The Metal Museum’s latest exhibit turns recycling into art. (Photo: RJM Press)
Reduce, reuse, recycle. It’s a mantra we’ve all heard so many times that it’s been reduced to a bit of white noise amid loudening concerns about the environment, climate disasters, supply chains, ethical consumption, the list goes on. Still, the three Rs are a good practice to keep, most would agree, but it’s hardly enough to feel special or creative. But the practice of repurposing has gotten a bit of a new shine thanks to a project that’s been around for the past 15 or so years that reuses and recycles donated jewelry into something beautiful. And now, that project is coming to Memphis’ Metal Museum in the form of an exhibition: “Radical Jewelry Makeover: The Artist Project.”
“Ethical Metalsmiths is a group of artists and they started this project called Radical Jewelry Makeover,” explains Laura Hutchison Bhatti, director of collections and exhibitions at the museum. “Their focus is sustainability in the jewelry industry. So it’s a lot about putting focus on things like over-mining and all the discarded stuff that people just get rid of, and they take these crazy pieces, they send artists bags and bags of this discarded jewelry that’s really set to go to, like, Goodwill or just sits in jewelry boxes, but instead, the artists make these beautiful pieces out of them.”
For the exhibition, the Metal Museum will have over 70 works on display by over 25 artists, all invoking their own styles. Some use costume jewelry; others use precious heirlooms. “There’s a lot of play with the unexpected and with elevating low-quality jewelry pieces to a high-end market,” says Alicia George, special projects advisor, who curated this exhibit. “And then also melting down heirloom jewelry pieces and repurposing them into more artful modern jewelry, so there’s a constant flux between expectation and what you actually see.”
“They all tell a story,” adds Bhatti. “And with metalwork, there’s always an element of metal being repurposed or melted down or refabricated into something new, but the story of these pieces is much more tangible because you can see the remnants of what it used to be.”
The exhibition space itself is set up to look like a jewelry box, George says, with red and purple velvet panels and velvet-lined display cases. To boost the museum’s own sustainability efforts, the velvet is mostly recycled. Plus, the drapes that also decorate the space are on loan from Opera Memphis, and all the label information for the pieces is printed on recycled paper. “We’re trying to be a part of the movement and maintain the idea behind the Radical Jewelry Makeover,” George says.
The exhibition is on display through April 14th. Radical Jewelry Makeover co-directors, Susie Ganch and Kathleen Kennedy, will join the Metal Museum for the opening reception and artist talk on February 11th. RSVP to attend at metalmuseum.org.
To coincide with the exhibition’s run, the Metal Museum will also offer two classes (February 10th and March 16th) for those who want to create a one-of-a-kind piece of their own. Students will be able to bring their old jewelry or use provided pieces, and then will learn how to take apart old jewelry and repurpose it into new jewelry using rivets, glue, and wire. Register for a class at metalmuseum.org.
“Radical Jewelry Makeover: The Artist Project” Reception & Artist Talk, Metal Museum, 373 Metal Museum Drive, Sunday, February 11, 3-5 p.m.
For a good decade or more, this city offered a brilliant solution to music-loving parents who couldn’t take their young kids to see great indie bands in the bars that featured them: Memphis Rock-n-Romp. Founded by Stacey Greenberg in 2005, the loose-knit organization was active for 10 years, staging afternoon shows by local bands in backyards and other kid-friendly spaces. And, because the music wasn’t typical children’s fare, younger parents too overworked to frequent the club scene flocked to the events, kids in tow. I know I did.
All the sense of discovery that one finds in the club experience was still present in the Rock-n-Romp shows, and there was even good beer to be had (for the adults). I’ll long remember seeing The Barbaras in all their glory at one such event on the grounds of the Metal Museum. There I was, a dedicated parent, discovering a new band! With their multi-voiced harmonies and pop hooks and hint of madness, The Barbaras were a revelation in more ways than one, and the kids liked it too.
Now, after a long hiatus with only occasional revival shows over the years, Memphis Rock-n-Romp is back in full swing. And with it comes another revival, the beloved Live from Memphis platform, which helped pioneer live-streamed music concerts in the early 2000s, including some of the Rock-n-Romps, before going into hibernation itself for some time.
This Saturday, October 28th, Live from Memphis presents a special Halloween Rock-n-Romp from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Ravine, which many Memphis Flyer readers know from our recent Best of Memphis party. Entry is $5 per adult, but children are admitted free of charge. Adults must have a child with them to attend. (Click here for details).
Bands include KittyPool, Above Jupiter, and Tamar Love (from Mama Honey). While Love is the wisest, oldest, and biggest name on the bill, some of the other players were avidly taking in the music of the original wave of Rock-n-Romps, even playing together as kids at the Rock-n-Romp summer camp more than a decade ago. Their interest thus piqued, they’re still cooking up sounds of their own today.
One often saw the Davis family at the original events; now Josie Davis will be performing in KittyPool. And she’s not alone. As Live From Memphis co-founder Christopher Reyes notes in a statement, “When Mati was a baby, we took her to one of those classic Rock-n-Romps at Mud Island, but she doesn’t remember. She and her sister are now at the perfect age to really appreciate it, so for me, it made a lot of sense to bring it back. Once we started planning, we were all like, ‘Hell yeah,’ and everyone we told about it pretty much had the same response.”
Board member Graham Burks has long been deeply involved in the organization, including as a player, and now it’s time for his son, Graham Burks III, to take the stage in Above Jupiter. Memphis Flyer readers may recall our review of Graham-the-Younger’s band The Becomers two years ago. Above Jupiter began around that same time, and all of the band members attend Stax Music Academy together.
As Graham-the-Elder explains, “An early version of Above Jupiter opened up for the Becomers at the Time Warp Drive. Graham (III) and keyboardist Desmond Coppin have been playing together since they were three, and played a Rock-n-Romp 10 years ago at age four. Bassist Noah Hand and Graham met in elementary school and started plotting this band as an extension of Noah’s visual art. They call the music ‘art pop’ and Noah designs their shirts and art. Noah recently had an animated short in the Indie Memphis Youth Film Fest. He is currently animating their first music video for their first single ‘Details,’ which combines his animation with live footage shot by my brother Justin Burks and edited by Noah.”
And, as Burks notes, Above Jupiter will clearly be in the Halloween spirit this Saturday. “They’ll be in costume as Gorillaz,” he says, “and they’ll be performing live on WREG Live at 9 a.m. on Friday morning.”
The Art Project will also lead Halloween arts and crafts activities for the kids at Saturday’s event, and there will be a Halloween costume contest with prizes awarded.
Untitled, c. 2014. Salvaged iron from Ellis Auditorium.
In 1989, Richard Carr took his first metalsmithing class at the Metal Museum. He’d always been interested in working with metals, he says, ever since he was a kid visiting his grandfather’s metal fabrication shop. At the time, though, he was working as a pipefitter and welder, traveling around the country building processing and fossil fuel plants, and he had come to Memphis to work on a project for the Navy.
“The Metal Museum was the first place I came across that actually provided a place where I could learn blacksmithing,” Carr says. Blacksmithing, he found, allowed him to be creative with the same materials he used during work hours. Soon, he was taking class after class, making pieces “only a mother could love,” he says. After a while, he began volunteering at the museum, his first project being to fabricate steel for the back of the Smithy, now the Metal Museum’s Repair Lab.
