The Memphis Flyer is seeking nominations for candidates for the 20<30 Class of 2025. This is our 15th year of highlighting the best and brightest of young Memphis.
We’re asking you to help us identify the Bluff City’s future leaders. Nominate your friends, your colleagues, the outstanding young members of your community. Candidates must be no older than 29 on January 1, 2025. Send a brief bio/summary of the nominee’s work and activities and a photo to under30@memphisflyer.com. Use “20<30 Nomination” in your subject header. Deadline for nominations is January 3, 2025. The 20<30 Class of 2025 will be revealed in the February 6, 2025 issue of the Memphis Flyer.
The Memphis Flyer’s annual Best of Memphis readers’ poll is back, back again! You nominated, you voted, and we spit those answers back out in these pages here. And now it’s time to announce the winners you chose. That’s right: The winners you chose — not us, your fearless (sometimes fearful) writers, not even our advertisers, who help keep this paper a free publication for you.
From margaritas to antique stores to family outings — and everything in between — y’all chose your favorites. Ties have been noted, and no favoritism shown, except in our staff picks because we can.
Best of Memphis 2024 was written by Shara Clark, Michael Donahue, Alex Greene, Michael Finger, Kailynn Johnson, Chris McCoy, Abigail Morici, Toby Sells, Jon W. Sparks, and Bruce VanWyngarden. It was designed by Carrie Beasley.
Thank you to our readers, advertisers, and Memphis, and congratulations to our winners!
Every year, the Memphis Flyer asks our readers to nominate outstanding young people in Memphis who are making a difference in their community. We chose the top 20 from an outstanding field of more than 50 nominations.
Memphis, meet your future leaders, the 20<30 Class of 2024.
Sara Barrera Economic Development Manager, Downtown Memphis Commission
After studying sustainability at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Barrera returned to Memphis to earn a degree in urban planning from the University of Memphis. She found the Downtown Memphis Commission to be a perfect fit for her talents and interests. “It’s been really rewarding to get to work with some small business owners that are trying to open up their first business, or people who are venturing out into neighborhoods that have been neglected for a long time and want to take on renewed faith in getting some stuff established out there.”
Courtney Blanchard Chief of Staff, Greater Memphis Chamber
A native Memphian, Blanchard interned at the Tennessee legislature before working at the economic development and governmental affairs office at the University of Memphis. She followed her mentor, Ted Townsend, to the Greater Memphis Chamber, where he is now the president and CEO. She describes her role as “The Convener” for the business organization. “We’re very intentional about the economic development that we work with at the Chamber because we don’t want the tide to just drive for some, we say that if the tide hasn’t risen for everyone, we’re not doing our job. We can’t leave anybody behind.”
Briana Butler Associate Attorney, Baker Donelson
“I’ve known since a very early age that I wanted to be a lawyer,” says Butler, who was only the second person in her family to finish college. “I didn’t really know what that would look like, but I knew I wanted to go to law school.”
Her dreams were complicated when she became pregnant. “I had my son at 18, so it was my second semester of freshman year of college, a particularly difficult time.” She managed to juggle the demands of both young motherhood and higher education, graduating magna cum laude from the University of Memphis in only three years and earning a degree at Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. At 23, she achieved her goal of landing a job at Baker Donelson. “Every single day, I feel like I’m taking a class. … If you have a seemingly unrealistic goal — which, my goal was unrealistic — create a very detailed plan. It gives you small little chunks that are more doable and more realistic to get you to the seemingly unrealistic goal.”
Sarah Cai Co-Owner/Chef, Good Fortune Co.
The mind behind Downtown’s favorite noodle shop grew up in Memphis, until her father moved the family to Guangdong, China, when she was 13. “When I was in college, I started working in hospitality and one of my mentors actually recommended that I try being a line cook, since he noticed I had a lot of passion for food. I tried it and absolutely loved it.
“My dad’s from China, my mom’s from Indonesia, so they were immigrants to this country. As we were growing up, they would always take us home as they could afford it, a trip every few years or so. From a young age, I was exposed to whole different types of culture, all different types of cuisine. And so I think being exposed to such variety of cuisine really helped develop my palate and also gave me a lot of experiences that people have never had before. When I decided to open Good Fortune, I was like, I think it’s got to be in Memphis. It just felt right to me.”
Lionel Davis II Energy & Infrastructure Executive, Johnson Controls
“I’ve always been somewhat of a tinkerer; some may call it mischievous,” says Davis, who turned his talents into a mechanical engineering degree and moved to Memphis from Little Rock for his current job. “We spend over 90 percent of our time in buildings, and the pandemic highlighted the value of indoor air quality. These are things that my company and my industry have prioritized.”
