Month: March 2020

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Lee Issues Order “Urging” Statewide Shutdown, Stops Short of Mandating It

Under increasing pressure from numerous quarters, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Monday issued what he called “safer at home guidelines in every Tennessee county as a response to the coronavirus pandemic.”

But the Governor stressed, “This is not a mandated shelter in place, but instead urges Tennesseans who are in non-essential roles to remain at home….The executive order restricts businesses that cannot safely operate during COVID-19 including businesses like barber shops, salons, recreational and
entertainment outfits. It also provides for the continuation of essential businesses throughout every county to protect the economy.”

The “order” will go into effect at midnight Monday and will extend for two weeks, until April 14 at midnight.

Typical of those asking for stronger action was 9th District Congessman Steve Cohen, who issued a letter this afternoon containing this statement:

“I write today to urgently request you issue a mandatory shelter in place order for Tennessee and prohibit gatherings of more than ten people. I am proud to represent the Ninth District of Tennessee that connects Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, but I fear that, without these preventative measures, it will become a hub of illness that will quickly overcome Memphis’s health care facilities. I commend your decision to urge Tennesseans to shelter in place, but this virus crosses state and county lines and it is already claiming Tennessee lives. Your order must become mandatory.”< Meanehile, the entire Tennessee congressional delegation — Senatyors Lamar Alexander and Marsha Blackburn and the nine members of the House — asked President Trump for additional disaster aid to the state, saying in part: “…On behalf of the State of Tennessee, we are writing to express our support for Governor Bill Lee’s request to declare a major disaster pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief Act as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic beginning on January 20, 2020…..”

Categories
News News Blog

Report: 1,076 Tennesseans Will Die from Coronavirus

About 1,067 Tennesseans will die from coronavirus.

Tennessee won’t run short of hospital beds or ICU beds during the coronavirus pandemic and the state can expect to see 26 deaths per day until a peak of 35 deaths in one day on April 26th.

Those are projections released late last week by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine.

The numbers and the group are same ones name-checked in Sunday’s Rose Garden virus update by Debbie Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force. Birx said her group of government scientists was unaware the IHME group was also working on coronavirus projections. But she said the two groups “ended up at the same numbers.”

IHME, led by professor Chris Murray, predicted that the need for hospital beds, ICU beds, and ventilators across the country will far exceed the current capacity for coronavirus patients as soon as the second week of April.

Nationally, the wave of virus deaths in the U.S. are likely to persist into July, if people adhere to social distancing measures. Over the next four months, the U.S. is likely to experience about 81,000 deaths related to the virus. IHME estimates range from between 38,000 and 162,000 deaths.

”The trajectory of the pandemic will change – and dramatically for the worse – if people ease up on social distancing or relax with other precautions,” Murray said in a statement.

The Tennessee figures assume that the state had not issued a stay-at-home order, which Governor Bill Lee did Monday afternoon. It also assumed that all education facilities weren’t closed, non-essential businesses weren’t closed, and that travel had not been severely limited.

In all, IHME’s figures show that the state will lose 1,067 lives to coronavirus. The final death is projected to occur on June 6th.

Here’s a breakdown of the numbers needed to respond to coronavirus in Tennessee, according to the IHME:
 Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

Here’s what all those figures look like on the curve:

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

Here is the Tennessee’s peak death toll curve by day:

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

Here’s the state’s total death toll curve:

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

“We hope these forecasts will help leaders of medical systems figure out innovative ways to deliver high-quality care to those who will need their services in the coming weeks,” Murray said.

Click here to see all of IHME’s projections for Tennessee, every other U.S. state, and the U.S. as a whole.

The federal government is keeping its own projections private, according to a report in The Washington Post.

Categories
News News Blog

Gannett Announces Corporate-wide Salary Cuts

According to MediaPost.com the Gannett Corp. has announced salary cuts. Gannett owns the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Here’s a portion of the story from MediaPost. 

Reporters and editors who earn more than $38,000 annually will be scheduled to take an unpaid week off on a rotating basis, according to a memo obtained by Poynter from Maribel Wadsworth, president of the USA Today Network at Gannett and publisher of USA Today.

Executives will take a 25% pay reduction, according to a separate memo from Gannett CEO Paul Bascobert. Bascobert will take no pay until the furloughs and pay reductions have been reversed.

Though “direct sold advertising has already slowed and many businesses have paused their scheduled marketing campaigns,” Gannett is seeing “a spike in our digital traffic and online subscriptions as readers turn to us as a trusted source for information,” Bascobert wrote.

