It’s the first of September, and you know what that means — it’s 901 Day! And because of that, we’ve rounded up some special events to celebrate your Memphis pride on this very special day.
Some of Memphis’ most talented artists are taking the stage for this four-day music festival at Railgarten, featuring Star & Micey, Marcella & Her Lovers, Dead Soldiers, Lucky 7 Brass Band, Lord T & Eloise, Neighborhood Texture Jam, Devil Train, Cedric Burnside, and The Wilkin Sisters. Single-day tickets cost $15-$20. Arrow Creative will also be hosting its Marketplace in Motion at Railgarten, bringing the art shopping to you, September 1-3.
Choose901 will host its first 901 Day Party since the pandemic began, and the party will be poppin’. Memphis Made has brewed up a batch of special beers for the occasion, and Old Dominick Distillery will have cocktail stations. Guests can enjoy tasty bites from TACOnganas, StickEM, Central BBQ, and Mempops. Plus, Stax Music Academy, the Lucky 7 Brass Band, and DJs, Travi$, Breezye, and Shelby will provide live entertainment, and WeTightKnit, Amurica Photobooth, Mane Wilding, RotoBrothersArt, and Neighborhood Print Company will set up shop as vendors.
Grizz Nation is invited to FedExForum for an afternoon and evening celebrating the 901, with something for all ages. Throughout the event, attendees can enjoy fare from Dynamic Duo, El Mero, AD’s, and StickEM, plus local brews and more. There’ll be music by 8Ball & MJG, Big Boogie, Duke Deuce, Royal Studios House Band, and DJ Mic Tee; a Jookin’ Battle Championship; a Wrestlin’ Throwdown featuring Mads Krugger, The GunShow, and Dustin Starr; a kids zone complete with inflatables and face painters; and the Sneak Fest, which will have free sneaker cleaning and will give fans the opportunity to buy, sell, or trade for an exclusive pair of sneakers. This event is free.
The Edge District is has announced the launch of Rockwalk, a free event series that highlights local businesses and talents. Catch live performances by Amy LaVere, DJ RMZI, DJ Bizzle BlueBland, DJ Ayo Tunez, and DJ Alpha Whiskey, and check out the new businesses and restaurant specials in the area.
Overton Square will have live performances by 901 bands, including Raneem and Better in Color. Guests can also shop local 901 artisans, including 17Berkshire, Dave’s Bagels, The Tea Bar 901, and more.
Chimes Square, Overton Square, September 1, 6-9 p.m.
Enjoy inflatables, lawn games, food trucks, food and drink specials, and free beer for the first 50 guests. All flights, six-packs, and Arbo’s combos will be $9.01, and there will be yoga at 5:30 p.m. and two free brewery tours at 6 and 7 p.m. Plus, Tigers head football coach Ryan Silverfield will address the crowd at 6 p.m. and will be joined by head women’s basketball coach Katrina Merriweather and head baseball coach Kerrick Jackson. Members of the Memphis men’s basketball program are also scheduled to attend along with additional Memphis head coaches and staff members.
This free event will feature neighborhood booths, live music and performances, food, children’s activities and entertainment for all, and a friendly competition that will allow 901 neighborhoods to display their greatness. This year’s theme is “Neighborhoods Are Back.”
Celebrate K-901 Day with your dog and a few rounds of trivia at Hampline Brewing. There will be free dog treats and bonus prizes for the top teams with dogs.
You won’t want to miss the lights on the M-bridge this 901 as Mighty Lights plans to run Memphis content after sundown, including scrolling Memphis text, Grizz eyes, Tigers stripes, and more.
As #901Day becomes more and more established as a Mid-South tradition, it’s increasingly clear that music plays a central role in celebrating what Memphis is about. This year, September 1st falls on a Thursday, making it the perfect kickoff to an entire weekend of touting the Bluff City’s greatness. And if you’re hip to the unique sounds of our local musicians, this weekend is for you.
The most obvious starting point is the proudly Memphis-centric weekend at Railgarten, aka 901 Fest. The second annual staging of the festival, which runs from the 1st to the 4th of September, brings back a few familiar faces from last year, along with some newcomers. Lord T & Eloise, the Dead Soldiers, and the Lucky 7 Brass Band were featured last year. Now, the first two headline again, along with Star & Micey and North Mississippi’s recent Grammy-winner, Cedric Burnside. The Lucky 7 Brass Band, Marcella & Her Lovers, Neighborhood Texture Jam, Devil Train, and the Wilkins Sisters fill out the festival’s lineup.
It’s a powerful reminder of the diversity and eclecticism of the talent that thrives in this region. And the same could be said for the music and beats that will emanate from the Overton Park Shell as it begins its fall seasons of the Orion Free Music Series and the Shell Yeah! Benefit Concerts. While not technically starting on September 1st, the Don Ramon show kicking off the season on the 2nd dovetails neatly with other music reverberating through the weekend. And on Saturday, September 3rd, the past, present, and future vibes of Memphis soul will be in full effect with the WLOK Stone Soul Picnic, created in partnership with the Gilliam Foundation.