“By volunteering, I learned the trade, and then I was able to get into the public utility company as an industrial blacksmith,” Carr says. Still, he kept up his creative endeavors, looking to natural motifs and art nouveau and art deco architecture for inspiration. He forged organic shapes, a relief from the linear industrial monotony of his job. And his pieces got better and better — to the point where he could comfortably call them art, not something “only a mother could love.”
Carr also began to incorporate materials salvaged from sites throughout Memphis, such as steel from the old Ellis Auditorium, iron from Baptist Memorial Hospital, a bolt from the railroad that once ran the Green Line, and parts from the Zippin Pippin. “It sort of gives a piece a soul,” Carr says of the salvaged material’s history that brings the old in conversation with the new.
This summer, Carr is celebrating his first solo show at the Metal Museum, and he’s titled it “To See With New Eyes,” a nod to his love of repurposing materials. “The Japanese have a word for it,” he says. “Mitate. It means to repurpose or to see with new eyes.”
For the first time, Carr is also able to see the works spanning his career, side by side, most of them on loan from the pieces’ current owners. “There’s a lot of pieces that have gotten lost because they were sold,” he says. “I’d never kept track of them.” Over the years, Carr has gifted his art to the Metal Museum, MIFA, Hope House, The Child Advocacy Center, Playhouse on the Square, and Memphis Heritage, among others.
“It’s my way of giving back,” he says. “I’ve got a job that pays the bills. There’s a lot of people out there that are struggling to get customers. And when you’re working for a customer, you’re worried about what their likes are — I’ve never taken direction. I like to make what I want to make, and I guess that’s the fun part about what I do.”
“To See With New Eyes,” Metal Museum, On display through September 24.
Photo: “Entrances, Exits and the Spaces Betwixt”
by Tangela Mathis at Crosstown Arts
If you’re looking for a retreat from the heat this summer, the Memphis art scene has you covered — with cool exhibitions, cool performances, and very cool experiences. Just take a look through our 2023 Summer Arts Guide, and you’ll see what we’re talking about.
Art For All will celebrate its inaugural Art for All Festival this weekend. (Photo: Courtesy We Are Memphis)
From Downtown to Whitehaven to Collierville and back, Shelby County’s government wants to make the arts inclusive and accessible to everyone countywide. Earlier this year, the Arts and Culture Nonprofit Subcommittee announced its “Art For All” campaign, a series of free arts and culture experiences. This Sunday, June 25th, marks its flagship Art For All Festival.
The festival will highlight a sample of what Memphis arts and culture organizations have to offer, with a variety of performances, installations, experiences, and more. Attendees can expect an interactive pop-up art gallery from TONE, demonstrations by the Mini Mobile Metal Museum, dance movement therapy from Image Builders Memphis, activities with Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, art activations from Orpheum Theatre and Stax Museum of American Soul Music, and performances by Opera Memphis and Hattiloo Theatre. The Museum of Science & History, the festival venue, will also offer activities linking art and science.
“Art For All [stems from] the fact that we have a multitude of organizations within Memphis and Shelby County with a variety of wonderful offerings that we want to bring awareness to and uplift,” says Nykesha Cole, Shelby County’s arts and culture liaison. “And we want everybody to have the opportunity to have access to arts and culture ’cause, truly, when you look at it, that is one of the most vibrant things in society.”
Museum of Science & History, Sunday, June 25, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., free
This September, Collage Dance Collective will host its third Memphis Dance Festival, and already, the organization has confirmed top-notch talent for the day — Memphis’ own Lil Buck, dancers from New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (NYC), Alonzo King LINES Ballet (San Francisco), SOLE Defined tap company (DC), Nashville Ballet, of course Collage Dance Collective, and many more local dance organizations.
“We are really trying to curate something very special so that our community can experience these world-class national artists in their own backyard,” says Marcellus Harper, Collage’s executive director. “That’s meant to really get the community excited about dance and to elevate dance as a powerful transformative art in our community and our city.
“One of the taglines [of the festival] is, ‘Dance is for everyone,’” Harper continues. “So we’re hoping that really resonates throughout the festival, but also this focus on physical well-being, emotional well-being, how we prioritize those things. Whether it’s a physical wellness program or an emotional wellness program, movement is always a big part of that practice, so dance can really be great for the soul and the spirit, too.”
Collage Dance Center, September 16, free
Andrew Thornton’s Many Faces metalwork (Photo: Courtesy Andrew Thornton)
This month, the Metal Museum opened a juried exhibition of 40 works of art from 26 queer-identifying metal artists from across the country. For the exhibition, three jurors — matt lambert, Al Murray, and Memphian Lawrence Matthews — selected pieces they felt spoke to the intersectional spectrum of what it means to be a part of the LGBTQ community.
“Rather than the typical ‘the work looks like it’s queer,’ I think this show also really highlights that there are people from these backgrounds in all areas,” says lambert. “We’re making space for a lot of types of identity that include queerness, but it’s not just that. [The artists in the exhibit] place themselves [along] those spectrums, but for some it was an option to just be themselves, and maybe they don’t want to stress that part of them. Just applying [for the exhibition] already implies that they see themselves as part of this community.”
“[The exhibit] feels like it’s a celebration of LGBTQIA+ people,” adds one of the artists, Funlola Coker, “but it also feels poignant right now, especially given what’s happening not just in Tennessee but around America and the world, and how queer people are being oppressed. It feels really important to keep showing work like this and talking about it and supporting artists who talk about these issues because it’s a more nuanced expression of who we are.”
“We Are Here: LGBTQIA+ Voices in the Contemporary Metals Community” is on display at the Metal Museum through September 10th.
Zao Wou-Ki’s “Watercolors and Ceramics” is on display at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens. (Photo: Abigail Morici)
In 2018, Zao Wou-Ki became the world’s third best-selling artist, after Picasso and Monet, with auctions of the late French-Chinese painter’s work generating $327 million, according to Forbes. Now, he sits at a comfortable 23rd ranking, above names as recognizable as Botticelli, Degas, Renoir, Banksy, O’Keeffe, Manet, Pollock, and Matisse. Yet, as Julie Pierotti, a curator at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, says, he’s not a household name in the United States. Even so, with its latest exhibit, “Zao Wou-Ki: Watercolors and Ceramics,” the Dixon is hoping to change that, with an impressive display of 80 works in watercolor and on ceramics, all drawn exclusively from European private collections.
Throughout his prolific and successful career, Zao channeled Chinese calligraphy in his abstract expressionist work on canvas, ink on paper, lithography, and engraving, and watercolor, bridging the artistic traditions of the East and the West. However, for the first time, his watercolors will be taking center stage in a museum setting at the Dixon.
“Watercolor [was] a kind of a constant medium for him,” says Pierotti. “He explored watercolor throughout his career, but with a lot of vigor in the last years of his life. He was known really for his oil painting, but these works really are authentic to who he was and what his artistic vision was.”
“For an artist who worked in a variety of media but has this kind of little-known dedication to watercolor, we feel like we’re showing, for those people who knew Zao Wou-Ki before, a different side to his career,” Pierotti adds, “and for those who didn’t know him, it’s a great time to get to know him.”
