“Gone are the days when you could put a steeple and a cross in front of a building and say, ‘Come on in.’ It takes action; we have to get out. That’s why people in our men’s ministry serve as hall monitors, cafeteria monitors, and crossing guards at our adopted school. That’s why our young adult members mentor kids and why our senior adults go read to the children. We sponsor Field Day and Teacher Appreciation luncheons. We reward kids for school attendance and improved citizenship. We’ve talked to residents, taken surveys, and found our what the needs in the community are. We’re involved in purchasing property to be used for affordable housing, and we’re building a pavilion with basketball goals, a stage for community plays, a place for yard sales, for family reunions. We understand that there’s a need for GED programs, for job skills training programs, for computer labs. There’s not a grocery store anywhere nearby; we’re interested in bringing one here. When we talk to residents with high blood pressure and diabetes, it’s because there’s no access to nutritious foods. What do you do when you don’t have transportation to a market? You eat what’s available to you in that community. The kids need recreational facilities. There’s not a bowling alley, a skating rink, nothing. The Boys and Girls Club closed, the Y on Lauderdale closed. So what do you expect the kids in this community to do for recreation? When you talk about juvenile violence increasing, okay, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize the kids need some positive alternatives. We want to be a part of that. It all starts in the faith community. If not us, then who? If we don’t make a difference, then why do we exist?” Roger R. Brown, Pastor, Greater White Stone Missionary Baptist Church, 917 S. Wellington
"Memphis wouldn’t be the same without Soulsville. Our family moved here 53 years ago, and I grew up two blocks from Stax. I really didn’t pay much attention to the music coming out of the studios during my teen years, but that changed when I was drafted. In Vietnam, I met people from all over the United States who were listening to music that had been recorded at Stax. I started listening to it then too and came to appreciate where I’d come from more than I had before. We couldn’t listen when we were actually out in the bush, but whenever we were at the base camp where it was a little safer and more relaxed, we'd play the cassette tapes. I’ll never forget that. Isaac Hayes had an album out with a song called I Stand Accused, and there was a monologue that led up to the song. We used to have competitions to see who could imitate him most closely. I was pretty good. My uncle Clifford Miller owned three nightclubs in Memphis---the Flamingo Club on Hernando, the Rosewood on Lauderdale, and the Showcase---and people like Isaac Hayes, the Bar-Kays, and other Stax entertainers played there. They played in clubs all over the city. Soulsville, during the Stax era, really put a stamp on Memphis. Our music was known all over the world." Henry Ford, Senior Idol 2013, was featured in the Fall 2013 issue (p. 7) of Parks & Neighborhoods (image credit: Parks & Neighborhoods magazine): Henry Ford is the immediate past President of the Soulsville Neighborhood Association.
“I’ve lived in Soulsville for 41 years; this is where I raised both my children. Our ancestors here cared about each other and left a good history behind for us. There are still lots of good people in this neighborhood. I had a very good friend who lived on Fountain Court, Mrs. Nettie B. Rogers---she's gone now---who was the Bread Lady. She would go get bread from the bakery and bring it back and give it to the community. We didn’t have to buy it; all we had to do was take a bag around to Mrs. Rogers’ house and we could get bread for the children; everybody knew they could go to her. She was concerned about the people who lived in the neighborhood. The same camaraderie that Nettie Rogers established during her lifetime is still here in Soulsville today. The residents make it a special place.” Everlena C. Yarbrough was interviewed by High Ground in January 2016. Click to read that interview, entitled Yarbrough: Soulsville, USA on cusp of greatness.
