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/

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

Amish Sing-A-Long

Who doesn’t love a sing along????

While attending the Rocky Mountain Ukulele Festival in Durango this month, we (a few members of the Memphis Ukulele Flash Mob) had a late-night jam in our hotel lobby.

Much to our surprise, while we sang a gospel song led by Pete McCarty, one by one a few Amish guests were slowly drawn into the room. Pete, who is known for his jolly personality and rich deep voice, discovered a common bond, and touched by their presence, we sang one gospel song after another for over an hour. They listened to us sing, and with big smiles on their faces, they sang along too.

These Amish singing with us were from Shipshewana, Indiana, which is the third largest Amish and Mennonite community in the United States. They were visiting Durango on vacation. They took the train to Colorado.

The Amish are conservative Christians and they believe in a simple lifestyle, dress modestly, and live close to the land and without technology. They are known for building fine furniture sold all over the country.

After we sang together, they asked if they could sing us a song. They began chanting The Praise Song, VERY slowly in high German. They sang one verse, which took over five minutes. You can hear it here in this video. It's about 1:48 minutes in.

As little as we had in common, for a few minutes that night, we were all just the people of God.

The Harmonica Experience in Delta Magazine

Twice a year people come from around the world to learn blues harmonica from the masters, in the Mississippi Delta, where the blues began. I did a story for Delta Magazine about The Harmonica Experience.

Master harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite stops by The Harmonica Experience to share his stories.

The Harmonica Experience

The morning light streams into the Juke Joint Chapel as pilgrims take their

seats. Each one has traveled a good distance, hoping to gain some insight

and inspiration unique to the Mississippi Delta.

They’ve settled into rustic sharecroppers’ shacks and are surrounded by

cotton fields in full bloom.

Some are experts already, others just beginners. And for one week, they will

come together to learn how to play blues harmonica at The Harmonica

Experience in Clarksdale.

“Playing harmonica has brought me so much joy in my life and being able

to share that joy with others is priceless” says Cheryl Arena, a master

harmonica player and teacher from Boston. “But what better way to teach

folks how to play harp than down in the Delta… The Birthplace of the Blues,

where the musical vibe is as thick as the mud in the Mississippi River.”

Arena runs the workshop with a few other coaches, all professional

musicians from around the country. Each day, she expects participants to

attend group classes that offer a variety of harmonica techniques, song

writing, singing, and jam sessions, while preparing a song for performance

at the end of the camp.

The ‘Mississippi Saxophone” as some call it, is a challenging instrument to

play. It is easy to learn but hard to master.

“They say blues is a feeling and I certainly get that feeling when I visit the

Delta,” says Kate Wakeling, who travels annually from Australia to learn

how to coax and bend notes from her harmonica while keeping a bluesy 12-

bar-beat. “Staying at the Shack Up Inn I get a sense of the history of the

Delta and what life must have been like for those who labored under the hot

sun in the cotton fields. I can channel those feelings into my harmonica

playing.”

“The Harmonica Experience camp is the most wonderful week where you

get to learn from talented musicians and hang out and play music with

people from all over the world. It’s a very special week,” she says.

Twice a year on this former southern plantation, where blues legend

Pinetop Perkins once worked on the land, aspiring musicians sit on the

porches of their cabins calling music from their hearts and souls.

In the evening, the more skilled musicians often encourage others to join

along in a spontaneous jam. Some sing better than others, some play in a

group for the first time, but they all have fun making music together with

their new friends in this special place.

The workshops take place in a region where many great blues artists lived,

worked, played music and are buried. It is hallowed ground.

Harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite stops by the camp on occasion. He

recently moved back to Mississippi, and now lives in Clarksdale. He shares

stories about playing with harmonica greats Muddy Waters, Little Walter,

Howlin’ Wolf, and many others.

“Ultimately you want to find your own blues in you and play that.”

Musselwhite tells the students, “Get out of your head and come down to

your heart.”

The harmonica has taken Musselwhite touring around the world and even

to the White House. But there is something about the humble Mississippi

Delta that he says he feels right down to his DNA, “you just walk out your

door and there are interesting people everywhere.”

