Morning, y’all! Despite this morning’s 30-degree weather, spring officially starts a little after 11 p.m. tonight. We’ve got a guide to some stellar springtime activities a little later on.
But first: We discuss a would-be appeal of the Fani Willis disqualification decision, rising gas prices and a clemency plea for the man Georgia plans to execute this week. And don’t forget: Sign up for A.M. ATL’s Morning Madness bracket contest to join the NCAA Tournament fun. Play-in games start tonight.
Now. Let’s talk about a much-anticipated (and dreaded?) documentary.
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FREAKNIK ON FILM
“Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told” is a two-hour Hulu documentary produced by legendary Atlanta music man Jermaine Dupri, among others.
You can stream it starting Thursday — but the AJC’s Rodney Ho got a sneak peek. Here’s the abbreviated version of what to expect.
Booty shaking? Check. Freaknik, of course, ultimately devolved into a debaucherous block party that drew in Black folks from across the country. Revelers danced, blocked streets and caused myriad other forms of mayhem.
It would be hard to document the thing without showing some of that. Dupri said his team got its hands on plenty of old VHS tapes made by the camera-toting partygoers of the 1990s — and, per Rodney, they made good use of them.
Backstory? Check. It’s worth noting that Freaknik’s 1980s origins were innocent enough: a group of HBCU students holding a picnic in Piedmont Park during spring break.
- “Many people couldn’t afford to go home,” Monique Tolliver, one of the event’s creators, said in the doc. “I was one of them. I decided, hey, we are all here. Let’s do something.”
In the late ‘80s, references to the event popped up in Spike Lee’s “School Daze” and the NBC sitcom “A Different World.” Things took off.
Bigger impact? Check. With interviewees like academic Marc Lamont Hill, former Mayor Kasim Reed and music artists like CeeLo Green and Lil Jon, the documentary…
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