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Grand Opening - 2003

"Ernest Withers - Memphis Music"
Ernest Withers, born in 1922, captured the soul, voice, and passion of a changing mid-south African American Community through six decades of photographs. The Stax Museum of American Soul Music opened its doors in May 2003 sharing Ernest Withers' Memphis Music photography.

His photographs have appeared in Time, Newsweek, Ebony, Jet, The New York Times, Washington Post, the Chicago Defender, and in the PBS documentary Eyes on the Prize. He received the National News Association's Best Photographer of the Year award in 1968. His pictures tell a remarkable story.

Spring 2004

"My Africa, My Soul, My Song - by Phil Dotson"
This was an exhibition of fine large-format oil paintings by Lemoyne-Owen College professor Phil Dotson. The exhibit ran in conjunction with the Africa in April Cultural Awareness Festival as it saluted Kenya. It featured 27 works that had been displayed in over 90 galleries around the country. The paintings exude high-energy tangerine, turquoise, and crimson hues, with a skillful blend of African myth and American reality.

June 2004

"The Beatles! Backstage and Behind the Scenes"

"The Beatles! Backstage and Behind the Scenes"
This exhibition of 84 previously unpublished photographs by CBS and Life Magazine photographer Bill Eppridge of the Beatles 1964 Tour showed the Fab Four as if they didn't know a camera was near them. All of the candid photographs were taken during a three-day period when The Beatles made their North American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. Opening day of the exhibit embraced nearly 600 people, enjoying live Beatles music performed by the David Brookings Band, with several thousand viewing the exhibition within the first few weeks and thousands more before the exhibition closed and traveled from the Stax Museum to Milan, Italy.

Fall 2004

"Wattstax - It Remains to Be Seen"

"Wattstax - It Remains to Be Seen"
This exhibition, on display through January 2005, is an amazing collection of photographs and items of memorabilia from the 1972 Wattstax concert produced by Stax Records, and the 19734 documentary produced by Stax Films. The exhibit opened with discussions and a screening of the Golden Globe nominated documentary to an audience of guests that included Jesse Jackson, Isaac Hayes, Al Bell, and political activist and rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy. Most of these images were lost for some 30 years in Hollywood warehouses, and this is the first time they have been shown. The exhibit mirrors the concert's and documentary's truths, struggles, and perspectives of the 1970's African American community. It is a "soulful expression of the living word."

December 2004

Eldorado Cadillac

Isaac Hayes' Superfly Cadillac
This 1972 Peacock Blue, gold trimmed, two door, Eldorado Cadillac was The symbol of the style and cutting edge fashion that answered the question "What's Soul" in a way that only Stax and Isaac Hayes' could. The Stax Record Company gave Isaac Hayes this car as a gift for his unparalleled success in 1971 and 1972. This exhibit is accompanied by an energetic documentary by award winning author and filmmaker Robert Gordon.

February 2005

Blaxploitation: Funky Films & Soundtracks of the 1970s

More than 50 rare, vintage movie posters from the Blaxploitation film genre of the 1970s, including Shaft, Foxy Brown, Coffy, Cleopatra Jones, Truck Turner, Superfly, and all of the other classics movies from the era.

This exhibit was from the Separate Cinema Archive of Hyde Park, New York, the world's largest collection of African-American film memorabilia.

The Stax Museum promotional poster shown here was awarded First Prize from the American Association of Museums (AAM) in the 2005 Frances Smyth-Ravenel Prize for Excellence in Publication Design. The poster was designed by carpenter/sullivan, a Memphis, Tennessee-based advertising, marketing, and public relations firm in collaboration with the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and Separate Cinema Archive.

May 13 - July 26, 2005

“Bob Dylan: The Photographs of Daniel Kramer.”

