Month: August 2019

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Dispatch War Rocket Ajax to Time Warp Drive-In’s FUTURECOOL

Welcome to Mongo, Earth man.

This month’s Time Warp Drive-In is devoted to 80s space opera. The term comes, believe it or not, from Westerns. In particular, elaborately staged Westerns in the middle of the 20th century came to be known derisively as “horse operas,” and the term kind of migrated over to movies like This Island Earth. The post Star Wars period of 1977-1984, where studios were greenlighting big-budget sci-fi left and right, no matter how poorly conceived, was the golden age of space opera, and there was none more operatically staged than Flash Gordon.

George Lucas had wanted to license Alex Raymond’s comic strip character from the 1930s, Flash Gordon, for his followup to American Graffiti. But Italian mogul Dino De Laurentiis wouldn’t sell, so Lucas ended up creating Star Wars instead. De Laurentiis, who didn’t get to be a rich and famous movie producer by ignoring cultural trends or letting good taste get in his way, decided it was time to exploit the intellectual property he had been sitting on and make a Flash Gordon movie of his own.

After a false start with director Nicholas Roeg, and a hard pass from Fredrico Fellini, of all people, he hired Mike Hoges to direct. Playgirl model Sam Jones was cast as Flash, but by far the best casting decision in the whole project was Max Von Sydow as Ming the Merciless. In the comic and the classic Saturday matinee serials, the ruler of Mongo has an icky, yellow, peril vibe. Von Sydow, who got his start with Ingrid Bergman in Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal, transcends that to makes Ming both truly alien and kinda charming, in a sadistic space tyrant kind of way.

Dispatch War Rocket Ajax to Time Warp Drive-In’s FUTURECOOL (2)

With Star Wars, Lucas set out to create a visually believable space opera. Flash Gordon attempts to emulate its source material — which is to say, comics of the 1930s and 40s. You might think the whole thing look irredeemably cheesy, and you’d be right, but you have to admit they achieved what they set out to do.

But admit it, we’re all just in it for the Queen soundtrack, which is absolute perfection. Let’s roll that theme song.

Dispatch War Rocket Ajax to Time Warp Drive-In’s FUTURECOOL

Speaking of classically trained actors going over the top, the second film of the evening is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Widely regarded as the best big-screen Trek, it cements Khan Noonien Singh as Captain James T. Kirk’s arch enemy.

So many things passed from this classic into the larger culture. “Kobayashi Maru” became geek slang for a no-win situation, and the “Genesis Wave” sequence, a Lucasfilm masterpiece of early CGI, was recently referenced in Dark Phoenix. But Ricardo Montalbán steals the show from William Shatner, and the folks at Paramount who made this 1982 trailer, knew it.

Dispatch War Rocket Ajax to Time Warp Drive-In’s FUTURECOOL (3)

The final film of the evening is Masters of the Universe, which stars Dolph Lundgrin as toy superhero He-Man in what is probably his finest role, and Academy Award nominee Frank Langella as Skeletor in what is definitely not his finest role. Is it so bad it’s good? You be the judge.

Dispatch War Rocket Ajax to Time Warp Drive-In’s FUTURECOOL (4)

Time Warp starts at dusk at the Malco Summer Drive-In on Saturday, August 17. 

Categories
We Recommend We Saw You

Elvis is Everywhere!

CREDIT: Amanda Smith

Amanda Smith

I kicked off Elvis Week by eating a Doughburger and sitting in the ‘Elvis’ booth at Johnnie’s Drive-In in Tupelo. The restaurant, apparently, was one of the King’s haunts.

My first 45 rpm record was “Don’t Be Cruel” by Elvis. I got it when it came out in 1956. I saw his first movie, Love Me Tender on the big screen when it was released the same year. I saw Elvis in 1957 on stage at Russwood Park.

But I never ate at Johnnie’s Drive-In in Tupelo until a few days ago.

Johnnie’s, apparently, was one of Elvis’s haunts. A photograph of the King in one of Johnnie’s wooden booths hangs above a booth, which, supposedly, is the one Elvis was photographed in.

Christi Wade’s parents – Don and Barbara Knight – bought Johnnie’s in 1981, she says. “I’m just managing,” she says. “Whenever they retire, I’m buying it from them.”

John and Margaret Chism were the original owners of Johnnie’s, which opened October 17, 1945, White says. It’s billed as “Tupelo’s Oldest Restaurant.”

I overheard a customer order the “Johnnie Burger.” He told me it was the Doughburger, which White says is their best seller. Doughburgers “started during the Depression when they added flour into the meat because meat was being rationed. To make it go further. Oh, my gosh. We cook so many of those a day. That’s one of our most popular items.”

It’s especially popular during Elvis tributes, she says. “The week of his birth and the week Tupelo does its Elvis festival in June and in August when people are making a pilgrimage to Tupelo and back to Memphis to commemorate his death.”

