Month: November 2020

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News

Jump start: Looking ahead at the UVA basketball season

New transfer Sam Hauser should serve as the men's basketball team's primary offensive threat this year. Photo: UVA Athletics

By Julia Stumbaugh

Hope springs eternal in the hearts of Wahoo faithful. First, there’s the hope that the season will be carried out safely, with basketball not endangering the health of players, fans, and the rest of the community. 

Then, of course, is the hope that the teams will soar. 

The women are looking to outperform early projections of a bottom-conference finish with a new, untested roster. The men, led by a star transfer, will battle to live up to championship expectations.

Last season’s tournaments were canceled by the coronavirus. This year, with precautions in place, we’re hoping a season can be carried out safely. It’s been a turbulent off-season of viral disease, professional drafts, and surprise transfers. But with college basketball finally on the horizon, it’s time to take a look at the familiar faces and new talent seeking to push Virginia’s teams to the top of the rankings this winter.

Freshman guard Kaydan Lawson, handling the ball above, is among the many new faces on the Cavaliers’ roster. Photo: UVA Athletics

Building for the future 

Virginia women’s basketball will rely on fresh faces this year. The team lost the only three players who averaged over 30 minutes per game last season to graduation, with guard Dominique Toussaint, forward Lisa Jablonowski and 2020 10th-overall WNBA draft pick Jocelyn Willoughby saying so long last spring. 

Those three graduating seniors represented over 60 percent of the Cavaliers’ 2019-20 offensive production. But even team captain Willoughby’s ACC-leading 577 points weren’t enough to drag the Cavaliers up the  standings, as the team struggled to a 13-17 record. They scored just 61.4 points per game and finished bottom-three in the ACC in scoring for the second consecutive season.

Other key players from last season are fleeing in the transfer portal. Guard Shemera Williams, who ranked third in team scoring and appeared in 21 games after joining as one of the country’s top recruits in 2019, is headed to the University of Southern California. Kylie Kornegay-Lucas, who averaged five points over her 29 appearances last season, is expected to transfer as well. Both played over 20 minutes per game.

Those departures leave redshirt sophomore guard Amandine Toi and sophomore guard Carole Miller as the only 2019 starters left on the team. 

Miller averaged six points and 3.6 rebounds per game, making her the most consistent scorer remaining. Toi’s 26 three-pointers ranked her behind only Willoughby and Toussaint from beyond the arc. 

The starting roster desperately needs reliable double-digit scoring, and where that will come from in 2020-21 remains to be seen. 

Dani Lawson only made five starts last year and struggled to regularly mark the scoresheet, but she did show flashes of potential with a five-game stretch in which she averaged 13 points per game. Meg Jefferson and Tihana Stojsavljevic both played off the bench and could see increased playing time this year, although they’ll be fighting with six new players for a regular roster spot. Covenant School alum Emily Maupin, a graduate transfer from Elon, averaged 11.7 points and six rebounds in her last season for the Phoenix and could help around the rim. 

Virginia was one of the conference’s worst rebounding teams in 2019-20, when the team placed 11th in the ACC in defensive rebounds and 15th on the offensive glass. There are plenty of new faces who could help pick up the slack: The Cavs added five freshmen who are all six feet or taller. Zaria Johnson averaged 13 points and 5.9 rebounds in her senior season at High­tower High School in Texas. Dani Lawson’s younger sister Kaydan Lawson notched 18 points and 3.1 steals per game at Orange High School in Ohio. And Aaliyah Pitts was named the Class 6A Player of the Year as a junior at Woodbridge High School in 2018-19. The team also added Nycerra Minnis, who averaged 17 rebounds per game in her senior season at Herndon High School, and Deja Bristol, who averaged 12 points and 10 rebounds at Maryland’s New Hope Academy last season. 

Tina Thompson has her work cut out for her in her third season as head coach. An 8-10 conference record in 2019-20 was an improvement over a tough 2018-19 season, when the team went 5-11 in the ACC. But with a conference coach preseason poll placing Virginia 15th out of 15 in the ACC, Thompson will have to make sure her inexperienced squad doesn’t take a step backwards.

