A New Kind of Exercise: The Fightshop
People hate to exercise because they don’t have fun doing it. The idea of exercise being fun may sound so morbid to you that you laughed as soon as you saw "exercise" and "fun" in the same sentence. Let’s face it: if you live a sedentary lifestyle (e.g. you have been compared to the likes of a potato, Netflix asks you more questions than real people do, or your family has put you on a soda budget), you could be at risk for a chronic disease that’s easily preventable.
Exercise can be fun, but you have to be willing to try some new things out. Instead of joining the ranks of Jackson’s premier badminton league or the ever popular curling club, why don’t you try out the Fightshop? Monday through Saturday, the Fightshop offers Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, boxing, and fitness classes for beginners and competitors alike.
“Our bag classes are the best place to start,” says owner and coach Kim White. “It’s a great ‘learning’ workout that’s intense enough for the most in shape fighter, while beginners can learn at their own pace.”
What makes The Fightshop stand out from conventional gyms is that the environment members work out in is encouraging, motivating, and friendly. Walking into the Fightshop is like going into a classroom with people who are as interested in trying and learning new things as you are. Doing anything new can be intimidating, but working with a group of people who are just as new to fitness as you can make the process all the more bearable. Since the Fightshop offers a week-long free trial, you have nothing to lose but inches.
The Fightshop is located at 117 Bowling Drive in Jackson, Tennessee, and is open Monday through Saturday. They offer Muay Thai and Boxing full memberships that include all skill and bag classes for:
$75 per month with a one-year contract
$90 per month without a contract
$15 drop-in
Bag Class Memberships:
$40 per month with one-year contract
$50 per month without a contract
$10 drop-in
*College Students and Military can get a full membership for $50 per month; no contract required.
Bo Kitzman is a senior at the University of Memphis' Lambuth Campus. Bo likes music and sports, but playing music is his favorite. You should buy Bo burritos. Bo loves burritos.
Kristi Woody is a photographer and storyteller for our Hello Jackson features about locally owned retail stores and restaurants. She also works as the university photographer for Union University and owns her own wedding photography business, Woody & Pearl Photography. In her free time, Kristi enjoys spending time with her husband and rambunctious beagle, Rhett and Chipper respectively. If you can't find Kristi in Jackson, you'll find her in her second favorite place: Disney World!
Ismael and Angelica want the Jackson community to know that they are here to serve and build community. Their bakery is not just about selling bread; it's about breaking bread and building friendships, creating a sense of home for everyone who walks through their doors. They believe it's important to pass down their traditions to their children so that their culture continues to thrive.
It’s three-thirty in the afternoon when I walk through the front door of Companion Gallery and East Mitchell Clay. As I enter, I step into a gallery space. The lights are off, but that serves as little distraction from the room’s stark white walls adorned with small shelves that hold a kaleidoscope of ceramics. Every wall is covered. Display tables sit in the middle of the room, also adorned with collections of intricate clay pieces.
“I just need a space to dance,” Mona Lisa Lanier said to me as she flicked on the lights of a former elementary school turned community recreation center. The room, once a classroom, is now a dance studio with mirrors and photos of dancers in brightly colored costumes lining the wall.
Lanier proudly pointed out her students and how much they’ve grown since these photos were taken.
Since 2020, Ellen Bennett has served as the Online Sales Manager of Regional Inter-Faith Association (RIFA) and is widely known in the Jackson community for her item listings in the RIFA Auction Group on Facebook. Twice a month, she conducts an online auction with around 80 unique items — all previously donated to the organization — for the public to bid on throughout the week. The proceeds of every auction item go to RIFA, a Jackson-based nonprofit with a mission to fight hunger locally, so item winners get to help provide meals to food-insecure members of the community with their purchases. For each listing, whether it’s a mid-century lamp, a tricycle, or a vegetable chopper, she comes up with a compelling description that’ll have anyone hooked.
When we discuss the benefits of investing in the arts, we often talk about the beautification of our neighborhoods and the significant impact that the arts have on our economy. Although those are powerful ways that philanthropy directly impacts the arts that should continue to be robustly supported for the growth of all communities, we often overlook the critical benefits of providing arts access to students.
