Black nerds discovered a “safe haven” at Controllerise, a weekly hangout space for gamers, eclectic music enthusiasts and artsy creatives looking for a platform with like-minded people to share ideas and create a community.
A crowd immediately gathers, as if folks have planned their entire day around the event. Getting there early means decent parking, but even those who have to park a bit away aren’t deterred. Instead, they form a plan to trek to Controllerise and instantaneously congregate with other attendees before they’ve even entered the venue. The energy thrives before they make it inside.
Starting at 9 p.m. every Monday at Monday Night Brewery, Controllerise provides an array of video, board, and card games while tunes spun by various DJs or mixed by producers serve as the event space’s soundtrack.
Along with a number of food vendors, vinyl resellers, clothing merchants and artists being present, the venue incorporates every aspect of entertainment. Movies are also streamed, and attendees receive headphones so that they can plug in and zone out of everything else happening around them.
Rows of people sit at long tables, sharing conversation while they draw and color cartoon characters from their childhoods or the latest anime craze. Others grab food and drinks before meeting with friends to dance near the DJ booth or stroll to see what sort of jewelry and crystals catch their eye at a nearby booth.
A series of players sitting in front of monitors prepare for their next challenge as they anticipate their next battle on a gaming console. Laughing and strengthening bonds, this has become a weekly retreat for many.
At Controllerise, attendees can choose the type of vibe they want to experience.
Credit: Fulani Jabri
Credit: Fulani Jabri
“It’s just provided a really safe space for us to know that we can come as we are,” said Dedren Snead, the founder of comic book collective Subsume Studios. “You don’t have to come as anything else.”
Controllerise content manager Fulani Jabri said the “refugee space” is especially important for Black adults looking to reclaim their youth.
“We don’t have the luxury to really enjoy imagination in our childhoods and a lot of things that most people have the luxury of doing when they’re young,” Jabri said. “So when we get older, of course we love escapism. Of course we love video games and we love creativity, and we love spaces where we can pretend and cosplay because we really missed out.
Credit: Fulani Jabri
Credit: Fulani Jabri
“A lot of us missed out on that because you have to be prepared to deal with growing up Black at an early age. That’s why a lot of folks come here.”
Controllerise began in 2015 when people just wanted a place to hang out, creative director Maurice Arrington explained. Eventually, the hangout incorporated music and dancing, and then someone introduced gaming by bringing their PlayStation.
The nerdy hangout has grown to see hundreds of people attend each week.
Credit: Fulani Jabri
Credit: Fulani Jabri
Jabri explained that the “oasis” isn’t just for Black nerds, but more so that it serves as a reminder that they are part of the culture.
“We’re grateful for the opportunity to … serve our community and the folks who need it when we need it,” he said. “More important, we’re grateful to be able to all contribute to a culture that already existed and a solution that we didn’t know we needed.”
Co-founder Chris Wilkes, who is also a musician, said the weekly culmination of nerds has become close-knit but also a widespread “incubator” for creativity and allows musicians to venture into public performance. The hangout space features two stages — one indoors and the other outside on the back deck — for producers and DJs to test their musical chops with the audience.
“You see versions of this thing in North Carolina and New York, all over the place. It’s become bit of a Chitlin’ Circuit for producers,” he explained. “So, people can play here and then go to North Carolina, (they) know where to play.”
Then there are attendees who go without an agenda and vibe until serendipity leads them to others with commonalities.
As a lifelong gamer, I migrated toward a group going hard on PlayStation fighting games. Of course, I attempted to show a younger gamer of my abilities on Tekken, until he demolished my fighter (Eddy Gordo) with his Steve Fox. (I blame the loss on not getting a proper warmup.)
Ahead of the holidays, Controllerise became festive and streamed Christmas movies, while a group of attendees got really cozy into the season and roasted marshmallows and made s’mores.
“Today, I brought little gingerbread men that are all over, little angels so people can color. And you should see the artwork that is already on the tables,” digital creator Dii Smokes said. “There are such talented people here.”
Credit: Fulani Jabri
Credit: Fulani Jabri
Dii, who also assists with art supplies from Color ATL, said the space helped liberate the Black community.
“For so long, there’s been a stigma on just our culture, especially in music and media — a certain lifestyle that perpetuates negative stereotypes. … That’s just not what you find, especially in this community,” she said. “These (people) are therapists and doctors and lawyers and social workers. … We’re all normal people, and we get to come here and just kind of do the things that are nostalgic to us growing up as millennials.”
Meanwhile, Snead, who brought a generous supply of his hand-drawn comics, has made it a point to immerse images of Black people in the nerd culture they consume.
“I’ll draw a book about kids at an HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities) who build a time machine and go back and change and remix Black history,” he described. “So I’ll make a manga series about a young African merchant that has to escape imperial Japan with the shogun’s daughter. And then, so, I’ll remake Black Panther as anime. I just make the stuff I want to see.”
He has also made it a point to share his knowledge so that Black kids can thrive in their nerdom.
“We have a studio that teaches young and young at heart how to be a part of the future through art, technology and culture,” he said.
Credit: Fulani Jabri
Credit: Fulani Jabri
Of course, there are other Controllerise participants who attend weekly events as if it were a family reunion, as a way to maintain connection with their chosen family.
“What’s really dope about Controllerise is almost like it’s a part of that Venn diagram of culture that Atlanta is. … People all converge here,” Jabri asserted. “It’s a breath of fresh air for those who need to go out and enjoy the necessity of human companionship but can’t handle the overstimulation of music that’s not catered to them and spaces that don’t really make it feel safe.”
Become a member of UATL for more stories like this in our free newsletter and other membership benefits.
Follow UATL on Facebook, on X, TikTok and Instagram.
About the Author
