Author: Abigail Morici

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Magician Hayden Childress Performs at Halloran Centre

Hayden Childress (Photo: Courtesy Orpheum Theatre)

“Want to see a free mind-reading trick?” magician Hayden Childress asks on his website. “Whatever you do, DON’T read this sentence. Amazing isn’t it? You couldn’t help read but the sentence! Also, you probably didn’t notice ‘but’ and ‘read’ were switched in the sentence above, did you? Magic!”

“Is this some kind of mind game?” you might ask. “Surely, this isn’t ‘magical.’” Well, according to Childress, “Magic is just inherently tricks on your mind, something that’s messing with your perception of the world.”

But Childress’ on-stage tricks go beyond switching words around in a sentence. He prefers to use everyday, practical props. “Like, I might borrow a phone from the crowd,” he says. “Everything I do is very interactive. A lot of it involves me bringing a person up. It’s sleight of hand, comedy, and psychology with a lot of these tricks — messing with how people think or the decisions they’re going to make.”

And if you think that there’s no way someone can trick such a smarty as yourself, think again because Childress has been practicing his sleight of hand since he was 10. “I got into [magic] the same way most people got into it,” he says. “I saw some magic on television. Right away I went to the public library and picked up a bunch of books on magic and studied them front to back. And when I was about 11, there was a magic shop at a shopping mall about an hour from where I lived. I used to go there, and the magic shop owner saw that I was really into it and just let me work for tips doing tricks outside the shop. I would walk up to people at a table in the food court and say, ‘Hi, can I show you a magic trick?’ I did that pretty much every weekend.”

Childress also picked up gigs in high school, working parties. “I knew I could make some money doing it,” he says. “I wasn’t sure how doable it was to do it full-time because I didn’t know many people who did it at the time.” So, by his late teens, he was stuck between choosing college or pursuing magic, but as fate would have it , two established and successful full-time magicians (one of whom was David Copperfield), upon meeting him, advised him to do both. “Because if you fail with the magic, you have a fallback of a normal career so that way you can take more risks.”

So, instead of going to college parties, Childress took any gig that he could while pursuing his degree in business. Oddly enough, some of his business lessons have applied well to his magic — particularly in learning about consumer behavior, he says. “So like how does Amazon make you buy this brand of pen? A lot of it is the same psychology. Like how did Hayden make me think of ace of hearts? It’s kind of like using those same techniques in the show, but I use them for magic. It’s less marketable but it’s more fun.”

Now a full-time magician, Childress says of his work, “I hope that after someone sees it that it might make them think of the world differently. But if they don’t, they can just enjoy any magic trick.”

Hayden Childress, Halloran Centre, Friday, May 20th, 8 p.m., $28-$35.

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“Alice’s Adventures at the Garden” Opens at MBG

The Red Queen playing her twisted croquet. (Photo: Abigail Morici)

Dear reader, do you, by chance, know how to lure a white rabbit into your presence — specifically a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat with a pocket watch? I ask, not because I want to do some weird taxidermy project, but because I’d like to follow one to Wonderland. I mean, wouldn’t you go if you could? And what if you could go, just by driving to the Memphis Botanic Garden? And what if you drove there and in the parking lot found a bottle labeled “Drink Me” — would you drink it?

Your answer better be no because you shouldn’t be trusting random liquids found in parking lots, but unlike Alice, you don’t need to consume unknown substances to shrink down to a wee size to get into Wonderland since, once you’re inside the garden, you’ll immediately feel shrunken as you come face to face with the larger-than-life whimsical characters from Alice in Wonderland.

This mosaiculture exhibition has four main features: Alice, the Red Queen, card guards and pawns defending the royal chess set, and the Cheshire Cat. Mosaiculture, the garden’s executive director Michael Allen says, uses bedding plants to “plug” into steel frames, creating topiary-like sculptures.

The sculptures, which require daily watering and weekly trimming, come from the Atlanta Botanical Garden, where they premiered in a more extensive exhibition. “[The steel frames had] been in storage for about a year,” Allen says, until coming to Memphis in climate-controlled trucks. Once in Memphis, bedding plants, suitable to Memphis’ climate, were added. “It’s a little thin now but what will happen is these will grow and spread out and become more full,” Allen says, adding, “We’ve hired a team of three staff members just to take care of these for the six months or so that we have them planted.”