To mark the 40th anniversary of Dylan’s seminal 1965 albums Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, and in conjunction with his recently released autobiography Chronicles, Volume 1, the photographs of Daniel Kramer have been assembled together for this new, stunning exhibition of 60 photographs. They were shot during the peak of Dylan’s writing and performing years and hailed by many as the best photographs ever taken of the superstar folk singer. They depict Dylan as both the notoriously private man and the public figure, with shots taken in Kramer’s New York studio, as well as in more impromptu images taken in Woodstock, on the streets of New York City, in recording sessions at Columbia Records, and in hotel rooms along the touring trail. In addition to solo photographs of Dylan, the exhibtion includes him photographed with such superstars as Johnny Cash and Joan Baez. Some of these rare photographs have never been published before now.

Daniel Kramer’s photographs were first collected in his 1967 book Bob Dylan (reprinted as Bob Dylan: A Portrait of the Artist’s Early Years, Plexus Publishing, 2001, paperback, 160 pages). They were also used on the album covers for Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Biograph (1985) and Bringing It All Back Home (1965), which was nominated for a Grammy and selected by Rolling Stone as one of the “100 Greatest Album Covers of All Time.” A number of rare and previously unpublished pictures by Kramer also appear in the 52-page booklet and packaging that accompanies Bob Dylan’s
Live 1964: Concert at Philharmonic Hall -- The Bootleg Series Volume 6 (2004), a two-CD set documenting the all-acoustic, October 31, 1964, Halloween-night concert by Bob Dylan at Philharmonic Hall in New York City.

A New York-based award-winning photographer and film director, Daniel Kramer received a Music Journalism Awards nomination for his photographs of Bob Dylan. His pictures have been published throughout the world and exhibited or collected by such museums as the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the Whitney Museum of American Art and International Center of Photography, New York City; Experience Music Project, Seattle; and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Cleveland.

This exhibition was organized and circulated by Crossroads Traveling Exhibitions, Atlanta, Georgia, and Matrix Exhibitions & Publications, Washington, D.C.

Supporting Partner: Time Warner Cable

Please call 901-942-SOUL for more inforamation or to book a group tour or private party.

November 20th-January 20th

"FROM THE SOUL: An Intimate Portrait of Soulsville, USA

“FROM THE SOUL: An Intimate Portrait of Soulsville, USA”

For many years, the Memphis neighborhood surrounding Stax Records – known as Soulsville, USA – was a bustling and thriving community where a young grocery sacker named David Porter became one of Stax Records’ most famous songwriters, where Aretha Franklin was born and sang in her father’s Metropolitan Baptist Church until moving to Detroit at age eight, where Calvin and Phinneas Newborn honed their jazz skills, where Al Green recorded his super hits of the 1970s at Willie Mitchell’s Royal Studios, where Maurice White grew up and grew into Earth Wind & Fire, where Memphis Minnie and Memphis Slim penned some of the greatest blues songs in history, and where Elvis Presley sneaked into Rev. Herbert Brewster’s East Trigg Avenue Baptist church as a teenager to listen to gospel music, much of which Rev. Brewster had written for Mahalia Jackson and which helped her become one of the world’s most famous gospel singers.

Now, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music will offer an up-close and personal view of Soulsville, USA with a new exhibit, “FROM THE SOUL: An Intimate Portrait of Soulsville, USA.”

The exhibit consists of some 40 recently taken black-and-white photographs by Memphis photographer Monty Shane, co-owner of vue gallery in the Cooper-Young district. In addition to photographs of such landmarks as the former homes of Aretha Franklin, Booker T. Jones (Booker T. & the MGs), Memphis Slim, Memphis Minnie, and others, the exhibit includes portraits of longtime Soulsville, USA residents along with text panels that share their memories of growing up in the community. Many of the portraits are residents who participated in a summer writing workshop with Robert Wolfe of FreeRiverPress.org, and those stories are slated to be published in one of his upcoming books about life in small towns and communities throughout the United States.

From what it was like to learn of Otis Redding’s and members of the Bar Kay’s deaths on the radio in 1967, to the energy in the air when Stax Records was in full swing with artists coming and going on the famous corner of McLemore Avenue and College Street, to what it is like today to be a part of the mentoring programs at the Stax Music Academy, their stories give a personal and colorful glimpse into the Memphis, Tennessee, neighborhood that changed popular culture forever.

