Adam Gabriel Winnie’s “Into the Night Land” will close this weekend with an artist talk on Sunday, August 3. (Photo courtesy of eyedrum Gallery)
Each week, ArtsATL curates a selection of the most exciting arts and culture events happening in Atlanta this weekend, highlighting nine must-see experiences.
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Thursday
Black Writers Weekend 2025 gets underway on Thursday with a welcome mixer at Buckhead Art & Company from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. The main event will take place on Friday and Saturday, August 1 and August 2, at the Auburn Avenue Research Library and the Loudermilk Conference Center. They’ll have workshops, book signings, panels and an opportunity for writers to network and to pitch their work. In the hours before the festival kicks off, there will be a short film festival showcasing a dozen short films and trailers that celebrate the depth of the Black experience. They’ll have screenings, Q&As with filmmakers and panels exploring the connection between storytelling, culture and cinema. It’s happening from noon until 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 31, at the Auburn Avenue Research Library.
Martin Padgett’s The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick: Sex and the Supreme Court in the Age of AIDS.
Martin Padgett
Author and former Atlantan Martin Padgett is in town to talk about his new book, The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick: Sex and the Supreme Court in the Age of AIDS. In 1982, a police officer came to Hardwick’s Atlanta home with a warrant for a different matter, found him having sex with another man and arrested him for sodomy. Hardwick challenged the case and Georgia’s sodomy law, and the Supreme Court eventually sided with the state in a controversial 5-4 ruling. The law stood for 17 years until Lawrence v. Texas did away with state sodomy laws. Padgett’s book explores the story of the 1986 Supreme Court case of Bowers v. Hardwick and how it affected the former Atlantan before and after. Padgett will discuss his work at the DeKalb History Center at 6:30 p.m. on July 31.
True Colors Theatre Company presents Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo’, which imagines what would happen if America offered every Black person a one-way ticket back to Africa. In addition to being the youngest Black American playwright nominated for a Tony Award, Cooper is also the creator and showrunner for The Ms. Pat Show. The provocative Ain’t No Mo’ will be staged at the Balzer Theatre in downtown Atlanta through August 24.
Friday
Earlier this year, Oklahoma’s psychedelic torchbearers, The Flaming Lips, wrapped up an international tour where they performed their 2002 classic, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, in its entirety. Coming up this fall, they’ll be playing all of their 1999 album The Soft Bulletin at Modest Mouse’s Psychic Salamander Festival in Washington. There’s no info on what the set list is like for this summer tour because the Atlanta date, on August 1 at the Coca-Cola Roxy, is the first one of the run, but you’re likely to hear a little from both of those albums. They’ll be co-headlining with Modest Mouse.
Abby grape.
Reel Resistance: How the Lonesome Cowboys Raid Sparked the Southern Queer Rights Movement
Author Martin Padgett will be among those leading a community summit on how a 1969 screening of Andy Warhol’s Lonesome Cowboys inspired a queer resistance movement. On August 5, 1969, just weeks after the Stonewall Uprising, Atlanta police raided the Ansley Mall Mini-Cinema, which was showing Lonesome Cowboys, targeting members of the LGBTQ+ community in what would become a galvanizing moment for queer resistance in the South. The aftermath of the raid led to the formation of the Georgia Gay Liberation Front, laying the groundwork for the first Atlanta Pride Festival and the broader Southern queer liberation movement. Atlanta Pride and Out on Film are partnering to present this event, which includes a Friday, August 1, screening of Lonesome Cowboys, followed by the firsthand experience of local activist, Abby Drue, and a reception. On Saturday, August 2, Padgett and Drue will discuss the fallout from the raid and the history of activism that followed. The afternoon will offer six focused breakout sessions on the role of politics, social media, drag, film and more. It all takes place at the Dana Fine Arts Building at Agnes Scott College in Decatur.
The Black Art in America Gallery in East Point is hosting its third annual Atlanta Fine Art Print Fair this weekend, from August 1 through August 3. It’s a great place to start for aspiring art collectors. They’ll have original and limited-edition works, artist discussions and demonstrations and educational talks on collecting.
Saturday
Snellville country music quartet The Boykinz recently received the Golden Buzzer on America’s Got Talent 2025, which means they’ll move on to the live shows, which start on August 19. Before that, the quartet of sisters — Kylan, Anale, Nytere and Alona — will be performing at Eddie’s Attic at 8:30 p.m. on August 2.
Sunday
Adam Gabriel Winnie artist talk
Atlanta-based artist Winnie’s Into the Night Land draws viewers into a vividly imagined underworld. Mythic, psychological and deeply atmospheric, the show invites quiet engagement and openness to mystery. Winnie will give an artist talk on Saturday, August 3, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at eyedrum, an opportunity to hear directly from the artist about the ideas and processes behind the new work.
Additional events from WABE’s The City Lights Collective and more things to do this weekend
On The City Lights Collective on WABE, ArtsAtl’s Shane Harrison offers a list of best bets, airing in the 1 p.m. hour every Wednesday. This week, in addition to some of the events listed above, he discusses the local appearance by Rod Stewart, who will be at Ameris Bank Amphitheatre in Alpharetta on Friday, August 1. The tour’s title is One Last Time, but it hasn’t been labeled a farewell tour. Still, Stewart is now 80, with a career that spans six decades, so you never know when he’ll decide to retire from the road … The Movement of Fiber and Texture — a group show that includes sculpture, textiles, collage and more — opens with a reception at 7:30 p.m. on August 2 at Gallery Chimera (624 North Highland Ave. NE). The show continues through September 27 … Heather Landsman’s archival documentary, The Best of Me, pieces together the story of Ricardo Lopez, a stalker whose video diaries charted his obsession with Björk in chilling detail. Utilizing only Lopez’s video diaries, Landsman reconstructs a psychological timeline of fan obsession metastasizing into extreme violence. The film will screen, with a director talk back with Landsman, at The Bakery Atlanta at the Supermarket from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, August 2.
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