Category: Atlanta, Georgia Local News

The barbershop is an essential aspect of Black communities across America. Alvin Irby, a New York-based educator, realized that barbershops would be the perfect space to get youth to become more engaged with reading. 

In 2013, Irby founded Barbershop Books, a nonprofit that has brought over 50,000 children’s books to over 200 barbershops. 

In collaboration with NFL Inspire Change social justice initiative, Irby launched Barbershop Books during Super Bowl week in Las Vegas. 

Held at the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, the event featured NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and several former players who helped to introduce the program to youth who are members of the Boys & Girls Club of Southern Nevada. 

Irby provided insight on how a visit to the barbershop in 2008 inspired the program. 

“One of my first grade students walked into the barbershop, plopped down on the sofa, and started getting antsy,” Irby recalled. “All I kept thinking was, ‘man he should be practicing his reading right now.’ All these years later, Barbershop Books has created more than 250 child friendly reading spaces at barbershops across more than 50 cities and 20 states. I’m so excited that we now have spaces and barbershops right here in Las Vegas. And we are announcing to the world during Super Bowl week.”

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell shared why it was important for the league to collaborate with Barbershop Books. 

“We’re all exited to be in Las Vegas and appreciate the hospitality and support,” Goodell said. “We’re here today because there are a lot of young faces who will truly benefit from this. So from all of us at the NFL, including these great players, we thank you. We thank Barbershop Books for their work and the library district for its leadership. Reading is fundamental. Reading is critically important for everything you do in life. This is a chance for you to understand more about the world and to learn. This is a great program and a lot of people have led the way on this.”

Youth who attended the event got a chance to read their favorite books, get free haircuts, play video games, run football drills, and participate in art and crafts.

Along with help from NFL players, cheerleaders from the Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers, and Las Vegas Raiders gave a hand to support the youth. 

About Post Author

A.R. Shaw, Executive Editor

A.R. Shaw serves as Executive Editor of Atlanta Daily World. His work has been featured in The Guardian, ABC News, NBC, BBC, CBC. He’s also the author of the book “Trap History: Atlanta Culture and the Global Impact of Trap Music.”

First lady Dr. Jill Biden served as keynote speaker at Morehouse School of Medicine’s Women with Heart luncheon. Held at the Georgia Aquarium, the event was organized as part of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, led by the White House Gender Policy Council.

Dr. Biden used her keynote speech to discuss disparities when it comes to women, race and health. 

“If you ask any woman in America about her health care, she probably has a story to tell,” Dr. Biden said. “You know her. She’s the woman who gets debilitating migraines, but doesn’t know why, and can’t find treatment options that work for her. She’s the woman going through menopause, who visits with her doctor and leaves with more questions than answers, even though half the country will go through menopause at some point in their lives. She’s the woman who dies because her heart disease isn’t recognized, since her symptoms don’t look like a man’s heart attack. Because women are more likely than men to die after a heart attack. And Black women are more likely to die from heart disease than women of any other race.”

The first lady urged that findings from research and studies be turned into action. 

“We have to turn our knowledge into action,” she said. “And to do that we need to better understand heart disease in women and study it more. Because even though women are half the population, research on women’s health has always been underfunded. Too many medical studies have focused on men and left women out. Too many of the medicine dosages, treatments, medical school textbooks, are based on men and their bodies – and that information doesn’t always apply to women. That means there are big gaps in research on diseases and conditions that only affect women, that disproportionately affect women, or that affect women and men differently.”

She also shared how her husband President Joe Biden has worked to solve those glaring issues. 

“In November, President Biden launched the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research,” she said. “We have a clear goal: to fundamentally change how our nation approaches and funds women’s health research. Joe issued a presidential memorandum asking federal agencies for their recommendations on how to make the policy changes necessary to advance women’s health research. And he’s instructed agencies to address health inequities as part of this initiative.”

Dr. Biden praised the efforts of Morehouse School of Medicine and the work that is being done in the city of Atlanta. 

