20 People to Watch - Where are they now? 2014

Checking in with 10 of CL’s former People to Watch

Since the inception of Creative Loafing’s annual “People to Watch” issue in 2012, we’ve profiled 60 Atlantans — 80 if you count this year’s class — who were poised to do big things for the city. We made a case for why they were worth watching. Were we right? What happened? Where are they now? This year we’ve followed up with 10 of our picks from 2012 to 2014 to find out. We selected 9 and had you, the readers, decide the 10th in an online poll. Here’s what the 10 say they’ve been up to and the big things some say they have planned for 2015.

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2012

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Tharon Johnson, the Campaign Manager

“A lot of people are calling me and encouraging me to run to become the next Democratic Party of Georgia chairman. I am considering it. But in the meantime, I’ll continue doing what I’ve been doing for the last 12 months. That’s promoting the candidates and policy issues in the best way I can.”



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Kristen Hard, the Chocolate Maker

“So, we had the fire at the Buckhead store in December 2013, which really hurt us. We’ve spent the last year kind of in a state of recovery ... Unfortunately that store was a funding arm for the overhead of the factory and the people that work in the factory ... We had a really rough year. We kept it afloat, I’m not sure exactly how, but we did. We moved our factory over to the Westside. It’s an 8,000-square-foot factory. We really loved Inman Park, but we were busting at the seams. We still roast cocoa beans off-site through a partnership with Batdorf & Bronson. Then we bring the beans to the factory and we do everything from the grinding, storage, tempering, and chocolate production along with all of our pastry and confection production. There’s a small factory store there and we have factory tours on Fridays. Coming in 2015, we’re opening back up in the Buckhead Atlanta development. We’re also opening back up in Inman Park, not a factory, but a small store in the new Inman Quarter development. We’ll have both openings happening probably end of January, beginning of February. We also just entered the Tokyo, Japan, market. We’re in two of the large, high-end stores, kind of like a Neiman Marcus ... We’re being written up at the moment in several Japanese magazines and we’re entering the Italian market in 2015.”

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2013

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Trinidad James, the Natural-born Star

“Having a No. 1 record is cool, don’t get me wrong. It’s a wonderful thing, but I feel like being creative and the creativity in music, art, and entertainment — I feel like that’s what people really remember you for. There’s a bunch of No. 1 songs this year that I don’t give a fuck about. What did that do for anybody, except a plaque on your wall? All right, cool. I’m happy for you, but what did that do for the world? When ‘All Gold Everything’ dropped, that changed the world. That changed the fashion, that changed the way rappers dress. That changed the perception of everybody in the underground game getting fucking record deals now. If you were to take it back two years ago, you would’ve never seen as many kids get a record deal, or have a No. 1 song.

“One of the most major things I’m doing in 2015 is I’m moving to L.A. All the things I did for Atlanta I want to do for L.A. I need a bigger playing field. I got on all the rides in this amusement park. I need a bigger amusement park. I want the kids to have their own playing field to play in. I don’t want to play with the kids in their sandbox. I want them to have their own sandbox and build their own castle. I’m on to building something else now; I’m on a different wavelength. I’m a grown-ass man.”


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Paul Luna, the Unlikely Candidate

“Life and living in Winterthur, Switzerland, is terrific. The Swiss, as you know, are organized, just like clockwork. The air one breathes, the mountains, and the ability to walk or ride the Metro are just simply wonderful ... I have opened a 10-seat reservations-only supper club, but I also open for two people just wanting time away from kids or other noise (namely, the one in their head). There is only observation; not speaking Swiss German has afforded me the opportunity to be silent. And I have come to realize that all the bullshit — the relentless desires to achieve, accomplish and become — is a waste of time and energy. Now I live in relative simplicity with my beautiful wife, who has found happiness here ... I find there is not a thing different in the life in Switzerland to Atlanta, just a difference. The difference is in thinking. And on that note, I smoke a wonderful cigar, and think fondly of my time in Atlanta — a city aching to achieve, accomplish, become, not realizing the beauty that it is in its silence.”


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Shabnam Bashiri, the Activist

“It seems like so much has happened since I was on the list two years ago. I spent the majority of my time building the national housing justice movement, working with local groups like Occupy Our Homes Atlanta and individuals across the country to take on the banks who continue to take people’s homes and devastate communities. One of the highlights was in May 2013 — we brought more than 500 homeowners from across the country, many of whom had never participated in a protest before, to Washington, D.C., to take action at the Department of Justice.

