Tag: Metal Museum

Categories
Art Art Feature

Divining History

“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.”

Sekou Ra, “Fluorite Brooch,” 2020. Fluorite, silver, mystic topaz. (Credit: Houston Cofield)

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.

Winifred Mason Chenet, “Leaf Brooch,” c. 1940s-60s. Pewter, copper. (Credit: Houston Cofield)

“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)
Categories
Cover Feature News

Summer in the City: From Cold Beer and Sweet Treats to Kayaks and Museums — Make the Most of the Season

Photo: Jesse Davis

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

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Diggin’ It: Pink Palace Museum Hosts Fossil Fest

Fossil Fest is on! (Photo: Markus Spiske | Unsplash)

It’s not every day you have the chance to dig for fossils millions of years old like a real paleontologist. This weekend is your opportunity to try your hand at paleontology — the study of life on Earth based on fossils. This bone-rattling festival will feature intriguing stations, talks, games, and hands-on activities inside and outside the Pink Palace Museum.

Stations include the pewter casting activity station, where the kids can cast dinosaur teeth while you watch master metalsmiths forge a variety of bones and claws and create archeology tools. Dig for fossils and shells at the Coon Creek Science Center station. Don’t pooh-pooh the next activity at the Lichterman Nature Center station, where there will be an owl pellet dissection activity and plant fossils.

Check out fossil tables hosted by the museum’s collections department and discover specimens like a 400 million-year-old fossilized trilobite from Morocco. Compare the teeth of the mammoth, mastodon, and saber-toothed cat. At the Dino Walk, see how their footprints measure up to prehistoric giants. Speaking of giants, the unveiling of a new giant metal mosasaur sculpture created by the Memphis Metal Museum will be big fun.

“It’s a great chance to experience prehistoric times through demonstrations, videos, exhibits, and talks,” says Bill Walsh, the museum’s marketing manager. “Plus, your ticket includes admission to all our exhibits inside the museum.”

If you are aged 21 years or older and enjoy something from a time more recent than the Jurassic period, try something from a two-week fermentation period. The new Museum of Science & History (MoSH) beer made by Ghost River Brewing Co. pairs perfectly with food trucks that will be on-site, including Mempops, Moe’s/Humdingers, and Cousins Maine Lobster.

Make no bones about it, this weekend’s festival will be fossil colossal.

Fossil Fest, Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central, Saturday, Mar. 27, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, Mar. 28, noon-5 p.m., $20 members, $25 nonmembers.

Categories
News News Blog

Museums’ COVID Closings Extend Into January

CREDIT: Jon W. Sparks

Jon W. Sparks

Spring, Summer, Fall at the Brooks Museum by Wheeler Williams

Most museums are temporarily closing their doors due to recent COVID restrictions. This list will be updated as needed.

  • Memphis Brooks Museum of Art will remain closed until Wednesday, January 6th. This includes all public programming.
  • The National Civil Rights Museum is temporarily closed until further notice.
  • The Pink Palace Museum closes December 24th at 2 p.m. through January 23rd.
  • The Metal Museum buildings and grounds will remain closed through the New Year and will reopen to the public on Friday, January 8th.
  • Stax Museum will be closed from December 24th through January 4th.
  • The Dixon Gallery and Gardens will continue to be open except for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. It has a strict capacity limit and requires guests to wear masks and social distance during their visit.
Categories
Cover Feature News

2021: Here’s Looking at You

If 2020 was the year of despair, 2021 appears to be the year of hope.

Wanna see what that could look like? Cast your gaze to Wuhan, China, birthplace of COVID-19.

News footage from Business Insider shows hundreds of carefree young people gathered in a massive swimming pool, dancing and splashing at a rock concert. They are effortlessly close together and there’s not a mask in sight. Bars and restaurants are packed with maskless revelers. Night markets are jammed. Business owners smile, remember the bleak times, and say the worst is behind them. How far behind? There’s already a COVID-19 museum in Wuhan.

That could be Memphis (once again) one day. But that day is still likely months off. Vaccines arrived here in mid-December. Early doses rightfully went to frontline healthcare workers. Doses for the masses won’t likely come until April or May, according to health experts.

While we still cannot predict exactly “what” Memphians will be (can be?) doing next year, we can tell you “where” they might be doing it. New places will open their doors next year, and Memphis is set for some pretty big upgrades.

But it doesn’t stop there. “Memphis has momentum” was Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s catchphrase as he won a second term for the office last October. It did. New building projects bloomed like the Agricenter’s sunflowers. And it still does. Believe it or not, not even COVID-19 could douse developers’ multi-million-dollar optimism on the city.

Here are few big projects slated to open in 2021:

Renasant Convention Center

Throughout 2020, crews have been hard at work inside and outside the building once called the Cook Convention Center.

City officials and Memphis Tourism broke ground on a $200-million renovation project for the building in January 2020. The project will bring natural light and color to the once dark and drab convention center built in 1974. The first events are planned for the Renasant Convention Center in the new year.

Memphis International Airport

Memphis International Airport

Expect the ribbon to be cut on Memphis International Airport’s $245-million concourse modernization project in 2021. The project was launched in 2014 in an effort to upgrade the airport’s concourse to modern standards and to right-size the space after Delta de-hubbed the airport.

Once finished, all gates, restaurants, shops, and more will be located in a single concourse. The space will have higher ceilings, more natural light, wider corridors, moving walkways, children’s play areas, a stage for live music, and more.

Collage Dance Collective

The beautiful new building on the corner of Tillman and Sam Cooper is set to open next year in an $11-million move for the Collage Dance Collective.

The 22,000-square-foot performing arts school will feature five studios, office space, a dressing room, a study lounge, 70 parking spaces, and a physical therapy area.

The Memphian Hotel

The Memphian Hotel

A Facebook post by The Memphian Hotel reads, “Who is ready for 2021?” The hotel is, apparently. Developers told the Daily Memphian recently that the 106-room, $24-million hotel is slated to open in April.

“Walking the line between offbeat and elevated, The Memphian will give guests a genuine taste of Midtown’s unconventional personality, truly capturing the free spirit of the storied art district in which the property sits,” reads a news release.

Watch for work to begin next year on big projects in Cooper-Young, the Snuff District, Liberty Park, Tom Lee Park, and The Walk. — Toby Sells

Book ‘Em

After the Spanish flu epidemic and World War I came a flood of convention-defying fiction as authors wrestled with the trauma they had lived through. E.M. Forster confronted colonialism and rigid gender norms in A Passage to India. Virginia Woolf published Mrs. Dalloway. James Joyce gave readers Ulysses. Langston Hughes’ first collection, The Weary Blues, was released.

It’s too early to tell what authors and poets will make of 2020, a year in which America failed to contain the coronavirus. This reader, though, is eager to see what comes.

Though I’ve been a bit too nervous to look very far into 2021 (I don’t want to jinx it, you know?), there are a few books already on my to-read list. First up, I’m excited for MLK50 founding managing editor Deborah Douglas’ U.S. Civil Rights Trail, due in January. Douglas lives in Chicago now, but there’s sure to be some Memphis in that tome.

Next, Ed Tarkington’s The Fortunate Ones, also due in January, examines privilege and corruption on Nashville’s Capitol Hill. Early reviews have compared Tarkington to a young Pat Conroy. For anyone disappointed in Tennessee’s response to any of this year’s crises, The Fortunate Ones is not to be missed.

Most exciting, perhaps, is the forthcoming Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda prose anthology, expected February 2nd. The anthology is edited by Memphis-born journalist Jesse J. Holland, and also features a story by him, as well as Memphians Sheree Renée Thomas, Troy L. Wiggins, and Danian Darrell Jerry.

“To be in pages with so many Memphis writers just feels wonderful,” Thomas told me when I called her to chat about the good news. “It’s a little surreal, but it’s fun,” Jerry adds, explaining that he’s been a Marvel comics fan since childhood. “I get to mix some of those childhood imaginings with some of the skills I’ve worked to acquire over the years.”

Though these books give just a glimpse at the literary landscape of the coming year, if they’re any indication of what’s to come, then, if nothing else, Memphians will have more great stories to look forward to. — Jesse Davis

Courtesy Memphis Redbirds

AutoZone Park

Take Me Out With the Crowd

Near the end of my father’s life, we attended a Redbirds game together at AutoZone Park. A few innings into the game, Dad turned to me and said, “I like seeing you at a ballpark. I can tell your worries ease.”

Then along came 2020, the first year in at least four decades that I didn’t either play in a baseball game or watch one live, at a ballpark, peanuts and Cracker Jack a soft toss away. The pandemic damaged most sports over the last 12 months, but it all but killed minor-league baseball, the small-business version of our national pastime, one that can’t lean on television and sponsorship revenue to offset the loss of ticket-buying fans on game day. AutoZone Park going a year without baseball is the saddest absence I’ve felt in Memphis culture since moving to this remarkable town in 1991. And I’m hoping today — still 2020, dammit — that 2021 marks a revival, even if it’s gradual. In baseball terms, we fans will take a base on balls to get things going before we again swing for the fences.

All indications are that vaccines will make 2021 a better year for gathering, be it at your favorite watering hole or your favorite ballpark. Indications also suggest that restrictions will remain in place well into the spring and summer (baseball season). How many fans can a ballpark host and remain safe? How many fans will enjoy the “extras” of an evening at AutoZone Park — that sunset over the Peabody, that last beer in the seventh inning — if a mask must be worn as part of the experience? And what kind of operation will we see when the gates again open? Remember, these are small businesses. Redbirds president Craig Unger can be seen helping roll out the tarp when a July thunderstorm interrupts the Redbirds and Iowa Cubs. What will “business as usual” mean for Triple-A baseball as we emerge from the pandemic?

I wrote down three words and taped them up on my home-office wall last March: patience, determination, and empathy. With a few more doses of each — and yes, millions of doses of one vaccine or another — the sports world will regain crowd-thrilling normalcy. For me, it will start when I take a seat again in my happy place. It’s been a long, long time, Dad, since my worries properly eased.— Frank Murtaugh

Film in 2021: Don’t Give up Hope

“Nobody knows anything.” Never has William Goldman’s immortal statement about Hollywood been more true. Simply put, 2020 was a disaster for the industry. The pandemic closed theaters and called Hollywood’s entire business model into question. Warner Brothers’ announcement that it would stream all of its 2021 offerings on HBO Max sent shock waves through the industry. Some said it was the death knell for theaters.

I don’t buy it. Warner Brothers, owned by AT&T and locked in a streaming war with Netflix and Disney, are chasing the favor of Wall Street investors, who love the rent-seeking streaming model. But there’s just too much money on the table to abandon theaters. 2019 was a record year at the box office, with $42 billion in worldwide take, $11.4 billion of which was from North America. Theatrical distribution is a proven business model that has worked for 120 years. Netflix, on the other hand, is $12 billion in debt.

Will audiences return to theaters once we’ve vaccinated our way out of the coronavirus-shaped hole we’re in? Prediction at this point is a mug’s game, but signs point to yes. Tenet, which will be the year’s biggest film, grossed $303 million in overseas markets where the virus was reasonably under control. In China, where the pandemic started, a film called My People, My Homeland has brought in $422 million since October 1st. I don’t know about y’all, but once I get my jab, they’re going to have to drag me out of the movie theater.

There will be quite a bit to watch. With the exception of Wonder Woman 1984, the 2020 blockbusters were pushed to 2021, including Dune, Spielberg’s West Side Story remake, the latest James Bond installment No Time to Die, Marvel’s much-anticipated Black Widow, Top Gun: Maverick, and Godzilla vs. Kong. Memphis director Craig Brewer’s second film with Eddie Murphy, the long-awaited Coming 2 America, will bow on Amazon March 5th, with the possibility of a theatrical run still in the cards.

