Atlanta History Center Summer Events

We'll post these on the Fayette Front Page and Georgia Front Page calendars so you don't need to save this or print it. We thought you might want to go ahead and mark your calendar --- there are a few things on here that are going on our calendars! - GFP Staff

TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS

Edward L. Daugherty, A Southern Landscape Architect: Exploring New Forms
(Kenan Research Center, Archives Gallery)
On display through October 10, 2009

Edward L. Daugherty, A Southern Landscape Architect: Exploring New Forms traces the seminal works in landscape architecture, urban planning, conservation, and historic preservation created by celebrated Atlanta landscape architect, Edward L. Daugherty. Throughout more than fifty years of continuous private practice as a landscape architect, Daugherty not only devoted both his time and talents to providing outstanding service to his clients but also to numerous public service projects that have had a beneficial impact on the landscape architectural profession and the physical environment in Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation.

This exhibit is free to the public and available to view Wednesday through Saturday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm in the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. For more information, please call 404.814.4000 or visit AtlantaHistoryCenter.com.

Native Lands: Indians and Georgia
(Atlanta History Center, Howell Gallery)
On display through Summer 2009

Native Lands: Indians and Georgia celebrates the state’s original inhabitants beginning with the Mississippian peoples and continuing with their descendants, the Creeks and the Cherokees. Long before the first European settlers came to what is now called Georgia, the Mississippian Indians developed complex societies on these lands – complete with art, music, ceremony, agriculture, architecture, and trade industries. The Creeks and Cherokees left landmarks and cultural legacies prior to their 1830s removal from the state on the Trail of Tears. Unlike most accounts, which stop with the Trail of Tears, Native Lands is a traveling exhibition that explores Indians’ recent history and their continuing connections to Georgia through the voices of contemporary Creeks and Cherokees. Highlights of the exhibit include a 1700s Creek town busk replica and an 1800s Cherokee family hearth scene showing the blending of native and European cultures.

This exhibit is included with general admission, and is free to Atlanta History Center members. For more information, please call 404.814.4000 or visit AtlantaHistoryCenter.com.

Support: Native Lands: Indians and Georgia has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional support from The Noble Foundation and The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The original exhibition has been the recipient of several awards, including an Award of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History and the Curators’ Award from the Southeastern Museums Conference.

FAMILY AND ADULT EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING

Programs and dates are subject to change.
Please call 404.814.4033 or 404.814.4082 to confirm program dates.

June 2009

MMH Lecture: Wendy Wax, The Accidental Bestseller
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
6:00 pm Reception; 7:00 pm Lecture

Once upon a time, four aspiring authors met at a writers’ conference. Mallory St. James is a workaholic whose novels support her lavish lifestyle. Tanya Mason juggles jobs, kids, and a difficult mother. Faye Truett is the wife of a televangelist and author of inspirational romances – no one would ever guess her explosive secret. Kendall Aims’ career is on the skids, as is her marriage. Her sales have fallen, her editor can barely feign interest in her work, and her husband is cheating on her.

Under pressure to meet her next deadline, Aims holes up in a mountain cabin to confront a blank page and a blanker future. Her friends, however, won’t let her face this struggle alone. They collaborate on a novel using their own lives as fodder, assuming no one will discover the truth behind their words until the book becomes a runaway bestseller. With success comes scrutiny and scandal and all bets are off as the four friends realize how little they know each other.

Wendy Wax is the author of seven novels, including Single in Suburbia and Hostile Makeover, from which excerpts were printed in Cosmopolitan. Wax lives in suburban Atlanta with her husband and teenage sons.

This lecture is held at Margaret Mitchell House in Midtown. Admission is $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. Reservations are required for all lectures. For more information, visit GWTW.org. To purchase tickets, please call 404.814.4150.

Southern Music: Shaken & Stirred: “Soul Stirrin’ Sounds”
Thursday, June 4, 2009; Friday, June 5, 2009
Doors open 6:00 pm; Concert 7:30 pm

The Atlanta History Center announces, Southern Music: Shaken & Stirred. This new music series showcases a variety of popular music genres including Soul, Southern Rock, Jazz Fusion, and Blues. Each concert features a roster of both up and coming artists and local legends that are among the best in their fields and whose music is deeply rooted in the South. June’s concert features “Soul Stirrin’ Sounds” performances by three singer/songwriters Anthony David, John West, and Kyshona Armstrong.

