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It happened. e thing none of us wanted to happen, happened. Before we get there (here), let me rewind. In 2016, I reconnected with an old friend who, in the years since we’d seen each other, had fallen deep into the hole of addiction. Within a few weeks, I was taking her to Heroin Anonymous meetings; thankfully, she was willing to go. Soon it became a carpool to HA, piling ve-deep into my Honda Civic to rally for recovery for Kristin, Nik, Semalea, and Cheyenne (all friends I’d lost touch with). Aside from meetings, I tried to keep us busy doing as many everydaytype things we could do, well into 2017. Me, desperate to help my friends; them, along for the ride, with still-dri ing minds. ey eventually slipped back into their own worlds. I dreamed they wouldn’t lose sight of the hope we shared.
I lost Kristin to overdose in 2020 (which I wrote about in a Flyer column, titled “Heroin, the ief.” Nik le us in 2021; Semalea in 2022. And as deeply as it hurts to say, Cheyenne lost his yearslong battle as well, on July 3, 2025.
Cheyenne Marrs was a lifelong musician, and a personal friend for about 30 years. I can hardly look at Facebook since the news broke Sunday because it’s lled with memorial posts I’m not prepared to see. But seeing them — from other Memphis musicians, people he’d helped along their own recovery journeys, the mother of his new daughter, his family, and many friends — has shown just how much of an impact he made, even as he walked in his own darkness. He was connected to the fabric of this city, whether he served you a cup of co ee at Java Cabana, cracked you up with his goofy sense of humor at an open mic or elsewhere, made you feel comfortable at a recovery meeting, caught your ear from on stage at a local venue, or asked you for a cigarette (IYKYK).
Cheyenne was always making music, able to impressively play any instrument, sing, and write since youth. Music was in his genes and woven into every aspect of his life. I wrote about his solo debut album, Everybody Wants to Go Home, as a Best of Memphis sta pick in 2023, shortly a er its release. We don’t usually cover our friends, but the recognition was well-deserved. It wasn’t because he was my friend; it was because it was a damn good album. I listened to it a dozen or more times, beginning to end, before writing about it. (And kept it on repeat long a er.)
Cheyenne had recorded the bulk of the record while on drug court, working toward a year of sobriety at the time, if I recall. In the album’s lyrics, he so poignantly described the roller coaster of addiction, the void that can’t be lled, the push and pull of recovery attempts, the devastation and isolation in the wake of it all. I heard it as a healing album, but in retrospect, it was as much a confession: Addiction is a dark and lonely place, and I can pretend I’m okay sometimes, but it keeps knocking, and I don’t know how to stop it.
Cheyenne was like many brilliant, sincere, e ortlessly creative people who get lost in the depths of addiction. An artist’s awareness can also be their greatest cause of su ering. Cheyenne felt deeply — you can hear it in his music. Sometimes all those big feelings become too much. Sometimes we have to watch our loved ones ght the urge to numb those feelings, fall, and get up again. Hoping they get up again. I wish Cheyenne, my dear, sweet friend, could have been that HA success story. But, sadly, it happened.
NEWS & OPINION
THE FLY-BY - 4 POLITICS - 7 AT LARGE - 8 VIEWPOINT - 9 BEST OF BOM - 10
COVER STORY
“CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE” BY REBECCA CADENHEAD, MLK50: JUSTICE THROUGH JOURNALISM - 12
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
WE RECOMMEND - 15 MUSIC - 16 AFTER DARK - 17 CALENDAR - 18
NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 20
WE SAW YOU - 22 FOOD - 24
METAPHYSICAL CONNECTION - 25 NEWS OF THE WEIRD - 26 ASTROLOGY - 27 TV - 28 CLASSIFIEDS - 30
WORD - 31
I’d hoped the next time I wrote about Cheyenne or saw him in the Flyer’s pages, it’d be upon the release of his next album, one he was working on before his recent “slip,” as he called it. But here we are. I listened to Everybody Wants to Go Home in full again while writing this. What a beautiful gi he’s le us. What a tragedy.
Cheyenne sang throughout the record about a home he couldn’t pinpoint. A yearning to get out of this place “everybody knows not to visit,” “this hell, all alone,” to a safe place without su ering.
I hope you made your way home, my friend. We love you.
Shara Clark shara@memphis yer.com
PHOTO: CHEYENNE MARRS | FACEBOOK
THE fly-by
MEM ernet
on the internet.
ROLLING THUNDER
POSTED TO FACEBOOK BY
Memphis Police Department (MPD) was heavy and loud on Facebook last week, promoting the results of its “Rolling under” arrest campaign. is included 200 arrests of violent criminals and 42 gang members. MPD said the 93 shootings the week prior to the campaign were down by half in the following week.
TIRED
A storytime rant from Noah Nordstrom on Facebook last week blazed a er the selfidenti ed county-government employee was stranded by a Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) bus Downtown. In it, he said he was “tired of it” and blamed politicians.
POSTED TO FACEBOOK BY NOAH NORDSTROM
“ ey wanna buddy-buddy, and shake hands, and look important but they don’t actually want to do their jobs,” Nordstrom said.
HBD TO RINGO
Ringo the gibbon turned 23 over the weekend. e Memphis Zoo celebrated with a Dr. Seussthemed party with green eggs, “ham,” ice treats, and plenty of Seuss-inspired snacks and enrichment.
Questions, Answers + Attitude
Edited by Toby Sells
{WEEK THAT WAS
By Flyer staff
Tourism, Celtic Crossing, & xAI
Another record year, a Midtown pub rises a er crash, and locals allow Grok’s gas turbines.
TOURISM RECORD
Tennessee tourism broke yet another record with visitors spending more than $31.7 billion in the state last year, according to new state data.
A new report from the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development (TDTD) said direct visitor spending grew 3.3 percent in Tennessee last year. at gure has grown 35.5 percent since 2018.
Visitors spent nearly $87 million each day in Tennessee, according to the new report. State o cials said total tourism spending yielded $3.3 billion in state and local tax revenue, saving residents $1,170 in taxes for the year.
County-by-county breakdowns of tourism trends were not yet available for 2024. However, here are some key takeaways from Shelby County in 2023:
• County rank: 2 (behind Davidson County)
• Total visitor economic impact: $4.2 billion
• Employment: 28,354
• Local taxes: $153 million
CELTIC CRASH
Just days a er a frightening car crash destroyed Celtic Crossing Irish Pub’s enormous outdoor patio, the Cooper-Young restaurant greeted visitors again.
A vehicle crashed into the restaurant last Monday morning. e driver passed out at the wheel during a medical event, according to law enforcement o cials. e vehicle entered the patio from the north. It missed cars parked on Cooper and a large stump decorated to look like a gnome home.
ABORTION BAN SUIT
State attorneys sought to dismiss a lawsuit over Tennessee’s neartotal abortion ban a er a new law adding limited exceptions for medical emergencies went into e ect earlier this year.
Jenna Adamson, assistant solicitor general in Tennessee’s O ce of the Attorney General, told a three-judge panel last
week that the new law “made signi cant changes” to Tennessee’s abortion ban and “makes this a di erent case.” She argued the lawsuit is now moot.
But attorneys with the Center for Reproductive Rights countered that the new legislation, e ective April 29th, is written in vague and ambiguous language that still leaves doctors uncertain if they are following or breaking the law when providing an emergency abortion.
x AI GETS TURBINE PERMIT
e Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) granted xAI permission to install 15 permanent natural gas turbines last week. e controversial turbines will provide backup power for xAI’s data center in Memphis.
“Our on-site power generation will be equipped with stateof-the-art emissions control technology, making this facility the lowest-emitting of its kind in the country,” the company said in a rare public statement.
e permit is for 15 permanent turbines. However, the Southern Environmental Law Center claimed xAI had been running as many as 35 in the facility’s early stages. e health department told the group the other turbines were temporary and not pertinent to the application process for the permanent ones.
Also last week, Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP) announced a $250,000 investment to monitor Memphis’ air quality near the facility in South Memphis. Tennessee Lookout contributed to this report. Visit the News Blog at memphis yer.com for fuller versions of these stories and more local news.
POSTED TO X BY MEMPHIS ZOO
PHOTO: SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER
In response to the permit approval, xAI said it looks forward to partnering with Memphis.
FRIDAY OCT 10
FedEx Event Center at Shelby Farms
Join us for a fantastic evening of great tastes and great fun, bringing together bourbon and whiskey distillers from around the region PLUS great bites from some of your favorite local restaurants! VIP Admission starts at 5pm, GA at 6pm.
TICKETS AND MORE INFO
Riverboats Move {
CITY REPORTER
By Toby Sells
e Lonestar Paddleboat Landing project would help protect the historic cobblestones.
Riverboat operations could move half a mile upstream into the Wolf River Harbor in a city project aimed to protect the historic cobblestones landing.
e Downtown Memphis Commission’s (DMC) Design Review Board will have its rst look at the project in a meeting slated for this week. e project, called the Lonestar Paddleboat Landing, will build a switchback from the top of Bass Pro Drive down to the river’s edge.
“ e Lonestar Paddleboat Landing project is part of a larger preservation e ort for the historic cobblestone landing in Memphis,” said DMC sta o cials, who recommended the project’s approval to DMC decisionmakers. “ e proposed site lies roughly half a mile upstream from the historic cobblestone landing site and is intended to provide a new location for riverboat operations.
“ is relocation will improve visitor ow to the city while protecting historic infrastructure and providing safer facilities for boat operators and guests alike.”
As the Memphis Flyer reported in a recent cover story, the historic cobblestone project — nearly three decades in the making — is expected to be nished sometime this fall. e landing is still in daily use by the many riverboat companies who operate out of the harbor. It is used to load guests onto boats, for parking, and more.
e “Lonestar” name of the project calls back to the former Lone Star Industries Inc. concrete company facility that stood on the site. e facility’s massive silos with an enormous “Memphis” sign on them once greeted visitors and served as a sort of civic landmark. e facility was demolished in 2021 to make way for the entrance of Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid.
e new switchback there will connect to an existing sidewalk on the site.
e walkway will be eight feet wide and feature 16 landings as it snakes its way down the bank. Safety railings will line both sides of the walkway.
e site along Bass Pro Drive would connect to an existing sidewalk and snake its way down the bank. No landscaping or signage from the city is expected for the project. However, lighting will be added throughout. e project is on land managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“… this block of Downtown is particularly well suited for a tourismadjacent use, increasing activity and enhancing visitor experience,” reads the sta report for the project. “Locating this new infrastructure in the area between the Pyramid and the Welcome Center will ensure that those traveling by riverboat to Memphis are immediately met by de ning features of the city, both physically and culturally.”
e
PHOTOS: DOWNTOWN MEMPHIS COMMISSION
proposed Lonestar Paddleboat Landing will build a switchback from the top of Bass Pro Drive down to the river’s edge.
Midsummer Musings
The Incredible Growing xAI Project; and other news.
Does Elon Musk really have time to focus, as he has threatened, in furtherance of his feud with ex-BF Donald Trump, on the creation of a new political party?
Events are moving apace with regard to Musk’s xAI project in Memphis. Even amid increasing environmental concerns locally, an approval last week by the Shelby County Health Department of permits for methane gas generators at the existing Colossus facility, and this week’s scheduled Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce webinar on the whole matter, Musk has accounted for bigger news yet on that front.
According to various sources, he has confirmed the purchase of an entire power plant overseas, which he intends to ship to Memphis to be located on the additional property he has acquired in Whitehaven. The operation will produce 1 million AI GPUs and up to two gigawatts of power under one roof, enough to power 1.9 million homes.
As Dylan Patel of the industry organ SemiAnalysis put it, “They just bought a power plant from overseas and are shipping it to the U.S. because they couldn’t get a new one [built] in time. … They’re doing all this crazy shit to get the compute.”
Whatever its other consequences, this new development should certainly ease fears concerning the often lamented potential strain to be exerted on Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) by the xAI project.
But worries over the environment are sure to multiply.
• As noted previously in this space, President Trump had, in the early months of his current presidential term, gone on a firing binge in regard to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) board of directors, removing three of its members and depriving the board, whose oversight includes MLGW, of a quorum.
He has since nominated as replacements three new members, including Memphian Mitch Graves, the CEO of West Cancer Center.
Graves has been a political backer of (and important fundraiser for) both former Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a nominal if inactive Democrat, and 8th District Republican Congressman David Kustoff.
The other new members of the TVA board are Knoxville attorney Jeff Hagood
and Alabama insurance agent Randall Jones.
Trump has also re-nominated Mike Dunavant for a new term as U.S. attorney for Tennessee’s Western District. Dunavant served in that capacity during Trump’s first term.
• Vanderbilt University is well-known for its periodic sampling of Tennesseans’ views on political and civic issues. The university’s most recent poll, more national in scope, was released in mid-June under the rubric of the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and the American Democracy.
The poll contains this interesting nugget from John Geer, co-director of the poll: “Tracking ‘Republicans’ as a single group of partisans no longer tells a complete story. … There are notable differences in sentiment among MAGA Republicans and traditional Republicans, making it critical to consider this distinction when assessing the public’s thinking.”
It’s fair to say that the poll, in that sense, confirms what most political observers, including this writer, have increasingly suspected.
Geer goes on: “On the Democratic side, our efforts to look for differences between wings of the party have found little to no difference.” (It remains to be seen, given such results as that of the recent Democratic primary for New York mayor, which elevated avowed Socialist Zohran Mamdani, if that conclusion holds up.)
Regarding the GOP, Geer observes further: “Identification with the MAGA movement reached an all-time high (52 percent) after the Inauguration, according to the February 2025 Vanderbilt Poll.” In the new poll, that figure has declined to 44 percent.
