The last week of January is National School Choice Week, a week dedicated to advocating for policies that promote education freedom for families, allowing parents to choose the education best suited for their children. However, the spotlight on support for school choice should extend beyond one week, especially being that it is one of the few nonpartisan issues that is popular throughout the country — and not just with Republican primary voters, but also among 71 percent of all voters, across all demographics and the general electorate.
Tennessee is one of 13 states with an education savings account program, which allows lower-income families to receive approximately $7,000 per year in private school tuition assistance. Growing up in a zip code where poverty ran rampant, I was able to qualify for an education savings account, an opportunity that changed my life path completely.
Joi Taylor (Photo: Priscilla Foreman)
My mom and my grandmother were the matriarchs of the family, and my school choice journey began with them. They were the biggest advocates for my siblings and me, always looking for opportunities to help us get ahead and seeking resources to break down the barriers we faced in accessing a quality education.
Instead of being relegated to the schools that we were zoned for, school choice allowed me to attend New Hope Christian Academy, opening my world up to new possibilities through an exceptional education I would not have otherwise received. New Hope cultivated in me a commitment to hard work and servant leadership, and inspirited the notion that my biggest hopes and dreams could become a reality.
For middle and high school, I continued my journey at independent schools and attended Evangelical Christian School, where I learned academic discipline and outside-of-the-box thinking. Advanced classes and extracurricular activities prepared me for college, challenging my worldview and thought process constantly.
After graduating from Evangelical Christian School, I attended University of Memphis where I graduated magna cum laude with a degree in social work. While achieving something like this is attributed to many different factors, the undeniable reality is that the foundation laid by my private schools was instrumental in my success. I currently work for City Leadership, one of the top nonprofit consulting firms in the city of Memphis, and originally made the connection through my school choice journey.
It would have been impossible for me to realize my full potential without the opportunities and support system that school choice afforded me. I aspire to see more students who are just like me, overcoming their circumstances to rewrite their future. I truly believe that every family deserves the chance to choose their child’s education and have access to any school in their community, no matter their background.
In 2023, 20 states said “yes” to expanding school choice. These states either currently implement or are trying to implement policies that allow students to have a variety of choices when it comes to their education, whether that be traditional public schools, private schools, charter schools, or homeschooling. While this evolution of school choice across the country is remarkable, there are still millions of students stuck in school systems based on their family’s income or zip code that don’t fit their unique learning needs.
School choice is essential for the current and future generations of Tennessee, and our lawmakers should support education freedom here and for students across America through the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA), a federal tax credit scholarship bill that would help up to 2 million students access a school or education service of their parents’ choice.
The ECCA would fund scholarships with private donations, not federal money, and donors would receive a federal tax credit. Students could use scholarships for tuition, tutoring to address learning loss, special needs services, education technology, and more. The bill would triple the number of students benefiting from private school choice programs, and it would complement the programs already in effect in 31 states, while creating new opportunities in 19 states that lack the option of school choice. The legislation has more than 100 House co-sponsors and more than two dozen Senate co-sponsors.
My story is proof that there lies power in opportunity, and school choice can give you a chance to blaze a path for generations to come. Education is not “one-size-fits-all” and families deserve the opportunity to choose where their children will learn the best. I urge lawmakers to support school choice by supporting the ECCA so that every child has the opportunity to achieve academic success, despite their background.
Joi Taylor is Choose901 alumni director at City Leadership in Memphis and a graduate of the Tennessee Educational Savings Account Program. She was also recognized in the Memphis Flyer’s 20<30 class of 2020.
Does your business use a budget? Having a budget may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many businesses don’t use one. Without a budget, it’s difficult to have a clear understanding of your financials and overall performance. If your business has struggled with budgeting and isn’t sure where to begin, you’re not alone. Make today the start of your budgeting journey with these simple steps.
Decide Your Budgeting Tool
To start a budget, all you really need to do is get it on paper, literally. Drafting a budget on a piece of paper is a great start if that’s what’s comfortable to you. Most beginners opt for a tool such as Excel to house their budget. Excel is a solid tool with templates and formulas that make it relatively easy to track and update expenses.
As you get more experienced with your budget, you may want to consider more robust budgeting tools, like Jirav, that offer a deeper analysis of your financial metrics and advanced reporting capabilities. The same applies if your business has rapidly grown or has plans for expanding — you may find that a simple spreadsheet is no longer sufficient and could be holding your business back.
Align Your Budget With Your Goals
Budget numbers shouldn’t be pulled out of thin air. They should always be a reflection of your business’s upcoming goals and priorities for a set time frame, such as quarterly or yearly. Whether you’re aiming to upgrade certain systems or want to add head count to a few teams, your budget should account for the top areas you want to invest in.
It’s also crucial to get other departments involved, depending on the size of your business. Each team will most likely have their own budget to follow, so it’s important to make sure everyone’s plans align with the overall vision and direction of the company.
Don’t Let Your Budget Become Stale
A great way to start your initial budget is by reporting on your financials from the previous year and using that as the basis. Be cautious though: Many businesses fall into a rut of using their previous year’s financials as the baseline of their budget each year without looking for ways to improve it. Once you’ve gotten more comfortable with budgeting, it’s recommended to further analyze the trends you see in your budget and explore new reporting metrics to optimize its impact on your business.
There are countless insights in a budget for businesses to tap into to shape their strategy. If an area is severely overspending, that may signify deeper performance issues or inefficiencies that need to be addressed. The reverse may be true for areas that underspend. Eventually, you may choose to set up your budget to track revenue by a team or employee and use that data to determine how to allocate future funds. No matter where you decide to focus your attention within your budget, it should be reviewed and adjusted every year to meet the changing needs of your business.
