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This program discusses the influence and legacy of women blues singers in Atlanta. It highlights several talented artists who continue to carry on the tradition of blues music. Additionally, the program discusses an exhibition at the High Museum of Art that focuses on the work of Dave, a skilled potter who was born into slavery and known for his elegant inscriptions on his pots. The exhibition aims to shed light on the industrial scale of pottery production during that time and the narratives embedded within the stoneware. 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, May 10, 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 Creative Loafing publication online for Grace Notes, Ladies Sing the Blues, a few of Atlanta's most notable, by Shannon Marie Tovey. The mother of the blues, Ma Rainey once said, the blues help you get out of bed in the morning. You get up knowing you ain't alone. Ladies who sing the blues know just what she meant. The natives Ma Rainey and Ida Cox, along with Bessie Smith, were not only trailblazers musically, but also in how they challenged early 20th century notions of how a woman should behave. Gleefully throwing off shackles of ladylike constraint, each possessed a no-holds-barred delivery and sassy attitude that proclaimed lion-hearted defiance in the face of sorrow and raucous celebration and freedom, autonomy, and solidarity with other women. Over the years, Atlanta has developed a reputation as the home of first-rate women's blues talent, whose numbers included Francine Reed, Cora Mae Bryant, Sandra Hall, Beverly Guitar Watkins, and Lola Gully. But while it may be too late to see these iconic women perform, you can still experience that swagger and soul right here in our hometown. Here are a few of those who do it best, each offering her own unique take on the blues while continuing the legacy of her four sisters. Mandy Stracota. Stracota has played Northside Tavern, Roots Rock, and an impressive number of other venues in and outside of Atlanta. At once tough and tender, Stracota's vocal expression is often reminiscent of Amy Winehouse. With punch-you-in-the-gut honesty, she relates personal experiences of depression and disappointment with determination to live her best life regardless. Her original music is haunting and forthright, and her covers of singers like Aretha Franklin are not to be missed either. mandystracota.com. M-A-N-D-I-S-T-R-A-C-H-O-T-A.com. Natalie Rose. A relative newcomer to the Atlanta blues scene, bassist and vocalist Rose is one of only a handful of women, most notably the late Lola Gully, who holds residency at the renowned Northside Tavern. She adds a good measure of funk and soul to high-energy covers that span from Muddy Waters and Freddie King to Michael Jackson and Rick James. Melissa Goner. Goner and her band, Sweet Melissa's Blues Revue, canvas the Atlanta area playing venues that include Napoleon's and Decatur's and Mableton's, The Green Room. Her vocal power and attitude will make you sit up and listen to what may as well be a history lesson in blues-inspired rock. She covers a gamut of decades and influences, all with a healthy dose of female persuasion, beginning with Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Tampa Red, and culminating in the music of Janis Joplin, the Allman Brothers Band, and Led Zeppelin. Blue Velvet Atlanta. In Blue Velvet Atlanta, the ladies not only sing the blues, they also play all the instruments. Atlanta's only all-female blues band brings down the house at places like Cajun Blues, Cultivation Brewery, and Napoleon's, with a mixture of R&B, rock, and a little funk sprinkled in. Minda Scrogan channels Coco Taylor and others with conviction. Her tight support group includes Sandra Sen, drums, Joanna Millen, lead guitar, Cindy Adler, bass, and Kathy Devane Holmes. Holmes' boogie-woogie keyboard runs and delicate flute solos add sometimes surprising flourishes that heighten the sound of well-loved and lesser-known standards. That's bluevelvetatlanta.com. Jesse Williams. Williams' circuit extends just outside of Atlanta to the Midtown Greenway in Gainesville and vineyards all over North Georgia. Joni Mitchell and Nora Jones may not immediately come to mind when you think of the blues, but Williams somehow threads elements of their acoustic folk and jazz influence into originals and covers that span from the traditional sounds of Sippy Wallace to the smokier blues-rock vibe of Susan Tadeshi. That's thejessiewilliamsband.com. T-H-E-J-E-S-S-E-W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S-B-A-N-D.com. Lisa Kitchens. Kitchens fronts The Rockaholics, a band which plays at bigger-name venues like Northside Tavern, along with a lesser-known, but worth checking out, places like Full Throttle Roadhouse and Reed's Deli. She fuses the blues, rock, and country influences she grew up with to interpret covers that range from Aretha Franklin to Little Big Town. When she's not performing, she's out promoting the blues as an officer of the Atlanta Blues Society. Hurricane Red, Kathy Scott Meyer. Scott Meyer plays at Atlanta's pigment-monikered trio, The Painted Pin, The Painted Duck, and The Painted Pickle. Fronting the sweet and salty blues band, her earthy voice scoops you up with covers of songs by Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, and the more obscure Gay Abdigola, along with a variety of funk, soul, and blues-based classic rock. Her originals are also worth a listen and draw on the rich variety of inspiration that inform her other work, all while staying close to the spirit of the blues. That's sweetandsaltyblues.com. Michelle Malone. Whether playing with her self-named band, Canyonland, or the Hot Toddies, long-time Atlanta singer and guitarist Malone is a familiar figure around town, playing most recently at Madlife Stage and the Red Clay Music Foundry. A prolific songwriter and adept performer, she melds country rock and socially conscious lyrics into originals heavily colored in blue. That's www.michellemalone.com. That's www.michellemalone.com. Diane Durrett. Durrett will be playing the upcoming Tunes by the Tracks in Stone Mountain. The multi-talented Durrett is not only an award-winning