Metro Arts August 18

The program is brought to you by the Georgia Radio Reading Service. The first article discusses Anastasia Pellias's exhibition, "Across Space and Time, the Divine Feminine," at Jonathan Ferreira Gallery in New Orleans. The exhibition features paintings and sculptures that explore the feminine through abstract gestures. The second article is about Sally Bethy, the former director of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, who has written a memoir about her experiences protecting and restoring the Chattahoochee River. She reflects on the beauty of nature and the importance of slowing down to appreciate it. The third article highlights the revival of indigo farming and dyeing in the South. Artisans and farmers are reclaiming the ancestral craft of cultivating indigo plants and turning them into dye. This program is intended for a print-impaired audience and is brought to you by the Georgia Radio Reading Service, BARS. Welcome to Metro Arts for Friday, August 18th. I am Kristen Moody for the Georgia Radio Reading Service. Metro Arts is brought to you by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. For our first article, we go to the Burnaway Publication Online for Across Space and Time, the Divine Feminine by Anastasia Pellias at Jonathan Ferreira Gallery, New Orleans by Joe Craig. A passage in Rodin's notebook describes a torso as that garden of pleasure, the secret charms of which imbue old and new alike with a terrible power. A feminine charm which crushes our destiny, mysterious feminine power that retards the thinker, the worker, and the artist, while at the same time it inspires them, a compensation for those who play with fire. Entering Anastasia Pellias's Across Space and Time, the Divine Feminine at Jonathan Ferreira Gallery, a six-foot torso-like form looms, echoing Rodin's statement. This archetypal shape presides over the entryway, serving as the foundational marker upon which the exhibition operates. From the torso, all appendages extend. In this current body of work, containing 10 paintings, 17 works of charcoal and Sumi ink on paper, displayed online but not physically present in the gallery, and a single monumental sculpture, Pellias, a New Orleanian of Greek descent, explores the feminine through gestural abstraction. The paintings comprising the show are mostly muted fields of color punctuated by wiry marks of oil stick. A standout composition, titled Aphrodite of Mylos, I Am She, recalls the ceiling of a cave, its surface layered with stalactite dripping. Near the midline, thin skeins of highlighter yellow trickle faintly across this canvas, hovering on the edge of visibility. A rounded triplet of icicle shapes reiterate the drips and resolve the upper right-hand corner with immediacy and painterly intelligence. Pellias's decision-making often delights in details, as a filled-in stalactite at the far left mimics the residue of a peeled-off sticker. Certain titles overreach and exceed the scope of visual content, such as Dancing Off the Cliff for the Women of Suli, which references Suliote women who jumped to their death while dancing and singing in order to avoid capture by Ottoman forces. Pellias condenses the action into a brisk, emerald green arc. The degree of abstraction is so extreme that one could just as easily imagine the unfurling of hair, a polluted waterfall, a rainbow as a ribbon of pure velocity. A joyous abandon inhabits Pellias's raw impressions, impulse superseding an overall effect. Expressive mark-making is showcased most clearly in Sleeping Beauty, Beauty Sleep, a collection of disparate lines on a shifting gray ground. These lines form a threadbare composition, leading the eye in a loop without ever divulging any secrets. The exhibition itself proceeds in a similar manner, adopting a melange of references without ever unscrambling their significance. One of the largest paintings in the show, Infinite Unapologetic Love, channels a cross-section of Antarctic strata, an illustrable emptiness cloaked in a sheen of ice. The stopgaps reveal where the layering process begins and ends. The downpour of cobalt blue, dark cerulean, smalt, and denim run together and imply a frozen wilderness beyond the edges of the frame. Historically, taking into account both the title and the use of color, Philippe de Champagne's painting The Virgin of Sorrows comes to mind, the figure completely enveloped by a blue cloak at the foot of the cross, likewise symbolizing an all-consuming love amid sorrow. But here, the blue is more general, a screen onto which any number of projections can be made. Unlike Aphrodite of Milos, the painting feels unembellished and basic, a simple expression where scale is the prime concern. Emphasis is given to the sensitivity of the body, an instrument capable of transmitting powerful signals from dense fields of noise. Evidence of an underpainting is apparent in Smile, its traces almost obliterated by white paint. The piece is a perfect example of signal-to-noise ratio, where the cerulean waveform represents an unmistakable signal, and the background a wash of white noise. Fellow painters might be attuned to Smile's modulated surface, but to the majority of viewers, it's easily ignored. What remains is an oscillating live wire of electric blue, the artist asserting her presence as an embodied mind in action, torso as prism, refracting feminine power into abstraction. Across Space and Time, the Divine Feminine by Anastasia Peleus is on view at Jonathan Ferreira Gallery in New Orleans through August 26, 2023. That was Across Space and Time, the Divine Feminine by Anastasia Peleus at Jonathan Ferreira Gallery, New Orleans, by Joe Craig, from the Burnaway Publication. Next, we move to Atlanta Magazine for Rediscovering the Chattahoochee. Former riverkeeper Sally Bethy looks back in a new memoir, awe