On the banks of the Wolf River in what would eventually become Germantown, the Nashoba Community was a test to end slavery through education, cooperation, and free love—a utopian solution to a hellish problem. It was a resounding failure.

Young entrepreneurs Micah Dempsey and Christopher Galbreath, who learned how to make pottery while in high school at Harding Academy, have turned their passion into a successful business. After opening a pop-up pottery studio and coffee shop earlier this year inside Minglewood Hall, the pair are now moving the business to a permanent spot on the Highland Strip near the University of Memphis.

In 1986, Dorothy Gunther Pugh founded Ballet Memphis with two dancers and a $75,000 budget. Now, the company is home to 26 dancers from around the world. It’s about to formally open a new $21 million facility in Midtown at 2144 Madison Ave. with a community celebration on Aug. 26.

Plans for the new I AM A MAN Plaza, which will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Memphis sanitation workers strike and their struggle led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., are coming together, with completion expected just in time for the MLK 50 Conference next April.

The bloody protests in Charlottesville, Virginia sparked by removing a Confederate statue have struck a chord in Memphis, where activists work to bring down two Confederate monuments. That effort has recently spread to include groups like the Greater Memphis Chamber and Memphis Grizzlies coach David Fizdale. 

After sitting dormant since the 1990s, one of the oldest African-American hospitals in the nation has entered a $5 million renovation and expansion project. 

Through an innovative vision, a new charter school set to open in 2018, hopes to prepare students for what lies ahead, with personalized learning plans and a project-based curriculum.

Shoes and purses – leather and rubber – fill the space at Nu-Life Shoe Repair, a fading profession, where customers have 'all sorts of good stuff' done for their shoes.