Stax Museum of American Soul Music announces year-long plans for the 20th Anniversary in 2023!
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Throughout 2023, the Soulsville Foundation’s Stax Museum of American Soul Music at the original site of Stax Records in Memphis will celebrate its 20th Anniversary with renovations, celebrations, concerts, and other events, it announced during a special event on September 14, 2022. For the invitation-only announcement event, the Stax Museum surprised the packed house in its recording studio with a live performance by none other than Booker T. Jones of Booker T. & the M.G.’s, who chose Stax Music Academy graduates to perform with him as his rhythm section.
Of special note in 2023, the Stax Museum and Stax Music Academy will kick off the year in February by offering a virtual Black History Month film that will be free to anyone in the world, and includes the music of Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Sam & Dave, Rufus and Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, and others. Visit the Stax Museum’s website in early 2023 for details. Other events include galas, free student field trips, wine tastings, exhibits, free monthly events, and a “Soul Mobile” that will take the Stax sound throughout the United States.
Guiding the Stax Museum throughout its 20th Anniversary year will be a special group of ambassadors made up of former Stax artists and executives who’ll be available to advise the museum, attend events, conduct interviews, and raise awareness of the Stax legacy during the year. Included in the group are Stax Records executive and one-time owner Al Bell; famed Stax songwriter and recording artist David Porter; Booker T. & the M.G.’s guitarist Steve Cropper; singer/songwriter and Stax legend William Bell; Bar-Kays lead singer Larry Dodson; Bar-Kays founder and lone survivor of the original group, bassist James Alexander; singer/songwriter Eddie Floyd; guitarist/producer Bobby Manuel; keyboardist/producer Lester Snell; Stax Records’ director of publicity and founding Soulsville Foundation CEO Deanie Parker; and others to be announced. |
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A New Milestone
“We’ve very carefully planned the Stax Museum’s 20th Anniversary so the community and the public can join us in 2023 for a very special year of events to celebrate the legacy of Stax Records,” said Stax Museum Executive Director Jeff Kollath.
“Stax Records and the Stax Museum is a Memphis story that started here and became known around the world. We want to celebrate not only the past 20 years, but also look forward to the museum’s next 20 years and what we can accomplish as we continue to interpret the Stax story.”
Soulsville Foundation President & CEO Pat Mitchell Worley added, "Celebrating the 20th Anniversary in 2023 will be a milestone for the Stax family. We are tremendously proud to continue the legacy of Stax with a year-long calendar of exciting events slated to celebrate the past, present, future of the Stax Museum.”
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"With the Stax Museum celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2023 and HBO to air the Stax Records documentary series during the same year, there will be much attention given to soul music art form we created at College and McLemore,” said Al Bell, who was unable to attend the museum’s event because he was conducting a Wattstax 50th anniversary panel discussion at the Americana Music Association’s conference in Nashville, and receiving one of the association’s Lifetime Achievement Awards.
“It’s a very complicated story filled with the kinds of highs and lows that came with being a predominantly Black record company trying to thrive in the music industry of the 1960s and 1970s.” “Working at Stax was like giving a daily sermon to the world, of being open with loving emotions to others regardless of who they were or looked like,” said David Porter. “Showing the love of community was a given because the community earned that by the support it gave back to us.” |
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