is not just in the Grand Canyons of the world, it's in the small, amazing things and learning about them, she says, by Heather Buckner. Sally Bethy is still getting to know the river she's devoted much of her life to. Hired as founding director of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper in 1994, she spent 20 years protecting and restoring the neglected waterway. But being a mom and running a small business, which a nonprofit is, you rush from one thing to another, she says. You're getting big stuff done and moving on. In her new memoir, Keeping the Chattahoochee, she writes that retirement has provided a chance to finally slow down and more closely examine the world around me. Inspired by The Forest Unseen, in which biologist David George Haskell visits a patch of forest almost daily for a year, Bethy chose a space of her own to frequent, a trail in the East Palisades unit of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. It took repetitiveness through the seasons to grasp things that made me go, wow, I haven't seen it like that before. The colors, the reflections on the water, a particular flower, she says. Chattahoochee is not just in the grand canyons of the world, it's in the small, amazing things and learning about them. Who knew there were 22,000 kinds of moss? Here's where Bethy found all along the river and where you might search for your own. East Palisades. River otters, known for their playfulness, are often seen frolicking in the water, sliding, diving, and enjoying a crayfish meal, Bethy writes. For a sighting, try the rocks and shoals along the Whitewater Creek Trail, where you can often see families of otters feeding on crayfish right after sunrise, Bethy says. Or check out the banks of the same unit accessed by the Indian Trail parking area on the ridge. Go early in the morning or in the evening where there are fewer people and the critters are out and about. Upper Chattahoochee River Water Trail. There are places you can find remoteness above Lake Lanier, where the river is free flowing, Bethy says, describing one such place in her book as a green cathedral with dappled light entering from high windows, the few open spaces in the tree canopy. Bethy suggests renting a kayak, canoe, or raft from Cleveland's Wildwood Outfitters. But get information before you go, she warns. Depending on water levels, it can have Class II and III rapids. I have flipped at one place twice. McIntosh Reserve. Long off-limits due to pollution, this park, an hour's drive from downtown, has turned around, Bethy says. You can paddle along, rent a canoe or kayak from local outfitters, and the birds seem like they're leading you downstream. An osprey, an eagle, a kingfisher. It's almost like a secret. It was here, she writes, that a fisherman, Bethy, was caught a bass, and before he released it, it opened its mouth and he told her to feel the sandpaper-like tooth patch on the back of its tongue, which is used to grip its prey. It was a powerful connection with nature, she says. Sometimes, to experience awe, you have to take well-considered risks. That was Rediscovering the Chattahoochee. Former riverkeeper Sally Bethy looks back in a new memoir by Heather Buckner. Next, an indigo revival in the south. Indigo suffraticosa is being revived by artisans and farmers from Athens to Ossabaw and Sapelo Islands to the suburbs of Atlanta by Jill Niemark. Indigo, that iconic hue that is synonymous with denim everywhere, was the most valued natural dye of the ancient world, and also made the fortunes of many plantation owners in the low country in the 1700s. Now the variety once grown in the south, indigo suffraticosa, is being revised by artisans and farmers from Athens to Ossabaw and Sapelo Islands to the suburbs of Atlanta. Crops like indigo hold a mighty sway, explains Keisha Cameron of High Hog Farm in Grayson, where she grows indigo in her fiber forest. Cameron is a part of a collective of black women in the Atlanta area who are reclaiming the ancestral craft of cultivating indigo plants to be harvested, ground, and turned into dye. Most recently, she facilitated an indigo dyeing workshop at the annual Black Farmers Urban Gardeners Conference in Atlanta last fall. In certain West African cultures, there was no word for black. The people saw themselves as indigo, and indigo was of the earth, she continues. A lot of black agrarian and returning generation farmers feel a homecoming as we work with lost cultivators like indigo. Last June, I drove to Athens to participate in an Indigo Dye Day with another powerhouse behind the Southern Revival, Donna Hardy of Sea Island Indigo. She spent time researching indigo in Charleston and eventually moved there in 2013 and began growing the plants and holding workshops on John's Island. She soon learned that indigo was already growing wild or had naturalized on Georgia's Ossabaw Island. From fall 2013 to the onset of the pandemic, she held dye workshops there alongside Elizabeth DuBose and Mark Frizzell of the Ossabaw Island Foundation. I arrived in Athens midday to a festoon of blue-hued items strung on clotheslines across Hardy's front yard. About a dozen women were ringed around two large vats of indigo. There is something otherworldly about the pigment, says Hardy. In Africa, it was thought that indigo was the color of the heavens and that it would keep away evil. That famous haint blue you see on southern houses is part of that tradition. We talk about waking up the vat of indigo. Sometimes it just won't wake up. It won't work with you that day. Hardy creates the dye using traditional methods. Leaves are steeped in water in the sun until they ferment and the pigment begins to leach out. Then lime or another acid is added, causing the pigment to clump and fall to the bottom of the tank, leaving a mud that is dried into a fine