Bah humbug? We think not. This year, Dickens is going digital! Join Jacob Marley, the three ghosts, and Tiny Tim as Scrooge navigates his cranky journey and discovers the joy of Christmas—even in 2020. John Harrell stars in American Shakespeare Center’s annual adaptation of A Christmas Carol, viewable on-demand and at the Visulite Cinemas. And while we’ll accept lessons from Christmases past, let’s skip the Christmas present stuff, and get on with the future.
Cullen “Fellowman” Wade (right) didn’t set out to create an album about loss during such a dark time in history. And despite its title, Death of an Author, which has been two years in the making, is rooted in creativity, catharsis, and enlightenment rather than morbidity. With a slew of covers and originals dedicated to lost musical heroes, the project underlines Wade’s vast knowledge of his subjects, with tributes to legends from Sean Price, Jimi Hendrix, and Prince to John Prine, Joe Strummer, and Grant Hart of Hüsker Dü. The rapper and producer implores listeners to allow an artist’s work to have a deeper impact than the individual personality or cult of celebrity. Wade will perform the album in a livestream, with special guests Harli Saxon, Waterloo from Beetnix, Remy St. Clair, Eric Cope, DJ Double U, and DJ Bovay.
COVID-19 has taken an unfathomable amount of lives, and its reverberations have disrupted our most cherished industries—the music business included. The onset of the pandemic brought studio sessions, live performances, and large-scale concerts to a screeching halt, rendering musicians, promoters, and venue and tour crews without reliable income.
But time off the road also afforded musicians the space to create. Inherently, art serves as a means to process life and its experiences. The music that resonates the most does so because it absorbs the world around us and reflects it back in a way that makes it more digestible. The proliferation of music that’s come out of quarantine takes many forms, from cross-country virtual collaborations to surprising covers.
In some instances, lockdown inspired artists to try new things (COVID remixes, anyone?) or caused them to rely on the tools they had on hand—it’s not uncommon to hear household objects being repurposed as instruments. As a result, surprise album drops and self-releases flourished this year. Artists in our own community have been hard at work, too—and they need our help now more than ever. If you can, purchase music, purchase merch, and spread the word. Here’s a slice of central Virginia’s creative output in 2020.
A.D. Carson, i used to love to dream (hip-hop)
Angelica Garcia, Cha Cha Palace
(indie, pop, synth)
Becca Mancari, The Greatest Part (dream pop, indie folk)
Butcher Brown, #KingButch (funk, jazz, hip-hop)
Chamomile and Whiskey, Red Clay Heart (Americana, folk-rock, alt-country): Spearheaded by Nelson County’s Koda Perl and Marie Borgman, Chamomile and Whiskey has been a mainstay on the central Virginia music scene for years. But on Red Clay Heart, the group turned to Music City and the production work of Ken Coomer (former drummer of Wilco and Uncle Tupelo) for a honed-in sound. “I had never arranged and recorded in the studio,” Kerl told C-VILLE of the album’s process.“It was something new—just creating in there with everyone together.”
Choose Your Own Adventure, Roos In Space (jazz, funk, fusion)
Deau Eyes, Let It Leave (indie, pop)
Diane Cluck, Common Wealth (folk)
Dogwood Tales, Closest Thing to Heaven (Americana)
Dropping Julia, In My Sleep (funk, rock, fusion)
Erin Lunsford, The Damsel (indie, pop)
Gold Connections, Ammunition (indie rock)
Tim Heidecker, Fear of Death (indie): Though Tim Heidecker is best known as one-half of the comedic duo Tim & Eric, his new album is no joke. Tapping into his affinity for the ’70s sounds of Laurel Canyon, he collaborated with indie-pop heavy hitters like Weyes Blood, Jonathan Rado of Foxygen, and The Lemon Twigs’ Brian and Michael D’Addario to create an existential meditation on life and death for his Spacebomb Records debut.
Jana Horn, Optimism (indie folk)
John Kelly, In Between (Americana)
Kate Bollinger, A word becomes a sound
(indie rock, dream pop)
Keith Morris & The Crooked Numbers,
American Reckoning (folk)
Kendall Street Company, The Stories We Write For Ourselves (rock, jam)
Laquinn, LaQwinning (hip-hop)
Nathaniel Star, Eros (neo-soul): To describe Nathaniel Star’s output as dynamic would be an understatement. The Charlottesville native has dabbled in almost any genre you can think of (Afrobeat, country, and R&B to name a few), but Eros is more than just his sixth full-length album; it’s his magnum opus. “Love is crazy. It makes you feel that anything is possible,” he told C-VILLE when discussing the 20-song collection.
Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Dirt and the Stars (rock, Americana)
Molly Murphy, Call Me Elsewhere (indie folk)
Nan Macmillan, August and the In Between
(indie folk)
Night Teacher, Night Teacher (indie folk)
Pale Blue Dot, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species (prog-rock)
Restroy, Sketches (Experimental, electronic, ambient, prog-rock)
Rattlebag, Change of View (rock, R&B, zydeco)
Rob Cheatham and Co., Sons and Daughters (Americana)
Ruth Good, Haunt EP (indie rock)
Shagwüf, Trendy Weapon, Dog Days of Disco (pop, rock, fusion)
The Shrugs, Junk Days And Radio Zones
(indie rock)
Vacation Manor, Thoughts In Progress Pt. 1
(indie rock)
Various Artists, A Little Bit at a Time:
Spacebomb Family Rarities (indie, folk, pop)
David Wax Museum, The Persimmon Tree (10th Anniversary Edition)
J. Roddy Walston, “Brave Man’s Death” (COVID Remix)
Larry Keel, American Dream (bluegrass): On his latest solo effort, the legendary bluegrass flatpicker is a one-man band, playing every instrument across the album’s 10 tracks. As the title suggests, Keel draws on global events to craft a self-aware exploration of race and policy in the U.S.
Lowland Hum, Singing Other People’s Love Song (indie folk)
Sons of Bill ft. Molly Parden, “In Your Eyes” (Peter Gabriel cover; Americana)
Summer Starved, Library Card: Volume 1 (pop, synth, prog): Richmond musician/producer Kevin Burtram’s collection of instrumentals, which was composed during lockdown, is a patchwork quilt of layered sounds and samples that entertain the music nerd in all of us.
Prabir Trio, “Light Up In The Name Of Love” (rock)
The Steel Wheels, “When To Say Goodnight” (Americana)
Good Dog Nigel, “Strawberries” (indie, rock)
Stray Fossa, “For What Was,” and “Are You Gonna Be Okay” (alternative, indie)
Will Overman, “Living Wage,” and “Living Things” off of his upcoming LP The Winemaker’s Daughter
Mitchel Evan, “Band Aid” and “Leeches” off of his upcoming self-titled LP
Tyler Meacham, “Nightwalking” (pop)
Hatcher’s Run, “Wisteria,” “Delilah,”
“Stronger Than Blood,” “Silos and Skylines” (Americana, alt-country)
trout baseline, (a)round EP (indie pop, synth)
Saying that this year has been an anomaly is a comical understatement. So much of our daily life has been uprooted and, to mirror our own bodies, movies were not immune from these changes either. Before we start writing eulogies for Cinema with a capital “C” and discussing the fall of the multiplex, it is in our best interest to look at a few of the fantastic films that were released this year. We may have watched them on laptops or televisions, but bear in mind those technologies are now better than ever. And while there were no big blockbusters or studio tentpoles, 2020 saw an unprecedented wave of early access to film festival favorites and what feels like unlimited choices on streaming platforms to keep hungry cinephiles satiated.
That said, the best releases of 2020 are all, at their core, stories of people struggling and connecting. Whether it be their own versions of reality or niche pockets of our world that are uncovered through the camera’s lens.
The Vast of Night
Director Andrew Patterson’s debut film is incredible. It unfolds like a hybrid of a radioplay and a “Twilight Zone” episode. We follow the events of one night through the experiences of two New Mexican teenagers as they discover something is sending a radio signal across their town. The camera rarely strays from the faces of the actors, and never affords the audience the comfort of edits as it draws us deeper and deeper into their story. Visually a masterpiece and structurally a well-placed gamble, The Vast of Night is easily one of the more intriguing films of 2020.
Possessor
Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor uses a world adjacent to our reality to tell a human story. In its version of our future, it is possible to upload consciousness from one person into another. Though the process is clunky and dangerous, it is also a boon to criminals and hit men. Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott tag team a performance that matches the brutally complex implications of this reality. Possessor is gory and high concept, but the way it handles memories and connections between people keeps the film grounded.
