When Emily Guenther, also known as Reverend Omma to her Wiccan congregation, opened The Broom Closet over 10 years ago, she thought of it as a fantasy coming true. “I had spent six or seven years working in advertising,” she says. “It felt very inconsequential, like anybody could do it. It wasn’t feeding my soul, but it paid the bills. … I had this fantasy that like one day I might actually get to retire. And once I did, I would then spend my retirement working at a little store selling herbs to people — that was just this weird kind of daydream that kind of helped me get through the day sometimes.”
But after a rough year with her mother’s passing and losing that advertising job, her husband Stephen urged her to bring her metaphysical store to fruition, and now 10 years later, that store is going strong, offering solace to its customers and selling spiritual supplies from sage for cleansing to gemstones for manifesting. “We strive to serve the spiritual needs of the community,” Guenther says. “We try to cater to everyone regardless of their beliefs or practices, and just help people, talk to them, answer questions, help them find the thing that they need if they don’t know what they’re looking for.”
As such, one of the services The Broom Closet offers is tarot reading — fortune-telling that uses a deck of 78 pictorial cards. Anyone can read tarot, Guenther says, as long as they understand the meanings of the cards and can embrace their intuition, but having someone else read your tarot can offer insights that you might not have to come otherwise. “The thing about tarot,” she says, “is that because we’re all different … we filter through our life experiences and the way that we live our lives. And so if I needed a reading and let’s say I came to you and I know what the cards mean, you’re going to say it or explain it or filter it through your experience in a way that I needed to hear it.”
In a way, it’s like therapy, with someone guiding you through confronting and coping with the uncontrollable — like love or money, two things Guenther says she gets asked about the most.
To kick off the new year, the Broom Closet is hosting a special night of tarot reading for those looking to check in on specific situations in their life and find guidance. Participants will be able to choose from 15-minute tarot readings for $20, 30-minute readings for $40, and 60-minute readings for $70. Readings will be done on a first-come-first-served basis, with no appointments necessary.
To keep up with other event offerings, like workshops and sound baths, at The Broom Closet, follow them on Facebook (@The Broom Closet – Memphis) or Instagram (@ the_broom_closet).
Twilight Tarot: A Night of Tarot Reading, The Broom Closet, Friday, January 6, 6-8 p.m., $20-$70.
If you drive past Midtown’s Cash Saver on Friday, you might be tempted to rubber-neck at an unusual spectacle in the street parking spaces, since, in honor of International Park(ing) Day, those spots will be converted into tiny parks.
Park(ing) Day is a global, public, participatory art project, explains Emily Bishop, board member of MidtownMemphis.org, the organization spearheading the event in Memphis. “That’s a mouthful,” she says, “but it’s where you temporarily repurpose street parking spaces into places for art, play, and activism. What we’re trying to do is get people to reimagine that area of Midtown.”
When the area around Cash Saver, Pho Binh, Crumpy’s Hot Wings, and the like was restriped to add bike lanes, the city added parking lanes, too. “Nobody uses them,” Bishop says. “They kinda get used as an inappropriate passing lane or turning lane. I mean, I see it all the time going to Home Depot.”
As such, safety is one of the points of awareness for this Park(ing) Day Project, the other point being to bring greenery to the space. The plan, Bishop says, is to plant black gum and maple trees along the sidewalk that runs east of Cash Saver on Angelus. “The sidewalk is 10-feet wide, and it has no power lines overhead, so it’s the perfect place for street trees,” she says, adding that under a tree’s shade it can be 10-15 degrees cooler, a much needed benefit during Memphis’ hot summer months. “We’re already working with Cash Saver and the City Engineer’s Office, and if all goes well, we hope to plant those trees in early November.”
Rendering of plans for tree-planting along Angelus (Credit: MidtownMemphis.org)
In the meantime, Friday will be MidtownMemphis.org’s second Park(ing) Day in front of Cash Saver. This year, the group has partnered with Memphis City Beautiful, Clean Memphis, Evergreen, Central Gardens, Neighborhood Preservation Inc. (NPI), The Works Inc., and The Home Depot.
