Memphis Flyer – Page 1000

901 Wrestling, Goodbye to Sears Southland Mall, Beale Street book find

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date January 24, 2019

It was fun catching up with some old and new friends at 901 Wrestling at the Rec Room.

901 Wrestling is the new name of UCPWS (Ultimate Championship Pro Wrestling South), the wrestling matches that take place every other week at the Rec Room. The name change was announced at its January 19th event.

“It’s been on our mind for a while,” says Stephen Thompson, an owner of the independent wrestling company “We never liked the name UCPWS. It was hard to pronounce and hard to remember. So, we were just trying to look for something to change to.”

They gave it some thought. “It’s kind of a rule in wrestling where you don’t want to be too local with the name if you want to branch out. But the Memphis crowds have been so good to us. And we’ve had so much success here over the year. With the 901 craze, what’s more Memphis than 901? The whole 901 craze (of) naming things you see everywhere now, we’ve got to get on board. What’s more Memphis than that? When someone hears ‘901,’ they know immediately it’s Memphis.

“We want to be Memphis everything. We’ve had thoughts of transitioning all the entrance themes to local Memphis artists. And the sponsors we’re going after, they’re all local. We’re trying to be 100 percent on everything.”

Their title belt also was changed to reflect Memphis, says wrestling manager Tommy Jax. “No one’s really made a Memphis belt before,” he says. “There’s been a Mid-Southern title, Southern heavyweight title, a thousand ways you can make a Southern title, but never a Memphis belt.

“So, what I set out to do when we did the design on it, I wanted to throw in themes that were Memphis-centric. So, that’s why at the heart of the belt is the city. That’s the skyline you see at the center of the belt.”

The skyline includes The Pyramid and the Hernando De Soto Bridge. “We could put our own logo there, but, to me, this is not about us. It’s about bringing something back to Memphis that shouldn’t ever have gone away. We put the city right there at the heart of the belt.”

The side plates include a tiger for the University of Memphis Tigers and a grizzly bear for the Memphis Grizzlies, which are among the “things written into the DNA of Memphis,” Jax says. “There’s music. There’s basketball. And there’s wrestling.”

901 Wrestling currently has 20 to 25 wrestlers on the roster, Thompson says. Most of the wrestlers are based in the area. “We pride ourselves on using a lot of our own local guys and not trying to bring in big names or anything,” he says. “We get big crowds regardless. We’re trying to be our own thing.”

901 Wrestling returns at 7 p.m. January 26th at the Rec Room, 3000 Broad. Admission is $5.

I know it’s hard to find me, but here I am with the 901 Wrestling wreslters at the Rec Room.

Michael Donahue

901 Wrestling referees: Billy ‘You Had Your Chance’ Robinson, Tracksuit Donny, Blue Shoes David Knight and Jay ‘No Fun’ Dunn.

……………………….

Michael Donahue

Josh ‘Next Level’ Matthews

Josh ”Next Level” Matthews recently has been a good guy, but he’s been a bad guy, too.

Matthews is one of the wrestlers on the 901 Wrestling roster.

“Most of the time I’m the bad guy,” says Matthews, 28. “Recently, I’ve had a change of heart and I’m doing the good guy a little bit to see how the fans like me. And get on their good side a little while.”

What does he do to become the “bad guy” wrestler? “Choking and low blows here and there. Raking the eyes with fingernails. Scratching the eyes. Running your fingernails down somebody’s throat. Hanging them over the ropes and choking them.”

A native of Tupelo, Matthews began wrestling when he was 14. His dad, Wayne “Bad Boy Burns” Blaylock, wrestled 22 years. “I actually started wrestling illegally in Mississippi. You were supposed to have a Mississippi wrestling license and be 18 and trained and all that. But I was 14. Everybody knew me. I kind of stood on my spot. I would put on some clothes over my wrestling attire and once the commissioner left, I would have my match.”

Matthews, who weighs 190 pounds, looks leaner than some other wrestlers. “I actually started working out again. One of my friends used to call me a ‘wasted piece of muscle.’ I was all muscle and ripped, but I would just sit around and play Playstation and eat Baconators – the real big burgers from Wendy’s with all the bacon on it. It comes with like three patties. I’ve tried to get fat, but it won’t happen.”

He also looks like he might be in a rock band. “I can break instruments. I did break a guitar over somebody’s head.”

Asked how he got the name “Next Level,” Matthews says, “When Tommy Jax started managing me. One night we had our match and he looks at me, ‘Dude, you’re on another level.’ And he called me ‘Next Level’ one night on the microphone and the crowd just fell into it.”

Matthews, who wrestled in Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama, says, “Right now, I haven’t taken any bookings other than the 901 Wrestling.”

He’s a fan of the wrestling company. “I like 901 Wrestling because we’re going with the change wrestling is going through, but we still have that old school mentality.”

They believe in “keeping it traditional” at 901 Wrestling, Matthews says. “Like keeping wrestling the way it should be and still having moves they may have not done in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Climbing on the rope and doing a 450 splash. One front flip and a half of a flip and you splash your opponent.”

Splash? “Going for the win. You splash somebody, you land on them belly to belly.”

……………

Frank Sampietro, far right, with former Sears employees at a reunion at Sears Southland Mall.

Sears Southland Mall

The closing of Sears Southland Mall on January 27th will mark the end of an era for the once retail giant. That’s the last Sears store in Memphis.

Frank Sampietro, who worked for Sears for 43 years, organized a reunion of former employees. About 60 retirees met at noon on January 21st at Sears Southland Mall. They took a final walk through the store, touring the sales floor and offices they used to work in.

“It’s been coming and we all knew it for a long time,” says Sampietro, 79. “But we were all happy and sad. Happy to see each other. Some we hadn’t seen in years. But sort of sad ‘cause we remember the good times. We were all together. All full-time employees. We were one big family.”

Sears at one time was “the largest employer in the city of Memphis with as many as 11 stores/units,” Sampietro says. About 4,000 people worked for Sears “during its heyday in the ‘60s and ‘70s.”

