As the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) works to fix problems in their budget, bus riders are afraid that potential solutions for the agency will negatively impact service for citizens.
Johnnie Mosley, founding chairman of Citizens for Better Service, stated on Friday, July 12th, that his organization along with the Memphis Bus Riders Union received word that MATA administration met with bus drivers about the possibility of layoffs and service cuts.
MATA pledged to be more open and transparent with their ridership about changes affecting service, which Mosley said has not changed. However, he believes that both riders and drivers are concerned for the future.
“We’ve been reaching out to various drivers. We reached out to the union to see if we could get any verification or answers,” Mosley said. “In the meantime, we’ve been in close communication with Representative Justin J. Pearson, and we’re trying to figure out whether there are resources or money that the state could have to get MATA out of this situation.”
Following this comment, Erik Stevenson, chief of strategic partnerships and programs for MATA, released this statement:
“With staff and riders, we must consistently share that MATA faces a significant budget deficit resulting from years of increasing costs, decreasing ridership, and flat funding. In August, we’ll begin a thorough engagement process to assist us with the tough decisions that must be made to optimize our transportation system. To maintain our pledge to provide a balanced budget, all options have to be on the table.”
MATA’s interim CEO Bacarra Mauldin reported in her June 2024 CEO report that there is currently a hiring freeze despite their recruitment focuses on a number of open positions such as mechanics and trolley and fixed route operators. She said they are trying their best to “manage with the staff they have.”
In May, the transit authority revealed they had a $60 million deficit, and was “committed to increasing revenue and refining [its] process of spending.”
During their June budget proposal hearing in front of Memphis City Council, Mauldin said their biggest expenses are wages and fringe benefits as they have to offer competitive compensation packages. She also said MATA needed more mechanics, operators, and buses for their fixed routes and MATAPlus services for citizens with disabilities.
They also said a large amount of their budget would go towards installation of the Memphis Innovation Corridor, the first bus rapid transit service in Memphis.
While MATA has presented ways to refine their budget and spending, many riders are unhappy with some of their proposed solutions. Citizens like Mosley fear that the agency may resort to changes that would negatively affect their ridership.
Mosley alluded to the agency’s controversial proposed winter service changes that were presented in 2023. These changes included suspending service after 9 p.m. and suspending a number of routes. MATA’s board ultimately decided to nix these proposals after poor reception from the public.
After advocating on behalf of citizens while these proposals were on the table, Mosley said he hopes that the agency doesn’t resort back to these solutions in hopes of fixing their financial issues.
“The question is: Where are they going to cut?” Mosley said. “We don’t want those cuts to [affect] underserved areas. We don’t want the same plan the board rejected in December. We need MATA to come up with plans on how to increase ridership.”
Construction on the new Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Downtown can continue “full steam ahead” after a court ruling Friday.
Shelby County Chancellor Melanie Taylor Jefferson denied a request from Friends of Our Riverfront (FOR) to stop the build. The group has long contended that land at the top of the bluff, where the new museum is being built, is public.
“Neither the city nor Brooks owns this property,” the group has said. “Memphians have an easement to use the property as a public promenade and the city is the trustee. This means that the city can use this land only for the specific purpose of a riverfront greenway.”
With this, the group sued the city and the Brooks in September to halt construction. The court ordered the group to post a bond of $1 million to offset damages to the project should it be temporarily halted. FOR urged the court to waive the bond. The Brooks and city officials asked the bond to be set at $5 million.
The group never posted the bond. So, the judge dismissed its request to stop construction.
“This victory paves the way for us to bring Memphis one of the greatest cultural institutions in the country,” Brooks Chief development Officer Melissa Whitby said in an email to museum members. “This achievement would not have been possible without the unwavering support of our community, patrons, and partners. We are deeply grateful for your trust and commitment throughout this journey.”
Credit: Memphis Art Museum
FOR made no immediate public comment on the decision. In a Facebook post Thursday, the group said, “hard to believe a huge Soviet-style building that blocks the riverfront is actually good for anybody, Brooks included.”
The group has long fought projects along the bluff. It wants to conserve the riverfront from Big River Crossing to the Wolf River Greenway “as green space for public enjoyment, preserving its historic, natural, and authentic character.”
Credit: Friends for Our Riverfront
The Brooks broke ground last year on the new museum at the corner of Front and Union, the site of the former Memphis Fire Services Division headquarters. The museum will have a new name, the Memphis Art Museum, and is slated to open next year.
In her email, Whitby said the facility is expected to attract 150,000 new visitors to Memphis, generate about $100 million in economic impact, and “provide transformative experiences to more than 30,000 school-age children annually.”