The team needs leaders after the loss of its team captain, and scorers after the departure of the only two double-digit producers in Willoughby and Toussaint. Toi and Miller must make the jump from freshmen role players to veteran leaders, and the returning bench players and new freshmen front court will have to be creative in how they fulfill Thompson’s high-energy offensive approach. There will be plenty of competition for starting roles on this brand new Cavalier team.

Senior guard Tomas Woldetensae lines up a jumper in practice this off-season. Photo: UVA Athletics

High hopes

Virginia’s men’s team, as fans have been happy to point out, remains the nation’s defending champion. This year, it has championship dreams once again, and was ranked No. 4 in the nation in the AP preseason poll. 

The leaders of that gravity-defying 2019 title squad are long gone—of the seven players who averaged 10 or more minutes per game during the championship season, only junior guard Kihei Clark remains. But a new class is ready to take over.

Redshirt senior Sam Hauser made a name for himself in his junior season at Marquette University, where he averaged nearly 15 points a game and showed off his lethal shot on January 15, 2019, with a memorable 31-point outing against Georgetown. 

On April 8, 2019, Hauser watched the Cavaliers win their first NCAA championship. Exactly one week later, he made public his intention to transfer from Marquette; in May, he announced he would be spending his senior year in Charlottesville.

Now that his NCAA-mandated sit-out season is over, the 6’8″ power forward is ready to don the blue and orange. That couldn’t come at a better time for a Virginia team looking to cover the gaps left in the roster by graduating seniors Braxton Key and Mamadi Diakite.

The key parts of the 2019-20 defense, which held opponents to an ACC-best 52.4 points per game, are returning. Redshirt senior Jay Huff ranked fourth in the conference with two blocks per game—including an unforgettable 10-block showing in a 52-50 victory over Duke—while junior Kihei Clark ranked in the top 20 by averaging 1.2 steals.

To return to the Final Four and beyond, Virginia needs scorers. The Cavaliers ranked last in the ACC last year in offense with an average of 57 points per game. The 2020-21 roster offers scoring in spades. Clark grew as a scorer between his freshman and sophomore seasons, going from 4.5 to 10.8 points per game and ranking second in team scoring only to Diakite in 2019-20. Senior Tomas Woldetensae honed his long-range shots with 52 three-pointers and earned starts in 22 of 29 games.

In addition to those two returning guards comes Huff, a 7’1″ center who increased his 2018 4.4-point average to 6.6 points per game in 2019-20 in 18 starts. His height and intimidating wingspan might make him one of the premier centers in the ACC.

Cavalier fans are likely to see Hauser, dangerous at both close range and from a distance, take over at power forward. After those four starters, the roster could fluctuate. Sophomore Casey Morsell made 13 starts last season but didn’t quite establish himself, shooting an abysmal 18 percent from three. He’ll compete for minutes at guard with four-star freshman Reece Beekman. Freshman Jabri Abdur-Rahim, another four-star prospect and gifted scorer, could get the start as small forward. Redshirt freshman Kadin Shedrick learned Virginia’s system from the bench during his redshirt season last year, and may see some time on the court this season, while freshman Carson McCorkle will likely take his turn as a redshirt.

Coach Tony Bennett ran a relatively tight rotation last year. Only seven Cavaliers averaged more than 10 minutes of playing time per game in 2020. That could change as Bennett tests this year’s deep roster for chemistry and commitment to his system.

With tenacious players like Clark and Huff holding down Bennett’s trademark pack-line defense, and clever scorers like Hauser and Abdur-Rahim arriving to create a dynamic offensive punch, this Virginia team has every reason to dream big. 

