Memphis News Today: Stories That Matter to Our City

Story By Martie Bowser | Originally published on Blavity.com Memphis is often hailed as the birthplace of blues and barbecue, but it offers much more. With over 64% of its population identifying as Black, culture is alive and thriving in “Bluff City.” The Lorraine Motel — one of the most significant monuments in Memphis — is engraved in history as…

By Ekundayo Bandele There once was a Black high school student who carried a caged song in his heart as he wandered the road of his life. There once was a Black veteran who carried an untold story in her memory. And there once were Union troops who marched into Galveston, Texas, and delivered the…

Hey Memphis! Big tech news is headed our way. Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has unveiled plans to build a cutting-edge supercomputer, dubbed the “Gigafactory of Compute,” right here in our city. This supercomputer aims to be a game-changer in the AI world! What’s the Buzz About? The new supercomputer will leverage up to 100,000…

The urban design category of Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards honors landscapes, public spaces, initiatives, and policies that make cities cleaner, more efficient, more beautiful, and more equitable for their citizens. This year’s winner is TMC Helix Park from Mikyoung Kim Design. The 37-acre life-sciences campus in Houston has six public gardens that create…

It’s 100 days until the start of the 2024 college football season, and Memphis is getting plenty of buzz as a potential College Football Playoff contender. That came in the form of ESPN’s rankings of “10 (Group of Five) teams that can make the Playoff,” which was released Thursday morning alongside other college football preview…

Viewpoints As Infrastructure Week 2024 continues, Blair Taylor, president of Memphis Tomorrow, shares the journey of Memphis from one of the country’s least connected cities to a model of equitable connectivity. In the heart of the American South, Memphis is both a repository of rich heritage and history, and a beacon of resilience, innovation, and community spirit.…

The former Melrose High School building in Memphis could have been like any other shuttered public school in the country. Built in the 1930s and closed in 1979, the three-story brick building had become obsolete and unnecessary. But unlike other old schools around the country, this one had a unique place in U.S. history. The…

Strands of chartreuse, gold and sapphire lights reflect off of the dark, rolling currents of the Mississippi River as Lauryn Hill takes the stage. Trading bar for bar with fellow Fugee Wyclef Jean at the forefront of a 10-piece band, the reunited hip-hop act electrifies a swarm of smartphone lights and the occasional cigarette lighter…

Why’s an electrical engineer and city planner convinced arts and culture are the key to his city’s future? For first-year Memphis mayor Paul Young, the answer is simple. “I believe arts and culture are part of the formula for economic development for our city,” Young told Forbes.com. “As we think about how cities are growing across…