Memphis Flyer 7/27/2023

MEMPHIS WOMEN ARE AT THE FOREFRONT OF A RAP REVIVAL.

RAP RENAISSANCE

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

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 O cer

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

LILY BEASLEY

Marketing and Social Media Intern

National Newspaper Association Association

OUR 1796TH ISSUE 07.27.23

Editor’s Note: Flyer writers will occasionally share this space.

Did you see the video of President Trump singing the Eurythmics’ 1980’s hit, “Sweet Dreams”? He’s really pretty good, to be honest. Except honesty has nothing to do with it. e video — all of it, including the imitation of Trump’s voice — was created by a Google arti cial intelligence program, an algorithm trained on Trump’s voice and speech patterns and tasked with creating this bizarre cover song. e video was only online for a couple of days, but it’s just another example of what we’re all going to be facing in the coming years: e fact that most human creative endeavors can be replicated by arti cial intelligence, including novels, screenplays, television scripts, videos of politicians or celebrities (or any of us), pornography, political propaganda, advertising jingles, emails, phone calls, “documentaries,” and even the news. It’s going to be a huge in uence in our lives, and it has an enormous potential for creating mischief via disinformation and the manipulation of “reality.”

at’s why seven companies — Amazon, Anthropic, Google, In ection AI, Meta, Microso , and OpenAI — met with President Biden last Friday to announce a voluntary commitment to standards in the areas of safety and security. e companies agreed to:

• Security test their AI products, and share information about their products with the government and other organizations attempting to manage the risks of AI.

• Implement watermarks or other means of identifying AI-generated content.

• Deploy AI tools to tackle society’s challenges, including curing disease and combating climate change.

• Conduct research on the risks of bias and invasion of privacy from the spread of AI.

Again, these were voluntary agreements, and it bears noting that these seven companies are erce competitors and unlikely to share anything that costs them a competitive edge. e regulation of arti cial intelligence will soon require more than a loose, voluntary agreement to uphold ethical standards.

e U.S. isn’t alone in trying to regulate the burgeoning AI industry. Governments around the globe — friendly, and not so friendly — are doing the same. Learning the secrets of AI is the new global arms race. Using AI disinformation to control or in uence human behavior is a potential weapon with terrifying prospects.

It’s also a tool that corporations are already using. I got an email this week urging me to buy an AI program that would generate promotional emails for my company. All I had to do was give the program the details about what I wanted to promote and the AI algorithm would do the rest, cranking out “lively and engaging” emails sure to win over my customers. I don’t have a company, but if I did, the barely unspoken implication was that this program could eliminate a salary.

It’s part of what’s driving the strike by screen actors and writers against the major lm and television studios: e next episode of your favorite TV show could be “written” by an AI program, thereby eliminating a salary. Will the public care — or even know — if, say, the latest episode of Law & Order was generated by AI? Will Zuckerberg gure out how to use AI to coerce you into giving Meta even more of your personal information? (Does it even Meta at this point? Sorry.) You can be sure we’ll nd out the answer to those questions fairly soon.

NEWS & OPINION

THE FLY-BY - 4

THEATER - 6

FINANCE - 7

COVER STORY

“RAP RENAISSANCE”

BY KAILYNN JOHNSON - 8

WE RECOMMEND - 12

MUSIC - 13

AFTER DARK - 14

CALENDAR - 15

NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 15

ASTROLOGY - 16

FOOD - 17

ARTS - 18

FILM - 20

CLASSIFIEDS - 22

LAST WORD - 23

And we’ve barely even begun to see how AI can be utilized in the dirty business of politics. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign used an AIgenerated voice of Donald Trump in an ad that ran in Iowa last week. Trump himself never spoke the words used in the ad, but if you weren’t aware of that, you might be inclined to believe he did. Which is, of course, the point: to fool us, to make the fake seem real. It’s coming. It’s here. Stay woke, y’all. Sweet dreams are made of this Who am I to disagree

I travel the world and the seven seas Everybody’s looking for something …

Bruce Vanwyngarden bruce@memphis yer.com

PHOTO: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Eurythmics’ Annie Lennox

SHARA CLARK Editor

THE fly-by

MEM ernet

Memphis on the internet.

STARSTRUCK

Questions, Answers + Attitude

Edited by Toby Sells

WEEK THAT WAS

By Flyer staff

Abortion, MLGW, & Beefin’ With Biden

State AG wants medical records, power (mostly) restored, and Blackburn burns the President.

TN AG WANTS ABORTION RECORDS

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined Republican counterparts in 18 states last week in an e ort to prevent the federal government from shielding the medical records of those who cross state lines to obtain legal abortion or gender-a rming care from investigations in their home state.

Al Roker was starstruck recently. Leaving a TED Countdown Summit on climate change in Detroit, he ran into Tennessee state Representative Justin Pearson.

“I got to meet one of the #twojustins from Tennessee,” Roker wrote on Facebook.

e other Justin, of course, is state Representative Justin Jones. Both Justins were expelled from and reinstated to the Tennessee House of Representatives this year for protests on gun violence.

NEVER-ENDING ELVIS

DMC SUPPORTS WOMEN-OWNED BUSINESSES

e Downtown Memphis Commission has partnered with the Women’s Business Center South to give three women-owned businesses the support and resources to launch a physical storefront, as a part of their “Open on Main” initiative. Winners include e Podcast Center, ARCHd, and Oh So Sweets Skincare.

TCAP SCORES RISE

MODESTLY

Memphis-Shelby County Schools students showed improvements in new Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) scores, but they have yet to rebound to prepandemic pro ciency levels.

AG SET TO CHALLENGE RULING

Tennessee AG asserts right to out-ofstate abortion and transgender care medical records; 141,000 MLGW customers lost power a er last Tuesday’s storm.

and Main Street will have a 960-stall parking garage, an area for ride share pickup and drop-o , and space for bicycle storage, showers, lockers, and electric scooter stalls.

FEMA IS (FINALLY) ON THE WAY

A story in the most recent issue of Cosmos reads, “Scientists have named a new species of pterodactyl with a distinctive pompadourlooking crest on its skull — earning it the nickname ‘Elvis.’” at is all.

WORD UP

An answer on Wordle, e New York Times’ still wildly successful word game, was worth a couple of digital high ves in the Flyer Slack channel last week. e answer? FLYER. Take a win where you can get it, folks.

e Tennessee attorney general’s o ce is set to soon challenge a ruling that the state’s new law removing local district attorneys from death penalty post-conviction matters is unconstitutional.

e Tennessee General Assembly passed the law this past session. Earlier this month, Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan struck it down.

MLGW POWERS THROUGH

Last Friday morning, Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) crews had restored power to 131,000 of the 141,000 customers a ected by last Tuesday’s storm. en, a Fridaymorning storm cut power to an additional 16,000 customers. And the utility was eyeing a thunderstorm that developed that a ernoon. Crews worked throughout the weekend. As of Monday morning, 4,536 customers remained without power.

MOBILITY CENTER SET TO OPEN

e Downtown Mobility Center is set to open for vehicle tra c on August 3rd. e $42-million project at Beale Street

e Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced last week it will give the state of Tennessee $12.1 million for costs incurred by MLGW to deal with the ice storm in February 2022. e money will reimburse the utility for repairs to transmission lines and distribution facilities, and the replacement of 119 wooden utility poles and 89 transformers.

BEEFIN’ WITH BIDEN

Last week found Senator Marsha Blackburn bee ng with Joe Biden on Twitter. In one tweet, Blackburn blasted his administration for forgiving $39 billion in student loan debt. e White House red back, saying 16,970 of Blackburn’s constituents were eligible for automatic loan relief under the plan. Blackburn retorted with, “Tennesseans do not support socialism and do not want to pay for their neighbors [sic] debt.” en, she pivoted to something about how Biden used his power to “help his family make millions.”

Tennessee Lookout and Chalkbeat Tennessee contributed to this report.

Visit the News Blog at memphis yer.com for fuller versions of these stories and more local news.

POSTED TO FACEBOOK BY AL ROKER

PHOTO: ANSLEY MURPHY

POSTED TO PALAEONTOLOGIA ELECTRONICA

PHOTOS: (ABOVE) MANNY BECERRA | UNSPLASH; (LEFT) MLGW | FACEBOOK

By Toby Sells

Show Them the Money

Abipartisan bill led last week would require the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to make salary information public for employees who make some of its largest paychecks.

U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) and U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) introduced the measure that would make public salaries for TVA employees who make more than $109,908 or the maximum basic pay rate for many of the federal government’s top-level positions.

Je Lyash, TVA’s president and CEO, refused to give salary speci cs last month in a hearing before a House committee. In it, Cohen said he has requested that salary information in the past and never received it. He wanted to know why.

