Action shots: Photographer Lola Flash’s art and activism are inextricably connected. For decades her work in genderqueer visual politics has challenged stereotypes and preconceptions about gender, sex, and race. Her exhibition “salt” is part of the Seeing Black: Disrupting the Visual Narrative Speaker Series, and captures women who are over 70 and still thriving in their […]
Action shots: Photographer Lola Flash’s art and activism are inextricably connected. For decades her work in genderqueer visual politics has challenged stereotypes and preconceptions about gender, sex, and race. Her exhibition “salt” is part of the Seeing Black: Disrupting the Visual Narrative Speaker Series, and captures women who are over 70 and still thriving in their […]
As protests against police brutality continue around the country, school districts are tackling another form of systemic racism and oppression: whitewashed history. Since last year, Albemarle County Public Schools has been working to create an anti-racist social studies curriculum, elevating the voices and stories of marginalized people and groups, which are often misrepresented by (or […]
Remember live music? Us, too. There’s reason to be extra grateful for recorded music right now (and for all the artists streaming sets into our living rooms), but it’s not the same as packing into a whatever-sized room with a bunch of other people to hear some tunes played just for you. Sweating, swaying, swooning, […]
As we adjust to life amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ll likely turn to the arts—a favorite poem, a beloved album, a treasured painting—over and over in search of comfort and relief. Art, in all its forms, is a vital part not just of our personal lives but of our community. Social distancing measures and […]
A new take on an old design The Confederate generals who populate downtown Richmond will soon have a new neighbor. “Rumors of War,” a bronze statue from artist Kehinde Wiley, is modeled after that city’s J.E.B. Stuart monument, but features an African American man with dreadlocks, a hoodie, and ripped jeans sitting atop a rearing […]
The work of antiracism is “fundamentally focused on looking in the mirror” with the goal of transforming society, scholar and National Book Award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi told a packed auditorium in Charlottesville on Tuesday night. And, he added: “Because we live in a racist society, it is extremely hard to be antiracist.” As Kendi’s […]
Roland Wiggins taught his first music lesson when he was in elementary school. He was about 10 years old, and his music teacher, Helen Derrick, had written a series of notes and chord intervals on the chalkboard. As the lesson progressed, Wiggins noticed that Derrick had made a mistake. “Excuse me, Ms. Derrick. You’ve made […]
“The way that a story is told is just as important as the story itself,” designer Walé Oyéjidé told a National Geographic Storytellers Summit audience in January. Oyéjidé, who’s also a director, writer, filmmaker, musician, and lawyer, tells stories by using fashion design to dispel stereotypes and biases. In his ongoing photography project “After Migration,” […]
Let’s pretend for a minute. It’s sometime in the not-too-distant future. Charlottesville is a thriving black kingdom, free of the white gaze and white corruption, and comprised of various hamlets, including Vinegar Hill, Starr Hill, and between them, Gospel Hill, the kingdom’s seat and center of spirituality. Such is the premise of Hambone, an original, […]
Deborah Willis has never been far from a camera. Her father was a photographer, and he documented many things, including frequent visits the family made from their home in Philadelphia to Virginia. Willis’ father grew up in Orange County, and they made trips to Charlottesville, Louisa, Fredericksburg, and Luray Caverns—many of them documented on film, […]