Author: Michael Flanagan

Categories
Music Music Features

Remembering Otha Turner

This Saturday, August 29th, the rolling farmland of north
Mississippi will once again be the focus of blues history. At a
ceremony in Como, Mississippi, hill-country blues legend Otha
Turner will be added to the Mississippi Blues Trail,
receiving a permanent roadside placard commemorating his contributions
to Mississippi music.

The placard will be placed near the Como Public Library and not far
from the Gravel Springs home where Turner spent most of his life. And,
importantly, the ceremony will be held in conjunction with this year’s
annual Fife and Drum Goat Barbecue Picnic, a summer tradition
started by Turner and carried on by his family after his passing in
2003.

“I’m excited about the people coming, about meeting new people,”
said Turner’s daughter Betty Turner of her father’s recognition.
“We’re all just real excited.”

“We’re honored that there are people in this country who think that
much of Grandfather,” said Bobbie Turner, Otha’s
granddaughter.

Turner’s life and music stand as a testimony to the continuing power
of American roots music. Those attending Saturday’s ceremony will
include family, friends, musicians, and blues enthusiasts who feel that
Turner’s life went well beyond his music and that his family extended
beyond his relatives.

“He was one of the best friends I’ve had,” said Bill Ramsey,
who helps the Turner family organize the picnic every August. “He would
sit and talk to everyone.”

“I’m proud to see it happen,” said Sara Brown, who, with her
husband Kenny, organizes the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic
every summer in Potts Camp. “I think it’s a tribute to him and the
recognition he deserves.”

Turner lived his whole life in a small farm community outside
Senatobia. As a teen, he began to craft fifes out of river cane and
would eventually come to lead the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band
as an adult. His music, while known regionally, went largely
unrecognized throughout most of his life.

It wasn’t until the 1990s that Turner’s music began to receive
outside attention, with one song, “Shimmy She Wobble,” featured in
Martin Scorsese’s 2002 film Gangs of New York. Successful
musicians, such as the White Stripes, acknowledged Turner as an
influence.

But perhaps no legacy of Turner’s is quite so powerful as his annual
Fife and Drum Goat Barbecue Picnic, held on the grounds of his family
farm near the end of every summer.

“It’s real,” Ramsey said. “There’s no better way to describe
it.”

The picnic is free and features barbecued goat and pork, a true
miscellany of visitors from all over the area, and a variety of
musicians from around the South performing on a flatbed trailer as a
makeshift stage. It stems from a strong tradition that values community
over commercialism.

“This [picnic] was his pride and joy,” Bobbie Turner said. “This was
one of the happiest times of his life every year.”

Understanding Turner’s personal philosophy helps to explain the
ongoing enthusiasm and support for this annual party.

“His main thing was family,” said Bobbie. “Grandfather always had
this thing about himself: Anybody who wanted to come in and play during
his picnic, he would stop and give them the opportunity because he
always said that music is within your heart.

“So, as the years have past, we’ve had more and more musicians come
in and say, hey look, do you mind if I play?” Bobbie said. “And I say,
okay, we’ll get you on.”

“For Otha, everybody was laughing, dancing, eating — he wanted
to make sure everybody was having a good time — black and white,”
Ramsey said.

“He was a patriarch, no doubt about it,” Ramsey added. “But he was
the boss.”

Categories
Music Music Features

Labor of Love

Organizers of “Rock for Love 2,” the Church Health Center’s annual benefit show, are anxious to get under way. Despite only going into its second year, the benefit — held Friday and Saturday, August 22nd and 23rd, at the Hi Tone Café — has the energy and potential to become an annual showcase of local music.

And with good reason. The lineup features a cross-section of some of the city’s best hip-hop, garage, and indie-rock acts, including Lord T & Eloise, Al Kapone, and Snowglobe. But the music is only one part of why the benefit’s organizers are so excited.

“It’s all about community,” says J.D. Reager (an occasional Flyer contributor) who, along with Jeff Hulett and Marv Stockwell, founded the benefit and now serve as its coordinators.

All three are local music veterans. Reager plays in Two Way Radio as well as leading his own band, J.D. Reager & the Cold Blooded Three. Hulett is the drummer for Snowglobe as well as the frontman for Jeffrey James & the Haul. Stockwell is a founding member of seminal local hardcore band Pezz.

