Freedom: From Civil War to Civil Rights.

President Abraham Lincoln. November 1863.

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Freedom is a very large and very important concept. Our country is build on it. Our civic and personal identity tied to it. Our physical landscape is both scarred and improved by it. People have fought for it, people have died for it. One thing for sure about freedom, it’s not free. But, it is absolutely worth it.

Joining us in the studio this month are four guests each with their own experience and their own story to tell about freedom and the journey our nation and our world has taken from the Civil War to Civil Rights in pursuit of it.

We’ll start with the Civil War and Gordon Jones, Senior Military Historian with the Atlanta History Center.  Jones shares historical accounts of the American Civil War, the impact the war had on freedom, and a sincere sensibility about the importance of storytelling in relation to history.

Brer Rabbit, Brer Terrapin, and wolf as illustrated for Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus tales.

Lain Shakespeare is the great, great, great grandson of Joel Chandler Harris, a great man in the journey of freedom.  Shakespeare is Board Chairman of The Wren’s Nest, the now historic house museum in Atlanta’s West End neighborhood, where Harris wrote his world famous Uncle Remus tales.  Lain shares stories about the “trickster hero” role (both Brer Rabbit and Harris) in the pursuit of Civil Rights, and a bit about the history of Harris himself.

“If not us, then who?
If not now, then when?”

- John Lewis

Congressman John Lewis has been “Getting into good trouble since 1960″ and the world is a better place for it.  It was a true honor to have Civil Rights icon and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Congressman Lewis, on this month’s show.  Lewis has been a true leader in the pursuit of freedom since he joined the Civil Rights Movement as a 15-year-old.  Lewis was beaten unconscious and nearly to death in Selma, Alabama, spoke at the March on Washington, and joins our host Gene Kansas in the studio this month to speak about being a voice for freedom.

The National Center for Civil and Human Rights as designed by the award-winning team of architects at Freelon/HOK.

National Center for Civil and Human Rights CEO Doug Shipman looks toward the future.

A new leader in the quest for freedom is National Center for Civil and Human Rights CEO Doug Shipman.  Charismatic, compassionate and with an eye toward progress, Shipman is poised to help lead us into the future of freedom.  Doug shares an insider’s look into the new Center, now under construction in Atlanta, and how the design of the campus plays a large part in connecting and understanding.  The Center will focus on education, its physical design helping to create a dialogue for people from all over the world.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”- Martin Luther King Jr.

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This show is dedicated to Winston “Bud” Newell, a man who served our country in WWII, an adoring husband, a fabulous father, a giver of great toasts, a lover of jazz, a friend to all, and a gentle and loving uncle.  He will be missed, but his spirit lives on.

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Show #14: Food for Thought

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Albeit a centerpiece both in form and function, the cuisine at our favorite restaurant is just plain food if not paired with conversation, company, atmosphere, and brought to us by people who care.  In other words, it truly is the “thought” that counts.

For this, our Thanksgiving Special, Gene is joined by four very “thoughtful” guests who act as our Atlanta Restaurant Guides, coming together through conversation to explore our heritage, our history, the soul of Southern Food, and the importance of family and friendship.

Ma Hull’s in Inman Park was known for their banana pudding and for their family style. The band Little Feat shows their appreciation.

Bill Johnson, Founder and Principal of The Johnson Studio, knows his way around a kitchen, and a bar, and a seating area and Atlanta.  His firm has had an architectural and design hand in well over 400 restaurants that locally include Aria, Nava, Bistro Niko, One Midtown Kitchen, Lobster Bar, South City Kitchen, Kyma, Horseradish Grill and even The Varsity.  Bill stops by the studio to talk shop and drop knowledge about the thought that goes behind these fabulous spots.

Aria. Architecture & Design by The Johnson Studio.

Steven Satterfield, Co-Owner and celebrated Chef of Award-Winning Miller Union, is a true talent in the kitchen (ask Martha Stewart) and just a down-right cool guy.  His restaurant just celebrated its 2nd anniversary, but the location’s history dates back many years before when Atlanta’s reinvigorated “West Side” was a meat packing district and the site where the restaurant sits today was the Miller Union Stockyard.

Winter Vegetable Plate. Miller Union.

Steven joins Gene to share the history of the “West Side”, his personal history, insight into the Southern Foodways Alliance, and the art of today’s Southern food.

Miller Union “gets it” when it comes to food, beverage, decor, and down-home Southern hospitality.

Don Rooney’s job is to answer questions.  As Curator of Urban and Regional History at The Atlanta History Center, Rooney’s depth of experience and knowledge about about our past is hard to beat.  But it’s his personal nostalgia and love for Atlanta along with his role in a dining club, that really add the cherry on top to a wonderful conversation that ranges from Civil Rights “sit-ins” to celebratory birthday dinners and much more.

Restaurants played a major role in the Civil Rights Movement as places to plan, places for peace, and places to protest.

In 1962, Marie Nygren’s mother, Margaret Lupo, bought Mary Mac’s Tea Room from Mary McKenzie after working there for just one week.  Over the next 32 years she grew that business through equality, family values and of course mouth watering Southern Soul Food like collard greens and potlikker, macaronni and cheese, fried chicken, cornbread, fried green tomatoes, meatloaf, okra, black-eyed peas and baked potatoes.  Marie joins Gene and graciously shares her family’s story about Mary Mac’s and the carried on traditions of home cooking, plus its place in her current kitchen, “The Farmhouse at Serenbe”, where she and husband Steve Nygren will host 400 for Thanksgiving Dinner!

Mary Mac’s serves up some of Atlanta’s best.

