Steve and Lisa Mergen, Tony Thomas, and Susie Jabbour (Photos: Michael Donahue)
Even before all the turkey is gone, WinterArts is back in action, getting people in the arts-centric holiday-buying mood.
Alex Russell, Diana, Donna, and Bill HopperCyndy Grivich and Lisa SodiniAlex, Garrison, and Deke RappSean Winfrey and Jamie BighamDavid JohnsonDon and Rita DeWeese
Greg Belz, executive director of the ArtWorks Foundation and founder of WinterArts, kicks off the annual event with an opening reception the Friday after Thanksgiving. “We do it at 5,” Belz says. “After everybody looking for plastic bargains from China has gone back home and vacated the streets, we open up.”
Adam Cole, John Stanford, Debi Stanford, and Hannah ColeAmy and Paul BurdetteJoe, Bobbie, Matt, Wendy, and Sally VanCleveHunter Dove and Kim DuranOlivia AveryBrandon and Wil Short
This year’s WinterArts is at 7509 Poplar Avenue, in the old Brooks Brothers location in The Shops of Saddle Creek in Germantown, Tennessee.
About 400 attended the reception for WinterArts, which is celebrating its 16th year, Belz says.
Sarah, Cecil, London, Brandon, Sophia, and Brandon LittleKerry and Shannon Wade, Shane Gross, Teresa Wilson, and Tom Wilson
It includes “everything one can think of in glass, metal, wood, clay, and fiber as well as a few other surprises,” he says. “We focus on 3D work in those disciplines.”
Greg Belz and Chris Saxon
In short, WinterArts brings together “material and imagination” to create incredible gifts that “you won’t see anywhere else.”
WinterArts is open seven days a week through Christmas Eve.
In these fraught days of authoritarianism and climate change, when our fate depends more than ever on local community action, music continues to seal the bonds between those fighting the good fight. It’s an age-old function of song, for songs are both rousing and inherently inclusive, spreading equally to all eardrums in the vicinity. America has a tradition of protest and organizing songs going back more than a century, from Joe Hill and the Wobblies, to singing through megaphones at Occupy Wall Street, to today’s pop songs at political rallies or in countless poetry-song slams across the land.
It was no accident, then, that Bruce and Barbara Newman’s mutual love of folk music and the blues led them to create a concert series celebrating both music and community action simultaneously. And, appropriately enough, it started back in the ’90s with the music of Woody Guthrie. “My law practice was starting to represent folk musicians like Tom Paxton and Dave Van Ronk, a whole bunch of them,” says Bruce Newman. “So we started calling on these people to play music concerts, each one for different charitable beneficiaries. The first one we did was a tribute to Woody Guthrie, and we had Odetta, Oscar Brand, Richie Havens, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Tom Paxton, and Josh White Jr. on that first bill. And the second one had Tom Paxton and Oscar Brand again, plus Melanie, Roger McGuinn, and Tom Rush.”
Those early concerts became Acoustic Sunday Live, an annual tradition unlike any other in Memphis, now in its third decade. And that last headliner from the early days — veteran singer-songwriter Tom Rush — is significant because he hasn’t been back since then. But it wasn’t for lack of trying.
“I consider Tom Rush a friend,” says Newman. “I see him at Folk Alliance [International] every year. And I bugged him for 20 years, ‘Tom, when are you coming back?’ Well, he always had a conflict the first week in December, right when we always have our concert. But this past summer he said, ‘Bruce, if you move it one week, I’m coming down. It’s a good cause. It’s important.’ And that’s what we did.”
Booking Rush, a diehard pioneer of the folk club scene whose first album came out in 1965, would be a coup for any folk festival, but this year’s Acoustic Sunday Live will also feature Shakura S’Aida, Steve Forbert, and Tim Easton, not to mention special guests Anne Harris and Marcella Simien. As in other years, one thing is clear: When the Newmans get their Acoustic Sunday on, they don’t play.
While finally getting Rush back was a challenge, it was especially significant both because of his ties to the series’ earliest days and because of his role in the ’60s folk revival. Like many folkies of that era, Rush had a great love of Woody Guthrie and classic Appalachian and Southern folk songs when he launched his career as a young English major at Harvard, filling his first albums with such material. But he had too much curiosity to be a pure traditionalist, and, as the ’60s wore on, he filled out his repertoire with songs as disparate as Bo Diddley’s “You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” and Joni Mitchell’s “The Circle Game.”
That eclecticism has marked Rush’s career ever since, setting him apart from the “more authentic than thou” folk set. “I’ve never been accused of being pure,” Rush quips today. “Early on, when I started out in Cambridge, Massachusetts, there was this big folk scene going on, with people playing all kinds of different traditional music. They all tended to specialize. There was one guy who did almost nothing but Woody Guthrie songs, and a band that did nothing but bluegrass, and another guy who did Delta Blues, or Irish-Scottish ballads, and so forth. And I tended to be the generalist.”
