Southedelic rock band Heart of Pine will be performing at the Bishop Boogie fall festival, featuring a day of music, food trucks, vendors and a kids zone on Sept. 21. For more info, visit townofbishop.org.
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PLUS, COLLEGE SQUARE PLANS, DA ENDORSEMENTS AND MORE NEWS
By Blake Aued and Chris Dowd news@flagpole.com
The Clarke County School District already uses the same emergency alert system widely credited with saving lives during the Apalachee High School shooting earlier this month.
Centegix is a badge worn by all school personnel with a button to press during emergencies. Press three times, and the local school safety team is alerted to an incident like a fight or a medical emergency. Press rapidly multiple times, and the school goes into automatic lockdown, triggering red strobe lights and an announcement, and all security officers and administrators receive a notification via mobile app.
“Of course, you only go into lockdown if there’s an intruder in the building or some other significant safety incident where students and staff need to take shelter for safety,” CCSD Director of Operations Garrick Askew told the Board of Education during a presentation last week.
Centegix also includes mobile app alerts for an administrative hold—in which no one is allowed to enter or leave the building—tornados, bomb threat or gas leak evacuations, and an “all clear.”
According to law enforcement officials, a 14-year-old Apalachee student left class the morning of Sept. 4 and went to the restroom to retrieve an AR-15 rifle his father had given him as a gift. The student, Colt Gray, then shot 13 teachers and classmates, killing four and injuring nine before being confronted by a school resource officer.
The system is aimed at reducing response times. “This technology is something that helps to mitigate loss of life, and it did [Sept. 4] in Apalachee High School,” Angie Alhadeff, founder of Make Our Schools Safe, told CNN.
In addition, CCSD installed 35 new cameras at local elementary schools and the HT Edwards complex last year, as well as new digital servers that allow for sharper pictures, Askew told the school board Sept. 12. “We’ve made a number of security upgrades in the past year and a half or so,” Askew said.
Law enforcement have access to ballistic shields at each school, Askew said, and the district has beefed up security, hiring four additional unarmed security guards and one new sworn police officer, bringing the total number to 14 of each. Two are assigned to each middle and high school, one is on the night watch, and three roam among schools throughout the county, Superintendent Robbie Hooker said.
Each year, school principals, front desk staff, nutrition managers and transportation leaders receive security training, Askew said. CCSD also collaborated with Athens-Clarke County on grid maps of school facilities to help emergency responders who aren’t familiar with those facilities to pinpoint locations within buildings. All shift commanders for the ACC Police Department and the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office have keys to CCSD buildings, Askew said. Following the Apalachee shooting, two youths made what appeared to be threats
against schools in both Clarke and Oconee counties. In both cases, authorities determined there was no actual danger, and the individuals were taken into custody by the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice. Gray, on the other hand, is being tried as an adult on murder charges, and his father Colin faces felony charges as well. [Blake Aued]
College Square Gets a Glow-Up
The Athens Downtown Development Authority is moving quickly with a redesigned pedestrian plaza on College Square.
during the COVID pandemic, the commission voted to close it to vehicles temporarily. “We kind of had a new demand for outdoor space, and it created an opportunity to try out an idea that had been around for a while,” said Josh Hawkins, ACC’s director of capital projects.
The commission voted to make the closure permanent in 2021, but the change has meant little more than installing bollards along Clayton Street and scattering picnic tables on the existing asphalt. The ADDA project would replace the pavement with brick, and add additional seating, lighting and trees.
Since the closure, Lynn said he has not heard from anyone who wants to reopen College Square to cars. “What I hear from people is, ‘You’ve already closed it,’” he said. “…I think what people are looking for is a beautiful space that attracts people.”
The ADDA submitted a $7.9 million proposal in 2022 for TSPLOST, the voter-approved sales tax for transportation, but a citizen committee rejected the idea.
The ADDA will collect public comment over the next month with the goal of finishing the project within 18 months. Construction is expected to take about a year. To expedite the process, the ADDA is funding the $6 million overhaul itself, rather than wait for another round of sales tax projects.
“This is a badly needed project that the downtown community wants to see move forward,” ADDA Director of Planning and Outreach David Lynn told commissioners at a Sept. 10 work session presentation. “We’re willing to write the check.”
As part of Athens-Clarke County’s annual budget approved in June, county commissioners agreed to give a larger portion of net parking revenue—from 20% to 40%—to the ADDA, which the authority plans to devote to beautification projects that generate economic activity and encourage social interactions, Lynn said. In 2023, the additional revenue for the ADDA would have amounted to almost $300,000.
While the ADDA has the ability to issue bonds, the board decided last month that the best course of action would be to take out a conventional bank loan to fund the project, and Lynn said downtown officials have already met with several local banks that have agreed to the loan in principle. The loan would be repaid with the ADDA’s share of parking revenue (the other 60% goes into ACC’s general fund).
Closing College Square to cars had been discussed since at least the 1970s, but for decades merchants fought it because they would lose 16 parking spaces. In 2020,
for utilities to address concerns while College Square is dug up. But that will certainly have to come from their budgets,” he said.
Public outreach will include a website and an onsite kiosk with a QR code. In addition to already-identified stakeholders like downtown business and property owners, UGA, various ACC government departments, the Convention and Visitors Bureau and Historic Athens, who will be invited to attend one or more of three meetings, Commissioner Melissa Link suggested talking to festival organizers and artists as well, not wanting to leave out the “breakdancing unicyclists.”
She also raised concerns about brick pavers. “You’ve got coeds in high heels, scooters, people pushing strollers,” she said. Concrete stains easily, said Ed Lane, CEO of SPG Planners + Engineers in Watkinsville, while stone is more expensive.
The College Square project could evolve into a broader facelift known as “The Stitch,” extending further up College Avenue to City Hall, along Washington Street and across Broad Street to North Campus, strengthening connections between the two sides of downtown and between downtown and UGA, Lynn said. Broad Street, a state-owned highway, has always been viewed by local officials as untouchable, but lately the Georgia Department of Transportation has gotten better at working with cities on pedestrian safety improvements to state highways, according to Lynn. “It may be a new day with GDOT, and we’re looking forward to getting some help from our across-the-street partner,” he said.
The commission is scheduled to vote on the concept plan Oct. 1, and on an intergovernmental agreement with the ADDA, including financing, on Nov. 6. [BA]
Girtz Endorses Independent for DA
Commissioners then included $500,000 for planning and design.
Commissioner Carol Myers asked why the cost had fallen. “This was originally designed as a stormwater project” involving underground work, Lynn said. “We’re not doing that.” However, “It’s an opportunity
Mayor Kelly Girtz and four Athens-Clarke County commissioners have endorsed Kalki Yalamanchili, who is running as an independent against Democratic District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez. Girtz was joined by commissioners Allison Wright, Dexter Fisher, John Culpepper
A rendering of what College Square could look like in 2026.
and Mike Hamby, according to Yalamanchili’s campaign. The mayor and commission are officially nonpartisan, although Girtz, Wright, Fisher and Hamby are Democrats. In addition, five Republican elected officials have endorsed Yalamanchili: Watkinsville Mayor Brian Broderick, Oconee County Commission Chair John Daniell and commissioners Mark Saxon, Mark Thomas and Chuck Horton.
Girtz told Flagpole that he’s known Yalamanchili since the challenger was an assistant DA under Ken Mauldin, “and I’ve always found him to be well-reasoned and skilled.”
Gonzalez won narrowly in 2020—a year when politics around criminal justice lurched to the left after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd—against an independent and a more conservative Democrat on the strength of promises to prioritize rehabilitation over incarceration and focus on violent crime over nonviolent offenses like drug possession. The former media and entertainment lawyer deflected concerns about her lack of criminal justice experience by saying she would run the office and delegate courtroom work.
However, Gonzalez has been plagued by a chronic shortage of prosecutors—which she has blamed on low pay—and has been reprimanded by judges for her and her staff’s lack of preparation and knowledge of procedure. Most recently, Judge Lawton Stephens ordered Gonzalez and her staff to attend classes on victims’ rights after a fourth violation of Marcy’s Law, which requires prosecutors to attempt to contact victims before entering into a plea bargain.
Girtz said his endorsement was motivated in part by the harm done to both victims and defendants waiting too long for justice during Gonzalez’s tenure. “I’m excited to have a candidate who can make the system run,” he said.
Initially, Republicans—according to Gonzalez, motivated by her identity as the state’s first Latina DA—seized on Gonzalez’s refusal to prosecute drug crimes, even passing a law to “reign in” what they called “rogue DAs,” but as more and more accusations of incompetence emerged, she has also begun to lose support on the left.
“Some of the criticism of Deborah has been ham-fisted and silly,” Girtz said. “It’s also true that in the past four years the office has not been run effectively.”
As the only Democrat in the race, the ACC Democratic Committee has endorsed Gonzalez, as has ACC Commissioner Tiffany Taylor. Gonzalez responded to Yalamanchili’s endorsement announcement by tying him to Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s plan for a second Trump administration.
“It’s not surprising that my opponent is endorsed by the establishment and GOP in Athens-Clarke County,” she said in a social media post. “He promised to undo the community involvement and vital work I’ve worked hard to progress, his version of Project 2025. We cannot afford to regress to a justice system that is only fair for certain people, as he proposes. My endorsements are genuinely representative of the community, as I will always be the People’s DA.”
Yalamanchili responded: “Although my opponent wants to fearmonger and mislead people about the type of District Attorney’s office I will provide for our community, I can assure you my office will not need to be ordered by a judge to learn its duty to serve victims.” [BA]
UGA Accused of Anti-Arab Bias
The University of Georgia is facing a federal civil rights complaint for alleged anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian discrimination against its own students.
The Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Georgia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) have filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against UGA. CAIR and SJP allege that UGA violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through “extreme differential treatment of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students, students perceived to be Palestinian and students associated with or advocating for Palestinians,” referencing the arrests and suspensions of nine student protesters on Apr. 29.
The complaint alleges that UGA has enforced its freedom of expression policy in a discriminatory manner. The complaint includes numerous examples, including the suspensions of peaceful protesters without proper notice, locking these protesters out of their on-campus housing, terminating their employment and even barring them from campus and from their own graduations. The punishment was harsher than those handed out to other protesters who were found to have violated the university code of conduct in recent years. One student from a European background was reprimanded and ordered to write a two-page paper for occupying a classroom to protest the Georgia Board of Regents’ immigration policies.
CAIR-Georgia described how students associated with SJP have been the target of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and Islamophobic harassment on campus that has escalated since the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023.
“UGA’s targeted, discriminatory investigation of students and student organizations that are made up of mostly Palestinians, Arab or Muslim members, perceived to be Palestinian, affiliated with, or advocating in support of Palestinians amounts to a McCarthyist campaign to punish students for their identity and/or expressive activity, effectively shunning them from the UGA campus community,” the complaint stated.
CAIR-Georgia also said that “UGA did not take meaningful steps to end the harassment, prevent it from occurring or remedy its effects.” Instead, the group claims that “UGA reinforced the hostile anti-Palestinian environment” on campus. For example, UGA President Jere Morehead issued a statement of support for Jewish students after the terror attack on Oct. 7, but he has not done the same for Palestinian students.
“As an Arab and Muslim student at UGA, I have faced relentless doxing, threats and harassment both online and on campus,”
Zeena Mohamed said in a news release.
“I’ve been subjected to blatant racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia, and every time I sought support from the university, UGA not only failed to respond, but actively used its institutional power to target and profile myself and other Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students.”
CAIR-Georgia, together with SJP and attorneys Sarah Gerwig and Samantha Hamilton, called on the U.S. Department of Education to investigate UGA’s “failure” to protect these students from doxing and other threats and to “ensure UGA is held accountable for its unequal treatment of these students.” [Chris Dowd] f
America Is a Gun
THE CARNAGE CONTINUES, THIS TIME CLOSE TO HOME
By Ed Tant news@flagpole.com
“England is a cup of tea./ France a wheel of ripened brie./ Greece a short, squat olive tree./ America is a gun,” wrote British poet Brian Bilston in 2016. On Sept. 4, his grim verses were appropriate when Winder, not far from Athens, became the latest American city to feel the tragedy of gunfire. The alleged gunman, 14 years old, shot and killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School and wounded nine others.
The young shooter was arrested and will be tried as an adult. Months before the murders in Winder, he had been questioned by authorities about threatening online posts, but the boy’s father nonetheless purchased a lethal AR-15 rifle for his son as a Christmas present last year. Now the father himself is in jail awaiting trial on charges relating to the deaths and injuries caused by the son’s Christmas present. Times were simpler and safer for all when dear old dad gave sonny boy an electric train for Christmas. Today’s active shooter drills for school children are somehow even more poignant than the “duck and cover” nuclear bomb drills practiced in America’s schools during the fearful Cold War of the 1950s.
said that there were more than 4,000 mass shootings in the United States between 2014–2022. The FBI defines mass shootings as gun murders of four or more people during a single crime, and the murders in Winder on Sept. 4 fit that definition. Such crimes are nothing new in a nation where the cowboy with his six-shooter and the hard-boiled detective with his Magnum are part of our national mythology, and movies with titles like “Gun Crazy,” “Gun Fever,” “Gun Fury” and “Gun Glory” brought blazing gunfire to the silver screen.
“ Common-sense measures like requiring safe storage of weapons are ignored in Georgia.
On Sept. 6, 1949, a World War II combat veteran named Howard Unruh killed 13 people on what was called his “walk of death” through his Camden, NJ neighborhood. His weapon of choice was a German Luger pistol of the type favored by Nazi soldiers in the war. When apprehended by police, an angry cop asked Unruh if he was “a psycho.” Unruh replied, “I’m no psycho. I have a good mind.” The state of New Jersey disagreed. Unruh was confined to a mental institution until his death at age 88 in 2009.
The eyes of the nation were focused on Winder in the aftermath of the tragedy. Newspapers across the nation gave front-page coverage to the school shooting, and the sad event dominated evening television news coverage here in Georgia and across America. Winder is a charming Georgia town whose citizens responded with compassion when Winder joined a grim and ever-growing roster of towns, cities and rural hamlets that have been raked by American gunfire— places with names like Columbine, Newtown, Uvalde, Parkland, Buffalo and so many more.
The tragedies continue almost every day, but lessons remain unlearned. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said after the shootings in Winder, “Today is not the day for politics or policy.” Actually, politics and policy are exactly what is needed today in a state that has some of the most permissive gun laws in America, and where such pro-gun Republican politicians as Mike Collins and Athens gun merchant Andrew Clyde represent this area of Georgia in Congress. Common-sense measures like requiring safe storage of weapons are ignored in Georgia. Guns often fall into the hands of criminals who steal them from unlocked vehicles, but careless Georgia gun owners who leave their guns unsecured in their cars never have to worry about losing their gun permits or their drivers’ licenses.
Last year a report by the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association
On Aug. 1, 1966, gunman Charles Whitman killed 15 people from his sniper’s perch in a clock tower high above Austin, TX. Whitman’s sampler of death-dealing weapons included rifles, pistols and a shotgun. He was killed by police after a 90-minute siege. Right here in Athens, on Apr. 25, 2009, three members of the local Town & Gown theater group were killed by gunman George Zinkham, a university professor who was later found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The carnage continues. “America is a gun.” f
BARROW COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Alleged Barrow County school shooter Colt Gray
New COVID Vaccine
COST WILL RISE FOR MANY UNINSURED PATIENTS AS FEDERAL PROGRAM ENDS
By Rebecca Grapevine Healthbeat Atlanta news@flagpole.com
Updated COVID vaccines now on shelves could come with serious sticker shock for more than a million Georgians who don’t have health insurance. The shot costs around $201.99 for uninsured patients paying out of pocket at CVS, spokesperson Amy Thibault said.
The newly approved COVID vaccines should provide “great coverage” for current versions of the virus and will be effective in preventing serious hospitalizations and death, Emory University epidemiologist Jodie Guest said. But doctors and public health practitioners are concerned about vaccine access and equity as Georgia is seeing “very high” rates of COVID and the federal Bridge Access Program, which provided vaccines to uninsured adults, ends this month.
With about 1 million uninsured adults under age 65, Georgia has one of the highest uninsured rates in the country. It also has a low vaccination rate, with only around 17% of adults having received last year’s COVID vaccine as of May this year, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. “This season is going to be a very difficult COVID and flu season,” said Cecil Bennett, a family medicine doctor and fellow at Morehouse School of Medicine. He warned that the ending of the federal vaccine access program could contribute to lost productivity and more deaths. COVID caused 2.4% of all deaths in Georgia in the week leading up to Aug. 10, according to the CDC. “This is not the time that I would say the federal government should be penny wise and pound foolish,” Bennett said.
For comparison, New York state also has about 1 million uninsured people. But NYC Health + Hospitals, the city’s public health system, continues to offer COVID-19 vaccines at no cost to patients, said Jonathan Jimenez, a primary care doctor and executive director of NYC Care, which connects uninsured New Yorkers to services.