For more information, text excerpts, and press images, please contact Tim Sampson 901-261-6324 or via email at tim@soulsvilleusa.com or Carol Drake 901-261-6346 or via email at carol@soulsvilleusa.com.

For more information about our organization's community relations efforts in Soulsville, USA, please contact Rachel Wright 901-261-6355 or via email at rachel@soulsvilleusa.com.

For more information about Free River Press, please visit www.freeriverpress.org.

February 1 - April 23, 2006

LeMoyne-Owen College Graduation

"HOOKS BROTHERS PHOTOGRAPHY: 70 Years of African-American Life in Memphis

"HOOKS BROTHERS PHOTOGRAPHY: 70 Years of African-American Life in Memphis"

February 1 - April 21

The Hooks Brothers Photography studio was founded in 1907 on Main Street in Memphis by brothers Henry A. Hooks Sr. and Robert B. Hooks, father of former national NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Hooks, who worked in the studio during his childhood. The studio later moved to 164 Beale Street, where it enjoyed its heyday for more than 40 years, and later to Linden Avenue, where the Hooks School of Photography operated. It eventually moved to 979 East McLemore in the 1970s, survived a fire, and finally closed in 1984. The studio remained in the family and operated throughout most of the 20th Century, becoming the second oldest black owned business in Memphis.

Hooks Brothers Photography documented virtually every aspect of African-American life in Memphis during this time, including school plays and graduations, church services, funerals, social portraits, weddings, businesses, architecture, special occasions, ball games, and much more. Many were candid photographs, while others captured important moments in Memphis history. The many portraits ranged from prominent citizens and families, including many of the Hooks family, and others were ordinary citizens. Hooks Brothers Photography’s motto was: “Where There is Beauty, We Take It . . . Where There is None, We Make It.” Some of the individuals who appear in the photographs include Benjamin Hooks, Lamar Alexander, Jesse Jackson, Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton (donning his basketball uniform in a LeMoyne-Owen College team shot), Harold Ford Sr. and a very young Harold Ford Jr., Lou Rawls, Dr. Martin Luther King, and many, many others.

Now, more than 10,000 Hooks Brothers photograph are housed at the Delta State University Archives Cleveland, Mississippi, and this exhibit of 80 photographs represents just a sampling and tells just a part of the incredible story of African-American life in Memphis, as well as that of Hooks Brothers Photography and the Hooks Brothers Photography School.

6/9 - 8/26, 2006

1978, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger by Micael Putnam

"ROLLING STONES 40 X 20"

"ROLLING STONES 40 X 20"

This major exhibit of 45 black-and-white and color photographs of the bad boys of rock and roll was on view at the Stax Museum from June 10th until August 26th. The photographs were compiled by Chris Murray at the Govinda Gallery in Washington, D.C. “I had always wanted to do a group exhibit featuring the best photos of the band,” explains Murray, who also produced an accompanying book as a tribute to the Stones for their 40th anniversary. “The great thing about the Stones being at Stax is that they owe it all to American roots music, and they know that. The British Invasion never would have happened without the legacy that Stax represents.” The exhibit is not only a tribute to the Stones, but a tribute to the 20 photographers known for their pictures of the band. According to Murray, “These photographers had great access to the band that you just don’t see these days.”

This is exhibit was sponsored by Stanford Private Wealth Management and WXMX/98.1 The Max.

September 8 - October 31, 2006

2Pac by Danny Clinch, Courtesy Sock Bandit Productions NY NY

"HIP HOP IMMORTALS

“Hip Hop Immortals
September 8 – October 31, 2006

OPENING RECEPTION FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2006
7-10 P.M.
COMPLIMENTARY HORS D’OEUVRES - CASH BAR
LIVE ENTERTAINMENT BY THE TUNNEL CLONES
$9 GENERAL ADMISSION - FREE TO STAX MUSEUM MEMBERS

The Stax Museum of American Soul Music will host a very special fine art photography exhibit from September 8-October 31, 2006, “Hip Hop Immortals.” The exhibit, on loan from the New York City-based Sock Bandit Productions, includes 50 color and black-and-white photographs of the most important hip hop artists in the music business by some 20 of the world’s most talented and groundbreaking photographers. This exhibit has been on display in the United States only in select cities in the Northeast and in Los Angeles, and internationally in Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, Amsterdam, and, most recently, at Proud Galleries in London.

