As someone who has spent years studying and watching musical theater, I can say that Something Rotten! is like one giant inside joke for the theater crowd, particularly those with a penchant for William Shakespeare.
Playhouse on the Square’s production of Something Rotten! is the perfect show for anyone who loves musical theater, but don’t worry, even if the multitude of theater references are flying over your head, you’ll still enjoy it. When I speak to director/choreographer Whitney Branan over the phone, she reassures me, “If you are somebody who is not a musical theater or a Shakespeare — I say this term with pride because I am one — nerd, you will still have the best night at the theater because it is hilarious.”
Something Rotten! takes place in the year 1595 during the English renaissance. Two brothers, Nick and Nigel Bottom, are struggling playwrights living in the shadow of the illustrious Shakespeare. Nick Bottom’s ill-fated plan to enlist a soothsayer to show him the future of theater ends up with him trying desperately to figure out how to pull off a full-scale musical without knowing quite exactly what that is. As Branan puts it, “It is the story of seeing these renaissance theater troupe members try to create this new art form from kind of hints from the future, and it goes terribly wrong.”
And so the Bottom brothers are pitted against Shakespeare, who Branan describes as “the rockstar of the day.” William Shakespeare is hilariously portrayed as a man whose fame has gone completely to his head, resulting in a sort of egocentric machismo that makes fun of itself more and more as the show unfolds.
Rife with pop culture and theater Easter eggs, the show’s musical numbers are all delightfully tongue-in-cheek. The ensemble cast truly shows their comedic chops in this play, as the dances themselves are often an additional layer in the ongoing musical-within-a-musical joke. The characters even poke fun — multiple times — at iambic pentameter, using modern slang and completely ignoring their Elizabethan setting.
According to Branan, “The concept of the show is really cool because it is set in Shakespeare’s world, but it has this anachronism aesthetic to it.” That aesthetic is a huge part of what makes the show inherently funny, but the performances are what really drive the humor home. Comedy is the force behind this musical, and it’s also where the company shines the most. I laughed out loud throughout the production.
(Credit: Bill Simmers)
Something Rotten! was originally slated to be performed at Playhouse during 2020 but was rescheduled multiple times due to the pandemic. The production that came out of that long interim was absolutely worth the wait. Branan took every opportunity to brag on both her cast and production crew. “The dancers that were originally cast in this show spent the pandemic upping their game,” she said explaining that some of the actors used the two-year wait as added time to perfect their tap dancing skills.
One of my favorite things about this specific production of Something Rotten! is that Memphis theater in particular receives nods throughout the show. Branan shares that she did this with great intention, even reaching out to Christi Hall, the choreographer of Guys and Dolls which opened at Theatre Memphis on the same night as Something Rotten!
There are two eight counts of choreography from Guys and Dolls that make a “special cameo appearance” in Something Rotten! Memphis theater regulars will also spot allusions to Playhouse favorites such Little Shop of Horrors and Kinky Boots. For a show that persevered through two years of Covid-19 delays, there is a kind of added affection attached. Branan puts it beautifully: “The show is a valentine to Shakespeare, it’s a valentine to theater, it’s a valentine to musical theater, but our work that we’ve done for a couple of years on this show is a valentine to the Memphis theater community.”
If you are a theater-loving Memphian, don’t let this opportunity to show your appreciation to local artists pass you by. It’s not every day that you can see a Broadway musical that has been specially personalized to fit your community.
Something Rotten! runs through September 18th at Playhouse on the Square.
There is an as yet unconfirmed report that Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich, who was unseated in the August 4 election by DA-elect Steve Mulroy, has taken a position as assistant DA with the office of District Attorney Mark Davidson of the adjoining 25th Judicial District.
The 25th District serves the surrounding West Tennessee counties of Tipton, Fayette, Lauderdale, McNairy, and Hardeman. Each county possesses a General Sessions Court, a Circuit Court, a Juvenile Court and a Drug Court.
As someone who grew up in the early 2000’s, I knew of Elvis in three distinct ways.
I knew that many of his songs had narrated a film, Lilo & Stitch, that was on constant replay in my house. On Full House, I knew that Graceland was the ideal location for Uncle Jesse’s dream wedding and that a convincing look-a-like had helped him learn the importance of family. An honorable mention is the memory of a nine-year-old me singing the lyrics “Elvis, Elvis let me be. Keep your pelvis far from me,” in my best Rizzo impression during recess. I knew of him in the ways that he influenced pop culture, but I never explored the oeuvre of Mr. Presley.
It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I, like many other Gen Zers, began to feel responsible for his death. Yes, there are at least a handful of twenty-somethings who feel responsible for the death of a man who died years before we took our first breaths. Or, at least that’s what Colonel Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks, led us to believe in Baz Luhrmann’s film, Elvis.
