5 things to do: Family Food Festival Atlanta - June 16 2017

What’s happening in Atlanta today

Juneteenth

Atlanta History Center - 130 W. Paces Ferry Road N.W. Atlanta, GA 30305 Free. Noon.

The Atlanta History Center commemorates Juneteenth with two days of activities, immersive performances and crafts focused on themes of freedom and family history at different sites. Juneteenth, aka Freedom Day, represents June 19, 1865, the day two years after the Emancipation Proclamation when enslaved people learned they’d been granted freedom. On the same day, Texas, the last stronghold of the Confederacy and a haven for slave owners who were still clinging to ideals of “states’ rights,” finally conceded defeat. The celebration includes free entry to the Atlanta History Center’s entire campus.


Family Food Festival Atlanta

Georgia Freight Room - 65 Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive, S.E. Atlanta, GA 30334 $15-$25. 3 p.m.

Celebrate a multicultural Father’s Day at the Georgia Freight Depot for the 15th year running with activities and food tastings for the whole fam. Dads are invited to join amateur and professional cook-offs, and a barbecue dinner will be provided by Georgia caterers, chefs and restaurants. Kids can go nuts with cotton candy, snow cones, face painting and caricature drawings. Guest hosts include television real estate personality Egypt Sherrod, dancer Stepp Stewart and fitness guru and MC Rick Joyner.


Merchandise, B Boys

The Masquerade - 75 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive S.W. Atlanta, GA 30303 $12. 7 p.m.

With 2016’s A Corpse Wired for Sound, Merchandise solidified its transition from bratty hardcore to lush guitar rock. Having cut its teeth in Tampa’s DIY punk scene, the three-piece has retained little of the unabashed snarl that marked its earlier recordings. Led by singer/guitarist Carson Cox, Merchandise has steadily evolved over the course of several records, gravitating toward the hi-fi brooding of its 4AD labelmates and a more refined aesthetic. While punk bombast asserts itself on album highlight “Lonesome Sound,” Corpse largely revels in Sisters Of Mercy-style drama, coupling hissing synths with anthemic guitar riffs. Brooklyn’s B Boys open the show.


ABCD Show (A Burlesque Comedy Drag Show)

Laughing Skull Lounge - 878 Peachtree St. N.E. Atlanta, GA 30309 $12-$20. 8 p.m.

Atlanta’s vibrant nightlife has spawned robust stand-up, burlesque and drag. Take a stroll down Peachtree on Sunday night to find the trifecta on stage together at the Laughing Skull Lounge’s ABCD show. The showcase features comedy from Samm Severin, Andrew Markle, Fray Forde; burlesque from Edie Bellini, Royal Tee, Vivien Laye; and drag performance from Brigitte Bidet all accompanied by the ABCD house band, The Dispyramids. Sunday mornings are for resting, but your Sunday nights deserve to be wild.


Fish Eye

Aurora Theatre - 128 Pike St. Lawrenceville, GA 30045 $10. 8 p.m.

Past apprentices return to Lawrenceville’s Aurora Theatre to perform in their old stomping grounds for this season’s annual AppCo Alumni Series. Take a little trip outside the Perimeter to see what some of the newest faces in Atlanta theater are up to as six apprentice company alumni produce playwright Lucas Kavner’s Fish Eye, which has been featured in New York magazine’s Best Theater of 2011. Directed by Aurora’s resident stage manager Katie Chambers and starring Edward McCreary, Casey Gardner, Dan Ford and Brooke Owens, Fish Eye presents a familiar portrait of a failing relationship haunted by people left behind. The play examines the commingling memories of four interconnected lives, reflecting on the strength of the memories that stay with us and how we look back at them in the present.