A photographer who plans to capture the essence of Atlanta’s drag queen scene in a book, an independent filmmaker who will bring to life the story of a 1930s Mississippi writer through a multi-media performance and a female DJ who will produce an event to showcase women DJs who thrive on house music to are among those awarded Idea Capital grants.
Matthew Terrell, well-known for his work in the nationally recognized “Legendary Children” drag queen photo exhibit; Milford Thomas, an independent filmmaker whose silent film “Claire” celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2011 with a rare screening at the Woodruff Arts Center; and DJ lynnée denise, an Atlanta-based DJ striving to bring awareness to the “important influence of female house music DJs and producers through her Diaspora Nights event centered on groundbreaking female artists.” are three of nine recipients of Idea Capital grants this year that totaled nearly $10,000.
Terrell was awarded $1,200, Thomas received $500 and DJ lynée denise’s grant was for $1,100.
(Photo by Matthew Terrell)
“Legendary Children,” featured on such websites as Huffington Post and Vice, takes the road on the show today to Savannah with a photo exhibit and many of the models performing as well.
“Legendary Children” ran into some censorship issues before the show opened, which you can read about here as well as read Terrell’s account for Vice by clicking here.
From a press release this week from Idea Capital announcing the winners:
• Matthew Terrell — Honoring both the artistic and political legacy of drag queens in defining and enlarging gay life in Atlanta, Terrell will create a book combining photography and prose that describes the singular influence of these performers on the life of the city. The book is to be titled “Sweet Tea: Documenting the Queer South.”
And from the Idea Capital website describing Terrell’s project:
Matthew Terrell preserves Atlanta’s heritage as a queer hub through photography and writing about the Southern drag scene. Atlanta has served as a training ground for subversive, legendary drag queens for generations—both Rupaul and Lady Bunny found their start in Atlanta. Similarly, a new breed of young, stiletto-strapping queens have found community in Atlanta. They bring their drag to a wider audience—straight people, trans folk, and gay men young and old come to see their performances. These young queens work alongside and learn from their drag mothers and other kin—they stand up for each other, and all queer people, through the rebellious act of drag.
Terrell will document Atlanta’s drag heritage through a series of biographical blog posts on Huffington Post Gay Voices. The text and images from this series will then be compiled into a limited-edition art book as well as an eBook. The queens featured in this book will be both young and old, Atlanta-native, and Atlanta-adopted. These biographies will be a lasting document of these vital figures within the Southern queer community.
• Milford Thomas — Thirties-era Natchez, Miss., writer Octavia Dockery is the subject of an innovative multi-media performance integrating theater, film and music conceptualized by independent filmmaker Thomas. The work tells the story of this obscure but fascinating woman who continued to make art despite many personal obstacles. “The Miss Dockery Project” is a history based film.
And from the website describing Thomas’ project:
The Miss Dockery Project is an evolving multi-media project (film, live theatre, music) with ultimate plans including a short subjective documentary on her story, and a possible narrative feature film. Writer and director Milford Thomas is researching Octavia Dockery, an historically real character, with the focus of locating the artistic drive that persevered through her increasingly challenging existence. Octavia Dockery (1865–1949) was a writer and accused but acquitted murderer from Natchez, Mississippi, who was born into nineteenth century wealth but died in the squalor of a decaying mansion with a hoard of farm animals and a schizophrenic cousin.
Both the live presentation and documentary will include hand-cranked 35mm faux archival newsreel footage from the era of the sensational murder case based on extant newsprint interviews. Thomas’s goal is to isolate Dockery’s artistic drive as it resonates with him, amplify it, and present that component to an audience with the idea of invigorating and inspiring fellow artists in their commitment to create, even through difficult circumstances.
DJ lynée denise’s project is described as this on the Idea Capital website:
Atlanta is the only southern city known for its vibrant house scene, and every year thousands of people travel to Atlanta for “House in the Park” on Labor Day weekend. Lynnée denise is one of the patrons of this event, not only as a member of the audience, but also as a cultural producer, a DJ. And every year she is left with the same question; where are the women DJs and producers of house music? Her previous travel and research reveals a thread that binds women within the story of house music, and there is little official record of their cultural contributions to the art form. Lynnée will produce an event that will establish historical memory, an archive of creative and networking resources, and exposure for the women involved in the advancement of house music in Atlanta, Georgia. Diaspora Nights: Daughters of the Dust Edition will make certain that women are visible and seen as legitimate practitioners of DJ culture during Atlanta’s most celebrated house music event of the year.
The other winners’ works are just as fascinating. From the press release:
• Jonathan Bouknight — Melding dance and cultural history, Bouknight will create a videotaped dance performance Two-Headed Nightingales, centered on physical and psychological limitations and inspired by the unique physical circumstance of conjoined twins and performers Millie and Christine McKoy.
• Hester L. Furey and Michael Rovinsky — Writer Furey and artist Rovinsky will create a graphic novel, Love and Revolution, centered on the radical early 20th-century Greenwich Village magazine The Masses, which engaged with the major political events of its era including women’s voting rights and the build to World War I.
• Juel D. Lane — Continuing an interest in presenting dance on film, independent choreographer Lane will debut a dance film inspired by the Ernie Barnes’ painting The Maestro and accompanied by music from Atlanta singer Maiesha McQueen.
• T. Lang — Using technology to enliven dance, choreographer T. Lang will create Post Up, a meditation on love and loss using sensors and software to add a new technological dimension to the expressive language of dance.
• Stephanie Pharr, Onur Topal-Sumer and Martha Whittington — A group of female Atlanta artists will honor the groundbreaking 20th-century feminist artist Judy Chicago, using her work as a jumping off point to examine the role of women in the 21st century. Invested in bringing art into the public sphere, hymHouse will unfold over the course of one month in a vacant storefront at Underground Atlanta.
• Benjamin Wills — Using artistic creation to enlarge experience and expression, Wills is collaborating with United States prisoners who will create 500 paper airplanes to be displayed en masse in an Atlanta art venue. The delicate, purposeful planes become metaphors for personal expression and a momentary escape from the confines of the prison walls.
Artistic tributes to drag queens benefit greatly with Idea Capital grants. Last year, Aubrey Longley-Cook was awarded a grant for an embroidery project to detail the faces of many of Atlanta’s rising stars in Atlanta’s drag queen scene.
Longley-Cook came up with a community embroidery project to pay tribute to RuPaul and local drag queens that resulted in the exhibit “Serving Face” that has just been extended to Jan. 18 at Erikson Clock.
Idea Capital has been awarding grants to “creative risk takers” for seven years and is an independent arts funding group.
Out of 106 entries, the organization selected nine artists and collaborators whose “risk-taking works [are] unlikely to be funded by more traditional revenue streams.”
“Within an Atlanta landscape defined by continuing art gallery closings and cutbacks in arts funding, Idea Capital remains committed to ensuring that the city’s creative class finds opportunities to produce and exhibit their work,” the press release stated.