Tag: Clayborn Temple

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Art Art Feature We Recommend We Recommend

Little Amal Comes to Memphis

Little Amal visits Folkestone, England. (Credit: The Walk Productions/Igor Emerich)

This Wednesday, Memphis is welcoming a very special 10-year-old Syrian refugee as she makes her way across the United States. Little Amal, as she is called, is a 12-foot-tall puppet, who has traveled over 6,000 miles to 15 countries since July 2021, searching for family and friends, as part of one of the world’s largest free public art engagements. And now, Amal is coming to Memphis for a parade around Downtown, stopping at the historic Clayborn Temple, the Orpheum Theatre, and Tom Lee Park, with Memphis youth joining along the way and carrying puppets made in their own image. 

The goal of Amal’s journey is to spark conversations about who we are and where we come from, says Anasa Troutman, executive director of Historic Clayborn Temple, who organized Amal’s stint in Memphis. And to make her stay even more poignant, Troutman adds, “We brought in Jeghetto, a United States-based puppeteer, who also makes oversized puppets, and he is making a second puppet, so there’ll be the Syrian girl and a large-scale puppet of a little Black girl.”

Memphis Girl stands at eight feet tall and will join Amal in the parade, which kicks off at Clayborn Temple, where attendees will learn about the history of Clayborn Temple and walk around the I Am A Man Plaza. “Then they’ll proceed together with a whole bunch of kids from all over Memphis,” Troutman says. After Clayborn Temple, the parade will proceed to the Orpheum Theatre, chosen for its connection to storytelling, and students from the Refugee Empowerment Program will welcome her with personal messages. 

Little Amal towers over the crowd in Manchester, England. (Credit: The Walk Productions)

For the final stop, the group will take the walking celebration to Tom Lee Park. “I would never have Amal come here and not take her to the river,” Troutman says. “The city is built on the river, the history of the city begins on that river. … Also because of all the work that’s been done there, it is the premier location of the city to be able to take people to experience that part of our culture and our infrastructure.”

At Tom Lee Park, Amal will receive a “Culture of Love” quilt as a parting gift. “Culture of Love,” Troutman says, has been the guiding theme for Amal’s stay in Memphis. In preparation for the big day, Clayborn Temple collaborated with a number of organizations — from BRIDGES USA, to Shelby County Schools, to Memphis Youth Arts Initiative — to facilitate workshops for kids to create the puppets that’ll be used in the parade. 

“Our goal was to be able to reach 1,000 children,” Troutman says. “Instead of trying to go and recruit all these young people to our organization, it felt really juicy and exciting to go to places where children already were because we want to support organizations that are already supporting young people, and we want to become part of their community and have them become part of our community. So the message of our local work has amounted to building a culture of love. This project has really brought us closer to the Memphis community and I love that.”

Little Amal takes part in the Luminato Festival in Toronto. (Credit: The Walk Productions/Taku Kumabe)

In addition to love shared among community members, Troutman hopes to instill self-love into the individual youths participating. “We talk all the time about the future,” she says. “The young people of this city deserve an opportunity to become the possibility of the future. The story of Amal is that refugee children bring possibilities, not problems. We’re saying the same thing. In a time when there’s a lot of conversation about crime, about poverty, these children in Memphis bring possibilities, not problems. If they’re engaged in the creative process, it allows them to open their minds and imagine what their future could be, what the future of the city could be.” 

She continues, “There’ll be 1,000 children from all over Memphis who are getting to make puppets in their own image to be able to say things like, ‘I am beautiful, I am worthy, I am the future, and I am going to show that by creating this puppet, that’s going to show everybody what who I am.’ That is a powerful exercise to be able to create something in your own image, to be able to then put it on display in such a public way is very empowering and very healing.” 

Walk with Amal begins at 4 p.m., and all — those young and young at heart — are welcome to join in at any of the three stops. You can support this project by donating here. 

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Music Record Reviews

Tony Manard’s Big Ole Band Captures A Big Small Town Called Memphis

“Getting by in Memphis…Getting high in Memphis…Getting fired in Memphis.” So end the first three verses of Tony Manard’s “Fool From Memphis.” On the way, he name checks Wild Bill’s, Joe’s Liquor Store, and Raiford’s, and remembers how “downtown smelled like Wonder Bread.” Then comes the chorus, like the recurring story of a neighborhood drunk: “I saw Jerry Lawler wrestle Junkyard Dog at the intermission of a monster truck show, Mid South Colieseum.”

It’s all narrated in such a casual, offhand way that you really will feel Memphis around you as you listen, and that captures one of the hallmarks of Thanks Y’all!, Manard’s newly self-released album: its fine-grained sense of place. The city is a recurring character through many of the songs here, all written by Manard, and he savors his lyrical images of the city like photos of an old friend. And it’s all set to an Americana-esque blend of folk, bluegrass and country rock with a mildly funky vibe.