The feeling of being gaslit by the narrator is just one of many shared reactions to the film. During your nightly scroll on TikTok you’re bound to see videos set to Doja Cat’s “Vegas” sparking some type of conversation about the film or about Elvis himself. Clips of Austin Butler play simultaneously next to a video of Elvis, showing his arguably perfect impersonation. A few scrolls later, you’ll be led down a rabbit of Elvis’ entire filmography in three minutes or less.
“I think with the release of Elvis, we’ve definitely seen a resurgence in Elvis within pop culture recently, though his presence has been felt for much longer,” said Bobbi Miller, a pop culture expert and the host of “The Afternoon Special” on TikTok. There, she has a following of more than 366,700 as “your friend who knows just a little bit too much about pop culture.”
It’s important to note that there are devoted twenty-something Elvis fans whose entry to fandom happened prior to the film’s release.
“I was a fan before the movie and went into hiding upon its release,” Meghan Moody said while also explaining how her father was able to obtain a copy of Elvis’ high school graduation program for her.
While the film may serve as just another element in Elvis lore for longtime fans, it can be argued that the film has also opened the opportunity for a new generation to be exposed to the King of Rock, birthing a new era of Elvis fandom.
It can be hard to pinpoint exactly what “does it” for fans of the film. In a viral clip, Butler can be seen on stage teaching Jimmy Fallon how to “shake, rattle, and roll.” As he dances across the stage, you may wonder how big of a role that Butler’s performance plays into the like-ability of the icon.
“This is a tough one because Austin Butler’s performance really does question where Elvis stops and Austin Butler starts,” said Miller. “He really embodied the character. I do think it’s a mix of both, or more so, one dressed as the other … I think the voice he chose to use for Elvis and the general aura of the character is very alluring. This, coupled with the fact that the movie doesn’t go out of its way to show Butler as Elvis at his absolute lowest, or ugliest, might’ve aided in people falling for Butler as Elvis.”
Miller argues that the love for nostalgia can be a major contributor as well.
“It’s the nostalgia of it all,” she said. “I think before these biopics, Gen Z and Millennials are definitely aware of these stars, but biopics only heighten their awareness.
“More often than not, these biopics, similar to Elvis, don’t go out of their way to show these stars at their most awful. In fact, they often elicit sympathy in the audience. This isn’t always the case, but it definitely happens. However, I think it’s mostly nostalgia.”
Miller said Gen Zers and Millennials love to discover things from the past, and she believes that biopics are the perfect vehicle for this.
“Nostalgia will always be trendy,” Miller notes.
While Reddit threads are flooded with educational material for fans who came straight from the movie theater, and women promise to perfect their bouffant hairstyles for Halloween, it can definitely be argued that a new generation is discovering The King.
Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray (Credit: Shelby County Schools/Facebook).
Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray, who was under investigation over claims that he abused his power and violated district policies, resigned Tuesday under an agreement with the school board that formally ends the inquiry.
At a special meeting Tuesday, the nine-member board approved an agreement that will give Ray a severance package equivalent to 18 months’ salary — about $480,000 — plus some other benefits. All members voted in favor, except for Stephanie Love, who did not vote.
The school board launched the external investigation in mid-July following allegations contained in divorce filings that Ray had adulterous affairs with women who were later identified as district employees. The board appointed former U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III to lead the investigation and placed Ray on administrative leave.
Since then, Chalkbeat learned that at least two of the women Ray’s wife alleges that he had affairs with were people he supervised before becoming superintendent.
Herman Morris, the MSCS board’s attorney, said Tuesday that earlier this month, Ray became concerned that the investigation had “become distracting to and constraining for the district” and proposed a mutual resignation agreement.
Deputy superintendents Angela Whitelaw and John Barker will continue leading the district until an interim chief is named, MSCS board Chair Michelle McKissack said during a press conference after the meeting. The board will provide the public with more information about the district’s upcoming superintendent search in the coming weeks, McKissack said.
“We commend Dr. Ray’s longstanding commitment to Memphis-Shelby County Schools, and for his leadership during the pandemic,” she said. “But we are now looking forward to welcoming a new leader, who can build on the established foundation and take our district to the next level.”
In a message to district families and employees after Tuesday’s meeting, Barker and Whitelaw said they will continue working toward “expanded academic gains and opportunities for all students” while the board determines next steps of the superintendent search.
“Rest assured, students, teachers, and staff will continue to have strong advocates in us during the days ahead,” Barker and Whitelaw wrote in the message.
Sarah Carpenter, who as executive director of Memphis Lift has led community calls for Ray to resign for months, vowed Tuesday to “keep the pressure on” district officials to improve academic performance and transparency, and called for a national search for Ray’s successor.
“We need a revolutionary person for our children,” Carpenter said. “We cannot have business as usual anymore.”
Since the Daily Memphian first reported on the divorce filings and the allegations against him, Ray has denied violating any MSCS policies.
