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CONTENTS

SHARA CLARK Editor-in-Chief ABIGAIL MORICI 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 JESSE DAVIS, EMILY GUENTHER, COCO JUNE, AJ KRATZ, PATRICIA LOCKHART, FRANK MURTAUGH, DAVID WATERS Contributing Columnists SHARON BROWN, AIMEE STIEGEMEYER Grizzlies Reporters

OUR 1924TH ISSUE 01.08.26 Brrrrrrrt! Pop pop pop! Dut-dut-dut-dut-dut! Prrrt prrrt prrrt!

These were the soothing sounds of New Year’s Eve from my U of M-area home. It’s LEGAL NOTICES a dumb tradition for folks in this city to exclaim “Gunshots or fireworks?!” during this PERSONAL time (and July 4th, or generally whenever loud noises are heard by our neighbors; see PROPERTY Nextdoor or your neighborhood Facebook group). But, for better or worse, we’re used to it. For the nearly two decades I’ve lived in Memphis, each of these holidays brings guns to PUBLIC NOTICE the party. We know for sure which of the bangs aren’t fireworks, and try to name the firearms. (This year, Chris was certain he heard RoboCop’s ED-209 out there blasting away.)

A few years ago, I woke up on New Year’s Day to a fresh hole in the hood of my car from a As required by stray bullet. Our city’s weapons cache is on full display on a night like New Year’s Eve. Tennessee Code So it surprised me to see in my inbox on January 2nd a press release from the MemAnnotated Section phis Safe Task Force (MSTF) announcing the seizure of “12 illicit firearms” on December 31st. The release noted there were 25 criminal arrests that day, but highlighted only one: 67-5-903, the Shelby a person detained on charges ranging from aggravated kidnapping to possession with County Assessor will intent to distribute. The release also noted that during that single search and arrest, eight firearms were recovered. be mailing Tangible While Memphis residents slept to a lullaby of the rapid-fire pops of automatic rifles Personal Property and deep blows of modified shotguns, seemingly right outside of our windows, MSTF Schedules to all active seized eight guns from one guy and a measly four beyond that. The danger of stray bullets alone should have had the thousand-plus agents sent here for “public safety” on the hunt businesses Within for celebratory shooters. Imagine how many illegal firearms could have been recovered if Shelby County by they’d driven the neighborhoods or used their helicopters and fancy tech to find the culprits haphazardly shooting this direction and that. But, no. Instead the big show continFriday, January 9, ued, with droves of National Guardsmen posted on Beale observing the festivities there.

2026. The filing Another January 2nd press release: “Memphis Safe Task Force rings in New Year with Deadline is March nearly 4,700 arrests, and more than 750 illicit firearms seized.” From the statement, since it launched, “The MSTF has arrested 4,698 violent fugitives, seized 758 illegal firearms, 2, 2026. Please call and safely located 132 children. Of those arrested, 463 have been gang members, 24 were the Shelby County for homicide, 76 for sex offenses, and 505 for controlled substances.”

The breakdown in the second sentence gives the appearance of details. But I do Assessor’s office at wonder, what is the identifying criteria for “gang members”? We have already heard 901-222-7002, if you stories of innocent immigrants given false charges and falsely labeled as gang members. needassistance.

MSTF claims all 4,698 of those arrested were “violent fugitives.” Huh? Today, January 6th, at least 1,110 of the current 5,343 arrests are still listed as “other” — meaning the charge has not been publicly released. More than 20 percent of arrests are for unknown charges, according to their own useless data dashboard (memphistn.gov/safedata). But of course, “MSTF has arrested 4,698 violent fugitives.” What, too, of the 132 missing children found?

I have yet to hear from a single parent or caregiver who welcomed home a missing child.

You’d think our TV news outlets would be knocking down doors to get interviews with reunited families. No peep, though.

President Donald Trump in last weekend’s press conference boasted that “crime is Empower Deaf Children to down 77 percent” in Memphis as a result of the operation here, which he said, “just sort of Listen,Deaf Learn, and Talk.

Empower Children to started a few weeks ago.” The Memphis Police Department’s most current data showed a Listen, Learn, and Talk.

22 percent reduction in overall crime from 2024. And MPD announced on September 9, 2025 — before any news of a coming task force — “Overall crime is at a 25-year low, with robbery, burglary, and larceny also reaching 25-year lows. Murder is at a six-year low, aggravated assault at a five-year low, and sexual assault at a twenty-year low.”

You won’t find anything close to a 77 percent drop in any crime category, so where Mr. President came up with that figure is anyone’s guess. If our leader can make up statistics, so can the MSTF. But, hey, at least I received an “acknowledgment letter” on January 5th from U.S. Marshals regarding NEWS & OPINION the records request I submitted November THE FLY-BY - 4 POLITICS - 7 4th: “Your request is currently assigned AT LARGE - 8 to the complex queue, as the records you COMMUNITY - 9 seek, should they exist in USMS systems or COVER STORY files, are likely maintained outside of this “NEW YEAR, NO WEED? ” office. As USMS FOIA will need to search

BY TOBY SELLS - 12 a separate office for potentially responsive ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT records to your request (and this qualifies WE RECOMMEND - 15 as ‘unusual circumstances’ effecting [sic] MUSIC - 16 GIVE A CHILD THE GIFT OF SOUND processing times), the Agency is permitAFTER DARK - 17 www.mosdkids.org ted to invoke an extension to the GIVE statutory CALENDAR - 19 A CHILD THE GIFT OF SOUND NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 21 time limit to respond to your request.” www.mosdkids.org WE SAW YOU - 22 Public records are our right. Govern- www.mosdkids.org FOOD - 24 ment transparency is crucial. But so many METAPHYSICAL CONNECTION - 25 sheep believe the lies, agree with unjust acNEWS OF THE WEIRD - 26 tions, and kneel at the feet of those whose ASTROLOGY - 27 aims are to control and profit off of us.

FILM - 28 NOW PLAYING - 29 With liberty and justice for all …

Shara Clark CLASSIFIEDS - 30 LAST WORD - 31 shara@memphisflyer.com

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THE

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MEMernet

Edited by Toby Sells

W E E K T H AT WA S

By Flyer staff

Memphis on the internet.

Cargo Theft, Trans Inmates, & Tom Lee Park

JUSTICE

New law targets thieves, sexual abuse in prisons, and the park wins more international acclaim.

POSTED TO FACEBOOK BY STEVE MULROY

“Justice never sleeps,” wrote Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy on Facebook last week. His post had him “working down at 201 on New Year’s Day.” LBOE A bit of Midtown restaurant history was for sale on Facebook Marketplace last week.

Someone was selling the neon sign that once adorned Madison’s Last Burger on Earth (LBOE) restaurant.

January 8-14, 2026

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Questions, Answers + Attitude

“ONE BALL” A Ring Neighbor POSTED TO (the platform doesn’t FACEBOOK really do user MARKETPLACE names) lost a cute bulldog right around New Year’s Day. They posted the photo below and a disclaimer to ward off any with business intentions: “He has one ball and cannot be bred.”

One commenter wrote, “He can still practice.”

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CARGO THEFT New legislation aims to combat cargo theft, a fast-growing crime hitting Memphis harder than almost anywhere else in the U.S. In early December, U.S. senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced the bipartisan Cargo Security Innovation Act. The legislation would create a federal pilot program to deploy advanced surveillance and cargo-tracking technology at major intermodal hubs and require a report to Congress evaluating its effectiveness.

Memphis, one of the nation’s busiest freight gateways, has become a hot spot for increasingly sophisticated cargo theft rings.

Klobuchar said the crimes disrupt the supply chain and are hitting shippers — especially food shippers — forcing carriers to return or destroy compromised goods.

Nationwide, cargo theft jumped 57 percent in 2023, with reported PHOTO: MEMPHIS RIVER PARKS PARTNERSHIP losses topping $400 million, acThe redesigned Tom Lee Park won the Large Urban Park Award for North America. cording to federal data. In Memphis, thefts in the first six months of 2024 climbed nearly 60 percent over all of 2023, according including A Monument to Listening by Theaster Gates. to data supplied by the senators.

TRANSGENDER INMATES TOM LEE PARK EARNS AWARD Incarcerated transgender adults and juveniles experience Tom Lee Park won the Large Urban Park Award for North violence and sexual abuse at the hands of inmates and staff, America from World Urban Parks last month. despite constitutional protections, according to a new policy Announced in Istanbul, Turkey, at the World Urban brief.

Parks Symposium, the award celebrates excellence in urban “Despite inmates’ 8th and 14th Amendment rights to parks and green spaces worldwide. Tom Lee Park was one of be free from cruel and unusual punishment, states and the just three large urban parks in North America honored by current federal government are targeting trans inmates in the international organization. prisons and jails,” the report from the Tennessee Equality Tom Lee Park’s 31 acres on the Memphis riverfront were Project and the Human Rights Campaign stated. transformed and reintroduced in 2023. Since reopening, the Transgender, gender-nonconforming, and intersex park has recorded more than 2 million visitors representing inmates make up less than 0.3 percent of Tennessee’s more than 5,000 zip codes, according to the partnership. prison population. The brief said at least 59 of the state’s The park has now earned roughly a dozen major awards, roughly 22,500 prisoners are transgender or intersex, including the Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award noting the figures are likely underestimates due to fear in 2024 and the Urban Land Institute Americas Awards for of disclosure.

Excellence in 2025.

The information was compiled to illustrate the potenDesigned by Studio Gang and SCAPE, Tom Lee Park tial impact of the proposed Tennessee Women’s Safety features a Mississippi River-inspired landscape with native and Protection Act, which would redefine gender using plantings, restored bluff ecosystems, a destination play“visible genital anatomy.”

Visit the News Blog at memphisflyer.com for fuller versions of ground, courts under the Sunset Canopy, water features, these stories and more local news. outdoor classrooms, meditative spaces, and public art,

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Pressure mounts for Governor Bill Lee to rejoin federal summer EBT program.

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ennessee Governor Bill Lee had not yet made public as of press time his decision on whether the state will take tens of millions of federal dollars to feed hungry children here this coming summer.

The deadline for the decision was January 1st. No decision has been publicly posted from the governor’s office.

Lee declined to apply for the federal Summer EBT program last year. The move forfeited between $75 million and $84 million from the federal government that would have fed 700,000 Tennessee children throughout the summer.

Lee said the state could not afford the $5 million administrative costs to run the federal program in the state. Instead, he ran a pilot program that provided summer meals to about 18,000 children in 15 rural counties that cost about $2.1 million. Shelby County was not included in this program.

These funds were distributed as onetime payments of $120 per child. Analysis

by The Tennessean found that the cost share of running the federal program here was $6 per child.

A chorus of officials and advocacy groups from across the state urged Lee to recommit to the federal program. About 38 county mayors added their voices in an early-December letter from the Tennessee Justice Center (TJC).

Though the full text of the letter was not published, the TJC said the “fight to secure Summer EBT for Tennessee children in 2026 is not over.”

“Tennessee’s reversal on Summer EBT this past summer was a hit to families trying to afford food,” said Signe Anderson, the TJC’s senior director of nutrition advocacy. “Families were also hit in November when SNAP benefits were blocked

PHOTO: LAURA KIMBALL | UNSPLASH

Lee said the state could not afford to run the program. from reaching food-insecure households.”

The TJC said neighboring states of Kentucky, Arkansas, and Alabama have already opted in.

Last month the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Williamson County sent a letter to Lee, signed by LWV groups from 32 counties. That letter said that Lee should feel confident rejoining the federal program after having tested his own summer program. They said the federal program costs about as much as his stateonly plan did.

“The high participation rate of eligible families both summers confirmed that parents are desperate to use whatever resources are available to provide an adequate diet for their children,” reads the letter. “Any parent can understand what it would be like to watch your children go hungry or to give them food you know is unhealthy because it is all you can afford.

“Low-income families are haunted by their awareness that the trauma of childhood hunger can have harmful effects over their children’s entire lives.”

More recently, U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN9) urged Lee to join the program in a letter of his own last week.

“As you know, grocery prices are up tremendously,” Cohen said. “It is concerning you would turn down nearly $84 million meant to feed hungry children at a time when affordability should be the first issue on all our agendas.

“I urge you to direct the Tennessee Department of Human Services to apply for these important funds. There is no good reason to turn down aid for hungry children.”

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The year began briefing on this operation, and has yet with two surprises, to receive a clear explanation of the legal the greater of basis, the post-action strategy, or how this which, of course, administration intends to prevent chaos, being the dramatic protect civilians, and support a legitimate — and wholly democratic transition in Venezuela. unexpected — “The Trump administration owes raid ordered by Congress and the American people President Donald Trump on Venezuela a clear path to stability. Removing a and the extraction therefrom of dictator dictator is not the same as securing Nicolás Maduro to stand trial for peace. What happens next will determine “narco-terrorism.” whether this leads to accountability, or A lesser astonishment, from a local another costly failure with long-term point of view, was that Trump, in his consequences for the region and US first post-raid press conference, chose to credibility.” dilate on what the president deemed the Both Cohen and his opponent in successes of another recent intervention the forthcoming Democratic primary — by the Memphis Safe Task Force. for Congress were in the throng that Regarding Memphis, Trump told attended the 30th anniversary of the reporters, “right now crime is down 77 annual New Year’s Prayer Breakfast percent” in the city as founded and emceed a result of the activities for 29 years by the late of the task force, which former councilman he called into being in and interim Mayor September. (Statistics Myron Lowery. released by the task This year’s Prayer force January 2nd Breakfast was presided claim a total of 4,700 over by Lowery’s arrests, the seizure of son Mickell Lowery, 750 illegal guns, and a Shelby County the recovery of 132 Commissioner and missing children.) current candidate Reacting to the for county mayor, PHOTO: U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES | president’s remarks, who movingly WIKIMEDIA COMMONS the office of Mayor memorialized his Steve Cohen Paul Young issued father, as did several a statement that it attendees. couldn’t “speak to” those figures. But Cohen and Mayor Paul Young were Young had done his own crowing last the principal speakers at the breakfast, week, releasing figures contending that and the congressman seemed to be in the two years of his first term so far, endorsing the mayoral campaign of overall crime in Memphis had been Lowery. reduced by 41 percent, violent crime by 30 percent, murders by 47 percent, and • Observers of the mayoral race keenly aggravated assaults by 24 percent. await the forthcoming first end-ofJanuary financial reports as some • Meanwhile, Memphis Congressman indication of who’s who in the candidate Steve Cohen reacted to the main subject pecking order. The deadline date for filing of the president’s press conference, those reports is January 15th, which, the seizure of Maduro. Cohen had incidentally, is the date of the first major misgivings. fundraiser for Marie Feagins, the former “Maduro is a dictator who stole an schools superintendent whose firing by election and brutalized his own people,” the Memphis-Shelby County Schools said the congressman on Facebook. “Few board last year made her a martyr/ will defend his rule. But even the removal celebrity and, ultimately, a viable mayoral of a bad actor does not justify violating candidate. the Constitution by engaging in an act of Feagins has made two separate war without Congressional authorization. announcements as a candidate, indicating “Removing a regime without a clear she will run as a Democrat, but has not plan for what comes next risks instability, yet pulled a petition, and speculation is violence, and a humanitarian crisis. The rife as to whether she can qualify as a United States has paid a heavy price for primary candidate under Democratic this kind of thinking before.

