The Memphis Area Transit Authority’s (MATA) Board of Commissioners voted to enter an agreement to let TransPro consultants assume interim leadership roles.
A resolution was passed 7-1 during today’s special board meeting despite open concerns from citizens. In December MATA’s board of commissioners voted 5-4 in favor of working with the city and TransPro on a contract initiating the change.
As proposed, TransPro employees would take over as interim CEO (John Lewis), interim COO (Steve Hamelin), and interim CFO (Aaron Headley). TransPro said this would be to “enhance the reliability, timeliness, and customer satisfaction of mobility services offered by MATA.”
The resolution indicated that TransPro submitted their “Phase 2 Proposal” to the city of Memphis which outlines a “comprehensive plan” for MATA addressing accountability, service quality, safety, and operational efficiency. This includes reviewing current bus routes, schedules, ridership, and more.
Prior to being approved, the resolution has prompted concerns from riders for multiple reasons such as the cost for their consulting. At the agency’s last board meeting, a board member noted that the “interim part-time CEO” would be making $400K.
TransPro’s oversight will last for eight months, will cost the city $1,298,023, and will be paid in “non-federal funds.” The bulk of the costs stem from labor, totaling $1,018,989. The firm promises their oversight will benefit MATA in many ways including accountability and financial compliance and management.
Community members agree that the agency is in need of new leadership, but believe these funds would better be allocated towards helping ridership directly.
“We have long said that MATA was more concerned about spending money on the leadership than the ridership,” Citizens for Better Service said in a statement. “We need a leadership that will put the ridership first. MATA is in need of new leadership which must begin the process of transforming MATA into a first-class public transportation system.”
Citizens also voiced their concerns during the special meeting, asking the board to consider their well-being in their decision making, while also citing their skepticism for entering a contract with TransPro.
Many also voiced their support for interim CEO Bacarra Mauldin, with some asking that the board give her more time to act in her capacity to help fix the agency’s woes.
Organizations such as Better Transit for A Better Memphis asked that MATA collaborate with them and other advocacy groups in conversations with TransPro moving forward as well.
Prior to the vote — after hearing comments from both citizens and operators — the board stated that this was a “crisis management” move and that the board was responsible for holding TransPro accountable.
A federal appeals panel on Tuesday heard arguments in a case to determine the future of Tennessee voter registration policies that — by some estimates — have disenfranchised half a million state residents with past felony convictions.
A class action lawsuit, filed in 2020 by the Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP and five voters, accuses state officials of establishing byzantine, inequitable, and onerous procedures that effectively prevent qualified voters with past convictions from casting a ballot in violation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
A federal judge in Nashville temporarily blocked the state rules in April, but the state successfully appealed to keep them in place ahead of the November 2024 elections while litigation continued.
On Tuesday, an attorney representing the Tennessee attorney general defended state voting right restoration rules before a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as a lawful exercise of state power and argued the NAACP lacked the legal right to challenge the rules on behalf of voters.
“The NVRA ensures eligible applicants can register to vote but it also exists to protect the integrity of the election process,” said Philip Hammersley, assistant solicitor general. “Tennessee’s [restoration] policy furthers both aims by providing election officials what they need to distinguish between felons who are eligible to vote and those who are not.”
Hammersley focused much of the state’s arguments in disputing the NAACP had legal standing to file suit at all.
The Tennessee civil rights organization, Hammersley argued, was too “attenuated” — or removed from direct harm by state rules that apply to individuals seeking to restore their voting rights — to have standing to sue.
“NAACP would have to show [state] policy coerced or forced individuals to go to the NAACP and enlist their help, and that is simply not what is happening here,” Hammersley said. “There are many different voluntary steps that those individuals take before the NAACP gets involved.”
“Tennessee NAACP is in the business of registering voters,” she said. “It has been in the business of registering voters for all of its storied history, and it will continue to be in the business of registering voters regardless of Tennessee’s actions.
“And when you make it harder to register voters, you make it harder for groups that are in the business of registering voters,” said Lang, senior director of voting rights for the Campaign Legal Center.
Under state law, individuals who have completed their sentences for felony convictions have pathways to regain their voting rights.
They can either obtain a pardon from the governor or petition a judge. The process also requires proof that all court fines and fees have been paid. Fewer than 1 percent of applicants succeed in obtaining court relief and fewer than 3 percent obtain clemency.
In addition, applicants have to legally regain their ability to carry a weapon.
Overall, nearly 10 percent of the Tennessee electorate — 470,000 people — have lost their right to vote due to past felony convictions, including one in five Black residents of voting age.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
Law enforcement, local advocates and liaisons are encouraging a “connect the dots” approach to ending human trafficking, while also helping those who have been victims.
RestoreCorps by Freed Life held a virtual panel Tuesday entitled “Connecting The Dots: Strengthening Communities. Preventing Trafficking.” The panel discussed anti-trafficking work and also shed light onto the current work being done in Memphis.
