The Studio Funky, Fearless, Footloose and Fancy Free

The Seed and Feed Marching Abominable Struts to their Own Beat

By Donna Williams Lewis

They’re funky. They’re fearless. And they’ve just turned 45 years old.

They are Atlanta’s own Seed & Feed Marching Abominable, a zany community band of about 200 volunteer musicians, dancers and other assorted fun-lovers ranging in age from 13 to 90.

Founded by Kelly Morris, of the ‘70s-era Kelly’s Seed & Feed Theatre, the band marked its anniversary with its 45th appearance in the annual Inman Park Festival Parade.

Inman Park resident Laurie Hawkins, 58, has been part of this scene for 24 years as one of the band’s “Despicables” — the dancers, banner-wavers and other assorted party animals.

“It’s the most beautiful day for our 45th anniversary in our beautifully diverse neighborhood,” Hawkins said at the April 27 parade. “We have everybody in our band, no exclusions, no discrimination.”

The corporate interior designer said her fellow band members keep her coming back. “It’s really hard to have friends when you’re old, and this is pure joy. It’s our tribe,” Hawkins said. “We raised our child in this band.”

Members’ children under the age of 18 are known as the band’s “Incorrigibles.”

Continued on page 40

This initiative allows you to postpone payment for contractor services until closing*

Should you elect to utilize the services of our selected contractors to assist you in elevating the appearance of your property, they will delay collection of fees earned until time of closing. This includes everything from landscape work to repairs and cosmetic issues.

*Payment, however, must be made no later than 100 days from commencement of work.

Marching Abominable alumni from around the country returned to Atlanta to commemorate the anniversary. Some joined the parade, and uniforms were not a problem. The band doesn’t wear them. Instead, they’re given a suggested costume theme based on each event or they can wear their tie-dye Seed & Feed T-shirts.

They dressed as superheroes for last year’s Dragon Con parade in Downtown Atlanta. For the Inman Park parade, their theme was sapphire, the gemstone for 45th anniversaries.

The band dazzled the crowd with deep blue clothing of every kind, accessorized with a crazy blur of sequins, feathers, wigs, hats, beads, fishnet stockings and butterfly wings. A couple of members marched with vinyl ’45s strapped to the sides of their heads.

They fit right into what’s billed as Atlanta’s “quirkiest” parade with other parade favorites such as the Inman Park Precision Attaché Drill Team and the Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons.

The band is led by several alternating conductors, each called “Broom.” That’s a name dating back to the Marching Abominable’s first public appearance, led by “a high-stepping guy with a broom, who swept aside the crowd,” according to the group’s history.

The musicians have a repertoire ranging from Big Band standards such as Benny Goodman’s “Sing, Sing, Sing” to more current tunes such as “Raise Your Glass” by Pink. And, of course, there’s lots of John Philip Sousa in their mix.

Trombone player Henry Slack, of Decatur, has been an Abominable since the band’s start. “We play Sousa the way other people play softball,” he said, “with the best of intentions.”

No experience necessary

Though they wow crowds with their big brassy sound, it’s easy to join the Seed & Feed Marching Abominable. There are no auditions and no marching experience is necessary. The musicians range from beginners to professionals, said the group’s manager, “The Mouth,” aka Donna Weber.

“We’ve had jugglers and unicyclists and we have a violinist in the band who marches and carries an amp on her back,” said Weber, a 32-year-old bass drummer who works in the legal industry. “We are definitely a place where if someone wants to join, we want to be a home for them and find a thing for them to do.”

Weber is joined on the band’s fivemember council by “Scribbles,” the secretary (Liz Weiler); “Bookie,” the booking manager (Patricia Pichardo); “Rostermeister,” the membership coordinator (Karen Parker); and “Scrooge,” the treasurer (Jane Monahan).

The nonprofit band plays for free for community and nonprofit-related events. Their paid private and corporate gigs cover their general operating costs.

Putting on the ‘Blitz’

Hank Spiker, 68, of Decatur, joined the Marching Abominable during the days of its Seed & Feed Theatre performances. He played trumpet with the band for about 13 years and returns for its anniversaries.

“That group really became my family,” he said. “Once you’re a band member, you’re always a band member.”

