Atlantafi.com is bringing you the latest on the coronavirus pandemic, which has the state of Georgia and the city of Atlanta under a state of emergency.
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If your idea of a good time is to bounce, roll and skate, then you won’t want to miss Cascade Skating’s 15th annual Community Appreciation Open House. The event will be held Saturday, September 8, 2018 at Cascade Fun Center in southwest Atlanta.
This is the 15th Annual Community Appreciation Day, which means the Cascade Skating Rink has been showing love for nearly two decades.
Where: Cascade Skating Rink
3335 Martin Luther King Jr, Drive, Atlanta, GA 30331
When: Saturday, September 8th,2018
Time: 12pm-5pm
“These special events are approaching quickly and we would love to have you as one of our Special Guests. These FREE events allow the owner of Cascade Skating Rink an opportunity to give back to the community. We also get to partner with great Businesses and community stakeholders like you,” the establishment says.
“We will feature small and large businesses, local fire and police departments and many more community stakeholders and community leaders. In addition, we plan to have more than 3000 visitors at each event. This event will include performances, raffles, FREE skating, FREE inflatables, FREE food, and informational exhibits.”
There are so many Atlanta events popping off every week it’s hard to keep up with it all. That’s why I suggest you subscribe to AtlantaFi.com to get all the freshest gatherings, Atlanta happenings, parties and more delivered to your inbox.
Things to do in Atlanta on a weekly basis can range from going golfing mid-week to checking out the latest restaurant openings. At AtlantaFi.com, we curate the city for you!
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It’s a Greek thing this weekend as the Atlanta Alphas in the Park Cookout 2018 takes place in Piedmont Park. The Saturday, September 8 event will be in the park’s Active Oval.
Join the brothers of the Eta Lambda Chapter and friends for their summer cookout at Piedmont Park. Friends of Alphas — AKAs, Deltas, Zetas, SGRhos, — are invited as well.
Enjoy great barbecue with the brothers, family and friends. We’ve had an incredible year and you’re invited to celebrate with us!
What to expect at Atlanta Alphas in the Park Cookout 2018
– Good food!
– DJ on the 1s and 2s.
– Spades
– And Good food!
COME HAVE A GREAT TIME WITH THE ALPHAS!
Please make a donation to help our chapter continue the service in the metro Atlanta community.
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The Atlanta Dream lost at home Tuesday night to the Washington Mystics 86-81 in a winner-take-all game 5 in the WNBA playoffs semifinals. The game was played before raucous fans at Atlanta’s McCamish Pavilion on the Georgia Tech campus.
Many hometown celebrities, including Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and several members of the Atlanta Hawks, were on hand to cheer on the Dream, whose dream season came an abrupt end.
The Dream’s Twitter account showed appreciation to fans after the game, saying: “From the bottom of our hearts, thank you Dream fans for an unforgettable season. We will back next year and can’t wait to have you with us along for the ride again.”
Atlanta, thank you for rallying behind us last night. It was a heartbreaker but it meant the world to have you with us. See you in 2019. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/LcUdXqXVcL
— Atlanta Dream (@AtlantaDream) September 5, 2018
The series was tied at 2-2 after the Dream evened things up, took the lead then failed to eliminate the Mystics on Sunday in Washington.
With the Mystics big-time scorer Elana Delle Donna having a mediocre night, rookie Ariel Atkins proved too much for Atlanta to handle. Atkins scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds and three assists.
The @ATLHawks showed up to support the @AtlantaDream game last night. (Feat. @taureanprince, @LloydPierceLP, @TheTraeYoung, @JusAnderson1, @AlexTheGreat22 and @fearthefro95) pic.twitter.com/DQ1mjNWOPu
— JJ (@JameelahJNBA) September 5, 2018
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Atlanta rapper, actor and businessman T.I. aka Clifford Harris recently put some Atlanta kids the opportunity to jam out with him for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series.
The series, which showcases some of the emerging and top music acts in the United States, has soared in popularity thanks to some standout sets from the likes of The Roots, T.Pain and most recently Erykah Badu.
For T.I.’s set the rapper and Atlanta statesman had in his band local kids from the Atlanta Music Project.
T.I. has released nine studio albums, with seven of them reaching the top five of the US Billboard 200 chart. HIs various hits include such bangers as “Bring Em Out”, “Whatever You Like”, “Live Your Life” (featuring Rihanna) and “Dead and Gone” (featuring Justin Timberlake).
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Making for another Southernplayalistic evening this fall, Atlanta rapper Big Boi is scheduled to perform at Tee Up ATL, the official kickoff party for the Tour Championship!
Come party with the top PGA TOUR players and Atlanta sports stars as Big Boi performs live in concert with DJ Infamous and DJ Debonair on the 1s and 2s, hosted by Ryan Cameron. The event will be at the College Football Hall of Fame on Marietta Boulevard NW in downtown Atlanta.
All proceeds benefit the East Lake Foundation and Purpose Built Communities.