The picnic’s lineup highlights groups that often don’t get the attention they deserve: O’Livya Walker, The Spiritual Soldiers, Vincent Tharp & Kenosis, Charisse’, Stevenson Clark, The Mellowtones, MBMC, Annie & the Caldwell Singers, Melodic Truth, Uncle Richard’s Puppets, Roney Strong & the Strong Family, Josh Bracy & Power Anointed, the Sensational Wells Brothers, and Zacardi Cortez.
Finally, with September 4th’s Occupy The Shell event, a festival celebrating Black Memphis artists and creatives, local heroes Al Kapone & Don Trip will headline at the Shell. Of course, there’s no one more “901” than Kapone, whose “Whoop That Trick” is practically the Memphis city anthem, at least during Grizzlies games.
And perhaps Bar DKDC‘s September 3rd birthday bash for Frank McLellan, seen in the Sheiks, the Tennessee Screamers, and Model Zero, will be the most Memphis event of all, bringing that big family vibe to the fore in honor of one of the city’s most prolific musicians. The Obruni Dance Band, specializing in West African highlife music, further ramps up the diversity ante the night before.
And if recorded music is your bag, Memphis has you covered. Shangri-La Records and River City Records will both offer discounts on records by Memphis artists past and present this Thursday. And the Memphis Listening Lab will partner with WYXR 91.7 FM on a record swap and zine fest on September 3rd and 4th. While not necessarily Memphis-focused, there are sure to be some local gems buried in those stacks.
September 1st will clearly be a time to get out there and start vibrating to the local grooves. The sound waves will reverberate throughout the 901 all weekend.
The chief financial officer of Memphis-Shelby County Schools will serve as interim superintendent during the search to replace Joris Ray, who resigned last week while under investigation over claims that he abused his power and violated district policies.
The board voted unanimously Tuesday to name Toni Williams to the interim role.
Board member Althea Greene, who nominated Willams, emphasized her long track record of success with the district and said the board wanted to nominate someone as interim superintendent who had no intention of seeking the job on a permanent basis.
“We heard the public,” Greene said. “We heard your cry.”
The announcement of an interim superintendent was the expected next step in the school board’s effort to restore public trust and find a new leader for the state’s largest district at a time when students and educators are trying to recover from the pandemic’s toll.
It was also one of the final actions taken by the current board. The newly constituted board, with two new members elected Aug. 4, will begin its term on Wednesday.
Ray appointed Williams as finance chief in October 2019. A graduate of Memphis’ Whitehaven High School, Williams has held several roles with the district, including as a senior accountant, manager, and director of budget and accounting and reporting.
Williams also has served as chief financial officer in Millington Municipal Schools, a neighboring suburban school district in Shelby County, and has held leadership and financial positions with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She returned to the Memphis district to take the chief financial officer position on an interim basis before taking the job permanently.
“Even though she is a number cruncher, everything that guides those numbers is a full understanding of what makes this district move forward for children,” board Chair Michelle McKissack said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Addressing the board after the vote, Williams said, “We will stay committed during this time keeping our students interested in the forefront of everything we do. Challenges and different decisions will come, and I promise to manage them with honesty, transparency and collaboration.”
Williams also pledged to involve community members in the work of improving Memphis Shelby County Schools.
“I listened to community advocates as of last week, and one said: ‘You can’t do this work alone.’ And I agree. I look forward to listening to community advocates. I look forward to creating those opportunities, and most importantly, to students, parents, you have done great work … we have academics trending in the right direction … .”
At least one community group, Memphis LIFT, had long sought Ray’s resignation. It made numerous appearances at board meetings during the summer.
In mid-July, the board launched an external investigation into Ray and put him on administrative leave following allegations contained in divorce filings that he had adulterous affairs with women later identified as district employees. Chalkbeat confirmed that two of the women Ray’s wife alleges that he had affairs with were people he supervised before becoming superintendent in April 2019.
Last week, the board voted to approve a severance package with Ray that will pay him the equivalent of 18 months’ salary — about $480,000 — plus some benefits. The deal also ended the investigation into whether Ray violated district policy.
The board’s attorney said Ray approached the district about a separation agreement, saying the investigation had “become distracting to and constraining for the district.” The district has said it will pay former U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III, who was appointed to lead the investigation, $19,000 for his work.
Under the terms of the severance agreement, neither Ray nor the district admitted any wrongdoing.
A school district policy last updated in August 2021 “strongly discourages romantic or sexual relationships between a manager or other supervisory employee and their staff,” citing the risk of actual or perceived conflicts of interest, favoritism, and bias. The policy also states that “given the uneven balance of power within such relationships, consent by the staff member is suspect and may be viewed by others, or at a later date by the staff member, as having been given as the result of coercion or intimidation.”
In addition, the policy requires parties to reveal any such relationships to managers. Chalkbeat filed an open records request asking the district whether Ray disclosed any such relationships. The district later responded that no such documents exist.
Ray denied violating any MSCS policies.
After Ray was put on leave, deputy superintendents Angela Whitelaw and John Barker shared duties leading the district — a role that will end with Williams’ appointment.
