Suhair Lauck, owner of The Little Tea Shop, appears in a scene from the documentary about her downtown restaurant.
Given that there’s a 100-percent chance of snow and/or freezing rain this weekend, it might make more sense to list five things not to do, but, despite the dire forecast, only a handful of venues have canceled or postponed their events at this time. (We do know that the Wendy Moten concert at the Bartlett Performing Arts and Convention Center has been moved to February 6, and the 50th anniversary of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens will now take place on February 1. Beyond that, as hope springs eternal, we’ll recommend these. Good luck out there, Memphis!
Spillit Memphis True Story Film Festival
The Dixon Gallery and Gardens
Thursday, January 22, 6 p.m. and Saturday, January 24, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
While the good people at Spillit are best known for their live storytelling events, here the stories unfold on a screen. This Spillit Film Festival is a celebration of “true stories,” as told in exclusively local documentary films from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas, all of them investigating reality itself, and the lessons learned from it.
Documentary films screened will include The Little Tea Shop (above), Shine On: The Story of Tom Lee, and (I'm Not) Your Negroni.
Black Artists in America: From the Bicentennial to September 11
Dixon Gallery and Gardens
Sunday, January 25th–March 29th
The Dixon Gallery will also launch the final installment of the Dixon’s Black Artists in America series this weekend, the culmination of three ambitious exhibitions. The first, presented in the fall of 2021, covered the time between the Great Depression and the early civil rights era; the second part carried the story from the 1960s into the early 1970s. The third iteration, opening Sunday, explores the dynamic coexistence and interplay of artistic styles and viewpoints within African American art during the last quarter of the twentieth century, from the American Bicentennial in 1976 to September 11, a tragic moment that defined the start of the new millennium.
The older artists represented in this exhibition — Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Loïs Mailou Jones, and Jacob Lawrence — were seminal figures born in the early twentieth century who had struggled through the harrowing Jim Crow era, saw a viable and effective civil rights movement emerge in the 1950s and 1960s, and lived to witness advances in racial justice during the 1970s and 1980s. Mid-career artists working between 1976 and 2001, including Emma Amos, Ernie Barnes, Barkley Hendricks, Betye Saar, and Joyce Scott, built on the successes of the older cohort and brought both affirmative and thought-provoking images of Black identity and culture into the mainstream. At the same time, notable younger artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Willie Cole, Kerry James Marshall, Kara Walker, and Carrie Mae Weems made dramatic, even shocking, postmodern works that challenged earlier notions of respectability as they decried continuing racial injustices.
Black Artists in America: From the Bicentennial to September 11, 2001, is curated by Dr. Earnestine Jenkins, professor of Art History at the University of Memphis and will include more than 50 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper drawn from public and private collections across the country.
John Németh and The Blue Dreamers
The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Friday, January 23, 7:30 p.m.
Though he moved here from Idaho, John Németh is a fundamental force of the blues in Memphis. Just ask the good folks at the Blues Foundation, who’ve bestowed six Blues Music Awards on him over the years, for best Soul Blues Male Artist, Soul Blues Album, Traditional Blues Album of the Year, Instrumentalist – Vocals, and Instrumentalist – Harmonica. But the bottom line is that this showman, songwriter, and singer is steeped in the blues, mentored by Gene Harris, Elvin Bishop, Gary Nicholson, Junior Watson and Anson Funderburgh. And, in true blues journeyman tradition, Németh has been making a living with his talents since the age of sixteen, delighting audiences around the world.
The Barber of Seville
Friday, January 23, 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, January 24, 7:30 p.m.
Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center
Jake Stamatis as Figaro (Figaro! Figaro!) and the other talent at Opera Memphis are sure to bring this musically rapturous and comically abundant masterpiece to life. It stars a penniless student (who is actually a wealthy Count), and the good girl who is willing to do whatever it takes to be with him. Standing in their way is a greedy guardian, a possibly sociopathic music teacher, and a romantically frustrated maidservant. Who can unravel the twisted webs they weave and ensure a happy ending? None other than everyone’s favorite barber, Figaro himself.
Italian with English and Spanish subtitles
FOOD: Science, Culture, and Cuisine
Memphis Museum of Science and History
Saturday, January 24–June 30
This multi-sensory feast of an exhibition will engage you through sight, taste, smell, touch, and sound to think about food in new ways. It’s a playful, curiosity‑sparking celebration of all things food, first presented by the City of Science and Industry Museum in Paris — now featured at the Pink Palace. And the museum is kicking it off right with its "Food: The First Bite" event on opening day.
There will be hands‑on activities from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. that invite guests to explore their senses, food webs, chemistry, and more. At 2 p.m. in the Circus, take part in a lively storytime to round out the day.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE EVENT ORGANIZERS
