Odes to Chamblee · Track 22 · middle
A Town of Forty Languages
Per feedback_city_album_formula — cultural pillars add-on. Chamblee's deliberate civic identity as the most internationally diverse city in metro Atlanta, the public schools where 40+ languages are spoken, the Cherry Blossom Festival, the International Village marketing, the way diversity itself became the brand. Rudy Champ swings into the celebration.
Lyrics
Rudy Champ, here. Late March. The air in Keswick Park is warm. The cherry trees are showing off. Look around. Just... look. The sign at the post office still says CHAMBLEE. Christian Chamblee's stamp from 1908. A railroad crossing where the cotton got weighed. That's the bone structure. That's the old photograph. But the photograph is moving now. The photograph is talking. In forty different voices. This is the brand! This is the welcome sign! Atlanta's International Village, come on in! Forty languages on the playground slide! The brochure was printed, the promise was made. And the promise was kept. Yeah, the promise was kept right here. I smell the elote from the Plaza Fiesta truck. I see the grandmas unpacking kimchi from an H Mart bag. The kids who arrived after 1975 have kids of their own now. And they're all here, under the pink blossoms. The Gold Line train rattles past, a silver thread stitching it all together. Stitching Doraville to Brookhaven, sure. But stitching Seoul to Mexico City right here on the grass. This is the brand! This is the welcome sign! Atlanta's International Village, come on in! Forty languages on the playground slide! The brochure was printed, the promise was made. And the promise was kept. Look around, the promise is kept right here. And you know, this didn't just happen. A city can look away. A city can put up a fence. But Chamblee... Chamblee put out a welcome mat. Printed it in the city budget. Made a festival out of it. They took the beautiful, chaotic, delicious reality of Buford Highway... And they put it on a billboard. Said: This is us. All of us. This is the brand! This is the welcome sign! Atlanta's International Village, come on in! Forty languages on the playground slide! The brochure was printed, the promise was made. And the promise was kept! Oh, the promise was kept right here! Yeah. Welcome home.