Davis serves as the first Black president in the 80-year history of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)’s Memphis chapter, as an assistant basketball coach at Binghampton Christian Academy, and as the former co-chair of the young adult ministry of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church. “I really feel as though once you understand that your life is not solely meant to enrich yourself, the greatest among us is the one who serves the least among us.”
Ahmad George Artist
“I’ve always been drawing, I’ve always been doodling,” says George. “My high school teacher, Mr. Adair, who’s passed now, sadly, he really saw a future for it in me.”
George attended the much-missed Memphis College of Art and devoted themself to their painting. After successful gallery appearances in Miami and Spain, George recently had their first solo Memphis show at Crosstown Arts, “The Molasses Man and Other Delta Tales.” They describe their art as a kind of uncanny realism. “I like the psychological aspects and sensory aspects of art. I want to make people feel things, and not necessarily an overwhelmingly sad or bursting with happiness feeling.”
George’s painting, TheMolasses Man, from their Crosstown show was acquired by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art this past November.
Sondra Pham Khammavong ALSAC/St. Jude Talent Acquisition Liaison, Asian Night Market Founder
The native Memphian plays an important role at ALSAC. “I recruit students nationwide to join our internship program,” she says.
But you probably know the fruits of Khammavong’s other passion. When she founded the Vietnamese Student Association at the University of Memphis, she was following in her family’s footsteps. “My grandpa was one of those first [Vietnamese] that did come here to Memphis. So I’m just excited to continue the foundation that he started and the roots, even though I was born here in America, but just want to keep that heritage going and now that I have kids, just to be able to incorporate them into the culture.”
Most recently, she helped create the Asian Night Market, which attracted more than 8,000 people to Crosstown Concourse. “The Asian Night Market is the first in this city where we brought all the vibrant Asian cultures to one place with something that people love, which is food,” she says. “It was so amazing to see the city come together for a diverse event. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that, especially for the Asian community.”
Alexa Marie Kintanar FedEx Express Avionics Engineer
After a stint as an Apple Genius piqued her interest in electronics, Kintanar got an internship at FedEx. “I tried it, and I caught what they call the aviation bug from the get-go,” she says. “I saw how massive this technology was and how impactful it could be around the world, and we saw a lot of that actually during the pandemic.”
Kintanar is the first-generation offspring of Philippine-American immigrants. “A lot of what I wanted to do was make them proud — take all the hard courses, get all the scholarships. But also at the same time, make sure I loved what I was doing because I knew from a very young age that if you don’t love what you’re going to do, then it’s torture. You can’t have a job that you hate.”
She pays her good fortune forward as a member of REACH Memphis. “I participate in a lot of mentorship programs. Currently at FedEx, I work with the outreach program to Memphis City Schools for aircraft maintenance. We go to schools with students who don’t have as many opportunities, or aren’t aware of the opportunities that they have.”
Brooks Lamb Author, Farmer, Land Protection and Access Specialist, American Farmland Trust
This Rhodes College graduate’s passion is the land. “Most of my work lies in trying to support small and midsize farmers because they have been getting squeezed and undervalued and underappreciated for quite a long time.”
His two books are about our relationship to the Earth. “Overton Park: A People’s History looks at that in a more urban-focused, very Memphis context, and the way that people have really served as stewards of the park for generations. My newest book is called Love for the Land: Lessons from Farmers Who Persist in Place. It looks at the challenges that small and midsize farmers face, paying particular attention to challenges from farmland loss and farmland conversion from sprawl, haphazard real estate development, and challenges from agricultural consolidations. For farmers of color, there are issues of systemic racism and injustice in the past, but also still very much in the present.”
Emma Less Senior Manager of Development, Overton Park Shell
“I don’t think you can grow up in Memphis and not appreciate music,” says Less. And there is no better place to appreciate music than the Overton Park Shell. “I remember going in high school and being so impressed that it was a place for everyone, and that you could hear really amazing bands. … I think there’s a lot to be said about the fact that it is free, and that means that you can decide to come the night of, and enjoy it with all your friends. You don’t have to worry about getting tickets and planning ahead, and that also means there’s more opportunity for anyone to be able to come regardless of their ability to pay for music and the arts.”
Less’ fundraising work aims to keep the music free. “Every time I carry the bucket through the crowd, it’s always just so lovely. It’s something that came from when the Shell was first built in 1936, and they passed a hat around. It’s always been important that the community has the buy-in and feels that they’re a part of the Shell, because it is theirs, too. Whether you’re giving us $5 or $5,000, it doesn’t matter.”
