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We Recommend We Recommend

LITE Pitch Night at Rhodes

Have you ever wondered what it might be like if reality TV was authentic, or at least a little bit inspirational? Pitch Night, a twice-yearly event hosted by LITE Memphis, provides Memphis-area high school students with an opportunity to sell their ideas to potential investors. It’s a little like Shark Tank, only nobody gets eaten and the competitors are all young Memphians with big ideas.

This year’s Pitch Night presenters include Jordan Isaiah, who identifies himself as a product of special education and an ambassador for the special education community. He wants to redevelop academics to suit individual needs for “people who dream and process differently than others.” His business is called R.A.I.N.

Danielle Butler was inspired by her volunteer work at the Germantown Animal Shelter. Her Pampered Pets business is a partnership that makes leashes, collars, food, treats, and hygiene products available to new pet adopters. “Many families looking to adopt a pet don’t always have what they need for pet care,” she explains.

Isaiah and Butler are just two of 35 students who’ll present their business plans at LITE’s Pitch Night. Ideas up for grabs range from a custom PC business to a personal pastry chef who wants to recreate your family’s favorite recipes.

“We’ll have students with ideas from basically every industry,” says LITE outreach coordinator Alexandra Thomson. “Anyone in Memphis can find a connection,” she says.

LITE stands for Let’s Innovate Through Education. The Flyer profiled the incubator in an April cover story about the racial wealth gap in Memphis. Determined to play a role in narrowing that gap, LITE identifies and addresses historic obstacles to inclusive urban growth.

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News News Feature

Shop Local Downtown

This holiday season, we’re encouraging our readers to support local businesses by shopping right here at home. Consider these Memphis-area establishments for your gift-giving needs.

South Main Book Juggler

Please the bookworm on your gift list with something from the Book Juggler. The shop offers new and used books and a selection of books authored by local and regional writers, in addition to locally sourced gift items and art. On the shelves, you’ll find My Memphis View ($40), a collection of photography by mixed-media artist Mary-Ellen Kelly. Visit South Main Book Juggler at 548 S. Main or southmainbookjuggler.com.

B. collective

Featuring creations from more than 25 local artists, B. collective has something for everyone on your gift list. From woodworking and paintings to jewelry and clothing, support local makers with your holiday purchases. We’re fans of this Memphis skyline sweatshirt ($45; artist Johanna Wayland-Smith pictured). Original skyline artwork is also available. Visit B. collective at bcollectiveshop.com or 147 S. Main.

Walking Pants Curiosities

This downtown shop offers a variety of oddities and unique items, many crafted by local artisans. Inside, you’ll find books, decor, handmade bird houses, and more. With this bracelet ($22), made with copper and glass beads and hand-stamped by local artist Tracy Creech of Touch by Tracy, your giftee can sport their Memphis love in style. Available at walkingpants.co or 109 G.E. Patterson.

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Opinion Viewpoint

Trump l’oeil: Seeking Asylum Isn’t a Crime

President Trump’s frustrations with immigration and his inability to build (or even finance) a wall at our southern border has led to the unimaginable: the United States military at the border firing teargas at asylum seekers — most of whom are women and children. It was disconcerting to watch from the comfort of our Thanksgiving holiday as the gas drifted toward Tijuana into the eyes of the innocent.

But it did happen. It’s almost all illegal. And it’s a crisis created entirely by President Trump.

The United States, since the conclusion of the Second World War, has led the Western world in offering protection to asylum seekers. The horrors of the European holocaust forced America to listen more carefully to the pleas of those running (literally) for their lives. Current asylum law, encoded in international treaty and national law, mandates the United States government to consider asylum pleas from people who fear for their lives in foreign lands.

The president and his team of nationalists/nativists have declared, in certain violation of international and federal law, that asylum seekers from Central America shall not set foot on U.S. soil, which makes it impossible for people to file a petition. An asylum petition can only be made upon arrival in the United States.

To deter people from filing, Trump has sent active duty military troops (deployed on U.S. soil) as a sort of shield. But even before deploying troops, the Trump administration had been laying the groundwork for this inhumane spectacle by stalling the procedure and refusing to process families seeking asylum along the border.