The band still holds true to its street theater roots of Spiker’s day, including its “blitz” — popping up of out of nowhere and taking people by surprise. Most recently, the band blitzed the El Bandido Mex Mex Grill in Little Five Points during the restaurant’s Cinco de Mayo celebration.

Spiker loves those moments when people begin to think they hear a band and then suddenly they’re shocked that their ears aren’t deceiving them. “Just the surprise and the joy of that [the blitz],” he said. “Every performance is like that. It’s just a joy.”

‘I showed her!’

A tiny slip of a person decked out in blue butterflies, huge yellow peace symbol earrings and a belly dance skirt over a blue leotard, Angela Carrington, 71, swayed her way down the parade route.

The Inman Park afterschool art teacher is living out a dream from her youth as one of the Despicables for about the past 23 years. “I played clarinet in high school and college. I wanted to dance, but my mother was all about music,” she said. “So, I showed her!”

As a Despicable, “We wrangle people out of the way,” watch for potholes, “and we dance when we can,” Carrington said.

Another Despicable, former New York City dance teacher Ricki Abrams, is the band’s oldest member. “She just turned 90 and we got to play at her birthday party, which was so much fun,” Weber said.

Ronda Fox, 59, both a Despicable and a Broom, said the Marching Abominable is a great educational resource for the city. “It’s [a place] for developing musicians as well as a place where top-notch musicians can come to have fun,” she said.

The Brookhaven retiree’s family is one of several with three generations involved in the band. Her mother Avis Fox, 86, of Stone

Join the Marching Abominable!

The band’s regular season is from Labor Day to Memorial Day, but performances are scheduled throughout the year. There’s no mandate to attend each event.

Band practices are weekly on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at the Little Five Points Arts and Community Center, 1083 Austin Ave. N.E., Atlanta 30307. Visitors are welcome. Info at seedandfeed.org.

Mountain, is a Despicable who used to tap dance at band gigs with her late husband and still does an event or two each year. Ronda’s daughter Amalia Fox, 12, is a lifelong Incorrigible.

The band takes in new members any time and all the time, Weber said. “Whatever you want to put into it,” she said, “we’re happy to help you harness that energy.”

Upcoming gigs

Here’s a spring/summer sampler of the band’s upcoming events. Times shown are the anticipated Marching Abominable performance times.

Saturday, June 15 — Wrecking Bar Brewpub’s 8th Anniversary Celebration. 2-3 p.m. 292 Moreland Ave. N.E., Atlanta 30307. Info: wreckingbarbrewpub.com.

Thursday, July 4 — Old Timers 4th of July Parade, 10-11 a.m., Downtown Blue Ridge, Ga. on East Main and West Main streets. Info: bestofblueridge.biz/old-timersparade.

Saturday, Aug. 31 — Dragon Con Parade. 10 a.m. Peachtree Street in Downtown Atlanta. Info: facebook.com/ groups/dragonconparade.

The Atlanta Fringe Festival’s 7th annual installment will be its biggest and most ambitious outing yet, with 23 performance groups from around the country putting up live theatre, dance, comedy, storytelling and more across six venues in four days.

This year’s festival will also, for the first time, feature a free outdoor stage for family-friendly shows and activities, a variety benefit featuring local Atlanta talent, and live performances by some of the three dozen audio artists whose work will be available exclusively at AtlantaFringe.org.

The 23 companies from 9 different states that make up this year’s lineup were chosen, per festival tradition, via a completely unjuried lottery – literally pulled out of a hat from a pool of 130 global submissions. As in years past, the 7thAtlanta Fringe Festival will boast live performances from across the theatrical spectrum, from avant garde dance to sketch comedy to solo storytelling to heavily-costumed performance art troupes. Festival artists will be eligible for cash prizes for the favorite shows in various categories as selected by the audience, staff and a panel of judges from the Atlanta arts community.

This year’s festival will take place in traditional and converted performing spaces in and around Little Five Points, including 7 Stages, the Highland Ballroom, The Marianna at Wrecking Bar Brewpub, the Church at Ponce & Highland, and the International Montessori Academy.

Learn more at atlantafringe.org.

Karen

Poet Karen Head and poet/essayist Megan Volpert both have new books out this month. Head’s latest poetry collection, Lost on Purpose (Iris Press), is already gaining praise for its lyricism and pop culture sensibility, while Volpert’s Boss Broad (Sibling Rivalry Press) responds to Bruce Springsteen’s body of work with poems and essays. In the spirit of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, Head and Volpert (who both happen to be regular INtown contributors) sat down for a lively question and answer session.

