Randy Haspel writes about abortion, the Tea Party, big government, and other noncontroversial topics in this week’s Rant.
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Month: October 2011
This Saturday and Sunday, Memphis will host it’s very own Day of the Dead celebration, courtesy of the Brooks Museum of Art, the University of Memphis, and Danza Azteca Quetzalcoatl de Memphis – an independent project created in 2002 by Noe Ramirez to preserve the ancestral tradition of sacred, pre-Hispanic, Aztec dances and rituals. The event – which usually takes place on Novmber 1st and 2nd, corresponding to the Catholic holidays of All Saints Day and All Souls Day – aims to convey the cultural importance of Dia de los Muertos, as well as reinforce the Latino community’s heritage in Memphis. The free celebration will follow the traditional customs of the long-established Mexican holiday meant to honor the souls of those who have passed away. Altars known as Ofrendas are lavishly decorated with offerings to the dead, and everyone is welcome to participate by bringing along a photo of a lost loved-one to place on a community altar, on display at the university’s Art and Communication Building throughout the celebration.
On Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Brooks will feature music from Mariachi Guadalajara, elaborate sugar skull face painting, screenings of animated short films, and many skeleton-like Catrinas – made widely recognizable by José Guadalupe Posada. The museum will also hold its own exhibition of ofrendas made by area students, in the education gallery, and volunteers from the Latino community will hold a papel picado workshop in the Brooks’ education studio. The classic Mexican folk art of delicate tissue paper cut into intricate designs is central to Dia de los Muertos decoration. CazaTeatro – the first Hispanic theatrical group in Memphis, founded in 2006 – will perform two shows in the Dorothy K. Hohenberg Auditorium at 10:30 a.m. and noon, and Danza Azteca Quetzalcoatl de Memphis will perform on the Brooks Plaza at 1 p.m. to close the day’s activities. The celebration will continue on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. at the University of Memphis, with more performances from CazaTeatro, Danza Azteca Quetzalcoatl, and female mariachi group Las Palomas.
I thought it would be nice to post some vintage pictures of Project: Motion
P: M is celebrating 25 Years of creating original modern dance works in Memphis. The stats are impressive: 75 choreographers, 95 dance concerts, more than two hundred original works.
The company has been reflective, of late but the 25th Anniversary Concert, which continues at the Evergreen Theatre this weekend, looks both forward and backward. Founder and original co-director, Ann Halligan Donahue returned to choreograph two new works that will appear alongside revivals of pieces by Rebecca Cochran, Emily Hefley and Ursula Payne.
Time: 8pm (2pm Matinee)
Location: Evergreen Theatre
Price: $15-$20
Click here for additional information.
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An Aretha Franklin Museum in Memphis?
If the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Foundation can make it happen, Aretha Franklin’s Memphis birthplace will become a museum honoring the Queen of Soul. Andrew Caldwell reports.
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Transition Planning Team Meets
John Branston reports on Thursday’s meeting of the schools transition planning team.
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The Transition Team Blues
No ropes course, no trust falls, no alcohol, and no precedents. Just 16 people in a big room sitting behind name tags trying to get to know one another a little bit and begin to get their arms around the challenge of merging the city and county schools.
The transition planning commission held its third meeting Thursday, and it was pretty much like the first day of class in college or the opening break-out session of a convention. There were some awkward pauses, but what do you expect when the topic for discussion is “your hopes and fears” for the schools merger? Members (minus five absentees, which could be a problem if it continues) soon got over it and, in voices that were often so soft they could barely be heard by one another much less the gallery, spoke up with some candor.
Katie Stanton said she already had someone tell her that all the kids in Bartlett are going to be bused to Melrose, which, of course, is not true. Joyce Avery wondered about tax increases, and members were in disagreement. David Pickler said public education is the foundation of America and the team should take a lesson from Steve Jobs and “think differently.” Tommy Hart said people don’t understand the difference between the transition team and the school board, but he hopes the transition team will be remembered 50 years from now for doing something good. Rickey Jeans said the system needs to keep sharp, smart kids from leaving the area. Jim Boyd said he is excited and “I don’t work out of fear.” Louis Padgett said the team needs to “go at each other really hard” and “take on our biases.” Christine Richards said she fears that people will start leaving Shelby County in large numbers.
Barbara Prescott, the team facilitator, said she hopes every mother will feel good about where her kid goes to school.
There was a brief discussion of last week’s meeting with Chattanooga and Hamilton County school merger veterans, but, as Pickler noted, that system is smaller than the current Shelby County system alone. And it is majority white.
The plain fact is that there are no comparables. The transition team is in the proverbial uncharted waters.
Jacksonville merged with Duval County in 1968. Louisville merged with Jefferson County in 2003 (going from majority white to whiter) but the school systems merged in 1975. Both were majority white. Indianapolis got consolidated by legislation in 1970 but schools remained separate. Nashville went for Metro government in 1962, schools included, but the system is half the size of Memphis and Shelby County. Atlanta and Fulton County have separate school systems. So do Birmingham and Jefferson County. Knoxville . . . get serious.
In their book “City-County Consolidation: Promises Made, Promises Kept?” Suzanne Leland and Kurt Thurmaier don’t cite a single example of a majority-black city or school system consolidating with a majority-white county.
The transition team will take a look at Charlotte and Mecklenburg County next month. They merged in 1960 and became a landmark in school desegregation and busing in 1969. Today the system has 135,638 students in 178 schools and has kept 44,719 white kids in the system, along with 55,121 blacks, 21,214 Hispanics, and 6,488 Asians along with a sizable number of students listed as “other” or “mixed.”
That meeting will be in mid-November, following next week’s meeting when Kriner Cash is scheduled to make a presentation about school reform in Memphis City Schools.
So first off, I need to preface this whole thing by confessing that this write-up for both events is more than overdue. I could say that I’ve been letting my stomach and liver settle from last weekend’s festivities, but that’s not true…not entirely, anyway.
There’s already a lot of reviews of last week’s Cooper-Young Regional Beer Fest out there (all overwhelmingly positive, by the way….and you can go ahead and count this as another one). As you probably already know, the C-Y beer fest stands apart from others in that it exclusively features local and regional breweries (within a day’s drive)—which, in this part of the country, means it’s relatively small. And that’s by no means a bad thing…something to work on, perhaps, but certainly not bad.
Breweries present included our very own Ghost River, Boscos, the Bluff City Brewers and the homebrewing gents from fuzzybrew.com to those hailing from as far away as Asheville, NC (French Broad, Asheville Brewing Company, and Green Man), as well as Louisiana (the very impressive Bayou Tech).
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Why is Your Dog Fat?
Paul Gerald looks into the good and bad when it comes to dog food — whether it’s table scraps or kibble.
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A Young Man with Ambitions
Hannah Sayle writes about a young (very young) Memphis entrepreneur. Mo and his bowties. Warning: This is cute.
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MEMPHIS Records
So now everybody’s a theater blogger. At Memphis: The Magazine’s 901 blog Marilyn Sadler reports that nearly 27,000 patrons saw Memphis: The Musical during its 13-show run at The Orpheum Theatre. And here’s something else from the Flyer’s opinion pages.
Glad somebody’s watching while I’ve been out on sick leave.