“Atlanta’s most notable tradition is that we have no
traditions, or at least that we are not bound by traditions and reverence for
the past in the way that some other communities, especially in the South have
been. Like Rhett and Scarlett, we don’t
look back. Instead we look forward to
the future with courage and confidence and one eye on the cash register. We’ll try anything once, and if it works,
we’ll keep it until something better comes along.”
Clifford Kuhn
Living Atlanta: An
Oral History of the City, 1914 - 1948
I continue to document the transformation of Sweet Auburn
Avenue. It is my hope that my work will
do what William Stott says good documentary work does. William Stott said, “Social documentary work
can depict how a situation feels and not just how it looks; it can convey
factual information about the world compelling by delivering it in emotionally
charged ways, harnessing compassion and sentimentality for persuasive ends. It can sensitize our intellect and education
our emotions.”[1]
Stott gives us the potential of good documentary work. The work has the potential to do more than
document what is happening in a factual way but rather it has an emotional
component. It moves those who engage the story to a point of connection. I invite you to enter this story, Faith in Sweet Auburn: The Next Chapter. This week I want to introduce you to, two of
the many people who have a stake in the past, present and future of Sweet
Auburn. Last week I had the privilege of interviewing two people from two
different sides of the street, Mr. Dan Moore of the Apex Museum and Jennie Rivlin
Roberts of ModernTribe.
Dan Moore has been on Auburn Avenue since the late 1970s and
he is a historian who is passionate about the history of Sweet Auburn. Jennie Rivlin Roberts is a native Atlantan
who has opened up a new “popup shop” on Auburn Avenue. While Mr. Moore welcomes the new shop owners
he is concerned about the history of Sweet Auburn being forgotten and he struggles
with how the new Auburn Avenue will be connected to the foundation upon which
it stands. Jennie on the other hand sees here presence as a continuation of the
history of this great Street and great city.
She respects the legacy and history of Sweet Auburn while she and her
colleagues write the next chapter.
Listen to their interviews and tell me what you think:
What does it mean to remember? What does it mean to pay tribute to the
past? How do changing communities and
city streets remember from whence they have come? What does the present owe the past?
[1]
Stott, William. Documentary
Expression and Thirties America. (Oxford University Press, 1973), pp. 5-63.
