Bennie Nelson West, founder of the Memphis Black Arts Alliance, converted a fire station in 1910 Memphis to one of Memphis’ premiere arts centers for African-American artists. (Photos by Wiley Henry)

If you’re traveling south on Bellevue to Walker Avenue, you’ll run right smack into one of the gateways to Soulsville USA, a reinvigorated African-American community once bustling with the sweet sounds of soul music.

A host of memorable music makers have left a mark here including Calvin and Phineas Newborn, Aretha Franklin, Maurice White, David Porter, Lucie E. Campbell, Rev. Herbert Brewster, Booker T. Jones, and others.

Here, you’ll find the FireHouse Community Arts Center, home to the Memphis Black Arts Alliance (MBAA) at 985 S. Bellevue. This is a cultural and artistic showcase featuring everything from art exhibits to art classes, summer camps to special events, and musical recitations to poetry readings.

Leonard West, Harriet Buckley, Maxine Strawder, twins Jerry and Terry Lynn, and George Hunt are just a few of those who’ve gone on from FireHouse to make sweet music in their own right.

More history is in the making as a new generation of stars learns their craft.     New classes are underway.  For more information, call 901-948-9522 or email memphisarts@bellsouth.net.

Founded in 1982 by Bennie Nelson West, MBAA has employed more than 300 artists, singers, actors, dancers, musicians and writers. Over the years more than 300,000 visitors, students, supporters and volunteers have come to learn, grow, and share their crafts.

West sees the FireHouse, once the home of a fire station, as a place where the community can celebrate and nurture the cultural contributions of African Americans regardless of age, income, ability, religious, racial and ethnic backgrounds.

“The good news is that the talent pool among Black folks is awesome! From young to old, there appears to be an increasing interest and awareness that we all have unique talents and gifts,” West said.  

“And when provided an outlet to develop those talents, it provides a kind of personal power and self-confidence that allows us to explore and achieve success in other areas of our life.  That’s what we see in the children and adults who attend MBAA’s FireHouse Community Arts Academy.”

Q. You have been an advocate for the arts for a number of years. What inspired you?

West: It started young with my parents. My mother, as the owner of Nelson’s Kindergarten (one of the first in Orange Mound) and later a teacher at Hanley Elementary, was quite creative and made sure I took dance and piano lessons (both at LeMoyne College).  Then my daddy, a peer of the late Lt. George W. Lee & Lucie Campbell, was a “race man” and was a philosopher/scholar of world history and black history.  Like his cousins Ford & Linberg Nelson, daddy was a musician and played coronet in the Letter Carriers Band and was a great organist. These early years were further reinforced by my teachers at Melrose — Erma Clanton (Theater), Ruthie Strong (Dance), Harold Winfrey (Visual Arts), and Viola Flowers (Music).  In fact, I still remember lines from plays and having to sing Marian Anderson’s He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand every “Negro History Week.”  

However, even with these early experiences, it wasn’t until I became immersed in the Black Arts Movement in New York City, between 1968 and 1978, that I really became aware of the power of the arts to change people…the way they think and act.  During that time, we began to deepen our understanding and appreciation of the uniqueness of the “Black aesthetic” and began through plays, poetry, visual art and music to reawaken our community to the beauty of being Black and the triumphs and challenges of our cultural and political history. Fortunately, I was able to study with and participate in dance, art, theater and creative writing with some of our nation’s best Black artists. Hanging out with them in New York—— whether it was at the East in Brooklyn, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theater, and the Frank Silvera’s Writer’s Workshop, or at the Lafayette Theater run by Woody King — it was hard not to be excited and inspired about the arts and our contributions as Black folks to American culture.  

You organized Memphis Black Arts Alliance in 1982. What was the objective?

West: Returning home to Memphis in 1978 to organize the 1st National African-American Crafts Conference & Jubilee (forerunner of Atlanta’s National Black Arts Festival), I was disappointed to learn that of the many black arts groups and individual artists, only one or two had access to space to perform their plays. There were no art galleries to exhibit their work. None were receiving funds from the local arts agency to support their work. No one had an on-going arts education program for the community. But most importantly, the arts as an essential quality of life issue weren’t being appreciated by most Memphians. Therefore, the work of these artists was not being valued and recognized. So 18 arts organizations, eight individual performing and visual artists and six community supporters joined with me in forming the Memphis Black Arts Alliance. And on May 7, 1982, at LeMoyne-Owen College, the legendary artists-activists Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee were honored and led the charge to support our objectives, which were to: preserve and promote African-American arts and heritage; share information and resources; increase artistic and economic self-sufficiency; and advocate for increased community support.  

