Month: July 2020

Categories
Arts Culture

Sound Choices: Recent Virginia releases resonate with dream pop, folk, and old-time music

Becca Mancari The Greatest Part (Captured Tracks)

After cutting her chops in Lynchburg, Virginia, Becca Mancari brought the traditions of Appalachia with her to Nashville, where she quickly made a name for herself in Music City’s Americana circles. Her debut album Good Woman (2017) drew on elements of her roots, elevating them to the modern day. In its wake, Mancari has spent the past few years forging her own path as an artist. She teamed up with friends Jesse Lafser and Brittany Howard (Alabama Shakes) to form the band Bermuda Triangle, and became more outspoken about social issues. These experiences have informed her sophomore release, The Greatest Part, which ditches the mountain tones in exchange for a dream pop sheen. The juxtaposition of sound and subject matter is crucial: While Mancari tackles personal traumas and truths, the weight is carried by her airy vocals and Beach Boys-inspired production. On the single “First Time,” Mancari recalls the aftermath of coming out as gay to her Christian fundamentalist family: “I remember the first time my father didn’t hug me back.” The rest of the album follows suit, acting as a celebration of Mancari’s heritage and identity as a queer Italian/Puerto Rican woman. There’s no sophomore slump here; The Greatest Part is a joyous expression of an artist coming into her own (released 6/26).

Dogwood Tales Closest Thing to Heaven (WarHen)

Kyle Grim and Ben Ryan began playing music together in high school, and bonded over shared influences from ‘70s-era folk rock—think Neil Young or Emmylou Harris. As Dogwood Tales, the Harrisonburg duo has brought flower power to the Shenandoah Valley through a handful of releases. The group’s latest LP, Closest Thing to Heaven, is no exception. With songs like “Truck Stop Town” and “Riding Horses,” Grim and Ryan combine a low country sound with straight-ahead Americana for an easy listenin’ ride tinged with slide guitar and folk narrative (released 7/17).

Diane Cluck Common Wealth (self-released)

Diane Cluck has been a stalwart in the Charlottesville music scene for nearly a decade, churning out folk compositions and ushering in the next generation of artists as a songwriting teacher at The Front Porch, the area’s roots music school. Her notoriety is hard-earned: she spent 12 years in New York City, garnering accolades in the often-dubbed “freak-folk” scene and playing venues like the recently shuttered SideWalk Café on the Lower East Side with the likes of Regina Spektor and Kimya Dawson, spearheading the anti-folk movement. Cluck dropped her new album, Common Wealth, on Bandcamp last month, with a percentage of its sales benefiting the Equal Justice Initiative. Recorded last summer in Louisa, Common Wealth is a socially conscious collection that boasts beautifully understated melodies and Cluck’s singular voice. Her signature fingerpicking shines on “Jenny,” while tracks like the harmonica-laden “Float a Cuppa Tea” are a knee-slappin’ reincarnation of old-time music. Elsewhere, on songs like “Lie Quiet With Me” and “Grandma Say,” minimalist piano is front and center. Harkening back to a simpler time, Common Wealth is a welcome reprieve, bringing solace during a time of cultural unrest and sociopolitical uncertainty (released 6/5).

Categories
Culture Living

PICK: You Don’t Say! Happy Hour

Get happy and win prizes with Wintergreen Music's virtual trivia game. Getty Images.

Can’t beat it: Learning is a side effect during Wintergreen Music’s (drinking) game show, You Don’t Say! Happy Hour: Musician Trivia & Humor. In weekly virtual gatherings, Artistic Director Erin Freeman welcomes a variety of musicians to a panel that challenges the audience while regaling them with “zany tales of broken instruments, enchanted harps, and rhythmic disasters.” Tune in for the upcoming Things That Go Boom: Percussion, Harp, & Piano, to win prizes and keep the beat. Registration includes access to curated playlists, learning materials, and more. Zoom required.

Thursday 7/23. $5, 7pm. wintergreen-music.org/you-dont-say-happy-hour.

