The Grapevine Art & Soul Salon

WHY WE LOVE ATLANTA

One of the advantages of having an online journal is its virtual reach over a range of cultures and into the lives of as many readers as we can find who in turn find interest in The Grapevine. The main disadvantage is that we miss having a local habitation with a name. We are grounding our journal by paying attention to the city of Atlanta, north by northwest in the state of Georgia, USA, Planet Earth, where most of us who write for The Grapevine live and move and have our being.

It is not always easy to love Atlanta. Start with the traffic? the crime? the politics? No. And we don't need to dwell on the city as the business hub of the Southeast, a place where value is determined more by commodities and commodification than by artful expression. Instead, we are going to be on the lookout for soulstirring places and people within the city and its environs. And we may even find angles from which we can see soul in business, politics, crime, and traffic.

In the last issue, we listed Shakespeare at the top of our list of things we love about Atlanta based on "... the richness of theatrical offerings in this city that includes not one but two venues where the lover of Shakespeare can always find a satisfying matinee or evening performance. Most cities do not have even one stage devoted to Shakespeare." You can imagine the chagrin with which we learned of the subsequent closing of Georgia Shakespeare company and had to face the possibility that our beloved city is unable or unwilling to support our choice as one of two most valued venues. Follow the link below to find out why we consider the fact that Shakespeare still dwells here to be important.

In the mood of protest, we will delay our coverage here of other cultural beckonings until we express ourselves about this loss. See Views and Reviews as well as Around Town with Nancy Rose for continued celebration of the city's offerings.

Barbara Knott