Newsletter | October 1, 2025
In this week’s Voices:
- Watch Canopy Atlanta’s Healing the Land on the big screen
- Join us for a free video editing workshop
- Holding violent memory in one hand and hopeful possibility in the other
- Clarkston residents want existing apartments to be improved
Send your feedback about this newsletter to hello@canopyatlanta.org.
We are excited to announce that a Canopy Atlanta documentary film will be featured at the Peaberry Film Festival during an opening night screening on Oct. 3.
Healing the Land, which explores the Chattahoochee Brick Company’s history of land exploitation, was produced as part of Genia Billingsley's Innovation Lab project looking at green spaces in the westside of Atlanta.
The short film will be shown along with Natchez, a Tribeca-winning documentary that captures the unsettling clash between history and memory in a small Mississippi town. It is a layered mosaic of people contending with the weight of the past in a place where it is always present.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Canopy Atlanta’s Genia Billingsley, Floyd Hall, and Mariann Martin, and Festival Director Brent Lambert-Zaffino. The conversation will highlight the films, the weight of history, the role of storytelling, and the importance of collaboration in an increasingly fragmented world.
📅 Friday, Oct. 3
📍Canton Theatre: 171 E Main St, Canton, GA 30114
“The film Healing the Land connects the legacy of convict leasing with the site’s industrial pollution, framing this troubling history through the lens of community journalism and storytelling.”
—Genia Billingsley, Community Journalist
Use the code Canopy for 25% off all tickets to the film festival.
Join us for some pizza and learn how your next reel can get even more attention, including shooting the right angles and editing for impact.
Kristan Woolford, with Atlanta's recently relaunched Community Media TV, will lead a free video workshop on how to shoot and edit video on your phone.
📅 Tuesday, Oct. 7, 6 to 8 p.m.
📍 Create ATL: 900 Murphy Ave. SW, Atlanta, GA 30310
By Genia Billingsley, Community Journalist
The smell of fresh paint lingered in the air even before we saw the mural. We felt the weight of history pressing through its colors as we stood in Historic South Atlanta on a warm September afternoon. Families, neighbors, and elders gathered, drawn together by a moment both new and deeply rooted: a public work of art honoring the victims and survivors of the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre.
Artist Fabian Williams spoke about that heaviness, the challenge of depicting a story birthed in violence and grief. But he also invited us to imagine what a better world would look like, one where events like 1906 could never happen again. His words asked us to hold violent memory in one hand and hopeful possibility in the other.
For me, as part of Canopy Atlanta, the day carried echoes of our own work. Back in 2023, we walked the streets of Lakewood Heights and along Gammon Street with guides Victoria Lemos and Ann Hill Bond, who helped us uncover the history of Luther Judson Price and the early years of Clark Atlanta University. And in a powerful full-circle moment, the mural was unveiled on the wall of Community Grounds, the neighborhood coffee shop where we held listening sessions that shaped our Lakewood Heights Community Issue. The mural, sponsored by the National Center for Civil and Human Rights Truth and Transformation Initiative and Focused Community Strategies, roots history in a place of ongoing community voice and gathering.
By Sofia Mohamed, Clarkston Fellow
At a recent housing summit, Clarkston residents listed improving the quality of already existing apartments as their top priority when it comes to addressing the housing crisis in the city.
“People have been complaining [about] a lot of issues … with their complexes,” said Ahmad, who attended the summit.
The City of Clarkston collaborated with the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) to host the event, which took a more interactive approach by having residents participate in providing feedback and information on posters.
First, we gained insight into the data collected thus far, including comparisons to the greater metropolitan statistical area and DeKalb County. The number of built apartments is decreasing in Clarkston, with the city containing mostly older apartments, according to ARC staff.
Then, residents answered “If I could change housing in Clarkston, I would do:” by placing stickers in their response box. Options included building more housing, ensuring different housing sizes, ensuring different housing costs, adding senior housing, improving the quality of older apartments, or improving access to parks and recreation.
Want to catch up on the work Canopy Atlanta is doing and share what is happening in your neighborhood? Come out for a free cup of coffee.
📅 Thursday, Oct. 2, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
📍 Ke’nekt Cooperative: 1492 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd SW Suite A, Atlanta, GA 30310
📅 Tuesday, Oct. 7, 12 to 2 p.m.
📍 Portrait Coffee: 1065 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd SW # A, Atlanta, GA 30310
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