Month: August 2023

Categories
Cover Feature News Sports Sports Feature

Arm Strength

Seth Henigan (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)

The Memphis Tigers have a rare breed in junior quarterback Seth Henigan. With the transfer portal shuffling college football rosters like an overstuffed deck of cards, an athlete playing the sport’s premium position at the same school for three years is becoming rare. In fact, only 15 FBS quarterbacks (among 133 programs) will appear in the same uniform for a third season this fall having started more games than Henigan’s 24. A recent review of said transfer portal revealed no fewer than 74 quarterbacks (starters and backups, mind you) having departed one program for another since the 2022 season concluded.

Yet Henigan remains in blue and gray, the colors he’s worn since, literally, the day after his high school team (Denton Ryan High School in North Texas) won the 2020 state championship. Having started his first college game as a true freshman in 2021, Henigan will graduate after the fall semester with a degree in business management. By that time, he’ll have three full college seasons under his belt, and still shy of his 21st birthday. What kind of season should Tiger fans expect? It would be tough to top the expectations of Henigan himself, a signal-caller in shoulder pads for as far back as his memory will take him.

Henigan grew up with two brothers (one older, one younger), so competition was woven into the family fabric. Basketball. Football. And the kind of “house sports” only the parents of sibling rivals can fully appreciate. “We’d play ping-pong, darts,” recalls Henigan. “I was always trying to be like my older brother Ian and beat him in everything. I played T-ball but didn’t move on to baseball. Played lacrosse for one year. I’ve always had good hand-eye coordination, but no sport was as fun to me as football.” Ironically, Henigan found himself injury prone in basketball, breaking his nose and his left hand on the hardwood. So hoops became past tense after his sophomore year of high school. “I needed to focus on football,” he says, “and get my body prepared for college.”

University of Memphis junior Seth Henigan will return for his third season as quarterback. A successful season will afford him the opportunity to become only the second quarterback in Tigers football history to post three 3,000-yard seasons. (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)

Going all the way back to his earliest flag-football memories, Henigan can’t recall playing any position other than quarterback. It helps being the son of a highly successful coach. (Dave Henigan has coached Denton Ryan since 2014 and earned at least one Coach of the Year honor every year from 2016 through the championship season of 2020.) He would accompany his dad on game nights and spend the pregame tossing a football with anyone willing to toss it back. “It was a bonding time,” notes Henigan, “and with my brothers, too. I liked having the ball in my hands. I was pretty fast, and I could throw the ball better than the average kid. Being able to make plays, from a young age, that was the position I was going to play to be the most successful in this sport.”

If quarterback isn’t the hardest position in team sports, it’s in a short conversation. (We’ll allow the case for baseball’s catcher.) Physical tools — height, arm strength, foot quickness — take an athlete a long way, but playing quarterback well enough to win championships requires as much talent between the ears as elsewhere. And the ability to absorb contact is a requirement.

“As you move up levels, the position becomes way more taxing,” says Henigan, “both physically and mentally. I wasn’t hit that much in high school, but at the college level, it’s a different feeling. We don’t get hit in practice because [coaches] are trying to preserve quarterbacks. When you get hit for the first time, it changes the entire game. Having that experience early in my college career really toughened me up. You’re playing 300-pound defensive linemen, and their goal is to harass you.”

As for the mental component, it’s the invisible tools that made Tom Brady the Tom Brady, that allow Patrick Mahomes to see angles and gaps most quarterbacks cannot. “You know so much about coverages,” explains Henigan. “You know the names, you draw them up, you speak them. Some quarterbacks learn better verbally, and some need to see it on a board. Or going through it on a practice field.”

Henigan draws a parallel between a quarterback’s mental challenges and those of a decidedly less physical sport. “Golfers’ mental game is so important,” he notes. “It’s hard to compare to any other position on a football field. You’re in control of so many aspects. You know everyone’s assignment on offense. A middle linebacker may know this for the defense, but he doesn’t have control of the play’s outcome. A quarterback has the ball in his hands. There’s so much going on. You’re thinking of 21 other guys on a field, reacting to a defense. The defensive coordinator’s job is to confuse the quarterback. You have to react as the play is going on.”

In the time it takes you to read this sentence, a quarterback must decide between handing the ball to a running back, running the ball himself, or passing to as many as five potential receivers. “Decision-making, accuracy, and toughness are three of the most important components for a quarterback,” emphasizes Henigan. “Fluid intelligence is key. That’s how you make your money, so to speak. Offenses and defenses both have tendencies. After a while, you identify consistencies in the way defenses want to attack our offense. But it changes each year. The base knowledge helps though. You have an out-of-body experience. It feels like you’re watching yourself because you’ve done it so many times. It’s muscle memory, and natural. I’ve seen a lot.”

(Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)

Henigan grew up a college football fan, more so than any devotion he might have developed for an NFL team. With his family wrapped up in “Friday night lights” followed by college games on Saturday, Henigan’s mom would actually not allow football on television come Sunday. Henigan’s favorite quarterbacks were a pair of Heisman Trophy winners in the SEC: Auburn’s Cam Newton and Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel. He loved their exploits but notes he’s never modeled his playing style after another signal-caller.

Despite compiling an eye-popping record of 44-2 over three years as a starter at Denton Ryan, Henigan was not heavily recruited by FBS programs. Former Memphis offensive coordinator Kevin Johns, though, made the kind of impression both Henigan and his family sought in choosing Seth’s college destination. “I had a good year as a junior,” notes Henigan, “but my body wasn’t spectacular. I was always smart and worked hard, and those attributes can take you a long way. Coaches weren’t really talking to me consistently, until coach Johns came after my junior year. He listed attributes of a good quarterback that I displayed and why I was attractive [to Memphis]. He’d show me film on FaceTime, break down plays. He’s the only [college] coach who did that with me. It was exciting, seeing how I’d fit the program here.”

Having enrolled for the spring semester in 2021, Henigan was comfortable with Memphis — both the city and campus — by the time fall camp opened. When the quarterback expected to start the ’21 season opener (Grant Gunnell) tore his Achilles heel late that summer, Henigan seized the opportunity. “Even if I was going to be the backup, I didn’t want to be a weak link,” reflects Henigan. “So I was mentally prepared. I have a whiteboard in my room at home. I’ve had it since my junior year of high school. Every week, I’ll change the name of the opponent, list base defenses, third-down defenses, and how we were going to attack them. I picked things up pretty quickly. That’s all I did that first spring camp: study that whiteboard and learn [as a college quarterback]. Coach Johns and I would throw on weekends at his house. He cared for me as a true freshman.” (Johns has since moved on and is now the offensive coordinator at Duke University.)

The Tigers went 6-6 in 2021 (Henigan’s freshman year) and qualified for the Hawaii Bowl, a game that was canceled the day before kickoff because of a Covid outbreak in the Hawaii program. Memphis went 7-6 last season and beat Utah State in the First Responder Bowl. Two decades ago, such marks would have qualified as successful seasons in these parts. But the program’s standards are higher. So are Seth Henigan’s.

“There’s no such thing as a young quarterback,” says Henigan in evaluating the midpoint of his college career. “You either have it or you don’t. You earn the job. It hasn’t been smooth sailing. We’ve beaten some good teams, but we’ve lost to teams we should have beaten. I didn’t really know what to expect out of college football; I just knew it would be harder than what I’d done in the past. I want to win a conference championship and win more than seven games. There’s so much more to achieve as a quarterback. My teammates respect me and know me as a competitor. I’ve taken hits and gotten up. I’ve been through the ringer, and I’ve stayed here in Memphis. We have a chance to be special.”

Tiger coach Ryan Silverfield would never project his program’s success on the play of one athlete. But he’s cognizant of how important Seth Henigan’s junior season will be to the health — and growth — of the Memphis program. “At the quarterback position, his steps are significant to the success of our entire program,” says the fourth-year coach. “He knows that he’s got to be better. He’s still young for the position, but he’s got experience. We have high expectations for him to make good decisions. You can’t turn the ball over. Find ways to win football games. We’ll continue to push him to be the leader of our team. He’s earned that respect and we’re excited to see what unfolds.”

Henigan is one of only 16 current Tigers who have taken the field for Memphis the last two seasons. He’s a junior, by class, but an extended veteran by measure of proportional service. Who will catch Henigan’s passes this fall? Junior Roc Taylor had 20 receptions last season, the most by any returning player. Senior Joseph Scates caught only 18 passes in 2022, but averaged 22.9 yards per reception. Newcomer Tauskie Dove — a transfer from Missouri — played in high school with Henigan but was a senior when the quarterback rode the bench as a freshman.

A healthy and successful 2023 season would make Henigan only the second quarterback in Memphis history to post three 3,000-yard seasons. (Brady White did so from 2018 to 2020.) Then there’s 2024. Should Henigan return as a grad student, a fourth season — again, presuming health — would likely shatter every passing record in the Tiger book. But that’s distant future, particularly with that pesky transfer portal. For now, Henigan is focused on the daily chores — as noted on his treasured whiteboard — that will add up to a better college season than his first two in blue and gray.

“Every day is challenging,” acknowledges Henigan, noting his commitment to football, school, his family, and nurturing relationships, particularly those with his teammates. “It’s hard to find time for myself. I have so many responsibilities. I’ve been on a fast track, starting my master’s program in the spring. A [conference] championship would make [this season] successful. Winning nine or 10 games. I think we have all the right guys. We’ve just got to stay consistent.”

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Grisanti’s 2.0

Elfo Grisanti’s new dining room (Photo: Michael Donahue)

Elfo Grisanti’s, which opened two years ago in Southaven, Mississippi, is finally looking the way owners Alex and Kim Grisanti originally envisioned it.