One of the most challenging aspects of budgeting is simply getting started. Whether you opt to use a basic program like Excel, a robust software option, or even the back of a napkin, a budget is only useful if you put effort into it.
Gene Gard, CFA, CFP, CFT-I, is a Partner and Private Wealth Manager with Creative Planning. Creative Planning is one of the nation’s largest Registered Investment Advisory firms providing comprehensive wealth management services to ensure all elements of a client’s financial life are working together, including investments, taxes, estate planning, and risk management. For more information or to request a free, no-obligation consultation, visit CreativePlanning.com.
Angela Alexander, Gena Mosely, Lana Hickey, and Morgan Kelly (Photo: Frank Chin)
Crave Sweets Bake Shop owner Lana Hickey provided edible brew — pastries made with beer — to the recent Science of Beer event at the Museum of Science & History (MoSH).
And she joked, “Okay. I’m coming for the trophy this year.”
MoSH special events coordinator John Mullikin told her Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken came in number one at the event’s best food category for the past two years.
But not this year. Crave Sweets took the first place spot at the January 12th event.
“We did chocolate stout cake with rum butter cream and butterscotch beer brownies,” Hickey says. “We had people coming to our booth nonstop.”
Their molasses cookies were the only thing not made with beer. “We make our molasses cookies to be dipped in the beer.”
She was surprised at the response. Typically, “savory items,” not sweets, are paired with beer, she says.
Hickey knows a thing or two about sweets. She’s the owner of two locations of Crave Sweets Bake Shop: one at 11615 Hwy. 70 in Arlington, Tennessee, and the other at 1730 South Germantown Road, Suite 123, near Moondance Grill.
Hickey began cooking in her hometown of Sumner, Mississippi. “I did a lot of cooking in my teenage years for my siblings. My mom worked multiple jobs.”
Hickey learned a lot from her mother and her grandmother. “And the rest is pretty much self-taught. It was Southern style food. Your typical pinto beans and cornbread and meat and threes.”
But that’s not what sparked her interest in cooking. In high school, she took a class on photographing food. She thought, “People get paid to create plates like this?”
Students in the school’s home economics class provided some of the food. Hickey, who describes herself as “more of an artsy person,” says seeing the food with her artist’s eye enabled her, through “presentation and colors,” to “create art and put it on a plate.”
Before seeing the fancy plates of food, Hickey “didn’t know what fine dining looked like.”
Olive Garden was the closest she’d gotten to that type of food, she says.
Because of that class, Hickey enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Atlanta, where she concentrated on French cuisine fine dining. “That’s actually my background. It wasn’t until after I graduated and got into the food industry that I started baking pastries.”
She made salads and desserts at the old Madison Hotel, now Hu. Hotel. “Our executive chef, Chris Windsor, had a list of items he would like for us to make, but he left it in our hands to come up with recipes. That kind of thing. So, I did get to be a little creative.”
One of her first original desserts was “bananas with white chocolate chips and caramel rolled up in a wonton wrapper, deep fried, and then rolled in cinnamon and sugar.”
Hickey stopped working at the hotel after she had her first child. But, when her daughter turned 3, Hickey returned to baking big time. “She got up on the counter. I’d Google a different recipe and we’d just kind of experiment on the weekend.
“I always cooked dinner every night for my family. When she and I would experiment, it would typically be baking. I jokingly told my husband, ‘I can’t get rusty. I have to stay on top of my skills ’cause I’m going to use them one day.’”
Her husband, Ben Hickey, is a chef who worked at the old Jarrett’s restaurant before becoming executive chef at Amerigo Italian Restaurant.
Lana made birthday cakes and pastries for Facebook friends before she and her husband opened Crave Coffee Bar and Bistro eight years ago in Arlington, Tennessee. “I always wanted to open a restaurant and a coffee shop.”
They served sandwiches and soups made from scratch as well as baked items, including homemade cinnamon rolls, blueberry biscuits, and Lana’s popular “sausage cheddar muffins.”
She and her husband had a “huge following” at the restaurant, which they ran for eight years until closing it in October 2023.
In 2017, while they still owned the restaurant, Lana, who now had three children, decided to open a bakeshop. Running a bakeshop is easier than a restaurant, she says. “The hours are different. The holidays are different from a restaurant. I’m not there at night.”
She did the baking and her husband handled all the administrative duties, including finances and payroll.
Lana opened the Germantown location in October 2023. “We do all types of gourmet desserts, wedding cakes, custom cakes.”
Many of their recipes come from recipe books that belonged to Lana’s grandmother as well as grandmothers of her general managers.
Their pastry menu changes every day, but they do keep “staple items,” including their “cheesecake brownies” and “strawberry crunch bars.”
Their cheesecakes also are “never changing,” Lana says. “We recently started supplying those to Moondance. We do turtle cheesecake, red velvet, and traditional strawberry.”
And, “to be a little bit different,” she does a Biscoff or cookie butter cheesecake.
“The newest thing we have done is our banana pudding cake. Holy cow. It’s out of this world. It’s a banana butter cake with fresh bananas, white chocolate buttercream, and banana pudding filling. And then it has your vanilla wafer cookie crumble around the top and bottom edge.”
As for future plans, Hickey wants to open a third bakeshop location. She’s currently looking at Olive Branch, Mississippi, and Millington, Tennessee.
And opening another restaurant isn’t out of the question. It would be “fine dining French cuisine.”
And, yes, Hickey does take photos of her baked creations.
But, she adds, “It goes out our door so fast I mostly keep up with my photography skills with my children.”
