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Atlanta Ballet presents "Frida" May 8 to May 10 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta.
Credit: Atlanta Ballet
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What's on your calendar? Here's GPB's list of must-see summer events and concerts
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LISTEN: Warm temperatures are here, with opportunities to celebrate the arts in a favorite venue or outside under the stars. GPB’s Kristi York Wooten previews concerts and events across Georgia — and speaks with one of them, '80s pop band Human League.
Whether you love hearing a singer-songwriter in an intimate setting, seeing new art works and haute couture, watching ballet, or singing along with 10,000 people, the summer cultural season is in full swing.
Small venues
Emma Swift is an Australian singer who performs at the 40 Watt Club in Athens tonight (April 24), along with Robyn Hitchcock.
"I think everything is just so much nicer in real life," Swift said of live performance. "Not that there aren't great benefits to promoting and sharing music online, but there's something to me that's just really magical about the interplay of a person getting up on stage and sharing their song and then seeing people in the audience and in the moment."
Eddie's Attic in Decatur has a packed spring and summer lineup with a sold-out Amy Grant appearance on June 17. Other notable lineups include a residency by David Ryan Harris on April 29, Nick Niespodziani featuring Indianapolis Jones on April 29 and an evening with Joseph Arthur and Abe Partridge on May 9.
Big names, past and present
R&B singer Jill Scott hits Atlanta's Fox Theatre on July 10 and July 11 and British breakout star Olivia Dean arrives at State Farm Arena on Aug. 22. Across the state, from country to soul, the Columbus River Center for the Performing Arts features Blues Traveler on May 3, while Macon's Atrium Health Amphitheater hosts Alabama on May 7 and Masters of Funk featuring the S.O.S. Band, Lakeside and more on June 21.
Halls, walls and dance floors
The Atlanta Ballet reimagines the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in a colorful new production, Frida, running May 8 to May 10 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta. The High Museum presents Amy Sherald: American Sublime, featuring works by the Georgia-born artist including her portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama. That show opens May 15 and runs through Sept. 27.
Over at the SCADFash Museum at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, an exclusive show featuring 80 years of work from the House of Dior is on display through Aug. 23.
"Dior: Crafting Fashion is a special show created from Dior heritage just for SCADFash," creative director Rafael Gomes said. "It's all about the processing. Many of those pieces are brand new pieces, never shown before. We have one, for example, it's a piece that Olivia de Havilland wore for the Gone with the Wind premiere here in Atlanta in 1961 — actually, it was the 20th anniversary of Gone with the Wind. And Dior recently acquisitioned this piece in an auction and it's a three-piece and a hat and a little clutch. And this is on display for the very first time."
Sound and vision
Speaking of fashion over the decades, famous classic rockers are everywhere this summer.
The Eagles land at the Atlanta Braves' stadium at Truist Park on May 5. Sting performs at Chastain Park Amphitheatre in Atlanta on May 15, and Savannah's Enmarket Arena on May 16. Chastain Park in Atlanta also features Paul Simon on July 13 and Bob Dylan on July 31. The Georgia Mountain Fair in Hiawassee presents Peter Noone and Herman's Hermits on Aug. 14.
British new wave act The Human League performs at the Fox Theatre on June 19 on a bill with Alison Moyet and Soft Cell. Human League singer Philip Oakey is looking forward to convening with fans who love the group's 1980s hits such as "(Keep Feeling) Fascination," "Don't You Want Me," and "Human."
"We're a pop band," Oakey said of the Sheffield act characterized by synthesizers and suave looks. "We're very ordinary people from the north of England. We wanted to be a pop band since 1977-ish ... and we're still a pop band."
Oakey also acknowledged the staying power of Human League's songs, and of the 1984 hit "The Lebanon," about finding peace in a world full people displaced by war.
"It's just about the sense of bafflement," he said, reflecting on the song from the Cold War era. "You know, we don't take sides or anything, really. I think there were six of us in the band when we wrote that, and I couldn't possibly write down lyrics that said what everyone in the band thought, but [the sentiment of the song is] just that, 'My God, can't we somehow learn to talk before we fight?'"
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