Atlanta Arts category interest

ARTlanta is a quarterly column dedicated to celebrating the artists, creatives, and designers who give Atlanta its flavor.

It’s been a while since my last ARTlanta column. I spent most of the summer doing something new, as I saw the play I wrote, The Wash, take flight in a co-production by Synchronicity Theatre and the Impact Theatre. I reviewed theater in Atlanta for more than a decade, and it was truly a surreal process to be on the other side of the stage. The overwhelming response from audiences was that they wish they had known about this forgotten moment in history where Black laundresses led a successful labor strike.

That type of civil disobedience is characteristic of Atlanta, and no doubt has inspired artists in this city for decades. Listen to the rap lyrics and 808s that give the city its sound—never forget that one of the biggest records to come out of Atlanta is “Rosa Parks” by OutKast. See the murals of figures such as John Lewis and Ella Baker downtown. There’s always a hearkening back, a reclamation.

One of my core memories from childhood is attending the artist market at the National Black Arts Festival during the summer. All of Atlanta seemed to become an art gallery, with vendors set up at Greenbriar and West End malls as well as at Piedmont Park, Grant Park, and Centennial Park at different points in the festival’s history. I saw my parents converse, haggle with, and purchase art from living artists, many of whom went on to make a splash in the art world. There were no dead artists in our home.

Having images that depict the Black experience adorn the walls of my home had an impact on me that I couldn’t have known as a child. When South African photographer Zuneli Muholi exhibited at the Spelman Museum of Fine Art back in 2018, I recall them saying, “We must attach images to freedom.” I know that to be true. Artmaking is freeing, and artists just by their presence have a way of freeing all of us.

As the country sprints toward the presidential election in November, I challenge each of us to draw our own image of freedom. Do we want peace? Are we willing to be peace? Do we want clean air more than we want two-day shipping? Do we want equality of opportunity? Are we willing to be the change we want to see in the world?

In this edition of ARTlanta, you’ll find a list of events where artists are reflecting on freedom, justice, liberty, and all the ideas that form our nation. They know that you get further when you affirm what you want rather than denounce what you don’t.

The inaugural Atlanta Art Fair takes place October 3-6 at Pullman Yards and features exhibits and installations from world renowned artists from Georgia and beyond. Participating galleries include Fay Gold Gallery, Jackson Fine Art, Maune Contemporary, Whitespace, Wolfgang Gallery, and more.

This fall, the Alliance Theatre is producing two contemporary plays that connect historic human and civil rights movements to the present. The Mountaintop by P-Valley creator Katori Hall ran through September 22 and was an imagining of the last night of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life. Up next, Lloyd Suh’s hit play The Chinese Lady, September 18-October 13, imagines the life of the first Chinese woman believed to set foot on American soil.

From October 23-November 4, Johnson Lowe Gallery is hosting a dual exhibition of work by two juggernauts in the art world, Fahamu Pecou and Cosmo Whyte. In Whyte’s exhibition, The Sea Urchin Can’t Swim: Tales from the Edge of a World, he employs multimedia to interrogate race, colonialism, and the maritime practice of flags of convenience. Pecou’s exhibition They Didn’t Realize We Were Seeds: We The Roses includes three installations that continue his exploration of African spirituality and Black American culture and how meaning is applied to objects.

On October 4-5, the Decatur Book Festival returns with a diverse slate of programming, including talks and panels with writer Joyce Carol Oates, former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, poet Natasha Trethewey, and chef Todd Richards. A Cappella Books, Brave and Kind Bookshop, Charis Books and More, Eagle Eye Books, and Little Shop of Stories will be selling books.

Capturing the rhythm of the civil rights movement in musical theater is part of what makes Hairspray one of my favorite shows. Catch it at Out Front Theatre Company, October 4-November 9. You can’t stop the beat!

Through December 21 at Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Library, view photos from photographer Sheila Pree Bright’s new exhibition, breathe. For more than a decade, Bright has traveled to Black Lives Matter demonstrations, capturing images of the signs, rallying cries, t-shirts, and faces of marchers. She also created a special collection of photos with the mothers of Black men who were killed by police officers and race-based violence. Photos will be on view in the Schatten Gallery.

When I saw this exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum earlier this year, I hoped it would come to Atlanta and my prayers have been answered. RandB singer Alicia Keys and her husband, producer Swizz Beatz, are sharing iconic work by contemporary Black artists, including Gordon Parks, Nick Cave, Ebony G. Patterson, Lorna Simpson, Arthur Jafa, Kehinde Wiley, Mickalene Thomas, and more. Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys will be on view at the High Museum through January 19, and it’s a must-see.

What’s exciting you this fall? Tell us what you’re creating or seeing using #ARTlanta on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

About Kelundra Smith

I grew up in Stone Mountain and Loganville, where my parents and teachers got me into the arts early because that’s where energetic girls who talk a lot go. I am a theater critic, journalist, playwright, and lifelong arts lover. My articles about Southern art and artists have been published in the New York Times, ESPN, American Theatre, Garden andamp; Gun, Oxford American, Bitter Southerner, ArtsATL, and elsewhere. As a playwright, my scripts focus on lesser-known historical events in Georgia’s history.