Month: August 2020

Categories
C-BIZ

Recipe for success: Vu Noodles’ survival story

Julie Vu Whitaker of Vu Noodles. Photo: John Robinson

Those who work in business can tell you that success requires hard work, adaptation, and some smiles from fate. Julie Vu Whitaker, founder and driving force behind Vu Noodles, can attest to all three.

In 2013, after 20 years as a social worker, Whitaker decided on a career shift. “[While] I still loved it, I was ready for a change,” she says.

From childhood, she enjoyed cooking and sharing foods from her Vietnamese heritage, and she credits her immigrant family (they arrived in Waynesboro when Whitaker was 8) with instilling a strong work ethic: “My family has always been in their own business.” She began selling Vu Noodles, her “to-go” take on traditional Vietnamese vegetable bowls, at The Farm corner grocery in Belmont. “It really opened my eyes,” she says. “People liked my food.”

Vu Noodles’ popularity led Whitaker to get her home kitchen commercially certified so she could supply vendors around town, from Whole Foods Market to Rebecca’s Natural Food and Martha Jefferson Hospital’s café. After three years working long hours—her bowls are prepared fresh every day—Whitaker says she needed some help. “I was thinking, ‘I can’t keep doing this alone.’” She jumped at the opportunity to take over The Spot on Second Street in partnership with Kathy Zentgraf of Greenie’s.

Demand soon meant the business had outgrown Whitaker’s home kitchen, so she struck a deal with Pearl Island Catering to rent the kitchen at the Jefferson School City Center and supply the café there. “Now I had a sit-down space, and could interact more with the customers, which I loved,” she recalls. But sharing the kitchen with Pearl Island’s growing business began to bind. By late 2019, Whitaker was considering the new Dairy Market, which would have meant taking on significant debt. “I’d always been able to fund my business myself,” she says.

One of Vu Noodles’ offerings. Photo: John Robinson

Enter another opportunity: Early this year Whitaker got an offer to take over The Flat Creperie’s space—right off the Downtown Mall, with its own kitchen, and small enough for Whitaker to handle with help from her husband and two sons, now in high school.

In another smile from fate, in May the United Way of Greater Charlottesville and the city’s Minority Business Alliance announced the first grants under a new partnership to help support local minority- and women-owned small businesses. One of the $5,000 grants went to Vu Noodles, although Whitaker had to be convinced by a friend to even apply. “I always feel that someone else needs the money more,” she says.

The timing was perfect. The grant (and the pandemic shutdown) enabled Whitaker to renovate the kitchen and install a microphone for contactless ordering before opening in July.

Starting up at a new location while downtown foot traffic is just recovering is a challenge, but over the years Vu Noodles has developed a sizable and devoted following. Whitaker’s offerings now include pho and banh mi sandwiches as well as her noodle bowls, and are all completely vegan—except for one important holdout. “I had to keep the fish sauce,” she says with a smile. “It’s so much a part of our food tradition.”

Categories
Culture Living

Pastures of plenty: Retired racehorses find a home at Montpelier

The Virginia Thoroughbred Project works with Montpelier to provide a comfortable place for retired racehorses to live out their final years. Supplied photo

Tucked away on  James Madison’s picturesque Montpelier, there is a community of award-winning retired athletes living out their days together in relative harmony. When I met these athletes, there was no crowd of admirers. And on a hot, sunny day, even the athletes themselves were out of sight, save for the oldest, who relaxes alone in front of a box fan.

While a life of quiet seclusion might be to their liking, their caretakers would prefer more respect and recognition for these prized athletes. They want people to look after  them and help ensure a comfortable future till the end of their days. That’s why they created the Virginia Thoroughbred Project, an independent  nonprofit organization dedicated to the care of thoroughbreds retired from the sport of horse racing.

While many human athletes maintain celebrity status even after their days on the court or field are over, thoroughbreds are rarely acknowledged, despite years of hard work. Most owners want their retirees to be cared for, but many don’t have the means to provide that care. Others are less concerned, sometimes having them slaughtered.

VTP’s mission is to provide excellent aftercare to as many racehorses as it can, in recognition of the time and effort the animals devoted to their sport. Currently, that means caring for 41 senior thoroughbreds. The day-to-day responsibility falls mainly on the shoulders of Crystal Wever, the VTP’s farm manager, with the help of a weekend farm manager and a groundskeeper. Wever’s commitment and respect for the horses is clear. “They all deserve dignified retirements,” she says.

