Opening weekend for To All A Good Night (Photo: Carlosphotos | Dreamstime.com)
Only a few days separate us from the impending month of mistletoe threatening to embarrass us in front of our loved ones, paper snowflakes that litter hole-punched circles and triangles all over the floor, wrapping paper that leaves paper cuts and glitter residue on our fingers, and, of course, holiday music. I know I sound like a Grinch, but holiday music is the key to getting any Grinch into the spirit.
Lar’Juanette Williams, executive director at Memphis Black Arts Alliance, puts it best, “The songs delve into the things that make us think of our favorite Christmas memories.” This season, Williams has conceived of the cabaret-style show, To All a Good Night, during which the cast of four will perform songs, written or recorded by African-American artists of the past and present.
One performer — Christian Kirk — will perform her father Sidney Kirk’s song, “I Hope That You’re Happy This Christmas.” A Stax musician, Sidney Kirk played keyboard for Isaac Hayes for a while.
“The show has a heavy Memphis influence,” Williams says. “Beale Street was it back in the day when it comes to music. All the African-American artists came to Memphis to work on Beale, and that’s where a lot of this music was unleashed. The show has a worldwide influence as well, since a lot of the music that was birthed here spread.”
This show marks the first partnership between Playhouse on the Square and the Memphis Black Arts Alliance. Opening this weekend, performances will run through December 22nd. Tickets can be purchased online at playhouseonthesquare.org.
To All A Good Night: A Holiday Cabaret, Circuit Playhouse, 51 S. Cooper, Friday, November 26th, 10 p.m., $27.
For nearly two decades, New Ballet Ensemble has been performing its take on Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker with its NutRemix. Set on Beale Street, this performance blends ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop, flamenco, Memphis Jookin, and West African dance while the Memphis Symphony Orchestra puts a fresh spin on the original score.
“After a year not on our stage, a lot of our students are coming back, and the show is coming back to life and the love will emanate off the stage,” says Katie Smythe, New Ballet CEO and artistic director who conceived of the show back in 2003. “And the NutRemix is all about love, which is always needed.”
Since its inception, the production has gone through a few minor changes, but it’s always stuck to the same story. “In 2003, you had to be pretty explicit and didactic about social justice themes. It angered some audiences members, and it thrilled others,” Smythe says. “Now, we feel like people come to this show because they want to see this human tapestry on the stage. They embrace it for its diversity, and we’re going to dig deeper into the cultural diversity by bringing in experts of the art forms.”
For next year’s performance, the ensemble plans to explore Colombian, Indian, and Congolese dance. “This year is sort of a fond farewell to the genres that have been in Act II,” Smythe says, “and next year we’re gonna embrace some new genres which is a huge education for our audience, for our dancers, for our students, and for me.”
New Ballet’s NutRemix, Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, 225 N. Main, Saturday, November 20th, 5:30 p.m., and Sunday, November 21st, 2:30 p.m., $20-$45.
Natasha Rawls with her 1927 Underwood No. 5 typewriter (Photo: Natasha Rawls)
Natasha Rawls, author of Abandoned North and South Memphis: What’s Left Behind, bought her first antique typewriter in 2013 from eBay, but when she realized her typewriter didn’t work despite the seller’s claim, she left it at a shop to get fixed, where the worker there told her he couldn’t. She left it there permanently, $85 down the drain. At the time, she was a single parent, worked two jobs, and had written two self-published novels.
But this February, after the death of a few loved ones due to Covid, Rawls bought her next typewriter and then another and another, until she accumulated the 45 she has now. “I had to learn how to fix them by going to YouTube University,” she says. “It was therapeutic for me.” During this time, she also found a typewriter community online that helped her figure out the ins and outs of the machines. She even participates in a weekly typewriter club.
Now, all but two of Rawls’ typewriters are working as smoothly as they did back in the day. Her oldest is an Oliver Typewriter from 1915, and her most recent is a 1980s cursive electronic model. “Each typewriter has its own personality. They inspire you in different ways,” she says. “My favorite for the past few weeks has been the 1926 Remington 12. … And I have to wonder — and I know this is morbid — what’s going to happen to my typewriters when I’m gone.”
To share her love of typewriters, Rawls has organized a Type Out at Cordova Library for the public to try out all her typewriters. “You can type on them, and there’ll be a typing contest and different little activities,” she says. “And you can bring your own typewriters, too.”
