The Memphis Sand Aquifer will get continued scientific oversight with a new five-year contract awarded to a group at the University of Memphis (U of M) and a new science director at Protect Our Aquifer (POA).
Researchers with the Center for Applied Earth Sciences and Engineering Research (CAESER) at the U of M will continue to monitor the aquifer’s water quality for the next five years. The group recently won an updated contract from the city of Memphis, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) worth $9.75 million.
Earlier this year, the group reported that the protective clay layer that protects the Memphis-area’s drinking water was once thought to “have a few holes in it” but they thought at the time that “it’s looking more like Swiss cheese.” Before the study, the aquifer was thought to have two to six breaches, now researchers believe the figure could range from six to 36.
“In the past, we probably thought of this clay layer as protective of our groundwater supply,” CAESER’s director, Dr. Brian Waldron, said during an MLGW meeting in April. “It was a continuous layer of clay with a few holes in it. Well, we’re starting to believe that it’s looking more like Swiss cheese.”
Results of CEASAR’s full study of the layer is expected next month.
City leaders and MLGW officials hired the group in 2018 to study water quality and the protective clay layer, concerned about impacts to water quality. While the water “is safe for now,” Waldron said, the clay layer is not as protective as once thought. For this, he suggested a proactive approach to leaders and they awarded his group the renewed contract.
The money will support programs to develop technology to remotely sensing breaches in urban areas, developing computer models to better understand the movement of water and contaminants, and the movement of water between the many aquifers below the city’s surface.
The aquifer will have another scientific eye upon it as POA recently hired its first scientific director. The group hired hydrogeologist and state licensed professional geologist, Dr. Scott Schoefernacker earlier this month.
Schoefernacker spent the past 11 years with CAESER investigating, protecting, and sustaining
groundwater resources in Shelby County and West Tennessee. Prior to CAESER, Schoefernacker worked as a geologist for the Memphis-based environmental consulting firm EnSafe conducting various environmental investigations and site assessments across the United States.
“We’ve been fighting with our science hand behind our back since the beginning”, said POA founder and board chair Ward Archer. “Although every decision we’ve made has been science-driven, having a scientist of Scott’s caliber on our team is going to strengthen our organization.”
On Tuesday, the National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM) announced the honorees for its 32nd Freedom Award. Each year, the museum strives to honor those who have made “exceptional contributions to civil and human rights,” with previous winners including Coretta Scott King, Oprah, Nelson Mandela, and Bono.
This year, three winners have been selected:
Kerry Kennedy: President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a renowned human rights activist, and lawyer, Kennedy’s tireless efforts span over four decades, championing various causes such as child labor, women’s rights, environmental justice, and more.
Dr. Clayborne Carson: Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor of History, emeritus, at Stanford University, Dr. Carson’s profound work centers on the study of Martin Luther King Jr. and the human rights movements that his legacy has inspired.
Stacey Abrams: A bestselling author, civil rights activist, and political leader, Abrams is a trailblazer, becoming the first Black woman to be the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in United States history. She has founded multiple nonprofit organizations dedicated to voting rights and addressing social and economic issues.
Dr. Clayborne Carson (Courtesy NCRM)Kerry Kennedy (Courtesy NCRM)
The NCRM will host its award ceremony, hosted by actor and philanthropist Tobias Truvillion, on Thursday, October 19th, at the Orpheum Theatre at 7 p.m., and will feature entertainment including poet J. Ivy and Let It Happen. A pre-gala event will take place at 5:30 p.m. next door at the Halloran Centre.
In addition, the NCRM will hold a student forum at 10 a.m. the same day, which “aims to empower middle and high school students to take action and create positive change within their communities,” per the museum.
Tickets for the event will go on sale starting August 1st. For more information about the event, visit freedomaward.org.
In order to help the city of Memphis to reduce HIV infections to 90 percent or more by 2030, doctors are urging HIV negative people to participate in clinical trials for prevention research.
The two major areas of research and development regarding the HIV virus deals with both those living with the virus, and those who test negative, said Doctor Aditya Gaur, director of clinical research in the department of infectious disease at St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital. However when it comes to prevention efforts, those who are usually approached are those who are not living with the virus.
Gaur works with St. Jude’s “Connect 2 Protect” program, which helps to promote outreach and awareness regarding the HIV epidemic in the Mid-South, while also “addressing youth barriers to preventing exposure, testing, obtaining medical care, and moving to adult care.”
