Mo AYE-TEE-EL | A Special Section, Feb. 2023

A SLO*MO MEDIA PRODUCTION

Editor’s Note

It’s been a hot minute since Atlanta had a great alternatve weekly newspaper.

You know: those free publicatons that report on local news, food, culture and more — from a fun, frank and raw perspectve. Over the years, Atlanta has been home to several alt-weeklies like that.

Hell, I even used to work for one. I served as the frst Black editor-in-chief of Creatve Loafng both here in Atlanta and in Charlote, N.C. Working for the Loaf was a dream come true, but the glory days of alt-weeklies in the ATL are prety much over … untl now, that is, with the publicaton of the paper you’re currently reading: Mo AYE-TEE-EL

A producton of locally based Slo*Mo Media, Mo AYE-TEE-EL is designed to — for one special issue — capture the voice, favor and energy of our favorite alt-weeklies from back in the day, while breaking new ground by providing robust representaton of the Black and Brown people that fuel Atlanta. To that end, we assembled some of the city’s best-known editors, writers, photographers, graphic designers and more, along with newer editorial voices, to craf some super-dope content. And, thanks to Keith Pepper and the good folks at Atlanta Intown who graciously let us appear in their pages, we’re able to give readers all over the metro area a small taste of what we can do with this format.

All that said, keep in mind this is just a one-tme publicaton … sort of a preview/pilot issue. But if you dig Mo AYE-TEE-EL, share your thoughts on our IG page (@slomomedia).

Oh, and a big thank you to the folks who’ve generously donated to this project’s crowdfunding campaign. If you’d like help us raise funds to publish more issues, donate to our GoFundMe page: www.gofundme.com/f/the-new-atlanta-altweekly-project.

OK, that’s enough from me. Here’s hoping you enjoy what we’ve cooked up. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support!

— Carlton Hargro Co-Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

Contributors

Terra Coles is a multfaceted creator who’s frst love is being behind the lens.

Author of the newsleter Holy Sip, Shannon S. Evans covers the intersecton of food, beverage and well-being.

Chad Radford is an Atlanta-based music journalist with 20 years of experience in writng, editng, and podcastng.

Juliana Ramirez is a parent, politcal scientst, interpreter, and nature-loving Latnx feminist living in the diaspora and navigatng its joys and challenges one day at a tme.

Born in China and raised in the American South, Feifei Sun is a writer and editor now based in Atlanta.

Paula M. White is an Atlanta-based writer whose work has appeared in Essence, Black Enterprise and Atlanta Magazine

Mo AYE-TEE-EL is a publicaton of Slo*Mo Media. And the folks behind Slo*Mo Media include: Carlton Hargro, Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher Larmarrous Shirley, Creatve Director and Co-Publisher Chante LaGon, Content Director

Cover photo by Terra Coles

Follow us online at: www.slomoatl.com facebook.com/slomomedia www.instagram.com/slomomedia

Places, Things and ATLiens to Watch in 2023

For the debut edition of Mo AYE-TEE-EL, we decided to devote the entire issue to highlighting notables that (we predict) will make an impact on Atlanta this year. To that end, we hit up a bunch of our favorite writers and thought leaders, and they ofered up their picks for some of the city’s most signifcant artists, organizations, events, trends and more. So, fip through, and dive in to see who and what you need to keep your eyes, ears and other senses peeled for in 2023.

Oronike Odeleye

By Paula M. White

The making of an art revival is underway — and it’s going to be a big one if Oronike Odeleye has anything to say about it. (Spoiler alert: She oes.) As the newly appointed artstc director of the Natonal Black Arts Festval, Odeleye’s vision is to return the festval to its heyday she’s boldly frank about what it’s going to take to make that happen.

NABF entered Atlanta’s cultural landscape in uly and will be celebratng its th anniversary this year. It was conceived as a biennial summertme event to celebrate the best and brightest Black artsts in visual art, literature, theater, dance, music and beyond. In its early years, it hosted esteemed talent like Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte and Wynton Marsalis, among many others. For more than a decade, hundreds of artsts and atendees from across the globe converged on Atlanta for this nine-day celebraton of Black excellence that took place in venues all over the city.