Sitting down for an interview, the three interrupted each other the way old friends do — laughing and joking and displaying the energy of people who are working hard for something they love.

“I think a lot is coalescing all at once,” says Stockwell, who serves as public relations manager for the Church Health Center. “There’s some alliances forming that maybe haven’t formed until now. I think there’s a new atmosphere of cooperation.”

Reager and Hulett have worked together with Makeshift Music since its inception in the late 1990s, and their dedication to local music has lasted through years of intense work with little compensation along the way.

“We’ve never made a dollar on anything we’ve done, personally or as a company,” Reager says. “Our goal, our mission, is to give a voice to artists who wouldn’t have one otherwise; whatever role we can play, that’s what we try to do.”

Hulett says he and Stockwell were both drawn to the health center’s mission of responding to the need of working Memphians who don’t have health insurance. “I wanted a chance to live out my faith and have a job that inspires me,” Stockwell says.

Recent changes in TennCare are increasing the number of patients at the center. And given the slump in the economy, Stockwell says, “more people are in that unfortunate situation where they’re having to choose between putting food on the table or paying for their health care.”

According to Stockwell, the number of people attending the center’s orientation seminars has doubled and tripled in recent months.

“It’s as common as anything to be uninsured,” Stockwell says.

“The need is great with the Church Health Center,” Hulett says. “We’ve had donors on board since the beginning, but there’s also a need for younger donors and reaching out.”

Snowglobe

“Rock for Love” certainly has made its presence felt within Memphis music circles and the greater community, which Hulett considers one of the benefit’s greatest successes.

“We’ve had several calls from prominent local artists asking, ‘How do I get on the bill?’ We have to tell them sorry. We booked the bill five months ago.”

Sponsorship also is key to this year’s benefit, with SunTrust taking the title position and Ardent Studios, the Memphis Music Commission, and a host of other businesses throughout the community giving as well.

“We’ve raised twice as much money [as last year], and we haven’t even sold ticket one,” Stockwell says.

But perhaps the most noteworthy sign of support is the outpouring of volunteer energy.

“Al Kapone approached us about playing the show,” Reager says. “He heard about the event and called up and said he wanted to play for free.”

“Folks who would love to give money are getting involved in other ways,” Hulett adds.

Each evening will be emceed by local Fox Sports Radio personality (and local music fan) Chris Vernon and WEVL deejay Janet Wilson. Also of note is the artwork donated by Sasha Barr, a Seattle artist long affiliated with Makeshift Music, and a silent auction hosted by the Memphis Roller Derby.

“Seeing the number two on “Rock for Love 2″ is really exciting for me,” Hulett says. “This is going to become an annual event. That’s what we’re planning on.”

Friday night’s lineup features: Lord T & Eloise, Al Kapone, Two Way Radio, J.D. Reager & the Cold Blooded Three, and Vending Machine. Saturday night’s lineup features: Snowglobe, the Coach & Four, Antenna Shoes, Oh No! Oh My!, and Royal Bangs.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Making Room for 2008

Next year is going to be a great year. It has to be, because 2007 was disappointing at best. Sure, some good things happened. But somehow the resignation of Alberto Gonzales, a very brief Police reunion tour, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows really can’t get rid of the Virginia Tech shootings, the never-ending war in Iraq, and Barry Bonds’ continuing major-league career. Even locally, 2007 delivered a fractious mayoral election, and The Pyramid is still waiting for someone to pay its rent.

So, what exactly is it that’s going to make ’08 so great? For starters, it’s a leap year, which is always fun; Indiana Jones should be returning to theaters in May; and the first new president in eight years will be elected in November. And the Olympics are in August. Come on. It’s never a bad year when they hold the Olympics.

However, to make room for the utopian dreams of 2008, you need to cleanse your minds of the impurities of this one. December 31st is right around the corner, and no doubt many of you have begun considering how you’ll spend New Year’s evening. Well, we at the Flyer have prepared a list of party destinations. But what’s more, we also have included some of those 2007 memories that we hope an evening of “holiday cheer,” a few Advil, and an afternoon of football on January 1st will wipe from your memory permanently. Cheers!

Obnoxious 2007 Memory: Cable News Coverage of Anna Nicole Smith’s Death

Purge: New Year’s Eve Spectacular with Kallen Esperian at GPAC

The late Anna Nicole Smith loved attention. But even she would have been outraged by the weeks of nonstop cable drivel on her untimely death. So, as a remedy for the most obnoxious news coverage of the year, we recommend a drive to the Germantown Performing Arts Centre, where Kallen Esperian, along with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, will ring in the New Year with music that will shove even the most relentless talking head out of your head.