The horses are checked over twice each day, with particular attention paid to their hooves and eyes—that’s 164 hooves and 82 eyes. Paying this level of attention has led Wever to recognize the idiosyncrasies of each horse. Some of them have cliques and competitive streaks. They fight over snacks and have crushes. “It’s like high school,” she says. Even so, “for the most part, they all get along. Everyone here is pretty personable.” Sue Hart, chair of the VTP board of directors, notes that “thoroughbreds are sensitive to people”; they are attuned to human emotion.

Keeping horses healthy doesn’t come cheap. It costs an average of $5,000 to take care of one horse per year—a total of about $205,000. “And that’s nothing fancy,” says Hart, “It’s basic farrier and vet care, being checked twice a day, making sure that they are healthy and pasture sound.” Pasture sound means that even if the horses are injured to the point that they cannot be ridden, they are still healthy enough to take care of themselves day-to-day.

In addition to the approximately 2,600 acres that make up Montpelier’s grounds, the VTP is responsible for the 150 acres where the horses reside, including the barns, some of which are more than 100 years old. Fences must be mended, farm equipment has to be maintained, and the fields always need mowing. It’s truly a labor of love for the small crew that makes it their daily work.

While the VTP is a new organization, the staff and board members have been involved in the care of thoroughbreds for the past 16 years. Until recently, they worked under the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, a national agency based in New York. When the lease between Montpelier and TRF was close to expiring, and the horses would have to be moved, the local board members worked with Montpelier and a private contributor to transition to an independent organization. This ensures that the horses, some of whom are more than 20 years old, remain on the estate’s grounds.

“These horses have been here for years,” says Hart. “To move these old guys is very traumatic. That was one of our main concerns.” The Virginia Thoroughbred Project became incorporated and financially independent from the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation in the winter of 2019. Hart emphasizes the important role that Montpelier played in this transition: “Montpelier has been really helpful to us. It’s been a better thing for all involved.”

As the VTP looks toward the future, it hopes to add new horses to the herd in 2021. “A small number of thoroughbreds that are bred for racing are successful, so that leaves a lot that are just ordinary horses,” says Hart. “Some can be rehabbed to do other things like show jumping, dressage, and trail riding.” Most of the horses in VTP’s care cannot be rehabbed. “These are unwanted animals,” she adds. With many racetracks closing this spring due to COVID-19, and owners who may no longer have the resources to maintain their thoroughbreds, there is the possibility that even more horses will need care.

For now, tours of the farm are permitted by appointment only. Once it is safe, VTP plans to open its doors to the community and hold future events, sharing its love of horses with everyone. —Laura Drummond

Categories
Arts Culture

A season of firsts: Live Arts breaks new programming ground while relying on its mission

Live Arts new Executive Director Anne Hunter worked with Interim Artistic Director Jeremy Pape to launch a unique season that includes live but digitally viewed programming, and collaborations with local art and music makers. Image: John Robinson

As the lights dim and the countdown begins, it almost feels like a typical evening at Live Arts.

But then you look away from your screen, and the illusion is broken. You’re  on your couch, with a bowl of microwave popcorn and self-poured wine. And instead of spotlights bursting to life, there’s only the pale glow of a laptop.

The August production of In The Heights was the first full-length play overseen by Live Arts’ new Executive Director Anne Hunter since the theater was forced to shut down its 2019 season in mid-spring, and the first fully digital production Live Arts has ever attempted. The show was broadcast entirely via a Zoom video call, with each actor performing and singing remotely to their own camera.

“One of the things that really informs every single aspect of what we’re doing is that nebulous, ‘How does this feel when we experience it?’…and that sort of helps us inform what we think our audience might experience,” Interim Artistic Director Jeremy Pape says. “That separation, that digital interlocutor of the screen, makes it really difficult to gauge that.”

The Zoom-based In The Heights became an utterly unique experience. As harmonies expanded, the number of speakers multiplied; screens went abruptly to black as a character stormed out of a scene and popped up unexpectedly, bursting into a room. The actors turned their lamps off to display a city-wide blackout, flicked on strobe lights to enter a club, picked up their own fork and knife when a group sat down to dinner.

This individual approach to a joint creation represents Hunter and Pape’s effort to keep this core of the Charlottesville arts scene alive in a time when traditional plays are no longer physically feasible.

Hunter joined Live Arts in February, bringing a background in nonprofit work to helm the business side of the theater as Pape took care of the artistic aspects of its upcoming productions. She had barely a month to get her bearings before the pandemic brought things to an abrupt halt and left the theater with a crushing $410,000 deficit.

But by turning to the Charlottesville community, Live Arts was able to make up nearly the entirety of its losses purely through donations.

“They said, ‘We want to make sure Live Arts makes it through this,’” says Hunter. “They knew very well this was about the life and death of the organization. They said, ‘You need to survive. This community can’t live without you.’”

As support poured in from alumni everywhere, Pape and Hunter began to realize that they had been presented with a unique opportunity. Although they couldn’t hold a physical season, they could curate a digital one accessible to all.

“We’ve had audiences literally across the world for this,” Pape says. “We’ve had audiences in Australia and Israel and Ireland and Chile and China.”

And so the 2020-21 season was born. While still embracing Live Arts’ pay-what-you-can policy, the fully digital fall lineup exponentially expands its potential audience. It focuses on promoting the Charlottesville arts scene with Friday studio visits and open mics with local artists, short plays by local playwrights, and a show entitled Lost Home, Win Home about what it felt like to live through the violence of the 2017 Unite the Right rally.

The fall’s full-length digital show will be Marat/Sade, a 1963 play by Peter Weiss. Like Lost Home, Win Home, it resonates deeply with current events.

“The question inherent in the script is, ‘What is the best way to affect change in your world?’” Pape says. “Is it to change one’s self, or is it to change one’s circumstances and exterior conditions and society at large? And so it feels very topical.”

Open casting for Marat/Sade tied into a core part of Hunter’s mission as new executive director: introducing diversity to the relatively closed-off Charlottesville theater scene.

“Our mission is forging theater and community, and that has held us in good stead for a long time,” Hunter says. “But it means different things in this time and place than it did. When we talk about community, we’re talking about multiple communities, and how can we do that better and serve different communities that we haven’t played a stronger role in?”

Hunter and Pape hope that the fall season will reach members of those underserved communities by featuring casts that can include them.

“One of the ways we try to talk about casting is that no character has to be cast in any ethnic framing unless they have to be,” Pape says. “… And Marat/Sade is absolutely in that vein. Anybody on that stage can be anybody.”

By next calendar year, Live Arts hopes to expand its productions to include a socially distanced audience in-house. Hopefully, actors won’t be sequestered to their separate Zoom screens forever.

But the directors don’t see the digital side of these shows and activities going away anytime soon. Online broadcasts have allowed the theater to overcome physical and social limitations to reach both a wider cast and audience than Hunter had ever imagined when she first arrived last winter.

“We will look different than we have in the past 30 years,” Hunter says. “We’ll build up that great legacy, but better and more reflective and more engaged in the multiple communities in Charlottesville.” —Julia Stumbaugh

Categories
Arts Culture

Peeling the layers: Maryanna Williams’ prints reveal centuries-old artifacts as new

Maryanna Williams’ vivid prints are created through the lengthy, technical process of reduction linocut printmaking. Courtesy of the artist

All art is political, but printmaking can take it to another level. We only need to consider the history of the Works Progress Administration, Soviet government propaganda, or even the Black Panther Party to see how print pieces can be immersed in ideology. Literally using knives to cut through the public conversation, printmakers are able to work quickly to respond to a rapidly changing environment. For the sake of impact, prints can be reproduced for mass consumption, until they lack any real monetary value. Some artists, like Kathë Kollwitz, refused to number their prints at all. 

Of course, there are always rebels who operate outside of ideology and tradition, and Maryanna Williams is one of them. And though all art may be political, the politics of Williams’ art is based in quiet reverence and respect for the process of creation. “Seeing Through the Layers: Reduction Linoleum Prints by Maryanna Williams,” currently on display at the Staunton Augusta Art Center and available for viewing online, is a tribute to all artists who aren’t necessarily tearing down systems with their work, but creating entire universes through the painstaking details of their art.

Williams’ work consists of large-scale, color prints of antique vessels and robes, mainly from Renaissance Europe. Patterns and colors are clearly her main area of interest, and no detail is overlooked. Some cuts are as thin as pencil marks. In actuality, the vases that her works are based on are only a few inches tall.

“Sometimes I think, ‘Boy, you know, this thing was probably made, I don’t know, in the 1600s?’” says Williams, “And they never could’ve imagined somebody in the 21st century using it to create a new piece of art.”

This conversation with artisans from 400 years ago is one of the “political” parts of Williams’ work. Vases and vestments that could be written off as decorative become icons. She pays homage to the original object and its creator by making them arguably much grander than they ever were in real life. And her dedication to recreating meticulous details mirrors the work that these artists did centuries ago.

Williams uses a technique called reduction linocut printmaking. It brings to mind Japanese-style woodblock printing, with translucent inks, multiple colors, exquisite patterns, and floral motifs.

“The title of the show, ‘Seeing Through the Layers,’ speaks to my reduction linocut process, a layering of translucent inks where the final color is atop all of the previously printed colors,” says Williams. “The technique imposes a valuable looseness to my approach to making art, keeping me engaged in the creative process throughout the execution of the print.”

Every different color seen in her work is a slightly altered version of the same block, with a little bit more carved away. Once she decides to move onto the next layer, she can’t go back. So unlike political propaganda, the number of final prints is extremely limited, usually no more than 10 prints of any given image are made. Williams calls it an “unforgiving process,” but one that affords her surprises along the way that are both “challenging and delightful.” Usually, a series of prints of the same image will take her about six to eight weeks of solid work, five hours a day. Even the most anti-capitalist printmaker would have a hard time arguing that Williams’ work should belong to the people at little to no charge.

Observing the work on the wall in her studio, Williams points out another political dimension, though this one less intentional: There is an innate sensuality to her work. All lined up, the vessels take on a feminine and figurative quality. This is noteworthy when we consider that most of the original objects her pieces are based on were likely created or worn by men. Williams is highlighting the hidden sexuality of items in the domestic space, especially when she selects vases that have flowers practically exploding off of them.

“It’s not like I think, ‘Oh I want to do something that has that content of holding,’ but I think what I do does have that unconscious thing: the robe envelopes, the vessels hold things.”

Through the many hours she puts into her work, Williams is inverting the quick and dirty reputation that printmaking can have. She is showing us that there is something political in the process itself, completely separate from the content. And the intentional and unintentional consequences of it not only imbue the viewer with a new appreciation for the medium, but also an appreciation for the tiny vessels that many of us would pass by without a second glance.

Williams still gets excited when she comes across one of her Renaissance objects in real life. She delightfully recalls spotting the original green vase behind “Vessel Number 6” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

“My work is not about realism or scientific illustration, but about transforming subjects from nature and art into images that express my deep passion for the intense beauty that I see in the world.” —Ramona Martinez

Categories
Arts Culture

PICK: Art Against The Clock

Chicho Lorenzo will show us his process in real time as part of The Bridge PAI's Art Against the Clock series. Image: Eze Amos

Hot tip: Part of the reason that Bob Ross and his happy little trees were so popular is that we were able to witness his process in real time (or previously recorded real time). That’s also the appeal of The Bridge’s Art Against The Clock, a series that puts local artists including Sahara Clemons (8/23), Chicho Lorenzo (8/31), Zack Worrell (9/6), and Dave Moore (9/13) on camera as they produce work during a single day. Viewers are encouraged to donate tips (to BPAI) as they watch on Facebook or peer in through the gallery’s window. The biggest tipper of the day takes home the art.

Through 9/13. Dates and times vary. facebook.com/TheBridgePAI.

Categories
Culture Living

PICK: Art in Life series

The Art in Life series at The Fralin teaches us to look before we drink, and enjoy the wine label too. Publicity image.

Wine by design: Never judge a book by its cover and never judge a wine by its label—or should we?
As part of the Art in Life series, The Fralin takes us on a virtual exploration of the aesthetics of wine labels in relation to our cultural perceptions of design and how they affect the choices we make. Artists Jessica Pettway and Goompi Ugerabah will discuss their work with winemaker Krista Scruggs. 

Thursday 8/27. Zoom required. Free, 7pm. uvafralinartmuseum.virginia.edu

Categories
Arts Culture

PICK: “So now, where were we?”

Disco Risqué will keep the live sets streaming at the Jefferson Theater's local music series this Thursday. Publicity image.