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had an hour drive ahead of me last reporters, “We need Greenland,” and Saturday morning, so I tuned my that we would “think about it in 20 days.” radio to CNN on Sirius, thinking I Greenland is a peaceful, legitimate democwould catch up on the mind-bogracy and part of NATO. There’s no dictagling news of the previous night, when it tor, no drug-running boats, no legitimate was announced we’d invaded Venezuela, reason whatsoever for the United States to captured its president, Nicolás Maduro try to assume control of another peaceful (and his wife), and spirited them off to the sovereign nation. Trump is Putin in an United States to face American criminal Uncle Sam suit. Or a toddler in a toy store. charges. Welcome to regime-change, 2026 Every day there’s a new outrage. Tear edition. down the East Wing, rename the Kennedy After months of murdering VenezueCenter, ignore the emoluments clause, use lans in small boats in international waters, federal troops against American citizens, it was apparently time to make somebody ignore the Constitutional mandate that face prosecution. Why not the dictator Congress must approve the use of military whose country holds 17 percent of the force. None of it garners any meaningful world’s oil? opposition. There are no longer any instiAs I started the car, CNN was antutional guardrails. The Supreme Court is nouncing the start of a press conference compromised. Congress is toothless. The on the Venezuela situation. Donald people are scrolling social media.

Trump began, obviously following a tight The “Gang of Eight,” the bipartisan script at first, then, as is inevitable these group of congressional leaders that is days, he began repeating his talking points supposed to be consulted in advance on over and over and “weaving” into digresmilitary actions such as those that took sive free-style ramblings and hyperbole. It place in Venezuela, was reduced to a went on. And on. Thirty “Gang of Tom Cotton,” minutes later, he introthe GOP senator who duced “Secretary of War” was apparently the only Pistol Pete Hegseth, who, lawmaker apprised of the in his best Fox News voice raid in advance. lavishly and glibly praised None of this imperialTrump and the amazing ist play-acting ends well. never-to-be-equalled Trump says we will “run American “warriors” who Venezuela,” and that he’s pulled off the most amaz“not afraid of boots on the ing kidnapping ever. ground.” Well, of course Hegseth, in turn, he’s not. Why should introduced General Dan he be? Such a concern PHOTO: U.S. HOUSE “Raizin” Caine (yes, that’s would involve empathy OF REPRESENTATIVES, how they spell it), the for the men and women PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS former venture capitalin uniform who’ll be sent Marjorie Taylor Greene ist now serving as the to guard the faraway oil 22nd chairman of the fields of Exxon, Mobil, Joint Chiefs of Staff. Ol’ Raizin went on to and Shell and patrol the streets of Caracas. minutely detail the operation’s particulars Or Havana. Or New Orleans. Or wherever — the kinds of planes and helicopters, Trump’s demented military fantasies lead the ships, the fighting “men” from all four him next. military branches and the FBI who pulled International laws are being broken. off the greatest military maneuver ever.

Crimes are being committed by Ameri“Like nothing ever seen in history before,” can troops under the direction of a luaccording to Trump. natic and his enablers. It’s quite an irony And on it went some more. Secrethat the strongest and most outspoken tary of State Marco Rubio was next, and Trump critic in Congress is now Marwhen a reporter asked him about Cuba jorie Taylor Greene. No one else there and whether that country should also be seems to realize that we are well past the “worried” about an invasion from the U.S., point of civil debate, of furrowed-brow Rubio said Cuba was run by “senile old “concerns” from our leaders. Noise must men” and that they should indeed be worbe made. Congressional lawsuits must ried. As he said this, the senile old man be filed. Courage must be found beyond standing directly behind him was swaying trolling Trump with glib memes from dreamily with his eyes closed.

Gavin Newsom. We are standing on the What the hell, people? Where does precipice of losing our country. We’ve this stop? Less than 24 hours after the blown a gasket. Our democracy is leakVenezuelan incursion, Trump was telling ing oil.

C O M M U N I T Y B y D a v i d Wa t e r s , I n s t i t u t e f o r P u b l i c S e r v i c e R e p o r t i n g

Refuge, Faith, and ICE

PHOTOS: MICAELA WATTS

(above) Latif Salar (holding hymnal), pastor of the Memphis Christ Community Afghan Church, and Darla Richardson of Refugee Memphis sing Christmas songs of hope and joy at Second Baptist Church on a Sunday.

(above) Mark Morris (left), founder of Refugee Memphis, and Latif Salar, pastor of the Memphis Christ Community Afghan Church, speak on behalf of Afghan refugees who are being targeted for detention and deportation. (left) Rev. Dr. Stephen Cook, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Memphis: “As your pastor, I have to say to you that saying nothing and doing nothing in the face of these realities is not an option.” our country, but immigration is not a black-and-white issue. These people were allowed in; they didn’t sneak in.”

Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor ICE immediately responded to inquiries from the Institute for Public Service Reporting about the detention of Khadija and her family.

In the summer of 2021, the Biden administration evacuated approximately 80,000 Afghans as U.S. troops were

being withdrawn after a decade of war.

“I want to thank these brave Afghans for standing with the United States, and today, I am proud to say to them: ‘Welcome home,’” President Joe Biden said.

Two years later, the administration introduced a “Family Reunification for Afghans” program. It allowed Afghans already here to sponsor their family members to come to the U.S. as refugees. Another 120,000 Afghans were permitted to enter the U.S. on “parole” and were shielded from deportation.

The Trump administration eliminated the shield. “We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden,” Trump said late last month.

Khadija, her husband, and their children came to Memphis in 2023 from Brazil, one of the first nations to offer humanitarian visas for Afghans fleeing the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

After a long and arduous journey from Brazil, the family used the Biden-era CBP One app to book an appointment at a U.S. border crossing to request asylum.

They were given an electronic I-94 travel document that allowed them to enter and work in the U.S. for up to two years while they applied for asylum.

Their immigration court hearing was scheduled for December 26th. They were arrested and detained December 4th. Richardson said the family has a new court date for January 26th in Texas, but they are having trouble finding an attorney there.

“They came here out of desperation to escape the Taliban,” said Richardson, a compassion ministry catalyst for the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. “They came here with permission. They were following the rules, but the rules keep changing. Now they are one step from being deported, and we know how the Taliban treats women and Christians.”

Khadija and her family are among dozens of Afghan refugees who came to Memphis after the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

Many are Christian converts and ethnic Hazara, one of the largest ethnic minorities in Afghanistan. In the 1990s, all Hazara groups united with the Northern Alliance against the Taliban. Thousands of Hazara were slaughtered.

In 2021, a girls’ school in a continued on page 10

NEWS & OPINION

T

he immigration agents took Khadija’s husband on a Thursday morning last month. He was walking their two boys to school in Memphis.

They had his name and photo on a long list of people the previous government had welcomed into the country a few years before. The new government has changed its mind.

Khadija’s husband, Qudratullah, begged the agents not to handcuff him in front of his boys, ages 5 and 9. They did it anyway. They took the Afghan national and his boys to a detention center near the airport.

Then they called Khadija and told her to come to the detention center to pick up their sons. When she arrived, they arrested her and took the entire family to a federal detention center in Dilley, Texas.

Khadija wept. “She is crying and screaming all night, every night,” said Latif Salar, pastor of Christ Community Afghan Church in Memphis and Khadija’s brother-in-law.

Salar, who has a Permanent Resident Card, and his wife, a U.S. citizen, speak on the phone to Khadija and her husband every day. “They were just beginning to recover from the trauma of the Taliban. And now this.”

The Trump administration’s campaigns of mass detention and deportation aren’t entirely focused on noncitizens from Latin America.

In late November, after an Afghan man was identified as the suspected shooter of two National Guard officers in Washington, President Trump halted the processing of all immigration applications (including those for asylum) from Afghan nationals “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”

He ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to “review” the cases of Afghans who entered the country after the 2021 withdrawal of all U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. “We must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country,” Trump said November 28th from his resort in Florida.

A week later, Khadija and her family were arrested and detained.

“I’m a very conservative person, but I don’t understand it,” said Darla Richardson, a Baptist missionary who is trying to help Khadija’s family and other Afghan refugees who have been detained in Memphis in recent weeks.

“I want the right people coming into

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

They followed the rules. But an Afghan family seeking asylum has been arrested and faces deportation back to the vindictive Taliban.

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predominantly Hazara area of Kabul was bombed by religious extremists. The blast killed 90 and injured 240. Most of the casualties were girls ages 11 to 15.

“Two years ago, I came to this vast land with a broken heart, a wounded soul, homeless and lost, seeking refuge from the hardships of life,” Jalil Buda, one of the Memphis Afghan refugees, wrote last July on his Facebook page.

“I came from a hell where I still don’t know who is to blame. My body still carries the scent of the blood of those girls and boys whose remains I gathered from the streets and schools.

A land that never allowed me to feel even a moment of belonging, where my childhood was riddled with the bullets of violence and humiliation. But America and its noble people — especially the circle of friends I live among — have given my life meaning in this beautiful land. Their kindness and dignity have made me feel the pulse of life again. For America and all my friends here, I wish nothing but the best.”

Jalil, who says he was beaten by the Taliban for reading a Bible, came to Memphis in 2022 with his younger brother, Halil, to join the Afghan church. They both have CBP One visas and I-94 travel documents.

Their parents and three other siblings haven’t been so fortunate. “They all made it to Brazil, but they waited too long to try to come here,” Richardson said. “While they were waiting in Mexico, Donald Trump closed down those programs.”

Richardson said the family was being threatened by Mexican cartels and had nowhere else to go. So, in September, they surrendered to the U.S. Border Patrol and asked for asylum. They were sent to a federal detention center in Laredo, Texas.

The parents and their 7-year-old child were released after 30 days. Richardson and Jalil drove to Laredo to pick them up and bring them back. Jalil’s other brother, Safar, a deaf and mute adult, also was released. But their 21-year-old sister, Sakina, remains in El Valle Detention Facility in Texas. An immigration judge has ordered her to be deported.

“She’s the only one left,” Richardson said. “Why are they doing this? They all are good people. Whatever the current laws and rules say about their legal status, they all are refugees.”

Richardson has spent the past few weeks trying to help Jalil, Khadija, and other Afghan refugees.

She works with Refugee Memphis, a local Christian nonprofit that befriends, serves, and prays for and with refugees from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, and other places.

In November, she and Pastor Salar took another Afghan refugee named Ali to the police station in Bartlett to

help him pay a ticket for going 10 miles over the speed limit. Ali, a chicken farmer who fled the Taliban, came to Memphis in 2023. The police notified ICE, who arrested Ali and sent him to a federal detention center in Louisiana.

“I didn’t intend to do this kind of work. It’s exhausting. But I know what God has done for me,” Richardson said.

“God has called me to share the Good News with all the nations, and God has brought all the nations here.”

On a recent Sunday, Richardson and Salar and all the nations gathered at Second Baptist Church, which once hosted the Afghan congregation.

They sang “Joy to the World” and “What Child Is This?” and other songs to celebrate the season.

They heard Bible passages about the light that darkness cannot overcome and a soul that magnifies the Lord.

They told stories about the peace that passes all understanding and faith in things unseen.

They prayed for Latif and his family, Jalil and his family, Khadija and her family.

They heard good news about Ali, who was released from detention in Louisiana two days before. An immigration judge granted him asylum.

“America and its noble people … have given my life meaning in this beautiful land.”

“All of these people need the intercession and care of their brothers and sisters in Christ,” Mark Morris, a longtime missionary and founder of Refugee Memphis, told the assembly.

At the end of the service, before he gave the benediction, Rev. Dr. Stephen Cook invited the congregation to join him in signing a letter being sent to elected officials in Memphis and Washington.

“We call upon you to urgently and favorably consider the serious threats our neighbors are facing” if they are deported, the letter states. “We pray that you will join us in speaking up for and standing with our Afghan neighbors in this time of profound instability and deep fear.”

Cook said the letter isn’t political. It’s biblical. “These people are sisters and brothers in the Body of Christ who are here legally and have done everything they are supposed to do. They may die if they are sent back to the place from which they have fled,” Cook said. “As your pastor, I have to say to you that saying nothing and doing nothing in the face of these realities is not an option.”

David Waters is Distinguished Journalist in Residence and assistant director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis.

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NEW YEAR, NO WEED?