Lyash said part of the TVA Act once required those salaries be listed in a report to Congress and the White House. However, that requirement was changed with a 1995 federal law and TVA was asked to stop ling the report. Now, Lyash said his agency is only required to give detailed salary information to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

lion, the public ought to know who they are and what they’re doing.”

With that, Cohen’s speaking time in the hearing had expired. However, his line of comment was picked up by U.S. Representative Garret Graves (R-South Louisiana).

“Your position is unsustainable, if you’re not going to give him the information he’s asking for,” Graves said to Lyash. “You’re a government entity. You need to provide him the information.

“Just to give you a little counsel there, I’d strongly urge you to do it. Otherwise, you’re going to be compelled to do it, and you can either cooperate or it’s going to get a little ugly. I’d urge you to comply with his request.”

Burchett struck an optimistic note in a news release about the new TVA bill.

“I have seen the TVA improve its transparency in recent years, and I want to make sure that continues,” Burchett said in a news release. “ is bill will help Congress keep TVA accountable for how it pays its employees, which is an important part of preserving its public trust.”

“ at’s not the people that created the TVA,” Cohen said. “ at’s not what the TVA Act requires, and that’s just not right, Je . It’s not right. You’re part of the government. You’re created by the United States government. You’re part of it.

“Salary should be transparent. And when people are making over $1 bil-

e new bill is not the rst time the two Tennessee lawmakers worked together on pay at TVA. Last year, they introduced another bill that would likely lower Lyash’s pay. e bill would have reduced his pay to a level comparable with those of CEOs at other public utilities.

Lyash is the highest-paid federal employee, making up to nearly $10 million annually a er bene ts and bonuses. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump called Lyash’s pay “ridiculous” and threatened (but failed) to cut that pay “by a lot.”

“You can either cooperate or it’s going to get a little ugly.”

PHOTO: TOBY SELLS TVA CEO Je Lyash

Two

Tennessee congressmen want salary transparency on some of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s biggest jobs.

PUBLIC MEDIA RELEASE 2023-2024 CHILD AND ADULT CARE FOOD PROGRAM

The Land Academy announces participation in the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Meals will be provided at no separate charge to eligible children/adults without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA served at the following site(s):

Name of Site(s): The Land Academy Address of Site(s): 3430 Overton Crossing

THEATER By Jon W. Sparks

Ostrander Nominees

The nominations are out.

The 39th Ostrander Awards will be held Sunday, August 27th, to celebrate the best work in local collegiate, community, and professional theater.

Changes have been made to the structure of the awards to allow for wider consideration of the variety of productions and the presenting organizations. The primary distinction is whether the theater company has a full-time artistic or technical staff. Those companies without a full-time staff and educational institutions are categorized as Division II.

This year’s recipient of the Eugart Yerian Lifetime Achievement Award is Ruby O’Gray. The Ostranders organization says that O’Gray’s devotion to local theater since 1977 “represents the spirit of change and evolution. Her work has been primarily in self-created companies, events, and institutions.”

39th Ostrander Nominees (2022-2023 Season)

Excellence in Direction, Division II

• Holly L. Derr, Sense and Sensibility, University of Memphis

• Julia Hinson, Wire in the Garden, Rhodes Theatre Guild

• Justin Asher, Titanic: The Musical, Harrell Theatre

• Tony Isbell, Lungs, Quark Theatre

• Tony Isbell, Wakey, Wakey, Quark Theatre

Excellence in Direction, Play, Division I

• Ann Marie Hall, The Play That Goes Wrong, Theatre Memphis

• Claire D. Kolheim, Clyde’s, Circuit Playhouse

• Garry Yates, Master Harold and the Boys, Hattiloo Theatre

• John Maness, Arsenic and Old Lace, Theatre Memphis

Outstanding Overall Production, Division II

• Elf: The Musical, Harrell Theatre; Director: Chris Luter; Stage Manager: AK Lewellyn

• Lungs, Quark Theatre; Director: Tony Isbell; Stage Manager: Leslie Lee

• Sense and Sensibility, University of Memphis; Director: Holly L. Derr; Stage Manager: Luke Dabney

• Titanic: The Musical, Harrell Theatre; Director: Justin Asher; Stage Manager: Taylor Daniels

• Wakey, Wakey, Quark Theatre; Director: Tony Isbell; Stage Manager: Kristi Wong

Outstanding Overall Production, Play, Division I

• Clyde’s, Circuit Playhouse; Director: Claire D. Kolheim; Stage Manager: Emma White

• Master Harold and the Boys, Hattiloo Theatre; Director: Garry Yates; Stage Manager: Sherronda Johnson

• Misery, New Moon Theatre; Director: Justin Asher; Stage Manager: Mystie Watson

• Pass Over, Circuit Playhouse; Director: Jared Johnson; Stage Manager: Cydnie Trice

• The Play That Goes Wrong, Theatre Memphis; Director: Ann Marie Hall; Stage Manager: Elizabeth Perkins

Outstanding Overall Production, Musical, Division I

• I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Germantown Community Theatre; Director: Jaclyn Suffel; Stage Manager: Meredith Serna

• Mary Poppins; Theatre Memphis; Directors: Jordan Nichols and Travis Bradley; Stage Manager: Chelsea Robinson

USDA Income Eligibility Guidelines

Effective July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024

In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA.

Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication for program information (e.g. Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language, etc.), should contact the Agency (State or local) where they applied for benefits. Individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech disabilities may contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339. Additionally, program information may be made available in languages other than English.

To file a program complaint of discrimination, complete the USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, (AD-3027) found online at: http://www.ascr.usda.gov/complaint_filing_cust. html, and at any USDA office, or write a letter addressed to USDA and provide in the letter all of the information requested in the form. To request a copy of the complaint form, call (866) 6329992. Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by: (1) mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; (2) fax: (202) 690 7442; or (3) email: program.intake@usda.gov.

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

• Thomas L. King, Immediate Family, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis

Excellence in Direction, Musical, Division I

• Dave Landis, Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, Playhouse on the Square

• Jaclyn Suffel, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Germantown Community Theatre

• Jared Johnson, The Scottsboro Boys, Playhouse on the Square

• Jordan Nichols and Travis Bradley, Mary Poppins, Theatre Memphis

• Whitney Branan, Sondheim Tribute Revue, Theatre Memphis

• Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812; Playhouse on the Square; Director: Dave Landis; Stage Manager: Tessa Verner

• Sondheim Tribute Revue, Theatre Memphis; Director: Whitney Branan; Stage Manager: Taylor Daniels

• The Scottsboro Boys; Playhouse on the Square; Director: Jared Johnson; Stage Manager: Tessa Verner

The Ostranders ceremony will be at the Halloran Centre, Sunday, August 27th, 6 p.m. Get tickets at memphisostranders.com beginning July 30th. Tickets will be $15 in advance or $20 at the door. Visit memphisflyer.com/ ostrander-nominees-announced for a full list of nominees.

Local theater awards honor the best of 2022-2023.

The Right Fit

Nine important questions to ask a prospective financial advisor.

Finding the right wealth advisor — especially one that can address your unique financial goals and design a road map to meet them — can be a time-consuming endeavor. Thankfully, if you know the right questions to ask a prospective wealth advisor, it can help take some of the guesswork out of finding a good fit.

In this article, I’ve outlined nine questions to ask a prospective wealth advisor to ensure you find someone you can trust who is knowledgeable and can grow with you throughout the many stages of your life.

1. What types of clients do you typically work with? You want to work with an advisor who has experience helping people like you. So be sure to dig into what type of clients the advisor works with and what issues they help those clients resolve. This ensures the advisor has the proper client experience to meet your needs.

2. What would our first year together look like? This question is especially important for individuals who have always managed their own investments and may have never worked with a wealth advisor before. It helps to set the right expectation about what first-year communication and accomplishments will be.

better predictors of future investment success than how low you keep your investment fees.

6. How are you compensated? There’s likely no more important question to ask a prospective advisor. Advisors can be paid through a fee, like an annual planning fee, a percentage of assets managed, commissions, or some combination of these. Make sure the manner of compensation is fully documented in a written client agreement so that there’s no confusion.

7. Are you held to a fiduciary standard? Surprisingly, not all financial professionals are required by law to act in your best interest at all times. If the advisor acknowledges he or she is held to the fiduciary standard, this should be found in the newly required Form CRS. If yes, keep the conversation going! If not, we would recommend heading for the exit.

8. What credentials do you carry? The gold standard for financial advisors is the Certified Financial Planner designation. To become a Certified Financial Planner professional, advisors must have a bachelor’s degree, complete financial planning coursework, have a minimum of three years of experience, and complete a six- to 10-hour exam.

