1) Evolution: Five Decades of Printmaking by David C. Driskell opens at the High Museum of Art.
2) Kevin Wilson discusses Tunneling to the Center of the Earth at Decatur Library.
3) The Atlanta Film Festival continues with That Evening Sun at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema.
4) Little Country Giants play Eddie’s Attic.
5) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang opens at the Fox Theatre.
(Art by David C. Driskell)
1) Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris continues at Alliance Theatre.
2) Candler Park hosts day 2 of the Sweetwater 420 Fest.
3) The Fox Theatre screens Gone with the Wind for a 70th anniversary celebration.
4) Hermon Hitson plays Smith’s Olde Bar.
5) Durham Stories: Not Hell but You Can See It from Here continues at Composition Gallery.
(Photo by Greg Mooney)
ON FIRE: Jamison during her days as a dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Alvin Ailey’s pioneering dance troupe, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Artistic director Judith Jamison has worked off and on (mostly on) with the company since 1965, when she joined as a dancer. She was hand-picked by Ailey and appointed as the company’s artistic director shortly after Ailey’s death in 1989. Jamison gushed about the troupe’s upcoming performance at the Fox Feb. 19-22 during a phone interview last week, barley letting us get a word in. Her excitement about the anniversary tour is understandable. Heck, even the Obamas found time to make it out to a Feb. 6 performance at the Kennedy Center in D.C.
Jamison on company founder Alvin Ailey’s vision:
“Fifty years ago [Ailey] just decided that there was no place for black dancers to be seen. … The first work that he actually did was Blues Suite. And because there was this vacant spot for not celebrating our own culture — that of African and American — of course celebrating the modern tradition of our country, he decided to combine that in many ways. Abstractly, directly, story telling, placing us in situations that we reflect on our culture as Americans and as African Americans.
“So the pieces that we’re doing for you, especially for the students, (I love the standing student performances that are coming up), those are sometimes my favorite ’cause the kids, they are active! They make noise! … Because Alvin always believed that we’re born to spread out. He happened to say that if the dance came from people it needed to be delivered back to the people, so there should not be a line between what’s going on on the stage and what you’re feeling when you’re watching.
1) New Riders of the Purple Sage play Smith’s Olde Bar.
2) The Dandy Warhols play Center Stage.
3) Stuart Woods promotes his novel, Hot Mahogany.
4) Dr. Seuss for President, a showing of Ted Geisel’s political artwork, continues at Ann Jackson Gallery.
5) Watch golden lion tamarins imitate their native lives at Zoo Atlanta.
(Photo courtesy New Riders of the Purple Sage)
The Fox Theatre has announced the final three films for its 2008 Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival. True to form, the Fox is rounding out its August slate with three more hits from this summer, but the surprise is that the record-breaking Dark Knight is not one of them. Instead, the films are:
Hancock, playing Sunday, Aug. 10 at 7 p.m.
Mamma Mia, playing Thursday, Aug. 28 at 7:30 p.m.; and
WALL-E, playing Saturday Aug. 30 at 2 p.m.
The complete schedule can be found here.
Meanwhile, remember the reports that The Dark Knight broke records with an estimated $155 million opening weekend, with the caveat that the final figures weren’t in? Well, that initial number was indeed incorrect — but apparently too low, and The Dark Knight actually earned $158 million over the weekend.
(Image courtesy of Disney/Pixar)