Ray was named superintendent in 2019 after the MSCS board decided against searching nationally for the district’s next leader. Board members said at the time that they thought Ray, a longtime district employee who had been serving as interim superintendent for months, was an “exceedingly qualified candidate,” and said a national search was unnecessary and would cost the district valuable time and resources.
The district has promised to share details about the next search in the coming weeks.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Many moons ago, I was a baby, the first of the Clark grandkids.
“Because we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty, and yet it all seems limitless.” — Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky
Hello, dear readers. It’s me again, with what will surely be another introspective, somewhat sorrowful column. It’s been a rough few months for my family, and this is where my heart and head have been. So if you’d prefer not to join on this journey, please go ahead and turn the page. But know, there will be some hope somewhere. There’s gotta be. (That’s what I keep telling myself.)
I first read the above quote years ago when traveling down an internet rabbit hole confirming Brandon Lee’s (son of martial artist Bruce Lee) cause of death. It was, in fact, the result of a defective blank round fired from a prop gun during filming of the 1994 movie The Crow. The excerpted text from the 1949 novel The Sheltering Sky was inscribed on the young actor’s tombstone. I’m reminded of the words when mortality creeps into view, as it tends to do from time to time.
In May, I wrote in this space about my granny Clark being diagnosed with lung and liver cancer. After a couple of weeks in hospice, she passed away in early June with her daughters at her side. In July, my uncle died unexpectedly at his home. And last week, my pawpaw Clark succumbed to, we suspect, a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, which we’d previously been told was a ticking time bomb. These events, in such quick succession, have had me reflecting on certain afternoons from my childhood — those deeply ingrained among the things that have made me, me.
Growing up in Greenwood, Mississippi, my family was close. We gathered often with the many branches that extend from the Clark family tree. As the first grandchild on that side, I was doted on before my cousins were born. My aunts and uncles would have me over for weekends. My first job was helping at the barbecue restaurant and food truck my grandparents owned and operated. Some memories have faded as the years have gone by, but there are still those — taking special trips (my first drive-in movie, a visit to Disney World) with my aunts, being mesmerized by the color-changing lights on a fiber optic lamp at my uncle’s house, smelling the barbecue smoker and preparing plates for long lines of customers with the grands — that are imprinted.
We all have memories that make us nostalgic — longing, maybe, for simpler times, for the carefree days of our youth. Especially with today’s chaos, when the world seems to burn around us as people fight over student loan forgiveness, reproductive freedom, inflation, liveable wages, climate change … this list goes on (and on and on). Keyboard warriors always have something to argue over. Fewer folks actually get out and take a stand, in protest or support of what they find worthy of fighting for. But the sobering fact is, our time is fleeting. We should make the ways in which we spend it count. Whether that’s watching a hummingbird hover at a feeder, playing Barbies with your niece, running a hard-trained marathon, or writing a letter to your congressperson about an issue that’s got you fired up — the choice is yours. No one but you can determine what’s best for you.
We humans are inclined to think we’re going to be here forever. In fits over traffic, petty quarrels, the sink full of dishes. Large or small, these are all temporary troubles, and death is the ultimate reminder that we aren’t on this beautifully broken planet for long. We are gathered here today to get through this thing called life. Choose your battles, savor the joys, discover the lessons in loss. Heal, forgive, and find your own peace — in whatever ways you can — before that final full moon rises in your view.
The Memphis Flyer is now seeking candidates for its editor position. Send your resume to hr@contemporary-media.com.
The Metal Museum has rolled out its last exhibition of this year’s “Tributaries” series with Morgan Asoyuf’s “Royal Portrait.” The exhibit highlights Tsm’syen culture in the Pacific Northwest and confronts issues spurred from colonization that have affected and infiltrated Indigenous communities.
Historically, Asoyuf explains, in Tsm’syen culture, a matriarch held the special high-ranking role of maintaining the well-being of the community, but colonization dispersed patriarchal ideals, setting the traditional Indigenous power structure off-balance.
“Now, you see the money go more toward men,” Asoyuf says. “A lot of times you see the chiefs dressed really well, but the matriarchs, who are actually supposed to have more power, don’t have any of those things.”
So Asoyuf, who works in goldsmithing, wood carving, and fashion design, has sought to rectify this through her art by uplifting the sovereignty of Indigenous women and queer and two-spirit people who advocate for land rights, environmental custodianship, and missing and murdered Indigenous women and two-spirit individuals.
“They tend to shoulder a lot of responsibility in these activism spaces,” Asoyuf says. “I’m trying to highlight our activists and land defenders and show their royalty, … that royalty [means] to respect the culture and take care of our land.”
As such, the pieces in her exhibition incorporate crowns, scepters, and necklaces — which she calls “mantles of responsibility” — made from a mix of what one might expect in European-style regalia, like diamonds and sapphires, and the unexpected, natural items, like bear claws and salmon bones, which are significant to Northwest coast culture. But the artist insists that main focus of each piece is the Northwest coastal item, with the stones and gems serving as accents.
