photo courtesy Carpenter Art Garden
Celebrating 10 Years of the Carpenter Art Garden
Carpenter Art Garden, Carpenter and Mimosa
Friday, August 5, 4:30-7:30 p.m.
Fee-fi-fo-fum! I gotta get my work done. And if at the end of the day, my four-legged son trades my earnings for a handful of beans, we all know what that means: Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more he eats, the more he … Well, let’s just say those beans aren’t going to grow into a beanstalk and I’m not about to climb up into the clouds and find a palace full of gold and fight off a giant. But, oh boy, if only a couple of seeds could transport you away from the humdrum. For now, though, it seems our imaginations will have to do, and the Carpenter Art Garden is the perfect place for those seeds of wonder to grow.
This Friday, the nonprofit is celebrating its 10th anniversary of working with and inspiring Binghampton’s neighborhood youth, with its various free services ranging from an art garden to a laundry co-op to tutoring and music lessons. The celebration will consist of art, food, and creativity on the organization’s seven properties.
Student artwork will be on display and available for purchase, with 70 percent of your purchase going to the student artists and the rest going back into the garden’s free programs. To titillate your taste buds, you can enjoy light bites created by programming coordinator LaTonya Hunt using the garden’s fresh vegetables, tomato pie from Muddy’s Bake Shop using their heirloom tomatoes, and Mempops watermelon basil popsicles made with fresh basil from the garden. Riko’s Kickin Chicken food truck will also be on site.
Tickets for the event are $25 each and free for Binghampton students and their families. Purchase tickets here.
photograph Courtesy of the SHRINE Gallery
Hawkins Bolden, Untitled, 1986. Wood, metal, carpet.
“From Artisans to Artists” Talk
Whitehaven Branch Library, 4120 Millbranch Rd.
Saturday, August 6, 3 p.m.
You’ve heard of the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen and how they spun those fairytales that Disney animated into “Happily Ever Afters.” And by now, I’m sure you know that the original material was a tad bit darker, that the Little Mermaid returned to the sea and didn’t marry her prince, that our precious Cinderella was more than happy to order crows to peck out her stepsisters’ eyes. But why did Disney fail to include these aspects of the stories? Was it to “protect the children” or to protect their image so they could get away with their own evil capitalist machinations — the merchandising, the sequels, the remakes, and the theme parks? But listen, this is not the hill I’m going to die on. There are far more important forgotten stories, hidden from the public consciousness, that we should be talking about, and professor Earnestine Jenkins is doing just that with her latest exhibit at the Metal Museum: “From Artisans to Artists: African American Metal Workers in Memphis.”
For this exhibition, Jenkins used surviving artifacts and primary source documents to research more than a dozen African-American blacksmiths, whose stories are at risk of being lost to history. As such, this exhibition looks closely at the morphing artisan identity and evolving blacksmith practices in the 19th and 20th centuries, examining the role of African-American blacksmiths from Central and West Africa to modern-day Memphis.
This Saturday at the Whitehaven Library, Jenkins and sculptor Desmond Lewis, whose work is featured in the show, will speak about early Whitehaven blacksmiths and the history of blacksmithing. Admission is free, but seating is limited.
“From Artisans to Artists” is on display through September 11th at the Metal Museum.
photograph courtesy the beauty shop
The Beauty Shop’s 20th Anniversary
The Beauty Shop Restaurant, 966 S. Cooper
Saturday, August 6, 4 p.m.
The best advice from fairytales: Stop asking yourself or your magic mirror, “Who’s the fairest of them all?” That question gets you nowhere, as evinced by a certain evil queen. But as for the one question that’ll always get you somewhere, it's, “What’s for dinner?” And I bet that question has led you to The Beauty Shop at least once in your life, and I have a feeling you’ll end up there this weekend. After all, it’s the big 2-0 for the restaurant and they’re pulling out all the stops going back to the original 2002 menu for the weekend with all staff in beehive hairdos and original outfits.
After dinner, head on over to Bar DKDC for a concert like no other with Harlan T. Bobo back home from France along with Jack Oblivians and his band, not to mention the Second Line down Cooper with The Lucky 7 Brass Band. Tickets have sold out online but some will be available to purchase at the door. (And check out Alex Greene’s article in our sister publication, the Memphis Flyer, about Harlan T. Bobo’s homecoming.)
A Night of Poetry: Melissa Ginsburg, Eleanor Boudreau, & Sandra Simonds
Novel, 387 Perkins
Saturday, August 6, 6 p.m.
Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, Beauty and the Beast is a rip-off of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. If you don’t believe me, translate Apuleius yourself (or do what I did and read the Wiki page because that is the source of all my information). But let’s face it: We all love a good twist on a classic story, and, thank the heavens, writers are still at it today. In fact, this weekend’s Night of Poetry at Novel shows just that, seeing that Melissa Ginsburg’s newest book of poetry, Doll Apollo, merges mythology “with close attention to the patterns, colors, and contours of the material world.”
To celebrate the release of Doll Apollo, Novel is hosting a talk by Ginsburg with fellow poets Eleanor Boudreau and Sandra Simonds. Ginsburg will also sign copies of her book.
photograph courtesy caroline hall
Memphis Chicken & Beer Festival
Liberty Bowl Stadium, 940 Early Maxwell
Saturday, August 6, 6-10 p.m.
I say, “What big eyes you have.” You say, “The better to see my dinner.” I say, “What big hands you have.” You say, “The better to hold on to my dinner.” I say, “What a big mouth you have.” You say, “The better to consume my dinner.” And what is this dinner? Well, if you’re heading to the Memphis Chicken & Beer Festival, it’s not too hard to guess.
At the festival, restaurants will be selling their special chicken dish at $2-$5 as a snack-size portion. This will allow attendees to try as many places as possible. Restaurants will also have regular portions at their regular prices. The festival will also feature live entertainment, yard games, inflatables, and more. Tickets ($40/general admission, $20/designated driver) include admission, a souvenir glass, and more than 90 beverage samples. Proceeds benefit Merge Memphis.
Tickets can be purchased online. This event is 21+.
