WABE Arts

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...

🎭 Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” reimagined as a ’90s sitcom, staged outdoors in a Georgia meadow. Producer Lena deLoache had never produced live theatre outside before writer and director Erin Stegeman invited her to help bring “M.A.C.B.E.T.H.” to life at Art Farm at Serenbe in Chattahoochee Hills. The world premiere opened May 8 and runs through May 17. deLoac...

🧵 Atlanta fiber artist Honey Pierre’s solo show “Notions” opened May 2 at One Contemporary Gallery, a survey of six years of work tracing her practice from canvas to punch needle and back to paper. Pierre talks with WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott about what people will find when they walk through the door, how she picked up punch-needle on YouTube...

🎭 Atlanta Ballet opens the East Coast premiere of "Frida," a full-length narrative ballet about the life of Frida Kahlo, May 8–10 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa talks with WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott about how she put Kahlo's pain, resilience, and artistic legacy into movement. Plus, Fernanda Cámara of the Consulate Gener...

🎬 The Atlanta Film Festival marks its 50th anniversary this year Executive Director Chris Escobar traces how a short film by Ray McKinnon and Walton Goggins won the 2001 festival, qualified for the Oscars — and launched careers still building today. Plus: what Escobar says Atlanta needs to invest in to become a world-class festival city. 🎧 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informatio...

🎹 Eight-time Grammy winner Jon Batiste opens his 2026 Fantastical Tour Saturday at Chastain Park with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra, a rare orchestral date. He tells WABE Arts what keeps him grounded on the road, why all music is folk music, and what Atlanta means to him. 🎧 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

🌳 The neighbors called it the Tree House before Colin Sutter ever moved in. Built in 1999, 231 DeGress Avenue is one of Inman Park's few modern homes: four stories, floor-to-ceiling windows, trees close enough to touch from inside. It has never been on the Inman Park Festival Tour of Homes. Until now. WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott talks with co-owner Sutter about the house, a gar...

🎧 She's back. Beloved City Lights host and public radio legend Lois Reitzes returns to WABE for a special conversation with conductor Robert Spano ahead of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's America @ 250 concert series. Spano reflects on the music, the moment, and what it means to mark 250 years of American history through live performance. The ASO's America @ 250 run...

🎭 Seven years after her first turn as Ruth Younger, actor Isa Miles is back in Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun.” She says the intervening years have given her something new to bring to the role. Miles speaks with WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott about returning to one of American theater's most iconic characters, why the play's themes remain universal, and...