There’s no shortage of smaller, excellent films on tap. Regina King’s directorial debut One Night in Miami, about a meeting between Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown, premieres January 15th. Minari, the stunning story of Korean immigrants in rural Arkansas, which was Indie Memphis 2020’s centerpiece film, lands February 12th. The Bob’s Burgers movie starts cooking April 9th. And coolest of all, next month Indie Memphis will partner with Sundance to bring the latest in cutting-edge cinema to the Malco Summer Drive-In. There’s plenty to be hopeful for in the new year. — Chris McCoy

Looking Ahead: Music

We usually highlight the upcoming hot concerts in this space, but those are still on the back burner. Instead, get a load of these stacks of hot wax (and streams) dropping next year. Remember, the artists get a better share when you purchase rather than stream, especially physical product like vinyl.

Alysse Gafkjen

Julien Baker

One of the biggest-profile releases will be Julien Baker’s Little Oblivians, due out on Matador in February. Her single “Faith Healer” gives us a taste of what to expect. Watch the Flyer for more on that soon. As for other drops from larger indie labels, Merge will offer up A Little More Time with Reigning Sound in May (full disclosure: this all-Memphis version of the band includes yours truly).

Closer to home, John Paul Keith’s The Rhythm of the City also drops in February, co-released by hometown label Madjack and Italian imprint Wild Honey. Madjack will also offer up albums by Mark Edgar Stuart and Jed Zimmerman, the latter having been produced by Stuart. Matt Ross-Spang is mixing Zimmerman’s record, and there’s much buzz surrounding it (but don’t worry, it’s properly grounded).

Jeremy Stanfill mines similar Americana territory, and he’ll release new work on the Blue Barrel imprint. Meanwhile, look for more off-kilter sounds from Los Psychosis and Alicja Trout’s Alicja-Pop project, both on Black & Wyatt. That label will also be honored with a compilation of their best releases so far, by Head Perfume out of Dresden. On the quieter side of off-kilter, look for Aquarian Blood’s Sending the Golden Hour on Goner in May.

Bruce Watson’s Delta-Sonic Sound studio has been busy, and affiliated label Bible & Tire Recording Co. will release a big haul of old-school gospel, some new, some archival, including artists Elizabeth King and Pastor Jack Ward, and compilations from the old J.C.R. and D-Vine Spiritual labels. Meanwhile, Big Legal Mess will drop new work from singer/songwriter Alexa Rose and, in March, Luna 68 — the first new album from the City Champs in 10 years. Expect more groovy organ and guitar boogaloo jazz from the trio, with a heaping spoonful of science-fiction exotica to boot.

Many more artists will surely be releasing Bandcamp singles, EPs, and more, but for web-based content that’s thinking outside of the stream, look for the January premiere of Unapologetic’s UNDRGRNDAF RADIO, to be unveiled on weareunapologetic.com and their dedicated app. — Alex Greene

Chewing Over a Tough Year

Beware the biohazard.

Samuel X. Cicci

The Beauty Shop

Perhaps a bit hyperbolic, but the image that pops into my head when thinking about restaurants in 2020 are the contagion-esque geo-domes that Karen Carrier set up on the back patio of the Beauty Shop. A clever conceit, but also a necessary one — a move designed to keep diners safe and separated when going out to eat. If it all seems a little bizarre, well, that’s what 2020 was thanks to COVID-19.

We saw openings, closings, restrictions, restrictions lifted, restrictions then put back in place; the Memphis Restaurant Association and Shelby County Health Department arguing back and forth over COVID guidelines, with both safety and survival at stake; and establishments scrambling to find creative ways to drum up business. The Beauty Shop domes were one such example. The Reilly’s Downtown Majestic Grille, on the other hand, transformed into Cocozza, an Italian ghost concept restaurant put into place until it was safe to reopen Majestic in its entirety. Other places, like Global Café, put efforts in place to help provide meals to healthcare professionals or those who had fallen into financial hardship during the pandemic.

Unfortunately, not every restaurant was able to survive the pandemic. The popular Lucky Cat Ramen on Broad Ave. closed its doors, as did places like Puck Food Hall, 3rd & Court, Avenue Coffee, Midtown Crossing Grill, and many others.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Working in the hospitality business requires a certain kind of resilience, and that showed up in spades. Many restaurants adapted to new regulations quickly, and with aplomb, doing their best to create a safe environment for hungry Memphians all while churning out takeout and delivery orders.

And even amid a pandemic backdrop, many aspiring restaurateurs tried their hand at opening their own places. Chip and Amanda Dunham branched out from the now-closed Grove Grill to open Magnolia & May, a country brasserie in East Memphis. Just a few blocks away, a new breakfast joint popped up in Southall Café. Downtown, the Memphis Chess Club opened its doors, complete with a full-service café and restaurant. Down in Whitehaven, Ken and Mary Olds created Muggin Coffeehouse, the first locally owned coffee shop in the neighborhood. And entrepreneurial-minded folks started up their own delivery-only ventures, like Brittney Adu’s Furloaved Breads + Bakery.

So what will next year bring? With everything thrown out of whack, I’m loath to make predictions, but with a vaccine on the horizon, I’m hoping (fingers crossed) that it becomes safer to eat out soon, and the restaurant industry can begin a long-overdue recovery. And to leave you with what will hopefully be a metaphor for restaurants in 2021: By next summer, Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman’s Hog & Hominy will complete its Phoenician rebirth from the ashes of a disastrous fire and open its doors once again.

In the meantime, keep supporting your local restaurants! — Samuel X. Cicci

“Your Tickets Will be at Will Call”

Oh, to hear those words again, and plenty of arts organizations are eager to say them. The pandemic wrecked the seasons for performing arts groups and did plenty of damage to museums and galleries.

Not that they haven’t made valiant and innovative efforts to entertain from afar with virtual programming.

But they’re all hoping to mount physical, not virtual, seasons in the coming year.

Playhouse on the Square suspended scheduled in-person stage productions until June 2021. This includes the 52nd season lineup of performances that were to be on the stages of Playhouse on the Square, The Circuit Playhouse, and TheatreWorks at the Square. It continues to offer the Playhouse at Home Series, digital content via its website and social media.

Theatre Memphis celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2021 and is eager to show off its new facility, a major renovation that was going to shut it down most of 2020 anyway while it expanded common spaces and added restrooms and production space while updating dressing rooms and administrative offices. But the hoped-for August opening was pushed back, and it plans to reschedule the programming for this season to next.

Hattiloo Theatre will continue to offer free online programming in youth acting and technical theater, and it has brought a five-week playwright’s workshop and free Zoom panel discussions with national figures in Black theater. Like the other institutions, it is eager to get back to the performing stage when conditions allow.

Ballet Memphis has relied on media and platforms that don’t require contact, either among audience members or dancers. But if there are fewer partnerings among dancers, there are more solos, and group movement is well-distanced. The organization has put several short pieces on video, releasing some and holding the rest for early next year. It typically doesn’t start a season until late summer or early fall, so the hope is to get back into it without missing a step.

Opera Memphis is active with its live Sing2Me program of mobile opera concerts and programming on social media. Its typical season starts with 30 Days of Opera in August that usually leads to its first big production of the season, so, COVID willing, that may emerge.

Courtesy Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Dana Claxton, Headdress at the Brooks earlier this year.

Museums and galleries, such as the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, National Civil Rights Museum, and the Metal Museum are functioning at limited capacity, but people can go and enjoy the offerings. The scope of the shows is limited, as coronavirus has put the kibosh on blockbuster shows for now. Look for easing of protocols as the situation allows in the coming year. — Jon W. Sparks

Politics

Oyez. Oyez. Oh yes, there is one year out of every four in which regularly scheduled elections are not held in Shelby County, and 2021 is such a year. But decisions will be made during the year by the Republican super-majority of the state legislature in Nashville that will have a significant bearing on the elections that will occur in the three-year cycle of 2022-2024 and, in fact, on those occurring through 2030.

This would be in the course of the constitutionally required ritual during which district lines are redefined every 10 years for the decade to come, in the case of legislative seats and Congressional districts. The U.S. Congress, on the basis of population figures provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, will have allocated to each state its appropriate share of the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. And the state legislature will determine how that number is apportioned statewide. The current number of Tennessee’s Congressional seats is nine. The state’s legislative ratio is fixed at 99 state House members and 33 members of the state Senate.

Tennessee is one of 37 states in which, as indicated, the state legislature calls the shots for both Congressional and state redistricting. The resultant redistricting undergoes an approval process like any other measure, requiring a positive vote in both the state Senate and the state House, with the Governor empowered to consent or veto.

No one anticipates any disagreements between any branches of government. Any friction in the redistricting process will likely involve arguments over turf between neighboring GOP legislators. Disputes emanating from the minority Democrats will no doubt be at the mercy of the courts.

The forthcoming legislative session is expected to be lively, including holdover issues relating to constitutional carry (the scrapping of permits for firearms), private school vouchers (currently awaiting a verdict by the state Supreme Court), and, as always, abortion. Measures relating to the ongoing COVID crisis and vaccine distribution are expected, as is a proposal to give elected county executives primacy over health departments in counties where the latter exist.

There is no discernible disharmony between those two entities in Shelby County, whose government has devoted considerable attention over the last year to efforts to control the pandemic and offset its effects. Those will continue, as well as efforts to broaden the general inclusiveness of county government vis-à-vis ethnic and gender groups.

It is still a bit premature to speculate on future shifts of political ambition, except to say that numerous personalities, in both city and county government, are eyeing the prospects of succeeding Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland in 2023. And several Democrats are looking at a potential race against District Attorney General Amy Weirich in 2022.

There are strong rumors that, after a false start or two, Memphis will follow the lead of several East Tennessee co-ops and finally depart from TVA.

And meanwhile, in March, the aforesaid Tennessee Democrats will select a new chair from numerous applicants. — Jackson Baker

Categories
News News Blog

Organizations Brace for New Stay-At-Home Order

CREDIT: Kevin Barre Photography

Kevin Barre Photography

Brooks Museum of Art in Overton Park

Organizations in Memphis are already bracing for another stay-at-home lockdown after a new health directive was leaked late last week.

Over the weekend, leaders of the Brooks Museum of Art and the Metal Museum announced both would close until next year. Also, a protest against shutting down restaurants was announced for Monday at 1 p.m. 

“Please note that in anticipation of another Safer at Home directive from the Shelby County Health Department, the museum has also elected to close its doors to the public from December 20th through January 7th, and will reopen on Friday, January 8th,” reads a Saturday email from the Metal Museum.

Here’s a Sunday email from the Brooks:

”In anticipation of Shelby County Health Directive 16, we have made the decision to temporarily close the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, effective at 5 p.m. Saturday, December 19th, 2020 until Wednesday, January 6th, 2021 at 10 a.m. unless instructed otherwise by city and county directives,” reads the email. ”This includes all public programming.”

Meanwhile, the Memphis Restaurant Association advised its members to wait and see what may be announced Monday.

“The mayors and lawyers have been discussing our fate all day but we have yet to hear anything definitive,” reads a Sunday email from the group. “Our advice as of now is: plan to operate as we have been until we hear otherwise.”

That email also included contact information for city and county officials to “make your opinion known.”

A protest is set for Monday afternoon against further shutdowns of restaurants. The protest is set for 1 p.m. at the Shelby County government building at Downtown’s Civic Center Plaza. It is organized by Jerred Price, president of the Downtown Neighborhood Association.  Wikipedia

”The Shelby County Health Department Directive [16] is calling to shut down Memphis restaurants once again without any protection for payroll or protection for the businesses,” reads an email announcing the protest. “Restaurants are one of the largest lifelines of our city and so many people’s livelihoods. SCHD’s own data shows that spread of COVID-19 from restaurants is less than 5 percent of all cases.

“Restaurants who are following CDC guidelines set forth by the CDC shouldn’t suffer another closure, and may not make it through to see the new year if this closure is put in place.

“Let’s show up, speak up, and demand competent, thoughtful, and caring action from our leadership. Bring signs to hold up for support. #SaveOurRestaurants. No megaphones permitted.”

A draft of the health department’s new health directive was published by The Daily Memphian Friday. It included, among other things, the closure of restaurants and many other indoor businesses. The health department responded with this statement:

“At the current time, we are facing the fall surge of COVID-19 cases in Shelby County. We anticipate that the cases will continue to grow. Therefore, we are exploring all options to reduce transmission in our community.

