Memphis Flyer 6/22/2023

SHARA CLARK

Editor

SAMUEL X. CICCI

Managing Editor

JACKSON BAKER, BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN

Senior Editors

TOBY SELLS

Associate Editor

KAILYNN JOHNSON

News Reporter

CHRIS MCCOY

Film and TV Editor

ALEX GREENE

Music Editor

MICHAEL DONAHUE, JON W. SPARKS

Staff Writers

ABIGAIL MORICI

Arts and Culture Editor

GENE GARD, EMILY GUENTHER, COCO JUNE, FRANK MURTAUGH

Contributing Columnists

SHARON BROWN, AIMEE STIEGEMEYER

Grizzlies Reporters

ANDREA FENISE

Fashion Editor

KENNETH NEILL

Founding Publisher

CARRIE BEASLEY

Senior Art Director

CHRISTOPHER MYERS

Advertising Art Director

NEIL WILLIAMS

Graphic Designer

JERRY D. SWIFT

Advertising Director Emeritus

KELLI DEWITT, CHIP GOOGE

Senior Account Executives

KALON AMBROSE

Account Executive

CHET HASTINGS

Warehouse and Delivery Manager

JANICE GRISSOM ELLISON, KAREN MILAM, DON MYNATT,

TAMMY NASH, RANDY ROTZ, LEWIS TAYLOR, WILLIAM WIDEMAN

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I’m heading into week three of my house-sitting/Midtown staycation, so today you’re getting a follow-up (you didn’t ask for) on my chicken adventures. I’ve just completed the morning hen ritual, wherein I rouse early and, still half-asleep, make my way to the backyard coop, where the girls are anxiously awaiting liberation. ey chatter and squabble, crowding around the door and stepping on each other’s toes as I unlatch the lock and swing it open. eir ve little u y bottoms scurry o , chicken legs waddling hurriedly as if heading into battle. (Release the hens!) “Battle,” in this case, is running directly to and hopping on top of the feed bins, poking at the lids to let me know it’s breakfast time — right now, dammit — and they’re pretty impatient ladies. If I’m not fast enough scooping out the feed, they’ll attempt to jump right in and help themselves.

I’ve learned a good bit about hens since I’ve been here — the di erent sounds they make, from contented cooing and trills, to alarm calls, to general chit-chat as they graze. I check their nests several times a day for eggs to avoid another broody mood like the one I wrote about in this space last week. As proud as I was to have picked up a chicken, I’d rather not have to do it again if it can be helped. So I listen for the laying songs, their triumphant clucks and squawks, and retrieve eggs before anyone gets too attached to them.

Also, chickens take dust baths. Here, they’ve burrowed divots in the dirt in shady spots in the yard where they roll around and it their wings, shaking the earth through their feathers. Google tells me this controls parasites and prevents excess oiliness. Who knew? Not me.

I did, nally, work up the nerve to feed the girls fruit scraps out of my hands. At rst to the oldest, who was hanging around on the porch by herself. She gently plucked a piece of grape from my palm. But the others caught on quickly — hey, where’s mine?! — and barreled over, scrambling for a treat. Four of the ve gingerly took their share from my open hand. But big, bad Geli nearly drew blood.

Which brings me to another thing: the origin of “pecking order,” which I’d never really given much thought to before. According to Modern Farmer, it’s a hierarchy — literally established by pecking — that “determines the order in which chickens are allowed to access food, water, and dust-bathing areas,” among other things. Basically one bullies the others to establish dominance. And apparently Geli sees herself above me in this ranking. Last week, I mentioned how she leapt into my lap and pecked me. But since then, she’s become somewhat more aggressive, charging at me at times for no apparent reason. Well, I’m pretty sure it’s food-motivated because she’ll do it a er bawking around the feed bins or if I’ve come outside sans treats (how dare I?). Where’s my food, lady? I require more. Peck, peck! I swear I’ve seen her sharpening her beak on wood and concrete, taunting me. How to align myself back at the top of the brood is something I’ll be studying in the coming days, as being attacked by an indignant chicken was not part of my staycation plans.

In a couple weeks, I’ll be back at my own home — the pecking order there as it’s always been — and this chicken adventure will be in my rearview. I’m sure a lot of you are wondering why the editor of this ne newspaper is writing about hens as opposed to current events, but please bear with me. ey’re fascinating creatures, really — and part of this journey’s inadvertent goal has become resetting an overstimulated mind. Tuning out a tad is a given. I also think it’s the duty of any writer to purposely place themselves in new and di erent situations, to stimulate the creative ow. ings can get pretty stagnant otherwise. For now, hens it is.

Maybe some of you have learned a little, too. And perhaps we can ponder the pecking order in our human societal structures — in which ways they’re detrimental to the greater good or ways in which they may be bene cial. Are there areas in your life where you perceive a pecking order? If so, where do you stand? ink on it.

In the meantime, I’ve got to go check for eggs.

Shara Clark shara@memphis yer.com

PHOTO: SHARA CLARK Geli giving side-eye, pondering a peck.

THE fly-by

MEM ernet

Memphis on the internet.

REMINISCIN’ e MEMernet mourned the old CK’s Co ee Shop at Poplar and Belvedere last week. e restaurant closed in February and its building was razed last week. e Daily Memphian reported the site will become a Scooter’s Co ee.

Many people took photos. Some took home bricks and other bits. Jamie Harmon, the wellknown Memphis photographer? He took home the CK’s sign. SLICIN’

It’s hot. Pools are open. In Memphis, this means slicing. And everyone wants to see, apparently.

ree

TikTok videos shared this month by Memphian Sean Odigie showing that uniquely Memphis part of Black swim culture have collectively racked up more than 4 million views so far.

TREADIN’ e most popular specialty license plate in Tennessee is the one showing the Gadsden Flag, the Tennessee Department of Revenue announced on Twitter last week. More than 28,900 of the plates have been issued yielding nearly $479,000 for the Friends of Sycamore Shoals State Park in Elizabethton.

{WEEK THAT WAS

By Flyer staff

Questions, Answers + Attitude

Edited by Toby Sells

BAGGING IT

e Fresh Market customers will be required to bring their own reusable grocery bags starting July 5th to help the company “move toward the elimination of singleuse bags in our stores.”

Customers will be able to purchase plastic bags for ve cents and paper bags for 20 cents. ey have also reduced the price of their reusable bags to 99 cents each.

Whole Foods banned plastic bags at all of its stores in 2008. Kroger announced in 2018 that it would phase out plastic bags and transition to reusable bags at all of its stores by 2025.

In March, Sprouts

Farmers Market announced plastic bags will be banned at all of its stores by the end of 2023, o ering instead reusable plastic bags that can be used at least 125 times. Aldi announced last year that it would ban plastic bags at all of its stores by the end of 2023.

LGBTQ NAME CHANGE PROJECT

OUTMemphis, inclusion tennessee, Knox Pride, and Bass, Berry & Sims announced the “Tennessee Name Change Project” last week, which will cover name-change and gender-marker services for transgender and “gender-expansive communities.” e move comes as a new law takes e ect in July that will “severely limit the ability for Tennesseans to legally change their gender marker on their state IDs.”

WEST MEMPHIS THREE

A legal battle is gathering in the Arkansas State Supreme Court as Damien Echols, a host of attorneys, and two advocacy groups sued to allow for testing of evidence in the West Memphis ree (WM3) case.

Motions and court orders have swirled since Echols appealed to the court in January a er previous suits have failed. ose suits came a er law enforcement o cials changed their minds in 2020 to allow Echols and his team to review the evidence and submit it to a new DNA test not available at the time of the original 1994 trial.

A number of attorneys have joined the ght, according to court documents, as have national advocacy groups, e Innocence Project and e Center on Wrongful Convic-

tions. ey all, basically, argue that the real killer in the case should be brought to justice.

Arkansas o cials argue that Echols has already consumed enough time and judicial resources in the case and that the state “made post-conviction DNA testing available to set free innocent prisoners, not recenter the limelight on freed felons.”

WHITE HOUSE TALKS ON ROE V. WADE

Tennessee lawmakers met at the White House last week to discuss reproductive rights in America.

Senator Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis), Senate Democratic Caucus Chairwoman London Lamar (D-Memphis), and Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) were among 81 state legislators that were invited to speak on “Republican attacks on reproductive rights, as well as state e orts to protect and expand access to abortion care.”

This meeting came days ahead of the one-year anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“In Tennessee, there is no exception for rape or incest, fatal fetal anomalies, or the true health needs of the mom,” Akbari said in a statement. “We’re committed to the cause of reproductive freedom and we will continue this ght until every family can make these private health decisions for themselves — without interference from politicians.”

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POSTED TO TWITTER BY THE TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

POSTED TO TIKTOK BY SEAN ODIGIE

POSTED TO INSTAGRAM BY AMURICAPHOTO

PHOTOS: TWITTER

Recent images of Jason Baldwin (le ) and Damien Echols (right)

Governing AI {

TECH WATCH

By Toby Sells

Lawmakers grapple with arti cial intelligence as the technology begins to hit the mainstream.

Tennessee lawmakers and legal o cials are adding their voices to a growing chorus of leaders interested in regulating arti cial intelligence (AI) as the revolutionary technology begins to take hold in the state.

Many internet users have by now dipped a toe in AI programs. e Flyer recently asked a text-to-image AI generator to create a photo of “Memphis in the future.” We’ve also asked ChatGPT, so far the most user-friendly and lowbarrier AI program, to “write a news story about Memphis.” Turns out, that phrase was too vague, and the program basically spit out the city’s Wikipedia page. Pretty harmless stu .

However, AI leaders from all over the world issued a dire warning about the technology last month.

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” reads the statement housed at the website for the Center for AI Safety.

It seems AI has moved from the

pages of comic books and sci- novels, to laboratories and to early adopters, and to Main Street internet pretty quickly. And lawmakers are trying now to get a handle on it.

Last month, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) worried that such programs could be used to create real-sounding but totally fake versions of country songs. She told Fox News that ChatGPT “pulls it right up, and then you can lay in that voice. Give me a voice that sounds like Garth Brooks. Give me a voice that sounds like Reba McEntire singing.” e idea could have major implications for Nashville’s — and the state’s — music industry.

