Carter Stevens and His Pursuit of the American Dream through Reinvention

At 31, Carter Stevens finds opportunity among discarded items. He stands behind a gleaming high-rise building in downtown Nashville, rummaging through a dumpster.

Stevens examines a trove of discarded materials. He spots dresses still on their plastic hangers dangling from the dumpster’s rusty edge. Nearby, a 65-inch flat-screen television protrudes through collapsed cardboard boxes. Among the refuse, a marble side table shimmers under the bright midday sun.