Public Health spokesperson Nancy Nydam said. That would bring the state’s supply to 38,140 vaccines for uninsured and underinsured adults. Those would be distributed to county health departments and around 30 external providers through the state’s Adult Vaccine Program. While that’s “still not enough to cover every uninsured and underinsured adult in Georgia,” Nydam said, “this still puts us in a better position to serve adults who seek service through our [Adult Vaccine Program] provider sites.”
Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy
Beyond that program, the state health department plans to roll out its annual multi-platform campaign in the fall encouraging people to be vaccinated for COVID and flu, Nydam said. The campaign will include billboards, radio/TV, digital, web and social media.
people got COVID vaccines from the board of health between January and April, spokesperson Eric Nickens said. In neighboring Fulton County, with a population just over 1 million, spokesperson Darryl Carver said the board of health has “actively continued promoting” vaccines as part of its #VaccineWorks campaign. But the agency has administered just 375 COVID vaccines so far this year.
Charity Clinics Lack Funds
The end of the free federal vaccine program also means that nonprofit and charity clinics must now cobble together funds to provide vaccines, and some clinics are not able to provide them at all.
Georgia’s 35 federally funded nonprofit health centers (including the Athens Neighborhood Health Center) will be able to continue providing vaccines, said Theresa Jacobs, medical director for the Georgia Primary Care Association, which represents the clinics. The clinics serve around 650,000 patients a year, about a third of whom are uninsured. The clinics will rely on partnerships with public health departments and other groups as well as “small grants” to fill in the gaps for uninsured adults. “They’re not going to miss a beat,” Jacobs said. “They’re going to still be able to offer them
provides COVID vaccines at its primary care clinic and neighborhood health centers, spokesperson Danielle Hackett said. Representatives of another large health system, Piedmont Healthcare, did not respond to questions about whether they provide the vaccine.
Uninsured Left Vulnerable
Some vaccine advocates say that given Georgia’s low uptake rates, health care providers and policymakers should focus on removing as many barriers to access as possible.
“The way that I think about this is that the second someone decides they’re ready to get a vaccine, there should be no additional barriers to that,” said Marquisha Johns, associate director for public health policy at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. “We should make it as easy as possible for them to take the very next step into actually getting the shot in their arm, because there are already so many barriers to getting the person to the first step.”
The end of the bridge program puts a burden on uninsured Georgians who need key preventive care like the COVID-19 vaccines, said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, a health advocacy group in Atlanta. Uninsured Georgians may have to cover their own vaccine costs, Colbert said, which “unfairly leaves them vulnerable to illnesses and health conditions that other Georgians are better protected from.”
Nationwide, the vaccines will still be free for Marketplace and Medicare enrollees. Uninsured, underinsured and Medicaideligible kids should be able to get the vaccines for free under Vaccines for Children. And CVS said the shots should be free under most insurance plans at in-network pharmacies.
The CDC last week announced a tranche of $62 million that states across the country can use to buy vaccines for uninsured people as the Bridge Access Program ends. Georgia already planned to purchase 4,600 updated COVID shots for underinsured and uninsured people, and last month applied to the CDC for funds to cover an additional 33,540 shots, Department of
Vaccine events are typically held at the district level. Events and clinic hours and appointments are listed on district websites and social media. DPH also works with the Community Organized Relief Effort to provide vaccines through local organizations and faith-based groups.
Harry Heiman, a clinical professor at Georgia State University’s School of Public Health, said he would love to see how the state might work to boost federal efforts and fill any gaps. “Those are the kinds of state level plans that even in the absence of guidance from the federal government you would hope are being put into place,” Heiman said.
For many local Georgia health departments, uptake remains a challenge. For example, in DeKalb County, with a population of about 760,000, fewer than 200
either free or at a very low discounted price for those that are uninsured.”
But some charity clinics are not able to offer COVID vaccines. For example, Clarkston Community Health Center, a free health clinic that serves uninsured people, including many refugees, is no longer able to provide any vaccines, said executive director Jeremy Cole, because of “funding shortages.”
“Funding for a charitable clinic is always a challenge, and we have not had grants or funding in the past few years that would allow us to relaunch a vaccine program,” Cole said. “But we are working on it.”
Many large metro Atlanta health systems like Wellstar, Emory and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta do not offer the vaccine onsite, instead referring patients to other providers. Grady Health System
Johns pointed out that Georgia policymakers could find a way to increase funding for vaccines in the state, especially since the state has a large uninsured population. “If they wanted to make that a priority, they definitely, absolutely could say, like, ‘Us as the state of Georgia will guarantee that all of our uninsured people will have access to these. Every uninsured person will have access to these five vaccines,’” Johns said.
“The vaccine should be available for everyone,” said Christopher Pride, the director of clinical care at Positive Impact Health Centers, which provides comprehensive sexual health care in Atlanta. “Cost can make people, you know, determine whether they’re going to put food on their table or get a vaccine.”
Pride said he ensures the Positive Impact clinics always have vaccines available to patients. With the ending of the Bridge Access Program, the clinic has turned to other funding streams to ensure it can continue to offer the shots at low or no cost to patients. “People who are hesitant are more likely to accept the vaccine from someone they trust, and that’s why the doctor’s office is key,” Pride said. “We will ensure that we always have it, regardless if you’re insured or uninsured.” f
This story was originally published by Healthbeat. Sign up for their public health newsletters at healthbeat.org/newsletters. New York Healthbeat reporter Eliza Fawcett contributed to this report.
TV Made Willie Mays a Star AND
THAT STARDOM HELPED IMPROVE RACE RELATIONS
By James C. Cobb news@flagpole.com
Except for a fortunate few who got to see Willie Mays play in person, most Americans of my generation fell under his almost mesmerizing spell while watching him on TV.
Mays’ unmatched skills—and the unaffected, nearly childlike exuberance he brought to the game of baseball—quickly won a multitude of white fans, even in the South, where I grew up amid angry calls for “massive resistance” to school desegregation. It’s fair to ask whether Mays could have managed this so readily had his early career not coincided so closely with the emergence of television as a national medium.
Mays, his biographer James Hirsch explained, “always saw himself as an entertainer first,” and television “gave him the ideal stage” for the amazing things he did—on the field and later off of it, as a sought-after guest on popular programs from talk shows like “Today” and “The Tonight Show” to sitcoms like “The Donna Reed Show” and “Bewitched.” A surge in TV ownership, from 9% of American households in 1950 to 65% in 1955, gave millions of Americans their first chance to see the miracle of Willie Mays with their own eyes. What they saw on their screens helped to blur the color line at a crucial point in our history.
Until the mid-1950s, most Americans could find live baseball only on their radios. The 1947 World Series pitting the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers and featuring MLB’s first Black player, Jackie Robinson, was the first to be televised—but only in Washington, DC, and three select urban markets in New York and Pennsylvania. Only one in 10 American homes had a TV in May 1951, when Willie Mays made his New York Giants debut. By that point, 16 Black players had already appeared in a major league uniform, and more than a third of teams were integrated. The color barrier had been breached, but the great majority of fans still couldn’t see the results for themselves.
set in the South of my boyhood. Still, the episode foreshadowed the importance of television in allowing white Southerners to see the reality of racial integration in their most beloved sport.
Seeing integration didn’t mean all whites in the South or elsewhere were ready to accept it, but Willie Mays was about to make that easier for many of them. Giants fans sensed his enormous potential in 1951, but he missed the next two seasons
ciated. Radio play-by-play simply could not do justice to his on-field artistry. Al Helfer, the veteran calling the 1954 series for the Mutual Radio Network, could only describe Mays’ play on the Wertz drive as “a beautiful, beautiful catch.”
I did not see “The Catch.” It would be another year before my parents could afford even the cheapest Emerson TV. I was only 8, but I had already listened to enough Giants games on the radio and devoured enough box scores to qualify as a prepubescent Willie Mays groupie. Stuck out in the country with no siblings to distract me, I rarely missed the CBS “Game of the Week,” anchored by the irrepressible Dizzy Dean and his broadcast partner Buddy Blattner. Chances were good that I’d be tuned in regardless of the matchup, but I was certain to be glued to the screen whenever the Giants were playing.
due to military service. By the time he returned in 1954 to bat .333 and hit 41 home runs, fans across the country could take in his dazzling feats at the plate, in the field and on the basepaths courtesy of ABC’s “Game of the Week.”
This was true especially in rural areas. Scarcely 5% of households in the rural Georgia of my youth had television sets in 1950. Everyone knew that Jackie Robinson was Black—but radio broadcasters rarely identified any players by race.
One of my great uncles was known both for his love of baseball and his hostility to Black people. Family legend has it that listening to Giants games on the radio left him quite a fan of outfielder Monte Irvin, one of two Black players who joined the team in 1948. When a mischievous family member asked him if he realized Irvin was Black, the old man flew into an apoplectic rage at the broadcasters for concealing this critical information from him.
This was but one of many tragicomic absurdities wrought by the Jim Crow mind-
Many of the record 23 million viewers who watched NBC’s broadcast of the 1954 World Series between the Giants and the Cleveland Indians were seeing Willie Mays play for the first time. He did not disappoint. In Game 1, after a long rundown and over-the-shoulder-grab of a blistering Vic Wertz liner, Mays pivoted on a dime and made a laser-beam throw to the infield to hold a Cleveland runner at third. All of this made for a stunning visual that was vintage Mays, down to losing his cap and coming to rest sprawled on the outfield grass. What would soon be known simply as “The Catch” became one of the most replayed film clips in sports history.
Mays thought he had made better catches, including a couple of barehanded grabs during his rookie season. But with millions watching, “The Catch” made the 23-year-old Mays an instant—and enduring—legend. It also marked him as the ideal athlete for the television age: The things Mays did had to be seen to be fully appre-
back on the suffering inflicted on Blacks during his boyhood in Birmingham, AL. Neither charge was accurate, nor fair. Mays needed no reminder of what Blacks were up against in Birmingham. He got a very personal taste of that in October 1951 when Eugene “Bull” Connor, the city’s notoriously racist police commissioner, waited until the very last second to pull the permit for a long-planned “Willie Mays Day” parade honoring the National League’s Rookie of the Year. He was the biggest star in baseball 12 years later when a Birmingham TV station refused to air a documentary on him. Robinson surely had it worse, but Mays was no stranger to the segregated restaurants, hotels and buses that still awaited Black players in some major league cities well into the 1950s. Even after the Giants moved to San Francisco, Mays had to stubbornly stand his ground until the owner who initially refused to sell him the house he wanted in a white neighborhood finally relented. Still, rather than attack discrimination publicly, he pursued Black advancement in his own understated and indirect way, steering younger Black and Latino players—from Willie McCovey to Bobby and Barry Bonds—clear of pitfalls that might derail their careers.
In the rural South of that era, a little white boy who openly sang the praises of any Black man was enough of a rarity to attract some teasing from friends. But my mother loved Willie, too, and other adults seemed to assume that my ardor would cool as I grew older and wiser to the racial proscriptions of the “Southern way of life.” That would not happen: My shame at boarding a school bus while the Black kids who lived nearby trudged a mile or so up the road to their weathered two-room schoolhouse assured that much.
Though few of Mays’ fellow Black players seemed to begrudge his fame and stature, some challenged him to make better use of the bully pulpit they afforded him. As the first Black major leaguer in 1947, Jackie Robinson had run the gauntlet of racial abuse, both physical and psychological. He redirected some of his smoldering resentment at Black players who did not join him in openly attacking racial discrimination. Mays’ enormous popularity made his reluctance to mount the soapbox even less forgivable to Robinson, who stopped just short of calling him an “Uncle Tom,” but reminded Mays of how much he had benefited from the “battles fought by others” before him, and accused him of turning his
Biographer Hirsch suggests that seeing Mays become an overnight sensation prompted other franchises to add Black players to their rosters. Three years after he joined the Giants, the number of teams with Black players had doubled from six to 12. The boyish, down-to-earth superhero often seen playing stickball with Black kids in the streets of Harlem might not have been grooming future activists, but he sent a message that humility and openness were neither signs of weakness nor detriments to getting ahead. Former president Barack Obama thought Mays’ easy rapport with white fans had “change[d] racial attitudes in a way political speeches never could” and credited Mays’ exemplary career for allowing “someone like me to even consider running for president.”
Bull Connor was not there to thwart a three-day salute to the old Negro leagues at Birmingham’s historic Rickwood Field, which concluded with a game between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals on June 20. Yet the real highlight of the affair promised to be an expected appearance by Mays, whose professional baseball career began at Rickwood in 1948 with the Birmingham Black Barons.
A heartbroken Mays revealed on June 17 that his health would not allow him to be there. When he died the next day, the salute to the Negro leagues blossomed into a fullblown celebration of his life and career. But the most fitting tribute came from the 2.4 million television viewers, a huge audience for a Thursday night game, who tuned in to bid Willie Mays farewell through the medium that first brought his magic into the lives of so many Americans, including my own. f
James C. Cobb is the Spalding Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Georgia. His latest book is C. Vann Woodward: America’s Historian.
Willie Mays (right) appeared with comedian Milton Berle on ABC’s “The Hollywood Palace” in 1967.
event calendar
Tuesday 17
CLASSES: Internet 101: Privacy and Security (ACC Library) Learn how to protect your data, recognize security risks and get tips on how to manage your personal information. Registration required. 10 a.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org
CLASSES: ESOL (Bogart Library) Learn or polish your English skills using Mango languages online and in-person conversation. 12 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/bogart
COMEDY: Open Toad Comedy Night (Flicker Theatre & Bar) Comedy performed by a mix of newcomers and local favorites from Athens and Atlanta. 9 p.m. (doors). $7. www.flickertheatreandbar.com
EVENTS: Our Casa Es Tu Casa (Athentic Brewing Co.) Casa de Amistad’s first annual fundraiser will feature food, music, dancing and a silent auction. 5:30–8 p.m. www.athenticbrewing.com
FILM: Club Ned Anime Society (ACC Library) Join club members to watch and discuss episodes of “Paranoia Agent,” “Domestic Girlfriend” and “The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.” 6:30–8:30 p.m. FREE! www.animefandom.org
GAMES: Lunch and Learn New Games (Tyche’s Games) Come down with your lunch and try out some new games. 11:30 a.m. FREE! www.tychesgames.com
GAMES: Bad Dog Trivia (Eddie’s Calzones) Test your trivia knowledge with host TJ Wayt. Tuesdays, 7 p.m. www.facebook.com/baddog athens
GAMES: Classic City Trivia (Akademia Brewing Co.) Test your trivia knowledge with host Garrett Lennox. 7 p.m. FREE! www.facebook.com/ ClassicCityTriviaCo
GAMES: Singo! (Beef O’Brady’s) Win gift certificates and prizes at this music bingo night. Tuesdays, 7–9 p.m. www.beefobradys.com/athens
GAMES: Trivia Night (Hi-Lo Lounge) Test your trivia knowledge. 8 p.m. FREE! www.facebook.com/ hilolounge
KIDSTUFF: Storytime (Oconee County Library) Drop in and join Ms. Jera for rhymes, songs, movement, a story and a craft. Ages 5 & under. 11 a.m. & 12 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/oconee
KIDSTUFF: Crafternoon (Oconee County Library) Drop in for a craft or two. Supplies Provided. All ages. Tuesdays, 3:30–5:30 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/oconee
LECTURES & LIT: Historic Athens History Hour (Lyndon House Arts Center) Learn about the history of the Ellard-Weir House and the steps toward its preservation with the Historic Cobbham Foundation. 12 p.m. FREE! www.historicathens.com
LECTURES & LIT: Athentic Book Club (Athentic Brewing Co.) Pick up a copy of Happy Place by Emily Henry and discuss it with the group. 6 p.m. FREE! www.athenticbrewing. com
MEETINGS: Memoir Writing Group (Bogart Library) During this monthly group, hear memoirs from others and learn tips on how to write your own. 5:30 p.m. FREE! www.athens library.org/bogart
SPORTS: Classic City Pétanque Club (Lay Park) New players welcome. Scheduled days are Tues-
days, Thursdays and Sundays at 10 a.m. info@petanque.org, www. athenspetanque.org
Wednesday 18
ART: Lyndon House Arts Foundation Fundraiser (Hidden Gem) Screen prints of “Creatures at Dusk” by Michele Dross will be on sale. 6 p.m. www.accgov.com/ lyndonhouse
CLASSES: Salsa Dancing (El Carretonero) Join SALSAthens for Cuban salsa lessons meeting a variety of dance abilities. Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m. (advanced), 7:30 p.m. (beginner/intermediate). $10. SALSAthensDancing@gmail.com
CLASSES: Microsoft Word: Basic Formatting (ACC Library) Learn how to create a word document and to format text, insert content and more. Registration required. 6:30 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org
COMEDY: Gorgeous George’s Improv League (Buvez) Townie improv that invites you to bring suggestions. Wednesdays, 7 p.m. $5 suggested donation. www.flying squidcomedy.com
COMEDY: Hendershot’s Comedy (Hendershot’s) Enjoy a lineup featuring comics from Athens and Atlanta as well as newcomers. Hosted by Noell Appling. Third Wednesdays, 8 p.m. www.hendershotsathens.com
EVENTS: Athens Farmers Market (Creature Comforts Brewery) Markets offer fresh produce, flowers, eggs, meats, prepared foods, art and crafts. Live music at 6 p.m. AFM doubles SNAP dollars spent. Wednesdays, 5–8 p.m. www.athens farmersmarket.net
EVENTS: Summer Soiree (The Venue on Broad) In benefit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Athens, there will be music, auctions, food, wine tasting and more. 6 p.m. $75–125. www.greatfuturesathens.com
FILM: Three Star Cinema (Flicker Theatre & Bar) Screening of the 1986 action sport film No Retreat No Surrender. 7 p.m. FREE! www. flickertheatreandbar.com
GAMES: Shadowfist Power Lunch (Tyche’s Games) Come down with your lunch and play Shadowfist. New players welcome. 12 p.m. FREE! www.tychesgames.com
GAMES: Love.Craft Bingo Night (Athentic Brewing Co.) A bingo event benefiting the nonprofit organization Love.Craft Athens. 6:30–8 p.m. $5. www.lovecraftathens.org
GAMES: Trivia Night (Normal Bar) Test your trivia knowledge. 7 p.m. FREE! www.facebook.com/normal. bar.7
GAMES: Classic City Trivia (The Local 706) Test your trivia knowledge with host Garrett Lennox. 7 p.m. FREE! www.facebook.com/ ClassicCityTriviaCo
GAMES: Bad Dog Trivia (Eddie’s Calzones) Test your trivia knowledge with host Nickalous Benson. Wednesdays, 7 p.m. www.facebook. com/baddogathens
KIDSTUFF: Busy Bee Toddler Time (Bogart Library) Join Ms. Donna for rhymes, songs, puppets and a story. 10 a.m. & 11 a.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/bogart
KIDSTUFF: Playtime Express (Oconee County Library) Join a train-themed small group playtime.
