Historic Clayborn Temple Burns

We had a tragedy this week in Memphis when Clayborn Temple burned down. I covered the fire for Associated Press.

The historic Clayborn Temple, a landmark from the civil rights movement with ties to Martin Luther King, caught fire Monday, April 28, 2025, in Memphis, Tennessee.

As a photojournalist in Memphis, I have had to cover many painful things over the years. There is nothing like hearing the wailing and mournful cries of people in pain at a news scene. It stays with you forever. It can be hard to pick up my camera and document it. But I do. As I explained to someone this week, just as important as showing the burning building, as a storyteller, I need to show that this isn’t just a building; this building meant something to people. Sharing and showing the grief and pain of the people who came to the scene helps people see how important and sacred this place is.

Sadyya Rockett-Miller and her husband Andre LeMoyne Miller prayed their way through their grief and anger outside of the historic Clayborn Temple on Monday. Andre is asking God to help him and deliver him some peace. Miller’s father had a connection to the Civil Rights Movement and Clayborn Temple.

The neighborhood folks worshiping at Clayborn Temple over the years.

Carolyn Michael-Banks, founder of A Tour of Possibilities in Memphis, Tn. gives black history-focused tours. I did a story about her and her tours in Memphis Magazine last fall. Clayborn Temple and its history is a highlight of the tour. She reached out to me after the fire and said “ This incident has made me more committed to what I do. If you know the history, fire can’t destroy it. “

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/2024/11/1/a-tour-of-possibilities

The Clayborn Temple has been under renovation for a few years. For more information https://clayborn.org/

CBS NEWS did a nice job covering the story. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tennessee-church-fire-mlk-civil-rights/

CHASING BUTTERFLIES

CHASING BUTTERFLIES

CHASING BUTTERFLIES

Every year Memphis attracts thousands of visitors looking for good hosts. They need a safe place to rest and a little sweet treat to fuel their journey.

Memphis is known for its hospitality and why should this be any different?

Monarch butterflies, the beautiful, perhaps taken for granted orange-and- black winged insects, are looking for places to stay.

Monarchs are facing extinction.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing monarchs as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in December of 2024. A year earlier the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified the migratory monarchs as vulnerable.

We can help!

By offering up a little space with just a milkweed plant or two, or creating an entire garden targeted at pollinators, we can become excellent hosts. As they pass through, monarchs search for milkweed to lay their eggs and sweet nectar plants to eat.

Milkweed is the only plant the monarch will lay eggs on.  You can watch for the eggs on the leaves of your plant.  The tiny, hungry caterpillars that hatch will munch an entire milkweed leaf in five minutes.

The eastern population of monarchs are long distance migrators, the tiny insects traveling thousands of miles each year.  They spend their winter in central Mexico, they head back to the United States in February or early March when they will reach the Gulf Coast. This multi-generational migration will take them all the way north where they may go as far as the border of Canada before turning around and heading all the way back to Mexico again for the winter.

Migrating monarchs can live up to nine months, but non-migrating monarchs just live a few weeks.

Jill Maybry with the Memphis Botanic Garden, has been chasing butterflies while growing milkweeds and providing food for wild monarch butterflies for over twenty years. She raises wild monarchs in protective butterfly nets and releases them once they emerge.

Jill has experience with which milkweed to plant for the best success. She likes common milkweed, (Asclepias syriaca ) and showy milkweed, (Asclepias speciosa) saying these are the most-preferred perennial milkweeds by the monarchs and that they grow well in Memphis.  But she warns “be aware that these may be a little untidy looking for formal gardens. These plants are earlier to emerge in spring from winter dormancy than many other milkweeds, so they are often the only milkweed that migrating monarchs can find when they pass through the Memphis area in spring. The monarch butterflies eagerly lay their eggs on the emerging foliage of these plants. These milkweeds can be planted in either fall or spring.”

Sydney Calderon from Lichterman Nature Center agrees that native milkweed species will always be the best. “Monarch caterpillars eat exclusively milkweed, so having those plants is vital.” Lichterman has a native plant sale April 11 and 12 where they will have several native milkweeds and butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa).  Sydney says “"Tropical" or non-native milkweed varieties you'll find at major retailers are not recommended because they do not go dormant like the natives do, which could interrupt the butterflies' life cycle. To support monarchs further, planting flowering native plants that bloom later in the summer is important to provide food for the emerging butterflies. They're not picky in their adult form, so any (preferably native) showy flowers will do!”

Bart Jones who helps count locally for North American Butterfly Association says monarchs tend to fly quite high in the sky for large parts of the day and only come to the ground to feed when abundant wildflowers are spotted or they've run out of energy or roost overnight.