People want to eat Doughburgers because Elvis supposedly ate them, White says. “We have to rely on what we are told from his friends that are still with us.”

Paul Cramer, who was a traveling salesman, took the photo in the mid 1950s. According to his account, Cramer heard a teenager scream, “Elvis is next door!” He didn’t know who Elvis was, but he found the King at Johnnie’s and asked if he could take his photo. Cramer didn’t think any more about the photo until he discovered it in a photo album in 1997.

White and her family also have to rely on Elvis’ friends, who told them the booth in the photo is the same booth beneath the photograph, she says. “We just have to go by what we’re told. We don’t really have 100 percent proof.”

People like to have their photograph taken in the “Elvis” booth.

Johnnie’s was packed the week I visited the restaurant with my sister. People kept walking through the door. When we left, we saw a long line of people who traveled by bus waiting to get in. “It’s a crazy week, but we love it,” White says.

And Johnnie’s is an actual drive-in; you can order from a carhop. “We try our best to stay a lot like we were in 1945.”

They added items to the menu, but, White says, “We don’t accept credit cards or debit cards. Cash only.”

They like to “stay with the feel of old school” at Johnnie’s, White says.

The prices seem old school, too. The Doughburger sells for $1.35. You also can get an “All-Meat Burger” for just $2.50.

MIchael Donahue

Kelly Laing, Pat Kerr Tigrett, and T. G. Sheppard at ‘Moonshine at Sunset.’

Pat Kerr Tigrett helped kick off Elvis Week with her “Moonshine at Sunset” soiree, which was held August 9th at her downtown penthouse.

The party celebrated T. G. Sheppard’s birthday. He and his wife, Kelly Laing, were among the star-studded group who attended.

Sheppard and Laing performed at the “George Klein Tribute Show,” which was held August 11th at Lafayette’s Music Room. Merrilee Rush and William Bell, who performed at the show, were among the guests at Tigrett’s party.

Jerry Williams, who attended with Cindy Bailey, put the Klein show together. Williams and Klein were friends for 71 years.

Days later, Williams shared his thoughts about the tribute show, which also featured Carla Thomas, Joyce Cobb, Wendy Moten, Ronnie McDowell, Jason D. Williams, and the Royal Blues Band. “The Sunday show probably is one of those shows that Memphis won’t see again for a long, long time,” he says.

Ten performers “all appearing and all doing what they felt for George. It was incredible.”

The show was sold out, Williams says. “Then we had Lafayette’s decide to do a standing room only. It was jam packed. People were standing outside in a line. Everybody who came had to love George.”

What struck him the most were “the people who came to Memphis to perform for George and the love they all showed for him.”

And, he says, “Those 10 acts that were there, those were the people George would have called. He had a history of love and affection for every one of them. He was integral to everyone of them early in their careers.”

What would Klein have thought about the show? “He would have turned his head and probably cried. He was so humble. It would be hard for him to grasp that these people were there for him.”


Michael Donahue

William Bell and Lawrence ‘Boo’ Mitchell at ‘Moonshine at Sunset.’

Michael Donahue

Cindy Bailey, Jerry Williams, Larry Moss. and Merrilee Rush at ‘Moonshine at Sunset.’

                                       WE SAW YOU AROUND TOWN

MIchael Donahue

Mary Pat Van Epps. Lydia Cox, and Gina Dear at Gibson’s Donuts.

Michael Donahue

Eldrick Wilkins, Moriah Oliver, and Nature Hendricks at Crosstown Concourse.

Michael Donahue

Darnell Henderson and Cameron Bethany at Blind Bear


Categories
Music Music Features

1000 Lights: Zen and the Art of Stooges Covers

There’s only one band in Memphis, and everyone is in it. The truth in that old pearl was underlined by last Saturday’s tribute to Dr. John’s Gris-Gris, a party that ended at Cooper-Young’s Bar DKDC — after the musicians took the revels to the street. The performers included members of Marcella & Her Lovers, the Sheiks, and, yes, Memphis’ new alternative goth-rock band, 1000 Lights. The historically amorphous lineups of Memphis bands is of note because 1000 Lights is something of a Bluff City supergroup itself. The band will release its debut album, 3NC EP, on Forbidden Place Records this Friday, August 16th, at B-Side.

The lineup includes Jesse James Davis (Yesse Yavis, Model Zero) on vocals, Joey Killingsworth (Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre, Super Witch) on guitar, Flyer film editor Chris McCoy (Super Witch, Pisshorse) on bass, and drummer Russ Thompson (The Margins, Static Bombs, Pisshorse).

1000 Lights: (l to r) McCoy, Thompson, Davis, and Killingsworth

“I just love Russ. There’s a lot of good drummers in town, and I think he’s the best rock drummer in town,” says McCoy of his longtime bandmate. The two go way back. Back in their days in Pisshorse, they used to share bills with the Oblivians and the Grifters. “We were one of the first bands to play Black Lodge,” McCoy adds.