“We’ll have some green carpet out there to make it feel like grass,” Bishop says. “There’ll be some games. We’ll have plants and bushes that’ll give you a feel of what that would be like. We’ll just see what the creativity of each of our partners is and what they do with their spaces.”
Giveaways and free snow cones will also be available, and attendees will have a chance to meet with the various groups to learn about upcoming projects and ways to volunteer.
Already, MidtownMemphis.org has planted native trees, bushes, and flowering plants on Avalon, behind Murphy’s and next to Crumpy’s.
“We were really inspired by the Medical District, the improvements they made, and, of course, Overton Square is so beautiful now,” Bishop says. “We just want this area in between to continue the good work and spread it on down. Everybody travels up and down that section of Madison.”
International Park(ing) Day, Madison Avenue in front of Cash Saver, Friday, September 16th, 3-7 pm.
This Sunday, August 14th, the Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow is bringing its thrilling brand of entertainment to Lafayette’s Music Room. Championing themselves as the “world’s largest and last remaining troupe of sideshow freaks and circus performers,” this group of performers defies death every time they take the stage, from swallowing swords to eating fire to practicing foot archery and more — all in a two-and-a-half hour show.
As seen on AMC’s Freakshow, Ripley’s Believe It Not, Guinness World Records, the Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel, America’s Got Talent, and more, these performers hope to inspire audiences in conquering their fears and dwelling in anticipation. Lucky for us, the Memphis Flyer got a chance to catch up with performer Short E. Dangerously in a quick Q&A to ask him all about what it means to join the circus.
Short E. Dangerously (Photo: Courtesy Great Scott Productions)
Memphis Flyer: What led you to being a part of Hellzapoppin?
Short E. Dangerously: After 15 years in the nightclub business as a DJ, I found myself looking for something different. I had no idea what direction I wanted to go. A mutual friend introduced me to [ringleader] Bryce “The Govna” Graves. He contacted me and offered to have me as a guest on an upcoming show Hellzapoppin had not far from where I lived. I had one skill — I could do an inverted handstand. Now, keep in mind, I don’t have any legs. So, I came out, gave a little speech, and went into a handstand, with the understanding of the audience that the louder they were, the higher up I would go.
What is your act all about?
My signature act is walking on broken shards of glass with my bare hands while it is on fire! It is a demonstration of pain tolerance and mental and physical toughness. I was born with a physical condition that does set me apart from other performers. In the sideshow world, I am considered a half-man. I am also considered a natural born performer, a natural born “freak” if you will. However, I trained and studied for over a year with the glass walking before even attempting it on stage.
Most of the sideshow stunts are passed down from performer to performer as a generational thing. In order to do what we do, you have to have a knowledge of science, physics as well as anatomy. Whereas a musician plays their given instrument, our bodies are our instruments. For example, in order for Willow [Lauren] to learn how to swallow a sword, she had to know the anatomy and the science of what is going on with her body as well as controlling gag reflexes that are normally involuntary. She has to control those with her mind and suppress them.
Willow Lauren, one of the few women in the world who swallow swords and regurgitate razor blades (Photo: Courtesy Great Scott Productions)
Circuses have a layered history, often exploitative. How have y’all confronted this history?
Bryce and I get asked this question all the time regarding exploitation. However, there’s no exploitation going on. I am in the show because I have a talent and I’m a performer. It’s not just because of how I look. I have a skill set. My background as a DJ helped me in this field. I run all of the music cues and the production during the show except for when I’m on stage. Then Willow runs my music cues.
Have you ever surprised yourself in being able to perform a certain act?
I can recall one time when I did surprise myself. The big finish to the glass walking act is when I jump down onto the pile of glass from an elevated ladder or stool. This one particular time, the only ladder that was available for us to use was approximately four-and-a-half feet high. I normally jumped from around two or two-and-a-half feet. When I got to the top of the ladder, Bryce came out to me and pulled the microphone away and said, “You don’t really have to do this.” I looked at him. I smiled. I said, “I’m either going to make history or be history.” I looked down, took a deep breath, and sent it! I landed safely with no problems. As I walked off stage, I thought to myself that it was really crazy, but I would love to do it again!
