Tito Giuseppe (le ) and Caleb Armstrong (right)
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SHARA CLARK Editor-in-Chief
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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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PHOTO: STEVE ROBERTS
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THE fly-by
MEM ernet
Memphis on the internet.
e MEMernet remembered that 15 years ago, then-acting Memphis Mayor Myron Lowery st-bumped the Dalai Lama and said, “Hello, Dalai!”
TRUTH
POSTED TO FACEBOOK BY JAMES DUKES
James Dukes (IMAKEMADBEATS) spoke the truth last week a er threats shut down several Memphis-area schools.
“Sending our kids to school should not be like this,” Dukes said on Facebook.
DOUGHTY/DUCK DUNN
Memphis transplant Mike Doughty reunited with his band
Soul Coughing recently for a tour. He found a little Memphis backstage in California.
“ ank you to e Fillmore in [San Francisco] for providing Soul Coughing, as per the backstage rider, an original painting of Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn,” Doughty wrote on Facebook.
Questions, Answers + Attitude
Edited by Toby Sells
WEEK THAT WAS
By Flyer staff
River, Food Prices, & Social Media
Drought brings challenges, lawmakers question grocery gouging, and warning labels for kids.
RIVER DOWN (AGAIN)
For the third year in a row, extreme drought conditions in the Midwest are drawing down water levels on the Mississippi River, raising prices for companies that transport goods downstream and forcing governments and business owners to seek alternative solutions.
Extreme swings between drought and ooding have become more frequent in the region, scientists say, as climate change alters the planet’s weather patterns and inches the average global temperature continually upwards.
“Without question, it’s discouraging that we’re in year three of this. Because that is quite unique to have multiple years in a row of this,” said Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, a trade organization representing Midwest soy growers. “We’re obviously trending in the wrong direction.”
LEGAL LEADER CODY DIES
W.J. Michael “Mike” Cody, an in uential Memphian in the elds of law and politics, died last week at the age of 88.
Cody was well-known as a reformer, even before his rst tenure in local government as a city councilman from 1975 to 1977. He had been one of the local legal advisers to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and had helped King strike down a ban on a second march on behalf of striking sanitation workers, mere hours before the fateful assassination of the civil rights leader.
In the wake of that tragedy, Cody collaborated with the Rev. James Lawson in forming the organization that became Memphis Area Legal Services.
FOOD PRICE HIKES TO SLOW
e rate of food price increases is expected to slow in the remainder of 2024 through 2025 a er several turbulent years that have le some lawmakers working to ensure consumers have not been gouged.
Food prices leapt up by nearly 10 percent in 2022, the highest increase in food prices since 1979, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Some of this can be explained by a bird u outbreak, which a ected egg and poultry prices, and the war in Ukraine, which the feds say compounded
other economy-wide in ationary pressures like high energy costs. is trend slowed last year, with food prices rising by nearly 6 percent.
Two Nashville Democrats — Sen. Charlane Oliver and Rep. A yn Behn — urged Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to join a group of other states empowered by the USDA to root out potential price gouging and stop it. So far, Tennessee has not joined the group.
WARNING LABELS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Tennessee AG Skrmetti joined a bipartisan group last week to urge the U.S. surgeon general to put a warning label on social media platforms to protect young people’s mental health.
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy called for such labels in June with an op-ed piece in e New York Times In it, Murthy said, “ e mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor.” Risks of depression and anxiety are nearly doubled for adolescents who spend more than three hours per week on social media, Murthy said.
However, a 2021 study found that “placing graphic warning labels on U.S. cigarette packs did not have an e ect on smoking behavior.” Also, warning labels on CDs with “explicit lyrics” had some experts fearing their taboo would create a “forbidden fruit e ect,” though little (if any) data show the sticker’s real impact.
Inside Climate News contributed to this report.
Visit the News Blog at memphis yer.com for fuller versions of these stories and more local news
MIKE DOUGHY
PHOTO: PATRICK LANTRIP | DAILY MEMPHIAN VIA INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
Boats docked at the Riverside Park Marina south of Downtown Memphis are getting cut o from the Mississippi River, November 2, 2022.
Out of Love
{CITY REPORTER
By Kailynn Johnson
School Threats
Social media posts promised violence at schools, leading to lockdowns, scared students, and frustrated parents.
Social media threats made for a turbulent week at Memphis-Shelby County Schools last week, locking down many schools and leaving parents angry and frustrated.
reats surfaced last Wednesday morning targeting Southwind High School a er a Facebook user by the name of Joseph Braxton posted photos of screenshots from Instagram stories from a user by the name of @austinsmith9624. ese screenshots tagged Southwind High School with the user threatening to “take out 30 people or more with a sk and a ar15 [sic].” e user also posted they would be delivering their message at lunch time and that people would regret bullying them. “Anyone in my way may be dealt with outside or inside,” the user said in another post.
As law enforcement and Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) were investigating threats, the schools were placed on so lockdown per the Memphis Police Department (MPD). O cer Christopher Williams of MPD said no injuries had been reported at the time and instructed media to reach out to MSCS for additional information.
a.m. via phone call. A er the SCSO responded to Southwind, Feagins said the district became aware of more threats targeting several schools in the city, causing them to “activate lockdown measures” on all of their campuses.
She said they believed the rest of the threats were a result of reposting and resharing of the original posts.
“We take all threats seriously,” Feagins said. “MSCS o cers, FBI, Memphis Police Department, [and the] Shelby County Sheri ’s O ce are still actively investigating all of these threats.”
At the time of the press conference, Feagins said three individuals had been
detained and were questioned regarding threats made to Whitehaven High School. She added this was a separate incident from Southwind.
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“We are aware of a threat to several of our schools,” read a statement posted to MSCS’ social media pages. “As a precautionary measure, please do not go to your child’s school as law enforcement is actively investigating.”
However, many parents did go to schools to get their children. Several videos began to circulate on social media of groups of frustrated and concerned parents waiting outside of the school. A video posted by @livefromthakitchen901 shows parents gathered at the front of the school arguing with law enforcement as they entered the school.
O cials later released a follow-up statement saying they no longer saw an immediate threat, and that schools would continue with regular dismissal times. at night, MSCS superintendent Marie Feagins held a press conference joined by o cials from the MPD and the Shelby County Sheri ’s O ce (SCSO) to provide updates on the situation.
Feagins said her o ce received noti cations of the threats around 7:19
“As these are all separate incidents we have no reason to believe there is a direct threat at any other school at this time,” Feagins said. “However, law enforcement is still actively investigating all information as it is reported.”
Feagins said she understood the concern from parents and guardians, but she reminded them of the importance of following safety protocols.
“School, even in this incident, is still the safest place for our students,” she said. “Please do not visit campus to check out your students. It’s important that we keep all lines of communication open. at includes our phones as well as social media and any other method of communication possible.” e superintendent also urged parents not to reshare social media posts.
Feagins took to her own social media last ursday to address parental concerns regarding communication and how parents were noti ed during the threats. As of that day, she said they had made ve arrests across the district to ensure that these individuals understand they are taking both the threats and consequences seriously.
PHOTO: MEMPHIS SHELBY COUNTY SCHOOLS School and law enforcement o cials speak at a news conference on the situation.
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POLITICS By Jackson Baker
Dissension Among Dems
Leadership is at issue at both state and local levels.
It may be the proverbial tempest in the teapot, but the quarrels among Democrats, both local and statewide, continue to boil over.
e Shelby County Democratic Party (SCDP) may or may not have fully recognized o cial leadership as a result of contradictory recent actions taken by state chairman Hendrell Remus and the local party executive committee.
Remus started the turmoil by a surprise announcement, weekend before last, that he was removing local party chair Lexie Carter from her position as head of the SCDP. is was in the immediate wake of the local party’s annual Kennedy Day banquet, which drew a sizeable crowd of attendees and, according to Carter, raised $40,000 for party co ers.
Remus said the basis of his action was Carter’s failure to prepare an acceptable plan for the November election in response to his request for one in a questionnaire sent to Carter. As needy but overlooked Democrat campaigns, he mentioned specifically that of District 98 state representative candidate Jesse Huseth, who opposes Republican incumbent John Gillespie, and that of Gloria Johnson of Knoxville against GOP U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn.
But, according to Carter, the state chair’s action was more likely due to a series of con icts that occurred between Remus and herself and others at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
In any case, Remus’ action has not gone unchallenged. Both his decision and the authority to take it have been challenged, locally and at the state level.