The president, of course, would be fully authorized to send the military to defend against an invading foreign army or other bellicose actors, but no one believes that a few thousand unarmed, poor Central Americans represent any sort of threat to this nation’s sovereignty or democracy.

There is a long history of hostilities and disproportionate responses at the border: In 1916, Pancho Villa raided the town of Columbus, New Mexico, and some innocent bystanders were killed. The U.S. responded by spending $130 million to send a cavalry force (under the command of General John Pershing) that could never capture the wily Mexican revolutionary. Seventy years prior, the U.S. government annexed half of our neighbor’s territory in a war declared after the Mexican government refused to give up their territory voluntarily.

President Trump is the only serious threat to our democracy, not poor and desperate immigrants from Central America. The Trump administration (and all administrations) are prohibited by the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act from using the army for policing activities within United States territory. Soon, we believe, the courts will hear challenges to the president’s use of the military and judges will certainly question how long-standing, settled asylum laws and traditions can be tossed aside based on the whims of a capricious president, a rogue government.

We can drown in this sea of lawlessness, or we can fight back. We don’t recommend responding with violence, but these times require action and we draw inspiration from the civil disobedience developed in 19th-century New England. Henry David Thoreau famously went to jail for refusing to pay the taxes that he knew would be used to finance the 1846 war against Mexico (mentioned above); Thoreau — rightfully — declared that war immoral and illegal.

Good people in Memphis, right now, are fighting against the madness; they’re still paying their taxes but have adopted the role of the good Samaritan by helping people (mostly women and children) who have faced illegal family separation and dubious detentions here in America. This group known as “Migration Is Beautiful” (a.k.a. The Mariposa Collective) consists of about 25 people here — most of whom speak Spanish. They organize, and meet the five buses that arrive to Memphis each day carrying people recently released from detention. Released to relatives across the country, the U.S. government forces these travelers to wear ankle monitors, and most have no possessions, no money, and no food.

Greeting these weary families with sandwiches, medicine, and toys for the children, the best of Memphis meets those who have seen and suffered the worst of the federal government. These Memphians are the people who define and sustain our democracy; these are the people who, again and again, make America great.

Bryce Ashby is a Memphis-based attorney and the Board Chair of Latino Memphis. Michael LaRosa teaches history at Rhodes College.

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Music Music Features

Acoustic Sunday Live presents Dave Bromberg and Others

CREDIT: Joe del Tufo

Nestled between Memphis’ many music festivals, Acoustic Sunday Live doesn’t always get much attention. But don’t let that lull you into indifference. For a quarter century, this labor of love has been bringing some serious talent to town, always to the benefit of local causes.

Bruce Newman, the founder and chief organizer of the series, describes its origins: “We started out about 24 years ago with a Woody Guthrie tribute. I had Richie Havens, Odetta, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Tom Paxton. And then, over the years, we’ve had Guy Clark, Gretchen Peters; last year, we did Kathy McCay and Tom Paxton again. Jonathan Edwards one year. Just acoustic artists.”

Joe del Tufo

Dave Bromberg

Each show in the series is a benefit for a different local institution. “It’s always for a cause,” Newman notes. “Like last year’s show at the Halloran Centre was for Indie Memphis.”

The artists tend to be of the ilk featured on Newman’s weekly radio show on WEVL, Folk Song Fiesta. And this year is no different, with this Sunday’s concert featuring Dave Bromberg, Tom Chapin, Shemekia Copeland, Bobby Rush, and John Kilzer. The beneficiary will be Protect Our Aquifer, a nonprofit “dedicated to protecting and conserving the Memphis Sand Aquifer,” the source of Memphis’ drinking water.

Newman notes that this year’s beneficiary is more “political” than most. “Even though,” he adds, “I don’t even see why it should be a political issue. It’s our water, right? This is an asset that just has to be protected. Doesn’t matter what side you’re on.”

