History matters: ‘Something wicked this way comes’

By Bonnie Gordon For almost two years, Charlottesville has felt like Act IV, Scene 1 of Macbeth. So when I saw Black Mac, a radically black take on Shakespeare’s play about the violent hauntings of the past, it felt like a staging of collective memory, trauma, power, and space. Directed by 23-year-old black Oberlin student […]

Berlin, 1933. Charlottesville, 2017

By Herbert Braun I’m tired. I live in our town, this partly bucolic mid-sized college town. I ride my bicycle to work, three miles down Rugby Road, on lovely tree-lined streets, courteous drivers sharing the road with me. And on many days I can just stay home and work. I read books and articles, do […]

This Week: The mother load

The first time I met Kelly Cox, she was sitting on a green exercise ball with a baby in each arm. She bounced both babies on her knees while two moms in front of her held their yoga poses. Cox, co-owner of Bend Yoga, offers classes for moms from pregnancy to post-birth, as well as […]

A-list: Virginia’s GOP legislators stay NRA strong

It’s disappointing that the Virginia legislature didn’t see fit to advance even a sliver of new restrictions on guns, militias and racist, reactionary mayhem during the current session. Not a single bill drafted in response to August 12 made it through for consideration in the other chamber, nor did some 60 gun control-related bills. Plainly, […]

Power to the people: Getting off on the hero myth

“Catnip for reporters.” That’s how Metallica fan and Democratic newcomer Danica Roem described her winning campaign in Virginia’s 13th District last November. She is, after all, the transgender woman who defeated the anti-LGBT incumbent Bob Marshall. Nevermind that her platform was all about lines of stalled traffic and not lines outside bathroom stalls. The simple […]

Can we have a word? Year-end doublespeak from state leaders

Three weeks ago on December 15, the Virginia Tourism Corporation awarded two contracts totaling $600,000 annually to the Martin Agency. The big dog of Richmond ad shops will be VA Tourism’s advertising agency of record. On the same day, the Richmond Times-Dispatch published allegations of sexual harassment and other workplace abuses at Martin from 17 […]

Pussy riot: Women find their voice. Get used to it.

The high-profile sexual harassment cases continue to pile up and I’m reminded of the Emerson String Quartet. The world-renowned musicians can hold audiences rapt with the passion and delicacy of their playing. And yet without fail, when they rest their bows between movements the concert hall will erupt in a chorus of coughing and sputtering […]

Letters to the editor: Week of November 15-21

Letters to the editor Childish board behavior to blame The article “Secret history: Is the Charlottesville historical society a thing of the past?” [October 25-31] by John Last should have been on the opinion(ated) page as it does not qualify as a news article. Starting off the article by referring to Steven Meeks as an […]

Animal instinct: Why do we protect sexual predators?

‘‘You’re expecting too much from people,” my friend Lisa explained to me. “We’re mere animals.” I had been pacing the sidewalk rehearsing the details of the Harvey Weinstein story—at press time, following investigative reports in the New York Times and the New Yorker, more than 50 women have alleged he sexually harassed, abused and in […]