June 14 Metro Arts

The Georgia Radio Reading Service presents the Metro Arts program for a print-impaired audience. The program discusses the changing landscape of opera, with advanced technology allowing for innovative staging and design. The third annual 96-Hour Opera Festival, presented by the Atlanta Opera, features a world premiere and competition for a $10,000 prize and an Atlanta Opera Commission. The festival aims to support under-recognized artists and grow their stories within the field of opera. The festival also includes a work-in-progress presentation and showcases the talents of Marcus Norris and Adama Ebo. Their opera, "Forsyth County is Flooding with the Joy of Lake Lanier," explores Georgia's history and the supernatural mysteries surrounding Lake Lanier. The festival is a celebration of diverse voices and perspectives in opera. This program is intended for a print-impaired audience and is brought to you by the Georgia Radio Reading Service, GARS. Welcome to Metro Arts for Friday, June 14, 2024. 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 Listening Post section of the Creative Loafing publication on Line 4, Listening Post, Operatic Change, You Don't Need a Dramaturge to Know Which Way Opera is Going, by Doug DeLoach. The old grand opera ain't what she used to be. Changing times bring different perspectives, properties, budgets, and strategies for producing opera at the highest level. Advanced technology and futuristic materials allow for innovative staging, set, and costume design, spawning fresh interpretations of traditional repertoire and inspiring imaginative new works. And yet, in the flux of contemporaneous change, an old-school competition, properly incentivized, also holds the power to move the needle forward. The third annual 96-Hour Opera Festival, presented by the Atlanta Opera in collaboration with Morehouse College at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center, is a three-day event comprising two major public-facing productions. On Saturday, June 15, at 8 p.m., the festival hosts the world premiere of Forsyth County is Flooding with the Joy of Lake Lanier, the first commission fostered by the 96-Hour Opera Project, as it was initially called, with music and lyrics by Marcus Norris, book and story by Adama Ebo. On Monday, June 17, the festival showcases five 10-minute operas by selected teams competing for the Antonori Grand Prize of $10,000 and an Atlanta Opera Commission. The world premiere and competition showcases are open to the public. The 96-Hour Opera Festival also includes a work-in-progress presentation on Sunday, June 16, of Steel Roots by composer Dave Ragland and librettist Zelda Sahin, last year's Antonori Grand Prize winners. This presentation is limited to a select audience, including mentors and judges. The 2024 judging panel includes Tanashi Kijiji-Bolden, Artistic Director of the Alliance Theater and Director of Forsyth County is Flooding, New York Times bestselling author Andrea Pinky-Bolden, opera and theater director, writer, educator, and actor Tazewell Thompson, dramaturge and director of opera commissioning at the Metropolitan Opera, Paul Cameo, Carlos Simon, Doug Hooker, opera aficionado and former executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, and the Atlanta Opera's General Artistic Director, Tomer Zivulin. The 96-Hour Opera Project is designed to support under-recognized artists and grow their stories and perspectives within the field of opera, said Zivulin. This vital program is one of the highlights of our season, and we are excited that it has grown into a festival in such a short time. Although partners Marcus Norris and Adama Ebo have pursued separate artistic careers, which includes collaborating on projects, their breakout feature film, Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul, starring Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown, premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The social satire was written and directed by Ebo with music by Norris. In 2020, Norris founded South Side Symphony, inspired by the query, what if orchestras didn't exist and were invented today by a young Black man? In 2023, Beyonce hired Norris to orchestrate several songs for the 50-piece orchestra that accompanied the superstar singer's surprise 2023 return to live performance in Dubai. Raised in Atlanta, Ebo wrote and directed Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul, based on her and identical twin sister and producer Adan's experience growing up in the city's megachurch culture. The acerbically comic film is loosely based on the public tribulations of controversial Atlanta pastor Eddie Lee Long, who died in 2017. With Adan, Ebo has written for Amazon's Mr. and Mrs. Smith and the animated series Batman, Caped Crusader. She also directed episodes of FX's Atlanta. A graduate of Spelman College, Ebo received a full fellowship to UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television and graduated with an MFA in directing and production. She met Norris while attending UCLA. In a recent telephone interview, Norris and Ebo discussed Forsyth County is flooding with the joy of Lake Lanier. The interview was lightly edited for clarity and brevity. But first, a brief introduction to the 10-minute opera adapted from the Atlanta Opera website, Forsyth County is Flooding with the Joy of Lake Lanier. It is a one-act dark comedy which explores some of Georgia's terrifying, uncomfortable and uncanny histories and happenings related to the unsavory genesis of Lake Lanier and Forsyth County. In this modern-day ghost story, a private detective and a witch claiming to be connected to spirits are hired to uncover a weird supernatural mystery involving puddles. Puddles everywhere. Did the concept of Forsyth County is Flooding with the Joy of Lake Lanier stem directly from winning the opera project competition in 2022, or was it an idea that had been percolating for a while? Adama Ebo. I'm from Atlanta, so the idea of doing something about Lake Lanier has been in my head for years. I worked with Donald Glover on Atlanta, and my interest was piqued by a Lake Lanier bit that opened season three. When the 10-minute opera project came along, it felt like the perfect opportunity to do something with it. Although set up like a purely fictional mystery, the opera is somewhat based on documented historical events, including the extraordinary number of fatalities