Under the terms of the agreement, neither Ray nor the district is admitting any wrongdoing. The investigation will remain incomplete after the board declared it “moot” with Ray no longer employed at the district. The board will pay Stanton $19,000 for his work over the last month.
McKissack said the board still plans to review all of its policies — including those involving the superintendent — in the coming weeks, after current board members and candidates expressed broad support for strengthening them. New board members elected in the Aug. 4 contest will be sworn in Aug. 31.
Current 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, according to the district’s employee handbook. 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.
The MSCS board also has a policy, adopted in 2017, describing the ethical code the superintendent must follow. The code requires the superintendent “to maintain standards of exemplary professional conduct” and says the superintendent must adhere to the following statement: “I will endeavor to fulfill my professional responsibilities with honesty and integrity.”
Ray’s time leading Tennessee’s largest school district has been bumpy.
Ray was named superintendent in April 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.
To board members and many others in the community, Ray was an example of an MSCS success story who overcame personal challenges and rose through the district’s ranks in a career spanning two decades. During his tenure as superintendent, Ray often discussed how his Memphis upbringing has shaped his perspective as an educator.
The youngest of seven children, Ray, 48, was born to parents who never completed their formal education. He went on to graduate from Whitehaven High School, and receive a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from the University of Memphis.
“If you look at what research says about me … there’s a 50% chance I’m supposed to be a high school dropout,” Ray told Chalkbeat in an exclusive interview in April. “But through a high quality education and caring teachers, look at where I am today.”
Ray’s mother had a brain aneurysm when Ray was just 12 years old. He credited his pre-algebra teacher who checked on him every day — academically, socially, and mentally — for helping him get through that traumatic event and shaping his own approach to teaching.
“She wanted something more for me, and she understood what I was going through at home,” Ray said in April. “That’s what I bring to the table, because I want something more for our students, each and every day.”
But some Memphians questioned whether Ray was the most qualified candidate for the job and felt the board should’ve widened its search. Others expressed concern about complaints of sexual harassment lodged against Ray months earlier, though a district investigation concluded there was no wrongdoing.
A year into his tenure as superintendent, COVID struck. Under Ray’s leadership, MSCS was among the first districts in Tennessee to shutter classrooms — and among the last to fully reopen for in-person learning.
For much of the 2020-21 school year, Gov. Bill Lee and other GOP leaders pressed MSCS to offer in-person learning. But Ray resisted, pledging to continue giving teachers the option to work from home to keep them and the district’s students safe.
In February 2021, Ray relented and called on educators and students to return to classrooms, citing declining COVID cases in the county and a legislative proposal to cut funding for school systems that do not offer at least 70 days of in-person learning that school year. Most students opted not to return, except for state standardized testing later in the spring.
Still, Ray pushed forward with several of his flagship initiatives, such as boosting early literacy, recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers, improving facilities, expanding before- and after-school tutoring, and increasing access to advanced academics.
And through it all, Ray enjoyed consistent support from the school board, receiving high marks on all his evaluations and an early contract extension through 2025 that included a 3% pay raise. Board members again praised Ray this summer for the district’s improvements on state standardized tests to near pre-pandemic levels.
The support appeared to soften, however, amid the new investigation into Ray’s conduct, with some school board members and candidates calling for stricter accountability over the superintendent during Chalkbeat’s candidate forum.
Keith Williams, a former teacher and executive director of the city’s largest teachers organization who is joining the school board next week, said 28 teachers in the district were fired last year for behavior similar to what’s alleged against Ray, based on the law.
“We have to be fair, we have to be open, and we have to be consistent with policy,” said Williams, who defeated District 6 appointee Charles Everett in the election earlier this month.
Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.
Alejandra Machín contributed information to this report.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Memphis consumers now have choices when selecting a T-shirt satirizing Memphis Light, Gas & Water’s high energy bills. BluffCity Tee introduced the shirt above recently with this on-the-nose description of the situation: “In the [M-bridge emoji], everyone knows the name of our ‘friendly’ neighborhood stick-up artist and community thief. It’s none other than MLGW. They’ve been robbing the Bluff City residents since 1939 and this year, they’ve lost their minds.”
Tweet of the Week
Posted to Twitter by @midtownbuck
“Here’s a @CityOfMemphis @mlgw contractor pissing in my front yard,” @midtownbuck tweeted last week. “Do I get some sort of discount since he’s not using my sewer line?”
MLGW responded, “Good morning, I apologize for this. Do you happen to have a photo of the truck you can send me please?”
Memphis Seven
Posted to Twitter by @memphisseven901
“The Memphis Seven won and are being reinstated!!!!!!!!!!” tweeted the Memphis Seven last week after a judge ordered Starbucks to give them their jobs back. They were fired for union activities.
Paddy Considine stars as
King Viserys I Targaryen in HBO’s House of the Dragon.