Panelists included Rachel Haaga, CEO and co-founder of Restore Corps; Lydia Crivens, deputy director for Memphis Child Advocacy Center; Tunnisha Deer, advocacy supervisor for the Crime Victims Rape Crisis Center; Sergeant Star Handley of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program for Memphis Police Department; Phillis Lewis, CEO of Love Doesn’t Hurt; Kristen Murray, a case manager of the human trafficking task force for the Department of Children’s Services; and Semaria Shaw, director of survivor services for Restore Corps.
Given the scope of the panelists and the organizations they represent, Haaga noted that Memphis exemplifies a sequential way of approaching the problem, with many working in proactive ways to monitor the issue, while others may work on victim recovery.
“Many of those dots have already been connected in terms of relational and organizational webbing,” Haaga said. Haaga gave what she referred to as an “oversimplified” view on the issue which is that demand creates supply in terms of human trafficking.
“Demand creates exploitation,” Haaga said. “If traffickers didn’t think there was money to be made — there’s a market to exploit vulnerable people — then they wouldn’t be in the game.”
In speaking to demand reduction, Handley said Memphis has a unique problem due to its location near two major interstates. He said this often creates consistent demand, making the city known for trafficking throughout the country.
“We as law enforcement try our best to monitor the situation,” Handley said. “Our Vice and Narcotics units go out and do a significant job to try and deter it. They do reverse sting operations, they do enforcement operations where they try to identify minors [and] frequent flyers.”
Handley added that “frequent” locations for people to solicit sexual acts include Lamar Avenue, Elvis Presley Boulevard, Summer Avenue, and Chelsea Avenue.
Officials also noted that the ways people become involved in trafficking have changed significantly throughout the years, with many using digital spaces such as MegaPersonals, Doublelist, Tag.com, and dating platforms such as Tinder.
Lewis explained that some populations tend to be more vulnerable due to their sexual orientation and identities, such as those she works with at Love Doesn’t Hurt. She said she has seen people become dependent on other people out of survival or isolation.
“A lot of times within the LGBTQ+ community you’ll have people who do survival sex in order to make sure they have a place to live because they don’t have a support system outside of [a] particular person,” Lewis said. “That individual knows that, and they exploit that.”
Shaw also said that those who exploit these individuals out of closeness and proximity can be privy to information that can move them into the “sex trafficking industry.” She also said people can enter into this behavior to help with things such as rent — not knowing the danger of the situation.
Those who don’t speak a native language and are having difficulty navigating an environment can also be at a higher risk.
Murray added that runaway youth and those with substance disorders are also at heightened risk for trafficking. She said it’s an issue that doesn’t discriminate, and they see both female and male victims.
Crivens emphasized the fact that Tennessee is a mandatory reporting state when dealing with children and minors, and encouraged people to be cognizant of changed behavior in these individuals. “If you suspect it, that’s when you report it as a mandated reporter,” Crivens said. “When you notice those changes in the children, someone else taking more interest in the child — we want you to report it. “
Crivens added that they’d rather for investigators to find that the child is safe, than for it to go unreported and the child be in harm.
The panelists encouraged the community as well as local and governmental organizations to be explicit in their line of questioning, as most people don’t see themselves as victims or survivors of trafficking. They also continued to hone in on collaboration and concerted efforts from all agencies.
“We can’t all do this work alone,” Crivens said. “We have to work with our primary agencies, our community agencies, nonprofits in the community to spread the awareness on how to recognize it — how to respond. It’s a community and a collaborative effort.”
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee called a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly on Monday, January 27th to pass his school voucher plan, though one Democrat called the move an attempt “to use an unspeakable tragedy as a public relations stunt and political leverage.”
Lee announced the move Wednesday morning, after much speculation that he would call the session. The session will focus on his signature Education Reform Act. But the governor will also introduce a “disaster relief legislative package addressing recovery needs for Hurricane Helene, as well as future natural disasters. The session will also address public safety measures regarding immigration, as the incoming Trump Administration has called on states to prepare for policy implementation.” Lee promised details of all of these in the coming days and an official call.
The announcement of the session Wednesday came with a joint statement from Lee, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge), House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville), Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), and House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland).
“We believe the state has a responsibility to act quickly on issues that matter most to Tennesseans, and there is widespread support in the General Assembly and across Tennessee for a special session on the most pressing legislative priorities: the unified Education Freedom Act and a comprehensive relief package for Hurricane Helene and other disaster recovery efforts.
“The majority of Tennesseans, regardless of political affiliation, have made it clear that they support empowering parents with school choice, and the best thing we can do for Tennessee students is deliver choices and public school resources without delay.
“Additionally, Hurricane Helene was an unprecedented disaster across rural, at-risk, and distressed communities that cannot shoulder the local cost share of federal relief funds on their own. The state has an opportunity and obligation to partner with these impacted counties and develop innovative solutions for natural disasters going forward.
“Finally, the American people elected President Trump with a mandate to enforce immigration laws and protect our communities, and Tennessee must have the resources ready to support the Administration on day one.”