The lineup gives one a sense of the overall sound:
Tony Manard – Guitar, Vocals
Cecil Yancy –  Guitar, Vocals
Alice Hasen – Fiddle, Vocals
Carlos Gonzalez – Mandolin, Vocals
Brian Mulhearn – Electric Guitar, Vocals
Jimmy Stephens jr, – Bass
Vinnie Manard – Keys
Stephen Chopek – Drums
Evan Farris – Dobro, Lap Steel, Vocals

Tony Manard

The arrangements sound remarkably uncluttered for such a big ol’ band, with some standout solos by Alice Hasen on fiddle and Carlos Gonzalez on mandolin.

It should be noted that Manard’s local cred goes beyond shouting out place names. The ongoing saga summed up by the punchline,”Man, the sun’s goin’ down and I feel pretty good/Made a pontoon boat from a Cadillac hood” is a perfect portrait of the D.I.Y. spirit that’s alive and well in this city. Manard relishes every detail of building the “Party Barge” in a song reminiscent of Johnny Cash’s “One Piece At a Time,” destined to accompany the sound of pneumatic tools in garages for years to come.

Finally, the sense of place is palpable in more ways than one on the album’s closer, “Ain’t No Freedom.” The music video was shot live at Clayborn Temple this February and released on April 8, the anniversary of a 40,000-strong march in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., just days after his assassination. And the tune, a call for a more just society, is entirely appropriate to his legacy. As Manard writes in the press materials:

This is a staple of our live shows, but I had no intention of recording it in the studio. We got the opportunity to record it live, and make a video at historic Clayborn Temple. This was the rally point of the 1968 sanitation worker’s strike and the place the iconic “I am a man” signs were made an distributed. Tony Barnshaw Dickerson, a fantastic writer, singer and choir leader, came to our rehearsal to work with us on the phrasing and added his beautiful voice. We also recruited our friends Annie Freres and Kathleen Quinlen to sing with us. We invited a bunch of our friends to join the chorus and be in the video. Everyone there felt the energy of the location. We couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. Walt Busby handled the live recording. Jared Callan shot and Christian Walker directed.

Check the video out below. Thanks Y’all! is available at local record shops and at Tony Manard shows, which may either be solo or feature the Big Ole Band.

Tony Manard’s Big Ole Band Captures A Big Small Town Called Memphis

Tony Manard appears at the Halloran Centre, Sunday, Sept. 15, at 4:00 pm.

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News News Blog

Clayborn Temple Named a ‘National Treasure’

Clayborn Temple

The city’s more than a century-old building on Hernando that played a pivotal role during the Civil Rights Movement is now entering into a new era.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Clayborn Temple as a National Treasure Wednesday and announced that the Trust will work with local partners like Clayborn Reborn to identify future uses for the building, “commemorate its unique history, and help ensure that it has a sustainable future.”

Together the National Trust and Clayborn Reborn will create ownership and financial structure for the building, develop and implement reuses that reflect its history, and build awareness of Clayborn’s role in the fight for economic and social justice.

Inside of Clayborn

Constructed in 1891 by Second Presbyterian Church, the little over half-an-acre Romanesque-style building was then the largest church in the country south of the Ohio River.


Then, 40 years later, it became the home of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and officially known as Clayborn Temple.


During the 1960s, it remained the home of the AME church, but was also a political social hub for civil rights activists. It was a safe haven for gatherings to plan efforts for fighting racial inequality in Memphis.

In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. led 15,000 sanitation workers in a march from Clayborn Temple to Memphis City Hall and when riots erupted, the marchers retreated to Clayborn.


“The labor and race issues that marchers at Clayborn Temple fought for persist today, from football fields to company boardrooms,” David Brown, executive vice president and chief preservation officer for the National Trust said. “Now more than ever, we are called to honor the stories of the many diverse people who sacrificed and achieved to make the world a better place for us all — and to tell the full American story in an inclusive way.”

Executive director of Clayborn Reborn, Rob Thompson said one of the major goals in restoring Clayborn has been to bring attention to the 1968 sanitation workers. He said this chapter in history has “too often been overlooked and largely forgotten.”

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Clayborn was also accepted into the National Fund for Sacred Places, which will provide planning grants and capital grants ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 over four years.

“Clayborn Temple represents not only Memphis and America’s complex past, but also the promise of turning historic sites back into vital community resources,” Brown said.

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Opinion Viewpoint

Downtown Rotary to Move to Clayborn Temple

Next month, the Rotary Club of Memphis, which was chartered in 1914 and has seen much local history, will embrace one of the most honored and venerable symbols of that history when it begins its regular weekly club meetings at the historic Clayborn Temple downtown.

