News Source: hatchettpr.com
Ashley Dopson in front of her mural at Atlanta Music Project - photo by River West
This year’s ELEVATE Art Festival examines arts and culture through the lens of our changed reality due to the COVID-19 pandemic, racial unrest, economic recession, and a divisive political climate. Dance performances being presented are dazzling, dreamlike, and defiant. They provide insight into issues that we, and our communities, are dealing with including inequity, food insecurity, and isolation, but also seek to inspire hope, resilience, and activism as we move forward. Join this year’s virtual programming from Sunday, October 4 through Saturday, October 10.
The first year of the new decade has ushered in a pandemic, racial unrest, an economic recession, food shortages and a political struggle for the consciousness of the country. We have collectively been stretched to limits we never could have imagined possible but which are necessary. The vulnerability and inequities within our systems have been laid bare for all to see and voices calling for change have risen to a deafening pitch.
It is against this backdrop that Elevate 2020 brings to Atlanta’s Historic West End its signature, community-building blend of visual arts, performance and cultural events. Through the lens of artists, thought leaders, creatives and others we celebrate one of Atlanta’s oldest communities and explore the issues of inequity and injustice which will continue to plague us as a city, state and nation until radical change occurs.
As a sign of the times, Elevate 2020 will be 99% digital this year, allowing patrons to experience and engage from their homes or on the go through their mobile devices. Equally as exciting is the opportunity to not only speak to our targeted West End audiences but a broader audience that exists beyond our borders. Digitally presented programs will be pre-recorded and presented live according to the festival schedule.
It is against this backdrop that Elevate 2020 brings to Atlanta’s Historic West End its signature, community-building blend of visual arts, performance and cultural events. Through the lens of artists, thought leaders, creatives and others we celebrate one of Atlanta’s oldest communities and explore the issues of inequity and injustice which will continue to plague us as a city, state and nation until radical change occurs.
As a sign of the times, Elevate 2020 will be 99% digital this year, allowing patrons to experience and engage from their homes or on the go through their mobile devices. Equally as exciting is the opportunity to not only speak to our targeted West End audiences but a broader audience that exists beyond our borders. Digitally presented programs will be pre-recorded and presented live according to the festival schedule.
SUNDAY/ OCTOBER 4, 2020
ACTIVATE! We launch Elevate 2020 by activating a 9-hour voter registration drive in partnership with GA Stand-Up and MARTA at the West End MARTA Station. Digital audiences will be encouraged to register to vote online. Unsuppress The Vote, a 30 minute program featuring the Fulton County Board of Elections and the Atlanta Hawks continues our voter activation campaign by providing important information on issues like locating your voting precinct, using Georgia’s new voting machines, what identification is needed to vote and how to vote early at State Farm Arena. Artistically, DJ Salah Ananse creates a soundtrack in response to the moment, Hammonds House Museum opens Elements of a Revolution - A Digital Exhibition, poets share their best prose and we sit down with filmmaker Frank Dawson to discuss the power of a movement after screening his film, Agents of Change.
MONDAY/ OCTOBER 5, 2020
Rev James Orange mural - sneak preview - photo by Emily Fisher
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Welcome to the West End highlights the past, present and future of the historic community. Three murals will be installed.. One mural honors the late Civil Rights leader, Rev. James Orange. Another celebrates the contributions of women activists and a third visually amplifies the work of immigrants as first responders and frontline workers. The programming for the day begins with a peek into the process of mural-making through interviews and up-close views of the muralists work. The broadcast day continues with storyteller Mama Koku, filmmaker Melissa Alexander, visual artist Shanequa Gay, historian Skip Mason and West End Tours telling the story of the West End from various viewpoints. Award winning authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones engage in a conversation with Gail O’Neill discussing how the West End has often become another character in their novels
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TUESDAY/ OCTOBER 6, 2020
Artists across Atlanta have been Quarantined, Masked, and Social Distanced! What impact has Covid-19 had on their art-making? How are they using technology as a tool to continue their artistic practice? Tuesday’s focus is on artists and how they are answering these questions through the work they are delivering. Snapshots from the Atlanta Jazz Festival begin our day followed by spoken word, dance performances and creative works from members of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Destination Dance initiative. The final performance, presented by the Rialto Theater, is Russell Gunn and the Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra featuring Dionne Farris. The final event of the evening will be an animated projection of Shanequa Gay’s Love Letter to the West End on the surface of St. Anthony of Padua’s Catholic Church.
WEDNESDAY/ OCTOBER 7, 2020
John Lewis-Good Trouble - movie poster - Magnolia Pictures 2020
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Grab your popcorn and settle in for a day of Films of Consciousness. These films were chosen to illustrate that many of the issues we face in communities across Atlanta, in the South and in this country are not new. They are old regurgitated tropes that we have the power to change. Films include Race: The Power of An Illusion, Dirt and Deeds in Mississippi, James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket and Homecoming, a film about Black farmers. Our closing film is John Lewis: Good Trouble
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THURSDAY/ OCTOBER 8, 2020
Engage! A Day of Revolutionary Arts and Ideas brings together artists and thinkers to explore the past, present and future of a movement. French duo, Les Nubains opens our day with a conversation about their song Nu Revolution and what the impact of racial unrest in the United States has on other parts of the world. Other conversations include The Contemporary’s Veronica Kessenich with Annabelle Teneze of Les Abattoirs in Toulouse, Clark Atlanta University’s Dr. Daniel Black with Howard University’s Dr. Greg Carr, Former Mayor Andrew Young with Lauren Tate Baeza, Morehouse’s Dr. Leah Creque with her students and award winning visual artist Carrie Mae Weems. Performances are delivered by poet Jessica Care Moore and actor Lamman Rucker.
Julie Dexter - photo credit Ernest Colins
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FRIDAY/ OCTOBER 9, 2020Songs of Freedom have always moved people through the streets and into change. Musicians Henry Conerway, Tony Hightower, Kenny Banks, Jr., Julie Dexter and Michael Murani take on the challenge of using these songs to inspire audiences here and everywhere to exercise their right to vote.
SATURDAY/ OCTOBER 10, 2020With a renewed consciousness has come a renewed interest in supporting Black entrepreneurs and small businesses. Saturday’s focus is on Black business in the West End. Giving Them The Business is a series of panel discussions around entrepreneurism, Black owned farms in the West End, the history of Black businesses in the West End and the business of art. Additionally there will be children’s programming and a self-guided public art tour through the West End. Elevate 2020 closes with musical performances by Gritz and Jelly Butter and Kebbi Williams’ Wolf Pack.
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KEYWORDS
elevate atlanta - events in atlanta - atlanta 2020 - atlanta black owned businesses - atlanta west end - black owned farms - julie dexter - tony hightower - russell gunn - royal krunk jazz orkestra - events in atlanta - john lewis good trouble - black filmmakers - west end atlanta - elevate 2020- virtual festivals- atlanta jazz festival - vote 2020 - hammonds house museum - jermaine sain - When We Speak TV
elevate atlanta - events in atlanta - atlanta 2020 - atlanta black owned businesses - atlanta west end - black owned farms - julie dexter - tony hightower - russell gunn - royal krunk jazz orkestra - events in atlanta - john lewis good trouble - black filmmakers - west end atlanta - elevate 2020- virtual festivals- atlanta jazz festival - vote 2020 - hammonds house museum - jermaine sain - When We Speak TV
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