PICK: Blair’s West

Sip and sing: It’s always a good time when you’ve got a local brew in your hand and you’re listening to your favorite song. Richmond’s Blair’s West is known for tight harmonies and an expansive catalog of covers. You help choose the setlist for the husband-and-wife duo, and kick back while they belt out rock […]

To hell and back

Years before the 2020 pandemic, artist Michelle Gagliano developed a fascination with Dante’s Inferno and set out to interpret each of the poem’s 34 cantos through one painting per week. She completed the project, and exhibited it in 2017. But as the virus and social and political unrest escalated this spring, the work called her […]

PICK: Help Desk

Help yourself: Even with COVID-19, the show must go on—online that is. Help Desk: A Stay-At-Home Play is a one-act comedy that magnifies the funny-not-so-funny frustration we’ve all faced while working with a help desk. And it doesn’t take long for the ironic to spiral into the absurd in Don Zolidis’ livestreamed play. Make sure […]

PICK: Like A Wrecking Ball

Breaking walls: Miley Cyrus, watch out: multidisciplinary Australian artist Tony Albert comes in swinging with his latest work, Like A Wrecking Ball: Using Art and Humor to Confront Racist Statues in Australia and the USA. Scholar-activist Jalane Schmidt will moderate as Albert and Native American artist Nicholas Galanin address problematic colonial legacies. The virtual workshop […]

PICK: Fiebre Tropical

First crush: Juli Delgado Lopera’s debut novel Fiebre Tropical tells a coming-of-age story that combines visually rich prose with characters who are as colorful as their Miami setting. Fifteen-year-old Francisca narrates as her Colombian family’s American dream decays after arriving from Bogata. She seeks survival strategies amidst alcoholism, evangelical rituals, and the pressure of coming […]

PICK: Art in Life: Food

Plate as canvas: When Julia Child hit the airwaves as “The French Chef” in 1963, she single-handedly launched a cult of culinary celebrity that still inspires us to attempt complicated food preparations in our home kitchens. Art in Life: Food, the next installment of The Fralin Museum of Art and Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection’s virtual […]

PICK: Wom Con

Drawn out: The local comic art scene is brimming with girl power and a desire to connect. Cartoonists Laura Lee Gulledge (The Dark Matter of Mona Starr), Hannah England (Strawbunny), and Mariah Bryant (Six-Petal Pyramid) present Wom Con, a pop-up gathering for those who can’t sit home anymore. The socially distanced event offers family-friendly activities […]

PICK: Joy Harjo

Lighting the way: United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo began writing poetry as a college student in the ’70s in support of Native empow­er­ment, drawing inspiration from her Muscogee Creek background. The prolific author, educator, musician, and playwright has just published her ninth book of poetry, An American Sunrise, and her Native nations anthology, When […]