ATLANTA MAGAZINE — If you’re the type who wonders why the Cosmo ever went out of style, a new Dunwoody bar might satisfy all your 1990s urges. Okay Anny’s, the sequel to Colony Square’s hidden ’70s lounge JoJo’s Beloved, opens Friday at 5 p.m. in the new Politan Road food hall that was very briefly the Hall at Ashford Lane. In addition to Okay Anny’s, the 17,000-square-foot, 220-seat Politan Row at Ashford Lane will feature nine food stalls, a full-service Cuban restaurant, and a central bar.

Parking is free and plentiful, and all of the opening food businesses are female- and/or minority-owned. For opening weekend, Politan Row will donate a portion of the proceeds to Malachi’s Storehouse—a local food pantry—and Giving Kitchen, which provides emergency assistance to food service workers. [MORE]

Dunwoody hall will be home to nine food stalls, full-service Cuban restaurant and two cocktail bars.

ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION — Politan Row at Ashford Lane food hall is set to make its debut in Dunwoody next week.

Located at 4500 Olde Perimeter Way in the Ashford Lane retail development, the 17,000-square-foot food hall will open at 5 p.m. Feb. 2., with a slate of cuisines from around the world.

The project comes from Politan Group, the company behind the Politan Row at Colony Square food hall in Midtown and a forthcoming food hall at Forum Peachtree Corners.

Politan Group CEO Will Donaldson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview in August 2023 that the company targeted local vendors who are seeking to expand and grow their brands. Seven of the eateries are women-owned, and 100% of the food businesses are owned by women, people of color, or both.

Like the food hall at Colony Square, the Ashford Lane food hall will have a central bar called Bar Politan as well as a themed cocktail lounge. The latter, called Okay Anny’s, is a sequel to the ‘70s-themed hidden Colony Square bar Jojo’s Beloved Cocktail Lounge and will be overseen by Jojo’s co-creator and Politan’s director of operations Benton Bourgeois. [MORE]

FOX 5 ATLANTA — On Saturday, the Georgia World Congress Center witnessed the takeover of the annual DreamHack Gaming Festival, with rapper T-Pain, who is also the founder of Nappy Boy Gaming, stepping into the gaming spotlight. The event, a celebration of the gaming community, featured T-Pain and his gaming team on the main stage, where they engaged in the "Dungeons and Dragons" tournament. T-Pain's family occupied the front row to support him during the competition.

The Georgia World Congress Center was abuzz with excitement as several e-gaming organizations competed in their respective tournaments, culminating in the crowning of champions. The three-day event, known for its diverse competitions and interactive gaming experiences, successfully concluded with the recognition of winners in various gaming categories.

Post-competition, T-Pain extended his involvement beyond the gaming arena, partnering with Toys for Tots to bring joy to local foster kids and their families. The rapper actively participated in handing out toys, adding a charitable dimension to the event.

CBS 46 WANF — Gaming has come a long way since the days of “Doom” and Super Mario Bros.”

As Guy Blomberg eloquently puts it, gaming used to have a stereotype.

“Your stereotypical, pasty white fat nerds in their parents’ basement,” said Blomberg, the Event Director of DreamHack Festivals in North America.

“It was kinda the geeks and the nerds, honestly,” said Todd Harris, the Chair of the Atlanta Esports Alliance. “We played dungeons & dragons, and we gamed.”

But now, gaming isn’t just cool; it’s an economic driver.

“Now, quietly, gaming is a bigger industry than film and TV,” Harris said.

This is why the DreamHack Festival at the Georgia World Congress Center is expected to pull in 40,000 people over the weekend.

“Atlanta is really the capital in the United States for these large Esports events. Console, PC, VR, handheld mobile gaming, and tabletop gaming, card games, board games, RPGs, miniatures … This is actually the longest North American show we’ve been running,” Blomberg said. [MORE]

ROUGH DRAFT — Tori Bradford grew up dancing at her mothers studios in Brooklyn and Atlanta. But she didn’t start out wanting to be a ballerina. “I grew up doing jazz and modern,” Bradford said. “I wasn’t focused on ballet at all. I really wanted to do musical theater.”