Singer Lisa Nobumoto launched the Jazz Masters Series nonprofit. (Photo: Wilcox Photography)
For Lisa Nobumoto, jazz is more than just a genre. It’s a mission, a way of life. That much is obvious with last week’s release of A Tribute to Jazz Singer Nancy Wilson by Nobumoto and the Jazz Masters Orchestra, arguably one of the most ambitious jazz projects to come out of Memphis in decades, and a labor of love for the singer that’s been years in the making.
That’s partly due to the scale of the ensemble, a 20-piece orchestra that’s a veritable who’s who of jazz heavyweights working in Memphis today. The album’s arrangements were done by Rhodes College faculty member Carl Wolfe, co-founder of the Memphis Jazz Orchestra, and the group was conducted by Jack Cooper, director of jazz studies at the University of Memphis. Pianist Eric Reed, the sole non-Memphian, is a lecturer and artist-in-residence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the remaining players are similarly well-schooled professionals. And the proof is in the listening, as the group brings Wolfe’s arrangements to life with fluidity and nuance. Sailing over that swinging foundation, of course, is Nobumoto’s voice.
Album Art: David Lynch
A native of California with family roots in the Mid-South, Nobumoto relocated to Memphis some five years ago and promptly founded the Jazz Masters Series nonprofit to pursue her vision of fine jazz. That vision was honed over decades of performance on the west coast and touring the world. Her late husband, George Gaffney, was Sarah Vaughan’s pianist, but Nobumoto worked with many greats in Los Angeles. “I worked with Teddy Edwards for 32 years,” she says, “and the other players in that band were Jimmy Cleveland, Gerald Wiggins, Al ‘Tootie’ Heath, Nolan Smith Jr., and Larry Gales.” In short, she’s worked with some of America’s greatest musicians.
During her L.A. days, none other than legendary jazz scribe and composer Leonard Feather wrote, “Lisa Nobumoto’s distinctive phrasing and timbre could earn her a significant role on the upcoming vocal scene,” and indeed, Music Connection magazine named her the top unsigned artist in Los Angeles at the time.
Bringing that experience to Memphis, Nobumoto knew early on that she wanted to pay tribute to Nancy Wilson, a master of not only straight-ahead jazz but blues, soul, pop, and R&B as well. Beginning in the early ’60s, “The Girl with the Honey-Coated Voice,” as she was known, was a pop star of sorts, back when such a thing was imaginable for a jazz artist. “My mom played Nancy Wilson over and over and over again when I was a child,” says Nobumoto. “I knew every song.” Later, as she delved into Wilson’s work more deeply, Nobumoto found who Wilson had found her inspiration from: Little Jimmy Scott.
To those familiar with Scott’s soaringly high, somewhat androgynous delivery, that makes perfect sense. “He’s my favorite male singer vocalist of all time,” notes Nobumoto. “I met him and heard him perform on several occasions, and he’s the only man I’ve ever seen start a show with a ballad — and then go on to a slower ballad. He could have you crying, where you can’t hold your tears back. And Nancy basically took his sound. I mean, she studied him a lot. They came from the same part of Ohio.”
Nobumoto has a gift for interpretation, negotiating this material with a grace akin to Dinah Washington and echoing Wilson’s conversational style — but always with Nobumoto’s individual stamp. “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” is transformed into a steamy, confessional ballad, worlds away from Frankie Valli’s pop stomper. Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” is more up-tempo than either the original or Wilson’s 1966 version, taking it into boogaloo territory, yet with a relaxed delivery that brings wit and humor to the song. With Wolfe’s arrangements, the album’s timeless jazz classicism makes it hard to pin down chronologically: It could have been made any time in the last half century.
Recalling the two legendary singers who most inspired her is bittersweet for Nobumoto, who performed with so many jazz greats before moving to Memphis. “They’re just gone. Everybody I knew from that era, so to speak, has passed. But when you get to a certain age, you stop thinking about money or fame and you’ll give up everything just to live this broke-ass lifestyle. And I get to see things like this manifest. I really want the nonprofit to build into something that I can leave behind for someone else to carry on.”
Winter Storm Heather (Did anyone ever really call it that?) was forecast to be gone by press time.
It sucked IRL. But it made for a fun week on the MEMernet. I mean, just look at that beautiful photo above by Paul Burns from Facebook.
Posted to TikTok by @duckmasterkenon
Kenon Walker, duckmaster at The Peabody Hotel, shared some cheery wholesomeness on TikTok, marching his charges through the snow.
Posted to Reddit by B1gR1g
Memphis Redditor B1gR1g measured the snow fall with, yep, a 40-ounce Cobra.
The Daily Memphian’s Abigail Warren reported on X that it looked “like about four inches in Collierville.” To this, the hilarious Memphis Light, Gas & Water parody account @MemphisMGLW replied, “four inches prolly big for Collierville.”
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Morris and Mollye Fogelman International Jewish Film Festival. The monthlong event features 10 films, ranging in genre and subject, but all with some sort of Jewish connection. “They’re not all Jewish content, but maybe they have a Jewish director or something that ties it into the Jewish community,” says Sophie Samuels, program director for cultural arts and adult services at the Memphis Jewish Community Center (JCC). “We always want to introduce different types of cultural arts to our community, so I think that this is a great way to do it.”
For the festival, the JCC has a committee of about 10 people who “takes a list from about 45 films each year — and [the films] usually come out within the past two years — and we narrow them down until we get our films.” The goal, Samuels says, is to present a variety of offerings. This year’s films range from a documentary about a porn cinema empire and the eccentric woman behind it (Queen of the Deuce), to an animated story of a family living in the shadow of the Holocaust (My Father’s Secrets). “We try to do something for everyone,” Samuels says.
