Tag: Memphis City Beautiful

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Southwest Twin Puts on Community Days

Southwest Twin’s first community day of the season (Photo: Courtesy DCA)

Established in 1956, the Southwest Twin Drive-In was Memphis’ second-ever drive-in. Back then, it was called the 61 Drive-In until Malco Theatres purchased it in 1965, adding a second screen and growing its capacity to 600 cars. It closed in 2001, and after a brief stint as a flea market, the property sat unused and vacant until 2022 when the city of Memphis and Shelby County each committed $1 million to reactivate and revitalize the site.

“It all started with a big push from community members for the city to do something with the site,” says Ashley Cash, director of Housing and Community Development for the city. “It’s been blighted for decades, so there’s been a lot of discussion around what should happen there.”

The plan, so far, is to establish a library and police precinct on the site, but with 20 or so acres of property and two screens, its uses could extend far beyond just those two facilities. “It’s a community anchor,” Cash says. “And so our whole strategy around anchors is to come in, invest in the anchor, to encourage the private market to either reinvest or invest around it and really support and stabilize neighborhood.”

Still during the planning phase, with construction not set to start until the beginning of next year, Cash says, “we also wanted to make sure that [the site] remained a vibrant community space, and community members could see themselves there. They can still have opportunities to provide input and they can ask someone for additional information.”

That means programming that engages neighbors before everything is even rebuilt. Last quarter, Southwest Twin focused on cleanups, rehabbing and reinvesting in the site. In the coming weeks, it’ll be host to a series of community days with a focus on “setting roots” — pun intended, as the days are gardening-centric, with workshops provided by Everbloom Farmacy.

In addition to activities, games, and giveaways, attendees will be able to pot seedling starters at each community day. Saturday, August 10th, kicked off the programming season with 1,368 seeds sowed; Southwest Twin partners have a goal to hit 3,000. 

At the next community day on August 24th — titled Grow Basics for Gardening at Home — attendees can listen to an overview of basic garden considerations and watch a demo of grow methods. Plus, Memphis City Beautiful will hold a free mulch and compost giveaway, where folks can fill their own bucket or container to bring home and garden or compost themselves. There will also be chess, basketball, arts and crafts, trivia and games, and music and movement led by musician Ekpe Abioto and instructors Ayanna Campbell and Kaila Matthews throughout the morning. Youth of Westwood, which gives food to the Westwood community twice a week, will provide food.

Upcoming community days include Planting Your Fall Garden on September 7th, Managing Your Garden & Your Health on September 21st, Harvesting & Eating From Your Garden on October 5th, and the Community Harvest Celebration & Festival on October 19th. More information on these events can be found at southwesttwin.com. 

Grow Basics for Gardening at Home, Southwest Twin, 4233 South 3rd St., Saturday, August 24, 9-11 a.m., free.

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International Park(ing) Day

(Credit: MidtownMemphis.org)

If you drive past Midtown’s Cash Saver on Friday, you might be tempted to rubber-neck at an unusual spectacle in the street parking spaces, since, in honor of International Park(ing) Day, those spots will be converted into tiny parks. 

Park(ing) Day is a global, public, participatory art project, explains Emily Bishop, board member of MidtownMemphis.org, the organization spearheading the event in Memphis. “That’s a mouthful,” she says, “but it’s where you temporarily repurpose street parking spaces into places for art, play, and activism. What we’re trying to do is get people to reimagine that area of Midtown.”

When the area around Cash Saver, Pho Binh, Crumpy’s Hot Wings, and the like was restriped to add bike lanes, the city added parking lanes, too. “Nobody uses them,” Bishop says. “They kinda get used as an inappropriate passing lane or turning lane. I mean, I see it all the time going to Home Depot.”

As such, safety is one of the points of awareness for this Park(ing) Day Project, the other point being to bring greenery to the space. The plan, Bishop says, is to plant black gum and maple trees along the sidewalk that runs east of Cash Saver on Angelus. “The sidewalk is 10-feet wide, and it has no power lines overhead, so it’s the perfect place for street trees,” she says, adding that under a tree’s shade it can be 10-15 degrees cooler, a much needed benefit during Memphis’ hot summer months. “We’re already working with Cash Saver and the City Engineer’s Office, and if all goes well, we hope to plant those trees in early November.”

