Contributor vendor Terry H. was born and raised in Memphis and saw a lot. More than anything else he saw a lot of people who were doing community work and not getting the recognition he thought they deserved. So he started a Facebook group.
“I wanted to create a space and a platform for the underdogs and outcasts like me. I wanted to highlight them and uplift and encourage and inspire them,” Terry said. “A lot of people are out doing impactful things in the community but they aren’t being highlighted. They are being overshadowed or overlooked.”
Today that Facebook group has more than 500 members and has grown into a 501c3 nonprofit called Memphis Seeds.
“I also created Memphis Seeds to bring everybody on the same level. Where I come from in Memphis, everyone is prideful and standoffish. They want to be the man or whatever,” Terry said. “So, in this space, I made everybody be on the same level.”
Terry says he did not want to be the face of the organization, so he brought in friends and family to lead and steer the organization into what it is today. His mom, Pearl Madden, is the family representative. Other family members who have roles are his sister Arma Pinson, his brother Robert Mask, his dad Sir Terry Holloway, and his younger sister Constance Holt. Terry also brought in his own children Octavian Holloway, Teirny Holloway, Terrance Ivory and Ava Holloway.
Riley Mosby, a longtime friend of Terry’s, is president at Memphis Seeds and works with Emanuel Jones as vice president.
Memphis Seeds’s mission is to empower individuals and organizations to make positive decisions. Terry says their main goals are anti-violence and supporting and uplifting people, and it’s had a real positive impact in his community.
“Memphis seeds in short is about sewing good seeds back into the community,” Terry said.
To plant those community seeds, the organization started a podcast where they interview people in the community doing impactful things, they also lobby for laws that support their mission and recently they’ve partnered on a campaign with the Bully the Bull foundation, which focuses on anti-bullying.
Memphis Seeds also provide education and job placement opportunities for people in the community to learn trades like HVAC repair, truck driving and agriculture. They also offer training for jobs in security, audio and recording, and their Brand University program teaches people how to build a brand for their own businesses.
Terry said they are also starting a program he’s really excited about called the Jookin Olympics.
“Jookin is a cultural dance that’s been around for over 30 years,” Terry said. “The original name is Gangster Walking. Nowadays they call it Jookin or Gangster Jookin. It’s a dance and a way of expression. It’s electrifying.”
After watched countless hours of videos of people Jookin and talking to his team who has attending many Jookin events, Terry said he noticed there was never any violence at these events.
“From what I’ve seen, even if it gets to the point where someone gets heated, I’ve noticed how the community will corral around, step in the middle of them, throw construction cones or stop signs as a signal like it’s over with,” Terry said. “I’ve seen people actually come out and get in between them to make sure nothing negative happens. Ain’t no place safer in Memphis than the Jookin events.”
Terry says this shows how much the music and the dance fosters as sense of community and comes from a place deep inside people.
“Our whole main goal is to help curb the violence. Help save Memphis from Memphis,” Terry said. “We want to use the Jookin as a portal because of the positive energy.”