A private dining room and the ladies bathroom still need to be completed, but, other than that, all the remodeling is done, Alex says.

The restaurant at 5627 Getwell Road has the same vibe as his dad’s legendary restaurant, Ronnie Grisanti & Sons, which was on Poplar Avenue near the viaduct. Elfo’s bar, which resembles a “big horseshoe,” is now completed. It has 18 chairs. “We built it like a U-shape. Like the old Ronnie’s.”

They knocked out the wall where the pizza oven was located so they could make the bar bigger, Alex says. “And we took the bay next to it, too.”

Teresa Brown and Krista Vind, who did the interior work at Elfo’s, also did interior work for Emeril Lagasse’s restaurants. Vind did the concrete work on the bar tops. “It’s actual concrete. And it’s crazy ’cause my bar shines like marble.”

Like his former restaurant in Germantown, the color scheme at the restaurant is black and gold. The walls were made to resemble “18th-century walls,” Alex says. “They did all these mosaic walls. It’s beautiful. It’s a whole different place. All the walls are concrete. They look like they’re stained. They’ve got that gray, black, and white like you see on the old buildings in Italy.”

The kitchen also got an overhaul. “I bought a new conveyor oven. Our kitchen has been totally redesigned to cook our food. I put in a new pasta boiler. I got new pasta machines to make my fried ravioli and pizza dough.”

Alex also re-hired former employees. “I got all my guys that have been with me and my dad for 20 years. They’re back with me in the kitchen.”

Elfo’s menu features beloved dishes made from Grisanti family recipes, some of which date to the first Grisanti’s restaurant, “Grisanti’s on Main,” Alex says. “In two or three months we’re going to start back all our specials. Every day a fish special, a pasta special, a beef special, and a soup of the day.”

Alex and Kim are seeing a lot of familiar faces at Elfo’s. “All our old customers are eating with me. They are realizing they live in Germantown, and it takes them no longer to drive to Mississippi than it would Downtown.”

And locals are discovering what a Grisanti’s restaurant is like. “These people have never experienced anything like it. Now they’re loading up down here. Oh, my gosh. They call it ‘Cheers’ now.”

Alex and Kim also relocated to Southaven. But Alex remembers what it was like when he opened the restaurant. “It was like the unknown. I didn’t know anything about Southaven. I didn’t know anything about the area where we were.” But, he says, “It’s just been a blessing. We are in the hot spot where everything is getting built.”

Silo Square, the 288-acre, $200-million mixed-use project along Getwell Road, currently is in the works. “And a friend of ours is building another 120-acre development.”

Alex and Kim still have future plans for Elfo’s. “We’ve been slowly talking about the front. Doing a little outside patio. Piazza. But it’ll probably be next year before we get around to it. We’ve redone so much work inside bringing it up to our standards.

“We wanted our customers to have the true Grisanti’s experience — white tablecloths, good service, big glasses of wine. It just took a while to get that dialed in.”

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Indie Memphis Youth Film Fest

CrewUp Youth Mentorship film Fight 4 Your Love

Indie Memphis began in 1998 when University of Memphis film student Kelly Chandler wanted to create a space where her fellow students could showcase their work. As the festival grew into a major Memphis cultural event, artist development remained a major part of the mission. In 2016, the Indie Memphis Youth Film Fest was launched to help give middle- and high-schoolers a taste of the highs and lows of filmmaking.

“We’re giving these students an opportunity to really explore it before they say, ‘This is definitely what I wanna do,’” says Joseph Carr, Indie Memphis’ managing director.

Students in the CrewUp program are partnered with adult mentors, experienced filmmakers who will guide them through the process of writing, planning, and producing a short film. Carr says that even those who discover filmmaking is not for them get valuable experience in creative collaboration. “It can apply to every part of your life. If you can’t collaborate, you’re not gonna be successful in any field you work in.”

Memphis Youth Showcase feature Blood and Roots

One Youth Film Fest participant who did decide it was for her is Vivian Gray, who won awards at the 2017 and 2018 festival. Gray says she entered her work “on a whim,” but found “it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It shaped so much of my future, just by being able to participate, period. I met other peers who made films, I met the folks at Indie Memphis who are so supportive, and just to show my work for the first time publicly was really special, and I’m very grateful for it.”

Carr acted as her mentor when she won a production grant as a prize in 2017. (The grant program is now awarded by application, separate from the main student competition.) “When you’re young, you don’t have any concept of how much work it’s going to be,” says Carr. “You just have great ideas and you want your ideas to come to life. Vivian was just so game to jump in and just run with her idea. You could tell very early just how comfortable she was on set, and just how comfortable she was in her voice. When you’re in the presence of a true artist, you can tell very quickly that they have a lot to say.”

