WABE Arts

A new permanent exhibition at Atlanta’s National Center for Civil and Human Rights revisits Reconstruction, one of the most misunderstood eras in American history. WABE Arts & Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott speaks with Chief Programs Officer Kama Pierce about Broken Promises, an exhibition that traces post–Civil War progress, backlash, and the journalists and artists who document...

🎧 Film scholar Matthew H. Bernstein marks his final semester at Emory University by curating “Matthew H. Bernstein’s Farewell Favorites,” a 14-film Emory Cinematheque series running through April. He reflects on why communal moviegoing still matters, the care behind archival screenings and the themes of resistance shaping the lineup. 🎬 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy in...

At Dad’s Garage Theatre, competition isn’t really the point. The TheatreSports Tournament returns Jan. 9–31, turning improv into a fake rivalry shaped by audience reaction. WABE Arts & Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott talks with ensemble members Ronnie Johnson-Lopez and Amanda Lee Williams about how the tournament works, where it came from, and why live, participatory theater...

Jewish storytelling is rooted in tradition, but it isn’t fixed. As the Atlanta Jewish Storytelling Festival returns Jan. 8–11, WABE Arts explores how stories move across generations, cultures, and lived experience. Festival coordinator Audrey Galex and featured storyteller Laura Simms reflect on storytelling as a living practice shaped by memory and place. See omnystudio.com/listener f...

A new permanent public artwork is now part of Piedmont Park. Atlanta artist Gregor Turk walks WABE Arts through “Myriad,” his latest mirrored installation near the Meadow entrance off the Atlanta Beltline. Recorded just days after the unveiling, this episode explores how movement, reflection, and shared space shape the experience of public art in Atlanta’s most visited park See o...

Holiday traditions don’t look the same for everyone. “A Drag Queen Christmas,” now in its 11th year, has become a seasonal ritual for audiences across the country. WABE Arts speaks with host Nina West and first-time tour performer Suzie Toot about how the show blends spectacle, humor and deeply personal holiday traditions — from Hanukkah numbers to chosen-family celebration...

A final exhibition, finished without its creator. At SCAD FASH in Atlanta, “André Leon Talley: Style Is Forever” reflects years of collaboration — and the challenge of honoring a fashion icon after his death. WABE Arts & Culture editor Sherri Daye Scott spole with Rafael Gomes, creative director of the SCAD fashion museums, about curating Talley’s wardrobe, prese...

Marlon Wayans has been coming to Atlanta for 30 years—and now he's considering making it permanent. The comedian and actor discusses filming “Scary Movie 6” at Tyler Perry Studios, why Atlanta audiences supported his work before Georgia became a film hub, and what he learned about respect on set from Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. Wayans also shares how his brother Keenen's advice...

A new PBS/POV Shorts documentary is shining national attention on a youth orchestra rooted along one of Atlanta’s most diverse immigrant corridors. “La Orquesta” follows retired music teacher Juana Alzaga and the children of the Buford Highway Orchestra through a full school year of rehearsals, concerts, and community. WABE Arts & Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott talks with A...

Filmmaker Jason Orr returns to his 2011 documentary "Diary of a Decade" with AI-assisted restoration tools that didn't exist when he first captured the early years of Atlanta's FunkJazz Kafé Arts & Music Festival. The festival, which ran for three decades without ever announcing its lineup, featured emerging artists like Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, and Janelle Monáe alongside cultur...

South Arts — the nine-state regional arts organization based in Atlanta — has named outgoing Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman as its next President and CEO. Shipman joins WABE Arts to explain why he’s returning to cultural leadership, what the South needs as federal arts funding shifts, and how he plans to support artists across the Southeast in South Arts’ 50th...

🎧 Atlanta entrepreneur Ryan Wilson — co-founder and CEO of The Gathering Spot — joins Season 5 of REVOLT’s “Bet on Black,” where nine HBCU student founders pitch real companies on national TV. WABE Arts Editor Sherri Daye Scott speaks with Wilson about why “Bet on Black”’s focus on young Black innovators matters, how lived experience shaped his role...

