You don't understand Atlanta's culture by only looking at what hangs inside its biggest museum. You have to find the people creating it right now. Atlanta's creative scene lives inside independent galleries, photography spaces, poetry rooms, spoken-word events, neighborhood art spaces, studios, theaters and cultural institutions that don't always appear on a first-time visitor's itinerary. That's what this guide is looking for.

Places like Gallery 992 matter because they connect travelers to Atlanta's living Black creative community, not simply its history. And we want the whole spectrum. Fine art can be here. Street art can be here. Photography, poetry, spoken word, independent theater, public art, cultural centers and experimental spaces can all be here.

Some experiences will be polished enough for the date-night itinerary. Others might put you in a room you've never heard of listening to somebody perform something you'll remember longer than whatever you did the night before. That's the point. Atlanta's Black creative influence is enormous, but BlkTravel isn't interested in reducing the city's arts scene to another paragraph about hip-hop. Black creativity has never been that narrow. This is where we'll introduce travelers to the artists, spaces and cultural experiences helping define what Atlanta looks, sounds and feels like right now.