Memphis Flyer 8/24/2023

SHARA CLARK

Editor

SAMUEL X. CICCI

Managing Editor

JACKSON BAKER, BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN

Senior Editors

TOBY SELLS

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ALEX GREENE

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MICHAEL DONAHUE, JON W. SPARKS

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GENE GARD, EMILY GUENTHER, COCO JUNE, FRANK MURTAUGH

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OUR 1800TH ISSUE 08.24.23

Editor’s note: This week’s editorial is a special dedication to the memory of fellow longtime journalist Jennifer Biggs, written by Michael Donahue.

Jennifer Biggs and I used to say we were going to be the first two people to never die. It had never happened before in history. But who was to say — besides everybody — that it couldn’t happen?

Jennifer, the food editor for The Daily Memphian, died August 16th. Cancer. It doesn’t seem like it was time for her to go. Not yet. She was always there for everybody who loved her. Even those who only knew her from her writing and appearances on TV and radio.

We met when we both worked at The Commercial Appeal. We shared the same sense of humor. We worked on stories together a few times. We’d tag-team covering stories where we’d set out early and eat at six or seven places from Memphis to Mumford. When we weren’t working, we’d go out to eat. Sunday night dinners at Sakura on Poplar Avenue — usually with John and Missy Stivers. Or to fancy places with Peggy Burch. Sometimes with Jennifer’s daughter, Megan Brooks Biggs, and grandchildren, Jack and Chloe. Often it was just me and Jennifer at The Pancake Shop.

It was always fun to make Jennifer laugh. Once, I told CA photographer Dave Darnell I was the “King of the Two-Wheeler” and had him stand on one and lean back, announcing I could pull anything on a two-wheeler. He stood on it, leaned back, and we both fell down. My head clanged on a metal wastebasket. Dave and I immediately jumped up to show we were tough and this didn’t hurt us at all. Even though it did. Jennifer shrieked.

When I moved to the Memphis Flyer and Jennifer was still at the CA, she said she hated the idea of us competing with each other. But we both loved scoops. We wanted to be the first to announce some restaurant opening or food news. But it was understood between us that it was our job. We tried to get the story first for our own newspaper. I will admit it felt so good to scoop her.

Jennifer became the acclaimed food editor for The Daily Memphian. I watched her become an even bigger celebrity. She was in the top three Best Columnist category in the Flyer’s Best of Memphis. Her photo was on the side of MATA buses.

We never talked about our newspaper stories much. We’d get together and talk about other things. People usually. I recently realized I don’t know her favorite book, favorite song, favorite band, or favorite movie. We never talked about that kind of thing. We just talked, texted, and laughed about whatever.

We had a poster in the features department at the CA. It read “WWJD.” It stood for “What Would Jennifer Do.” She had all the answers. And she usually was right. She was the person I first asked what “AI” stood for. She calmly explained. “Artificial Intelligence.”

Jennifer and I ran into each other in New Orleans many years ago. She and her then-husband, Bob Brooks, and Blakney Gower and I had dinner at Antoine’s, my favorite New Orleans restaurant. Many Beefeater gin martinis on my end. Lobster Thermidor, probably, for dinner. After we ate, our server took us on a tour. I saw a piano in a ballroom and, of course, sat down and played. Jennifer and Bob danced. It was just one of those magical nights.

And now she’s gone. No more new adventures with her to turn into memories. But I keep seeing Jennifer at different places — reminders. Like a plastic bag jammed full of metal forks she gave me a few years ago when I had a family Easter dinner at my home. Jennifer always took care of whatever you happened to need. All you had to do was ask.

I went by to visit Jennifer the day she died. When I saw her, I knew that was the last time I’d see her alive. She was in bed. Her head was turned to one side. I walked up and said, “Jennifer, it’s Michael. Let’s go eat at Sakura.” She opened her eyes wider. I’m not sure she was able to physically smile, but I think she was smiling just the same. I said, “I love you, Jennifer.” And then I left. This was family time. I didn’t want to be in the way.

NEWS & OPINION

THE FLY-BY - 4 POLITICS - 6

COVER STORY

I was charging my phone the next morning when the texts and phone calls about her death began. That morning, I had to write a story on deadline — a selfimposed deadline. It was about an artist, Alexandra Baker. I wanted to post it before the opening of her art show the next night. I wrote even though I was very sad. It’s never an easy thing to do.

“ARM STRENGTH”

BY FRANK MURTAUGH - 8 FINANCE - 11

AT LARGE - 12

WE RECOMMEND - 13

MUSIC - 14

AFTER DARK - 15

CALENDAR - 16

NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 16

ASTROLOGY - 17

METAPHYSICAL CONNECTION - 18

FOOD - 19

FILM - 20

CLASSIFIEDS - 22

LAST WORD - 23

I came upon a quote in my notes. It suddenly took on more meaning. Alexandra said, “I lost some friends along the way in life. And family members. But friends hurt more because they’re so young. And I felt life was kind of softened by them.”

Jennifer softened my life, as well as the lives of countless others.

And I’ve now learned Jennifer was right — as usual — when she said she was never going to die. She won’t. My memories of her will continue to live as long as I do.

Michael Donahue

mdonahue@memphisflyer.com

THE fly-by

{CITY REPORTER

By Kailynn Johnson

Memphis on the internet.

JENNIFER

Memphians mourned the passing of food writer Jennifer Biggs last week. Friends, family, and colleagues remembered her in photos, stories, and videos. ey wrote of her love of people, food, and laughter, all of which were evident in her many columns in e Commercial Appeal and e Daily Memphian

TOUGH TUOHY TIME

Questions, Answers + Attitude

Edited by Toby Sells

Ending Homelessness

Improvements have been made here but the solution will take collaboration.

Memphis is improving in some of its “system performances” as a community when it comes to homelessness, said Julie Meiman, continuum of care planning director for the Community Alliance for the Homeless (CAFTH).

“ is is everyone on Memphis Twitter today sharing their personal bad experiences/stories about Leigh Anne Tuohy,” Melvin Purdy tweeted last week. Indeed, the MEMernet buzzed with such stories in the wake of a Memphis lawsuit led by Michael Oher. e football star claims e Blind Side family tricked him into a conservatorship — rather than adopting him — to pro t from his name, likeness, and image.

“As a Memphis bartender who has had to serve the Tuohys before: I hope they are treated by the media and/or courts in the coming weeks/months with *exactly* the same amount of dignity, respect, and kindness that they show service industry workers when they go out,” tweeted @campari_queen_.

CHAIR?

Memphian

Titus James o ered a “civil rights chair” for sale on Facebook Marketplace last week for $12,695. Nope. No more information.

Meiman noted that locally there have been “system-wide” improvements, with lower rates of returns to homelessness, and increased rates of people exiting homelessness with income. ere has also been an increase in dedicated funding streams from federal, state, and local sources for homelessness.

Ashley Cash, director of housing and community development for the city of Memphis, said they have made “a lot of e orts” around reducing homelessness by partnering with other agencies and partners.

While there have been notable strides made, homelessness remains a local and national problem.

Meiman said Memphis still has a need for emergency shelter that is both “low-barrier and free.”

“Even when we can permanently house people, sometimes our resources still fall short, when it comes to providing them with things in order to stay housed, such as access to adequate healthcare,” said Meiman.

Cash added that while, most of the time, shelters are full, there are also people who are categorized as “housed” but still live in poor conditions.

“We all know that families are experiencing homelessness right now in Memphis, and they need support across the spectrum from prevention to diversion, to emergency shelter, to permanent housing,” said Meiman.

Collaboration was the theme for CAFTH’s second annual Symposium on Ending Homelessness, which concluded that “no one person or nonpro t agency or leader” alone can reduce homelessness or end homelessness altogether.

During the symposium, Meiman mentioned the e orts being made in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a city that is close to becoming the rst in the nation to end homelessness, according to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.

“Milwaukee’s recent progress is a testament to what can be accomplished when communities come together to address homelessness,” said a report from the organization.

On a national level, Meiman said that homelessness has “incrementally increased” over the past six years.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness’ 2023 State of Homelessness report, “homelessness has been on the rise since 2017, experiencing an overall increase of 6 percent.”

e same report said that in Memphis and Shelby County, there were approximately 1,055 people homeless on a given night in 2022.

CAFTH believes the solution to Memphis’ homelessness problem does not lie within one entity or organization, but rather the result of “cross-sector collaboration.”

Meiman explained the Continuum of Care (CoC) in Milwaukee partnered with the United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County and pulled in case managers, eviction lawyers, and other individuals and groups to “develop a new strategy” with a “creative funding model that focused on prevention.”

“ at kind of cross-sector collaboration is well within reach for Memphis and Shelby County,” said Meiman.

While she believes Memphis and Shelby County have the resources and ability to collaborate on the issue, she said systemlevel change is di cult and o en moves at a “glacial pace.” However, she added that Memphis and Shelby County’s CoC is designed for this type of collaboration.

“It is rare, it is golden, and it is full of people who are powerful because they are willing and able to do this work,” said Meiman.

“Sometimes our resources still fall short.”

POSTED TO FACEBOOK BY JENNIFER BIGGS

POSTED TO FACEBOOK BY TITUS JAMES

POSTED TO TWITTER BY MELVIN PURDY

PHOTO: JON TYSON | UNSPLASH

On a national level, homelessness has “incrementally increased” over the past six years.

Fighting Overdoses { CITY REPORTER

By Toby Sells

From 2018 to 2020, overdoses killed more in Shelby County than car accidents.