that have occurred at Lake Lanier over decades and darker episodes of Atlanta history. On the other hand, the descriptions make Forsyth County is Flooding sound like a comedy. How does that work? Ebo. That's how I like to operate. I love dark comedy. I love satire, which is at its best when talking about something very real. The Atlanta History Center gave us a few kicking off points, but a lot of those ideas were too serious, like there's no way for us to make this subject or incident comedic. When they brought up Lake Lanier, how and why it got built, that idea clicked with the rumors I heard growing up about the lake being haunted. We could find humor in this fictional town and talk about how we feel about Lake Lanier. The darker parts, like the murders and displacements of black folks, can come later with the knowledge of true history. Musically speaking, how do you translate this weird, dark mystery into an opera? Marcus Norris. The music is thematic. A lot of it sounds mysterious, ethereal. Like many operas, each character has a motif. Their voices are very distinct. Their styles are very distinct. And when we put all of these contrasting forces on stage together, that's something you have to hear. And, of course, there are big arias which move the drama along. What about the influence of black music? What aspects of the black experience are detectable in the opera's score? Marcus Norris. The way the melodies happen is characteristic of black music. There's a lot of varied repetition. I give the performers the freedom to embellish in a way that pulls from the jazz tradition. Some of the players in the orchestra have jazz backgrounds, so we speak that language as well. Ibo. A lot of elements feel to me like they pull from black gospel, especially because we're tapping into this spiritual element, which can mean a lot of different things. Have you been to Lake Lanier? Ibo. When I was growing up in Atlanta in the summer, we would go to Lake Lanier, but I never got in the water. Because it was haunted? Ibo. 100%. I'm a big swimmer, and there's a lake behind my grandparents' house. I love to swim. I've been in oceans, but I've never been in Lake Lanier. In a separate telephone interview, Jessica Keiger, director of community engagement and education at the Atlanta Opera, discussed the origin and mission of the 96-hour opera festival. This interview was also lightly edited for clarity and brevity. What was the impetus for the project, which evolved into a three-day festival? Jessica Keiger. During the pandemic, we were working remotely and dealing with all the challenges that came along with that period. The opera world was looking for ways to be more inclusive and become a vehicle for young artists. A few years earlier, the Atlanta Opera had produced the 24-hour opera project. During one of our remote meetings, Tomer, the Atlanta Opera general and artistic director, suggested that we revive the competition, but with a different goal, which is to support composers, librettists, and other artists of color and from underrepresented communities. Creating an opera in 96 hours presents quite a challenge. Surely the composer and librettist don't start from scratch, beginning on the first of four days? Keiger. They are given around a month to complete their pieces, which are sent to the singers before they arrive. We just got the pieces for this year's competition on Friday, a couple of days before this interview. During the 96-hour period, the focus is on defining and making revisions to the piece, working with the team and especially the singers who really bring the piece to life. How does one tell a grand, sweeping story of operatic splendor in 10 minutes? Keiger. You can tell a full story arc. We have seen lots of operatic nuances and colors coming out of the pieces. Even pieces that haven't won were incredibly beautiful and operatically expressive. In 10 minutes, you get a sense of the talent of the composers and librettists and what they would be capable of creating with a full cast production. What can you tell me about the competition pieces presented at this year's 96-hour opera festival? Keiger. The contestants were invited to create a 10-minute story based on a certain precept. The story prompt reads, in an apocalyptic future, a human artist imparts the meaning and practice of their craft to an android whose mission it is to teach it to future generations. Write a scene in which an artist and their robotic protégé are having a lesson. What must the protégé learn to affirm its identity, to celebrate its inherent freedom, to protect against silencing and erasure, to embark on new dimensions with power and joy? Given the story prompt, I wonder whether anyone is using AI in one form or another in their 10-minute opera. Keiger. To my knowledge, no one is. Tickets. The 96-hour opera festival showcase is $10. Forsyth County is Flooding is $20. Both performances, the festival package, is $25. All tickets are general admission. The Ray Charles Center for Performing Arts at Morehouse College is at 900 West End Avenue, Southwest, Atlanta, 30310. Also coming up. Friday, June 14th, Pylon Reenactment Society, Boggs Social and Supply. Some reenactments are more worthy than others. With the blessing of the surviving original band members, Pylon Reenactment Society, PRS, carries forward the legacy of the Athens scene of the 1980s without getting caught in the doldrums that characterize so many tributes or reunion groups. Led by localist Vanessa Briscoe Hay, the sole remaining member from the original Pylon lineup, PRS is blazing its own path. The jagged new wave energy, punky minimalist vibe, and sharply declarative vocals remain prominent in the mix, which, far from sounding nostalgic, proves how far ahead of its time Pylon has always been. Sharing the bill at Boggs on Friday, June 14th are small reactions and go public. Tickets are $15. That's 8 p.m. at Boggs Social and Supply, 1310 White Street, Southwest, Atlanta, Georgia, 30310. Call 404-600-2693 or visit www.boggssocial.com. Thursday, June 20th through Saturday, June 22nd, Spivey Hall Summer Global Music Festival. Spivey Hall's three-day Summer Global Music Festival, showcasing seven ensembles representing different regions and cultures from around the world, has been canceled with plans to reschedule in 2025. Thursday, June 20th, Solstice Party, Mudcat and Band, Sycamore Place Gallery. Coinciding with the arrival of the sun at