Mayor’s poem sparks conversation
Last Wednesday morning, Mayor Nikuyah Walker posted a poem on her Facebook and Twitter pages. “Charlottesville: The beautiful-ugly it is. It rapes you, comforts you in its cum stained sheets and tells you to keep its secrets,” the mayor wrote.
The poem grabbed the attention of people in and outside town, with some applauding the mayor’s candor and others arguing that her choice of words represented a bridge too far. Within hours, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, Fox News, and others had written about Walker’s poem.
In a Thursday evening Facebook Live video with former vice-mayor Wes Bellamy, she elaborated on her post.
“When I wrote that poem, it did exactly what I was hoping it would do—besides the ‘everybody across the country talking about it’ part,” Walker said. “But I wanted to hit a nerve.”
She also said she feels she was elected to speak freely, and that she has consistently offered sharp critiques of the city. “This community said you wanted something different,” she said. “And you all said that you were open to being challenged.”
Bellamy supported Walker. “A lot of us throughout our community, we like comfortable activism,” he said during the stream. “We like calling these things out in a way that makes you feel good. But not in a way that’s true, that’s going to get to the root of the issue.”
Bellamy also shared experiences from his own four-year stint on council. “Being a Black elected official is one of the most challenging things you’ll ever have to do,” he said. “We have to navigate things people have no idea about. So when we share our art, it’s easily misconstrued, because people are looking at it from their vantage point.”
Two of Walker’s colleagues, Councilors Heather Hill and Lloyd Snook, released a joint statement on the poem on Friday.
“As White individuals, we can only dimly understand the present-day impact of America’s history of slavery, lynching and sexualized violence toward Black people in general, and toward Black women in particular,” the councilors wrote. “We do not—because we cannot—share her pain; no one can judge someone else’s pain.”
They continued, “But it can never be appropriate for our Mayor—as our leader and as our representative—to use terms of sexual violence to characterize the City of Charlottesville. The ‘rape’ metaphor was salacious, but it was also jarring and hurtful to victims of sexual assault and rape.”
The councilors wrote that they wished Charlottesville was receiving national attention for the positive steps the city has taken in recent years, specifically citing increased investment in affordable housing. “Our future success depends on the good will and the desire for unity of people of all backgrounds,” they concluded. “This poem did not help build that unity.”
City Council’s next meeting is Monday, April 5.
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Quote of the week
“I personally don’t think we should be arresting or penalizing
somebody for something we’re getting ready to legalize.”
—Governor Ralph Northam, talking about potentially moving up the date marijuana will become legal in Virginia
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Council competition
The Charlottesville Democratic Party will hold competitive primaries for two local elections in June. Four Democrats qualified for the City Council ballot before last week’s filing deadline. School board member Juandiego Wade, UVA planner Brian Pinkston, social entrepreneur Carl Brown, and software engineer Josh Carp—who declared his candidacy 48 hours before the deadline—will compete for two party nominations this summer. In the fall, the two winners will face off against two independent candidates, entrepreneur Yas Washington and sitting Mayor Nikuyah Walker, for a pair of council seats. Washington initially declared her candidacy as a Democrat but did not manage to qualify for the party’s official ballot and has decided to continue her campaign independently. Current City Councilor Heather Hill is not seeking re-election.
Anything in common?
The Democratic primary will also see Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania attempt to fend off a challenge from former public defender Ray Szwabowski. Both consider themselves progressives. Platania was elected in 2016. Szwabowski is running under the slogan “Time for change.”
Atkins moves up
Earlier this month, Charlottesville City Schools’ longtime superintendent Dr. Rosa Atkins announced her retirement, effective May 31, sharing that she would like to spend more time with her grandkids. However, it seems she is not quite ready to be a full-time grandma—in July, she will be joining the Virginia Department of Education as the assistant superintendent for talent acquisition and development. Meanwhile, the school board has appointed former teacher and principal James Henderson as Atkins’ temporary replacement. A new permanent superintendent will be selected by October.