Singing, step-dancing fiddle player April Verch shows her roots in trademark fireball performances that channel the founding players of traditional folk music. The Ottawa Valley Canadian has been onstage since the age of 6, and with no sign of slowing down at age 38, she’s releasing The April Verch Anthology on February 17, an 18-track collection […]
There was something rather poetic about Synthetic Division’s recent impromptu performance at Goth Night at The Pit at Cinema Taco on the Downtown Mall. Melancholy cabaret duo Please Don’t Tell was scheduled to perform that night, but vocalist Christina Fleming lost her voice. Shawn Decker—the musician behind Synthetic Division—stepped in with his keyboard, his synth […]
Watching Gold, you can’t help but feel that every member of this production arrived with a different sense of what the final product would be. Stephen Gaghan is directing a fact-based procedural, Robert Elswit is shooting a psychological comedy-drama and Matthew McConaughey came overprepared for a madcap crime farce. The result plays out like American […]
A new exhibit at Second Street Gallery might represent the start of a new era for the gallery. José Bedia, a renowned Cuban painter and sculptor, will visit the gallery February 3 for a solo show and other events. Born in 1959 in Havana, Bedia studied Palo Monte, a branch of Congo-derived religion brought to […]
First Fridays: February 3 When Kemi Layeni was a child, she asked her mother to do her hair “like the fishies,” to fit her thick, kinky hair into a sleek ponytail. “I so desperately wanted to be anyone but me,” Layeni says, “whether that meant trading in my kinks for blonde hair, changing my name, Oluwakemi, […]
At a reading on January 25, author Junot Díaz encouraged an open dialogue with the audience of mostly UVA faculty and students through two generous question-and-answer sessions. He advised students to read to become better writers, because “reading becomes your frame of reference that informs your own work.” Díaz, who won the Pulitzer Prize in […]
The lion is a central figure in religious tradition and popular mythology that represents strength. Throughout history, lions have adorned royal coats of arms while political figures have taken up variations of the moniker to demonstrate valor. Known as the king of beasts, its likeness is just as common in fine art, literature and popular […]
Captain Abu Raed is a film of firsts. Released in 2007, it was the first independent film to emerge from Jordan in 50 years, becoming the country’s first official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar category. It received accolades at Sundance, the Seattle International Film Festival and the Dubai International Film Festival, among […]
The new full-length album from Lauren Hoffman & The Secret Storm, Family Ghost, is described as “a collection of heart-bending narratives that double as emotional exorcism.” Hoffman’s career glints with impressive past successes, including a big deal Virgin Records contract at the age of 20 that positioned her as C’ville’s next musical export. A decision […]
Entering its fourth year, the Charlottesville Reading Series brings together three regional writers from disparate backgrounds to share poetry and memoir extracts: Matt MacFarland, Greg Wrenn and Erica Cavanagh. Like most writers, they all have an eye for detail, one that implores us to pay attention to our surroundings, whether to empathize with those unlike […]