its northernmost point on the equator, Mudcat and Band will perform some of the finest blues you are ever likely to hear on planet Earth in a concert on Thursday, June 20th at Sycamore Place Gallery in Decatur. A masterful, self-taught Piedmont-style guitarist, singer, songwriter, and historian, Daniel Mudcat Dudek is an Atlanta institution. For the past few decades, he has been a regular headliner at Fat Matt's Rib Shack, Blind Willie's, and Northside Tavern. As an unofficial keeper of the traditional blues legacy, Dudek has performed the world over with the likes of Dickie Betts, Derrick Trucks, and Taj Mahal, as well as with local Atlanta legends, including Frank Edwards, Eddie Tignor, and Beverly Guitar Watkins. The Sycamore Gallery space and patio is a delightfully casual setting for encountering artwork, listening to music, and hanging out with friends on the longest night of the year. Exhibitions are suggested. That's 8 p.m. at Sycamore Place Gallery, 120 Sycamore Place, Decatur, Georgia, 30030. Wednesday, June 26th, Seeds in Darkness, music by Benjamin Shirley, First Existentialist Congregation. Fans of contemporary chamber ensemble music will not want to miss Seeds in Darkness, a special program of music composed by cellist Benjamin Shirley. The musicians participating make up an all-star assemblage of Atlanta's cutting-edge performers and improvisers, including Majid Arrain, mandolin, Julian Scott Bryan, percussion, Chris Childs, piano, David Gray, guitar, John Gregg, drums, Chip Epstein, violin, Ophir Klemperer, piano, Gabrielle Monticello, double bass, Monique Osorio, vocals, and Paul Stevens, vibraphone. The program took root during the COVID pandemic, inspired by Seed Tension, which was written for an ensemble that combines members of the composers' many projects, including Artifactual String Unit, Mute Sphere, and Bass Relief. Atlanta Improvisers Orchestra co-founder and conductor Klemperer will play a solo piece called To the Ground, while Mute Sphere will perform a suite of songs titled Darkness, based on poems by Linda Pastan. Shirley notes, all of this music was composed since I became a parent, which for me was closely linked to experiencing the pandemic. $15 suggested donation, doors are at 8 p.m., music 830. First Existentialist Congregation is at 470 Candler Park Drive Northeast, Atlanta, Georgia. That was Listening Post, Operatic Change by Doug DeLoach. Next, we move to the Atlanta publication online for five Atlanta events you won't want to miss, June 13th through June 19th. 21 Savage plays Lakewood, the Atlanta History Center celebrates Juneteenth, and more fun things to do this week by Nycia Roy. 21 Savage American Dream Tour, when? Saturday, June 15th. Where? Lakewood Amphitheater. Cost? Lawn tickets start at $54. Details. The A-Lot rapper returns to Atlanta for this homecoming concert, which promotes his latest album, American Dream. Guests include J.I.D., Nardo Wick, and 21 Lil' Harold. Atlanta History Center's Juneteenth celebration, when? Saturday, June 15th. Where? Atlanta History Center. Cost? Free, $85 for prepaid interactive tasting. Details. Appreciate the rich cultural and historical significance of Juneteenth with the Atlanta History Center's all-day programming. Full of folktales, theater performances, and tours of important landmarks in Black history, the free-to-attend event will keep you busy with multiple events happening every hour. Highlights include a make-and-take quilting class, yoga session, music shows, and build your own barbecue dry rub workshop. The only ticketed event is the Fruits of Our Labor tasting, hosted by James Beard Award-nominated food writer, Nicole A. Taylor. Make sure to pre-register to speed up check-in and bring plenty of lawn chairs and picnic blankets to enjoy this outdoor event. Abnormal market and uncommon bazaar, when? Saturday, June 15th to Sunday, June 16th. Where? Piedmont Park. Cost? Free. Details. This new free arts festival, hosted by the Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces, will offer unusual creations by local painters, photographers, jewelry artists, and more. Round out the day by grabbing a meal at one of the food trucks and exploring Piedmont Park. Atlanta Streets Alive, when? Sunday, June 16th. Where? Peachtree Street. Cost? Free. Details. Run, skate, play, and bike around the city with Atlanta Streets Alive, a once-a-month program that opens up Atlanta's streets to make a communal park. Streets Alive, this time, takes over Peachtree Street, running from 15th Street in Midtown to Mitchell Street downtown near underground Atlanta. Without any cars to worry about, the event is a great way to bond with the community, get a workout in, and explore local businesses you might not have noticed while driving through. With relay races and children's events, make sure to bring the entire family. That's two. Liberated Laughter, an improv celebration of Juneteenth. When? Wednesday, June 19th. Where? Whole World Improv Theater. Cost? Five dollars. Details. Support a local nonprofit and enjoy some laughs with the Whole World Improv Theater's Juneteenth show, highlighting comics and improv artists of African descent around Atlanta. The performers will tell their stories entirely unscripted, and the two-set show is intended for mature audiences. Sports Corner, Atlanta home games. Atlanta United takes on the Houston Dynamo at Mercedes-Benz on June 15th, with a special Father's Day ticket pack available. The Braves face off against the Tampa Bay Rays from June 14th to 16th, followed by the Detroit Tigers from June 17th to 19th, for six days of exciting games. The Atlanta Dream plays the Los Angeles Sparks at the Gateway Center on June 16th. That was Five Atlanta Events You Won't Want to Miss, June 13th through 19th, by Nyesha Roy. Next, Celebrating 50 Years, Mellow Mushroom co-founder shares the story of the trippy pizza chain's humble beginning. The Atlanta-based company commemorates the occasion with unique menu items, funky art, and special pint nights, by Carly Cooper. From bright colors and psychedelic art to its slightly sweet crust, Mellow Mushroom stands out among pizza chains. With 163 locations around the country, primarily in the southeast, it's hard to imagine that this funky conglomerate began with three college-aged guys with a passion for pizza. At age 76, Mark Banks Weinstein is the lone co-founder still involved in the business. Mike Nicholson and Rocky Reeves retired