The smaller Sears stores in the Memphis area are “independently owned franchise stores. As far as we know, they will remain open.”

A graduate of Christian Brothers High School, Sampietro went to work at the old Sears Crosstown in 1959 after he got out of the Air Force. “I started working in the old customer service behind the original furniture department. And I was working part time there going to Memphis State.”

He met his wife, Jo, at Sears Southland Mall. “She worked in the candy department. I was the manager of the sporting goods department. We’ve been married 47 years.”

Sampietro, who retired eight years ago, first retired as appliance manager from Sears Laurelwood, but, he says, “They called me back and I worked six years as district manager for the home improvement side of the company.”

He didn’t get a gold watch when he retired, but, he says, “I got a gold pin with a little diamond in it. That was about it.”

Sampietro described the years he and his co-workers spent at Sears at “just an unending journey from the time we started to the time each of us individually retired. As we retired, we noticed things were changing.”

For instance, they put in center aisle cashiers. Previously, individual departments had individual cash registers with people manning them.

People hated that and, after a time, they put the registers back in the departments, Sampietro says.

Millie Ungren, who taught sewing machine classes at Sears for those who bought sewing machines from the store, wrote a poem, “Sad Day at Southland Mall,” to commemorate the store closing.

One stanza mentions the store’s famous Whitehaven neighbor:

“There were the nights when Elvis shopped

We were ordered ‘stay put, do not leave’

He bought his shirts, jeans and underwear

When he left us, how we grieved.”

………………

Michael Donahue

Chuck Guthrie with his 1934 copy of ‘Beale Street – Where the Blues Began.’

Chuck Guthrie wants to know “what are the chances” of him discovering a circa 1934 book, Beale Street – Where the Blues Began the same week the International Blues Challenge takes place in Memphis.

It was sitting in his showcase at Market on Madison, which he owns with Larry Tyger, but he never looked at it until recently. “Several times during the week someone will come through and say, ‘Hey. I’ve got such and such. Will you give me a few dollars for it?’ It may be a piece of art, might be a book, little antiques.

“This has been half a year ago. A gentleman came in and he had a few knick knacks and a couple of books. He said, ‘I think that one book [the Beale Street book] might be something. But everyone who comes in says, ‘It really is old and it’s an antique.’ I usually give them two or three dollars to give them lunch or bus fare.”

He put the Beale Street book in the showcase without putting a price on it. “I never looked at it. Then Sunday afternoon, I decided I was going to make things in the case look better.”

He started to arrange the books. “I picked up the book and it said, ‘Beale Street. Where Blues Began.’ I said, ‘That’ll be interesting.’”

The book, which was was written by George W. Lee, includes a forward is by W. C. Handy.

Guthrie went on line and found a copy of the book that was selling for $1,550.

If anybody wants to look at the book and talk to him about it, Guthrie says to come on down to Market on Madison at Madison and Cleveland. He still hasn’t put a price on it.

…………..

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Tags Michael Donahue's We Saw You

Intermission Impossible Theater

“A Song For Coretta” Sounds Good But the Timing’s Off

Post author By Chris Davis
Post date January 24, 2019

At first I blamed the material. And then it hit me: Pearl Cleage’s odd little one act may end with, “This Little Light of Mine,” but A Song For Coretta is a funeral dirge. It presents as the intertwining stories of women standing in line, patiently waiting to pay their last respects to Civil Rights icon, Coretta Scott King. It’s really the allegorical story of voices that have forgotten how to harmonize and of five individual fingers that have forgotten how to make a fist.

For starters, A Song for Coretta isn’t a musical. It’s a play about generation gaps. We meet a proper, older matriarch, full of bootstraps stories, proud to have participated in Civil Rights events with her parents and satisfied with how far her generation has come. King died in 2006, so millennial bashing wasn’t a thing yet, obvs. But the elder is quick to scold anybody younger and ungrateful enough to complain about anything. We’re also introduced to a free-thinking artist and Hurricane Katrina survivor; an ambitious reporter; and a younger, directionless woman from the neighborhood, who’s easy to dismiss but almost impossible to refute.

The secret gag is that this show has very little to do with Coretta Scott King or her husband Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It’s not about the movement and what’s been won or what’s yet to be achieved. It’s about missing pieces. Things like a common purpose and leaders binding everybody together like glue.

A lot’s changed since 2006. Barack Obama replaced George W. Bush in the Oval Office, riding in on a wave of hope and change. He’s since been replaced by the overtly racist Donald Trump. In this time the spirit of protest has rekindled and movements like Black Lives Matter, the Fight for 15, and #TakeEmDown901, have restored at least some lost momentum. That spirit was just beginning to smolder again to the moment of King’s death, as America was slid into an era of endless war and rapidly expanding income equality. Long story short: There may be plenty left to learn and laugh over in Cleage’s script, but some if its complaints ring at least a little less true today than they might have, even a few years ago. That’s no knock, but something to consider in production design.

Speaking of … Hattiloo’s flat, storybook set is a good-looking charmer, but maybe too much. It’s a shame, at any rate, that so very little of the designed space is ever really used by the actors. And even two weeks into the run, the show’s cast seemed less than confident with blocking and lines. Even the nicest individual performances were incomplete and the relationships never clicked. A Song For Coretta might clip along with all the quirk of an absurdist farce, but in this environment, it limps forward, wounded by an absence of crispness and clarity.

I didn’t think I liked A Song for Coretta till I sat down and wrestled with it for a while. But the more I struggled the more I came to regard it as a special little gem searching for the right setting and a whole lot of polish. Hattiloo solved one of these wants, but not the other.

Tags A Song for Coretta, Coretta Scott King, Hattiloo

Intermission Impossible Theater

Theatre Memphis Reminds Us, “It’s a Sin to Kill a Mockingbird.”

