Categories
News

Free market

Last fall, Megan Salgado stopped by Reid’s Super-Save Market on Preston Avenue and was gobsmacked. “The shelves were almost completely empty,” she recalls. “I’d seen on Instagram that the store was in trouble, but it was worse than I thought.” In January, she decided to galvanize support for the long-standing neighborhood grocery store and put up a GoFundMe page to raise $10,000 to help it survive.

Reid’s GoFundMe page—which, as of this writing, has raised more than $20,000, twice the original ask—generated local media interest, and stirred up debate: Is the purpose of public fundraising efforts to get a failing business out of trouble? Or is the purpose of a community funding effort to raise all boats in the community, whether they are an individual, a nonprofit, or a store that’s a neighborhood institution?

The market’s supporters and donors clearly feel Reid’s is a special case; many regard it as part of “the old Charlottesville.” The original store downtown, then called the Stop ‘n’ Shop, was bought by Malcolm Reid in 1961 and renamed. When the building burned down in 1982, Reid sold his satellite store on Preston Avenue to employee H. Kennan “Kenny” Brooks. Brooks died in 2016, and his daughters Kim Miller and Sue Clements took over. Sue, who works full-time for the University of Virginia, has gotten more involved in the grocery store’s operation in the last few years. Her husband, Billy, who handles day-to-day operations, has worked there for more than 35 years, while Kim is more involved in running the satellite Reid’s in Dillwyn, which opened in 2015.

The first thing Sue wants to make clear is her commitment to keeping the store open. “My father was the kind of guy who, if you came in and said you didn’t have the money for groceries that week, he’d let you shop and pay him back later—that’s just the kind of man he was. We still have customers who will call and ask us to put an order together for them. We try to help our customers out—we had a community day here the year before COVID hit, and it was a huge success.”

Reid’s still has a large community posting board outside its entrance, with everything from concert ads and lost pet fliers to business cards and event notices.

But times and the neighborhoods have changed. “It used to be that 60 to 70 percent of our customers were from the neighborhoods [Rose Hill/Birdwood, 10th and Page, and Starr Hill],” says Sue. “Now it’s under 50 percent.” As the neighborhood population has aged, customers pass away and families move out; large family homes get sold off. Real estate values have soared as the Preston Avenue corridor has developed, but the people moving into the new upscale homes and apartments have new habits. “People don’t do all their grocery shopping in one place anymore,” Billy Clements notes.

The Clements acknowledge a confluence of factors that they should have noticed earlier. Troubles began well before the pandemic—which actually boosted sales, as people were reluctant to go into large grocery stores and were buying in bulk for fear of shortages. But then, when the shutdown eased, people stopped hoarding. Post-pandemic issues hit the store hard; as sales dropped, they had trouble making the payments to distributors to keep products in stock. By last October, Reid’s had a sign on the door letting customers know that in spite of empty shelves, the store was still open. “We own this building, and it’s valuable real estate,” says Sue. “It would be easy to sell, but our customers were saying, ‘Please don’t leave us.’”

The crisis spurred the Clements to re-examine their operations, realizing that business as usual wouldn’t suffice. (Sue says proudly that although they have lost some employees to attrition, “all our people have continued to get paid, and there haven’t been any layoffs.”) This is when Megan Salgado walked in and mentioned the possibility of a GoFundMe page to one of the store managers. Other customers had brought up the idea, but Sue and Billy said they were reluctant to put up a page asking their own customers for help. They were, however, open to the idea of the community taking charge.

A few weeks later, Salgado decided to go ahead. She had grown up in Charlottesville, and spent her middle school years in the Rose Hill neighborhood. “I would always run into people I knew [at Reid’s],” she says. After moving away from Charlottesville, she recently returned to live in the Woolen Mills neighborhood and would shop at Reid’s a couple times a month. “It’s a really good location for a grocery store, I would stop by on my way to somewhere and pick up things I need. Once it was a bundle of firewood—you can’t get that at a convenience store.”

But her reactions to Reid’s troubles went deeper than convenience and nostalgia. “In Charlottesville, we talk about being a community and keeping things local, but sometimes there’s a disconnect between the talk and what’s happening. How can we be better about that?” To Salgado, Reid’s is even more than a beloved community institution—“it’s a grocery store in the middle of a food desert. If Reid’s shuts down, who are the people who will be hurt by that?”

When Salgado put up the page, she set a goal of $10,000, a figure she picked randomly, “and I thought that would be a reach.” She posted the link to Reid’s Facebook page, and shared it on NextDoor and her Instagram account. “I was surprised at how quickly [the GoFundMe page] caught on—it’s apparent the store has quite a following.”

Of more than 200 donations, the majority range from $10 and $100—but there are many for $200 to $500. Notably, there are two $1,000 donations from fellow businesses: Bodo’s and The Markets of Tiger Fuel, both of which have stores across Preston Avenue from Reid’s.

“I see Reid’s as a community resource, and the well-being of their business is important to the community,” says John Kokola, co-owner of Bodo’s. “And they’re our neighbor, I want to help when I can. They represent the spirit of the neighborhood, and have deep roots in Charlottesville’s history. And then, what would it look like if this business weren’t here any more? I hope that people will vote with their feet, and their pocketbook.”

Gordon Sutton, president of Tiger Fuel, says, “My brother [Taylor Sutton, Tiger Fuel’s COO] and I live downtown; we shop at Reid’s, we love the people there—they’re really service-oriented and friendly—and we want to see them survive.” The Preston Avenue Tiger Market staff have been known to send a tray of sandwiches over to the Reid’s staff for lunch.
Sutton acknowledges the objections that have been voiced about donating to a business when so many community efforts in Charlottesville need support. “I vetted the idea through our management and our marketing director, who oversees our efforts to support local nonprofits, and got their blessing. We all see Reid’s as a community institution.”
In the end, Sutton says, he and his colleagues decided that Reid’s was a special case, and a place worth supporting: “I’m cheering for an old institution that I like.”

So is long-time customer Norman Lamson, who has lived in the Rose Hill area and patronized Reid’s for 30 years. “I’ve always done all my shopping there,” he says. “It’s five minutes away, and they have the best meats in Charlottesville.” Seeing the empty shelves “was sad—I figured they were having difficulties, so I decided to keep going there to support the store. It’s important that it’s a family business.”

While the outpouring of support was welcome, the Clements know that Reid’s has to succeed as a business to survive. The first step, says Sue: “Address what we’re selling. In the past, the grocery business was all about options. But now, we’re going to be stocking fewer products while still offering a range of high-, low-, and midpoint cost items.”

Reid’s has always been known for its meat and produce. Fresh fruits and vegetables can be hard to find in a small mom-and-pop outlet, but Reid’s has an entire wall of produce at prices close to the large supermarkets. One online reviewer may have noted that you can’t find bok choy or papaya, but then there’s plenty of shelf labels noting what foods are eligible for SNAP benefits. “We are trying to serve all the genres of our neighborhood,” Sue says.

But it’s the meat department that gets customers raving—and coming back. Reid’s is one of the few stores around that has its own meat-cutter, a skill that is less and less available as more large outlets stock only pre-cut and pre-wrapped meat. The market carries a wide selection of beef, ready to sell or cut to order. Billy says proudly, “You want your steaks two inches thick, fine. You can even call ahead.” Reid’s selection of pork runs from head to feet—literally. “We sell everything but the squeal” is clearly one of Billy’s favorite lines, and you can always find Kite’s Virginia ham. The offerings of poultry and fish are more basic; fresh fish is delivered once a week.

One innovation that has brought in buyers is the new value aisle. When a distributor has an overage, or a good deal on products the Clements think will suit their customers, they advertise the weekly special on Reid’s Facebook page and website, and in local fliers. These rotating specials can include special-offer meats and produce, as well as staples from canned tomatoes, cereal, and soft drinks to mac-and-cheese, vegetable oil, and Oreos.