in 2008, and CEO Richard Brash joined the team. I met Weinstein at the Mellow Mushroom in Midtown, where he hugged the manager, indulged in cheese pizza, and reflected on the past. We were hippies making pizza, basically, he says. People liked the energy, the vibe there. A lot of creative people hung around, and we became friends. Pizza is a communal food. It was the 1970s, and Weinstein had studied business marketing at the University of Georgia. He'd intended to work in real estate, but a recession changed his plans. After learning to make pizza while working at local restaurants, he secured a small space in Sandy Springs and set about building a pie shop. Around the same time, he met Nicholson and Reeves, Georgia Tech students who were also opening a pizza place, this one on 14th and Spring in Midtown. They decided to join forces. Weinstein tweaked a recipe, the same one still used today, inspired by Nick DeVito of Chicago. Nicholson came up with the name, and the trio launched Mellow Mushroom with a concise menu of five pizzas, four hoagies, a chef salad, and beer. The legal age for drinking was 18 back then, Weinstein explains, noting the importance of beer. Everything was made to order, from the meatball sandwich, nothing more than a meatloaf cut into big chunks, to the top round, sliced in-house. A lack of funds meant equipment was purchased used, and none of the furniture matched. The founders relied on friends and customers to decorate the stores, often trading pizza for artwork. We had no money, just entrepreneurial spirit and a motivating following of friends and people in Atlanta who loved our products, Weinstein says. One guy designed the menu, another the logo, and another painted the mural on the wall. Beer companies donated neon signs. Sustainability was a focus from the start. We were a bunch of hippies, Weinstein says. They grew sprouts in the restaurants and used natural cardboard pizza boxes, since bleaching them white would harm the environment. Today, Mellow Mushroom boasts all-natural meats, preservative-free cheese, and pizza boxes with a negative carbon footprint. How did it grow from two tiny stores—Spring Street fit 19 people uncomfortably, Weinstein reminisces—to the franchise behemoth it is today? Organic growth, he says. His partners dropped out of college and seized opportunities for new locations as they became available. For 12 years, they operated the original six Mellow Mushrooms, including locations in Buckhead, Midtown, Sandy Springs, Avondale Estates, on Buford Highway, and near Emory. But they ran into difficulty staffing. There were no cell phones, and we couldn't be in six places at once, Weinstein laments. By year 13, he convinced his partners to franchise. Five of the stores sold within 45 days. A bidding war over the sixth resulted in the launch of the seventh store, and the company grew from there. Today there are three corporate-owned stores. Weinstein purchased the Emory location last year to fund much-needed renovations. Dough for every store comes from a commissary kitchen at the corporate headquarters. A 75,000-square-foot warehouse is home to the psychedelic art and fixtures Mellow Mushroom is known for. From colorful statues to mushroom clocks to unique door handles, Weinstein sources many of the items himself. Whether a franchisee is opening a new store, renovates an existing one, or is looking for some new decor, they can come to the warehouse and select items free of charge. Mellow Mushroom will even paint them upon request. These days, Weinstein spends half the year in Thailand, working remotely. When he's in town, he still enjoys a veg-out pizza every Thursday to stay young, he jokes. He tastes, tests new menu items, assists with quality control, and lets Brash handle the day-to-day. He has children and grandchildren, yet he never plans to retire completely. I think when you stop, you're going to start resting permanently, so I would just like to wear out, he says. It's been 50 years, and though the menu and store footprint have expanded, the spirit of Mellow Mushroom remains. To commemorate the Golden Jubilee, the company launched a limited-time menu featuring specialty and revived classic pizzas, honey sriracha wings, and a disco peach cocktail made with Jim Beam bourbon, Captain Morgan spiced rum, peach, fresh sour mix, and Coca-Cola. There are new pizza box designs, branded cups and t-shirts, and giveaways. Select locations will host a pint night with collectible 50th anniversary pint glasses from June through September. In early fall, Mellow Mushroom will open a new prototype store near the Atlanta Zoo in Grant Park. It's a return to the company's roots with a smaller footprint and condensed menu offerings. Look for a baked panese sandwich made with folded pizza dough. I still love pizza, Weinstein says. That was Celebrating 50 Years. Mellow Mushroom co-founder shares the story of the trippy pizza chain's humble beginning by Carly Cooper. Next, we move to the Arts ATL publication for Atlanta Opera's 96-Hour Festival Reveals Lake Lanier's Racial Past by Jordan Owen. Designed to give opportunities to new talent from underrepresented communities, Atlanta Opera's 96-Hour Opera Festival will premiere a new one-act about racism, injustice, and forgiveness at Morehouse College. C.S. Lewis famously opined that everyone thinks forgiveness sounds like a powerful idea until they have something to forgive. That sentiment looms large in the themes explored in Forsyth County is Flooding with the Joy of Lake Lanier, a one-act opera created by the winners of the Atlanta Opera's 96-Hour Festival in 2022. The work contrasts the historical wounds of racism with modern concerns on how to move forward. The eternal choice between forgiveness and revenge looms large. Seen during final rehearsals at the Atlanta Opera's rehearsal facility, the opera presents no easy answers, but it offers much to enjoy. Set in a mundanely surreal imagining of Forsyth County's local government offices, the opera tells of dangerously rising water levels from Lake Lanier due to a rip in the fabric of space-time, courtesy of two lingering ghosts from the county's storied past. It's a cross between opera's usual high fantasy, a la The Ring Cycle, and relatable office comedy, a la television's Park and Recreation. What is this shit, Menkel-Wilts intones ominously as her character, the mayor's assistant Odelia Cyrus, surveys the water damage in her boss's