Even when she started out at Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre, she wasn’t all that excited at the prospect of dancing ballet. But as she continued on, she began to realize that ballet could be just as expressive as jazz, or modern dance, and started taking more of an active interest in the art form. Not only that, but she was really good at it. So, when she was around 12 years old, John Welker and Angela Harris approached her and her mother about joining the Catalyst Program. 

The Catalyst Program’s mission is to support Black dance students, and members of Catalyst are instructed in the art of ballet on full scholarship. Black dancers have long been underrepresented in the world of ballet, with some sources putting the number as low as 4% of ballerinas in the United States. The program arose out of a partnership between Terminus and Dance Canvas, a nonprofit that aims to increase awareness of professional dance and help diversify the voices in the medium. Welker, who is the director of Terminus, said the idea for Catalyst started growing in 2020 just after the murder of George Floyd. 

“There was an opportunity to take a step back and say, ‘Okay, this is not business as usual,’” Welker said. “What are we doing to help bring representation to our field that we love so much? Are we doing enough?’”[MORE]

90.1FM WABE (NPR), “Closer Look” — During a conversation with “Closer Look” host Rose Scott, Maddow spoke candidly about the state of democracy and her research for the book. Rachel Maddow is expected to stop in Atlanta for her book tour on Friday, Oct. 20, at the Fox Theatre.

In her new book, “Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism,” Maddow explores the fight to preserve American democracy in the World War II era, when German agents, Nazi supporters, theocratic leaders, and others plotted to steer the United States toward an alliance with the Nazis and overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

She also explained why she doesn’t think a specific person, leader or personality can put democracy at risk.

“The risk is the movement and fascist and authoritarian ideation—and that afflicts a lot of people,” said Maddow. “And it is driven by dynamics, and it is driven by structural things—and you need to think about it as a mass of people who want that. Not just a person who is mesmerizing a population and driving them toward something that they don’t want.”  

ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION — The lineup of stalls and a full-service restaurant set to open later this year in the Politan Row at Ashford Lane food hall in Dunwoody will offer foods from around the world.

The food hall, located at 4500 Olde Perimeter Way in the Ashford Lane retail development, comes from Politan Group, the company behind the Politan Row at Colony Square food hall in Midtown and a forthcoming food hall at Forum Peachtree Corners.

Newly announced food vendors for the 17,000-square-foot Politan Row at Ashford Lane, which is slated to debut in December, include … [MORE]

WANF CBS46 — ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Games Week Georgia was just announced. There are competitions, conferences and summits planned for people interested in the gaming industry or playing games.

Games Week Georgia will include:

• Plaza Theater, set for Dec. 11, there will be a special screening (film to be announced) and gaming panel with leadership from the film, music and gaming industry in Georgia

• GirlGamer Atlanta, set for Dec.13, will feature women’s teams competing in Rocket League with a chance to represent the USA at the international finals

• Esports Summit, set for Dec. 14, is returning for a full day’s programming, punctuating the thriving esports industry in Georgia and beyond

• VIP Creative Industry Mixer event, set for Dec 14, will host the who’s who of film, music, and gaming around the theme of gaming, esports and digital entertainment.

• SIEGE conference, which will be from Dec. 14-17, is the largest professional game development conference in the south and will take place as part of DreamHack Atlanta.

• DreamHack Atlanta, which will be from Dec. 15-17, is the week that will culminate with the return of the global gaming lifestyle festival, offering the ultimate weekend of everything gaming and esports under one roof

According to the Georgia Department of Economic Development, digital entertainment is a $550 million industry in the state and is responsible for more than 12,000 jobs. [READ MORE]

ESPORTS INSIDER — Games Week Georgia, a week-long event celebrating Georgia’s esports and gaming industries, has unveiled a slate of events taking place in the state from December 11th to 17th. The events include DreamHack Atlanta and the GirlGamer Esports Festival in addition to the Esports Summit and SIEGE conference.