That finding would square with a variety of recent polls by other sampling services showing growing discontent with numerous Trump initiatives. Clarification: Commissioner Henri Brooks contends that a recent Politics column misrepresented a position of hers concerning the county budget. The column noted that she wanted to use a small sum under discussion to “feed the hungry,” rather than for its pending purpose (in her words) as “funding for the DA and the Public Defender’s Offices.” DA Steve Mulroy, who was also present, clarified that the specific need for the outlay by his office was to implement parity for identical work being done by county and state prosecutors. The commission kept the money in the DA’s column. No offense was meant to Commissioner Brooks.
FLASHYOUR FLYER
AT LARGE
By
Bruce VanWyngarden
Deportees
We can be better. We must.
Now my father’s own father, he waded that river.
ey took all the money he made in his life.
Six-hundred miles to the Mexico border.
ey chased us like rustlers, like outlaws, like thieves. Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita.
Adiós mis amigos, Jesus and Maria.
You won’t have a name when you ride the big airplane. No, all they will call you will be Deportee. — Woody Guthrie
e waiter sets down a plate of chargrilled shrimp, fresh vegetables, and a mound of brown rice. He smiles and says, “Enjoy. And let me know if you need anything.” en he walks to the end of the bar and begins talking in animated Spanish with a coworker. It’s the Fourth of July and the place isn’t crowded. ey seem to be enjoying their jobs, but just watching them makes me afraid for them — and for what this country is becoming.
I’d listened to Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee” earlier that day. It wasn’t foresight. It just showed up on my Facebook feed, a version by Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. Guthrie wrote it about a plane full of Mexican laborers that crashed in 1948 in Los Gatos Canyon, killing all aboard. e song broke me up. It really did. Go listen to it. It’s about human beings and how we label them and dehumanize them. We haven’t come so far in 77 years. In fact, we may have reverted to a darker place.
Consider the Big Bloated Bill that Donald Trump signed into law earlier that day. Yes, it’s an environmental disaster and it takes healthcare from millions, but the real story of the bill is how it legitimizes hate. If you have brown skin and speak Español, like the two young people in the restaurant, federal ICE agents can come to your workplace — or school, or church, or home — put your wrists in zip ties, throw you in a van, and send you to a detention center … maybe somewhere like Alligator Alcatraz, Florida’s shiny new concentration camp that opened last week.
Trump, Kristi Noem, Ron DeSantis, and other notables were there for the opening festivities, like it was a new Dairy Queen. ey applauded the new highway signs; they smirked at the “Alligator Alcatraz” hats, T-shirts, beer koozies, and other merch. Because nothing is funnier than a prison camp in a
desolate swamp for the people who wait on your tables, process your food, build your houses, and harvest your crops. Oh, some of them may actually be criminals, but that’s hardly the point anymore. It’s just theater now, like pro wrestling. Only this time, we’re the bad guys, grabbing people and body-slamming them to Gitmo, El Salvador, South Sudan — all with the blessing of the Supreme Court. And it’s about to get worse. With a fresh budget of $108 billion, ICE becomes the largest “law-enforcement” agency in U.S. history, with more funding than the FBI; DEA; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; Bureau of Prisons; and the U.S. Marshals Service — combined! More than half of that enormous pile of our tax dollars will go to for-pro t prison corporations to build more detention centers and buy more planes for deportations. If you invested in private prison corporation stock last month, you just made bank. e overt racism is the hustle. e billions are the pay-o .
All of this madness has brought us to a place where I don’t recognize my country any longer. e rule of law? Six Supreme Court justices have knelt in obeisance to the rule of Trump. ICE has become a secret police agency. No one knows who’s really working for them or what their “training” is. I do know that legitimate law o cers need a warrant to arrest you, and they don’t wear masks. What ICE is doing isn’t “crime- ghting.” It’s a crime.
I take a last sip of my margarita and look again at the cheerful young workers in this Mexican restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, on Independence Day, and all I can think about are those sad lyrics … “You won’t have a name when you ride the big airplane. No, all they will call you will be Deportee.”
PHOTO: AL AUMULLER | NYWT&S STAFF PHOTOGRAPH
Woody Guthrie
By Lawrence S. Wittner
e survival of a primitive emotion.
ongressional passage of Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” provides the latest evidence that human greed, despite its primitive nature, remains alive and well.
Perhaps most noticeably, the legislation provides for over $3 trillion in tax cuts that disproportionately help the wealthy and their corporations. is largesse is facilitated by slashing over $1.4 trillion in healthcare and food assistance for low-income Americans and increasing the national debt by $3.3 trillion. Estimates reveal that at least 16 million Americans will lose healthcare coverage and seven million people (including two million children) will lose food aid or have their food aid cut signi cantly. Meanwhile, according to the Yale Budget Lab, the nation’s top 0.1 percent — people with an annual income over $3.3 million — will receive tax cuts of $103,500 on average. Condemning the legislation, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declared simply that it “takes from the poor to give to the wealthy.”
Other measures in the legislation supporting the wealthy and their businesses at public expense include nancial subsidies for coal, oil, and gas companies; the opening of opportunities for oil and gas corporations to drill on public lands (including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve); and the reduction of royalty fees for such fossil fuel drilling.
Of course, this kind of class legislation and the greed that inspires it are nothing new. roughout history, some people
have amassed great fortunes, o en with the assistance of governments and other powerful entities. Kings, princes, and their courtiers provided themselves with castles, vast landed estates, and other perquisites of wealth, while millions of their subjects lived in miserable huts and dug a few potatoes out of their elds in a desperate e ort to survive. In later years, this situation was replicated to some extent as business titans garnered great wealth by exploiting workers in factories, mines, and elds.
Although this pattern of economic inequality was viewed as immoral by every great religious and ethical system, it did have a brutal logic to it. A er all, in these situations of overall scarcity, some people would be poor and some would surely die. By contrast, growing rich helped guarantee survival for oneself and one’s family.
But with the advent of the industrial revolution, these tragic circumstances began to dissipate, for human beings increasingly possessed the knowledge, skills, and resources that had the potential to produce decent lives for everyone. Indeed, as science, technology, and factory output advanced and produced unprecedented abundance, there was no longer any morally justi able basis for the existence of hunger, homelessness, and mass sickness.
In these altered conditions, avarice has become increasingly irrational — the driving force behind irrational men like Donald Trump and his billionaire friends, who, even as millions of people live and die in poverty and misery, seek to wallow in great wealth.
Gandhi put it concisely when he declared, decades ago: “ e world has enough for everyone’s need but not enough for everyone’s greed.”
Fortunately, over the course of human history, humane thinkers, social movements, and political parties have worked to rein in untrammeled greed in the interest of a better life for all humanity. In recent centuries, they have recognized the fact that sharing the wealth is not only a moral stance but a feasible one.
Let’s hope, then, that despite this brazen and regressive move by the Trump administration to bolster economic privilege at the expense of human needs, the forces favoring human equality and compassion will ultimately prevail. Dr. Lawrence Wittner, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is professor of history emeritus at SUNY/Albany and the author of Confronting the Bomb (Stanford University Press).
MUSIC WEDNESDAY JULY 16
“ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE” with ALICE HASEN 7:30 PM THE GREEN ROOM
THURSDAY JULY 17
CALENDAR
PHOTO: MARIA DRYFHOUT | DREAMSTIME.COM
MY HEALTH is our health
Since welcoming little one, life expanded while my world contracted.
More complexity, less time
Every day I advocate for my baby whether it’s at daycare or the doctor’s office.
And every day, I push off one thing my own health.
Cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer of new moms, with risks can last for months post-partum.
So, I’m taking action and starting the conversation, with not just my doctor, but with other moms I know, too.
Because not only do I want to be a great mom — I want to be a mom for a very long time.
Locally supported by
BEST OF BOM By Jake Sanders
The Beat Goes On
Paula Raiford continues her father’s legacy as a perennial favorite.
dazzling array of ashing lights cuts through the fog, shining on an illuminated dance oor packed with moving bodies and vibrant out ts. Countless handprints line the walls from people all over the world. Shimmering disco balls and silver dance poles ll the room, echoing the untouchable era of ’80s disco. is is your average weekend night-out at Paula & Raiford’s Disco, which has taken home several years’ worth of Best NightFlyer’s Best of Memphis. To the owner, Paula Raiford, “ e wins mean a lot. e way dad grew the old Raiford’s and now the new Raiford’s … it means we’re doing a great job.”
e original location at 115 Vance Avenue, Raiford’s Hollywood Disco, won several Best A er-Hours Club awards in the 2000s. Since Paula & Raiford’s Disco opened in 2009 at 14 South 2nd Street, it’s taken home multiple consecutive wins for Best A er-Hours Club, Best Dance Club, and Best
e original Raiford’s Hollywood Disco was open from 1976 until Paula’s dad, Robert “Hollywood” Raiford, retired in 2007. But retirement didn’t suit the Raifords. Just two weeks later, Paula decided to give it another shot: “I was getting my hair done and started booboo cryin’. I missed it!” But before Paula & Raiford’s Disco opened in 2009, they made sure the new location kept the original Raiford’s Hollywood Disco charm, with big speakers on the oor “like an old house party,” a lit-up dance oor, silver dance poles, a fog machine, and her dad running the DJ booth. ese are just some of the nonnegotiables in the legendary disco club. She was ecstatic when her dad continued running music for the club, too. “He came back for the music,” says Paula. e same sound system that bumps in Raiford’s today was built by her dad.
ery Friday and Saturday night. Each guest strolls between the velvet ropes on the red carpet before heading inside. “If they can’t walk the red carpet in Hollywood, they can walk it at Raiford’s,” Paula says. e nal product of the recipe: the power to evoke viral nostalgia from all their guests. Anyone and everyone can grab a true taste of the ’80s a er their rst step inside, no matter what generation. And that’s something other clubs just can’t fake.
Past the bar is another Raiford’s special: the drum set. Paula says she isn’t exactly sure where it came from, but it’s been in both disco club locations for decades. “Anyone can play, anyone who can’t play, it’s open season.” at same relentlessly accepting attitude is the nal secret ingredient to Raiford’s. “I treat everyone the same, no discrimination. We just let everyone be themselves.”
As Raiford’s approaches its 50th year in Memphis, it’s seen the Memphis nightlife scene shi and grow into something new. “We had a whole lot of blues clubs back in the day. … We don’t have them anymore.” Even as the outside world changes, Raiford’s stays the same. Paula attributes the club’s authenticity to her father’s legacy: “My dad le a spirit in here. If you met him, he’s one of a kind … the music, the decor, the spirit of people, the lights, the action, the fog. Other places make it really pretty — not like Raiford’s isn’t pretty, but it’s not a 2025 bar; it’s got old rhythm and old recipes.” Other parts of that recipe are the iconic 40s that Paula herself serves ev-
Paula is optimistic about the disco wave coming back around. “You see the bellbottoms coming back, so never say never,” she says. When I tell her I missed out on original ’70s disco, she says, “You did, a little bit, but di erent generations are still appreciating Raiford’s, and it’s great to be loved.” Paula still believes young people can bring in a new era of incredible disco. She tells me a story of a woman throwing a Raiford’s-themed birthday party in her garage. “It looked just like Raiford’s. She used paper for the handprints, the ‘Love Love’ sign, all the special things we have over here.”
“Love Love” is one of Paula’s life slogans, and it’s written on the alley walls right next to the club. It’s part of the history she’s been writing for decades, and it’s what she hopes to leave behind. “I’m going to leave a legacy of love. Loving yourself, loving each other.”
PHOTO: SHARA CLARK
Paula Raiford serves 40s (and more) at the club’s bar.
CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE
April was one of the worst months for gun violence against Memphis children. Fourteen children were shot at parks, festivals, memorials, and in front of schools; seven died from their wounds.
e last time that many children were killed by guns in a single month — November 2023 — was at the tail end of the deadliest year on record for Memphis children, according to the Memphis Police Department.
e number of Memphis children shot has increased sharply over the past decade, per Regional One Health and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital data. In 2009, doctors at Le Bonheur treated 23 children for gunshot wounds. In 2012, they treated 40 children. In 2017, they treated 88. And in 2023, they treated 180. Since the pandemic, well over 200 children have been shot in Memphis each year, according to Regional One and Le Bonheur. In 2023, that number was closer to 300. While gun violence decreased slightly over the past year, it remains well above pre-Covid levels.
Most of these children were not
engaged in illegal activity, said Dr. Regan Williams, director of trauma services at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. Instead, they were o en bystanders caught in shootings that had little to do with them, but happened to take place where they study, play, and sleep.
Williams thinks she knows what’s responsible for this increase: policy decisions, particularly the state’s “guns in trunks” law.
Memphis has long been a “perfect storm” for gun violence for three reasons, Williams said: “We don’t have common-sense gun legislation. We have a high rate of poverty, and there are a lot of guns out there.”
But “guns in trunks,” which allows Tennesseans to store guns in their cars, made things even worse, she said. FBI data shows that in the years a er its passage in 2013, the number of guns stolen from cars in Shelby County rose rapidly. So, too, did the number of children Williams and other Le Bonheur doctors treated for gunshot wounds.
“A couple years a er the law passed,
there was an increase in the number of guns,” Williams said. “And then with the increase in guns came the increase in children being shot.”
Gunshot wounds surpassed car accidents to become the leading cause of death for Tennessee children in 2022. Firearms have remained the top killer of the state’s children ever since.
An increase in community violence
Le Bonheur has the only trauma center for children in Memphis. As such, Williams and her team treat almost every Memphian under the age of 16 with lifethreatening injuries.
In the mid-2010s, they noticed something unsettling: e number of children they treated for gunshot wounds was rising. In the past, Le Bonheur doctors saw three or four children with gunshot wounds each month. Now, they might see that many in a week.
Williams has been tracking the reasons why her young patients were shot. She hopes the data will point to potential solutions to gun violence in Memphis.
Students at Crosstown High School walked out of school in March 2023 and held a rally to protest lax gun laws in the wake of the shooting at e Covenant School in Nashville.
“I ask what the story is for every child, so I can group things in my head,” Williams said. “I try to gure out how we educate and prevent these things from happening.”