office. That opening line, contemporary vulgarity delivered with the sonorous vibrato of opera, sets the tone for the humorous romp that is to come. Odella, it turns out, is a gray witch whose powers are neither wholly good nor wholly evil, and the mayor, bass baritone Andrew Gilstrap, soon pairs her with Church Jenkins, bass Kevin Thompson, a local drainage expert, to get to the bottom of the matter, and the lake. The cast also includes mezzo-soprano Renita Miller, soprano Marnie Breckeridge, and dancers A.C. Wilson and Sakina Bennett. Comedy prevails until the pair clashes with Bully and Butter, Breckinridge and Miller, two ghosts from 1912 who, the story relates, still haunt Lake Lanier. From there, the opera takes a sharp detour into Georgia's historical racism and how those scars carry over into the modern day. It's an appropriate theme, given the 96-hour opera festival's focus on highlighting new musical talent from underrepresented communities. The inspiration came from these folk stories about Lake Lanier being haunted, explained by show director Tanishi Kijiji Bolden, artistic director with Christopher Moses of the Alliance Theater. Lake Lanier was created by flooding Oscarville, a once-thriving black community that had been subject to a racist legal system and vigilantism, forcing residents from the area. For all its comedic posturing, Forsyth County is Flooding doesn't shy away from the real gravitas of the area's past. The history of what became Lake Lanier is ugly and viscerally upsetting. Confronting the area's sordid history is at the heart of the work and haunts the narrative as prominently as the ghosts haunt the lake. The ambitious story is the brainchild of duo Marcus Norris, music and lyrics, and Adama Ebo, book and story. Adama is from Atlanta, explained Norris, who's based in Los Angeles. He's always trying to sell me on Atlanta. For me to fall in love with a place, I have to fall in love with the music scene. I saw the 96-hour project, and I thought this could be a good way for me to start meeting musicians in Atlanta. The duo undertook the 96-hour competition, but misunderstood the process. As a result, they came to Atlanta under the impression that they would have to craft the entire one-act opera in four days. We didn't read the instructions very well. I thought we were supposed to write and make the thing once we got there, Norris said. We were supposed to have already written the thing and then put it together in the 96 hours. The misunderstanding was compounded by the duo suddenly coming down with COVID. Confined to a hotel room and groggy from the illness, they stalwartly committed to a grueling all-day writing binge that resulted in the contest's winning entry. From a stylistic standpoint, the music of Forsyth County is Flooding covers a wide spectrum, with elements of classical opera coexisting alongside contemporary Broadway-style melodies, R&B, and soul inflection. To me, a lot of the division between genres is artificial, said Norris of the opera's broad stylistic palette. That's just not how my brain works. He is adamant that genre is ultimately determined by the listener, and that the composer must simply write what feels right in the moment. It's a sentiment that has served him well. Norris's boundary-defying style can be heard in his work with the South Side Symphony, a fusion chamber orchestra primarily for black musicians, which he founded in Southern California, as well as his numerous scores for film and television. In 2022, he composed the soundtrack for the feature film Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul, which Ibo directed. And this year, his work will be heard in the upcoming Apple TV Plus miniseries Lady in the Lake, starring Natalie Portman. Opera is a new feather in Norris's cap, and one that seems to fit him well. Still, Forsyth County is Flooding seems a little ambitious for its one-act scope. Watching the show in rehearsals, I was left wondering if audiences would be able to grasp that Billy and Butler were ghosts well enough to follow the jump into an alternate reality that happens midway through the story. Saturday's premiere will determine how well the transition comes off, but the overall work is filled with enough instantly endearing characters, solid cosmic timing, and memorable melodic hooks to cover any snags in the narrative. With those elements as a sturdy foundation, Forsyth County is Flooding asks crucial questions about justice and forgiveness. Let's learn how to forgive, even if we don't agree, Wiltz told ArtsATL, summarizing her take on the show's message, that's a tall order for human beings. That was Atlanta Opera's 96-hour festival reveals Lake Lanier's racist past by Jordan Owen. Next, Camille Russell-Love is set to retire from Cultural Affairs by Jim Farmer. Camille Russell-Love has spent 25 years as Executive Director of the Atlanta Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs. When she retires later this year, she will leave behind a rich cultural legacy. When Camille Russell-Love started her job as the Executive Director of the Atlanta Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs in 1998, no manual fell from the sky explaining how to do her job, nor was there anyone to orient her. It was like a baptism of fire in more ways than one, she recalls. But with her entrepreneurial spirit and business experience, as well as her love of the arts and the city, she went about learning the ropes and ultimately grew and transformed the department she took over. Basic initiatives under her watch included the Atlanta Jazz Festival, the Chastain Art Center Gallery, the annual Elevate Arts Festival, the city's public art program, Gallery 72 downtown, grants for artists, and various other notable cultural initiatives. Now, after more than two decades on the job, Love has decided to step down later this year. When she does, she will have an emeritus role within the city as the Cultural Affairs Senior Advisor to the Mayor. She won't weigh in on her successor until the search committee filing the position has come up with finalists. Ms. Love has served the people of Atlanta with the utmost integrity and character, stated Mayor Andre Dickens in a press release. Her creativity and vision have played a pivotal role in elevating the perception of cultural and performing arts in our community. Love started to think about stepping down in 2023. She will be 75 in January 2025, and a year ago