powder. Indigo pigment must undergo a process before it can permanently attach to fiber. In the vat and without oxygen, the liquid is a yellowish green. When the fiber is removed from the vat, the yellowish green turns to teal and then finally to blue as the indigo reacts to the oxygen in the air. Repeated dips layer the pigment onto the fabric until a deep cobalt hue is achieved. I never get tired of seeing the indigo pigment change from golden to teal to deep blue, says Cameron. It's magical. One might wonder, why go to all the trouble when synthetic indigo has been available since 1897? Natural indigo has many shades within it, says Hardy. It's alive. It's hyperlocal. It changes subtly where the soil where it's grown. There's simply no comparison. That was An Indigo Revival in the South by Jill Niemark from the Atlanta Magazine. Next we move to Arts ATL for Q&A. Beautiful director and star on playing the life and songs of Carole King by Sally Henry Fuller. When Beautiful, the Carole King musical, was new to Broadway in 2014, Aurora Theatre co-founder and artistic director Anne Carole Pence knew she had to get her hands on the rights to the jukebox musical as soon as they were available. Centered on the singer-songwriter of the 1960s and 70s, known for hits like Will You Love Me Tomorrow, I Feel the Earth Move, and You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman, Beautiful chronicles King's life and career from obscurity to chart-topping stardom. The title role is atypical for a Broadway ingenue, calling for an actor who can accompany herself on a piano. From their seats in the Stephen Sondheim Theatre all those years ago, Pence and her colleague David Rossetti dreamed of an Aurora production of Beautiful. In the same breath, they asked themselves, which multi-talented woman had the chops to lead it? The answer, Bethany Irby. When Pence initially shared her vision with Irby, the actor was interested but not available. She was teaching at an international school in India. Before moving across the world, Irby had been a staple of Atlanta theatre for years, appearing in shows from Lawrenceville to LaGrange. Despite this seeming obstacle, the persistent Pence continued to pursue the show. Irby eventually returned to the States, and in January of this year, when Pence told her Aurora now had the rights to Beautiful, Irby officially accepted the challenge. For the past seven months, Irby has been learning the score and steeping herself in research alongside her dear friend of over 20 years, Beautiful director and choreographer Rossetti. The duo recently sat down with Arts ATL to talk about bringing the iconic songstress to the stage. Arts ATL, have you played instruments in character before? Irby, I have. I played piano in Buddy Holly at Georgia Ensemble. In Big River at Theatrical Outfit, I played like five instruments, and I played instruments in other shows. When I first got into professional theatre out of college, I thought, I don't want to tell anyone I play piano, because then I'll be in the pit all the time. I fought that a little bit in college, hearing, we don't need you on stage for this show, but will you play piano? So when I got to Atlanta, I felt like I wanted to keep it a secret, and then it started to be a little useful. I do feel most comfortable playing an instrument and singing, so it's been really fun to use that specific comfort zone on stage. Arts ATL, what has the research and preparation for this show been like? Irby, I've just been sort of binging on all material I can get from that era, and anything that's referenced. Watching a lot of documentaries, watching a lot of interviews with Carole King. I think we're similar in a lot of ways. We both see ourselves as normal people, like a why would anyone want to put me on stage kind of person, but at the same time, her energy is different from mine. She is so goofy and silly, which I can be, and so I'm trying to let that out. Obviously, I don't physically look like her as much, but I'm just trying to capture her essence. I love in her memoir how she talks about how she just plays loud. She likes to bang things out on the piano, and I'm like, I can do that. That is me. Rossetti, Bethany and I have been texting things like, oh my gosh, did you know that Carole did this? Or had you heard that story before? I think when you do a lot of research and you really dive in, it's just easier to make decisions. When I wonder how the characters would handle something, I'll say, well, if we think about this and this, they would react this way. Arts ATL. Is there anything you learned from your research that might not appear in the show, but still influenced it? Rossetti. The research really tells us that King was just naturally driven. To have that in journal drive at 16 years old, just cold show up at a record label to sell her first record, it's just kind of bananas. And then you look from that moment to where she's been over decades in pop music, and it doesn't sound real. Irby. The guy who's playing Donnie Kirshner, the record producer Corey Phelps, sent me a quote that Donnie wrote that said he was taken by her confidence. And the fact she played every song she wrote like it was already a hit, even though they were not good at first, that he was like, I'm going to believe in her. Arts ATL. David, what has this show been like as a director? Rossetti. I think it is a little deceiving because you kind of think, oh, it's a jukebox musical. It's easy. And I'm like, well, 22 scenes in act one, all different locations. That is not easy. And we've got a nice two-level set. We have a turntable. So we had a lot of fun elements that I think Aurora audiences haven't really seen before. And you don't really see in a lot of regional theaters. And it's literally a show where the audience just sits there and goes, oh, that