“The document that was released to the media was a draft document for discussion amongst public health officials, health care providers and elected officials. While December 21st was identified as the effective date, it was a draft, proposed date and may change.

“Locally, we have continued to work together to explore all options that can reduce transmission while balancing economic impact. As the document is finalized, it will be released to the media via the formal, traditional channels.”

It is not yet known when or if the health department will issue a new health directive that could include the further lockdown measures.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Give Memphis! Great Local Gift Ideas for the Holidays

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

If 2020 has proven anything, it’s that we need to come together to support our community — the health, happiness, and longevity of our fellow Memphians count on it now more than ever. While we may not be able to gather with friends and family for gift exchanges like we have in the past, we can still lift their spirits with thoughtful presents that help our local restaurants, retail outlets, and entrepreneurs keep doing what they do. Think local this season!

A Box of Magic

Have a giftee in your life who seeks to better understand their own power, to look within and outside for growth and restoration? Give them a box of magic, or as Sami Harvey, owner of Foxglove Pharm, calls it: a Coven Box.

“I’ve always been amazed by Mother Nature’s ability to heal, and I love finding new ways to use her ingredients to solve my problems,” Harvey says. “I started Foxglove Pharm in 2017 because I wanted to share some of those solutions with my community.”

Each subscription box ($40/month) includes a rotating variety of handcrafted herbal “remeteas” (About Last Night: Hangover Tea, Out of the Blue: Third Eye Tea, and others), scented oils, Resting Witch Face skincare products, rituals, and more special items that “honor the moon, the current astrological phase, and a featured plant.”

Sami Harvey

Each month, she partners with another local maker or small business to spotlight their wares. For her Foxglove offerings, Harvey is “the only witch in the kitchen,” so the products are small-batch and made with “ethically sourced, organic, sustainable ingredients.”

Regarding the rituals included in a box (or separately on the website), Harvey says, “These aren’t like supernatural spells that will destroy all your enemies and turn Michelle Obama into your BFF. But they’re ways to meditate and channel your energy into manifesting a better reality for yourself. The real magic ingredient is you and your intention.”

Visit foxglovepharm.com to order a Coven Box and shop products. — Shara Clark

Feed an Artist

The old cliché about “starving artists” has seldom been more true. Buying art is often the last thing folks are thinking about during tough times like these, but our Memphis painters and sculptors and photographers — and their galleries — have bills to pay, just like the rest of us. That’s why this might be a great year to put a new painting on your wall, or gift someone a work of art so they’ll be reminded of you every day.

Courtesy Jay Etkin Gallery

Untitled by John Ryan

There are many fine galleries in Memphis. Here are just a few: L Ross, David Lusk, Jay Etkin, Crosstown Arts, Orange Mound Gallery, Art Village, Cooper-Young Gallery, and B. Collective. Artists featured include Matthew Hasty, Jeanne Seagle, John Ryan, Mary Long, Roy Tamboli, Eunika Rogers, Cat Pena, Yancy Villa-Calvo, Hamlett Dobbins, Anne Siems, Tim Craddock, and many, many more. In addition, many galleries are featuring special holiday shows.

End what has been a nightmarish year on an upbeat note: Buy a piece of art. It’s good for your heart. — Bruce VanWyngarden

Let Them Eat Cake

I’d be happy to receive a Memphis Bourbon Caramel Cake from Sugar Avenue Bakery, either in or out of my stocking. This is the Sugar Avenue collaboration with Old Dominick Distillery.

Just listening to Sugar Avenue owner Ed Crenshaw describe the six-inch cake makes me crave a slice or three: “The cake is four layers. Each layer is literally soaked in a bourbon caramel sauce. And then our caramel icing, which we make from scratch.”

Courtesy Ben Fant

Sugar Avenue cake

Sugar Avenue worked with Old Dominick’s master distiller/senior vice president Alex Castle to come up with the perfect blend of cake and bourbon. Old Dominick’s Huling Station Straight Bourbon Whiskey was chosen for the cake, which has “a great hint of bourbon flavor,” Crenshaw says. “We add bourbon to the icing and ice the cake with it.”

To help you get even more into the holiday spirit, Sugar Avenue Bakery recently began adding two-ounce jars of extra caramel sauce with every bourbon-flavored cake.

Memphis Bourbon Caramel Cakes are $55 each, and they’re available at sugaravenue.com. — Michael Donahue

Accessorize in Style

When Memphians need to give the gift of stylish living, they turn to Cheryl Pesce, the jewelry and lifestyle store in Crosstown Concourse. The store takes its name from its owner, Cheryl Pesce, a jewelry maker, entrepreneur, and all-around style guru.

This month, Pesce opened a second store in the Laurelwood Shopping Center, giving Bluff City-area shoppers double the chances to find — and give — stylish accoutrements. “I’m banking on Memphis,” Pesce explains. And Memphis seems ready to support Pesce. “We had a grand open house, social distancing into the parking lot, and it went well.”

Courtesy Cheryl Pesce

Handmade jewelry from Cheryl Pesce

The store opening story is just the tip of the breaking-news iceberg, though. Pesce tells me excitedly that she’s been in touch with fashion designer Patrick Henry, aka Richfresh, about his newly designed Henry Mask. “I spoke with him today and — drumroll — we will now be carrying his masks in my Laurelwood store.”

But wait! That’s still not all. The ink is still fresh on a deal for Pesce to carry Germantown-produced Leovard skincare products. “I will be his only brick-and-mortar store in the country,” Pesce says. “So there are a lot of cool things happening, most of them local.”

In the smaller store in Crosstown, Pesce sells hand-sewn baby items, masks, Christmas ornaments, and anything with the Crosstown logo — she’s the official source for Crosstown-brand goods. Laurelwood is larger and a little more deluxe. “One of the focuses for that store is local and regional artisans,” Pesce says. She carries Mo’s Bows, Paul Edelstein paintings, and, of course, hand-crafted jewelry. “That’s really my wheelhouse.

“My studio is at Laurelwood,” Pesce says, “so not only is it made in Memphis, made by me, but it’s all under one roof now. The store, the studio. You can literally come pick out your own pearls — ‘I want this pearl on that earring’ — and then I craft it for you right there.”

Cheryl Pesce is located at 1350 Concourse Avenue, Suite 125, and at 374 Grove Park Road South, Suite 104. Find out more at (901) 308-6017 or at cherylpesce.com. — Jesse Davis

Good Reads

There’s something that comes from holding the edges of a book and being taken to a distant land or wondrous world. Whether it’s due to happenstance or the crazy and confusing world in which we find ourselves now, I have been reading more and more as the months drag on. To fuel my ever-growing hunger for words and phrases completed on the page, Novel has been my go-to place.

Novel is proof that when you are doing something you love, the results will follow. The bookstore, founded in 2017, is the go-to for other local book enthusiasts, too — and with good reason. Their staff will go to the moon and back to help you find the book that fits you just right, and if you’re looking for something specific, chances are they will be just as excited about it as you are.

Matthew J. Harris

of what gift to give this season.

Many of their aisles have felt like a second home to me the past few months. And with books in every genre, it is often easier to ask them what they don’t have, rather than what they do. Personally, I love their new-this-year home delivery option, which offers a safe way to give the gift of literature this holiday season. — Matthew J. Harris

Hit the Boards

This year has given us plenty of time to learn new skills. And what better way to get your mind pumping in both a constructive and competitive fashion than with a game of chess?

The Memphis Chess Club recently opened its new café/headquarters Downtown at 195 Madison Avenue, and the three levels of annual memberships make for a great gift, whether someone is looking to seriously pursue an interest in the game or just learn a few tips and tricks.

Samuel X. Cicci

A Memphis Chess Club membership isn’t as risky a move as the Queen’s Gambit.

The social membership ($50) allows members to play chess in the café area at any time, with tables, pieces, and clocks all provided. The full membership ($100), meanwhile, affords all of the social perks but provides unlimited and free access to all classes and tournaments, which are held at the club weekly. It also offers discounts on merchandise, and members are able to check out materials from the club’s chess library, which contains old magazines and strategy books.

For whole families looking to kickstart an interest in the game? The family membership ($150) contains all full membership benefits and includes two adults and all the children in a household.

And, hey, if chess isn’t your thing, the spacious café is a great space to just hang out or study while sipping on some brewed-in-house coffee or munching on one of chef Grier Cosby’s specialty pizzas.

Visit memphischessclub.com/join for more information. — Samuel X. Cicci

The Gift of Grub

Food is fun and helps define Memphis culture. Those who make that food and fun are in trouble.

Restaurants have maybe suffered more than any small business during this pandemic. Restrictions on them have come and gone and may come again soon. Memphis restaurateurs have shown amazing resilience in these ups and downs. They’ve shifted business models, adapted to the latest health directives, and adjusted staff levels (laying off workers and hiring them back) to match it all.

Memphis Restaurant Association/Facebook

Support local restaurants — so they can stick around.

However, we forever lost some Memphis favorites, like Lucky Cat and Grove Grill. The National Restaurant Association said nearly 100,000 restaurants across the country closed either permanently or for the long-term six months into the pandemic. Nearly 3 million employees have lost their jobs. Help restaurants out and have food fun, too. This holiday season, buy gift cards from our local restaurants.

At the pandemic’s beginning in March, we told you about a national push to buy “dining bonds” or “restaurant bonds.” Many Memphis restaurants jumped in — many selling gift cards at deep discounts. For restaurants, gift cards are quick infusions of cash, helpful in tough times.

So instead of that scarf you’re kind of on the fence about, spend the same amount on a restaurant they love. It’ll be unexpected and, yes, come with some delayed gratification — delicious delayed gratification. Present it not as a gift card but as that dish they love from that place they love.

Sing it with me: “Everybody knows, a burger and some mistletoe help to make the season bright. Memphis foodies, with their eyes all aglow, will find it hard to sleep tonight.”

Gift cards are available at almost every restaurant and for almost any amount. Check websites and socials for details. — Toby Sells

Music to Their Ears

Remember when giving music was a thing? Physical things like LPs, CDs, and cassettes could be wrapped. But now that everything’s ethereal, there’s still a way to give the gift that keeps on giving: Patreon. Musicians are embracing this platform more and more, and it’s working for them. A subscription to their accounts may just be the perfect gift for the superfan in your life who already has everything.

Mike Doughty (Soul Coughing, Ghost of Vroom) relies on his Patreon subscribers for both income and inspiration. As he told the Detroit Metro Times, “Doing a song a week is amazing, and that is really what, if I had my druthers, I’d do for the rest of my life.” Patrons can subscribe at different levels, each with premiums like CDs and T-shirts, but everyone paying at least $5 a month can access Doughty’s song-a-week and more.

Greg Cravens

Other Memphis-affiliated singer/songwriters like Eric Lewis, J.D. Reager, and (coming in December) Marcella and Her Lovers also have accounts. And last month, label and music retailer Goner Records began offering Patreon subscriptions that include access to the Goner archives and exclusive music and videos.

Patreon’s site notes that “there isn’t currently a way to gift patronage,” but if you get creative, you can search for an artist on patreon.com and buy a subscription in a friend’s or family member’s name — and they can thank you all through the year. — Alex Greene

Support Arts and Culture

“A plague on both your houses!” cried the dying Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, and it seems the COVID-19 pandemic took that sentiment to heart, emptying out our theaters and concert halls and thinning out attendance at museums. But still they persisted. The organizations behind the arts we love are still at work online, virtually, distancing, and striving to keep the arts alive — especially in programs aimed at young people.

You can help the old-fashioned way by getting season subscriptions and memberships for whenever the lights come back on — and they could use that support right now. Or make a simple donation. Help keep Memphis culture alive by giving gifts on behalf of the following, but don’t be limited by this partial list — if you have other favorites, give them a cup o’ kindness as well.