I will start this review of the pilot episode of HBO’s House of the Dragon, the official prequel (eye roll emoji) to the smash-hit fantasy series Game of Thrones, with what we Extremely Online folk call a “hot take”: The last season of Game of Thrones wasn’t that bad.
Story-wise, the endgame of the eight-season tale was pretty reasonable: Jon Snow, who belatedly discovered he had a claim to the coveted Iron Throne, murdered his fiancée Queen Daenerys Targaryen after she opted for mass slaughter by dragon during the final conquest of Westeros’ capital, King’s Landing. Snow was re-exiled to the Black Watch for his crime (which was probably just as well, as he didn’t really want to be king), and his half brother Bran Stark, a post-human, magical being who can see both past and future, is proclaimed king by what’s left of the noble houses.
Personally, I didn’t buy the “Daenerys has shown her true genocidal self and has to go for the good of the kingdom” argument. If it had been me in Jon Snow’s fur collar, I would have taken the dynastic marriage and used the raw power of my smoldering sexuality to positively influence the khaleesi. But what do I know? I’m a lover, not a fighter, and the great game for control of Westeros favors the bold and bloody.
The real problem with the final season of Game of Thrones was that it was rushed. Instead of the standard 10-episode season, show runners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss opted to produce only six installments, redirecting their extravagant budget into one blowout battle scene for “The Long Night.” But the night battle turned out to be a bust because (surprise!) it’s hard to see what’s happening in the dark, so instead of watching Jon Snow and Daenerys go from love to deadly suspicion over four hours, we didn’t get to see anything, really.
But that’s all 172 years in the future from House of the Dragon, which informs us in a lengthy preamble that we’re going to learn how the dragon-riding Targaryen dynasty all but exterminated itself. When we last left King’s Landing, it lay in ruins. We return in its heyday, as King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) rules over the (reasonably) peaceful city. His queen Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke) has been pregnant five times, but only one child survived. Unfortunately, Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock, for now) is female, and the Westerosi patriarchy frowns on the concept of queens ruling alone. Instead, the king’s brother, Prince Daemon Targaryen (former Doctor of Doctor Who Matt Smith) is the heir apparent — unless the queen’s current pregnancy ends with the birth of a son.
The king is so confident in his son-siring ability that he calls all the knights and noble houses in the Seven Kingdoms to a tournament, just as the queen is scheduled to deliver. If all goes well, the chieftains will be there to celebrate the beginning of another generation of political stability.
Reader, all does not go well. As the tournament devolves from chivalric jousting into a general brawl, Queen Aemma Arryn’s labor results in a breech baby and botched cesarean delivery. (Westerosi magic has many strengths, but obstetrics is not one of them.) Prince Daemon, having shown his brutal character as the castration-happy commander of the city watch, is still scheduled to take over the throne. Thanks to the machinations of the King’s Hand, Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), Viserys decides to buck tradition and name his embittered daughter Rhaenyra as his heir. What could possibly go wrong?
The House of the Dragon pilot is carefully engineered by new showrunner Ryan Condal and author George R. R. Martin to be both just familiar enough not to turn off the fans while promising new adventures, this time with a whole bunch of dragons. Rhaenyra is basically Arya Stark with Daenerys’ hairdo. Considine gives the most compelling performance as the well-meaning king, traumatized by the sudden loss of his wife. Smith continues his post-Doctor run of ace villains. The joy of Game of Thrones has always been the sprawling cast of supporting characters, and we’re introduced to plenty with potential. But still, Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire began as a response to the bloodless, unsexy high fantasy of TheLord of the Rings. House of the Dragon’s got plenty of on-screen blood and sex, but the tone so far has a distinct Tolkienian stiffness. Here’s hoping Condal and his cast grow into the chain mail boots they need to fill.
Mental health concerns seem to be on everyone’s minds these days, as evidenced in this week’s cover story, and Virginia Murphy, founder and executive director of Playback Memphis, has found that true within Playback’s group of professional artists who bring audience stories to life with improvisation, dance, and music.
“We consider our work to be healing work,” she says, “but we were in a moment when we recognized even within our own very healthy organization, by most respects, we had a number of stories where mental health was a central character. … And we didn’t really have a direct way of talking about that with each other. That was true before 2021, before the pandemic, and now it’s kind of on steroids.”
As such, the group has turned its attention to seeking clarity for the sake of mental health and has invited the community to join in this pursuit with its Listening for a Change Week. “It’s an initiative on our part to explore new pathways and partnerships for mental health and healing through the arts,” Murphy says. “We know that we have this incredible therapeutic tool, and we feel like it’s an untapped resource in our community.”
For the Listening for a Change Week, Chesney Snow, a New York City-based, award-winning performing artist and pioneer in beatbox culture, will lead a choreopoem workshop, open to the public, this Thursday. The workshop will give insight into sharing personal stories and using art as a medium for social healing. The event will also include excerpts of Snow’s original choreopoem performance, The Unwritten Law, which explores the artist’s personal journey “from a legacy of incarceration to fatherhood, homelessness to Harvard, to ultimately starring on Broadway.”