VOLPERT: Your writing has always been deeply interested in place. Lost on Purpose is all about landscape and travel. What’s up with that?

HEAD: Eudora Welty once said, “Art, though, is never the voice of a country; it is an even more precious thing, the voice of the individual, doing its best to speak, not comfort of any sort, indeed, but truth.” I think for a me, growing up as an Army Brat (10 schools in my K-12 experience), I’ve always had to focus on my “place in place” in order to survive. In what many people would call a “post-truth” world, I think the sense of place is increasingly important. For me the truth of where I am from is more fluid. I’ve spent so much time being the outsider, the foreign person, that I am probably more primed to be aware of what’s happening around me. That’s why the “truth” I am keen to share is about other places and the people who live there. Any hope we have for meaningful peace has to begin with understanding, and it is an artist’s responsibility to contribute to understanding.

Your writing has always been deeply engaged with pop culture. Do you feel that being a high school teacher has amplified this interest, or would it have happened no matter what your profession might have been?

VOLPERT: When I was a kid I wanted to do civil rights litigation. It’s probably more fair to say that pop culture led me to teaching, rather than the other way around. The interest in pop culture was there from the start in the form of teen magazines and mix tapes bootlegged off the radio. School was always a safer place for me than the house I grew up in, and I would pick up pop detritus at school and then use it as a shield to tune out what was going on at home. Teenagers are intensely ideological creatures and the popular arts are where they learn what ideas they prefer to wield. As a high school English teacher, my job is to help shape their interpretation and eventual application of those ideas. And of course, they keep me in the evolutionary loop. I’m constantly asking them, “am I being old right now?” Them telling me what I’m missing, culturally speaking, has become a valuable springboard in my writing process.

What’s your process? Do you write most this stuff while you’re traveling, or are these poems what you’re able to “recollect in tranquility,” as Wordsworth says?

HEAD: Most of my work happens in reflection, but sometimes I do write in the place I visit. My third book, My Paris

Year, was mostly written in Paris. Lost on Purpose was so long in the making (over ten years) that it is hard to remember the entire process of all the poems. I was also having to balance my academic projects, so poetry was something I often has to “squeeze in” when I could. Overall, I think the richness of the poems, from the figurative sense, tends to reveal itself after some distance from the actual experiences.

In an interview I read years ago (and I hope I’m not mythologizing this), Toni Morrison talked about the importance of a long commute to her work. She said characters and action would “play out” in the dark reflections in the window as she rode along. What role has commuting taken (beside being a topic) in the process of your book?

VOLPERT: I work more quickly than most people and I don’t edit much, so the commute (Decatur to Roswell five days a week) is crucial time for ideas to marinate. Nearly all of the Only Ride book was typed on my phone’s notepad in ten-minute increments while riding

MARTA. For Boss Broad, I made a playlist of the five Springsteen songs that were to be translated in each chapter, then I’d play them on a loop for several weeks at a time until their rhymes and rhythms were muscle memory—made the translations spring out of me quite quickly every weekend, and the commute was key to keeping my wife from being justifiably annoyed at hearing the looping songs at home.

Lost on Purpose is also about marriage and even dedicated to your husband, Colin [Potts]. Does he dig his inclusion in your writing and the way you work through your relationship with him on paper?

HEAD: It helps that he is a photographer, and often I have to deal with being his subject, so we appreciate each other’s role as muse. I’ve never published a poem about any aspect of our relationship that might prove surprising to him. Positive or negative, I would never want to blindside him with my work. I also know that he would never (or at least he never has) ask me to change my work in any way. I think I create more trouble for him as a photographer because I have pretty strong feelings about appearing in his work. I’m fine with anything being in a gallery, but I am not always fine with photos appearing on social media. The book is also about finding each other later in life. Frankly, I don’t think I would feel the same freedom to write about our relationship if we were younger. Part of why our relationship is so solid is that we are both mature and confident as individuals. We also really like each other’s work, so that helps, too.

You asked about Colin, so I want to turn similar attention to your wife, Mindy. Both our spouses (who it bears noting, adore one another) share a love of a distinctive and sartorial sense of style. Can you speak about how Mindy’s exploration of fashion as a form of identity politics has informed your work?

