The Square's last song, Hattiloo turns 20, and a WTA title lands in Audubon Park: the weekend guide

Hey Memphis 👋 It's Thursday, 93 and breathable again after the week we just had. Five things going tonight, then a weekend with a Broadway run opening, a twentieth birthday party on Cooper, and a pro tennis title decided out at Audubon Park. Let's get into it.

🌙 Tonight

Main Street Concert Series finale: Generation Gap — Collierville Town Square gazebo, 7–9 PM, free. The last one of the season, so the lawn chairs come out one final time until next summer. Details

Sunset Skate: Back-to-School Edition — Tyre Nichols Sunset Canopy, Tom Lee Park, 6–9 PM, free with rentals included. Roller skating on the riverfront with a DJ, and kids go home with school supplies and books. Bring your own pads; they don't provide those. Details

Peabody Rooftop Party: Basketcase — The Peabody, 149 Union Ave., 6–10 PM, $15 general and $40 VIP, 21 and up with no exceptions. If storms roll in the whole thing moves down to the Skyway Ballroom rather than cancelling. Details

The Mauldin Brothers — Hernando's Hide-A-Way, 3210 Old Hernando Rd., doors 6 PM, show 8 PM, $10–$15. Country night in a South Memphis juke joint that's been booking rooms since the Jerry Lee Lewis era. Details

Public Safety Night Out — the City Track inside Olive Branch City Park, 5–8 PM, free. Olive Branch turns its track into a family night: live music, a kid zone, bounce houses, safety demonstrations, and the city's own first-responder cooking team giving food away. A chance to meet the people who show up when you call. Details

☀️ Your Weekend in Memphis

Friday

Happy Friday at The Grove — GPAC, 1801 Exeter Road, Germantown, 5–8 PM, free, no tickets needed. Josh Threlkeld leads the sing-along with Lina Beach, with a full bar on the plaza and Kona Ice for the kids. Worth a glance at the forecast first: this series does get called for weather. Details

SUFFS opens — Orpheum Theatre, 203 S. Main St., 7:30 PM, $62.20–$162.20. The Tony-winning musical about the women who won the vote, in town for four performances only. Two and a half hours with one intermission, and the Orpheum suggests ages 10 and up. Details

Heels / Deaf Revival / Uncl Aunti / DJ Zirk — Hi Tone big room, 282 N. Cleveland St., doors 7 PM, show 8 PM, free. Four acts, upstairs, all ages, and nothing at the door. Details

Tomb Talks — Elmwood Cemetery chapel, 824 S. Dudley St., 6–7:30 PM, from about $22 in advance and $30 at the door. Victorian cemetery symbolism and the 1878 yellow fever epidemic, with a short guided walk and a glass of wine. Adults. Details

Pokémon Escape Room — Hooks Central Library, 3030 Poplar Ave., timed slots from 2 PM, free. A team of Pokémon researchers needs you to decode a fossil before the dig site closes. Six slots, registration required, and the 3:45 was already full when we looked. Details

Saturday

Hattiloo Theatre turns 20 — 37 South Cooper, 2–6 PM, free. The only freestanding Black repertory theatre in the Southeast throws open the block for its twentieth season: music, food, performances, giveaways. This is the one we'd build the day around. Details

Pre-Goner Memphest! — Hooks Central Library, 3030 Poplar Ave., 1–4 PM, free. The library throws a warm-up party for Gonerfest with free food, local bands, story time, crafts and a Storywalk. Live music and a craft table in the same room is a rare trick. Details

Bartlett Live: Twin Soul — A. Keith McDonald Pavilion, W.J. Freeman Park, 2699 Bartlett Blvd., food trucks at 6, music 7–9 PM, free. Bartlett chased this booking for three years and finally landed it, and the city says its sponsors picked up the tab, so there's nothing to pay at the gate. Coolers are welcome. Details

Hollywood Community Day — Hollywood Library, 1530 N. Hollywood St., 11 AM–2 PM, free. Three hours of community partners, crafts and refreshments on the main floor, every age welcome. Details