The wide variety of artists, photographed from New York to Paris, represents the genre from its beginnings to its current status as one of the most celebrated elements of popular culture throughout the world. Many of the photographs have graced the covers of such publications as Rolling Stone, Vibe, Vanity Fair, American Photo, Elle, and numerous others. Artists represented in the exhibit include 2Pac Shakur, P. Diddy, Queen Latifah, Ice Cube, Eminem, Missy Elliot, Jay Z, and dozens of other artists who are not only hip hop musicians but are also pop culture icons. The photographs depict both the glitz and glamour of the world of hip hop and its more gritty roots from the streets of urban America.

Of all the musical genres on which Stax Records has had an influence, the world of hip hop may be the most prolific, with hundreds of hip hop songs that are either covers of Stax Records originals or contain Stax Records samples. According to Stax Museum spokesperson Tim Sampson, “If you look at the correlation between the music made at Stax and the cultural phenomenon of hip hop, it is easy to draw the conclusion that if not for the funky sounds that came out of Stax, hip hop might never have even happened. This is a great fit for the Stax Museum because we are not only dedicated to the history of Stax Records, but also to promoting its influence on music and culture internationally since the label began up through the present.”

The exhibit will be accompanied by a book that is sure to be a collectors’ item as well as a pivotal piece of pop culture - Hip Hop Immortals. This coffee-table book contains 272 pages of stunning and provocative photos of the 100 most influential artists in hip-hop. The oversized pages measure 12” by 15.25” and the book weighs a staggering seven pounds. As in the exhibit, hip hop’s finest are revealed through the lenses of forty of today’s most talented and celebrated photographers including David LaChapelle, Christian Witkin, Mark Seliger, Michel Comte, Danny Clinch, Jonathan Mannion, Piotr Sikora, Jesse Frohman, Ernie Paniccioli, Matthew Dean, Dana Lixenberg, Sante D’orazio, Janette Beckman, Michael Lavine and Max and Nitin Vadukul. These challenging images are matched by the insightful and fluid words of hip-hop historian Bonz Malone.

In addition to the “Hip Hop Immortals” September 8th opening reception, which will feature much of the hip hop music containing original Stax music and hip hop music that focuses on positive messages, the Stax Museum will host several other events during the run of the exhibit.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CALL 901-946-2535

November 12, 2006 - January 29, 2007

Billie Holiday, recording studio, N.Y.C. 1959. (c) The Milton J. Hinton Photgraphic Collection

"MILT HINTON: ALL THAT JAZZ - A Behind the Scenes View of Jazz in the 20th Century

"MILT HINTON: ALL THAT JAZZ - A Behind the Scenes View of Jazz in the 20th Century"

November 12, 2006 - January 29, 2007

Opening Reception

Sunday, November 12, 2006
Stax Museum of American Soul Music
2-5 p.m.
Complimentary Hors D'oeuvres
Cash Bar with Mimosas, Bloody Marys & More
Live Jazz
$9 General Admission, FREE to Stax Museum Members

The Stax Museum of American Soul Music will host a very special photography exhibit from November 10, 2006 – January 19, 2007: “Milt Hinton: All That Jazz – Behind the Scenes Photographs of 20th Century Jazz.” The exhibit, on loan from the New York City-based Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection, will include 50 Hinton photographs of the most important jazz figures in history, including Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Pearl Bailey, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, Memphis’ own Mulgrew Miller and Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, and dozens of other legendary performers who helped shape the American art form.

The Stax Museum will host an opening reception for the exhibit on Sunday, November 12, 2006 from 2-5 p.m. with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and soft drinks, a cash bar with Mimosas and Bloody Marys, special guests, and live jazz. Admission is $9 to the general public and free to Stax Museum members.