Speaking for himself and what he said was a sizeable portion of the state Democratic committee’s membership, Erick Huth of Shelbyville, until recently a member of that committee from state District 14, said the party’s bylaws did not permit Remus to remove a local chairman without expressly granted permission from the state body.
Remus had said he vetted in advance his removal of Carter with several West Tennessee vice chairs of the state party, but, said Huth, such a claimed consultation, even if accurate, would not have authorized Remus’ removal action.
Huth, who in August lost an elec-
tion to retain his state committee seat, said that fact enabled him to speak more freely about party matters, including what he said was Remus’ high-handed and ine ective conduct of his chairmanship.
“ e state committee is badly divided, and that’s largely due to Hendrell,” he said.
An active state committeeman from Nashville, who chose not to be identied, con rmed Huth’s analysis of things.
For the record, Hendrell Remus has opted not to be a candidate for reelection as chair in state committee elections scheduled for January. According to various sources, Remus intends to return to Memphis, his former home base, in order to scout a possible future run for an elective position.
Meanwhile, the executive committee of the local SCDP met late last week in Whitehaven and, in a highly argumentative session, engaged in disagreements among themselves as well as with state chair Remus about the whole brewing matter.
e local committee declined in its turn to accept Remus’ changes, which included the naming of four proposed temporary co-chairs for the SCDP.
ese were former state Representative Dwayne ompson, Memphis City Council Chair JB Smiley Jr., Shelby County Commission Chair Miska Clay Bibbs, and veteran party gure Danielle Inez. e proposed new co-chairs were invited to speak their piece on ideas for the party and the fall election, but their status as party leaders was not con rmed.
Instead, in the absence of both Lexie Carter and Hendrell Remus from the meeting, the local committee named as acting SCDP chair Will Simon, who is a current state party vice chair.
None of these changes, by the state chair or the SCDP committee, would seem to be anything but ad hoc expedients, as the situation simmers on.
New SCDP elections are scheduled for December.
CHRISTOS GEORGHIOU
THE LAKE
LARGE By Bruce VanWyngarden
The Big Bamboozle
Arti cial intelligence is arti cial life.
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in nding out the truth. e bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge that we’ve been taken.”
at birth reunite, mistaken identities lead to madcap mayhem. Performed by the Tennessee Shakespeare Company,
at’s a quote from Carl Sagan in his invaluable book e Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark Written in 1997, on the cusp of our digital age, Sagan’s insights have proven astonishingly accurate. More than 25 years ago, he warned against the dumbing down of humans that would arise as we began consuming knowledge in pieces — in bits and sound bites. Sagan warned that we would soon be consuming “lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, and especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”
Sound familiar? ink of the wave of “experts” that has arisen among us lately, folks who have “done their own research” on politics, science, climate change, vaccines, you name it. It reminds me of a recent New Yorker cartoon, wherein a man turns from his computer screen to his wife and says, “Honey, come look! I’ve found some information that all the world’s top scientists and doctors missed.”
What Sagan didn’t predict, at least not to my knowledge, was the onset of arti cial intelligence, those voracious search engines run by giant tech companies that feed on every morsel of online information and regurgitate it to be used in art, literature, and research.
It’s garbage that creates garbage. If there’s a mistake in a piece of content, it gets indiscriminately picked up and ampli ed as a fact, and re-ampli ed with each ensuing search. It’s called AI “slop,” which is a perfect term for it.
I’ve written about this before, but when you search my name on Meta AI, it says I was the lead singer of a band called Gun Club. at is only “true” in the sense it is now reported as a fact about my life in some online searches. I’m stuck with it.
is sort of mistake happens millions of times a day, as AI scours and plagiarizes the web, doing noncoherent “research,” creating content that ends up in term papers, on social media, and in the news. ese false results can eventually skew and dilute even formerly reliable sources, such as Google.
e problem worsens when it comes to imagery. AI can produce a “photo-
graph” of anyone doing anything — a picture of Bruce Springsteen jumping the Grand Canyon in an Evel Knievel suit? No problem. A picture of Kamala Harris in a Chinese Army uniform? Piece of cake. Elon Musk even posted one of those to his millions of followers. It’s not art. It’s a screensaver, an avatar, propaganda. It’s disposable visual slop. We’re being dumbed down whether we like it (or know it) or not.
To make things worse, AI uses massive amounts of electricity, as does cryptocurrency “mining.” (I’m still waiting for someone to explain how bitcoin works as anything other than an unregulated Ponzi scheme along the lines of Beanie Babies or baseball cards.) Here’s a clue: If Trump is selling it (and he is), it’s a scam, designed to remove your actual money from your actual bank account.
Memphis is now the home to “Colossus,” the largest supercomputer on Earth. It’s Musk’s xAI operation, which is bringing tens of jobs to our community while taxing the power grid and running unregulated, polluting gas turbines 24 hours a day. You want more details about the deal? Good luck.
Memphis is also getting a new crypto-mining facility that will bring a couple of night watchman jobs to a big eld in Hickory Hill lled with rows of “container buildings” surrounded by an 8-foot-high chain-link fence. It will eat up power at a prodigious rate, but MLGW o cials are mum about it. Maybe if we put AI on the case, we’ll get some answers.
I know I’m nearing “old man yells at cloud” territory, but since I have to remind myself to do the following, I’ll remind you as well: Take time each day to remove yourself from arti cial life. Read a book. Take a walk. Listen to music. Move! Life is short and love is more than a heart emoji on somebody’s vacation photo. Don’t let yourself be bamboozled.
PHOTO: NASA/JPL
Carl Sagan
Estate Planning Myths
Common estate planning misconceptions that can put your loved ones at risk.
Combine planning for your eventual demise with engaging in a complex legal and financial planning process, and it’s no wonder why many people shy away from estate planning. Misconceptions surrounding the estate planning process can make it seem even more daunting.
However, estate planning is essential to ensure your loved ones’ long-term financial security. Stay informed about various strategies and the role they play in protecting your heirs.
Myth #1 — Estate planning is for the wealthy.
Many people think that if their assets are less than the lifetime estate tax exemption amount ($13.61 million per individual or $27.22 million per married couple in 2024), they don’t need to worry about estate planning.
Fact: Everyone over the age of 18 should engage in estate planning, regardless of assets. While a wellexecuted estate plan can help lower estate tax liabilities, it also provides the following benefits:
• Helping ensure healthcare decisions are carried out according to your wishes
• Authorizing a trusted individual to manage your finances should you become unable to do so
• Providing financial security for your loved ones should you pass away unexpectedly
• Naming a guardian for minor children
• Helping ensure minor children who inherit assets have a structured plan to make sure they’re financially mature enough to receive and use assets
Note that, unless Congress makes a change, the current lifetime estate tax exemption amount will revert to approximately $5 million per individual ($10 million per married couple) on January 1, 2026. That means many more families will be subject to estate tax going forward.
Myth #2 — Estate planning is for the elderly.
Fact: Estate planning should begin at age 18, when an individual becomes legally recognized as an adult.
If you experience an accident or injury at any age and don’t have the necessary estate planning documents in place, your family members may be unable to obtain medical information, visit you in the hospital, or help manage your finances.
All adults should have: a HIPAA waiver, healthcare power of attorney, living will/advanced medical directive, financial power of attorney, and a basic will. A trust may also be advisable.
Myth #3 — Estate planning is expensive.
Fact: Complex estate planning strategies can add up, but the expense is typically well worth the stress and tax liabilities your family would face without an estate plan.
In certain situations, the cost tends to be relatively low. Some simple documents are even available online for a low fee. Be sure to check in with your wealth manager to ensure your estate planning documents are in line with your overall financial plan.
Myth #4 — If I have a will, then my assets will avoid probate.
Fact: A will is a great first step in developing your estate plan but a will alone doesn’t protect your loved ones from the probate process. Probate is the only way an executor designated in your will can take action. Probate proceedings are a matter of public record, which means anyone can find out who’s inheriting your assets and how much they stand to receive.
Myth #5 — My assets will automatically pass to my heirs without an estate plan in place.
Fact: If you die without a will or trust, intestacy rules will dictate who handles your financial affairs and who receives your assets. These aren’t necessarily the people you would have chosen. Also, there are significant time, expense, and administrative requirements associated with dying intestate.
Myth #6 — I created a will years ago, so I’m all set.
Fact: Estate planning should be an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Your life, family, and goals are constantly evolving, and your estate plan needs to keep up with your changing needs. Gene Gard, CFA, CFP, CFT-I, is a Partner and Private Wealth Manager with Creative Planning. Creative Planning is one of the nation’s largest Registered Investment Advisory firms providing comprehensive wealth management services to ensure all elements of a client’s financial life are working together, including investments, taxes, estate planning, and risk management. For more information or to request a free, no-obligation consultation, visit CreativePlanning.com.
