Arts & Events

Tayari Jones on her literary lineage and choosing Atlanta

Tayari Jones—author, professor, and griot of the American South—has a lot on her plate. She teaches a creative writing class at Emory University, she has book blurbs due and forewords to file, and she has words in a just-released craft book, How We Do It, where her Emory colleague Jericho Brown gathered Black writers to explain “how they go about making what they make.” “I know I have a novel,” Jones writes, “when I have a question to which I don’t know the moral/ethical answer.” She is also putting the finishing touches on her fifth and forthcoming novel, Old Fourth Ward, which is set squarely in Black Atlanta’s centers of gravity: the historic neighborhood adjacent to downtown Atlanta (and the book’s namesake) and Cascade Heights (her old stomping grounds).
A book-lover's guide to Atlanta

A book lover’s guide to Atlanta

A roundup of independent bookstores, essential books that explain today’s Atlanta, and book events.
These Atlantans know the power of narratives

Whether on stage, at a library, or at a bookstore, these Atlantans know the power of narratives

How several Atlantans build community through storytelling and literature, including YATL's Kimberly Jones and Vania Stoyanova, A Cappella's Frank Reiss, Charis's E.R. Anderson, and more.
Spelman College

In 1988, some of the most important Black women in American literature posed for a photo at Spelman. Here’s how it came about.

In 1988, a group of writers gathered on the steps of Spelman College’s Rockefeller Fine Arts building to fete Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, who, that weekend, had become the college’s first Black woman president. We had just gotten out of a wonderful program honoring Dr. Cole and Black women in the arts. People were talking, laughing, and greeting each other . . . Everybody was high off the charge of the whole gathering: This was the culmination of a decades-long discussion of who should lead this historically Black institution, and this was a celebration of the leadership of Black women in many different fields, particularly in scholarship, in literature, and in the arts.
Atlanta romance writers

How Atlanta’s romance writers are finding new, younger audiences

At its core, the romance novel satisfies a fundamental human desire to experience love. In a world that often feels less and less safe, the assurance of an “HEA” (happily ever after) or “HFN” (happy for now) that a romance novel provides is comforting.
On the centennial of Jean Toomer’s Cane—and rural Georgia’s turn as the literary backdrop for a renaissance

On the centennial of Jean Toomer’s Cane—and rural Georgia’s turn as the literary backdrop for a renaissance

One of my favorite lines in Jean Toomer’s masterwork Cane is “the pines whisper to Jesus.” I take it to mean what we cannot say out loud, we whisper to the trees, who then pass the message on to God. The truths, desires, and needs that are too painful—or powerful—to say out loud must be whispered to remain intact. Cane is a book of multiple whispers, sighs, and quiets about the early-20th-century South.
Rosa Duffy’s hard-to-find books are all considered classics—here’s what makes them special

Here’s what makes the books at For Keeps special

Rare and classic books keep finding Rosa Duffy. Some have fragile, first edition spines that creek like arthritic joints. Others have musings jotted in the margins by previous owners. These are Duffy’s favorites—the ones that she hand-selects from online sellers, collectors, or other independent bookstores to live in her Auburn Avenue reading room and store, For Keeps Books.
WABE host Rose Scott

WABE host Rose Scott sounds a lot like Atlanta

If there’s an Atlantan with something interesting to say, there’s a good chance they’ve said it to Rose Scott. Her radio program, Closer Look, which airs live every weekday afternoon on local NPR member station WABE, hosts a vibrant cross-section of the city’s movers and shakers, interviewed by Scott herself. “I always say we’re a curator of conversations,” she told me. “Community conversations.”

In a new documentary, a Pulitzer-winning Atlanta journalist examines the integration of his own Mississippi public school

The Georgia State University professor is tackling a story very close to home as writer and producer of a new documentary, The Harvest. Debuting September 12 on PBS’s The American Experience, The Harvest explores the story of first integrated public school class in Leland, Mississippi, of which Blackmon was a part of. The film is produced by prolific Oscar-nominated filmmaker and producer Sam Pollard (Citizen Ashe, Black Art: In the Absence of Light), who also worked on the documentary adaptation of Blackmon's Pulitzer-winning book, Slavery by Another Name.

Things to do

Delta Surplus Sale Atlanta

Inside the curious world of the Delta Surplus Sale

After its 1995 founding, the Delta Flight Museum started holding sales a few times a year in its circa-1940s hangars. “We’ve sold a lot of unique items over the years, including a pressurized DC-9 door, an aircraft lavatory, aircraft crew rest bunk beds, and even overhead bins,” says the museum's director of operations.
Imagine Music Festival

The fashion of the Imagine Music Festival

Last year, we photographed some of the incredible looks we spotted at the aquatic-themed celebration of all-things EDM. As this year's Imagine Music Festival kicks off, let's take a look back.
Your 2023 Atlanta fall arts calendar

ArtsATL’s picks for must-see events this fall

We teamed up with ArtsATL to create a must-do arts calendar for this fall.

