When the fire struck Clayborn Temple in April, it wasn’t just a blow to bricks and stained glass — it hit at the heart of a vision being reborn.
Anasa Troutman stood in front of the church, watching flames consume what she believes is one of Memphis’ greatest gifts to the world. Its tapestry of rich cultural and ancestral stories shape the soul of the city and have the power to transform communities everywhere.
“I saw people drive up to Clayborn, get out of their cars and literally wail,” she said. “This building means something to people. It always has. The fire just reminded them what this place means, and they felt it.”
Troutman is the founder and executive director of The BIG We, a nonprofit grounded in the idea that culture, imagination and storytelling are among our most powerful economic and civic assets. After years working in cities across the country as a music producer, cultural strategist, and even in presidential politics, she came to Memphis to write a musical. Her time here revealed a deeper calling.
“I was supposed to be here six months,” she said. “But the incredible people I met, the tenacity, the creativity here — it changed my life. Memphis is the most imaginative city in the country. As a music producer, I’ve lived in L.A., Atlanta, Nashville and other places, and I’ve never met people with stories like the stories you hear and find in Memphis.”
While here, along with hearing Memphis’ stories, Troutman also met Clayborn Temple. Then in 2015, The BIG We became the organization that purchased the historic site, and Troutman became the visionary guiding its next chapter. The purchase signaled a pivotal move toward restoring and breathing new life into the landmark, which had sat vacant and decaying since 1999. For Troutman, Clayborn Temple wasn’t just a historic structure in need of repair — it was the perfect space for the kind of cultural transformation she had spent years championing.
“I built The BIG We around the idea that our stories are our biggest asset and these stories could transform culture,” she said. “This was after realizing music could tell stories, but the music industry was not the place for real transformation. Neither could presidential policies do it. Organizing wasn’t it. None of these industries have figured out how to achieve the depth and breadth of transformation — how to make transformation of culture happen from the inside out. I felt there had to be a place where transformation could actually happen.”
For Troutman, the place is Memphis, and the space turned out to be Clayborn Temple.
More than a restoration project, Troutman sees Clayborn as the future home of a cultural think tank — a place where Memphis can reimagine itself, not just structurally but spiritually, socially and economically.
“We’re not just rebuilding a building,” she said. “We’re rebuilding how Memphis thinks of itself — how it heals, how it grows, how it includes. Clayborn Temple can be that space.”
Her strategy for transformation is called Culture Shift. Troutman has shared her Culture Shift framework — including the introductory course, Culture Shift 101 — with thousands of artists, organizers and changemakers, teaching how culture and storytelling can drive meaningful social change. She has worked with a wide range of cultural and justice-focused organizations, among them the National Black Arts Festival and Highlander Center, the Kellogg Foundation, Sony Music, and artists such as India.Arie and social justice advocate Kat Taylor. She has been involved in national cultural policy conversations, including during the Obama administration.
In what Troutman describes as one of the most defining moments of her work, she remembers sitting on the stage of Clayborn Temple with civil rights icon the late Rev. James Lawson, who came to Memphis when The BIG We was acquiring the building.
“He (Lawson) told me something that changed my life,” Troutman recalls. “He said, ‘I want people to stop saying we were building a civil rights movement. That’s not what we were trying to do. We were trying to build God’s Kingdom on Earth.’”
“Hearing Rev. Lawson say that reframed everything for me,” she said. “This isn’t just about rights. It’s about how we live as human beings, how we show up for each other, and how we create a world of abundance for everyone.”
Troutman believes Memphis is uniquely positioned to show the world how a cultural shift takes place. She says Memphis can lead this transformation. Despite the fire, she still envisions a future in which Clayborn Temple is once again a sacred place of gathering, connection and radical imagination — a hub for community entrepreneurship, cooperative economics, storytelling and healing.
“We are at a turning point. I see people I’ve never seen before showing up saying, ‘We’re in. We’re doing this.’ The fire didn’t kill the vision — it ignited something in people.”
In the days since the fire, support for restoring Clayborn Temple has poured in from across the country. This includes commitments from legacy organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. It also spurred campaigns like Choose901’s “Rising from the Ashes.” Mayor Paul Young has reaffirmed the city’s commitment to restoring the church.
Troutman’s belief in the potential of Clayborn Temple and Memphis is unwavering. “Memphis is the right size, at the right time, with the right people. I don’t see the opportunity for transformation anywhere else like I see it here.”
Clayborn Temple, she says, will rise again — not just in structure, but in the spirit that forged the declaration “I AM A MAN,” the iconic rallying cry first proclaimed by striking sanitation workers in the church’s basement — an enduring call to recognize the humanity and dignity of every person.
“When we say ‘The BIG We’, we mean it,” said Troutman. “Our job now is to say ‘yes’ — to open the doors, to let people walk in, to learn how they want to show up. If we can treat every person as worthy, just because they were born, recognize there is enough abundance for everybody, imagine what Memphis — and the world — could be.”
