Michelle Hiskey, Author at SaportaReport

Urban Atlanta youth use muscle, risk to master complexities of the harp

by Michelle Hiskey December 10, 2012 6:59 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:09 pm

Of all the instruments, one of the biggest and heaviest, most expensive and most exotic is the harp. A performer must play each foot and hand separately, using everything but pinkies to create the ethereal notes.

That is the muscle behind the dreamy soundtrack of the Atlanta Urban Youth Harp Ensemble. Most of these young musicians have overcome major disadvantages to master the instrument’s complexity, earn gigs at local weddings and events, qualify for college scholarships and position themselves for professional music careers.

Michelle Hiskey

At Atlanta synagogue, teens film memories of adolescence during Holocaust

by Michelle Hiskey December 3, 2012 7:06 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:08 pm

High school sophomore Mollie Simon is used to boiling down history to dates, places, names and civilizations. On paper, the people affected by all those events, even those who survived wars and atrocities, were virtually faceless.

This year, her own history changed when she joined 15 other teenagers from her synagogue set out to interview their congregation’s seven Holocaust survivors. Most of them were teenagers themselves when, without warning, their world turned upside down – all because of their identity as Jews.

The connection between teens and elders turned into “Edim L’Shoah: Witnesses to the Holocaust,” which will be screened free to the public at 4 pm Sunday at Congregation Shearith Israel (CSI).

Michelle Hiskey

At Alex Haley memorial, Atlanta’s modern slave trade comes to light

by Michelle Hiskey November 26, 2012 6:54 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:09 pm

Annapolis, MD – Anchoring the heart of this seaside, colonial capital is a can’t-miss commemoration to a beloved storyteller who died 20 years ago.

Alex Haley transformed the appreciation of family history by starting with his own wrenching past, and his bronze likeness sits in a storyteller pose on the city dock, overlooking the waters where the slave ship Lord Ligonier brought his forefather Kunte Kinte from Gambia 245 years ago.

Alex Haley authored the memoir “Roots,” and the Kunte Kinte–Alex Haley Memorial pays tribute to ancestor and descendant, the power of storytelling and the resurgence of interest in genealogy.

The sculpture showing an animated Haley speaking to three children also points indirectly to Atlanta, where slavery thrives today in the form of human trafficking.

Michelle Hiskey

Behind the high price of peanut butter is a tale worth spreading

by Michelle Hiskey November 19, 2012 6:55 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:09 pm

Quit fretting over Twinkies that you can’t buy and the Thanksgiving groceries that you have to purchase.

Take a look at the crazy-high shelf price of a Georgia-grown staple – peanut butter.

Paying well over $3 per 18-ounce jar – more than a buck more than a year ago — made this choosy mother ask what was going on in peanut country a hundred miles south.

Big swings in peanut production are causing price increases — and future price cuts — for this pantry staple. And a closer look at the peanut’s powerful simplicity is quite inspiring.

In a nutshell, behind the high price of peanut butter is a story worth spreading.

Michelle Hiskey

For veteran journalist, neighborhood trail leads to a new beat

by Michelle Hiskey November 12, 2012 5:22 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:09 pm

Note from Michelle: This week’s column is by guest writer Ben Smith, who happens to be my husband. Many of you know him from his days as an AJC political reporter.

By Ben Smith

In my old life, hitting the trail meant following the money, traveling with a campaign or tracking down a criminal.

Today it simply means taking my dog for walks in the woods and keeping my eyes open.

Yet in the three years since I left the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and sought to reinvent myself in the digital age, I have discovered that my skills as a reporter easily translate to a “beat” that is much smaller, more isolated and surprisingly weird.

Michelle Hiskey

Atlanta’s NYC Marathoners: It’s the journey, not the storm cancellation

by Michelle Hiskey November 5, 2012 7:35 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:08 pm

For Atlanta’s sizable community of runners, the first Sunday in November belongs to the New York City Marathon. First there’s the luck of getting in via a lottery of hundreds of thousands of applicants. Then there’s hours of training that can feel like a part-time job. Finish the 26.2 miles through the five boroughs, and chalk a big one off the bucket list.

