Wilcox County’s racially segregated proms

**I wrote this story in April of 2009, as part of my requirements to fulfill my journalism degree at Columbia University. I didn’t want to let it quietly hibernate on my laptop through another prom season, so I’m posting it here. And just to be clear, this issue is not only present in the deep South. Throughout my research, I found recent (within the past decade) segregated proms scattered throughout the US, included a “Russians Only” prom in Brooklyn. I do think, at this point, Wilcox County holds the only remaining segregated prom–though my research is certainly not exhaustive.  **

United We Stand, Divided We Dance: Wilcox County Proms in Black and White

The classrooms at Wilcox County High in Rochelle, Georgia stand empty on a cool, sunny Thursday morning. Whitney Turner, a petite junior with a headful of tiny braids, chocolate skin and wide-set expressive eyes, shifts her weight and studies her feet. Her stiletto heels sink in the soft earth. She’s sandwiched between her identical twin Brittney and their friend Regan Beale. When Whitney turns to survey the crowd, Beale’s long blond hair brushes her cheek. The whole school, black and white, has turned out. Everyone loved Jay McDuffie.

Brittney clings to Whitney and sniffs, swiping her eyes with the back of her hand. Beale stares stoically ahead, yanking at the hem of her baby-doll dress as Britt Peavy, pastor of Pitts Church of God, says, “Jay was always laughing and joking. He wouldn’t want y’all to mope around.”

On cue, Michael McDuffie and Mac McKinney, both 19, crank their engines and, with their trucks still in park, slam on the gas. The quick, satisfying bursts are their own eulogy to the lean, blue-eyed 17-year-old who had been Michael’s brother and McKinney’s best friend—the boy who lived in his John Deere hoodie, loved souped-up trucks and massive parties and four days ago, slammed his Chevy into a tree at 80 mph, ending his life on Rochelle’s infamous S-curves.

As the final roar descends into silence, punctuated by muffled weeping, Whitney thinks about Jay’s father, Police Chief Michael McDuffie.  An hour ago in the high school gym, he had begged his son’s peers—“Please slow down.” February 8, 2009, in the wee hours of Sunday morning, Chief McDuffie had discovered his son’s mangled body.

Atlanta’s Youngblood Gallery, Part 3

This is the final installation of my (incredibly frank–thanks ladies!) interview with Young Blood owners Maggie White and Kelly Teasley. Parts 1 and 2 are here and here. In part 3, we learn about Young Blood’s community events, how the gallery navigates corporate sponsorship and finally, the long-awaited True Hollywood Story of Jolene-the-three-legged cat!

Cheree: So what about Jolene? What’s Jolene’s story?

Kelly: I’m a big animal person and I’m involved in rescue, and we all ganged up on Maggie and convinced her that we needed a shop cat. We went to the county shelter here, and we actually wanted to get a kitten but they didn’t have any, so we picked a black cat because there was like seven black cats there, and she only had three legs, so we decided she needed a break.

Maggie: So we brought her onto the island of misfit toys.

Keep reading at Juxtapoz.com.

 

Atlanta’s Young Blood Gallery, part 2

This is the second part of my interview with owners of Atlanta’s Young Blood Gallery, Kelly Teasley and Maggie White. With backgrounds in art and social work, they began Young Blood as a D.I.Y. gallery in their living room in 1997. Following media hype (Lucky magazine and the Handmade Nation documentary, among others) and much community support, Young Blood Gallery and it’s complementary, all-handmade boutique now nestles among a bike shop, a bakery and an all-vegan restaurant in one of Atlanta’s hippest neighborhoods. Part 1 of this interview lives here, and I’ll post part 3, the final portion of the interview, soon.

Jolene, the three-legged Young Blood mascot

Keep reading at Juxtapoz.

Atlanta’s Young Blood Gallery

On one of my recent trips to Atlanta, I had a frank conversation with Kelly Teasley and Maggie White, the co-proprietors of (the charming, fantastic, fairy-dust magical) Young Blood Gallery and Boutique, as featured in the book and doc Handmade Nation. Highlights include how to be a good neighbor, how to found a punk rock gallery and the conflict that comes with transforming that space into a financially sustainable entity, the awkwardness of becoming a recruiting grounds for Urban Outfitters, and the true-life rags-to-riches story of Jolene, the three-legged-cat.

The interview is kind of mammoth, but these ladies were so forthcoming and informative that I want to post it all. So I’m splitting it into three parts. Check back for the rest soon! For now, head over to Juxtapoz to read Part 1.

Living Walls Conference: Debate Continues

In the comments section of the Burnaway article…

There’s this, from MTM:

“My disappointment with the City is not in the lack of public work or ’street art’ but in the lack of discourse about it especially after this very egocentric grand stand of self professed street art is largely over.

I’m not sure if the conference or Pecha Kucha presentations approached any of the important questions about the act of graffiti and it’s place in art history because I didn’t attend. But from a outsiders critical and curatorial perspective, I think the project lacked some grounding and rigor. There were questions that occurred to me over the course of the thing and I wish there was more discourse about it here. Instead all I hear is “what a great party that was!” So if nothing else, yeah, it was a great gathering.