|
The Arts Beat is a weekly deep-dive into Memphis arts, music, dance, theater, fashion, film and events. Keep scrolling for a roundup of the best arts and culture stories from the week. Have a story idea? Send it to eperry@dailymemphian.com.
Editor’s Note: The following contains mild spoilers.
On the surface, the TV series “G.R.I.T.S. (Girls Raised in the South)” is about three young women who frequent an Orange Mound skating rink.
A few minutes into the series, you realize that the show is actually about dreams — and the chances one is willing to take to make them come true.
Deji LaRay, an Atlanta native, created the show. The premiere season has its finale next Thursday, Dec. 18, on AMC Networks' streaming service ALLBLK.
Keisha (played by Newport News, Virginia-native Jasmine Sargent) is a server at a local barbecue spot. She does hair out of her house. Her dream is to do “celebrity hair” and move to Hollywood.
Francis (played by Memphis-native and rapper Aja “Slimeroni” Canyon) is a valet driver. She sells plates of food from her house. Her dream is to go to culinary school and become a chef.
Ty (played by Macon, Georgia-native Ashanti Harris) is a nursing student. She dreams of being a model (and also living in Los Angeles).
Word of a skating competition with a $50,000 prize could bring them closer to making their dreams a reality.
This is a TV series, however, so there are a few obstacles standing in the way.
 Jasmine Sargent plays Keisha. (Submitted)
In a Daily Memphian interview, Sargent talked about the show’s theme of bad decisions coming from good intentions.
“With so many of us coming from backgrounds of low income, low resources, some people are just going to make it work by any means necessary,” she said. “I’m super proud of the way the story is developed and showing all of it. Because it’s like, even the villains aren’t necessarily villains.”
LaRay echoed similar statements following a recent private screening in Memphis.
“I think a lot of people are struggling and a lot of people are trying to figure out how to make ends meet,” he said. “You see that’s a throughline that happens throughout the show. It’s not just being in a place, in an environment where there’s a lack of opportunity. I think people, even with a lot of money, have lost a lot. … I think it’s across the board.”
Memphis and Memphis music loom large in the series. Several actors are Memphians, including Elise Neal. Multiple actors are also Memphis musicians, such as Slimeroni and both members of 8Ball & MJG (in equally humorous, but morally opposite roles).
Chuck (played by Memphis rap legend 8Ball) is the charismatic rink owner whose utterances bring levity and more doses of Memphis authenticity to the mix.
Music feels like a character; its imprint weighs heavily on episodes. Though not exclusively, the show features contemporary Memphis music, including “Dirty” and “Voila” from Tangela (Mathis), “Black Magic,” “Jack and Jill” and “Have Mercy” from Talibah Safiya, and a song from Co Cash with a title I can’t include here.
 Deji LaRay at the 2022 Trumpet Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on April 23, 2022. (Credit: Faye Sadou/MediaPunch /IPX)
LaRay told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution that he has family in Memphis and wanted to showcase the complexity of a Southern city that has retained its charm.
“I think Memphis truly represents the South in a time now where a lot of Southern cities are losing their identity,” LaRay said, while in Memphis. “It’s sort of changing and growing and developing in many ways, but becoming gentrified. But I think Memphis is a city in the South, as well as maybe New Orleans, that truly still has its identity. Truly still has a soul. So we had an opportunity to put this show in Memphis and treat Memphis as a character on the show.”
Shot mostly in Atlanta, the show features lush, wide shots of the Memphis skyline. We see the lead character, Keisha, skating down Memphis streets. We also frequently see Francis on Monroe Avenue in the Edge District (in front of the Premiere Palace).
“Tha Palace” in the show is a stand-in for a Memphis institution: the Crystal Palace skating rink on South Third Street.
LaRay told the AJC that he wanted to film in Crystal Palace, but wasn’t able to since it had been shuttered in 2017 and was not in filming condition. So, Lilburn, Georgia’s Skate Along USA served as the stand-in.
Ironically, the AJC reports that Skate Along — in existence for nearly 50 years — itself closed in August 2025.
The closures are a commentary on the precarity of skate culture. Or at least the buildings that house it.
