Poets, Artists & Madmen
We often hear about the virtues of local food and, of course, there are many reasons that we should look for sustenance close to home. Less often do we hear that said of local culture, the sustenance that feeds our minds and souls, though we need it just as much.
While compiling the winners for this year’s Poets, Artists, and Madmen section, it became increasingly clear that this was the year that Atlanta’s mainstream culture started looking a little closer to home. The High Museum of Art, an institution that has a historically rocky relationship with Atlanta’s art scene, mounted Drawing Inside the Perimeter, an exciting group show of local artists. Georgia’s film tax break, which has mostly been used to buoy out-of-state filmmakers, gave Ray McKinnon and James Ponsoldt a good reason to make a celebrated television show and indie hit film, respectively, in their home state.
Top Shelf Productions, a comic book publisher based in Marietta, might have scored its biggest hit yet with March: Book One, the moving first installment of a three-part graphic novel series by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. Georgia also gained a new literary star in Jamie Quatro, whose debut short story collection, I Want to Show You More, was nationally praised.
Feeding on local culture, rather than just consuming the glossy Hollywood shlock and television glitz, means looking in less common places. We’re giving an award to the Monday nights of stand-up comedy at the Star Bar, a dive bar that’s so wonderfully dingy and run down, we’re a little afraid to see it with the lights on. The place has quietly become the proving ground for both emerging and established comics in Atlanta. You don’t go there because some big name is on the marquee, rather, you attend to get a taste of what the best comics in town have cooked up this week.
Earlier this year, our perennial Readers Pick for Best Advocate for the Arts, WonderRoot, started a subscription program it’s calling Community Supported Art. It was inspired by Community Supported Agriculture programs, the idea of subscribing to a farm. If you can sell local food like that, why not sell work by local artists the same way? That’s the kind of cultural nutrition that we were looking for in Best of Atlanta 2013.
— Wyatt Williams
Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Readers Pick
Moby-Dick
Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Readers Pick
Saltworks Gallery
Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Readers Pick
Flux Night
Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Readers Pick
Living Walls
Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Readers Pick
Write Club Atlanta
Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Critics Pick
High Museum of Art
Advocacy is always a hot topic in the Atlanta art scene, and the High Museum has long been criticized as a chilly ivory tower disinterested in emerging local work. As such, the exhibition Drawing Inside the Perimeter (on view until Sept. 22), which features works on paper by more than 40 Atlanta artists
more... Advocacy is always a hot topic in the Atlanta art scene, and the High Museum has long been criticized as a chilly ivory tower disinterested in emerging local work. As such, the exhibition Drawing Inside the Perimeter (on view until Sept. 22), which features works on paper by more than 40 Atlanta artists acquired by High curator Michael Rooks and collector Marianne Lambert, is the most significant show of support in recent memory. Wall drawings by artists HENSE and Rocio Rodriguez also make it one of the more dynamic exhibitions curated by the High. At a time when Atlanta’s gallery scene is reinventing itself, the High’s decision to highlight and invest in the careers of these artists is commendable.
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Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Critics Pick
Atlanta Cyclorama at Atlanta History Center
A visit to Atlanta’s Cyclorama can feel like a trip back in time, and not always in a good way. The memorial to the final battle of the Civil War in the form of a 360-degree 1887 painting can feel conceptually dusty, even alienating. It was an unlikely choice, then, for queer art collective John Q
more... A visit to Atlanta’s Cyclorama can feel like a trip back in time, and not always in a good way. The memorial to the final battle of the Civil War in the form of a 360-degree 1887 painting can feel conceptually dusty, even alienating. It was an unlikely choice, then, for queer art collective John Q to choose the museum as the setting for its May 2013 piece “Campaign for Atlanta,” which considered through spoken word and film the history of queer migration from rural to urban areas. Drawing on and showing the photos and films taken by the late Crawford Barton, the artists gave a vision of Barton’s and others’ paths from places like rural Georgia to the queer mecca of San Francisco. John Q proved that a difficult, modern reflection on these scenes could be done, even at the Cyclorama.
www.johnq.org.
