Looking forward, looking back

Blame the damn phoenix. Atlanta just can't escape the mythic fowl, who's shown rising from the flames on our official seal and is an all-too fitting symbol for a city constantly bent on reinvention.

The National Black Arts Festival upholds that local legacy, or at least a rough outline of the fable. The venerable forum of African-American culture came perilously close to imploding in the late '90s due to mounting debt. Now, just a few years later, the festival has pulled off an impressive phoenix act (sans flames) and reinvented itself. It's gone from biennial to annual and boasts a renewed vigor that other arts groups could stand to imitate.

But this year's fest, July 18-27 at various venues, shows that the renaissance is a work in progress. Admittedly, this is the first time organizers have had only 12 months to put together a full festival, which may explain why the roster lacks the buzz-quota of last year's lineup. They've also abandoned the nest of the Atlanta University Center and moved the Vendor's Market to Underground, while the popular Children's Education Village relocates to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site — a risky stab at downtown synergy.

Organizers this year have centered several events around a common theme, the 100th anniversary of W.E.B. Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk. Meanwhile NBAF planners say they're concentrating on the "next generation" of African-American artists, folks who aren't common names now but may be in 10 years. It's a two-pronged approach to programming that gives the festival the opportunity to play both history teacher and fledgling arts advocate.

The NBAF hasn't yet reached the reputation of, say, Charleston's Spoleto USA, but the fact that it's survived this long is a testament to the event's staying power. Consider the Arts Festival of Atlanta, First Night or the Montreux Jazz Festival, other annual events that have expired. Though the NBAF may still be finding its wings, at least it didn't perish in the flame.??