song? Oh, I didn't know she wrote that one. There are audible gasps from people not realizing that she was the soundtrack for their life. Sally Henry Fuller is a theater nerd and performing arts journalist with a passion for telling people's stories. Her work has appeared on BroadwayWorld.com, Encore Atlanta, and the AJC. When she's not interviewing artists, you can find her at a local coffee shop or on an evening stroll with her husband and baby girl. That was Q&A, Beautiful Director and Star on Playing the Life and Songs of Carole King by Sally Henry Fuller. Next up, Master Narrative at Spellman Reimagined Creation Story Through Yoruba Gods by Angela Oliver. Armonio Rosales has always admired Renaissance art, the realism, the linear perspective, the depths of human anatomy, and the storytelling. Now seven years worth of artworks by the Chicago-raised Los Angeles-based artist who taught herself the techniques of Renaissance painting have come together to tell one of the world's most intriguing creation stories. Armonio Rosales' Master Narrative will open at the Spellman College Museum of Fine Art on August 18th and will be on view through December 2nd. It's the second stop on the collection's national tour. The exhibit is an exploration of the lives of West African-derived Yoruba deities, or Ereshia, spiritual forces who, like Catholic saints, mediate between humankind and the divine. Many individual works are displayed at eye-level, but the exhibit culminates in Rosales' reimagining of perhaps the most revered site of Renaissance art, the Sistine Chapel. Following the same architecture of Michelangelo's fresco and others, Rosales' work stretches across a replica of the overturned hull of a slave ship that is suspended from the ceiling. Instead of European figures, though, Master Narrative retells creation stories through Rosales' eyes as an Afro-Cuban woman whose roots also reach Jamaica. The inspiration began when she thought of bedtime stories for her children and wanted them to know about deities who reflect them. It's also inspired by struggles with her own identity that she experienced when she was young. By challenging the dominant narratives Rosales says, this exhibit preserves the memory of her ancestral lineage, honors the resilience of the black diaspora, and questions Eurocentric notions of beauty. Arts ATL. You've defined your art as black women's empowerment through a diasporic lens. How does your identity within that lens guide your work? Armonio Rosales. Growing up I never felt I was enough of anything. I wasn't black enough. Definitely wasn't white. Didn't feel Latina because I didn't speak Spanish. I was a sponge for how society said we should look. My grandmother used to say, pelo bueno, good hair. She would give me little gifts of a box of relaxer. It wasn't until I had my daughter that I cut my hair off and cut the relaxer out because I wanted her to love her natural hair. I was finding myself by teaching her. She's 13 now and my son is 11. She doesn't like her hair straightened at all. She likes it out. She likes it big and I love that. I paint the features I used to dislike about myself like dark elbows, my hair, my nose. I wanted the gods to look like where they came from in their purest form. I wanted to make them this really beautiful blue-black like my great-great-grandmother who was among the last enslaved. Arcetio. Do you practice the Yoruba religion? Rosales. Yes and no. I'm not one thing which is why I can appreciate every religion. My Yoruba influence mostly came from my grandmother and my dad. You learn from a priest or priestess until you go through the stages to become one. When you absorb the stories and learn to follow your intuition, you can retell them in a way that you understand. This is one reason Yoruba hasn't been written linearly in one book. One story could have ten versions. To some, the deity Oshun could be beautiful and delicate. To some, she could be a warrior. Arcetio. How does that face background translate to master narrative? Rosales. I think a lot about Eve but not as the woman in the Bible. She is our ancestors. She is what they went through to get us here. It's about how she's changed. The masterpiece, the boat, shows the creation of earth by Yoruba gods. Then the gods creating Eve, us. Seeing Eve's journey through the transatlantic slave trade and losing those orishas, forgetting them in a sense. In the end, it shows heaven, but we remember the hell we lived through on earth. Then it goes on to illustrate how we learn of our stories and take them back, reclaiming our identity. Arcetio. That's a heavy concept. How is that symbolized? Rosales. I use the fig tree a lot. A strangler fig. It's a vine that grows from the top down and wraps around the host tree. Once its roots get into the soil, taking nutrients, the tree dies. It's a symbol of manipulation and control. Society saying you're not cute if you're dark or because of your hair is all manipulation and control. It can take root in your garden of Eden, which is your mind, but we can change that. The children at the end of the work represent future generations. They're sitting next to a strangler fig that has completely depleted the land, but none of them have bitten it. None of them have been manipulated by it. They're looking to you, the viewer. They remind us that there's always hope. Arcetio. How do you think people will receive this collection? Rosales. There's a lot of Christian art and Greek mythology art, but in order for us, people from the African diaspora, to be a part of the conversation in the scope of religion, we have to have depictions of ourselves. Some say their religion came first. Others say theirs came first. I'm not saying anything except let's study this too. And for people who don't know anything about it, but don't know about the others, maybe