Month: February 2022

ArtsMemphis Awards 2022 Enhancement Grants

Post author By Justin Howerton
Post date February 25, 2022

Tennessee Shakespeare Company (Courtesy ArtsMemphis)

ArtsMemphis has released the names of the seven recipients of their 2022 Enhancement Grants. According to ArtsMemphis, the Plough Foundation established the grants in 2005 “to strengthen organizational infrastructure and position [selected organizations] for sustained growth and community impact.”

The grants were awarded to Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group, the Metal Museum, Soulsville Foundation, Memphis Youth Symphony Program, the Young Actors Guild, Arrow Creative, and the Tennessee Shakespeare Company.

“This program encourages our operating support grantees to pursue significant projects that propel their missions forward and enable them to, in essence, ‘enhance’ their presence and impact both locally and globally,” said ArtsMemphis President & CEO Elizabeth Rouse in a statement.

All of the recipients have received Operational Support Grants in the past from ArtsMemphis to assist with their general functioning and programming costs. The Enhancement Grants have arrived at a critical juncture when many local arts organizations are continuing to recover from the pandemic and its myriad effects.

Some of these organizations, like the Soulsville Foundation, have existed for decades, while others, such as the Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group, have been formed relatively recently.

The Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group aspires to transcend cultural divides in the Mid-South through arts programming, language workshops, and festivals that celebrate and promote Latin American and other underrepresented cultures. Dorimar Ferrer, the executive director of the Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group, elaborated on the organization’s origins, which began with a small group of dedicated Latina women, as well as their community-oriented mission.

“We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that was approved in 2014,” Ferrer said. “We wanted to educate. We wanted to share our Latin American culture, to be proud of our own culture. We wanted to build a cultural bridge between cultures.”

While Ferrer acknowledged the ongoing effects of the pandemic, she emphasized that the company adapted quickly and continued providing programming, albeit digitally.

“We never stopped for the pandemic,” Ferrer said. “We said, ‘Okay, it is time to be creative.’ We made all of our programs virtual. During the pandemic, we did 150 programs.”

Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group (Courtesy ArtsMemphis)

Ferrer spoke on how the pandemic empowered the company’s leadership to learn new technologies and discover nontraditional ways to connect with others.

“We created programs called ‘Storytimes’ on Facebook Live,” Ferrer said. “We did a ‘reverse’ parade for the Day of the Dead celebration. We had the parade stationed at Overton Park, and people drove by to see the parade. It has been a great opportunity for us to learn new skills.”

The company intends to use the Enhancement Grant funds to support and expand their local bilingual theater workshop program, which meets regularly at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Ferrer looks forward to seeing more workshops proliferate throughout the city and compensating their theater teachers for their time.

“We do [workshops] the third Saturday of every month,” Ferrer said. “They’re free for the community. We hope to grow the program by expanding locations. We want to pay our teachers too because it is important for us to pay our artists.”

Cazateatro celebrates Black History month annually with an Afro-Latino week that features speakers, workshops, and programming. In addition to expanding the theater workshops, the company plans on using the Enhancement Grant to convert this event into a month-long affair that will feature more performers and artists than was previously possible.

“We hope to grow the [Black History Month] program,” Ferrer said. “Three or four days is not enough. We hope to do other events during the year as well to celebrate Afro-Latino culture.”

Ferrer has created a welcoming space open to people of all identities and backgrounds. Her and the company strive to make the arts more inclusive for everyone, regardless of their nationality.

“With this accent, it was impossible for me to do theater [in Memphis],” Ferrer said. “And I don’t want that to happen for my community. Our door is always open no matter what.”

Ferrer encourages interested parties to reach out to her or visit the company’s website for more information on upcoming events and volunteer opportunities.

“We are always looking for people to help us at the theater,” Ferrer said. “You do not need to have theater experience to be part of Cazateatro. Everyone is welcome.”

Other organizations, such as the Soulsville Foundation and Arrow Creative, will use the grant money in a different way to promote organizational growth and community outreach. Both plan to use the money to renovate their respective spaces.

“The challenges and opportunities over this past year have forced our organization to fight harder and to become more innovative in ways that we provide service and fundraise. We have been more intentional in assuring we meet the needs of Memphis children within the communities we serve,” said Sabrina Norwood, Executive Director of Young Actors Guild. “Our programs constantly evolve and shift to continuously meet the needs of those we serve. Every challenge has been met with a creative eye and innovative planning to make the necessary adjustments.”

