A Memphis resident’s innovative way of picking up trash has amassed a large social media following across platforms.
Glenn Morris, originally from central Texas, is a full-time engineer who has shared his Litter Buggies project across platforms to show users how easy picking up trash can be. In his Facebook group, Litter Buggies, Morris shared that on January 1st alone he picked up 30 gallons of trash near Beale Street.
Morris explained that Litter Buggies are remote-controlled (RC) cars that make picking up trash more efficiently.
The idea originally came as a way to knock down sandcastles. However, when he went down to the beach in Texas and saw there were no sandcastles to knock down, he and his wife decided to add trailers to the back of the cars and pick up trash on the beach.
The Flyer spoke with Morris to learn more about Litter Buggies and how they have positively impacted the community.
*This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Memphis Flyer: How did the idea of picking up trash around Memphis come to mind?
Glenn Morris: I’m working from home here, just like I was down in Galveston. You’re working from home all day, you’re indoors all day, and it’s good exercise. It’s miles and miles.
My problem is that I can’t seem to get a hold of anyone, whoever does the garbage stuff. I’ve been trying to get a hold of somebody to arrange something that I can stick on the side of the bags because I have no way to move the bags. If I go three to four miles, I have to leave the bags in locations and I need to get a hold of someone to put something on the bags to say, ‘Hey, y’all need to pick this up when you pick up trash. This guy is not leaving this stuff here. It’s all litter from around the community.’
Could you talk us through the process of designing and building your robots? What challenges did you face during development?
The issues down there [Texas] are different from here obviously. Down there you need stuff to be able to survive that saltwater environment — the salty air, the salt on the beaches, and everything else. When you’re picking up stuff that has fluids in it, you don’t want it leaking down the electronics and causing other failure points. You have to make them where the bearings are stainless steel and they have complete housings over them.
Down there you have barrels, every 50 feet or so. They don’t actually need to carry that much at one time. Up here, we don’t have that, unless you’re walking Downtown. There’s no trash cans anywhere, and up here we need to carry a lot of trash. At the time we’re doing like 40 gallon bags until we get them filled up, and then drop it and get the next one in.
You mentioned that you don’t get paid for this, so what motivates you to dedicate your time and effort to this?
For me it’s the design challenges involved with it. Every time I go out I look for issues with them to try to make the systems better. Then I make the videos to show people how much easier this thing makes it, even though the rigs are expensive. There’s no way to make them cheaply where they last. They’re decently expensive, and 90 percent of that cost is in the RC car itself. I make all those videos, one because turns out people seem to like it for some reason. I don’t know, they find it relaxing. But, more importantly, it shows how easy being able to pick this stuff up, put it in there is. You’re not carrying around with you. Because carrying a bucket for three or four miles, people aren’t going to do that.
Community organized pick-ups are always a lot of people, in a small, defined area picking up everything they can. Whereas the stuff I’m doing is a single individual, or sometimes multiples depending if the wife wants to go with me or other people have the systems, it’s a few people covering a lot of distance picking up primarily the plastics, the styrofoams, and stuff like that. The cardboard is more or less biodegradable. That’s not as big of a concern as picking up the plastics and whatnot.
How have Memphians responded to the Litter Buggies and what type of impact have you observed so far?
A lot of positive feedback from the Reddit page. I’m getting ready to build the next version of these systems here this week. The only way I can do that is through donations from Redditors who have said, ‘Thanks for what you’re doing. I’d like to donate a little bit of money to help do it.’ I took that money and I was able to buy the next RC car to build the next version of it. The better version than what you normally see in those videos.
The cast of "Company" gets a standing ovation on opening night at the Orpheum (Credit: Michael Donahue)
My love affair with the Broadway musical, Company, dates to the early 1970s. I bought the original cast album with my hard-earned money from working either in the book, toy, or camera department (I was moved around) at the old J. B. Hunter department store. That was long ago. Before Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library took over that store’s location.
I loved this show. It was so modern at the time with great music and lyrics by the late Stephen Sondheim. The original production featured the late Dean Jones as Bobby, a newly-turned 35-year-old man living in New York. His friends, the company he keeps, love him, but they don’t love him being single. They want him to get married and settle down. Even though not all of these friends are great examples of married bliss.
The new production, which opened in Memphis January 2nd at the Orpheum, gender switches, and “Bobby” becomes “Bobbie,” a Black woman. So, instead of making out with a woman flight attendant, Bobbie, played by Britney Coleman, has a hot night with a male flight attendant, played by Jacob Dickey. And a song about a nervous female bride-to-be is performed by a male groom-to-be (Matt Brodin), whose husband-to-be is played by Ali Louis Bourzgui.
Other concessions to the updated version include lots of cell phones.
I’d never seen the musical and I only had a sketchy idea of the plot, but I wasn’t sure a woman would be right. I was so conditioned to the lead being a man. But I loved the show. Coleman is engaging and her voice is so fabulous.