Your favorite gummies and other cannabis products set to disappear after bans from state, federal GOP.

tax advantages for some marijuana companies. This is great news for those full cannabis programs in other states, but no program in Tennessee means no effect on us.

However, it could crack a door here.

Now that cannabis is removed from the list of the worst drugs in America, it could trigger new discussions on recreational or medical marijuana in the state. Lawmakers here have long said they would only consider a medical or recreational program for Tennessee if the drug was removed from the Schedule I. We’ll be watching this closely this year.

But back on “legal” THC. When the federal stalemate on a national spending plan ended, so, too, did the freewheeling days of hemp-derived cannabinoid products. That’s the distinctly unsexy way to describe those weed gummies, THC bevvies, and chill-out chocolates you’ve come to know, love, and, maybe, even depend upon.

“Absolutely, extremely difficult” is how Clint Palmer of the Hemp Law Group described the cannabis business in Tennessee.

PHOTO: ADAM GRYKO | DREAMSTIME.COM

January 8-14, 2026

C O V E R S T O R Y B y To b y S e l l s

G

et legally high while you still can.

The legal THC train for a ton of products is likely leaving the station.

Neither you nor your fellow Americans are invited to board.

To be clear, we’re not talking about legal marijuana, like Colorado’s famous recreational program, or even medical marijuana programs in places like Arkansas and Mississippi. A big federal move last month brightened the future of all of those programs.

We’re talking about products that have been extracted from legal hemp, 12 reformulated into synthetic weed strains, and stirred into your favorite beverage or

gummy. We’re also talking about strains of cannabis that in flower form (bud) test below the state-mandated .3 percent of THC but when burned rise well above that, usually THCA. Lawmakers from across the land have lost their appetite for Baked Bags, Double Doinks, bags of Cheetah Piss THCA flower, and the galaxy of getyou-high vape pens available anywhere gas is sold. They say the $28 billion hemp monster that grew from the 2018 Farm Bill is not what they ordered.

Now, they’re sending it back. While some time is left on the clock for those gummies and giggle waters, experts don’t hold on to much hope that we’ll

ever see their like again.

For these products in Tennessee, you may have until the end of June 2026. Across the country, you may have until mid-November 2026.

Oh, but Trump made weed legal late last year, right? No. He emphasized this fact when he signed the executive order, saying it “doesn’t legalize marijuana in any way, shape, or form, and in no way sanctions its use as a recreational drug.”

What Trump did do was downgrade cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III, a Biden-era idea that puts weed in the same category as Tylenol. It opens the door for medical research. It allows

The Tennessee situation Cannabis in Tennessee has been on a wild ride. Check our timeline of changes. The ups, downs, lawsuits, rule changes, exceptions, products banned, and banned products allowed for a little while longer — all of it with a group of wary lawmakers who can change the entire industry with one vote — has made the cannabis business a game only for the iron-willed.

“Absolutely, extremely difficult” is how Clint Palmer described the cannabis business in Tennessee.

He’s the compliance officer with the Nashville-based Hemp Law Group and has been lobbying the Tennessee General Assembly on hemp issues since 2014. He listed off a litany of major changes to the cannabis industry here in just a few short years.

For example, when the legislature changed the total-milligram-perpackage rule last year, cannabis businesses had to recall every package they’d already sold from every cannabis store and gas station. Then they had to throw away the thousands of packaging containers they already had printed.

They had to print new ones, make new products that complied with the new restrictions, package them, and sell them again.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous the amount of work and money that’s been put in,” Palmer said.

Why do it? In the hours of testimony before Tennessee General Assembly over the years, cannabis business people have said they truly do believe in the product. It has mental and physical benefits, they’ve said, and is a healthy alternative to alcohol.

Then, there’s the money. It is a lot of money, especially in a state that starves cannabis consumers of products so widely available in other states. In 2023, Whitney Economics projected a market here worth between $282 million and $734 million. Market watcher Vicente LLP said the Tennessee market was worth $245 million last year (with per capita sales of $40.50 per adult).

In a story in April, we reported that state experts estimated the size of Tennessee’s overall cannabis market to be about $120.4 million in 2023-2024.

The figure was based on a U.S. market for hemp-derived cannabis products projected at $5 billion in 2026.

However, those experts projected cannabis sales of $226.7 million by 2026 if THCA remained legal. Tennessee tax collections on those products would have been $13.6 million.

THCA and smokable products make up around 75 percent of this total market, experts have said. But businessfriendly GOP members still said, “No, thank you.”

In an unusually close vote last year, House members took a hard stance on the .3 percent THC limit and a full ban on THCA. In their view, cannabis businesses here gambled on an illegal product and lost.

“Six years ago, I carried the bill that allowed us to grow hemp in this state and have many of these products,” Representative Chris Todd (R-Madison County) said on the floor. “But I will tell you at that time, the [Tennessee

TENNESSEE CANNABIS TIMELINE

• Early 1800s: Hemp arrived in Tennessee with pioneer families from North Carolina and Virginia.

• 1800s: Hemp grown widely across Tennessee, especially Middle Tennessee.

• 1870: Census records show more than 150 tons of hemp grown in Sumner County alone. Used primarily in making sails for ships and rope.

• 1945: Hemp production declined after World War II. • 1970: Hemp made illegal and labeled as a Schedule I drug.

• 2014: Congress passed the 2014 Farm Bill, which allowed states to create agricultural pilot programs to study the growing and marketing of industrial hemp.

• 2014: Tennessee General Assembly creates the Tennessee Industrial Hemp Research Pilot Program. Hemp cultivated for market and growth research only. No hemp plants or products could legally cross state lines.

• 2015: Only 49 growers licensed under Tennessee’s pilot program.

• 2018: Congress passed new Farm Bill. Allowed states and Indian tribes Growers Coalition], well, I will say to regulate hemp production. Allowed hemp to move across state lines. there were folks that deceived me and Removed hemp plants and hemp products from the Controlled Substances deceived our leaders and many others Act. Hemp farmers got access to insurance and United States Department in this body.” of Agriculture (USDA) programs and grants.

In that debate, Representative Kevin • 2018: Tennessee hemp surged with new Farm Bill. Tennessee became Vaughan (R-Memphis) spoke loudly the largest hemp program in the country with 3,957 growers on 51,000 among the GOP to keep THCA legal in licensed acres.

Tennessee.

• 2019: Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) “I have a hard empowered to regulate hemp. time that this body • 2023: New rules from the legislature moved canhas told [businesses] Hemp in Tennessee: nabis products on shelves behind the counters of stores that this is a new less than .3 percent that weren’t 21 and over. The law established a 6-percent commercial venture tax on cannabis products.

Total THC amounts in prodin our state, and of delta-9 THC. ucts were changed from a maximum of 25 milligrams to then, two years Legal.

15 milligrams. later, we’re going The rules threatened highly profitable smokable to turn the lights products. But industry organizations hoped to work off,” Vaughan said.

Marijuana: through issues with state officials.

“Understand that cannabis with more • 2024: TDA establishes a licensing program and even if we take permanent rules for hemp-derived cannabinoid product [THCA out], these than .3 percent THC. suppliers and retailers. These rules established a hard stores will still be Illegal. ceiling of .3 percent THC in all products. in the business of Tennessee Growers Coalition (TGC) sues the state selling intoxicants.” over the rules. It argued they would effectively ban profRepresentative itable, smokable products like THCA. Sabi Kumar Smokables were set to disappear from store shelves by December 26th.

(R-Springfield) argued that the A Davidson County judge granted a temporary injunction just before legislature got “carried away by the Christmas, allowing smokables on shelves while the court case proceeded. commercial advantages” of cannabis • 2025: State lawmakers moved regulatory authority of hemp to the Tenin Tennessee, claiming lives are torn nessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC). apart by marijuana addiction and that They also banned THCA products, arguing the smokable flower bewas part of the reason he voted to ban comes an illegal form of cannabis in Tennessee when burned. The move THCA. stunned the Tennessee cannabis industry.

“Marijuana is playing havoc on our Sales of THCA products set to end January 1, 2026. society,” Kumar said. “We talk about The TABC and the Tennessee Healthy Alternatives Association entered anxiety. We talk about mental health. into an agreement that allowed for smokable products to remain on some We talk about schizophrenia and shelves until June 30, 2026. various psychological maladies.

Congress passes new rules that closely mirrored what had been done in “Yes, we blame the internet for it, Tennessee. The national hemp industry reeled. The rules don’t go into effect but, my friends, I submit to you that until November 2026. marijuana, and its prevalent use, is playing a role in this malady that is PHOTO: AMENA | ADOBE STOCK affecting our society for that reason.”

Still, THCA and other intoxicating THC products will remain on shelves when the Tennessee General Assembly convenes in January.

Thanks to a deal made between the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) and industry group Tennessee Healthy Alternatives Association, these products can remain continued on page 14

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PHOTO: HELGAQ | DREAMSTIME.COM

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continued from page 13 on store shelves until June 30th.

Also, a December 26th ban date on THCA products was halted last year on a temporary injunction from a Davidson County judge. The Tennessee Growers Coalition sued the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, claiming the agency overstepped with its new rules on THCA. That hearing is slated for February.

It seems all of this could leave the door cracked on the issue for, maybe, some new rules to give new life to the cannabis industry here. Palmer, the Tennessee cannabis lobbyist, was not optimistic.

The cannabis vote last year really was a tough battle, he said, one that split a typically unified Republican Party.

With that and the rules now set firmly in place, Palmer thought there is little appetite for the legislature to bring the issue back.

That did not stop state Senator Raumesh Akbari from finding (and pushing for) a bit of hope hours after Trump’s executive order on marijuana.

“The federal government is moving in the right direction on cannabis and Tennessee lawmakers should take note,” Akbari said in a statement. “Our marijuana laws are stuck in the dark ages — overly punitive, out of step with our neighbors, and holding our state back.

“If Washington can acknowledge reality, Tennessee can, too. It’s time for the General Assembly to take a serious step forward on cannabis reform.”

PHOTO: CAPITOL.TN.GOV

Chris Todd

PHOTO: CAPITOL.TN.GOV

Kevin Vaughan

PHOTO: TANARCH | ADOBE STOCK

PHOTO: CAPITOL.TN.GOV

Sabi Kumar

January 8-14, 2026

The federal situation Tucked way down deep in the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act of 2026 was a provision you might have missed (if you didn’t already pass out just reading the name of the legislation). Using a lot of jargony jargon, Congress quietly closed something now called the “hemp loophole.”

The 2018 Farm Bill opened this loophole. Its provision allowing states to regulate hemp (kept under .3 percent THC) cut space for that tiny loophole.

Weed scientists took what was legal, transformed it, and created some incredibly potent synthetic products with it. People love weed and love 14 getting intoxicated, they found out.

So, through that tiny loophole (and

with some incredible science) came a behemoth hemp industry now said to be valued at $28 billion.

The new federal legislation changed the limit on products to a total THC concentration of less than .3 percent.

Compare that to the Nowadays “Micro Dose” cannabis-infused drink that is available online with two milligrams of cannabis per serving. That’s more than 150 percent over what the new limit will be. Other popular products are way more than that. Gigli Cherry Limeade THC cocktail is 10 milligrams in six ounces.

Under the new federal law, those all go away. It bans hemp-based or hempderived products, including delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations and corner stores, or anywhere else, while preserving nonintoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products.

The Senate Appropriations Committee said the changes were made to prevent “the unregulated sale of intoxicating” hemp products in light of concerns surrounding the proliferation of hemp cannabinoid products. The new definition of hemp explicitly includes industrial hemp, likely as fiber products.

The reason Congress did this was really the same reason Tennessee lawmakers did it. They felt like they got duped. Senator Mitch McConnell (D-KY) said from the Senate floor in November that “industrial hemp and CBD will remain legal for industrial applications — such as seed, stock, fiber, grain oil — or used in drug trials.”

“Unfortunately, companies have exploited a loophole in the 2018 legislation by taking legal amounts of THC from hemp and turning it

PHOTO: CAPITOL.TN.GOV

Raumesh Akbari

into intoxicating substances and then marketing it to children in candylike packaging and selling it in easily accessible places like gas stations and convenience stores across our country,” said McConnell from the Senate floor in November. “This language merely clarifies the original intent of the 2018 Farm Bill, rooting out the bad actors and protecting the growing hemp industry.”

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) vehemently disagreed, calling the move “the most thoughtless, ignorant proposal to an industry that I’ve seen in a long, long time.”

“The numbers put forward in this bill will eliminate 100 percent of the hemp products in our country,” Paul said. “That amounts to an effective ban because the limit is so low that the products intended to manage pain or anxiety will lose their effect.”

When the hemp industry got wind of the change in Washington, they were not happy, of course. Congress and President Donald Trump had wiped out their entire business. That business in the U.S. is estimated to be worth $28 billion. If the law stands, that money would be wiped out, and industry groups like the U.S. Hemp Roundtable project layoffs of around 300,000 people.

In many ways, the fight at the federal level mirrored exactly what happened in Tennessee. And just like our situation, there is still time to make some changes. Just like our situation, too, a lobbyist isn’t hopeful.

“When you start getting into anything that touches things that are intoxicating or intended to be intoxicating or intended to mimic or be equivalent to cannabis products,” said Cory Harris, principal at Washingtonbased Furrow Strategies, “that’s where there’s just no appetite left in Congress to give any additional airtime to that conversation.”

Looking ahead It’s hard to imagine going back to a true prohibition on almost all cannabis products in Tennessee. Through nearly a decade of our CannaBeat reporting, we’ve watched Tennessee awkwardly and slowly embrace cannabis as best it can.

It’s also hard to imagine any lawmaker closing the lid on an entire economic sector worth billions of dollars and employing hundreds of thousands of people. But that’s exactly where we sit now.

Will the hordes of cannabis-loving consumers in Tennessee — now used to THC in everything from ketchup to candies — go back to scoring a bag of grass from some shady dealer in a gas station parking lot? Or will state and federal lawmakers be convinced that the future has arrived, it’s green, and millions of consumers don’t want to go back?