In Nashville last week, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti urged the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to create governance policies for AI,

especially as it “is developed or used to make decisions that result in legal or other signi cant e ects on people.” Of special concern to the AG was the use of sensitive data like medical information, biometric data, or personal information about children in AI and the possible outputs from it, like deepfakes.

“For example, consumers must be told when they are interacting with an AI rather than a human being and whether the risks of using an AI system are negligible or considerable,” reads the letter. at letter says any governance shouldn’t dampen innovation in the AI space, however. is is about the same as legislators said years ago about the internet when it became more widely available. at innovation in AI has already started to spread across Tennessee and in Memphis. For example, the University of Memphis’ Institute for Intelligent Systems lists more than 20 AI projects underway at the school.

One project, AutoTutor, “is a computer tutor that helps students learn by holding a conversation in natural language.” at project has won nearly

$5 million in research grants from the federal government. Another project, Personal Assistant for Life Long Learning (PAL3), will guide new Navy sailors in performing their mission-essential shipboard duties. e Memphis portion funding this project is $400,000.

Further east, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the federally funded research and development lab in East Tennessee, launched the Arti cial Intelligence Initiative to help its scientists use AI to accelerate their discoveries. Even further east in Knoxville, the University of Tennessee launched the $1-million AI Tennessee Initiative in March to fund researchers to use AI in “smart manufacturing, climatesmart agriculture and forestry, precision health and environment, future mobility, and AI for science.”

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority.”

PHOTO: MEMPHIS FLYER VIA DIFFUSION BEE

“Memphis in the future,” according to AI

POLITICS By Jackson Baker

Same Plot, New Faces

As of last week, the City Council — after lengthy deliberations that ran way past the May 22nd date for pulling candidate petitions — finally mustered enough votes to declare district lines for the forthcoming city election.

And, basically, it’s a case of Meet the New Lines, Same as the Old Lines.

Which is to say, the council districts for the October 5th election conform to the same map that was redrawn for a special election in District 4 last November. enincumbent Councilwoman Jamita Swearengen had resigned the District 4 seat a er winning election as Shelby County Circuit Court Clerk. She was succeeded by her sister, Jana Swearengen-Washington, who won the special election.

Shot down during the council’s regular meeting last week was a proposed new map that had garnered signi cant support and would have made major alterations, especially on the city’s eastern perimeter, where District 5, an area largely white in population that bridges Midtown and East Memphis, would have been reshaped to become even more accommodating to whites, including conservatives, while adjoining District 2 would have become Cordova-based and majority-Black.

e new plan was put forth by Darrick Harris, a community member of the council’s ad hoc reapportionment committee. A latebreaking shi of previously undecided council members against it le the old map in place when Councilman Chase Carlisle subsequently moved for “same night minutes,” a parliamentary device which sped up the process of formalizing the vote.

Some supporters of the defeated new map were outraged by the outcome. One of them was Lexie Carter, chair of the Shelby County Democratic Party. Carter had anticipated the creation of a speci cally Cordova district in the manner of last year’s County Commission reapportionment. She indicated that she intended to le a protest at the council’s meeting next week, when, reportedly, the body will consider a nal tweaking of boundaries.

Carter also defended her action and

that of the local Democratic executive committee in recently withdrawing from what had been the party’s longrunning litigation against several proprietors of sample ballots at election time, especially those who used the word “Democratic” or party images on their products.

“Let’s face it, that has always been part of the process,” she said of the balloters, who traditionally have charged fees of candidates wishing positions on their sample ballots, which were widely distributed, especially in the inner city.

• Meanwhile, the list of claimants to the District 2 seat continues to grow. Former Councilman Scott McCormick has drawn a petition for it, and Jerri Green, senior policy advisor to County Mayor Lee Harris, has con rmed her interest in the seat. Green, a Democrat, gave Republican state Representative Mark White a close run in 2020 for the District 83 state House seat.

Davin Clemons, a former Memphis policeman and the co-founder of TriState Black Pride, will apparently once again be an opponent of incumbent Councilman Edmund Ford Sr., having drawn a petition for Ford’s District 6 seat. Clemons ran against Ford in 2019 with the endorsement of Harris and said this week he hopes to have the county mayor’s support again this year.

As was the case four years ago, that race will likely re ect to some degree the ever-simmering antagonism between Mayor Harris and County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr., the councilman’s son.

THE GUITAR AND A CHANGING NATION

THE TOURING EXHIBITION

A Touring Exhibition of The National GUITAR Museum

MEMPHIS MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

In partnership with

Photo courtesy Steve Roberts

PHOTO: COMMUNITY LEGAL CENTER Prospective council candidate Jerri Green

Some hooptedoodle on the streets of Midtown. FDT!

He could hear it coming up from behind him, maybe a block away, the basso thump of hip-hop. As the car pulled level on his left, he didn’t look, just stood at the light, waiting for the change. Damn, it was loud.

“Fuck Donald Trump, Fuck Donald Trump, Fuck Donald Trump” — loud enough to melt asphalt, loud enough to rattle window glass. Was he hearing that right? Yes, he was. He turned and looked at the driver, a Black guy in a black beret who looked back at him. He stuck up his thumb and nodded. The Black guy laughed and pulled off, nodding, “Fuck Donald Trump” fading in the afternoon glare. A Black guy, a white guy, a bonding moment. America the beautiful.

At home, he googled “hip hop song Fuck Donald Trump” and found it on Wiki: “‘FDT’ (‘Fuck Donald Trump’) is a protest song by YG featuring Nipsey Hussle, and is the second single from the album Still Brazy. The song is a criticism of the policies of the Republican candidate in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.”

A criticism? No kidding.

The white guy was semi-retired, a former editor who still wrote a column for a local rag. The incident at Belvedere and Peabody stayed with him, the sequence of his reactions — his irritation at the throbbing beat, his nervousness when the car pulled up and stopped, the aha moment when he got the lyrics, felt sympatico, turned, and smiled. Maybe the dude was hoping to piss him off? If so, it backfired. Or maybe he was conducting a survey, taking the pulse of Memphis. He got one old white guy to give a thumbs-up to “Fuck Donald Trump,” if so. Or maybe he just hates Donald Trump and doesn’t care what anybody thinks.

Who knows? Didn’t really matter. The editor had been reading a lot of crime fiction by Elmore Leonard, the “Dickens of Detroit,” who wrote about loan sharks, bad cops, hustlers, strippers, blackmailers, bookies, debt collectors, and other assorted American lowlifes in such novels as Get Shorty, Maximum Bob, Road Dogs, Hombre, Out of Sight, and Killshot. The guy knew how people talked, how to

tell a story with dialogue without a lot of writerly “hooptedoodle.” That’s what Leonard called it in an interview. “Just try to keep it moving without showing off,” he said.

Other Leonardisms: “Never open a book with weather; never use a word other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue; avoid detailed descriptions of characters; try to leave out the parts that readers skip.” In other words, cut to the action and the dialogue, which Leonard did, and which is why so many of his books got made into movies.

He really only had one plot: A bunch of money exists somewhere and various characters fight to get it, overcoming conscience if they have any, cutting straight to the chase if not. Death steps in, takes out a character now and then, disappears, returns. Life is a hustle. There are no heroes or villains, just some people you might like better than others. How would Leonard have written about the encounter at Peabody and Belvedere? Hard to say, but for one thing, his own character wouldn’t have been an editor; he’d have been a sleazeball bail bondsman or some such and would have gotten into the car, fired up a joint, and ridden off into a novel called FDT

And now that he thought about it, there has never been a more perfect Elmore Leonard character than Donald Trump, a man with the soul of motel furniture: the orange makeup, the absurd comb-over, the sleazy grifts, shady lawyers, porn stars, foreign nationals, crappy steaks, real estate cons, the fake university, the phony charity — all pieces of an amoral, lifelong quest for money and power. And imagine what Leonard could do with Rudy Giuliani, Roger Stone, Ivanka and Jared, Melania Trump, Walt Nauta. Subplots galore! The dialogue? Done and done. FDT writes itself.

“He could hear it coming up from behind him, maybe a block away, the basso thump of hip-hop. As the car pulled level on his left, he didn’t look, just stood at the light, waiting for the change. Damn, it was loud. He turned finally and gazed into the car, the driver motioning for him to get in. ‘What the hell does Rudy want?’ he thought.”

COVER

STORY

By Abigail Morici

Summer Arts Guide

DON’T SWEAT ABOUT YOUR SUMMER PLANS — WITH ALL THE MEMPHIS ARTS HAS TO OFFER, YOU’RE MADE IN THE SHADE.

If you’re looking for a retreat from the heat this summer, the Memphis art scene has you covered — with cool exhibitions, cool performances, and very cool experiences. Just take a look through our 2023 Summer Arts Guide, and you’ll see what we’re talking about.

ON DISPLAY

“In the Moment: Art from the 1950s to Now” Explore paintings, sculptures, and photography from the past 70 years.

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, ongoing

“Build a Heaven of My Own: African American Vernacular Art and the Blues”

is group show explores how the musical and verbal tropes, meaning, and context of the blues not only share traits, but have informed the visual culture of African-American artists from Memphis.

Art Museum at the University of Memphis (AMUM), through June 24

Art at Artvision

Witness over 100 years of combined experience from artists E.P. Simon and Frederick Asbury, featuring works in realism, impressionism, expressionism in painting, drawing, photography, and computer-driven image-making. Guest artist Missy Isely-Poltrock (Kenosha, WI) will show her work through July 4th.

Artvision Fine Art Gallery, 484 N. Hollywood

“Passenger Pigeons and Ecological Tipping Points”

Experience the powerful collage art of local artist Jennalyn Speer, exploring the extinction of passenger pigeons and currently endangered bird species. Morton Museum of Collierville History, through July 8

“Reimagining the Real: Ana M. Lopez & Natalie Macellaio”

ese artists take everyday objects — air-conditioning xtures, fences, road signs, and construction debris — and transform them into unique works

of art as statements about power, privilege, and the environment.

