According to Eunice Johnson of the newly formed Memphis Business Executives for Change, the group’s Miracle in Memphis, Yes We Can Inaugural Ball began with a series of questions:
What are you doing for the presidential inauguration?
Should we do something?
Is there still time?
Can we get entertainment?
In early December, Johnson says, a handful of friends and business acquaintances were calling each other to see if anything was going on locally in honor of Barack Obama’s inauguration on January 20th. After having no luck finding an event, they decided to do something themselves and at a breakneck pace secured a space at the Peabody and booked the Bar-Kays for entertainment. And then they formed the Memphis Business Executives for Change.
The black-tie gala will include dinner and entertainment by comedian “Funny Man” Prescott, the Watoto de Afrika dance troupe, as well as the Bar-Kays. The Inaugural Ball in Washington will be simulcast during the event. Proceeds will go to the Memphis Food Bank and Bridges Inc.
“We want to give Memphis the opportunity to acknowledge the link of the dream and the reality,” Johnson says. “From Martin Luther King to Obama in the White House, it’s living the dream.”
Miracle in Memphis, Yes We Can Inaugural Ball, Tuesday, January 20th, 6 p.m. at the Peabody. Tickets are $100 and can be purchased through the Memphis Business Executives for Change website, mbefc.org.