Archive for the ‘Atlanta’ Category

The Atlanta Opera’s Rabbit Tales — Save the Date

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Rabbit Tales will premier at the Wren’s Nest on October 29th. It’s the Atlanta Opera’s first ever commissioned work and it just so happens to be steeped in the Brer Rabbit stories.

They’ve sent along a save the date worthy of this prestigious occasion —

I’d like to extend a tremendous thanks to the National Black Arts Festival for lending their expertise and African arts and crafts for the premier.

Can’t make the big day? Just bring Rabbit Tales to your school instead. Easy!

Renaming “Harris Street” to “John Portman Boulevard at Historic Harris Street” Is a Bad Idea

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Tomorrow Atlanta’s City Council will vote on whether to change “Harris Street” to “John Portman Boulevard at Historic Harris Street.” I wrote my opinion, below. If you can’t voice your opinion tomorrow at City Hall at 1 pm, please contact your City Councilperson to let them know what you think.

John Portman, famous architect and developer, should be honored by the city of Atlanta. His contributions to our city are invaluable. His impact on skylines around the world has been substantial. Portman is unequivocally a great Atlantan.

But renaming “Harris Street” to “Portman Boulevard at Historic Harris Street” is a bad idea. It’s not just a bad idea because it cheapens the legacy of both John Portman and Judge John L. Harris. It’s a bad idea because it would set a dangerous precedent for the way we honor Atlanta’s most important citizens.

Picture Bernie Marcus Boulevard at Historic Ponce de Leon Avenue. Or Arthur Blank Street at Historic Andrew Young International Boulevard. What about John Smoltz Boulevard at Historic Hank Aaron Avenue?

Few would dispute the contributions to the city of Atlanta from any of these men. (Well, Ponce de Leon is on his own.) Like Portman’s efforts, their contributions are substantial and usually lauded. I’d contend, however, that we can find a better way to honor these esteemed individuals.

I’m not alone. Recently the Atlanta Preservation Center and five individual plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the city over the renaming. The idea of changing this particular street name at all has been rejected by the Atlanta Downtown Neighborhood Association. It’s also been rejected by downtown’s Neighborhood Planning Unit. It’s also been rejected by the Atlanta Urban Design Commission.

The Atlanta City Council doesn’t like street renaming either. At the most recent City Utilities Committee meeting, Councilmember Aaron Watson said, “I hope we figure out a way to avoid [street renaming] in the future. I absolutely favor looking into other ways of honoring great Atlantans.” Council President Ceasar Mitchell echoed the sentiment: “We will find other ways to honor people. That’s the direction I want to see us go.”

Oddly enough, however, both men support renaming “Harris Street” to “Portman Boulevard at Historic Harris Street.”

Some folks have argued that this particular street renaming is permissible given the significance of Portman’s contributions and the relative insignificance of Judge John L. Harris’s reputation. Council President Mitchell complained that he couldn’t find anything about Harris on the internet. This is perhaps because Judge Harris served as Fulton County’s first and only representative to the State Legislature in 1855.

Please recall — the internet had not yet been invented in 1855. Neither had the chocolate chip cookie. Judge Harris was a pioneer when Atlanta was a twinkle in the eye of a handful of citizens. If not for him and for them, we wouldn’t even be talking about John Portman. Not in Atlanta anyway.

Street names honor many of our citizens long after their memories have faded. That’s the point. The patina of history, however, has allowed City Council to play favorites with well-connected contemporaries. No matter what Councilmembers might think, Atlanta’s history isn’t comprised of fictional characters that should be discarded in favor of friendship or politics.

John Harris was a man with a family who served our city, our county, and our state. No doubt he and his family took pride in their name, both before and after we named a street after him.

Harris’s cousin was one of Atlanta’s most famous citizens, Joel Chandler Harris, an associate editor of the Atlanta Constitution alongside Henry Grady. I can’t imagine he’d be thrilled if our City Council stripped his family of its honor for no particular reason.

The same goes for Joe Harris’s son, Julian Harris, a prominent Atlantan who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1926 for his “energetic fight against the Ku Klux Klan.” He in particular wouldn’t hide his displeasure with our City Council for stripping his family of its honor for no particular reason.

So too his great-grandnephew, Robin Harris, who as a State Legislator was instrumental in developing MARTA and Georgia’s current Constitution. He wouldn’t be happy about the $100,000 our cash-strapped transit agency will needlessly incur by having to change its maps and signage from “Harris Street” to “John Portman Boulevard at Historic Harris Street.”

Robin Harris’s grandson, yours truly, isn’t exactly thrilled about it either. Honor meant to outlast memory shouldn’t be stripped once someone’s contributions are forgotten.

City Council President Mitchell has said that naming a street after a citizen is “the highest honor a city can bestow.” If that’s true, we can’t leave City Council to pit the merits of great Atlantans against one another and thus erode that honor’s credibility, one street renaming after the next.

By the way, other major cities have already figured this particular issue out. Check out Chicago’s Madison Avenue at Wabash.

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.