Scare Me
One of the best, most audacious recent horror films uses only the power of telling stories around a fire. Writer/director Josh Ruben and Aya Cash are two writers on upstate retreats who get to know each other quickly when a power outage excitingly pivots their night to a storytelling contest. As they each build a story of horror and suspense, the film’s style begins to mimic that of their tales. While this might seem like a silly exercise, Scare Me deftly manages to not only create tension merely by the stories told, but by pitting these two wildly different characters against one another in a remote cabin. It proves that scares on screen only need a good raconteur, not expensive effects.
Nomadland &
The Painter and the Thief
Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland and Benjamin Ree’s The Painter and the Thief might seem an odd pairing, but in contrasting them it can be easier to see their strengths. Nomadland has no real plot. The film simply follows Fern (Frances McDormand) as a nomad in the American west. Technically a fictional narrative, it uses real nomads as the people who populate Fern’s world. We are peering into their lives and habits through her experiences on the road. The Painter and the Thief is a documentary, but unlike Nomadland it’s filled with plot and intrigue. Art heists, incarceration, and marital tension all meet to create a fascinating look into the art world as well as a deep examination into the very notion of forgiveness. Nomadland and The Painter and the Thief both give us a window into a dark corner of our world.
Swallow
No list of 2020’s best films would be complete without mentioning Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ Swallow. Haley Bennett stars as Hunter, a bored housewife who has recently found out she is pregnant. Thanks to her wealthy, traditional husband, Hunter is left with little to do each day but wait for him to come home. That is, until she begins to consume random objects around the house. Though Swallow deals with less common psychological disorders, its empathetic look at control, compulsion, privilege, and motivation is an incredible testament to the depth of compassion capable in film.
While all the films on this list are wildly different, there are common threads throughout. They are beautiful and honest. They are unflinching and inquisitive. Perhaps the unifier is that these exceptional 2020 releases each aimed to push the notion of storytelling in movies. They alter the way we see our world, and have the potential to impact the way we think about our fellow humans. That is the ultimate power of cinema, and that power is just as strong in these films, even if the screens we watch them on are smaller.
We are all ready to leave 2020 behind, but as we close it out, let’s take a moment to remember dining experiences, both lost and gained, in this most unusual year.
Many well-known establishments shuttered their doors on the Downtown Mall during the pandemic, including Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar, a hub for upscale dining, music, and nightlife, and Tin Whistle Irish Pub, a spot for hearty Irish comfort food and a pint of Guinness. We saw a halt to business at upscale steakhouse Prime 109 and the much-loved Mediterranean restaurant Bashir’s Taverna. Our favorite minimalist crêperie, The Flat, and C’ville institution Fellini’s became lockdown casualties. The Downtown Grille, a go-to for white tablecloth fancy dining, couldn’t withstand the harsh realities of the past year.
On West Main Street, we mourn the loss of Parallel 38, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Sugar Shack Donuts. BreadWorks Bakery & Deli, Zinburger Wine & Burger Bar, and Crozet’s The Rooftop also joined the ranks of places we will miss.
Splendora’s is another beloved spot we are heartbroken to lose. However, owner PK Ross is searching for kitchen space, and plans to begin gelato delivery by February. Others that made changes in order to keep serving include Bluegrass Grill & Bakery, which took up temporary residence at the Devils Backbone in Nelson, and Red Pump Kitchen, which changed its focus to accommodate more private events as a rental-only venue. Modern Nosh isn’t gone for good either—owner Stephanie Levin hopes to continue her mission of giving back to local nonprofits through food.
The news is not all bad, though. A number of brave restaurateurs have given us new places to explore. Passiflora moved into the former Commonwealth space on the Downtown Mall, and is serving a colorful combination of Mediterranean and Tex-Mex fare. There is more authentic Mexican food at the family-owned Sombreros in York Place, and around the corner in Modern Nosh’s former home is Otto Turkish Street Food. Döner kebabs are new to C’ville, and we say yum to that, as well as Otto’s flatbread sandwiches, fully loaded with grilled eggplant, sumac onion, tzatziki, hummus, and your choice of kebab. Vu Noodles took up residence in The Flat’s old kitchen, and Tonic, a café and bar, is serving up local produce-forward food at the former Tin Whistle address. Guajiros Miami Eatery moved into the above-the-tracks space once occupied by Parallel 38, and Glaze Burger & Donut is baking in the shop vacated by Sugar Shack.