(Photo: Through the Eyes of a Queen/Courtesy Great Scott Productions)
Do you ever doubt yourself or get nervous before doing something that most people wouldn’t dare to try?
I get asked this question a lot and the best way I can answer it is I ask people a question: Do you get nervous before you go to work? This is my job. This is my profession. Ironically, there’s a calmness that comes over me before the show starts. Then, when I hit the stage, everything explodes! All of that fear and anxiety is gone and I am focused on my job, the task at hand.
What does it feel like when you’ve succeeded in performing a death-defying stunt, especially in front of an audience?
It’s the best! It’s an incredible adrenaline rush! There’s nothing like it anywhere! It’s the best drug in the world! I have defied death countless times in my life — injury not so much. A lot of times, audience members and average people fail to realize that we literally torture ourselves for their entertainment. However, when you’re on stage, you don’t feel any pain. We all tend to feel our pain off stage, after the show, when the adrenaline wears off and reality kicks back in. One thing I have learned is that sometimes our audiences are a little bit bloodthirsty. It’s like most of our audiences are the ones that go to a car race just for the crashes!
However, the energy we get from the audience always gives us the energy to get it done. We literally feed off the energy the audience gives us some nights because it’s the only way that we can do it. You do this because you love it and you can’t imagine doing anything else in the world. Only a few people can do what we do, which is what makes us so unique.
Is there anything else that you feel is important to mention?
You can find us all on social media. Make sure to check out www.hellzapoppin.com for all of our tour dates and performer bios!
Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow, Lafayette’s Music Room, Sunday, August 14, 7 p.m., $20 /general admission, $35/VIP, 21+.
You may have heard that the pioneering and ambitious Art Village Gallery on South Main in Downtown Memphis has been renamed Urevbu Contemporary. After a one-year hiatus, the gallery is debuting its first physical exhibition in time for African-American History Month.
The exhibition, “dis/contented realities,” presents a range of works from five emerging artists to watch from Nigeria, Cameroon, and the United States: Sophia Azoige, Samuel Dallé, Árá Deinde, Amarchi Odimba, and Kaylyn Webster.
To promote safe art appreciation, the gallery offers socially distanced art-viewing appointments in seven different time slots.
Courtesy Urevbu Contemporary
Untitled work by Árá Deinde
“Though the paintings in the exhibition are unified by their figurative imagery, each of the artists approaches their subject from a fresh perspective according to their own individual aesthetics, representing a spectrum of styles ranging from the abstract to the naturalistic,” explains Urevbu Contemporary in a post to social media.
Through layers of oil and acrylic — and, in some cases, unexpected additional media — the paintings of “dis/contented realities” are informed by the rich, personal histories and experiences of the artists they represent.
Confronting issues of race and identity, immigration and diaspora, beauty and friendship, the artists grapple with issues of the current moment. Some of the individuals in the exhibition advocate for a restructuring of reality, others stimulate their audience to confront the political and social landscape. The paintings are placed in conversation with one another, allowing the viewer to appreciate and explore the connections and the conflicts of the artists’ respective viewpoints.
Opening reception for “dis/contented realities,” Urevbu Contemporary (formerly Art Village Gallery), 410 South Main, Saturday, Feb. 6, 5:30-9 p.m., free with registration.
CREDIT: Courtesy Pink Palace Museum of Science and History
The Pink Palace Family of Museums shuttered its doors on December 23rd. One month later, the Pink Palace Museum of Science and History is opening back up in a big way — with dinosaurs. Rawwwr.
The museum’s new “Dinosaurs in Motion” exhibit, opening January 30th, will get the temporarily extinct dinosaur season reanimated. This new exhibit is an interactive STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) experience built for visitors of all ages. As a STEAM-minded exhibit should, it will engage and educate visitors with 14 fully interactive, recycled metal dinosaur sculptures. The sculptures feature exposed mechanics inspired by actual fossils. An amazing blend of art, science, and innovation, the exhibit weaves in sketching, sculpting, kinetics, biomechanics, observing, and experimenting. Every piece is interactive for visitors to touch and learn.