celebrated her 25th year with the city. That is almost a third of my life, she says. I've done my service, and I look at this as a service, a public service. Atlanta has always been a city that energized Love, even when she was growing up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and later attended Wake Forest University. While her friends were spending their spring breaks on beaches, she'd visit Atlanta. But she didn't relocate immediately. Accepted to Duke University's law school, she attended for a semester, but hated it. She moved to Atlanta in 1974, and soon landed a marketing position at IBM. She would go on to work there for 15 years. A self-proclaimed art junkie collector who likes to visit museums, tour cities, and collect first editions by black women writers, Love took a leave of absence from the company at one point to be a loaned executive to the first National Black Arts Festival. It changed her life. I had so much fun, and it was like I had found my tribe, she says. After leaving IBM, she founded For the Love of Art, a consulting firm for visual and performing arts, and opened her Camille Love Gallery in Buckhead. Eventually, she collaborated with former mayor Bill Campbell, working with artists to design t-shirts for his campaign. Love made an impression on Campbell, who later asked if she wanted to lead the Office of Cultural Affairs. He needed someone he knew and trusted, and said, every time I see you, you are talking about something cultural, Love says. Because she had her own business to tend to, she turned down the position twice. But when Campbell sent his wife Sharon to make the case, she relented. When she began the job, however, the previous director was not on board to guide her. Those early days were interesting, I'll say that, Love says. I think there is a misconception that when someone is appointed to a political office, they will do nothing, and it will be business as usual. I'm not that kind of person. I came in, and I saw some things that were not up to snuff. I knew what I had to do, get control, be a leader, establish some modes of operation, and then tackle the issues that were presented to us. My decision was that some things had to change. One thing she noticed quickly that first year was a real discrepancy in art access for minority audiences in Atlanta. She made it a priority to suggest to arts organizations that they could expand their reach by beefing up and diversifying their boards and programming. She is quite proud now of the Atlanta cultural community and its inclusive environment. One of the programs her office started was the Cultural Experience Project, a collaboration among the Atlanta public schools, the cultural community, and the philanthropic community. The program, launched during the 2005-06 school year, ensures that every child in the Atlanta public school system from pre-K through 12th grade has free access to an annual field trip to a cultural venue. A beta test with fifth graders at Atlanta Cyclorama was not very successful. Love discovered many students did not attend because transportation was not covered. Her team fixed that problem and expanded the program the following season. The program's first official visit was to the Atlanta Civic Center with a group of eighth and ninth graders for the opera Porgy and Bess. The kids arrived, and as Love remembers, were typical teenagers, throwing things, chewing gum, and screaming across the room. That changed quickly, though. When the opera started, within five minutes you could hear a pin drop, she says. I looked at Mayor Shirley Franklin, and we knew we were on the right track. These children, who didn't have this exposure, could come to a place like this and appreciate the experience. We just knew we were on the right track, opening up experiences that many children in the metropolitan Atlanta area had access to, but which Atlanta public school children did not. Many years later, in 2013, Tomer Zovulin was named General and Artistic Director of the Atlanta Opera. Camille's joy in the creative process and her spotless integrity have made her an exceptional advocate for Atlanta's arts, he stated. I certainly congratulate her on the years of accomplishment and on her retirement, but expect to see her at the theater often. Passion like hers lasts a lifetime. The Atlanta Jazz Festival was founded in 1978 by Mayor Maynard Jackson. For Love, keeping the festival going has also been rewarding. Every subsequent administration has supported Jackson's dream that the festival stay free, but doing so has been a challenge. When Love first took over responsibility for it, the festival was supported by hotel-motel taxes and no other funding was needed. But when the economy went south, her office had to figure out how to raise funds. The city had to get legislation passed that allowed the event to have sponsors. General Electric and Coca-Cola came on board the first year, keeping the festival free, with major performers on the lineup. We have a commitment to presenting jazz, new jazz artists and established ones, and making sure it's free and family-oriented, she says. In all, Love has worked with five mayors, Campbell, Franklin, Kasim Reed, Keisha Lance-Bottoms, and Dickens. When new teams have taken over, she's had to start almost from scratch. When a new administration comes in, you have to orient them in subtle and not-so-subtle ways to what is valuable and how culture plays an important part in the life of the city. There have been times during my tenure where the Office of Cultural Affairs was on the cutting block because some people did not understand the value. They were making budget decisions, not value decisions. She won't say which administration was in power when her office was in limbo, but does note that the mayor at the time stepped in and made sure the cut didn't happen. Love says there's a misconception and a lack of understanding of what her job is. I think a lot of people think it is fluff and it's just about going to openings, but it is a real government service responsibility, she says. During her tenure, Love served on the 1996 Cultural Olympiad Committee, making sure Atlanta's culture was well-represented, and received the Chevalier Order of Arts and Letters from the French Minister of Culture and Communication in 2017. She has served on numerous area boards and received other awards, including the Cultural for Arts and Learning in 2013 from the