Shadwell’s Restaurant is shuckin’ things up through Sunday at Oystravaganza.
file photo
Setting new tables
Ivy Road House is a new restaurant that focuses on familiar comfort foods while taking inspiration from a wide variety of cuisines. The menu includes everything from tzatziki-laden lamb meatballs, to roasted chicken with onion jam and maple glaze, to a veggie-based lasagna. Created by Christian Kelley, co-owner and executive chef at Maya, and realized in the kitchen by Chef de Cuisine (and Albemarle native) Malek Sudol, Ivy Road House is open for dining in and takeout.
The Ridley—named for Walter N. Ridley, who had to persevere through years and layers of resistance to earn his doctorate in education from the University of Virginia in 1953—opens on April 1. Hospitality partners Warren Thompson and Ron Jordan aim to provide a city dining atmosphere complemented by a sophisticated combination of Southern and coastal cuisines.
Located in The Draftsman Hotel at 1106 W. Main St., The Ridley will add to the growing number of local Black-owned businesses, and a portion of profits from the restaurant will go to the Ridley
Scholarship Fund, which supports diversity and equity in education.
Following a successful preview weekend in February, Broadcloth, the fine-dining addition to the Wool Factory complex, is set to debut March 26. The eatery features locally sourced seasonal fare with options of four and six courses, plus the ultimate chef’s tasting menu, with up to 10 dishes. Chef Tucker Yoder has been rustling up grub in Charlottesville for over 20 years, and he plans to use his decades of experience to wow the limited number of guests the restaurant will serve each night. Tables are by reservation only.
Shell out for this
Shadwell’s Restaurant, located on Pantops, hosts its annual Oystravaganza through March 28. The Charlottesville fave will serve up oysters on the half shell, plus oysters stewed, stuffed, and fried. Cast a wide net and get your fill with a three-course sampler for $44.
Spring for this
The Catering Outfit is offering takeout Easter dinners for about $50 a head. Order by March 30 for rosemary-crusted rack of lamb, deviled eggs, and hearty spring vegetables cooked with a locally sourced honey glaze. Á la carte dishes and kosher versions of the meals are available too.
Beer with me
Dairy Market continues to grow in popularity and size with the opening of Starr Hill Brewery’s new taproom this month. Starr Hill Downtown offers a curated selection of beers brewed in-house, including well-known classics plus limited-run specials, so there will always be something new to try.
Crust this one
Luce is expanding its housemade gelato menu this week with two new flavors: caramel banana bread and almond biscotti, and fans of the Italian take-away spot will be relieved to see both stuffed-crust pepperoni pizza and spaghetti carbonara returning to the Luce lineup. —Will Ham
Lighting the way: In Let Go of Me, playwright, director, and filmmaker Kelley Van Dilla combines pre-recorded and live performances to explore connections and disconnections between people. The virtual play features Van Dilla in an autobiographical reflection on the relationship between a trans non-binary teen and their mother, who is bipolar.
Through 3/28, Suggested household ticket price $20, times vary. Zoom required. Live Arts, 123 E. Water St. livearts.org.
Groove moves: If you’re bummed about missing the high-energy party vibe of Mardi Gras this year, you can beat your blues with the blues at Ultramarine, a showcase featuring the Chickenhead Blues Band and Eli Cook. The Chickenhead’s five-man ensemble features NOLA’s own Aric van Brocklin on guitar, alongside Skip Haga on the keyboards, Granville Mullings on drums, Andy Rowland playing sax, and Victor Brown on bass. Organizers of the outdoor performance give the distanced audience members plenty of room to boogie, and require masks.
Saturday 3/27, $10, 4pm. IX Art Park, 522 Second St., SE. ixartpark.org.
Staying active: As a part of the Charlottesville Player’s Guild’s Amplify season, Leslie M. Scott-Jones’ play Thirty-Seven explores living, surviving, and fighting while being Black in America. Jamahl Garrison-Lowe plays Seth, a young Black man struggling with the decision to become an activist, and he asks himself: What will I risk? What will I gain? What does it mean for me as an individual and a part of society? The virtual production is a deep dive into what it means to fight back.
