In a evening of art-inspired protest that includes puppetry, music, and video, Water is life. Protect it. and ARTivism Virginia members unite as the Sun Sing collective to premiere the song “To The River,” aimed at stopping the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines. The activists recently focused their creative energies around original songs dedicated to endangered creatures in the YouTube video series,“Who Will Sing For Me?” Vocalist Bernadette “BJ” Brown, who sings for the cerulean warbler, says “I’m choosing to use my voice to empower others as well. To stand against brutality and harms being done to this earth and our water.”
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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 […]
