“If feels like a crisis,” said the Flyer’s Anna Traverse Fogle. “We can’t do the kinds of community engagement we normally do,” said High Ground‘s Emily Trenholm. “It’s difficult building relationships with people when you can’t see them in person,” said MLK50‘s Wendi C. Thomas. “We’ve been looking to our Chalkbeat family for strategies on how to reach people who are at home,” said Chalkbeat Tennessee‘s Caroline Bauman.

These were just some of the thoughts expressed during StoryBoard’s first-ever panel discussion on Community News, an industry that was already struggling before the pandemic shutdown. Today, like so many other businesses and industries, it is in crisis. Join host Mark Fleischer as he and these four local industry leaders discuss the perils of today’s community, non-profit and independent news, as well as explore solutions to engaging with and reaching those disinvested communities in need of important news and information. Part 1 of 3.

“It had an immediate impact on us – we had three shows up and running. We’re a resident professional theater company, so everybody gets paid, and these were folks who were suddenly going to be out of work. Now, we promised everybody that we were going to fulfill payment on all of their contracts, and we’ve done so. So, there aren’t going to be any layoffs. But we’re a not-for-profit entity, and with all these expenses – we averaged out what our earned income would have been with an eight-week shutdown – we came to almost $180,000 of income loss over these eight weeks. It’s a pretty hefty hit for us. But we know there are other not-for-profit organizations out there getting hit a lot worse than us. We want to make sure folks know the hardship that we are all going through, across all our sectors, in the arts.”

That’s Playhouse’s Executive Producer Michael Detroit, talking to host Mark Fleischer this past Tuesday, March 24, 2022, about the severe economic impact of the coronavirus stoppage on Playhouse on the Square and all other arts organizations in Memphis.

Listen in to this special edition of StoryBoard 30, recorded in Zoom.

“The grief really never leaves. You tend to put it in its proper place and carry on with the work you have to do to close the school and honor the commitment to the students. But the undercurrent of grief is always there. Certain events really stoke it up some more, like our recent art sale, going through our collection of art, and seeing the vast history of pieces from the ’30s and ’40s and ’50s, every decade, reminded us of our history but also the vacuum that’s going to exist when we close our doors.”

That’s Laura Hine, President of Memphis College of Art, talking about the raw emotions that echo around Rust Hall in the final months of this important Memphis institution.

Join StoryBoard 30 host Mark Fleischer for this candid conversation with Laura Hine as she talks about the legacy of MCA, the heartbreaking decisions that led to its closing, and the struggles that many institutions of higher education face nationwide.

“Before I ever got here, I thought a parking garage would be a great solution. And I know a lot of people in town have thought the same thing. We want to be very careful about what we do in Overton Park and with the Zoo, but there’s new technology, things become more affordable in terms of what can constructed – a lot of people are working on these solutions, Mayor Strickland’s team is working hard – and we’re hoping to get that garage built… without paving any of the Greensward.”

That’s Jim Dean, almost a year into his job as CEO of the Memphis Zoo, talking to host Mark Fleischer about new solutions at work to resolve zoo parking issues that have been a source of friction for almost five years. The Memphis Zoo and its leadership team is one of the recipients of this year’s Mojo of Midtown Awards, for taking the zoo in a new direction that is “bringing back the roar back to a Midtown landmark.” It is the largest and oldest institution in Overton Park, and with their new direction – which includes “hitting the pause button” on parking plans that would have paved 2 1/2 acres of the Greensward – supports the overall health and welfare of Overton Park as a whole.

Join host Mark Fleischer for this candid conversation with Jim Dean as he talks about Midtown and his return to Memphis after a 40-year absence, and about the future of the Memphis Zoo under his leadership.

“I was 40 years old. I wasn’t the world’s oldest intern, I was the intern that never left.”

That’s Emily Trenholm, one of 2020's Mojo of Midtown Award recipients, talking about her start with the Community Development Council back in 2000, when the organization was just forming.

“Community development corporations (CDCs) are nonprofits that are engines of neighborhood revitalization,” said Emily. “They work on affordable housing development, job programs and workforce development and commercial revitalization, all focused on the physical and economic improvement of a particular geography, or neighborhood. Here in Memphis you’ll seen them in Orange Mound, Klondike-Smokey City, Frayser, Whitehaven. In the ’90s a lot of them got together informally to talk about shared concerns, and then in 1999 they decided to form a local association to more formally and more intentionally advocate on behalf of their shared interests organizationally and from a policy perspective.”