I also loved Judy McLane, who played the brassy Joanne. The late Elaine Stritch was Joanne in the original production. McLane’s dynamic voice was perfect in the powerful “The Ladies Who Lunch,” where she makes fun of the follow-the-crowd women “too busy to know that they’re fools” who flitter around the right art shows and other cultural events where they think they need to be. And wear “caftans” and hold “brunches in their own behalf.” Instead of being like the cynical Joanne, who just sits back with a vodka stinger and shakes her head, so to speak, at these phony baloneys.
This is a show that has the proverbial “songs you sing when you come out of the theater.” It was so great and nostalgic to hear them again. And you can hear every word in these songs, which are crisp and sharp. You want to listen to these lyrics because they are Sondheim at his cleverest.
Company brought back memories, for me, from the time before I went out in the world and began my actual career. I thought this musical was so hip.
Now, I better understand what I was listening to on my turntable back in the ’70s. Before I turned 35.
Company runs through January 7th.
Leslie Hester and Lavi Tsuna at opening night of Company at the Orpheum (Credit: Michael Donahue)Regina Cheers at opening night of Company at the Orpheum (Credit: Michael Donahue)Sophia Holland and Lowell Shaw at opening night of Company at the Orpheum (Credit: Michael Donahue)Alice Kerley and Kathy McLallen at opening night of Company at the Orpheum (Credit: Michael Donahue)We Saw You
A satisfying weekend of sewing, bakeries, and strategizing chess moves. (Photos: Patricia Lockhart)
It’s time for another intentional tween/teen-friendly Memphis weekend! My kids are 15, 11, 11 (twins), and 10 years old. While most weekends they are content to stay home in their pajamas and play video games, every once in a while, they’ll beg me for a good time. I try my best to find fun, safe, and wallet-friendly places for my kids to enjoy themselves. So here’s to another fun weekend!
Friday — Memphis Public Library
The Memphis Public Library is one of the most underused resources in Memphis for tweens/teens (in my opinion). Did you know that most library branches have drones, 3D printers, sewing machines, crafts, gaming systems, and so much more available for our kids? Well, they have all of those things. They also have writing clubs, exercise groups, knitting clubs, robotics teams, movie days, D&D, trivia, gardening, chess club, cooking classes, and more. And the best thing is, everything is free. I’ll say it louder for the people in the back, everything is free! I mean, if you can name it, the Memphis Public Library probably has it.
Whenever I am looking for something for my kids to do, I always check the library first. Simply go to memphislibrary.org. Next, click on ‘Events’ and then on ‘Calendar of Events’. My home library is the Raleigh Branch Library. But the Cordova, Hollywood, East Shelby, and Benjamin L. Hooks Central branches are poppin’, too!
Don’t get me started on the 901 Cloud. My kids love that place! They appreciate the Homework Helpers that help them with their homework. After they have “stood on business” and finished their work, they engage in their favorite hobbies and even play with VR goggles!
As for me, I absolutely love the Raleigh Branch Sewing Club! I have made an apron, pot holder, bag, key chain, and a catch-all bucket. I’m so proud of myself and my newly learned abilities.
Saturday — Sift Bakery
I have two clear sets of children. One set of kids is very adventurous. They love going outside to play. They are my bikers, skaters, trampoline jumpers, and builders of random things in the front and back yard. They get bored easily, but also have the greatest imaginations. After putting in a full week’s worth of ‘work’ at school, they are ready to let loose on the weekends. The other two kids, however, find value in doing absolutely nothing. If you were to ask them their perfect outing, it would include the exact same things they can do at home. In their words, “I like to do ‘at home’ stuff, but just in different places.” So when my adventurous kids complain that they’re bored, but my relaxed duo are … well, relaxing, I try to think of something to appease the adventurers without disturbing the others’ relaxed peace. And there’s only one place I can think of that will put a smile on all of their faces — Sift Bakery! My kids love nothing more than grabbing their Nintendo Switches and heading to a local bakery. We pick up some of those fancy spiral croissants, a few macaroons, and any other delicious treats Lala has baked up and head to a local park. My adventurous kids get to snack on amazing delicatessens and run around the park, while my relaxed kids enjoy their treats and don’t miss a single beat of their video games. Bada-bing! Everyone is happy!
Sunday — Memphis Chess Club
My kids enjoy a good game of chess. Scratch that … some of my kids enjoy a good game of chess. No, let’s try again … some of my kids enjoy a good game of chess as long as it’s accompanied by pizza. And there’s only one place in Memphis where they can get both a chess game and pizza. Memphis Chess Club! Upon entering, we place our order: one medium Fabi (cheese) pizza, one medium Greco (pepperoni), a basket of fries, some mac-and-cheese, a huge cinnamon roll, and a couple of beers for the adults. Next, we head to the game wall. We grab a couple of bags of chess and some random board games. Memphis Chess Club has too many games to name.
Since we are frequent flyers of the Memphis Chess Club, we have the family membership. This allows us to play all board games for free, which usually costs $5 a visit. We also get 10 percent off of everything we order! But most importantly, my kids and I can attend all chess classes for free.