Through 3/28, $20, 7:30pm. Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, 233 Fourth St., NW. jeffschoolheritagecenter.org.
Local filmmakers Paul Wagner and Ellen Casey Wagner’s The Tunnel details the history of the newly reopened Blue Ridge Tunnel, located near Rockfish Gap.
submitted photo
By Lisa Provence
Nothing happens quickly with the Claudius Crozet Blue Ridge Tunnel. Not its mid-19th-century eight-year construction, nor Nelson County’s nearly 20-year effort to reopen it, nor the documentary recently released by local filmmakers Paul Wagner and Ellen Casey Wagner.
“I thought it would only be a few years, weaving the reopening and the history of the tunnel,” says Academy Award-winner Paul Wagner, who directed The Tunnel. “I had no idea it was going to take almost nine years.”
When it opened in 1858, the hand-dug Blue Ridge Tunnel was the longest tunnel in North America. About 800 Irish immigrants used star drills and black powder in those pre-dynamite days to carve through Rockfish Gap’s granite, dangerous work that, along with cholera, killed dozens and maimed many more.
The idea of intercutting the two stories—the difficult construction of the tunnel and the nearly two-decade effort to reopen it—appealed to Wagner, who describes the film as “the creation and re-creation of the Blue Ridge Tunnel.”
Says Wagner, “We’ve made a lot of historical films, and often there are not visual materials to tell those stories. It was nice in this case to have a present-day story that was directly related to the historical story, that gave a story thread in the present that reverberated against the historical story line.”
The film focuses on the Irish laborers who fled the famine in Ireland to find work and who were considered more expendable than enslaved workers. This isn’t the Wagners first Irish-centric film. Out of Ireland traced eight workers in the United States, one of whom worked on the railroad.
The Irish in America “have been an interest of ours,” says Wagner, and The Tunnel, which became available on YouTube on St. Patrick’s Day, uses students from the Blue Ridge Irish Music School to help tell the story with music and dancing—and a haunting violin solo.
The Tunnel also tells the story of the enslaved workers and the institution of slavery “in such a powerful way,” says Wagner.
Engineer Claudius Crozet, who was hired to construct a 17-mile railroad from Mechum’s River in Albemarle to Waynesboro, wrote to his board to explain having to pay $2,400 compensation for the deaths of two Black workers. The enslaved laborers contracted out to Crozet could not be used for the black powder blasting, not out of concern for the men but because of their value as property.
“It was an insight on the thinking of the institution of slavery and how it worked,” says Wagner.
Filming provided some challenges. The eastern portal had waist-high water. “We’re vaguely outdoorsy, but I do not have hip boots in my closet,” says Wagner. “I’d wade into water up to the waist in the dark holding a camera.”
Despite that discomfort, Wagner says it was not an arduous shoot. “One of the joys was that you could just walk in there and turn your camera on and end up with these beautiful images,” he says. “Between the light and the dark, the water, the brick walls, the stone, and especially the lighting as you walk in and out of the tunnel. The lighting effects are so beautiful without even trying.”
During the 1950s, a 12-foot-thick bulkhead was built in the tunnel for propane storage, and blocked passage through until restoration work began in 2018. Wagner describes the magic of seeing the light at the other end of the tunnel after it was blasted out.
“I had been in there many times and never seen light,” he says. He compares the experience to December 29, 1856, when workers broke through the rock. A newspaper clipping said, “Light now shines through the Blue Ridge.”
“This is what it was like,” says Wagner. “I had a little emotional reaction.”
The image of a tunnel is symbolic in itself and often mentioned in near-death experiences, he says. “There’s something powerful, almost spiritual about the tunnel.”
Along with the history, it’s also a great local story, one that ties into the rails-to-trails movement, tourism, and recreation, and intersects with the Appalachian Trail and the Route 76 bike trail, says Wagner. “Go with your kids, ride your bike, but there is a real dark and tragic side of the story that’s worth remembering.”
The film was a labor of love for the Wagners. “We didn’t raise a lot of money to do it,” he says. “We did it as a side project over the years,” ultimately getting some funding from the Claudius Crozet Blue Ridge Tunnel Foundation, the Virginia Tourism Corporation, and Virginia Humanities.
