Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1540272
12 maconmagazine.com | October/November 2025 N early fort y years ago, Macon Magazine was founded with a focus on our arts because the arts "provide an increasing amount of events for our communit y," as the original information sheet about the forthcoming publication st ated. A conf luence occurs as the Ocmulgee R iver merges with the A lt amaha in its journey to the Georgia coast. When these rivers come together to form another river, they f low to deliver fresh water to the Atlantic Coast al Plain. Together, the rivers create the biodiversit y forming the variet y of life found in nature. Much like the rivers merge, Macon's arts create a living cultural conf luence. With that vibrant spirit, we went all in and launched an accessible, urgent print offering that you can f ind around town. Cherry Bomb may be free of charge, but we designed it to add value to our cultural offerings: to bring the quick and dirt y information on what to do, see, and hear now. It's the editorially curated arts- focused zine we need to enhance how we experience culture. Let's stop the endless search on websites, push notif ications, and all those social media platforms. Find it around Macon now and t wice monthly. Sit with it screen free, mark it up, put it on your bulletin board, and read it over coffee, bagel, and/or your preferred beverage. Dive in to all of our page turning options. The water is ready and the content is diverse—like our Central Georgia artist offerings, if we're willing to champion them. On our cover f lows the stor y behind sculptor Ilan Averbuch's "Even Walls Can Move," a work that reminds us rivers don't stop at barriers in the new Bicentennial Park in East Macon. It's a location that embodies intersectionalit y in histor y, government, and geography. He says much can divide us, but "his vision hopes to transcend those barriers," as Julia Morrison writes on page 68. "A wall is something that can move, people can move it," Averbuch said, while inst alling the sculpture this spring. "It's ver y architectural, but it's also f igurative. You will really feel that there is a movement, a human movement. It's about communit y. There are communities on either side of the wall, and they are t aking it on a ride. I hope that they will read symbolically into all these images, and with the background of the histor y of what happened here." Dare we say, get in the boat—or be the force to move it? Our histor y includes injustice alongside the more savor y stories, but our artists paint, dance, weave, and spotlight our stories in ways that strengthen us, navigating the waves of empathy to reconcile and build bridges. Editor's letter | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2025 Editor, Susannah Cox Maddux @susannahcmaddux W e w a n t t o k n o w y o u r s t o r y . J o i n t h e c o n v e r s a t i o n @ m a c o n m a g a z i n e o r e m a i l u s h e l l o @ m a c o n m a g a z i n e . c o m . We celebrated Cherry Bomb at The Rose Room with an eager crowd. The very first edition of Macon Magazine O u r a r t s c a r r y t h e c o n f l u e n c e o f c u l t u r e .