Throughout the year, the garden will host various Alice-themed events, like Saturday storytimes for kids, adult education sessions, monthly drop-in craft and activity stations, a family tea party, and even a Rose & Croquet party in June. Plus, starting this Thursday, May 12th, the garden will introduce its Twilight Thursdays, during which it will be open late until 8 p.m. for dog-friendly hours with food trucks and cocktails as well as special performances. After Halloween, the plants will be taken off the structures and lights will take their place for the garden’s Holiday Wonders Light Show.

For more information and for a full schedule of special events and programming, visit membg.org/alice. Follow the garden’s social media for updates.

“Alice’s Adventures at the Garden,” Memphis Botanic Garden, on display through 2022.

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Art Art Feature

On View at the Metal Museum: “Evaluating Essentials”

Becky McDonah (American, b. 1972), "Reoccurring Rejuvenation: A Reliquary for the Shower Curtain, Toothbrushes & Dental Floss," 2019. Sterling silver, brass, shower curtain, toothbrushes, dental floss and cutters, glass. (Artwork and photo courtesy of the artist.)

Disposability rarely aligns itself with sacredness. Consider latex gloves, masks, wipes, Kleenex, empty sanitizer bottles — all disposable objects that we turn to out of necessity but that now sit at the bottom of our trash cans or forgotten in grocery baskets or dropped onto asphalt parking lots, waiting to be picked up by the wind as we buy their replacements. These are objects that are easily taken for granted until they are unavailable — that’s when they become sacred, as we all have learned during this pandemic.

But for artist and metalsmith Becky McDonah, these objects hold importance outside of the moments when they are scarce. Instead of letting go of an empty bottle of hand sanitizer that served her in a time of need, she has taken the time to honor that object, quite literally, by placing it on a pedestal adorned with delicately placed turquoise, copper, and brass. In fact, her “Evaluating Essentials” exhibition at the Metal Museum contains reliquaries just like this one, all with elaborate and skillful metalwork enshrining everyday objects, a distinct departure from reliquaries that ensconce relics deemed to be holy and above the ordinary.

Becky McDonah (Courtesy Becky McDonah)

“From car tires and applesauce cups to pill bottles and shower curtains,” McDonah says, “I would like the viewers to take the time to stop and think about little things that have an impact on their lives or the lives of others around them.”

“I am influenced by the idea of the ‘sacred’ object but then deviate to think about things that we may be extremely thankful for at specific times in our lives, or always,” the artist continues. “Taking heart medication might be a helpful or harmful approach to improving our health depending on who you ask, an empowering book may be a way to access confidence or take you on an adventure, a mask can protect you from breathing harmful particles, and when you desperately need a tissue you are grateful when it is provided. These situations all carry stories or memories along with them, and I am hoping to release some of those using the items contained.”

The chosen items also carry personal connections to McDonah. “I wouldn’t just use any car tire or shower curtain. These items come from specific places or people,” she says. “When I design a piece, it always has a personal meaning for me at some level, but my goal is that it is also something that can resonate with others and they are able to bring their own personal experience to the piece.”

McDonah, who heads the fine art metals program at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, has been making these reliquaries since 1997. “The death of a family member had me contemplating the rituals surrounding the circumstances and thinking about how much emphasis is sometimes placed on the remains of the individual when the body no longer houses the essence of that person,” she says. That first piece, titled Preservation of the Core, was a small-scale coffin holding a painted apple core at rest in its satin lining.

Becky McDonah (American, b. 1972), “Silky Security: A Reliquary for a Blankie Tag,” 2017. Copper, sterling silver, enamel, glass. (Artwork and photo courtesy of the artist.)

Although the artist has generally stayed within the reliquary format since then, McDonah consistently pushes herself to incorporate a new technique in each piece. She also works with a variety of materials in addition to the main component of metal. “The other materials are usually things that complement the contents whether that may be something that is associated with it in its typical environment or materials chosen for more formal reasons, like to accent the color or texture,” she says. For instance, in Reoccuring Rejuvenation which honors a shower curtain in a pendant, dental floss is braided to form the necklace’s chain and toothbrush heads flank either side of the pendant. 

Notably, though, these details and even the honored object may not register to the viewer at first glance. At first glance, Panic Purchase might seem like an interestingly decorated jar, but a prolonged look reveals that tiny toilet seats rest on the lid with a metal rim engraved to look like perforated toilet paper.