After the workshop, Playback will host a free community gathering with Snow at 5:30 p.m. at the Frayser Community Development Corporation garden. You do not have to attend the workshop to join, and light refreshments will be available.
On Saturday, Snow will join in a Playback performance with audience members sharing a personal story or reflection for the ensemble cast of actors, dancers, musicians, and poets to reimagine on the stage. “It’s done in the service of building empathy and awareness,” Murphy says. “You may share a story and see it played back and may see something you hadn’t really considered before. … Not everyone shares, and if you’re in the role of witness, that’s a really important role as well. It helps a lot with perspective.”
After the performance, Jennifer Balink of Kindred Place will facilitate a conversation to reflect on the shared experience of the performance. Murphy says, “We want people to walk out after and feel like they are taking away something that will nourish and support them out of the theater.”
Choreopoem Workshop led by Chesney Snow, Frayser Community Development Corporation, Thursday, August 25, 2-5 p.m.
Listening for a Change: Memphis Matters, TheatreSouth at First Congregational Church, Saturday, August 27, 7 p.m.,$10-$30.
Angry outbursts in public seem more frequent. Anxiety thrums like a background hum. Everyone knows someone struggling with substance abuse, and opioid overdoses are distressingly common. Maybe you are having trouble getting out of bed, connecting with other people, and experiencing anything but sadness and dissociation.
It’s not an illusion. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, before the Covid-19 pandemic exploded in March 2020, 21 percent of all Americans — approximately one in five — had some form of mental illness. At the height of the pandemic, that number rose to 40 percent. Last March, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the pandemic had led to a 25 percent increase in depression and anxiety worldwide. “Loneliness; fear of infection, suffering, and death for oneself and for loved ones; bereavement; and financial worries have all been cited as stressors leading to anxiety and depression. Among health workers, exhaustion has been a major trigger for suicidal thinking,” the WHO report read. Furthermore, “The latest Global Burden of Disease study shows that the pandemic has affected the mental health of young people, and that they are disproportionately at risk of suicidal and self-harming behaviors.”
Laurie Powell, CEO of Alliance Healthcare Services (Photo: Courtesy Laurie Powell)
Laurie Powell, CEO of Alliance Healthcare Services, has been on the front lines of behavioral healthcare since 1993, when she started as a therapist in Orange Mound. In August 2020, Powell’s husband died of cancer at the height of the pandemic. She and her two sons were unable to visit him in the hospital. “I just saw on the news that in the United States more people have died from Covid-19 than any other country, and that was kind of hard to hear,” she says. “Now, think about what that is doing to all of those families, how it’s impacting so many on a personal level. I didn’t think my husband would die at age 61. And there are so many stories out there just like that. Many of our staff, if you talk to them, every third person here is going to say either they treated someone whose family member died because of Covid, or because they were so depressed.”
It’s not just Covid. The last two and a half years have also seen an increase in gun violence. “This morning, I got the call at 4 a.m. from one of the community residents to tell me about the shooting of seven people up by the hospital, up the street from our house,” says Charlie A. Caswell Jr., executive director of Legacy of Legends CDC and Shelby County commissioner-elect for District 6.
“We had a mental health epidemic that was recognized by the Center for Disease Control before the pandemic of Covid,” he says. “But I believe the Covid pandemic has produced a new wave in our community, and a large part goes back to last year. It’s been pressed down on people even more now that people tried to get back to doing business as normal, when normal was not even normal! People who didn’t have access to mental health counseling have to deal with what they were already dealing with, and now it’s even more on top of that.”
Dr. Lucas Trautman is a psychiatrist, youth sports coach, and the medical director of Professional Care Services, a community mental health network in rural West Tennessee. When schools closed in 2020, he says, “decreased in-person social connectivity really hurt the public school students’ development because they were out of school for a whole year. I really think that was a developmental detriment, even though we were trying to keep them safe and their families safe. But decreased social connectivity can probably be directly linked to some of this as well.”
Charlie A. Caswell Jr., Shelby County commissioner-elect for District 6 (Photo: Courtesy Charlie Caswell)
No One to Talk to
Today, those who need help the most are having trouble finding it. Alice (who requested a pseudonym to maintain her privacy) is a mother who spent nine months seeking help for her pre-adolescent, who was suffering from intense post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “There are only a handful of places, and they’re all booked up — and none of them take TennCare,” she says.
Employer-based health insurance and Medicare will typically pay $65 for a one-hour counseling session. But due to low reimbursement rates and the spiraling hassles of dealing with insurance companies, many psychiatrists and therapists in Shelby County no longer accept health insurance of any kind. Adolescent care sessions can run from $150 to $175 an hour. “The crisis here in Memphis is that we have so many people living in poverty; there aren’t enough providers who take a sliding scale or who will take insurance at all,” Alice says. “The breakdown in those systems is so much more evident now.”
