Category: Atlanta, Georgia Local News

MARIETTA, Ga.- On a cool and slightly overcast Tuesday morning, Atlanta United players made their way through individual drills and team workouts along the grass fields at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground. Arguably Atlanta’s best supported professional sports franchise, United was once again at the top of the attendance charts at the end of 2023, averaging a league high 47,526 fans per each of its 17 home games, according to sports data website Soccer Stadium Digest. One of the players cutting and juking back and forth on the field that morning was thrust into a graduate school level of learning just how crazy the support and fandom can be for the Five Stripes when he arrived last summer. 

French defensive midfielder Tristan Muyumba, 26, is just days away from playing in his first Major League Soccer season opener. Muyumba made his official United debut during a Leagues Cup match against Cruz Azul last July 29 inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Coming to Atlanta from Ligue 2 club EA Guingamp, a respectable club in its own right, Muyumba was thrust into a fight for postseason position throughout his ten-game start to life in Atlanta. Having started nine of the final 10 games of the 2023 season for United manager Gonzalo Pineda, Muyumba quickly admits that his move to Major League Soccer (MLS) was partly based on the league’s growing reputation and style of play. “The quality of players in MLS, especially the forwards, is a little better,” said Muyumba, who added that Ligue 2 could be a bit more physical. 

Starting this season with Atlanta United, the 2024 campaign feels more like his rookie year in a way. He is getting to train with his teammates, some for the first time. A full start to the season has also afforded Muyumba the opportunity to play preseason matches with the club, the most recent being against fellow MLS side Sporting KC in Miami on Feb. 17. Learning a new city, new team, coaching staff, and new league can be difficult. Doing all that in the middle of the season even more so, he explained. 

Photograph by Bernd Obermann / Corbis Documentary / Getty Images

Dr. Joel Zivot first began researching the death penalty 12 years ago when it suddenly affected his day job. As an anesthesiologist in the ICU at Emory University Hospital, Zivot frequently used the drug sodium thiopental. But in 2011, the drug disappeared from the market and caused a drastic shortage in ICUs across the country. When Zivot looked into the cause of the shortage, he found the drug was pulled by manufacturer Hospira after they couldn’t promise the European Union—who threatened to ban the export of lethal injection drugs—that sodium thiopental wasn’t used for executions. “I felt outraged that this drug I used to heal could also be involved in [lethal injection],” says Zivot.

He still works in critical care at Emory, but his feelings following that sodium thiopental shortage turned into a second career dedicated to studying lethal injection and its medical effects. For the past decade, Zivot has acted as a medical expert in numerous death penalty cases throughout the South. Legal defense teams seek him out for medical examinations before execution, for expert testimony in court, and, in rare cases, for autopsies to assess a victim’s experience during execution. In his research, Zivot has found that lethal injection victims often die of pulmonary edema, or fluid in the lungs, instead of the drugs stopping the heart, which is the intended, painless cause of death in an execution. Pulmonary edema instead causes a painful experience similar to drowning.

“I’m not an abolitionist of the death penalty, but I’d call myself an agnostic,” Zivot says, “My angle here became that if capital punishment is a technical act, it has to be done technically correct.”

Today, his attention has shifted to a new method of execution, nitrogen hypoxia, that Zivot believes also induces pain for a person on death row. On January 26, Kenneth Smith, an Alabama man convicted in 1988 for a murder-for-hire killing, was the first person to be executed in the United States by nitrogen hypoxia. On a gurney in a prison in Atmore, Alabama, Smith died by breathing nitrogen gas through a face mask, depriving him of oxygen. State officials said prior to the execution that the nitrogen would render Smith unconscious within a few seconds. According to five Alabama journalists who witnessed the execution, that didn’t happen. Smith held his breath until he couldn’t, appeared conscious for several minutes, and then “shook and writhed” on the gurney for two minutes. One of those reporters said that of the five executions he had witnessed, it was the most violent reaction he had seen. From the first flow of gas to the time of death, the execution took 22 minutes.

• • •

Zivot credits his passion for death penalty ethics to his background. His family of lawyers taught him to argue with evidence and expertise. Growing up and practicing medicine in Canada before moving to Atlanta also affected his perception of lethal injection as abnormal compared to his American medical peers, he says.

After the sodium thiopental shortage, he spent two years further researching the medical act of lethal injection, using resources from the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington D.C. By 2013, Zivot was ready to bring his medical expertise to the public; he wrote an opinion piece for USA Today highlighting how the controversy of drugs used in lethal injections could lead to hospital shortages like he had experienced. The article gained the attention of a legal defense team of a person on death row in Florida, who consulted Zivot to examine their client for any health issues that could complicate lethal injection. It was unlike any medical examination he performed, Zivot says, with the man “completely shackled head to toe.” Zivot looked at the prisoner’s feet for peripheral circulation, vascular disease, or any other ailment that might impede state officials from accessing a vein. But he didn’t find any health issues, and the man was later executed.

“Around a death penalty case, we’re told maximally evocative stories about a convict’s transformation, or that these horrible murderers are owed nothing in return,” Zivot says. “It occurred to me, acting as a physician in Florida, that those narratives were false. They are owed not to be tortured or punished in a cruel way.”

• • •

Zivot went back to school to learn about the ethical and legal nuances of the death penalty. In six years he earned both a master’s degree in bioethics and a law degree from Emory. He continued to medically examine people on death row and write opinion pieces on the cruelty of lethal injection for the Guardian, CNN, Slate, and more. “I wanted to use science and medicine to expose techniques that are cruel,” Zivot says, “But it’s extremely difficult to get the public to see science for such an emotional issue.”