9. What conflicts of interest (if any) may exist if we were to work together? Conflicts of interest are not bad in and of themselves — it’s pretending they don’t exist that should raise concerns. Having an open dialogue about any and all conflicts that could arise is a critical first step to building trust, and investors can also view an advisor’s Form ADV and CRS to verify information further.

3. How frequently will we be in communication? After many of the common planning items are tackled in the first year, it’s typical to meet in person at least once per year (if not more often) with a wealth advisor. Asking this question helps set your ideal meeting frequency if you’re wanting to meet less or more often.

4. Do you use your own proprietary financial planning software or software developed by a third party? Advisors are not in the technology business, and it’s common for advisors to leverage third-party financial planning software. If the advisor uses their own software, it’s not a bad thing, but be sure to dig into whether it’s robust enough to handle the comprehensiveness of your needs. Security can also be an issue with homegrown solutions.

5. What is the average expense ratio (percent) of the underlying funds used in your client portfolios? There are few

In addition to asking good questions about fees and compensation, there should be room for asking personal questions that will help you get at the heart of the most important question to ask yourself — is this someone I like and trust enough to do business with? If the answer isn’t a resounding “yes!” then you should keep looking. There’s no shortage of qualified and ethical people out there who would love to help you navigate the financial complexities of your life.

Gene Gard, CFA, CFP, CFT-I, is a Partner and Private Wealth Manager with Creative Planning. Creative Planning is one of the nation’s largest Registered Investment Advisory firms providing comprehensive wealth management services to ensure all elements of a client’s financial life are working together, including investments, taxes, estate planning, and risk management. For more information or to request a free, noobligation consultation, visit CreativePlanning.com

In addition to asking questions about fees and compensation, there should be room for asking personal questions.

RAP RENAISSANCE

MEMPHIS WOMEN ARE AT THE FOREFRONT OF A RAP REVIVAL.

PHOTO: JACORRI WASHINGTON Jus Bentley

PHOTO: TAMARA MAY

A.R. e Mermaid

While our favorite “Hot Girl Coach”

Megan ee Stallion

coined “Hot Girl Summer” in 2019, a new term made its way into the mainstream last summer — and at the hands of Memphis’ own rap princess GloRilla. In 2022, it was almost impossible to open our TikTok FYPs and not nd a video with her song “F.N.F. (Let’s Go).” It became an anthem for end-of-summer photo dumps and Instagram stories, and a new light shined on our city’s rap scene.

Whether it was the infectious Memphis energy in the music videos for “F.N.F.” or “Tomorrow 2” or the rawness and realness of her cadence, GloRilla was met with explosive success. Not only did that put her in the spotlight, but it put new emphasis on Memphis-bred women in rap.

“Memphis female artists are so gang-

COVER

STORY By Kailynn Johnson

sta,” says Zachary Hurth, a content creator, director, and media consultant, who may be best known for his Back Of e Class (BOTC). e IG channel (@backo heclasss_) boasts more than 50,000 followers and features “desk freestyles” with up-and-coming Memphis stars, including K Carbon, Gloss Up, and Slimeroni.

“If you remember being in school and you turned around, that’s what Back Of e Class is,” says Hurth. “It’s rapping in the back of the class like we really used to do. It’s like a stage for artists to come and show their creativity, show who really can rap.”

Whether rappers from Memphis “really can rap” has never been a question — the city has birthed a number of rap legends, with Young Dolph, Moneybagg Yo, and Gangsta Boo among them. But a rap renaissance is upon us, and many local

women are at the forefront.

Hurth has taken his BOTC project outside of the city — to Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta — and says the Memphis vibe is incomparable. “It’s female artists blowing up everywhere,” Hurth says. “But it’s something about the way a Memphis woman pops; nobody in America — across the world — can do it like them.

“When they come in, they give it their all. ey’re not acting,” says Hurth. “And they got this good morale because they’re seeing themselves blow up.”

e Flyer spoke to three of Memphis’ emerging female rap artists (two of whom have been featured on BOTC) who are in the midst of such a “blow up” — women who are contributing to the evolution of the genre.

A.R. THE MERMAID

e titular character of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale has been prone to revamping since her inception. But one artist has decided to do it with an East Memphis air and an alternative vibe. Her name is Ariel Wright (“Big A.R., not the little one,” she says) — and there’s a new mermaid in town.

A.R. e Mermaid has always known she was “that bitch,” she says, and she’s never needed the validation of others to con rm that.

While mermaids are her mythical creature of choice, her style and brand are a juxtaposition of several identities that pay homage to a few of her favorite female artists. “I got Erykah Badu, which is [representative of] being di erent. Tina Turner with the rock-star vibes. Rico Nasty with the alternative look and the emo vibes,” she says.

As she draws inspiration from greats before her, she’s also forging her own distinct image and sound. Fashion-wise, you’ll nd her scouring the racks of Hot Topic, Spencer’s, and Dolls Kill while rocking her signature black lip. Musically, she describes her style as a mix of alternative, emo, trap music, and R&B, marked by her notable raspy voice and free spirit. “Nofucks-given type of shit,” she says.

Music has always been a way for A.R. to express herself, and she’s well versed in several genres aside from rap. She dates some of her formative experiences to singing in her church, and she was in a singing group during her teenage years.

“I stopped singing when I was 17, 18. Started rapping probably when I was like 20,” she says.

“Honestly, I fell out of love with singing for a second. It just got too crucial. I had to take a break mentally and get my mind right.

“And my way of expressing myself with what was going on at the moment was to rap. Singing wasn’t in me, so I was like, ‘Hey, maybe I should start rapping.’” e 25-year-old says once she started taking that music “to the streets,” it was kismet,

and “[the people] started fucking with it.”

When A.R. spoke with the Flyer, she was still riding the high following the release of her single “Sneaky Link.” e music video — her debut single with 300 Entertainment — premiered in May and has since hit over 22K views.

She never expected the song to have a virality to it — it just had a beat, composed by SGULL, that beckoned for a story to be told. “At the time, I was really going through that shit, so it was perfect,” she says. “It was really a vibe creating that.”

Her music teems with real-life experiences (in the case of “Sneaky Link,” the nuances of a secret link-up). e ability to tell stories through music has been freeing, she says, and she recognizes how her Memphis roots have catapulted her into a space where her sound and background are being celebrated.

“Memphis itself creates a whole new sound, just from our lingo, our ow, how we talk, just the sauce itself,” she says. “Being out here in Memphis really made me the artist that I am, like on some put-thatshit-together type of shit.”

GLOCKIANNA

Being able to hold your own in a freestyle battle is the mark of true rap talent, and many Back Of e Class alumni have passed the test with ying colors. One such artist recently went viral on the platform, her session amassing nearly 69,000 likes.

e viral IG performance is almost ironic considering Glockianna didn’t care much for social media initially. “At rst I hated social media,” she says. “Like, I hate when people bring up their opinions or how they feel about this person or that person because the person still going to do what they want to do in the end.”

Viewers of Glockianna’s freestyle video ll the comment section with re emojis and note how “hard” of an artist she is. And when the 16-year-old speaks with the Flyer, that’s exactly how she describes herself — hard.

Glockianna has been rapping since she was 12 years old, and it all started as a way for her to grapple with her emotions. When she was younger, she o en found herself getting into ghts.

“I was ghting everybody,” she says. “But when I stopped ghting and put the aggression I had toward people to the song, and put it inside my music instead, it became a way for me to cope with my anger.”

Growing up in a family full of musicians, she always felt there was an opportunity for a career in music. But her proclivity to rap wasn’t a given. Her early musical memories are de ned by R&B favorites like Jay Morris Group, but, she says, the moment she heard rap, she fell in love with it.

continued on page 10

PHOTO: DUKE NITTY Glockianna

Rap has given her an outlet to tell her story, just the way it is. “I’m telling you what happened, why it happened, who did it to me, and how I feel about it basically,” she says.

A lot has happened in a short time since Glockianna honed in on her passion for the genre. She signed to Duke Deuce Enterprises’ Made Men Mafia (Triple M) record label in 2022. And she joined the famed Memphis rapper on stage for his Rolling Loud performance that year. The invitation to perform at the hip-hop festival “was a surprise for me honestly,” she says. “I thought he was joking, but he was like, ‘Nah, for real, you doing Rolling Loud.’”

That experience was pivotal for Glockianna. She’d previously performed in front of much smaller crowds. Even at those smaller shows, she was nervous. “Shaking in my boots,” she says.

But watching videos of her on stage as thousands raise their phones to capture the moment, it’s hard to believe that. She exudes confidence as she raps one of her anthems, “Stomp On Em.”