“For years, our goal has been to establish for the people of Memphis one of the greatest cultural institutions in the country,” said Carl Person, chair of the museum board. “Today, thanks to the unwavering dedication of many, many supporters, we are closer than ever to making that dream a reality. This portion of our riverfront will soon be home not only to a world-class art museum, but acres of new, open, art-filled, and accessible public space for everyone to enjoy.”
Night owls get hungry, too. So the Memphis Flyer once again selected a few places where those birds of a feather can savor delicious cuisine until midnight or later while the early birds concentrate on catching the worms.
We headed to three restaurants that don’t shut their doors at 10 p.m. These places accommodate people out on the town who might be hungry after a movie, a concert, or a play. Or even if they’re hungry again because their early dinner has worn off.
Madison Tavern
Madison Tavern was always supposed to be a place that could accommodate people who wanted to eat a meal later in the evening, at 10 p.m. or after.
Tim Quinn, who owns Madison Tavern (the former Local on the Square) with his wife, Tarrah, wanted the restaurant/bar at 2126 Madison Avenue to be available for people who might be hungry after they’ve seen a play or heard some music in Overton Square. It opens at 11 a.m., but people can order food until last call, which depends on how late they stay open. It could be 1:30 a.m. or later.
They feature “an America menu” with “Southern-influenced” fare, Tim says.
Previously, people could only order appetizers after 10 p.m., but Tim recently added a “late-night menu” with more items.
Our writers dug into Madison Tavern’s char-grilled fruit and a sausage-and-cheese board for late-night apps, and a bit of breakfast. (Photos: Michael Donahue)
On our visit for this story, we tried several culinary delights, including the sausage-and-cheese board, hot wings, and, my favorite, the “Char-Grilled Fruit Board,” which includes a grilled watermelon with agave syrup and finished with sea salt. It’s now one of my top favorite things to eat in Memphis. I want to fire up my grill and make these every night.
People can order all of their appetizers late at night. These include fried green tomatoes served with horseradish, pretzel sticks served with Dijon and queso, elote queso and chips, a fried shrimp basket served with cocktail sauce and house slaw, and cheesy toast served with marinara and a choice of shrimp or crawfish.
The tamales with a choice of queso, tomatillo, or red chili sauce, are no longer on the appetizer list. They’re now on the new late-night menu, and they’ve been improved. They still come with the same sauces, but the new ones are made by their chef, Jose Reyes. They’re handmade and come from Reyes’ grandmother’s recipe.
Tim recently began Tamale Tuesday, which features the new tamales.
The tamales on the appetizer list were replaced with braised beef egg rolls. Also on the new late-night menu are tacos, a smash burger, sliders, and their famous grilled cheese sandwich, which Tim describes as “a staple in American history.”
Tim began making grilled cheese sandwiches with Adam Hall and friends with their team at the Memphis Grilled Cheese Festival. Hall came up with the sandwich, which is made with grilled chicken, buffalo sauce, white cheddar cheese, and regular white bread. He puts a mixture of butter and Miracle Whip on the bread and toasts it.
Courtnee Wall, who was with us the night we dined at Madison Tavern, tried some of my “Breakfast Plate,” which is on the entrée list. You get a choice of steak (that was my choice, and it was superb) or fried chicken breast. It’s served with a waffle, eggs, and home fries. She thought that should definitely be on the late-night menu.
The happy news is I recently learned that breakfast is available all day. And Tim tells me that the steak I liked so much is “tallow-injected rib eye.” Tallow is beef fat. “The good fat.”
“We cut those to order,” he adds.
When I ask if people can order other menu items besides appetizers and late-night items, Tim says, “Hey, you know what? If it’s not busy and we’ve got the opportunity, there’s no reason to say no.
“Most definitely if you slide in there and you’ve seen a show at Lafayette’s and didn’t have a chance to have dinner — they have great food, but should you have missed out — if we can make it, why would we say no? We’d like to stick to our menu. That’s where you find consistency. But, hopefully, we’ve got enough talent in the kitchen to knock something out for you if we’ve got the demand.” — Michael Donahue
Blues City Café
In the quest for good grub during the wilder hours of the night in Memphis, one option is too often forgotten by anyone living east of Danny Thomas. Sitting at the entrance to the heavily peopled Beale Street, this fine eatery is so obvious that you might say it’s hiding in plain sight: Blues City Café.
But if you’ve ever dined there while having a night on Beale Street, you already know that its name is synonymous with good grub; after all, it started out under the venerable name “Doe’s Eat Place,” back in the ’90s. At this café, as with all the joints on this late night eats quest, the food is dynamite.