When it started out, the event was largely funded by local and state government, as well as foundatons and corporate donors. The organi aton’s budget was not as reliant upon community/individual donors. Then, economic turbulence hit. Funding shifed and/ or disappeared, and NABF organi ers had to get creatve. The bigger, broader nine-day festval was shortened to just a few days. ltmately, it was transitoned to its current schedule of programming spread through the year, a model that Odeleye plans to modify to bring more visibility and impact as she and the NBAF team work to build out the funding.

NBAF has goten a lot of fak over the years for not doing the festval, but my response to people who always bring that up is: When was the last tme you donated to do a festval ’ says Odeleye, the former festval director for ONE Musicfest who has more

than 20 years of experience as an arts and entertainment administrator. They didn’t stop doing the festval because they wanted to stop doing it. It’s just a huge undertaking. We really have to build toward having a funding base that supports it, an audience base that supports it, a city and a state that support it in order to get it back up. … I’m very excited about the challenge of it.

Creatvely, one of her top priorites will be stabili ing NBAF’s programming schedule. ight now, we do a lot of programming to speak to a lot of the di erent artstc disciplines, but all of the programs are one-o , happening randomly throughout the year, she notes. It makes it hard for our audience to know what to look to NBAF for. They don’t know exactly what it is that we’re doing, when we’re doing it and things like that.

Odeleye and her team have selected Black History Month and Black Music Month as startng points for an annual cadence of programming with hopes to gain tracton toward a bigger festval these will be immersive, interactve and interdisciplinary oneday events that Odeleye will build upon as NBAF works to grow its loyalty and capacity back. But she’s candid about the fact that her initatves need support. I tell everyone that I feel really blessed to be in this positon, and I’m excited about this job, she says, But, I didn’t just get a new job, we all just got a new job. It’s going to take all of us as a community to help with this task.

And, we’re acceptng all resources, help, money, funding — all the things — so that we can build this back. It’s a big lif, and we need to absolutely know our community is behind us.

PHOTO BY TERRA COLES

Atlanta’s diverse indie art scene |

On an unseasonably warm Sunday in December, at the exhibiton opening of Being rselves held at The 20, I watched six Asian-American artsts sharing the same stage as they talked about identty and their work: how the two things are intertwined … and how they’re not.

It was an astonishing sight for me — a Chinese-American woman, part of the . generaton — not least because of how rare it is to see this kind of representaton in metro Atlanta or elsewhere. And I wasn’t alone. It was special to be on stage with so many Asian-American artsts, and to see so many people from the community come out, says Aineki Traverso, whose work explores memory, movement and materiality ( the act of paintng itself, as she describes it). It’s not an everyday experience, and it’s a community I haven’t had a lot of access to in the past.

That these artsts were in a conversaton moderated by Crystal in Kim — an Atlantaborn, Korean-American artst, flmmaker, and curator who helped make Being rselves (which was sponsored by the Asian Cultural Empowerment organi aton) a reality — made it an even rarer happening. A few miles up I- at Gallery the , Kim’s own two-part group show, Traversing o e, was also on display. The exhibiton examines the many ways Asian-Americans traverse: across cultures, identtes, physical locatons.

It also refects her own experience and that of the many Asian-American artsts she’s met since returning to Atlanta afer atending college in Chicago. The community felt disjointed at frst, but as I started meetng more and more artsts with experiences like mine who were making ama ing work, I simply felt more people should get to see it, Kim says.

The gathering that Sunday was just one scene in the larger portrait of the city’s diverse independent art community, which is having a moment. And momentum.