This year’s festival opens on Tuesday, January 30th, at 7 p.m., with Remembering Gene Wilder, a documentary taking a close look at the life of the “performer, writer, director, and all-around mensch.” A screening of the documentary Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life will follow on Sunday, February 4th, at 4 p.m., with its coverage of the community affected by violence and trauma after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. On February 6th, the JCC will screen the romantic drama March ’68, which takes place during Poland’s exodus of nearly 15,000 Jews due to a hostile anti-Semitic campaign, and on February 11th, festival-goers can view The Narrow Bridge, a documentary that follows four individuals, Palestinian and Israeli, who are part of an organization called Israeli Palestinian Bereaved Families, who aim to turn their personal devastation into social change.
Other screenings include the animated My Father’s Secrets on February 18th; documentaries Queen of the Deuce on February 20th, Simone: Woman of the Century on February 22nd, Hope Without Boundaries on February 25th, and Vishniac on February 27; and the Israeli musical/rom-com Our Story on February 29th.
Overall, Samuels hopes the festival brings the community — Jewish and non-Jewish — together. “I think that it’s great, especially after Covid, for people to be in a place that they feel comfortable in and to see other people and connect over these films.”
Tickets for individual films are $7, or $5 for JCC members. Series passes are $49, or $35 for JCC members. Visit jccmemphis.org for a full schedule, descriptions of all the films, and to purchase tickets.
Morris & Mollye Fogelman International Jewish Film Festival, Belz Theater at the Orgel Family Performing Arts Center, Memphis Jewish Community Center, 6560 Poplar Avenue, Tuesday, January 30-February-29, $5-$7.
Brent Taylor (Photo: Senator Brent Taylor | Facebook)
State Senator Brent Taylor, who is functioning as a sort of self-appointed scourge of Shelby County’s existing law-enforcement infrastructure, is at it again — attempting to prod state government into intervening against “the slow movement of cases” through the county’s criminal justice system.
“Crime in Memphis has risen to a level that requires immediate action to save the city,” Taylor proclaimed in a newly released letter to Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. He cites figures appearing to show that processing of criminal cases in the county dropped to a level of 40 cases last year, down from “approximately 200 per year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Taylor’s letter poses four questions to the attorney general:
“(1) Does the Governor of Tennessee have the authority to assign judges from one or more judicial districts to other judicial districts for purposes of trying criminal cases?
“(2) Does the Governor of Tennessee have the authority to temporarily assign judges from a certain judicial district to try criminal cases in that same judicial district?
“(3) Does the Governor of Tennessee have the authority to require Shelby County Circuit Court Judges to handle criminal matters in Shelby County?
“(4) Who has the authority to require certain Shelby County Circuit Court Judges to assist with and/or try criminal cases?”
Taylor, who represents state Senate District 31, said in the letter that, if the governor is deemed to have such authority to assign judges — whether from other judicial districts or from other courts within the same district — to help process criminal cases in Shelby County, then he would request the governor do so immediately.
“By prosecuting criminal cases quickly, we will remove violent and repeat criminal offenders from the streets of Memphis so that the law-abiding can raise their families in peace and safety,” he wrote in the letter.
Taylor, who is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote, “I am determined to pursue any legal avenue available to tackle our serious violent crime problem.”
This new letter is the latest in a series of public statements in which the senator, who was elected to his first term just last year, has inquired of other state officials about the possibility of extending state power into areas that have previously been reserved for local authorities.
In previous missives to the governor, to House Speaker Cameron Sexton, and to the state board of professional responsibility, he has proposed such actions as sending the National Guard into Memphis and reducing the supervisory power of Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy.
The senator has introduced a legislative package in Nashville that, among other things, would change bail laws, require law enforcement to report undocumented immigrants, and reclassify stolen gun charges.
Another of his proposals would exempt Memphis police from having to uphold a city council prohibition against preemptive traffic stops for suspected minor infractions. At the moment, this matter has achieved hot-button status in city government.
Editor’s note: This is the first in a five-part series highlighting local immigrants and their contributions to Memphis.
With so much focus in Memphis on high crime and even higher rates of poverty, you could be forgiven for not realizing that our schools — both public and private — and our neighbors serve most of our residents remarkably well.
One such example, Dorian Canales, arrived in Memphis in 2005 when he was just 7 years old, and largely because of Memphis, he’s flourished. Indeed, as a kid fleeing the gangs of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Memphis seemed like paradise.
His mother Oneyda arrived five years before Dorian, who traveled here with his aunt and cousins. Oneyda left Honduras shortly after Hurricane Mitch destroyed much of the north coast of the nation in 1998. Mitch wiped out 75 percent of the infrastructure of the country, decimating nearly all the agriculture in a country where the economy is agricultural dependent. Seven thousand Hondurans died.
Dorian remembers the long walk and innumerable jalones — hitch-hiked rides — from Honduras to Piedras Negras in Coahuila, Mexico (which borders Eagle Pass, Texas). “We crossed the Rio Grande there and I was afraid I’d drown. I was 7 years old and couldn’t swim.”
The migrants turned themselves over to U.S. authorities — seeking asylum from the gang violence and general mayhem in Honduras. They spent three days in detention and were released contingent upon a future court date. Dorian remembers very little, but recalls eating a bologna sandwich for the first time in the detention center. The boy was reunited with his mother in the Nutbush neighborhood of Memphis. She worked at McDonald’s and later as a painter with a commercial/home painting company. Dorian spent a lot of time with his aunt and cousins, who helped raise him during this time.