ArtsMemphis has announced that they are now accepting applications from organizations for their next round of Operating Grants. Those interested can find more information about Operating Grants and the full list of Enhancement Grants recipients at artsmemphis.org.

“Despite the pandemic pause on our industry in 2020, we as an organization have never pressed pause,” said Rouse. “Continuity in our support of local artists and arts organizations has been critical, and we all must contribute to keep these organizations not only afloat but thriving in our city.”

Tags Arrow Creative, ArtsMemphis, Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group, Enhancement Grants, Memphis, Memphis Youth Symphony Program, Metal Museum, Soulsville Foundation, Tennessee Shakespeare Company, Young Actors Guild

News Blog News Feature

Governor Lee Unveils $9B Proposal For Education

Post author By Marta W. Aldrich, Chalkbeat Tennessee
Post date February 25, 2022
No Comments on Governor Lee Unveils $9B Proposal For Education

Gov. Bill Lee has unveiled his proposal for overhauling K-12 funding in Tennessee, including a base of $6.6 billion to provide per-pupil funding to educate nearly 1 million public school students and $1.8 billion in extra support for students needing the most help.

The governor wants another $376 million for programs to improve literacy in kindergarten through the fourth grade and to strengthen career and technical education for older grades.

He also wants to set aside $100 million to reward schools whose students demonstrate success in learning to read, and in college and career readiness.

Lee outlined the first details of his long-awaited TISA plan, which stands for Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement, on Thursday with his education chief, Penny Schwinn. Beginning in 2024-25, the state would provide $6.3 billion, and local governments would contribute $2.5 billion.

If the legislature approves the plan, Tennessee would join 38 other states that have some type of student-based funding model. Lee wants TISA to replace Tennessee’s 30-year-old funding formula called the Basic Education Program, or BEP, which is a mostly resource-based model that’s built around enrollment.

Critics say the state has chronically underfunded its BEP, and Lee has proposed investing $1 billion more annually for students through his plan by 2024. Tennessee currently ranks 44th nationally in education funding with an annual investment of $5.3 billion by state government.

“We need to invest more in our public schools in our state, but we don’t need to invest in a bulky, out-of-date funding formula,” said Lee, calling his plan a “straightforward (model) that Tennesseans can understand.”

The Republican governor’s proposal faces an uphill battle in the GOP-controlled legislature. While there’s broad support for putting more money into education while the state is flush with cash, many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle question whether they’ll have enough time to vet changes of such magnitude before adjourning in mid-April to face voters in an election year.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Lee acknowledged, “ but we certainly are very hopeful that this can get accomplished in this session.”

The rollout came following months of meetings and town halls to solicit statewide feedback on how to focus education funding more on students than on systems. The governor said every school district with stable enrollment would get more money under his plan.

Proposal starts with an expanded per-pupil base

The proposed base would cover the 46 components currently covered by the BEP, including teacher salaries, textbooks, technology, and bus transportation.

That base would be expanded to hire more school nurses and counselors at nationally recommended levels and more academic specialists to work with struggling students. And there would be additional state money to cover compensation for all school principals across Tennessee. Currently, about 265 school administrators are funded outside of the BEP through their local districts.

Funding for school safety — which lies outside of the current formula and requires districts to apply for grants — would move into the base and be distributed automatically.

But Lee isn’t advocating to add the state’s public pre-K program to the base. Pre-K is on the wish list of advocates lobbying to bring the program under the state’s funding formula and expand it to serve more 4-year-olds.

Extra funding for certain students

The proposed formula would set a base of $6,860 per pupil, then distribute additional money per pupil to support students in certain groups:

Economically disadvantaged students would get an extra 25%. That would affect more than 322,000 students who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals through direct certification or are homeless, foster, runaway, or migrant students.
Students living in areas of concentrated poverty would receive an extra 5%, affecting more than 652,000 students in schools designated to receive federal Title I money to help high percentages of disadvantaged children.
Students in rural areas and small school districts would get an extra 5%, affecting more than 326,500 students in counties with fewer than 25 students per square mile or in districts with 1,000 or fewer students.
Students with unique learning needs would receive between 15% and 150% extra, depending on 10 categories of need and allowing for the cost of services. This would affect more than 288,000 students with unique learning needs ranging from speech and language challenges to dyslexia to English language learners to students who are homebound or in residential programs.
Charter school students would get 4% extra, affecting 42,000-plus students to help pay for facilities for the publicly financed, independently operated schools. Once under the formula, charter school facilities would be eliminated as a line item in the state’s annual budget, Schwinn said.