Gray went on to earn a degree from the acclaimed University of Southern California film program. Her short film, “Tape 23,” debuted at Indie Memphis ’22 and has spent the last year on the festival circuit with “Providence,” a television pilot she directed. She will return to Youth Fest as a juror this year. “I feel like it’s grown even more, and continues to do what it did for me and so many other young filmmakers and artists. It is near and dear to my heart.”

Another artist coming full circle this year is Vivie Myrick. The actor made her screen debut at the Youth Festival and recently appeared on the Showtime TV series, George & Tammy. “She directed a film last year as her last output for her age group in the Youth Film Fest,” says Carr. “Now she’s now back to host an acting workshop.”

The festival will kick off on Saturday, August 26th, with a keynote address by screenwriter Hennah Sekander. The recent Memphis transplant has written for the Apple TV+ series Hello Tomorrow! and the Amazon Prime Video Chris Pratt vehicle The Terminal List. “I’m gonna talk about ‘The Slingshot Effect,’ which is something that I coined under pressure on a phone call with Joseph Carr because he said we needed a title, and it just felt like the most potent symbol for how you marry character and plot to tell a good story.”

When Craig Brewer introduced Sekander to Carr, she immediately asked how to get involved with Indie Memphis’ youth program. “I think a big reason why this writer strike is happening right now is there’s this feeling of resistance from the studio side to invest in new talent and kind of support younger voices as they try to make their way up the ladder,” Sekander says. “So I think that means it’s all the more important for writers to do that work that probably wasn’t done for them.”

The festival is free for students who sign up for passes and pay-what-you-can for adults. The short films which premiere this Saturday at the Halloran Centre will represent the culmination of a year of work by the young filmmakers. “I’m always just beside-myself thrilled when these students finish their movies,” says Carr. “Some teams will drop out, or something will come up, and they can’t finish. But seeing these completed films on the big screen, all the problems we have leading up to it are just melted away.”

The 2023 Indie Memphis Youth Film Fest is Saturday, August 26th, at the Halloran Centre. For the schedule, visit indiememphis.org.

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Jennifer, Tough Tuohy Time, and a Chair?

Posted to Facebook by Jennifer Biggs

Memphis on the internet.

Jennifer

Memphians mourned the passing of food writer Jennifer Biggs last week. Friends, family, and colleagues remembered her in photos, stories, and videos. They wrote of her love of people, food, and laughter, all of which were evident in her many columns in The Commercial Appeal and The Daily Memphian.

Tough Tuohy Time

Posted to Twitter by Melvin Purdy

“This is everyone on Memphis Twitter today sharing their personal bad experiences/stories about Leigh Anne Tuohy,” Melvin Purdy tweeted last week. Indeed, the MEMernet buzzed with such stories in the wake of a Memphis lawsuit filed by Michael Oher. The football star claims The Blind Side family tricked him into a conservatorship — rather than adopting him — to profit from his name, likeness, and image.

“As a Memphis bartender who has had to serve the Tuohys before: I hope they are treated by the media and/or courts in the coming weeks/months with *exactly* the same amount of dignity, respect, and kindness that they show service industry workers when they go out,” tweeted @campari_queen_.

Chair?

Posted to Facebook by Titus James

Memphian Titus James offered a “civil rights chair” for sale on Facebook Marketplace last week for $12,695. Nope. No more information.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

“Got You Last!”

Van Turner speaks at his weekend HQ opening. (Photo: Jackson Baker)

We have reached a point in the mayoral contest that, if not yet the stretch drive itself, is about to get there.

The candidates with money are beginning to spend it on TV ads (Floyd Bonner, Paul Young, Van Turner, and J.W. Gibson all had fresh spots running last week) and yard signs (certain well-traveled thruways — think South Parkway and Walnut Grove, as two examples — are sprouting them like mushrooms). And, be advised, slickly printed mail-outs, in which the aspirants view themselves with pride and unlucky opponents with alarm, will soon be filling up your mailbox.

They’ve already gotten busy doing what, in athletic contexts, is called trash-talking. They’ve all done their calculations and have determined who among their adversaries can safely be ignored and who needs to be cut down to size.

Examples: Two weeks ago, when businessman Gibson opened his campaign headquarters, he not only boasted his own native-son credentials but was the beneficiary of a question voiced out loud by a key supporter, Reverend LaSimba Gray: “Mr. Gibson, you didn’t have to move to Memphis to run for mayor, did you?”

Gibson himself may or may not have been in on that one, but he certainly beamed to hear it said. The jibe was clearly aimed at two Gibson opponents, Bonner and Turner, both recently residents of the outer county, who had to weather a short-lived mandate from the Election Commission which, before being struck down in court, required of mayoral candidates a long-term presence within the city limits.

And on more than one occasion of late, candidate Michelle McKissack has called attention to the matter of what she — and various others — consider an undue number of inmate deaths in the county jail on Sheriff Bonner’s watch. The issue seems likely to keep on bedeviling Bonner, who, coincidentally or not, is widely considered a frontrunner in the race.