“Remarkable work is happening here in Atlanta, where universities, entrepreneurs, investors, companies, and city leaders and groups like Women with Heart – are coming together to drive innovation in women’s health,” she said. “We need research at universities to develop breakthroughs. Investors who believe in those ideas. Startups that bring those ideas to the market. Doctors who translate those ideas into treatment plans. And government and advocates who help bring everyone together.”

About Post Author

A.R. Shaw, Executive Editor

A.R. Shaw serves as Executive Editor of Atlanta Daily World. His work has been featured in The Guardian, ABC News, NBC, BBC, CBC. He’s also the author of the book “Trap History: Atlanta Culture and the Global Impact of Trap Music.”

Mo’Nique is giving her take on viral comments made by Taraji P. Henson about the pay disparities that Black actresses face in Hollywood.

On Wednesday (February 7), Mo’Nique appeared on the latest episode of Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast where she discussed her upbringing, Katt Williams’ previous appearance on the show, and the obstacles she’s faced in the entertainment industry.

Mo’Nique also addressed the moment when Henson broke down about being underpaid and undervalued as a Black actress in an interview clip that went viral ahead of the release of The Color Purple in December.

“It was painful to watch,” Mo’Nique told Sharpe.

The comedian recalled having a similar conversation with Henson years ago.

“Taraji and I had a conversation over a decade ago in my trailer when I was doing ‘The Monique Show.’ And she said, ‘You know, you gotta keep on getting it until your turn comes.’ And I said, ‘Taraji, most of us die before our turn comes. We gotta ask for it right now.’ Now, I understand that because there was a time I felt the same way because that’s what I was told.”

During Wednesday’s podcast, Sharpe asked Mo’Nique why she believes her previous criticism about inequalities in Hollywood didn’t receive the same attention as Henson’s.

“It was the messenger. I should just be grateful I got invited to the party. ‘You’re a big, fat Black woman. How dare you be the one,’” Mo’Nique responded.

Mo’Nique said people also had a problem with her getting too specific with her critiques.

“‘And then on top of that, you’re saying names. You’re saying Oprah’s name out loud. You’re saying [Tyler Perry’s] name out loud. You’re saying [Lee Daniels‘] name out loud. You’re saying Lionsgate out loud. That’s not what we do… How dare you say our heroes’ names. These are our heroes. How could you say their names out loud?’” she said.

The Oscar winner further explained why she called out people and studios by name.

“Because they’re the ones that did it. And if I don’t say it out loud, now you see a woman that is swallowing that pain, that is so stressed out,” Mo’Nique said on the podcast.

Watch the full podcast episode below.

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“I was broke for a long time. My mother comes to my lectures to collect on the money I owe her,” Morehouse graduate and multidisciplinary artist Derek Fordjour, 50, jokingly told a young artist inquiring on how she can escape the stereotype of the broke artist. 

Fordjour, 50, Morehouse Class of 2001, recently returned to his alma mater to present for the annual distinguished lecture series, which serves to provide students and faculty with opportunities to learn from leading figures in art history, curatorial studies, and related fields.  

The event, hosted by the Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective, took place on Jan. 31 at the Shirley Massey Executive Conference Center at Morehouse College.

Like other creative enterprises that get national exposure but can be overlooked in their hometowns, Turner Classic Movies is a lodestar for fans of classic film that is sometimes taken for granted in Atlanta.

The network’s film-purist canon of uncut, commercial-free movies, piped into American homes like cinematic catnip 24 hours a day, has made it a beloved binge-watch for top directors like Nancy Meyers, Alexander Payne, and Martin Scorsese. TCM debuted in 1994 with Gone with the Wind, and this year turns 30, having weathered a whirlwind of corporate mergers, the death of its iconic host Robert Osborne, and the dismissal of much of its leadership in 2023.

Working out of Turner’s Techwood campus, a key group of Atlanta-based talent has been programming films for the network, creating documentaries and short films to support the TCM mission, running a TCM podcast, and orchestrating Hollywood’s TCM Classic Film Festival, which will mark its 15th anniversary this year on April 18 to 21. The Peabody Award–winning network boasts an Atlanta staff of longtimers fiercely loyal to the brand. “It really is like a family,” says the TCM Classic Film Festival’s director, Genevieve McGillicuddy, who has been with TCM since 2004.