Richard Massey West Tennessee Vice President, Tennessee Young Democrats
The Marion, Arkansas, native is currently a sophomore at the University of Memphis, majoring in political science and legal studies. “What really propelled me to get involved in Memphis was the modern-day lynching, which I would describe it as, of Tyre Nichols at the hands of the Memphis Police Department, who deprived that man of his life in the most repugnant manner imaginable just 80 yards away from his mother’s residence. That propelled me to go to the city council, the first city council meeting of 2023, following the death of Tyre Nichols and demand a slate of important police reform measures.”
Massey has also been involved in labor issues and in fighting anti-LGBTQ bills in the state legislature, a body he hopes one day to join. “I think it’s important to remind the naysayers, those people who want to undermine youth contributions to these pivotal conversations, that the youth are at the forefront of every major issue affecting Memphis.”
Savannah Miller Director of New Works, Playhouse on the Square
Miller, a writer and dramatist who graduated from Dartmouth College and has already had five of her own plays staged, took over the New Works program in 2023. Under her watch, entries surged to more than 500 plays and musicals from playwrights all over the globe competing for two slots on the Playhouse on the Square stage.
“I would love for Memphis to be on the map as a place for writers. Before I first came here, I was thinking music. I was thinking visual arts. I was thinking history. I don’t know if I was thinking so much writers and theater artists, but I should have been because we have an amazing pool of talent here in Memphis. I feel like my job as a curator of voices is to showcase that to the world, to get these opportunities out there to people, and let other folks outside of the Mid-South see what we’re doing here in Memphis.”
Jessica Morris Counselor, Christian Brothers High School
Morris originally wanted to be a therapist, she says. “However, the more I researched, the more I realized that many mental health issues arise in childhood. Yet in the state of Tennessee, there is only one school counselor for every 458 students. I realized that school counselors have a more preventative effect on student mental health. This convinced me that I belong on the front lines, helping teenagers develop into healthy, emotionally stable adults.
“I think today’s teenagers are facing a near-constant overload of technological stimulation,” she says. “My department’s role is to offer our students a safe, calming environment where they can talk with a trusted adult away from the noise and stimulation of their lives. We take proactive measures in talking to our student body about cyber-balance, how to evaluate one’s mental well-being, and how to ask for help.”
Jordan Occasionally Musician
Born a singer, Occasionally decided to devote their life to music full-time at age 15. They earned a music business degree at the University of Memphis. “I started releasing music during the pandemic in 2021, and it went viral on TikTok and the rest was history,” Occasionally says. “I can say that the local community has been very loving to and receptive towards my music, and it’s given me the courage to break into the L.A. market, or into the New York market, or even around across the globe, the UK market. I wouldn’t have been able to get there without Memphis loving me first.”
At the same time, they have embraced activism, organizing Black Lives Matter protests and advocating for the unhoused community. “Toni Morrison said that all art is political. … I feel like I had an obligation along with having a platform. Anytime you have a stage, what you do with it matters.”
Elijah Poston Musician/Director of Operations, Jack Robinson Gallery
A foundational member of the Smith7 Records collective, Poston began getting attention for his music at a very early age. He created the public access TV show Kids Do Positive Thingz to showcase young talent in the Mid-South. After graduating from Loyola’s music program, he designed the music theory curriculum at Visible Music College. The multi-instrumentalist taught guitar and released music from his band Doter Sweetly. Today, he can be found on drums with General Labor and is prepping new music from a new group, Great Fortune.
Meanwhile, the position at Jack Robinson Gallery has opened up new vistas for Poston, who has begun dabbling in poster design. “I obviously stay busy because when I’m not here, I’m doing General Labor. I’m teaching at the U of M. And when I’m not doing that, I’m doing one of the other projects that I’m doing. But it is a lot. I was very lucky to have been introduced to everybody here, and it ended up being a perfect fit.”
Amira Randolph Youth Leadership Program Manager, Memphis Urban League Young Professionals
“I feel a real devotion to my city,” says Randolph. “Every time that we as a community can come together and do things to refresh Memphis, to move it forward into time, to make it a safer place for everyone and be more inclusive, that just makes it even better. And so whenever there’s an opportunity for me to do that, use my talent to do that, then I’m going to take it for sure.”
Randolph got her devotion to service from her father Ian, and says she believes mentorship is the key to helping at-risk youth thrive. “That is my whole drive and purpose. I deeply, deeply care about our youth. I know how important it is to have somebody there. You can be surrounded by family and surrounded by friends, and you still need that person to guide you outside of that.”
Chloe Sexton Baker and Owner, Bluff Cakes
As a producer for WREG-TV, Sexton was responsible for the political talk show Informed Sources. “Baking was just kind of this hobby that I used to blow off steam. I left TV, and I went into marketing. When the pandemic hit, everybody lost their jobs, and I was terrified. I was trying to learn how can I take all the skills that I have with television, with writing, with storytelling, and with marketing, and blend that into making my little hobby something profitable that’s gonna help me survive a pandemic. That’s how Bluff Cakes came about. Oh, did I mention I was pregnant?”
Now, Bluff Cakes ships Sexton’s creations all over the country, where her more than 2 million social media followers gobble them up. “The best advice that I learned was, if you’re gonna throw yourself into the public eye, you need to grow a thick skin very fast. … Also, trust your gut. It’s not as important as people think it is to follow trends. I would say it’s wildly more important to start your own.”
Jake Warren Corporate Credit Analyst, First Horizon Bank
“Finance was just my bread and butter. I’ve always been a numbers guy, kind of my cup of tea,” says Warren.
He loves “being able to help others achieve their goals, whether it be an individual preparing for retirements, buying their first house, or just helping a small business continue to grow. The end product is really what I enjoy most. There’s a lot of things behind the scenes like lots of graphs, spreadsheets, making predictions, trying to figure out what the best game plan is for them. It is hard work, but at the end of the day, just seeing others succeed is what keeps me going.”
Warren was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of 4 and was involved in the Make-A-Wish program. Now with CF in remission, he is on the Mid-South chapter’s board of directors. “Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time getting ready for an event with the Make-A-Wish Foundation we’re hosting in February. My kitchen is full of boxes of silent auction items!”
Brandon Washington Tennessee Young Adult Advisory Council
At age 15, Washington was thrown into the Tennessee foster care system. Now, he is a sophomore at Rhodes College, and ran for City Council Super District 19 in the 2023 elections, where he garnered more than 16,000 votes.
“I had just came from D.C., advocating up there for expansion of resources for foster care. Two or three weeks later, President Joe Biden signed into law the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which expanded SNAP benefits to include aged-out foster youth, which is something that we were advocating. I realized that young people, we don’t have to wait until we’re more experienced to make change. We can actually make change now. We just need the platform to be heard.”
Washington is an international studies major, with the goal of one day becoming secretary of state. As for Memphis City Council, “I’m already preparing to run in 2027 for the same position.”
Olivia Whittington Real Estate Manager, AutoZone
“I manage the opening of AutoZone stores from site selection all the way to store opening,” says Whittington, who studied urban planning at the University of Memphis. “It’s been a great experience for me, and I’ve learned a lot.”
When she’s not busy expanding the AutoZone empire, she volunteers with Memphis Animal Services, “doing videos and photography for the dogs that are on the ‘urgent list’, who are basically slated for euthanasia. Those get shared with Memphis Animal Services and then other rescue groups around the country. There are groups online that will share that information to try and find a foster adopter or rescue for those particular dogs. And it can be hard, because you can’t save all of them.”
She says she feels obligated to help find homes for these dogs in distress because “the problem won’t get any better if people just want to look away from the problem.”
[Ed. Note: An earlier version of this story listed incorrectly listed Amira Randolph’s as affiliated with the Boys and Girls Club of Memphis. She is no longer affiliated with the organization. The Memphis Flyer regrets the error.]
The Memphis Flyer’s annual Best of Memphis readers’ poll is back! We love to celebrate all things Memphis, and it’s time to announce our winners. From restaurants, to spa days, to family outings, and everything in between, our readers have spoken, and you all chose your favorites. Winners with “BOM” next to their name dominated the category, while ties have been noted.
Best of Memphis 2023 was written by Samuel X. Cicci, Shara Clark, Michael Donahue, Alex Greene, Kailynn Johnson, Chris McCoy, Abigail Morici, Toby Sells, Jon W. Sparks, and Bruce VanWyngarden. It was designed by Carrie Beasley with images by Justin Fox Burks.
Thanks to our readers for their nominations and votes. Your favorites are listed on the following pages, but we think you’re the Best of Memphis, too! We reserve special thanks for Colors Agency and Triniti Holliday for the excellent cover shot, and for our advertisers, who help to keep the Memphis Flyer a free publication.
Our biggest issue of the year is here — the annual Best of Memphis. In May, we asked you, our readers, to nominate your favorites in food, drink, retail, services, arts, and more. From those nominations, the ballot was created. This summer, our audience voted on their favorites among the many restaurants, salons, venues, parks, and so many things in between. And now … drumroll, please … the votes have been tallied and results can be found on the following pages.
There are some long-standing beloved Memphis institutions that pull the top spot in their respective categories year after year, but you’ll also notice some new names and faces among the 2023 winners. We hope you’ll enjoy browsing through these sections to see the people, places, and things that keep the Bluff City thriving, stylish, entertained, informed, and fed. These are the businesses, organizations, and service providers that make Memphis great, and we’re happy to feature them as the best among the best.