Jon W. Sparks

Spring, Summer, Fall at the Brooks Museum by Wheeler Williams

Performing arts organizations:

• Playhouse on the Square (playhouseonthesquare.org)

• Theatre Memphis (theatrememphis.org)

• Opera Memphis (operamemphis.org)

• Ballet Memphis (balletmemphis.org)

• New Ballet Ensemble (newballet.org)

• Cazateatro (cazateatro.org)

• New Moon Theatre (newmoontheatre.org)

• Hattiloo Theatre (hattiloo.org)

• Tennessee Shakespeare Company (tnshakespeare.org)

• Memphis Black Arts Alliance (memphisblackarts.org)

• Emerald Theatre Company (etcmemphistheater.com)

Museums and galleries:

• Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (brooksmuseum.org)

• Dixon Gallery and Gardens (dixon.org)

• National Civil Rights Museum (civilrightsmuseum.org)

• Metal Museum (metalmuseum.org)

• Stax Museum of American Soul Music (staxmuseum.com)

• Pink Palace Museum (memphismuseums.org)

• Children’s Museum of Memphis (cmom.com)

• Fire Museum of Memphis (firemuseum.org) — Jon W. Sparks

Basket or Box It for a Gift That Rocks It

Need something sweet for your honey this holiday season? Thistle & Bee has the gift that gives twice. A relaxing gift box contains raw Memphis honey, a milk and honey soap bar, and a pure beeswax candle ($20). Every item is handcrafted and directly supports women survivors to thrive through a journey of healing and hope.

Social enterprise director at Thistle & Bee, Ali Pap Chesney, drops a stinger: “We partner with other businesses, too. Feast & Graze uses our honey.”

Feast & Graze/Facebook

Feast & Graze

The cheese and charcuterie company Feast & Grace is co-owned by Cristina McCarter, who happens to co-own City Tasting Box. Boxes are filled with goodies promoting local Black-owned businesses like Pop’s Kernel and The Waffle Iron. An exclusive limited-quantity holiday gift box, Sugar and Spice, just rolled out for the season in two sizes — regular ($74.99) and ultimate ($124.99).

Memphis Gift Basket is owned by Jesse James, who says he is rolling out a new logo this week. Along with the new logo are new products for baskets ($55-$100) that focus on diversity by including more women- and minority-owned businesses, in addition to local items with iconic names like The Rendezvous and Memphis magazine. Guess what else you might find in a Memphis Gift Basket? Thistle & Bee honey.

Now that we’ve come full circle, check out these gift box and basket businesses, as well as partnering companies, for errbody on your holiday list — including that corporate gift list.

Visit thistleandbee.org, citytastingbox.com (use code SHIP100 for free shipping on orders over $100), and memphisgiftbasket.com for more. — Julie Ray

Lights, Camera, Action

A lot of businesses have been hard-hit during the pandemic, and movie theaters have been near the top of the list. With social distancing-limited theater capacity and Hollywood studios delaying major releases into next year in the hopes a vaccine will rekindle attendance, theater chains like Memphis-based Malco have been in dire straits. The exception has been drive-in theaters, like the Malco Summer Drive-In, which have seen a renaissance in 2020.

If you want to support this local institution and give a treat to the movie-lover in your life, you can buy them a Malco gift card. Available in any denomination from $10 to $500, the gift cards can be used for movie tickets and concessions for any film now or in the future. You can also enroll in the Malco Marquee Rewards program, which allows frequent moviegoers to earn points toward free tickets and concessions.

Greg Cravens

Malco has taken extraordinary steps to ensure the safety of its patrons, including mandatory masks, improved air filters, and non-contact payment options. And if you’re not comfortable sharing a theater with strangers right now, there’s a great option: The Malco Select program allows you to rent an entire theater for a screening of any film on the marquee — and that includes screenings in the massive IMAX theaters at the Paradiso. Prices start at $100, which works out pretty well if you want to watch Wonder Woman 1984 with your pod this holiday season. And if the person you’re buying for is a gamer, Malco has a brand-new option. With Malco Select Gaming, you can bring your system to the theater and play Call of Duty or The Last of Us on the biggest possible screen. — Chris McCoy

Categories
News News Blog

Coronavirus Megathread: Closings and Delays Across Memphis


Idlewild Presbyterian Church (Friday (March 20)

Churches from the Presbytery of the Mid-South are bringing together their congregations via the radio and Livestream to provide worship services at 11:00 a.m. Sunday, March 22, and for the near future, because of the recommended “social distancing” during the coronavirus outbreak. Members and guests can “be there” at the service, broadcasted from Idlewild Presbyterian Church. The service will be also be archived on the church’s website for later viewing.

The combined congregations of Balmoral, Buntyn, Evergreen, First (Memphis), First (Somerville), Idlewild, Parkway Gardens United and Shady Grove Presbyterian are providing various pastoral staff to participate during each service. This week’s service includes the following service leadership: The Reverend Anne H. K. Apple (Idlewild), The Reverend Carla Meisterman (Balmoral), The Reverend Sara Dorrien-Christians (Idlewild), The Reverend Elizabeth Dick (Evergreen), Mr. Barry Oliver, Director of Music Ministry (Idlewild) and soloists, Amy Phillips and Tyler Brumback (Idlewild). Members of Idlewild’s youth are the preachers for this Sunday: Helen Gillespie, Peter Calkins and Caroline Seamons.

Worship services are held in the sanctuary with no physical congregation, but all are invited “to attend” the service via the church’s Livestream, www.livestream.com/idlewild, or by listening to WIVG-FM 96.1.

For information about the church, please visit www.idlewildchurch.org or call 901-726-4681.

Memphis City Council (Thursday, March 19)

THE MEMPHIS CITY COUNCIL

Tuesday, March 24, 2020, 3:30 p.m.

Due to the declarations of a State of Emergency by the President of the United States, the Governor of Tennessee and the Mayor of Memphis relating to Covid-19 Epidemic the Council has determined that is necessary that the meeting be conducted by electronic or other means of communication in order to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public, City employees, Council staff and Members of the Council.

THERE WILL BE NO PHYSICAL MEETING

Memphis Botanic Gardens (Thursday, March 19)

I write today during this period of uncertainty, both locally and nationally. As I write this, your Garden has already taken numerous steps to help contain the spread of COVID-19 / Coronavirus and we stand ready to take more drastic measures if they become warranted.

Some of the steps we have taken – so far include:

The canceling of all events in excess of 10 people thru at least May 15, 2020.

The closing of My Big Backyard, our children’s garden, to the public beginning Friday, March 20. Because of the many interactive surfaces contained within this garden, we feel it is prudent to close this area off until further notice.

The opening of the Gardens (with the exception of the Children’s Garden) to the public without cost, effective Friday, March 20 and until further notice. We encourage social distancing, and with 96 acres to visit and small groups, we believe this to be a sensible gesture of goodwill to the community. Members and Guests may now enter directly onto Garden grounds at the south end of our parking lot without entering the building or interacting with staff.

This remains a very fluid situation, and we are doing our best to adapt and adhere to CDC guidelines as they evolve. We are also following local health official’s guidance. While at this time we do not intend to close the outdoor spaces of the Garden to the public, we will adapt to future guidance if it comes.

I encourage you to follow us on our social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) or to visit MemphisBotanicGarden.com for the most current situation as regards your Garden.

I wish you and your family well during this difficult time, and we will remain as transparent as possible in the days and weeks to come

City of Memphis Golf Courses (Thursday, March 19)

In light of current public health issues, for the safety of our golfers and employees, we have made the decision to temporarily close the City of Memphis Golf Courses. It is unknown as to the time frame of the closures. We will keep you updated via www.memphispubliclinks.com.

Locations include The links at Audobon, Overton, Galloway, Davy Crockett, Fox Meadows, Pine Hill, Riverside, and Whitehaven.

State Parks Group Hikes (Thursday, March 19)

We have decided to cancel our guided Spring Hikes this weekend. These annual hikes usually attract thousands of visitors to our parks, and these groups exceed the recommended group sizes for helping our communities “flatten the curve.”

We are sorry for this cancellation, and hope that you will plan to join us for our next signature hike on June 6, 2020.

Macy’s (Thursday, March 19)


In response to the widespread COVID-19 outbreak, Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE: M) today announced that it will temporarily close all stores by end of business today, March 17, 2020, through March 31, 2020. This includes all Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Bluemercury, Macy’s Backstage, Bloomingdales the Outlet and Market by Macy’s stores. Macy’s, Inc. will provide benefits and compensation to its impacted workforce.

“The health and safety of our customers, colleagues and communities is our utmost priority. As a result of the recent COVID-19 developments, we have decided to temporarily close our stores. We will work with government and health officials to assess when we will reopen our stores and safely bring our colleagues back to work,” said Jeff Gennette, chairman and chief executive officer of Macy’s, Inc. “During this closure, we will continue to serve our customers through our e-commerce sites.”

All three Macy’s, Inc. brands – Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury – will continue to serve customers through macys.com, bloomingdales.com and bluemercury.com and through its mobile apps.

Hope Church (Thursday, March 19)

We want to address our response to COVID-19 (coronavirus) and how we as a church are doing our part to flatten the curve, follow government and health official guidelines while keeping our family and community healthy!

Beginning this weekend, March 21 & 22, all Hope services will move online only. Together, we will connect, worship and experience God’s word online as one Hope family.

Join us on Facebook, YouTube, and HopeChurchMemphis.com/Live this Saturday night at 5:30 pm, Sunday morning at 11:15 am and Sunday night at 5:30 pm for The Stirring.

Overton Park (Thursday, March 19)


During these times where it’s safest for us to be apart from each other, we’re so glad that the trails and open spaces of Overton Park are serving as a refuge for many of us.

It’s with heavy hearts, then, that we’ve decided to close restrooms, playgrounds, and the dog park until further notice.

We’ve made this choice for two reasons: one, because keeping these facilities open encourages people to gather in close proximity to each other; and two, because there are no current CDC guidelines for how to clean playgrounds and outdoor recreation facilities during a pandemic outbreak.

With reports that COVID-19 can live on surfaces for days, and our cleaning crew only able to visit once or twice per day, there’s simply no way for us to keep all surfaces sanitized for every visitor.

The park’s trail system remains open for you to get some much-needed fresh air. (PSA: The nature trails are so saturated from the endless rain that you’d need wading boots to walk them, so we recommend the paved trails for now!) We encourage you to follow the National Recreation and Park Association’s guidelines for using the trails:

• Before visiting trails — wash hands, carry hand sanitizer, and do not use trails if you have symptoms.

• Observe at all times CDC’s minimum recommended social distancing of six feet from other people. Keep it as you walk, bike or hike.

• Alert other trail users of your presence, and step off trails to allow others to pass, keeping minimum recommended distances at all times.

• Be prepared before you leave and time outings so that you are not dependent on public restrooms.

• Bring water or drinks — public drinking fountains may be disabled and should not be used, even if operable.

• Bring a suitable trash bag. Take trash with you to protect park workers.

• We’ve posted signs announcing the closures, but our playgrounds are open-air, so we’ll need everyone’s cooperation to stay away. Thank you for helping to keep yourself and other park visitors safe.

Memphis Zoo (Wednesday, March 18)

Memphis Zoo will temporarily close to the public Thursday, March 19th.

The health and safety of our team members, guests, volunteers and animals is our top priority, and Memphis Zoo is committed to taking proactive steps to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Any guests who had field trips or group visits planned will be able to reschedule or receive a refund.

While we are closed, our zookeepers and essential team members will continue to care for our animals. Zoo fans will also be able to check on our animals and team members through our social media accounts.

How you can help Memphis Zoo

During our closure, we are reaching out to our Memphis Zoo friends to ask for your support. Please consider donating to our Emergency Animal Support Fund. We appreciate your continued support and look forward to welcoming you to the Zoo again soon. To donate please visit memphiszoo.org/emergencysupportfund.

Orion Federal Credit Union (Wednesday, March 18)


The safety and well-being of our community is Orion’s highest priority. Orion continues to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely and we are making necessary adjustments to business processes and operations.

