all the way up to now. But not only was Jackie Robinson that face for diversity on the field, he also was that face off the field. 

No. 42 was accomplished. He spoke at the March on Washington alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was the first African American to ever be the Vice President of a major American company (Chock full o’ Nuts, which I know doesn’t sound like it was a major American company, but it was).

A sign outside the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., which preserves the stories of historic players like Jackie Robinson. (Photo: Matthew Fowler)

When we speak about Jackie Robinson, one of the main things that gets lost is his military service. It’s one of the things at the Jackie Robinson Museum that most people might gloss over, but is one of the most important parts to his story. He got drafted but he still went out and decided to put his blood, sweat, and tears on the line for a country that, when he returned, still didn’t view him as equal.

He was hardened. He was a rock emotionally that — while he felt pain like everyone else — responded differently to the struggles that defined what it meant to be a Black man during that time. That should be celebrated, and it is. 

When we look at stories like Jackie’s, the common thread that ties them all together is the communal understanding of knowing you have to endure something that you don’t think that you deserve — and push through.

History cannot and should not be erased. It isn’t always comfortable, and that’s why it matters.

I think it’s important to show another story, though. The opposite of the story of Jackie’s. From a man who broke the color barrier willingly, to a man who broke the color barrier without anyone knowing. Jackie wasn’t the first. That other story goes to William Edward White. 

But we’ll hear about that next time.

MUSAY Museum Suggestions based off this post: 

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum - Kansas City, Mo.

The Jackie Robinson Museum - New York, N.Y.

About Darius Coleman

Darius doesn’t just see the world. He feels it — deeply. He takes it in so it can surprise him, challenge him, and ultimately inspire him to dream, to write, to create. Whether it’s prose or poetry, sports or culture, Darius’s voice is one you must hear. A 2025 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Tennessee State University’s School of Mass Communications, Darius is only getting started and MUSAY is overjoyed he’s starting here.

Follow us on Instagram!

MUSAY helps you find your tribe by connecting you to your cultural scene in Nashville — no matter the vibe, we’ve got you.

About MUSAY

MUSAY is an app that transforms phones from isolation devices into discovery tools to  connect people with cultural experiences they never knew they needed — creating community around shared moments of awe while helping cultural institutions thrive.

MUSAY believes people, especially Gen Z, deserve more than endless scrolling through other people's lives and has engaged them in its design process.  The result is an App that gets people off their sofa and off their screen by helping them find things to do that fit their vibe; with all the things to do being at museums.  

© 2025 MUSAY Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Smithsonian - National Gallery East Wing - Alexandar Caldar. Credit: L. Del Greco 6.14.24

MUSAY Update And…

MUSAY is making great strides here in Nashville! You’ll soon hear about an exciting new museum partnership and about the universities we’re collaborating with to get Gen-Z embedded in our marketing, data science, social media and beta re-launch efforts.

If you enjoy reading the brilliant work of Darius Coleman, you’re in for a treat today!

And starting next week, you’ll be able to turn this weekly newsletter into a monthly one — kind of like binge-watching Netflix!

As always — thank you for your support.

Enjoy!
Laura

In Middle School, I went on the worst trip of my entire life.

It was a 19-hour drive from my school in Memphis all the way to our nation’s beautiful capital. It was a coach bus with 50 of the most annoying middle schoolers and a couple of teachers who were severely underpaid. All of us underestimated how tired and frustrated we’d quickly get. 

And we went to a lot of different places: a couple of good museums that I would also throw on this list of great times, and some other places that I felt like I had no reason to go to. By the last day of the trip, I hadn’t slept more than five hours in two days and was maybe 20 minutes away from screaming some colorful words at my chaperone before we finally arrived at the Smithsonian. 

This is one of those times when I will tell you something from the bottom of my heart that I mean with full intention and purpose. And it’s not because of me being employed by MUSAY or because this piece is about museums. It’s because I actually believe this. 

Before you pass, you NEED to go to the Smithsonian once. 

And I mean each and every single one. Not even just the National Air and Space Museum, which is where this story begins.