One of Sunday’s star performers is Dave Bromberg, who’s no stranger to combining politics and music, being one of the most distinct voices to emerge from the New York folk scene of the 1960s. Still, that association doesn’t quite sit right with Bromberg. “I don’t know that I was ever really a folkie, past 1960, but I’ve always been accused of that,” he says. “The term is very limiting, because there are many radio stations who have decided that’s who I am.”

Ironically, Bromberg’s love of all things musical played a role in his leaving show business for an extended time. After writing and performing with the likes of George Harrison and Bob Dylan, among others, he notes, “I got really burnt out from performing too much. And at the point where I was really doing the most, and playing for the largest audiences, and getting the most radio play, I completely stopped playing for 22 years. All I knew was, when I wasn’t on the road, I wasn’t practicing, I wasn’t jamming, and I wasn’t writing. I questioned that and decided I didn’t wanna be one of these guys who drags himself onto the stage, doing a bitter imitation of what he used to love.” He changed course into work that he does to this day. “I decided I had to find another way to lead my life. What I wanted to learn was how to identify different violins. It’s like art appraisal. You have to recognize not only the brush strokes but the chisel strokes to really get an idea of what’s what.”

In recent years, Bromberg has eased back into recording and performing. Two years ago he released The Blues, the Whole Blues, and Nothing But the Blues, which, with its full-band, Chicago-style jams, should break the “folkie” tag once and for all. Yet he remains a master of solo performance and plans to play acoustic versions of many of the album’s tracks Sunday night. And as for the politics of our aquifer, Bromberg’s only too happy to support the cause. “The water thing is only now beginning to be important,” he notes. “It’s gonna get a lot more important. We’re almost over oil. But water, I don’t know if there’s a way past water.”

The Concert to Protect Our Aquifer, Sunday, December 9th, 7–10 p.m.,
St. John’s United Methodist Church, 1207 Peabody Ave.; Tickets, $50-$100.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Merf’s Up: A Cabernet for the Holidays

For reasons never fully explained to me, my in-laws kick off the holidays by having Thanksgiving on the Sunday before the rest of the country. I assume this is because the engaging Mrs. M’s grandfather was English and never took the whole Pilgrim thing very seriously. So I served crawfish étoufée, because nothing says “America” like some French/Spanish colonial fusion dish served to the English.
It got me thinking about the avalanche of facing several Christmas parties, actually Christmas, a non-denominational mid-winter shindig or two, and that perennial amateur night for bad drunks, New Year’s Eve.

Which is exactly why your holiday wine list is different — the hootenanny is coming, and you’ll want to brace yourself. Since last January you’ve been on and off diets and cleanses, avoided starches, red meats, sugars, and everything else that makes life bearable. Your wines — even the reds — have likely been light, drinkable little numbers that would never think of getting into a brawl with a three-bean salad. Now the holidays are here and it’s no jaunt, but a grueling slog of bon homme and good damn cheer.

I was contemplating this and other terrifying ordeals while wandering that intriguing maze that is Gaslight Liquor Shoppe on Summer Avenue, when I happened upon a liquor rep named Jacques having a tasting of some new-to-the-market reds: specifically a cabernet sauvignon called Merf. The wine is the brain-child of a restless man named David “Merf” Merfeld — a former Iowa farmer, brewer, and now, evidently, vintner in Washington State. I just liked the name, for obvious reasons. At $10.99, I liked the price, too.

Now, this is a nice, workable holiday wine — a fruit-forward cabernet that’s big on plum and dark cherry. I tend to favor the earthy cabernets; this was jammy. Despite the fruit, Merf managed to stay somewhat dry with little hints of vanilla and toffee. Even if the big, fruit-forward thing isn’t entirely your bag, remember what you are up against, food wise, for the next month. Your system is in for a shock, and you’ll need to stay in the proper humor of the thing if you want to be invited back. This is a bottle that will stand up to barbecue, ham, liver pâte, dips, swell stinky cheeses, or anything a sane person is likely to throw on the Big Green Egg. For dessert, refill your glass and dive into enough rich dark chocolate to fill a mop bucket.

