Curb Fellows work to produce original content using a variety of media to explore Memphis music and find their own place within the tradition. Curb students make records, produce videos, record podcasts, publish zines, and stage events for the campus and Memphis communities.
Current projects include:
New Arboretum Record Label
Dredge zine
Beyond Beale Podcast
Curb YouTube channel
Curb Archives
The Curb Archives hosts collections of documents, interviews, tapes, and publications relating to the history of Memphis music that have been either gifted to the Institute or are being processed in collaboration with other organizations. The goal of these collections is to document the history of Memphis music and make it available for research, academic, or general purposes. The Curb Institute works closely with the Digital Preservation Society on campus to process these collections and make them available through the Barret Library for public access. Two featured collections, The Memphis Star and the Stax Oral Histories, are being processed and prepared to be be uploaded to the digital archive for public access through the library website. The Memphis Star is a music industry magazine publication that ran from the 1980s through the 1990s. The Stax Oral Histories is a collection of tapes from previous Stax artists or Stax affiliates who are sharing their stories on how they came to be associated with Stax and what Memphis music means to them.
Past events dedicated to the preservation of Memphis music:
Women in Hip Hop
Chitlin' Circuit