Another draw for me is that Blues City Café is on the periphery of Beale proper, and thus amenable to a quick bite or take-out order even if you’re not feeling Beale-tastic. If Beale is raging the way that only Beale can rage, but you’ve just had one of those days, you can simply pop into the restaurant’s Second Street entrance without running the gauntlet of the cobblestone crowd. Once you’re there, however, there’s no guarantee the convivial spirit and swinging, rootsy music won’t turn “one of those days” into “one of those nights,” and you find yourself feeling very Beale-tastic indeed.
The food alone could accomplish that, of course, evoking as it does every backyard hootenanny and barbecue party of your dreams. I’ve dined at other establishments where that party could be from Anywhere, U.S.A., but it’s not for nothing that Blues City Café’s motto is “Put Some South in Your Mouth.” It’s a virtual tour through the Mid-South, with top-notch ribs, catfish, turnip greens, tamales, and a “Memphis Soul Stew,” but it also makes stops in Louisiana, for gumbo, and Kansas City, for steak.
Blues City Café is synonymous with good grub, like its tamales, cheese fries, and catfish. (Photos: Jay Adkins)
But I usually go for the Mississippi-Arkansas-Tennessee tamales. That unforeseen hybrid of Latino and rural Southern culture that became a thing in itself, the Southern tamale is a delicious echo of Mississippi Delta culture, and it pairs well with the music that fills the air at Blues City. That, in turn, goes back to Blues City’s very origins.
“Doe’s Eat Place” is a veritable institution in Greenville, Mississippi, at one time Dominick “Big Doe” Signa’s grocery store, morphing into a restaurant that challenged segregationist conventions due to the cross-cultural appeal of their food, especially their tamales. That reputation has carried on unabated in the hands of Big Doe’s descendants, as when Doe’s was named an “American Classic” restaurant by the James Beard Foundation in 2007.
Entrepreneur George Eldridge was aiming to carry on in that tradition when he opened a new “Doe’s Eat Place” on the corner of Second and Beale in 1991. Though it was only two years before other investors joined and redubbed the place “Blues City Café,” Eldridge’s commitment to good tamales lived on.
As Blues City general manager Jason Ralph tells me, “George Eldridge started serving the tamales, and he still has the Doe’s over in Little Rock. Then he has a place called the Tamale Factory over in Gregory, Arkansas. So we circled back to him a few years ago, and since then it’s come kind of full circle and we use tamales that he produces at the Tamale Factory in Gregory. That was a pretty cool day when we went back to serving the original tamales that they used to make here.”
So there’s a credible back story behind Blues City’s claim to serve the “World’s Best Tamales.” And I guess my purchasing habits would be Exhibit A in support of that statement. When I sometimes sit in on organ with Earl “The Pearl” Banks and The People of the Blues in the Band Box room (where you can dine or not, to your preference), I’m often picturing those tamales as my reward for a hard day’s night. Not only do you get three or six fresh corn masa tamales, steamed in their wraps, stuffed with beef, pepper, and spices, but you get homemade chili on the side. Hearty fare indeed for the people of the blues!
If you follow suit, look for Edgar among the servers there. “He has been here since the beginning. He tells me stories about it,” says Ralph. Edgar can also tell you about other favorite dishes at Blues City over the years, like the café’s most popular item, the pork ribs.
“The ribs came from chef Vonnie Mack, who was with Doe’s Eat Place originally as well,” says Ralph. “He developed the sauce and our style of ribs, and we kind of stay true to that. We slow smoke them in the smoker out back until they’re so tender they fall off the bone. The ribs are by far our most famous item, that and the catfish. And then for late night, people tend to order the golden fried chicken tenders or the catfish. Or lately we’ve seen a lot of orders of the cheese fries, where we put gumbo or the barbecue on top of it.”
Like I said, Blues City Café is the hootenanny barbecue party of your dreams, and they’re open Sunday through Thursday until 1 a.m., Friday and Saturday until 3 a.m. — Alex Greene
Momma’s
The revving of motorcycle engines grumbled in the air as we moseyed into Momma’s on a balmy Wednesday night. The first, or last, bar in Memphis, depending on which way you’re headed, sits just off I-55 at 855 Kentucky Street, the site of the former Dirty Crow Inn, and close to the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge. We’d wandered in during bike night, with plenty of motorcyclists sitting in the patio corner enjoying plenty of brews. The trucker-themed bar sees lots of visitors who are just passing through (there’s plenty of space to park a semi), but the menu has something for everyone.
Momma’s serves up lasagna, a fried chicken sandwich, burgers, and lots and lots of coffee. (Photos: Michael Donahue / Samuel X. Cicci)
It was getting fairly late when we arrived, but we were in luck. For when the hunger pangs hit long after dark, Momma’s has you covered. The bar is open until 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and the kitchen keeps the griddle hot until an hour before closing. Anyone hanging out past their bedtime Downtown will have a much better alternative to Taco Bell.