Join host Mark Fleischer as he talks to Emily Trenholm about receiving her Mojo award, about the evolution of Memphis CDCs over the last 20 years, and about her role in bringing neighborhood and community news to readers through High Ground News.

Is 2020 the year when we will see an indoor event in the Mid-South Coliseum?

The Coliseum has been empty since 2006, when “Memphis was at low civic ebb in enthusiasm,” as Marvin Stockwell said. The FedEx Forum and the Pyramid were open and in use, and the Mid-South Coliseum was seen as obsolete. However, since 2015, various groups of passionate individuals, including StoryBoard 30 guests Marvin Stockwell and Chooch Pickard of the Coliseum Coalition, have been hard at work connecting community members, city officials, and other nonprofits, joining forces to bring the Coliseum back to life.

Join host Mark Fleischer as he sits down with Marvin and Chooch to discuss where the efforts to revitalize this historic structure are now, and what to expect in 2020.

“We see homeless adults all the time. They are very visible. But when you think about children, they’re in the classroom all day. The numbers of homeless kids are staggering, up to 1300-1400 in Shelby County. It’s traumatic for these kids. As a teacher, you have to ‘teach’ to that level of trauma – forget math, forget reading, you have to teach to the trauma first.”

That’s Sheleah Harris, founder of Living Grace, the organization dedicated to assisting homeless children and families through the difficulties faced with being displaced while also trying to get through school. (If you know of any children or families that need help, please visit the Living Grace website here at LivingGraceMemphis.Org)

Join host Mark Fleischer as he talks to Ms. Harris about the challenges and various programs available in helping kids and families through these difficult circumstances.

“There are about 27,000 veterans in the Mid-South. And we’re reaching people finally, but truthfully, the hardest part is finding veterans who want to talk. Even after World War I, soldiers came home and didn’t talk about what they saw. Soldiers, marines, sailors… it’s something that happened to them and something that no one else can understand. But if someone can reach out to me, then I’ll call them on the phone.”

That’s Vietnam War veteran George Larrimore, talking to host Mark Fleischer about inviting veterans in to talk on his WYPL Channel 18 show “Vietnam360.” Listen in to this special episode of StoryBoard 30 show from WYPL and be sure that the veterans in your family listens in as well.

“The Heights has about ten percent of Memphis’s vacant and blighted structures. Addressing this was identified as a priority, but what was realized was that addressing one housing project at a time probably was not going to affect the kind of community development that the neighborhood wanted to see."

“‘We rise by lifting others‘ is our motto… So we took our cues from cities that had been successful in revitalizing challenging areas like this one. And what their finding was that investment in walkable places and neighborhood centers, with a wide variety of uses – that these places are achieving the types of return that cities really need to see, that create a better quality of life for people living there. There’s high economic return on investment because of social return, dollars following where people want to be, in places created for people. When we talk about ‘return’ we’re also talking about people returning and businesses returning to these places.”

That’s Dane Forlines, director of special projects for The Heights CDC, talking to host Mark Fleischer about the real social and economic impact of reinvesting in walkable urban neighborhoods to bring struggling Memphis neighborhoods like The Heights back to life. Listen in this episode of StoryBoard 30, from FM 89.3 WYPL, as the two discuss the efforts of The Heights and other neighborhoods like it that are focused on bringing a higher quality of life back to long disinvested communities.

“What we found was that market forces tended to favor growth within the geographic center of the city, from downtown to the eastern edge of the city along the Poplar corridor… and it left out a lot of areas of the city that otherwise would not see much activity. This was dissatisfying for everyone, and though we’re excited about growth, we want it to extend to all areas of the city, including Frayser and Raleigh and Hickory Hill. Memphis 3.0 helps us to provide answers as to how to make this happen.”

That’s John Zeanah, Director of Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning & Development, talking about why all Memphians should care about the comprehensive city plan called Memphis 3.0. Listen as host Mark Fleischer talks with Mr. Zeanah about long-term city planning and how the Division of Planning & Development uses 3.0 guidelines to encourage more equitable developments in this time of unprecedented Memphis growth.