Tickets are $75 plus handling. Call the GPAC box office, 751-7500, for more info.

Troubling 2007 Memory: The U.S. Economy

Purge: Tunica

The dollar has seen better days. Dropping consistently against the euro, competing in the booming Asian markets, and suffering from a troubled housing market and high oil prices at home, the greenback has taken quite a beating this year. What better way to both celebrate the New Year and reinvest in the economy than an evening down at “the Boats”?

Hollywood Casino has a great New Year’s Eve lineup. Buy the two-night hotel package for $299, dine on a four-course meal at Fairbank’s Steakhouse for $125, then join Andy Childs in the Safari Lounge for live music, champagne, and a countdown and balloon drop at midnight. Roll out of bed before 2 p.m. and order a mimosa with brunch at the Epic Buffet.

For Hollywood hotel and dinner reservations and information, call (800) 871-0711.

Sam’s Town also is offering its New Year’s revelers a big time. Eat all day on New Year’s Eve at the Great Buffet or sit down for dinner at Twain’s Steakhouse or Smoky Joe’s Café. Join Pat Sullivan & One Night Stand in the Atrium or catch the country beat of Mickey Utley & J Jam Inc. at Roxy’s Live. There’s a champagne toast and balloon drop at midnight, and guests can eat breakfast at the crack of dawn or brunch until 3 p.m.

For Sam’s Town hotel and dinner reservations and information, call (800) 946-0711.

Aggravating 2007 Memory: Hannah Montana and High School Musical

Purge: Take the kids to the Children’s Museum or the Memphis Zoo Snooze.

Let’s be honest: We’re glad they keep the kids happy, but these two pre-teen hits are as vapid as they come. So get involved with the kids at the Children’s Museum in the afternoon or have an evening away from it all at the Memphis Zoo.

The Children’s Museum of Memphis is celebrating 2008 with an afternoon of noisemakers, karaoke, and a parade to “Times Square” for a bedtime-friendly countdown to the New Year at noon.

Kallen Esperian

Cost is free with museum admission. For more info, call 320-3170.

On December 31st, the Memphis Zoo is opening its gates after hours to families, church groups, scout troops, and other organizations for an evening of nocturnal adventure. The Zoo Snooze offers 6- to 12-year-olds a night safari, games and learning activities, and a warm, indoor sleeping space to “camp out” at night. Security will be around the clock, and in the morning after a continental breakfast, snoozers are free to tour the zoo.

Cost is $50 per member child, $60 for nonmember children. For more info and to register, call 333-6572.

Ridiculous 2007 Memory: O.J Simpson’s Armed “Memorabilia” Robbery

Purge: Downtown Hotel Galas

As if we wanted to hear anymore from O.J Simpson, in September, the former Heisman Trophy winner and three other men, all armed, burst into a Las Vegas hotel room to “reclaim” sports memorabilia from Simpson’s tarnished football career. “O.J,” one witness reported thinking at the time, “how could you be so stupid?” So, head down to the Madison Hotel or The Peabody for New Year’s Eve parties and celebrate the freedom that comes with being a law-abiding citizen.

The Peabody New Year’s Eve party has become one of the best attended in the city. Start the evening off with dinner packages from Chez Philippe or the Capriccio Grill and then join an estimated 4,000 partygoers in the hotel’s lobby, dancing 2007 into the history books to the sounds of Cowboy Mouth, Lord T & Eloise, and DJ Party Train. Tickets are $45 in advance and $50 at the door.

Amy LaVere

Dinner is by reservation only. For Chez Philippe, call 529-4188; for Capriccio Grill, call 529-4199.

At the 83 Lounge inside the Madison Hotel, guests can spend the evening at the carved-ice martini bar and for $83 dine on gourmet hors d’oeuvres, regaled by the music of the critically acclaimed Amy LaVere. The hotel also offers dinner at Grill 83 for $80, not including tax and gratuity, and hotel rooms starting at $440.

For the Madison Hotel, dinner reservations, and info, call 333-1200.

