In 10 years, the cycling culture in Memphis has dramatically changed, and much of the credit goes to Anthony Siracusa, founder of Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Memphis, Tennessee. 

At our September Luncheon, Anthony will discuss how he and other cycling enthusiasts have helped to shape a new cycling culture.

About Anthony Siracusa

Now entering its tenth year, Revolutions has grown in its ability to serve the need for affordable bicycles and provide mechanical education to citizens from all over the area.  In 2005, he was asked to serve on Memphis’ Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, now an official body of the Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) that works with city engineers to develop projects that increase the safety of bicyclists in Memphis.  In 2008, he was asked to serve on then Shelby County Mayor AC Wharton’s Sustainable Shelby Traffic and Transportation Committee.  He continues his Advocacy work today as a founder and Director of Bike Walk Tennessee, a statewide biking and walking advocacy organization, and as Education Director for the Memphis Hightailers Bicycle Club.  He also serves as an Advisor to Livable Memphis’ Walk Bike Initiative, and was recently appointed by City of Memphis Mayor AC Wharton to the Memphis MPO’s Traffic and Transportation Policy Advisory Committee (TPAC).

As a student at Rhodes College, Anthony received numerous academic awards: The Jane Dondaldson Kepple Best First Year essay Prize; The Robert G. Patterson Award in Religious Studies; Honors recognition for a paper on the Rev. James Morris Lawson Jr. during the Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies; The Jane Dondaldson Kepple Best Scholarly Essay prize; Induction into the Phi Alpha Theta Honor Society in History, and induction into the Omicron Delta Kappa National Honor Society, an honor awarded to the top 3% of the student body at Rhodes College.  Anthony completed Honors Research in the Department of History at Rhodes College on the life and times of the Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., the man Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized as the leading authority on nonviolent direct action theory and strategy.  He graduated Cum Laude with Honors from Rhodes in May of 2009, and his academic essays have appeared in the 2008 book Photographs of the Memphis World (University of Mississippi Press). 

In March of 2009, Anthony was awarded the Gerard A. Vanderhaar Student Peace Prize “in recognition and appreciation for his enduring hunger and thirst for justice in the pursuit of peace.”  In March of 2009, Anthony was awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson fellowship to study bicycling cultures and bicycling policy in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Denmark, China, and Guatemala.

Anthony is a native Memphian who has been active in the Memphis music scene for ten years with local bands Bury the Living, Pezz, and Akasha, and since 2007 he has written a monthly bicycling column for the Memphis Commercial Appeal entitled “LifeCycles.”  Today, he serves as the Memphis blogger for the Green Lane Project, a national initiative sponsored by the Bike Belong Foundation aimed at planning, engineering and implementing protected bicycle lanes across the U.S.  Anthony lives in the Vollintine Evergreen community, and currently serves as the Community Service Coordinator in the Bonner Center for Faith and Service at Rhodes College in Memphis.