So, with that, please enjoy this feast of knowledge and nostalgia that promises to impress.  We’d also like to offer a special Thanksgiving “thought” to all of our friends, family, and fans…Have a fabulous holiday and enjoy it in good health.

Show #5: Peachtree Street

Peachtree Street circa 1875

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On Sidewalk Radio’s February show, the phrase “street smart” takes on new meaning as some of Atlanta’s brightest minds share their expertise and insights about our city’s icon, our connective landmark, the history laden, world famous Peachtree Street.

There is Broadway in New York, Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Sunset in LA, and Bourbon in New Orleans, but Peachtree Street is more than famous, it is a living, breathing, archeological diorama of Atlanta’s history told through its transitioning neighborhoods and ascending architecture.

Join host, Gene Kansas, as he explores the history, lore, legacy, culture and character of a street whose name really came from a pine tree.  See, it’s already getting interesting.

To discuss the past, present and future of urban planning, transit and architecture is David Green AIA, LEED AP, and Senior Urban Designer with internationally renowned architecture and design firm, Perkins+Will.  In addition to his applied professional chops, Green also adds a professor’s point of view, gained from more than 20 years of teaching at Georgia Tech, helping to educate us about how cities develop and why Peachtree is so important to Atlanta.

Perkins+Will took extra steps to make 1315 Peachtree not only beautiful and environmentally friendly, but also connected to the street, a move that limited their parking, but added to the appeal for Peachtree and Atlanta.

Preservationist Mark McDonald, President & CEO of The Georgia Trust, enlightens us about the street that boasts such treasures as The Georgian Terrace, The Temple, The High Museum, and The “Fabulous” Fox Theater, saved from certain destruction through a grassroots effort in 1974.  McDonald also discusses important places we’ve lost and “Places in Peril” that we need to protect.

Lowe’s Grand Theater was site of the 1939 premiere of Gone with the Wind. It was built in 1893 and lost to fire in 1978.

Adding some real legs to our tour along this famous route is Atlanta Track Club’s Executive Director, Tracey Russell, in charge of putting on The Peachtree Road Race.  In its first year, 110 runners finished the race.  41 years later, on July 4^th 2011, 60,000 participants will take part in the world’s largest event of its kind, and Russell runs down a long list of impressive stories and statistics that will have you entertained and intrigued from start to finish.

And, very much a place-maker, Shannon Powell, COO of The Midtown Alliance, rounds out the guest list taking us back 15 years to shed light on a neighborhood that at one time was so unsavory you would not have walked down Peachtree at night, but now is thriving with the arts, restaurants, residences, and the promise of incredible street level retail that one day soon will be on par with its Midwestern cousins along “The Magnificent Mile”.

shopSCAD’s “Pop Up” Shop at Atlanta History Center’s 990 Peachtree Street.

Peachtree has come a long way, both literally and figuratively, growing and developing in parallel with the city, and spawning 71 variations of its name along the way.  And, just like in the treaties of the Creek Indians that inhabited our land before Peachtree, the “pitch” still holds us together, symbolizing the vows that we have to history.

AND, A SPECIAL “THANK YOU” TO OUR SPONSOR, PERKINS+WILL.

Show #2: All Aboard, The BeltLine.

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There are only two other projects in the history of Atlanta with an impact on par with what the Atlanta BeltLine will deliver. One is Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the other is the 1996 Olympic Games.  In other words, the BeltLine is a big deal.  It is in year 3 of a 25-year project, with an estimated $20 billion in economic development opportunity. This 22-mile loop of abandoned rail is much more than a place to walk, bike and jog.  It will connect 45 different neighborhoods, increase parks and green-space by 40%, and eventually have a pedestrian-friendly rail transit system that will put Atlanta top of class with other major cities like Denver, San Diego, Dallas, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Sydney, and Madrid to name a few.

However, despite the gigantic impact the BeltLine promises, very few Atlantans have any real clue about it.  A common question among Atlantans right now is, “when is the BeltLine starting?”  As of the airing of this episode of Sidewalk Radio, over $230 million in development is currently underway.  It’s not a question of when.  It is now.  Let’s take a look at a “Past, Present and Future” glimpse of the BeltLine through images:

(Soon to be) PAST: Abandoned rail’s rough trail will soon be improved and ready for the walk-bike-jog set.

PRESENT:  Art on the BeltLine in action.

…and FUTURE: New park behind City Hall East.

There are many facets to The BeltLine: art, architecture, community, parks, planning, development, design, financing and so on.  But, to truly understand where you are going, you have to know where you have been.  For Atlanta, it all begins with trains.  Yep, trains.

Painting by Robert West (mentioned below)

Sidewalk Radio’s November Show, “All Aboard, The BeltLine” focuses on transit, specifically Atlanta’s relationship with rail – past, present, and future.  One of the nation’s leading authorities on the Civil War, Gordon Jones, Senior Military Historian at the Atlanta History Center, discusses how Atlanta’s rail of the 1800’s historically impacted our city and set the stage for today’s BeltLine.

Brian Leary, President and CEO of the Atlanta BeltLine, also joins host, Gene Kansas, to share his vision about how the BeltLine’s proposed pedestrian-friendly rail transit system will unite our neighborhoods, and improve our communities for the future.

Train artist, Robert West, and architect Jeff Morrison, add colorful perspective to this whistle-inducing show.  Railroad music intermixed, of course.

Take a look at Morrison’s installation “Cribbing” for Art on the Beltline —->

…and understand what it’s all about when you tune in.

It’s gonna be a long, strange trip folks.  Let’s get rolling.  ”All Aboard, The BeltLine.”

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