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News

In brief: Turkey time, planner peace out, and more

Volunteers hand out birds at the We Code, Too turkey drive on Saturday. PC: Zack Wajsgras

Turkey time

Community is hard to come by these days, especially as we’re all hunkering down for a long winter indoors. But at the Jefferson School on Saturday, the community put on an impressive show. During the annual We Code, Too turkey drive, 200 birds were handed out to those in need ahead of the holiday. Some of the turkeys were contributed by retailers, and many more were purchased using money from individual donations. Cars snaked through the parking lot, as recipients remained socially distant during distribution. It’s the seventh year in a row that the drive has taken place, proving that even in difficult times, some things remain constant.

Planner says peace out 

Charlottesville city government’s staffing woes continue. On November 4, the city announced that Parag Agrawal had been hired as the Director of Neighborhood Development Services. Agrawal even made an introductory appearance at a press conference the next day. But less than two weeks later, Agrawal is gone, after announcing last week that he’s taken a job as the planning director in Prince William County instead. There’s been a lot of turnover at City Hall recently, but this is a new record.

Looking on the bright side, at least the city won’t have to pay Agrawal a severance package. Mike Murphy got nine months of additional pay after spending a year as interim city manager, and former city manager Tarron Richardson got a $205,000 lump sum after less than a year and a half at the helm. Maybe it would’ve been in Agrawal’s best interest to stick around for another week or two—who knows what he might have walked away with.

After 16 months on the job, former city manager Tarron Richardson walked away with $205,000 in severance pay. PC: Eze Amos

_________________

Quote of the week

“Quite honestly, I just don’t have the time to address every crazy thing she says. It would be a full-time job.”

—Virginia Senate Republican Mark Obenshain, when asked to respond to Republican gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase’s latest remarks

__________________

In brief

White House bound?

After just two years as UVA president, Jim Ryan may be moving on to the White House—at least, if Nicholas Kristof has his way. The New York Times columnist floated Ryan as a secretary of education pick for Joe Biden’s cabinet last week, praising his “strong moral compass” and more than a decade of experience in higher education. Ryan was “flattered” by the mention, but said, “My focus has been and will continue to be leading the University of Virginia.”

Durty deal

You can get anything on Craigslist—even a much-loved Charlottesville bar. Durty Nelly’s Pub is for sale, and last week the whole shebang was briefly posted on the online classified board with a price tag of $75,000. Durty Nelly’s is still open and doesn’t plan on closing, but the post suggested that the owner is looking to move on.

Pass it around

After Governor Ralph Northam’s recent announcement that he would support marijuana legalization in next year’s General Assembly session, State Delegate Lee Carter proposed that money generated from pot sales be spent on reparations for Black and Indigenous Virginians. It’s “a moral commitment our history demands of us and a necessary first step in Virginia,” Carter wrote in a press release.

Bottom lines up

It’ll come as no surprise that one business in particular is thriving during the pandemic: Virginia ABC stores have reported record sales through the last few months, turning in $22 million more in revenue in October 2020 than during October 2019. Usually, restaurants make up roughly 20 percent of the ABC stores’ businesses, but the liquor shops are having no trouble making ends meet even with that flow interrupted.

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News

Designed to deceive: Nefarious bail bond company tied to demonstration outside justice center

Charlottesville’s Legal Aid Justice center was the site of a dubious protest last week. PC: Staff photo

Around 7pm on November 10, a city resident was surprised to see a cluster of 20 to 30 sign-carrying protesters and a film crew gathered near the Legal Aid Justice Center.

While stopped at the traffic light near the LAJC, the resident says an unmasked, college-aged woman approached his car window and asked if he supported immigrants’ rights. When he said yes, she delivered a “spiel,” claiming that the renowned justice center was “hurting immigrants.” She handed him a flier with the heading “LAJC BEWARE” and a call to “report abuse” at the url bewarelajc.com. The site shows a reproduction of the flier and offers a host of broken links.

The protesters have connections with Nexus Services, a Harrisonburg, Virginia-based immigration bail bond company with a well-documented history of illegal practices. Though Nexus is not mentioned on the flier or the website, Nexus Services owns the domain bewarelajc.com, and when pressed, admitted to helping the protesters get organized.