Read more about Mrs. Nettie B. Rogers, referenced in this post ---
MOM: “We knew there was a problem before she was born and we thought it was dwarfism, but when she came---I had a C-section---she was broken up from her shoulders to her toes. There were a lot of healed fractures too, and her limbs were bowed. That’s when the doctors figured out she had Brittle Bone Disease (Osteogenesis imperfecta) as well as dwarfism. Hers is Type 3, which is severe. She’s had over a hundred broken bones in her life and of course a lot of surgeries. After so many, you lose count.” DESTINY: “I can’t really play with my friends and do much that they do, so sometimes it’s hard and sad. I usually spend my time at home either doing work or watching TV or talking on the phone. Sometimes I get tired of it and want to go outside and be in nature, but really I can’t, since I can’t walk. It's hard to have privacy too. My mom and dad and brother have to carry me wherever I need to go in the house because I can't get my wheelchair through the doors. But there are good things about my life too. My family cheers me up when I get discouraged. They’re caring, loving, helpful to everybody, and they're good cooks and caretakers. I have a lot of friends at school, and I have a best friend too. I like music and drawing animals. I got to go to the zoo once when I was little, and I got to go to Florida too. I saw a crab. And people on the beach that we didn't even know carried my wheelchair across the sand so I could get in the water." MOM: “She takes the bus back and forth to school, but she doesn’t get to go many places anymore because she’s older now and too heavy to lift. When she was small, my husband and I could put her folding wheelchair in the trunk, but it’s just too hard to get her in and out of the car now. I keep praying for a house with wider doors and for a wheelchair-accessible van. Everything else is okay. It would be wonderful if she could have a friend over and we could say, ‘Hey Destiny, let’s go to Baskin-Robbins and get ice cream.’ Things like that. Things every little girl likes to do." DESTINY: “I’ll be 13 in April. I hope when I get older I’ll be able to drive where I want to go and do things on my own. I don’t know where I want to go to college yet, but I’m thinking about becoming an art teacher someday.” Teachers at Destiny's school are teaming up with a local church, Trinity Baptist Church in Southaven, to help raise funds for her transportation needs. The event will be held Saturday, October 15, 2016. More information here: https://www.facebook.com/events/597287177120559/ Destiny's Ride to Adventure "Join us for a 3-on-3 co-ed basketball tournament to help raise money for Destiny White, a 7th grade Southaven Middle School student. Destiny has Osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease. This disease has caused her to break over 100 bones in her life. She can only move around in her wheelchair which has caused many restrictions when traveling, attending school activities, or simply running errands with her family. Destiny's parents are in need of a wheelchair accessible vehicle so we are raising money to help them do so! All proceeds will go to Destiny and her family to help them reach their goal." Facts about Type III Osteogenesis imperfecta (quoted below) are taken from the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation website: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a genetic disorder characterized by bones that break easily, often from little or no apparent cause. A classification system of different types of OI is commonly used to help describe how severely a person with OI is affected. For example, a person may have just a few or as many as several hundred fractures in a lifetime. While the number of people affected with OI in the United States is unknown, the best estimate suggests a minimum of 20,000 and possibly as many as 50,000. Type III
NOTE: GoFundMe account for Destiny at http://www.gofundme.com/destinygoingplaces
THERESA: “We met in Colombia where I had gone to teach for a year in an all-girls school, and we just connected from day one. Five years later he moved here and we were married. He had never lived in the United States before, so he wanted to try everything. He made me go to a monster truck show! [*laughs*] He said, ‘This is America. We have to go.’ And I was like, ‘No. We don’t have to. We don’t do this. OMG, I was so sick from the fumes.’ He was like, ‘Okay, check. We did that.’ He wanted to experiment and try all the stuff he had seen on TV, the Americana. He did the same to me when I was living in Bogota: he wanted me to experience everything Colombian. He took me to bullfights and all that crazy stuff. I tried the food, the travel. We had a great time.”
CESAR: There were cultural differences when we got married, for sure. For example, men don’t do housework in Colombia. I never even knew where the kitchen WAS in my house. When I first came here, I didn’t know how to do laundry, how to iron. I remember loading the dishwasher and putting Dawn soap in it. Then we left for a while, and when we got back, the whole floor was flooded with bubbles. And I would get tired of speaking English. When we disagreed, I would say, ‘I don’t want to argue with you because I don’t have the language to tell you you’re wrong! [*laughs*] But my English is good now, so I can win!” THERESA: “Even today---and we’ve been married 11 years and have two daughters---he makes all of us sit down and have breakfast together. There’s no grabbing a granola bar and eating it in the car on the way to school or work." “I started out as a biologist and worked in that field for a number of years, but I always had an interest in art. I just didn’t realize I could do both. After my third child was born, I decided to go back to work, but I’d been at home raising children for four years and my skills were out of date, so I decided to explore my interest in art. I signed up for a night course, and the first time I stepped into that classroom, I was shaking all over. I kept thinking, I don’t know if I can do this. But I kept at it. I guess if you practice anything enough, you get better at it. [*laughs*] I’ve been doing art ever since. I can still see the flaws in my work, but that’s all right. It keeps me honest and humble. “I think we’re all born artists, but our gifts get crushed by too much criticism. That artistic child within all of us gets damaged. When I started teaching continuing education classes for adults, I really tried to nurture my students because so many of them were nervous and came in doubting they had art ability. I remember how that felt, so I always tried to be supportive. “I used to do pet portraits, but for the past many years I’ve done woodcut and lino block prints. Every print is done by hand, often when I'm sitting out on my front porch. They express the awe, beauty, wonder, and sacredness of our created world. My biology background hasn’t been wasted; it’s incorporated into everything I do.” Catherine's prints adhere to the Hannover Principles for sustainability. The paper she uses is 100% post-consumer recycled cardstock, produced by a 5th generation hydroelectric-powered paper-making mill. Sample of Catherine's earlier work: The following graphic is from the Overton Park Community Farmers Market home page: Catherine L. Stevens sells her work at the Overton Park Community Farmers Market (Overton Park E. Parkway Pavilion), 389 E. Parkway N., every Thursday from 3-7 pm, April through October.
