Pick: O’Keeffe!

O’ yeah: You may recognize Georgia O’Keeffe’s close-up paintings of flowers, but how much do you know about her as a person? The artist comes to life in Lucinda McDermott’s one-woman play O’Keeffe!. McDermott embodies the fascinating, fiercely independent icon (who studied at UVA for five summers), and provides answers to questions about her art […]

They’re back!

The Virginia Film Festival announced a full return to in-person movie viewing for its 34th annual fest, which will be held October 27-31. Jody Kielbasa, UVA’s vice provost for the arts and director of the festival, says the VAFF will offer more than 85 films and host an extensive lineup of live discussions. Special guests […]

Whose Monticello?

Charlottesville writer Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s first book is getting a lot of buzz. She’s earned accolades from acclaimed authors, like Colson Whitehead, who called My Monticello “a badass debut by any measure—nimble, knowing, and electrifying.” It’s a Kirkus Prize finalist, and a Netflix adaptation is already in the works. “It’s great and a little crazy,” […]

Galleries: October

October shows The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative 209 Monticello Rd. “Dispatches From The Outpost” features Jennifer Almanza’s Old World collections and contemporary pieces, including glass, carved wood, shells, metal, and scavenged items, which showcase evidence of the existence of rare cryptozoological and alien lifeforms. Opens October 1. The Center at Belvedere 540 Belvedere Blvd. “A […]

Reach for the sky

Skyscrapers, in our modern imagination, are glitzy glass needles. It wasn’t always that way. The nation’s first towers were ornate and detailed. Intrinsically American, the designs embodied the qualities we like to associate with our national image: We’re can-do, bold, strong, technologically advanced, and audacious. The Fralin Museum’s new show, “Skyscraper Gothic,” explores the history […]

Small bites: Harvest time

Share your harvest As summer fades into fall, area food banks are looking for more ways to secure meals for Charlottesville’s neediest residents. Thankfully, local institutions are stepping up and finding creative ways to give back to the community. Piedmont Master Gardeners, an organization dedicated to empowering people with the knowledge and skills required to […]

PICK: Béla Fleck

Heart of grass: Celebrating banjos in bluegrass might be too conventional for Béla Fleck, who’s spent his career breaking musical barriers, from classical to pop, once winning Grammys for both country and jazz in the same year. But the banjo player comes full circle on his latest album, My Bluegrass Heart, a reference to Chick […]

Fernando Valverde

Between the stripes: In his most recent book, Spanish poet Fernando Valverde turns his eye to the United States. Valverde’s America “deconstructs the legacy of empire,” as he explores the country he’s called home since 2014. The former foreign correspondent for El País, now a visiting professor at UVA, unflinchingly tackles legacies of greed and […]

PICK: Macbeth

True blood: After a year of outdoor and virtual productions, Blackfriars Playhouse roars back to life with Macbeth at the center of its fall season. Shakespeare’s renowned drama dives into the dark underbelly of politics, war, and ambition, plus a coven of meddling witches whose incantations have caused centuries of thespians to consider the play […]

Steeped in it

Sitting on the back deck at the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, Christina Wagner carefully measures out tea leaf with her fingers. “Tea is a great place to exercise intuition,” she says. Laid out on the table before us are the elements of a Chinese gong-fu tea ceremony. There’s a metal teapot filled with hot water […]