TCM’s Atlanta team tends to geek out, hard, over classic film. The senior director of original productions, Scott McGee, has been with the network for 24 years. With a master’s degree in film from Emory, he has seen his dreams come true—interacting with the kind of silver-screen figures who defined his pre-VCR childhood. He recounts how he was once scolded by How Green Was My Valley star Maureen O’Hara for never having been to Ireland, despite his Emerald Isle ancestry. As a kid growing up in Peachtree City, he was obsessed with Tarzan films and would mark up the family TV Guide with his movie picks for the coming week. “I felt a kinship to these movies. I felt like they were speaking to me,” says McGee.

Like McGee, McGillicuddy attended Emory’s graduate film program, studying Japanese film. In her 19 years at TCM, she’s shared meals and tête-à-têtes with stars like Peter O’Toole and Jean-Paul Belmondo. She, too, is mad for movies. She remembers, years ago, overhearing a conversation at the TCM Classic Film Festival headquarters, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, in which fans were discussing the merits of ’30s and ’40s character actor Franklin Pangborn. Her heart sang. “I thought, Yes! These are my people!”
“Being able to be a part of creating that experience, and giving these films a platform to be discovered and to be enjoyed by people, is deeply satisfying,” says McGillicuddy, who longs to someday bring Julie Christie to the annual TCM festival.

Growing up in Erie, Pennsylvania, TCM director of podcast programming Angela Carone had a father who was a classic-film fan, known for his impersonations of stars like Jimmy Stewart and Marlon Brando. At age seven, Carone was doing Mae West to her father’s W.C. Fields. This January, Carone and TCM host Ben Mankiewicz debuted a new podcast, Talking Pictures, which features film figures like Mel Brooks, Emerald Fennell, and Errol Morris talking about the movies that shaped their lives.

“The love of film is so strong, there is such a bonding force between everybody on that staff, and everyone is so mission-driven—that’s not easy to find in the working world,” says Carone.

This small group serves as the brain trust for a film brand so beloved that fans regularly pay upwards of $2,000 for TCM Classic Cruises to places like Cabo San Lucas and Disney’s Castaway Cay, where they have rubbed shoulders with the likes of director Roger Corman and Richard Dreyfuss.

Photograph courtesy of the Everett Collection

With the corporate merger of Discovery and Warner Media in 2022 came the layoff of core TCM staff, like McGillicuddy and L.A.-based senior VP of programming and content strategy Charles Tabesh, who has been at the network for 26 years. After 25 years at TCM, general manager Pola Changnon opted to leave Warner Bros. Discovery as layoffs loomed.

That TCM gutting became a cinematic cause celebre, inspiring longtime TCM fans Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Steven Spielberg to meet with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. The directors advocated for rehiring the TCM staff, and Tabesh and McGillicuddy went back to work.

Stars weighed in on social media, with Ryan Reynolds tweeting that TCM is “a holy corner of film history and a living, breathing library for an entire art form. Please don’t f*ck with TCM.”

“We’ve had this very clear statement to the world about how valued we are,” says Mankiewicz of the upside of the merger’s very public kerfuffle. But that postmerger hot mess chronicled in the Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and TheWrap has in many ways overshadowed the ongoing grit of this local team of TCM film nuts working behind the scenes for decades to shape TCM into the film juggernaut it is today.

Mankiewicz, who travels to Atlanta every month for TV tapings, finds the unpretentious, unapologetic film love of Atlanta’s TCM crew a delightful break from L.A.’s company-town ethos. “It’s easier to become jaded about this business in Los Angeles,” says Mankiewicz, whose own family of film world luminaries—screenwriters, producers, directors—have lived in the City of Angels for generations. “When you’re in Atlanta, nobody says, ‘Let’s do lunch.’”