Last week, House Democratic Caucus chairman Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) and Senate Democratic Caucus Chairwoman Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) condemned the idea of Lee’s special session. Here are their statements:
Clemmons:
“It is inappropriate and highly offensive for Gov. Bill Lee to pair his voucher scam with much-needed relief for northeast Tennessee families. It gives one the impression that he is attempting to use an unspeakable tragedy as a public relations stunt and political leverage with several members of our body who have opposed vouchers in the past.
“We could have and should have held a special session months ago to accomplish everything we need to do for these devastated communities, but Lee clearly and purposefully waited almost four months until he thought he had enough votes to pass his voucher scam.
“There is nothing ’Christian’ about a man who demonstrates such callous indifference to the lives of Tennesseans and the well-being of entire communities as often as Bill Lee.
“I trust that my colleagues across the aisle are incensed as I am and that they will hold the line on their opposition to a scam that would decimate public education, blow a hole in our state budget, and directly result in property tax increases in every county.”
Lamar:
“Gov. Lee’s push for private school vouchers is a direct affront to Tennessee families and taxpayers. The current voucher program in Tennessee is failing to deliver the promised benefits to students while siphoning essential funds from our public schools.
“At a time when our communities are still grappling with the aftermath of recent storms, the last thing Tennessee needs is a special session to advance a flawed voucher policy.
“If a special session is convened, our focus should be on unifying issues that directly impact our citizens: Storm recovery to ensure that all affected communities receive the necessary support to rebuild and recover, affordable housing for our working families, implementing measures to alleviate financial burdens on Tennessee households, and preventing crime.
“Using storm relief as a pretext to promote a voucher scheme is a disservice to our families and undermines the real challenges we face. We must prioritize policies that strengthen our public schools, support our communities in recovery, and enhance the well-being of all Tennesseans.”
Here’s how others reacted to the news of Lee’s special session:
• Tanya T. Coats, a Knox County educator and president of the Tennessee Education Association:
“For months, East Tennesseans have been reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. It is high time to address the needs of families and communities that are suffering.
“While the General Assembly considers measures to support those recovering from a natural disaster, they should refrain from creating a man-made disaster. Reducing the state’s support of public schools to pay for vouchers will leave local governments to try to make up the difference. They’ll be forced to decide whether to raise taxes locally or reduce services, which can mean firing teachers and closing schools.
“Small towns can’t afford to lose their public schools — where more than 90 percent of students are educated — because of vouchers. Rural communities depend on local public schools to do more than just educate their students — they serve as community gathering places and are often the largest employer. During the days and weeks immediately following the flooding in East Tennessee, public schools served as hubs for distribution of aid to hurting Tennesseans.
“Governor Lee should focus on helping our neighbors, not pushing his statewide voucher scheme backed by out-of-state special interests.”
Brent Taylor (Photo: Senator Brent Taylor
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It surely hasn’t gone unnoticed that state government is continuing to flex its muscles vis-à-vis local government in Memphis and Shelby County.
Officials aligned with the administration in Nashville are threatening outright takeover of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) system at the same time that state Senator Brent Taylor and helpers continue to implement their would-be coup d’état against the county judiciary and the office of District Attorney Steve Mulroy.
In the case of MSCS, the sudden out-of-nowhere power struggle between an apparent school board majority and first-year superintendent Marie Feagins has prompted what amounts to an ultimatum from Governor Bill Lee and the presiding officers of the state legislative chambers: Keep Feagins or else!
And Taylor has enlisted the same officials in his campaign to oust Mulroy, involving them in his bill of particulars against the DA at a press conference last Thursday that followed by a day a quickly improvised “summit” called by the senator to consider the case for a new crime lab in Memphis, something Mulroy has put forth as a major need for facilitating effective local law enforcement.
The list of invitees to the crime lab conference, styled as a “roundtable discussion,” included Tennessee Bureau of Investigation director David Rausch and a virtually complete roster of public figures, state and local, who could be considered stakeholders in the matter of law enforcement.
There was one glaring omission, however: DA Mulroy, who was not only not invited; he was not even informed of the meeting, which was held at the City Hall of Germantown and concluded with Taylor suggesting an ultimate consensus that processing of local crime data in sensitive cases could be easily expedited via an existing crime lab in Jackson, obviating the need for a new Memphis lab.
A cynic could be pardoned for assuming that the entire thrust of the meeting in Germantown was to undermine the absent DA’s call for such a lab.
There was no doubt about the senator’s minimizing motive in his press conference the next day at the Memphis Police Association headquarters. It was overtly to “reveal the causes to be considered for the removal of District Attorney Steve Mulroy.”
Taylor’s bill of particulars against Mulroy was a duke’s mixture of complaints, ranging from prerogatives asserted by the DA that could be, and in several cases were, countered by ad hoc state legislation to innovative procedures pursued by Mulroy, some of them reflecting purposes that Taylor acknowledged sharing himself.
A case of the latter was an agreement reached by the DA with Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon to allow trial court judges access to Juvenile Court records. Taylor had sponsored a bill to do just that in last year’s session of the General Assembly.
A similar instance was Taylor’s inclusion in his list of Mulroy’s declared support of gun safety referenda placed by the Memphis City Council on the 2024 general election ballot and overwhelmingly passed.