VOLPERT: “Fashion” gets a bad rap as being the most vapid form of pop art, but it’s actually the most universal. Everybody gets dressed. Mindy (or @dappermindy, to the Instagram crowd) is indeed very thoughtful about what she puts on every day. Watching her think about style throughout the fourteen glorious years we’ve been together has really impacted my consciousness of how we sartorially rep for our sense of self. She’s a visual activist, creating delight and disturbance with the objective of connecting strangers in a peaceable way. Everywhere we go, people look at her. They wonder if she is “somebody” and secretly snap her photo, or they approach her to talk about her outfit and then we end up conversing about life for ten minutes. She’s an ambassador for queers and gender nonconforming folks, and really gets people engaged in thinking about that by literally wearing it on her sleeve. I’m impressed by her bravery, and my upcoming projects—editing RuPaul’s Drag Race and Philosophy (Open Court, 2019) and also editing Closet Cases: LGBTIQ Writers on What We Wear (Et Alia Press, 2020)—are an unusually direct result of her influence. I’ve been writing about music for a long time, and our tastes there don’t line up so nicely as she’s thirteen years older than I am.

Both our books are about middle age. You’ve got about a dozen years on me, so I’ve always considered you part of my advance team. What do I need to know about facing my forties?

HEAD: When I turned forty, a friend told me to enjoy the next twenty years because it would be the only time in my life when I didn’t have to explain myself. The wisdom went something like, “Before forty people think you still need guidance, and after sixty people think you might be slipping.” I’ve found that to be true. As a woman, I felt a wonderful addition to this new sense of freedom when I turned fifty. It was like a switch flipped, and I really didn’t care what people thought about me in the same ways. I’ve always been eager to please, to be appropriate (whatever that means), but suddenly I just didn’t care if someone thought velvet floral combat boots where age-inappropriate. I also discovered an overwhelming sense of sanguinity. I think you will find the next twenty years enormously freeing. On a more practical note, watch the sugar—or be content with the need to buy bigger pants.

Flannery O’Connor often argued that her illness has no consideration in her fiction. You and I have both struggled with chronic illness. Do you find that your health has been a consideration in your work?

VOLPERT: I almost died from a colitis flare—spent two weeks in the hospital and lost a lot of my language from malnutrition. Only Ride was written to process the grief and joy resulting from that. I also once considered euthanizing myself to avoid the severe chronic pain of colitis, then wrote the anti-suicide book Straight Into Darkness to share the Sisyphean lessons of that. So illness does sometimes push to the forefront of my work in a way that I hope helps other people overcome similar challenges. I’m never afraid to talk about the hard stuff of mortality. It appears in Boss Broad very differently though, as this memoir spends most of its time considering the gap between my sixteen year old self and my currently almost forty year old self—the student and the teacher. It asks whether I’m a sell out or a hypocrite, whether I was ever cool in the first place, and things like that. I surprised myself by needing both my poet’s voice and essayist’s voice to explore it.

How it is that you’ve never strayed from writing in the genre of poetry? You’ve written a book for educators and some restaurant reviews, but are you generally not interested in book-length creative nonfiction or even doing a novel?

HEAD: I’m a crap fiction writer. Oddly, I’m an excellent fiction teacher, and my students have always won awards. While I am not above telling a lie for the sake of a poem, I am much more interested in the truth. That’s why creative nonfiction is appealing to me. My book about higher education isn’t really an academic book. It is a memoir intertwined with journalism—in line with the tradition of new journalism. I honestly don’t think I will ever write a novel, but there are many things I never thought I would do—and did anyway.

Hybridity of form is finally getting the attention it deserves (in my opinion). Can you talk about why you became interested in that approach? What do you gain? What do you sacrifice?

VOLPERT: I don’t like to be told what to do and I like to break rules. Most of my writing has been weirdly unclassifiable by genre—the uniting principle is just my sense of voice, my attitude. The freedom of it is wonderful during the writing process, but once the manuscript is complete, I do realize that I’m a publicist’s worst nightmare. I mean, there was a huge debate about how Boss Broad should be marketed because the book can’t be boxed in to some easy labels. Memoir / essay / poetry / music / education / pop culture? I contain harmonious multitudes! So I’ll never get to be a “famous” or “bestselling” writer this way, but that’s no big sacrifice. This is my eleventh book and I’m pleased to report that the aggregate effect is beginning to bear juicy fruits of cult underground iconoclasm that my sixteen year old self is beyond gratified by.