The Quirk Hotel introduced The Pink Grouse, which had difficulties opening just before the March lockdown, but its second take on a grand opening has us dreaming of oysters Rockefeller and charred octopus. Topping off the list of new offerings, Sabor Latino has upgraded from its humble beginnings as a family-owned food truck in C’ville to a brick-and-mortar establishment in Crozet.
The long-awaited Dairy Market opened on December 15, with six of its 11 merchants up and running seven days a week. The lineup includes Angelic Jenkins’ soul food eatery Angelic’s Kitchen, and Chimm, which expands on its 5th Street Station location, bringing more Thai street food to C’ville. Dino’s Wood-Fired Pizza & Rotisserie Chicken promises to satisfy our essential cravings with fresh and sustainable ingredients, and Take it Away Sandwich Shop, after 28 years on the Corner, is serving its secret house sauce on sammies at Dairy Market. And then there’s Moo Thru, a local outpost of the ice cream stop that sits halfway between Charlottesville and Washington, D.C., while New York-based Eleva Coffee brings a humanitarian mission and regionally sustainable coffees to the market.
In the new year, Dairy Market will welcome local eggs and produce from Bee Conscious Baking Company, Filipino fare from Manila Street, wines from Springhouse Sundries, creative ’60s cocktails at The Milkman’s Bar, and made-on-site brews from Starr Hill Brewery.
Staying home for the holidays doesn’t have to be boring, and a long list of local talent is out to prove it. Home for the Holidays: A Four County Players Musical Revue harkens back to a time of vintage television broadcasts that brought performers together in a variety show style. Directed by Edward Warwick White and professionally filmed in just one weekend (with strict COVID-19 protocols), this Christmas entertainment miracle is available on-demand for viewing in your pjs. Bring your own cup of cheer.
COVID-19, like the Grinch, has threatened to stop Christmas. But Dr. Alvin Edwards, senior pastor at Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church, says, “We decided early on we weren’t going to let this crisis drive us, we were going to make it work.”
Jonathan Spivey, Mt. Zion’s minister of music worship, agreed. Back in July, recovering from COVID-19 (“I wouldn’t wish this virus on my worst enemy,” he says), inspiration struck. Since the church couldn’t stage its annual Christmas Cantata, the group would make a Christmas video that would also address the challenges of the pandemic.
Spivey recruited his friend Kelvin Reid, a musician at New Green Mountain Baptist Church in Esmont, and Caruso Brown, Mt. Zion’s drama director. Soon they had a working group to produce four episodes of “Christmas in the Crisis,” one posted every Sunday during Advent on Mt. Zion’s YouTube channel. Each episode focuses on an issue of these times: depression, grief, suicide, and racial inequality. The volunteer videographers, musicians, and actors come from all walks of life—other churches, other religions, no religious affiliation at all.
“Christmas in the Crisis” is uplifting but also moving and real. In episode three, the holy family beds down underneath Belmont Bridge; the Magi are homeless men who offer the Child their treasures. When the group was staging a Black Lives Matter rally on the Downtown Mall for episode four, a white family strolling by stopped to watch, and used the filming as a teaching moment for their children.
“We posted each episode Sunday at 4 pm, so families could watch together,” Spivey says. “Within 15 minutes, I’d start getting texts and emails from people saying ‘This is the real thing.’” After the episode in which a pastor grapples with depression, Spivey heard from a real-life preacher: “I feel validated.”
Spivey is glad the series is being seen and shared. “So many people are hurting right now,” he says. All four episodes are still available online. The final episode, to be posted on Christmas Eve, will be a Christmas message from Edwards. All are welcome.—Carol Diggs
_________________
Quote of the week
“That was one of the most disturbing press conferences that I’ve ever seen.“
—Initial Police Civilian Review Board member Katrina Turner, addressing City Council about the police department’s December 10 press conference
__________________
Attorney aims
Charlottesville-Albemarle public defender Ray Szwabowski announced last week that he’s running to become Charlottesville’s next commonwealth’s attorney. Szwabowksi says that, should he win, he’ll end felony drug prosecutions. “Our community knows that incarceration can’t treat addiction. We must do better,” reads his announcement. Current Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania has not yet said if he’ll seek reelection.