Candidate Turner, who until recently headed the local NAACP and is a former Democratic Party chair, has been making the most of his ideological convictions, and, at his weekend headquarters opening, publicly lamented what he saw as the apostasy of fellow Democrats Paul Young, the Downtown Memphis Commission CEO, and Bonner, both high-odds contenders with plenty of late-campaign cash.

“How you vote and what you’ve done in the past makes a difference,” said Turner. “We have one candidate who voted Republican at a time when we needed everybody in this country to support Hillary [Clinton]. Because we did not support Hillary we have a renegade Supreme Court. … I appreciate what Mr. Young has done in the city, but he was wrong on that. You have to be committed to this call and not work the other side and compromise.”

Turner’s reference was to Young’s past decision to vote in three Republican primaries, including the 2016 GOP presidential primary.

And Turner continued: “Another candidate, Mr. Floyd Bonner, has been supported by the Republican Party.” He likely was referencing the 2022 county election when Bonner, the Democratic nominee, was unopposed by the GOP and endorsed by key local Republicans.

The upshot, according to Turner: “We cannot allow this opportunity to take Memphis forward to take us back. We need progressives working for this city and working to make the city better.” “… And working to help me win,” was the unspoken quiet part.

Categories
At Large Opinion

A Digression

This layabout lacks ambition. (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)

I have been living by myself for the past week or so. My wife went to a legal convention in Minneapolis, and then went to visit our grandchildren in New York. In the old days, I would have said I’ve been “batching it,” meaning I’m living like a bachelor. But now, as I type it, I don’t understand why there’s a “t” in “batching.” Or is there? If I weren’t temporarily living alone, I’d ask my wife. She probably wouldn’t know, but she’d have an opinion, and that’s all you can really ask for in a relationship.

And now I’m reminded of the phrase, “confirmed bachelor,” which those of you of a certain age will remember. My favorite uncle was a confirmed bachelor. He lived for 30 years or so with his friend Richard, who was also a confirmed bachelor. That was some seriously confirmed batching it. My father always said he wished his brother would find a “nice gal” and settle down. I never knew if he was really that clueless or just trying to hide the truth from his children.

Anyway, I digress. But, to be honest, this column is beginning to look like a string of digressions in search of a point. I hope you’ll bear with me. I’m on my own here. Except for my dogs, who are both lying on the floor in my office. Their lack of ambition is appalling.

Sorry, another digression. My bad. I will find a point. I promise.

So, I read this week about the Sentinelese Tribe, who for 50,000 years have lived on one of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. They are the most isolated group of people in the world. They violently reject all visitors, firing arrows and slinging spears at any who dare approach their beaches. They killed the last person who tried to land, in 2018. It is thought that they are so violent against visitors because whenever an outsider has made contact in the past, the tribe was exposed to diseases that wiped out large segments of the population. After decades of various attempts at contacting them, the government of India has determined that no further attempts shall be made to communicate with the Sentinelese and that they should be left alone. Like me. So I can finish this column.

A friend recently sent me a video of a compelling commencement speech at Northwestern University by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. It addressed the subject of kindness: “When we encounter someone who doesn’t look, live, love, or act like us,” he said, “our first thought is rooted in fear or judgment. It’s an evolutionary response. We survived as a species by being suspicious of things that we aren’t familiar with.”

The governor went on: “In order to be kind, we have to shut down that animal instinct, that fear, and force our brain to travel a different pathway. Empathy and compassion are evolved states of being that require the mental capacity to step past our basic instincts. … When someone’s path through this world is marked by acts of cruelty, they have failed the first test of an advanced society. They never forced their animal brain to evolve past its first instinct.”

I disagree somewhat with the governor on this latter point. Yes, there’s an instinctual cruelty that comes from fear — like that of the Sentinelese — but there is also rampant in our society — and our politics — an intentional cruelty that uses weak and disadvantaged people for personal gain, that weaponizes the fear in others, that mocks their disabilities, body shape, and speech, that demonizes skin color, religion, gender, and sexuality, not because of some primordial fear, but for selfish ambition.

Governor Pritzker ended his speech by saying that in his experience, “the smartest person in the room was often also the kindest.” In my experience, the reverse is also true. Dumbasses are often mean. Avoid them. Don’t vote for them.

So, all of this digression needs a finish. Maybe this quote from Kurt Vonnegut will work: “And how should we behave during this Apocalypse? We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. … Jokes help. And get a dog, if you don’t already have one.” Or two. At least. You’ll never be alone. Or cruel.

Categories
Music Music Features

RiverCity Jazz and Music Festival

Lalah Hathaway (Photo: Justin Sisson)

Smooth jazz is one of those genre distinctions that evaporates as soon as you try spelling out a precise definition, but there’s no denying the pop appeal of the prettier side of the jazz tradition, especially when it’s given the rhythmic oomph of R&B. Indeed, it turns out that pairing the streamlined sounds of contemporary jazz and R&B is exactly what a large swath of Memphis concertgoers want — just ask Mike Powell, who prides himself on being the first promoter to sell out the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts with a smooth jazz act.