Sue is aware the store’s marketing efforts have to expand, and she hopes the attention to its plight will encourage more people to come in the door. “Grocery stores are a penny-making business. But we’re here to serve the community—the people and families that work here, our family, and the families that shop here.”

As for the GoFundMe page, Salgado always saw it as a temporary measure to get Reid’s back from the brink. “The key is to have people patronize the place,” she says. “I hope people know that they ought to be shopping there. I hope they capitalize on this interest.”


Local resources for small businesses

“The challenges facing small local businesses aren’t any different here in Charlottesville,” says Matt Johnson, assistant director of the City of Charlottesville’s Office of Economic Development. “Sourcing supplies, slim margins, the cost of real estate whether you own or rent, attracting the right staff—these are universal problems. But because small businesses usually run with much tighter profit margins, they often have less funding available to facilitate change.”

Long-standing small businesses, especially those that are locally owned, have a special character, says Johnson. “People have emotional connections to these places, where they might have gone as children or shopped in their early years. That’s the benefit of having these businesses—they help to shape the community.”

OED strives to be responsive to businesses of all sorts and sizes, says Johnson. “One of our main purposes is to serve as a point of contact. Whether your business has challenges or you want to position your business for future growth, we want to point you to the resources you need, within city government or outside sources and partners.” He notes that OED is adding a staff person who will be specifically focused on supporting entrepreneurs.

Johnson cited other resources in the area which, like OED, are available without fees—and most of them have programs specifically geared to small, women-owned, and minority businesses:

  • Central Virginia Small Business Development Center offers business counseling ranging from start-up advice to financial, marketing, and workforce development for established businesses; access to market and sector research; and a variety of events and training sessions.
  • Community Investment Collaborative supports development and growth of community businesses and entrepreneurs, focusing on early-stage business education and connection to resources including mentoring, microfinancing, education, and networking.
  • Virginia Small Business Financing Authority is the state’s business and economic development program, which provides access to financing programs specifically geared to small businesses.

Johnson also noted that Piedmont Virginia Community College runs a range of programs for business management and workforce development.

Categories
Arts Culture

Peter Bogdanovich: He was the cinema

Peter Bogdanovich and writer Justin Humphreys formed a friendship after the director came to Charlottesville for the Virginia Film Festival in 2010. Supplied photo

Film writer Justin Humphreys remembers Peter Bogdanovich, who passed away on Thursday, January 6, at age 82. His tribute is followed by a re-posting of his 2018 interview with Bogdanovich in preview of that year’s Virginia Film Festival.

Peter Bogdanovich: He was the cinema

Peter Bogdanovich was the cinema—both a brilliant director, and a historian who peerlessly chronicled Hollywood’s golden age. And he was a dear fried.

I first interviewed Peter in 2010 at the Virginia Film Festival (and again in 2018, as posted below). I’d loved his books and films since my teens, and was jazzed to finally meet the grandmaster himself. We hit it off instantly. That afternoon, I kidded him that I sometimes called myself “a poor man’s Peter Bogdanovich.”

“Why ‘poor man’s?’” Peter replied. “You’re just younger.”

We stayed close. I visited him in North Carolina when he taught film there. We hung out in L.A. whenever possible. The last time I saw him was August 2021, at a dinner at director Sam Fuller’s home, which Peter had visited for decades. It was a lovely, convivial evening. We last emailed in December about meeting for lunch.

Peter’s influence on filmmakers and film historians was gigantic. He was our link to so many long-gone greats—I told him he had “The hand that shook the hands.” He profoundly shaped my own life and work.

There’s a stupid old cliché about how you shouldn’t meet your heroes. Peter was absolute proof that you should.

Decades ago, actor/writer/director/film historian Peter Bogdanovich promised his friend and colleague Orson Welles that, if Welles couldn’t finish his work-in-progress, The Other Side of the Wind, he would complete it for him. Now, Bogdanovich, at age 79, has beaten countless setbacks and fulfilled that promise.

Academy Award-winning editor Bob Murawski and co-producer Frank Marshall worked with a team to parse 100 hours of Welles’ unedited footage, shot decades ago by a mostly deceased crew. Marshall describes the process as, “a cross between a jigsaw puzzle and a scavenger hunt.” Together, they assembled a cohesive work respectful of its legendary creator’s vision.

The Other Side of the Wind stars John Huston as Jake Hannaford, a vile, macho director, trying to revive his faltering career with a counterculture movie. Bogdanovich co-stars as director Brooks Otterlake, Hannaford’s protégé. The highly anticipated film will be shown on Sunday at the Paramount Theater.

In addition, Bogdanovich’s new documentary The Great Buster, which chronicles comic genius Buster Keaton’s turbulent life and career, will screen on Saturday.

Ironically, Keaton was one of the few classic Hollywood giants Bogdanovich didn’t interview. “I missed him by about two months,” Bogdanovich says. “I was just trying to find him and he died.” Bogdanovich spoke with C-VILLE’s Justin Humphreys by phone from France.

C-VILLE: After so many failed attempts at finishing The Other Side of the Wind, how did the film finally coalesce?

Peter Bogdanovich: After [producer] Filip [Rymsza] got the two women, Beatrice Welles [Orson’s daughter] and Oja Kodar [co-author/star], to collaborate on the picture, everything else seemed to fall into place. Netflix stepped up to the plate and they’ve been just incredible, I mean extraordinary—better than any studio I’ve worked for. We went over budget and they didn’t even mention it.

You were heavily involved in the editing?

Oh, sure. [The film’s veterans] all were. We all had input. Bob did a very good job. It was a long process. …Everybody worked on it very hard, very diligently, very dedicated, with a lot of love there.

Many of the film’s participants are now gone. How did it feel being one of the last men standing and watching the finished product?

A little strange. I mean, here I am in my 70s, watching myself in my 30s. That was pretty odd. And I hadn’t seen much of the footage with me in it . . . So it was quite an experience, actually. I haven’t quite dealt with it fully.

What was it like being directed by Orson?

That’s interesting. Orson Welles created an atmosphere on the set—not for the crew, but for the actors—where you absolutely felt like you could do anything. You never felt like you shouldn’t do something, or shouldn’t try something, it was a very free atmosphere where you could do anything you wanted. He laughed a lot and made us laugh. He made it a fun set for the actors. [Meanwhile] the crew worked like dogs, like slaves.

They got along famously, [Huston] and Orson. It was great. You know the climactic scene between Huston and me, where I stick my head in the window? Huston wasn’t there for that scene. I played that scene with Orson. That’s why it’s so emotional. And Orson’s only direction to me in that scene was ‘It’s us.’

I sensed throughout the film that it was so much about you two. It was touching.

I haven’t let myself really go with it emotionally. I just watch it and say ‘It’s brilliant and Orson’s brilliant.’ And it’s the best performance I ever gave in a movie, or anywhere.

How did The Great Buster come about?

I had met Charles Cohen before, the producer, I don’t know where. And he asked me if I would like to do a documentary on Buster Keaton, and I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And that was it.

It’s wonderful that Keaton was revered at the end of his life, after several rough decades.

Happily, the Venice Film Festival gave him that tribute, which allowed me, in the plot, to come back to the features at the end, which I thought was the one really good idea I had—to make it a celebration and come back to the features at the end rather than the middle.

What do you think is Keaton’s lasting genius as a filmmaker?

He always knew where to put the camera. He was a brilliant actor of comedy—extraordinary. He knew instinctively what to do.

What’s next for you?

I’m not quite sure. Paramount, out of the blue, asked to option The Killing of the Unicorn, the book I wrote about Dorothy Stratten, and they want to make a 10-hour series out of it. As far as features are concerned, the one I’m planning to do but I don’t know if I’ll do it next, because it’s a bit elaborate, is a comedy-drama-fantasy called Wait For Me, that I’ve been working on for 30 years. I think it’s the best thing I ever wrote.