That doesn’t detract from the power of Rush’s music to bring folks together. Indeed, his inclusiveness only amplifies that power, even as he eschews what Bob Dylan once pejoratively dubbed “finger-pointing songs.” Part of that came down to Rush’s own sense of himself. “There’s a certain irony in a bunch of Harvard students sitting around singing about how rough it was in the coal mines,” he chuckles. “I did ramble around from genre to genre. By the time I cut my second album for Elektra, I’d run out of traditional songs that got me excited. So one side of that album was traditional songs, and the other side was me covering rock-and-roll tunes, including one that I wrote, ‘On the Road Again.’”
He also had his antennae out for a new era of songwriters. “Then the following album was The Circle Game, where I introduced [the songs of] Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and Jackson Browne because nobody really had heard of them before. That was a further switch away from traditional folk. These three brilliant writers came at me from different directions, but they were writing stuff that was dazzlingly great, yet not so different from folk that I couldn’t relate to it.”
His ear for a good song has served him well, up through his latest release of all originals, Gardens Old, Flowers New. Those attending Acoustic Sunday Live should expect that same soothing voice and eclectic ear that’s kept Rush, now on what he likes to call his “63rd annual farewell tour,” in demand for decades, as he swaps songs with other legendary troubadours. “I stay away from getting political on stage,” he says. “I have done shows to support various causes, but I don’t take it on stage. I think my shows should be a little bit of a vacation from problems of the world.”
Acoustic Sunday Live —The Concert to Protect Our Aquifer, presents an evening with Tom Rush, Shakura S’Aida, Steve Forbert, and Tim Easton, as well as special guests Anne Harris and Marcella Simien, at First Congregational Church, Sunday, December 15th, 7 p.m. Tickets start at $50.
A good fact is hard to find, especially in these truth-fluid times. But it’s nice to know there are a few solid ones you can stand upon.
That was my thinking as I pitched this story to our editor, Shara Clark. Then I started compiling these facts and realized even some of them can be fluid. A classic example: Which was the first rock-and-roll song, “Rocket 88” or “That’s All Right”? Either one still makes Memphis the “birthplace of rock-and-roll,” though. Right?
Also, some data rhyme and you have to pick them apart. Example: The current graduation rate for Memphis-Shelby County Schools is 87.3 percent. But the Memphis population with only a high school degree is 31 percent. Both facts are listed as just “Memphis graduates” in a couple of datasets.
Keep all this in mind as you peruse our list of facts. We’ve tried hard to hit the middle of the dartboard. But nailing down a fact can be a slippery thing sometimes. So if you have a quibble and you’d like to discuss, or if we’re plain wrong and you’d like a correction or clarification, please email me at toby@memphisflyer.com. — Toby Sells
History
• Original inhabitants: Chickasaw Nation
• First European explorer: Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto (1541)
• Ceded from the Chickasaws to the U.S. in the Jackson Purchase (1818)
• City founded in 1819 by John Overton, James Winchester, and Andrew Jackson
• Named after the ancient capital of Egypt on the Nile River
• Original name (anglicized as Men-nefer) means “enduring and beautiful”
• Modern city incorporated as a city: 1826
• Yellow fever epidemics: late 1870s
• Surrendered its charter: 1879
• New city charter granted: 1893
• Elvis Presley records “That’s All Right” at Sun Studio in 1954; widely considered to be the first rock-and-roll record ever recorded
• Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination: April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel
• Motel opened as National Civil Rights Museum in 1991
Photo: R. Gino Santa Maria / Shutterfree, Llc | Dreamstime.com
Geography and Land
• Total area: 302 square miles (land, 295 square miles; water, 7.6 square miles)
• Elevation: 337 feet above sea level
• Sited on the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff
• Water source: Memphis Sand Aquifer
• The aquifer spans more than 7,000 square miles under eight states
• Water age: typically over 2,000 years old
• Its pure drinking water was deemed “the sweetest in the world”
• Aquifer volume: more than 100 trillion gallons, enough to cover all of Shelby County up to the top of Clark Tower
• Number of extreme heat days: 20 (2022)
• Number of extreme precipitation days: 4 (2023)
Demographics
• Total population (2020 census): 633,425
• Population estimate (2023): 618,639
• Population decrease: -2.6 percent
• Second-most populated city in Tennessee (after Nashville)
• Black or African American: 64.4 percent
• White: 26.5 percent
• American Indian or Alaskan Native: .3 percent
• Asian: 1.6 percent
• Hispanic or Latino: 8 percent
• Median age: 33.9
• Over 65: 14.6 percent
• Under 18: 31.8 percent
• Ratio: 88 males for every 100 females
• Employment rate: 59.8 percent (2023)