Beginning Friday, March 20, 2020, we are temporarily shifting our branch services approach to drive-through only. Our ATMs are available 24 hours a day. For non-cash transactions, remember you can bank with us without leaving the comfort of your home.

YMCA (Wednesday, March 18)

Due to the ongoing public health emergency presented by the COVID-19 virus outbreak and recommendations from the CDC and other health officials, ​the YMCA will be temporarily closing all 11 YMCA of Memphis & the Mid-South locations effective at 8:00 p.m. on March 18, 2020.

According to the YMCA, the goal with the temporary closure is to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the community before it threatens to overwhelm the public health system, while continuing to focus resources on providing services to healthcare workers, first responders, and those most vulnerable in our community.

“In times like these, the very best of who we are is called forward, giving us the opportunity to live our mission and values and promise to the community. Now, it is critical that we step up and respond to the needs in our community, redirect our expertise and resources, serve those who need us most, and provide inspirational leadership and hope for all. We will pivot our operations to focus on our community response to the unique circumstances created by the COVID-19 virus and repurpose our branches as community response centers,” said Jerry Martin, President and CEO for YMCA of Memphis & the Mid-South.

YMCA Emergency Childcare For First Responders & Healthcare Workers:

Effective Thursday, March 19, 2020, Healthcare & First Responder Childcare will be offered 7 days a week from 6:00AM to 8:00PM to accommodate a 12-hour shift schedule for these families at various YMCA locations throughout our community. Care will be supervised by trained childcare team members for children ages 3 years (potty trained) to 12 years of age.

For more information and to sign up please visit ​www.ymcamemphis.org​ or call our Customer Support Center at 901-766-7677.

YMCA Partnering with School Districts for Meal Services:

The YMCA of Memphis & the Mid-South will be joining our schools partners to provide children access to meals at designated sites throughout our community.
Meals are scheduled to be served between 11:00 a.m – 1:00 p.m beginning March 23, 2020. For a full list of meals site locations, visit: ​www.ymcamemphis.org

Highpoint Climbing & Fitness (Wednesday, March 18)

In a continued effort to mitigate risk and prioritize safety, we have decided to temporarily suspend operations of all High Point facilities beginning March 18th through March 31st. We believe that social distancing is the best way for us to do our part in slowing the spread of COVID-19.

While we try our best to keep our doors open whenever possible, in this instance, our temporary closure can help ensure the safety of our members, staff and the overall community. We will be monitoring how this situation continues to unfold and use this as an opportunity to do a deep sanitation of all facilities.

To our members:
• During this time memberships will automatically be frozen at no additional cost and you will receive a prorated credit to be applied toward next month’s dues.
• We will provide a status update on billing by March 27th as well as any additional details on possible closure extensions.
• If you need to contact the gym, or if you need to retrieve items from a locker in our locker rooms, we will be maintaining office hours Mon-Fri from 10am to 4pm. Please email us at Memphis@highpointclimbing.com and we will be happy to coordinate with your needs.
We are looking forward to serving all of our wonderful community members again soon and in the meantime encourage everyone to stay positive and safe as we move through this together!

Pink Palace (Tuesday, March 17)

As a public health precaution due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), the Pink Palace Family of Museums including the Pink Palace Museum, theater,  planetarium, Lichterman Nature Center, Mallory-Neely House  and Magevney House will temporarily close to the public beginning Wednesday, March 18, 2020.

 “The Pink Palace Family of Museums has remained open these past two days in order to wind down scheduled activities between now and the end of May.  In just two short days, our staff has worked incredibly hard at winding down operations affecting over 11,000 people who had scheduled visits through May,” said Kevin Thompson, Executive Director Pink Palace Family of Museums. 

The public is encouraged to visit the Pink Palace Family of Museums website (www.memephismuseums.org), Facebook and Instagram pages for online content for children and adults created to keep the public engaged and entertained during this period of home quarantine. 

“We plan to roll out online services next week in order to continue to engage with the public. We have an initial set of items for next week, and plans are in the works to continue to create online environments to share our history.  Please check our website and social media outlets for more information,” continued Thompson.


Ballet Memphis (Tuesday, March 17)


Ballet Memphis is prioritizing the health of students, families, dancers, patrons, and staff, and will be taking the following precautions against the spread of COVID-19:

● Ballet Memphis Office: Closed to the public beginning March 18th until further notice

● Ballet Memphis School: Closed until further notice

● Pilates and Adult Classes: All classes, workshops and certifications canceled until further notice

● 2020-21 Company Auditions: in-person auditions canceled – Digital video submissions, headshot and resume should now be sent to auditions@balletmemphis.org

● Cinderella: Performance and supporting events canceled.

“Cinderella is a piece that brings magic to life for families, but we will not perform at the expense of our community,” says Steven McMahon, Artistic Director. “We are being proactive, both in prevention and serving our community. We hope that during this time, we’ll be able to reach our audience through virtual tools so that we may continue to bring dance to Memphis.”

Those who have already purchased tickets to Cinderella will be contacted directly. Refunds are available for tickets purchased through Ballet Memphis, however the organization is asking patrons to consider purchased tickets a donation.

“On behalf of the Ballet Memphis team, I can’t wait to bring Ballet Memphis back to the stage very soon,” said McMahon.

Ballet Memphis staff will continue to communicate any updates and ways they will continue to share the power of dance in a time when our community could use it most.

Memphis Rox (Tuesday, March 17)

In light of recent announcements over the past few days about local schools, organizations, and businesses closing due to concerns with Coronavirus COVID-19 and an increased emphasis on the safety, health, and wellness, Memphis Rox Climbing Gym will temporarily close Wednesday, March 18 for the remainder of the month. We will continue to monitor circumstances daily and will remain flexible and forward-thinking in regards to the next steps.

Our top priority is the safety and well-being of our guests, employees, and our community. Our commitment to improving the quality of life for Mid-Southerners through climbing and community outreach has not wavered during this time of uncertainty looming around Coronavirus (COVID-19). Now more than ever, it is important for us all to exercise collective leadership and take precautionary measures to participate in the healing of our city, state, nation, and world.

Furthermore, we will steadfastly follow all protocols recommended by the CDC, Tennessee Health Department, and Shelby County Health Department and encourage everyone in the community to do the same.

To support our staff during this time of closure and uncertainty, all employees will be paid for their previous average weekly hours worked, even as the gym remains closed for the next two weeks. We will then create various projects for our employees to participate in to improve the gym experience for our customers with an emphasis on safety protocols.

Art Museum of the University of Memphis (Tuesday, March 17)

In keeping with the measures the University is taking to contain the spread of COVID-19, the opening reception for “In 7, 6, 5…” scheduled for March 21st has been cancelled. We tentatively postpone re-opening to the public until March 31st. Please contact the museum for further information. In spite of being closed to the public, AMUM continues to install our upcoming exhibition and will be sharing online stories about “In 7, 6, 5…” once the show is up. When we are able to re-open to the public, then we will schedule an opening reception to replace the one that was cancelled, which would have taken place on March 21st.


Memphis River Parks Partnership (Tuesday, March 17)
 Justin Fox Burks

An aerial view of the new River Garden park.


As much as we love having folks share the space of the Memphis River Parks, we’re reminded that we’re all in this together to keep Memphis healthy. Please follow guidance from the CDC and Shelby County Health Department.

The Partnership has increased the frequency of scheduled cleaning and sanitizing in all park facilities and reinforced recommended procedures with staff while monitoring development and following the latest guidance on COVID-19.

All public events scheduled to take place on the riverfront in the next eight weeks have been postponed or canceled. Keep updated on the latest on Facebook and our website.

Metal Museum (Tuesday, March 17)

It is with deep regret that we inform you that we have made the difficult yet necessary decision to close the Metal Museum to the public, effective immediately until further notice. This includes all public programs and classes.

As with our peer institutions in the city of Memphis and across the country, we believe this is the best course of action to ensure the continued well-being of our visitors, volunteers, and staff.

Please watch your email and/or the Museum’s website and social media for the most up-to-date information. Our staff will continue to work during this time to answer any questions you have and to ensure that exhibitions and programs are to the high standard you expect when we reopen. Should you have any questions during this time, please do not hesitate to email us at info@metalmuseum.org.

We greatly appreciate your understanding and flexibility during this time and, as always, your support of the Metal Museum.

Hattiloo Theatre (Tuesday, March 17)

In light of the developing news about the coronavirus (COVID-19), here’’s the latest from Hattiloo. We continue to look to the CDC, the Shelby County government and the City of Memphis and state leadership for guidance. Following the temporary recommendation to limit public gatherings, and in concert with our colleagues throughout the theatre industry, we’’ve suspended all performances through May 1, 2020. 

 

We’’re adapting as quickly as we can to this situation. For your convenience, as always, you can email us at manager@hattilootheatre.org, or call 901.502.3486. With the expected volume of emails, it may take us 3-5 business days to respond, but rest assured that we will get back to you. Our shows are canceled for now, but our staff is here for you.  

If you have tickets for this weekend’s performance, please email tickets@hattilootheatre.org for information.

Thank you for your support. Please stay safe, and we look forward to seeing you when Hattiloo reopens.

Southland Casino Racing (Monday, March 16)

The situation surrounding coronavirus (COVID-19) is rapidly developing, and Southland Casino Racing continues to be focused on efforts at our facility to protect the health and safety or our guests and employees. 

In coordination with the Arkansas State Racing Commission and the State of Arkansas, we are acting to temporarily close the venue. No new patrons will be permitted into the facility after 11:59 p.m. tonight, Monday, March 16, and the facility will be closed at 6 a.m. March 17 until further notice. All activities are canceled, including casino promotions.

We will be communicating as quickly as possible with our employees to assist them during this period. We thank them for their ongoing diligence and ability to adapt in a very fluid and unprecedented circumstance.

To date, we have worked to protect public health by following CDC guidelines on sanitizing protocols and cleaning throughout our venue. We will remain in close touch with State and County health officials, and we look forward to reopening Southland Casino Racing shortly and continuing to provide a clean, safe environment.

We apologize for the inconvenience and look forward to hosting you again in the near future. We will keep you updated on our website at www.southlandcasino.com and via Facebook.com/SouthlandCasinoRacing as more details become available.

Opera Memphis (Monday, March 16)

Members of the Opera Memphis family,



Earlier today, Opera Memphis made the difficult decision to cancel our 2020 Midtown Opera Festival, including the production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. 



Though this decision is heartbreaking, we know it is vital that we play our part in combating the spread of COVID-19 in this truly unprecedented situation. 



We know there are many disappointed opera lovers reading this, so we are also taking the opportunity to announce 30 Days of Digital Opera beginning on April 1. Every September, we fan out through the city giving free performances for the entire month. This coming April, instead, will be a chance for us to provide fresh, daily content on all of our digital channels.



More details will be shared on this new program as it develops. We know nothing can replace the feeling of seeing an opera live and in person, but hopefully, this new program will help bridge the gap!



Within the next several days, we will reach out to all of our ticket holders and provide them with their options.  We hope our patrons will consider donating their tickets to help us recoup some revenue, as the company has decided to pay our artists and crew who rely on performances for their livelihood. 



Finally, the administrative offices for Opera Memphis will be temporarily closed. If you have any questions or concerns, you may contact us at info@operamemphis.org.



Thank you in advance for your patience.

Germantown Performing Arts Center (Monday, March 16)


Friends and Family of GPAC:

The safety of GPAC’s audiences, artists, volunteers and staff are our first priority. In response to the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), GPAC will be closed to the public indefinitely as of Monday, March 16, at 5 p.m. The following events have been modified:

Welcome to Night Vale Live, March 18, at 7:30 p.m.: This show will be rescheduled. We’re working with the tour on a new date, and GPAC will make an announcement as soon as it is set. 

Peanut Butter & Jam: José! by New Ballet Ensemble, March 21, at 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.: This program will be rescheduled. Please stay tuned for the new date.

Artist’s Reception with Pam Santi, March 21, at 5 p.m.: This reception has been cancelled.