Categories
Culture Food & Drink

Consummate host

Justin Ross elevated the Charlottesville fine-dining scene with his dedication to the guest experience. Image: Martyn Kyle

The Charlottesville food scene lost a bright and passionate figure when Justin Ross passed away unexpectedly on March 26, at the age of 40. Those who knew the talented restaurateur and wine connoisseur remember him for his beaming smile and commitment to hospitality.

Ross moved to Charlottesville in 2013 to launch modern Mediterranean restaurant Parallel 38 in The Shops at Stonefield, but it was love that brought him here. 

Jackie Bright worked with Ross at José Andrés’ Zaytinya in Washington, D.C., where Ross was the beverage director and general manager. 

“He was probably one of the most exceptional hospitality leaders I had met,” remembers Bright. “He just had this passion for creating an experience for guests, and also brought so much joy to the team.”

Bright left Zaytinya in 2008 to return to her hometown of Charlottesville. She and Ross kept in touch, and reconnected when Bright returned to visit her former restaurant crew. The pair had dinner and fell in love. While trying to decide where to live, one of the employees on Andrés’ team suggested that Ross lead a new concept in Charlottesville, making the couple’s decision easy.

Born in Maryland in 1980, Ross began working in kitchens as a teenager, and spent his whole career in hospitality. “He loved being with people, serving people wine, food—all of the energy around hospitality,” says Bright. He was adamant that his staff use the word guest instead of customer.

Warm, kind, and food savvy, Ross befriended guests and employees alike. They tell stories about his mischievousness—becoming a Red Sox fan in a Yankees family—and whimsy—leading a dinner party into a soaking summer rainstorm.

Former Parallel 38 manager Jesse Fellows met Ross a little less than a decade ago. 

“We became fast friends, and it very quickly felt like he had been in my life forever,” says Fellows. “There are too many stories to pick one, but a common theme among them was Justin’s brilliance, fierce loyalty, and very personal brand of kindness. He always remembered the smallest details and took time out of his busy schedule to make people feel special.”

A wine fanatic who held an Advanced Sommelier certification, Ross frequently delved into his own collection to further a guest’s experience. “When you wanted an excellent bottle of wine and conversation to match, you went to see Justin,” says Tavola’s Michael Keaveny. “And that pork belly dish in the early days of Parallel 38 set the bar for everyone else in town.”

Nothing was more important to Ross than sharing his passions with loved ones. In 2013, he told the Charlottesville 29 food blog: “I’m not sure what’s better about our regular C&O date night, a much-needed break with my lovely lady or the sweetbreads.”

“We had dinner together every single night,” says Bright. “Even when he was working in the restaurant I would wait for him to come home. We always waited for each other.”

He and Bright welcomed a son in 2018, and Ross was thrilled to have a new partner at his side to pursue life’s adventures. An outdoor enthusiast, he took his toddler on hikes at Monticello and Walnut Creek, and kept maps of the trails, marking their progress each time out. When cooking his much-loved Sunday gravy recipe, he’d hold Dash in his arms, teaching him the gifts of his Italian heritage.

“I’ve never seen someone so devoted to a child,” says Bright. “He would refer to Dash as his best friend.”

As Bright reflects on the span of culinary experiences she shared with Ross, sausage and peppers is the dish she will always remember, and she’s especially grateful for their trip to explore the Champagne houses of France, where Ross was playing with dogs, drinking Champagne, and the couple revelled in the extraordinary hospitality of their hosts. In that happy moment Ross was a guest.

At the time of his passing, Ross had recently been hired as the general manager for Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s new fine-dining restaurant at Keswick Hall. He was ready to pour his heart and soul into the high-profile project. “He wanted to create something really special for people,” says Bright.

A celebration of Justin Ross’ life will take place at King Family Vineyards on April 23, his 41st birthday. For information on how to contribute to a college fund for Dash Ross, contact Meredith Coe at coemeredith@gmail.com.

Categories
News

Legalize it right

Nationwide, Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates. In Virginia, Black people make up about 20 percent of the population—but 52 percent of citations for marijuana possession in the last year were given to Black people, says Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice, a Richmond-based group fighting for the enactment of equitable legalization policies. 

This month, both houses of the Virginia legislature passed bills that will allow legal, adult-only, recreational marijuana purchase and use beginning in 2024. In the next few days, a small conference of legislators from both houses will meet to reconcile the two bills. Governor Ralph Northam is expected to sign the final version into law, making Virginia the first Southern state to legalize the drug.

Decades of racial discrimination in enforcement means marijuana legalization is a consequential criminal justice issue. And for many supporters of legalization, Virginia’s proposed bills fail to provide adequate redress for the harms caused by the decades-long war on drugs, specifically within Black and brown communities.

“As of right now, I’m terrified,” says Higgs Wise. “The bills now are really bad. I would not want them to pass as they are right now.”

In response to the proposed legislation, Marijuana Justice—joined by RISE for Youth, ACLU of Virginia, and 21 other advocacy groups—sent a letter to Northam and the General Assembly, urging them to meet specific criteria that center on racial equity.

A central  point of contention is the legalization timeline. While the state Senate bill would permit simple possession of marijuana for adults as early as July 1, 2021, the House version would not do so until 2024, when the sale of marijuana is also legal.

Many activists also do not think it’s necessary to wait until 2024 to permit the sale or possession of the drug, pointing to the marijuana-friendly states Virginia could look to for guidance. 

“It’s going to take time to establish a new agency and go through a new licensing process, but does it need to take that long? Probably not,” says Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director of Virginia NORML. “Such a delayed implementation really only serves the illicit market.”

Pedini suggests that legal access be quickly expanded through existing medical marijuana providers, as many other states have done.

Another key criminal justice component of legalization is the expungement of marijuana-related offenses from criminal records. Both bills would automatically expunge misdemeanors and allow those convicted of felonies to petition for expungement. Certain expungements may also require people to pay off court fees.

Automatic expungement of misdemeanors is crucial, but not a conclusive step. “Prior to 2020, anything over half an ounce was a felony,” explains Higgs Wise. “The people who have been most impacted by these unfair laws are the people with the felonies,” which impact career, housing, and education opportunities.

For those currently incarcerated, the new laws aren’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. People who are currently in jail or prison for marijuana-related offenses would be resentenced, but it remains unclear which offenses would be eligible for reevaluation, and when the resentencing process would begin.

The legislation would also make it illegal to have marijuana inside a vehicle, even if it’s not being used. Activists fear this will only worsen traffic stops—a huge driver of marijuana cases.

“Last year, we fought really hard and got the odor of marijuana to no longer be a reason to search or seize in your car,” says Higgs Wise. “In order to continue to criminalize us in the car, now all a cop has to do is say they see a green leafy substance in your car anywhere, and they have a reason to search.”

If a container of marijuana that’s been opened is found inside the car, the driver could be charged with driving under the influence.

Meanwhile, minors caught with marijuana would continue to face harsh penalties under the proposed laws, including fines, drug tests, probation, school expulsion, and the denial of a driver’s license. 

Such punitive measures have proven to have a disproportionate impact on Black youth. While Black and white youth are arrested at similar rates, Black youth are significantly more likely to be incarcerated instead of put into diversion programs.

“There’s actually data that shows us that there’s no increase in youth use because of marijuana legalization,” says Higgs Wise. “Why in the world create more penalties for young people, when we know which young people are going to be the most impacted?”

Categories
News

In brief

Photo of Heather Heyer Way
Heather Heyer Way is an example of an existing honorary street. PC: Staff photo

Sign of the times

After months of debate over Charlottesville’s honorary street name policies, City Council unanimously approved two requests last week recommended by the Historic Resources Committee: Black History Pathway and Byers-Snookie Way.

Black History Pathway, located on Fourth Street NW between West Main Street and Preston Avenue, pays homage to the city’s rich Black history. It will cut through a former Black neighborhood known as The Hill, which was razed—alongside Vinegar Hill—during urban renewal in the 1960s.