Pisshorse played a set of Black Sabbath covers at Barrister’s, a now-shuttered venue in Downtown Memphis, which secured the band an invitation to perform a “secret set” at the infamous “Hell on Earth” Halloween party series. They decided to cover The Stooges’ Fun House. Unfortunately, they never got to play that night. “The cops came when people started setting off smoke bombs,” McCoy says. “So we never got to play. And I was always bitter about that.”

So when a recently broken-up Super Witch was invited to play Black Lodge’s Halloween celebration, McCoy saw his opportunity to play Fun House, at last. Of course, McCoy and Thompson would make up the rhythm section, because “there’s something about a rhythm section that’s been together for a really long time,” McCoy says. “You get a telepathic relationship.” To handle guitar duties, McCoy and Thompson tapped Killingsworth from Super Witch. All that remained? “We needed someone who could be Iggy,” he says.

The then-trio wanted arguably one of the best front-persons in Memphis. “I met Jesse James Davis at that Bowie [tribute] show,” McCoy explains, further adding to the mosaic of musical influences that helped inform 1000 Lights. Memphis songwriter Graham Winchester put on a David Bowie tribute concert in 2016 to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and McCoy and Davis both performed. “Everybody was good that night, but Jesse just blew me away.” Who better to be the band’s Iggy than someone who had already played Bowie?

They planned to play the Halloween show and, if everyone felt good about it, pursue the band as a full-time project. “We walked off stage at that Black Lodge show,” McCoy says, “and Jesse turned to me and said, ‘Let’s do it!'”

“The name 1000 Lights comes from a line in ‘Down on the Street,’ the Stooges song,” McCoy says. So the band set about crafting its sound, influenced by their roots but branching out to cultivate music based on their varied tastes. Killingsworth “wanted to do something really gothy,” McCoy says. “He’s really into Bauhaus and he loves Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.”

There is a darkness and a sense of drama to 3NC EP, recorded at Move the Air Audio, but there are also shades of punk, post-punk, and early alternative music.

The first two tracks, “Shark Tooth” and “Exile Your Life,” open the album with a grit-your-teeth, Stooges-like momentum, but as the record plays, the band lets the songs spool out a little longer. “Isolation Line” has an opening rhythm that recalls Joy Division’s “The Sound of Music.” The multifaceted structure of the songs speaks to the collaborative nature of the project — and the songwriting chops on display. Memphis’ newest supergroup, 1000 Lights, burns brightly. 1000 Lights record release with Alyssa Moore and Glorious Abhor is Friday, August 16th, at B-Side, 9 p.m.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Save the Swamp

In the evening, after the day’s heat has broken, I like to sit outside with a glass of wine and look up. The pale sky is filled with life: bats, swallows, hummingbirds, dragonflies, the passing night herons that live a few blocks over, and, usually, a solitary Mississippi kite, circling way up high, his shrill two-note whistle cutting through the pulsing cicada chorus. As darkness falls, you can gaze long and deep into the night sky, at the clouds, the moon, the endless throw of stars.

The natural world is always with us, even in the city. If you give it your attention, nature will reward you and give you a respite from our ever-chaotic politics and the nonstop social media melee. It’s easy to take these small pleasures for granted.

Sunday, a friend and I drove the backroads up to the Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas. It’s a vast expanse of water and cypress swamp, with trackless flooded lowlands, miles of mossy sloughs, and a massive shallow lake filled with ancient cypress and blooming lily pads as far as the eye can see. It’s home to gar, catfish, bass, bream, snapping turtles, beavers, muskrats, bobcats, black snakes, probably a gator or two, and who knows what else.

NFW.gov

Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge

Bald eagles, osprey, and red-tailed hawks patrol on high; wood ducks, indigo buntings, cardinals, and countless, nameless little birds flit through the green under-canopy. In the late fall, the lake and the sky above it are covered up with migrating waterfowl, creating sights (and sounds) well worth the 30-minute drive from Memphis. And it’s free.

America has a long and checkered history with its natural resources. In the 19th century, hunters almost wiped out the buffalo, exterminated the passenger pigeon, and decimated countless other species. Corporations strip-mined our mountains, denuded our lands of their trees, poisoned our water, polluted our air, and killed countless creatures, big and small, all in pursuit of the almighty dollar. We learned the hard way that, left unchecked, profit-driven entities won’t hesitate to destroy the environment.

We started figuring it out, maybe just in time. Thanks to President Teddy Roosevelt, the U.S. created a National Park system to preserve some of our precious wild spaces. Cities and states have followed suit, creating public parks and natural areas for their citizens. With the public’s support, Congress began passing laws protecting our air and water and wildlife. According to a March 2018 Gallup poll, more than 75 percent of Americans think protecting our environment is important; 62 percent think the government should be doing more to protect it. To which, the Trump administration has said, meh, not so much.

In its two-and-a-half years of existence, this administration has opened millions of acres of previously protected federal land to mining, oil, and timber operations. It’s weakened off-shore drilling regulations. It’s cut or eliminated many EPA air-pollution regulations.

We’ve gotten used to this, at some level — Trump’s predilection for appointing agency heads who seem uniquely qualified to destroy the very departments they are charged with running. You may remember — though it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with the revolving doors of Trump’s cabinet — that the president initially appointed the spectacularly sleazy Scott Pruitt to head the EPA. Pruitt was eventually forced out for being too corrupt, even for this administration, which is pretty damn corrupt. Before Pruitt left, he lifted key controls on air pollution, rolled back vehicle fuel efficiency standards, and even reversed the ban of the neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos, against all advice from EPA scientists. Pruitt then purged the EPA’s pesky science advisory panels. Pruitt was followed by a “temporary” EPA director, Andrew Wheeler, who is still running the agency.

Now, the president and his team are planning to gut the Endangered Species Act — you know, the law that saved the bald eagle from extinction. Why? Why do you think? So corporations can stop worrying about the silly otters and brown trout and Mississippi kites and get about the business of pillaging our environment for profit.

It’s enough to make a man want to go outside and gaze long and deep into the night sky, at the clouds, the moon, the endless throw of stars.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The See-Saw of Race and Power

CREDIT: CNN Video

On July 30th, images of a bright pink seesaw installed at the U.S.-Mexico border flooded my social media and news feeds. On the Mexico side of the wall, children lined up for a turn on the seesaw. On the U.S. side, a handful of people, mostly adults, got on the seats at the other end.

Though temporarily installed (for about half an hour), the seesaw will exist forever in digital memory through the photos and videos that documented it. Messages of love and unity accompanied them, and people celebrated the seesaw for allowing U.S. and Mexican kids to play together. As the co-architect Ronald Rael described, the “Teetertotter Wall” was meant to foster “joy, excitement, and togetherness.” But when I first came across these photos and videos, I didn’t see what most people saw or wanted to see.

Despite many reports suggesting kids on both sides playing together, coverage of the seesaw on the U.S. side showed mostly grown adults. Images that were widely circulated of actual children on the seesaw were of children on the southern side of the border. On the surface, images of smiling and laughing brown kids evoke positive messages. If that’s the level where we choose to stop, then we can agree that some of the goals that Rael and his partner, architect Virginia San Fratello, set out for this art installation — to bring joy and show that people on both sides can build positive relationships — have been accomplished.

CNN Video

Coverage of them should be, too.

But art is not that simple. Border narratives are not simple. The border, the wall, and the realities of immigration, colonialism, and militarization bound to it are multilayered.

When Rael and San Fratello said, “The wall became a literal fulcrum of U.S.-Mexico relations” and that the Teetertotter Wall reflects “how the actions on one side of the border have direct consequences on the other,” they presented a limited way to understand immigration. While it may not have been their intent, the consequence of this framing is that we neglect to consider the significant number of Central American asylum seekers who present themselves at the U.S. southern border. It also doesn’t recognize the role of the U.S. and Mexico in the oppression of Central Americans, especially black and indigenous Central Americans.

All that is lost in the coverage of the bright pink seesaws.

In their statement “Borderwall as (Settler Colonial) Architecture, or Why We Prefer Bulldozers to Seesaws” Dubravka Sekulić, Elise Misao Hunchuck, and Léopold Lambert write, “The immediate public acceptance and celebration of this project flattened it into a palatable image of hope, concealing if not erasing real and pressing concerns.” They emphasize that “this is less about the installation itself than its publicization” because the coverage of the seesaw suggests that this art intervention can make the wall a part of a playful landscape. In that brief but well-documented and later publicized moment, all we see is the smiling and laughing faces of brown children. It doesn’t challenge us. And because we are not challenged to think of the border and what it represents and supports in a different way, we consume images of brown smiles and then those images, like anything “viral,” enter and leave our social media feeds.

This leads to another point that unsettled me. These images of children that are meant to make you feel — something. Images of children, especially black and brown children, are often used for this purpose. Smiling faces to make you feel one way, faces full of tears to feel another. A recent example is the series of raids that happened in Mississippi where images of grieving families and children were spread across the internet.

The 2018 worksite ICE raid in Bean Station, Tennessee, that took 97 people was about 440 miles away from Memphis, and while there have been raids in Memphis before, this one had been the largest in a decade at the time.

