Our (still unnamed; any ideas, people?) writing program with KIPP STRIVE Academy has progressed swimmingly.

While we’re taking a break right now (that pesky school schedule is really putting a damper on things), the students have conducted their interviews, written their accounts, and are currently polishing their second drafts.

We can’t show you any of their work yet, but we were lucky enough to have our (talented photographer) friend Ajay Pillarisetti document our last meeting.

This is Amanda and her student, Misha.  Amanda is the senior editor of Atlanta Magazine and the meanest person I know.  Can’t you just see it in her eyes?

Here KIPPster Rani is telling his partner, Jon, to focus on the work at hand. Jon is probably talking about birds again.

I can’t say anything glib here — I love this photo too much.  Way to be my kryptonite, Naima and Kimberly.

Matt and his partner, Mohammed, compare notes on how awesome the Kim King Foundation is for sponsoring this project.  Well, maybe they’re talking about Mohammed’s story, but probably not.

We won’t meet again with the students until July.  In the meantime Lain and I will be working on the nuts and bolts of the publication.  We’ve been so encouraged so far, by both our volunteers and students (and especially the KIPP STRIVE staff), it’s hard to have to wait so many weeks to meet again.

While we’re waiting, what should we call this program?  Ideas that have been bandied about:

Gumshoes, Shoo Flys, Raconteurs, Correspondents, Fabulists, Bird Dogs, any combination of anything.

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.

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 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:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

Both works tackle mid-20th century perceptions of “racial justice.”  For African-Americans, this meant equal rights.  For many whites, this meant “freedom of association” (or, in other words, the freedom to maintain segregated neighborhoods).

Yesterday I stumbled across a 1967 Atlanta Journal editorial about the Wren’s Nest by the esteemed journalist Reese Cleghorn.  It’s about racial justice at the Wren’s Nest, which had sided with the “freedom of association” camp even well after 1967.  Yikes!

The editorial is a damning criticism of the Joel Chandler Harris Memorial Association that ran our museum until 1983.  But it’s also an eloquent defense of Joel Chandler Harris and Uncle Remus that is just as relevant today as it was 40 years ago.

I love how Cleghorn points out that Harris’ desire for “the obliteration of prejudice against the blacks” was later completely ignored in the name of (the white version of) “racial justice.”

We Distort Them: Of Joel Chandler Harris and Uncle Remus

Reese Cleghorn, December 8, 1967

IT IS A grievous thing that Atlanta’s major memorial to Joel Chandler Harris is among the last of its public places to be segregated.

A suit has just been filed in federal court asking for an order to end racial discrimination at the Wren’s Nest, Harris’ home in West End.  The home is now a museum operated by a private association in memory of Harris and in honor of his “Uncle Remus” stories.  It has admitted Negroes in the group, by special arrangement, but it turns them away individually.

The courts will have to determine whether a private association may do this even though it is open to the general public.  But whatever the outcome, it seems in order to contemplate what Harris himself would have thought.

I am very glad that a granddaughter, Mrs. Mildred Harris Camp Wright, has now publicly expressed herself on that.  In a letter to The Constitution, she has refuted a report that Harris’ will required a policy of segregation at the Wren’s Nest.

*    *    *

“GRANDFATHER HAD no will–everything was left to his widow,” she wrote.  “He had no idea that there would be a memorial to him–and if he had, he would not have required such a policy.  His stories were about the Negro, and were written with affection, sympathy, and understanding. “

I think Harris would have been appalled that such a practice could be followed even now, in 1967, at the Wren’s Nest.

In 1905 he wrote to his friend Andrew Carnegie that he would publish an Uncle Remus magazine, and that its purpose would be to further “the obliteration of prejudice against the blacks, the demand for a square deal, and the uplifting of both races so that they can look justice in the face without blushing.”

*    *    *

HOW THE PRESENT directors of the Wren’s Nest can look that attitude in the face without blushing is beyond me.  They and their predecessors have performed a a great service to the community by keeping this museum alive when it otherwise would have been neglected, but they seem not to fully understand about Joel Chandler Harris and Uncle Remus.

Many people do not.  The man and his stories have been enshrouded in the fog of the new white supremacist period that began, in earnest, at just about the time Harris died in 1908.  That was the year that Georgia embarked upon forced segregation.  Within two years, the legislature had done its deed, fastening that system upon us for half a century.

*    *    *

TOO MANY PEOPLE look back through that fog from which we just now are emerging and think that a man who lived in Harris’ time must have though in the same way that many men of 20 or 30 years ago thought.  They would make congenial and gentlemanly bigots of men like Harris and, for that matter, Robert E. Lee (who, it is now forgotten, rose from his pew and went to the communion rail of his church with a Negro when no one else would).

People have forgotten, also, that the stories Harris put down in his “Uncle Remus” books were not his own, and he was always the first to say so.  They were the authentic lore, wisdom and folk poetry of Southern Negroes of that time.  They are today one of the worlds’ greatest collections of such literature.

*    *    *

NOW SOMETIMES PEOPLE praise them as the inventions of a fine writer.  But Harris himself wrote of the stories: “Not one of them is cooked, and not one nor any part of one is an invention of mine.”  He was a man of great artistry who faithfully collected the stories wherever he could find them, usually from ex-slaves, and presented them in their true dialect.

