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April Meyers Coping with the coronavirus hasn’t been easy. If you’re still struggling to get your bearings in these stress-laden days, meditation may help you cope! Meditation — and other mindful practices like yoga, deep breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation — can work wonders to dispel stress, calm anxiety, and fuel creativity during this tumultuous time. So whether you decide to practice at home or attend a retreat, give it a go! We've created a quick guide to help you get started on your own mindfulness journey. Why Practice Meditation? The mental and physical health benefits of meditation are vast. Meditation involves sitting or lying still and maintaining a gentle awareness of your breath. By turning your focus inwards and away from everything that’s going on around you — and away from that jumbled mess of thoughts constantly crowding your mind — meditation can calm your body’s stress response and alleviate any tension you’re holding in your muscles. Beyond temporary stress relief, meditation can also improve creativity, therefore making it a valuable tool for artists and art enthusiasts. Meditation can also improve your ability to focus and concentrate, build self-awareness, increase patience, reduce negative emotions, and help you build coping skills to better manage challenging situations that crop up in the future. Meditation and yoga go hand in hand, so if you’re looking for a new exercise to pick up in the new year, consider practicing yoga!. When it comes to yoga, there are many different types to consider. For example, We Know Yoga explains that Yin Yoga involves passive poses like child’s pose and seated stretches to help your body relax and unwind. Preparing Your Meditation Space When it comes to yoga and meditation, your environment will play a very important role in your ability to relax and focus. Set up a little meditation space in a quiet area of your home where you can escape from distractions. Keep this area clean and uncluttered. Incorporate soft lighting, calming artwork and décor that make you feel positive, and a touch of nature like a potted plant or painting of a forested landscape. Other helpful items for your meditation practice include an essential oil diffuser and a comfortable cushion. If you're going to listen to meditation music or a guided meditation session, a soundbar can deliver great-quality sound to the room, allowing you to forego the need for headphones. Getting Started Meditation is a skill that takes practice to master. At first, you will likely find it very challenging to prevent your mind from wandering. Start small and try meditating for just a few minutes so you can get used to the feeling of sitting still and the quiet. Focus on your breath, paying attention to how your stomach expands and contracts as you inhale and exhale. If your mind starts to drift, gently direct your attention back to your breath. It may help to play some relaxing music or guided meditations to keep your mind focused during your practice. Meditation apps like Headspace, Calm, and Insight Timer offer a range of guided meditations that can help you get started and grow your practice. Dealing with Distractions The biggest challenge in meditation is dealing with distractions. Sometimes you may be able to dismiss distractions and allow them to pass without hogging precious mental real estate. Other times, however, you may need to give attention to your distractions so you can better manage them. Wildmind likens this to clearing the weeds from a garden. Give your thoughts a moment to process, see if you can reach some kind of conclusion, and bring your focus back to your breath. Remember, dealing with distractions is an integral part of the meditation process. Instead of feeling frustrated and annoyed with your distractions, use them as a tool to practice patience and acceptance. If you’re anxious about the pandemic, you’re not alone. These unprecedented times have led to an increase in stress levels for most people. While it’s completely natural to feel stressed during times of uncertainty, it’s also important to find ways to cope with negative feelings and protect your mental health. A daily meditation practice can do a lot to help. ArtsXchange provides inclusive and diverse programming to the community, combining arts and cultural exchange. If you'd like to learn more or wish to support our mission, contact us at 404-624-4211.