What makes the Smithsonian so special to me is the amount of interactive exhibits within the museum for you to do and touch and learn from. Many museums don’t have many tangible things for you to figure out, especially museums about air and space. 

There are so many consoles (that I would say are similar to the arcade consoles you’d find in the back of a CiCis Pizza or something) that were interactable all throughout the museum.

Being able to walk and stand beside an airplane or helicopter was one of the most interesting things I've ever experienced. Especially because at that time, I had never flown in an airplane before. In fact, the highest I’d ever been was really high on a roller coaster at Six Flags (side note, do you know how terrifying it was to be so high that I could see a cornfield I’d never seen before? I thought my life was all over). 

My experience that day at the Air and Space Museum gave me the same feeling that I had when I was inthat planetarium at the Pink Palace but with even more respect. How insane is it that humans can be thousands of feet in the air — and safe? It was a continuation of that feeling of life being bigger than me. Hundreds of people come together every day to just fly ONE plane that’s three hours to a place that’s 19 hours via car. The amount of manpower and hours required to get someone across the country was even more impressive. Thousands of people are moving with one goal: to get you to your sister's wedding. 

So now I think you know why I am a writer under the MUSAY umbrella — it’s because they have been here for people like me. The ones who care about learning new things and appreciating the things we do have. It’s a joy to not only be able to experience these things under MUSAY, but to find ways to support museums as we enter new generations of museum-goers, dreamers, and artists. MUSAY, in a way, represents everything I want for museums in the future.

This was my MUSAY Moment.

About Darius Coleman

Darius doesn’t just see the world. He feels it — deeply. He takes it in so it can surprise him, challenge him, and ultimately inspire him to dream, to write, to create. Whether it’s prose or poetry, sports or culture, Darius’s voice is one you must hear. A 2025 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Tennessee State University’s School of Mass Communications, Darius is only getting started and MUSAY is overjoyed he’s starting here.

Instagram post

About MUSAY

MUSAY is an app that transforms phones from isolation devices into discovery tools to  connect people with cultural experiences they never knew they needed — creating community around shared moments of awe while helping cultural institutions thrive.

MUSAY believes people, especially Gen Z, deserve more than endless scrolling through other people's lives and has engaged them in its design process.  The result is an App that gets people off their sofa and off their screen by helping them find things to do that fit their vibe; with all the things to do being at museums.  

© 2025 MUSAY Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Hi! It’s Laura - welcome back!

If I were a museum, I would want to hold this story close to my heart and claim if for my own.

I would be proud that I had given a twelve year old boy the gift of insight and whetted his appetite for the world’s infinite collection of profound & universal truths.

The Pink Palace - The Memphis Museum of Science & History

Credit: Liz Leyden

Memphis, TN - 2013

Do you remember the first time you realized that the world was bigger than just you? 
Maybe it was science class when a teacher talked about how many people are in your city or state. Maybe it was when you first learned that other planets exist. Maybe it was when you gave a kid at school some of your lunch because he or she was hungry. 

For me? It was the Pink Palace Planetarium. 

I was never the biggest science guy as a young kid. Not because I didn't like it or I didn’t think it was cool, but science from kindergarten to third grade is just a person telling you that things exist — and that’s about it. 

When I was 10 years old, my elementary school took us on a common field trip to the Memphis Museum of Science and History, as it always did every year or so. Most of the time, I found it cool but didn’t spend too long actually caring about what I was seeing. 

Until we got into that planetarium. 

It was the first and only time I've ever been in a planetarium. And at the end of the day, all it really is is a big room with a large screen on the ceiling and a projector drawing out star patterns and planets. 

It’s a slightly less expensive IMAX, if you will. 

But as a kid, my eyes lit up watching the planets whiz by me, and the stars constantly turn and turn around my mind as the MUSAY Moment began to take over. There was a curiosity that I left that planetarium with. That I was a lot smaller than I once thought. That the world was so much bigger than me and there was so much different stuff to learn and understand. 

Even now, as I write this, I talk and like to learn about random new things. A lot of those random bursts of interest all stem back to that moment that my eyes opened wide for the first time. 

