With the help of the University of Memphis, a deteriorating neighborhood may once again find its soul.

By Sara Hoover

It’s fair to say most consider the pen to be mightier than the sword. But how about a pair of drumsticks? Or a paintbrush? That is the new concept the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is taking — that the arts can infuse economic development and prove its might.

New NEA chair Rocco Landesman recently completed his Artworks Tour around the country, carrying with him this concept that art can function as art, but can also put people to work, with a specific emphasis on places where there’s a connection between art, creativity and economic development. During his visit to Memphis hosted by the Hyde Family Foundations, Landesman saw only three projects and one was from the U of M.

Memphis Music Magnet is a unique, arts-based neighborhood revitalization program begun by U of M assistant professor Charlie Santo and graduate students in the city and regional planning program in the School of Urban Affairs & Public Policy. The target area is near Stax Records and the surrounding neighborhood in downtown Memphis known as Soulsville, which produced legends Sam & Dave, Isaac Hayes, Rufus and Carla Thomas and Otis Redding.

Aretha Franklin’s birth  home, which may be moved to the Soulsville area. Photos by Lindsey Lissau.

“People marvel that so many of the stars at Stax lived within blocks. In the old days, the record store in front of Stax was the catalyst place,” says Dean Deyo, president of the Memphis Music Foundation. “People would meet there and because of that, things would kind of happen. A musicians’ village in a historical area where musicians would gather is a way for us to not force something to happen, but put all the ingredients in one location and then allow it to happen. Once we saw it would help to restore and save a neighborhood, the economic benefit to the city was just a huge bonus.”

The neighborhood has historical relevance not only in music. Ida B. Wells sold her anti-lynching papers on the corner of Mississippi and Walker. Bishop Mason, who founded Church of God in Christ, lived in the neighborhood, as did J.E. Walker, who owned Universal Life Insurance, which was one of the largest African-American life insurance companies in the country at one time. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last strategic planning for the march in Memphis and the Poor People’s Campaign also happened there.

“This is one of the lowest income census tracks in this county,” says Jeffrey Higgs, executive director of the LeMoyne-Owen CDC. “As we try to bring the community back, this neighborhood was selected because this is the place where a lot of the musicians said, ‘If we do (Memphis Music Magnet) in this town, this is where we ought to do it.’”

Like the program itself, the origins of the Memphis Music Magnet began in a very collaborative, equitable way.

“The students really developed the nuts and bolts of the concept,” says Santo. “It’s what the University is really focusing on, the idea of engaged scholarship and community engagement. It’s their opportunity to develop a concept from scratch, test their ideas, have real interaction with the community. When we started this thing, I knew as little as the students did. I’ve never developed a creative arts-based program before. They were as likely to put an idea out there as I was.”

Sam Powers, master’s student in city and regional planning, took Santo’s class that helped shape the project.

Charlie Santo

The class conducted case studies by visiting other cities that had similar programs, such as Chattanooga, Tenn., and Paducah, Ky.

“It really helps to look at alternative approaches to economic development and also at different case studies around the country of what’s been successful.”

Powers hopes to pursue a career in community and economic development with a nonprofit organization when he graduates and this has helped prepare him.

“It definitely gives me a better idea of how to start a project like this and get it off the ground, what type of people you need to contact, who to get involved, who not to get involved.”

Besides case studies, students conducted background research and were involved with document preparation and design elements.

“We’ve really gotten to participate in the whole process — it wasn’t just a classroom class,” says city and regional planning master’s student John Shaffer. “We got out, facilitated meetings, participated in the interviews. You really just get to see how important having creative collaboration with people is.”

Other partners in the Memphis Music Magnet include: Memphis Heritage, Architecture Inc., Soulsville Foundation, Black Arts Alliance, Hyde Family Foundations, the City of Memphis Division of Housing & Community Development and the Memphis & Shelby County Office of Planning & Development.

One of the people responsible for facilitating these partnerships and getting their buy-in was Eric Robertson (BA ’04), president of Soulsville Neighborhood Association and chief administrative officer for the City Center Commission.

“We have the opportunity to create a one-of-a-kind national model for community development by engaging portions of the creative class as a spark for comprehensive community revitalization,” says Robertson. “This will be a true bottom-up and top-down approach. Where it’s not just top-down and just bottom-up, but a real balance of the two, which makes for a unique situation.”

Stax Recording Studio historical area that launched many musical careers.

The recent national exposure has helped the project gain momentum, partners and possible future funding.

“Having the Hydes’ buy in, the NEA visit along with Representative (Steve) Cohen and Senators (Lamar) Alexander and (Bob) Corker has got us on the radar in a pretty cool way because now they have this information in their back pocket,” says Santo. “When they want to talk about the importance of funding arts in Memphis, there are three projects they talk about and ours is one of them. That’s pretty cool.”

After a planning phase is complete, implementation will begin and be conducted by the community stakeholders. The University will then hand the project off to the neighborhood.

One component the project has already begun is the rehabilitation of Memphis Slim’s house with Memphis Heritage. U of M and other volunteers cleared out the first floor of Memphis Slim’s, including a tree that was growing in the middle of the house.

They are also working to figure out how Aretha Franklin’s birth home fits into the overall plan. The house is currently located a mile and a half southwest of the targeted area and may possibly be moved into the Stax neighborhood.

“As much as I don’t believe in moving historic things around, this makes sense only because it’s going to be very difficult to get revitalization that far south and west in a period of time that would probably save Aretha’s house,” says June West, executive director of Memphis Heritage. “We consider Stax the birth of soul, but I truly think it can be the soul of Memphis. If we don’t protect that type of special neighborhood, we’re going to regret it.”

The project will include other artists besides musicians.

“Expanding to other artists is part of our vision, even though the name is going to remain Music Magnet and the music focus is going to be there just because of the heritage of the neighborhood and what was organically created with that,” says Santo. “We do want to open it up to artists of all types to create that synergy and collaboration between different kinds of artists.”

Like the Music Foundation’s Resource Center downtown that has free resources for musicians, the Music Magnet project hopes to serve as a satellite version in Soulsville.

“What we’re trying to do is remove some of the barriers for people to be successful in that creative industry in Memphis,” says Santo. “We don’t have a lot of the music business infrastructure here. It’s hard to find that copyright attorney, booking agent. If we can get enough musicians clustered in one place and make some things easier, then we can create the critical mass of musicians. Then, the infrastructure will be built around it.”

The planning period is expected to take 10 months to work out the implementation details. Like Stax recording artists’ Booker T. and the MGs’ song, “Home Grown,” Santo wants to make sure the project remains inclusive and collaborative with neighborhood residents and that all grassroots concerns are addressed before moving forward.

Artspace, the nation’s leading creator and preserver of affordable space for artists and arts organizations, helped the project develop some implementation ideas.

“This is a great example of the University living out, ‘Dreamers. Thinkers. Doers,’” says Robertson. “A class and a professor had a vision, an idea and thought it through. We’re moving to the doing phase. So often the doing phase is not associated with universities and colleges. This is a great example of the University holding true to that ‘Dreamers. Thinkers. Doers.’”