Last year’s Virginia Highland Porchfest put up serious numbers. Organizers estimate well over 40,000 people attended the free, single-day neighborhood festival with over 100 bands at 50 porches-turned-stages. Things are changing this year. For the first time since it began six years ago, the May 16 Porchfest will be a ticketed event. Attendance will be […]
Category: Columns
Posted inCommon Chords
Hymns for a world off balance: Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On?’
Album Review: Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On Tamla/Motown Records, 1971 A record like What’s Going On doesn’t kick the door in. It opens it just enough for you to notice the room has changed. By the time you step inside, the conversation is already underway, and it’s yours whether you planned on joining or […]
Posted inLatest News
Gov. Kemp vetoes historic rehabilitation tax credit expansion to preservationists’ dismay
On Wednesday, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp vetoed 12 state bills before the signing deadline, including HB 376, a bill that would have expanded tax incentives for historic property preservation. The bill, passed in the House and Senate, would have increased the limit on the available tax credits from $30 million to $60 million. It was […]
Posted inDelaney Tarr, Latest News
How the Beltline generates billions, from ‘tacos to tech’
“From tacos to technology, and everything in between.” That’s how Atlanta Beltline, Inc. President and CEO Clyde Higgs sums up the Beltline appeal. The bustling attraction and “new business mode” has a little bit of everything –grocery, offices, retail, dining and plenty of people. In the early 2000s, the city of Atlanta was losing residents […]
Posted inColumns
‘He went into custody with his legs and fingers’: Attorneys question jail care
Images showing extreme discoloration on Rashaad Muhammad’s limbs illustrate a disturbing story of what the former Fulton County inmate says he endured before his legs and fingers were amputated due to sepsis in his body. Muhammad says pleas for antibiotics in his vehicle were ignored by an arresting officer when he was taken into custody […]
Posted inMaria's Metro
Atlanta, please give Ted Turner his due
For years, Ted Turner called me Marcia. Finally, one evening I got the courage to tell him my name was Maria. It was the night Ted told the world, while sitting next to then-Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell at an event in Buckhead, that he was not going to let his Atlanta Hawks leave downtown Atlanta, […]
Posted inColumns
What’s in your 401(k)? That may get complicated
Whenever there’s a hard bump in the market or a bad economic report, you’ll hear commentators speak in worried tones about what this means for people’s 401(k)s. You would think, then, that any big changes in this retirement savings program would draw a lot of attention.
Posted inGuest Column
Atlanta’s growth must not come at the expense of the people who built It
Atlanta is a region I love deeply and have been proud to call home for almost 20 years. Every time the wheels touch down, and I see the skyline rise into view, I feel the exhale of returning to a place that has loved me, stretched me, bloomed me and challenged me to become braver […]
Posted inAdrianne Murchison, Columns
Symone Sanders Townsend to deliver keynote address to Spelman graduates
Spelman College will hold its 139th commencement ceremony on May 17 at the Georgia International Convention Center. The Class of 2026 marks a new milestone for the college, with seven students sharing the title of valedictorian, according to a statement. Symone Sanders Townsend, co-anchor of MS NOW’s “The Weeknight” and former press secretary for U.S. […]
Posted inColumns
Conference of Black law enforcement leaders focus on action during turbulent political times
The 50th anniversary of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives is being celebrated across the U.S. this year. In Atlanta, Renée Hall, national president of the organization known as NOBLE, said policing and law enforcement practices are at a critical point due to policies under the Trump administration. Broad policy shifts and executive […]
Posted inColumns
The bumpy road to bring Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary into a new and improved era
It hasn’t been an easy journey for Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary. The long-standing roadside attraction is famed in Atlanta, and not always for the right reasons. Many know of “BLT,” the trio of bear, lion and tiger cub rescued in 2001 that made the sanctuary famous. Sadly, all three have since passed. But Noah’s Ark […]
Posted inDelaney Tarr
Peachtrees are finally returning to Peachtree Street – temporarily
Atlanta has a staggering 71 streets and roads named Peachtree, but few are lined with their namesakes. That’s about to change. On May 8, Atlanta Way 2.0 announced PeachTrees on Peachtree, a three-week “immersive celebration” of the state fruit. 16 trees from Pearson Farms, one of the state’s remaining family-owned peach farms, will be placed […]
Posted inCommon Chords
One more problem: The reckoning of Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’
Fame has a way of sanding artists down to their most presentable edges. By the time Beyoncé stepped into Lemonade, she had already scaled the visible peaks, first as the engine inside Destiny’s Child, where early success came fast and polished, and then as a solo force with chart dominance and cultural ubiquity, the kind […]
Posted inDelaney Tarr
ATLFF Favorites: ‘Frogtown’ is built like a magic trick
On April 23, the front of the Plaza Theatre is packed with crowds at the opening night of the 50th annual Atlanta Film Festival, where stars like O’Shea Jackson Jr. walk the red carpet to promote the local premiere of “Idiots.” Most are lined up to get into the screening. But another, smaller line has […]
Posted inColumns
Fulton school board race highlights fallout over school closure, leadership changes
A Fulton County school board election comes as the district navigates leadership changes and lingering community frustration over an elementary school closure. Some Sandy Springs parents are now working to open a charter school in response. Fulton County School Board member Michelle Morancie, who voted against the permanent closure of Spalding Drive Elementary School last […]
Posted inGuest Column
Housing is a form of psychiatric care in Atlanta
“Jan” became a patient of ours, not in a hospital, but on a muddy back road of East Atlanta. This was her new home, after she had just been evicted from her apartment, without the dignity of collecting any of her belongings. Not even her psychiatric prescriptions. Without them, her depression deepened, and at the […]
Posted inDelaney Tarr
Fox Theater gives $1 million to Rome, Thomasville for theater restoration
In the 1970s, Atlanta rallied around a campaign to “Save the Fox Theater” from imminent destruction. It rescued the building, preserving an iconic piece of the city’s landscape and a hub for the arts. Now the theater wants to pay it back. On May 6, National Historic Preservation Month, Fox Gives awarded $1 million in […]
Posted inColumns
Rollins Inc. welcomes diversity on its board; still has in-person annual meetings
Rollins Inc., a legacy Atlanta pest control company, captures a unique blend of Southern traditions and societal evolution. As a close observer of Rollins for decades, change has been afoot as the company has transitioned from having only white males on its board (from 1964 to 2015) to one with three women and two Black […]
Posted inColumns
No reason to hurry to the maps in wake of Voting Rights Act decision
With all the confusion over how we’re going to vote, the only thing that could make this year’s Georgia elections a bigger mess would have been to start tinkering with the state’s congressional and legislative maps.
Posted inDelaney Tarr
Q&A: SaportaReport talks the next 50 years of Atlanta Film Festival with former Sundance, Tribeca leaders
At the 50th annual Atlanta Film Festival, SaportaReport’s own Maria Saporta and Delaney Tarr hosted a conversation with two film industry veterans about what the next 50 years of film in Atlanta could look like, and what the festival needs to move forward. Amanda Kelso, former interim CEO of the Sundance Institute, started her career […]