For perspective, Canton, Mississippi, one of the six cities that experienced worksite raids, is less than half the distance from Memphis that Bean Station is. Around 680 people were taken from worksites last week. For some cities, it was the first day of school for children. Their faces of grief and trauma were shared and retweeted over and over. Some may say that this was done to raise awareness, but a recurring problem is that images of black and brown people experiencing violence at the hand of the state are not made for awareness; they are exploited for white consumption. The images of the smiling brown kids on the pink seesaw similarly serve to aid a comfort that obscures a call to challenge and act. Journalists and photographers need to think about their role in documenting these events. Are you amplifying the voices and stories of people with dignity and respect?

Bringing awareness does not require photographing children without their or their parents’ and caretakers’ consent. What these children and communities need is resources and support, now more than ever.

Aylen Mercado is a brown, queer, Latinx chingona and Memphian exploring race and ethnicity in the changing U.S. South.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Abortion Battle Lines

If abortion had not been an option for former addict Ashley Howell when she unexpectedly got pregnant two years ago, she might have relapsed. She wasn’t in a good place and was not ready to have a child.

Her dad had recently passed away due to complications with alcoholism, she was in her last semester of college at the University of Memphis, and she was three years sober from alcohol, heroin, and meth.

Tennessee lawmakers are now pushing legislation that would have hindered Howell’s chances of getting a safe and legal abortion.

The Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up hearings on that legislation, Tuesday, as the Flyer went to press. Legislators are seeking to ban abortion at the point a woman knows she is pregnant — essentially to completely ban abortions in the state.

The proposed legislation is an amended version of the so-called “heartbeat bill,” which nearly passed in the spring but stalled in the Senate. The Tennessee General Assembly did, however, pass an abortion trigger ban bill, which means if Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortion would be banned in the state.

Justin Fox Burks

Ashley Howell (above) speaks about her experiences with pregnancy, abortion, and advocacy. At the time of her first pregnancy, it felt like a “me-or-the-baby question,” she says.

Me or the Baby?

If the heartbeat bill, also known as the six-week ban, had been in place two years ago, it would have been impossible for 30-year-old Howell to terminate her pregnancy when she did — at 12 weeks. When Howell found out she was pregnant, despite being on birth control, she had been dating her now-husband for three months. Howell was sure that “he was the one” and that she wanted to marry him and have a family with him. But not then; she wasn’t ready. “I wasn’t in a place to have a child then. I found out I was [pregnant] and freaked out.”

During her three months of pregnancy, Howell says she thought about using drugs every day. The urge had not been that relentless in her three years of sobriety until then. She and her then-boyfriend did eventually want to have a planned pregnancy. Because of Howell’s mental health and struggles with addiction, she wanted to get pregnant under medical supervision.

As she considered abortion, Howell felt like it was a “me-or-the-baby question,” and she chose herself — and to focus on her own health first.

“Evidently it was the right thing because I have no regrets,” she says. “Now I’m able to help other women who go through the same thing. That’s the beauty in it all.”

Howell says she often meets with women she’s met through recovery programs who are in similar positions as she was to offer advice and support. But she wasn’t always comfortable talking about her abortion. “I talk about my alcoholism all the time, and I’m very open with it,” Howell says. “But for some reason, I was ashamed of this.”

Then she heard about Patients to Advocates, a year-long program that brings together women who’ve had abortions. Meeting once a month for a year, the women learn about women’s rights, social justice, and how to become advocates for abortion rights to legislators. Through the program, Howell learned she “still had a lot of judgment toward myself.” Ultimately, she says, the program was vital to her healing.

Looking back, Howell says she’s convinced that if she would have had the baby two years ago, she would have relapsed. “If I use, I die. My addiction was very, very dark. I can’t imagine being in a place where I didn’t have the choice to choose abortion.” Howell says a place where the government would force a woman to do something she can’t or doesn’t want to “doesn’t feel like a free country. The right to choose what I do with my body just feels fundamental. It’s not a wild thing. In other countries it’s not up for debate. So why is it in the South?”

Ashley Coffield is CEO of Planned Parenthood Tennessee and North Mississippi.

Preparing for the Fight

Katy Leopard, assistant director of CHOICES: Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, says it’s a hard time to be a woman and have a daughter in the South. It’s also a hard time to be an abortion provider, she says.

“Being an abortion provider, every time the legislators are in session, my anxiety goes up,” Leopard says. “Everyone on the anti-choice side is emboldened and empowered. [President Donald] Trump’s rhetoric and the makeup of the Supreme Court make them feel powerful, so they are definitely willing to do a lot more than they were.”

Leopard says she never thought she would have to consider the possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned, but that now she’s “very worried about it. We all should be.” But Leopard says CHOICES is preparing for whatever challenges lie ahead.

CHOICES, which was founded in 1974 as the first abortion provider in the city after the Roe v. Wade decision, is now one of nine nonprofits left in the country that perform abortions.

The framework for CHOICES that’s been used since its formation, Leopard says, is “if you give people information — scientifically based, factual information, that they will make the choices that are best for them, and all you have to do is support them.”

