Hey there, I’m so glad you’re here! Welcome to Sweet Tea by the AJC, a newsletter for refreshing, positive stories from around the South. Sit and stay a while. We have so much to tell you.
Round up your crystals and double-check your schedule of shenanigans: It’s a full moon tonight. August’s full moon is called the Sturgeon Moon. Yes, like the fish. Not very romantic, but we do respect our local fish populations.
This week, we’ll meet some super-creative people sharing their gifts, and learn about every horse girls’ dream.
HAIR CARE FOR EVERYONE
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
A new Atlanta-area salon is helping women and girls put their best hair forward, no matter their circumstance.
- The Higher Salon, founded by Mallorye Crowell, provides free hair care services in partnership with local salons and stylists.
- Crowell was inspired by the Back-to-School Box Braids Program, a 2024 summer initiative that gave foster children free braids for the start of the school year.
- The salon is part of Crowell’s larger organization, The Higher Foundation, which provides college students with basic necessities so they can focus on their academics.
- The salon will service about 20 people a month, but Crowell hopes that number will grow as more stylists donate their time.
“I believe that hair care is a basic need, not a luxury,” she told the AJC. “It’s tied to your confidence. It’s tied to your ability to thrive.”
🎀 More from the AJC: How The Higher Salon works
COOKEVILLE’S COOLEST ARTIST
As a neurodivergent person, it really fries me when people refuse to recognize the proprietary gifts disabled and neurodiverse people bring to the world. Yes, we need people to make tiny, beautiful, painstakingly detailed dioramas of their town. We need beauty and precision and new perspectives.
Cookeville, Tennessee, is lucky in this regard. Local autistic artist Thomas Golz, with the help of his mother, creates dioramas that immortalize iconic places in the city.
- His mixed media creations portray businesses close to his heart, like Ralph’s Donut Shoppe, Vickers Barber Shop and the Exceptional Bean, a coffee place.
- Golz has also constructed dioramas of other scenes, like the plant store and man-eating Audrey II from the famous musical “Little Shop of Horrors.”
- The 21-year-old’s precise and loving work has earned him a name in the Cookeville art scene. He’s worked with the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities and has graced the pages of local publications.
🎨 More from Forrest Sanders at NewsChannel 5 Nashville
SIPS FROM AROUND THE SOUTH
Credit: Chincoteague Chamber of Commerce
Credit: Chincoteague Chamber of Commerce
🎠 New Orleans, LA: The historic New Orleans City Park Carousel is almost 120 years old, and it requires a lot of love and care to keep the iconic flying horses looking their best. Here’s how park staff do it. More from The Times-Picayune
👩🏻🦽 Birmingham, AL: Birmingham is the American epicenter of boccia, a growing Paralympic sport that is easily adapted for various disabilities. Later this month, the city will host the Lakeshore Foundation’s 10th Anniversary USA Boccia National Championships. More from This is Alabama
🏛️ Columbia, SC: Civil War hero Robert Smalls will have the first monument of an individual Black person on South Carolina Statehouse grounds. Smalls escaped from slavery and took control of a Confederate ship ... then delivered it to the Union. The bronze statue is being worked by Jamaican-born artist Basil Watson in his studio near Atlanta. More from WTVR.
🐴 Chincoteague, VA: Chincoteague and Assateague Islands on Virginia’s Eastern Shore just celebrated their 100th annual Pony Swim. Spectators come from all around for the famed moment when the shore’s wild ponies are herded from one island to another. Roundups like this help local fire department, which cares for the ponies, to attend to any medical issues or foaling needs. More from Delmarva Now.
TELL US SOMETHING GOOD
Is there a cool event we need to know about? Something great happening in your town? Let us know. This is your space, too. amatl@ajc.com.
SOUTHERN WISDOM
Democracy is messy, but important. It moves fast and requires constant recalibration by all of us–citizens and our elected representatives. From my view, there's no better place than local government to muck through and figure it out.
Feeling helpless to change the world around you? Frisbie-Fulton penned a great read in the Cardinal & Pine about getting involved at a local level, even if it’s difficult to figure out how. Read more here.
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