9 essential Atlanta arts events this weekend

Each week, ArtsATL curates a selection of the most exciting arts and culture events happening in Atlanta this weekend, highlighting nine must-see experiences. 

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Thursday

Hell’s Kitchen is a new musical from 16-time Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys, whose new songs about growing up in New York inspire the story of the rebellious Ali, who is stifled by an overprotective single mother. Ali is lost until she meets her mentor, a neighbor who opens her heart and mind to the power of the piano. It’s at the Fox Theatre through January 11. The show’s cast includes Desmond Sean Ellington. Check out our interview with the former Atlantan.

The Breman will host the second annual Atlanta Jewish Storytelling Festival from January 8 through January 11. Performances, family programs, hands-on workshops and community gatherings will highlight Jewish culture, creativity and tradition. From music-sparked personal tales to a memorable evening with acclaimed storyteller Laura Simms, plus Shabbat story tool kits, children’s story time and a full Sunday of communal storytelling, the Festival invites audiences of all ages to connect, reflect and rejoice.

Jazz pianist and Atlanta native Joe Alterman is also the executive director of Neranenah, the Atlanta-based concert series that celebrates Jewish contributions to music and the arts. He’ll perform at Eddie’s Attic at 7 p.m. on January 8. Read more about Alterman in our collaborative series, Everyday Heroes, and about his memories of his friend and mentor Les McCann.

While living in Athens from 1987 to 2010, Beverly Buchanan produced art that honored everyday spaces and the people who inhabited them. Home, memory and belonging are central to her art. Shacks, Stories and Spirit: Beverly Buchanan’s Art of Home, which opened January 3 and will continue through June 28, celebrates the Georgia Museum of Art’s growing collection of Buchanan’s work and its commitment to preserving her legacy. Beverly’s Athens, a concurrent exhibition at the Athenaeum (the Lamar Dodd School of Art’s downtown gallery space) opening on January 16, further explores Buchanan’s time in the city, providing other perspectives on her enduring legacy and artistic practice.

Jacques Tati’s magnum opus, PlayTime, follows American tourists and Parisians through a business day and a raucous evening in the modern city. Its climactic 45-minute sequence of the slow unraveling of a restaurant’s opening night juggles dozens of characters and uncountable gags. This latest screening in the Film Love series, a 4K restoration of the 1967 classic, begins at 7 p.m. January 8 at the Plaza Theatre.

Friday

The affable and charismatic Fortune Feimster is a stand-up comedian, writer and actor who uses her confessional comedy to bring people together. The North Carolina native made her TV debut on Last Comic Standing in 2010 and would go on to roles in a long list of sitcoms and movies. She’ll bring her Takin’ Care of Biscuits Tour to Atlanta Symphony Hall at 8 p.m. on January 9.

Saturday

Celebrating 50 years of India’s most iconic film, Sippy Films presents the original uncut version of Sholay, restored in 4K and Dolby 5.1 by Film Heritage Foundation. Voted the greatest Indian film ever made in a 2002 British Film Institute poll and honored as “Film of the Millennium” by BBC India in 1999, the blockbuster film directed by Ramesh Sippy premiered at the Minerva Cinema Hall in Mumbai in 1975, where it ran for five years without a break. Sholay: The Final Cut screens at 7 p.m. January 10 at the Plaza Theatre.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, in partnership with Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta’s Historic Fourth Ward, hosts the return of the much-loved King Celebration concert. Jonathan Taylor Rush will conduct works by Uzee Brown, Jasmine Barnes, Adolphus Hailstork and William Grant Still, as well as gospel songs and other repertoire reflective of the Ebenezer worship experience. The performance takes place at 8 p.m. January 10 at Symphony Hall. It will be livestreamed at GPB.org, aso.org and ebenezeratl.org and will be available on demand through the King national holiday.

Cat Eye Creative presents Serendipity, the gallery’s first group show of the year. The exhibit features works by 10 artists, including Brooke Reid, Christina Kwan, Julio Ceballos, RC Hagans and more. It opens with a reception at 5 p.m. January 10 and continues through February 7.