But let’s get real. That’s not my favorite thing about the Memphis Chess Club. (Sidebar: I’m a pretty average player and proud of it!) They have this thing where you can ask them for a random cocktail and receive 10 percent off. A drink that contains alcohol and a discount?! What more could I want? Go to the cashier and say you want a random cocktail. They will swivel their register thingy around to you and you will push a button. That button will then randomly give you a number. That number coincides with the cocktail you will receive. It’s the best surprise ever!
Enjoy Memphis!
Patricia Lockhart is a native Memphian who loves to read, write, cook, and eat. Her days are filled with laughter with her four kids and charming husband. By day, she’s a school librarian and writer, but by night … she’s asleep. @realworkwife @memphisismyboyfriend
Happy New Year, everyone! 2024 is officially here, which means there is so much to look forward to, and so much work to do. 2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon in Chinese astrology. Chinese astrology is a traditional classification system based on the Chinese calendar that assigns an animal and its attributes to each year. The Chinese 12-part cycle corresponds to lunar years, rather than months. The Chinese zodiac is represented by 12 animals and their elements. Chinese mythology states that the Jade Emperor set up a running race for all animals to take part in. The first 12 to reach the finishing line were rewarded with a position in the lunar calendar.
In Chinese astrology, the 12 zodiac animals are each affiliated with an element — metal, wood, water, fire, earth — as they move around the zodiac cycle. When an animal reappears after 12 years its elemental affiliation will shift. For example, 2012 was the Year of the Water Dragon and 2036 will be the Year of the Fire Dragon. The dragon is the only mythological animal in this system.
In this zodiac system, wood as an element represents vitality and creativity, as well as steadiness, honesty, generosity, and calmness. The dragon represents success, intelligence, and honor in Chinese culture. The dragon is a symbol of power and wealth. Only Chinese emperors were allowed to wear imperial robes with dragon symbols. Therefore, dragons are seen as natural leaders. They can also be aggressive, ambitious, self-confident, and determined. Dragons have a strong desire to win any competition.
Those born in a wood dragon year are often full of drive and energy. They dream of changing the world and dream up creative ways to do so. If you were born in 1964, then you are a wood dragon. Those born in 2024 will also be wood dragons.
There are a lot of people who were not born in 1964, which means this is not “our” year in Chinese astrology. However, that does not mean you cannot embrace the energy of the wood dragon this year. In our Western zodiac system, we can relate to all the signs in some way and feel the movements of the planetary bodies in our lives, just as we can all embrace the wood dragon.
In 2024, all Chinese zodiac signs will experience both opportunities and challenges, as the dragon symbolizes change and adaptability in the wood element, bringing growth and renewal. The Year of the Wood Dragon is believed to be able to foster growth, progress, and abundance. The Year of the Dragon is said to bring favorable conditions for change, growth, and progress, with the dragon’s energy and the grounding influence of the wood element inspiring imagination, leadership, and new ideas. 2024 is going to be a great time for rejuvenated beginnings and setting the foundation for long-term success.
It will also be a dynamic year with opportunities for those open to change, but it may also bring conflict and uncertainty in politics, foreign relations, and the environment, emphasizing the need for forgiveness and peaceful resolutions. Perhaps the energy of the wood dragon will reach those at the highest levels and influence them to look for peaceful conclusions to ongoing events.
We can all channel the energy of the wood dragon in 2024. Each day is a chance for a new beginning if we embrace it as such. But there is something more powerful about beginning a new year. It is easier to mark on the calendar and because we’re looking at the whole year, it feels like there are more opportunities to be seized.
This 2024, let us all strive to be more like the wood dragon. Let us focus on ways to make the world a better place. I encourage everyone to reach deep inside and find your inner dragon, your inner leader, and your motivation. We don’t know what is going to happen this year, but we can start it off on the right foot, and hopefully lay the groundwork to get us through whatever challenges the dragon has in store for us. And most importantly, let’s lead with a forgiving heart because we all need a little grace.
Emily Guenther is a co-owner of The Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained Pagan clergy, and dog mom.
For all the rhythmic focus of 21st century music, where beats reign supreme, there’s one type of rhythm that remains elusive: swing. It’s nigh impossible to program machines to swing convincingly, and so it has withered in our musical landscape. But it’s not extinct, as pockets of jazz players in every city make clear. Now, one stalwart jazz pilgrim is single-handedly kicking off a revival of swinging rhythms in a very popular way.
Music lovers can hear it for themselves at the Germantown Performing Arts Center (GPAC) on Saturday, January 20th, when the show Louis! Louis! Louis! takes the stage. But at the end of the night, fans won’t be screaming the name “Louis!” — it will more likely be “Jumaane!” That would be the trumpeter, singer, and composer Jumaane Smith, who has recently been leading audiences through the glories of swinging, stomping music by way of his three greatest influences, all of whom happen to be named Louis. Taking a deep dive into the music of Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, and Louis Jordan, Smith has found a way to celebrate much of what he loves in older music without surrendering to nostalgia. The way he sees it, those artists are as galvanizing and entertaining today as they were during their heyday. In fact, they’re still inspiring his own compositions, which he blends in with the classics made famous by three guys named Louis.
