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A HUMAN

RIGHTS DISASTER

As state legislatures introduce more restrictive anti-abortion bills, what does the future hold for the imperiled state of reproductive rights?

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JERRY D. SWIFT Advertising Director Emeritus KELLI DEWITT, CHIP GOOGE, HAILEY THOMAS Senior Account Executives MICHELLE MUSOLF Account Executive ROBBIE FRENCH Warehouse and Delivery Manager JANICE GRISSOM ELLISON, KAREN MILAM, DON MYNATT, TAMMY NASH, RANDY ROTZ, LEWIS TAYLOR, WILLIAM WIDEMAN Distribution THE MEMPHIS FLYER is published weekly by Contemporary Media, Inc., P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101 Phone: (901) 521-9000 Fax: (901) 521-0129 memphisflyer.com CONTEMPORARY MEDIA, INC. ANNA TRAVERSE FOGLE Chief Executive Officer LYNN SPARAGOWSKI Controller/Circulation Manager JEFFREY GOLDBERG Chief Revenue Officer MARGIE NEAL Chief Operating Officer KRISTIN PAWLOWSKI Digital Services Director MARIAH MCCABE Circulation and Accounting Assistant KALENA MATTHEWS Marketing Coordinator

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CONTENTS

JESSE DAVIS Editor SHARA CLARK Managing Editor JACKSON BAKER, BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN Senior Editors TOBY SELLS Associate Editor CHRIS MCCOY Film and TV Editor ALEX GREENE Music Editor SAMUEL X. CICCI, MICHAEL DONAHUE, JON W. SPARKS Staff Writers ABIGAIL MORICI Copy Editor, Calendar Editor LORNA FIELD, RANDY HASPEL, RICHARD MURFF, FRANK MURTAUGH, MEGHAN STUTHARD Contributing Columnists AIMEE STIEGEMEYER, SHARON BROWN Grizzlies Reporters ANDREA FENISE Fashion Editor KENNETH NEILL Founding Publisher

Sometimes I think about jumping ship. Perhaps I flatter myself, but I think I have some felicity with a turn of phrase. I have, on occasion, inspired an emotional response from my readers. Maybe I’m letting my ego run wild, but I think I could add something to any bench of speechifiers. Why not me?

What, one might ask, has prompted this flight of fancy?

Why it’s the senate confirmation hearing for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, of course! As I write these words, the hearings are still ongoing, and it’s becoming apparent beyond parody how different are the standards to which we hold certain individuals. Consider, for example, the stark difference in qualifications between, say, Judge Jackson and Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, who grilled Jackson on the first day of the hearing. If you so happen to be surfing the world wide web, I suggest contrasting the two officials’ Ballotpedia pages.

Jackson “received a bachelor’s degree in government, magna cum laude, and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard University in 1992 and 1996, respectively. She served as the supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review from 1995 to 1996.” Blackburn, just for comparison, “graduated from Mississippi State University with a bachelor’s in home economics.”

Jackson’s page also boasts a lengthy list of awards. But I shouldn’t be unfair. Blackburn’s name is in a New York Times headline this week. To wit, the Times published an article PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA | CREATIVE COMMONS

by Charlie Savage titled “Echoing Conservative Grievances, Blackburn Miscasts Jackson’s Views.”

Judge Ketanji If you’ve seen any of the video from the hearing, you already Brown Jackson know that transgender athletes, progressive education, parental rights, and (of course) critical race theory (CRT) were on the senator’s list of grievances.

Most of the issues were, to be generous, something of a leap. Blackburn misquoted her way through Jackson’s record, apparently attempting to prove that Jackson was an agent of the deep state, hell-bent on introducing her secret biases into the American legal system.

“Ms. Blackburn also described three instances in which Judge Jackson ordered the release of inmates, including ‘a convict who murdered a U.S. marshal,’” Savage writes in the Times article. “The cases appeared to match three Covid-era rulings by the judge under a compassionate release law. The senator omitted the context: The man who killed a U.S. marshal, for instance, did so in 1971, had since served 49 years, and was 72 at the time of his release, with myriad health problems.”

Ah yes, those dangerous 72-year-olds. What a menace! Surely, this is proof that Judge Jackson is “soft on crime.”

Is that all it takes? One has only to mumble their way through a list of talking points, and one of the nation’s two foremost political parties is all too ready to celebrate them? Don’t we expect more from our senators? There are only 100 of them! Can we not expect them to comport themselves with some dignity? At the very least, can they not misquote people during a nationally televised hearing?

Of course, the lion’s share of the blame is undoubtedly because Jackson is Black. I have no doubt that the complaints from senators and Fox News hosts are owed primarily to racism, particularly any so-called “concern” about the judge’s qualifications for the role.

It’s a disturbing trend and a truly sad state of affairs. And if people think this behavior is acceptable while on camera, imagine what must happen in so many interviews, meeting rooms, and who-knows-where-else across the country. The unnecessary scrutiny some people must contend with, the free pass others get to make mistakes again and again and again. What really frightens me is that there seems to be a significant portion of Americans who think that it’s normal to N E WS & O P I N I O N THE FLY-BY - 4 twist the facts to fit a narrative, for whom NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 6 fact checking is an anachronism.

POLITICS - 7 So I wonder sometimes what it’s like to AT LARGE - 8 join the party for whom qualifications only FINANCE - 9 matter if you’re talking about the other team.

COVER STORY Why be constrained by facts, truth, common “A HUMAN RIGHTS DISASTER”

BY CHRIS MCCOY - 10 decency, or the belief that everyone deserves WE RECOMMEND - 14 a fair shot? It must be an easy gig, following MUSIC - 15 that well-worn script, if you can find a way CALENDAR - 16 to sleep at night.

FOOD - 18 All you have to do is speak loudly and FILM - 20 carry a big grudge.

C LAS S I F I E D S - 22 LAST WORD - 23 Jesse Davis jesse@memphisflyer.com

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MEMernet Memphis on the internet.

SO MEMPHIS

POSTED TO REDDIT BY U/CAMPYTEENDRAMA

Reddit user Campyteendrama asked the MEMernet to play “That’s So Memphis!” last week. It started with a photo showing a car parked Downtown with two wheels missing, jacked up on an electric scooter.

NEON MAGIC

March 24-30, 2022

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In the video above, a man gets choked on a shot of Hennessy, coughs, drools, and yells “cut” at the camera operator who hilariously fails to comply. Memphis bassist MonoNeon plays riffs based on the sounds, adds a beat and other instruments, and magically creates a song.

There’s more, too. Don’t miss the one with the baby talking on the phone. Find them on Facebook.

MOON SHOT Astrophotographer u/ JattWalker posted this shot to the Memphis subreddit last week.

For full effect, check it out online so you expand the image for amazing detail.

POSTED TO REDDIT BY U/JATTWALKER

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Questions, Answers + Attitude Edited by Toby Sells

Q&A B y To b y S e l l s

Legendary Gaming A Memphis company Kickstarts a mysterious new board game.

A world-renowned cryptozoologist has disappeared. To find him, you must travel to the Bermuda Triangle or the lost city of Atlantis and possibly encounter the Yeti or the Loch Ness Monster.

That is the overarching story of a brand-new tabletop game (or board game) from a new Memphis games company, BIGABOT Games. The game, called Rumors and Legends, launched on Kickstarter in late February after about a year of work.

In just over a week, the game met its fundraising goal of $35,000. As of Monday, 432 backers had pledged $41,342. The Kickstarter backers are from all over the world, mainly from the U.S., but also from the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Canada, Italy, Denmark, and more. The extra funds will allow BIGABOT Games to translate Rumors and Legends into German. The campaign is slated to end Thursday.

Collaborators in the company and the game are Reuben Brunson, Kyle Taylor, and Sean Bradford. We caught up with Brunson and Taylor to talk about the game and the Kickstarter campaign.

Memphis Flyer: How did this game come about?

Reuben Brunson: It’s, basically, my brain child and it’s, basically, from my childhood imagination.

I was a big fan of a show called In Search Of. Leonard Nimoy was the host. Every week was a micro-documentary about Bigfoot, aliens, or ghosts. I’d watch it and then I’d see Bigfoot in my backyard. The next week, I’d see the Loch Ness Monster in the lake behind my house. So, the show really inspired me.

Fast-forward to now, and Kyle and I were working on an idea for a board game. I had the idea for [Rumors and Legends], but I had just put it on a sticky note. The game we were working on was a little bit too big an undertaking. So, we scaled back and Rumors and Legends was born.

Kyle, how did you get into this?

Kyle Taylor: As a graphic designer, I love anything that involves elaborate packaging. It’s an exciting thing, no matter if it’s a fancy bar of soap, a coffee mug, or whatever.

Reuben started showing me all of these different successful Kickstarter campaigns. The hundreds of thousands of dollars these independent game companies were bringing in was mind-boggling.

Probably the only part of my life that I would say I am competitive is when it comes to art. So, the more he showed me some of [the other Kickstarter game campaigns], the more I found myself saying, “I can do better than that.”

How do you play?

Brunson: We don’t use the four-letter “C” word because we don’t want Hasbro to come after us. But it plays a lot like mystery deduction games like that. There are three cards in an envelope, and you’re trying to figure out what they are. Poor Professor Daffle has disappeared. He’s the leader of the Royal Order of Cryptozoologists, and your mission is to find him.

PHOTO: BIGABOT GAMES/KICKSTARTER

In Rumors and Legends, players must find a missing professor and maybe visit the Bermuda Triangle and meet the Loch Ness Monster along the way.