In August 2019, LAJC filed suit against Nexus on behalf of a group of clients who allege they were the victims of a “fraudulent immigration bond scheme” that “preys on immigrants in federal detention centers.” The attorneys general in three states, including Virginia, have investigated the company in recent years.

Legal Aid said it was aware of the event but declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

“The signs were clearly made in one place, by one person,” says the area resident who was approached by the protesters.  “That’s not how protests work. In grassroots protests, people like to make [homemade] signs. These were printed, but they were clearly trying to make them look like they were grassroots.”

Another witness who is familiar with the work of LAJC had similar reservations: “The signs said something along the lines of ‘LAJC is anti-immigrant.’ I certainly would not characterize the people there as anti-immigrant, so [the protest] was pretty shocking and strange.”

Nexus initially denied involvement in the protest. “The organizers were actually a group of young people (independent of Nexus) who are active in social justice,” wrote Heather Wilson, a Nexus public relations representative.

After C-VILLE asked why Nexus owned the associated website domain, which was created on November 10, Wilson changed her tune, saying that “Nexus helps set up advocacy websites all the time and the website was provided to the kids as part of their social justice work.”

Searches show that Nexus Services owns dozens of domain names, the majority of which are inactive variations on the word Nexus.

Anna Lohmiller, one of the demonstrators who participated in the event outside LAJC, claims that the group, called The System, is creating a reality TV show. “We go around and we gather information on certain cases that we believe there’s been injustices,” she says. She echoes the allegations on the flier, accusing LAJC of filing false affidavits on behalf of an immigrant who did not understand English.

The System, which currently has eight members, is not a part of Nexus, explains Lohmiller. However, Nexus president Mike Donavon is the lead producer for the show and an advisor to the group.

“He mentors us on a ton of different cases, and he just provides us with some basic knowledge about stuff that’s going on,” Lohmiller says.

Because the group is “just starting out with this,” Nexus also provided them with a domain for their website for free, she adds.

Lohmiller claims that LAJC’s lawsuit against Nexus has nothing to with her Nexus-affiliated group’s decision to protest LAJC. “We don’t independently base our decisions on what Nexus does,” she says.

One of the people who saw the protest in action has a different theory.  “I can only guess that they hired fake protesters, and they’re trying to smear the [LAJC],” the witness says.

Last year, LAJC sued Nexus for more than $1 million on behalf of six Central American immigrants, who accused the company of coercing detained immigrants into signing long-term contracts—written mostly in English—that cover their bail through third-party bondsmen. The contracts also force the immigrants, once released, to pay $420 per month for GPS ankle monitoring, plus other fees. The location tracking practice is not required by immigration authorities.

In other states over a period of years, numerous immigrants have accused Nexus of swindling them into predatory terms and conditions they didn’t understand, giving them ankle monitors that burst into flames, and forcing them into insufferable living conditions. Those unable to keep up with payments have reported being threatened with detention or deportation. (As an unlicensed middleman, Nexus has no authority to deliver immigrants to ICE, or force them to attend court hearings.)

“[Nexus] attempts to camouflage its practices by casting itself as a champion of immigrants…when in reality its scheme traps desperate immigrants into paying thousands of dollars, often in amounts far exceeding their bond,” says the LAJC lawsuit. “[This] scheme has siphoned more than $100 million from some of the most vulnerable immigrants and their communities.”

Because ICE requires its excessive bail prices, set as high as $60,000, to be paid by someone with legal status, many detained immigrants—if they are even allowed to post bail—have no choice but to turn to companies like Nexus for freedom, or remain imprisoned until their hearing, which can take months or years.

The lawsuit ultimately contends that Nexus should not be allowed to exist at all. Because Nexus acts as a middleman, rather than dispensing the bonds itself, it cannot be regulated by the federal and state laws that apply to licensed insurance and bail bond agencies. Therefore, it can charge clients heavily inflated prices.