A dime a dozen
A dozen candidates—eight Democrats and four Republicans—have so far announced bids to become Virginia’s next governor. The field includes six state delegates or former delegates, and will begin to narrow as we approach the summer’s primaries.
Back to class
After nearly a year of virtual learning, students in Charlottesville will return to the classroom for face-to-face instruction early next year. While all pre-K through second graders, along with select special education students and English language learners in third through sixth grade, will start classes January 19, Buford Middle and Charlottesville High School will not return until February 1. On January 7, the Charlottesville School Board will decide when the remaining third through sixth graders will participate in in-person learning.
Keeping it civil?
In their Thursday meeting, the city’s Police Civilian Review Board expressed frustration at the options available to them when considering how to respond to Chief RaShall Brackney’s press conference from the week before. In the press conference, the chief called on church leaders who had filed a racial profiling complaint to resign from their posts. But the civilian review board, as currently constituted, cannot initiate a further investigation, or even officially comment on the incident.
Last Tuesday, UVA hospital’s ICU director Taison Bell became one of the first people in Charlottesville to receive the newly approved coronavirus vaccine. It was a moment of “mixed emotions,” says Bell, who has worked with COVID patients throughout the crisis.
“It was definitely a good feeling to finally have something that can potentially protect you and your family from COVID-19, but also bittersweet,” he says. “In order to get to this point, so many hundreds of thousands of people have died…It was just ironic that the key to getting out of this was in this tiny little vial.”
Nearly one year after the first coronavirus cases were reported in the U.S., the vaccine is finally available. Shortly after the Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use on December 11, it was sent to hospitals across the country, including here in Charlottesville.
Last Tuesday, UVA hospital received 3,000 doses of the vaccine. The day before, Sentara, which runs Martha Jefferson, received 11,700 doses to be shared among multiple facilities. Both hospitals immediately began vaccinating doctors, nurses, and other staff who come in direct contact with coronavirus patients in the COVID-19 unit or the emergency department.
Once these high-risk employees are vaccinated—and the two health care systems receive additional shipments—the shot will be available to essential hospital workers, then to the rest of the staff, with priority placed on those who are medically vulnerable.
Local long-term care facilities will be able to receive on-site vaccination services from pharmacies, including Walgreens and CVS.
On Friday, the Moderna vaccine was also approved by the FDA, and shipped to hospitals two days later.
Both vaccines—currently available only to adults—have over 95 percent effective rates, and require two doses in order to be fully effective. Pfizer’s doses must be spaced out by 21 days, while Moderna’s require a 28-day wait.
Bell says he felt fine after receiving the shot, despite the mild discomfort from the needle. However, recipients may experience mild side effects, including fatigue, chills, body aches, or headaches.
While the long-term effects of the vaccine are still unknown, science and safety were not “cut short” in the approval process, explains Bell.
“[It] is based on a platform called messenger RNA technology, which is novel in the sense that it hasn’t been used in a licensed vaccine before—but the actual science and study behind it has been going on for more than a decade,” he says. “I have no doubt [that] it’s safe.”
mRNA ultimately protects recipients from developing symptoms of the virus. It has yet to be determined if either vaccine can completely prevent COVID-19 infections.
The $9 billion government investment into the vaccine also expedited its development and distribution, explains Bell. And as COVID cases continue to spike around the country, researchers had little trouble finding people infected with the virus who were willing to participate in trials, which can be a challenge when developing vaccines for different diseases.
According to the Thomas Jefferson Health District’s Emergency Manager Jessica Coughlin, the next stages of vaccine distribution will likely take several months to get through.
After health care employees, essential workers—including teachers, paramedics, bus drivers, and service workers—will be next in line for the shot, along with high-risk populations. The Centers for Disease Control has released loose guidelines for vaccine distribution priority, but states and hospital systems still have significant control over the specifics of the rollout process.
The vaccine is not expected to be available to the general public until early summer. But with more than 200 coronavirus vaccines still in development across the globe, this timeline may change. Because the development of the vaccine was paid for by the federal government, it will be free to all who decide to get it.
Developing the vaccine is one thing. Convincing people to take it could be a different challenge. America’s long and brutal history of medical racism has left many people in the Black community mistrustful of the coronavirus vaccine, says Bell.