There are, of course, mom-and-pops, startups, and small businesses that you may not see here in BOM. That doesn’t at all lessen their value or quality. So many more folks are out there creating, cooking, and offering their time and skills to us day in and day out. If there’s something or someone you love but don’t see on the list this year, be sure to put their names in the running during the 2024 nomination season.
A lot goes into making this issue the biggest and best. Aside from all the outstanding nominees and winners, our staff spends countless hours working behind the scenes throughout the year to ensure the entire process goes smoothly. Kudos to our digital services director, Kristin Pawlowski, who works the website magic to build all of the BOM online components, including the massive task of managing nominations and voting; our art staff, Carrie Beasley, Christopher Myers, and Neil Williams, who design the promos, ads, layouts, and art elements that bring life to the many pages you see before you; the sales team, Kelli Dewitt, Chip Googe, and Kalon Ambrose, and our chief revenue officer Jeffrey Goldberg, who hit the ground running with our nomination and voting promotions and party sponsorships to engage clients along the way in the Best of Memphis fun; Margie Neal, our chief operating officer and woman of many, many hats, who handles much of the invaluable planning and organization backstage; our writers, Samuel X. Cicci, Michael Donahue, Alex Greene, Kailynn Johnson, Chris McCoy, Abigail Morici, Toby Sells, Jon W. Sparks, and Bruce VanWyngarden, who pen winner blurbs for the nearly 200 categories in the poll; and the copy editors, Cicci and Morici, who read these pages several times over to ensure no typos slip through the final printed version. Thanks, as well, to Molly Willmott, who plans the annual BOM event hosted for winners to make it the biggest and best party of the year. And finally, to Chet Hastings and our delivery drivers who get this and every other issue out into the world and on the racks for you to pick up and enjoy. (Please take a look at our masthead to see the names and roles of all the valued members of our team who bring the Flyer to you in print and online, all year.)
We love Best of Memphis, not only because we’re able to highlight so many of Memphis’ assets, but also because we have the opportunity to include our readers in what we do. Nearly 20,000 people took the time to nominate and vote — to make your voices heard by telling us your favorites among all things Memphis. As we celebrate the completion of the 2023 BOM issue, we celebrate not only the winners, but every person who reads the Memphis Flyer, every person whose talent contributes to the making of this fine publication, and every advertiser whose support keeps the Flyer free. We could not continue this dream without each and every one of you. Thank you all for being the Best of Memphis!
Celebrated Memphis journalist Jennifer Biggs (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Jennifer Biggs and I used to say we were going to be the first two people to never die.
We said (not sure if we really thought it) that we were going to be the exception to the rule. It had never happened before in history. But who was to say — besides everybody — that it couldn’t happen?
Jennifer, the food editor for The Daily Memphian, died August 16th. Cancer. It was for me, like everybody I know, a shock. It just doesn’t seem like it was time for her to go. Not yet. She was always there for everybody who loved her. And even for those who just knew her from her newspaper writing, and appearances on TV and radio.
We met when we both worked at The Commercial Appeal. We shared the same sense of humor. We worked on stories together a few times. I remember both of us tag-team covering food stories where we’d set out early and eat at six or seven places from Memphis to Mumford, and then back to some places on Winchester Road. And we’d still squeeze in one more place before we called it quits.
When we weren’t working, we’d go out to eat. Sunday night dinners at Sakura on Poplar Avenue — usually, with John and Missy Stivers — were common. Or we’d go to fancy places with Peggy Burch. And then sometimes with Jennifer’s daughter, Megan Brooks Biggs, and Jennifer’s grandchildren, Jack and Chloe. Every time I went to her house before dinner her dogs Henry and Rouxby (both rescues — by Jennifer) would bark and bang on the inside of her front door.
Often it was just me and Jennifer at The Pancake Shop. We both religiously ordered the “Everyday Special.”
It was always fun to make Jennifer laugh. She loved pratfalls. There was a two-wheeler in the features department one afternoon at the CA. I told photographer Dave Darnell I was the “King of the Two Wheeler.” I told him to stand on the two wheeler and lean back. I announced I could pull anything on a two wheeler. He stood on it, leaned back, and we both immediately fell down. My head clanged when it hit a metal wastebasket. Dave and I immediately jumped up to show we were tough and this didn’t hurt us at all. Even though it did. Jennifer shrieked.
She also shrieked when I showed up for work one afternoon with coffee all over my shirt. I told her a guy at the paper decided to empty the rest of the coffee in his mug at the same moment I was walking by the truck garage. He threw the coffee on me.
