I recently interviewed journalist/historian Wil Haygood in anticipation of his visit to the Atlanta History Center. He is best known for writing The Butler, and he has recently written a biography about Thurgood Marshall, the nation's first African American Supreme Court justice. Haygood was inspired to write about Marshall, because Marshall won Brown v. Board in 1954-- the same year…
"What was once seen as scribbles by rebellious kids, however, has joined the mainstream: a colorful, two-dimensional rendition of someone’s name on the side of a building goes from vandalism to fine art when that piece appears in a gallery." I recently interviewed an Atlanta-based graffiti artist named POEST about his first gallery exhibit. He has been "bombing" buildings with…
I grew up in DeKalb County, Georgia most of my life. DeKalb County is home to one of the largest and wealthiest black middle class populations in the country, and has been home to that population for 20+ years. However, in the late 90's and early 2000's, many schools in the southern part of the county became overcrowded and had…
I spent the past two weeks at the O'Neill Theatre Center in New London, Conn. at the National Critics Institute-- the only writing workshop for early and mid-career theatre critics. In a cottage in New England I pondered about the state of theatre, the state of journalism, writing about people of color, how to incorporate dining content into theatre journalism,…
I imagine that when most people in Atlanta hear the words "Bankhead Highway" or "Northwest Atlanta" they think of the ghetto. At least that is what the connotation has been my entire life-- that anywhere outside of Midtown is not somewhere you want to be after dark. But there is a neighborhood in Northwest Atlanta that is beautifully preserved and…
On Friday, June 12 the internet and cable news outlets exploded with the news that Rachel Dolezal, the president of the Spokane, Washington Chapter of the NAACP is a white woman who has been living her life dressed in blackface for the last 10 years. Dolezal teaches Africana Studies at a university in Washington and stated in her bio that…