The weighted funding is “stackable” — meaning that students could draw extra funding for multiple needs. For instance, a student who is allocated additional funding for being economically disadvantaged could also draw extra funding for living in a rural area, and still more funding if they are learning to speak English as a second language.

Fast-growing districts get stipends

Lee proposes giving additional per-pupil funding allowances to districts that grow their enrollment by more than 2 percent from the previous year.

Districts with that level of growth for three consecutive years can also receive funding allowances to help pay for building and infrastructure needs.

Local funding would be affected — but not immediately

Tennessee has one of the nation’s most complicated calculations for determining how much state funding that districts receive and local governments must contribute for schools.

The BEP distributes state funding among school districts based on their local fiscal capacity, which generally is driven by local property or sales tax revenue.

Lee is proposing the state pay 70 percent and locals 30 percent to cover TISA’s per-pupil base and extra weights for students needing extra support. The state would cover all of the funding for direct programs, outcomes, and fast-growing districts.

To give local governments time to transition to the changes, the total local contribution would freeze for four years until the 2027 fiscal year, when Schwinn said the increase would be similar to what districts would normally experience under the BEP.

Locals would still have to follow state laws requiring that local funds budgeted for schools cannot decrease when state funding for schools increases.

Inflation, cost of living are not factored in

During a media call with reporters, Schwinn said the proposal contains no mechanism to address inflation and the cost of living. The state would address those, she said, by regularly increasing funding to the base, as determined by the legislature.

Keeping up with escalating education costs and factoring in the cost of living, especially for urban areas, have been among the problems with the BEP. In recent years, court challenges by multiple districts charged the formula routinely allocates funds arbitrarily instead of basing them on research about current education costs and local markets.

Questions remain about intent

Student-centered funding allows money to follow a student to his or her school based on a student’s needs, which would make it easier for Tennessee to start a private school voucher program or shift more funding to charter schools from traditional public schools.

Lee — who has done more than any Tennessee governor in history to champion programs that give families more education choices — has denied that’s a goal behind his funding proposal. However, numerous local officials are skeptical of his motives.

The rollout of Lee’s proposal came on the same day the Tennessee Supreme Court was re-hearing oral arguments about the state’s school voucher law, which Lee pushed for but was overturned by a lower court in 2020 for applying only to students in Memphis and Nashville. The state, which was sued by local governments in those cities, has appealed the ruling.

To learn more about the proposed funding formula, see the administration’s summary and proposed legislation and follow the bill’s progress.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Tags Bill Lee, Education, Memphis, Tennessee

Music Music Blog

“La Danse de Mardi Gras”: Marcella Simien at Bar DKDC

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date February 24, 2022
No Comments on “La Danse de Mardi Gras”: Marcella Simien at Bar DKDC

Bar DKDC has a long history of fostering the bonds between Memphis and New Orleans. In years past, they’ve hosted the Wild Magnolias, a wall-to-wall tribute to Dr. John (complete with street parade) and more. This Friday, February 25, they’ll carry on that tradition, but with a slightly different twist. Sure, there will be plenty of Second Line fever, courtesy of the Lucky 7 Brass Band, but when Marcella and Her Lovers take center stage, they’ll bring a lesser-known slice of Louisiana: Mardi Gras, country style.

I caught up with Marcella Simien, daughter of the Grammy-winning zydeco master Terrance Simien, to hear about her unique take on that time of year when you just have to “laissez les bons temps rouler.”

Memphis Flyer: I suppose Mardi Gras songs are burned into your brain, having grown up in Louisiana.

Marcella Simien: Yeah. When you grow up immersed in the culture, it becomes a part of your DNA. And it shows up in a little bit of everything I do. Like in the phrasing of things. I’ll notice little things I do that remind me of all the things I grew up hearing. In our household, dad was close with some of the Neville Brothers, so those voices informed so much of how I sing and phrase things. It’s really an honor to perform this music and carry on these great songs that are a deep part of my heritage. Art Neville was like an older brother to my dad. When dad was coming up, Art really was a mentor of his, and even played on dad’s second album. He played keys with him and gave him advice. Dad’s got some great stories about that time, when he was in his early 20s and kind of a country boy, not knowing the ropes of the business. Art really schooled him in a really kind way.

To be growing up in that environment must have been inspiring.

Yeah, it’s wild to think about being close to it like that. Because you don’t realize until you’re a little older and more educated what a profound effect that music — the Meters and the Neville Brothers — had on the world. It’s huge.

Where was the family home as you were growing up?