Over the last 10 to 15 years, Leopard says the organization began looking at other reproductive health-care needs not being met in the community. In addition to providing abortion care, the center now offers pre-natal care, fertility and birthing services, and wellness care to the transgender community and those living with HIV.

“There are issues around birth that people deserve choices for, too, and we should be able to do that,” Leopard says. “Today we do everything from fertility to birth and everything in between. If it has to do with your sexual, reproductive organs, we do it.”

In an effort to provide this more holistic approach, Leopard says CHOICES is opening a new, larger clinic in 2020. This means the services provided at the two current clinics on Bellevue and on Poplar will be offered under one roof. This will make CHOICES one of three centers in the country to provide abortions and birth in the same location and the first nonprofit in the country to do so.

“For us, it didn’t make sense to only be an abortion provider,” Leopard says. “It’s an unsafe thing to be, and it was a strategy of the anti-choice movement to carve abortion out and make it this weird thing that’s done in a house somewhere. It re-stigmatizes and supports the stereotype that abortion is some kind of odd, bad procedure. But it’s a part of women’s reproductive health care, and it belongs with all these other things that are about reproductive health.”

The new space will also allow CHOICES to see more patients, Leopard says. “We can’t see all the patients who would like to come see us in a timely manner because capacity is maxed out.”

The new model makes sense for patients, but it also makes sense legally, Leopard says. If legislation passes that places greater restrictions on or bans abortions here, the new all-encompassing model will allow CHOICES to remain open and perform its other services while it challenges the ban in court.

“If you want to be around to fight the fight, then you prepare,” she says. And CHOICES is preparing by building a comprehensive center. “We can’t do abortions? Fine. We’ll do all the other things while we take you to court.”

CHOICES is already challenging one law that puts a barrier between women and abortions — the 48-hour waiting period. The law requires women to have a physician visit 48 hours before she can receive an abortion. The law’s supporters say it’s meant to reduce coerced abortions and to allow time for women to carefully consider the information presented by the physician. Leopard calls it a “crazy barrier.”

Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood Tennessee and North Mississippi (PPTNM), agrees, saying that Tennessee is one of the worst states in the country in terms of barriers. She cites the 48-hour rule as a major contributor to this, calling it one of the “most onerous restrictions we have,” and noting that it places an extra burden on patients, particularly on low-income women.

“You have to take additional time off work, maybe another day of childcare; you have to travel to the health center twice,” Coffield says. “It’s just a lot, and it’s medically unnecessary.”

Along with CHOICES, Planned Parenthood of the Greater Memphis Region and of East and Middle Tennessee, as well as the Knoxville Center for Reproductive Health and Adams & Boyle, P.C. are plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery and other state officials. The lawsuit, which argues that the waiting period “imposes significant burdens and offers no health benefits to abortion patients,” is set to go to court next month.

Justin Fox Burks

Kent Pruett and Eliza Sims protest

“Last Support System”

Two girls wearing yellow traffic vests stand on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood’s main office on Poplar. They offer purple goodie bags to those approaching the clinic’s entrance. Inside the bags are a box of Mike and Ike candy, a bottle of nail polish, a journal, and a brochure with “Women’s Care Network” written on the front. On the back of the brochure is a list titled “helpful resources,” including Christ Community Health Clinic, Birthright Memphis, and the Abortion Pill Reversal Hotline.

“We’re just here to support women,” one of the girls says, smiling and waving at those coming and going from the building.

The girls are just two of 25 volunteers with the Memphis Coalition for Life who participate in sidewalk advocacy aimed to steer women away from abortion. The coalition was formed in 2018 with the mission of ending abortion in Memphis “peacefully and prayerfully.”

Jessica Wade, founder and executive director of the organization, says the group aims to do that by connecting pregnant women with the resources they need to help them carry their pregnancies to term.

“We don’t picket, protest, or yell at women,” Wade says. “We’re just there to be that last support system and listening ear for them as they are about to make that decision. If they choose to take us up on that support, then we walk with them. If they choose not to, then we’re there. We’re still kind to them.”

Wade says she started the coalition because many women don’t realize the number of resources that are available to help with unplanned pregnancies. “They feel like that’s the only option, so we’re just there to offer them another option. If we really respect a woman’s right to choose, we’d want her to have all her options. I’m willing to sacrifice my nights and weekends so these women have the support that they need.”

Some of the support resources the coalition connects women with are pre-natal care, parenting classes, adoption services, and post-abortion counseling.

“Most of the women that we talk to who are considering abortion aren’t doing it because they hate babies and love abortion,” Wade says. “They’re doing it because they can’t pay their rent or their doctor bills and have a baby at the same time. But they don’t have to choose between a career and having a baby or going to school and having a baby. They can do both.”

Wade admits that the group’s mission of ending abortion in Memphis is a “lofty goal,” but she believes it’s possible. “If women felt like they had support … I don’t think nearly as many women would choose abortion if they knew there was help for them. I think even pro-choice advocates would say that if women had really strong support systems, they don’t necessarily need an abortion.”

