Best of Atlanta 2006

The culture of a true metropolis is constructed first on a unique foundation, laid down by generations of residents who are of the place. Then, people come from the outside and build upon that.

So cities as bustling as New York and as provincial as New Orleans can appreciate that a culture is at its most authentic when it pulsates with dynamic tension between the old and the new. There’s a sort of mutually beneficial, implied contract at play here: The city’s original culture begins a conversation, but the dialogue gains its energy when the newcomers join in. The idea is to refresh the old without detracting from that which makes it unique in the first place.

That’s why readers and critics alike can agree on the value of something as young as Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery, an 8-year-old arts collective that is a mash-up of natives and outsiders who’ve created something as timelessly Atlantan as the High Museum.

Better yet, ask yourself this question: What, or who, can you find in Atlanta that you can’t find anywhere else? What is Dallas’ Apache Café? Who is Miami’s Flournoy Holmes?

We salute the poets, artists and madmen who live in Atlanta, draw from Atlanta and put back into Atlanta to create an authentic culture unto itself.

— David Lee Simmons