My dad’s from Mallet, Louisiana, which is a really small community outside of Opelousas. There’s a church and grocery store, and that’s about it. That’s where my grandparents’ home is and where my dad grew up. The Simien family’s ancestry goes back hundreds of years there.

It’s about two hours west of New Orleans, so it wasn’t like we were in New Orleans a lot, but I would spend time there, growing up. We would go several times a year.

For Mardi Gras?

No, not really! We did Mardi Gras in the country. Like the trail ride stuff, which is way different than the city Mardi Gras. And I was a little kid. It was more appropriate or safer for me to go to Mardi Gras parades in Lafayette. New Orleans was a little wilder! We mostly went to New Orleans during the festival season, for Jazz Fest or the French Quarter Fest in June. Like when dad would play, or people would come to town. I knew a lot about New Orleans, but I didn’t live there. But I still kind of came of age going there. I’d sneak away as a teenager. [laughs].

So your dad stayed in the community where he grew up. And Mardi Gras was celebrated a little differently there. What was that like?

Well, they call it a Mardi Gras Run. In the country, they start drinking really early on Mardi Gras day. People would be on horseback. There would be people in pickups with truck beds full of hay, and people with instruments on the truck beds, playing music. And you’d go down these trails out in the country and just party! You’d be outside and it was beautiful. And then there would be a part in the day, after people were pretty inebriated, where they’d chase the chickens — to catch some and wring their necks. And then they’d go cook a gumbo with the chicken at the end of the day. Everyone’s together, it’s a big tradition. That’s how the Prairie Creoles would do it. And it’s fun! It’s rustic! [laughs]. You dress up and make a day of it.

Then there’d be parades in the city too. So in Lafayette, you would have a Mardi Gras break, where you’d get out of school for Lundi Gras, Mardi Gras, and Ash Wednesday. It’s kind of like they’re living on their own time, down there in Louisiana.

Do you associate some different songs with Mardi Gras, that you wouldn’t necessarily hear in New Orleans?

Yeah. With that zydeco accordion, you hear a little bit of it in New Orleans, but that’s not the primary sound. It’s jazz and horns and pianos. But with the Prairie Country Creole kind of stuff, the French speaking Creoles play accordion, and maybe a fiddle and rub board as the main instrumentation. Maybe a full band with guitars and bass and drums. The French Creole stuff is unique to the area that I come from. Definitely different from the New Orleans Mardi Gras experience, although they nod to each other. They honor each other in different ways. It’s all soul music.

What are some zydeco songs that you’ll likely play on Friday?

I’ll do “Jolie Bassette” and “La Danse de Mardi Gras,” and probably a Meters medley to pay tribute to the New Orleans heritage. I’m definitely bringing some Mardi Gras beads to toss during my show.

And the Lucky 7 Brass Band will be playing as well?

Yeah. And it’s been amazing to watch what a following they’ve developed. Victor’s such a great band leader, and I’m so blown away at how tight they are, and so much fun to watch and so high energy. It’s the ultimate way to kick off a party.

Don’t some members of the group join your band sometimes?

Yeah, they’ll sit in with us. If they have their horns with them and they’re in the mood, I want them up there. I love it when they join in. Victor will sit in with us sometimes when we share a bill. He did that last June, when Karen [Carrier] reopened DKDC for the first time since the pandemic started.

Will David Cousar play guitar with your band this weekend?

Dave Cousar will be with us on March 3 and on April 2. But for the Mardi Gras show, we’ll have Steve Selvidge, Landon Moore, and Art Edmaiston. And usually we have Robinson Bridgeforth on drums, but he’s giving a master class at Georgetown — he’s a great drummer — so we’ll have Ryan Peel with us. He’s actually playing with the Lucky 7 as well, so it’ll be a cool merging of the two bands. It’s going to be a family affair!

Bar DKDC, Mardi Gras Party ft. Marcella & Her Lovers + Lucky 7 Brass Band, Friday, February 25, 9 p.m.

Tags Bar DKDC, Lucky 7 Brass Band, Marcella Simien, Mardi Gras, Prairie Country Creoles, Terrance Simien, Zydeco

News News Blog News Feature

Whatever Happened To: Peabody Paving Project

Post author By Toby Sells
Post date February 23, 2022

Whatever happened to Peabody Avenue getting paved?

We reported on this project — and many just like it — as they were announced by those in charge at Memphis City Hall. But we, and many online, have taken notice that some of those projects seem to, well, just not be going anywhere.

With that in mind, we are launching (yet another) occasional series called “Whatever Happened To … ?” What became of those ideas and projects that were big news once upon a time? For example, whatever happened to The Clipper, that massive hotel/office/retail tower to be built next to FedEx’s new offices Downtown?