The menu boasts plenty of easy comfort options; think all the dishes that, er, momma used to make. On Wednesdays, the chefs whip up their lasagna special, a comfortable glob that combines a warm blanket of ricotta, Parmesan, and mozzarella cheese, ably abetted by a smooth marinara sauce and a big helping of ground beef. Coupled with a small plate of deviled eggs, supported by bacon bits and a healthy sprinkling of smoked paprika, it made for a fine start to the evening.
Of course, with this being another late-night excursion, Michael Donahue requested several cups of coffee, while I deferred to the Express-O Martini for my caffeine kick, a mix of Smirnoff vanilla vodka, cream, Disaronno amaretto, and a ground espresso shot, topped with three coffee beans for good measure.
The main courses arrived to our table just as the toll of another after-hours jaunt hit our weary bones. There’s never not a good a time to order a fried chicken sandwich, but that crispy, spicy crunch just hits differently after wandering around Downtown hopped up on the buzz of a few beers. The Firebird slaps a hefty chunk of chicken between two buns and spruces it up with bacon slices, pickles, fried onions, melted Swiss and cheddar cheese, and slathers Memphis Mojo sauce atop it all. I needed another jolt to avoid a food coma, so my attention turned to the Diablo burger. Cooked medium rare, the patty provides the foundation for this “one hot momma,” mixing several different hits of spice with sauteed jalapeños and ghost pepper cheese.
For those craving the most important meal of the day while under the moonlight, the Bacon-Egg-N-Cheeseburger comes as advertised, reminiscent of nocturnal treks to CKs or other all-nighter breakfast places. By the way, if you find yourself out and about so late that night has turned to dawn, Momma’s does have a full breakfast menu from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.
A lot of truckers and bikers pass through, but weekly events have pulled back a decent group of regulars. There’s the aforementioned bike night, but Momma’s also holds Redneck Trivia (Mondays), Industry Night (Tuesdays), and Ladies Night (Thursdays), among others. And it’s safe to expect some sort of live performance most nights per week to offer late-night snacks and a show.
Momma’s fell off the radar a bit when it closed in 2021, due to a mixture of Covid and renovations. It opened back up in August of 2023 with a few improvements: namely, a much-expanded patio overlooking Kentucky Street, decked with extra tables and, crucially, a music stage. During our visit, singer-songwriter Max Kaplan took to the stage and serenaded diners with a mix of popular covers by request. It’s probably the first time I’ve heard a solo blues-tinged take on Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time.” But there was no loneliness killing us, or any diners, as we all enjoyed smooth tunes, some fried chicken sandwiches, and a fun night out under the stars. — Samuel X. Cicci
Tennessee schools are increasingly punishing and excluding special education students with behavioral issues instead of providing them with evidence-based interventions to support their academic and behavioral growth, a new report says.
And it’s not the fault of teachers, school staff, or the students themselves, the author says.
In its report, released Friday, the Tennessee Disability Coalition blamed state policymakers for setting priorities and adopting policies that are ineffective at best, and likely harming thousands of the state’s most vulnerable students.
As a result, the coalition says, educators are using “ineffective, dangerous, counter-productive, and rights-violating practices” in the classroom.
The criticisms come after Tennessee enacted a string of increasingly stringent laws aimed at tightening discipline in the classroom — from the 2021 Teacher’s Discipline Act empowering teachers to remove chronically unruly students to a 2024 law requiring a one-year suspension for students who assault teachers at school.
Such policies, the report says, disproportionately affect students with disabilities, particularly those with behavioral issues, thereby restricting their educational opportunities.
“These policies not only sweep students with behavior needs into more restrictive settings, alternative school placements, and the juvenile justice system, they cast a net over other marginalized communities, including students of color and students in poverty,” the report says.
Jeff Strand, the coalition’s public policy director, said recent Tennessee laws also show a lack of understanding about special-needs students with behavioral challenges, leading to policies that are poorly suited to address the root causes of disciplinary issues.
“Good teachers know behavior issues are a child’s cry for help,” said Strand, a former special educator who authored the report. “What we’re doing in Tennessee is only making the problem worse.”
Specifically, the report calls out a shortage and high turnover of special education teachers; systemic gaps in training and support for special and general education teachers and administrators on the needs of students with behavior issues; a trend toward punitive and exclusionary practices; and a lack of student access to effective school-based supports and therapies, including enough school psychologists, counselors, speech-language pathologists, and board-certified behavior analysts.
Families: teachers are under-trained and overwhelmed
Chris and Angela Powell’s family has experienced gaps in school services firsthand as parents of a child with autism and ADHD.