Kits to help prevent and stop opioid overdoses are free in Shelby County until supplies run out.

e Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) is distributing the kits at select sites (visit tinyurl.com/mvra4478 for sites) on a rst-come, rst-served basis. e kits contain two doses of nasalspray naloxone (known as Narcan by its brand name), 10 fentanyl test strips, and instructions for each.

SCHD director and health o cer Dr. Michelle Taylor said the kits are being distributed “to save lives.”

“From 2018 to 2020, overdoses killed more people in Shelby County than automobile accidents,” Taylor said in a statement.

e program is a partnership with the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH), which says naloxone is “a proven tool in the battle against drug abuse and overdose death.”

“When too much of an opioid medication is taken, [the opioid] can slow breathing to a dangerously low rate,” reads the TDH web page on naloxone

training. “When breathing slows too much, overdose death can occur. Naloxone can reverse this potentially fatal situation by allowing the person to breathe normally again.”

e state says naloxone is not “dangerous medicine.” But state law does require proper training to give the drug and be covered against civil lawsuits. In 2014, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a Good Samaritan Law that gives civil immunity to those administering the drug to someone they “reasonably believe” to be overdosing on an opioid.

To get the required training, the state o ers an interactive online course and a read-through version of the class. A er the review, trainees must pass an online quiz. Once complete, trainees can then add their name to a printable certi cate. (Visit tinyurl.com/yuhuubn5 for more information on naloxone training.)

Regional Overdose Prevention Specialists (ROPS) o ces are located throughout the state of Tennessee. ey are the point of contact for most opioid overdose training and the distribution of naloxone.

e state says more than 450,000 units

of naloxone have been distributed through ROPS from October 2017 to March 2023. In that time, state o cials have documented at least 60,000 lives saved with naloxone, a number that’s likely higher “because of stigma and other factors.”

State Senator London Lamar (DMemphis) wanted to make naloxone even more widely available in this year’s legislative session. Her bill would have mandated that some bars (selling more than $500,000 worth of alcoholic beverages per year) keep naloxone on premises as a condition of keeping their liquor-bythe-drink license.

e legislation was similar to New York City’s “Narcan Behind Every Bar” campaign. But Lamar’s bill was never fully reviewed and stalled in the committee system.

Fentanyl test strips were illegal in Tennessee until last year. Possession of such strips were a Class A misdemeanor and distribution was a Class E felony. But law-

makers made them legal to ght opioid overdoses when Governor Bill Lee signed a bill into law in March 2022.

To use the strips, small amounts of drugs are mixed with water. e strips are dipped into the solution for 15 seconds. en, the strips produce colored bars to signal whether the sample contains fentanyl or if the test is inconclusive.

In 2018, researchers found that some community groups across the country began to distribute fentanyl test strips. At the time, they found that most (81 percent) drug users who got the strips used them. Some (43 percent) changed their drug-use behavior because of the strips, and most (77 percent) said they were more aware of overdose safety by having the strips.

Naloxone combats overdoses.

PHOTO: PHARMACY IMAGES | UNSPLASH

POLITICS By Jackson Baker

“Got You Last!”

We have reached a point in the mayoral contest that, if not yet the stretch drive itself, is about to get there.

e candidates with money are beginning to spend it on TV ads (Floyd Bonner, Paul Young, Van Turner, and J.W. Gibson all had fresh spots running last week) and yard signs (certain well-traveled thruways — think South Parkway and Walnut Grove, as two examples — are sprouting them like mushrooms). And, be advised, slickly printed mail-outs, in which the aspirants view themselves with pride and unlucky opponents with alarm, will soon be lling up your mailbox.

ey’ve already gotten busy doing what, in athletic contexts, is called trash-talking. ey’ve all done their calculations and have determined who among their adversaries can safely be ignored and who needs to be cut down to size.

Examples: Two weeks ago, when businessman Gibson opened his campaign headquarters, he not only boasted his own native-son credentials but was the bene ciary of a question voiced out loud by a key supporter, Reverend LaSimba Gray: “Mr. Gibson, you didn’t have to move to Memphis to run for mayor, did you?”

Gibson himself may or may not have been in on that one, but he certainly beamed to hear it said. e jibe was clearly aimed at two Gibson opponents, Bonner and Turner, both recently residents of the outer county, who had to weather a short-lived mandate from the Election Commission which, before being struck down in court, required of mayoral candidates a long-term presence within the city limits.

And on more than one occasion of late, candidate Michelle McKissack has called attention to the matter of what she — and various others — consider an undue number of inmate deaths in the county jail on Sheri Bonner’s watch. e issue seems likely to keep on bedeviling Bonner, who, coincidentally or not, is widely considered a

frontrunner in the race.

Candidate Turner, who until recently headed the local NAACP and is a former Democratic Party chair, has been making the most of his ideological convictions, and, at his weekend headquarters opening, publicly lamented what he saw as the apostasy of fellow Democrats Paul Young, the Downtown Memphis Commission CEO, and Bonner, both high-odds contenders with plenty of late-campaign cash.

“How you vote and what you’ve done in the past makes a difference,” said Turner. “We have one candidate who voted Republican at a time when we needed everybody in this country to support Hillary [Clinton]. Because we did not support Hillary we have a renegade Supreme Court. … I appreciate what Mr. Young has done in the city, but he was wrong on that. You have to be committed to this call and not work the other side and compromise.”

Turner’s reference was to Young’s past decision to vote in three Republican primaries, including the 2016 GOP presidential primary.

And Turner continued: “Another candidate, Mr. Floyd Bonner, has been supported by the Republican Party.” He likely was referencing the 2022 county election when Bonner, the Democratic nominee, was unopposed by the GOP and endorsed by key local Republicans. e upshot, according to Turner: “We cannot allow this opportunity to take Memphis forward to take us back. We need progressives working for this city and working to make the city better.” “… And working to help me win,” was the unspoken quiet part.

PHOTO: JACKSON BAKER Van Turner speaks at his weekend HQ opening.

e mayoral candidates have started to play a game of desperation tag.

Arm

Strength

COVER STORY By Frank Murtaugh

PHOTOGRAPHS By Larry Kuzniewski

The Memphis Tigers have a rare breed in junior quarterback Seth Henigan. With the transfer portal shu ing college football rosters like an overstu ed deck of cards, an athlete playing the sport’s premium position at the same school for three years is becoming rare. In fact, only 15 FBS quarterbacks (among 133 programs) will appear in the same uniform for a third season this fall having started more games than Henigan’s 24. A recent review of said transfer portal revealed no fewer than 74 quarterbacks (starters and backups, mind you) having departed one program for another since the 2022 season concluded.

Yet Henigan remains in blue and gray, the colors he’s worn since, literally, the day a er his high school team (Denton Ryan High School in North Texas) won the 2020 state championship. Having started his rst college game as a true freshman in 2021, Henigan will graduate a er the fall semester with a degree in business management. By that time, he’ll have three full college seasons under his belt, and still shy of his 21st birthday. What kind of season should Tiger fans expect? It would be tough to top the expectations of Henigan himself, a signal-caller in shoulder pads for as far back as his memory will take him.

The 2023 Memphis Tigers will go as far as junior quarterback Seth Henigan leads them.

Henigan grew up with two brothers (one older, one younger), so competition was woven into the family fabric. Basketball. Football. And the kind of “house sports” only the parents of sibling rivals can fully appreciate. “We’d play pingpong, darts,” recalls Henigan. “I was always trying to be like my older brother Ian and beat him in everything. I played T-ball but didn’t move on to baseball. Played lacrosse for one year. I’ve always had good handeye coordination, but no sport was as fun to me as football.” Ironically, Henigan found himself injury prone in basketball, breaking his nose and his le hand on the hardwood. So hoops became past tense a er his sophomore year of high school. “I needed to focus on football,” he says, “and get my body prepared for college.”

Going all the way back to his earliest ag-football memories, Henigan can’t recall playing any position other than quarterback. It helps being the son of a highly successful coach. (Dave Henigan has coached Denton Ryan since 2014 and earned at least one Coach of the Year honor every year from 2016 through the championship season of 2020.) He would accompany his dad on game nights and spend the pregame tossing a football with anyone willing to toss it back. “It was a bonding time,” notes Henigan, “and with my brothers, too. I liked having the ball in my hands. I was pretty fast, and I could throw the ball better than the average kid. Being able to make plays, from a young age,

that was the position I was going to play to be the most successful in this sport.”

If quarterback isn’t the hardest position in team sports, it’s in a short conversation. (We’ll allow the case for baseball’s catcher.) Physical tools — height, arm strength, foot quickness — take an athlete a long way, but playing quarterback well enough to win championships requires as much talent between the ears as elsewhere. And the ability to absorb contact is a requirement.

“As you move up levels, the position becomes way more taxing,” says Henigan, “both physically and mentally. I wasn’t hit that much in high school, but at the college level, it’s a di erent feeling. We don’t get hit in practice because [coaches] are trying to preserve quarterbacks. When you get hit for the rst time, it changes the entire game. Having that experience early in my college career really toughened me up. You’re playing 300-pound defensive linemen, and their goal is to harass you.”

As for the mental component, it’s the invisible tools that made Tom Brady the Tom Brady, that allow Patrick Mahomes to see angles and gaps most quarterbacks cannot. “You know so much about coverages,” explains Henigan. “You know the names, you draw them up, you speak them. Some quarterbacks learn better verbally, and some need to see it on a board. Or going through it on a practice eld.”

Henigan draws a parallel between a quarterback’s mental challenges and those of a decidedly less physical sport. “Golfers’ mental game is so important,” he notes.

