Lonnie Holley in conversation with Virginia Prescott | Lonnie Holley

Name: Lonnie Holley in conversation with Virginia Prescott | Lonnie Holley
Start: 2025-04-08T19:00:00-04:00
Location: 453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway NE, Atlanta, GA 30307-1406

Schedule

Tue, 08 Apr, 2025 at 07:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway NE, Atlanta, GA 30307-1406 | Atlanta, GA

The first major monograph on the multifaceted artist whose work ranges from painting and sculpture to performance and sound. Lonnie Holley’s work has captivated audiences.
A Cappella Books and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library welcome acclaimed visual artist, musician, and storyteller Lonnie Holley to The Carter Center in honor of his new book, “Lonnie Holley: Sculptures, Paintings, Sandstones, Film, Works on Paper & Music.”
Created in collaboration with Harmony Holiday and John Beardsley, this landmark volume is the first to comprehensively document Holley’s expansive artistic practice. Holley will appear in conversation with Virginia Prescott, President of School of Humans Audio and former host of GPB’s “On Second Thought.”
This program is presented in partnership with Grocery on Home and Criminal Records.
Ticketing Options:
$70 Ticket – Includes admission and a signed copy of "Lonnie Holley." If you cannot attend, your ticket still entitles you to a signed copy of the book, which A Cappella Books will hold for one month from the event date. You may pick it up in-store or call us to request shipping.
$10 Ticket – Admission only; ticketholders will receive a $10 credit toward the purchase of the book at the event. This ticket does not include a book if you are unable to attend.

Please note: Although tickets are non-refundable, if you cannot attend, your ticket still entitles you to a signed copy of the book. A Cappella Books will hold your book for one month from the event date. You may pick it up in-store or call us to request shipping.
About the Book
“Lonnie Holley has held a cult status among the art cognoscenti for a long time as a visual artist and performer.”—New York Times
Lonnie Holley’s widely admired practice spans painting, drawing, assemblage sculpture, and performance that combines experimental music and poetry. After decades of making art, he is now getting the recognition he richly deserves.
The artist’s first sculptures were carved tombstones for his nieces who perished in a house fire in 1979. Over the following years, he devoted himself to making sculptures that populated his property near Birmingham, a large all-encompassing outdoor installation that was eventually destroyed in 1997. The artist’s work continued unabated as he began to gain recognition and exhibit his work in the South and throughout the US.
In his first major monograph, every facet of his practice is explored. Holiday considers Holley’s art and music as interconnected components of the artist’s overall creative vision. Beardsley focuses on the artist’s Birmingham roots connecting the cultural firmament of that city with other major creative communities in Alabama, most notably Boykin, more popularly known as Gee’s Bend, home of the famous quilters.
About the Artist
Since 1979, Lonnie Holley has dedicated his life to improvisational creativity, working across sculpture, painting, music, film, and performance. Born in the Jim Crow South, his art reflects themes of resilience, history, and transformation. His work is held in major museum collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, and The Tate Modern.
Holley’s critically acclaimed music career includes collaborations with Bon Iver, Michael Stipe, and Moor Mother. His albums—such as “MITH” (named one of The New Yorker’s best albums of the decade) and “Oh Me Oh My”—have received widespread praise. He has toured globally, sharing stages with artists like Animal Collective and Tinariwen.
Beyond music and visual art, Holley has explored film and storytelling, with his short “I Snuck Off the Slave Ship” premiering at Sundance and his story featured in the Peabody-nominated podcast Unreformed. His upcoming book, “Lonnie Holley: Sculptures, Paintings, Sandstones, Film, Works on Paper & Music” (Rizzoli Electa, 2025), is the first to comprehensively document his wide-ranging artistic output.
Holley is a USA Artist Fellow and a recipient of the Skowhegan Medal for Visual Arts & Music. He continues to create and innovate from his home in Atlanta and around the world.
About the Authors
Harmony Holiday is a writer, dancer and experimental filmmaker whose work surveys music, ancestry, death and rebirth, and celebrity.
John Beardsley is an author, curator, and educator.
About the Conversation Partner
Before being named President of School of Humans audio division, Virginia Prescott hosted GPB's "On Second Thought" from 2018-2021. In 2024, the School of Humans podcast "Unreformed" was nominated for a Peabody Award. was Prescott has gathered an impressive collection of tote bags and awards over decades in public media. She earned her audio chops as producer and director for NPR’s "On Point" and "Here and Now" and on the Peabody Award-winning team behind "Jazz from Lincoln Center with Ed Bradley." She’s worked at stations from New Orleans to New York, in conflict zones from the Balkans to Sierra Leone and was awarded a Loeb Fellowship from Harvard.