Metal Museum, through July 9

“Susan Maakestad: e Expansive Moment”

Susan Maakestad highlights the marginal spaces of the urban landscape in her watercolors.

Dixon Gallery & Gardens, through July 9

“Paper Palooza”

L Ross Gallery presents a group show of works on paper, featuring work by special guest artists Brantley Ellzey and Ed Hall. L Ross Gallery, through July 22

Art For All Festival

From Downtown to Whitehaven to Collierville and back, Shelby County’s government wants to make the arts inclusive and accessible to everyone countywide. Earlier this year, the Arts and Culture Nonprofit Subcommittee announced its “Art For All” campaign, a series of free arts and culture experiences. This Sunday, June 25th, marks its flagship Art For All Festival.

e festival will highlight a sample of what Memphis arts and culture organizations have to o er, with a variety of performances, installations, experiences, and more. Attendees can expect an interactive pop-up art gallery from TONE, demonstrations by the Mini Mobile Metal Museum, dance movement therapy from Image Builders Memphis, activities with Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, art activations from Orpheum eatre and Stax Museum of American Soul Music, and performances by Opera Memphis and Hattiloo eatre. e Museum of Science & History, the festival venue, will also o er activities linking art and science.

“Art For All [stems from] the fact that we have a multitude of organizations within Memphis and Shelby County with a variety of wonderful o erings that we want to bring awareness to and upli ,” says Nykesha Cole, Shelby County’s arts and culture liaison. “And we want everybody to have the opportunity to have access to arts and culture ’cause, truly, when you look at it, that is one of the most vibrant things in society.” Museum of Science & History, Sunday, June 25, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., free

“Boys 2 Men (If You Don’t See Black, You Don’t See Me) A Traveling Exhibition” is show energetically focuses on the diversity of artistic expression within an AfricanAmerican male pool of

visual art creatives in Memphis. Arkwings, through July 22; Art Museum at the University of Memphis (AMUM), September

“RE(de)FINED”

Johnson Uwadinma’s exhibition re ects on the fraught but integral relationship between humans and nature. Urevbu Contemporary, through July 31

“Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Seas”

McLean Fahnestock presents videos from his “Stratagem” series, where the sea and sky ip and merge to generate a new, seductive yet false horizon.

Crosstown Arts, through August 6

“Entrances, Exits and the Spaces Betwixt” Tangela Mathis presents contrasting aspects of personality, showcasing the yin and yang of pneuma.

Crosstown Arts, through August 6

PHOTO: COURTESY ED HALL | L ROSS GALLERY Ed Hall’s Dancing in the Sky at L Ross Gallery

PHOTO: COURTESY YANGBIN PARK Yangbin Park’s Clothline at Porch Window Gallery

Memphis Dance Festival

is September, Collage Dance Collective will host its third Memphis Dance Festival, and already, the organization has con rmed top-notch talent for the day — Memphis’ own Lil Buck, dancers from New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance eater (NYC), Alonzo King LINES Ballet (San Francisco), SOLE De ned tap company (DC), Nashville Ballet, of course Collage Dance Collective, and many more local dance organizations.

“We are really trying to curate something very special so that our community can experience these world-class national artists in their own backyard,” says Marcellus Harper, Collage’s executive director. “ at’s meant to really get the community excited about dance and to elevate dance as a powerful transformative art in our community and our city.

“One of the taglines [of the festival] is, ‘Dance is for everyone,’” Harper continues. “So we’re hoping that really resonates throughout the festival, but also this focus on physical well-being, emotional well-being, how we prioritize those things. Whether it’s a physical wellness program or an emotional wellness program, movement is always a big part of that practice, so dance can really be great for the soul and the spirit, too.” Collage Dance Center, September 16, free

“Edgewise: Exploring Pattern and Rhythm with Line”

Khara Woods presents a collection of paintings, sculpture, and creative devices.

Crosstown Arts, through August 6

“Echoes of Home: Memory and Belonging”

Yangbin Park re ects on his memories of home in this exhibition of prints on hanji paper.

Porch Window Gallery, Studiohouse on Malvern, through August

“Rich Soil”

Created by American artist Kristine Mays, the 29 sculptures in this exhibit are inspired by the movements and gestures of

Alvin Ailey’s Revelations Memphis Botanic Garden, through October 1

“America at e Crossroads: e Guitar and a Changing Nation”

Explore America’s evolution through the lens of the guitar.

Museum of Science & History, through October 22

“Grind City Picks: e Music at Made Memphis”

Learn about the evolution of notable music genres in Memphis through an impressive display of instruments, band merchandise, and photographs.

Museum of Science & History, through October 22

“ e World in Pieces” Beth Edwards showcases her contemporary still-life paintings, referencing and reinventing historical vanitas paintings with sensuous, metaphorical realism. David Lusk Gallery, June 27-July 29

“Mud Huts to Paper”

Collierville artist Amruta Bhat o ers a contemporary interpretation of the centuries-old practice of Madhubani painting, an ancient Indian folk-art technique.

Morton Museum of Collierville History, July 11-September 9

“Sally Smith: Adrenaline Rush”

Sally Smith’s canvases demonstrate her careful observation of the natural world and de handling of oil paint.

Dixon Gallery & Gardens, July 11-October 1

“To See With New Eyes, Richard Carr”

Blacksmith Richard Carr uses salvaged local materials to share his love of architecture, organic forms, and the Memphis community in this exhibition. Metal Museum, July 16-September 24

“American Perspectives: Highlights from the American Folk Art Museum” is exhibition presents 70 works of art from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.

Dixon Gallery & Gardens, July 30-October 8

“Black American Portraits” e exhibition chronicles

the many ways in which Black Americans have used portraiture from 19th-century studio photography to today.

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, August 17-January 7, 2024

“Mary Sims”

David Lusk Gallery presents an exhibition of work by Mary Sims, who was celebrated for her extraordinary, stylized oil paintings based on both real and invented environments. David Lusk Gallery, September 5-September 30

ON STAGE

Mary Poppins

e arrival of Mary Poppins brings whimsical imagination and a bit of magic to the Banks family of London. eatre Memphis, through July 2

Jersey Boys

e Broadway smash hit, chronicling the rise and eventual

“We Are Here”

is month, the Metal Museum opened a juried exhibition of 40 works of art from 26 queer-identifying metal artists from across the country. For the exhibition, three jurors — matt lambert, Al Murray, and Memphian Lawrence Matthews — selected pieces they felt spoke to the intersectional spectrum of what it means to be a part of the LGBTQ community.

breakup of the legendary doo-wop group

Frankie Valli and e

Four Seasons, makes its regional premiere in the Blu City. Playhouse on the Square, through July 16

Frozen

An unforgettable theatrical experience lled with sensational special e ects, stunning sets and costumes, and powerhouse performances, Frozen is everything you want in a musical. Orpheum eatre, June 22-July 2

24 Hour Plays: Memphis

Witness this electrifying theatrical event as six new plays are written, rehearsed, and performed within a thrilling 24-hour time frame. eatreWorks@ e Evergreen, June 24, 7 p.m.

continued on page 10

“Rather than the typical ‘the work looks like it’s queer,’ I think this show also really highlights that there are people from these backgrounds in all areas,” says lambert. “We’re making space for a lot of types of identity that include queerness, but it’s not just that. [ e artists in the exhibit] place themselves [along] those spectrums, but for some it was an option to just be themselves, and maybe they don’t want to stress that part of them. Just applying [for the exhibition] already implies that they see themselves as part of this community.”

“[ e exhibit] feels like it’s a celebration of LGBTQIA+ people,” adds one of the artists, Funlola Coker, “but it also feels poignant right now, especially given what’s happening not just in Tennessee but around America and the world, and how queer people are being oppressed. It feels really important to keep showing work like this and talking about it and supporting artists who talk about these issues because it’s a more nuanced expression of who we are.”

“We Are Here: LGBTQIA+ Voices in the Contemporary Metals Community” is on display at the Metal Museum through September 10th.

PHOTO: DEEN VAN MEER Caroline Bowman as Elsa in Frozen

PHOTO: COURTESY ANDREW THORNTON Andrew ornton’s Many Faces metalwork

Don’t Hydroplane

Winner of the 2022 NewWorks@ eWorks

Playwriting Competition, Don’t Hydroplane follows a family as they navigate the di cult task of nding a nal resting place for their loved one.

eatreWorks@ e Square, July 7-July 23

e Color Purple

e musical adaptation of e Color Purple features awe-inspiring soul, gospel, jazz, and blues vocals underpinned by raw dialogue and a masterful plot.

Hattiloo eatre, July 28-August 28

Karlous Miller: At the End of the Day Karlous Miller is an American comedian, actor, writer, host, and co-founder of the 85 South Show. He began his comedy career in Atlanta, Georgia, and is widely known for his star roles in MTV’s Wild ’N Out, HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, and BET’s ComicView Orpheum eatre, August 5, 7 p.m.

Billy Cherry … e Final Curtain

Bill Cherry pays tribute to CBS’s Elvis in Concert, the posthumous 1977 television special. Halloran Centre, August 12, 2:45 p.m.

Sister Act

When a disco nightclub singer witnesses a crime, she is relocated to a convent for her protection. Her stay with the nuns helps her and the sisters, quite literally, nd their true voices.

eatre Memphis, August 18-September 10

e Prom

A group of Broadway stars comes to the rescue when a student is refused the opportunity to bring her girlfriend to the prom.

Playhouse on the Square, August 18September 17

A Raisin in the Sun Set on Chicago’s South Side, Lorraine Hansberry’s celebrated play concerns the divergent dreams and con icts in three generations of the Younger family.

Hattiloo eatre, August 25-September 24

Fat Ham

In a deliciously funny retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet set in the American South, William returns home a er his father’s death and must confront corruption and betrayal.

e Circuit Playhouse, September 15-October 8

e Crucible

Based on events which took place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, this tragedy tells the story of a village that becomes embroiled in a witch hunt.

eatre Memphis, September 15-October 1

Father Comes Home from the Wars

An explosively powerful drama about the mess of war, the cost of freedom, and the heartbreak of love.