In the past year, the city saw Guardian Studios open as an artst community in an old factory building and the exhibiton space Echo Contemporary Art open within it. Elsewhere, ess Bernhart and Tare Al Salaita launched olatle House two hours south of the city as a creatve retreat, with ongoing programming and rooms for artst residencies. Traverso partcipated in a residency in December.

olatle House is an expansion of Bernhart’s project, olatle Parts, an artst residency and publishing project she ran out of her Capitol iew home from 20 -2020. Both are experiments in hospitality and the overlaying of public and private. And both, most notably, have taken place in my own home, Bernhart says. I think we’re in a moment

Upchuck

Upchuck came out of the gate strong in 20 , bringing chaos to the stage with whiplash punk, hip-hop, hardcore, and psychedelic indie rock fury. The hard-charging energy the group delivers is amplifed by Atlanta’s young and rambunctous crowds, desperately in need of an outlet to transform their modern-world anxietes into an ecstatc, communal celebraton. Singer Kaila KT Thompson, guitarists Mikey Spu Dangus and Ho dog, drummer Chris Salado, and bass player Armando Arrieta deliver a full-throtle blow out at every show. With the arrival of 2022’s debut album, ense Yo rself (Famous Class ecords), pchuck is primed to spread its Southern punk ri s and riotous shows to the world.

— Chad adford

By Feifei Sun

when we have to reimagine what an art space’ is or can be. As artsts and organi atons get priced out of more traditonal venues, the scrappy, homemade, DIY scene is essental. For us, that means turning our actual home into an artst residency.

Watching the local art movement thrive in this way is always meaningful. But it feels especially poignant that it’s happening at a tme when this kind of success feels increasingly out of reach.

To Bernhart’s point, not a single county of the that comprise metro Atlanta ualifed as an a ordable housing market in 202 , according to the Federal eserve. Beloved neighborhood small businesses contnue to close, including Highland ow Ant ues, which shutered in December afer nearly two decades in business as owners faced a 0 percent rent increase. All the while, high-rises contnue to populate the skyline and big-box brands contnue to anchor mixed-use developments.

All of this underscores the importance of Kim’s work and those like her. None of the work is something I’m being compensated for, she says. I do it for the work to be seen — and for others to connect.

Ruwa Romman

Ruwa omman stll remembers her classmates laughing at her and calling her home a bomb lab when she was . Today, she may very well represent some of those classmates as state representatve for District , which includes residents in Berkeley Lake, Duluth, Norcross, and Peachtree Corners. omman, along with State Senator Nabilah Islam, make history this year as the frst Muslim women to represent their respectve chambers in Georgia. omman is also the frst Palestnian-American to hold public o ce in the state. Ever. epresentaton—a term so fre uently tossed around of late that it has practcally been rendered useless—can feel hard to celebrate when the victories feel overdue for 200 , much less 202 . omman and Islam remind us of why we should anyway.

— Feifei Sun

The Abolitionist Teaching Network

One does not need to be an educator or an expert in the feld of educaton to notce some of the vicious practces of racism that contnue to infltrate schools in Atlanta and across the South. The harmful disciplinary approaches to keep Black and Brown students on track , the decline of funding in redlined districts, and the imposing of ine ectve sanctons to underperforming schools cannot and should not be dismissed or overlooked. The Abolitonist Teaching Network was born with this reality in mind and with the goal of developing and supportng those in the struggle for educatonal liberaton. The work they do — centered around healing, advocacy and a rmaton of children and communites of color — is powerful, radical and necessary. — uliana am re

Artist Crystal Jin Kim

PHOTO BY MARLON GARCIA

PHOTO BY THIEN VUONG

The bar at OK Yaki |

By Shannon S. Evans

It took me awhile to make it over to OK Yaki. I was familiar with the restaurant concept from their pop-up that started in 20 , but I hadn’t heard much about the cocktails.

Then, one by one, I kept hearing about di erent women who I knew in the industry focking to OK Yaki’s bar team. These are women that I respect and believe will be the next generaton of great bartenders in Atlanta.

Over the summer of 2022, I made the trek over to East Atlanta to check out the restaurant. I went with a couple of friends, and we took up three of the eight bar seats tucked in the back. While intrinsically linked to the rest of the space, it felt like we were in a di erent world. I’ve always heard that stepping into OK Yaki is like discovering an authentc corner in apan. And it is. Additonally, stepping to the back bar feels like you’ve stumbled onto Shinjuku, Tokyo’s famed street with alley bars. It’s energetc, laid-back and playful with technical cocktail making. Pure magic.