“Overall, though, we expect our revenue to decline considerably during this period, and we need to address this situation head on,” he added.

The Flyer will update this story as details emerge. 

Categories
Music Music Blog

Video Pairs Amurica’s Indelible Local Portraits With Gifted Teen Singer

CREDIT: Jamie Harmon

Jamie Harmon

From Amurica’s portraits of Memphians under quarantine.

As it has for so many of us, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted some long-anticipated events in the life of teenager Skyy Jordan. A budding singer, the local ninth-grader was looking forward to performing the national anthem this Saturday at a Peabody Hotel event honoring The Salvation Army of Memphis & The Mid-South, featuring special guest Tony Dungy.  But the fundraiser and the NFL celebrity’s visit were postponed to a future date (to be announced) due to the current need for social distancing.

While most of us have come to recognize how the hardships of isolation have affected musicians in particular, this may be doubly so for teens. Just as their talents are blossoming, they must curtail all group activities and often even their lessons. Postponing a high-profile event can have a huge impact on a young person who’s invested many hopes and dreams in such a moment.

Skyy Jordan

This is especially so for Jordan, who was born with a rare and relatively unknown condition called septo optic dysplasia, leaving her completely blind. Despite such a setback, Jordan has doggedly pursued her love of singing and is already making a name for herself in the region. The support of her mother, Bridgett Jordan, has been no small part of this, and that led her to make something of her daughter’s vocal talents in an imaginative way.

Inspired to pair a recording of her daughter’s singing with the recent work of photographer Jamie Harmon, Bridgett ended up with an especially moving homemade video. As the mastermind behind the roving Amurica studio, and a well known professional in the field (whose work is familiar to most readers of this blog), Harmon has taken a unique approach to the current straits we’re living in. A quick visit to the @amuricaworld account on Instagram reveals his latest project: a photographic series documenting people stuck at home.

Photographer Jamie Harmon of Amurica

Such a description doesn’t do the work justice, given the charged meaning of such non-activity these days. And now, paired with the purity of Skyy’s voice, intoning a song that cuts to the soul of many a fellow citizen, those images come to life as never before.

While we don’t often make a great show of patriotism here at the music blog, this is a time and a place where the shared community of such music cuts through all jingoism and cant. Here, in stark images and heartfelt music, is the “imagined community” of a nation of which author Benedict Anderson wrote. In the end, we are left with a pure Memphis moment, both intimate and moving in its unadorned simplicity. Take a few minutes to watch and listen to this video, a true labor of love from just one family among many that are trying to make the best of these all-too-interesting times.

Video Pairs Amurica’s Indelible Local Portraits With Gifted Teen Singer

Categories
News News Blog

Strickland to Restrict Use of City Parks

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said Monday afternoon that the city will be limiting access to public parks beginning Tuesday morning.

This comes as hundreds of people have been flocking to city parks as the temperatures rise in the city. Last week, many noticed the large crowds of park-goers and took to social media to express concern.

Friday, Strickland ordered the closing of all city soccer and baseball fields, basketball courts, as well as dog and skate parks.

Now, Strickland is moving to limit the number of people in parks, by restricting the number of cars allowed in parks. To aid this effort, Riverside Drive and “as many roads in and around parks that the fire marshal will let me” will close.

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The mayor also reiterated that “no groups of people will be allowed to congregate in our parks.”

“Over the past several days, especially as we’ve had nicer weather, more people have been getting outside,” Strickland said. “That alone is not a bad thing. In fact, doctors even recommend it in these times. That said, it does become a huge problem when people disregard the importance of social distancing. … Unfortunately, some people are not taking this seriously. And for the health of our city, they must start now. What happened this weekend at a couple of parks in the city is reckless, irresponsible, and selfish.”

To help enforce the new restrictions, Strickland said there will be city employees at parks throughout the city monitoring crowds.

“These new restrictions are designed to allow people to walk or run through their neighborhood park, but to prohibit people from congregating in large groups,” the mayor said.


Categories
News News Blog

Flyer to Print Bi-Weekly, Offers Home Delivery


Memphis Flyer readers:

We hope you are holding up okay in these challenging times. More than ever, we’re grateful for you — for your readership, your support of our mission, and your individual contributions to helping make Memphis safe, sane, and vibrant.

We wanted to make you aware of an upcoming change to the Flyer’s print frequency, in light of the ongoing COVID-19 situation. We will be temporarily publishing a print edition of the Flyer every other week, rather than every week.