He was enrolled at Jackson Elementary School. At first, he felt isolated, so he formed a third-grade gang called the “Vatos Locos,” or The Crazy Dudes, ironically seeking comfort in the very structure that pushed him out of Honduras. This earned him a week’s suspension from school and a stern talking-to from the principal. “She told me I’d be deported if I continued my bad behavior.” His principal’s warning set him straight and he left the idea of life in a gang behind.
He spoke no English, but through his ELL classes (English-Language Learner) learned the language quickly. His changed behavior allowed him to win, in the fourth grade, an “accelerated reader award” based on the number of books read. He came to see that education, rather than the Vatos Locos, would help him excel. Next, at Kingsbury Middle School, Dorian joined the art and theater club, learned to play a musical instrument, and played on the soccer team. “I wanted to be at school; there was more to do there than at home and so I jumped into all aspects of Kingsbury and made friends because I’m essentially an extrovert.”
It was at Kingsbury Middle where he met Erin Myers, his algebra teacher, who changed his life. In 2012, thanks to her support, he applied to CBHS (Christian Brothers High School) and was admitted. CBHS represented a new world for Dorian: Nutbush was essentially Latino, African-American, and under-resourced; CBHS was white, affluent, and Catholic. “I struggled socially in this new world, but realized I had an opportunity to grow there.”
He seized the opportunities at CBHS, joined the marching band, played soccer, and focused on academic subjects. But when he returned to his neighborhood, he bolted toward Streets Ministries, which was his home and refuge during these years. As graduation from CBHS approached, Ms. Myers stepped in again, helping Dorian apply to college. He was accepted to Rhodes College, but lacked funds for tuition and, as a DACA recipient, was ineligible for all federal financial aid. Myers set up a GoFundMe that raised $10,000, and Dorian began to think that Rhodes might be an option.
Fortunately, the GoFundMe campaign caught the attention of Rhodes, and Dorian was admitted as a Bonner Scholar — a program that offers full tuition discount in exchange for community service in our city. Dorian graduated from Rhodes in May 2020 and distinguished himself as a student of economics. He was fully immersed in the campus culture, working at outreach to underserved students in Memphis public schools, helping convince them of the benefits of college and furthering their education.
Dorian has forged ahead with optimism, grace, and determination without focusing too much on the tenuousness of his DACA status. A future president’s strike of a pen could lead to his deportation. Presently, he works in commercial banking at JPMorgan Chase. He has a passion for teaching and giving back to kids like himself, yet continues working in finance: “You know, I have to earn money because I’m essentially the retirement plan for my parents.”
The gangs of Honduras never grabbed Dorian Canales. Our schools, plus mentors, family members, and funders — and JPMorgan — have held onto Dorian. It’s worth remembering, despite shortcomings and struggles, our institutions, this community, and people like Dorian Canales continue to make Memphis great.
Bryce W. Ashby is an attorney at Donati Law, PLLC. Michael J. LaRosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College.
Percy Norris and
“Big Robert” Stewart in
The ’Vous
The night The ’Vous won the Best Hometowner Feature Award at Indie Memphis 2022, director/producers Jeff Dailey and Jack Lofton missed the awards ceremony. The film had premiered that afternoon to a sold-out Playhouse on the Square, and the crew had trekked Downtown for a reception at The Rendezvous, the storied barbecue restaurant whose inner workings Dailey and Lofton spent seven years documenting. Figuring they had missed the awards ceremony, the duo headed to The Lamplighter, where my wife Laura Jean Hocking and I were hosting our annual filmmakers’ party. Naturally, the Indie Memphis awards ceremony went way over its allotted time, so Lofton was giving up and leaving the Lamp at the exact moment I was walking in the door. “We didn’t know where everybody was, so we were about to bail,” recalls Lofton.
“Where are you going? You won!” I half yelled at him.
It took a moment for the news to sink in, so I got to watch the realization that all their hard work had paid off play out on his face. It’s definitely a top-five Indie Memphis memory for me — and for Lofton, it’s number one. “Then Larry Karaszewski, the writer of Man on the Moon, walked in, and I said, ‘What are you doing here?’” Lofton continues. “He said, ‘Who the hell are you?’ And I said, ‘I’m the guy who made The Rendezvous documentary, The ’Vous,” And he’s like, ‘Oh my God! You won! Where the hell were you? I was supposed to give you the award!’ It was a great time. I respect him tremendously. He said some amazing things about the restaurant, and he called it [The ’Vous] ‘a beautiful American story.’”
Lofton and Dailey are both from Arkansas and have fond memories of eating at The Rendezvous while they were visiting Memphis with their families. “It was always for the farm convention,” says Lofton. “My dad was a farmer in Hughes, Arkansas, and we’d go to church in Memphis and eat at The Rendezvous.”
When they read a Commercial Appeal article about longtime Rendezvous servers “Big Robert” Stewart and Percy Norris retiring, Lofton and Dailey realized they had a story to tell. “It’s an institution, it’s about the people. What they’ve built there, the stories that they’ve lived, and these guys are stepping down, retiring, and passing the torch. We’ve got to get in there right now. So, within three days, we had — with Jeff and some of his friends and people that we knew — a full film crew down there.”
Filming would continue for years, with film crews acting as fly-on-the-wall observers for bustling nights on the restaurant floor, personal moments with the Vergos family, and endless stories about the history that happened in the restaurant. “We’re a seven-year overnight success,” says Lofton.
“A lot of the new films that are coming out these days, they don’t have the budget or the time to spend time with the participants, with their characters,” says Dailey. “What we wanted to do was immerse ourselves and get to know the people personally as well as professionally. Yeah, it’s a lot more challenging that way, but I think it’s a richer product in the end.”