“Research is always about taking information to an individual, and letting them make a decision based on the information you provided,” said Gaur, adding that there seems to be a sense of altruism when it comes to youth participation in clinical research trials.
Gaur used Memphis’ contributions to the HPTN 083 trials to emphasize the importance of youth participation. According to the HIV Prevention Trials Network, HPTN 083 “is the first study to compare the efficacy of CAB LA to daily oral TDF/FTC for HIV PrEP.” Gaur added that these trials are credited for an injectable option for HIV prevention. The injection can be taken once every two months, and is an alternative for daily oral medication.
“We had the opportunity to open HPTN 083 in Memphis, and take the study to HIV negative youth in our city and our county,” said Gaur. “The response we received was very, very heartening.”
The coalition enrolled 93 youth in the study, and over many years, combined with more than 4,000 individuals around the world, helped with the approval of the prevention agent.
“That’s a significant number of youth that are interested. That tells us that youth in our community were interested, and they took part in the study,” said Gaur said.
While youth may participate in hopes of benefiting themselves and others, there are other reasons such as incentives and compensation. “It may be that some individuals may join for compensation, but it doesn’t make them any good or bad for a trial. Someone can have altruism and also have a need for money. We have learned to not characterize individuals into just black and white boxes,” said Gaur.
While Gaur expressed the overwhelming response of participants for the HPTN 083 trials, he explained that participation for Purpose 2 Clinical trials have not been as successful.
He said that PURPOSE 2 “will test whether an investigational PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) medicine, lenacapavir, helps reduce the chance of getting HIV through sex.” These trials seek cisgender men, transgender women, transgender men, and gender non-binary individuals who have sex with partners assigned male at birth for research.
Gaur said that one of the most exciting aspects of these trials is that it looks at an agent that is given “subcutaneously” once every six months. He said that the easier and less frequently that patients have to take medicine, the more beneficial it is to many.
“We are always trying to understand what it is. Is the trial too complicated? Are we getting it effectively to you? Always looking at how can we better get out the word so that people can get more information,” Gaur explained. He stressed the concerted efforts of not just community partners, but individuals as well, in order to end the HIV epidemic.
Tennessee’s largest teacher organization has joined with five public school educators to legally challenge a two-year-old state law restricting what they can teach about race, gender, and bias in their classrooms.
Their lawsuit, which was filed late Tuesday in a federal court in Nashville by lawyers for the Tennessee Education Association, maintains the language in the 2021 law is unconstitutionally vague and that the state’s enforcement plan is subjective.
The complaint also charges that Tennessee’s so-called “prohibited concepts” law interferes with instruction on difficult but important topics included in the state’s academic standards. Those standards outline state-approved learning goals, which dictate other decisions around curriculum and testing.
The lawsuit is the first legal challenge to the controversial state law that was among the first of its kind in the nation. The law passed amid a conservative backlash to America’s reckoning over racism after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis and subsequent anti-racist protests.
Rep. John Ragan of Oak Ridge, one of the Republican sponsors of the legislation, argued the law was needed to protect K-12 students from being “indoctrinated” with social concepts that he and other lawmakers considered misguided and divisive, such as critical race theory. That academic framework, which surveys of teachers suggest are not being taught in K-12 schools, is more commonly found in higher education, to examine how policies and the law perpetuate systemic racism.
Tennessee’s GOP-controlled legislature overwhelmingly passed the legislation in the final days of the 2021 session, just days after the bill’s introduction. Gov. Bill Lee quickly signed it into law, and later that year, the state education department set rules for enforcement. If found in violation, teachers can be stripped of their licenses and school districts can lose state funding.
Only a small number of complaints have been filed and no penalties levied during the law’s first two years on the books. But Ragan has introduced new legislation that would widen eligibility for who can file a complaint.
The lawsuit seeks to overturn the law and asks for a court order against its enforcement. The complaint claims the statute fails to give Tennessee educators a reasonable opportunity to understand what conduct and teachings are prohibited.
“Teachers are in this gray area where we don’t know what we can and can’t do or say in our classrooms,” said Kathryn Vaughn, a veteran teacher in Tipton County, near Memphis, and one of five educators who are plaintiffs in the case.
“The rollout of the law — from guidance to training — has been almost nonexistent,” Vaughn added. “That’s put educators in an impossible position.”
The lawsuit also charges the law encourages arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement and violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids any state from “depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”
“Laws need to be clear,” said Tanya Coats, president of the teachers group known as TEA, which is leading the litigation.