Donovan has publicly condemned the lawsuit, claiming that it is full of “outright lies,” and misconstrues the company’s business model. He’s also accused LAJC of using the plaintiffs for “exposure.”

In 2009, while volunteering for Mike Signer’s unsuccessful lieutenant governor campaign, Donovan and his now-husband Richard Moore landed themselves five months in jail. The pair had rented out rooms and office space under fake names at hotels, and failed to pay the tens of thousands of dollars in bills.

In interviews, Donovan has claimed his months in jail led him to get involved in the bond business. Because of their felonies, he and Moore are prohibited from getting licensed as bondsmen, so they decided to become middlemen.

According to LAJC’s lawsuit, the couple formally established Nexus Services, Inc. in 2013. It has since grown to have more than 30 offices in eight states, with over 6,000 clients.

Since The Washington Post published a story in 2017 exposing the struggles faced by company’s clients, Nexus has been investigated by a string of state and federal government agencies. Last year, the state of Virginia threatened to shut down the company.

In recent months, Nexus has been active in other industries as well. This March it provided funding, described as “pandemic relief,” to the Shenandoah Valley Militia and Citizens Response Unit, a gun rights, anti-government group.

“Americans are being told to stay in their homes, being placed on mandatory lockdowns, and in some places threatened with jail if they violate those orders. This is not America and it’s surely not freedom,” said Donovan, whose company has reportedly violated the rights of undocumented immigrants.

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News

Moving forward: School board votes to continue in-person reopening plans

Charlottesville City Schools Superintendent Rosa Atkins gave her stamp of approval to the school board’s decision to move forward with in-person classes at the beginning of the school year. PC: Eze Amos

After nearly six months of remote learning, Charlottesville City Schools is moving forward with its plans to begin in-person classes at the start of the new year.

During its virtual meeting last Thursday, the Charlottesville School Board unanimously voted to allow the district’s COVID-19 advisory committee to continue working on its reopening proposal, which received a stamp of approval from CCS Superintendent Dr. Rosa Atkins earlier this month.

Under the current proposal, preschool through sixth grade will have in-person classes four days a week, starting January 11. Seventh grade and up will be at school twice a week beginning February 1, and do independent work the other days.

The board will take a final vote on the plan during its December 16 meeting.

According to a binding intent form sent out at the beginning of the month, 2,296 students, or 66 percent of the district, want to attend in-person classes. Staff are reaching out to the roughly 17 percent of families who have not filled out their form yet.

Because the district is currently using all of its bus drivers to deliver meals and transport special needs students, it plans to use CARES funds to contract additional drivers, who will help serve the 373 students who said they cannot get to school without the bus.

Though COVID safety restrictions make providing large-scale bus service very difficult, the district will also work to accommodate as many of the 561 other students who requested bus rides—but could still get to school without them—as possible.

In stark contrast to previous surveys, a majority of the district’s 470 teachers indicated they felt safe enough to return to the classroom.

Seventy-two percent of kindergarten through sixth grade teachers volunteered to do face-to-face classes, along with 65 percent of those teaching seventh through 12th grade.

However, 139 teachers and 24 instructional assistants across all grades asked to continue to work remotely. Most said they were either high-risk, or taking care of a loved one who is.

An additional 27 teachers and nine instructional assistants requested paid medical leave through the federal government’s Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which requires select employers to provide their staff with paid leave for reasons related to COVID-19.

Though the district so far has approved every complete request for leave, Charlottesville Education Association President Jessica Taylor accused administrative staff of not properly communicating with teachers in need of ADA accommodations.

“Educators who submitted paperwork should receive acknowledgment of receipt without having to make numerous follow-up inquiries,” she said during Thursday’s public comment. “There’s [also] been a breakdown in understanding…One CEA member was given a choice to either provide face-to-face services for a student or resign. She chose to resign.”

“We don’t want any teachers resigning. COVID will not last forever. We’re going to get through this,” said Atkins. “We need them. We want them on board.”

Also during public comment, parents voiced their concerns with the binding intent form.

