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KENNETH NEILL Founding Publisher
THE MEMPHIS FLYER is published weekly by Contemporary Media, Inc., P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101 Phone: (901) 521-9000 Fax: (901) 521-0129 memphisflyer.com
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Chief Executive Officer
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The Female Gaze Women photographers in Memphis are bringing their visions to light.
PHOTO: ANDREA MORALES
Ready to Be Young
Jacob Church to release new album this summer. p12
PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE
A Sky Full of Signals
Astrological and astronomical events collide to stir the waters and help them settle. p18
PHOTO: P. HORÁLEK/ESO | CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
CALENDAR - 14 NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 14 WE SAW YOU - 16 FOOD - 17 METAPHYSICAL CONNECTION - 18 ASTROLOGY - 19
THE fly-by
ernet
Memphis on the internet.
GUARD ON BEALE
Tennessee National Guard members got physical with a man in an altercation on Beale Street, caught in a Facebook video. e Black man above is rst seen having words with the white man also pictured.
Another white man waves over Guard troops patrolling Beale Street. When they arrive, the Black man faces o with a Guardsman, is forced to the ground, laid face down in the lthy gutter of Beale, and is eventually surrounded by at least nine troops.
Not much was o cially known of the incident as of press time. But the video was beginning to go viral with dozens of comments and shares. H/t to Hunter Demster.
LOST AND FOUND
Reddit user Ccracked found this wrestling title belt inlaid with a baby picture in an Overton Square parking lot. Commenters agreed it was the “most Memphis thing ever.”
Questions, Answers + Attitude
Edited by Toby Sells
{WEEK THAT WAS
By Flyer staff
Bail Funds, Immigrants, & Vouchers
State lawmakers want bail limits, immigrant student counts, and tax dollars to private schools.
BAIL FUNDS
A bill that would limit community bail funds moved through the legislature last week.
Sponsored by state Rep. Brent Taylor (RMemphis), it would allow such funds to only bail out three defendants a year. Taylor said he wanted to target “gang bangers” from bailing out their associates, though criminal justice reform advocates say his bill would not stop that.
e bill was paused on a review by the Tennessee Attorney General’s O ce, but was back for a hearing in a Senate committee last week.
Cyrus Wilson, executive director of the Nashville Community Bail Fund, said Taylor’s bill seems to only target poor people, and that money is a form of speech. Wilson emphasized that their funds come from donors and community members.
If passed, Wilson said the bill would limit people from donating to causes they want to support. He also said a similar bill in Georgia is now caught up in litigation. rough his understanding of Tennessee law, he said the proposed legislation would be considered unconstitutional.
TARGETING IMMIGRANT STUDENTS
A bill requiring Tennessee public schools to gather data on student immigration status and report it to the state education department moved through the legislature last week. e bill was introduced last year as part of a Republican e ort to challenge Supreme Court precedent requiring public schools to enroll all children regardless of immigration status. As originally introduced, the bill would have allowed Tennessee public school districts to refuse to enroll immigrant students who could not provide proof of legal status — or charge their families tuition.
But the controversial measure stalled, in part due to concerns it could jeopardize more than $1.1 billion in federal education funding.
House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) sponsored the measure. He told a legislative committee last week the bill in its amended form is now “literally a data bill” to give state leaders reliable information on the number of students without legal immigration status enrolled in taxpayer-funded schools. Provisions allowing schools to deny
enrollment or charge tuition have been stripped from the bill.
A statement last week from Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of TIRRC Votes, raised continued alarms about the ultimate goal of student immigration status data gathering. TIRRC is the political arm of the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition.
“Across history, we’ve seen the dangers of governments making and keeping lists of the people that they think don’t belong,” the statement said.
VOUCHERS COULD DOUBLE
A GOP push to double the number of students in Tennessee’s voucher program cleared its rst hurdle in the General Assembly last week.
Gov. Bill Lee and Republican leadership want lawmakers to sign o on a voucher expansion plan that would grow the program — which is in its rst year — to 40,000 students. If Republican lawmakers are successful, the change could direct $303 million in public dollars to private schools in the state next school year.
e push to double the program’s size comes just a year a er lawmakers passed the initial Education Freedom Scholarship — or EFS — legislation that included a cap on growth to 5,000 new seats per year, which voucher supporters at the time argued would prevent the program from growing too rapidly.
Tennessee Lookout and Chalkbeat Tennessee contributed to this report.
Visit the News Blog at memphis yer.com for fuller versions of these stories and more local news.
POSTED
PHOTO: JOHN PARTIPILO | TENNESSEE LOOKOUT
A GOP bill would require schools to collect the immigration status of students for a report to the Tennessee General Assembly.
Pollution for Profit {
ENVIRONMENT
By Kailynn Johnson
Mississippians “outraged” over “shocking” decision on xAI air pollution permits.
The Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board granted a permit last week for MZX Tech LLC, an a liate of xAI.
MZX Tech plans to operate 41 gas turbines at the power plant located at 275 Stanton Road in Southaven.
O cials made the decision during a meeting of the board in Jackson, Mississippi.
Abre’ Conner, director of environmental and climate justice at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said they are “outraged” by the decision, and that it silenced those in the a ected communities.
“ e rushed, super cial responses dropped just [last] weekend completely ignore our community’s concerns and twist the law to t their agenda,” Conner said. “It’s shocking that a state agency and board would refuse to address an unnecessary civic crisis, prioritizing convenience over justice.”
e board’s decision to hold the meeting on Election Day, and ve days
a er the hearing was announced, has been condemned by local and national groups.
e Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP and the national NAACP sent an open letter to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) to immediately reschedule the public hearing for the following week, and requested a response by Monday.
e organization criticized MDEQ’s decision to issue their responses to public comments on Saturday, March 7th, as well as for holding the hearing “nearly three driving hours from the site of the facility.”
“While we agree that the airshed for MZX Tech and xAI’s pollution is broad for this facility, having an election day hearing in Hinds County while the permit is for a facility in DeSoto County was an intentional choice or at least a grave oversight by MDEQ,” the letter said. “It’s also one we hope is corrected immediately.”
NAACP o cials previously sent a letter to MDEQ asking them to deny
MZX Tech’s permit, as it posed a “civil rights issue” as opposed to a permitting one.
e Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), which has long been critical of the expansion of xAI’s operations and has pointed out numerous aws in MDEQ’s dra permit, called the consideration period an “absurdly short timeline.”
“We’re extremely disappointed in MDEQ’s decision to greenlight this inadequate permit for xAI’s power plant, which fails to address the signi cant concerns about the impact these added turbines will have on communities in North Mississippi as well as South Memphis,” Patrick Anderson, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said. “Mississippi state regulators appear to be more interested in fasttracking xAI’s personal power plant than conducting a thorough review of its impacts and having meaningful engagement with the families that will be forced to live with this dirty
facility — and its pollution — in their communities.”
SELC said MDEQ has failed to do any “meaningful analysis or public engagement.” e law center released a study showing that the proposed gas turbines could “worsen regional air pollution and cause tens of millions of dollars in health damages.”
DeSoto County residents have been vocal about their opposition to xAI, and have also made noisepollution complaints about the turbines. Residents have reported sleep disruptions, with many experiencing migraines and other health issues.
PHOTO: SAFE AND SOUND COALITION | FACEBOOK e location of xAI’s new facility
AT LARGE By Bruce VanWyngarden
Sunny Side of the Street
Can’t you hear that pitter-pat?
Grab your coat and get your hat Leave your worries on the doorstep … ose were the opening lines of the morning show theme song on the radio station in my little hometown when I was growing up, and the soundtrack for hundreds (thousands?) of mid-Missouri families going about their preparations for school and work. It was the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra version, an oldie — big band music, with lots of muted horns and melodic ourishes. It was the background to my youthful mornings for years. ings change. Nowadays, I sip my co ee and scroll the news on my phone. Today, I read an interview with Donald Trump, who, when asked about getting help from other countries in the Iran con ict, replied: “We don’t need anyone.” Two sentences later, he said, “Other nations must step up to help secure the Strait of Hormuz.” He then claimed the U.S. has already “won” the war, but quickly added that we can’t leave “until we nish the job” — by sending 5,000 Marines to the combat zone.