Germantown Symphony Orchestra 250th Anniversary Beethoven Celebration, March 21, at 7 p.m.: GSO is rescheduling this concert and apologizes for any inconvenience.  Please hold onto your tickets and they will be providing additional information once more is known about the future concert schedule.

Memphis Symphony Orchestra: Masterworks 5: Strauss, Tchaikovsky, & Shostakovich, March 22, at 2:30 p.m. MSO will not hold the concert. The decision to reschedule or cancel will be determined at a later date, and will be guided by public health and safety and scheduling considerations. Additional updates will be made on the MSO website, social media and emails to subscribers and ticket buyers. Please contact the MSO Box Office with any ticket related questions at (901) 537-2500 or tickets@memphissymphony.org.

ArtSavvy: Shadow Play Workshop, March 24, at 7 p.m.: This program will be rescheduled or cancelled based on safety and scheduling considerations. You can find updates here or on the Facebook event.

Jazz in the Box: Emmet Cohen & Houston Person, March 27, at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.: This show will be rescheduled. We’re working on a new date based on safety and scheduling considerations. GPAC will make an announcement as soon as it is set.

Pilobolus—Shadowland: The New Adventure, March 28, 8 p.m.: Pilobolus’ performance has been rescheduled for Saturday, September 19, at 8 p.m. Tickets for the March performance are valid for the September show.

Visual Arts Exhibit, Artist’s Reception and Artist Chat with Yancy Villa Calvo will be rescheduled for the fall. Keep an eye on information for the 2020-2021 Season for details.

Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers, Saturday, April 11, 8 p.m. This performance will be rescheduled or cancelled based on safety and scheduling considerations. Tickets for the April concert will be valid for the rescheduled show.

Artsavvy: Gullah Traditions, Tuesday, April 14, 7 p.m. This program will be rescheduled or cancelled based on safety and scheduling considerations. You can find updates here or on the Facebook event.

Victor Wooten and the Wooten Brothers, Thursday, April 16, 7:30 p.m. This show will be rescheduled, we are working with the tour on a new date.Tickets for the April performance are valid for the rescheduled show.

Ranky Tanky, Friday, April 17, 8 p.m. This performance will be rescheduled or cancelled based on safety and scheduling considerations. Tickets for the April Ranky Tanky concert will be valid for the rescheduled show.

We will communicate updates for these events via the GPAC website, social media and through emails to patrons and ticket holders affected by rescheduled events and cancellations. If you have questions regarding ticketing for the above mentioned performances, please call the GPAC box office at (901) 751-7500 or at boxoffice@gpacweb.com. Thank you for your understanding. 

Quark Theatre (Monday, March 16)

Quark is suspending performances until, hopefully, we can remount it in the (near) future. That may be in 2 weeks; it may be in 2 months. We will keep you informed.

We had originally planned to complete our entire run. While we believe any possibility of virus transmission at Theatre South is quite low because it only holds, at the most, 50 people, we understand the the possibility is not zero. We also understand that people are concerned right now and seem to be getting more so.
We hope to see more of you in the future!


Playhouse on the Square (Monday, March 16)

The safety of our patrons, staff, artists, teachers, and volunteers is of utmost importance, and we at Playhouse on the Square (Circuit Playhouse, Inc.) have been adjusting our plans to confront the challenges of COVID-19 on a daily basis based on information from the CDC, WHO, Shelby County Health Department, City of Memphis, and the State of Tennessee.

 

With 18 productions on 3 stages, 2 school touring productions, and 13 education and outreach programs, reaching 10s of 1000s of people yearly, there are many moving parts, and we strive to present our offerings with as little disruption as possible.

 

This past weekend, the CDC issued new recommendations, and we will be implementing the following courses of action:

 

·      Beginning on 3/16/20, we will be cancelling remaining performances of The Book of Will; Ain’t Misbehavin’; Schoolhouse Rock Live; The Ant and the Grasshopper; and Days of Rage through May 7, 2020.

·      We will push the entire run of Little Shop of Horrors 1 or 2 weeks later to run May 8 through May 31 or May 15 through June 7.

·      We will shorten the run of Mississippi Goddamn by opening one week later to run June 12 through June 28.

·      We will push the entire run of Something Rotten 1 week later  to run June 26 through July 12.

·      St. Paulie’s Delight’s run will retain its current schedule, July 10 through July 26.

·      After School Acting Program (ASAP) and Theatre School will be cancelled until the Fall.

·      TnT and PlaySlam will be postponed to a later date.

·      Summer Youth Conservatory programming will retain its current schedule.

·      The 43rd Annual Original Art Auction, scheduled for April 25, will be postponed until Summer or Fall of 2020.

 

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and we hope that you will continue to support Playhouse on the Square as we endeavor to confront both the health and economic challenges to our patrons, staff, teachers, and volunteers.

 

If you have tickets for upcoming cancelled performances, our Box Office team will be reaching out to you to change your reservation to another show, issue refunds, or process your payment as a donation should you prefer that option. Our Box Office (901-726-4656) will maintain normal business hours until further notice.

201 Poplar (Monday, March 16)

In light of the health and safety concerns surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the criminal justice system at 201 Poplar will be functioning much differently over the next few weeks, Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich said Monday.

Major changes will include:

• Out-of-custody defendants with cases in General Sessions and/or Criminal Court will have their cases reset automatically to the corresponding day of the week of April 20, 2020, through May 5, 2020. You do not need to appear at 201 Poplar.

Here is the updated schedule:

• In-custody cases are top priority and will be handled as usual.

• There will be no jury trials until further notice.

• The Shelby County Grand Jury will not meet until further notice.

• If you are a victim or a witness subpoenaed by the DA’s office, someone from the DA’s office will contact you. If you have not been contacted within a day of your ordered appearance, please call 901-222-1300 and ask for the Victim Witness Unit.

Other important numbers to keep:

General Sessions Criminal Court Clerk – 901-222-3500

Criminal Court Clerk – 901-222-3200


Gold Strike Casino Resort (Monday, March 16)

GM Resorts International announced its decision to temporarily suspend operations at its two Mississippi properties, Beau Rivage Resort & Casino and Gold Strike Casino Resort, until further notice, effective as of Tuesday, March 17th. Casino operations will close at 6 a.m. CST, followed by hotel operations.

“Our highest priority remains the health and wellbeing of our guests and employees. We will work to mitigate the impact this will have on our employees, partners and communities,” said MGM Chief Operating Officer and president Bill Hornbuckle. “We will continue monitoring the situation and announce plans for reopening when appropriate.”

Crosstown Arts (Saturday, March 14)

Crosstown Arts is working to help slow the potential transmission of coronavirus and is postponing all music performances, public events, gallery open hours, Shared Art Making open hours, and food/beverage service at the cafe and Art Bar through April 1. Refunds to any ticketed events will be issued within 48 hours.

For updates about when these spaces and programs will resume normal operation, please look for an announcement in the Crosstown Arts newsletter; check out crosstownarts.org; or follow Crosstown Arts on social media — Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Dixon Gallery and Gardens (Monday, March 16)

Dear Friends,

The Dixon Gallery and Gardens is above all concerned for the health and safety of our visitors, employees, and many volunteers. We are measuring our response to the new Coronavirus/COVID 19 by the best and most current information available from the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Shelby County Health Department, the American Alliance of Museums, all the area hospitals, and the City of Memphis. We have taken part in conference calls with the Association of Art Museum Directors, ArtsMemphis, and the Cultural Coalition of Memphis to learn how other organizations are gathering information and making decisions. We have been impressed by the spirit of cooperation, the sharing of information, the sacrifice, and the genuine compassion of the cultural sector in Memphis.

The Dixon has taken a number of actions—some very difficult—in trying to combat the spread of Coronavirus/COVID 19 in our community. Effective Tuesday, March 17, we are closing the Dixon Galleries, the museum facility, for the next two weeks. We will see where we are on Monday, March 30. Count on regular updates. We also are cancelling all education and outreach programs, whether in the museum or in the gardens, and asking our many volunteers to work from home the next two weeks or to take a few days off.

The Dixon is also canceling or postponing the following large events: the Margaret Oates Dixon Society gathering (18 March); the Philipp Laagland lecture (19 March); the Daffodil Show (20-21 March); the Director of Horticulture tour of ‘Dixon Blooms’ (24 March); the Memphis Flower Show (3-5 April); the Cosmopolitans Spring Party (9 April); and the Dixon Easter Egg Hunt (11 April). The Dixon is determined to make good and transparent decisions for the safety of our visitors, staff, and volunteers, and to get reliable information to you in a timely fashion.

For the time being, the Dixon Gardens will remain open. If you come to the gardens, please be considerate of one another’s personal space. Temporary social distancing is one of the very simple actions we can all practice—along with staying home if we feel ill, washing our hands vigorously and frequently, and refraining from touching our faces—to thwart COVID 19. The Dixon has also doubled and tripled our cleaning and disinfecting efforts around our campus.

The best thing the Dixon can do for our community right now is to eliminate any close public interactions that are not necessary. Don’t get me wrong, art is essential, but it is also eternal, and it will be waiting for you in the Dixon Galleries when we reopen. And the Dixon Gardens await you. With 200,000 tulips and other flowering bulbs coming into bloom, the gardens offer abundant joy and solace in these challenging times. I repeat, our seventeen acres also present more than ample room for safe social distancing. Please respect the personal space of others while you are here.

Thank you for your support of the Dixon. We will get through this together.

Kevin Sharp

Stax Museum of American Soul Music (Monday, March 16)

The Soulsville Foundation – which operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Stax Music Academy, and The Soulsville Charter School at the original site of Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee –has made the difficult decision to temporarily close the Stax Museum beginning March 18, 2020 out of concern for the safety of its employees, visitors, volunteers, and other guests amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

While we have not seen any signs of COVID-19 among our staff and visitors, we feel that we should take this preventative measure because the circumstances surrounding the virus are changing by the hour and we always err on the side of caution when it comes to safety, which is our top priority.

While the museum’s closure status will be reevaluated every two weeks, it is postponing until further notice all events and programs until at least April 30, 2020.

The Stax Museum is unique in that it is not only an international tourist destination drawing people from around the world and a community-based museum offering free programming for the general public throughout the year, but it also shares the same campus as the aforementioned Stax Music Academy and The Soulsville Charter School, which provide education and other services to roughly 800 children and families each day. In keeping with Shelby County Schools’ policies, both schools are closed until March 30, 2020.

“Like the rest of the world, we are deeply concerned about the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak,” said Soulsville Foundation President and CEO Richard Greenwald. “We realize that many of the Stax Museum’s guests travel to Memphis from across the United States and from other countries and, given the propensity for the virus to affect those traveling, we feel it’s our responsibility to help stop the spread of COVID-19 by temporarily closing the Stax Museum. It’s not an easy decision but we feel it’s the right thing to do at this time.”

In the meantime, the Soulsville Foundation will continue deep cleaning and sanitizing of all its facilities and following all protocol set forth by the American Alliance of Museums, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Shelby County Health Department, and other relevant organizations. We urge everyone to follow these guidelines to help stop the spread of the virus.

We will keep the public updated on any and all changes during this time and regret any inconvenience.

“Our hearts go out to the millions of people being affected by COVID-19,” Greenwald continued. “Our hope is that the pandemic will eventually subside and we can return to business as usual of preserving and promoting the legacy of Stax Records in the many ways we do that.”

Earnestine & Hazel’s (Posted there Thursday, March 12)

Toby Sells

Earnestine & Hazel’s wil shut down for two weeks.

Owners of Earnestine & Hazel’s closed the “most popular dive bar in America” for two weeks in a memorandum that appeared on the bar’s front door Thursday.

“I hope my actions are going to be considered overkill, perhaps like taking a flame thrower to a cockroach,” said co-owner (and medical doctor) Dr. Kevin Merigian. “My intuition tells me otherwise.

Agricenter (Monday, March 16)

Agricenter is closely monitoring the recommendations from the CDC and Shelby County Health Department as it relates to COVID-19 in our region. CDC issued guidance over the weekend on limiting gatherings to 50 people or less.