Categories
Arts Culture

PICK: Best in Show

The Paramount reopens for moviegoers with a screening of Best in Show. Getty Images

Show going: Do you miss the excitement of watching a story unfold on the big screen? A sense of communion with fellow audience members? The iconic concessions?
With new releases on hold, the Paramount is bringing some classics back to the theater, starting with Christopher Guest’s riotous satire Best in Show. The ensemble cast features Fred Willard, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Michael McKean, Jane Lynch, and Parker Posey, as they navigate the inside world of dog competitions.

Saturday 7/25. $5-8, 3pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 979-1333.

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News

‘A good deal of trust’: UVA wants students to come back to Charlottesville. What will happen once they get here?

UVA students could quickly spread the coronavirus if they return to Charlottesville. Photo: Rammelkamp Photo

By Sydney Halleman

Amy has a lot of school spirit. A third-year at the University of Virginia, she’s been active in the UVA community since her first year. She holds leadership positions in multiple clubs. “I go to all the football games,” Amy says. “And I love wearing my UVA gear.”

But her sentiment toward her university started to shift as the novel coronavirus swept through Virginia. Amy, who is immunocompromised due to asthma and chronic sinusitis, is concerned for her club members and her own health as the University of Virginia moves closer to opening Grounds to students on August 25. She has been given no specific guidelines on how to hold meetings or host club activities safely. 

“This is not a time for self-governance,” Amy says.

Students like Amy—and Charlottesville residents—have become increasingly concerned with the university’s guidelines for reopening, and its lack of enforcement of mask wearing and social distancing, which are crucial to preventing the spread of COVID-19.

“This is the first time I’ve felt disappointed with UVA,” she says. “I love UVA, I truly love it. And this is the first time where I feel like I’ve been cheated…The lack of communication and lack of transparency is very, very frustrating.”

 

Preventative measures

The coronavirus has killed 141,000 people in the United States since March. Charlottesville, thus far, has been relatively spared in comparison to other cities, due to non-essential businesses closing early and limits on gatherings.

However, as national COVID-19 rates spike for a second time, Charlottesville’s rate of infections has been steadily rising. City leaders and community members are concerned that the return of students could mark a deadly rise in coronavirus cases. In a July 13 virtual press conference, Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker called UVA’s plans to reopen Grounds to students a “recipe for disaster.”

“I, for one, don’t understand why the students are coming back into the community, from all over the globe, and why we’re taking that chance,” she said.

During a recent city schools school board meeting, Chairwoman Jennifer McKeever said, “In any given moment, after the students come back into our town, the local numbers are going to be really different than they are right now.”

Early in March, the university outlined plans to reopen, and opted to hold classes, excluding large lecture hall courses, in person. In this hybrid model, most students can choose to attend classes online, if they wish, with the exception of some practicum courses. Classes will be held through fall break, and in-person teaching will end by Thanksgiving. The university will quarantine those who test positive for coronavirus, and provide personal protective equipment. Additionally, students are required to submit a negative COVID-19 test before returning to school.

In a May 28 email, the university wrote that “In some ways, it would be easier simply to be online all fall,” but mentioned the “obvious financial risks” to that course of action. Like many schools around the country, UVA has been clear about its fears that an all-virtual semester would destroy tuition revenue.

 So UVA’s administration has decided to forge ahead. “There inevitably will be greater risk in having students return,” the email reads, “and we will be placing a good deal of trust in our students to look out for the safety and well-being not just of each other, but of our faculty, staff, and community members.”

 

Party on

Mounting evidence suggests that these steps—and this trust—won’t be enough to prevent students from spreading the virus among themselves and to the rest of the city. Although 92 percent of undergrads responded in a university survey that they would practice social distancing, mask wearing, and hand-washing, flocks of maskless students crowded corner bars and fraternity houses to celebrate during the weekend of July 11-12, the traditional party weekend called Midsummers. 

Tyler Lee, a rising second-year, was one of those who took part in the Midsummers festivities. Over Instagram direct message, Lee recognized that “partying in the midst of a pandemic is not the best idea,” but said he expects students to continue partying once classes resume. 

“I do not expect to see bars empty or a lack of people at parties in the fall,” Lee said. “I had my fun, even if it was for a short weekend.”