“Zao Wou-Ki: Watercolors and Ceramics” is on display at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens through July 16th. Accompanying the exhibit is “Susan Maakestad: The Expansive Moment,” on display through July 9th. Admission to the museum is always free.
Harmonia Rosales’ Beyond the Peonies (Photo: Courtesy Harmonia Rosales)
At a young age, Harmonia Rosales fell in love with the Renaissance masters who wove tales from Greco-Roman mythology and Christianity in their paintings, but years later when she showed these paintings to her daughter, her daughter didn’t fall in love with them. “She was like, ‘They don’t look like me,’” says Rosales, “It just hit me that I didn’t want her to feel like her hair wasn’t beautiful, her skin wasn’t beautiful.”
And so Rosales took to the canvas to give her daughter the representation she was missing in the Western Renaissance paintings that have been celebrated for centuries. As an Afro-Cuban American, she turned to the Lucumí religion of her ancestors and wove those tales into her paintings, made in the style of the Renaissance paintings that once filled her imagination.
At first, her peers discouraged her from painting these stories centered around African and Black figures in the Renaissance style. Her advisors told her she wouldn’t be able to sell them, but Rosales didn’t care. This work made her happy. “To see us in there, our ancestors, our history in a format where it’s just as time-consuming, looks just like the Renaissance paintings — the priceless paintings, the most beautiful paintings of the world, can’t touch ’em, can’t buy ’em — I wanted to do that in order to empower us and see our history in the same light,” she says. “Inclusion, it’s all about inclusion. Seeing this is what I want for my children.”
Rosales intended these pieces to be public-facing, wanting to reach as broad of an audience as possible, just like the Renaissance masters she reimagines and reinvents. And thanks to the Brooks, she is one step closer to that goal as her first solo museum exhibition, outside of her home state California, opened this spring. Titled “Master Narrative,” the exhibition contains more than 20 breathtaking paintings completed over the past few years and closes this weekend.
“Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative” is on display at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art through June 25th.
“Build a Heaven of My Own: African American Vernacular Art and the Blues” This group show explores how the musical and verbal tropes, meaning, and context of the blues not only share traits, but have informed the visual culture of African-American artists from Memphis. Art Museum at the University of Memphis (AMUM), through June 24
(Photo: Courtesy Frederick Asbury)
Art at Artvision Witness over 100 years of combined experience from artists E.P. Simon and Frederick Asbury, featuring works in realism, impressionism, expressionism in painting, drawing, photography, and computer-driven image-making. Guest artist Missy Isely-Poltrock (Kenosha, WI) will show her work through July 4th. Artvision Fine Art Gallery, 484 N. Hollywood
“Passenger Pigeons and Ecological Tipping Points” Experience the powerful collage art of local artist Jennalyn Speer, exploring the extinction of passenger pigeons and currently endangered bird species. Morton Museum of Collierville History, through July 8
“Reimagining the Real: Ana M. Lopez & Natalie Macellaio” These artists take everyday objects — air-conditioning fixtures, fences, road signs, and construction debris — and transform them into unique works of art as statements about power, privilege, and the environment. Metal Museum, through July 9
“Susan Maakestad: The Expansive Moment” Susan Maakestad highlights the marginal spaces of the urban landscape in her watercolors. Dixon Gallery & Gardens, through July 9
Ed Hall’s Dancing in the Sky at L Ross Gallery (Photo: Courtesy Ed Hall | L Ross Gallery)
“Paper Palooza” L Ross Gallery presents a group show of works on paper, featuring work by special guest artists Brantley Ellzey and Ed Hall. L Ross Gallery, through July 22
“RE(de)FINED” Johnson Uwadinma’s exhibition reflects on the fraught but integral relationship between humans and nature. Urevbu Contemporary, through July 31
“Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Seas” McLean Fahnestock presents videos from his “Stratagem” series, where the sea and sky flip and merge to generate a new, seductive yet false horizon. Crosstown Arts, through August 6
“Entrances, Exits and the Spaces Betwixt” Tangela Mathis presents contrasting aspects of personality, showcasing the yin and yang of pneuma. Crosstown Arts, through August 6
“Echoes of Home: Memory and Belonging” Yangbin Park reflects on his memories of home in this exhibition of prints on hanji paper. Porch Window Gallery, Studiohouse on Malvern, through August
“Rich Soil” Created by American artist Kristine Mays, the 29 sculptures in this exhibit are inspired by the movements and gestures of Alvin Ailey’s Revelations. Memphis Botanic Garden, through October 1
MoSH celebrates the guitar with two new exhibitions. (Photo: Collins Dillard)
“Grind City Picks: The Music That Made Memphis” Learn about the evolution of notable music genres in Memphis through an impressive display of instruments, band merchandise, and photographs. Museum of Science & History, through October 22
“Tommy Kha: Eye Is Another” Photographer Tommy Kha explores themes of identity, (in)visibility, and sense of place in this site-specific installation for the Brooks’ Rotunda. Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, through October 29
2022 Accessions to the Permanent Collection Take a look at the 24 objects the Metal Museum welcomed into its permanent collection last year. Metal Museum, through November 12
“The World in Pieces” Beth Edwards showcases her contemporary still-life paintings, referencing and reinventing historical vanitas paintings with sensuous, metaphorical realism. David Lusk Gallery, June 27-July 29
“Mud Huts to Paper” Collierville artist Amruta Bhat offers a contemporary interpretation of the centuries-old practice of Madhubani painting, an ancient Indian folk-art technique. Morton Museum of Collierville History, July 11-September 9
“Sally Smith: Adrenaline Rush” Sally Smith’s canvases demonstrate her careful observation of the natural world and deft handling of oil paint. Dixon Gallery & Gardens, July 11-October 1
“To See With New Eyes, Richard Carr” Blacksmith Richard Carr uses salvaged local materials to share his love of architecture, organic forms, and the Memphis community in this exhibition. Metal Museum, July 16-September 24
“Black American Portraits” The exhibition chronicles the many ways in which Black Americans have used portraiture from 19th-century studio photography to today. Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, August 17-January 7, 2024
“Mary Sims” David Lusk Gallery presents an exhibition of work by Mary Sims, who was celebrated for her extraordinary, stylized oil paintings based on both real and invented environments. David Lusk Gallery, September 5-September 30
ON STAGE
Mary Poppins The arrival of Mary Poppins brings whimsical imagination and a bit of magic to the Banks family of London. Theatre Memphis, through July 2
Jersey Boys The Broadway smash hit, chronicling the rise and eventual breakup of the legendary doo-wop group Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, makes its regional premiere in the Bluff City. Playhouse on the Square, through July 16
Caroline Bowman as Elsa in Frozen (Photo: Deen van Meer)
Frozen An unforgettable theatrical experience filled with sensational special effects, stunning sets and costumes, and powerhouse performances, Frozen is everything you want in a musical. Orpheum Theatre, June 22-July 2
24 Hour Plays: Memphis Witness this electrifying theatrical event as six new plays are written, rehearsed, and performed within a thrilling 24-hour time frame. TheatreWorks@The Evergreen, June 24, 7 p.m.
