Hello World,

I’m proud to say the 2025 edition of Atlanta magazine’s Atlanta 500 is on newsstands now!!!

What is the Atlanta 500 you ask?

“The Atlanta 500 recognizes the 500 most influential business and civic leaders in Atlanta. The list also includes dozens of leaders whom the magazine has deemed as ‘Legends.’ The Atlanta 500 recognizes the most influential Atlantans—including not only corporate CEOs, but also leading entrepreneurs, educators, researchers, artists, and those leading nonprofits and shaping public policy.”

As the A is my hometown, it continues to be a privilege to edit a book comprised of the best and brightest of the A! And if you aspire to be a leader here, you should definitely get a copy! If you are in Atlanta, please get your copy of Atlanta 500 wherever you would normally buy your copies of Atlanta magazine. I got my copy from the newsstand at a Sprouts grocery store. Click HERE to see a list of all of the locations that carry this publication! Also, HERE is a link for the online 2025 issue of the Atlanta 500. And below is an excerpt of my editorial letter:

The power of Atlanta is that it influences everything

Atlanta’s power never ceases to amaze me. As a pop culture PhD, my latest Atlanta’s power amazement is Atlanta’s mention in California rapper Kendrick Lamar’s 2024 banger “Not Like Us,” which is a diss track for the ages against Canadian rapper Drake. How did Atlanta get involved in rap beef between two rappers not from here, you might be asking. That’s the allure of Atlanta’s power, is my answer (or in other words), Atlanta Influences Everything, which is among the latest catch phrases that attempts to encapsulate all that is Atlanta.

According to Kendrick Lamar, Atlanta is the place where you “run to” when you need a “few dollars.” He highlighted when Atlanta was called Terminus and how the railroad lines that ended in our city in 1837 brought wealth to our state’s metropolis and how Atlanta is still wealthy today, albeit for different reasons. And that is true: captains of industry continue to be captivated by our city—we are the capital of the Hollywood of the South, Southern Hip Hop as a staple was created here, the FIFA World Cup is coming here, and the Super Bowl continues to come here. I’ve always loved one of New York City’s catch phrases: If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. But I would like to submit this catch phrase for Atlanta: If you can’t make it anywhere, you can make it here.

To read the rest, click HERE.

Any thoughts?

The post ‘Atlanta’ magazine’s 2025 Issue of ‘Atlanta 500′ is on Newsstands NOW!!! appeared first on After the Altar Call.

Hello World,

When I saw this on my IG timeline last night, I need I had to share it with my After the Altar Call fam! Kirk Franklin’s son Caziah Franklin proposed to his girlfriend Alena Pitts, who starred in the blockbuster movie War Room, when she was a little girl. Obviously she is now a young woman. See the beach proposal photos below…

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Caziah Rashad Franklin | OX (@caziahfranklin)

I actually interviewed Alena and her mother Wynter Pitts back in 2017 when she was 12 years old (so according to my math, she is now 19).  Below is a snippet of the interview…

1. How does it feel to be the youngest, African- American female author to be represented by a major book publisher?

Alena: Kind of surreal still. Like it hasn’t really hit me. So it’s crazy. I’m just grateful that it happened to me! And then I’m like, ‘Thank you God!’

And how did you get a book deal for Hello Stars?

Alena: So, my mom was like, ‘Hey Alena, do you want to write a book together?’ I was like, ‘Sure.’ My mom was like, ‘That would be so fun!’ I really didn’t think that was going to happen, but she was like, ‘Let’s just pray about it.’  So I prayed about it not really expecting anything to happen. So like two weeks later, we got an e-mail from Zondervan asking if we wanted to write a book for them. So I was like, ‘Wow, this must be God’s plan!’ (Laughter)

Wynter: It literally happened just like that! It was just this random thought I had one day, and I just looked at her and said, ‘It would be so fun if we wrote a book together.’ And that was it. And then, a few weeks later, we got an e-mail from Faithgirlz saying they wanted to talk to us about the project. It was so bizarre. Because of my ministry with girls, I had done some Faithgirlz product giveaways and helped them promote some things so I had a relationship with the publicist there. Since then, I found out the publicist mentioned our names to their team over the last year or so, but I didn’t know anyone else on the team!