COVER STORY By Kailynn Johnson
PHOTOS By Ziggy Mack
Cheri Lie Maid icks her fan and struts during her judge’s introduction.
Ballroom Rebirth
OMemphis’ fiercest voguers aim to revive a scene that long precedes them.
n a late-June night, Caleb Armstrong stood in front of an intimate crowd at Black Lodge. It was among the venue’s nal events before closing last month, which made this night — and the images captured — all the more special. Armstrong was readying to emcee an event he held close to his heart.
Donning a chic all-black ensemble and a pair of stiletto boots — playing with both masculine and feminine undertones — he grabbed the mic. e audience looked on, excited to be a part of the birth, or rebirth, of ballroom here in Memphis. Some posed and vogued in their seats. Out ts enhanced the ambiance — with people dressed in one-of-a-kind pieces that t the night’s various performance categories.
Like a quiet storm, one participant commanded the room in a smart black suit and a hat ornately decorated with small crystals. As they icked their fan, they had both the accessory and the audience in the palm of their hand. A sultry vixen would dramatically ditch her trench coat, leaving little to the imagination as she faced a shirtless competitor in the “sex siren” category. Rounds later, a woman sported what could be described as “model basics” — a simple black top and relaxed jeans. She would later reveal her secret weapon— a face card that scored 10s
in the “face” category. Others wore ts ranging from streetwear to full-on drag. Regardless of garb, this would be a night to remember — with the promise of more to come.
A New Era
“Ballroom is back!” Armstrong exclaimed from stage, pulling power from his high heels. e 28-year-old tness instructor and longtime ballroom a cionado was seeing the end product of a long-sought dream and a muchanticipated revival.
is was one of those pinch-me moments for Armstrong. And he’s experienced those more frequently in the past few years. (Read on to hear about his brush with Beyoncé.)
is night was about ballroom, which may not be what you associate with “ballroom,” and doesn’t involve celebrities competing to revive their careers. Still largely underground, ballroom can be thought of as the ultimate face-o , with the collateral being pride, ferocity, and the ability to “serve.”
Participants come dressed in their best representation of the competition’s categories, mixed with the theme of the function. In a “sneaker vs. sneaker” face-o , one may choose to break out a sought-a er pair of Jordans to go headto-head with Comme des Garçons Converse, with the de ning element
being how the contestant sells the look to the audience and judges. ose in the “body” category may rely solely on their weekend Pilates classes and physiques to ex their goodies.
Out ts and presentation are only part of what the judges score. To receive 10s across the board, the contestant must command the room — marking every corner with their uniqueness and erceness — thus garnering snaps, fan icks, and audience applause.
If the judges like what they see, they’ll use their hands to display all 10 ngers to signify a vote of con dence. ose who compete in a category either receive “10s across the board” or are “chopped.”
Historian Tito Giuseppe’s presence at Black Lodge that summer night was notable. With his wealth of knowledge and experience, some might say he is ballroom history. He’s also the founder of the House of Giuseppe (more on “houses” later).
“Shout out to Black Lodge! Can we give it up for Black Lodge, y’all?” Giuseppe said as he joined Armstrong on stage and took the mic. “You all right now are a part of ballroom history. You people here tonight are really a part of an evolving culture that has been around for 53 years — and it’s making a resurgence here in your backyard.”
It was a night that was years in the
making, one that encapsulated lifelong passions, a history spanning decades, and the desire to revive a sacred space for community in Memphis. Giuseppe called the night — the rst ballroom event in Memphis in a long time — “groundbreaking,” and those who were lucky enough to witness it would agree.
Lessons in Serving
Giuseppe, who grew up in the North but now lives in Memphis, dates his entry into ballroom back to 1989 when he was a student at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Back then, there wasn’t representation of ballroom on TV or in the media. He says when he coaches and talks to the new guard, he wants them to understand the foundation upon which they’re building. While he believes there are upsides to increased exposure in popular media — including the iconic documentary Paris Is Burning, Ryan Murphy’s Pose, the ballroom competition show Legendary, and Beyoncé’s album Renaissance — understanding the culture’s origins before such exposure is crucial to its longevity and respect.
“Everything still stems back from 1971, when they started,” Giuseppe says. “[ ings like] how you’re being judged, 10s and a chop [which essen-
tially denotes a win and a loss] — those things stem from 53 years ago in its inception.”
As someone who lived in the movement during its golden era, Giuseppe today considers himself both a mentor and educator in the South, encompassing Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Mississippi. He says he is o en approached by di erent houses in these areas to help cultivate and grow the culture.
“ is is a teaching moment because we want you to understand. We don’t want you to say, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve seen this on YouTube and now I get to see it in person,’” Giuseppe told the audience. “No. I want you to walk away with a knowledge of what this is. Not only do you educate yourself, but you get to talk about it with your girlfriends.”
Giuseppe says ballroom is known to have started in 1971 by Crystal LaBeija and Pepper LaBeija as a way to rebel against the prejudiced practices in drag pageants. e two African-American people of trans experience would enter events similar to drag pageants (also known as drag balls). While the LaBeijas were “really, really good,” they would never nd themselves past rst-runner up in a mostly Caucasiandominated culture.
e LaBeijas’ original ballroom functions aimed to address the inequities in the drag space in that era, and, over time, Giuseppe says, they evolved. Today, people of all races, cisgender folks, and heterosexual women have dominated in the performance categories.
“It’s an underground culture that allows those of us who are participants in the culture to compete in di erent categories like ‘face,’ ‘realness,’ ‘runway,’ ‘body,’” Giuseppe says. “ ink of it as the Olympics, so to speak.”
And “houses” are an integral part of ballroom culture. ey serve as teams for participants — who aim to bring honor to said teams with trophy wins.
ey’re also considered chosen family. e houses are o en named a er luxury designers and fashion brands, such as Hervé Léger, ierry Mugler, or Balenciaga, Giuseppe says, and “the house itself operates under a name, and those members are all considered ‘house members,’ but they operate like a family.”
e founders of these houses are considered founding mothers and fathers. Giuseppe, for example, is the founding father of the House of Giuseppe. ere are then a set of “overall parents,” who, although they did not start the house, operate them on a “dayto-day basis from a wide standpoint,” he says.
“All of the chapters from the various cities, states, and countries answer to those two overall parents,” he says. “ en you have state parents, like a Texas mother and father, a Tennessee mother and father, and then it breaks down into cities. … ey compete in those regions as the house itself.”
e idea of a chosen family is appealing to many, which is why people like Armstrong turn to ballroom for a sense of community. A er coming out publicly “ ve or six years ago,” he sought to gure out his identity beyond sexuality. And that’s precisely how he “stumbled into the ballroom world.”
“I really admire the framework of the chosen family relationships that ballroom is founded on,” Armstrong says. “I think that’s kind of the heart of ballroom. I really spent years looking for genuine friends, and cultivating those friendships and relationships.”
A Revival With Purpose
e summer ball at Black Lodge was the brainchild of Armstrong and his closest friends — with the help of Giuseppe. During the event, one of those friends, Octavia Jones, commonly referred to as DJ Space Age, or Space Age, kept the runway booming and the vibes copacetic. In June of 2022 Jones launched Queer Memphis, an organization dedicated to curating networking and social events in hopes of creating more spaces and events for the local queer community. In her 15 years as a DJ, Jones has been able to see “what isn’t happening and things people wanted to see.”
Jones has attended ballroom events, but they’re “few and far between” in the city, happening once or twice a year, she says. Recognizing that dearth evolved into collaborating with Armstrong and others to put on their rst ballroom event this June, with the hope of establishing consistency.
“I haven’t seen anything that’s been consistent, I think, ever in the city of Memphis,” Jones says. “I know myself and especially Caleb have attended balls outside of Memphis, in New York, Nashville, and Atlanta. We kind of ended up talking about just pressing the reset button and activating something in Memphis.”
e culture and history are the major draws for Jones, who feels ballroom serves as a way for the LGBTQ community to take a multifaceted approach to self-expression. And she wanted to have a hand in giving people more outlets to express themselves beyond the local drag scene, producing events such as the one at Black Lodge.
Cheri Lie Maid, a Memphis drag performer and ballroom enthusiast, served as one of three judges at the event, alongside Mariah Da’Goat Kelly and Juan Martinez. Cheri says their a nity for makeup and LGBTQ culture led them to discovering ballroom, which served as an entry point into drag.