“It’s challenging the European idea that [regalia] has to have things [like gems] to make it look expensive and royal,” Asoyuf says. “It’s like, we actually have our own materials and stuff, and our value of royalty is so different.”
“The message of art needs to be active,” she adds. And by that, she means, these pieces aren’t made for display cases; they’re meant to be part of a living culture, meant to be worn — which is why the exhibition also includes photos of various activists wearing her jewelry, dressed in full gowns and costuming. In fact, the artist often lends, trades, or gifts her pieces to activists to wear while they do their work out in the world.
“It’s not about my voice,” she says. “It’s about these people’s voices and how I can amplify that and make them stronger. What I do is the art form, the regalia, the spiritual power, but I can use that for the greater good.”
“Tributaries: Morgan Asoyuf |Royal Portrait,” Metal Museum, on display through September 25th.
Russell Casey is executive chef at the new Restaurant Iris (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Russell Casey was about 5 when he developed a passion for cooking by helping his grandfather grill outdoors.
“That man would cook any type of beef you could imagine,” Casey says. “He always wanted to fatten me up.”
Casey, now executive chef of the new Restaurant Iris, bussed tables when he was 13 at The Grove Grill, which was where Restaurant Iris now is located.
He majored in English at the now-called Western Colorado University, but he decided to stay in the culinary field after working at a local restaurant. “I liked the versatility of working in a kitchen. I knew I could travel and I could always feed myself.”
Casey “developed a knack” for “what would work well together as far as any type of cuisine.” He came to work early to learn how to “butcher fish, make sauces, and braises” from the chef. Casey worked there for about four years.
“I thought I knew everything and then I got into fine dining and realized I didn’t know jack shit. It’s a whole new ball game.”
Returning to Memphis, Casey eventually got a job at The Inn at Hunt Phelan. Executive chef Stephen Hassinger was a big influence. “He was calm, but fair and stern, which is discipline. We all need that. It really motivated me to keep going. I think when you’re tired, and you don’t think you can move on, and chef is still rocking it out, and he’s got a couple of years on you, it motivates you.”
Casey learned a lot from Hassinger. “I don’t know if ‘spirituality’ is the word, but just respecting the abundance of food we have access to and not wasting it, as opposed to spoiling it or throwing it away. Always pack fish in ice the way they’d swim in the ocean. Respect the fact that if a living thing was slaughtered or died so you can eat it, you need to respect that and take care of it, and use everything you possibly can to make it sort of a way of being thankful for what we have.”
Chef Vishwesh Bhatt, who Casey worked under at Snackbar in Oxford, Mississippi, was another influence. “Here he comes from India, and he has this kick-ass, unique French fusion where he’s using spices and things I’d never known before. It reignited my passion for cooking.”
Bhatt influenced Casey to “grab a bull by the horns” and move up in his career. “Because the last thing I want to do is get stuck.” Casey didn’t want to become a “60-year-old, burned-out line cook.” He returned to Memphis and eventually got a job as executive chef at Bounty on Broad.
Hearing about the opening of the new Restaurant Iris, Casey pulled no punches when he told owner Kelly English, “Look. We can own this mutha fucka: your brand — and you market yourself so well — and I can kill it in the kitchen. I’m your guy. Let’s go get coffee.”
Restaurant Iris fare will be “classic New Orleans” with some Iris staples, including the lobster knuckle sandwich. “With the exception of three or four staples, everything is kind of ‘think Galatoire’s’ type of menu with my fingerprints all over it.
“What people keep saying sounds like me is the pan-roasted flounder with speckled lima beans and succotash. It kind of screams, ‘Russell Casey.’ I think it’s all those classic, comforting different techniques throughout the dish, and it’s cool.”
Casey sees his Restaurant Iris position as the “culmination of all the blood, sweat, and tears” he’s endured working his way up the ladder.
He remembers when he made and sold mozzarella cheese to supplement his chef’s income. He made the cheese on Friday nights after a long day’s work at the restaurant. He then had to be at the farmer’s market at 5 a.m. Becoming a chef is “definitely a younger man’s ambition, for sure. But all that, I think, gets wrapped up into teaching you how to be tough. And that the sky’s the limit. Go for the gold.”
Restaurant Iris is at 4550 Poplar Avenue in Laurelwood Shopping Center.
The upcoming Restaurant Iris in Laurelwood Shopping Center. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba star in this mumble of a movie.
George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing attempts to be a master class in the art of film narrative at the end of Miller’s long career, a reflection on his work. Instead, like most movies and human endeavors, it is an exercise in what not to do and shaggy-dog in nature. The story has all the weight of a hummingbird. There are pleasures to be had in its misshapen structure, but they are fleeting.
Lonely asthmatic narratologist (a professor of stories and legends) Alithea (Tilda Swinton) goes to a mythology conference in Istanbul, where she buys a bottle containing a genie, or djinn, in a thrift store. She opens it and discovers Djinn (Idris Elba), who grants her three wishes and heavily pressures her to make them now. Having read every story about djinns, Alithea is suspicious and notes the ill fate of most magic lamp users: “There’s no story about wishing that isn’t a cautionary tale.” The pair hang out in her hotel room and trade tales about their lives, Scheherazade-style. Elba is composed of magical CGI dust — he notes accurately that djinns are not powder but “subtle fire.” The plot is based on the much better The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye by A.S. Byatt.