Against the backdrop of famous diners and pivotal deals sealed over a plate of ribs was the everyday drama of a family business navigating change. “It’s an important story to tell when we were at the crossroads of a company during Covid and the retirement of some of our Rendezvous originals,” says Anna Vergos, whose grandfather founded the restaurant. “I’m proud to look back on this documentary and see how much growth we’ve all felt and continue to embrace.”
One of the film’s most compelling storylines regards Calvin, a novice busboy trying to get his foot in the door. “It just sort of wrote itself once we were down there,” says Lofton. “The story of the busboy, and how the institution works, and the family dynamics — it was all there.”
After a rapturous reception at Indie Memphis, The ’Vous completed a festival run that included a sold-out screening at DOC NYC, the biggest documentary festival in North America. This week, Memphis will get a chance to see The ’Vous when it kicks off its theatrical engagement at the Malco Paradiso.
“We were so fortunate that people across the spectrum of The Rendezvous, from waitstaff to the family to many others, opened their personal lives to us — you really can’t predict what’s going to happen when you dive into people’s lives! We’re just so grateful to them, and to the city of Memphis. It’s a place that we both love.”
The ’Vous is showing at Malco Paradiso through February 1st.
Every year, the Memphis Flyer asks our readers to nominate outstanding young people in Memphis who are making a difference in their community. We chose the top 20 from an outstanding field of more than 50 nominations.
Memphis, meet your future leaders, the 20<30 Class of 2024.
Sara Barrera Economic Development Manager, Downtown Memphis Commission
After studying sustainability at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Barrera returned to Memphis to earn a degree in urban planning from the University of Memphis. She found the Downtown Memphis Commission to be a perfect fit for her talents and interests. “It’s been really rewarding to get to work with some small business owners that are trying to open up their first business, or people who are venturing out into neighborhoods that have been neglected for a long time and want to take on renewed faith in getting some stuff established out there.”
Courtney Blanchard Chief of Staff, Greater Memphis Chamber
A native Memphian, Blanchard interned at the Tennessee legislature before working at the economic development and governmental affairs office at the University of Memphis. She followed her mentor, Ted Townsend, to the Greater Memphis Chamber, where he is now the president and CEO. She describes her role as “The Convener” for the business organization. “We’re very intentional about the economic development that we work with at the Chamber because we don’t want the tide to just drive for some, we say that if the tide hasn’t risen for everyone, we’re not doing our job. We can’t leave anybody behind.”
Briana Butler Associate Attorney, Baker Donelson
“I’ve known since a very early age that I wanted to be a lawyer,” says Butler, who was only the second person in her family to finish college. “I didn’t really know what that would look like, but I knew I wanted to go to law school.”
Her dreams were complicated when she became pregnant. “I had my son at 18, so it was my second semester of freshman year of college, a particularly difficult time.” She managed to juggle the demands of both young motherhood and higher education, graduating magna cum laude from the University of Memphis in only three years and earning a degree at Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. At 23, she achieved her goal of landing a job at Baker Donelson. “Every single day, I feel like I’m taking a class. … If you have a seemingly unrealistic goal — which, my goal was unrealistic — create a very detailed plan. It gives you small little chunks that are more doable and more realistic to get you to the seemingly unrealistic goal.”
Sarah Cai Co-Owner/Chef, Good Fortune Co.
The mind behind Downtown’s favorite noodle shop grew up in Memphis, until her father moved the family to Guangdong, China, when she was 13. “When I was in college, I started working in hospitality and one of my mentors actually recommended that I try being a line cook, since he noticed I had a lot of passion for food. I tried it and absolutely loved it.
“My dad’s from China, my mom’s from Indonesia, so they were immigrants to this country. As we were growing up, they would always take us home as they could afford it, a trip every few years or so. From a young age, I was exposed to whole different types of culture, all different types of cuisine. And so I think being exposed to such variety of cuisine really helped develop my palate and also gave me a lot of experiences that people have never had before. When I decided to open Good Fortune, I was like, I think it’s got to be in Memphis. It just felt right to me.”
Lionel Davis II Energy & Infrastructure Executive, Johnson Controls
“I’ve always been somewhat of a tinkerer; some may call it mischievous,” says Davis, who turned his talents into a mechanical engineering degree and moved to Memphis from Little Rock for his current job. “We spend over 90 percent of our time in buildings, and the pandemic highlighted the value of indoor air quality. These are things that my company and my industry have prioritized.”
Davis serves as the first Black president in the 80-year history of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)’s Memphis chapter, as an assistant basketball coach at Binghampton Christian Academy, and as the former co-chair of the young adult ministry of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church. “I really feel as though once you understand that your life is not solely meant to enrich yourself, the greatest among us is the one who serves the least among us.”
Ahmad George Artist
“I’ve always been drawing, I’ve always been doodling,” says George. “My high school teacher, Mr. Adair, who’s passed now, sadly, he really saw a future for it in me.”
George attended the much-missed Memphis College of Art and devoted themself to their painting. After successful gallery appearances in Miami and Spain, George recently had their first solo Memphis show at Crosstown Arts, “The Molasses Man and Other Delta Tales.” They describe their art as a kind of uncanny realism. “I like the psychological aspects and sensory aspects of art. I want to make people feel things, and not necessarily an overwhelmingly sad or bursting with happiness feeling.”
George’s painting, TheMolasses Man, from their Crosstown show was acquired by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art this past November.
Sondra Pham Khammavong ALSAC/St. Jude Talent Acquisition Liaison, Asian Night Market Founder
The native Memphian plays an important role at ALSAC. “I recruit students nationwide to join our internship program,” she says.