Mindfulness Walk in the Old Forest — Overton Park, 10–11 AM, pay what you can with $3 suggested. A guided, deliberately slow walk through the old growth on accessible surfaces. Registration required and it's open now. Details

Memphis Farmers Market — 567 South Front St., 8 AM–1 PM. The downtown Saturday market is in its twentieth season, with regional farmers, prepared food and makers under the pavilion. EBT and market tokens at the info table, and plenty of vendors take Venmo. Details

Four on the Floor — The Green Room at Crosstown, 1350 Concourse Ave., doors 7 PM, show 7:30, $25 in advance and $35 at the door. Four songwriters trading songs in the round — Cyrena Wages, Granville Automatic, Erin Webb and Caleb Elliott. Crosstown calls it our answer to the Bluebird. Details

Sunday

The Memphis Classic final — Leftwich Tennis Center, 4145 Southern Ave., 12:30 PM, from about $67. A WTA title decided in Memphis, on courts the city just spent $31 million rebuilding. Gates open an hour early. Semifinals are Saturday at 1, from about $62. Details

SUFFS closes — Orpheum Theatre, 1 PM, $62.20–$162.20. Early curtain on the last of the four performances. Details

Sean Murphy: Sound Meditation Journey — The Green Room at Crosstown, doors 5:30, 6–8 PM, $18 in advance and $22 at the door. Didgeridoos, tuba, gongs, flutes, kalimbas, drums, bells and bowls. The instrument list rather sells itself. Details

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

📰 The Rundown

M&M Kitchen, the Afro-Caribbean food truck Memphians have been chasing around town for oxtail pasta and jollof rice, is going brick and mortar. The 2,120-square-foot spot at 16 South Second had its certificate of occupancy under review as of late July, so it's close. The truck is still running in the meantime. (via WhatNow Memphis)

A big seafood room is headed for the riverfront. Walt & Ricky's Seafood Kitchen is taking the old Fancy's Fish House space at 1 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., right by Tom Lee Park, with a raw bar, an oyster bar and indoor-outdoor seating over the water. Owner Mowbray Rowand is targeting September. (via WhatNow Memphis)

Taylor Hendricks spent last Thursday on Vollintine Avenue handing out back-to-school supplies with the Boys and Girls Club. He's one of the newest Grizzlies, having landed here in the Jaren Jackson Jr. trade back in February. (via Action News 5)

🍽️ Food & Drink

Gussied Up — we told you about this one Tuesday, and it's due any day now. The late-night bar going into the back of Hard Times Deli at 655 Marshall opens in early August, with Cole Jeanes, Harrison Downing and Schuyler O'Brien serving fast food gussied up under Pizza Hut-style chandeliers, on bar tops cut from old bowling lanes. Announced hours are Wednesday through Saturday 5–11, plus Sunday brunch. (via Memphis Flyer) Details

🎟️ Looking Ahead

Deep Purple and Kansas — August 6 at Radians Amphitheater. The Botanic Garden still hasn't posted a gate time or a price, so watch that page. Details

Zoo Brew — Friday, August 14, 7–10 PM, 21 and up. Tickets are on sale now and VIP gets you in early. Details

Bluey's Big Play — August 15 and 16 at the Orpheum, $35.50–$143.50. If there are small people in your house, you already know this is the one that moves. Details

🏡 Community Corner

Two seasons end this weekend. Collierville's gazebo concerts wrap tonight after ten Thursdays on the Square, and Friday is the last day to see the Metal Museum's final exhibition on the bluff before it closes that campus Saturday and moves to Rust Hall. Both of those have been fixtures for years, and both quietly stop this week. If you have a photo from either one — a lawn chair on the Square, the river from the museum lawn — send it over. We'd like to run a few next week.

And the tip line never closes — a pop-up, a band, a yard sale worth bragging about — no gatekeeping — send it to hey@heymemphis.co.

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

— Josh