September 2025
Features
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Your 2025 Atlanta fall arts calendar
Atlanta’s arts season is bursting with creativity, from the High Museum’s landmark exhibition of Minnie Evans to bold new takes on Balanchine, Bram Stoker, and Tennessee Williams. Here’s your 2025 fall arts calendar.
The Creative Spark: 16 Atlanta artists on what ignites them
Creativity is one of life’s great mysteries. But artists of every genre recognize it when the moment of inspiration hits them. We spoke to 16 Atlanta artists about their creative processes—visual artists, dancers, musicians, actors, and more. What ignites their creativity? How do they turn an idea into art? How do they overcome a creative block? Their answers are illuminating, sometimes humorous and often profound.
Atlanta arts organizations are running on empty
Nonprofit arts organizations in metro Atlanta are facing financial challenges as government grants, corporate sponsorships, and Covid-era relief funding have dried up while costs have risen and audience participation remains below pre-pandemic levels. In response, arts leaders have banded together through weekly meetings and the coalition Arts Capital | Atlanta, which seeks to raise $100 million to stabilize the sector and ensure smaller organizations in particular can survive.
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The Connector
Magic City marks 40 years with a five-part docuseries on Starz
The strip club Magic City’s lore looms large. Now, timed to the storied strip club’s 40th anniversary, Starz is releasing a five-part docuseries called Magic City: An American Fantasy. It is executive produced by Jami Gertz, a co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks, and Jermaine Dupri. (Drake is also an executive producer.)
We spent an emotional day with one of Atlanta’s top immigration attorneys. Here’s why he says the system doesn’t work.
When I arrived at Atlanta-based immigration lawyer Charles H. Kuck’s office early on a Monday morning, he opened a spreadsheet on his computer to show me his schedule for the day. His workday started at 7 a.m., spanned more than 10 hours, and included consultations with 18 clients. “A typical day,” he told me. Each case revealed something about the complications and convoluted rules and regulations inherent in our bewildering immigration system.
“I got my life back”: How an Atlantan’s app is helping curb phone addiction
After selling his first startup, Atlanta entrepreneur Clint Jarvis found himself burned out and tethered to his phone, a cycle that inspired him to create Roots, an app designed to help people curb screen addiction. With features that track digital habits, block social media, and gamify healthier routines, Roots has already drawn 50,000 users worldwide who say it’s helping them reclaim their time and focus.
Concrete Jungle celebrates 16 years of distributing salvaged fruits and vegetables
What started as a scrappy volunteer effort in 2009 to share foraged apples with vulnerable families has matured into a statewide nonprofit. Concrete Jungle rescues and distributes 1 million pounds of fruits and vegetables [4 million servings] annually to meet the increased demand. To date, the nonprofit has moved 3 million pounds of produce to local food banks and shelters.
Seen more 1996 Olympics apparel recently? It’s coming back.
In the vintage clothing world, there’s a moment when one day you’ll find your childhood wardrobe on sales hangers. About five years ago, CC Indivero and Mike Huddleston of GVG Events started seeing clothes that they wore as kids in the summer of 1996. “At first, I laughed, like they think what I wore when I was 11 is cool, but now, it’s everywhere.”
The Bite
Atlanta is in a tasty “Neo-Neapolitan” pizza renaissance
One thing I noticed on my return to Atlanta after a couple of years: major shifts in the local pizza scene. This new Neo-Neapolitan movement in Atlanta—“a pizza renaissance,” ventures chef Jake Pollitz at Staplehouse in Old Fourth Ward—is essentially an aftereffect of the Covid-19 pandemic. Here’s how Staplehouse, Pendolino, Bocado, Indaco, Mister 01, and Lloyd’s are approaching this new movement.
Hidden in Alpharetta, Laghman Express’s dumplings and hand-pulled noodles are drawing crowds
Laghman Express, which opened in April, offers a blend of Central Asian cuisines. As a region once central to the Silk Road, the food draws from the ancient confluence of cultures with an emphasis on meat dishes as mains, complemented by dairy, fresh vegetables, and breads. The New York Times included the eatery’s original location in Brooklyn on its “100 Best Restaurants” list the past two years. Laghman Express co-owner Babur Akhmedov hails from Kyrgyzstan, and he is spearheading the opening of the Alpharetta location.
Review: Ryokou wants to take you on an edible trip through Japan
Ryokou, a new kappo-style restaurant in Adair Park is owned by chef Leonard Yu who also owns Omakase Table. The restaurant builds its identity by sharing its passion for knowledge and exploration. It doesn’t try to outdo its peers, and it is not about chef worship. It’s more like hanging out with a friend who is a total nerd about Japanese food and wants to tell you about it while feeding you.
Atlanta’s iceman delivers clear ice to your favorite bars and restaurants
Ice is the unsung hero of a fine bar program, its subtle influence often taken for granted. But not by Jeff Banks, Atlanta’s iceman. A former bartender himself, Banks now dedicates his days to his ice company, King Cube. He makes and delivers pristine, oversized, clear-cut cubes to 120 bars and restaurants across the city.
The Goods
6 Atlanta bookstores where community matters as much as the books
In an era of book bans, Atlanta’s bookstores matter more than ever. A new wave of shops focuses on specific interests and building community—including All the Tropes, Sincerely Yours, The Lavender Bookshop, Books & Brew, and Wild Aster Books.
María Korol’s fantastical creatures come alive in her Athens exhibition
Trees with human faces; humanoid forest creatures; dancing cats; humans with fur and tails. This list may sound fantastical, but for artist María Korol, this cast of characters regularly appears in her paintings. These creatures will come alive in Korol’s solo exhibition, Playing Ball Without a Ball, at Lyndon House Arts Center in Athens (July 18–September 27).
Lostintheletters, a new gathering place for readers and writers, debuts in Candler Park
On McLendon Avenue in the heart of Candler Park, across the street from Gigi’s, there’s a new storefront with desks, comfy chairs, and shelves filled with books. It’s a workspace, a bookstore, and a venue all in one. Lostintheletters, a writing studio and bookstore, is the new center for creative writing operated by the long-running Atlanta literary organization.
Miscellaneous
Editor’s Journal: The grace of creativity
For all the challenges of creation and commerce that follow, the creative spark itself often starts with something wondrously simple: You can be going down a street feeling bad and all of a sudden, a song comes to you . . . if you’re listening for it.
A love letter to Midtown Place, aka Atlanta’s worst shopping center
Midtown Place, if you’re lucky enough to not be familiar, is that big-box shopping center across the street from Ponce City Market’s front entrance, anchored by a Whole Foods and the Home Depot. One of its lead developers, the controversial Jeff Fuqua, is best known for building such things as lifeless self-storage compounds in walkable places. Need a good laugh? Imagine telling out-of-town guests, “Hop in the car, folks—you’ve got to see Midtown Place!” Love it, hate it—endure it when necessary—you can’t say Midtown Place doesn’t work to some extent.
