2017 Mojo Awards
Gary Shorb
We’ve all heard the troubling statistics about many of our children in Shelby County. Here’s one; only one third of 3rd graders (according to test scores) are reading at their appropriate grade level. What that can mean, obviously, is a life that’s an uphill struggle. Poor reading skills lead to low graduation rates, difficulty in finding meaningful work, and more problems. There are a lot of Memphians working on ways to help our children. Gary Shorb says that is now his mission. Gary left as CEO of Methodist Lebonheur Healthcare at the end of 2016 and left behind a legacy of excellence, growth and accountability. And a long record of civic involvement. He is now Executive Director of the non-profit Urban Child Institute of Memphis.
Under his guidance the UCI is continuing its focus on helping children in the most critical years, from birth to age five, trying to improve their health through prevention and wellness programs and more. “We’ve got a lot of evidence that says unless you get at-risk kids into high quality child care they are not going to be kindergarten-ready,” he says. “ And if they are not where they should be by third grade, they are starting behind.” Gary sees the job as making sure the Urban Child Institute is “connecting the dots as much as we possibly can” with other groups that have the same goals. He calls it “extreme collaboration.” Gary Shorb could have retired this year. Instead he has taken what he calls “the perfect retirement job.” We’re glad he’s still on the case. Please join us in saying thank you to Gary Shorb for his continuing commitment to our community.
Katie Smythe
There’s a great photograph of Katie Smythe, smiling, arms extended, dancing, with some of the young people from the New Ballet Ensemble. From age three on, dance was always the thing for Katie. After seventeen years as a professional dancer and teaching artist (in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and New York), Katie came home. In 2003 she started New Memphis Ballet Ensemble, with the idea of “bridging racial and economic barriers through dance.” The talent pool in Memphis was deep and diverse, with young dancers schooled in traditional ballet, and others whose art form was street dancing. Including a style unique to Memphis called Jookin’. Today New Ballet Ensemble presents audiences with a “unique fusion of classical and contemporary ballet, flamenco, Hip-Hop, tap and traditional African dance performances.”
And there’s a bonus. NBE offers tutoring and college prep for students who need it. Preparing them for life after the applause ends. Since 2008 every NBE graduate has gone on to college. But her love of dance is not the only reason we’ve invited Katie here tonight. “Without Katie Smythe there would be no Levitt Shell in Memphis,” says Anne Pitts, the Executive Director of Memphis’ favorite summer cultural attraction. Long story short; Katie heard what the Levitt family was doing with outdoor shells around the country and thought it could work here. At Katie’s invitation Liz Levitt Hirsch came to Memphis and met our arts and community leaders. Katie then put money and energy into getting the Overton Park Shell itself ready for showtime. If you’ve sat out there under the stars you know that it worked. In telling us about her motivation for the New Ballet Ensemble, Katie Smythe said, “You can’t dabble at dance.” Or at life. We are proud to honor her with a Mojo of Midtown Award.
Central Gardens
In Central Gardens, whether in the age of homes or trees, fifty is young. This year we’re happy to help the Central Gardens Association turn fifty with a well-deserved Mojo of Midtown Award. One of oldest and proudest neighborhoods in Memphis and in the South, Central Gardens is home to approximately one thousand three hundred fifty homes and churches that are on the National Historic Register. The Association sees its first duty as to “sustain and enhance the quality of the historic neighborhood by preserving its environmental and architectural character and to encourage a sense of community among its residents.” While it is home to many families who have been here for generations, Central Gardens is also on the short list of places for professionals moving to Memphis for the first time.
Central Gardens has its own annual attraction, one that makes it a showplace. For forty-one years the Home and Garden Tour has brought appreciative and creative people from all over to see what Midtown elegance looks like, behind closed doors . The event routinely draws over a thousand people, and gets area businesses involved. The Central Gardens Association is still learning at fifty. The Association has put together a free app, available on Smartphone, for a GPS-enabled tour of more than eighty of Central Gardens’ showplace homes. And many of the neighborhood’s historic trees. You see, besides the picture-book residences, Central Gardens is classified as a Level 3 Arboretum, with more than one hundred trees over eighty years old.