National Black Arts Festival, and in 2015, a Luminaries Champion of Arts in Education Award from the Woodruff Art Center. She also successfully navigated her office through the COVID pandemic by holding virtual meetings with staffers, recording 31 artists as part of a virtual Atlanta Jazz Festival, and supporting area artists with grants. While the city's arts offerings, such as the Atlanta Jazz Festival and street art murals, are considered world-class, no one event or offering during her tenure has been a favorite. She enjoys them all. This has been a labor of love for me, she says. I come in every day excited about what we are going to accomplish. Some work is more tedious and not as exciting as being at the Jazz Festival or the Public Art Program Elevate, but everything is exciting in its own way. To keep art organizations viable, help individual artists find their way, to see art transform the community, it's all special to me. But one moment stands out, getting to dance on stage with Nina Simone at the 23rd Atlanta Jazz Festival. Love says she wants to transition gracefully and without any disruption. I knew I was not doing another term. I had to think about the mayor and hopefully his next mayor and give him time and flexibility around who would replace me and be willing to orient that person and get them acclimated. She is an early riser and is in her office every morning answering emails by 8.15 a.m. She prides herself on her integrity and work ethic. Even though she is stepping down, certain projects will still need her help. The World Cup is coming to Atlanta in 2026. Some art initiatives need evaluation and the city needs to figure out how it's moving forward with a major bond allocation. So while she looks forward to the days of sleeping in at home and catching up on the hundreds of books she has collected in her library, a full retirement just isn't for her. I'm not that girl. That was Camille Russell Love is Set to Retire from Cultural Affairs by Jim Farmer. Next, What to See, Do, and Hear Out on Film, Glow, the Firebird, and More by Arts ATL Staff. Film and TV. Even though Atlanta's Pride Month falls idiosyncratically in October, there's no shortage of arts programming to match the rest of the nation's Pride Month, which is June. Running tonight only is Out on Film's local filmmaker showcase, The Future of Queer Cinema. Half a dozen films by Georgia filmmakers will be screened at Red's Beer Garden with films curated to showcase the region's diverse makers and subjects. Tickets, pay what you can, Thursday only. Dance. Most people steeped in Western literature know the name Henrik Ibsen, but few know the name of Lara Keillor. A friend of Ibsen, Keillor's life inspired the writing of A Doll's House. This relationship is explored in Novoa Dances, In This House, which will premiere this Friday and Saturday at Balzer Theater. This work, which features costumes by Faye Monet Brooks and video art projection by Sean Dahman, explores themes of family structures, gender roles, and materialism through a queer lens. Tickets are free, but donations are encouraged. Register by Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. For decades now, GLOW has been offering some of the most innovative and expansive movement-based art anywhere. Combine this with the High Museum's Dance Lab, designed to use the museum's soaring open architecture to promote a more transparent approach to making dance works, and the result is making kin. According to the group's description, the work is a re-imaginary, cultural-logical Cofalzi, using sculptural performance and the live moment to map our social and bodily reality as a radical unfolding world. Free with museum entry, Tuesday, June 18th through Saturday, June 22nd. This Friday and Saturday, Kit Modis will present its Mixed Rep Concert, which by its name promises an evening of variety and diversity. With works by founder Jillian Mitchell and a handful of Kit Modis dancers, the company looks to deliver on its pledge to transport audiences via innovative contemporary dance. Performances will take place at the Emory Performing Arts Studio and will feature a guest appearance by participants in the Summer Toolkit, the company's summer intensive technique training program. Friday and Saturday. Art and Design. Painter Susanna Coffey has something in common with Vincent Van Gogh. Both were deeply influenced by Jean-Francois Millet's Starry Night. The results of Coffey's night painting excursions will be on view at White Space starting this Saturday in After Dark. The artist, who is perhaps best known for densely rendered human heads, turns her attention here to the mysterious, delicate effects of light in the darkness. Free, Saturday and ongoing. Ruth Marion Baruch was the first woman to earn a master's degree in photography in the United States, and this was after having already earned degrees in creative writing and journalism. Baruch's signature street photography style is on show at the Bremen in Ruth Marion Baruch Retrospective. Black and white images include Dorothy Lang style images of small town life and slices of the counterculture during San Francisco's Summer of Love. Tickets $12, general admission for museum entry. Ongoing. Music. For more than two decades, the members of various Atlanta-based and touring bands, Gentle Readers, Michelle Malone, Josh Joplin Group, Jackson County Line, Just Roxy, have come together to play high-energy 70s dance music at Eddie's Attic. Known collectively as the Suzy French Connection, the group will bring their usual disco, rock, and R&B energy to the venue this Saturday. Tables will be cleared to make plenty of room for platform shoes. Tickets are $20, Saturday only. It's here. After two years in development, the Atlanta Opera will present the world premiere of Marcus Norris and Adama Ebo's Forsyth County is Flooding with the Joy of Lake Lanier on Saturday, June 15th, and Monday, June 17th. The darkly comic one-act opera is the inaugural winner of the 96-hour opera festival competition, which is designed to provide a path into the opera professions for underrepresented groups. Performances will take place at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse College. Tickets are $20, Saturday, June 15th, and Monday, June 17th. A rapidly modernizing Europe in the early 20th century brought about huge disruptions in art and music. Think Picasso and Gertrude Stein. And don't forget Igor Stravinsky, the