Credit: SomeraRoad – Remember The Clipper?

For the first installment, we looked at the Peabody Avenue paving project, expected to make Memphis more bike- and pedestrian-friendly. For answers, we spoke with Nicholas Oyler, Bikeway and Pedestrian Program Manager for the city of Memphis.

Peabody Avenue as it is now (Credit: city of Memphis)

Plans to pave Peabody Avenue were announced in 2018 and work was to begin in the fall of that year. The plan raised eyebrows and caused some tension back then because the street would be completely reconfigured. Its four very wide lanes were to be slimmed down with some added amenities.

The current plan for Peabody is the same one that was determined through lengthy rounds of public input. The new Peabody will have one travel lane each direction, a center two-way turn lane, dedicated bike lanes, and on-street parking lanes adjacent to the curb.

Peabody Avenue as it is proposed to be striped later this yea (Credit: city of Memphis)

Memphis Flyer: Whatever happened with this project?

Nicholas Oyler: We were preparing to go into construction in fall 2018 when [Memphis Light, Gas & Water — MLGW] alerted us that they had plans to do a major upgrade of its gas main running under Peabody Avenue. This is something they had not previously communicated with us. We were not aware of it.

It would’ve been a mess with a bunch of asphalt patches.
Nicholas Oyler, Bikeway and Pedestrian Program Manager for the city of Memphis

If we had proceeded with the resurfacing as planned, MLGW would’ve come in soon after us and cut up the street. It would’ve been a mess with a bunch of asphalt patches. … Because of that, it was best to hold off resurfacing until MLGW finished its work.

MF: Did they?

NO: They did not notify us they were fully complete with their work until just last fall, fall of 2021. Most of the major work was done a lot earlier. So, from the perspective of passers by and residents, there were no more major holes in the ground and no more major construction going on before then. So, it appeared that [MLGW’s work] was done. But they were actually still doing some minor work on adjacent streets that had to tie into [the project]. So, MLGW was still working on it. Then, this past fall, they confirmed they were complete.

So, now that we have that confirmation from MLGW, we have rescheduled the resurfacing to occur this paving season coming up.

MF: Any idea of when that will be?

NO: I don’t have an exact date. We will really know a little closer to paving season. Most of the asphalt plants … don’t open back up until the weather seems to have warmed up enough, usually when [temperatures are at] about 40 degrees or so and they’re pretty consistent.

MF: A lot of people have wondered about the communication between MLGW and the city on things like this. What would you tell those people?

NO: It’s something we’re always trying to improve, this coordination between city engineering, public works, and MLGW.

We share our resurfacing lists with MLGW for the upcoming paving season … and they let us know if there are any conflicts we need to be aware of. We catch most of them. But, unfortunately, there are times when something slips between the cracks or, maybe, there’s a more urgent repair. When MLGW realizes those need to be done, sometimes we just don’t have as much notice as we’d like.

But there is room for improvement.

Tags bike lanes, Memphis, paving, Peabody Avenue changes

Music Music Blog

Daisy Glaze Video, Shot in Memphis, Out Now

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date February 23, 2022
No Comments on Daisy Glaze Video, Shot in Memphis, Out Now

Alix Brown is no stranger to Memphis Flyer readers, who likely recall this 2019 profile of her work as a DJ in New York. Even before then, she was a player as well, lending bass to a Jay Reatard track and recording with bands like Golden Triangle. And she was also branching out into film-music supervision.

Since 2016, she’s been playing in a combo that combines a bit of both. Daisy Glaze, her duo with guitarist Louis Epstein (HITS, Jump Into the Gospel) that often performs live as a five-piece, brings a dark cinematic sweep to their songscapes, full of reverb-drenched guitars, atmospheric lyrics and somber melodies. And they’ve been productive, with their third single and video, “Ghost of Elvis Presley,” going live today, just ahead of Friday’s release of their eponymous debut LP on The Sound of Sinners label.

The video brings Brown’s Memphis ties to the fore, having been shot in some of this city’s most iconic locations, with a noirish twist.

Directed by Michele Civetta (The Gateway, Agony), who has helmed music videos for Lou Reed and Sean Lennon, among others, much of the video was filmed at the Arcade Restaurant. Other segments shot at the historic Molly Fontaine Lounge feature a guest appearance by producer Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell of Royal Studios.

