Neighborhoods around the U of M area
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Know Your Neighborhood A Memphis historian and tour guide came to The University of Memphis in October for a presentation about the University District area.
Jimmy Ogle highlighted a total of seven neighborhood districts that surrounds the U of M campus for his part seven series of "Know Your Neighborhood" Centennial Edition. The series centered on the development of U of M before 1912, the growth of the University District from 1912 to now and changes to the campus after being a state teacher's college. The school opened to whites in 1912 with no students under 16 years of age and the cost of tuition was a $2.00 registration fee. Ogle also spoke about businesses that make the neighborhood--eateries, record shops and mechanic shops just to name a few have been around for decades and plan to continue serving the community. The University District's recorded population in 1940 was 1,194 predominantly white residents. "Know Your Neighborhood" will continue in 2013 with a date soon to be announced. RELATED LINKS: West Tennessee Normal School Jimmy Ogle |
Learning about suicide prevention in an interesting way
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Suicide Prevention A campus organization seeks to help students and raise awareness about suicide prevention through activities.
Memphis steps, is a campus based suicide prevention program at The University of Memphis that presented a mask workshop to students in September. Akil Davis, a theater performer in New York was the guest artist for the workshop. Davis used masks on participants to explain how one's image of themselves reflect in the world. The purpose of the workshop was to remove unhealthy anger, fear and life changing events. Approximately every 13.7 minutes someone dies by suicide in the U.S. according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Men have been reported to die by suicide more than women but attempts are made more rapidly in women due to depression. The organization's goal was to present this workshop in an interesting way for students to share how body movements and "masking" can help prevent most situations leading to suicidal gestures and behaviors. Students at U of M are considered high risk for mental or behavioral health problems associated with suicide by 50 percent. RELATED LINKS: Memphis Steps Mental Health |
Dana Porter
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Parking Day One of Downtown's busiest streets will have its parking spaces turned into public park installations for the second annual celebration of Park(ing) Day.
Park(ing) Day is an international event where artists transform a parking meter space into a creative idea, The event which spans six continents will create about 975 "parks" in 162 cities in 35 countries. Sixteen teams of artists from Memphis nonprofit art groups, individuals and businesses will participate in the event that will be along Peabody Place between Front and Second Street. The Park(ing) Day idea began in San Francisco, Calif., in 2005 by Rebar, an art and design studio that leased a metered parking spot and transformed the wide area of public space into a temporary public park. Catherine Blackwell Pena, co-producer of Memphis' Park(ing) Day and teacher at Memphis College of Art, said Park(ing) Day took several years to implement because of permission from the City of Memphis. The Downtown Memphis Commission is the second co-producer of the event. "We are always looking for ideas on street animations and we re-envision how communities look at public space and how we use space for cars," said Dawn Vinson, DMC's director of marketing and special events. Related Links: The Daily News The Memphis Flyer |
Park(ing) Day VO-SOT-VO |
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Levitt Shell For 76 years, The Levitt Shell has provided free concerts for Memphians in the Overton Park area.
The Levitt Shell, known to locals as ''The Shell' provides 50 free shows a year. The fall season provides 25 live shows from September 6th to October 14th and the year continues with 25 shows for the summer season beginning in May. This season from September 6th through the 9th is Rock for Love 6 a weekend annual benefit for a nonprofit group, Church Health Center. The first show of the fall season brought musician Paul Thorn Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. The support from the community helped construct funding to stay in business. The City of Memphis signed a management and renovation agreement to revitalize the venue in 2006. Local sponsers, donations and annual $100,000 dollar budget given by The mortimer and Mimi Levitt Foundation assist with funding. During the concerts, a fundraising bucket parades around the audience in donating what they can for the venue. Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash's first professional live show was perfomed at Levitt Shell. For more information on how to become a sponsor or donate funds visit: Levitt Shell RELATED LINKS Memphis Business Journal The Daily News |