They describe their son Charlie as intelligent, caring, and kind. But his behaviors — whether shouting out answers, failing to complete worksheets, or fighting — often resulted in lost recess, hours in the principal’s office, or even being physically restrained or placed in a padded room during his first few years of elementary school in Williamson County, south of Nashville.
“These are invisible disabilities, and his behavior was his form of communicating. But he was being excluded and punished based on his disability,” said Angela Powell, now a special-needs advocate. “His general education teachers didn’t seem to understand how to work with children who have needs like ADHD or autism.”
The Powells say Williamson County’s two school districts lacked qualified therapists and other specialized support staff, leaving teachers with few tools to tackle classroom misbehavior. Charlie eventually was placed on homebound instruction, receiving his lessons in a home setting and missing out on the opportunity to attend school with his non-disabled peers. Now 12, he is being homeschooled.
“If the richest district in Tennessee can’t help my son learn,” said Chris Powell, “I shudder to think what families deal with in the other 94 counties.”
Meanwhile, the report identified only three of the state’s 10 largest teacher training programs — at the University of Memphis, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and University of Tennessee-Chattanooga — as offering more than two courses on teaching students with disabilities.
Also, while the state recently switched to a new K-12 education funding formula to provide more resources for students with higher needs, such as students with disabilities, the change did not require that districts designate such extra funds for special education services.
And while the state promised to inject an extra $1 billion annually in the K-12 funding pool, Tennessee remains in the bottom fifth of states in per-pupil funding.
Exclusion policies gave way to inclusion movement
Tennessee was once one of the many states that had laws formally excluding children with disabilities from public schools, on the premise that those kids would not benefit from a public school education. Before the passage of a 1975 federal law establishing the right to a public education for kids with disabilities, only 1 in 5 of those children were educated in public schools.
The expanded Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 marked the advent of the inclusion movement and the belief that children with disabilities, with some individualized support, can thrive in educational settings with their non-disabled peers.
But despite clear research on the benefits of inclusion for students with disabilities, surveys show general education teachers feel ill-prepared to work with them and struggle especially with special needs students with behavioral issues.
In Tennessee, about a tenth of the state’s public school students use an individualized education plan, or IEP, intended to ensure that the student receives specialized instruction and related services for their disability.
But according to data from the state education department, those same students receive a disproportionate share of formal disciplinary actions that include in-school and out-of-school suspension, expulsion, and transfer to alternative settings. In 2021-22, the most recent school year for which data are available, 12.5% of students with disabilities were removed from their classrooms, even though federal law limits excessive exclusionary discipline.
In addition, informal exclusionary disciplinary practices — which are difficult to quantify — are almost exclusively directed toward students with disabilities, the coalition says. They can include directing parents or guardians to take the student home for the day, inappropriate homebound placement, excessive use of threat assessments, inappropriate use of in-school suspension, and exclusion from school transportation.
Pending review of the report, a spokesperson for the state education department declined to comment on its assertions.
The leader of Professional Educators of Tennessee, which lobbied for the Teacher’s Discipline Act, acknowledged the challenges and nuances of disciplining students, especially those with special needs.
“We have seen since the pandemic an increase in mental health issues. That is why we at Professional Educators of Tennessee have worked hard to get additional funding for mental health in Tennessee,” said executive director JC Bowman.
He added that he’s open to new ideas that “ensure classrooms are safe and orderly, and every child has an opportunity to learn.”
The state comptroller is looking into the “informal removal” issue, also called “off-book suspensions.” Its Office of Research and Education Accountability has commissioned a report, which is expected to be released later this year, to better understand the use of informal removal, which often violates the rights of students with an IEP.
Strand says both pathways — formal and informal — can allow schools to avoid developing effective plans to correct bad behavior so they can stay in class and learn.
He recommends that Tennessee parents learn as much as they can about the rights of children with disabilities, including those with behavioral issues.
The coalition is hosting a free webinar at 5:30 p.m. Central time on Tuesday, June 25, on Facebook.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Donald Trump can appear on Tennessee election ballots in November after the Tennessee Attorney General refused to issue an opinion on the matter last week.
Rep. Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville) requested the opinion from Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti, a Republican, earlier this month. Dixie pointed to a Tennessee law that says anyone convicted of an “infamous crime” is “disqualified from qualifying for, seeking election to or holding a public office in this state.”
Dixie said the law is meant “to protect the public from individuals who refuse to adhere to the laws they are meant to uphold.” He then pointed to Trump’s convictions on 34 felony counts of election interference last week.
Skrmetti’s office said it could only render opinions to officials “in the discharge of their official duties.” The letter added emphasis to the words “in the discharge of their official duties” but did not offer further details.
“Your letter also rests on an incorrect premise that (the state law’s) reference to ‘a public office in this state’ somehow includes the U.S. President,” reads the letter from Tennessee solicitor General Matt Rice. “The U.S. Presidency is not a public office in Tennessee. And any State effort to add new qualifications for the U.S. President would raise serious constitutional questions.”