Unsurprising 2007 Memory: The U.S. Movie Box Office

Purge: Boscos Squared

This year in movies left many fans of the cinema disappointed. While some true diamonds shined, they shined in a very murky rough. A discussion of this year’s releases is, of course, replete with as many opinions as there are moviegoers. But for every dollar wasted and every hour lost, Boscos Squared — where many meet before meeting their movie fate at Malco’s Studio on the Square — will make up in a matter of minutes on New Year’s Eve. The microbrewery will have eight choices of award-winning beers on tap, a special menu, Lynn Cardona singing, and champagne at midnight. This will be the perfect place to forget that you saw Norbit.

For information, call Boscos Squared at 432-2222.

Lucero

Embarrassing 2007 Memory: President Bush’s “[Nelson] Mandela’s dead.”

Purge: Dinner Out on the Town

President Bush’s gaffes have come to be like knock-knock jokes, even when he is saying that the late Saddam Hussein has killed world leaders who are still alive. (Now would be a good time to reflect on two things about Bush’s quips: They are unscripted, and he has actually said them.) So, as 2008 rolls in, celebrate the guarantee of a new leader over dinner before painting the town red … or blue.

Esplanade’s New Year’s Eve gala will feature music by Almost Famous, a premium cash bar, hors d’oeuvres, and bubbly at midnight. $75 at the door. 901 Cordova Station, 753-3333

Make your way to the Majestic Grille on Main Street for dinner specials, live music all evening, and champagne at midnight. 145 S. Main, 522-8555

Circa’s New Year’s Eve celebration will offer an impressive meal and live jazz. $150 (includes wine). 119 S. Main, 522-1488

Encore will offer a four-course prix fixe menu for $65, which includes a midnight champagne toast, as well as their regular menu offerings. Jim Wenger and the Jim Spake Duo will provide live music. 150 Peabody Place, 528-1514

Pearl’s Oyster House will offer a prix fixe, four-course menu starting at $50 with free admission to the downstairs party featuring DJ Andy Boone and complimentary champagne at midnight. 292 S. Main, 522-9070

WTF? 2007 Memory: Britney Spears’ MTV Video Music Awards “Performance”

Purge: Memphis Rock-and-Roll

No need to mention the above performer at all other than to say that it’s about frickin’ time. Let the pop idols self-destruct. This New Year’s Eve head out into the town that invented rock-and-roll, find a cutie, and rock out. The shows go on all night all over town. Give “The Man” the finger one last time in 2007 (before you go buy that new iPod with the Christmas money your parents gave you).

Lucero tops the bill at the Young Avenue Deli New Year’s Eve bash. Pick from one of the best beer selections in the city and enjoy the sights. Glossary and Ghostfinger will open for the hometown alt-country rockers. Doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15.

Murphy’s will make your ears bleed for one last time in 2007 with Mouserocket, Evil Army, and the Red Mollies. Doors open at 9 p.m. Cover is $10.

The Hi-Tone lets you rock out your New Year’s in the very building where Kang Rhee taught Elvis to kick. Jack O and the Tearjerkers headline with Moto and the Perfect Fits opening. Doors open at 9 p.m. The cover is $8.

Newby’s will get the Highland strip rowdy with On a Dead Machine, Stonecreek, and Perspective on the bill. The doors open at 9 p.m. Cover is $10.

FUBAR: Everything Else

Purge: Beale Street

From rampant wildfires, to invisible tanks, to the entire Bush administration, there is a plethora of noteworthy detritus that could make its way onto this list. And so for everything we’d rather forget about this year, there’s Beale Street. Whatever your poison, the Birthplace of the Blues is bound to provide it.

New Year’s Eve on Beale is huge. With every venue packed with partiers, live music at Handy Park, and unending food and drink specials, there will be enough noise, dim lighting, and eye candy to scrub every unwanted memory of 2007 from your brain.

So grab a Diver from Silky’s and find someone to smooch at midnight. But be careful: Don’t start 2008 with a bad memory you’ll carry around for the rest of the year.

Categories
News The Fly-By

All the Town’s a Stage

An average day on the job for Martin Lane seems like anything but Hollywood glamour. He finds Porto-Johns, picks up trash, and figures out where an entire cast and crew of a movie are going to eat.

“It really sucks sometimes,” Lane says. “I’m the first person there and the last to leave. If they shoot for 12 hours, I’m there for 16.”

Lane is the location manager for Nothing But the Truth, the feature-length movie starring Kate Beckinsale, Alan Alda, and Matt Dillon that has been shooting in Memphis since early October.