Just direct your feet
To the sunny side of the street …
don’t respect — or even understand — the First Amendment. You know, the one that gives news media the right to report and publish the news as they see t, even if (especially if) it’s critical of the government. e one that gives you and me the right to read any news source — and anyone’s opinion — we want to, even if they expose or point out the corruption of the people in power. It’s the essential rule of law that gives all Americans — and all American media — the right to free speech.
From across the room, my wife reads aloud: “A judge blocked RFK Jr.’s overhaul of vaccine policy, saying its procedural actions were likely illegal.” We take a little solace, leavened by the knowledge that this administration sees federal judicial rulings as suggestions, at best.
Back on my own phone, I read about Cuba, which is su ering from an American blockade that’s led to a total blackout of the island’s power grid. Hospitals, schools, food storage, water pumps, everything. “We’ll probably be taking Cuba in some form,” Trump said, when asked about it. “I think I can do anything I want with it.”
Can’t you hear that pitter-pat e happy tune is your step …
I pour another cup and read that Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr is threatening to revoke broadcast licenses of major networks over their “fake news” coverage of the war in Iran. Trump immediately backed him up, calling media reporting of the war “corrupt and highly unpatriotic.”
Trump went beyond criticizing broadcast media, also condemning e New York Times and e Wall Street Journal, saying their reportage amounted to wanting the United States “to lose the war.” Which we’ve already won, right? So confusing.
Life can be so sweet
On the sunny side of the street …
I just can’t with this bullshit, every freaking day. ese second-rate people
Tommy Dorsey
Dictators hate it, and so do wannabe dictators who won’t remove a baseball cap to respect the bodies of slain American troops on their “digni ed transfer” home; who play golf while sending our troops into harm’s way on the other side of the world; who send masked and armed thugs to seize people o American streets without warrants; and who can’t keep their thoughts straight long enough to come up with a coherent — or truthful — sentence explaining why the hell we’re doing any of this.
It’s an outrage, all of it. is whole administration is a clown show, a bloody circus with a cast of fools and toadies that’s getting thousands of people killed and imprisoned and none of them can come up with a remotely rational explanation. None of them has the courage or moral rectitude to say to their emperor, “Enough!”
I’m grateful I still have the freedom to write these critical words, and grateful there is a publication willing to print them. If the bunch currently in power had their way, voices like mine and papers like the Flyer would be silenced. As would any other media outlet not toeing the government line. is is serious stu , people. e American side of the street is no longer sunny.
PHOTO: WILLIAM P. GOTTLIEB, PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
By Alex Greene
Celebrating women’s achievements in any eld can be an elusive enterprise, as there’s an inherent diversity in what we consider the female, the feminine, the femme. Yet it’s something we do to correct the tendency to give women short shri (and lesser pay). ese systemic tendencies have been rearing their ugly heads more recently, positively reinforced by governmental zealots who make no secret of their anti-trans sadism, or their desire to return to the pre-su rage social norms of patriarchy. In the photographic world, such devolutionary sentiments are o en typi ed by the implied “male gaze” of the masculine photographer, a P.O.V. that is, among other things, prone to objectify women, or favor gestures of passivity over action.
Memphis is a magnet of some notoriety in the photographic world, its twin poles in that regard roughly being Ernest Withers’ photojournalism and William Eggleston’s abstract aesthetics, but the proli c nature of both artists can obscure other stellar photographic work being done here, especially by women or femme-identifying photographers. Before this Women’s History Month closes out, then, let’s raise a toast to the local sisters who are bucking the trends, pursuing their visions, and upending the “male gaze.”
PHOTOS: (LEFT) MARK HARLAN; COURTESY THE ARTISTS (le to right) Ebet Roberts, Gabrielle Yasmeen, Andrea Morales, and Du y-Marie Arnoult
Ebet Roberts
Women photographers in Memphis bring their visions to light.
ough she’s lived mainly in New York City for decades, Ebet Roberts has the Blu City inscribed in her soul, continuing to keep her Midtown Memphis apartment to accommodate her frequent returns. at’s been true throughout her thriving career as a music photographer since the ’70s. All of those threads were woven into her recent appearance at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art’s exhibit, “Memphis College of Art, 1936-2020: An Enduring Legacy.” Speaking at the show’s pre-opening press gathering, Roberts’ enthusiasm for her striking shot of Sid Vicious playing the Taliesyn Ballroom with the Sex Pistols at their 1978 Memphis debut was contagious.
“Memphis was crazy in those days,” she recalled. “ ere were headlines saying ‘the Sex Pistols will not be allowed to perform simulated sex acts on stage.’ So this show was grossly oversold. I don’t even know how I got in there. And I don’t know how
I got this photograph, because the oor was going up and down. I mean, people were jumping and spitting. I was sure I was going to be in the basement any minute. It was crazy! It’s amazing it came out. I really didn’t know if I was gonna have a giant blur. Anyway, it started my career.” at last point is only partially true, her career having “started” a year before that, when she photographed the band Mink DeVille in New York. By then, she’d already studied at MCA, focused on painting but devoting her nal year to studying photography with Murray Riss. Moving to New York, with a detour to study camerawork at the Penland School of Cra , she found the late ’70s in Manhattan to be a hotbed of musical innovation. Snapping the music scenes around CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, her work was suddenly in demand.
creative, something that I’d never seen or heard before. I felt like I absolutely had to document it.”
Key to Roberts’ magic was pushing beyond the super cial. “I wanted to follow up on the things I photographed instead of just walking around documenting things, then walking away,” she told Bruce VanWyngarden for Memphis Magazine in 2024. at was partly due to the inspiration of the music she heard then. Shooting bands, never something she’d previously aspired to, “just opened up this whole world,” she says. “I was so unaware of it, and it was just so exciting and
And so, feeling that “composition and design was so ingrained in me” by her painting studies at MCA, she ran with the momentum, eventually snapping Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, Whitney Houston, Miles Davis, and many others. (See her photo of Tina Turner on the Flyer’s February 15th, 2023, cover.) e work has never stopped rolling in. But along the way, her own identity was of a secondary concern to that of the artist in her lens. “I just never thought about the di erence of being a woman particularly,” she says. “I was friends with most of the male photographers. I think this awareness came when I was photographing U2, at the beginning. Somebody sent me a photo of me in the photo pit with the other photographers. And, I mean, I’m not that short, but, being around all these heavy-duty news guys from around the country, I look like a complete midget!” One is reminded of the wisdom of T. Rex: “I know I’m small, but I enjoy living anyway.” Meanwhile, she persists — and continues to thrive. SUNY Press will release a collection of her work from the ’70s and ’80s, Ebet Roberts: New York Punk, this October.
Gabrielle Yasmeen
At the other end of the spectrum, we move from an established name in the business to a photographer who’s relatively new to the game. But that’s not how it seems to Gabrielle Yasmeen, who’s been
PHOTOS: EBET ROBERTS (le to right) Shooting e Cars in 1981 (note Roberts in mirror); Debbie Harry, 1978; Patti Smith in Asbury Park, NJ, 1978
snapping photos all her life. She admits that’s true of most people in her generation, all digital natives who live and breathe images on social media.
“I do think that, yes, there’s a line between a photo dump on Instagram versus a thought-out, cohesive body of photographic work. I would say it comes down to narrative, with a through line that leads back to something.” But Yasmeen’s frustrated that not everyone sees photography that way, even art galleries.
“I’ve had gallerists tell me, like, ‘We don’t feature photography because it doesn’t sell,’” she says. In her experience, respect for any photography, much less that created by women, is not easy to come by. “It’s that same ne art narrative that elevates painting and sculpture and, even now, cra art to a higher standard.” And so Yasmeen, having learned the ropes through a job at the UrbanArt Commission, took matters into her own hands and curated a show there last year titled “Not Only Seen, But Felt: An Exhibition of Seven Black Women Photographers.” at show, featuring the work of Yasmeen, A.C. Bullard, Ariel J. Cobbert, Alexus Milons, Jasmine Marie, Keara W., and MadameFraankie, explored, per the show’s accompanying literature, “themes of love, community, family, labor, and remembrance, while also celebrating the quiet, everyday moments that are o en overlooked yet deeply meaningful.”
“I’ve always heard seven is a number of completion,” says Yasmeen. “And so I was like, ‘Let me just start with seven, though I know there’s a huge amount of people with talent in this city. And it was, to me, a transformative body of work that came together. It made all of us kind of question our paths, our careers, and what we were going to do next.”
