Why Would Grant Do a Blog?  Who is Sister Louisa?  Who Would Grant Do?  Where Would Grant Do It?  What Would Grant Do with his Life?  Why Would Grant say He’s The Happiest Man Alive?  What What?  Push the button,  participate in my (g)RANTINGS, share ideas,  let’s use these “intranets” as a conduit for World Peace!!!  COME ON IN, PRECIOUS!!!

Someone in CHURCH yesterday
asked me
if I had been planning
on opening a bar
called CHURCH
for a long time.

It got me thinking.
I have known
that I love the Hospitality Industry
since High School& College;
receiving my
Bachelor’s in Business
with a Major in Hotel, Restaurant, & Travel.

I get bored easily
and there is never a dull moment
in the bar business.
If I learned anything

from that
Seventies Education was that to create a
Designation Food,
Drink,
or Entertainment Establishment

you must provide
more than food and drink.

You must create an experience
for your guests
and you must give them
something that they are guaranteed
to talk about
around the break room
the next day at work.

After working
with major
hotel corporations

in Franchise Development
and Quality Assurance,
my life changed.I (thought) I veered
from THAT world
when completing
a Master’s Degreein Education & Psychology
in the early Eighties.I needed THAT
to boost my confidence
and knowledge

of how the hell
to raise two children
whom I loved dearly
when I was only in my
early twenties my self.

I enjoyed that responsibility
and life and about died

when it ended.

In the late Eighties

when confronted with

a quest for truth,

I pursued a

a Master’s in Divinity

with a Major in

Pastoral Care.

Not able to reconcile

the incongruities between

The Dogma of The Church

and what I knew to be True inside,

I left the Church proper

(Sister Louisa’s story is really my story)

and began secular work

with troubled adolescents

and their parents.

After 5 years of THAT,

I had an itch to create vignettes

within my life.

I bought,

restored,

and sold homes

in places where

NO ONE wanted to live

and elevated their worth

by filling them

with such love and beauty

that their value

was transformed.

I LOVE that.

Sister Louisa

was conceived

from this very bent

towards transformation.

I opened an antique store

in East Atlanta

in The Nineties

called

RESURRECTION ANTIQUES

AND OTHER WORLDLY POSSESSIONS.

It was here that

I started collecting

tacky-ass pictures

of Jesus.

Assloads of them.

Being weak minded,

whatever/whomever

I surround myself with

is who I become.

I have always kept

a picutre of Jesus

by my bed

so that his energy,

simplicity,

and single mindedness

is the first thing

that I see

when I wake up.

Retarded,

I know,

but true.

Destiny had it

that I would meet

Hollis, Daniel, and Lary

and during our first meeting

would decide to travel

for a couple of weeks

together

to Prague

and

Amsterdamn.

Through this ridiculous

and life-changing encounter,

Lary informed me

that I was gay,

Hollis inspired me

to say what I believed,

and Daniel amazed me

with his childlike

expression of life.

Sister Louisa

was conceived

through the excitement

of our new relationship

and the planning of the

first Telephone Factory Art Show.

Daniel was a real artist

with paint on his clothes

and shoes,

and he cut his own hair.

Hollis spewed hilarity,

because she has

no other damn choice.

That Bitch can write.

Lary is God.

He’s above and beyond

all things Human.

I knew that I

wasn’t a “real” artist,

that my art

was the art of living.

Drunk,

I went to my antique store

and took all the

tacky-ass pictures of Jesus

off the walls

(that nobody bought),

brought them to The Telephone Factory

and wrote what was on

the inside of me

on the fronts of those paintings.

Embarrassed

by what came out,

I couldn’t sign them

Grant Henry.

I created an alter ego

to which I assigned

the name Sister Louisa,

her being a woman

to eliminate any suspicion

that she

was I.

Sister Louisa

sold sixty plus

pieces of art

her first show.

I thought,

hmmmmmm…

Having made some money

with my real estate,

I decided to sell everything,

houses, cars, shit.

I had been making

Sister Louisa Art

but couldn’t take

it with me,

so I filled the dumpster

behind the Telephone Factory

with her art,

and darted off to Mexico

to live simply,

forever.

Well,

after a year,

I realized that

I wasn’t done

yet.

I returned to Atlanta

and was confronted

with the horrid fact

that a friend had retrieved

and stored all of my

Sister Louisa Art

from the dumpster.

Bored,

I told a friend

who owned a Restaurant

and another Bar,

The Local,

that I wanted to learn

to bartend

so that I could have parties

in my new loft

at The Telephone Factory.

I did not want a job,

I wanted to learn

to bartend.

I bartended at The Local

for almost 10 years

and rememebered

why I loved the business.

Sister Louisa

continued to refuse to die,

and thrived in

Sister Louisa’s Art Gallery

in The Church of The Living Room

in The Telephone Factory.

Through the encouragement

and support of amazing friends

and family,

you know who you are,

I left The Local

to open a bar

called

CHURCH.

I already had the art.

I already had the church chandeliers.

I already had tons of Jesus shit.

I already do Sister Louisa matches.

I already am a marketing whore.

I already had a Last Supper Table.

I already had Blood-of-Christ Red Leather Sofa Set.

I already had a Ping Pong Table.

I already had a Collection of Authentic Roadside Religious Signs.

I am not smart enough to know

that,

yes,

I have been planning

on opening a bar

called CHURCH

for a long time.

I’ve conducted several encounters called

IT IS OUR DUTY

TO CATAPULT

EACH OTHER

INTO GREATNESS.

It is because of

the love and support of

all of my friends

and family

that I am able

to focus forward

with blinders on

and let

what is being created here

be created.

It’s not me.

I have nothing to do with it.

I just am too lazy

to stand in it’s way.

SISTER LOUISA’S CHURCH

OF THE LIVING ROOM

& PING PONG EMPORIUM

…Come On In, Precious!

will open as soon as

“her” liquor license

is approved.

I’d guess mid

to late November.

Thank You for your patience,

and excitement.

Jesus loves your butt.