Type out, Cordova Library, 8457 Trinity, Saturday, November 20th, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., free.
“You look like somebody threw you away,” artist Nikii Richey’s mother said to her in passing when she was young.
“I’ve never forgotten that,” Richey says. “She probably didn’t even know she ever said that and probably would have denied it if I ever brought it up, but the way she reacted to me was always centered around my looks and how I looked.”
Richey’s relationship with her mother was tense, to say the least. “She had a lot of her own struggles,” Richey says. “She was an alcoholic, smoked her whole life, probably undiagnosed bipolar.” So, when Richey had the opportunity to attend college in South Carolina, she left her Mississippi hometown and estranged herself from her mom.
But, in the last five years of her mother’s life, Richey assumed the role of caretaker and brought her mom to Memphis, her home for the past 20 or so years. During that time, Richey says, “we were able to reconcile, and I was able to understand where all of that came from. It was passed down from her mother.”
Richey’s mother — Retta — grew up in the ’50s and ’60s as a bona fide beauty queen. “I was reading some letters that her mother wrote to her in college,” Richey says, “and it was all about the next beauty contest and what dress she was going to wear and what they were going to do with her hair, and it was never how are you, how are your classes.” That focus on beauty never left Retta. She was married to her second husband for a year, Richey says, and he never saw her without makeup on.
Retta passed away a little over two years ago, and a year later, Richey knew that she had to make something, to move her hands. “I just thought to myself, I’m gonna make this big braid,” she says. “I was thinking about my mother and her fixing my hair and pulling it through a cap and frosting it when I was 7 years old. I just quieted my mind and let my emotions take control of my hands. I followed my intuition.”
That intuition led Richey to creating the works in her latest show, “A Come Apart.” “That’s something else my mother would say: ‘I’m just having a come apart,’” she says. “It’s a mental state phrase — when things get to be a little too much, and you have to ‘take to the bed.’”
In this show, Richey plays with the comfort of old linens in her sculptures, but then she pokes and bends wires through them and sprays those wires with vinegar to rust them from the inside out. “If my intuition tells me to take out a blow torch and burn it,” she says, “that’s what I do, and I see what happens after that. Maybe I need to burn it, so I can repair it.” And she might bleach the fabric; she might wax it; she might dye it or add makeup or spray it with hair spray; she might stretch it out and pull it back with ribbon.
“All those treatments represent what women do to their bodies,” she says. “I like to play with the difference between the way that trauma leaves scars behind and how we still try to be pretty through all of life’s trauma instead of just being. … I think about women and their bodies and their stresses a lot, so that definitely plays into my work [outside the studio], too.”
In 2015, Richey co-founded Sister Supply, which supplies pads and tampons to menstruators in need, and currently, she is designing the interiors of Hub Hotel, a new transitional housing space for women, which she says will include a salon to provide “luxury, comfort, and safety for these women.” But, she ponders, “What’re the social implications of needing to have your hair and nails done to feel good about yourself as a woman, even after all they’ve been through?”
“That’s the basis of this show — this forced societal and motherly demand for beauty and display,” she adds. “And every single piece in this show I can relate back to my mother.”
“A Come Apart” is on display at the Medicine Factory through November 28th, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Call 484-6154 for entry.
Rachel Cendrick as Ada (Photo: Tennessee Shakespeare Company)
“She walks in beauty, like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies,” read the first lines of Lord Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty” — lines that double as the first lines to Tennessee Shakespeare Company’s newest production, Ada and the Engine, which revolves around Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s forgotten daughter.
“What gives Ada life is the heartbeat of her father’s literature,” says Dan McCleary, director of the show. “She never actually met him. Her mother was intent on her never being like her father and forced her into a life of science and mathematics. And that’s not where women go at this time in London, but Ada is adept at it — more than adept.” As such, Ada went on to coming up with binary coding — those zeros and ones that are the foundation of modern technology.
Because of her continued role in our technology two centuries later, the play is a “fantastical marriage between the historical and the modern, and so it’s a production unlike any we’ve done before. Audiences will get a sense of true-fact history on stage, but also you’ll see the modernity in the costumes, in the lighting projections, on the set, in Edison bulbs on stage, and in the music. There’s a lot of modern dancing in the piece. There’re musical pieces that audiences will have heard and original music. … There’s even a bit of time travel where Ada ultimately meets her father and sees the past, present, and future.”