I remember when I moved to the Memphis Flyer and Jennifer was still at the CA. She said she hated the idea of us competing with each other instead of being on the same paper. When I began covering food more for the Flyer, Jennifer and I were very competitive. We both loved scoops. We wanted to be the first to announce some restaurant opening or food news. But it was understood between us that was our job. We tried to get the story first for our own newspaper. I will admit, though, it felt so good to scoop Jennifer.
Jennifer became the acclaimed food editor for The Daily Memphian. I watched her become an even bigger celebrity than she already was at the CA. She was in the top three “Best Columnist” category in the Flyer’s “Best of Memphis.” Her photo was on the side of MATA buses.
We never talked about our newspaper stories much. We’d get together at Sakura and talk about other things. People usually.
I recently realized I don’t know Jennifer’s favorite book, favorite song, favorite band, or favorite movie. We never talked about that kind of thing. We just talked, texted, and laughed about whatever.
We had a poster someone made in the features department at The Commercial Appeal. It read “WWJD.” It stood for “What Would Jennifer Do.” She had all the answers. And she usually was right. It seemed like she knew everything. She was the person I first asked what “AI” stood for. She calmly explained. “Artificial Intelligence.”
One more story. … Jennifer and I ran into each other in New Orleans many years ago. A buddy of mine, Blakney Gower, and I were there doing a get-out-of-town-go-to-New Orleans-weekend-bar-and-restaurant thing. Jennifer and her then-husband, Bob Brooks, and Blakney and I had dinner at Antoine’s, my favorite New Orleans restaurant. Many Beefeater gin martinis on my end. Lobster Thermidor, probably, for dinner. And Baked Alaska.
After dinner, our server took us on a tour of Antoine’s. I saw a piano in a ballroom and, of course, sat down and began playing. Jennifer and Bob danced. It was just one of those magical nights. Like you dream that your favorite restaurant just happens to also have a ballroom upstairs and you never knew it before. It was also a happy night.
And now she’s gone. No more new adventures with her to turn into memories.
But I keep seeing Jennifer at different places. Not the person. Just reminders. Like a plastic bag jammed full of metal — not plastic — forks she gave me a few years ago when I had a family Easter dinner at my home. They’re on top of a cupboard in my kitchen. Jennifer always took care of whatever you happened to need. All you had to do was ask her.
I went by to visit Jennifer the day she died. When I saw her, I knew that was the last time I was going to see her alive. She was in bed. Her head was turned to one side.
I walked up to the bed and I said, “Jennifer, it’s Michael. Let’s go eat at Sakura.” She opened her eyes wider. I’m not sure she was able to physically smile. But I think she was smiling just the same. I said, “I love you, Jennifer.” And then I left. This was family time. I didn’t want to be in the way.
I didn’t know until the next morning that Jennifer was gone. I was charging my phone when the texts and phone calls about her death began.
That morning, I had to write a Flyer story on deadline. It was a self-imposed deadline. It was about an artist, Alexandra Baker. I could have waited, I guess, but I wanted to post the story before the opening of her art show, which was the next night. Like every reporter has had to do at least once, I wrote the story even though I was very sad. It’s never an easy thing to do.
While writing the story about Alexandra, I came upon a quote in my notes. It suddenly took on more meaning. Alexandra said, “I lost some friends along the way in life. And family members. But friends hurt more because they’re so young. And I felt life was kind of softened by them.”
Jennifer softened my life as well as the lives of countless others.
And I’ve now learned that Jennifer was right — as usual — when she said she was never going to die. She won’t. My memories of her will continue to live as long as I do.
We Need Your Help!The issue of public safety is at the forefront of the 2023 Memphis mayoral election. The Memphis Flyer and MLK50: Justice Through Journalism are partnering on a series of stories examining the state of public safety in our city, and we want to know what’s important to you. Follow this link to MLK50 to fill out a short survey letting us know what questions you have for the candidates. We’ll get the answers you need to make an informed decision in this election which will determine the future of Memphis.