Lisa Nanette Allender is a SAG-AFTRA actor and writer. Lisa enjoys writing poetry and has been published in numerous journals, magazines and anthologies. Lisa has been studying Usui Reiki for over five years now, and will receive her certification as a Reiki Master, soon. She is launching her Reiki practice in 2021. Several years ago, I read about a program begun in Detroit for artists in every discipline, which guaranteed them a free house to live in -- and eventually own -- if they were willing to move into neighborhoods described as being in need of artists. Every city knows that when artists move in, the physical surroundings are made more beautiful, and quality of life improves, and then, commerce usually follows. So we find ourselves in this time, the time of CoronaVirus and COVID-19. And here in the United States, we face an ever-more-urgent reckoning of race as well as this international pandemic. This race reckoning is long overdue. We find ourselves (Full disclosure: this writer is white) not quite as woke as we believed. We find ourselves hounding our friends of color, unfairly asking them to help us resolve the systemic racism from which we (whites) continue to benefit. So, how do we define the role of the arts, the role of the artist? What can we ask for, from artists? When asked how to best fulfill one’s life as an artist, accomplished director and theatre artist Kenny Leon said, “The only thing you have on this earth is your time and your talents.” If too many Americans thought they also “have” luxury cars, fancy homes and designer clothing, the Pandemic has made clear that those are merely possessions, and do not raise our status, and certainly not our quality of life during a time of quarantine and self-isolation. And with nearly fifty (50) million Americans unemployed, a full refrigerator and people and companion animals in a home where we can hold each other, are what we value. Indeed, “gratefulness” has become “a thing”, not just an aphorism. Our time in quarantine, and self-isolation With a lucky 40% of Americans able to “work from home”, and another 40% going to work as essential workers (not only medical personnel, but grocery and pharmacy clerks, delivery drivers, truck drivers)and 20% (and rising) completely without employment, there’s never been more time spent at home, as event after event has been cancelled. No theatre, no movies, no sporting events. Americans must learn how to survive -- perhaps thrive -- when left, literally, “to their own devices.” Our electronic devices, that is. What connects us, what provides true communion, is interacting with others, being inspired by others. With no way to connect (other than “virtually”), we feel bereft. Actors and other performers no longer have in-person, live audiences. From this void, “online” or “virtual” performances have begun to sprout up, searching for viewers just as sunflowers bend toward brightness. The necessity has been to create a new way of “seeing”, even as we discover a new way of “viewing” and experiencing, art. Visionaries who illuminate our present reality, and offer solace for our future The case can be made that artists are who we turn to when we need comfort, when we need assistance, both individually and when our society suffers the open wound, bleeding afresh. We look to artists to balm that wound. In modern-day racist America, artists such as writer/filmmaker/director Jordan Peele, multi-hypenate writer/actor/singer/rapper Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) create works that allow the emotional to become visceral. Much like a victim of abuse will often cut herself, to ameliorate the emotional pain that she is afraid to feel, so that she can bleed, in order to make it real, so do we lean-into, or more accurately, perhaps, we bleed-into the pain, and what we cannot face on the television or on our computer screens: the real-life white knee, breaking the neck of George Floyd, the bullet wounds in the backs of black men (Jacob Blake, and too many others to list here) and black women (Breonna Taylor, and too many others to list here), the shots from law enforcement within two seconds of arriving at a playground, that kill a ten-year-old Tamir Rice, who was pretending with his equally-young friends -- ironically -- to be police officers. We look to artists to help us see these all-too-real atrocities through the lens of the film genre’ of suspense thrillers/horror, rap/hip-hop music, and dramatic plays. Jordan Peele’s Lovecraft Country exposes the realities of race relations in mid-20th-century America, and uses monsters as metaphor for what black people faced -- and still do. In Peele’s “fiction”, extraordinary powers bubble up within those who have been subjugated, spat on, dehumanized. Similarly, This Is America, Donald Glover’s explosive music video that adds an exclamation point to his music/lyrics, penetrates our collective numbness as we have borne witness to repeated beatings, chokings, shootings of black people, by law enforcement. And while Glover’s This Is America is reflective of American culture, and gun violence, it also feels eerily prescient (it was released over a year before George Floyd’s gruesome murder) in scenes where groups gather, and raise their arms, in a bid for justice -- however it may be won. We cheer for the protagonist in this video, because we need him to survive. In these Pandemic times, we are all trying, to survive. Pandemic Poetry In the week following 9/11, The New York Times received over 5,000 poems. The editors were inundated with submissions of poetry from well-known authors and poets as well as regular folks trying to process that horrific atrocity. I still recall a few lines from a poem by Nikki Giovanni from that time: Please, come have dinner with me These words are words we all are thinking now, alone in our homes, dreaming of a mask-free day when we can gather, unafraid, in a restaurant, where we may dine, inside a space other than our home. The words reverberate from one terrible