This decision was made as a middle-ground solution, allowing us to continue sharing news and information with you both in print and online — while also facing the fact that Memphis is in a very different era than it was only a few short weeks ago. Many of our distribution points have been closed, as non-essential businesses; many of our readers are staying home as much as they possibly can. We are also taking this measure, in part, as a means to reduce our own expenditures to accommodate understandable dips in revenue.

Fortunately, we do distribute the Flyer in a number of local businesses that are on the “essential” list, and we continue to offer many strong distribution points. We’ve shared an updated distribution map on our website (click here to view).

We will print the April 2nd issue of the Flyer. Our next print issue after April 2nd will be April 16th, and we will proceed on a biweekly schedule thereafter. We plan to reevaluate our status and the community’s status in June, and to consider ramping back up to a weekly schedule at that time.

Importantly:

We are also offering a new option to you: home delivery(!). We’ll mail a copy of each print paper to you for just $5 per month — enough to cover our costs. If you’d like the Flyer to come to your mailbox, please call (901) 521-9000 or email flyerathome@memphisflyer.com.

We are here for you now. And we will be here for you when we can all resume the normal courses of our everyday lives.

This, too, shall pass. No one knows exactly when — but if we know anything about Memphis, it’s that this city is full of resilient people. We’ll make it through this together.

Please feel welcome to reach out with any questions or ideas. We’re here for you. In the meantime, please be well, and take care.

With best wishes,

Anna Traverse Fogle
CEO, Contemporary Media, Inc.

Categories
Book Features Books

Pandemic Poetry: Kim Vodicka’s The Elvis Machine

CREDIT: Kim McCarthy

Kim Vodicka is a poet with a penchant for the provocative, but even she won’t risk tangling with the novel coronavirus COVID-19. Though she was gearing up for a busy spring to promote her new poetry collection, The Elvis Machine (Clash Books), Vodicka read the signs correctly and changed her plans.

Vodicka, author of 2018’s Psychic Privates, was one of the first of a slew of Memphis writers, artists, and musicians to change travel and promotion plans when she canceled a stop at an Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference in San Antonio, Texas. The conference was held on March 4th-7th, and though some events were canceled, it went ahead as planned — just before concern over the coronavirus meant a slew of cancelations, closures, and postponements across the country.

Kim McCarthy

Kim Vodicka

“I was aware of news about the virus even though it really hadn’t hit most of North America yet,” she says. “But by no means did I understand the gravity of it. The Monday before we were supposed to leave, AWP had an emergency meeting about plans.” Vodicka says the announcement of an emergency meeting kicked off “an entire day’s worth of tremendous confusion.”

“At that point, to my surprise, a lot of people were saying to go ahead and go but just take precautions,” Vodicka says. “It wasn’t sitting well with me so I decided not to go.”

The next week, coronavirus got very real for people, as schools began closing or extending their spring breaks, and businesses were forced to adapt in real-time.

“I was scheduled to go to the New Orleans Poetry Festival to be on a panel,” Vodicka says, adding that she had been looking forward to participating in the panel discussion about witchcraft in poetry. Vodicka says that while she does not practice traditional magic per se, the act of creation and all art-making have roots in magic. She is also scheduled to attend the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which has been postponed in light of the global pandemic.

“Fortunately I had not planned a full-on tour,” the writer muses. “I do have some events scheduled for May and June that have not been canceled yet, but we shall see.”

Vodicka’s tours are part poetry reading and part performance art, where she is often accompanied by a musician live-composing music to her readings. For a poetry reading, they are never short on spectacle — exactly what one would expect from a poet who sums up her work by saying, “The lines are zingers, and truth bombs are atomic.”

Book cover art and design by Joel Amat Güell

The Elvis Machine

“All of Memphis is a Heartbreak Hotel,” Vodicka says to describe The Elvis Machine, which she started writing shortly after moving to Memphis from Louisiana in 2016. She finished the collection in 2018, and it was submitted for publication in 2019.

“The official release date is July 7th, but the preorders ship in May,” Vodicka says, adding that pre-publication events, especially in the small press world, are of vital importance for a book’s success. Still, even though The Elvis Machine has been four years in the making and Vodicka is working to adapt to a coronavirus-shaped wrench in the works, she isn’t exactly checking into the Heartbreak Hotel over delays caused by pandemic panic. “I haven’t been moping about this or trying to make this all about me because I’m more concerned about humanity and society crumbling.” She promises that, though the collection promises not to skirt past the dirty or grisly aspects of relationships, “no names are named.”