AVAILABLE FOR TRAVEL

David Porter from his LP Gritty, Groovy, and Gettin' It.

Isaac Hayes from Black Moses album jacket.

AVAILABLE FOR TRAVEL: "THE ART OF STAX: Essential Album Photographs by Joel Brodsky"

Stax Museum offers traveling exhibit:

“THE ART OF STAX” Essential Album Photographs by Joel Brodsky”

The Stax Museum of American Soul Music now offers a special exhibit available for travel that honors the life, work, and legacy of photographer Joel Brodsky. Mr. Brodsky, one of the most influential music photographers in the world and longtime Stax Records album photographer, passed away at his home in Connecticut on Thursday, March 1, 2007.

The exhibit, created by the Stax Museum and the Joel Brodsky Photographic Archive, is the only collection of Mr. Brodsky’s soul music photography, and it debuted at the Stax Museum in summer 2007 in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Stax Records.

The exhibit features approximately 40 of the original photographs used for Stax Records albums, outtakes from his photo shoots, album photos by non-Stax artists, photos taken for Stax Records advertisements, and the albums themselves. Just a few of the album photographs are from Isaac Hayes’ Hot Buttered Soul and Black Moses, Booker T. & the MGs’ McLemore Avenue, Mavis Staples’ Only ForThe Lonely, and David Porter’s Gritty, Groovy, & Gettin' It. Other Stax artists represented in the exhibit include Rufus Thomas, William Bell, Johnnie Taylor, Jean Knight, Albert King, Eddie Floyd, and Jessie Jackson. Non-Stax soul artists in the exhibit include Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Funkadelic, the Ohio Players, Gladys Knight & The Pips, and others. The exhibit also includes Mr. Brodsky’s famous “Young Lion” photo of Jim Morrison for The Doors’ “Strange Days” LP cover.

The photographs are framed and vary in size. Most are color.

For more information about “THE ART OF STAX: Essential Album Cover Photographs by Stax Photographer Joel Brodsky,” please contact Carol Drake at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music 901-261-6346 or carol.drake@staxmuseum.com.

Photographs in the exhibit include, but are not limited to:

David Porter
Into a Real Thing (1971)
Stax Records
Album Cover Photograph

David Porter
Gritty, Groovy, and Gettin’ It (1970)
Stax Records
Outtakes from Photo Shoot

Booker T. & the MGs
McLemore Avenue (1970)
Stax Records
Outtakes from Photo Shoot

Booker T. & the MGs
McLemore Avenue (1970)
Stax Records
Outtakes from Photo Shoot

Booker T. & the MGs
McLemore Avenue (1970)
Stax Records
Album Cover Photograph

Albert King
Lovejoy (1971)
Stax Records
Outtake from Photo Shoot

Albert King
Lovejoy (1971)
Stax Records
Album Cover Photograph

Mavis Staples
Only for the Lonely (1969)
Stax Records
Album Cover Photograph

Mavis Staples
Only for the Lonely (1969)
Stax Records
Outtake from Photo Shoot

Rufus Thomas
Do the Funky Chicken (1969)
Stax Records
Outtake from Photo Shoot

The Staple Singers
The Staple Swingers (1971)
Stax Records
Outtake from Photo Shoot

Eddie Floyd
California Girl (1970)
Stax Records
Outtakes from Photo Shoot

Eddie Floyd
California Girl (1970)
Stax Records
Outtakes from Photo Shoot

Funkadelic
Maggot Brain (2005)
Westbound Records
Outtake from Photo Shoot

The Box Tops
The Super Hits (1968)
Bell Records
Outtake from Photo Shoot

Gladys Knight & The Pips
Imagination (1973)
The Right Stuff
Outtake from Photo Shoot

Ohio Players
Pleasure (1972)
Westbound Records
Outtake from Photo Shoot

Jim Morrison/The Doors
Strange Days (1967)
Elektra/Wea
Inside Album Jacket Photograph
The Best of the Doors (1985)
Rhino/Wea
Album Cover Photograph

Aretha Franklin
Let Me in Your Life (1974)
Atlantic Records
Outtake from Photo Shoot

Isaac Hayes
Black Moses (1971)
Stax Records
Album Cover Photograph

Johnnie Taylor
One Step Beyond (1971)
Stax Records
Outtakes from Photo Shoot

David Porter
Sweat and Love (1973)
Stax Records
Outtakes from Photo Shoot

Billy Eckstine
Stormy (1971)
Stax Records
Outtakes from Photo Shoot

Isaac Hayes
The Isaac Hayes Movement (1970)
Stax Records
Outtakes from Photo Shoot

William Bell
Phases of Reality (1973)
Stax Records
Outtake from Photo Shoot

Isaac Hayes
…To Be Continued (1970)
Stax Records
Outtakes from Photo Shoot

Little Sonny
Stormy (1971)
Stax Records
Outtakes from Photo Shoot

Jesse Jackson
I Am Somebody (1970)
Outtakes from Photo Shoot

Jean Knight
Mr. Big Stuff (1971)
Stax Records
Outtakes from Photo Shoot

Margie Joseph
Makes a New Impression (1971)
Stax Records
Outtake from Photo Shoot

Advertisement for Isaac Hayes’ Black Moses LP

Luther Ingram
If Loving You is Right I Don’t Want to be Wrong (1972)
Stax Records
Outtake from Photo Shoot

Advertisement for Stax Records

“World of Stax” Advertisement for Stax Records

Isaac Hayes
Black Moses (1971) Inside Album Cover Photograph
The Isaac Hayes Movement (1970) Inside Album Cover Photograph
Stax Records

September 22 - November 26, 2007

STAX HERE AND NOW: Current Images of the Stars of Stax Records

Mavis Staples. By Andrea Zucker

Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn. By Andrea Zucker.

"STAX HERE AND NOW: Current Images of the Stars of Stax Records"

"STAX HERE AND NOW: Current Images of the Stars of Stax Records"

September 22 - November 26, 2007

For this exhibit, “STAX HERE AND NOW: Current Images of the Stars of Stax Records,” we have dispersed a group of photographers around the country and here in Memphis, the city some still call home, to capture images of these living legends as a way of showing that, while the past is important, it is also imperative to illustrate that the present and future are part of a more all-encompassing legacy that continues to make history today. From busy recording studios and still-enthralling live performances, to bucolic farm life and sharing time with friends and family, the images in “STAX HERE AND NOW” are meant to convey the idea of lives lived in the moment, energy still abounding, and the unique personalities behind the famed personas.

See more than 40 color and black-and-white images of Stax stars such as Isaac Hayes, David Porter, Booker T. & the MGs, Mavis Staples, Eddie Floyd, William Bell, The Astors, The Temprees, Mable John, and numerous others, including a few surprises from other Memphis soul music label.

Sponsored by

AT&T Real Yellow Pages

www.yellowpages.com

August 12-October 31, 2005

Ray Charles by Dick Waterman

Between Midnight & Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive

BETWEEN MIDNIGHT & DAY: THE LAST UNPUBLISHED BLUES ARCHIVE

Photographs by Dick Waterman

Dick Waterman, one of the first non-performers inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, has been an agent, advocate, friend and confidant to legendary blues figures like Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Luther Allison, and many others whose careers he helped establish or restore. Over the past forty years, Waterman has taken thousands of pictures of blues and other musicians he has represented and known. However, they were rarely published or publicly shown and remained in drawers and closets in Waterman’s home in Oxford, Mississippi, the Delta area where the blues were born and where he’s lived since 1986.

Happily, for blues and photography lovers alike, a large selection of Waterman’s images were published for the first time in the critically acclaimed book Between Midnight And Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive (2003). Now, sixty of these photographs—which reveal Waterman’s love for this music, and more important, his respect and affection for the men and women who make it—can be seen in Memphis at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music from August 12 – October 14, 2005. The exhibition and its national tour are organized by Crossroads Traveling Exhibitions, Atlanta, Georgia, and Matrix Exhibitions & Publication, Washington, D.C.

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