“There are families like my own who are choosing on the intent form to go in-person, even though it is not our preference, for fear we will get locked out if we change our minds later,” said Maria Stein.

While the city’s current numbers are low compared to the rest of Virginia, health experts anticipate case spikes in the coming weeks due to winter weather and holiday gatherings.

“We will handle individual cases,” responded Atkins. But now, “in order to plan for transportation, make a master schedule, and assign teachers, we have to know who’s going to be in-person, who has elected to continue with virtual.”

During the rest of the meeting, board members discussed class schedules for middle and high schoolers at length, taking issue with the large amount of asynchronous learning.

The district currently plans to divide each grade level into two groups made up of both in-person and virtual learners. When one group of students is in the classroom, their classmates in the same group will watch the class live on Zoom. Meanwhile, students in the other group will work on independent assignments from home during school hours.

Having far fewer live classes worries board members that students will not progress academically.

“To me, that takes us back to last spring when the quality of what was happening wasn’t real good and we were all scrambling,” said school board member Sherry Kraft. “We’ve done so much work to provide quality instruction.”   

But with the limited staffing available, asynchronous learning is impossible to avoid, explained CHS Principal Eric Irizarry.

“Every student’s schedule is so unique at the high school, and we’re the only high school. We have two and half chemistry teachers, we have one orchestra teacher, one band,” he said. “A student that comes into the building, they’re going to need to see all of those teachers for that day. There’s not a way to run a concurrent master schedule.”

Still, the board urged district staff and the COVID-19 advisory committee to look at different ways to deliver instruction during the times set aside for independent work, and present their findings at the December 16 meeting.

“I would rather them continue to be virtual then go to that model,” said board chair Jennifer McKeever of middle and high schoolers. “We are small enough to solve the problem, and not have three days of asynchronous learning.”

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Culture Living

PICK: Miracle on 34th Street

Miracle on Main Street: During a time when everyone’s faith is being tested, some might wonder if the holiday spirit will prevail. In the holiday classic Miracle on 34th Street, Kris Kringle is put on trial after playing a convincing Santa Claus. His authenticity and mental health are challenged in the courtroom, and it all comes down to one question: Do you believe in Santa Claus?

Saturday 11/28, $8, 3pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 979-1333.

Categories
Culture Living

PICK: Wreath Making Workshops

Christmas composition. Christmas wreath on white background. Flat lay, top view

Making it bright: As the seasonal celebrations begin, the wine and painting classes take a backseat to making wreaths. Pippin
Hill gardeners Diane Burns and Celina DeBrito lead Wreath Making Workshops, and lend expert tips on
how to craft a personal tribute to the cycle of nature by sourcing dried fruit, flowers, and herbs from the vineyard site. Refreshments provided. Mask required.

Tuesday 12/1 and Wednesday 12/2, $100, 9am. Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards, 5022 Plank Rd., North Garden. 202-8063.

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News

It’s a wonder: Blue Ridge Tunnel trail opening is more than a century in the making

Community members use the trail leading to the Blue Ridge Tunnel in Afton. Photo: Zack Wajsgras

It’s dark. It’s damp. It’s cold. And it’s so cool.

The newly opened Claudius Crozet Blue Ridge Tunnel trail lets you walk under the Blue Ridge—under Rockfish Gap, under I-64, under the Appalachian Trail and Skyline Drive. More than 700 feet above, drivers sweep through forested hillsides while you peer at walls of hewn rock and brick. Up there, hikers hear leaves rustling in the wind while you hear water dripping from the tunnel walls; they see dappled sunlight while you see flashlights bobbing like underground fireflies—and one small point of light ahead, a beacon from a mile away.

The tunnel is a secret world but not a closed one. A steady breeze brings fresh air through the passage, which is arrow-straight and has a very slight incline. Kids coming through will laugh to stir an echo, and squeal when they find wildlife—salamanders and crayfish live here, so be respectful. And it’s hard not to think about the men who labored here, mostly Irish immigrants and enslaved workers hired out for cash, pitting their strength—and their lives—against the unyielding mountain.