Dr. Trautman agrees. “We do have a child mental health problem or crisis in Memphis. It’s a public health crisis because of the lack of availability of mental health services but also just because of poverty. We live in an area that socioeconomically struggles, historically. And so I think all those things kind of go together. Why are they having a hard time? Well, they’ve been economically precarious all their lives.”
“Every child living in poverty has elements of PTSD, anxiety, and depression,” says Alice.
According to figures provided by the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, 7.1 percent of Tennesseans — approximately 378,020 people — suffer from serious mental illness. In Shelby County, 13.7 percent of those seeking treatment in 2019 were uninsured and served by the Tennessee behavioral health safety net. “Looking at the need for services during the pandemic, we actually saw a decrease,” says Matthew Parriott, director of communications for the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse.
During fiscal year 2019, Alliance Healthcare, who contracts with the state to provide mobile crisis services, performed 16,317 patient assessments. In fiscal year 2022, which included the worst days of the pandemic, Alliance performed 12,878 assessments — a 21 percent decrease.
Powell says those numbers don’t tell the whole story. “A lot of the calls we get are from emergency rooms, and people were not going to emergency rooms because of the pandemic.”
In contrast, between April and May 2020, the number of calls to the Alliance outpatient help-line tripled. And those call numbers have remained elevated. In July 2019, 540 people in crisis called the help-line; in July 2021, that number was 1,268. Last month, the Alliance crisis line fielded 1,052 calls. “We do have the largest crisis services in the entire state, and probably one of the largest in the country,” says Powell.
Furthermore, “I know that we’re seeing people with more needs,” says Powell. Even as the number of individuals served across the Alliance system went down by about 7 percent between 2019 and 2022, the number of services provided — things like case management, individual and group therapy, and medication — increased by 3.9 percent.
Powell says there is a shortage of mental health professionals, making it more difficult for everyone to receive the care they need. “I’ve looked online, just to check myself, and some of them say, ‘Not taking new patients.’ I used to never see that. There’s just not enough to go around. We’ve had people leave mental health to go into, like, medical social work because they said, ‘I’m not sure if I can continue to be a therapist right now.’”
Dana Wilson, president and CEO of Bridges USA (Photo: Courtesy Dana Wilson)
The Search for Solutions
In January 2020, Dana Wilson became president and CEO of Bridges USA, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that seeks to “unite and inspire diverse young people to become confident and courageous leaders.” Wilson, who had been working with youth leaders at Bridges for more than a decade, already had her sights set on youth mental health when the pandemic struck. “I think the writing was already on the wall prior to the pandemic,” she says. “I don’t want to say the pandemic created a mental health crisis — we’ve been in this for a while.”
Bridges used part of the initial round of funding from the federal CARES act to study access to mental healthcare. “What we found in that initial research was that, while there are services technically available, most of the time you don’t know how to get to them. There’s no coordination system. It seems very fragmented. If someone says, ‘I need this thing,’ and someone over there says, ‘I could do that thing’, there’s no way to get those two together easily or fluidly.”
Another issue uncovered in the early sessions with the Shelby County Youth Council was addressing the shame attached to mental health treatment. “We need to talk about destigmatizing mental health,” says Wilson. “It’s okay to not be okay.”
Abdullah Elahi, an upcoming senior at MUS (Photo: Courtesy Abdullah Elahi)
Abdullah Elahi is an upcoming senior at Memphis University School. “There wasn’t that much of an emphasis on mental health before the pandemic,” he says.
When he became a Bridge Builders Change Fellow, he says, “It really opened my eyes because I was like, oh my goodness, this is something that me and my friends are struggling with so much. … My group is called MEM: Mental and Emotional Health Matters. What we do is try to bring mental health resources to the Shelby County Schools. The other goal we have is, we want to break the stigma surrounding mental health.”
Alice, who struggled to find help for her child, says, “If we don’t provide mental healthcare in the schools, kids aren’t going to get it.”
Among the needs in the schools are early intervention access, says Wilson. “There might be funding and support if you have a diagnosis, but if you don’t have a diagnosis and you’re struggling, you just might need a few counseling sessions to help you get through whatever the situation is. Especially during the pandemic, there was a lot of situational anxiety and depression.”
Mental health professionals also need to be “culturally competent” to meet the needs of their patients. “There’s definitely a need for more Black and Brown therapists,” says Wilson. “In Memphis, for example, the vast majority of the people that we could find were mostly white, middle-class women — a very traditional [demographic] for social work and therapy. There’s a lack of people who can treat students who are non-gender-conforming, LGBTQ+ students who experience mental health issues at a higher rate, statistically.”
The third major reform Bridges identified was the need to stop the criminalization of children for their mental health issues. “Unaddressed trauma is part of what is driving the school-to-prison pipeline,” says Wilson. “If a young person’s getting in trouble in school and there’s not adequate intervention early enough, then the student gets suspended or does something that’s not acceptable and gets pushed out of school. If you get suspended multiple times from school, you’re more likely to drop out.”