Following Midsummers, Dean of Students Allen Groves sent a scathing email to students, calling the partying “selfish and ignorant,” but failing to explain how the school would enforce safety at future large, student-held gatherings. 

Ryan McKay, a senior policy analyst for the Thomas Jefferson Health District, says the state health apparatus is scaling up contact tracing and educational messaging, but noted that, ultimately, “there’s a concern if students aren’t wearing face coverings and not social distancing.”

“Even if we did say that restaurants needed to close,” McKay says, “we need to be concerned about social gatherings where we don’t have authority.”

Around 40 percent of UVA upperclassmen live in off-campus housing, which further complicates the picture because the university has very little control over what happens in those houses and apartments. Harvard University made headlines recently for its COVID prevention plan, which allows only 40 percent of students to return to campus, something it can more easily do because 97 percent of its undergraduates live in university housing. At UVA, students can decide to return to Charlottesville even if classes are held completely virtually. 

UVA English professor Herbert Tucker recognizes that students behave much differently outside the classroom than in it.

“I’ve been in the business long enough to know that no matter how much homework-doing students are on the ball…they behave very differently with each other when they’re out of class,” he says. “The students infect each other…these are not fantasies, these things are certainly going to happen more frequently. This isn’t rocket science here.” 

“The extreme that everyone should imagine is a fraternity party,” Tucker says. “Those events are going to happen.”

And while Tucker says the faculty can “take care of themselves,” citing UVA’s flexibility in allowing faculty to teach remotely, he worries about the staff and community members that students could infect with COVID-19. 

“They won’t enter the students’ minds,” he says.

 

Risk factor

Residents in neighborhoods surrounding UVA, like 10th and Page, are particularly at risk of serious health complications stemming from coronavirus. The virus disproportionately affects Black Americans and those with underlying health conditions.

Dr. Taison Bell, an infectious disease, critical care physician, and the director of UVA’s medical intensive care unit, recognizes that risk, and says Charlottesville has to develop a safety plan that “has to be, more so than we’ve done in the past, integrated into the whole plan for the city and the region.”

As for making students practice social distancing, Bell says it’s “a little unclear” what can and cannot be enforced. 

“One variable, or a big part that the community is concerned about, is how younger people will behave during their free time,” Bell says. “Will they behave in a responsible way…Or will they be potential drivers of infection?”

For decades, area residents have watched UVA students party their way across town. Now, the university has put forward a coronavirus containment plan that relies in large part on students choosing to act conscientiously. 

“If we’re going to have a substantial amount of students,” Bell says, “then there needs to be a collective understanding that [they] have to behave differently than they have before.”

 

Categories
Coronavirus News

Left out: Albemarle teachers, parents call out inequity in reopening plans

Spanish teacher Filadelfia Soto is disappointed in the school district for not consulting with teachers on reopening sooner. PC: John Robinson

For weeks, Filadelfia Soto—along with hundreds of other teachers in Albemarle County—was left in the dark. She had received emails with “general information about school board meetings,” but nothing about how the school division planned to reopen in the fall, or when teachers could weigh in on the issue.

So when division staff rolled out three reopening scenarios—all allowing students to return to classrooms for face-to-face learning—at a July 9 school board meeting, she was as surprised as she was disappointed.

“They went from moving the opening date from August to September…and then all of a sudden they said we are reopening schools face-to-face,” says Soto, who teaches Spanish at Woodbrook Elementary School. When she heard the plans, she felt like she had no choice but to participate in risky in-person learning.

More than 600 teachers—nearly half of those in the division—share Soto’s sentiments, and signed an open letter criticizing their exclusion from the planning process, as well as a lack of consideration for their needs and concerns. Pointing to the rising coronavirus rates in the area, they believe the proposed face-to-face models are “unequivocally unsafe,” and have urged the school board to reopen schools virtually.

“Virtual is not the ideal learning environment for all students, but we must begin there. The rising rates of illness and death across Virginia and nationally do not make me feel confident entering into a building,” says Adrienne Oliver, an instructional coach for ACPS. “We need to begin there also because we’re going to end up there in some capacity.” 

Oliver and her colleagues also believe face-to-face learning puts marginalized communities, specifically those of color, in greater danger.

