Michelle Hiskey

For African-American women, a hairstyle can be a tricky decision

Date: March 4th, 2013, 1:35 pm

For African-American women, unemployment is 12.3 percent nationally, 13.1 percent in Georgia. That tough reality helped draw more than 100 black women to an event last week at Georgia State University focused on one decision that each of them faces:

What to do with my hair?

For them, preparing for a job interview or the first day of work isn’t as simple as deciding whether to go with the regimental blue-striped or the red power tie. Around the country, disputes over African American female hairstyles have led to accusations of wrongful firings and discrimination lawsuits.

Atlanta is where people notice, too; for example, TV news viewers spent decades obsessing over local anchor Monica Kaufman Pearson’s changing ‘dos.
Continue reading →

Posted in Atlanta, Ben Smith, Michelle Hiskey, Transformation | Tagged , , , , , | 20 Comments

Voice of WCLK’s “Morris Code” reveals secrets of surviving hard times

Date: February 25th, 2013, 3:41 pm

For Morris Baxter, the Great Recession hit six years before the rest of us. In 2002, he lost his six-figure salary record label job and all the perks: the prestige, the travel, the expense account, the corporate card and the national hip-hop record promotions. Bitter and negative, full of self-pity, he had to find a way to reboot his life.
Continue reading →

Posted in Atlanta, Inspiration, Michelle Hiskey, Reinvention, Saporta, Self-Help, Transformation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Amid loss, no tears from these Atlanta clowns

Date: February 18th, 2013, 6:34 pm

February in Atlanta is circus month, and but not all the clowns are goofing under the Big Apple and Ringling Bros. big tops.

Far from the spotlight, for all but two weeks a year, a local troupe of clowns managed to practice their craft for tiny, tough audiences: some of the sickest kids in Georgia, even some who are dying. As clowns, they’ve kept their show going on this year even after sudden loss in their own ranks.

For the surviving members of the Big Apple Clown Care Unit, creating laughter in the face of heartbreak has transformed them far more than wearing a funny hat, a fake nose and makeup ever could.
Continue reading →

Posted in Atlanta, Michelle Hiskey, Saporta, Transformation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mardi Gras vibe inspires survival for Cajun and zydeco dancers in Atlanta

Date: February 11th, 2013, 2:47 pm

Carolyn Barbay of Atlanta climbed out of the grief she had over losing her husband by re-discovering the music of her home state of Louisiana and learning the Cajun two-step and waltz.

Instead of driving eight hours, she only had to travel a few miles to the Knights of Columbus Hall at Buford Highway near Lenox Road, home of the Atlanta Cajun Zydeco Association’s monthly fais do do (parties) featuring a live band playing authentic swamp music.

She found a tribe bound not by blood, geography, language, culture, ethnicity or religion, but by a deep love of the forward-driving, accordion-centric sounds of Acadian music from Louisiana.
Continue reading →

Posted in Inspiration, Life Changes, Michelle Hiskey, Transformation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

George Bailey, teenage suicide and a temporary goodbye

Date: February 4th, 2013, 5:15 pm

Stories of recovery and reinvention inspire us, because they show us possible routes out of our own valleys. These stories prove that we ordinary people are capable of extraordinary resilience.

Each week since August 2011, I’ve told stories like that here. The column will continue, but without me for awhile. Starting next week, another writer will take over this space: Ben Smith, a former AJC reporter who is also my husband. He has written here previously about chicken nachos and his trail adventures.

My attention turns to my personal story of recovery. I believe that we must be brave enough to open up a dialogue about a subject full of stigma and denial: mental illness. If we don’t, too many of our stories, especially our children’s, will keep ending too soon. Continue reading →

Posted in Atlanta, Golf, Michelle Hiskey, Reinvention, Saporta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

For 15 years, the mark of an Atlanta newcomer: a 678 phone number

Date: January 28th, 2013, 8:00 am

Fifteen years ago this month, 678 became Atlanta’s third telephone prefix, and every call became a 10-digit dial. Today, when smartphones let us tap to connect, it’s easy to forget past milestones in how Atlantans connect – and what those turning points meant in the perception of the city’s growth and who we are.