Zivot says that another roadblock in his work is bureaucracy. “I’d be given the protocol of an execution technique [from a state’s corrections department] with the entire document redacted,” Zivot says. “I don’t know who is involved or what the plan is, so they have blanket immunity if something were to go wrong.” In 2018, he obtained 250 autopsies of executions from lethal injection in the U.S. and found that victims died from pulmonary edema 80 percent of the time. Zivot presented his findings to the U.S. Supreme Court as part of his expert testimony in Bucklew v. Precythe, a case on the behalf of Rusty Bucklew, who was on death row in Missouri. Zivot argued that lethal injection violated the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the 8th Amendment, pointing to his research that lethal injection often did not result in a painless stopping of the heart. The court ruled against Bucklew, with the majority opinion defining the death penalty as justifiable as long as “it does not intend pain.”

​​“It’s frustrating for me because death is an abstraction for the people making these decisions, when treating death is part of my job in the ICU,” Zivot says, “They justify killing a person who did something terrible, but everyone still deserves to not be tortured.”

• • •

Zivot first worked with Kenneth Smith when, on behalf of Smith’s legal team, he examined him following a failed execution attempt by lethal injection in 2022. When Zivot later learned that nitrogen hypoxia could be used to execute Smith, he decided to take a more public approach for his argument against the process. “I realized that I’ve been losing every time [I argued against lethal injection], and 100 percent of these guys I worked with were killed in a cruel way,” Zivot says, “So I needed a new strategy.”

He stated in a letter to the United Nations in early January that the physical experience of involuntarily breathing pure nitrogen would amount to torture for Smith. A successful death by nitrogen hypoxia requires natural breathing, which is unlikely when a human faces death, Zivot wrote. He pointed to a study of volunteers who breathed in small amounts of pure nitrogen and experienced convulsions and seizures that induced vomiting and choking. The UN made a statement saying they were “alarmed” over the “untested method.” Alabama officials still pushed forward with the execution.

In a news conference after Smith’s execution, Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall called the execution “textbook” and said that nitrogen hypoxia is now “a proven method” that could offer “a blueprint for other states.” Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma are the only states who have legalized executions via nitrogen, but other states could follow.

The reports of the journalists who attended Smith’s execution affirmed for Zivot the concerns he outlined in his UN letter. “The state will say it was a success and give an information underload for the execution,” Zivot says. “Ultimately, the goal is to produce a corpse.”

He plans to continue following cases of both lethal injection and nitrogen hypoxia. Alabama plans to use it for 43 more inmates on death row. “I feel compelled to keep going and expose techniques that are cruel and, to me, impersonations of science,” says Zivot. “This work has made me feel so grateful for my own life and privilege. The responsibility of the privileged is to roll up their sleeves and try to make the world better.”

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Photo by Sean Pierce

Deep in the valleys, down bumpy roads, accessible only by boat or request—some of these lesser-known treasures are hard to reach, and that’s part of their charm. Others are hidden in plain sight—you just have to know where to look.

Intriguing Islands
Dip away from the mainstream

Peanut Island | Florida
A band of glittering turquoise water is all that separates this 80-acre county park from the glitzy mansions of Palm Beach, but the laidback, locals-only vibe feels worlds away. Kayak, paddleboard, or take the ferry there (it departs every 20 minutes), then snorkel around man-made reefs at the mouth of the inlet and check out manatees, spotted eagle rays, and parrotfish. With a little exploring on the island’s paths, you can still spy the ironclad entrance to JFK’s fallout shelter for the winter White House (currently being revamped but reopening to the public next year).

Photo courtesy of Emergent Media/Visit Florida

Blowing Rocks Preserve | Jupiter Island, Florida
The craggy limestone outcropping of Blowing Rock feels more Hawaii than south Florida. The formation, made up of shell and coral fragments, fossils, and sand—together known as coquina—is shaped by the sea with pools made for treasure hunting. During winter or very high tides, waves can crash through the holes and “chimneys” up to 50 feet high.

Ship Island | Mississippi
Hop on a (seasonal) ferry from Gulfport or Biloxi to this island 11 miles off the coast of Mississippi, part of Gulf Islands National Seashore. Take a ranger-led tour of the beautifully preserved D-shaped Fort Massachusetts, which served as a Civil War prison for Confederate POWs. It was also a base for the U.S. Second Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards, a unit of African American soldiers.

Unlikely Star-Spotting
Stumble into celebrities at these unexpected haunts

Morgan Freeman, Ground Zero Blues Club | Clarksdale, Mississippi
The Birthplace of the Blues has been home to Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Sam Cooke, and Ike Turner. Now it’s a part-time residence for actor Morgan Freeman, who owns a 124-acre ranch nearby (which he’s converted largely into a bee sanctuary) and co-owns a divey blues club called Ground Zero (with a second location in Biloxi). He’s been spotted there unannounced, shooting pool and nodding his head to live music.

Judy Blume, Books & Books | Key West, Florida
It sounds like a childhood dream, having beloved author Judy Blume doling out personal book recommendations and guiding you through the shelves. But it might not be your imagination—at this nonprofit bookstore where Blume and her husband are co-owners, she’s been known to discreetly ring up customers.

Bill Murray | Charleston, South Carolina
Reports of the actor’s antics in the Holy City include crashing engagement photos, faux napping with a toddler outside a lunch joint, and smooching the big-screen camera at a RiverDogs game (the Minor League Baseball team he co-owns). He’s also part-owner of hip restaurants Harold’s Cabin, Rutledge Cab Co., and Container Bar, but he’s more likely to be spotted on Sullivan’s Island or favored hangouts Queen Street Grocery and Kudu Coffee & Craft Beer.