Granted, Merf Cabernet just may overpower and brutalize your kale salad with vinaigrette, but if we’re going to be honest with ourselves, that is pretty much a non-issue until sometime in mid-first quarter of 2019, at the earliest.

Which makes me glad that I broke down and tried some, because I have something of a low-key dislike for people trying to sell me anything. That, and I can’t shake the feeling that Washington State is a second rate place to make wine — I keep thinking of rain and those sparkling vampires my daughter used to be into. Of course, I feel wrong: The difference between the southeast corner of Washington and Northern California is just a squiggle on the map, and it is becoming one of the major wine-producing regions of the country. So they showed me.

Being a successful liquor rep, Jacques ignored my concerns about Washington State wine and started talking about holiday food. He mentioned that his mother (presumably the same nice lady that named him Jacques) was serving up her special étoufée. I admitted that I’d just terrorized my in-laws with my less-special version of the same. Then a bond was formed, some tiny fraternity of people who stew shellfish for the holidays as opposed to pretending to honor those constipated political refugees up in Plymouth.

Holidays or not, this is exactly why I hate when people try to sell me stuff.

Categories
Book Features Books

Jonathan Lethem’s The Feral Detective.

Jonathan Lethem is one of our most versatile writers. From his early sci-fi novels to his National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Motherless Brooklyn and his The Fortress of Solitude, his restless imagination has never settled; he’s not written the same book twice.

This new novel, The Feral Detective, belongs to what you might call the smart-ass noir subgenre, novels that use the tropes of the detective story with heartfelt respect, leavened by a wink to the audience. Other writers who have done this include Thomas Pynchon, Thomas Berger, and William Kotzwinkle. Lethem can make with the hardboiled patter: “That coffee was a wiper blade, cutting a window for my brain to peer through.”

The first-person narrative comes via Phoebe Siegler, who seeks out the titular detective, Charles Heist, to help her find a friend’s daughter, Arabella, who has disappeared, either kidnapped or a runaway. It’s as if Brigid O’Shaughnessy is telling the tale of The Maltese Falcon and Sam Spade is a secondary character. It’s an interesting set-up, made believable by Lethem’s ability to take on a female character’s voice. Plus, this story takes place just after Trump has won the election, and that colors everything that happens, casting an irreal, dark penumbra over events already bleak and daunting. Phoebe fantasizes about her adventure and then says, “That such thinking was fucking insane didn’t make it less consoling. We lived in a fucking insane world. Such thinking might be the right gear for my expedition through it.”

Charles Heist, Private Investigator, never really solidifies for the reader, partly because Phoebe can’t get a handle on him, and it’s her story. He seems like the Marlboro Man who’s read Nietzsche and Reich and Camus, an unlikely hero for an incongruous time. We’re not given much of him because he speaks little. Sometimes he seems like only a reflection of our narrator’s romantic leanings, or the hero she believes she needs when she really only needs herself.

Phoebe thinks that Arabella may have gone in pursuit of Leonard Cohen’s ghost, so the search for the missing girl begins with a trip up Mount Baldy, where Cohen studied Buddhism under his spiritual guide Roshi. Eventually, their exploration takes them into the Mojave Desert and into a survivalist cult that is in the midst of a civil war between Bears (mostly men) and Rabbits (mostly women). Partly, Phoebe takes up this idealistic expedition out of despair and depression engendered by the squatter in the White House. Out of the nation’s miasma she is trying to find something that makes sense, and rescuing a friend’s daughter from bad guys seems to have sincere meaning for her.

Phoebe falls hard for the laconic Heist, and she loses sight of the prize as she begins an affair with the detective. This complicates their dangerous, desert sojourn, and the original case becomes something else, something more personal and, hence, thornier. “I felt closer than ever to Heist,” she says. “We had different styles. I made myself candid in fickle bursts, he reciprocated with marathon ruminations or silence. He’d led me into his desert.” Here, Heist becomes even more of a wavering mirage, flickering into view because of Phoebe’s reheated passion.

For a while, their target is the leader of the Bears, a mountain of a man, who goes by the moniker of Solitary Love. (“Crazy-ass Love’ll never be brought down alive, and to kill him outright might require a bazooka.”) But this is a quest with numerous hairpin turns. What is sought keeps changing as the story mutates and zigzags.