Lovely chatting with you, Karen. It’s been too long! Let’s go see that Fleetwood Mac cover band again soon and our spouses can playfully bicker about which of the two of them is wearing the finest jacket.

Your family’s most comprehensive online guide to arts and cultural entertainment Visit AtlantaPlanIt.com for more upcoming events.

Visual Arts

Flux Projects - Art Over Dinner: Temporary art projects that create spaces for transformation at Serenbe in Chattahoochee Hills. Jun 6. $85. fluxprojects.art

Gathered IV - Georgia Artists Selecting Georgia Artists: This juried exhibition has steadily evolved over the last thirteen years from its original incarnation. Closes Jun 15. Free. mocaga.org

Hand To Hand - Southern Craft Of The 19th Century: The exhibition frocuses on a selection of masterworks from the High’s holdings of 19th-century Southern decorative arts. Tues-Sun. $14.50. high.org

Kaleidoscope Katrantzou: An exhibition celebrating the 10th anniversary of the coveted designer’s eponymous label Mary Katrantzou. Tue-Sun. $10. scadfash.org

Performing Arts

Anderson Paak and The Free Nationals: This singer, rapper, drummer, and producer broke through with six songs on Dr. Dre’s 2015 album “Compton.” Jun 7. $41.50-$328. classicchastain.com

Brit Floyd: This extravagant show brings together all the best elements of a real Pink Floyd concert. Jun 12. $35-$175. foxtheatre.org

Come From Away: Into the heart of the remarkable true story of 7,000 stranded passengers and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them. Jun25-29. $46-$145. foxtheatre.org

Jon Bellion: This singer/songwriter makes contemporary pop that mixes R&B, hiphop, and indie rock influences. Jun 19. $21.50-$295. classicchastain.com

Dames At Sea: This campy show is based on the nostalgia of Hollywood musicals of the ‘30s. Thur-Sun. $15-$33. stagedoorplayers.net

Jump: In this whimsically theatrical world, lights flicker, hearts heal – and you never know what surprises will literally fall from the sky. Wed-Sun. $20-$35. actors-express.com

Pride & Joy: The story of Marvin Gaye, one of music’s most expressive singers, a deeply talented producer and a superb songwriter. Jun 6-9. $38.75-$102.75. foxtheatre.org

Five Guys Named Moe: The tunes of R&B pioneer Louis Jordan, whose slant on jazz paved the way for rock and roll in the ‘50s, drive this musical tribute. Wed-Sun. $18-$51. theatricaloutfit.org

Jazz Matters: Relax, relate, release and enjoy a wonderful evening of music at The Wren’s Nest. Jun 21-Aug 16. $25-$300. wrensnestonline.com

Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly: Combining a Philadelphia soul sound with a strong appreciation of Marvin Gaye this band was among the top R&B acts of the late ‘70s and ‘80s. Jun 15. $50-$288. classicchastain.com

Rodrigo y Gabriela: Before they became the most visible flamenco duo of the early 2000s, guitarists Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero bonded over heavy metal. Jun 1. $35-$75. foxtheatre.org

Native Gardens: Neighbors clash in this dazzling new comedy about a battle for the backyard. Closes Jun 2. $42-$48. auroratheatre.com

Oliver!: Consider yourself at home with Lionel Bart’s classic musical based on Charles Dickens novel. Jun 7-23. $26-$63. atlantalyrictheatre.com

Pocahontas: The story will be brought to life in a new version by Native American playwright, Kara Morrison. Jun 13-Aug 4. $18-$25. serenbeplayhouse.com

Tunes From The Tombs: A day of incredible music and performances at one of the city’s most unique music venues, Oakland Cemetery. Jun 8. $10-$75. oaklandcemetery.com

The Righteous Brothers: With a string of #1 classics, Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield topped the charts in four decades. Jun 6. $55-$85. cobbenergycentre.com

Weird Al Yankovic: The performer has carried the torch of musical humor more proudly and more successfully than any performer since Allan Sherman. Jun 30. $33$297. classicchastain.com