The City of Jackson in partnership with JACOA and First Methodist Downtown recently opened two free community fridges at 900 E Chester St and 200 S Church St. This project is sponsored by the highly-competitive 2022 AARP Community Challenge grant, awarded to the City of Jackson as one of 260 quick-action projects out of 3,200 applications nationwide.
If there’s one shared value Southerners agree on, it’s probably hospitality. Hospitality comes naturally to us when it comes to a dinner party, where our guests will be treated to an extra heaping of cobbler and a box of leftovers to take home.
A Jackson Police Department officer stares into the face of a woman working as a prostitute; his only option was to arrest her. He had no evidence or proof to arrest the man who was likely her trafficker. But where would the officer take her? Years later, this same officer would write a check to the Scarlet Rope Project, a home for survivors of sex trafficking.
As I parked in the lot in front of the depot last week and stood in front of the big green doors I have seen so many times before, this place felt different. The outside looks much the same, but the way it made me feel was unfamiliar. Something is happening inside those walls that drew me in and the whole place feels very much alive. There is a purpose, really a person, behind that energy. A woman has put feet to a dream, and our whole community has a front row seat to watch her dream unfold.
Sabrina Blue was certainly no different. When I arrived in her office on the second floor of the Helping Hands of Tennessee clinic, I watched as she, quite literally, sped around the space outlining changes and additions to a contractor who was doing his best to keep up. I would later understand this to be a metaphor of how she lives her life — fast, measured, with purpose.
How do you go about creating a workforce out of thin air? This is the problem Jill Taylor, Co-Owner of ReNew Biomedical and Master Medical Equipment, faced in 2019. ReNew is a full-service medical equipment depot in Jackson, TN, specializing in repairing, servicing, and maintaining complex medical equipment. Over their seven years of operation, ReNew earned licenses to work on a wide range of Professional Grade equipment, including ventilators, AEDs, defibrillators, vital signs monitors, IV pumps, and more.
Le Bonheur is a French phrase meaning “happiness” – a phrase that lends itself quite naturally as the name for a club dedicated to knitting and sewing for the benefit of others. So in 1923, a local band of women gathered together to do just that, naming themselves Le Bonheur Club. This small but powerful sewing group began making clothes for children living in Memphis’ Leath Orphanage. What came from their pursuit of happiness for children is incredibly extraordinary in impact and scope.
The expert in neighborly love, Fred Rogers, said: “We live in a world in which we share responsibility. It’s easy to say ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.” Jackson is full of heroes. So many, in fact, they can’t all fit on this list. These are brief snapshots of a few ways our community is showing up for our village of children. As you read about the different organizations investing in JMCSS, consider how you can join them.
If you've spent any time in downtown Jackson, or had a drink at The Downtown Tavern, you’re probably familiar with Moore Studio — and more importantly, Mr. Carter. I first met Mitch Carter when I had just moved to West Tennessee. I was young and impressionable and Mr. Carter most definitely made an impression on me. He could charm the venom out of a copperhead, entice the stoic to giggle and cut up, and make the most trepidatious about having photos done feel presidential when he was finished making their portrait.
When you walk in the door of the Keep My Hood Good building, you are greeted with a wall covered in framed photographs of smiling children. I had only gotten a few steps in the building before she was telling me stories of students who had overcome and succeeded. She beamed as she told me about how one student had graduated high school and chosen to enlist in the military and was thriving.
With the renewed focus on sustainability in our shopping habits, Christmas on its way, and COVID-19 making our pockets lighter, the art of thrifting and antiquing is essential today. Thankfully, we have several locally-owned antique and vintage stores in the Jackson area. The perfect gift for a friend, family member, or yourself is waiting for you right here in the 731. You may find some truly wonderful mid-century modern pieces, handmade local crafts like soy candles or macrame wall hangings, Southwestern blankets, Turkish kilim rugs, used books and vinyl, and more at these locations. All you have to do is be patient and look!
Food, and my relationship with it, is an important facet of not only my personal identity, but also of my culture, and the culture I grew up in. I believe food is spiritual and that the act of creating, serving, and eating a meal is an act of holy worship — a practice of religion. I myself am agnostic, but sometimes when I make a meal for my fiancé after a long day's work, or when I eat something special made just for me, I can see the existence of God.