Armstrong is rightly considered a pillar of all jazz who remained committed to that genre’s pop potential even as it took more esoteric turns after World War II. That’s something he had in common with Prima and Jordan as well, as all of them combined instrumental virtuosity with singing and a flair for showmanship.
“Louis Armstrong and Louis Prima were both singing trumpet players, and Louis Jordan was a singing saxophonist. And I feel as though one informs the other with the melodic choices they make,” says Smith. Beyond that, they also shared a sense of humor and embodied the notion of the complete entertainer, something Smith would like to see more of in jazz.
He would know, having performed in Michael Bublé’s band for the past 17 years. As he told Variety in 2020, that experience showed him just how popular swinging music could be. “It’s always a weird situation when people say, ‘Oh, nobody likes jazz; nobody shows up to jazz concerts,’” he said at the time. “We’re playing to 20,000 to 50,000 people a night, and half the show or more is just straight up big-band jazz.”
At the time, Smith was plugging his then-new album, When You’re Smiling, which features his interpretations of nine standards popularized by the three Louises and one original, “Sweet Baby.” But the album was released in January 2020, after which all tour plans were scuttled. Three years and one pandemic later, Smith has finally brought the show on the road. Now, “we’ve been traveling all over the States for the last year, doing this project,” he says.
Smith is especially proud of the band he’s assembled. “When I’m performing, I always try to make sure that the groove is at a very high level, and I’ve played with some of these musicians for over 20 years now. It’s really exciting to have that sort of interplay and long-term musical relationship within the band. I’ll be using Will Gorman on piano, and a fellow Juilliard graduate of mine, Luke Sellick, on bass. Our guitarist, David Rosenthal, is a supremely versatile musician, and on drums is another Juilliard grad, Carmen Intorre Jr. Then we’ll have Josh Brown playing trombone, and a young, extremely talented saxophonist from England named Ruben Fox.”
With such a band, Smith says, the swinging comes easy. “That’s where the magic really happens, when these players are all performing true to themselves within the framework of the concert. When I started this project, I had no intention of doing a nostalgia experience. The concept is, how can I allow myself to come through the parameters of this lens? This lens being the music of Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, and Louis Jordan. And when the band’s really cooking and in the groove, people in the audience start tapping their feet and they don’t know why. The feeling of the music just makes you excited in that way and makes you want to move.”
Catch Jumaane Smith: Louis! Louis! Louis! at Germantown Performing Arts Center on Saturday, January 20th, 8 p.m. Purchase tickets ($20-$65) at gpacweb.com.
Did you read about that cool thing happening in Memphis? We’re sure you probably did somewhere (maybe here), but did you actually go out and do the thing? No? That’s all right, we get it. Routines are important. They provide a warm blanket of security and reliability in what’s been a chaotic couple of years.
But there are just so many cool things happening in Memphis, and so many other cool things to see. And you’ll feel much better for having experienced them, we promise. So instead of reinventing yourself for the new year, make an effort to step outside and see some of the new experiences our city has in store. Our reporters did that, looking at new ways to interact with the Mid-South in both personal and professional capacities.
Let the Sun Shine
Reporters don’t clap.
Impartiality is the heart of what we do. I’ve never given to a political campaign or posted a candidate’s sign in my yard. I’ve never sought a board seat or even been loud and proud about any nonprofit. If I had to cover them later, my impartiality would be in question and I couldn’t do my job.
But there is one issue reporters can get behind without question: transparency. Sharing information with the public (and for the public good) is what we do. Bringing light to facts is why the Tennessee Open Meetings Act is sometimes called The Sunshine Law. It’s also why The Washington Post adopted its first-ever slogan in 2017: “Democracy dies in darkness.”
In this analogy, Memphis is pretty dark now. The process to get public information now is so broken that we might as well not even have a system at all. Getting public records takes months. Getting an interview with city administration officials (especially with the Memphis Police Department) is nigh on impossible. If you have a question about an important issue, you get a bland statement instead and should be happy about it.
I’ve whined about this for ages. That’s not a good look.
Next year, I’ll work to put my complaints into action. There are numerous groups I can support as a reporter, the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, for one. I can also continue to file open records requests and get peskier in my media requests of public officials.
Reporters don’t clap. They should push. And I aim to do just that.
— Toby Sells
T.O. Fuller State Park (Photo: Justin Fox Burks)
Memphis Road Trips!
I made a recent foray to T.O. Fuller State Park, which has great walking trails and natural areas spread over the hilly terrain of a former golf course and environs. Afterwards, on a whim, I started driving south from the park on Boxtown Road, and when I reached Sewanee Road, I just kept driving south. It was a route I hadn’t driven before and it took me through Boxtown and some interesting, ruralish parts of the city we’d never imagined existed.
It got me thinking about how many parts of the city I’d never seen, and how easy it is to just take a “road trip” without leaving the city. If you live in Midtown, venture out of your comfort zone and take Jackson Avenue north to Egypt Central and turn right, then turn right on New Brownsville Road, which soon becomes Old Brownsville Road, which takes you through some parts of “suburbia” you probably never knew existed.