“It’s hard to compare to any other position on a football eld. You’re in control of so many aspects. You know everyone’s assignment on o ense. A middle linebacker may know this for the defense, but he doesn’t have control of the play’s outcome. A quarterback has the ball in his hands. ere’s so much going on. You’re thinking of 21 other guys on a eld, reacting to a defense. e defensive coordinator’s job is to confuse the quarterback. You have to react as the play is going on.”

In the time it takes you to read this sentence, a quarterback must decide between handing the ball to a running back, running the ball himself, or passing to as many as ve potential receivers. “Decisionmaking, accuracy, and toughness are three of the most important components for a quarterback,” emphasizes Henigan. “Fluid intelligence is key. at’s how you make your money, so to speak. O enses and defenses both have tendencies. A er a while, you identify consistencies in the way defenses want to attack our offense. But it changes each year. e base knowledge helps though. You have an out-of-body experience. It feels like you’re watching yourself because you’ve done it so many times. It’s muscle memory, and natural. I’ve seen a lot.”

Henigan grew up a college football fan, more so than any devotion he might have developed for an NFL team.

continued on page 10

University of Memphis junior Seth Henigan will return for his third season as quarterback. A successful season will a ord him the opportunity to become only the second quarterback in Tigers football history to post three 3,000-yard seasons.

Rollin’ into Riches

GIVEAWAY

continued from page 9

With his family wrapped up in “Friday night lights” followed by college games on Saturday, Henigan’s mom would actually not allow football on television come Sunday. Henigan’s favorite quarterbacks were a pair of Heisman Trophy winners in the SEC: Auburn’s Cam Newton and Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel. He loved their exploits but notes he’s never modeled his playing style after another signal-caller.

some good teams, but we’ve lost to teams we should have beaten. I didn’t really know what to expect out of college football; I just knew it would be harder than what I’d done in the past. I want to win a conference championship and win more than seven games. There’s so much more to achieve as a quarterback. My teammates respect me and know me as a competitor. I’ve taken hits and gotten up. I’ve been through the ringer, and I’ve stayed here in Memphis. We have a chance to be special.”

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Despite compiling an eye-popping record of 44-2 over three years as a starter at Denton Ryan, Henigan was not heavily recruited by FBS programs. Former Memphis offensive coordinator Kevin Johns, though, made the kind of impression both Henigan and his family sought in choosing Seth’s college destination. “I had a good year as a junior,” notes Henigan, “but my body wasn’t spectacular. I was always smart and worked hard, and those attributes can take you a long way. Coaches weren’t really talking to me consistently, until coach Johns came after my junior year. He listed attributes of a good quarterback that I displayed and why I was attractive [to Memphis]. He’d show me film on FaceTime, break down plays. He’s the only [college] coach who did that with me. It was exciting, seeing how I’d fit the program here.”

Having enrolled for the spring semester in 2021, Henigan was comfortable with Memphis — both the city and campus — by the time fall camp opened. When the quarterback expected to start the ’21 season opener (Grant Gunnell) tore his Achilles heel late that summer, Henigan seized the opportunity. “Even if I was going to be the backup, I didn’t want to be a weak link,” reflects Henigan. “So I was mentally prepared. I have a whiteboard in my room at home. I’ve had it since my junior year of high school. Every week, I’ll change the name of the opponent, list base defenses, third-down defenses, and how we were going to attack them. I picked things up pretty quickly. That’s all I did that first spring camp: study that whiteboard and learn [as a college quarterback]. Coach Johns and I would throw on weekends at his house. He cared for me as a true freshman.” (Johns has since moved on and is now the offensive coordinator at Duke University.)

The Tigers went 6-6 in 2021 (Henigan’s freshman year) and qualified for the Hawaii Bowl, a game that was canceled the day before kickoff because of a Covid outbreak in the Hawaii program. Memphis went 7-6 last season and beat Utah State in the First Responder Bowl. Two decades ago, such marks would have qualified as successful seasons in these parts. But the program’s standards are higher. So are Seth Henigan’s.

“There’s no such thing as a young quarterback,” says Henigan in evaluating the midpoint of his college career. “You either have it or you don’t. You earn the job. It hasn’t been smooth sailing. We’ve beaten

Tiger coach Ryan Silverfield would never project his program’s success on the play of one athlete. But he’s cognizant of how important Seth Henigan’s junior season will be to the health — and growth — of the Memphis program. “At the quarterback position, his steps are significant to the success of our entire program,” says the fourthyear coach. “He knows that he’s got to be better. He’s still young for the position, but he’s got experience. We have high expectations for him to make good decisions. You can’t turn the ball over. Find ways to win football games. We’ll continue to push him to be the leader of our team. He’s earned that respect and we’re excited to see what unfolds.”

Henigan is one of only 16 current Tigers who have taken the field for Memphis the last two seasons. He’s a junior, by class, but an extended veteran by measure of proportional service. Who will catch Henigan’s passes this fall? Junior Roc Taylor had 20 receptions last season, the most by any returning player. Senior Joseph Scates caught only 18 passes in 2022, but averaged 22.9 yards per reception. Newcomer Tauskie Dove — a transfer from Missouri — played in high school with Henigan but was a senior when the quarterback rode the bench as a freshman.

A healthy and successful 2023 season would make Henigan only the second quarterback in Memphis history to post three 3,000-yard seasons. (Brady White did so from 2018 to 2020.) Then there’s 2024. Should Henigan return as a grad student, a fourth season — again, presuming health — would likely shatter every passing record in the Tiger book. But that’s distant future, particularly with that pesky transfer portal. For now, Henigan is focused on the daily chores — as noted on his treasured whiteboard — that will add up to a better college season than his first two in blue and gray.

“Every day is challenging,” acknowledges Henigan, noting his commitment to football, school, his family, and nurturing relationships, particularly those with his teammates. “It’s hard to find time for myself. I have so many responsibilities. I’ve been on a fast track, starting my master’s program in the spring. A [conference] championship would make [this season] successful. Winning nine or 10 games. I think we have all the right guys. We’ve just got to stay consistent.”

Investing Mistakes

Five common investing missteps — and how to avoid them.

Investing is one of the best ways to build your wealth and help achieve your long-term nancial goals. However, several common and expensive missteps have the potential to derail your investment progress. Recognizing the following mistakes and taking proactive steps to avoid them will likely improve your investment outcomes and, ultimately, give you a better chance of achieving your long-term nancial goals.

1. Chasing the trends

A common mistake many investors make is choosing investments based on shortterm market forecasts and chasing current trends without rst researching and doing their due diligence. Without a full understanding of each investment in your portfolio and its risk and return characteristics, underlying holdings, costs, etc., how can you know your investments align with your objectives?

stocks, U.S. stocks with international stocks, and investments from di erent sectors, such as technology, nancial, energy, real estate, healthcare, etc. It’s also important to be aware of the underlying holdings in your investment funds to ensure you’re not overly weighted in a certain area.

3. Trying to time the market

Knowing that the market is unpredictable, time in the market is more important than trying to time the market by buying low and selling high. is strategy can back re on even the most seasoned investors. Attempting to predict short-term market movements is risky and can lead to missed opportunities or signi cant losses.

Instead of timing the market, smart investing involves patience and a long-term investment approach that aligns with your goals and time horizon. Invest regularly and consistently, take advantage of dollarcost averaging, and maintain a diversi ed portfolio. Over time, this strategy will help smooth out some market volatility.

4. Not rebalancing

It’s important to regularly review and rebalance your investment portfolio to help ensure it remains aligned with your objectives. Failing to rebalance on a regular basis can result in certain investment types or sectors becoming overweighted. Over time, this can cause your portfolio to dri away from your target risk pro le.

It’s critical to educate yourself on various investments’ risk characteristics, return potential, underlying holdings, tax treatment, asset class characteristics, expenses, and more. Your wealth manager is a great source for insight into how speci c investments may impact your overall portfolio and nancial goals.

2. Failing to properly diversify

Regardless of where you live, it’s always wise to maintain a diversi ed investment portfolio. Investing in di erent types of asset classes will spread out your risk. When one sector or investment type is performing poorly, another investment type that’s performing better can help smooth out overall portfolio volatility. While diversication won’t prevent losses, it can reduce the risk of being too heavily invested in the worst performing part of the market. To achieve adequate diversi cation, consider combining stocks with bonds, large company stocks with small company

By regularly rebalancing to your asset allocation, you can lock in gains from top-performing sectors and ensure your portfolio remains in line with your investment objectives and risk tolerance.

5. Neglecting the power of compounding

Compounding is a powerful force that can signi cantly increase your investment returns over time. e earlier you begin saving and investing, the more compounding interest works to your advantage. Focus on re-investing your dividends and maintain a long-term approach to your investment portfolio to maximize your compounding potential.

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 rms providing comprehensive wealth management services to ensure all elements of a client’s nancial life are working together, including investments, taxes, estate planning, and risk management. For more information or to request a free, no-obligation consultation, visit CreativePlanning.com.

PHOTO: KIER IN SIGHT ARCHIVES | UNSPLASH Avoid these ve common mistakes.

Fall Art Supply Sale!

AT LARGE By Bruce VanWyngarden

A Digression

On dogs, kindness, and the Sentinelese.

Ihave been living by myself for the past week or so. My wife went to a legal convention in Minneapolis, and then went to visit our grandchildren in New York. In the old days, I would have said I’ve been “batching it,” meaning I’m living like a bachelor. But now, as I type it, I don’t understand why there’s a “t” in “batching.” Or is there? If I weren’t temporarily living alone, I’d ask my wife. She probably wouldn’t know, but she’d have an opinion, and that’s all you can really ask for in a relationship.