Courtesy Pink Palace Museum of Science and History
Full STEAM ahead!
“The exhibit goes beyond merely the history of dinosaurs,” says Bill Walsh, museum marketing manager. “It shows the biomechanics of these amazing creatures in an intriguing and artistic way that allows the visitor to have a hands-on, interactive STEAM experience.”
The moving, human element to the exhibit lies in the story of the artist, John Payne. Through video and interactive touch, visitors will walk away with Payne’s inspiring message: “If you can dream it, you can do it.” The exhibition is one that inspires guests to learn, discover, and create.
Get to the museum before the exhibit’s ex-STEAM-tion on May 2nd or you’ll be really saur.
“Dinosaurs in Motion,” Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central, opens Saturday, Jan. 30, and continues through May 2, $15.
CREDIT: Andrea Zucker/Courtesy New Ballet Ensemble & School
If your holiday thing is the Nutcracker and you are not real nuts about seeing an adaptation, all I have to say is that sometimes a remake gets it right. Really right. That is definitely the case with Nut Remix, a modern reinvention of Tchaikovsky’s classic Nutcracker, by the savvy and talented team from New Ballet Ensemble & School.
The performance is set on Beale Street. The mash-up of dance and music styles really works. From ballet to breakdancing and flamenco to Memphis jookin, this uniquely Memphis production will mesmerize you from start to finish. This year, the production will be screened at the drive-in for your safety. If you’ve seen the production on stage and have made it your annual holiday tradition or if you’re seeing it for the first time, I can’t think of a better place to experience the magic of Memphis. Just remember to register for your tickets in advance. As part of the school’s mission to make the arts accessible to everyone, this screening is pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation of $40 per car.
Andrea Zucker/Courtesy New Ballet Ensemble & School
Nut Remix
Be sure to do it soon. After last week’s screening, word got around. According to New Ballet, “We sold out our original goal of 150 cars for next week’s screening, and we are now increasing our capacity to accommodate more viewers.”
Experience this uniquely Memphis reimagining of the Nutcracker with the whole family from the comfort and safety of your car.
New Ballet’s “Nut Remix,” Malco Summer Drive-In, 5310 Summer, Thursday, Dec. 17, 6:30 p.m., pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation of $40 per car.
Last week, Crosstown Arts released its Against the Grain platform, where local musicians can submit their musical works for the public to enjoy and show support by purchasing virtual tickets. “The coronavirus pandemic is currently forcing all Memphis music venues to close for the foreseeable future — something that clearly goes against the grain of a musician’s lifestyle and livelihood,” the organization said via a press release.
A number of artists have already submitted unedited, one-take, iPhone/smartphone videos of their exclusive performances, including DJ and producer Qemist and multi-instrumentalist Paul Taylor.
Qemist, an electronic music producer known for blending genres like footwork, electronic, underground house, trap music, and Memphis rap, was among some of the first artists to submit videos to the new platform. “When they reached out to me to participate in Against the Grain, I was very excited about that,” he says. “It definitely let me know that people are still wanting creative work, even though society and the climate of today is really pushing against the working force right now, because it’s inevitable at this point. But [this is] them letting me know that even throughout all of this, they still have avenues that they can give you to help you be a little more stable with your creative work.”
Paul Taylor submitted a video within the first week of the program’s inception, as well, featuring an acoustic set of “Eye to the Sky,” an original song written by him to pay homage to the Old Forest Trail in Overton Park.
“I was disappointed to see that music and the world is canceled for the foreseeable future,” he says. “But, out of adversity always comes the greatest art.”
Visit againsthegra.in to view performances, which are available 24/7. Tickets: $5-$100.
Novel hosts the second virtual edition of its monthly A Novel Book Club this Wednesday, April 15th, to get together (on Zoom) and discuss John Le Carré’s 1963 novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, about a British agent being sent to East Germany as a “faux defector” to trap a powerful East German intelligence officer.