Stories about storytelling put the audience at a precious remove. Everything is in quotes to serve as examples of frequently expounded precepts. (“Mythology is what we knew back then. Science is what we know so far.”) Even the sensory details (the djinn’s bottle pulled out of fish guts, a spear stuck in a horse’s haunch clotheslining a soldier on a battlefield) feel a bit too considered. The stage-bound nature of the sets and CGI add to this, as does the retro fairy-tale treatment given to the medieval Middle East.
Alithea’s love of stories is born of childhood isolation. Her overcompensation then led to her job now, but the problem remains: loneliness. Djinn is a dignified ancient creature who speaks with new-to-English pauses and has red palms and a vermillion dot at the center of his chin. The tension should come from Alithea’s unique preparedness for Djinn’s possible traps, but instead we get some sad tales of random hereditary monarchy succession drama seen from his perspective. The movie is about stories yet does not succeed at that part of them that edges butts on seats.
The real oddity begins when it winds down and seems to be about to end about a half hour before it does. It posits that the march of science, from Einstein to the ubiquity of media and communication, now is at odds with myth-making and therefore storytelling, as myths were ways to explain the world, giving gods quarrelsome attributes as placeholder explanations for what science lacked. There’s a whole scene devoted to the djinn’s bottle being X-rayed by airport security and fear over the damage.
Myth and science can coexist. The universe is unexplored. You and I will rot beneath the ground before humans know half of what there is to know. Our opposing capacity for irrationality is boundless. The film’s suggestion (via Djinn’s allergy to contemporary Britain with its “raucous air” filled with wireless signals) that modern tech is killing our imagination makes sense insofar as social-media manipulation might have added to the xenophobia of Alithea’s racist neighbors, but only there.
Wonder positioned against science as something to be traded off in return for learning about how the world works is always silly. (The Sandman’s recent adaptations of Neil Gaiman’s Hob Gadling and “A Dream of a Thousand Cats” stories are much better intersections of the mythological and modern.)
Life is more unpredictable than stories, and it’s a Luddite impulse that shuts out advances, rather than addressing their positives and negatives. The film does have Djinn witness brain surgery and the Large Hadron Collider, and it does compromise in a realistic way with Alithea’s intense need for love, extending via a series of fade-outs past a fairy-tale ending into a more regular one, a romantic compromise emphasizing consent. It’s just that those fade-out segments have the narrative consistency of melted butter, the coherency of a mumble, and are gone from the mind as soon as seen.
Cleaning up and organizing top
this year’s list. (Photo: Courtesy Greater Memphis Chamber)
Each year the Greater Memphis Chamber sets out the Metro Advocacy Agenda, a list of positions and priorities from local business leaders and stakeholders.
This year’s agenda seeks to clean up the disorganized Shelby County Clerk’s Office (for more than just delays in license plates); expand the hiring of ex-offenders; improve relationships with Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW); clean up the city; organize leadership on transportation planning; and more. Here are some details from this year’s Metro Advocacy Agenda.
Shelby County Clerk’s Office
Ongoing news reports during the spring and summer of 2022 have focused on delays and historic backlogs in the Shelby County Court Clerk’s Office with respect to the issuance of vehicle tags and licenses. These reports have highlighted the months-long delays in mailing out tags and licenses to clients who have already paid for the service. Car dealers have been especially impacted, given how temporary car tags issued with newly-purchased vehicles are not being replaced by new car tags sent to them from the county clerk’s office.
Additionally, clients waiting for hours to be served at the Downtown and satellite offices for the county clerk, many times in scorching summer heat, has been especially concerning when considering how strategies to assign appointment times, extend business hours, and leverage simple technology were not instituted to avoid months of excessive wait times.
With the high-profile attention on the challenges receiving car tags, interviews conducted in preparing the Metro Advocacy Agenda also revealed other problems in the processes and function of the Shelby County Clerk’s office. These items include:
• Substantial delays in the issuance of business licenses
• No updates in system with respect to business transfers
• Inactivity of the Shelby County Alcohol Commission resulting in businesses not being able to obtain alcohol licenses or to clear alcohol-related violations
• Backlog of refunds for overpayment
In an extraordinary move following the August 2022 Shelby County general election, in which the incumbent county clerk was reelected, the Shelby County Commission voted to officially request the intervention of the state of Tennessee into the operations of the Shelby County Clerk’s Office. This action punctuated previous requests for state intervention from the Greater Memphis Automobile Dealers Association and other concerned officials from West Tennessee.
On-ramps for ex-offenders
Ex-offenders (individuals who have been previously convicted of a crime) have traditionally been difficult to place in employment due to policies, liabilities, and [human resources] practices governing many businesses.
What has become apparent in recent years is that the perception of ex-offenders as a un-hirable undercuts a valuable opportunity to employ certain members of this population. As industries and businesses of every size have struggled mightily with securing dependable, qualified employees during the Covid-19 pandemic, the training and hiring of select groups of ex-offenders has resurfaced as a viable workforce strategy for certain organizations.