Our move, which was approved this month by an overwhelming vote of our membership, is meant to align the activities and aspirations of our club, which in the century-plus span of its existence has lived by the motto “Service Above Self,” to the temple, which, in the same time frame as our own, has itself represented that ideal, and heroically so.

Clayborn Temple

In particular, our intent is to honor and commemorate the historical importance that Clayborn Temple played in the civil rights movement as our city approaches the 50th anniversary of the fateful sanitation workers strike here and the participation in it of the great martyr Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who gave his life in that struggle.

At 124 years old, Clayborn Temple is already listed as a local architectural treasure on the National Register of Historic Places. Earlier this year, the temple received additional national recognition from the National Park Service for its historical importance as the central meeting place for the sanitation workers during those strike days of February through April of 1968.

Located at the northeast corner of Hernando and Pontotoc, just south of the FedExForum, the temple began its life as the magnificent venue for the Second Presbyterian Church, which constructed the building in 1893.

As Rob Thompson of Clayborn Reborn, the nonprofit group working on the temple’s restoration, has observed, “When it first opened, it was the largest church building in America south of the Ohio River.”

And the building’s history has paralleled the history of the city. As the city limits of Memphis moved eastward in the 1930s and 1940s, so did the church’s congregation. When, in 1949, Second Presbyterian decided to move to its present location in East Memphis, it sold the building in 1949 to the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. (The new congregation then renamed the building after its bishop at the time, the Rev. Jim Clayborn.)

During the 1960s, Clayborn Temple not only continued as a house of worship for its congregation but entered history as a showcase for the gospel in action. It began to serve as an important central meeting place for the civil rights movement. It became the headquarters for the striking sanitation workers and their supporters and a starting point for the strikers to assemble before their solidarity marches.

Dr. King visited the temple on multiple occasions during the strike, and it was at Clayborn that the famous “I Am a Man” signs were first distributed. As Thompson notes, “Its successful contribution to the legacy of Dr. King and to the Civil Rights movement has firmly established Clayborn Temple among Memphis’ three most important civil rights locations, along with the Lorraine Motel and the Mason Temple.”

Despite its celebrated history, Clayborn Temple sat vacant, in dire need of repairs, after its congregation moved away and closed its doors almost 25 years ago. Endeavoring to save the building for posterity as a symbol of economic justice and civil rights, Frank, Smith, the owner of Wiseacre Brewery, joined with Thompson to form the aforementioned nonprofit, Clayborn Reborn, to see to the building’s restoration.

Rotary’s move into the structure as a regular venue for our meetings is meant to assist as an active part of that restoration. This move is bigger than the citizens and community activists who make up Rotary. When we joined the club, we made a commitment to networking and community service, and this connection to Clayborn Temple gives us the opportunity to be a part of something majestic, and hopefully to help make an impact on our city and the nation.

The 50th anniversary of the events of 1968 will be a hallmark time, and the Rotary Club has chosen to be at the right place to play our part in the commemoration of the past and the unity of the present.

Arthur Oliver is president of the Rotary Club of Memphis, which is part of Rotary International, the world’s largest humanitarian service organization.

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News News Blog

Team Chosen to Create ‘I Am A Man’ Plaza

A California sculptor and a Memphis landscape architect will create the “I Am A Man Plaza” here to help commemorate 50th anniversary of the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Officials with the city and the UrbanArt Commission (UAC) announced Monday that John Jackson of JPA, Inc., of Memphis, and Cliff Garten of Cliff Garten Studio, of California, will collaborate with Memphis spoken word artist Steve Fox to create the plaza.

The plaza is set to be built adjacent to Downtown’s Clayborn Temple. It will cost more than $1.5 million and is expected to be completed by April 2018.

The creative team was chosen by a selection committee comprised of community stakeholders, representatives from architecture and design firms, and artists. Dr. Earnestine Jenkins, an art history professor at the University of Memphis, was one member of the selection committee.

“The Cliff Garten Studio project is an inspired artwork of imagination and wisdom,” Jenkins said in a statement. “It best exemplified the import of the Sanitation Workers Strike in civil rights history, and the significance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ultimate sacrifice that occurred in our city almost half a century ago.”

Committee members reviewed 78 applications and invited six teams to submit site-specific proposals.

Applicants were asked to design “a space to inspire the next generation of leaders, innovators and advocates of positive social change. The installation also needed to provide a peaceful interactive and educational Memphis experience that promotes equity and justice, making residents and tourists want to revisit the plaza,” according a statement from the city.

Garten’s winning proposal now includes a central sculpture of 15-foot-tall stainless steel letters forming the phrase “I Am A Man.” Quotes and speeches from civil rights leaders will be included in components around the sculpture.  