“Before, my grades weren’t good, so when I came to my new school three years ago, I felt like I would probably keep on flunking. On my first progress report I got an F in math. I was kind of discouraged, but my teacher helped me one-on-one and didn’t move on until I understood. I brought that F up to a B. She made me feel like I was a smart student. I still struggle with math, but when there’s something I don’t understand, the teacher pulls up a chair beside me and says, ‘What part don’t you get?’ and breaks it down for me until I can do it.
“I like to sing and dance and act, so I always thought about becoming an entertainer, but when I came here, I started to think, ‘What if I don’t make it as an entertainer?’ I realized there are other things I could do and other ways I could help people. I could be a speech therapist or physical therapist or go into sports medicine. I started thinking about the education I would need for a career like that and not so much about the entertainment part. I feel like I’m making better decisions about my future now. I can still do those other things on the side.” "Coach Scales teaches us about very important things like bones and muscles. He says people need to take care of themselves, so I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables; they're good for me. If I have kids someday, I’m going to make them eat Brussels sprouts, celery---I love celery, it’s delicious---broccoli, carrots, and other foods that help their bodies stay strong. I’m going to make them exercise too. I want to play basketball when I grow up, but if that doesn’t work out, I might be an engineer." Coach Scales, Camelo's teacher:
“I’ve always had an interest in issues of equality and equity, and I went into law thinking I would be able to do some work in the area of civil rights, but that’s not how things turned out. One court case I especially remember was a suit brought by a family who didn’t think they needed a lawyer. I was going up against them, and the judge advised them to get representation, but they said, ‘No, we can do this ourselves.’ I beat them terribly, and I felt awful. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this family doesn’t have the education; they don’t understand how to go up against someone who is actually an attorney.’ I felt like I was on the wrong side the entire time. “That case and others influenced my decision to get into the field of education. It’s the way I can work to try to equalize things for people of color and people in poverty. We can’t move forward as a city when so few of our students earn college degrees. I've seen kids finish high school at the top of their classes but then struggle in college. Some have to take remedial courses; others flunk out. So many of them are not academically prepared. Education is our modern day civil rights issue. “The work I do now as the Founder and CEO of a charter school [Freedom Preparatory Academy] is 10,000 times harder than practicing law, but it’s 100,000 times more fulfilling. You see the results; you see the kids grow and develop and mature. It’s beautiful. We teach them how to think critically and how to express themselves. We teach them about cultural things, about code-switching. Our goal is to transform the southeast corner of Memphis. Parents in this neighborhood shouldn’t have to worry about their child not having the opportunity to go to a school that will prepare them for college. If they choose not to, okay, but they should have a choice. I have photos on my phone of some of our kids who started with us as 6th graders and who are now in college. They send me their grades; they send me pictures of dorm rooms. I am so proud of them. I don’t have children of my own, but when they tell me that they’re planning to attend Xavier, TSU, Jackson State, U of M, I think: If this is what it feels like to be a parent, it’s got to be great. I’m so proud. All the tears and hard work are worth it.” Roblin J. Webb, Founder and CEO of Freedom Preparatory Academy, located in the Westwood area of southeast Memphis. Read more about Roblin HERE.
“My mother’s parents came from Germany and my father is a German refugee who fled Hitler, so being able to be a Jew in America means a great deal to me. It also makes me very conscious that other people who come to this country should be able to be who they are too. Our family keeps as many of the Jewish traditions as we can. This evening [October 2] we’re on our way to Temple Israel for Rosh Hashana services, which marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year. Yom Kippur, a time for repentance and forgiveness, is next week. I do a Passover Seder in the spring, but it’s not just for our family. We invite other people and usually have more non-Jews than Jews. It gives people a chance to be together and see a little of what it’s all about. Being part of something that has gone on for thousands of years is very meaningful to me. “The purpose of Judaism is to be as good a person as you can possibly be and do what is needed in the world. There’s a Jewish phrase, ‘Tikkun olam’, which means ‘Repair the world’. We take that very seriously. That’s the job of human beings: to be God’s partners in creation and to repair the world. After all, we’re the ones who broke it.” "At the age of 70, I realized there was still a 9-year-old girl inside of me who wanted to ride horses, so I let her out. I signed up for lessons and I've been riding ever since. I love it here [Southern Blues Equestrian Center]. I may be 74 now, but they treat me like everyone else."
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