For many native Atlantans inside I-285, there’s 404 and everything else. That’s what they grew up with. The 770, 678 and 470 will always belong to the Johnny-come-latelys and suburbanites.

The 404 prefix is dialed into their identity, a shared jersey number for the veterans on Atlanta’s home team. It is a holdover from a simpler time, before the rest of us got here and made life a whole lot more complicated.
Continue reading →

Posted in Atlanta, Michelle Hiskey, Transformation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Amid change in Oak Grove, chicken nachos never dip as a Saturday ritual

Date: January 21st, 2013, 7:47 pm

South Philly owns the cheesesteak.

The deep-dish pizza rose from the north side of the Chicago River.

The best chicken nachos ever can be found at a butcher shop and delicatessen in north suburban Atlanta.

That’s no brag, just fact, according to the regulars who swarm into Oak Grove Market every Saturday for a plate of the eatery’s number one seller.

More than a taste, the nachos are a tradition that helps keep this small business going in the recession, and gives people a one-of-a-kind experience that they won’t get at a chain restaurant. It’s the same recipe, the same day of the week, at the same place – chicken nachos transformed into a social anchor. Continue reading →

Posted in Atlanta, Michelle Hiskey, Saporta, Transformation | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Waffle House, Waffle Palace set stage for family memories and cult status

Date: January 14th, 2013, 7:15 pm

As a transplanted Northerner, I misunderstood Waffle House for many years. Wasn’t it just a kitschy Southern chain of roadside dives, frequented by truckers, cheapskates and all-night partiers?

So wrong. Way too many stories, families and milestones stack up at the Waffle House against that easy bias. The restaurant’s 24/7/365 reliability across a network of locations has been going so strong for so long (since 1955) that American culture – not just Atlanta’s — is scattered and covered with Waffle House stories.

Locally, the Waffle House mystique is celebrated on stage with last week’s return of the home-cooked play, “The Waffle Palace: Smothered, Covered & Scattered 24/7/365,” at the Horizon Theatre.

The play’s cast and writers met up with restaurant fans and regulars last weekend at the Waffle House Museum in Avondale Estates. The line between real waffle memories and made-up waffle drama melted like butter on a hot griddle.
Continue reading →

Posted in Inspiration, Michelle Hiskey, Transformation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Counting squirrels adds quirk to Inman Park

Date: January 7th, 2013, 6:53 pm

By Michelle Hiskey

In the 1880s, a dreamy question created the east Atlanta neighborhood of Inman Park: “What if… the streetcar connected downtown with a posh suburb?”

Today, a funky obsession has connected neighbors there: “What if all the squirrels came down from the trees and attacked us in an apocalyptic nightmare?”

From the imagination of local writer Jamie Allen came the acorn that grew into the Inman Park Squirrel Census. From this nutty (to some) idea unfolded a modern fable, a tale of harnessing curiosity and technology to transform how we see our surroundings.

Grounding their wildlife watch is some hard cash: through the social media incubator Kickstarter, the squirrel census recently raised $9,000 to form an LLC and print and sell vintage-style posters of where the squirrels are. Continue reading →

Posted in Inspiration, Michelle Hiskey, Saporta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Southern misperceptions tackled in Decatur author’s “Eat Drink Delta”

Date: December 30th, 2012, 7:58 pm

So much of the South is misunderstood by outsiders, and a trustworthy guide like Susan Puckett helps the rest of us understand where we live. Her new book, “Eat Drink Delta: A Hungry Traveler’s Journey through the Soul of the South” (University of Georgia Press), takes readers on a trip into the complicated culture and food of a strip of Mississippi often maligned for its poverty, obesity and backwardness.

Her ground-level stories of the people and crops, their traditions and dishes, bring to life the coexistence of different races and classes in one of America’s most fertile areas. The Delta is synonymous with blues, and Puckett, a Decatur author of six previous books who served as food editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for 18 years, explored the connection between the hard stories and soulful food.
Continue reading →

Posted in Atlanta, Michelle Hiskey, Reinvention, Saporta, Transformation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments