Mornin’ Memphis. It’s Thursday, Oct. 17, and one of my true culture heroes is in town today. 

That would be Spike Lee, director of the outright masterpiece “Do the Right Thing” and lots of other great movies, including the underrated “Get on the Bus,” about a group of men traveling from Los Angeles to the “Million Man March” in Washington, where they pick up an extra rider during a stop in Memphis. 

Lee is among the recipients of the National Civil Rights Museum’s annual Freedom Awards, which will be presented tonight at the Orpheum Theatre. Joining Lee among the honorees are broadcaster Xernona Clayton and NAACP Legal Defense Fund former president and director Sherrilyn Ifill.

Elsewhere, the Metal Museum’s annual “Repair Days” fundraiser begins today at its Downtown campus and local “swamp soul” musician Marcella Simeon will present her new album with an event at Crosstown’s Memphis Listening Lab. 

Your regularly scheduled Early Wordsmith Bianca Phillips is off today, so bear with me on this guided tour around town. 

THE NEED TO KNOW

Voters line up outside of the Second Baptist Church in East Memphis on the first day of early voting in Tennessee Oct. 16, 2024. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)

And the voting has begun: Early voting began in Shelby County yesterday with lines at many of the county’s 26 polling places. Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett was there and so was, of course, our Bill Dries. Four years ago, during the last presidential cycle, the combined early vote comprised nearly 80% of the county’s overall vote. Dries also takes a look at the Senate and Congressional races on the ballot. Early voting runs through Oct. 31, and if you didn’t make it out on Wednesday and want to know what all’s on the ballot, well, we’ve got a story for that. 

U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives supervisor Ryan Todd talks about illegal “Glock switches” at his East Memphis office June 28. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)

Switches bring stitches (or much worse): What happens when a pistol is modified with a gun-switch conversion device? It fires much more rapidly and with less precision. In the hands of an inexperienced shooter with ill intent, “it’s just a disaster,” says a local ATF agent. These cheap devices makes handguns more devastating and dangerous, and they are illegal, but have proliferated anyway. In the latest installment of our Point of Impact series on gun violence in Memphis, Julia Baker looks deeper into the issue of “switches.”

International Paper is laying off hundreds of workers as it reorganizes its overhead structure to be more profitable. (Courtesy International paper)

Layoffs at International Paper: It’s a volatile time at International Paper, one of three Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Memphis, as the company is laying off 400 local employees, among 650 in all, as it reorganizes its overhead structure to be more profitable, Jane Roberts reports. Individual IP employees are finding out their status this month. “We deeply feel the impact of every job loss in our city, even when the ultimate intent is to strengthen profitability and the health of the company,” Memphis Mayor Paul Young said. “International Paper has stated that these layoffs were necessary to build a more robust organization; we believe their dedication to Memphis remains strong.”

T for Texas, T for (Memphis) Tennessee: Reconext, a Texas-based electronics company, is launching a $9 million expansion into Memphis, its first facility in the state, which is set to create 200 new jobs in administrative, engineering and production areas.

MEET MEMPHIS

Alannah Williams, owner of Dance Like a Cupcake, at the kids market inside of the Cooper Young Festival. (Brad Vest/Special to The Daily Memphian)

Alannah Williams launched her baking business, Dance Like a Cupcake, at age 10 while living in Seoul, South Korea. But her military family moved around a lot, so she soon found herself restarting her business in Germany and then Japan and now in Memphis. With each move, she had to learn new ingredients, proportions and rules around selling baked goods. Now, at age 17, she’s getting the business off the ground here by selling her vegan cookies at Painted Tree marketplace in Cordova and at various markets and pop-ups (like the recent Cooper-Young Fest, where she sold out within four hours). Want to give Williams’ cookies a try? She’s got a couple pop-up dates coming up soon. -- Bianca Phillips

THE NICE TO KNOW

Memphis Grizzlies center Zach Edey (14) reaches for a rebound with Indiana Pacers forward Isaiah Jackson (22) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (Doug McSchooler/AP Photo)

Getting ready to growl again: The Grizzlies still have one more preseason game to go before the scores start mattering next week, but they’re ramping up. Taylor Jenkins provided an injury update at practice on Wednesday, with some good news and some bad news. Also ramping up for the coming season: Your Daily Memphian Grizzlies writers. Drew Hill and I offered up league-wide predictions on this week’s Grizzlies podcast, so I reserve the right to change my mind when I write on the subject this week. Speaking of which, a little self-promotion: I wrapped up my preseason column series on the team’s roster this week with a piece on rookie big man Zach Edey. Earlier installments: On Jaren Jackson Jr., on Kennard and Marcus Smart, on Morant and Desmond Bane and on Santi Aldama and Brandon Clarke. 

‘Table’ for two: In this week’s Table Talk newsletter, Mary Cashiola has lunch (and breakfast and dinner too) with Edible Memphis editor Stacey Greenberg, before taking a look around the Memphis food scene. 

Alberta Hunter’s “Amtrak Blues”

A mind to ramble: Forty years ago today, a grand, long life, one that began in Memphis at the tail end of the 19th century, came to an end. Alberta Hunter sang with Louis Armstrong, wrote Bessie Smith’s first hit, collaborated with W.C. Handy and shared the London stage with Paul Robeson. Then she spent more than 20 years working as a nurse in a New York hospital before experiencing an unlikely octogenarian encore, one perhaps best captured by her 1980 comeback album “Amtrak Blues.” Today, I add that terrific album to the “Essential Memphis Library” I’ve been building. 

In the spirit of election season, I’ll note that you don’t have Herrington to kick around any more because, gentlemen, this is my last Early Word (of the week). Bianca Phillips will be back tomorrow. 

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