Relics of the Sea
Where ghost ships find new life

Illustration by Liz Lovasco

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concrete Fleet at Kiptopeke State Park | Cape Charles, Virginia
Nine of 24 concrete ships commissioned during World War II found their final resting place at the southern tip of the Chesapeake Bay as a storm breakwater. Partially submerged and decaying, rust bleeding from rebars, they also create a hauntingly beautiful memorial and a haven for wildlife. You can view them from the beach, but better yet, rent a kayak at the pier.

Undercover Dining
Seek out these easy-to-miss restaurants

Hawk’s Crawfish Restaurant | Rayne, Louisiana
You’ll swear you’re the only one out there, bumping down rural roads in Cajun country alongside boggy fields thick with crawfish. Then you spy all the cars tucked into the woods by a bright and lively barn. In-the-know diners flock to Hawk’s to taste the results of its two-day crawfish cleaning process that rids the mudbugs of waste and bitter taste. Go ahead, order a 5-pound plate.

Jones Bar-B-Q Diner | Marianna, Arkansas
One of the oldest Black-owned businesses in the country, dating to 1910, this little two-table diner was the first restaurant in Arkansas to land a James Beard Award. It serves up just one thing: perfect pulled pork on Wonder Bread with tangy slaw, which is usually sold out by noon. After a fire in 2021, Jones used donations to rebuild only slightly snazzier new digs.

Route 76 Roadhouse Bar & Grill | Clayton, Georgia
Owned by an Elvis impersonator, Mark “Elvis” Eskew, the interiors at this roadside joint are part rock ‘n’ roll, part 1989 Patrick Swayze cult classic. Order a Roadhouse Big E—a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich on Texas toast (Elvis’s signature)—and wait for the King to take the stage.

Photography by Greg Miller

Trader Vic’s | Atlanta, Georgia
One of just two Trader Vic’s locations left in the country (there used to be a couple dozen) sits in the basement of the downtown Hilton. Founder Vic Bergeron reportedly spent millions sourcing the Polynesian-inspired decor in the 1950s and ’60s—outrigger canoe oars, taxidermied blowfish, and yes, carved tiki. Choose from 60 stiff tropical cocktails, including the mai tai, which Bergeron invented.

Spark Cafe | Bentonville, Arkansas
The quaint 1950s 5&10 at the heart of Walmart’s humble beginnings bears little resemblance to the sprawling megastore of today. Now, a Walmart museum complex on the site (currently undergoing renovation and set to reopen in spring 2024) includes Spark Cafe, a throwback soda fountain that pays tribute to founder Sam Walton’s love of ice cream. Until the cafe reopens, grab a scoop of the store’s signature blue-and-yellow vanilla ice cream at midcentury prices (starting at 50 cents) from the food truck across the street.

Room Requests
Bedtime stories and strange bedfellows

Talbott Tavern | Bardstown, Kentucky
This 1779 stone inn is thought to be America’s oldest Western stagecoach stop—and perhaps the world’s most historic bourbon bar. The inn once housed a young Abraham Lincoln, as well as the infamous outlaw Jesse James. As legend has it, James fired those bullet holes in the plaster wall after a night of revelry downstairs.

Photo by Rush Jagoe

Hotel Monteleone | New Orleans, Louisiana
This ornate French Quarter hotel is no secret, with its rotating Carousel Bar adorned with hand-painted circus animals, but its literary heritage might be. Truman Capote, Eudora Welty, and Ernest Hemingway all found inspiration circling ’round the bar. Book the dual-balcony Hemingway suite, in a section of the hotel that once housed Union troops.

RT Lodge | Maryville, Tennessee
Tucked away on Maryville College’s wooded grounds, this gracious estate was built as a private residence, then served as the college president’s house and a corporate retreat for Ruby Tuesday, based nearby. Now the rambling 1930s lodge and gardens have been restored as a rustic-elegant hotel that some consider a more accessible alternative to nearby Blackberry Farm, where RT Lodge Chef Trevor Stockton cut his teeth.

The Arlington Hotel Resort & Spa | Hot Springs, Arkansas
Gangsters like Al Capone flocked to this resort town in the 1920s for gambling, whiskey, and bathhouses. At the Arlington Hotel, insiders know to book Capone’s own suite (room 443), once outfitted with a secret getaway through the closet (it’s now boarded up). The 1893 hotel is showing its age, but a major restoration is set to be completed by its 100th birthday in December 2024,

Apartments at the Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum| Montgomery, Alabama
It’s great to visit the house museum where the infamous literary couple lived in the 1930s while working on their novels Tender Is the Night and Save Me the Waltz, but for something even better, try staying in the period-inspired apartments upstairs. In the Zelda suite, the living room furniture was donated by her childhood family friends; in the F. Scott suite, find swathes of the same (now tattered) wallpaper the author himself would have gazed upon.

In Living Color
Fall Like You’ve Never Seen It

Illustration by Liz Lovasco

Colorblind Viewfinders | 13 State Parks, Tennessee
Thirteen million Americans experience colorblindness, mostly in the form of a red-green deficiency, which dulls the vivid colors of fall foliage or even makes the breathtaking hues impossible to see. But at 13 scenic state parks in the Tennessee mountains, free vista viewfinders equipped with high-tech EnChroma lenses give colorblind visitors the chance to see fall color for perhaps the first time.

