Archive for the ‘Atlanta’ Category

Purge ATL Features the Wren’s Nest

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Your gallant Wren’s Nest staff has been busy modeling all this past week, and boy are we tired of smiling.

The fiesty startup magazine Purge ATL stopped by the other day to take in storytelling, ask a few questions, and snap some photos.  Then they put the whole story together real nice — just for you!  (Hey, thanks y’all!)  Read up, and tell ‘em what you think.

(h/t Deisha at Bang! Arts)

Our Yard is Lovely. No Really, Just Ask Jason Travis!

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Have you checked out our “Host Your Event Here” page recently?  Not to brag (just kidding — clearly to brag), but it is looking mighty handsome these days.

Here’s why:

Photographer and righteous dude Jason Travis shot a wedding we hosted recently. Jason graciously agreed to let us use a few of the photos to hawk our wares, which is much better than just promising the space looks nice over the phone (our former method).

Please, take a moment to check out the page and Jason’s gorgeous work therein – much improved, right?

The Kids Are Alright: Now Available For Your Listening Pleasure

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Due to popular demand (or, more accurately, the kind folks over at AM 1690) we now have the (Brer) Rabbit themed episode of “The Kids Are Alright” available for your listening pleasure!

The Kids Are Alright — “Rabbit Rabbit”

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The show features a smattering of songs with talking animals, storytelling by Akbar, and superb stuttering by our blatantly nervous executive director, Lain.  (Don’t worry — he starts to get comfortable somewhere in the last 3 minutes.)

My favorite part is the way the show’s host, Amy, put three versions of “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” back-to-back for contrast. Johnny Mercer? Louis Armstrong? Jackson 5? Yes, please! Miley Cyrus? Not in this show.

Give the show a listen and just try not to narrate your day to the tune of the Huckleberry Hound’s “Uncle Remus.”  (Example: Amelia Trace! Amelia Trace! Amelia Trace is a blog-a-writin’ gal!”) What’s your favorite moment of Lain being awkward?

West End Historic Walk by Steven Weitzman

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We’re honored to be included a new public art project from the City of Atlanta’s Office of Cultural Affairs: the West End Historic Walk.

Artist Steven Weitzman has conjured up a sidewalk installation that will abut our neighborhood’s glorious majestic existent Mall West End.  14 colored cement panels surrounded by specialty pavers will depict the history of our neighborhood.

The Wren’s Nest is featured in one of the panels, above. In front of the house, children are playing jump rope with Brer Rabbit.

Esther LaRose Harris, wife of Joel, is featured in the one about St. Anthony’s.

Esther was instrumental in founding St. Anthony’s in 1903, and  Joel Chandler Harris actually bought the land for the church.  Read up on the history of St. Anthony’s here.

The colored cement, called FOTERA, is several inches deep, so no matter how hard you try to chip it, the image won’t be altered.  Nice try, suckas.

Take a look at Weitzman’s previous work with FOTERA.

West Fest 2010 — Pictures from the Tour of Homes and Concert

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Over the past five days, I have painstakingly curated and uploaded photos from this year’s West Fest.  Feast your eyes on the West End Tour of Homes and Concert!

Included in the album — concert, tour of homes, dog in pouch, general merriment.

Not included in the album — the Fest part of West Fest, the much-anticipated dog parade, crying.

West Fest — Complete with a Wren’s Nest Concert — is This Weekend!

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West Fest is a three-part West End extravaganza taking place this weekend.  Being sooo into extravaganzas like you are, you should totally come.

Let’s break down the three parts, chronological-style!

First comes the Wren’s Nest.  This Friday night, from 7 – 10pm, the Wren’s Nest will host the West Fest benefit concert, featuring Avery Sunshine and Elliot Holden.  Here’s some video, not of anything too related, but instead of something else musical that happened in our amphitheater that we like to bring up as often as possible:

On Saturday comes the Fest!  Gordon-White Park — the first BeltLine park — will host the festival from 10am – 6pm on Saturday.  The Fest is new this year and while the details are a touch nebulous, nothing has ever been so confirmed as its dog parade.  I’ve also heard rumor of an artists’ market, and I personally guarantee a beautiful day in the sunshine.

Finally, on both Saturday and Sunday, there’s the Tour of Homes!  (My, whoever that is on that page is BEAUTIFUL.  In fact, she haunts my dreams!)  The tour is pretty much my favorite thing every year — not only is it a great way to get to know our lovely historic neighborhood and the neighbors therein, but shoot, these houses are awesome.

Here are our pictures from last year’s concert and tour of homes.

Also, if you’re in the mood to house hunt, this is a great opportunity.  There are usually a couple places on the tour for sale (the bonkers one above, for example), and you’re bound to pass several more as you stroll.  Plus, you get to meet all of your potential neighbors in advance!  That’s worth its weight in, I don’t know, hula hoops.

You can buy tickets for all events right here.

Nonprofit Technology Conference 2010 — Free Admission to the Wren’s Nest and a Beer

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This weekend the Nonprofit Technology Conference has descended upon our fair city. It sounds like something our valiant staff should attend:

"The Nonprofit Technology Network and the Georgia

Center for Nonprofits will come together to provide

an unparalleled meeting ground for drawing on the

expertise and commitment of the nonprofit community."

