By Melinda Newman

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Ashley McBryde

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Hollywood & Mind will bring together top creatives, including Ashley McBryde, Ashley Gorley, Gayle and Chase McDaniel, and leading music executives for its inaugural Nashville event on Oct. 22.

The organization, which bills itself as “the entertainment industry’s mental health coalition for innovation,” holds an annual summit in Los Angeles, and with the Nashville event launches its Hollywood & Mind On Location series, which will travel to various cities across the country. Across its franchises, Hollywood & Mind brings together stakeholders from the entertainment and mental health fields for conversations that establish best practices and solutions to bring about mental wellness.

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The daylong Nashville experience, which will take place at neighboring venues Anzie Blue and the Belcourt Theatre, is geared toward songwriters, artists and executives and will also include singer-songwriters Maggie Rose, Sam Williams, Stella Prince, Madeline Edwards and Summer Joy. Among the executives taking part are BMG/BBR’s Katie Kerkhover, FEMco’s Leslie Fram, The Core Entertainment’s Kevin “Chief” Zaruk, Q Prime South’s John Peets, Belmont University’s Brittany Schaffer, YouTube’s Margaret Hart, Warner Music Nashville’s Mike Dupree, Porter’s Call’s Beth Barcus and NAMI Tennessee’s Katrina Gay.

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“Nashville is the songwriting capital of the world, and our team has been on the ground immersing in the community to better understand both the unique challenges to their wellbeing and various ways they’re using their voices to elevate mental health out in the culture,” said Cathy Applefeld Olson, founder/CEO of Hollywood & Mind in a statement. “The big heart and collaborative nature of this city’s artistic alliance make Nashville the perfect place to debut our ‘On Location’ tour and we’ve created a program whose impact will resonate long after October 22.” (Applefeld Olson is also a Billboard contributor.)

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The day will open with a songwriters workshop featuring Prince, Joy and Hollywood & Mind’s Jaxon J. Huffman. Other sessions will include a panel with Hart, McBryde, Peets and Dupree on the power of visual storytelling, as well as a conversation on artist wellbeing featuring Gayle and Williams, moderated by Fram. Olson will conduct a fireside chat with Gorley about his mental health journey.

For the full lineup of sessions, as well as how to purchase tickets to Hollywood & Mind On Location In Nashville, go here.

Nashville sponsors include The NMPA S.O.N.G.S. Foundation, The FRESH Program, UTA Foundation, Anzie Blue, FEMco, and Love You Three. Additional Hollywood & Mind partners include NAMI and Creators Capital.

Past Hollywood & Mind events have featured fireside chats with Demi Lovato, Marlon Wayans, and Mike Posner, as well as speakers including Rachel Platten, Tiffany Hadish, Shinedown’s Brent Smith, Master P, Colton Underwood, Valerie June, Charlamagne Tha God and many others.

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