As a location manager, Lane works with the Memphis and Shelby County Film and Television Commission, but Lane might not even have the job if it weren’t for the 2006 Tennessee Visual Content Act.

The legislation offers tax incentives to both in- and out-of-state groups to produce films in Tennessee, and Nothing But the Truth is the first film to take advantage of these incentives.

For other movies recently shot in Memphis, the film commission had to create local incentive packages. With 2004’s Walk the Line, “we had to pull together every incentive we could find on a local level,” says deputy film commissioner Sharon Fox O’Guin. “We got that movie by the skin of our teeth.”

Locally, the number of potential productions is up, and Nothing But the Truth executive producer James Spies opened an office in Nashville.

“All this shows that it makes economic sense [to film companies], not only creative sense,” O’Guin says.

On location, Lane sees what kind of difference a film can make to local businesses.

A film set requires dozens of trained and experienced artisans, and, according to Lane, 50 percent of the crew for Nothing But the Truth came from outside the city. Fortunately, one of the provisions in Tennessee’s new incentives is an on-the-job training program to expand the local crew base.

“Part of the incentives are based on how much local business the project uses: laborers, vendors, and rental services,” Lane explains.

With Memphis businesses adapting to the new industry, film shoots may become more than an occasional occurrence. And no doubt, Lane will still be cleaning up afterward.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Finding Untold Stories

When Stephen Thrasher and his mother visited the StoryCorps recording studio in the summer of 2006, they received a CD of their session. A few months later, Thrasher’s mother passed away.

“It’s an important thing for people to do for their own family history,” said Thrasher, a StoryCorps staff member. “I’m really grateful I have it.”

The StoryCorps Griot project, sponsored by the Smithsonian and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, arrived in Memphis November 1st as part of a 10-city tour. A griot is an African storyteller, and StoryCorps staffers will spend six weeks in Memphis recording conversations to capture the experiences of Memphis’ black community.

John Franklin, a project manager with the Smithsonian, is helping establish the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

“This is a national museum to help all Americans understand the role that African Americans have played,” Franklin said. “This will not just be a museum with African-American voices, because the voices of the entire community have to be represented to tell the story.”

The GriotBooth, housed inside a trailer and currently parked at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, is a cozy recording studio. Visitors are encouraged to come in pairs, and at the end of each hour-long session, they are given a CD of their interview.

“People really open up when they come here,” said Sarah Geis, one of the booth’s staffers. “It’s amazing when people who have known each other for years suddenly find out something new about each other.”

GriotBooth staffers expect to gather nearly 1,800 recordings in their yearlong tour around the country. The project is the largest of its kind since 2,000 former slaves were interviewed for the Federal Writer’s Project during the Great Depression.

The recordings will be archived at the Museum of African-American History, but some may be aired on National Public Radio or local station WKNO. A copy of all local interviews will also be given to the Memphis Public Library and Information Center.

The GriotBooth already has had a number of visitors, including the Rev. James Freeman of Humboldt, Tennessee. Freeman founded Memphis’ Geeter Park Baptist Church in the early 1970s.

While Freeman was inside, Jo Ann Kern and a group of Freeman’s close friends waited for the 92-year-old pastor to tell his story.

Kern admitted that, for many, segregation is painful to revisit. “We’ve done a good job suppressing it instead of expressing it,” she said. “But we need to [express it] before we’re gone.”

Several minutes later, Freeman was greeted with smiles and handshakes as he emerged from the trailer. When asked if the interview was worth the 100-mile journey from Gibson County, he grinned.

“It was more than worth it.”

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Greek tragedy at sea.

Throughout history, sailing and the sea have been a source of hope and new beginnings, and stories of the sea have carried with them the glory of adventure balanced alongside the reality of human frailty. The British documentary Deep Water tells the tale of perhaps the last great sea adventure, the 1968 Golden Globe Race and its enigmatic and tragic hero, Donald Crowhurst.

In March 1968, The London Sunday Times announced that it was holding the Golden Globe. There were few conditions placed on the contestants; in all, the winner would be required to sail solo around the world without stopping. It was to be the greatest race at sea ever held and would be extremely dangerous, pushing to their limits the nine who signed up to contend for the prize. Almost all were veteran sailors who knew each other and were well acquainted with the challenges that lay ahead. It was in this rush of excitement that Crowhurst’s name first came to national attention in England.