Kim Vodicka’s new collection The Elvis Machine is scheduled to be released via Clash Books on July 7, 2020, and readers can preorder copies at this link. Stay up to date with Vodicka at kimvodicka.com.

Categories
News News Blog

Groups Want Pause on State Water Project Permits

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Clean-water advocacy groups are asking state officials to postpone new water permits until after coronavirus orders have been lifted here to ensure the public has a say on projects that affect the “lives and lands of Tennesseans.”

State officials can now legally hold meetings electronically. But members of the Tennessee Clean Water Network (TCWN) and more say public input is vital to decisions that allow permits under the federal Clean Water Act. These permits include permissions to pollute or to alter a stream, river, lake, or wetland.

The request was formalized in a letter to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and members of his administration Monday. The letter was sent by the TCWN and signed by members of the Tennessee Office of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, Community eMpowerment, Clean Water Expected in Tennessee, and the Harpeth Conservancy.
[pullquote-1] They all want the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) to suspend new Clean Water Act permits for 60 days after the coronavirus emergency declaration for Tennessee has been lifted.

They want this pause, specifically, because some members of the public may not get their voices heard. The executive order signed by Lee says if a meeting can’t be streamed live, it will be made available to the public in two business days.

“For a public hearing on a (Clean Water Act) permit — one whose sole purpose is to inform and solicit feedback from the public — this is unacceptable,” reads the letter.

Further, the groups say if a meeting can be streamed live, it may not be available to everywhere as “most of Tennessee’s rural areas do not have broadband internet access and would be unable to participate.”

“Tennesseans rely on your administration to responsibly execute the (Clean Water Act) and the Tennessee Water Quality Control Act, both of which clearly dictate a thorough and detailed public participation process, one which is — at present — unarguably hindered.”

Categories
News News Blog

Bus Riders Union ‘Understands’ Need for Service Cuts, But Worries About Access

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Though understanding the need for the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) to reduce its service amid the spread of coronavirus, a spokesperson for the Memphis Bus Riders Union (MBRU) still worries how the cuts will limit people’s access to necessary locations in the city.

MATA announced last week that it would be reducing its service in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the community and the number of businesses across the city that cannot currently operate, due to orders by the mayors of Shelby County and Memphis.

Justin Davis, secretary of the Memphis Bus Riders’ Union, said the group understands MATA’s need to adjust its service hours and coverage for public health reasons.

“We want to be sure that drivers and other transit workers are getting the support they need,” Davis said. “But these changes are also going to have an immediate impact on bus riders who can’t work from home, or who don’t have access to resources in their own neighborhoods.”

For example, Davis said key routes for many like the 19 Vollintine, which runs from Downtown to East Memphis passing through North Memphis neighborhoods, or the 35 S. Parkway, which runs from South Memphis to Highland to Summer, have effectively been cut until further notice.

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Davis said he is also concerned about the limited number of destinations for MATAplus paratransit service. The service is currently available from 4:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. every day, but will only transport passengers to work, medical care, grocery stores, or other essential businesses.

Davis said this list of locations excludes some designated as essential by the city’s order.

“We have to consider how people without cars are going to access basic services and maintain their livelihoods moving forward,” he said.

Initially, MATA said that the agency would operate its Sunday schedule, along with a few additional routes to essential services on a daily basis until further notice. This includes 17 routes.

After receiving feedback from bus riders indicating that the reduced service excluded access to certain essential services, MATA added three more routes on a modified schedule to its reduced service plan.

“When we first announced reduced levels of service, we were focusing on routes that were considered essential,” said Gary Rosenfeld, CEO of MATA. “But we heard from some customers today and decided that we needed to add three more routes to try to be as responsive to their needs as possible.”

However, Rosenfeld said MATA is “responding to the reality of resources.”

“With ridership dropping and knowing several businesses are not operating at this time per current executive orders, we are making decisions with the information that we have at the time,” he said. “As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, we will likely make more adjustments of service and we are requesting that employers be as flexible as possible as well.”

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Stephen Chopek

Hit the (virtual) road with Music Video Monday.

Memphis’ one-man music video studio, Stephen Chopek, is back — or should we say, there and back again. Chopek has spent a lot of time on the road as a touring musician. He made the video for “Cherokee Arms” from clips he shot in transit.

“I moved to Memphis six years ago, and I was ready to write a song about living in Midtown,” Chopek says. “Cherokee Arms is an apartment building on Madison Avenue that looks how Midtown Memphis feels to me — rough around the edges with strong character, understated with a solid presence, attitude with class. This video is all about getting there.”

Music Video Monday: Stephen Chopek

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com