Going through stages: Music has always been a great outlet for bonding during times of adversity, and while we are unable to gather at local venues, it doesn’t mean musicians and promoters have stopped creating. Starr Hill Presents answers our need with “So now, where were we?” a live stream series that features a rotation of local artists onstage at The Jefferson Theater. Coming up: Disco Risqué, Mighty Joshua, Kristen Bowden, and Joe Lawlor.

Thursdays. jeffersontheater.com.

Categories
Coronavirus News

Backed up: As evictions loom, local assistance hotline struggles to meet demand

Charlottesville DSA housing justice advocates Melissa Gilrain and Lucas Critzer hand out fliers with rental assistance resources outside of the General District Court. PC: Charlottesville Democratic Socialists of America

Nearly three weeks ago, the Virginia Supreme Court granted Governor Ralph Northam’s request for a statewide ban on evictions until September 7. While the order allows eviction cases to still be heard in court—and judgments to be made—tenants cannot be forced out of their homes for not paying rent.

As state lawmakers continue to debate a bill that would extend the moratorium to April, local residents facing housing instability are currently able to apply to a variety of rent assistance programs, including the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission’s Emergency Rent and Mortgage Relief Program.

In partnership with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, TJPDC has been distributing $450,000 in CARES Act funding through the program to eligible households in Charlottesville and surrounding counties.

But according to local housing activists, the program hotline set up for Charlottesville and Albemarle—run by community partner Charlottesville Pathways—has not made it easy for some renters to get help since it began accepting applications July 15.

“Tenants have been telling us that they’ve called the hotline over and over again, and haven’t heard back. Or that it’s taken weeks for them to hear back,” says Emma Goehler of Charlottesville Democratic Socialists of America, whose housing justice team has been connecting local renters with financial resources.

“It’s a long process…We haven’t had anyone reach out and report good experiences,” says Goehler of the hotline’s response time.

Applicants have also complained about the hotline’s voicemail message, which, until recently, was only in English, a potential barrier for many Spanish-speaking residents.

“It’s just really critical that the resources for rental assistance are made accessible to all,” says Goehler.

Several other activists echoed Goehler’s concerns at last week’s City Council meeting.

“Myself, and other volunteers in the community, have been outside talking to people who are heading into court, and they have all said that they are unable to get through to that hotline, and that the only way to make contact is to spend the day calling and calling,” said Elizabeth Stark, who is also a member of Charlottesville DSA.

According to Gretchen Ellis of the city’s department of human services, which helps manage the hotline, ERMRP staff have taken applicants’ complaints seriously and have made numerous changes in recent weeks.

The hotline has added operators, and currently has five full-time and several part-time people answering calls Monday through Friday from 9am to 6pm.

The voicemail message was also changed, asking callers to wait to be called back instead of leaving a message, says Ellis. Due to a high number of callers leaving multiple messages, operators would accidentally call the same people back, slowing down response times even more.

Now, says Ellis, anyone who calls the hotline and is not able to get through to an operator, will be called back within one business day, thanks to the additional staff and an improved intake process.

A message in Spanish was added to the voicemail last week, and ERMRP is hoping to hire more hotline operators with language skills. At this time, though, only one part-time staff member (and a language translation line) is available to assist Spanish speakers.

Last week, more than 30 days after the hotline opened, operators were finally able to finish responding to all the backlogged calls. However, data shared during TJPDC’s recent meeting shows that there are still a significant number of applicants going through the complicated approval process.

As of August 20, in Charlottesville and Albemarle combined, 97 applications have been approved, 13 have been denied, and a whopping 265 remaining pending.

Categories
News

Deep memories: Hundreds of unmarked graves found in historic Black cemetery

Charlottesville's Daughters of Zion Cemetery. Photo: Natalie Jacobsen

 

Around the gentle, grassy slope, under the shade of old trees, stone markers are scattered here and there. Some are arranged in neat rows, some stand alone. A few are shining, new, and sturdy. Many are little more than half-buried shards of stone poking out of the soil. 

All told, there are around 140 visible grave markers here, in the historic Daughters of Zion Cemetery, where many of 19th- and 20th-century Charlottesville’s most important Black leaders are buried. 

This summer, a high-tech geological radar survey has revealed more of the history below the surface. The radar estimates that the cemetery holds 641 graves.