_{© 2025 MUSAY Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.}

About MUSAY

MUSAY is an App that transforms phones from isolation devices into discovery tools to  connect people with cultural experiences they never knew they needed—creating community around shared moments of awe while helping cultural institutions thrive.

MUSAY believes people, especially Gen Z, deserve more than endless scrolling through other people's lives and has engaged them in its design process.  The result is an App that gets people off their sofa and off their screen by helping them find things to do that fit their vibe; with all the things to do being at museums.  

Follow us on Instagram!

MUSAY keeps you up to date on your scene in Nashville — no matter the vibe, we’ve got picks for you.

A Voice You Must Hear

Hi! It’s Laura! You were promised stories from voices younger and more interesting than mine - voices that show better than any number with a decimal point- the impact of museums on GenZ - this is that promise fulfilled.

This is the first of three My MUSAY Moments stories from the gifted writer Darius Coleman….ENJOY and thank you for supporting MUSAY.

My MUSAY Moment: The Frist Art Museum -Nashville, TN

My Ex loved museums. 

I know that it’s pretty weird to start off the first blog article I've ever written with that statement, but that’s the honest-to-God truth. I liked art museums, though it was hard to get me out of the house to go to museums that weren’t guaranteed to be good. But she loved to go. 

She’d drag me by my arm from history to art, and then back to history. 

Looking back, so many artists have stuck with me, whether they were poets or photographers or painters or anything and everything. And for the first blog post under the MUSAY umbrella, I figured it would make sense to talk about my favorite moments and stories in museums over my entire life. 

This is my MUSAY Moment.

Early a.m. Frist Art Museum - L. Del Greco 1.31.24

Frist Art Museum, Nashville TN, 2023 

I had a friend who used to work in the children's part of the museum. Sometimes on days where I had nothing to do, I'd bus over to mess with her. She supervised a part of the kids section where children would paint watercolor with her. It was super cute. 

One of my favorite memories is me and a couple of kids painting a sunset together. Now, some of them had weird colors in their sunsets (I remember asking a kid, “Is that green? In the sunset?” and he responded, “I like gween.” I nodded because I understood it on a spiritual level.) but that didn’t matter to me. It was the equality of those moments. How simple life can be when we appreciate the beauty of it, just coloring what we envision the big star in the sky to look like at its prettiest. 

And then a kid would drop a brush and cry, and I stifled a laugh as my friend hurried to fix it. 

That same museum another time I visited had an African exhibit going on the first floor showing off paintings and drawings from Black and African American pockets of culture and experiences that could only be caught in snapshots of collages or paintings. 

There wasn’t a specific work of art that I looked for that ignites this memory. I think it was just the calmness of the room itself. There aren’t many places that 19-year-old me would go to on a regular basis to just…appreciate something. There is something special in the collective silence of awe, not just for the piece itself but for the amount of work and time that you know went into said piece. 

I remember this trip mostly for that moment. I wanted to make people feel that with my own work. That sense of wonder and interest that infiltrated kindred spirits with their own individual lives was something I yearned for more than anything. 

When I talk about MUSAY, some people continue to ask me why I am a writer under its umbrella. What made me believe in MUSAY so much, and what made them believe in me? MUSAY is more than just caring about a museum, but caring about the joy and teachings that museums have represented to people for hundreds of years. 

This blog will represent more than just a place to talk about random things. It's a host for the stories and spirit of millions of dreamers, creators, artists, and enjoyers of the arts. A place to get a quick fix of information told to you in a fun, interactive way. 

We hope you enjoy it. And thank you. 

This was my MUSAY Moment

About Darius Coleman

_{Darius doesn’t just see the world - he feels it - deeply. He takes it in so it can surprise him, challenge him, and ultimately inspire him to dream, to write, to create. Whether it’s prose or poetry, sports or culture Darius’s voice is one you must hear. A 2025 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Tennessee State University’s School of Mass Communications, Darius Colemen is only getting started and MUSAY is overjoyed he’s starting here.}

_{© 2025 MUSAY Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.}

About MUSAY

MUSAY is an App that transforms phones from isolation devices into discovery tools to  connect people with cultural experiences they never knew they needed—creating community around shared moments of awe while helping cultural institutions thrive.

