Raised on the Eastside of Athens and educated with a Triple Dog (bachelor’s, master’s, and a PhD from UGA), Tommy Valentine has a deep-rooted connection to the Athens community. He became involved in the Athens music world in high school, finding a home in the burgeoning rap and hip-hop scene of the late ‘90s and early aughts. Tommy was one of a small but vocal group of artists who were instrumental in getting downtown Athens music venues to host more rap acts. These experiences introduced him to grassroots organizing and the importance of building inclusive community, lessons that would shape his later career.
After working in various corporate managerial roles, Tommy became involved in advocacy work as a volunteer coordinator at Extra Special People, which set the groundwork for his work within the nonprofit sector. Today, he is the Executive Director of Historic Athens, where he has helped to transform the organization into an influential force within the community, guided by its three pillars of education, advocacy, and community.
Tommy lives in Historic Newtown with his wife– and former bandmate–Laura, and their daughters, Norah, 6, and Lucia, 3.
What do you love most about the work you do?
I think there are so many current problems in the world, and sometimes it can feel really overwhelming about what we should do. The longer I work in the world of history, the more comfort and perspective I find. Virtually any issue we’re facing, this community has had to face in some way in the past. And so, I think that that provides a lot of perspective. I also think, you know, Dr. King talks about “the fierce urgency of now.” I think working in history gives you a constant sense of that fierce urgency of now. You get a sense of how far our community still has to go, and some of how we got here. For those of us at Historic Athens, I think we’re constantly confronted with ways in which our community could be better, but also the perspective that this community is a really old one. Athens has been here for a really long time, and we still have time to get it right.
When you’re not working, what do you like to do in and around Athens?
I love movies. I probably watch five to seven movies a week. I find that time away from my phone and from dwelling on work helps me see other concepts and get inspiration that helps with my work. I’m a big champion of Ciné. I love Ciné. But also just watching films at home. And then, my absolute favorite thing to do is to hang out with my family. My daughters are two of the best friends I’ll ever have. My wife is my best friend. And so, whether it’s cooking together, or walking on the Greenway, or visiting our parks, or visiting the Georgia Museum of Art, we like to go out and experience life here in this community.
If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and why?
During my master’s work, I had the chance to go to Seoul, South Korea. I was so inspired by the way that they have folded together a cutting edge, futuristic city, while embracing, restoring, and rehabilitating the historic infrastructure in that community. Preservation wasn’t anywhere in my mind when I went there, but you just can’t escape it. You’ll get off at one of the stops on the top rated subway system in the world, and you’ll walk by an historic gate that was built in the year, you know, 600.
Back in the ‘70s, Korea, like the US, was hungry to build interstates. They ended up destroying some really key historic things, but most notably they destroyed the historic river that cut through Seoul. This river was actually the reason that Seoul was founded there. And they built an interstate over it. But then– this just goes to show the scale of ambition in Seoul– they decided they had made a mistake, and about 20 years ago they tore up the highway and rebuilt the river. Which, a project of that scale is just unthinkable. So now, as a result, they have this kind of Central Park-esque river that, as you’re traversing the city, you can walk down, below street level, and there’s this beautiful river with public art everywhere. So I love places like Seoul, or another good example is Cork, Ireland, that do a good job of blending the past and present.
If you could see any musical act at any time, who would you see and where?
My first thought is Sam Cooke. He’s absolutely my favorite vocalist ever (that I’m not married to). He had the purest voice, and I think it would be hard to beat a Sam Cooke performance for me. I’d see him at the 40 Watt. I love every venue in Athens, but any time I see an artist at the 40 Watt it’s such a magical experience. If I ever try to chase that high by seeing them somewhere else it’s a mistake. But I think for obvious reasons, it would also be really magical to see him at the Morton Theater.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Invest in routines and mentorship. So much of the last 20 years of my life has been positively defined by the folks who were generous enough to mentor me. The first few of those, like Gwen O’Looney and Montu Miller, thought to do so without me even understanding what mentorship was. If those interventions by those people hadn’t happened, I don’t know where I’d be today. I think mentorship is such a key part of it. It’s something that I still do. Every member, every full-time member of my staff is required to mentor someone and have a mentor in this community. So I think that mentorship is really important.