As an anecdote, McDonah mentions one piece not in this show that contained toenails inside a thumb-shaped reliquary. “This piece was about relationships, and I collected toenails from family and friends to contain in it,” she says. “The closeness of the relationships went both ways as to them being willing to give or mail me their toenails and for me actually having to work with them. I was playing with the ability of a container to elevate the objects contained, and it worked. A group of people were looking at this piece and one person dumped the container upside down and the toenails fell to the floor. They all automatically went down to the floor and scoured it, picking up the fallen toenails of people they had never met!”

Though that was an unusual experience for one of her shows, the effect gratified the artist, showing how easy it is to get swept up in the beauty of the container that suggests a degree of reverence before realizing the ordinary nature — or in the case of the toenails, the gross nature — of the object that is being uplifted. “Disgust is not the typical response that I would like to bring up in my audience,” McDonah says, “maybe a little surprise and a chuckle, followed by them contemplating the contents and what memories it may bring up for them or why it has a place of importance within the piece.” “Evaluating Essentials” will be on view at the Metal Museum through May 15th. McDonah will give an artist talk at the closing reception that day from 3 p.m.-5 p.m. Admission to the reception is free, with a suggested donation of $8 per guest. Register here.

Becky McDonah (American, b. 1972), “Vexing the Virus: A Reliquary of Hand Sanitizer and Nitrile Gloves,” 2021. Copper, brass, turquoise, glass, nitrile gloves, hand sanitizer. (Artwork and photo courtesy of the artist.)
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Art Art Feature Fashion Fashion Feature

Memphis in May Returns in Style

Credit: Accra Fashion Week/Memphis In May International Festival

Note: Though the culture of Ghana is more than some governmental policies, the Memphis Flyer and the author do not support the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and human rights violations occurring in Ghana. For more information on this issue, read “Honoring Ghana, Malawi Troublesome for Some In Local LGBTQ+ Community,” and visit LGBT+ Rights Ghana’s website, a cyber activism blog raising awareness of LGBTQ+ issues in Ghana and throughout Africa.

Absent for the past two years, Memphis in May International Festival is back and ready to celebrate the culture and history of the Republic of Ghana. While, of course, you can expect the usual smattering of exhibits and educational opportunities, for this year’s festival, Randy Blevins, the festival’s vice president of marketing and programming, is especially excited for two events: Ghana Live! Riches & Rhythms and “Kente & Kitenge: The Fashions of Ghana.”

Ghana Live!, Blevins says, “is going to be a very entertaining evening of authentic music from the nation of Ghana.” The Thursday night show at the Orpheum will begin with performances by the National Dance Company of Ghana, telling the story of West Africa, and will conclude with a performance by Okyeame Kwame, one of Ghana’s leading highlife musicians. “The highlife music,” Blevins says, “is that colorful, kind of calypso sort of sound. It’s very upbeat and makes you think of a tropical paradise. You’ll bounce right out of the Orpheum.” Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online.

As for the “Kente & Kitenge” fashion show on Saturday, Blevins says, the Memphis in May Festival has not had a fashion show, at least since he’s been with the organization. Organized in partnership with Nana Tamakloe, founder of the popular FashionGHANA blog and of Accra Fashion Week, the show will feature, as Tamakloe says, “designers that are very Ghanian-centered with a more modern twist — in fact, I’d say more of a futuristic twist. We are looking at the future of African fashion.”

 The four designers, who were also featured in the Accra Fashion Week, include Broots Fashion, FashionGHANA, Style by Magbrien, and Red Cotton Boutique. Broots Fashion, a relatively new brand operating in Ghana, blends African print with funk. “When I say funk,” Tamakloe explains, “I’m literally referring to American funk, like when you go back to the ’70s. They’re taking that and blending it with the African culture, and they have this whole retro people-power thing behind their brand.” Meanwhile, Style by Magrien focuses on more high-end, couture clothing, and Red Cotton Boutique creates “free-flow” pieces for “the mature woman.” “Most of their clients are diplomats and businesswomen,” Tamakloe adds.

