The Running and the Stunning
The forty-second annual AJC Peachtree Road Race, the world’s largest 10K run, gets under way just after sunrise. If you’ve still got enough energy after sunset, fireworks will light up the sky at locations such as Lenox Square, Turner Field, and Stone Mountain. peachtree­roadrace.org; lenoxsquare.com; braves.com; stonemountainpark.com

 

Former American Idol contestant and Tony Award nominee Constantine Maroulis stars in this loving tribute to 1980s hair bands. foxtheatre.org

The Georgia Shakespeare Festival presents a musical adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, originally commissioned by the Orlando Shakespeare Theater. gashakespeare.org

 

Various locations will host the annual festival—many events are free—celebrating the diverse cultural contributions of African Americans from the O’Jays to expressionist painter Trenton Doyle Hancock. nbaf.org

 

This Swedish tribute band looks and sounds like the real thing. classicchastain.com
Indigo Girls at Atlanta Botanical Garden

Decatur’s favorite feminist folkies return. concertsinthegarden.org

 

Rihanna and Cee Lo
You’d be “Crazy” to miss two of R&B’s hottest stars together at Chastain Park. Rihanna just logged her tenth number one hit more quickly (five years after her first) than any artist in the Billboard Hot 100’s history. And even without Gnarls Barkley, Atlanta’s Cee Lo Green is on a roll, starring on NBC’s The Voice. chastainseries.com

7/14–28
Vive la France!
Huff Harrington Fine Art gallery tips its chapeau to Bastille Day, France’s equivalent to our Independence Day, with a two-week celebration. See works by both French artists and Americans inspired by the native land of Monet and Matisse. huffharrington.com

Butterflies Are Free
But the festival costs ten bucks. Insects formerly known as caterpillars star at Chattahoochee Nature Center’s Flying Colors Butterfly Festival. This fundraiser will feature crafts, face painting, and a costume parade. chattnaturecenter.org

 

The former underaged sex symbol and overexposed train wreck makes Atlanta a stop on her comeback trail. philipsarena.com

The writer whose book inspired the film The Social Network reads from his latest, Sex on the Moon, at the Marcus Jewish Community Center’s Zaban Park. atlantajcc.org

 

Top pros like Mardy Fish, John Isner, and Sam Querrey at the Raquet Club of the South. atlantatennischampionships.com

 

Moody new works by the impressionist painter. lagerquistgallery.net

 

This musical romp documents connubial bliss from “Niagara to Viagra” at Stone Mountain’s ART Station. artstation.org

 

 

Part of the Atlanta Botanical Garden summer series. concertsinthegarden.org

 

Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse presents the author whose book Push inspired the 2009 film Precious, at Saint Mark United Methodist Church. outwritebooks.com

 

A football-themed play with former Green Bay Packer Dorsey Levens and Real Housewife Lisa Hartwell. ferstcenter.gatech.edu

Jazz on the Lawn
Callanwolde Fine Arts Center’s outdoor series features the contemporary jazz of keyboardist Madoca and her band. Also check out vocalists Lindsay Appel on July 8 and the swinging sounds of Gwen Hughes on August 12. callanwolde.org

 

Teams can register as late as July 27. At Georgia Tech Rec Turf Fields. southeastkickballfest.com

 

Ninety works, from prints by Jacob Lawrence to photos by Gordon Parks, at the Carter Center. jimmycarterlibrary.org

Through 12/2
Maynard on the Move
The People’s Mayor: Maynard Jackson and the Politics of Transformation is curated by the Atlanta University Center’s Robert W. Woodruff Library. Exhibits include rarely seen correspondence and photos of the first African American mayor of a major Southern city. mjexhibit.auctr.edu