He’s been booking such shows around town for a good three decades, “maybe one- to two-hundred artists, from Al Jarreau on down,” he says, and his approach over the last five years may be his most successful yet. That would be the RiverCity Jazz and Music Festival, an annual gala night at the Cannon Center that brings nationally touring smooth jazz and R&B artists to the Mid-South. As per usual, this year’s concert falls on Labor Day weekend, Sunday, September 3rd, at 6:30 p.m.

This September’s lineup brings some true R&B/neo-soul royalty to town with headliner Lalah Hathaway. Her father, Donny Hathaway, went from being a writer, player, and producer at Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom Records in 1967 to becoming an R&B star in his own right with his 1969 single, “The Ghetto, Pt. 1.” His ongoing artistry through the ’70s, including his duets with Roberta Flack, won him a special place in the hearts of soul jazz fans, though he ultimately took his own life after struggling with depression for most of the decade.

His daughter Eulaulah Donyll “Lalah” Hathaway, born in 1968, carries on the family tradition of blending soul, R&B, and smooth jazz, yet in a more 21st-century context. She recorded her 1990 debut while still a student at Berklee College of Music, and the album cracked the Billboard Hot 200 and the R&B/Hip-Hop Top 20 that year. But she had an experimental bent from the start, and her next chart success was with the Heaven 17 side-project BEF (British Electric Foundation). Before the decade was out, she’d collaborated with jazz legend Joe Sample. In 2013, her work with Snarky Puppy on the track “Something” led to her first Grammy for Best R&B Performance.

Memphians may know her best for Self Portrait, her 2008 release on the revived Stax Records imprint, and her first album to crack the R&B/Hip-Hop Top Ten. While she’s clearly forging her own path, she’s well aware of her father’s legacy. “I am his daughter,” she says on her website bio, “and that’s the truth of who I am, every day. When I was 15, and then 20, I didn’t get why people were asking me how I felt about him and his music. But when I turned 25, I began to understand. Like my father, I want to leave a legacy of music that makes people really feel something.”

Powell, for his part, is excited to be bringing Hathaway back to Memphis, having booked her some 20 years ago, but he stresses that there’s much more bang for your buck at this year’s festival, including singer Leela James, saxophonist Paul Taylor (not to be confused with Memphis’ own Paul “Snowflake” Taylor), and jazz guitarist Adam Hawley. “Leela James is one of the great soulful, sultry songstresses. She’s been performing at least 20 years or so in the business and has several records out now. Paul Taylor is one of the godfathers who helped nurture in smooth jazz. And then there’s Adam Hawley, who’s a very good smooth jazz guitarist, performing onstage with his wife, who’s an R&B/smooth jazz singer as well.”

Beyond that, the Cannon Center event is but the culmination of several days of musical and meet-and-greet events. “Starting that Thursday [August 31st], we’ll kick off a whole weekend, and your ticket to the concert will get you in to all those other events free,” Powell says. “For example, one of them will be at the Marriott Hotel in their lobby bar. We’ll have some performances, and they’re planning something of a mixer there, and a meet-and-greet with Paul Taylor and Adam Hawley. It’s going to be the smooth jazz, R&B, and neo-soul event of the fall.”

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Our Own Voice’s Hive

Our Own Voice Theatre Troupe (Photo: Courtesy OOV)

What happens in the beehive stays in the beehive.

In this case, though, we aren’t talking about a hive run by bees. We’re talking about a hive run by Our Own Voice Theatre Troupe (OOV). This “hive” is a form of paratheatre, where the audience directly participates in the performance … well, if you could even call it a “performance.” “Experience” or “meeting” might be a better word.

“It’s been hard to describe to people,” says Sarah Rushakoff, who along with OOV founding director Bill Baker has organized the hive. “We don’t know what it’ll be until everyone arrives and kind of makes it what it will be. We’re providing different materials for people; we are providing the space and a welcoming environment. If they want to write, they can write. If someone has something with movement, they can move. And whatever collaboration, whatever creativity happens, that’s that night. That’s the hive.”

The concept comes from Jerzy Grotowski’s 1970s paratheatrical movement. Grotowski had grown tired of traditional theater practices and wanted to break the barrier between the actor and the audience by inviting the audience to participate in the creative process, rather than passively consuming someone else’s finished work.

“The concept of a spect-actor is definitely going to be in play, where the spectator is also an actor,” says Rushakoff. “But we’re not looking for necessarily a performance; we just want to observe each other’s creativity, and we will be an ‘us.’ It won’t be ‘us,’ the theater company, and ‘you,’ the spectators. We’ll be an ‘us’ because we’re all in the space breathing the same air.