Dixie said he was “disappointed” but “not surprised” by the response from the AG’s office.
“This just highlights the broken criminal justice system in this country,” Dixie said in a statement. “There is no rational explanation for a way that a person can possibly be elected [President of the United States] by this state, and if that same person lived in Tennessee, they wouldn’t even be able to cast a ballot and vote. How does that make sense?”
Dixie’s request came after Trump was convicted in New York last month on 34 felony counts. Trump was convicted of all counts as part of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star who alleged she had sex with him.
Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s office told Tennessee Lookout earlier this month that Trump will be on Tennessee’s election ballot.
“Segreghetto” is surprisingly bass-light, but you’ll barely notice as the layers of percussion send you into a funky netherworld. “The term ‘Segreghetto’ encapsulates the intersection, the crossroads of segregation and ghettoization, perseverance in this human experience,” says Mononeon. “‘Segreghetto’ is a thang where it’s a testament to the enduring spirit of yourself in your community and culture. Like offering a voice to those that are overlooked or misunderstood, carving out your own path even in the midst of systemic inequalities. When me and my friend Davy were writing the song ‘Segreghetto,’ I felt like this junt could be inspiration to anyone willing to defy the odds and chase their dreams, wanting that gold medal.. no matter the obstacles that lie in their path and journey.”
For the video, produced by Texan Twanvisuals, the Mono-man shows off some of his trademark quilted and knit duds. Looks pretty hot to me, on this summer Monday!
If you’d like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Nashville, being a music industry city, draws a lot of talent, even from Memphis. Yet there often comes a moment of reckoning for that talent, when everything that makes an artist unique collides with all the factors that make the industry an industry — the assembly line, if you will. That, at least, was the trajectory of Memphis-born Cyrena Wages, a singer/songwriter equipped with such a rich, soulful alto that Nashville called out to her for most of the 2010s. There, her duo with her brother Houston, the Lost Wages, was courted by producers who’d worked with the likes of Frankie Ballard and Dolly Parton, leading to some of her first recording sessions. And that, in turn, was where it all went wrong.
Whatever was created in those sessions just didn’t feel like her. Somehow, she felt she “hadn’t even started,” she says. “The stories that had lived in my mind since I was a little girl hadn’t even come to the surface yet.” Part of the problem, she realized, was personal: She needed to confront the young girl she had been to find her true, mature voice. “For whatever reason, some kids, often young women, absorb so many external narratives that our own essence and truth just gets totally washed away. That was me, and I lived in that checked-out space from age 9 until about 26.”
For Wages, the key to not being checked-out was coming home to “the country backroads between Millington and Shelby Forest” where she grew up. Here, she could have the space to develop her vision. And now this Friday, years after she returned to those backroads, that vision is coming into fruition with the release of her debut album, Vanity Project.
Produced and mixed by Matt Ross-Spang at his Southern Grooves studio, the album has some of the rootsy, vintage elements of his previous acclaimed work with Margo Price or St. Paul & the Broken Bones, yet with more of the contemporary pop instincts once championed by one of Wages’ heroes, Amy Winehouse. Most of all, the sounds jump out of the speakers with the grit of a real band.
That includes not only Ross-Spang himself but guitarist and songwriting collaborator Joe Restivo, whose experience with groups like the City Champs and the Bo-Keys brings a subtly cosmopolitan touch to the arrangements. Other A-list players from Memphis, including keyboardist Pat Fusco, bassist Landon Moore, and drummers Danny Banks, Ken Coomer, and Shawn Zorn, bring some heavy vibes and grooves. It’s abundantly clear this was not created “in the box” of a computer screen. This album has soul.
Yet the real soul arises out of Wages’ liquid vocals and the very personal lyrics she has penned. There’s no small irony in the album’s title, as these songs confront her struggles with her own self-image and the double-edged sword of physical beauty. Having grown up competing on the Tennessee beauty pageant circuit, she was immersed in the mix of acclaim, cruelty, and infantilization that such a world cultivates.
“I’ll die in therapy over it,” Wages says of those years, laughing. “Walking around in a swimsuit with a number on your waist like a show horse, all while a bunch of weird old guys give you a score of one to 10. … I subconsciously internalized that whole dynamic and it was in the driver’s seat for a lot of my life. I either bullied myself for not being ‘whatever’ enough, or I’ve been dismissed as ‘whatever’ — and not the smart one, not the creative one, not the artistically capable one.”
Living through all of that, and staring it in the face, lends the album its hard-won wisdom. “Am I a mess or a work of art?” she sings on “Back to the City.”