She said educators have spent “countless hours” trying to understand the law and the 14 concepts banned from the classroom — including that the United States is “fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist;” or that an individual, by virtue of their race or sex, “bears responsibility” for past actions committed by other members of the same race or sex.
TEA says the ambiguity of those concepts has had a chilling effect in schools — from how teachers answer a student’s question to what materials they can read in class. To avoid the risk of time-consuming complaints and potential penalties from the state, school leaders have made changes to instruction and school activities. But ultimately, it’s students who suffer, Coats said.
“This law interferes with Tennessee teachers’ job to provide a fact-based, well-rounded education to their students,” Coats said in a news release.
The 52-page lawsuit gives specific examples of how the ban is affecting what nearly a million public school students are learning — and not learning — daily across Tennessee.
“In Tipton County, for example, one school has replaced an annual field trip to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis with a trip to a baseball game,” the suit says. “In Shelby County, a choir director fears that his decades-long practice of teaching his students to sing and understand the history behind spirituals sung by enslaved people will be perceived as ‘divisive’ or otherwise violative of the Ban.” Other districts have removed books from their curriculum as a result of the law.
The governor’s office typically does not comment on pending litigation, but Lee’s press secretary, Jade Byers, provided this statement on Wednesday in response to the lawsuit: “The governor signed the legislation because every parent deserves transparency into their child’s education, and Tennessee students should be taught history and civics with facts, not divisive political commentary.”
Tennessee was among the first states to pass a law limiting the depth of classroom discussions about inequality and concepts such as white privilege.
In March, Tennessee’s education department reported that few complaints had been filed with local school districts based on the law. And the department had received only a few appeals of local decisions.
One was from the parent of a student enrolled in a private school in Davidson County. Because the law does not apply to private schools, the department found that the parent did not have standing to file an appeal under the law.
Another complaint was filed by a Blount County parent over the book “Dragonwings,” a novel told from the perspective of a Chinese immigrant boy in the early 20th century. The state denied the appeal based on the results of its investigation.
However, Blount County Schools still removed the book from its sixth grade curriculum. And the lawsuit described the emotional toll of the proceedings on a 45-year teaching veteran who was “entangled in months of administrative proceedings, with her job on the line, because of a single parent’s complaint about an award-winning work of young adult literature that the Tennessee Department of Education approved and the local elected school board adopted as part of the district’s curriculum.”
The department also declined to investigate a complaint from Williamson County, south of Nashville, filed soon after the law was enacted. Robin Steenman, chair of the local Moms for Liberty chapter, alleged the literacy curriculum “Wit and Wisdom,” used by Williamson County Schools in 2020-21, has a “heavily biased agenda” that makes children “hate their country, each other and/or themselves.”
A spokesman said the department was only authorized to investigate claims beginning with the 2021-22 school year and encouraged Steenman to work with Williamson County Schools to resolve her concerns.
Department officials did not immediately respond Wednesday when asked whether the state has received more appeals in recent months.
Meanwhile, critics of the law worry about new legislative efforts to broaden its application.
Under the state’s current rules, only students, parents, or employees within a district or charter school can file complaints involving their school. Ragan’s bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Joey Hensley of Hohenwald, would allow any resident within a public school zone to file a complaint.
But critics argue such a change would open the door to conservative groups, like Moms for Liberty, to flood their local school boards with complaints about instruction, books, or materials they believe violate the law, even if they do not have direct contact with the teacher or school in question.
The prohibited concepts law is separate from 2022 Tennessee law that, based on appeals of local school board decisions, empowers a state panel to ban school library books statewide if deemed “inappropriate for the age or maturity levels” of students.
Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
The Memphis Zoo parking lot is about to ”undergo a transformative makeover” with a paving project but officials said it is not related to new overall parking agreement between the zoo and the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC).
The zoo’s massive main lot will be repaved in a project that ”aims to enhance your parking experience and provide a more convenient and aesthetically pleasing environment.”
Work on the project begins Thursday and the lot is expected to re-open to parking on Sunday. Parking plans for Saturday include possible parking on the Overton Park Greensward.
Some new spaces were to be created on the lot after re-striping, according to the agreement between the zoo and OPC signed last year. However, no new parking spots will be added in the repaving project, according to zoo spokeswoman Rebecca Winchester, who noted that it is “just a repaving project.”
Here’s a day-by-day breakdown of the project and what zoo guests can expect:
Thursday
Guests will be directed to park in the Galloway lot. If the Galloway lot reaches capacity, we will utilize Rows B-H of the main parking lot for additional parking space.