Glockianna admits that early on she was inclined to stick to the status quo, and not waver from her initial sound. But that has since changed. “When I go back and look at my music from then, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, terrible,’” she says.

“I wasn’t really being myself and being comfortable. But my music now? Oh, it’s way better. Ain’t no cap in my rap; I really mean exactly what I’m saying.”

In the March 2023 release, “It Ain’t Glock Fault,” she keeps it real from the start, proclaiming she’s “keeping my foot on some necks” — and the rapper isn’t afraid to call someone out by name to tell it like it is. Though, Glockianna feels she still has to prove herself at times — because trolls still lurk.

“People do not take a young female seriously,” she says. “They see me and they’re like, ‘Oh she’s young and ain’t gonna last long and this and that.’ People think just because of my age and me being a female from South Memphis … they underestimate me a lot.”

There’s a duality to being a younger artist, she says. On one hand, it’s overcoming an archetype; on the other, it’s birthing a mystique. People can’t help but be in awe of a talent who still maintains a spot on the honor roll.

“When I post on social media, or someone posts me, I get a lot of attention ’cause I’m young and what I say is powerful,” she says. “People love it.”

JUS BENTLEY

Artist Jus Bentley’s seventh album, rockS.T.A.R.(2023), is special to her. “S.T.A.R.,” she says, is an acronym for “status, trust, ambition, and respect” — to

her, crucial tenants in the star-making process. For the album, she intentionally chose beats she had never rapped over before, or “beats you would never hear Jus Bentley on.”

“How can I make this mine?” the 29-year-old artist explains. “With how I rap, my flow, my cadence, how can I make these beats into a song that would be mine? So I tapped into not only rapping but songwriting.” The project wasn’t just about making one stellar song, but creating several that flow together as a story.

When Jus Bentley first started out at age 16, she was mostly focused on branding, as opposed to making music she found to be meaningful.

“I’m more conscious about what I’m saying [now]. When you grow or when you get older, you have to evolve,” she

says. “If you listened to Jus Bentley when she was 18 or 19 versus Jus Bentley now, you’re going to see the evolution, the growth in the subject matter. You’re going to be able to grow with me.”

That growth led to opportunities to record with Don Trip (on Bentley’s “Want It” and Trip’s “Rocking”), and to work with notable artists Zed Zilla and Hitkidd (on “BU$Y”). She’s also earned a musical credit on the Starz hit show, P-Valley

“I’m confident in who I am as a person, which allows me to be confident as an artist,” she says. “[Back then] I was a confident artist, but I wasn’t confident in myself. I took that time and said, ‘This is the type of artist I want to be,’ and that has helped me be a better person. When you’re a better person, or try to be, you can’t help but to attract good things.”

For her newer work, Jus Bentley was adamant about recording with women and having her music mixed by women, so rockS.T.A.R. was mixed and mastered by SkilerJoi, with Lildezzyx as the recording engineer. “I wanted it to be a project that focused on women empowering other women,” she says. “If the majority does not look like you, you’re at a disadvantage. The majority of people that are in music, that promote music, that run music, or can get you to that next level are men. We’re already at a disadvantage from day one — the thing is learning how to navigate through those disadvantages.”

“People do not take a young female seriously. … They underestimate me a lot.”

Live music at

july 27th

steppin’ out

We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews

Go Green or Go Home

is Saturday, the nonpro t Focus on Memphis will host its rst Living Green Festival, where attendees can spend the day taking care of their mind, body, and soul, and the planet, too.

july

“ e goal is to promote a green, healthy living style,” says Stephanie Hill, Focus on Memphis’ president. “ at’s a big part of our organization. One of the things that we like to promote is mental wellness as well as physical wellness.”

Founded in 2017, Focus on Memphis serves low-income and impoverished neighborhoods in Memphis, providing services such as food pantries, clothing and school supply giveaways, reading programs, job skill training, and much more. In 2021, the group acquired its 501(c)(3). “We’re focused on helping the city, and the city needs some help right now,” says Hill. “We like to step in and help where we can. We’ve been working behind the scenes doing things in the city, but now we want to kind of step out and do some larger things.”

july

By Abigail Morici

august

august

august

august

One such goal is establishing a transitional housing facility for youth aging out of foster care. “ at’s what we’re working towards,” Hill says, “so we’re just really trying to get recognition, get people knowing more about our organization and who we are. We just thought that this [festival] would be a good way for us to come out and really introduce our organization more so to the city.”

For the day, festival-goers can expect vendors, food trucks, a farmers market, live performances by Hattiloo eatre, yoga classes, giveaways, and educational sessions about nutrition, wellness, gardening, and green living. e health department will also o er blood pressure checks, diabetes screenings, and Covid shots, and the Community Services Agency will present about the programs they o er, like utility assistance and rent and mortgage assistance. ere will also be tons for kids to enjoy (all for free), including an activity center presented by the Memphis Zoo, a kids spa tent presented by Laura’s Kids Spa Parties, in atables, and more.

A full schedule of events can be found at tinyurl.com/yc3p67sh. To learn more about Focus on Memphis, to donate, or to sign up to volunteer with the group, visit focusonmemphis.org.

LIVING GREEN FESTIVAL, MARQUETTE PARK, SATURDAY, JULY 29, 10 A.M.-7 P.M., FREE.

VARIOUS

Panel and Pay-What-You-Want: e Color Purple Hattiloo eatre, ursday, July 27, 6 p.m., $5/suggested minimum donation

You’re invited to participate in an engaging conversation on Black female entrepreneurship, followed by an exclusive preview performance of e Color Purple. Attendance at the panel discussion is mandatory in order to purchase tickets for the show, and tickets will be allocated on a rst-come, rst-served basis. Tickets will be available for purchase starting at 6 p.m. on the day of the event.

e remainder of e Color Purple performances has all been sold out.

Southwest Twin Summer Block Buster Event

Southwest Twin Drive-In, Saturday, July 29, 4-8 p.m., free e rst party at the former South-

west Twin Drive-In is here! Join in for a pop-up, back-to-school summer block party. Experience live music from the Shell on Wheels mobile concert, a mural unveiling, car show, food trucks, bounce houses, and touch a truck. A community expo will also invite neighborhood businesses and partners with hiring and engagement opportunities.

Virginia Ave.

Virginia Ave., Saturday, July 29, 4-9 p.m., free

Memphis’ newest revitalized Downtown Memphis neighborhood is hosting a grand opening party to celebrate the beginning of a new era on the south end of the South Main Arts District.

e celebration will have live performances from the Dough Rollers, with Raneem & Better In Color headlining, plus a DJ set by DJ Mala

Leche and DY3. Free Dipsticles will be available for the rst 50 guests, and free cocktails and beer will be provided. More than 20 local artists and businesses will set up booths. Plus, attendees can participate in a live art mural installation. Entry is free, but tips for artists and bartenders are encouraged.

Time Warp Drive-In - A Real Horror Show: e Dark Visions of Stanley Kubrick Malco Summer Drive-In, Saturday, July 29, 7:45 p.m., $25/car

Time Warp Drive-In celebrates their 10-year anniversary by bringing back the most attended, and requested to return, night in Time Warp history! So join them as they screen three of Stanley Kubrick’s most famous and in uential movies: e Shining, A Clockwork Orange, and 2001: A Space Odyssey

PHOTO: HOPE FILM PHOTO | UNSPLASH

Take care of your mind, body, soul, and the planet.

MUSIC By Alex Greene

A Remembrance

This Saturday, July 29, would have been Jim Stewart’s 93rd birthday had he not passed away last December, and so we linger a while longer at the doorstep of Stax Records to pay tribute to the man who started it all. With the Stax Museum of American Soul Music celebrating its 20th anniversary all this year, and fast on the heels of Stax Music Academy’s triumph at the Lincoln Center, it seems a tting time to honor Stewart, whose unorthodox vision led him to recruit his sister, Estelle Axton, to invest in recording equipment for a storage space he’d rented in Brunswick, Tennessee, back in 1957.

at would become the rst studio for what was then called Satellite Records.

His no-nonsense manner didn’t mark him as a rebrand, but his quiet determination made him a maverick of sorts in West Tennessee, as Stewart “had to stand before the [Brunswick] town council and testify to his own integrity, and promise that drug addicts, thieves, and other lowlifes attracted to the music business would not in ltrate the crossroads and poison the minds of Brunswick’s ne children,” Robert Gordon writes in Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion. As it turned out, defending his business before the Brunswick town council was just the beginning of his trials.

at was foremost in the mind of Deanie Parker when reminiscing about Stewart recently. Parker, who started as a songwriter and singer at Stax before becoming the label’s chief publicist, worked with Stewart during the 1960s and ’70s, and knew him well. Recalling those days of racial segregation, Parker noted that creating a safe space for Black and white artists to work together came at a price.