“A couple of months ago I started a new organization with my partner, Nelini Stamp, called Rise Up Georgia. I’ve really enjoyed and learned a lot from the work I’ve done nationally, but my heart is in Georgia and there’s so much work to do here. We’ve got big plans to transform the political landscape here locally; one of our big goals is to have an impact on the 2017 mayoral race in Atlanta. Lately, though, we’ve been out in the streets organizing actions and doing trainings with young people who are fed up with our broken criminal justice system in the wake of what happened in Ferguson, Mo. I’ve been so inspired by what’s happening around the country and the youth of color who are leading the way. It reminds me a lot of where I was three years ago during the Occupy movement. You can see it in their eyes; they’ve caught the bug and are hooked on organizing and activism and fighting for justice in their communities. In the meantime, I turned 30 this year and am still struggling to find the balance between my work and having a life or getting regular sleep. I’m still working on figuring that part out.”


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Grant Henry, the Nightlife Builder

“I am a lucky man, and grateful, to be the physical cornerstone of Edge & Bully. About six months ago I dared open my mind to another CHURCH in another city, found a prime space in Athens, Ga., and have been open about two months now! It was hell getting there, but the light at the end of the tunnel was bright. Reviews are rave, ping-pong is thriving, and the staff has learned what it means to be ‘CHURCH,’ not just another bar. They are carrying out that mission like the pros on Edgewood. I love Nashville and have my eye on a perfect space in the perfect hood. I’m hoping we can get an Atlanta delegation over there soon. I’m in Hong Kong right now trying to visualize how the fuck CHURCH would translate to another country, much less another language. These are dreams I can’t imagine coming true. But in 2009 I had no idea that Sister Louisa’s CHURCH in Atlanta could even be a thing. Let’s just say I learned the hard way to fuck fear.”

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2014

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Michael Tavani, the Entrepreneur

“This time last year, I was very close to locating an incubator at Ponce City Market. Long story short, PCM fell through and we went under contract to buy 151 Spring St., the current Atlanta Legal Aid building, in Downtown.

“I missed the early days of starting something from scratch. I’ve always had some other things I wanted to work on so I decided that it was a good time to step back from Scoutmob and focus on Switchyards. Switchyards is a collaborative space where Atlanta’s growing community of designers, brand-focused engineers and doers can come together to build the next great design-focused consumer companies. Part workspace, part event hub, and public meeting place.

“I went all-in on Downtown with Switchyards. I’m bullish on the neighborhood and location. We close on the building in March and will have a few months of renovations and then will move in during the summer. Downtown is ripe to become a destination for more than just tourists and out-of-towners, and we want to be a part of it.”


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Aaron Williams, the Bitcoin Baron

“The last year has been spent building technology, getting funding, and getting a bank account. It’s very difficult to get a bank account for a bitcoin business because of banking rules and regulations. There are two businesses now — the ATM company and one developing the software to operate the ATM. We hired a developer to build a cloud-based compliance platform that integrates with bitcoin ATMs. Right now we’re in the process of closing funding to keep building the company. So basically it’s hiring more developers to proof the process so we can run this technology on our ATMs and start doing business responsibly. We intend to have two ATMs installed in the first part of year. One probably around the Perimeter and another one intown.”


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Bethany Collins, the Visual Artist

“Atlanta is still home, but I’m so enjoying the travel, new spaces and ability to just work. Lately, I’m thinking about my practice with longevity in mind, which cuts out some of the other noise.

“Since we last spoke, my residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem wrapped up with the exhibition Material Histories. Followed by the group exhibition Retreat, curated by Theaster Gates at Valerie Carberry & Richard Gray Galleries in Chicago. I lost an arm on my last trip home, a four-person show at Ryan Lee Gallery in New York, will open early next year. And later next year, I’ll begin residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, Neb., and the Fountainhead Residency in Miami, Fla.”


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Jeff and Craig Moore, the Microdistillers

“Well, we finally figured out the bottle caps! Along the way we figured out a bunch of other things ... and we are proud to say that we were able to begin production in November 2014. We watched the first two pallets of product leave our facility on Dec. 15. We were expecting to hit shelves a few days later on Dec. 19, but the retailers were so eager to get our product it was on shelves that day, just in time for the holidays. Our gift to the city we love!” — Craig Moore