Diversity – Memphis Flyer

There I was, minding my own business, when Richard Cushing, co-founder of funk/soul/jam stalwarts FreeWorld, reached out to me excitedly. Something about his tone suggested this wasn’t just your typical heads up about a show or a record release. No, this was something big. Then I followed the link he sent, and I was amazed. Out of nowhere, seemingly, his band just dropped a new track and video that wasn’t just his band. It included talent from nearly every walk of the city’s musical life. This was a slice of history.

There, trading verses, were some of the city’s finest singers, from Joyce Cobb to Al Kapone, from Wendy Moten to Hope Clayburn to Earl “The Pearl” Banks, from Larry Springfield to Harold Thomas and Robert Wrightsil of the Masqueraders. And, beyond FreeWorld, the band included the likes of Luther Dickinson, Alice Hasen, and Blind Mississippi Morris. All of them were lifting their voices and their instruments to celebrate the same thing: diversity.

How did such a thing come about, in a pandemic, no less? I rang Richard and this is what he told me.

Memphis Flyer: How on Earth did you make such a huge project happen in the middle of quarantine?

Richard Cushing: It was pretty much a logistical nightmare. But it was all for the right purpose and everybody pitched in. Everybody contributed. No one asked for anything back. They were just like, “Oh yeah, count me in.” It took some doing, and I couldn’t have everybody singing together in a big room, which was part of the original vision, because of COVID.

It really holds together, nonetheless. “D-Up” was an older song by the band, wasn’t it?

It was released on our 1999 CD called Diversity. Ahead of its time, apparently.

So, how this came to be: We didn’t play any gigs at all from mid-March to mid-June last year, except for a couple things. But in early August, we were playing, and I was singing that song, and it was as if I’d never heard the words before. With all the George Floyd protests and everything that was going on in our society at the time, I’m singing the words to the song and it just struck me. This is while I’m singing the song onstage, in front of people. I go off on this tangent in my brain. Thinking, “Wow, maybe we should go back in the studio and maybe re-cut it? What if we went back in the studio and did sort of a Memphis ‘We Are the World’ thing, and I could get everybody involved? It’d be really cool!” Again, while I’m singing and playing bass and entertaining a room full of people, my brain is going off on this tangent, thinking, “This song, it’s perfect for our culture right now!”

On top of that, David Skypeck wrote the lyrics. He’s been my dear rhythm section brother for thirty years, who had health issues a while back and a stroke, and can’t play. This song is one of his babies. It’s one of his better outputs. So, to make that song something more than it was, in honor of him, was also an essential part of the equation. To give him a reason to be proud of what he’s done and what he’s still part of. That was as important as any message in the song. It was his work. So I let it percolate in my brain for a week or so, and it grew in my mind. As the seed took root and grew into Jack and the Bean Stalk, I’m thinking, “Gee, we could get Al Green and it would be awesome!” And of course that had to be tempered.

FreeWorld

So you rerecorded the song from scratch? That must have been an achievement in its own right.

I needed a producer, and I knew I wanted to take what had been the saxophone solo and insert a hip-hop section. Hip-hop’s a prominent part of our music community now, although I’m not personally that connected to it. But I knew a lot of rap guys do their work at Cotton Row. So what I needed was a Memphis Quincy Jones [famed producer of “We Are the World”], who could take this vision I had and make it real. And God bless Niko [Lyras]. He bought in 100 percent. He heard my vision, ran with it, and did more with it than I could have ever dreamed of.

He brought in more people that I don’t have connections with, and did the mix! Can you imagine having all these people, and having 150 tracks of things, to try to sift through all that and make sense of it? I can’t give Niko too much credit. He was our Quincy Jones.

First things first, you’ve got to have the audio. And with it being 2020, not 1999, we thought, let’s update it. Everyone who came in heard the original version, but we told them, “Make it your own thing. Sing your own way.” So it grew, using multiple genres. Rock, pop, country, contemporary blues, traditional blues, traditional jazz, jeo-jazz, R&B, soul, rap, hip-hop, hard rock, Latin, funk, gospel, zydeco, doo-wop … I mean, wow!

So you really built diversity into the work itself.

Every different piece of Memphis that I could think of, I tried to get someone I knew that was connected with to do it. And to try to get that on a video that showcased the Memphis music community to the whole world. Diversity is the basis of everything. If every flower smelled the same, life itself wouldn’t happen. And the message of the words that David wrote originally and the video itself exemplified and showed that, you know?

It’s funny, David’s original inspiration came from Tigers basketball. He obviously wrote the lyrics about racial and cultural diversity, but he is also a huge Memphis basketball fan, and the phrase, “D-Up!” came directly from the mouth of none other than Coach Larry Finch, as he would run up and down the court imploring his men to get back on defense by yelling, “D-Up! D-Up!”

Doing this in the era of quarantine must have been a challenge.

It brought a lot of the Memphis music community together in a time when most people weren’t working at all. And that gave us something to focus on: Come to the studio, do a little work, and hang out. And wear a mask and stay apart from each other. Niko was also very intense about that. It was his studio and his space, and you didn’t come in without a mask. We were not gonna be a super-spreader video event, you know?