Meanwhile, Byers-Snookie Way, located on 10th Street NW between Preston and Henry avenues, will honor Black community leaders, William “Billy” Byers and Elizabeth “Mrs. Snookie” Harrison. After becoming Charlottesville’s first Black aquatics director in the 1980s, Byers helped create the school division’s swim program, teaching many low-income Black children how to swim. Harrison worked alongside Byers and managed the Washington Park pool for decades.

Out of the dozen proposals sent to the HRC last fall, the committee also recommended that council approve street names honoring Black activist Gregory Swanson, enslaved laborer Henry Martin, and Charlottes­ville’s sister city Via Poggio a Caiano, Italy. 

The committee turned down requests for Tony Bennett Way (and Drive), largely due to the UVA men’s basketball coach’s “previous substantial national and community recognition.”

However, council decided to hold off on approving additional proposals until March. The HRC is also still ironing out the details of the honorary street names policy.

The committee recommends waiving the application fee, substituting the application’s essay section with simple short questions, allowing applicants to choose between a temporary or permanent street marker, requiring two to three letters of support per nomination, and providing historical context on honorary street signs and a website. 

To better handle future honorary street name proposals, the committee advises City Council to create a special naming commission that includes members from related committees.

__________________

Quote of the week

“We’ve come to a strong compromise that reimagines our criminal justice system…to provide a clean slate for Virginians who have paid their debt to society.”

—Virginia House Majority Leader Charniele Herring (D-Alexandria) on the passing of legislation automatically sealing the criminal records of people convicted of certain misdemeanors

_________________

In brief

City offers rent relief 

The City of Charlottesville has distributed $181,000 in rent relief funds in recent weeks, according to City Councilor Michael Payne. The program, initiated to combat the effects of the pandemic, was put together in a short period of time and has already helped 467 local households. 

Credit where it’s due 

Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania has confirmed that Mayor Nikuyah Walker is not under criminal investigation for her use of city credit cards. Speculation about a possible investigation arose in recent weeks after acting City Attorney Lisa Robertson sent a memo to City Council reminding the mayor that “Even a small unauthorized purchase can have serious legal consequences.” However, Platania wrote in a February 22 letter that he has long been “extremely concerned about the lack of consistency and clarity surrounding the city’s credit card policy,” and that he won’t prosecute any cases of potential violations until the policy is rewritten. The credit card policy is just another thing on the already long to-do list of new City Manager Chip Boyles.

Joe Platania PC: Supplied photo

Picture this

Earlier this month, the Virginia House of Delegates voted 99-0 to make the “dissemination of unsolicited obscene images of self to another” a misdemeanor—in other words, they made it illegal to send dick pics without consent. Seems like a no-brainer, right? Well, not to the Virginia Senate, where eight male senators in a 14-person subcommittee killed the legislation, citing constitutional and enforcement concerns. 

Categories
News

Deja vu: Local activists and leaders on how to move forward after chaos

Thousands of rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6. PC: Starmax/Newscom Via ZUMAPress

Two weeks ago, the far-right riot at the U.S. Capitol—fueled by President Donald Trump’s false claims that he won the election—shocked people across the world. But for many, it was a familiar scene. As the country looks ahead to a new administration and beyond, Charlottesville’s leaders and activists have hard-won advice for President Joe Biden.

“[The January 6 siege] is the same horrific play we’ve seen over and over again in this country,” says community activist Don Gathers, who was at the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally. “So much of the opening act of that play looked just like Charlottesville, where the police stood by and did nothing.”

For weeks, watchdog groups and activists repeatedly warned law enforcement that Trump supporters’ plans to violently storm the Capitol—and assault, kidnap, and even kill members of Congress—were posted across social media.

Despite these warnings, the Capitol Police anticipated a crowd in only the “low thousands,” and prepared for “small, disparate violent events,” according to Representative Jason Crow.

So, like in Charlottesville, police on the scene were massively unprepared for the thousands of people who showed up to Trump’s rally. Insurgents later overpowered the police and stormed the building, resulting in dozens of injuries and five deaths.

“It’s not like they were secretive…It was all over the internet,” says community activist Ang Conn, who was also at the Unite the Right rally.

Before August 11 and 12, 2017, members of the far-right also openly discussed their plans to incite violence and threatened local residents online, as well as held a few smaller “test” rallies in Charlottesville, says Conn. Local activists continuously alerted law enforcement and urged the city to stop the event from happening, but were not taken seriously.

“The people who were supposed to be keeping the peace had all of this information given to them and they ignored it,” says Tyler Magill, who was hit on the neck with a tiki torch during the Unite the Right rally, later causing him to have a stroke.

Video evidence also shows several Capitol officers moving barricades to allow rioters to get closer to the building, as well as one taking a selfie with a member of the far-right mob. Some rioters were members of law enforcement themselves, including two off-duty Virginia police officers.

The scene at the Capitol serves as a stark contrast to the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests last year, during which police deployed tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and other types of force against thousands of people, and made over 10,000 arrests.

“If Black and brown folks were to do that exact same thing [at the Capitol], we would be dead,” says Conn.

Now, those who were present for the Unite the Right rally say a key to moving forward is to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Since January 6, federal authorities have arrested around 100 people, and say they could arrest hundreds more.

“This cannot be seen as anything other than armed insurrection,” says City Councilor Sena Magill, speaking solely for herself. “It needs to be very clear that people who participated in this need to be prosecuted, and not lightly. …Representatives who instigated this also need to be held accountable.”

Tyler Magill says it’s crucial to expand our definition of white supremacy. “We as a society just don’t take far right extremists seriously,” he says. “We think of it as rednecks [and] trailer park people when it’s not—it’s everybody. The people at the Capitol riot tended to be middle class and above, and the same happened in Charlottesville.”

Other activists have warned that arrests or the threat of arrests will not be enough to deter far-right extremism on—and after—Inauguration Day, pointing to white supremacist calls for violence online.

“We know that they’re not finished,” says Gathers. “I’m fearful for what may happen on the 20th of January, not only in D.C. but really all across the county.”

And though Biden’s inauguration, and the end of Trump’s term, will be a cathartic moment for many, Conn emphasizes that it won’t solve our problems overnight. After the inauguration, she anticipates more white supremacist violence across the country, and says she doesn’t expect President Biden to handle the situation in the best possible manner. Instead, she fears the new administration will ramp up its counterterrorism programs, which are “typically anti-Muslim and anti-Black,” she says.

“The change of the administration doesn’t change the fact that the system of white supremacy is embedded in the fabric of what we call America,” she explains. “We cannot expect [anything from] an administration that condemns uprisings stemming from state violence against Black and brown folks but calls for unity without resolve.”

Gathers also does not agree with the calls for unity made after the riot. “You can’t and shouldn’t negotiate with terrorists, and that’s who we seem to be dealing with,” he says.

However, both activists hope that now more people will not only see white supremacy as a serious threat, but actively work to dismantle it.

“We’ve got to figure out how to change not only laws, but hearts and minds,” says Gathers. “If what we saw [at the Capitol]…and in Charlottesville in 2017 wasn’t enough to turn people around, I’m not sure what it’s going to take.”

Categories
News

Two experts talk political polarization 

Tania Israel (left) and Miles Coleman (right) acknowledge the expansion of political polarization. Supplied photos.

With Election Day less than a month away, political tension and stress abound both locally and nationally. Polarization is definitely a contributing factor to the anxiety, but two experts with Charlottesville ties say we may not be as divided as we think.

Now a faculty member at the University of California Santa Barbara, Tania Israel credits growing up in Charlottesville for shaping her work to bridge the political divide.

“I got into this work in Charlottesville,” she says. After organizing a discussion of pro-choice and pro-life locals in the ’90s, Israel was inspired to continue exploring ideological divides. “It didn’t change anything about how I felt about reproductive rights, but it changed so much about how I felt about people who disagreed with me.”

Rather than taking the political science approach, Israel’s examination of polarization draws on her expertise as a doctor of counseling psychology. Her last two books, Beyond Your Bubble and Facing the Fracture (published this August), have focused on understanding and approaching political polarization.

