The Early Word: Music plays on at Lafayette’s, and a wing deal goes bad
Good morning, Memphis, and happy birthday to Elvis! It’s Wednesday, Jan. 8, and The King would have turned 90 today. Graceland is celebrating this morning with a birthday proclamation on the mansion’s lawn, followed by cake and coffee for all at Vernon’s Smokehouse. There’s also a new “90 for 90” exhibition opening today with, yep, 90 artifacts from Presley’s life.
The Shelby County Commission will consider a “no confidence” vote on the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board today. That’s in response to the board’s ongoing efforts to terminate Superintendent Marie Feagins. And tonight, the Memphis Tigers women’s team will play UAB in an away game.
Lafayette’s Music Room is not closing, despite what you might have read on social media. But the Overton Square music club is changing its hours. Lafayette’s will now only be open four days a week, which its parent company says is an attempt to “keep the party going on.” Lafayette’s, an influential music venue in the early 1970s, reopened in 2014, nearly 40 years after it closed.
Memphis-based restaurant Wing Guru has been using Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant’s image to sell chicken. And now they owe him more than $365,000. Wing Guru had a deal with Morant to use his name, image and likeness for restaurant ads, but just months after the contract was signed, the restaurant abruptly stopped paying Morant. An independent arbitrator ruled last July that the restaurant owes Morant money for breaching the deal, and now Morant’s lawyers are asking a Shelby County Chancellor to affirm that ruling and for the restaurant to pay up.
Plus, marchers remember Tyre Nichols, the Landers Center head is fired and owners of a Cooper-Young sober home file a lawsuit.
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Bianca Phillips
Bianca Phillips is a Northeast Arkansas native and longtime Memphian who’s worked in local journalism and PR for more than 20 years. In her days as a reporter, she covered everything from local government and crime to LGBTQ issues and the arts. She’s the author of “Cookin Crunk: Eatin’ Vegan in the Dirty South,” a cookbook of vegan Southern recipes.
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