About 500 people gathered in Gaisman Park Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies. All photos by Laura Jean Hocking.
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Month: June 2018
JB
Members of Election Commission listening intently to presentations at Friday’s special called meeting
Friday’s confrontation of the Shelby County Election Commission with aroused Democrats and other complainants about last-minute changes in early-voting sites for the August 2 election round reached its conclusion in a way that was easy to predict going in.
After two hours of argumentation by witnesses, punctuated by moments of genuine concern, passionate emotion, and some grandstanding as such, the Election Commission voted unanimously in favor of a motion by Democratic Commissioner Norma Lester to authorize four extra days of voting services at an easily accessible site in unmistakably Democratic territory, Abundant Grace Fellowship on Shelby Drive.
This site, previously listed as one of 26 satellite sites for early voting, would be balanced by assigning four extra days for voting services to an accessible site in the Republican hinterland, at New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church on Poplar Pike in Germantown. Losing its special status in the trade-off was the Agri-Center on Walnut Grove, which had previously been designated as the one central site to be open for all days in the forthcoming Early Voting span, which begins July 13 and ends on July 28.
JB
Shelby County Democrats’ chairman Corey Strong at the mic
Technically, there will be three sites open throughout the period of early-voting, since, as Election Administrator Linda Phillips said at the close of the meeting, state law apparently requires that one site connected with the administration of elections serve in that capacity. So, she said, the EC office on Nixon Drive at Shelby Farms, site of Friday’s meeting, will also be an umbrella site for the entire early-voting period.
Voting in this second round of voting in 2018 will conclude on August 2, election day as such for the county general election, for selected suburban municipal positions, and for state and federal primaries.
Originally, the early-voting sites for this election round had been understood to be the same as for county primary voting, which ended in May after using 21 satellite sites for early-voting, with none of them scheduled to be open for extra days. (Election Administrator Linda Phillips would say on Friday that this had been an oversight, that the norm in local elections was to designate one site to be open for extra times though the early-voting period. That site was usually at the Election Commission’s downtown office.)
Last week, however, the EC announced five extra sites over the ones previously used in April for the May 1 election. Of these new sites, three were in disproportionately Republican areas, one in a “50/50”zone, and one in a Democratic area in South Memphis. That distribution — added for the sake of previously underserved areas, said Administrator Phillips and EC chairman Meyers — raised hackles among Democrats and others, as did the timing of the announced changes.
But the most provocative change proved to be the EC’s simultaneous designation of the Agri-Center as the one site that would be open and accessible throughout the early-voting period for Round Two, starting our days earlier than the rest of the satellite sites.
In complaints that made the rounds of social media, at a press conference held at the County Building early in the week, and finally at a raucous public hearing on Wednesday at the County Commission, protesters said the changes had been sudden and blindsiding, clearly favored Republicans, had not taken without consulting the public, and erred especially by the designation as an umbrella location of the Agri-Center, which is situated in suburbia and cannot be accessed by public transportation.
The furor made necessary Friday’s specially called meeting of the Election Commission, where the same sorts of accusations were made, in quantity. Prominent local Democrats, like the party’s Shelby County chair Corey Strong, County Commissioner Eddie Jones, and longtime School Board member Sara Lewis, had their say, with Strong insisting that the overriding issue the Election Commission should be concerned about was “getting people to the polls, nothing else.”
In style, the protests ran the gamut from the precise and logical to the agitated and the emotional. At one point, there was a brief but energetic chant from the audience of “All Sites!/ All Days!” — the chant signifying the opinion of many attendees that the proper solution of the controversy would be to assign the four extra days of accessibility to all of the early-voting sites, not just one or two.
The highlight of the 
JB
South Africa native Ann Rief (at left) made the meeting’s most passionate request for change, then bashfully withdrew to the periphery, shunning further attention.
meeting seemed, to many observers, to come from Anne Rief, a Shelby Countian who had immigrated from South Africa. Her expression of devotion to her adopted country and her highly passionate expression of a palpable fear that some version of apartheid might be lurking in the revised schedule of early-voting sites visibly affected significant numbers of the attendees and members of the Election Commission as well.
EC Chairman Meyers had opened the meeting by insisting that the Election Commission made its decisions in a “50-50” manner and that, “We try very hard to be bipartisan.” Though he was to be greeted with jibes here and there in the crowd, Lester attempted to corroborate that sentiment, though she made it clear that she had been on vacation and had not been present when the EC voted the changes to the early-voting site schedule and that, had she been there, “my voice would have been heard.”