In her work, Israel has found that “we are not nearly as divided as we think we are, our views are not as far apart as we imagine them to be,” but affective polarization remains a critical issue for American democracy and interpersonal relationships.

Diversity of opinion is an important element in maintaining a healthy democracy, but increasing affective polarization—a positive association with one’s own political party and negative feelings toward the opposing party—diminishes the ability for productive dialogue and solution-making.

In a 2022 study, the PEW Research Center found “increasingly, Republicans and Democrats view not just the opposing party but also the people in that party in a negative light. Growing shares in each party now describe those in the other party as more closed-minded, dishonest, immoral and unintelligent than other Americans.” Further, the amount of respondents holding a negative opinion of both major parties has sharply risen, sitting at 27 percent at the time of the survey.

Miles Coleman, an associate editor for Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, has also noted an increase in both partisan and affective polarization.

“There used to be … more people willing to entertain either side, give their votes to either side. That is not as much a thing anymore,” he says. “Coalitions are more firm now, there are fewer moderate to conservative Democrats or liberal Republicans, so you tend to have more people being … locked into either side.”

Split-ticket, swing, and undecided voters still exist, but misunderstandings around these voters and their positionality is rampant, according to Coleman.

“You do have some voters in the middle who are still willing to vote for either side, but that segment, I feel, is increasingly a smaller and smaller segment of the electorate,” he says. Rather than a moderate portion of the constituency evenly positioned between Democratic and Republican political platforms, numerous swing voters have varying policy positions that contrastingly align with either party.

Conversely, the key undecided group to watch this election cycle is the “double haters,” says Coleman. “These are voters who have unfavorable views of both Harris and Trump. … Those voters who maybe don’t like the high prices, the inflation that we see under Biden, but might not want to go back to the days of Donald Trump.”

Coleman attributes some of the current political climate to media ecosystems. “I blame a lot of this on asocial social media,” he says. “It’s increasingly easy for one side to get kind of their own media ecosystem, their own facts. Both sides, really, to some extent, aren’t even on the same page.”

In her work to bridge this political chasm, Israel has also argued that media and tribal politics have exaggerated and exacerbated polarization.

By design, media are created to attract and maintain engagement, frequently employing tactics to amp up consumer emotions to increase and keep interest. Social media in particular relies and thrives on algorithms, which feed users curated content based on prior activity. Consumers receive and interact with content that incites either strong positive or negative feelings, resulting in ideological “bubbles” of media echoing existing beliefs and combative presentations of opposing viewpoints.

“It’s really hard for us to even think about or want to approach people who have different views, if we have skewed perceptions about who they are,” Israel says. “Study after study for decades has shown that we exaggerate the other side’s views, thinking that they are more extreme than they are, thinking that they are hostile.”

For many Americans, having a political conversation with family and friends across the aisle can be a daunting inevitability, but there are ways to have a civil and meaningful dialogue, according to Israel.

“One of the main reasons people tell me they’re interested in having a conversation with someone who is on the other side of the political divide is because they have somebody who they’re close to, a family member or a friend who they want to stay connected with or repair a relationship with, but it’s really challenging because of the different views,” she says. “Approach with the intention to create a warm and caring connection, where your goal is to understand the other person.”

Through her work, Israel has found listening and trying to understand someone’s perspective to be a key step in holding a productive conversation.

“We think that what we should do is lay out all of the facts and figures and arguments to show the other person that we are right and that they are wrong. It turns out people don’t respond very well to that,” she says. “If we’re listening with the intention to understand, rather than the intention to respond … if we can share our stories …  how we came to care about an issue, or if there was somebody or something that shifted our view about it, that’s a much more effective way to share our perspective.”

Categories
Arts Culture

Brian Regan in the HotSeat

Supplied photo.

Visiting close to 100 cities each year on a nonstop theater tour, comedian Brian Regan has built a 30-plus-year career through lots of laughs. A co-star in three seasons of Peter Farrelly’s TV series “Loudermilk,” Regan has also starred in his own Netflix sketch comedy and stand-up series “Stand Up And Away! With Brian Regan.” With eight hour-long comedy releases to his credit and appearances at legendary venues including London’s Leicester Square Theatre, Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Radio City Music Hall, Regan is a vetted veteran of stage and screen. Ahead of his October 20 show at The Paramount Theater, we put the funnyman in the HotSeat.

Name: Brian Regan

Hometown: Las Vegas

Job(s): Comedian/actor/salad chef

What’s something about your job that people would be surprised to learn? I’m not funny every waking moment. And I’m not funny at all when I’m asleep.    

Favorite movie and/or show: Amadeus. The theme of the movie is not one usually touched on by storytellers—jealousy of talent. F. Murray Abraham plays Antonio Salieri, a composer, who is envious of the brilliance of Mozart. Abraham’s performance is beautiful. My second favorite movie is Porky’s II.

Best advice you ever got: “Earn your sips.” Years ago, John Fox, a comedian I was working with in a comedy club, told me when I got off stage that I should only take a sip of my beer if my previous joke had gotten a laugh. He said it was awkward to watch me tell a joke, have it not work, then watch me go over to the stool, pick up my beer, take a sip, then walk back to the microphone. He said, “Only take a sip while people are laughing.” “Earn your sips” is bigger than just stage advice. It is really a metaphor for life.  

Proudest accomplishment: Being a good dad.  

Who’d play you in a movie? Me  

Who is your hero? My dad  

Best Halloween costume you’ve worn: A book. When I was a kid, I took a big cardboard box, and made a big book out of it. Unfortunately, I drew the lines for the pages on the wrong side.  

Most used app on your phone: Backgammon. I have played thousands of backgammon games against nobody. It is my small way of raging against the machine.   

Favorite curse word? Or favorite word: This isn’t really answering the question, but I’ll share it anyway. I once saw the “F” word written in an article. They used all the letters except they put an asterisk for the letter “C.” I found it funny that apparently the letter “C” is what makes the “F” word offensive. 

What have you forgotten today? To answer this question.  

Categories
Arts Culture

Live Arts stages compelling he-said, she-said plays

Live Arts kicks off its season with two thought-provoking shows, "What the Constitution Means to Me" and "An Iliad," in repertory through October 28. Details at livearts.org. Supplied photo.

We humans are social animals, which is one reason why theater endures as a way for people to share space and feel something together. In a time when our nation feels quite divided (ahem: understatement), any opportunity to learn from history and engage with challenging subjects in thought-provoking ways is a good opportunity. The current Live Arts shows have us covered on that front with back-to-back chances to dig in to the depth of the human experience from two distinct yet resonant perspectives.

As Live Arts’ 2024/2025 Voyages season picks up steam, What the Constitution Means to Me and An Iliad share the Founders Theater and alternate performances. The choice of presenting the plays in repertory makes sense, because they are very much in conversation. Both shows feature powerful performances enhanced by the black box theater’s intimate staging conditions. Audience members feel essential to the storytelling.

In What the Constitution Means to Me, we find ourselves in an American Legion hall represented by a minimalist patriotic set. Enter Heidi, a character based on playwright/original lead Heidi Schreck, who takes us to a scholarship speech contest about the U.S. Constitution that she competed in as a teen. Heidi, portrayed by Tovah Close the night I attended, invites the audience to play the cigar-smoking men who filled the American Legion halls of her youth. We were a predominantly female audience, and the first thing many did when invited to embody men was to take up more space, which resonates with the play’s central theme.  

Through Heidi’s personal stories, and those of her grandmothers and mother, we come to understand how preposterous it is for Heidi to be speechifying about the personal relevance of a document that first explicitly mentions women in the 19th amendment, passed in 1919, that granted women the right to vote. As a woman, I found the play to be validating and emotionally challenging. Heidi’s statistics about rape and domestic partner violence against women landed pointedly. Just as the weight of the traumas became overwhelming, there was an intermission. Let me tell you: We hit the bar hard.