Wellness January

By Abigail Morici

PHOTO: COLLINS DILLARD

Crosstown 5K/10K benefits Church Health.

This January, Crosstown Concourse, in partnership with Church Health, Church Health YMCA, and Crosstown Arts, is putting on a series of free wellness events every Saturday to kick off 2026. Concluding with the Crosstown 10K/5K benefiting Church Health on January 24th, the first-ever Wellness January features group exercise sessions, healthy meal specials, nutrition classes with recipe demonstrations, and film screenings.

“It’s for everybody. If you want to come and watch a film and just grab lunch or if you want to watch your friends get fit, there’s something for everybody,” says Ken Hall, events director for Church Health. “And none of it has a cost. It’s all free. The only thing that has a cost is on the 24th of January — that’s the race itself.”

Benefiting Church Health, race registration costs $34.09 for the 5K and $44.79 for the 10K. While the series’ first Saturday of events has passed, more is to come on upcoming Saturdays this month. On January 10th, Crosstown will host a line dancing class at 11 a.m. and a presentation on healthy living at 1 p.m., and on January 17th, expect a tai chi stretch at 11 a.m., plus an information session on Church Health’s upcoming free Cook Well, Be Well cooking classes at 1 p.m. (For more information on Cook Well, Be Well, visit churchhealth.org/cook-well-be-well.)

Each day will also feature a film screening in Crosstown Theater at 1:30 p.m.: Kipchoge: The Last Milestone (January 10th) and Chariots of Fire (January 17th). “They’re all based around running, but there’s real human interest in there as well,” says Stacy Wright, executive director of Crosstown Arts and director of events for Crosstown Concourse.

Additionally, on January 10th and 17th, guests who mention Wellness January at checkout can access meal specials at Farm Burger Memphis, Global Café, The Juice Joint, and the Mad Grocer & Deli. For information on specific offers, visit churchhealth.org/crosstown10k5k. “[Church Health has] been around for 38 years trying to get people healthy, focusing on the folks who just cannot afford healthcare — hardworking but uninsured people in the community,” says Hall. “Now, here’s the secret sauce: Everything we talk about from diet to movement to all the different parts, that works for everybody, … whether you’re a patient or a donor or someone that has never heard of us. It’s good information, and we’re excited for this opportunity to share it.”

For a full schedule of events for Wellness January, visit churchhealth.org/crosstown10k5k.

WELLNESS JANUARY, CROSSTOWN CONCOURSE, 1350 CONCOURSE AVENUE, SATURDAY, JANUARY 10 | SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, FREE. CROSSTOWN 10K/5K, SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 8 A.M., $34.09-$44.79.

VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES January 8th - 14th sex/work TheatreWorks@TheSquare, 2085 Monroe Avenue, Friday, January 9-25 Winner of the 2024/2025 NewWorks@TheWorks playwriting competition, this play by Kristen Field tells the story of a 30-year-old virgin, an escort, an aging conservative news anchor, and a stripper, desperately pursuing what it means to be a woman on their own terms.

Exploring themes of self worth, identity, and female empowerment, sex/work takes viewers on a journey of what happens when women are forced to navigate a world built on transactions.

Find a full schedule of performances and purchase tickets at playhouseonthesquare.org/sexwork.

Elvis’ Birthday Celebration Graceland, 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard, through Sunday, January 11 Celebrate the King of Rock-andRoll’s birthday with concerts, conversations, and more.

Elvis’ Birthday Celebration officially kicks off with the annual freeto-attend proclamation ceremony on the front lawn of Graceland.

Featuring a larger-than-life birthday cake, the proclamation of Elvis Presley Day is read by Memphis and Shelby County officials. Complimentary birthday cake and coffee will be served at Vernon’s Smokehouse, located across the street from the mansion.

For a full schedule of events, visit graceland.com/elvis-birthday.

Houseplant Bingo Urban Earth, 80 Flicker Street, Sunday, January 11, 1 p.m.

Grab your houseplant-loving friends and head out for a fun afternoon with fellow planty people. The event is completely free and each round will have fantastic houseplant prizes. As if that weren’t enough, all attendees get a 10 percent off coupon to use in-store day of.

Tickets are free but required, so reserve your spot at tinyurl.com/3der947e.

Arrive early to make your custom houseplant Bingo card with all your favorite plants.

We’re always independent.

We’re always free — we won’t ever charge you for a copy of the Flyer, or for access to our website.

And we strive to keep you informed about and connected to our city.

Whether you can help in the form of a few dollars a month or a larger one-time contribution, you’ll be making a difference.

Think of this as an investment in our shared future.

If you are not in a position to give financially, there are other ways you can support the Flyer — such as by patronizing and supporting our advertisers, by reading and sharing our work, and by passing along this message to others.

Above all, thank you for being part of our community.

We’re in this together.

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MUSIC By Alex Greene

Don Bryant’s Life of Soul After the singer-songwriter’s passing, a great silence has fallen on the city.

W

January 8-14, 2026

hen Don Bryant, the soul singer and songwriter whose career stretched from the 1950s through the present day, passed away on the morning of December 26th at the age of 83, it was a wake-up call: Memphis’ great voices and composers from the golden age of soul are slipping away. Of course, Al Green still walks among us, tending to his congregation at the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church, as do David Porter, Percy Wiggins, Carla Thomas, and Ann Peebles, though the latter — Bryant’s wife since 1974 — has not performed since her stroke in 2012. Others who have moved elsewhere — Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Booker T. Jones — are still thriving, but locally, a resounding silence has settled over Memphis since Bryant’s passing.

While those other names may be better-known, Bryant carried the flame of the journeyman soul singer into the 21st century more resolutely than practically any of his peers, enjoying a busy touring schedule until only recently.

And as he performed, he touched all who heard him at a deep level. As Scott Bomar, producer, film composer, and bandleader of the Bo-Keys, told the Commercial Appeal, “Bryant was a fantastic performer, he connected with audiences unlike anyone I’ve ever seen before.” And, since his comeback with 2017’s Don’t Give Up on Love, he proved it over and over again on stages across the U.S. and Europe.

That put an unexpected twist on a career that had previously relied more on composing than performing, as Bryant settled into the role of house songwriter at Willie Mitchell’s Hi Records very early on, after his solitary solo album on Hi, 1969’s Precious Soul, failed to make waves on the charts. And composing seemed to suit him, as Bryant went on to write or co-write over 150 songs for the label’s artists.

One of those artists was Peebles, for whom he co-wrote “Solid Foundation,” the B-side of her second Hi single in 1969. Working with Peebles, Bryant was smitten. As he told the Flyer in 2019, “this beautiful young lady came along and opened up her mouth. Man, everybody went crazy. Me too! Ann Peebles broke on the scene, and I’m telling you, 16 man, everybody was going hog wild. She was really shooting them out there, man,

and she was in competition with all the other lady singers around. So that was my first thought of dropping the vocal thing, and going into writing songs. She always needed songs. And I felt, ‘I can do this, and I’d rather go on and do this because they’re gonna concentrate on her and not on me.’ Because her thing just took off like that! But I had no hard feelings about it, nothing, man, and that was one of the reasons why I got up into the music where I could stay right there doing what I love and enjoy what I’m doing.

And watch her blossom.”

Writing “I Can’t Stand the Rain” together in 1973, the chemistry was clearly sparking, and by the next year, with that song becoming an international hit, they were married. It was fitting, then, that Bryant’s last single for Hi was his 1981 duet with Peebles, “Mon Belle - Amour.”

But while he’d focused more on writing, he never lost his rich, nuanced voice, and the gospel albums he released on Faith Records in 1987 and 2000 would serve to remind the world of that.

Singing was at the core of Bryant’s being, starting with growing up around his father’s gospel group, the Four Stars of Harmony. “My father had a gospel group, and he used to rehearse at the house a lot,” Bryant told the Flyer, “but I listened to all of it, you know: country-Western, pop, jazz, and whatever. I listened to all I could get a hold of because I didn’t have any idea where the idea [for a song] was gonna come from.

“Late in the evening, you’re outside and friends are gathering around, and

PHOTO: LAWRENCE MATTHEWS

Don Bryant

“[Music] was all around, at home and … in the street, when all the kids would gather … to harmonize.” there were always two or three different people in the neighborhood that could harmonize. You’d get up under the streetlight, start talking, and next thing you know, we’re harmonizing songs. That was, I feel, one of the things that kept me really hooked into music. Because it was all around me, at home and while we were playing games out in the street, when all the kids would gather under the streetlights, you know, to tell stories and harmonize.”

Eventually, such groups of friends solidified into vocal groups, modeled after his heroes, The “5” Royales. “We had several names,” Bryant recalled. “The Four Kings. The Quails. Sometimes it was according to the people that were managing us at the time. Dick ‘Cane’ Cole was a disc jockey, so when we got with him, we were The Four Canes.

Names just changed around a lot.”

So did the groups’ solidarity, and Bryant’s first break in the music business came not as part of a group, but as a solo songwriter, penning “I Got to Know” for none other than The “5” Royales in 1960.

Even decades later, Bryant would recall that bluesy shuffle as one of his favorite compositions. “When I got that out, that kind of pushed me on,” he said.

He ended up singing with Willie Mitchell’s red hot band, which was becoming renowned for its instrumental rave-ups, but would nevertheless include vocals on choice tracks. As Boo Mitchell recalled in 2017, “He sang on some of my dad’s instrumental recordings. There’s a song called ‘Everything Is Gonna Be Alright,’ and it’s a Willie Mitchell song, but Don is singing. And my favorite is a song called ‘That Driving Beat.’

Again, it’s a Willie Mitchell song, and Don is singing it. It is badass.

It’s from 1966, I think.”

It would be a half-century later, after over a decade of behind-thescenes songwriting at Hi, and his sporadic forays into gospel, before Bryant combined his twin talents of composition and rich, expressive singing. That was the brainchild of Bomar, whose Bo-Keys were already established as solid soul revivalists, using many of the players from Memphis’ golden age of soul. The two albums on Fat Possum under Bryant’s name, 2017’s Don’t Give Up on Love and 2020’s You Make Me Feel, with the Bo-Keys and members of Hi Rhythm backing him, were pitch-perfect, horn-driven slices of R&B and funk that recaptured much of the warmth and slap of classic soul that many considered to be lost to time. Aside from Daptone Records, it appeared that Bryant was single-handedly keeping the soul torch burning. As such, his impact in recent years can’t be overestimated.

That’s why Boo Mitchell, on the cusp of celebrating Royal Studios’ 60th anniversary in 2017, knew that Bryant had to be the centerpiece of the planned performances. “It was really the only thing that made sense to me, historically,” Mitchell said at the time. “We lost O.V. Wright a long time ago. We lost Otis Clay. Obviously Bill Black, we lost him a long time ago. So a lot of the people who were the forerunners, they’re not with us anymore.

That’s why it’s so awesome to have Don because he was there with my dad almost from the very beginning. It was just like, that’s the right thing to do. It’s a miracle Don was available because he’s been touring all over the place. And, you know, the stars lined up.”

And now, only a few years later, the stars have fallen silent. Requiescat in pace, Don Bryant.

AFTER DARK: Live Music Schedule January 8 - 14 Hillbilly Mojo. Sunday, Jan. 11, 3 p.m.

$10. Thursday, Jan. 8, 8 p.m.

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM

Cliff Wright

B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB

Play Some Skynyrd (Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute)

Wright performs his tribute to the King of Rock-and-Roll.

Thursday, Jan. 8, 6 p.m.

Baunie and Soul

NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM

El Ced & Groove Nation

Sunday, Jan. 11, 7-11 p.m.

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

Blind Mississippi Morris Thursday, Jan. 8, 5 p.m.

BLUES CITY CAFE

Brimstone Jones

Friday, Jan. 9, 8 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 8 p.m.

BLUES CITY CAFE

Join Terry Mike Jeffrey and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra for a powerful celebration of the music Elvis Presley created right here in his adopted hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

From Sun Studio to Stax and American Sound, and even way down in the Jungle Room at Graceland, this unforgettable evening will bring Elvis’ Memphis musical legacy to life with everything from heartfelt ballads to powerful concert anthems. Be part of this must-see event.

Saturday, Jan. 10, 7 p.m.

The Fabulous DooVays Sunday, Jan. 11, 6 p.m.

HUEY’S POPLAR

The Mixers Van Duren

B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB

Elvis: Made in Memphis

NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

Led by the legendary Leroy “Flic” Hodges of Hi Rhythm.

Saturday, Jan. 10, 4 p.m. | Sunday, Jan. 11, 2 p.m.

HUEY’S SOUTHWIND

Tuesday, Jan. 13, 6-10 p.m.

Sunday, Jan. 11, 4 p.m.

Flic’s Pics Band

Sunday, Jan. 11, 6 p.m.

The Debbie Jamison Band

Eric Hughes

Thursday, Jan. 8, 7 p.m.

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

Friday, Jan. 9, 8 p.m.

NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM

The singer-songwriter, a pioneer of indie pop in Memphis, performs solo.

Thursday, Jan. 8, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

MORTIMER’S

FreeWorld

Sunday, Jan. 11, 7 p.m.

GRACELAND SOUNDSTAGE

BLUES CITY CAFE

FreeWorld

Friday, Jan. 9, 7 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 7 p.m.

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

International Blues Challenge

The first two days of the Blues Foundation’s globally acclaimed competition.

Tuesday, Jan. 13, 7 p.m. | Wednesday, Jan. 14, 7 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 9, 6 p.m.

Chancellor Lawson

With Mary Hatley. Sunday, Jan. 11, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

Devil Train

Friday, Jan. 9, 8 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 8 p.m. | Monday, Jan. 12, 7 p.m.

B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB

Ronnie McDowell’s Elvis Birthday Celebration

Jazz and bossa nova. Thursday, Jan. 8, 6-9 p.m.