Kicking off Games Week Georgia, on December 11th the Plaza Theater will have a special screening of a yet-to-be-announced film as well as host a gaming panel.

Taking place on December 13th, GirlGamer Atlanta will feature women’s teams competing in Rocket League for a chance to represent the United States at the international finals. Atlanta is one of five locations that form part of the GirlGamer Esports Festival World Circuit.

On December 14th, the Esports Summit features a range of presentations from industry leaders in addition to workshops operated by companies within the esports and scholastic esports sectors.

From December 15th to 17th, DreamHack returns to Atlanta for the first time since November 2022. The 2023 event sees a $100,000 (~£82,049) Fortnite tournament taking place alongside the Call of Duty Mobile World Championship and the ESL Challenger CS:GO competition.

Over the years, the United States has continued to develop itself as an esports destination through new esports venues, hosting major events and its sizeable collegiate ecosystem.

Within the US, the state of Georgia in particular has become a popular location for gaming and esports events. Most recently, in June 202 tournament organiser BLAST and game developer Ubisoft announced the second Rainbow Six Major will take place in Atlanta. [READ MORE]

ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION — Almost 30 years ago, former Atlanta Journal-Constitution journalist Douglas Blackmon published an op-ed in the Sunday edition on May 31, 1992, with the headline “The death of a dream.”

The article found Blackmon revisiting his hometown of Leland, Mississippi, on the 10th anniversary of his graduating class (although he moved away before he could graduate with them). Blackmon expected to return to his hometown 10 years later to write an article about how integration was going.

“Of course,” Blackmon said, “[I] discovered that it was the opposite, that integration had already begun to start falling apart.”

After the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in 1954, most southern schools made no effort to integrate. It wasn’t until 1969, when the Supreme Court ordered southern schools to desegregate immediately, that schools truly began integrating. When Blackmon entered first grade, he would be part of Leland’s first class of Black and white students to attend school together for all 12 years.

After the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in 1954, most southern schools made no effort to integrate. It wasn’t until 1969, when the Supreme Court ordered southern schools to desegregate immediately, that schools truly began integrating. When Blackmon entered first grade, he would be part of Leland’s first class of Black and white students to attend school together for all 12 years. [MORE]

ATLANTA MAGAZINE — In the fall of 1970, Douglas A. Blackmon’s first grade class was the first in Leland, Mississippi, to have both Black and white students. For a time, it looked like a civil rights success, but the documentary illustrates the many ways that new forms of segregation in public schools were created.

Atlanta journalist and Douglas A. Blackmon has a distinguished career working at the Wall Street Journal and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In 2009, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. Now, the Georgia State University professor is tackling a story very close to home as writer and producer of a new documentary, The Harvest.

Debuting September 12 on PBS’s American Experience, The Harvest explores the story of first integrated public school class in Leland, Mississippi, of which Blackmon was a part of. The film is produced by prolific Oscar-nominated filmmaker and producer Sam Pollard (Citizen Ashe, Black Art: In the Absence of Light), who also worked on the documentary adaptation of Slavery by Another Name.

ARTSATL — Two world premieres, the inauguration of a White Box Theatre and the debut of three new company members will highlight Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre’s recently announced fall season.

The contemporary ensemble will premiere new works by Atlanta Ballet dancer-choreographer Darian Kane and Terminus’ own Rachel Van Buskirk when it kicks off the season over two weekends, September 23 and 24 and September 30 and October 1. These will be the company’s first performances in the White Box Theatre it has developed at the Tula Art Center in Buckhead. Also on that program will be a new work-in-progress by dancer-choreographer Shane Urton.

Urton graduated in 2009 from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and began his professional career with the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. In 2014, he left the United States to dance with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, then the Den Norske Opera & Ballett in Oslo before joining the Royal Ballet of Flanders. [MORE}