“We want as many people as possible to see it,” he says. Historical preservation isn’t just about places like Monticello or Montpelier, adds Wagner. “This is about historic preservation, too. It’s the common people. It’s landscapes—natural and manmade—that are also valid to think about as historic sites.”
Since the Blue Ridge Tunnel opened in November, 35,000 people have gone through it, according to former Nelson County supervisor Allen Hale.
“I think the film really captured the spirit of the project and paid tribute to the people who built it,” says Hale. “It was a lost treasure. The film does a wonderful job of re-claiming this lost treasure.”
Sound of Metal, starring Riz Ahmed, is nominated for six Oscars, including best picture, best actor, and best sound.
This year continues to be anything but typical, and yet the march to the 93rd annual Academy Awards ceremony, moved to April 25, feels familiar. While far fewer films played in theaters over the past 12 months, we still have many cinematic achievements to celebrate, and a must-see movie list is a welcome distraction from the doldrums of late winter.
This time around, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selected eight films for best-picture consideration. In the 1930s and ’40s, eight to 12 films were nominated for what was then called the outstanding film of the year. The most nominations was in 1934 with 12 choices in a year that saw the release of It Happened One Night, Cleopatra, The Thin Man, and Imitation of Life. The possible nominees list was honed down to five in 1944, and it stayed that way for 65 years.
In 2009, the Oscars’ governing body increased the number of possible best-picture nominations from five to 10. That begs the question: Why aren’t 10 films nominated each year?
While sweeping historical films are always considered best picture Oscar fodder, this year the smaller personal dramas have a strong showing. Two of these, The Father and Nomadland, share a few similarities—a minimal number of speaking parts, and each film takes on aging in different ways.
The Father portrays a man coping with dementia, and both lead actor Anthony Hopkins and supporting actress Olivia Colman are nominated for their performances in the unsettling film. Frances McDormand is nominated for her starring role in Nomadland. In terms of setting and atmosphere, the films could not be more different. The Father is claustrophobic by design, and Nomadland is without walls, literally.
A third film with nominations for leading actress and best picture is Promising Young Woman. This one takes an unflinching look at misogyny and rape culture, but with a Lisa Frank color palette, and wit so sharp it could cut a man. It is a scathing disassembly of the good guy trope, and easily the most controversial film among the nominations. Director Emerald Fennell is also up for an award, making her and Nomadland director Chloé Zhao only the sixth and seventh women to be put forward as best director in the history of the Academy Awards.
Judas and the Black Messiah and The Trial of the Chicago 7 are historical dramas, and both stories, set in late 1960s Chicago, capture the palpable tension of the time. While Trial features an ensemble cast of men portraying the true events during the trial for anti-Vietnam War activists during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Judas follows the betrayal of Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton.
Sound of Metal is a crushing film starring Riz Ahmed as a punk-metal drummer who suddenly loses his hearing. Incredible performances and immersive sound design help bring the audience closer to the drummer’s struggles. Supporting actor Paul Raci was also nominated, and is considered to be the odds-on favorite.
Though not intended as a palate cleanser, Minari sort of functions as one in this field. The charming film about a young Korean family in pursuit of the American dream is not without traumas—the family struggles with just about everything, but their perseverance and the film’s gorgeous cinematography combine to instill hope.
Perhaps the most classically “Oscar” film on this year’s list is David Fincher’s Mank. Not only does it star previous Oscar winner Gary Oldman, the movie itself is about the making of the Oscar-winning Citizen Kane. Oldman is Herman J. Mankiewicz, the screenwriter for Kane, who struggles with meeting his deadline, pleasing Orson Welles, and combatting alcoholism. It may be a self-indulgent exercise to make a movie about making a movie, but this is a brilliant film that gives us insight into the politics of Tinseltown and its players during the golden age of cinema.
The Academy Awards are, of course, self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, and navel-gazing. But, for better or worse, the awards determine who in Hollywood gets money, power, and attention for their next project. Art and film can nudge national and global cultural trends, putting award winners in a position to guide that conversation, and it’s in this role that the Academy Awards are not purely frivolous.