Fortunately, the play’s second act offers a respite from heartstring plucking (mostly) by featuring a debate between Heidi and an actual debater (Aafreen Aamir). The topic is whether we should keep or abolish the U.S. Constitution. Honestly, it never occurred to me that we could abolish our Constitution and institute a new one—one that protects the rights of Native Americans, people of color, queer folks, women, and other minorities with the same vehemence as in protecting the rights of white men like our founding fathers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a proud American, which is probably why the idea of abolishing the Constitution never occurred to me. I’m also a disheartened American, an American who sees that some things need to change as our country continues to evolve, just as the founding fathers envisioned it would.

The following night, I saw An Iliad, which blends sections of Robert Fagles’ translation of Homer’s epic poem with moments of modern contextualization. Two nameless, timeless poets—an elder and a younger—arrive and investigate the sparse set. For several minutes, the audience watches as the elder, portrayed by David Minton (also the director), and the younger by Jesse Timmons, set the stage before beginning the tale. I love that live theater has the power to get me to care about watching a man adjust the placement of a milk crate—and I did care!

The Iliad is a familiar tale to many, with ancient heroes Achilles and Hector leading armies during the Trojan War. The added context breathes life into this show. The Younger Poet likens (spoilers) ill-fated Patroclus’ bloodlust in battle to our modern experience of road rage. He begins by expressing a degree of anger relatable to anyone who’s been cut off in traffic. However, Timmons then takes his performance to an extreme that fills the room with discomfort, graphically describing physical violence, inappropriate as a reaction for a roadway mishap. The Elder Poet touches the younger, to snap him out of his fiery passion, and the younger apologizes, saying something like, “That’s not me. It’s not me.” Reckless uncontrollable rage does not define the man, or at least The Younger Poet doesn’t want it to. One of the play’s most affecting aspects is the tension created by the tenderness between the two characters juxtaposed against the horrors of the Trojan War and all the wars after, including those that are raging even now.  

Categories
Arts Culture

Sabrina Carpenter

Supplied photo.

Everybody’s buzzing over caffeinated pop princess Sabrina Carpenter. Brandishing a bevy of hit songs and a stage show
to swoon over, Carpenter brings her Short n’ Sweet Tour to town with plenty to wig out about. Fabulous fits and funny bits abound, framed within a ’70s-era variety show aesthetic. The Disney Channel alum shows off her skills in both singing and acting in this high-energy performance that features big set pieces and plenty of pink.

Sunday 10/20. Prices vary, 7pm. John Paul Jones Arena, 295 Massie Rd. johnpauljonesarena.com

Categories
Arts Culture

Jonathan Richman

Supplied photo.

Wednesday 10/16 at The Southern Café and Music Hall

In many ways, Jonathan Richman has traveled far from the emotive rock ‘n’ roll where he made his original splash with The Modern Lovers in the early 1970s. Emotive, jubilant, and at times, the lonesome reflections of a sensitive young man, the originality of the Boston-based quintet he led bore legendary fruit that would later be covered by the likes of David Bowie (“Pablo Picasso”), the Sex Pistols (“Roadrunner”), and Siouxsie and the Banshees (“She Cracked”). After Richman eventually turned the page on The Modern Lovers, his career gave him the leeway to create even more honest-sounding music: gingerly strummed guitar, and his inimitable, unassuming nasal voice chuckling through his playful lyrics—some of which could just as easily be the stuff of children’s books.

In the last decade or so, Richman has opted for an acoustic guitar, and expanded his local scope about driving past the Stop & Shop and celebrating the virtues of “Cold Pizza” (2022) into a journey that leans spiritual, physical, and globally multilingual, as evident by last year’s “Yatasamaroun” and “En La Discoteca Reggaeton.”

When he played the Southern back in 2018, he was surprisingly less the aw-shucks inoffensive wisecracking character and more of an introspective poet-guru from another age. Floating under the lights with his guitar not hanging about him with a strap, but propped up in hand and arm, he strummed softly, quietly, and, at points, hypnotically. But then he chastised an audience member for filming him on a phone (“If you want to watch TV, you should have stayed home”). He also included a couple of his bigger solo numbers, such as the good time “I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar,” but the overall feel veered toward a more philosophical place, with musings about the nature of suffering and the depth of love.

For the upcoming return to the venue, he’ll once again be accompanied by drummer Tommy Larkins, who keeps Richman’s songs in line without confining them to a backbeat. His rippling rhythms are brushed out with intuition, giving the feel a jazz combo-like exploration. These are still very much Richman’s well-crafted songs, treated with the air to soar, the room to amble, and the delicate hands to work intricate, intimate magic.

Categories
Arts Culture

Exploring communal ways of healing 

Stecopoulos will discuss "Dreaming in the Fault Zone" with poet Brian Teare on Friday, October 18, at New Dominion Bookshop. Supplied photo.

“Outside of biomedicine, relationships lie at the core of healing—between people and their ancestors, between microcosm and macrocosm, between qualities and elements,” writes Eleni Stecopoulos in her new book, Dreaming in the Fault Zone: A Poetics of Healing. A poet, essayist, editor, critic, and UVA MFA alumna, Stecopoulos’ previous books include Visceral Poetics, a work of criticism and memoir, and Armies of Compassion, a poetry collection. 

Dreaming in the Fault Zone is a deeply researched and heady collection of essays on illness and healing, written through the dual lenses of family history and personal chronic health conditions. Stecopoulos writes, “For twenty years I’ve contended with immune reactions to substances in both natural and built environments, assigned the diagnostic code of ‘environmental hypersensitivity.’” It is seemingly, in part, this diagnosis that sends her on the path that eventually leads to this book.

The author dedicates an especially effective essay in the book to a defense of sensitivity, noting, “Sensitivity is suspect to a masculinist society that mandates constant productivity and disembodiment.” Also countering that assumption by exploring how, simultaneously, “sensitivity signifies an exception that might be assigned value as social power, sacred dispensation, or creative gift.” It is in the space of this type of paradox or cultural clash that Stecopoulos is the most riveting. She draws influences and cites widely, from Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine, to Freud and Jungian analyst C. A. Meier, as well as modernist poet H.D. and feminist writer Silvia Federici, among countless other physicians, therapists, and historians. 

It is also in this space outside of Western, masculinist, capitalistic norms that she seeks alternatives for healing her own body. Stecopoulos writes, “My refusal came after living an extroverted life under capitalism, forced to compete when I did not want, to ignore my body’s needs and boundaries, to override my sensitivity to the point of damage.” As for so many others, it took pushing beyond her own limits to seek out new ways of healing as well as more connected ways of living in community. “You’re a person because of, and with, others,” she writes.

Her examination of and experiences with some of these alternative forms of healing shapes much of the book. “All over the world there were realities that contradicted the pathological strictures of health I knew,” writes Stecopoulos. Through lyrical passages that incorporate verse and mythology, the book offers a survey of healing approaches used throughout time and across the globe, cataloging practices used by Kazakh shamans and healers in Bali, Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala, Egypt, Greece, China, and elsewhere. “Sacred or secular, secret or shared, many medicines exist and people are healed by them,” she writes. Later adding that, “It is possible to learn from the methods of other cultures without viewing them as precursors or simplifying them into alternatives that provide escape from the ills of the West.” 

Her examples tend to meander through these realms, mapping therapeutic landscapes, geo-mythologies, and geographies of healing, including spaces such as thermal baths, caves, natural springs, and other sacred spots. Alongside this, Stecopoulos offers insights into dream work and interpretation, rituals of purification, the laying on of hands, psychic surgery, somatics, remote acupuncture, and other methods of healing that are ultimately collective even as they appear to focus on an individual body. She also examines the healing properties of poetry, dance, music, theater, and experimental film, highlighting the idea that, like these artforms, medicine is a social practice. Considering the therapeutic properties of literature, specifically, she writes, “Words processed in the brain are felt in other organs.”