Effective immediately, all event activities in Agricenter’s Expo Center, ShowPlace Arena, and Farmer’s Market that are larger than 50 people will be postponed or cancelled through March 31, 2020.

Agricenter is working closely with show organizers to reschedule their events as possible. Event notices will be posted on the events page here: www.agricenter.org/events

Memphis International Raceway (Monday, March 16)

Memphis International Raceway (MIR) and its parent company IRG Sports + Entertainment (IRGSE) have made changes to the upcoming event schedule in adherence with national, state and local public health officials’ recommendations to limit the spread of COVID-19.

• The 34th annual Super Chevy Show has been postponed and rescheduled to Sept. 25-27, 2020
• Memphis International Raceway will host an action-packed doubleheader weekend by combining the 34th annual Super Chevy Show with the ARCA Racing Series 200 championship race of the Sioux Chief Showdown Saturday, Sept. 26 – this is a weekend you will not want to miss
• Anyone who has purchased tickets to the 34th Annual Super Chevy Show will be able to transfer their tickets to the rescheduled date of Sept. 25-27, 2020.


Children’s Museum of Memphis (Monday, March 16)

The Children’s Museum of Memphis will be closed temporarily as a safety measure beginning Tuesday, March 17, based on the CDC and local health departmental recommendations.

Dr. Stewart Burgess, Executive Director of the museum, said: “Although we have not had any presumed or confirmed cases of the virus at the museum, we would rather do our part to protect the safety of our visitors, staff, and the community.”

Although we are making this adjustment, we plan to provide parents with fun, educational materials, and creative suggestions to keep their children engaged. And, of course, we will have some fun activities planned for when this concern has been resolved.

Our staff will continue to monitor released health updates and will post any updates on our website and social channels.

Indie Memphis (Monday, March 16)

Indie Memphis is postponing upcoming events in March and April as a precaution to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

If you purchased a ticket to a film screening, you will be receiving a refund and/or your member credits will be returned.

Our youth film mentor teams have been recommended to meet virtually during this time to avoid close contact.

I am in regular communication with our peer arts organizations in Memphis and around the country as the situation evolves. We look forward to announcing new programming and rescheduling screenings when the time is appropriate.

National Civil Rights Museum (Monday, March 16)

The Lorraine Motel is among the three sites in Memphis to be included on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.

A Special Alert from the National Civil Rights Museum
regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19)

With news of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic escalating, the National Civil Rights Museum will temporarily CLOSED to the public, beginning Tuesday, March 17, until further notice. We recognize that this situation is extremely fluid and feel it necessary to halt operations to ensure the safety of our employees and guests.

While the Museum is closed, all public events and programming are cancelled. This includes our annual April 4th commemorative service.

We will provide frequent updates on any changes in our operations status. Thank you for your understanding as we work together to ensure a safe environment for everyone associated with the Museum.

For more information from health officials regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19), visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.

Kroc Center of Memphis

In light of the national developments and rapidly changing conditions regarding the spread of COVID-19 (commonly referred to as coronavirus), the Kroc Center of Memphis has temporarily suspended all public programming and operations effective immediately.

As risks have increased regarding community spread of COVID-19 across Memphis and the Mid-South, we have considered all options and have ultimately decided to follow CDC guidelines to limit public exposures. As such, all activity, with the exception of Spring Break camp, will be suspended in our building effective Monday, March 16. Spring Break Camp will be held March 16-17 only.

As this matter evolves, we will offer facility updates on when we plan to reopen. Our local and national Kroc Center teams are working within parameters set forth by the CDC and the guidance of local government to determine when we can safely return to normal operations. For those that are enrolled in programs, we will communicate plans for rescheduling as that information becomes available. If you have any questions in the interim, please contact us at info@krocmemphis.org. You may also call 901.729.8007, and press 2.

Temporarily closing our doors is a difficult decision, as we balance being available to the community with being proactive in the interest of public health. We are grateful to have your understanding and patience during this time.

We truly appreciate your support and commitment to helping us create a welcoming space for Worship, Arts, Education, and Recreation. We know that staying fit and active is our best way to build a strong immune system and stay healthy. Even though you can’t make it in to join us in person, here is a FREE online option of our Les Mills fitness classes to help keep you active and working out at home. This platform offers 95 free workouts across 8 categories and it will remain available as long as the disruption from Coronavirus continues. Additionally, we plan to post on our social media platforms, providing tips to stay active and engaged over the coming day.

Please continue to observe the recommended practices for maintaining good health, and we look forward to seeing you when the Kroc Center reopens.

Blessings,

The Salvation Army Kroc Center

Memphis Restaurant Association (Monday, March 16)

Postponed – Pro Tips for Avoiding ADA Nightmares
We feel it is responsible to postpone the March membership meeting at this time.

Thanks to Evans Petree for being flexible and agreeing to speak at a later date which is to be determined.

Brooks Museum of Art (Sunday, March 15)

We have made the painful but necessary decision to temporarily close the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, effective Sunday, March 15 at 5:00 pm until March 31, 2020. This includes all public programming.⁣

⁣

Since March 4, the Brooks staff has made extraordinary efforts to disinfect and sanitize its spaces. We now believe we must close temporarily to further limit transmission of COVID-19, and do all we can as a public institution to ensure the safety of our visitors, staff, volunteers and community.⁣
⁣
We understand how rapidly this situation is evolving, so we will provide updates as we have more information. ⁣
⁣
Meanwhile, as one of our region’s greatest cultural assets, we hope that you will enjoy checking our website and social media to experience our temporary exhibition, “Native Voices, 1950s to Now: Art for a New Understanding,” our great permanent collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, photographs, decorative arts, and new media; and snapshots of some of our nationally-recognized educational programs in action. ⁣
⁣
We appreciate your support of the Brooks and our efforts to care for our community. We assure you that our staff and Board are committed to making this effort as effective and smooth as possible for everyone in our great city.
Categories
Art Art Feature

Metal Sculptor Lewis Body Sets up Shop in Memphis

Lewis Body was a “misfit artist” during his teen years in Michigan.”I wasn’t interested in school,” he says.

Except art. His art teacher let him spend as much time as he wanted in the art department. “She gave me confidence because she saw something in me.”

Now the owner of L. B. Metal Design in Memphis, metal sculptor/blacksmith Body, 27, recently completed two bus shelters for Athens, Georgia. He takes commissions for furniture, sculpture, and architectural metalwork. But, he says, “Public art is the main thing we’re pushing.”

Lewis Body

Body began working with metal when he was 12. “I would find old Schwinn bikes in dumpsters, and I would chop them up and put long forks on them,” he says. “And make goofy art bikes.”

When he was 14, he got a job in a body shop, where he learned the basics of fabrication and how to weld.

His first metal sculpture was a 3-foot tree made of rebar, which he took to Metal Inc., an art fabrication studio. He was told, “It looks good, but what you need to do is spend time. Really look at a tree and study it. Study each part and what it does.”

Body continued working on his tree, which he wanted to taper. “Working out how I was going to make it taper was what made me realize blacksmithing was even a thing,” he says.

A man at Metal Inc. gave Body an old forge — and, eventually, a job.

Eva Langsdon sits under “Synergy,” a bus shelter by metalsmith Lewis Body.

A year later, Body began apprenticing with master blacksmith Scott Lankton at Lankton Metal Design. “All the forging, blacksmithing techniques in the beginning were learned from him,” he says.

That’s when Body knew his career path. “As soon as I saw what blacksmithing could produce, it was over.” He created a table and then progressed to more contemporary furniture and sculpture.

Body got numerous commissions, but after a year in business, he decided to sell his anvil, buy a plane ticket, and move to Hawaii, where he helped restore a 150-year-old Chinese temple.

After returning, almost a year later, to the mainland, Body began working at Bondi Metal Designs in Oakland, California. While there, he got an apprenticeship at the Metal Museum, which was “maybe the most important thing” he’s done for his career. “It gave me the time and resources to develop my own style,” which he describes as “minimalist” and “volumetric.”

“It’s not flat,” he says. “Every dimension takes up space.”

While at the museum, Body was chosen to do a public arts commission for a guard rail for Johnson City, Tennessee. “I’m grateful to the museum for that experience because they really let me take the reins on it,” he says. “I did all the design work and coordinated with the builders and kind of led the fabrication in the museum shop.”

He decided long ago to stay here. “I fell in love with Memphis through my time here,” he says. “It’s got a real charm to it.”

Body moved all the machinery he’d collected over the years to a warehouse, which he converted to his blacksmith shop. He and his girlfriend, painter/metalsmith Eva Langsdon, who works with him, live in Midtown.

After the move, he got commissions for the Georgia bus shelters. “Synergy” is a contemporary minimalist design with a cantilever roof and a stainless steel bench. “Civic Sprout” is “inspired by a sprouting plant, but the forms are still pretty contemporary in nature,” he says.

Body feels he’s in a good place. “I couldn’t ask for too much more.”

As for Memphis, Body says, “I don’t plan on leaving any time soon.” But, he adds, “I’d like to retire to Hawaii.”

L. B. Metal Design is at 309 West Olive Avenue; (248) 410-0765.

Categories
Cover Feature News

On the Clock: Memphis Animals Who Put in a Day’s Work

CREDIT: Bee Garriott/Facebook

My three dogs haven’t worked a day in their lives. Unless you consider napping, eating, and demanding lovin’s work. That’s my oldest boy, Doogie Howser, on the cover. (Shout-out to Hollywood Feed for providing his cover-worthy wardrobe.) He’s 9 years old, and he is the very best boy. Doogie’s brought me — and, I’m certain, all who’ve encountered him — so much joy (and unsolicited slobbery kisses), so, in that sense, you could say he has put in some work. He also provided crucial insight and editorial assistance for this cover story and is awaiting his paycheck.

We thought it’d be cool to search the city for other animals putting in the time — to brighten people’s days, relieve anxiety, greet guests, or entertain the masses. We found dogs (lots of dogs), cats, ducks, fish, and even goats working various jobs in Memphis. We hope you’ll enjoy — as much as we did — getting to know more about these hard workers and how they keep business going around town. — Shara Clark

Bee Garriott/Facebook

Bee

Bee

“People come in here just to see her,” says Martha Garriott. “They know her name, and they don’t know mine.” Garriott’s referring to her toy poodle, Bee, the unofficial supervisor at Urban Earth Garden Center. Bee’s smaller than many of the lawn ornaments and flower pots the center sells, but she’s doing big, important work. From her post — a comfy bed, layered with toys, atop a tall chair behind the counter — she oversees the store. “Any time I ring up a sale, I have to put her in the chair to get on the register because she’ll bark if I don’t,” Garriott says. “She has to watch me to make sure I do it correctly.”

Bee, a former champion show dog and breeding dog, was rescued by Garriott three years ago and has been working at Urban Earth since 2017. Her duties include greeting customers (who often bring her treats and toys), modeling products for the center’s Facebook page, and providing pet therapy to her co-workers.

When Garriott first brought her home, she says, “Bee had never been on grass, she didn’t know what grass was. She had never been allowed to jump, and I don’t think she knew how to bark, she was so quiet for so long. But she’s got a very good life now. Everybody loves her.” — Shara Clark

Say hi to Bee at Urban Earth Garden Center, 80 Flicker Street.

The Peabody Memphis

Peabody Ducks

Peabody Ducks

Just like clockwork, every day at 5 p.m., after six hours of paddling around in the Peabody Hotel lobby fountain, the illustrious Peabody ducks are ready to retire to their posh Duck Palace on the rooftop. Their “valet,” head Duckmaster Doug Weatherford, steps down before the crowd of eager children and families to announce the ducks’ march back upstairs.

“All that remains is to play the John Philip Sousa ‘King Cotton March’ and march our five feathered friends single-file up the red carpet into that elevator en route to the palace on the rooftop,” he proclaims. “You, too, will have been an eyewitness to the world-famous march of the Peabody ducks!”