“I came across ballroom on YouTube and the rst thing I was watching was a butch queen up in drag — a man who is in makeup, or in hair and heels, performing ballroom voguing but in a di erent element, basically,” Cheri says, “which means it’s feminine and not like old-wave or new-wave.”
ere are some drag elements in ballroom, as it was birthed from that art form, Cheri says. But there are also elements of ballroom in drag. And while ballroom was Cheri’s rst love, drag serves as a way for them to marry that interest with a love of makeup.
“Ballroom is very much a masculine eld and a feminine eld,” Cheri says. “We understand that those two are very humanly categorized, so we tend to think those are the only two categories we can go through, that it’s either/or. Some people like to play with both.” is is part of what Cheri appreciates about ballroom though — it’s made to encompass and welcome as many queer people as possible.
“ at’s what it means to be a part of the LGBTQ community,” Cheri says, “because you know what you are and you know what you present, but it’s better for you to be among your people who want to bring you up and see you as a better person.”
Armstrong echoes these sentiments, as he drew inspiration from the iconic OTA (open to all) Balls in New York.
continued on page 14
He wanted to incorporate these themes not only into his events but also into the community he hoped to create out of them. He knew ballroom had more to give than just an experience.
“When I was looking for friends, I was looking for friends who had that special light but needed a platform to showcase that,” Armstrong says. “A lot of my friends are drag queens. We are in the club bucking it, twirling it every weekend, giving a look — being those girls. I think a piece of that goes back to representation and visibility. I try to be the person I wanted my inner child to see growing up.”
This Is What I Wanna See
For Armstrong, things have come full circle. He remembers watching a “nasty” Vogue Femme Final ballroom battle between Lasseindra and Ida “Inxi” Holmlund on YouTube in 2015 and being captivated by the subculture for the rst time. Fast-forward to being featured in a project praised for its contributions to both pop culture and queer iconography.
In one of the biggest exes of the 21st century, Armstrong was able to add the
credit “Featured in Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé” to his Instagram bio.
“My friends will tell you they are sick of me,” Armstrong says with a laugh. “I’ll be like, ‘Do y’all know that Beyoncé knows me?’ I’ve loved her for so long, and to be featured and recognized by not only Beyoncé but that project speci cally holds such a special place in my heart. Renaissance obviously did something for the Black queer culture that can’t be undone, and it represents us so well.”
at project was the 2023 musical documentary that was the culmination of Beyoncé’s summer tour celebrating her seventh studio album, a blend of Black dance music, disco, and house, with samples from Donna Summer, Teena Marie, Moi Renee, Big Freedia, and more.
Armstrong remembers getting into Club Renaissance and being thrust into a full-on vogue-o prior to Beyoncé taking the stage. Not only did his infectious energy catch the attention of Beyoncé’s team, his bold, fringed, silver two-piece out t in the tour’s TV-test screen set (ingeniously modeled a er the Progress Pride ag) truly de ned being “the visual.”
“For her to see me, that was my most joyous, my most authentic [self]. … I was feeling opulent, I was feeling ova [high], I was feeling the fantasy,” Armstrong says. “For me to be my complete, extra, over-abundant self and for her to
see me and amplify it even more … it was the biggest love letter.”
Representation is an important part of an individual’s path to authenticity, and, like many things in queer culture, it is not monolithic. While people are familiar with some of what Memphis LGBTQ life has to o er, they’ve
only gotten a taste. In the absence of consistent ballroom culture here, many travel to other cities. Giuseppe encourages people to experience it. Cheri does too, and believes no one should have to travel for it, as it has the ability to touch and change lives — like it did theirs. is ballroom revival gives Memphis a chance to be a part of history while adding the city’s own signature. Cheri, Jones, and Armstrong have seen the way culture builds on top of itself, through people like Giuseppe, and through visiting places where the scene originated. ey’re respecting tradition while building on that foundation. eir dreams are as big as the groundwork laid before them, and they know the legacy they’re stepping into.
“We have our own style, our own culture here,” Armstrong says. “Why don’t we cultivate that? Let’s put Memphis on the map. I feel like Memphis, no shade, we’re a Southern city, so we’re very ‘banjee’ [have swagger]. We’re very gritty, very raw. … Once we continue with the balls, our style will create its own signature and [people will be able to] say, ‘Oh, that’s a Memphis girl. … Oh, we see Memphis is in the house, we see how she’s bucking it.”
Ready for more Memphis ballroom? Prepare to mash at Atomic Rose’s Monster Ball on October 25th. Visit @QueerMemphis on Instagram for updates.
Mariah Da’Goat Kelly performs before sitting at the judge’s table.
THE PARTY
We came. We saw. We partied. at’s right: Last Wednesday, the Flyer held its annual Best of Memphis party at Railgarten, welcoming friends, family, and plenty of BOM winners to celebrate with us. Partygoers enjoyed cocktails and beer, feasted upon sliders and nachos, and danced to live music from Salo Pallini. Some even got to meet the one and only Michael Donahue.
We thank all of our readers who nominated and voted this year, and give our congratulations to the 2024 BOM winners. Special thanks go to our sponsors for the evening: 1776 Men’s Grooming Parlor; Orion Federal Credit Union; Memphis Light, Gas and Water; Choate’s Air Conditioning, Heating And Plumbing; and Southland Casino Hotel. Now, please go on and enjoy our photographs from the evening, and never let the party die!
PHOTOS BY STEVE ROBERTS
steppin’ out
We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews
Coffee, Coffee, Coffee
By Abigail Morici
“Co ee’s a $465 billion industry, and it’s the most traded good for third-world countries a er oil and is the most drunk liquid on the planet a er water,” says Bartholomew Jones, co-owner of the co ee company Cx eeblack. “Amidst all of those things, the people who discovered co ee, which are people in Africa, receive less than 1 percent of that revenue.”
Seeing this gap, Jones and his co-owner and wife Renata Henderson wanted to go back to the “root.” “We believe that if we honor the root of the co ee, that’s how we solve the problem surrounding preserving the fruit of co ee,” says Jones. “We learned about the history of co ee that was very di erent than our experience with co ee growing up and what we had been told about it. And so there was this opportunity for co ee to be this thing that builds communities together, not just for productivity, but rather as a tool to become more connected and curious as people. … Co ee was supposed to be a seed of peace, and it was meant to establish peace, and so that was something that we’re really inspired by and felt like it was a di erent perspective on co ee that I think a lot of people need to know.”
CHRIS PORTER
In 2023, Cx eeblack embarked the Cx eeblack Barista Exchange Program, which brought four African-American aspiring “co ee nerds” on a two-week origin trip to Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Kenya to learn about pre-colonial Black co ee culture. Now it’s in phase two of the program, which means bringing four African baristas to the States to share about their respective co ee cultures. e baristas are Beamlak Melesse Bekele (Ethiopian), Elise Dushimimana (Rwandan), Smayah Uwajeneza (Rwandan), and Mario Alberto (Afro-Colombian).
“We get to welcome our brothers and sisters from across the seas, to come and commune with us and learn our history,” says Henderson. “We were separated at origin, so we call it a family reunion. We get to be reunited with our brothers and sisters that we were taken from, and so it’s a really impactful process, just because we’re able to learn history and skills and the rest, but it’s healing in a di erent way.”
is phase of the exchange program includes brew ups and collaborative co ee conversations in Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, and Raleigh-Durham. is week, Memphis can look forward to a screening of Part 1 of the Cx eeblack docuseries “Cx ee Makes You Black,” a co ee brewing demonstration, and Q&A about the indigenous history and science of co ee at the Museum of Science & History on ursday. ( e docuseries will continue with this phase of the exchange program.) en, on Saturday, Jones will deliver a TED Talk called “Could You Change the World by Drinking Your Co ee Black?”
BARISTA CULTURAL EXCHANGE, MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND HISTORY, 3050 CENTRAL AVE., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 6 P.M., $12.75. “COULD YOU CHANGE THE WORLD BY DRINKING YOUR COFFEE BLACK?”, TEDXMEMPHIS, MEMPHIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL - HYDE CHAPEL, 6191 PARK AVENUE, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 9 A.M.-4 P.M., $55-$100.
VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES September 26th - October 2nd
Pink Palace Cra s Fair
Audubon Park, 601-701 Perkins Extd., Friday-Sunday, September 27-29 e Pink Palace Cra s Fair is a three-day family-oriented celebration of the arts held in a beautiful park setting in the heart of East Memphis the last weekend in September. Attracting artists from across the country, it is the largest juried arts and cra s fair in the Mid-South, the largest fundraising event for the Museum of Science & History, and one of the largest volunteer-run events in Memphis. ere is free parking, including a shuttle carrying shoppers to and from the fair entrance.