“Many of us” could sympathize with the referenda points, Taylor said, but his point was that the referenda — calling for local ordinances on behalf of gun permits, an assault rifle ban, and judicial confiscation of firearms in at-risk instances — ran counter to state law.
Sponsors of the referenda had made it clear that they called for “trigger” laws that could be enforced only if and when state law might be amended to allow them.
And there’s a further anomaly here, given Taylor’s stated goal to “Make Memphis Mattter” and safeguard the city from crime.
One has to wonder why he isn’t pursuing an altogether different strategy, one calling for a legislative “carve-out” of Shelby County from current state law prohibiting the immediate implementation of the ordinances called for by the referenda.
Such a course would be consistent with the principle of home rule; it would also be supportive of a position taken by Mulroy’s Republican opponent in the 2022 DA’s race, then-incumbent Amy Weirich, who inveighed against the iniquitous consequences of the state’s increasingly permissive stripping away of gun safety regulations.
Joce Reyome (Solo/Duo first place) (Photos: Nate Kieser)
Singer Shaun Murphy, formerly of Little Feat, had just finished her set as part of The Galaxie Agency’s “IBC Showcase,” held last Thursday afternoon at B.B. King’s Blues Club on Beale Street. During the lull between sets, my wife Vicki and I continued our conversation with the woman seated next to us. “I’ve never seen snow, before,” she said in a distinct Australian accent. “I live in Adelaide, which is in South Australia.” Snowfall at sea level is very rare, especially for a coastal Australian city like Adelaide.
The woman, wearing a Creamsicle-orange hoodie, went on to tell us that she’d visited several places in “the States,” but she hadn’t brought any cold weather clothing because she didn’t think it would get this chilly in the South. She hadn’t had time to go shopping for something warmer after arriving in Memphis.
Snow was forecast for Memphis and the Mid-South with predicted accumulations of five to eight inches. The woman had come to see a musician from her hometown of Adelaide compete in the 40th edition of the International Blues Challenge.
The Memphis-based Blues Foundation hosts the International Blues Challenge (IBC). Typically held in January, the annual event brings together blues musicians, fans, and industry professionals for what is essentially a week-long “blues convention,” featuring blues documentary screenings, roundtable discussions, award presentations, a free health fair for the musicians, showcase performances, and vocal/instrumental master classes conducted by blues veterans.
The challenge portion of IBC week featured mostly up-and-coming blues artists competing in two categories: Solo/Duo and Band. These acts came from all over North America and from around the world. The “challenge,” along with the other activities, took place around the Beale Street Entertainment District. This year, almost 200 acts from nearly 40 states and 12 countries performed in several rounds of competition. The musicians represented their local blues affiliates or sponsoring organizations — called “societies.” Many of the societies’ members traveled to Memphis in support of their artists, creating a home away from home atmosphere that, in many ways, is unique to the blues genre.
That atmosphere of home permeated everything on Beale, and the far-flung travelers created a temporary ecosystem dependent upon one element — a love of the blues. Community is key to blues music and once you were on Beale Street for IBC, it was easy to become a member of that community and feel right at home.
After all, Memphis is the “Home of the Blues.”
Following Galaxie’s afternoon showcase, we made our way down Beale, stopping in at several clubs along the way to take-in performances. More than a dozen Beale Street locales served as venues for the nightly challenges. From Blues City Café to Alfred’s, Beale was alive with the blues. Fans and supporters came together over three consecutive nights to hear great music and have a good time.
In the Corner Bar at Club Handy, we ran into an old friend and blues musician extraordinaire, Mick Kolassa, aka Uncle Mick, who was one of the judges for that venue’s Solo/Duo performers. IBC challengers are rated according to such criteria as musicianship, vocal abilities, and stage presence. John Klaver, representing the Dutch Blues Foundation, played an extraordinary set, and Vicki talked with him afterwards. Klaver is a friend of Vicki’s first cousin, Mark Zandveld, an accomplished jazz bassist from Amsterdam, and Cousin Mark had given us a heads-up that Klaver would be in Memphis for IBC. Maybe Vicki’s quick “hello” helped Klaver feel at home.
Internationally, blues music is as popular as ever, and fans (and musicians) from abroad love to visit Memphis and the Mississippi Delta. There’s a certain Memphis mystique that the world wants to experience firsthand. Australian Frank Sultana, the IBC’s overall 2023 Solo/Duo winner, came back for a visit this year. Sultana said he not only loves coming to Memphis, but that when you’re here you feel “a connection to that [early blues] era, remembering when it all happened.”
That connection to the origins of the blues, along with the mystique, also fosters a sense of community — of feeling like home.
Sultana went on to say that the “connection to the blues” now comes “from everywhere [around the world],” including his home country of Australia, which sent seven acts to Memphis for this year’s IBC.
Thursday night ended with a couple more stops to check out the music and to say “hello” to more old friends. We were feeling part of the blues community, an ecosystem fed by great music and good times.
Then the snow came.