Post author By Chris Davis
Post date January 24, 2019

CREDIT: Theatre Memphis

Theatre Memphis

To Kill a Mockingbird, Theatre Memphis

Theater Memphis’ production of To Kill a Mockingbird is handsome thing, lovingly lit, and costumed. It faithfully follows the story told in Harper Lee’s beloved 1960 novel and director Kevin Cochran’s production team has treated it like a classic. But the cast, while fully committed, is sometimes tragically uneven. Pacing was nonexistent and on opening night tensions never built. I felt particularly bad for young actors whose honest work needed to be slowed down or amplified for clarity’s sake.

When Go Set a Watchman, Lee’s messy early draft and/or sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird was published (for better or worse) in 2015, fans were horrified to discover that Lee’s unforgettable character Atticus Finch was, in addition to being a perfect dad, first rate attorney and model citizen, was also racist and the kind of person who might attend a Klan meeting. The outrage was silly because of course he was! Even for a progressive Southern lawyer in 1935, it would be far stranger if he wasn’t. And for all of Atticus’s apparent wisdom, you can see the darker biases, even in the original’s most famous passages — written, as they were, when the idea of race was still concrete, and understood to be a catalyst preceding racism, not an artificial distinction created and preserved by white supremacy.

“The truth is this: Some Negroes lie,” Atticus says. “Some Negroes are immoral. Some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white.” In spite of what you might assume from these lines, he’s defending Tom Robinson, an African-American man falsely accused of raping a white woman. “This is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men,” Atticus concludes, putting forward the good Christian notion that all men are flawed while enshrining a fundamentally racist paradigm and the question it turns on: “Is this the good kind or the bad kind?”

In polarized times, To Kill a Mockingbird might appeal to a sense of nostalgia for some mythical age when men of principle argued in good faith, and even against their own nature or political ideology. A time when stand-up guys like Atticus Finch at least tried to raise their children to be better than themselves. But the applause lines in Atticus’s big address to the jury — and our proxy jury, the audience — must be understood as naive and as much a part of the white biased system as Tom Robinson’s accusers. So,as good a man as Atticus may be, absent some critical perspective it’s hard to valorize his best intentions or frame his moral victory as an act of pure heroism, without also affirming and valorizing its racist architecture.

The actor cast as Atticus is Bob Arnold. He has been a generous, and under-appreciated contributor to Memphis’s performing arts scene. Before anybody had heard the word “podcast,” he was the indefatigable driving force behind Chatterbox Audio Theater, an audio performance troupe that brought area talent, and a mix of classic and original stories right into our earphones by way of digital broadcast and occasional partnerships with WKNO radio. It’s an understatement to say I’m a fan of the man and his work. That being said, I can’t say much good about this performance.

With his soothing, radio-ready baritone, Arnold narrates the role of Atticus more than he inhabits it. He brings more life to act two when the story shifts toward courtroom drama, but barely. Arnold trudges through the role with perfect diction, and loads of heart but little sense of urgency, place, or purpose.

Following on a streak of great work in shows like All Saints in the Old Colony and The Flick, John Maness doesn’t disappoint as classic yokel, Bob Ewell. Despite the character’s lack of dental hygiene and grooming, there’s not a hair out of place in Maness’s performance. As his daughter Mayella, Hailey Townsend is even better. It’s horrible stuff but great news for a stiff production that’s never able to work up the momentum or sense of urgency it needs. It’s also a problem.

White America still struggles to understand the racism it creates and sustains apart from classist signifiers like trailer park teeth and overtly racist behaviors like those embodied by Lee’s Ewell family. To Kill a Mockingbird, being of its time, reinforces a false dichotomy by making Bob Ewell and Atticus adversaries but not two sides of the same white supremacist narrative.

The best moments in this To Kill a Mockingbird still arrive courtesy of Maness and Townsend and a few other secondary roles, with strong character turns by JoLynn Palmer, Mario Hoyle, and Annie Freres.

I’m not suggesting there’s anything wrong with To Kill a Mockingbird. But as much as it may have meant to book lovers and justice-loving progressives in the 20th Century, it’s very much a product of that century and ultimately a story of white struggle and sentimentality written inside a culture of supremacy. It’s not the boldest choice for Theatre Memphis, and honestly, maybe even a little tone deaf for the place we live and this particular moment in time.

In 98 years Theatre Memphis has hired so few African Americans to direct its main stage subscription shows, you can count them all on one hand with fingers left over. Even when producing August Wilson, a playwright who asked theaters to find black directors for his work — White directors. To Kill a Mockingbird would have been as good a place as any to start growing that embarrassing number. No matter whose story it may be, ultimately, I can’t imagine we’d have gotten a show where the black life at stake — and the life eventually lost — wouldn’t be pushed more to the center, and made to matter at least as much as a white attorney’s social and moral struggles or his young daughter’s disillusionment.

This show was chosen by the wonderful John Rone, and he was supposed to direct it before becoming unavailable. So I know Theatre Memphis’s To Kill a Mockingbird didn’t play out as intended. As a loving tribute, it may serve some completely separate community function that’s only tangentially related to the show’s content. But the content needs serious attention.

Tags Bob Arnold, John Maness, John Rone, To Kill a Mockingbird at Theatre Memphis

News News Blog

Thousands of Old Tires to be Made into State Park Trail

Post author By Maya Smith
Post date January 24, 2019

CREDIT: Facebook- Michael Meister

Facebook- Michael Meister

Volunteers stacking collected tires at T.O. Fuller Park

More than 10,000 waste tires were collected by volunteers and officials in T.O Fuller State Park Monday and those tires will soon be shredded and used for park trails.

Nearly 500 volunteers, joined by officials from the city, county, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), as well as leaders from various partner organizations, including Clean Memphis, and Friends of T.O. Fuller State Park gathered at the park on Monday for the cleanup.

Led by Tennessee State Parks Conservancy, the Martin Luther King Jr. Day event aimed to collect waste tires that will be recycled to form a new, nearly three-mile pedestrian and bike trail at the park.

“Our overall goal is to convert a chronic waste issue of discarded tires into a valuable outdoor recreational resource for everyone to enjoy,” Brock Hill, TDEC Deputy Commissioner, said.

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Monday’s effort, a part of Tennessee State Park’s Tires to Trails Program, was the first in a series of three similar events planned for the park.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, as well as Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris were two of the officials present Monday.