And now I’m reminded of the phrase, “con rmed bachelor,” which those of you of a certain age will remember. My favorite uncle was a con rmed bachelor. He lived for 30 years or so with his friend Richard, who was also a con rmed bachelor. at was some seriously con rmed batching it. My father always said he wished his brother would nd a “nice gal” and settle down. I never knew if he was really that clueless or just trying to hide the truth from his children.

Anyway, I digress. But, to be honest, this column is beginning to look like a string of digressions in search of a point. I hope you’ll bear with me. I’m on my own here. Except for my dogs, who are both lying on the oor in my o ce. eir lack of ambition is appalling.

Sorry, another digression. My bad. I will nd a point. I promise.

So, I read this week about the Sentinelese Tribe, who for 50,000 years have lived on one of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. ey are the most isolated group of people in the world.

ey violently reject all visitors, ring arrows and slinging spears at any who dare approach their beaches. ey killed the last person who tried to land, in 2018. It is thought that they are so violent against visitors because whenever an outsider has made contact in the past, the tribe was exposed to diseases that wiped out large segments of the population. A er decades of various attempts at contacting them, the government of India has determined that no further attempts shall be made to communicate with the Sentinelese and

that they should be le alone. Like me. So I can nish this column.

A friend recently sent me a video of a compelling commencement speech at Northwestern University by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. It addressed the subject of kindness: “When we encounter someone who doesn’t look, live, love, or act like us,” he said, “our rst thought is rooted in fear or judgment. It’s an evolutionary response. We survived as a species by being suspicious of things that we aren’t familiar with.”

e governor went on: “In order to be kind, we have to shut down that animal instinct, that fear, and force our brain to travel a di erent pathway. Empathy and compassion are evolved states of being that require the mental capacity to step past our basic instincts. … When someone’s path through this world is marked by acts of cruelty, they have failed the rst test of an advanced society. ey never forced their animal brain to evolve past its rst instinct.”

I disagree somewhat with the governor on this latter point. Yes, there’s an instinctual cruelty that comes from fear — like that of the Sentinelese — but there is also rampant in our society — and our politics — an intentional cruelty that uses weak and disadvantaged people for personal gain, that weaponizes the fear in others, that mocks their disabilities, body shape, and speech, that demonizes skin color, religion, gender, and sexuality, not because of some primordial fear, but for sel sh ambition.

Governor Pritzker ended his speech by saying that in his experience, “the smartest person in the room was o en also the kindest.” In my experience, the reverse is also true. Dumbasses are o en mean. Avoid them. Don’t vote for them.

So, all of this digression needs a nish. Maybe this quote from Kurt Vonnegut will work: “And how should we behave during this Apocalypse? We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. … Jokes help. And get a dog, if you don’t already have one.”

Or two. At least. You’ll never be alone. Or cruel.

PHOTO: BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN is layabout lacks ambition.

steppin’ out

We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews

Buzzworthy

By Abigail Morici

What happens in the beehive stays in the beehive.

In this case, though, we aren’t talking about a hive run by bees. We’re talking about a hive run by Our Own Voice eatre Troupe (OOV). is “hive” is a form of paratheatre, where the audience directly participates in the performance … well, if you could even call it a “performance.” “Experience” or “meeting” might be a better word.

“It’s been hard to describe to people,” says Sarah Rushako , who along with OOV founding director Bill Baker has organized the hive. “We don’t know what it’ll be until everyone arrives and kind of makes it what it will be. We’re providing di erent materials for people; we are providing the space and a welcoming environment. If they want to write, they can write. If someone has something with movement, they can move. And whatever collaboration, whatever creativity happens, that’s that night. at’s the hive.” e concept comes from Jerzy Grotowski’s 1970s paratheatrical movement. Grotowski had grown tired of traditional theater practices and wanted to break the barrier between the actor and the audience by inviting the audience to participate in the creative process, rather than passively consuming someone else’s nished work.

“ e concept of a spect-actor is de nitely going to be in play, where the spectator is also an actor,” says Rushako . “But we’re not looking for necessarily a performance; we just want to observe each other’s creativity, and we will be an ‘us.’ It won’t be ‘us,’ the theater company, and ‘you,’ the spectators. We’ll be an ‘us’ because we’re all in the space breathing the same air.

“Since I’ve been with the company, this is going to be the biggest leap of faith that we’re taking,” Rushako continues. “It’s such a mindfuck to think of inviting people to a space where no one knows what’s going to happen.”

Put simply, the hive will be a form of play, with participants and OOV members arriving with no expectations or preparations, just an open mind. In that way, OOV, whose mission is to support mental health awareness, hopes the hive will be freeing and an opportunity for creative expression. “We always hope that our events are at least a little therapeutic,” Rushako says. “ at would the best compliment — to have someone walk away considering what they just experienced as therapeutic.”

OOV’s hive will commence on Friday, August 25th, and Saturday, August 26th. No two hives will be the same. Tickets are paywhat-you-can and can be purchased at our-own-voice.square.site or at the door.

“As always, with any of our performances, especially the pay-what-you-can, if you can’t [pay], then you come in anyway ’cause we would miss out on so much if we didn’t let people come who wanted to participate,” Rushako adds. “We’re hoping to meet some new people who want to play with us and be a part of the hive.”

A HIVE, THEATREWORKS@THE SQUARE, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, AUGUST 25-26, 8 P.M., PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN.

VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES August 24th - 30th

Día de los Muertos Altar Workshop

Elmwood Cemetery, Saturday, August 26, 2-4 p.m., $20

It’s Elmwood Cemetery’s rst Día de los Muertos (or Day of the Dead) Altar Workshop, presented in collaboration with Cazateatro Bilingual eatre Group.

e Day of the Dead, known as “Día de los Muertos” in Spanish, is a cultural celebration in Mexico. On this Mexican holiday, everyone remembers and honors their deceased loved ones through decorated ofrendas in their homes to welcome the spirits. is is a celebration of life.

In this two-hour workshop, you’ll learn about the traditions and meanings surrounding Día de los Muertos, how to make an altar, and much more.

Refreshments will be available. Space is limited; tickets can be purchased at elmwoodcemetery.org.

James Austin Johnson

Lafayette’s Music Room, Wednesday, August 30, 7 p.m., $30.25

James Austin Johnson is a comedian originally from Nashville and a featured player on Saturday Night Live e New York Times has called him “one of SNL’s most versatile celebrity impressionists.”

Sister Act

eatre Memphis, performances through September 20, $35/adults, $15/students, $30/seniors and military

When a disco nightclub singer witnesses a crime, she becomes fearful of being discovered by the criminals. Her confession to police lands her in a convent that seems to be the perfect hiding shelter. Her stay with the nuns helps her and the sisters, quite literally, nd their true voices. is is musical comedy at its most fun.

Performances run ursdays to Saturdays, 7:30 p.m., and Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at theatrememphis.org.

“To See With New Eyes”

Metal Museum, on display through September 24

Richard Carr, the artist behind this exhibition, is an inspired craftsman with over 40 years experience in an industrial setting. His love for old architecture and organic forms, along with his experiences and observations, are reflected in his work. Carr utilizes aged, textured materials including iron, stone, and wood, which he often salvages from sites throughout Downtown Memphis. This exhibition brings into focus the stories that salvaged materials share, providing viewers a glimpse into each piece’s soul.

PHOTO: COURTESY OOV

Our Own Voice eatre Troupe

THE PRVLG

All That Jazz

is Labor Day, sample the sophisticated sounds of neo-soul and jazz at the RiverCity Jazz and Music Festival.

Smooth jazz is one of those genre distinctions that evaporates as soon as you try spelling out a precise de nition, but there’s no denying the pop appeal of the prettier side of the jazz tradition, especially when it’s given the rhythmic oomph of R&B. Indeed, it turns out that pairing the streamlined sounds of contemporary jazz and R&B is exactly what a large swath of Memphis concertgoers want — just ask Mike Powell, who prides himself on being the rst promoter to sell out the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts with a smooth jazz act.

He’s been booking such shows around town for a good three decades, “maybe one- to two-hundred artists, from Al Jarreau on down,” he says, and his approach over the last ve years may be his most successful yet. at would be the RiverCity Jazz and Music Festival, an annual gala night at the Cannon Center that brings nationally touring smooth jazz and R&B artists to the MidSouth. As per usual, this year’s concert falls on Labor Day weekend, Sunday, September 3rd, at 6:30 p.m.

is September’s lineup brings some true R&B/neo-soul royalty to town with headliner Lalah Hathaway. Her father, Donny Hathaway, went from being a writer, player, and producer at Curtis May eld’s Curtom Records in 1967 to becoming an R&B star in his own right with his 1969 single, “ e Ghetto, Pt. 1.” His ongoing artistry through the ’70s, including his duets with Roberta Flack, won him a special place in the hearts of soul jazz fans, though he ultimately took his own life a er struggling with depression for most of the decade.

His daughter Eulaulah Donyll “Lalah” Hathaway, born in 1968, carries on the family tradition of blending soul, R&B, and smooth jazz, yet in a more 21st-century context. She recorded her 1990 debut while still a student at Berklee College of Music, and the album cracked the Billboard Hot 200 and the R&B/Hip-Hop Top 20 that year. But she had an experimental bent from the start, and her next chart success was with the Heaven 17 side-project BEF (British Electric Foundation). Before the

decade was out, she’d collaborated with jazz legend Joe Sample. In 2013, her work with Snarky Puppy on the track “Something” led to her rst Grammy for Best R&B Performance.

