Creekside Park trail connection features newly unveiled sculpture ► PAGE 3 Fe b r u a r y 8 , 2 0 2 4 | A p p e n M e d i a . c o m | A n A p p e n M e d i a G r o u p P u b l i c a t i o n | 5 0 ¢ | Vo l u m e 2 8 , N o . 6
‘No More Hidden Figures’ Artists offer perspectives on Blackness in new exhibit By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — The still life images that fiber artist Aisha Lumumba was assigned as a young art student weren’t relatable. “For me as an African American person, that was not what I saw in my house,” Lumumba said. Growing up in McDonough, Georgia, Lumumba said if she wanted fruit, she’d pick it off the tree and eat it right there. She said her “answer” to a still life was her grandmother sitting on her front porch. “Those kinds of things are gonna have to be validated,” she said. “I want to be one of those artists who help validate us.” Lumumba is one of 17 artists in “No More Hidden Figures,” the Johns Creek
Art Center’s 10th annual recognition of Black History Month. Winning honorable mention, her quilt titled “Just Between Us” shows two girls running through a field catching butterflies, wearing their Sunday best. Coming to terms When she began quilting full time more than 20 years ago, Lumumba started to incorporate scenes from her own life, though she had subconsciously tried to bury those images. “In your mind, when you turn on TV, when you do something else, it’s the city, it’s the bright lights, and that’s what you’re striving for, not this red dirt road that I was running up,” Lumumba said. “I had to come to terms with that and know that that was okay.”
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Althea Foster, program director and curator for the Johns Creek Arts Center, describes a mixed media piece titled “Leap” by Karen Phillips, one of 17 artists featured in “No More Hidden Figures,” the center’s 10th annual recognition of Black History Month.
Appen Media Group recognized for work by New York Times ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Appen Media Group was noted by The New York Times late in 2023 for its work on a story about the City of Milton and a committee studying the feasibility of the city running its own local elections. The Times recognized Appen Media on its “Local Journalism Worth Read-
ing From 2023” list, along with dozens of other newspaper and digital profit and nonprofit publications across the country. The list highlights local journalism that holds government accountable or shines light on issues affecting communities, such as environmental challenges, criminal justice
matters or socioeconomic problems. Appen Media’s story from late 2022, written by reporter Amber Perry, noted informal meetings held by the Milton Municipal Election Feasibility Committee that were not open to the public and questions raised by the public about the motivation of com-
mittee members. The committee was tasked with studying the feasibility of the city running its own elections rather than paying Fulton County to manage them. Readers can find the piece recognized by The Times at appenmedia. com/municipal_elections.