After all, we use “computers” and “the internet,” and we’re definitely a nonprofit.  Unfortunately, This Nation’s Most Exciting House Museum doesn’t just run itself, and especially not this week.  Bummer.

So, I’m writing to the good people of the #10NTC with a proposal: if you want to play hooky from the conference today or tomorrow, we’ll offer you free admission to the Wren’s Nest + a beer with our staff while we make you fill us in on what we missed.

I think we have Sweetwater and Red Stripe in the fridge. Oh, and our museum is pretty neat too. We have storytelling performances today at 12 and tomorrow at 1 pm.

Just bring your conference ID. We’ll stick around until 5:00 today and 2:30 tomorrow.

New Writing and Publishing Project with KIPP STRIVE — Volunteers Needed!

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I’m pleased to announce that next month the Wren’s Nest Publishing Company is starting a new program with the help of the Decatur Book Festival.

It’s like StoryCorps + 826 Valencia + the kids in our neighborhood.  Y’all with me?

KIPP STRIVE Academy is the new APS charter school just around the corner in the old J.C. Harris Elementary building.  Starting in late March, each week the Wren’s Nest Publishing Company will bring volunteers with significant writing experience to work 1-on-1 with about 25 KIPP STRIVE 5th graders. The goal is to help improve and broaden their writing skills.

We’ll be working on a creative nonfiction project — the students will identify a great story told to them by a significant adult in their life, be it a parent, grandparent, neighbor, whomever.  Volunteers will guide the students, helping them craft the story to the best of their abilities.

The stories will be compiled for a book to be released at the Decatur Book Festival.  We’ll have a big book release party to celebrate at the DBF.

Our mission boils down to the fact that everyday people have remarkable stories, and that these stories deserve to be heard. We’ve got an opportunity to tell the stories of our community, and you have the opportunity to help these students find their voices.

StoryCorps and 826 Valencia in particular have been inspirations in demonstrating the power of story and the power of 1-on-1 tutoring.  See for yourself –

We’re looking for enthusiastic volunteers to join us in this venture, starting… now.  Interested?

Check out the details below and then email Amelia (amelia@wrensnestonline.com) with “Writing! Woo!” in the subject line before March 12th. She’ll send you a (very brief) application form.

• Orientation sessions (2 hours maximum; beers to follow) will begin in mid-March
• Tutoring sessions will be held Tuesday afternoons from 3 – 4 pm, April – early June
• Volunteers must be willing to commit to 10 hours of service over a 2 month span.
• Volunteers must have experience in some sort of writing (you need not have written a book, mind you! We’re merely looking for good writers. If you think you qualify, you probably do. Amelia, for example, wrote a lot of literature papers in college and now writes this blog. She counts!)

Finally, we would deeply appreciate it if you would forward this opportunity to anyone you feel would be great for this project, but isn’t smart enough to regularly read our blog.  Assembling 20 – 25 volunteers is no small feat, but with your help, we feel up to the task.

MARTA’s Controversial Yellow Line

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Photo courtesy of Hyku / CC BY 2.0

Yesterday the AJC reported that MARTA is in some hot water with the Center for Pan Asian Community Services regarding its (relatively) new “yellow” line that terminates in Doraville. Since part of the yellow line runs through an area with a sizable Asian population, some have taken offense.  Here’s MARTA’s rail map, for reference.

Creative Loafing contributor Andisheh Nouraee has taken the opportunity to tweet about the controversy (1, 2, 3):

This reminds me of two things –

1. The time my friend criticized this blog for use of the phrase “calling a spade a spade.”
2. The time that “tar baby” has been appropriated as a racial slur.

Did you know that “spade” is derogatory in some circumstances?  I didn’t.  Did you know that “tar baby” is derogatory in some circumstances?   Probably so.   Does that mean I’m insensitive for calling “a spade a spade” or retelling the most famous African-American folk tale or riding the yellow line to Doraville?

Unless my token asian friends tell me differently, I’m just going to assume this is being blown way out of proportion.  As the article points out, MARTA isn’t exactly blameless here and had some warning about potential unease, but let’s be reasonable: does this mean the stop lights along that same corridor are red, racist, and green?

What about when we tell “The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story” in our (predominately African-American) neighborhood — is it more racist here than if we told it in (mostly white) Avondale?  No — that’d be like saying the crackers at Kroger in Alpharetta are more racist than the crackers at Kroger on Cascade Road.

Yellow is a primary color, y’all.  It’s also a Coldplay song.  And, yes, it’s also a slur.  But just because a word is sometimes hurtful doesn’t mean we should banish it to the depths of the Disney vault, never to see the light of day again. It’s a slippery slope, folks.

Related: Tar Baby in Classic Saturday Night Live Sketch

Sid and Marty Krofft Illustrations from the Okefenokee Swamp Dark Ride at Six Flags

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These illustrations of Brer Rabbit and his critter friends were created by Sid and Marty Krofft and used to pitch Six Flags Over Georgia for the Okefenokee Swamp Dark Ride.

The gallery says the illustrations are from 1969, but I believe the ride debuted earlier than that.   In fact, we have these creepy videos to prove it.