Hattiloo eatre, September 29-October 22

Pictures at an Exhibition & Chris Brubeck

Guitar Concerto

Memphis Symphony Orchestra brings you the world premiere of Chris Brubeck’s double guitar concerto, featuring both classical and blues guitar.

Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, September 30, 7:30 p.m.; Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center, October 1, 2:30 p.m.

AROUND TOWN

First Wednesdays at the Brooks

Every rst Wednesday the Brooks will have incredible live music.

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, rst Wednesdays of the month, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Munch and Learn

Every Wednesday during lunchtime, join the Dixon

for presentations by local artists, scholars, and Dixon sta sharing on a variety of topics.

Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Wednesdays, noon-1 p.m.

Super Saturdays at the Brooks e rst Saturday of every month, the Brooks will have free admission from 10 a.m.-noon and art-making led by art educator Mrs. Rose. (PS: Every Saturday, admission is free from 10 a.m.-noon.)

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, rst Saturdays of the month, 10 a.m.-noon

Free Family Day

On the second Saturday of each month, the Stax Museum o ers free admission for everyone. ere will also be food trucks, games and activities, arts and cra s for children, bouncy houses, face painting, balloon artists, and live music. Stax Museum of American Soul Music, second Saturdays of the month, 1-5 p.m.

Oil Painting with Glynnis

In this class, students will paint a still life composition using oil paints.

Arrow Creative, June 25, 11 a.m.

Rich Sounds at the Garden

Join the Memphis Botanic Garden on the last Sunday of each month to enjoy performances and demonstrations from local arts and culture organizations.

Memphis Botanic Garden, June 25, July 30, August 27, September 24, 2-5 p.m.

Whet ursdays

Enjoy a free a er-hours event held at the Metal Museum on the last ursday of the month with games on the lawn, food truck fare, live music, metalsmithing demos, and more.

Metal Museum, June 29, July 27, August 31, 5-7 p.m.

Zao Wou-Ki’s “Watercolors and Ceramics” is on display at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens.

In 2018, Zao Wou-Ki became the world’s third best-selling artist, a er Picasso and Monet, with auctions of the late French-Chinese painter’s work generating $327 million, according to Forbes. Now, he sits at a comfortable 23rd ranking, above names as recognizable as Botticelli, Degas, Renoir, Banksy, O’Kee e, Manet, Pollock, and Matisse. Yet, as Julie Pierotti, a curator at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, says, he’s not a household name in the United States. Even so, with its latest exhibit, “Zao Wou-Ki: Watercolors and Ceramics,” the Dixon is hoping to change that, with an impressive display of 80 works in watercolor and on ceramics, all drawn exclusively from European private collections.

roughout his proli c and successful career, Zao channeled Chinese calligraphy in his abstract expressionist work on canvas, ink on paper, lithography, and engraving, and watercolor, bridging the artistic traditions of the East and the West. However, for the rst time, his watercolors will be taking center stage in a museum setting at the Dixon. “Watercolor [was] a kind of a constant medium for him,” says Pierotti. “He explored watercolor throughout his career, but with a lot of vigor in the last years of his life. He was known really for his oil painting, but these works really are authentic to who he was and what his artistic vision was.”

“For an artist who worked in a variety of media but has this kind of little-known dedication to watercolor, we feel like we’re showing, for those people who knew Zao Wou-Ki before, a di erent side to his career,” Pierotti adds, “and for those who didn’t know him, it’s a great time to get to know him.”

“Zao Wou-Ki: Watercolors and Ceramics” is on display at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens through July 16th. Accompanying the exhibit is “Susan Maakestad: e Expansive Moment,” on display through July 9th. Admission to the museum is always free.

Public Art Yoga

UrbanArt Commission will o er free 45-minute outdoor public art yoga sessions this summer. Various locations, July 8, August 12, September 9

Art Club with Joi Purvy Decorate and take home your own terra-cotta pot

with acrylic paint and gold foil!

Arrow Creative, July 10, 6 p.m.

Fairy Garden Planting Party (21+)

Put together your own unique fairy garden! All supplies will be provided, including plants, pots,

soil, and decorations. Memphis Botanic Garden, July 21, 6:30 p.m.

Crown Me Royal Film Fest is noncompetitive lm festival showcases panels, workshops, and independent lms from BIPOC behind-the-scenes lmmakers and creatives

“Zao Wou-Ki: Watercolors and Ceramics”

PHOTO: ABIGAIL MORICI

“Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative”

At a young age, Harmonia Rosales fell in love with the Renaissance masters who wove tales from Greco-Roman mythology and Christianity in their paintings, but years later when she showed these paintings to her daughter, her daughter didn’t fall in love with them. “She was like, ‘ ey don’t look like me,’” says Rosales, “It just hit me that I didn’t want her to feel like her hair wasn’t beautiful, her skin wasn’t beautiful.”

And so Rosales took to the canvas to give her daughter the representation she was missing in the Western Renaissance paintings that have been celebrated for centuries. As an Afro-Cuban American, she turned to the Lucumí religion of her ancestors and wove those tales into her paintings, made in the style of the Renaissance paintings that once lled her imagination.

At rst, her peers discouraged her from painting these stories centered around African and Black gures in the Renaissance style. Her advisors told her she wouldn’t be able to sell them, but Rosales didn’t care. is work made her happy. “To see us in there, our ancestors, our history in a format where it’s just as time-consuming, looks just like the Renaissance paintings — the priceless paintings, the most beautiful paintings of the world, can’t touch ’em, can’t buy ’em — I wanted to do that in order to empower us and see our history in the same light,” she says. “Inclusion, it’s all about inclusion. Seeing this is what I want for my children.”

Rosales intended these pieces to be public-facing, wanting to reach as broad of an audience as possible, just like the Renaissance masters she reimagines and reinvents. And thanks to the Brooks, she is one step closer to that goal as her rst solo museum exhibition, outside of her home state California, opened this spring. Titled “Master Narrative,” the exhibition contains more than 20 breathtaking paintings completed over the past few years and closes this weekend.

“Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative” is on display at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art through June 25th.

from all media platforms. Various locations, August 4-6

Night at the Museum

Explore the Dixon galleries like never before as works step out of the canvas for an evening of special performances and music, activities, and much more.

Dixon Gallery & Gardens, August 12, 5-8 p.m.

Marketplace in Motion

Shop colorful new prints, creative cards, and fun stickers to throw onto your new notebooks. Stop by Friday night to grab a cold drink while you shop, or bring your kids through on Saturday for them to pick out their own decorative school starter pack.

Arrow Creative, August 18-August 19

Art on the Rocks: Garden Cocktails & Cra Beer (21+)

Enjoy botanical cocktails, cra beer, and wine in the Dixon Gardens. Each admission ticket includes all drink tastings and bites from local restaurants along with live entertainment.

Dixon Gallery & Gardens, September 8, 6-9 p.m.

Marketplace in Motion

Shop from local makers, grab a drink, and catch a football game with some friends.

Lo in Yard, September 23, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

PHOTO: COURTESY HARMONIA ROSALES Harmonia Rosales’ Beyond the Peonies

Live music at

steppin’ out

We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews

Alanna Royale

Tap Into It By Abigail Morici

In 2013, Andrew Forsdick got thirsty — like, really thirsty — while out on a run training for an Ironman Triathlon. “I just wished there was a tree with water that I could tap into,” he says. “I was doing a lot of long runs then, and I hated carrying water.” So, he asked a few friends to keep out a few water bottles in their yards along his path, and soon he came up with the idea for TapRoute, where individuals or businesses throughout the city could volunteer to o er free water to walkers, runners, or bikers at “taps” — o en in the form of TapRoute-provided water coolers housed in wooden boxes, like the one pictured to the right.

june

The Dirty STreets

For years, TapRoute was just a side project for Forsdick, and, over time, maintenance of the various taps fell o , with most going out of commission. But he says, “It had a rebirth in 2022. at’s when Hannah [Luckes] was hired in June, and she’s grown it from about ve active taps to about 30 or 35 active taps.” Now the taps aren’t even just in Memphis; they’re in Nashville, St. Louis, and Olive Branch.

And this Saturday, thanks to Luckes, TapRoute will host its rst event — Good Vibes on Tap — at Grind City Brewing Co. “We have created a three-mile challenge where we’re asking participants to do at least three miles of movement, whether that’s walking, running, or biking [on Friday, June 23rd, or Saturday, June 24th],” Luckes says. “ ey can also go further, but the minimum is three miles. ey track it on a tness app, and they show us that they completed it, and they’ll get $5 dra s all day.”

ose who complete the challenge will also be entered to win a $250 Grind City Brewing gi card, along with ve other ra es in partnership with various local tness organizations. e event will also have yard games and pizza from Diamond Dave’s Pizza food truck.

june

Devil Train

“It’s also a great way to check out the new North Memphis Green Line that just opened along the road right by brewery,” says Luckes. “ ey have built a completely new playground. e entire place has been done up so well, and it’s a beautiful place to bring kids and check out another view of the river. We are also building a brand-new tap for that, so we’re hoping to make it another resource where people can get water and hang out.”

Overall, Luckes and Forsdick hope that this event will capture the mission of TapRoute as a whole — “trying to bring the tness community together to support and celebrate each other,” Luckes says. “And to get people outside,” Forsdick adds.

To become a tap host or to nd a tap, visit taproute.com or follow TapRoute’s socials (@taproute).

901KidsFest

Cossitt Library, Saturday, June 24, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., free Cossitt Library hosts its rst-ever 901KidsFest, celebrating all things kids — with kid authors, kidpreneurs, and kid performances.

Attendees can look forward to an author’s corner featuring Sam White (You Can Be ABC’s), Avery Young (Two Little Bears), and T’Arrah Marje (Still a Rose); a vendor’s market; giveaways; and performances by Dazzle ballerinas. Plus, there will be a screening of e Right to Read documentary and interactive stations featuring hydro-dipping with NoBasis Co., an art class with My Canvas Project, bookmaking with Kifani Press, and more.

Mempops, Nancy’s Slush Fund, Let’s Be Frank, and Dos Hermanos Kitchen will provide free food.

RSVP at 901kidsfest.eventbrite.com.