The 2015 sign marking the cemetery’s inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places says the land “may contain as many as 300 graves.” Bernadette Whitsett-Hammond and Edwina St. Rose, two descendants of people buried in the cemetery, have been working to uncover the place’s history since 2016, and have so far collected the names of 312 people buried there.

“We believed that there were more,” says Whitsett-Hammond. “We imagined the cemetery was full, but we didn’t know for sure until we had the ground-penetrating radar.”

“Unmarked graves are very common,” says Mark Howard, a senior geologist at the local firm NAEVA Geophysics, who led the team that conducted the new radar survey. “…But we were also surprised by the number of graves at Daughters of Zion.”

Left: A 2010 sketch from the National Register of Historic Places shows the scattered markers visible above the ground at Daughters of Zion Cemetery. Right: 2020 electromagnetic imaging reveals all the cemetery’s burials. Each yellow dash is a grave site. Image courtesy City of Charlottesville.

The cemetery was established in 1873 by the Daughters of Zion, a charitable organization comprised of local Black women. The group staked out the land because the larger Oakwood Cemetery, across the street, was segregated. 

“What they had was a colored section,” says St. Rose. “And the Daughters of Zion didn’t want to be relegated to a colored section.” 

A walk through the cemetery is a tour of Black Charlottesville’s post-bellum history. “There’s Dr. Whittaker, who had a hospital named after him in Newport News,” says St. Rose. “The Coles family, they were builders,” she says, gesturing to another plot. Under one large tree, surrounded by family, is Benjamin Tonsler, the long-time principal of the Jefferson School and namesake of Tonsler Park. Elsewhere lies Burkley Bullock, St. Rose’s ancestor, who owned a restaurant and founded the Piedmont Industrial Land and Improvement Company, which helped Black Charlottesville residents buy homes. 

The Daughters of Zion society disbanded in 1933, and burials in the cemetery declined in frequency. In the 1970s, the city declared the plot officially abandoned. Later, a storm drain was tunneled through, which may have further disrupted the grave sites.

The descendants of those buried in Daughters of Zion never forgot the place, though. Like St. Rose, Whitsett-Hammond has family buried in the cemetery. As a child, she made a yearly pilgrimage to the site where her ancestors rest.

Grave markers have disappeared over the years—they’ve sunk into the earth or been pilfered by vandals. Some of the graves were likely never marked.

“When we started working here in 2016, you could barely read any of these markers, they were turned over,” says St. Rose. 

“We have one or two that had sank down into the ground, and because of erosion we were able to find them,” Whitsett-Hammond says.

At the behest of the city’s Parks & Recreation Department, Howard’s team used a state-of-the-art radar system to map out the unmarked plots.

“The radar transmits an electromagnetic pulse into the ground, and when that energy encounters materials with different electric properties, some of that signal is reflected back to the surface,” he says. “We measure the time very carefully between when the pulse was transmitted and when it’s received back. That’s how you determine the depth of an object.”

The pulses are accurate down to a centimeter, and though they don’t tell the geologists what the object is, they are extremely good at pinpointing where objects are.

“If there were only a couple of graves scattered about, they might be very difficult to recognize. So what we’re really looking for is patterns,” Howard says. In this case, the subterranean objects were all roughly grave-sized, and laid out in neat rows. 

“In the Judeo-Christian tradition, graves are typically oriented east-west,” he says. “Seeing those rows makes it clear that we are imaging graves.”

NAEVA has also conducted a GPR analysis at Pen Park, where the geologists found more unmarked graves, likely belonging to the enslaved people held by the Gilmer and Craven families. The unmarked Pen Park graves lie just outside the walls of the well-marked family cemeteries.

During our stroll through Daughters of Zion, Whitsett-Hammond stops periodically to pick up a stick and throw it out of the pathway, or to pull up a stone marker that’s toppled. Cicadas hum and a breeze blows through the shady space. “You can walk through and it’s very peaceful,” she says.

St. Rose and Whitsett-Hammond hope to discover the identities of more of the hundreds of unidentified people buried in the cemetery, and also learn as much biographical information as possible about the people who have already been identified.

In 2017, the preservation group erected a stone obelisk near the cemetery’s entrance. The inscription reads: “Memorial to the Unknown. Gone But Not Forgotten.”

“We’re always reaching out to the community,” says Whitsett-Hammond. “In case they may know of somebody who had heard of somebody who was buried here.”