Tickets include one free drink. The community celebration welcomes The Tour Championship back to the city on Monday, September 17, 2018. The event will feature a performance from hometown favorite Big Boi and the night will celebrate the PGA TOUR’s season-ending event as the top 30 players come to Atlanta to compete for the FedExCup.
There are so many Atlanta events popping off every week it’s hard to keep up with it all. That’s why I suggest you subscribe to AtlantaFi.com to get all the freshest gatherings, Atlanta happenings, parties and more delivered to your inbox.
Things to do in Atlanta on a weekly basis can range from going golfing mid-week to checking out the latest restaurant openings. At AtlantaFi.com, we curate the city for you!
Read more: The best soul food restaurants in Atlanta -
State Farm insurance company and the Atlanta Hawks reached a groundbreaking deal that would change the name of Philips Arena to State Farm Arena, it was announced Wednesday.
Philips Arena is in the midst of a massive reconstruction project that promises to make the complex Atlanta’s new hub for downtown nightlife, a place where “the lights never go out,” the Hawks have touted. The facility is set to reopen in time to celebrate the team’s 50th year in Atlanta in October.
Atlanta’s newest sports venue: State Farm Arena
Sports venue branding has become commonplace among professional sports teams in the NBA, NFL and MLB. The teams benefit from financial backing and the companies use the brand exposure as a civic badge.
Philips Arena debuted in 1999, a time when the Hawks were perennial 50-game winners and the Braves were competing for downtown sports fans’ attention. Nearly 20 years later, both teams face different landscapes.
The Hawks will now play under a red State Farm logo which will be prominently displayed at the top of the arena in downtown Atlanta. Other amenities in the new space will include a huge video board system, rapper Killer Mike’s barbershop, Zack Brown’s BBQ restaurant and a Top Golf.
“Our objective was to create an experience with the Hawks that brought together cutting-edge technology, storytelling and physical space to excite, inspire and persuade visitors,” said Jeff Alpen, Hornall Anderson Managing Director. “The space is a beautiful combination of innovation, exploration and function and celebrates the uniqueness and vibrancy of Atlanta and its people.”
Downtown Atlanta is enjoying a renaissance when it comes to sports venues. Last year, the city christened Mercedes Benz Stadium.
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The Atlanta Dream evened the playoff series against the Washington Mystics on Tuesday night, beating them 78-75. The Mystics lost their best player, Elene Delle Donne, in the fourth quarter.
McCamish Pavilion was electric as the Dream scratched and clawed their way to hang on for the victory.
“Really, really proud of our toughness,” Dream coach Nicki Collen said after the game. Collen had double reason to celebrate: She was named WNBA Coach of the Year earlier in the day. “We turned over the ball too much, but to get stops when we needed them says a lot about our team. Early in the season, we had a lot of grind-it-out kind of games, and tonight was another one of those.”
The series is now tied at 1-1 and will head to Washington for game 3 on Friday night. In game 1, the Dream couldn’t find any momentum on offense, losing 87-84 at home on Sunday. Their ace shooter, Tiffany Hayes, was cold for most of the night.
Delle Donne told fans that she will be OK, saying “the swelling isn’t terrible.”
Elena Delle Donne shared her thoughts with us via Mystics' media relations: “I mean, I’m walking. The swelling isn’t terrible. I’ll go home tomorrow and see our doctors, and see what they say. But I’m hopeful to be back in the lineup Friday."
— Mechelle Voepel (@MechelleV) August 29, 2018
On Tuesday, Hayes scored 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Center Elizabeth Williams (10 points, 11 rebounds) had a solid game as well as Atlanta had an 18-rebound advantage.
Game 3 will be Friday, August 31 at 8 p.m. ET at Charles Smith Center, George Washington University. The contest will be simulcast on WNBATV and ESPN2.
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The 9th annual BronzeLens Film Festival ended triumphantly Sunday with screenings to the very end. Over the course of five days, movie fans, celebrities and personalities converged on the Marriott Marquis and other venues in Atlanta.Filmmakers far and wide came out to show support as well as have their productions screened to live audiences.The films featured a wide array of movies about different cultures, viewpoints and ethnicities, highlighting a widespread diaspora of global filmmakers.BronzeLens Film Festival opens in Atlanta
With hundreds of actors, producers and filmmakers in tow, the film festival’s big winner was “Jinn,” which won the Best Film Award at the event. “Jinn” is a Muslim-centered movie about a teen who rebels against her mother’s newfound faith of Islam.“This is a story that was many years in the making,” “Jinn” filmmaker Nijla Mu’min told the crowd. “I grew up in a very vibrant African-American Muslim community in Oakland. My father and my mother really helped to immerse me in that community and I never saw textured, complicated images of those people in media.”