Memphians may know her best for Self Portrait, her 2008 release on the revived Stax Records imprint, and her rst album to crack the R&B/Hip-Hop Top Ten. While she’s clearly forging her own path, she’s well aware of her father’s legacy. “I am his daughter,” she says on her website bio, “and that’s the truth of who I am, every day. When I was 15, and then 20, I didn’t get why people were asking me how I felt about him and his music. But when I turned 25, I began to understand. Like my father, I want to leave a legacy of music that makes people really feel something.”

Powell, for his part, is excited to be bringing Hathaway back to Memphis, having booked her some 20 years ago, but he stresses that there’s much more bang for your buck at this year’s festival, including singer Leela James, saxophonist Paul Taylor (not to be confused with Memphis’ own Paul “Snow ake” Taylor), and jazz guitarist Adam Hawley. “Leela James is one of the great soulful, sultry songstresses. She’s been performing at least 20 years or so in the business and has several records out now. Paul Taylor is one of the godfathers who helped nurture in smooth jazz. And then there’s Adam Hawley, who’s a very good smooth jazz guitarist, performing onstage with his wife, who’s an R&B/ smooth jazz singer as well.”

Beyond that, the Cannon Center event is but the culmination of several days of musical and meet-and-greet events. “Starting that ursday [August 31st], we’ll kick o a whole weekend, and your ticket to the concert will get you in all those other events free,” Powell says. “For example, one of them will be at the Marriott Hotel in their lobby bar. We’ll have some performances, and they’re planning something of a mixer there, and a meet-andgreet with Paul Taylor and Adam Hawley. It’s going to be the smooth jazz, R&B, and neo-soul event of the fall.”

PHOTO: JUSTIN SISSON Lalah Hathaway

MUSIC By Alex Greene

AFTER DARK: Live Music Schedule August 24 - 30

Vince Johnson

Monday, Aug. 28, 7-11 p.m.; Tuesday, Aug. 29, 7-11 p.m.

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

Alexis Jade

Saturday, Aug. 26, 6-9 p.m.

CENTRAL BBQ

Ashton Riker & the Memphis Royals

ursday, Aug. 24, 8 p.m.

B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB

Baunie & Soul

Sunday, Aug. 27, 7-11 p.m.

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

Charly Reynolds

Friday, Aug. 25, 8:30 p.m.

TIN ROOF

Chris Stapleton

With Marcus King and Allen Stone. ursday, Aug. 24, 7 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

Dan Montgomery, Judy Ann Nook, Di Wu

Friday, Aug. 25, 7 p.m.

SOUTH MAIN SOUNDS

David Graham & the Eskimo Brothers

Friday, Aug. 25, 8 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 26, 8 p.m.

BLUES CITY CAFE

Donna Padgett Bowers

Presents

Variety show of Memphis talent.

Free. Friday, Aug. 25, 9 p.m.

WESTY’S

Frankie Valli Greatest Hits e original Jersey boy himself, Frankie Valli is a true American legend. $64.50-$175. Saturday, Aug. 26, 7:30 p.m.

THE ORPHEUM

Free World

Friday, Aug. 25, 8 p.m.-midnight; Saturday, Aug. 26, 8 p.m.-midnight.

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

Full Hollow

Friday, Aug. 25, 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 26, 10:30 p.m.

TIN ROOF

Gavin Sumrall

Friday, Aug. 25, 5:30 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 26, 3:45 p.m.

TIN ROOF

Joe Boogie’s Boogiedowns, The ShotGunBillys

Friday, Aug. 25, 7 p.m.

GHOST RIVER BREWING

Naturally 7

$39.50. ursday, Aug. 24, 7:30 p.m.

THE HALLORAN CENTRE

Parties at the Pyramid

DJ performances, drink specials, and a roo op view. 21+. Friday, Aug. 25, 6-11 p.m.

BIG CYPRESS LODGE

Red Thomas

Sunday, Aug. 27, noon-3 p.m.

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

Risky Whiskey Boys Band

Friday, Aug. 25, 5-8:30 p.m.

JERRY LEE LEWIS’ CAFE & HONKY TONK

Robbie Bletscher on Piano

A singing waiter with talent.

Wednesday, Aug. 30, 5-8 p.m.

WESTY’S

Shelley Brown and Lee

Holliday

Tuesday, Aug. 29, 6-9 p.m.

CENTRAL BBQ

The Rockin 88’s

Monday, Aug. 28, 7-11 p.m.

BLUES CITY CAFE

Wendell Wells & The Big Americans

ursday, Aug. 24, 9 p.m.-1 a.m.;

Saturday, Aug. 26, 9 p.m.-1 a.m.

WESTY’S

Adrianne Black Song Bird & Diamonique Jackson

Saturday, Aug. 26, noon-4 p.m.

PERIGNONS RESTAURANT & EVENT CENTER

Benefit for Katrina Owens e bands will be Every Mothers

Nightmare, e Fast Mothers, Midnite Train From Memphis, e Electrick Nobody, and HeadBand.

Sunday, Aug. 27, 4-10 p.m.

NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM

Doobie Brothers With Michael McDonald. Friday, Aug. 25, 6 p.m.

RADIANS AMPHITHEATER AT MEMPHIS

BOTANIC GARDEN

Joe Boogie’s Boogiedowns, The ShotGunBillys

Saturday, Aug. 26, 8 p.m.

NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM

Keepin It Memphis

Highlighting the works of the underground arts scene. $10-$20.

Wednesday, Aug. 30, 7:30-10:30 p.m.

MEMPHIS MUSIC ROOM

Rich Sounds at the Garden: Stax Music Academy

Enjoy a performance in conjunction with the “Rich Soil” exhibition at MBG. Sunday, Aug. 27, 2-5 p.m.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

Six Feet Thunder

Friday, Aug. 25, 8 p.m.-midnight.

NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM

The Settlers

Sunday, Aug. 27, 3-6 p.m.

HUEY’S POPLAR

Black Jacket Symphony

Clot, Chora, Seeing Hell, 2 Live and Die

$12. Saturday, Aug. 26, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

Cyrena Wages, Mark Edgar

Stuart

Saturday, Aug. 26, 8-10:15 p.m. BAR DKDC

Dystopia Productions: Goth Night

With DJs Evonech, Graveyard Gloria, and St. Faust. $12. Saturday, Aug. 26, 10 p.m.-3 a.m.

BLACK LODGE

EXILE DJs with Freewill Residents: Justin Hand, Mike McConnell, and Stephen Mirdo. 21+. Saturday, Aug. 26, 10 p.m.-3 a.m.

CANVAS

Hope Clayburn Soul Scrimmage

Saturday, Aug. 26, 10:30 p.m.

BAR DKDC

Joe Boogie’s Boogiedowns

ursday, Aug. 24, 8 p.m.; Sunday, Aug. 27, 8 p.m.; Tuesday, Aug. 29, 8 p.m.

ZEBRA LOUNGE

Lance & Madison Saturday, Aug. 26, 2 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Late Night Cardigan, Schaeffer Llana, Rosey Friday, Aug. 25, 9 p.m.

BAR DKDC

Led Zeppelin 2 ursday, Aug. 24, 8-10 p.m.

RAILGARTEN

Seed & Soul Collective

Free. Saturday, Aug. 26, 5-7 p.m.

MEMPHIS LISTENING LAB

Shakermaker

Friday, Aug. 25, 8 p.m.

BLUE MONKEY

Sons of Mudboy

Sunday, Aug. 27, 8 p.m.

BAR DKDC

Sweatfest 2023

All-day sale featuring TONS of killer and cheap records! Free music starts at 2 p.m. featuring e Sheiks, Fake, Late Night Cardigan, Spacer, and J.D. Reager & the Cold Blooded ree. Saturday, Aug. 26, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

SHANGRI-LA RECORDS

Switchfoot

Wednesday, Aug. 30, 7 p.m.

MINGLEWOOD HALL

Synthwave Lounge

Synth and retrowave music going all night. Thursday, Aug. 24, 9:30 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

The PRVLG

$20. Friday, Aug. 25, 7:30-9 p.m.

THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS

The Widdler With Medicine Place, King Joe, Dreamlake, Delek, and Tryptamine. 18+. Friday, Aug. 25, 8 p.m.-2 a.m.

ZEN HOUSE

TiLt

Friday, Aug. 25, 8 p.m.

TJ MULLIGAN’S, MIDTOWN

Western Avenue, Dawn of Ascension, Incipient

$15. Friday, Aug. 25, 7 p.m.

GROWLERS

Will Tucker Band

Sunday, Aug. 27, 3:30 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

WiMM Showcase

Wednesday, Aug. 30, 7 p.m.

B-SIDE

Wyly Bigger and the Coyotes

$5. ursday, Aug. 24, 9-11 p.m.

YOUNG AVENUE DELI

After Hours & El Chavos!

$10. ursday, Aug. 24, 7:30 p.m.

GROWLERS

AJJ with Open Mike Eagle, Sad Park, Foot Ox

$22. Saturday, Aug. 26, 7 p.m.

GROWLERS Alexis Jade

ursday, Aug. 24, 7-10 p.m.

THE SLIDER INN

Alice Hasen & Josh

Threlkeld EP Release Show

$15-$20. ursday, Aug. 24, 7:30-9 p.m.

THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS

Amber McCain Band

Friday, Aug. 25, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Aquanet

Saturday, Aug. 26, 10 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Basketcase

Saturday, Aug. 26, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Cloak with Epoch of Unlight and Hate Doctrine

$12. Sunday, Aug. 27, 7 p.m.

GROWLERS

Left Unsung $10. Friday, Aug. 25, 9 p.m.

B-SIDE

Lina Beach with Di Sunday, Aug. 27, 6 p.m.

DRU’S PLACE

Lipstick Stains’ Final Show

With the Scatterguns, Jadewick, and Move rough. $10. Friday, Aug. 25, 7 p.m.

MEMPHIS CURRENT

Marcella Simien & Her

Lovers

Friday, Aug. 25, 8-10 p.m.

RAILGARTEN

Moonlight Mixer

With Tim Walker, Shallen Norman, and Just Joyclyn. Free.

Saturday, Aug. 26, 4-6 p.m.

MEMPHIS LISTENING LAB

Not in Nottingham: Storm

Relief Benefit for Sherwood Forest

With Cory Branan, Heels, Ben Abney and the Hurts, Cyrena Wages, and Joe Restivo. Hosted by Katrina Coleman. $20. Saturday, Aug. 26, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

Black Jacket Symphony

$35. ursday, Aug. 24, 8 p.m.

GRACELAND SOUNDSTAGE

Coleman Williams & Todd Day Wait

$15. Friday, Aug. 25, 7 p.m.

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

Dikki Du & the Zydeco

Krewe

Sunday, Aug. 27, 6-9 p.m.

HUEY’S OLIVE BRANCH

Fear. The Sparrow, The Eastwoods, Benjamin Gilbreath, Frankie Lightning

$10. Saturday, Aug. 26, 7 p.m.

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

Just Groovin Experience

Charles Gage’s 70th

Birthday Bash

$10. ursday, Aug. 24, 8 p.m.

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

One Vision of Queen, featuring Marc Martel e world’s most spectacular Queen tribute show! $40-$60. Saturday, Aug. 26, 7:30-9:15 p.m. HEINDL

PHOTO: COURTESY GRACELAND LIVE

CALENDAR of EVENTS: August 24 - 30

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 AND SPECIAL EXHIBITS

“Americana Portrait Sessions: The Photography of Jeff Fasano”

Curated by photographer Jeff Fasano, this new exhibition features more than a dozen striking portraits of both legends and rising stars in Americana music. Through Dec. 31.

STAX MUSEUM OF AMERICAN SOUL MUSIC

Memphis/Germantown Art League

Member Showcase and Sale

The Memphis/Germantown Art League (MGAL) of Memphis, TN, is a nonprofit organization of visual artists and associates supporting the work of its member artists. Through Aug. 30.

GALLERY 1091

“We Are Here: LGBTQIA+ Voices in the Contemporary Metals Community”

Jury-selected pieces that showcase the importance and richness of LGBTQIA+ artists working in metals. Through Sept. 10

METAL MUSEUM

ART HAPPENINGS

August Trolley Night

Join friends, family, co-workers, and more on the last Friday of every month. South Main is open late with live music, great shopping, restaurants specials, and nonstop fun. Friday, Aug. 25, 6 p.m.

SOUTH MAIN HISTORIC ARTS DISTRICT

Crossword

Misook Dodds’ A Bowl of Happiness will appear at the MGAL showcase at Gallery 1091.

COMEDY

F.M.K.: An Intelligent Discussion

This show intends to enlighten, empower, and possibly enrage its attendees as it breaks the fourth wall and will leave you begging for more. $10. Friday, Aug. 25, 9 p.m.

HI TONE

James Austin Johnson

James Austin Johnson is a comedian originally from Nashville and a featured player on Saturday Night Live The New York Times has called him “one of SNL’s most versatile celebrity impressionists.” Wednesday, Aug. 20, 7 p.m.

HI TONE

Memphis Finest Comedy Show

A collection of Memphis’ funniest comedians. This year’s comedians are Jeremy Schaar, Hollywood, Justin Burgess, Still Phyl, Richard Douglas Jones, Oscar P., and Abayneh Cunningham. $30, $85. Sunday, Aug. 27, 7 p.m.

THE ORPHEUM

COMMUNITY

Black Business Month Summit

In celebration of National Black Business Month, you’re invited to network and engage with business owners and capital partners! Free. Thursday, Aug. 24, 8:30-11:30 a.m.

LEMOYNE-OWEN COLLEGE

Environmental Justice Week: Resource Fair

Meet local organizations and find resources regarding environmental issues. Saturday, Aug. 26, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

SOUTH LIBRARY

FAMILY

Splashin’ for a Cause 2023

Guests will spend a special evening at the Monogram Foods Love Kids Foundation Splash Park and Event Center. There you can interact with and marvel at the zoo’s amazing dusky gopher frogs. $35/nonmembers, $30/ members, $40/cabana rentals. Saturday, Aug. 26, 6-8:30 p.m.

MEMPHIS ZOO

Story Time at Novel

Recommended for children up to 5 years, Story Time at Novel includes songs and stories, featuring brand-new books in addition to well-loved favorites. Wednesday, Aug. 30, 10:30 a.m.

Edited by Will Shortz No. 0107

NOVEL

Superheroes On The Square

Meet your favorite superheroes in person, take hero-themed pics at a super photobooth, pick up complimentary superhero masks and bracelets, and make super crafts with The Art Project. Free. Saturday, Aug. 26, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

OVERTON SQUARE

SPECIAL EVENTS

Collierville Cruise Night

Whether you have a set of wheels you want to show off or are just looking for a fun night out, you can enjoy an evening with friends and family to check out the best rides the Mid-South has to offer. Wednesday, Aug. 30, 5-9 p.m.

RIVER INN OF HARBOR TOWN

Dance Party in Chimes Square: K-POP Night!

A rockin’ good time as you and your friends belt out the classics, the latest hits, and everything in between. Tonight’s theme is KPOP from Astro, to TXT, and everything in between. Free. Friday, Aug. 25, 8-9:30 p.m.

OVERTON SQUARE

THEATER

A Raisin in the Sun Set in Chicago’s South Side, Lorraine Hansberry’s celebrated play concerns the divergent dreams and conflicts in three generations of the Younger family. Friday, Aug. 25-Sept. 24.

HATTILOO THEATRE

Sister Act

When a disco nightclub singer witnesses a crime, she becomes fearful of being discovered by the criminals. Her confession to police lands her in a convent that seems to be the perfect hiding shelter. Through Sept. 30.

Theatre Memphis

The Prom

A group of Broadway stars, lamenting their days of fame, come to the rescue when a student is refused the opportunity to bring her girlfriend to the prom in the town of Edgewater, Indiana. Through Sept. 17.

PLAYHOUSE ON THE SQUARE

ARIES (March 21-April 19): None of the books I’ve written has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. Even if my future books do well, I will never catch up with Aries writer James Patterson, who has had 260 books on the prestigious list. My sales will never rival his, either. He has earned over $800 million from the 425 million copies his readers have bought. While I don’t expect you Rams to ever boost your income to Patterson’s level, either, I suspect the next nine months will bring you unprecedented opportunities to improve your financial situation. For best results, edge your way toward doing more of what you love to do.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Addressing a lover, D. H. Lawrence said that “having you near me” meant that he would “never cease to be filled with newness.” That is a sensational compliment! I wish all of us could have such an influence in our lives: a prod that helps arouse endless novelty. Here’s the good news, Taurus: I suspect you may soon be blessed with a lively source of such stimulation, at least temporarily. Are you ready and eager to welcome an influx of freshness?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Humans have been drinking beer for at least 13,000 years and eating bread for 14,500. We’ve enjoyed cheese for 7,500 years and popcorn for 6,500. Chances are good that at least some of these four are comfort foods for you. In the coming weeks, I suggest you get an ample share of them or any other delicious nourishments that make you feel well-grounded and deep-rooted. You need to give extra care to stabilizing your foundations. You have a mandate to cultivate security, stability, and constancy. Here’s your homework: Identify three things you can do to make you feel utterly at home in the world.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): On Instagram, I posted a favorite quote from poet Muriel Rukeyser: “The world is made of stories, not atoms.” I added my own thought: “You are made of stories, too.” A reader didn’t like this meme. He said it was “a nightmare for us anti-social people.” I asked him why. He said, “Because stories only happen in a social setting. To tell or hear a story is to be in a social interaction. If you’re not inclined towards such activities, it’s oppressive.” Here’s how I replied: “That’s not true for me. Many of my stories happen while I’m alone with my inner world. My nightly dreams are some of my favorite stories.” Anyway, Cancerian, I’m offering this exchange to you now because you are in a story-rich phase of your life. The tales coming your way, whether they occur in social settings or in the privacy of your own fantasies, will be extra interesting, educational, and motivational. Gather them in with gusto! Celebrate them!

Rob Brezsny

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Author A. Conan Doyle said, “It has long been my axiom that the little things are infinitely the most important.” Spiritual teacher John KabatZinn muses, “The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.” Here’s author Robert Brault’s advice: “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Ancient Chinese sage Lao-Tzu provides a further nuance: “To know you have enough is to be rich.” Let’s add one more clue, from author Alice Walker: “I try to teach my heart to want nothing it can’t have.”