See the remainder of the interview at ‘War Room’ 12-Year-Old Actress Alena Pitts & Mother Pen Children’s Book ‘Hello Stars!’ (INTERVIEW).

When I heard about Wynter’s death the next year following my interview with her and her daughter in 2017, I was stunned and saddened, but I believe Alena’s mother is with the Father in Heaven where we all aspire to go some day. And obviously, our Father is still leading Alena today. May God bless Caziah and Alena on their new journey together!

Any thoughts?

The post Kirk Franklin’s Son Caziah Franklin & ‘War Room’ Actress Alena Pitts Are ENGAGED!!! appeared first on After the Altar Call.

Hello World,

Multiple GRAMMY Award winner Tina Campbell returns to the gospel music charts with her highly anticipated brand-new single, “Pray For Me.” We have all said, “Pray for me” at some point in our lives, right?

Check out the single below…

If you aren’t familiar with Tina, she started her music career in 1998 with her older sister, Erica Campbell, as part of the gospel music group, Mary Mary. Her solo music career began in 2014. She released her second solo studio album, It’s Still Personal in 2017.

She is married to Teddy Campbell, with whom she resides in Los Angeles, California together, with their five children, Cierra, Laiah Simone, Meela Jane, Glendon Theodore Jr., and Santana.

I actually interviewed Tina back in 2016. See a snippet of that interview below…

One of the most important statements that Mitch made was in Episode 8 was when he said to you, “You are one of the biggest stars I’ll ever meet in my life even though you don’t care about being a star.” Is that a true statement? Please explain your answer. Is he involved in your career now?

I’m not fascinated with stardom. I enjoy regular way more than I enjoy the stardom. I like to be valuable to people when I don’t have everything in the world to offer them. I’m very happy to have fans. I’m very elated, and I’m very appreciative of that, but it’s valuable to me when people like me and love me and think highly of me with and without accomplishments and that’s probably why I have still have the same group of friends that were my friends when I was five years old, ten years old and 18 years old, the same people from my church, my original church that I grew up with. I’m still close to all of them even though I’ve been away from the church. I like people who liked me before, when I quote unquote wasn’t nothin’. And without accolades and all of that. They just think I’m something because I’m Thomi’s and Eddie’s daughter.

I derive my value from who I was before I got here. Because if accomplishments are the only things that make me who I am, because if you strip me of my accomplishments, what am I? I’d like to think that my character, my integrity, the way I love, how kind I am to people, I’d like to think that those are the things that define me so the people so that know me in that respect and value me in that respect, that matters more to me than the people who know me as a star. So stardom doesn’t fascinate me. If I was just a soccer mom or I was over the PTA, I would go just as hard doing what I do. I’m just a very passionate person and whatever I do, I do it hard. I goes hard.

Stardom does not define me at all. I could have it or not. A GRAMMY is great, but I’m fine without it. Selling millions of records. It’s awesome. I would still think that I could sing and that God gave me a gift if I’m singing at a convalescent hospital to old women. And I’m so grateful for that because the ups and downs of the industry and people’s opinions and all of that, if that stuff made me, I’d be broken already.

Check out the rest of the interview at Mitchell Solarek is NOT Tina Campbell’s Manager & More: My InterviewWith Mary Mary’s Tina Campbell. 

FOLLOW TINA CAMPBELL

IG: @IamTinaCampbell

X: @IamTinaCampbell

FB: Tina Campbell

YouTube: /IamTinaCampbell

Any thoughts?

Any thoughts?

The post NEW MUSIC: Tina Campbell ‘Pray For Me’ – Available Now! appeared first on After the Altar Call.