Irony Your Mates Brewing Co. has recalled cans of its Watermelon Sour Beer because of “excess alcohol,” United Press International reported. The Australian brand said the beer could pose a risk of illness; it was unintentionally fermented twice, causing it to have a higher alcohol content and carbonation. The brand is sold in Queensland and online Down Under. [UPI, 3/7/2023]
Police Reports • Belinda H. Miller, 50, was in jail four days after a Feb. 18 incident at a Popeyes restaurant in Richmond County, Georgia, WJBF-TV reported. Miller became angry when her order was missing biscuits, the store’s manager told police, and the mistake was corrected — but that didn’t appease her. Instead, she allegedly drove her SUV into the store’s front window, narrowly missing a worker standing inside. She continued driving until debris inside the building stopped her car. Miller was charged with aggravated assault and criminal damage to property. [WJBF, 2/23/2023]
• Hayato Baba, 21, of Narashino, Japan, was taken into custody in March because he allegedly assaulted another man and stole his wallet outside a convenience store, Japan Today reported — all because the guy was taking too long in the restroom. Baba admitted to punching the victim twice in the face and taking the wallet. [Japan Today, 2/19/2023]
Creme de la Weird Already this year, representatives of a fictional country called the United States of Kailasa have participated in two meetings at the United Nations, Oddity Central reported. Founded by Indian fugitive and “supreme pontiff of Hinduism” Nithyananda Paramashivam, the virtual nation claims to be a sovereign state for Hindus who have been “persecuted for over a decade.” In January, Kailasa suggested it had been officially recognized by the United States of America through a sister-city agreement with Newark, New Jersey, but U.S. authorities later rescinded the arrangement. A U.N. representative explained the country’s access by saying the meetings are open to the public. [Oddity Central, 3/13/2023]
Awesome! How did your bracket hold up? If it busted, here’s some other basketball news that might cheer you up. Sporting goods company Wilson is reinventing the basketball, Oddity Central reported on March 13, with a new prototype that doesn’t require inflation. The Wilson Airless Prototype uses a “research-grade” polymer material to achieve the necessary bounce; the surface is a lattice design that keeps the traditional binding pattern so players can grip the seams of the ball more easily. There are still kinks to work out, including how to manage small objects that can get inside the ball. [Oddity Central, 3/13/2023]
Florida A flamboyant woman named Ashley Cream went before the Boca Raton Planning and Zoning Board on March 2 with a pressing concern: She suggested that March 10 should be designated Sugar Daddy and Mommy Appreciation Day. WFLA-TV reported that Cream, accompanied by an elderly man in a wheelchair, started her appeal by telling board members they were “looking absolutely fabulous, a little bit serious.” She went on to say that sugar daddies and mommies are “responsible for college educations, cars, homes, rents, jets, Birkin [bags], and the occasional body enhancement” — though she claimed to be “all natural” as she gestured toward her chest. Councilman Arnold Sevell replied that her idea is “a city council issue,” and she and her companion left the meeting. [WFLA, 3/10/2023]
Update News of the Weird reported in July 2022 that Dean Mayhew of Sussex, England, had his Tesco grocery loyalty card QR code tattooed on his arm. While Mayhew claims he has “no regrets” about the body art, Metro News reported on March 14 that after eight months, he’s saved only 18 British pounds’ worth of points. His goal is to save enough by the end of the year to pay for his Christmas food. “Sometimes when I go in there, the cashier doesn’t believe it’s real — I have to tell them, ‘Just scan it, please!’ and they’re shocked,” he said. “I love the tattoo so much.” [Metro News, 3/14/2023]
Last Friday, after enduring three cold, gray days and nights beneath a quarter-inch of ice, we in Memphis were gifted with the return of the sun and a glittering display of trees sparkling in the morning light. Like many of you, I went out and took pictures and listened to the sounds of the clicking, dripping, shimmering ice-fall with some gratitude. It had been a long week.
And it felt something like closure, an offering, maybe a respite of sorts from the previous week’s civic trauma surrounding the Tyre Nichols case, though much work — and further trauma — surely lies ahead of us in that arena.
Nevertheless, on this glorious morning, the national news media seemed to have at least temporarily moved on to other matters, and for that we could be grateful. The new shiny object (literally) that was garnering the media’s attention was the presence of a large balloon drifting high over the state of Montana that had been determined to be of Chinese origin. Was it a weather device, as the Chinese were alleging, or was it a piece of nefarious spy-machinery seeking to glean military secrets from the barren Montana terrain, 60,000 feet below?
Long ago, I spent a summer in Montana as a farm laborer, driving grain trucks through lush green fields surrounded by distant mountains during the day and drinking 3.2 beer and getting schooled at 8-ball in cowboy saloons by night. In my admittedly wan memory of those days, nothing much happens in Montana, though it is a beautiful place to spend a summer when you are young and full of yourself.
But back to the balloon, which, as it slowly crossed the country, served much like a high-altitude Rorschach test for the body politic. Republicans, including usual suspects Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mike Pompeo, Tom Cotton, Donald Trump (Jr. and Sr.), and nearly every other GOP yahoo you could name, began clamoring for President Biden to shoot it down immediately, no questions asked. Maybe they thought the balloon was “woke.” Can’t be too careful.
The current president’s advisors, on the other hand, were urging caution, both for the fact that detritus and equipment falling from a balloon as big as “three buses” might damage something or somebody below, and for the possibility that the balloon could be retrieved and brought down safely to better determine its true purpose. Or, in other words, get woke about it.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy jumped into the fray, calling for a briefing of the “Gang of Eight” — the group of lawmakers charged with reviewing the nation’s most sensitive intelligence information. “China’s brazen disregard for U.S. sovereignty is a destabilizing action that must be addressed, and President Biden cannot be silent,” McCarthy tweeted.