When the 4,273-foot Blue Ridge Tunnel was completed in 1858, it was the longest railroad tunnel in North America. Construction was overseen by Claudius Crozet (yes, the town was named for him), a French immigrant and highly trained engineer. When the eastern and western tunnel crews first connected, the two sides were only a few inches off. But it took years before the tunnel was up and running, and Crozet, fed up with management problems, public pressure, and criticism, eventually resigned—three months before the tunnel’s grand opening. He didn’t get to ride on that first ceremonial train.

The Blue Ridge railroad tunnel was in service for 86 years—it closed in 1944, when an adjacent tunnel designed for larger locomotives was completed. In 2007, CSX generously donated the property to Nelson County. The Blue Ridge Tunnel Foundation, including representatives from Albemarle, Nelson, and Augusta counties, the City of Waynesboro, and local community organizations, was set up in 2012 to develop community support and funding. The opening last weekend was the culmination of more than a decade of that work.

The trail is now open every day, sunrise to sunset. Nelson County Parks and Recreation Director Claire Richardson recommends checking the department’s Facebook page or website before coming, since there may be occasional closures due to weather or maintenance. There are access points at either end (one in Nelson, one in Augusta), with small parking lots and half-mile approach trails leading up to the tunnel entrances. (Word to the wise: The western approach trail is much steeper than the eastern one.) Bring a flashlight, headlamp, or lantern for safety, and a jacket for comfort; the crushed gravel path can be uneven, so wear decent walking shoes. And bring your mask.

But mostly, bring your sense of wonder: at this area’s natural beauty, at a remarkable human achievement from 160 years ago, and at a marvelous opportunity to visit a world we don’t usually get to see—unless we’re salamanders or crayfish.

And, as Richardson says, “Stay tuned for Halloween 2021.”

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Arts Culture

PICK: Blair’s West

Sip and sing: It’s always a good time when you’ve got a local brew in your hand and you’re listening to your favorite song. Richmond’s Blair’s West is known for tight harmonies and an expansive catalog of covers. You help choose the setlist for the husband-and-wife duo, and kick back while they belt out rock anthems (from a distance) such as “Hotel California” and “Let it Be.”

Saturday 11/28, No cover, 7pm. Skipping Rock Brewery, 1000 W. Main St. 284-5168.

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Arts Culture

To hell and back

Michelle Gagliano and Stuart Gunter’s collaborative reinterpretation of Dante’s Inferno is featured in a virtual artist talk and happy hour hosted by the Gallery at IX on December 3 at 5pm. Photo courtesy of the artist

Years before the 2020 pandemic, artist Michelle Gagliano developed a fascination with Dante’s Inferno and set out to interpret each of the poem’s 34 cantos through one painting per week. She completed the project, and exhibited it in 2017. But as the virus and social and political unrest escalated this spring, the work called her back. She knew there was hope in Dante’s journey through hell, and she wanted to convey that to the modern world. Enlisting poet/musician Stuart Gunter to react to her work, Gagliano then combined Gunter’s prose with her paintings to create a book. Originally intended for her sons, the collection evolved into a playful, hopeful, reinterpretation of optimism, just like Dante’s quote: “I saw the beautiful things that the sky holds: and we issued out, from there, to see, again, the stars.” 

Michelle Gagliano: “My favorite during this period of a boiling political climate is Canto 12, ‘Violence Against Neighbors,’ or ‘Neighbors Against Neighbors.’ The image portrays two couples staring at each other, one sitting on a big lawn mower, their chins jutted out with angry faces and attitudes. Suburban anger. I painted the background with an image of a clogged artery, thinking how internally toxic we’ve become. Dante traveled inward to self-reflection, and part of that means confronting issues clogging us all.”

