Elvis turns 84, Willie Nelson brings friends to town, and "If Beale Street Could Talk" takes the screen as we run down some of our favorite things happening in Memphis this week. 

When members of the local Venezuelan alliance Venezolanos en Memphis learn of a fellow countryperson arriving in Memphis, often with nothing, they provide everything from clothing and mattresses to referrals for housing support.

The Memphis music community is launching an initiative called Year for Memphis Music to align and amplify local projects being created, says Visible Music College president Ken Steorts.

Graceland has released the schedule of events celebrating what would have been Elvis Presley’s 84th birthday next week.

The Crosstown Arts Theater and South Main Artspace Lofts both opened this year. Besides being spaces built with artists in mind, the spaces also have something else in common – the projects were designed by Memphis architecture firm Looney Ricks Kiss.

According to 2018 TNReady test scores almost 80 percent of Shelby County Schools' third-graders are not proficient in reading. Read901, convened by Literacy Mid-South, is working to get 90 percent of third-graders reading at grade level by 2025.

Shelby County Environmental Court Judge Patrick Dandridge heard a status update about Aretha Franklin’s birthplace on Dec. 12.

Founded in 2015, The Collective (CLTV) has a three-part mission: empowering black artists, using their creative expression to elevate the black community and using the first two parts to shift the culture in Memphis.

Memphis author, screenwriter and playwright April “Skyy” Blair decided 2018 would be her “year of yes,” a leap of faith to start saying yes to things she normally would not consider.

Local organizations getting funds for technology enhancements, personnel training through Coummnuity Foundation grants.

Macmillan published Alice Faye Duncan’s first children’s book in 1995. Sterling Children’s Books will release Duncan’s latest, “A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks” on Jan. 1. Duncan will host a virtual book signing where she will read Brooks’ poems from the book, as well as discuss her significance in American literature.

The Weekly Memphian is a partial guide to things happening in Memphis, recommended by Daily Memphian staff. This guide covers December 19-23.

Sam & Dave, the gospel-tinged soul duo who recorded a series of hits at Memphis’ Stax Records in the mid-1960s, is being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Recording Academy.

Fifty-six voters from nine Southern states named “Roma,” director Alfonso Cuaron’s autobiographically influenced return to his native Mexico, the best film of 2018 in annual voting of the Southeastern Film Critics Association.

Fifty Shelby County Schools pre-kindergarten teachers and administrators began professional development workshops in early childhood visual arts curricula, art center management strategies and the connections between visual arts, literacy and early childhood development in late September.

The Snow Queen in New Ballet Ensemble & School’s 2018 performances of “Nut ReMix” comes all the way from Zurich. But how she came to perform with the group actually begins in Italy.

The Weekly Memphian is a partial guide to things happening in Memphis, recommended by Daily Memphian staff. This week's list covers Dec. 12-17. 

While Charles “Lil Buck” Riley rehearsed for this year’s edition of "Nut ReMix" at New Ballet Ensemble & School on Monday afternoon, a crew of two filmed him for an upcoming television dance docuseries.

Kaywin Feldman, who served as director of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art from 1999 to 2007, has been named director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

A local magician is working to bring back the art of magic to the Memphis area. Jeff Day, who specializes in a Victorian style of magic, performs across the Mid-South for a wide range of audiences.

Earlier this week Kaywin Feldman was named the first female director of the National Gallery of Art in the museum’s 77-year history – and nobody in Memphis was surprised.

Growing up, Dan McCleary, founder of Memphis' Tennessee Shakespeare Company, was exposed to Shakespeare in the way many students are today — in its written form.

The Levitt Shell at Overton Park is getting a new executive director as Shelby Farms Park executive Natalie Wilson announced she will be taking over at the helm.

“Ain’t gonna take no mess.”

Visible Music College president Ken Steorts has joked that the institution for higher learning has a secret FM radio station. The station, on the dial at 100.3 FM, is not a secret exactly.