Bartender Yesenia De La Pa , one of the women that I mentioned earlier, greeted us when we sat down, and she said: Everything on the menu is great. Tanner Pierce, the bar manager and cocktail wi ard at OK Yaki is a genius. I was excited by her excitement.

The frst cocktail that I ordered was the Colada. Afer the frst sip, I was struck by its elegance and simplicity. This was a great cocktail. It was rich, but delicate. Every favor came through with each sip. No ingredient overpowered the other.

By the tme I stumbled out, we’d tried every cocktail on the menu. This probably wasn’t the wisest of decisions, but it allowed me to have a very holistc view of their o erings. The only comparison that seems apt is that it felt like listening to a really great album: Each track built on the next, and when it was fnished, it told a beautful story — a complete story. In the cocktail world, we always talk about the mark of a good cocktail being one that is balanced. These went beyond that. They were complex but e ortlessly controlled.

On subse uent visits, I’m always surprised at which industry veteran will walk in while I’m at the bar. When talking to my friends, everyone agrees that the team at OK Yaki is currently making some of the best cocktails in the city. But, while industry folks

Ladrones

Since 20 , singer aleria Sanche and guitarist os ivera have called Georgia home, afer Hurricane Maria lef their hometown of San uan, Puerto ico in a state of disaster. Over the years, the two — as the band Ladrones — have contnuously feshed out a body of wailing and high-energy garage punk and rock n’ roll, tearing up stages from The Star Bar to The Earl and Boggs Social Supply. Backed by a current lineup featuring guitarist Warren Bailey, bass player Paul Hernande , and drummer Sam Adams, the group is heading into the new year with plans to unleash a brand-new -inch via longstanding Atlanta garage-punk dealer Die Slaughterhaus ecords. — Chad adford

Latino LinQ

agree that the cocktails are top notch, it doesn’t seem like the rest of the city knows enough about it.

What it leads to natonally is Atlanta being disregarded when great cocktail cites are discussed. And that’s a pity because some of the best cocktails I’ve ever had and my favorite bar seats are in this city.

Tanner helms from Kimball House, another one of our great cocktail establishments. If this were any other city, people would be focking to OK Yaki for this fact alone. In 202 , I believe this will change. In additon to this being the year that they shine, I hope that this is the year that all of our great Atlanta bar programs shine — especially those programs that are able to mentor women and people of color and make them feel welcome and excited.

The frustraton of seeing and experiencing a lack of legal, educatonal, and health services for Latnx LGBT folks prompted a group of Latnx actvists to found the nonproft Latno Lin in 20 . Since then, the organi aton has provided hundreds of events, including HI testng, partcipaton in health fairs and radio shows, know-your-rights trainings, mental health discussions, and workshops and conferences on sexual and reproductve rights and justce. Despite the challenges that the organi aton has faced throughout the years, including a reducton of funding and services during the pandemic, Latno Lin remains strong. And with the steady support of the community, the organi aton will be able to contnue developing trainings, workshops and testng and consolidatng key partnerships with other social justce organi atons this year and beyond. — uliana amire ll isclos re liana as een a liate wit Latno Lin as a e er of t e oar of irectors since

Live soul music

The year 202 is set to be a packed one for fans of soul music. A but-load of notable local and natonal acts will take the stage in Atlanta in the coming months, including: Avery*Sunshine (February at City Winery), ATL Collectve Presents Sade’s Love Deluxe (February at City Winery), Anita Baker (February at State Farm Arena), o! and Tall Black Guy (February at City Winery), Lalah Hathaway (February 2 -2 at City Winery), Teedra Moses (March at City Winery), Durrand Bernarr (March at Center Stage), Masego (April 2 at The Tabernacle), Snarky Puppy (April 2 at The Eastern) and ill Scot (May at Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park), among many others. On top of all that, Atlanta soul icon Anthony David will be on hand to get christened with his very own eponymous holiday on May 2 in Fulton County. Our advice: If you like good music, start saving your coins, homies. — Carlton Hargro

Soul vocalist/musician Anthony David

PHOTO BY DAVID PARHAM

PHOTO BY ATTA JUNIOR