And then routines. I’m often at the gym at 5:30 in the morning, not because I’m a morning person. I hate getting up that early, but my brain works better. And so, having good routines on exercise, on things that bring you pleasure, on when the work happens so that, when your brain is beating itself alive at 11pm, you can say, “No, no, no. We work tomorrow at 9 a.m. We’re going to get this solved then.” So much of my early life, I struggled with routines and I struggled as a person as a result. Coming into adulthood after collegiate life was hard. You know, I had a hardship withdrawal, I had my first serious bout of depression. I know a lot of people struggle with depression and anxiety, and for me, the part that has worked is developing good routines.
Do you have a favorite movie?
So, in fourth grade at Gaines Elementary School, I had a teacher named Mr. Thomas. He was the only male teacher I had in elementary school, one of the only male teachers I ever had. He was like a role model to all the young boys in the class. He really trusted us with content that went above our head in fourth grade. He showed us Akira Kurosawa’s movie Dreams. It’s a weird movie. It has the whole pessimistic, post-apocalyptic sequence. But it was near the end of Kurosawa’s life, and he had already moved into color film by this point. It’s four or five vignettes, so it’s these kind of short stories in film. And bizarrely, there’s this Van Gogh story, and he somehow convinced Martin Scorsese to act and play Van Gogh. It’s dreamlike. It was the first time I really felt challenged by a movie. I mean, I loved movies before that; but I think that was the first one where I realized film could be as good as fiction, as good as the books I’m reading. It really opened up my eyes. So that movie remains my favorite.
What about a favorite book, or one you often reference or recommend?
From a managerial standpoint, it’s a little hackneyed and maybe over-recommended, but John Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is something that I often recommend to people. It’s not a perfect book, but I think it really challenges all leaders to see themselves as either the most important asset or biggest obstacle to the satisfaction and success of their organization.
I’ll also sneak in two others. As a kid I loved the Redwall series. It was kind of like Watership Down mixed with Lord of the Rings. As a kid, one of the things I loved so much about it is that the series, which is like 20 books long, hops around the centuries. So you’ll have a character in one book and then there’ll be a myth that’s told two books later or something like that.
I guess I’ll close by saying I’ve spent more time with Stephen King than any other author. I just think his purest, most successful book still remains The Shining. You know, in the movie you see Jack Nicholson go crazy pretty quickly. But in the book one of the things that always stood out for me about The Shining is that it’s about fear of yourself. King clearly wrote it as a recovering, or trying to be recovering, alcoholic. You have this character who knows he’s losing it and is trying not to lose it. He’s succumbing to this temptation to go crazy. It’s one of the few horror books I’ve revisited multiple times. I just think it’s phenomenal.
If you could put any message on a billboard, what would it say?
One that comes to mind is: “How are you stewarding what you’ve been given?” Preservation is really about just that. It’s about, “okay, the clock has been started and we’re the generation in charge now. We have all these wonderful things we’ve been handed, we’re going to re-hand it to the next generation. I think it’s a true enough statement across the board. You know, if you’re fortunate enough to have a family– Laura and I really struggled to have kids– we feel really responsible for stewarding that wonderful opportunity right in front of you. If you’re middle class and you have funds, how are you using them? You know, whoever you are in life, how are you stewarding what you’ve been given? I think it is an important question that we all need to consider.
If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and where?
I’m cringing at the thought that this will make me sound self important, but I think Dr. Martin Luther King. One of my tattoos is that line, “the fierce urgency of now.” I’m a person of faith, but I’m also somebody that wants to see the world improve, and I think that it’s really hard to do those two things at once. Everywhere we go, we’re surrounded by people that have complacency, either in the way the world is, or with the way others are being treated, and I just would love to have that time with him to talk. As far as where…where do you take Dr. King? [laughs] Gosh, let me think. I’m going to say Dawg Gone Good BBQ. I feel like it gives us a chance to consider ourselves in a historic context, and I think that would be the right choice.
What are three words or phrases that come to mind when you think of the word home?
Respite, love, and affirmation.