Don’t Hydroplane Winner of the 2022 NewWorks@TheWorks Playwriting Competition, Don’t Hydroplane follows a family as they navigate the difficult task of finding a final resting place for their loved one. TheatreWorks@The Square, July 7-July 23
The Color Purple The musical adaptation of The Color Purple features awe-inspiring soul, gospel, jazz, and blues vocals underpinned by raw dialogue and a masterful plot. Hattiloo Theatre, July 28-August 28
(Photo: Courtesy We Are Memphis)
Karlous Miller: At the End of the Day Karlous Miller is an American comedian, actor, writer, host, and co-founder of the 85 South Show. He began his comedy career in Atlanta, Georgia, and is widely known for his star roles in MTV’s Wild ’N Out, HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, and BET’s ComicView. Orpheum Theatre, August 5, 7 p.m.
Billy Cherry … The Final Curtain Bill Cherry pays tribute to CBS’s Elvis in Concert, the posthumous 1977 television special. Halloran Centre, August 12, 2:45 p.m.
Sister Act When a disco nightclub singer witnesses a crime, she is relocated to a convent for her protection. Her stay with the nuns helps her and the sisters, quite literally, find their true voices. Theatre Memphis, August 18-September 10
The Prom A group of Broadway stars comes to the rescue when a student is refused the opportunity to bring her girlfriend to the prom. Playhouse on the Square, August 18-September 17
A Raisin in the Sun Set on Chicago’s South Side, Lorraine Hansberry’s celebrated play concerns the divergent dreams and conflicts in three generations of the Younger family. Hattiloo Theatre, August 25-September 24
Fat Ham In a deliciously funny retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet set in the American South, William returns home after his father’s death and must confront corruption and betrayal. The Circuit Playhouse, September 15-October 8
The Crucible Based on events which took place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, this tragedy tells the story of a village that becomes embroiled in a witch hunt. Theatre Memphis, September 15-October 1
Father Comes Home from the Wars An explosively powerful drama about the mess of war, the cost of freedom, and the heartbreak of love. Hattiloo Theatre, September 29-October 22
Pictures at an Exhibition & Chris Brubeck Guitar Concerto Memphis Symphony Orchestra brings you the world premiere of Chris Brubeck’s double guitar concerto, featuring both classical and blues guitar. Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, September 30, 7:30 p.m.; Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center, October 1, 2:30 p.m.
AROUND TOWN
First Wednesdays at the Brooks Every first Wednesday the Brooks will have incredible live music. Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, first Wednesdays of the month, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Munch and Learn Every Wednesday during lunchtime, join the Dixon for presentations by local artists, scholars, and Dixon staff sharing on a variety of topics. Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Wednesdays, noon-1 p.m.
Super Saturdays at the Brooks The first Saturday of every month, the Brooks will have free admission from 10 a.m.-noon and art-making led by art educator Mrs. Rose. (PS: Every Saturday, admission is free from 10 a.m.-noon.) Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, first Saturdays of the month, 10 a.m.-noon
Free Family Day On the second Saturday of each month, the Stax Museum offers free admission for everyone. There will also be food trucks, games and activities, arts and crafts for children, bouncy houses, face painting, balloon artists, and live music. Stax Museum of American Soul Music, second Saturdays of the month, 1-5 p.m.
Oil Painting with Glynnis In this class, students will paint a still life composition using oil paints. Arrow Creative, June 25, 11 a.m.
Rich Sounds at the Garden Join the Memphis Botanic Garden on the last Sunday of each month to enjoy performances and demonstrations from local arts and culture organizations. Memphis Botanic Garden, June 25, July 30, August 27, September 24, 2-5 p.m.
Whet Thursdays Enjoy a free after-hours event held at the Metal Museum on the last Thursday of the month with games on the lawn, food truck fare, live music, metalsmithing demos, and more. Metal Museum, June 29, July 27, August 31, 5-7 p.m.
Public Art Yoga UrbanArt Commission will offer free 45-minute outdoor public art yoga sessions this summer. Various locations, July 8, August 12, September 9
Art Club with Joi Purvy Decorate and take home your own terra-cotta pot with acrylic paint and gold foil! Arrow Creative, July 10, 6 p.m.
Fairy Garden Planting Party (21+) Put together your own unique fairy garden! All supplies will be provided, including plants, pots, soil, and decorations. Bring your own drinks and snacks to enjoy while you’re creating. This event is for adults only 21+. Memphis Botanic Garden, July 21, 6:30 p.m.
Crown Me Royal Film Fest This noncompetitive film festival showcases panels, workshops, and independent films from BIPOC behind-the-scenes filmmakers and creatives from all media platforms. Various locations, August 4-6
Night at the Museum Explore the Dixon galleries like never before as works step out of the canvas for an evening of special performances and music, activities, and much more. Dixon Gallery & Gardens, August 12, 5-8 p.m.
Marketplace in Motion Shop colorful new prints, creative cards, and fun stickers to throw onto your new notebooks. Stop by Friday night to grab a cold drink while you shop, or bring your kids through on Saturday for them to pick out their own decorative school starter pack. Arrow Creative, August 18-August 19
Art on the Rocks: Garden Cocktails & Craft Beer (21+) Enjoy botanical cocktails, craft beer, and wine in the Dixon Gardens. Each admission ticket includes all drink tastings and bites from local restaurants along with live entertainment. Dixon Gallery & Gardens, September 8, 6-9 p.m.
Marketplace in Motion Shop from local makers, grab a drink, and catch a football game with some friends. Loflin Yard, September 23, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
The Metal Museum has rolled out its last exhibition of this year’s “Tributaries” series with Morgan Asoyuf’s “Royal Portrait.” The exhibit highlights Tsm’syen culture in the Pacific Northwest and confronts issues spurred from colonization that have affected and infiltrated Indigenous communities.
Historically, Asoyuf explains, in Tsm’syen culture, a matriarch held the special high-ranking role of maintaining the well-being of the community, but colonization dispersed patriarchal ideals, setting the traditional Indigenous power structure off-balance.
“Now, you see the money go more toward men,” Asoyuf says. “A lot of times you see the chiefs dressed really well, but the matriarchs, who are actually supposed to have more power, don’t have any of those things.”
So Asoyuf, who works in goldsmithing, wood carving, and fashion design, has sought to rectify this through her art by uplifting the sovereignty of Indigenous women and queer and two-spirit people who advocate for land rights, environmental custodianship, and missing and murdered Indigenous women and two-spirit individuals.
“They tend to shoulder a lot of responsibility in these activism spaces,” Asoyuf says. “I’m trying to highlight our activists and land defenders and show their royalty, … that royalty [means] to respect the culture and take care of our land.”
As such, the pieces in her exhibition incorporate crowns, scepters, and necklaces — which she calls “mantles of responsibility” — made from a mix of what one might expect in European-style regalia, like diamonds and sapphires, and the unexpected, natural items, like bear claws and salmon bones, which are significant to Northwest coast culture. But the artist insists that main focus of each piece is the Northwest coastal item, with the stones and gems serving as accents.
“It’s challenging the European idea that [regalia] has to have things [like gems] to make it look expensive and royal,” Asoyuf says. “It’s like, we actually have our own materials and stuff, and our value of royalty is so different.”
“The message of art needs to be active,” she adds. And by that, she means, these pieces aren’t made for display cases; they’re meant to be part of a living culture, meant to be worn — which is why the exhibition also includes photos of various activists wearing her jewelry, dressed in full gowns and costuming. In fact, the artist often lends, trades, or gifts her pieces to activists to wear while they do their work out in the world.
“It’s not about my voice,” she says. “It’s about these people’s voices and how I can amplify that and make them stronger. What I do is the art form, the regalia, the spiritual power, but I can use that for the greater good.”
“Tributaries: Morgan Asoyuf |Royal Portrait,” Metal Museum, on display through September 25th.
Courtesy Virginia Price
Ring of Bloom, Per Suntum, 1994, artwork courtesy of the Helen Williams Drutt Family Collection
A piece of advice that I’m positive is applicable to every single person on this planet, perhaps the entire universe: Stop hemming and hawing already. Give her a ring. Not a phone call — please don’t do that. She’d much prefer a ring of the sorts that the Metal Museum has on display in its “Rings! 1968-2021” exhibition. And listen, I’m not saying that she needs glitz and glamor; I’m sure she’d settle for the ring that looks like a piece of thin cardboard stapled together in a circle.
Okay, fine, you caught me. That ring is made of gold, not cardboard despite its uncanny resemblance to your favorite recyclable. But who can resist such a unique piece of jewelry? Well, Helen Drutt, the curator of the collection, can’t. That’s for sure.
At a young 91, Drutt is known for a “certain look,” says Brooke Garcia, director of collections and exhibitions at the Metal Museum. “She wears all black so her jewelry really pops.” A Philadelphia gallery owner and patron of the arts, Drutt has quite the collection, some of which you can check out at the Metal Museum — a mere 169 rings, made of all sorts of materials, from the expected gemstones and metals to the unexpected toilet paper rolls and legumes. Some of the rings have movable parts, and one can even double as a Bluetooth speaker. These aren’t your grandmother’s rings.
“She likes to explore these kinds of themes where it’s one type of object so you can see the breadth,” Garcia says. “They’re all wearable. It’s surprising for some of them. But that’s kind of an interesting thing about art jewelry — that it blends the functional and the adornment aspects together. … Rings especially in jewelry have such deep meanings: engagement rings, wedding rings, graduation rings.”
Complementing Drutt’s rings are a selection of rings from the museum’s permanent collection as well as an activity station for families.
“Rings! 1968-2021,” Metal Museum, on display through June 12th.
If ABBA can come back after a 40-year hiatus, so can the Metal Museum’s Whet Thursdays. Admittedly, Whet Thursdays return every summer, but that doesn’t make this comeback any less special. After all, like ABBA, the museum is ready to embrace your inner ’70s-dream-self with a themed night of Soul ’70s and dressing in your best garb from the disco era.
For this free event, attendees can enjoy an outdoor performance by the five-piece band Soul & Parliament, which blends Motown, funk, and modern R&B. Plus, Opera Memphis will perform during the band’s intermission. Food from Pok Cha’s Egg Rolls and MemPops as well as refreshments from Tipsy Tumbler, which will include a signature ’70s-themed cocktail, will be available to purchase. Guests can also expect lawn games, metalsmithing demonstrations, hands-on activities, and, of course, free admission to the museum and its grounds.
Current exhibitions include “RINGS! 1968-2021” and “Evaluating Essentials.” “RINGS!” features more than 160 rings made of a variety of materials from wood and metals to Keurig cups and found objects. In terms of jewelry, Brook Garcia, collections and exhibitions manager, says, “Rings especially have such deep meanings: engagement rings, wedding rings, graduation rings.” And Garcia points out how rings are also more intimately placed on the body than, say, an earring or a necklace, since we use our hands so frequently to feel and touch, to write and cook, to clap and shake hands.
Meanwhile, “Evaluating Essentials” features work by Becky McDonah, whose metal reliquaries enshrine the simplest of objects like hand sanitizer, shower curtains, and pill bottles. “I would like the viewers to take the time to stop and think about little things that have an impact on their lives or the lives of others around them,” the artist says.
Whet Thursdays will occur on the last Thursday of every month until September, with the last one being members-only. Each event will introduce a new theme.
Whet Thursday, Metal Museum, Thursday, April 28, 6-8 p.m., free.
Tennessee Shakespeare Company (Courtesy ArtsMemphis)
ArtsMemphis has released the names of the seven recipients of their 2022 Enhancement Grants. According to ArtsMemphis, the Plough Foundation established the grants in 2005 “to strengthen organizational infrastructure and position [selected organizations] for sustained growth and community impact.”
The grants were awarded to Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group, the Metal Museum, Soulsville Foundation, Memphis Youth Symphony Program, the Young Actors Guild, Arrow Creative, and the Tennessee Shakespeare Company.
“This program encourages our operating support grantees to pursue significant projects that propel their missions forward and enable them to, in essence, ‘enhance’ their presence and impact both locally and globally,” said ArtsMemphis President & CEO Elizabeth Rouse in a statement.
All of the recipients have received Operational Support Grants in the past from ArtsMemphis to assist with their general functioning and programming costs. The Enhancement Grants have arrived at a critical juncture when many local arts organizations are continuing to recover from the pandemic and its myriad effects.
Some of these organizations, like the Soulsville Foundation, have existed for decades, while others, such as the Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group, have been formed relatively recently.
Soulsville School (Credit: Jesse Davis)
The Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group aspires to transcend cultural divides in the Mid-South through arts programming, language workshops, and festivals that celebrate and promote Latin American and other underrepresented cultures. Dorimar Ferrer, the executive director of the Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group, elaborated on the organization’s origins, which began with a small group of dedicated Latina women, as well as their community-oriented mission.
“We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that was approved in 2014,” Ferrer said. “We wanted to educate. We wanted to share our Latin American culture, to be proud of our own culture. We wanted to build a cultural bridge between cultures.”
While Ferrer acknowledged the ongoing effects of the pandemic, she emphasized that the company adapted quickly and continued providing programming, albeit digitally.
“We never stopped for the pandemic,” Ferrer said. “We said, ‘Okay, it is time to be creative.’ We made all of our programs virtual. During the pandemic, we did 150 programs.”
Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group (Courtesy ArtsMemphis)
Ferrer spoke on how the pandemic empowered the company’s leadership to learn new technologies and discover nontraditional ways to connect with others.
“We created programs called ‘Storytimes’ on Facebook Live,” Ferrer said. “We did a ‘reverse’ parade for the Day of the Dead celebration. We had the parade stationed at Overton Park, and people drove by to see the parade. It has been a great opportunity for us to learn new skills.”
The company intends to use the Enhancement Grant funds to support and expand their local bilingual theater workshop program, which meets regularly at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Ferrer looks forward to seeing more workshops proliferate throughout the city and compensating their theater teachers for their time.
“We do [workshops] the third Saturday of every month,” Ferrer said. “They’re free for the community. We hope to grow the program by expanding locations. We want to pay our teachers too because it is important for us to pay our artists.”
Cazateatro celebrates Black History month annually with an Afro-Latino week that features speakers, workshops, and programming. In addition to expanding the theater workshops, the company plans on using the Enhancement Grant to convert this event into a month-long affair that will feature more performers and artists than was previously possible.
“We hope to grow the [Black History Month] program,” Ferrer said. “Three or four days is not enough. We hope to do other events during the year as well to celebrate Afro-Latino culture.”
Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group (Courtesy ArtsMemphis)
Ferrer has created a welcoming space open to people of all identities and backgrounds. Her and the company strive to make the arts more inclusive for everyone, regardless of their nationality.