KIDSTUFF: LEGO Mania (Bogart Library) Drop in to free build and create. All ages. 3–5 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/bogart
OUTDOORS: ‘Normal’ Run (Athentic Brewing Co.) Join the Athens Road Runners for a 1–3 mile run that starts and ends at Athentic Brewing. Every other Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. FREE! www.athentic brewing.com
Thursday 19
ART: Opening Reception (Tiger’s Eye Gallery) Celebrated poet, Rumi translator and UGA professor emeritus Coleman Barks will have paintings on view accompanied by other works by local artists. 5–9 p.m. FREE! www.tigerseyegallery.com
ART: Opening Reception (ACE/ FRANCISCO Gallery) Painter Tobiah Cole’s exhibition of Grit portraits will be on view. 5–9 p.m. FREE! www.acefranciscogallery.com
ART: Photography Exhibition and Book Release (ACE/FRANCISCO Gallery) Athens photographer Jason Thrasher will discuss and sign copies of his book Murmur Trestle with his photography exhibition on display. 5–9 p.m. FREE! www. acefranciscogallery.com
ART: Opening Reception (OX Fine Art – The Leathers Building) The work of Art Rosenbaum will be on view. 5–8 p.m. FREE! www.face book.com/oxfineart
ART: Opening Reception (tiny ATH gallery) Painter Jason Matherly’s exhibition “Stay On It Stay On It Stay On It” will be on view. 6–9 p.m. FREE! www.tinyathgallery.com
ART: Artist Talk (Lyndon House Arts Center) Atlanta artist Elaine Stephenson will discuss her upcoming outdoor mural work “Water is Life.” 6 p.m. FREE! www.accgov.com/ lyndonhouse
CLASSES: Yoga in the Galleries (Georgia Museum of Art) Enjoy a yoga class in the art galleries led by instructors from Five Points Yoga. Open to all skill levels. Attend in person (first come, first served) or via Zoom. 6 p.m. FREE! www.georgiamuseum.org
CLASSES: Pottery and Prosecco (Southern Star Studio) Learn how to handbuild and make your own piece of pottery to take home with drinks and light refreshments. Registration required. 6:30 p.m. $75. www. southernstarstudioathens.com
COMEDY: Comedy in the Cellar (Onward Reserve) Athens Comedy presents a lineup of touring and local comedians. Thursdays, 8 p.m. $7. www.instagram.com/ athenscomedy
COMEDY: Roast Battle Round 2 (Onward Reserve) Local comedians will go head-to-head in a roast battle with winners advancing to the quarter final. 8:30 p.m. $10–15. www.athenscomedy.com
EVENTS: Talk (and Dress!) Like a Pirate Day (Oglethorpe Co. Library) All ages are welcome to celebrate by crafting a pirate hat and taking home a piece of the treasure. 10 a.m.–6 p.m. FREE! www. athenslibrary.org/oglethorpe
EVENTS: Grand Opening (PlainJane Designs) The new boutique will
celebrate its opening with raffles and provide a chance to browse its goods and services. 10 a.m.–5 p.m. FREE! www.instagram.com/ plainjanedesigns
EVENTS: Willson Center Friends Fundraiser (Big City Bread Café) Enjoy music and conversation with all proceeds going to the Director’s Fund in the Humanities and Arts. 6 p.m. $50. willson.uga.edu
EVENTS: Athens in the Streets (First American Bank & Trust (Main Office)) An afternoon of fun with food trucks, a street concert, UGA Offensive Line signing autographs and more. 5–7:30 p.m. FREE! www. fabt.bank
EVENTS: Sip & Shuck 2024 (Hardeman-Sams House & Garden) Enjoy an evening of oysters and live music with funds benefitting various programs of The Cancer Foundation. 6 p.m. $125. www. cancerfoundationofnega.org
GAMES: BINGO (VFW Post 2872) Join in to play this weekly game of chance. Thursdays, 6 p.m. (doors). FREE! www.facebook.com/vfw2872
GAMES: Thursday Trivia (Johnny’s New York Style Pizza) Test your trivia knowledge with host Jon Head. 6:30 p.m. www.johnnyspizza. com
GAMES: UnPhiltered Trivia (Buvez) Test your trivia knowledge with host Phil. 7 p.m. www.instagram.com/ buvez_athens
KIDSTUFF: Open Play (Oconee County Library) Drop in for playtime that’s focused on encouraging early literacy and brain building. Ages 5 & under. 11 a.m. FREE! www. athenslibrary.org/oconee
KIDSTUFF: LEGO Club (Oconee County Library) Drop in to free build and create, or do one of the fun LEGO challenges. Ages 5–12. Thursdays, 3:30–5:30. FREE! www. athenslibrary.org/oconee
KIDSTUFF: Read to Rover (Bogart Library) Drop in to read a story to Maisy Jane and her furry friends. Ages 4 & up. 4–5 p.m. FREE! www. athenslibrary.org/bogart
KIDSTUFF: Tween Busy Bees Hangout (Oconee County Library) Work on the Busy Bee Card with the month’s special activity of making s’mores. Ages 8–11. Registration required. 4 p.m. FREE! www.athens library.org/oconee
KIDSTUFF: Teen Dungeons & Dragons (Bogart Library) Join the volunteer led role-playing adventure where you can fight dragons, join an army, go on a quest in distant lands or find hidden treasure. 6 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/ bogart
LECTURES & LIT: The Future of the Past (101 LeConte Hall) Jim Grossman will discuss broadening historical research. 12:45 p.m. FREE! history.uga.edu
MEETINGS: Coffee Hour (Oconee County Library) Drop in to drink some coffee, while supplies last. Thursdays, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/oconee
MEETINGS: KnitLits Knitting Group (Bogart Library) Knitters of all levels are invited to have fun, share craft ideas and knit to their hearts’ content. Thursdays, 6 p.m. FREE! www. athenslibrary.org/bogart
SPORTS: Classic City Pétanque Club (Lay Park) New players welcome. Scheduled days are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at
THEATER: Everybody (UGA Cellar Theatre) UGA Theatre presents a modern adaptation of the 15th century morality tale Everyman that faces what truly matters once the end is near. Sept. 19–21 & 25–28, 8 p.m. Sept. 29, 2 p.m. $18. uga theatre.com/everybody
Friday 20
ART: Curator’s Talk (UGA Special Collections Library) Photographer Jason Thrasher will discuss the story behind his 2017 book that inspired the exhibition “Athens Potluck.” 3 p.m. FREE! libs.uga.edu
CLASSES: Altered Books (Treehouse Kid & Craft) Adults can engage in creative journaling with a variety of provided materials and new methods. 6 p.m. $40. www. treehousekidandcraft.com
COMEDY: Pride & Prejudice: Improv Movie Parody (Marigold Auditorium for Arts and Culture)
This improvised production of Jane Austen’s tale includes costumes, a stage and even props. Sept. 20–21, 7 p.m. $10. www.marigoldauditorium.com
EVENTS: Terrapin Mobile Food Pantry (Terrapin Beer Co.) First come, first serve rain or shine food distribution for those in need who meet income eligibility requirements. Third Fridays, 10 a.m.–12 p.m. FREE! www.terrapinbeer.com
EVENTS: Letters to Seniors (Oconee County Library) Drop-in to write meaningful letters that will be distributed to seniors living in Georgia. 11 a.m. FREE! www.athens library.org/oconee
EVENTS: Oktoberfest (Athentic Brewing Co.) Celebrate with traditional German vibes, German fares, a beer release, a costume contest and live music. 5–11 p.m. FREE! www.athenticbrewing.com
GAMES: Chess Club (Winterville Cultural Center) Join others for a weekly chess competition. Fridays, 6–10 p.m. FREE! www.winterville center.com
GAMES: Friday Night Initiative (Online: Tyche’s Games) Learn how to play a new roleplaying game. New players welcome. 7 p.m. FREE! www.tychesgames.com
KIDSTUFF: Meet & Play (Bogart Library) Drop in for facilitated open play with age-appropriate toys. Best for ages 6 & under. Every Friday, 10:30 a.m. FREE! www.athens library.org/bogart
KIDSTUFF: Homeschool Meet-Up (Oglethorpe Co. Library) Drop in to learn and interact with other homeschool families and students of all ages. 2 p.m. FREE! www.athens library.org/oglethorpe
THEATER: Little Women (Oconee County Civic Center) A Broadway musical adaptation based on the classic story by Louisa May Alcott. Sep. 20–21, 7:30 p.m. Sep. 22, 3 p.m. $10–20. www.collectiveartistsworkshop.org
THEATER: Everybody (UGA Cellar Theatre) UGA Theatre presents a modern adaptation of the 15th century morality tale Everyman that faces what truly matters once the end is near. Sept. 19–21 & 25–28, 8 p.m. Sept. 29, 2 p.m. $18. uga theatre.com/everybody
Saturday 21
ART: Steam Roller Printmaking (Lyndon House Arts Center) Visit the studios of artists to view the process of carving large-scale relief blocks. Sept. 14 & 21, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. www.accgov.com/myrec
ART: Fall Open House (Georgia Museum of Art) View the fall special exhibitions, win door prizes throughout the day and enjoy curator-led tours of “Mind the Gap.” 10 a.m.–5 p.m. FREE! www. georgiamuseum.org
ART: Closing Reception (Hendershot’s) More than 20 local artists will have art for sale with a percentage donated to the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Society. There will be refreshments and live music. 3–8 p.m. $10 donation. www.christina joystudio.com/together-we-dazzle
CLASSES: Adopt-A-Stream Volunteer Workshop (Sandy Creek Nature Center) Learn more about how to adopt a stream, the qualities of clean water and how to utilize chemical and bacterial monitoring. Registration required. 9 a.m.–5 p.m. FREE! www.accgov.com
COMEDY: Pride & Prejudice: Improv Movie Parody (Marigold Auditorium for Arts and Culture) This improvised production of Jane Austen’s tale includes costumes, a stage and even props. Sept. 20–21, 7 p.m. $10. www.marigoldauditorium.com
EVENTS: Danielsville Farmers Market (Danielsville City Hall) Browse vendors with an array of homemade, handmade and stategrown products. 8 a.m.–12 p.m. www.danielsvillemarket.wixsite. com/farmersmarket
EVENTS: Athens Farmers Market (Bishop Park) Markets offer locally grown groceries and handmade goods with live music and children’s activities. AFM doubles SNAP dollars spent. Saturdays, 8 a.m.–12 p.m. www.athensfarmers market.net
EVENTS: 10th Anniversary Celebration (Lexington Vintage) There will be snacks, raffles and store discounts. 10 a.m.–5 p.m. www. lexingtonvintageathens.com
EVENTS: Bag of Books Sale (Front Porch Bookstore) Browse books for sale. Saturdays, 10 a.m.–7 p.m. $10/bag. Front Porch Bookstore on Facebook
EVENTS: Solar System Walk Planetarium Program (Sandy Creek Nature Center) Explore what makes up our solar system, then go for a walk to visualize how spread out it is. Registration required. 10 a.m. $5 (ACC residents), $7.50 (non-residents). www.accgov.com/myrec EVENTS: Secret Record Swap (Athentic Brewing Co.) Vendors from around the Southeast will be buying, trading and selling records, CDs, tapes, books, posters, DVDs and more. 11 a.m. (early admission). $5. 12–5 p.m. FREE! www. athenticbrewing.com
EVENTS: Bishop Boogie (5000 Macon Hwy.) The second annual fall festival event featuring food
trucks, vendors, a kids zone, live music, a 5K and more. 11 a.m.–8 p.m. FREE! www.townofbishop.org
EVENTS: West Broad Farmers
Market (Rocksprings Park Pavilion) Vendors will be on site with fresh produce, local fare, rare plants, artisan goods and more. Saturdays, 11 a.m.–2 p.m. FREE! www.athens landtrust.org/wbfm
EVENTS: Ecstatic Dance (work. shop) This ceremony of rejuvenation and inspiration is a substance-free and inclusive musical celebration. 1–3 p.m. $15. www. instagram.com/ecstatic_dance_ athens_ga
EVENTS: Celebrate Democracy (J. Cliff Yarbrough Memorial Park) Meet your state and local candidates with keynote speaker Jon Ossof. 1–4 p.m. FREE! mcga democrats.wixsite.com/mcdp
EVENTS: Tea Tasting (The Cafe on Lumpkin) Try six different teas with an explanation of their flavors and how they are made. 3 p.m. $20. www.thecafeonlumpkin.com
EVENTS: Bayou Bodega (The Old Pal) Browse locally crafted goods and more, then celebrate the Old Pals’ 11th anniversary with a dance party. 5–7 p.m. www.theoldpal.com
EVENTS: AFMDS Contra Dance (Memorial Park Administration Building) This community dance features caller Jennie Inglis and live music by Snapfinger. No partner required. 6:30 p.m. (intro session), 7 p.m. (dance). $12 (adults), $10 (students w/ ID), 17 & under FREE! www.athensfolk.org
EVENTS: Photography Book Release & Variety Show (40 Watt Club) Jason Thrasher will sign his newest book Murmur Trestle with performances by musicians from his Athens Potluck book and a Grit-themed potluck dinner, in benefit of Nuçi’s Space. 7 p.m. $10. www.40watt.com
EVENTS: Groovy Nights (VFW Post 2872) Dust off the disco ball, grab a dancing partner and enjoy tunes from the ’70s and ’80s as well as an epic lip sync battle. Proceeds benefit Project Safe. 8 p.m. $35–55. www.project-safe.org
GAMES: Pathfinder Society RPG (Tyche’s Games) Come and adventure with the Pathfinder Society. 12 p.m. FREE! www.tychesgames.com
GAMES: Chess Club (Oconee County Library) Drop in for open chess play for all skill levels. 3 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/oconee
KIDSTUFF: Family Day: Mind the Gap (Georgia Museum of Art) View the exhibition “Mind the Gap: Selections from the Permanent Collection” with interactive gallery activities and a take-home art project. 10 a.m.–12 p.m. FREE! www. georgiamuseum.org
KIDSTUFF: Sparkling Fun with Sparkelina Unicorn (Bogart Library) Enjoy a unicorn storytime with sparkling unicorn crafts. 11 a.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/ bogart
MEETINGS: Atheist Society of Athens Meet & Greet (ACC Library) Non-prophet discussions with friends and neighbors. Third Saturdays, 4 p.m. FREE! www.atheist societyathens.org
THEATER: Little Women (Oconee County Civic Center) A Broadway musical adaptation based on the classic story by Louisa May Alcott. Sep. 20–21, 7:30 p.m. Sep. 22, 3 p.m. $10–20. www.collectiveartists workshop.org
THEATER: Everybody (UGA Cellar Theatre) UGA Theatre presents a modern adaptation of the 15th century morality tale Everyman that faces what truly matters once the end is near. Sept. 19–21 & 25–28,
8 p.m. Sept. 29, 2 p.m. $18. uga theatre.com/everybody
Sunday 22
CLASSES: Fall Equinox Restorative Circle (Shakti Power Yoga) Celebrate the equinox with cacao, restorative yoga, reiki and a sound bath. Registration required. 6 p.m. $35. shaktiyogaathens.com
COMEDY: The Black Power Rangers (The Globe) A combination of social commentary and comedy featuring Black stand-up comedians from the South. 9 p.m. $15. www. globetavern.com
EVENTS: Off The Beaten Path Market (Puma Yu’s) Browse vintage clothing, accessories and handmade items from local artisans, and enjoy music, food and drinks in benefit of Athens Area Habitat for Humanity. 12:30–6 p.m. www. OTBPMarket.com
EVENTS: Fall Market (The Globe) Browse a market pop-up with vintage clothing, handmade items and more. 1–5 p.m. www.globetavern. com
EVENTS: Hobbit Day (Oconee County Library) Celebrate National Hobbit Day with themed crafts, riddles and an escape room for all ages. 3–5 p.m. FREE! www.athens library.org/oconee
GAMES: Lazy Sunday Smash Bros Video Game Tournament (Athentic Brewing Co.) Compete in Super Smash Bros Ultimate as a best of three series with single elimination for prizes. Registration required. 1 p.m. www.athenticbrewing.com
SPORTS: Classic City Pétanque Club (Lay Park) New players welcome. Scheduled days are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 10 a.m. info@petanque.org, www. athenspetanque.org
THEATER: Little Women (Oconee County Civic Center) A Broadway musical adaptation based on the classic story by Louisa May Alcott. Sep. 20–21, 7:30 p.m. Sep. 22, 3 p.m. $10–20. www.collectiveartists workshop.org
Monday 23
ART: Artists Show & Tell (Just Pho) Local artists Margaret Agner, Nancy Carter and more share their passion and inspiration for their original works. 5–7 p.m. FREE! www.face book.com/justphoandmore
ART: Artist Reception (Ciné) Photographer Austin Emerson’s exhibition “Garden of Dreams” will be on view with live music performances. 7 p.m. www.athenscine.com
