by Robin Kemp

Happy Friday! Here’s a look at what’s happening around Clayton County and the Southern Crescent this weekend.

Don’t think voting matters? Ask a Cuban-American. Raysa Aragon of Forest Park proudly deposits her absentee ballot in the box at the Historic Courthouse in Jonesboro.

Early voting continues this weekend. You can cast your ballot in person on Saturday, Oct. 24 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at any of the following locations–you don’t have to live in the city where the polling place is to cast an early ballot there:

While roughly the same numbers of voters are casting early ballots each day, the lines have been much shorter and quicker than on the first day or two of early voting.

If you have a paper absentee/advance ballot, you can drop it off before 7 p.m. any day at any of the following official county ballot boxes, which are under video surveillance:

Runsboro is back on its home turf at Lee Street Park in Jonesboro this Saturday at 7 a.m. The fun walk/run group meets each week in a different part of Clayton County. This week’s event is followed by We Won’t Stay Sleep: Wake Up and Vote at the Courthouse.

Walk A Mile In Her Shoes 5K

Don’t forget! You have until Oct. 28 to complete the virtual Walk A Mile In Her Shoes 5K Walk/Run to End Domestic Violence. Registration is $30 and gets you a t-shirt in addition to the satisfaction of standing up against a culture of violence. Join The Clayton Crescent’s team or sign up yourself! Do your race at your choice of place and pace! Do it for yourself, your loved ones, and those who are no longer with us. Visit https://5kwalkagainstdomesticviolence.raceroster.com. We’ll be wearing our shirt and race number and looking for selfies with other participants.

On Saturday from 11:30 to 3 p.m. or until supplies run out, there’s a Free Food Giveaway at Mount Zion High School, 2535 Mt. Zion Pkwy. in Jonesboro. The event is drive-through only and is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Lake Spivey/Clayton County, Chairman Jeff Turner, and Vice-Chairman DeMont Davis.

On Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Jonesboro Farmers Market will be open at Lee Street Park in Jonesboro (note change in hours). Support your neighbors’ kitchen-table efforts, stock up on home-canned delectables of all kinds, and check out the handcrafts! (Next Saturday, October 31, will be the last market of the season and some vendors will be in costume handing out treats.)

Also on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., there’s a Georgia Grown To-Go Drive-Thru Farmers Market at Tara Stadium, 1055 Battle Creek Road in Jonesboro. That event is sponsored by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, State Reps. Rhonda Burnough and Valencia Stovall, Clayton County Public Schools, and Clayton County Government. Georgia Grown To-Go is a series of pop-up markets, primarily in metro Atlanta that give customers  an opportunity to receive fresh produce directly from farmers utilizing a limited contact, drive-thru format. Georgia Grown is composed of certified local producers, representing the state of Georgia.

Sunday, October 25 is the last day for South Fulton residents in District One to enter their photo in the Ugly Mailbox Contest. Owners of the three ugliest mailboxes in District One will win new mailboxes. Winners will be announced next week. E-mail a photo of your ugly mailbox to Ruth.Prophete@cityofsouthfulton.gov and stop scaring the mail carrier. The event is presented by Councilwoman Catherine Rowell.

Skip Mason’s Vanishing Black Atlanta History group has moved its first book club meeting from this Sunday to next Sunday, October 31 at 2 p.m. The featured author is the incomparable (yes, we are highly, highly biased here) poet laureate, nonfiction writer, and former Emory professor now at Northwestern University, Natasha Trethewey, who will discuss her searing memoir, Memorial Drive. The event will be held by Zoom from the Auburn Avenue Research Library and is limited to 300 participants. E-mail skipmasonvanishingblackatlanta@gmail.com for Zoom information. For more details, visit the group’s Facebook page. If you can’t make it, do yourself a favor and read Domestic Work, Bellocq’s Ophelia, Native Guard, Thrall, and Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast–and consider supporting your local Black-owned independent bookstore in the process.

Here’s an interview with Trethewey on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross:

Got a weekend event we need to add? Hit us up at KempWrites@gmail.com with WEEKEND in the subject line and we’ll get it in there! Get out and enjoy this beautiful fall weather and mask up!

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