Atlanta LGBTQ Culture Explorers

‘Emma’ and dinner at the Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse

Sat, May 30 · 6:00 PM EDT

Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse, 499 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta, GA, US

Belle Esprit and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company are staging the world premiere of Emma, a new, modernized adaptation of Jane Austen's witty 1815 novel by Atlanta playwright Claire F. Martin. This is Martin’s third installment in her ongoing "Road to Austen" cycle following Sense and Sensibility (2024) and last year's Pride and Prejudice, which ArtsATL praised as "a charming and even moving adaptation" and BroadwayWorld called "pure magic." Belle Esprit, the feminist theater collective Martin founded in 2023, focuses on adaptations of women writers and centers women and nonbinary perspectives.

ArtsATL's Benjamin Carr opened his review by calling this Emma "a delightful, must-see take" on Austen's romantic comedy. Martin plays the title role opposite Luke Robbins as Mr. Knightley, and the production borrows a Phoebe Waller-Bridge / Fleabag register, with Emma sharing fourth-wall asides as her matchmaking schemes unravel. Carr singles out Kevin Roost's performance as both Mr. Elton and Frank Churchill - often within the same scene - and the chemistry between Martin and Robbins.

Note: I have purchased the remaining 14 tickets available on the Main Floor.

Game Plan
6:00 – Gather in the Lobby Bar. I will have our tickets.

6:15 – Doors open for seating and dinner. They’ll want to seat us together. Once inside, dinner is available.

7:30 – Performance begins

Pricing
Tickets - $41 per person (includes a group discount).

• I have already purchased all 14 remaining Main Floor tickets for this performance, to get a group discount. You can pay me via Zelle, Venmo, or Cash

Dinner – is on your own in the venue itself. See their menu.

Location
Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse

• Address: 499 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta, GA 30308
• Close to Marta
• Closest parking is the Emory University Hospital Midtown Parking Deck, located directly across the street from the front doors of The Shakespeare Tavern on Peachtree Street

Note on RSVPs:
Please update your RSVP if you cannot attend. Since I pay for the tickets, it's important to know that you will attend.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Amy Sherald + Isamu Noguchi at the High Museum

Sat, Jun 13 · 11:30 AM EDT

High Museum of Art, 1280 Peachtree Road,, Atlanta, GA, US

Join us for two significant art exhibits at the High in June. Amy Sherald: American Sublime - the Columbus, Georgia native's first major museum retrospective, organized by SFMOMA - brings roughly fifty paintings spanning two decades to Atlanta as the tour's fourth and final stop, following sold-out runs at SFMOMA, the Whitney, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. The Whitney called Sherald "one of the foremost artists of our time"; SFMOMA places her, alongside Edward Hopper, Alice Neel, and Kerry James Marshall, as "one of America's defining contemporary portraitists." ArtMajeur called the exhibit "more than a retrospective; it's a correction."

Sherald's grayscale skin tones, vibrant wardrobes, and quietly monumental compositions reframe who is permitted to occupy the American portrait canon - and Essence captured the show's charge precisely, calling her sitters "stylists of self" rather than mere subjects. The final gallery includes Trans Forming Liberty (2024), Sherald's Statue of Liberty reimagined as a trans woman holding a torch of marigolds - the rare explicitly political work in a body that the artist, who is openly queer, frames as "a salve, a call to remember our shared humanity and an insistence on being seen." Sherald trained in Atlanta, graduated from Clark Atlanta University, and won the High's Driskell Prize in 2018.

Isamu Noguchi: "I am not a designer," the first design retrospective of the Japanese American artist's work in nearly twenty-five years, organized by the High and co-curated by Monica Obniski and Marin R. Sullivan, with nearly two hundred objects across furniture, lighting, stage sets, playgrounds, and unrealized architectural models. The show takes Noguchi's 1949 disavowal as a provocation rather than a thesis. Architect Magazine praised it for treating "design as lived experience rather than collectible object"; design historian Daniella Ohad has called Noguchi's design scope unsurpassed by any American designer of his generation.

Atlanta is more entangled with that legacy than most cities realize - the show coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of Playscapes in Piedmont Park, Noguchi's only United States playground completed in his lifetime, recently restored. Worth seeking out: the model for the unrealized Carmel house Noguchi designed in 1955 for artists Liam O'Gallagher and Robert Rheem - his only commission for what he called an "imaginary abode" came from a same-sex artist couple, conceived as "an arrangement of moods, a wide variety of sensory experiences."

Note: You must purchase your own time-entry ticket(s) for the Amy Sherald exhibit - see instructions below.

Event Plan

11:30am - Brunch (optional) - Boqueria - Colony Square

• Address: 1221 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta GA 30361
• Restaurant offers a brunch menu
• 4 minute walk to the Museum
• To join for brunch, you must post a comment below.