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P A N C A K E N N E 9 Turn up that 44 Patisserie 25 Like the path of L E D G E H G T V 10 Let, maybe offering the sun in the 59 Tutee of Luke in D E G U E R R E sky “The Last Jedi” 47 See 43-Across 11 Things blown A S A S T R Y O N on for luck P A N C A K E J U S Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 7,000 past 12 Spanish for S E E Y A R A B E puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). “some” A L L I N U C L A Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

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Taking Root Food co-op at the University of Memphis focuses on produce, tea.

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CITY REPORTER

By Jesse Davis

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Black MajesTEA (BMT) Co-op is new but growing.

BMT is a co-op led by University of Memphis students Nadia Foster, founder and executive manager, and Olivia Roman, creative director. Foster is also the founder of Black MajesTEA, LLC, a company that focuses on teas and tinctures rather than fresh produce, as BMT does.

“I’ve always wanted to help bridge the gap of health insecurities and health disparities in Memphis,” says Foster, a native Memphian and senior at the U of M who enjoys dates (the fruit). “I wanted to start BMT Co-op to help address the need for nutritious, fresh, available fruits and vegetables.

My family, as well as a vast majority of Memphians, live in food deserts and don’t have access within a five-mile radius to anything fresh.”

The co-op debuted at the end of January 2022. On February 11th, they stepped up their game, doubling their output by going from every other week to every week. BMT Co-op has also partnered with The Nine at Memphis apartments, a site near the U of M where many international students live.

Before her time as a student at the U of M, Roman, who is also a senior this year and whose favorite fruit is a red apple, attended Catholic schools and says service was a criterion for graduation.

“We were very service-oriented,” Roman says. “It became a pretty large part of my life, and I have a huge respect and appreciation for people working to end

PHOTO: COURTESY BLACK MAJESTEA CO-OP

BMT’s Nadia Foster and Olivia Roman with client food scarcity and food insecurity in Memphis. This seems like a really good opportunity to continue that effort.”

The co-op gets anywhere from four to 11 or 12 customers a week. But, Foster says, “We have been seeing a steady increase.” They have donated to the Tiger Pantry at the U of M as well. “We’ve made it work so far.”

“We consider our measure of success just being able to help one person with affordable, accessible fresh produce,” Foster says.

“A lot of hard work and love is poured into this,” Roman adds. “We are continuing to grow and are doing better every week.”

So what’s in store for Black MajesTEA Co-op after these seniors graduate?

Never fear, Foster and Roman plan to keep a healthy relationship with the U of M. “We do get some of our fresh herbs from the U of M gardens,” Foster says.

“After graduation we both have plans to continue working in this city and the area.”

“We’re very grateful to our Memphis community,” Roman says.

Most important for BMT Co-op, Foster says, is ensuring that the produce remains accessible to Memphians. “We want to keep it at an affordable cost, keep it accessible, and keep it healthy.”

POLITICS By Jackson Baker

Near Relations In the game of politics, borrowed glory counts for something.

Though a band was on hand for the event and there was a diverse, concertsized crowd, Steve Mulroy and Lee Harris were not really enacting a do-sido in this shot from last Thursday night’s opening of Mulroy’s headquarters at Highland and Poplar. They were merely exchanging possession of the microphone. But Mulroy, a Democratic candidate for district attorney general, and PHOTO: JACKSON BAKER Harris, who is running for re-election as Shelby County mayor, are mutual supporters and prominent at each other’s events. Julien Harris, the mayor’s son, at right, was an appreciative audience member.

@SouthPointGrocery

m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

of her opponent. Most of them didn’t know the person’s name or even the fact that she was indeed the incumbent, a fact that usually favors a candidate.

“Is it something Ford?” one normally well-informed person asked. And her unstated meaning was clear: must be one of the unknown candidates (of whom there have been many) who happen to be surnamed Ford, but are not members of the well-connected inner-city power clan of that name, yet hope to profit from the coincidence.

No, the incumbent Circuit Court clerk is named Gipson. Temiika D. Gipson. She has been in office for four years, having defeated in her party primary Del Gill, a long-term rank-and-file Democrat who has ever been the bridesmaid in election races, and then gone on to edge out GOP incumbent Tom Leatherwood in the 2018 “blue wave” general election. Not only does she hope to profit from some name recognition herself, she doubtless anticipates some spillover on behalf of her daughter Arriell Gipson, who is running in the Democratic primary for county clerk against incumbent Wanda Halbert and two others — William Stovall and Mondell Williams.

For the record, there are Republican candidates for both of these races as well — Soheila Kail for Circuit Court clerk and Jeff Jacobs for county clerk.

NEWS & OPINION

When you chair the Memphis City Council, an institution more or less always under the media microscope, you’re going to command a decent share of attention.

When your surname is Swearengen, a name that was memorably attached to a judge and to a previous well-known council figure — the late Jim Swearengen and Barbara Swearengen Ware, respectively, both now deceased but still venerated — that’s going to further enhance your public profile.

And when, on top of all that, you have active connections to the city’s power establishment, you’re in good shape to run a political race in Shelby County.

The advantage is magnified to the degree that people don’t know much about your opponent.

Just telling it like it is: City Council member Jamita Swearengen owns such an advantage, even though she’s running against an incumbent for the office of Circuit Court clerk, an obscure but wellpaid position.

At a fundraiser in Swearengen’s honor at the new Hein Park home of consultant Steven Reid on Monday, attendees were asked what they knew

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ure, your grandparents These stories keep emerging. It’s like an loved you, but did they love enormous, crushing boulder, seemingly you enough to put a picture unstoppable. Each day brings new tales of you and your siblings of horror, of bombed schools, of proud, on the bottom of an ashtray? I think not. once-vibrant cities being blasted apart Check, and mate, my friend. block by block, of Ukrainian civilians If you look at the photo accompanying being put in trucks and shuttled back to this column, you’ll see me (middle) and camps in Russia. my brothers mugging for the camera in Almost as horrifying are the Americans clothes made by my stepmom. It was who support this evil or who look for taken in the 1960s, probably for Easter, rationalizations or suggest providing an and was on the wall in my parents’ “off-ramp” for Putin. This would include house for a long while. I’m guessing they the Republican senators who were fine must have given a copy to my paternal with former President Trump withholding grandparents, at least one of whom arms and supplies from Ukraine for thought, “Hey, I’ll put this in the bottom political purposes, and who are now of an ashtray so I’ll think of the boys hypocritically raging that President Biden whenever I crush out a Camel.” isn’t sending enough. Marsha Blackburn, My sister found I’m looking at you. the ashtray in a We’re way past the long-unopened box time to let domestic last week and sent politics have any part me a picture of it. It in this struggle. This was truly a “WTF?” is a pivotal moment moment, and we in world history. Are had a good laugh we big enough as a over the phone. But country to rise to that’s because we the occasion? Or do were looking at it we waste our energy through the social hating the president mores of 2022 rather of Mar-a-Lago and than those of 60 years shouting, “Let’s Go, ago, when smoking Brandon”?

PHOTO: BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN was acceptable and Maybe, instead, we decorative ashtrays of should be thinking one sort or another were displayed in most about how many families have been people’s houses. My grandfather was a destroyed by Vladimir Putin’s forces physician and smoked like a wet campfire in attacks on more than 50 hospitals. all his life. Having an ashtray with a photo Hospitals! And about how many lives of his grandkids was probably normal and families have been ended or ruined back then. I assume. I hope. because of cruel attacks on apartment I shared the photo with my brothers buildings, schools, grocery stores, and and the rest of my family via social media homes? If it helps humanize the situation, and we had a good laugh — or at least maybe think about how much family some good emojis and text exchanges. memorabilia has been left behind by the These kinds of familial artifacts are like 10 million Ukrainians displaced from archeological finds, evoking memories their homes by this merciless, unprovoked long buried. We shouldn’t take them for assault on their country. granted.

A crucible is coming. We can’t keep I wonder, for example, how much appeasing a murderous sociopath with the family memorabilia was destroyed in lives of innocents, hoping he will stop if Luhansk, Ukraine, last week, when a we keep enough Big Macs and credit cards Russian tank pulled up in front of a home from his people. How many more civilians for the aged and opened fire, killing 56 have to die before we realize the Russian elderly people. “They just adjusted the leader just doesn’t care? What is the level tank, put it in front of the house, and of evil we will tolerate before we call started firing,” an official told The New his bluff, before we finally put Vladimir York Times. Lives and memories lost Putin’s picture in the ashtray of history? forever in the rubble.

We’re going to find out soon.

FINANCE By Gene Gard

Spring break

Gas Prices It’s always supply and demand.

A perfectly elastic good would mean that demand is infinite at one price and zero at a slightly higher price. An example would be a store selling one-dollar bills. Priced at $1, the store would just be a complicated ATM. Price them at 99 cents and I’d borrow money to buy as many as possible. Price them at $1.01 and I wouldn’t buy a single one. That’s a perfectly elastic good.

On the other end of the spectrum would be a perfectly inelastic good. The most common example is a lifesaving medicine. If 100 people a year need it and 100 doses are produced each year, the price might be $100. If only 99 doses were produced, the price wouldn’t rise to $101 — in fact, there’s no theoretical maximum price. Hopefully there would be a fair way to allocate this medicine, but someone is going to be very disappointed no matter what. They don’t call economics “the dismal science” for nothing!