Here’s another good one: Quince from East Memphis to Winchester. Also, Chelsea Avenue, from north of Downtown to the outer I-240 loop is a very interesting drive. And don’t sleep on Warford Street. Take it north off of Jackson until it turns into New Allen Road and from there goes deep into the north Memphis hinterlands.
Explore Memphis! It will open your eyes — and kill a couple of hours.
— Bruce VanWyngarden
Get a makeover from one of Memphis’ beauty professionals. (Photo: Kayla Frazier)
Glam Up
Some of my most formative memories involved all things glitz and glamor. My parents regularly treated me to silk presses at the hair shop, and I earned my first authentic Hannah Montana wig after a Libby Lu makeover at the mall.
I grew up during the peak of the beauty guru phase on YouTube. Before influencers condensed their hours-long beauty routines into bite-sized videos on TikTok, we were treated to in-depth videos helping us to perfect bold cut creases and mermaid wand curls. With this being said, I mastered the art of doing my own makeup, as well as a few other beauty-related things pretty young.
It’s a habit that I’ve practiced since I was 14, and 10 years later I’ll still opt to try my own eyelash extensions or blowouts. It’s mostly out of convenience, but recently I’ve been enamored by the immense amount of talent in the beauty community in Memphis. While it’s easy to look up a quick DIY video, it’s also nice to be pampered and let the professionals handle it.
For the new year, I’m hoping to have more beauty services done by local artists and professionals.
“We have so many talented and professional people who love what they do in our community,” says Kayla Frazier, a local makeup artist in Memphis.
Whether it’s a trim from A Natural Affair Beauty Lounge or a makeup look perfected by Frazier, I’m looking to leave my beauty needs in the hands of Memphis’ top professionals.
— Kailynn Johnson
Become the next pinball wizard at Crosstown’s Flipside. (Photo: Chris Mccoy)
Play Some Games
The music was perfect as we entered Flipside, Crosstown’s pinball bar. The jukebox was playing “Rebel Yell” by Billy Idol, an anthem from the golden age of coin-op arcades, 1983.
During the pandemic, my wife LJ and I spent many hours playing simulated pinball on our iPad. When Flipside opened, we wanted to get back to the real thing. Flipside is part of a trend of places that are more than just watering holes, offering games to accompany your pizza and beer. With a Black Lodge membership, you can munch on totchoes while you play any console game from the last 30 years or take a whirl on their vintage cabinets. (I recommend CarnEvil, the scary-clown-blasting queen of the light gun games.) Nerd Alert, a classic video game arcade, recently announced they were moving from Cooper-Young to Collierville so they could expand and add more games.
Flipside is all about pinball. On a typical winter evening, families, teenagers, and grown-ups tried their hands at classic machines like The Six Million Dollar Man from 1977, and those of more recent vintage, like the much-in-demand Foo Fighters table. I got distracted by constructing the perfect arcade playlist at the jukebox, including Rush’s “Tom Sawyer,” Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love,” and Madonna’s “Get Into the Groove,” while LJ fed tokens to the whirring, clanging machines. Turns out, playing real pinball, with all of its imperfections and foibles, is different from simulated ball physics on an ideal surface.
But with a Gotta Get Up to Get Down in the drink holster, pinball is still a blast, no matter now bad you are at it.
— Chris McCoy
Step outside and meet your friendly tree neighbors. (Photo: Alex Greene)
Get to Know Your Tree Neighbors
One simple, homespun way to put a new spin on the old familiar routines is to look for signs of a parallel universe coexisting with your perceived world. Suggested starting point: the secret lives of trees. Just outside your door there awaits (for most of us) a strange new world, complete with altered time scales, coded messages, and otherworldly beauty. You only need to look up, then recall that a tree’s roots grow as deep as its branches grow high. A root system really is a parallel universe, right under our noses.
Furthermore, according to authors like Suzanne Simard or Peter Wohlleben, all these limbed giants that make life in Memphis what it is, from summer shade to ice hazards, are talking to each other down there. Threads of fungi connect the roots of trees over acres, sending nutrients, hormones, and even alarm signals from tree to tree in sprawling interactive networks. Maybe it’s time we at least learn these talkative neighbors’ names.
Pair that with ecologist Doug Tallamy’s concept of a “homegrown national park,” composed of the sum total of all our yards, trees, and gardens laid out in a patchwork across America. It’s really a call to our imaginations, to envision each yard as a mere segment in a gigantic ecosystem, humming with communications between its species — a veritable Tree Nation. No wonder so many of our arborists, neighborhood arboretum enthusiasts, or followers of the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council have that special smile of those who glimpse the invisible threads of life in our midst.
— Alex Greene
No New Year’s resolutions required for this good boy, he claims. (Photo: Abigail Morici)
Who Let the Dog Out?