“It will be our most well-resourced families who opt their children out of that learning environment because they have the means. Which means you’ll then have school buildings that are filled with students who depend upon the resources that the school system can provide for them,” says Oliver, who is Black.

“Black and Latinx people…are [disproportionately] dying from this illness. To have a school that could potentially be filled with vulnerable students in any capacity places the burdens of the illness upon them,” Oliver says.

In response to community backlash, the district sent out a survey to teachers on July 10, asking them for their thoughts about reopening, and if they’d like to be part of a reopening task force. And on July 14, Superintendent Matt Haas announced he would draft an online-only option for the school board to consider at its July 30 meeting, when a final decision will be made.

But there is still a lot more equity work to be done, teachers say. Though ACPS sent out a survey to families last month, asking them if they preferred a hybrid or online reopening, the response rate was only 50 percent, says instructional coach Dr. Vicki Hobson.

“The voices of our most marginalized families…need to be central in the decisions that affect them. We need to find out what it is that they want and need, and how we can support that,” adds Hobson.

“We also need to consider how we’re asking for information. Some families don’t have access to devices or the internet in order to respond to an online survey,” she says. “We need to [have] alternative ways to get information, such as personalized phone calls with those we haven’t heard back from.”

In addition to contacting every family, the district should hear from all staff members, as well as community members and organizations, Oliver says.

Though distance learning did not go well for her eighth grader in the spring, parent Amanda Moxham believes that a virtual reopening is safest.

“We’ve been paying attention to the data locally around the number of cases and increases, and looking at the spikes across the country. And knowing that so many students will be returning to UVA this fall, there are [a lot of] dangers that exist,” says Moxham, who is a community organizer for the Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County. “I don’t want to contribute to forcing teachers back into a physical school building who are not comfortable being there…[or] to increasing case numbers.”

Moxham is hopeful that teachers will be able to create a more effective distance learning model, such as by implementing live classes, before school starts on September 8, but is also frustrated with the district’s lack of outreach.

“What could have saved a huge amount of time was…[if] they had actually talked to the teachers first,” she says.

For the students who cannot learn from home, the district could work with community members and organizations to create alternative, yet safe learning options, suggests Moxham. For example, it could assign certain teachers a small group of students, and allow them to teach at outdoor locations.

But regardless of the school board’s decision, the district needs to figure out “how to make virtual learning equitable,” says Hobson. It should not only gather feedback from families about their experience with it in the spring, but also train teachers, set up more Wi-Fi hot spots, and distribute more laptops.

“We have a chance to do so much better than the virtual learning that we provided in the spring,” adds Oliver. “We see this as an opportunity to shift educational practice for the better.”

Categories
News

The fight continues: Downtown rally amplifies voices of Black women despite threats

Organizers Zaneyah Bryant and Ang Conn honor the Black women who’ve died at the hands of police with a moment of silence. PC: Eze Amos

It’s been nearly two months since the murder of George Floyd, but protests against police violence continue around the country, including here in Charlottesville. Over a hundred protesters took to the streets July 17 to amplify Black women’s voices and struggles, and demand justice for those who’ve been killed by police, including Breonna Taylor and Sandra Bland.

Hosted by Defund Cville Police, the demonstration started in front of the Albemarle County Office building, where organizer Ang Conn welcomed the (masked) crowd and led several chants, including “No justice, no peace, defund the police,” and “Black women matter.”

Youth organizers (and twin sisters) Zaneyah and Zeniah Bryant, who are 14, also took turns shouting chants into their megaphone, alongside local activist and friend Trinity Hughes. Drivers passing by honked their horns in support.

While the group gathered on East High Street, a white woman drove around the public works truck blocking the road, and twice told the protesters they would “make good speed bumps,” according to tweets from the event and a Medium post from Defund Cville Police. The threat is especially chilling and violent given that Heather Heyer was murdered by a driver just a few blocks from where the protest took place.

The woman was soon identified as UVA undergraduate Morgan Bettinger. Her stepfather, Wayne Bettinger, was a Charlottesville police officer until he passed away in 2014.

When asked, the Charlottesville Police Department said it is “respectively declining comment” about the family member of a former member of the force.