COMEDY: Open Mic (Wonderbar) Hosted by Owen Hunt, this is a traditional show up and go up comedy open mic. Mondays, 9 p.m. (list opens), 9:30 p.m. (show). FREE! www.instagram.com/athenscomedy
EVENTS: Letters to Seniors (Oconee County Library) Drop-in to write meaningful letters that will be distributed to seniors living in Georgia. 6 p.m. FREE! www.athens library.org/oconee
GAMES: Bad Dog Trivia (LumberJaxe) Test your trivia knowledge with host TJ Wayt. Mondays, 7 p.m. www.facebook.com/baddogathens
GAMES: General Trivia (Athentic Brewing Co.) Test your trivia knowledge. Mondays, 7–9 p.m. FREE! www.athenticbrewing.com
GAMES: Classic City Trivia (Dooley’s Bar and Grill) Test your trivia knowledge with host Garrett Lennox. 7 p.m. FREE! www.facebook.com/ ClassicCityTriviaCo
KIDSTUFF: Monday Funday (Bogart Library) Join Ms. Donna for songs,
fingerplays, storytelling and STEAM activities. Ages 3–7 years. Registration suggested. 10:30 a.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/bogart
KIDSTUFF: Tiny Tales at the Zoo (Memorial Park) Enjoy storytime, a craft and a chance to meet an ambassador animal up close. Ages 6 & under. Registration required. Mondays, 10:30 a.m. $3 (ACC resident), $5 (non-resident). www. accgov.com/myrec
KIDSTUFF: Tween Steam Club (Oconee County Library) Drop in and build your own creations with STEM toys. Ages 8-12. 4:30 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/oconee
to take home. Supplies provided. Registration required. 6 p.m. FREE! www.accgov.com
CLASSES: Adult Line Dancing (Rocksprings Park Pavilion) All skill levels are invited to learn and practice a new line dance each month. Ages 18 & up. $1. 6:30 p.m. www. accgovga.myrec.com
EVENTS: West Broad Farmers Market and Garden (Athentic Brewing Co.) Vendors on site with fresh produce, local fare, rare plants, artisan goods and more. Second and Fourth Tuesdays, 5–8 p.m. FREE! www.athenticbrewing. com
KIDSTUFF: Storytime (Oconee County Library) Drop in and join Ms. Jera for rhymes, songs, movement, a story and a craft. Ages 5 & under. 11 a.m. & 12 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/oconee
KIDSTUFF: Crafternoon (Oconee County Library) Drop in for a craft or two. Supplies Provided. All ages. Tuesdays, 3:30–5:30 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/oconee
LECTURES & LIT: Open Book Club (Oglethorpe Co. Library) Discuss this month’s book, and enjoy coffee and snacks. Last Tuesdays, 1 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/ oglethorpe
KIDSTUFF: Beginner Guitar Club (Lay Park Community Center) Learn the basic fundamentals of the guitar. Registration required. Every Monday. Ages 8–11, 5:30–6:20 p.m. Ages 12–17, 6:30–7:20 p.m. $10 (ACC resident), $15 (non-resident). www.accgovga.myrec.com
MEETINGS: Classic City Rotary (Epting Events) The local chapter meets weekly. Mondays, 11:30 a.m. FREE! www.classiccityrotary.org
MEETINGS: Pen Pals Writing Group (Oconee County Library) Meet other writers, share your writing experiences and get feedback on your work. Second & fourth Mondays, 5 p.m. FREE! www.athens library.org/oconee
Tuesday 24
CLASSES: Gmail Basics (ACC Library) Learn how to get started using emails. Registration is required. 10 a.m. FREE! www.athens library.org
CLASSES: ESOL (Bogart Library) Learn or polish your English skills using Mango languages online and in-person conversation. 12 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/bogart
CLASSES: Rain Barrel & Rainscaping Workshop (3500 Mitchell Bridge Rd.) Learn simple techniques to manage rainwater in your yard and build your own rain barrel
EVENTS: Ballroom and Brews (Athentic Brewing Co.) Learn a new ballroom dance style each month, then dance the night away. Fourth Tuesdays, 6–7 p.m. (lesson). 7–9 p.m. (open dance). www.athentic brewing.com
FILM: Space Happy: Phil Thomas Katt and The Uncharted Zone (Flicker Theatre & Bar) Attaboy Tapes and Perpetual Doom present a screening of the 2023 featurelength documentary about a group of ragtag artists in Pensacola, FL. 9 p.m. FREE! www.flickertheatreand bar.com
GAMES: Lunch and Learn New Games (Tyche’s Games) Come down with your lunch and try out some new games. 11:30 a.m. FREE! www.tychesgames.com
GAMES: Bad Dog Trivia (Eddie’s Calzones) Test your trivia knowledge with host TJ Wayt. Tuesdays, 7 p.m. www.facebook.com/baddogathens
GAMES: Classic City Trivia (Akademia Brewing Co.) Test your trivia knowledge with host Garrett Lennox. 7 p.m. FREE! www.facebook.com/ ClassicCityTriviaCo
GAMES: Singo! (Beef O’Brady’s) Win gift certificates and prizes at this music bingo night. Tuesdays, 7–9 p.m. www.beefobradys.com/athens
GAMES: Trivia Night (Hi-Lo Lounge) Test your trivia knowledge. 8 p.m. FREE! www.facebook.com/ hilolounge
salsa lessons meeting a variety of dance abilities. Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m. (advanced), 7:30 p.m. (beginner/intermediate). $10. SALS AthensDancing@gmail.com
COMEDY: Gorgeous George’s Improv League (Buvez) Townie improv that invites you to bring suggestions. Wednesdays, 7 p.m. $5 suggested donation. www.flying squidcomedy.com
EVENTS: ACC Library Friends Fall Book Sale (ACC Library) Browse books, children’s books, CDs, DVDs and audiobooks. Wednesday is Preview Night (for members only; $25/membership), Saturday is $10/Bag Day. Sep. 25–28. www. athenslibrary.org
EVENTS: Athens Farmers Market (Creature Comforts Brewery) Markets offer fresh produce, flowers, eggs, meats, prepared foods, art and crafts. Live music at 6 p.m. AFM doubles SNAP dollars spent. Wednesdays, 5–8 p.m. www.athens farmersmarket.net
FILM: Ghastly Horror Society (Flicker Theatre & Bar) Screening of the 2023 comedy drama film Fantasy A Gets a Mattress. 7 p.m. FREE! www.flickertheatreandbar.com
GAMES: Shadowfist Power Lunch (Tyche’s Games) Come down with your lunch and play Shadowfist. New players welcome. 12 p.m. FREE! www.tychesgames.com
GAMES: Miss Thing’s Drag Bingo (40 Watt Club) Play bingo hosted by Sophia Lo’Rent, Lacie Bruce and Karmella Macchiato to win prizes. All ages. 6 p.m. (doors), 7 p.m. (bingo). www.boybutante.org
GAMES: Trivia Night (Normal Bar) Test your trivia knowledge. 7 p.m. FREE! www.facebook.com/normal. bar.7
GAMES: Classic City Trivia (The Local 706) Test your trivia knowledge with host Garrett Lennox. 7 p.m. FREE! www.facebook.com/ ClassicCityTriviaCo
MEETINGS: Athens Photography Guild (Lyndon House Arts Center) Several guild members will give short talks about their favorite places to photograph in Georgia. 6 p.m. FREE! www.athensphotography guild.wordpress.com
MEETINGS: Historic Oglethorpe Society (Oglethorpe Co. Library) Tom Gresham and Greg Yoder will present their findings on new discoveries about Watson Mill Bridge State Park. 7 p.m. FREE! www. athenslibrary.org/oglethorpe
OUTDOORS: ‘Normal’ Run (Athentic Brewing Co.) Join the Athens Road Runners for a 1–3 mile run that starts and ends at Athentic Brewing. Second and fourth Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m. FREE! www.athenticbrewing. com
SPORTS: Classic City Pétanque Club (Lay Park) New players welcome. Scheduled days are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 10 a.m. info@petanque.org, www. athenspetanque.org
Wednesday 25
ART: Tour At Two (Georgia Museum of Art) These drop-in public tours feature highlights of the permanent collection. 2 p.m. FREE! www.georgiamuseum.org
CLASSES: Salsa Dancing (El Carretonero) Join SALSAthens for Cuban
GAMES: Bad Dog Trivia (Eddie’s Calzones) Test your trivia knowledge with host Nickalous Benson. Wednesdays, 7 p.m. www.facebook. com/baddogathens
KIDSTUFF: Busy Bee Toddler Time (Bogart Library) Join Ms. Donna for rhymes, songs, puppets and a story. 10 a.m. & 11 a.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/bogart
KIDSTUFF: Parachute Playtime (Oconee County Library) Join the librarians for engaging parachute activities followed by open play. 11 a.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary. com/oconee
KIDSTUFF: LEGO Mania (Bogart Library) Drop in to free build and create. All ages. 3–5 p.m. FREE! www.athenslibrary.org/bogart
LECTURES & LIT: Author Talk & Book Signing (Avid Bookshop) Author Dr. Lioba M. Moshi will read from her newest book Safari Njema: My Journey from Kilimanjaro to America. 7 p.m. $5. www.avidbook shop.com
MEETINGS: Film Athens (Flicker Theatre & Bar) Meet and network with others in the filmmaking community (actors, directors, etc.) during happy hour. 5 p.m. FREE! www.flickertheatreandbar.com
THEATER: Everybody (UGA Cellar Theatre) UGA Theatre presents a modern adaptation of the 15th century morality tale Everyman that faces what truly matters once the end is near. Sept. 19–21 & 25–28, 8 p.m. Sept. 29, 2 p.m. $18. uga theatre.com/everybody f
(l-r) Liesl Wilmesherr, Logan Bono and Chiara Bono star in the Little Women production held at the Oconee County Civic Center Sept. 20–22.
MEG WILMESHERR
Descendants Proud of Anti-KKK Speech
Grandaddy Erwin’s [former Athens Mayor Andrew Cobb Erwin] speech at the 1924 Democratic Convention has always been a source of pride to the members of our family [Pub Notes, Aug. 21]. He spoke to a divisive issue in an eloquent manner to persuade, not denigrate, those with opposing views to use reasonable judgment and common sense about the matter. My first cousin, Milton Leathers, would have been thrilled that Erwin’s speech was now available to a new generation of folks who are intrigued by politics.
I believe Grandaddy Erwin and Cousin Milton would be extremely disappointed at the two candidates running for the highest office in the land. They would not believe this is the best America can do.
Andrew Neighbors Athens
In Praise of Tim Walz
If you don’t know much about Tim Walz, go find out. Christians will quickly find someone to identify with. He’s “good people.”
He’s the kind of person who listened thoughtfully to Minnesotans and passed the kind of populist laws any sensible individual would want in their own state. He’s as American as apple pie, camouflage caps and Carhartt clothing. His Midwestern values and rural bona fides speak to a man comfortable in his own skin and one willing to give the citizens of his state laws that make their lives safer and better. Teacher, football coach, hunter, National Guard officer, U.S. representative and unassuming Governor.
the MAGA Republican plan to walk off with this year’s election.
Our state is a notorious case in point. Georgia rises to the top of the cesspool with its five-member state election board packed with an election denier majority and only one Democratic member.
In August, the Georgia state board enacted a rule requiring local election boards to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into voting issues before certifying the election. That vague rule is a green light to stall certification while fishing for any excuse to vote against it. The new rule makes certification mandatory before the election results are verified by the secretary of state’s office. These actions were described as a “mess” by Georgia GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
As if to test the plan, eight local election-denying county officials have refused to certify recent local elections. Their attempt was unsuccessful, but in three counties, including Fulton County, the non-certifiers needed to flip only one vote. With the new rules passed by the State Election Board, the MAGA members could obstruct the process, cause turmoil among voters and subvert the legitimacy of the election. Certification delayed is certification denied. What a mess indeed!
“ Efforts to vote and get out the vote need to be redoubled to potentially build a landslide national vote.
An overwhelming Harris/Walz victory at the polls in November would fortify rightminded state attorneys general, secretaries of state, governors and even courts, to dispense quickly with election denialists’ refusal to certify local results. Efforts to vote and get out the vote need to be redoubled to potentially build a landslide national vote.
More than ever, every vote counts.
ect 2025 proposes divesting from the Title I program that provides states supplemental funding to meet the needs of low-income students. States currently depend on that already underfunded program to recruit and retain teachers in low-income schools.
Our country’s founding fathers did not invent democracy, but they did envision a public system of education that would sustain it. They recognized that for democracy to work, citizens would need to understand political and social issues to vote, protect their rights and resist tyrants and demagogues.
Soon after the American Revolution, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and others proposed a unified system of public schools. The federal government invested in that lofty initiative through land grants. The process was slow and uneven, but the idea and then the reality of a public school system for the common good took hold.
Segregation compromised that idea. Schools provided unequal access for girls, children with disabilities and non-white children. Beginning in the 1870s, Southern state governments passed Jim Crow laws to codify segregation. It took decades of federal action for our country to achieve universal access to public education.
presumably because whoever created the flier knew deep down they were so incompetent at photoshopping an image they had to stay away from a color print.)
This is the level at which the opposition operates. I am looking forward to their being consigned to the back pages of history’s ledger this November.
Iain S. Walsh Athens
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
The celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month has arrived in the United States. From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, Hispanic Heritage Month will celebrate Latin culture, also known as Latinx or Latiné… huh?
“ People all over the country will have the opportunity to enjoy colorful dances, music and food that reflects the Latiné diaspora and makes America beautiful again.
Today about 82% of students in the U.S. are enrolled in public schools. The focus of ensuring access has shifted to providing a high-quality education for all students. We are nowhere near this goal, but the project continues. It’s exciting and patriotic to be a part of it.
But rather than building on this all-American achievement, Trump and his allies seek to defund, deregulate and dismantle a foundational pillar of our democracy. Thanks to our schools and our teachers, we know better than to let that happen.
“Hispanic” was the first way to refer to the Spanish-speaking population that is not native to the United States or Canada, but that lives on the American continents. However, other communities that do not speak Spanish were technically outside of this group. To integrate them, the term Latin came up, thus including people from Brazil and Haiti. However, indigenous communities and the third root were left out; the third root is African culture, without it there would be no salsa, cumbia or son jarocho. By the way, the majority of inhabitants of the Latin American continent are mixed; the indigenous and African heritages are vast and robust, despite the extermination they have faced for many centuries.
Nowadays in Latin America, the term Latiné is more accepted. Its pronunciation is simpler in Spanish, and it was created by Spanish speakers, unlike the term Latinx, which is a term born from the English language. Latino, Latina and Hispano are the popular terms within the community. Latinx and Latiné are used in academic circles and by a smaller population in the Latiné community.