Friday
Guests will be directed to park in the Galloway lot. Should the Galloway lot become full, we will utilize Rows I-M of the main parking lot for additional parking.
Saturday
Parking for guests will be arranged in the following order: Galloway lot, Greensward, and the main parking lot.
While the milling process may cause temporary unevenness in the main lot, rest assured that it will be safe for parking. Memphis Zoo Team members will be available to assist with parking.
Seasonal and regional is in the spotlight at Limelight, thanks to the restaurant’s executive chef DJ Pitts.
“We’re just doing something that is seasonal, regional, prepared well, seasoned well,” says Pitts, 52.
With his background in French, Italian, and Mediterranean cooking, Pitts is also “pulling in different techniques, influences.”
“We have a corn soup on the menu right now. Very simply made. It’s corn purée. We serve that with fermented corn and a little bit of garlic oil. A very simple and straightforward example of what we do with a seasonal ingredient at the height of its freshness.”
Also on his summer menu is a steamed littleneck clams dish. “This dates back to where I come from on the East Coast.
“We’re doing a steamed clams with a mojo verde [sauce]. It’s very bright, punchy. The basis of it is cilantro, jalapeño, and garlic. And it’s got vinegar in there that kind of gives it that punch. I think that, for me, is a personal kind of seasonal item from growing up in Connecticut and having clams in the summertime.”
His grandmother, who was from Russia, was a cooking influence when Pitts was growing up in Waterbury, Connecticut. “She was always cooking three meals a day.”
Watching her cook was “something that held some fascination for me at that point in my life.”
His first “hands-on thing” was making pierogi when he was 10.
“Not only did we have a garden, but my grandmother would go foraging for mushrooms. And, being on the coast, I had the opportunity to go clamming. All these experiences led me to have an interest in a culinary career.”
Pitts often cooked for himself and his brother while his mother, who was a nurse, was at work.
He continued to cook after he moved to Memphis — where his father is from — to major in psychology at University of Memphis. Pitts cooked at functions for his fraternity, Delta Chi. Fried chicken was his specialty — thanks to his other grandmother, who was from Memphis. She cooked “more Southern staples: fried chicken, greens, spaghetti.”
Pitts changed his career path after his brother died. “I wanted to find something that not only could I make a career out of, but also felt passionately about.”
He enrolled at New York City’s Institute of Culinary Education. “When I got there I started to excel at it pretty quickly. And that pretty much reinforced that I made the right decision.”
Pitts went on to work in New York for 10 years. Chef Michael Romano at Union Square Cafe was one of his biggest influences.
In 2005, Pitts opened his own restaurant, 626 Douglas, in Wichita, Kansas, where he served “new American regional farm-to-table” cuisine.
He worked for nine years in Nashville before returning to Memphis, and worked at Catherine & Mary’s and Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen.
In January, Pitts became executive chef at the locally-owned Limelight, where he created the spring and summer menus. “They have a seasonal tree in the middle of the dining room. And when that tree changes, that menu changes. Right now, I think the theme of it is an olive tree.”
Pitts loves cooking seasonally, especially in the summertime. “I think this menu is very reflective of that. We have this crostini with spicy eggplant with fresh minced green onion over the top and some saba. Our market salad changes. Right now, it’s heirloom tomato with burrata cheese, compressed celery, and some nice bottarga for a little savory note.
“I try to bring in more things and feature different things. We do have a small footprint, so our menu has to be tighter and more well thought out.”
Pitts takes advantage of the little herb garden in front of Limelight. When they conceptualized the Germantown restaurant, the owners wanted Limelight to have “that farmhouse feel. It’s easy to take that vibe and make it reflective of the menu.”
A.R. The Mermaid (Photo: Tamara May); Jus Bentley (Photo: Jacorri Washington); Glockianna (Photo: Duke Nitty)
While our favorite “Hot Girl Coach” Megan Thee Stallion coined “Hot Girl Summer” in 2019, a new term made its way into the mainstream last summer — and at the hands of Memphis’ own rap princess GloRilla. In 2022, it was almost impossible to open our TikTok FYPs and not find a video with her song “F.N.F. (Let’s Go).” It became an anthem for end-of-summer photo dumps and Instagram stories, and a new light shined on our city’s rap scene.
Whether it was the infectious Memphis energy in the music videos for “F.N.F.” or “Tomorrow 2” or the rawness and realness of her cadence, GloRilla was met with explosive success. Not only did that put her in the spotlight, but it put new emphasis on Memphis-bred women in rap.
“Memphis female artists are so gangsta,” says Zachary Hurth, a content creator, director, and media consultant, who may be best known for his Back Of The Class (BOTC). The IG channel (@backoftheclasss_) boasts more than 50,000 followers and features “desk freestyles” with up-and-coming Memphis stars, including K Carbon, Gloss Up, and Slimeroni.
“If you remember being in school and you turned around, that’s what Back Of The Class is,” says Hurth. “It’s rapping in the back of the class like we really used to do. It’s like a stage for artists to come and show their creativity, show who really can rap.”
Whether rappers from Memphis “really can rap” has never been a question — the city has birthed a number of rap legends, with Young Dolph, Moneybagg Yo, and Gangsta Boo among them. But a rap renaissance is upon us, and many local women are at the forefront.
Hurth has taken his BOTC project outside of the city — to Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta — and says the Memphis vibe is incomparable. “It’s female artists blowing up everywhere,” Hurth says. “But it’s something about the way a Memphis woman pops; nobody in America — across the world — can do it like them.
“When they come in, they give it their all. They’re not acting,” says Hurth. “And they got this good morale because they’re seeing themselves blow up.”
The Flyer spoke to three of Memphis’ emerging female rap artists (two of whom have been featured on BOTC) who are in the midst of such a “blow up” — women who are contributing to the evolution of the genre.
A.R. The Mermaid (Photo: Tamara May)
A.R. The Mermaid
The titular character of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale has been prone to revamping since her inception. But one artist has decided to do it with an East Memphis flair and an alternative vibe. Her name is Ariel Wright (“Big A.R., not the little one,” she says) — and there’s a new mermaid in town.
A.R. The Mermaid has always known she was “that bitch,” she says, and she’s never needed the validation of others to confirm that.
While mermaids are her mythical creature of choice, her style and brand are a juxtaposition of several identities that pay homage to a few of her favorite female artists. “I got Erykah Badu, which is [representative of] being different. Tina Turner with the rock-star vibes. Rico Nasty with the alternative look and the emo vibes,” she says.
As she draws inspiration from greats before her, she’s also forging her own distinct image and sound. Fashion-wise, you’ll find her scouring the racks of Hot Topic, Spencer’s, and Dolls Kill while rocking her signature black lip. Musically, she describes her style as a mix of alternative, emo, trap music, and R&B, marked by her notable raspy voice and free spirit. “No-fucks-given type of shit,” she says.
Music has always been a way for A.R. to express herself, and she’s well versed in several genres aside from rap. She dates some of her formative experiences to singing in her church, and she was in a singing group during her teenage years.
“I stopped singing when I was 17, 18. Started rapping probably when I was like 20,” she says.
“Honestly, I fell out of love with singing for a second. It just got too crucial. I had to take a break mentally and get my mind right.
“And my way of expressing myself with what was going on at the moment was to rap. Singing wasn’t in me, so I was like, ‘Hey, maybe I should start rapping.’” The 25-year-old says once she started taking that music “to the streets,” it was kismet, and “[the people] started fucking with it.”
When A.R. spoke with the Flyer, she was still riding the high following the release of her single “Sneaky Link.” The music video — her debut single with 300 Entertainment — premiered in May and has since hit over 22K views.
She never expected the song to have a virality to it — it just had a beat, composed by SGULL, that beckoned for a story to be told. “At the time, I was really going through that shit, so it was perfect,” she says. “It was really a vibe creating that.”
Her music teems with real-life experiences (in the case of “Sneaky Link,” the nuances of a secret link-up). The ability to tell stories through music has been freeing, she says, and she recognizes how her Memphis roots have catapulted her into a space where her sound and background are being celebrated.
“Memphis itself creates a whole new sound, just from our lingo, our flow, how we talk, just the sauce itself,” she says. “Being out here in Memphis really made me the artist that I am, like on some put-that-shit-together type of shit.”
Glockianna (Photo: Duke Nitty)
Glockianna
Being able to hold your own in a freestyle battle is the mark of true rap talent, and many Back Of The Class alumni have passed the test with flying colors. One such artist recently went viral on the platform, her session amassing nearly 69,000 likes.
The viral IG performance is almost ironic considering Glockianna didn’t care much for social media initially. “At first I hated social media,” she says. “Like, I hate when people bring up their opinions or how they feel about this person or that person because the person still going to do what they want to do in the end.”
Viewers of Glockianna’s freestyle video fill the comment section with fire emojis and note how “hard” of an artist she is. And when the 16-year-old speaks with the Flyer, that’s exactly how she describes herself — hard.