Red Thomas

The B.B. King’s Blues Club Allstar Band

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

Deborah Swiney Duo THE COVE

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

The Elvis birthday celebrations continue at Hernando’s with this startlingly powerful tribute artist. Thursday, Jan. 8, 10 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

Monday, Jan. 12, 7-11 p.m.

Robert Washington: Black Elvis Birthday Bash

Amber McCain Band

PHOTO: COURTESY HERNANDO’S HIDEAWAY

Ronnie McDowell

Bluegrass, roots, country, Delta, and skiffle. Thursday, Jan. 8, 9 p.m.

B-SIDE

The Owen Gooch Band

Jeremy & the Drip Edges

Thursday, Jan. 8, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

With Sprickets, the Moon Glimmers. Saturday, Jan. 10, 9 p.m.

The Scott Sudbury Band Sunday, Jan. 11, 5 p.m.

LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Joe Restivo 4 Madaline Collins and John Wilkerson Saturday, Jan. 10, 7 p.m.

SOUTH MAIN SOUNDS

The Magic of Motown

The award winning Shades of Blue vocal group has mastered the harmonies, choreography, and showmanship of the classic Motown groups, and will soon have you dancing the night away. From the Temptations and the Jackson 5 to Diana Ross & the Supremes and even Aretha Franklin (who was never on Motown), this tribute brings the soundtrack of a generation to life. Saturday, Jan. 10, 7:30 p.m.

CANNON CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Elmo & the Shades ft.

Eddie Harrison Wednesday, Jan. 14, 7 p.m.

NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM

Guitarist Restivo leads one of the city’s finest jazz quartets.

Sunday, Jan. 11, noon.

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

Tequila Mockingbird

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Jack & the Fat Man

Ladder To God / Soot / Divingstation95

Sunday, Jan. 11, 6 p.m.

HUEY’S MILLINGTON

Friday, Jan. 9, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

Level Three

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 10 p.m.

LOUIS CONNELLY’S BAR

Celebrate Elvis’ Birthday at Graceland

Matty O & the Ghosts of the Insane: Southern Chapter

With the Big Shredder, Justin White. Thursday, Jan. 8, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

Old School Pajama Jam Saturday, Jan. 10, 9 p.m.

PHOTO: COURTESY GRACELAND

Elvis’ Birthday Celebration includes a tribute to his 1956 hits.

HI TONE

Richard Lloyd Group

A veteran of the 1970s New York rock scene and founding member of Television, Lloyd embarked on a solo career after Television disbanded, releasing seven solo albums and working as a guitarist and session musician for Matthew Sweet, John Doe,

McDowell is a country singersongwriter famous for his Elvis Presley-like voice and for recording the 1977 hit tribute song, “The King Is Gone,” which launched his career. He provided the singing vocals for Elvis in several TV movies and TV series, including Elvis, starring Kurt Russell. Beyond his Elvis connections, McDowell has had a successful country music career with hits like “Older Women,” and continues to record and tour extensively.

Saturday, Jan. 10, 8 p.m.

Rocket from the Tombs, and others. Lloyd’s book, Everything Is Combustible: Television, CBGB’s and Five Decades of Rock and Roll: The Memoirs of an Alchemical Guitarist, establishes Lloyd as a masterful storyteller.

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

Rodell McCord Band Saturday, Jan. 10, 5 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Screamer

With Pan de Muerto, R.E.C., Heavy Pour. Thursday, Jan. 8, 7:30 p.m.

GROWLERS

Seeing Red

Saturday, Jan. 10, 9 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

The Chaulkies

Sunday, Jan. 11, 3 p.m.

HUEY’S MIDTOWN

Celebrate the King of Rock-and-Roll’s birthday in Memphis with concerts, conversations, and more.

Individual events include Conversations on Elvis, Elvis 101: Dear Elvis, Elvis 1956, Jungle Room Sessions, Elvis: Girls! Girls! Girls!, Elvis: Made in Memphis Pops Concert, and a Morning Gospel Sing on Sunday. Visit graceland.com for details. Thursday, Jan. 8-Jan. 11.

GRACELAND

Chicken S#!+ Bingo

Play the game of the century that hinges on where a charmed fowl chooses to doo-doo, with live music by

Sunday, Jan. 11, 6 p.m.

HUEY’S SOUTHAVEN

The Max Lee James Show

This award-winning Sun Studio recording artist pays tribute to Elvis and other rockabilly legends. Friday, Jan. 9, 7 p.m.

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

Even Odds

Sunday, Jan. 11, 6 p.m.

HUEY’S OLIVE BRANCH

Memphis Rhythm Revue Sunday, Jan. 11, 8 p.m.

HUEY’S CORDOVA

The Double D’s

Sunday, Jan. 11, 6 p.m.

HUEY’S COLLIERVILLE

The Pretty Boys

Sunday, Jan. 11, 6 p.m.

HUEY’S GERMANTOWN

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

Thursday, Jan. 8, 8 p.m.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Ashton Riker & the Memphis Royals

John Williams & the A440 Band

17

SAVE THE DATE! SAT FEB 28TH 11AM-2PM

January 8-14, 2026

Discover the best camps, classes, and summer directo experiences for kids of all ages. Meet camp directors, ask questions, and get inspired for your family’s best summer yet — all at this FREE, family-friendly event!

18

SCAN HERE FOR INFO

CALENDAR of EVENTS: January 8 - 14, 2026 The arcade expressions of Irvin Serenco and the MidSouth Cartoonists Association. Free. Through Jan. 30.

MEMPHIS JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER

“Bettye’s Bin: The Personal Archives of Stax Songwriter Bettye Crutcher”

Discover the story of a woman who transformed poetry into platinum hits, whose words echoed from South Memphis to the world, and whose rediscovered archives now return home. Free. Through Feb. 22.

STAX MUSEUM OF AMERICAN SOUL MUSIC

Brantley Ellzey – “Reflection + Ritual + Refuge”

A major solo exhibition by Memphis-based artist Ellzey.

The spiral is his recurring form. It turns through the exhibition like a silent logic — natural, ancestral, unstoppable. Through Jan. 25.

CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE

“From Paris to the Prairie”: The George H. Booth II Collection

Eleven spectacular prints from George H. Booth II of Tupelo, Mississippi. The collection includes works by PierreAuguste Renoir, Peter Ilsted, Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, and Rockwell Kent.

Free. Through Jan. 11.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

“Last Whistle: Steamboat Stories of Memphis”

Detailed model boats and original steamboat artifacts rekindle the romance of the steamboat era while sharing stories and insights about their role in shaping the region.

Through June 26.

PINK PALACE MUSEUM & MANSION

A R T HA P P E N I N G S

Opening Reception: “Art of the Game”: Irvin Serenco & the MSCA

This extremely rare portfolio, originally conceived as a celebration of the original print, and especially color lithography, features 95 works of graphic art by 74 artists.

Free. Through Jan. 11.

The arcade expressions of Irvin Serenco and the Mid-South Cartoonists Association. Free.

Thursday, Jan. 8, 6-8 p.m.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

MEMPHIS JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER

Lui Shtini: “Tree Spirits”

Opening Reception: “From 200 to 250: America’s Bicentennial Bash of 1976”

In fields these skins are laid.

In mounds, awaiting destiny.

Wind, rain, and sun will lash and wash them clean and dry: the shapes of bodies that once wore them. Through Jan. 10.

Explore Bicentennial memorabilia, local reflections, and the sights and sounds of 1976, when the people of Collierville came together to honor their nation’s past. Free. Friday, Jan. 9, 5:30-7 p.m.

TOPS GALLERY

Master Metalsmith James Viste: “Let Me Tell You a Story”

This exhibit by the museum’s 39th Master Metalsmith is filled with whimsy, humor, memories, and anecdotes, underscoring the innovation found in smithing techniques of the past. Through Feb. 1.

MORTON MUSEUM OF COLLIERVILLE HISTORY

Tour: The It Girls of Modern and Contemporary Arts

designed to evoke warmth and comfort. Free. Through Jan. 31.

The best works created by women artists in the Brooks Museum’s permanent collection. Led by docent Vicky Powell, this tour elevates the visibility of artists like Georgia O’Keefe, Florine Stettheimer, Cecelia Beaux, Betty Parsons, and Marisol Escobar. $10/ general admission. Sunday, Jan. 11, 2-2:45 p.m.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART

Tributaries: Kat Cole’s “Meditations”

B O O K EVE NTS

METAL MUSEUM

“Navigating Knowledge” This exhibition explores vessels and navigation as metaphors for the containment and transmission of knowledge.

Through Oct. 31.

MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART

Patrick McGee Exhibition

McGee’s painting styles range from realism and floral studies to abstract-surrealism and the avant-garde. Through Jan. 30.

PHOTO: COURTESY DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

Roger Allan Cleaves’ complex Afrofuturist fantasies resist easy explanations.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

“Redemption of a Delta Bluesman: Robert Johnson”

A series of 29 paintings dedicated to reimagining the story of the mythical crossroads account where the bluesman purportedly made a deal.

Through June 30.

GALLERY ALBERTINE

Riley Payne: “Ocean Size”

These works offer up multiple readings through the use of

instantly recognizable reference imagery. Yet the moment an interpretation is settled on, the cards are reshuffled.

Through Jan. 10.

TOPS GALLERY: MADISON AVENUE PARK

Roger Allan Cleaves: “A World on Fire” Cleaves’ Forget Me Nots Land series is a complex Afrofuturist fantasy that resists easy explanations. “A World on Fire” is the most recent chapter of this ongoing epic narrative.

Through April 12.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

Sean Latif Heiser: “Time Is a Hearer”

Heiser’s paintings shift between imagined landscapes and architectures, often using symbolism and abstracted imagery. Free. Through Jan. 9.

BEVERLY + SAM ROSS GALLERY

“Seasons” - New Works

by Melody Weintraub

Weintraub currently supervises art education candidates remotely for UT-Knoxville, and has written over 30 articles for SchoolArts Magazine.

Free. Through Jan. 29.

WKNO DIGITAL MEDIA CENTER

Shameka Carter Exhibition

Carter’s “Winter Embrace” exhibits her earthly, etheral style

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Cole captures ephemeral gestures in glass, enamel, and steel, resulting in gleaming puddles of light and color.

Through March 8.

METAL MUSEUM

Veda Reed: “In Memoriam”

Reed’s painting life focused on West Tennessee landscapes, the Mississippi River, brief pilgrimages in Italy and England, the vast skies of New Mexico, and Granite Mountain that loomed over her town.

Through Feb. 7.

DAVID LUSK GALLERY

Christine Riccio: Thirty, Flirty, and Forever Alone

The author chats with Kelsey Impicciche about her witty rom-com with a magical twist.

Friday, Jan. 9, 6 p.m.

NOVEL

Jennifer Moorman: The Charmed Library

Moorman’s latest is a love letter to libraries, favorite childhood stories, and readers who have fallen for fictional heroes.

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 6 p.m.

NOVEL

continued on page 20

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

“Art of the Game”: Irvin Serenco & the MSCA

“L’Estampe Originale: A Graphic Treasure”

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

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

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

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

19

C A L E N DA R: JA N UA RY 8 - 1 4 , 2 0 2 6 continued from page 19

PHOTO: COURTESY MBG

Create a set of chimes resembling a fish catching a worm at the Memphis Botanic Garden’s workshop.

C LAS S / WO R KS H O P

A Day of Tasters: Blacksmithing

Classes in the smithy offer the opportunity to learn blacksmithing techniques from our resident artists and apprentices. They are designed for students with all levels of experience. $50. Saturday, Jan. 10, 8:30-10 a.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 10:30 a.m.-noon | Saturday, Jan. 10, 1-2:30 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 3-4:30 p.m.

community program offering high-energy music and dance lessons for youth ages 6 to 17.

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 6 p.m.

MEMPHIS YOUTH ARTS INITIATIVE CENTER

The Tingey Painting with Parkinsons Program

METAL MUSEUM

A Day of Tasters: Casting

Lawler Foundry classes are project-specific, affordable, and enjoyable metal casting classes designed for novicelevel students. No experience necessary. Fun for adults and kids. $50. Saturday, Jan. 10, 8:30-10 a.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 10:30 a.m.-noon | Saturday, Jan. 10, 1-2:30 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 3-4:30 p.m.

METAL MUSEUM

A Day of Tasters: Enameling

An opportunity to focus on specific projects while learning a variety of different metalworking techniques. $50. Saturday, Jan. 10, 8:30-10 a.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 10:30 a.m.-noon | Saturday, Jan. 10, 1-2:30 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 3-4:30 p.m.

METAL MUSEUM

A Day of Tasters: Welding

Designed for students with no experience or limited prior experience, welding classes are taught as introductory and hobby classes. $50. Saturday, Jan. 10, 8:30-10 a.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 10:30 a.m.-noon | Saturday, Jan. 10, 1-2:30 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 3-4:30 p.m.

METAL MUSEUM

Craft Night: Vision Boards at Heirloom House with Rattlesnake Betty Kick off 2026 with purpose, creativity, and community at this intentional, hands-on

experience designed to help you dream big and set powerful goals. $30. Tuesday, Jan. 13, 6-8 p.m.

HEIRLOOM HOUSE

Figure Drawing (Nude Model)

Artists of all levels can practice and increase their skills drawing the human form at Memphis’ art museum.

Sessions will be led by a local artist. $12. Thursday, Jan. 8, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART

First Hint of Spring: Floral Arranging Workshop Learn to design stunning

arrangements using seasonal winter florals, including fragrant bulb flowers like daffodils and tulips. With Midtown Bramble & Bloom. $53.65- $64.07. Sunday, Jan. 11, 2 p.m.

MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART

Fishy Chimes

Instructor Becky Zee will walk you through the creation of a clay wind chime designed to look like an adorable fish catching a worm. $65. Sunday, Jan. 11, 1-4 p.m.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

Rhythm & Roots

Presented by Memphis Youth Arts Initiative, this is a free

A free art therapy program that supports people living with Parkinson’s. The sessions encourage participants to freely explore art materials and work without interruption while listening to music.

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 10 a.m.noon.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

1 p.m.

URBAN EARTH GARDENS, NURSERY & MARKET

Invasive Species Pull

Help keep our ecosystem healthy by identifying and removing non-native invasive species plants. Friday, Jan. 9, 9-11 a.m.

OVERTON PARK

Nature Journaling

Connect with nature through an indoor winter nature journaling session for seniors aged 65+. Free. Thursday, Jan. 8, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

OVERTON PARK

FAM I LY

January Family Day

Enjoy food trucks, arts and crafts, games, other engaging activities, and free admission to the museum throughout the afternoon. All ages. Free.

Saturday, Jan. 10, 1-4 p.m.

C O M E DY

STAX MUSEUM OF AMERICAN SOUL MUSIC

Dedrick Flynn & Friends

Kaleidoscope Club

This hilarious talent from the South is fast becoming a star of the comedy world. Saturday, Jan. 10, 6 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

Each week, participants aged 5 to 9 will enjoy an art or horticulture project that sparks creativity and critical thinking. $8. Wednesday, Jan. 14, 4-5 p.m.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

C O M M U N I TY

Houseplant Bingo

A fun afternoon with fellow plant-loving people. Each round will have houseplant prizes. Free. Sunday, Jan. 11,

Mini Masters

Introduce your little ones to the arts and nature with crafts, movement, and more. $8.

Tuesday, Jan. 13, 10:30 a.m.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

January 8-14, 2026

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20

C A L E N DA R: JA N UA RY 8 - 1 4 , 2 0 2 6 The Met Opera: I Puritani

This classic opera tells the story of Elvira, a Puritan woman, and Arturo, a royalist, whose love is tested by political conflict and personal misunderstandings. Saturday, Jan. 10, noon | Wednesday, Jan. 14, 6:30 p.m.

Project Grow

A hands-on activity for all ages. Learn something new about gardening and horticulture every month while getting your hands dirty. Supplies included. Free. Saturday, Jan. 10, 1-3 p.m.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

Story Time

Stories, songs, art activities, and creative play related to Collierville history. Ages 2 to 4.

Friday, Jan. 9, 10:30 a.m.

Memphis Grizzlies vs. Brooklyn Nets Sunday, Jan. 11, 2:30 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

Memphis Grizzlies vs. Oklahoma City Thunder

MEMPHIS ZOO

The Sun: Our Living Star

Project Grow is based on the premise that there’s nothing like learning while you get your hands dirty.

S PO R TS

Lantern Festival

A one-of-a-kind holiday light experience featuring more than 60 larger-than-life illuminated fixtures. Through Feb. 1.

MALCO PARADISO

PHOTO: COURTESY DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

H O L I DAY E V E N TS

Friday, Jan. 9, 7 p.m.

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

Discover the secrets of our star in this planetarium show and experience never-beforeseen images of the sun’s violent surface in immersive full-dome format. Thursday, Jan. 8, 1 p.m., 3 p.m. | Friday, Jan. 9, 1 p.m., 3 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 1 p.m., 3 p.m. | Sunday, Jan. 11, 1 p.m., 3 p.m. | Monday, Jan. 12, 1 p.m., 3 p.m. | Tuesday, Jan. 13, 1 p.m., 3 p.m. | Wednesday, Jan. 14, 1 p.m., 3 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

Black Tie Poetry

Memphis Tigers vs. Temple

A showcase featuring live saxophonist Alexis Cole, soul-soaked R&B, and captivating poetry performances. Saturday, Jan. 10, 6-9 p.m.

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 7 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

Wolf River 5K

SMOOTH LIVING

The first event in the Campbell Clinic Collection, with a portion of the proceeds directly benefiting the Wolf River Conservancy and the Wolf River Greenway. Saturday, Jan. 10, 8 a.m.

MUSE Creative Gathering: Transcendence

An experimental dance party with Andrea Jacobo and Strooly that reaches a peak and falls into meditative peace. $10. Monday, Jan. 12, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

AUTOZONE DOME PLANETARIUM

T. Rex: Greatest of All Tyrants

The most dazzling and accurate giant screen documentary ever made on this legendary predator — and its carnivorous Cretaceous cousins. Thursday, Jan. 8-Jan. 14, 4 p.m.

WOLF RIVER CONSERVANCY

BAR DKDC

T H EAT E R

Page to Stage: A Night of Show Tunes & Shenanigans

CTI 3D GIANT THEATER

sex/work

An exploration of what happens when a young woman, desperate to forge a true connection that feels real, is forced to navigate a world built on transactions. Friday, Jan. 9, 8 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 8 p.m. | Sunday, Jan. 11, 2 p.m.

Novel is partnering with The Orpheum Theater to celebrate The Outsiders and the Broadway tour coming to Memphis with a listening party and craft night. $10. Thursday, Jan. 8, 6 p.m.

Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet

Follow Pachyrhinosaurus youngsters through the seasons and the challenges of establishing THEATREWORKS themselves in this prehistoric world. Thursday, NOVEL Jan. 8-Jan. 14, 2 p.m.

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MORTON MUSEUM OF COLLIERVILLE HISTORY

Story Time At Novel

Crossword

F I LM

Apollo 11: First Steps Edition

A special edition of Todd Douglas Miller’s critically acclaimed Apollo 11 documentary.

Thursday, Jan. 8-Jan. 14, 1 p.m.

CTI 3D GIANT THEATER

A Wider Angle Film Series: 200 Meters

A 2020 drama written and directed by Palestinian filmmaker Ameen Nayfeh. Tuesday, Jan. 13, 6 p.m.

BENJAMIN L. HOOKS CENTRAL LIBRARY

Dark Side of Light

An exploration of light pollution and the impact it has not only on us, but on nature as a whole. Thursday, Jan. 8-Jan. 14, 2 p.m.

AUTOZONE DOME PLANETARIUM

Forward to the Moon

A planetarium show about the Artemis program, NASA’s project to return to the moon, from landing humans on the surface, to building a space station in lunar orbit, to establishing a human lunar base. Thursday, Jan. 8, 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. | Friday, Jan. 9, 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 10, 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. | Sunday, Jan. 11, 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. | Monday, Jan. 12, 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. | Tuesday, Jan. 13, 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. | Wednesday, Jan. 14, 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m.

PINK PALACE MUSEUM & MANSION

Kipchoge: The Last Milestone

A 2021 documentary about Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge, who hopes to complete a marathon in less than two hours. Saturday, Jan. 10, 1:30 p.m.

CROSSTOWN THEATER

Seasonal Stargazing: Memphis Skies

Hop through constellations, learn cool star names, and groove to planetarium space music in this full dome audiovisual experience.

Thursday, Jan. 8-Jan. 14, 4 p.m.

AUTOZONE DOME PLANETARIUM

The Labyrinth 40th Anniversary

Teenager Sarah must follow her baby stepbrother into a fantastical world to rescue him from the Goblin King (David Bowie). Thursday, Jan. 8, 7 p.m. | Sunday, Jan. 11, 1 p.m.

MALCO PARADISO

ACROSS

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lowest-scoring 1 Baseball great Super Bowl in who was the N.F.L. history subject of the (16 total points) 2006 best 30 Overindulge seller “Game of Shadows” 31 :( 6 Authorize, as a 32 Pool party? digital contract 34 Word before 11 Takes heat from bait or buzz 13 Political 35 Certain grain figure who source became a CNN 36 Hot wheels? commentator in 39 Boston 2015 skyscraper, with 15 Won back “the” 16 Advance 40 They’re spotted showing of a at fire stations film 45 “___ so” 18 Annoying (“Nuh-uh”) bedmate 47 Classic baby 20 “___ doomed!” food 21 Subject of an 49 Like Napoleon’s overnight lab defeat at study Waterloo 23 D.O.T. branch 51 Many a yak 24 Right now herder

52 Gymnast Biles

and others 53 “License to Kill” star 54 Big name in hosiery 55 Longtime film/ theater critic Jeffrey

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a morning commute, informally 2 Some firstyears after undergrad 3 ___ astrology, study with horoscopes 4 Means of surveillance 5 Go to pot?

6 Potential recidivists 7 Classic blazer fabrics ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE 8 Ending with S T A N D P A T H I T J O B quart- or quintO H R E A L L Y Y S H A P E 9 Developed F R E E M I U M D E E D E E T E N D A M P E R E E L F 10 “I’m fine, but thanks” G E T S O N A M O I W H A T S N E X T F A M 12 Nonbeliever S K E E T A I R Y G I L A 13 Part of a A N A L Y S T A L S O R A N fireplace K E L P P H I L P O E S Y 14 Disturbed E E L B R O A D S I D E R I M S E N D A S H 17 Literary anthology A C T O N E S E C O T T O C O A C H K U B E R G E E K 19 Squaw Valley E A R F U L M A D E G R E E backdrop S T O O G E E N E M Y S P Y 22 Backing

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PUZZLE BY ARI RICHTER

25 Wasted word to

a housecat

26 Turnovers, e.g.

27 Group working

on P.S.A. campaigns

28 Big name in

cookware

29 Stood on the

32 Dark-skinned

grape used in winemaking

33 Locale of

London’s Leicester Square

35 Abu Simbel

statue honoree

hind legs, with “up”

37 Activity for new

31 Product made

38 Percussionist’s

with steel wool

parents

wooden sticks

41 As good as it

gets 42 Try to get in, say 43 “Suh-weet!,” quaintly 44 Do business?

46 Proctor’s declaration 48 Septet in Dante’s “Purgatorio” 50 Lose crispness, in dialect

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

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

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

NOVEL

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

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

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We Saw You. with MICHAEL DONAHUE

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January 8-14, 2026

e Saw You went all around Memphis snapping photos here, there, and yonder.

Here are some more people you might or might not know inside and outside some places you might or might not know.

This week’s group includes people’s likenesses captured at Clippers & Shears Barber Lounge, Gibson’s Donuts, the Orpheum Soirée, the wrap party for The Last Story of David Allen, in an Uber, at the Contemporary Media holiday party at Pete & Sam’s, Bao Toan Kitchen & Bar, Chuck Hutton Toyota, Novel, Hewlett & Dunn Boot & Jean Co., Kirby Pines LifeCare Community, and Memphis Hunt and Polo Club.

22

PHOTOS: MICHAEL DONAHUE

above: Betsy, Harper, Laura, Charles, and Alexander Hall circle: J. M. Huffman below: (left to right) Samantha Barklow, Lauren Moore, Chase Moore, Ryan Marino, and (in front) Lillian Moore, Elsie Moore, and Ivy Moore; Cherie Coke, Eric Jensen; Lydia Jackson bottom row: (left to right) Brandon Johnson; Jeremy Smith

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

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

above: Jeff Friday and Ben Smith circle: Dan Hammer right row: (top and below) Jackson Baker and Kemba Ford; Lamar and Shannon Davis below: (left to right) Tony Nguyễn; Joy Bateman; Will Knutson and Scott Nivens; Al Kapone bottom left: Heather and Bryant Bain

23

FOOD By Michael Donahue

Goodness. Gracious. Great Bowls of Food Elevated menu coming to Hernando’s Hide-A-Way.

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January 8-14, 2026

eline Lee thought it was time to get in the kitchen at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way and shake, rattle, and roll.

Shake up the current menu with some new items.

Rattle those pots and pans while creating innovative dishes.

And roll out a new menu in a few weeks.

Food is as important as music in the iconic nightspot where legendary performers, including Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, and Charlie Rich, have entertained.

“We’re trying to appeal to people who just want to go out and have dinner,” says musician Dale Watson, co-owner of the club with Lee, his wife and fellow musician. “It’s like a supper club. That’s what we’re trying to go for. Have a supper club.”

He adds, “I think that’s something unique for us. Around here, anyway. ’Cause we are a destination place. So they can come out, see a show, and have a meal.

It checks all the boxes.”

The destination isn’t as far as some people think. Some think the club is in Hernando, Mississippi, but it’s actually in Whitehaven, Lee says. The club at 3210 Old Hernando Road is only eight minutes from Midtown. And it’s not hidden away.

It’s in plain sight once you turn off Elvis Presley Boulevard onto Brooks Road.

In 2019, Watson and Lee, who had been living in Austin, Texas, where they still have a home, bought the circa 1883 building, which originally was a dry goods store. Since opening the following year, Hernando’s Hide-A-Way has become home to even more musicians and performers as well as the home base of the Ameripolitan Music Awards, an annual show featuring rockabilly, outlaw country, and Western swing musicians from all over the world.

Putting in a fully functional kitchen was part of the $40,000 renovation of the whole building. It had “a small dinky kitchen,” Lee says.

She heard from a longtime customer that Hernando’s Hide-A-Way kitchen was a short-order kitchen.

They originally hired a chef, but he moved back to New York after Covid hit, Lee says.

They served “classic burgers, fries, and just bar food, really,” until Lee decided to get busy with the food last May. As for the new theme, Lee wanted “an elevated ’50s diner kind of thing.” For instance, they’ll still have milkshakes, but instead of Elvis’ fried peanut butter and 24 banana sandwiches, Lee wanted peanut butter and banana empanadas.

PHOTOS: MICHAEL DONAHUE

(left) Dave Carr, Celine Lee, and Dale Watson; (middle) Hernando’s HideA-Way; (bottom) diners can watch the band on screens at their tables.

The empanadas are one of the items on the special menu honoring Elvis’ January 8th birthday. Also included on the special menu, which will run through January 11th, are “Classic Meatloaf Sandwich,” “Elvis’ Favorite Pound Cake,” and cocktails, including “Bacon Martini,” “Peanut Butter Banana White Russian,” “Hunka Hunka Old Fashioned,” and “Suspicious Minds Sangria.” They also will feature mocktails,

Lee says.