• Total households: 257,188
• Average household size: 2.6 persons per household (2018-2022)
• Children in single-parent households: 43.5 percent (2018-2022)
• Only English spoken at home: 88.6 percent of households
• Language other than English spoken at home: 11.4 percent
• Foreign-born population Memphis: 8.3 percent
• Median household income Memphis: $51,399 (2023)
• Median family income Memphis: $61,977
• Poverty Memphis (2023): 22.6 percent
• Largest poverty age group Memphis: under 18 (36.3 percent)
Housing and Living
• Total housing units: 286,713
• Occupied housing units: 255,642
• Largest housing occupancy by type: married-family couple (45,875)
• Second-largest housing occupancy by type: female householder, no male present (18,726)
• Vacant housing units (2020): 31,071
• Moved from a different state to Memphis (2023): 2 percent
• Moved within Shelby County (2023): 10.2 percent
• Median gross rent Memphis: $1,175
• Homeownership rate Memphis: 44.9 percent
• Largest home category by price: $200,000 to $299,000 (23.5 percent)
• Second-largest home category by price: $300,000 to $499,999 (17.55 percent)
• Average commute time in Memphis: 20.9 minutes
• Largest means of transportation: drive alone (77.8 percent)
• Second-largest means of transportation: car pool (9.2 percent)
• Commuters on public transportation: .8 percent
• Households without a vehicle: 8.4 percent (2018-2022)
Health (all of Shelby County)
• Quality of life ranking (out of 95 Tennessee counties): 87th (2023)
• Social and economic ranking (education, employment, violent crime, children in poverty, more): 83rd
• Life expectancy: 72.5 years (2019-2021)
• All cancer incidence rate: 438.2 cases per 100,000 population (2017-2021)
• Death rate due to cancer: 162.1 per 100,000 population (2018-2022)
• Child mortality rate (under 20): 92.4 deaths per 100,000 population (2018-2021)
• Teens who are sexually active: 32.2 percent (2021)
• Adults who binge drink: 15.7 percent (2022)
• Drug and opioid-involved overdose death rate: 32.4 per 100,000 population (2018-2020)
• Teens who use alcohol: 17.8 percent (2021)
• Teens who use marijuana: 18.9 percent (2021)
• Adults who have had a routine checkup: 79.8 percent (2022)
• Adults with health insurance: 83.7 percent (2023)
• Adults without health insurance: 10.8 percent (2022)
• Children with health insurance: 92.8 percent (2023)
• Children without health insurance: 7.2 percent (2023)
• People with private health insurance only: 50.6 percent (2023)
• Persons with public health insurance only: 26.7 percent (2023)
• Death rate due to heart disease: 209.2 per 100,000 population (2022)
• High blood pressure prevalence: 41.5 percent (2021)
• High cholesterol prevalence: 33.2 percent (2021)
• Adults ever diagnosed with depression: 25.2 percent (2022)
• Adults with any mental illness: 15.8 percent (2018-2020)
• Death rate due to suicide: 11.6 per 100,000 population (2018-2020)
• High school students who attempted suicide: 16.8 percent (2021)
• Adults (20+) who are sedentary: 22.6 percent (2021)
• High school students who engage in regular physical activity: 26.5 percent (2021)
• Death rate due to firearms: 33.6 per 100,000 population (2018-2020)
• HIV prevalence rate: 900.6 cases per 100,000 population (2022)
• Death rate due to HIV: 4.6 per 100,000 population (2018-2020)
• Adults who smoke: 19.3 percent (2022)
• High school students who smoke cigarettes: 3.0 percent (2021)
• Adults (20+) who are obese: 34.1 percent (2021)
• High school students who are overweight or obese: 42.2 percent (2021)
• Death rate due to homicide: 28.7 per 100,000 population (2018-2020)
• Domestic violence incidents per 1,000 population: 17.6 incidents per 1,000 population (2022)
• Alcohol-impaired driving deaths 18.2 percent of driving deaths (2017-2021)
• Bicyclist deaths: 2 (2023)
• Death rate due to motor vehicle collisions 19.5 per 100,000 population (2015-2021)
• Pedestrian deaths: 476 (2023)
• Substantiated child abuse rate: 3.4 cases per 1,000 children (2023)
• Child food insecurity rate: 27.4 percent (2022)
• Total food insecurity rate: 13.4 percent (2022)
• Households receiving SNAP with children: 51.0 percent (2018-2022)
• Households with cash public assistance income: 1.7 percent (2018-2022)
Education
• Memphis-Shelby County Schools graduation rate: 83.4 percent (2024)
• Memphis population high school graduates (2023 estimate): 31.2 percent
• Bachelor’s degree or higher Memphis: 27.9 percent
• Enrolled in school (K-12) in Memphis: 72.4 percent
• University of Memphis is the largest post-secondary school (21,000 students)
• Also home to Rhodes College, Lemoyne-Owen College, Christian Brothers University, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and Southwest Tennessee Community College
Business
• Largest industry employers: education, healthcare, and social assistance
• Second-largest industry employers: transportation, warehousing, and utilities
• Largest worker class: private company (68.6 percent)
• Second-largest worker class: local, state, or federal government (14.4 percent)
• Employer establishments: 19,659 (2022)
• Size of labor force: 431,038 (2024)
• Home to three Fortune 500 companies: FedEx Corp., AutoZone Inc., and International Paper Inc.