My mother is embarrassed of me. Plain and simple. She says she can’t bring me anywhere. Could it be the fact that I jump on nearly everyone I meet? Or that I pee when I’m excited to see people? Or that I pull and pull and pull on my leash? These are just mere quirks, dear mother. That’s what I told her the day I convinced her to (finally) bring me with her to Crosstown Concourse, my puppy eyes finally working. I’m a charmer, what can I say?
We started at Madison Pharmacy, an errand for her. I jumped on the counter, simply to say my hellos (also in hopes that there might be some treats, alas there were none). We then trotted past the ladies getting their nails done and I sat in one of the chairs outside the Gloss Nail Bar, for attention of course. I got some oohs and aahs, and the ladies asked if I wanted to join them. But I wasn’t falling for any tricks. No one will ever touch my nails. (Hear that?)
And then we walked and walked to the red staircase, and I wanted to go upstairs and my mom said no because she was scared I’d pee on the artwork in Crosstown Arts. She has no faith in me, I tell you. I let some people pet me and I was so good, so pretty. Even some kids pet me, and they made fun of my name. (And my mom just let them! She even agreed that my name is silly, and I’m over here like, woman, you were the one who named me Blobby. Blobby?!)
And then — oh this is the best part — we got MemPops — well, I got MemPops. I got a Pupsicle. I ate it in, like, four seconds. Count it: One. Two. Three. Four. And bam. Gone. Did I chew? No one will know. But I know that I’m going to be begging to go to more dog-friendly places in 2024. It’s going to be the year of Blobby in Memphis. — Blobby
Our writer pictured at Zoo Lights just moments before wipeout. (Photo: Courtnee Wall)
Skater Boy
My after-work routine has turned into a bit of a predictable cycle once I turn off the computer monitor at my remote “office.” Perhaps the TV might click on to replay the day’s soccer highlights or to host a quick play session of Mario Kart. Maybe there will be a restaurant visit or a stop at a brewery (probably Wiseacre HQ or Crosstown) followed by a coerced viewing of Big Brother on Paramount+ (you know who you are). It can all feel a bit rote at times, so I began to think of other things to do that could spark just a little extra bit of joy.
Thoughts quickly turned to some of the activities that 10-year-old me enjoyed doing, and in the spirit of the cold winter season, I slapped on a pair of skates and found myself stumbling about the miniature ice rink at the Memphis Zoo Lights.
As I swished (struggled) across the ice like a Mid-South Michelle Kwan, it felt almost freeing during the moments I wasn’t sticking my blade into the ground, crashing into the wall, or trying to avoid other relapsed ice skaters. In need of a new hobby to scatter the winter doldrums, I expect to lace up at least a couple more times, my own mortality be damned. The rink and dazzling lights at AutoZone Park’s Deck the Diamond event made for a pleasant Downtown holiday experience, while I’ve heard the Mid South Ice House is the best year-round option to sharpen my blades of glory. For now, this skater boy is bidding “see you later, boy,” to 2023.
Kaylyn Webster, Light Show in July, 2023; Oil on canvas.
Just a year after earning her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis, Kaylyn Webster has celebrated her first solo exhibition at a museum. Her show, titled “Commune (verb),” opened in October at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens.
“I remember like it was just yesterday, coming to field trips here,” she says. “I went to Overton High School and Colonial Middle, and we would come up here all the time and look at other people’s work, and now it’s mine up here. It’s insane to me.”
The pieces in the show, Webster explains, are portraits of her family members and close friends. “I want to humanize the figures that I painted and hopefully to also humanize people of color in general,” she says. “I want [viewers] to want to know more about these people and their stories.”
For her paintings, Webster shares intimate moments with her loved ones, from the jubilant with her nephews playing horns, clad in Nikes and Jordans, to the more vulnerable with her mother recovering from Covid at the height of the pandemic. The paintings themselves are large in scale, practically larger than the artist herself. “I really want you to feel like you’re a part of these intimate moments,” Webster says.
In composing her works, Webster channels the styles and techniques of the art she learned about in her Western art courses, the very art that historically excluded Black men and women. “I love the style of it, the realism,” she says. “I love the symbolism and the deep narratives and the scale of it. I just wanted to represent people of color using those techniques.”
Yet she adds, “I always want at least one figure looking out at viewers to engage them more in the piece, and to challenge that trend that I saw in art history of Black servants and maids just not being able to look out. It’s almost like a tool to dehumanize them, so I want the stares to re-humanize the figures.”
Only one painting in the show features a person Webster does not know, a woman who upon meeting her in her studio space at Arrow Creative handed Webster a photograph of herself. “She wasn’t going to do anything with the photo, so she allowed me to paint it,” Webster says. “I feel like you can get to know her through her smile, the wrinkles in her face, her hands. I don’t know this woman, but I was able to connect with her. I guess that’s an example of myself participating in the effect that I want to have on other people as they see the show. … I just hope people can feel the emotions for these figures that I feel for them in real life and take that empathy and respect that they have from this exhibition and extend it to people they encounter in everyday life.”
“Kaylyn Webster: Commune (verb),” Dixon Gallery & Gardens, 4339 Park, on display through January 7.
