Free Day in Atlanta

Free Day in Atlanta
February 26th

Last week, I visited the Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic Site. Run by the National Park Service, the site includes a visitors’ center (with lots of exhibits on MLK’s life and impact), the home where Dr. King was born and the Ebenezer Baptist Church (where he was baptized, first ordained and headquarters for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference). Next door is the King Center. Established by Coretta Scott King, the center carries on Dr. King’s work and is also the sight of both Martin Luther and Coretta’s tombs.

The whole experience was very moving and inspiring. I started in the visitors’ center which was, appropriately, packed with school groups. The exhibits gave an over-view of the civil rights situation from reconstruction through the end of Dr. King’s life. There was a particular focus on the Atlanta riots of 1906 and on the Jim Crow laws. Throughout, were quotes, video and audio clips of Dr. King. I also toured the Kings’ home. It has been restored to look as it did when Dr. King lived there as a child. The park service has also bought many of the surrounding structures and restored the whole block to give one a sense of what the neighborhood was like. The house is in a neighborhood called “Sweet Auburn” that was a major black community. Over and over through out the tours, the rangers stressed how this community of people shaped Dr. King. The ranger in the home also highlighted how Dr. King’s family also stressed community involvement and leadership. Everyone in Dr. King’s family was college educated and all were leaders (teachers and pastors).

The home where Martin Luther King, Jr. was born (and lived until he was 12).

The most gripping part of the day was the Ebenezer Baptist Church. The congregation is still active, though they have built a new church across the street allowing the Park Service to take over the older building. Both Dr. King’s father and grandfather were pastors of the church and Dr. King joined his father as co-pastor of Ebenezer in 1960. The church was Dr. King’s home base and the center of operations for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. When I arrived, there were tapes of some of Dr. King’s sermons playing. The experience gave me goose-bumps. I could really feel the presence of the man while I was in the church.

The Ebenezer Baptist Church.

I left feeling very inspired by Dr. King’s words about service and justice. The trip home left me unsettled, however. The mile or so between the King Center and the MARTA train station has many boarded up buildings and not much commercial activity. At the train station, I was panhandled a couple of times (Atlanta also seems to have a significant homeless population and panhandlers often approach me on the street). One guy in particular wouldn’t leave me alone. I rode back to the hotel trying to reconcile all the emotions of the day.

- -

I started calling the show this week. I wasn’t feeling very ready (honestly, I probably should have focused more of my energies on it – I was just relaxing into running my deck position), but Ken suggested I just go for it. I called Act I at the Saturday matinee and the whole show that evening. No one died. No one was even injured. My button cues were sort of everywhere and I’m glad that Ken was behind me or Tim the Enchanter might not have made it on stage, but things went better at Sunday night’s show. The crew was very gracious and I’m sure that they were looking out for me. Thanks to everybody.

There’s a Sunday night tradition on Spamalot: Shot Night. After the last show of each week, a company member hosts shot night. They’re responsible for creating and preparing a shot for the whole company. (Last night, the sound department hosted and we had some sort of coffee flavored deliciousness.) The tradition was passed on to us from the New York company of Spamalot and I think it’s great. Everyone in the whole company gets together for a couple of minutes at the end of the week and just says hello and is social. It floats throughout the group, so no one person is always doing the heavy lifting all the time. Nice.

I’m set to resume my eating tour of America. It took most of this week to recover (I almost said “detox”) from the adventures in Memphis. A few of us are headed out for a big breakfast this morning and then I hear there’s some delicious Mexican (and perhaps mid-day-off margaritas) nearby. Still haven’t been to the Varsity and there’s a highly recommended Cuban place just up the street. I had better get busy.

JV