Playback Memphis was life-giving to this band of 14, who were “voluntold” to participate in what most would deem a crazy idea – bringing police officers together with those who had spent their lives running from them.

For decades now we’ve treated Tom Lee Park – 30 precious acres linking the heart of Downtown to the Mississippi River – as a kind of Liberty Bowl West: a venue to be fully used a few days each May, a de facto fairgrounds.

In Memphis, new immigrants make up just over 5 percent of the metro population, but account for 9 percent of the area's business owners.

Bill Russell and Bob Cousy saw each other as brothers, not just athletes. Their relationship reflects a standard our society has yet to attain.

A bland marker erected near the midpoint of an almost century-long celebration of Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis now has a new companion marker. It describes the grotesque nature of Forrest's "business enterprise." 

The combination of global peace, domestic prosperity and political moderation kept Clinton’s second-term job approval rating in the 60 percent-plus range even as his personal approval rating went down. Voters were right on both counts.

The history-altering transfer of public property to an upstart nonprofit transformed Van Turner from mild-mannered lawyer and county commissioner to gutsy leader, willing to take the heat for removing Confederate symbols of slavery and racism.

Jared Rawlings' essay was one of two chosen from 2,000 submitted by students from 16 schools in the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office Every Day in School program. He was named an ambassador in the national Do the Write Thing Challenge, an anti-violence essay contest.

With this entry, McKenzie Leaks was named an ambassador in the national Do the Write Thing Challenge, an anti-violence essay contest. Her essay was one of two chosen from 2,000 submitted by students from 16 schools in the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office Every Day in School program.

'I can predict that when the Memphis River Parks Partnership’s work on Tom Lee Park is complete, few will look back and long for the flat field that we experience today.'

Discriminatory laws will only set the tone for continued discrimination – up to and including targeted violence. These proposed laws are a distraction from Tennessee priorities like good schools, healthy environments and safe communities.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said it's his job to look at an issue affected by county government, look at how many people it touches, look at the cost both societal and fiscal, and look at where he can be most effective.

'I’m pretty certain it was that Memphis grit and grind that I wasn’t always so comfortable with that helped me earn a license as a locomotive conductor at nearly 40 years old.'

Motivated by the fact that the majority of Tennessee’s third-grade students can’t read or do math on grade level, a bipartisan group of legislators has committed to exploring policy improvements for students prior to third grade.

The 2019 mayor's race is shaping up as a three-way contest representing the past, present and, perhaps, future of city politics.

Here are 20 songs from the Memphis music catalog that will improve your commute one day this week.

John will be lamented and loved as a survivor and casualty of addiction, a saint and sinner, a gentle and tormented soul whose life and death, head and heart, darkness and light were a parable, a revelation, a psalm.

For those of you who don’t understand the idea of tomato aspic, understand this: You’re living in the South and at some important point in life, you'll be in a place where it’s wiggling right in front of you. A place like the Calvary Waffle Shop during Lent, for instance.

The beauty of Tom Lee Park is the unobstructed expansiveness of it all. It could certainly use some improvements, but keep it simple. Let this park be a park. 

Addiction is an illness. Mental health conditions are illnesses. No judgment, shame or feelings of guilt are needed from us; only love, support and treatment.

'I don’t know where Rashad is. I don’t have a heaven or a hell to put him in. But I believe that he experienced heaven on earth in my classroom.'

'Ministers and those in other healing professions are called to use their own woundedness in the healing of others. At times, such openness can become an occupational hazard – becoming overwhelmed by the exposure to such pain.'

As written, the Tennessee bill prohibits abortion as early as six weeks, before many people even know that they’re pregnant. Similar versions of this bill have been declared unconstitutional in other states.

Because the legalization movement has made marijuana sound healthy, more people are using it. Daily intake nearly tripled from about 3 million users in 2005 to more than 8 million in 2017. 

Every Friday at The Way, John Kilzer would greet those who were new to recovery, who were afraid and alone, with these words: “We are going to love you, and there ain’t nothing you can do about it.”