“There is no better way to honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy than with a day of service,” said Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris. “It was great to see hundreds of people volunteering together to not only clean up the community, but to kick off the Tires to Trails Program to improve T.O. Fuller State Park.”

The project is funded by a $200,000 liter pickup grant from the Tennessee Department of Transportation and two additional grants from TDEC to be used for construction.

Facebook- Michael Meister

10,000 tires were collected on Monday

The ultimate goal is to collect close to 36,000 tires from predetermined locations in the Memphis area that will then be recycled into a pavement-like surface for the trail. The recycling process will be done by Patriot Recycling in Bristol, Tennessee.

State Rep. Barbara Cooper, who was there Monday, lauded the project.

“Environmental cleanups are important and I applaud the state for the financial support to involve businesses and the surrounding area towards protecting and maintaining one of Shelby County’s crown jewels,” said State Rep. Barbara Cooper.

Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

Gannett Layoffs Hit Commercial Appeal Newsroom

Post author By Chris Davis
Post date January 24, 2019

In December of last year, Fly on the Wall predicted layoffs would be forthcoming at Gannett sometime after the new year. It had seemed like an inevitability since November’s dismal quarterly report and the call for early buyouts that always presages another round of cuts.

Yesterday, it finally happened. On Wednesday, January 23rd, Gannett laid off newsroom employees at newspapers across the country.

Via Poynter:

Another brutal day for journalism.

Gannett began slashing jobs all across the country Wednesday in a cost-cutting move that was anticipated even before the recent news that a hedge-fund company was planning to buy the chain.

The cuts were not minor.

The CA, which lost many top-of-pay scale employees to the Daily Memphian startup and has been under a hiring freeze, appears to have fared better than many Gannett publications.

As of now only one newsroom layoff has been confirmed. Four open positions have been eliminated. This story will be updated as more is known.

Tags Commercial Appeal, Doom, Gannett, Layoffs

Letter From The Editor Opinion

The D.C. Rorschach Test

Post author By Bruce VanWyngarden
Post date January 24, 2019

So, how’d you do in last weekend’s Rorschach test?

I’m talking about the brouhaha over the interactions between some boys from Kentucky’s Covington Catholic High School and a Native American Vietnam War-era veteran in Washington, D.C. It was peak social-media dystopia. And peak America, circa 2019.

The first thing to hit Facebook and Twitter was a video of Native American elder Nathan Phillips pounding a drum and chanting while surrounded by a bunch of jumping, shouting, jeering high school kids. One of the kids, later identified as Nick Sandmann, stood inches away from Phillips, smiling — or as many saw it, smirking. He was wearing a MAGA hat, as were many of his classmates.

That video went viral and the initial reaction from most was disgust at the kids’ behavior and what was seen, rightly, in my opinion, as their disrespect of Phillips. On Twitter and Facebook, as the video was shared, there were many calls to out Sandmann, to “dox him,” to “make sure he doesn’t get into college,” and other dire threats to unleash the Internet on the kid. The address and phone number and website of Covington Catholic were shared and people were urged to contact school officials and express their indignation. Thousands did so.

It was the perfect outrage, one that sparked every progressive’s trigger: Obnoxious Trump supporters surrounding a person of color and mocking him.

It didn’t take long for the backlash to hit, as other videos emerged that put more context around the incident. Trump supporters claimed that it was Phillips who provoked the students, who were responding to “angry black protestors.” There was some truth to the latter claim. A small group of “Hebrew Israelites” was also in the area, insulting most passers-by with invective of one kind or another. Among those they insulted and mocked were the Covington Catholic boys, who were in D.C. on a field trip to participate in an an anti-abortion march.

Instead of walking on and ignoring the Israelites (who are obnoxious as hell, and are commonly seen in many East Coast cities), the Covington group stayed in the area and broke into chants, escalating the situation. At this point, one has to wonder, “Who the hell was in charge of this field trip?” What kind of chaperone would let this play out as it did?

And then the scene got weirder, as Phillips and other Native Americans decided to intervene, hoping to calm the situation with a tribal song. It had the opposite effect. As they waded into the crowd, the teenagers escalated their chants and began doing tomahawk chops and laughing and mocking the song. When Phillips got to Sandmann, the stand-off began. It was the close-up video of that encounter that sparked the initial outrage.

As the incident was further scrutinized on the following day, evidence was posted that showed some Covington Catholic kids had worn blackface to basketball games. Conservative websites responded that it was a school tradition to have “blackouts” at games to show team spirit. Whatever. It was also revealed that the Diocese in question had denied a gay valedictorian the privilege of speaking at the graduation ceremony. And on it went. God bless America.

Sandmann, via his parents and a PR firm, issued a statement that he was simply trying to defuse the situation and that he was not mocking Phillips.

Look, I’ve raised or partially raised five teenagers, and here’s the thing: They are never guilty of anything. Ever. They always have the best intentions and are pure as the driven bull-sleet. It’s only their friends who are bad and who lure them into poor behavior. They are the ones who tried to do the right thing, but Dan or Chad or Kathryn led them astray.

Any parent or teacher who saw that scene in D.C. recognizes it: These kids were out of control and caught up in the excitement and stupidity of teenage group-think. And yes, many were wearing MAGA hats — whether purchased in D.C., where Trump paraphernalia is sold everywhere, or brought from home, is unknown. Does that mean they are racists? Sure, there are no doubt racist know-nothings among them. This is a nearly all-white group from a conservative area, after all. But if this bunch is like most high schools, there are boys in that group who were uncomfortable with this scene, and who went along because they were afraid to look uncool.

The fault lies with the school that allowed these kids to make a spectacle of themselves. And the fault lies with us for letting our confirmation biases take over before all the facts were in.

Tags Covington Catholic High School, Hebrew Israelites, Nathan Phillips, Nick Sandmann, Rorschach test, viral social media

Cover Feature News

20 < 30 The class of 2019

Post author By Chris McCoy
Post date January 24, 2019

CREDIT: Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

If you are the observant type, you might have noticed that this year’s 20<30 cover photo actually has 21 people in it. That’s because we had a tie between two women who both deserved to be honored, and whose ages made this their final shot. So, boom, a tie! And the result is 21<30.

