"I came from a small town in Arkansas to go to school here. I really like the grittiness of Memphis. It has a lot of decrepit buildings that are inspirational to my art. I hope there will be a renaissance in this area and that it will become more art-friendly."
"We're located here in the Edge area: at the edge of Downtown, the edge of the medical district, the edge of daily decision-making, and at the edge of eternity. One of the things we do here, besides Sunday and Wednesday night worship, is to run a clothes closet. Each item goes for 25 cents. If a person doesn't have the money, we hand them a garbage bag and ask them to pick up trash. Once they bring in a full bag, they can trade it for 7 items in the clothes closet. When I can say to someone, 'Thanks for helping out in the neighborhood', it restores their dignity. They're doing their part to keep the area clean and free of litter, and it benefits everybody. One-way giving all the time is belittling to people and creates dependency. It's the same as saying, 'You're not capable.'" Warren recommends the following books:
Warren and Terry Knabb serve the Church on Edge, located at 627 Monroe 38103.
Website: http://www.churchonedge.com FB: http://www.facebook.com/churchonedge Email: churchonedge@gmail.com "I'm from Gambia, but I've been here 18 years now. The person I'm most thankful for is my boss. He's a good, understanding person who gives me a job, helps me out, and gives me a place to lay my head." Ousman's boss, Ermyias:
"I'm 17 now, but I've been writing music since I was 13 and have been with my band, Calling Venus, since I was 14. I do keyboard and vocals. The lyrics I write cover a range of emotions; they're not all sad, but they're not all pop either. I love music, and I like to write pieces that everyone can relate to. The songs are my expressions of things I've experienced or seen, but they're also communication. They're like conversations. "Of the songs that I've written, Velvet Clocks is my favorite. It's an emotional ballad about unrequited love. One of my closest friends was going through a tough situation with a girl and kept saying it was only a matter of time before things fell apart. That's how the song got its name." Jarvis Sumlin with band Calling Venus will perform live at A Taste of Midtown (free event) on Saturday, October 25, 2014, at the historic Fairview building at the corner of Central and East Parkway (across from CBU).
Learn more about Calling Venus on their Facebook page and take a listen to a few of their beautiful pieces: "My grandparents are always doing things to help me. They gave me a place to stay when I didn't have anywhere to go, they paid my way through school, and when I didn't know how I was going to handle my bills, they helped me out. I don't know what I would do without them."
“I am the youngest of eight children. When I was 4 years old, my father passed away. Two years later, my mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She was going to have to leave our family, because in those days TB patients had to be confined to sanatoriums, so she went to Mr. Luther Welch who owned the grocery store where we traded. He and his family lived above the store, which was one of only two white businesses in our Binghamton neighborhood. My father had worked for the railroad, but he was gone now and his retirement benefits had not yet been released, so my mama walked into Mr. Welch’s store and said to him, ‘I’m expecting you to take care of my family.’ She explained the situation. ‘It may take 6 weeks or 6 months before those benefits begin to come in,’ she told him. Mr. Welch didn’t know anything about my mama, other than that she traded with him and was a good woman, but he said, ‘Yes ma’am. As long as my family eats, your family will eat.’ “With Mama gone, my 18-year-old sister became the mother of our family. I have vivid memories of my sister driving us to the hospital on the weekends to stand outside and wave at my mother. Of course, no one was allowed to go into the hospital, certainly not young children, but my mom would blow us kisses from her window. She often said that those were some of the toughest days of her life. “My mother told me many years later that Mr. Welch never one time said to my sister, ‘You haven’t paid, and you’re still getting things.’ He was always gracious, and then when my father’s benefits commenced, my sister paid the bill. He always brought us turnip greens and other vegetables from his garden, and we continued to trade with him over the years, At the end of the two years of confinement, my mother was able to return to the family. "During our school years, my siblings’ and mine, Mr. Welch would buy all of our fund-raising items. He bought all the candy bars and those kinds of things and put them in his store to sell. I remember Mr. Welch owned the very first television in my neighborhood. I have fond memories of all of the neighborhood children standing before his showcase window, and he would turn the television around for people to look at it. We thought of the Welches as our family. They became very close to all the people in the neighborhood. “In 1968, in the turbulent 60’s when Martin Luther King was killed in Memphis, there was burning and rioting all over the city and across the nation. Mr. Welch’s store was burned, he did not rebuild, and I lost contact with him. “Much later, after I had graduated from college and had been teaching for Harding Academy for sixteen years, I transferred to the White Station campus. The first day I walked into my classroom, there was Luther Welch holding a big bag of vegetables and turnip greens! I had not seen him since I was in high school twenty years earlier. He said, ‘I heard that you were going to be teaching here, and I’m an elder at this church.’ All of those years, that was the connection between us. We were both Christians. We threw our arms around each other and the tears just started to flow.” Bonnie Jamerson is Head of Lower School at Harding Academy
"What do you like best about being a parent?"
"When they're asleep!" *laughs* "No, really, I like the funny things they do. And at the end of the day when they want to crawl up in your lap and sit with you." "Sometimes I pick up paper and trash around here. I don't know why people pollute Mother Earth. The cleaner it is, the safer and more peaceful."
"My mom always just made it work. Her attitude said, 'There's nothing you can't do.'" Mary Beth is a yoga instructor.
"A lot of my art has to do with history, with honoring the African-American soldiers who fought in World War II. If you open a history book about that time period, the African-American soldiers are basically left out. They may get a paragraph or two, but their contributions are barely discussed. They fought and died for this country just as their white counterparts did, but they never received the respect they earned. They went to war and then had to come home and fight racism and segregation under Jim Crow. They deserved a lot more." Artist's Statement: Lawrence E. Matthews III is a senior in Studio Arts at the University of Memphis. His series on WWII African-American soldiers is on exhibit at the U of M's Martha and Robert Fogelman Galleries of Contemporary Art from October 15-31, 2014.
See more of Lawrence's work at http://www.lawrencematthewsart.com |
Archives
March 2021
|