“I can clearly remember Jim standing out in front of his own damn business under the marquee,” Parker says, “talking to his Black artists, only to have a white policeman come up and tell him, ‘Get your ass out of here, you can’t be talking to these Black people. No! at’s not going to happen out here in front of this building on McLemore Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee!’ I don’t remember if it was Isaac or Otis that Jim was talking to, but it was one

of them. And Jim tried to reason with the police and the o cer said, ‘I tell you what, I’ll just take your ass down and lock you up.’ So he was not liked. He was not respected. I don’t think he was encouraged. I never heard any white person say they appreciated him except for the people he worked with. at’s a lot to swallow. One thing he never got over was, in the end, Jim did not have a social circle. e white friends that he had, I bet you could count them on one hand.”

Nonetheless, he persisted. Indeed, Parker credits Stewart with initiating both the professionalism and the multiculturalism of Stax. “It really was about him,” she says. “Because if he had not been who he was, we would not have had the place, the resources, the encouragement, or even the demands to ‘Do it again, play that again — somebody’s out of tune!’ ‘No, it ain’t right yet!’ Jim would say. at was the discipline he had and demanded of us. Without that, it would never have happened. Stax was like a garden spot. It was a utopia where we could feel safe, all of us working together, playing together, learning about each other together. Being creative and making a decent living … in Memphis, Tennessee!” e struggle to keep that spirit alive, and the forced bankruptcy that caused the label to fold in 1975, haunted Stewart for decades. “ e privileged and powerful in Memphis had something else in mind for Stax Records,” says Parker ominously, and Stewart took the label’s demise personally. When Parker later took up the cause of creating a Stax museum and music academy, Stewart was less than gung-ho. “Jim had not healed,” she says. “He had not gotten over his feelings of disappointment and feeling, I’m sure, that every good deed he did was punished.”

Finally, a er the museum and Stax Music Academy were underway, Parker sensed the moment when Stewart embraced them. “It happened when he saw how that Stax Music Academy was training the next generation of people to learn and respect and preserve the music that he had made possible on that corner. When we were able to get him there to witness the students, he was never the same.”

PHOTO: COURTESY STAX MUSEUM Jim Stewart

Paying tribute to the late founder of Stax Records, Jim Stewart.

AFTER DARK: Live Music Schedule July 27 - August 2

Alexis Jade

Saturday, July 29, 6-9 p.m.

CENTRAL BBQ

Deep Roots

Sunday, July 30, noon-3 p.m.

LOFLIN YARD

Grape.

21+. Free. Friday, July 28, 9 p.m.

EARNESTINE & HAZEL’S

Jesse Daniel Edwards

Sunday, July 30, 7 p.m.

SOUTH MAIN SOUNDS

Karly Driftwood and Callie Cash

Friday, July 28, 7-9 p.m.

SOUTH MAIN SOUNDS

Peabody Rooftop Party:

Southbound

$15. ursday, July 27, 6 p.m.

THE PEABODY HOTEL

Robbie Bletscher

Wednesday, Aug. 2, 5-8 p.m.

WESTY’S

Strooly b2b TEHKAL l

Free. Saturday, July 29, 9 p.m.

CENTRAL STATION

Sunset Jazz

Featuring Deborah Swiney.

Sunday, July 30, 6-8 p.m.

COURT SQUARE PARK

Tim Dugger

Friday, July 28, 6 p.m.

BASS PRO SHOPS AT THE PYRAMID

Van Duren and Vickie

Loveland

Wednesday, Aug. 2, 6-8 p.m.

FANCY’S FISH HOUSE

Wendell Wells & The Big Americans

Free. Saturday, July 29, 9 p.m.

WESTY’S

Kenny Brown

Ambient Music

Ambient music by Belly Full Of Stars, Dinosauria, Panic

Signals, and Paul Maceri.

ursday, July 27, 7:30 p.m.

LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE

Aquanet

Saturday, July 29, 10 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Aughter

21+. Monday, July 31, 7 p.m.

CANVAS

Bailey Bigger

Friday, July 28, 9 p.m.

BAR DKDC

Cowboy Mouth

ursday, July 27, 5-8 p.m.

RAILGARTEN

DrewBeats n friends

Featuring DudeCalledRob, Don Twan, Nodus Defect, and Naturaveler. 18+. Saturday, July 29, 9 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Formerly Known As

Friday, July 28, 10 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Heels, Grifters and Shills, Brightwite

$10. Friday, July 28, 9 p.m.

HI TONE

Rock N Soul Experience

Featuring Negro Terror and G Wiz and the Soular System.

$10. Saturday, July 29, 7 p.m.

LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE

Rodell McCord Band

Saturday, July 29, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Stolen Faces

Friday, July 28, 10 p.m.

B-SIDE

The Pop Ritual, Spectral Body, The Borderlander

ursday, July 27, 9 p.m.

BAR DKDC

Together We Can!

Benefit Concert

A great time for a great cause!

Friday, July 28, 7 p.m.

EVERGREEN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Twin Heart Trap, Ask Dylan

Saturday, July 29, 6-9 p.m.

B-SIDE

Vice Night

Performances by AR Music, Ben Murray, Delyrius, and K3V. 21+. $10.

Friday, July 28, 9 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Beethoven Club

Saturday, July 29, 2-3 p.m.

RANDOLPH LIBRARY

Grand Theft Audio

$10. Friday, July 28, 8 p.m.

NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM

Medium Walter

Sunday, July 30, 6-9 p.m.

HUEY’S SOUTHWIND

Memphis Jazz

Workshop

Sunday, July 30, 2-5 p.m.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

Sister Lucille

$10. Saturday, July 29, 8 p.m.

NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM

The Pretty Boys

Sunday, July 30, 6-9 p.m.

HUEY’S SOUTHWIND

The Settlers

Sunday, July 30, 3-6 p.m.

HUEY’S POPLAR

JussFLO

Album listening event. ursday, July 27, 6-8 p.m.

MEMPHIS LISTENING LAB

Kenny Brown Band

Wednesday, Aug. 2, 5:30 p.m.

MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART

Kevin & Bethany Paige

Saturday, July 29, 2 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

#LetsGetLOUD

A beat battle/producer showcase. Saturday, July 29, 6 p.m.

GROWLERS

Louise Page + Rachel

Maxann

Saturday, July 29, 9 p.m.

BAR DKDC

Marcella & Her Lovers

Saturday, July 29, 8-10 p.m.

RAILGARTEN

Memphis Music

Listening Party

Al Kapone will talk about his career through ve of his songs.

Amber McCain Band

Friday, July 28, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Jelly Roll

With Struggle Jennings, Caitlynne Curtis, and Josh Adams Meyers. Friday, July 28, 7 p.m.

BANKPLUS AMPHITHEATER

Sweet Megg

Saturday, July 29, 7 p.m.

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

Taylor Hunnicutt

Friday, July 28, 7 p.m.

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

Happy Hour in the Grove

With music by Josh relkeld.

Friday, July 28, 5-8 p.m.

GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS

CENTER

Richard Wilson

Friday, July 28, 12:30 p.m.;

Sunday, July 30, 12:30 p.m.

JACKIE MAE’S PLACE

Summer Concert Series - Rustenhaven

ursday, July 27, 7 p.m.

Monday, July 31, 7-9 p.m.

BENJAMIN L. HOOKS CENTRAL LIBRARY

COLLIERVILLE TOWN SQUARE

PHOTO: ADAM SMITH

CALENDAR of EVENTS: July 27 -

August 2

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

Artist Talks: Khara Woods + Tangela Mathis

Current exhibiting artists Khara Woods and Tangela Mathis will discuss their work, processes, and influences. Saturday, July 29, 2-4 p.m.

CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE

Cool Summer ’82

Shop with Memphis artist and makers alike. Enjoy music from WYXR DJs, barbecue, and craft beers. Saturday, July 29, noon-6 p.m.

HIGH COTTON BREWING CO.

Craft Supply Swap Summer ’23

A second-hand craft supply extravaganza. All items are free. $10. Saturday, July 29, 11 a.m.

FIVE IN ONE SOCIAL CLUB

Drop-In Rich Soil at the Garden

Mural Workshop

Enjoy a drop-in informative session about “Rich Soil.” Participants will contribute to a collective mural using natural, plant-based pigments. Thursday, July 27, 5-8 p.m.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

“lines apart” Opening Reception

Sean Winfrey showcases his deeply affecting and introspective collection of artwork which explores themes of grief and mental illness. Saturday, July 29, 5 p.m.

