30 September 2000: Nuçi's Space Opens

On this day in 2000, Nuçi's Space opened in an old warehouse at 396 Oconee Street. Inspired by the memory of her son, Nuçi, a talented young musician who committed suicide in 1996 after five years of struggling with clinical depression, Linda Phillips created the Nuçi Phillips Memorial Foundation, a non-profit to provide cheap but safe rehearsal space, affordable equipment rentals, a performance and coffee bar space, and counselling referral services for the musicians of Athens.

Nuçi's Space refers those who contact them for counselling to therapists and psychiatrists with whom they have negotiated a discounted rate. The organization subsidizes most of that rate, making the out-of-pocket cost a more affordable $10 or $20 per session. Musicians referred to professional counselling services are encouraged to continue to come back, hang out, and spend time at the Space, "to use the Space as a support system" because the organization understands that "for every person helped, countless others benefit, including family, friends, and community." They also host a Suicide Survivors support group the third Wednesday of every month.

The organization has expanded their medical assistance programs since 2000, because most musicians do not have health insurance. They offer short-term prescription drug assistance, have a volunteer physician come twice per month to see musicians with minor problems, offer subsidized eye exams and glasses through a partnership with Five Points Eye Care, and have an annual visit by an audiologist.

Services are funded through donations and fundraisers, as well as the nominal fees for rental services, both of equipment and of their sound-treated, climate controlled, and well-equipped rehearsal spaces. Nuçi's Space also offers both summer and after school versions of Camp Amped, where young musicians can explore the band experience  in a supportive, directed environment.

For their 10th Anniversary, Nuçi's Space is holding an Open House on Friday, October 1st, at 5:30pm, that includes a silent auction of autographed music memorabilia and live music. On the same day the winner of the raffle fundraiser for an all-inclusive trip to see Drive-By Truckers in Virginia will be selected. The next morning at 9am is their 7th annual 5k S.P.A.C.E. race (Suicide Prevention Awareness and Community Education) on the UGA campus, and on October 22nd, Terrapin Brewery is having a benefit night for the Space featuring a brewery tour, live music, and a limited edition 10th Anniversary pint glass for those who attend.

Learn More:

• Nuçi's Space website.
• Athens Banner-Herald, September 16-30, 2000, on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Banner-Herald, October 1-15, 2000, on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Concert and Chaos: A Documentary of the Athens Music Scene by J. M. Davidson in the Heritage and general collections.
• Understanding Depression: A Complete Guide to Its Diagnosis and Treatment by Donald F. Klein in the general collection.
• Mayo Clinic on Depression by Keith Kramlinger in the general collection.
• In the Wake of Suicide: Stories of People Left Behind by Victoria Alexander in the general collection.
• No Time to Say Goodbye: Surviving the Suicide of a Loved One by Carla Fine in the general collection.
• The Worst Loss: How Families Heal from the Death of a Child by Barbara D. Rosof in the general collection.
• Why Suicide? Answers to 200 of the Most Frequently Asked Questions by Eric Marcus in the general collection.
• College of the Overwhelmed: The Campus Mental Health Crisis and What to Do About It by Richard Kadison in the general collection.
  

12 March 1888: Composer Hall Johnson Is Born in Athens

On this day in 1888, musician Francis Hall Johnson was born in Athens, Georgia. He grew up around music, through his father, Reverend William D. Johnson's church, and his grandmother's spirituals. Both he and his sister were taught the piano as children, and he began composing his own music and creating his own arrangements of the music he encountered in his daily life from an early age.

Johnson attended the Knox Institute on the corner of Pope and Hull Streets, opened as the Knox School in 1868 by the Freedman's Bureau to educate former slaves. By the time Johnson attended, it was part of the American Missionary Association (AMA) and taught vocational skills such as sewing, typesetting, and carpentry in addition to basic academic courses. He graduated at 14, and spent a year at Atlanta University (founded by the AMA) before transferring to Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina, where his father had been named President. It was during this time Johnson taught himself to play the violin. He graduated from Allen in 1908.

Johnson then went to the University of Pennsylvania's School of Music, and later studied at the Julliard School in the early 1920s. In 1923, he was part of the Negro String Quintet, performing classical arrangements as well as current black composers. His classical training was made stronger by his fluency in German and French, and he recommended to his students that they learn the languages they were singing.

In 1925, he formed the Hall Johnson Choir, which performed his own arrangements of spirituals and other traditional black music "to show how the American Negro slaves...created, propagated and illuminated an art form which was, and still is, unique to the world of music." The choir was a huge success, not just for concerts, but also singing in Broadway productions and on movie soundtracks throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s.

Throughout the rest of his life, Johnson continued to compose and arrange, but also write about music. Of spirituals, he wrote in 1949, "True enough, this music was transmitted to us through humble channels, but its source is that of great art everywhere--the unquenchable, divinely human longing for a perfect realization of life."

Johnson died in an apartment fire in New York City in 1970.

Learn More:

• A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History by Michael Thurmond in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens: A Pictorial History 1801-2001 by James K. Reap in the Heritage and general collections.
• 1904 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• 1909 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• Salzburg Recital by Kathleen Battle and James Levine in the CD collection.
  
• A Beautiful Pageant: African American Theatre, Drama, and Performance in the Harlem Renaissance, 1910-1927 by David Krasner in the general collection.
• The Harlem Renaissance by Veronica Chambers in the children's collection.
  
• Readings in Black American Music, edited by Eileen Southern, available through PINES.
  
• Hall Johnson Filmography page on the Independent Movie Database website.
• Listen to the Hall Johnson Choir.