they'll make the connections and think, oh, Mary is Yemaya or Poseidon is Olokun. They're kind of similar. Arcetio. Master narrative interweaves aspects of many religions seamlessly. What does that say to you about religion? Rosales. The gods in the Yoruba religion and pretty much all of paganism are basically nature and human emotions. They're all part of one god of whatever happened that created earth and everything on it. We just give them names, flesh and bone. But if we give these gods life, then the major god is really us. We create our own heaven or hell on earth. We choose our own destiny. We have the ultimate control. That's what I want to put out there. Angela Oliver is a proud native of old Atlanta who grew up in the West End. A WKU journalism and black studies grad, daily news survivor and member of Delta Sigma Theta. She works in the grassroots nonprofit world while daydreaming about seeing her scripts come alive on the big screen. That was Master Narrative at Spellman Reimagines Creation Story Through Yoruba Gods by Angela Oliver. Next up, The Ghosts of Segregation Haunt Flux Projects Ghost Pools Installation by Stephanie Douda Demare. To experience the whole story behind her East Point installation, Ghost Pools, the artist and writer Hannes S. Palmer says the viewer needs to experience both the site and history of the segregated community swimming pools that were built in 1953 and closed in 1982. Ghost Pools is a summer long public art project that makes visible these now filled in pools and the erased history of segregation that Palmer unearthed for Flux Projects. She collaborated with Anne Hill Bond, who leads the oral history component, and Santiago Paramo, who handled the sound production. The outdoor exhibit is on view through Labor Day across two sites. At the East Point Historical Society, Palmer stands adjacent to the grassy field of one of the two sites of Ghost Pools. The difference in the location, the difference in the size of each pool, they are both thoroughly erased, so you have to use your imagination to even picture what the pools were like, Palmer says as she looks toward the field where the pool's pennant flags glimmer as they move in the wind. The project's Spring Avenue site is difficult to locate, even via GPS, but Palmer leverages the theme of hiddenness to allude to what is underground. At the Randall Street site, it would be easy to overlook the painted concrete except for barriers and flux signage. Part of this obfuscation is intentional, causing viewers to pause and consider what parts of our community history are concealed. This theme is addressed in further detail through a historical timeline marker that extends across both locations. Palmer's research into public pools alongside archival imagery reveal communities' affection for pools and how the state and local residents and officials resisted desegregating these spaces in the 1960s. Walking toward the site through long grass, the intense summer sun already blazing, Palmer points out a row of pavers. They are the edge of the now-filled-in pool. No trace of a pool existed at either site, she says. I used aerial photos to get dimensions, and I laid out a footprint of each pool. She walks along the paver edge and steps into the slender shade of a magnolia tree, which would be half-submerged in water should the pool emerge from underground. At night, the Spring Avenue pool site glows blue with subterranean lighting. The artist installed a blue LED rope light along the pavers to allow visitors to see the pool around the clock. The concept of ghost pools was inspired by Palmer's interest in the creation of pools across America in the 1930s with Works Progress Administration funds, followed by the closure of pools in the 1970s and 80s when cities took on ownership of pools and grappled with desegregation. In the case of the two East Point pools, there was a vote to pass a referendum bond to finance the pools. It failed, and the sites were bulldozed. With her roots as a memoirist, Palmer is interested in how the stories we tell ourselves influence what we believe is historical fact and create opportunity for interpretation. In the ghost pools installation, there is a poetry of space and memory in the cheeky details, like the zero-foot sign tiled onto the edge of the pool or the diving board embedded in concrete. Bond heads the oral history project for ghost pools and holds weekly recording sessions at the East Point Historical Society. Current and past residents share their stories of the Spring Avenue and Randall Street pools. Palmer suggests there will be a podcast released by Flux Project about the recording and a printed record for the archive. Immersed in the heat and standing on the pool blue rectangle painted on the paved parking lot of the Randall Street pool site, Palmer slips her iPhone into a wooden and metal sculpture at the edge of the pool. She plays an audio component on the iPhone graph, as she calls it, a sculpture created by Pavanmal. The sound of summer slips through the stifling air as if the pool is just over there, when in fact it's buried under dirt and concrete. It's easy to imagine a pool here, and more interestingly, it's important to imagine a pool here. Palmer's work provides the blueprint and evocation of a hidden history and the magical components to elicit the fun and freedom possible in a public pool. Part imagination, part play, part history lesson, Ghost Pools asks us to dream of the future while unearthing the past. The installation is on view 24 hours a day until Labor Day, when the artist will present a closing event. Stephanie Dauda Demare is a Lens-based artist and writer based in Atlanta. That was the Ghosts of Segregation Haunt Flux Project's Ghost Pools installation by Stephanie Dauda Demare. Next up, ATL Park Jam marks hip-hop's 50th. iDrum