His views are our views, if we all dig deep inside and admit to them. Former felons get to vote once their debt to society is over. Free breakfast and lunch for all school children so families can thrive, no matter the size. Codifying a woman’s right to choose. Tampons in school bathrooms; if you’ve ever needed one, you know what this means for a teen’s self-esteem. Sensible gun laws that keep people safe that the majority of Americans repeatedly ask for and don’t get from the right.
Some will try to paint him as a liberal. By deed and word, he consistently shows he’s in touch with everyday Americans. His character is above reproach, and his strong set of moral values is so appealing in comparison to that of Donald Trump. Tim Walz will be an excellent vice president.
Angela Greene Winterville
Every Vote Counts
Reports from ethics watchdog groups have called attention to state election officials who have refused to certify elections. Since 2020, we’ve seen a right-wing Republican infiltration of local election offices and even some state elections boards, which is
Robert B. Covi Bogart
Trump’s Agenda Threatens Education
As my kids pulled out backpacks and returned to school this month, I was again reminded of the value of public schools in Athens and in our nation. The long, hot days of summer can feel isolating. Going back to school is always a chance to reconnect with the community through common purpose: our kids’ future.
Connecting feels more important than ever given our current political context. Donald Trump is running on a platform to shutter the Department of Education and “send it back to the states.” The DOE is the only federal agency that ensures every student’s right to an education.
Moreover, the policy proposals of Project 2025 recommend redirecting taxpayer dollars away from public schools to fund vouchers for private and religious schools, defunding Head Start and Title I (including the $14.2 billion in federal money earmarked for special education), censoring anti-racist curricula and eliminating free lunch programs.
As a Title I district, Clarke County has much to lose to this extreme agenda. Proj-
Trump’s Ridiculous Mailer
As a self-described amateur historian, I have become more well-versed than is perhaps psychologically healthy in the ways to run a negative campaign. Recently, I have begun receiving in my mailbox fliers from the Georgia Republican Party that contain an insult so juvenile, a schoolyard-level taunt so sadly befitting the depths to which the modern Republican Party has sunk (and so in-line with the narcissistic comment of the former President that “I’m a better-looking person than Kamala”) that were it not so sad, I would laugh. I will, however, laugh bemusedly at the ineptitude of its execution.
The supposed policy statements of both candidates are the source of enough ridicule for their inaccuracy and misinterpretation alone. It is the photographs of each candidate that drew my eye, however, and my head-shaking ire. Trump’s photograph is photoshopped to make him look as young (and as orange) as possible. Vice President Harris’ photograph, however, has wrinkles attached to her cheeks and chin, smoker’s lines around her mouth, and a neck beset by the turkey-wattles well-known to be on her opponent’s. (It is also in black and white,
We do not need special occasions to practice our culture. At every quinceañera and every wedding, we celebrate our music and our food. We do not need permission to dance salsa, corrido or cumbia. Latinos do not need permission to wear sombreros and huaraches all year round, and thus preserve the traditions and culture that was inherited to us.
Unfortunately, many people think that somehow this harms their own culture and tell us that, in America, we speak English when they hear us speak Spanish in public. Even though the United States is one of the countries with the largest Spanish-speaking population on the planet, even though half of the United States territory once belonged to Mexico, some Americans continue to believe that there is no place for Spanish speakers in the U.S., and they think that we do not have the right to celebrate our culture.
Despite the rejection of our culture, the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month is approaching. People all over the country will have the opportunity to enjoy colorful dances, music and food that reflects the Latiné diaspora and makes America beautiful again.
Beto Mendoza Elberton
Ramsey Nix Athens
Davidson is the principal trombone for the Utah Symphony; featuring the premiere of“Sonorous Trombone Concerto” by Quinn Mason.
Wednesday, September 25 at 3:30 p.m. Ramsey Concert Hall, UGA PAC
INTRODUCING:
NEW Associate Director of Bands Jack Eaddy, Jr.
Wednesday, September 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Ramsey Concert Hall, UGA PAC
Piano, ethnomusicology and post-colonial studies
Tuesday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Ramsey Concert Hall, UGA PAC
Includes Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber”and more.
Thursday, October 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Hodgson Concert Hall UGA PAC
ART | THU, SEPT. 19
Coleman Barks
Tiger’s Eye Gallery • 5–9 p.m. • FREE!
Normally known for his poetry career, including his status as a Georgia Hall of Fame writer and bestselling author, as well as 30 years teaching at the University of Georgia, Coleman Barks is now venturing into the visual arts with a series of bold ink works. His process is similar to sumi-e, a Chinese painting technique that uses different concentrations of black ink. More than 15 of his expressive works, which feature quick-swirling lines that move wildly across the page, will be showcased in an exhibition curated by Athens artist Benjamin Rouse and Jessica and Mark Magnarella of Tiger’s Eye Studio. Jessica Magnarella says of the series, “His dynamic paintings are simultaneously playful and tranquil.” Several other artists’ works will accompany Barks’ at the exhibition, including Maria Star, Ben Rouse and Noah Mendelson. [Mary Beth Bryan]
ART | THU, SEPT. 19
Elaine Stephenson Artist Talk
Lyndon House Arts Center • 6 p.m. • FREE!
“Water is Life” is a mural by Elaine Stephenson located on an underpass on the Oconee Rivers Greenway. Stephenson is an Atlanta native who studied design at the University of Georgia. She worked in design for 10 years and is now known for her large murals, which emphasize her love for bold lines and typography. “Water is Life,” an immersive mural featuring images of water and wildlife, was chosen in a blind selection by a community panel from amongst 38 applicants from across the nation. The design was approved by the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission in 2022, and has been in production since Aug. 22 with funding from ACC SPLOST. It is set to be completed mid-September, followed by an artist talk with Stephenson. [MB]
ART | WED, SEPT. 18
Michele Dross
Hidden Gem • 6 p.m. • FREE!
In her screen print illustration “Creatures at Dusk,” Athens-based artist Michele Dross transfers her signature ceramic style to paper. Animals, humans and plants interact in scenes that pull on mythology and the mysticism of nature, accented by color that guides the viewers’ eyes around the images. Having graduated from the University of Georgia with a BFA in ceramics and a BAE in art education, Dross has worked as a production potter and an elementary school art teacher. She became a full-time ceramicist in 2019 and ships to collectors nationwide. The 50 first edition 14-inch-by-20-inch prints of “Creatures at Dusk” were produced at Two Parts Press and will be available for $100 each, with any remaining prints for sale at Lyndon House Arts Center during regular hours of operation. All proceeds go to the Lyndon House Arts Foundation to fund teen art clubs. [MB]
Influential indie power pop band The dB’s are touring for the first time in 12 years following the reissue (and first ever U.S. vinyl release) of their 1981 debut album, Stands for deciBels. The album, one of six studio releases by the dB’s, is hailed as one of the great “lost” power pop records of the ’80s. The dB’s members grew up in Winston-Salem, NC before moving to New York in the late 1970s to form the band, playing some of the area’s most iconic venues, including CBGB and Maxwell’s.
R.E.M.’s Mike Mills vouches for the dB’s influence, crediting his first listen as a defining moment in his band’s creation. He says, “This is the one that let me know we weren’t alone, that there were others out there with the same curiosity.” The show will be opened by the local veteran musicians of Pylon Reenactment Society, who play the songs of Pylon and originals. [MB]
COMEDY | SUN, SEPT. 22
Black Power Rangers Comedy Tour
The Globe • 9 p.m. • $15
The Black Power Rangers is a group of Black comedians whose sharp and witty standup acts highlight their experiences living in America, weaving together social commentary, pop culture and laughs. The
group was founded by Wills Maxwell in 2022, and since then they have toured in a dozen cities across the country each year. For this third year of the tour Maxwell (Wilmington, NC) is joined by Jordan Centry (Charlotte, NC) and Brandi Augustus (Knoxville, TN). Each stop also features special local guest performers, which for the Athens show will include Atlanta comedian Tiffany Burke and Athens comedian Phillip Broughton. This is the Black Power Rangers’ first show in Athens; Maxwell says, “I’ve heard nothing but good things about the comedy in this city and it’s an honor to be a part of it.” [MB] f
Little Gold’s Strange Vacation PLUS, MORE MUSIC NEWS AND GOSSIP
By Gordon Lamb threatsandpromises@flagpole.com
TURN THE PAGE: Few rock bands, all things considered, are as reliably consistent as Little Gold. Even when we don’t hear from these stalwarts, the very second they raise their head back above water we know we’re in for a treat. Such is the case with the two brand spankin’ new songs featured on the band’s upcoming 7” Strange Vacation. These were engineered by Jesse Mangum at The Glow Recording Studio, where he is also recording the group’s upcoming full-length Born To Loose (sic) which is due out next year. The tracks are available individually as digital items as we speak, though. The title track features the band along with T. Hardy Morris and Hunter Pinkston (The Pink Stones). It’s a slow, minor-key country tune that should resonate readily with anyone who has endured the boredom and spirit-killing aspects of being a band on the road. The B-side, “Pissin’,” brings the band right back to its indie rock high style, and its lyrics of relationship frustrations recall some of the best lines The Replacements ever wrote. The band celebrates the release of the 7” Wednesday, Sept. 25 on the Georgia Theatre rooftop. Find these digitally anywhere you do that sort of thing or head to littlegold.bandcamp.com.
TREAT YOURSELF: The next instance of The Secret Record Swap will happen Saturday, Sept. 21 at Athentic Brewing Co. (108 Park Ave.). It’s free to attend from 12–5 p.m., but early birds who want priority access to all vendors and, thus, records can pay five bucks for early admission from 11 a.m. to noon. Sellers of all sorts will be there with records, CDs, tapes, videos, DVDs, memorabilia, etc. That’s literally all the information, so just show up!
always, it’s nice and steady and the type of thing anyone would be proud to introduce to his or her parents. This was tracked over at Tweed Recordings, mixed by Hank Sullivant (Kuroma, MGMT, The Whigs; also plays piano on it), engineered and and mastered by Charlie Chastain, and features Will Hefner on drums. Find this on all major streaming services, and for more information, please see instagram.com/terminallyphilmusic and supercanoe.co.
PUT THE NEEDLE ON THE RECORD: The artist known as Other Voices, Other Rooms is back on the scene with a brand new mix named Stereo Returns. This mix contains 10 distinct compositions with very smooth, nearly imperceptible transitions. Each thing was recorded live directly to cassette
HEADING OUT TO THE HIGHWAY: The folks over at Spaceball Bazaar (130 N. Church St. in Bogart) are betting you’ll want to spend all day over there for the 14-band mammoth event they’ve got planned for Saturday, Sept. 21 called Last Call For The Balls It’s slated to begin at 1 p.m., is all ages, BYOB for those 21 and over, and $12 at the door. Vendors will sell food, art, records, etc. Featured acts are John Lester’s Distaste-r, Grim Gardenerz, The Unus Mundus, Smaxxon, Original Hamster, Burly Ivy, Ramona Quimbys, Smoggo, Penny Loafer, pondgorl, Iconostasis, Mr. Blank and Bryant Perez with Something Haunted. You can try to extract more information from spaceball. com, and if you’re lucky you just might find some.
SMILE A LITTLE LONGER: The world breathes a little lighter and carries a new spring in its step courtesy of the new single by Terminally Phil (aka Phillip Brantley, aka Instagram meme lord @philthrottle). His newest single, “Crawl,” came out last week. It is released courtesy of Super Canoe. It’s a strummy, nearly Americana-style tune with more than a passing glance at Gram Parsons but not a terribly long one. As
tape. The various sounds employed here are noisy drones, heavy rhythms, sprightly new wave keyboard tracks, select vocal samples, various industrial tones (both musical and real life), and in the end folds itself back up into the noisy envelope from which it came before ending quite abruptly. This isn’t for everybody, but it is for me and might be for you as well. Find it at soundcloud.com/ other-voices-other-rooms/stereo-returns. Other Voices, Other Rooms will release this mix on cassette tape on Friday, Sept. 20 at Flicker and have tapes available for purchase. Doom Ribbons also appears on the bill that night.
SMOOTH AS BUTTER: Currently in the running for least repressible band ever, KIT will release its second new single within a month on Friday, Sept. 20. While probably certainly enduring the weight of an utterly unsearchable band name, the band is really shining like superstars in the songwriting department. This new song, “Feel Love,” was, like the one before it, mixed by Patrick Doherty and mastered by Jesse Mangum. It’s a lighthearted breezy thing of the sort that reimagines what ’70s soft rock might have sounded like but is reimagined through the lens of history and the sands of time. All told, not bad at all. I can’t understand any of the lyrics, though, as they’re kind of low in the mix for me, but maybe you can make them out. You’ll be able to find this on all major streaming services. f
A detail from “Creatures at Dusk” by Michele Dross
live music calendar
Tuesday 17
Ciné
8 p.m. FREE! www.athenscine.com
KARAOKE WITH THE KING Show off your pipes to the world. Every first, third and fifth Tuesday.
SILVERSUN PICKUPS Alternative rock band from Los Angeles that was formed in 2000.
SPEEDY ORTIZ Indie rock band from Northampton, MA led by frontwoman Sadie Dupuis’ mischievous songwriting.
Hendershot’s
No Phone Party. 7 p.m. www.hendershotsathens.com
KENOSHA KID Instrumental adventure-jazz group centered around the rollicking compositions of Dan Nettles and featuring Luca Lombardi, Seth Hendershot and various guests.
FLORRY Philadelphia country rock band that has expanded its original folk and country concentration.
SUNSET HONOR UNIT Sentimental pop from Atlanta comprised of dueling songwriters Drew Kirby (Mothers, CDSM) and Jake Chisenhall (Delorean Gray).
Ramsey Hall
7:30 p.m. FREE! music.uga.edu
RYAN FOGG Pianist with a high level of polish and impressive technical comand.
State Botanical Garden of Georgia Sunflower Concert Series. 7 p.m. $12 (ages 5–16), $20 (Friends of the Garden), $24. botgarden.uga.edu
THE RANDALL BRAMBLETT
BAND This established Georgia singer-songwriter’s Southerntinged music pulls from a variety of influences. Chairs, blankets and picnics are welcome at this concert in the flower garden.
WUOG
Live in the Lobby. 8 p.m. FREE! www. wuog.org
YOUR EX’S PETS New band featuring members of Dadgum, Jake Brower Band and Liz Farrell. Swing by the station or tune in to 90.5 FM to hear a live broadcast.
AUGUSTANA Pop rock band formed in San Diego in 2002, fronted by singer Daniel Layus.
VERYGENTLY Three-piece indie rock band from Nashville.
Nowhere Bar 9:30 p.m. www.facebook.com/ NowhereBarAthens THE FOUR FATHERS Funky soul organ quartet comprised of Dwayne Holloway, Jason Ogg, Chris Queen and Justin Willis.
Thursday 19
40 Watt Club
7 p.m. (doors). $17 (adv.), $22. www.40watt.com
DOGPARK Indie-rock band that got its start performing at University of Richmond.
WINYAH Nashville-based indie and Southern rock band.
Earth Fare
2 p.m. www.earthfare.com
RC OUTLAW COWBOY Country and gospel singer with over four decades of experience.
First American Bank & Trust (Main Office) Athens in the Streets. 5 p.m. FREE! www.fabt.bank
BLOODKIN Originally formed by Eric Carter and the late Daniel Hutchens in 1986, this gritty rock and roll group has accumulated a catalog of over 500 songs. THE GRATEFUL DADS Local Grateful Dead cover band. Flicker Theatre & Bar Attaboy Tapes Presents. 8 p.m. $12. www.flickertheatreandbar.com
129,600 Windy and moody pop songs steeped in stone-cottage harmony and post-plonk bardo.
YOUR EX’S PETS New band featuring members of Dadgum, Jake Brower Band and Liz Farrell.
SHANE PARISH Master guitarist and fearless explorer of rhythm and timbre.
The Foundry Aubrey Entertainment Presents. 6 p.m. (doors), 7 p.m. (show). $25–200. bit.ly/TheFoundrySept19
THE DB’S Cult favorite alternative rock and power pop group that formed in New York City in 1978.
PYLON REENACTMENT SOCIETY
Vanessa Briscoe Hay and an all-star cast of locals play the music of Pylon, plus new originals.
JAZZ JAM Seth Hendershot and the house band Unstarched host an
open jazz jam. Bring an instrument or your voice.
Hotel Indigo Live After Five Series. 5:30 p.m. FREE! www.facebook.com/AubreyEntertainmentAthensGA
SMITH & WINKLER Jazz, pop and folk from guitarist Brian Smith and vocalist Marty Winkler. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall
7:30 p.m. $3 (w/ UGA ID), $15. music.uga.edu
UGA WIND ENSEMBLE Tonight’s program includes Cindy McTee’s “Transmission” from Soundings, Quinn Mason’s “Sonorous Trombone Concerto,” Ron Nelson’s “Rocky Point Holiday” and Julie Giroux’s “To the Bells of the Berlin Cathedral.”