If abortion does become illegal in Tennessee, Wade says it’s important that women are offered resources to support their pregnancies. “We’re not just telling her ‘Don’t have an abortion’ and leaving her in a crisis,” Wade says. “We want to empower women to choose life. I believe abortion is wrong and immoral, but I know that an unplanned pregnancy is scary and women need help. Abortion needs to end, but women need to be supported.”

State of Emergency

Coffield of PPTNM says Tennessee could be dangerously close to passing total-ban legislation next session that would make it nearly impossible for women to get abortions here. Abortion is currently legal in Tennessee up to the point of viability, which the Constitution cites at 24 weeks.

Coffield says the new legislation being heavily pushed by Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) is a total abortion ban. It aims to redefine viability to the moment of conception, she says, and this type of legislation interferes with women’s personal and private decisions.

“We have a Supreme Court that puts Roe v. Wade at risk, and we have a state that is doing everything it can to eliminate the right and challenge women,” she says. “Politicians in Tennessee are out of touch with what people in Tennessee actually want them to be focusing on.”

Coffield says a total abortion ban is unconstitutional. “It’s an extreme and draconian measure. It’s being introduced by a group of privileged radicals that want nothing more than to hurt the health and well-being of women in Tennessee.” She also says the ban is “dangerous,” and it “threatens the lives of pregnant women.” When abortion is not an option, she says women and babies suffer.

“Physicians know that protecting women and children’s health requires giving them the option to terminate a pregnancy,” Coffield says. “Pregnancy is a medical diagnosis, and they should have all their options to decide if they want to continue with that or not.”

States with more abortion restrictions, tend to have poorer health outcomes for women and children, as well as a higher rate of infant and maternal mortality, Coffield notes.

A total ban would predominantly affect women who already experience disadvantages in health care, she says. These include young women, women of color, women with disabilities, undocumented women, as well as women living in low-income and rural areas.

“A total ban would put their lives in jeopardy,” she says. “And the state’s health and racial disparities are exacerbated by policies like this — ones that make it difficult or impossible to access a full range of reproductive services.”

Women of means can afford time off work and travel to other states to get an abortion, Coffield says. They also typically have better health care, which means they will know they are pregnant earlier and in time to legally terminate their pregnancy.

“If passed in Tennessee, the six-week abortion ban will be challenged in court,” Coffield said. “Just like every other state that’s passed similar laws, we would be setting Tennessee up for an expensive lawsuit that wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money.”

Coffield says in other states that have passed six-week bans, including Kentucky, Mississippi, Iowa, North Dakota, and Ohio, the court has “easily blocked these bans,” on the basis that it is unconstitutional for states to prohibit a woman from choosing abortion before viability.

Still, she says “this is a state of emergency. In the 40-plus years since Roe v. Wade, there’s never been a more precarious time for women’s health. Abortion rights give women control over their bodies and their lives and without that, we’ll never be free or equal.”

Two Years After …

Two years after Ashley Howell decided to have an abortion, she’s expecting again and intends to carry her baby to term this time. She says she’s fully equipped, stable, and further along in her sobriety. She and her husband are ready now.

“It’s something I want, and it’s something I planned for,” Howell says. “I have a different perspective entirely. It’s such a lie that women who have abortions hate children.”

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Heartbeat Bill Goes From Bad to Worse

One of the standard ways in which the Tennessee legislature can dispose of troublesome legislation — the kind that has an active constituency that needs propitiation but is booby-trapped with unwanted controversy — is to send it to “summer study.” In most cases, that amounts to putting the inconvenient measure into a kind of limbo, from which it normally doesn’t return. Such is not the case, however, with House Bill 77/Senate Bill 1236, the so-called “fetal heartbeat” bill that was introduced in the 2019 legislative session, passed the House, and was seemingly on the verge of passage in the Senate as well when, at the apparent instigation of Senate Speaker Randy McNally, it was deferred from final consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee and routed to summer study.

McNally, it should be noted, is not, in the lexicon of our times, a “pro-choice” legislator, opposed to curbs on legal abortion out of some fealty to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision or as an advocate that women should have control of their bodies. McNally’s objections to the fetal heartbeat bill hinged on his doubts that the bill could withstand constitutional tests in court while meanwhile running up ruinous legal bills for the state of Tennessee.

The bill, versions of which were passed last spring in other states, would prohibit abortion once evidence of a fetal heartbeat could be detected medically.

McNally, a professed foe of abortion, lent his authority instead to a “trigger” bill — one that would automatically ban abortions in Tennessee if and when the U.S. Supreme Court should reverse Roe v. Wade, which, at present, guarantees the right of legal abortion nationwide. That bill passed both houses and was signed into law by Governor Bill Lee.