As we have every year since 2009, we asked Flyer readers to nominate exceptional Memphians under the age of 30, so we can get to know — and recognize — the young people who will be shaping the future of our city. Choosing the 20 we feature in these pages is always an exercise fraught with difficult decisions. Lots of deserving young people don’t make the cut. We could easily do 40<30. Memphis is blessed with a plethora of talented young people.

Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

This year, we decided to let each of our honorees speak about themselves. And after listening to these 21 outstanding young Memphians, it would appear our city’s future is brighter than ever. — Chris McCoy

……

Madeline Faber

Managing Editor, High Ground News

“I feel very grateful to have the foundation that Memphis has given me. I think it’s really easy to plug in to this city. … There’s room for everyone to get the support they need for their projects. I don’t think you find that in other cities.

“We open an office in a Memphis neighborhood for four months, and we work with residents to craft a narrative that reflects their lived experience. “People celebrate neighborhoods that they’re not from. People who don’t live in Orange Mound love reading stories about the old Melrose High School reopening.

“I think we’re kind of trained to see Memphis as a very segregated city, and in many ways that is still true and effects all of our residents, but I think people across the city like seeing how neighborhoods are innovating new solutions.”

……

Trey Draper

Basketball Coach, Mitchell High School

“Sports brings unity. It brings people from all different backgrounds together, from different ethnic groups, different genders. You can be anywhere and have on a jersey and another fan sees you, and that sparks a conversation. … To someone like me who grew up in inner city Memphis, it was my way out. It was a way for me to grow up. Basketball and other sports kept me out of trouble. It saved my life. … That’s what I try to do when I get involved with these young men and women. As a coach and a mentor, I try to give them everything I was given, and a little bit more.

“We had 27 seniors. And 25 of them went to college for free, and two of them went into the military. … Saving everyone is impossible. But if I could just put my hands on those 27, and help them, maybe they can each put their hands on another 27. Then we’re starting to get somewhere.

“Work is fun for me. A lot of people can’t say that.”

……

Somer Smith

Assistant Director of Planning and Development, City of West Memphis

“Studying sociology was a blessing and curse at the same time. It opened my eyes to all these problems in the world and helped me see things as they really are. But it also left me without a way to solve the problems. So that’s how I stumbled upon urban planning. I wanted to make a change on the macro level — the entire city. That led me to planning on a large scale.”

Smith got her masters degree in urban planning at the University of Memphis. “After I graduated, I wanted to be in a city that could benefit from some good planning. I love Memphis to death, but it can definitely benefit from some better planning.

“I definitely want to stay in Memphis. I see it as a place that has changed tremendously from then to now. I think Mayor Strickland has done a fantastic job prioritizing planning, and we see the results of the power of planning every day with the bike shares. We have more connectivity all over the city, and these are just the beginning steps. … I want people to know that if they want to make a change, they have the power to do that.”

……

Natasha Bonner

Mental Health Counsellor, Youth Villages

“I question why people do certain things, how our surroundings and environment impact us. Early on, I wanted to be a fixer. I was always told I was a great listener, so being a counsellor and psychologist probably fits. … I’ve put my focus on how trauma and PTSD impacts the brain, and helps people change course with a lot of psychotherapy.”

“I think a lot of people have started talking more about their depression and anxiety and mental health. It’s not such a bad stigma, because it’s not just me feeling the way I feel. … One of my mantras is, you can’t live a healthy life unless you’re mentally healthy as well. I experienced a lot of burnout. Then I myself started seeking counseling, and I have a mentor who is a psychologist as well. So really, just learning how to talk through my stress helps me impact others as well. … My mentor says, ‘Practice what you preach. You can’t pour from an empty cup.’

“I have a five-year-old and a three-year-old, so they’re my entire life.”

……

Josalynne Love

Director of Alumni Engagement, Teach for America Memphis

“When I was posted to Memphis [for Teach for America], I was ecstatic. I was placed in the same neighborhood where I grew up. My two-year commitment was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I realized you’re not just a teacher, you’re a mentor, you’re a motivator, sometimes a chauffeur, a coach, an advisor, everything. I think people think teaching is just one road, but it’s a multifaceted job you have to prepare for. I’m so happy I had Teach for America, because I got that additional support I needed.

“I think teachers definitely get the short end of the stick, and I would like to help our teachers take on more support from our city and the Board of Education. I would love to see education transformed so we can make our city globally competitive. In 20 years, I want to see our kids be able to compete with any and everyone they come in contact with.

“How can Memphians help their teachers? Ask them what they need! Sometimes teachers just need someone to help them grade papers. Help them with their classrooms, or maybe be mentors for their students. Because it’s such a multifaceted job, you never know what a teacher is going to need in the moment.”

……

Francesca Biggam

Development and Communications Coordinator, Meritan

Biggam says her millennial friends are “notorious job hoppers. … You’re job-hopping because you haven’t found something you love doing. I wake up every day with a smile on my face, because every day I’m raising money for someone less fortunate who is going to reap the benefits.

“I love giving back. I became the Gift of Life volunteer coordinator for the Rotary Club, and we had a patient who came from Honduras. I was with her from the airport through her hospital stay and recovery. Just seeing the smile on her face and seeing how healthy she was, that made it worth it.”

Biggam was Miss Memphis 2016. “It was absolutely amazing. Everything about the community engagement was amazing. I was able to be heard and to be a role model for several young girls in Memphis. It actually connected me to the Memphis Grizzlies, and I ended up being a Grizz Girl for two years after that. I retired this year, because I had too much on my plate with volunteering. I’ve had to learn to finally say no. I really enjoy volunteering my time and being able to help other that need it more than I do.”