The FashionGHANA collection, called the “Direction Collection,” is by Tamakloe’s company of the same name. The collection is sort of a blueprint for designers to take inspiration from when creating pieces for mass production. “It comes out of the experience of trying to advise designers who showcase at the Accra Fashion Week,” Tamakloe says. “Most of the artists are caught up in the art, which is nice, because they’re very artistic. … But we’re trying to advise them to keep their creativity in a way that keeps a minimal end of production [i.e. by keeping costs down through simpler, more stream-lined designs].” In doing this, Tamakloe hopes, more Ghanian designers and African designers, in general, will have access to a larger market and influence. 

Overall, since starting the FashionGHANA blog 10 years ago after working as a music-producer-turned-modeling-agent in the U.K., Tamakloe’s goal has been to promote African and Ghanian fashion. “When I came to Ghana, I realized there was so much that could be done for the fashion industry,” he says. “We’re looking at a time when Instagram was not there, so many creators were unknown. FashionGHANA was a window into African fashion as a whole. … We were the first African blog to receive one million followers on Facebook.”

Tamakloe will be in Memphis for the “Kente & Kitenge” show and says he is excited to celebrate the 10th year of FashionGHANA in Memphis. “It’s a beautiful coincidence that this is happening,” he says.

Tickets for the fashion show at the Hilton Hotel East, Saturday, May 7th, 11 a.m., can be purchased online for $65 and will include brunch and champagne. For more information on this year’s Memphis in May and its accompanying events, visit memphisinmay.org. 

Some other events and exhibitions of note include:

  • “Where I Come From,” exhibition of work by Ghanian artist Theresah Ankomah, whose creations allow her to reflect her origins and story. Register online for the opening reception on May 7th at 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. | Urevbu Contemporary, on display Thursday, May 5th-May 31st
  • 2022 Black Star – Black Tie Gala, celebrating the Ghanian history and culture with an exclusive menu, dancing, and entertainment. | Renasant Convention Center, Friday, May 6th, 6:30 p.m., $350/ticket
  • Durbar Ceremony, at which His Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, king of the Asante Kingdom, will address the public in this traditional ceremony, including a procession and dancing. | Beale Street, Saturday, May 7th, 1 p.m., free
  • Cuisine of Ghana, a full five-course dinner created by visiting Ghanaian chef, Jove Ansah. Reservations must be made by calling Chez Philippe at (901) 529-4000. | Chez Philippe at the Peabody Hotel, Saturday, May 7th, 7 p.m.
  • Taste of Ghana, an evening of Ghanaian music by Obruni Dance Band, authentic small plates and soups, shopping from artists and craftsmen, and listening to and sharing personal stories from the local Ghanian community. | Museum of Science & History, May 7th, 6 p.m.- 8 p.m., $20/youth, $35 adult
  • Indie Memphis Film Series, screenings of films as part of an ongoing “Global Lens” series. Featuring The Burial of Kojo, Sankofa, and Queen of Glory. | various locations, Wednesdays, May 11th, May 18th, and May 25th, 7 p.m., $12
  • “Beautiful Metals of Ghana, Adornments, & Wearables,” exhibition featuring metal objects exploring the culture and craftsmanship of Ghana. | Metal Museum, on display through May 31st
  • “Contemporary Art of Ghana,” exhibition featuring contemporary works by artists from the Artist Alliance Gallery, Accra. | The Goodwyn Gallery at Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, on display through May 31st
  • “Every Human Being is a Human Being,” exhibition exploring Ghana’s role and contribution to trans-Atlantic slavery. | National Civil Rights Museum, on display through May 31st
  • “Isaac Hayes: Black Moses Gives Back,” exhibition showcasing Hayes’ unique dashikis collection and humanitarian work in Ghana. | Museum of Science & History, on display through July 31st
  • “Palms & Plants of Ghana,” live exhibit of flora from Ghana, including rare Sansevieria, Euphorbia, and Kalanchoe. | Memphis Botanic Garden, on view through the season; no admission required.
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Literally Literary

Past exhibiting authors (Photo: Courtesy Memphis Public Libraries)

Are you an overdue book? ’Cause you have fine written all over you. And if that pick-up line doesn’t make you want to check out your nearest library, I don’t know what will. Seriously, that’s the only pick-up line I have left in circulation. Maybe, I should just let Memphis Public Libraries (MPL) speak for themselves; the competition is really stacked against me when it comes to them. Take for instance their motto for this year’s Bookstock festival: Come Back Stronger. With a line like that, you just know they’re ready to impress.