In general, Williams thinks more children have been shot because of an increase in community violence in pockets of the city. Her patients come from all parts of Memphis, but some neighborhoods — Frayser, South Memphis, and Orange Mound among them — are overrepresented.
Le Bonheur records whether children were shot accidentally or intentionally. Accidental injuries usually come from young children shooting themselves or each other, and are typically related to
“Since the pandemic, well over 200 children have been shot in Memphis each year.”
PHOTO: ANDREA MORALES | MLK50
gun storage, Williams said. “It’s generally a kid who’s found the gun under the bed or in a cabinet, it goes o , and someone around them gets shot.”
Children shot intentionally, by contrast, are usually injured because they live in a neighborhood with high levels of violence. “Eighty percent of the intentional injuries are drive-by shootings,” Williams said. “ e victim was not really the intended target of the shooting. ey just happened to be walking down the street, or they’re in their home, or they’re in a car that was shot up.”
Last year, over 70 percent of Le Bonheur’s patients were shot intentionally. When they started collecting this data in 2017, 50 percent of their patients were shot intentionally.
“Our rise in gun violence since the pandemic is related to intentional shootings,” Williams said. “ ese shootings are generally related to community violence.”
In other words, in recent years, more Memphis children have been shot because the neighborhoods they live in have become more dangerous.
“Guns in trunks” Why did levels of community violence rise?
Williams’ data shows that the number of children shot initially spiked in 2017, just a few years a er an amended version of guns in trunks was signed into law.
“A lot of guns started getting stolen out of cars,” Williams said. “And so I think that increased the number of guns that we had on the street.”
City of Memphis data shows that gunrelated violent incidents increased in the late 2010s. is increase in gun violence made Memphis neighborhoods less safe and meant that more children were caught in the cross re.
Stolen guns have an outsized impact on gun violence because they are more likely to be used to hurt people than other rearms, said Tamika Williams, deputy director for the city’s O ce of Neighborhood Safety & Engagement. “Most likely, those guns are sold or they’re used in crimes,” Tamika Williams said.
Research shows that most acts of gun violence are committed with a stolen gun. According to FBI data, in Tennessee, a majority of guns are stolen from vehicles. In 2021, the Memphis Police Department stated that 40 percent of rearm crimes in the city involve a gun stolen from a car.
e number of rearms stolen from Memphis vehicles skyrocketed in the mid-2010s, according to a review of FBI data generated by gun safety advocacy organization Everytown.
Cities across Tennessee saw an increase in gun the s a er the passage of guns in trunks, the report showed. States without a similar law did not see such an increase.
Of all the cities in Everytown’s analysis, Memphis had the highest rate of guns stolen from vehicles.
Young people — particularly teens and young adults — are disproportionately involved in car break-ins in Memphis, Tamika Williams said. Still, adults, not children, commit the vast majority of violent gun crimes in the city, she added.
Gun violence with young perpetrators tends to be well-publicized, and as a result, there’s a widespread perception that teens are responsible for most of Memphis’ violent crime, Tamika Williams said. In reality, less than 10 percent of violent crimes in the city are committed by children.
Regan Williams echoed Tamika Williams’ sentiment.
“People commonly assume that children that are shot were doing something
in aggregate, the more gun safety restrictions the state has, the safer their residents are, and the less gun crime they see.”
Tennessee has been on a “deregulatory slide” on gun safety for the better part of the last decade, Li added — even as the number of Tennessee children shot by guns has increased.
In 2021, the state eliminated permits to carry concealed weapons in public, a policy “we know is dangerous” because of its impact in other states, Li said. Missouri, which eliminated permits for concealed carry several years before Tennessee, saw gun deaths rise in the years a er the law’s passage.
Tennessee legislators have passed a handful of narrowly focused gun control laws, such as a recent ban on Glock switches, which can make semi-automatic rearms automatic. ey have also banned people with domestic violence convictions from possessing rearms.
PHOTO: ANDREA MORALES | MLK50
Dr. Regan Williams stands for a portrait outside Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.
CHART: DR. REGAN WILLIAMS
e number of children experiencing rearm injuries grew steadily a er “guns in trunks” legislation in 2013.
wrong,” said Regan Williams. “And actually, that’s not true. ey are innocent bystanders in a community that isn’t safe for them, and I think that it’s our job as adults to help keep children safe.”
“A deregulatory slide” It’s di cult to establish a link between a speci c piece of legislation and gun violence, said Olivia Li, a policy expert at Everytown. Still, “there are things we know for sure,” she said. “ e rst is that
Still, the legislature has generally shied away from gun safety legislation. It repeatedly failed to pass a “red ag” law, which allows law enforcement to take rearms from those deemed a threat to themselves or others. During the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers declined to pass MaKayla’s Law, which would have penalized adults whose improperly stored rearms fall into the hands of children, and another bill that would have penalized those who improperly store guns in their cars.
Instead, the legislature has expanded gun access in the state. In its summary of Tennessee’s gun laws, Everytown wrote that Tennessee’s laws allow “nearly anyone in the state to carry loaded rearms in public without a background check, permit, or safety training.” is session, lawmakers shielded gun manufacturers from lawsuits, lowered the age at which one can attain a handgun permit and cut funding to several organizations that ght gun violence in Memphis.
State Senator London Lamar fears that these policy changes will make gun violence in Memphis even worse.
“What I saw this legislative session was Republicans complaining about the rise in gun violence in our cities across the state, but passing legislation that increases the access to guns,” Lamar said in an interview.
“I don’t actually think [state Republicans] care about solving gun violence,” Lamar said. “Gunshots are the leading cause of death for Tennessee children, but they fail to protect children in this state
continued on page 12
“Gunshots are the leading cause of death for Tennessee children.”
continued from page 13
based on the policies they have actually championed and passed.”
“It’s become normal”
Kate Robinson, a junior at Crosstown High School, grew up considering what she’d do if she were caught in a shooting. It’s an idea she talks about with an air of detachment. “I’ve accepted it,” she said. “It’s become normal.” When she hears that another young person in Memphis has been killed by someone with a gun, she no longer feels surprised, just resigned.
Gun violence remains in the back of her mind, even when she’s not actively thinking about it. Recently, she overheard a classmate scream from across the hall; she instinctively wondered if there might be a gun. In reality, that classmate was just rehearsing a play.
In the wake of e Covenant School shooting, Robinson joined a school walkout organized by Students Demand Action, the youth advocacy wing of Everytown. Last year, she o cially joined the group as a student organizer, pushing for changes to Tennessee’s laws around rearms.
She and her peers advocate for “gun safety,” not “gun control,” she said — “We’re not looking to take away guns. We’re not looking to control or restrict anyone’s rights. We’re just asking people to store their guns safely.”
Robinson remains hopeful that state lawmakers will take action on gun safety. “ e majority of Memphians agree with us,” she said. She suspects that a majority of Tennesseans might agree with her, too. Still, she knows that the state’s Republican supermajority is unlikely to pass the policies she’d like to see enacted anytime soon.
Robinson will continue pressing for change as long as she can — at least until she graduates from high school. She’s
EVERYTOWN RESEARCH
FBI data shows the increase of gun the s from vehicles in Memphis.
already decided that when she gets old enough, she’s going to leave the state entirely. “I want to go to the North,” she said. In Tennessee, “my safety isn’t prioritized.”
Rebecca Cadenhead is the youth life and justice reporter for MLK50: Justice rough Journalism. She is also a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. Email her at rebecca.cadenhead@mlk50.com. is story is brought to you by MLK50: Justice rough Journalism, a nonpro t newsroom focused on poverty, power, and policy in Memphis.
PHOTO: ANDREA MORALES | MLK50 Kate Robinson stands for a portrait at Crosstown Concourse.
CHART:
steppin’ out
Summer Cocktails
By Morgan Thomas
While we’re all dreading the heat wave of the summer, a cool cocktail will help take the exhaustion away. e Memphis Summer Cocktail Festival, which began in 2019 and is sponsored in part by the Memphis Flyer, will be an evening lled with community and fun that you won’t want to miss. Summer-inspired cocktails, mocktail samples, options from food vendors, entertainment, and more will be on hand.
“ is is our way of kicking o and celebrating summer in Memphis,” said Lynsie Shackleford, team member and director of media for Willmott Events, the event’s host.
e entertainment will feature DJ Zetta, an open dance oor, a cigar lounge in the courtyard, and a mixology showcase with di erent summer-inspired cocktails. ere will be food for purchase from vendors such as 901 Eats and Treats, Green Beetle, BBQ X, and e Genre. Signature cocktails will be served by Hennessy, Crown Royal, Captain Morgan, Empress Gin, Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, Ketel One Vodka, Liba Spirits, Delta Dirt Distillery, Old Dominick, and Volcan Tequila. You can also make your own tequila with a choice of a spicy or classic taste in it. All proceeds will go to Volunteer Memphis, which helps connect people with opportunities to serve throughout the Greater Memphis area. So every sip counts!
e festival will be resort wear-themed and will take place at the Kent, which has recently been greatly renovated with plenty of parking and a nice courtyard to enjoy. Only adults 21 and older can attend this event; no kids or pets are allowed.
General tickets start at $49, which includes a sampling passport with 12 mini cocktail tastings and access to the whole event. e party pack is $45 each for a party of six people or more, which will also include a discount. Lastly, tickets at the door will be $65 until sold out.
“Susan Watkins and Women Artists of the Progressive Era” e Dixon Gallery & Gardens, 4339 Park, Sunday, July 13-September 28
Centered on the career of Susan Watkins (1875–1913), this exhibition o ers a look into the environment in which Watkins and other female artists of the time forged their professional identities. Histories of 20th-century American art have o en overlooked the contributions of women such as Watkins, who embraced more traditional artistic styles. Featuring paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Watkins and artists including Lilla Cabot Perry, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, Elizabeth Nourse, Anna Elizabeth Klumpke, and Mary Fairchild MacMonnies, this exhibition recovers their stories and reasserts their contributions to art history. Admission to the Dixon is free.
Spies in the Cemetery Elmwood Cemetery, 824 Dudley Street, Sunday, July 13, 2-3 p.m., $20
Explore the hidden world of espionage. Discover the secrets of spies at rest during this in-person event that will take you on a winding journey through the last 150 years or so. Hear about world-famous spies, the spies that started it all, the spies that wrote the book on spying, and the spies who permanently reside in Elmwood Cemetery. Kim Bearden is your presenter for this 45-minute, seated presentation that will take place in the Lord’s Chapel at Elmwood Cemetery. Register at elmwoodcemetery.org.
MUSE Creative Gathering: SOUND — A Collaborative Community Soundscape Bar DKDC, 964 South Cooper, Monday, July 14, 6:30-8:30 p.m., $10 Join Like Really Creative for MUSE: SOUND, a collaborative and improvisational soundscape experience inspired by Euterpe, the Greek muse of music, and led by musicians Victor Sawyer, Natalie Ho mann, and EsMod.
is month’s Creative Gathering invites musicians, producers, instrumentalists, vocalists, and curious spectators to immerse themselves in the energy of collective sound, shaped in real-time. e soundscape will begin with a single note from each of the three featured musicians, setting the tone. Attendees are then invited to join in intuitively, adding their own sounds to build evolving layers of collaborative music.
MEMPHIS SUMMER COCKTAIL FEST, THE KENT, 61 KEEL AVENUE, SATURDAY, JULY 12, 6-9 P.M., $45+
PHOTO: COURTESY WILLMOTT EVENTS
Sip on a sampling of summer-inspired cocktails at this summer party.
MUSIC By Alex Greene
The Long String Instrument
Years ago, Ellen Fullman invented a new way to make music. It’s taken a lifetime to perfect.
Early this year, I attended a cutting-edge music performance and workshop at the celebrated venue Roulette, in the heart of Brooklyn, New York, during which the ghosts of Memphis were very present. Bassist/ composer Stephan Crump and I waited in a packed room to hear Ellen Fullman on the “long string instrument” and eresa Wong on cello, electric guitar, electronics — and the music, consisting of rich, layered drones with ever-shi ing overtones and textures, was certainly ghostly. But it was during the Q&A session that echoes of Memphis were most palpable, when Fullman spoke about growing up here.
As Fullman recalled the Blu City’s indelible mark on her budding musicality, her performance at a Downtown Memphis gallery in the late 1980s suddenly made sense to me. A co-worker, the late, great Vicki Marshall, had taken me, and the experience — seeing and hearing Fullman walk along high-tension wires bolted into the gallery walls, brushing them lightly as they resonated with eerie harmonics — was transformative. But there had been no mention of Fullman’s Memphis roots back then. I had to wait until the 21st century to learn of that.
blues music from the British Invasion bands, you know, and being intrigued,” Fullman recalled.
“I checked out Smithsonian Folkways records from the public library,” she said, “and listened to archival recordings. And then I started to be able to see some people live. ere was Little Laura Dukes, who was amazing, and I loved her. I got to hear B.B. King and Furry Lewis. So I really loved those original, early blues sounds. And I look back and I think that’s what really made me appreciate tunings that were outside of the normal equal temperament. e blues players did things with tunings, and who knows what they did exactly? But, you know, it relates to my interest in natural tuning and also in extended-
instrument.” Without wading too deeply into the physics of sound, that means the long string instrument’s sounds are not made by the strings vibrating up and down, as in a guitar string, but by waves moving horizontally through the material of the wire itself. As Fullman discovered early on, that complicates how pitch can be manipulated.
And that made the instrument confusing when she rst began, she noted at Roulette. “At that time, I didn’t understand how to tune this because I tried to tighten the string, I tried higher gauge wire, all the di erent things we normally do to change the tuning, and it didn’t work. So I was in the Twin Cities, and I thought, ‘ ere’s got to be someone who knows engineering in
She walks with slow determination in a gallery strung wall-to-wall with wires.
performance art. At some point, “I was inspired by a piece called ‘Music on a Long in Wire’ by Alvin Lucier, although his piece operates on a totally di erent principle,” she said. “But it just gave me the idea to explore what kinds of sounds I might make with a long wire, and then I came upon this discovery accidentally.” It grew out of a single question she pondered: “What does a long string sound like if I manually manipulate it?”
