"The first time I saw her was in downtown Memphis. We were both out dancing. She was beautiful, cute, sexy, and all I could think was, 'I’ve got to get her to come dance with me.' So I went over, took her by the hand and pulled her to me, and we danced all night long. Some of the things she said were so funny; there was just an immediate connection. I didn’t want the night to end, so I asked her to have brunch with me the next morning. She agreed, and we haven’t missed a day talking to each other since. We still have that connection nine months later. I'm definitely a better person because of her."
“This past summer I went with a team of four other photographers and videographers to Yida, a refugee camp in South Sudan, just across the border from Sudan. It’s home to 75,000 refugees from the Nuba Mountains and other areas who have fled there to escape the genocide in their home country. I had heard about the conflict in that part of the world, but I kinda thought, ‘This cannot really be happening. It's not possible that, in this century, hundreds of thousands of people are being bombed and starved and mutilated and raped and nothing's being done about it. That’s ridiculous.’ But when I actually got to the refugee camp and I saw the people living there, saw their scars, saw people with missing limbs, saw orphans and people separated from their families, saw the poverty, I realized it was true. And it blew my mind. This WAS actually happening, the government of Sudan was doing it, and the rest of the world, it seemed, was just turning a blind eye. As part of Operation Broken Silence, our purpose there was to make a documentary about life in the refugee camp. We’re not about going in and westernizing people or telling them what to do. We’re there asking them what they need and taking their story back to the rest of the world. They feel very much like no one is listening, so we’re trying to be the megaphone for them. “The whole experience was life changing, of course, but I remember one man in particular. He was 22 years old. When we interviewed him about why he had fled his home in the mountains and come to the camp, he told about digging foxholes outside the school in his village so that when the planes came, when the bombs came, people could run outside and get down into the holes. I asked him how often that happened: maybe once a week? He looked at me and said, ‘No. That happens every day. Every day and every night.’ "It’s been going on for two decades now. You’d think that a person who had lived in that situation for so many years would be cynical and bitter, but he was full of passion for his country and for education. That was true of every person I met. That’s probably what surprised me the most: Just the resilience. These people are full of strength and hope. They’re not asking for a handout; they’re simply asking for basic human rights and for the rest of the world to listen. “I think nowadays we get so overwhelmed with everything going on in the world that we find it hard to pay attention to one more thing. There’s Aleppo in Syria; there’s Flint, Michigan; there are so many others. And the government of Sudan does a great job of saying, ‘We’re not doing that. We’re not killing people.’ The world knows that it will take some effort to change what’s going on there. Also, some people just don’t know what’s happening or don’t believe it. I understand that. Three years ago I didn’t know either. That’s why our team felt it was so important to tell the story. We’ve made three documentaries already [available online at http://www.operationbrokensilence.org]. This will be our fourth, which we hope to release sometime next year.” Watch Operation Broken Silence documentaries by clicking HERE or on the image below: Katie Barber, Fundraising Enthusiast & Photographer for Operation Broken Silence
“I’m excited about graduation, about getting a job and an apartment, and maybe later having a house. I’m constantly thinking, What can I do? What do I need to be doing? I’m always looking ahead to the next step. But lately I’ve begun to realize that I need to slow down and appreciate the moment. I’m young, I’m independent, I’m fine. I don’t want to be so focused on what might be --- or what might have been --- that I miss what is. That’s the idea behind these three paintings. This one depicts a woman at two different points in her life. When she’s young, the flowers around her are just beginning to blossom and she’s preoccupied with looking ahead; when she’s old, the flowers are in full bloom, but she spends her time looking back and wondering what might have been. In reality, they both have everything they need right there in the moment.” Alexis Gillis, BFA Exhibition at Crosstown Arts, Christian Brothers University
"The best thing about having six girls --- one’s not here because she’s at a recital tonight --- is that there are no boys. [*laughs*] Girl power! They’re from 7 to 18 years old. It’s good that they can share rooms and share clothes, but they’re not the same. They’re all different. Somebody wants soccer, somebody wants track and field, somebody wants volleyball, so I’m like, Oh my goodness, I’ve got to go all these different places! Can’t all of you just play one thing? Pretty please? It’s always something! There’s a lot of competition, a lot of drama. Everybody wants to have the most time, the most attention."