Meanwhile, this week, the fetal heartbeat bill came up for its reckoning before the Senate Judiciary summer study session in Nashville and, as a capacity audience looked on, turned out to be not only live and kicking but metamorphosed into a more direct threat to constitutional precedent than had the original version that was shelved last spring.

An amended version of the bill, sponsored by Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon), would go the “fetal heartbeat” route one better, proclaiming abortion illegal as soon as a woman knows she is pregnant. In the recast bill, the fact of pregnancy itself, not any determination of fetal functioning, would prohibit abortion.

Based apparently on some obscure interpretation of  “common law” rights purportedly granted by the 9th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the backers of the amended bill are basically calling for an out-and-out ban on abortion.

Senator Katrina Robinson (D-Memphis), a Judiciary Committee member, called the amended bill “idiotic” and “completely unconstitutional,” but the Republican committee majority is likely to have its way and to resurrect the already flawed bill in its newly perverse and aggressive form for reconsideration in the legislative session of 2020.

McNally has said he is opposed to the new version, and that’s a hopeful sign. But if there’s anything experience has taught us about the Tennessee legislature, it is that good sense and proper caution are not guaranteed among its members.

Quite simply, this new version of an already bad bill deserves an early-term abortion.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Always on My Mind

CREDIT: Elvis Presley Enterprises

Elvis Presley’s former residence, Graceland, has always been a popular destination for fans of the King.

“Even before his death, Elvis fans would always flock to Memphis hoping for a chance to see him leaving the Graceland mansion or to see him driving around on Elvis Presley Boulevard,” says Christian Ross, Graceland’s PR specialist. “The year after he passed in August of 1977, his fans continued to line up outside of his mansion, but this time, it was to honor his memory.”

Elvis Presley Enterprises

Candlelight Vigil

Fans gathered around the mansion, holding candles and leaving floral arrangements, cards, and other tokens of appreciation, to pay their respects to the dearly departed. Since this initial (and unofficial) ceremony more than 40 years ago, fans have continued to rally annually to celebrate his life. The Candlelight Vigil, which is now an official commemoration and which has become a time-honored tradition, attracts thousands of fans from all over the world who exhibit a strong sense of comradery.

“It’s heartwarming to see all of the relationships and friendships that have been built because of a shared love for Elvis and his music,” Ross says. “It’s also been an opportunity for families to bond and create new memories for children who might not have otherwise been exposed to Elvis. It keeps his memory and his legacy alive for these new generations.”

Anyone interested in joining the commemoration is encouraged to arrive early to allow for road blockages and traffic. Anyone who is not able to make it may access a live stream of the vigil by visiting graceland.com.

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We Recommend We Recommend

Across the Continuum

CREDIT: Jamie Harmon

Jenny Davis, project coordinator for Crosstown Arts and originator of Continuum Music Festival, hopes to bring together artists who come from different creative worlds.

“The mission of Continuum is essentially as the name of the festival suggests,” says Davis. “We’re trying to present music that’s kind of across the continuum of musical genres — artists and groups ranging in genres like classical, jazz, and opera.”

One of the performing acts, Blueshift Ensemble, for which Davis is director and a flutist, has a unique collaboration in store. The classical chamber group will perform scores written by ICEBERG New Music, a group of composers from New York who are dedicated to widening the possibilities of music. “This year, we’re also bringing in Cities Aviv, a local rapper who is going to be singing and taking the role of MC during our compositions,” Davis says.

Jamie Harmon

Strings and things

Other performances within Crosstown Concourse’s numerous venues, like the Green Room and Crosstown Theater, include “As One,” a chamber opera created by Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell, and Kimberly Reed (presented by Opera Memphis); Project Logic with MonoNeon, Vernon Reid, and Daru Jones; and Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel.

Ultimately, Davis says, “I hope there’s something for everyone — something that they might be familiar with or want to come and check out. And while they’re there, they might hear these other groups they’re not familiar with.”

To see the full lineup and get tickets, visit crosstownarts.org.

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet

Rudd Reveals

University of Memphis president Dr. David Rudd revealed the new community basketball court planned for Orange Mound on Twitter last week. (Rudd is great on Twitter, BTW.)

Posted to Twitter by @UofMemphisPres.

The Doctor Is In!

When Memphians see good barbecue, we tell each other. That’s just what Tumblr user memphispbarbecue did last week when he saw Dr. Bar-B-Que’s food bus parked at Evergreen and Jackson.

Posted to Tumblr by memphisbarbecue.

Waterbed redux

Want to see Donald Trump’s 1995 Pizza Hut commercial? What about ads for Crystal Pepsi and New Coke? YouTuber Consumer Time Capsule has it all.

Last week, it reminded Memphis of the 1985 Master Bedroom Waterbeds 14th-anniversary sale. “A complete waterbed for $99 — $99 I said! Wow!”

Posted to YouTube by Consumer Time Capsule.