time, to this terrible time, and it is no accident that poetry has once again, found a way to reach out to us. In the past few months, online readings have taken root, including the Performance Poets of Palm Beach, a First Sundays afternoon reading with featured authors as well as a generous Open Mic. Dustin Brookshire’s Wild & Precious Life Series features acclaimed authors every Wednesday night. The title of the series is part of the final line of a famous Mary Oliver poem: What will you do with your one wild and precious life? For Atlantans, the famous Java Monkey Speaks series has gone virtual as well, with award-winning poet, host, Theresa Davis serving as raconteur every Sunday night for a stellar Open Mic, with voices from everywhere. This writer was once asked “Lisa, you are an upbeat person; why is everything you write, so dark?” I heard myself say “You write what you don’t talk about, Dad.” We need artists to give us the truth. We need truths that illuminate other truths. Or lies that illuminate truths. Author William Faulkner said: “The past is never past. The past is still here.” We need artists who are unafraid, who will challenge us, not only in their roles as truth-tellers, but in their roles as sages, as comforters, as seducers, as those who ask us questions, who make us question. Everything. Artists allow us a way into the world, by reflecting our current events, and/or creating a new universe -- a utopia, or conversely, an apocalyptic dystopia. Consider Sibling Rivalry Press’ (SBR) tagline: Disturb and Enrapture The young publishing house which offers opportunity to all writers, specializes in giving voice to those voices traditionally silenced: LGBTQI+. SBR knows that the dynamic of art is to challenge us, and captivate us. Challenge the status quo, by disturbing our preconceived notions of what that status quo, is. Captivate us by the rapture of words, evocative/provocative. Change us! This blog was first Published in In Motion Magazine September 25, 2020

Shelley Danzy January 25, 2021 Read the original full article. “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times,” the great singer and activist Nina Simone once said. It’s easy to believe that she supernaturally perceived the Jack Sinclair Gallery at ArtsXchange. The space uses her quote, a beautiful truth, as a welcoming wall text. The exhibition truth 2 power: ART IN A TIME OF UPHEAVAL, on view through Sunday (January 31), features diverse and socially conscious work by resident artists Atu, photographer Jim Alexander, N’Dieye Gray Danavall, Theresa Davis, Carolyn Renée, Tafawa, Lisa Tuttle (also the exhibit’s curator), Kenneth Zakee and Sugacane Syrup artists Ugo Agoruah, Thomas Bess and Choze. Jack Sinclair Gallery is inside the ArtsXchange (Southeast Community Cultural Center) building in East Point. It’s named for the late Jack Whitney Sinclair, the installation sculpture artist who created the old Arts Exchange gallery space in the Grant Park neighborhood. Before joining the center, he’d started what was known as the Mattress Factory in Little Five Points and the Jack Sinclair Letterpress Studio. Under the leadership of Alice Lovelace, founder, and board chair, ArtsXchange has been a performance and studio home for artists since 1984, moving to its East Point home in 2019. Even COVID-19 can’t stop the creativity. ArtsXchange has shifted to virtual offerings that range from online acting classes for senior citizens to a writer’s workshop series and open-air artisan marketplaces, plus artist talks and classes. The focus on “interdisciplinary, intergenerational, multicultural” art “committed to social justice” remains. LOCATION, ETC.: 2148 Newnan St., East Point. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and noon-4 p.m. Saturday for socially distanced in-person visits. Masks required. CDC guidelines apply. Stay up to date on Sinclair Gallery events on its Facebook and Instagram pages. 404.624.4211.​ MORE ABOUT ARTSXCHANGE: Housed in the former Jere Wells Elementary School, with 20,000 square feet of space on four acres of land. Has 14 resident artists. Visual artists such as artist/educator Kevin Cole, Beverly Buchanan (1940-2015), and Louis Delsarte (1944-2020) have been part of its community. PREVIOUS EXHIBITS: Signs of the Times: Documenting the Power of the People, 1960-Today with documentary photographer Jim Alexander, whose work is part of the current show, and the juried show Scattering Dreams: Art in Response to Global Crisis, early in 2020. Kenneth Zakee's "Black Power" (2020), a fused textile applique, is part of the "truth to power" exhibit on view through Sunday. (All photos courtesy of the gallery) “Ida B. Wells” (2020) by Lisa Tuttle is pencil and watercolor on vellum. Wells (1862-1931) was an investigative journalist, educator, early civil rights leader, and a founder of the NAACP Also part of “truth to power” are “Creator” (left) and “Cornered Wisdom” by Atu, a master wood sculptor in the ancient West African tradition, WHAT’S NEXT: Sinclair Gallery will hold a solo show featuring Atu; invitational and juried shows; and another resident artist show. In February it launches the podcast series Art Shouts. Week 1 will focus on art and well-being and Week 2 on art and justice. Week 3 will focus on Sinclair Gallery and ArtsXchange events, with Week 4 focusing on art activism. MOST MEMORABLE: At the height of the Black Lives Matter movement last year, outside walls at the ArtsXchange building became a backdrop for community murals by emerging artists. A large cross-section of neighbors attended the unveiling, which was accompanied by music and visual performances. LAST WORD: “We’re trying to keep social justice and the arts relevant and alive,” says Vanessa Manley, who co-chairs the ArtsXchange board. “In the midst of everything we’re going through in this country, our artists were still creating. We really want this gallery — our entire cultural center — to be a destination for folks who want to hear a message in the art. We’re resilient.”