But you probably know the fruits of Khammavong’s other passion. When she founded the Vietnamese Student Association at the University of Memphis, she was following in her family’s footsteps. “My grandpa was one of those first [Vietnamese] that did come here to Memphis. So I’m just excited to continue the foundation that he started and the roots, even though I was born here in America, but just want to keep that heritage going and now that I have kids, just to be able to incorporate them into the culture.”
Most recently, she helped create the Asian Night Market, which attracted more than 8,000 people to Crosstown Concourse. “The Asian Night Market is the first in this city where we brought all the vibrant Asian cultures to one place with something that people love, which is food,” she says. “It was so amazing to see the city come together for a diverse event. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that, especially for the Asian community.”
Alexa Marie Kintanar FedEx Express Avionics Engineer
After a stint as an Apple Genius piqued her interest in electronics, Kintanar got an internship at FedEx. “I tried it, and I caught what they call the aviation bug from the get-go,” she says. “I saw how massive this technology was and how impactful it could be around the world, and we saw a lot of that actually during the pandemic.”
Kintanar is the first-generation offspring of Philippine-American immigrants. “A lot of what I wanted to do was make them proud — take all the hard courses, get all the scholarships. But also at the same time, make sure I loved what I was doing because I knew from a very young age that if you don’t love what you’re going to do, then it’s torture. You can’t have a job that you hate.”
She pays her good fortune forward as a member of REACH Memphis. “I participate in a lot of mentorship programs. Currently at FedEx, I work with the outreach program to Memphis City Schools for aircraft maintenance. We go to schools with students who don’t have as many opportunities, or aren’t aware of the opportunities that they have.”
Brooks Lamb Author, Farmer, Land Protection and Access Specialist, American Farmland Trust
This Rhodes College graduate’s passion is the land. “Most of my work lies in trying to support small and midsize farmers because they have been getting squeezed and undervalued and underappreciated for quite a long time.”
His two books are about our relationship to the Earth. “Overton Park: A People’s History looks at that in a more urban-focused, very Memphis context, and the way that people have really served as stewards of the park for generations. My newest book is called Love for the Land: Lessons from Farmers Who Persist in Place. It looks at the challenges that small and midsize farmers face, paying particular attention to challenges from farmland loss and farmland conversion from sprawl, haphazard real estate development, and challenges from agricultural consolidations. For farmers of color, there are issues of systemic racism and injustice in the past, but also still very much in the present.”
Emma Less Senior Manager of Development, Overton Park Shell
“I don’t think you can grow up in Memphis and not appreciate music,” says Less. And there is no better place to appreciate music than the Overton Park Shell. “I remember going in high school and being so impressed that it was a place for everyone, and that you could hear really amazing bands. … I think there’s a lot to be said about the fact that it is free, and that means that you can decide to come the night of, and enjoy it with all your friends. You don’t have to worry about getting tickets and planning ahead, and that also means there’s more opportunity for anyone to be able to come regardless of their ability to pay for music and the arts.”
Less’ fundraising work aims to keep the music free. “Every time I carry the bucket through the crowd, it’s always just so lovely. It’s something that came from when the Shell was first built in 1936, and they passed a hat around. It’s always been important that the community has the buy-in and feels that they’re a part of the Shell, because it is theirs, too. Whether you’re giving us $5 or $5,000, it doesn’t matter.”
Richard Massey West Tennessee Vice President, Tennessee Young Democrats
The Marion, Arkansas, native is currently a sophomore at the University of Memphis, majoring in political science and legal studies. “What really propelled me to get involved in Memphis was the modern-day lynching, which I would describe it as, of Tyre Nichols at the hands of the Memphis Police Department, who deprived that man of his life in the most repugnant manner imaginable just 80 yards away from his mother’s residence. That propelled me to go to the city council, the first city council meeting of 2023, following the death of Tyre Nichols and demand a slate of important police reform measures.”
Massey has also been involved in labor issues and in fighting anti-LGBTQ bills in the state legislature, a body he hopes one day to join. “I think it’s important to remind the naysayers, those people who want to undermine youth contributions to these pivotal conversations, that the youth are at the forefront of every major issue affecting Memphis.”
Savannah Miller Director of New Works, Playhouse on the Square
Miller, a writer and dramatist who graduated from Dartmouth College and has already had five of her own plays staged, took over the New Works program in 2023. Under her watch, entries surged to more than 500 plays and musicals from playwrights all over the globe competing for two slots on the Playhouse on the Square stage.
“I would love for Memphis to be on the map as a place for writers. Before I first came here, I was thinking music. I was thinking visual arts. I was thinking history. I don’t know if I was thinking so much writers and theater artists, but I should have been because we have an amazing pool of talent here in Memphis. I feel like my job as a curator of voices is to showcase that to the world, to get these opportunities out there to people, and let other folks outside of the Mid-South see what we’re doing here in Memphis.”
Jessica Morris Counselor, Christian Brothers High School
Morris originally wanted to be a therapist, she says. “However, the more I researched, the more I realized that many mental health issues arise in childhood. Yet in the state of Tennessee, there is only one school counselor for every 458 students. I realized that school counselors have a more preventative effect on student mental health. This convinced me that I belong on the front lines, helping teenagers develop into healthy, emotionally stable adults.
“I think today’s teenagers are facing a near-constant overload of technological stimulation,” she says. “My department’s role is to offer our students a safe, calming environment where they can talk with a trusted adult away from the noise and stimulation of their lives. We take proactive measures in talking to our student body about cyber-balance, how to evaluate one’s mental well-being, and how to ask for help.”