Friday morning was white, very white. And cold, very cold. Vicki reminded me, several times, that she hates snow. “Nice to look at,” she said, “from inside.”
We finally ventured out around 1:00 p.m. and sloshed our way back to the Beale Street ecosystem through six inches of snow and slush. Workshop classes and more showcase performances were already underway. Later that same evening were the semifinal performances.
Saturday brought continued chill with some sunshine for the IBC Finals, held in the historic Orpheum Theatre. The international blues community was well represented with five acts, including two from Australia. Regarding that global representation, Bob Kieser, the publisher of Blues Blast Magazine and a recent recipient of the Blues Foundation’s Keeping the Blues Alive Award, said, “IBC has evolved into quite an international event [and] shows the continuing importance of blues in shaping artists across the world.”
Josh Hoyer of Josh Hoyer & Soul Colossal (Band first place)
Dutchman John Klaver was a Solo/Duo finalist, but Joce Reyome of Canada won that category with an incredible onstage performance. In the Band category, Josh Hoyer & Soul Colossal, representing the Blues Society of Omaha, Nebraska, took first place.
During Saturday afternoon’s performances, Nardia, a band out of Melbourne, Australia, broke into their song “Long Way From Home.” I looked around at the Orpheum’s audience and let IBC week soak in — the stellar music performances, the atmosphere, and that feeling of community.
Home can be wherever you make it, and for one week in January the worldwide blues community came home to Memphis.
For a few weeks since mid-December, the volleyball gym at University of Memphis has been transformed into a dance studio, mats taped over the court floor, with the recognizable Tigers flags and megaphones tucked to the side. Mirrors have been rolled into the end of the court. The Pom Squad and Ambush Crew have been practicing their routines there, with rehearsals ramping up to nearly every day, hours at a time, in preparation for the UCA & UDA College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship in Orlando, January 17th to 19th.
At today’s practice, while I speak with Carol Lloyd, University of Memphis’ spirit coordinator and head dance coach, the dancers warm up, one doing aerials, flipping her legs over her heads. Another jumps, knees turned out with her toes meeting to form a diamond in the air before she lands; soon, back up she springs, another brief diamond formed.
On the other side of the mat, a group goes through a part of their routine to be performed in a mere few days. Their footsteps are sharp, measured according to counts, heads turning in unison; there’s no music, but they are in sync. They lift one of their teammates in the air, effortlessly — or, so it appears to the untrained eye. Something’s off, though they haven’t quite figured out what exactly. Should so-and-so adjust her leg? Should it be bent at the knee? Lloyd asks for feedback from the athletes, pointing out collaboration’s role in their process. They run through the counts again, and again, and again, and will again many more times. This part is only a few seconds of an entire routine that they’ve been working on since November.
“It’s so detailed,” says Lloyd. “I don’t think a lot of people realize how much goes into just dancing for this minute-50 seconds.”
The Pom Squad and Ambush Crew compete in three categories: game day, hip-hop, and pom. In a game day performance, dancers recreate the live game experience with a band, fight song, Pouncer the mascot, and lots of spirit. Pom uses poms and can be a mix of hip-hop and jazz.
Last year, the team took home the national championship for game day and placed third in hip-hop and seventh in pom. That same weekend, the university’s cheerleaders won the national championship in small coed.
Winning titles isn’t unusual for U of M’s spirit squads, which include the cheer team, the Pom Squad, and the Ambush Crew, which Lloyd started last year to specialize in hip-hop during game days and compete with the Pom Squad at nationals. The cheer team holds seven national titles. The Pom Squad has 16, including nine consecutive titles from 1986 to 1994.
“It’s always harder to stay on top than it is to get there,” Lloyd says. “I always feel pressure, but pressure is a privilege almost. And they do have the pressure of [having won last year], but also we don’t really harp a lot on it.”
On the back of the mirrors that the dancers rolled into the volleyball gym, the athletes have posted a sign that says, “Go with the goal of hitting your shit, not with the goal of winning.” They even tally up how many “full-outs” they do — how many times they practice their routines as if they’re performing in front of an audience. That number will get up to the 70s by the time they leave for Orlando, the dancers say. It’s about quantifying achievements, big and small.
“In our league, everybody’s top-notch; everybody is so good and so elite,” Lloyd says. “It’s kind of hard sometimes to realize we’re one of those people, too. Especially with Memphis, because everybody knows who you are [in the college dance world] and it’s such a legacy — the Memphis dance team. Everybody knows you’re from Memphis. They look up to you; you’re a staple in dance team history.”
Photo: Courtesy Memphis Spirit
It’s a Legacy
The first national collegiate dance team championship took place in 1986, and Memphis State, as it was then, won — and it won for the next eight years.
Lloyd, a Memphis native, cheered throughout high school and was on the college’s pom team during its champion-winning streak from 1989 to 1993. She would go on to succeed her college coach Cheri Ganong-Robinson in 2004.
While, yes, winning titles marked her time on U of M’s Pom Squad, she also recalls traveling to entertain at NBA games, even going overseas. “We don’t do that any more,” Lloyd says, “and I miss some of our halftimes ’cause we used to dance for four to five minutes every single halftime and nobody left their seats. I don’t miss preparing for it because it is a lot and they do so much more now. … This sport has become so big — way more athletic, technical — so to still be one of the top teams and still keep it at that level is great.”
