News Briefs: Burkhart’s controversy; housing affordability strategy; poet laureate to read

UPDATE: A deal to sell Burkhart’s, the Midtown gay bar renowned for its drag shows, has fallen through and the establishment remains closed. Georgia Voice reported over the weekend that Burkhart’s ha been sold in the wake of owner Palmer Marsh’s racist Facebook posts. Wussy magazine recently published Marsh’s posts from 2015 after they began circulating on social media. Many of the bar’s staff and most of the regular drag performers resigned last week. In a Jan. 26 post on Facebook, Burkhart’s general manager Don Hunniwell said Marsh had sold the bar and it would reopen soon under new management. However, Project Q reported over the weekend that the deal to sell the bar had fallen through and would remain closed.

Fresh from a victory in requiring affordable housing along the BeltLine, Atlanta City Councilmember Andre Dickens is trying to form a multi-city coalition to create a regional – even statewide – housing affordability strategy. Dickens said he has reached out to leaders of several metro Atlanta cities who he had heard are also working on “housing affordability and housing diversity.” And he’s looking even farther afield: “We reached out as far as Augusta, too,” he said. Read the full story at Reporter Newspapers.

Tracy K. Smith, the current U.S. poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner, will give a reading of her poems on Saturday, Feb. 17, at 4 p.m. at Emory University’s Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. The event is open to the public at no charge. Tickets are not required, but seating will be limited. Books and a limited-edition broadside will be for sale at the reading, with a signing immediately after. Visit this link for more information.