Nashville program brings live music – and hope – to prisons: 'I've seen grown men weep'

Nashville Tennessean

Blessing Offor, a two-time Grammy nominee, performs during the Send Musicians to Prison event at the Metro Detention Facility in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, Nov. 6, 2023.

Singer-songwriter Blessing Offor took his seat behind a baby grand piano at a recent show surrounded by a crowd most people would fear. He leaned into the mic and said, "OK, you guys, I am totally blind, so I'm trusting you all right now."

He needed to establish trust with the 40 or so inmates at the Metro Detention Facility waiting to hear him sing.

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