Other dance alumnae and current athletes agree. Bella Roy, a senior pom dancer, speaks of watching videos of older routines with alumnae at a Christmas party. “They’re like, ‘That’s me, that’s me,’ but it’s just crazy how it’s changed so much. But then, it still is so similar. It’s that crazy drive and that Memphis family; the legacy is just like no other.”
And it’s that legacy that brought Roy from Franklin, Tennessee, to Memphis initially. “I knew from a very young age, I wanted to dance in college,” she says. “Memphis has been so well-known for so long as this amazing program across the nation in the dance world, so to be a part of it is absolutely amazing.”
University of Memphis’ reputation for its dance team also attracted freshman Linda Gail Rutland. She and Roy actually attended the same dance studio back in Franklin, and now they’re on the team together, if only for one overlapping year. For both of them, dance — more precisely dancing competitively on a team — has constituted most of their lives’ passion.
“[Dancing on a team] comes to the point where, of course, you always want to win, but it’s not even about winning,” Rutland says. “It’s the memories and working for something bigger than yourself, being there for your teammates.”
“You’re all there because you chose to be there and you want to be there and you want to get better and be pushed to do good,” Roy adds. “Carol [Lloyd] is an amazing coach. She can be tough, but it’s in a good way. It’s in a great way. She gives us that tough love that we need.”
For that matter, last year the National Dance Coaches Association named Lloyd College Coach of the Year. Having accrued so many titles as a student athlete and as a coach, this one speaks to Lloyd’s particular knack for leading her teams. After all, she’s been coaching since was 18.
Today, in addition to working for U of M, she coaches for the Collierville Middle School and Collierville High School cheer teams. Before accepting her position as spirit coordinator in 2013, she also coached for U of M’s cheer team, now under the leadership of Jasmine Freeman.
“Seeing the athletes grow as individuals and as dancers, that’s always rewarding,” Lloyd says. “Plus, I mean, it’s challenging for them.”
The U of M cheer squad is known for cheers and stunts. (Photo: Courtesy Memphis Spirit)
It’s a Sport
“It’s easy to get so hard on yourself when you have all these long practices and you’re sore and ‘Oh, I can’t make it to my spot’ or this or that,” Roy says. “But then the alumnae are always like, ‘Oh, you’re flipping upside down, and you’re doing 12 turns,’ and we’re like, ‘Wait, we really are good.’”
Yet neither the NCAA nor the Office of Civil Rights, which enforces Title IX, consider collegiate dance or cheer as sports, defining “sports” as activities whose purpose is competing, not “supporting” other sports on the sidelines. But the spirit squads consider themselves athletes, training hard and competing, albeit once a year, and even though they are at every football and basketball game, they’re also at community and philanthropic events because, as they would say, they’re the “face” of the university.
While they receive some athletic benefits from the school like access to training and the athletic mental performance department, U of M’s athletics website doesn’t list the Pom Squad, Ambush Crew, or cheer team under women’s sports but instead offers a link in a sidebar, along with athletic news and a composite schedule, suggesting that their status as a sport is in limbo even at their home in Memphis.
As it is, the spirit teams have to fundraise for the majority of their budget. Each year, the dancers and cheerleaders put on a golf tournament, host dance and cheer clinics, sell popcorn, offer appearances, and more.
“It takes about $120 to $140 thousand each year to cover everything that we need,” Lloyd says. For reference, according to CNBC, U of M’s athletic program is worth about $148 million. That puts the school third among the American Athletic Conference, behind East Carolina University ($153 million) and the University of South Florida ($150 million).
“We’re constantly looking for other ways to make money for them so they don’t have to keep fundraising,” Lloyd says.
The spirit squads also don’t have a dedicated facility, which can add another strain on the budget and affects efficiency. The cheer team practices at an All-Star gym out in Collierville, and the Pom Squad and Ambush Crew have bounced around for the past few years, last year renting a church gym and this year using one of the university’s rec gyms until the volleyball gym opened up. “This is my fourth year, and this is our third facility that we’ve been in,” Roy says.
For each practice in the rec gym, the athletes had to tape down the 10-paneled floor mats they dance on, take up the tape back up, stack the mats on the side, and store away the mirrors and all their props like the megaphones and flags because it’s a shared space. “And that tape is extremely expensive,” Lloyd adds. “We need a facility for us.”
Rutland puts a positive spin on it: “Even though we don’t have our own facility and sometimes it is a pain, doing it with your teammates, honestly, we bond.”
University of Memphis’ spirit squads perform at every football and basketball game (men’s and women’s). (Photo: Courtesy Memphis Spirit)
It’s a Family
At today’s practice, where 20 dancers are in the pom routine being rehearsed, a few who aren’t in the number have joined to cheer their teammates on. This is typical, Lloyd says. “It’s a good group of people. They’re grateful, very respectful. They’re hella talented. They’re supportive, and that’s important with anything.”