Defund Cville Police called for Bettinger’s expulsion from UVA, but activist Zyahna Bryant says the group will not press charges. “We cannot and will not use/expect systems and institutions that disproportionately harm and criminalize Black people, to protect us at this time. They won’t. We protect us,” Bryant tweeted.

UVA released a statement via social media saying, “We are aware of the allegations on social media about a student’s conduct with respect to a protest in the city and are actively investigating the matter.”

The protesters walked down the mall before stopping in front of the Charlottesville Albemarle Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, where Conn asked everyone to take a knee and a moment of silence to honor the Black women who have lost their lives at the hands of police.

In front of the courthouse, Conn spoke about why money needs to be reallocated from the Charlottesville Police Department—which currently has a budget of $18 million—to different social departments and programs, especially the city’s foster care system.

Reading from last year’s Charlottesville Foster Care Study, she emphasized the disproportionate amount of Black and multiracial children who are referred to child welfare services, compared to their white peers in the city. These children are also less likely to be reunified with their families upon exiting foster care.

Conn, who spent time in foster care, invited Black people in the crowd who’ve been affected by the system to share their stories.

Sisters Harli and Kyra Saxon detailed the trauma inflicted on them after their parents split up, and their mother was no longer able to keep up with the bills. The family was evicted from their home, and CPS eventually got involved. Kyra was forced to live with the girls’ abusive father, while Harli was sent to a group home and later lived with several foster families. The pair said they begged to live with their mother, but the social workers assigned to their case—as well as a “racist” judge—did little to help them, even as they faced serious mental health crises.

After five years of battling CPS, the sisters were reunited with their mother.

“That’s what defunding the police is about—channeling those funds into assistance,” said Harli. “If somebody had come up to my mom and said here is some rent money, this never would have happened.”

Following several more speakers, Conn wrapped up the protest by encouraging attendees to call on City Council to slash the police department budget and invest in “real solutions,” such as an emergency response division, which could have prevented the violent arrest of an intoxicated unhoused man on the Downtown Mall earlier this month.

“We shouldn’t be criminalized for being human,” she said.

Updated 7/20

Categories
Coronavirus News

New rhythms: Music venues look to rebound after COVID closings

The Paramount Theater has reopened, and is showing movies on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. PC: Skyclad Aerial

By Claudia Gohn

The latest addition to IX Art Park’s medley of flowery, psychedelic art is a series of circles, painted six feet apart from each other on the ground.

The new paint is one part of IX’s plan to begin holding in-person concerts, after the coronavirus pandemic rendered them impossible for months. Though new cases continue to appear every day in the area, the state’s reopening plan has allowed places like IX to resume some version of their pre-pandemic operations. Positive Collective, a reggae and world music act, will perform at the first in-person show on July 18.

“Instead of just buying a [concert] ticket, you’re buying access to a circle on the platform,” says IX Art Park Foundation Executive Director Susan Krischel. Concert-goers must stay in their circle, and need to wear a mask if they leave it, be that to go to the bathroom or to buy drinks. Krischel says shows will have a maximum of 120 attendees, while in the past the venue accommodated 2,000 people.

These concerts won’t undo the economic effects of the last few months—reduced occupancy limits the amount of revenue generated from each show. “It’s tight,” Krischel says. “I’m not gonna lie about that. With that number of people, it is very difficult to break even.”

Kirby Hutto, general manager of the Sprint Pavilion, expresses a similar sentiment: “Being capped at a thousand total capacity and 10 feet of social distancing just really, really cuts down what is financially viable for us.”

“Normally this time of year we would have probably at least a dozen shows confirmed if not more,” Hutto says. By early March, Hutto says that there had already been five shows on sale. Now, they have all been either rescheduled for 2021 or canceled altogether. Hutto says, “all the artists that had holds on the calendar for the rest of 2020—they’re gone.”

The venues that do reopen hope to provide a sense of relief and comfort to the community. “We’re starting showing movies at three o’clock in the afternoon on Wednesdays and Fridays, and hope that people will come out of the theater around five and then hopefully go to an outdoor patio at a restaurant,” says Matthew Simon, director of operations and programming at The Paramount Theater.