The denouement of this rollicking, sometimes absurd tale is a wild ride through perilous territory. It’s like The Rockford Files crossed with a Pynchonian search for something numinous. It’s also occasionally very funny. Lethem keeps the Mad Max action in the forefront and the philosophy as backwash. We care what happens because Phoebe is believable, appealing, and endearing. Ultimately, Lethem proves that the phrase “literary page-turner” is not an oxymoron.

Categories
News News Blog

Treadaway Withdraws Bid for District 1 Council Seat

Lonnie Treadaway, Rhonda Logan

Lonnie Treadaway withdrew his bid for the vacant Memphis City Council District 1 seat Wednesday at the council’s first daily standing meeting, called as an attempt to reach a quorum.

This comes a day after four council members supporting candidate Rhonda Logan staged a walkout during Tuesday’s meeting. That meeting was a continuation of the council’s November 20th meeting that ended in a deadlock after nine hours of voting.

The council’s Wednesday meeting was the first of an indefinite number of standing meetings scheduled until there is a quorum, or at least seven of the 10 members. Council members Kemp Conrad, Ford Canale, Worth Morgan, Frank Colvett, and Chairman Berlin Boyd were in attendance, while the four who walked out Tuesday — Patrice Robinson, Martavious Jones, Jamita Swearengen, and Joe Brown — didn’t show.

Council Attorney Allen Wade read a statement on behalf of absent council member Reid Hedgepeth, who withdrew his support for Treadaway. Wade followed by announcing that Treadaway would be withdrawing as he doesn’t feel the council would reach a consensus between Logan and himself.

“There was a deadlock and neither one of us was going to get the seven votes,” Treadaway said. “The city couldn’t move forward, so I thought it would be best to withdraw my name. Hopefully, they can come up with a candidate that can lead the city forward. I got in this to help the city, so far be it from me to hold the city back.”

Wade advised the council that Conrad should withdraw the motion opening the floor back up to all six candidates, which prompted the walkout Tuesday, saying that it will “clear the air” and “put the burden on the others.” This would give the supporters of Treadaway a chance to change their minds and potentially vote for Logan. Conrad agreed.

“I’m a pragmatic kind of person,” Conrad said. “It was obvious there wasn’t going to be a consensus. It seemed like a reasonable thing to do. None of it is personal to me.”

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Canale said he was “disappointed” in the meeting’s turnout Wednesday.

“We’re here to do the city’s business,” Canale said. “I’m disappointed and I’m a little sad. We have a lot of stuff on our agenda from yesterday we haven’t even heard.”

The council began voting on a District 1 appointee in November, narrowing it down to the two top vote-getters: Logan, executive director of the Raleigh Community Development Corp., and Treadaway, sales manager for Flinn Broadcasting Corp.

After the walkout and almost an hour of delay, the council discussed requesting attorneys for the city and Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) to file action in Chancery Court compelling the four members to attend the meeting so that business could continue. However, Wade said that’s not in the council’s purview, but that the respective attorneys could independently decide to take legal action.

“We’re trying to reach a compromise,” Wade said. “Nobody’s trying to make anybody be dragged to jail. I prefer they come back and we have a robust conversation.”

Now, the council will return to the vote for the District 1 seat at its December 18th meeting, in which it is also scheduled to fill the vacant Super District 8-2 and District 6 seats left vacant by Janis Fullilove and Edmund Ford Jr. in November.

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News News Blog

Novel Begins Book Delivery

CREDIT: Novel

Novel

Santa isn’t the only one in the delivery business. Novel will begin delivering books with same-day delivery beginning December 5th.

“Christy Yarbro, one of the managing partners, came up with the idea,” says John Vergos, who, along with Matt Crowe, also is a managing partner. “And instead of buying our own van and trying it on a trial basis, we’re partnering with Blue Sky couriers of Memphis.

“If somebody wants, say, four copies of Michelle Obama’s book wrapped and delivered to their house, they’ll call us and the charge will be $7. Our area will extend from the Medical Center to Germantown.

