Tommy Valentine’s legacy— from writing history to preserving it

Known for his advocacy for historic preservation, Historic Athens Executive Director Tommy Valentine had an eventful East Athens upbringing. Having graduated from Cedar Shoals in 2002, Valentine overflows with stories from the late 90s about legendary rap battles and photography adventures, most of which are unfortunately lost on VHS tape and film.

“I served as BluePrints editor my senior year, and at the same time I was serving as the photography editor for the yearbook. I used to walk around Cedar with a Canon Rebel, a single lens reflex camera, and I would take pictures everywhere,” Valentine said.

This habit, constantly keeping record of his high school surroundings, proved impactful just days after Valentine’s 18th birthday.

“I remember it was September and I had just turned 18 which means that if you’re a boy, you have to register for selective services, meaning you can get drafted,” Valentine said. “I’d just registered for selective services on the computer. I went next door for homeroom and said to one of my friends, ‘At least there’s not gonna be a war anytime soon.’ I promise that 15 minutes later, (Mr.) Castile came in to tell us about the 9/11 attacks.”

As with most people, it took a while for the severity of the situation to sink in for Valentine. Once it did, Valentine’s nature to capture the moment kicked in. He headed to the yearbook classroom to grab a camera in pursuit of documenting his environment.

“When I came back to science class, I said, ‘What’s going on?’ And they said, ‘The towers fell,’” Valentine said. “I’d just been in New York like two months earlier, and I couldn’t process it. I was like ‘What do you mean, fell? Like part of it fell?’ and they were like, ‘No, the whole thing fell.’ So, it was a really surreal time around the country, but I remember at Cedar, like the rest of the country, everyone got super patriotic and there were all these art displays. That BluePrints issue has all these essays that kids wrote along with poetry and paintings.”

Valentine’s 9/11 story can still be read in BluePrints’ November 2001 print issue, featuring his photos of New York from his prior visit. Valentine was not only actively involved in BluePrints, but also speech and debate, cross country, track and theater. Valentine’s school involvement represented his own desire to be just as multifaceted as everyone around him.

“I remember Cedar as a very creative and entrepreneurial place. There were people that were creating and selling their own art, whether it was visual or musical. There were mixtapes everywhere. You couldn’t walk into a bathroom without hearing somebody banging a beat out on the side of the stall. So many people I knew had real names and stage names,” Valentine said. 

Valentine was anything but removed from the late 90s hip-hop and rap music culture. In fact, he co-founded Cedar Shoals’ first freestyle rap club. In 2001, Valentine won the “Skoolyard Brawl” Cedar Shoals vs. Clarke Central rap battle, and he came back to claim the winning title again at the 2002 “Prince of the Ring” rap battle hosted by the music collective Dreaded Mindz. After making a name for himself among the young Athens hip-hop community, Valentine was invited to join Dreaded Mindz.

“It was this real community where on Wednesdays you’d get together and have spaghetti suppers to talk philosophy and sociology. Fridays, we’d have what was called Battle Lounge where they would freestyle,” Valentine said.

This collective was led by hip-hop artist and then University of Georgia student Montu Miller, now the ethnic studies and peer leadership teacher at Cedar Shoals. Miller’s college apartment was the central spot for these late-night music sessions.

“Montu had two light bulbs. If the light bulb was green, it was cool to stop by. If it was red, he was actually studying because he was an undergrad,” Valentine said. “At the time, no venue downtown would book hip-hop, so it was Montu’s status as a college student that allowed him to book Memorial Hall on campus which became the first place we regularly saw scheduled hip-hop.”

Miller felt that Dreaded Mindz was just the initiative that Athens needed to get wider recognition for the hip-hop community. 

“It was this branch of individuals, like poets, hip-hop artists, intellectuals, everyday people. We all came together and created some good events,” Miller said. “I went to majority black schools all my life, so going to UGA was sort of a culture shock to me. With me being new to Athens, we had to trailblaze these things through. I felt like there’s other people that need to know that there’s hip-hop and alternative cultures in Athens, that there’s more than just the white students that go to UGA. We needed to be seen.”

Though Valentine was still in high school and often felt like a tagalong to the college music scene, he found his own outlet at Cedar as well.

“I entered high school a very traditionally nerdy kid. I found hip-hop to be incredibly compelling. The halls, lunch tables and after track practice, everyone was freestyling and battling everywhere. If you were on the bus, people were debating who the top five dead or alive greatest hip-hop artists were,” Valentine said. “Tenth grade is when I remember getting more involved in advocacy and activism — that’s when I became class president and when I started getting involved in hip-hop.”

While Valentine always held an interest in activism and music, it was his time spent directing the yearbook staff and BluePrints that led him to pursue a degree in journalism after graduating. He attended Georgia State University for two years before dropping out and coming back to Athens to put his focus and energy into music and politics. 