Intrigued, I called her a er the Roulette show to hear the details of an unorthodox career that had taken her away from Memphis long ago, leading her to move to Minneapolis, New York, Austin, Seattle, Tokyo, and Berlin over the years. Now based in Berkeley, California, Fullman still recalls Memphis vividly.
“To begin with,” she said, “Elvis kissed my hand when I was 1 year old. My father was holding me, and Elvis kissed my hand and said, ‘Hi-ya, baby!’” Beyond that momentous event, she was exposed to alternative approaches to music that pre gured her own experimental inclinations.
“In retrospect, looking back and learning about what was going on there, I always really loved the warm sound of soul music that was produced in Memphis, like Otis Redding. He was the focal point of that. And then, as a teenager, I was learning about
technique sounds.”
Given her fascination with blues tunings, one might be tempted to compare Fullman’s long string instrument to the classic diddley bow from Mississippi folk culture. Made with baling wire nailed into a cabin wall and stretched taut, a diddley bow can serve as a sort of one-string slide guitar with an entire building as its resonator — resembling the lengths of cable Fullman strings horizontally between the walls of a large room. But the resemblance is only super cial, she explains.
“A diddley bow is a distant cousin, maybe. But in principle, it has nothing to do with [the long string instrument] because my strings are excited in the longitudinal mode, which is not employed on any other string
New York who can help me understand this,’ so I just moved to New York!”
She’d developed an interest in art while attending White Station High School. “I took a bus to the Memphis College of Art every a ernoon, and I took drawing courses, and I audited in the ceramics department, which was a very strong, interesting department. I studied Asian ceramics, and it was a very high level department. I was really lucky. And then I went on to be with Ken Ferguson, who was one of the founders of the American cra movement, and the department he was in at the Kansas City Art Institute was really amazing. at’s why I went to school there.”
Shi ing from ceramics to sculpture, she also became interested in
By the time I saw Fullman in Memphis in 1988, she had already le home for Kansas City, then Minnesota, then New York. Back then, as I saw her walk with slow determination in a gallery strung wall-to-wall with wires, making them vibrate with her ngers, then adding overtones from other strings to create harmonies, it seemed that her art was already fully formed. In truth, she was only beginning a life practice that she’s been pursuing ever since. And that pursuit has been fruitful, with her work celebrated internationally, and in venues like Roulette. In Fullman’s mind, though, it’s been a slow, steady climb. For the past decade or two, she’s become more interested in collaboration, such as her ongoing work with cellist/ multi-instrumentalist Wong. at’s re ected her growing con dence in her command of the long string instrument.
“I always felt that it had a lot of potential, and over the years I never really felt that I reached full potential. And so that’s what has kept me focused on it,” Fullman told me. “For example, here I am in retirement years, you know, really wondering, a er all these years of invention and design, what is the most appropriate way to play this instrument? What does it want to do? How do you sound it in an authentic way? How do you write notation for something that you walk while playing? ere’s just so much about it that has taken a lot of time. But it has grown, and I think it has grown with my artistic voice. I think that has developed and is reaching more people now.”
For more information, visit ellenfullman.com.
PHOTO: ANDRIA LO
eresa Wong and Ellen Fullman
Ashton Riker & The Memphis Royals
ursday, July 10, 8 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
Blues Trio
Saturday, July 12, noon |
Wednesday, July 16, 4 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
Earl “The Pearl” Banks
Tuesday, July 15, 7 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
Eric Hughes
ursday, July 10, 7-11 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
Flic’s Pics Band
Led by the legendary Leroy “Flic” Hodges of Hi Rhythm.
Saturday, July 12, 4 p.m. |
Sunday, July 13, 2 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
FreeWorld
Friday, July 11, 7-11 p.m. |
Saturday, July 12, 7-11 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
FreeWorld
Sunday, July 13, 8 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
Ghost Town Blues Band
ursday, July 10, 2 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
Memphis Soul Factory
ursday, July 10, 4 p.m. |
Sunday, July 13, 8 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
Soul Street
Wednesday, July 16, 7-11 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
Sunday Evenings with Baunie and Soul
Born and raised in Memphis, they bring soulful rhythms of music to life. 7-11 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
The B.B. King’s Blues Club Allstar Band
Friday, July 11, 8 p.m. |
Saturday, July 12, 8 p.m. |
Monday, July 14, 8 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
Vince Johnson
Monday, July 14, 6:30 p.m. |
Tuesday, July 15, 6:30 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
Will Tucker Band
Friday, July 11, 8 p.m. |
Saturday, July 12, 8 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
AFTER DARK: Live Music Schedule July 10 - 16
Rooftop Party Featuring DJ A.D. and the Vibe Tribe
ursday, July 10, 6 p.m.
THE PEABODY HOTEL
Summerween
Celebrate Halloween a little early with DJ sets by Cozmo, DJ A.D., DJ Tree, Gogh Scotty, iLL STU, Vibeology. Lighting by ILLumination Lasers & Lights. 18+. $15/early bird presale, $20/presale, $25/ doors. Saturday, July 12, 7 p.m.-2 a.m.
THE CADRE BUILDING
Tuesday Tunes
Live music, drink specials, and delicious food. Tuesday, July 15, 4-7 p.m.
RENASANT CONVENTION CENTER
Benton Parker & the Royal Reds
Sunday, July 13, 3-6 p.m.
HUEY’S POPLAR
Elmo & the Shades
Wednesday, July 16, 7 p.m.
NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM
John Williams & the A440 Band
$10. ursday, July 10, 8 p.m.
NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM
Land/Divided The Truth Album Release Show
A er a three-year hiatus, Memphis’ Land/Divided is back and ready to embark on their debut album release show. With special guest Robot Dinosaurs. $5/general admission. Friday, July 11, 7:30 p.m.
ROOSTER’S BLUES HOUSE
Landslide (Fleetwood
Mac Tribute)
Friday, July 11, 8 p.m.
NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM
The Deb Jam Band
Tuesday, July 15, 6 p.m.
NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM
The Mixers
Playing all your favorite songs from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s.
Sunday, July 13, 4-7 p.m.
NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM
Van Duren
e singer-songwriter, a pioneer of indie pop in Memphis, performs solo. ursday, July 10, 6:308:30 p.m.
MORTIMER’S
Doug MacLeod Record Release
MacLeod debuts his new release, Between Somewhere and Goodbye. Friday, July 11, 7-9 p.m.
SOUTH MAIN SOUNDS
Richard Wilson
ese original jazz and blues tunes make for a great vibe.
ursday, July 10, 11 a.m.-
1 p.m.
BUTTERIFIC BAKERY & CAFE
Sunset Jazz at Court Square
Featuring Tamara Jones Monger. Sunday, July 13, 6-8
p.m.
COURT SQUARE
Chris Stamey: Anything Is Possible
e indie rock icon, who co-founded the dBs and is integral to the Big Star Quintet, plays acoustic arrangements of songs from his new record and from his “ ve decades betwixt pen and pick” with a “chamber-pop” ensemble of some of Memphis’s nest: Jonathan Kirkscey, cello; Janaina Fernandez, violin; Catie Balsamo, ute; Carl Casperson, acoustic bass; and Jim Spake, saxophone. Alice Hasen opens. $20, $25/at the door. Wednesday, July 16, 7:30 p.m.
THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS
Dash Rip Rock
With Ghost River Revival, Oakwalker. $20. ursday, July 10, 7 p.m.
HI TONE
Deborah Swiney Duo is subtle vocalist is keeping the great tradition of jazz standards alive. ursday, July 10, 6-9 p.m.
THE COVE
Deerfields
With Krona, Victim of Doug. $10. Saturday, July 12, 9 p.m.
LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE
Devil Train
Bluegrass, roots, country, Delta, and ski e. ursday, July 10, 9 p.m.
B-SIDE
Disco’s 50th
Anniversary
Academy Order With e Pop Ritual, Skull Family [Small RoomDownstairs]. Sunday, July 13, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Alex Nollan Trio
Tuesday, July 15, 9 p.m.
B-SIDE
Battle of the Two-Man
Bands
With F!rst, Deaf Revival, Risky Whispers. $15. Saturday, July 12, 9 p.m.
HI TONE
PHOTO: COURTESY CROSSTOWN ARTS
Chris Stamey
Gridiron
With Cold Hard Steel, Lethal Method, Feral God, Anemoia, Putrid Decay. Monday, July 14, 6:30 p.m.
GROWLERS
Hubris
With Livid Noise, Victim of Doug [Small RoomDownstairs]. Wednesday, July 16, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Instrumental Soul: Live with Darryl Evan Jones
Experience an unforgettable evening as soulful melodies ow from Darryl Evan Jones’ ute. Feel the magic of music that resonates deep within!
$12. ursday, July 10, 6-7:30 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Jazz Jam: Hosted by the Alex Upton Quartet
Alex Upton is a Memphisbased saxophonist, composer, and educator with a deep passion for musics both old and new. Free for participants. $7. Tuesday, July 15, 7:30 p.m. THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS
Jazz Jam with the Cove Quartet
Jazz musicians are welcome to sit in. Sunday, July 13, 6-9 p.m. THE COVE
J. Isaiah Evans and the Boss Tweed
With Mike Hewlett and the Racket [Small RoomDownstairs]. ursday, July 10, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
With Miz Stefani and Hope Clayburn. (Costume required.) Saturday, July 12, 7 p.m.
B-SIDE
Goner Presents: Lifeguard
Featuring Sharp Pins’ Kai Slater. Wednesday, July 16, 8 p.m.
B-SIDE
Gorepig
With Stand Abandoned. Wednesday, July 16, 7 p.m.
GROWLERS
Sonidero Gotico
With Kid Mestizo. Saturday, July 12, 9 p.m. HI TONE
The Chaulkies Sunday, July 13, 3 p.m.
HUEY’S MIDTOWN
Yolanda Harper & Friends
With Curtis Morries and Aaron Brame. Sunday, July 13, 7 p.m.
LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE
Zeta
With Banales [Big RoomUpstairs]. $18.50. Sunday, July 13, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Even Odds Sunday, July 13, 6-9 p.m.
HUEY’S SOUTHAVEN
Memphis Hates You Fest: Day One
With Chora, Die Young, Process of Su ocation, Seeing Hell, Vermin Fate, Pigsticker, Namazu. Friday, July 11, 6 p.m. GROWLERS
Memphis Hates You Fest: Day Two With Hosoi Bros, Slolerner, Woorms, Hate Doctrine, Deathspiral of Inherited Su ering, Ruined God, Sibyl, Victory, Mud Show, Sluethfoot. Saturday, July 12, 4 p.m.
GROWLERS
Memphis Hates You Fest: Day Three With Pressed, Mrs. Fletcher (all original members), Epoch of Unlight, Anemoia, Korroded, Interna. Sunday, July 13, 4 p.m. GROWLERS
MUSE Creative Gathering: Sound — A Collaborative Community Soundscape
Bring your instrument of choice (or just your ears) and join in a collaborative and improvisational soundscape led by musicians Victor Sawyer, Natalie Ho mann, and EsMod. $10. Monday, July 14, 6:30-8:30 p.m. BAR DKDC
Mystrio Sunday, July 13, 7 p.m. B-SIDE
Nightlife
Joe Restivo 4
Guitarist Restivo leads one of the city’s nest jazz quartets. Sunday, July 13, noon.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Karen Waldrup Saturday, July 12, 5 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Level Three Wednesday, July 16, 10 p.m.
LOUIS CONNELLY’S BAR
Mary Hatley With Oakwalker, Shorty & the Grooves. Friday, July 11, 9 p.m.
B-SIDE
ursday, July 10, 8 p.m.
MINGLEWOOD HALL
Salon After Dark: Summer Music Showcase Series feat. Alice Hasen + Subperceptual Series showcasing local voices, each event features original performances spanning genres from hard-hitting alternative rock to dreamy indie pop. $10/ general admission. Saturday, July 12, 8 p.m.
MEMPHIS ART SALON AT MINGLEWOOD HALL
Memphis Hates You Fest: Pre-party With Axcromancer, the Hooves, Grave Lurker, Burning Genesis. ursday, July 10, 7 p.m.
HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY
Big Summer Shows: Big River Crossing
Germantown Community eatre audiences have come to love Big River Crossing like their own family band. ese talented musicians always bring a night of irresistible hits with their special blend of rock, country, gospel, and bluegrass. With every previous concert selling out, seats for these shows are bound to go fast. Featuring music by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, John Denver, Peter, Paul & Mary, e Civil Wars, Marty Robbins, Joan Baez, and more. $20/reserved seating, $30/VIP front row. Friday, July 11, 7-9 p.m. | Saturday, July 12, 7-9 p.m. | Sunday, July 13, 2-4 p.m.
GERMANTOWN COMMUNITY
THEATRE
Happy Friday at the Grove
Featuring Josh relkeld. Friday, July 11, 5 p.m.
THE GROVE AT GPAC
Wendell Wells & The Big Americans
Honky tonk, cow jazz, and barnyard blues songs about religion, politics, freedom, oppression, love, and money.
Wednesday, July 16, 6-9 p.m.
MI PUEBLO WEST MEMPHIS
Wild Horses (Garth Brooks Tribute) e closest you can get to a live Garth Brooks concert of the ’90s, with Brian Mabry, considered one of the best Garth Brooks tribute artists in the world. $20/GA advance ticket, $25/GA at door.
Saturday, July 12, 7-9 p.m.
THE RUFFIN THEATER
Wyly & the Coyotes
Sunday, July 13, 6-9 p.m.
HUEY’S OLIVE BRANCH
CALENDAR of EVENTS: July 10 - 16
ART AND SPECIAL EXHIBITS
“2024 Accessions to the Permanent Collection” is series honors the new additions to the museum’s permanent collection throughout each calendar year. rough Nov. 2.