Democrat Lester said she would have opposed the designation of Agri-Center as an umbrella site, though she had been relatively untroubled by the disproportionately Republican nature of the newly added satellites, noting that the original list of 21 satellite sites had tilted in favor of Democrats. The main issue of the whole affair, she said, was one of perception, and “we owe the public an apology.”
What the public got was that, plus a fix that whose approximate terms could have been predicted from the onset of the controversy.
Democratic chair Strong was among several Democrats who couldn’t be persuaded, either that the outcome was, in fact, a legitimate compromise, or that it resolved essential issues of turnout. In an online post, Strong had this to say:
“No matter what the Election Commission has done, the Democratic ticket needs 15k+ non-August Democrats to show up and moderate/suburban Dems to not cross over and vote for the demonstrably racist, homophobic, unethical, and unqualified Republican nominees. There is no press release, lawsuit, or other protest that will get those voters to the poll. If you aren’t identifying your share of that 15 k to get to the polls, then start NOW!”
To which Strong’s GOP counterpart, RPSC chair Lee Mills responded:
“The Republican Party of Shelby County calls upon Democrats around the county, state and country to condemn the statements of Shelby County Democrat Chairman Corey Strong.
As usual, the Democrat Party leads the race to the bottom by name calling, labeling and outright lying about Republican candidates and their views.
This type of tactic should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.”
Breyannah Tillman
This past week Memphis represented at the National High School Musical Theatre Awards (AKA The Jimmys) when Riley Thad Young was named a finalist and scholarship winner. You can read all about that and catch his outstanding performance of “Memphis Lives in Me” right here. What my initial report failed to mention is the fact that this isn’t the first time Memphis’ next generation of performing artists has made a big splash at the Jimmys. Anybody interested in seeing a past finalist do what she does best, can check out Breyannah Tillman’s performance as Effie in Playhouse on the Square’s ongoing revival of Dreamgirls.
A Short Chat With Dreamgirls‘ Breyannah Tillman
Tillman describes the HSMTA experience as being high pressure and way more cutthroat than the local version.
“I had just enough time to drop my bags and change into my workout clothes before I had to be in rehearsal,” she says recalling a process that only got more intense when she learned she’d finished third and would be performing a solo rendition of “Lot’s Wife/Salty Teardrops” from the musical drama Caroline or Change.
“The best part was I got to come up out of the floor,” Tillman says, describing her dramatic entrance on a lift. “And the Minskoff is full, and everybody bursts into applause.”
You can catch Tillman at Playhouse on the Square through July 15th.
A Short Chat With Dreamgirls‘ Breyannah Tillman
We’ve all seen magicians manipulate cards in ways that make them appear to have astonishing gifts and the power to know things no ordinary mortal could possibly know. But all they really know is how to force a card — to present you with a choice that’s no real choice at all, all the while letting you believe you’re the clever little monkey queering the illusionist’s game via the exertion of free will. Our sense of self-determination is what gives the trick its tension and makes it fun. But there’s also usually cautionary lesson or two embedded in the trickster’s marvels.
Good propaganda is like a card trick. It appeals to the vanities of self-awareness and control. Good propaganda campaigns are like a Vegas act, replete with sexy assistants, ordinary misdirection, and lots of good old fashioned bait and switch. Great campaigns play all sides to the user’s advantage.
Internet memes create a spectacular opportunity for card forcing, and for injecting divisive, peer-to-peer-spreading viruses into our daily political dialogues. These memes won’t look like propaganda, what would be the point? The worst will look like every right-thinking person’s heart’s desire or some piece of apparently unassailable conventional wisdom. It will also be framed in a way that ensures a healthy mix of reflexive consensus and bitter rejection. I noticed an elegant and completely insidious meme making its way around Facebook this week and thought it would make a great study example. I thought I’d share it with the aim of developing better conversations, and maybe a good set of questions for determining whether or not the content we’re sharing online will have a positive or negative impact.