In the spring, as they first migrate north, they might enjoy Phlox and Blue Star and on their southern fall migration something like Blazing Stars and Goldenrod will attract them.

The primary threats to our fragile monarch friends are habitat loss as we pave over farmland to make room for more suburban and urban growth, millions of acres of milkweed have disappeared from our landscape. There has also been an increase in pesticide exposure, storms and extreme weather. 

For decades, their populations have been declining.

The Xerces Society reports that the eastern population has declined by more than 80% since the 1980s.

There are still many unanswered questions and so much to learn about the butterflies.  Here are a few of the many resources to learn about how to help the mighty little monarchs and learn how to become citizen scientists or at least, to be good hosts as they pass through Memphis and the Mid-South.

To get more involved or if you prefer to purchase plants online, try the Milkweed Market at Monarch Watch at https://www.monarchwatch.org/ or go to Xerces Society @ https://www.xerces.org/ for Monarch Conservation News, or the North American Butterfly Association https://naba.org/ to become part of the community science effort to track and conserve monarch butterflies.

By Karen Pulfer Focht ©2025

This article recently ran in Memphis Magazine

https://memphismagazine.com/features/chasing-butterflies/

FOLK ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL 2025 MONTREAL, CANADA

HERE IS THE LINK: Sampler video : YouTube Folk Alliance

By Michael Sangiacomo

MONTREAL, QUEBEC—Anyone who believes folk music is a male-dominated profession has never attended the Folk Alliance International Conference where women dominated the five-day festival that ended Sunday, as they have for years. 

When singers like Marcella Simien of Memphis pulled out her antique squeeze box and started to sing, there was no question that she was in charge.

The 37th conference, that was held for several years in Memphis, was held at Le Centre Sheraton Montreal in a city still digging out from a blizzard five days earlier that dumped more than two feet of snow. The more than 2,400 music fans from around the world didn’t mind so much, it just meant that they stayed inside and hit intimate concerts by more than 1,000 performers playing almost 13 hours a day in more than 100 spaces as large as a theater or as small as a hotel room. How intimate? Some 2 a.m. shows were performed for two or three people.

On a larger stage, Simien performed a show that defied convention and labeling, though she called it “Psychedelic swamp soul.” She is a well-known music and arts figure in Memphis and daughter of two-time Grammy award winning zydeco artist Terrance Simien. She sometimes performs with her dad in the Zydeco Experience. 

She believes the spirit of her great-grandmother influences her life and decisions.

“She came to me in a dream,” she said. “I never met her, but was told all the stories of how she married at age 15 and had 15 children. They lived off the land in rural Louisiana. We are a part of a generation of survivors.” 

     She said Memphis has been very good to her. 

Her new CD, with the too-long title of “To Bend To The Will Of A Dream That’s Being Fulfilled,” was just released.

Performing with Simien at Folk Alliance was the enigmatic singer-dancer-actress-violinist Anne Harris of Yellow Springs, Ohio,  a product of a Creole background. She spent nine years touring with Otis Taylor. Her exotic performances, which include dance, are captivating. Her new cd release “I Feel It Once Again,” comes out on May 9.

Those were only two of the hundreds of performers hoping to impress the many club promoters, festival organizers, disc jockeys, agents and music critics that this event is designed for.

The pace is exhausting. There are practical classes in the morning, teaching artists how to find their own voice, hire lawyers and track their taxes as well as interviews with performers and newsmakers.

Attendees count on word of mouth to choose which shows to attend. Walking down a crowded hallway, they hear snippets of songs coming from the hotel rooms turned mini-studios which draw them inside. Artists and promoters often offer snacks and drinks to lure people in for a song or two.

Hands-down one of the superheroes of the week was Crys Matthews, a powerful singer-songwriter from Nashville, whose three songs at a late night showcase stunned a standing room only crowd into silence — followed by massive applause.

She was on a late night bill with Dar Williams and The Nields, who also killed. Matthews held her own with those two powerhouse performers, which is no simple feat.

Seek out her quiet protest song, “My Kind of Christianity.” That’s how it’s done. 

And lest people think there were no quality male performers there, there were many. Festival veteran Steve Poltz of Nashville performed before a packed house in one of the larger theaters and was a huge hit. He read lyrics scrawled on paper that he wrote the night before about a conversation with Jesus. Many other artists like Dan Navarro, John Muirhead and David Myles brought up the testosterone level.

The next Folk Alliance Conference will be in a much warmer city, New Orleans, Jan. 21-25, 2026. Many people in Montreal fondly remembered when it was held in Memphis. For information on how to attend, go to folk.org.