 

Categories
Coronavirus News

Reaching out: With much on the line, voter registration groups push through the pandemic

Tara Mincer works with Spread the Vote/Project ID, which helps underserved populations obtain all forms of identification, including voter registration. PC: Eze Amos

By Carol Diggs

In each of Virginia’s last five national elections, voter registration around the state has surged anywhere from 6 to 10 percent. This year, coronavirus has made voter registration (like so many things) just a little harder.

Registering online, available throughout the pandemic shutdown, requires a Virginia driver’s license or DMV-issued ID—things that were hard to get when DMV offices were closed for two months. Even now, the earliest available appointment for driver’s licenses and IDs at the Charlottesville DMV is the end of October, despite voter registration closing on October 13. The other options are to register by mail, or in person at the registrar’s office; local registrars have stayed open for the most part, but hours at the Charlottesville office have been cut back through the end of August. 

Overall, early indicators suggest that the area will feel some election-year registration bumps. Applications have been increasing since March, says Melissa Morton, the City of Charlottesville’s director of elections and general registrar. Nelson County Director of Elections Jacqueline Britt says her office has handled more than 1,500 requests for new registrations or address changes in the last five months. In Greene County, according to registrar Jennifer Lewis-Fowler, voter registrations are actually outpacing the same period in 2016.

Still, the pandemic has hampered efforts by both local governments and nonprofits to expand registration among young people and the underserved.

Visits to high schools and nursing homes, and registration drives at libraries and city events, have been curtailed. Charlottesville’s Morton cites one of many examples: “Our office and the Albemarle County registrar’s office usually partner to do a drive at UVA, but we haven’t heard from the university—although some fraternities and sororities have expressed interest.”

The League of Women Voters, a major player in voter education, usually has volunteers setting up registration tables at neighborhood association events, swimming pools, farmers’ markets, grocery stores, and shopping malls—all difficult if not impossible in this contactless environment.

Sue Lewis, voter services chair of the League’s Charlottesville Area chapter, says her group is working on ways to promote registering early, especially for those who plan to vote by mail. But she admits that in the midst of COVID-19, with no public events, large gatherings, or even people strolling on the Downtown Mall, “how to reach people is a real conundrum.”

Spread the Vote/Project ID focuses on helping underserved populations obtain all forms of identification, including voter registration. Tara Mincer, co-lead for the Charlottesville chapter, says her group holds weekly drives in the parking lot of Loaves & Fishes, and works closely with both the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail and Piedmont House to help former inmates and homeless voters. But it’s challenging. “Our volunteers can’t even safely offer to drive people to the registrar’s office or the DMV,” Mincer says.

Virginia Organizing, a nonprofit focused on helping underserved populations make their voices heard, has tried to find creative ways to work within social distancing.  Amanda Dameron, the organization’s representative for central Virginia, runs a weekly Zoom training (open to all, it’s been averaging five-10 people a session) for people who want to assist in local or neighborhood voter registration. Dameron says the pandemic has forced her group to concentrate on disseminating information rather than in-person outreach. “We’re asking our volunteers to tap their personal networks, use their social media and phones, to spread the word and make sure that everyone has a plan for how to register and how to vote.”

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Voting in Virginia: the basics

With recent changes in election laws, the pandemic, and the U.S. Postal Service upheaval, there’s a lot of misinformation circulating. Here’s what you need to know:

How can I register, or check my registration? The easiest way to register, update your address, or transfer your registration from another state is online, via the Citizen Portal. You will need either a valid Virginia driver’s license or a Virginia DMV-issued ID.  If you don’t have either, you can fill out an application
form (available online, by mail, or in post offices and many state agencies) and submit it by mail, or in person at your local registrar’s office. Registration applications must be received by the registrar’s office or postmarked by 5pm on October 13.

How can I request a vote by mail ballot? Once you are registered, you have until October 23 to request a vote by mail ballot (online or by mail, email, or fax).

When is the deadline to submit a vote by mail ballot? Your ballot must be postmarked by November 3 and received by the registrar’s office by noon on November 6—so mail early! Alternatively, you can deliver your ballot (in person or curbside) at your local registrar’s office by 7pm on November 3. Be prepared to show identification, and note that the registrar’s office cannot accept a ballot from a third party.

What about voting early? You can vote in-person absentee at your local registrar’s office from September 19 through October 31. You don’t
need to provide a reason.