News

The art of the place

A chilly March night, and the indoor space seems to be unheated. It’s not designed to be comfortable; it’s an industrial building in Harrisonburg repurposed as a climbing gym that also hosts music, and it has a concrete floor, a loft reached by a ladder missing a rung, and odd couches and crates. People bob […]

Erika Howsare | May 22, 2024

Arts Culture

The apples of her eye

When Diane Flynt signs onto a Zoom call from her home in southwest Virginia, the connection is spotty at first. That’s a tradeoff of rural living that she gladly accepts. Sporting a college-style sweatshirt reading KALE, she radiates a love for the land around her and what it can produce—a love that permeates her new […]

Erika Howsare | November 8, 2023

Culture Food & Drink

Growing home

To call Michael Carter, Jr. a farmer would just barely scratch the surface. He does raise crops, but mostly what he grows are connections—to history, to other Black farmers, to markets and opportunities. It’s all encompassed in the term Africulture, also the name of the nonprofit he heads. Sitting in a farmhouse in Orange County, […]

Erika Howsare | May 3, 2023

Arts Culture

Something borrowed

Remixing, riffing, playing with memes: These are artistic modes that we sometimes think of as belonging to our own time, as though it was only in the 20th century, and only in Western countries, that artists began to knowingly recycle material. Think Roy Lichtenstein, Beastie Boys, and anybody who’s used the image of RBG’s lace […]

Erika Howsare | October 26, 2022

Arts Culture

Touch me not

Back in 2013, Alfred Goossens—a certified Virginia Master Naturalist—started to think about poisonous plants. How often, he wondered, were outdoor enthusiasts like him encountering species that might actually be harmful? “There are poisonous plants in our day-to-day life,” he says, “whether in the backyard or when you’re hiking, that many people don’t know about.” He […]

Erika Howsare | September 21, 2022

Arts Culture Food & Drink

Rooted wisdom

If Kat Maier were a plant, you could say she has released her seeds all around Charlottesville. She’s been here since 2005, teaching and practicing herbalism, so at this point she has many former students and clients in and around town. Her Belmont home, also the site of her apothecary, classroom, and garden, is a […]

Erika Howsare | May 11, 2022

Knife & Fork Magazines

Sticking it out

Yoshihiro Tauchi is tough. When he developed back problems decades ago while butchering tuna at a New York fish company, his way of “taking it easy” was to switch to restaurant work. After he healed up he started his own fish company in Washington, D.C. That was only the beginning of his adventures in the […]

Erika Howsare | December 16, 2021

2021 Best of C-VILLE Staff Picks

Wine, pennants, pastries, and more

Picture a pair of people. One’s jonesing for coffee. The other’s ready to unwind with a glass of malbec. Where do they go? The Workshop—a combo coffee shop/wine shop that’s part of The Wool Factory complex—wants to be the answer to that dilemma. It’s all things to all craving-afflicted people: a café serving locally roasted […]

Erika Howsare | August 25, 2021

2021 Best of C-VILLE Staff Picks

A room with a Vu

Eating vegan is great and all, but where’s the flavor? Lots of folks find it hard to let go of meat and dairy—or, rather, their taste buds find it hard. Since she opened Vu Noodles in 2013, Julie Whitaker has been trying to make it easier. Her Vietnamese noodle shop, serving almost totally vegan meals, […]

Erika Howsare | August 25, 2021