WABE Arts

Two new endowed scholarships for Kennesaw State University dance students honor Ivan Pulinkala, the choreographer who founded KSU’s dance program in 2005 and is now the university’s provost. Donors LaSona and Trent Turk and KSU Dance Company seniors Faith Smith and Taitum Callahan talked with WABE ahead of the company’s “ Viewpoints ” concert, Nov. 12-14 in Marietta.&...

Playwright Kelundra (kuh-LUN-druh) Smith’s  “The Wash” earned five Suzi Bass Awards. Her new play, “Other Paths to God,” is a hospital whodunit now on stage at Horizon Theatre. Midway through its premiere run, WABE Arts & Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott caught up with Smith to talk telling untold stories and laughter as a truth-telling tool.  See omnyst...

🎧 Pianist Igor Levit brings an all-Beethoven program to Spivey Hall at Clayton State University on Oct. 31. He tells WABE Arts & Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott how Beethoven's music became a love that never ended, starting at age 4. Levit explains why he built this program to show the boldness of Beethoven's writing, from the revolution of Sonata No. 1 to the "Waldstein," which he says spli...

Award-winning sitarist Niladri Kumaar talks Zakir Hussain, the Zitar and 'Space Between the Notes' before his Oct. 30 Sandy Springs show.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The High Museum of Art turns 100 this month, and its director says the museum isn't spending much time looking back. "We're really excited about what's next," Rand Suffolk told WABE on Sunday, Oct. 18, as the High's Centennial Block Party filled a closed stretch of Peachtree Street.  The free afternoon of DJs, dancing and art-making marked 100 years since Hattie High gave her Peachtree Street...

Ahead of her Oct. 18 performance at Buckhead Theatre, comedian, actress and writer Kathy Griffin spoke to WABE Arts contributor Kenny Murry on what audiences can expect from her latest special and her thoughts on coming back to perform in Atlanta See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

🎧 Atlanta photographer Kendrick Brinson spent more than 16 years photographing Sun City, Arizona, a retirement community where great-grandmothers march in sequins. Her photobook, “Sun City: A Love Letter to the Golden Years,” is out now from Artisan. Brinson tells WABE’s Sherri Daye Scott how a movie scene led her to Sun City and explains why she chose not to show the illness an...

🎧 Monti Carlo, senior editor of food and dining at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, will emcee cooking demonstrations at Taste of Atlanta's Grand Tasting Midtown on Oct. 15 at the Epicurean Atlanta hotel. Carlo tells WABE's Sherri Daye Scott what she expects from her first Grand Tasting, and why she still hasn't picked a recipe to demo. She talks about her cookbook, "Spanglish: Recipes & Sto...

🎧 Former CNN anchor Don Lemon brings the DL + DL "Anything Goes" tour with comedian D.L. Hughley to Atlanta Symphony Hall on Oct. 9. For What's Feeding You?, Lemon tells WABE's Sherri Daye Scott what sharing a stage with a comedian lets him do that the anchor desk didn't, and how he and Hughley learn from each other. He talks about the news sites and blogs he reads, and why he believes the audien...

🎧 The Atlanta Swing Classic brings West Coast Swing workshops, competitions and social dancing to t Dunwoody, Oct. 1-4. Atlanta dancer and instructor Lindsay Mistretta tells WABE's Sherri Daye Scott how to tell an improvised dance from a choreographed one, what spectators can expect from the champion division's Jack and Jill, and why this year's Classic marks her first competition back after a ni...

🎧 The third Atlanta Art Fair opens October 1 at Pullman Yards with more than 80 galleries, the most in the fair’s history. Fair director Kelly Freeman tells WABE’s Sherri Daye Scott how interest in Atlanta has grown beyond the American South to galleries around the world, and why the fair’s public programming is meant to bring art out of the booth. She describes artist Tariqa Wa...

🎧 Netflix's "A Different World" returns to Hillman College, and this time it was filmed in Atlanta, including on the campuses of Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College and Morehouse College. Creator and showrunner Felicia Pride tells WABE's Sherri Daye Scott how a call from Debbie Allen brought her to the project, why now is the time to hear from young Black America, and the four pillars she c...