LAMONT LANDERS Born and raised Alabama guitarist influenced by the soulful sounds of the South.
KENNY SHARP Singer-songwriter whose genre-bending sound has been dubbed “brown liquor music.”
Nowhere Bar
9:30 p.m. www.facebook.com/ NowhereBarAthens
BLOODKIN Originally formed by Eric Carter and the late Daniel Hutchens in 1986, this gritty rock and roll group has accumulated a catalog of over 500 songs.
rock band inspired by ’90s grunge and punk. (1:15 p.m.)
RICK FOWLER BAND Original, guitar-driven local blues-rock group. (2:45 p.m.)
MARY KATE FARMER Georgiabased artist influenced by her Texan roots and country rock upbringing. (4:15 p.m.)
HEART OF PINE Nostalgic “Southedelic” rock band from Athens with a genuine sound. (6 p.m.)
Boutier Winery & Inn
8 p.m. $10. www.boutierwinery.com
THE ORIGINAL SPLITZ BAND A mixed drink of the classic Motown sound, part 1970s funk and disco flavor, a dash of the old-school and contemporary R&B, and a guaranteed good time. Front Porch Bookstore
6 p.m. FREE! Find Front Porch Bookstore on Facebook BLENDED PATHS Pop and country band playing ’60s and ’70s dance music.
HEART OF PINE Nostalgic “Southedelic” rock band from Athens with a genuine sound.
THE JESSE WILLIAMS BAND North Georgia singer-songwriter whose sound is roots grounded in sultry, sweet blues infused with warm soul and melody medicine.
Georgia Theatre
7 p.m. (doors), 8 p.m. (show). $22
ATHENS POTLUCK VARIETY SHOW Musicians who appear in Jason Thrasher’s photography book, Athens Potluck, will perform. Hosted by Don Chambers with songs by Dave Marr, Mike Mantioni, Hardy Morris, Cara Beth Satalino, Vernon Thornsbery, Charlie and Nancy Hartness, The Darnell Boys and more. Bring a dish to share at The Grit-themed potluck.
AERMOTOR Power trio with original guitar-driven rock songs. (12 p.m.)
A.D. BLANCO Athens alternative-
Normal Bar
10 p.m. www.instagram.com/normal_bar_athens
REGULATOR EP tape release! SNUKI Local hardcore punk band. SCÄRETACTIC Asheville crust punk.
Nowhere Bar 9:30 p.m. www.facebook.com/ NowhereBarAthens
NICHOLAS MALLIS AND THE BOREALIS Local synth-pop act claiming a diverse array of supposed corporate sponsors.
DHANA JEERA North African and Ethiopian inspired group led by Immaterial Possession member and visual artist Jeremy Kiran Fernandes.
CANARY AFFAIR Indie rock band with an affinity for irregular time signatures and psychedelic grooves.
Spaceball Bazaar
1 p.m. (doors). $12. www.instagram. com/spaceball.bazaar LAST CALL FOR THE BALLS FEST Spaceball Bazaar’s final hurrah features sets by Jon Lester’s Dis-Taste-R, Grim Gardenerz, The Unus Mundus, Smaxxon, Original Hamsterz, Burly Ivy, Ramona Quimbys, Smoggo, Penny Loafer, pondgorl, Iconostasis, Mr. Blank, and Bryant Perez with Something Haunted.
Lamont Landers will play at Hendershot’s on Friday, Sept. 20.
VFW Post 2872
8 p.m. $35–55. www.project-safe.org
GROOVY NIGHTS Dance to the greatest hits of the ’70s and ’80s, then watch teams compete in a lip sync battle. Proceeds benefit Project Safe.
Sunday 22
ACC Library
Live at the Library. 3 p.m. FREE! www. athenslibrary.org
SOPHIE MAE WELLINGTON
Boston-based old time fiddle tunes, vocal jazz improvisation and traditional percussive dance.
CONVALESCENT Asheville band blending indie rock, emo and Americana.
HANDHOLDER A group whose multi-genre sound ranges from folk to rock to electronic.
CLAIRE ELITHA Local songwriter backed by Andrew McFarland and Roan O’Reilly.
Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall
3 p.m. $40–60. pac.uga.edu
LOS ANGELES GUITAR QUARTET Grammy Award-winning ensemble whose transcriptions of concert masterworks provide fresh looks at the music of the past. Tonight’s program includes works by Beethoven, Aaron Copland, Bach and Liszt.
Oak House Distillery
3:30–6 p.m. www.oakhousedistillery.
com
FOLIE À QUATRE Formally known as Making Strange. work.shop
Boston-based old time fiddle tunes, vocal jazz improvisation and traditional percussive dance.
LIZ FARRELL Jeff Buckleyinspired vocals accompanied by intricate ukulele.
Monday 23
Ciné
“Garden of Dreams” Reception. 7 p.m. www.athica.org
SCRATCHOFF Improv duo featuring sax and trumpet. First show! THE WHILE Beat combo navigating the mood swings of life with dynamic indie rock.
THERA Solo guitar and electronics.
Tuesday 24
Buvez
8 p.m. $10. www.instagram.com/ buvez_athens
TREPID New local grungegaze.
JOHNNY FALLOON Deranged local band with hard-hitting songs and complex theatrics.
BRISTOLTOOTH Indie bedroom pop from Philadelphia.
SPITEHOUND Brooding, earnest indie.
Hendershot’s No Phone Party. 7 p.m. www.hendershotsathens.com
KENOSHA KID Instrumental adventure-jazz group centered around the rollicking compositions of Dan Nettles and featuring Luca Lombardi, Seth Hendershot and various guests.
WUOG
Live in the Lobby. 8 p.m. FREE! www. wuog.org
BONE BAG New heavy punk trio with post-punk and sludge
undertones. Swing by the station or tune in to 90.5 FM to hear a live broadcast.
Wednesday 25
Athentic Brewing Co.
7–10 p.m. www.athenticbrewing.com
KARAOKE WITH DJ GREGORY Every Wednesday. Creature Comforts
A THOUSAND HORSES Muscular country, drawling rock, high gospel harmony, low-country blues and old school soul melded together into something special and distinct.
JOSH WARD Texas-based country-rock singer with a sweet Southern twang.
NED COLLETTE Australian singersongwriter and instrumentalist who was a member of Melbourne instrumental band City City City and has since recorded six albums, either as solo productions or with his band, Wirewalker.
LITTLE GOLD Local group playing garage rock with country and pop sensibilities.
Hendershot’s
8 p.m. www.hendershotsathens.com
ONE TON TOMATO Latin jazz, salsa and mambo band.
Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall
7:30 p.m. FREE! music.uga.edu
WIND SYMPHONY Performing the finest standard and new repertoire for wind band.
SYMPHONIC BAND Experienced undergraduate music majors, minors, and non-majors from across campus play classic band repertoire and new music.
Nowhere Bar
8 p.m. www.facebook.com/NowhereBarAthens
ERIK OLSON ORGAN TRIO Pianist who recently moved to Athens from Montana.
Ramsey Hall
3:30 p.m. FREE! music.uga.edu
REPERTORY SINGERS A mixed chamber choir directed by graduate student conductors.
Down the Line
9/26 Slow Parade (Georgia Theatre Rooftop)
9/26 Big Band Athens (Hendershot’s)
9/27 Classic City Jukebox (Georgia Theatre Rooftop)
9/27 STRFKR, Holy Wave, Happy Sad Face! (Georgia Theatre)
9/27 ATL Crüe (The Foundry)
9/27 The Original Splitz (Athentic Brewing Co.)
9/27 Sgt. Splendor (Nowhere Bar)
9/28 Folie à Quatre (Front Porch Bookstore)
9/28 Jordy Searcy, Theo Kandel (40 Watt Club)
9/28 Cosmic Charlie (Georgia Theatre)
9/28 Th’ Losin Streaks, The Air Condition (Flicker Theatre & Bar) f
art notes Murmur Trestle and Athens Potluck JASON
THRASHER’S PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS INSPIRE EXHIBITIONS
By Jessica Smith arts@flagpole.com
Portraying distinctive impressions of Athens cultural history, Jason Thrasher’s art photography books Athens Potluck (2017) and Murmur Trestle (2024) take imaginative approaches to documenting their subjects. The two books, both of which have accompanying exhibitions currently on view, represent separate yet intertwined bodies of work that developed concurrently.
Athens Potluck creatively tackles the task of documenting Athens’ expansive and unwieldy music scene by asking each featured musician to invite the subsequent artist, and so on. The result is a chain of behind-the-scenes glimpses into the lives of local musicians that organically flows across genres and social circles.
“It could’ve been a million different books,” says Thrasher. “It could’ve gone in so many different directions.”
On view at the UGA Special Collections Building through Dec. 20, the exhibition “Athens Potluck” opens with an introductory room that includes a wall-spanning, sequential display of all 33 musicians who are featured in the book. Hanging on the opposing wall above a listening station, various band portraits further illustrate Thrasher’s deep connections within the local music scene.
From there, the multi-room show unfolds with large-scale portraits accompanied by paintings, illustrations, instruments, clothing and display cases full of handwritten Q&As, flyers, artifacts and all sorts of other memorabilia. Sourcing items from both the Georgia Music Collections at UGA Libraries and the personal collections of musicians, the exhibition was curated under the guidance of Jan Hebbard, exhibits coordinator, and Ryan Lewis, Georgia Music Collections coordinator.
The Hargrett Library will host a curator’s talk with Thrasher on Friday, Sept. 20 at 3 p.m. “Athens Potluck” will also serve as the theme to this year’s Free the Tapes event—an initiative through which the Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection digitizes audiovisual materials from community members—that will culminate with a family-friendly celebration on Saturday, Nov. 9 from 1–3 p.m.
reclaimed by nature, he began to take an artistic interest and see its potential to become the subject of a photography book.
“When I first moved to Athens in 1994, there was an aesthetic that was really prevalent at the time,” says Thrasher. “I remember driving down Pulaski Street and seeing Stan Mullins’ warehouse and the train tracks and thinking ‘Wow, this is what I thought Athens would look like.’ Over the last 25 or 30 years, a lot of these things like the trestles have been cut and removed, warehouses have been destroyed, apartment buildings have been built. A lot of those things that felt like the identity of the South, and Athens in particular, were disappearing.”
Recognizing the trestle as a framework for a body of work exploring the “organized chaos” of nature and the changing Southern landscape, he steadily returned to the site across the seasons and over a span of six years. During the project’s first few months in particular, while having recently become sober and balancing the demands of parenthood, the trestle became a quiet spot where Thrasher could meditate, watch the sunrise and have a quiet hour or two to himself before diving into the day.
by
the
On Saturday, Sept. 21 at 7 p.m., the 40 Watt Club will host an Athens Potluck Variety Show that will double as a book release party for Murmur Trestle, co-presented by Avid Bookshop and UGA Press. Hosted by Master of Ceremonies Don Chambers, the evening will feature performances by many of the musicians who appear in Athens Potluck, such as Dave Marr, Mike Mantioni, Hardy Morris, Cara Beth Satalino, Vernon Thornsberry, Andy LeMaster, Charlie and Nancy Hartness, and The Darnell Boys. Attendees are encouraged to bring their favorite dish from Athens’ sorely missed vegetarian restaurant for a Grit-themed potluck. The event is also a benefit for Nuçi’s Space.
The final exhibition room of “Athens Potluck” is dedicated to photographs and memorabilia related to the Murmur Trestle, building a bridge over to Thrasher’s recently released book and upcoming exhibition dedicated to the local landmark. Forever immortalized in Athens music history after appearing on the back cover of R.E.M.’s 1983 album Murmur, half of the wooden 19th century train trestle was destroyed in 2002, and the other half was eventually removed in 2021, but its remnants were incorporated into the design for a pedestrian and bicycle bridge as part of the Firefly Trail.
Thrasher initially began photographing the trestle around 2011 after being hired by the Athens-Clarke County Government for a historic preservation shoot that involved capturing images from various coordinates. By his second or third visit to the deteriorating structure slowly being
features a forward from Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood, who moved to Athens within months of Thrasher and provides a nostalgic flashback, as well as an introduction by Thrasher’s wife Beth, who offers a window into the couple’s life together during the creation of the images. “Reason By Rot,” an original poem written by South Carolina author, poet, wildlife biologist and MacArthur Fellow J. Drew Lanham, relaxes readers into a peaceful, thoughtful state of mind from which to contemplate the photographs that lie ahead.
Photographs from Murmur Trestle will be exhibited this season at ACE/FRANCISCO Gallery, a space owned and operated by the Thrashers in the historic Leathers Building on Pulaski Street. The opening reception, slated for Thursday, Sept. 19 from 5–9 p.m., will also spotlight an exhibition of oil paintings by Toby Cole, on view upstairs in the gallery. Coming back full circle to the themed potluck at the 40 Watt, Cole’s portraits depict employees of The Grit.
With the stars seemingly aligning above the Leathers Building, several other galleries will host receptions this night. OX Fine Art will share a collection of paintings by the late Art Rosenbaum, who is featured in Athens Potluck Tiger’s Eye Gallery will debut works on paper by celebrated poet Coleman Barks, alongside additional pieces by Jamie DeRevere, Mark Magnarella, Jessica Magnarella, Noah Mendelson, Ben Rouse and Marla Star. Revolution Therapy and Yoga will welcome visitors in to see archival prints of Manda McKay’s oil paintings, and ATHICA will stay open late for James Enos and Jess Machacek’s exhibition “How to Measure an Ocean.” f
Published
UGA Press,
book
bulletin board
Deadline for getting listed in Bulletin Board is every THURSDAY at 5 p.m. for the print issue that comes out the following Wednesday. Online listings are updated daily. Email calendar@flagpole.com.
AAAC QUARTERLY GRANT (Athens, GA) The Athens Area Arts Council offers $500 grants to visual and performing artists in any medium to support specific projects that enrich the culture of Athens. Rolling deadlines are Dec. 15, Mar. 15, June 15 and Sept. 15. Apply online. www. athensarts.org/support
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM
(Lyndon House Arts Center) The AIR Program provides participants with a semi-private workspace, access to the center’s seven open studios and a $250 stipend. Rising professional and studio-based artists are invited to apply. Artists will be expected to present their work in a workshop or artist talk and will be invited to take part in a group exhibition with other AIR Program alumni. Applications are reviewed Sept. 20 for residencies beginning Jan. 1 and Apr. 20 for residencies beginning July 1. www.accgov. com/lyndonhouse
BIPOC ARTIST/CURATOR PROJECT OPEN CALL (Lyndon House Arts Center) Seeking BIPOC individuals residing in Georgia to develop an art exhibition to be on display for 6–8 weeks at the LHAC. A stipend of $1,500 is provided. www.accgov. com/9799/ArtistCurator
CALL FOR ART (Winterville Cultural Center Gallery) Seeking artworks 13”x13” or smaller and priced under $250 for a group exhibition of small works. Submissions accepted through Oct. 1. FREE! www.wintervilleccgallery.com
CALL FOR COLLECTORS (Lyndon House Arts Center) The LHAC’s “Collections from our Community” series features unique collections of objects found in the closets, cabinets and shelves of Athenians. Email if interested in displaying your collection. shelby.little@accgov.com
CALL FOR EXHIBITION PROPOSALS (Lyndon House Arts Center) Artists, artist groups and curators can submit original exhibition proposals for consideration in the arts center’s gallery schedule. Arts can
art around town
ACE/FRANCISCO GALLERY (675 Pulaski St., Suite 1500) “Murmur Trestle: Photographs by Jason Thrasher” shares images from a new book of photos taken during different seasons over the course of six years. Opening Reception and Book Release Sept. 19, 5–9 p.m. • “Grit Portraits: Paintings by Tobiah Cole” includes portraits of some of the artist’s friends from his many years at The Grit. Opening Reception Sept. 19, 5–9 p.m.
ATHENAEUM (287 W. Broad St.) In “Fission Or, Eclipse,” New York-based artist Rose Salane uses seemingly mundane objects to explicate systems of evaluation, exchange and organization that shape daily life. Through Nov. 23.
ATHENS INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART: ATHICA (675 Pulaski St.) “How to Measure an Ocean: Enos & Machacek” features a site-specific installation of large floor sculptures and wall-based reliefs, drawings and prints by James Enos and Jess Machacek. Through Sept. 29.
ATHICA@CINÉ GALLERY (234 W. Hancock Ave.) “Garden of Dreams” features photographs by Austin Emerson, whose darkroom-based practice centers the alchemy of the process in the resulting images. Reception and musical performance Sept. 23, 7 p.m. Currently on view through Oct. 25.
BOGUE GALLERY AT ACC LIBRARY (2025 Baxter St.) Real estate broker Cindy Karp’s solo show, “Portraits Through My Eyes,” consists of portraits shot using her iPhone and various phone apps. A portion of art sales will be donated to Bigger Vision of Athens. Through Sept. 22.