‘“We’re trying this through January 15th to see if it works. Then we’ll sit down and re-evaluate.”


They’ve talked about doing this for some time, Vergos says. “We wrapped up our first year at the end of August. So, it’s something we finally decided, ‘Let’s do it.’ Especially with Blue Sky here, we can do it without a major investment and see how it goes.”

For more information, 901-922-5526.

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Theater Theater Feature

Once & Future: Tennessee Shakespeare Returns to the Forest of Arden

Joey Miller.

“All the world’s  a stage…” — As You Like It

“Also I know what thou arte, and who was thy fadir, and of whom thou were begotyn.” — Le Morte D’Arthur 

I swear, this review is all about Shakespeare and sheep, but it may take me a minute to get there.

See, last night one of my teenage twins randomly started talking about King Arthur. It was a fun, speculative monologue about how different, sometimes contradictory pieces of the legend appear at different points in British history, and how all these shifts in emphasis are difficult reconcile into a cohesive story.

“Maybe this is what’s really meant by Arthur living in a kind of suspended animation on the Isle of Avalon,” I suggested, when it was my turn to talk again. “Maybe we resurrect him — and change the story — whenever ‘England’ is questioning or needing to affirm certain core values.”

I share this super nerdy anecdote about my family’s weird dinner conversations, because the stories we tell over and over again always serve this rhetorical need, whether they’re fact or fantasy. We’re always refining our past and measuring new values against convention and, for better or worse, nothing’s more persuasive than old blades that cut true. Except for an old, rusty blade wielded by a wild-eyed nut who thinks it’s Excalibur. Either way, the metaphor holds up well enough when applied to Shakespeare’s pliable, popular, gender-wise comedy, As You Like It. 

As You Like It almost always lives up to its name. Memphians have often followed the misadventures of Rosalind, Orlando, and the exiled Duke, as well as various clowns, poets, farmers and professional wrestlers as they’ve journeyed from urban to rural environments looking for sanctuary or satisfaction only to discover love in its infinite variety. In recent decades we’ve been treated to a folksy version of the story set in the Old West and accompanied by melancholy string bands. We’ve seen it in a few surreal dreamscapes with accordions and jug bands. We’ve even seen it outdoors in suburban Shelby County.

Tennessee Shakespeare Company’s (TSC) revival is a charming affair with period music and costumes, and a lively atmosphere designed to conjure a romantic Elizabethan spirit. What it might lack in a unique point of view, it makes up in in clarity and accomplishment.

Tennessee Shakespeare is still settling into its new Trinity-Road home — a custom-built hall of glass and steel that wasn’t custom built for them. It previously housed Ballet Memphis before the dance company packed up camp and moved to Overton Square. The building was, as TSC’s founder Dan McCleary noted in a teary curtain speech, designed for bodies, not for the voice. But that’s all one. TSC is completely at home and comfortable in its identity as a classically oriented company doing the classics classically. The converted dance studio, a modest and intimate echo of Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, provides this long peripatetic group, with a sense of stability and ownership it’s only occasionally found performing in borrowed spaces.

As You Like It doesn’t need a unique point of view to say its piece about attraction, gender identity/politics, other kinds of politics, religion, pedantry, or the urban/rural divide. It does those things on its own, if you let it. A bit of non-traditional casting only reenforces what’s already there without calling too much attention to itself. 

For all of its wise fooling, and keen commentary on urban affairs, it’s often noted that As You Like It is also the closest Shakespeare ever came to writing a musical. The structure is all star-crossed love stories, melodrama, comedy routines, sports entertainment, and song.  Tennessee Shakespeare’s never hesitated to stop any of its shows with an ancient melody or jig, and if the inescapable sounds of Christmas haven’t already worn you out on “Greensleeves,” the song and dance aspect’s covered well enough. 

Sara Malinowski and Nicolas Durreaux Picou lead the tight and versatile ensemble and make a fine couple both as Orlando and Rosalind and Orlando and Ganymede. They are strongly supported by Stuart Heyman, Merit Koch, Marlon Finnie, Claire Hayner, Caley Milliken, Gabriel Vaughn, and a large ensemble of seasoned Shakespeareans.  Joey Miller.