John F. Kennedy (Photo: Cecil Stoughton, White House,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy addressed Congress and proposed that the United States “commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” It was an astonishing thing to propose, but Kennedy persevered and managed to achieve NASA funding for the unlikeliest of goals. Kennedy did not live to see the dream he set in motion fulfilled, but his ambition was achieved in July 1969, with the landing and return to Earth of Apollo 11.
My New Year’s wish for Memphis is that its leaders — civic and corporate — have the courage and vision to embark upon a moonshot: to set a goal to become the first American city to successfully address its poverty problem, to change Memphis from one of the country’s poorest cities to one of its most prosperous.
I know. That seems an impossible dream, like, well, walking on the moon in 1961. Besides, if you ask the average Memphian what the city’s biggest problem is, they’ll say it’s crime, not poverty. Yes, Memphis does have a crime problem. Too many cars are being stolen, too many homes are being broken into, too many citizens are being shot and killed, too many young people are living without hope or guidance and turning to crime.
But the crime problem has publicists, and they’re pushing a 24/7 narrative that crime is everywhere. Local television news and social media are the crime problem’s biggest boosters — getting clicks, views, and readership by scaring us, day after day.
In response, politicians get elected by promising to be “tough on crime,” usually meaning they’ll hire more police and demand stiffer sentencing. That’s like pledging to put band-aids on a cancerous tumor. If those policies worked, our crime problem would be fixed by now. Get-tough policies don’t stop crime; they just fill up jails and overload the court system — and lead to the kind of police brutality that killed Tyre Nichols.
Poverty gets little TV time, little social-media buzz. No politician gets elected by pledging to “get tough” on poverty. But almost all of the city’s problems, including crime, stream from the river of poverty. The way to reduce crime is to dam the river, not the stream.
Too expensive, you say? Listen, if this poor-ass city can come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to fund football stadiums, basketball arenas, fabulous art museums, and glorious new city parks, surely we can find ways to leverage private and public funds to pay for more and better teachers, to fund a public transit system that can reliably get people from one side of town to jobs on the other, to keep children fed, to get people healthcare, to pay them an equitable wage.
Impossible, you say? Let me return you to 1961, the year Kennedy proposed going to the moon. Do you know what was happening in Memphis that year? Thirteen “Negro” first-graders were integrating our public schools. They were separated into small groups, no more than four to a school, because, you know, Memphis didn’t want to rush into things. In fact, the city initially planned to integrate its schools one grade at a time over the next 12 years — longer than it would take to put a man on the moon.
The grade-a-year plan held until 1965, when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. In 1966, all Memphis school grades were integrated, although that could mean 20 Black students at a high school with 1,500 students. And vice versa.
Let me do the math for you: Black people were enslaved in this country from 1619 until 1865. They lived under Jim Crow and segregation in this city for another 100 years, until 1965, meaning Black folks in Memphis have had 58 years to overcome the oppression that kept them from equal opportunity in employment, education, housing, and political leadership for 346 years.
This is the root of our poverty problem, which is the root of our crime problem. Our city’s leadership is Black. Most of its citizens are Black. It’s time for all of us who live here to dare to dream big. Come on, Memphis. Let’s shoot for the moon.
Steve Mulroy (Photo: Shelby County District Attorney)
Unsurprisingly, Paul Young evoked two parallel concepts in his inaugural address as mayor. He spoke of the specter of crime and its continuing threat to the community. And he spoke of that community’s crying need for a restoration of unity. More surprisingly, he rooted that unity in a memory of an almost forgotten Memphis, of a city that once was officially celebrated not only as one of the nation’s safest places but, formally, several times, as the nation’s cleanest city.
“We all feel it, the city feels like it is in a crisis. The chaos has taken a toll on our collective psyche; it threatens to derail all of the progress of what Memphis can be, we are Memphis, and the future depends on what we do right now. … Together, we can make history, we can make America’s largest majority minority city … America’s safest city. We can make that America’s cleanest city, we can make that America’s city with the fastest growing economy … it’s not going to happen tomorrow, but it will happen.”
And this is a man who asked us to remember that he entered the mainstream of life as an engineering student, who converted that aspect of his being into a knack for social and civic engineering, and who has spent many of his professional years in city and county jobs that called for the re-engineering of housing and neighborhoods — and, indeed, of urban attitudes.
Let us hope that he is thereby ideally equipped to help us remake ourselves as a people.
Another member of what we might consider a new breed of public officials is District Attorney General Steve Mulroy. The DA, too, in a year-end piece written for Tom Jones’ Smart City blog, took note of the times:
“2023 was a challenging year for us. At year’s beginning, we became global news with the Tyre Nichols tragedy. Though nothing can undo the trauma of that event, we can derive some consolation from the fact that we — all of us — handled the case swiftly, fairly, transparently, and peacefully. Memphis didn’t burn, and neither did any of the other major cities with large protests following the release of the video.
“I’m praying that we learn some lessons about reform from this tragedy. We’re generally not good at nuance, but we need to understand both that the vast majority of police are persons of good faith, and also that there are issues of culture and process crying out for systemic reform. The crime issue has eclipsed this issue in the minds of many, but we can’t forget that Tyre Nichols isn’t an isolated incident. The problem isn’t fixed, and there’s work still to do.”