Host Ben Mankiewicz’s Top TCM Movies

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
“I love journalists and journalism movies,” says Mankiewicz. “It is gross and dirty and scummy, and I love every second of this movie.”

Paths of Glory (1957)
Along with Saving Private Ryan, Paths of Glory sits atop the list of the greatest war pictures ever made, says Mankiewicz. “It’s a treatise on the madness of war, told through the numbing madness of World War I, the dumbest war ever fought (which is saying something).”

12 Angry Men (1957)
“A tense, claustrophobic look at the biases we all carry, consciously or not; as well as our innate self-interest. It’s also a compelling story, beautifully told, led by an actor who projected humility and decency as well as anyone, Henry Fonda.”

Saving Private Ryan (1998)
“I saw Saving Private Ryan in 1998, when I was working as a reporter in Miami. I saw it with a Vietnam veteran and a World War II vet. They both came out of the film wiping away tears, clearly moved by what they’d just experienced.”

The Narrow Margin (1952)
“I’ve recently renewed my love affair with this 1952 Richard Fleischer film. It’s one part Charles McGraw, the cop, who slowly worked his way up to leading noir roles; one part Marie Windsor, the mob widow set to testify against the outfit, who’s as cold and steely as a femme fatale can get; and one part the dialogue. Charles McGraw describes Marie Windsor to his partner as a ’60 cent special. Cheap. Flashy. Strictly poison under the gravy.’”

Jurassic Park (1993)
“It’s on the list because it’s as perfect a movie theater experience as I’ve ever had. Saw it with a girlfriend in DC on opening weekend in 1993. Uptown Theater. Midnight show. Packed house. It was a madhouse.”

Notting Hill (1999)
“I loathe the term ‘rom-com,’ because I believe it has subliminally taught us that romantic comedies are trivial cliches, unworthy of top-10 lists. Nonsense, to which I’ll add, ‘I’m just a boy, standing in front of a movie screen, asking to love it.’”

Midnight Run (1988)
“This is, I’ve now determined, the funniest movie I’ve ever seen. De Niro is perfect. His work here is as good as he is in The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver, and The King of Comedy.”

Out of Sight (1998)
“This was another seminally important viewing experience. In Miami, opening weekend in 1998. I fell in love. With Jennifer Lopez, with George Clooney, with Don Cheadle, with Steve Zahn, with Ving Rhames, with Catherine Keener, with Dennis Farina, with Albert Brooks. Mostly, though, I fell hard for Steven Soderbergh, the director, who told this story, based on an Elmore Leonard novel, in such a creative, non-linear way. I walked out of the theater after Out of Sight exhilarated, buzzing with excitement. It remains the best feeling I’ve ever had after a seeing movie.”

3 Days of the Condor (1975)
Robert Redford has never been more handsome than in Condor, except in The Sting. And Jeremiah Johnson. And Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He’s looks pretty good in All the President’s Men, too (which should be on this list. What’s wrong with me?).

Casablanca (1942)
It’s best studio movie ever made. Period. Might be the best movie ever made, too. Romance? Check. International Intrigue? Check. Danger? Check. Emotional heft? I guarantee everyone with a soul cries at least twice.

This article appears in our February 2024 issue.

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Nothing caps off a brisk afternoon of horseback riding or clay shooting on a country estate like a good bourbon. At Barnsley Resort, a luxury getaway in the foothills of North Georgia, standout craft cocktails are created at Woodlands Grill, the restaurant and bar at the English manor–inspired property where these and other activities are offered. Certified bourbon steward Jackson Vaught says the resort’s signature old fashioned—made with a twist on the classic recipe—is a favorite. They start with their private, single-barrel bourbon made through a partnership with Woodford Reserve. Next, they slowly infuse the spirit with smoked pecans to produce a subtle nutty flavor. For a bit of tartness, they add Amarena black cherry juice. Angostura and orange bitters complement with aromatics, then the mixture is poured over a single cube of “smoked” ice (the water is infused with smoke before freezing) and garnished with a dehydrated orange slice. A cocktail smoking chamber that uses cherry or apple wood chips adds a dramatic visual finish. For a post-dinner treat, Vaught suggests pairing the signature cocktail with a slice of pecan pie or his favorite—chocolate pecan ice cream made with the same nuts that infuse the bourbon.