Brewology Tour
Hampline Brewing Company, 584 Tillman St., Saturday, September 28, 3-5 p.m., free
Celebrate National Drink Beer
Day with a special Brewology Tour for a fun educational journey through the world of Hampline craft beer. Beertenders and brewers will take you behind the scenes at Hampline, where you’ll learn about the brewing process and sample some fan-favorite beers. Tickets are free, just sign up for the 3 p.m. time slot or the 4 p.m. time slot at the links below and show up.
3 p.m.: tinyurl.com/3a49ct5k 4 p.m.: tinyurl.com/mv5jsdkc
PodBox Memphis Podcast Festival
Beale Street Landing, 251 Riverside Dr., Friday, September 27, 6-9 p.m. | Cossitt Library, 33 S. Front St., Saturday, September 28, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. The PodBox Memphis Podcast Festival provides a unique platform for creators, industry experts, and audiences to con-
nect, collaborate, and celebrate the growing world of podcasting.
The first day of the festival is a media mixer at Beale Street Landing to merge new media professionals (podcasters, social media influencers and content creators) with traditional media made up of radio, television, and print media. Mayor Paul Young and local media personalities will lead a fireside chat about society and culture.
Saturday’s day-long program at Cossitt Library features interactive breakout sessions, panel discussions and expert talks, highlighting the top three industry genres: sports, comedy, and true crime. A podcast pitch competition is open for aspiring podcasters to pitch program ideas and receive professional feedback from a panel of judges.
PHOTO: BARTHOLOMEW JONES
Mario Alberto shares his co ee knowledge.
PREVENT OPIOID OVERDOSE CARRY NARCAN
Qualifying Agencies are:
•Health Organizations
•Treatment Centers
•Churches
•Schools
•Local Businesses
•Non Profits
•Restaurants/Bars/Clubs
•Hotels etc... memphisprevention.org
MUSIC By Alex Greene
The Equals Endure!
Derv Gordon, singer for the legendary U.K. group, tops Gonerfest’s opening night.
hile Gonerfest is known for bringing cutting-edge bands to Memphis, one can’t forget the keen sense of history that also informs their bookings. is week’s Gonerfest 21 is a good reminder of that, with the opening night’s headliner being Oakland’s So What fronted by Derv Gordon, the original lead singer of e Equals, a band founded in 1965. ey could have hit it big in America like so many during the British Invasion, had they ever bothered to invade. But, being one of the rst multiracial beat combos ever, they had mixed feelings about that.
“We didn’t want to tour the U.S. because we wouldn’t have been able to cope with this ‘no Blacks’ business and not being able to stay in certain hotels or whatever,” Gordon recalls today, speaking from his home in England. “Still, ‘Baby, Come Back’ made the Top 40.” But with no U.S. touring, they never made it big here. ough e Equals’ blend of freakbeat, soul, ska, and bubblegum rock was plenty cutting-edge (and plenty infectious) at the time, having a group with both Black and white players pushed the envelope even further. Booker T. and the MG’s may have been the only such small combo to precede them. But e Equals were more of a rock band, paving the way for later groups like e Foundations, e Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Love. And while they did nd greater success in Europe and Asia, race still factored into everyday London life. Harassment by the cops was a regular feature of life for Black Londoners, and that in turn led to the creation of one of e Equals’ most enduring songs, “Police on My Back.”
Humor aside, the incident was a wake-up call for them. Soon Eddy Grant, e Equals’ lead guitarist and main songwriter (who later gained worldwide fame with his solo hit, “Electric Avenue”), would pen arguably the best song about being on the lam, later made famous via a cover version by e Clash, with its heartfelt cry, “What have I done?” e band had other politically charged songs, including 1970’s anti-war “Black Skin Blue-Eyed Boys,” but their primary focus was on fun and groove, with charging rock ri s paired with infectious beats and Gordon’s ery, soulful vocals, o en portraying whimsical characters: “Soul Brother Cli ord,” “Michael and His Slipper Tree,” “Viva Bobby Joe.” And while their sound got heavier
“I le the guys at rehearsal and went to a main railway station to get some cans of drinks,” Gordon recalls, “and as I walked into the station, two huge men, one on each side, picked me up, li ed me o the oor, and said, ‘You’re nicked.’ I said, ‘I’m what? Why am I nicked?’ ey just said, ‘You’ll nd out,’ and they took me across the street to the police station. I was there for what seemed like forever. I gave them all my information, then said, ‘Excuse me, can you tell me why this is happening to me?’ A policeman says, ‘You resemble someone who murdered his girlfriend.’”
Gordon cleared things up only a er requesting that his band be brought in to vouch for him. As they entered, “I could see them coming in with big grins on their face,” Gordon recalls. “Bastards!”
and funkier by the late ’60s and ’70s, e Equals always kept things short and sweet. “I don’t think Eddy enjoyed doing long guitar solos,” quips Gordon now. at makes e Equals’ music perfectly suited to the D.I.Y., short-andsharp vibe of so many Gonerfest bands. And that’s an aesthetic shared by retrostomp rockers So What, with whom Gordon rst played in 2017, including an incendiary performance at Gonerfest 14 that year. Gordon feels they’re the perfect group to play Equals songs: true to that original stripped-down spirit, but with their own self-described “junkshop glam/bubblegum/proto-punk insanity.” Gordon notes that So What’s bassist, Sean M. Lennon (not the son of a Beatle), “is the only bass player I’ve ever heard actually do all the bass runs in ‘Police on My Back.’ And Jason [Duncan, singer and guitarist] actually knows more about Equals songs than I do!”
Gonerfest 21 runs from ursday, Sept. 26th, through Sunday, Sept. 29th, at Railgarten, featuring dozens of bands. Visit goner-records.com for more information. So What takes the stage at 9:30 p.m. on ursday, and Derv Gordon joins them at 10 p.m.
PHOTO: LILY CHOU Derv Gordon with So What
CALENDAR of EVENTS: September 26 - October 2
Send the date, time, place, cost, info, phone number, a brief description, and photos — two weeks in advance — to calendar@memphisflyer.com.
DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS, ONGOING WEEKLY EVENTS WILL APPEAR IN THE FLYER’S ONLINE CALENDAR ONLY. FOR COMPREHENSIVE EVENT LISTINGS, VISIT EVENTS. MEMPHISFLYER.COM/CAL.
ART AND SPECIAL EXHIBITS
Master Metalsmith Preston Jackson: “A Hidden Culture” Honoring the Metal Museum’s 38th Master Metalsmith, this exhibition “reveals history that has been buried, forgotten, or deemed unimportant by society.” Wednesday, Oct. 2-Jan. 26.
METAL MUSEUM
“Meeting Room:” The 6 Points Artists
Featuring six artists — Sharon Havelka, Mary Jo Karimnia, Paula Kovarik, Carrol McTyre, Jennifer Sargent, Mary K. VanGieson — at the Bornblum Library. Thursday, Sept. 26-Nov. 27.
SOUTHWEST TENNESSEE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Rivertown Arts Group Show
Women artists from all backgrounds. All art sales benefit both the artists and the theater. Through Oct. 11.
GERMANTOWN COMMUNITY THEATRE
ART HAPPENINGS
“Dear Grandmother:” A Heather Howle Exhibition Opening Reception Howle explores themes of nostalgia and familial connection while inviting viewers to reflect on their own personal histories. Friday, Sept. 27, 5-7 p.m.
ANF ARCHITECTS
Crossword
Subjects in paleoclimatology
Cell, in Britain
Lose at a gaming table
Overly dry, perhaps
Boxer who retired in 2017
Huge transfer from one computer system to another
Midcentury year
Popular U.K.
Trip guide
Outback predator
Like shellfish
Vatican money,
Best effort
Gallery Evenings at The Memphian Artist Hillary Butler is featured in the lobby of The Memphian. Sunday, Sept. 29, 4-7 p.m.
THE MEMPHIAN, A TRIBUTE PORTFOLIO HOTEL
BOOK EVENTS
Erin A. Craig: The Thirteenth Child
The author speaks with Hannah Whitten about her new novel, which draws on the Grimm Brothers’ dark fairytale, “Godfather Death.” Saturday, Sept. 28, 6 p.m.