Like her father, Ada was interested in poetic, rhythmic patterns, which allowed her to recognize the patterns of binary coding. In that way, McCleary says, “The show becomes a beautiful, artistic argument for ensuring that reading fiction, reading poetry, and studying the humanities should be as central to every child’s education as science and math.”
Ada and the Engine, Tennessee Shakespeare Company, 7950 Trinity, Opening November 11th, 7:30 p.m., $20-$35.
Global Goods’ fair trade items for sale (Photo: Jackie Nerren)
“Justice here and justice everywhere” — that’s the thinking behind First Congo’s Global Goods shop, says Jackie Nerren, who coordinates the store’s happenings. “We sell stuff that is certified fair trade,” she says. “All the goods have been made under healthy circumstances by adults who are paid a fair wage in the country they come from. Almost all our stuff comes from third world countries, and it’s usually recycled, reused, repurposed materials. We only have one supplier in the states — the [social enterprise] Women’s Bean Project in Denver.”
Because of ongoing renovations, the shop has recently only been open on Sundays, but this Saturday, Global Goods is having an open house and its full stock will be out and ready for the taking. The store will sell bean soup mixes from the Women’s Bean Project, children’s sweaters from Ecuador, wall art made from oil cans in Haiti, baskets from Ghana, and other handmade goods, mostly made by women. “We also sell [Blessed Bees] honey that’s actually made at our church from bees that live in hives on the roof,” Nerren says. “And we sell some fig jam made by a couple at our church.”
The shop’s prices are reasonable, Nerren adds. “We don’t have to make a profit. We barely mark stuff up. It’s pretty nice to be able to help people all over the world. You get cool stuff, and we want people to be able to buy it.”
Global Goods takes cash, card, and checks. After perusing the shop, Nerren suggests heading over to the Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market, which is held in the church’s parking lot. “Then you can go eat brunch somewhere on Cooper-Young,” she continues. “See? I’m just planning a great day for you.”
Global Goods Annual Holiday Open House, Sanctuary of First Congregational Church, 1000 S. Cooper, Saturday, November 13, 10 a.m. -2 p.m.
Slowly but surely, we’re getting out of this pandemic-induced daze, where days and weeks and months blend together with little to look forward to, little to break up the monotony of routine. This weekend, though, Discover Memphis Naturally is launching its first Fieldaze to break us out of that stupor.
“I’m mostly looking forward to just seeing people excited to be out,” says Kellan Bartosch, whose job title at Wiseacre Brewing Co. is “Captain of Industry/Teller of Tales.” “Even though there’s still reason to take precautions, there’ve been very few times in recent months where I’ve personally gone out and seen a group of people I don’t know laughing and smiling.”
Like any decent field day, the festival schedule is packed with outdoor activities, the biggest ones being the Peer Power Big River Crossing Half Marathon +5K, the Huzzah! On the Harbor Kayak Race, and the Grit & Grind Gravel Grinder bicycle race — not to mention a scavenger hunt with Envision Memphis, Zumba taught by David Quarles of Quarles IV fame, kayaking tours, TikTok- and line-dancing lessons, and so much more.
“We [Wiseacre] are the home base,” Bartosch says. “And we’re obviously excited to be a part of the event and what it could mean for Memphis in the short-term and long-term.”
Fieldaze also coincides with the Downtown Memphis Commission’s Downtown Dining Week, where restaurants like Little Bettie at Wiseacre will be offering specials priced at $20.21. “We’re gonna do a pizza and two beers as our special,” Bartosch says.
For a full schedule of Fieldaze activities or to register, visit memphisadventures.com, and for a full listing of restaurants participating in Downtown Dining Week, visit downtownmemphis.com.
Fieldaze, various locations, Friday-Sunday, November 5th-7th.
Get spooky this weekend. (Photo: Courtesy Central Station Hotel)
A graveyard smash, caught on in a flash, ’tis the season of the Monster Mash. And, wa hoo, for us living beings, Central Station Hotel is ready to mash along with us.