Delicious food and assorted adult libations are available for purchase. Concerts are held the first Thursday and Friday of the month, March - June. Thursday concerts are $20 for members, $25 for nonmembers. Friday concerts are $25 for members, $35 for nonmembers. Other pricing options are available including season tickets and reserved tables for 10. Reservations are required. Please call 404.814.4150. For more information, please call 404.814.4000 or visit AtlantaHistoryCenter.com for more information on the performers.

Support: Southern Music: Shaken & Stirred is supported by Publix and Delta Air Lines. Promotional support provided by Sweetwater and Sunday Paper.

Summer Camp 2009 at the Atlanta History Center

This summer, dive into history at the Atlanta History Center with exciting and enriching activities. Every
week has a new theme, so choose your favorites and join us.

· NEW! Play With the Past: Adventures in History, June 1-5 (Ages 4-6)
· MIDDLE SCHOOL CAMP! Curator Camp: Exhibiting Atlanta, June 8-12
· Fun on the Farm, June 8-12 (GRADES 1-3)
· Who Was Here First?, June 15-19 (GRADES 1-3 & 4-6)
· Flavors of America, June 22-26 (GRADES 1-3 & 4-6)

Camp fees are $200 for members; $250 for nonmembers. Camp hours run Monday through Friday, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. To register your camper, please call 404.814.4016. For more details and information, visit www.AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/summercamp.

Summer Camp 2009 at Margaret Mitchell House

This summer, explore a range of topics, engage in quality activities, and expand upon creative skills. Every week has a new theme, so choose your favorites and join us.

· Illustration: Art hiSTORY 101, June 1-5 (GRADES 2-4)
· Mystery in the City: Haunts and Habitats, June 8-12 (GRADES 5-9)
· Stories in Pictures: Creating Comics, June 15-19 (GRADES 5-9)
· Personal Essay/Autobiography: A History of Me, June 22-26 (GRADES 9-12)

Camp fees are $350 per week for Atlanta History Center members/$400 per week for nonmembers.
Camp hours run Monday through Friday, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm. To register your camper, please call 404.814.4016. For more details and information, visit www.GWTW.org.

Family History Research: Searching Military Records, from the Civil War to World War I
Saturday, June 6, 2009
10:00 am - Noon

Join Atlanta History Center staff genealogist Mike Brubaker as he helps family historians discover new resources to use in genealogy searches. Military records are incredibly abundant, yet difficult to search. This Atlanta History Center program will provide advice and tips on where and how to find records for our veteran ancestors.

Admission is $10 for members and $15 for nonmembers. Reservations are suggested, please call 404.814.4150. For more information, please call 404.814.4041 or visit AtlantaHistoryCenter.com.

Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Free Weekly Creative Workshops

The Atlanta History Center proudly supports Operation Homecoming. This unique literary program presented by the National Endowment for the Arts encourages American military personnel who have served our nation in both current and past conflicts to record their stories and reflections.

Over 6,000 troops, veterans, and military families have shared their stories through Operation Homecoming writing workshops and activities since 2004.

Active duty troops, veterans, and their families are invited to participate. During the month of June, free weekly creative writing workshops led by Atlanta author and journalist Jedwin Smith, provide the opportunity for participants to improve their writing skills at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. For more information on dates and locations, please contact MEisenhart @AtlantaHistoryCenter.com or call 404.814.2063.

Support: Operation Homecoming is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Operation Homecoming is administered by the Southern Arts Federation and is made possible with support from The Boeing Company.

Livingston Lecture: Liaquat Ahamed, Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
8:00 pm

Most people believe the Great Depression was the result of a convergence of events beyond the control of any one person or of the federal government. Investment manager Liaquat Ahamed reveals that decisions taken by a small number of central bankers were the primary cause of the economic meltdown, the effects of which were felt until World War II and reverberated for decades.

As another period of economic turmoil makes headlines today, the Great Depression and the year 1929 remain the benchmarks for true financial mayhem. Offering a new understanding of the global nature of financial crises, Lords of Finance is a potent reminder of the enormous impact of financial decisions, of the fallibility of central bankers, and of the severe human consequences that result when they are wrong.

