“You can’t say nothing bad about August Wilson,” says actor/playwright/director David Vaughn Straughn. Nor does he have any plans to. The director of Live Arts’ acclaimed 2022 production of Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline is back at Live Arts for a one-night-only staging of Wilson’s one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. Created late in Wilson’s […]
“You can’t say nothing bad about August Wilson,” says actor/playwright/director David Vaughn Straughn. Nor does he have any plans to. The director of Live Arts’ acclaimed 2022 production of Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline is back at Live Arts for a one-night-only staging of Wilson’s one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. Created late in Wilson’s […]
The fourth annual Odds and Ends Film Festival celebrates the poetic, personal, and political perspectives addressed by emerging filmmakers and creators who work outside of commercial structures. Embracing the experimental and unexpected, the programming plays out over two days, and includes Q&A sessions with filmmakers, and installations of multimedia artworks. A live performance by James […]
Blackwater Holylight calls attention to contrasting elements, occupying a sonic spectrum that acknowledges dualities without accepting binaries. Menacing riffs and beguiling melodies lace a signature heavy sound that simultaneously uplifts and entrances listeners into head-nodding approval. The Portland, Oregon-born outfit traded the gloom of the Pacific Northwest for sunny Los Angeles, marrying elements of doom, […]
It’s a little unfair to call Jackson and the Janks’ music old-fashioned. Though, honestly, that’s exactly what it is. But that’s too vague. It doesn’t feel as prudish as that catch-all people born after the year 2000 sometimes throw around. The twangy guitar and slightly overdriven, whiskey-soaked vocals brighten the ’50s blues-based rock ‘n’ roll […]
Tanael Joachim holds the kind of enviable, disarming charm that allows him to shift from insights on religion, immigration, and communication, to explicitly disgusting one-liners. But that’s not his bread and butter. Rather, like most great standups, his jokes keep audiences off-kilter by navigating topics of intellectual interest. Of course, when we all least expect […]
J.M. Henry left an indelible impression on those he encountered in Charlottesville. They remember his talent and commitment to art, his resiliency, his generosity, and his finely attuned sense of humor. “Interference: A Retrospective of the Paintings of J.M. Henry” at McGuffey Art Center celebrates the work of the artist who died in June 2025. […]
Scholar, maker, and cultural critic Lisa Woolfork has been making space and creating community in Charlottesville, centering her efforts on functional fiber arts. Woolfork hosts the award-winning podcast “Stitch Please,” a platform for conversations about sewing, quilting, fashion, labor, memory, and liberation featuring sewists, artists, designers, historians, and makers from across the African diaspora. The […]
Smyrna has been around for less than four years, but that’s long enough for chef and co-founder Tarik Sengul to get the attention of the prestigious James Beard Foundation: Sengul has been named a semifinalist for the Best Chef in the Mid-Atlantic category, which encompasses restaurants in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Washington, […]
Anna Kovatcheva’s debut novel, She Made Herself a Monster, is a dark incantation of a story that explores themes of transgression and transmutation through traditional folklore tropes. Set in 19th-century Bulgaria, the novel revolves around Yana, a self-proclaimed vampire slayer, and Anka, an orphan whose fate is tied to that of her adoptive father figure, […]
A few classic Valentine’s tropes pop up in Lovers Welcome, a concert promising deep feelings alongside the potential of poetry and transcendence. Grab your date (or a sympathetic/single friend) and explore love, un-love, and amorous longing with indie darling folk troubadour Lizzie No, who shares new songs for yearners and old tales of heartbreak. Shenandoah […]