Signs of the Times: Documenting the Power of the People, 1960 - Today Prolific Photography Exhibition extended through Nov.30 th 2020 by Popular Demand. RELEASE: November 9, 2020 Jim Alexander in the gallery- AHampton 2020 Signs of the Times: Documenting the Power of the People, 1960-Today, is an extraordinarily moving exhibit highlighting decades of racial and social injustice through the (literal) lenses of five Atlanta-based photographers. The exhibit documents the nonviolent protests of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s to today’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations and recent protests of police killings. Captured in these powerful moments in history is the raw emotion of black and brown people as they fight against systemic racism and injustice. The Signs of the Times exhibit opened on Sept. 15th and has been extended through Nov. 30, 2020, in the Jack Sinclair Gallery at the ArtsXchange located at 2148 Newnan Street; East Point, GA 30344. Lisa Tuttle, the curator of the gallery, believed that extending the exhibit would allow more people to engage with this powerfully moving exhibition. “This intergenerational exhibit shows the breadth and historical range – from Jim Alexander’s work spanning more than 65 years to Davion Alson’s work as a fresh and booming young artist. We understand that this struggle didn’t just start with George Floyd in 2020; it’s an amazing continuum of time that’s been documented through the contributions of all of these artists,” says Lisa Tuttle. This exhibition is in conjunction with the 2020 Atlanta Celebrates Photography festival. Say Their Names - Dennis Morton Jr. The artists featured in the exhibit include Jim Alexander, an award-winning documentary photographer who has spent over fifty years refining what he calls the art of documentary photography. A photojournalist, teacher, activist, Alexander has amassed an impressive collection of Black culture and human rights photographs. He is a 2006 inductee into The HistoryMakers, and in 1995 when the city of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs began its annual "Master Artist" program, Jim Alexander was the first artist to be chosen. Davion Alston, winner of a Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia Working Artist Project fellowship, Alston’s documentary work focuses on social injustice and protests the killing of young black men in America. Sheila P. Bright, an award-winning photographer best known for her works Plastic Bodies, Suburbia, Young Americans, and her most recent series #1960Now. Sheila is the author of #1960Now: Photographs of Civil Rights Activist and Black Lives Matter Protest. Dennis Morton, a photographer whose work is featured in the Fulton County Arts and Culture Public Art program and can be found in multiple Fulton County government buildings. Morton has participated in numerous exhibits throughout Atlanta, and finally Lynsey Weatherspoon, as a member of a modern vanguard of photographers, is often called on to capture heritage and history in real-time. Lynsey Weatherspoon’s work has been exhibited at The African American Museum in Philadelphia and Photoville NYC. She is an awardee of The Lit List, 2018. Weatherspoon’s work has been featured in print and online in The New York Times, USA Today, NPR, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, to name a few. Jam'76 - Dennis Morton Jr. The ArtsXchange - Southeast Community Cultural Center, in its 37th year, has always been a haven for the arts community in and around Atlanta. Since opening, it has been celebrated as an exemplary and unique center for community, civic, and arts engagement. The ArtsXchange offers event and performance spaces, artist studios, classes, literary events, survival sessions for musicians and visual artists, wellness classes and more. Some of their programs include The Jack Sinclair Gallery, Jikki Riley Community Library, and the Ebon Dooley Art & Justice Awards. The ArtsXchange requires participants to wear a face mask and social distance while inside the facility. For a complete list of Covid-19 procedures and more info please visit the website at: https://www.artsxchange.org/exhibitions/signs-of-the-times . Lisa Tuttle in the gallery- AHampton 2020