Of all the great clowns, Touchstone’s probably my favorite. He shifts fluidly between so many classic comic types — the lawyer, the minister, the lover, the pedant, the poet, the brawler, and he’s an ever attentive servant to none but his own appetites. Paul Kiernan’s improvisations are forced, sometimes, but he’s keen to the funnyman’s word games and quick with a bit of classic fooling, and even a bit of sleight of hand. Touchstone’s misguided love affair with Audrey, the shepherdess, is an especially fun lampoon of the central story that speaks many silly, sad truths about affairs of the heart and affairs of the pants. 

I haven’t forgotten the promise of sheep. Though, it seldom appears in any serious commentary about the text, subtext, metatext etc., there can be little doubt that an As You Like It without sheep jokes isn’t an As You Like It worth sitting through. Whether one chooses to go blue and bawdy or green and wholesome, the opportunities presented by a pastoral (read “poop-mined”) environment are too good to pass up, though a surprising number of productions do just that. TSC’s given us a free-range affair where the wooly critters sometimes populate the entire stage, bleating, chewing their cud, and staring down the audience as only sheep can — Delivering an entire monologue’s worth of editorial content with a well placed “baa.” It’s the most lighthearted piece in a tightly wound show made of air and imagination.

Tennessee Shakespeare’s newest As You Like It may not be one for the ages. Though set in the present on a makeshift stage full of actors wearing antique and anachronistic fashion, it’s certainly not one for the moment. But it is both literally and figuratively one for all seasons, and for each of the seven ages of man — suitable for all weather and ACA compliant to boot. What’s not to like?

As You Liked It — Some past productions of Shakespeare’s comedy show just how flexible it can be. Theatre Memphis, Tennessee Shakespeare’s first production, Rhodes College, and Rhodes College.

Categories
News News Blog

Leaders Unveil a New Manassas, Safe for Bikes and Pedestrians

CREDIT: Memphis Medical District Collaborative

MMDC Streetscape from Allworld Media Group on Vimeo.

Leaders Unveil a New Manassas, Safe for Bikes and Pedestrians

Drive there today, and you’ll find a whole new Manassas.

The Medical-District street between Martin Luther King Jr. and Poplar has been completely changed after it was re-paved by the city in April. The re-imagining and renovation of the street is thanks to the city of Memphis and the Memphis Medical District Collaborative (MMDC).

The new street improvements were formally unveiled in a ceremony Wednesday morning.

The re-paving project shrank the former five-lane street to three “to better accommodate traffic flow from Poplar to MLK Avenues and added dedicated bike lanes to connect existing and future bicycle routes in the city.”

Memphis Medical District Collaborative

MMDC said the streetscape improvements to Manassas brought:
• Pedestrian bump-outs and crosswalks to provide additional visual cues to drivers to reduce speeds and watch for pedestrians and reduces crossing time and distance for pedestrians

• Concrete traffic domes further calm traffic and protect pedestrians

• Bike lane protections including wheel stops and posts to keep cyclists safe

• 70 self-watering planters to buffer traffic and beautify the landscape

• Trash and recycling cans

• High-visibility crosswalks

• Artistic crosswalk designed by Cat Peña in partnership with Anthony Lee and Kaleob Elkins

“Our priority was to create a safer street for all users – pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles — and we’re very proud of the results,” Susannah Barton, MMDC’s quality public spaces manager, said in a statement. “We hope that Manassas will serve as an example for street re-design projects throughout our city and help put Memphis on the map of cities making huge strides in creating great, safe streets.”

Nicholas Oyler, the city’s Bikeway and Pedestrian Program Manager, said Manassas “now boasts some of the most attractive and safest facilities for walking and bicycling of any street in Memphis.”

“What’s more, come spring the bike lanes on Manassas will connect with new bike lanes scheduled for installation on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, establishing a seamless connection by bike between Downtown, the Medical District, and Midtown.”