singer and songwriter, but also a skilled guitarist, producer, and engineer. Among honors that include the Atlanta Blues Society People's Choice Award, she's opened for people like Tina Turner and Coco Taylor. You may find a live show in Atlanta difficult to catch, but you can listen to her original music, including her most recent album, Put a Lid on It, which reached number two on the Soul Blues International Music Report. That's www.dianedurrett.com. E.G. Kite. Kite mostly frequents venues in Chattanooga and Macon, but is worth catching on her occasional visits through town. She plays Eddie's Attic June 1st. She credits goats, guitars, and God for her success, and all three have found their way into an extensive country-laced Chicago-style blues catalog of original songs. Her storytelling skills and down-home Southern humor add warmth to already-spirited live performances. When she brings her 90-year-old mother on stage to sing with her, it's sure proof that you are never too old to sing the blues. That's www.egkight.com. Whether you like them sweet or spicy, heated up or simmered down, Atlanta offers a plethora of opportunities to hear women of a variety of ages, backgrounds, and influences sing the blues. No matter how different their styles may be, all these women will rock you into the sisterhood of those who tackle life's challenges head-on and celebrate life's joys without apology. To paraphrase Ma Rainey, the blues help women to remember that they're not alone. And yes, the songs do sometimes relate familiar struggles. But more importantly, ladies who sing the blues welcome you into a sorority in which its twin hallmarks of bravado and authenticity might just remind you of your own. That was Grace Notes, Ladies Sing the Blues by Shannon Marie Tovey. Next, we move to the Burnaway publication online for Hear Me Now, the Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina at the High Museum of Art Atlanta by Daniel Fuller. When the exhibition Hear Me Now, the Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina began its run at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was the first time many people in the Northeast had considered the narratives embedded within the stoneware production of Old Edgefield District, the center for American ceramic creation before the Civil War. The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Charleston Museum, Greenville County Museum of Art, McKissick Museum, and South Carolina State Museum brought this story to life via objects from their permanent collection. So why did the High need to bring this exhibition south? There is regional relevance and proximity to historical context. But this is also an opportunity for historical accountability. Slavery in America Slavery in America has traditionally been perceived as predominantly agricultural, the majority of the enslaved people laboring in the cultivation of cash crops, cotton, or tobacco fields. Sometimes the artistic merits of the many churns, storage jars, pitchers, bowls, and jugs are noted, but rarely is the industrial scale in which these products were produced highlighted. The exhibit's focal point is the work of Dave, later recorded as David Drake, a potter born into slavery around 1801 in South Carolina. Dave became exceptional, not only for his craftsmanship, but also for his ability to read and write in a time when literacy among enslaved people was forbidden. He is best known for the large storage jars he crafted, some capable of holding over 40 gallons. What truly set Dave apart was the elegant cursive inscriptions he carved into his pots, ranging from poetic verses to simple poignant reflections on his life and time. One such jar, inscribed with the date 1858, spoke of the symbolism and cruelty of selling enslaved people on New Year's Day. He wrote, 19 days before Christmas Eve, lots of people after it's over, how they will grieve. The beginning of the year was a time for owners of enslaved people to settle debts and manage financial affairs by buying, selling, or leasing slaves, often causing deep fear among enslaved people, and suddenly stripped of family connections. Dave employed rhyme to contrast the festive spirit of Christmas with the looming sorrow that follows. Dave's jars are contextualized alongside other ceramic objects, including face vessels and utilitarian wares, many by unknown artists. These pieces, crafted under cruel conditions, represent a blend of skill, resilience, and silent resistance. In an exhibition of stunning works of art, it was odd to be focused on a didactic image. Besides a case with four shards from broken vessels, the curators included a recent photo taken on private land in Edgefield. In the image, uneven ground strewn with the remnants of shattered ceramics, and muted earth tones, and faded glazes. Pottery production had escalated to an industrial level, necessitating substantial capital and resources to maintain it. The ceramic graveyard shows the economic, industrial, political, social, and artistic developments in the 19th century. As the trail of broken ceramics extend beyond the image, one can almost see the wagon roads, waterways, and the Charleston-Hamburg Railroad, which helped transport stoneware as far as 150 miles away. One of my favorite works is a storage jar from an unrecorded potter, possibly from the Phoenix Stoneware Factory or Colin Rhodes Factory, circa 1840-53, which features both brushed iron slip and slip-trailed cowlin decoration on each side. The back side depicts a stylized silhouette of a peony in bloom with open petals, bringing the jar a sense of elegance and sophistication, suggesting it could have served practical purposes or acted as a decorative piece in a middle-class southern home. On the other side, we see the profile of a man in uniform, either military or formal dress, animated by his distinctive posture, fluid movement, expressive wide eye and button ear, and mouth open in a toothy grin, the details piped onto the vessel's surface like icing on a cake. This decoration is particularly intriguing because there are so few instances in the early 19th century American history where African Americans or enslaved individuals are depicted in artistic works, making the prominent