Oil demand is relatively inelastic. If oil production representing 5 percent of daily demand suddenly went away, prices would

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start rising and continue to rise until we felt enough pain to reduce worldwide oil consumption by 5 percent — that could be at $5/gallon of gas, $10/gallon, or more.

There’s no way of knowing for sure.

Is there any way around this? Regulations or voluntary measures to cap oil prices sound great, but just like rent controls in NYC, price control comes with a cost. At a lower price, demand would greatly exceed supply, so any sort of meaningful oil price controls would have to be combined with extreme shortages or extremely unpleasant rationing. Consumption would have to fall somehow — the world can’t consume more oil than is produced forever (though production would certainly ramp up elsewhere over time).

The fact that the U.S. produces a lot of oil so we don’t “need” Russian oil and don’t import much today doesn’t mean prices necessarily stay low in America. If oil was $25/barrel in the U.S. and $200/barrel in Europe, Europeans would buy U.S. oil and ship it to Europe as fast as they could sail tankers, eventually finding a new equilibrium price somewhere between the two.

Could we put some sort of export control in place to prevent this? Possibly, but the ripple effects from such a move would likely be extremely chaotic, ineffective, and even counterproductive.

There are powerful forces pushing prices higher aside from simple corporate greed. Oil companies aren’t blameless, but oil markets are more complicated than they might seem on the surface. If you’re convinced the oil companies are getting away with something here, why not put everything you have in oil stocks? That’s obviously not a good idea — returns on oil stocks are likely not going to feel like a windfall from here when prices inevitably come back down. In the end, even oil company executives would agree that a peaceful end to hostilities in Ukraine and a normalization of prices, trade, and economic activity is the best outcome for all, an outcome we all hope can be realized very soon.

Gene Gard CFA, CFP®, CFT-I™ is Chief Investment Officer at Telarray, a Memphisbased wealth management firm that helps families navigate investment, tax, estate, and retirement decisions. Ask him your question at ggard@telarrayadvisors.com or sign up for the next free online seminar on the Events tab at telarrayadvisors.com.

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NEWS & OPINION

N

ews is still moving very quickly regarding the global impact of conflict in Ukraine.

The inevitable impact to energy markets is still coming into focus, but some common misconceptions about supply and demand implications of oil are worth discussing now.

Russia is said to represent approximately 10 percent of world daily oil production, which after domestic use means they export somewhere in the mid-single-digits of net world oil exports. For our purposes we will call it 5 percent. If we suddenly removed 5 percent of daily oil production from the world market, what impact would that have on oil prices? The answer is not straightforward; to figure it out we have to consider what economists call elasticity of demand.

9

COVER STORY BY CHRIS MCCOY

A HUMAN

RIGHTS DISASTER

As state legislatures introduce more restrictive anti-abortion bills, what does the future hold for the imperiled state of reproductive rights?

A

shley B. Coffield is a 51-year-old public health professional who holds a master’s degree in public administration from Texas A&M University.

The mother of two college-age sons taught public policy at her alma mater Rhodes College for nine years, helped create the Snowden School Foundation, and serves as a deacon at Idlewild Presbyterian Church.

Sometimes, when she’s walking to her car after work, people call her a murderer.

As CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, Coffield is on the front lines of one of the most consequential political battles of our time: the drive by conservative Christians and their Republican allies to overturn Roe v.

Wade. Now that the Supreme Court seems poised to strip women of their constitutional right to safely obtain an abortion, Coffield and her allies are bracing for a return to the bad old days of limited reproductive rights — and perhaps worse.

“This is a human rights disaster,” Coffield says.

March 24-30, 2022

The Rise and Fall of Roe v. Wade The debate over abortion rights in the United States is almost as old as the republic itself. In 1821, Connecticut passed the first law banning abortions in America. But juries would prove reluctant to convict women accused under such statutes, so the rare enforcement actions were usually taken against abortion providers. By the late 1960s, abortion on demand was available in five states and the District of Columbia.

Women seeking abortions in the rest of the country either traveled to one of those states or resorted to less than legal means to end unwanted pregnancies. In some places, secret feminist organizations such as Chicago’s Jane Collective dodged police stings to provide safe and clean services. But for the most part, obtaining an abortion in the pre-Roe world meant paying exorbitant sums to back-alley practitioners, who may or may not have been doctors, and hoping for the best. In big cities, hospitals had entire wards devoted to treating women injured by unsafe abortion attempts.

“Abortion rights are important because it gets at the dignity of the individual and 10 the autonomy of the individual to make

PHOTOS: COURTESY SAVANNAH BEARDEN

(top) Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi; (bottom) protest against anti-abortion legislation decisions about their bodies and their lives,” Coffield says. “Without abortion rights, people are subject to the whims of fertilization and pregnancy.”

In 1973, the United States Supreme Court agreed by a vote of 7-2. Justice Harry Blackmun’s majority opinion found that precedents such as Griswold v. Connecticut, which legalized contraception, had established a right of privacy, and the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments extended that right to include a woman’s decision to

terminate her pregnancy.

But what many advocates thought would be the end of a long fight turned out to be just the beginning of a new phase.

Abortion opponents who believe human life begins at conception, not at birth or at the quickening, organized a counter-offensive.

They seized upon Roe’s framework that made first trimester abortion legal in all circumstances while allowing reasonable restrictions to protect the mother’s health in the second trimester onward to chip away

at the right to abortion. “The most recent case, Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania v. Casey, from the ’90s, is really the current statement of the law,” says Steve Mulroy, the Bredesen Professor of Law at the University of Memphis. That decision replaced Roe’s trimester-based framework with a standard based on fetal viability and allowed abortion restrictions as long as they don’t impose an “undue burden” on women seeking to exercise their reproductive rights.

Meanwhile, the Republican party discovered that abortion was an issue that allowed them to mobilize a large number of single-issue voters who could be counted on to show up at the polls. Ever since the Gallup organization began polling on abortion rights in 1975, a solid majority of voters have indicated they support abortion rights. In the most recent poll, conducted in 2021, 48 percent of respondents said abortion should be legal under certain circumstances, while 32 percent said abortion should be legal under all circumstances. Only 19 percent of respondents said abortions should be illegal in all circumstances.

Even though support for the Roe consensus of regulated abortion has hovered around 80 percent for decades, abortion opponents have been steadily gaining ground in state legislatures, including Tennessee’s, where anti-abortion Republicans now hold a veto-proof supermajority. “I think people have taken this right for granted, and sometimes it is just a matter of human nature, where you don’t realize what you’ve got until it’s gone,” says Francie Hunt, executive director of Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood. “The vast majority of people are pro-choice, but that may not be a makeit-or-break-it issue that they are voting on.

They may be voting on personality, or they may be voting on other factors. I kind of feel like, if you can’t trust me to make my own decisions about my own family, then you don’t deserve my vote.”

Coffield is blunt about the reproductive rights movements’ failures of the last 30 years. “We lost elections that were really critical to protecting our rights. That’s the bottom line: We lost. When Trump was elected, we knew we had four to six years left of Roe because of the opportunities

States of Confusion As Republicans, buoyed by a hard core of anti-abortion voters who show up for low-turnout elections, took over more state legislatures, they have passed laws designed to test the limits of abortion rights by imposing ever more stringent restrictions, challenging the notion of what constitutes an “undue burden.” Two cases have emerged that could end universal abortion rights in America. The first is Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which concerns a 2018 Mississippi law banning all abortions after 15 weeks of gestation. Federal appeals courts have prevented the law, which violates the 24-week viability standard set by Roe and Casey, from taking effect. But last May, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the state’s appeal, leading observers to believe that the new 6-3 conservative majority is looking to overturn abortion law precedent.

The second case is Texas SB 8, a law passed in May 2021 which bans abortions after six weeks, long before many women even know they’re pregnant. SB 8 and other copycat bills, including one recently

introduced in Tennessee by state Rep. Rebecca Alexander (R-Jonesborough), provide a novel solution to the constitutional problems abortion opponents face. Instead of instructing law enforcement to arrest women and abortion providers, it allows private citizens to sue anyone who performs or facilitates an abortion for no less than $10,000 in damages, plus attorney’s fees and court costs. On March 15th, at a Tennessee State House Health Subcommittee hearing in Nashville, Alexander said, “While the

to help a pregnant rape victim who sought an abortion, Alexander responded, “My assumption is that they could because it says any citizen other than the rapist.”

Alexander did not respond to interview requests from the Memphis Flyer.

Mulroy says “abortion bounty laws” are “designed to basically prevent judicial review by making it difficult for a plaintiff trying to enforce abortion rights to find someone to sue. You could not sue the people who brought the lawsuit because they’re private

PHOTOS: COURTESY THE TENNESSEE HOLLER

Pro-choice individuals attend a hearing on HB 2779, which would allow private citizens to sue anyone who performs or facilitates an abortion.

Texas law prohibits abortion once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually six weeks, the Tennessee language proposes to prohibit all abortion. Courts have blocked other states from imposing similar restrictions, but this law differs significantly because it leaves enforcement up to private citizens through civil lawsuits.”

When pressed at the hearing by state Rep. Bob Freeman (D-Nashville) as to whether or not her bill would allow antiabortion activists to sue anyone attempting

citizens and they’re not representatives of the state. Then you could not sue the state because they are not the ones who are actually bringing the anti-abortion enforcement action. So it’s supposed to be sort of a loophole to prevent effective judicial review of a bill, which would restrict abortion rights in a way contrary to existing constitutional precedent.”