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Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Critics Pick
Atlanta Ballet
When it comes to retelling the story of Dracula, it seems like there couldn’t possibly be anything new under the sun to say. The vampire myth has been resuscitated countless times, with many recent incarnations seemingly more dead than undead. Enter John Welker. The Atlanta Ballet principal dancer
more... When it comes to retelling the story of Dracula, it seems like there couldn’t possibly be anything new under the sun to say. The vampire myth has been resuscitated countless times, with many recent incarnations seemingly more dead than undead. Enter John Welker. The Atlanta Ballet principal dancer took on the title role in the Ballet’s latest revival of the Bram Stoker classic in February, and he slithered into a wickedly limber and fresh portrayal of the Transylvanian Count. His depiction was at once terrifying and alluring. It was impossible to take your eyes away when he was on stage. He killed it.
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Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Critics Pick
James Ponsoldt
James Ponsoldt shot his 2013 film starring Miles Teller, The Spectacular Now, in his hometown of Athens, Ga. Now that the film is receiving rave reviews, Ponsoldt is headed on to a spectacular future. The filmmaker cut his teeth as the writer/director of intimate indie features such as Off the Black
more... James Ponsoldt shot his 2013 film starring Miles Teller, The Spectacular Now, in his hometown of Athens, Ga. Now that the film is receiving rave reviews, Ponsoldt is headed on to a spectacular future. The filmmaker cut his teeth as the writer/director of intimate indie features such as Off the Black and Smashed. Currently, he’s not only slated to direct the Hillary biopic Rodham, but he’s also been tapped to adapt Pippin and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock (novelist Matthew Quick’s follow-up to The Silver Linings Playbook) for the Weinstein Company. He’s also committed to write and direct Julianna Baggott’s dystopian teen novel Pure for Fox 2000. We expect he’ll bring that eloquent and self-confident touch that made Spectacular so memorable to all that work.
www.twitter.com/jamesponsoldt.
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Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Readers Pick
Marium Khalid
Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Readers Pick
Living Walls
Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Critics Pick
Alliance Theatre
With a Tony in its knapsack, the biggest budget in town, and a faithful core audience, the Alliance Theatre certainly has huge advantages over all theaters in the city. But such achievements can also be heavy burdens. It would be easy for the theater to sit on its laurels and deliver the same repertoire
more... With a Tony in its knapsack, the biggest budget in town, and a faithful core audience, the Alliance Theatre certainly has huge advantages over all theaters in the city. But such achievements can also be heavy burdens. It would be easy for the theater to sit on its laurels and deliver the same repertoire each season, but that’s not what Atlanta gets from the Alliance. Artistic Director Susan V. Booth provides polish and daring in equal measure. The Alliance’s Kendeda Graduate Playwright Competition cultivates young playwrights while smart productions like this year’s Good People keep the audiences in the seats.
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Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Readers Pick
Twinhead Theatre
Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Readers Pick
War Horse
Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen
Hyde
“The shows being produced by Jayne O’Connor under the Hyde moniker are pushing the boundaries of what constitutes a ‘reading.’ Incorporating game show tropes, drag, musicians, comedians, and yes, writers, Hyde is both inviting folks from outside the literary community to join in on our badassery
more... “The shows being produced by Jayne O’Connor under the Hyde moniker are pushing the boundaries of what constitutes a ‘reading.’ Incorporating game show tropes, drag, musicians, comedians, and yes, writers, Hyde is both inviting folks from outside the literary community to join in on our badassery and reflecting the diversity of Atlanta’s creative community. It’s also entertaining as hell.” “Myke Johns, consigliere of Write Club, 2012 Critics Pick for Best Reinvention of the Reading Series”
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Year » 2013
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2013 » Poets, Artists, & Madmen » Critics Pick
Killer Mike
The Adamsville rapper terrorizes like his childhood Jheri curl-wearing idols and inspires like his late grandmother, a civil rights activist. If you thought his 2012 opus “R.A.P. Music” was a timeless joint that transcended his dirty-but-conscious beginnings, this year’s return with EL-P as Run
more... The Adamsville rapper terrorizes like his childhood Jheri curl-wearing idols and inspires like his late grandmother, a civil rights activist. If you thought his 2012 opus “R.A.P. Music” was a timeless joint that transcended his dirty-but-conscious beginnings, this year’s return with EL-P as Run the Jewels cements the larger-than-life rapper’s permanent place in ATL history - “Every word murderful, surgical, painful, purposeful.” “www.twitter.com/KillerMikeGTO”.
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