Link to the story in Memphis Flyer below-

https://www.memphisflyer.com/the-folk-alliance-international-conference-from-memphis-to-montreal

Links to prior years-

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/2020-folk-alliance-conference?rq=folk%20alliance

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/-31st-folk-alliance-international?rq=folk%20alliance

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/2023/2/4/folk-alliance-international-conference-2023-highlights?rq=folk%20alliance

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/folkallianceinternational2018?rq=folk%20alliance

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/folkalliance?rq=folk%20alliance

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/folkallianceinternational2017?rq=folk%20alliance

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/2022/5/22/folk-alliance-international-conference-2022?rq=folk%20alliance

The Magic of Christmas Then and Now

For more than two decades, people have been enjoying a picture, a fleeting moment

that I captured one day, by chance, at Wolfchase Galleria on December 23 rd , 2002 in

Memphis, Tennessee.

I worked the early morning shift for the newspaper, and it was a typical morning chasing

the news. I heard on the police scanner that an armored truck had been robbed. It was

a couple of days before Christmas.

The world was slowing down, the holiday was approaching.

At a time like this in the news business, the team works like squirrels, gathering what we

call “evergreen” stories, stories that can run in the paper any time, with no news peg, no

deadline, or urgency. That way people could work ahead, and we could staff the

newsroom, which was staffed 365 days a year, with a minimal crew.

I got my photo of the robbery scene before many of the staff even came into

work at the paper for the day. I was waiting for the press conference to start to get the

details of what had happened. While waiting for that, I went over to see what was

happening with Santa at the mall.

I was always eager to photograph Santa and the children. I have always loved to

photograph kids, dogs, and the elderly.

The photo editors made it clear that they had had enough of Santa for this season—no

more Santa photos. But I couldn’t resist. Even if it would not get published, I wanted to

make photographs of kids with Santa.

As a professional photographer, you spend a lot of time photographing what other

people want. It is important to never lose your own voice. It is important to always

continue to shoot that which brings you joy too!

I patiently hung back with a long telephoto lens, watched, waited and shot sweet

children eager to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

I felt sure I had some cute photos. I tried to make a hard sell to the photo desk, but they

were not having it. We really don’t need any more Santa photos this season Karen, they

said.

When I came into the paper to turn out my day’s work, I had what I considered a

magical frame. The frame appeared to have a little girl and Santa sharing a very special

Christmas moment. I had to make a case to get it into the paper. I remember Otis

Sanford, one of the top editors, pushed to run it. He loved it. It ran on page one!

The next day, Christmas Eve, I got such an amazing response from our

readers! People just loved the photo. They wrote in and called. So many people were

touched by the photograph. One man wrote a letter to the editor saying it brought tears

to his eyes.

There was just something magical and heartwarming about this photograph.

As a photojournalist, I have always said, that touching the reader in a way that influences

them, and makes them write or call, laugh or cry, or even better rise into action, has

always meant more to me than any award ever could.

At the time, people cut the photo out of the paper, and many bring it out year after year

at Christmas. When I am long gone, this photo will be one of the photos that I am

going to be remembered by.

I wanted to let the family know how much this photo meant to the community. I wrote to

them more than once but never heard back. People asked if I could do a follow up with

the young girl, but I was never able to make contact.

Now more than 20 years later, with the help of social media, I found Affiong Enyenihi.

She was only a couple of miles from where I took the photograph and living in an

apartment with friends.

So, what ever happened to Affiong?

Affiong Enyenihi was born to Nigerian parents. She was brought up in Collierville. Her

father is a doctor, and her mother worked with children. They are very private people.

Affiong has her master’s degree, she loves history and is teaching in an inner-city

school here in Memphis. She left the area for a while but came back. She loves working

with the students but it is challenging.

“I want to try and make their lives better. Try to give the children opportunities and show

them what there is out there for them. There is a huge gap to close,” she says. She is

thinking now about getting her doctorate.

For her entire life, Affiong has lived in two worlds. Her American world and her Nigerian

world.

“It is hard being looked at differently “she explained. While a child, she did not want to

stand out by bringing unique food to school and she wanted an American name,

perhaps Rachel. Like most teenagers going to school at Houston High, she wanted to

be like everyone else. She was shy. She always enjoyed children; she was a camp

counselor at St. Columba, a popular summer camp in Memphis.

She was also born into a wonderful Nigerian community here. Her parents have a

church community, and they share birthdays, anniversaries and other social events with

the Nigerians in the area. They love the American South.