From 1932 to 1972, in the infamous Tuskegee experiment, the U.S. Public Health Service allowed nearly 400 Black men in Alabama with syphilis to go untreated in order to study the full progression of the disease, causing many participants to suffer from blindness, insanity, and other severe health problems. Meanwhile, in Charlottesville, UVA was a hub for eugenic science. Doctors in Virginia sterilized thousands of Black people without their consent from the 1920s to the 1970s.
“The Black community remembers these insults…[They] must be addressed head-on,” says Bell. “It’s not a matter of just saying, ‘Oh, well trust us now.’ Because the same message was given to people back in Tuskegee and the eugenics movement.”
While there is no single solution to this deep-rooted trauma, Bell encourages his colleagues to “recognize these wounds,” and work to heal them by being honest, transparent, and explaining as much as possible. They must also assure concerned patients that Black people have been a part of the research, development, and trials for the vaccine from the very beginning.
Coughlin says primary care physicians will be best-equipped to help people make good choices around the vaccine, and that the health district is encouraging people to “do their research, look at official sources, and speak with their physicians.”
It’s been a long year; a year many of us might rather forget. But reflection is important too, and plenty of important and weird stories stuck in our heads this year. So, do you remember…
…the historic Black church?
In May, we took a deep dive into the history of the church at the corner of 10th Street and Grady Avenue. The Trinity Episcopal congregation constructed the church in 1939, when the city seized and destroyed the Black congregation’s first church building to make room for the all-white Lane High School. In the 1950s, when city schools were closed during massive resistance, the congregation held classes for Black students in the church.
When we wrote about the building in May, it was in terrible shape—the paint was peeling, the roof was leaking, the foundations were sinking into the earth. Now, it looks brand new. The developers in charge of Dairy Central, which has just opened across the street, also own the church, and over the last six months they’ve given the building a comprehensive face-lift.
The building’s future remains unclear, though. “We have no concrete plans for the space at this time,” says Jodi Mills, the developers’ marketing director. “We will be renting it out and are speaking with various community groups about hosting community connection opportunities in 2021.”
“We got a lot of history in there: The 10th and Grady church tells the story of a city,” May 20.
…the stolen memorial?
It’s always a good day at the alt-weekly when you get an email with the heading “Why I did it…” And that’s what happened on February 7, when local activist Richard Allan wrote to us to confess that he had surreptitiously removed the plaque marking the site where enslaved people were bought and sold in Court Square. Allan, who is white, says he’d spoken with Black community members who felt the plaque was an insufficient memorial for the important location, so he snuck out under cover of darkness removed the plaque and threw it in the James River.
Allan’s act of civil disobedience made national headlines, as the story offered a new wrinkle in the nation’s ongoing debate about how to memorialize public spaces. Allan himself wound up spending about 30 hours in jail for what police considered an act of vandalism. When asked if he would do it again, Allan says, “Without question, yes indeed I would.”
After the plaque originally disappeared, the city’s historic resources committee began the process for installing a new and better monument. The committee was working to solicit feedback from descendants of those bought and sold in Court Square when coronavirus hit, slowing the project. But the memorial is back on the docket now, with Allan and other activists continuing to push the conversation forward.
“Why I did it: County resident confesses to taking slave auction block,” February 7.
…the push to abolish the death penalty in Virginia?
In one of our first cover stories of the year, we spoke with some of the activists—including family members of murder victims—who’ve been pushing for years for Virginia to join the 22 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have outlawed capital punishment.
Nationally and in Virginia, the death penalty is a racial justice issue. Black people are more likely to be sentenced to death than white people, especially if they are poor, or if the victim is white. Though Black people make up just 13.4 percent of the national population, about 41 percent of those on death row are Black. And since 1973, more than half of the 167 people on death row who’ve been exonerated have been Black.
Change could be on the horizon, though. The Democrat-controlled General Assembly is expected to consider death penalty repeal in 2021, and all four 2021 Democratic candidates for govenor support abolishing the practice—even former governor Terry McAuliffe, who oversaw three executions during his first term.
…UVA’s furloughed hospital workers?
It comes as no surprise that our coverage on the massive furloughs at UVA Health—one of Charlottesville’s largest employers—was among our most popular stories of the year. To offset its millions of dollars in pandemic-related financial losses, the health system placed more than 500 employees on full-time, unpaid furlough on May 8, including those who directly cared for patients.
The decision immediately sparked public outrage, with some employees claiming the furloughs were entirely avoidable, and compromised patient safety. “To be cutting staff providing critically needed care in a time like this when [Executive Vice President for Health Affairs] Craig Kent is still making $570,000 a year—[after] his much-touted 40 percent salary reduction—is shameful,” said one nurse practitioner.
