Cabbagetown neighbors rally to rebuild amphitheater
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The amphitheater will be more accessible and inviting and connected to neighborhood's history. Renderings and photo: Courtesy of Martin Rickles Studio.
Cabbagetown residents are raising cash to turn the historic neighborhood's amphitheater into a performance space echoing the popular area's working-class and musical past.
Driving the news: The nonprofit — Cabbagetown Initiative — is raising $200,000 to build the Joyce Brookshire Memorial Amphitheatre in the community's central park.
Catch up quick: Brookshire, who died in 2017, was a singer-songwriter whose music covered her North Georgia mountains upbringing, social issues and the neighborhood she loved.
- She moved to Cabbagetown in the 1940s as a young girl when her mom took a job at the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill.
Why it matters: The design of the performance space draws inspiration from the neighborhood's mill village origins and Appalachian craft traditions like weaving while also celebrating Cabbagetown music history.
Vibes: That history — Appalachian folk songs, Smoke, Cat Power, porch-front playing — is very much part of its present, Carley Rickles of Martin Rickles Studio (MRS), the local firm leading the project, said at a recent fundraiser.
Zoom in: The amphitheater's design includes a woven acoustic backdrop and accessible seating at the top and bottom tiers.
- The tiers step down into a basin, so MRS has blended stormwater management elements into the vision.
What they're saying: "It's a stage, literally and figuratively," John Dirga, executive director of nonprofit Cabbagetown Initiative, told neighbors.
- "It's a place for speaking out, for raising your hands, raising your fist, crying out, calling out, saying things, singing things — things that bind together."
Between the lines: Cabbagetown has fought to preserve and grow its art-focused identity. Residents are protective of the Krog Street Tunnel and the Forward Warrior mural festival keeps walls interesting.
- The amphitheater is an extension of that ethos, Dirga said.
Fun fact: Cabbagetown's other greenspace, Esther Peachy Lefevre Park, is named in honor of a folk singer, artist and former Atlanta City Councilmember who also championed Brookshire's work.
What's next: Atlanta City Council member Liliana Bakhtiari and Park Pride are contributing $150,000 to the effort.
- Residents are halfway to their $50,000 goal, Dirga told Axios.