Tag: diversity

Seven months into his tenure as executive director of Atlanta Ballet, Tom West saw a line item on the pay scale that didn’t seem right. Dancers entering the company under its apprentice program were paid less than $500 a week. Company leaders noted that apprenticeships are standard practice in the field. But the low-paying program was one of several barriers faced by young dancers from historically underrepresented communities—the very dancers Atlanta Ballet has struggled to attract. Atlanta’s population is close to 50 percent Black, and until recently, Atlanta Ballet’s roster had only a token few Black artists.

In August, the American Alliance for Equal Rights, lead by Edward Blum, filed a complaint against Atlanta-based Fearless Fund, claiming its Fearless Strivers Grant Contest—which offers grants to Black women-owned businesses—is a “racially-discriminatory program” that violates the law’s “guarantee of race neutrality.” The case will be heard in federal court later this month.

Founded in 2021, the Asian American Pacific Islander Design Alliance engages, promotes, and empowers Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders working within the home and design industries. We talked with Jessica Davis, co-founder and owner of Atlanta-based Atelier Davis (who was also just named to Elle Decor’s A-List for 2022) about how AAPIDA came to be.

“Talent Development Program is where I started . . . to know that I had something to offer as a musician of color.” Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's Azira Hill and Mary Gramling are helping minority musicians and are helping increase diversity both in the orchestra and in the audience.

As obvious as the physical transformation of Atlanta’s restaurant scene has been, an underground dining revolution is also underway. The latter—waged by chefs hosting pop-up “restaurants” and dinner series, as well as entrepreneurs offering incubating spaces—isn’t as easy to observe as the former. But it’s similarly impressive. In many ways, it’s more impressive.

Someday a Democrat will win a statewide office in Georgia. It’s a statistical inevitability as the state continues to diversify. That time could be as soon as November 6, as Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams seems to be riding a national blue wave that could lift her above Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp.

Photographer David Zeiger started work on a documentary about Doraville, which became PBS’s Displaced in the New South, and discovered the diverse Doraville Boxing Club tucked away in a strip mall. “In the gym, you learn to respect each other—otherwise you’re gonna get your ass kicked,” says Cesar, the boxer photographed “Over here, we don’t look at color. We don’t look at race. We learn to respect each other with these gloves.”

Our public high school had students from more than 65 different countries. A decade after graduation, my older son still has friends who are Indian, Brazilian, Korean, and American of all colors. Ramadan became as familiar a part of the academic calendar to him as Thanksgiving and Passover.

ANCS’s diversity that was such a point of pride had become a victim of gentrification. In 2014, the school instituted a plan to boost the enrollment of students living on low incomes. “Diverse by design,” as the effort is called, has gained traction among charter schools across the nation, as the effort is called, has gained traction among charter schools across the nation, as more and more seek to assemble a student body of different socioeconomic statuses and racial backgrounds.

I admit I was irked three years ago when my son—then in the second grade and still the bluest-eyed, palest-skinned kid you’ll ever meet—announced that he wanted to be called Francisco. Francis, the name we gave him at birth, and Frankie, the nickname he wore so adorably, were both out.