September 2016
Features
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Bluehair Technology
The nonprofit offers four- to eight-week classes on “getting started” with devices. They are all taught at places where older adults are located—senior living communities, rec centers, country clubs, and churches—throughout metro Atlanta. So far Bluehair has helped nearly 3,000 seniors learn to use smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
Amy’s Place
When Pam Van Ahn greets you at the front door of Amy’s Place, she has a tail-wagging companion, Earl. The friendly black dachshund was previously owned by Van Ahn’s late mother, Carol, who was diagnosed with dementia and passed away in 2012. Van Ahn, a former nurse who moved to Roswell in 2011 to take care of her mother, says that her family created Amy’s Place—a unique gathering space known as a “memory care cafe” for people with dementia and their families—after learning firsthand what caregivers go through.
Sondra Ilgenfritz and Atlanta Theatre-to-Go
Since 2007 the nonprofit has put on original theater productions in senior centers, churches and synagogues, retirement communities, and assisted living facilities—at no charge to audience members.
Dr. Monica Parker
Science shows that people of color are nearly twice as likely as their Caucasian counterparts to develop some form of dementia. And yet African Americans are consistently under-represented in Alzheimer’s studies. So geriatrics physician Dr. Monica Parker—whose mother and grandmother both suffered from dementia—doesn’t mince words when she’s doing community outreach for Emory’s centers on Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Brain Health.
HouseProud Atlanta
The small Chosewood Park nonprofit has aided more than 700 low-income seniors since 1992. It provides home maintenance and repairs—everything from new toilets and wheelchair ramps to entire roofing or plumbing systems—for free.
Atlanta Regional Commission and the Lifelong Communities Initiative
One steamy July morning, in the dining room of a spacious Inman Park home, a group of longtime neighborhood residents strategized over muffins and coffee about how to combat the unpleasant problem of root-busted sidewalks. And how to address the fact that Inman Park is home to nearly 4,300 people and a multitude of pricey luxury apartments but not a single residence classified as senior housing.
SAGE Atlanta
When James* was diagnosed with lung cancer in his 80s, he was in a pretty good place compared to many of his peers. He had a solid network of supportive friends, and he had planned well. But James, a gay WWII veteran, needed help finding LGBT-friendly healthcare providers who would supply quality, consistent care in […]
The Fuqua Center for Late-Life Depression
In Georgia one in five adults suffer from some kind of mental illness, and the rate is higher in adults over age 60. “When people get older, they fall off the map in terms of mental health services,” says Dr. William McDonald, a geriatric psychiatrist who heads the Fuqua Center.
The Giving Tree Intergenerational Preschool Program
The Arbor Terrace assisted living facility in Alpharetta is typically a pretty quiet place. But on Wednesday and Friday mornings, the space is filled with an unexpected sound: the excited chatter and squeals of young children.
TechSAge
The woman guided her wheelchair onto the sidewalk along Spring Street in Midtown and considered her options. She was only going a few blocks, but to get there smoothly, she had to consider potential barriers that able-bodied people don’t usually worry about. She consulted the new app on her smartphone, which directed her along Armstead Place rather than Fourth Street; there’s no walk signal or crosswalk across traffic-heavy Spring Street at Fourth.
Clarkston Community Center Senior Refugee Program
Not long after the Clarkston’s community center opened, the staff recognized that older refugees face unique hurdles in adapting to a different culture. “They’re the last [in the family] to get any kind of services,” says director Cindy Bowden. “They’re the last to learn English. They’re the last to get involved in the community. It’s important to offer them an avenue to belonging.”
Madeleine Hackney
Argentine tango is traditionally danced in close embrace, with spontaneity and musicality. Hackney, a research health scientist at the Atlanta VA Medical Center and a former professional dancer who once performed with the Radio City Rockettes, began adapting the rhythmic style in 2006 as a therapy for movement disorders.
Meet some of Dragon Con’s dedicated cosplayers
Why the obsession? Sure, it’s fun to impress the throngs at the annual parade. Better still to one-up your peers in the hotel lobby. But ultimately, Dragon Con is about community, from Avengers to zombies.
The Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira slays fall’s bold looks in Castleberry Hill
Best known for her role as sword-wielding Michonne on AMC’s The Walking Dead, the actress and writer has also emerged as a power player on the stage and the big screen. Gurira tells us about the strong, complex women she’s drawn to write and play, her life in Atlanta, and that one local craving she can’t find anywhere else.
Black in Blue: Atlanta’s first African American police officers were vanguards of the civil rights movement
Mayor William Hartsfield and Police Chief Herbert Jenkins, both white, stood before Atlanta’s first eight African American police officers as they prepared for active duty. Hartsfield gave a rallying speech, warning that though 95 percent of the white cops didn’t want them, they were here to do what Jackie Robinson had done for baseball the year before.
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The Connector
The Stitch: An ambitious proposal to build parks and housing above The Connector
An alliance of neighborhood boosters and downtown landowners is pushing an ambitious new proposal, bearing an estimated price tag of $300 million. They believe it can bring about a fresh renaissance in Atlanta’s urban core and finally erase the half-century-old barrier between downtown and Midtown.
5 things to know about the recently renovated Flatiron Building
Relaunched as FlatironCity, the building’s “Next Gen Office Space” (think two-gigabit internet service and fridges stocked with craft beer) was more than 70 percent leased before its grand opening in May.