begins drum-based residency by Arts ATL staff. The Art on the Beltline celebration of hip-hop's 50th anniversary will begin with ATL Park Jam Saturday at Adair Park in southwest Atlanta. The day-long event starts at noon and is curated by Alex Acosta, a founder and executive producer of Rapport. Acosta is also the founding executive director of Soul Food Cypher, which will perform its trademark freestyle rap. There will also be a women's-only rap cypher, a dance battle, an HBCU-style drumline with exclusive percussion, and a live DJ set by Atlanta hip-hop pioneer DJ Jelly. Acosta said the program is designed to highlight and celebrate Georgia's impact on the hip-hop world. From the Bankhead Bounce to the latest TikTok dance craze, it is undeniable that Atlanta remains influential to hip-hop culture, he said in a press release. This park jam is a special moment that brings all the homegrown elements together and honors the Georgia-born architects of our culture. Atlanta Beltline has more events on tap through the end of the year to celebrate hip-hop's anniversary. iDrum Art and Music Gallery will begin a new quarterly residency called D-Tours Drum and Bass on September 1st that will feature a performance by Chicago DJ Toya Koya. The residency is curated by Shante Lagon, content director of Slow Mo Magazine and a long-standing supporter of Atlanta's electronic and soul music scene. I grew up dancing to house music in Chicago, Lagon said in a press release. When I started going to raves in the late 90s, that's when I first discovered drum and bass. I love it so much, and this is my chance to move from a consumer of the culture to a creator and curator. The fall edition of D-Tours Drum and Bass will feature Toya Koya, who has been a DJ since the late 90s. Her set will feature a variety of genres including electro, breaks, juke, jungle, and footwork. Also performing is Atlanta junglist Denna Mung, also known as J Majek, who is a member of Team Rollers, the jungle drum and bass DJ collective. Atlanta's true life is also on the bill. He has been a DJ for nearly 25 years. D-Tours Drum and Bass aims to provide an elevated electronic music experience, says Lagon. The choice of iDrum as the event's home is purposeful. It's the OG venue of cutting-edge art and music, known for hosting boundary-pushing musicians and artwork. The DIY ethos of this space is well-established, and it garners deep credibility among innovative thinkers and move-makers. That was ATL Park Jam Marks Hip Hop's 50th iDrum Begins Drum Bass Residency, by Arts ATL staff. Next up, theater lines. Smyrna Firehouse Turns Theater, plans set for clege work, more, by Arts ATL staff. The Old Smyrna Firehouse will host a limited engagement of a solo show with a companion gallery exhibit by award-winning actor and photographer Becca McCoy. The Year of Extraordinary Travel will have two performances at the Alternative Performance Space, September 8th and September 9th, sponsored by the Smyrna Arts Council. Directed by Vicki D'Aguinalt, the play integrates literature and photography into traditional solo performance. Especially after the pandemic stopped us from congregating for collective listening, I wanted to explore the various ways we tell and hear our stories, said McCoy in a press release, and using the book as both source material and theatrical element allows for variety in how the audience is guided through the story. It is a play about possibility and books, and the theater are spaces of possibility. Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., recently announced plans for the world premiere of Pearl Clege's Something Moving, a meditation on Maynard, directed by Sima Suiko. Performances begin September 22nd and continue through October 15th. Clege, who was Maynard Jackson's speechwriter, said her experiences of the moment were life-changing, and she wanted to write about the former Atlanta mayor when commissioned for the Ford's Theater Legacy Commission. The play received a developmental workshop and reading earlier this year. I wanted to look at that moment as a time when many different communities in Atlanta came together in a way they never had before, to elect this man we all felt was absolutely the right person to lead us through this transition period, Clege said in a press release. I wanted to ask myself and my audience, what makes a great leader? I wanted to explore what we as citizens owe those leaders once we identify them. Stage Door Theater was recently awarded a 2024 Bridge Grant by the Georgia Council for the Arts, part of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. This first-round grant funding for fiscal year 2024 includes a total of 269 grants across 47 counties in three funding categories. We updated our mission, created impactful community engagement programs, maximized the full potential of our academy, diversified our revenue with new corporate partnerships, and were intentional with our collaborations and programming to represent the entire community here in Dunwoody, said Producing Arts Director Justin Ball in a press release. This week, Synchronicity Theater announced the four works that have been selected as part of this season's Stripped Bear Arts Incubator Project. Works include Coming Home to Roost by Chris Lane on November 15th, Day by Emma Yarborough on January 6th, 2024, Soft as It Began by John Clarence Stewart on February 21st, 2024, and Masaka's Travel by Talani Vareen on April 17th, 2024. Performances are free at Synchronicity Theater. We are thrilled to uplift new projects led by John Stewart, Chris Lane, Emma Yarborough, and Talani Vareen, said Producing Artistic Director Rachel May in a statement. This is an inspiring new cohort of creators, and we can't wait to see the projects they bring to our stage. That was Theater Lines, Smyrna Firehouse Turns Theater, Plans