Weekly specials and “grab-and-go dinners” are among other innovations planned for the club.

They hired chef Dave Carr last August.

A classically trained chef, Carr is a graduate of the old Johnson & Wales University in Miami, Florida. Carr, who was living in Miami, was referred to Lee by Memphis restaurateur Mac Edwards.

Since then, Carr and Edwards have “come up with unique ingredients and recipes for Hernando’s exclusively.”

“We want to make everything from scratch,” Carr says. They want to include bar food “but done right.” He wants “fresh everything” instead of buying “everything frozen.”

He makes his own pulled pork sandwich in house, and he makes his own housemade tortilla chips.

Carr and Lee are planning to offer pickled and fermented items, which will harken to the days when people bought those things at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way when it was a dry goods store.

They also are using tallow in dishes, Carr says. “The flavor is excellent. It’s from beef fat. It’s like lard, but with a cow instead of a pig. It’s supposed to be way better for you than these seed oils.”

And, he says, “We’re reaching out to be environmentally conscious and do it right.

Get back into healthy food, healthy eating.

And it’s good for you and tastes good.”

They also want to work with farmers so they can feature locally-sourced food and seasonal ingredients.

The recipe for the meatloaf for Elvis’ birthday week menu is from a 1970s cookbook featuring the King’s favorite dishes.

“That’s supposedly Elvis’ favorite dish.”

But the idea to feature empanadas was Lee’s idea with Carr’s execution. Peanut butter and banana are squished together and spread out on an empanada shell and fried. It will be served with candied bacon dipping sauce.

In addition to hamburgers and other bar food currently on the menu, Hernando’s Hide-A-Way is featuring a Cuban sandwich. Lee, who is from Miami, and Carr joined forces for the sandwich. “She came up with the idea and I executed it.”

The Cuban is “French’s mustard on a Cuban roll with Swiss cheese, Black Forest ham, and smoked pulled pork.” And pickles, Carr adds.

Hernando’s Hide-A-Way currently is doing a “steak night,” Carr says. The next one will be January 15th. “We like to do steak night about once a month to get the dinner crowd going.”

The dinner coincides with Watson’s monthly Big Band Night, which features a three-piece horn section. “It’s like Frank Sinatra meets Johnny Cash,” Lee says.

“Everyone dresses up. It’s like an elevated dinner and show.”

M E TA P H Y S I C A L C O N N E C T I O N B y E m i l y G u e n t h e r

Your Natal Chart

PHOTO: VVICTORI | DREAMSTIME.COM

The natal chart is a map of the planets at the moment you were born.

The planets represent the central drives in a chart, such as the drive to love and connect (Venus), think and communicate (Mercury), or win (Mars).

Traditional astrologers focus on the planets you can see with the naked eye, from our two light-bearers (the sun and moon) to Saturn. Modern astrologers include Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, which were discovered between 1781 and 1930, as well as asteroids and minor planets, such as Chiron.

Aspects symbolize the relationships planets have with each other. Just like humans, not all planets work well together.

The different aspects the planets make in your chart reflect different types of relationships they can create. Some aspects show cooperation of planetary energy, some show opposition, and there is one aspect, a conjunction, that creates a fusion of energies, magnifying the planets’ combined effects.

We can think of signs as the homes of the planets. In the traditional system,

each of the seven classical planets (the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) have a special relationship to the signs, doing exceptionally well in some places, while feeling challenged in others.

The signs also help to break the 360 degrees of the chart wheel into 12 equal parts of 30 degrees. Recall that a map is a symbolic representation of space.

Similarly, the signs of our zodiac offer a symbolic depiction of the constellations that the sun passes through from our point of view on Earth.

This path of the sun from our perspective is known as the “ecliptic.” In reality, these constellations do not form 30 equal degrees. The constellation Virgo is twice the size of Libra, for example. However, like any map or diagram, this visual representation of reality has its own wisdom and efficacy. The drawing doesn’t have to be “to scale” to be useful.

Like the signs, there are 12 houses. The houses represent different areas of your life. For instance, your 11th house represents your friendships and community involvements, while your fourth house represents family, home, and ancestral lineage. While the planets in signs are calculated based on the solar system, the houses are rooted in the time and location of your birth. They’re what personalizes a chart to you.

If the difference between signs and houses still feels murky, it might be helpful to remember that the fastest moving body, the moon, takes two to three days to pass through a sign. However, the moon will pass through every house in your birth chart in a 24-hour window.

The same applies for every planet. For example, Pluto takes 12 to 31 years to pass through one sign, but 24 hours to pass through the 12 houses.

To create your own natal chart, you can consult an astrologer or use one of the natal chart generators online. In order to create your natal chart, you will need to know the date, time, and location of your birth. A natal chart can be overwhelming and confusing. It may be a good practice to focus on learning about your sun, moon, and rising signs first before you try to master the entire chart. I recommend working through your natal chart in pieces so that you can process all the information. Natal charts are a fun way to learn more about yourself, and as you learn to read your chart, you will be able to see how astrology reflects your life.

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

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

A

strology is one of the tools we have at our disposal to help us align with self-care and to understand ourselves. Astrology is the art of interpreting the placement of the planets and constellations in relation to the earth to understand personality, karmic cycles, and collective experiences. Astrologers look up at the skies and interpret how the energy of the planets and constellations might be reflected in our society and individual lives.

Your natal chart, also called your birth chart or astrological chart, is a map of the planets at the moment you were born.

The planets are shown from the perspective of Earth, against the ring of constellations called the zodiac. A birth chart is loosely divided into four parts: the planets, the relationships the planets form with each other, the astrological signs, and the astrological houses.

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

An astrological map to learning more about yourself.

25

NEWS OF THE WEIRD By the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication

Please save the date for the

Mid-South

Heart Ball February 7, 2026 The Peabody

Join us as we celebrate

Duncan Williams John & Leslie Daniel Living Heart Award Honoree

January 8-14, 2026

Locally sponsored by:

26

Johnny & Kim Pitts

Visit heart.org/midsouthhb or contact MidsouthTN@heart.org for more information or to reserve your table.

Goals Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, of Allen, Texas, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, of Argyle, Texas, were indicted on Nov. 20 in U.S. District Court for a bizarre plot to carry out a coup on Gonave Island, near Haiti.

The New York Times reported that the men hatched their plan in 2024; both were learning Haitian Creole, and Weisenburg joined the North Texas Fire Academy to learn “commandand-control protocols.” He flunked out in February 2025. Thomas joined the U.S. Air Force and was stationed in Maryland, and both men planned to recruit homeless people from around Washington, D.C., to assist in the coup.

After sailing to and gaining control of the island, Weisenburg and Thomas planned to kill all the men and make the women and children sex slaves. The would-be conquerors could face up to life in federal prison. [New York Times, 11/22/2025] Perspective (or Lack Thereof) On Nov. 7 at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, Corey Johnson, 35, of Alexandria, Louisiana, tried to exit the short-term parking lot, but he wasn’t able to pay the fee. People magazine reported that Johnson at first refused to move his Jeep out of the exit lane but later agreed to pull aside while he worked out payment. Around 10 p.m., while Johnson was still stuck in the parking lot, the airport’s Aviation Communications center received a threatening phone call, suggesting a bomb would be detonated if the operator did not “page Hassan.” The center received another call around 10:35, saying he wanted “Hassan” “to bring the bomb to level three.” Deputies pinged the phone making the calls and traced it back to Johnson; by 11 p.m., he was under arrest. On Nov. 20, Johnson was indicted for willfully conveying a bomb threat. He could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine — way more than the parking fee.

[People, 12/3/2025] Raccoons Gone Wild • An ABC liquor store in Ashland, Virginia, had a break-in early on Nov. 29, but it wasn’t a robber. The New York Times reported that a raccoon fell through the ceiling of the store, then set about trying a wide variety of al-

cohol: rum, moonshine, peanut butter whiskey, vodka, and, of course, eggnog.

“It broke several bottles and consumed the spirits,” said Carol Mawyer, PR manager for Virginia ABC. When police and animal control responded, the blotto beast was passed out facedown on the floor of the bathroom.

The raccoon woke up after about one and half hour and showed no signs of injury. It was released back into the wild. [New York Times, 12/3/2025] • No good raccoon deed goes unpunished, as a man in Cherokee County, Georgia, learned during Thanksgiving week. CBS News reported that the unnamed man saw the injured animal in the road and stopped to help it, wrapping it in his coat and holding it against his chest as he drove to the Chattahoochee Nature Center more than an hour away. At some point, the raccoon became loose and bit the man on his face and hands. At the center, employees urged him to go to the hospital; meanwhile, the raccoon was euthanized and tested for rabies.

Result: Positive. “Please take a minute and assess the situation before attempting to capture wildlife without direction,” the center posted. [CBS News, 12/1/2025] Suspicions Confirmed Police in Auckland, New Zealand, are holding a man in custody, presumably awaiting a certain biological development, after he was accused of swallowing a $19,000 Fabergé egg pendant on Nov. 28, the BBC reported.

Officers went to Partridge Jewellers and arrested the 32-year-old man, who has undergone a medical assessment. Talk about crap duty: “An officer is assigned to constantly monitor the man,” Inspector Grae Anderson said.

“At this stage, the pendant has not been recovered.” The egg is set with white diamonds and blue sapphires and has an 18-karat-gold miniature octopus inside. [BBC, 12/3/2025] Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

NEWS OF THE WEIRD © 2026 Andrews McMeel Syndication.

Reprinted with permission.

All rights reserved.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): As far back as the 19th century, daredevil college students in the UK have reveled in the practice of “night climbing.” They clamber up chapels, spires, towers, and bridges under cover of darkness. Why? Mainly for adventure, mischief, and altered perspectives. In the coming months, Taurus, you may be ready for your own symbolic version of night climbing. If that sounds fun, seek out vantage points you’ve never accessed. Experiment with possibilities you’ve dismissed as off-limits or outside your range. Be safe, of course, but also be joyfully exploratory. I bet the view from the frontiers will change you in inspiring ways.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the coming months, I’m confident you will see and understand subtleties that most people miss. You’ll be a maestro at tuning in to nuanced subtexts in conversations and hidden openings in stale situations.

Everyone else may assume that familiar situations will never change, but you will have the power to tease out creative possibilities. You might even decode seemingly contradictory truths with such aplomb that you surprise yourself. Use this superpower with as much kindness as you can, Gemini. Some discoveries may tempt you toward clever mischief, but I hope that instead you will choose inspired guidance. Your expanded spectrum, if spiced with compassion, can consistently reveal your next leap.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): The honeyguide bird of Africa has a lucrative arrangement with humans. It calls out to honey-hunters, leading them through brush to wild beehives built into trees. The people harvest the honey, and the bird eats the leftover wax and larvae. This cooperation is passed down over generations and benefits both species. Let’s use this as a metaphor for your future in 2026. You will have extra power to notice where mutual benefit is possible, even with unexpected allies. They may be able to guide you toward resources you couldn’t find alone, and you will have value to give in return.

Keep an ear out for signals that say, “Come with me, and we’ll both gain.”

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The cathedral of

Notre-Dame in Paris took years to build.

Work began in 1163 and continued till 1345. Generations of architects, masons, and artisans contributed to the project, and those who began it didn’t live to see it completed. Yet they labored with devotion, trusting that the holy beauty they facilitated would endure beyond their lifetimes. I hope you’re inspired by this story, Leo. It’s an apt metaphor for you.

In the coming months, you could and should lay stones for creations you may not see fully accomplished for months or even years. I encourage you to redefine and refine what faith means to you, and summon it in abundance.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Ready to decommission your inner censor?

Interested in dropping the mask, relaxing your guard, and rewilding your gorgeous but slightly inhibited self? That’s what I recommend. Here are ways to fully enjoy the liberating grace period of the coming months: 1. Don’t deny yourself pleasures that would be healthy to indulge. 2. Shed taboos that were smart safeguards once upon a time but are no longer. 3. Re-evaluate why you treat certain fun activities as questionable. 4. Be brightly compassionate toward aspects of yourself you regard as wounded or inferior. 5. Be receptive to rebellious urges.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In 1839, French artist Louis Daguerre perfected the daguerreotype, an early type of photography. The images were so detailed that you could count the threads in a subject’s clothing. The only downside: They required minutes of perfect stillness to capture. A slight twitch or squirm could blur the picture. People held their breath and resisted the urge to fidget, hoping to preserve the magic moment. In this spirit, Libra, let’s make the long exposure your power metaphor during the coming months. The most useful truths will reveal themselves best if you give them time to develop. In conversations, resist filling every silence. In projects, don’t rush the pace. Have patient fun lingering on the threshold as the mysteries coalesce and clarify.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In 1907, Scorpio artist Pablo Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. It was a work so radically different from his earlier art and from the era’s norms that even his friends were stunned. Some called it ugly; others, incomprehensible. Yet the painting became a foundation of Cubism and reshaped modern art. Dear Scorpio, I suspect you may be on the verge of your own Les Demoiselles phase in 2026: unveiling novel approaches and innovative changes so original that they rattle comfortable assumptions. Don’t be discouraged if the initial responses don’t bring you appreciation. The root-shaking breakthroughs

you’re consorting with may take others a while to recognize and welcome.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You Sagittarians are often drawn to teaching.

You have a predilection and a passion for sharing what you have learned from your adventures and explorations. Many of you also possess a related gift: helping people make the journey to where enlightening lessons can best occur. You have a knack for opening their minds and clearing the way so they can awaken to new ways of seeing and imagining the world. I hope you will provide both of these blessings in abundance during the coming months. Your ability to inspire and educate will be at a peak.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Safety isn’t the opposite of adventure. It’s the infrastructure that lets adventure be expansive.