And impress, they will. For its 10th anniversary, the family-friendly festival will feature 60 local authors for book-signings and meet-and-greets. New York Times bestselling author Richard Grant will be a keynote speaker and will talk about The Deepest South of All, a part-history and part-travelogue about Natchez, Mississippi. Additionally, University of Memphis professors Susan O’Donovan and Beverly Bond will speak about their book Remembering the Memphis Massacre. For teens and kids, two local authors will facilitate presentations and Q&As: Erica Martin, who wrote And We Rise, a collection of poems about the Civil Rights Movement, and Ali Manning, founder of Food Science 4 Kids and author of the children’s book Can I Play With My Food?

But the day will have even more than just books, says Wang-Ying Glasgow, MPL adult services coordinator. That’s not to minimize the importance of books, of course — after all, books immerse readers in different times, places, and points of view. Hence, Bookstock will showcase different cultures with Latino music, Mongolian and Tibetan dances, a Japan outreach initiative, and a “Memphis in May Salutes Ghana” exhibit, which will include books all about Ghana and even a few giveaways.

In addition to the cultural groups, some Memphis cosplayers will dress up in different period costumes, but, Glasgow adds, “We encourage everybody to dress up in costumes, too, as their favorite book characters.”

The day will also have food trucks, Cloud 901 tours, a poetry workshop and creation stations for teens, and a balloon artist and storytime for kids. “There’s something for everyone.”

At the end of the day, Glasgow hopes that Bookstock attendees can leave inspired — inspired to read and learn, and maybe even inspired to write. As an anecdote, Glasgow mentions a woman who went to Bookstock one year and became inspired to finally finish her novel. “The next year she came back as one of the exhibiting authors,” Glasgow says. “We say everybody has a story and everybody can write a book to share their story.”

For a full schedule of the day’s happenings and a list of exhibiting authors, visit memphislibrary.org/bookstock.

Bookstock: Memphis Area Authors’ Festival, Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, Saturday, May 7, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., free.

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Metal Museum’s Whet Thursdays Return

Ring by Stacey Lee Webber (Photo: Metal Museum)

If ABBA can come back after a 40-year hiatus, so can the Metal Museum’s Whet Thursdays. Admittedly, Whet Thursdays return every summer, but that doesn’t make this comeback any less special. After all, like ABBA, the museum is ready to embrace your inner ’70s-dream-self with a themed night of Soul ’70s and dressing in your best garb from the disco era.

For this free event, attendees can enjoy an outdoor performance by the five-piece band Soul & Parliament, which blends Motown, funk, and modern R&B. Plus, Opera Memphis will perform during the band’s intermission. Food from Pok Cha’s Egg Rolls and MemPops as well as refreshments from Tipsy Tumbler, which will include a signature ’70s-themed cocktail, will be available to purchase. Guests can also expect lawn games, metalsmithing demonstrations, hands-on activities, and, of course, free admission to the museum and its grounds.

Current exhibitions include “RINGS! 1968-2021” and “Evaluating Essentials.” “RINGS!” features more than 160 rings made of a variety of materials from wood and metals to Keurig cups and found objects. In terms of jewelry, Brook Garcia, collections and exhibitions manager, says, “Rings especially have such deep meanings: engagement rings, wedding rings, graduation rings.” And Garcia points out how rings are also more intimately placed on the body than, say, an earring or a necklace, since we use our hands so frequently to feel and touch, to write and cook, to clap and shake hands.

Meanwhile, “Evaluating Essentials” features work by Becky McDonah, whose metal reliquaries enshrine the simplest of objects like hand sanitizer, shower curtains, and pill bottles. “I would like the viewers to take the time to stop and think about little things that have an impact on their lives or the lives of others around them,” the artist says.

Whet Thursdays will occur on the last Thursday of every month until September, with the last one being members-only. Each event will introduce a new theme.

Whet Thursday, Metal Museum, Thursday, April 28, 6-8 p.m., free.