After a week of mixed messages from New York race organizers, Hurricane Sandy ultimately led to canceling the race and detouring the disappointed runners. While disaster response is of course more important than a big athletic event, the following Atlanta marathoners illustrate the trait that will fuel New York’s recovery: endurance, resilience, optimism and more.

Michelle Hiskey

Atlanta memoirists risk writing truth about living relatives

by Michelle Hiskey October 29, 2012 6:13 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:08 pm

Between family members, the truth is a delicate thing. That’s why memoirs are popular. We like reading about people who take the risk to bear witness to their intimate lives, because most of us will never go there, especially not in public.

This weekend, two Atlanta authors of new memoirs will speak locally about risking family relationships. Lynn Garson and Christal Presley overcame major emotional hurdles to confront and understand their family dysfunction.They crossed that emotional tightrope and stayed connected to the family members despite writing critically about them. Doing so changed them into healthier adults.

Michelle Hiskey

For working parents, new childcare solutions sprout like Bean

by Michelle Hiskey October 22, 2012 3:25 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:08 pm

Amid the Presidential debate chatter of workplace inequality and “binders full of women” catchphrase is the real bind that working parents find themselves in every day: how to succeed at work and childcare.

Adela Yelton is in the middle of that daily juggle herself as an entrepreneur serving working families. Her business is a novel answer to that need for working families. Bean Work Play Café near the Agnes Scott area of Decatur offers a portal into how these moms and dads are making ends meet, and seeking more flexibility, in the Great Recession.

At Bean, a parent can plug in down the hall from the childcare area. No rush to leave the office to beat traffic and late pick-up fees. Since Bean opened in March 2011, and began offering a flexible preschool a few months ago, about 200 “co-working” families have dropped in.

Michelle Hiskey

Barbecue boss leaves blueprint for leadership

by Michelle Hiskey October 15, 2012 5:43 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:09 pm

Paul H. Taylor was one of those people who spark the best in a community, and kept that spirit lit. With the Oak Grove United Methodist Barbecue, the Taylor fire is real and smokin’.

For a half-century, this big church in northeast Atlanta has roasted three tons of pork to feed 5,000 people, which takes between 400 and 600 volunteers.

An event so large and significant needs a strong volunteer leader. For the past decade, Taylor served as “Boss Hog.”

Taylor will be missed at Saturday’s 51st barbecue, which takes place from 11 am to 6 pm. He died at age 53 in an April bicycle accident on North Decatur Road. His untimely death highlighted all that Taylor contributed to the barbecue, which serves as a template for anyone in management.

Michelle Hiskey

Cutting experts at Georgia Archives severs our access to history

by Michelle Hiskey October 8, 2012 6:33 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:09 pm

Threats to close the Georgia Archives put all of us at risk of losing access to critical records – and people.

Now more than ever, skilled information diggers, collectors and guides are needed to verify the story that begins where memory and Google end. Like blacksmiths were in the early days of the automobile, the work of archivists has transformed in the information age. They’ve grown more indispensable to saving what is easily lost and finding what cannot be replaced.

While the governor pledged last week to keep the Archives from closing, seven archivists on its staff face their jobs ending Nov. 1. Their peers around the state rallied last week at the Georgia Capitol to tell legislators how important this repository and its keepers are to all of us. Supporters also collected 10,000 signatures on a petition given to the governor.

Michelle Hiskey

Investment in education vital for Atlanta’s pioneering Hall-Long family

by Michelle Hiskey October 1, 2012 9:00 amFebruary 17, 2023 3:08 pm

A thoughtful, private decision can change the course of a family forever.

For the Hall-Long family, known for breaking racial and social barriers in Atlanta, one major decision steered them irrevocably from agricultural roots in Rockdale County to the frontline of civil rights. Their field was education, and their specialty was pioneering.

