News & Opinion

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 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.

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.

Last week, five people were arrested for chaining themselves to construction equipment as part of protests against the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, dubbed "Cop City" by critics. It’s a long tradition in environmental activism: for many decades, protesters have been lashing themselves to equipment to stop construction projects—including right here in Atlanta. Back in the 1980s, decades before "Stop Cop City," there was "Stop the Road," when thousands of Atlantans came together to block the Presidential Parkway. Leading the fight were the Roadbusters, a ragtag group of activists whose protest stunts, like climbing trees and chaining themselves to construction equipment, made headlines across the city.

Painted Pin owner Justin Amick is getting close to launching his third project, three years in the making, and it's one he holds near and dear, as he, himself, is a competitive pickleball player. But the Painted Pickle is not just for pickleballers. To Amick, it’s “a high-end competery, gaming, and entertainment venue—a place to compete, eat, drink and be social.”

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.

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

I have been waiting at St. Cecilia for over an hour. It’s pouring outside, but that’s not the reason for Stanford Lightfoot’s tardiness—he forgot about our interview. But, hey, when you’re one of the busiest concert host–comedian–do-it-all entertainers in the city, it’s easy to get off schedule.

Dragon Con 2023 was a Barbiepalooza, and some changes had to be made to accommodate the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Here are the trends and new additions we noticed while attending this year's convention.

Creating and imagining better and new worlds is the task of the writer. Especially in the South, stories are our currency, which is why I take heart in the numerous literary events that Atlantans can experience in late summer and early fall. Writing is a vulnerable artform, and it’s important to have spaces for people to connect to each other’s unique life experiences.