Great Life Festival

Tiger Lane, Saturday, June 24, 3-9 p.m., $50-$100

R Entertainment and OVG360 proudly present the rst-ever Great Life Festival coming to Memphis, featuring the legendary, co-headlining artists WAR and Kool & e Gang, in addition to fabulous e Family Stone.

e exciting destination event features fabulous food, wineries, rare cra beers, and bourbons, plus boutique shopping! Great Life Festival also features a showcase of health and lifestyle breakthroughs.

Time Warp Drive-In: It’s War! Humans vs. Aliens

Malco Summer Drive-In, Saturday, June 24, 7 p.m., $25/car Time Warp Drive-In will screen Edge of Tomorrow, Starship Troopers, and e Blob (1988).

Summer on Summer

Brantley Ellzey’s Summer Studio, Sunday, June 25, 2-7 p.m., 18+ Celebrate the start of summer and the second anniversary of Brantley Ellzey’s Summer Studio with burlesque performances and the opening of “Chasing Light: Portraits by Lee Chase IV.”

Performing will be Alley Cat, Brenda Newport, Fi Deluxe, Hoop Rebel, Luna Zul, Papa Chubb, Seren Synn, and Will Ryder.

Cra Food & Wine Festival

Bene ting Church Health

e Columns, Sunday, June 25, 3-7 p.m., $65-$135, 21+

e 4th Annual Cra Food and Wine Festival features a vast variety of highquality cra foods and beverages. e event will raise funds for Church Health. For more information visit cra foodandwinefest.com.

GOOD VIBES ON TAP: A MEMPHIS FITNESS CELEBRATION, GRIND CITY BREWING CO., SATURDAY, JUNE 24, NOON-6 P.M.

PHOTO: TAPROUTE

Hannah Luckes and Andrew Forsdick

MUSIC By Alex Greene

For the Ladies

WiMM celebrates women in Memphis music with its inaugural WiMM Fest.

Over recent years, DJ Liz Lane, the host of WEVL’s Modern Girl show, was especially tuned in to the wealth of women in Memphis music. Seeing them sporadically here and there, she felt the city was reaching a kind of critical mass of women performers — you just wouldn’t see that re ected in show bills around town. “I would be going to these venues,” she recalls, “and I’m like, ‘Where are all the females on the lineup?’ You would look at the events calendars, and it was de nitely a minimum of 80 to 90 percent all males for the month.” ere was a sharp disconnect between that and what she was seeing on the ground. “I was meeting so many female musicians that I was like, ‘Why? I don’t understand why they’re not on the boards more.’”

at, in part, is what motivated Lane to team up with local performer and producer Miz Stefani early in 2022 to initiate the Women in Memphis Music (WiMM) group, “bringing female/female-identifying musicians in Memphis together to create a community that thrives.” And right out of the gate, they were hosting monthly “WiMM Presents …” throw-downs at B-Side Memphis, a tradition that has steadily grown in popularity. Now, something bigger is afoot: the inaugural WiMM Festival, an all-day event at the Hi Tone this Saturday, June 24th. Putting the festival together, they

found that some artists’ success actually prevented them from participating.

“We kind of put this wish list together,” says Miz Stefani, “and we had people who we wanted to be on the lineup, but, you know, Alicja Trout was out of town, Louise Page, out of town, Cyrena Wages, out of town.” And yet there was no shortage of equally stellar talent to choose from. e festival will feature two pioneers of women in Memphis music: the master jazz vocalist and harp player Joyce Cobb and e KLiTZ Sisters. e latter band is fronted by two founding members of the KLiTZ, “Memphis’ very rst allwomen punk band,” as Stefani notes.

Aside from their thriving current careers, these two acts represent an important era of Memphis history: the gonzo days of the 1970s. Cobb came here in 1976 to pursue a contract with Stax Records just as the label went under, but nevertheless found the polyglot musical culture of the city to her liking. By the decade’s end, she would enjoy some chart success with the prescient, Afro-pop in uenced “Dig the Gold.” Meanwhile, the KLiTZ came together in 1978, adjacent to Alex Chilton’s scene and his work with the Cramps, whose Poison Ivy was another icon of women in punk.

A third marquee name on the bill also represents the height of musicianship among Memphis women today: saxophonist extraordinaire Hope Clayburn. Beyond work with her own group, Soul Scrimmage, she can o en be seen in her many side projects, including the rock/jazz/ classical hybrid group Frog Squad.

Other familiar names in the ongoing renaissance of women in rock will also be at WiMM Fest, including Mama Honey, Little Baby

Tendencies, Oakwalker, Rosey, and Maggie Trisler’s Mystic Light Casino. Stefani also points out two artists less o en seen in Midtown haunts. “Raneem Imam is an Arab-American girl, a really great composer and songwriter. I was blown away when I found out how young she was because her songs have the maturity of somebody who knows the R&B that I grew up with. And Glockianna is a rapper from South Memphis who’s already gone viral on social media. She is on re! And she’s already played festivals in Miami and Austin. She’s kind of in the vein of Gangsta Boo, RIP.” Stefani, for her part, is excited to see that critical mass of female artists made real. “It’s absolutely a celebration. And we also hope that WiMM Fest is a connector for a lot of attendees to nd their new favorite local band, to learn more about the history of women in Memphis music, and just for the artists to meet each other. Because sometimes scenes can be very insular, where people are only over here or there, or only go to certain shows. But we are all musicians. So we want to strengthen the community and build the community of women musicians here as well.”

WiMM Fest 2023 is at the Hi Tone on Saturday, June 24th, 5 p.m.-midnight. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit wimmfest.com. Tickets cost $30.

PHOTO: DUKE NITTY Glockianna

PHOTO: JAMIE HARMON Raneem Imam

AFTER DARK: Live Music Schedule

June 22 - 28

Ariel Reign ursday, June 22, 6:30-

9:30 p.m.

CENTRAL STATION HOTEL

Bradley Gaskin

Friday, June 23, 8 p.m.

TIN ROOF

Chas Kincaid

Friday, June 23, 10 p.m.;

Saturday, June 24, 10 p.m.

TIN ROOF

Doug MacLeod

Saturday, June 24, 6-9 p.m.

CENTRAL BBQ

Jerry Lee Lewis

Monument Benefit

Concert

Featuring Jerry Lee’s touring band, the Memphis Beats.

Saturday, June 24, 5-11 p.m.

JERRY LEE LEWIS’ CAFE & HONKY TONK

Strooly

Friday, June 23, 7-9 p.m.

MOXY MEMPHIS DOWNTOWN

Parties at the Pyramid:

DJ Epic

Friday, June 23, 6-11 p.m.

BIG CYPRESS LODGE

Peabody Rooftop Party:

Frankie Hollie & The Noise

$15. ursday, June 22, 6 p.m.

THE PEABODY HOTEL

Reggae at the Shed

Featuring JParris and Empress Tamesha. $10. Sunday, June 25, 3-9 p.m.

CAROLINA WATERSHED

Richard Wilson

Tuesday, June 27, 6-9 p.m.

CENTRAL BBQ

Written in Their Soul: Album Release Party

Join Stax Records songwriters William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Deanie Parker, Bobby Manuel, and Henderson igpen for an album release party. Free.

Friday, June 23, 6 p.m.

STAX MUSEUM OF AMERICAN SOUL MUSIC

Wyly Bigger

Saturday, June 24, 6-9 p.m.

CENTRAL STATION HOTEL

Yubu

Friday, June 23, 2-4 p.m.

SOUTH MAIN SOUNDS

Alanna Royale

Friday, June 23, 8 p.m.

RAILGARTEN

Almost Famous

Friday, June 23, 10 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Aveva

ursday, June 22, 7:30-9 p.m.

OVERTON PARK SHELL

Belvedere Chamber

Music Festival

Featuring chamber music written within the last 150 years.

ursday, June 22-June 24.

GRACE-ST. LUKE’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Caribbean Foam Rave Performances by Damion

Hype, Serani, Big Boogie, Future Fambo, and more. Sunday, June 25, noon-10 p.m.

RAILGARTEN

Carlos Ecos Band

Friday, June 23, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Cat Piss, Ibex Clone, Little Baby Tendencies

Sunday, June 25, 9 p.m.

HI TONE

Dope on Arrival

With Da Ladie, Soulful Skonie, R.E. Double, Trippy Tribbitt, and Queat Harris.

Saturday, June 24, 6 p.m.

GROWLERS

EXILE, Brian Hamilton

Saturday, June 24, 10 p.m.-3 a.m.

CANVAS

Firefly

Friday, June 23, 9 p.m.

BAR DKDC

General Labor, Forest Hill, Wicker

All pro ts go to RIP Medical Debt. ursday, June 22, 7 p.m.

ZEN HOUSE

Graham Winchester

Matchbox Twenty

Saturday, June 24, 6 p.m.

RADIANS AMPHITHEATER AT MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

Rowdy Franks

Saturday, June 24, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

ELWOOD’S SHACK

Strictly Jazz

Strictly Jazz Entertainment performs the music of jazz masters. $20-$25. Saturday, June 24, 6 p.m.

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

John Paul Keith

Free. Friday, June 23, 7 p.m.

OVERTON SQUARE

Jimmi Kinard

Friday, June 23, 7:30-9 p.m.

OVERTON PARK SHELL

Stax Music Academy

Saturday, June 24, 7:30 p.m.

OVERTON PARK SHELL

Symptoms, TV Yellow

Saturday, June 24, 9 p.m.

B-SIDE

The Current Situation, FWS, Screamer $10. Saturday, June 24, 9 p.m.

BAR DKDC

The Dirty Streets

Saturday, June 24, 8 p.m.

RAILGARTEN

The Lost 45s

Sunday, June 25, 8 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Turnstyles

Friday, June 23, 10 p.m.

BAR DKDC

Until I Wake with Versus Me and If Not For Me

ursday, June 22, 6 p.m.

GROWLERS

WiMM Fest 2023

With e KLiTZ Sisters, Hope Clayburn’s Soul Scrimmage, Joyce Cobb, Raneem Imam, Oakwalker, Glockianna, Mystic Light Casino, Rosey, Mama Honey, Little Baby Tendencies, and more.