CLASSIC CENTER (300 N. Thomas St.) In Classic Gallery I, “Spotlight” features works by painters William Ballard, Jaci Davis and Ella Hopkins. • In Classic Gallery II, Kristin Roberts’ “The Fables” illustrates Aesop’s Fables with detailed works that are both whimsical and dangerous. COMMUNITY (260 N. Jackson St.) Paintings by Andy Cherewick. Through September.
DODD GALLERIES (270 River Rd.) In “Trick Mirror,” Dodd professor and recent retiree Diane Edison examines through portraiture the complexities of platonic, professional, and romantic relationships. Through Sept. 26. • “(WITH)HOLDING PATTERNS” is a site-specific installation by Dodd MFA candidate Adah Bennion that utilizes salvaged materials. Through Sept. 26. • “A Far Off Theater” is a collaborative body of work between Landon McKinley and Maria Noel that investigates the process of removal and obfuscation. Through Sept. 26. • In “Shape Shifting,” Dodd MFA alum Joe Camoosa uses images from his favorite sketchbook to present a colorful grid. Through Nov. 7. • The 2024 Margie E. West Prize Winner Exhibition, “Hong Hong: Inland,” examines the body as a closed ecological system, where various materials continually interact to sustain and regenerate itself. Through Nov. 7. DONDEROS’ KITCHEN (590 N. Milledge Ave.) Susan Pelham’s collages are inspired by Magic Realism, Surrealism, nursery rhymes, fables and more. Through October.
FESTIVAL HALL (201 N. Main St., Greensboro) The “Georgia Watercolor Society Member Exhibition” features around 80 watercolors by artists from across Georgia and the Southeast. Painting Demonstration (10 a.m.–12 p.m.) and Opening Reception (12–2 p.m.) on Sept. 28. Currently on view through Oct. 26.
also submit images of their work for consideration in larger group or themed shows. Deadline Sept. 20, 11:59 p.m. www.accgov.com/6657/ Exhibition-Proposal-Form
JOKERJOKERTV CALL FOR ARTISTS (Online) JOKERJOKERtv is actively accepting proposals for collaboration from visual, musical and video artists and curators living in Athens. Artists worldwide can also submit music videos, short films, skits and ideas to share with a weekly livestream audience. www. jokerjokertv.com/submit
OCAF HOLIDAY MARKET CALL FOR ARTISTS (Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation) The 30th annual holiday market is seeking original handmade works like pottery, paintings, fiber art, stained and fused glass jewelry and more. The market will be held Nov. 22 from 4–8 p.m., Nov. 23–10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Nov. 24 from 10 a.m.–3 p.m. www.ocaf. com/ocaf-annual-holiday-market
OPEN STUDIOS (Lyndon House Arts Center) Studio members have access to spaces for painting, print-
making, photography, ceramics, jewelry, fiber and woodworking. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. $65/month. www. accgov.com/7350/Open-StudioMembership
PUBLIC ART SELECTION PANELS (Athens GA) The Athens Cultural Affairs Commission is seeking community members to participate in upcoming public art selection panels. Panels review, evaluate and select from submitted proposals for ACC-funded public art commissions. www.accgov.com/9656/ Public-Art-Selection-Panels
Classes
A COURSE OF LOVE (Unity Athens Church) Learn a positive path for spiritual living based on A Course in Miracles. Wednesdays, 10–11:30 a.m. FREE! www.unity athens.com
AQUA AEROBICS (Memorial Park) In this low-impact exercise, participants will experience a variety of stretching, limbering and weight routines set to music. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 6:30–7:30 p.m. Saturdays, 10–11 a.m. $5/session, $20/five classes. 706-613-3580
FLICKER THEATRE & BAR (263 W. Washington St.) Graphic designer Allen Sutton’s exhibition reimagines musicians on baseball trading cards. Through September.
GEORGIA MUSEUM OF ART (90 Carlton St.) “A Perfect Model: Prints after Anthony van Dyck’s Portraits” presents prints that attest to Van Dyck’s lasting impact as a printmaker and portraitist. Through Dec. 1. • Organized in conjunction with the American Liszt Festival at UGA’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music in October 2024, “Saint Petersburg as Franz Liszt Saw It” features works on paper that show Russia at the time of the Hungarian composer and pianist’s visits in the 1840s. Through Dec. 1. • Shot through the windows from inside Waffle House restaurants across the Southeast, Micah Cash’s photographs in “Waffle House Vistas” contemplate the built and natural environments. Artist Talk Sept. 26, 5:30 p.m. Currently on view through June 1. • “Mind the Gap: Selections from the Permanent Collection” explores the spaces between tradition and innovation in art. Sept. 21–Dec. 1. • “Joel Sternfeld: When It Changed” includes portraits taken at the 2005 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Sept. 21–Dec. 1. • “The Artist as Witness” includes works from the museum’s permanent collection that serve as visual responses to Joel Sternfeld’s exhibition. Sept. 21–Dec. 1. • “On Wonder and Witnessing at Tallulah Falls” places a 1841 painting by George Cooke alongside contemporary photographs by Caitlin Peterson. Through Jan. 12.
GLASSCUBE@INDIGO (500 College Ave.) Zane Cochran presents “Aurora,” a sculptural interpretation of the aurora borealis using 3D geometric figures and lights.
HENDERSHOT’S (237 Prince Ave.) The second annual “Together We Dazzle” art show and benefit features artwork by over 20 local artists. A portion of art sales will benefit the Ehlers-Danlos Society. Closing Reception Sept. 21, 3–8 p.m.
HOTEL INDIGO (500 College Ave.) Vivian Liddell shares “Athens Landscapes,” a series of monotypes based on photographs taken around town over the past several years. Through November.
LYNDON HOUSE ARTS CENTER (211 Hoyt St.) The Window Works series presents a site-specific artwork by Atlanta artist Michael Reese that questions the perception of the Black Body against cyanotype photography popular with architectural blueprints. Through spring 2025. • Amiri Farris’ paintings and collages blur the lines between contemporary cultures and pop traditions while delving into themes of history, culture, perception and time. Through Oct. 5. • “Scissors, Paper, Art” is an exhibition of collaged works by Jack Burke and Claire Clements inspired by nature. Through Oct. 5. • Leonard Piha’s solo exhibition features mixed-media sculptures set within one-gallon glass jugs, drawing on the deep history of bottle whimseys, an art form spread in the U.S. by self-taught craftsmen. Through Nov. 15. • Collections From the Community presents Ahndhi Stitcha’s VHS tape collection. THE NEST (523 Prince Ave.) Susan Pelham’s collages are inspired by Magic Realism, Surrealism, nursery rhymes, fables and more. Through Sept. 14.
OCONEE LIBRARY (1925 Electric Ave., Watkinsville) Members of the Athens Area Plein Air group share their works. Artist Reception Oct. 5, 1–3 p.m. Currently on view through Oct. 30.
OX FINE ART (675 Pulaski St., Suite 1700) Artwork by the late Art Rosenbaum, a painter, muralist, professor, and collector and performer of
ART CLASSES (K.A. Artist Shop)
The shop offers a range of fine art classes and workshops for adults, private classes and parties, summer camps, and art clubs for youth. Topics include acrylic, aqua oil, bookmaking, calligraphy, gouache, printmaking, and watercolor. Register online. www.kaartist.com
BLACKSMITHING CLASSES (Greenhow Handmade Ironworks, Washington) A variety of blacksmithing classes include “Forge a Railroad Spike Knife” (Sept. 20) and “Forge a Fire Poker” (Sept. 21). Classes held 10 a.m.–5 p.m. $150. www. greenhowhandmade.com/blacksmith-classes
CANOPY CLASSES & SCHOLARSHIPS (Canopy Studio) Canopy offers a variety of trapeze and aerial arts classes for children and adults. Scholarships and financial aid are available. outreach@canopystudio. org, www.canopystudio.org/ outreach/scholarships
COOKING CLASSES (Athens Cooks)
“Autumn Date Night: Roasted Duck Breast” will be held Sept. 18, 6–8 p.m. $103. “Rollin’ with Lobster: A Lobster Roll Extravaganza” will be held Sept. 19, 6–8 p.m. $103. “Mommy and Me” Brunch Edition will be held Sept. 21, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. $75. Register online. www. athenscooks.com
DANCE CLASSES (East Athens Educational Dance Center) The center offers classes in ballet, hip hop, jazz, modern and tap. Lunch time classes are available for adults including “Pilates & Dance Conditioning” on Wednesdays at noon. www.accgov.com/myrec
PÉTANQUE CLUB OF ATHENS (5 Alumni Dr.) Learn to play Pétanque. RSVP for a free Wednesday introduction. athenspetanqueclub@ gmail.com, www.athenspetanque club.wixsite.com/play
QPR SUICIDE PREVENTION TRAINING (Nuçi’s Space) Nuçi’s hosts free monthly QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) suicide prevention sessions for anyone interested, not just mental health professionals. Nuçi’s also offers free training for businesses and organizations. qpr@nuci.org, www.nuci.org/qpr RUBBER PEOPLE SOUL YOGA (work.shop) Cal Clements teaches classes that include gratitude, breath, flexibility poses, strength building and some chanting of Om. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 10–11:30 a.m. Donations accepted. www.rubberpeoplesoulyoga.com
SALSA CLASSES (Multiple Locations) UGA Salsa Club hosts “Level 1: Foundational Movements & Partner Work” for students with no prior dancing experience. No partner required. Held in Adinkra Hall (Memorial Hall 407). Sundays through Nov. 24, 3–3:45 p.m. (No class Nov. 3, Nov. 17.) FREE! www. ugasalsaclub.com TIMBAthens hosts “Level 2: Partner Work & Foundations of Rueda I” for students who want to learn Cuban style. Held at YWCO Sundays through Dec. 15, 4:30–5:25 p.m. (No class Oct. 20). $10/class. www.timbathens.com
TRADITIONAL MARTIAL ARTS CLASSES (Live Oak Martial Arts) Traditional and modern-style Taekwondo, self-defense, grappling and weapons classes are offered
traditional American folk music. Opening Reception Sept. 19, 5–9 p.m.
PORCELAIN AND DECORATIVE ARTS MUSEUM (2450 S. Milledge Ave.)
Two new collections celebrating the connection between art and nature include a complete Jasperware tea set from Wedgewood in England and a series of hand-carved coconut vessels.
REVOLUTION THERAPY AND YOGA (675 Pulaski St., Suite 1400) Manda McKay shares arrival prints of her oil paintings. Viewing hours Sept. 19, 5–9 p.m.
STATE BOTANICAL GARDEN OF GEORGIA (2450 S. Milledge Ave) “Tiny Wonders” presents macro photography of local plants, insects and other tiny creatures by Heather Larkin, Don Hunter, Diego Huet, Bill Sheehan, Sandy Shaul and Rosemary Woodel. Through Nov. 12.
STEFFEN THOMAS MUSEUM OF ART (4200 Bethany Rd., Buckhead) “Queer Perspectives” is a juried exhibition featuring work by 13 Georgiabased artists including Yousef Bousheri, Perrine Gaudry, Rial Rye, Ezra Witkowski and Clint Zeagler. Through Jan. 4.
TIGER’S EYE GALLERY (675 Pulaski St., Suite 1600) Celebrated poet, Rumi translator and UGA professor emeritus Coleman Barks shares a collection of new works on paper alongside pieces by Ben Rouse, Mark Magnarella, Marla Star, Jamie DeRevere, Jessica Magnarella and Noah Mendelson. Opening Reception Sept. 19, 5–9 p.m.
TINY ATH GALLERY (174 Cleveland Ave.) “Stay On It Stay On It Stay On It” features new shaped paintings, recent works on paper and a selection of earlier pieces by Jason Matherly. Opening Reception Sept. 19, 6–9 p.m. Closing Reception Sept. 26, 5–8 p.m.
UGA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER LOBBY GALLERY (230 River Rd.) In “Low Anchored Cloud/Spring Hoax,” Joseph Peragine, director of the Lamar Dodd School of Art at UGA, explores themes of life and death through two distinct bodies of work. Through Dec. 21.
UGA SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARIES (300 S. Hull St.) “Athens Potluck” revisits Jason Thrasher’s 2017 book that includes portraits of 33 musicians at home or in the studio.The exhibition includes photographs, stories, loaned items from the featured musicians and items from the music collections of the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Curator Talk Sept. 21, 3 p.m. Through December. • “Bulldog Olympians” celebrates over 200 UGA athletes who have competed for Team USA or their home countries through photographs and artifacts. Curator Talks Oct. 5, Oct. 11, Nov. 15 and Nov. 22.
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP OF ATHENS CLEMENTS GALLERY (780 Timothy Rd.) “The Claire and Robert Clements Summer Invitational” features UUFA artists as well as artists who have shown or are scheduled to show in the gallery. Through Sept. 29.
WINTERVILLE CULTURAL CENTER GALLERY (371 N. Church St., Winterville) “First Annual Juried Exhibition” featuring selections from the gallery’s inaugural juried show. Through Oct. 30. • “Wonders of Watercolor” including works from the W.O.W. OCAF artists group. Through Oct. 30.
WINTERVILLE LIBRARY (115 Marigold Lane, Winterville) Leslie Guo’s exhibition, “Colors of Water,” explores the fluid beaty and endless possibilities of water as both subject and medium. Artist Reception Oct. 1. Currently on view through Nov. 1.