Glockianna has been rapping since she was 12 years old, and it all started as a way for her to grapple with her emotions. When she was younger, she often found herself getting into fights.
“I was fighting everybody,” she says. “But when I stopped fighting and put the aggression I had toward people to the song, and put it inside my music instead, it became a way for me to cope with my anger.”
Growing up in a family full of musicians, she always felt there was an opportunity for a career in music. But her proclivity to rap wasn’t a given. Her early musical memories are defined by R&B favorites like Jay Morris Group, but, she says, the moment she heard rap, she fell in love with it.
Rap has given her an outlet to tell her story, just the way it is. “I’m telling you what happened, why it happened, who did it to me, and how I feel about it basically,” she says.
A lot has happened in a short time since Glockianna honed in on her passion for the genre. She signed to Duke Deuce Enterprises’ Made Men Mafia (Triple M) record label in 2022. And she joined the famed Memphis rapper on stage for his Rolling Loud performance that year. The invitation to perform at the hip-hop festival “was a surprise for me honestly,” she says. “I thought he was joking, but he was like, ‘Nah, for real, you doing Rolling Loud.’”
That experience was pivotal for Glockianna. She’d previously performed in front of much smaller crowds. Even at those smaller shows, she was nervous. “Shaking in my boots,” she says.
But watching videos of her on stage as thousands raise their phones to capture the moment, it’s hard to believe that. She exudes confidence as she raps one of her anthems, “Stomp On Em.”
Glockianna admits that early on she was inclined to stick to the status quo, and not waver from her initial sound. But that has since changed. “When I go back and look at my music from then, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, terrible,’” she says. “I wasn’t really being myself and being comfortable. But my music now? Oh, it’s way better. Ain’t no cap in my rap; I really mean exactly what I’m saying.”
In the March 2023 release, “It Ain’t Glock Fault,” she keeps it real from the start, proclaiming she’s “keeping my foot on some necks” — and the rapper isn’t afraid to call someone out by name to tell it like it is. Though, Glockianna feels she still has to prove herself at times — because trolls still lurk.
“People do not take a young female seriously,” she says. “They see me and they’re like, ‘Oh she’s young and ain’t gonna last long and this and that.’ People think just because of my age and me being a female from South Memphis … they underestimate me a lot.”
There’s a duality to being a younger artist, she says. On one hand, it’s overcoming an archetype; on the other, it’s birthing a mystique. But people can’t help but be in awe of a talent who still maintains a spot on the honor roll.
“When I post on social media, or someone posts me, I get a lot of attention ’cause I’m young and what I say is powerful,” she says. “People love it.”
Jus Bentley (Photo: Jacorri Washington)
Jus Bentley
Artist Jus Bentley’s seventh album, rockS.T.A.R.(2023), is special to her. “S.T.A.R.,” she says, is an acronym for “status, trust, ambition, and respect” — to her, crucial tenets in the star-making process. For the album, she intentionally chose beats she had never rapped over before, or “beats you would never hear Jus Bentley on.”
“How can I make this mine?” the 29-year-old artist explains. “With how I rap, my flow, my cadence, how can I make these beats into a song that would be mine? So I tapped into not only rapping but songwriting.” The project wasn’t just about making one stellar song, but creating several that flow together as a story.
When Jus Bentley first started out at age 16, she was mostly focused on branding, as opposed to making music she found to be meaningful.
“I’m more conscious about what I’m saying [now]. When you grow or when you get older, you have to evolve,” she says. “If you listened to Jus Bentley when she was 18 or 19 versus Jus Bentley now, you’re going to see the evolution, the growth in the subject matter. You’re going to be able to grow with me.”
That growth led to opportunities to record with Don Trip (on Bentley’s “Want It” and Trip’s “Rocking”), and to work with notable artists Zed Zilla and Hitkidd (on “BU$Y”). She’s also earned a musical credit on the Starz hit show, P-Valley.
“I’m confident in who I am as a person, which allows me to be confident as an artist,” she says. “[Back then] I was a confident artist, but I wasn’t confident in myself. I took that time and said, ‘This is the type of artist I want to be,’ and that has helped me be a better person. When you’re a better person, or try to be, you can’t help but to attract good things.”
For her newer work, Jus Bentley was adamant about recording with and having her music mixed by women, so rockS.T.A.R. was mixed and mastered by SkilerJoi, with Lildezzyx as the recording engineer. “I wanted it to be a project that focused on women empowering other women,” she says. “If the majority does not look like you, you’re at a disadvantage. The majority of people that are in music, that promote music, that run music, or can get you to that next level are men. We’re already at a disadvantage from day one — the thing is learning how to navigate through those disadvantages.”
