The Opportunity is Great, Your Support is Critical, So Bring It All Back to Beale Street!
The Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum is really Memphis Rock 'n' Soul, Inc. - a 501(c)3 non-profit organization which operates two world class-museums... the Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum whose original exhibit was researched and developed by the Smithsonian Institution, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame Museum. Rock 'n' Soul also administers the annual Memphis Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, paying tribute to the legions of iconic Memphis musicians who made the city of Memphis world-famous, and advances its critical mission "To preserve and tell the story of Memphis music and perpetuate its legacy.
Rock 'n' Soul has a great opportunity. Thanks to the Lansky family, Rock 'n' Soul has the potential of securing the former Hard Rock Cafe building... more appropriately, the historic Lansky Bros. clothing store building where many of Memphis' musical giants like B.B. King, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Isaac Hayes and many others shopped for clothes on legendary Beale Street. The goal? Preserve this musically-significant building which almost encompasses an entire city block on Beale in downtown Memphis, bring both the Rock 'n' Soul Museum and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame Museum under one roof, brand this building as "The Center of Memphis Music" ... and bring this building back to life to promote and preserve Memphis music the way it should be done.
If successful, and with your help... all 24,000 square feet of this building will be filled with music... the kind of Memphis music that has always brought Beale Street to life. Potentially teaming with these two award-winning museums - space for the rescue and archival of treasured Memphis music artifacts and memorabilia, space for the recording and preservation of oral history interviews about Memphis music and Beale Street, the preservation of the Lansky Bros. musical legacy, rehearsal space for Memphis bands, performance space for Memphis musicians (being paid a living wage), lecture hall for industry workshops for musicians, space for musical summer camps for students, daytime and family-friendly musical programming for Memphians and tourists, offices and staff for the marketing of Memphis music, musicians, studios, musical opportunities, and more. "The Center of Memphis Music" will bring it all back to Beale Street, one of the most globally historic musical streets in the world, and will be developed on a corner where black music and white music converged to create the sound that changed the planet... and with a focus toward our city's musical future.
If you are as excited as we are, and if you want to play a crucial role in this musical revival for the benefit of Memphis, Beale Street, tourism, our students, and our musicians' future... click the button below and donate toward its reality. If you are really excited, let's sit down and talk. Contact John Doyle, Memphis Rock 'n' Soul and Memphis Music Hall of Fame Executive Director, at (901) 205-2530, or by email at [email protected] to explore how you and your family can become a critical part of "The Center of Memphis Music."
