News & Opinion

Here’s what I packed in my car on a recent Saturday morning: 17 cans of paint, 8 propane canisters, 2 old iPads, a Medusa tangle of electrical cords, and a bag stuffed so full with bags it had to sit buckled into the passenger’s seat. “Can you take this too?” my wife asked, thrusting some kind of enormous Geiger counter into my arms, another technological casualty of her rainy field season in Costa Rica. I took it, and so did CHaRM.

With hundreds of credits, including OutKast and Goodie Mob’s debut albums Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and Soul Food, TLC’s “Waterfalls,” and En Vogue’s “Don’t Let Go (Love),” Rico Wade helped to expand Atlanta’s imprint in music, reaching global heights. With OutKast and Goodie Mob, Wade was part of mainstreaming Southern hip-hop, expanding its boundaries and perimeters.

John Oates and his band played the Buckhead Theatre in Atlanta on April 13. Here, check out the scenes photographer Perry Julien captured at the show.

Full Radius Dance is the only physically integrated professional dance company in Georgia, bringing together dancers with and without disabilities. How Douglas Scott created the company and what it means to its dancers.

Rapper Offset brought his Set It Off Tour to the Coca-Cola Roxy on April 10. Here, check out the scenes photographer Perry Julien captured at the show.

Dogwood Festival returns for its 88th year, Melissa Etheridge plays the Amplify Decatur Festival, and more fun things to do this week.

On Friday, the Atlanta Braves opened up their Truist Park account with their first home game of the year. The game itself is just one of 162 and in the win-loss column, the result has little impact on the outcome of the season. But the experience for Braves’ fans matters more than any other regular season game in the year. 

It was 50 years ago this month—April 8, 1974—that Henry Aaron hit his 715th career home run off pitcher Al Downing in Atlanta, breaking Ruth’s 39-year record. When he finally reached that summit, it seemed less a cause for celebration for Aaron than reason for a long sigh of relief: The chase was finally over.

Truist Park: The home of the Braves is an enigma. It’s an artificial mecca of baseball that displaced Turner Field to the chagrin of many, but now draws some of the best crowds in baseball. The stadium itself is a beauty, with faux red brick that creates an old-school ballpark feel in a sea of corporate office parks. Let’s leave behind its contradictions for a moment to focus on Truist Park and the great baseball played there since 2017.

With three rooms of varying capacities—named Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory—the Masquerade has always been a unique venue where up-and-coming groups and more established bands can both find a stage. Now, the Masquerade is opening a fourth room, Altar, which has a 250-person capacity and food available for purchase.