Last month, the book club group met on Zoom for the first time. Kat Leache, a social media marketing employee for Novel who also serves as the monthly book club’s leader, was happy with the turnout. “It was really fun,” she says. “It was in that first week of everyone realizing that life was not going to be normal for a while. And so it was kind of an on-the-fly effort.”
The book they discussed was Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, which centers around a devastating flu pandemic that swept up civilization as we know it.
“The selection was chosen in January,” says Leache. “When I chose that in January for the March meeting, I didn’t know that coronavirus would be the thing that it is. So that made it an interesting meeting on a couple of levels, not only because we’re virtual, but because of the contents of the book.
“The reason I chose Station Eleven was because I selfishly wanted to force myself to reread it because it’s one of my favorites and because that author had a book coming out the week after our meeting. It was all so strangely coincidental.”
For more information on joining Novel’s book club discussions, visit novelmemphis.com or follow them on social media. This month’s club meets on Zoom on Wednesday, April 15th, 7-8:15 p.m., free. Book club members can get 10 percent off the price of this month’s book, and Novel can ship it to you or you can pick it up curbside.
Memphis-based Americana band Lucero hosts its annual Family Christmas show at Minglewood this Friday.
With two decades of hits like “Nights Like These” and “For the Lonely Ones” under their belts, the band has developed a strong fan base in Memphis and around the country — so much so that they’ve spent as many as 250 days a year touring, playing venues like Red Rocks in Denver. But the band continues to stay true to their local fanbase and their hometown with annual Family Christmas and Block Party events, like the 2018 Block Party, where Mayor Jim Strickland declared that day “Lucero Day.”
Dan Ball
Lucero
“We’ve got a piece of paper to prove it and everything,” says guitarist Brian Venable. “It was pretty awesome.”
Two years later, Venable says he still can’t believe the band has been together for more than two decades.
“When we first got together, we were just punk rock kids, and we started this kind of weird band,” he says. “And then we started touring, and people came to see us. Then we started touring for a living. So the fact that we actually made it to 20 years or more is still kind of outlandish. We’ve seen a lot of history.”
Now, they celebrate Christmas with their annual Family Christmas, which comes with the tradition of supporting and featuring a fellow local artist.
“Hash Redactor, a local band from Goner Records, is opening,” says Venable. “So that’s pretty exciting for me. I like getting to play with local bands. At this point, it’s just tradition. It’s a nice tradition.”
Lucero Family Christmas, Minglewood Hall, Friday, December 13th, 7-11:30 p.m., $21.
Period., Inc. and its local chapter Period at 901 Memphis will host a rally this Saturday to address the issue of period poverty and advocate for making menstrual products accessible for all and ending the tampon tax.
For Ainsley Feeney, 16-year-old leader of Period at 901 Memphis, it all started when she saw a YouTube video talking about how homeless women often have to improvise and use cardboard and trash to take care of their periods.
Ainsley Feeney
Ainsley Feeney (front) with her crew at the bake sale that made their donation of the period packs possible.
“It was kind of a gut punch to me because that was never something I thought of before,” she says. “I’ve always been privileged to have access to menstrual products.”
A month or two after her realization, she found out about Period, Inc. and jumped at the chance to start a local chapter. She started with a bake sale and donation drive, putting together 120 period packs to be donated to the Shelby County Crime Victims and Rape Crisis Center.
Now, Feeney wants others to be aware of and join the cause.
“We have access to toilet paper,” she says. “I use the example that if public bathrooms didn’t supply toilet paper, there would be riots in the streets. But why is it any different with menstrual products?”
Tennessee is one of 35 states that charge tax for what should be considered an essential, untaxed item, and with 46 percent of low-income women having to choose between period products and meals, Feeney thinks it’s certainly time for a change.
“We’re not going to stop until every single menstruator has access to menstrual products and can feel confident and clean on their period,” says Feeney.
Tennessee National Period Day Rally, Overton Park, Saturday, October 19th, 2-4 p.m., free.
Courtesy Urevbu Contemporary 
Courtesy Pink Palace Museum of Science and History 
Andrea Zucker/Courtesy New Ballet Ensemble & School 
Dan Ball 
Ainsley Feeney