Insider Tours
Adventures you never knew you needed

Photo by Sean Pierce

Green Bank Observatory | Green Bank, West Virginia
Deep in the Allegheny Mountains, blanketed by the darkest skies on the East Coast, the Green Bank observatory sits in the 13,000-square-mile National Radio Quiet Zone. Here, Wi-Fi and cell service are nonexistent in order to protect the airwaves of the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope. Book the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) tour, which opens “restricted access points” and details the observatory’s findings on alien life.

Pleasure House Oysters | Virginia Beach, Virginia
Pull on waders and pluck oysters straight from the Lynnhaven River with the Pleasure House oyster farmers, who can teach you all about the briny jewel that was recently saved from near extinction. After the harvest, slurp these beauties from a table positioned directly in the river; bring your own bottle of wine for a dining experience like no other.

Project Chimps | Morganton, Georgia
Nearly 100 retired research chimpanzees roam 230 acres of forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains. For a chance to spot them, sign up for one of several events the organization hosts each year. Or book a private tour, like the Lunch Launch, which includes an hour-long hike with opportunities to see the chimps, then a chance to slingshot veggies into the habitat for their midday meal.

Old Friends | Georgetown, Kentucky
Here’s your chance to meet a Kentucky Derby winner. At this nonprofit Thoroughbred retirement home about an hour east of Churchill Downs, guides regale visitors with stories of the horses’ racing days and unique personalities. Silver Charm, a regal gray who won the Derby in 1997, is the star attraction. He doesn’t like to be touched, though plenty of other steeds do; you’ll have a bucket of carrots to win them over.

Cool Transportation
When the journey is the destination

Historic SAM Shortline Railroad | Cordele to Plains, Georgia
Hop aboard this restored 1940s train at Georgia Veterans State Park in Cordele, then chug past Lake Blackshear, pecan groves, and rolling farmland to Jimmy Carter’s quaint hometown. There you’ll have time for tours and peanut ice cream before heading back.

Key West Express | Fort Myers to Key West, Florida
Skip the connecting flight (or endless drive) to the southernmost tip of the United States in favor of lounging on a sun deck, drink in hand, on a high-speed catamaran. Watch for dolphins as the mainland coastline fades into the Gulf of Mexico, and three and a half hours later, dock at Key West. Opt for the sunset cruise on the way back.

Personal Rapid Transit | Morgantown, West Virginia
When Boeing designed these driverless electric vehicles to navigate the hilly terrain of the University of West Virginia and downtown Morgantown, it aimed to spark a transportation revolution. It didn’t, but it remains the best way to get around. With the push of a button, one of 70 updated blue-and-gold buggies (which seat 8) will arrive and zip passengers directly to their station of choice along nine miles of guideway.

Open Secrets
These treasures are hidden in plain sight

Photography by Larry McCormack

The Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library | Nashville, Tennessee
On the second floor of this downtown library, find a little-known exhibit dedicated to Nashville’s civil rights history, including first-hand accounts, photographs, and ephemera like diaries and scrapbooks. From the windows, look out at the intersection where nonviolent protestors demonstrated against segregated lunch counters in 1960.

Photo via goldenisles.com

Spirit Trees | St. Simons Island, Georgia
The barrier island’s live oaks, dripping with Spanish moss, appear mysterious enough, but if you know where to look, you might see faces peering back at you. Sculptor Keith Jennings (now along with his son) has carved more than 20 “tree spirits” into the oaks’ scars since 1982. Find a map of the spirits at the welcome center and make it a scavenger hunt by bike.

Satellite Park | Durham, North Carolina
At this former facility for Duke University radio, now the Duke Arts Annex, eight decommissioned satellite dishes were saved from the junkyard by the efforts of local artists. Sit in the shade of a “dish” painted like a piece of Mexican pottery by artist Cornelio Campos (among seven others).

Mole Hill | Dayton, Virginia
It looks like your average wooded knoll in the rural Shenandoah Valley. Turns out, it’s an extinct volcano—yes, in Virginia—identifiable by its black basalt rubble in a valley of sedimentary rock. It sits on private property, but if you’re into geology or just want to see this enigma up close, contact Mole Hill Bikes in nearby Dayton for an opportunity to hike its trails.

Spring water spigots | Hot Springs, Arkansas
Does the thermal spring water in Hot Springs have healing powers? Visitors have flocked to soak in its baths, now part of a national park, for hundreds of years—but you can also quaff the 4,000-year-old elixir. The National Park Service details where to find the town’s public fountains where you can sip the water, which is hot enough at the source to make it safe for drinking without treatment.

Off-the-Menu
Where’s the beef?

Illustration by Liz Lovasco

Chick-fil-A Dwarf House | Hapeville, Georgia
Chick-fil-A’s famous cows might revolt. The fast-food empire known for tirelessly touting chicken has quietly been serving burgers at its original Dwarf House location in Hapeville. Check out the newly renovated first location in Hapeville (originally called the Dwarf Grill), which offers full-service dining, grilled tenderloin steak, and a cheeseburger that rivals its best drive-through competitors.

Special Shops
Hunt for treasures off the beaten path

Alabama Booksmith | Homewood, Alabama
This unassuming, family-owned bookseller near Birmingham specializes in signed first editions by renowned authors including John Updike, Jesmyn Ward, and Khaled Hosseini. Nearly every book on the shelf bears an autograph; the longtime bestseller is Alabamian Rick Bragg’s memoir, All Over But the Shoutin’, with more than 5,000 copies sold.

Tiny Gallery | Asheville, North Carolina
Baker Camille Cogswell, a 2018 James Beard–nominated Rising Star and 2020 Food & Wine Best New Chef, turns out flaky pies (rotating options include banana cream and honey cake) and other “tasties” every Tuesday from a handcrafted sidewalk shed in her North Asheville neighborhood. There, you can admire mini exhibitions by local artists, including Cogswell’s mother, Margaret.