Both the city and county budgets include cuts for the Charlottesville-Albemarle
Convention & Visitors Bureau, potentially slowing marketing for touristy spots like Monticello. File photo.
The Charlottesville area’s tourism-dependent economy has felt the effects of the pandemic. “From Q4 2019 and Q4 2020, Albemarle County lost 44% employment in the Accommodations and Food Services Sectors,” wrote Eric Terry, president of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association, in a recent letter to Roger Johnson, the chair of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau. Calling the financial and workforce damage “unprecedented,” Terry also noted that hotel occupancies are down 50 percent.
Tourism sector advocates are now upset that both the city and county budgets for the next fiscal year include cuts for the CACVB, a government-funded board tasked with attracting tourists to town.
The proposed CACVB budget from the city for the 2022 fiscal year is $946,848, down $265,843 from this year, and the county budget is $606,281, down $151,135, for a total reduction of $417,000 for FY 2022. The CACVB did receive $120,0000 from the federal CARES pandemic relief act, which went to transition offices from two brick-and-mortar buildings to two mobile visitor centers, one each for county and city.
The CACVB and its supporters say the county stiffed the board by not giving enough lodging tax revenue back to the tourism industry.
The VRLTA points to a state statute that requires any lodging tax in excess of 2 percent be spent solely on tourism. The county charges a 5 percent lodging tax, but has proposed that next year the 3 percent excess be sent to the general fund, to cover the reduced CACVB budget as well as money for cultural community agencies and maintenance costs for the Parks & Recreation Department.
Ann Mallek, a member of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors who represents the county on the CACVB, says the state allows tourism dollars to go to parks “for something that benefits the tourists who come here for recreational purposes.”
“We are in disagreement with the county about whether that is a way to support tourism,” counters Roy Van Doorn, the president of the Charlottesville VRLTA and a partner at City Select, which produces marketing brochures for the city and for UVA.
Not surprisingly, Van Doorn believes the time is now for a marketing blitz. “At this point, all hotels in Virginia Beach are booked to capacity for the summer,” he says. “Those are people who won’t be spending their time and money here.”
Some have suggested that the city and county use federal and local emergency funds to make up for the CACVB’s shortfall.
“I am hopeful the budget for both fiscal years will be made whole through the localities’ receipt of funds from the American Rescue Plan,” says Courtney Cacatian, the chair of the CACVB, referring to the $1.9 trillion federal relief package.
Charlottesville and Albemarle are set to receive over $30 million in total from the plan. Both the city and the county are currently in the process of determining how those funds will be distributed. The county has a public hearing scheduled for April 28.
Mallek says the board’s request for county and city relief has been received and “we are talking about it.”
As the board fights for funding, some have expressed concerns about its effectiveness as a vehicle for helping the tourism industry.
In the letter to CACVB, Terry and Van Doorn faulted the CACVB’s composition as being out of touch with the industry itself. The board’s 15 members include just one representative from the hospitality industry, the Omni’s marketing director. The CEO of Veritas is the only board member who works in the food and drink industry. The board has several elected politicians, as well as various county and city officials. Terry says it is one of very few convention and visitors bureaus in the state with politicians on the board.
The CACVB styles itself as a resource for local businesses. It produces a visitor’s guide and helps wedding and reunion parties find venues for their events.
City Councilor Heather Hill, one of the city government’s representatives on the board, says that even before VRLTA raised concerns, CACVB was working on board development and focused on industry representation and experience, as well as equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Several business owners contacted by C-VILLE didn’t know much about the CACVB or its marketing. River Hawkins, a co-owner at The Bebedero, was not very familiar with the CACVB except for its Visitors Guide, but says “anything that brings people into my restaurant is great.”
Walter Burton, general manager at The Draftsman hotel, says that CACVB has been helpful in keeping communication lines open during the pandemic and has sent out business surveys to find out how people are doing. “They have done a great job keeping people involved,” Burton says.