for all ages. Classes in Jodo, the art of the Japanese staff and sword, are held Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7 p.m. Visit the website for a full schedule. liveoak martialarts@gmail.com, www.live oakmartialarts.com
YOGA AND MORE (Revolution Therapy and Yoga) Revolution is a multipurpose mind-body wellness studio offering yoga and therapy with an emphasis on trauma-informed practices. Check website for upcoming classes and programs. www.revolutiontherapyandyoga.com
YOGA CLASSES (Let It Be Yoga Studio, Watkinsville) Classes are offered in Hatha, Vinyasa, Kundalini, beginner, gentle and other styles. Check online calendar for weekly offerings. www.letitbeyoga.org
YOGA CLASSES (Shakti Yoga Athens) This body-neutral and traumainformed space in Normaltown offers heated and unheated classes. Classes are offered in Power Yoga, Gentle Yoga, Yin and Restorative Yoga. New student offer: four weeks of unlimited yoga for $40. shakti yogaathens.com
Help Out
ADOPT-A-STREAM VOLUNTEER TRAINING (Sandy Creek Nature Center) Get trained to help monitor the health of a nearby stream. Online registration deadline Sept. 18. Training held Sept. 21, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. www.accgov.com/ sandycreeknaturecenter
ATHENS RIVERS ALIVE (Athens, GA) Help remove litter from streams, creeks and rivers as part of a continuing statewide campaign to clean and preserve over 70,000 miles of Georgia’s rivers and streams. Now registering. Georgia Waterway Cleanup held Oct. 19. www.accgov.com/RiversAlive
MULTIPLE CHOICES VOLUNTEERS
(Multiple Choices Center for Independent Living) Seeking volunteers to assist a nonprofit agency that serves individuals living with disabilities throughout a 10-country area of Northeastern Georgia. Contact Daniel Myers at 706-850-4025 or dmyers@multiplechoices.us
SEEKING BOARD MEMBERS (Bigger Vision of Athens) The nonprofit homeless shelter Bigger Vision of Athens, Inc. is seeking new members for its board of directors. The application is available online. the biggervisionshelter@gmail.com, www.bvoa.org/boardmember
SEEKING BOARD MEMBERS (Morton Theatre Corporation) The Morton Theatre Corporation is seeking new members for its board of directors and volunteers. The application is available online. board@morton theatre.com, www.mortontheatre. com/join-the-board
TRAIL GUIDING (Sandy Creek Nature Center) Volunteers lead small groups of children on hikes around the nature center trails and emphasize the lesson for the day by incorporating things found on the hike. Register online. accgov. givepulse.com/event/379177-TrailGuides-Training
Kidstuff
ART CARD CLUB FOR PRE-TEENS AND TEENS (K.A. Artist Shop)
Draw, paint, collage and create your own collection of art cards. Materials provided. Fridays, 6–7:30 p.m. $28/drop-in, $200 (10 classes). www.kaartist.com
ATHENS FOREST KINDERGARTEN (Sandy Creek Park) Now enrolling children ages 3–6. AFK is a
cooperative preschool that aims to develop initiative, persistence, interdependence, and empathy. www.athensforestkindergarten.org
BRELLA ACTIVITIES (’BRELLA STUDIO) After-school art lessons for ages 6–11 include drawing and mixed media activities and are held Monday and Tuesday afternoons. Family Playgroups are for ages 0–5 and their caregivers. Check website for descriptions and meeting times. www.brellastudio.com/events
FALL CLASSES (Treehouse Kid & Craft) Treehouse offers a variety of art-centric activities for children, such as “Art School,” “Toddler/ Baby Process Art,” “Digital Art Designer,” “Open Studio,” “Art School Junior,” “Saturday Morning Crafts” and more. Check website for schedule and details. www.tree housekidandcraft.com
GROUPS AT REBLOSSOM (ReBlossom) A variety of classes, playgroups and support groups are offered for parents and young children. Topics include birth and breastfeeding, prenatal and parent-baby yoga, instrument play, maternal mental health and more. Check website for a schedule. www. reblossomathens.com
LIBRARY STORYTIMES (ACC Library) Storytime for preschool aged children and their caregivers is offered every Tuesday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. www.athens library.org
Word on the Street
BIKE REPAIR STATIONS (Multiple Locations) Over 15 free bike repair stations are located across Athens with tools, an air pump and a QR code for quick guides on basic bike repairs. Visit the website for participating locations. www.accgov. com/10584/Bike-Repair-Stations
CALL FOR PHOTOS (Athens, GA) Submit water or nature-themed photos taken in Athens-Clarke County to be considered in the Stormwater Management Program’s annual calendar. www.accgov.com/stormwater CAR SHOW ENTRIES SOUGHT (Sandy Creek Park) The ACC Leisure Services Department is seeking car entry applications for the inaugural Sandy Creek BBQ, Blues & CruiseIn. Entries will compete for trophies in a variety of categories including “Best in Show” “Best Interior” and “Most Unique.” $15/car. Registration deadline Oct. 7, 12 p.m. Event held Oct. 13, 2–7 p.m. www. accgov.com/sandycreekcarshow
DIAL-A-POEM (Athens, GA) Call 762-400-POEM (or 762-400-7636) to hear selections from Athens current Poet Laureate Mikhayla Robinson Smith and inaugural Poet Laureate Jeff Fallis. www.athens culturalaffairs.org
DIAMOND HILL FARM CSA (Athentic Brewing Co.) The Community Supported Agriculture program offers a variety of seasonal vegetables, fruits and/or flowers directly to consumers each week. Check website for weekly pickup locations, home delivery details and to register. $15 (flower share), $25–35 (farm box). www.diamondhillfarm athens.com
FALL PROGRAM REGISTRATION (Athens, GA) The Leisure Services Department offers a diverse selection of activities highlighting the arts, environmental science, recreation, sports and holiday events for both adults and children. Now registering. www.accgov.com/myrec
FASHION DEEP DIVE (Oconee Library) The library will run fashionthemed programs in September and October. Seeking local designers
and models to participate in a finale fashion show on Oct. 26, as well as local experts to teach workshops in fashion design basics, cosmetics, fashion sketching or costume design. Contact James Mitchell, jmitchell@athenslibrary.org
LEISURE SERVICES MASTER PLAN (Athens, GA) The ACC Leisure Services Department is in the process of developing a new comprehensive master plan. Share your thoughts online or in person. Check website for pop-up events. www. accgov.com/activateathens
NATIONAL DIAPER NEED AWARENESS WEEK (Athens, GA) Seeking diaper and monetary donations, volunteers, sponsors and businesses interested in hosting fundraisers. Open house at Athens Area Diaper Bank held Sept. 29, 2–4 p.m. Awareness week runs Sept. 23–29. www.athensareadiaperbank.com
RABBIT BOX (VFW Post 2872) The 13th season of Rabbit Box is seeking storytellers to share true short tales. Upcoming themes include “Birth of a Parent” (Sept. 24), “Scared Stiff” (Oct. 2) and “Bad Advice” (Nov. 19). Pitch your story idea online. rabbitbox.org/tell
RABBIT HOLE EVENTS (Rabbit Hole Studios) Weekly events include Open Mic (Tuesdays, 7–11 p.m.), Acoustic Song Circle (Thursdays, 7–11 p.m.) and Drumming and Song Circle (Sundays, 3–5 p.m.). Wednesday Yoga (5 p.m.) is followed by Meditation and Integration (6 p.m.). Events are free or donation based. www.rabbitholestudios.org/ calendar
SEEKING MUSIC (Athens, GA) Seeking music submissions for the third season of “View Finders,” a locally produced TV series that will air on national PBS. Music can vary from electronic, ambient, hip hop, folk, Americana, rock, country, blues, classical and beyond. Contact for submission form. chrisgreer photography@gmail.com, www. viewfindersontv.com
SEEKING POLL WORKERS (Athens, GA) The Elections Department is seeking residents to serve as poll workers for the Nov. 5 general election. www.accgov.com/pollworker
SEVENTH GENERATION (Healing Path Farm) Seventh Generation Native American Church hosts gatherings on Sundays at 11 a.m., Men’s Group on Tuesdays at 6 p.m., and Women’s Circle every second and fourth Wednesday at 6 p.m. www.seventhgeneration nativeamericanchurch.org
TEMPORARY CHARM CLOSURE
(ACC Center for Hard to Recycle Materials) The center will be closed Sept. 23–28 to allow staff to process and ship out accumulated recyclable material. www.accgov. com/charm
WHAT’S YOUR STORY? (Athens Technical College) The Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society is hosting its What’s Your Story Festival of Art on Sept. 26. Submit artwork for an exhibition and silent auction. Auction runs Sept. 23, 12 p.m.–Sept. 26, 5 p.m. Also seeking submissions for the literary magazine Sunlight, Volume 2. Email stories by Sept. 16. ptk.atc@gmail.com
VHS DIGITIZATION (Athens, GA)
Brad Staples (of the Athens GA Live Music crew) is seeking previously recorded concerts and events on VHS, VHSC or DVDs to digitize and archive on his YouTube channel, vhsordie (@vhsordie3030). Original recordings will be returned, and credits and dates will be included in the online video description. Digitization services are free. Contact for details and to coordinate shipping. bradley.staples88@gmail.com f
REAL ESTATE
HOUSES FOR RENT
3BR/2BA house in Normaltown, quiet interior street. Central heat/air. Furnished. Hwd floors. Washer/dryer. Driveway/on-street parking. No smokers, pets. Calls only! 706-372-1505
HOUSES FOR SALE
Looking for a house or a home? Condo or land? Call Daniel Peiken. REALTOR 5Market Realty. Selling in and around Athens for over 20 years. 706-296-2941
ROOMS FOR RENT
Room for rent. Utilities included. $600/month. 762366-8081
MUSIC
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Nuçi’s Space is always accepting and selling used gear and instruments. All profits go toward our mission of ending the epidemic of suicide. Visit nuci.org/ rewired.
INSTRUCTION
Athens School of Music. Now offering in-person and online instruction in guitar, bass, drums, piano, voice, brass, woodwinds, strings, banjo, mandolin and more. From beginner to expert, all styles. Visit www.athens schoolofmusic.com. 706543-5800
MUSIC SERVICES
Instant cash is now being paid for good vinyl records & CDs in fine condition. Wuxtry Records at corner of Clayton & College Dwntn. 706-369-9428
SERVICES
HEALTH
Improve your health by balancing your energies. Offering energy medicine for you and your dog in the Chase Park Arts District. 706-296-6893 VibrantBeing. net
Need old papers for your garden? We have plenty here at Flagpole! Call ahead and we’ll have a crate ready for you. 706-549-0301
HOME AND GARDEN
We offer garden clean-up/ maintenance, invasive plant removal, raised beds, personalized native/edible gardens for home/business and more! Call/Text: 706395-5321.
MISC. SERVICES
Efficient Personal Assistant for Hire! Expert in scheduling, organization, and multitasking. Reliable, discreet, and dedicated to making your life easier. Contact for a free consultation today! 706-296-2062
TRAVEL
FREE travel booking/consultation with local Travel Advisor Kristi Patrick! Cruises, all inclusives, honeymoons/destination weddings, corporate incentive travel, group travel, and more! TravelmationKristi.net
Get Flagpole delivered to your mailbox! Only $65 for six months or $125 for one year. Purchase at www.flagpole.bigcartel. com or call 706-549-0301.
JOBS PART-TIME
Join a diverse, inclusive workplace and get paid to type! 12–40 hours, Mon–Fri. NEVER be called in for a shift you didn’t sign up for. Must type 65+ wpm. Make your own schedule and work independently with no customer interaction. Starts at $13 with automatic increases. www.ctscribes. com
Join us! Part-Time Tour Guide wanted at Historic Athens Welcome Center. $16.75/hour + tips. Apply: athenswelcomecenter.com/ jobs. Share history and make memories!
Seeking PT research assistant. $15/hour to start to investigate local traffic fatality information. Email resume to: vintagelumber@ gmail.com.
UU Fellowship of Athens seeks Childcare Workers for Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. Learn more at uuathensga.org/ employment.
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens (UUFA) seeks a FACILITIES MANAGER to manage building & grounds, coordinate rentals/reservations, some office operations. Approximately 10 hrs/wk $11,025 to $13,475/year. DEADLINE to Apply: Sept 22. Gain the opportunity to work with an inclusive, justice seeking
by Margie E. Burke
arts & culture
Spaceball Bazaar
REFLECTION
By Sam Lipkin editorial@flagpole.com
Part of the charm of the Athens area and its creatives is the willingness to experiment and enduring DIY spirit—even when breakthrough success falls short, there’s a great story and inspiration to share. As Spaceball Bazaar, the collectively shared art and music space at 130 N. Church St. in Bogart, faces the end of its year-long lease this month, co-organizer of the space Gary Autry expresses mixed sentiments.
“I just wanted it to kind of snowball more. I wanted the collective to grow more beyond our thing, which we did sort of accomplish,” says Autry. “I’ve made so many friends and connections that I sold some art to.”
In addition to making repairs to the building and painting, the tenants had to clear a lot of rubbish. The building was formerly a print shop, and Autry says that they found a large printer’s chest with drawers full of old pressing blocks. Although it adds to the charm, the process of making the space suitable as a studio was only one challenge the collective faced. The old building lacked any form of climate control, and without a liquor license it was difficult to bring in any significant revenue through events that covered all of the costs.
It’s a Classic City story, one that many artists, musicians and entrepreneurs may relate to. And like many legendary stories in Athens, Spaceball’s starts in the ’90s. Autry met Chris Fagot, whom he describes as the “main guy” behind Spaceball, and found a circle of friends through music. They formed a loose collective of bands in the mid- to late-’90s, which Autry calls “Elephant 6 adjacent.” At that time the group had a large space that hosted different creative projects and live shows, but eventually members began to move out of the area.
“It taught me from the beginning, which it took me a long time to get, Chris was real big on this: You want to be a perfectionist, and you want to do it, and it’s got to be like this. But he would be like, ‘No, it’s fine like it is.’ For better or worse, that’s one of the core things,” says Autry.
In July of 2023 Spaceball Entertainment celebrated its 25th anniversary with Whammocon, a multi-day event that served a larger purpose of reuniting that collective of creatives. The experience prompted Fagot to find a place that they could form into a multi-purpose studio. The spacious lot in Bogart was affordable, despite needing a lot of hands-on love and care from its new tenants. The vision was to have a storefront for Joel Price’s large record collection, Rachel Cabaniss’ vintage collection and an art gallery run by Autry featuring local artists. In October of 2023, Spaceball Bazaar opened its doors.
A few months later in January, Autry decided to test the live show waters in the residential neighborhood by putting together an event celebrating his birthday. He reached out to JD Pinkus as the inaugural performer, and an anonymous friend with a helpful hand set up a proper sound system in the one-room space.
“I did build a little platform stage. So we just grinded that out one weekend, but you couldn’t make it too high because the ceiling is like falling in,” laughs Autry.
However, Autry says that he learned a lot about event production and promotion through this experience, and many good times were had at Spaceball. Friends and volunteers took it on as a labor of love, like neighbor Alex Johns, who ran sound for most shows. It encouraged Autry to begin booking and promoting shows at Flicker Theatre & Bar, the first being a joint art show with Jeff Rapier and a music performance by JD Pinkus. Moving forward beyond Spaceball, Autry plans to continue promoting shows and expanding in that direction.
As a final blow-out celebration of Spaceball, all of the people who put their passion into it and everyone who met new friends there, there will be a day-long festival on Saturday, Sept. 21. Featured performers include Jon Lester’s Dis-Taste-R, Grim Gardenerz, The Unus Mundus, Smaxxon, Original Hamsterz, Burly Ivy, Ramona Quimbys, Smoggo, Penny Loafer, pondgorl, Iconostasis, Mr. Blank and Bryant Perez with Something Haunted. It’s an all ages event with food, art and records.
One of Autry’s highlights from the past year is the opportunity to bring people together from different personal connections to experience something they may never have found otherwise. Those types of moments keep the creative scene flourishing, and Athens’ remaining DIY spaces are an important place to create them. f
The Rishis GARY AUTRY
Osteria Olio
NEW ITALIAN RESTAURANT EXECUTES TRADITIONAL LUXURY
By Hillary Brown food@flagpole.com
OSTERIA OLIO (355 Oneta St., 762-3161818, osteriaolio.com): Is there still room for more high-end restaurants in Athens? Sure, why not? Osteria Olio, the brandnew swanky restaurant that’s part of the brand-new swanky boutique hotel Rivet House, is the first place in 28 years of living in this town where I have had my car valet parked. There is no other option unless you park around the corner sneakily and arrive on foot. Given that the parking lot is right there, it can also feel silly; previously free for those dining at the restaurant, it seems to have been updated to a $5 charge, plus tip. Credit where credit is due: The decor is higher end than anything in Athens, with curvy poured-concrete banquettes on the gorgeous patio, chunky slabs of wood creating a partial screen and gigantic arrangements of dried flowers that hang from the ceiling. It feels like Atlanta, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. There is something a bit conservative about the vibe (aesthetically, not politically), but the atmosphere is still very nice.
use of fall-evoking spices while countering them with some acidic zip.
Enough about drinks. How’s the food? Some of it is very good indeed, and textural awareness is clearly a specialty of the kitchen. The meatballs, available on both dinner and brunch menus in slightly different iterations, are right on—not the dense, clumpy, bland creations you often get, but as light as being whisked around a dance floor by someone who knows what they’re doing. They’re one of the best things I’ve had in Athens. Similarly, the ricotta fritters, essentially a paper cone of mini doughnuts dusted with cinnamon sugar and served with a berry jam and tantalizingly toasted sorghum caramel, basically gave me a Proust moment, calling to mind the ones served at the Lakewood Antiques Market from a truck when I was a child, only better. Again, they’re light. They know just where to step on your tastebuds.
Nothing else is as good as those two dishes, and the strengths appear to be in execution more than envelope-pushing creativity, but there are real highlights. It’s fairly easy to be a vegetarian, or even accidentally order vegetarian, and eat well at Osteria Olio.
The hospitality group, nominated for a James Beard Award as a restaurateur, knows its stuff. Not every staff member does—no great surprise in a town never known for great service—but they’re trying. On the other hand, if you compare it to The Dining Room in Madison, a labor of love attempting to recreate the RitzCarlton Buckhead’s restaurant that was once Atlanta’s gold standard, Osteria Olio is less obsessive about the details. Everyone will be sweet and polite, but they also might plop your dessert fork to the right of your plate. Eating in the dining room, which generally requires a reservation, is smoother than eating in the lounge.
The bar program is nicely managed, with a list of cocktails that rotates seasonally but includes many that stay the same. The Grapefruit Groves (gin, acid-adjusted grapefruit, sugar, mint) is no longer available, but it was subtle, simple and drinkable. At brunch, the house Bloody Mary avoids the trap of excessive creativity that many restaurants in this range fall into. It relies on Sister’s Sauce, a small-batch mix out of Atlanta, and it’s neither too sweet nor too bitter. The nonalcoholic ones are nice, too, with the new Everything Nice making fine
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Among the pastas, the agnolotti di mais features little purses stuffed with creamed corn and mascarpone, in a delicate brown butter sauce, but what makes it work are the tiny, somewhat pickled mushrooms throughout, little jabs of acid that undercut the sweetness of the pasta filling.
Grilled artichokes, in the sides section (the secondi are served steakhouse style), don’t need more than the spicy breadcrumbs that play against their natural vegetal delicacy. The pizzas are good, too, including cold from the fridge the next day, although the standard deviation of the dish is low. At brunch, the new potato hash plays around with streaks of salsa verde and pickled red onion without forgetting its central ingredient. On the other hand, the market fish is a dud. It’s so simply cooked that you have to do it perfectly, and if you don’t nail the texture (they didn’t), it’s a disappointment. The Italian chopped salad is adequate. The focaccia, made in house, is too close, perhaps inadequately proofed. The fried mortadella sandwich is a good hangover dish, but it needs more oomph.
The price point isn’t cheap. It’s in a comparable range to ZZ & Simone’s, but with a more formal feel. Looking for a special occasion place that feels objectively fancy? It’s a good fit for that, and your odds of eating something genuinely good ain’t bad at all.
Osteria Olio is open for dinner from 5 p.m. every night and for brunch from 11 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. f