Crowhurst was a family man who had four children and a wife and owned a small nautical electronics company. Like many Britons, Crowhurst had grown up near the sea but had never been a serious sailor. As the homegrown dark horse, the British media loved him, and his confidence was able to sell those around him on his dream of winning the race. He found a financial backer and began building a yacht. By October, he was under way, following his competitors south to the equator.

In July of the next year, three months after the race ended, Crowhurst’s boat was found empty and adrift in the Mid-Atlantic. There was no trace of the man, but Crowhurst’s journal, audiotape, 16mm film, and two logbooks would begin to unravel the mystery of his long voyage and his heartbreaking end.

Veteran filmmakers Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell lovingly and brilliantly piece together the story of Crowhurst and the Golden Globe using original news footage, the film found on Crowhurst’s boat, and the footage taken by the race’s other competitors. Newly filmed interviews with Simon Crowhurst, Donald’s son, and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the race’s winner, along with an ensemble of friends, colleagues, and contemporaries, candidly and energetically recreate the experience of the racers at sea and their families at home.

The film’s most powerful scenes, though, come from Crowhurst’s wife, Clare. Her comments are made with typical British understatement yet with a warmth that brings the audience into the heart of a loving wife. Clare Crowhurst admits that one of the reasons she was willing to be a part of the film project was the sensitivity and broadmindedness the filmmakers brought to her husband’s story.

Deep Water is a tragedy that even Sophocles would find compelling. In the dire last days of his life, Crowhurst can be seen as a modern-day Captain Ahab, shaking his fist toward heaven as his own pride and ambition come to bear against the overwhelming power of the sea.

Deep Water

Opening Friday, November 2nd

Ridgeway

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Birth Rights

Ricki Lake had an amazing experience she wanted to share — via film — with the world: giving birth to her second child Owen in her own home (the bathtub, to be exact). But the motive for Lake, an actress and former talk-show host, is far from creating shock value.

In her recent documentary The Business of Being Born, Lake and director Abby Epstein focus on the reemerging trend of midwifery. The film, which will be shown Thursday night at First Congregational Church, chronicles the lives of Lake and other expectant mothers as they wrestle with the fears and rewards of their decision to deliver babies at home.

Amy Stewart-Banbury is a certified professional midwife with Trillium WomanCare, which is hosting the screening along with Mothersville. She decided to screen the film because of the lack of information on midwifery.

“I think it shows the variety of decisions that women have,” Stewart-Banbury says. “I don’t think it says this is the right way or this is the wrong way, but it lets them know their options.”

The film also addresses the state of obstetrics in hospitals today, which Stewart-Banbury likens to an assembly line. Here, the film’s images of home birth are compelling and stand in stark contrast to the more impersonal world of hospitals.

“I think women will come away with a sense of empowerment,” Stewart-Banbury says, “because it shows that they have a choice.”

The Business of Being Born at First Congregational Church, 1000 S. Cooper, Thursday, November 1st, at 6:30 p.m. Suggested donation is $8, with proceeds going to the March of Dimes. Discussion of the film follows the screening.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Painting the Town

On the north wall of 300 South Main, in a downtown neighborhood known as the arts district, the future of a mural is in jeopardy.

For more than 20 years, the wall has been home to “Taking Care of Business,” a mural created by a group of students under the supervision of celebrated local artist George Hunt. It was one in a series of murals created around the city during 1983, and one of only two murals remaining.

However, a local businessman’s plans to renovate the building have cast doubt on how long the mural will exist.

Divine Mafa, who recently leased the building from the Church of God In Christ, arranged to have the building — and the mural — repainted a dark teal. Mafa has several businesses downtown and plans to open a clothing boutique on the property in early November.

“I didn’t even know it was a painting,” Mafa says. “I thought it was graffiti. … The brick is bad, and the people [who originally created the mural] never primed it and never repaired the brick.”

Mafa’s plans for the mural were thwarted, for the time being, by a concerned South Main resident.

Hank Cole, one of the founders of the South Main Association, has passed the mural every day since it was created. When he discovered it was in jeopardy, he immediately contacted the Memphis Landmarks Commission and even went so far as to park his truck on the sidewalk to prevent painting crews from destroying the artwork. An injunction from the Landmarks Commission temporarily halted the project.

‘Taking Care of Business’ in its infancy

“The whole thing came up so suddenly,” Cole says. “I just noticed it and tried to do something about it.”

