I am an open-minded fellow. But when I heard I was going to be interviewing an 18-year-old high school student who had organized poetry readings at Mudhouse and was now hosting events at Live Arts, certain unpleasant associations crowded my head, despite my best efforts to banish them. I knew poets in high school—they wore […]
Cindy Stratton grew up more than 30 years ago in Westhaven, the City housing project located in the 10th and Page neighborhood. Raised in a poor and racially segregated environment, Stratton says that, nevertheless, she “had no problem with white children.” But Stratton can’t advance that claim for the black kids growing up in Charlottesville […]
Budding art historian Aviva Dove-Viebahn is articulate, attractive, friendly and self-assured. She smiles readily. She makes a good first impression. None of that, of course, is very extraordinary. Unfairly or not, one expects a certain polish from the daughter of Rita Dove, a former United States poet laureate under Bill Clinton, and Fred Viebahn, an […]
Five pit bulls were euthanized during the last week of January at the Charlottesville SPCA. The dogs would only respond to their owner, who had just been arrested for murder in connection with a Federal drug charge. “Not only were they trying to kill other dogs,” says SPCA spokeswoman Carolyn Foreman, “but they were trying […]
In his neatly appointed office with its volumes of medical references in the West Wing of the UVA Medical Center, Dr. Jonathan Moreno, director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics, speaks softly while his hands remain folded in his lap. With his slight stature, firmly pressed shirt and perfectly trimmed beard, he sits as an […]
Did American soldiers commit war crimes during the invasion of Afghanistan? According to eyewitnesses, U.S. Special Forces supervised—some say orchestrated—the systematic murder of more than 3,000 captured Taliban soldiers in November 2001. That charge is the centerpiece of a documentary film, Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death, expected to be released in the United States […]
Seeds…those sleepy little kernels tucked in their winter coats. Not one metabolic quiver until, suddenly and by the millions, they start to move. They travel by ground and by air, from state to state, from December through April. That’s the time of year when discerning growers scour seed catalogues, browsing long lists of plants with […]
Economic times are tight in Virginia. And when axes start falling on State budgets, funding for the arts is often the first to be slashed. The Charlottesville-based Piedmont Council of the Arts hopes to dodge the blow by proving that, in Director Nancy Brockman’s words, “The arts are a producing segment of the economy.” That […]
Just over the crest of the hill, you see a plume of smoke escape. Instead of the low, familiar, chugging sound, however, you hear infectious music, a sound you haven’t heard before. Slowly Old School Freight Train comes into view—and begins to pick up steam. The band, which is based in Charlottesville, has recently enjoyed […]
This little light of mine/I’m gonna let it shine.“ The rehearsal hadn’t officially started yet, but the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Mass Choir was already singing. On a frigid Monday night, January 6, a jumble of people filled the black box theater at Charlottesville High School. Tight clumps of fidgety teenagers waited in line […]