So, as people came in one by one, you made videos of them in the studio.

In my mind, the ultimate thing was the video, right? Because the audio of course has to be there, and is the basis for all of it, but it’s powerful to watch all the men and women and Black and white and brown and straight and gay and Christian and Jewish, and every sort of person I could bring in.

Justin Jaggers was our video guy, and he was there for almost every session where we were recording vocals and instrumental tracks. And we did some traveling around the city, to get some location shots. So the video could have a little bit of Memphis in the background, and so it wasn’t all just in the studio. And I’ve gotta give all kinds of credit to Justin — I can only imagine having all that video and having to edit it down to something that made sense. It was an incredible amount of work, and these people bought into the vision and they wanted to be part of it. I can’t thank Memphis enough, and all the people who contributed.

We’ve got some of everyone. Like the old-guard, established people, and new, up-and-coming folks. I really wanted it to mirror Memphis today. With the exception of not having Al Green on it, it came out exactly as I imagined, if not better.

I love how some of the singers play off each other, with a call and response. Were they in the studio at separate times?

Very few if any were actually performing together. Because people were told to just do it your way, you’d have two or more people doing the same line, and it just so happened they ended up in harmony with each other. Because Wendy Moten’s singing up and Larry Springfield’s singing down. And they happen to match up. And that goes to Niko, to have sifted through everything that everyone provided. Because everybody sang a mish-mash all across the song, and Niko had to put it together in a way that made sense. And then Justin had to got through all the video he had and try to match it up with the audio.

Who was playing in the band?

FreeWorld: George Lawrence on drums, myself on bass, Andy Tate on guitar, and Chris Stephenson on keyboards. And there were a bunch of people who played guitar, in addition to Andy. Niko played here and there, and Luther Dickinson. Alice Hasen played some violin, Blind Mississippi Morris played some harmonica, and there was a six-piece horn section, including Hope Clayburn and Paul McKinney and Lannie McMillan. Of course, the song’s about diversity, so we thought, let’s see what we can do to make it look that way. To be that way. Because Memphis has always been that way, going back to Stax and Booker T. and the M.G.’s, way before it was cool or appropriate in society. We’ve been doing that here for a long time.

I know Herman Green helped you start FreeWorld, and played in the band for decades. Was he able to contribute before he passed away?

Herman was still with us when we were recording it, but not in a capacity that he could come to the studio and play. But Herman is in the video. When we played our 30th anniversary show at the Levitt Shell, David was brought out in a wheelchair, and Herman played to him. So I put that moment in the video.

I didn’t make this to sell it or to market it. I didn’t have some sort of cause to raise money for. We just did it because. It seemed like a great idea, a way to promote Memphis and diversity, more universally. I just wanted people to see it. Maybe it’ll help people change their internal perspective on life. I just want this out there.

D-Up! FreeWorld Spearheads All-Star Video Project Celebrating Diversity

UTHSC stands against hate

Signs reading “Hate Has No Place at UTHSC” and “UTHSC is United Against Hate” line the sidewalks on the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center campus here.

The signs are a part of the school’s anti-hate campaign, which began last fall as a proactive response to the various hate crimes and acts of violence that have occurred around the country. This year, officials decided to continue the campaign to reinforce an “anti-hate” message on campus.

Dr. Scott Strome, who was hired as the Robert Kaplan Executive Dean of the UTHSC College of Medicine last fall, helped launch the campaign shortly after beginning his new position.

Strome recalls three sequential hate crimes that had occurred around the country at the time: the fatal shooting of two African-American shoppers by a white man in Louisville, Kentucky, the dissemination of 15 mail bombs to critics of President Donald Trump, and the fatal shooting of 11 in a Pittsburgh synagogue.

These events, which left people around the country feeling “scared and uncertain,” Strome said, prompted the university’s anti-hate campaign.

Celebrating Diversity

As an institute of higher education and the state’s only public academic health science university, Strome said it was important to acknowledge that “we need to set value standards and exemplify what we believe is the right thing to do.”

“We believe in diversity in all of its forms — by that I mean color of the skin, ethnic diversity, gender diversity, and all different types of diversity.” Strome said. “When we can bring people who are diverse together, it makes us stronger as a university and stronger as a culture.”

Students learn about the campus’ commitment to anti-hate and diversity at orientation and are reminded throughout the school year with signs and banners around campus.

Celebrating diversity is “critical to the way we think and everything we do,” Strome said.

UTHSC

Strome signs anti-hate campaign banner

“That philosophy infiltrates not only their entry-level lectures, but all of all teaching activities because when a patient walks through the door, we want students to be able to care for them in an unbiased fashion no matter where they’re from or what they look like.” Strome said. “That’s being a doctor.”

The key message of the campaign, Strome said, is not only that the university recognizes and welcomes diversity, but “we simply won’t tolerate anybody who directs malice toward another individual for any reason.”