depiction of this individual exceptionally notable as it counters the widespread historical invisibility and marginalization of African Americans. The exhibition attempts to bridge past and present by featuring contemporary works by artists like Feaster Gates, Adebomni Gdebago, Simone Lee, and Woody de Othello, each of whom draws distinct inspiration from the legacy of Edgefield's potters. In this fourth iteration of the installation of the exhibition, the curators create a dialogue across the centuries, providing the platform for these conversations to happen side by side, as opposed to injuring jumps. The installation at the high sets the tone immediately with a storage jar by Drake and Badler, Stony Bluff Manufactory, 1859, placed directly beside Woody de Othello's vessel, Secret Safe, 2022. The work, covered in ears, represents the collective listening that needs to happen throughout the exhibition. Due to its closeness to the Drake, it signifies heating historical echoes and spiritual communication. Later in the exhibition, viewers are greeted by Simone Lee's epic, Large Jug, 2022. The jug's surface is finished with a rich white slip in direct contrast to the earthy face jug, circa 1850 to 1880, which sits nearby and is a direct reference for Lee's work. Lee's vessel is covered in cowrie shells, symbols of womanhood, fertility, birth, and wealth. Still, it is also informed by the expressive facial features of old face jugs, including their prominently displayed teeth. While the shells have this serrated edge, this face jug bears its teeth in either a grimace or smile, each representing protection. In its first incarnation, the exhibition was hindered by the spatial constraints of the Met's Lehman Wing. In Atlanta, with the most square footage of any stop on the tour, the exhibition encourages a deeper exploration and understanding of the complexities of American history, particularly Southern history, through the lens of art and craftsmanship. This is not just an exhibition, it is an act of reclamation and remembrance, urging a reassessment of history and artistry through pottery. Hear Me Now, the Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina, is on view at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, through May 12, 2024. That was Hear Me Now, the Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina, at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, by Daniel Fuller. Next, we move to the Atlanta Magazine Online for Home Builder, John Weiland, created a contemporary art museum as a gift to Atlanta, and it's free. The warehouse, now open on the West Side, is open on the second Saturday of each month and free, with advanced registration, by Lisa Mowry. The 20,000 homes John Weiland has built in neighborhoods all over Atlanta will always be his legacy to the city, but now he has something more personal for us all. Weiland's private collection of art is now on display at his art museum, the Warehouse, which opened to the public on April 13. The facility, located at 1643 Chattahoochee Avenue, Northwest, will keep with monthly open houses, free with an advanced reservation, on the second Saturday of every month, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. As a relevant theme to the museum, all 400 pieces of art relate to the concept of house and home. Weiland grew up interested in art, particularly inspired by his hometown, Cleveland's impressive art museum. Around the 1980s, when he and his loved ones Around the 1980s, when he and his late wife, Sue, were living in Atlanta and started collecting art, Weiland said to himself, why am I struggling with what to collect? I build homes. The idea of home as a refuge, an escape, and a reflection of our society is a big motif, so his collection is also ambitious, with paintings, sculpture, videos, fiber art, and ceramics that reflect the cozy side of home life, but also broader social issues. Everyone should have a home, Weiland believes, a reason he is heavily involved with Habitat for Humanity. The 39,000 square foot facility houses works of art from all over the world, including pieces by such notable artists as Roy Lichtenstein, Radcliffe Bailey, and Howard Finster. Rooms in the museum are divided by themes that relate to home, such as makeshift houses or subdivisions. Large-scale installations are striking, and 3D pieces intriguing to walk around, but some of the complications of multiple images are equally thought-provoking. A series of New York Times commissioned photos by Gregory Crudeston, for instance, have a cinematic approach. He invited well-known actors such as Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and William H. Macy to pose at the same modest ranch house, but each photo portrays a dramatic tale. Weiland bought the property in Atlanta's West Side in 2010, converting a former furniture store into a storage facility. Its renovations in 2023 made it a full-fledged museum, with offices, a video theater, and lounge areas. Philip Ver, formerly chief operating officer for the High Museum of Art, is the director at the warehouse, with John Weiland's son, Jack, serving as curator. As for John Weiland's role in Atlanta neighborhoods, he might be most well-known for welcoming subdivisions, with brick family homes dotted around cul-de-sacs and neighborhood pools. In recent years, however, his firm, JW Collection, has focused on higher-density communities, such as One Museum Place, across from the High Museum, that are walkable places to live near city centers. Is Weiland himself an artist? No, my form of art is architecture, he says, but we aspire to be part of the Atlanta arts ecosystem with this museum. That was homebuilder John Weiland created a contemporary art museum as a gift to Atlanta, and it's free by Lisa Mowry. Next, an Atlanta entrepreneur developed an app to empower people with disabilities. The Let Me Do It app employs pictures and text to guide users through daily life activities, by Melissa Hart. When Angad Sagal was born with Down syndrome 23 years ago, doctors told his parents that he'd never be able to walk or talk. Assumptions like these vastly underestimate the abilities of those with Down syndrome. People with this genetic condition are congressional