News and relevant information about Rhodes students, faculty, and staff making the most of living in Memphis.

Karl Erickson, assistant professor of art and art history, and Emily Burkhead, a senior urban studies major, will have their films featured at the annual Indie Memphis Film Festival to be held Oct. 30-Nov. 4.

There is no one path to breaking into the art industry, but for Jenna Gilley, the journey has included internships with the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and the UrbanArt Commission, as well as travel to Meknès, Morocco, where she learned about the city’s arts communities.

Dr. Charles McKinney, Neville Frierson Bryan Chair of Africana Studies and associate professor of history at Rhodes College, will be the featured speaker for ArtCafé Conversations at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Sept. 25. He will discuss select pieces in the museum’s permanent collection by African American artists.

Retired Rhodes history professor Dr. Gail Murray will discuss her journey as a historian in academia on Sept. 21 at Novel bookstore. She is one of the writers whose personal account is featured in the new book No Straight Path: Becoming Women Historians.

Indie Memphis’ Black Independence Film Series, through partnership with Rhodes College and the Brooks Museum, is showcasing this fall work from the past 50 years by some of the world’s most significant Black independent filmmakers. Set in locations such as Senegal, Paris, New York, South Central Los Angeles, and the South Carolina coast, most of the films will be screened for the first time in Memphis. “Hyenas” (1992) by Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty is one of the films that will be shown at Rhodes.

First-year students toured The National Civil Rights Museum with faculty and administrators supplementing the exhibits with lectures on African American history, ​​​​​​​Brown vs. Board, the Selma to Montgomery march, the Sanitation Workers' Strike, and the life and work of Dr. King. All four class years at Rhodes have now participated in the experience.

Refugee Empowerment Program is located a five-minute drive from the Rhodes campus in the Binghampton neighborhood. REP assists the refugee and immigrant population of Memphis through education, advocacy, and support programs.Rhodes students Khiem Nguyen and Mildred Vazquez spent this summer there serving as literacy coaches.

"I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change" was also nominated for Best Choreography, Best Music Direction, and Best Direction by Professor Joy Brooke Fairfield.

While undergoing chemotherapy treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital after being diagnosed with leukemia at age 16, Adam Cruthirds began to think about fundraising ideas for the hospital. As a result, he founded Adam’s Army, which has raised more than $700,000 to help end childhood cancer. Cruthirds, a rising senior at Rhodes, was recently honored by Leadership Memphis as a Change Maker.

As a 2018 Rhodes Summer Service Fellow, JB Hayes ’19 worked for Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA). There, the urban studies major helped develop a new program that helps to break the social isolation and loneliness felt by many homebound seniors.