Exploring Our Stories. StoryBoard Memphis is a nonprofit multimedia resource for news and feature-length stories on local arts, culture, history, and community. This podcast is a longer cut of the half-hour radio show that airs on Memphis's FM 89.3 WYPL each Sunday evening at 5:30 PM. Taken right out of the pages of StoryBoard Memphis, this show asks Memphians to talk about their passions, their initiatives, or to just talk about what makes Memphis, Memphis.
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episode 50: SB 30 Episode 50: A park for all Memphians with Overton Park Conservancy’s Tina Sullivan
“It becomes an equity issue. We can’t forget that for a very long time there was a large segment of the population that was excluded from enjoying Overton Park. Whatever we do with the master plan… we have to be sure we’re including everyone. We need to make sure that we are welcoming, that we are undoing those years when people felt excluded. And some of that feeling of exclusion lingers in our culture today, where people don’t necessarily feel like this is their park… We absolutely must hold in front of us this belief that all of it points towards being welcoming and inclusive and providing free and open access to every Memphian. That is as important an any of the physical spaces or physical changes that we make to the park.”
That’s Tina Sullivan, Executive Director of the Overton Park Conservancy, talking with host Mark Fleischer about some of the upgrades being considered as part of the park’s new master plan, which has had its share of delays due to past parking issues and the events of 2020.
Recorded May 27, 2020, just before the Black Lives Matter marches, it’s an interview Overton Park lovers won’t want to miss.