While we spend the month of February honoring prominent figures in our Nation’s history, we also feel that it is important to acknowledge our current and former members who have had a prominent impact on our local history.
Cassie Chantel is an award-winning songwriter and recording artist born in Athens, GA. Having toured across the United States, she is a multidimensional artist also recognized for photography, videography, acting, fashion, and mass communications. Founder of Tribe House Records (2020) and Art is Important Magazine (2023), she spends a lot of time amplifying the arts, highlighting other creatives in the community, and advocating for change.
Chantel attended the Boys & Girls Club from age 7 to 15. She attended Clarke Central High School and graduated in 2009. Chantel played varsity basketball all 4 years, helping CCHS to a record game of 67 to 17. In addition to basketball, in high school she won the Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream” contest for poetry, won several awards for her work on the school magazine (The Odyssey), and even served as the Student Body President. In 2023, Chantel returned to her alma mater to assist her former coach, Carla Johnson, as a girl's varsity basketball coach.
"I believe most of my foundational skills came from my time playing at the Boys & Girls Club. "
She is currently in her 2nd year as chair of the Public Safety Civilian Oversight Board, a board intended to serve as a liaison between the community and the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, Athens-Clarke County Probation Services, the Clarke County Sheriff's Office, and the Athens-Clarke County Corrections Department.
Her music has earned her the Vic Chesnutt Songwriter of the Year award in 2021 and Athens Hip-Hop Awards Best Female Hip-Hop Artist in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, and 2022. She was also a recipient of a Morton Theatre Corporation Defiance Award. The MTC Defiance Awards were created in response to the Black Lives Matter movement to amplify the voices of black artists in and around Athens.