Memphis Drum Shop
A couple of years ago a drummer, an Englishman, showed up at the Memphis Drum Shop. He had heard of the place and wanted to see what it was all about. He wasn’t the first English drummer Jim Pettit had ever met. But his story was different. It seems the guy’s wife offered him a ticket to anywhere he wanted to go. “Anywhere,” was the store in Cooper Young. “I have always enjoyed people, music and drums,” Jim Pettit says. Obviously. He and his wife Nancy started the place in 1987, right across from Ardent Recording. In 1991 they moved into their present location on South Cooper . The shop has expanded and evolved. “It’s a cross between a brick and mortar store and an internet store,” Jim says. Drums, sticks, stands, cymbals, cases; the store is packed with the tools of aspiring drummers and professionals alike. It gives them a place to talk shop. And play.
“The concerts, clinics, workshops and student recitals keep us in touch with our local core of business.” Then there’s the Memphis Gong Chamber, which Jim describes as “Unique to the world in the number and size of gongs it houses,” That too pulls in customers, artists, tourists to hear a sound that is both brassy and spiritual. The Midtown Memphis Development Corporation is happy to bang the gong for Memphis Drum, with a Mojo of Midtown Award.
OUTMemphis
The Midtown Memphis Development Corporation is pleased to present a Mojo of Midtown Award to the good neighbors at OUTMemphis. Since 1989 (when it was known as Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center) this organization has been the center of life for many LGBTQ citizens of the Mid-South. “Our mission is to empower, connect, educate and advocate,” says Executive Director Will Batts. At its heart OUTMemphis is a community center offering programs, like The OUTFlix Film Fesitval, Pot Luck Nights and Game Nights, that give people a place to gather and connect. It is also a social services agency with programs aimed at high-profile problems such as HIV infection and addiction. Now OUTMemphis is focusing on problems that are just as important, if not as visible. Homelessness among the young is one.
Although young LGBTQ citizens make up only five percent of the population, one study shows they are forty percent of the homeless population. The root cause, in many cases, is family intolerance. “You get kicked out when you come out,” says Will Batts. “It’s something we are familiar with. We’ve been that person, we know those people.” The homeless young in the LGBTQ population “need a place to stay, need some help, need some food.” OUTMemphis is also looking at the aging of the population and seeing problems that are also rooted in lack of acceptance. LGBTQ seniors are twice as likely to live alone, half as likely to have a spouse or a partner. Many, for years, “have been cut off from their families. They don’t have support systems that come with biological families Some of them are still ostracized by families.” If a community is a place where one finds acceptance and support then OUTMemphis is the definition of that. And we are pleased to recognize them.
Thomas Boggs
Being one of the people behind Memphis All-Time Best Hamburger is enough to warrant a Mojo of Midtown Award. That’s where we’ll start in honoring Thomas Boggs. He was synonymous with Huey’s starting in 1975. Huey’s was one of the very first bars in Memphis offering (in the quaint phrase) liquor-by-the-drink. And Thomas Boggs was a bartender. Then he went into management, then (with Jay Sheffield) became a partner. Thomas’ previous experience (with Friday’s) helped him see the casual dining trend coming. Huey’s upgraded the menu, spotlighting the hamburger (chosen by Memphis Magazine readers as the city’s best for over thirty years.) A landmark on Madison Avenue since opening day, Huey’s now has eight locations. Make that nine with a new one opening in Millington in May.
Huey’s also nurtures music; as home to Memphis longest-running jazz ensemble and as a stage for acts like Robert Cray and Omar and the Howlers. A lot of musicians made it big at Huey’s before they made it big elsewhere. We lost Thomas Boggs in 2008, but his memory lives. Huey’s is still a family business that, besides catering to our appetites, gives back to our community. In 2005 the company established a Huey’s Scholarship at the University of Memphis. They donate gift cards for fundraisers as varied as the Church Health Center, Memphis in May and St. Jude. And those tooth picks that cover the ceiling are more than just amusement. The company turned that into a give-back too. Customers buy a ticket, guess the number, and the money raised in the contest goes to the Memphis Zoological Society. $90,000 so far. Thomas Boggs would be proud that his company gives so much back to Memphis. Not bad for a guy who was a pretty good drummer back in the day.