Strome believes “hate starts locally” with jokes that “may seem funny, but are off color and hurtful.” He said the best way to combat that hate is by raising awareness.

With efforts like the current campaign, Strome said his hope is that students and faculty will learn to call out insensitive words or actions, including those said or done in jest, when they witness them on campus.

“When those things start happening, we want the students and faculty to step in and say ‘Hey, that’s not funny,’” Strome said. “‘That actually hurts and that’s not sensitive to who we are today. Stop it.’ So, my hope is that we never have acts that are broadly classified as hate crimes.”

Strome said it’s hard to assess the impact the campaign has had on the campus since it was launched last year.

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“The answer is, I think so, but I couldn’t prove it,” Strome said of whether or not the campaign is working to change the university’s culture. “It’s very hard to know what’s in people’s hearts, but there’s a feeling on campus of unity and inclusiveness of everyone that’s really palpable.”

One of the obstacles to having a unified diverse campus is getting students to open up to the possibility of learning new cultures, ideas, and ways of life, Strome said.

“When people come to any of our schools here at UT, they meet with and work with a diverse group of people that is sometimes not like them — we actually hope most folks are not like them,” Strome said. “The greatest tool to combat hate is when you get to know folks on an individual basis and realize ‘this is a person who has a lot of good in them.’ You can find that good through friendships and working interactions. That’s when the positives of diversity really comes out.”

In a city like Memphis where a large percent of residents live below the poverty line and many lack access to healthcare, Strome said it’s important for UT students to understand that being a doctor means caring for “people who don’t have anything and people who have everything. And you have to treat them the same.”

“In order to do that, you have to value every human life the same,” Strome said. “Unless we teach our students that every life matters, then we haven’t done our job or set a template for our students to succeed at a societal level.”

Strome said the campus, nor the world, will “get there right away,” but his hope is that small acts of kindness, as well as diverse friendships and working relationships “will put us on the path to get there.

“I believe hate is the greatest threat to the fabric of our society and I believe as medical professionals, we have a duty to try and remove it,” Strome said. “We’ve been given the privilege to do so.”

UTHSC stands against hate

Securing the Campus

Kennard Brown, UTHSC’s executive vice chancellor and chief of operations, said though the school works hard to create a culture of tolerance on campus, “you can never negate the human element.” Because of this the school puts measures in place to prepare for acts of violence or other major incidents.

“College campuses have been the site of many catastrophic mass fatality events,” Brown said. “We we want to do everything we can to make sure our campus doesn’t fall into the group of places that have had those unfortunate events.”

Brown said the school would “be remiss to believe that it couldn’t happen to us here in Memphis, Tennessee. I venture to say that every one of these institutions where one of these events have taken place at didn’t think it could happen to them either. We aren’t naive to think it can’t happen here”

Brown

In order to be proactive, Brown said the university has about $30 million worth of security upgrades in the works.

Some of those improvements include installing close to 2,700 additional cameras around campus. “So we literally are watching everything in our environment to the degree that we can.”

Other recent changes include installing automated locking systems and card swipe-controlled entrances, as well as employing security guards to man all of the campus’ public buildings and additional campus police officers.

Brown said UTHSC has more than 40 uniformed police officers who patrol the campus and the broader Medical District: “ We really want our police department to function almost like a precinct of the Memphis Police Department.”

“No security system is all-encompassing,” Brown said. “But we think we thought of most of the elements that we believe will make our environment a secure one if the need arises. As comprehensive as we make it, we still think about it every day. We still make a tremendous effort to stay on the proverbial edge of new technology coming out.”

“The evolution of campus security,” Brown said will be an “ongoing activity.”

Brown said that keeping the campus safe comes with its challenges. One of the major challenges, is limited resources.

“There’s so many different demands,” Brown said. “Not only are we trying to keep the lights on, but maintain the infrastructure as well. The state unfortunately has a finite amount of funds and we aren’t the only university here. The state has a tremendous financial burden of trying to keep all of its institutions at par.”

Another challenge, Brown said, is finding a balance between keeping the campus secure, while allowing students and staff to freely navigate the campus. Because UTHSC is a public university, funded by taxpayer dollars, Brown adds that the public has an expectation of having a reasonable amount of access to the campus.

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“How to afford faculty, staff, and students the freedom to move around the campus without being too intrusive and restricting their movement is a challenge,” Brown said. “We have some inalienable rights that we want to afford people on campus. Striking that balance between an individual’s freedom and privacy and keeping them safe is always a fine balance to strike.”

No matter how many security measures the university puts in place, Brown said they will never be the only solution to preventing acts of violence.

“If you look at the world and what we’ve gone through will all of these mass shootings and other events, I don’t know that what we’re doing is magical enough to stop those kinds of things from happening,” Brown said. “But we certainly want to do our part and stand up and encourage our students, faculty, and staff to embrace a philosophy of tolerance and acceptance no matter religion, sexual orientation, race, or anything. All the security in the world won’t do it. It really is about changing the thought process of those involved.”