“With this accent, it was impossible for me to do theater [in Memphis],” Ferrer said. “And I don’t want that to happen for my community. Our door is always open no matter what.”
Ferrer encourages interested parties to reach out to her or visit the company’s website for more information on upcoming events and volunteer opportunities.
“We are always looking for people to help us at the theater,” Ferrer said. “You do not need to have theater experience to be part of Cazateatro. Everyone is welcome.”
Other organizations, such as the Soulsville Foundation and Arrow Creative, will use the grant money in a different way to promote organizational growth and community outreach. Both plan to use the money to renovate their respective spaces.
“The challenges and opportunities over this past year have forced our organization to fight harder and to become more innovative in ways that we provide service and fundraise. We have been more intentional in assuring we meet the needs of Memphis children within the communities we serve,” said Sabrina Norwood, Executive Director of Young Actors Guild. “Our programs constantly evolve and shift to continuously meet the needs of those we serve. Every challenge has been met with a creative eye and innovative planning to make the necessary adjustments.”
ArtsMemphis has announced that they are now accepting applications from organizations for their next round of Operating Grants. Those interested can find more information about Operating Grants and the full list of Enhancement Grants recipients at artsmemphis.org.
“Despite the pandemic pause on our industry in 2020, we as an organization have never pressed pause,” said Rouse. “Continuity in our support of local artists and arts organizations has been critical, and we all must contribute to keep these organizations not only afloat but thriving in our city.”
“Divine Legacies in Black Jewelry” (Credit: Metal Museum)
Jewelry is about more than its aesthetic value or its monetary worth — it’s a form of expression, a form of empowerment; it carries an impact, a purpose. And “Divine Legacies in Black Jewelry,” one of the Metal Museum’s latest exhibits, captures that sentiment through its more than 80 jewelry pieces.
“‘Divine Legacies in Black Jewelry’ illustrates that Black identity is not a monolith but a collection of experiences,” says Brooke Garcia, collections and exhibitions manager. “This exhibition centers the works and lives of over 25 jewelry artists to explore the diverse histories of jewelry creation and production in the Black Diaspora of the Americas.”
The exhibition is an expansion upon Chicago-based curator LaMar R. Gayles Jr.’s “Conjuring Black Histories in Jewelry,” which Gayles curated as a student at St. Olaf in Northfield, Minnesota. At a young age, Gayles became enthralled with his great-grandmother’s collection of jewelry by Black artists. “She would explain to me different social, historical values and morals,” he says in an interview with the Metal Museum. “I see myself being represented in her collection; I see myself captured when she talks about her jewelry.”
So at 13, Gayles asked himself: Who was the first Black jeweler? From there, he fell into a rabbit hole where he found no simple answers in his research, so the search for answers continued into his college studies, where he faced a lack of documentation and scholarship. “I feel that oftentimes when we look at marginalized groups through art, it’s very anecdotal, … a throw-them-a-bone kind of thing,” he says. “[Black Diasporic jewelry] is not a homogenized institute entity; instead, it’s a pluralistic set of practices.”
Coreen Simpson, “The Black Cameo,” 1990. Jet, brass, enamel. (Credit: Houston Cofield)
“Divine Legacies,” in turn, serves as a catalyst for expanding the scholarship and the canon. More names and legacies are out there to uncover, Gayles says. To him, the word divine in the exhibition’s title adds “some level of mysticism to our legacy and history in this exhibition where it’s not just the history of Black jewelry,” he says, “it’s divining that history out.”
“This exhibition provides a lot of information about jewelers that aren’t documented otherwise,” Garcia adds. “We hope that visitors walk away from this exhibition understanding that these jewelers are not only expressing themselves and their identities, but they are also part of the broader history of American jewelry.”
The pieces range from the 1940s through the present day. “The pieces I’m most excited about are those by Winifred Mason-Chenet,” Garcia says. Known for using biomorphic, or nature-inspired, forms and Voodoo symbols, Mason-Chenet operated a transnational jewelry practice, likely the first African-American woman to do so.
Other artists include Arthur “Art” Smith, whom Mason-Chenet mentored and who is also often cited as the earliest practicing Black American jeweler; Russell Ferrell, who made his pieces out of found silver and spoons and forks in the ’80s and ’90s; Charnelle Holloway, the first Black woman to teach metalsmithing at a historically Black college; and Karen Joy, whose work is the most recent in the collection.
“The museum hasn’t featured a group exhibition of Black metalsmiths since 2015’s ‘A Kind of Confession,’” Garcia says, “and it felt like the appropriate time to both focus on this community of makers again and internally explore how the museum was prioritizing BIPOC artists and curators in our exhibitions program.”
Because of this collaboration with Gayles, the museum has received a Craft Research Fund grant from the Center for Craft to produce a catalog, which is still in production, and to film an interview with Gayles, which is now available on the museum’s YouTube channel.
“Divine Legacies in Black Jewelry” is on view at the Metal Museum until September 12th.
“Divine Legacies in Black Jewelry” (Credit: Metal Museum)
Welcome to summertime in Memphis, Tennessee. It’s hot. It’s humid. The unforgiving sun is shining like a diamond. But the city’s opening back up in ways we only could have dreamed of this time last year. Whether outdoors or in, there’s fun to be had — and ways to cool down. Snow cones, refreshing cocktails, canoeing, swimming, and more await to make this summer the best one yet.
Assignment: Drink Beer
Summer is for beer. Cold ones are just better on hot days. That’s science.
The pandemic kept us on the porch for much of the summer 2020 beer-drinking season. Those annual traditions — like cookouts, concerts, and baseball games — all easily melted behind daily worries of a cruel illness that took so much more than just our summertime fun time.
For most, COVID-19 worries have now melted and those summer traditions have priority seating. We know what we missed last year, and we now know just how important that fun stuff — like drinking summer beers with your friends — really is.
To ensure you don’t regret missing a moment this summer, here is your Memphis summertime, beer-drinking assignment sheet.
Enjoy a cold one to take the edge off during an inning at AutoZone Park. (Photo: Courtesy of AutoZone Park / Facebook)
1. Drink light beer at AutoZone Park.
Beer and baseball is the winningest combo since pork shoulder and dry rub. Let’s face it, they belong together.
You absolutely can grab an IPA (and probably other styles) at the park. But the magic of the park and the game is really made with a light American lager, like Miller Lite. It’s simple, dependable, and when it’s served ice-cold in a big plastic cup — don’t ask me how it works but — the summer spell is cast.
2. Drink a fruity sour beer watching an outdoor concert.
Drinking to livestreams in your pajamas cannot compare to dancing to live music in your bare feet. We’re back at it this year with tons of live music events guaranteed to be packed and to boogie-oogie-oogie you from your socially distanced funk-ola.
Fruity sours are summer-perfect. They’re different, light, sweet, sometimes mouth-puckeringly tart, but predictably transportive. Like dancing in a crowd in 2021, sours will make you say, “Whoa. This is different. But I like it.”
3. Drink an epic hazy IPA at your favorite taproom.
Your favorite brewery’s taproom was closed last year. You couldn’t try the crazy beer with the crazy name that would never make it to grocery-store shelves.
Now that you can, you may not know that the national haze craze — the wave of hazy IPAs — has pooled securely in Memphis breweries. Call me a hazy boi all you like, but these beers are great.