Mulroy thinks this “cynical ploy to delay judicial review” is ultimately doomed to fail because, eventually, a government

official like a county court clerk will have to attempt to enforce a judgment, opening up an avenue for litigation. Last September, the United States Supreme Court declined an emergency motion to stop enforcement of the law while its constitutionality was still being litigated.

“It’s evolved very quickly because I would never have guessed that the U.S. Supreme Court would not have saved those women in Texas,” says Coffield.

Anti-Abortion Terrorism On February 28, 2022, Republicans in the Senate filibustered the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would have enshrined the right to abortion in law. Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn (R) released a statement calling the bill, which had previously passed the House, “an attack against the health of women and unborn children. I voted against this legislation which would open the pathway for abortion on demand and legalize late-term abortions.

The bill would make every state a late-term abortion state, force abortion drugs by mail, invalidate state laws to prevent coerced abortion, remove informed consent, and prevent states from stopping gruesome dismemberment abortion procedures.”

More recently, on March 20th, in a video questioning the judicial philosophies of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, Blackburn claims that Griswold v. Connecticut, which made birth control a protected right, is “constitutionally unsound.”

Such hyperbolic language is increasingly typical of abortion opponents, says Hunt.

“I think Tennessee has grown much more ideological. It’s almost like they’re moving toward a theocracy.”

In the eight years Hunt has worked on Capitol Hill, she says, “a lot of the Democratic lawmakers have been good in terms of defending a pregnant person’s bodily autonomy and their right to make decisions over their own body. We’ve also seen several Republicans who themselves don’t really agree with their own party’s view on abortion. They might think that abortion is wrong, but they also think that it’s a private matter that needs to be left up to the family. But they are not going to cross their own party. And then we have what I would say is an unhealthy majority of folks in the legislature that are completely ideologically driven.”

Decades of increasingly hard-line rhetoric from the right has led to violent action on the ground. “We had our health center torched to the ground in Knoxville,” says Hunt. “We all felt, and I do believe, that’s a direct outcome from these political leaders who are absolutely extremist and continued on page 12

COVER STORY m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

he would have appointing justices to the Supreme Court.”

In February 2016 when Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ignored 150 years of precedent by refusing to allow confirmation hearings for Democratic President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. In 2017, McConnell shepherded the newly installed President Trump’s nominee Neil Gorsuch through the confirmation process.

In 2018, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who had been the swing vote in favor of preserving abortion rights in the Casey decision, retired, and Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to replace him. On September 18, 2020, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a feminist icon who had long warned about the fragility of abortion rights, died 38 days before the election. On her deathbed, she told her granddaughter, “My fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” Instead, McConnell, who had held up Garland’s nomination for 10 months during the previous presidential election, sped the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett through in one month. Ironically, Barrett and Coffield are both Rhodes College alumnae, graduating only two years apart.

“It’s Shakespearean,” says Coffield. “But also, it’s all the elections that our side hasn’t won at the state level.”

“I think there are at least three or four justices who, in prior opinions, have indicated a willingness to overturn Roe,” says Mulroy. “The new Trump appointees definitely seem particularly pro-life. So there’s a very good chance that Roe will be overturned.”

11

continued from page 11

be a paleontologist for a day

ON THE PINK PALACE LAWN

March 24-30, 2022

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have no moderation in how they talk about healthcare.”

There is a history of anti-abortion terrorism in the United States. In 1996, Christian Identity terrorist Eric Rudolph bombed the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, killing two and injuring 111 people.

He went on to bomb abortion clinics in Atlanta and Birmingham, as well as a lesbian bar in Atlanta. At trial, Rudolph said his motivation for bombing the Olympics was to “confound, anger, and embarrass the Washington government in the eyes of the world for its abominable sanctioning of abortion on demand.” In 2009, Dr. George Tiller, who performed abortions, was murdered during a Sunday morning service in the Wichita, Kansas, Lutheran church where he was an usher. His killer, Scott Roeder, told the AP that he shot Tiller because “preborn children’s lives were in imminent danger.”

In January 2021, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, someone fired a shotgun through the front door of the Planned Parenthood health center in Knoxville.

Coffield was just down the street when it happened. “That scared the hell out of us,” she says. “We had never had an act of violence at one of our facilities in Tennessee in all the years that we’ve been here, and we’ve been in Memphis since 1941. There was always a threat — our protestors have always felt threatening to us — but nobody had ever acted on it before.”

No one was arrested for the shooting.

“Thus far, the suspect from that has not been identified despite the best efforts of investigators,” says Scott Erland, communications manager for the Knoxville Police Department.

On December 31, 2021, the Knoxville health center was destroyed in what was determined to be an act of arson. Knoxville Fire Department Assistant Chief Mark Wilbanks says that while “a considerable amount of evidence has been collected from the scene,” no new information about the crime has been uncovered. “There have not been any arrests at this time, and I do not have any suspect information.”

“I’m still processing that our actual health center burned down,” says Coffield.

“I still wake up in the morning and think that it’s there and that we’re gonna be seeing patients there today. I have to remind myself that it’s gone and that our patients don’t have anywhere to go.”

What the Future Holds “I think so many people have had positive experiences with abortion,” says Coffield.

“It’s been a lifesaver for so many people — for somebody that you know — and it will continue to be a necessary part of healthcare.”

The immediate future of abortion rights in Tennessee is “gloomy,” Coffield says.

“When we heard oral arguments around the Mississippi case, it was discouraging.

We didn’t see any bright signs there that [the Supreme Court] are not going to significantly curtail, if not overturn Roe altogether. So we have to prepare for the worst because we have patients who are still gonna need services.”

The court’s decision could come as early as June. “Our legislature has already decided to ban abortion,” says Coffield. “We have a trigger law, which, if Roe is overturned, means abortion is illegal with no exceptions within 30 days.”

Women needing abortions would be forced to travel out of state. “In the west end of Tennessee, unfortunately, the only place that people have to go that’s in driving distance will probably be Illinois,” Coffield says.

Four generations of women who have grown up taking reproductive rights for granted are in for a rude awakening, says Coffield. “They’re going to have fewer options to control their fertility and pregnancy. It’s going to cost them more to get the services that they need. They’re going to need to be vigilant about avoiding pregnancy. If they are pregnant, they’re going to have to know early and they’re going to have to reach out to Planned Parenthood and other providers to get all of their options as quickly as possible.

We’ve talked about emphasizing some of the services we have like emergency contraception and making sure people have that available to them at all times. It needs to be in your medicine cabinet. We need to reemphasize effective forms of birth control and compliance with birth control. We need to emphasize that you need to have a pregnancy test at home and ready at all times so that you can find out as early as possible if you’re pregnant.”

If the Supreme Court cuts so deeply into the right of privacy that it invalidates Griswold v. Connecticut, extremists could go even further. “Their lack of respect for people’s individual rights and to their right to comprehensive reproductive healthcare doesn’t bode well for birth control,” says Coffield.

Planned Parenthood will continue the fight. “Our plan is to dig into organizing.

We have three pillars to our mission, which is education, advocacy, and healthcare.

The education and advocacy components won’t go away. Those are going to be more important than ever because we’re not gonna be able to turn around this human rights disaster without education and organizing. … Planned Parenthood is not going anywhere. We are going to turn this around. It’s just gonna take a long time — and we can’t do it alone.”

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We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews

No Big Dill March 24th Mighty Souls Brass band

March 25th Third Coast

By Abigail Morici

If someone were to ask you what’s the fastest-growing sport in America, what would your answer be? If you answered pickleball, congratulations, you must be a blast at trivia night. And if you think that pickleball involves throwing a pickle across the kitchen table, then you must be a different kind of blast at trivia night.

PHOTO: BEN HERSHEY | UNSPLASH In all seriousness, if you haven’t heard of the game played with paddles and a perforated ball, you aren’t alone. When Taylor Taylor, founder of PickleMania, first heard of the game, she says, “I laughed. I thought it was the weirdest sounding thing.” Taylor played tennis professionally for 20 years until, after a few knee surgeries, her doctor told her to stop. “I was sort of freaking out. Like, oh gosh, what am I gonna do now? I’ve been doing this since I was 10 years old.”

Fortunately, a friend pushed her to start playing pickleball. Though she was hesitant at first, Taylor says, “I was just hooked from the first day. … Then I started thinking about what I wanted to do for the second half of my life. I have a master’s in clinical social work. I had written my thesis … about teaching life lessons through sport.

“I woke up in the middle of the night thinking, oh my gosh, pickleball is the perfect sport because it’s so easy. The learning curve is very small compared to something like tennis. … I always say, nothing is sore in my body when I play pickleball except for my face because I’ve been smiling the entire time, even when I’m getting my booty kicked.”

Out of this idea came the nonprofit PickleMania, which teaches pickleball to under-resourced kids while implementing a curriculum of social-emotional learning, based on adverse-childhood-experience research. So far, the program has been implemented in three Universal Parenting Places. And, since the pandemic, the organization has painted more than 30 pickleball courts in driveways, and it hopes to work in charter schools with kids in summer school this summer. The organization also offers pickleball lessons outside of its nonprofit efforts. Basically, “The people who can pay for lessons pay for the people who can’t.”

To raise more money, PickleMania is hosting a pickleball tournament in a round-robin style in partnership with Church Health on March 26th. That Friday, there will be an exhibition and pro-am featuring professional player Kyle Yates. Tickets for one or both of the days can be purchased at picklemania.org/events.

