WABE Arts

🎧 Former CNN anchor Don Lemon brings the DL + DL "Anything Goes" tour with comedian D.L. Hughley to Atlanta Symphony Hall on Oct. 9. For What's Feeding You?, Lemon tells WABE's Sherri Daye Scott what sharing a stage with a comedian lets him do that the anchor desk didn't, and how he and Hughley learn from each other. He talks about the news sites and blogs he reads, and why he believes the audience has moved to social media. He also looks back on his years in Atlanta, from his Virginia-Highland home to the comfort of living in a Black city, and builds an Atlanta playlist with André 3000, Janelle Monáe and the Ohio Players.

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🎧 The Atlanta Swing Classic brings West Coast Swing workshops, competitions and social dancing to t Dunwoody, Oct. 1-4. Atlanta dancer and instructor Lindsay Mistretta tells WABE's Sherri Daye Scott how to tell an improvised dance from a choreographed one, what spectators can expect from the champion division's Jack and Jill, and why this year's Classic marks her first competition back after a nine-month break. She also explains why dancers call their community a "dance family" and why West Coast Swing draws dancers from their teens to their 90s.

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🎧 The third Atlanta Art Fair opens October 1 at Pullman Yards with more than 80 galleries, the most in the fair’s history. Fair director Kelly Freeman tells WABE’s Sherri Daye Scott how interest in Atlanta has grown beyond the American South to galleries around the world, and why the fair’s public programming is meant to bring art out of the booth. She describes artist Tariqa Waters’ live game show, “I Know Art People,” the “Low Grit Grins” exhibition and ATL CURRENTS, a new initiative for independent Atlanta artists. She also shares tips for first-timers.

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🎧 Netflix's "A Different World" returns to Hillman College, and this time it was filmed in Atlanta, including on the campuses of Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College and Morehouse College. Creator and showrunner Felicia Pride tells WABE's Sherri Daye Scott how a call from Debbie Allen brought her to the project, why now is the time to hear from young Black America, and the four pillars she carried over from the original: warmth, community, the HBCU experience and political consciousness. She also explains how the new series evolves into a single-camera dramedy, with legacy cast members returning in new storylines.

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🎧 Four workshops. Four professional artists. One group of high school students at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA) in Atlanta. Educational programming coordinator Lexus Swatz explains how MOCA GA’s Young Artists Project grew out of its Working Artist Project and what’s new this year: a new home, longer workshops and a student exhibition that stays up longer. 

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A young athlete from Panama moved in with Javier Wallace's family — and the relationship became a book. "Basketball Trafficking: Stolen Black Panamanian Dreams," Wallace's account of the F-1 student visa pipeline into U.S. basketball, is the inaugural grant recipient of the Tara Coyt Publishing Fund, a new Atlanta effort to get more Black scholars into print. Wallace discusses the book September 17 at the Auburn Avenue Research Library, in conversation with former NBA All-Star Joe Barry Carroll. 

Supporting Black scholars 

Coyt launched the fund in 2025 with an open call to publishers for manuscripts they'd already accepted but couldn't yet afford to produce. "In the first year, we received about 10 applications," she said. 

At its center is the publishing subvention grant — up to $10,000 per book to help cover printing costs. The fund also supports a manuscript review workshop, a final-stage peer-review process for selected manuscripts, run in partnership with a university or professional organization. Recipients are also eligible for an author talk after publication. Which is how Wallace ended up on stage with Carroll. 

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Known for his one-of-a-kind storytelling abilities, comedian and writer Ali Siddiq has taken 2026 by storm. 

His most recent standup specials, "Mondays" and "My Father," have been released to critical acclaim and high viewership numbers. In addition, on April 19, the performer released "Ali Siddiq: From Inside," a raw and in-depth conversation where Siddiq speaks directly to inmates about accountability, choices, and the reality of recidivism in America. 

Now, the comedian has taken to the road, performing across the nation in his Custom Fit comedy tour, which will be arriving in Atlanta on Oct. 16.  

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BODDO Studio, Aishah Rashied Hyman, Atlanta design, West African textiles, Amani Women's Co-op, Kuba cloth, Kente cloth, Atlanta Design Festival, High Point Market, WABE Arts, home decor, small-batch design 

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When “School Daze” premiered in 1988, it was controversial before most audiences ever saw it. Written and directed by Spike Lee, the satirical, music-driven film examines life at Mission College, a fictional historically Black campus, and sparked debate among HBCU leadership even before cameras rolled.

Some administrators objected to the film’s portrayal of campus politics, colorism, and internal conflict, concerns that ultimately shaped where and how the movie was filmed.

“It wasn’t a little bit,” Lee said of the reaction at the time. He pointed to Hugh Gloster, who was then president of Morehouse College. “He refused to let us shoot on campus. Also, Spelman said, ‘Hell no.’”

Denied permission to film at his alma mater and at Spelman, Lee instead shot much of “School Daze” on the campus of what is now Clark Atlanta University, as well as at Morris Brown College.

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🎬 Emory film and media professor Beretta Smith-Shomade curates “40 Years of Brother Spike Lee,” a fall-long retrospective of the director's work, screening free every Wednesday at White Hall. Smith-Shomade talks with WABE Arts and Culture Editor Sherri Daye Scott about two decades of teaching Lee's films, the challenge of narrowing his catalog into one semester, and why Spike Lee's own choice to open with the Netflix reboot of “She's Gotta Have It” surprised even her. 

Podcast Tags / Keywords: Beretta Smith-Shomade, Spike Lee, Emory University, Cinematheque, 40 Years of Brother Spike Lee, School Daze, Netflix, Atlanta film, Black cinema, WABE Arts 

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