Faith in Sweet Auburn: The Next Chapter

Two years ago I began a journey down Auburn Avenue.  The street was at the brink of construction for the new Atlanta Streetcar. I committed myself back then to follow this story and to begin to build a relationship with the street and it’s people. I have worked at building this relationship by walking this street, day after day, talking to people, taking pictures and telling stories.  I have done this by trying to tell this evolving story while talking about my relationship to what is happening along Auburn Avenue.  I have never hid my hand.  I have always been up front.  My concern was African American history.  Through my blog, Flickr photo albums, Twitter, Vimeo and Youtube channels and Instagram I’ve tried to share this story.  The work has revolved around one key question: How will we remember as the street and the city moves forward?  Will the next chapter in the life of Sweet Auburn remember the former chapters?

This street was the bedrock of the African American community back in the day. King and Maynard Jackson were touched by this street. Martin L. King Jr. was raised on this street and now he rest on this street.  Maynard Jackson’s grandfather once ran this street as he modeled for Maynard how to run this city.  As millions come to Atlanta and journey down to the King Center and Ebenezer do they know they are walking a pass The Southern Christian Leadership, the Mason’s Lodge where John Wesley Dobbs once led, do they notice the bust of John Wesley Dobbs looking onto the street he named?  Do they know they are passing WERD Radio, The Atlanta Daily World, The Rucker Building, the financial kingdom that Alonzo Herndon built and do they stop at the Apex Museum?  Will the new streetcar take them pass history and ultimately lead to historical amnesia?  This work doesn’t answer these questions but it sure hopes to raise them and invite you in on the discussion.

As I approach my thesis exhibition I am eternally thankful to the faculty at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) who helped me see my way through this work.  They worked with me to make sure I led with the visual while not ignoring my love for writing.  They were the perfect faculty for me and I am thankful.  To my colleagues at who pushed me during critiques of the work as it developed, I learned so much from each of you.  To Mr. Dan Moore Sr. and the Apex Museum staff you have been so kind and supportive from day one and I am thankful.  I am honored to have my work on display at the Apex Museum.  My work comes out of the mission and vision of the Apex.  This had to be the first place I had a show and I am humbled to have my work hang on the walls of the Apex. Finally to my family who have supported me through this work.  Your encouragement and patience coupled with your love is what has sustained me during long hours of work.  Especially to my wife, Dr. Vanessa Watkins, without you this would’ve been impossible.  

The show is up and ready for you.  I invite you to come by and see the work:

Opening Reception: Friday, October 16, 2015 from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. Drop in when you can and come by and take fifteen minutes to see the work and say hello.

Faith in Sweet Auburn: The Next Chapter

The Apex Museum 

135 Auburn Avenue NE

Atlanta, GA 30303

(404) 532-2739

Faith in Sweet Auburn - Show Details

Flickr Photo Album

The Videos

Women of Distinction: "I Remember Her in So Many Wonderful Ways": A Tribute to Mrs. Evelyn Gibson Lowery

On Monday, September 28, 2015 I was there to witness the dedication of a mural honoring Mrs. Evelyn Gibson Lowery.  It was truly a moving tribute.  Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery loved his wife and you could see it in his eyes.  His children and family that surrounded him were evidence of  who Mrs. Lowery was.  She was a first class lady who was a leader and giant of her time.  She not only led in the struggle but she also led at home.  Dr. Lowery said of his wife that according to her, her greatest accomplishment was raising her three daughters.  Raise them she did.  They are all outstanding women who reflect their parents and especially the grace and class of their mother.

As I witnessed the dedication of the mural I wondered if those who walked, rode and drove along Auburn Avenue will take time to remember?  Will they stop and read what is on the mural and Google Mrs. Lowery?  Will they take time to remember her?  I sure hope so because she is worthy of being remembered.   While we remember we should not that she yet lives through the continued work of the Joseph & Evelyn Lowery Institute.  She also lives in each of us as we continue to struggle for freedom justice and equality.  

What I saw was a beautiful moment that I hope we don’t let slip by.  What do I mean?  As I saw the Lowery family remember I asked myself who in my family do I need to make sure we remember?  What murals should be in our family photo albums that make sure that we don’t forget our ancestors?  The women and men whose blood runs through our veins, those who who  fought for us to enjoy the life we live today?  Whose name do you need to call?  When you call the name of an ancestor they yet live!  Who are you going to resurrect today?