According Cole, Mafa had not obtained the necessary permit to change the wall. “We’re a preservation district,” Cole says. “All projects that change the face on a building must be approved by the Landmarks Commission.”

Mafa says he obtained the necessary permit October 19th.

But Cole, Mafa, and COGIC-attorney Jay Bailey decided recently that the mural will stay intact until a mutually beneficial agreement can be reached.

Mafa asserts that he has the right to paint the building whenever he chooses but is giving the arts community until December 1st to come up with a plan.

“I could paint now,” he says, “but I’m not going to. … I am a businessman first. I want my business to look attractive.”

David Simmons of LongRiver Art/Source, George Hunt’s gallery, says the artist has qualms about the condition of the mural.

“We’ve talked about these murals in the past, and he felt that they had been neglected,” Simmons says. “When people talked about saving them or restoring them, his opinion was to let them live their life or paint over them.”

Bennie Nelson West, who originally helped organize the mural project in 1983, agrees. West, now director of the Memphis Black Arts Alliance, says the best option is to find funds to paint a new mural over the old one.

“And maybe do a few more around the city,” she adds hopefully.

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We Recommend We Recommend

A Fest First

While the RiverArtsFest is having its debut this weekend, it’s not really new. The visual and performing arts festival, hosted by the South Main Arts District, has its roots in Arts in the Park, the much-beloved annual event that was held in various locations, including Overton Park and the Memphis Botanic Garden.

Some of the early Arts in the Park organizers have come together again to work on RiverArtsFest, according to Jay Etkin, owner of Jay Etkin Gallery. Etkin, whose gallery was chosen to host the invitational exhibit for the festival, is in a unique position. A veteran of Arts in the Park as well as an established gallery owner on South Main Street, Etkin values both the artistic and the commercial sides of the festival. “The festival can share an audience with the Main Street stores and restaurants,” Etkin says. “Everyone can benefit from it. It’s syncretistic.”

For former Arts in the Park devotees who may be skeptical of the more urban atmosphere of the new RiverArtsFest, Etkin has only assurances.

“It’s very much like Arts in the Park,” says Etkin, with a grin, “only with much less grass.”

RiverArtsFest, Friday-Sunday, October 26th-October 28th, South Main Arts District. Admission is free. For more information, go to riverartsfest.org. (At Right: Painting by Roger Cleaves at jay Etkin Gallery.)

Categories
News The Fly-By

VESTA on Hiatus

In the midst of an uncertain housing market, the Memphis Area Home Builders Association has decided not to hold its biannual Vesta Home Show this fall.

The showcase, held for more than 20 years, has wowed visitors with state-of-the-art homes in posh neighborhoods. Last spring, the show’s seven homes — priced between $500,000 and $650,000 — were sold before the event officially began. It was the first pre-show sell-out in Vesta’s history.

But the builder’s association recently decided that instead of doing Vesta, it would host a 2007 Mid-South Parade of Homes.

“The Vesta show was a success — everything sold — but it was only a success for those builders involved,” says MAHBA executive director Don Glays. “To be honest, there were not a lot of developers coming to the table saying I’m willing to risk the advertising and marketing budget.”

And with a weak housing market, the association wanted to give all of its member builders a boost.

“We’re going through a market correction that is probably a little more severe than it has been in the past,” Glays says. “We decided to carry on by doing a Parade of Homes that would interest all markets, not just the upscale market.”

Glays, who became director in May, has spent 25 years in the home-building industry. He says the association was considering doing a Parade-type event before he was hired. In fact, he was even asked about it during the interview process.

The Parade of Homes, which will be held in conjunction with the North Mississippi Home Builders Association, will run from October 12th to 28th and will feature 161 homes in 40 communities throughout the tri-state area. Seventy builders are involved and have built houses that range from $125,000 to $1.25 million.

Vesta may introduce buyers to top-of-the-line homes, but Glays thinks it offers an inaccessible product for most consumers. He hopes that a showcase aimed at drawing potential homebuyers into the market will work better than one that leaves them dreaming.

“When people go to Vesta, most say this is really nice, but it’s not mine. I’ll never have this,” Glays says. “With Parade of Homes, you can visit homes and say this is what I really want and I can afford this.”

MAHBA plans to hold another Parade of Homes in the spring and then return with the Vesta concept in fall 2008.