Tavern at Rainbow Row | Charleston, South Carolina
According to old seafarer’s maps, this tavern dates to 1686, making it the oldest liquor store in the country and the most historic commercial building in Charleston. With its creaky floors and Prohibition-era trap door, the shop remains a gem among the Battery’s candy-colored Georgian homes. Ask for a Southern-tinged bottle, like Six & Twenty’s five-grain bourbon made with Carolina Gold rice.

Furniture outlets | High Point and Greensboro, North Carolina
The “Furniture Capital of the World” draws hordes of design professionals to its twice-annual, trade-only markets. But what happens to all those high-quality samples after the showrooms close in April and October? They fan out to thrift stores and clearance centers bearing slashed prices. For the mother lode, check out High Point’s Habitat for Humanity ReStore and Greensboro’s Red Collection consignment—where recent finds include new Kelly Wearstler chandeliers at a fraction of the retail price.

Under-the-Radar Events
Go where everyone will wish they’d been

Maison Madeleine Secret Suppers | Breaux Bridge, Louisiana
As if Maison Madeleine, an 1840s Creole cottage tucked among old oaks, wasn’t dreamy enough, add in James Beard Award–winning chefs and Grammy-nominated musicians for pure magic. Join the Secret Suppers email list for notifications about upcoming evenings, held several times a year with a rotating cast of top talent. It always sells out, despite the $325 price tag.

Fasnacht | Helvetia, West Virginia
The remote mountain valley terrain helped preserve the traditions of the Swiss and German immigrants who settled here in the 19th century, including a Swiss-Appalachian kickoff to Lent called Fasnacht. Join the festivities of this lesser-known late-winter holiday at the historic Alpine-style buildings of Helvetia (population: 59), including deep-fried pastries, square dancing and jam sessions, a lantern parade, and the effigy burning of “Old Man Winter.”

Photo via Shutterstock

Moonbow Sightings | Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, Corbin, Kentucky
There are few places in the world where you can consistently spot a moonbow: an eerie, pale rainbow created at night by moonlight refracting off water droplets. The dramatic 68-foot-tall, 125-foot-wide Cumberland Falls creates just the right conditions with its height and angle during a full moon on a clear night. A calendar on the park’s website details the best times each month to spot one.

Duncan Hines Days | Bowling Green, Kentucky
Before his name was stamped on cake-mix boxes, Duncan Hines was the OG food and travel influencer, taking the back roads and compiling restaurant reviews from the 1930s to 1950s. The Bowling Green native inspired this town-wide festival, held June 3–9 this year, which includes concerts, parades, and admission to the Kentucky Museum, which features some of the spots that landed Hines’s seal of approval.

Iowa Chicken Run | Iowa, Louisiana
Join a rural Cajun Mardi Gras in Iowa (pronounced I-Way), where revelers “beg” fellow townfolk for dinner by dancing and cranking out zydeco on accordions and washboards. If they impress, out comes boudin, okra, onions—maybe a rowdy live chicken. Historically, the ingredients went into a community gumbo; today, it’s just for show, as the real stew has been simmering at the Knights of Columbus Hall all day.

Secret Gardens
Find peace and perspective in these green spaces

Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens | Delray Beach, Florida
A sea of golf courses and country clubs surrounds this oasis, created by a descendant of a small Japanese farming community that settled here in the early 20th century. Sixteen acres of bonsai trees, bamboo groves, Zen rock gardens, and arched bridges over koi ponds prompt quiet reflection. A museum details the little-known connection between Japanese and south Florida cultures.

Stanley Rehder Carnivorous Plant Garden | Wilmington, North Carolina
It may seem exotic, but the toothy Venus fly trap is native only to the boggy, acidic soils within a 70-mile radius of Wilmington. Admire these and other meat-eating plants (which trap and digest insects for nutrition) like sundews and pitcher plants at this small garden on the Piney Ridge Nature Preserve—the only one in America dedicated to carnivorous plants.

Eudora Welty’s Camellia Garden | Jackson, Mississippi
Literary pilgrims who descend upon Welty’s Tudor Revival–style home may be surprised to find the Pulitzer Prize–winning author was as prolific a gardener as she was a writer. The grounds overflow with more than 30 varieties of Welty’s beloved camellias—most of which she grafted herself—plus irises, zinnias, and sky-high lilies. Go in February, when the sasanquas are still in bloom and the Japonicas are just opening up.

Charleston Tea Garden | Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina
On quiet Wadmalaw Island, near Charleston, find the only large-scale tea garden in America. It was first cultivated in 1963 with 19th-century tea bushes (Camellia sinensis) transplanted from a long-abandoned tea plantation nearby. Now owned by Bigelow, the farm is known for its “American Classic” black tea, the first tea produced entirely in the United States. Sip a steaming cup and tour the factory and greenhouse or take a trolley tour of the 127 acres.

Rock On
A place where even beginners climb to great heights 

Illustration by Liz Lovasco

NROCKS | Circleville, West Virgina
The Appalachians meet the Alps at Nelson Rocks, two dramatic, fin-like ridges rising 800 feet from the leafy valley below. Ascend one of the East Coast’s only via ferratas (Italian for “by way of iron”)—a permanent rock-climbing installation of steel rungs and cables—plus a stomach-turning suspension bridge. Not a climber? Zip line across the valley or tour the formation’s underground caves.