Keep that in mind in the coming months, Aquarius. You will be wise to cultivate cozy bravery. You should relax deeply and nurture your strength. Build the support system for your future boldness. Then, in the second half of 2026, you will be wellprepared to launch a phase of experimental fun and exploratory learning. For best results, surround yourself with love and care. Decide who best supports you and make it attractive for them to support you.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): High in the Andes Mountains, farmers have for centuries made chuño, a freeze-dried potato that can last for years. They leave the potatoes outside overnight to let the freezing temperatures draw out the water. In the daytime, the strong sunlight and dry mountain air evaporate residual moisture. By this process, a perishable food becomes a long-lasting staple. I propose we make the chuño your symbol of power, Pisces. The coming months will be an ideal time to build reserves. I hope you will turn what you have grown and developed into resources that will nourish you well into the future.

MAKE YOUR CLOSET HAPPY, MANE. m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The mystics drone on endlessly about letting go. But I’m here now to praise the art of holding on fiercely, tenderly, with full commitment. Some treasures deserve your passionate grip. Some people warrant your loyal devotion. Especially in the coming months, dear Aries, I invite you to devote yourself to your exciting dreams with ardent intensity. No surrender! Relentless perseverance! Uncompromising faith in the beauty and truth you love! What looks like stubbornness to outsiders will actually be fidelity to a vision others can’t yet see.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The coming months are ripe for sacred audacity: boldness with a conscience and courage guided by kindness. Imagine you’re a Benevolent Initiator, whose superpower is to kindle beginnings without causing disruption and unease. Practice brilliant, incremental nudges and tweaks rather than grand interventions. If you’re hesitating to say what needs to be said, deliver a modest version now and a stronger one later. Make gradual momentum your ally. Homework: Identify a future scene you want to generate and take three elegantly simple steps toward it.

VISIT US AT

GRINDCITYDESIGNS.COM/ MEMPHISFLYER TO PLACE AN ORDER.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY By Rob Brezsny

27

FILM By Chris McCoy

Avatar: Fire and Ash James Cameron goes balls to the wall for three hours in this epic finale.

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January 8-14, 2026

n December 2022, I was in Los Angeles for the HollyShorts Film Festival. While there, I bought a ticket for Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel to James Cameron’s 2012 megahit, which was the highest grossing film of all time. When I was seated at The Grove’s AMC theater, one of the biggest and busiest multiplexes in the world, I was not given 3D glasses. What the hell?

A world-class movie theater had knowingly sold me a ticket to an Avatar movie in old-fashioned 2D? I enjoyed The Way of Water, which is now the third-highest grossing film of all time, but within minutes of sitting down in the theater for Avatar: Fire and Ash, I was reminded of the real point of these films. The original Avatar was basically a technology demonstration for the digital 3D systems that Cameron had developed.

For a few years, everyone in Hollywood was buying into 3D, even to the point of doing pointless upconversions on projects that had been originally filmed in 2D. But eventually, the fad faded because no one can use 3D as well as James Cameron.

The only two people who have come close are Robert Rodriguez in Alita: Battle Angel, which was executive produced by Cameron, so that probably doesn’t count; and Robert Zemeckis, whose 2015 film The Walk, about a man who tightroped between the World Trade Center’s twin towers, is a real sphincter-clincher.

But Cameron is simply on a different level — or in a different dimension. He doesn’t just set up a scene and film it with a gimmick camera, he designs the entire visual space in three dimensions. Time after time during the three hour-plus runtime of Avatar: Fire and Ash, I gasped at the visuals. At one point, I forgot to blink for so long, my contact lens fell out.

The scale of the forest moon Pandora feels truly epic. One of Cameron’s favorite shot compositions has the bottom third of the frame underwater, while the top twothirds follow the action above the water. In those scenes, the ocean’s surface seems to flow off the screen and fill the theater with undulating waves. He generally avoids the “throw things at the camera to make them duck” gag that was already gauche during the original 3D fad of the 1950s. But when he finally does it, it’s with fast-spinning 28 bolos. Ever see an entire row of theatergoers flinch in unison?

(above) Varang (Oona Chaplin) draws a bow in Avatar: Fire and Ash; (left) Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington)

The story picks up right where Way of the Water left off. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), the space marine assigned to the Resource Development Agency’s (RDA) Avatar Project, now permanently inhabits his eight-foot tall, blue Na’vi body. He’s living with the Metkayina clan, the Reef People whom he helped save from the RDA’s space whalers, along with his Na’vi family, wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), son Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), daughter Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and adoptive children Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Despite the recent victory, it’s a tough time for the Sullys. Their oldest son Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) died in battle with the human invaders. But it’s not so bad, since the Na’vi can access the spirits of the dead through Pandora’s fungus network/natural internet, so his brother Lo’ak can still visit and do what the Na’vi do best — frolic in nature. Meanwhile, Kiri is maturing as a shaman who can wield mystic powers over the forest network, but she risks death every time she

tries, due to her hybrid nature.

Unlike the rest of the family, Spider is fully human. He’s the son of Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the RDA commandant whose consciousness was permanently transferred into a Na’vi body when his human form died. Since the atmosphere of Pandora is almost, but not quite, like our own, Spider has to live his life in an oxygen mask. When a mask failure almost kills him in his sleep, Sully and Neytiri decide that he can’t stay among the Na’vi, and decide to take him back to the Avatar Project base, where he can live among his own kind.

The decision is a fraught one because Neytiri’s bitterness at the loss of her son at the hands of the RDA have made her hate all humans, a speciesist attitude that extends to her own step-son. The Sullys hitch a ride with the flying merchants of the air clan, but their great balloon ships are ambushed by the Ash People, led

by Varang (Oona Chaplin, the real-life granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin).

The Ash People live around a volcano

that recently exploded, which shook their faith in Pandoran mother goddess Eywa.

When Varang gets a look at the advanced human firearms Sully has been hoarding since the battle, she gets a bad case of megalomania. Eventually, she uses a Pandoran psychedelic drug to seduce Quaritch, who goes native like Sully, only in an evil way.

The biggest problem with Fire and Ash is that Cameron has less of a plot and more of a list of incidents. The climax is once again an air/sea/land battle to defend the Reef People and the tulkun space whales against the avaricious humans, only this one is much bigger, and features the Ash People mounting a counterattack inspired by Peter Jackson’s “Ride of the Rohirrim” from The Return of the King. Cameron throws everything he’s got into the finale, trying to outdo George Lucas (successfully) and George Miller (unsuccessfully). He even pauses the battle so that pregnant Na’vi Ronal (Kate Winslet) can give birth before dying heroically. It’s all quite spectacular, but you’d think that a film with six credited editors could get it done in less than 197 minutes. As it is, Fire and Ash plays like a Pandoran hangout movie.

The story is a mess, but it’s fun to chill with our old blue friends for an evening, and maybe that’s enough.

Avatar: Fire and Ash Now playing Multiple locations See it in 3D if you can.

N O W P L AY I N G B y C h r i s M c C o y

Is This Thing On? Bradley Cooper directs this dramedy loosely based on British comedian and TV presenter John Bishop. Will Arnett stars as Alex, who is splitting up with his wife

Primate A tale as old as time. Boy gets pet. The pet is a chimpanzee. The family goes on vacation. Ben (the chimp) gets bitten by a rabid dog. The chimp goes nuts and kills everybody. Directed by Shudder veteran Johannes Roberts, starring Dexter’s Johnny Sequoyah, Coda’s Troy Kotsur, and Jessica Alexander from The Little Mermaid.

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Song Sung Blue Memphis’ own Craig Brewer directs this story of Mike and Claire Sardina, a Minnesota couple better known as Lightning & Thunder, who wowed audiences with their Neil Diamond Experience show in the 1990s and 2000s. The pair of workingclass heroes, played by Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, face tragedy at home while finding transcendence on the stage. Hudson is up for a Golden Globe award this Sunday for her performance as Thunder.

Tess (Laura Dern). He can’t catch a break until he signs up for an open-mic night, where he discovers a talent for making people laugh. She, meanwhile, starts dating a successful athlete (Peyton Manning, of all people) and gets a gig coaching the 2028 Olympic volleyball team. They get back together, split up again, and make each other’s lives miserable in the way only someone you love can.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Our critic picks the best films in theaters.

29

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

New Year, New Things

Here’s a short Memphis Wish List for Teens: • Teen-only nights at museums • College-led workshops • All-you-can-eat pizza and chess • Coding and game design showcases • Recess Day at Grind City • Art + music mashups And let’s be clear — teen programming should be accessible.

Affordable. Curiosity shouldn’t be a luxury. Memphis, our teens are watching. They’re creating. They’re dreaming.

They’re asking for spaces that reflect who they are becoming.

Let’s meet them there in 2026.

Patricia Lockhart is a native Memphian who loves to read, write, cook, and eat. By day, she’s a librarian and writer, but by night … she’s asleep.

THE LAST WORD

Welcome to the new year, Memphis! While 2025 showed a lot of love, growth, and excitement for the Lockhart family, I can’t wait to dig into 2026. I’m a mom of four wonderful teenagers: a 17-year-old boy, twin soon-to-be 14-year-old boys, and a 12-year-old girl. As native Memphians, they have honestly grown weary of the typical sights. They have been to the Pink Palace Museum & Mansion often enough to start giving tours themselves. They still find excitement in the variety of art displays at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art but wish they had some “tunage” to listen to as they view the exhibits. Unless the Memphis Zoo is going to start offering behind-the-scenes/hands-on experiences, my teens have had their fill.

PHOTOS: PATRICIA LOCKHART Nevertheless, there are still places that bring huge smiles to their faces.

Teen niches: bonfires, So Memphis, I ask, what do you have ready for your teenagers in 2026? climbing, and fields My 12-year-old daughter is the typical teenage girl. She’s into rock climbing, hair and makeup, chemistry, ballet, and all things fashion. And lately, she’s also been curious about the Navy. I know, I know, an eclectic mixture of interests. But Memphis, perhaps you can host a hair and skin care event for teens? (Trust me, you’d make a killing! I have seen these teenage influencers!) Or maybe the University of Memphis can lend their chemistry lab to teen girls for a day of fun and safety. (Because her bedroom can’t take much more.) Until then, she’ll continue reaching for the sky while rock climbing at Memphis Rox. She adores the place. She loves the mix of fear and strength she feels when climbing really, really high.

One of the 14-year-old twins is very laid back. He enjoys the familiar things in life: games, good food, and active stuff. Not “active stuff ” like organized sports, but more like recess — running around, laughing, and playing outside like a teen should. He loves kickball and random outdoor games. So it should be no surprise he loves Grind City Brewing Company. This is his favorite hang-out place in Memphis. He loves the open field and the perfect view. If y’all could fire up the grill with some hot dogs, you might not ever get him to leave. And he can’t wait for their Christmas Tree Bonfire! His favorite spot and a huge fire? Love!

The other 14-year-old twin is quite different. (They share a birthday, but not personalities.) While he enjoys video games too, he is really into coding and creating video games. Seriously, this boy creates video games, along with theme music, in his bedroom for fun! Honestly, he doesn’t just play games — he builds worlds. Is there a space where he can cultivate and grow his coding skills? Can anyone show him how to create a space to showcase his skills and talents?

Seriously, do you know anyone?

While we wait for a response, let’s see if you can guess his favorite Memphis spot. Clue #1: It’s filled with games. Clue #2: You’re the main character. Clue #3: It’s like you’re in a video game, but you’re not. Got a guess? If you said AMUSE: The Adventure Museum, you are correct! He loves the different games and genres and the infusion of people to make the games more fun. His favorite game is the jail escape. He also loves that some games are competitive while others are individual.

And lastly, our 17-year-old will be leaving the nest and heading to college. With a near perfect ACT score, high GPA, and an interest in engineering, he can honestly attend any college. But which is willing to pay him the most money, including room and board? Nevertheless, how can Memphis make his last few months memorable? He’s into gaming and building stuff. I know “stuff ” is a vague term, but when he’s explaining the robots he builds at school, it goes straight over my head. Anywho, is there a robot-building studio in Memphis? Whenever he’s not building things with his friends, he still enjoys a good game of chess. The Memphis Chess Club has been his favorite hangout for a while now. He walks in, orders a pizza, grabs a drink from the cooler, and selects a few games to play. Have you ever played three-person chess? Well, me neither. But it’s his favorite board game there!

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

Keeping teens busy in 2026.

31

Looks like hell.

Tastes like heaven.

Just don’t eat the shucks.

The Hot Tamale Capital of the World invites you to enjoy an eclectic collection of events and entertaining stops. » FEBRUARY « Mississippi River Marathon msrivermarathon.racesonline.com

» APRIL « Showcase on Wheels cabinonthebogue.com

» MAY « Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Festival, including Frog Fest and Leland Crawfish Festival LelandChamber.com

Future Tour Golf Championship » JUNE « Delta Soul & Celebrity Golf Event facebook.com/DeltaSoulGolf

Lake Washington’s “Straight Off The Lake” Music Festival Snake Grabbin’ Rodeo

facebook.com/GrabUOneOutfitters

» JULY « WWISCAA Food Festival wwiscaa.com

» AUGUST « MS Delta Duck Boat Races at Lake Washington » SEPTEMBER « Delta Blues & Heritage Festival deltabluesms.org

Gumbo Nationals

greenvillespeedway.net

Sam Chatmon Blues Fest

facebook.com/SamChatmonBlues

Stephone Hughes Old Time Gospel Fest » OCTOBER « Delta Hot Tamale Fest mainstreetgreenville.com/ delta-hot-tamale-festival

visitgreenville.org • (800) 467.3582

Highway 61 Blues Festival highway61blues.com

Monuments on Main Street Historic Greenville Cemetery Tour deltacenterstage.org/events

YMCA Cotton Classic 10K/5K Run racesonline.com/ymca-cotton-classic

» NOVEMBER « Roll’n on the River Car Show facebook.com/redwinecarshow

» DECEMBER « Christmas on Deer Creek LelandChamber.com