PICKLE & PARTY, MEMPHIS HUNT & POLO CLUB, 650 S. SHADY GROVE, FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 5-8 P.M. | SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 9 A.M.-2 P.M.

VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES March 24th - 30th

March 26th March 24-30, 2022

Marcus Machado

March 31rd Band of Heathens railgarten.com

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2 1 6 6 C e n t r a l Av e .

Memphis TN 38104

“Beyond Van Gogh” Graceland Exhibition Center, opens Friday, March 25 Be completely immersed in more than 300 of the greatest works of Vincent Van Gogh as his art is liberated from its two-dimensional limitations into a three-dimensional experience that exhilarates every sense and brings to life one of the most influential artists the world has known.

Whiskey Warmer Shelby Farms Park Event Center, Friday, March 25, 6-9 p.m., $49 Bundle up with great whiskey and great people to welcome in the warmer weather. Bringing together 40 labels of whiskey, bourbon, and Scotch. Benefiting Volunteer Memphis. This event is strictly 21+.

Soul Kids Crosstown Theater, Saturday, March 26, 7-10 p.m., $15 Memphis premiere of the film Soul Kids, featuring in-person Q&A with director Hugo Sobelman and subjects of the film, plus a performance from 926, the Stax Music Academy Alumni Band.

Soul Kids is a behind-the-scenes look at the Stax Music Academy, which continues the legacy of Stax Records, the legendary ’60s soul label. By learning and understanding soul music in after-school programs, teenagers embark into the BlackAmerican legacy and open themselves to new future prospects. Put simply, Soul Kids is a musical odyssey through history and the concerns of a new generation.

Taste of Fitness Old Dominick Distillery, 305 S. Front, Sunday, March 27, 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m., $25-$45 This event offers 25-minute “tastes” of different workouts available throughout the greater Memphis area. The workouts will range from HIIT to yoga, from cycle to barre, and everything in between.

Each ticket gets you a taste of your choice of workouts, a tasting tour of the distillery, unlimited health and wellness experiences at vendor booths, and a tote with gifts from vendors and sponsors. Fuel Food Truck will be on-site.

Attendees can arrive any time, stay as long as desired, and attend any class. Attendance is first-come, first-served.

MUSIC By Alex Greene

A Life Told in Mad Beats year), you’ll note that it has plenty of featured artists. Indeed, MAD himself is still behind the scenes, as his favorite singers and rappers step up to the mic. The difference? He’s crafting the narratives with them, in pursuit of his vision.

“There’s a lot that happens in the world of James, in the world of IMAKEMADBEATS, … that I’ve never explored musically.”

“There were times where I wrote a hook or suggested certain lyrics, but on a whole, it was more of an emotional bed that I created. Like ‘Depression And Redemption,’ [on Vol. 1] was a group collaboration between me, Idaly, Idi, and Teco. I wasn’t really trying to control the words of the song so much

as just tailoring a song that felt like what I went through. With ‘What I Need’ by PreauXX — well, PreauXX, that’s my brother. What he’s talking about are things we’re both going through. Basically, I would say, ‘Talk about this your way, as long as it fits under the umbrella of this general emotion that I need to be a part of this story.’”

Make no mistake, MAD needed to tell this story. It took on a new urgency around the time the pandemic started, but it wasn’t Covid: He had other crippling health issues.

“I was going through some health things,” he says. “I had the feeling of being in a choke hold by my own illness and by the pandemic, and that was pushing me into a dark, dark tunnel about myself.

‘Born Again’ [from Vol. 1] is probably the song that set all of this off. My best friend, the best man at my wedding, the number one person I’ve ever made music with, a guy named MidaZ the Beast, had just been diagnosed with stage 3 lymphoma. For us to both be facing life-threatening illnesses at the same time didn’t feel like a coincidence.

“In the midst of all that, I found this song we made in 2014 called ‘Born Again,’ where MidaZ raps about diseases and plagues and how he can remove cancer by being born again.

Not in the religious sense. It really is about being forced into something new, adapting, and that being okay. I took that as a sign: ‘You’ve got to put this song out.’”

MAD’s even recruited his father again, for a Vol. 2 track about parents teaching their kids about violence. “He came to my new studio Downtown to record it. It was beautiful, knowing that the very first recording he ever did for me was on that broken down computer, and now he’s in my studio.”

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

I

MAKEMADBEATS, aka James Dukes, the founder and original producer at the UNAPOLOGETIC collective and label, recalls growing up with his father in Orange Mound, working on a barely functioning computer. “He had no idea what I was talking about,” the son remembers today, “but I got him to say something into the pencil-sized microphone. I just wanted to show him I could sample his voice. And he said, ‘Voulez-vous coucher avec moi,’ from that song. Then I made a beat out of it and he was like, ‘What?’ He couldn’t believe I could do that.”

Many still can’t believe the sounds that same knob-twiddler and composer is capable of today. And yet, aside from a 2011 album and a 2017 EP, most of the beats he’s known for are for other performers on the UNAPOLOGETIC roster. Lately, that’s changed. Starting last November, MAD, as he’s known, released MAD Songs, Vol. 1, the first of five releases that he’s personally sculpted to tell his story. Volume 2 is due out in early April, with three more after that slated for later in the year.

“When I’m done dropping all of one through five, it’ll just feel like one long album,” says the producer. “It’s really the story of me that I’ve never told, historically, because I’m usually busy producing other people. But there’s a lot that happens in the world of James, in the world of IMAKEMADBEATS, in the world of dad, and in the world of being a husband, that I’ve never explored musically. And that’s what these tell the story of. When it’s all said and done, MAD Songs Vol. 1-5 will really be MAD Songs, the album.”

If you know Vol. 1 already (one of the Flyer’s top 10 albums of last

m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

Producer IMAKEMADBEATS’ Vol. 2 tells another chapter in his audio autobiography.

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CALENDAR of EVENTS:

March 24 - 30

ART AN D S P EC I A L E X H I B ITS

“Days Like These”

Show by David Mah, reflecting the introspection of people living in confinement, disconnected from the outside world and sometimes each other. Friday, March 25-April 10.

MEDICINE FACTORY

“John Leslie Breck: American Impressionist”

Exhibition of work by John Leslie Breck. Through March 27.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

“Rings! 1968 - 2021”

Collection of rings that reveal the wide-ranging creativity of artists working in this form.

Sunday, March 27-June 12.

METAL MUSEUM

ART HAP P E N I N G S

Crosstown Arts Resident Artist Talk

Open House: “One Part of My Small Story”

A Night at Novel

Join Bornblum Jewish Community School in celebrating National Reading Month, featuring Britton DeWeese, author of The Donut Shop That Never Sleeps. Wednesday, March 30, 6:30 p.m.

DAVID LUSK GALLERY

C O M E DY

NOVEL

Comedian Richard Douglas Jones Headlines

Bilingual Storytime at Overton Square

Non-garbage comedians on stage. $10. Sunday, March 27, 7:30 p.m.

Read a bilingual story so you can practice your Spanish, make a craft, or learn a new dance.

Free. Saturday, March 26, 11 a.m.-noon.

LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE

Laughing At The Rock

Christopher Harrell Ingram and other hilarious local comedians. $20. Thursday, March 24, 7:3010 p.m.

THE TOWER COURTYARD AT OVERTON SQUARE

CMOM After Dark

HARD ROCK CAFE

Memphis and Nashville Jam Friday

With Ambrose Jones and Renard Hirsch. Hosted by Ronnie B. Friday, March 25, 8 p.m.

THE COMEDY JUNT

THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS

March 24-30, 2022

FAM I LY

Open house for exhibition of paintings by Hamlett Dobbins.

Saturday, March 26, 1-3 p.m.

Spring 2022 resident artists will present artist talks. Free. Tuesday, March 29, 6-8 p.m.

COM M U N ITY

Need-Based Pet Vaccines Free pet vaccinations for pet parents who can’t afford them.

Monday, March 28-April 1.

MEMPHIS ANIMAL SERVICES

Volunteer Fair

Meet MBG’s teams and learn about upcoming volunteer opportunities. Saturday, March 26, 9 a.m.-noon.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

GRIZZLIES VS SPURS THURSDAY, MARCH 24

THE WHO FRIDAY, MAY 13

Come watch Ja Morant and your Memphis Grizzlies as they take on the Indiana Pacers at 7PM. Get tickets 901.888.HOOP | GRIZZLIES.COM

The Who bring THE WHO HITS BACK! tour to Memphis, featuring Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend.

Tickets available!

The Orpheum will host the record-breaking musical CATS through March 27th.

PHOTO: MATTHEW MURPHY, MURPHYMADE

MAVERICK CITY MUSIC X KIRK FRANKLIN FRIDAY, JULY 1

Maverick City Music and Kirk Franklin bring The Kingdom Tour, with special guests Jonathan McReynolds and Housefires.

Tickets available!

Benefiting Hope House. Food, drinks, face painting, a photo booth, and lots of fun! Free for kids 2 and under. $25/ adults, $20/kids 3-17. Friday, March 25, 5:30-8:30 p.m.

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF MEMPHIS

Relax. Relate. Read.

Wellness Day

A “mental health break” for the community, providing well-

22/23 SEASON TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE Guarantee your 2022 Playoff ticket priority with a 20% deposit today on 2022/23 Grizzlies Season Tickets.

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Send the date, time, place, cost, info, phone number, a brief description, and photos — two weeks in advance — to calendar@memphisflyer.com.

DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS, ONGOING WEEKLY EVENTS WILL APPEAR IN THE FLYER’S ONLINE CALENDAR ONLY. FOR COMPREHENSIVE EVENTS LISTING, VISIT EVENTS.MEMPHISFLYER.COM/CAL.

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CALENDAR: MARCH 24 - 30 Time Warp Drive-In: Fortune & Glory, Kid

Small-time crook Michel steals a car, murders a policeman, and goes on the run. $5. Thursday, March 24, 7:30-9 p.m.

EAST SHELBY LIBRARY

Time Warp Drive-In presents Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. $25/per car. Saturday, March 26, 6:30 p.m.

CROSSTOWN THEATER

Spring Spectular

Featuring activities that help you “spring” out of winter hibernation. Through March 27.

Dystopia Productions: Industrial Drum & Bass

A night of music, dancing, and a screening of The Animatrix. $10. Saturday, March 26, 8 p.m.

MALCO SUMMER 4 DRIVE-IN

F E ST IVAL

BLACK LODGE

Memphis Tequila & Taco Fest

Mosaic Premiere

Gemutlichkeit German Beer Pairing

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF MEMPHIS

Followed by a screening of David Lowery’s A Ghost Story. $5.

Thursday, March 24, 8 p.m.

Enjoy great samples and tacos from the best food trucks in Memphis. $25. Saturday, March 26, 2-6 p.m.

Benefiting Volunteer Memphis, with 40 labels of whiskey, bourbon, and Scotch. $49. Friday, March 25, 6-9 p.m.

SHELBY FARMS PARK

STAX MUSEUM OF AMERICAN SOUL MUSIC

Soul Kids

H E A LT H A N D F IT N E S S

Memphis premiere of Soul Kids featuring in-person Q&A with director Hugo Sobelman and subjects of the film. $15. Saturday, March 26, 7-10 p.m.

A mystery screening of one of Craig Brewer’s favorite films!

What is the film? You will have to come and find out. $5. Friday, March 25, 8 p.m.

Big Buffalo 50

Benefiting the Cancer Kicker Soccer Club. Saturday, March 26, 6 a.m.

CROSSTOWN THEATER

CROSSTOWN THEATER

G

Whiskey Warmer

Stony Island tells the story of the only white kid on the block, as he forms an R&B band with his best friend. Free. Monday, March 28, 7 p.m.

Craig Brewer’s Secret Screening with special guests Lucky 7 Brass Band

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ARROW CREATIVE

Soul Cinema: Stony Island

F I LM

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Join Volunteer Odyssey for a night of crawfish-filled fun. $35. Thursday, March 24, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

MALCO OXFORD COMMONS CINEMA GRILL

OLD DOMINICK DISTILLERY

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Volunteer Odyssey Crawfish Boil

Schedule and more info can be found at ox-film.com. Wednesday, March 23-March 27.

Sample Memphis’ best workouts and health, wellness, and beauty experiences. $25-$45. Sunday, March 27, 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

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WISEACRE BREWING COMPANY HQ

Oxford Film Festival

Taste of Fitness

H

German beer pairing class!

Saturday, March 26, 1-2 p.m., 3-4 p.m., 5-6 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

DOWNTOWN MEMPHIS COURT SQUARE

S

FOOD AN D DR I N K

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H

E

T

R

U

SHELBY FARMS PARK

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H

O

F

C

H

ON LY FI V E P ER F OR M A NCE S

M A R C H 3 1 – A P R IL 3 at Mid-America Seminary

DI R EC T E D B Y D R. J A M E S D . W HI T MIR E

P UR CH A SE T ICK E T S ONLI NE AT

midamericapassionplay.org

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S

Fast & the Furriest 5K

Benefiting the Humane Society of Memphis and Shelby County.

Saturday, March 26, 8 a.m.

HUMANE SOCIETY OF MEMPHIS AND SHELBY COUNTY

P E R F O R M I N G A R TS

Circus Bezerkus

A one-night only drag and variety show! $10, $25. Sunday, March 27, 8 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

S P EC IA L EVE NTS

T H EAT E R

March Trolley Night

A Doll’s House & A Doll’s House: Part Two

South Main will be open late with live music, shopping, restaurants specials, and nonstop fun. Friday, March 25, 6 p.m.

S. MAIN

MidSouthCon 38 Mk III

The Mid-South’s longest running multi-genre convention is back in March 2022 for its 38th event. Friday, March 25, noon.

CLARION HOTEL & SUITES CONFERENCE CENTER

Drag & A Musical

An interactive show with musical numbers from Rent.

Saturday, March 26, 8-10 p.m.

DRU’S BAR

Fairytales on Ice

Watch beloved, classic stories come to life. $35. Thursday, March 24, 4 p.m., 7 p.m.

BUCKMAN ARTS CENTER AT ST. MARY’S SCHOOL

Honky Tonk Hunnies

A country drag revue. Thursday, March 24, 9 p.m.

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

The Last Podcast on the Left

Last Podcast on the Left laughs into the abyss that is the dark side of humanity. $25-$150.

Saturday, March 26, 7-10 p.m.

THE SOUNDSTAGE AT GRACELAND

Stardust

An all-star lineup, gambling for charity, open bar, cocktails, food, and more. Benefiting For the Kingdom Memphis. $80.

Friday, March 25, 6 p.m.

THE COTTINGHAM HOUSE

S PO R TS

Memphis Grizzlies vs.

Golden State Warriors Monday, March 28, 7 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

Memphis Grizzlies vs.

Indiana Pacers

Thursday, March 24, 7 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

Memphis Grizzlies vs.

Milwaukee Bucks

Saturday, March 26, 7 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

Henrik Ibsen’s classic with Lucas Hnath’s Part Two will tell the complete story of the Helmers. $27. Through April 10.

CIRCUIT PLAYHOUSE

Amongst the Stars of Jesmyn Ward

A reading and performing from Jesmyn Ward’s works. $15-$27.

Sunday, March 27, 3 p.m.

TENNESSEE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY

CATS

One magical night, a tribe of cats gathers for its annual ball to decide which cat will be reborn. $29-$125. Through March 27.

ORPHEUM THEATRE

La Cage aux Folles

This light-hearted musical centers on Georges and his lover Albin, star at their drag nightclub in St. Tropez. $35.

Friday, March 4-March 27 THEATRE MEMPHIS

Tumbling Down

The play revisits the Jim Crow era when many Confederate statues were erected and shows the stratagems that led to the statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest tumbling down. $30.

Through April 3.

HATTILOO THEATRE

2021-2022

T

SEASON

FIVE FOR FIGHTING MAY 5 / 7:30PM

John Ondrasik, aka — Five for Fighting, has spent his career performing deeply personal songs that are part of the American songbook. Five for Fighting’s breakout song SUPERMAN (It’s Not Easy) was used as the anthem for 9/11’s First Responders. Regardless of race, age, or creed, his “100 YEARS” will touch your heart. Savor other songs: THE RIDDLE — CHANCES — WHAT IF — & his latest CAN ONE MAN CHANGE THE WORLD. Experience Five For Fighting in BPACC’s intimate 350 seat theatre … remarkable!

TICKETS & INFO

901.385.5588 - Box Office Hours: 10am - 2pm M-F or 24/7 @ BPACC.org

m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

Breathless

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

ness activities and educational information to help with stress and anxiety. Free. Saturday, March 26, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

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CALIFORNIA #1 GRADE POTTED ROSES over 100 varieties

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FOOD By Michael Donahue

Italian Ice Ice Baby Troy Davis sells Groovy Italian Ice.

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talian ice is hot — as in, very popular.

Just ask Troy Davis. He recently rolled his Groovy Italian Ice food truck into Shelby Farms Park and set up shop.

“They sold me out twice,” he says.

Davis knew he was onto a good thing when he participated in the Soulful Food Truck Festival March 13th at Tiger Lane. “It did amazing. We sold out about 4:30 [p.m.].

We opened at noon.”

He got the idea to sell Italian ice about two years ago. “I wanted to bring something different to Memphis. You got a lot of people doing snow cones. And you got Baskin-Robbins and all that doing ice cream. So, I said, ‘I want to do Italian ice.’”

Italian ice isn’t the same as a snow cone, Davis says. “A snow cone is kind of crunchy.

Italian ice is soft and smooth.”

CROS STOWN ARTS MUSIC PERFORMANCES

PHOTO: ALICE KERLEY

March 24-30, 2022

3/23

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CR AIG TABORN

3/24

JAIMIE BR ANCH: FLY OR DIE

3/25

THE PRVLG

3/26

M AEVE GILCHRIST

3/27

AROOJ AFTAB with OURI

3/29

BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS

For tickets, go to CROSSTOWNARTS.ORG or call 901.507.8030

Troy Davis He offers a variety of Italian ices. “I do eight flavors, but, eventually, I want to do at least 20.”

Davis currently sells blueberry, strawberry, cherry, pineapple, mango, cotton candy, and strawberry lemonade. “The most popular is strawberry lemonade.

They’ll be gone in an hour.”

Davis, who also owns a lawn service, TD’s Lawn Care, discovered Italian ice during one of his jobs. He met a man selling it on his food truck. He told Davis, “You need to do it. It’s easier to scoop and there’s a bigger profit margin.”

A native of Nashville, Davis was adopted by his grandmother when he was 10 and moved to Memphis, where he began his lawn service. “I was cutting grass at 10 years

old. Walking around the neighborhood cutting grass.

“I took it seriously about two or three years ago. I really sat down and started looking at the numbers and started realizing I could make a good profit over the years. I started buying better equipment to make the job easier for me.”

