Instant karma
Wednesday, Jul. 8 — I’m a casual footie fan, so I’ve been trying to watch a World Cup match here and there as my schedule allows, including the controversial match between the U.S. and Belgium. After Trump called FIFA and demanded U.S. striker Flo Balogun’s suspension be overturned, Belgium went on to trounce the U.S. 4-1. Talk about instant karma. Atlanta will host one final match – a crucial semifinal – on July 15 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Here are more news headlines:
🏡 Macon Area Habitat for Humanity and Macon Pride are partnering to launch Pride Build on July 18 to help LGBTQ+ people attain homeownership in Middle Georgia.
🎤 ICYMI: JT, Cain Culto, and Zee Machine have been announced as entertainment headliners for the Atlanta Pride Festival in October.
🔎 The FBI arrested a New Mexico man for allegedly threatening a mass shooting at a Pride parade in Lubbock, TX.
🕯️ Victoria Cruz, a matriarch of the NYC trans community and a witness to the Stonewall Riots, has died at age 79.
🪩 Madonna’s “Confessions II” has received nearly universal praise as her best album in 20 years. Washington Blade has a roundup of sales news and reviews.
Only love can be so bizarre…
Collin
➡️ Experience Etienné Jackson’s Inward: A Meditation on Memory & Presence, the second annual South Fulton County Invitational exhibition at ArtsXchange’s Jack Sinclair Gallery. This abstract work explores ancestry and transformation through wood, metal, and mixed media. Artist Talk & closing: 3-5 p.m. July 11. Free for all. SPONSOR MESSAGE
AFCRA expands team to support Atlanta LGBTQ+ Community Center
🏳️🌈 The Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority (AFCRA) has hired new team members to support the development of Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ Community Center.
Chiquita Dent was hired as the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Marketing Communications after a four-month search and more than 425 applications. Dent will lead the development of the upcoming capital campaign to fund the project.
AFCRA also hired Hannibal Hendrix Jr., a student at Morehouse College, as its Summer Fellow. In this role, Hendrix will build a framework to turn the nearly 3,000 responses from the 2025 Feasibility Study into a community needs assessment.
➡ Find out more in Katie Burkholder’s report.
Dinosaur Summer. It’s here.
SPONSORED BY THE FERNBANK MUSEUM
🦖 The world’s most famous predator is back—and science is rewriting its story.
At Fernbank’s T. rex: The Ultimate Predator, discover how new research is changing what we know about the “tyrant lizard king,” from feathered ancestors to lightning-fast growth spurts. Explore life-sized models, hands-on interactives, and come face-to-jaws with a full-scale adult T. rex during Dinosaur Summer, now through Sept. 7.
➞ See the king of dinosaurs up close at Fernbank this summer.
Lucille’s gift shop brings body positivity and inclusivity to Candler Park
🛍️ Kristen Eber, who opened Rosefinch Spa in 2016, has opened Lucille’s gift shop just a few blocks away in Atlanta’s Candler Park neighborhood.
The shop carries a line of gifts including size- and gender-inclusive lingerie, books, jewelry, and personal care products. Many of the gifts focus on the senses and pleasure, leaving the gift-giver feeling like they’ve found “the perfect thing,” Eber said.
Eber has curated a collection “for all gender presentations” from local and regional vendors, like lingerie from Trashy Diva in New Orleans and On the Inside in Asheville. Lucille’s carries bralettes for smaller-chested people, underwear with smoothing pockets, and boxers for a masculine-feminine mix.
➡ Read Logan C. Ritchie’s feature here.
‘Maddie’s Secret’ pays homage to melodrama and its queer history
📽️ Written by, directed by, and starring comedian John Early as the titular character of Maddie – an online cooking personality secretly struggling with bulimia – “Maddie’s Secret” is filled to the brim with humor and camp.
The decision for Early, an out gay man, to play Maddie drives home the queer community’s historic connection to melodrama. Douglas Sirk’s films often critiqued societal norms, focused on the inner lives of middle-aged women, and featured queer subtext (and not just because a lot of them starred Rock Hudson). Tennessee Williams, whose plays delivered melodrama in a Southern Gothic setting, was gay and explicitly wove queerness into his work.
But the casting decision also has the audience constantly thinking about the idea of performance itself – another huge component of melodrama.
➡ Read Sammie Purcell’s full review of the film, which is playing at the Plaza Theatre in Atlanta.
➡️ Experience Etienné Jackson’s Inward: A Meditation on Memory & Presence, the second annual South Fulton County Invitational exhibition at ArtsXchange’s Jack Sinclair Gallery. This abstract work explores ancestry and transformation through wood, metal, and mixed media. Artist Talk & closing: 3-5 p.m. July 11. Free for all. SPONSOR MESSAGE
Best Bets
📷 Southern Fried Queer Pride will present “There’s No One Way to Be Non-Binary,” a portrait photography exhibit by Valeska Freire at The Supermarket in Atlanta, July 9-14.
🏳️⚧️ Trans Joy: A Drag Cabaret featuring an all-trans cast is on July 10 at 9 p.m. at Reboot Retrocade & Bar in Macon.
🦐 Sorry Charlie’s will host an all-you-can-eat Lowcountry Boil on July 11 from 6 to 11 p.m. to benefit Savannah Pride Center.
💃 The Armorettes are hosting a Charity Camp Drag Show on July 12 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Atlanta Eagle.
💋 Lips Atlanta will host A Celebration of Giving on July 12 at 8 p.m. in support of AID Atlanta.
➡ Find many more events and activities in our IG stories @thegeorgiavoice.
