ATL HELD IT DOWN!!!

Another crowd moved!

    We finally made it to ATL! When we got there we headed straight toward the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. It was an amazing experience to write the least. To see all that he had to deal with and the exhaustion he must have experienced was overwhelming. It was a beautiful and inspirational experience that reminded us that the struggle is indeed worth fighting. But it was also a chilling reminder of how far we've come as a people and how long the road ahead of us still is. Throughout the building we read, saw images and even watched videos about his life and all that he did for the civil rights movement of the 1960's and humanity. His words pierced each one of our souls leaving us with a general "watered eyed" feeling that served as a testament of our appreciation for him and all that he'd done. Here was a man that stood when others needed him. A man that spoke when he knew it was necessary. Walked with pain in his legs and even with all of the hatred towards him and his goals he remained peaceful in his defiance of "our sick brothers and sisters". We were honored to have been in a  place dedicated to his life and the recollection of his dreams of equality, freedom and justice. For he is the reason that the world exists as it does today. 
    After our time at the memorial we decided to hit the road towards the venue we were going to perform at. Cuttz was in need of a cell phone because he lost his so we headed to the Sprint store see if they could give him a credit for one.. While he and Free did that Decora, DJ H20, J-Man and myself headed to the sandwich and smoothie spot next door. When they were done we got on the road to hit up the event. Graham had been dropped off because he has a friend in ATL that wanted to hang out with him. When we were all done we tried finding a YMCA before we hit up the event to take some showers but we had no luck finding it and kept driving around ATL. We decided to just hit up the venue and get set up. We headed towards the Project South headquarters and got there a couple of hours before the event began. There we met up with Corina (our second intern until we get to Salt Lake City) and got our things settled. Corina is also the person that put the event together with Project South. Project South is an organization that has been working with the surrounding Atlanta community for years. It's because of organizations like these that various populations are not forgotten. After we set up we did a mic check and ironed out some aspects of our performance. Corina later held a meeting with all of the nights performers (ABYSS, Big Nel, Black Male, and Sharod Allen) to make sure we were all on the same page. A few minutes before the event began the ReadNex met up to prep and discuss a few aspects of the upcoming performance. Each performer there threw it down with a crowd that was loving every minute of it all. Be sure to check out the Front Lines Tour web page to check out some of the photos.
    After everyone went we grabbed some microphones, gathered on stage and had DJ H20 set the tone. Well known tracks like War, Fight The Power, Bigger Than Hip Hop and other tracks by various artists echoed the airwaves and DJ H20 spun back and forth. Each one of us performed and Decora got himself a standing ovation. We wrapped it all up with our track Wade and had a now standing and fully energized crowd clapping and singing along. It was a great crowd and we had a good time with the people at the event afterwards. There were a few requests for internships that we had to turn down due to lack of space on the bus lol. After packing everything up J-man and DJ H20 gave tours of the bus to people while the rest put the final touches on the take down. We made sure we had everything and chilled out for a bit.
    Unfortunately, our VIP guest for the night (Kathleen N. Cleaver) arrived after the event ended but blessed us with her presence on the bus for about an hour. It was an inspiration to have her there speaking to us about a number of subjects pertaining to the social situation we and the rest of the world finds itself in. She made us laugh and reminded us that we all have the power to build a better world. It all depends on whether or not a person embraced that power. Afterwards we traveled to Corrina's place, spent the night and hit up a soul food restaurant for breakfast. Food was great but knocked out J-man. We were then on  route to New Orleans.-Latin