On the festival’s final night, another film, “United Skates” made its Atlanta premiere to rousing applause and fanfare. The film was produced and directed by Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown. Winkler told the crowd that during the four+ years it took to produce the documentary, she learned the secret sauce of stopping some of the nation’s top roller rinks from closing: Zoning.Winkler said when she originally delved into doing interviews for the documentary she discovered that was culturally important to Americans, but especially to African-Americans. “When I saw what the narrative was, I didn’t want to do the film. I thought it was a great story, a story that needed to be told, but not by me, by an African-American.”She said the skating community pushed her to continue the project, which turned into a labor of love and enamored her to people all around the country.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2ExXMi06coAnother fan favorite was “Canal Street,” which features an all-star cast including Mekhi Phifer, Mykelti Williamson, Lance Reddick and Jon Seda.The film is a modern-day thriller telling the story of a teen, Kholi Styles, trying to get by in an unwelcoming new world. After the mysterious death of a classmate, all eyes fall on Kholi, the new kid at his high school. It’s up to his father, Jackie Styles, an up-and-coming lawyer from the slums of Chicago, to defend his son in court and battle an outraged public before time runs out. Jackie fights to keep his faith and prove his son is not the monster the world has made him out to be.https://vimeo.com/223838829There were several top-notch black films screening at this year’s event.
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Chick-Fil-A meal kits beginning with five meal options became available Monday, August 27 in metro Atlanta as part of a test market experiment, the chain said. The meals will be available through mid-November.
The meal kits have been designed to make it easy for customers to cook their own meals at home using fresh, pre-measured ingredients they can pick up in the drive-thru, at the front counter, or via the Chick-fil-A One app.
Chick-Fil-A meal kits: What to know
Chick-fil-A Chef and Atlanta Restaurateur Stuart Tracy had a big hand in developing five different kit recipes, which are easy to follow and prepare.
With the move, the Atlanta-based company is signaling its intentions to be the first fast-food restaurant to take on Blue Apron, which is a household name in the meal kit market.The meals include many of the favorites we’ve come to love about Chick-Fil-A, including crispy dijon chicken, but also new items such as chicken flatfread, chicken enchiladas and pan-roasted chicken.New menu options include:
- 30-Count Nuggets – The 30-Count Nuggets are available nationwide and can be ordered at the counter, through the drive-thru and via the Chick-fil-A Mobile App.
- Waffle Potato Chips – Previously only available on the catering menu, the kettle-cooked waffle cut chips are an alternate to our Waffle Fries and are gluten-free. Waffle Potato Chips can now be purchased as a side item to pair with any entrée (or Kid’s Meal) and are still available as side offering on the catering menu.
- Improved Fruit Cup – Based on customer feedback, the fruit mix has been improved to feature fewer apples and more premium fruit options. The Fruit Cup is served chilled with fresh strawberries, blueberries, red and green apple pieces and mandarin oranges.
New catering and online order menu options include:
- Grilled Chicken Bundle – This lighter, grilled chicken option makes it easy to build you own grilled chicken sandwiches. The bundle comes with 10 grilled chicken breasts, multigrain buns, Honey Roasted BBQ Sauce, Green Leaf lettuce, tomatoes, Colby-Jack cheese and Applewood smoked bacon and serves 10.
- Spicy Chilled Grilled Chicken Sub Sandwich – The Spicy Chilled Grilled Chicken Sub Sandwich provides a fresh and unique option for people who love grilled chicken but want an extra spicy kick. The boneless spicy chicken breast is marinated with a special blend of seasonings, grilled, thinly sliced and served chilled on a multigrain baguette with Pepper Jack cheese, baby greens and sliced tomato. It is served with Honey Roasted BBQ Sauce.
Read more: How to order from Chick-Fil-A’s secret menuThe meal kits cost about $16 and serve two people, the company says. They are available at more than 150 metro Atlanta locations.Many experts are confused by the decision to get into the meal kit business by Chick-Fil-A, but they know one thing: Whatever the company tries to do, it usually is successful.Mealtime Kits will be available to customers in Atlanta until November 17, but customers nationwide can express their interest in trying the kits by filling out an online form. -
The Atlanta Dream fought and clawed but fell short Sunday afternoon in game one of their semifinals match-up against the Washington Mystics in the WNBA playoffs. Washington beat Atlanta 87-84 in front of a big crowd at McCamish Pavilion in Midtown Atlanta.
The Mystics, led by Elena Delle Donne down low, pulled away in the second quarter and basically held even against a surging Dream team in the second half. Donne finished with a game-high 32 points and 13 rebound. Teammate Ariel Atkins added 15 points.
”My teammates have trust in me in those situations to attack and try to make the right read,” Delle Donne was quoted as saying. ”I was flowing today, so they kind of just ran the offense through me. I just had to make reads or attack.”
Atlanta was led by Elizabeth Williams, who finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds. Tiffany Hayes only knocked down one of five three-point attempts for Atlanta, whose biggest deficit was 15 points.
The Dream were clearly missing Angel McCoughtry, who is out for the season after sustaining a knee injury earlier this month.
Game 2 of the semifinals resumes Tuesday night at McCamish Pavilion, where the Dream hope a sold-out arena can hype them up for the win.
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