Though many feared the furloughs would be extended, they finally came to an end on July 25 for the UVA Medical Center, and on August 16 for the School of Medicine. However, the hospital remains in a staffing crisis, and desperately awaits new hires. If there is a dramatic spike in COVID cases this winter, things may get much worse, according to several concerned employees.
“Cut off: UVA Health furloughs hundreds of employees,” May 13.
…the guy who makes pizza jingles?
We’ve all dealt with the lockdown stress in different ways, but many of us turned to food—baking, posting, and eating—for comfort. Musician and Bridge Progressive Arts Executive Director Alan Goffinski focused on the world’s most popular pie, and in what he calls a “love letter,” released 12 jingles about local pizza joints via Bandcamp in June.
“For me, the Pizzas of Charlottesville record was a damn near meditative act of appreciation for pizza and local business,” says Goffinski. “The resulting gratitude has definitely increased my pizza consumption habits.
“It’s a unique torture when the obnoxious commercial jingles that are stuck in your head are ones you’ve written yourself,” he says. “The songs haunt me in my sleep…and I wouldn’t change a thing.” Go to pizzasof charlottesville.bandcamp.com to sing along.
“Pizza my heart: Alan Goffinski sings his love of C’ville slices,” June 4.
…the summer’s protest art?
In July we covered Damani Harrison’s ambitious three-part creative project “One for George,” a hip-hop song, music video, and portrait series in reaction to the massive social justice movement around the world.
“‘One for George’ was never about me,” says Harrison. “That is why I refused to do media after releasing the project. Our community is full of people feeling pain and stress from the weight of generational trauma and contemporary injustices.
“‘One for George’ was a way for us to come together and be a support for one another. It inspired artists to create as a means of catharsis. It was a way we could communicate our struggles, hopes, and fears. ‘OFG’ brought people together and was a conduit for the flow of positive, healing energy. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
“One for George” can be accessed @oneforgeorge on Instagram.
…the missing paintings?
When painter Megan Read shipped her work for the September opening of a solo exhibition at Denver’s Abend Gallery, she put a part of herself into the FedEx shipping boxes. Well, a part of herself, and $12,000 worth of paintings—and it all went missing.
Devastated by the misplacement of her artwork, and getting nowhere with the customer service lines, Read took to social and traditional media to pressure FedEx to take action.
“The paintings were missing for about three or four weeks, and eventually were found in the Kernersville, [North Carolina] hub—the so-called ‘hostage hub,’ or ‘black hole’—as I suspected they would be,” says Read. “The reality is that I honestly don’t know how my intrepid friends managed to get this the attention it needed. But the contact there essentially admitted [the paintings] never would have made it out without the serious escalation.”
All of the art was recovered and the show, which opened on September 26, can be viewed at abendgallery.com.
In brief: The lost art, September 23.
…that great Thai food place?
On March 23, Governor Ralph Northam ordered restaurants to close for indoor service. For many establishments, that meant facing the unknown. Restaurateur Jay Pun, who co-owns both Chimm and Thai Cuisine & Noodle House, was worried, but he used his experience and compassion to adjust and stay afloat. He and his team upped their pickup and takeout capabilities, contributed to the feeding of frontline workers, and started offering classes and meal kits.
“I think the most rewarding thing is continuing to learn how to pivot in these strange times, while keeping our customers happy,” says Pun. “My dad and business partner said to me once, ‘perfection is the opposite of happiness,’ so I think we have just been trying things to see what works and what doesn’t. He doesn’t mind problems as he likes figuring out how to solve them, and I’m gradually adopting that idea too. …I thank my lucky stars we had takeout in place since we started and that most everyone has been kind and understanding even when we mess up.” Keep up with Pun’s specials and classes at facebook.com/chimmtaste.
The Power Issue: The Innovator, June 24.
…the Bonnet Maker?
CM Gorey reviewed the enigmatic work of The Bonnet Maker as part of Second Street Gallery’s “Teeny Tiny Trifecta 3” show in September. “It’s hard to pin down the project by the specifications that classify most fine art, but it connects performance, brief narrative writing, and photography,” wrote Gorey. The collaboration between Rochelle Sumner and Will Kerner follows a devout character based on the story of Sumner’s great grandmother. Now the project has extended itself to include an upcoming film.