“Nigerians like to share their culture” she said. But she still felt awkward when, as a kid,

she brought her friends along and they didn’t want to eat any of the food, and they

wanted to go home.

When you are young, you know that people are not living the same culture as you. She

remembers not wanting to be different, but she also appreciated her culture, and she’d

never want to leave it behind. “Not everyone gets to have two cultures” she said.

“I think I’ve always just wanted to be my parents’ daughter more than anything else.”

She will continue to enjoy dual cultures and stay close to her parents.

“The way my mom raised me was to find similarities with other people, even if people do

things differently, you can always find something in common.”

What a beautiful thought for this holiday season.

As for how they spend Christmas, “In Nigeria, the way we celebrate Christmas is

different, we go to church on Christmas Day, we celebrate with friends, we eat different

things, decorate and throw a party. We do celebrate Christmas; we have Father

Christmas. I think Christmas can be magical even without a celebration of Santa. “

When she was a kid, her neighbor had kept a newspaper clipping of my photo of her

with Santa. She knew the photo existed. But she really had no idea what it meant to

anyone else. Her mother has photos of her all over the house, but none with Santa.

That day at the mall, she was just a kid who wanted to see Santa. And she was

delighted, that her mom said yes, and I was lucky enough to capture that magical,

fleeting moment in time that reminded so many of the magic of Christmas.

By Karen Pulfer Focht ©2024

Kyndle Wylde Brings Home The Prize

"CBS Mornings" Mixtape Music Competition winner is Kyndle Wylde. The singer-songwriter grew up singing in her family's worship band at church and moved to Nashville to pursue her dreams of a career in music. Air Date: Sep 3, 2024 CBS MORNINGS

See her CBS Interview here.

https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/cR_ht260Rzz06Av7d27AwQ2lS_0gqhVC/

 On a bright sunshiny day in August Kyndle Wylde’s phone rang. CBS Morning News

was requesting a zoom call with her and the producers asked her to stand by. As the

screen came up from black, she saw TV host Gayle King on the other end saying the

words, “you are the winner!”

Kyndle sat down and put her hands over her face. She thought “Oh my God!”

Now Kyndle had a huge secret to keep. Especially from her grandmother, who she knew

would have to tell everyone in all of Bolivar, Kyndle’s hometown.

She had to sneak up to New York City for filming, without anyone noticing.

A few weeks later, on September 3, 2024, the show officially announced that the CBS

Mornings Mixtape Music Competition winner was West Tennessee native Kyndle Wylde.

Hundreds of talented people from all over the country competed, sending in their covers

of Johnny Nash’s song, I Can See Clearly Now.

“We were all blown away by her submission video,” said CBS Mornings host Nate Burleson during an interview. She showcased her skills to the world live in a studio in New York City and is now featured in their national promotional campaign.

“That was a win, not just for me, but also for Bolivar and for Memphis, where I cut my teeth and grew so much as a person and performer,” Kyndle, 31, said.  Kyndle performed and recorded with the Memphis Ukulele Band while in Memphis.  “When I did win, it was a big celebration for everybody. It was just a great day to rejoice with everybody.”

“We wanted to knock it out of the park,” she said of herself and her band. CBS was happy with how everything turned out and said this was a win for them, too. Before her performance, Kyndle said Gayle King came to the makeup room and was nice. She took time to meet her and thank her.

Kyndle, a petite soul singer with a powerful rich voice and incredible range, has always

wanted to be a performer and touts that she was singing from her crib as a baby. This was

the biggest national opportunity she has had in her career, she said.

When she performed the song, she belted out a soulful take on the tune that would

make any Memphian proud. Now, CBS plays it every morning.

“Everything that we are and grew up listening to, we just put it in that” she said in her

CBS interview.

It is not every day your dreams are realized, and the universe conspires in your favor.

Gospel-raised Kyndle Wylde believes she is doing exactly what God has called her to

do. She grew up singing in church with her grandfather, a preacher. “The first ten years

of my life, we were in church.”

She and her husband Adam Gowdy, also from Bolivar, are inspired by many of the R& B

greats. Kyndle does not like to get all the credit, she emphasizes. That is not just her. She

says “Adam has proven time and time again how much he loves me and loves what we

do and how much he supports this. He believes in it. Creatively we have melded

together, we have a vision and a purpose that we are aligned with. We are kind of like

Johnny and June or Ike and Tina Turner.”

“When you align with all that, that’s when doors open for you” says Kyndle.

She is humble and filled with gratitude this Thanksgiving.