Theater

Your 2023 Atlanta fall arts calendar

ArtsATL’s picks for must-see events this fall

We teamed up with ArtsATL to create a must-do arts calendar for this fall.
The water bearers: Five Atlanta artists in the flow

The water bearers: Meet the five Atlanta artists of Flux’s “Flow” project

In the fall of 2022, Rachel Parish’s public exhibition Emergence installed temporary monuments at Grady Hospital, the Georgia State Capitol, the Tabernacle, and the Gulch—locations closest to four springheads that mark a system of waterways buried beneath downtown Atlanta. It was the start of a multiyear series of artistic works conceived by Flux Projects, dubbed Flow, to explore Atlanta’s complex relationship with water.
Onward Theatre

There’s a new wave of arts spaces to explore in Atlanta this spring

Even with the recent unfortunate closure of a theater mainstay, there is always new life and new energy in Atlanta. I recently spoke to the visionaries behind some of the newest arts spaces, mainly to ask the question, "What on earth would make someone open a new arts venue in the middle of an socioeconomic tilt-a-whirl?"

Visual Arts

Your 2023 Atlanta fall arts calendar

ArtsATL’s picks for must-see events this fall

We teamed up with ArtsATL to create a must-do arts calendar for this fall.
Landscape With Invisible Hand

An Atlanta artist’s paintings take a starring role in the new film Landscape With Invisible Hand

Occasionally poignant and often delightfully goofy, the film features Asante Blackk as Adam Campbell, a sensitive introverted high school artist who documents the before and after alien times in melancholy paintings that hang on his family’s living room wall. Those paintings, and a big chunk of the film’s creative vision, come courtesy of Atlanta-based artist William Downs, who worked closely with director Cory Finley to bring Landscape With Invisible Hand’s unique look and feel to life.
Oakland Cemetery’s Illumine returns with a celebration of trees

Oakland Cemetery’s Illumine returns with a celebration of trees

For Illumine, Historic Oakland Cemetery becomes a canvas. Lights illuminate the storied graves, strategically placed lighted sculptures draw the eyes up, and videos project on to mausoleums and the bell tower.

Music

Goodbye, Peachtree Road: Pop Icon Elton John’s Buckhead condo is available for $5M

One of the most successful solo musicians in history is leaving Atlanta, his home base since the early 1990s. As much as we hate to see him go, his art-filled, Architectural Digest-featured penthouse is now on the market for some lucky buyer. For just under $5 million, you could have the coveted views and 13,336 square feet to entertain in style like the “Tiny Dancer” singer.
Imagine Music Festival

The fashion of the Imagine Music Festival

Last year, we photographed some of the incredible looks we spotted at the aquatic-themed celebration of all-things EDM. As this year's Imagine Music Festival kicks off, let's take a look back.
Your 2023 Atlanta fall arts calendar

ArtsATL’s picks for must-see events this fall

We teamed up with ArtsATL to create a must-do arts calendar for this fall.

Film

In a new documentary, a Pulitzer-winning Atlanta journalist examines the integration of his own Mississippi public school

The Georgia State University professor is tackling a story very close to home as writer and producer of a new documentary, The Harvest. Debuting September 12 on PBS’s The American Experience, The Harvest explores the story of first integrated public school class in Leland, Mississippi, of which Blackmon was a part of. The film is produced by prolific Oscar-nominated filmmaker and producer Sam Pollard (Citizen Ashe, Black Art: In the Absence of Light), who also worked on the documentary adaptation of Blackmon's Pulitzer-winning book, Slavery by Another Name.
Landscape With Invisible Hand

An Atlanta artist’s paintings take a starring role in the new film Landscape With Invisible Hand

Occasionally poignant and often delightfully goofy, the film features Asante Blackk as Adam Campbell, a sensitive introverted high school artist who documents the before and after alien times in melancholy paintings that hang on his family’s living room wall. Those paintings, and a big chunk of the film’s creative vision, come courtesy of Atlanta-based artist William Downs, who worked closely with director Cory Finley to bring Landscape With Invisible Hand’s unique look and feel to life.
Tara Theatre reopens

The Tara Theatre is back and better than ever

At first, when I pulled into the parking lot of the newly reopened Tara Theatre for a Sunday screening, the 55-year-old theater seemingly hadn’t changed at all. The 1960s facade’s glittering lights still illuminated an otherwise generic Cheshire Bridge strip mall, finally lit after a seven-month closure. The Plaza Theatre’s owner, Chris Escobar, revived the Tara just in time for Memorial Day weekend, and I was excited to return to the place where I’d seen dozens of movies over the past decade, from obscure A24 indies to Oscar-winning dramas. But there was something off I couldn’t quite put my finger on.