“I’m continually surprised at what I have in common with the Old German Baptist Brethren even though I didn’t grow up in the old order religion and culture,” says Sumner. “What I realized as a highly sensitive person and as an artist during this year of quarantine and isolation is that like the old order I too sometimes feel ‘of this world, but not in the world.’…The Bonnet Maker, Rachel Puffenbarger, longs to be in the world but is apprehensive. …This year like The Bonnet Maker, l’ve been letting go of my old ways.”
In a year where many of us followed guidelines to stay at home, the skies of downtown Charlottesville were marked by cranes building new spaces for the 21st century. In their shadow, projects to provide more affordable units moved through the bureaucratic process required to keep them below-market. Before the clock strikes 2021, let’s look back at some of what happened in 2020.
Public housing
After years of planning and complaints of decay from residents, Charlottesville’s government took steps to renovate the city’s public housing stock. In October, City Council agreed to spend $3 million to help finance the renovation of Crescent Halls and the construction of 62 new units on an athletic field at South First Street. A date for groundbreaking has been postponed several times, but officials with the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority hope it will occur early next year.
At the same meeting, council also agreed to contribute $5.5 million in a forgivable loan to support the first phase of the Piedmont Housing Alliance’s redevelopment of Friendship Court. The 150-unit complex was built in 1978 in an area cleared by urban renewal. The first phase will see up to 106 units built on vacant land along Monticello Avenue and Sixth Street SE. The loan dictates that the new homes must be made affordable to people who earn less than the area median income. As with CRHA, there’s no set date for groundbreaking yet.
Also this year, a firm hired to complete an overhaul of Charlottesville’s Comprehensive Plan unveiled a draft of an affordable housing plan that calls for $10 million a year in city investment in similar projects. The draft also asks “to bring diverse voices from the community into decision making structure of the City and partners it funds.”
As the Comprehensive Plan edit process continues, affordable housing advocates hope to reform the zoning ordinance to make it easier to build more housing units without seeking permission from council. This conversation will spill over to 2021, as work on the Comprehensive Plan continues and as voters prepare to elect or re-elect two members of City Council in November.
Downtown towers
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of square feet for offices and other commercial uses are under construction. The largest is the Center of Developing Entrepreneurs, which is being erected on Water Street on the site of the former Main Street Arena. The triangle-shaped nine-story building will include a public courtyard, retail area, and incubator space intended to grow new businesses. Completion is expected by August 2021.
On Second Street, within sight of the CODE building, a nine-story office building called 3Twenty3 nears completion, despite a crane collapse in early January. The structure is ready for occupancy and tenants include Manchester Capital, CoConstruct, and McGuire Woods.
Not too far behind is the new headquarters for Apex Clean Energy, an eight-story timber-built structure on Garrett Street designed by Charlottesville-based William McDonough + Partners. Ground was broken in October 2019 and the building could be completed by the end of 2021.
Elsewhere in Charlottesville, Albemarle County hired Fentress Architects to design the $45.2 million renovation of the judicial complex in Court Square. The new general district court complex will be shared by both localities. Construction on the court building won’t begin until at least 2022, but the project is already drawing plenty of attention, as the city continues to move forward with the planning process for a parking structure at Market and Ninth streets to support the new facility.
A previous City Council bought the Market Street parcel in January 2017 for $2.85 million, and the current plan is to build a four-level parking structure with 300 spaces and 12,000 square feet of commercial space. Opponents have argued the structure isn’t needed and the city could invest the $10 million price tag in other projects, including affordable housing. The city says the new spaces would provide enough inventory to allow the nearby Market Street Parking Garage to be retired and redeveloped in the decades to come. The hulking parking garage is among the biggest decisions council will need to make as it hashes out a capital budget for next year.
What about Albemarle?
Albemarle County is also working on a new affordable housing plan. The draft calls for zoning changes that would allow for thousands more units to be built compared to the existing rules. This year, however, the county Board of Supervisors has not approved two projects that would have added to that number. In June, concerns about traffic left the board deadlocked on a vote that would have seen 328 units built on 27 acres at the northern end of the John Warner Parkway. In early January, supervisors are expected to take a vote on a rezoning for 130 units to be built near Glenmore. Neighbors cite traffic concerns for their vehement opposition to the project.