Annette Lucille Hall, who desegregated Georgia State University, was the first-born of ten. Her closest sister, Rubye, married Ralph Abbott Long. At one point, the Longs and Halls counted 37 family members as teachers in Atlanta Public School System.

“Education is our family business,” said Susan Freeman, a granddaughter of Alonza and Fannie who is principal of McNair High School. “You could not go to a family gathering and not hear about it. You couldn’t escape it. It was innate.”

Michelle Hiskey

With service in their marrow, metro teacher gets transplant from British student

by Michelle Hiskey September 24, 2012 9:00 amFebruary 17, 2023 3:08 pm

“Everything is hard the first time,” Asa Valente tells her fourth graders at Berkeley Lake Elementary in Duluth. “Don’t get discouraged. Hold yourself up and keep trying.”

The lives she touches there were in the balance as Valente battled acute lymphoblastic leukemia. To stay in the classroom as a vibrant, inspired teacher, Valente needed a stem cell transplant. This forced her to live out what she had been teaching her students, and put her lin the path of a stranger 4,200 miles away who was using education to help people survive.

A few days before Valente and her stem cell donor met in Atlanta, national TV anchor (and former Atlantan) Robin Roberts highlighted stem cell transplants by receiving one from her sister.

Michelle Hiskey

Of dogs, loyalty and Chipper Jones

by Michelle Hiskey September 17, 2012 7:31 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:08 pm

Diezel is 9, which in dog years is 63, but the Boston terrier didn’t look or act his age Sunday night at Turner Field.

He was rocking a red and blue fur mohawk during the divine canine evening known as Bark in the Park, when dogs take over the nosebleed seats.

At this point in this season, this night was really loyalty – pure and bittersweet. This month will mark the farewell of third baseman Chipper Jones, after a Braves career that began with the 1990 amateur draft.

Chipper is that blue-moon pro athlete who performs so well for so long in the same place. Our dogs don’t stay with us very long, either.

Michelle Hiskey

Jeff Galloway: For health and success, schedule frequent breaks — and there’s an app for that

by Michelle Hiskey September 10, 2012 9:09 amFebruary 17, 2023 3:09 pm

Traffic alert: On Thursday at 7 pm, 16,000 people will run and walk 3.1 miles of closed streets in downtown Atlanta.

Jeff Galloway started this annual event — now called the Kaiser Permanente Corporate Run/Walk and Fitness Program — 30 years ago. Its growth paralleled that of Galloway’s path from elite runner to widely-traveled motivational speaker and corporate coach.

After the 1972 Olympics and winning the first Peachtree Road Races, Galloway’s reach and impact widened as he focused on the deceptively simple key to running and achieving any long-range goal.

Pacing.

Michelle Hiskey

From a straight Young Republican to a gay Democrat delegate

by Michelle Hiskey September 3, 2012 5:36 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:09 pm

In 1972, Georgia Tech student Bob Gibeling cheered Pat Nixon’s arrival at the Republican Convention in Miami. He gave interviews to national media about his generation’s support of the GOP’s progressive policies. He dreamed of becoming mayor of Atlanta, his hometown.

This week, Bob Gibeling will cheer Barack Obama at the Democratic Convention in Charlotte. As a volunteer coordinator for a faith-based nonprofit in Atlanta, Gibeling is thrilled to be voting for a platform with a full marriage equality plank. His political career has been spent not in local politics, but working for change in his religious denomination.

Over 40 years, whose life and context doesn’t change? The constants in Gibeling’s story are a family-bred passion for politics, a lifelong commitment to the middle ground and a willingness to stand for change.

His arrival at the opposite political pole is one marker of discovering his true religious faith and sexual orientation – a secret that kept him from realizing his political dreams. As he found himself, he realized the ground he had always stood on no longer made room for people like him.

Michelle Hiskey

Move over, big profit Amazon. Make room for Little Free Libraries.

by Michelle Hiskey August 27, 2012 4:30 amFebruary 17, 2023 3:08 pm

A computer will forever spit out a list of “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought….”