Here’s the meme:
While making a number of valid-seeming points, the ultimate message here is one of uncritical surrender to… well… whatever. There’s also a healthy serving of Trumpian, “Get over it,” tacked on at the end. But to what or whom exactly are we all supposed to be surrendering and submitting? What kinds of imperfections are we supposed to start getting over in advance of discovery? Who’s going to have to wait (again!) for a place at the table? Which children will we open our hearts to and which ones will our drones open up on? Does the former hinge on a corrupt bargain requiring the latter? The decisions we make at the polls aren’t light ones. They should never be myopic, reactionary, or strictly self-serving. And whether you’re a Hill shill or a Bernie bro, finger-wagging at voters charged with the confusing task of group self-determination is always a poor community-building strategy.
I’m sure a lot of Trump-fatigued people can’t see a thing wrong with this meme — That’s what makes it genius. Whether it was developed by a Russian troll farm, or by a DNC troll farm doing the Russian troll farms’ work for them, or by some doof on the internet doing work the DNC might otherwise do for the Russians, whoever created this black and white text-only marvel deserves all the rubles. With almost zero actual content, it has the magical ability to start fights and make people who agree about current POTUS being a nightmare, yell mean things at one another before they even have a candidate to back. That’s a tell if I’ve ever seen one.
Here’s a list of questions that might help us separate constructive content from memes that make ol’ Vlad Putin dance the merengue. I’m not a propaganda expert, so I know this is not a perfect list. Corrections, suggestions, and contributions are all welcome. My objective here isn’t to be right — I’m not invested in that at all. Instead of competing for that distinction, how about we start some critical thinking about critical thinking, and how the content we share actually functions on the internet versus how we feel about it?
1. Can any part of the meme’s overall content be reasonably interpreted, “fall in line or else”?
If so — and that’s completely evident in our sample — chances are good that the message you are about to share is divisive propaganda using fear and longstanding grudges to motivate. It’s the kind of meme that results in people who need to be in active negotiation with one another typing, “PIGFUCKER,” in all caps at 2 a.m. instead.
Of course, there’s truth at the core of this message: When people don’t unite they tend to lose. That attractive and real fact is like a wad of top shelf peanut butter in the mousetrap of political discourse.
2. Is the message specific or vague? Also, is it active or reactive?
So you’re thinking about sharing a message you agree with. But is it addressing actual candidates, policy proposals, and goals, or is it making vague but nevertheless scary boogie-men? As we move closer to the midterm elections and to 2020, propaganda will personalize and get more specific, honing in on a handful of broad hot-button issues designed to provoke emotional and tribal response rather than critical analysis. But the most corrosive messages are sometimes the ones that keep us agitated, prevent old fissures from healing, and keep us squabbling over the past instead of plotting a course for the future. Our sample meme is exactly that kind of meme. When I shared it on Facebook with a cautionary message, people were arguing Bernie versus Hillary in a matter of seconds while trying to defend against my one and only point that this is purely divisive rhetoric with no tangible social value. Ralph Nader’s name made an appearance within the first hour, along with a few of the the usual odes to compromise and pragmatism that might also be reasonably translated, “Give up.” Absent any real objectives that might be debated or fine tuned, or named candidates with records and platforms to be parsed, vague memes create a perfect black mirror and purely reactionary environment. The latter of which is essential to herding.
3. Does the meme appeal to emotion or intellect?
We’ve all been exposed to some emotionally charged imagery lately. Mass shootings, children being separated from their families — it’s served up daily alongside a sampler platter of daily outrages. Emotional appeals aren’t intrinsically bad, but when a stated aim is to subvert rather than answer or engage critical analysis, chances are you might want to step back and take a second look.
4. Inclusive or alienating?
If your awesome meme’s goal is to recruit voters who must stand together to defeat a monstrously evil candidate that a good third of the country will enthusiastically support based entirely on racism and pissing off liberals, you probably want to build a big, strong coalition that includes a lot of the folks who didn’t, and still probably wouldn’t, vote for [insert your favorite 2016 here], regardless of your feelings for said candidate, their feelings about Trump, or any number of grievances regarding dirty politics, rigged systems, Russian trolls, or any other extenuating circumstance. Re-fighting this long lost campaign or even thinking about recreating it actually or by proxy in 2020, is insane by definition.
Our sample meme truthfully addresses the fact that no candidate will be perfect or pure, which is an obvious statement but with no evident value — like the attractive verities Shakespeare wrote about when he noted that, “Oftentimes, the instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray us in deepest consequence.”
It’s been said that folks who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it, and it sounds really good. But maybe that old axiom’s not complete. Folks who don’t let go of history get stuck fighting the same battles with the same eventual results. But the topsy-turvy looking glass result of 2016 presidential election is drifting further into the past and and there are real opportunities to learn from past mistakes and not fall for the same tricks. When you’re up against homogeneity, the most inclusive messaging is always going to be the most desirable. If the message demands unity but offers no unifying principle beyond “or else,” beware.
That’s all I’ve got. Now it’s your turn.
Lane Closures Ahead on I-240 for Bridge Work
Look for lane closures on I-240 beginning the middle of next month.
Tennessee Department of Transportation’s (TDOT) MemFix 4 project will bring crews to replace four bridges over I-240 and that will bring temporary closures to a stretch of I-240 from the I-40/I-240 split through to the I-40/SR 385 split.
The $54 million project will replace four bridges: East Poplar, West Poplar, Norfolk Southern Railroad, and Park Avenue over Interstate 240 in East Memphis. The bridges were built in the 1950s and early 1960s, according to TDOT, and “have structural deterioration and deficiencies that need to be addressed.”
“This project will provide a safer commute for the roughly 50,000 vehicles that travel this section of Poplar and Park Avenues and the trains that travel this section of the Norfolk Southern Railroad every day, as well as the 138,000 motorists who travel under the bridges on I-240,” according to TDOT.
Lane closures on 240 start Wednesday, July 11th.
Here’s the full schedule from TDOT:
• Friday, July 13th, 9 p.m. until Monday, July 16th, 6 a.m. – Poplar Avenue eastbound will be closed at the I-240 interchange. I-240 will remain open.
• Friday, July 13th, midnight until Monday, July 16th, 6 a.m. – Poplar Avenue westbound will be closed at the I-240 interchange. The I-240 eastbound ramp to Poplar Avenue westbound will be closed. I-240 will remain open.
• Friday, July 20th, 9 p.m. until Monday, July 23rd, 6 a.m. – FULL CLOSURE of I-240 east and westbound and Poplar Avenue east and westbound.
• Friday, July 27th, 9:00 p.m. until Monday, July 30th, 6 a.m. – FULL CLOSURE of I-240 east and westbound and Poplar Avenue east and westbound.
During the closures, all interstate traffic will be detoured to the north I-40 loop and the south I-240 loop. Poplar Avenue eastbound and westbound will also be closed during these weekends.
Walnut Grove and Park Avenue will be open, but access to I-240 will be prohibited. Message boards will alert motorists to the closures and alternate routes. Drivers are advised to plan ahead.
Latino Memphis/Facebook
A rally is planned here for Saturday, June 30th to protest the Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the U.S.-Mexican border.
Organized by Latino Memphis, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, the Community Legal Center, and Indivisible Memphis, the demonstration is one of the hundreds slated for cities across the country on Saturday.
“These families are seeking a safer, better life, only to be persecuted in the United States,” reads a statement from Latino Memphis.
President Trump’s recent executive order does not “explicitly end family separation and does not provide any solution for the thousands of young children that have been separated to be reunited with their families,” according to Latino Memphis.
Instead, the executive order overlooks the Flores agreement, which upholds child welfare laws and prevents families from being detained indefinitely, according to the group.
“The nationwide demonstrations are to say that we as a country will not stand for these horrific policies, and we are ready to take action,” said Latino Memphis.
At the rally, speakers will share their experiences, and attendees will have the opportunity to learn about specific steps they can take to address the “hateful” zero tolerance policy and the separation of families. Some of those steps include voting in elections on all levels, donating to local organizations serving immigrants, volunteering with organizations, and contacting representatives.
The demonstration is scheduled for 10 a.m. at Gaisman Park on Macon.
Categories
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Last weekend, while $150 million worth of viewers were flocking to see Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, I happened across a Jaws marathon on TV. The original, 1975 Jaws is, of course, an incredible piece of filmmaking. Steven Spielberg’s eye for a shot is so great it looks accidental. His sense of timing, both comic and horror, is impeccable. He’s great with actors and understands how to construct a sympathetic character in as few beats as possible. Most importantly, he can literally make you feel any way he wants you to feel on command. Jaws is still thrilling as ever after 43 years.