While we speak, Lloyd will interrupt with brief corrections and praises for the individual dancers, her eyes constantly roving the mat filled with multiple performers. “When you know that someone is struggling in a certain part, you’ve got to scream for them,” she says to her athletes. “If everybody gets in their head, start yelling. The mat talk is what’s going to help everybody.”
And so they scream and shout, and so does Lloyd. “This is their family,” Lloyd says, noting that out of 43 team members who are on Pom Squad and Ambush Crew, only four are local.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” Rutland says. “I got here and I don’t want to leave. It’s only my freshman year.”
In a few days, Rutland will compete in her first showcase. “I’m so excited,” she says. “Scary, freaked out, I’m so excited.” She’ll compete in the game day category. “It’s like a big party. We really just have fun the whole time. I love cheering on the school and being at the football games and the basketball games and everything, so I just can only imagine how that will feel on the nationals floor.”
Roy, meanwhile, is competing in game day, pom, and hip-hop this year, her last year competing. Hip-hop, she says, has been the dance style that has challenged her the most but the one she’s most grown in since her freshman year. “I’ve learned so much from [Lloyd] and the upperclassmen, and then Ambush Crew took it to another level,” she says. “Everybody knows Memphis hip-hop in the college dance world, so to go out there and be a part of that is so special and fun.”
Memphis has consistently placed in the top four of the hip-hop division since the division started at the competition. “It’s very captivating, telling a story, being very much like, ‘This is us, we are who we are, watch us do our thing,’” Rutland says of the Pom Squad’s hip-hop routines.
“I feel like, too, it kind of ties into our T-shirts that say, ‘I am Memphis,’” Roy adds. “Like, ‘I am the city of Memphis.’ ‘I am Memphis Pom Dance Team Ambush Crew.’ ‘I am a part of this legacy.’
“But that first time my freshman year after we finished hip-hop for semis, when I did my last little smackdown and looked up, I just held my ending pose for at least 10 seconds,” Roy recalls. “It was that moment where I was just, ‘This is what I’ve dreamed of for so long. And I don’t want to leave.’ I was like, ‘I just did this.’ And then last year, that was always my lifelong goal to win a national championship. And to say that I actually did it is crazy, but it’s so worth it. Since I was little, that’s what I wanted.”
Now, as Roy, a supply chain management major, looks to life after college, she says, “Since I’ve danced for so long, I think it’s going to be hard, that transition after college, figuring out what I’m going to do with my life. It’s been school, dance, school, dance, school, dance forever, so it’s hard to imagine a life without it, but I think I’ll continue taking dance classes here and there, doing a normal job. I have found a big passion, though, in teaching dance.”
Roy thought about professional dance in the NBA or NFL, a path that some alumnae have taken, so has Rutland, but neither are sure. “I’m set on living in the moment and enjoying my time here,” says Rutland, a finance major.
Photo: Courtesy Memphis Spirit
It’s Game-Time
The spirit squads traveled to Orlando for the UCA & UDA College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship on January 15th, both the dance and cheer teams on the heels of last year’s wins. “We’ll stay true to what we do,” Lloyd says, “just being authentic to our culture. We’re very diverse. We’re a lot of fun, but we’re also very gritty, tough, and still dominating. We don’t try to do what other people do.”
When it’s all over, they’ll fly back on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the semester begins the next day. “I’m gonna be so tired,” Roy says, “but I would say I’m still kind of on a high a week after because I get to look at everybody’s videos and see how everybody did.”
The season won’t be over after the championship; the athletes will still perform at basketball games and other events, the spirit squads’ seasons lasting all school year.
At the end of each practice, of which there will be more, the dancers come together in a circle and link pinkies. “Seniors or captains will give a little wrap-up of practice,” Roy says, “just to get everybody in a good headspace before we leave, and then we say the Lord’s Prayer.” The prayer then leads into a chant: “Five, six, seven, eight, whoo, MPDTAC.”
The MPDTAC would stand for Memphis Pom Dream Team (and) Ambush Crew. And, yes, the DT stands for dream team — not the expected dance team — because, according to Lloyd, she’s always coaching the dream team, win or lose.
Follow the Memphis Pom and Ambush Crew here and cheer team here.
The MEMernet was wild for the white stuff last weekend. It was that “good snow,” making snowmen, snowballs, and snow sledding all easy and fun and driving not so dangerous.
“These children give added meaning to ‘birdie’ while taking flight Saturday above the Overton Park golf course,” said Tom Bailey on Facebook.
The Memphis Zoo’s socials were blown up last weekend. Reels showed tigers playing, a grizzly bear rolling in the snow, and Babu, a mandrill, knocking over a snowman.
Posted to Facebook by Memphis Zoo
There was also lots of love out there for the often-maligned city and Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW). Redditors tipped their hats to MLGW’s tree-trimming efforts, which helped to keep the lights on, and to the city for keeping the roads clear. Wow.
CA for Arts?