And it only con rmed Yasmeen’s feeling that photography was the best medium to capture our lives. “Having that show was a declaration of photography being something that is meaningful,” she says. “All those images showcased life, and for me, Black life in
Memphis, and how we are able to live, work, and play — all those di erent elements of human life.” at, in turn, made her feel part of a larger historical movement in Memphis photography.
“We have the Hooks Brothers, and we have Ernest Withers, who were all capturing speci cally Black life in Memphis” — o en rendered nigh invisible in the mass media and ne arts worlds.
One lesson Yasmeen took away from the show was the need for a sense of community among women photographers. “I reached out to Andrea Morales because she’d had her rst solo museum exhibition at the Brooks at that time, and I had known about her work for a few years, being a fan. We met in di erent situations, and it was really helpful to go to her and say, ‘Hey, would you review this? Would you look at this? Would you just give me your thoughts?’ It gave me con dence to do curation for the rst time.”
e upshot of such epiphanies has been Yasmeen’s conviction that the city needs a center for photography, “a space where we could continue to educate one another, learn more, and have real formal training in photography,” she says, pointing to similar institutions in New York, Miami, and
PHOTOS: ANDREA MORALES/MLK50: JUSTICE THROUGH JOURNALISM
(le ) Alianza de Danzantes de Memphis at a vigil on Summer Avenue for deported neighbors; (right) ‘Stop the Violence Block Party’ on Tate Street
Los Angeles. “ at’s what was born out of the show: a need to have a continuing education center in a gallery that is dedicated to photography.”
�ndrea Morales
And what of the photographer who inspired Yasmeen to ramp things up? Born in Peru, raised in Miami, not Memphis, unlike like our other featured artists, Andrea Morales has nonetheless tapped into the moods, gestures, and light of Memphis communities like no other, given her netuned photojournalist’s instincts, honed over decades. Yet for much of her career, photojournalism was not her path into the gallery — quite the opposite.
at the same time, Memphis has that thing where it lets you, like, thrive.”
“I’ve mostly worked in newspapers and newsrooms,” she says, “so I had never been on a track to go into museums. A very young communist version of me was almost like, ‘No! People can’t get to it at the museum!’ And with artists like Gabrielle, who are more documentarybased, I think their forms of photography in particular are considered less precious objects on a wall and more kind of like, you know, receipts. Receipts about what happened.”
She’s speaking in part of her own solo show at the Brooks Museum last year, “Roll Down Like Water.” But she’s also speaking of a more positive general trend in the city. “I think particularly in creative space-making, since 2014 there have been a number of di erent projects that have come and gone and that we’ve learned from.” One of which was the Brooks’ 2019 exhibit, “Photography in Memphis,” both a celebration of and a reckoning with the history of the city through the work of 56 photographers, reaching back as early as 1849. Morales feels that was important not just for local women photographers, but photographers of color more generally. “I wish there was a way to look back at that 2019 show and see exactly how many were femme, nonbinary photographers, and how many were men. In any case, it was really good.”
She points especially to photographers of color who compared favorably to more celebrated names’ visions. “Lawrence Matthews turns that gaze, which I think is an entitled gaze, he turns it within, where Eggleston is always turning it without and usually emphasizing a power dynamic between the person behind the lens and the one in front of the lens — that I feel is always a little gross.”
Yet Morales’ work contradicts this tendency with her sensitivity to the telling detail, the “decisive moment.” A man with “Memphis” inked onto his back is framed so the tattoo itself rises into the air like the city’s skyline. A young Black girl’s pink parka frames a photo she holds, Ernest Withers’ portrait of the 1968 sanitation workers. Morales’ eye evokes the more painterly in uences that Roberts speaks of, something the local ne art world is waking up to. “ ere’s a devalorization of our work that we’re working around here. But
sensitivity
Morales, for her part, is very aware of power dynamics when she’s on a shoot, dating back at least as far as her years on assignments for the Commercial Appeal, long before she took on her current role as visuals editor for MLK50: Justice rough Journalism. “I ran to opportunities I got through the Commercial Appeal,” she says, “like, you know, at a church in Frayser. I got to go to Frayser knowing the power of community journalism, knowing that I was going to see places I wouldn’t see
(le ) Yasmeen’s work in “Not Only Seen, But Felt”: Mask up Mane, Melrose High School, 2021; (inset) Finesse2Tymes and brother Lil Ju, 2023 continued on page 10
PHOTOS: GABRIELLE YASMEEN
continued from page 9
PHOTOS: DUFFY-MARIE ARNOULT (right) One of Arnoult’s New England portraits for Girls Inc.; (below) Arnoult’s portrait of Dr. Jane Goodall
otherwise, and be able to really connect with them. Because photography is like a means of communion for me: going into any space, whether it’s full of people who look like me or full of people very di erent from me. e reason I do photography is because it gives me this tool to connect and commune with people who are separate from the designs of the systems that we live under, in a really meaningful way. I’m more driven by curiosity and a shared love for people and their stories.”
Duffy-Marie �rnoult
So far, we’ve focused on artists whose work has recently hung on gallery walls here, a commonality not applicable to the work of Du y-Marie Arnoult. at’s in part due to her political activism with e Climate Reality Project, the Transit Equity Task Force, or other causes that eat up much of her time. Yet check her LinkedIn pro le and you’ll see, listed second in her resume, that she’s been a photographer for Getty Images for more than 20 years.
It’s just one of her superpowers, and she gratefully acknowledges the mentors who helped along the way. “One of my in uences has been my dad,” she says. “He always had cameras, and was always capturing moments. And also Karen Focht, who took a picture of me when I was in a play at Snowden, years before I actually met her. en we realized it, and she became a local mentor to me. So I’ve had female mentors, but also male, like Henry Grossman. He photographed e Beatles and Pavarotti and all these incredible people, but I met him in the Time-Life photo lab, just wandering in there as a FIT [Fashion Institute of Technology] student.” at chance meeting led to a lifelong friendship and ultimately her future work
with a list of movie stars as long as your arm. Not many photographers of any gender can claim to have shot both Henry Kissinger and the Saturday Night Live afterparties. “I never started out thinking I would get into the entertainment industry, but it just sort of organically happened once I went to New York,” Arnoult re ects. Yet all those rare ed encounters pale before her time with not only a history-making icon, but a personal role model for Arnoult: the late Dr. Jane Goodall.
“My dad’s consulting agency, Arnoult & Associates, Inc., worked with her strategic planning, so he was part of the group that brought her to Memphis in 2009,” Arnoult recalls. “We had her to our home multiple times, and celebrated her 75th birthday with her here. We would drive around Memphis in my old college car, you know? And she would tell me stories from her girlhood, growing up in England. I look back at that and just feel so lucky. Not just to have had the time with her, but having that alignment of values and passion for the environment, to hear her speak about the power of the Mississippi River.”
For Arnoult, it marked a moment when she wanted to combine her photography skills with her broader concerns. “It really was pivotal to me, in how I looked at photography as a way we can connect to people and a ect how we move in the world — and move together.” To that end, her most recent work has dovetailed with her political concerns, as when she recently visited ailand to document the damage and loss of life a er a tsunami there, or when she took personal portraits of human tra cking survivors for the local nonpro t istle & Bee.
“To be invited in,” she says of the latter work, “and be a witness, to be capturing and showing them the strength that they’ve regained through this program, I mean, it was an incredibly moving and empowering experience. And it reminded me why I love photography so much. I want to just be part of our creative community and be part of the good news coming out of Memphis, because there’s so much happening here and so much to be proud of.”
steppin’ out
We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews
An Interactive Journey Through Food
By Gracie Driver
e Pink Palace’s newest exhibit, “FOOD: Science, Culture and Cuisine,” rst made its debut in France and has since reached the United States to educate kids on culture all over the world with the connection we share in food.
e exhibit begins with a whisking and rolling station where chefs demo the process, then we get to learn more about staple ingredients like chocolate before reaching the coveted hallway of levers. Each pu s a di erent scent like vanilla or Parmesan to familiarize kids with identifying smells.
ere’s even a station that replicates the experience of eating a croissant. By putting your elbows on this special table and cupping your ears with your hands, you can feel the vibrations in your jaw muscles.
At the heart of the space is a room complete with a full visual show that covers the walls and massive dining table with playful images of food, like lobsters coming to life.
Feel the “universal experience” of food at the Pink Palace Museum.
