'The South Got Something To Say' Reflects Atlanta's Place as Black Culture and Art Mecca

June 9,2021

Melissa Hunter Davis, Sugarcane Magazine

Atlanta is known to be the capital of Black America. Since the early 1990s, there’s been a reverse migration of African Americans back to the South, and Atlanta has been a prime location for that move.

Opportunities abound in the entertainment and news fields. LaFace Records (1989-2011), Odyssey Entertainment, So So Def Recordings and others have created a space that everyone wants to be a part of. Some of America’s greatest Historically Black Colleges and Universities are based in the city of Atlanta, not to mention wealthy entrepreneurs and the Black upper-upper middle class. Combine the schools with a relatively low cost of living and you have a mecca for Black folks from New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

With Tyler Perry opening his studio in the city and with so many fantastic movies and television shows taping here, Atlanta has solidified its place as a major center for Black culture. All of this greatness makes it the obvious choice for home for some of America’s most interesting Black artists.

Karen Comer Lowe, an Atlanta-based curator, brought together some of the city’s finest Black artists—important examples of the city’s cultural greatness—to remind the region and the world that the South, and yes, the Black culture that has evolved here is a story that the world will not soon forget.

The South Got Something To Say is a public art project commissioned by Atlanta Arts and Entertainment and curated by Karen Comer Lowe. Featuring, Sheila Pree Bright, Kojo Griffin, Jamele Wright, Shanequa Gaye, Alfred Conteh, Fahamu Pecou, Yanique Norman, Jurell Cayetano, Ariel Dannielle and, Gerald Lovell. This exhibition reminds the city’s residents as well as the South that Black culture is the dominant culture, and that while this region of the world has been marked by some of the worst human atrocities, it clearly has produced some of the world’s greatest cultural offerings. We talked to Karen about the exhibit and what we can expect.

Read the interview at the link above.