Kyndle studied music at the University of Memphis. After living in Memphis for six years,

she and husband Adam, who is also her bandmate, moved to Nashville to pursue their

dreams. Adam has believed in her since they were teens, and for that long he has

been wanting the world to see the beautiful superstar that he sees in her.

In October she found herself on stage at The Grand Ole Opry singing a song with

Country artist Drake White. She was hired for background vocals on one of his songs

and he said, “I’ve just got to have you at the Opry with me.”

Once again feeling deep gratitude, she got emotional as she thought about the history

of that stage and what it means to perform there. The song they were singing was about

about faith, the gospel undertones. “It is really a powerful stage to perform on” she

said. “I’ll never forget it.”

She recently came home to Bolivar to perform for her hometown friends and family and

to thank them for all of their support. She wants to come back to Memphis to perform for

her Memphis fans too, and she wants it to be something special.

Kyndle has regular gigs in Nashville and Austin, Texas. “I do what I love and people can

see that. My job is to conjure the spirit in people and communicate truth. I do feel like

the universe is conspiring in my favor in a way, because I have aligned myself with what

I feel like what God has called me to do.”

She’s experienced a lot of growth this year. “There is a lot of synergy around who I am

working with now, all from West Tennessee, you can feel alignment, you have this gut

feeling, “I’m on the right path.”

For all of that she is very thankful.

UPCOMING PERFORMANCE:

December 1 st , Nashville, Analog at Hutton Hotel

The Twelve Thirty Club on Fridays when she is in Nashville

Story by Karen Pulfer Focht ©

Hear her sing! https://youtube.com/shorts/QAx6N4xjXPo?si=21uE32CCdqjsa_kt

https://youtube.com/shorts/hPa1-PQqp2w?si=FZOVFhUdmmwtPwfS

A Tour Of Possibilities

Carolyn Michael Banks

The Memphis Skyline

Beale Street, Memphis

Mississippi River

Mississippi River

Mississippi River

Blues Musician

Lorainne Motel

Tom Lee

Mississippi River

Slave Haven

Rosa Parks

Pridefully driving around Memphis, bragging on all things great that derive from the Bluff City, Carolyn Michael-Banks, founder of A Tour of Possibilities in Memphis, Tn. gives black history-focused tours. 

With blues playing on her radio, Michael-Banks, also known as Queen, takes visitors to sites of historical and cultural significance to African Americans.

She highlights the best things about our city.  But Queen does not sugarcoat the history.

Driving along Riverside drive, touting the majestic Mississippi River, the colorful bridges, the remarkable story of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Pyramid, our amazing musical history and Beale Street, she reminds her guests, “if this body of water could speak, I can only imagine the stories it would tell.” 

Looking over the river, Michael-Banks offers a view of the city from a different vantage point. “On this body of water, two commodities were transported that changed the economy of this area;” she says as her voice tone changes, she pauses “cotton and enslaved people. On this same river, many used to escape slavery as well.”

For two-and-one-half hours, she highlights black owned businesses and the contributions that African Americans have made to make Memphis a such a great and significant city. She boasts about our soul food, blues music and B.B. King, COGIC, Stax, Robert Church and Obama’s visit.

But the guided historical tour also does not hide the darker side of the city’s history including injustice, segregation and racism.

Queen reminds Chicagoans Maryann and Reginald Marsh, touring on this day, that in front of them is the location where Nathan Bedford Forrest once had “Fresh Negro’s For Sale.”  Woven through the ride that includes various wonderful landmarks, magical stories of inspiring people and popular Memphis attractions, she also tells of people who lived in fear of lynchings, of city riots, a civil rights struggle and the Martin Luther King assassination.

There’s no doubt about her love for the city.  What she loves to share most is a sense of hope, optimism and deep respect for the people that came before her, the people like Tom Lee, Rosa Parks, Danny Thomas and Ida B. Wells, “the people who saw things that appeared to be impossible, but made them possible, in spite of.”

That is why she has named her tour A Tour of Possibilities.

By Karen Pulfer Focht ©2024

Interview with Karen Pulfer Focht- Professional Photojournalist in Memphis

A street scene from Coney Island, New York By Karen Pulfer Focht ©2024

I was recently interviewed for Shoutout LA, a part of the Los Angeles-based Voyage Group of Magazines. They also published a few of my favorite photos, they asked me about parenting, about my mentors, the challenges I have faced and they asked about what I love about our city Memphis, Tennessee.

As they grow and spread their work to other cities and build community across the country, they ask their interviewees questions designed to spark meaningful conversations. Questions about life, work, love, parenting, finances, and more.

Here is a link to my interview.

Link to Shout Out LA Interview with Karen Pulfer Focht