Jaws 2, released in 1978, was directed by Jeannot Szwarc. He has the dubious distinction of being the first in a long line of filmmakers who have tried and failed to reproduce the Spielbergian magic. All the parts are there — the shark, the John Williams music, the doomed beachgoers — but they somehow fail to work together in quite the same way. At least it’s not incompetently bad, like Jaws 3-D, or cynical and insulting, like the infamous Jaws: The Revenge.
If one were a cynical web critic in 2018, one could sum up Spielberg’s 1993 film Jurassic Park with “What if Jaws, but dinosaurs?” But if there’s one thing Spielberg is not, it’s cynical. His sense of curiosity and fun are infectious. You wanna see a T-rex eat a guy sitting on a toilet? Sure you do. And your uncle Steven can make it happen. The film, credited with ushering in the age of CGI, and its sequel The Lost World, work mostly because Spielberg really likes dinosaurs.
2015’s Jurassic World worked, to the extent it did, because director Colin Trevorrow really liked Jurassic Park. He, along with Jurassic Park III and Captain America: The First Avenger director Joe Johnston are among the few who have actually managed to pull off a convincing Spielberg imitation, and was rewarded with a whopping $1.6 billion at the box office. Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom director J.A. Bayona, on the other hand, falls into the Jaws 2 trap. The opening sequence features two rubes in a submersible retrieving a tooth from the submerged skeleton of Indominous Rex, the genetically engineered super dino that ate so many theme park goers in the last go round. Their consumption by a mammoth mosasaurus is handled in tasteful suspense, but by the time the scene’s over, Bayona goes full Sharknado. It’s the first of many fabulously expensive sequences that play like groaner dad joke versions of classic Jurassic Park gags. The script, by Trevorrow and his writing partner Derek Connolly, never met a cliche it didn’t like. You like the part where the T-rex saves the day with a mighty roar? Uncle Bayona gives you two of those, unearned. A hacker says “I’m in!” A suited money guy yells at a scientist to explain a technical matter “In English!”
What keeps Fallen Kingdom from scoring a Revenge on the Jaws Scale are the leads. Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing is now the head of the Dinosaur Protection Group. She’s gravely concerned, because Isla Nublar, the island overrun with thunder lizards after the Jurassic World theme park suffered a massive insurance liability event, is about to be destroyed by a convenient volcano. She is enlisted by Sir Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) and his majordomo Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) to rescue as many dinos as possible. She finds velociraptor whisperer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) building a cabin in the Canadian Rockies, as all guys who were “the best” do when they retire because of the horrible consequences of their actions. Pratt and Howard work well together, despite looking mildly bored at times. At least they’re better than their newcomer sidekicks, paleo-veterinarian Dr. Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda) and Franklin Webb (Justice Smith), an IT specialist who at one point tries to use his l33t haxor skillz to fix the air conditioning. They often disappear without explanation, reappearing only to bicker unconvincingly.
Fallen Kingdom suffers from a distinct, and fatal, lack of Jeff Goldblum. He never even stands up during his cameo as Dr. Ian Malcom, the franchise’s voice of reason. Perhaps more Goldblum would have helped the 128-minute running time go down a little smoother. As it is, I’m with the little girl in the row in front of me who kept asking her mom, “Is it going to be over soon?”
Justin Fox Burks
Governor Bill Haslam signed legislation Friday that will begin his “aggressive and comprehensive” plan to fight the state opioid epidemic.
Haslam signed into law two bills passed by the Tennessee General Assembly this year. Together, the bills comprise the TN Together plan. It focuses on prevention, treatment, and law enforcement.
“This legislation is a major step in helping fight this epidemic by limiting the supply of opioids and providing resources to provide treatment for those addicted,” Haslam said during a signing ceremony in East Tennessee Friday. “Opioid addiction affects the entire state in some form, and with this comprehensive plan I feel confident that we can make a difference in the lives of Tennesseans.”
Governor Bill Haslam
One bill, co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, limits the duration and dosage of opioid prescriptions for new patients. The law makes exceptions for major surgical procedures, and exemptions that include cancer and hospice treatment, sickle cell disease, and treatment in certain licensed facilities.
”With initial opioid prescriptions limited to a three-day supply, Tennessee will have one of the most strict and aggressive opioid policies in the nation,” reads a statement form Haslam’s office.
The second bill creates incentives for offenders to complete substance use treatment programs while incarcerated. It also updates the schedule of controlled substances — notably adding synthetic versions of fentanyl — “to better track, monitor and penalize the use and unlawful distribution of opioids.”
