The Early Word: University hotel closes, and fire follows Clayborn leader
Party time! Excellent! It’s Friday, May 23, and school is officially out for summer for all public school students in Shelby County. The last holdouts, Memphis-Shelby County Schools and Millington Municipal Schools, let out today. Later, you have permission to indulge as musician Alex Wong pairs Chinese dishes with music from his latest album, “Permission Party,” at Imagine Vegan Cafe.
Memphis in May International Festival wraps up Saturday with the annual Great American River Run race through Downtown. And on Sunday, you can pick up some Memorial Day pool skills by watching Zaire Love’s documentary, “Slice,” at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Slicing is a style of pool diving created by Black men and kids in Memphis.
For even more ideas, check out The To-Do List. Also, Monday is Memorial Day, so you’ll (hopefully) get a long weekend.
The University of Memphis’ Holiday Inn is closing on July 3 for renovations, and there’s no word on a reopening. The U of M says its management contract with Valor Hospitality also ends July 3 and will not be renewed. The hotel’s workers were told this week that the hotel is closing, and there was no mention of renovations. The 85-room hotel is the centerpiece of the U of M’s $15 million Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality and Resort Management, and it hasn’t seen an update since it opened in 2002. The sudden closure has left at least one organization, which had a planned event on the calendar, scrambling.
Historic Clayborn Temple’s director Anasa Troutman’s house caught fire about two weeks before the Downtown church burned down. And a few days later, a fire occurred on her family’s land in East Tennessee. Troutman revealed that info during a Zoom press conference, following Wednesday’s news that the Clayborn fire was caused by arson. Troutman said she isn’t sure if the fires are connected and that it could be “a crazy coincidence.” All three fires remain under investigation.
Plus, the Memphis City Council wants to slash MATA funding, Riverside Drive is going on a diet and we’ve got the tea, er, juice on a new shop at Crosstown.
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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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