lobbyists, triathletes, actors, and much more. Sagal himself is a college student and an entrepreneur. With his father, Amit Sagal, he developed an app called Let Me Do It, named for the phrase he repeated often as a child. It's an app that empowers people with disabilities to have their voice and live with independence, he explains. The Let Me Do It app employs pictures and text to guide users throughout their daily life activities. Tasks like make breakfast and get to work are separated into step-by-step decisions that users navigate through visual or text props, with the option to invite help from caregivers or other support people. I can do it, you can do it, Sagal says of his invention, which caught the attention of the Techstars Global Startup Network earlier this year. The venture incubator awarded Sagal and his father three months of intensive mentoring support, along with a workspace in the office floors above Ponce City Market. The startup support will enable them to refine the app with beta testers. Sagal eventually hopes to get Let Me Do It into the hands of people with disabilities worldwide. Sagal was inspired to create the app after being underestimated his whole life. Too often, caregivers and others make decisions for people with Down syndrome and other disabilities, robbing them of their autonomy and dignity. Sagal recalls how excited he was as a second grader to walk to school by himself, but another student's father, unaware that Sagal's parents were watching nearby, complained to the principal that a child with a disability was crossing the street without a chaperone. I just wanted to walk independently to my school, Sagal says. Sagal has a long history of blowing past expectations. He's currently studying art at Georgia State University through the Inclusive Digital Expression and Literacy Ideal program for students with intellectual disabilities. GSU's Main Street Entrepreneurs' Seed Fund financed his initial development of the Let Me Do It app. Sagal has poured his efforts into advocacy as well. He's one of Georgia's youth ambassadors for the Center on Youth Voice, Youth Choice, which helps people with disabilities make decisions about every aspect of their lives. Sagal lives life on his own terms. He has a black belt in karate, and he speaks English, Hindi, and Punjabi. He plays soccer at the YMCA and loves to hang out with his brother, watching sports and the film Madagascar. Every morning, he dances to Bollywood music as he gets ready for his GSU classes. Asked what he'd like to say to the doctors who told his parents he'd never walk or talk, Sagal answers firmly. You're wrong, he says. I'm right. I've done it. That was An Atlanta Entrepreneur Developed an App to Empower People with Disabilities by Melissa Hart. Next, we move to the Arts ATL online page for Third European Film Fest Spotlights International Film Culture by Jim Farmer. Films from the world over will screen at the Terra and the Plaza this week, giving Atlanta moviegoers a look at European cinema. In a relatively short period of time, the European Film Festival of Atlanta has announced itself as a major spring celebration of international cinema. Running today through May 11th at the Plaza and Terra theaters, the festival isn't just a celebration of films from throughout Europe, but an event that manages to merge entertainment with weightier topical issues. Alliance Francaise, Goth Zentrum, and the consulates of 14 European countries, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Switzerland, and Ukraine are partnering for the third annual fest. Each consulate is responsible for picking its own film. Shonda Hoffmeyer, the Goth Zentrum Atlanta Business and Program Manager, is one of this year's artistic directors, alongside Valerie Ibata, the Communications and Public Diplomacy Officer of the Consulate General of Belgium in Atlanta. Since Belgium holds the presidency of the European Union, they are taking the lead on a lot of the festival's moving parts, but Ibata and Hoffmeyer are working in partnership with other consulates to plan the four-day event and its opening night. Lillianne Daniels of Via Albertine was tasked with getting the local event off the ground for 2022, the festival's inaugural year. The 2024 opening night film is Yolande Moreau's La Fiancee des Poets from Belgium, in which a lonely woman inherits a family home, but must take in three tenants to help with costs. A 6.45 p.m. reception will precede the 7.30 p.m. terrace screening Wednesday night. Two recent Academy Award winners are also on tap. From Ukraine is Mystyliv Chernov's 20 Days in Maripol, which took home the 2024 Best Documentary Feature Oscar and follows Ukrainian journalists committed to telling the truth about the Russian invasion and all the atrocities the war has brought. France's Anatomy of a Fall stars the exceptional Sandra Huller as a wife suspected of murdering her husband. It won Justine Theret, who also directed the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award earlier this season. Other gems in the schedule include Iker Kataks, the teacher's lounge from Germany, in which a young teacher looks deep into her school to determine if a student blamed for theft has been the victim of racial profiling, as well as Ireland's stunning The Quiet Girl, Comberad's drama about a nine-year-old girl, circa 1981, who spends the summer with in-laws instead of her dysfunctional family. According to Hoffmeier, the European Film Festival of Atlanta is the first collaborative event of its kind she has seen in the United States and has become a vital way for local consulates to spotlight their culture and country. It helps people better understand there are different European communities out there, and while they are facing some similar things to America, some are different, she said. It's good to go outside of what you might think of as a typical Hollywood vision of Europe. It opens up people's eyes to understanding each other better, to realize that we can come together. Last year, the festival opened with Evgeny Afanevsky's Freedom on Fire, Ukraine's Fight for Freedom, a follow-up to the director's Oscar-nominated Winter on Fire, Ukraine's Fight for Freedom. This topical theme continues