Toward the end we see a short lm that shows banquets all over the world. ere are di erent customs according to the culture, but they all share in communing with one another while eating. Conservator Julie Flynn tells us, “Food is a universal experience.”
Flynn started her education with a bachelor’s in archaeology and planned to do eld work in Syria, but that was quickly foiled by the Syrian hostage crisis. Her new career path took her to London where she studied for two master’s degrees. Flynn says, “I was really interested in Middle Eastern, Egyptian archaeology, but I decided I didn’t necessarily want my career to depend on global politics. I wanted to work in a museum, and this was, and still is the most interesting job in any museum.”
e Pink Palace team aims to incorporate Memphis air as well. ey save the best for last with a section that features four talented Memphis chefs and their signature dishes. ere’s even a botanical section complete with boxes Flynn and her team made full of facts, photos, recipes, and even smells pertaining to the designated plant.
e “FOOD: Science, Culture and Cuisine” exhibit is open until May, so you’ll have plenty of time to go and explore this unique culinary experience.
“FOOD: SCIENCE, CULTURE AND CUISINE,” PINK PALACE MUSEUM & MANSION, 3050 CENTRAL AVE., THROUGH MAY 24, 10:30 A.M.-5 P.M. $21. VISIT MOSHMEMPHIS.COM/FOOD/.
VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES March 19th - 25th
Scandals & Scoundrels: A Tour of Elmwood
Elmwood Cemetery, Sunday, March 22, 2-4 p.m., $20
Resting quietly in the heart of Memphis is Elmwood Cemetery, the nal home to governors, senators, teachers, veterans, poets, and clergy — people whose lives helped shape the city and whose stories still echo through its historic grounds. While many of Elmwood’s residents are remembered for their public service and accomplishments, others le behind mysteries, scandals, and endings that remain the subject of speculation.
is special walking tour explores some of the cemetery’s most infamous residents and the complicated histories surrounding them. Visitors will hear the fascinating stories that lie beneath the surface of Memphis history. Because this
is a walking tour through the cemetery grounds, comfortable walking shoes are recommended.
Resident Artist Talk
e Green Room at Crosstown Arts, ursday, March 19, 6-8 p.m., free Enjoy an evening of conversation and creative insight as the spring 2026 residents of Crosstown Arts share the work they’ve been developing during their time in the residency. e Resident Artist Talk o ers a behind-the-scenes look at the ideas, experiments, and evolving practices shaping each artist’s work, spanning visual art, sound, dance, lm, and interdisciplinary exploration.
is season’s cohort features visual artist Yangbin Park (print and papermaking), Robin Bruce (performance, sound, and healing arts), musician and producer Kenny
Nominations Are Open!
It’s time to pitch us on the best and brightest leaders in Memphis.
Morningstar, movement collective e Dream Team, and lmmaker Racheal Mitchell — together representing a dynamic cross-section of contemporary creative practice.
Celebrate Holi rough Art
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Saturday, March 21, 3-7 p.m., free Celebrate the arrival of spring at a colorful Holi. is family-friendly event features hands-on art making, lively dance performances, music, and traditional henna inside the museum from 3 to 5 p.m. New this year, the celebration spills outdoors to the Overton Park Greensward from 5 to 7 p.m. for joyful color throwing with safe, non-toxic powders, plus food trucks and music. Wear white and get ready to play.
Every year, Memphis Magazine honors several CEOs who have proven to be exemplary in their fields, leading their companies to success on local, regional, national, and international stages.
We are currently accepting nominations for the 2026 CEO of the Year awards. Memphis is blessed with tremendously talented executives in charge of their companies and organizations, and we want to hear from you about the best in the business. Pitch us on why they should get the award: vision, achievements, business philosophy, employee relations, management style, and special qualities. Several candidates will be selected for the 2026 awards and will be featured in the May issue of Memphis Magazine
A breakfast will be held to honor the winners on May 21st at Memphis Botanic Gardens, Hardin Hall.
Please send nominations to nominate@ memphismagazine.com by:
Friday, March 20th
PHOTO: COLLINS DILLARD
MUSIC By Michael Donahue
Ready to Be Young
Jacob Church to release new album this summer.
Jacob Church’s babysitter was “Elvira.” Not the Mistress of the Dark herself, but the Oak Ridge Boys song.
“My mom would tell the story that I would be in my little baby swing,” Church says. “One of those swings you wind up. I’d start crying and she’d put on music.” He stopped crying when she played “Elvira.”
But Church, 43, didn’t grow up to strictly play country music. Beginning in grade school, he was forming and joining bands, ranging from folk, rock, jam, pop, and soul to country. He’s been in about 12 bands, and on 14 recordings, including albums and EPs. Today, Church is working on his latest album, Twin Fiction, with his pop-rock band of the same name. It’s slated to be released this summer. He also co-wrote a song with Raneem Imam, “All the Time,” which will be released this spring. “It’s about how time is all we have and yet there’s never enough.”
At a young age, Church was hooked on e Monkees — until he discovered another mop-topped group. A er playing e Monkees show theme song on drums in his rst grade talent show, his mother told him, “You did such a great job. Your teacher said you looked just like Ringo Starr.” I said, “Who’s Ringo Starr?”
Church became a “Beatles freak” a er his mom bought him their greatest hits album. “It was the melodies. I’ve always been a melody person,” he says. “I love lyrics, they’re important. But the thing I connect to rst in a song is the melody.”
Church switched from drums to guitar and formed his rst “band,” e Crew, with friends in grade school. “We recorded a song on a karaoke machine or something,” he says. “In eighth grade, I got a four-track cassette recorder and a mic and was o to the races.” He began writing his own music — instrumentals — while a senior at Lausanne Collegiate School. He also formed his rst real band, Granola Shrapnel. ey made their own CD, Dawning Comprehension, in 2000.
Church sang solo on stage for the rst time performing Bob Dylan’s “Visions of Johanna” in a high school talent show. “I was shaking like a leaf on a tree.” But his performance was a success. “People clapped. Nobody booed,” he said, “and it pretty much eliminated my stage fright.”
Granola Shrapnel went on to play mostly at the old Kudzu’s Bar & Grill. But things changed in February 2002. ey had just nished a show. “I had what I call my ‘freak out,’” Church says. “I had a panic attack for the rst time. I had no idea what was happening to me. Now I have language to describe it. It would be called
‘derealization’ and ‘depersonalization.’”
Church stopped playing music. “It took almost a year to feel like I had sort of started to get recentered,” he says. “I’ve gotten a handle on managing it now.”
Church shared his thoughts about the experience in his song, “Hidden by the Rain,” in 2003. “About that feeling of realizing you feel bad and things feel awful and hopeless, but it’s the same world it’s always been. It’s just hidden by the rain.”
Music helped him get through the worst of that period. “I just play music. I have to,” he says. “It’s a part of me I can’t deny. If I don’t, it hurts. It feels bad.”
Granola Shrapnel continued on, but with new members, including Graham Winchester and Church’s brother, Ben. Over the years, Church played in other bands, including Beauregard, Graham Winchester & the Ammunition, Je Hulett and the Hand Me Downs, Circle Birds, and a band with Abbye West Pates. He and his brother also formed a duo, e Church Brothers, and, later, Twin Fiction. Church also led his own group, e Jacob Church Band.
He worked as a sound engineer at Ardent Studios, Memphis Soundworks, and Young Avenue Sound before landing a job at Rhodes College, where he’s now a systems programmer analyst.
“How to Be Young” from the upcoming album, is basically Church looking in a mirror today, evoking “the way I feel since I did lose a lot of my youth to mental illness. And how it feels in my early ’40s. I’m ready to be young. I’m ready to do it.”
PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE Jacob Church
AFTER DARK: Live Music Schedule
March 19 - 25
Flic’s Pics Band
Led by the legendary Leroy “Flic” Hodges of Hi Rhythm.
Saturday, March 21, 4 p.m. |
Sunday, March 22, 2 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
Mike Parker Hits the Roof
An original country music series. ursday, March 19, 8 p.m.
TIN ROOF
Journey: Final Frontier Tour
Journey is saying goodbye the only way they know how.
Saturday, March 21, 7:30 p.m.
FEDEXFORUM
Spring Fever 2026
Robert Plant with Saving Grace and Suzi Dian. Tuesday, March 24, 7:30 p.m.
THE ORPHEUM
The New Edition Way Tour
Featuring New Edition, Boyz II Men, & Toni Braxton.
ursday, March 19, 8 p.m.