To this end, interested businesses could benefit from programs that help to train and prepare ex-offenders who meet certain criteria for job opportunities. Such programs, with eligibility requirements and training shaped by employers, are fitting on-ramps for businesses seeking to shore up their workforce.
MLGW
A recurring theme for a number of businesses and industry sectors has been the communication, inconsistency, and delays they have faced in having operational issues and challenges addressed and tracked by MLGW.
In response to concerns from investors, MLGW president J.T. Young suggested the formation of the MLGW Business Advisory Council to bring business and industry leaders together with key members of MLGW’s staff to discuss systemic issues and potential remedies.
After a number of delays due to weather events and efforts to ensure overall diversity of the council, an inaugural meeting for the MLGW Business Advisory Council will convene in September 2022.
Cleanup
In addition to an overall communitywide commitment to regaining our status as the Cleanest City in America, code enforcement, cleanup, landscaping, and overall beautification projects should be prioritized along major thoroughfares and around significant landmarks and tourist destinations in support of economic development.
Visit the Chamber’s website for the full list and more details.
University of Memphis football coach Ryan Silverfield is tired of answering questions about the pandemic, the transfer portal, and NILs (name-image-likeness deals for student athletes). But here’s the thing: He’ll keep answering those questions, and with a smile on his face. Because that’s college football today. The case could be made that the sport has changed more since Silverfield took over the Tiger program — in December 2019 — than it did over the previous three decades. Recruiting is different (what kind of NIL possibilities exist?). Retaining players is a new challenge (that pesky portal). And graduating players? Keeping a standout running back for four (or five) seasons? You must be thinking of 2018.
“This is my 24th year of coaching,” notes Silverfield. “And the last three years have changed [the profession] dramatically. Not just for a head coach. The game has changed so much itself. That’s been what’s so dynamic. Who would have thought my first few months on the job would be the most normal? [Silverfield made his debut at the 2019 Cotton Bowl after his predecessor, Mike Norvell, departed for Florida State.] I couldn’t call [Alabama coach] Nick Saban up and ask how he dealt with a pandemic. I couldn’t call [LSU coach] Brian Kelly and ask how he handled the transfer portal in 1989. How did coaches deal with NIL in the late ’90s? We’re in a different, ever-changing game. When will we ever be able to just talk football? I don’t know if we’ll be on that trajectory anytime soon. Every coach is dealing with it.
“So the only constant is change. With a little bit of patience — as a man and a coach — I understand that every day something new will occur. You better adapt and adjust and get on the bus, or you’re going to get run over. We’re trying to stay ahead of it, to be proactive. And I believe we’re doing that here. The game’s hard enough. When you’re working 100 hours a week, to get frustrated does you no good. There’s a lot. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for a head coach who makes a good salary and gets to live his dream. But it’s changed.”
The 2021 Memphis Tigers, it can be said, broke even. They won six games and lost six. (Memphis hasn’t had a losing season since 2013.) They scored 30.1 points per game (a total that ranked 52nd among 130 FBS teams), and allowed 29.2. They were strong at home (5-2) but weak on the road (1-4). Most troubling, Memphis finished 3-5 in the American Athletic Conference, well short of a primary goal every season: winning the AAC championship. The Tigers qualified for a bowl game for the eighth season in a row (the Hawaii Bowl), but the game was canceled when their opponent (the University of Hawaii) had a Covid outbreak the day before kickoff. Silverfield’s second season as a head coach was decent, but he doesn’t hesitate in emphasizing Memphis football should be better.
“It starts with me,” says Silverfield. “I’ve got to be better. We were 3-0 after beating Mississippi State and up 21-0 on a UTSA team that went 12-2. We had a pair of injuries and our 18-year-old quarterback threw a pick-six. At that point, the kids looked up and felt there was a chink in the armor. We were never over-confident, but we must stay healthy. We had 47 guys out last season at some point. We played 27 freshmen and redshirt-freshmen. On paper, we’ve put together the best back-to-back recruiting classes in the program’s history, so that bodes well for the future.”
Silverfield acknowledges the most common factor in a good program going sour for a stretch of time. “We turned the ball over too much,” he notes. “We fumbled the ball inside the one-yard line against Temple. Then again on the 15. Two different running backs. We have to do a better job of establishing the run. We’ve been a rotational backfield, more so than I ever wanted. It will sort itself out through camp. Asa Martin has come on the last two seasons. Rodrigues Clark has shown some flashes but has to be more consistent. Brandon Thomas, when healthy and well, has been a force to be reckoned with. [Thomas led Memphis with 669 rushing yards last season.] Marquavius Weaver started against Navy [last year]. We need to have two or three we can rely on heavily. I don’t want to play six running backs. It’s a wide-open competition.”
Seth Henigan (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
One position the Tigers did not rotate a year ago is quarterback. When Arizona transfer Grant Gunnell was sidelined by injury shortly before the season opener, freshman Seth Henigan — merely nine months after his last high school game — took command of the Memphis offense. He completed 60 percent of his passes for 3,322 yards and tossed 25 touchdown passes (with eight interceptions). Silverfield is counting on an even better Henigan in 2022.