“In my darkness I ruminate/I wonder if a lover will ever stay with my heavy heart/But the morning sun whispered, ‘You’re the most beautiful girl in the world when you fall apart’/My soul has lines on her face, I am much older than my time/But I’m comin’ up from the reverie and out of the corners of my mind/And I’m going back to the city/I’m going back to the old me/I got a new pair of dancing shoes and damn I feel pretty.”
Such insights into her own life, Wages suggests, couldn’t have come if she was still chasing the brass ring of music industry approval. That could only come from the back roads. “Memphis is part of the tapestry of my soul,” she says. “There’s something different about this place. It’s honest and … heavy. It’s where I can connect to the source, you know? It provided me enough openness to find myself, my real autonomous self, outside of all the voices. That was something I’d never done before. It’s like I had been asleep since I was five years old and then woke up and said, ‘Where have I been? What the hell happened to me?’”
Cyrena Wages and band will celebrate the release of Vanity Project at Bar Ware on Thursday, May 30th.
The Memphis Zoo plans to invest $250 million over the next 20 years on a comprehensive campus plan to “fortify our reputation as a world-class zoo.”
Zoo president and CEO Matt Thompson announced the plan in an email sent Monday morning to zoo members and community stakeholders. That email came with a link to a survey seeking opinions to guide the planning process.
“As we look to the next twenty years and beyond, we seek to invest upwards of $250 million to reimagine this home for wildlife, to unlock opportunities for animal care and conservation, and strengthen our position as a community amenity through guest education and enhancement,” Thompson wrote. “This comprehensive campus plan aims to improve outdated priority areas across our campus and will create world-class animal exhibits and unforgettable family memories for decades to come.”
The plan calls for general infrastructure improvements but will focus on these exhibits: Great Lawn and Stingray (coming in 2025), Africa, Penguins, Oceans to Forests Journey, Nature Adventure and Ambassadors, Weird and Wonderful, and South America.
The first exhibit set for improvement is the Africa Veldt, home to “some of our most iconic and loved species, the African elephants and giraffes.” The plan could increase habitat space there by four times and cost $75 million.
“The existing facilities are dated and the habitat provides insufficient space for new and improved levels of care for our elephants, giraffes, rhinos, hyenas, and mixed hoofstock,” Thompson said. “Our reimagined habitat will increase acreage by four times to improve naturalistic features by unlocking time-shared and mixed-species spaces.
“The improved infrastructure will also provide the community with new ways to connect and learn about wildlife with a new Africa lodge and immersive guest experiences such as a new giraffe feeding zone.”
Zoo officials have hired CCS Fundraising, a strategic fundraising consulting firm, to guide its campaign planning efforts. The zoo said a “vital step” of their work will be to gather feedback and advice from leaders and friends of the zoo on the scope, leadership, timing, and key messaging of a potential major fundraising campaign for the first phase of these efforts.
The Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission’s (MSCCC) latest report shows that the overall crime rate, as well as major violent and property crimes and juvenile crimes, saw an overall increase in 2023 compared to 2022.
The crime commission released its 2023 Annual Report. The statistics compare crime in Memphis and in Shelby County. The rates are released in conjunction with the University of Memphis Public Safety Institute.
“The sources of the crime rates issued by the University of Memphis Public Safety Institute and the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission are data submitted to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s (TBI) Tennessee Incident-Based Reporting System (TIBRS) by individual law enforcement agencies,” MSCCC said.
MSCCC mentions that the city has “a lot of positive momentum” in terms of tourism, Tom Lee Park, the construction of the Memphis Art Museum, and more. However, they said in order to propel this “momentum” forward, the area needs to “get a handle on our unacceptably high crime rate.
“We saw some encouraging signs during the latter part of 2023,” MSCCC said. “For the entire year, though, crime rates in almost all major categories moved in the wrong direction compared to 2022.”
The report classifies major violent crimes as murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults, and major property crimes as burglaries, auto thefts, and other felony theft offenses, or larcenies.
Overall crime in both jurisdictions increased from 2022 to 2023, with the city of Memphis reporting 19,962 reported incidents in 2023, compared to 18,554 in 2022. Shelby County reported 15,380 crimes in 2023, and 14,509 in 2022.
According to the crime commission, there was a 52.3 percent increase in murders in 2023 compared to 2022. These incidents were calculated “per 100,000 population.)
Domestic violence incidents were up by 3 percent, and “gun related violent incidents” in the city of Memphis increased by 11.6 percent .
Included in the report is the “Safe Community Action Plan Status Report,” which is one of the solutions towards “reducing violence.” In terms of gun violence, the commission is on track with “vigorous federal prosecution of gun crime as a priority, and “establishing a special Memphis Police Department Unit to investigate aggravated assault incidents involving guns.”