East Point, GA September 18, 2020 The ArtsXchange is proud to present The Ebon Dooley Arts & Justice Awards in recognition of individuals and organizations that, like its namesake, Ebon Dooley, work to improve the lives and futures of the communities they serve. On Saturday, September 26, 2020 at 7pm, The ArtsXchange will honor five extraordinary change agents, during the 3rd Annual Awards Ceremony. This year the event will take place online in a Facebook Live ceremony. The 2020 honorees include: Bridge Builder: Judy Conder Emerging Leader: Sarah Oso Social Justice Champion: Adelina Nicholls (GLAHR) Economic Justice Champion: Elisabeth Omilami (Hosea Feeds) Change Maker: Oronike Odeleye This moment of recognition is significant, as the nation faces uncertain times. To be able to lift up people whose light of service shines brightly, will serve to inspire many. The power of their activism offers encouragement and hope. The Ebon Dooley awards ceremony will highlight the civic accomplishments of our deserving honorees. A call to activism has particular meaning for the ArtsXchange, an institution with a 35-year history of activating change through the arts in service to justice for all people. We salute the 2020 honorees in the name of the ArtsXchange’s legendary founder, Ebon Dooley. This night of virtual celebration and significance will feature a special viewing of Urban Bush Women’s “Give Your Hands to Struggle,” a powerful performance by scholar, griot, and revolutionary rapper, Dontay Wimberly, and a musical tribute performed by Miss Clark Atlanta University, Amiya Crockrom. _________________________________________________________________________________ The Ebon Dooley Arts & Justice Awards, established in 2018, recognizes individuals and organizations that work to improve the lives and future of their communities. Ebon Dooley (1942-2006) was a caring, creative, brilliant, insightful, progressive, proactive, and delightfully charismatic community activist who established the ArtsXchange in 1983. A long-time advocate for the fair distribution of wealth, Ebon brought the spirit of grassroots collectivity to all of his efforts striving to achieve freedom, dignity, and equality for all people. He understood that these interconnected cornerstones of humanity provide the opportunity for creative expression, community building, and empowerment. CONTACT: Moses Kilpatrick program.manager@artsxchange.org Office: 404-624-4211

Signs of the Times: Documenting the Power of the People, 1960 - Today Jack Sinclair Gallery September 15, 2020 - October 31, 2020 With ages spanning five decades, the photographers in this exhibition - Jim Alexander, Davion Alston, Sheila Pree Bright, Dennis Morton, and Lynsey Weatherspoon - use their cameras to document grassroots racial and social justice advocacy - from the Civil Rights marches of the 1960s to today's Black Lives Matter demonstrations and police killings protests. This exhibition is curatorially focused on the texts, signs, and banners carried by participants. We will ask viewers to think about the ways that a practice combining activism and documentary photography has evolved over time? What is new in this digital age? What is the power of the photographic image to affect cultural shift? All of the photographers are currently Atlanta-based. On exhibit will be color/b&w photographs, installation, and video works. Funding provided in part by a grant from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. Our programs are made possible with support from our many individual donors, our sponsors, and partners. Signs of the Times Artist Talk Saturday,  October 17, 2020 / 2:00 PM- 3:30 PM VIRTUAL Facebook Live Pre-register to visit the Jack Sinclair Gallery! Pre-registering helps us track attendance data, maintain safe visitor capacity, and keep the office germ-free. ArtsXchange COVID-19 Procedures ArtsXchange recognizes that ensuring the health and safety of our campus requires excellent communication. Importantly, it requires an acknowledgment that success must be a shared responsibility, where everyone feels a common sense of ownership and accountability. Thank you for doing your part to ensure our success! ArtsXchange is asking for your help in maintaining the safety and health of our visitors, staff, and Studio Artists. Please follow the guidelines below while visiting our space. - Any visitor who is sick or showing symptoms of COVID-19 or believes they have been exposed to the virus should self-isolate and stay home. Please wait to visit until you have been cleared by a doctor. - Visitors must wear PPE (ideally a face mask and gloves) while inside. This requirement does not apply to children under the age of 2. - All visitors must wash their hands in the bathroom or use provided hand sanitizer upon entry. - Visitors should maintain six feet of social distance from one another. - Follow signs noting the number of people allowed in one space at a time. - Follow signs noting the direction of traffic in the galleries. - Refrain from touching artwork or walls.