“What allowed Seth to play so well as a freshman are his maturity and intelligence,” says Silverfield. “He has a lot of tools. But he threw three pick-sixes and at times played like a true freshman. Part of that is growing pains, but we saw growth every single game. It may not have resulted in the best completion percentage, but in recognizing situations: ‘Did you see where that safety was?’ He’s got more comfort now. It’s not just studying the playbook. Grasp the offense, but grow in year two. He’s had a full offseason in the weight room, getting his body right.”
“I’ve gained 15 pounds since last season,” says Henigan. “That should help me withstand hits, stay in the pocket, and deliver strikes. And knowing I’m the starter … that’s a good feeling. Building chemistry, and not splitting reps [in practice]. The experience from last year will benefit me this season and in the long run. We have a lot of kids capable of having a breakout season. Our receiving corps is really deep; our offensive line is more experienced. We should be pretty dynamic, fun to watch.”
The Tigers’ biggest loss from a season ago is wideout Calvin Austin III. The speed demon will now split coverages for the Pittsburgh Steelers after being drafted in the fourth round of April’s NFL draft. But Silverfield likes the group of receivers Henigan will be targeting this fall. What they may lack when compared with Austin’s flaming speed, they make up for with collective size. “This is the most depth we’ve had at wide receiver since I’ve been at Memphis. Javon Ivory has shown production. People are expecting big things from Gabe Rogers.” Joe Scates (a transfer from Iowa State) will be in the mix, as will Eddie Lewis (four touchdowns last season). Sophomore Roc Taylor brings the kind of size (6’2”, 225 lbs.) that can punish defensive backs.
“The size [of our receivers] will stretch the field,” notes Silverfield. Caden Prieskorn should get the majority of snaps at tight end, and he checks in at 6’6”, 255 lbs. He’ll actually have a size advantage on some of the edge rushers Memphis faces.
In looking at the Tiger defense, let’s start with the secondary, where safety Quindell Johnson returns for what he hopes will be a third-straight all-conference season. (Motivation? Johnson was named second-team All-AAC each of the last two years.) Johnson’s 66 solo tackles were 17th in all of college football last season, but the numbers merely approximate his value to the Memphis cause.
“Quindell Johnson is the leader of our team,” says Silverfield. “The leader of our defense, certainly. Intelligent. Had the opportunity to go to the NFL, but decided to come back and compete. He cares, lives at the football complex. Could have transferred, but he stayed here. Loyal to the program. His family raised him right. Usually when I get a text from a parent, it’s negative. But his mom will text me just to say, ‘Hope your day is going all right. I know you have a lot on your plate.’ He’ll need to continue to make plays on the ball. Our new defensive scheme will suit him. He wants to win. It’s not just about improving his draft stock. Let’s win a championship. I admire that in him.”
Johnson relishes the chance to win a conference championship before his Tiger days are complete. (He graduated with a degree in business management last December and is now working toward a master’s degree.) “We have new guys, new coaching staff,” he notes, “and I’m just excited to see how it plays out. Playing football with the people I love.” Johnson refuses to name the teammates who will impact this year’s defense, insisting fans will need to “watch all of us.” Johnson’s offseason was spent building a more complete football player, as he puts it: “Getting faster, stronger, working on my technique, being a student of the game.”
And for those wondering why Johnson stayed despite alternatives, a program’s culture made the difference. “I’ve been so loyal,” emphasizes Johnson. “This program has given me nothing but love. I was in a situation where I didn’t need to leave. I’m somewhere I know I can play; I’m comfortable. The love the city’s given me … it’s unconditional.”
Johnson may be the most decorated, but the Tiger defense will have veterans at every level, with fifth-year seniors on the line (Wardalis Ducksworth), at linebacker (Xavier Cullens and Tyler Murray), and in the secondary (Rodney Owens). Even a sophomore like cornerback Greg Rubin — in 2020 a senior at White Station High School — brings experience, having started 11 games as a true freshman. “It’s maturity and confidence,” says Silverfield when asked how Rubin made an impact so quickly. “He’s shown an ability to work. Had the opportunity to go elsewhere, but stayed home and has found success.”
The Tigers will take the field for their opener at Mississippi State under the guidance of a new offensive coordinator (Tim Cramsey joins the program after four years at Marshall) and a new defensive coordinator (Matt Barnes arrives after three years at Ohio State). When asked for a connecting thread between the two hires, Silverfield says, “They’re great teachers.” Having interviewed seven candidates for each position, Silverfield chose men he feels can match his players when it comes to energy and passion.
“They’re dynamic,” says Silverfield. “They both bring energy, both have a chip on their shoulder. They have an underdog mentality and want to prove how good we can be, how great their units can be. When I interviewed [Barnes], he was getting all sweaty, uptight, jumpy. I said, ‘All right, this guy gets it.’ He wants to prove what he’s capable of.”