• Home to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital
Photo: Chengusf | Dreamstime.com
Economic Development Growth Engine(EDGE) stats since 2011
• Total jobs: 52,877
• Total capital investment: $11,691,419,735
• Number of PILOTs approved: 125
• Spending with local and minority companies: $804,417,653
• Average wage (PILOTs only): $83,251.28
• Average PILOT term: 11 years
• Local tax revenues generated: $1,956,924,055
• Total tax not charged to companies: $936,907,722
• Benefit-to-cost ratio: 2.09
• Incentive amount per job per year: $3,256.59
• Number of TIFS approved: 6
• Number of loans approved: 118
• Total loan amount: $15,924,841
• Number of bonds approved: 12
• Total bond amount: $569,737,850
Industry sectors
Food and Beverage industry
• Employed: 53,288 (2022)
• GDP: $4.9 billion
• Locations: 2,517
Manufacturing
• Employed: 43,918 (2023)
• GDP: $11.7 billion
• Locations: 1,132
Agribusiness and AgTech
• Employed: 9,231 (2023)
• GDP: $2.6 billion
• Companies: 623
Automotive and Parts Suppliers
• Employed: 18,735 (2023)
• GDP: $3.7 billion
• Operations: 1,119
Healthcare and Life Science
• Employed: 88,725 (2022)
• GDP: $10.4 billion
• Operations: 4,114
Headquarters and Finance
• Employed: 49,743 (2022)
• GDP: $12.4 billion
• Companies: 5,111
Information and Technology
• Employed: 7,753 (2022)
• GDP: $2.4 billion
• Companies: 1,318
Photo: F11photo | Dreamstime.com
Music and Entertainment
• Employed: 29,295 (2022)
• GDP: $2 billion
• Companies: 828
Supply Chain and Logistics
• Employed: 119,002 (2022)
• GDP: $18.9 billion
• Companies: 3,602
Small Business and Entrepreneur
• Employed: 229,000 (2024)
• Payroll: $11 billion (2021)
• Businesses: 137,000
Port of Memphis
• Second-largest inland port on the Mississippi River
• Total operations: 127 (2018)
• Employed: 22,465
• Taxes generated: $44.5 billion
• Economic impact: $9.2 billion
• Home to the only petroleum refinery in Tennessee
• Hub for all five Class I railways that serve Memphis: BN, CN, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific
Memphis International Airport (MEM)
• Passenger traffic: 4.8 million (2023)
• MEM facilitated 4,981 flights (Nov. 2024)
• 77 percent on time
• 65 airlines
• Top three international destinations: Windsor, Canada; La Romana, Dominican Republic; Kerry, Ireland
• 274 routes
• Busiest routes: Chicago, Houston, Dallas
• Top three airlines: NetJets, Delta Air Lines, Flexjet
• Cargo operations: 8.56 billion pounds (2023)
• Busiest cargo airport in North America (2023)
• Second-busiest cargo airport worldwide (2023)
Photo: Jeff Schultes | Dreamstime.com
FedEx Corp.
• Total revenue for fiscal year 2024: $87.7 billion
• FedEx Express: $74.7 billion (85 percent of total revenue).
• FedEx Freight: $9.4 billion (11 percent of total revenue).
• Other services like FedEx Office and FedEx Logistics: $3.6 billion (4 percent of total revenue)
• Operates world’s largest cargo airline, covering over 650 airports globally
• Moves an average of over 14.5 million shipments daily
• Serves over 220 countries and territories
• Connects 99 percent of the world’s GDP
• Global employees: ~500,000 (2023)
• Memphis employees: ~35,000 (2024)
• Operating facilities: ~5,000 worldwide (2023)
Photo: Sean Pavone | Dreamstime.com
Tourism and Cultural Assets
• Visitors: 13.5 million (2023)
• Annual economic impact: $4.2 billion
• Employment: 44,000 (Shelby County)
• Companies: more than 2,300
• Hotel rooms: 26,000 rooms (Shelby County), 4,000 (Downtown)
• Beale Street visitors: 4 million annually
• Graceland visitors: more than 500,000 annually; second-most visited private residence in the U.S. after the White House
• Graceland’s economic impact: about $150 million annually for Memphis
• The city’s name is mentioned in more than 1,000 song lyrics and titles, more than any other city in the world
• Home to more than 100 barbecue restaurants
• Home to more than 160 parks
• Memphis Zoo is home to about 3,500 animals representing more than 500 species
• Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid is one of the largest retails spaces in the world; its 28-story elevator is the world’s largest freestanding elevator
• Unique offenders by sex: male (70,000), female (29,000)
• Offenders released: 172,579
• Remained in custody: 2,099
• Top offenders by number of arrests: Brian Holmes (55), Deundra Milligan (45), Michael Jones (40)
• Full-time police officers per 1,000 residents: 3.16, 2022 (national average for cities with more than 250,000 people is 2.4 per 1,000)
City of Memphis budget
• Total revenue: $891.3 million (2025)
• Top revenue categories: local taxes ($600 million), state taxes ($79.2 million), licenses and permits ($27.8 million)
• Total expenses: $891.3 million
• Top expense categories: personnel ($640.8 million), materials and supplies ($176.6 million), grants and subsidies ($73.9 million)
• Expenses by top divisions: police services ($309.7 million), fire services ($246.7 million), grants and subsidies ($65 million)
• Top paid employees (2023): Cerelyn Davis, director of police services ($280,862); Gina Sweat, fire chief ($205,665); Donald Crowe, assistant chief of police services ($177,768); Jayne Chandler, administrative judge ($172,016)
Photo: Pierre Jean Durieu | Dreamstime.com
Sports
NBA team: Memphis Grizzlies
• Originally Vancouver Grizzlies (1995-2001)
• Relocated to Memphis: 2001
• First three seasons played at the Pyramid
