VOL. 132 | NO. 185 | Monday, September 18, 2017
The Week Ahead: Sept. 18-24
The Daily News
Hello, Memphis! Autumn officially arrives this Friday, and it’s bringing along a spate of happenings this week – from the Metal Museum’s Repair Days to the Memphis Japan Festival and the Mid-South Fair. Check out our top event picks and more you need to know about in The Week Ahead…
Coming off their spectacular win over UCLA, the University of Memphis football team will be back on the gridiron at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Saturday with a 7 p.m. game vs. Southern Illinois and, yes, there will be much tailgating and the Tiger Walk before kickoff.
(The Daily News file photo)
The Metal Museum is hosting Repair Days 2017 Thursday through Sunday at 374 Metal Museum Drive. Nearly 200 volunteer metalsmiths from across the country will converge on Memphis to repair anything you bring in – from jewelry to garden furniture – with all the proceeds directly benefiting the museum. Saturday is Family Fun Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., when visitors can enjoy free museum admission, blacksmith demonstrations, scavenger hunt, iron pour and more. That’s followed by the Repair Days Dinner & Auction on Saturday night. Check out details for all the events and get tickets for the dinner on the Metal Museum’s website.
The Mid-South Fair returns to the Landers Center this Thursday through Oct. 1, with plenty of midway rides, live entertainment and fair food at the Southaven venue. Among the highlights this year are the Tiger Encounter, Wolves of the World, and a meet-and-greet with 13-year-old “America’s Got Talent” winner Grace VanderWaal on Saturday. VanderWaal, by the way, announced details of her debut album and released the first single late last week, and her upcoming tour is already completely sold out. So this is your chance to meet this talented young singer-songwriter before she hits the road.
And while the fair is getting underway in Southaven, Memphis leaders are holding the second in a set of three public meetings on the development of a specific plan for the Mid-South Fairgrounds – the fair’s former home. The meeting is Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Salvation Army Kroc Center. And you should see some more concrete concepts for what the Fairgrounds could look like in the plan being put together by the Strickland administration. The city plans to take some kind of more specific plan to the state by the end of the year.
Hattiloo Theatre is celebrating its 11th birthday with a “Cocktails and Cake” event on Friday, 11 years to the day after it opened on Sept. 22, 2006, on Marshall Avenue. The event will include music, socializing and treats, and it’s set to run from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 37 S. Cooper St.
The Memphis Japan Festival is Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Memphis Botanic Garden. It’ll feature music, dance, martial arts and lots of Japanese culture centered around the Japanese Garden of Tranquility with its Red Bridge – one of the most photographed locations in Memphis.
(The Daily News file photo)
It’s that time on the calendar again - the 100 North Main building, the tallest building in the city of Memphis – is due for a foreclosure auction at noon Wednesday on the steps of the Judge D’Army Bailey Courthouse. This has been postponed so many times that the plywood barricades around the building are being turned into murals. The odds are great, fellow citizens, that noon Wednesday will come and go with no word on the future of this part of the Memphis skyline once again.
Later Wednesday, the Economic Development Growth Engine board – aka EDGE – meets, and on the agenda is the latest milestone in the fast-moving plan by Graceland to build a 5,000- to 6,000-seat venue about where Heartbreak Hotel currently stands on the Graceland campus in Whitehaven. Graceland is seeking a higher percentage of the property tax increment from the tax increment financing zone already created to finance the recent expansion of Graceland. Elvis Presley Enterprises is seeking a 65 percent draw on the TIF instead of the current 50 percent for what is estimated to be a $50 million project with an arena as the anchor plus a retail component.
Also on EDGE’s agenda Wednesday is Loeb Properties request for a 15-year Community Builder PILOT to construct a $24 million hotel in the heart of Midtown. According to its application, Loeb wants to construct a 100-room boutique hotel on Cooper Street, on what’s now a parking lot between Hattiloo Theatre and Bar Louie. EDGE staff projects this particular development will generate $5.4 million in local total tax revenues during the term of its PILOT while saving the applicant $6.1 million.
Want to start your week with a fashion show? The Baddour Fashion Show and Auction benefit luncheon features The Miracles, children's and ladies' fashions and a silent auction from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Hilton Memphis. Call 888-4Baddour or go to baddour.org for more information.
Voters in Arlington go to the polls Thursday in the only regularly scheduled election of the year. The two polling places in Arlington are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to decide races for aldermen and school board. Visit the Shelby County Election Commission’s official website for details on the election day arrangements. This is an election among 8,150 voters in which only a few hundred cast ballots during the early voting period. After the polls close at 7 p.m. Thursday, join us @tdnpols for the live results and then get ready for the 2018 elections.
Looking for a down-home good time? Zoo Harvest Fest runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Memphis Zoo, 2000 Prentiss Place. The family-friendly event celebrates the simple life. Learn from local crafters, hear folk music, churn your own butter, and stamp your own leather. It’s all included with general admission to the zoo.
HuffPost and High Ground News are hosting a conversation with four Memphis business leaders on Monday. “Show Mem The Money” will look at “the strength of entrepreneurship as a strategy to grow the middle class and what barriers remain in the effort to spread Memphis’ wealth.” The free event will take place at 7 p.m. at Clayborn Temple, 280 Hernando St., and is part of HuffPost's "Listen to America" bus tour. Click here for tickets.
Wendi C. Thomas, editor of MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, a year-long reporting project focused on economic justice, will moderate the panel. The panelists are Floyd Tyler, founder and president of PreserverPartners; Alex Matlock, CEO of Contigo Creative and president of the Mid-South Latino Chamber of Commerce; Carolyn Hardy, chairwoman of the Greater Memphis Chamber and CEO of Henderson Transloading Services; and Jozelle Booker, president of the Memphis Minority Business Council Continuum.
The Daily News staff compiles The Week Ahead for you, our readers, every week. You'll receive it as part of our Monday online edition. Email associate editor Kate Simone at ksimone@memphisdailynews.com if you have items for consideration.