The  Board of Directors for the Southeast Community Cultural Center, d/b/a The ArtsXchange, met on Sunday, July 19, 2020, and decided, in the interest of public safety and an abundance of caution due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) numbers continuing to increase, that the ArtsXchange will remain closed during the month of August 2020. The new projected reopen date is slated for September 1, 2020, and will be in accordance with public health guidelines from the governmental authority making those recommendations. If, for any reason, the projected reopening date is met with further COVID-19 threats to public safety, the ArtsXchange board will review that information and make an informed decision about when to reopen safely. ​ Carolyn Morris ArtsXchange Executive Director ​

The inaugural Ebon Dooley Arts & Justice Awards, named after the ArtsXchange’s legendary founder, will highlight four artists and activists using their respective platforms to advance access and justice. On this occasion, we gladly honor Dianne Mathiowetz with our Social Justice Champion Award. We believe our Social Justice Champions should demonstrate a history of working individually and/or with others to achieve improvements in the human condition. This work might include, for example, waging campaigns for quality, affordable and accessible health care, education, job training, and housing; helping to guarantee every person’s right to live, work, get educated, receive medical attention, create families, and play anywhere, regardless of race, ethnicity, birthplace, nationality, or gender identity. Dianne Mathiowetz has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to lending her voice and energy to organizing for social change. We salute her work as a partner in the coalition of artists and activists known as 50 Artists/50 Shots that hosted several public events focusing on police killings and political prisoners. In addition, we recognize her work as Vice President of the Board of Directors of WRFG 89.3FM, and support for workers’ demands for living wages, healthcare and other benefits. We congratulate Dianne on her lifetime of standing up and showing up for artists, activists and workers on a variety of issues, and we invite you to celebrate with us as we honor her at REVIVAL! Grab your tickets here.

The inaugural Ebon Dooley Arts & Justice Awards, named after the ArtsXchange’s legendary founder, will highlight four artists and activists using their respective platforms to advance access and justice. On this occasion, we gladly honor Tasnim Mosabber with our Emerging Leader Award. Ebon Dooley invested in the development of young leaders. He himself served as mentor to many and empowered the voice of the next generation of Change Makers. In this same spirit, the ArtsXchange offers the Emerging Leaders Award. We honor our Emerging Leader for their potential for future impact and a willingness to receive guidance and mentorship along the way. Tasnim Mosabber is an artist who has demonstrated a history of using her platform to amplify issues and bring visibility to communities striving for justice. From high school through college and beyond, Tasnim has directed her art to inspire uplift. Tasnim is currently the Outreach Coordinator for Raksha, Inc, an organization that works with South Asian survivors of domestic, sexual and other violent crimes. Her Goddess Collection inspires and evokes the power and nobility that is carried within every woman. In her free time, Tasnim enjoys painting, hiking and watching movies. She particularly enjoys books and movies about the Indian subcontinent during the pre-colonial era. We congratulate Tasnim on using her platform to highlight issues and inspire her peers, and we invite you to celebrate with us as we honor her at REVIVAL! Grab your tickets here. The Emerging Leaders Award is made possible by the generous support of longtime ArtsXchange partner, Alternate ROOTS, a member-driven national resource for artists and cultural organizers in the southeast, who for over 42 years has championed social and economic justice and the work of artist activists working in communities. We are honored to work with Alternate ROOTS to provide the necessary training for an Emerging Leader who is committed to the work using the arts to uproot oppression and to fight for social justice. Visit https://alternateroots.org/ for more information.

The Inaugural Ebon Dooley Arts & Justice Awards, named after the ArtsXchange’s legendary founder, will highlight four artists and activists using their respective platforms to advance access and justice. On this occasion, we gladly honor shelia turner and Sistagraphy with our Change Maker Award. When shelia turner recognized the relevance and importance of documenting the culture of her community and how it impacted the African American experience, she wanted to make sure history and the photographic art community did not overlook the legacy of African American Women photographers. shelia turner, who passed away this year, and Sistagraphy encourage lifelong learning and promotion of the photographic arts through interpretive theme-based exhibitions, educational programs, and community outreach. We believe a Change Maker should demonstrate real, tangible impact on their community, and it should be obvious to see how their presence provided a clear “before” and “after” effect. Thus, when we think of the cultural community in Atlanta, the South and beyond, the legacy of shelia turner and Sistagraphy as agents of change is easy to see. We congratulate shelia as a leader, and Sistagraphy as a creative institution, and we invite you to celebrate with us as we honor both at REVIVAL! Grab your tickets here. .