• Home games: FedExForum since 2004
NCAA basketball: University of Memphis Tigers
• Home games: FedExForum
Minor League Baseball: Memphis Redbirds
• Major League Baseball affiliate: St. Louis Cardinals
• Home games: AutoZone Park since 2000
NCAA football: University of Memphis Tigers
• Home games: Simmons Bank Liberty Bowl
• Biggest crowd: 65,885, versus University of Tennessee in 1996
Sources: United States Census Bureau, Memphis-Shelby County Schools, Memphis-Shelby County Economic Development Growth Engine, Greater Memphis Chamber, Shelby County Health Department, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Port of Memphis, Memphis International Airport, FedEx Corp., Memphis Tourism, Graceland, Downtown Memphis Commission, Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, Memphis Zoo, Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid, Memphis Police Department, City of Memphis, OpenPayroll, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, Wikipedia (fact-checked), University of Memphis, Memphis Grizzlies, Memphis Redbirds, Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Commercial Appeal, National Endowment for the Humanities, Encyclopedia Britannica, Sun Studio, National Civil Rights Museum
The MEMernet was dominated late last week with the news that chain restaurant Houston’s closed its longtime Memphis location, citing staffing and safety challenges.
Reactions online followed a familiar rhythm — shock at the news, sadness over the dishes that will be missed, remembrance of good times had at the chain restaurant, a wave of pffffftt about safety concerns in one of the safest parts of town, a review of all the other restaurants in the area that are thriving, undertones of racism in the motivation to close, context on how the restaurant never engaged with the Memphis community, news that a local wanted to step in to reopen the place, and, finally, a meme showing Houston’s could reopen as a Jack Pirtle’s Chicken.
Haunted Hepburn
Posted to Facebook Marketplace
Someone bought some Halloween just for Christmas. A recently purchased poster ($50) of Audrey Hepburn was described as “haunted” in a Facebook Marketplace post from Collierville. The poster said whatever spirit was attached to the poster was “escalating” things by touching them and even leaving red marks.
UFO on Sam Cooper?
Posted to X by @the_paranormal_chic
A video posted to X by Myra Moore The Paranormal Chic apparently showed a UFO transported through Memphis last weekend on a flatbed trailer, driving down Sam Cooper Boulevard.
“We’re not the best situated to address issues like that. … Doesn’t that make a stronger case for us to leave those determinations to the legislative bodies rather than try to determine them for ourselves?” — Chief Justice John Roberts on Tennessee’s transgender care ban, Dec. 4, 2024
So just how worried should a reasonable person be about Donald Trump’s return to power? We’ve entered that awkward stage in post-election reporting where the op-ed journalists who watched the Donald abuse power the last time he held office are writing sensible columns about why everybody should probably calm down since, even with seriously eroded guardrails, nobody could possibly do all the terrible things he says he wants to do, and certainly not as fast as he says he wants to do them.
Christian leaders agreed to support him in exchange for his promise to appoint an unprecedented number of conservative, pro-life judges: “God’s wrecking ball.”
If you’ve ever wondered how Trump can receive so much earnest support from conservative Christians while appointing a cabinet full of sex pests and incompetents, it’s because they don’t expect him to build God’s kingdom on Earth, they expect him to smash norms and destroy liberal institutions.
Trump had been out of office for almost two years when the Supreme Court did the unthinkable and overturned Roe v. Wade, gutting half-a-century’s worth of settled abortion law. For all the anxiety the decision may have created for swing district Republicans campaigning in the 2022 midterms, this moment still has to be seen as a major victory for the once and future president whose first election turned on a promise to enable such a decision through judicial appointments: promise fulfilled.
And since modern Christian politics are rooted in the twofold mission of stopping abortion and curtailing LGBTQ rights, it looks like the SCOTUS that Trump made is about to give Evangelicals another reason to celebrate.
As of this writing, the Supreme Court seems poised to let Tennessee’s bad-faith ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth stand. U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts feigned helplessness while Brett Kavanaugh wondered if personal choices regarding medical services, important to less than 1.6 percent of all Americans, should be determined by the murderous impulses of the mob … er, majority.
If oral arguments are any indication of what’s to come, Wednesday, December 4th, was a worrisome day for the trans community, women, and just anybody else who might be counting on the Roberts court to defend settled law. It’s an appropriately chilling prelude to Donald Trump’s return to power since his RNC was chock-full of anti-trans rhetoric, and he spent the closing weeks of his campaign blanketing swing states with ads designed to make undecided voters feel anxious about trans people.