*    *    *

THE DIALECT VARIED, depending, for instance, upon whether he gathered them on the Georgia coast from “Gullas” (people apparently with origins in Angola) or in North Georgia from people who had come from other parts of Africa.  The stories were probably of remote African origin, he thought; folklorists, such as Dr. Stella Brewer Brooke [sic] of Clark College, have confirmed the African origins and the connections between these stories and others to be found in Asia.

The stories, and Harris’ care in setting them down, are part of a great heritage which is still not fully recognized by white or Negro Southerners.  To some, Uncle Remus is only Uncle Tom, and the use of dialect is offensive because of the racist manner in which dialect often has been used.

*    *    *

HARRIS DID NOT like the confusion between his authentic use of dialect and the minstrel-variety use of it, which usually simply amounted to the telling of racist jokes.  He said he once intended “to apologize for the plantation dialect,” but then he realized that some of the greatest of English literature–in Chaucer, for example–is in the form of authentic dialect.

In his best days he paled when what he did was confused by the attitudes and prejudices of others, who seemed to be hearing something he was not saying.  The worth and humanity of the people out of whom the stories came was clear to him, and as evidenced in his letter to Carnegie, he hoped for the “obliteration of prejudice.”  His own words would be the best text for the Wren’s Nest.

We had a great time.  The 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra opened for Maria Howell, she often of the Sambuca Jazz Cafe (…and Army Wives!). 

Take a look at the pictures I snapped.

The weather held until 9:53 pm when we were pummeled with rain.  Your loyal staff did not have to usher anyone off the grounds at 1 am as we occasionally must do, and I don’t think anyone left disappointed.  Great success!

The West End Tour of Homes followed on Saturday and Sunday.

Amelia and I skipped out on the Wren’s Nest to catch the last hour of the tour.  I took a few pictures to show you what you missed.

The Wren’s Nest isn’t the only storied home in West End, and we’re honored to share our neighborhood with the rest of Atlanta.  Thank you to WEND, and specifically to Vonda Henry, for making the West End Tour of Homes such a successful event.

You didn’t?  Well, surprise!  We are.  It’s the kick-off concert for the West End Tour of Homes, and will feature “great” Maria Howell.

I’m pretty sure the website means to say “the great” Maria Howell, since she is anything but large, but maybe it’s in the awesome sense, which would be legit.  I digress.

If you’re interested in spending a lovely evening in the Wren’s Nest amphitheater, you can buy tickets for a mere $25.  Plus, you get to bring your own dinner, which means macaroni covered in cheese dip for me!  Check out last year’s fun here — sadly, no cheese dip photos included.

And while the concert will be a delight and at the Wren’s Nest, don’t forget the Tour of Homes itself!

The West End is a historic district, after all, and many of the homes have been painstakingly maintained and restored. Reminds me of another house I know, in fact.  Here’s the AJC’s slide show for last year’s tour.

Hope to see you there — don’t forget your candleabra!

Need convincing?  Here’s what lies in store for you on Sunday, December 7th between 12 and 4pm:

• Storytelling!
• Treats!
• Activities for children!
• Mrs. Shakespeare’s famous hot chocolate!
• Tours of the home!
• (163rd) Birthday Cake!

And best of all, it’s free!  Even the treats.

Here are some pictures from last year to prove I’m not lying about the treats.

Sorry about the delay — the blogging half of the Wren’s Nest Staff is out of town.

Quite frankly, I had mixed feelings about this benefit.  After all, it directly competed with our own fundraiser, just one week prior.  Given a choice between saving their local Fire Station and preserving their local museum, folks are going to support the Fire Station every time, especially when tickets are cheaper.  The timing could have been better, for sure.

On the other hand, the Fire Station #7 benefit rallied the community and drew plenty of attention.

Here’s the hard-hitting report from WAGA.

Too bad they never mentioned the Wren’s Nest by name.  Maybe I just didn’t get friendly enough with the reporters.  I feel like Live Apartment Fire should set up an advice booth on etiquette with TV reporters.

The evening was also an opportunity for the Wren’s Nest to showcase our support for the community and host influential citizens at an important event.  Influential citizens like Kwabena, the chairman of our Neighborhood Planning Unit–

And Vonda, West End Neighborhood Development Secretary–

And John, contractor and West End Neighborhood Development something something–

And not to mention a few of the firefighters, formally of Station #7–

Ultimately, we had a great time for an excellent cause, my concerns notwithstanding.  Though let’s hope next time camera crews come to the Wren’s Nest they at least muster the strength for a shout out.

This time around, we’re featured in the AJC for our unusually high foreclosure rate.  30310 is offering up 26 homes for auction this evening.

Regarding potential buyers, the article quotes West End real estate blogger Nia Knowles–

“My fear is we’re going to have the same issue we had before.  I don’t want to be stuck with houses that aren’t properly managed by some investor who just flew in.”

If you live, say, outside of 30310 and read the papers, I wouldn’t blame you if you thought that the state of affairs in West End was pretty grim.

After all, we’ve been plagued by mortgage fraud, more than most communities.  Last November one dude pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud charges that affected 80 different properties, most of them in West End.

Thing is, I really like working in this neighborhood.  The people here are great, and the houses (that haven’t been foreclosed upon) are beautiful.  I walk from the Marta station most days.

And, significantly, there’s a sense of community here that many neighborhoods will never have.

While it’s a shame that bad press like this can fuel skewed perceptions, at least there’s the potential for new neighbors to purchase an intown house for a steal.

Previously:

• West End Tour of Homes Concert
• West End Tour of Homes Photo Gallery
• 30310 Foreclosures Continue
• Wren’s Nest Staff Recommends West End Restaurants