Once out of school, troubled adolescents can get pulled into serious, even violent, criminal behavior. Dr. Trautman says the problem is made worse by what he calls “easy access to lethal means.” He and many other specialists believe that the urge to charge teen criminals as adults is misguided and counterproductive. “There’s a mountain of data which shows that the adolescent brain is still very moldable and not set in stone. With proper intervention, you can change their habits. You can change the way of thinking. You can help them integrate into society and be more productive members and also happier. I mean, you’re not riding around killing people because you’re happy and well-adjusted.”
Signs of Progress
Among the reforms MEM advocated was establishing “reset rooms” in schools. “They’re spaces in schools in which students can go if they’re feeling stressed-out,” says Elahi. “They can reset and calm themselves down, center and ground themselves.”
The advocacy was effective, and now reset rooms, staffed with counselors, are a common feature in Shelby County Schools. “They feel really proud of doing it, but the students are the ones who said, ‘We need this,’” says Wilson. “And that’s part of decriminalization, because you’re getting someone the support they need before they get to a point where they can get in trouble for having a problem.”
In October, Dr. Trautman’s group Professional Care Services is opening a new Memphis child and adolescent psychiatry facility at 6601 Poplar Avenue, which will accept health insurance. “Right now, we have three [doctors], but we will grow to the need,” he says.
The state is committing significant new resources to mental healthcare. “Our current fiscal year budget which just started on July 1st is truly historic,” says Parriott. “Thanks to the generosity of Governor Lee, the Tennessee General Assembly, and our federal partners, we have more than $560 million to support the mental health and substance use prevention, early intervention, treatment, and recovery needs of Tennesseans — most of whom have no means to pay. We’re especially excited about the $18 million we received for provider rate increases. This funding has already gone out to our contracted community mental health and substance use disorder providers to allow them to increase pay rates for staff retention and recruitment. We’ve heard from folks across the state that this funding is already making a huge impact.”
Alliance Healthcare will soon be opening a new telehealth center in Binghampton. “A lot of people reaching out to us have access barriers, so we’ve increased telehealth during this pandemic,” Powell says. “That’s exploded. We went from maybe 5 percent telehealth to 80 percent telehealth during the pandemic, and some people really want to continue telehealth. So we’re going to offer that, if that would remove the barrier to getting help.”
Is therapy by videoconference as effective as a traditional office visit? “I think it depends on the person and the age,” says Powell. “Kids really like it.”
Caswell, a longtime advocate for mental health in the Black community, launched his successful run for county commission “to go upstream and push policy changes that address many of those issues we face downstream. … I would say to the community as a whole, we have to be intentional. Shelby County can become a trauma-informed, trauma-responsive community. That means, for all of the employees and the work that we do, we do it with more empathy and more understanding, coming out of this pandemic. If someone is coming in for help or calling for help, it’s not because something is wrong with them. We ask, ‘What happened to them?’”
Yuri Guzman, Samir Restrepo, and their son Sean Paul Restrepo at El Sabor Latino (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Samir Restrepo, owner of El Sabor Latino, is opening a second restaurant, El Pollo Latino, in September.
“El Pollo Latino” means “The Latin Chicken,” says Restrepo.
The restaurant, which will be at 3698 Summer Avenue, will feature oven-roasted chicken cooked on a rotisserie. “There are so many ingredients in there,” Restrepo says. “You’ve got to taste it. It’s not a spicy chicken, and it’s not going to be sweet. It will be something different.”
Restrepo got the recipe from his wife’s uncle, Eugenio Sanchez, who lives in Colombia and co-owns a chain of 30 El Fogon del Pollo restaurants that sell this type of chicken.
“I always wanted to bring something different to the city. I’ve been here for so many years. My two kids are from here,” he says.
Restrepo, who is from Cali, Colombia, lived in Miami for three years before moving to Memphis in 2003. “I see a lot of opportunity in Memphis. The quality of life. It’s cheaper than to live in Miami. And I know that Memphis is going to grow. At that time it was a small city. It was small to me because I moved from Miami.”
Restrepo and his wife, Yuri Guzman, and her parents Carlos Ruiz and Esneth Azevedo decided to open a Colombian restaurant in Memphis, with Guzman and Azevedo, who owned El Punto del Sabor restaurant in Colombia, as chefs. “When you go to Miami, you see 100 different Latin food restaurants. I wanted to try something here.
“We started at a fair on Winchester. We opened a tent just to try and see if people liked our food.” They ran the restaurant for two years at the fair, selling empanadas, plantains with cheese, and Colombian hamburgers.
They also sold a “bandeja paisa,” or “great plate,” which Restrepo describes as a “typical Colombian platter with pork belly, chorizo pork sausage, steak, rice, sweet plantains, avocado, red beans, and arepa, which is like a cornbread.
