Kriti Mehrotra
As a documentary living up to its title in every way conceivable, Hulu’s ‘Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told’ can honestly only be described as equal parts bewildering and intriguing. That’s because it incorporates not just archival footage but also exclusive interviews to really shine a light upon the most infamous street party festival ever — based out of Atlanta, Georgia. We say infamous since it’d fallen to such extreme debauchery officials had to shut it down for good in the late 1990s, but Carlos “Carl” Neal recently rejuvenated it following two decades.
Who is Carlos Neal?
It was reportedly back when Carlos was merely a young boy growing up in southwest Atlanta, Georgia, that he realized the significance of his community, culture, history, as well as roots. Therefore, of course, he worked hard every step of the way, enabling him to graduate well from Benjamin E Mays High School before enrolling at the Southern Polytechnic State University. The fact he’d already developed a passion for giving back paints a clear picture of his character too, especially as he was still a young teen when he’d served in the Bridge the Digital Divide.
According to reports, Carlos was actually an instructor when he joined this initiative focused on helping those looking to learn basic computer literacy skills no matter their economic level. Then, coming to his stint at college, he Chartered a local chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity while also kickstarting his career in event planning by organizing several events on campus. Most of the latter was aimed at increasing the participation of local African-Americans, especially as this college was predominantly white, that is, until he graduated and joined Georgia State University to major in Finance and Investments.
From 2005 – 2018, Carlos worked with multiple companies to build out entire Business Intelligence Department Data Science Departments, serving in multiple roles from database architect, data engineering, and technical lead, and later went to Microsoft as a Principal Cloud Architect with a focus on Data & AI. In between this period, in 2015, he also earned his gained his Master’s Degree in Machine Learning and AI from Georgia Institute of Technology, just to then use his technical acumen to expand his wings. In fact he even established a promotional company called iPartyATL Entertainment to blend his two interests while catering to fellow youngsters.
Like his clientele, as he grew up, Carlos’ interest grew beyond nightclubs, and he began to host special events, which in turn helped his company grow to such an extent he had to establish 9 Partners, LLC. With this being a partnership with Clifford Harris aka T.I. at the shuttered restaurant Scales 925, he has since done several special events at most notability Biltmore, Fairmont, 200 Peachtree that attracted over 3K people, and concerts in Miami, Atlanta, New York, and Virginia that attracted over 8K people. He even bought the title of Freaknik in late 2018, which he then held as a concert festival with over 18K professionals in its inaugural year of 2019.
Where is Carlos Neal Now?
Coming to Carlos’ current standing, from what we can tell, apart from his own ventures, he once served on the Diversity & Inclusion panels at Microsoft and even securely co-produced Criminal Justice Reforms forums. This enabled him to improve his skillsets, which in turn helped him advocate for his local Historically Black College at Microsoft, helping Morris Brown College in their rebranding initiatives and obtaining sponsorship from Microsoft for their EA Sports Program. Therefore, of course, when he held Franknik, it highlighted Women Rights, Importance of Voting, Know Your Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Health Fair, all of which he ensures it continues to do.
We should also mention that in 2021, Carlos served as the Digital Campaign Manager for Current Mayor Khalid Kamau’s Mayoral Campaign, which he won as a proud member of the LGBTQ Community and the first-ever Black Lives Matter Activist elected to Public Office. As for Carlos’ current standing, he serves as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and technology consultant fat After 9 Partners even today, is the Senior Solutions Architect at phData, is an executive producer with ‘Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told,’ has plans to be involved in several more such projects, and is an unwaveringly proud family man.
Read More: Stacy Lloyd: Freaknik Survivor is an Author, Creator, and Flight Attendant Today