with 20 Days in Maripol. Some of the proceeds from the screening will go back to Ukraine. Offering this screening is a chance to show audiences that the war in Ukraine is still ongoing, and we are all working to help bring attention to it, and hopefully an end, Hoffmeier noted. That was Third European Film Festival Spotlights International Film Culture by Jim Farmer. Next step, review. Psycho Beach Party Combines Beach and Camp for Mindless Fun by Benjamin Carr. Though it combines flavor from 1960s teen beach movies and melodramatic psychological thrillers, Out Front Theater's Psycho Beach Party is plain nuts. Running until May 18th, the show, written by drag star Charles Bush and directed by Paul Conroy, aims to be funny, silly, and nostalgic fluff, filled with swimsuit-clad pretty folks in all shapes and sizes. And it succeeds at that. For gay audiences familiar with camp outrageousness in particular, it is a good time. Think Gidget Goes Homicidal. Psycho Beach Party takes nothing in its plot or presentation too seriously. It has no lofty aims, no particularly deep approaches to psychology or surfing lessons. It is unserious, brazen, often tacky, sometimes raunchy, and man is it fun. In the plot, a sweet sheltered girl named Chicklet, played by Andy Stancinick, wants to surf the waves all day, but the guys on the beach refuse to let her hang ten with them. Her pious mother, Blake Fountain, doesn't want her corrupted. Her nerdy friend, Berdeen, Hope Claiborne, wishes the two of them could be alone in her room studying. Beach bunny Marvel Anne, Marissa Garcia, wishes Chicklet would just stay on a beach blanket and not steal the attention of hunky star cat, Josh Hudson. Even stoner surf guru Kanaka, Brandon Hembree, won't mentor poor Chicklet until he discovers that she has an alternate personality named Anne Bowen, a vampy dominatrix who may be terrorizing the entire town. Meanwhile, a visiting movie star named Bettina Barnes, Emily Nedvedic, is on the lookout for her next role, and goofy surfers Provolone, Tim Colley, and Yo-Yo, Jack Caron, try their hands at screenwriting. The ensemble is clearly having a blast in this play. During the opening night performance, raucous laughter from the audience made cast members break character and begin giggling or riffing on lines, which made the show even funnier. Cinetic has the most fun when Chicklet shifts personalities, allowing the performer to show off her range. Fountain, Claiborne, and Nedvedic get some of the craziest, campiest scenes to play. Fountain's impromptu asides, delivered as the character holds her daughter hostage, led the audience to spontaneously applaud mid-scene. Claiborne is delightful and spunky, and Nedvedic steals nearly every scene she's in with physical comedy, particularly when she tries to run an espadrille. As the story shifts back and forth between light and dark themes, scenic designer Alex Purtle and lighting designer David Reingold quickly transition toward edgier, darker designs, casting shadows across characters' faces. The swimsuits selected by costume designer Jay Reynolds from show sponsor Boy Next Door Menswear are mostly modern designs, very tight and skimpy. Everybody looks great, though very few characters look like they're from the 1960s. The show is wild fun if you're in the mood for a mindless day at the beach. That was Review, Psycho Beach Party Combines Beach and Camp for Mindless Fun by Benjamin Carr. Next, Atlanta Ballet's Nighthawks sends Wynton Marsalis to movement by Gillian Ann Renaud. Atlanta Ballet's choreographer-in-residence Claudia Schreier loves the energy of big cities. Her new work for the company celebrates that energy with music by another city dweller, composer and bandleader Wynton Marsalis. Quick, who's your favorite ballet composer? Tchaikovsky maybe? Prokofiev? Stravinsky? Wynton Marsalis? The jazz composer's name doesn't immediately spring to mind, even though world-renowned choreographers Peter Martins and Twyla Tharp once commissioned him to compose works for their dances. Now Marsalis' 2016 composition, The Jungle Symphony No. 4, is coming to the ballet stage for the first time thanks to Atlanta Ballet's choreographer-in- residence Claudia Schreier. The work is for orchestra and big band with hints of blues and gospel, a plethora of jazz inflections and allusions to city sounds, such as the wail of sirens and car horns, the clatter of the subway, the cacophony of a city in full swing. It's the musical canvas for Schreier's new ballet, Nighthawks, set to premiere May 10 through May 12 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. Also on the program is Yellow, a new work by Brazilian choreographer Giuliano Nunez. Schreier is a supremely musical choreographer with an adventurous spirit when it comes to choosing scores for her ballets. She set Blair dances to the challenging tonal and rhythmic shifts of Takashi Yoshimatsu's impressionistic piano compositions. Her 2019 first impulse was a response to the fast-changing moods, meters, and timbres of Eno Tamberg's Concerto Grosso No. 5. Atlanta Ballet artistic director Gennady Nedgevin encouraged Schreier to use a jazz score for this ballet, her fifth for the company, and describes the jungle as Stravinsky in jazz. The company has too few ballets set to jazz, he said, and he enjoys seeing how Schreier's vision and movement vocabulary change and develop relative to her choice of music. Each of her works is unique, he said, based on the breadth of her musical choices and the way she shapes music and movement together. Schreier spent many months listening to music by various composers before deciding on the jungle. It is a vibrant, energetic playground in which to work, she told Arts ATL recently. It also has a form similar to the classical form of a symphony, a structural style that works well for creating a jazz-inspired ballet. A typical symphony contains multiple movements of varying tempos and colors. This composition takes full advantage of that variation. The jungle is more than an hour long, however, and is divided into six sections. Schreier chose the first, third, and sixth movements for the ballet. I read quite a bit about Marcellus's original intent, she says. It's an urban work. He was