Photographer Jamie Harmon was on hand as the musicians and crew shot the video over the weekend of January 22-23, offering a rare glimpse into the making of a video with rather cinematic ambitions. In some particularly striking scenes, the duo catch glimpses of themselves as elderly Arcade workers, serving coffee in a kind of all-night diner purgatory. Look for some familiar Memphis faces like Stevan Lazich and Mitchell in these revelatory shots.

Filming Daisy Glaze’s “Ghost of Elvis Presley” in Memphis (Credit: Jamie Harmon)

Despite taking their name from a Big Star song, Daisy Glaze is not so much power pop as what they call a “psych-outlaw sound.” The dank atmospherics come courtesy of producer Peter Kember, aka Sonic Boom, who gained prominence as a member of Spacemen 3 and has distinguished himself as a solo artist and producer since the 1990s. He’s clearly in tune with the Memphis scene, having produced MGMT’s Congratulations and the under-recognized synthetic cult classic, An Arabesque by Cloudland Canyon. Daisy Glaze, who already considered Kember “an outsized influence on their sound and songwriting,” recorded their debut at his studio in Portugal in 2019.

Tags Alix Brown, Arcade Restaurant, Boo Mitchell, Daisy Glaze, Molly Fontaine Lounge, Sonic Boom, The Sound of Sinners

At Large Opinion

You’re Not Bob

Post author By Bruce VanWyngarden
Post date February 23, 2022

Wow, 77 likes! That’s a good Facebook post, right? Seventy-seven people took a moment to click a response to something you put online. They liked it or loved it or laughed or made a sad face. Some of them even made a comment. It’s very satisfying when that happens, isn’t it? When you make a connection to so many people.

And how about those 62 kind souls who wished you a happy birthday a couple weeks ago? That’s also a good thing, right? Knowing that so many people care about you? It’s certainly better than what happened to my friend “Bob,” who only got six comments on his birthday. What a loser. But at least a couple of them were very enthusiastic: “Hope you have a great birthday, Bob!!” “Happiest of birthdays, Bob! Hope all is well!”

The only problem is that Bob died in 2019, so I’m guessing he didn’t see those six birthday wishes. And I’m guessing those folks who wished him a happy birthday were not particularly close to Bob. Or — not to be too cynical here — maybe, while slurping their morning coffee, they got the daily notice from Facebook alerting them to which friends were having birthdays that day. They saw Bob’s name on the list and thought, “Oh, hey, I should wish that guy a happy one. What can it hurt?” There. Done. Back to Wordle.

That cynicism will get you nowhere, pal. Sure, we all get a lot of obligatory “Happy Birthday” messages. It’s part of the deal we make with social media when we give them every morsel of information about our lives. But it’s a bit much to expect that every single one of your 1,147 “friends” will be able to keep up with whether or not you’re actually breathing. Besides, it’s not all just perfunctory cliches. Some people give you an exclamation point! Or two!! Or maybe they post an actual sentiment or mention a moment you’ve shared in years gone by.

Listen, my friend, it’s your birthday, and 62 people noticed. You should enjoy the day, okay? Don’t think about it too much.

Or maybe think about it in a whole new way.

Think about all those social media clicks on your birthday as an entry point into a meditation or even a celebration of who you are. Maybe click on that list of people who reacted and take the time to check out their profiles, take a minute to think about how you know each other. Maybe try to bring up a memory of them, a moment you once shared.

There’s your high school buddy from the track team who drifted into drugs and now runs a homeless shelter; there’s that woman you worked with in Detroit so long ago, the one you kinda had a crush on; there’s the nice lady who used to babysit your children and still remembers their birthdays 30 years later; there’s that guy who is friends with 75 of your friends and friended you and you said yes even though you’ve never met; there’s the neighbor down the street who walks her cat; your boyfriend from 1989; the guy who was in your band, etc.

Most of them don’t know each other. The only thing they have in common is you. You are the hub. They are the spokes on the wheel of your life. You connected with them at some point during your days on this planet. Whether you worked together for years or just met once, you shared a back road.

Maybe you could imagine those 62 people gathered together in a room somewhere, watching you blow out the candles on your cake, cheering as the flames lean away from your sharp exhalation and the smoke rises and the little candle wicks fade and darken and smolder. As you lift your eyes from the imagined cake to the imagined throng of friends and family from all the days of your life, let yourself feel grateful that lots of people care about you — and that you’re not Bob.