“I founded Love Notes Records to manage hip-hop, rock, punk rock and screamo acts, all while putting out my own records,” Valentine said. “During that time, I still had day jobs and they were increasingly corporate. There was a certain point when my eyes opened to the public sector, and that’s when I went into campaign work around 2008 which inspired me to return to school and finish my degree in political science.”

Valentine eventually graduated from UGA with a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science and Masters of Public Administration, and he is currently a UGA Ph.D. candidate in Public Administration and Policy. To this day, Valentine credits his relationships at Cedar for helping widen his perspectives, translating to his later work in politics and activism.

“I distinctly remember one day after track talking with one of my friends about what we were going to do after practice. I was headed home to Cedar Creek for a warm meal, but my friend was telling me he was going home to cook dinner for his siblings because his parents were both working two part time jobs. I think that was one of the first times I became aware of my own privilege,” Valentine said. 

He went home after that interaction and turned on public-access television.

“I turned on the commission meeting and they were arguing about light pollution. It felt like such a ‘let them eat cake’ thing. I love the stars as much as anybody else, and I understand light pollution is a real issue. Now I have some adult perspective, and I know that it couldn’t have been the only issue the commission talked about,” Valentine said. “But as I was learning that Athens was the poorest college town in America, and as I was seeing the real effects of that system and exclusion on my friends and their families, I was coming to realize that the local infrastructure didn’t seem to feel very urgent about that challenge.”

Valentine’s time in Athens’ music scene and range of personal relationships at Cedar broadened his perspectives and awareness about systemic issues in Athens, igniting his political awareness and creating the foundation for his future endeavors.

“The skills you develop in the hip-hop world are synonymous with the skills that community organizers work to develop. You’re building a community, you’re learning communications, you’re making your own flyers and handbills and passing them out,” Valentine said. “Hip-hop is very focused on discussions of equity, race and history.”

Little did Valentine know that he would eventually be doing the exact same thing — going door to door promoting himself — but for a very different reason. In 2018, Valentine ran for the District 9 county commissioner seat, but he lost to Ovita Thornton. He did not let this setback deter him though, going on to join Historic Athens as their Executive Director that same year and becoming a vocal representative in favor of reparations for descendants of Linnentown — a prominent Black neighborhood that was removed to make way for UGA’s 1962 urban renewal project which constructed the freshman high rise dormitories that still stand on Baxter Street. 

“Historic Athens doesn’t view it to be our role to ride in on a white horse and save the day. Instead, our responsibility is to use the organization’s privilege and infrastructure to support ongoing grassroots preservation,” Valentine said.

As the Executive Director of Historic Athens, a local non-profit organization founded in 1967 striving to preserve historically significant buildings, Valentine has all the time to devote energy towards his passion of leadership and music in creating a more culturally appreciative Athens. One way the organization has gone about this is through Historic Athens’ annual Porchfest event, which invites community members to visit historic neighborhoods to listen to bands perform on the porches of historic homes.

“He’s able to take an idea and make it into an award winning project or program,” Hope Iglehart, Historic Athens’ Director of Engagement and African American Heritage, said. “I’m so impressed with the work and the growth of the organization.”

Iglehart has only been with Historic Athens since January 2022, but having grown up in the community, her ties to Athens go way back. Through her position, Iglehart coordinates Historic Athens’ One Story Athens initiative, which focuses on connecting committees with their heritage through heritage walks, live casts and social media highlights. Valentine was a leading force in making Iglehart’s position a reality by writing the grant to put it into place.

“It was his vision to be inclusive in the work that they’ve been doing with advocacy and historic preservation,” Iglehart said. “One of the things that I can say about Tommy is that he has always made a way for everybody. He is thoughtful and inclusive with individuals and how we engage.”

Though Valentine wouldn’t go on to become a prominent journalist, world-renowned rapper or serve on the Athens-Clarke County commission, he has taken all of these experiences to formulate who he is now and the work he puts forth. 

“Sometimes, I think we almost forgot that he was younger because he was just so wrapped up in all of it,” Miller said. “I can always remember Tommy being this bright eyed young dude that was willing to just jump into the ring. And now in his life, whether that be Historic Athens or when he ran for county commissioner, he’s not scared to do those things.”

Five years ago he started at Historic Athens. Nineteen years ago he came back to Athens to pursue his dream. And 21 years ago, he graduated from Cedar Shoals having no idea he would end up where he is now, but Valentine cherishes his high school years, recognizing that they were an intensely formative time of his life through his experiences and the relationships he formed.

“When you’re at Cedar, you certainly have the community of Cedar around you. As you graduate, if you’re fortunate, that community stays together. To this day, a lot of my closest friends are Jaguars,” Valentine said. “My outlook on life, community — globally and locally — activism and advocacy, and community leadership — all of that was rooted in that time at Cedar.”