Free event open to all ages; donations to 309 Punk Project are appreciated. RSVP encouraged but not required. This event is part of the Encountering Humanities series.
In the late 1990s, a 40-acre gated warehouse complex in the West End of Atlanta was home to dozens of punks, artists, and dreamers. Former roommates tell the story of life in these warehouses in the film "The Wild Wild West End."
This event will feature a screening of the first in the three-part "Wild Wild West End" film series called "The Biggest Dreams." An exhibition of art and photos related to the oral history and documentary project also will be on view. During this event, the filmmaker, Ivette Spradlin, will sit down for a conversation with local humanities scholar Dr. Jamin Wells to consider themes highlighted in the film and oral history project, including the human capacity for creativity, self-expression, and collective action.
The filmed oral histories that Spradlin has collected offer a new perspective and documentation of this unique living experience in the West End warehouses. Former tenants tell stories, speak to the freedom felt, the friendships and bonds created, and share the grief of the tragic events that ultimately occurred there.
What these former tenants created at the warehouses was unique and historically significant. It was the late '90s to the early 2000s. There was maybe one computer per warehouse and only one landline phone in each warehouse of 8-15 roommates. Cell phones were hardly a thing, and definitely no smartphones. Images and video were captured on film. Flyers or word-of-mouth were used to inform one another about events. The tenants constructed their own rooms, skate ramps, and recording and artist studios. They ran their own plumbing and electrical lines inside their warehouse without the aid of an online instructional source. They hosted music festivals, a circus with some bizarre and risque sideshow acts, and many wild, large, theatrical parties. They screenprinted shirts and bags, wrote and distributed zines, sold records, and had band practice all with unlocked doors and people roaming freely in and out.
This event will delve into these goings-on and their meaningful impact.
Funding for this program was provided through a grant from the Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
