Free soul in Studio A, a $7 Millington dance night, and Bob Ross at the library

Hey Memphis 👋 It's Tuesday. Sunny, 98, and a heat index pushing 111 — the National Weather Service has us under a heat advisory until 9 tonight. So today's list leans air-conditioned on purpose.

☀️ Today in Memphis

Live In Studio A: McKenneith Cherry — Stax Museum, 2 PM, free for Shelby County residents with ID. Cherry is a Stax Music Academy alum who bills himself the Grown Folks Party Starter, and he's playing the museum's Studio A. Bring your ID and it's the cheapest cold room in town. Details

Puppet Show: Jo Jo the Melon Donkey — Hooks Central Library, 2 PM, free. Library staff voice a puppet version of Michael Morpurgo's melon-cart donkey story for ages 5–12. No sign-up, and the air conditioning is free too. Details

End of Summer Bash — Burch Library, Collierville, 4 PM, free. Summer reading wraps up with prizes, drawings, crafts, games, and Chill Frozen Treats handing out something cold. Drop in, all ages, no registration. Details

Adult Social Hour: Bob Ross Night — Raleigh Library, 6 PM, free. Oil paints, brushes, and a Bob Ross video you paint along to, third Tuesday of every month. Adults only. Wear something you don't mind ruining. Details

Dance Night with Russ Vaiden — Baker Community Center, Millington, 6 PM (doors 5:45), $7. Three hours of live dance music in a Millington rec hall for seven dollars. We checked: it really is just seven dollars. Details

Redbirds vs. Durham Bulls — AutoZone Park, first pitch 7:05 PM, gates at 6. The first of six straight against Durham, and Memphis comes in 55–41, fourteen games over .500. Get there at 6 for pregame music on the soundstage, and the Cantina Stand value menu runs Tuesday through Thursday. Details

Memphis Hang Suite — Flyway Brewing, doors 7 PM, show 8 PM, $10. Charles Streeter & The Tribe run a weekly open stage for original work only — musicians, poets, whoever signs up. It launched July 7, so it's still small enough to actually get on the list. Details

Open Mic Comedy Night — Hi Tone small room, doors 7 PM, show 8 PM, free. Downstairs is 21+ unless you're the one holding the microphone, which seems like a fair trade. (More rooms like it in our live music guide.) Details

Want the whole verified list, updated daily? It lives at heymemphis.co/events.

📰 The Rundown

Ida B. Wells Plaza is open again at Beale and Fourth after a redesign, with Mayor Paul Young on hand for the ribbon. The plaza honors the journalist and NAACP co-founder who built her career here starting in 1882, and it now sits refreshed alongside the statue the city put up in 2020. (via Action News 5)

Seven Shelby County leaders made the new Leadership Tennessee class, a 10-month program that puts people from business, health care, government and nonprofits in a room together across the state. The local group includes Deidre Malone of The Carter Malone Group, Anasa Troutman of The Big We, and Rev. J. Lawrence Turner of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church. (via Tri-State Defender)

Volunteers and the CME Church's West Tennessee Region are clearing Zion Hill Cemetery in Cordova — years of overgrowth cut back, damaged headstones repaired. It started because community member Carrie Penson, who has family buried there, kept pushing; Bishop Marvin Thomas says the church will keep up the grounds from here. (via Action News 5)

If your commute crosses the I-55 bridge work at Third, budget extra time through the first week of August. TDOT has nightly lane closures on I-55 and SR-14 from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. while crews replace the interchange bridges, with at least one lane staying open and signed detours when they need a full closure. (via TDOT)

🍽️ Food & Drink

Cooper's — the Cooper-Young spot at 959 S. Cooper runs two stages with live entertainment every night and keeps the kitchen and bar going until midnight on weeknights. Happy hour is 4–6 Monday through Friday: two-for-one domestics and house liquor. Menu

🎟️ Looking Ahead

Incognito — online bidding opens this morning at 10 and runs through July 31. Every piece is unsigned until after it sells, so you're buying the art and not the name. The in-person auction party is Friday, July 31, 6–8 PM at Memphis Botanic Garden; the exhibition is free to walk through until then. Details

Stargazing at Beale Street Landing — Saturday, July 25, 7:30–9:30 PM, free. The Memphis Astronomical Society sets up telescopes on the roof over the Mississippi. Details

BPACC season tickets — the Bartlett Performing Arts Center's 2026–27 season goes on sale Monday, July 27 at 10 AM. John Waite in October, Brittney Spencer two weeks later. Tickets

🏡 Community Corner

Serious question on a 111-degree day: where's your go-to cold room? The library branch with the good chairs, a taproom that actually keeps up, a movie theater you'd drive across town for? Hit reply — we'll run the best answers. And if you know about something happening in the 901, no gatekeeping — send it to hey@heymemphis.co.

That's it for today — see you tomorrow at 6.

— Josh