BENJAMIN L. HOOKS CENTRAL LIBRARY

Whet Thursday

Enjoy games, food trucks, metalsmithing demos, and more. Free. Thursday, July 27, 7 p.m.

METAL MUSEUM

BOOK EVENTS

Bookhouse Book Club

Discuss The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West and then enjoy a screening of The Day of the Locust (1975). Sunday, July 30, 5 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Meet the Author: Brooks Lamb

Brooks Lamb celebrates the release of his new book Love for the Land: Lessons From Farmers Who Persist in Place. Saturday, July 29, 2 p.m.

NOVEL

Meet the Author: Erin A. Craig

NYT-bestselling author Erin A. Craig celebrates the release of Craig’s new YA novel House of Roots and Ruin. Friday, July 28, 6 p.m.

NOVEL

Meet the Author: George Flinn

George Flinn celebrates the book Memphis Memories: Memphis Stories Told by Real Memphians

Volume 2. Wednesday, Aug. 2, 6 p.m. NOVEL

COMEDY

The Rated R Comedy Show 28

An adult stand-up comedy show infused with live music. $20-$30. Saturday, July 29, 7-9 p.m.

THE QUEEN’S PALACE EVENT & DECOR

Vanessa Fraction

Fraction has performed on Def Comedy Jam, Laff Mobs Laff Tracks, and more. $20-$40. Thursday, July 27-July 30.

CHUCKLES COMEDY HOUSE

FILM

Dinner & A Movie: Ratatouille

Experience this masterpiece as you enjoy a special seven-course vegetarian meal. $35/dinner and movie, $15/kids dinner and movie, free/ movie. Thursday, July 27, 6 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Lake & Lodge Movies by MoonlightJaws

View the 1975 thriller Jaws and enjoy experience stations. $15. Friday, July 28, 7-10 p.m.

LICHTERMAN NATURE CENTER

Time Warp Drive-In - A Real Horror

Show: The Dark Visions of Stanley Kubrick

It’s time to honor the legendary works of a cinema master, Stanley Kubrick. Saturday, July 29, 7:45 p.m.

MALCO SUMMER 4 DRIVE-IN

FOOD AND DRINK

The Perfect Bite: Focus on Flavor Learn how to achieve “the perfect bite” as Susan Belsinger demonstrates her unique approach to flavor. $5. Thursday, July 27, 6:30-8 p.m.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

PERFORMING

ARTS

Big Top Tease: Have a Nice TRIP

There will be aerial acts, light shows, fire dancers, drag performances and more! $10-$30. Saturday, July 29, 9 p.m.

DRU’S PLACE

Precious Gems

A variety show. $10. Saturday, July 29, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

Spillit Center Stage: Little Did I Know

Join Just City and Spillit for an evening of stories. Proceeds will benefit Just City. Friday, July 28, 6 p.m.

VOLUNTEER MEMPHIS

SPECIAL EVENTS

sons from Step and Skate Movement, then cruise to DJ Brother John. Thursday, July 27, 6-9 p.m.

RIVER GARDEN

Vibes from the Vines

Using a device that channels the energy of plants into music, Matt Petty will guide participants through an interactive sound journey. $20. Monday, July 31, 7-8:30 p.m.

THE BROOM CLOSET

SPORTS

Memphis Redbirds vs. Jacksonville

Jumbo Shrimp

Tuesday, Aug. 1, 7:05 p.m.; Wednesday, Aug. 2, 7:05 p.m.

AUTOZONE PARK

Wrestling Night at AutoZone Park

The Memphis Redbirds tag-team with Memphis Wrestling to bring you live matches at the baseball game! Friday, July 28, 5-8 p.m.

Sunset Skate

Perfect your skate dance moves with free les-

The New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550

AUTOZONE PARK

Crossword

Edited by Will Shortz No. 0102

ABELFIGABROAD

GENEONEPRONTO HATTRICKPISCES

ANIALIKEGEE

SERUMTORCHSONG TREMBLEVATVIA ALAEINLENS

TIMESIGNATURE CANISNOPEN ABASINTEACHER BUCKTEETHSHOVE TOOSAREEBOD EPILOGPASSABLE SAVAGEASPLIVE PRESETSHYITEM

PUZZLE BY JACOB STULBERG

PHOTO: COURTESY KHARA WOODS Khara Woods’ Sawtooth Star I on display at Crosstown Arts

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You are about to read a thunderbolt of sublime prophecies. It’s guaranteed to nurture the genius in your soul’s underground cave. Are you ready? 1. Your higher self will prod you to compose a bold prayer in which you ask for stuff you thought you weren’t supposed to ask for. 2. Your higher self will know what to do to enhance your love life by at least 20 percent, possibly more. 3. Your higher self will give you extra access to creativity and imaginative powers, enabling you to make two practical improvements in your life.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In 1991, John Kilcullen began publishing books with “for Dummies” in the title: for example, Sex for Dummies, Time Management for Dummies, Personal Finance for Dummies, and my favorite, Stress Management for Dummies. There are now over 300 books in this series. They aren’t truly for stupid people, of course. They’re designed to be robust introductions to interesting and useful subjects. I invite you to emulate Kilcullen’s mindset, Taurus. Be innocent, curious, and eager to learn. Adopt a beginner’s mind that’s receptive to being educated and influenced. (If you want to know more, go here: tinyurl.com/ TruthForDummies)

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “I could be converted to a religion of grass,” says Indigenous author Louise Erdrich in her book Heart of the Land. “Sink deep roots. Conserve water. Respect and nourish your neighbors. Such are the tenets. As for practice — grow lush in order to be devoured or caressed, stiffen in sweet elegance, invent startling seeds. Connect underground. Provide. Provide. Be lovely and do no harm.” I advocate a similar approach to life for you Geminis in the coming weeks. Be earthy, sensual, and lush. (PS: Erdrich is a Gemini.)

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I hereby appoint myself as your temporary social director. My first action is to let you know that from an astrological perspective, the next nine months will be an excellent time to expand and deepen your network of connections and your web of allies. I invite you to cultivate a vigorous grapevine that keeps you up-to-date about the latest trends affecting your work and play. Refine your gossip skills. Be friendlier than you’ve ever been. Are you the best ally and collaborator you could possibly be? If not, make that one of your assignments.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): For many of us, a disposal company regularly comes to our homes to haul away the garbage we have generated. Wouldn’t it be great if there was also a reliable service that purged our minds and hearts of the psychic gunk that naturally accumulates? Psychotherapists provide this blessing for

some of us, and I know people who derive similar benefits from spiritual rituals. Getting drunk or intoxicated may work, too, although those states often generate their own dreck. With these thoughts in mind, Virgo, meditate on how you might cleanse your soul with a steady, ennobling practice. Now is an excellent time to establish or deepen this tradition.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I’m wondering if there is a beloved person to whom you could say these words by Rumi: “You are the sky my spirit circles in, the love inside love, the resurrection-place.” If you have no such an ally, Libra, the coming months will be a favorable time to attract them into your life. If there is such a companion, I hope you will share Rumi’s lyrics with them, then go further. Say the words Leonard Cohen spoke: “When I’m with you, I want to be the kind of hero I wanted to be when I was 7 years old.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Your theme for the coming weeks is “pleasurable gooseflesh.” I expect and hope you’ll experience it in abundance. You need it and deserve it! Editor Corrie Evanoff describes “pleasurable gooseflesh” as “the primal response we experience when something suddenly violates our expectations in a good way.” It can also be called “frisson” — a French word meaning “a sudden feeling or sensation of excitement, emotion, or thrill.” One way this joy may occur is when we listen to a playlist of songs sequenced in unpredictable ways — say Mozart followed by Johnny Cash, then Édith Piaf, Led Zeppelin, Blondie, Queen, Luciano Pavarotti, and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Here’s your homework: Imagine three ways you can stimulate pleasurable gooseflesh and frisson, then go out and make them happen.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Fire rests by changing,” wrote ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus. In accordance with astrological omens, I ask you to meditate on that riddle. Here are some preliminary thoughts: The flames rising from a burning substance are always moving, always active, never the same shape. Yet they comprise the same fire. As long as they keep shifting and dancing, they are alive and vital. If they stop changing, they die out and disappear. The fire needs to keep changing to thrive! Dear Sagittarius, here’s your assignment: Be like the fire; rest by changing.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): There’s ample scientific evidence that smelling cucumbers can diminish feelings of claustrophobia. For example, some people become anxious when they are crammed inside a narrow metal tube to get an MRI. But numerous imaging facilities have reduced that discomfort with the help of cucumber oil applied to cotton pads and