This Saturday, July 29, would have been Jim Stewart’s 93rd birthday had he not passed away last December, and so we linger a while longer at the doorstep of Stax Records to pay tribute to the man who started it all. With the Stax Museum of American Soul Music celebrating its 20th anniversary all this year, and fast on the heels of Stax Music Academy’s triumph at the Lincoln Center, it seems a fitting time to honor Stewart, whose unorthodox vision led him to recruit his sister, Estelle Axton, to invest in recording equipment for a storage space he’d rented in Brunswick, Tennessee, back in 1957. That would become the first studio for what was then called Satellite Records.
His no-nonsense manner didn’t mark him as a firebrand, but his quiet determination made him a maverick of sorts in West Tennessee, as Stewart “had to stand before the [Brunswick] town council and testify to his own integrity, and promise that drug addicts, thieves, and other lowlifes attracted to the music business would not infiltrate the crossroads and poison the minds of Brunswick’s fine children,” Robert Gordon writes in Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion. As it turned out, defending his business before the Brunswick town council was just the beginning of his trials.
That was foremost in the mind of Deanie Parker when reminiscing about Stewart recently. Parker, who started as a songwriter and singer at Stax before becoming the label’s chief publicist, worked with Stewart during the 1960s and ’70s, and knew him well. Recalling those days of racial segregation, Parker noted that creating a safe space for Black and white artists to work together came at a price.
“I can clearly remember Jim standing out in front of his own damn business under the marquee,” Parker says, “talking to his Black artists, only to have a white policeman come up and tell him, ‘Get your ass out of here, you can’t be talking to these Black people. No! That’s not going to happen out here in front of this building on McLemore Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee!’ I don’t remember if it was Isaac or Otis that Jim was talking to, but it was one of them. And Jim tried to reason with the police and the officer said, ‘I tell you what, I’ll just take your ass down and lock you up.’ So he was not liked. He was not respected. I don’t think he was encouraged. I never heard any white person say they appreciated him except for the people he worked with. That’s a lot to swallow. One thing he never got over was, in the end, Jim did not have a social circle. The white friends that he had, I bet you could count them on one hand.”
Nonetheless, he persisted. Indeed, Parker credits Stewart with initiating both the professionalism and the multiculturalism of Stax. “It really was about him,” she says. “Because if he had not been who he was, we would not have had the place, the resources, the encouragement, or even the demands to ‘Do it again, play that again — somebody’s out of tune!’ ‘No, it ain’t right yet!’ Jim would say. That was the discipline he had and demanded of us. Without that, it would never have happened. Stax was like a garden spot. It was a utopia where we could feel safe, all of us working together, playing together, learning about each other together. Being creative and making a decent living … in Memphis, Tennessee!”
The struggle to keep that spirit alive, and the forced bankruptcy that caused the label to fold in 1975, haunted Stewart for decades. “The privileged and powerful in Memphis had something else in mind for Stax Records,” says Parker ominously, and Stewart took the label’s demise personally. When Parker later took up the cause of creating a Stax museum and music academy, Stewart was less than gung-ho. “Jim had not healed,” she says. “He had not gotten over his feelings of disappointment and feeling, I’m sure, that every good deed he did was punished.”
Finally, after the museum and Stax Music Academy were underway, Parker sensed the moment when Stewart embraced them. “It happened when he saw how that Stax Music Academy was training the next generation of people to learn and respect and preserve the music that he had made possible on that corner. When we were able to get him there to witness the students, he was never the same.”
Take care of your mind, body, soul, and the planet. (Photo: Hope Film Photo | Unsplash)
This Saturday, the nonprofit Focus on Memphis will host its first Living Green Festival, where attendees can spend the day taking care of their mind, body, and soul, and the planet, too.
“The goal is to promote a green, healthy living style,” says Stephanie Hill, Focus on Memphis’ president. “That’s a big part of our organization. One of the things that we like to promote is mental wellness as well as physical wellness.”
Founded in 2017, Focus on Memphis serves low-income and impoverished neighborhoods in Memphis, providing services such as food pantries, clothing and school supply giveaways, reading programs, job skill training, and much more. In 2021, the group acquired its 501(c)(3). “We’re focused on helping the city, and the city needs some help right now,” says Hill. “We like to step in and help where we can. We’ve been working behind the scenes doing things in the city, but now we want to kind of step out and do some larger things.”
