Beastie bests: In 1986, the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill became the first rap record to top the Billboard chart, and the trio from New York City went on to sell over 20 million albums. Filmmaker Spike Jonze shot the Beasties to new heights with his video for Ill Communication’s “Sabotage,” an homage to 1970s crime dramas that dominated MTV’s airwaves and its awards show in 1994. Still a friend and a collaborator, Jonze’s latest, Beastie Boys Story, is a reflection on the band’s formation and propulsive musical journey that features narration by Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz. Virginia Film Festival adds to the discussion with Beyond the Screen: A Virtual Conversation between Cullen Wade, director of the Nine Pillars Hip Hop Cultural Fest, A.D. Carson, assistant professor of hip hop and the global South, and Jack Hamilton, assistant professor of American studies and media studies and the pop critic for Slate.
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Landscape photographer Karen Duncan Pape turns her lens to the page in “De-Circulated,” an exhibition of reconstructed covers of banned books on display at McGuffey Art Center through January 28. “Growing up in Southwest Virginia, books were extremely important to me, as they exposed me to other worlds and broadened my perspective,” says Pape. “I […]
Black Fiddlers
Take a deep dive into the culture and legacy of African American violinists in director Eduardo Montes-Bradley’s Black Fiddlers. The 60-minute documentary shares the stories and sounds of Black men and women throughout American history, like the late old-time fiddler Joe Thompson (pictured) and 18th-century Richmond virtuoso Sy Gilliat, an enslaved man whose opera melodies […]
Maura Shawn Scanlin
Boston-based fiddler Maura Shawn Scanlin is putting her own inventive twist on traditional Celtic tunes. An award-winning musician, Scanlin incorporates classical chamber music and traditional sounds from the American South, along with Irish and Scottish fiddle playing into her fluid compositions. Scanlin is touring her new self-titled record with Conor Hearn on guitar, Adam Hendey […]
