FILM+TV
The 13th annual BronzeLens Film Festival begins its six-day run on August 23, celebrating its opening night with a 7 p.m. screening of Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over. The documentary chronicles the singer’s six-decade career, shedding light not just on her music but her Black and LGBTQIA+ activism. This year’s festival theme is “Creators Wonderland,” paying tribute to Atlanta and Georgia’s rising role in film and TV production with screenings, workshops, conversations and celebrations. Through August 28.
MUSIC
The Side By Side performance series presents two shows in the coming days. At 3 p.m. Sunday, there is a screening of Live at Mister Kelly’s at the Plaza Theater, followed by a performance by jazz pianist Joe Alterman. Mister Kelly’s and London House were two revered Chicago nightclubs that helped launch the careers of such legends as Barbra Streisand, Herbie Hancock, Bette Midler and Richard Pryor. Alterman composed the music score for the documentary. Tickets are $18. Next Thursday, August 25, at 7:30 p.m. the father-son piano duo Ben Sidran and Leo Sidran perform at the Atlanta History Center. Ben Sidran wrote the lyrics for the Steve Miller classic “Space Cowboy,” and has performed with Diana Ross, Rickie Lee Jones and Van Morrison, among others. The events are presented by the Neranenah Concert and Culture Series and the Breman Museum. Tickets start at $15.
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Neo-soul crooner Chinua Hawk plays a hometown concert Friday at 9 p.m. at Eddie’s Attic. Hawk has released five albums independently and was featured on Talib Kweli’s hip-hop classic “Get By,” which was produced by Kanye West, and he has written songs with Wyclef Jean. He’s also backed up Celine Dion at Madison Square Garden. But his passion is live performances of his own music, where he is often accompanied only by an acoustic guitar. Tickets are $18.
THEATER
Greenlight Acting Studios, a Kennesaw-based training studio for actors, makes an ambitious foray into live theater with a just-opened production of August: Osage County at Dunwoody’s Stage Door Theatre. Recipient of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tracy Letts’ tragicomedy spins the story of a dysfunctional Oklahoma family forced to reunite when its patriarch disappears. Through August 28.
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When Aurora Theatre’s plans for Lawrenceville Arts Center were in the works, co-founder Ann-Carol Pence had a strong feeling about a show she wanted to present on its larger and technically advanced mainstage: Mary Poppins. The Cameron Mackintosh musical begins its run Thursday, opening the troupe’s 27th season. It’s a remounting of the company’s popular 2014 staging, with stars Galen Crawley and Andy Meeks returning. “It was an audience favorite and one of mine, too,” said Pence, who is beginning her first full season as Aurora’s producing artistic director. “My intent is to lean into joy this season, and this musical does just that.” Through September 11.
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A highlight of this week’s Essential Theatre Play Festival is a reading of The Wash by Kelundra Smith at 7:30 p.m. tonight, presented by Hush Harbor Lab. Based on the real-life Atlanta Washerwomen Strike of 1881, the play by Smith (who’s also an ArtsATL editor-at-large) tells the story of Anna, Jeanie, Tommie, Jewel and Charity, who work in a laundry co-op for pennies a week. So, they decide to go on strike. Essential Theatre describes the play, which also is available by streaming, as “the intimate and often funny tale of women who went from workers to fighters and won.” The festival, featuring full productions of John Mabey’s A Complicated Hope and Daniel Carter Brown’s The Outrage Machine, continues through August 28 at West End Performing Arts Center.
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ART+DESIGN
“When I turned 18 years old, my grandfather told me about a tree on his property where African American men had been lynched by their neckties on their way to vote,” writes artist Kevin Cole. “The experience left a profound impression. I am personally tethered to this inescapable memory.” Kevin Cole: Where do we go from here? at MOCA GA features new artwork rooted in the artist’s exploration of gerrymandering and voting rights. Cole’s work has been featured in more than 490 exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad, and he is a recipient of the 2020 Georgia Governor’s Award for the Arts and Humanities. Opening reception Friday; performance piece begins at 7 p.m.
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The word “grounded” has many meanings, including being well-balanced and mindful, the act of grinding or crushing, and being physical connected with the ground. The four artists in the new Spalding Nix group show Grounded explore these qualities in a variety of ways. Kerry Hays’ new paintings explore the balance of the theoretical opposites Lightness & Weight, as written about by author Milan Kundera. Amanda Brazier creates handmade watercolors from pigments ground from rocks and clay. Evan Blackwell-Helgeson’s paintings are pure abstractions but affirm nature’s layered complexity and shapes like a falling leaf. Julie Ferris’ Good Mare explores the tension between a rider and a female horse. Through September 9. Instagram live talk with Hays Tuesday, 11 a.m. @spaldingnixfineart
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Artist-activist Charmaine Minniefield, whose work is currently on show at the Carlos Museum, was the judge for the juried exhibition Reimagine Peace: The Art of Resistance at the Jack Sinclair Gallery in The ArtsXchange through September 3. The winning artist was F. Geoffrey Johnson. Carl Christian and Yahaya Bello took second and third place, respectively. Johnson will give a talk on Saturday from 1-3 p.m.
BOOKS
Katelyn Monroe Howes, an Atlanta native who now lives in Los Angeles, will discuss her debut novel, The Awoken, at the Little Shop of Stories on Sunday at 5 p.m. The book centers on Alabine Rivers, a 23-year-old who is reanimated in a very hostile world in 2120 after being cryogenically frozen for a hundred years. Howes, who also is a documentary filmmaker, says both mediums share a common denominator. “It’s odd to say but I think science fiction and documentaries serve very similar masters when it comes to storytelling,” she told ArtsATL editor-at-large Gail O’Neill. “At their core, both mediums try to make sense of and probe into very real social dilemmas in an entertaining way.” Free.
