Memphis News Today: Stories That Matter to Our City

A native Memphian is behind a new film about the first fully-integrated college football team in the U.S. TV and film trade publication Deadline reports that Ben Cory Jones’ “Black Spartans” is set to go into production this fall in Atlanta. Jones serves as both co-writer and director. The film’s inspiration is the Michigan State University’s Spartans,…

Lonnie Robinson’s oil painting of Larry Leon Hamlin and Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin is part of the ”Black Theatre Royalty: Portraits from the Hattiloo Theatre Collection” exhibition on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022, in the main gallery of the Rhodes Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. “Black Theatre Royalty” is on loan by the Hattiloo Theatre, which commissioned the portrait…

A young woman from Memphis is getting attention from all over the world for her art. She recently illustrated a book by famous rapper and actor, Ludacris Bridges. The book, “Daddy and Me and the Rhyme to Be,” has Parker-Nia Gordon’s name on the cover. “They said that ‘Ludacris wanted you to illustrate his book’,…

Phillip Ashley Rix started out by selling his chocolates from the trunk of his four-door sedan. Now he’s got a partnership with one of the most legendary names in automotive history: In June, Rix was named the exclusive chocolatier of Cadillac. The Phillip Ashley brand, based in Memphis, has built its success on unorthodox flavor…

When “The Gray Man” — based on a book by Memphis novelist Mark Greaney — made its screen and streaming debut last month, it earned one of Netflix’s top five launch weeks. The Netflix film stars Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans and, with more than 88.5 million viewing hours over its first three days, it remained…

AP News reported that the Black repertory theater is set to open a tuition-free school in a historic church that will be renovated by a community development agency after decades of decay. The program is slated to kick off in late 2023. The Third Presbyterian Church was organized in 1856 and completely built in 1860.…

October 5, 2021 is a day Brett Batterson will never forget. That’s when Come From Away opened at the Orpheum Theatre in Downtown Memphis, marking the return to live performance after 18 months of pandemic shutdown. “That opening night is one of the greatest nights I’ve ever experienced in my career,” says Batterson, the Orpheum’s president and…

A Black repertory theater in Memphis says it plans to open a tuition-free school for at-risk students and other groups in a historic church that will be renovated after falling into disrepair. Hattiloo Theatre said the new program is expected to begin in late 2023. Students will be accepted based on auditions, and two-thirds of…