So, questioning whether or not Trump can fulfill the worst of his threats by fiat is probably beside the point. The mood is tense, and the stage is set for chaos. Even if you aren’t worried about what comes next, it’s probably a good idea to be prepared.
Chris Davis is a freelance writer and journalist living in Memphis.
When it comes to giving thoughtful gifts, financial security may not be the first thing on your mind. However, giving a Roth IRA can be a meaningful way to start your loved ones on a path toward financial security.
A Roth IRA is a type of individual retirement account that offers tax-exempt growth and tax-exempt withdrawals in retirement, which make it a powerful tool for building long-term wealth. Contributions to Roth IRAs are made with after-tax dollars, and qualified withdrawals of assets are tax-exempt and don’t increase your taxable income. In contrast to traditional IRAs, they aren’t subject to required minimum distributions (RMDs) during the owner’s lifetime, which means assets in the account can continue growing tax-exempt throughout the account holder’s life.
There are several benefits to giving a Roth IRA.
1. Tax-Exempt Growth
One of the primary benefits of Roth IRAs is that they allow contributions to grow on a tax-exempt basis. This means any earnings, such as interest, dividends, and capital gains, aren’t subject to federal income taxes while held within the account. Over time, this can add up to significant savings, especially for younger investors who are able to let their assets grow over many years before withdrawing them in retirement.
2. Retirement Savings
Establishing a Roth IRA for a loved one can be a great way to help them save for retirement. Many young people struggle to find extra money to set aside for retirement planning. Funding a Roth IRA can help remove some of that financial burden and allow your family member to focus on other financial priorities, such as saving for a home, paying down student loan debt, starting a business, etc.
3. Financial Literacy
Giving a Roth IRA can be a great opportunity to educate loved ones on multiple financial topics, such as saving early and often, the power of compound interest, the basics of investing, and the importance of planning for retirement. With a Roth IRA, not only are you helping your loved ones financially, you’re also teaching important financial strategies.
4. Estate Planning
Not only are Roth IRAs not subject to RMDs during the account holder’s lifetime, but they can also be passed on to heirs tax-free following the account holder’s death. Roth IRAs are a tax-efficient way to transfer wealth to future generations because they allow heirs to receive assets without having to pay income taxes on the distributions (unless the Roth IRA is less than 5 years old).
In addition, Roth IRAs don’t count toward the taxable estate of the account holder, which means they can help reduce the size of an estate for tax purposes. By giving a Roth IRA as part of an estate planning strategy, the account holder has the potential to reduce their heirs’ estate tax liability, which helps preserve more assets for future generations.
5. Compound Interest
By giving a Roth IRA to a younger family member, you offer the opportunity to take advantage of compounding interest over the individual’s lifetime. The impact of this cannot be overstated.
Suppose you contribute $1,000 to a Roth IRA on behalf of your granddaughter every year, beginning at age 20. By the time she reaches 40, you would have invested $20,000 on her behalf ($1,000 x 20 years). Assuming an average annual return of 10 percent, the investment would be worth $63,773.40 after 20 years.
On the other hand, if your granddaughter began contributing $2,000 per year to a Roth IRA from age 30 to 40 ($20,000 total), her investment would only be worth $36,934.83 after 10 years (again assuming an annual average return of 10 percent) because she has less time to take advantage of the power of compounding.
Contributing to Roth IRAs should not exceed the amount actually earned in a year by the account owner — or the maximum contribution limit, if the owner earns more than that amount.
The gift of a Roth IRA to young family members has the potential to significantly improve their long-term financial outlook and be a cornerstone of their nest egg now and in the future. Roth IRAs can truly be the gift that keeps on giving.
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.
“What if what we’re seeing today isn’t a glimpse of the future, but the new terms of the present? What if artificial intelligence isn’t actually capable of doing much more than what we’re seeing today, and what if there’s no clear timeline when it’ll be able to do more? What if this entire hype cycle has been goosed by a compliant media, ready and willing to take career-embellishers at their word?”
The quote is from a tech analyst named Edward Zitron, who’s been making the case that AI is a giant corporate Ponzi grift for several months. And he’s not alone. The essential question that AI doubters raise is this: What if enabling us to make fanciful pictures, replicate online search engines, and edit writing projects (and emails) is the highest-level payoff we’re going to get from AI? Was building out and maintaining all the ecologically destructive hardware of AI really worth it?
The Greater Memphis Chamber announced last week it was answering that question with a resounding “Yes.” Readers will recall that months ago, President-elect Trump’s First Buddy, Elon Musk, settled a deal with the Chamber to locate his xAI, powered by the “world’s largest computer,” in Memphis. Then a couple weeks ago, xAI entered a 21-year lease for 522 additional acres of land in southwest Memphis — purpose to be determined.
We still don’t know what’s going to happen with that acreage, but Chamber CEO Ted Townsend announced that three more super-computer firms would be coming to town. “We’re excited to welcome Nvidia, Dell, and Supermicro to the ‘Digital Delta,’” said Townsend. We’re living in the Digital Delta!