“We’re kind of all in this thing together, and we’re not really trying to make money,” Simon says. “We’re just trying to get people to put a smile on their face and feel comfortable coming out to see a show.”

Other venues are being more cautious. The Southern doesn’t have any events scheduled until August. Danny Shea, who manages The Southern and is responsible for bookings at both The Southern and The Jefferson Theater, says he doesn’t want to risk anyone’s health. “We certainly wouldn’t want to come off as contributing to the problems,” Shea says. “And we don’t want to open up just so we have to close down soon after because we were too aggressive.”

Categories
Coronavirus News

In brief: Tiki terror, teacher trouble, and more

Work crews removed the statue of General Stonewall Jackson from its concrete pedestal on Richmond’s Monument Avenue earlier this month. PC: Eze Amos

Statue disposal

Many of Richmond’s Monument Avenue Confederate statues are gone, but debate over their removal continues, and people have wondered where the toppled statues are being stored. This week, some sharp-eyed Richmonders noticed a large collection of monument-shaped tarps standing around the city’s wastewater treatment plant. It’s about as close as you can get to literally flushing the things down the toilet.

PC: Castle Hill Gaming

Prime real estate

It looks like a slot machine. It plays like a slot machine. But actually, it’s a “skill game.” Now, these games are legal in Virginia—and there are more than a dozen lined up in a glamorous former bank building downtown. The space is currently home to high-end steakhouse Prime 109, which was shuttered by the economic crash. The new scene inside the building has left some in town wondering if there’s a swanky casino in Charlottesville’s future.

Prime 109 boss Loren Mendosa insists that “right now there’s not much to talk about.” Sure, it could be a casino eventually, but Mendosa says things are happening fast, and he has “no idea what the actual thing would look like.” Still, he’s rolling the dice on the idea.

The Prime team hurriedly carted the machines into the space at the 11th hour. On July 1, all previously installed skill game machines became legal, though the law change doesn’t allow new machines to be installed. “If we don’t have the machines installed by June 30th, there’s no chance of even talking about it,” Mendosa says.

“It’s definitely not [a casino] right now. Who knows?…It might be a lot of different things,” he says about his restaurant full of quasi-gambling machines.

__________________

Quote of the week

“When you go outside and say, ‘I can’t breathe with this mask on; I’m gonna take it off,’ try breathing with COVID.”

—area resident Stacey Washington, who contracted the virus after taking her mask off at a family Fourth of July celebration.

__________________

In brief

Teacher troubles

On July 9, Albemarle County schools laid out plans for in-person reopening this fall. It quickly came to light, though, that the plan had been created without getting feedback from ACPS teachers, reports The Daily Progress. Teachers and staff have since circulated an open letter advocating against in-person instruction, calling the proposal “unequivocally unsafe for Albemarle County staff and families.”

Party’s over

As coronavirus cases increase every day, Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker urged local residents to wear masks, practice social distancing, and stay home as much as possible, among other safety precautions, in a press conference on Monday afternoon. Walker also denounced the large gatherings being held around town—including parties on UVA’s frat row.

Mayor Nikuyah Walker reminded residents to wear masks, practice social distancing, and stay home. PC: Eze Amos

New faces

Norfolk Delegate Jay Jones and Alexandria Delegate Hala Ayala have announced 2021 campaigns for lieutenant governor of Virginia, joining Jennifer Carroll Foy and Jennifer McClellan—both running for governor—as the third and fourth people of color under the age of 50 to announce a Democratic run at statewide office. Meanwhile, Terry McAuliffe still lurks in the wings, having pulled almost $2 million into his PAC this spring.

Tiki terror

Early Monday morning, two local activists awoke to find blazing tiki torches in their yards—an eerie reminder of the KKK rally held nearly three years ago at the University of Virginia. (Another activist found an unlit, discarded torch.) The act was “without a doubt intentional,” according to a Medium post by Showing Up for Racial Justice.

Categories
Arts Culture

Pacing the passion: Artist Jae Johnson on mastering the flow of artistic energy

Artist Jae Johnson recently became part of the Charlottesville Mural Project. His painting, “My Future,” depicts learning as an act of magic, and is on view at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Technical Education Center.