Set for Clej Work, and more by Arts ATL staff. Next, second annual Atlanta Art Week adds Museums Galleries to 2023 lineup by Arts ATL staff. The second edition of Atlanta Art Week, October 2nd through October 8th, has announced the museums, galleries, corporate collections, and cultural organizations that will participate in the event for the first time this year. More than 10 institutions have joined this year's cohort, Atlanta Contemporary, Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, Atlanta University Center Art History and Curatorial Studies Collective, Dalton Gallery at Agnes Scott College, the High Museum of Art, Michael C. Carlos Museum, MoCA Georgia, Museum of Design Atlanta, MoDA, the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, and Zuckerman Museum of Art. Galleries new to the event this year include Allen Avery Art Company, Sandler Hudson Gallery, and UTA Artists Space. The four new cultural partners are the Atlanta Beltline, the Hainbidge Center, the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta, ADAMA, and the Spruill Center for the Arts and its gallery. We were blown away by the appetite for a citywide celebration of the visual arts during last year's inaugural edition, which had over 2,000 registered visitors, said Kendra Walker, founder and director of Atlanta Art Week, in a press release. This year, Atlanta Art Week has more participants with even stronger institutional support, and we look forward to welcoming new attendees and participants. An artist's estate will also be featured this year. Curator Melissa Messina will share the Mildred Thompson Legacy Project, which highlights the career of the late painter. That was second annual Atlanta Art Week at Museums Galleries to 2023 lineup by arts ATL staff. Next, fourth annual SHE ATL Festival will stage Whole New Worlds written by women by Jacqueline Turner. For those who support the creative endeavors of women and want to see original work the minute it hits the stage, the SHE ATL Summer Theater Festival returns August 17th through August 20th at Theatrical Outfit to debut two new plays, plus its first musical, all written and directed by women. Now in its fourth year, SHE ATL is an extension of SHE New York City Arts, created in 2015 to support and showcase the work of female, trans, and nonbinary writers, composers, producers, and directors. It is spearheaded by two executive producers, Caitlin Hargrave, who is an assistant teaching professor at Emory and co-artistic director and resident actor director at Theater Emory, and Erica Miranda, a Mexican-Norwegian actor and producer, founder of Kofeketa Protections, and part of the Weird Sisters Theater Project. SHE ATL serves a dual purpose, to mentor female and nonbinary playwrights through the process of getting their work off the page and into the theater, and to showcase the work of marginalized groups to a theater-going audience and show its commercial viability. Atlanta is a new play city. What we're interested in doing is bringing voices that those larger commercial theaters wouldn't necessarily recognize or hear, said Hargrave. The festival selection process began in December 2022, with 40 submissions. The final lineup includes three captivating works, A Shy Redemption by Kay Parker, Chicana Legends by Alexis Elisa Macedo, and Rathskeller, a musical elixir with book, music, and lyrics by Brianna Kothari Barnes and produced by Dame Productions. Rathskeller is the first ever musical production at SHE ATL. I think their common tie is, I'm trying to find the appropriate word to describe them, badass, said Miranda. These plays are really poignant. They're really sharp. Although they are each wildly unique and individual, they have really strong world building, which I think is an important element when you're talking about a workshop production, said Hargrave. You want the world inside of the world to be rich and full, and all three of these plays accomplish that. To date, more than 75 full-length productions have been launched through the SHE festivals in New York City, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. Additionally, SHE New York City Arts provides year-round resources and the Create Her program for high school students interested in playwriting and producing. This year marks a major milestone for SHE ATL, which featured an educational and collaborative component thanks to a new partnership with working title playwrights. Each playwright was matched with a dramaturge mentor to help prepare the plays for production. SHE ATL also offered a casting callback session and access to a lighting and sound designer as ways to alleviate roadblocks to putting on a production. Our dramaturge, Nathan Gerpe, with his gaming background, was truly instrumental in helping me fine-tune the rules of the world while also exploring all of the pixelated possibilities, said Macedo, regarding the production process of Chicana Legend. Meanwhile, Parker attributed her dramaturge, Delayla McGee, for helping Shy Redemption find its intended purpose. She read each draft of my play while providing me with notes. She let me know what moments needed clarity and served as a general sounding board as I went through the process of rewrites, she said. This play was inspired by the Supreme Court overturning the landmark ruling of Roe v. Wade this past year and the conversation swirling in the media about bodily autonomy and religious influence in legislation, she added. It's a cautionary tale of the dangers of letting so much of our personal religious and moral beliefs slip into legislation that others are affected. I hope people are inspired to fight harder for our rights. Chicana Legend is a Latina coming-of-age story about Lulu, who lives in a video game reality and is on a mission to become a Chicana legend and make her ancestors proud. With