This article appears in the Winter 2024 issue of Southbound.

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It was a cloudless summer day in 1999 in Bainbridge, a rural town in south Georgia best known for bass fishing. At the time, Erick Martínez Juárez was, he says now, “a gleamy-eyed brown kid with crooked teeth, wearing dirty chanclas [flip-flops].” He stood with his Mexican immigrant parents at the edge of a large field near the tomato farm where both his mother and father worked, and watched dozens of physician assistants, medical students, nurses, and interpreters—“all of whom were doctors to me, and I had never seen so many doctors in one place.” He saw them move among colorful canopied tents that would stay up until the wee hours.

It was a medical clinic set up through Emory University’s Farmworker Project, a biannual program that began in 1996. The program exists to give medical care to approximately 2,500 itinerant farmworkers a year in South Georgia, who tend the fruits and vegetables we eat. Many of the workers are immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, or Haiti. Every June and October, Emory students, faculty, clinicians, interpreters, and volunteers (about 350 total in the summer and 120 in the fall) travel to the area, setting up and taking down entire clinics twice a day as they move from farm to farm.

Juárez, who today is a second-year neurology resident at the University of California, Los Angeles, remembers those clinics as a turning point in his life—as they changed his sense of what life might offer. “These students had come to such a desolate part of the country to help the farmworkers. And I thought, maybe someday I, too, could be a doctor and help people.” By the time he was 16, he was volunteering as an interpreter for the program.

“The program is [partly] supported by fundraising that the students do themselves during the year,” says Jodie Guest, professor and senior vice chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Emory, and director of the program. The first time Guest attended, in 2005, “I was so proud that Emory was there, serving a community that is often invisible, but I was overwhelmed by the need. There are very high rates of diabetes, eye infections from sun and pesticide exposure, fungal foot infections because they can’t clean their socks often enough, a lot of back and shoulder complaints, and significant depression.”

The clinic offers everything from pregnancy tests to ultrasounds, antibiotics, and dental care. A van on site serves as a mobile pharmacy, providing the most commonly needed medications, and a large truck offers two private exam rooms, though most exams are done under tents. “This is the only care these farmworkers may have all year,” says Guest.

If the farmworkers benefit, the students do as well. As Mikhayla Kleich—who will graduate from Emory as a physician assistant this year—put it on her Instagram, “These incredibly thankful and kind people were the first patients I have ever taken care of on my own. I’m not going to lie, PA school is difficult, exhausting, and draining, but it’s opportunities like this that remind me why I fell in love with this profession in the first place.”

Meanwhile, that “gleamy-eyed brown kid” is now on the brink of becoming a full-fledged neurologist. Juárez hopes to come home to Georgia soon “as a doctor, and to volunteer for the farmworker program, so I can return the favor done for me so long ago.”

This article appears in our January 2024 issue.

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It’s not often that a new attraction appeals to sports fanatics, foodies, and travelers alike. But a new 976-room downtown hotel promises to do just that. Built on the repurposed foundation of the Georgia Dome, the Signia by Hilton Atlanta (159 Northside Drive Northwest) overlooks Mercedes-Benz Stadium with a walkway to the Georgia World Congress Center. It features upgraded versions of the usual wellness components of a luxury hotel (think a spa, pool, fitness center, and beauty bar), plus guest rooms with the latest amenities and technology (digital keys, smartphone-controlled lighting, walk-in rain showers). However, the food and beverage options are where Signia goes above and beyond.

From homestyle breakfast to Italian fine dining, grab-and-go salads to seasonal cocktails by the pool, Signia’s seven restaurants and bars feature something for every occasion. Led by director of food and beverage Jacob Linzey, who brings experience from the Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas; executive chef Christian Quinones (W Miami); and pastry chef Daniella Lea Rada (Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta), Signia’s restaurants each have their own chef to help them stand out.