🎭 Two Atlanta holiday traditions return with renewed energy.  At the Alliance Theatre, director Amanda Watkins leads this year’s “A Christmas Carol,” bringing fresh perspective, expanded casting, and a deeper focus on community connections. Then Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre shares its one-hour “Nutcracker Suite,” created for families and first-time ballet-goer...

🎤 Comedian Donnell Rawlings — known for his roles on “Chappelle’s Show,” and appearances on the “Kill Tony” podcast and decades of stand-up — returns to Atlanta for a weekend at the Atlanta Comedy Theater. Rawlings talks with WABE’s Kenny Murry about how he went from club heckler to headliner, why staying funny matters more than labels, and what it...

Six-time Grammy-nominated folk musician John McCutcheon headlines A Song for Ukraine at the Lawrenceville Arts Center. The benefit concert, organized by Atlanta-area Ukrainian community members and HelpingUkraine. US, raises funds for art therapy, education, and creative spaces supporting children displaced by the war. McCutcheon reflects on solidarity, his earliest union performances, and writing...

The Atlanta Opera reimagines “La Belle et la Bête,” Philip Glass’s hypnotic fusion of live performance and Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film—where music and image merge into one dreamlike experience. Then, a once-banned Black cinema classic returns to the big screen: “The Spook Who Sat by the Door, newly restored in 4K, with insight from Nomathandé Dixon and...

Episode Description): 🎧 WABE’s beloved Lois Reitzes sits down with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus Director Norman Mackenzie to explore Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 — its revolutionary design, emotional depth, and lasting message of joy. Together, they reflect on the influence of Robert Shaw and how Music Director Natalie Stutzman is guiding a new era of sound at Symphony Hall....

🎧 Two creative journeys converge in metro Atlanta. As IrishFest Atlanta returns Nov. 7–9, founder Teresa Finley and musician Kieran O’Hare share how music and community keep Irish tradition alive. Then pop icon Debbie Gibson joins WABE Arts to discuss her memoir “Eternally Electric,” the message behind her music, and her upcoming author talk at the MJCCA Book Festival. See...

Two Atlanta stages, two perspectives on power and legacy. CNN anchor Abby Phillip talks about her new book “A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power” ahead of her conversation with Ambassador Andrew Young at the Atlanta History Center. Then comedian Roy Wood Jr. shares what inspired his “The Man of Many Fathers” book and tour and why Atlanta w...

Atlanta’s creative pulse runs through two new releases. 🎶 Soul frontwoman Ruby Velle & The Soulphonics step up for democracy with “Step Right Up,” a rallying cry for joy and civic engagement ahead of Election Day 2025. 🎭 Then actor and musician Brian Jordan Jr. blends theater and sound in “Riley, the Mixtape, “ featuring Big Freedia, Amber Iman, Natalie Weiss, a...

From the flash of a camera to the rhythm of a beat — Atlanta photographer James Hicks reclaims fashion history through a Black lens in his new exhibit Moments: Icons, Legends & Muses See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Atlanta, past and present, in one quick listen: editor Sherri Daye Scott visits Oakland Cemetery’s after-dark tradition Capturing the Spirit with designer Sean Fahie and Oakland’s Sandy White (“enlightened, not frightened”). Then The Roots’s Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter shares what’s feeding him ahead of ONE Musicfest—creative discipline, infl...

Ideas Festival Emory turns the university’s Oxford College campus’s historic quad into an open-air forum for conversation, performance, and community learning. Organized by the Center for Public Scholarship and Engagement, the annual gathering invites the public to experience university research in motion — from live music to graffiti art to fireside chats with authors and scient...

When “Heart Sellers” opens at Horizon Theatre, it brings a rarely heard story to the local stage—two immigrant women finding friendship in 1970s America. The play arrives through a collaboration between Horizon and East by Southeast, an Atlanta collective supporting Asian and Asian American artists across disciplines. Actor and producer Michelle Pokopac, who stars as Jane in the...

In this episode of WABE Arts : Filmmaker Karyn Kusama reflects on her groundbreaking debut Girlfight twenty-five years later, ahead of its special screening at the Plaza Theatre as part of the Atlanta Film Society’s ¡CINEMÁS! series for Hispanic Heritage Month. Rapper and filmmaker Ice Cube joins contributor Kenny Murray to discuss his creative process, Atlanta’s influence...