One such goal is establishing a transitional housing facility for youth aging out of foster care. “That’s what we’re working towards,” Hill says, “so we’re just really trying to get recognition, get people knowing more about our organization and who we are. We just thought that this [festival] would be a good way for us to come out and really introduce our organization more so to the city.”
For the day, festival-goers can expect vendors, food trucks, a farmers market, live performances by Hattiloo Theatre, yoga classes, giveaways, and educational sessions about nutrition, wellness, gardening, and green living. The health department will also offer blood pressure checks, diabetes screenings, and Covid shots, and the Community Services Agency will present about the programs they offer, like utility assistance and rent and mortgage assistance.
There will also be tons for kids to enjoy (all for free), including an activity center presented by the Memphis Zoo, a kids spa tent presented by Laura’s Kids Spa Parties, inflatables, and more.
A full schedule of events can be found at tinyurl.com/yc3p67sh. To learn more about Focus on Memphis, to donate, or to sign up to volunteer with the group, visit focusonmemphis.org.
Gary Hart (Photo: Laurence Agron | Dreamstime.com)
Who remembers Gary Hart? If you’ve had as many as 50 birthdays, you almost certainly remember the former Colorado senator and two-time candidate for the United States presidency. If you remember Hart’s name, you likely remember another: Donna Rice. You see, Gary Hart had a girlfriend. And (sit down for this) Gary Hart was married at the time.
I’ll share a brief slice of American-scandal history for those of you who may not remember Hart and friend. Only 47 years old in 1984, Hart sought the Democratic nomination in an election that would send Ronald Reagan back to the White House for a second term. Hart seemed Kennedy-esque: lots of dark hair, a solid jawline, sparkling pearly whites. It wasn’t until the next presidential campaign, though, that we learned just how Kennedy-esque Gary Hart truly was.
In the spring of 1987, thanks to journalists doing what we do, America learned that Hart had carried on an extramarital affair with Rice, a woman he claimed was nothing more than a “campaign aide.” But when a photo of the two in each others’ arms appeared on the cover of the National Enquirer, that was the end of the next Kennedy and any hopes he had of occupying the Oval Office.
I’ve thought of Gary Hart often the last few years, every time the name Donald Trump makes news. It’s been 36 years and nine presidential elections since that tabloid cover ruined Hart’s political rise. But what the hell has happened to presidential scandal? Gary Hart was nationally ridiculed for an extramarital affair and Donald Trump has already served a term as U.S. president.
The notion of Trump being excluded from a campaign for the highest office in the land over a mistress seems as laughably silly as a desert coyote coming back to life after repeatedly blowing himself up as he hunts a roadrunner. But that’s the America — that’s the office of U.S. president — we have before us, here in 2023.
How does Donna Rice on your candidate’s resume compare with being twice impeached in your first try at the presidency? How does shagging someone who doesn’t wear a wedding ring you placed on her finger compare with federal charges of absconding with enough classified documents to stuff your bathroom? How does ruining your marriage compare with being the cheerleader for an insurrection mob during your last month as president?
It’s astounding. Rewind to those innocent, clearly naïve days of 1987, and candidate Trump would have been ruined by an association with the likes of Stormy Daniels … his “Donna Rice.” Here in 2023? That association is merely one of three likely indictments candidate Trump will face as he leads (is that the right word?) the Republican party into the election year of 2024.
Jimmy Carter — as decent a man as has ever occupied the White House, if not a great president — essentially turned over the presidency in a 1979 speech when he dared mention an American “crisis of confidence.” Short on confidence? Swagger? Not us hearty Yanks. Let me ask you: What kind of confidence in America do supporters of Donald Trump show when they ignore one scandal after another, each larger in impact than the one before? This is the best we can do? Two impeachments and three indictments. Not to mention, ahem, three wives. (Psst … Donald Trump had a girlfriend, too.)
I was 18 in 1987, and plenty naïve. Even at that age, I wondered if a man might actually be able to lead even if he failed as a husband. My foundational thought was that a man could not lead if he didn’t care fully for the office of president and the country that office represented. He might make mistakes (as Carter did) and he might be short on qualifications (as Reagan was), but an American president would never make us feel scandalous as a country. That was my innocent thinking at its worst. I know Gary Hart would appreciate.
Frank Murtaugh is the managing editor of Memphis magazine. He writes the columns “From My Seat” and “Tiger Blue” for the Flyer.