Eleni Stecopoulos’ “Dreaming in the Fault Zone.” Supplied photo.

The COVID-19 pandemic is unapologetically woven throughout Dreaming in the Fault Zone as something that has changed and continues to change the patterns of society and our ideas of health and healing. She also grapples with immigration, incarceration, decolonization, ableism, medical racism, capitalism, and ecofascism, and does not shy away from documenting her own psychoanalysis and hypnotherapy as she navigates chronic illness, pain, and grief. 

These specifics are shared in service to the author’s larger argument against toxic individualism and Western concepts of medicine and cures. She writes this section of verse early in the book:

“Healing is not

an accomplishment. victory.
the antithesis of illness. 

Healing cannot

undo the disaster. reverse time.” 

Stecopoulos is careful to distinguish between healing and cures, holding space for non-Western approaches that can be informed more broadly by the world we live in. “The plant speaking to the shaman is also empirical data,” she writes. Specifically, she positions healing as a continuum that is as nonlinear and collective as human life, in contrast to the idea of cures as an ableist construct that is unrealistically focused on eradicating illness and restoring a pre-illness self. The latter is often the primary focus of Western medicine, but Stecopoulos argues it is this steadfast focus on cures and quantitative data that ultimately harms many of the potential opportunities we have for the slower processes of holistic healing and building community. “Treating people requires, ultimately, treating the structures that form their person, tone their immune system, impoverish their gut flora, teach their nervous system a restricted set of responses,” she writes. 

An enthralling, existential endeavor, Dreaming in the Fault Zone is notable in its range and the depth of humanity and community conveyed through the author’s examinations of the most universal experiences we share: illness and healing. As Stecopoulos writes, “Healing is not an attempt to change history but an ongoing practice endemic to life. Healing is our condition.”

Categories
Arts Culture

Author Stanley Stepanic

Supplied photo.

Halloween is just around the corner, and spooky vibes are swirling in the autumn air. Fans of fangs will want to sink their teeth into the fine historical fiction of Stanley Stepanic. The local author teaches courses on the Polish language and Eastern European film at UVA, as well as the history of vampires. Stepanic will discuss his novel, A Vamp There Was, a story set in 1920s Fredericksburg that blends fact and fiction in a tale of self-discovery, vengeance, and, well, vampires. Don’t worry, this counts as an invitation to enter the event.

Saturday 10/19. Free, 7pm. New Dominion Bookshop, 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. ndbookshop.com

Categories
Culture Living

Two horse-lovers mobilize social media to save animals from slaughter

Draft horse Big John stands at an imposing 20 hands tall (that’s 6'8"). Like Colby, he lives on the farm as an “organization ambassador,” and won’t be put up for adoption. Photo by Tristan Williams.

Colby’s Crew started with one horse and one decision from the heart.

Colby, a 4-year-old chestnut stallion with white markings, had run out of options. Allison (Ally) Smith, an experienced equestrian studying nursing and training horses on the side, saw an online post about him: “Bound for slaughter. Needs experienced handler.”

“He was flashy and beautiful, and they were only asking $875,” Ally recalls. She bought him, sight unseen.

Ally’s wife Olivia, who is active on social media, posted a video on Facebook of Colby in the kill pen (where animals are held before being shipped to slaughter). “This was July 2020, the middle of the pandemic, when TikTok was just taking off,” she says, “and the video blew up.”

Thirty days later, the shipper arrived at Ally’s family’s Warrenton farm with Colby. The horse was spirited, she had been told; in reality, he was almost feral. The truck driver was afraid to go into the van, so Ally walked in with a lead rope and brought Colby out. “The shipper’s mouth dropped open,” Olivia recalls. “Ally was yelling at her father, ‘Close the gate! Close the gate!’ because she knew if Colby got loose in the field we’d never catch him.”

That’s when Ally turned to Olivia and said, “I’m going to ride him.”

Ally went out to the paddock 10 times a day, working to build Colby’s trust. He was in poor condition and had clearly been mistreated, kicking and biting at any touch. But Ally’s patience and calm won out, as she and Colby developed a deep bond. Within a month he was letting her ride him. Olivia filmed and posted the whole process, and created an internet phenom. By early 2021, Ally and Olivia decided to take on another rescue; then came two more. And then they met Big John.

“We went to an auction in West Virginia one weekend in April 2021,” Ally recalls. “We were just going to look, strolling around, and I went by this stall and said, ‘Oh my God!’ I hadn’t been around draft horses before—this guy didn’t even fit in the stall.” She ran to get her wife, and when they came back a girl was riding Big John around.

Ally Smith and Colby, the horse she rescued in 2020, who later became an internet phenom. Photo by Tristan Williams.

“I looked up, and up, and up,” Olivia says. (Big John is a Belgian, the second-largest draft breed, and he’s 20 hands—which is 6’8″ at the shoulder.) “He was so lame, and he was exhausted. His feet were in terrible shape, he had scars, he had sores, but he was trying to do whatever was asked of him.”

This time it was Olivia who said, “I’m going to buy that horse.” 

She started posting Big John videos and pleas for donations, and her online followers responded: “We had $5,000 pledged in 15 minutes.” Fortunately, their trailer was large enough for Big John (“I was scared at first, but he was so gentle,” says Ally), and a neighbor had a field available for his quarantine. When he was released into the field, the giant Belgian who had been worked almost to death took a long roll and then a good look around. “Then he kind of collapsed,” recalls Olivia. “He had been drugged to get him through the auction.”

That was when the pair decided they wanted to save horses that had reached the bottom. 

“We hadn’t started out thinking of this as a career,” Olivia says. “But the internet was pushing us along, saying, ‘You need to start a 501(c)(3).’” Colby’s Crew Rescue was founded in 2021, and in 2022 the couple moved to Keswick to build the organization, while Ally continues her graduate nursing studies at UVA. This year CCR saved more than 600 animals, buying them before slaughter or through owner surrenders.

The two women began going to kill pens as well. They never knew what they would find there. They once discovered 13 Belgians waiting to be shipped. (Draft horses bring a good price when you’re selling meat by the pound.) 

Olivia had had it. “I said, ‘We’re buying all of them.’ I went online and stayed online until we had raised enough to pay for the first four to six months of care for every one of those horses.”

A young mare facing severe medical issues, Sterling recently underwent eye and dental surgery. Photo by Tristan Williams.

That has become CCR’s methodology. Getting a rescue horse from purchase through quarantine, vet evaluation and routine treatment, rehabilitation, and training costs on average $4,500; CCR’s online ask is calculated to cover both the animal’s purchase price and its maintenance cost through adoption. Clearly, that figure can increase substantially if the animal has serious injuries or illness, is pregnant, or needs extensive training, so CCR also charges an adoption fee. Still, some animals are just not suitable for adoption, and at any one time, CCR has about 50 animals in sanctuary farms, whether for hospice or retirement. And then there are the 10 or so equines that will stay at CCR as “organization ambassadors”—like Colby and Big John.

Equine rescue, while heartwarming, takes an enormous amount of labor and expert help. CCR works closely with vets at Virginia Tech’s Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Virginia, and the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center. (One of the largest kill pens is in New Holland, Pennsylvania, close to Lancaster and Amish country, where a large percentage of the rescue animals come.)

CCR arranges for a vet to be on site to triage animals as soon as they are purchased. Unless they need emergency care, the animals are sent to one of five quarantine farms CCR contracts with for 60 to 90 days of quarantine and further evaluation. If humane euthanasia is necessary, it’s done by a licensed vet.

Every animal gets a vet check weekly (more often if needed); a farrier visit every six weeks for hoof care; and a full wellness check including grooming and lots of love every day. Once it’s fit, the animal is brought to the Keswick facility to be evaluated by Ally and Olivia, who assign the horses to one of CCR’s network of trainers for at least 30 days of training to get them ready for adoption. 