The five mallards — one brightly colored male and four females — step onto the red carpet and march back to their humble abode, where they will live for 90 days before they are sent back out into the wild and five of their friends come to take their place. Until then, this team of ducks will continue to enjoy their five-star Peabody Hotel experience, complete with room service — we hear the ducks turn their beaks up at iceberg lettuce, so they receive the finest romaine — and personal showers dealt by Weatherford himself.

“They’re wild animals, so we don’t give them names, and they only ‘work’ for us for 90 days,” says Weatherford. “Our object here is to make sure that they’re healthy and that they remain as unchanged as possible.” — Julia Baker

Watch the ducks march (11 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily) at The Peabody Memphis, 118 S. Second.

T. Clifton Gallery

Argus

Argus

A low bark — almost a grunt — was heard when I entered T. Clifton Art and Custom Framing Gallery. The sound came from a huge ball of fur on the floor. It was Argus, a chocolate St. Bernard who, at the age of 10, is a Broad Avenue legend. The gallery even sells T-shirts bearing Argus’ likeness.

“He’s come to work with me every day since he was 7 weeks old,” says gallery owner Tom Clifton. And this is a gallery filled with glassware, some items priced at thousands of dollars, on open shelves. “Ever since he was a puppy, he’s never broken a thing.”

Argus isn’t a guard dog per se, but he “senses things I don’t,” Clifton says. He’ll let out a “woof, almost a grunt,” which is fitting because Clifton named Argus after a mythological Greek “warrior guard.” Argus, who’s been in FedEx TV commercials and various fashion shoots and brought cheer to nursing homes, is recognized when Clifton goes out.

The first time Clifton saw Argus, he was in a pen with other puppies. Argus walked up to the side of the pen, put his paw on the edge, and stared at him. “That was it,” Clifton says. “From that moment, we’ve been inseparable.” — Michael Donahue

Visit Argus at T. Clifton Art and Custom Framing Gallery, 571 Broad Avenue.

Bruce VanWyngarden

The Goats of Beale

The Goats of Beale

Angelina and Zena are a pair of 5-year-old goats who patrol the west side of the patio at Silky O’Sullivan’s on Beale. They are the fourth pair of goats to inhabit the famed joint since it opened in 1992, a result of a brainstorm by the club’s legendary founder, the late Silky Sullivan. “A goat named Puck is part of Irish mythology,” says club senior manager Jay Wells. “And Silky thought goats would be a great fit for the club. And they have been. People come from far and wide to see them, and they love visitors.”

The goats’ quarters, which include ramps and steps and private spaces, are separated from the customers by a couple of fences, mostly to keep patrons from feeding them or, worse, giving them beer. But Wells let me get up close and personal with A and Z, and let me tell you, they are the sweetest animals you could imagine, affectionate and curious and more than happy to nuzzle faces with their visitor.

“They have a better health plan than I do,” says Wells. “The vet comes regularly to trim their hooves and horns and check them out. They come from a goat farm near Atoka, which is where they retire at some point.”

And what do they eat? “Purina Goat Chow,” says Wells. Well, that, and the saltine crackers I gave them.

— Bruce VanWyngarden

Meet Angelina and Zena at Silky O’Sullivan’s, 183 Beale Street.

Jesse Davis

Zen

Zen

It’s the most common trope in comic books — the traumatic origin story. Wolverine underwent horrible experiments. Ditto Rocket Raccoon, X-23, and the Winter Soldier. Well, real-life comic dog Zen might have them all beat.

“We think she was a bait dog because her ears are clipped, and they’re not professionally clipped. And she had gnarly scars on her head and her legs. She’s filling in now, but she was skinny. She was rough,” says Shannon Merritt, co-owner of 901 Comics and 901 Games and dog-father to Zen.

Like Professor X giving Wolverine a home, Merritt found Zen at Memphis Animal Shelter, whisked her away, and gave her a new home and a new purpose — to patrol the aisles of the comic store, nosing out head-scratches and belly-rubs from customers.

Patrons of 901 Comics will doubtless remember M.J., the mascot of Merritt’s Bad Dog Comics line, who lost her battle with cancer in the winter of 2018. “I had a real tough time when M.J. passed,” Merritt says, though Zen is doing her best to fill the pit-bull-sized hole in his heart. The pair stick together and support each other. “She comes with me whenever I’m working,” Merritt says. “She’s okay with everybody coming in here.” — Jesse Davis

Rub Zen’s belly at 901 Comics, 2162 Young Avenue.

Metal Museum

Spatz

Metal Museum

Mr. Fuller

Spatz and Mr. Fuller

If there’s a sweeter gig than bookstore cat, it can only be museum cat. What better way to pass the time than to pad about the museum grounds keeping an eye out for pests — or for friendly tourists willing to bestow belly rubs? Indeed, resident Metal Museum cats Spatz and Mr. Fuller have it made in the shade. Mr. Fuller is a lazy tabby who showed up in 2008, and Spatz, the wilder of the two, is a black cat who made his first appearance in 2015.

Don’t be fooled by their sweet gig, though, the cats do work. They’re mascots, says youth initiative coordinator Darcie Beeman-Black, who has incorporated the cats into the educational materials for youth groups, like the “I Spy” program and Spatz’s scavenger hunt. Even the cats’ names are teaching tools. “A fuller is a tool in the blacksmith’s shop. It’s a peg that fits perfectly into a slot of the same size, and they use it to make curves in metal,” Beeman-Black explains. “Spatz is the protective covering you wear over your shoes in the foundry. They named him Spatz because when he was a kitten, he was always at your feet.

“They are tough cats. They’re in the shop a lot,” Beeman-Black adds. When they aren’t in the shop, they can be seen lounging around the grounds. Mr. Fuller can usually be found near the sculpture of an ant. “You can just walk up to him and scratch his belly,” Beeman-Black says. “He’s really sweet.” — Jesse Davis

See Spatz and Mr. Fuller at the Metal Museum, 374 Metal Museum Drive.

Jon Sparks

Molly

Molly

Molly greeted me at the door to All About Bikes with a wag and a cold nose. “Come in,” she said, “and try out one of our Baja Trikes. They’re a nice, easy ride for Boomers.” I glared at her: “Are you saying I’m old?” I barked. She looked back with kindly, soulful eyes and nuzzled me saying, “It’s okay, I’m 12 years old, so I’m sympathetic. We can get you a comfortable seat as well.”

I harrumphed and looked at Tommy James, the shop’s co-owner and devoted minion to Molly. Ignoring my snit, he explained the store was formerly All About Pets, and you can see the one-time resident dog Shelby memorialized on the back wall. The mission changed, but a canine presence was preserved, and sweet, laid-back Molly has the run of the place, sometimes going out front to take in the air and receive visitors who often will come by just to say hi to her. Tommy doesn’t seem to take offense. I scratch Molly behind the ears and say, “Okay, you got something in a comfort bike?” She gives me a nudge. “Walk this way,” she says. “I got you.”

— Jon W. Sparks

Let Molly assist you at All About Bikes, 621 S. Mendenhall.

Bass Pro

Bass Pro

Fish, Ducks, and Alligators (Oh my!)

“There he is! There’s the surgeon!” That was the cry from a youthful visitor to the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid during a visit last week. The lad, who was eager to communicate his excitement to a group of peers being squired by adults, was no doubt a vacationer from elsewhere, like many, perhaps most, of the visitors to the Memphis riverside attraction.

The young man was verbally mistaken; there was no doctor swimming in the pool where he was pointing. But there was a bona fide sturgeon — a big fish that was clearly an exotic being, a long, silver eminence among the dark lesser spawn swimming in the murky waters on the Pyramid floor. It’s not the dolphins at SeaWorld, but these aquatic creatures are an attraction all the same for the people who come to the Bass Pro Pyramid, not only to purchase outdoors ware but, it would seem, to get a whiff of the natural outdoors world while they’re at it.

The fish are real; so are the ducks in another pool, and the alligators swimming in a tank near the elevator. There are other wild creatures on view at Bass Pro — bears, moose, wild boars, for example, but these are stuffed animals or facsimiles of the real thing. Not working stiffs like the fish and the ducks. Just plain stiffs. But they all, real or fabricated, earn their keep.

— Jackson Baker

See the creatures of the great outdoors indoors at Bass Pro Shops, 1 Bass Pro Drive.

Maya Smith

Axel

Axel

While brothers Darin and Josh Throndson are busy making teeth and other dental supplies at Innovative Dental Technologies’ lab in Crosstown Concourse, Axel, their chocolate brown cane corso, is there for moral support. Only a year old, Axel already weighs about 120 pounds. He’s giant but gentle, they say.

The brothers say tug-of-war is one of his favorite pastimes. He also enjoys the dog park on the Crosstown campus. But, their friendly companion spends most of the work day sleeping. And he’s a snorer. The brothers say the snoring is sometimes distracting but a reliable source of laughter.

Since Crosstown is dog-friendly, Axel comes to work every day with the brothers, who work long hours, sometimes 60 hours a week. “He’s good company and it’s allowed, so why not bring him?”

He’s been coming to the lab since he was a puppy. The brothers carried him to the fourth-floor office in a laundry basket until he was big enough to walk. When Crosstown regulars see Axel now, they are surprised that this is the same dog that had to be carried in a basket, the brothers say.

— Maya Smith

Axel’s hard at work at Innovative Dental Technologies, 1350 Concourse Avenue, Suite 450.

Daniel McGarry

Buster

Buster

When I walk into Clearview Family Eyecare, Buster is on the receiving end of joyful head-scratches being doled out by a curly-haired toddler while her parents finalize their appointment. According to his owner, Dr. Seth Salley, he’s the clinic’s Chief Happiness Officer or CHO.

His primary duty, aside from rigorous napping, is greeting people. “When he hears somebody walk in, he comes out and sniffs them and says hi,” Salley says. “And then he sits on people’s feet.” His presence also tends to take the edge off for nervous patients. “I had an autistic kid in here a couple of weeks ago, and he was talking to Buster and me. When we got through the exam, his mom said, ‘I don’t know what happened, but he never talks to doctors … I think it was Buster.’ He just has that effect.”

Buster, 5, is an English Springer Spaniel imported from Sweden by breeders in Mason, Tennessee. “He was a breeding prospect, but they told me, ‘He’s so laid-back, he won’t breed.'” He’s been working as Clearview’s online mascot, welcome crew, and calming agent since he was adopted six months ago. His Swedish export pedigree papers list his given name as Big Brazzel Dragon Fly, but at the request of Salley’s kids, they renamed him Buster, after Andy’s dog in Toy Story. — SC

Feel Buster’s serenity at Clearview Family Eyecare, 618 Oakleaf Office Lane, #100.

Toby Sells

Lucy

Lucy

When Lucy does her job, there are no good options. “If you’re right, it’s bad,” says K9 Officer Brian Jenkins. “If you’re wrong, it’s bad, just in a different way.”

Lucy is a German Wirehaired Pointer, a stocky, beautiful dog with a gray/chocolate coat. Brimming with energy, she bursts through a door at Memphis International Airport, and her nose immediately goes to the ground. Over a bag, behind the gate desk, and up and down the rows of empty seats, Lucy hunts bombs. Lucy was trained at Lackland Air Force Base. Some of her kennel mates joined the military, sniffing out explosives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lucy met Jenkins and came to Memphis, keeping the airport here safe with the Transportation Security Administration.

After a few more sniffs, Lucy sits. Jenkins throws her a tennis ball, pets her head, and praises her good work. It was a training exercise, of course. If it was real, only bad options would be left. It’s either a “multi-million-dollar mistake” to dump the concourse, re-screen passengers, and recall aircraft, or, “there’s a bomb in my airport,” Jenkins says. Lucy just thinks she’s playing, though. Yes, she goes home with Jenkins at night. And, yes, “she has her own bedroom.” But, no, you should not pet Lucy. She’s working to keep you safe, and pets from strangers aren’t part of her training. — Toby Sells

See Lucy in action — no touching, please! — at Memphis International Airport, 2491 Winchester Road.