FEDEXFORUM
Two Birds 1 Stone
With Izzy Robinson and Samantha Long. Friday, March 20, 7 p.m.
SOUTH MAIN SOUNDS
Jammin’ at the J: A Party Behind The Moss Pavilion
Don’t miss this lively music festival. Sunday, March 22, 11:30 a.m.
MEMPHIS JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER
Rock N Roll Fundraiser
Sunday, March 22, 3 p.m.
NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM
Smooth Jazz Flutist
Althea Rene
Listen to this utist while sipping on complimentary wine.
Saturday, March 21, 7:30 p.m.
BUCKMAN PERFORMING ARTS
CENTER
20 Years Young
With e Early November and Hellogoodbye. Saturday, March 21, 8 p.m.
MINGLEWOOD HALL
Candlelight: Coldplay & Imagine Dragons
A night full of magic and live music. $38.41. Friday, March 20, 6:30-7:45 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
DJ Funn
Prizes, drinks, food, fun, and
PHOTO: COURTESY STEVE BUTLER
Althea Rene
music trivia with DJ Funn.
Sunday, March 22, 6 p.m.
CELTIC CROSSING
¡El Chavos!
Playing in the small room downstairs. Friday, March 20, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Folk All Y’all: Will Kimbrough in Tribute to Todd Snider Friday, March 20, 5 p.m.
THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS
Laser Rock: Beatles
A one-of-a-kind show that will take you on a journey through music. Friday, March 20, 7 p.m.
AUTOZONE DOME PLANETARIUM
Motel California
An Eagles Tribute. Friday, March 20, 6 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Organ Fairchild
Synthesizing in uences ranging from Medeski Martin & Wood to e Grateful Dead. Monday, March 23, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
San Salida
With Robert Traxler and neon glittery. $10. Sunday, March 22, 8 p.m.
LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE
Van Duren is singer-songwriter is a pioneer of indie pop in Memphis. ursday, March 19, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
MORTIMER’S
Phil Wickham
With Tauren Wells and spe-
cial guest Jamie MacDonald. Friday, March 20, 7 p.m.
LANDERS CENTER
The Dirty Crows Built for dim lights, sti drinks, and crowded dance oors. Friday, March 20, 8 p.m.
HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY
The Family Stone Friday, March 20, 8 p.m. GOLD STRIKE CASINO
Bartlett Community Concert Band
From classical masterpieces to pop music and movie soundtracks. Saturday, March 21, 7:30 p.m.
BARTLETT PERFORMING ARTS AND CONFERENCE CENTER
Fair Warning: A Celebration of Herstory
Memphis Women’s Chorale takes the stage for a powerful tribute to the female experience. Tuesday, March 24, 6:30 p.m.
MORTON MUSEUM OF COLLIERVILLE HISTORY
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Dubbed “South Africa’s Cultural Ambassadors to the World” by Nelson Mandela. $39. Friday, March 20, 8-9:30 p.m.
GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Richard Wilson
Soulful Jazz and Bossanova
Smooth, soulful, and relaxing. Saturday, March 21, 9
a.m.-noon CARRINGTON OAKS COFFEEHOUSE AND BISTRO-LAKELAND
CALENDAR of EVENTS:
March 19 - 25
Send the date, time, place, cost, info, phone number, a brief description, and photos — two weeks in advance — to calendar@memphisflyer.com.
DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS, ONGOING WEEKLY EVENTS WILL APPEAR IN THE FLYER’S ONLINE CALENDAR ONLY. FOR COMPREHENSIVE EVENTS LISTING, VISIT EVENTS.MEMPHISFLYER.COM/CAL.
1 Gives the boot 5 Tickled 9 Welfare
13 ___ Sedgwick, 1960s “It Girl”
14 Wine: Prefix
15 Regional life 17 React to pyrotechnics, say 19 Showing humility, say 20 *Needlepoint, e.g.
21 Closed violently
22 Layer of an Italian muffuletta sandwich 24 Through 26 ___ Style Awards (annual honors since 1997)
27 Info on a highway billboard
28 Lights up?
31 Partner of older
33 *Sets the odds for
34 Accent
ART AND SPECIAL EXHIBITS
Anna Gregor, Chris Peckham, Bobby Smith
Works by these three artists share a certain harmony. rough March 28.
TOPS GALLERY
“FOOD: Science, Culture, and Cuisine”
A multi-sensory feast of an exhibition that engages you in new ways to think about food through sight, taste, smell, touch, and sound.
$21/general admission. rough May 24.
PINK PALACE MUSEUM & MANSION
“Memphis College of Art, 1936-2020: An Enduring Legacy”
It’s tting that the nal exhibition mounted by Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in its original home in Overton Park is a celebration of the Memphis College of Art, its sister organization. rough September 30.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
ART HAPPENINGS
Gallery Takeover
Explore the visionary work championed by Sheila Urevbu and her gallery. Sunday, March 22, 2-4 p.m.
UREVBU CONTEMPORARY
Resident Artist Talk
Enjoy an evening of conversation and insight as Crosstown Arts’ spring residents share
Crossword
36 Team with home games at SunTrust Park
40 East African native
42 Greet someone, informally
44 Preceder of the Three Kingdoms, in Chinese history
49 Superbright
50 *Plumber/ carpenter types
Rehab woes, for short
Westinghouse rival
Concern for shipping and software companies
Big hit
Round windows
Advantage … or what the answer to each starred clue has? 62 Country that lost a quarter of its territory in 2011
63 Parker who was the first president of Facebook 64 *Submitted
65 “Quién ___?” (“Who knows?”: Sp.)
66 Con
67 Close to 10, say DOWN
1 Title also held by many a co. president
2 Commotion
3 One whose guiding philosophy is “What does it matter?”
4 Input in a desalination plant 5 Gryffindor who founded Gryffindor House at Hogwarts
6 Concern for a plumber or government official
7 Big carrier to Tokyo 8 “Dumb, dumb, dumb!” 9 “Mamma Mia!” group
Soccer star Messi
“The
PHOTO: COURTESY TOPS GALLERY
Bobby Smith, Rat Tower, from “that which is below” exhibit; wood, wax, carpet, and photo-etched
their work, processes, and what they’ve been developing during their time in the residency.
ursday, March 19, 6 p.m.
THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS
Edited by Will Shortz No. 0613
BOOK EVENTS
Michelle Keller with Chamel Jackson: 364 First Dates
Celebrate the release of Keller’s new novel. Saturday, March 21, 2 p.m.
NOVEL
CLASS / WORKSHOP
Memphis Writing Workshop
Free writing workshop series led by poet and U of M creative writing professor Marcus Wicker. Interested in writing poetry or short ction? Turn your story into art. Saturday, March 21, 2-3:30 p.m.
BEALE STREET LANDING
Sips of Spring
Step into the garden and sip your way through spring in this 21+, hands-on mixology workshop inspired by owers in full bloom. Sunday, March 22, 1 p.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
COMMUNITY
Holi Festival
Experience the vibrant energy of Holi, the Indian festival that marks the arrival of spring with joy, color, and community. Saturday, March 21, 3-7 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
March Collage Party
Show o your shine and make collages with community and curated tunes. Wednesday, March 25, 6-9 p.m.
THE UGLY ART COMPNAY
FILM
Slowdown Cinema Club: Parasite e Kim family nds ways to work within the same household of another family and live a parasitic life. Wednesday, March 25, 5:30 p.m.
CTI 3D GIANT THEATER
Watch What You Eat: Pulp Fiction e lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption. ursday, March 19, 6-9 p.m.
PINK PALACE MUSEUM & MANSION
FOOD AND DRINK
Squirrel Tale Whiskey Release: Beyond the Barrel Tour and Cocktail Class
Tour Old Dominick Distillery and enjoy their newest whiskey blend, Squirrel Tale. $85/ ticket. Friday, March 20, 6:30-9 p.m.
OLD DOMINICK DISTILLERY
LECTURE
Experience Memphis Gardens 101 Learn from Kim Halyak’s own gardening experience and the hundreds of gardens she’s toured in Memphis and across the country. Saturday, March 21, 10 a.m.
URBAN EARTH GARDENS, NURSERY & MARKET
PERFORMING ARTS
Irene the Alien
Known for her sharp wit, unforgettable looks, and otherworldly stage presence, Irene brings a performance that is equal parts comedy, glamour, and pure drag excellence. Saturday, March 21, 9 p.m.
DRU’S BAR
THEATER
Seussical
From Horton the Elephant to e Cat in the Hat and Jojo, it’s a journey through themes of friendship and community. ursday, March 19, 8 p.m. | Friday, March 20, 8 p.m. | Saturday, March 21, 8 p.m. | Sunday, March 22, 2 p.m.
CIRCUIT PLAYHOUSE
BY MICHAEL BLAKE AND JEFF CHEN
We Saw You.
with MICHAEL DONAHUE
About 600 people were in the soup recently, but not in a bad sense. is was a pleasant experience. ey were the guests at the 37th Youth Villages Soup Sunday, which was held February 22nd at e Kent. e event, which featured more than 30 restaurants and vendors, was a success. ey raised $138,000, says Youth Villages CEO Patrick Lawler. “It was the most money we’ve ever raised,” he says. Proceeds go to LifeSet, a program to help young people who are aging out of foster care.
PHOTOS: MICHAEL DONAHUE
above: (le to right) Anna Catron Lee and Gabe Roberts; Patrick and Ellen Lawler circle: Emily Mutchnick
below: (le to right) Nikki Woods, Lindsey Lipford, Tanya Macon, Jessica Brantley; Adele, Austin, Palmer, and Poter Davis; Reed, Liam, Jennings, Ryan, and Houston Barnes
bottom row: (le to right) Collins Fisher and Nora Tillmanns; Alicia Davis, Micheal Clark; Bruce Marshall, Mark Simpson; Kevin Martin, Renee Bomar, Cody Hall
FOOD By Michael Donahue
Answered Prayer
Abrian Clay’s products are taking o .
A
brian Clay, founder of Clay’s Smoked Tuna, now has one of his other creations — smoked chicken salad — in Kroger stores.
“We’re working to get the smoked buffalo chicken dip and smoked tuna salad in Kroger, too,” Clay says.
e smoked chicken salad is in 87 stores. “What they call the Mississippi Delta region, which includes Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi,” he says.
And yes, this is the same guy you used to see manning the Clay’s Smoked Tuna food truck on the corner of East Parkway and Summer Avenue.
A lot of his success has to do with prayer, he says. “A prayer I prayed since I was an adolescent. e same prayer. ‘God, increase my territory.’” And, “Assist me in operating in the Holy Spirit.”
By “territory,” Clay means the span of what he could achieve in life. “I prayed that for so long,” he says. “I’m not shocked that it’s manifested.”
Clay wasn’t thinking about tuna when he prayed. “I didn’t know what it was going to be. I just knew once I found it, I wanted to reach masses of people. I consider myself more of a businessman than a chef. is could have been anything.”
Clay, 41, who is from Memphis, went to work when he was nine years old. “I think they call this the ‘hustle city.’ Everybody has a business. ey’re trying to make things happen.”
He raked leaves, sold candy, and helped his dad. “I remember he’d get me on the weekend and we’d go to people’s houses and cut branches o the tree that was hanging on their roof. He would cut it down and have me drag it to the street. He would pay me $5 a house.”
“I’ve always been ambitious. I remem-
ber one time my dad asked if I prayed for a lot of money and did I believe I’d get it. I said, ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘Well, go and pray.’ I got on my knees and asked God for a ‘billion billion guadrillions’ dollars.”
Clay didn’t think he was going to get all that money right away. “I knew it wasn’t going to come out of the sky for me.”
But he believed, and he worked.
Clay got the idea to make his own smoked tuna salad a er he tried some at a restaurant in Orange Beach, Alabama. Nobody, to his knowledge, was making it in Memphis, so he went home and made his rst batch. He marinated yellow n, aka ahi tuna, in white wine and smoked it. He chopped up the ingredients for the salad and added mayonnaise. He gave out free samples. And it was an instant hit.
Like he still does, Clay used his Facebook page to get the word out. He also began selling the tuna as well as his smoked chicken and hot food plates at a commercial kitchen, which has a drivethrough pick-up window.
In 2021, Clay opened his food truck. ree years later, he decided to have his products USDA-certi ed so he could sell them “anywhere in the United States.”
“ e commercial kitchen can serve food trucks and retail to the public, but you can’t wholesale to other places,” he says. Clay found a USDA-certi ed copacker in Tupelo, Mississippi. “You give them your recipe and they mass produce your product.” He also found a certi ed company to mass produce his containers.
About three years later, Clay got his smoked chicken salad in Kroger stores. “I reached out to the regional director,” he says, adding, “He was familiar with my copacker and gave me the green light.”
Clay’s smoked chicken salad is a “spino ” of his smoked tuna. “ ey taste kind of similar. e only di erence is we marinate the yellow n tuna in white wine, and the chicken, we don’t.”
His chicken salad is more popular, Clay says. “Being down South, chicken is a lot more popular than tuna.”
Clay is thinking about branching out with other products he sold on his food truck. “Like smoked salmon,” he says. “I can see myself going down the line packaging the salmon and selling that as well.”
He still has his food truck. “But it’s kind of rare when I operate it,” he says. “Maybe once or twice a week.”
Clay also thought about maybe one day opening a lounge, where he’d sell his products. But, for now, he’s just “thinking of sticking with the food business. Now that I’m aware of how the USDA works, opportunity is limitless, man.”
CRAWFISH BOIL + LIVE MUSIC ON THE PATIO AT OWEN BRENNAN'S
Wednesdays in March, April and May, Owen Brennan's is bringing the boil outside! We'll have live music on the patio, crawfish sold by the pound and corn, sausage and potatoes soaking up every bit of spice. Cooked outdoors. Scooped from coolers. Weighed bagged and delivered to your table on a silver tray. (No to go orders)
PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE Abrian Clay
A Sky Full of Signals
Astrological and astronomical events collide to stir the waters and help them settle.
This month brings a plethora of astrological happenings, from the total lunar eclipse and blood moon to Mercury retrograde. Mid-March features a pair of striking astrological and astronomical events — one energetic, one visual — that together create a powerful moment of re ection. Whether you follow astrology closely or simply enjoy noticing what’s happening in the sky, these alignments o er a chance to pause, recalibrate, and reconnect with what matters most. e rst arrives March 18th, when Venus in Aries forms a square to Jupiter in Cancer. In astrology, Venus represents love, beauty, and the way we relate to others. Jupiter symbolizes growth, expansion, and the desire to reach beyond our comfort zone. When the planets form a square, a 90-degree angle creates tension, momentum, and a push toward action. Squares aren’t negative; they’re catalysts. ey stir the pot, highlight what’s stagnant, and encourage movement.
With Venus in ery, impulsive Aries and Jupiter in nurturing, protective Cancer, this square can feel like a tug-of-war between independence and security. Aries wants to leap, try something new, or assert a desire boldly. Cancer wants to protect what’s familiar, safe, and emotionally meaningful. When these energies collide, we may feel pulled between taking a risk and staying where we feel comfortable.
is aspect can show up in two areas: relationships and nances. In the former, the Venus-Jupiter square may amplify feelings, both joyful ones and the ones we’ve been avoiding. It can bring passion and a desire for more connection, but it can also magnify impatience or frustration. e key is to slow down before making big declarations or decisions. Jupiter encourages expansion, but expansion without grounding can lead to overreaching.
Financially, this aspect can tempt us toward impulsive spending or overly optimistic choices. Aries brings the urge to act now, while Jupiter whispers that everything will work out. It’s a beautiful combination for dreaming big, but it’s wise to double-check details before committing to anything long-term. ink of this as a cosmic green light for inspiration, paired with a yellow light reminding you to look both ways before stepping out.
If the Venus-Jupiter square is the energetic spark, the second event is its soothing counterbalance. On the evenings of March 19th and 20th, the crescent moon and Venus will appear close together in the western sky just a er sunset, forming a stunning conjunction visible to the naked
eye. Even those who don’t follow astrology o en pause when they see this pairing; it’s one of the most beautiful and accessible sky-watching moments of the year.
Astronomically, a conjunction simply means two celestial bodies appear near each other from our perspective on Earth. Astrologically, the moon represents emotion, intuition, and our inner landscape, while Venus symbolizes connection, harmony, and what we nd beautiful. When they meet in the sky, the e ect is gentle, calming, and heart-opening.
If the Venus-Jupiter square stirs things up, the moon-Venus conjunction helps us settle back into ourselves. It’s a reminder that clarity o en arrives not through force, but through quiet observation. Standing outside under a twilight sky, watching the moon glow beside Venus, can bring a sense of perspective that’s hard to access in the rush of daily life.
is conjunction is an ideal time for reection — not the heavy kind, but the so , spacious kind that comes naturally when we’re looking at something beautiful. You might ask yourself: What do I truly value? What brings me peace? What deserves my attention? e answers may not come in words; sometimes they arrive as a feeling, memory, or gentle shi in awareness.
Together, this month’s events create a meaningful arc. e Venus-Jupiter square pushes us to confront what’s been overlooked, while the moon-Venus conjunction invites us to recalibrate and reconnect with our inner compass. One stirs the waters, the other helps them settle. ese celestial moments remind us that growth is both active and receptive. Sometimes we’re called to take bold steps. Other times, we’re asked to simply look up, be still, and let the sky speak.
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: P. HORÁLEK/ESO, CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG | VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
On March 19th and 20th, the moon and Venus will be in conjunction.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In 1960, Aries primatologist Jane Goodall arrived in Tanzania to study the social and family lives of chimpanzees. Her intention was to engage in patient, long-term observation. In subsequent months, she saw the creatures using tools, a skill that scientists had previously believed only humans could do. She also found that “it isn’t only human beings who have personality, who are capable of rational thought and emotions like joy and sorrow.” Her discoveries revolutionized our understanding of animal intelligence. I recommend her approach to you in the coming weeks, Aries. Your diligent, tenacious attention can supplant outmoded assumptions. Let the details and rhythms of what you’re studying reveal their deeper truths. Your affectionate watchfulness will change the story.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Ancient Romans had a household deity called Cardea, goddess of hinges and thresholds. She protected the pivot points, like the places where the inside meets the outside and where one state transforms into another. In the coming weeks, you Tauruses will benefit from befriending a similar deity. I hope you will pay eager attention to the metaphorical hinges in your world: the thresholds, portals, transitions, and inbetween times. They may sometimes feel awkward because they lack the certainty you crave. But I guarantee that they are where the best magic congregates.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You are fluent in the art of fruitful contradiction. While others pursue one-dimensional consistency, you thrive on the fact that the truth is too wild and multifaceted to be captured in a single, simple story. You make spirited use of paradox and enjoy being enchanted by riddles. You can be both serious and playful, committed and curious, strong and receptive. In the coming weeks, Gemini, I hope you will express these superpowers to the max. The world doesn’t need another person who separates everything into neat little categories. Your nimble intelligence and charming multiplicity are the gifts your allies need most.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi celebrates imperfection, impermanence, and the soulfulness that comes with age. A weathered wooden gate may be considered more beautiful than a new one. Its surface has a silvery grain from years of exposure to rain and sun. Its hinges creak from long use by countless passersby. Let’s invoke this lovely concept as we ruminate on your life, Cancerian. In my astrological estimation, it’s important that in the coming months you don’t treat your incompleteness as a deficit requiring correction. Consider the possibility that your supposed blemishes may be among your
Rob Brezsny
most interesting features. The idiosyncratic aspects of your character are precisely what make you a source of vitality.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In medieval Japan, swordsmiths would undertake spiritual purifications before beginning work on a new blade: abstinence, ritual bathing, prayer, and fasting. They believed that the quality of their consciousness influenced the quality of their creation — that the blade would absorb the maker’s mental and spiritual state. I bring this to your attention because you’re in a phase when your inner condition will have extra potent effects on everything you build, develop, or initiate. My advice: Prepare yourself with impeccable care before launching new projects. Purify your motivations. Clarify your vision. The creations you will be generating could serve you well for a long time.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Master chess players don’t necessarily calculate more moves ahead than amateurs. Their years of study enable them to perceive the developing trends in a single glance, bypassing complex analysis. What appears to be stellar intuition is actually compressed expertise. You’re in a phase when you can make abundant use of this capacity, Virgo. Again and again, your accumulated experience will crystallize into immediate knowing. So don’t second-guess your first assessments, OK? Trust the pattern recognition that you have cultivated through the years.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The cosmic powers have granted you a triplestrength, extra-long, time-release dose of sweet, fresh certainty. During the grace period that’s beginning, you will be less tempted to indulge in doubt and indecision. A fountain of resolve will rise up in you whenever you need it. Though at first the lucid serenity you feel may seem odd, you could grow accustomed to it — so much so that you could permanently lose up to 20 percent of your chronic tendency to vacillate.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Crows can hold grudges against individual humans for years. But they also remember acts of kindness and bring gifts like shiny objects and buttons to those who’ve helped them. They’re capable of both revenge and gratitude, and they never forget either. I suspect you’re entering a period when you’ll need to decide which of your crow-like qualities to emphasize, Scorpio. You have legitimate grievances worth remembering. You have also received gifts worth honoring. My counsel: Spend 20 percent of your emotional energy on remembering wrongs (enough to protect yourself) and 80 percent on remembering what has helped you thrive. Make gratitude your primary teacher, even as you stay wisely wary.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Poet Mark Doty wrote, “The sea doesn’t reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. We should lie as empty, open, and choiceless as a beach — waiting for gifts from the sea.” This quote captures your Piscean genius when it’s working at its best. Others may exhaust themselves trying to force results, but you know that the best gifts often come to those who are patient, open, and relaxed. This is true right now more than ever before. I hope you will practice intense receptivity. Protect your permeability like the superpower it is. Be as supple and responsive as you dare.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): More than any other zodiac sign, you Sagittarians can be both a discontented rebel and a sunny celebrant of life. You can see clearly what’s out of alignment and needs adjustment without surrendering your wry, amused tolerance. This double capacity will be especially useful to you in the coming days. You may not find many allies who share this aptitude, though, so you should lean on your own instincts and heed the following suggestions: Be joyfully defiant. Be a generous agitator and an open-hearted critic. Blessings will find their way to you as you subvert the stale status quo with creativity and kindness.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Your persistence and endurance are among your greatest gifts to the world. You’re committed to building useful structures that outlast transitory moods and trends. On behalf of all the other signs, I say THANK YOU!, dear Capricorn. You understand that real power comes from showing up consistently and doing unglamorous work, refraining from the temptation to score quick and superficial victories. May you always recognize that your pragmatism is a form of loving faith. Your cautionary care is rooted in generosity. Now here’s my plea: More than ever before, the rest of us need you to express these talents with full vigor.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): One of your power symbols right now is the place where two tributaries blend into a single river. A second is where your favorite tree enters the earth. Here are other images to excite your imagination and stimulate your creativity: the boundary between cloud and sky; the darkness where your friend’s shadow overlaps yours; and the time between when the sun sets and night falls. To sum up, Aquarius, I hope you will access extra inspiration in liminal areas. Seek the vibrant revelations that arise where one mystery coalesces with another.
Beaver Pleaser
There’s something to be said for a story that keeps its scope small. Way too many movies have su ered stakes in ation to the point that the protagonists must save the world. And the longer a series goes, the bigger the stakes have to get. Doctor Who, which has been running on and o for 63 years, regularly has to save the entire universe just to feel something.
One of the biggest strengths of Hoppers, Pixar’s latest animated feature, is that director Daniel Chong and screenwriter Jesse Andrews realize that saving your neighborhood can be just as compelling as saving the world. at’s what Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda) is trying to do. e shady glade out back of her grandma’s home holds many memories for the volatile 19-year-old. But now grandma is dead, and Mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm) wants to route the Beaverton Beltway through the glade. Instead of concentrating on her university studies, Mabel sets out to stop
construction of the beltway by knocking on doors to get signatures for a petition. While doing her research, she nds that the state will not allow the construction to go forward if the glade is inhabited by animals. But what happened to the beavers, and the other charming wildlife Mabel watched with her grandmother?
Mabel baits the glade with food and wood in an attempt to lure the beavers back. But while she’s there, she sees something unbelievable. A beaver casually strolls up to the road and gets into a van. She follows the van back to her university, where the beaver walks on two legs into the laboratory of her biology professor, Dr. Fairfax (Kathy Najimy). It seems Dr. Fairfax and her team have developed robot animals which can be implanted with a human consciousness. While Dr. Fairfax is using the Hopper system (which, she assures us, is nothing like what they use in Avatar) to study animal behavior,
Mabel hijacks the beaver body. She intends to use it to save the glade by encouraging her “fellow” animals to repopulate it. But Mabel soon discovers that political organizing in the animal world is just as hard, if not harder, than it is in the world of humans. She runs afoul of King George (Bobby Moynihan), a beaver monarch who enforces Pond Rules.
