Meet co-founders Bowen Craig and Mark Katzman of Athens Uncharted

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bowen Craig and Mark Katzman.

Hi Bowen and Mark, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourselves.
Bowen Craig: Mark and I are both local writers. We’ve both published multiple novels, had stage plays performed, written screenplays, and both of us have conducted many interviews. We were sitting in Mark’s apartment one day. He was drinking a heavy-bottomed glass of whiskey and I was drinking a Terrapin RecreationAle  when we had the idea for a local arts website where we’d interview artists of all stripes. We brainstormed a list of names, eventually landing on Athens Uncharted (which felt adventurous).

Since then, we’ve talked with many regional musicians, painters, photographers, writers, a props master, the former cartoonist for Creative Loafing, actors, really artists of any category. As well, on our Instagram page we have videoed and promoted both Athens and Atlanta bands and events i.e., the Lyndon House, Ace/Francisco Gallery, High Museum, Variety Playhouse, Star Bar, Terminal 5 and others. We’ve conducted the only interview with Michael Davenport, a local legend, who paints bulldawgs downtown, using only his mouth, since he lost the use of his arms in a childhood accident.

Once a year we like to set up an Athventure. One year we had a locally-focused scavenger hunt, where people visited the local nature center, locally-owned businesses, and familiar Athens landmarks. They looked for clues, then filled out a crossword puzzle. Another year, Mark and I adapted several local ghost stories from the book, Ghosts of Athens, by author Tracy Adkins, with a first-time ever performance of the plays at The Foundry, an historic local venue.

We are also committed to local community events, such as the Children’s events at the Athens Regional Library and the various Farmer’s Markets and Pop-up events and House Shows in Athens.

Mark Katzman: As Bo said, Athens Uncharted started as a bit of a lark (and he may have over-emphasized my drink on that fateful evening – or maybe not). How to encompass a city with such a huge diversity of artists and musicians and cultural events, including at least some activities at UGA. I have edited two literary magazines in the past. One out of Boston, Polis, which was pre-digital (print only) and resides in a number of Special Collections. The other one, artzar.net, still online, was published when I lived in New York for a number of years, which I’m still very proud of. My interview with Timothy Leary resides there (after being first published in Japanese translation in Zavtone), as well as the interview I did with former Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz I did while I worked at The American Museum of Natural History for a number of years, along with the interview I did with my mentor, poet William Bronk, which the Paris Review mistakenly turned down. He won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1982 and received virtually no recognition and was basically completely overlooked by the “establishment” as he didn’t promote himself and was a bit of a hermit. I gave a talk on our 17 year-old friendship at New York University at a symposium on him in 2012. But beyond a selection of commissioned “digital covers,” as new media was beginning to take off, artzar.net was still a more or less a standard literary zine with sections for fiction, photography, interviews, art etc. Our brainstorming after naming Athens Uncharted has led to what has become an underground beacon of sorts for not only the Athens creative community and local community events in general, but as we have gained followers we’ve expanded to select coverage of Atlanta events and the entire northeast regional area as well. But we are slow posters as we are both heavily involved in writing projects of our own. We do not try to compete with the well-established Flagpole in Athens who does a tremendous job (with an actual staff) of complete coverage and listings and features of Athens-based cultural activities. I think of us simply as a credible, underground Athens-based zine. We gravitate to in-depth interviews with both new and established cultural creatives of all types, articles, and an occasional column by Kat of Typographies, which has gained a nice following. As well, our Instagram page is having tremendous success, especially with videos and short interviews of local bands and events and digital song video experimenters, such as Amanda Jane Crouse. We continue attending select live shows (recently Classic City Wrestling at the 40 Watt Club) along with the explosion of experimental music in Athens. I had the opportunity to interview Vanessa Briscoe Hay of Pylon/Pylon Reenactment Society, which has been a personal highlight, and has been viewed by thousands of people. But Instagram has opened a new door. Those videos, along with the Story section has allowed us to “go global” sharing the work of both fine artists and musicians and relevant articles and various cultural anomalies (like the controversies about the actual use of the pyramids) along with the explosion of savvy digital creators from around the world. I also like to discover artists who are doing groundbreaking art and promote them and the response has been phenomenal. Hence our tag phrase: Creative Culture. Community. Athens, Ga. (and the world). I am also a musician and have released two albums with the group BASIC, Prairie Fields and Tomahawk, available on streaming platforms, and I play solo experimental guitar at occasional events in Athens.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We’ve been patiently waiting for a confused Greek tour group to contact us, but alas, that has yet to happen.

It’s been fairly smooth. It was a little rough at first. Coordinating the play was not easy, but we stumbled through, and it came off well.

Because there are only three of us (We run an occasional column by Kat of Typographies.) We are growing at a gradual pace, though with our Facebook and Instagram sites, there are daily postings of both music, cultural and community events.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Bowen Craig: I’m proudest of having the largest pancreas east of the Mississippi River. Artistically, I’m proud of two of the three books I have written, including A Look to the Future Through the Eyes of an Eighty-Year-Old Pirate. I’m proud of the publishing company I co-founded, Bilbo Books. I’m proud of various plays I’ve written. I’m proud of my rant site, Heretic Picayune. I’m proud of doing this interview. I may need to work on my pride. It is deadly sin.

When society collapses, in 4-6 years, we’ll probably be too consumed by learning how to cook grasshoppers and make a decent pine straw soup to worry about conducting interviews with local artists.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.athensuncharted.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/athensuncharted/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/athensuncharted/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKZRJ3FJI5ewv9sLlD_gfkQ
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/athensuncharted/sets/athensuncharted