……

Diedra Brooks

Deidra Brooks

Founder, Chief of Staff, The Memphis Lift

“The Memphis Lift is a parent-created and -led nonprofit that was created three years ago to solve a big problem, which is lack of parental involvement. Many people thought that parents weren’t involved because they didn’t care, but the truth was that, especially here in Memphis, there are so many barriers to parental involvement. … “We create a space where parents can come, and create events specifically for them that fit their time, and make it so they can access the information they need to be a part of the conversation around education.

“There is so much hidden talent in Memphis, people who are in situations who have not gotten an opportunity for their talents to be developed or even expressed. When you have a single parent who is struggling to make ends meet and working multiple jobs, but they have a gifted child, that parent knows that they have a gifted child, but they may not have the language or know how to navigate the system to know what is best for the child. What’s unique about Memphis Lift is, we are that bridge. We connect parents to leaders and decision makers, and we connect them to the parents, so it’s a two-way street.”

……

Jeremie Serrano

Office Manager, Latino Memphis

“I moved here for love. My boyfriend was here; he’s lived here his whole life, and he’s getting his PhD at U of M. I used to work retail, but I wasn’t satisfied. I felt like I wasn’t helping people. So I went looking for a place to help people, and that’s when I got involved with Latino Memphis. “I think the biggest culture shock was, where I come from, we have all kinds of different races and all kinds of different faces, but when I came here, I saw the lack of that. But once I got involved, I see that there are many different cultures here — they’re just underrepresented.

“I think people come here with a dream. … I call myself a privileged Latino, because I come from Puerto Rico, which is a commonwealth. I didn’t know what the process was for these people coming here. I didn’t really go through any struggle. But when I started working with people, I realized they are all so different. They come here because there might be danger in their communities back home. They come here because they want their children to grow up in a nice environment where they can go to college and have a better life than they did. I think Memphis is an awesome, welcoming city to many of these people.

“I thought I’d be moving away after my boyfriend graduated. But recently, I see the growing community. I see Memphis is changing for the better. I really have that community feeling I’ve been looking for.”

……

Allie Lindsey

Development Manager, Hope House

“Hope House does so many things, it’s hard to put it all together at once. It’s a nonprofit that does so much for people, but the main vision of Hope House is to help families affected by HIV and poverty. So we provide daycare and preschool free of charge. We have a housing program, a food pantry, individual therapy, group therapy, case management. There are so many resources for families and individuals living with HIV in this city because of Hope House.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions and stigmas around HIV, even now in 2019. Hope House is trying to myth-bust all those things about how HIV is spread, not only for the safety of our community, but so they also understand that people living with HIV are just like anybody else. They didn’t do anything bad or wrong. You can’t get HIV by touching them.

“It’s really emotionally hard. My last job was at Make-A-Wish, so most of my career has been in emotionally challenging nonprofits, people who are doing really good work for really, really sad causes. I’m over our holiday program at Hope House … It was really hard for me to see these kids’ wish lists. They don’t have socks and shoes and coats and hats. That’s what’s on their wish lists. If I ask for a coat, it’s because I want a new one or a different color. For them, they don’t have one at all.”

……

Ophrah Payne

Coordinator, University of Memphis Student Success Program

“For me, education is a broad spectrum that comes to circle a full life. … I took a gap year in undergrad and worked at the Trio Student Success program here at the University of Memphis and fell in love with students who were just like me — first generation, low income, or had an academic disability.

“I fell in love with the mission of helping somebody who needed the same leg up in life that I did. I know I wanted to go to college, and my mom pushed me in that direction, but I didn’t know what do to, how to navigate college, the mechanics of it, and what is being an actual college student. It’s overcoming the barrier of being a first generation. You being the first in your family to go to college. Double identities — your parents and peers expect you to be one way, but you are growing and developing in the college institution in another way. I see a lot of the struggles that I had in undergrad with that. When they come into my office, it’s like a counseling session.

“How am I going to make it from point a to point b, because I don’t have the income, but I don’t want to let college go? Pushing toward a better life and wanting to do more and better for themselves. It’s a culture shock for them. … I love to be the person who holds their hands and takes them through that process.”

……

Nur Abdalla

Coordinating Curator, Pink Palace Memphis Bicentennial Exhibit

“It’s an extremely large exhibit, for an in-house exhibit that we’re doing here. …We didn’t want it to be a ‘coffee table’ exhibit — Memphis is great, and it’s always been great, and it will continue to be great. We wanted it to be a balanced representation of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

“For me, who has a strong connection to Memphis and my family, and also living here being a Muslim woman, and the daughter of an immigrant on my dad’s side, and the daughter of an African American on my mom’s side, I felt very strongly that there should be a personal connection. Voices should be highlighted that have been getting overlooked. … I wanted to be sure we were being as inclusive as possible.

“I would say that I think we’re kind of getting to what I would like to envision — the deeper understanding of the layers and complexity of our story, and how that affects our present and will effect our future. … I hope I can be a part of addressing that connection between the past and the present, and how that can help us in dealing with the future.”

……

Chris Porter

Designer, Owner of Creative Punch and Pillow Tees

While working with the Downtown Memphis Commission, Porter designed the new Beale Street sign. “Being able to design something iconic in the city is humbling to me, because I love this city so much. … To me, that is the ultimate way of committing to a community, when you invest your skills to positively impact it. I was so used to seeing it on my laptop, for so many hours designing it, that seeing it lit up, it’s a wonder for me.”

Porter recently resigned from the DMC to pursue his own businesses. “I have a passion to make an impact in my community and follow my dream and my passions: designing, branding, videography. The things I was doing at the DMC, now I get to do for more people, more often.

“Memphis has given me so much. It’s given me an opportunity to advance my career. It’s given me people who are fantastic friends. It gave me a chance to play [soccer], the sport I love, in college. I want to give back to this city. Staying here is part of that passion to give back.”