Every CCR adopter gets vetted, including home photos and veterinarian references. The adoption contract is strict. Every animal has been microchipped, and will be tracked by CCR; monthly photo updates are required; the adopter has to keep CCR informed of any sale or transfer; and there’s a $10,000 penalty for breaking the contract. For its part, CCR will take back any animal for any reason, and if that animal requires surgery or humane euthanasia, CCR will help cover the cost. 

Every Colby’s Crew Rescue horse gets a vet check weekly, a farrier visit for hoof care, and a full wellness check before being brought to the Keswick facility to be evaluated by Ally and Olivia. Photo by Tristan Williams.

Ally’s equine expertise and ability to bond with weary, sick, and traumatized animals is at the heart of Colby’s Crew, while Olivia’s impressive social media skills and ability to capture the pathos and triumphs of its work have made CCR famous. The Crew has almost 4 million followers on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram who donate, share, and devotedly follow the rescued horses. “We raise all our money online, through donations—we don’t do solicitations, we don’t have corporate sponsors,” says Olivia. “Ninety-five percent of the money we take in goes back into buying and caring for our rescues.”

CCR gets some online criticism claiming it is supporting kill pens by buying from them, but the couple doesn’t see it that way. They see their job as saving sentient beings that deserve better than a truck ride to a cruel death. Eliminating the slaughter pipeline will likely take public pressure and political action; last year, the U.S. House of Representatives considered a bill to ban equine slaughter or export for human consumption, and this year animal advocates in Canada are pushing for a ban on the export of live horses for food. 

Animal-lovers, of course, know that CCR’s equines are actually rescued. Online scammers post kill-pen photos with pleas for donations to “save this animal” when the horse has already been sold, or killed, or never existed.

Happily, in the last few years CCR has built an enormous community that is invested in Colby, Big John, and all their equine friends. Sure, these fans respond to calls for money—but they also clamor for updates on Sterling, a young mare facing severe medical issues; on Dudley, the newborn donkey who needed emergency care for deformed legs; and Onyx, the big black draft mule whose brother Obsidian was rescued as well. Visitors and adopters who come to the Keswick farm ask to say hello to Big John and his understudy, Big Sam, who is only 18 hands (6′ tall). And they are excited to see each and every animal that will be rescued next. 

… It takes a village

Perhaps this area’s best-known equine rescue is Hope’s Legacy, also named for a special horse. “Hope was an off-the-track thoroughbred,” says Maya Proulx, Hope’s Legacy executive director. “She’d been off the track only six months, and I was her fifth owner. She was one of the sweetest mares I ever met.” The organization’s name honors Hope and all the horses that might easily have been written off.

A Nelson County native and lifelong horse person, Proulx founded Hope’s Legacy as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2008. All its rescue animals have been donated. About half are “owner surrenders,” animals at risk of being auctioned off when their owners die, or face serious illness or financial setbacks, while the rest have been seized by law enforcement in cases of neglect or abuse. 

“Most animal control offices don’t have facilities for large animals,” Proulx says, “so if there are horses involved, they have to scramble. I wanted to serve as a resource for them.” Hope’s Legacy has taken in neglected animals from the 2015 Peaceable Farm raid in Orange County; a 2016 Nottoway County seizure that included pregnant mares; and a 2023 Shenandoah County case involving 98 neglected thoroughbreds. 

The organization also runs twice-yearly training sessions that are open to animal control officers from all over the state. “Virginia has no requirement for equine training for these people, and many don’t know anything about handling horses,” says Proulx.

At the moment, Hope’s Legacy has 74 horses in rescue—35 living on its 172-acre primary farm in Afton, and the rest in foster homes. Proulx credits the organization’s network of vets, fosterers, and trainers, as well as “120 incredibly dedicated volunteers” who do everything from feeding (two shifts every day) and barn care, to working with the horses on being haltered, led, and handled. One of the feeding shift volunteers has fundraising experience, and now works full-time raising money for Hope’s Legacy and its equines.

Hope’s Legacy runs a variety of activities to build community awareness and generate donations, as well as educational programs for kids (including the popular Books at the Barn). “Part of our mission is to end neglect and abuse,” says Proulx, “and that starts with education.”

Categories
Arts Culture

‘Picasso, Lydia, & Friends, Vol. V.’ at LYDM

“Picasso, Lydia, & Friends, Vol. V.,” on view at Les Yeux du Monde through October 27, features works by William Bennett, Anne Chesnut, Dean Dass, Rosemarie Fiore, Lydia Csato Gasman, Sanda Iliescu, Megan Marlatt, Pablo Picasso, David Summers, and Russ Warren. Photo courtesy of Les Yeux du Monde.

Opportunities to see works by a modern master of art in an intimate gallery setting do not often arise in our part of the world. Les Yeux du Monde provides just that with its current exhibition, “Picasso, Lydia, & Friends, Vol. V.” 

The show brings together six prints by Pablo Picasso with contemporary works from eight artists influenced by the aesthetics and academic contributions of the Spanish artist and the acclaimed Picasso scholar Lydia Csato Gasman, respectively. The collected work functions as a way to share world-class masterworks with the Charlottesville public, while also honoring the legacy of Gasman, LYDM founder Lyn Bolen Warren’s late mentor. 

“Apart from Picasso—whose work is included in the exhibition, given it was the focus of Gasman’s scholarship—each of the exhibiting artists personally knew Gasman, many having been her colleagues in UVA’s art department,” says Les Yeux de Monde Director Hagan Tampellini. “Each credits Gasman or Picasso with influencing their work or thought in some way, which can be felt in the experience of the show.” 

Picasso’s prints present the viewer with unexpected images. Three still-life lithographs—atypical examples from the artist’s oeuvre—depict fruit, flowers, and glassware, with evidence of the artist’s hand used to manipulate the ink. Two lyrical etchings, illustrating Picasso’s muse Marie-Thérèse Walter with delicate line work, flank a visually heavy aquatint portraying a goat skull. The juxtaposition of youth and vivacity is striking against the weight of inevitable decay.

Installation view from “Picasso, Lydia, & Friends, Vol. V.,” on view at Les Yeux du Monde through October 27. Photo courtesy of Les Yeux du Monde.

The goat skull is complemented by Russ Warren’s “Faces,” a large-scale acrylic painting featuring dozens of skull-like visages. The notion of death is echoed again in Gasman’s “The Angel of History,” which employs thick impasto, gestural marks, and a saturated palette of colors. A sheet of aluminum serves as both the sky and a stand-in for aircraft engaged in wartime bombings. The depiction of angels is carried over in a suite of elegant ink drawings by Sanda Iliescu, which also connect beautifully to Picasso’s etchings through similarity in line weight and simplicity of form.

Another exciting example of curation occurs between print and painting, where David Summers’ “New Light on Picasso’s Snack, plus Water” hangs next to Picasso’s “Pommes, Verre, et Couteau” (Apples, Glass, and Knife). Here we see how the artists attune to the same subject matter: Summers the painter traffics in the representation of light, while Picasso as printmaker is far more concerned with form.

Throughout the show, pops of vibrant color punctuate the visual rhythms produced by monochromatic prints, drawings, and paintings—alluding to acts of both love and violence. LYDM presents a balanced exhibition design keeping the viewer engaged, and seeking out both formal and thematic connections, in the disparate yet related works that grace the welcoming gallery space.

Categories
Arts Culture

TechnoSonics Festival 2024

Supplied photo.

Electronic music and intermedia art collide at the annual TechnoSonics Festival. With the theme of immersion, the 2024 iteration explores aspects of the world that envelop minds, bodies, and spirits. Sounds that surround, and environments that encapsulate, are all fair game at events on UVA Grounds and at Visible Records. The featured work in electronic music, intermedia, and sound art comes out of UVA’s composition and computer technologies program. Special guest artist Rohan Chander—aka BAKUDI SCREAM—offers a presentation covering his creative process on Friday afternoon, followed by performances on Friday and Saturday nights.

Thursday 10/17–Saturday 10/19. Free, times and locations vary. music.virginia.edu/technosonics-2024