Perhaps fearing the “Gang of Eight” was an actual gang in Congress (and who could blame them?), the Chinese government issued further clarification: “It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure.”
For its part, the U.S. intelligence community pretended to know what “force majeure” meant for several critical minutes as researchers scrambled to determine what they were up against. After all, it’s not every day you get a Chinese balloon over your airspace, and it’s even more complicated when the Chinese start speaking French. Sacre bleu!
As the balloon drifted across the country on Saturday, the GOP upped its rhetoric: We were all in danger of … something, and Biden’s refusal to shoot it down was just despicable and cowardly. You’d have thought there were drag queens cooking on gas stoves in that thing.
Finally, late in the afternoon, as the evil blimp entered airspace above the Atlantic, it was shot down off the coast near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A Pentagon spokesperson said that the U.S. had disabled the balloon’s equipment days earlier and had decided to wait until there was no danger to those on the ground before taking it down. The Pentagon added that three Chinese balloons had crossed the country unmolested during the Trump administration. Oh. Oops.
On Sunday, the entire nation took a deep breath and began looking for the next shiny object to fight about.
Laura Beth Davis and Tyler Benitone were at the 20<30 reception. (Credit: Jeffrey Goldberg)
I was one of the judges decades ago of Memphis Press-Scimitar’s Teenager of the Year event. The late Hugh Frank Smith, Mary Allie Taylor, and I would pore over a year’s worth of Teenager of the Week recipients from the now defunct afternoon newspaper to come up with the winner. No small task.
During the award ceremony/luncheon, our editor, the late Milton Britton, referred to all the Teenagers of the Week assembled, as “the best and the brightest.”
I think of that each year when I look at the 20 young people who comprise Memphis Flyer’s 20<30 Class of 2023. They were featured in the January 25th Flyer and also honored at a reception that night in the Central Station ballroom.
The headline on the story says it all: “Meet the leaders who will be shaping our future.”
Fred Griffin at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)Sean Cherry and Ana Vazquez-Pagan at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)Frederick Griffin, Elvis Galloway, Justin Griffin, Annie Y. Griffin, Adriona Horton at 20<30Moth Moth Moth at 20<30 reception (Credit: Chris McCoy)Lily K. Donaldson and Jeffrey Goldberg at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)Grace Kigaita and Kareem DaSilva at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)L. Denton, Tori Denton, Brenda McKinney, Amber Sherman, Tekita McKinney at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)
As Chris McCoy writes, “Every year, the Memphis Flyer asks our readers to tell us all about the outstanding young people who are doing their best to make the Bluff City a better place. This time, we had a record number of nominees, and narrowing it down to just 20 was more difficult than ever. Speaking to an immensely talented 20 never fails to fill us with hope …”
Oakley Weddle, 21, founder of Jubilant Communications, probably spoke for all the recipients when he says, “I am completely honored to be a 20<30. Being born and raised in Memphis, I just really love my city. I’m proud of its legacy and future, which I hope to be a part of both.”
The honor was “particularly special,” Weddle says, because of the work he has done on a foundation he started in 2020 to honor his brother, Peyton Weddle, who was killed in a car accident in 2016. Recipients of the PEY it forward foundation are people who “resemble the kind of person he was. A very kind person, very helpful to the homeless community of the city.”
His foundation raises money for scholarships to the University of Memphis. They prioritize “people who are active in their city and can’t afford higher education.”
The foundation’s goal is to “spread kindness to strangers and also on digital spaces.”
Their job as 20<30 recipients isn’t over after the accolades are given, the shrimp and other appetizers are eaten, and the ballroom is empty. “While this award is an incredible honor, I feel the pressure is on to live up to it,” Weddle says. “It honors achievement, but it’s also a prediction and a bet that these young people will be the future here in Memphis. And it’s time to get to work.”
Mikki Weddle, Ellie McLeod, Oakley Weddle, Hunter Weddle, Dan Weddle at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)Wanda Shea and Henry Turley at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)Chris McCoy at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)Kayla Myers at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)Kaylon Bradford, Rebecca Dailey, Anna Worhman, Anna Thompson, Laura Beth Davis, Caleb Fowler at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)Trip Fountain and Kirsten Desiderio at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)Bridget Sisney, Albert Crews, Shanice Dowdy, Darry Dowdy at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)Nick Cherry and Kate Perkins at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)Brittany Hein, Matthew Hein, Samuel Cicci, Gunter Gaupp at 20<30 reception (Credit: Michael Donahue)We Saw You