NOVEL
Haunts & Haints: An Oracle Card and Book Release Event
Celebrate the release of two new creative projects by writers Stacey Williams-Ng and Toby Sells. Thursday, Sept. 26, 6 p.m. ELMWOOD CEMETERY
Leanne Morgan: What in the World?! A meet-and-greet photo line with the comedy sensation, who offers real talk about what it’s like to be a woman today. Sunday, Sept. 29, 2 p.m.
NOVEL
COMEDY
Bill Maher: The WTF? Tour
Pushing the boundaries of where political talk
Edited by Will Shortz No. 0316
PHOTO: COURTESY BORNBLUM LIBRARY Green by Mary K. VanGieson is on display in the show “Meeting Room.”
can go on Saturday, Sept. 28, 8 p.m.
THE ORPHEUM
Charlie Vergos
$10/general admission. Saturday, Sept. 28, 8 p.m. HIGH COTTON BREWING CO.
COMMUNITY
Democracy Day in Action
A unique opportunity to engage with your civic duty. Saturday, Sept. 28, noon-3 p.m. NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM
Memphis Kidney Walk
Join thousands across the nation to fund innovation in kidney disease research, advocacy, and transplantation. Saturday, Sept. 28, 9 a.m.
SHELBY FARMS PARK
TEDxMemphis
Amplifying big ideas at this 901-of-a-kind experience. $75/session tickets, $140/full day tickets. Saturday, Sept. 28, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. MEMPHIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL - HYDE CHAPEL
The Mystic Live at the Green Room
Hosted by a rotating panel including Rabbi Micah Greenstein, Dr. Scott Morris, Rev. Joshua Narcisse, Dr. Rev. Lillian Lammers, and Kirk Whalum. Tuesday, Oct. 1, 6-7 p.m.
THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS
FESTIVAL
2024 Mid-South Fair
Something San Francisco was known for in the 1960s
Eliza Doolittle, to Henry Higgins
It comes in cartridges
1980s spinoff of “The Dukes of Hazzard”
Everglades deposit
First name in children’s literature
Loll around, in slang
1947 Hope/ Crosby film
Grp. with the motto “Deo vindice”
Place next to a pulpit, often 35 Put forward
55 Rural husband in a 1940s-’50s film series 58 Board at a station 60 Shoe style
Put up with put-downs, say
Advise
Rick who starred in “Little Shop of Horrors”
Titan or Atlas, for short
Make final preparations?
Blend flavored with bergamot
Statewide call, maybe
Things on a bucket list
6 Coin with a map on its reverse 7 Dog that often has shaved hindquarters
Metaphor for overnight success
Singer nicknamed “The Jezebel of Jazz”
Luxury hotel amenity
Collector’s item?
“___ and Abner” (old radio show)
Inexplicable skill 15 Band that composed
Get ready for an unforgettable experience! $5/ early bird, $8.50/early bird, $15/normal price. Thursday, Sept. 19-Sept. 29
LANDERS CENTER
Pink Palace Crafts Fair
Over 125 artists, food trucks, and live music. $10.75/adult, $8.75/senior and military, $4.75/ child. Friday, Sept. 27-Saturday, Sept. 28, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. | Sunday, Sept. 29, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
AUDUBON PARK
FILM
Hispanic Film Festival 2024
The department of world languages and literatures at the University of Memphis presents: La suprema by Felipe Olguín. Tuesday, Oct. 1, 6 p.m.
UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS, UNIVERSITY CENTER THEATER
Westermann: Memorial to the Idea of Man If He Was an Idea Leslie Buchbinder’s 3D documentary about the life and work of artist and marine H.C. Westermann. $5. Thursday, Sept. 26, 7 p.m. CROSSTOWN THEATER
THEATER
Paradise Blue
Dominique Morisseau’s tale of a once-vibrant jazz club in Detroit’s Blackbottom neighborhood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. | Sundays, 2 p.m. Through Oct. 6. HATTILOO THEATRE
The Comedy of Errors
Two sets of twins separated at birth reunite, leading to madcap mayhem. Performed by the Tennessee Shakespeare Company. Free. Friday, Sept. 27, 7 p.m.
BARTLETT PERFORMING ARTS AND CONFERENCE CENTER
William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A forest full of fairies manipulate humans with their own intrigue. Through Sept. 29. NEXT STAGE
We Saw You.
with MICHAEL DONAHUE
Guests got to milk a cow — albeit a cow statue — at Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South’s fundraiser, “JA Passport to Opportunity,” which was held September 6th at the Wang Experiential Learning Center.
e event was “about supporting the local food entrepreneurs and helping adults get to play and learn about how food and agriculture work in our economy,” says Beth Okeon, who does public relations for Junior Achievement. “And how local food entrepreneurs bring their product to market.”
Adults took part in hands-on learning experiences. “Adults got to learn by doing just like children of Junior Achievement learn by doing: build your own spice blend or make your own sundaes or decorate your own cookies.”
Or milk the cow. “Not a real cow. A fake cow that helps you understand how milk is made.”
Bain Barbecue provided barbecue, and Old Dominick Distillery featured smoked cocktail creations. e Stax 926 Alumni Band provided the tunes.
About 250 people attended. Money raised went toward Junior Achievement programming that helps kindergarten through 12th grade students.
above: (le to right) Danny Mansberg, Emma Mansberg, and Ramie Glick, Leigh Mansberg
below: (le to right) Belinda and Calvin Anderson, Micheal Cristal, Greg Duckett, Kesha Ivy, and Brenda Duckett; David Foster; Mario and Nikki Marion; Malcolm and Hakeem Dent
bottom row: (le to right) Molly, Beth, and Jenny Odeon; Cooper and Cassidy Smith; Leanne Kleinmann and Andy Alsenas
PHOTOS: MICHAEL DONAHUE
FOOD By Michael Donahue
Feel the Love
Be a part of the family at Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Que.
Ithought I’d been to all the Neely’s barbecue restaurants, but I was surprised when I recently saw Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Que at 7209 Winchester Road.
It’s owned by Ken and May Neely. Ken is one of the sons of the original Neely’s founder, Jim Neely. Ken instantly greeted me when I walked in. I could feel the warmth.
I ordered a barbecue plate with barbecued beans as a side. e barbecue was delicious, and the beans were a pleasant surprise. e taste transported me to nostalgic backyard barbecues. ey had a smokiness I’ve never experienced at other barbecue places.
Ken gave me a tour. A painting by Jamond Bullock depicts Jim and Ken with his cousins. Everyone pictured is or has been a liated with Neely’s barbecue restaurants.
“ e rst one, of course, is Jim Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Que,” Ken says. His dad still operates the restaurant at 2265 South ird that he opened in 1980.
Jim had been working in an insurance business in California before he moved back to Memphis and opened a grocery store on ird Street. “My dad found success in selling small sausage sandwiches. Chopped sandwiches that he would do and put into a hot box.” He then bought the adjoining space, which had been a juke joint, and opened the barbecue restaurant.
Jim was “always a good backyard barbecuer growing up. So, he just always had a knack for a good barbecue.”
Ken and his cousins, all of whom Jim raised, worked at the ird Street location until 1986 when the cousins “wanted to step out on their own and start their brand. And that’s how the Neely’s brand got started.” ey all began opening their own Neely’s restaurants over the years.
Tony and Patrick Neely opened a Neely’s on the corner of Orleans Street and Madison Avenue, which moved to 670 Je erson Avenue two years later. “ e only thing di erent about that one was the sauce recipe. We make our own sauce recipes. My dad says, ‘I taught them everything they know about barbecuing, but I didn’t teach them everything I know.’ Both of them had to formulate their own slaw and sauce based on what they remember about my mother making the slaw and sauce.”
ey later opened a second restaurant on Mount Moriah Road, and Patrick and his former wife, Gina Neely, went on to star in the popular Food Network TV show, Down Home With the Neelys
At one point, two Neely’s barbecue restaurants were in the Memphis International Airport. In 2000, Jim opened Jim Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Que in Southaven, Mississippi. In 2008, Ken and May opened their rst restaurant, Ken Neely’s Hickory Bar-B-Que, at 7444 Winchester Road. “I always felt we needed to open up something out in this area, Southeast Shelby County.”
In 2016, they moved to the current location, which had been another Neely’s restaurant, owned by Jim and Tony. e cooking process is the “common thread” at all the restaurants, Ken says. ey cook with the same type of pit, which uses hickory and charcoal. e meat is cooked on a rotisserie, which gives it a smoky taste.