Jordan Occasionally Musician
Born a singer, Occasionally decided to devote their life to music full-time at age 15. They earned a music business degree at the University of Memphis. “I started releasing music during the pandemic in 2021, and it went viral on TikTok and the rest was history,” Occasionally says. “I can say that the local community has been very loving to and receptive towards my music, and it’s given me the courage to break into the L.A. market, or into the New York market, or even around across the globe, the UK market. I wouldn’t have been able to get there without Memphis loving me first.”
At the same time, they have embraced activism, organizing Black Lives Matter protests and advocating for the unhoused community. “Toni Morrison said that all art is political. … I feel like I had an obligation along with having a platform. Anytime you have a stage, what you do with it matters.”
Elijah Poston Musician/Director of Operations, Jack Robinson Gallery
A foundational member of the Smith7 Records collective, Poston began getting attention for his music at a very early age. He created the public access TV show Kids Do Positive Thingz to showcase young talent in the Mid-South. After graduating from Loyola’s music program, he designed the music theory curriculum at Visible Music College. The multi-instrumentalist taught guitar and released music from his band Doter Sweetly. Today, he can be found on drums with General Labor and is prepping new music from a new group, Great Fortune.
Meanwhile, the position at Jack Robinson Gallery has opened up new vistas for Poston, who has begun dabbling in poster design. “I obviously stay busy because when I’m not here, I’m doing General Labor. I’m teaching at the U of M. And when I’m not doing that, I’m doing one of the other projects that I’m doing. But it is a lot. I was very lucky to have been introduced to everybody here, and it ended up being a perfect fit.”
Amira Randolph Youth Leadership Program Manager, Memphis Urban League Young Professionals
“I feel a real devotion to my city,” says Randolph. “Every time that we as a community can come together and do things to refresh Memphis, to move it forward into time, to make it a safer place for everyone and be more inclusive, that just makes it even better. And so whenever there’s an opportunity for me to do that, use my talent to do that, then I’m going to take it for sure.”
Randolph got her devotion to service from her father Ian, and says she believes mentorship is the key to helping at-risk youth thrive. “That is my whole drive and purpose. I deeply, deeply care about our youth. I know how important it is to have somebody there. You can be surrounded by family and surrounded by friends, and you still need that person to guide you outside of that.”
Chloe Sexton Baker and Owner, Bluff Cakes
As a producer for WREG-TV, Sexton was responsible for the political talk show Informed Sources. “Baking was just kind of this hobby that I used to blow off steam. I left TV, and I went into marketing. When the pandemic hit, everybody lost their jobs, and I was terrified. I was trying to learn how can I take all the skills that I have with television, with writing, with storytelling, and with marketing, and blend that into making my little hobby something profitable that’s gonna help me survive a pandemic. That’s how Bluff Cakes came about. Oh, did I mention I was pregnant?”
Now, Bluff Cakes ships Sexton’s creations all over the country, where her more than 2 million social media followers gobble them up. “The best advice that I learned was, if you’re gonna throw yourself into the public eye, you need to grow a thick skin very fast. … Also, trust your gut. It’s not as important as people think it is to follow trends. I would say it’s wildly more important to start your own.”
Jake Warren Corporate Credit Analyst, First Horizon Bank
“Finance was just my bread and butter. I’ve always been a numbers guy, kind of my cup of tea,” says Warren.
He loves “being able to help others achieve their goals, whether it be an individual preparing for retirements, buying their first house, or just helping a small business continue to grow. The end product is really what I enjoy most. There’s a lot of things behind the scenes like lots of graphs, spreadsheets, making predictions, trying to figure out what the best game plan is for them. It is hard work, but at the end of the day, just seeing others succeed is what keeps me going.”
Warren was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of 4 and was involved in the Make-A-Wish program. Now with CF in remission, he is on the Mid-South chapter’s board of directors. “Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time getting ready for an event with the Make-A-Wish Foundation we’re hosting in February. My kitchen is full of boxes of silent auction items!”
Brandon Washington Tennessee Young Adult Advisory Council
At age 15, Washington was thrown into the Tennessee foster care system. Now, he is a sophomore at Rhodes College, and ran for City Council Super District 19 in the 2023 elections, where he garnered more than 16,000 votes.
“I had just came from D.C., advocating up there for expansion of resources for foster care. Two or three weeks later, President Joe Biden signed into law the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which expanded SNAP benefits to include aged-out foster youth, which is something that we were advocating. I realized that young people, we don’t have to wait until we’re more experienced to make change. We can actually make change now. We just need the platform to be heard.”
Washington is an international studies major, with the goal of one day becoming secretary of state. As for Memphis City Council, “I’m already preparing to run in 2027 for the same position.”
Olivia Whittington Real Estate Manager, AutoZone
“I manage the opening of AutoZone stores from site selection all the way to store opening,” says Whittington, who studied urban planning at the University of Memphis. “It’s been a great experience for me, and I’ve learned a lot.”
When she’s not busy expanding the AutoZone empire, she volunteers with Memphis Animal Services, “doing videos and photography for the dogs that are on the ‘urgent list’, who are basically slated for euthanasia. Those get shared with Memphis Animal Services and then other rescue groups around the country. There are groups online that will share that information to try and find a foster adopter or rescue for those particular dogs. And it can be hard, because you can’t save all of them.”
She says she feels obligated to help find homes for these dogs in distress because “the problem won’t get any better if people just want to look away from the problem.”
[Ed. Note: An earlier version of this story listed incorrectly listed Amira Randolph’s as affiliated with the Boys and Girls Club of Memphis. She is no longer affiliated with the organization. The Memphis Flyer regrets the error.]
