After all of the great writing and speechmaking to mark 40 years since Dr. King was killed in Memphis (if you haven’t heard his daughter Bernice’s words from the balcony in front of Room 306, it would really be worth your time), I wondered if there was anything for me to add. My Sunday column tries to tell what a gift I think it is for me to have come to Memphis when I did. Read the whole thing by clicking here.

You can read my blog post about today’s game here.

Today is the day the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his amazing “Mountaintop” speech, 40 years ago, at the Mason Temple in South Memphis. And unless you’ve been living under a rock, surely you know that tomorrow will mark 40 years since King was assassinated in Memphis. (I agree with a comment I read recently: Let’s not call this an anniversary, which connotes celebration.)

As it was 40 years ago, today is a rainy day; those who were there that night at the temple talk about thunder, lightning, rain, wind. But, of course, many things are different, too. I was glad to hear Billy Kyles on Morning Edition this morning debunk the notion that things are just as bad as they were back then. People who say that, he said, weren’t there back then. Though, of course, the work King and Kyles were doing still goes on.

Still, it’s worth remembering — or learning, if you’re too young to remember — what was really going on in Memphis in 1968. And no one in town (so far) has done it quite as well as Memphis magazine, whose April issue contains a gem of a story from Memphian (and nationally famous writer) Hampton Sides about his experiences being a kid in 1968-69. After that, take time to read the recollections of those who were there. And, if you can stand it, read the timeline of events.

Then brace yourself for tomorrow, when the national spotlight turns on Memphis, to remember an event that changed the face of a nation.

If you’ve read any of the news stories about the Lester Street killings online, you know that it’s often the comments people make about the stories that are most revealing.
In the first days after the horrible murder of four adults and two children that sent another three grievously wounded kids to Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center, you didn’t have to read very far into the comment string before you heard from people who used to live in Memphis, but had moved.  “Memphis used to be great,” they’d write, “but crime/gangs/Mayor Herenton ruined everything.”

It always makes me angry to read that kind of comment. For one thing, if you really don’t care that much about Memphis, why spend  your time running us down? And though I have never been to Lester Street, I know for a fact that what happened at 722 Lester isn’t a complete reflection of that community.

If I’m defensive, imagine how Pastor Keith Norman (that’s him in the picture, in front of the old Lester Street School back in 2005) feels. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes something is SO Memphis you can’t help but smile, and this time I’m talking about all the yapping about the Tad Lauritzen Wright art installation that wraps the trees on the Parkways with blue vinyl strips. It’s one of ten UrbanArt installations around town, and people’s reactions are, well, fascinating. Stacey Greenberg, who has my undying admiration for teaching her kids to actually eat and converse in restaurants, likes Wright’s idea, but, predictably, most of the comments on The CA story today are, um, negative. (Some more background from artbutcher.)

I hope all the controversy doesn’t make the folks at the UrbanArt Commission back off of their plans to try to keep putting interesting art in public places in Memphis. I’m not wild about the Blue Parkway installation myself, but I love that it happened, and I’m loving watching and listening to the conversation around it. And, after all, isn’t that what art is supposed to do? Maybe make you think a little?