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The amount of rubbish produced by the modern world is staggering: over 2 billion tons per year. To get a sense of how much that is, imagine a convoy of fully loaded garbage trucks circling the earth 24 times. You and I can diminish our contributions to this mess, though we must overcome the temptation to think our personal efforts will be futile. Can we really help save the world by buying secondhand goods, shopping at farmer’s markets, and curbing our use of paper? Maybe a little. And here’s the bonus: We enhance our mental health by reducing the waste we engender. Doing so gives us a more graceful and congenial relationship with life. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to meditate and act on this beautiful truth.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I hope that in the coming weeks, you will wash more dishes, do more laundry, and scrub more floors than you ever have before. Clean the bathrooms with extra fervor, too. Scour the oven and refrigerator. Make your bed with extreme precision. Got all that, Scorpio? JUST KIDDING! Everything I just said was a lie. Now here’s my authentic message: Avoid grunt work. Be as loose and playful and spontaneous as you have ever been. Seek record-breaking levels of fun and amusement. Experiment with the high arts of brilliant joy and profound pleasure.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Dear Sagittarius the Archer: To be successful in the coming weeks, you don’t have to hit the exact center of the bull’s-eye every time — or even anytime. Merely shooting your arrows so they land somewhere inside the fourth or third concentric rings will be a very positive development. Same is true if you are engaged in a situation with metaphorical resemblances to a game of horseshoes. Even if you don’t throw any ringers at all, just getting close could be enough to win the match. This is one time in your life when perfection isn’t necessary to win.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I suspect you are about to escape the stuffy labyrinth. There may be a short adjustment period, but soon you will

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “I don’t believe that in order to be interesting or meaning ful, a relationship has to work out — in fiction or in real life.” So says Virgo novelist Elizabeth Curtis Sittenfeld, and I agree. Just because a romantic bond didn’t last forever doesn’t mean it was a waste of energy. An intimate connection you once enjoyed but then broke off might have taught you lessons that are crucial to your destiny. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to acknowledge and celebrate these past experiences of togetherness. Interpret them not as failures but as gifts.

be running half-wild in a liberated zone where you won’t have to dilute and censor yourself. I am not implying that your exile in the enclosed space was purely oppressive. Not at all. You learned some cool magic in there, and it will serve you well in your expansive new setting. Here’s your homework assignment: Identify three ways you will take advantage of your additional freedom.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Though my mother is a practical, sensible person with few mystical propensities, she sometimes talks about a supernatural vision she had. Her mother, my grandmother, had been disabled by a massive stroke. It left her barely able to do more than laugh and move her left arm. But months later, on the morning after grandma died, her spirit showed up in a pink ballerina dress doing ecstatic pirouettes next to my mother’s bed. My mom saw it as a communication about how joyful she was to be free of her wounded body. I mention this gift of grace because I suspect you will have at least one comparable experience in the coming weeks. Be alert for messages from your departed ancestors.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “Those who know the truth are not equal to those who love it,” said the ancient Chinese sage Confucius. Amen! Seeking to understand reality with cold, unfeeling rationality is at best boring and at worst destructive. I go so far as to say that it’s impossible to deeply comprehend anything or anyone unless we love them. Really! I’m not exaggerating or being poetical. In my philosophy, our quest to be awake and see truly requires us to summon an abundance of affectionate attention. I nominate you to be the champion practitioner of this approach to intelligence, Pisces. It’s your birthright! And I hope you turn it up full blast in the coming weeks.

9am 7pm

The Month of Moons

August brings a rare super blue moon.

August has been an exciting month for those that follow moon cycles.

At the beginning of the month, we had the sturgeon full moon. e August full moon is known as the sturgeon moon because the sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain were said to be most readily caught during this full moon.

On August 1st, this moon fell in the astrological sign of Aquarius, making it a time of imagination and reconciling your individualism with your greater community. e sign of Aquarius has two planetary rulers: stable and serious Saturn and disruptive Uranus. While these planets may seem to be in opposition with one another, the combination of their in uences can be empowering for thinking outside of the box to improve the systems you live within. If Saturn represents foundations and walls, Uranus is the wrecking ball that tears them down, and the Water-Bearer proceeds to rebuild them with an improved blueprint.

As if this isn’t enough work to do in one month’s time, August has another surprise for us. Right in the dog days of summer, when it’s too hot to think and we’re forcing ourselves to go to work or school, it just keeps on giving. The month has two full moons this year, giving us a blue moon.

e term “blue moon” is used to describe the second full moon in a single calendar month. It is a rare event that only occurs every two to three years, hence the popular phrase “once in a blue moon.” is year’s blue moon also coincides with a supermoon, which is when the moon is at its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, appearing larger and brighter than usual.

e full sturgeon moon on August 1st was also a supermoon. ere are multiple supermoons each year, meaning the moon is closer than usual to the Earth. However only one of those supermoons places the moon at its closest, and that is the supermoon happening at the end of this month. e super blue moon will peak around 9:30 p.m. on August 31st. So we should get the full show of it! is is going to pack another spiri-

tual punch. e moon moves out of Aquarius and into Pisces for this super blue moon. Full moons are a great time to set intentions, manifest, and receive blessings. But August’s super blue moon is thought to up the ante on full moon properties. is blue moon is believed to bring about a heightened sense of awareness and intuition. It is a time of increased emotional energy, making it an ideal time for healing, meditation, and spiritual practices. e ultra-watery energy of August’s super blue moon in Pisces is opening your heart and mind to all the things bubbling up under the surface, forcing you to face your shadow self and lean into your spirituality. Pisces is the sign of all things mystical— like spirituality, the subconscious, and our dreams. Since this moon cycle is stationed in this magical sign, the rare lunation is a powerful moment to tap into our own psychic abilities, despite our own doubts or skepticism.

Although it sounds like August is piling on with a supermoon in Aquarius making us question our paths and the super blue moon in Pisces enhancing our intuition, these things do go hand in hand. By delving into our intuition, we can get an accurate sense of what we truly want and need, and we can use that to navigate our individuality while being an involved and active member of our communities. Take the time this month to sit and listen to yourself and trust your guiding voice as the moons put on a show for us.

Emily Guenther is a co-owner of e Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained Pagan clergy, and dog mom.

METAPHYSICAL CONNECTION By Emily Guenther

PHOTO: EMILY GUENTHER e super blue moon will peak around 9:30 p.m. on August 31st. It will not be blue.

FOOD By Michael Donahue

Grisanti’s Southaven

Elfo Grisanti’s, which opened two years ago in Southaven, Mississippi, is nally looking the way owners Alex and Kim Grisanti originally envisioned it.

A private dining room and the ladies bathroom still need to be completed, but, other than that, all the remodeling is done, Alex says.

e restaurant at 5627 Getwell Road has the same vibe as his dad’s legendary restaurant, Ronnie Grisanti & Sons, which was on Poplar Avenue near the viaduct. Elfo’s bar, which resembles a “big horseshoe,” is now completed. It has 18 chairs. “We built it like a U-shape. Like the old Ronnie’s.”

ey knocked out the wall where the pizza oven was located so they could make the bar bigger, Alex says. “And we took the bay next to it, too.”

Teresa Brown and Krista Vind, who did the interior work at Elfo’s, also did interior work for Emeril Lagasse’s restaurants. Vind did the concrete work on the bar tops. “It’s actual concrete. And it’s crazy ’cause my bar shines like marble.”

Like his former restaurant in Germantown, the color scheme at the restaurant is black and gold. e walls were made to resemble “18th-century walls,” Alex says. “ ey did all these mosaic walls. It’s beautiful. It’s a whole di erent place. All the walls are concrete. ey look like they’re stained. ey’ve got that gray, black, and white like you see on the old buildings in Italy.”

e kitchen also got an overhaul.

“I bought a new conveyor oven. Our kitchen has been totally redesigned to cook our food. I put in a new pasta boiler. I got new pasta machines to make my fried ravioli and pizza dough.”

Alex also re-hired former employees. “I got all my guys that have been with me and my dad for 20 years. ey’re back with me in the kitchen.”

Elfo’s menu features beloved dishes made from Grisanti family recipes, some of which date to the rst Grisanti’s restaurant, “Grisanti’s on Main,” Alex says. “In two or three months we’re going to start back all our specials. Every day a sh special, a pasta special, a beef special, and

a soup of the day.”

Alex and Kim are seeing a lot of familiar faces at Elfo’s. “All our old customers are eating with me. ey are realizing they live in Germantown, and it takes them no longer to drive to Mississippi than it would Downtown.”

And locals are discovering what a Grisanti’s restaurant is like. “ ese people have never experienced anything like it. Now they’re loading up down here. Oh, my gosh. ey call it ‘Cheers’ now.”

Alex and Kim also relocated to Southaven. But Alex remembers what it was like when he opened the restaurant. “It was like the unknown. I didn’t know anything about Southaven. I didn’t know anything about the area where we were.” But, he says, “It’s just been a blessing. We are in the hot spot where everything is getting built.”

Silo Square, the 288-acre, $200-million mixed-use project along Getwell Road, currently is in the works. “And a friend of ours is building another 120acre development.”

Alex and Kim still have future plans for Elfo’s. “We’ve been slowly talking about the front. Doing a little outside patio. Piazza. But it’ll probably be next year before we get around to it. We’ve redone so much work inside bringing it up to our standards.

“We wanted our customers to have the true Grisanti’s experience — white tablecloths, good service, big glasses of wine. It just took a while to get that dialed in.”

PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE

Elfo Grisanti’s new dining room

Elfo Grisanti’s is remodeled and ready to welcome new diners.

FILM By Chris McCoy

The Kids Are Alright

e 2023 Indie Memphis Youth Film Fest brings student talent to the big screen.

