From the Magazine

Fifty years ago, a ragtag group of queer women launched the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance, upending Georgia’s leftist politics with protest, performance—and plenty of softball.

The plum tree is a small tree, about 15 feet tall. I’ve never really done anything to or for it. I didn’t know much about gardening or how to prune or fertilize a tree. My modus operandi was just to stick it in the ground, and that was it. But this little tree just grew and grew, and it has been the most incredibly bountiful tree, very quickly, bearing more fruit than anyone could ever possibly eat. Baskets and baskets of plums.

The Alliance Theatre gives its adaptation of the 1983 comedy some twists, including bringing back Tony Award–winning director Kenny Leon to helm the production. Here are four things you need to know about the new musical.

Gathering Blossoms, Boyd’s second book, consists of half a century of Walker’s journal entries from more than 65 notebooks. Sifting through thousands of pages must have been a daunting task for Boyd and Walker. But the Georgia natives were kindred spirits whose partnership seemed fated—they both share a love for another Black woman author, Zora Neale Hurston.

“We want freedom . . . from all of the things that feel outside of our control, freedom from police brutality, freedom from these disparities around our health and our wellness.” That was the thought that inspired Ashley Scott, Laura Riley-Cooper, and Renee Walters to start the Freedom Georgia Initiative and build a community in Wilkinson County.

"It’s part museum, part roadside family attraction. Walk in the door, and there isn’t a quiet place—there’s somebody talking, music, movies, audio of bigfoot talking and screaming," says David Bakara of Expedition: Bigfoot! The Sasquatch Museum. "You have no idea what’s coming around the next corner."

Atlanta’s tree-protection ordinance—a critical tool for preserving the forest in the city—is more than two decades old. Is this the year it gets an update?

In the past two years, more than 80 bookstores shuttered nationwide. But bookstores are rallying, and pivots including curbside pickups, mobile book vending, and virtual book talks in lieu of in-person signings have become commonplace at local shops. Here are five innovating booksellers in Atlanta.

"One day, when we were all in our early 30s, Martin Luther King Jr. said to our little ragtag bunch, 'Everybody here has got to be clinically insane to think that with no money, no political power, no army, no nothing, we are going to redeem the soul of America.' And then, he said, 'We’ll be lucky to make it to 40. But if we make it past 40, we’re going to have to make it to 100 because this is not an easy job. It’ll take more than our lifetimes to get it right.' Well, I think that planted it in my mind, especially after he was killed, that I had to make it to 100."

Atlanta’s only all-nude male dance club and a longtime pillar of the LGBTQ community says goodbye after 26 years.