(TOP RIGHT DAUGHTER): "I’m her favorite child!" “I learned from my mother how to sew when I was 13. At the time, I thought she was being like a cruel stepmother because lots of my friends were having fun, playing around, and there I was in one of her classes. Later, I took more sewing classes and then got an apprenticeship and trained with a friend of hers --- a designer --- who was a former lecturer at London College of Fashion. That’s how I learned most of the things I know. I took a pattern-cutting course with her and did really well. Later, I opened a shop in Uganda, which my mother still runs, and I have this shop [at 2537 Broad Avenue] as of eight weeks ago. The name of the business is Mbabazi House of Style, in honor of my mother: Mbabazi is her name. I design the prototypes, send them back to Uganda, and the clothing is made there. The fabric comes from all over Africa. “After I grew up, I realized why my mother taught me to sew. I got it. She wasn’t actually being cruel to me. She was sharing a skill that has employed most of my siblings and a lot of people in my community. To this day, she still trains girls and women --- and some men too --- because in Uganda, everyone needs a skill to survive.” Video below from SCRUMPTIOUS PRODUCTIONS: Grace Byeitima, Mbabazi House of Style, 2537 Broad Avenue UPDATE & NEW ADDRESS, OCTOBER 2017 UPDATE: Memphis is bursting at the seams with creative people who are making a difference not only here but all over the world. Today I had the opportunity to visit again with Grace Byeitima, owner of Mbabazi House of Style (https://www.facebook.com/Mbabazistyles/) at 2553 Broad Avenue! She's expanded her shop and will have a grand reopening this Saturday (Oct. 14) from 12-6pm, with Ugandan music, Ugandan food, and a jewelry-making demonstration by Luz Merissa Vargas. Grace creates patterns (prototypes) and then employs women back in her home country to make the dresses, skirts, purses, backpacks and other items from beautiful African fabrics. Her new space will allow her to teach sewing classes in Memphis as well, empowering not only refugee women but anyone who is interested. As she states so well: "Once you have a skill, you don't stay hungry. You can always figure something out."
"I'm four years old. I like to play outside and I like school and I like my teacher. I can sing my ABC's!" NYNE: “I'm a senior at Whitehaven High School. I just got my passport tonight and I’m really excited. I’m ready to go. I’ll be leaving December 15 to go to Ghana, Africa, for two weeks with the One Step Initiative. There are 15 students from all over the city in our group." PEARL (Mom): “We know about what all is going wrong in Memphis, but this program, this trip, is a beacon of light in the midst of the clouds and shadows. I’m just so happy and excited for him to have this opportunity as a young black male in Memphis, in Tennessee, and in the United States. I think it will open his whole perspective on life. We’re just excited about what we know this is going to mean to him.” One Step Initiative: https://onestepinc.org/
"Me not being from Memphis, I think I was able to see the city with fresh eyes when I moved here. I saw a lot of opportunity. It's difficult when you've lived in one place for a long time, maybe all your life, to see the great things right where you are. A lot has happened in Memphis in the past to bring us to where we are now, and there are problems, especially when it comes to cultural and racial issues. But I think there are a lot of people, creative people, who want to take that and figure out, Okay, what’s next? How can we make our community flourish today? What can we do going forward? There are great people here who are interested and invested in what’s going on now. So for those who want to make this city better, who want to take advantage of opportunities: Research whatever you want to do. The information is available. I'm a designer and an entrepreneur. There's a lot of joy and satisfaction in doing the creative stuff, but it's the unsexy side, the unpretty side, that gives ideas a chance to live on. You have to do your research and learn how to get the word out, how to network, and how to market, but it's doable. Look on the Internet, check out YouTube videos. Everything you need to know is out there. "The concept for 'Embrace Your Inner Memphis' came from a conversation I had with a friend. I sketched out the design, posted it on social media, it got more likes than probably any design I've ever done, and people started asking for it on shirts. That was last year, 2015, and it took off from there. It was a time when people were more pro-Memphis than they had been previously. They were actively choosing and embracing Memphis; there was new talent and new energy coming to the city. I think the design hit at a time when there was a surge of Memphis pride, It just added to that conversation." Eso Tolson, Partner / Creative Director at Cheers Creative
Illustrator / Graphic Designer / Creative Director at www.esotolson.com Embrace Your Inner Memphis shirts are available at pop-up shops and at Stock & Belle, 387 S. Main. "Every day at school we read for 15 minutes. That's how I started liking to read. Also, we were studying Asian cultures in Social Studies and we did units on medieval China and medieval Japan, so I started reading about them. I especially like the history, the art, and the calligraphy. We studied about Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples too. The buildings fascinate me. Reading about Asia makes me want to travel there and see those things in person. I'd like to learn an Asian language too. Right now I'm reading Moon Over Tokyo. It's fiction, but there are a lot of interesting, true details in it."
"Lucy just kind of landed in my lap. She’s part Chihuahua and part Jack Russell and came from a puppy mill, where of course she hadn’t been taken care of or vaccinated. She was very small and very sick, she wouldn’t eat or drink, and she was vomiting and expelling worms. When she slept on her back, you could see the worms moving around inside her. It was really terrible. So my girlfriend and I took her to the vet; we weren’t even sure she was going to live. We had to give her shots a couple of times a day and force-feed her Pedialyte from a syringe. She came back like a champion though, and she’s healthy now. She’s the most athletic dog I know. She’s wonderful.
"I didn’t know if I could train a dog, but she’s really smart and I think she’s a pretty little girl. Dogs have a really good sense of time. I've taught her to react to an alarm, so she bugs me in the mornings until I wake up. She's a licking machine. And she knows some hand signals. Training a dog is pretty easy if you’re consistent, if you spend a lot of time with them and give them a lot of positive reinforcement." |
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