Courtesy of Erik Meadows Photography

“This is geared toward the global traveler who wants a lot of options,” Linzey says. “We want them to have the opportunity to eat and drink different things without leaving the hotel. Especially at Capolinea and Nest on Four, I expect a local crowd too.” (Note to locals: Parking is valet only, so plan accordingly.)

Below, Linzey walks us through each gathering spot, from the bottom of the hotel up.

Courtesy of Gensler

1st Floor:

Lobby Bar
Now open, the lobby bar serves to welcome guests to the hotel. With high ceilings and fiber-optic lighting, it feels open and airy, yet intimate with emerald velvety couches. Stop by the bar for classic cocktails and seasonal shared plates, or grab a seat for table service and enjoy a miniature lobster roll, grass-fed smashburger, or charcuterie board.

Courtesy of Gensler

Friendship Market
Down the hall, Friendship Market is not your average hotel snack closet. Its 2,100-square-feet features cozy, coffee shop-style seating, fresh-pressed juices, house-made pastries, sandwiches, salads, and yogurts. Le Colombe coffee drinks are available, and beer, wine, and spirits are planned. Sure, there are also grab-and-go products from local businesses, but the best is yet to come: an entire section dedicated to chocolate (both high-end packaged and house-made, with port pairings!).

Club Signia
Launched on February 1, Club Signia is the hotel’s all-inclusive option, open only to those who pay for the upgraded room rate (about $150 more per night). Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it features a displayed food area, live cooking station, coffee program, and seven signature cocktails. Designed to be intimate and elegant and afford extra privacy, it’s limited to approximately 85 guests.

Courtesy of Atlanta Event Photography

4th Floor:

Homespun
“I think of Southern cuisine as soul food and the things that make you feel good,” Linzey says. That pretty much defines Homespun, a breakfast-forward restaurant that will eventually expand to lunch and dinner. With seating for 250 people, Homespun offers two paths for breakfast: a full buffet and an a la carte menu. Expect fried chicken biscuits using pastry sous chef Ahisha Day’s grandma’s biscuit recipe and Creole tomato shakshuka using farm-fresh ingredients. Want to keep it simple with oatmeal and eggs? That’s available as well.

Courtesy of Gensler

Nest on Four
Sharing an open kitchen with Homespun, Nest on Four is the sports bar of Atlanta fans’ dreams. Floor-to-ceiling windows showcase Mercedes-Benz Stadium in all its glory, and a halo of TVs mimics that inside. Signia reps want guests to think of Nest as their pre-game, post-game, hell—why not during the game?—hang. It’s a modern sports bar a Falcon’s fly from the stadium. It serves lunch and dinner with options like crispy fried chicken sandwich, an “elevated” hot dog, grouper sandwich, mac ‘n’ cheese, short rib poutine made with tater tots, and beignets. Nine beers and three cocktails fill the taps.

Courtesy of Gensler

Capolinea
Touted as the hotel’s signature restaurant, Capolinea offers old-school Italian fine dining. Linzey describes the space as “moody” with dark, comfortable banquettes, intimate booths, and a private dining room for 18 that looks toward the stadium. A wraparound balcony seats 60 guests. Named for the Italian word for “terminus,” the old nickname for Atlanta, Linzey says Capolinea is where “Atlanta meets Italy and trendy meets traditional.” Here, four icebox martinis are served tableside, made with a 50-50 spirit-to-vermouth ratio “to make them more enjoyable and complex,” he says. Also look for a riff on an appletini. For food, there’s handmade pasta, prime steaks, and a Caesar salad with breadcrumbs on every piece of lettuce. Veal Milanese, bucatini pomodoro, and duck ravioli (a take on duck a la orange) are highlights. For dessert, order a cannoli with house-made gelato.

Courtesy of Erik Meadows Photography

5th Floor:

Highball
Slated to open in May, Highball will be a seasonal pool bar. It’ll offer craft cocktails, including a focus on low- and no-ABV drinks, and Southern picnic fare. The menu has not been developed yet.

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