1993-2001 | Gallery C – Inye Wokoma • Artist

Early Explorations | Cultural Documentary Vol. 2

“Bryan:Freaknik98” | 1998

Following my commentary in Gallery B, this gallery continues my exploration of Atlanta’s youth culture, this time with a five-year look at the annual Black college spring break party, Freaknik.

Freaknik was an annual Black college spring break party in Atlanta, GA. The event started as a small gathering of college students in the late 1970s that grew modestly over a period of 15 years or so. By the mid-1990s it exploded in size and gained national prominence. Unlike similar Black spring break parties that took place in cities and towns like Daytona, Florida,

and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, both recreational tourist destinations, Freaknik commandeered Atlanta, GA, a city ill-equipped to absorb tens of thousands of street-faring party goers. By 1998, due to ongoing controversies, and a crack-down by city officials, it had reached its zenith and would begin its decline into twilight. from 1995-1998.

I began documenting Freaknik in 1993, a few months after I purchased my first camera. I continued to photograph the event with my friend, Bryan Barber, over the next five years. While my tool of choice was an single lens reflex still camera, Bryan ventured out with his CP16 newsreel film camera.

This gallery bookends that period visual exploration. It begins with images from 1993, when the Black college culture, anchored in Black fraternities and sororities, was still very prominent, to 1998, when the event drew just as many non-college enrolled youth and students of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.