They’re soft and sometimes sweet. Here, they show off the real creativity of Memphis brewers, the diversity of flavors these talented folks can concoct from one style.
Show up and order the hazy. Then you’ll know what’s up with a trendy beer that’s crazy-Instagrammable. (Shoot your glass with the sun behind it. And your local brewery will thank you.) — Toby Sells
Make your backyard the perfect home for more than just rubber duckies — no need to mow your lawn. (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)
Create a Yard for Wildlife
Tired of mowing and maintaining a lawn? I was, too. That’s why, a few years back, my wife and I began transforming our Midtown backyard into a natural habitat that attracts birds, hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. By using native and easy-to-care-for perennials, our main chore each year is to cut them back in the spring, fertilize them, and watch them grow and blossom. And as a bonus, it’s beautiful.
Our native black and blue salvia flowers, butterfly bushes, bee balm plants, daylilies, lantana, orpine, and even basil and thyme flowers attract hummingbirds better than our feeders do, though we have a couple of those, as well. The flowers also bring in bees and butterflies of every variety throughout the summer and fall. We keep a bird feeder filled with seeds year-round, which keeps the cardinals and finches nesting nearby.
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) offers guidelines for making your yard a sustainable environment. The five keys are: food (plants and feeders that provide nectar, seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, foliage, pollen, and insects); water (birdbaths or other sources); cover (bushes, trees, and tall grasses); places to raise young (ditto the bushes, trees, and tall grasses); and sustainable gardening practices (no chemicals). If you’re into that sort of thing, you can apply to the NWF for a sign to put in your yard when you think you qualify.
We don’t have an official sign, but by midsummer our backyard is filled with life and beauty that brings us enjoyment throughout the day. By July, our fig tree is an all-day party. (Pecking order: blue jays, robins, cardinals, then assorted little guys and squirrels.) We have thrilling aerial “battles” between bumblebees, hummingbirds, and dragonflies as they jockey for position on the blooms. And our butterfly variety is second to none.
Sound good? Get started today. Dig up your lawn, start planting flowers and bushes, and just say no mow. — Bruce VanWyngarden
Say hello to ice cream in a cocktail: Global Cafe’s Peaches and Cream. (Photo: Samuel X. Cicci)
Beat the Heat With Sweet Summer Treats
Where I come from, humidity doesn’t exist. So it’s understandable that this former desert-dweller constantly needs a way to stave off all that excess water vapor when the Memphis summertime rolls in with its 90-plus-degree temperatures. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to temper the heat wave, and many of them just so happen to come out of Memphis’ booming food scene. Here are just a few ways to keep it cool while the sun is shining.
For something a little different from your standard ice cream cone, hop out to Cordova or East Memphis for a refreshing take on the sweet confection. Poke World serves up rolled ice cream, a dessert originating from Thailand. A regular ice cream base is poured over a freezing stainless steel surface and, once solidified, scraped off and formed into thin rolls. It’s both novelty and familiarity all at once, rounded out with other sweet toppings. Celebrate the season with the Summer Love, covered in bananas, strawberries, and whipped cream.
Down Summer Avenue (or one of its other four locations), Memphis’ very own paleteria always comes through in a pinch. La Michoacana serves up paletas, a popsicle derivation originating from Mexico. But these popsicles pack an extra punch that’s a cut above the usual frozen sugar water. Paletas are usually made from fresh fruits like mangos and strawberries or from creamier ingredients like chocolate. The bright, swirly combinations of fruity goodness will have your head spinning with brain freeze because it’s just so good. Devour at your own peril, but no one leaves La Michoacana unsatisfied.
But if a little more zing is needed in a dessert, just head on over to Global Cafe and let Juan work his magic behind the bar. The food hall’s cocktails always pack a punch, but go with this year’s seasonal drink, the Peaches and Cream. It comes as advertised, fresh California yellow peaches pureed into silver rum and topped with whipped cream. It’s basically ice cream in a cocktail format, and all the better for it. I stopped at one, but the urge to grab several more sits right there, dangerous and tantalizing.
These sweets are best in moderation, saved for a truly hot summer day. But there’s plenty more out there, of perhaps the Jerry’s or MEMPops variety, so get to exploring. — Samuel X. Cicci
Do you feel your temperature rising? Cool off with “King of Karate.” (Photo: Courtesy of Elvis Presley’s Graceland)
Day at the Museum
It’s a sidewalk sizzling Memphis summer, and after a year-plus of social distancing and livestreaming digital events, I’m ready to resume one of my favorite air-conditioned(!) pastimes — strolling leisurely through one of the Bluff City’s museums.
With recently debuted and soon-to-open exhibits at many of the museums in question, one would be hard-pressed to find a better time to take in some fine art, history, or pop culture.
The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Overton Park has too many exhibits to give a full accounting here, but “Persevere and Resist: The Strong Black Women of Elizabeth Catlett” and “Memphis Artists In Real Time” are two worth a closer look. Opening later this month is “Eggleston: The Louisiana Project” featuring work by Memphis photographer William Eggleston.
Over at the Memphis Museum of Science & History (MoSH for short, though old-timers might know it as the Pink Palace), museum marketing manager Bill Walsh says, “Our ‘Machine Inside: Biomechanics’ exhibit and Sea Lions: Life by A Whisker giant screen movie make MoSH the perfect place to cool off this summer and explore science, history, and nature.”
Meanwhile, further east, the Dixon, with its gardens and museum galleries, offers an equilibrium between indoor and outdoor activities. “We love to offer ways for visitors to beat the heat,” says Chantal Drake. “Cooling off in the museum is an enjoyable and educational way to get out of the heat. Summer exhibitions at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens highlight local artists, a centenarian artist, and our founders, Margaret and Hugo Dixon.
“Although it’s summer in Memphis,” she continues, “the shady spots in the garden are perfect for a picnic where visitors can top it off with gelato from Zio Matto at Food Truck Fridays.”
Meanwhile, at Elvis Presley’s Graceland, David Beckwith says, “Graceland officially kicks off the summer with the All-American 4th of July Weekend. The two-day event will include concerts, parties, a barbecue, a gospel brunch, special tours, and more, all capped off with an Elvis-themed fireworks spectacular.”
That’s just the tip of the hunka, hunka iceberg, though. The “Inside the Walt Disney Archives” exhibition, which opens July 23rd, celebrates the legacy of the Walt Disney Company archives, with behind-the-scenes access never before granted to the public. Currently open is the “King of Karate” exhibit. Included in the pop-up exhibit’s collection will be Presley’s personal karate gis, his seventh- and eighth-degree black belt certificates, and the original handwritten script for his 1974 karate documentary, The New Gladiators.
Stax Museum would like to share its “Solid Gold Soul” with you. (Photo: Jesse Davis)
Finally, at Stax, they’re celebrating their archives with “Solid Gold Soul: The Best of the Rest from the Stax Museum,” which opens Friday, July 16th. “‘Solid Gold Soul’ showcases the museum staff’s favorite objects that are not part of the permanent exhibits and, with the exception of Isaac Hayes’ office desk and chair, all items are on display for the first time,” says Stax’s Jeff Kollath. “Highlights include rare photographs of the Bar-Kays, Otis Redding, and Isaac Hayes; stage costumes worn by members of Funkadelic and the TSU Toronadoes; and rare vinyl records and photographs from the recently acquired Bob Abrahamian Collection.”