The team will also lead from community workshops for citizens cross the city to share the design and to review the text to be feature in the plaza.

Those workshops will be:

Saturday, August 19 from 1:00 – 3:00 pm
New Chicago Community Development Corp.
1036 Firestone Avenue, Memphis, TN 38107

Thursday, August 24 from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Orange Mound Community Center
2572 Park Avenue, Memphis, TN 38114

Tuesday, August 29 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm
Clayborn Temple
294 Hernando Street, Memphis, TN 38126

Thursday, September 7 from 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Whitehaven Community Center
4318 Graceland Drive, Memphis, TN 38116

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

On Location: Memphis Brings 15 Films to Clayborn Temple

In this month’s Memphis Magazine, I wrote about the rebirth of the Clayborn Temple. As part of the program to breathe new life into the Downtown landmark, the On Location: Memphis Film Festival is sponsoring a 15 week film series.

Sebastian Banks of Black Rock Revival in Verge

The series kicked off last Thursday with the acclaimed Fruitvale Station, and most of the works screening in the storied sanctuary share some element of social awareness in their theme. This week’s offering is Verge, a music documentary by Lakethon Mason that made its debut at last year’s Indie Memphis Film Festival. Verge tells the story of several independent Memphis musicians struggling to get ahead in the modern music industry, including Black Rock Revival, Faith Evans Ruch, Nick Black, and Marco Pave.

VERGE:MEMPHIS trailer from oddly buoyant productions on Vimeo.

On Location: Memphis Brings 15 Films to Clayborn Temple

The screening is free to the public, and kicks off at 6:00 PM at Clayborn Temple, 294 Hernando Street.

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Music Music Features

PRIZM

CREDIT: Louis Tucker

It’s fitting that the current PRIZM International Chamber Music Festival is not taking place during Black History Month. “That always upsets me because I’m black all year,” says PRIZM Ensemble founder and teacher Lecolion Washington. “Why aren’t we playing William Grant Still, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, or Florence Price all the time? We get the black people in February and women in March. But in most of our programs, we feature people of color or by women.”

Washington and PRIZM are eager for more young people of color to embrace the classical tradition and for the classical tradition to embrace them. “What we really want to do is have young people in the audience see that there are wonderful black women who are, say, concert violinists. So, if you are a young black girl who plays violin, you may not believe that is something you can become. And so we say, ‘Yes, you can become that! Because here is one, and she did it and she did it and she did it, and this fourth one over here, she did it, so why not you?'”

To this end, PRIZM brings artists from all over the world to Memphis, combining a concert series with a summer music camp and using an ensemble that “looks like Memphis.” Washington, a bassoonist and instructor himself, notes that this helps connect the city with a nationwide movement. “There are so few African-American classical musicians in the country that most of us know each other. There are certain programs that happen every year or every other year — there’s one in Detroit called the Sphinx Symphony; there’s a program in Rochester called the Gateways Music Festival. A lot of us know each other from all these other programs. So, essentially, what we’re doing is putting Memphis on the circuit.”

This means bringing in professionals from as nearby as the Nashville Symphony or as far as the Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra. During the camp, visiting faculty teach high school and early college students from the Memphis area, then rehearse and perform with them. It culminates in a series of shows this weekend, including concerts showcasing the camp students on Friday and Saturday at First Baptist on Broad. The culmination of the festival will be on Father’s Day, also at First Baptist, and June 19th (“Juneteenth”) at the historic Clayborn Temple, when the all-star faculty will perform as the PRIZM Chamber Orchestra. The latter two shows will feature pieces by Mozart, local composer Jerald Walker (a PRIZM summer camp alum), and a powerful new work for orchestra and men’s chorus by Joel Thompson, titled “Seven Last Words of the Unarmed.”

This last piece, a graceful, gut-wrenching eulogy, has movements bearing the names of Trayvon Martin, Amadou Diallo, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, and others. The motifs are built around their final words: “Why do you have your guns out?” “Mom, I’m going to college.” “I can’t breathe.” For the Juneteenth performance, Clayborn Temple will display Ernest Withers’ photographs of the 1968 Sanitation Workers’ Strike, among other subjects. Both nights will close with “Glory” (Common and John Legend’s Oscar-winning song for the film Selma), emphasizing, Washington says, “the hope, dreams, and resilience rooted in what it means to be American.” Justin Merrick will be featured as the vocal soloist.

Ultimately, Washington is hopeful about the progress PRIZM is making. “Memphis has a lot of really great people in it who understand that inequities exist and are looking for ways to help,” he says. “All that PRIZM does is give them a place where they can plug in.”

PRIZM student ensembles will perform on June 16th and 17th at First Baptist Church on Broad Avenue. The PRIZM Chamber Orchestra will perform there on June 18th, and at Clayborn Temple on June 19th.