The DA expressed hope “that local leaders stop pointing fingers and start joining hands to make us safer … that our public discourse stops obsessing on sentence lengths and bail amounts (which will not make us safer) and instead focuses on how to increase our crime solve rate and our recidivism rate (which will).”
At his annual holiday gathering last year, an event which attracts people of many different minds, Mulroy at evening’s end presented, instead of his accustomed finishing limerick, a song, one which addressed the community’s prevailing air of controversy and divide. To the tune of “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” his verses ended with the refrain of “Let it go, let it go, let it go.”
One of the attendees at that party was Mulroy’s longtime friend Brian Stephens, founder and president of the public strategy group Caissa Public Strategy, well-known for espousing the hopes of conservative-minded groups and political candidates.
Asked about the gap between his own political views and those of his liberal host, Stephens texted back: “Lots of people trying to do their best. Different approaches. Different ways. But it’s all the same goal. Steve is a good man. I hope he feels the same for me.”
And that’s yet another way of saying unity, isn’t it?
Based on the novel and Broadway musical, The Color Purple takes the big screen.
Alice Walker’s 1982 novel The Color Purple is a revered novel that has inspired several adaptations. Written as a series of letters to God by an African-American woman named Celie, Walker’s novel spares no details of trauma and tragedy as Celie reaches for hope and self-empowerment.
The novel was an instant hit, and in 1985, it was adapted into a movie directed by Steven Spielberg with a score by Quincy Jones. The film not only marks Whoopi Goldberg’s breakthrough role, but stars Oprah Winfrey as Sofia, Danny Glover as Albert “Mister” Johnson, and Margaret Avery as Shug Avery.
The film was a huge success in 1985, but since then, most critiques stemmed from the decision to have a white director at the center of a story with such heavy themes of Blackness, as well as the source material’s overall use of explicit language and sexual details. The effectiveness of Walker’s and Spielberg’s works are not solely measured by their ability to withstand the test of time, but how the story resonates through the years.
In 2005, a Broadway musical version of The Color Purple used both the novel and film as inspiration. The original production garnered 11 Tony Awards, with a revival winning two more in 2016. Given the musical’s popularity, it was primed to be perfect source material for a silver screen adaptation.
Director Blitz Bazawule’s new film tells Celie’s story of tragedy to triumph in a softer, more condensed way. The film opens on the Georgia coast in the year 1909, where we meet the young versions of sisters Celie (Phylicia Pearl Mpasi) and Nettie (Halle Bailey) singing “Huckleberry Pie” while playing a hand-clapping game. The innocent scene is soon shattered, when we learn that Celie is pregnant by the man she knows as her father, Alfonso (Deon Cole).
We are then transported into a powerful gospel number, “Mysterious Ways,” sung by First Lady (Tamela Mann), Reverend Samuel Avery (David Alan Grier), and the congregation. Nettie’s infectious love for life shines through in the way she joins the congregation in praise and dance. Meanwhile, Celie sits quietly and observes.
When Celie gives birth to her son (with a Whoopi Goldberg cameo as the midwife) the miracle of childbirth is cut short. Alfonso takes Celie’s baby away, telling her the child is gone. This isn’t the first time this has happened, as Celie birthed another child, Olivia, who was also taken away. It’s obvious that Celie’s view on life is impacted greatly by this; however, she finds love and comfort in Nettie who brings her lessons and stories from school.
Nettie has caught the eye of an older widower known as Albert “Mister” Johnson (Colman Domingo). Moved by this infatuation, Mister asks Alfonso for Nettie’s hand in marriage, which Alfonso refuses, and instead offers him Celie. Mister is a cruel and abusive man, who repeatedly takes his anger out on Celie, while lamenting over his mistress, Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson).
Tired of Alfonso’s sexual advances towards her, Nettie runs away and seeks refuge with Celie and Mister. However, this reunion is proved short-lived. When Nettie fights off Mister’s advances, he throws her out, too. The sisters endure another heartbreaking separation. Nettie promises to write every day. Years pass, and Celie (played as an adult by Fantasia Barrino) has yet to hear from Nettie, resulting in her questioning the goodness of God, and whether love exists for her in this world. As she continues to endure the hardships of life, primarily caused by Mister, she meets Sofia (Danielle Brooks), whose strong-mindedness and assertiveness are a bold contradiction to Celie’s demeanor. She also comes face to face with Shug Avery, who teaches her to observe the beauty of life, while learning the difference between suffering induced by God and man.
Bazawule’s iteration retains the crux of the story at its core. Most of the film’s power comes from the songs, while some significant story elements from previous versions have been omitted or toned down. We still sympathize with Celie for her hardships, but we’re not buried under the same avalanche of tragedies as we have seen in previous adaptations. Bazawule carefully works with the musical score, so as not to make a mockery of the story with song and dance numbers. Relying on the music could have potentially weakened the film, but the strength and commitment of the performers carry the day.
