Paint It Black: Combating Gentrification Through the Arts

Hip-hop, film, fashion, and visual arts—Atlanta is a creative hub of the South. Art is used by community members to beautify. But what happens when it is used by outsiders to erase?

Please join us on December 14 from 2:00pm to 5:30pm for an afternoon of poetry and discussion. PEN America will partner with Scalawag and Auburn Avenue Research Library to host Paint It Black: Combating Gentrification Through the Arts. Led by local Black artists, poets, and cultural organizers, Paint It Black will bring Atlanta residents together to resist gentrification and city-sponsored erasure, and reaffirm the vibrancy and color—the Blackness—of Downtown Atlanta. As populations shift, narrative and representation matter. 

Did you hang out at the Underground? Did your family attend a history congregation in the King District? Whether you represent Sweet Auburn, Edgewood, OFW, or South Downtown, come out on Saturday to celebrate Atlanta history and culture.

The event kicks off with a poetry cypher featuring emerging and established Atlanta poets. Then, a panel discussion featuring art organizers Courtney Brooks of ArtsXchange and T. Lang of The Movement Lab will explore how to support Atlanta’s communities and artistic traditions. 

Courtney Brooks is an Atlanta-based visual artist, art instructor, and curator. Originally from Denver, Colorado, she rekindled her passion for painting by encouraging creativity and connecting communities through the arts.

T. Lang is a choreographer and Artistic Director of her company, T. Lang Dance. Lang engages the next generation of movement artists through her SWEATSHOP summer dance intensive and as an Associate Professor and founding Department Chair of Dance at Spelman College.