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NCRM Hosts Exhibit Reflecting on St. Jude’s Legacy of Defying Racial Inequities

Post author By Abigail Morici
Post date February 23, 2022

Dr. Rudolph Jackson is featured in the Pioneer portion of the exhibit. (Photo: Courtesy St. Jude/NCRM)

In honor of Black History Month, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and ALSAC, the hospital’s fundraising and awareness organization, have partnered with the National Civil Rights Museum in an exhibit reflecting on St. Jude’s legacy of defying racial inequities within healthcare.

“St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was founded as a beacon of inclusion and equality, and I couldn’t think of a better place to share that history than the National Civil Rights Museum,” says Richard C. Shadyac Jr., president and CEO of ALSAC. “We encourage everyone to visit this amazing museum to learn more about the connected civil rights stories of Memphis, ALSAC, and St. Jude.”

The interactive poster installation traces St. Jude’s history starting with its 1962 founding as the first fully integrated children’s hospital in the South at the height of segregation. With QR codes that direct visitors to video footage and webpages, guests can read about and hear the stories of three people: Paul Williams, the African-American architect who designed the original star-shaped hospital building; patient Courtney, whose life St. Jude’s care helped save; and Dr. Rudolph Jackson, one of the first Black doctors at the institution.

“When I first came here in ’68, I came here as part of the sickle cell program,” Jackson says in one of the exhibit’s videos. “The entire country and the world were going through the same kinds of things that we were seeing in Memphis. There was the school strike going on, the garbage strike, marches. … I wanted to do something for particularly African Americans who could not afford healthcare. The kind of healthcare people get here at St. Jude, you can’t purchase. It’s so great to find so many people who have the same ideas and work three times as hard.” Jackson has passed away since the filming of this video.

The exhibit is on display through March 8th in the guest lounge on the second floor of the museum.

“ALSAC & St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s Commitment To Equity And Inclusion For All Children,”

National Civil Rights Museum, 450 Mulberry, on display through March 8th.

Tags National Civil Rights Museum, NCRM, St. Jude, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Book Features Books

Good Reads: Trouble the Waters

Post author By Jesse Davis
Post date February 23, 2022

The Bluff City’s fans of speculative fiction have a new reason to rejoice in the recently released Trouble the Waters: Tales From the Deep Blue (Third Man Books) edited by Pan Morigan and Memphians Sheree Renée Thomas and Troy L. Wiggins. The anthology is mesmerizing, a collection sparkling with a myriad of voices, some plumbing the depths of the mystic while others cast their gaze on the far-off future.

Thomas and Wiggins are no strangers to sci-fi and speculative fiction. Both writers contributed to last year’s Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda prose anthology, and Thomas is the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science-Fiction. In this newest work, water is the unifying motif. Like water itself — freezing, fogging, fluidly expanding to fill any space — the stories within take many shapes.

“The Water Creatures in my own story,” writes Thomas in the collection’s introduction, “remind us that while the earth is round, her waters are vast and deep. We may never know all the strange, wondrous life-forms teeming below.”

In Thomas’ “Love Hangover,” the protagonist, Frankie, fawns over a siren-like singer. “Like Delilah Divine’s voice, the music was sweet water finding its own way home,” Thomas writes. “The challenge was finding a way to listen and not get drenched. With Delilah you drowned.” In the short story, as in much of Thomas’ work, music is tied to the life force; drum beats are like heartbeats (check out her collection Nine Bar Blues, which is populated by dancers, DJs, and other musical magic). The story culminates with the 1979 fire at the Infinity disco, as the author deftly balances the forces of water and fire.

Memphian Danian Darrell Jerry’s “A City Called Heaven” conjures images of epidemic in Memphis. It begins with Sibyl walking west along Beale Street, trodding familiar ground. Beneath the specter of disease, a desire for life takes root, but the question is how to hold on to that life. Music and religion, two of the city’s driving forces, figure prominently in the story.

In “Seven Generations Algorithm” by Andrea Hairston, though the future may be bleak, with the gulf between the haves and have-nots as apparent as it is today, song and story still offer a saving grace. “Refugees, squatters, and former desperadoes were pitching tents in dead big-box stores, hoping for miracles: jobs, food, electricity, a plan, a vision — maybe just cheap cell service,” Hairston writes. Meanwhile, the author and playwright continues, “Folks who could were locked up tight down in the valley behind a flood wall and megawatt gates. Electric Paradise was on the other side of the Mall — a waste of power and good river valley soil.”

Speaking over the phone, Memphian Jamey Hatley tells me about her story, “Spirits Don’t Cross Over ’Til They Do,” which follows a veteran of the Vietnam War, Rabbit, as he tries to find a place for himself. Rabbit has seen too much death, too little reason for hope. He was in Memphis when Otis Redding died, when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

“How do survivors return?” Hatley asks. “There used to be rights of passage if you were a warrior. You would go through this process to be reacclimated into the community. Even now we’re having all these talks about how our veterans are not being taken care of, how the waiting lists for mental healthcare are incredibly long. … How do you try to make yourself whole?”