Rendering of plans for tree-planting along Angelus (Credit: MidtownMemphis.org)

In the meantime, Friday will be MidtownMemphis.org’s second Park(ing) Day in front of Cash Saver. This year, the group has partnered with Memphis City Beautiful, Clean Memphis, Evergreen, Central Gardens, Neighborhood Preservation Inc. (NPI), The Works Inc., and The Home Depot. 

“We’ll have some green carpet out there to make it feel like grass,” Bishop says. “There’ll be some games. We’ll have plants and bushes that’ll give you a feel of what that would be like. We’ll just see what the creativity of each of our partners is and what they do with their spaces.”

Giveaways and free snow cones will also be available, and attendees will have a chance to meet with the various groups to learn about upcoming projects and ways to volunteer. 

Already, MidtownMemphis.org has planted native trees, bushes, and flowering plants on Avalon, behind Murphy’s and next to Crumpy’s. 

“We were really inspired by the Medical District, the improvements they made, and, of course, Overton Square is so beautiful now,” Bishop says. “We just want this area in between to continue the good work and spread it on down. Everybody travels up and down that section of Madison.”

International Park(ing) Day, Madison Avenue in front of Cash Saver, Friday, September 16th, 3-7 pm. 

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2014 Curb Couture Trashion Show Recap

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Newcomers and annual attendees of the Curb Coutour Trashion Show shared the same eagerness as they awaited what outrageous fashion the runway had in store this year. Some had the audience guessing what material was used, and others wittily incorporated obvious curbside trash.

Watching how beautifully that shipping paper swayed with every step or admiring the pattern of the toilet paper rolls (with the toilet paper remnants adding to the pattern) or wishing to wear that bird seed bag dress pointed to the underlying purpose of such an event – seeing trash in a whole new perspective.

Here are some of the highlights including Best of Show winners from this year’s Curb Couture Trashion show at Overton Square Garage. A comprehensive look at all the runway participants are in the slideshow below.

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Best of Show Winners

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Curb Couture Trashion Show — Designer Spotlight on Bruce Bui

Last year, against a backdrop of loading docks in the industrial portion of Broad Avenue, the ordinary became extraordinary as plastic bags, old furniture, and even potato sacks were transformed into completely wearable garments and accessories. Winning Curb Couture Trashion Show‘s Best of Show prize was a dramatic gown weaved from dry cleaning bags and blue newspaper sleeves by Bruce Bui, costume designer for Ballet Memphis.

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“The work was outrageously creative,” says Eldra Tarpley White, executive director of Memphis City Beautiful, which puts on the Curb Couture Trashion Show. The show, being held Sunday at the Overton Square parking garage, is a fund-raiser to benefit beautification projects around the community and raise awareness about waste reduction.

Bruce has been invited back to participate in the “Green Finale,” along with Ballet Memphis, New Ballet Ensemble, Opera Memphis, and Theatre Memphis. The Green Finale — everything is green — is new this year and is sure to be a theatrical display.

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Now in its third year, the Curb Couture Trashion Show exposes beauty in the ordinary — coffee filters, plastic bottles, and various other ordinary materials you’d expect to see by the curb. Over 40 designers will be showing their wearable works of art this Sunday.

Projects like Curb Couture help designers like Bruce experiment. “I’m drawn to work where there is heightened meaning,” he says about creating one-of-a-kind pieces.

After months of gathering plastic milk and green soda bottles for this year’s show, Bruce has painstakingly hand cut the bottles into hundreds of circles. “Oversized sequins,” he says. His approach is to reinterpret the material as something unrecognizable from its original form.

“They’ll catch the light beautifully,” he says while his friend and acting colleague Savannah Bearden shows off the nearly completed gown during a fitting. After three weeks of work, the gown just needs a few more additions of leftover plastic to add volume and texture to the almost 3-foot train. For Savannah, this dress continues to confirm Bruce’s skill in creating what she describes as “timeless yet funky” designs.

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For contest judging, garments receive points on first impression/the “wow factor,” creativity/originality, quality of workmanship, and the use of materials. Both Bruce and Eldra agree that the true excitement in the show is just seeing how far the designers have stretched their imagination.

“I really have no idea what anyone else is working on, so I’m looking forward to finding out and seeing the creativity,” says Bruce.