When artist Jae Johnson sized up the wall space designated for his mural at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Technical Education Center, he realized the paintable area was about two feet shorter than he anticipated. His original design just wasn’t going to fit, and he had to come up with something else—right then and there.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid at first,” says Johnson. “But as time went on and the prayers came in, I didn’t want it to come to an end.”

Attending public school in Virginia these days is hard work, and CATEC students’ aim is to become proficient in a chosen trade. But in Johnson’s mural, entitled “My Future,” learning is depicted as an act of magic—something bigger that we are all a part of—that is alive and abundant.

A giant red book flutters open—and from it, potential areas of mastery flow. Johnson assigned an image to represent each of the school’s programs: a chef’s hat for culinary arts; a car for auto repair; a silhouette of a trumpet player for music industry technology, and so on. And though the dimensions may have seemed like an obstacle at first, the shortened wall space led Johnson to flatten and abstract some of the images, adding a distinctive and noteworthy element to the mural. Near a baby pink hairdryer, a scissors and comb are stretched out, incorporated into the work as lines, bordering swirling color blocks. “My Choice, My School, My Future,” the CATEC motto, is displayed among some of his favorite inspirational quotes (“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”—Bill Bradley). There is a lot of movement and energy, and a lot to look at.

The mural is part of the ongoing Charlottesville Mural Project, a program of The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative, led by Executive Director Alan Goffinski.

“He’s a really down-to-earth guy with a long history in Charlottesville and a dynamic illustration style,” says Goffinski, about tapping Johnson to create the mural. “When I first saw his work I couldn’t help but imagine how his style might translate to large-scale.”

Johnson is a relatively new artist on the scene, known for his portraiture. He showed at New City Arts in April of 2018 with Frank Walker, his mentor and another prolific figurative artist with deep local roots. The two were connected by marriage about a decade ago, and Johnson began meeting with Walker weekly to develop his skills. Aside from refining technique, Johnson and Walker made an agreement that they would make the work they wanted to make. And that led to a level of confidence that changed things for Johnson.

“I never really did public art. I’ve always lacked self confidence, like, is this good enough? Are people gonna like it? And then I got to the point where like…I didn’t really care. As long as I liked it. I started to stand behind my own artwork and it started to feel really good.”

In the future, Johnson hopes to incorporate portraiture into a mural, and you’ll probably be able to recognize it as his work when he does. A peek at Johnson’s instagram (@skeevangogh) shows an exciting progression of technique and style. He is deeply immersed in representational culture, and finds inspiration for his portraits from the books, magazines, and comics he pores over. He admires comic book artist Frank Miller for his stark, iconic style, but takes more inspiration these days from Lee Bermejo, who uses a lot of gray and subtle colors. Johnson’s own soft yet striking approach is a nice mash-up of the more classical elements of traditional figurative work, and the graphic sharpness of comics.

Much like the magical vortex coming out of the red book in his mural, Johnson is tapped into the energy of creation, and the excitement that comes with seeing yourself get better. When asked about his process, Johnson speaks about the challenge of pacing himself while working on something that shouldn’t be rushed.

“I get really impatient with drawing,” Johnson admits. “But I’ve gotten better with taking my time, sitting on it, leaving it for a few days and coming back with new ideas or things to change. I’m always anxious to see my own final product which is…wild.”

Johnson is wholly invested in his passions, which also include collecting Vans shoes. He says he hasn’t counted them in a year, but he’s certain he has over 125 pairs. To Johnson, Vans represent the creative culture, a brand that is always original but not economically unattainable or based on limited releases. Vans recently donated thousands of dollars to civil rights funds in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, which Johnson says made him even more proud to be “a Vans guy.”

The other thing Johnson collects is plants—he thinks he has around 40 of them. They were the inspiration behind his latest mural, in the living room of his home. A tree and vines surround the words “Plant, Nurture, Grow,” and the names of his family and pets border colorful shapes. In these times of uncertainty, our communities benefit from artists like Johnson, who reminds us of the abundance that is available to us when we decide to give our passions our full attention. —Ramona Martinez

Categories
Coronavirus News

Lending a hand: Black-owned businesses get some relief

Lawrence Johnson, owner of Larry’s Barber Shop, plans to use his loan from the Virginia 30 Day Fund to purchase additional sanitation supplies for his business. PC: Marley Nichelle

When the pandemic struck, “it was like somebody just snatched a chair from under us,” says Jeanetha Brown-Douglas, owner of JBD Event Catering & Soul Food. “It was like having a business one day, and having no business the next day.”

