Happy 4th of July

The staff of Atlanta INtown wishes you a happy Independence Day. We'll be back to regular blogging on Monday. 

Fourth of July Events

Join Decatur's July 4th Pied Piper Parade as it winds through downtown. Residents will be pulling decorated wagons, riding bikes, skating or walking in the parade. The parade line-up is at the First Baptist Church of Decatur at 5:30 p.m. and steps off at 6 p.m. It ends at the Community Bandstand on the square with a presentation of colors and the “Star Spangled Banner.” The concert, featuring the Callanwolde Concert Band, begins at 7 p.m. in the Community Bandstand. Fireworks begin at dark (approximately 9 p.m.) and are shot from the top of the DeKalb County parking deck. www.decaturga.com.

Downtown’s Centennial Olympic Park will ring in the holiday with its AirTran Airways Fireworks Spectacular. In the hours prior to the fireworks show, the park will feature children’s activities like face painting and arts and crafts and live musical entertainment beginning at 5 p.m. Visitors are strongly encouraged to take MARTA. www.centennialpark.com.

Stone Mountain Park’s Fantastic Fourth Celebration is a weekend of Independence Day-themed fun. Visitors can arrive early to enjoy the park’s attractions and settle in on Memorial Lawn to view a special Fourth of July themed laser show. www.stonemountainpark.com.

The Lenox Square Independence Day Celebration – the Southeast’s largest Fourth of July event – is marking 50 years with live musical entertainment, activities for kids, and a signature fireworks display using more than 4,000 fireworks. The celebration is free and open to the public. Music begins at 6 p.m. and firworks around 9:45 p.m. 3393 Peachtree Road. Parking is limited in the area, and visitors are being encouraged to take MARTA to the Lenox Square station. www.simon.com.

Not to be outdone, the Fourth of July festivities at the Mall of Georgia will begin at noon. Visitors can enjoy treats from a variety of food vendors, multiple prize drawings on the hour, live bands, a car show, and a special “Kids Zone.” Post-fireworks entertainment will be presented on a giant television screen until 10 p.m. 3333 Buford Drive, Buford. www.simon.com.

The annual Georgia Independence Day Festival provides visitors with the unique experience of life in America in 1776. The festival, which will begin on July 3rd at 3 p.m. and will end at dusk on July 4, will have fireworks displays on both days. This year’s celebration will feature a Deep Forest Native American Indian Program, a Q & A with George Washington, and a Military Parade honoring the history of the Armed Forces. Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for children. Historic Nash Farm, 4361 Jonesboro Road, Hampton. www.gidfestival.com.

Decatur Sidewalk Sale, July 3-5

Check out the special deals at many of Decatur's merchants during the holiday weekend. A full list of participating stores is at this link. 

PBA takes over Atlanta PlanIt.com

AtlantaPlanIt.com, metro Atlanta’s comprehensive online guide for arts and culture, will expand its reach with a new home at Public Broadcasting Atlanta (PBA) as part of the Lens on Atlanta project. This exciting development joins PBA together with the Metro Atlanta Arts & Culture Coalition (MAACC), who created AtlantaPlanIt.com and will transfer the guide to PBA on July 1, 2009.

AtlantaPlanIt.com showcases and promotes events of more than 450 arts groups in a six county region of metro Atlanta, providing on-line access to the latest arts and culture listings and news to its 16,000+ members. Lens on Atlanta is a first-of-its-kind online social community that gives regional institutions, community organizations, elected officials and individuals a free social media platform that allows them to build stronger relationships, engage in user-driven discussions and raise awareness of community initiatives.

With AtlantaPlanIt.com becoming an extension of Lens on Atlanta, PBA hopes to increase the growth, functionality and promotion of the web site.

“PBA’s mission is to educate, entertain and empower the communities we serve. Lens on Atlanta does just that – by connecting people to each other and the larger Atlanta community,” said Milton Clipper, President and CEO of Public Broadcasting Atlanta. “The addition of AtlantaPlanIt.com to the Lens platform enables us to provide a broader offering of arts and culture events and is critical to our goal of making Lens the central hub for all content relevant to metro Atlanta.”

MAACC will continue to contribute to the project and has plans to “advise and partner with PBA to strengthen AtlantaPlanIt.com as the premier online point of access to our region’s diverse arts and culture offerings,” according to MAACC CEO Flora Maria Garcia.

The transfer of PlanIt to PBA will also reduce MAACC operating costs and allow MAACC to provide more focused public policy and advocacy services to the cultural community.

Atlanta PlanIt will maintain its design and staff after the transition to PBA, and continue as in the past its services to the region’s arts and culture organizations. A primary goal of the Lens partnership between PBA and MAACC is to provide increased benefit to cultural organizations in the vibrant metro Atlanta region.

Art Installation Tonight Along BeltLine

In an effort to raise awareness of the proposed BeltLine, artists throughout Atlanta have created pieces of art for placement at every one of the 108 locations where the BeltLine will cross a public right-of-way.

This past Sunday, nearly 60 artists met at the EyeDrum Art and Music Gallery and painted signs—in any style they wanted—to place at a BeltLine public right-of-way. Tonight 30 artists and volunteers will work throughout the night placing the art at every one of the 108 locations. You'll be able to see the art tomorrow morning as you're driving, biking or walking near those BeltLine crossings.

“After a successful Sunday spent creating art and building community, we are ready to place the pieces throughout Atlanta tonight,” said Chris Appleton, co-founder of WonderRoot. “It’s our hope that people will get up, go to work and see for themselves where the BeltLine will be. Additionally, the city will be full of original public art.”

Go Girl Go! Awards Grants

The Women’s Sports Foundation’s GoGirlGo! Atlanta, in partnership with the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation, will award $120,000 in grants to 23 local community organizations. Each organization was chosen based on its commitment to activating local girls around sports and physical activity. GoGirlGo! Atlanta will recognize the 2009 Grantees on Friday, June 19 during a noon luncheon at the Loudermilk Center.
 
GoGirlGo! encourages girls and young women to become active in physical activity and sports in order to lead active and healthier lives.
 
Grant Recipients:

Agape Community Center                                       $9,337
America Scores                                                         $5,000
Andrew Walter Young YMCA                                 $8,920
Brookhaven Boys and Girls Club                            $3,900
Carver Boys and Girls Club                                     $2,500
Douglas Boys and Girls Club                                   $4,000
Draper Boys and Girls Club                                     $3,000
East Lake Family YMCA                                           $4,950
Education Arts Program of America                       $5,792
Gator Girls                                                                  $1,500
Girls on the Run                                                         $2,000
Girls, Inc.                                                                     $5,000
Grant Boys and Girls Club                                        $2,500
Soccer in the Street                                                    $10,000
Sporty Girls, Inc.                                                        $9,151
Teach One Academy                                                   $3,000
The Cool Girls                                                             $2,500
The Study Hall                                                            $12,210
Tomorrow’s Champions                                            $5,000
Visions Unlimited                                                       $8,010
Women in Golf Foundation                                       $5,000
Woodson Elementary School                                    $4,230

Since 2005, GoGirlGo! Atlanta has awarded more than $500,000 in grants. Past recipients, like Sporty Girls, Inc. have seen the impact of the GoGirlGo! grant first-hand. As a 2009 recipient, Sporty Girls will be able to send 40 girls between the ages of 10-16 to Camp Elite for one-on-one training in golf, soccer, tennis and swimming.

Moving in the Spirit on tour

Moving in the Spirit, an award winning dance and youth development program, will kick off it’s National Dance Tour in Atlanta. The tour, entitled Tour Explosion!, will travel along the East Coast to several cities in North Carolina.

This dynamic event features the company’s skilled and celebrated teen dancers, The Apprentice Corporation, and examines uplifting themes of tolerance and social justice. Both energetic and educational, this dance event is fun and appropriate for the whole family.

The Apprentice Corporation teens spend their summer vacation preparing for the tour, rehearsing daily from 10am to 5pm, just as a professional company would. While on tour, the teens will share their powerful dances with new communities and study at some of the nation’s top dance programs. Additionally, the teens will perform a body of work that focuses on racial reconciliation and tolerance, participate in educational experiences and collaborations with other youth organizations, engage in leadership opportunities through public speaking and lecture demonstrations, and visit college campuses. The impressive Tour 2009 agenda includes:

• Performances and workshops at the WEB Dubois Center in Wake Forest, NC
  
• Technique classes with the nationally acclaimed American Dance Festival at Duke University
• Performances at The Enrichment Center in Winston-Salem, NC
• Performances and service projects in community venues, churches and senior centers

The Apprentice Corporation will kick-off its exciting 2009 Tour with a series of community performances on July 1st and 2nd at 7pm in Moving in the Spirit’s home theater, The Beam, located at 750 Glenwood Avenue in Atlanta. Tickets may be purchased for $8 at the door on the night of the event. Children under the age of three can attend the performance free of charge. For more information, call (404) 624-5295, or visit www.movinginthespirit.org.

Staycation Sundays in Decatur

Hanging around Decatur this summer and looking for fun things to do at home?  Come out for Staycation Sundays on Church Street and get local. The first event is today from 1 to 4 p.m.

The participating merchants of Church Street in downtown Decatur have planned three free afternoons of summer fun, highlighting their terrific local businesses and the local suppliers and artisans they work with.  These three Sunday afternoons will be packed with entertainment-- kid activities, live music, street performers, cool treats, special discounts, trunk shows, artist demonstrations and door prizes each Staycation Sunday.

Shops and restaurants taking part including Mingei World Arts, Java Monkey Coffee House, Seen Gallery, Hoopla, Taste and Leon's Full Service.

Two more staycations are set for July 19 and Aug. 9.