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Metamorphosis at Crosstown Theater

Quentin Robinson and Cameron Murphy (Photo: UW Madison)

In Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, for reasons outside of his control, Gregor Samsa wakes up one day as a giant creepy-crawling critter — some say a cockroach — so Gregor has to navigate the world as a giant bug, which as you can imagine is quite an isolating experience. This isolation, in turn, leads to a bleak ending with neglect, hatred, and ultimately death. After going through a year of isolation ourselves, much like Gregor, it’s likely that some of us have a pretty bleak, Kafkaesque outlook on life. But for others, isolation brought new values and a refreshed will to create, learn, and collaborate. This latter case was true for the Grammy-winning percussion quartet Third Coast Percussion and Movement Art Is, founded by dancers and choreographers Jon Boogz and Memphis’ Lil Buck.

When in-person interactions could not take place with the two groups based in Chicago and Los Angeles respectively, they worked together over many Zoom meetings to create their own Metamorphosis, a much more hopeful performance that explores the experiential lens of young Black men growing up in America today. “It’s about the dancers as the main characters — them growing and discovering who they are through their experiences through their life,” says Jenny Davis, music department manager at Crosstown Arts, where the show will be performed on May 3rd.

In this performance, the street-style, popping and Memphis jookin’ choreography by Lil Buck and John Boogz is transferred onto different bodies — dancers Cameron Murphy and Quentin Robinson — so that the dancing itself represents how one artist’s energy becomes absorbed and translated by another. Meanwhile, the dance will be set to Third Coast’s interpretation and reimagination of music by contemporary composers, electronic artists Jlin and Tyondai Braxton as well as Philip Glass. Such modern classical music, Davis points out, “is really fascinating because it’s influenced by all these other genres, too.”

With this blending of different styles and interpretations of music and dance, Davis says, “I think that’s inspiring to see how things that kind of exist separately can work together.”

Metamorphosis, Crosstown Theater, Tuesday, May 3, 7:30-9:30 p.m., $25-$40.

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Spillit Prom

(Courtesy: Spillit)

Maybe, you didn’t go to your prom; maybe, you did but it was pretty unmemorable … or maybe you did but don’t remember it all, or you wish you could erase that night from your memory altogether. In any case, you probably have a story to tell, and unless you’re fresh out of high school, the opportunity to talk about it probably doesn’t come up too often. Luckily, the folks with Spillit have curated the perfect moment and environment to do so this Thursday with its Spillit Prom.

Spillit’s typical format is a slam, where people can put their names in a bucket to be drawn to tell a true, personal story, usually prompted by a theme for the night, on stage. Audience members then vote from the 10 or so chosen storytellers to select the winner of the night, who will have the chance to return to Spillit’s Grand Slam event in November.

But the Spillit Prom goes beyond a typical slam by completely immersing you in the prom theme: The winner will be crowned as prom royalty before a night of dancing kicks off, complete with the expected decorations, a buffet by Black Sheep Catering, and you in your best prom garb. 

One thing that this prom doesn’t include, though, is that teenage anxiety about being judged by or in comparison to your peers. Instead, the night promises to be one of friendly competition. “One of the things people say is that they don’t want to tell a story because they’re not that funny,” Josh Campbell, Spillit’s creative director, says. “And I always say people want to connect more than they want to laugh, so sometimes there’s the really heartfelt stories that are the best of the evening, where as someone tells their story there’s a silence that comes over the room and everybody is in their feels a little bit. … You’ll laugh; you’ll cry.”

If the idea of standing on stage and telling a personal story to an audience gives you the heebie-jeebies, don’t worry, it’s not compulsory. If, however, you gain a bit of courage after a complimentary drink and perhaps another purchased from the bar, no one’s stopping you from dropping your name in the bucket. Plus, audience members are encouraged to write answers to an audience participation question that Campbell will announce at the start of the night, and Campbell will read out the responses in between stories, which last about seven minutes each.

Through this event and others by Spillit, Campbell says, “What we’re trying to do is change what people think of a storytelling event. [When it comes to storytelling] a lot of people think of rocking chairs or campfires or the children’s section of a library for storytime.” Storytelling, to Campbell and Spillit, is about connection and gaining new perspectives and inspiration. With that, Campbell hopes that Spillit can offer more specially themed events, like this one, that go beyond a slam. 

For more information on Spillit Memphis, visit spillitmemphis.org. Purchase tickets here. 

Spillit Prom, 409 S. Main St., Thursday, April 21st, 7-10 p.m., $35.