inspired by the concrete jungle of New York City. Schreier can relate. She grew up in cities and enjoys the pace and energy. Like Marcellus, she lives in New York. Netgevin asked Schreier to make Nighthawks a 40-minute work, twice as long as her previous ballets for the company. A work of that length, Netgevin says, needs to be more substantial, and he encouraged her to include scenic elements. When choreographers become more experienced, they element deepen of meaning ballets. He was also eager for the work to have an Atlanta personality. That was soon accomplished. Schreier and her frequent collaborator, costume designer Abigail Dupree-Poulston, reached out to Atlanta muralist and tattoo artist Charity Hamadula to collaborate on the set and costumes. Hamadula had never worked in ballet before or designed for the stage, but she was eager to be part of the team. Schreier asked her to illustrate the vibrancy and insanity of a city and to focus on the idea of a city dweller trying to find herself in the melee. Most of Hamadula's art is integrated into the Atlanta's hardscape as murals, but Schreier and Dupree-Poulston felt she had understood the body and three-dimensional work because of her career as a tattoo artist. Hamadula began to draw and sketch while listening to the Marcellus score. Her personal playlist is a range of rap, alternative melodies, blues, and jazz, so when she first heard the jungle, she felt at ease with the genre. There were moments when I felt stressed, moments when I wanted to dance, explore, even space when I felt a strong sense of safety and soothing, she explained. Once she had a concept in mind, she brought her partner, photographer Jomani Chavez, into the project. He put out a call for models. A hairstylist, a poet, and a podcaster were among those who showed up for the shoot. Hamadula integrated the photographic images into her artwork in a piecemeal fashion, a face here, an arm there, a smile that reveals a grill. One key element that didn't require a model, Martin Luther King Jr.'s fingerprint. Hamadula also designed the sets, which comprised 10 large flying set pieces painted in colors that complement the costumes. Said Schreier, there is so much depth and color and vibrancy to what she does, and I could clearly see the connective tissue between her work and the music. The last section in the ballet, Schreier said, ends in a dark and intense space with the wail of a sole individual. She wanted to explore what it means to be a part of a community, the complexities that come along with that, and how you can feel unequivocally alone in spite of a constant busyness. That darkness in the music is reflected not only in the movement, but also in the dark mesh overlay that is added to the costumes for that segment. Schreier and Hamadula both identify as Black and biracial, and while they want to portray a universal message, their love of America's and Atlanta's Black culture is very present in the mood, the movement, the costumes, and the set design. And of course, it's right there in the music, Schreier said. Marcellus infuses each movement with a different take on current urban life, but also includes references to Black history, Black culture, and the struggle of Blacks in America. There have been so many conversations, particularly in the last four to five years, that have called us to speak to our identity and how it relates to the work we are creating, Schreier said. There is this desire to put forward what represents us as individuals, but also to honor the culture and history we are a part of. And jazz, she says, is as Black as it gets. That was Atlanta Ballet's Nighthawks Sets Wynton Marcellus to Movement by Jillian Ann Renaud. Next up, two new theater companies formed on a playground share similar goals by Luke Evans. Elizabeth Gibbs and Matt Mercurio have big goals for the future after bonding over and staging a favorite play. New beginnings are always exciting, whether it's friendship or a business venture. But the start of an artistic journey is perhaps the most exciting, as Matt Mercurio of Tesseract Theater Lab and Elizabeth Gibbs of Act Before You Think Productions can tell you. Both founded with the goal of pushing theatrical boundaries in Atlanta, these two nascent companies came together to produce playwright Rajiv Joseph's Gruesome Playground Injuries, running through May 11th at the Mask Center. It seemed like fate when Mercurio and Gibbs met in mutual acting mentor Peter Frechette's class last year. While having coffee one day after class, they found themselves talking about gruesome playground injuries. Elizabeth mentioned how she was inspired by Elizabeth mentioned having an intuitive nudge to do the play for her next production, and with it being one of my favorite plays and a play that I had been looking in to act and produce for the last two years, it felt destined for us to come together and do it, says Mercurio. Their play choice is ironically appropriate since Gruesome Playground Injuries similarly takes us through all the ways in which two people's lives intersect. The two-person show follows Doug and Kayleen, childhood best friends who bond over various scars and injuries, from scraped knees to self-inflicted wounds. The story moves in non-linear fashion, capturing specific moments from their 30-year friendship and showcasing all of the ways they touch each other's lives. It's rife with beginnings, which makes it a perfect piece to kick off the collaboration between Tesseract and Act Before You Think. Tesseract is the result of Mercurio's intention to create a dedicated space for devised theater in Atlanta. For this goal, he was awarded a 2024 South Fulton Arts Individual Artistic Partnership, an honor providing financial as well as logistical assistance to individuals looking to contribute to the arts community of South Fulton County. Prior to founding Tesseract, Mercurio worked with various companies in Atlanta, including Theatrical Outfit, Working Title Playwrights, and Horizon Theater. Last year, he directed Horizon's production of Ellen Fairey's support group for men. Mercurio has also worked in theater education and has appeared in sizable roles in television and film, including Tyler Perry's The Haves and Have