Syann, 19, leafs through notebooks of her artwork at her mother’s Skyview apartment off Charlotte Ave in West Nashville. She says, outside the apartment, she is just another person. But in her room, she is an artist of slums, painting and dwrawing the shapes and colors of her life, or rather a dream version of her life–one of high fashion, crystal balls, and exotic cars.

I asked if she would like to attend art college, she said no one had ever told her that college was an option. She said she has always had to work to help with family needs.

“Maybe someday I can go,” she said.