Similar scenarios have been happening around the globe, as tech corporations create more facilities to store and retrieve digital content. But there can be problems. In Spain, Barcelona has had to limit water usage for its residents due to the burgeoning data centers it has welcomed. Citizens took to the streets in protest.
Journalist Kasia Tarczynska of GoodJobsFirst.org, writes, “Internet companies have embraced Old Economy habits of playing states and localities against each other … causing governments to grossly overspend for trophy deals. Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon Web Services have been awarded more than $2 billion in subsidies. The average cost of their 11 ‘megadeals’ is astronomical: $1.95 million per job created.”
Now, the Memphis deal may be as wonderful as the Chamber claims it is, but transparency on this liaison is essential: How many jobs will be created, and what’s the payout for Memphis taxpayers? How much water and electricity will be used? What kind of revenues will be generated? What are the penalties for breaking contract terms or polluting our environment?
It would take a hella big fine to get Musk’s attention. Tesla’s Austin gigafactory has been accused of discharging hazardous wastewater into city sewers, emitting pollutants from a faulty furnace, and using a chemical waste pond where dead wildlife has been found. The company’s Fremont, California, facility has recorded more than 180 air quality violations since 2019.
To that end, three local environmental groups — Memphis Community Against Pollution, Protect Our Aquifer, and Young, Gifted & Green — are asking Memphians to take part in an xAI Community Impact Survey that “aims to gauge community perspectives on the new xAI supercomputer in Memphis and the recent 522-acre expansion. The questions focus on your perceptions of the facility and ideas for Memphians to actually benefit from the project.” You can find the survey on the groups’ Facebook sites.
But eventually, it all comes back to the question raised by Zitron: What is the real end game for AI? Billions of dollars are being spent in a race to see which company’s mega-computer can scrape enough human-created content from the world’s computers to … what? Write a novel as good as The Sun Also Rises? Paint a picture to rival the Mona Lisa? Make an album as good as Songs in the Key of Life?
Or is the crest of AI’s wave my being able to create an image of “the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus eating Easter eggs,” like the one I did for my granddaughter last week? It would be nice (and would shut me up) if AI could somehow come up with a solution for global climate change. That would indeed be a win. At this point, anything is possible. And nothing is also possible.
Amy and Hannah Pickle spent their last Rawgirls Memphis day, December 1st, in its commercial kitchen.
For 14 years, they’ve operated Rawgirls Memphis, which included food trucks and a brick-and-mortar location Downtown. They sold the business to Laura Wegner in November, but they stayed on as advisors to help her get settled.
Starting Rawgirls about 14 years ago was “a complete accident,” Amy says.
She and Hannah met at Give Yoga Memphis. Hannah, who owned the yoga studio, was conducting a workshop on how to use super foods. Amy, a professional chef, says, “It was love at first sight.”
A native Memphian, Amy is a member of the Pickle Iron family, which her grandfather started in the 1950s. After graduating from The Culinary Institute of America in New York, Amy worked for famed chef, the late Judy Rodgers, at San Francisco’s Zuni Café, where she learned how to cook seasonally with local foods and make everything by hand. Amy went on to work for Jean-Georges Vongerichten at Mercer Kitchen in New York before moving back to Memphis in 2007.
A native of Paducah, Kentucky, Hannah says, “Food and diet were always a hobby and an interest of mine. … I would eat crazy things like algae and seaweed because I loved how I felt, but I didn’t have talent towards making them taste good.”
Amy, whom she married in 2011, “made them taste good. We started working together at home. Playing around with raw foods.”
Amy learned how to dehydrate foods. Using almond flour, she made gluten-free bread, which she baked under 118 degrees. “It kept all the nutrition intact, so you’re not cooking out the nutritional benefits of food.”
One night they made dinner for a couple of friends. The menu included raw cantaloupe soup and a parsnip and sweet pea risotto. One of their guests said, “I feel so good eating this food. … If I paid you, would you guys cook for us?”
“We weren’t looking for a job,” Amy says. “Hannah had her studio and I had an IT business.” They liked the idea of making things together just for fun.
Still, they made a meal in their kitchen and delivered it to the friend. “Within two weeks we had 10 regular home delivery clients,” Hannah says.
“We both closed our businesses,” Amy says. “We had to. We didn’t want to say ‘no’ to people. They were feeling so good. … It was becoming bigger than us and what we wanted for our life.”
They began working out of a duplex in August 2011. “We had Rawgirls on one side and we lived on the other,” Amy says.
“Then we decided to become legitimate and we rented the old Another Roadside Attraction kitchen,” Hannah says.
They opened their first food truck in the parking lot of Hollywood Feed on Poplar Avenue and Yates Road. “It was an absolute success from day one.”
Popular items eventually included a sorbet made from açaí and their “Green Love Bomb” cold-pressed juice made with cucumbers, fresh ginger, lemon, spinach, celery, and romaine. Their menu was “always growing,” Amy says. “As we were creating the menu, we would create for each other at home and feel the benefits.”
She and Hannah planned to close the business when their daughter graduated from high school. “It broke our hearts a little bit, but we made a public announcement we were going to close. That day Laura, the new owner, wrote to us and said this was a dream of hers to have a business like this. And we felt she was a viable person to come in and take it over.”