Of course, there are more Memphis museums to explore. The views from the Metal Museum’s bluffs are worth the trip, and every Memphian needs to visit the National Civil Rights Museum — preferably more than once. The Withers Collection Museum & Gallery on Beale is a personal favorite, and its deceptively small size in square footage is no hindrance to the breadth of Memphis life on view, as captured by the lens of photographer Ernest Withers. Whether it’s culture, history, science, or just powerful air-conditioning you seek, Memphis’ museums make for some special summer fun. — Jesse Davis
Paddle away from your responsibilities this summer. (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)
Paddle Your Cares Away
For this former Boy Scout, summer means it’s paddling season. While crafts like kayaks, canoes, or stand-up paddle boards take a bit of skill to keep under control, it’s not a steep learning curve, and the rewards are enormous, including the sublime quiet of such boating: All you hear is the dip of your paddle in the water and whatever the environment offers.
The environment can be spectacular if you make the short trip out to the Ghost River, a section of the Wolf River. Unlike parts of the Wolf in and around Memphis, the Ghost River section to the east has not been dredged and is dominated by cypress trees rising solemnly out of the unhurried flow, complemented with abundant wildlife, flowers, and grasses.
As Mark Babb, co-founder of Ghost River Rentals (ghostriverrentals.com), puts it, “Thanks to the efforts of the Wolf River Conservancy and others in the late ’80s, there is no erosion. It’s a Class 1 river, with a mild current. But we won’t go down the river with a chain saw and clear out the vegetation to make it an easy trip. We want to keep it natural. And when these trees fall across the river, they help to restrict the flow to prevent the erosion so it doesn’t become channelized or become a steep-banked river, like you see in other sections.”
As a result, Babb’s boat rental service recommends having at least one experienced paddler per boat. “A paddler needs to know how to steer a boat,” he says, “how to re-right their boat, how to avoid the tree limbs, how to portage over and around the downed trees.” Or one can spring for a guide to lead a group through the area.
Another option is to stick closer to the city. “When it comes to inexperienced paddlers, we recommend Kayak Memphis Tours (kayakmemphistours.com), which my son started. They offer canoeing and kayaking on the Memphis harbor and at Shelby Farms, including full moon floats every month, and July Fourth fireworks viewing out on the harbor.” — Alex Greene
Order a Wedding Cake Supreme for a summertime dream at Jerry’s. (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Cool off at Jerry’s
With apologies to Mungo Jerry and his song, “In the Summertime”: In the summertime when the weather is high — you can choose from 100 flavors at Jerry’s Sno Cones.
That also goes for fall, winter, and spring. And you can get hamburgers, chicken tenders, and other food items at either of the Jerry’s locations (1657 Wells Station Road or 1601 Bonnie Lane in Cordova).
Owner David Acklin was a customer before he owned the business, which he believes opened in 1967. “I used to go there when I was a teenager,” says David whose favorite flavor was — and still is — blue raspberry.
He got to know the owners L.B. and Cordia Clifton, whose son Jerry was the namesake of the business. The Cliftons became his “replacement grandparents,” says Acklin, who was 18 when he lost his grandfather. Acklin worked at a printing company at the time, but he also worked for the Cliftons for free after he got off his other job.
Acklin eventually bought Jerry’s Sno Cones, but he continued to work at the printing company. “I used to change clothes at red lights. Take off my tie and put on my shorts. … I used to wear penny loafers. I’d pull my socks off and slide into my flip-flops.”
There would already be a line when he got there at 3:30 p.m.
Acklin remembers going outside one July. “The line went straight out around the sign and two houses down.” He asked a kid in line to count the people. “So, 220 people.”
What’s the most popular snow cone flavor? “Wedding Cake Supreme. It’s red wedding cake and it’s got vanilla ice cream running through it.” — Michael Donahue
(Photo: Fortune Vieyra / Unsplash )
Summer in the Streets
Memphis has enough parks and playgrounds and other open space to accommodate a generous amount of summer recreation. And there are things to do off-campus, as it were.
The Bluff City has historically not witnessed the street stickball or other hazardous pastimes of so much big-city urban legend elsewhere, although the city’s sidewalks still work for hopscotch, and, with proper caution and adult supervision and sufficient notice to the neighbors, a children’s game or two undoubtedly gets played in the quieter residential coves.
As it happens, the streets are literally ideal for one particular form of recreation, which also has numerous utilitarian aspects. That would be bike-riding — if performed in the numerous lanes provided and plainly marked out along the margins of city streets and roads and carried out with sufficient attention to the rules of safety, particularly the wearing of helmets. Memphis has a variety of clubs for cyclists, and these groups generally provide for training and both spontaneous and carefully structured events.
As it happens, the simple act of walking and, with special care for fellow pedestrians, running are the most basic, easiest, and least expensive of street pastimes. Here, too, the largely common-sense rules of safety, such as attention to crosswalks and traffic lights, is called for.
Luckily, the Memphis Runners Track Club and other groups organize races and fun runs during the warm-weather months, and these, in cooperation with city government, take place along pre-planned and sectioned-off routes. The charge, when there is one, is nominal.
The often-overlooked Mud Island Riverwalk is technically not a street attraction, but it is outdoors, free of charge, and — in the oft-abused phrase — educational with its evocation of the city’s larger landscape, with enough DIY potential to appeal to the liberated spirit.
And, as veterans remember about the Jakob Dylan street concert of some 20 years ago, a serendipity stemming from a Beale Street opening, once in a while we have the good fortune of some free music. Maybe we’ll get lucky again. — Jackson Baker
Coach Rob Snowberger
Swim!
“It’s hot, and you need a pool!”
That’s how the classic Memphis commercial for Watson’s announced the beginning of summer. When the thermometer creeps upward, nothing is better than splashing in a pool or diving into a lake. But first, you should learn to swim, says Rob Snowberger.
As a swim coach for 50 years and the owner of Coach Rob’s Pool School, Snowberger has taught tens of thousands of Memphians to swim. “Drowning is the second-largest cause of accidental death, after car accidents,” he says. “It is the leading cause of death among preschool children. Below 3,000 deaths is considered a ‘good year.’ Seventy percent of those preschooler deaths take place in the backyard pool, which is the focus of our swim school — trying to avoid that catastrophe.”
Snowberger says it’s never too late to learn to swim — his oldest beginning student ever was 72. Children as young as 18 months can start learning, but the coach says most kids don’t develop the physical coordination needed until about age 3. “Swimming is a very complex feat. You’re kicking your legs, moving your arms, controlling your breathing. You’re turning your head in sequence with your arms. Dribbling a basketball is an easy skill, compared to all those things.”
Is it okay to jump in Memphis’ most famous body of water, the Mississippi River? “Oh, hell no!” says Snowberger.
Swimming in swiftly moving water is extremely dangerous. The Mississippi might look lazy on the surface, but that hides some of the strongest currents in the world. With those currents come all the debris that washed into the river as it traveled from Minnesota to Memphis. Swimmers run the risk of being struck by debris or pulled under by those currents.
Luckily, there are plenty of places to get wet, from public pools to backyard splashes to lakes. Snowberger says if you have small children, avoid the inflatable arm floaties and invest in a good life jacket with a strap between the legs.
And have fun! After all, it’s hot out. — Chris McCoy