But for those of us who want books that tell us stories about our neighbors’ tastes and experiences, and bring us into conversation and community, here’s a recommendation: Little Free Libraries.

Resembling large birdhouses, the Little Free Libraries are weatherproof cabinets with a couple of dozen books inside. Borrow one, read it, bring it back, or bring another. No cards, no fines.

It’s the charm of yard art, the wonder of a message in a bottle, sprinkled with the spell cast by a deft writer.

Michelle Hiskey

Broken cell phone, local lifeline and the powerful need to connect

by Michelle Hiskey August 20, 2012 12:00 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:08 pm

The marimba beat from the iPhone woke me as usual, only the direction was very wrong. The sound came from the floor, where the phone had fallen.

My phone is my lifeline, stowing my schedule, contacts, reminders, lists, music, maps, photos, news and diversions in case of boredom. Just how emotional and deep that connection can be became more evident in the brief, illuminating adventure to turn a cracked screen clear again.

The quest led to a small, thriving universe that exists to reconnect us, and how one young man in Atlanta, Shahzad Pirani, re-made himself through repairing phones.

Michelle Hiskey

With island help, Atlanta family tastes success with a Sea View and pimento cheese

by Michelle Hiskey August 13, 2012 3:55 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:08 pm

Pawleys Island, SC

Brian and Sassy Henry say they left Atlanta ten years ago because they didn’t like how competitive everyday life had become. Simply getting a parking space was a hassle. They didn’t want to raise their daughters (ages 1 and 3) at such a fast, crowded pace. One day in 2002, they took off.

“We literally left like thieves in the night,” said Sassy Henry, who grew up near Chastain Park and went to Lovett School. “We had nothing but what was in our car, and when we got to the island, we slept on mattresses for three weeks.”

To restore their balance, they took on a big restoration project 350 miles east: an icon of South Carolina’s Low Country, the rustic Sea View Inn.

Now in its 75th year, and the only inn on Pawleys Island, the Sea View is where generations of families have vacationed, eating family-style meals in the dining room, unplugging how the rat race and pace conditions us over time. The the inn, the couple and their line of gourmet pimento cheese (Palmetto Cheese) have followed a similar recipe for success: Blend the new and old to make the new better.

Michelle Hiskey

Word power stokes Jenny Munn’s success and our search engines

by Michelle Hiskey July 30, 2012 12:10 pmFebruary 17, 2023 3:08 pm

When Jenny Munn worked at the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, she traveled to Latin America to persuade people and companies to visit Atlanta. Her message relied on her fluency in Spanish.

Today she’s 31 and no longer needs a passport for the global reach of her language skills. Her expert fluency these days is in search engine optimization (SEO) – the way we find what we are looking for on the Internet, and how businesses use our word patterns to connect with us.

“SEO does have its own language, with basics that you need to understand to become more fluent in it,” said Munn, a native Atlantan who went to Lassiter High School and University of Georgia. “Once you get the ‘code,’ you can break down the barriers.”

Michelle Hiskey

Would Jesus vote yes on the T-SPLOST?

by Michelle Hiskey July 23, 2012 10:20 amFebruary 17, 2023 3:08 pm

A conversation with Rhodes Scholar Katharine K. Wilkinson, 29, provoked this question as related to her recent book, “Between God & Green: How Evangelicals are Cultivating a Middle Ground on Climate Change” (Oxford University Press).

While the issue of climate change is global, and her book focuses on national politics, Atlanta is where Wilkinson started to become aware of the vast natural resources in the Appalachian foothills and beyond.

Only much later did Wilkinson, an agnostic, begin the see the power and numbers of the people in Atlanta and beyond who call themselves evangelical Christians.

“If you understand American evangelical Christianity, representing at least a quarter of the U.S. population, as the politically and theologically complex, fractious, and ultimately mainstream phenomenon that it is, then you’ll appreciate the nuance and sensitivity with which Katharine Wilkinson navigates her subject,” said a Boston Globe reviewer. “Wilkinson tells a vitally important, even subversive, story.”