Sure, the stakes of Hoppers does slowly increase to saving the town of Beaverton, but Chong keeps it light while delivering both wacky set pieces and character-building moments with equal aplomb. e animation, which is in what you could call the classic Pixar style, looks fantastic throughout. At 104
minutes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. e Pixar classics like Toy Story, Inside Out, and e Incredibles had layers that could be appreciated by grown-ups as well as children. I’m not sure that’s true of Hoppers. e lm’s moral, “Remember, we’re all in this together,” is an admirable sentiment, yet kinda slight. But Hoppers just wants to be a fun, non-toxic watch for kids, and it de nitely succeeds on its own terms.
Hoppers Now playing Multiple locations
PHOTO: COURTESY PIXAR Hoppers
Our critic picks the best films in theaters.
Project Hail Mary
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (SpiderMan: Into the Spider-Verse) return to live-action with this adaptation of the sci-fi novel by Andy Weir. Ryan Gosling stars as Dr. Ryland Grace, a biologist turned astronaut who awakens from hibernation on a long interstellar voyage only to find that all of his crewmates have died. He alone must complete the mission to save humanity — until he finds an ally in a weird alien creature he calls Rocky.
One Battle After Another Academy Award Best Picture winner returns for a victory lap. Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) are lovers and revolutionaries who free
migrant detainees with their group the French 75. When they have a child (Chase Infiniti), Bob decides to leave the lifestyle, while Perfidia keeps fighting. Sixteen years later, their arch enemy Col. Lockjaw (Best Supporting Actor winner Sean Penn) returns to find the fugitives. Best Director winner Paul Thomas Anderson also won Best Adapted Screenplay for this vision of a Thomas Pynchon novel. Showing exclusively at Malco’s Ridgeway, Collierville, and Stage Cinemas.
EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert
While Baz Luhrmann was making his 2022 Elvis biopic, he uncovered a trove of previously unseen concert footage in a salt mine in Kansas. He used it, along with an uncovered audio interview with Elvis, to create this documentary/concert film.
To
BUY, SELL, TRADE
Call Paul 901-734-6111.
PET SERVICES
YORKIE FEMALE PUPPIES FOR SALE
3 months old and available for $850 each. They have been to the vet and received their first shots. Call 731-307-5512 for more details.
AUTO
AUTO AUCTION
Wanda C’s Towing, 3614 Jackson Ave., Memphis, TN 38108, on Friday, March 20, 2026, at 2pm.
2018 Nissan Maxima
VIN 1N4AA6AP3JC378920
2005 BMW VIN 4USBT33595LS56632
2012 Dodge Charger
2C3CDXGJ1CH201306
AUTO AUCTION
THESE ABANDONED VEHICLES WILL BE SOLD ON 3/19/2026. Null’s Towing,
992 Stage Ave., Memphis, TN 38127.
2013 Nissan Altima
VIN: 1N4AL3AP4DN494838
2008 INFINITI G35
VIN:JNKBV61E98M201101
2011 Toyota Camry
VIN: 4T4BF3EK7BR161249
1998 Toyota Camry
VIN: 4T1BG22K5WU836639
2016 Nissan Murano
VIN: 5N1AZ2MG1GN117897
2009 Chevy Silverado
VIN:1gcek140X9Z258275
2000 Nissan Xterra
VIN:5n1ed28txyc571280
2019 Nissan Versa (Gray)
VIN: 3N1CN7AP1KL824634
ORDER OF PUBLICATION
In the CHANCERY COURT of Shelby County, Tennessee No. CH-23-1348
PRINCETON HEIGHTS, LLC & VOLUNTEER BUYERS, GP
Plaintiff(s) V.
JOYCE FASON, TONI LESTER, GEORGIA WALKER, HEIRS OF FRANCES F. WALKER, HEIRS OF GEORGE WALKER & ANY KNOWN AND UNKNOWN HEIRS
Defendant(s)
It appearing from the complaint in this cause which is sworn to that:
There are parties known and unknown and as prayed for in the Petition to Quiet Title filed on October 16, 2023, as to all previous owners of 5007 Wilburn Ave, Memphis, Tennessee 38117.
It is therefore ordered that they make themselves appearance herein at the court House of Shelby County, in the city of Memphis, Shelby County, TN on May 11, 2026 and answer plaintiffs complaint for Petition to Quiet Title or the same will be taken for confessed as to defendant(s), and set for hearing ex parte, and that a copy of this order be published once a week for four successive weeks in the Memphis Flyer.
This 9th day of March, 2026.
A True Copy - Attest:
W. Aaron Hall, Clerk & Master
By Jocelyn V. Henderson
Jocelyn V. Henderson
Attorney for Petitioner Mar. 19, 26 and Apr. 2, 9 2026
Poisoned by Choice
Funding private schools with public funds may encourage more options to choose — but at what cost?
On Tuesday, March 10, 2026, a Republican-led move to double the number of students in Tennessee’s school voucher program passed the General Assembly. As of this writing, another vote is scheduled for the Senate Education Committee.
at push to expand the voucher program comes just weeks a er Tennessee Governor Bill Lee chose not to apply for millions of dollars in federal summer food assistance, a move that some advocates estimate could a ect up to 700,000 children across Tennessee. e two instances of political maneuvering have little in common on the surface, except that they will both negatively impact children by reducing or refusing to grow public funds allotted for their feeding and education.
March 10th’s voucher vote is but another step on Tennessee’s road to fully defunding its education system and, in doing so, nally realizing the state’s longtime goal of becoming nationally synonymous with ignorance, a dream we’ve been threatening to achieve since the days of 1925’s Scopes “Monkey Trial.”
“If Republican lawmakers are successful, the change could direct $303 million in public dollars to private schools in the state next school year,” writes Melissa Brown for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Excellent! Private schools, which already have the revenue source of charging tuition, will siphon approximately $303 million away from public schools, which are generally acknowledged to be one of the, if not the most under-funded institutions in the country.
e move could direct $303 million in public dollars to private schools.
This is but another step on Tennessee’s road to fully defunding its education system.
Public education is being poisoned by choice. Parents, understandably, want to approve of what their children are taught, but that should not be done at the cost of the system available to all students. It is already bizarre and backward enough that a school’s funding should be tied to the ZIP codes of its students.
One is forced to wonder what the country would look like if all schools were funded equally and adequately, according to their needs rather than the means of students’ parents or guardians. On top of ensuring that all American citizens had access to a top-tier education in order to set them on the path to success, it would be an ideologically sound method, in that it would introduce all public school children to an instance in which the state cared for them and their classmates equitably. It would be a way for America to indoctrinate its youth into its stated values of strength through diversity, equity, and inclusion. As it is, most young Americans (and young Memphians in particular) are far more likely to see the punitive arm of the state long before its power has been used to shield them from harm.
It takes a village to rear a child, so the common wisdom goes, but the village has been fractured and commodi ed. Extended families live far away from each other, a necessity thanks to changing employment availability, but daycare can be paid for.
In our increasingly fractured time, public school is one of the last bastions of the idea of the commons, and it should be protected as long as there is a single student who stands to bene t from it. e idea of the common good is essential to the basic functioning of any community, and the hyper-individualized, tailored-to-your-order, privatized model we currently live under is perhaps part of the reason that the current culture seems so at odds with itself.
In the early seventeenth century, England and Wales began issuing Inclosure Acts, fencing o land previously held and cared for in common, and that was a step toward seeing our neighbors as a collection of individuals with whom we compete instead of, well, our neighbors. A community. To paraphrase American Gra ti’s John Milner, “Rock-and-roll’s been going downhill ever since they fenced in the commons.”
e point is that in the United States in 2026, we desperately need some common ground. Maybe the idea that all children should start o with an education that prepares them all for the future is a sensible starting point. Let’s halt the move to defund our education system, reverse this school voucher scheme, and make the Tennessee public school system the envy of the country. Jesse Davis is a former Flyer sta er; he writes a monthly Books feature for Memphis Magazine. His opinions, such as they are, think we should make our public schools one we’re proud to send our kids to instead of funding private schools with public funds.