The students, who come from all over the world, get to experience home

southern cooking from Ranchero catering. In the evenings Chris Green and

Carolyn Sykes serve up fried chicken, mac-n-cheese, corn bread, cobblers

and pie. And no meal would be complete without southern sweet tea.

For those that want something stronger, the bar is open. Campers can sip

some whiskey, wine or beer while jamming with the house band.

Two lines form on either side of the chapel. Students, some wearing

fedoras, Hawaiian shirts or sunglasses, all try and find their groove as they

jump in and play a sequence of riffs to a shuffle or slow blues being played

by the house band. They engage their imagination, their diaphragm, their

breath as they improvise, putting into practice the musical phrasing and

articulation they have been learning about all week.

Some frantically run their lips up and down the harmonica with excitement,

others pause and allow a cool and layback space between notes to

punctuate the sound they are going for.

Ralph Carter, an accomplished songwriter, composer and producer, teaches

students song writing during the camp. He also holds an independent

songwriting camp at the shacks.

Sitting in the Robert Clay shack, Carter asks students, many of whom never

really thought about writing a song, “what gives you the blues?” He

encourages them to make observations, think about rhymes, look for a

melody in what they are saying. He teaches song structure.

“The songwriter’s job is to help understand our life’s experience by

providing perspective, context and sometimes just the plain comfort of

sharing.” He encourages them, convincing them that each has a song inside

of them. “Music, songs, connect us to our humanity in a magically direct

way. They go directly to the heart.”

Not all players have to play or write blues, but for those who want to, he

says “The blues hangs heavy in the air in the Delta. There is something that

still feels raw here, exposed and vulnerable. The fact that the Blues and it’s

offspring are still going strong today, tells you something about the

enduring power of songs.”

By Karen Pulfer Focht © 2024

www.theharmonicaexperience.com

https://www.songsattheshacks.com/

Wild Horses of Corolla

Grazing on wild grasses, acorns, and sea oats, walking along the sandy beach of the

Atlantic Ocean, nearly-extinct wild horses have been living peacefully for over 500

years.

It is not known exactly how the wild horses of Corolla got there, but their DNA indicates

that they are of Spanish origin. The original Colonial Spanish Mustangs could have

survived one of the many offshore shipwrecks in the treacherous Outer Banks or maybe

they were left behind by Spanish explorers.

For centuries stallions and their harems have existed on a most unique diet, surviving

through hurricanes and hundreds of harsh winters. In earlier times, visitors were allowed

to take home whatever they could round up. But not anymore, it is now illegal to feed

them or get within 50 feet of them.

When roads were paved leading to their remote part of the cape, their numbers began

to dwindle significantly. Many were hit by cars, including a beloved stallion named Star

who was hit by a car and killed in 1991. They have since found ways to keep the herd

safer. The horses now have access to over 7,000 acres, about 3,000 acres of public

land and roughly 4,000 privately owned, in a beach and marine forest area north of

Corolla.

Not everyone buys into the poetry of these majestic creatures. Their biggest threat

today is development. Not everyone wants to wake up to a horse in their yard or lay out

in the sun with horses gathering around.

“They are one of the oldest and rarest strains left in the world and are listed as a

critically endangered/nearly extinct breed” according to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, a

non-profit that preserves the heritage of the Mustangs.

For more information on the horses https://www.corollawildhorses.com/

Video of the Wild Horses of Corolla

ELVIS WEEK 2023

Every year pilgrims from around the globe descend on Memphis to honor and remember Elvis Presley on the anniversary of his death. These are some highlights from Elvis Week 2023, many of which show the next generation of Elvis fans. This was the first vigil since Lisa Marie, the daughter of Elvis, died. His granddaughter, Riley Keough, has since taken over the estate. No family members were present this year, including Pricilla Presley who is often on hand.

Visual Highlights from the Elvis Vigil

Previous Blog Posts:

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/tag/Photos+of+Lisa+Marie+Presley

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/2022/6/27/new-baz-luhrmann-elvis-movie-tops-box-office?rq=Graceland

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/elvis-week-2019?rq=Graceland

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/elvispresley40?rq=Graceland

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/elvisweek2018?rq=Graceland

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/2015/1/10/elvis-turns-80?rq=Graceland