This year, the historic hotel is hosting its first-ever monstrous dance party with live music and themed food and drinks. Costumes are encouraged, for later in the night, a costume contest will take place, and who doesn’t want to want to face one of man’s biggest fears — being judged by others — on this night of fright? Judges — whose identity Jeremy Sadler, general manager of the hotel, withholds for the sake of intrigue — are looking for creativity, originality, and overall spook factor. Winners may be privy to one of the night’s giveaways, including a hotel stay or food and beverage credit.
“Bar staff will also be decked out in their favorite costumes, with some staff in deadly attire serving our house-made poisons around the lounge,” Sadler says. Created by Cooper Bradshaw, manager of the hotel’s Eight & Sand bar, the poison menu, aka the drink menu, includes the Graceland Ghost, Poisoned at the Play, Stax Slasher, and Murder on Main. “My favorite has to be Poisoned at the Play,” Sadler says of the concoction of absinthe, mint, lime, gin, and chartreuse.
Joining in on the fun are DJs Jake One and Supreme La Rock, both hailing from Seattle, the home of the Cullen vampires. “It is a rarity that Jake does solo DJ sets. This is a special occasion for Memphis,” says Sadler. “We are lucky to have both of these Seattle DJ legends in Memphis for a Halloween party.”
Halloween at Central Station Hotel, 545 S. Main, Friday, October 29th, 5 p.m.-close, free.
What’s your Bigfoot encounter story? (Photo: Courtesy Memphis Bigfoot Festival)
Wood Booger, Skunk Ape, Grassman, Wild Man, Sasquatch, Yeti — you’ve heard of the species in one way or another. “I just go with Bigfoot. It kinda gets it all done,” says Toby Sells, organizer of Memphis Bigfoot Festival. “I love the description of the thing — it’s like ‘walkie-talkie,’ tells you exactly what it is.”
In 2017, Sells, who is also the Flyer’s news editor, pulled off his first Bigfoot Festival in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Patterson-Gimlin film, perhaps the most well-known and the only non-debunked footage of Bigfoot. “I really only expected like eight or so Bigfoot nerds to show up,” Sells says. “But to my surprise, 300 to 400 people came.”
This year, though, the festival is limited to 200 people due to Covid concerns, but the agenda for the day will be just as fun with costume and howling contests, a roundup of Bigfoot news from the past two years, an in-person appearance by renowned cryptozoologist Lyle Blackburn, and a virtual appearance by Pamula Pierce Barcelou, who restored and re-released her father’s film, The Legend of Boggy Creek (the docudrama that made Sells fall in love with Bigfoot back in the third grade). But the best part, Sells says, is at the end of the day, when festival-goers can take over the mic and tell their own Bigfoot encounter stories.
“You know there’s a monster in the woods; it’s scary and fun,” Sells says. “And it’s like if we see a Bigfoot, do we kill it for science to take it seriously? So far, the answer’s been we leave it alone. We don’t have a body yet, but that’s what fuels the mystery, right?”
Memphis Bigfoot Festival, Memphis Made Brewing Co., 786 Cooper, Saturday, October 30th, 4-8 p.m., $10.
Performer from last year’s fest (Photo: Arkwings Foundation)
Whether you fancy yourself to be left-brained or right-brained — or you find the concept to be a myth — letting your creative juices flow is good for brain health. Ask the nonprofit Arkwings Foundation, and they’d agree. “Our primary mission is promoting mind, body, and spirit wellness,” says Jana Wilson, executive director. “Right now the way that’s manifesting itself is through integrating arts and nature — the healing power of arts and nature.”
For a taste of that healing, Arkwings is hosting its annual Frayser Local Arts Festival. “We want people to get a look at the different ways they can express themselves creatively,” Wilson says of the festival’s aim to encompass all forms of art.
Inside, exhibits will fill the grounds’ 1930s house with visual arts, available to view and purchase. Meanwhile, culinary artist Cardi Fuqua, owner of Naked, will demonstrate recipes made from the fresh produce and herbs from the art garden. Outside, poetry, spoken word, song, dance, and yoga will populate the performance schedule, and artisans will set up shop to sell handmade goods.
At outdoor creativity stations, festival-goers can paint mini murals on repurposed vinyl banners, write their thoughts on slips of paper and clip them onto strings that hang down from the Poetry Tree, and touch, feel, and smell the herbs in the garden before making herbal salts of their own.
“It’s a chance for people to get creative and enjoy themselves and nature,” Wilson says.
Frayser Local Arts Festival, 2034 James, Saturday, October 23rd, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., free.