Unusual Museums
Explore the quirky, the unexpected, and the misunderstood

House of Refuge Museum | Stuart, Florida
Ten “houses of refuge” once sheltered shipwrecked travelers along Florida’s treacherous Atlantic coast. Only one still stands. Dating to 1876, it now serves as a museum showcasing Florida’s maritime history, the isolated lives of the refuge “keepers,” and found artifacts, from diaries to rusty lanterns. Just offshore lies the wreck of the Georges Valentine, which smashed ashore in 1904, now beckoning snorkelers and divers.

Museum of the Reconstruction Era at the Woodrow Wilson Family Home |  Columbia, South Carolina
In 2014, Historic Columbia turned this presidential house museum into one of the country’s only museums dedicated to the Reconstruction era. President Woodrow Wilson lived in the home as a teenager in the tumultuous post–Civil War period, when Blacks were rising in status but faced violent backlash. Interactive displays and guided tours tell the story of South Carolina during this shifting time in the racial, social, and political landscape.

Duke Lemur Center | Durham, North Carolina
Wide-eyed, adorable lemurs are among the most endangered mammals on the planet. The mission of this center, with the largest and most diverse colony outside Madagascar, is non-invasive research, conservation, and education to save these creatures from extinction. Tours range from self-guided strolls to behind-the-scenes lessons with a keeper, where you’ll shadow feeding and enrichment activities. (Sorry, no petting!) Advance reservations required.

Bachman-Wilson House at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art | Bentonville, Arkansas
Frank Lloyd Wright built this Usonian house, with a simple, nature-inspired design, in 1954 in New Jersey. After persistent flooding threatened to ruin the structure, all 1,700 square feet of it was disassembled and packed, labeled, and trucked to this Arkansas museum in 2013. There it was fit back together like a puzzle whose pieces include mahogany planks, clerestory windows, and Cherokee red tile floors.

Unclaimed Baggage Museum | Scottsboro, Alabama
Unclaimed Baggage is the country’s only retailer of lost luggage, buying orphaned bags from airlines since 1970. In 2023, it opened a museum to display some of the most unusual finds it’s unzipped. There’s a Michael Jordan–signed basketball. A Gucci bag of Egyptian artifacts. A taxidermied rattlesnake to represent the live one found in a duffel. And the famous 4-foot-tall puppet, Hoggle, from Jim Henson’s 1986 film Labyrinth, starring David Bowie.

This article appears in the Winter 2024 issue of Southbound.

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Born and raised in Miami, fine artist Mitchell moved to Atlanta in 2007 after graduating from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU). Following the passing of her father, Michael A. Mitchell, in 2010, a desire to leave a lasting legacy came upon Mitchell’s soul. 

“I noticed how the world mourned his loss and in that room, I said, ‘God, give me something to be remembered,’” Mitchell told The Atlanta Voice during a recent interview.

Then in February amidst a snowstorm in Atlanta, Mitchell stumbled upon a box of forgotten art supplies in her garage. Wanting to create a piece of work for her recently inducted Alpha Kappa Alpha incorporated sister, Melanie, she decided to get to work. “I’m not an artist, but overnight, on February 11th, 2014, I became a painter,” Mitchell remembered. That moment marked the genesis of her artistic career.

Courtesy of Portman Holdings

Brash Coffee Roasters, the homegrown coffee company known for strong brews in petite spaces, is opening its fifth location in Atlanta—this one in the new Junction Krog District near Krog Street Market. Slated to launch in May, it will reside in a shipping container-like kiosk just off the Eastside Trail of the BeltLine. Unlike other Brash locations, this one will serve alcohol. Its specialty will be an espresso martini made with freshly roasted Brash beans, of course.

“It gives you energy to kick off your night. It’s a combination of people’s favorite things: coffee and alcohol, and it’s delicious,” says Brash general manager Richie Hicks.

“Richie makes a killer espresso martini,” says Brash owner and operator Chris Mcleod.

A trained sommelier, Hicks is designing the alcohol menu, focusing on a handful of classic cocktails made with house syrups, as well as select natural wines and local beer by the glass.

“We’ll offer a highly curated program that is simple and coffee-forward,” Mcleod says. “We think we can help activate the 7,000-square-foot communal patio [where Brash will be located] outside regular coffee hours.”

Courtesy of Brash

The kiosk will serve everything to-go, but the area has its open-container license, so drinking on the premises is permitted. There will be limited espresso bar seating looking into the kiosk, allowing patrons to watch the baristas/bartenders work.

“We are first and foremost a coffee company, continuing to provide an authentic, community-focused experience,” Mcleod says. “Junction Krog is close to the future of Atlanta in terms of demographics, foot traffic, and walkability. This gives us the opportunity to continue serving great coffee and become a focal meeting point.”

In addition to coffee and cocktails, Brash will serve baked goods and potentially some healthier options.

Nearby, Junction Krog will be home to Yeppa & Co., the sociable Italian spot by the Storico Fresco team, and Yuji, a fine-dining Japanese restaurant by Kinjo Room’s Alex Kinjo.

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AT&T customers are experiencing nationwide outages as cellular service and internet services are down. The outages have also impacted some customers who use T-Mobile and Verizon. 

This morning, over 70,000 outages were reported across the country, including Atlanta. 

Mayor Andre Dickens issued a statement on the outages and shared insight how those who are affected can still make emergency calls. 

“We are aware that AT&T is having cellular outages this week and are actively gathering information to determine how the City of Atlanta can assist in resolving this issue,” Dickens said. “Atlanta’s E-911 is able to receive inbound and make outbound calls. We have received calls from AT&T customers that their cellular phones are in SOS mode. Please direct all inquiries to restore service to AT&T.” 

AT&T also issued a statement.

“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored,” the company said.