“I do all the cooking. I know how I want my food to come out, so I do all the cooking here,” he says. He’s a “hands-on” cook. “Attention to details. I pay attention to make sure I have ample smoke in my pit for the avor of the meat.”
e meat is “rightly seasoned,” says Ken, borrowing the phrase popularized by the late Irene Cleaves of Four Way Grill fame. “One thing that I really specialize in doing is rightly seasoning my meat before I even cook it, and letting it marinate. Because that’s part of it. Too much seasoning is going to make it look like it’s burned.”
And those smoky beans? “ e beans are made with brown sugar, molasses, and my barbecue sauce. More importantly, I cook them in the pit.”
His barbecued beans are “smoked,” he says. “Same thing for my greens and green beans.” Ken added the green beans about two years ago. “And I am the only location that does greens and green beans.”
All the Neely’s restaurants do barbecued spaghetti, but Ken says, “I’m the only location that does a smoked mac-andcheese. I put it in the pit and get a little smoke in it.”
Like the other Neely’s restaurants, Ken and May sell the signature “Sock It to Me” cake. “It was originally started by my sister-in-law’s mother in California.”
Putting all the Neely’s restaurants together, Ken says, “We make one big beautiful family.”
And, Ken says, he sees his customers as part of that family. “I even go out to the table and I refer to them as ‘family.’ When you come here, you’re family.”
PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE May and Ken Neely
By Rob Brezsny
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Here comes the Hating and Mating Season. I want to help you minimize the “hating” part and maximize the “mating” part, so I will offer useful suggestions. 1. To the degree that you can, dissolve grudges and declare amnesty for intimate allies who have bugged you. 2. Ask your partners to help you manage your fears; do the same for them. 3. Propose to your collaborators that you come up with partial solutions to complicated dilemmas. 4. Do a ritual in which you and a beloved cohort praise each other for five minutes. 5. Let go of wishes that your companions would be more like how you want them to be.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Marathon foot races are regularly held worldwide. Their official length is 26.2 miles. Even fast runners with great stamina can’t finish in less than two hours. There’s a downside to engaging in this herculean effort: Runners lose up to six percent of their brain volume during a race, and their valuable gray matter isn’t fully reconstituted for eight months. Now here’s my radical prophecy for you, Leo. Unless you run in a marathon sometime soon, your brain may gain in volume during the coming weeks. At the very least, your intelligence will be operating at peak levels. It will be a good time to make key decisions.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Many fairy tales tell of protagonists who are assigned seemingly impossible missions. Perhaps they must carry water in a sieve or find “fire wrapped in paper” or sort a heap of wheat, barley, poppyseed, chickpeas, and lentils into five separate piles. Invariably, the star of the story succeeds, usually because they exploit some loophole, get unexpected help, or find a solution simply because they didn’t realize the task was supposedly impossible. I bring this up, Taurus, because I suspect you will soon be like one of those fairy-tale champions. Here’s a tip: They often get unexpected help because they have previously displayed kindness toward strangers or low-status characters. Their unselfishness attracts acts of grace into their lives.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You are in a phase with great potential for complex, unforeseen fun. To celebrate, I’m offering descriptions of your possible superpowers. 1. The best haggler ever. 2. Smoother of wrinkles and closer of gaps. 3. Laugher in overly solemn moments. 4. Unpredictability expert. 5. Resourceful summoner of allies. 6. Crafty truth-teller who sometimes bends the truth to enrich sterile facts. 7. Riddle wrestler and conundrum connoisseur. 8. Lubricant for those who are stuck. 9. Creative destroyer of useless nonsense. 10. Master of good trickery. 11. Healer of unrecognized and unacknowledged illnesses.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Tanzanite is a rare blue and violet gemstone that is available in just one place on Earth: a five-square-mile region of Tanzania. It was discovered in 1967 and mined intensively for a few years. Geologists believed it was all tapped out. But in 2020, a selfemployed digger named Saniniu Saniniu Lazier located two huge new pieces of tanzanite worth $3.4 million. Later, he uncovered another chunk valued at $2 million. I see you as having resemblances to Saniniu Lazier in the coming weeks. In my visions of your destiny, you will tap into resources that others have not been able to unearth. Or you will find treasure that has been invisible to everyone else.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Is there a greater waste of land than golf courses? They are typically over 150 acres in size and require huge amounts of water to maintain. Their construction may destroy precious wetlands, and their vast tracts of grass are doused with chemical pesticides. Yet there are only 67 million golfers in the world. Less than 1 percent of the population plays the sport. Let’s use the metaphor of the golf course as we analyze your life. Are there equivalents of this questionable use of resources and space? Now is a favorable time to downsize irrelevant, misused, and unproductive elements. Re-evaluate how you use your space and resources.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You have passed the test of the First Threshold. Congratulations, Scorpio! Give yourself a kiss. Fling yourself a compliment. Then begin your preparations for the riddles you will encounter at the Second Threshold. To succeed, you must be extra tender and ingenious. You can do it! There will be one more challenge, as well: the Third Threshold. I’m confident you will glide through that trial not just unscathed but also healed. Here’s a tip from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus: “Those who do not expect the unexpected will not find it.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): What development are you so ready for that you’re almost too ready? What transformation have you been preparing for so earnestly that you’re on the verge of being overprepared? What lesson are you so ripe and eager to learn that you may be anxiously interfering with its full arrival? If any of the situations I just described are applicable to you, Sagittarius, I have good news. There will be no further postponements. The time has finally arrived to embrace what you have been anticipating.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn screenwriter and TV producer Shonda Rhimes has had a spectacular career. Her company Shondaland has produced 11 prime-time TV shows, including Grey’s Anatomy and Bridgerton She’s in the Television Hall of Fame, is
On the morning of January 27, 1970, Libran songwriter John Lennon woke up with an idea for a new song. He spent an hour perfecting the lyrics and composing the music on a piano. Then he phoned his producer and several musicians, including George Harrison, and arranged for them to meet him at a recording studio later that day. By February 6, the song “Instant Karma” was playing on the radio. It soon sold over a million copies. Was it the fastest time ever for a song to go from a seed idea to a successful release? Probably. I envision a similar process in your life, Libra. You are in a prime position to manifest your good ideas quickly, efficiently, and effectively.
one of the wealthiest women in America, and has won a Golden Globe award. As you enter into a phase when your ambitions are likely to shine extra brightly, I offer you two of her quotes. 1. “I realized a simple truth: that success, fame, and having all my dreams come true would not fix or improve me. It wasn’t an instant potion for personal growth.” 2. “Happiness comes from living as your inner voice tells you to. Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be.”
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I have performed in many poetry readings. Some have been in libraries, auditoriums, cafes, and bookstores, but others have been in unexpected places: a laundromat, a bus station, a Walmart, a grocery store, and an alley behind a thrift store. Both types of locations have been enjoyable. But the latter kind often brings the most raucous and engaging audiences, which I love. According to my analysis, you might generate luck and fun for yourself in the coming weeks by experimenting with nontypical scenarios — akin to me declaiming an epic poem on a street corner or parking lot. Brainstorm about doing what you do best in novel situations.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I have two related oracles for you. 1. During the unfoldment of your mysterious destiny, you have had several homecomings that have moved you and galvanized you beyond what you imagined possible. Are you ready for another homecoming that’s as moving and galvanizing as those that have come before? 2. During your long life, you have gathered amazing wisdom by dealing with your pain. Are you now prepared to gather a fresh batch of wisdom by dealing with pleasure and joy?
FILM By Chris McCoy
A Better You
e Substance takes on the toxic patriarchy with body horror.
I
t’s not o en that I can sum up my thoughts on a movie in one sentence, but this is one of those times.
e Substance is what you would get if David Cronenberg directed Sunset Boulevard
Obviously I need to write more about the new lm from French writer/ director/producer Coralie Fargeat, but that’s the gist of it. It is a lm that is fantastical in both outlook and execution, but is primarily concerned with a down-to-earth problem that a ects millions of people: body dysmorphia.
e Substance starts with a very simple image that both tells you exactly what its eponymous substance does and establishes the lm’s color palette. A single egg yolk is on a blue-green background. A syringe lled with a green substance (the universal horror/ sci- lm symbol for “ is stu is exotic, powerful, and dangerous”) injects the egg yolk. A few seconds later, the yolk divides, and a second yolk, identical to the rst, appears right next to it. e implications of this extremely basic but powerful image will play out over the next 141 minutes. We then go to a time lapse of a crew working on a patch of concrete. Slowly, their assignment emerges from the little details of their cra . ey’re making one of the stars on Hollywood Boulevard. It’s dedicated to Elisabeth Sparkle.