……

Bronson Worthy

Social Media Specialist, Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare

“Trayvon Martin died when I was at Vanderbilt. … There were a couple of freshmen on campus who reached out to some upperclassmen looking to do a campaign. I was the only one who answered. I realized that, even though I was leading the campaign, the stuff I wasn’t delegating was the marketing. In hindsight, I tended to hold onto those tasks because I really enjoyed them. During that campaign, we had a teach-in and a very solutions-oriented rally. We wanted to expose the campus to the news and let folks know, but also to figure out how to improve the situation, not just gripe about it. Having an effect on campus really showed me that there was a possibility that I could have a career.

“My mom is a teacher, and my dad is a police officer. I was accustomed to seeing their work affect people. It’s how I was brought up. Now, I have the opportunity to use those talents to help people, health-wise, in my work for Methodist.

“I feel like I have to have faith that we are making progress. … Where there’s a will to make change, it will come to pass.”

……

Chloe Moore

Continuous Improvement Specialist, Seeding Success

Moore is a native Memphian who attended Rhodes College. “I had loved Memphis as an idea. It was a fun place to be, and I knew it had historical importance. But the anthropology and sociology department at Rhodes gave me the tools to understand things like society, social systems, cultures, and kind of the background forces that made Memphis look the way it did. That type of education gave me a more intimate understanding of myself, the city, and the larger, global perspectives that have fueled almost everything I do now. It’s a journey from judgment to questioning. It makes you a perpetual student.”

Seeding Success is a nonprofit that “has positioned itself as supportive to other agencies [and] allows us to coordinate things really well. It’s a data driven, accountable culture that prioritizes people and leadership. It’s a really cool organization that helps give other organizations bandwidth to do their work.”

“The Memphis that I want to see is a Memphis that really understands itself as somewhere that’s unique, and one that has its systems designed so it serves its people with both dignity and joy for everybody who lives here. To make this place one of equal opportunity and access, and one that really honors its rich history.”

……

Austin Crowder

Government and Economics Teacher, Soulsville Charter School

“It’s such a crucial subject area. Unfortunately, I think in a lot of schools it’s given a secondary focus, to the disservice of our society. I think we’re experiencing some of the consequences of that, in some of the divisive and unfortunate complexities we’re facing as a society right now. … I’ve been able to develop a curriculum that I believe is responsive to our current circumstances and context. For instance, one aspect of my curriculum is a unit I’ve developed called Know Your Rights. We spend about a week and a half diving into the intricacies and nuances of what rights civilians have in interacting with law enforcement, what rights police officers have. We do a role-playing component, case studies about interactions between police and civilians that have gone really well, and ones that haven’t.

“I decided to become a Memphis City Council candidate. I did that to show my students what they could do someday. I believe that my students would do a phenomenal job representing their communities, so I wanted to encourage them to run for office one day. I’ve been taking them, step by step, through the process. It demystifies running for office.”

……

Ashley Jones

Nursing Student, University of Tennessee Health Science Center

After earning a master’s degree in public health, Jones worked as an educator for Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi. “I did all phases of reproductive health: pregnancy prevention, STI prevention. I ran all the peer education programs, like one we called Sexperts, geared toward college students who wanted to become peer educators on campuses. … “I can talk about reproductive health and sex all day. It was definitely fun. It was one of those jobs that people are like, ‘You really get paid to do this?’ Yes I do.

“I worked in reproductive health for four years, and after learning about all the health disparities in the city, I wanted to do more, to learn more about heath in general. That was my inspiration in going to nursing school. I knew there were so many other things going on in our city besides high HIV rates — those are through the roof. There were so many other health disparities that I wanted to learn about them, and couple that with my previous public health background. I want to do more public policy level work to help combat some of the health issues that are in this city.”

……

Rachel Anderson

Instructional Designer, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, ALSAC

“I design curriculum and learning programs on a variety of topics, depending on what’s needed for our employees to work together as a team: leadership skills, communication skills, all sorts of things. … ALSAC is like a big small company. We have about 1,500 employees dispersed throughout the United States, but the main campus is here in Memphis.

“It really is a great place to work. You feel proud that what you’re doing is helping the kids over at St. Jude. You cry all the time when you work here. It’s a great reminder that your work matters. Even though I’m not directly affecting kids, I know that I’m helping our ALSAC employees gain the skills they need to raise the funds so we can support the hospital.”

“I’ve always loved the learning field — anything to help people be more effective in their personal or professional lives. ‘Things I Wish I Knew’ was a passion project where I brought in a lot of young adults and asked them, ‘What are the things you wish you knew in high school or college?’ I interviewed them on video for less than four minutes. We all have something that we wish someone would have told us.”

……

Alton Cryer

Business Development Officer, Orion Bank; Co-founder, STS Enterprises

“I went to Jackson State university straight out of high school. I had a twin sister who was diagnosed with leukemia, so I returned home to help support the family. I ended up attending the University of Memphis. In my junior year, I became engaged in the community. I met some people who were interested in getting me involved and engaged with Memphis. Just seeing Memphis as a space with opportunities to connect, where it’s easy to connect, is kind of like a big small city, where everybody knows everybody. I fell in love with empowering our youth. That’s kind of where we started. I saw so many opportunities for developing our youth, and I saw that Memphis is where I wanted to be. There’s so much opportunity for us to grow as a city. I wanted to be a part of that.”

While at U of M, Cryer co-founded STS Enterprises. “We are a nonprofit, 501c3 organization with the mission of empowering youth and college students everywhere to make excellence the norm. We have about 80 volunteers that operate as a team, from marketing to program development, to move it forward. … We work with more than a hundred students annually, both high school and college. To date, we’ve worked with about 7,000 students.”

……

Kaitlin Beck

Shelby County Public Defender

“When I came to Memphis, I worked at the District Attorney’s office. … I learned a lot about myself. I’m an empath, and I’m able to connect with people. I was a victim coordinator, so I was working with people who had crimes happen to them, trying to help them navigate the legal system. My empathy was very useful there. But I also found myself empathizing quite frequently in juvenile court with the children who had been accused. I was thinking about what were the systemic problems that led to these children going out and doing these alleged acts? Where are their parents? What are their neighborhoods like?

“There’s nothing that can prepare you for the shock of how much work there is to do, and how many clients you will end up having, and how much more you will wish you could do for everyone. But I would say that I’m recovering well from the initial shock, and doing the best I can for people.