The Tigers will host seven games. (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
Silverfield sees the larger picture of college football’s shifting landscape. USC and UCLA are leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, for crying out loud. We can erase the word geography from any equation measuring a program’s value for one “power conference” or another. The AAC is losing three of its top programs — UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati — after the 2022-23 academic year. Joining the AAC are programs that won’t exactly sell football tickets by themselves: UAB, Rice, UTSA, Charlotte, North Texas, and FAU. (If it feels like the old Conference USA days, it should.)
“We want to be in the best conference for football,” says Silverfield. “Football is the driving force [of revenue for an athletic department]. It’s ever-changing. We’re doing things the right way, with some of the best facilities in the country. We’re pouring money into [significant] renovations of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. Back-to-back years, we’ve had the highest graduation rate of any football program in our conference. All those things will put us on display, and we’ll see what the future entails. We want to play at the highest level we can.”
Before Seth Henigan was born, a 6-6 season may have been welcomed in these parts. But Memphis football has new standards now, and the sophomore quarterback is here to meet them. “I’m trying to get us back at least to the top of the AAC,” says Henigan. “The standard at Memphis is a level of excellence, grit, grind, and all that stuff. We work really hard, but we need to prove it on Saturdays. Nobody really cares if we don’t win on Saturdays.”
Falco will be singing and dancing. (Photo: Courtesy Tav Falco)
Tav Falco will be at his old stomping ground, Lafayette’s Music Room, but he won’t be stomping. He’ll be dancing. And singing.
Indeed, Falco and his band Panther Burns, who appeared in 2018 at Lafayette’s Music Room, will return September 8th to promote their EP, Club Car Zodiac.
“I am going to sing and dance and celebrate like an Aztec sun worshiper,” Falco says.
On previous tours, Falco dealt with “incendiary political issues.” He performed songs, including “Doomsday Baby,” and “lynching ballads,” including “Strange Fruit.”
But now Falco wants to “sing and dance together and join arm in arm in what rock-and-roll is and what ballroom is and what tango is all about. And this is what we’re going to do on stage at Lafayette’s.”
You name it, Falco, who now lives just south of Bangkok on Wong Amat Beach, has done it. He’s also a photographer, filmmaker, actor, and author.
Panther Burns, which he began with the late Alex Chilton, was “named after the legendary plantation off Highway 61 just north of Greenville, Mississippi.” Falco describes Panther Burns music as “flowery, avant/retro, psychedelic ballroom, romance. It crosses genres of blues, rock-and-roll, rhythm and blues, tango, samba, and balladry.”
“While mansions are burning in the background, all of the Southern themes that we extol — brother against brother, unrequited love — we take up where Scarlett O’Hara says as her mansion, Tara, was up in flames. She said, ‘Well, tomorrow is another day.’”
Mario Monterroso, a guitarist/singer/songwriter whom Falco has worked with since 2014, will be the opener at Lafayette’s.
“Mario was so excited about Memphis after the Command Performance tour that had ‘Memphis Ramble’ on it — a song we worked on for quite a while — that he said, ‘Tav, I want to live in Memphis.’”
Monterroso now has “become a real presence on the Memphis music scene.”
Those who follow Falco on social media have seen videos of him dancing the tango. “I’ve been dancing for a while and I’m still learning.” Tango is “a relationship with a partner. It’s something you cultivate.” It’s “about passion. It’s about daggers.”
Falco performed his tango song, “Drop Your Mask,” in Memphis at his first Panther Burns show at a cotton loft at 96 South Front Street. “I was always fascinated with the music that I’d heard. And I sang a tango in 1979 to a recording of a Xavier Cugat tango on my first Panther Burns show.”
But, he says, “I didn’t start dancing tango until I came over to Europe in ’92. That’s when I met tango dancers in Vienna. I started learning with Argentine masters and I’m still learning.”
Tango is also featured on Club Car Zodiac. “I wrote ‘Tango Primavera’ about my experiences performing with pianist Mirkaccio Dettori in the cabaret in Rome. I’ve adopted a dancing cane and a matelot.”
A matelot is the “flat straw hat” popularized by gondoliers and Maurice Chevalier. “I developed this character, ‘L’Ultimo Gigolo.’ I’m doing songs and dancing with that in a cabaret in Rome. After this tour, I’m going back to Rome for another short run of appearances.”
Falco isn’t waiting until tomorrow to think about his next move. “I want to come back to Memphis and collaborate with Mario Monterroso on a theater cabaret performance that, actually, we want to premiere at Theatre Memphis. That is our goal, and the objective is a creation of our album, Cabaret of Daggers. It’s going to be a musical theater production.
This will be something he’s never done before. “I’m going to sing and dance. I’m going to have a shadow dancing partner with me, a female partner. I have some pretty good ideas for this and we have the content and the material.”
Anything else Falco hasn’t done? “I think I’m onto what I want to be doing, other than the diversion of windsurfing that I see windsurfers doing from my balcony. I would like to learn how to windsurf over ocean waves.”
Tav Falco’s Panther Burns at 7 p.m. September 8th at Lafayette’s Music Room at 2119 Madison Avenue. Tickets: $15-$25. (901) 207-5097