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Atlanta rapper Gunna announced his first tour and performance in Atlanta since being indicted in the YSL RICO case. Known as “The Bittersweet Tour,” the 16-date show will kick-off on May 4 in Columbus, Ohio before heading to Detroit and Chicago. Other prominent cities include, San Francisco, Houston, and Miami. 

The tour will wrap in his hometown Atlanta on June 11 as he will perform at State Farm Arena. 

Initially incarcerated in May 2022, Gunna was arrested along with fellow rapper Young Thug and other members of YSL. They were charged on the RICO Act by Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis.

Gunna negotiated an Alford plea which allowed him to plead guilty on one charge while maintaining his innocence on the same charge. In turn, the judge sentenced Gunna to five years with time served. The remainder of his sentence will be suspended if he completes 500 hours of community service. 

In a statement, Gunna said that he did not cooperate with authorities.

“While I have agreed to always be truthful,” he said. “I want to make it perfectly clear that I have NOT made any statements, have NOT been interviewed, have NOT cooperated, have NOT agreed to testify or be a witness for or against any party in the case and have absolutely NO intention of being involved in the trial process in any way.”

For “The Bittersweet Tour,” Gunna partnered with Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) and Live Nation to support his non-profit organization “Gunna’s Great Giveaway” on his Bittersweet Tour initiative by allocating $1 from every ticket sold on the tour to support the inner cities in Atlanta, GA. 

 

 

 

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At the age of 39, Hydeia Broadbent, a courageous advocate for AIDS and a pioneer who overcame adversity despite being born with HIV, passed away.

Adopted by Patricia and Loren Broadbent at six weeks old, she was abandoned by her biological parents at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas. Doctors grimly predicted that she would not live past five years old. Refusing to let her diagnosis define her, she went on to educate millions with her incredible story, as reported by BlackDoctor.org.

The poised young advocate became a household name overnight in 1996 after appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She bravely shared that she was “born in 1984 with HIV, and…addicted to crack and heroin.” According to the outlet, her adoptive parents were unaware of the HIV diagnosis until three years after the adoption.

Broadbent’s life work was fueled by raising awareness through advocacy from that point on. Armed with lessons on preventing high-risk behaviors that spread HIV/AIDS, she globe-trotted to personally connect with people across cultures. Media outlets consistently celebrated her influential voice as “one of the first African American youth to openly discuss HIV/AIDS.” Viewers had an overwhelming response to a feature on Oprah’s “Where Are They Now” show. Inspired by the belief that sharing one’s truth can bring about change, she demonstrated candor.

She said that because she was born HIV-positive, people think her story doesn’t apply to them. By using my testimony as a warning, I urge people to avoid experiencing what I went through.
The masses were moved by Broadbent’s powerful story. In remembrance of Broadbent, who became her good friend, author and AIDS activist Rae Lewis-Thornton posted a heartfelt message on X, which was formerly known as Twitter. Sister, rest. Please provide the original paragraph that needs to be rewritten. Forever will your legacy live.

Today, we mourn the loss of Hydeia Broadbent, a distinguished AIDS activist and advocate. We became friends as our paths crossed frequently over the years. Rest, my sister. Forever, your legacy will endure. Deia, I love you and appreciate you as a good and faithful servant. Well done! ❤️🙏🏽 

Celebrities like Magic Johnson were deeply moved by her story. At the age of seven, she tearfully encountered the NBA legend, who shared the same HIV-positive diagnosis. Stating her desire, she emphasized that they are ordinary individuals. In a 1990s Nickelodeon special informing youth about AIDS, a captured emotional scene unfolds. During a screening of the ESPN documentary, “The Announcement,” years later, the footage resurfaced. Broadbent attended the event alongside Johnson.
The young advocate’s message to youth in 2010, as noted by BLACK ENTERPRISE, emphasized that HIV impacts the mind, body, and soul. While it may not be a death sentence, it certainly complicates matters significantly.

Throughout her life, Broadbent, known as “one of the most beloved young AIDS advocates nationally,” received recognition from numerous groups, featured in multiple magazines, and invited to give speeches globally.

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1933—Song stylist and activist Nina Simone is born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, N.C. She was a child prodigy who was playing the piano by age 4. She had numerous songs to her cred­it, but one of the most memorable was “Mississippi Goddam” which was com­posed as a protest against the terrorist bombing of a Black church in Birming­ham, Ala., which resulted in the deaths of four little Black girls. Simone, often referred to as the High Priestess of Soul, died in France on April 21, 2003.

1965—The most prominent Black na­tionalist of the 20th century, Malcolm X, is assassinated on this day in Har­lem, N.Y.’s Audubon Ballroom while giving a speech which was to issue a call for Black unity. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Neb., on May 19, 1925, he graduated at the top of his high school class but had his dream of becoming a lawyer crushed when a teacher told him that was “not realistic for a Nigger.” He gradually drifted into the under­worlds of first Boston and then New York where he became a drug dealer and gangster known as “Detroit Red.” He was friends with comedian and up­coming star Redd Foxx who at the time was known as “Chicago Red.” Malcolm was arrested and jailed for robbery at age 20. While in prison he converted to the Nation of Islam and after his re­lease in 1952, he became the leading force building the group into a major national organization. He was a brilliant orator and organizer as well as a fierce opponent of racism, imperialism and the non-violent approach to combating the nation’s evils. But disagreements with Nation of Islam founder Elijah Mu­hammad led to a split. He then formed the Organization for Afro-American Unity. However, 11 months after his split with the Nation of Islam he was assas­sinated. Many in the Black community felt the New York City police and the FBI played a role in his death. But three man associated with the Nation of Is­lam were tried and convicted of his murder.

