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REFLECTIONS ON WHAT CAME BEFORE
Ever since my first stop & last day in Montgomery, I’ve been holding out on y’all.
And not JUST because that was the day I sobbed in public.
I’d planned to break up my visits to the Legacy Museum & National Memorial for Peace & Justice, but plans shifted and tickets sell as a pair anyway, so I casually pulled up for both with all my luggage like it was nbd.
The museum’s opening exhibit immediately foretold my woeful underestimation.
A cinematic of a tumultuous Atlantic Ocean roars through a darkened room, overlaid with the story of how that ocean became a grave for millions of Africans thrown overboard for illness or insubordination, and those who jumped in a final act of independence. And though photographs are prohibited, the subsequent exhibits vividly detail the story of the millions more who survived the journey.
It was my final stop in Montgomery. The one I made after I stood in the original Greyhound waiting room where Freedom Rides arrived, looked up the steps of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, and walked the foot of Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge.
The last “exhibit” in the Legacy Museum is the Reflection Room, covered from floor to ceiling with portraits of brave, brilliant, defiant, creative, and monumental African-Americans in history.
And standing face to face with them, having walked these paths of what they’d overcome, and recognizing that I was the literal embodiment of so much they’d shed blood for—a free Black woman driving herself to these places, writing openly of her experiences—what else could I do but weep?
From there, it’s just a few minutes to the National Memorial for Peace & Justice, where I could take pictures to capture the scale of what I encountered, and just how shaken I was by it.
Because I arrived thinking each suspended pillar only represented a single lynching.
Instead, they represent single counties, some I knew, with lists of lynching victims so long, the font size had to be reduced to accommodate them all.
Tears repeatedly lapped up to my lashes, but I held each wave back. At least until there was nothing between me & my next stop but six hours alone with my thoughts and more roads stained with history.
where i wandered:
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BIG RIVER, SMALL FEET
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PORTRAIT OF A DREAM
Wandered the halls and history of the @ncrmuseum at the Lorraine Motel until the sun set and the sky was perfect for dreaming.
where i wandered:
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TICKET TO SOULSVILLE
The sounds of Stax Records still alive at their museum moved me differently.
From the cotton fields, to the pulpit, to Beale Street and the Memphis Sound, and into the Civil Rights Movement, the Stax Museum tells such a full history of blues and soul, through a huge variety of artifacts, with each exhibit set to the music of the time period.
Traveling through time to the same music my Daddy spun in our family room—Otis Redding, the Dramatics, Sam and Dave, and so many more—my heart was touched, my spirit was moved, and when I rounded a corner to see the Soul Train dance floor, I definitely took a spin.
For #Soulsville.
where i wandered:
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VIP TREATMENT
Still waking up pinching myself after Tuesday’s once-in-a-lifetime experience.
A little mix-up and a lot of graciousness all around (mostly from my new friend, willing photog, and Memphis native son @markedgarstuart) led to yours truly getting a personal tour of legendary Sun Records, including the very exclusive control room, where just days before, the Monkees’ Mike Nesmith (and fellow Texan!) had just shared the same experience.
The echoes of ghosts live throughout that building, but the control room? It is brimming with the spirit of music, and I’m still overcome at being one of the few to sit where such a tremendous piece of musical, cultural and human history was made. Grateful is an insufficient word. Beyond #blessed.
where i wandered:
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SHRINE SURPRISE
Accidentally ended up in a cemetery again.
Sort of.
I’d typed “Crystal Shrine Grotto” into my GPS, so I really had no idea that the world’s only man-made crystal cave lied in the middle of a cemetery. But it’s not a grave, it’s massive scale art. And on the National Register of Historic Places.
Dionicio Rodriguez created this diorama/geological marvel illustrating the life of Christ, from birth to resurrection, as well as the temple and oasis just outside of it. No photograph prepared me for how awestruck I (and nearly every equally unsuspecting soul who wandered in gasping behind me) would be. Hymns echoed softly throughout the cave from a hidden speaker, and for about an hour, I forgot I was just a few miles from downtown Memphis and took in this little slice of heaven on and under the earth.
where i wandered:
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FEELING BLUE
Last stop: where the blues began. Feels good to be in Memphis, Tennessee.
where i wandered:
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STILL SEEING STARS
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STARRY EYED
When I was a kid, appearing on Double Dare was my highest priority. Not because I really liked Double Dare, but because I knew I could WIN. And winning earned me a ticket to expand my Johnson Space Center mission experience to Tranquility Base, home of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center and Space Camp. (Yeah, I know, stay with me.)
Alas, Double Dare was cancelled and my hopes and dreams delayed indefinitely.
Until yesterday.
Please believe that:
1. I was READY, boy.
2. I acted an entire fool in front of all those people. Idc.
#MamaIMadeIt
#LiveYourDreams
#WomenInSpace
#InfluencedByTheCitiesWithTheSpaceships
#MissionComplete
where i wandered:
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HELLO, BIRMINGHAM
A weekend full of rainy days didn’t stop me from making the best of my short break in Bham, and seeing a little bit of everything, mostly all night long.
where i wandered:
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where joy wanders 