Q.: Have these objectives been met?  

West: No.  Clearly, like in most affairs of Black Americans nationally, and in Memphis, there has been progress.  For example, there are more widely known African-American owned and managed arts and cultural offerings in our city that promote African-American arts and heritage: several art galleries, the Africa in April and Juneteenth festivals, Hattiloo Theater, and Cultural Development Foundation’s presentations.

Additionally, over the years, ArtsMemphis, the local arts funding agency (formerly Memphis Arts Council) has increased its support of organizations which reach the “underserved” (i.e. people of color, people with disabilities, children and senior citizens). However, it must be recognized that ArtsMemphis’ primary purpose is to provide a collaborative funding arm for the mainstream established “Keystone/Milestone” organizations (Opera, Symphony, Brooks Museum of Art, Playhouse on the Square, Theater Memphis, etc.)  As a result, those groups, whose primary audiences are identified by the TN Arts Commission as “underserved,” receive less than 3 percent of the dollars distributed and raised through public and private donations.  On the other hand, many individual artists — like George Hunt, Lester Merriweather, Brenda JoySmith, the Twins (Terry & Jerry), and others — have received national recognition and have achieved a modest level of artistic and economic self-sufficiency.

Yet after more than 25 years, with the exception the Memphis Black Arts Alliance, none of the African-American non-profit arts organizations own and/or control the space in which they operate, nor do they have dedicated funding sources (public or private). Organizations like ours wishing to provide community-based arts programs free or at low cost to the “underserved,” must rely on the donations directly from individuals, organizations and businesses in the community.

Q.: Are African-American artists under MBAA more self-sufficient now that there’s an organization available to help with their career?

West: In 1996, MBAA decided that the most effective way we could help artists to become self-sufficient was to employ them, provide them a space to exhibit, rehearse and perform. Therefore we’ve provided support to more than 325 artists, employing more than 188 in the last 10 years for approximately $600,000 as community arts educators working at the FireHouse Community Arts Academy or in the community with schools, child care, community centers, businesses, agencies, etc.  For young and developing professional performers and visual artists, we’ve provided them professional instruction and mentoring with our seasoned artists-educators.

Since we were organized in 1982, there are more opportunities locally and nationally to receive academic degrees in visual arts, theater arts and music production at local colleges and universities; and, these institutions have begun to include courses on best practices in terms of marketing and managing their artistic skills, further enhancing the artists’ ability for self-sufficiency.  

Q.: MBAA is community-based. Did you envision it as a way to bridge artists and the community in which they live?

West: Absolutely. The core values of the Memphis Black Arts Alliance – FireHouse Community Arts Center, are: 1) to nurture the creative process and celebrate the cultural contributions of Blacks, helping all to feel good about who they are regardless of ages, incomes, abilities, and ethnic backgrounds; 2) to maintain our status as a cultural arts center which seeks to rebuild vital traditions of mutual support, care and responsibility. We aim to provide opportunities for people of all ages and walks of life to spend time together and form relationships. The result is a bridging of the gap between varying experiences — both past and present — which fosters an expanded sense of self, history, and one’s connection to community, and 3)  maintain an alliance with artists, cultivating entrepreneurial skills and opportunities, which provide a place to develop, teach, share, and be compensated for their gifts.

Q.: Do you believe that art should be a necessary part of the school curriculum?

West: Yes. The No Child Left Behind Act mandates art as a part of the curriculum. Research shows that the arts help build both basic and advanced thinking skills, and instruct children in diverse modes of thinking and learning. The knowledge and skills that students develop in learning to respond, to perform and create works of art constitute a fundamental form of literacy students must have if they are to communicate successfully and function in today’s new media and information society.  

Q.: Where do you want to take MBAA?

West: MBAA’s mission is to build our community through the arts.  Combining culture with enterprise, I’d like to help public and private partners collaborate to develop a corridor of arts-based businesses, education and training and a high tech Arts & Cultural Center which leverages the assets of existing culturally oriented organizations to create services, products and experiences which provide hope and opportunity to transform “the village.”