METAL MUSEUM
Art by Carol Sams
An artist working with oil on panel, watercolors, and fabric collage, including three-dimensional crocheted and woven works. rough July 23.
CHURCH HEALTH
ARTSmemphis: “GRANTEDTime Exhibition”
An exhibit curated by Brittney Boyd Bullock, a visual artist working ber, mixed media, and abstraction. rough Aug. 5.
ARTSMEMPHIS
“Bleeding Together – A Correspondence”
A collaboration between Andres Arauz, who specializes in photo collage, design, and photography, and Abby Meyers, a visual artist, poet, and award-winning lmmaker. rough Sept. 14.
CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE
“Building a Bright Future: Black Communities and Rosenwald Schools in Tennessee”
e Tennessee State Museum brings the award winning temporary exhibit into every part of Tennessee. Davies Manor is thrilled to host this exhibit the farthest west it has ever been. rough July 31.
DAVIES MANOR HISTORIC SITE
Carroll Todd: “New Sculpture”
Todd is celebrated for whimsical bronze sculptures that are formally sophisticated but never solemn. His practice explores form and movement with an e ortlessness and grace. rough July 26.
DAVID LUSK GALLERY
CBU Spring 2025 BFA
Exhibition
Christian Brothers University is proud to present the 2025 Spring BFA Exhibition, featuring works by graduating seniors in the department of visual arts. Free. rough July 11.
BEVERLY + SAM ROSS GALLERY
“CREATE | CREA”
A dynamic space designed to spark creativity, curiosity, and hands-on exploration. is vibrant environment invites guests of all ages to dive into the creative process. rough Sept. 21.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
“Earnest Withers: I AM A MAN”
Ernest Withers’s famous photographs of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike illustrate the dignity of workers’ activism, which still feels inspirational decades later. rough Oct. 12.
PINK PALACE MUSEUM & MANSION
“[Fe]ATURED
AR[Ti]STS”
Works created and curated by sta members of the Metal Museum. Just as elements are the building blocks of artists’ materials, the museum is built on creativity, collaboration, and tradition. rough Sept. 14.
CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE
“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. rough Aug. 31.
PINK PALACE MUSEUM & MANSION
“Horizon Lines: Anthony Lee, Matthew Lee, and Sowgand Sheikholeslami”
Working independently west of Memphis in Arkansas, along the corridor of U.S. Highway 61, these artists have each created bodies of work showcasing the unique characteristics of the region. rough Sept. 21.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
“Incognito Art Auction and Party”
Explore a one-of-a-kind collection where mystery meets creativity; the artist behind each piece remains a secret until a er the auction closes. rough Aug. 1.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
“Landshaping: The Origins of the Black Belt Prairie”
Learn about the geologic event known as the Mississippi Embayment and its e ect on this region. Fossils and farm tools will be displayed alongside photographs by Houston Co eld. rough Oct. 12.
PINK PALACE MUSEUM & MANSION
“Light as Air”
Explore the beauty in tension: a balance of forms, the contrast between heavy and light, and the signi cance of negative space. rough Sept. 7.
METAL MUSEUM
“Memphis Skies: What’s that in our night sky?”
Hop through constellations, learn cool star names, and groove to planetarium space music in this full dome audiovisual experience. rough Aug. 31
PINK PALACE MUSEUM & MANSION
Send the date, time, place, cost, info, phone number, a brief description, and photos — two weeks in advance — to calendar@memphisflyer.com.
DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS, ONGOING WEEKLY EVENTS WILL APPEAR IN THE FLYER’S ONLINE CALENDAR ONLY. FOR COMPREHENSIVE EVENT LISTINGS, SCAN THE QR CODE OR VISIT EVENTS.MEMPHISFLYER.COM/CAL.
Histories of 20th-century American art have o en overlooked the contributions of women such as Susan Watkins, who’s featured in the Dixon’s latest exhibit.
“Overcoming Hateful Things”
e exhibition contains over
150 items from the late 19th century to the present, including items from popular culture and images of violence against African American activists. rough Oct. 19.
PINK PALACE MUSEUM & MANSION
Roseanne Wilson Exhibit
“I love to work in vibrant colors, capturing nature at its best,” says Wilson. “I have also begun working in a di erent medium, creating 3-D shadow box art.” rough July 31.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Sean Nash: “Cosmic Produce”
Nash’s sculptural paintings from this series are hybrids that take their shaped forms from marine organisms, painted in vivid splashy and dappled colors, orders of magnitude larger than reality. rough Sept. 14.
TOPS AT MADISON AVENUE PARK
“Speaking Truth to Power: The Life of Bayard Rustin Exhibition”
“Speaking Truth to Power” explores Bayard Rustin’s innovative use of the “medium” to communicate powerful messages of nonviolence, activism, and authenticity. $20/adult, $18/senior, college student, $17/children 5-17. rough Dec. 31.
NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM
“Summer Art Garden: A Flash of Sun” Experience Khara Woods’ dazzling installation inspired by Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “Summer in the South.” Immerse yourself in the radiant spirit of summer with these geometric sculptures that cast vibrant hues in the shi ing sunlight. rough Oct. 20.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
“Summer Break”
A new group exhibition that loosely conjures that hazy, Southern heat and habitual summer pastimes from lighting reworks to lazing by the pool, with a touch of nostalgia in the mix. Featuring work from Justin Tyler Bryant, Sai Clayton, Coulter Fussell, Carl E. Moore, and Melissa Wilkinson. rough July 26.
SHEET CAKE
“Summer Opener” Art Exhibit
Exhibit by Jane Brakin, Anna Carr, Randy Parker, Pat Patterson, Jeanne Seagle, Angela Stevens, and Lance David White. A portion of the proceeds from sales in e Gallery supports the work of Carpenter Art Garden, which brings the arts to the underserved Binghampton community. rough July 15.
ST. GEORGE’S ART GALLERY AT ST. GEORGE’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
of the Mid-South Cartoonists Association members at Playhouse on the Square. Free. rough July 11. PLAYHOUSE ON THE SQUARE
Tributaries: Leah Gerrard’s “Longline” Seattle-based fabrication artist Leah Gerrard, the museum’s newest Tributaries artist, shapes ethereal steel forms, blending basketry, jewelry, and large-scale pieces. Free. rough Sept. 14.
METAL MUSEUM
“Tyre Nichols: A Photographic Legacy”
A rare and intimate view of Nichols’ passion for capturing nature, urban landscapes, and quiet moments of everyday life. His images speak to his keen artistic eye and humanity. Tuesdays-Saturdays. rough Aug. 31.
JAY ETKIN GALLERY
BOOK EVENTS
Emily Liner: Stretch Like Scarlet Liner, owner of Friendly City Books in Columbus, Mississippi, will read from her children’s book for schoolaged kids. Free. ursday, July 10, 3 p.m.
NOVEL
Novel Classics Club: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
“Susan Watkins and Women Artists of the Progressive Era”
Centered on the career of Susan Watkins (1875–1913), the exhibition explores the environment in which Watkins and other female artists of the time forged their professional identities. rough Sept. 28
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Tad Lauritzen Wright: “Zen on the Installment Plan”
Contemplating humanity, nature, and repeated histories through photo abstractions and sculptural works constructed from salvaged wood. rough Sept. 14.
CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE
Tennessee Craft
Southwest Fine Craft Showcase
is exhibition of 78 pieces by over 20 artists encompasses a wide range of media. Some of the artists collaborated with each other to create something truly unique. Free. ursday, July 10, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. | Friday, July 11, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. | Monday, July 14, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. | Tuesday, July 15, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. | Wednesday, July 16, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
WKNO DIGITAL MEDIA CENTER
The Art of the MidSouth Cartoonists Association
See the artwork collection
Discuss Mark Twain’s 1885 classic, one of the rst novels written in American vernacular English. Free. ursday, July 10, 6 p.m. NOVEL
Omar Tyree: The Flyy Girl Trilogy
From NAACP Award-winning author Omar Tyree, an iconic bestselling coming-of-age novel that follows the original Flyy Girl, Tracy Ellison, from childhood through her teenage years. Monday, July 14, 6 p.m.
NOVEL
Tensia Echols: The Homegirl Devotional A book for the woman who loves God but still wrestles with doubt and distractions. Saturday, July 12, 2 p.m. NOVEL
CLASS / WORKSHOP
Country Swing Dance Lessons
It’s never too late to start and a partner is not required to join the class. Friday, July 11, 7:30 p.m.
WHISKEY JILL’S Creative Writing Workshop
Students and faculty from the MFA program in creative writing at University of Memphis will host a series of free creative writing workshops at
PHOTO: COURTESY DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Novel bookstore this summer. Participants are invited to write and share original works of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. These events are free and open to the public. Writers of all skill levels are welcome. This week’s focus is on writing fiction. Saturday, July 12, 6-7:30 p.m. NOVEL
Dance Lessons
Swing lessons with Matt and Lara, 7:30 p.m., and line dance lessons with Dancing with Boss Lady, 8:30 p.m. Thursday, July 10, 7:30 p.m.
WHISKEY JILL’S
Figure Drawing (Clothed Model)
Artists of all levels can practice and increase their skills drawing the human form at Memphis’ art museum. $12. Saturday, July 12, 10:15 a.m.12:15 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Flower Happy Hour
Learn new design techniques and special tricks as you build a snapdragon arrangement to take home. BYOB.
21+. $55. Thursday, July 10, 6-8 p.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Hanging Terrarium Workshop
Create a beautiful hanging succulent terrarium display at this hands-on 21+ plant party. Bring your own beverages (adult or otherwise), bring your own snacks or dinner, and bring your friends. $45/general admission. Friday, July 11, 6-8 p.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Super Saturday - Paper
Weaving Dive into the art of paper making. Craft your own unique creation while exploring intricate weaving techniques at this hands-on workshop. Free. Saturday, July 12, 10 a.m.-noon.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
The Morrigan: The Shape-Shifting Goddess
Through original exercises inspired by the mythology of the Morrigan, participants can explore ways to shift the course of events in their personal lives. Wednesday, July 16, 7 p.m.
THE BROOM CLOSET
COMEDY
Comedy Night with Ben Pierce
Freewheeling hilarity on the open mic. Thursday, July 10, 7 p.m.
BAR DKDC
Open Mic Comedy Night
A hilarious Midtown tradition. Tuesday, July 15, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
COMMUNITY
Asian & Pacific Islander
Happy Hour
API Hour is a monthly space created by and for Asian & Pacific Islander (API) folks
in Memphis to connect, recharge, and build community. Free. Friday, July 11, 5-7 p.m.
SOUL & SPIRITS BREWERY
July Family Day
A fun-filled afternoon at the Stax Museum. Free admission, music, food trucks, games, and crafts — fun for all ages! Free. Saturday, July 12, 1-5 p.m.
STAX MUSEUM OF AMERICAN SOUL MUSIC
New Memphis Summer Experience Downtown Dash
This free series of events spanning June and July crafts unique experiences that are perfect for current college students, recent grads, and interns. Free. Thursday, July 10, 5:30 p.m.
CENTRAL BBQ
DANCE
Line Dancing with “Q”
Whether you’re a seasoned dancer or just learning the steps, “Q” will guide you through the moves and make it a night to remember. Tuesday, July 15, 6 p.m.
DRU’S BAR
The Ultimate Disco Party
This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the disco era. Whether you’re a dancing queen, a boogie wonder, or just here for the funky vibes, this is one glitter-filled night you don’t want to miss. Come dressed in your most fabulous disco threads— think bell bottoms, jumpsuits, metallics, platforms, and big hair. $10. Saturday, July 12, 10 p.m. B SIDE
EXPO/SALES
Tennessee Volunteer Ranch Horse Association
The premier place to show ranch and cow horses east of the Mississippi River, approved by NRCHA, AQHA VRH. Now including jackpot club classes and novice divisions. Friday, July 11-July 13.
AGRICENTER INTERNATIONAL
FAMILY
Artifact Hunt: A Museum & Library Quest
Pick up your case booklets at the Burch Library starting Sunday, July 13, and get ready to explore the library and museum, unravel clues, and solve a tale of a lost artifact. Complete the quest during each venue’s business hours for a chance to uncover its secrets. Sunday, July 13-July 19.
MORTON MUSEUM OF COLLIERVILLE HISTORY
Family Fun Fridays: Flowering Peach Park
With activities for all ages, including live music, entertainment, carnival rides, games, a video game board, and free food for the first 500
is a hands-on experience in farm-to-table artistry. Thursday, July 10, 3-5 p.m.
CARPENTER ART GARDEN
Memphis Farmers Market
A weekly outdoor market featuring local farmers and artisans, live music, and fun activities. Saturday, July 12, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.
MEMPHIS FARMERS MARKET
Summer Soirées at Saddle Creek
Enjoy sips, vibes, and music by Charvey Mac in the Fountain Courtyard. Saturday, July 12, 4-6 p.m.
SADDLE CREEK NORTH
HEALTH AND FITNESS
Celestial Sound Bath
attendees. No preregistration is required. Friday, July 11, 6 p.m.
FLOWERING PEACH PARK
Garden Discovery Days
Featuring craft and activity stations designed to get your kiddos outside and exploring the great outdoors. Learn about the fruits, vegetables, and herbs that go into pizza. Saturday, July 12, 10 a.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Get Outside Fitness: KidoKinetics
Through age-appropriate games and activities, young children build confidence, coordination, and a love for active play through a variety of sports in an encouraging, noncompetitive environment.
Thursday, July 10, 5 p.m.
SHELBY FARMS PARK
Get Outside Fitness: Kids Yoga
Kids yoga is designed to be fun and engaging, teaching basic yoga poses with playful names that build strength, flexibility, balance, and mindfulness. Parents are welcome to join, too. Wednesday, July 16, 5-6 p.m.
SHELBY FARMS PARK
Pre-School Story Time
Enjoy stories, songs, art activities, and creative play that connect with Collierville history. Friday, July 11, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
MORTON MUSEUM OF COLLIERVILLE HISTORY
Special Story Time Event: Giraffes Can’t Dance with Ballet
Memphis
Animals rock-and-roll, tango, cha-cha-cha, and dance the night away, with a little help from Ballet Memphis. Saturday, July 12, 10:30 a.m.
NOVEL
Story Time at Novel
Recommended for children up to 5 years, Story Time at Novel includes songs and
stories, featuring brand-new books in addition to wellloved favorites. Wednesday, July 16, 10:30 a.m. NOVEL
Summer Splash
Overton Park Conservancy is popping up water slides on the Greensward, next to Rainbow Lake Playground. With face painting and food trucks. Free. Saturday, July 12, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
OVERTON PARK
Wolf River Stream Stroll
Meet at the Bateman Bridge boat access for wading in the Wolf River, netting up and viewing small aquatic critters, or just playing in the water. Dip nets will be available. Saturday, July 12, 10 a.m.-noon.
WOLF RIVER CONSERVANCY
FESTIVAL
Mothership Connection
Market & More
Market celebrating 1970s funk with vendors, a DJ, food trucks, and more. Saturday, July 12, 4-10 p.m.
MEATY GRAFFITI GALLERY
FILM
A Minecraft Movie
The first-ever live-action adaptation of the best-selling video game of all time. Thursday, July 10, 3 p.m. | Friday, July 11, 3 p.m. | Saturday, July 12, 3 p.m. | Sunday, July 13, 3 p.m. | Monday, July 14, 3 p.m. | Tuesday, July 15, 3 p.m. | Wednesday, July 16, 3 p.m.
PINK PALACE MUSEUM & MANSION
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, July 10, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. | Friday,
July 11, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. | Saturday, July 12, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. | Sunday, July 13, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. | Monday, July 14, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. | Tuesday, July 15, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. | Wednesday, July 16, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
PINK PALACE MUSEUM & MANSION
FOOD AND DRINK
Bar Limina Bartender Residency Series ft. Abigail Cullo
James Beard nominated bartender Abigail Gullo takes over Bar Limina. Friday, July 11, 4 p.m.
BAR LIMINA
Canoes + Cocktails
A guided sunset paddle on the lake followed by specialty cocktails provided by Old Dominick, snacks from Cheffie’s, yard games, and music. A “cocktails only” ticket omits the paddling part. $35-$80. Friday, July 11, 6 p.m.
SHELBY FARMS PARK
Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market
A weekly outdoor market featuring local farmers (no resellers), artisans, and live music. Saturday, July 12, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH Dinner and Music Cruise
Come enjoy a two-hour cruise on Ol’ Man River featuring live entertainment (blues and jazz) and a meal. $50/general admission. Thursday, July 10, 7-9:30 p.m. | Friday, July 11, 7-9:30 p.m. | Saturday, July 12, 7-9:30 p.m. | Sunday, July 13, 7-9:30 p.m.
MEMPHIS RIVERBOATS
Farmers Market-Art Garden Cooking and Canning Demos
Led by Lauren Wells of UTTSU Extension, each demo
Through crystal tones, meditative stillness, and heart-centered guidance, open yourself to the celestial harmonies moving through us — reweaving your inner field with cosmic coherence. Whether you’re processing change, calling in a new energy, or simply needing deep rest, this experience is here for you. Monday, July 14, 6:30 p.m.
THE BROOM CLOSET
Get Outside Fitness:
Body Combat A YMCA-led mix of martial arts moves that will get you fit, fast, and strong — and leave you feeling fierce and empowered. Class is entirely noncontact; no martial arts experience required.
Wednesday, July 16, 9 a.m.
SHELBY FARMS PARK
Get Outside FitnessLine Dancing
Learn a variety of dance routines while enjoying the outdoors. This class is beginner-friendly, focusing on basic steps and choreography for popular songs, and can improve coordination and balance. Monday, July 14, 5:30-6:30 p.m.
SHELBY FARMS PARK
Get Outside Fitness:
Mat Pilates
A full-body, low-impact workout that emphasizes dynamic core work to enhance strength, balance, and flexibility. The session is designed inclusively for everybody. Friday, July 11, 4:30 p.m. | Saturday, July 12, 8 a.m.
SHELBY FARMS PARK
Get Outside Fitness: Mental Fitness
Learn to relax your mind and prepare it to enter a meditative state by balancing the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Please bring a yoga mat and water. Saturday, July 12, 10:30 a.m.
SHELBY FARMS PARK
Lunchtime Meditations
Visit the Dixon for free meditation sessions every Friday. Friday, July 11, noon12:30 p.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
continued on page 20
PHOTO: COURTESY WOLF RIVER CONSERVANCY
The family-friendly, easygoing Stream Stroll is a great way to introduce kids to the beauty and biodiversity of the upper Wolf River.
continued from page 19
Taijiquan with Milan Vigil
This Chinese martial art promotes relaxation, improves balance, and provides no-impact aerobic benefits. Ages 16 and older. Free. Saturday, July 12, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Wednesday Walks
Take a casual stroll around the Old Forest paved road. Wednesday, July 16, 4-5 p.m.
OVERTON PARK
Yoga
Strengthen your yoga practice and enjoy the health benefits of light exercise with yoga instructor Laura Gray McCann. All levels welcome. Free. Thursday, July 10, 6 p.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
LECTURE
Hummingbirds: The Biggest Little Pollinators
Cyndi Routledge, of Southeastern Avian Research, will speak about hummingbirds’ feeding habitats, adaptations, and the many fascinating behaviors of these tiny birds. Wednesday, July 16, 6:30-8 p.m.
WOLF RIVER CONSERVANCY
Munch and Learn: Creating Concepts and Content Using Printmaking
Techniques
Enjoy lunch alongside this weekly lecture series featuring presentations by artists, scholars, and Dixon staff sharing their knowledge on a variety of topics. This week, hear from Maritza Dávila, owner of Atabeira Press and Professor Emeritus at Memphis College of Art, where she taught printmaking and drawing from 1982 to 2018. She currently teaches workshops through Creative Aging and the Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Wednesday, July 16, noon-1 p.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Opening Lecture | Susan Watkins: A Life at Work
Corey Piper, Brock Curator of American Art at the Chrysler Museum of Art, explores the remarkable career of American painter Susan Watkins. Free. Sunday, July 13, 2-3 p.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Teen and Adult Workshop: Echoes from the Delta: The Origins and Legacy of the Blues
A captivating 45-minute presentation by acclaimed blues musician and storyteller Doug MacLeod, exploring the rich origins and evolution of the blues. Thursday, July 10, 1:30-3 p.m.
MORTON MUSEUM OF COLLIERVILLE HISTORY
PERFORMING ARTS
Drag Queen Bingo feat. Cheri Lie Maid Slay and play this Friday at Drag Queen Bingo with the fabulous Cheri Lie Maid! Free. Friday, July 11, 7-9 p.m.
MOXY MEMPHIS DOWNTOWN
Now That’s What I Call Drag!
Shabby-chic is where it’s at in this drag extravaganza. Wednesday, July 16, 10 p.m.
LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE
SPECIAL EVENTS
Left Right Center
An easy-to-learn, fast-paced dice game. Grab a drink, roll the dice, and let the good times roll. Sunday, July 13, 2 p.m.
DRU’S BAR
“Papa Bear Trivia” with Shawn Bring your brainpower and your crew for a night of free trivia, testing your knowledge across a variety of topics and competing for bragging rights. Thursday, July 10, 7 p.m.
DRU’S BAR
SPORTS
Kendama Jam
Hang with Kendama Memphis for a day of skills, fun, and community! Kendama is a traditional Japanese skill toy that combines hand-eye co-
Crossword
Edited by Will Shortz No. 0503
ordination, balance, and creativity. Players use a wooden handle (ken) and a ball (tama) connected by a string to perform tricks, catches, and combos. It’s part sport, part art — and it’s fun for everyone, from kids to adults, beginners to pros. Sunday, July 13, 2-6 p.m.
MEMPHIS MADE BREWING (DOWNTOWN - THE RAVINE)
Memphis Redbirds vs. Charlotte Knights
$13, $86. Thursday, July 10, 7 p.m. | Friday, July 11, 7 p.m. | Saturday, July 12, 6:30 p.m. | Sunday, July 13, 1 p.m.
AUTOZONE PARK
Morrighan’s Bluff, Amtgard of Memphis
Medieval/fantasy live action roleplay game that includes padded weapon combat, quests and adventure, arts and crafts, and tournaments and competitions. Family friendly and LGBTQ-friendly. Join the adventure! Saturday, July 12, noon.
W. J. FREEMAN PARK
Overton Park Junior Open
Open to all golfers ages 7 to 16, regardless of experience. One of the nation’s oldest kids’ golf tournaments, OPJO lets young golfers experience friendly competition and learn more about the game. Monday, July 14-July 17.
ABE GOODMAN GOLF CLUBHOUSE
THEATER
A Bronx Tale
Step into the vibrant streets of 1960s Bronx with this captivating musical adaptation of a beloved play and film. Journey alongside a young man torn between admiration for his father and the mob. Thursday, July 10, 8 p.m. | Friday, July 11, 8 p.m. | Saturday, July 12, 8 p.m. | Sunday, July 13, 2 p.m.
PLAYHOUSE ON THE SQUARE
TOURS
1 Sponsor’s purchase
8 Opportunities to watch the big game?
15 “You said it!”
16 Befuddled
17 Conversation, some say
18 Potential consequence of time travel
19 Useful piece of code
20 Dessert traditionally served with an RC Cola in the South
22 “The Bottle ___” (short story by Robert Louis Stevenson)
23 Disappointing R.S.V.P.s
25 Acts like an ass?
F1 neighbor 30 As low as you can go
Historical subject of a Verdi opera
Powerful engine
Festival display
Bargain
No-goodnik
Impales
Stopped lying
In the style of
Treasure
Staying power
Virtual community admin
Zola title heroine
Long shot, typically
Emergency alert
26 Ring site 27 Some diving positions
57 Classic sports cars
58 Titular woodcutter of a folk tale
60 Bygone brand of weight-loss pills
62 Record collection?
63 Increase in interest
64 “Now you listen to me!”
65 Peacock feature
1 “Driving Miss Daisy” setting
2 One with no class?
3 Any character with a token in Clue
4 Doll 5 Fall guy?
6 Ingredient in some chips
7 Automaker Bugatti who reportedly said “I make my cars to go, not to stop”
8 It
Backbeat Tours: Memphis Mojo Tour
The Home of the Blues comes alive on this city tour aboard the nation’s only music bus. All of the guides on this tour are professional Beale Street musicians who play and sing selections from the city’s rich musical heritage, while entertaining you with comedy, history, and behind-the-scenes stories of your favorite Memphis personalities. Along the way, you will see: Sun Studio, Beale Street, Stax Studio, The Lorraine Motel, Cotton Row, Peabody Hotel, Overton Park, Historic Central Gardens, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, and the early homes of Elvis, B.B. King, and Johnny Cash. $35, $33/seniors, $20/children 5-12. Through Oct. 31. BACKBEAT TOURS
Blues Tuesdays Backstage Experience Tour
Go behind the scenes of the historical site that’s not only played host to hundreds of legendary blues acts but launched the legendary Memphis Country Blues Festival of the late 1960s. From Furry Lewis and Jesse Mae Hemphill, to Albert King, Sharde Thomas, Booker White, ZZ Top, Gary Clark Jr., and more, the stars who’ve stood on the Overton Park Shell stage are pioneers and protectors of an art form that’s built the foundation for the music city that is Memphis. $16. Tuesday, July 15, 11 a.m. | Tuesday, July 15, 2 p.m. | Tuesday, July 15, 4 p.m.
OVERTON PARK SHELL
Sightseeing Cruise
The sightseeing cruise is a 90-minute tour that takes you down the Mighty Mississippi with a live historical commentary. $25/general admission. Through Sept. 30.
MEMPHIS RIVERBOATS
Spies in the Cemetery
Explore the hidden world of espionage and the secrets of spies at rest during this in-person event that will take you on a winding journey through the last 150 years or so. Hear about world-famous spies, the spies that started it all, the spies that wrote the book on spying, and the spies permanently reside in Elmwood Cemetery. Kim Bearden is your presenter for this 45-minute, seated presentation that will take place in the cemetery’s Lord’s Chapel. $20/general admission. Sunday, July 13, 2-3 p.m.
ELMWOOD CEMETERY
PUZZLE BY
We Saw You.
with MICHAEL DONAHUE
Maeve’s Tavern held its grand opening on June 28th to the sound of bagpipes. e bar/restaurant in Collierville, Tennessee, is at 78 North Main Street, the site of the old Highlander Scottish Pub. It’s another restaurant from DJ Naylor, Reny Alfonso, and Brad Allbritten of the Brazen Restaurant Group. ese are the guys behind the Irish watering holes known as Celtic Crossing Irish Pub and Bog & Barley.
Guests at the jam-packed event bellied up to the bar as well as the bu et, where Banger Bites with house-made mustard, green pea hummus, beef brochettes with herb butter, and corned beef sliders were among the fare.
Guinness owed.
And guests didn’t have to wear green.
PHOTOS: MICHAEL DONAHUE
above: Ari Hill and Noah St. John circle: Dwayne Burl
below: (le to right) Charles and Laura Hall, Katie and Hampton Parr;
DJ Naylor and Aiden Naylor; Jon Paul Davis, Jody Davis, Danielle Cooper, and James Rovenstine
bottom row: (le to right) Kerria Fields and Falone Williams; John and Robbye Green; Reny Alfonso
above: Falone and Hunter Williams, Aiden Naylor, Tatiana Campell, and Evan Rogers
below: (le to right) Ian and Kyla Mckenzie; Joel LeMay
bottom le : Carmelo Burr and Kelly Fletcher circle: Randi Lynn
right row: (top and below) Steven and Julie Medlock; Derrick Choo and Alfredo Cerpa
FOOD By Michael Donahue
Southern Delights
You won’t go away hungry at Southern Eatery in Holly Springs.
took o a few weeks recently. But my staycation turned into an “eatcation,” thanks to the rediscovery of Southern Eatery in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
I’d eaten at the restaurant years ago, but I hadn’t been back a er it burned and was under new ownership.