Stuart Gunter: “I think the whole idea is a testament to Michelle’s artistry—as far as we can determine, she is the first female artist to reinterpret Dante’s Inferno. Her whimsical but intense treatment of each canto really makes me think hell is all the more beautiful and all the more daunting. I think ‘An Everlasting Quarrel’ (Canto 30) is pertinent these days—it puts me in mind of a story I recently heard about a Nelson County octogenarian discussing the fact that if anyone stepped onto her property to install the pipeline that was recently defeated, she would simply shoot them.”

Categories
Culture Living

Worldly wear: Davon Okoro’s ambitious fashion brand Dépendance Global

Davon Okoro turned his childhood interest in clothing fashion into his own label Dépendance Global. Photo by Marley Nichelle

Like many kids of his generation, Davon Okoro spent a lot of time in front of the TV. But while his peers were watching cartoons, Okoro was finding himself in the groundbreaking styles and fashions of MTV.

“I grew up in Nigeria and we didn’t have much money,” he explains. “My mom would go to the thrift store and get us a bunch of graphic tees and jeans.” Okoro saw similar secondhand fits flaunted by the stars of MTV and was inspired. “Ever since I was a kid I had a thing for clothes.”

His family left Nigeria and moved to Far Rockaway, New York, on Okoro’s ninth birthday. Today, he’s a second-year nursing student at UVA, and despite pursuing a career in the field of medicine, fashion remains a driving force in his life. In February, he created Dépendance Global, a clothing line of his very own.

Dépendance Global (French for “global addiction”) brings together a few of Okoro’s most enduring interests: fashion, but also multiculturalism and the nature of addiction. “I’m trying to bring awareness to the concept [of addiction],” he says. “Maybe it’s a loved one, maybe it’s drugs, maybe it’s money, maybe it’s work—but we can get so caught up in addiction sometimes that we forget who we are.”

The global aspect of Okoro’s brand speaks to his own varied and unusual life. The cultures he observed in Nigeria, New York, and now Virginia are all “so different,” he says. Likewise, he doesn’t want Dépendance Global to be limited to any one place or time, and plans to continue his informal anthropology across the world. “I want to go overseas and see how other cultures live.”

Okoro says the name refers to his desire to “branch out. I have so many ideas…Dependánce Global is not supposed to be just about one issue.”

A brief glance at his brand’s website confirms that neither Okoro nor his clothing plan on being boxed in. He has four products currently for sale online—tees and sweatshirts with creative nods to a variety of influences, from Arabic to basketball to Playboy.

One shirt, “Psychological Pain,” was inspired by Okoro’s nursing studies. It features a hunched, multiplied figure in apparent agony, lit electric purple by its own neurons. A pain scale from zero to 10 runs up one sleeve, and the back of the shirt reads, “PAIN—THE 5TH VITAL SIGN. YOU ARE NOT ALONE GET HELP!”

“Nursing is about the human body and how the human body works,” Okoro says. “It’s an art of its own.”

Another, called “Black is Beautiful,” speaks to Okoro’s experience living as a Black man. Darine Stern graces the front of the short sleeve button-up, a reprint of the Playboy cover for which she modeled as the magazine’s first African American covergirl. “Growing up, I almost hated my own skin,” Okoro says. “Now I know my Black is beautiful.”

Virgil Abloh, a groundbreaking Black designer and entrepreneur, is another influence who served as a model for Okoro’s self-realization. “When I saw that as a kid, it really motivated me to keep pursuing my dreams,” he says. “I never really got to see African Americans in these positions.” Okoro also lists Kanye West, Yves Saint Laurent, and Louis Vuitton among his inspirations—although, “I grew up in a very low-income neighborhood, so there wasn’t a lot of Louis Vuitton around.”

Dépendance Global may still be in its infancy, but Okoro only sees it growing—existing alongside, or maybe even taking precedence over his nursing ambitions. He expects the brand to one day live up to its name, becoming as well known as the projects of his idols. “If you buy a T-shirt, buy a hoodie, I want that to be your favorite T-shirt or hoodie,” says Okoro. “I want people to know that this is a brand for every person. It’s made out of love.”