He originally was going to call his Italian ice business TD’s Italian Ice, but he thought, “I’ve already got TD’s Lawn Care.

“I was talking to my girl. She said, ‘You should do ‘Groovy Italian Ice.’” “Groovy” conjured up “bright colors, happiness, peace, and love,” which Davis then used in his logo.

Strawberry lemonade is his favorite flavor. “I like strawberry and lemon mixed together. I like sour apple, too.”

He gets flavor requests from customers.

“Sometimes people ask, ‘Can you mix it?’”

Davis will then mix together flavors like blueberry, pineapple, and lemon.

Along with Italian ice, Davis also sells nachos and jumbo hot dogs on the food truck. And he sells his homemade cookies: strawberry lemonade, lemon, and regular strawberry. “I’m not necessarily a good cook. I’m still learning. Right now I’ve started baking cookies.”

His first batch of cookies he brought to the food truck sold out, Davis says. “The way we advertise our business is it’s unique and different. We were doing the cookies for a test run, and I saw that people really liked the cookies. So, I’m going to start making the cookies now. Really, I looked on YouTube at how to make the strawberry lemonade cookies.”

Davis plans to open an additional food truck. And he’d eventually like to open a brick-and-mortar business, where he’ll sell more food in addition to the Italian ice and cookies. “Like funnel cakes, chicken tenders, hamburgers, funnel fries, different kinds of carnival food.”

Grass-cutting time will hit around the end of March, so Davis’ sister, Ashley Randolph, will be helping with the food truck business.

And after a particularly grueling yardcutting job in the blazing sun, Davis probably will quench his thirst with one of his Italian ices. And it’ll probably be strawberry lemonade.

To find out where the Groovy Italian Ice truck will be, go to @groovy_italianicellc on Instagram.

[PUBLIC NOTICE]

SHELBY COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING

PUBLIC HEARING FOR: FISCAL YEAR 2022 ANNUAL ACTION PLAN, HOME-ARP ALLOCATION PLAN, and FISCAL YEAR 2021 ANNUAL ACTION PLAN SUBSTANTIAL AMENDMENT Shelby County Department of Housing (SCDH) will hold a public hearing to provide feedback on the proposed plans for Fiscal Year 2022 including the Annual Action Plan 4 (AP4, HUD Program Year 2021) and HOME-American Rescue Plan (ARP) Allocation Plan and associated AP3 Substantial Amendment on Thursday, April 21 2022 at 5:30 pm and provide both in-person and virtual attendance options.

In Person Attendance Option: Shelby County Code Enforcement, Training Room, 6465 Mullins Station Road Memphis, TN 38134. Attendees should enter the Code Enforcement Building through the Training Room entrance; upon walking up to the building, attendees will need to follow the signage that leads to the Training Room.

Virtual Attendance Option: A virtual option to join is also provided, and participants can join the meeting with a computer, tablet, or smartphone at https:// www.gotomeet.me/DanaSjostrom or dialing in from a phone +1 (224) 5013412, Access Code 169-900-933 at the above noted meeting time.

If you plan to attend the public hearing and have special needs, please contact the Department of Housing at (901) 222-7600 by 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 14, 2022 and we will work to accommodate you.

Resident input and public participation are strongly encouraged.

The proposed Annual Plan for July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023 will be available for public review from April 1, 2022 through April 30, 2022 online at

Community Planning and Development (CPD) formula block grant programs Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program. The FY 2022 Annual Action Plan establishes within this broader Consolidated Plan (FY 2020-2024) the basis for the use of entitlement funds for the period of July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023. The primary purpose of this hearing is to receive comments on the proposed FY 2022 Annual Action Plan. Shelby County anticipates receiving level funding for the upcoming program year. Shelby County expects to submit the Annual Plan for FY 2022 to HUD on or before May 15, 2022 following a 30-day review and comment period.

https://www.develop901.com/housing/ planningReporting These documents are accessible from a computer, smartphone, or tablet and are also available to access through public library branches in Shelby County including Benjamin L. Hooks Library Branch; Arlington Library Branch; Bartlett Library Branch; Collierville Library Branch; Germantown Library Branch; and Millington Library Branch and at SCDH office, located at 1075 Mullins Station, Memphis TN 38134.

Overview: The consolidated planning process for FY 2020-2024 serves as the framework for a communitywide dialogue to identify housing and community development priorities that align and focus funding from the

Annual Plan (PY 2021)- ACTUAL FUNDING PUBLISHED ALLOCATIONS ON 02/25/2021 CDBG

Actual Allocation Prior Year Unallocated Match Program income TOTAL AVAILABLE

HOME

$ 1,173,763.00

$ 430,082.00

$ 1,603,845.00

$ 100,000.00

$ 10,000.0

$ 110,000.00

$ -

$ 96,768.45

$ 96,768.45

$ 10,000.00

$ 15,000.00

$ 25,000.00

$ 1,283,763.00

$ 551,850.45

$ 1,835,613.45

Project Name

CDBG

Housing Rehab/ Minor Home Repair CHDO Set-aside Community Development/ Infrastructure Projects Public Service

Total Funds

HOME

TOTAL

$ 204,010.40

$ 322,561.50

$ 526,571.90

$

$ 64,512.30

$ 64,512.30

$550,000.00

$

-

$ 550,000.00

$75,000.00

$

-

$ 75,000.00

-

$ 210,000.00

-

Program Delivery

$210,000.00

$

Administration and Planning

$234,752.60

$ 43,008.20

$ 277,760.80

$ 1,273,763.00

$ 430,082.00

$ 1,703,845.00

Budget Considerations: At the time of this publication, SCDH had not yet received notice on actual allocations for FY22.

The above budget summary represents the anticipated level funding amounts from the prior year. If these anticipated resources differ from actual 2022 Fiscal Year allocations, SCDH proposes adjusting funding for each activity either up or down according to the following order of priority: Priority 1- Housing Rehabilitation and Minor Home Repair; Priority 2 - Community Development Projects responsive to high priority nonhousing community development needs; and Priority 3: Public Service Activities.

Should adjustments take place, both Administration/Planning and Community Housing Development Organization

(CHDO) setasides will also be adjusted as needed to account for the shift if Priority 1 is scaled up or down.

Allocation Plan: Shelby County Department of Housing is also preparing an Allocation Plan to utilize HOME American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds intended to assist individuals and households that are experiencing homelessness, at risk of homelessness, and other vulnerable populations. SCDH will provide an update on this process and put forth its draft Allocation Plan that was developed in coordination with community input and stakeholder engagement after receiving notice HOME-ARP CPD-21-10 published September 2021. Receiving these funds also necessitates a substantial amendment to our previous FY21 Annual Action Plan

(AP3). This public hearing serves as opportunity to solicit feedback from the public as to the content of the Allocation Plan and the AP3 substantial amendment.

The hearing will also provide an update on current activities under the CDBG and HOME Programs, information on Section 3 contracting opportunities, and will provide information on other programs operated by SCDH. Persons wishing to comment on the FY 2022 Annual Action Plan, HOMEARP Allocation Plan, or the Substantial Amendment to the FY 2021 Annual Action Plan may do so by writing to Dana Sjostrom via email (dana.sjostrom@ shelbycountytn.gov), or written comment via mail to Shelby County Department of Housing, 1075 Mullins Station Road,

Memphis, TN 38134. For additional information contact the Department of Housing at 901-222-7600 or TTY at 901222-2300.

The Shelby County Department of Housing does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age or disability in employment or the provision of services. Equal opportunity/ equal access provider.

Para mas información en Español, por favor llame Dana Sjostrom al 901-2227601.

Lee Harris Mayor

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

TOTAL

m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

Anticipated Resources

Scott Walkup, Administrator Shelby County Department of Housing

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FILM By Chris McCoy

Soul on Film The 2022 Oxford Film Festival opens with a documentary about Stax Academy.

A

March 24-30, 2022

fter two years wracked by the pandemic, the Oxford Film Festival is returning for 2022 with parties, events, and a full program of more than 118 films. “We are excited to present this year’s films and special events to our local film fans here in Oxford, the state of Mississippi, and nearby in Memphis, as well. We have diligently built a program that includes discovery titles; award winners; festival favorites from Venice, Toronto, Sundance, Berlin, and SXSW film festivals; enlightening, innovative, and entertaining features and shorts that should inspire everyone to immerse themselves in the Oxford Film Festival world once again,” says Jim Brunzell, interim executive director, who took over the running of the festival after longtime director Melanie Addington accepted a position with the Tallgrass Film Center in Wichita, Kansas.

The 19th annual festival begins on Wednesday, March 23rd, with The Automat by director Lisa Hurwitz. The documentary is about a unique piece of American culinary and cultural history: Horn & Hardart, a beloved restaurant chain that proved highly influential to the development of American fast food.

The tiny lunchrooms scattered from coast to coast served half a million patrons a day during their peak in

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the 1940s. They pioneered the “automat” concept, where fresh dishes were kept warm in small cubicles, and patrons could insert coins into slots to buy individual servings of staples like Salisbury steak and mac and cheese. Horn & Hardart are often cited as the inspiration for what would become Starbucks.

The film features a new song by film comedy legend and longtime automat fan Mel Brooks.

Thursday night’s film is intimately connected to Memphis. Soul Kids, a documentary by French director Hugo Sobelman, opens the festival’s opening night.