Van Doorn, a partner in a local marketing firm, insists the answer is more marketing. He thinks there’s a perception that Charlottesville can coast on its reputation as a beautiful, historic, and relaxing location, but that keeping visitors coming will take proactive effort. “McDonald’s is number one, and it’s because they never stop marketing,” he explains. “We can’t just say we’re good and open the doors. It’s going to take perpetual marketing.”
The Breezy Hill development, shown above, would have seen 130 new units constructed off Route 250, but a necessary rezoning didn’t pass the County Board of Supervisors. Courtesy Albemarle County.
As the greater Charlottesville-Albemarle area continues to feel the effects of a housing shortage, a panel of developers argued last week that localities in the area can incentivize new construction through land use reform.
“We intentionally, through our comprehensive plans and our zoning ordinances, limit the supply of land for new homes,” said Charlie Armstrong, vice president of land development at Southern Development, during a panel discussion held by the central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership, a program of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.
Additionally, Armstrong noted that the land set aside for new construction has limits on how many people are allowed per plot: “We intentionally, as a community, limit the density of new homes that is allowed on any one piece of land.”
That’s especially troubling given that a 2019 housing needs study commissioned by the RHP found that housing prices and rents have increased steadily over the years, while wages have not. Since 1980, Albemarle’s Comprehensive Plan has set aside roughly 5 percent of the county’s 726 square miles for residential development. However, much of that land also has to be rezoned for dense development. Since rezoning approvals are no sure thing, the zoning code adds to the cost of each unit.
Fellow panelist Chris Henry of Stony Point Development Group pointed out several recent projects in Albemarle that would have seen denser housing constructed, but which have been stopped or stalled due to opposition from neighbors. That includes Southern Development’s 130-unit Breezy Hill project near Glenmore, which failed to get a necessary rezoning from the Board of Supervisors in January.
“At some point we have to have some tough conversations as a community about how we want to solve that problem,” Henry said. “Where are we going to designate areas that we want to develop in a way that allows the price of housing to come down and more supply to come on line?”
A housing plan under development in Albemarle County calls for reforming the zoning code to allow thousands more units on designated land in the form of triplexes, bungalow courts, and other structures that require more residential density. Albemarle County planners have also added language in the Crozet Master Plan to try to make it easier to build this so-called “missing middle” housing, though some members of the Crozet Community Advisory Council have panned the idea.
“Southern Development would love to be able to produce those kinds of things, but there just aren’t places to produce them,” Armstrong said. “We need to put that missing middle into our zoning ordinances and remove the barriers that exist.”
Henry said another external factor is that many people who end up purchasing homes are moving to the area for the first time, and can outbid those who are seeking to move up the property ladder in a place with limited supply.
“A retiree moving from northern Virginia, for example, has a lot larger budget for a home than a young professional trying to find a job in Charlottesville,” Henry said. “Some of those folks are pushed out to areas like Staunton, Waynesboro, Palmyra, Richmond.”
Henry also said housing is more expensive to build now than when many existing neighborhoods were first developed. Back then, developers did not have to comply with regulations to reduce stormwater runoff or meet requirements to build sidewalks and other public infrastructure.
“Municipalities used to be in the business of building roads,” Henry said. “A lot of that has been pushed off to the private sector for various reasons, a lot of them are reasonable. But it’s added to the cost of homes.”
Another factor in the increasing cost of development is the increasing complexity required to get a bank to finance a project, especially if the proposal includes both commercial and residential elements, noted Andrew Clark, vice president of government affairs for the Home Builders Association of Virginia.
Clark works as a lobbyist to pass legislation in the General Assembly, and this past session focused on a bill to create a housing opportunity tax credit. Such a credit would help fill the financing gap, but opportunities for credits are limited. Various nonprofits and other entities compete for limited low-income housing tax credits provided by the Virginia Housing Development Authority.
Clark said other solutions include making it easier for localities to create tax abatement programs and to waive fees for development. Albemarle County is considering doing the opposite, and increasing fees developers pay in order to cover the cost of processing land use applications. The Board of Supervisors will take that up at a public hearing on April 21. Armstrong also hopes that Governor Ralph Northam will sign a bill directing the state to study how accessory dwelling units might help increase the supply of homes.