LEO (July 23Aug. 22): There are two kinds of holidays: those created by humans and those arising from the relationship between the sun and Earth. In the former category are various independence days: July 4th in the U.S., July 1st in Canada, July 14th in France, and June 2nd in Italy. Japan observes Foundation Day on February 11th. Among the second kind of holiday is Lammas on August 1st, a pagan festival that in the Northern Hemisphere marks the halfway point between the summer solstice and autumn equinox. In preindustrial cultures, Lammas celebrated the grain harvest and featured outpourings of gratitude for the crops that provide essential food. Modern revelers give thanks for not only the grain, but all the nourishing bounties provided by the sun’s and Earth’s collaborations. I believe you Leos are smart to make Lammas one of your main holidays. What’s ready to be harvested in your world? What are your prime sources of gratitude?

brought into proximity to patients’ noses. I would love it if there were also natural ways to help you break free of any and all claustrophobic situations, Capricorn. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to hone and practice the arts of liberation.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “Silent gratitude isn’t very much use to anyone,” said Aquarian author Gertrude B. Stein. She was often quirky and even downright weird, but as you can see, she also had a heartful attitude about her alliances. Stein delivered another pithy quote that revealed her tender approach to relationships. She said that love requires a skillful audacity about sharing one’s inner world. I hope you will put these two gems of advice at the center of your attention, Aquarius. You are ready for a strong, sustained dose of deeply expressive interpersonal action.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): According to the International Center for Academic Integrity, 95 percent of high school students acknowledge they have participated in academic cheating. We can conclude that just one of 20 students have never cheated — a percentage that probably matches how many non-cheaters there are in every area of life. I mention this because I believe it’s a favorable time to atone for any deceptions you have engaged in, whether in school or elsewhere. I’m not necessarily urging you to confess, but I encourage you to make amends and corrections to the extent you can. Also: Have a long talk with yourself about what you can learn from your past cons and swindles.

Photo courtesy Steve Roberts

FOOD By Michael Donahue

In the Spotlight

Seasonal and regional cuisine are the stars at Limelight.

Seasonal and regional is in the spotlight at Limelight, thanks to the restaurant’s executive chef DJ Pitts.

“We’re just doing something that is seasonal, regional, prepared well, seasoned well,” says Pitts, 52.

With his background in French, Italian, and Mediterranean cooking, Pitts is also “pulling in di erent techniques, in uences.”

“We have a corn soup on the menu right now. Very simply made. It’s corn purée. We serve that with fermented corn and a little bit of garlic oil. A very simple and straightforward example of what we do with a seasonal ingredient at the height of its freshness.”

Also on his summer menu is a steamed littleneck clams dish. “ is dates back to where I come from on the East Coast.

his brother while his mother, who was a nurse, was at work.

He continued to cook a er he moved to Memphis — where his father is from — to major in psychology at University of Memphis. Pitts cooked at functions for his fraternity, Delta Chi. Fried chicken was his specialty — thanks to his other grandmother, who was from Memphis. She cooked “more Southern staples: fried chicken, greens, spaghetti.”

Pitts changed his career path a er his brother died. “I wanted to nd something that not only could I make a career out of, but also felt passionately about.”

He enrolled at New York City’s Institute of Culinary Education. “When I got there I started to excel at it pretty quickly. And that pretty much reinforced that I made the right decision.”

Pitts went on to work in New York for 10 years. Chef Michael Romano at Union Square Cafe was one of his biggest in uences.

In 2005, Pitts opened his own restaurant, 626 Douglas, in Wichita, Kansas, where he served “new American regional farm-to-table” cuisine.

He worked for nine years in Nashville before returning to Memphis, and worked at Catherine & Mary’s and Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen.

“We’re doing a steamed clams with a mojo verde [sauce]. It’s very bright, punchy. e basis of it is cilantro, jalapeño, and garlic. And it’s got vinegar in there that kind of gives it that punch. I think that, for me, is a personal kind of seasonal item from growing up in Connecticut and having clams in the summertime.”

His grandmother, who was from Russia, was a cooking in uence when Pitts was growing up in Waterbury, Connecticut. “She was always cooking three meals a day.”

Watching her cook was “something that held some fascination for me at that point in my life.”

His rst “hands-on thing” was making pierogi when he was 10.

“Not only did we have a garden, but my grandmother would go foraging for mushrooms. And, being on the coast, I had the opportunity to go clamming. All these experiences led me to have an interest in a culinary career.”

Pitts o en cooked for himself and

In January, Pitts became executive chef at the locally-owned Limelight, where he created the spring and summer menus. “ ey have a seasonal tree in the middle of the dining room. And when that tree changes, that menu changes. Right now, I think the theme of it is an olive tree.”

Pitts loves cooking seasonally, especially in the summertime. “I think this menu is very re ective of that. We have this crostini with spicy eggplant with fresh minced green onion over the top and some saba. Our market salad changes. Right now, it’s heirloom tomato with burrata cheese, compressed celery, and some nice bottarga for a little savory note.

“I try to bring in more things and feature di erent things. We do have a small footprint, so our menu has to be tighter and more well thought out.”

Pitts takes advantage of the little herb garden in front of Limelight. When they conceptualized the Germantown restaurant, the owners wanted Limelight to have “that farmhouse feel. It’s easy to take that vibe and make it re ective of the menu.” Limelight is at 7724 Poplar Pike.

PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE DJ Pitts

Rollin’ into Riches

GIVEAWAY

ARTS By Abigail Morici

City of Dreams

Although their parents didn’t exactly dream they would one day become artists, andi Cai, Lili Nacht, Neena Wang, and Yidan Zeng did just that. “Our parents all chose to come here to achieve some dream that they had, the American dream,” says Wang, “and that transformed into something di erent for each of our parents. And then they also had dreams for us. And then we took those dreams and made them into our own.”

dance — a turnout they did not expect. In the weeks following, they hosted potlucks with other Asian-American creatives in Memphis, with students from the Memphis Chinese Language School, and with their own families.

With each potluck, the collective says they found themselves in awe of the support they garnered. e potlucks, Wang says, have also been instrumental in a sense of generational healing.

Over 800 winners will take home their share of up to $1,200,000 in PENN Slot Play and Prizes, including TWO 2023 Audi A5 Luxury Sedans!

Earn 2x entries every Tuesday and Saturday.

GRAND PRIZE DRAWINGS:

JULY 29 • AUGUST 26 • SEPTEMBER 30

32 winners per drawing day!

40 tier points

SATURDAYS NOW - SEPTEMBER 30 7PM – 10PM = 1 drawing entry.

e four have known one another since childhood, having grown up together in the same circles within the Chinese-American community in Memphis. Over the years, though, as so o en happens with childhood friends embracing the next stages of their lives, they lost contact. By 2022, Cai was splitting their time between Chicago and Memphis, while Nacht, Wang, and Zeng resided in Berlin, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, respectively.

ey hadn’t seen each other in years, but that summer, Nacht reached out via email to see if they would be interested in Zooming.

What followed were months of Zoom calls, wherein the four formed the MengCheng Collective — the name nding its origin in the Chinese phonetic name for Memphis, which also happens to translate to “City of Dreams.”

And, they decided, the Crosstown Arts residency this summer was the perfect opportunity for an in-person reunion. From the outset, the four knew that their residency would not be about sequestering themselves away to create the art that would be featured in their capstone exhibition. Instead, they would engage the community that they grew up around. “ e intention [was to create] an archive that is not just static, but can also be interacted with, participated in,” says Zeng. “It felt like a lot of our histories in the Mid-South were very invisible or suppressed, so how can we create a way for people to see their histories be displayed in a very public way, in an institution, and also for that to be a moment of celebration and collective witnessing?”

To accomplish this, the group hosted weekly potlucks throughout the duration of their residency, harkening back to their childhood days of attending potlucks at Chinese-American households throughout Memphis. at rst potluck was open to the public and had 100 or so in atten-

rough their potlucks and artistic practices during their residency, Cai says, “Our community came together in a way that hasn’t happened before. I think that it’s just really important for us to be in the same room a rming one another. I think that is the core of everything that we’re doing. Healing is big on all levels — within ourselves, within our community, with our presence in the city, between the generations, all of it.

“Art is not just a tool for communicat-

ing with people in the present, but it’s a tool for communicating with people in the past and the future. As a time traveling tool, I think it can be really powerful to create the futures that we want to see.”

And the future the collective wants to see highlights diversity. “We need more representation, rst of all,” Nacht says, “as well as a di erent way of interacting with each other to promote this sort of care for each other in a community that comes from this place of understanding.”

“ e healing that we’ve experienced and that we’ve seen and that our parents and other people have shared with us [during this residency],” Wang adds, “I really wish that for other communities in Memphis that have experienced intergenerational trauma. … Yeah, if we could just be an example of that.”

