2017 Issue 5 Sep/Oct - Focus Mid-South Magazine

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Always Possible Salon FIND YOUR ZEN IN THE HEART OF COOPER-YOUNG NEW STUDENT SPECIAL FIRST CLASS FREE 30 DAYS FOR $30 Schedule Today • POWER YOGA • BEGINNERS • RESTORATIVE UNLIMITED YOGA $60/MONTH* *12 mo. contract required • VINYASA • YIN • BUTI YOGA • HATHA • MASSAGE THERAPY David Bishop 901-262-9398 Larry DeLancey 901-233-5400 Erika Houston 901-833-4229 Scott Williams 901-246-4389 1475 Madison Avenue Memphis, TN 38104 2163 YOUNG AVE • MEMPHIS TN 901.207.7099 • WWW.COYOYOGA.COM LIKE US, FOLLOW US. STAY UP TO DATE. www.premierlane.com THANK YOU for fighting so hard this legislative session DRINKS TILL 3AM FOOD TILL 2AM 21 AND UP 119 S. MAIN MEMPHIS, TN 38103 BE SURE TO CHECK FACEBOOK AND TWITTER FOR THE PASSWORD www.blindbearmemphis.com Sign up for our newsletter and action email list. Keep up with what's going on near you. TNEP.org
lgbt ally FORMER MEMPHIS COLLEGE OF ART STUDENT AND MUSICIAN MARCELLA SIMIEN FREE TO BE by Joy Doss | photo by Lisa Mac “Dude,” the audience member coughed out. He was talking about Marcella Simien’s voice (and possibly implying that she was transgendered) as she covered Tracy Chapman’s “Gimme One Reason.” Simien is proud of her femininity and was not aware that she sounded masculine to some. So she called him and his table mates out on their boorish behavior. Confused, they ignored her admonitions and requested she play some Credence Clearwater Revival. ‘I’ll try not to sing it like a dude,” she blurted before she delivered the song. She felt like she was being pushed down to being in middle school. As an ally, she was humbled by the experience and no longer plays to people’s ignorance. —paraphrased from a <strong>2017</strong> Facebook post, by Marcella Simien Marcella has been a longtime advocate, unafraid to speak up and speak out on behalf of others. She grew up in the conservative town of Lafayette, La. However, her family was anything but, with her father being two-time Grammy winner Terrance Simien. Her parents always had a hodge-podge of friends, much like she does herself. “My parents were welltraveled and not very conservative. [Gay people or gay couples] weren’t a strange thing to me. It only became ‘strange’ when I realized that people weren’t raised the way I was. These people who can’t see outside of themselves. They don’t try to understand people with different beliefs or different ways of life.” New Orleans is closer to her hometown and certainly has the reputation for being open to anything – and everything. So, I asked why Memphis over New Orleans? She came here in 2009 to study at Memphis College of Art and stayed on, initially working at Bar DKDC and Beauty Shop before dedicating herself to her band, Marcella and her Lovers, in 2015. Of Memphis she says, “I feel there are a lot of parallels between Memphis and New Orleans. For instance, the Mississippi River runs through both, attaching cultures and different people. I felt really comfortable. I saw a different response to the type of music I was doing (here). I don’t play traditional Creole or Zydeco music. It seemed to fit. The rich history and influences in New Orleans are definitely reminiscent of Memphis.” Les bon temps rouler up and down the Mississippi, whether in Tennessee or Louisiana, Cher! The music lovers in our city – and we do deeply feel music – readily accepted her brand of self-described “Memphis. Swamp Soul.” If you have seen them perform, you know this description is accurate. She continues, “It’s undeniable that this city is a soul city, a city of raw emotion. I responded to that. I feel that people accepted my weirdness in a way they didn’t in Louisiana. I would use the accordion to cover punk songs and Nina Simone songs. People (in Memphis) liked it. That made me want to continue to create here.” Back to her Facebook post. I needed to know how on earth she contained herself in the face of such foolishness. Her response is what I hope to be enlightening and encouraging for readers, as it was for me. “I’ve encountered a lot of unusual and off-putting things. People have said awful things, especially late at night as people get drunker. You have to stay professional. I take a moment to breathe before I respond to things…so I don’t show too much of my emotion. I know how fast something like that can escalate. Being at work…there was a sense of decorum I had to maintain. I didn’t excuse any of it. I [just] had to be calm in my anger.” She’s for sure better than me. And many of you who are reading this right? You don’t have to say “Amen,” just look “amen,” as my pastor says. Marcella and Her Lovers have a new project coming out this year, Got You Found. It’s their first full-length album, which will be released independently. Both new album title and their first EP, The Bronze Age, will be available on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon music. Imagine / SEP+OCT <strong>2017</strong> / focusmidsouth.com / Page 27
Page 1 and 2: FREE Serving the Mid-South LGBT Com
Page 3 and 4: FocalPointCrosstown.com See Well. L
Page 5 and 6: Congratulations to all of our nomin
Page 7 and 8: theme You can’t do it unless you
Page 9 and 10: has made her feel so desperate to c
Page 11 and 12: life AMANDA + SUZIE BETTER TOGETHER
Page 13 and 14: 2017-18 Season Verdi’s LA TRAVIAT
Page 15 and 16: ADVERTISE WITH US! Helping make fam
Page 17 and 18: CRAWFORD’S LAWN & PAINT SERVICE M
Page 19 and 20: Brandon Marshall loves Memphis, but
Page 21 and 22: Announcing the theme for the 2017 M
Page 23 and 24: OOF PROOF PROOF PROOF WATER HEATERS
Page 25: Worst thing to happen? I can’t th
Page 29 and 30: MOVIE BRIEFS Malco’s Ridgeway Fou
Page 31 and 32: RESIDENTIAL • COMMERCIAL • REAL
Page 33 and 34: The voice on the phone is girlish a
Page 35 and 36: What exactly is Equality Jackson? E
Page 37 and 38: now is the time to make your move 1
Page 39: of what we can do whenever an issue
Page 42 and 43: food+drink RIO MIX FIT Midtown Nurs
Page 44 and 45: transfocus CAIT BRENNAN Trans music
Page 46 and 47: community RECREATING THE GAY AMERIC
Page 48 and 49: PAVO SALON MIDTOWN 2157 Central Ave
Page 50 and 51: pet focus Heeere, Burger! COMPETITI
Page 52 and 53: travel The Wolf River Conservancy i
Page 54 and 55: calendar SEPT+OCT MUST-DO EVENTS By
Page 56: F PROOF ROOF PRO OF PROOF PROOF PR

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