major themes of identity, breaking, and healing, the uplifting story is personal to Macedo, who started to investigate her heritage. I grew up very assimilated, and it helped me survive within the educational pipeline, but very disconnected from my Mexican roots, said Macedo. Internally, I felt I wasn't brown enough for my community, but externally, I was too brown to be accepted by society. I felt like I didn't belong anywhere. To me, being Chicana feels like I'm playing a game that wasn't designed for me to win. That's when it hit me. The world of this play needs to be a video game. Barnes was commissioned to shape Rathskeller as script, writer, composer, and lyricist. A rock musical set between heaven and hell, the first SHE-ATL musical encourages audiences to think more empathetically about artists and their art. There is so much conversation right now about cancel culture and accountability, Barnes said. I'm interested in exploring how we talk about justice and mercy and investing as an artist in the nuance around these themes, the gray area of people's lives that is often oversimplified into categories like black and white, right and wrong, hero and villain. The reality is we are all imperfect humans facing our own individual battles and making our own mistakes. Jacqueline Turner is a freelance editor and writer. Her work has been published in the Sandy Springs Reporter, Jezebel, The Atlantan, and other national magazines. An Atlantan native and lifelong lover of the arts, she enjoys sharing stories that uplift and inspire. That was fourth annual SHE-ATL festival will stage whole new world written by women by Jacqueline Turner. Next, Joe Alterman plays it back to jazz legend Les McCann with Big Mo and Little Joe by Mike Shaw. In a word, ebullient. That's Joe Alterman and his playing in a nutshell. And it bursts at you in his new album, Joe Alterman plays Les McCann, Big Mo and Little Joe, a tribute to the apocryphal composer, pianist, vocalist, and Alterman's mentor and best friend. Alterman's debuted the new album last Thursday night with a release party at Eddie's attic. Big Mo now confined to a healthcare facility and unable to play and more than 50 years Alterman's elder and Little Joe have barely gone a day without talking since they met. That was in 2011 at the Blue Note Club in Greenwich Village. Alterman was doing a sound check preparing to open a concert for McCann. In came the soul jazz legend who rolled up to Alterman in his wheelchair and told him, play me some blues, boy. Alterman's fascination with McCann's kind of music began long before their meeting. As a child, growing up in Atlanta, taking piano lessons that like so many of us with intentional parents, he didn't want to take. He had heard Doc Watson's Freight Train Boogie and much preferred his bluegrass to classical piano, not to mention that he was getting into trouble with his piano teacher for changing the notes on the classical scores as he worked through them. He was so taken by Watson's boogie-woogie licks that he talked his dad into letting him add guitar lessons to his piano schedule. And when his guitar teacher told him those licks were written for piano, he was back at the keyboard. Alterman's dad realized his son's potential for jazz and started bringing home Bill Evans and Dave Brubeck albums. But Alterman preferred the traditional old-school playing of Oscar Peterson and Ramsey Lewis. Then came a confirming event. At 13, I went to one of my classical music recitals, sat down, and played my boogie-woogies, he said. I got a standing ovation, and I was thrown out of school. At 17, Alterman moved to New York to study piano at New York University. I wanted to go to a school that wasn't only music, he said. It was a nice blend of music and college. And it was New York City, an epicenter of music and culture. I was fascinated by the village, Alterman says. Then I decided to play some gigs and started getting gigs around New York, and before long, it became what I was doing. Alterman returned to Atlanta in 2016, despite some misgiving. I started to realize things I liked to do were not in New York, and I was missing out on family things, he says. I was very lucky at that point that I was constantly playing places and had met a lot of music celebrities. I talked to Ramsey Lewis and told him I was debating moving home, but was nervous about what that would mean for my career. He told me, go where you're happy, and that will reflect in your music. It was early in college when Alterman had his Les McCann epiphany. I was getting a lot of pressure to play modern, he says. They wanted to get me away from Red Garland and into Herbie Hancock, but I liked the old school. He heard an early Les McCann tune, Fish This Week But Next Week Chitlin, and realized McCann was doing all the things Alterman was being told not to do. I didn't know anything could be dirtier than Oscar Peterson, Alterman says. Maybe something about Les growing up in Kentucky. I loved everything about his music. McCann is best known for his Compared to What with saxophonist Eddie Harris. But there's so much more to him that people don't know about, and one is how great a composer he was, Alterman says. When we'd get together on FaceTime these last eight years, I'd surprise him and play one of his songs. For those years, I learned a lot of his music. I've been thinking about the album since 2020. I finally narrowed down the song and recorded it one last November. That's all the time we have for this article, which was Joe Alterman Pays It Back to Jazz Legend Les McCann with Big Mo and Little Show by Mike Shaw. That concludes today's Metro Arts program, which is brought to you by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. This has been Kristen Moody for GARS, the Georgia Radio Reading Service. Thank you for listening to GARS.