Patron of the artists

The folks at Visible Records want to lift artists up. To do so, they’ve had to slow things down.  The newish art studio/gallery concept, backed by The Bridge/Progressive Arts Initiative and located in the former office space at 1740 Broadway St., opened last November. But the artist-run consortium, which highlights minority and low-income producers, still […]

Accidental actor

Darryl Nelson Smith had never been in a play when he uprooted his Richmond life for an office gig supporting the Charlottesville theater community. He figured he’d take the job with Live Arts for a few years. Twenty years later, Smith is a pillar in local theater—on and off stage. 434: So what’s your ROLE […]

What’s so civil about water anyway?

It makes up around 60 percent of the human body. It covers more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface. And it makes up 100 percent of local Black-owned business Civil Water’s product portfolio.  Good old-fashioned water—in bottles. No bubbles, no flavors, no harmful chemicals, no healthy minerals removed. So what’s the big deal then? […]

For the win

Matthew Winston was thisclose to shutting down the candle-making business he’d recently started. The VCU grad had a degree in creative advertising, but couldn’t picture himself settling into a 9-5 job, so he turned his hobby into a business: The Win Candle. Hoping to drum up ome extra attention (“I would get a few orders […]

Reading list

Like many people, Samantha Koon Jones found herself with a lot of time on her hands at the start of the pandemic. So she turned to reading.  “I knew a couple of people on Bookstagram—a subgroup of Instagram users who post primarily about books and reading—and I liked the idea of keeping a virtual reading […]

Eat like a kid!

Kids have four preferred main food groups: fried stuff, creamy stuff, cheesy stuff, and condiments. And while we’ll admit that we’re into all of that too, we expect a little…elevation. In this issue, we’re focusing on grown-up versions of childhood staples, from PB&J to ranch dressing. Dig in (food play encouraged). By Nathan Alderman, Shea […]

Perfecting Harmony

The very first bottles of his new wines arrived on Matt Harmon’s birthday, December 18, 2020. “One of the things that kept me going,” he says, “was that I thought my wine was coming every week from early September on. For some people that might be a little discouraging, but I was like a kid […]

From market to Market

Fernando Dizon has been selling Filipino food in Charlottesville since 2012, when he first set up a stand at City Market and called it Little Manila. Two years later, it was clear that people here loved their lumpia—so he and his wife Jessie expanded to a food truck. They knew one day they wanted to […]

Cider project

Chris and Laura Denkers come from apple country in upstate New York. “Apples, orchards, and cider donuts have been in our blood since we were young,” Chris Denkers says. So in 2015, when they wondered what to do with the 37 acres they’d purchased in Mineral, Virginia, planting an orchard and making their own hard […]

Where the heart is

“‘Home’ is sitting on the countertop while your husband cooks eggs in the morning,” she says. “It is the giggling you hear in the hallway when you chase and tickle your 2-year-old. ‘Home’ is clipping fresh basil from the garden and brewing afternoon tea on a sunny day.”  So when the Waken Creative Studio founder […]