Inspired by her grandmother, Brown-Douglas first got into the food industry nearly 30 years ago, when she began working with UVA Dining. She later opened up a fried chicken stand in front of the Sunshine Mini Mart on Cherry Avenue, and it was a hit.

This led her to sign up for business classes at Piedmont Virginia Community College and for a program at the Community Investment Collaborative, which helped her to launch her own catering business.

“We did a lot of catered events and had a lot of contracts with various places in Charlottesville,” such as the University of Virginia, she says. “We got our name out there…and got really known.”

In 2018, Brown-Douglas was finally able to open her own eatery in Belmont, where customers no longer had to wait for a catered event to enjoy her home-cooked meals. But when COVID rendered large events impossible and forced everyone to stay inside, the shop went quiet.

The pandemic has hammered the economy, and local Black business owners like Brown-Douglas have felt the effects. Not only have many struggled to receive government assistance, but “being a Black-owned business is a challenge in itself,” she says.

Thankfully, some relief has arrived. JBD Catering is one of six minority-owned businesses in the Charlottesville area to receive a $3,000 fully forgivable loan from the Virginia 30 Day Fund’s new partnership with the United Way of Greater Charlottesville. These loans are being dispensed after previous government initiatives to keep small businesses afloat have failed—this is the first financial assistance JBD has received.

While the loans don’t have to be repaid, awardees are encouraged to “pay it forward,” and donate money to the fund when they’re back on their feet. That money will be distributed to another struggling small business in Virginia, according to entrepreneur Pete Snyder, who co-founded the Charlottesville-based fund with his wife.

After learning he’d been awarded a loan, Lawrence Johnson, owner of Larry’s Barber Shop, breathed a huge sigh of relief. He hadn’t received unemployment benefits, or any other sort of financial relief since shuttering his shop. Instead, he had to use money from his savings to cover his expenses.

Since reopening during the second week of June, business has been “slow but steady,” says Johnson. “Some people are still afraid to come out, [especially] the older customers.”

Johnson has owned his business, now located on Goodman Street, for the past 10 years.

He plans to use the $3,000 to pay his bills, and purchase additional sanitation supplies. He’d also like to do more advertising, and hopefully bring in new customers.

“I am very thankful for this opportunity,” he says.

Brown-Douglas has also had trouble keeping things going over the past few months. All of her catering gigs were canceled as soon as the pandemic hit, and because her eatery planned on moving, it was difficult to remain open for takeout.

“We had to literally shut down and start from scratch,” she says. “But I’m glad for that time, because it gave us a chance to really think about what direction we were going to take our business in.”

To help keep the lights on, Brown-Douglas and her daughter, Dejua, who helps run JBD, provided dinners to guests at a Salvation Army shelter, which were paid for by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

Meanwhile, she applied for a range of grants, but did not have any luck until she received a phone call from Snyder last week.

“It’s been a really trying time for us,” says Brown-Douglas. “A lot of times, they don’t turn you down. They just say they’re out of money, or they’ve had so many applications they had to cut it off at a certain point. With the amount of people, It’s just like playing the lottery.”

“It really can break your spirit,” she adds. “[So] it was just a blessing to have that phone call, and actually feel like somebody cares.”

She plans to use the loan to “expand our inventory and safety equipment,” which she will need to reopen this month at her new location on Second Street, for both dine-in and takeout.

When it becomes safe to do so, Brown-Douglas will also open up the space for events, such as parties and meetings, which will include on-site catering.

“We do have the ability to do outside seating, and we also have a lot of space [inside] to spread our customers out, so they’ll be comfortable and safe at the same time,” she says.

Through its partnership with the United Way, the Virginia 30 Day Fund plans to distribute at least $76,000 more in forgivable loans to minority-owned businesses and early education centers in Charlottesville and Albemarle.