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Curb Couture Trashion Show, Sunday, September 28th at Overton Square Garage, First level.
6-8 pm with a silent auction starting at 5:30pm
Food and drinks are included.

Event tickets are $50 each and are available by calling the Memphis City Beautiful office at 522-1135, online, or at the event.

Buy online tickets here. Available until the day of the event.

On Facebook Event Link https://www.facebook.com/events/837690489608596/?ref=22

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News The Fly-By

Painting the Town

Sometimes the writing is on the wall — literally. And it’s that writing the Memphis City Council is trying to abolish. This week, the City Council’s public safety and homeland security committee continued to talk about a proposed graffiti ordinance based on a strict New York City anti-graffiti law.

Outgoing councilman Jack Sammons raised the question of graffiti at a committee meeting earlier this month after noticing an explosion of graffiti on his weekend bicycle rides around town.

“It’s a never-ending problem, but if you believe in the broken windows theory … it’s something we cannot allow to go unabated,” he said.

The broken windows theory — from a 1982 magazine article and later a 1996 book about reducing urban crime — says that unkempt neighborhoods contribute to crime.

Sammons saw his “broken window” at a car wash on Southern Avenue that had been tagged. When he rode by it again, the building was awash in more graffiti.

Memphis Police Department (MPD) director Larry Godwin wasn’t surprised. “If one gang puts something up, that’s disrespecting another gang. So they come and put something on it,” Godwin said. “Before you know it, you have a whole wall of graffiti.”

Currently, MPD charges graffiti writers with vandalism, but officers have to catch them in the act. The New York City law bars minors from owning “graffiti instruments” and bans the possession of those same instruments in any public place with the intent to “make graffiti.”

Godwin told council members that several things concern him about the New York law: Proving intent could be problematic and limiting spray paint sales to people old enough to vote would also be difficult.

Godwin also noted that the New York police department has an entire division devoted to dealing with graffiti. Within the MPD, enforcing a graffiti ordinance would fall to patrol officers.

Additionally, Memphis officials would need to be cautious in creating an ordinance. A federal appellate court struck down New York’s anti-graffiti law in the spring, saying it was overly broad. The most recent version of the law — signed earlier this month — includes the same general provisions, but includes exemptions for owning and using those darned graffiti instruments in an effort to make it constitutionally sound.

In addition to defensive measures, council members also discussed ways to clean up graffiti. Carol Chumney suggested a citizen task force, and it appears that Operation Take Back, a faith-based initiative, is already on the walls.

The program is led by Dwight Montgomery, head of the local Southern Christian Leadership Conference chapter and pastor of Annesdale Cherokee Missionary Baptist Church.

Montgomery proposed several ideas to council members, including requiring guilty parties to clean up graffiti rather than serve jail time, a citizen hotline to report graffiti, and groups of cleaners to remove neighborhood graffiti.

“We talked to Memphis City Beautiful about having paint and water-pressure machines,” Montgomery said. “We would have congregations participate in their own neighborhoods.”

Memphis City Beautiful already has a tool bank that loans rakes, brooms, and shovels to neighborhood residents wanting to clean up their streets, but the organization doesn’t have any equipment for removing graffiti.

Not that it has to stay that way. Councilman Scott McCormick, a former Memphis City Beautiful board member, said it would be great to get the group involved.

“They do the same projects each year,” he told committee members. “You could utilize the board and give it new energy, but you will have to give it more funds. We have a resource sitting right there, but we don’t utilize it.”

I’m not necessarily against graffiti. Regardless of the broken windows theory, I think some graffiti can inspire. But gang signs and territorial markings leave visual evidence of violence, almost in the same way bullet-ridden windows and police tape do.

Despite the talk of a new ordinance, it seems to me that eliminating graffiti will fall to area residents. Look at littering. Like graffiti, it happens in the public realm. Unlike graffiti, I think I can safely say that littering doesn’t have any redeeming value. And though it’s illegal to litter — violators can get a $500 fine and 40 hours of community service for their first conviction — I see enough litter to know that the promise of an empty wallet and an orange vest isn’t enough to stop people.

And if the city’s crime rates are any indication, police officers have more important criminals to catch.

“The city is filthy,” Sammons said. “It’s dirtier than I’ve ever seen it. … It’s going to take more than a village. It’s going to take a battalion to clean up this city.”