 

1950—Basketball legend Julius “Dr. J” Erving is born in Roosevelt, N.Y. He was the most dominant NBA player of his era. The former Philadelphia 76’er was 6’7”, 210 pounds.

 

1868—Dr. W.E.B. DuBois is born William Edward Burghardt DuBois in Great Barrington, Mass. DuBois can easily qualify as Black America’s lead­ing scholar and intellectual of the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was also an educator and social activist fight­ing tirelessly against racial injustice and U.S. imperialism. He started the NAACP’s influential “Crisis” magazine. He organized what many consider the First Pan African Congress. (Actually, it was the second. The first took place in 1900.) However, in his later years DuBois became increasingly frustrat­ed with American racism, injustice and hypocritical brand of democracy. He turned to socialism around 1927 and despaired of the NAACP’s legal­istic approach to obtaining rights for Blacks. He nevertheless authored several influential books including “The Souls of Black Folks.” He coined the phrase ‘talented tenth” to describe what he believed would have to be a class of educated and skilled Blacks who would have to lead the race out of its oppression. DuBois finally went into self-imposed exile in the West African nation of Ghana saying, “In my own country for nearly a century I have been nothing but a Nigger.” He died in Ghana’s capital, Accra, on Aug. 27, 1963. He was 95.

1864—Rebecca Lee Crumbler becomes the first African American woman to receive a medical degree. Born in 1833, she graduated from the New England Female Medical College. Prior to becoming a doctor, she had worked as a nurse in Massachusetts for more than six years.

1868—The U.S. House of Represen­tatives voted 126 to 47 to impeach President Andrew Johnson. Johnson had run afoul of a group of pro-Black legislators known as the Radical Re­publicans because of his opposition to full citizenship rights for former slaves. He survived being ousted as presi­dent by one vote in the U.S. Senate. As far as historical speculation goes, it would have been much better for Black rights and the course of Black history if Johnson had been ousted. His opposition to full rights, including voting rights, for Blacks helped lay the foundation for the un-doing of Recon­struction and the many gains Blacks had made during that period.

1966—Kwame Nkrumah is ousted in a military coup as president of the West African nation of Ghana. This was another event which changed the course of Black history for the worse. Nkrumah, educated at the predominantly Black Lincoln Universi­ty in Pennsylvania, had been a major intellectual and pragmatic force for Pan-Africanism and worldwide Black unity. From the time he became the first president of Ghana in March 1957, he had worked tirelessly for interna­tional Black advance and world peace. His ouster left a void which after 40 years has not been filled by any other African leader. Nkrumah died in 1972.

1851—The first Black Women’s Rights Convention is held in Akron, Ohio. The keynote speaker was an­ti-slavery activist Sojourner Truth.

1923—Douglas W. Anderson Sr. is born. He is the first African American to become a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local #5. Douglass lived most of his life in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pa. and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He became a member of the electrical union on June 3, 1968. Because of his electrical experience in the Navy, he started as a journeyman and not an apprentice. Douglas was a member until his passing on September 13, 2017. Shortly after his passing the city council of Pittsburgh proclaimed October 3, 2017 ” Douglas W. Anderson Day.”

1966—Constance Baker Motley becomes the first African Ameri­can woman appointed to a federal judgeship. She takes the bench in the Southern District of New York. Motley was a major civil rights hero helping win several important cases during the 1950s and ‘60s. Among the cases was the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, which desegregated the nation’s schools. She worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educa­tion Fund and helped Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in several of his legal battles. Born in 1921 in New Haven, Conn., Motley died in 2006.

1980—Black Entertainment Tele­vision, the first Black owned com­pany listed on the New York Stock Exchange, begins broadcasting from its headquarters in Washington, D.C. While still Black programmed,  it is owned by Paramount Global through CBS Entertainment Group. As of February 2015, approximately 88,255,000 American households received the channel. 

1920—Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) founds the first nation­ally organized celebration of Black American history (then called Negro History Week), which was first cele­brated on this day in 1926. Woodson scheduled the week to coincide with the birthdays of Civil War President Abraham Lincoln and Black aboli­tionist Frederick Douglass. However, in 1976, Negro History Week was expanded into the current day Black History Month. For his efforts in pro­moting knowledge of Black historical achievements Woodson became known as the “Father of Black History.” In explaining the need for the celebra­tion, Woodson once said, “Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspira­tion which comes from the teaching of biography and history.”

 

1964—Heavyweight boxing champi­on Cassius Clay changes his name to Muhammad Ali after rejecting Chris­tianity and joining the Elijah Muham­mad-led Nation of Islam.

1748—This is the probable birth date of Prince Hall—the “Father of Black Masons.” Hall was a veteran of America’s war of independence from England, founder of the first African-American Masonic lodges and one of the most prominent Black lead­ers of his era. The charter for the first Black Masonic lodge was granted on Sept. 29, 1784. It was known as African Lodge #459 of Boston.

1869—Congress adopts the 15th Amendment to the United States Con­stitution making it illegal for the U.S. government or any state to “deny or abridge” the right to vote “on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.” This was one of the so-called “Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th & 15th)” which essentially ended slavery, made Blacks full U.S. citizens and guaranteed the right to vote.

1872—Charlotte E. Ray graduates from the Howard University Law School becoming the first Black female lawyer in the United States. It also appears that she was the third female lawyer of any race. She was admitted to the Washington, D.C., bar the same year she graduated. But racism and sexism prevented her from making a living as a lawyer in the nation’s capital, so she moved to New York and got a job with the Brooklyn school system.

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