Odes to Atlanta — Festival Edition · Track 3 · middle
Culture
Atlanta cultural pillars — High Museum's Renzo Piano white volumes, Alliance Theater under the Coca-Cola Stage marquee, Atlanta Symphony Hall, Atlanta Opera at Cobb Energy, Center for Civil and Human Rights, Hammonds House African American art, Apex Museum, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. ART DIRECTIVE for the cover image: include the names 'High Museum', 'Alliance Theater', 'Atlanta Opera', 'ASO', 'Civil & Human Rights' as legible scene-text — woven into building signage, theater marquees, gallery banners, programs in the artwork. Spelled exactly. Not a separate banner — they are part of the depicted scene.
Lyrics
Thursday evening.Seven forty-five.Peachtree is a river of light outside.But in here... quiet.At 1280 Peachtree, the light is different.Renzo Piano knew.He built these white volumes for it in 2005.A thousand panels to catch the Georgia sunand hold it, gentle.So you can see the grain of the wood,the crackle in the paint.The story in the shadow.These are the houses we built for our memory.Polished floors and quiet rooms.This is where we keep the proof.The record of the hands, the echo of the voice.This is the testament, written in light and stone.Down the hall, the Coca-Cola Stage is dark.But you can feel the breath of a thousand stories waiting.And from the Symphony Hall......the promise of a chord.The sound before the sound.We all hold our breath together,waiting for the drop.These are the houses we built for our memory.Polished floors and quiet rooms.This is where we keep the proof.The record of the hands, the echo of the voice.This is the testament, written in light and stone.Then we leave Peachtree.Drive to 503 Peeples Street, a house from 1988 that holds our faces.Hammonds House.Down to 135 Auburn, where the Apex has kept the long view since 1978.Over to Spelman, to the gallery they opened in 1996.And to the house Phil Freelon built in 2014...on Ivan Allen Junior Boulevard.A place of water and witness.Some rooms, you can't speak. You just stand.You just listen to the quiet.On the polished terrazzo floor,I see your reflection.I see my reflection.I see the long line that brought us here.To this room.To this city.This is where we keep the proof.