chris davis
On Thursday, August 27th, demolition began on the modest pink
building located at 723 North Parkway. By Friday afternoon, there was
nothing left but a rectangular patch of dirt where Bill’s Twilight
Lounge once stood.
Bill’s, an African-American literary heritage site and occasional
hub for Memphis’ jazz and hip-hop scenes, had been empty for years. It
was recently purchased, along with the adjoining property formerly
operated by Gator’s discount store, by St. Jude Children’s Research
Hospital. St. Jude now owns all the property on the south side of North
Parkway between Danny Thomas and the strip of buildings housing Cozy
Corner restaurant.
Bill’s Twilight Lounge has been quiet for some time, but in the
mid-1970s, it was home to a community of writers and performing artists
who honed their craft with the help of celebrated poet Etheridge
Knight. Knight, whose well-documented struggles with heroin and
morphine began after he was wounded during the Korean War, came to
Memphis where he received methadone treatments and chose the bar as the
site for his Free People’s Poetry Workshops.
T.C. Sharpe, a 26-year teacher in the Memphis City Schools and an
actor who has been featured in Craig Brewer films The Poor &
Hungry and Black Snake Moan, compares the scene that grew up
around Bill’s to the Harlem Renaissance. He says the workshops
themselves were like an open-mic night and a block party combined.
“It was so safe, because there was never any anger there,” Sharpe
says, recalling his frequent visits to the club. “Etheridge wouldn’t
allow any kind of conflict. … It was a place where black militancy
gave way to flower power and the strength of poetry.”
Knight had been inspired by the tradition of toasts, an
African-American oral tradition in which the speaker describes street
life in a theatrical manner. His presence attracted radio
personalities, as well as actors from Levi Frazier’s Beale Street
Repertory Company and from the Mid-America Mall Theater. It attracted
dancers like Harry Bryce, who worked with Alvin Ailey and helped
co-found the Memphis Black Repertory Theatre.
According to Sharpe, the energy and momentum from that scene
inspired the creation of spinoff events and brought Memphis’ black
artistic community into contact with playwright Douglas Turner Ward,
poets such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, and TV writers for
shows such as Good Times and Sanford & Son.
“We all knew that Etheridge had his problems,” Sharpe says. “He’d
look after us like a mother hen, and we’d look after him. It was an
electrifying experience.”