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Stax Hosts “Memphis” Book Launch

Michael Donahue, Flyer food editor (Photo: Wildsam)

What makes our Memphis different from Memphis, Alabama, or Memphis, Ohio, or any of the other eight Memphises in the U.S.? Put simply, we do — our stories and our lives as everyday Memphians. “Memphis is this place that gave the world the music it loves,” says Hannah Hayes, “and yet it’s kinda this place that can also be maligned or misunderstood. And so much beautiful and amazing culture comes out of Memphis.”

Such a sentiment is the crux of Memphis (Wildsam), a field guide for which Hayes served as editor. And so, to do Memphis justice in this compact book about the ins and outs of the city, Hayes and Wildsam turned to the locals. “A lot of travel journalism is people parachuting into a place and trying to understand it really quickly,” Hayes says, “and with Wildsam, we try to involve as many locals as we humanly can because we want the people in that place to have a stake in it.”

Contributing writers Wesley Morgan Paraham, David Grivette, and Memphis Flyer editor Jesse Davis helped to compile iconic places and important topics, recommendations for authentic Memphis experiences, and more. The book also includes essays by writer and filmmaker Robert Gordon and Tara Stringfellow, whose recently released debut novel Memphis has garnered national recognition. Additionally, one-sided interviews with locals of note, such as Memphis Flyer’s food editor Michael Donahue, make up a significant portion of the book. “The interview session is done more like an oral history,” says Hayes. “We wanted the focus to be on the person and their story. We don’t want you to be distracted by us in the background.”

“Memphis means a lot to me personally,” Hayes adds, having frequently visited Memphis as a kid whose family lived a nomadic life. Her grandmother lived in the area. “The Peabody Hotel lobby is like the only place that I’ve been going to since I was an infant.”

To Hayes, the deep red in the Peabody sign was a homing beacon for Memphis, and this red popped up in the table cloths at Payne’s Bar-B-Que, the Stax sign, and more. Because of this, the “dirty soulful red,” as Hayes describes, is the color of the book’s cover and is interspersed throughout in the accompanying illustrations by local artist Maggie Russell that add a touch of whimsy to the pages.

“We want folks who live there to read this and to fall back in love with their city,” says Hayes. To celebrate the launch of the book, Gordon, Zaire Love, Davis, and Hayes will be a part of a panel at the Stax, where guests can enjoy Central BBQ and drinks.

Wildsam at Stax, Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Thursday, April 21, 6-8 p.m., Free, Rsvp at Eventbrite.com.

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Dixon Gallery’s “Sweet 16”

James Little, Legacy of Thieves and Pundits (Photo: James Little/Courtesy Dixon Gallery & Gardens)

If you never had a Sweet 16 party or never got invited to one and you’re still just a bit bitter, my advice, other than to get over it, would be to swing by the Dixon Gallery & Gardens for its “Sweet 16,” where you will be most welcome.

This “Sweet 16” is, of course, a bit different than what Molly Ringwald would’ve wanted when her parents forgot her 16th. Sure, you won’t find Jake Ryan, but you will be treated to 16 independent exhibitions, one for each of the Dixon’s 16 galleries. From mid-19th century portraits from a Memphis family collection to Hattiloo Theatre’s collection of commissioned portraits, the Dixon offers a sampling of different art forms across centuries and geographical boundaries.

The decision to include such a variety was intentional since, as Dixon’s director Kevin Sharp says, “Art has this tremendous capacity to speak to the plurality of the human condition, to our diversity, to the multiplicity of ideas that drive our existence.”

One of the many highlights of this show is “James Little: Homecoming.” Little was born and raised in Memphis, having attended Hamilton High School and the Memphis College of Art before relocating for his MFA program in 1976 to New York, where he’s since lived. “He’s an amazing artist,” Sharp says. “He does these geometric abstractions that are very carefully lineated. He goes so far as to make his own paint. They’re really, really powerful works of art. … He’s had a very important career in New York for the last 40 years. He’s about to be in the next installment of the Whitney Biennial — it’s a recognition of a lifetime of brilliant, brilliant work.

“It’s just satisfying for us to reintroduce him to the community he came from,” Sharp adds. “I think it’s nice for any artist to have a major museum show in their own town.”

“Sweet 16,” which opens April 17th, will be on display through July 10th. Admission to the Dixon is free through the end of 2024.

“Sweet 16,” Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Opens Sunday, April 17th, 1 p.m.-5 p.m.