Atlanta Things To See category interest

ART+DESIGN

Nando’s is not just a chain of restaurants in southern Africa. The business also happens to own one of the largest collections of South African contemporary art in the world at over 27,000 works. Selections from the Nando’s collection will make a visit to the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta in an exhibition titled If You Look Hard Enough, You Can See Our Future from September 20 through November 2. Highlights include works by Portia Zvavahera, William Kentridge and Zanele Muholi, whose solo exhibition was presented at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in 2018. Check website for ticket prices.

Friday, September 20 and ongoing.

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ABV Gallery has long been a central gathering spot, not just for studio artists and illustrators but also and especially for street artists and muralists. Proprietor and artist Greg Mike will open a long-awaited new space in the heart of East Atlanta Village on September 20 and September 21. His solo exhibition Chapter New will break in the new property, which is in fact an old church renovated over the course of the last three years. Show runs through October 20. Free with RSVP.

Friday, September 20 and ongoing.

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It was impossible to be in the art world’s social media feeds at the opening of the 2024 Venice Biennale in April without running into raves over the work of Jeffrey Gibson. The multimedia installation artist was the first Native American to represent the United States in the Biennale. The Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art on the campus of Kennesaw State University is presenting a sprawling solo exhibition of Gibson’s work in They Teach Love through December 7. Gibson taps into his Mississippi Choctaw and Cherokee heritages to explore a “hard-earned optimism,” as stated by the museum’s website, using traditional handcrafts to create a radical new vision of the future. The show’s 35 works are drawn from the collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation. Free.

Ongoing.

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DANCE

Straddling the line between the dance world and the world of fine art photography, Charlie McCullers’ moody, impressionistic photographs of ballet dancers will open at Spalding Nix Fine Art on Friday, September 13, and run through November 8. Silk Asylum: Refuge Among the Sylphs is a show within a show and reflects McCullers’ 20 years as principal photographer for the Atlanta Ballet. According to McCullers, “A ballerina strives to break two things: the fourth wall that separates the performer from the audience and the surly bonds of gravity that keep mere mortals earthbound.” These works are meant to expressively reflect this ideal. Tokie Rome-Taylor and Jerushia Graham also have mini exhibitions within the space. Free.

Friday and ongoing.

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MUSIC

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is back from its summer break. The season opener features Music Director Maestro Nathalie Stutzmann leading the orchestra in a program of Schumann and Mahler on Friday, September 19, and Saturday, September 20. Gustav Mahler’s Symphony Number 1 (“Titan”) was originally conceived as a symphonic poem and includes a well-known children’s song in the third movement. Cellist Edgar Moreau — whom ArtsATL has lauded as performing with “dazzling accuracy and insouciant wit” — joins the program for Schumann’s cello concerto. Tickets start at $44.

Friday, September 19 and Saturday, September 20.

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Sufi poetry is well-known in the West via the 13th-century Persian poet, Rumi. Less well-known is Sufi music. Filling the gap, music ensemble Riyaaz will perform Qawwali-style Sufi music in Introducing Qawwali through Speech and Song: South Asian Sufi Music by Sonny Mehta at Cannon Chapel Sanctuary on the Emory University campus this Saturday, September 14. Riyaaz members hail from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, constituting a truly international ensemble. Most notably, Mehta is artistic director and lead singer. Mehta will present a talk on the preceding Friday to discuss Riyaaz’s mission to “renew Qawwali by engaging race relations, civic values and other American music such as gospel and jazz.” Free with registration.

Friday and Saturday.

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Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta founder and Artistic Director William Ransom is celebrating a fabulous 40 years of the organization’s existence with solo piano pieces this Saturday at Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory University. Ransom will grace audiences with performances of Chopin, Debussy and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. He will also perform the Dvořák piano quintet with the highly esteemed Vega Quartet. Free.

Saturday only.

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THEATER

There is a great tradition of theater about theater. (Think A Chorus Line!, 42nd Street and Phantom of the Opera.) The most recent entrant in the tradition is FINAL AUDITION: Last Chance for the Role of a Lifetime. Its final performances are Thursday through Saturday at The Art Place in Marietta. Playwright John Ruane began work on the play decades ago, putting it on hold to raise a family in the Chicago area. After Covid setbacks, the play — about an actor who must decide whether to keep pursuing a dream that looks hopeless — finally went into production. Is it too late? Tickets: $33 with student discount available.

Thursday through Saturday.

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Working Title Playwrights supports artists in “forging the future of exceptional, inclusive and boundary-breaking American theatre,” who are currently among the resident artists at Windmill Arts in East Point. This weekend, three new plays will be presented as staged readings as part of the Ethel Woolson Lab Festival: shadowplay, by Quinn Xavier Hernandez, explores nonbinary identity; Public Wickedness, by Lee Osorio, questions the meaning of “sanity” in queer history; and They Love Violence, by Jacob York, follows a woman at a pivotal point in her career as a professional wrestler. Only 100 slots are available for each play, and registration is required. Free.

Saturday and Sunday.

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FILM+TV

ArtsATL has covered The Atlanta Opera’s audacious effort to simultaneously present Puccini’s La Bohème and Rent, the beloved New York-based musical set in the middle of the AIDS epidemic — parallel stories separated by a century. In case the price of a ticket at Pullman Yards is out of reach, the Friday, September 20, performance of La Bohème will be simulcast at The Tara that evening. The plot is being updated to reflect the Covid pandemic, which should help bring modern audiences right into the action. Tickets: $16, with discounts available.

Friday, September 20 only.

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BOOKS

Although writer and Southern legend Flannery O’Connor never professed to be much for music, many musical artists have alluded to her work both in lyrics and in narrative forms. Irwin H. Streight’s Flannery at the Grammys charts O’Connor’s influence on the music of Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, R.E.M., U2, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Sufjan Stevens, Mary Gauthier, Tom Waits and many others. Streight will discuss his book at the Decatur Library on Tuesday, September 17. Given O’Connor’s relatively small output, her effect has been great on blues, rock, gospel, punk and beyond. Free. Registration is requested.

Tuesday only.