Black Cream takes to stage in Frayser Connect summer concert series
“We’re just bringing, or creating, opportunities for people to stay in their community and have a good time,” Frayser Connect spokesperson Porsche Stevens said. (Mark Weber/Daily Memphian)
The Frayser Connect’s summer concert series is back this Friday, July 15, with a performance by local band Black Cream.
The event will also feature vendors and a food truck from Moore Food.
The first concert of this year’s series featured music from Prime Cut Band, food from Frayser’s own Chef Eli Townsend and wine tastings from Feast & Graze. Next month, the final concert in the series this year, local singer Talibah Safiya, will perform.
“We’re just bringing, or creating, opportunities for people to stay in their community and have a good time,” Frayser Connector spokesperson Porsche Stevens said.
“And it’s truly a safe space,” community ambassador Karen King added.
King moved to Frayser as a teenager and recalled always going outside the neighborhood to hang out.
Thomas “T.O.” Crivens and Black Cream will perform Friday as part of the Frayser Connect summer concert series. (Mark Weber/Daily Memphian file)
This is the organization’s second year doing the concert series, in response to a survey last year of what residents of the area want to see in their community.
Food and music always came up, Stevens said.
Stevens’ job at Frayser Connector is self-explanatory — she connects the residents of Frayser to resources and to each other. A big part of her job, she said, includes listening to what residents want and trying to implement their desires.
“We’re looking at ways to engage the entire community. The concert series is a family-friendly event, so we want everybody to come in. … That helps us strengthen our neighborhood and strengthen our connections,” Tiffany Clay, a community ambassador, said.
The neighborhood consists of more than 40,000 people. Stevens and the community ambassadors described Frayser’s population as one that is big on homeownership, with many households headed by women. It is also an area that appeals to outdoor activities with its rolling hills and rural feel.
The Frayser Connect Center sprouted from a grant that the Frayser Community Development Corporation received from MassMutual to improve community relations. The CDC hired Stevens, a media director and community ambassadors.
The center prints and distributes a monthly newsletter to thousands of residents, showing the happenings in the community. It also has a community garden and space for events. The concert space is a former church sanctuary, complete with pews and stained glass.
Stevens and the community ambassadors said they are already seeing an impact from the concert series.
It’s best measured by how many new faces they are seeing at the center and the calls they receive for information on all things Frayser, such as the newly-renovated Ed Rice Community Center.
“The word is getting out that we are the place to go for what’s happening in Frayser,” Stevens said.
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Black Cream Frayser Frayser ConnectDaja E. Henry
Daja E. Henry is originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a graduate of Howard University and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and currently is a general assignment reporter.
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