Arts Agenda - Putting down ROOTS

With membership drawn from vaudevillians, playwrights and performing artists from all disciplines, Atlanta’s Alternate ROOTS organization aims to provide support for its constituents and spotlight topical issues via crowd-pleasing showmanship. From Nov. 6-11, it and Project South, a political and economic education organization, present Art & Community Week, which features performances ranging from urban folk music to satirical mime, as well as fundraisers, workshops and discussions of pressing political subject matter.
A highlight of the week will be City for Sale, a musical comedy targeting gentrification and urban displacement performed Nov. 10-11 at 7 Stages by the Obie and Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe. “They’re a 40-year-old company that exemplifies community-based art and art for social change,” says Alice Lovelace, poet and director of Alternate ROOTS.
Other events include a Nov. 7 CD release party for Radio Doria, hosted by Atlanta singer-songwriter Doria Roberts; a dance party and benefit show featuring the Ex-Pand Band on Nov. 8; and a ROOTS showcase featuring Several Dancers CORE, the Deluxe Vaudeville Orchestra and an ensemble of musicians, dancers and other performing artists Nov. 9. All three events take place at 7 Stages.
“We do want to say that art has a role to play in the mediation of public affairs, and that it’s a way for the disenfranchised to have a voice in the political process,” Lovelace says of the 24-year-old service organization for performing arts groups in the 13 Southeastern states. To that end, Art & Community week will also involve art and activism workshops and lectures, including a Nov. 6 panel discussion at the Georgia Hill Community Center on “The Personal and Global Dimensions of Gentrification” featuring Larry Keating, author of Atlanta: Race, Class and Urban Expansion.
Alternate ROOTS and Project South’s Art & Community Week will be held November 6-11. For reservations and information about specific activities, call 404-577-1079.