Magic gathering: Halloweekend fun awaits at the Witch’s Ball, a late-night soirée full of occult oddities and chilling curiosities. Ships in the Night celebrates a new album, Latent Powers, along with performances by Synthetic Division and Solemn Shapes. DJ Cadybug provides nonstop dance tracks, accompanied by witchcrafted cocktails and unearthly delicacies from a variety of […]
Oar stories: During the ’90s on Chicago’s West Side, Arshay Cooper became captain of the first all-Black high school rowing team, an experience he claims saved his life. A Most Beautiful Thing, the humorous and inspiring documentary based on Cooper’s award-winning memoir of the same name, chronicles the team’s journey and a reunion 20 years […]
This month, we asked you to scare us silly with your spookiest horror stories. Here’s the catch: They had to be just two sentences long. Below, we’ve printed the 10 most frightful submissions, which will be performed by the actors at Live Arts. (Look out for the video later this month on our social media.) […]
Redistricting commission on brink of collapse Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting committee is coming apart at the seams. The bipartisan commission—composed of four Democratic legislators, four Democratic citizens, four Republican legislators, and four Republican citizens—was supposed to create fair, even maps. But the commission can’t agree on anything, and it missed its October 25 deadline to […]
By Kristin O’Donoghue Virginia’s November 2 gubernatorial election is rapidly approaching, and the two campaigns are ramping up their efforts to energize voters. Last Sunday, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe hosted a star-studded get-out-the-vote rally at the Ting Pavilion. Voting rights activist Stacey Abrams spoke alongside McAuliffe and DNC chair Jaime Harrison, while Dave Matthews played […]
Map moves ahead The process of rewriting Charlottesville’s Comprehensive plan—and, subsequently, reevaluating the zoning for the entire city—took a major step forward last week, when the Planning Commission unanimously recommended that City Council approve the most recent draft of the Future Land Use Map. The Future Land Use Map shows which areas of the […]
Brick by brick: Transformative, collaborative, and rooted in intersectional and queer feminism, Patrick Costello’s “Ceding Ground II” is more than meets the eye. A slim, snaking wall reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson’s serpentine walls that were designed to hide enslaved workers at the University of Virginia, each brick is an earthy amalgam of native perennial grass […]
More than words: Poetic lyricism, creative ambition, and layered, lush production are alt-folk-pop artist Rachael Sage’s specialties. For two decades, Sage has steadily released over a dozen albums, winning awards and touring with an eclectic mix of artists in the process. Created in lockdown, her new band Poetica has a spoken-word album of the same […]
On fire: Growing up in rural Louisiana, journalist Charles Blow never imagined his life story would one day be portrayed on the world’s most popular opera stage. His memoir, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, a treacherous story of dysfunction and abuse, opened the 2021-22 Metropolitan Opera season. The adaptation by Grammy Award–winning jazz musician […]
By Chris Martin Based on the astonishing number of bakers and bakeries in Charlottesville, the city appears to have a voracious appetite for carbs. A quick search on Google lists almost 30 area bakeries, cake spots, bagel makers, patisseries, and farmers’ market stands that offer a wide variety of floury treats. What follows is a […]