“Since I’ve been with the company, this is going to be the biggest leap of faith that we’re taking,” Rushakoff continues. “It’s such a mindfuck to think of inviting people to a space where no one knows what’s going to happen.”

Put simply, the hive will be a form of play, with participants and OOV members arriving with no expectations or preparations, just an open mind. In that way, OOV, whose mission is to support mental health awareness, hopes the hive will be freeing and an opportunity for creative expression. “We always hope that our events are at least a little therapeutic,” Rushakoff says. “That would the best compliment — to have someone walk away considering what they just experienced as therapeutic.”

OOV’s hive will commence on Friday, August 25th, and Saturday, August 26th. No two hives will be the same. Tickets are pay-what-you-can and can be purchased at our-own-voice.square.site or at the door.

“As always, with any of our performances, especially the pay-what-you-can, if you can’t [pay], then you come in anyway ’cause we would miss out on so much if we didn’t let people come who wanted to participate,” Rushakoff adds. “We’re hoping to meet some new people who want to play with us and be a part of the hive.”

A HIVE, TheatreWorks@The Square, Friday-Saturday, August 25-26, 8 p.m., pay-what-you-can.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Special Session Day 2: GOP Chairman Clears Public for Clapping, Blasted As “Embarrassing”

State Capitol (Photo: Tennessee State Government)

Applause angered a House sub-committee chairman Tuesday enough that he cleared the room of all members of the public — including mothers of Covenant School students — in a move one leading lawmaker called “petty” and “embarrassing.”

The meeting was one of the first to review legislation in Gov. Bill Lee’s special session on public safety that began Monday. The room was packed for the House Civil Justice Subcommittee hearing, with some in the audience holding protest signs and many wearing red shirts for the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense In America.

Before the meeting began, subcommittee chairman Rep. Lowell Russell (R-Vonore), a retired state trooper, issued a warning to those in the audience holding signs. Signs were banned during the special session under rules approved by the House Republican supermajority Monday, even a standard letter-sized piece of paper with a statement written with a standard pen. 

“I’m still seeing signs,” Russell said before the meeting began. “If there’s an ongoing problem with these signs, we’ll just clear the room.”

Russell then singled out a member of the audience who, presumably, did not drop her sign. She was escorted — with hands on her body — by a Tennessee State Trooper who guided her past the front row, in front of the committee (to which she yelled something unintelligible on the stream of the meeting), and was taken from the room.

Tennessee State Government

A second young, female protestor was similarly sectored by troopers while she held her sign over her head. 

Tennessee State Government

With the removal done, Rep. Antonio Parkinson (D-Memphis) — the only Democrat on the panel — thanked “the moms in the rooms fighting for the lives of our children.” The statement was met with applause. 

Parkinson drew applause again later when he asked GOP lawmakers to at least hear ideas from Democrats after many of their bills died before even being reviewed. That applause frustrated Russell who stammered that “we’re trying to do business here…” 

When Parkinson said, “it won’t kill us to hear” ideas of Democrats, he drew applause again but Russell seemed to just carry on. However, he didn’t let it go. It chided him enough to issue his warning again a few minutes later. 

“Listen, please,” Russell began. “We’re going to conduct the state’s business or we’re going to clear the room, O.K.? That’s your last warning.”

Later in the hearing, Rep. Jody Barrett (R-Dickson) presented a bill that would have allowed those with an enhanced handgun carry permit to carry a handgun on school property. However, he said the bill was not yet ready for votes and asked for it to be removed from the calendar. This was met with yet another round of applause. Russell was done. 

“Now, are we going to quieten down and listen or are we going to sit there and clap?” Russell asked the audience members. But he immediately made up his mind. “All right, troopers, let’s go ahead and clear the room.”

Someone asked Russell if they could just remove the half of the crowd “causing trouble.” But Russell said that would be hard to determine and, again, told troopers to “clear the room.” Someone in the audience chided Russell yelling “what a strong man you are.” 

The room was cleared in about 10 minutes. Those in audience included Covenant School parents. Katy Dieckhaus, whose child was killed in April shooting, was present according to a tweet from Tennessee Lookout editor Holly McCall. 

WKRN reporter Chris O’Brien said Sarah Shoop Neumann, whose child was at the school during the shooting, was also there.   

Russell’s decision was blasted by Tennessee Democrats, including Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville). 

House Minority Leader Rep. Karen Camper (D-Memphis) said she was “appalled by what occurred” and issued a lengthy statement. 

“Citizens were removed from the room for sitting quietly, and then the entire room was cleared because some people clapped during the meeting. This is outrageous. I cannot believe how petty this was.  

“When the Covenant shooting occurred in March, members of this body poured out their hearts to the community and said they cared. Thousands of Tennesseans came to their house — the People’s House — to urge us to do something about senseless gun tragedies. They literally shouted for us to do something.  