[pullquote-1] Haslam also issued an executive order to create a special commission to update how opioids are taught in the state’s medical schools.
The state’s new budget includes more than $16 million to fund treatment and services in the fight against opioid addiction.
Downtown Memphis Commission
The park is re-imagined in this first-place-winning design called ‘Handy Park: A Civic Space Revival’ from a group of designers from Kimley-Horn and brg3s.
Four teams won the Downtown Memphis Commission’s (DMC) contest to re-imagine Handy Park.
DMC opened the challenge in March, to help transform the underutilized Beale Street park into ”a first-class concert venue, public space, and Downtown amenity for our entire community.” The challenge was opened to get design ideas but the DMC is not obligated to build any of the designs from the contest.
Downtown Memphis Commission
The first-place design came from a group of designers from Kimley-Horn and brg3s. That group will take home $5,000.
Their design, called Handy Park: A Civic Space Revival opens the park up to Beale Street for higher pedestrian traffic, keeps the stage, gets rid of the stadium seating, and opens up that space around it for “performances of any size.” The design has new lights, art, and keeps the existing structures as a market of shops, restaurants, and rooftop bars.
”While this entire grand redesign cannot be completed for the $250,000 outlined in the Handy Park Design Challenge, a highly impactful portion of these design recommendations could be implemented through an initial phase of construction,” reads the designers notes. “Handy Park will be well on its way to becoming the celebrated ‘Home of the Blues.’”
Downtown Memphis Commission
A design from Allen & Hoshall called, “Handy Park: The Pivot Point” came in second place. “The Big Lawn” and “Covered in Blues,” designs from deisgnshop and UrbanARCH & Associates respectively, tied for third place.
Eight designs were submitted for the challenge. They were reviewed by the DMC and Beale Street management. The review team also showed the designs in a public meeting last week.
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“We were really encouraged by what we saw at the public meeting,” said DMC president Jennifer Oswalt. “The public input was valuable, and the designer-teams seemed to truly understand our desire to elevate the space and create a more welcoming environment.”
The DMC hopes to complete the Handy Park project by March 2019.
“I’m excited about seeing how several of these designs could work together,” said Jon Shivers, director of Beale Street. “Beale is the most iconic street in the world, it is only fitting that we rethink and reimagine what the park can be.”
To see all the designs, visit the challenge home page.
Downtown Memphis Commission
Artist: George Hunt
Sonny Boy Williamson
The Downtown Memphis Commission, in conjunction with artist George Hunt and LongRiver Entertainment Group, announced Friday a pop-up preview of Hunt’s vision for a National Blues Music Art Museum in Memphis.
The preview installation at 100 Peabody Place is part of the Downtown Commission’s “Open on Main” pop-up initiative to give creatives and creative ideas Main Street exposure for a month. Hunt’s project will run the month of July, after a planned July 3rd opening.
According to the DMC, the National Blues Music Art Museum is “primarily and fundamentally an art museum intended to fascinate, educate, and entertain music fans and tourists with images and stories of the history of Blues Music over the past 150 years.”
Otha Turner
The museum will tell the story of blues music through artistic images from a variety of artists, sculptors, photographers, folk artists, indigenous peoples, entertainers, and festivals.
Hunt’s bold, colorful, original paintings will be the anchor for the museum. He has created 35 large, new paintings over the past five years, specifically for the museum. His 26 paintings created for Beale Street Music Festival Posters will also be an exhibit in the museum.
David Simmons, head of LongRiver Entertainment Group, is designing and curating the project and spearheading its development. Hunt and Simmons have been creating and collecting images of blues music and culture for decades, and the National Blues Music Art Museum will “showcase these images to the public in a way that will be enjoyable to view simply as art and folk art images. Accompanying this incredible art will be a storyline that links the important evolutionary stages of the history of the Blues.”
Also included in the pop-up museum will be a sampling of Stephen Hudson’s unique hydrostone castings of bluesmen from the 1990s, along with other folk-style and African art. Simmons’ extensive personal collection of blues photography, along with photographs on loan from his earlier Blues & Legends Hall of Fame Museum include WC Handy, BB King, Howlin’ Wolf, and others.
Admission to the museum pop-up is free and visitors will have the opportunity to meet Hunt. Hours will be Monday-Thursday 10 am-6 pm, Friday and Saturday until 7:30 pm. Sunday hours will vary.