MUSAY believes people, especially Gen Z, deserve more than endless scrolling through other people's lives and has engaged them in its design process.  The result is an App that gets people off their sofa and off their screen by helping them find things to do that fit their vibe; with all the things to do being at museums.  

Follow us on Instagram!

MUSAY keeps you up to date on your scene in Nashville — no matter the vibe, we’ve got picks for you.

Credit: SeanPavonePhoto

Hi! I’m so excited you’re here!

I’m Laura Del Greco, Founder of MUSAY, and I’m writing to let you in on a little secret - moving to Nashville was the best thing I could have done for MUSAY- what an incredible community!

Here are the latest fun facts, insights and happenings!

About Last Night…(at the Museum)

Museums and Gen Z are like a RomCom couple who pass one another on the street, are attracted and intrigued, but with no obvious way of meeting, (other than to brave a cold intro), stay separated until some random person, (dry cleaner, Starbucks Barista) who knows them both connects them.

Sticking with the RomCom theme, there are - especially in Act 2 - many people who make assumptions and don’t understand why this couple would even want to meet. “They’ll never like one another!” or “They’re totally mismatched.”

In the RomCom of real life, MUSAY is the “person” that connects the passing strangers; the intrigued, curious digital natives and the engaging, dynamic and event-rich third places - museums. We know they’re eager to learn more about one another and build a relationship that suits them both.

My road to understanding exactly how to make this connection happen has been long, (that’s a post for another time), and, just like in the movies, I’ve been told this relationship would never work.

“Gen Z doesn’t care about museums.”

Or, “You should focus on art students from elite universities” - a statement that is based on multiple incorrect assumptions. (Aside from the obvious biases, over 80% of museums are actually history museums!)

These responses used to frustrate me until I realized - they aren’t talking with people and museums the way we are and their misunderstanding is MUSAY’s opportunity. Here’s a bit of what we’ve learned….!

MUSAY Knows…

General Insights

• Gen Z likes to visit museums on their own terms based on their mood/vibe¹

• The #1 REASON people visit museums is…to spend time with others²  

• Gen Z is the loneliest generation (73%) - they want IRL belonging, connection & community³

(Kind of makes sense to put them together, right?)

MUSAY’s Data: Nashville Gen Z Insights⁴

• 62% of almost 100 students polled in Nashville recently visited a museum

• 86% of those indicated they were “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to visit again

• Friends Matter: Word of Mouth (WOM) is the most effective channel for museum discovery (33%)

• The content doesn’t always connect - “Highlight people having fun!!! - not just artifacts or graphics.”

What’s Happening Now?

Members of Gen Z are working directly with MUSAY to tell us:

• How MUSAY can better connect them with the engaging, interactive and event-rich spaces that are museums (this means we’re rebuilding the app)!

• Where and How to reach and engage them

• Who they trust and listen to for recommendations (Friends)

• Why they’ll get up off their sofa and go out (The right vibe - and friends)

• What they really think about museums

What’s Next?

In upcoming posts, and on our Instagram, you’ll hear from voices that are younger than mine - voices of a generation that find value in all that museums have to offer - voices that believe there is a RomCom Happily Ever After for Gen Z and Museums.

Oh…and you’ll get updated research and updates on MUSAY’s relaunch too!

Follow us on Instagram!

MUSAY keeps you up to date on your scene in Nashville — no matter the vibe, we’ve got picks for you.

About MUSAY

MUSAY is an App that transforms phones from isolation devices into discovery tools to  connect people with cultural experiences they never knew they needed—creating community around shared moments of awe while helping cultural institutions thrive.

MUSAY believes people, especially Gen Z, deserve more than endless scrolling through other people's lives and has engaged them in its design process.  The result is an App that gets people off their sofa and off their screen by helping them find things to do that fit their vibe; with all the things to do being at museums.