WABE Arts

T. Lang, founder of T. Lang Dance and inaugural chair of Dance Performance and Choreography at Spelman College, is opening a new academy for teenage dancers. Ursa Major is a conservatory-style program for ages 13 to 18, built around movement invention, choreographic process, and what Lang calls "ancestral soul movement." WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott talks with Lang about the prog...

Center for Puppetry Arts Artistic Director Jason Hines has been fascinated by the rivalry between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla since building a Tesla coil for a junior high science fair. Now his award-winning puppet spectacle "Tesla vs. Edison" returns to the stage, complete with a live Tesla coil and a Niagara Falls showdown lit to look electrified. WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scot...

Atlanta muralist Nick “Turbo” Benson is leading a team of four painting “Next Stop,” a new Atlanta Beltline Art mural going up under an overpass on Cameron M. Alexander Boulevard in English Avenue. On this episode of WABE Arts, Sherri Daye Scott talks with Benson about honoring the Reverend Cameron M. Alexander — and a surprise nod to Gladys Knight hiding in the paint...

Atlanta’s Alif Institute, a nonprofit focused on preserving and sharing Arab cultures, had the idea to take some of its most popular arts workshops out of its Chamblee-Tucker building for a pop-up event at Johns Creek's Newtown Park. On this episode of WABE Arts, Sherri Daye Scott talks with Alif executive director Mouna Abdelhamid about why she's betting a public park can do what a classroo...

VIVO, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's Summer String Institute, wraps up today with a free concert at Atlanta Symphony Hall. WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott stopped by the ASO this week to see what five days of rehearsal taught a  group of young musicians from different backgrounds about playing as one.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Atlanta Storytellers marks one year with its fifth show, “The Songs That Shape Us,” pairing live personal stories with live music at Eddie’s Attic. On this episode of WABE Arts, Sherri Daye Scott talks with founder and director Josh Cuthbertson about how a standing Moth date with his daughter turned into a storytelling series — and why he’s in no hurry to outgrow it....

Emmy-winning cinematographer and photographer John Simmons has spent six decades documenting Black life in America — starting at 15, shooting for the  Chicago Defender . Now, a selection of that work is on view at Mason Fine Art in Atlanta, in a solo exhibition called “It Started in the 60s,” running through July 25.  WABE's Sherri Daye Scott sat down with Simmons at th...

More than 100 visitors and locals stopped by WABE's phone booth at the Atlanta Cultural Exchange this summer, sharing what their impressions of the city during FIFA World Cup 2026. On this episode, hear from radio personality Jade Jones, a visitor from South Africa, a shoutout to local creative Dante Kyle, and a very confident young voice with strong opinions on who's taking home the trophy. Sherr...

Harry Connick Jr. made his Carnegie Hall debut this year with an original orchestral piece written as a tribute to his late mother. On this episode of WABE Arts' What's Feeding You?, Sherri Daye Scott talks with Connick about writing that piece, the idea behind his forthcoming book, “Babe: Elaboratio,” and why he never plans a set list before a show. Connick brings his band to Chastain...

Atlanta is a hip-hop capital now, but it wasn’t always. On this episode of WABE Arts, Sherri Daye Scott talks with Dr. Regina N. Bradley, associate professor of English and African Diaspora Studies at Kennesaw State University and author of “Chronicling Stankonia,” about how the city and the music shaped each other, from OutKast and the Dungeon Family to trap and the neighborhood...

Atlanta poet and spoken word artist  Ashlee Haze  is one of sixteen writers to receive a 2026 South Arts Literary Arts Grant. Her award is going toward “KIERA,” a nonfiction book and audiobook exploring abundance, wealth and liberation for Black women and the historically marginalized. For Haze, the project is as much about how the story gets told as what it says.&n...

The Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse on Peachtree Street is home to some of Atlanta's most polished classical theater. But a few nights a year, the stage belongs to something wilder.  Actors don't know their roles. In some cases, they don't even know what play they're performing. They find out the same way the audience does — when someone reaches into a hat.  That's the premise of&nbsp...

chefATL started as a class assignment. Now it’s an Emmy winner. On this episode of WABE Arts, Sherri Daye Scott talks with Astrid Sims, a SCAD student director who worked her way up from production assistant to helming two episodes of the student-produced docuseries made in partnership with WABE. Sims, who also took home a 2026 Gracie Award for Director (TV – Student), talks about what...