Well, since my rst return visit, I’ve been back about seven times.
When you walk in the restaurant, which is on the town square, you’re asked what you want to drink. I ordered sweet tea with lemon. No ice. en you walk down the line of delights, aka the bu et line, where you select what you want to eat. On any given day your choices might include grilled or fried chicken, black-eyed peas, green beans, yams, potatoes, squash, cornbread, and cobbler.
It’s all delicious. And, to add to the fun, it’s all-you-can-eat.
I discovered Katrina Washington is the owner of Southern Eatery, which is open 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day at 130 East College Avenue on the town square. at’s all-you-can-eat every day of the week. So I called her and asked her all about this fabulous place.
Washington told me she originally worked part-time for the previous owners, Tom and Linda Stewart. “I was there about nine years before it burned,” Washington says. “So it was maybe a year or two a er they started.”
Southern Eatery wasn’t a bu et when she began working there, Washington says. “It was a tad bit di erent then. ey still did all the vegetables and everything like that. We maybe did pretty much the same thing, but we did plate for plate: You come in, order a meal, and we cook that meal. It was from the menu.”
She doesn’t remember when they began doing the bu et, but, she says, “It became, I guess, just easier for the bu et. Doing bu ets versus plated lunches. And before they went to the bu et, they were doing lunch and dinner.”
Southern Eatery was popular. “It was one of the very few places that you could sit down and eat, versus fast food.”
Some of the popular dishes back then were baked tilapia and chicken Alfredo, which they still put on the bu et every now and then. “It’s the white cheese and chicken pasta.”
Now that she’s the owner, they also do the baked and fried chicken as well as the meat loaf, roast, potatoes, and cat sh. “Everything is from the old restaurant.”
e re was August 30, 2022, Washington says “It was at night. It wasn’t the actual restaurant. [It was] downstairs.”
Washington thought about buying the place. “A er they decided they weren’t going to reopen, I sat them
down and had a talk with them. ‘What would they think about me purchasing it?’ ey loved it.”
She believes they wanted it “to go to someone who really cared about the place and their history and their vision of it. To serve a good plate lunch. Where you could eat lunch, come down and have a seat, and enjoy a conversation, if that’s what you want to do. A very friendly atmosphere.”
Washington closed on the property April 17, 2024.
I told her that I think the tastiness of the food is what sets Southern Eatery apart from some other places. “We make all our own spices. Our seasonings and everything. We do our own mixture of those seasonings.
“We have our own special spin on a lot of things.”
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Washington moved to Holly Springs with her parents when she was younger.
“And I’ve lived here ever since.”
She had just ended a part-time job when she went to work at Southern Eatery, which was hiring at the time. “I had come from a big family, so we’ve always cooked and everything.”
Washington didn’t begin as a cook at the restaurant. “ ey had a cook. And I was just the person on the line that helped plate the lunch and make sure everything was good. When we switched over to the bu et, we had to adjust a lot of things.”
She was shown the recipes for the various dishes. “And I just kind of helped out for a while. When that person eventually le , I just took over.”
Washington memorized the recipes long before she took over the restaurant. “Most of them I still had in my head.”
But, she adds, “ ey gave me the recipes, as well.”
Her old customers began returning to the restaurant a er she reopened. “ ey started slowly but surely coming back. We have a lot of our old customers coming back in.”
Asked if she’d ever go back to serving dinner, Washington says, “I don’t think it would be daily, but I really hadn’t thought about that right now. But if I did, maybe one or two nights a week.”
She would like to put sandwiches back on the menu one day. “We used to make sandwiches.”
Sandwiches included chicken bacon ranch paninis, she says. “I’d like to get some of those items back.”
Southern Eatery isn’t Washington’s only job. “I work full-time for the circuit clerk’s o ce. I’ve been there for 14 years. I just run across the street when they need me. I’m back and forth checking on everything.”
So, thanks to Washington, a Holly Springs culinary institution is back. And I’m very happy about it. “I just hated to see it closed and no one be there,” she says. “And it was such a great place to be. I loved working with them. e community needed it.”
PHOTOS: MICHAEL DONAHUE
Katrina Washington serves a bu et of delights at Southern Eatery.
By Emily Guenther
A Summer Retrograde
Mercury’s retrograde in Leo o ers invitations to grow.
Summer is here, it’s hot, and Mercury is queuing up to bring us some retroshade this summer. Sadly, it’s not the kind of shade we want. Mercury will o cially be in retrograde from July 18th until August 11th. e retroshade period (the two weeks before and a er the o cial retrograde) is creeping up on us. It will stick around under the end of August, just long enough to insert itself into all of the back-to-school chaos.
A retrograde happens when it appears that a planet is orbiting backwards. e planets don’t actually change orbital direction; it’s more of an optical illusion. However, many people believe that during these periods the energy or properties of that planet may be behaving di erently. All planets do this, but the spiritual community puts a lot of focus on Mercury.
and be seen in a more serious light. But don’t worry — you don’t have to give up your fun, just rede ne what it looks like.
Although this summer’s Mercury retrograde is solely in the sign of Leo, that does not mean Leos are the only people who will be a ected by it. e movements of the planets a ect, or re ect, the lives of everyone. e xed signs (Leo, Aquarius, Taurus, and Scorpio) are likely to feel this retrograde the most intensely though. Fixed signs o en take the brunt of retrogrades because change or disruption does not sit well with xed signs.
Mercury is thought to rule over our communication, travel, and commerce. When it is in retrograde, we can o en expect miscommunication, disagreements because of miscommunication, hiccups with travel plans, and inconveniences with technology. Retrogrades, especially Mercury retrogrades, o en throw speed bumps in our way to make us slow down, re ect, and readjust for the next phase.
During this three-week stretch (plus the shadow period), Mercury’s energy tends to scramble signals, leaving us feeling hazy, scattered, and a little anxious. As the ruler of communication, technology, and travel, Mercury o en stirs up disruptions in these areas — and yes, that can include unexpected messages from exes and revisiting old lessons we thought we’d already learned.
is summer’s Mercury retrograde will fall in the astrological sign of Leo. Leo rules over romance, irtation, creativity, and play. When Mercury goes retrograde in this sign, pleasure isn’t entirely o the table, but the things that once sparked joy may suddenly feel at. is cosmic slowdown nudges you to reassess your priorities. It might inspire a lifestyle reset, healthier relationships, or even thoughts of starting a family, as Leo also governs children. Mercury’s re ective energy could encourage you to embrace maturity, step into your responsibilities with con dence,
If you’re a Taurus, Leo, Aquarius, or Scorpio, this retrograde might feel especially personal. You could nd yourself revisiting themes around creativity, authenticity, self-expression, identity, and deeper desires — particularly if you have prominent Leo placements. e cosmos is nudging you to reconnect with what truly lights you up and to realign with the most vibrant, honest version of yourself.
Miscommunications and clumsy wording are common during Mercury retrograde, but you cannot let this shatter your self-image. We must also be careful with our actions. Leo is a bold and proud sign. is in uence can embolden us to do things we wouldn’t ordinarily do in our communications. Don’t let your frustrations with things and the passion of Leo merge into risky behavior. You may feel like now is the time to get things o your chest or take a leap and tell someone you are interested in them. Before you do though, take some time to think it through; don’t be rash. Remember communication is already going to be tricky. Is now the time to bring up touchy and vulnerable topics?
Navigating Mercury retrograde doesn’t have to be chaotic. Staying adaptable can help you ride it out with ease. Practice patience, keep a compassionate mindset, and don’t let pride cloud your perspective. is is a powerful moment for re ection. Step back, tune in, and let the experience teach you. ese cosmic pauses aren’t punishments; they’re invitations to grow, if we’re willing to listen.
Emily Guenther is a co-owner of e Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained Pagan clergy, and dog mom.
PHOTO: NASA | CREATIVE COMMONS | WIKIMEDIA Mercury is in retrograde.
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
By the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
News That Sounds Like a Joke Police in Jacksonville, Florida, are looking for a suspect who “fondled” a $650 ferret for some time at a Petland store, then shoved the animal down his shorts, and walked out. The Smoking Gun reported that on May 27, the man “browsed the ferret section of the store” before he left, holding “the crotch area of his shorts to support the ferret.” A Petland manager tried to chase him but couldn’t get the license plate number of the van he was driving. [The Smoking Gun, 5/29/2025]
Unclear on the Concept
At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on May 17, a lost DoorDash driver made it past a security gate and onto the tarmac, driving a significant distance before being stopped by airport personnel, WKRC-TV reported. The 36-year-old driver stopped near a grounded aircraft and showed the food receipt and meal he was trying to deliver; he was released without any citations. However, the security employee at the gate was relieved of her duties after letting the car pass through her post. [WKRC, 6/7/2025]
That’s Punny
In London’s Brockwell Park, the annual Lambeth Country Show kicked off on June 7 with livestock competitions, sheep shearing and, most notably, a vegetable sculpture contest, the Associated Press reported. “Every year, this is what we get so excited about, is the vegetable sculptures,” said fair-goer Maddy Luxon. “We love the political ones.” And her friend Marek Szandrowski added, “The puns.” For example, one sculpture featured Catholic cardinals made of corn: “Cornclave.” Another called “Cauli Parton” was shown in a scene from “9 to Chive.” President Donald Trump was depicted in butternut squash form. [AP, 6/8/2025]
To Your Point Lake of the Isles, a neighborhood in Minneapolis, marks the start of summer by sharpening a pencil — a 20-foot-tall wooden pencil sculpted from a tree damaged in a storm several years ago. The Associated Press reported on June 7 that residents John and Amy Higgins wanted to give the tree new life, so they enlisted wood sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad to fashion a No.
2 pencil. “Why a pencil? Everybody uses a pencil,” said Amy. Every year, they sharpen it with a custom-made sharpener carried up to the point on scaffolding, taking off 3 to 10 inches. The Higginses know that one day, their pencil will be a stub, but they’re okay with that. They just want the ritual to pull the community together. The party includes entertainment and music, and people dress as pencils or erasers. [AP, 6/7/2025]
The Golden Age of Air Travel
At Milan’s Malpensa Airport on June 8, a Chinese woman went full-on toddler tantrum after being told her carry-on bag was too heavy to fly, news.com.au reported. The woman was boarding a flight when staff tried to check her carry-on suitcase, but when they told her it was over the weight limit, she hit the floor, rolling around, stamping her feet, and yelling. Authorities eventually removed her from the flight, and she later rebooked after calming down. Videos of her antics have since gone viral, provoking comments such as “This is shameless and disgraceful behavior” and “This is so embarrassing.” [news.com.au, 6/11/2025]
But Why?
A woman shopping “in aisle 18 at Sam’s Club” in Orlando, Florida, got an eyeful on May 30 when she caught Patrick Mitchell, 70, urinating on two pallets of canned Spam and Vienna sausages, The Smoking Gun reported. Police said the witness snapped a photo and reported the incident to store employees, who confirmed that the pallets, worth $10,584.54, had been “contaminated with bodily fluids.” After relieving himself, Mitchell strolled around the store and tested some patio furniture before checking out and leaving. Mitchell was arrested at his home in The Villages, a retirement community, and charged with disorderly conduct and criminal mischief. [The Smoking Gun, 6/11/2025]
Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the days before lighthouses, some coastal communities used “fire beacons” — elevated structures where people tended open flames to guide sailors. In the coming weeks, Aries, I invite you to be like both the keeper and the flame. People will be drawn to your brightness, warmth, and persistence as they navigate through their haze and fog. And surprise! You may find your own way more clearly as you tend to others’ way-finding. Don’t underestimate the value of your steady, luminous signal. For some travelers, your presence could be the difference between drifting and docking. So burn with purpose, please. Keep your gleam strong and visible.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The ancestors of my American friend Arisa lived in Ukraine, Indonesia, the Choctaw nation, and the Great Lakes region. Her new husband Anselme is of Japanese, Italian, and French descent. Their wedding was a celebration of multi-cultural influences. Guests delivered toasts in five languages. Their marriage vows borrowed texts from three religious traditions. The music included a gamelan ensemble, a band that played Ukrainian folk music, and a DJ spinning Choctaw and Navajo prayers set to Indian ragas. I bring this to your attention in the hope you will seek comparable cross-fertilization in the coming weeks. It’s an excellent time to weave richly diverse textures into your life.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I predict a future when women will hold half of the leadership roles, when their income and time devoted to childcare will match men’s, when women’s orgasms are as common as men’s, and when most guys know that misogyny is perilous to their health. Until the bloom of that wonderful era, I invite Geminis of all genders to invoke your tender ingenuity as you strengthen female opportunities and power. In my view, this work is always crucial to your maximum spiritual and psychological health — but even more so than usual in the coming weeks. Boost the feminine in every way you can imagine.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In medieval bestiaries, unicorns were said to be fierce, wild creatures. They were very real but also hidden. Only people with pure hearts could see or commune with them. I suspect you now have the chance to glide into a potent “pure heart” phase, Leo. My fervent hope is that you will take this opportunity to cleanse yourself of irrelevancies and rededicate yourself to your deepest yearnings and most authentic self-expressions. If you do, you just may encounter the equivalent of a unicorn.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Some Buddhist monks create mandalas on floors from colored sand. They work meticu-
By Rob Brezsny
lously for days or weeks to build intricate, symmetrical masterpieces. Once their beautiful work is done, however, it typically doesn’t last long. The creators sweep it away either immediately or soon. The sand may be disposed of, perhaps poured into a river or stream. What’s the purpose of this strange practice? Most importantly, it displays a reverence for the impermanence of all things — an appreciation for beauty but not an attachment to it. I recommend you consider taking a cue from the sand mandalas in the coming weeks. Is there anything you love that you should let go of? A creation you can allow to transform into a new shape? An act of sacred relinquishing?