Saturday, June 24, 5 p.m.

HI TONE

WiMM Presents Rachel Maxann, Emily

Wednesday, June 28, 8 p.m.

B-SIDE

Writers in the Round with Rosey, Runi Salem, and Raneem

Song Swap

Friday, June 23, 8 p.m.

BAR DKDC

gRiNgOs

Saturday, June 24, 9 p.m.

MURPHY’S

Jamalama

Sunday, June 25, 7:30 p.m.

B-SIDE

Jay Jones Band

ursday, June 22, 7 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Tuesday, June 27, 8 p.m.

LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE

Rachel Maxann and Alice Hasen & the Blaze Enjoy music, food trucks, and corn hole. $7. ursday, June 22, 6-8 p.m.

THE GROVE AT GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

PHOTO: COURTESY MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN Matchbox Twenty

CALENDAR of EVENTS: June 22 - 28

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 EVENT LISTINGS, VISIT EVENTS. MEMPHISFLYER.COM/CAL.

ART HAPPENINGS

Cool Summer ’77

Shop with Memphis artists and makers alike!

Saturday, June 24, noon-6 p.m.

HIGH COTTON BREWING CO.

Nature Journaling at Memphis Zoo

Learn the basics of nature journaling, create your own journals using recyclable materials, visit with an animal friend as you put your skills to practice, and head out on an artistic excursion. $30. Saturday, June 24, 10 a.m.-noon.

MEMPHIS ZOO

Vibes from the Vines: The Sentient Sound of Plants

Matt Petty, musician and sound therapist, will lead in a unique experience of sound and plants. $20. Monday, June 26, 7 p.m.

THE BROOM CLOSET

BOOK EVENTS

Meet the Authors: Renee C. Meeks & Tarcia Gilliam-Parrish

Renee C. Meeks and Tarcia Gilliam-Parrish celebrate the release of their new book, The Seesaw Effect: Navigating the Ups and Downs of Life With Purpose, Wisdom, and Resilience

Tuesday, June 27, 6 p.m.

NOVEL

COMEDY

Bored Teachers Comedy Tour

They can’t make this stuff up! Friday, June 23, 6 p.m.

MINGLEWOOD HALL

Pride and Joy LGBTQ Comedy Show

Celebrate Pride Month with laughter and funny people. Saturday, June 24, 8 p.m.

THE COMEDY JUNT

The Rated R Comedy Show 29

Starring Tamesha Moore, Basial, Poetic Flo, Phatmak, Sir, and Keonna Scott. Monday, June 26, 7 p.m.

1524 EVENTS & BANQUET FACILITY

FESTIVAL

901KidsFest

Celebrating all things kids — with kid authors, kidpreneurs, and kid performances. Saturday, June 24, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

COSSITT LIBRARY

Craft Food & Wine Festival

The festival showcases locally produced breads, cheeses, fruit preserves, cured meats, and more from 40 vendors, with an opportunity to

purchase your favorite foods. Benefiting Church Health. 21+. $65-$135. Sunday, June 25, 3-7 p.m.

THE COLUMNS

Great Life Festival

A destination experience of live, legendary mainstage concert performances, gourmet food, fine wine, craft beer, bourbons, artisan retailers, and more. $50-$100. Saturday, June 24, 3 p.m.

TIGER LANE

FILM

Oz/Lynch

Indie Memphis presents a screening of the documentary Oz/Lynch exploring director David Lynch’s obsession with The Wizard of Oz.

Wednesday, June 28, 7 p.m.

MALCO STUDIO ON THE SQUARE

Time Warp Drive-In: It’s War!

Humans vs. Aliens

Screening Edge of Tomorrow, Starship Troopers, and The Blob (1988). Saturday, June 24, 7 p.m.

MALCO SUMMER DRIVE-IN

HEALTH AND FITNESS

Annie Oakley & Buffalo Bill Wild West Sprint Triathlons

The event includes four races: an all-women super sprint triathlon, an all-women sprint triathlon, an all-men super sprint triathlon, and an all-men sprint triathlon. Saturday, June 24, 6:30 a.m.

SHELBY FARMS PARK

PERFORMING ARTS

Once Upon a Drag Show

An incredible night of Disney-themed drag! 18+. $10. Friday, June 23, 7-10 p.m.

HI TONE

Pretentious: The Queer Body As Revolution

An immersive, participatory experience filled with striking visuals and dynamic movement. Thursday, June 22, 6 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Sapphic Sunday: Wonder Womxn

A variety show with inspiring women. $10. Sunday, June 25, 1 p.m.

DRU’S PLACE

SPECIAL EVENTS

Community Pride Day at MoSH

Half-price admission, community partners, activities on perspective and the science of rainbows, screening of Voices of a Southern LGBTQ+ Community documentary, and more. Saturday, June 24, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

Junebugs & Juleps

A night of old-fashioned summer nostalgia. 21+. $60. Friday, June 23, 6-9 p.m.

WOODRUFF-FONTAINE HOUSE MUSEUM

Celebrate queer resilience and pride with OUTMemphis at Queer Prom, Saturday, June 24th.

Queer Prom: A Night Out with OUTMemphis

An evening of drinks, dancing, and lots of fun! $35.

Saturday, June 24, 7-11 p.m.

CROSSTOWN CONCOURSE

SPORTS

Memphis 901 FC vs. Charleston Battery

Saturday, June 24, 7:30 p.m.

AUTOZONE PARK

Memphis Redbirds vs. Nasvhille Sounds

Wednesday, June 28, 7:05 p.m.

AUTOZONE PARK

TOURS

Twilight Hike at Overton Park

Curious about Overton Park after dark? Join Overton Park Conservancy staff for late-night snacks before exploring the park’s nocturnal ecology. Don’t forget your flashlights and bug spray. Friday, June 23, 8-9:30 p.m.

OVERTON PARK

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Crossword

Edited by Will Shortz No. 1227

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

CINCHUGHSIGMA

ALOHAFRYARIEL

ROBINHOODYANNI

ASIAGOORESSUV

TEDANIMALHOUSE PROSFIB

KONARIPETEMPO

FANTASTICVOYAGE CREEDITOOEGAD NUBLIED

BEETLEJUICETEL

ATMTEEMELTORO

NAOMISPIDERMAN DIJONSECREESE SLINGEDYSKIER

store department

8 “___ get it”

9 It was once big for Aretha Franklin

10 It’s indicated by arrows on a map

11 Parody, in a way

12 Newspaper headline of 12/8/1941

14 Alternative to “Sincerely”

18 Department with a buffalo on its seal

20 One frequently pictured in GQ or Vogue

22 Symbol on many a bumper sticker

24 Rolex rival

25 Texas’ ___ Duro Canyon

28 Radiation cleanup, briefly

31 “Fingers crossed!”

32 Brooklyn attraction

36 Acoustic measure

38 Sad songs

39 Burrowing rodent

40 Follower of a plane … or a hint to this puzzle’s theme

42 “Most definitely!”

43 Amos Alonzo ___, coach in the College Football Hall of Fame

45 I.S.P. option

47 Dominate

49 Lowest parts

50 Author Locke of the Harlem Renaissance, the first AfricanAmerican Rhodes scholar (1907)

51 Hall of fame

54 Comic strip canine

56 Bias

58 Celestial altar

60 Norma ___ (Oscar-winning role of 1979)

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 7,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).

Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

PUZZLE BY MARY LOU GUIZZO AND JEFF CHEN

All-You-Can-Eat Crab Legs

NEWS OF THE WEIRD

By the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication

You Had One Job

Residents in Halethorpe, Maryland, are frustrated with the progress of a new bridge on U.S. Route 1, WBAL-TV reported. They’ve been waiting for months for the bridge to fully open, but a tiny error stands in the way. The bridge crosses over CSX railroad tracks, which require a minimum of 23 feet of vertical clearance, and it was built 1.5 inches too short. CSX has halted the remaining construction to complete the bridge, according to a Maryland Department of Transportation engineer. “I understand you get hiccups, but … this is not a hiccup. This is a mistake. Somebody needs to be held accountable and it needs to be taken care of,” said resident Desiree Collins. “You have engineers. This should not have happened.” The State Highway Administration now estimates completion in late 2023 or early 2024. [WBAL, 5/23/2023]

The Happiest Place on Earth

Two families went at each other on May 15 at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Fox35-TV reported — all over who could stand next to a sign commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Disney Co. According to police, one family was standing in front of the sign when another group wanted to snap a photo. When the second group asked the first to step aside, punches were thrown. At least one person was treated for injuries at the site, but they didn’t want to press charges. Two people were removed from the park. [Fox35, 5/16/2023]

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

When a 36-year-old woman in Providence, Rhode Island, couldn’t afford conventional dental care for her painful teeth, a friend recommended “Yorki,” WPRI-TV reported on May 18. The woman contacted Altagracia Yorquis Adames, 57, and went to her home basement “dental practice.” There, Yorki allegedly removed instruments from a dresser drawer — some that were visibly rusty — then numbed the victim’s molar and pulled on it until it came out. She then numbed and drilled on the patient’s front teeth. Later that night, when her pain worsened, she texted with Yorki, who told her to take painkillers and ice her mouth. The next day, the victim checked into a hospital and was told she was “very sick.” Police said Yorki was a licensed dentist in the Dominican Republic but not licensed in

Rhode Island; she is due back in court in August. [WPRI, 5/18/2023]

Ewwwww!

A visitor at Wonderland amusement park in Toronto, Ontario, was filled with more than wonder as he rode the Leviathan roller coaster on May 16, the Toronto Sun reported. Hubert Hsu of Toronto said as his coaster car neared the top of one of the ride’s loops, it collided with a bird — possibly a pigeon. “I looked down and saw blood on my hands and my face,” Hsu said. “There was a feather on my hand, and feathers on the girl next to me’s shirt. It seemed like the coaster car hit the bird and then it sort of exploded on us.” Hsu said attendants gave them a roll of industrial brown paper towels, and he ended up washing up in a restroom. “The kids who work in the park seemed like they had no idea what to do, and that might be an issue,” he added. [Toronto Sun, 5/19/2023]

It’s Come to This

Two Louisville, Kentucky, roommates got into a heated dispute at their home on May 20, The Charlotte Observer reported, over an unlikely subject: Hot Pockets. Clifton Williams, 64, was charged with second-degree assault after he allegedly shot the victim. Williams “got mad he ate the last Hot Pocket and began throwing tiles at him,” police said. When the victim moved to leave the home, Williams retrieved a firearm and shot the man in the posterior. He remains in the custody of Louisville Metro Corrections. [The Charlotte Observer, 5/23/2023]

News You Can Use

Beer. Need we say more? Okay, there’s more. Researchers examining paintings from the Dutch Golden Age have discovered that artists preparing their canvases often used discarded material from local breweries, the Associated Press reported. They found traces of yeast, wheat, rye, and barley, which would have been spread as a paste over the canvas to prevent the paint from seeping through. Scientists believe the Danish Academy of Fine Arts bought leftover mash from breweries and used it to ready canvases for artists such as Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg and Christen Schiellerup Købke. [AP, 5/24/2023]

NEWS OF THE WEIRD

© 2023 Andrews McMeel Syndication. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): When I was still an up-and-coming horoscope columnist, before I got widely syndicated, I supplemented my income with many other jobs. During one stretch, I wrote fortunes for a line of designer fortune cookies that were covered with gourmet chocolate and sold at the luxury department store Bloomingdale’s. The salary I got paid was meager. Part of my compensation came in the form of hundreds of delicious but non-nutritious cookies. If you are offered a comparable deal in the coming weeks and months, Aries, my advice is to do what I didn’t do but should have done: Ask for what’s truly valuable to you instead of accepting a substitute of marginal worth.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): My mentor Ann Davies said that of all the signs of the zodiac, you Tauruses are most likely to develop finely honed intuition. At least potentially, you can tune in to the inner teacher better than the rest of us. The still, small voice rises up out of the silence and speaks to you clearly and crisply. Here’s even better news: I believe you are entering a phase when your relationship with this stellar faculty may ripen dramatically. Please take advantage of this subtly fabulous opportunity! Each day for the next 14 days, do a relaxing ritual in which you eagerly invite and welcome the guidance of your deepest inner source.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): New College in Oxford, UK, has educated students since 1379. Among its old buildings is a dining hall that features beams made of thick oak trees. Unfortunately, most oak wood eventually attracts beetles that eat it and weaken it. Fortunately, the 14thcentury founders of New College foresaw that problem. They planted an oak grove whose trees were specifically meant to be used to replace the oak beams at New College. Which they are to this day. I would love you to derive inspiration from this story, Gemini. What practical long-term plans might you be wise to formulate in the coming months?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The coming weeks will be a delicate time for your spiritual unfoldment. You are primed to recover lost powers, rediscover key truths you have forgotten, and reunite with parts of your soul you got cut off from. Will these good possibilities come to pass in their fullness? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how brave you are in seeking your healing. You must ask for what’s hard to ask for. You’ve got to find a way to feel deserving of the beauty and blessings that are available. PS: You ARE deserving. I will be cheering you on, dear Leo.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Whether or not you have been enrolled in a learning institution during the past 12 months, I suspect you have been getting a rigorous

education. Among the courses you have almost completed are lessons in intimacy, cooperation, collaboration, symbiosis, and togetherness. Have you mastered all the teachings? Probably not. There were too many of them, and they were too voluminous to grasp perfectly and completely. But that’s okay. You have done well. Now you’re ready to graduate, collect your diploma, and apply what you have learned.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): History has provided contradictory reports about Isabeau of Bavaria, who served as queen of France from 1385 to 1422. Was she a corrupt, greedy, and indecisive fool who harmed France’s fortunes? Or was she a talented diplomat with great skill in court politics and an effective leader during the many times her husband, King Charles VI, was incapacitated by illness? I bring these facts to your attention, Libra, hoping they will inspire you to refine, adjust, and firm up your own reputation. You can’t totally control how people perceive you, but you do have some power to shape their perceptions — especially these days.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The next four weeks will be an excellent time to create and celebrate your own holidays. I recommend you dream up at least four new festivals, jubilees, anniversaries, and other excuses to party. Eight or more would be even better. They could be quirky and modest, like Do No Housework Day, Take Your Houseplants for a Walk Day, or Write Bad Poetry Day. They could be more profound and impactful, like Forgive Your Parents for Everything Day, Walk on the Wild Side Day, or Stay Home from Work Because You’re Feeling So Good Day. In my astrological opinion, Scorpio, you should regard playful fun as a top priority. For more ideas, go here: tinyurl.com/CreateHolidays … tinyurl. com/NouveauHolidays … tinyurl.com/ InventHolidays

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a god who stole fire from his fellow gods and gave it to humans to help them build civilization. His divine colleagues were not pleased. Why? Maybe they feared that with the power of fire, people would become like gods themselves and have no further need for gods. Anyway, Sagittarius, I hope you’re in a fire-stealing mood. It’s a good time to raise your whole world up to a higher level — to track down and acquire prizes that will lead to major enhancements. And unlike what happened to Prometheus (the other gods punished him), I think you will get away with your gambits.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Let’s discuss magical doorways. Each time you sleep, you slip through magical doorways called dreams. Whether or not you recall

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In the Northern Hemisphere, the astrological month of Cancer begins with the sun in its greatest glory. Our home star is at its highest altitude, shining with maximum brightness. So then why is the sign of the Crab ruled by the moon? Why do the longest days of the year coincide with the ascendancy of the mistress of the night? Ahhh. These are esoteric mysteries beyond the scope of this horoscope. But here’s a hint about what they signify for you personally. One of your assets can also be a liability: your innocent openness to the wonders of life. This quality is at the heart of your beauty but can also, on occasion, make you vulnerable to being overwhelmed. That’s why it’s so important that you master the art of setting boundaries, of honing your focus, of quaffing deeply from a few cups instead of sipping from many cups.

those adventures, they offer you interesting mysteries utterly unlike the events of your daily life. Here’s another example: A magical doorway opens when an ally or loved one shares intimate knowledge of their inner realms. Becoming absorbed in books, movies, or songs is also a way to glide through a magical doorway. Another is when you discover an aspect of yourself, a corner of your being, that you didn’t know was there. I bring these thoughts to your attention, Capricorn, because I suspect the coming weeks will present an extra inviting array of magical doorways.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Psychiatrist Myron Hofer specializes in the motherinfant relationship. Among his findings: The first emotion that a newborn experiences is anxiety. Struggling to get out of the womb can be taxing, and it’s shocking to be separated from the warm, nourishing realm that has been home for months. The bad news is that most of us still carry the imprint of this original unease. The good news, Aquarius, is that the coming months will be one of the best times ever for you to heal. For optimal results, place a high priority on getting an abundance of love, support, comfort, and physical touch.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Curious blends and intriguing juxtapositions are in the works — or at least they should be. Improbable alliances might be desirable because they’re curative. Formulas with seemingly mismatched ingredients might fix a glitch, even if they never succeeded before and won’t again. I encourage you to synergize work and play. Negotiate serious business in casual settings and make yourself at home in a wild frontier.

THURSDAY, JUNE 22 6:00 PM, Gates Open at 5:30 PM

THURSDAY, JUNE 29

6:00 PM, Gates Open at 5:30 PM

THURSDAY, JULY 6 6:00 PM, Gates Open at 5:30 PM

ALEXIS GRACE

FOOD By Michael Donahue

The Heat Is On

Reevo’s Hot Sauce is a Memphis thing.

You can blame the creation of Reevo’s Hot Sauce on the 2008 Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.

Reeves Callaway, 28, was 13 when his dad let him visit the Smokers Anonymous barbecue team at the Memphis in May competition.

Callaway watched a guy make hot wing sauce. “I guess it was a competition for hot wings,” he says. “I see this guy putting all these things in a bowl.

“I’m seeing grape jelly and orange juice and all these di erent kinds of spice blends. You see all these things individually. And I thought ‘Holy, shit. ere’s a great sauce.’”

Callaway went home and tried to recreate what he witnessed. “I had grape jelly and orange juice.” e result? “It was absolutely terrible.”

Undaunted, Callaway kept trying. “Seeing a sauce come together with all those bizarre ingredients really made me want to try to do that.

“I got a generic Tabasco and cayenne

pepper mix. I just started simple. I kind of added a little bit of sweet teriyaki avor. Some sweet and garlicky avors and kept it simple instead of the whole pineapple, habanero fruity hot sauces.”

When the next Memphis in May festival rolled around, Callaway was ready. “As a cocky 14-year-old, I said, ‘If I can cook a better wing, then I’m the wing chef this time.’”

His wings came in rst place in a blind tasting among team members, and he became the team’s wing chef. ose wings came in the top 25 that year. “I was addicted a er that.”

Callaway, who remained the team’s wing chef, didn’t do much sauce tweaking over the years. “I kept it the same. I just changed how long I would cook the meat. Sometimes I would marinate it longer, maybe sprinkle a little celery salt on it. But the sauce always tasted the same.”

“Look,” he adds, “this sauce is not meant to hurt you. is is not one of those

asshole kill-your-tongue hot sauces.”

But, he says, “It’s de nitely a savory tang and it’s a growing heat. e rst bite is pretty mild. And your seventh and eighth bite, it’s getting hot.”

Callaway decided to take his sauce to another level the year it reached sixth place at the Memphis in May competition. In 2019, Callaway, who graduated in marketing and advertising from the University of Memphis, decided to sell his sauce commercially. He named it Reevo’s Hot Sauce a er himself. “I’ve been called ‘Reevo’ by my parents since I can’t remember.”

Reevo’s Hot Sauce is now sold in Memphis establishments, including Cordelia’s Market, King & Union Bar

Grocery, Ben Yay’s, and Triangle Meat Market. Callaway makes smaller batches in his kitchen. He uses commercial kitchens for larger orders. He also makes a local honey hot sauce, which, for now, is only available online at askforreevos.com.

“Regular hot sauce with honey added. It delays the heat.

“ at honey makes it sweet on your tongue. And the heat slides down the back of your throat. So, a little more avor and sweet on top on the rst bite and the heat builds on the back end.”

As for future products, Callaway says, “I’m kind of open to see where it goes. I’m not really quitting my job to see how big I can make it right now. I’m really enjoying it being a fun thing on the side.

“Maybe a barbecue rub, hot wing spice or something down the line, but nothing in the works right now.” Callaway’s day job, by the way, is perfect for somebody who makes hot sauce. “I work at Shambaugh & Son selling re alarm systems.”

PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE Reeves Callaway

Current & Upcoming Exhibitions at the Dixon

THROUGH JULY 16

Zao Wou-Ki: Watercolors and Ceramics

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Susan Maakestad: The Expansive Moment

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Gotham City Limits

If you see two animals with similar body plans — like say, a human and an ape — the theory of evolution suggests they both descended from a common ancestor which died out long ago. Unless, that is, they’re crabs. At least ve separate lineages of sea life have adopted the basic crab form independently of each other. Apparently, if you live on the bottom of the ocean, a big, at shell with multiple legs and pincers is the best design strategy. ere’s even a name for this type of convergent evolution: carcinization.

Just as Darwinian evolution tends toward crabs, big-budget Hollywood lms tend toward Batman. ere’s even a name for this type of convergent evolution: Batmanization.

Take, for example, the most recent movie about Batman, e Flash. Now, you might be thinking, “Hey, e Flash is not about Batman. It’s about e Flash.” But that’s just you showing your superhero ignorance. I, an enlightened comic-book-movie-watching guy, understand that all lms must be about Batman because the story of Batman is the perfect form toward which all lms have been evolving since Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman

e Flash represents the ultimate stage of Batmanization: Michael Keaton plays Batman again. I realize I may come across as a tad cynical when I write about Batman movies, but I am not made of stone. Michael Keaton stepping away from the role of Batman

a er Batman Returns was such a titanic psychosocial event that when Michael Keaton made a movie about it, Birdman, it won Best Picture. Take that, Wes Anderson!

In e Flash, it is revealed that Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) became e Flash because he lost his parents at a young age. en, at a slightly older age, he was struck by lightning while being doused with chemicals, granting him the power of super-speed, which enables him to do things like save an entire neonatal ward full of babies while also microwaving a burrito.

Like Batman, he’s tortured by losing his parents. So when he accidentally discovers he can travel backwards in time by running faster than the speed of light, his rst instinct is to go back to keep his mother from being killed by an unknown criminal, and his father from being convicted for the crime. Despite dire warnings against tampering with the timeline from his universe’s Batman (Ben A eck), Barry does it anyway. But when he tries to return to his present, he is thwarted by a mysterious gure and ends up in a parallel timeline where his parents are still alive, but where young Barry Allen (also Ezra Miller) hasn’t become Flash yet. Also, there’s no Superman, so when General Zod (Michael Shannon) shows up like he did in Man of Steel, there’s no one to stop him. Flash discovers that a Batman (Michael Keaton) used to exist in this timeline, but he’s retired because

he solved all the crime. Together, they try to track down Clark Kent, only to discover that Supergirl (Sasha Calle) made it to Earth instead. Can Old Awesome Batman save the planet with the assistance of e Flash and Supergirl and also e Flash?

If, unlike me, you are a cynic, you might point out that, from Warner Brothers’/DC’s point of view, it’s a good thing they backed up the money truck to Michael Keaton’s retirement villa because star Ezra Miller has recently been outed as a Messianic psychopath who was kidnapping children to build a Mansonoid cult in Vermont. Even worse, since this is a time travel/multiverse story, there’s usually two of him on screen at any given time.

And that’s why it’s good that e Flash didn’t do Flash stu like ghting his arch enemy, the super-intelligent alien apeman Gorilla Grodd, but instead went on a time quest for Batman. Otherwise, we’d just be sitting in a theater staring into Ezra Miller’s cold, desperate eyes for 144 minutes, wondering how a creep like that was ever cast as a superhero in a $200 million movie.

Batman to the rescue!

e Flash

Now playing Multiple locations

Michael Keaton returns as Batman in e Flash.

FILM By Chris McCoy

Why you should be thankful the real star of e Flash is Batman.

Our critic picks the best films in theaters.

Asteroid City

Wes Anderson’s latest is a star-studded trip to the Arizona desert in 1955, where the Junior Stargazers Convention is gathering for a wholesome weekend. But this cozy scene is shattered when an actual alien arrives in a for-real spaceship. Is the alien good or bad? Will the play based on the events bomb? Will the TV chat show about the play about the alien invasion make it to air? Frequent Anderson collaborators Jason Schwartzman, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Bob Balaban, and Jeff Goldblum are joined by Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Maya Hawke, and Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker.

No Hard Feelings

Jennifer Lawrence returns to the screen as Maddie, an Uber driver whose luck has run out. To stave off bankruptcy, she takes a Craigslist job as a surrogate girlfriend for introverted rich kid Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman). This sex comedy for people who hate sex and also comedy co-stars Matthew Broderick and Natalie Morales.

Elemental

In Pixar’s latest, Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis) is a fire elemental who strikes up an unlikely romance with Wade (Mamoudou Athie), a water elemental. Can the two opposites reconcile, or will they vanish in a puff of steam? Longtime Pixar animator Peter Sohn based Elemental on his experiences as a Korean immigrant growing up in New York City.

NOW PLAYING By Chris McCoy

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By Robert Koehler

Disconnecting War from Consequence

Twenty-two years ago, Congress put sanity up for a vote. Sanity lost in the House, 420-1. It lost in the Senate, 98-0.

Barbara Lee’s lone vote for sanity — that is to say, her vote against the Authorization for the Use of Military Force resolution, allowing the president to make war against … uh, evil … without congressional approval — remains a tiny light of courageous hope ickering in a chaotic world, which is on the brink of self-annihilation. Militarism keeps expanding, at least here in the U.S. If there’s a problem out there, option one is to kill it quickly. Problem solved! is simplistic (and utterly false) mindset, which is always present — the companion of fear — may have a grip on American politics like never before, as demonstrated in the recent debt-ceiling stando , in which President Biden came to an agreement with the Republicans that social spending will be slashed but “defense” spending must continue to expand.

You know. It’s the only thing that’s truly crucial. Poverty? Collapsing infrastructure? Underfunded schools? Climate disaster? We can worry about that stu later, but as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy explained to reporters recently: “Look, we’re always looking where we could nd savings … but we live in a very dangerous world. I think the Pentagon has to actually have more resources.” In other words, the U.S. is not a country with the maturity to discuss and analyze complex issues, such as the future of the world. Hey, it’s dangerous out there! It’s full of terrorists and dictators. at’s all you need to know. “Weak on defense” is the equivalent of “wants to defund the police” — a politician’s death sentence by advertising. No matter how much hell war creates — no matter how many families it displaces, no matter how many children it kills — we’ve got to be ready to wage it, you know, whenever we feel like it. And the mainstream media, in its basic coverage, doesn’t question this or delve into a complex analysis of the world.

But we are still a country that is slowly and complexly evolving — no matter that the powers that be, for the most part, don’t know it. Let’s return to that AUMF vote, passed in the wake of the 9/11 devastation. Barbara Lee, whose father was in the Army, serving in both World War II and the Korean War, knew about the human costs of war. A er 9/11 she was deeply uncertain what the nation’s immediate response should be. She attended the memorial service at the capital, held the day of the vote (and attended by four former presidents plus the sitting president, GWB). ere, as she told Politico, the Reverend Nathan Baxter, as he led the attendees in prayer, called on the nation’s leaders, as they considered how to respond, to “not become the evil we deplore.”

His words struck her in the soul. She had planned to challenge AUMF — she saw serious problems with it — but now she had certainty. She edited her prepared speech as she returned to Capitol Hill. ere, she told her colleagues, “ ere must be some of us who say: Let’s step back for a moment and think through the implications of our actions today. I do not want to see this spiral out of control.” She had no idea — until the vote began — that she’d be the sole member of Congress to vote against AUMF. And soon enough her o ce was ooded with calls and emails. ey were both for her and against her, but many of the latter were vicious. She was called a traitor. She received death threats. Plenty of people, especially as the antiwar movement grew, also declared, “Barbara Lee speaks for me.” But the fury of those who hated her vote, who were shocked that she had the audacity to speak the truth, demonstrate the self-feeding loop that war creates. Instantly, all complexity vanishes and you’re either for us or against us. And if you’re against us … uh oh. Watch out.

She also told Congress that day: “We must be careful not to embark on an open-ended war with neither an exit strategy nor a focused target.”

ese are not the sort of words that status-quo America listens to, even in retrospect. My God, 20 years of war in Afghanistan, eight years of war and unspeakable carnage in Iraq. e U.S. was the o cial loser (though not its militaryindustrial complex). We’re not any safer; we’re way less safe. But it’s all dismissed with a shrug. “We live in a very dangerous world.” All we can do is keep upping the military budget and keep refusing to listen to Barbara Lee.

When will this change? e collective psychology of it goes pretty deep. Perhaps the presence of war in the national psyche bears a relationship to the presence of guns. e United States, as Scienti c American pointed out, is “the only country with more civilian rearms than people,” which, according to researcher Nick Buttrick, is a phenomenon that began in the American South a er the Civil War.

Guns had been tools, handy in rural areas for pest control. en came the Emancipation Proclamation. Previously enslaved people — “property” — were suddenly free. ey even had some political power. e world was no longer what it once was; the established order was gone. e world, from a white perspective, was suddenly chaotic, dangerous, incomprehensible. And white people were no longer on top. Gradually guns became fetishized as sources — and symbols — of strength. “ rough your weapon, you could recreate order,” Buttrick said.

Is that not the American way? All you have to do is disconnect the consequences from the trigger, and you can keep pulling it and pulling it.

Robert Koehler (koehlercw@gmail.com), syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor. He is the author of Courage Grows Strong at the Wound.

PHOTO: MICHELE URSI | DREAMSTIME.COM Militarism in the U.S. continues, unabated.

is mindset may have a grip on American politics like never before.