Los Angelinos have the same attitude towards the Walk of Fame that Memphians have about Graceland. It’s for tourists, and it’s terminally tacky. But I love the Walk of Fame and make a point to visit it when I’m in Hollywood. It’s very revealing about the real nature of the American lm industry and the culture it created. For the last century, we’ve been minting new stars, mostly to give people a reason to go to the movies. When it’s brand-new, the star is the ultimate symbol of success in the entertainment eld. But the thing about the Hollywood Walk of Fame is that it’s a public street. If you have a star on Hollywood Boulevard, people walk on your name all day, every day. Most of the 2,798 stars feature familiar names like Lucille Ball or James Cagney. But do you know who Clyde Cook was? Or Gloria DeHaven? Fame can be eeting, especially for women in Hollywood.
Elisabeth Sparkle’s star is slowly weathered and cracked over the years and the millions of people who walk over it. Finally, in the present day, someone drops a hamburger on it, and
Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley star in e Substance
it is stained red with ketchup. is is the rst hint of red in a lm that will soon be dripping with blood.
We never see Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) in her heyday, but through some side dialogue, we learn that she once won an Oscar. ese days, she’s doing pretty good for herself, though. She’s got a popular aerobics show reminiscent of Jane Fonda’s Workout. (Fonda won two Oscars, and her Workout series are among the bestselling home video products of all time.)
e hall she walks down to get to her studio is lined with images of her past triumphs. But today is her 50th birthday, so she’s getting red by her producer, the unsubtly named Harvey (Dennis Quaid, dripping slime). In true Hollywood fashion, it doesn’t matter to Harvey that Elisabeth is great at her job and looks amazing. He wants someone younger.
While driving home, distracted a er a disgusting lunch with Harvey, she gets into a car wreck. One of the doctors who examines her has a strange air about him and declares that she is a “perfect candidate.” When she gets
home, she discovers a thumb drive marked “ e Substance” wrapped in a torn piece of paper that says, “It changed my life!”
When she plugs the drive into her TV, she sees an infomercial for e Substance, which promises to make a new, better you. Reluctantly, but almost compulsively, she calls the number on the screen, where a mysterious voice gives her an address in one of the sleazier neighborhoods of L.A. From a group of lockers, she picks out her number, 503, and nds a box with lots of medical equipment and simple, Ikea-like instructions.
ere’s a great moment when Elisabeth takes e Substance where Demi Moore does that disappointed “this
edible ain’t shit” face, right before it kicks in. e Substance splits Elisabeth in two, with a younger, prettier, and more energetic version emerging from a gaping hole in her back. e younger version, who names herself Sue (Margaret Qualley), must rst get to work stitching up the older version’s gaping wound. Elisabeth’s consciousness can live in Sue for only one week at a time, and Sue must have daily injections of stabilizer, which she must harvest from Elisabeth’s inert body.
At rst, things go great. Sue tries out for the show which will replace Elisabeth’s show, and immediately gets it. Harvey is glad to work around Sue’s strange one-week-on, one-week-o schedule. e show, now named Pump
Up With Sue, is more popular than ever. But none of this renewed success brings Elisabeth any comfort. She spends most of her non-Sue time watching Sue on television, and becoming increasingly more resentful of her younger, “better” self. For her part, Sue starts to hate reverting to Elisabeth, and starts disobeying The Substance voice’s explicit instructions not to try to stay young longer than a week. This has disastrous and extremely gross consequences for both of them.
Fargeat has a wicked satirical sense and an unerring eye for disorienting shots. The close-ups of gyrating body parts and Moore and Qualley’s near-constant nudity quickly go from titillating to disquieting. When The Substance starts to play havoc with
Elisabeth’s body, Fargeat shoots the results as unsparingly as any Cronenberg gross-out fest.
The Substance is a profound work of body horror about the lengths women will go to to feel attractive in the toxic patriarchy of celebrity culture. It’s a comment on both the abusive culture created by the Harvey Weinsteins of the world and on the miracle drugs like Ozempic, which promise to make you skinny and shiny without consequence, at least if you can afford it. To paraphrase Cronenberg’s Videodrome, The Substance has a philosophy, and that’s what makes it dangerous.
The Substance Now playing Multiple locations
THE LAST WORD By
Bryce W. Ashby and Michael J. LaRosa
Immigrant Stories: Anna and Denis
Hard work and determination de ne this couple’s immigration journey.
Editor’s note: is is part ve in a ve-part series focusing on immigrant contributions to our nation and city.
Anna Mashaljun was born and raised in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Denis Khantimirov is from Vladikavkaz, just north of Georgia (the European Georgia), and as white Europeans their immigrant story is somewhat distinct from the other stories featured in this series, but it’s just as compelling. It intersects in a number of ways with other immigrant stories and relies on one abiding constant: Many people — most young, the vast majority talented and hardworking, from every corner of the globe — are extremely eager to relocate to the United States.
Anna grew up in Estonia but is Russian on her mother’s side, and her father is of Latvian and Polish descent. She went to a Russian-language school and speaks Estonian, in addition to unaccented English. At 18 years of age, she le Europe for the United States, where she enrolled at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV) on a tennis scholarship. She studied marketing and nance, and America seemed like a big, scary place to the 18-year-old college student. “ e food surprised me,” she says. “It was mostly burgers and pizza and … the portions were huge.” She remembers the warmth of the people she met in America at this time and was surprised to learn that even her professors at the university were friendly and approachable.
For Denis, the early 1990s in Russia were “turbulent years.” Both his parents were professionals (a father who worked as an engineer, his mother an architect), but people in Russia struggled mightily as society transformed from a central, planned economy to the “new era,” which Denis described as “the Wild West.”
“ ere was total chaos with the fall of communism,” he says, “and I was a young boy during the most difcult days, say in the early 1990s.” He remembers his rst Snickers bar — which he was able to sample in 1993 as a 12-year-old. He knew when his father’s pay day was because that was when he could expect his next Snickers. “Despite the troubles, I had a relatively stress-free childhood, attended a solid school, and was a relatively privileged only child living in a transforming society.”
anks to a program administered by the United States government, Denis was able to attend high school for a year in East Texas, near the city of Tyler. He was given $100 a month as a stipend, and he was 15 years old during the 1996-97 school year. He remembers this experience with great fondness. East Texas was very di erent from his youthful expectations of an America crowded with skyscrapers patrolled by Batman.
“I’m still in touch with my host family from that period,” says Denis, describing the setting as “very rural” and the people “extremely warm and friendly.” He also remembers being better prepared than his American counterparts in terms of “basic academic subjects like economics and mathematics.” e kids in Texas were curious; they were never hostile or unkind, even when they asked him, “Are there TVs in Russia?”
A year in Texas as a high school student generated a strong desire to return to the USA. Denis applied to universities in the U.S. but received insu cient scholarship funding. He made the decision to stay home and study at a state school in Russia, graduating in 2004 with a degree in international economics.
Denis then worked in a hospitality management program in Switzerland. From there, he went to Arizona where he worked in a management training program at a resort in Sedona. He talked his way into an MBA program at UNLV where he received a last-minute o er a er another student dropped out. “I was o ered a student visa, an assistantship of $900 per month, and completed the degree. I met Anna in Vegas, delivered pizzas as a side hustle in the evenings. I remember wondering how I’d pay for the $600 radiator when it exploded from overuse in the scorching Vegas heat.”
A marketing professor at UNLV encouraged Denis to apply to the Ph.D. program at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Together with Anna, who studied sports management and marketing at the M.A. level, Denis completed his Ph.D. in 2015 and accepted a position as an associate professor of marketing in the business department at Rhodes College. For Denis, Memphis was and remains “real — it reminded me of Mark Twain from day one, and we all learned of the Mississippi River, and the music called the blues.” Memphis, for Denis, represents a “raw and authentic sense of America.”
Anna and Denis moved Downtown in 2015 when they rst arrived in Memphis; they were conditioned to live in a walkable city center. “We noticed there weren’t many people Downtown. Most of the families at the playgrounds Downtown were immigrant families.” ey moved to Germantown a er the kids (Alex, 9, and Alisa, 7) arrived. e kids are “fully integrated into their community and love it here.”
Denis and Anna fought and battled to get to the United States, then worked multiple jobs while studying to get ahead. eir type of tenacity and determination may seem unusual, but it’s the essence of a very typical American immigration story.
Bryce W. Ashby is an attorney at Donati Law, PLLC. Michael J. LaRosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College.
PHOTO: BRYCE W. ASHBY Denis Khantimirov makes a call to Anna Mashaljun.