“Now, months later, we are supposedly here to finally do something to protect our children in this state. And what happens? People are removed from the building that they own as they sit quietly and then clap softly for agreeing with a statement. 

“For a committee chairperson to use their position to banish grieving Tennesseans from the committee room is beyond the pale. This needs to be explained as to why people were removed and the room was cleared after citizens took to the time and effort to be present in their government. This is embarrassing.”

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Special Session Day 2: Reps. Pearson and Jones Get Icy Reception from Speaker Sexton

State Capitol (Photo: Tennessee State Government)

The Tennessee House of Representatives chamber was hot Tuesday but the vibe from the Speaker’s seat was icy cold at times, particularly when aimed at two-thirds of The Tennessee Three. 

The House returned to business Tuesday morning after officially gaveling in the special session on public safety late Monday afternoon. That session brought some contentious rules from Republican lawmakers that sought to limit protests and limited what lawmakers could and could not say. 

Back on the House floor Tuesday at 9 a.m., lawmakers organized the business of the session — what bills were assigned to committees and which legislators would comprise those committees. 

The road to the moment was violent and turbulent. A Nashville school shooting claimed the lives of three nine-year-old students and three adults. Police also shot and killed the shooter. Protestors swarmed the Capitol in April, begging and shaming lawmakers for action on gun reform. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee promised a special session on gun violence that many of his own party did not support. Once called, busloads of protestors and gun-reform advocates piled into buses to Nashville, where they rallied, marched, chanted, and sang. 

While the moment in the House chamber Tuesday was serious, lawmakers are people, too. Discussing unfinished business, Rep. Joe Towns (D-Memphis) maybe took liberties with procedure and addressed an elephant in the room. 

“Look, I know Tennessee is not broke,” Towns began. “We’ve got plenty of money. Why is it so hot in this joint? This building is burning up.” 

To that, House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) said his office had been working with maintenance staff to get the air conditioning turned back on in the building. Towns reminded the Speaker that Tennessee is a right to work state and that “we need to fire somebody.” The light-hearted comment brought chuckles in the chamber. 

Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) did not get such a straight answer or warm reception from Sexton when he asked a similar question later in the floor session.

Pearson was sworn back in to his office Monday. That came after he and Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) were expelled from the House earlier this year for a floor protest advocating gun reform. The national attention of the act brought heat to Sexton and the state GOP, and Jones and Pearson would continue to be a thorn in their sides. 

If this wasn’t enough to cool the relationship between Pearson and Sexton, consider that two weeks ago, Pearson flatly called Sexton a “racist” in a Memphis Flyer story. To say the least, an exchange between the two Tuesday was contentious.

“I know we were talking earlier about air conditioning and things like that, but we’ve had lots of people coming to the Capitol to protest, and have their voices heard in this extreme heat and in this weather, and the water fountains here at the at the Capitol seem to have been turned off or not working,” Pearson said to Sexton, asking for information. 

“That’s an inaccurate statement; that is not accurate,” Sexton said, quickly. “We’ve checked. That’s been a misrepresentation.” He, then, quickly moved on to recognize another lawmaker. 

Not satisfied with the answer, however, Pearson later asked Sexton to clarify what he meant about the water fountains. Sexton said to his knowledge the water fountains were never turned off. On its face, the exchange seems simple. But just under the surface were hints at, perhaps, some possible GOP conspiracy to make the Capitol uncomfortable for those seeking gun control. Sexton’s quick and icy demeanor on the question seemed to hint that he knew an accusation lurked beneath the question.  

Later, during an exchange with Jones, Sexton’s icy demeanor returned, this time showing him flex his legislative muscle with procedural rules on topics he seemingly wanted to avoid. 

“I’m still seeking an answer as to whether members who were stripped of committee [assignments] will be restored to their rightful committees that you removed them from on April 3rd,” Jones began. Sexton immediately gaveled down the question, saying “you’re out of order” before Jones finished speaking. 

Sexton moved on quickly but Jones asked why his question was out of order and why Sexton silenced his microphone. Instead of replying himself, Sexton let the House clerk explain to Jones that the body was on unfinished business and his question fell outside the scope of discussion. 

“So members can ask about the heat in the building, but I I can’t ask about committees [that] constituents sent me here to represent them on?” Jones asked. ”Is that that what you’re telling me?”

Sexton, again, dodged the question, allowing the clerk to explain again about rules, finally explaining that “the House Speaker makes rulings on what is in order and not in order.” Sexton quickly moved on to other business. 

If anything, the exchanges set the tone for what promises to be a turbulent session, even one so limited to a narrow slate of topics (that does not include gun reform). And it all happened before any real discussion began on the actual, meaty topics before the Tennessee General Assembly. 

Committees have been scheduled on both the House and Senate sides of the legislature. Many of them are set to get underway Wednesday. The House isn’t set to meet for floor votes until noon Thursday.