Pictures from mural dedication

A Commitment to Becoming: Back in Stride Again

Cuba 2015

Images from Cuba 2015

Images from Church

I am back at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) for the senior year of my MFA degree in photography.  I took this summer off  from SCAD, took pictures of my summer travels and made images of the ministry at our church.  It was fun and it was in this off period that I could appreciate what I am learning at SCAD and what I am becoming.  It is hard for me to claim this but I will: I am becoming a professional photographer.  Well what is a professional photographer? 

True professionals have purpose behind the work they create; whether a photographer is fulfilling an assignment or producing art, the intention is guiding the work. The work is deliberate, the craft is honed, and the results are delivered. This work cycle is repeated with passion and persistence.

When I review this definition it reflects how I see my work.  I have a clear purpose and I am always working to achieve that purpose in my work as I am moved by the visual world.  I found this summer as I was “taking pictures for fun” that I was purposeful in my work and I couldn’t help but produce art.  The work is deliberate as I continue to work on my craft by making work, reading and following the artist who inspire me.  This isn’t a haphazard process but rather it is a routine that has become a habit that is developing me into a professional artist.

I am convinced that the key to becoming that thing you want to become you have commit to a continuos cycle that takes your game to the next level.  At the core this is about having clear purpose, a commitment to professionalism, professional development, honing your skill and  continuing to produce work and share it with the world.  When we go this process something happens to us, in us and through us.  We become that which we dreamt of.

While I am still dreaming of completing my MFA I am committed to the process.  I am progressing as the process does what it is intended to do.  As you look at yourself the question I put to you is the following:  What is the process you are engaged in that is taking you and your work to the next level?  What is your course professional development  and what is the end intended to be? Can you see what you are becoming?

What A Difference a Year Makes: What is working in you?

For the past year I have been a full time student!  Yes, a full time student at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) working on my MFA in Photography.  While I have been at SCAD for two years this year I was full time and on sabbatical from Columbia Theological Seminary.  This was the first time in my educational career that I wasn’t working full time and in school full time.  For all of my previous degrees I had to work full time to put myself through school.  I can’t tell you what a privilege it was to be able to dedicate myself to the work of working on my craft and me.  I was able to immerse myself in a visual world and as a resul I see totally different.

What I have found is that it takes giving yourself fully to something if you hope to be transformed.  I had to let go of how I saw the world through the viewfinder and allow the images and the work to find me.  I had to let go of trying to make a picture and let the picture make me.  I spent as much time studying photography as I did making pictures.  These two go together, doing the work and mastering the intellectual and visual history of the field work in tandum. If you don’t give yourself fully to understanding the field you want be involved in you have no base to work from and you need a base. 

As I have followed the transformation of Auburn Avenue I have been transformed.    I finished this year ready for my thesis exhibition, which will be:

Faith in Sweet Auburn: The Next Chapter

Friday, October 16, 2015 @ 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.

Apex Museum

135 Auburn Avenue

Atlanta, GA 30303

(404) 523-2739

http://www.apexmuseum.org

www.faithinsweetauburn.org

This was a lot of work and it was more about me than it was about the images, videos and blogs I produced.  I was transformed by doing the work, letting go and allowing the process of study and making work transform me into a photographer.  While this has been hard work it has been very rewarding.  What is that challenge you need to take on at this point in your journey that has the potential to transform you?  Where is the creator trying to develop you and grow you so that your work at this phase in your life will have a greater impact than your former work?  What is going in you that has the promise of re-inventing you?

Doing You Makes All the Difference in the World: The Transformative Power in the Excellence of Teaching

Dr. Karcheik Sims- Alvarado and Dr. Sarah Cook

Historians make sure we don’t forget to remember.  As I work on my Faith in Sweet Auburn project I am amazed by the hard work our local historians are doing.  They are telling the story and bringing our ancestors back to life.  Yesterday I attended Honoring the Herndon Legacy an Honors College presentation at Georgia State University.  The students from the class of Dr. Karcheik Sims-Alvarado presented their research on one of Atlanta’s the greatest citizens, Mr. Alonzo Herndon.  Dr. Sims-Alvarado’s class was HONORS 3260: Alonzo Herndon and the Business of Civil Rights.  The students learned how Alonzo Herndon connected his business enterprise to the work of freedom.  For Herndon it wasn’t all about money but rather it was about how his work could support the freedom of his people, his city and his country.  The students did an outstanding job sharing their research findings and how this particular class had transformed them. These students weren’t history majors but they took this class and they were amazed by what they learned.   They stepped out of their comfort zone and as result they learned something that will forever shape their lives and how they see Atlanta.