The World Cup has come to Atlanta, and a new exhibition at ADAMA, the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta, is asking viewers to look beyond the pitch. On this episode of WABE Arts, WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott walks through “The African Game,” the immersive body of work by photographer and filmmaker Andrew Dosunmu, shot across nine African countries over more than...

Now in its eleventh year, SanSe Atlanta is Georgia’s largest Puerto Rican festival — and one with a philanthropic mission. On this episode of WABE Arts, Sherri Daye Scott talks with Belisa Urbina, co-founder and CEO of Ser Familia, about what it takes to bring Puerto Rico’s post-Christmas spirit to Alpharetta in June and proceeds go directly to mental hea...

GRAMMY-winning singer-songwriter and longtime Maroon 5 keyboardist PJ Morton is back with a new double album: ‘Saturday Night, Sunday Morning,’ half R&B, half gospel, out June 19. On this episode of WABE Arts, Sherri Daye Scott talks with Morton about the project’s origins and the Bogalusa, Louisiana studio where he recorded it. Morton also shares the kismet behind the album&...

Artful ATL started with a simple idea: Atlanta artists deserve a professional space, real collectors, and a direct path to income — without giving up a percentage of what their work brings in. Now in its second year, the annual exhibition and sale returns Saturday, June 13 to Atlanta Contemporary with more than 30 artists selected from more than 200 submissions. On this episode of WABE Arts,...

When Joyce Kim immigrated to Georgia from Korea in the third grade, she couldn’t yet speak English, but she could paint and draw. Art, she says, was a familiar language in an unfamiliar place. On this episode of WABE Arts, Sherri Daye Scott talks with Kim about the body of work that earned her a Gold Medal Portfolio Award from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards,  the organizatio...

The Amplify Decatur Music Festival has been turning live music into community support since 2010 — and a decade ago, it claimed the Decatur Square as its home. This week, the festival marks ten years outdoors with a lineup headlined by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, on a brand-new downtown stage about to host its very first concert. On this episode of WABE Arts, Sherri Daye Scott talks wi...

For more than a year, ‘Amy Sherald: American Sublime’ packed museums in San Francisco, New York, and Baltimore. Now the exhibition — the largest of the Georgia native’s work to date — has arrived at its final stop: Atlanta’s High Museum, the city where Sherald honed her craft. On this episode of WABE Arts, Sherri Daye Scott talks with Angelica Arbelaez, ass...

In 2019, producer Michael Shulman invited Gloria Estefan to score a musical he was developing based on ‘Landfill Harmonic,’  a documentary about a children’s orchestra in Paraguay that builds its instruments from recycled trash. Estefan invited her daughter Emily to write alongside her. On this episode of WABE Arts, Sherri Daye Scott talks with Gloria and Emily Estefan &mdas...

The Atlanta Fringe Festival opens Wednesday, May 27th. Fifty-one shows. Nearly 250 performances. The lineup is selected by lottery — open to artists of all backgrounds, disciplines, and experience levels. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

🎶 Almost twenty-five years ago, singer-songwriter Donnie released “The Colored Section”,  a gospel-rooted concept album that became a touchstone of Atlanta’s indie soul scene. Then he disappeared from public life for nearly two decades. On this episode of WABE Arts, Donnie sits down with WABE Arts & Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott ahead of his performance at the 49th A...

🎧 Grammy-nominated saxophonist Kamasi Washington headlines Saturday night of the 49th Annual Atlanta Jazz Festival. Before he took to the stage, he sat down for WABE Arts' "What's Feeding You?" series. Washington, talking about where he finds inspiration, what he's reading right now (hint: Ninja Turtles), how he grounds himself, and why Atlanta has a special place in his story. He also names the...

🎭 Georgia Tech historian Matthew Hild spent years researching the woman behind the pop star — and he argues the most iconic thing Olivia Newton-John ever did wasn’t star in “Grease” or sing “Physical.” It was the cancer treatment center she fought to build in Australia, which now draws patients from around the world. Hild talks with WABE Arts and Cult...