“Kai Pa Ti,” the collective’s capstone exhibition, will be on display at Crosstown Arts through Saturday, July 29, 3-7 p.m., or by appointment. Appointments can be made by emailing mengcheng.tn@gmail.com. Follow the group on Instagram (@mengcheng.tn).

Must be 21 or older. Gambling Problem? Call 1-888-777-9696.

Must be 21 or older. Gambling Problem? Call 1-888-777-9696.

HollywoodCasinoTunica.com 1stJackpot.com

PHOTO: JIN YANG (l to r) Lili Nacht, Neena Wang, Yidan Zeng, and andi Cai

e MengCheng Collective envisions a new dream for the next generation.

Barbenheimer

Barbie and Oppenheimer deliver the greatest double feature in movie history.

It began as an internet joke. Barbie and Oppenheimer were both scheduled to open on July 21st. Wouldn’t it be weird to watch both of them back-to-back?

Counter-programming is a long tradition among lm distributors. Whenever there’s a big “boy” movie, like e Dark Knight, someone with a “girl” movie, like Mamma Mia!, will schedule it for release the same weekend. e theory behind “Dark Mamma” (which really happened in 2008) is that maybe girlfriends and grandmas who are not into Batman can be scraped o of a family outing by the promise of something they would actually like.

By that logic, the hot pink good cheer of Barbie is the perfect foil for the dark, brooding Oppenheimer. No one expected the audience reaction to be “Let’s do both!” Maybe that’s because the studio execs’ conception of who their audiences are and what they

want is deeply awed and out-of-date.

On the surface, the two lms couldn’t be more di erent. But there are a lot of parallels. Both Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig are writer/directors with exceptional track records. Both got essentially free rein to do what they wanted. In Nolan’s case, it was because Universal wanted to lure him away from Warner Bros. In Gerwig’s case, the lm was greenlit just before the pandemic and Warner Bros.’ takeover by Discovery. In the chaos, executives focused on rescuing e Flash, and no one cared enough about “the girl movie” to interfere with Gerwig’s vision.

Both lms are, relatively speaking, mid-budget. Nolan kept the ship tight at $100 million; Gerwig ended up spending $145 million. For comparison, Marvel lms can’t even roll camera for less than $200 million, and Warner Bros. will lose $200 million on e Flash alone. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny cost an eye-

watering $295 million a er Covid delays.

More unexpected parallels emerge on screen. Both main characters face a reckoning for what they brought into the world. In J. Robert Oppenheimer’s case, it’s the atomic bomb. In Barbie’s case, it’s unrealistic expectations of female perfection.

In her Memphis Flyer review of Barbie, Kailynn Johnson writes, “ e idea of a doll visiting the real world and learning to adjust to a life that’s not so fantastic was always in the cards for Barbie — the 2000 movie Life-Size starring Tyra Banks walked so Gerwig could run with Barbie As she is catcalled by construction workers in Venice Beach, Barbie realizes misogyny did not end with Supreme Court Barbie. She su ers an existential crisis when she realizes that her very brand is determined by an all-male team led by Mr. Mattel (Will Ferrell). … Gerwig uses Barbie to explore the nuances of femi-

nism, but the lm never feels too heavy or takes itself too seriously. She carefully sandwiches some of the deeper moments with satire. It helps that Mattel isn’t afraid to laugh at itself.”

Barbie may have bene tted from low expectations from those who were unfamiliar with Gerwig’s near-perfect lmography, but expectations couldn’t have been higher for Nolan, the inheritor of Stanley Kubrick’s “Very Serious Filmmaker” mantle. Big, complex, and messy, Oppenheimer doesn’t lack for ambition. I wrote in my review, “ e Trinity bomb test, which comes about two hours into this three-hour epic, is a near-silent tour de force of re and portent. e scientists’ queasy victory party, held in a cramped

FILM By Chris McCoy

Why pick Barbie or Oppenheimer when you can do both?

FILM By Chris McCoy

Los Alamos gymnasium, may be the best single scene Nolan has ever done. … If only the whole movie were that great.”

The weekend box office results exceeded everyone’s expectations. Barbie raked in $162 million domestically — the biggest opening haul of the year, and the biggest ever by a female director. Oppenheimer did $82 million, a stunning result for a talky three-hour movie about nuclear physics. Overall, it was the fourth-largest grossing weekend in film history.

Viewers who rolled their own Barbenheimer double feature on some internet dare to experience the most intense psychic whiplash possible found two well-made movies, each with their own voice and something to say. Instead of competition, these two films

have lifted each other up and inspired real conversation. The tribal question of “which one is better?” has, so far, been secondary. (It’s Barbie, FWIW.)

In Hollywood, unexpected success is more upsetting than unexpected failure. The public’s embrace of original, creative, filmmaker-driven pictures over legacy franchises systematically drained of originality by cowardly executives is now undeniable. As the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes grind on, and the studios plot to break the creatives’ will, audiences have sent a clear message about who is necessary and who is expendable.

Barbenheimer (Barbie + Oppenheimer) Now playing Multiple locations

901-575-9400

classifieds@memphisflyer.com

LEGAL NOTICES

2005 NISSAN ALTIMA

VIN

THE LAST WORD By

Scandal Shmandal

We in America don’t make presidential crises like we used to.

Who remembers Gary Hart? If you’ve had as many as 50 birthdays, you almost certainly remember the former Colorado senator and two-time candidate for the United States presidency. If you remember Hart’s name, you likely remember another: Donna Rice. You see, Gary Hart had a girlfriend. And (sit down for this) Gary Hart was married at the time

I’ll share a brief slice of American-scandal history for those of you who may not remember Hart and friend. Only 47 years old in 1984, Hart sought the Democratic nomination in an election that would send Ronald Reagan back to the White House for a second term. Hart seemed Kennedy-esque: lots of dark hair, a solid jawline, sparkling pearly whites. It wasn’t until the next presidential campaign, though, that we learned just how Kennedy-esque Gary Hart truly was.

In the spring of 1987, thanks to journalists doing what we do, America learned that Hart had carried on an extramarital a air with Rice, a woman he claimed was nothing more than a “campaign aide.” But when a photo of the two in each others’ arms appeared on the cover of the National Enquirer, that was the end of the next Kennedy and any hopes he had of occupying the Oval O ce.

I’ve thought of Gary Hart o en the last few years, every time the name Donald Trump makes news. It’s been 36 years and nine presidential elections since that tabloid cover ruined Hart’s political rise. But what the hell has happened to presidential scandal? Gary Hart was nationally ridiculed for an extramarital a air and Donald Trump has already served a term as U.S. president

e notion of Trump being excluded from a campaign for the highest o ce in the land over a mistress seems as laughably silly as a desert coyote coming back to life a er repeatedly blowing himself up as he hunts a roadrunner. But that’s the America — that’s the o ce of U.S. president — we have before us, here in 2023.

How does Donna Rice on your candidate’s resume compare with being twice impeached in your rst try at the presidency? How does shagging someone who doesn’t wear a wedding ring you placed on her nger compare with federal charges of absconding with enough classi ed documents to stu your bathroom? How does ruining your marriage compare with being the cheerleader for an insurrection mob during your last month as president?

It’s astounding. Rewind to those innocent, clearly naïve days of 1987, and candidate Trump would have been ruined by an association with the likes of Stormy Daniels … his “Donna Rice.” Here in 2023? at association is merely one of three likely indictments candidate Trump will face as he leads (is that the right word?) the Republican party into the election year of 2024.

How does ruining your marriage compare with cheerleading an insurrection mob?

Jimmy Carter — as decent a man as has ever occupied the White House, if not a great president — essentially turned over the presidency in a 1979 speech when he dared mention an American “crisis of con dence.” Short on con dence? Swagger? Not us hearty Yanks. Let me ask you: What kind of con dence in America do supporters of Donald Trump show when they ignore one scandal a er another, each larger in impact than the one before? is is the best we can do? Two impeachments and three indictments. Not to mention, ahem, three wives. (Psst … Donald Trump had a girlfriend, too.)

I was 18 in 1987, and plenty naïve. Even at that age, I wondered if a man might actually be able to lead even if he failed as a husband. My foundational thought was that a man could not lead if he didn’t care fully for the o ce of president and the country that o ce represented. He might make mistakes (as Carter did) and he might be short on quali cations (as Reagan was), but an American president would never make us feel scandalous as a country. at was my innocent thinking at its worst. I know Gary Hart would appreciate.

Frank Murtaugh is the managing editor of Memphis magazine. He writes the columns “From My Seat” and “Tiger Blue” for the Flyer

PHOTO: LAURENCE AGRON | DREAMSTIME.COM Gary Hart

Frank Murtaugh