Another Memphis tie is the Memphis skate instructor who was the series’ skate choreographer, Ebony Lemons. Also known as Coach E, Lemons is the owner of Step & Skate Movement.
If you’ve been to Sunset Skate events on the Memphis riverfront, you’ve taken lessons from or skated near Lemons.
LaRay said roller skating was made a theme because of the nostalgia gleaned from going to the skating rink every weekend.
“It was a place that was always unpredictable,” he said. “You never knew what was going to happen. You could have a really, really great time, or you could run into a lot of trouble.”
He wanted to showcase skating on a TV screen, but wanted it to serve as the backdrop to the lives of the women, rather than being the central tenet.
 From left: Jasmine Sargent, Elise Neal, Ashanti Harris, Aja “Slimeroni” Canyon at Malco Studio on the Square on Dec. 4, 2025. (Elle Perry/The Daily Memphian)
After the Memphis screening, Harris and Sargent said part of their attraction to their characters was the similarities to themselves.
“When I got the (character) breakdown, I saw Keisha, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this girl is me.’ And it kind of scared me for a bit, to be honest. And then I was like, it would be wild, it would be so cool for my breakout role to be someone who’s very similar to myself.”
In a Zoom interview, Sargent said she and Keisha share so many of the same characteristics, down to the same favorite color.
“I saw that pretty much skating is Keisha’s life,” she said. “Skating was my life growing up.”
Slimeroni said she was sent the script and, without knowing the full story, she wanted to put herself out there and try something different.
“... I think people are recognizing me as more than just a (music) artist,” Slimeroni said, after the screening. “I’m multi-faceted. It feels good for Memphis to give me my flowers and for y’all to support me. (To) show me love.”
When asked about parts that stood out as specifically true to Memphis, Slimeroni said:
 Aja “Slimeroni” Canyon plays Francis. (Courtesy ALLBLK)
“(The character) Bria is very Memphis, because there’s a lot of girls out there that don’t play about their man, who (is) not their man,” she said.
Harris and Sargent did prep work for their Memphis portrayals.
Harris said she watched interviews of people from Memphis and imitated their speech. Slimeroni also helped her castmates nail their lines.
Sargent said she watched videos of Memphis content creators and listened to Memphis music.
“Our castmates were very helpful, as well,” she said.
When they got to Memphis (to film), the experience became richer.
“The culture, the food, actually getting to experience what we were acting out, being introduced to some of my castmates’ families and things like that, it added that last little touch,” she said.
She has another recent Memphis tie. Sargent appears in Eric Jerome Dickey’s “Friends and Lovers Part II,” which debuted on the Lifetime network on Sunday, Nov. 16.
Dickey, a Memphis native, was a best-selling author from Memphis.
“G.R.I.T.S.” also employed a dialect coach.
“Everything isn’t always about the accent,” LaRay said. “We’re not going to have every single person in the show sound the same, because everybody from Memphis don’t sound exactly the same.”
Setting the show in Memphis was a big challenge, LaRay said, because you could miss the mark.
“Memphis is very specific, and Memphis is very prideful,” LaRay said. “It’s one of the most prideful cities. People don’t play about this city. They let you know where they’re from, what you’re doing wrong. You can’t disrespect the city. None of that.”
LaRay said it was important to be careful in telling the story, making sure the right people were a part of the project.
 Elise Neal arrives at the AFI Fest premiere of “Song Sung Blue” on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, at TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Memphis-native Elise Neal portrays the grandmother of Ty’s 8-year-old daughter in the series.
“When I first saw this (show), I was so proud of you ladies, and I started to tell all of my friends that, yes, it’s about the skating competition, but it’s 100% about three women growing up,” Neal said after the screening. “And to me, that’s the heart of this whole television show.”
Dreams were a touchpoint in my interview with Sargent.
Sargent said that despite being from a small town and having limited access, she wanted people to know that you can make something from nothing. She’s hoping to inspire someone to pursue something out of the norm — in her case, acting — instead of playing it safe.
“All you have to do is dream,” she said. “All you have to do is believe. All you need is one little piece of belief. And just go hard on that one little piece, and you can make it happen.”
On Thursday, we’ll learn if Keisha, Francis and Ty’s beliefs and work were enough to push them closer to achieving their dreams.
..... |