Russo-French composer whose orchestral works are mythically said to have caused riots at their premiere. Stravinsky's The Firebird will close out the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's season, paired with two works by Stravinsky's friend, Maurice Ravel. Music director Natalie Stutzman conducts this weekend. Tickets start at $28, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday. The Wash is the new play by playwright, critic, and Arts ATL editor-at-large, Kalundra Smith, that delves into the history of Atlanta's Washerwomen's Strike of 1881. During that event, black women formed an interracial coalition of women determined to fight for fairer wages. See the incidents dramatized on stage at Synchronicity Theater, tonight and ongoing through June. Arts ATL has covered the production extensively, including the origins of the work and the voices Smith heard speaking in her head. Tickets, general admission, is $35, with various discounts available, Thursday and ongoing. Giving shades of the Golden Girls, Leslie Kimball's The Miss Magnolia Senior Citizen Beauty Pageant features the four old broads up to more misadventures and hilarious hijinks at On Stage Atlanta's production of the play. This time, Beatrice, Eddie, Imogene, and Maud turn up to lend their antics to an annual beauty pageant and to Martha Purcell's pursuit of victory. The play also features a squirrel playing tambourine and a terrible spray tanning incident. Tickets start at $22, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through June. That was What to See, Do, and Hear out on film, Glow, The Firebird, and more by Arts ATL staff. Up next, inaugural Lavender Fest is a rainbow of queer performance art by Benjamin Carr. Whether your preference for theater is spicy or poignant, the first Lavender Fest at Out Front has something for everyone, even straight folks. A new theater festival aimed at showcasing queer storytellers from all over North America will hold its first ever event from June 19th through June 23rd at Out Front Theater. Festival director Ty Autry promises that Lavender Fest, featuring multiple performances of nine different hour-long shows, will appeal to fans of new work. Lavender Fest has been a labor of love for the last two years as I explore ways to ignite new queer work across multiple generations, not just for young people, not just for old people, not just plays, and not just musicals, Autry said in a recent interview. This is a way to bring every facet of the queer rainbow together in a conglomerate of different performance arts. Many of the participating artists in the inaugural event are Atlanta-based, Autry said. When I developed the festival, I wanted to assure that 50% of the work came from the South, he said. I want to educate Atlanta audiences about what festival work looks like, the odd, the new, the vulnerable, and the spicy. Local actor and playwright David Greinstaff, whose script, Open, will be performed twice on the main stage, said the comedy about a gay couple's attempt at an open relationship includes some racy elements. In my mind, it's spicy, Greinstaff said. I asked myself, if I post a video from this on social media, am I going to receive an email from my mother? That's the line for me. But it depends on the audience. So much queer media has pushed boundaries for the past 10 or 20 years, and what used to seem really outrageous is now standard fare. Greinstaff said bringing Open to the stage for the first time has been an interesting learning experience. He discovered during rehearsals just how quickly the jokes flew. Instead of having to edit the script to fit into an hour, the director and cast have discovered the right pacing during rehearsals. The festival lineup also will include The Real Black Swan, Confessions of America's First Black Drag Queen by Les Kirkendall Barrett. The show tells the true story of William Dorsey Swan, a former slave who began performing drag in the 1800s. Autry said that performances moved him to tears when he saw it at another festival, so he's thrilled that Atlanta audiences will get to see it. Other shows in the festival include a new musical called Moonshot, a play with music set in an alternate reality by Soft Delgado titled You Are Not Your Face, and a solo show from Canadian comedian Johnny McNamara Walker titled The Heterosexuals. The audiences can expect something very varied, Autry said. The selection process for the Lavender Fest lineup was modeled after other fringe and queer performance art festivals Autry attended as an independent touring artist. This is something I wanted to do to share the experiences that I have gleaned over the years, he said. I wanted to create a performing arts festival with the artists in mind. I want a safe space for everyone involved. Ticketable passes are available online for $75, and it is possible for audience members to buy tickets for individual performances as well. The majority of ticket sales go back straight to the artists, Autry said. This is where it's key for independent producers, actors, and writers for more people to come see their work, because this is where it matters for them. Not only can they get feedback or just share a wonderful story, this festival helps them financially so that they can continue on to the next project. They can say the next big thing, or they can move this project to the next level. Though distinctly created by LGBTQIA artists, Lavender Fest will appeal to all audiences, and Autry said attendance in this political climate is more important than ever. This is a queer performing arts festival, he said. They are queer stories written by queer people about queer lives. But one of the best ways to be an ally is to show up to this work. The honest truth is we need that support. We need people who don't belong to our tribe to see our narratives and hear our voices. Out front support for the festival has been heartening, Autry added. I'm just so incredible and proud and satisfied to know that this summer we have nine unique varied shows in one theatrical space telling nine different stories, he said. People are going to witness that, and they're going to love it. They are going to have a blast, he laughed. I suggest people come see it all, Autry said. Damn it, queer theater needs your support. That was Inaugural Lavender Fest is a Rainbow of Queer Performance Art by Benjamin Carr. 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.