Dr. Sims-Alvarado had done what all of us who are teachers hope to do. We hope that our students will fully engage the subject matter, own it as their own and allow the work of education to inform and liberate. In this case we saw the power of quality teaching in action.  Not only were the students exposed to great teaching but they were also in touch with local historians like Nasir Muhammad, Herman “Skip” Mason and living legends like Lonnie King, Roberta Phillips, Rev. C. T. Vivian and so many more.  She brought the stories to life and the students talked as if they had come in contact with Alonzo Herndon and the period in history in which he lived.  As a fellow professor I sat there in utter amazement.  The power of contextual learning with innovative pedagogy, learning goals and outcomes was evidenced right before my eyes.  I wanted to shout, “Now this is good teaching!”

The support that Dr. Sims-Alvarado has gotten from Dr. Sarah Cook, Associate Dean, has been outstanding.  Dr. Cook is committed to the work of Dr. Sims-Alvarado and making sure we don’t forget our local history.  This partnership inspired me and I am sure with the work of these two great scholars and so many more in our city we will not forget to remember.  As I continue to work on my project I am continually inspired by the great people I meet along the way who are doing the work of making sure our city remembers the blood, sweat and tears those who came before us.  We stand on their shoulders.  Yesterday I was called to remember the Herndon Legacy.  Who should you be remembering?  Who paved the way for you to enjoy what you are enjoying today?  What ancestors name should you yell out today and tell them thank you?

Rev. C. T. Vivian and Mr. Lonnie King (PhD candidate at Georgia State University)

“If I thought that anything with which I was connected would always be small, I would not want to be in it.”

Alonzo F. Herndon

http://theherndonhome.org

http://honors.gsu.edu

www.faithinsweetauburn.org

You Can Change: Do the Work and the Work Will Create a New YOU!

Ricci de Forest - Curator and Artistic Director, Madame CJ Walker Museum

The journey of a long term project is overly rewarding.  It is rewarding because you see the changes in you and the very thing you are working on.  I have been working on a trans-media project on the revitalization of Auburn Avenue here in Atlanta Georgia for over two years now (it is a ten year project).  I have been a witness to the change that is in process along this street and it has been something to see.  I have also changed over time.  My photography and storytelling has improved along with my growing relationship with the people I am photographing.  To commit to something and stick with it has the power to change your life and perspective.  You can look back and see what you are becoming as you do the work because the work does something in you. I want to encourage you today to find that thing(s) and stick to it.

Life is a longterm project.  We live the lives we create.  We have to take care to nurture the type of life and relationship we want to make sure we spend our days doing those things we enjoy and that we were created to do.  The joy in life is rooted in our living a life that lines up with the gifts the creator put in us.  It is doing the very things that we do well and enjoy doing that will bring us joy.  To do and be that thing you enjoy takes courage and handwork.  I have never worked so hard than I have in the past two years being a student at fifty-three.  I completed my PhD in 1997...that is almost ten years ago and  I have not been a full-time for a long time.  While I have done tons of continuing education stuff none of it was as difficult and demanding as the MFA program at Savannah College of Art and Design.  While this journey has been and is challenging it has been one of the most rewarding times of my career.  I love every minute of it and I am becoming that artist that I know is in me.  It is so worth it!!!!  What is it that you need to work on in your life to be what the Creator wants you to be at this stage in your life?  Are you willing to put the work in to have the joy of doing you each and everyday?  What do you have to do in order to do what you want to do?

You can follow my project at:
http://www.faithinsweetauburn.org

Follow Your Heart not a Career Path: The Joy of Life

I have been working the past year on the start of a ten-year project.  The project is charting the revitalization of Auburn Avenue in Atlanta Georgia.  The joy of this project has been the good people I have met along the way.  What has been consistent about the business owners along Auburn Avenue is that they have followed their heart.  A case in point is Jennie Rivlin Roberts.  Jennie is has her PhD in Industrial Psychology from Georgia Tech but she is the shopkeeper of ModernTribe.  Her story is one of joy and passion.  She is committed to running her business from top to bottom and she cares for this place like it is her child. She loves the business and the people she works with and comes in contact with on a daily basis.  What you see in her is pure joy.  She has a heart of gold and she is symbolic of what is happening on this street.