🎧 Four workshops. Four professional artists. One group of high school students at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA) in Atlanta. Educational programming coordinator Lexus Swatz explains how MOCA GA’s Young Artists Project grew out of its Working Artist Project and what’s new this year: a new home, longer workshops and a student exhibition that stays up longer.  S...

A young athlete from Panama moved in with Javier Wallace's family — and the relationship became a book. " Basketball Trafficking: Stolen Black Panamanian Dreams, " Wallace's account of the F-1 student visa pipeline into U.S. basketball, is the inaugural grant recipient of the  Tara Coyt Publishing Fund,  a new Atlanta effort to get more Black scholars into print. Wallace discusses...

Known for his one-of-a-kind storytelling abilities, comedian and writer Ali Siddiq has taken 2026 by storm.  His most recent standup specials, "Mondays" and "My Father," have been released to critical acclaim and high viewership numbers. In addition, on April 19, the performer released " Ali Siddiq: From Inside ," a raw and in-depth conversation where Siddiq spea...

BODDO Studio, Aishah Rashied Hyman, Atlanta design, West African textiles, Amani Women's Co-op, Kuba cloth, Kente cloth, Atlanta Design Festival, High Point Market, WABE Arts, home decor, small-batch design  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When “School Daze” premiered in 1988, it was controversial before most audiences ever saw it. Written and directed by Spike Lee, the satirical, music-driven film examines life at Mission College, a fictional historically Black campus, and sparked debate among HBCU leadership even before cameras rolled. Some administrators objected to the film’s portrayal of campus politics, color...

🎬 Emory film and media professor Beretta Smith-Shomade curates “40 Years of Brother Spike Lee,” a fall-long retrospective of the director's work, screening free every Wednesday at White Hall. Smith-Shomade talks with WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott about two decades of teaching Lee's films, the challenge of narrowing his catalog into one semester, and why Spike Lee's ow...

🎭 Golden Globe winner Regina Taylor brings her one-woman show, “Exhibit,” to the closing night of the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival at Spelman College. The play follows Iris, a Black visual artist confronting the fear of erasure. Taylor talks with WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott about the childhood memory that inspired the piece and how it found its way to Atlanta&rsqu...

🎭 Playwright Kira Rockwell’s new comedic play, “Holy Chicken Sandwich,” imagines a fictional fast-food chicken chain grand opening where devoted fans camp out overnight — until chaos breaks loose. Rockwell, Suzie Bass Award-winning writer, talks with WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott about the real events that inspired the play, the moral stakes of working in...

🎶 GRAMMY-nominated bassist Divinity Roxx, Beyoncé’s former musical director,  talks with WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott about her new children’s album, ‘Starchild Vol. I.’ Roxx explains why she refuses to “dumb down” music for kids, how ditching the microphone changed her live shows, and why community— from her nieces and nephe...

🎧 Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner and executive producer of "Garner: The Breath That Breathed a Movement," talks with WABE Art and Culture editor Sherri Daye Scott about learning documentary filmmaking from the inside, fighting for New York's Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, and why she pushed filmmakers toward one particular memory from Eric's childhood. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy i...

🎹 Eight-time Grammy winner Jon Batiste brings his 2026 Fantastical Tour Saturday to 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.

After more than 30 years as a visual artist, Donna Mintz has written her first book,  'Stars at Noon,' out now from Mercer University Press. Her path from artist to published author began with a reading of James Agee's “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,” alone on a Tennessee porch, a decade ago. WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott talked with Mintz about what she had to lea...

Mike Jordan and his wife and fellow writer Jacinta Howard created the Lit literary karaoke series back in 2014. The premise was simple: readers take the mic to perform uncensored excerpts from their favorite books over a live music bed. Then COVID hit. Now, after a six-year hiatus, Lit is back. WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott talked with Jordan about how the karaoke concept works, w...