JKSN. If you know, you know.
You also probably know if you live in West Tennessee because those four letters have been seen often on t-shirts over the past year. JKSN is Jackson minus the vowels and a silent “c.” There’s no room for passivity or wasted space with this brand. There’s no need for vowels, either. Vowels are melodious and can stretch words without necessity. Consonants are sharp and strong like the letters on the shirt and the city they represent. JKSN. Jackson. If you know, you know.
For as long as Morgan Carkuff can remember, her parents have been collectors of one-of-a-kind antiques. “I remember drawing on an old Thomas Edison Tracing Table from the 1800’s and showing friends the eclectic mix of the turn-of-the-century and modern items hung on the wall or sitting on shelves,” Morgan reminisces. The list continues with interesting artifacts such as an old tintype photo of Jesse James, international love letters from war, pristine arrowheads, and a boutique of small items too special to describe in words.
When was the last time you thought about what you wanted to do with your life—what you really wanted to do? When you thought about your dreams and wondered if it’s time to take a risk? Last summer, Beth Wilson and her husband, Lee, sat down to take an honest look at their lives and ask questions about where they wanted to be. Through that conversation, a business was born. Beth’s business, Wisdom House, launched on November 7, 2018. Through it, she sells distinctive and/or vintage home décor items, as well as offering home design styling and consulting.
On the corner of Carriage House Drive and Wiley Parker Road sits a white building with the words “Madison Place” in big, bold letters over a series of black panel windows. I would assume that if you walked up to most anyone you know that frequents Jackson, Tennessee, and mentioned Madison Place, they’d say, “Oh yeah, that’s the place with the hair salons in it.” Well, friends, business owner Jensen Vinson wants you to know that Madison Place is not just hair salons. “Madison Olive Oil is Jackson’s best-kept secret!” she tells me, and she’s right.
With family and friends in town for the holidays, it’s a perfect time to introduce them to West Tennessee’s best food, and this fall’s #OurJacksonTable recap is a great place to start. Check out what we tried the last few months, then join us as we hit 150 restaurants visited by the end of spring.
This summer has been jam-packed of great meals, a lot of which were enjoyed at restaurants celebrating new locations. Get the scoop on where we’ve been, old and new, and what’s tickling our tastebuds right now.
At the end of every school year, I have my students create a portfolio of different types of original poetry. I’d like to think I do it in order to foster their creativity, but it’s really because I’m too lazy to grade eighty-four final exams. Either way, it’s a win/win for all of us: they get to write sonnets and pretend that they’re actually writing their first rap hit, and I get to sit back and not grade bubbled-in answer documents. One poem they always struggle with is an elegy.
After taking a year-long hiatus from #OurJacksonTable weekly visits, we’re back and at it, and we’re proud to say that Jackson’s food scene has grown majorly since 2017! Check out where we hit up this spring, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see where we’re headed next.
Blares of music echo throughout the Harris Sports Performance building as members enter through the silver steel door. Familiar with the daily bootcamp routine, they huddle around owner Nicholas Harris, prepared to stretch before the intense workout. Harris’ tenacious voice magnifies as he briefs his clients on the selected workout, pumping up the team. “Whatever your 100% looks like, give it!” he says. “Like always, we are here to work hard and give our best, so let’s get it!”
Don’t find yourself empty-handed this Mother’s Day! Jackson has dozens of excellent local shops to explore, many of which are run by women. If you’re stumped on what Mom would truly appreciate this year, check out this gift guide for ten one-of-a-kind ideas from female-run businesses we have featured in our journal and on our blog.
If we could create a community that lets people thrive, prosper, and grow with safe streets, better schools, and improved infrastructure, along with economic growth, prosperity, and a better quality of life for decades to come, would you want to be a part of that vision for our community? For me, the answer to this question began fifty-four years ago just thirty miles up the road in the small rural town of Dyer, Tennessee. As a young boy, nothing excited me more than Saturday night when my family would load up in our white Ford Galaxie 500 and drive south to the big city of Jackson.