Featuring authors from familiar environs such as Memphis and New Orleans, but as far away as Northern Ireland and Copenhagen, and casting a net into the world of myth and memory, of foresight and prophecy for inspiration, Trouble the Waters is as beautiful and frightening and changing as the sea itself. Poetry, magic, and Afrofuturism inform the stories within, bidding the reader to drift away, borne aloft on a sea of story, to awake on a strange and wondrous shore.

Tags Danian Darrell Jerry, Jamey Hatley, Memphis, Pan Morigan, Sheree Renée Thomas, Third Man Books, Trouble the Waters, Troy L. Wiggins

Food & Wine Food & Drink

Monique Williams Keeps Her Plate Full with Trap Fusion, Biscuits & Jams

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date February 23, 2022

Monique Williams (Photo: Courtesy Monique Williams)

Monique Williams can create a restaurant faster than she can whip up a batch of biscuits.

Or it seems that way.

Williams is co-owner of Biscuits & Jams in Bartlett and co-owner of Trap Fusion in Whitehaven and Cordova. Many people remember when Williams owned Pat-A-Cake’s Bake Shop in Cordova.

You can thank her grandmother, the late Laura Stepter. “She was a pastry chef,” Williams says. “She worked for Memphis City Schools for almost 30 years. She did their pastries, made homemade breads, pies, turnovers, cakes, cookies, biscuits.”

Growing up in Midtown, Williams was in the kitchen with Stepter “helping her stir or licking the whisk after she made a cake. … She let me help, but she let me go in like I was in a lab and just experiment. I would make things and bring them out and she’d taste it.”

An alumna of Central High School, Williams graduated from Christian Brothers University and then Central Michigan University, where she got a master’s in health services administration.

She worked 24 years in clinical research but always baked for friends. She taught herself how to cook different cuisines. “I always wanted to have my own business. I knew it would involve food, entertainment, people.”

She remembers her grandmother and mother cooking for visiting relatives. “That feeling of eating together, getting together with food, just seemed to make people happy.”

Her first side business was making party decorations. “I’d do the gift bags, decorate the ‘jump the brooms’ for African-American weddings, make a wishing well for the gifts.”

In 2012, Williams opened Pat-A-Cake’s Bake Shop, serving cupcakes, pies, and cinnamon rolls. Like all her restaurants, Williams had “more of a neighborhood feel, where people sit and enjoy. The goal is to have regulars.”

She closed the bakery in 2016 because she needed a break and her daughter was about to go college. But, she thought, “It’s not the end. It’s just moving to the next level.”

Two years later, she opened Laura’s Kitchen in Bartlett, where she did “all kinds of Southern stuff.” Tired of leasing space, Williams closed the restaurant after a year and, with a business partner, opened Laura’s Kitchen food truck, mostly used for catering jobs. “Macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, all that good stuff you’d get on Sundays if you go to a Southern grandma’s house. At least the grandma I grew up with. The young grandmas, I’m not sure of.”

With more partners, she opened Trap Fusion, where the emphasis is on healthy food. “Seafood. We do some vegan, Caribbean, Cajun.”

“Trap” stands for “Take Risks and Prosper,” she says.

Williams opened Biscuits & Jams in 2021 because she wanted a place in Bartlett that specializes in brunch. “There are so many in Downtown and Midtown. We don’t have a lot of these boutique-style spaces that give you the cutesy feel with good food.”

Her February menu includes gumbo, crawfish étouffée, and shrimp po’ boys. Popular regular items include shrimp and crawfish Creole Benedict and bananas Foster French toast.

The “jams” in the title refer to the jams, jellies, and preserves Williams makes and serves. But it has another meaning. “I love good music. We’re in Memphis, kind of playing on that. We have live music and play music in-house.”

Of course, new restaurants are on Williams’ horizon. One will be a small baker’s commercial kitchen/dinner spot. Another will be “a small-plate venue,” she says. “And great drinks.”

Biscuits & Jams is at 5806 Stage in Bartlett, (901) 672-7905.

Trap Fusion is at 4637 Boeingshire in Whitehaven, (901) 207-5565; and 670 N. Germantown Pkwy. in Cordova, (901) 672-7061.

Tags Biscuits & Jams, Monique Williams, TRAP Fusion