Wegner is now calling the business “Rawgirls USA.”
As for their future plans, Amy says they’re looking at an organic farm in Spain, where they’d like to set up an artist and yoga retreat. Also, Hannah says, “We have a mushroom extract business as well that we will gear up once settled.”
So, where did the name “Rawgirls” come from? Since they were using raw foods and they both were women, they thought “Rawgirls” was “kind of cute,” Amy says.
“I don’t know if it was the best idea,” Hannah says. “We still get people thinking we’re a strip club.”
“I’m in my mid-50s,” Amy adds. “I’m not getting on a pole.”
A Love Supreme (Intertwined) 2024 (Photo: MadameFraankie)
Something was missing in MadameFraankie’s photography practice. At least, the artist thought so. She’d been able to capture stories of the Black community; she found that she preferred shooting in black-and-white and in film. “As soon as you are forced to have 36, 24 shots, or now 12 with the new camera I shoot with, you get real intentional,” she says. “I love a good black-and-white image; it stops the distraction.” But, so often behind the camera, she says, “I didn’t really have a way to bring in my own family or even myself.”
Fraankie looked for inspiration in her mother and maternal grandmother, who use their own creative talents for commercial arts and sewing, respectively. Her mom even used to paint in acrylic; the family house still has a painting by her of Fraankie’s older cousin as a “grumpy baby” on a swing. “It’s like they have this thing, this gift,” Fraankie says of her mom and grandma, “and I have decided to accept the gifts that they have.”
With this mindset, Fraankie integrated their crafts into her photography, adding embroidery and painting watercolor elements onto her pictures. “It’s just my first iteration of the mediums sharing space with each other,” she says, “the intertwining of the mediums and the intertwining of the storylines.”
These are the pieces that make up her exhibition “Intertwine,” on display in the Beverly + Sam Ross Gallery at Christian Brothers University. The images she uses are a mixture of her own candid film photographs of her family and those from her family collection that she’s manipulated — the little moments, from relatives doing hair to family gatherings in the living room with pillows on the floor.
“It just felt great to bring life back to them,” she says of the archived photos. “They’re not on anybody’s wall. They’re just kind of tucked away. So, to give a new purpose to the image, it was great.” Most of these have been transferred onto paper using a cyanotype process and toned with black tea. “I think having practices like this really lets you sit with the work,” Fraankie says. “It’s slow work.”
Having spent so much time with the pieces herself, the photographer hopes viewers will do the same. “I hope they physically feel themselves slow down. I’m not asking you to do anything except notice these little moments in between. I’m aware how mundane this is, but it’s like, no, like your family is worthy of existing on a wall. You have a story to tell whether you think it’s slow or not.”
As for the photographer’s family, they’re delighted to be included in the gallery show, most of them traveling from out of town to see the exhibit. “They’re excited about the journey,” Fraankie says.
NBSCL Elected Officials. From Left to Right: Maryland State Delegate Ashanti Martinez, Indiana State Representative Cherrish Pryor, Texas State Representative Toni Rose, Tennessee State Senator Raumesh Akbari, and Tennessee State Representative Harold Love, Jr.
Two Tennessee legislators have been elected to lead a historic organization of Black elected officials dedicated to advancing equality and justice.
Sen. Raumesh Akbari has been announced as the president-elect for the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL), transitioning from her current position as vice president. Rep. Harold Love Jr. (D-Nashville) will take over as president of the organization. Officials said this is the first time two Tennessee legislators will lead NBCSL simultaneously.
Along with other officers, Love and Akbari were chosen by other members to serve a two-year term from December 2024 through December 2026.
Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus press secretary Brandon Puttbrese explained that president-elect is a four year commitment with a title change after the first two years. Akbari will serve as Love’s “right hand” for the first half of her term before transitioning to president for the remainder.
“As President and President-Elect, Rep. Love and Sen. Akbari shape NBCSL’s agenda and advocacy efforts, ensuring that the voices of Black state legislators remain at the forefront of policy discussions nationwide,” a statement from Akbari’s office read.
Established in 1977, the NBCSL is comprised of more than 700 Black state legislators. LaKimba DeSadie, CEO of NBCSL said their goal is to make sure members are prepped to make deliberate decisions on public law.
“The organization champions legislative solutions to promote equity, improve access to opportunities, and empower underserved communities in critical areas such as education, economic development, healthcare and voting rights,” the statement added.
Officials said Akbari’s and Love’s appointments provide an opportunity for Tennessee to advance “equity and justice through public policy.” Akbari went on to say that the organization has been pivotal in promoting these values.
“I am deeply honored to serve as president-elect of this esteemed organization,” Akbari said. “I am committed to carrying forward its mission of transforming communities through legislative leadership.”
Love’s father, Harold Love, Sr. was a part of the organization during his time as an elected official, and was present during their first meeting in Nashville in 1977.
“NBCSL has a rich history of advancing policies that uplift our communities, and I am committed to building on that legacy alongside Sen. Akbari and our dedicated members,” Love said.