“We see that people like it. That’s why we were like, ‘Okay, let’s go on and try to open a restaurant and see how it goes.’”
On October 12, 2015, they opened El Sabor Latino or “The Latin Flavor” at 665 Avon Road. Business was slow at first. People who go to Mexican restaurants are already familiar with the food. “You know what a taco is, what a fajita is,” he says. But Colombian cuisine is “something different. People were just tasting and learning about the food. The first three years it was hard until people knew the food.”
Among the fare customers came to know was the Colombian hamburger, Restrepo says. “We put a lot of secret ingredients on the meat, and we put a pineapple with it, which makes it different.” The burger comes with bacon, cheese, lettuce, and cooked onions. “We also put potato chips on the burgers,” he says.
There’s also a Colombian hot dog on the menu, with pineapple, bacon, mayonnaise, mustard, and potato chips on top. The bun is different from the bun most people are familiar with, Restrepo says. “We bring the recipe for the bread from Colombia. It’s kind of soft. It’s not sweet.”
They also sell Colombian breakfasts, including the “desayuno campesino,” or “farmer’s breakfast,” which features scrambled eggs with onions and tomatoes, beef sausage, rice, and “dedos de queso,” or “cheese bread.”
El Pollo Latino is only five minutes away from El Sabor Latino, so Restrepo will be able to quickly travel between the two.
As for opening a third restaurant some day, Restrepo says, “It’s in God’s hands. It’s on him. He gives us all the help. If he wants us to do another one, we’ll do it.”
Steve Mulroy (Photo: Steve Mulroy, Shelby County District Attorney Elect / Facebook)
Once again, I have no opinions to share professionally. So I’m learning instead.
Steve Mulroy is set to be sworn in as Shelby County’s next district attorney general next week, after winning the seat in this month’s election and naming his transition team last week. Folks are chattering and wondering about what some of Mulroy’s “progressive” ideas on criminal justice will look like off the chalkboard and applied every day in Shelby County. I wanted to know, too, so I asked for professional help.
Josh Spickler, executive director of the criminal reform advocacy group Just City, is a member of Mulroy’s transition team. He has seen firsthand how the system works now and how we might see some of Mulroy’s ideas applied in the real world.
Memphis Flyer:What will some of the changes look like in reality?
Josh Spickler: The first thing to note is what’s not going to change. Steve is going to prioritize public safety and he is going to prioritize violent crime in this community. Steve campaigned on that, and everything he is doing and saying since the election is about that.
In terms of reforms and some of the day-to-day, visible changes, I think you’ll very quickly see, because of some good fortune and some timing, a bit of a different approach in pretrial detention with regard to the use of money bail. Steve campaigned on his willingness and desire to reform that.
Last week, the [Shelby County General Sessions Criminal Court] judges signed a standing bail order, which is really big news. I’m a bit biased, but it’s one of the best standing bail orders — definitely in Tennessee, maybe in the country. A standing bail order is a plan put in place and agreed upon by all judges in a jurisdiction. So, all of our General Sessions judges — who are the ones, mostly, in charge of how bail gets set — they’ve agreed to significantly change the way they do it. They agreed to have meaningful hearings any time unaffordable bail is being considered as the only means of protecting the community and ensuring the appearance of someone accused of a crime. They have agreed to have attorneys for both the state and the accused present at those hearings.
That’s where Steve’s office comes in right from the beginning. When he takes office, he is going to have a new responsibility with regard to setting bail. Steve has said in his campaign that he believes fewer people should be held on unaffordable money bail. So, if Steve and his assistant DAs follow through on his campaign promise, we’ll begin to see that in those bail hearings. Fewer people will be held in our jail simply because they can’t afford freedom. That’s a big one.
So someone commits a crime, is held in jail until an arraignment hearing, and is just released — with no bail — until their court date?
It will be based on what is best for the community and what a judicial commissioner decides is best for that person at the time. That will be determined after a hearing, which is something we don’t do currently. Currently, we are not considering all of the required factors and are defaulting to bail — a seemingly arbitrary dollar amount — almost 76 to 77 percent of the time in this current system when state law says the first thing that should be considered is release.
What other reforms will we begin to see IRL?
Steve has also committed to a Post Conviction Justice Unit. He won’t call it that [because] … he’s not just going to look at convictions … looking for wrongful convictions, like looking to overturn something [perhaps] with DNA, for example. Steve has pledged to also look at sentences that may be inappropriate, that might be far too punitive.
Anything else?
On racial disparities, he’s pledged to not only build an office that looks more like Shelby County, but to also understand why it is that outcomes continue to be different for people of color versus white people.
These areas will be his focus. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that all of that leads to safer, healthier communities, and that’s the ultimate priority. Hopefully, any DA’s priority is to keep us safer, and that’s what Steve is going to do.
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