MSCCC reported that they are “on track” with these developments, however they are “slightly behind schedule” on “expanding violence interveners” tasked with preventing “retaliatory violence.” They also said they are behind on “developing and implementing an effort to reduce thefts of vehicles and guns.”
While the city saw an increase in multiple areas, the report concluded that “serious juvenile charges” were down 13.3 percent in 2023 (569) compared to 2022 (656). This follows a trend of decreased charges starting from 2011.
The report does not state what is considered “serious juvenile charges,” however it cited aggravated assault, aggravated robbery, and carjacking as “serious delinquent juvenile offenses.” The commission called these “especially disturbing.”
The statistics show that there was an overall increase in juvenile or charges compared to 2022. “Delinquent juvenile charges” were up by 15.9 percent.
Per the status report, the commision says it is on track with “expanding efforts” to engage with youth prior to committing any offense or “before they encounter law enforcement or the juvenile justice system.” The commission reports that it has developed a system regarding intensive supervision, rehabilitation. and treatment for “serious juvenile offenders.” MSCCC reported it is slightly behind on a plan that helps to “break the cycle of repeat offenders.”
Humes Middle School in North Memphis will close at the end of this school year, in a last-minute decision by Memphis-Shelby County Schools. The closure coincides with the end of Humes' charter under the state's takeover district for low-performing schools. (Caroline Bauman / Chalkbeat)
The last-minute decision to shutter the nearly 100-year-old building, where a young Elvis Presley attended high school, is a change in plans since the fall, when teachers were told the school would stay open, said Bobby White, head of Frayser Community Schools, the charter company that runs Humes for the state’s Achievement School District.
“I just wish it had been sooner,” White said of the decision.
The school has long struggled with low enrollment. Students will be rezoned to Booker T. Washington, a grade 6-12 school three miles away in South Memphis, according to Memphis-Shelby County Schools documents.
The decision, shared with families and staff in recent days, happened with little to no public discussion in the community or by the school board. And the prospect of students having to shift to a faraway school has some education leaders concerned.
Humes is one of five Memphis schools that are reaching the end of their 10-year term this summer. Of the other four, one will remain open and operated by MSCS, one received approval to operate under another state-run charter district, and one will continue to operate as a charter school under MSCS.
The fourth, MLK College Prep High School, operated by the Frayser charter network, is also set to close in its current building, but families have received more regular communication from the Memphis district about the changes there. MLK is set to merge with Trezevant High in the fall while a new neighborhood high school is built.
Meanwhile, the Humes community has been waiting for clarity. Last summer, the Memphis district rejected White’s application to continue running the school under Frayser Community Schools.
“When you’re dealing with poor, marginalized folks,” White said, “you respect them enough to communicate with them as soon as possible, and think through things in a way where they’re going to be valued and respected, where you’re doing right by them.”
For Humes, conversations changed after the district faced renewed concerns about the physical condition of the building, which turns 100 years old next year. When another charter school inquired about leasing the building during a January board meeting, then interim Superintendent Toni Williams said the building had “major issues.”
Around that time, Chalkbeat reported that a draft plan for all district schools suggested that Humes would close. Still, the district hadn’t communicated any new plans to Humes teachers and families since an earlier fall meeting, said White.
MSCS did not respond to Chalkbeat’s inquiries in time for the publication of this story. During a meeting with board members Tuesday, Superintendent Marie Feagins said the district reviewed several factors including the capacity of the buildings. Feagins, who became district leader on April 1st, told board members she was under the impression the news about Humes had already been shared.
The building is on the National Register of Historic Places because of Presley, who graduated in 1953 from Humes when it was a high school.
But enrollment at Humes has remained low since even before it was taken over by the state. It can serve more than 1,300 students, but only 193 are enrolled. A previous charter operator, Gestalt Community Schools, also struggled with low enrollment at Humes.
White says the district’s plans to send students from Humes’ zone out of the neighborhood for middle school could result in lower enrollment at Manassas High School in North Memphis.
Memphis board members Stephanie Love, who has kept a focus on schools in the turnaround district, and Michelle McKissack, whose district includes Humes, Manassas, and Booker T. Washington, both said the board should revisit the district’s policy on school zoning.
“The culture in South Memphis and North Memphis is not the same,” Love said, adding that she understands why families and teachers could be upset by the last-minute closure.
In a letter to parents, Feagins suggested that they consider Cummings K-8 Optional School and Grandview Heights Middle School as alternatives to Booker T. Washington. White said some of the students have considered nearby charter school options as well, including KIPP Collegiate Middle or Frayser Community Schools’ Westside Middle.
The district is holding online meetings for family members on April 17th at 12:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. A community meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the Porter-Leath location at 628 Alice Avenue.
Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