There is this relationship growing between the old and new residents on this street and their relationship speaks to the future of our city.  This blend of old and new across racial lines, religious affiliation, age and educational background is what this street typifies.  There is a meeting of the world along Auburn Avenue between the residents of our city and the visitors who come from around the world to The King Center.  This street is a microcosm of promise as we see on Auburn Avenue what was our history and what is our future.  If Jennie and people with a heart like hers represent the future of our city we can say the future of Atlanta is bright.

What makes our future so bright is that in this city you can live your dream, you can follow your heart.  This is a city that encourages people to come and be that thing you really want to be which may or may not be connected to what you majored in in college.   The worse thing you can do in life is get a job to pay the bills.  Jobs suck life out of you.  Following your passion and doing those things you were created to do and be is life giving.  To choose life over death is really what this is all about.  Jennie choose life and when you connect with her you fill the joy of life that oozes out of her.  What about you?  What you doing with the gift(s) God have placed in you? How are you living your life?  Are you living your dream or doing a job?  Is your daily routine giving you life or leading to an early death?  If it isn’t life giving how long can you survive doing it?  What is the cost for not working towards new life?

www.moderntribe.com

Condesa Coffee: The Soul of Sweet Auburn

As the Atlanta Daily World Building experiences its revival along with Auburn Avenue a star is born.  That star is Condesa Coffee, one of the many shining lights on this street.  While I am excited about what is going on along Auburn Avenue there are spots that are lighting up the street. They are conscientious business owners who have a respect for history and understand that they are the next chapter in this story of Sweet Auburn. Auburn Avenue has been waiting for a revival and there have been several failed attempts to bring the street back to life.  This present effort is showing signs of hope.  We have quality businesses coming along beside the established businesses and tourist destinations on the street complemented by the new Atlanta Streetcar.  

When I sat down with Octavian Stan, one of the four co-owners of Condesa Coffee, my heart was overjoyed.  He and his partners care about Atlanta and they have a love for Sweet Auburn.  This does my heart good.  They are mindful and respectful of the legacy they are continuing with their work and witness.  The Atlanta Daily world building is in good hands and we hope and pray that we see a continued revival of Sweet Auburn that respects the past while embracing the future.  They also have great coffee and customer service.  You want to check this spot out.  Stay posted as we continue to share the story of what is happening along this great street.  What is happening in your community? How are you balancing the past and the future?  Are you even asking these types of questions?

Don't You Dare Give-up: Four Keys to Completing the Journey

Faces of Auburn Avenue: My friend Alton

One of the keys to the struggle is to keep on doing the work when you doubt that the work you are doing is any good or making a difference.  Being in higher education is an interesting profession. Sometimes I feel like I am not reaching my students.  I come to class, give out assignments, read papers / projects and say to myself, “You are failing these students.”  In times like these I don’t give up but rather I try to do four things that I learned while reading the book Maynard Jackson  a biography written by Robert A. Holmes.  Dr. Holmes reported that when staffers brought issues to Mayor Jackson they had to have the following:

1.     Identify the problem(s)

2.     Describe condition(s)

3.     Discuss alternative solution(s)

4.     Make recommendation(s)

I took this advice to heart and I have continually applied it to my life when I run into obstacles.  I have to work and think my way out of the situation because quitting is not an option.  After reflection I regain my direction and continue the work.  I refuse to fail my students by not being the professor the creator designed me to be..I am called to this work and I take my divine assignment very seriously.

In my present project Faith in Sweet Auburn: The Next Chapter I hit a creative roadblock. I am so emotionally and creatively committed to this project and when I hit the roadblock I was devastated.  I was stuck in pity mode for a weekend and then I went through my four step process, developed a creative action plan and began the work anew. I have found renewed joy in recommitting myself to this work a new.  This new commitment is not about trying to do what I was doing but only doing it better. My new commitment is to do what I am doing in a different more radical / creative way.  I find inspiration in trying to do things differently than I had before.  I changed my approach, which changed my view and this in-turn has made the work look and feel differently.

I offer this to you as you may hit that roadblock sometimes and think it means stop or quit.  I think roadblocks are erected for us to find another way; they are detours not stop signs.  What is in your road?  What is standing in your way?  What is taking your energy and how are you going to deal with it?  Are you going to stop and quit your journey or are you going to find another way so that you can complete the assignment given to you by the creator?

The work continues!

The New Atlanta Streetcar and the bust of John Wesley Dobbs