Ahamed holds degrees in economics from Harvard and Cambridge Universities and has been a professional investment manager for 25 years. He worked at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and at the New York-based institutional investment partnership Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, where he served as the chief executive. He is currently an adviser to several hedge fund firms, including Rock Creek Group and Rohatyn Group, is a director of Aspen Insurance, and is on the board of trustees of the Brookings Institution.

Admission is $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. Reservations are required for all lectures. For more information or to purchase tickets, please call 404.814.4150.

Support: The Livingston Lectures are made possible with generous funding from the Livingston Foundation of Atlanta.

Teachers’ Course: Southeastern Indians
June 15 – 19, 2009
9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Explore key moments in Native American history and culture - focusing on the Southeastern United States. The Southeastern Indians Teacher Institute is being offered in conjunction with the Atlanta History Center’s Native Lands: Indians and Georgia exhibit.

The exhibit celebrates the state’s original inhabitants beginning with the Mississippian people and continuing with their descendants, the Creeks and the Cherokees. Unlike most accounts, which stop with the Trail of Tears, Native Lands explores Indians’ recent history and their continuing connections to Georgia through the voices of contemporary Creeks and Cherokees.

Teachers earn 3 Professional Learning Units. For more information, please visit www.AtlantaHistoryCenter.com. To register, please call 404.814.4110.

MMH Lecture: Gigi Levangie Grazer, Queen Takes King
Thursday, June 18, 2009
6:00 pm Reception; 7:00 pm Lecture

Hell breaks loose when New York real estate titan Jacks Power decides to divorce Cynthia, a former ballerina and Park Avenue princess, to marry Lara, his mistress and America’s favorite morning news anchor. Power gets what he wants, but what if what he wants isn’t what he needs? Queen Takes King is a funny, sexy, take-no-prisoner exploration of what happens when the king and queen of Manhattan divorce after a 25-year marriage.

Gigi Levangie Grazer is the author of three novels, including Rescue Me, Maneater, and The Starter Wife. The Starter Wife was adapted into an Emmy Award-winning USA Network miniseries starring Debra Messing and a subsequent television series. Maneater was adapted for a Lifetime miniseries starring Sarah Chalke. Grazer also wrote the screenplay for Stepmom, starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon. Grazer’s articles have appeared in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Glamour. She lives in Los Angeles with her two children and three miniature dachshunds.

This lecture is held at Margaret Mitchell House in Midtown. Admission is $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. Reservations are required for all lectures. For more information, visit GWTW.org. To purchase tickets, please call 404.814.4150.

Elson Lecture: David O. Stewart, Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
8:00 pm

Impeached traces the explosive impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson to its roots in the social and political revolutions that rocked the South with the end of slavery and the Civil War. As president after Lincoln’s assassination, Johnson, a Tennessee Democrat, not only failed to heal the nation’s wounds but rubbed them raw, ignoring widespread violence against the freed slaves and encouraging former rebels to resume political control of the Southern states.

Johnson’s high-handed actions were opposed by the equally angry and aggressive Congress, controlled by the Radical Republicans, who were ardent foes of slavery and aimed to rebuild American society on principles of equality and fairness. The collision between Congress and the president culminated through the constitutional impeachment process in a legal dispute over whether Johnson could fire his own secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton.

Stewart, bestselling author of The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution, challenges traditional interpretations portraying Johnson as heir to Lincoln’s political legacy. Instead, Impeached shows the compelling reasons to remove the president from office, reveals the corrupt bargains that saved Johnson by a single vote, and credits Johnson’s prosecutors with seeking to remake the nation to accord with the ideals that Lincoln championed and for which the Civil War was fought.

Admission is $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. Reservations are required for all lectures. For more information, visit www.AtlantaHistoryCenter.com. To purchase tickets, please call 404.814.4150.

Support: The Elson Lectures feature scholarly addresses by our nation’s prominent historians and are made possible with generous funding from Ambassador and Mrs. Edward Elson.

July 2009

Summer Camp 2009 at the Atlanta History Center

This summer, dive into history at the Atlanta History Center with exciting and enriching activities. Every week has a new theme, so choose your favorites and join us.