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Glassblowers shape molten sand with breath and fire, knowing the material can only be formed while it’s hot and glowing. If they wait too long, the stuff stiffens, turns brittle, and resists change. But if they push too soon, it collapses into a misshapen blob. In this spirit, Libra, I urge you to recognize which parts of your life are now just the right temperature to be reshaped. Your timing must be impeccable. Where and when will you direct the flame of your willpower? Don’t wait until the opportunity cools. Art and magic will happen with just the right amount of heat applied at just the right moment.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “I have often been racked by obsessive urges that plague me until I act them out.” So says my Scorpio friend Fatima, a conceptual artist. “Fortunately,” she continues, “I have finally retrained myself to focus on creative obsessions that fuel my art rather than on anxious, trivial obsessions that disorder my life. I’d be an offensive maniac if I couldn’t use my work as an outlet for my vehement fantasy life.” I recommend Fatima’s strategy to Scorpios most of the time, but especially so in the coming days. Your imagination is even more cornucopian than usual. To harness its beautiful but unruly power, you must channel it into noble goals.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The Igbo people of Nigeria have a term: ogwugwu na-adị n’ulo. It means “the medicine is in the house.” It’s the belief that healing doesn’t necessarily come from afar. It may already be here, hidden among the familiar, waiting to be acknowledged or discovered. Dear Sagittarius, your natural instinct is to look outward and afar for answers and help. But in the coming weeks, you should look close to home. What unnoticed or underestimated thing might be a cure or inspiration you’ve been overlooking? How can you find new uses for what you already have?
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I invite you to celebrate the holiday known as
CANCER (June 21-July 22): In Yoruba cosmology, ase is the sacred life force that animates the universe. It’s divine energy that can be harnessed by humans to make things happen, to speak and act with ardent intention so that words and deeds shape reality. I am pleased to report that you Cancerians are extra aligned with ase these days. Your words are not casual. Your actions are not mild or minor. You have the power to speak what you mean so robustly that it has an enhanced possibility to come into being. What you command with love and clarity will carry enduring potency.
Be Your Own Best Helper. How should you observe this potentially pivotal transformation in your relationship with yourself? Divest yourself of yearnings to have someone clean up after you and service your baseline necessities. Renounce any wishes you harbor for some special person to telepathically guess and attend to your every need. Vow that from now on, you will be an expert at taking excellent care of yourself. Do you dare to imagine what it might feel like to be your own best helper?
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the ancient practice of astronomy, the stars were considered “incorruptible.” Unlike the planets, their movements were unchanging, their lights stationary, their destinies steady and stable. We human beings are the opposite of all those descriptors, of course. There’s no use in hoping otherwise because constancy just isn’t an option for us. The good news, Aquarius, is that you are now poised to thrive on these truths. The inevitability of change can and should be a treasured gift for you. You’re being offered chances to revise plans that do indeed need to be revised. You are being invited to let go of roles that don’t serve you. But what initially feels like a loss or sacrifice may actually be permission. Evolution is a tremendous privilege!
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The axolotl is an amphibian that never outgrows its lar val form. Unlike most creatures, it retains its youthful traits into adulthood. Amaz ingly, it can regenerate it limbs, its spinal cord, and parts of its brain. Let’s make the axolotl your inspirational animal, Pisces. What part of your “youth” is worth keep ing — not as immaturity, but as righteous design? Where are you being asked not to evolve past a stage but to deepen within it? And what might be regenerated in you that seemed to have been lost? Your magic will come from being like an axolotl. Be strange. Be playful. Be ageless and original and irrepressible.
TV By Chris McCoy
AI Blues
Martha Wells’ acclaimed sci- novels come to life in Apple TV’s Murderbot
In 2022, Blake Lemoine, a so ware engineer at Google, was working on LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), an AI chatbot, and published logs which he claimed proved that the so ware application was a sentient being. “I want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person,” the AI said.
If that is true, Lemoine asked, is it ethical for us to create these creatures and use them for our purposes? e AI had even asked Lemoine to hire it a lawyer for protection.
Lemoine was widely ridiculed and ultimately red from his job. But now, three years later, the technology that alarmed Lemoine has been sold as the next big thing in tech, and the uncomfortable questions he raised remain open. As reports roll in about people who are driven to delusions by getting too involved with a chatbot, it’s easy to think Lemoine might have been an early victim. But on the other hand, we don’t really understand much about how human consciousness arose, or what it even is. When faced with the question of how we could recognize true arti cial intelligence, pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing proposed the Turing Test: When you can talk to a computer and are not be able to tell if it’s a computer or a human, we’ve got true arti cial intelligence. Ask ChatGPT if we’re already there.
“All I want to do is be left alone to watch my shows.” Murderbot has a bad streaming habit.
Even if you’re rightly skeptical of the current state of research into general AI, you can see why Google would not want to ask these questions. If their product is sentient, is exploiting it akin to slavery? at’s the jumping o point for Martha Wells’ Murderbot stories. Wells’ hero is a SecUnit, a cyborg construct made of both lab-grown esh and advanced alloys bristling with armaments. He is owned by a space colonization services corporation that specializes in helping human groups nd and exist on new planets. It’s the future, by the way. is particular SecUnit is a refurb. An older model, it had its memory erased and a full overhaul a er something went wrong on a previous mission. at “something” le 57 members of a mining
expedition dead. But the memory wipe process went wrong, and SecUnit was able to hack and disable its governor module, which ensured compliance with its human masters. Haunted by memories of the miner massacre but unsure if it was responsible, the SecUnit names itself Murderbot.
At this point in the sci- story, the AI that named itself Murderbot could be expected to start murdering. We’ve all seen e Terminator, and if you haven’t, what are you waiting for? But not this Murderbot. “All I want to do is be le alone to watch my shows,” it says.
Murderbot has a bad streaming habit, and its favorite show is a cheesy space soap opera called e Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. Without a governor module, it’s free to download and watch all the shows it wants, provided it shows up for work as a security guard and doesn’t call attention to itself.
e Murderbot Diaries series, beginning with 2017’s All Systems Red, made such a splash in the sci- literary community that Wells started declining Nebula and Hugo Award nominations in order to give someone else a chance to win. Apple TV picked up the rights to the stories, and brothers Paul and Chris Weitz were tapped to run the show. Alexander Skarsgård, who shone as the berserker version of Hamlet in e Northman, was tapped for the lead. e rst season, which adapts All Systems Red, will drop its season nale on Friday, July 11th.
Much of the charm of Murderbot is its witheringly sarcastic narration. As a refurb, Murderbot is cheap, so it gets assigned to protect a scouting mission from the PreservationAux, a utopian planet which runs on strict socialist principles of equality and justice.
Dr. Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), a terraforming specialist and planetary
admin who leads the small expedition, doesn’t even want an armed cyborg in her hab dome, but the insurance company insists.
Murderbot thinks this is a milk run and internally regards the space hippies with withering disdain. en, while out on a routine mission to collect some geo samples, Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski) and Arada (Tattiawna Jones) are attacked by a giant centipede monster. Murderbot just barely rescues the clients but is heavily damaged in the process. When the expedition tries to contact another base on the other side of the planet, there is no response.
e expedition’s cybernetic augmented human Gurathin (David Dastmalchian) begins to notice that SecUnit is acting suspiciously, and suspects it is part of an e ort by the corporation to monopolize the team’s discoveries. But Murderbot’s not a party to conspiracy; it just wants to watch its shows.
Which is not to say that there’s not a conspiracy. When the rescue team arrives at the other base, they nd the inhabitants dead, and two newer model SecUnits attack Murderbot with the intent of hijacking its governor module. But the joke’s on them, as Murderbot
says, “You get what you pay for.” e transition from page to screen is always tricky, especially with a text as dependent on the writer’s voice as Murderbot’s world-weary narration.
e Weitz brothers unpack Wells’ compact structure, taking time in the early episodes to esh out the galaxy where corporate dystopias live side by side with utopian dreamers. Skarsgård is the glue that holds the show together with a carefully nuanced performance.
e misanthropic cyborg learns the art of small talk trying to distract some murderous space pirates, and warily observes, “I’ve been infected with an empathy bug by my clients.” Dumezweni proves that any time a low-budget scishow needs some gravitas, the best way is to hire an acclaimed British stage actor. John Cho kills as the scenery-chewing captain of the ship on Sanctuary Moon, and bringing the show-within-a-show to life is the best addition the TV show brings to the story. As someone with a deep love of, shall we say, “responsibly budgeted” sci- TV, Murderbot activates my pleasure centers.
e season nale of Murderbot drops Friday, July 11th, on Apple TV.
PHOTOS: COURTESY APPLE
(above) Murderbot reluctantly protects the PreservationAux exploration crew; (top, below) Alexander Skarsgård stars as Murderbot on Apple TV.
Our critic picks the best films in theaters.
Superman
Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn reboots the Man of Steel in this anticipated blockbuster. David Corenswet stars as KalEl, the last son of the planet Krypton who is exiled to Earth and gains superhuman powers from our sun, which he uses in the cause of truth, justice, and a good version of the American way. Rachel Brosnahan co-stars as reporter Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult menaces the world as Lex Luthor. Superdog Krypto is modeled after Gunn’s dog Ozu. This one’s gonna be huge.
Jurassic World: Rebirth
After last weekend’s $322 million haul, star Scarlett Johansson is now the all-time box office champion actor. This seventh
Jurassic Park film sees her as Zora, a covert operative, and Mahershala Ali as Duncan, her boss, leading an expedition to Ile Saint-Hubert in the Atlantic Ocean where a mutated population of dinosaurs has gone feral again. Dino-mayhem ensues.
28 Years Later
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s zombie apocalypse keeps going after two decades on the shelf. In a ruined Scotland infested by the rage virus, 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) sets out with his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) to get his first zombie kill. But the coming-of-age ritual is interrupted by an Alpha zombie (Chi Lewis-Parry), who turns the tables on the hunt. Ralph Fiennes co-stars as a possibly insane doctor who tries to control the zombie hordes.
THE LAST WORD By
William Smythe
Lotus Eating
In an overstimulating world, we naturally seek escapism. But what is too much?
I love going to the movies. I even work in a movie theater because I love movies so much. I watched Jurassic Park and e Pagemaster so much as a kid that I ruined the VHS tapes. I used to peruse and perhaps haunt video stores like Midtown Video and Black Lodge weekly. My dad and I always went to see the latest movies (a majority of them horror lms; God bless the man, I’m unsure if he was as keen on the genre as I was). I love talking about movies to anyone who asks, and I’m the guy my coworkers go get when it’s time to sell a customer on upcoming attractions. I love cinema.
Yet I also nd myself binge watching TV. In fact, when I housesit for my parents once in a blue moon, I plop down and try to watch as much golden age television as I can. e Sopranos and e West Wing and e Wire … I’ve seen all of Vince Gilligan’s ABQ trilogy (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, El Camino). Once again, I. Love. Cinema. Even the cinema that comes in a smaller screen and 13 episode increments.
But I also nd myself addicted to another screen: my phone. I try to justify it by saying, “Oh, I’m looking at the news” or “I’m reading an essay on yadda-yadda.” But, if I’m honest, I watch just as much Let’s Play content and silly cartoons. I watch “mindless content.” I used to belittle people obsessed with reality TV, things like e Real Housewives or Jersey Shore or you name it. But how hypocritical of me to watch my escapist content and deny others theirs.
I thought maybe I should lessen my screen time and read more. I was a literature major in college, a er all. I should read more. So I put my nose in a book and smugly sneered at all those folks who “can’t put their phone down.” But is this any di erent? I’m still ignoring the world around me and escaping into a di erent world. Sure, I can justify my intentions once again (Oh, but it’s Jane Eyre! Not like those other ghost stories). But at the end of the day, I’m still turning my brain away from outside stimuli.
So, ne, I know what I’ll do. I’ll go into the woods! I’ll go in completely naked of technology. I’ll dive back into those old-school ways and engage with nature. I’ll be like oreau at Walden Pond! I’ll nd peace like Kerouac on top of a re tower, in solitude. Oh, how clueless I was. I was still escaping. I escaped by watching trees sway hypnotically with the wind or clouds swirling and conjuring images in them. I can’t seem to do anything but escape! Isn’t that a good thing though? Isn’t that just human? We’ve always craved a story. Our minds can’t help but do it. I write for a living. My whole career banks on imagination and exploration, on drama and storytelling. How can I deny anyone their escapism? It’s just the way we are. ere is a famous story in the Odyssey. Odysseus and his crew land on an island where the population eats the fruit of the lotus, which makes you forget. It puts you in a dream-like state and makes you never want to leave. Eventually, half the crew stays while Odysseus and the rest manage to get back on their ship. e tale derides those who stay behind. But I am starting to understand them.
In today’s political climate, with all these screens and updates and news ashes, you can get so overwhelmed that you want to pop! It’s only human to turn to the arts or other content to relieve that pressure a bit. I’ve seen some explode when you bring up a single topic (“Please! No politics! I can’t take it!”). Back in Victorian times, they used to escape to the seaside to slip out of the pains and pressures (and probably fumes) of city life. I imagine they’d also be just as curious about all these escapist ctions and semi- ctions we inundate ourselves with now. I’m certain that Jane Austen would crave a little Below Deck giggle and gu aw. She was the original writer of scandalous day-to-day gossip ction.
You need to escape for a little bit once in a while. But let us try not to stay in that escapism for too long lest we become complacent and lazy and lotus-eating as the world turns without us or our consent. I catch myself dri ing when the news turns toward tari s and trade wars and Gaza and Ukraine and, now …
I can’t seem to breathe. I think I’m going to rewatch Jurassic Park now.
William Smythe is a local writer and poet. He writes for Focus Mid-South, an LGBT+ magazine.
PHOTO: JAY CASTOR | UNSPLASH We’re all lotus-eaters in a way.
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