Crusader with a camera: Nydia Tisdale has been flipped off, called a Nazi, even arrested for recording public officials
Tisdale is, for lack of a better term, a “citizen journalist,” a label that’s taken on greater relevance as video recording has become more ubiquitous and as conventional media outlets have shrunk. Citizen journalists often straddle the line between reporter and advocate. Since 2011 Tisdale has recorded hundreds of videos of elected officials and political candidates in public settings, uploading them to her website, unedited and without commentary.
This is the CNN nerve center
Since the former Omni International Complex’s rechristening as the CNN Center in 1987, the newsroom has been the core of the network’s global news-gathering operations.
These Georgia Tech physicists helped prove Einstein right
Deirdre Shoemaker has known from the time she was a 12-year-old science fiction fan that she wanted to spend her life studying black holes. But when she came to Georgia Tech in 2008 as a founding faculty member of the university’s Center for Relativistic Astrophysics, she found few other female postgraduates.
Tiny Terminus: For nearly 70 years, model trains have quietly circled tracks in Old Fourth Ward
Few passersby likely are aware that just above the Old 4th Distillery is a 1,400-square-foot, man-made landscape of hills, bridges, depots, and towns, with more than 93 working track switches. The Great Southern Lines is the largest model train layout in Atlanta.
The Agenda
Q&A: Artistic director Tom Key on Theatrical Outfit’s 40th season
Key, now in his 21st year with Theatrical Outfit, talks about the “Season of Hope” and why he chose Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights to kick off the 40th season.
SlowExposures spotlights photography made in and about the rural South
What does the rural South look like? The region’s popular image is colored by Deliverance-style stereotypes and misconceptions. But 15 years ago, Christine Curry—a clinical social worker and bookstore owner in Zebulon, Georgia—realized that the area was in danger of having its true character erased.
Fall reading: Cozy up with these 5 books from Georgia authors
5 books to add to your fall reading list, including Jonathan Rabb’s Among the Living and Molly Brodak’s Bandit.
Fernbank’s immense urban forest reopens
In 2012, when Fernbank Museum took over management of the land from the Science Center, employees found that the original “fern bank” and the surrounding forest had become choked with invasive species. After four years of sorely needed ecological restoration, Fernbank Forest reopens this weekend.
The spooky stories behind 4 haunted places in Atlanta
According to Boo (yes, really) Newell, a psychic medium and guide at Decatur Ghost Tour, cemeteries aren’t the only haunted places in Atlanta. “Ghosts will be anywhere there was human tragedy, emotional events, or something went awry.” Here’s where to find them.
The Bite
Fresh on the Scene: 5Church Atlanta, Ba Bellies, 101 Steak, and Ton Ton
Get the early word on four new Atlanta restaurants: 5Church Atlanta at Colony Square, Ba Bellies in Peachtree Corners, 101 Steak in Vinings, and Ton Ton at Ponce City Market.
Technique: How to make Fried Green Tomatoes, from Home Grown GA’s Kevin Clark
It wasn’t until Kevin Clark opened Home Grown GA that he came to like this Southern classic, which can easily turn thin and soggy. What’s his secret?
4 Atlanta dining events in September
Get ready to feast on soul food, Greek specialties, and cheese this month.
Review: At Sushi Hayakawa, a masterful chef says sayonara to California rolls
Sushi Hayakawa is not out to entertain you. It has no rough or rowdy edges like most other sushi restaurants. Like the tea-green walls and framed pieces of black-and-white calligraphy, the feel is monochromatic. The spotlight is on the fish.
Reviving the Sapelo Island red pea
Grown at Georgia Coastal Gourmet Farms in Townsend, Georgia, the ruby-red pea has already won over fans like chef Linton Hopkins.
The Christiane Chronicles: I don’t need a million menus
I can get over menu misspellings and pretentious cliches, but what’s starting to irk me are the restaurants that distribute separate sheets for everything. Plus, finally, Southern oysters are finally getting recognized as the pearls they are.
The Goods
Atlanta-based Zerowaste creates luxury clothing out of scraps
In building a fashion company that squanders nothing, Karen Glass hopes to promote luxury clothing that is rich and indulgent while also being environmentally and socially conscious.
4 must-see Atlanta fashion exhibitions
Exploring smart clothing, the city’s history through fashion, Carolina Herrera, and clothing and art by black women artists.
Atlanta, make way for international fashion star Lily Gatins
“I don’t want to look like anyone else,” says stylist, artist, and sometime model Lily Gatins. Born in the Dominican Republic, Gatins lived in New York; Lima, Peru; and Beijing before landing recently in Atlanta to be near family.
Men’s Style Guide: Fall 2016
Your fall handbook to shopping local, with boots, jeans, shirt and tie combos, jackets, and more.
Miscellaneous
How I ended up learning to drive at 39
I thought I would live in Chicago until the day I died. But life has a way of forcing you to improvise, to adjust, to do things you never imagined. For me, a lifelong Midwesterner, one of the greatest adjustments involved learning to drive.
One Square Mile: Baker’s Emu Nest
When Baker lost his job working with sheet metal, he and his wife, Deb, thought they might try making personal care products from the large supplies of emu oil still frozen (to this day) in storage at his parents’ farm. Thus was born Baker’s Emu Nest, which didn’t stay mom-and-pop for long.
Editor’s Note: Movie central
Here at Atlanta magazine, we have a thing for AMC’s The Walking Dead. The model for our fall fashion shoot this month is Danai Gurira, whose character, Michonne, uses a samurai sword to dispatch zombies. In our fashion issue last fall, one of her costars, Christian Serratos, also served as our model. This month’s cover, in fact, represents the third on which we’ve featured a star from the show.