Nots and the horror film Hellfest. With Tesseract, Mercurio seeks to create a space to train and to artistically nerd out together, with the intent of telling stories that are meaningful to us and emphasizing voices that aren't heard from as often. While Grissom Playground Injuries is not an original work, it is Mercurio's first step in building Tesseract into a recognizable company. Act Before You Think Productions is slightly more established, having had its inaugural production at Roll Call Theater in April, where it staged Lucy Thurber's Where We're Born. Gibbs founded the company with the intention of diving into bold and daring works. The name of the company comes from Stanford Meisner, who believed actors should always act before thinking. Meisner believed that the only way to give an honest performance was to rely on your instincts, and by doing so, put yourself emotionally into the scene. He believed that the heart of acting is honestly reacting without intellectualizing. Gibbs studied Meisner performance at Columbia State University and also participated in a Meisner intensive at the Robert Mello studio in Decatur. Her choice of place certainly leans into the Meisner mentality. I was drawn to Grissom Playground Injuries because Rajiv Joseph's work leaps off the page. It is dark and brutally honest, a lot like life at time. He doesn't believe in sugarcoating anything for the audience, and I like how he has no intention to hold your hand through it. The visceral nasive of Joseph's work is representative of Gibbs ethos as an artist, she said, and of the artistic statement of Act Before You Think. Moving forward, Gibbs aims to continue producing really well-written contemporary plays that are deeply human while possibly exploring directing. She hopes that within a few years, Act Before You Think productions will have its own space and be able to offer classes and workshops alongside yearly productions. Mercurio hopes to focus more on devising, offering contemporary works that run parallel with original works. He strives to make Tesseract a destination for theater goers everywhere, offering training opportunities and devising and unique storytelling methods to both industry professionals and schools. For both companies, Grissom Playground Injuries is an early step as they seek to grow and become spaces for artistic exploration and community. Only time will tell how these companies integrate themselves into the larger tapestry of Atlanta's theatrical art. That was Two New Theater Companies Formed on a Playground Share Similar Goals by Luke Evans. Next up, Old Enough Explores What Older Women Artists Know by Pearl McKinney. As with public art installation or sculpture or mural, Old Enough, Southern Women Artists and Writers on Creativity, University of Georgia Press 2024, invites conversation. Old Enough, 20 Essays and Photographic Portraits, was curated by editors Jay Lamar and Jennifer Horn with the assistance of Jay's sister, Katie Lamar Jackson, Wendy Reed, and photographer Carolyn Scherer, who each contributed an essay. It is an example of collaborative art and is greater than any of its individual components. Layered with epigraphs and quotations, with essays of whatever length is fitting, references to other art and artists, stories of family and places that inspire these women, an introduction and photograph, and contributors' biographies as rich and interesting as the women, gay, straight, unmarried, partnered, widowed, black, white, Latinx, retired, and working, as stated in the introduction, and their essays. Old Enough delights and instructs. Scherer's photographs, full page color portraits of the contributors, demand that we see each woman, really see her, to acknowledge that she is old enough to know a few truths about the South, life and creativity, to see her complexity as well as her simplicity, so as to summon our understanding that these women have arrived at knowing themselves and have come to this project eager to share. Reading and viewing Old Enough, I am inspired, challenged, despondent, encouraged, old, not old, confident, and surprised. Old Enough, Southern Women Artists and Writers on Creativity, reveals a world that seems on some pages familiar and on others shockingly new. One additional woman is instrumental in making this book a work of art, Erin Kirk, who designed Old Enough. As each essay begins, we simultaneously see its author in her photographic portrait. The typefaces, sizes, and colors of the titles, subtitles, and authors' names are artfully chosen and arranged. Even the indicators of time breaks or topic changes in the narrative, a dinkus to professional designers, attract my eye and make me know that this book is art. A coffee table book, sure, Old Enough is gorgeous to look upon. It can be perused by title, author, or portrait, or an essay at a time. Reading two or more essays, chosen randomly or by the artist's medium, in a sitting, one begins to see the larger story, the narrative of creativity, survival, fight, art, activism, pain, recovery, purpose, and contentment, the tapestry that these women weave. For example, confronting death and illness and writer's block, Patricia Foster plums her memory until she learns to be both selfless and selfish, and gives herself permission to start writing again. And after years of wandering, visual artist Nevin Mercede finds herself old enough to settle in a Florida beach town to start a new Painting Native Flora. A how-to guide? If you wish. But the answers, after the loss of father, mother, career, health, self, and or purpose, differ as greatly as the voices gathered here. Some take years to find new paths. Others risk new directions entirely. Many of the women refer to COVID and the consequent isolation that led to disruptive change and noticeable aging. Collaboration became the imperative technique for getting through. With this, the readers and viewers of Old Enough can identify, individually and together, we attest to the historic pandemic that ruptured our lives, a time when family, work, and play necessarily took on new definitions. Fortunately, art writ large and Old Enough in particular help us to understand and to adapt. In 1998, novelist Ellen Douglas published her first