Posted to Facebook by Jay Etkin
Art gallery own Jay Etkin wants to turn the former Commercial Appeal building on Union into the Flow Museum of Art & Culture. Etkin said he is in talks with city, county, and state leaders on the idea.
The building is on the auction block at the end of the month. Another idea would turn the building into a vocation training center for youth (see here).
Anthony Pacheco, Sam Barlow, and
David Hamilton of Sam Barlow & His True Blue Band (Photos: Michael Donahue)
Elvis fans turned out in chilly weather to pay homage to their King.
Though it was the day after Elvis’ 90th birthday on January 8th, out-of-town fans remained in Memphis and visited the various exhibits, including the new “90 for 90 Exhibit,” which features Elvis clothing and other memorabilia and artifacts.
Kala Morris, Logan Morris, and Tori HutsonSinclair and Jean Walker and Eric Hall Lisa Vible and Penny Hendrix Shane Marshall Tessa Jensen and Megan Kurz Lauren, Samuel, and Steven CalmasBonnie Carmack, Dottie Smith, and Dottie Whalen
The birthday celebration, which ran through January 11th, included a birthday cake, a Proclamation Day Ceremony, live concerts at the Graceland Soundstage, dance parties, special tours, and panel discussions.
Jessica Herring and William Hill Crystal Vazquez and Tonya Brown Kylan Owens and Sally FracchiaJames and Cody WoodsKaren Dyas and Dana BallRick Button Ruby Jackson and Crystal Harris Elvis’ gold lamé suit
A threat of snow, which became a reality January 10th, apparently didn’t deter the loyal fans. The only snow the truly avid fans probably had on their minds was — according to Google — “When the Snow Is on the Roses,” which Elvis sang in a live concert in 1970; “Snowbird,” which he covered in 1970; and “On a Snowy Christmas Night,” which the King recorded in 1971.
Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to ashes. (Photo: MMPhoto21 | stock.adobe.com )
And the lights of L.A. County They look like diamonds in the sky … — Lyle Lovett
As I write this, devastating wind-fed fires have killed at least 25 people and swept through 40,000 acres in the greater Los Angeles area. If you’re looking for a size comparison, that’s equal to a fourth of the acreage of the city of Memphis burned to the ground — an area equal to Downtown, Uptown, and everything inside the beltway. Thousands of people have lost their homes. Hundreds of schools, churches, businesses, studios, and iconic architectural structures are gone. Entire neighborhoods are reduced to ashes.
Los Angeles County officials characterized the fires as a “perfect storm” event in which hurricane-force gusts of up to 100 miles per hour prevented them from deploying aircraft that could have dropped water and fire retardant on the drought-ravaged neighborhoods when the fires first broke out. The combination of the winds, unseasonably dry conditions, and multiple fires breaking out one after another led to the widespread destruction.
But as L.A. firefighters battled the flames, disinformation was spreading like, well, wildfire: One theory pushed by right-wing media was that the blazes were raging because fire-fighting personnel were led by a lesbian fire chief and the department utilized DEI hiring criteria. X account Libs of TikTok, known for spreading anti-LBGTQ rhetoric posted: “DEI will get people k*lled. DEI MUST DIE.” Donald Trump Jr. said that donations the Los Angeles Fire Department sent to Ukraine in 2022 were somehow related to its response to the current fires.
Not to be outdone, the president-elect himself posted a deluge of misinformation on Truth Social, including this: “Governor Gavin Newscum [sic] refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snowmelt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.”
And what’s a good tragedy without a trash take from Alex Jones, who posted that President Biden had grounded firefighters and that the fires were being spread as part of a “globalist plot to wage economic warfare”? First Buddy Elon Musk responded to Jones’ tweet in a now-deleted post with one word: “True.”
None of it was true. The level of diversity in L.A. Fire Department personnel is typical of most urban fire departments in the U.S. The Southern California reservoirs were full, above historic levels. Water intended for the city was not diverted to save a fish called the smelt. Some hydrants went dry because they were intended for use against urban fires — houses, buildings in a self-contained area for a limited time — not wild-blown wildfires spreading over many acres for many days.
Janisse Quiñones, chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said, “We are fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that is an unprecedented kind of event.” Quiñones added that experts have seen wildland fires move into urban areas only in the last 10 to 15 years and that they’re still figuring out how to address it.
“The way that firefighting has traditionally been, there are wildland firefighters and agencies, and then there are urban firefighters and agencies,” she said. “Are we having wildland firefighters fighting fires in urban areas or the reverse? Sometimes the approaches are really different.”
All this brings to mind an interview with Denzel Washington I saw last week. When asked about today’s media, he said: “If you don’t read the newspapers, you’re uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you’re misinformed.”
He went on: “What is the long-term effect of too much information? One thing is the need to be first. … We live in a society where it’s just, get it out there, be first! It doesn’t matter if it’s true, who it hurts, who it destroys, just be first. So what a responsibility [the media] have — to tell the truth!”
To which, I would add: What a responsibility you and I have — to seek out the truth, and to learn not to blindly swallow the first piece of information offered, no matter who offers it, no matter how it tickles your confirmation biases. A hot take is seldom the best take.