· Sport and Spirit, July 6-10 (GRADES 1-3 & 4-6)
· America on the Move, July 13-17 (GRADES 1-3 & 4-6)
· Thoroughly Modern City, July 20-24 (GRADES 1-3 & 4-6)
· Eco-Explorers, July 27-31(GRADES 1-3 & 4-6)

Camp fees are $200 for members; $250 for nonmembers. Camp hours run Monday through Friday, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. To register your camper, please call 404.814.4016. For more details and information, visit www.AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/summercamp.
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Summer Camp 2009 at Margaret Mitchell House

This summer, explore a range of topics, engage in quality activities, and expand upon creative skills. Every week has a new theme, so choose your favorites and join us.

· Mystery in the City: The Great Museum Caper, July 6-10 (GRADES 5-9)
· Developing Character: Heroes and Heroines, July 13-17 (GRADES 5-9)
· Stories in Motion: Modeling and Animation, July 20-24 (GRADES 5-9)
· Historical Fiction: Citizens and Soldiers, July 27-31 (GRADES 5-9)

Camp fees are $350 per week for Atlanta History Center members/$400 per week for nonmembers.
Camp hours run Monday through Friday, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm. To register your camper, please call 404.814.4016. For more details and information, visit www.GWTW.org.

Civil War Sunday: AHC lectures featuring Salvatore G. Cilella, Jr. & Wendy Hamand Venet
Sunday, July 12, 2009
1:00 & 3:00 pm

Enjoy an afternoon of book discussions with Salvatore G. Cilella, Jr. and Wendy Hamand Venet.
Salvatore G. Cilella, Jr., discusses his book Upton’s Regulars: The 121st New York Infantry in the Civil War. From Cooperstown and its surrounding region, upstate New Yorkers responded to President
Lincoln’s call to service by volunteering in large numbers to defend an imperiled Union. Drawn from the farms and towns of Otsego and Herkimer Counties, the 121st New York State Volunteer Infantry Regiment served with the Sixth Corps in the Army of the Potomac throughout the Civil War. In the first comprehensive history of the regiment in nearly ninety years, Cilella chronicles the epic story of this heroic “band of brothers.”

Georgia State University professor Wendy Hamand Venet discusses her book Sam Richards's Civil War Diary: A Chronicle of the Atlanta Home Front. This unpublished diary by bookseller Samuel Pearce Richards is the best firsthand account of life in Civil War Atlanta. Out of Richards’ sixty-seven-year diary, this volume excerpts the period from October 1860 to August 1865. The latter is the date when the Richards family returned to Atlanta after having been forced to leave the city by Sherman’s troops, followed by a period of exile in New York City. Richards’ observations include the Union bombardment of Atlanta, the evacuation of Confederates forces, and the entry of the Union Army into the city.

Admission is $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. Reservations are required for all lectures. For more information, visit www.AtlantaHistoryCenter.com. To purchase tickets, please call 404.814.4150.

MMH Lecture: An Evening with Janis Kearney
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
7:00 pm

Following a journey that led her from the cotton fields of Lincoln County, Arkansas, to the West Wing of the White House, writer, columnist, and oral historian Janis Kearney discusses her experiences during nearly six years as President Clinton’s White House diarist. The fourteenth of nineteen children born into a sharecropping family in the delta region of southeastern Arkansas, Kearney and her siblings were taught by their parents to dream and to work toward fulfilling their dreams. Kearney published the historic Arkansas State Press for a number of years before joining Clinton's administration as his personal diarist, the first such presidential appointment. Kearney is the author of books and articles, including Something to Write Home About: Memories from a Presidential Diarist, Cotton Field of Dreams, and Once Upon a Time, There was a Girl: A Murder at Mobile Bay.

This lecture is held at Margaret Mitchell House in Midtown. Admission is $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. Reservations are required for all lectures. For more information, visit GWTW.org. To purchase tickets, please call 404.814.4150.

MMH Lecture: James Gavin, Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
7:00 pm

From the Cotton Club's glory days and the back lots of Hollywood's biggest studios to the glitzy, but bigoted, hotels of Las Vegas, this behind-the-scenes look at an American icon is as much a story of the limits of the American dream as it is a masterful, ground-breaking biography. Often limited to guest singing appearances in Hollywood musicals, “the beautiful Lena Horne,” was a pioneering African American star in the 1940s and 1950s. Gavin offers a fascinating portrait of a complex, even tragic Horne, who inspired Barbra Streisand, Eartha Kitt, and Aretha Franklin. Horne’s frustrations with racism
and with tumultuous childhood left wounds too deep to heal and the woman who emerged was as angry as she was luminous. Drawing on a wealth of new material and hundreds of interviews, including Horne herself, Gavin give us the defining portrait of Horne.

This lecture is held at Margaret Mitchell House in Midtown. Admission is $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. Reservations are required for all lectures. For more information, visit GWTW.org. To purchase tickets, please call 404.814.4150.

Support: Provided by Swift Currie.

MMH Lecture: Sarah Dunant, Sacred Hearts
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
7:00 pm

The year is 1570, and in the northern Italian city of Ferrara, in the convent of Santa Caterina, one hundred women live inside God’s protection, but any community, however smoothly run, suffers tremors when it takes in someone by force. Sarah Dunant’s new novel, Sacred Hearts, begins with the dramatic arrival of Santa Caterina’s new novice, Serafina, whose forced admission into the convent sets in motion a chain of events that will shake the institution to its core.

Dunant brings this intricate, Renaissance world compellingly to life. Amid the tangled threads of scandal and conspiracy, rules and rituals, obedience and subtle acts of rebellion, secrets lie within secrets, and ordinary though no less glorious miracles happen when least expected. Thoroughly researched and beautifully written, Sacred Hearts is a rich, suspenseful, multifaceted love story, from the passions of the flesh to the exultation of the spirit and the deep, enduring power of friendship.

Sarah Dunant is the author of the international bestseller The Birth of Venus, which has received major acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, and In the Company of the Courtesan. Her earlier novels include three Hannah Wolfe crime thrillers, as well as Snowstorms in a Hot Climate, Transgressions, and Mapping the Edge. She has two daughters, and lives in London and Florence.

This lecture is held at Margaret Mitchell House in Midtown. Admission is $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. Reservations are required for all lectures. For more information, visit GWTW.org. To purchase tickets, please call 404.814.4150.

August 2009

MMH Lecture: George Dawes Green, Ravens
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
7:00 pm

In Ravens, we meet the Boatwrights, a Georgia family that has won over $300 million in the lottery. We also meet Shaw McBride and Romeo Zderko, two would-be crooks trying to claim the prize money for themselves by any means, including holding the Boatwright family hostage.

George Dawes Green is the author of the critically acclaimed novels, The Caveman’s Valentine and The Juror. The Caveman’s Valentine was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and won a 1994 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. The Juror was a 1995 New York Times bestseller and the basis of a Columbia Pictures motion picture. Green is the founder of the Moth, an organization dedicated to promoting the art of storytelling.

This lecture is held at Margaret Mitchell House in Midtown. Admission is $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. Reservations are required for all lectures. For more information, visit GWTW.org. To purchase tickets, please call 404.814.4150.

Homeschool Day: Open House
Monday, August 10, 2009
10:00 am – 5:00 pm

The Atlanta History Center offers special monthly programs for homeschool students and their families. This month, homeschooling families are invited to explore our facility free of charge and see what the Atlanta History Center has to offer!

For more information please call 404.814.4018, email Homeschool@AtlantaHistoryCenter.com, or visit AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/homeschool.

Support: Funding for this program is provided by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners under the guidance of the Fulton County Arts Council.

From This Land
Sunday, August 23, 2009
12:00 – 5:00 pm

Explore Native American history and culture through a variety of activities and demonstrations designed for all ages. Enjoy cooking demonstrations, traditional dance performances, tours of the Quarry Garden, and tours of the Native Lands exhibition. Other unique program offerings include a lesson in language with Cherokee 101 and hands-on activities such as corn grinding and corn husk doll making.

This program is free to members; included in the cost of general admission for nonmembers. For more information about this program, please contact 404.814.4000 or visit AtlantaHistoryCenter.com.

Support: Funding for this program is provided by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners under the guidance of Fulton County Arts Council.
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