nonfiction and penultimate book, Truth, Four Stories I Am Finally Old Enough to Tell. Douglas's sister artists, gathered by Lamar, Horn, Jackson, and Reed, are also old enough. Narrating their fears of failure and of success, the mysteries of body and bodily traumas, the acknowledgement and unraveling of insults, abuses, and aggressions, the creatives of Old Enough are old enough to write and show truth. Horn channels her eight-year-old brave and brash self to say no to dismissals of women over 60. Georgia Children's book author Carmen Agra Didi is old enough to understand the fable her Cuban father told. Others are old enough to curse, to cry, to quit, to start, to try, and all find a way through to new purpose, even the fresh goal of enjoying the day in and of itself, without worry about a distant future of making a mark, being a mentor, or missing a deadline. Reading Old Enough, I entered each woman's world, found likenesses, and traveled inward to ask myself questions and probe my own memories. I thought of my women friends who would love to meet these women and read their stories. I listed their poets, teachers, philosophers, musicians, and artists who had inspired or showed them trails that previously had been obscured. I thought of my own heroes, sisters, mothers, and friends, how relieved I was in the final pages to read that today's and tomorrow's observations and makings, small as they may be, are sufficient. Creativity begets creativity. Ideas beget ideas. And with women, this means collaboration, our superpower. In addition to the editors and contributors, Lifetime Arts, the Alabama State Council on the Arts, University of Georgia Friends Fund, New South Books, and the University of Georgia Press are all to be congratulated on Old Enough, Southern Women Artists and Writers on Creativity and Aging. Together, they made the book a reality, and it feels as organic as growing old. The result is a work of art to be enjoyed and learned from in parts or as a whole. We listen eagerly to a familiar piece of music. We revisit a favorite painting. We search our shelves for the books that hold a particular passage. This is the manner in which I plan to look again and again into Old Enough, seeking joy and nuance revealed afresh. That was Old Enough Explores What Older Women Artists Know by Pearl McKinney. Next up, review. It's In the Voices Shows and Tells a Complex Story of the Mississippi Delta by Charles Stevens. The short documentary film, It's In the Voices, a part of the PBS Real South series, paints a stunning picture of Greenville, Mississippi, through the stories collected by the Washington County Oral History Program. The film is by Emmy Award winning producer Field Humphrey, who has deep southern ties. He grew up outside of Atlanta and is a graduate of Roswell High School. Through the course of his documentary, viewers are introduced to Clinton Bagley and his collaboration with Daisy Green, a retired school teacher. The film opens with Bagley as the narrator, who is perfectly cast with his silver hair and brown blazer. He looks every bit the part of a southern historian and introduces himself as a seventh generation Mississippian. However, it is Green who's the anchor of It's In the Voices. Though we only meet her through the recorded voice, she is an almost ethereal presence woven throughout the film. In his narration, Bagley details how their paths became intertwined, and the result was the Washington County Oral History Program. Pigeon dropping was a colorful term that Green used, according to Bagley, when she met him in 1975. The term suggests the dynamic of individuals making money and profiting off the stories of regular folks. She was skeptical of him, and he knew it, and unsure of his motives. The filmmakers anticipated that Green's initial skepticism of Bagley in the documentary might mirror the skepticism of the audience watching on PBS. To win the audience over, they would have to both show and tell how Bagley built trust with Green, and this works since the documentary is, in part, the story of a friendship across lines of racial difference in a southern town. The Mississippi of It's In the Voices is represented through sound stories and archival images, yearbook photos, and empty school auditoriums, and photos of the river reinforce Green's gorgeous storytelling and Bagley's skillful narration. The film is absolutely aware of how Mississippi is represented and mythologized. Both the Civil War and civil rights are invoked, but the narration and editing work closely together to examine woven narrative threads of history and horror. Thus, the narration, which is framed largely around Bagley's point of view, doesn't clash much with the film's oral history. Rather, they enhance each other. There is considerable attention paid to the technical process of oral history creation, and this is done superbly. We get authentic clicks of the cassette player and the static and crunches of the audio recordings. We get visual footage of Bagley with his headphones on, listening to the voices. Sound is used in the film to create an almost immersive experience. This technique is particularly impactful because it serves to create intimacy between filmmaker and audience. What may raise questions for some viewers is the role of history and historical context in the documentary. Bagley, a white man, and his perception of Greenville as a progressive melting pot may seem far too simplistic. To the credit of the filmmakers, they present counter testimony through Green, who describes that Greenville was not as progressive as Bagley suggests and was not at all disconnected from racism. She describes the racism of the healthcare system and educational segregation of the town. These perspectives don't function to contradict each other, since both Bagley and Green are transparent about their differences. However, viewers may find themselves wanting more discourse on racial justice. That's all the time we have for this article entitled Review. It's in the Voices, Shows, and Tells a Complex Story of the Mississippi Delta by Charles Stevens. That concludes today's MetroArts 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.
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