FB page for Jean Jackson
God's Grace is Sufficient: A Life After Homicide by Jean Jackson is available through ---
"Eight years ago, my 23-year-old son was murdered by two young men who were trying to recruit his younger brother into a gang. My older son confronted the gang members, who robbed him, shot him in the back, and left him to die. During the trial, one of the young men said he heard my son take his last breath. The trial was terrible. The families of the gang members kept laughing, and the judge had to stop the trial to say: 'This is not funny. Someone's life has been taken.' Both of the gang members are in jail now---one with a life sentence, one serving twenty years. I journaled during the whole process, which was the only way I got through it. The book that came from that experience, God's Grace is Sufficient: A Life After Homicide, is also in journal form. With God's help, I was finally able to come to a place where I could go on living. His grace is truly sufficient. I remember at one point, sitting on the bathroom floor, crying and asking God where He was when my son passed away. He said to me, 'The same place I was when my son passed away.'" *Jean Jackson is a pen name.
FB page for Jean Jackson God's Grace is Sufficient: A Life After Homicide by Jean Jackson is available through --- "I played trumpet and helped to found the River City Concert Band (now the Memphis Wind Symphony) 40 years ago. While none of us were professional performing musicians, we were advanced amateurs and some were music teachers. We all loved playing concert band music and wanted the fun of performing in an instrumental ensemble. After performing many concerts in the Memphis area, we were invited to perform (at our own expense, of course!) internationally. On our third self-financed overseas tour, the RCCB happily played a concert in the parking lot of the famous Monte Carlo Casino in the Principality of Monaco (France). We can thus brag that 'we have played for the crowned heads of Europe!' That's an exaggeration, but we had fun watching some wealthy, fur-clad residents of Monaco smiling and dancing to our Elvis tunes." "Prior to 1976, Memphis Community Music was organized only by benevolent music conductors with institutional support. When those conductors retired, the music groups ceased to exist. The original name of the RCCB was the River City Community Band and was influenced by Meredith Willson's Broadway musical, 'The Music Man.' The RCCB and the GSO were both organized to be as self-sustaining as possible regardless of the conductor. These groups have played hundreds of concerts in the Memphis area over the last 40 years under the musical guidance of numerous different conductors and changed Memphis Community Music forever. As noted above, the RCCB has also served as an overseas ambassador for Memphis."
For more information --- "I tell people, 'Why you all up in my kool-aid and don't even know the flavor?' I don't let nothing nobody says bother me; if it don't apply, let it fly!"
"Home for me was always the apple orchards of central Massachusetts, and church was a pine-lined A-frame with a hundred people on a good Sunday. When I took the position here, I was stepping out on faith, trusting that I would find God in the place to which he called me. I've always identified with Abraham in the Old Testament; God called him away from his family and everything he knew to a place God would show him, and he discovered that God was already being worshipped in that place. God beat him there. I'm just now getting to the point where I can rely on that rather than just see it in retrospect." Fr. Sandy Webb, Rector, Church of the Holy Communion, 4645 Walnut Grove Road
"People separate from each other, but there's no need of that. There's not but one race: it's the human race. We need to get along with each other, talk to each other. I don't think we're meant to be alone. Once you've been alone a long time, you get used to it, but it's still kinda hard. Here---somebody gave me an extra lunch. You take it."
"The photographs in this exhibit, 'Faulkner's World', were taken by Martin J. Dain in 1961 and 1962, the last years of William Faulkner's life and evoke the social, racial, and economic struggles that intoned Faulkner's work and that we still struggle with today. Dain had an amazing eye and his work shows such compassion and tenderness for his subjects. He befriended Faulkner and was able to take very moving, intimate portraits of him." Melissa Farris is The Cotton Museum's Programs and Exhibits Curator. The Cotton Museum is located at 65 Union Avenue. Phone: 901-531-7826. The "Faulkner's World" exhibit runs from May 28-June 28, 2015
"People ask, 'Why are you wearing a top hat? What's the occasion?' There needs to be an occasion? I just wear top hats because they're fancy. They're also part of our Steampunk (Clockwork Mechanalists) gear. We're not wearing the rest of it tonight though." "I actually think I have my corset in the car." Kaoru and Sarah are members of a Memphis Steampunk group called the Clockwork Mechanalists.
“When I was very young, my biological mother abandoned me, literally leaving me for dead with a complete stranger. As a result, I found myself in the foster care system. I was eventually placed in a permanent home, but I was broken before I could even get started in life. For example, we had projects to do in school that required infant or baby pictures, and I never had any. I never knew my mother, father or one single blood relative, and it left me never really understanding where I fit in. I started reading and writing when I was 6 or 7 years old, which allowed me to create a world over which I had complete control. It was my secret hiding place: authentic, special, and where no one would judge me. I could process the trauma as well as express the hope that someday everything would come together and I would rise above my circumstances. Reading and writing saved my life. “Because of those early experiences, I'm passionate about literacy and so grateful for the opportunity to present Books & BBQ to the public. There are people out there who have poured their hearts and souls into manuscripts that they never actually publish because they don't know how to find the resources needed to complete the process. There are children who need alternate ways to deal with low self-esteem, with bullying, and with other pressures of life. There are those who hope to do great things in the future, and we want to instill in them the belief that if they apply themselves, there is a very good chance that they can reach their goals. Reading and writing not only allow us to dream, but to dream BIGGER than we’ve ever imagined. "Books & BBQ is a fun event for anyone who likes to read or write, not just for authors and publishers. Kick-off is at 10:30 Saturday morning with the special VIP arrival of featured authors and a surprise guest the children will love. There will be book-signings, workshops on writing and publishing, a Children's Corner, small business owners, and plenty of barbecue of course!" The first annual Books & Barbeque will be held on Saturday, June 6, 2015, from 10:30 am to 7:00 pm at the Agricenter, 7777 Walnut Grove Rd. Admission is $3 for adults. Children 12 & under admitted free. For more information ---
"One of my dad's favorite sayings was 'If you never lie, then you don't have to remember what you said.' I always taught my children that everything, good or bad, has consequences, but if they did something wrong and lied about it, the punishment would be worse. I remember when my son Aaron was in fourth grade and was accused of breaking a window at school. He denied it, but they didn't believe him. Finally he said, 'Call my dad.' I went up to the school, talked to Aaron, then told the principal, 'If he said he didn't do it, he didn't. He's more scared of me than he is of you, and he won't lie to me.' I knew I could believe him, so the school investigated it more, and it turned out that another boy had done it and blamed it on Aaron. If my son had broken the window and lied about it, we would have had it fixed and then he would have been grounded for lying, but he was being truthful. He's grown now with children of his own, but he still remembers that. And I can still trust his word." Bill Frasure, Quince Style & Barber Shop, 5139 Quince Road
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