“I think we’re all products of our environment and our chemistry. If I have a client, they have probably also been a victim at some point. I think other people lose sight of that. That’s why I wanted to use my energy productively, helping people that maybe other people can’t sympathize with.”

……

Amanda Willoughby

Filmmaker, Indie Memphis Youth Film Festival Mentor Coordinator

“I knew I wanted to get into film, because all I wanted to do in my free time was watch movies. I would literally try to watch a different movie every single day, so I could have as much knowledge as possible. “I’ve been working with kids ever since I was at the Neighborhood Christian Center when I was 20. … When I got to Cloud 901, the video lab was completely bare. There were very few kids going there. They didn’t have someone there to hold it down full time. So I hit the ground running, starting a show called Cloud Focus. … The most rewarding experience has been that I’m seeing the rise of the next generation of filmmaking.

“At Indie Memphis, we pair local filmmakers and professionals in the industry with teenagers who create their own short films.

“I’m working on the script for a film called How to Make Love to Men. We’re launching a crowd-funding campaign in February, so look out for that. At the same time, Not Your Ordinary Films is working on two web series we’ve already produced. One of them is called Not Your Ordinary Black Girls, which is about three women with superpowers. The other is a drama entitled This Can’t Be Life. We’re working on scripts for season two of both of those.”

……

Brittany Thornton

Britany Thornton

Founder, JUICE Orange Mound

Thornton taught English in Thailand when she was 22. “I was the only African American in the whole town, for a whole year. When people liked me, I always took it down to Memphis, like I was a Memphis ambassador. I took a lot of pride in that role, exposing people to a different way of thinking, just being a global citizen.

“I have a survivor’s spirit. I’ve taught in SCS and charter schools, and I’ve just learned to survive and give the best education I can give. I make the student my top priority.”

“I think Juice has played a vital role in reshaping the narrative around Orange Mound. We’re the homegrown funding source for Orange Mound. … We’ve organized quarterly canvasses to go door to door collecting spare change from residents. We pool that money and use it to start projects. In this real revolutionary way, people don’t have to tell us our priorities. We can prioritize for ourselves and make an impact.

“I really geek out on advocacy work. I love going to community meetings, having thoughtful conversations. Just yesterday, I was addressing slumlords in project-based Section 8 housing, then I left that meeting and I went to talk about bus transit advocacy work. It seems like I can’t get enough of it.”

Editor’s note: Our thanks to Bianca Phillips and Crosstown Arts for all their help and hospitality during our photo shoot.

Tags 2030-2019

Politics Politics Feature

Memphis as Vietnam: Richard Smith Urges Kumbaya in Nashville

Post author By Jackson Baker
Post date January 24, 2019

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Bet you never heard this said before: “Memphis is to Nashville as Vietnam is to China.”

Huh? That dandy little syllogism was stated on Saturday by an influential person in a position to know: Richard Smith, son of FedEx founder Fred Smith, and the current president and CEO of the Memphis-based shipping and logistics giant.

For the record, Vietnam to one Fred Smith — once upon a time, at least — was where the senior Smith served as a Marine Corps officer during one of the most bitter, demanding, and ultimately frustrating wars in American history. Vietnam to this Richard Smith, a hands-on corporate executive whose style of leadership involves a fair amount of world traveling, is a rapidly industrializing Pacific-rim nation whose modernizing landscape includes a generous number of beachfront resorts.

Jackson Baker

Richard Smith and friends.

Smith’s remark was made to a mixed Memphis-Nashville audience gathered for a post-gubernatorial reception sponsored by the Memphis/Shelby County legislative delegation at B.B. King’s in Nashville. The Nashvillians present included several legislators — notable among whom was House Speaker Glen Casada of Franklin.

The thrust of Smith’s impromptu remarks, as a whole, was that the long-running rivalries between the two Tennessee cities should be shelved and subordinated to an era of cooperation and mutual support. And the aforesaid analogy to far-Eastern nations amounted to an acknowledgement that Nashville is the economic pathfinder in Tennessee, as China is in Asia.

“When I come here and see all those cranes,” Smith said, his hand making a circuit meant to encompass the ever-burgeoning spread around him of metropolitan Nashville, “I think, ‘We’re next!'” In his home base, Smith doesn’t just run a mega-company. He is one of his city’s apostles of economic expansion and is highly involved in its politics behind the scenes. He acknowledges, for example, a working relationship with Memphis City Council chairman Berlin Boyd, an African American whose close ties to the the city’s business elite have made him controversial with inner-city Memphians and declared social progressives.

Smith was not the only speaker at the reception, which was a spur-of-the-moment brainchild of the Shelby delegation, in tandem with such fellow Memphians as David Upton and city council chair Kemp Conrad.

Others from Memphis included Mayors Jim Strickland and Lee Harris; Democratic House leader Karen Camper; state Representative Antonio Parkinson, the delegation chair; state Representative G.A. Hardaway, legislative Black Caucus chair; Children’s Services Commissioner Valerie Nichols; and Lang Wiseman, deputy to Governor Bill Lee.

Among the Nashvillians were state Representative Jerome Moon; state Senator Jeff Yarbro; and the aforementioned Casada. The tone of kumbaya across racial, party, and regional lines was unmistakable, reflecting what one might hope is an augury of things to come.

Casada, for one, had spent several days in Memphis the previous week in consultation with local business, civic, and government leaders about ongoing and potential undertakings. Whatever divisions may come with the forthcoming legislative session, they were not in evidence on Saturday.

• The special election for the vacant District 32 state Senate seat was due to end on Thursday of this week, with Shelby Countians George Chism, Heidi Shafer, and Steve McManus competing with each other and with Tipton Countian Paul Rose for the Republican nomination. Democrat Eric Coleman is unopposed in the Democratic primary. General election date is March 4th. A week of early voting concluded on Saturday with an unexpectedly high vote total in Tipton County.

Tags David Upton, Glenn Casada, Jim Strickland, Kemp Conrad, Richard Smith