Soul Kids tells the history of the Stax Music Academy, which moved into its permanent home next door to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music 20 years ago this June. The academy helps carry on the tradition of Memphis soul and gospel music by providing highquality music education to Bluff City high schoolers. The school’s alumni include music stars like MonoNeon. The opening night screening will be followed by a Stax Recordsthemed party at The Atrium at Mike Overstreet Properties (265 North Lamar in Oxford) featuring the Stax Music Academy Alumni Band, who will show you exactly how they keep the sound alive.

Another intriguing film in this year’s lineup mixes two things the city of Oxford

(above) Dale Dickey stars in A Love Song, a film about two loves reuniting; (below) Soul Kids documents the history of the Stax Music Academy. is famous for — literature and music. Lover, Beloved, directed by Michael Tully, is an adaptation of a onewoman show by Suzanne Vega. The “Left of Center” and “Tom’s Diner” singer produced the show based on her ninth studio album, which is a tribute to the life and work of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter novelist Carson McCullers. Vega will be on hand for the screening at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Among the Memphis-related films that will screen during the festival weekend is “Jesus Is Lord,” a new comedy by director Mark Jones. The short film is a hilarious take on Rashomon as various members of a church search committee recall their roles in a selection process that ended with the hiring of their first female minister. “Jesus Is Lord” screens on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. with Carl Andress and Charles Busch’s camp caper comedy The Sixth Reel.

Friday night’s marquee film is the political comedy 18 1/2 by director Dan Mirvish and screenwriter Daniel Moya; it is a period piece set during the Watergate

FILM By Chris McCoy hearings of the 1970s. A transcriptionist named Connie (Willa Fitzgerald) decides to leak her knowledge of Nixon’s missing tapes but can’t get anyone to take her seriously. The cast includes Jon Cryer as H.R. Haldeman and indie film legend Bruce Campbell as Richard Nixon.

The official closing night film is A Love Song, which features a rare lead role by Dale Dickey, a beloved actress who has appeared in True Blood, My Name Is Earl, and Breaking Bad. In A Love Song, she appears as Faye opposite Native-American actor Wes Studi as Lito. The two lost souls, who were lovers

long ago, reconnect for a single night at a lakeside campground in this acclaimed film which debuted at Sundance earlier this year. Dickey and director Max Walker-Silverman will be on hand for the film’s Mid-South premiere.

All screenings will take place at Malco Oxford Commons Cinema March 23rd-26th. The virtual aspect of the festival, which the Oxford Film Festival pioneered during the Covid emergency, will run March 27th-April 3rd on the Eventive platform. Visit ox-film.com for more details and for both in-person and virtual tickets.

CHECK MALCO.COM OR THE MALCO APP FOR THE CURRENT SCHEDULE

PREVENT OPIOID OVERDOSE

CARRY NARCAN (Narcan provided at no cost)

Free Individual and Agency trainings are available

Qualifying Agencies are: • Health Organizations • Treatment Centers • Churches • Schools • Local Businesses • Non Profits • Restaurants/Bars/Clubs • Hotels etc...

To schedule training, please call: David Fuller (901) 484-2852

memphisprevention.org

If you need help, support, or referral to treatment, please call Lincoln Coffman (901) 495-5103

SHOP & SHIP

Gift Cards & Gourmet Popcorn from www.malco.com or in the Malco app

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

HOME OF THE TIME WARP DRIVE-IN SERIES

m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

This project is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

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REAL ESTATE • EMPLOYMENT • SERVICES BUY, SELL, TRADE

SHARED HOUSING FURNISHED ROOMS Airways/Lamar, Bellevue/McLemore, Jackson/Watkins. W/D, Cable TV/Phone. Call 901-485-0897.

MIDTOWN: ROOM FOR RENT Furnished, w/fridge, microwave, wifi, utilities, bus line. Safe, clean. $150/wk + dep. 901-654-3053.

WANTED: OLD WINDUP Victrolas & old 45 & 78 records.

Call Paul 901-734-6111.

WE BUY JUNK CARS! Call 901-870-6238.

WANTED

CREATIVE ARTISTS AND FREELANCERS WANTED for media & entertainment industry.

Go to www.sipstudio.info and click on press release.

HOUSEKEEPERS

EMPLOYMENT

AUTO AUTO AUCTION Culp & Sons Towing, 3614 Jackson St., Memphis, TN 38108 on March 25th, 2022, between 12 & 3 PM. 2010 Chevy Cobalt, VIN: 1G1AD5F55A7245001.

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T H E L A S T W O R D B y Pa t r i c i a L o c k h a r t

Inspired to Dance

THE LAST WORD

I have this saying, “I work on myself when it suits me.” And ever since 2020, when the world shut down and there was nothing to do, I’ve been dabbling in exercising. A long walk here, a hike through Stanky Creek there, PopSugar YouTube videos sprinkled throughout the week — I’ve done a little bit of everything. Through virtual classes offered by Fit4Mom and Downtown Yoga and outdoor exercise classes offered by Wolf River Conservatory, I was able to keep the Covid 15, a weight gain of 15 lbs., to a respectable Covid 10. But the way my body is set up, any weight gain was inevitable.

So at the beginning of 2022, I decided I wanted to switch up my workout routine. I spent most of January doing Zumba on my Nintendo Switch. But I found myself shortening the workouts. A 30-minute Zumba session turned to 15, and then quickly to 10.

In February, my job had a steps challenge. So I was at least motivated to move more throughout the day so I wouldn’t “look bad” in front of my peers. It worked … mostly. But I was still in a fitness rut. Then a coworker mentioned wanting to sign up for an adult yoga class at the Collage Dance Collective. I knew that they had an amazing reputation for nurturing kids into incredible dancers, but I didn’t know that they extended their talent to adults, too. So I checked out their website and behold — dance classes.

PHOTO: COURTESY PATRICIA LOCKHART Even though I love to dance, I didn’t want to engage in this new activity by myself. So I reached out to my best friend, my Losing the “Covid 10” with fun buddy, my forever date … my husband. His response came quickly and unstrained, “Immediately, no. No, babe. Not at all.” But classes at Collage Dance Collective I didn’t let the first “no” stop me. I asked a few more times throughout the week and surprisingly got the same answer. (A solid “no” if you weren’t sure.)

Not one to be thwarted, I decided to make it a Girls’ Date Night. So I reached out to a few of my girls and explained what I’d discovered. So, on a Wednesday, my sister and I arrived just in time for the Zumba workout. Here’s what I learned about myself: I have lost all of the cardio endurance I had gained in the past. My hips don’t really swivel or swerve. I can easily burn 500 calories in one hour. And Zumba is too much fun to be considered a workout.

I immediately signed up for Line Dancing on Friday, Yoga on Saturday, and Hip Hop Cardio on Monday. I had so much fun in Line Dancing. I clocked well over 4,000 steps while I moved and grooved. Because this was low-impact, I didn’t have to drag myself to the car afterwards. Hip Hop Cardio lets you listen to some of the coolest DJs while learning routines. So within three weeks, I found myself with a new exercise routine that didn’t feel like work at all. I absolutely love every dance class I have attended. So much so that I’ve signed up for the Adult Beginner’s Ballet Class. What do I know about ballet? Mostly nothing. Why did I sign up? Because I love adventures!

So now that I have an awesome exercise routine and can soon be called a ballerina, I needed an awesome reward to match it. There are three ways I reward myself: books, food, and experiences. And if I could mesh all three together — golden! With my TBR list being over 50 books and dancing at Collage being an experience within itself, the only choice left was food. But I wanted my food to compliment my new workouts, not hinder everything I’d done. I’m also not a lettuce type of girl. I need something flavorful and filling while being healthy at the same time. I found just the place right across the street.

Inspire Community Cafe serves some deliciously healthy foods. Coffee, tea, breakfast served all day, quesadillas, rice or quinoa bowls, chili, barbecue nachos, and smoothies! And that’s just the short version. I love their egg scrambles. Although, after a hard workout, there’s only one way to treat my inner child. That’s right — Choco-Monkey Pancakes! These pancakes are so delicious; they’re made from a gluten-free batter with chocolate chips sprinkled generously throughout the batter and topped with thickly sliced bananas. Usually, gluten-free bread items have a gritty taste to them, but I had honestly eaten these pancakes three or four times before I looked closely at the menu. All of their pancakes are gluten-free.

But if you’re not a pancake person, I would recommend an Eggcellent. It’s scrambled eggs topped with your choice of veggies and meat. I ask for everything and the kitchen sink in mine. Pro-Tip: Get it with a side of toast and jelly. Oh, and an extra slice of bacon. The Breakfast Quesadilla is also delicious. But if you decide to go that route, be warned … it’s huge!

While Inspire Community Cafe serves breakfast all day, their lunch menu is not to be ignored either. The Slow-Cooked BBQ Chicken Quesadilla does not disappoint.

Both of these amazing places, the Collage Dance Collective and Inspire Community Cafe, can be found in Binghampton, at the corner of Tillman and Sam Cooper. The adult dance classes can range from $6 to $8 per class. A delicious meal at Inspire Community Cafe can range from $5 on up, depending on your appetite. But your experience at both places … priceless.

Gotta love it, mane!

Collage Dance Collective, 901-800-1873, IG: @collagedance; Inspire Community Cafe, 901-509-8640, IG: @inspirecommunitycafe Patricia Lockhart is a native Memphian who loves to read, write, cook, and eat. @realworkwife @memphisismyboyfriend

m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

Memphis is My Boyfriend: In which hip hop cardio is completed, calories are burned, and chocolate pancakes make for an “Egg-cellent” reward.

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