Indie Memphis began in 1998 when University of Memphis lm student Kelly Chandler wanted to create a space where her fellow students could showcase their work. As the festival grew into a major Memphis cultural event, artist development remained a major part of the mission. In 2016, the Indie Memphis Youth Film Fest was launched to help give middleand high-schoolers a taste of the highs and lows of lmmaking.

“We’re giving these students an opportunity to really explore it before they say, ‘ is is de nitely what I wanna do,’” says Joseph Carr, Indie Memphis’ managing director.

Students in the CrewUp program are partnered with adult mentors, experienced lmmakers who will guide them through the process of writing, planning, and producing a short lm. Carr says that even those who discover lmmaking is not for them get valuable experience in creative collaboration. “It can apply to every part of your life. If you can’t collaborate, you’re not gonna be successful in any eld you work in.”

One Youth Film Fest participant who did decide it was for her is Vivian Gray, who won awards at the 2017 and 2018 festival. Gray says she entered her work “on a whim,” but found “it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It shaped so much of my future, just by being able to participate, period. I met other peers who made lms, I met the folks at Indie Memphis who are so supportive, and just to show my work for the rst time publicly was really special, and I’m very grateful for it.”

Carr acted as her mentor when she won a production grant as a prize in 2017. ( e grant program is now awarded by application, separate from the main student competition.) “When

you’re young, you don’t have any concept of how much work it’s going to be,” says Carr. “You just have great ideas and you want your ideas to come to life. Vivian was just so game to jump in and just run with her idea. You could tell very early just how comfortable she was on set, and just how comfortable she was in her voice. When you’re in the presence of a true artist, you can tell very quickly that they have a lot to say.”

Gray went on to earn a degree from the acclaimed University of Southern California lm program. Her short lm, “Tape 23,” debuted at Indie Memphis ’22 and has spent the last year on the festival circuit with “Providence,” a television pilot she directed. She will return to Youth Fest as a juror this year. “I feel like it’s grown even more, and continues to do what it did for me and so many other young lmmakers and artists. It is near and dear to my heart.”

Another artist coming full circle this year is Vivie Myrick. e actor made her screen debut at the Youth Festival and recently appeared on the Showtime TV series, George & Tammy. “She directed a lm last year as her last output for her age group in the Youth Film Fest,” says Carr. “Now she’s now back to host an acting workshop.”

e festival will kick o on Saturday, August 26th, with a keynote address by screenwriter Hennah Sekander.

e recent Memphis transplant has written for the Apple TV+ series Hello Tomorrow! and the Amazon Prime Video Chris Pratt vehicle e Terminal List. “I’m gonna talk about ‘ e Slingshot E ect,’ which is something that I coined under pressure on a

phone call with Joseph Carr because he said we needed a title, and it just felt like the most potent symbol for how you marry character and plot to tell a good story.”

When Craig Brewer introduced Sekander to Carr, she immediately asked how to get involved with Indie Memphis’ youth program. “I think a big reason why this writer strike is happening right now is there’s this feeling of resistance from the studio side to invest in new talent and kind of support younger voices as they try to make their way up the ladder,” Sekander says. “So I think that means it’s all the more important for writers to do that work that probably wasn’t done for them.”

e festival is free for students who sign up for passes and pay-what-youcan for adults. e short lms which premiere this Saturday at the Halloran Centre will represent the culmination of a year of work by the young lmmakers. “I’m always just besidemyself thrilled when these students nish their movies,” says Carr. “Some teams will drop out, or something will come up, and they can’t nish. But seeing these completed lms on the big screen, all the problems we have leading up to it are just melted away.”

e 2023 Indie Memphis Youth Film Fest is Saturday, August 26th, at the Halloran Centre. For the schedule, visit indiememphis.org.

(top) Memphis Youth Showcase feature Blood and Roots; (bottom) CrewUp Youth Mentorship lm Fight 4 Your Love

Our critic picks the best films in theaters.

Gran Turismo

Jann Mardenborough loved the racing simulation, Gran Turismo, and was picked to compete on GT Academy, a reality show where game players competed to get a shot at driving in a real Formula One race. He went on to a career driving for Nissan. His story has been dramatized by District 9 director Neill Blomkamp, starring Midsommar’s Archie Madekwe as Mardenborough and Stranger Things’ David Harbour as his trainer. Expect inspirational speeches about cars that go vroom.

Blue Beetle

The latest superhero story from DC stars

Xolo Maridueña as Jaime Reyes, a Hispanic college student who is gifted superpow-

ers by an alien robot scarab. As he tries to come to terms with his new identity and new responsibilities, he has help from his large extended family, including comedian George Lopez as his uncle.

Talk to Me

While Barbie and Oppenheimer dominated the headlines this summer, the debut horror film from Aussie YouTubers Danny and Michael Philippou has become a sleeper hit. Teenager Mia (Sophie Wilde) tries to use a mummified severed hand to contact the spirit of her dead brother and gets a lot more than she bargained for.

Golda

Helen Mirren stars as Golda Meir, the prime minister who led Israel to victory during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

PRESENTED BY FRIENDS OF THE PINK PALACE MOBILE MINI JUNIOR LEAGUE

NOW PLAYING By Chris McCoy

THE LAST WORD By Winslow Myers

Lahaina and Global Reality

We all face the same fate together.

Rotarian Al Jubitz, founder of the War Prevention Initiative, has pointed out an ill-starred coincidence: the town of Lahaina was burning on the anniversary day, even at the very hour (11:02 a.m. in Japan is 4:02 p.m. in Maui) that the United States dropped its second nuclear weapon on the people of Nagasaki back in 1945.

We have no need to rehash the controversy over whether Japan was ready to surrender even before President Truman decided to use those two city-extinguishing “gadgets” (as Oppenheimer and his team called them in an initial euphemism, one followed by many others, including “peacekeeper”) to quicken the end of a brutal war.

What is in nitely more signi cant for us is what events like the Lahaina holocaust portend for the looming history of our future on Planet Earth. If Lahaina carries an echo of Pearl Harbor, the re-bombing of Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, it also ties together the two largest challenges our species faces together: nuclear war and climate catastrophe.

e two crises are unavoidably and intimately linked. e nine nuclear powers are plunging headlong into the renewal of their nuclear arsenals at just the moment they need to be nding novel ways to cooperate to mitigate global warming. e money and scienti c brainpower desperately needed for the conversion to sustainable energy continue to be drained into an international deterrence system which, as we have seen in Ukraine, does nothing to deter the scourge of war. And should deterrence break down completely, no victory is possible for anyone.

In the case of both challenges, there is no impediment to workable solutions other than the lack of su cient political will and the resistance of powerful special interests — though these are more than enough to accelerate our dri toward a twin apocalypse. is dri is perpetuated by a media environment where the indictment of a clownish con man for a dangerous but ultimately banal conspiracy to steal an election takes up a quantum more space in the press than more hopeful stories appearing at the same time, such as the children, exercising political will at its nest, demanding that the state of Montana live up to its constitutionally guaranteed environmental protections.

Even as we dri , a new idea has been pressing into our collective mind for almost a century: e fates of everyone on the planet are intertwined. is was always true, but now we know it both through the science of ecology and through the poetry of seeing the curve of Earth from space. We’re all in this together. We have only one small home, in the shape of a sphere, and a sphere has only one side. We are all on the same side.

What I do to conserve energy, or waste it, in my local situation a ects everyone else globally, and vice versa. My security is only as strong as the reliability of the circuits and wires in all the nuclear bombs out there, only as strong the training and restraint of the people who maintain them at the ready, only as sure as the communication systems that may be vulnerable to error or misinterpretation, only as healthy as Montana’s willingness to phase out coal. e Golden Rule that appears in all the major world religions turns out to have deep practical, logical, and scienti c implications that call for a profound change in the way we think and act.

Our radical interdependence has been reinforced by our explorations of deep space by the Hubbell and Webb telescopes. Everything on Earth, human, plant, rock, or the miracle of water, derives from atoms forged in the furnaces of stars. Everything is part of the same emergent story that is 26.7 billion years old. We all come from the same place and face the same fate together.

But our thinking has not caught up to such fundamental principles. We remain religiously sectarian and politically factional, blind to a more planetary vision of our self-interest. e hollowness of our avoidance has become a cavern in which we all sit passively, waiting for experts to nd us a way out.

And there are experts. We know a lot about how to resolve our con icts nonviolently. We know more than we ever did about how to communicate clearly, how to share our separate assumptions across languages and cultures to ensure understanding. We can model possible futures with our computers. With their help we can see how the potential of nuclear winter renders the whole enterprise of the nuclear arms race irrelevant at best, malevolent in fact.

But even the most knowledgeable and experienced establishment experts (as one of the most revered, Henry Kissinger, admits) have no idea what will unfold once the chaos of conventional war, say, between the United States and China over Taiwan, escalates to the nuclear level. ere isn’t a single general or statesman on Earth who can predict what will happen, let alone control it to any one party’s advantage. is reality in itself points to the only solution: Survival requires us to go to war against war itself.

In the same way the global climate emergency also invites us to go to war against real enemies like rising levels of greenhouse gases and ocean temperatures, and to mobilize on the level of urgency that the allied powers did during World War II, when our leaders knew that citizens were waiting to be called to sacri ce for a larger cause. e decimation of Lahaina has brought out that spirit of cooperative good will — can we summon a similar spirit to prevent global con agration and build a world where children can ourish?

Winslow Myers, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is the author of Living Beyond War: A Citizen’s Guide

PHOTO: IOFOTO | DREAMSTIME.COM

e two largest challenges our species faces together are nuclear war and climate catastrophe.