1:00pm - High Museum - Amy Sherald American Sublime Exhibit

• Address: 1280 Peachtree Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30309
• You must purchase a timed entry ticket for 1:00pm on June 13th - do so ASAP, as this exhibit will sell out
• Tickets are free to Museum members and $28.50 for non-members.
• This will be a self-guided tour; the Museum is not offering docent tours or ticket discounts, given expected crowds.

2:00pm - High Museum - Isamu Noguchi: “I am not a designer” Exhibit

• We will meet back in the lobby just prior to 2:00pm
• The Museum has graciously offered our group a free docent tour of Noguchi's exhibit for those members who purchased an Amy Sherald ticket.
• There is no additional charge to see the Noguchi exhibit (if you joined the Sherald exhibit).

We hope you'll be able to join us for two of this season's must-see exhibits. Remember to purchase your time-entry ticket for Amy Sherald and post a comment if you will join us for brunch, to ensure the restaurant can accommodate all of us.

Cocktails in the Garden: Atlanta Botanical Garden

Thu, Jul 23 · 5:30 PM EDT

Atlanta Botanical Garden, 1345 Piedmont Avenue Northeast, Atlanta, GA, US

The Atlanta Botanical Garden's Cocktails in the Garden - its long-running Thursday after-hours series - returns for 2026 with a new focus: each Thursday from June 11 through July 30 carries a regional theme in tribute to Atlanta's role as a FIFA World Cup host city. We've chosen the European Garden Party (Thursday, July 23), included with Garden admission.

In addition to specialty cocktails and curated playlists is the headlining exhibition: Niki in the Garden, the Garden's encore presentation marking its 50th anniversary, with roughly 41 monumental sculptures by French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle distributed across the grounds and conservatories. The Garden bills it as one of the largest outdoor presentations of her work ever mounted in North America; the original 2006 installation here drew major regional acclaim and remains fondly remembered by longtime Atlanta arts audiences.

Event Plan:

5:30p.m. - ABG Cocktails Event

• Meet at the entrance to the Atlanta Botanical Garden
• Address: 1345 Piedmont Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30309
• Tickets are $27.95 and can be purchased online at the ABG Box Office
• Be sure to purchase tickets for Thursday, July 23rd - the date matters

7:45 - Dinner at Longleaf Restaurant in the ABG (optional)

• We secured 20 dinner spots at Longleaf, the restaurant in the park. As of May 18th, 9 of those spots have already been claimed.
• You must post a comment below if you want to join for dinner - simply RSVP-ing to this invite does not guarantee you a spot.
• ASK: If you are able to book an additional table for ~4-8 people at Longleaf restaurant, we can expand the number of open dinner slots for this event.

We hope you can join for what promises to be a fun evening.

Docent tour of Dior: Crafting Fashion at SCAD FASH

Sat, Aug 8 · 11:00 AM EDT

SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film, 1600 Peachtree Street Northwest, Atlanta, GA, US

Dior: Crafting Fashion is the first presentation of the House of Dior in the Southeastern United States, organized exclusively by Christian Dior Couture in partnership with SCAD and curated by Hélène Starkman, Cultural Projects Director and Exhibitions Curator for Dior. The show pulls nearly one hundred archival pieces - several never before publicly exhibited - across seven thematic galleries that trace the maison from Christian Dior's 1947 "New Look" to current Artistic Director Jonathan Anderson, the first designer to lead both Dior's women's and men's collections since the founder himself. Fashionista notes the exhibition lands ahead of Dior's 80th anniversary; the SCAD-Dior collaboration follows 2025's Christian Dior: Jardins Rêvés at SCAD's Lacoste campus in Provence, which drew record-breaking attendance.

ArtsATL's Robert Stalker singled out the central gallery, The Dior Gardens, as the exhibit's breathtaking centerpiece - flowers suspended from the ceiling, gowns bathed in pink light - and praised the curatorial choice to recast underappreciated designers: architect-trained Gianfranco Ferré's 1996 embroidered silk evening gown, and Maria Grazia Chiuri (Dior's first female creative director) revealed as a masterly couturier beyond her slogan T-shirts. The exhibit closes with Stars in Dior, a room dedicated to Hollywood adopters from Rita Hayworth and Elizabeth Taylor to Marlene Dietrich (who reportedly told producers, "No Dior, no Dietrich") and includes John Galliano's 1996 Diana slip dress.

We’ve secured a private docent tour for our group.

Event Plan

11:00 – Brunch – The Hive (confirmed)

• Address: 1845 Peachtree Rd NW, Atlanta, GA 30309
• The restaurant is a 5-minute drive to the Museum
• You must post a comment below if you wish to join for brunch.
• FYI: This restaurant will not issue separate checks for large groups. You’ll settle up with me.

1:00 – SCAD FASH Exhibit docent tour, just for our group

• Address: 1600 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta, GA 30309
• Group Admission is $5.00 per person – includes admission and docent-led tour (you will pay me)
• Note: SCAD FASH caps docent tours to 20 people maximum.

We hope you can join for what promises to be an engaging exhibit.