Armstrong said if people want change, they have to speak up at local meetings to support additional housing.
“That’s not just at the comprehensive planning level or in the zoning ordinance level,” Armstrong said. “That has to go all the way down to the very small technical policies, standards, and specifications that cities and counties publish that everyone has to follow because that’s where the cost comes in.”
Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney, pictured with Major Jim Mooney (right) and Sergeant Greg Wade during Friday’s virtual press conference, discussed the firing of two white CPD officers who were accused of using excessive force against Black men.
PC: City of Charlottesville
Two white Charlottesville police officers who injured two Black civilians in separate incidents are no longer employed by the department, announced Chief RaShall Brackney at a virtual press conference on Friday.
One officer, Jeffrey Jaeger, was convicted of assault in December. The other, Joseph Wood, was determined to have breached the department’s internal standards when he detained a local musician during a January roadside encounter.
After conducting an internal investigation, the department concluded that Wood violated its policies when he tackled LaQuinn Gilmore to the ground, leaving Gilmore with several injuries. However, the unlawful detainment was not motivated by racial bias, according to the department’s investigation. Gilmore’s lawyer believes CPD did not do a thorough enough investigation to reach that conclusion, however.
While driving down Monticello Avenue on January 11, Gilmore, who is Black, began to feel sick from the antibiotics prescribed to him for a hand infection, so he pulled over.
Body camera footage publicly released by the department shows that Wood parked behind Gilmore, got out of his car, and asked him if he was okay. Gilmore assured Wood that he was fine, and held his phone up to record the encounter. Wood began to walk away, but turned around when Gilmore complained that cops “be playing too much.” He then asked Gilmore for his driver’s license.
Wood “failed to articulate or justify his reasoning to reengage, and reacted solely on being challenged,” explained Brackney.
The footage shows that Gilmore refused to give Wood his license, claiming multiple times that he did nothing wrong. Gilmore soon crossed to the other side of the street and told Wood to stop “harassing” him, but Wood followed him, continued to ask for his license, and called for back-up.
About two minutes later, Wood suddenly slammed Gilmore to the ground. Another officer helped Wood roughly pin down and handcuff Gilmore, ignoring the splint on his injured hand. After sitting Gilmore up, Wood performed a pat down, though he had no legal reason to suspect Gilmore was armed.
As around half a dozen officers stood by, Wood handcuffed Gilmore again when he refused to stop recording the incident, and forced him to stand against the back of his car. The supervisor on duty eventually arrived on the scene, and claimed that Wood had probable cause to follow Gilmore because he could have been driving drunk.
“[Wood] body slammed me on my face for nothing!” Gilmore exclaimed. “My spine is in pieces.”
Once Gilmore gave the officers his social security number, they discovered his license was suspended. He was not charged with a crime, and was allowed to have a friend drive him home.
Though the department ruled that Wood did not use excessive force during the encounter, hospital records show that Gilmore suffered a closed head injury, a concussion, contusions on his legs, acute bilateral lower back pain, and acute post-traumatic headaches.
Brackney would not confirm during the press conference if Wood injured Gilmore. “We don’t substantiate medical claims,” said the chief.
Any force used when affecting an unlawful detention is itself excessive.
Jeffrey Fogel, local attorney
Because Wood initiated the encounter to check on Gilmore, Brackney also claimed that he did not racially profile him.
“There were no racial slurs, ethnic status, or characteristics that were based solely on [Gilmore’s] race for the detention,” she said.
The internal investigation did not sustain Gilmore’s claims that Wood drew his gun during the encounter, or that officers on the scene damaged his cell phone and tail light. However, body camera footage showed that Gilmore’s phone fell on the ground when Wood tackled him.
Gilmore’s lawyer, local criminal justice attorney Jeffrey Fogel, was not satisfied with the department’s findings.
In order to properly assess whether bias was at play during the interaction, “one would need to look at Officer Wood’s history with the department and any other evidence that may touch on his treatment of Black people,” wrote Fogel in an open letter to the CPD. “You did no investigation of this question and offer no reason why Officer Wood acted the way he did.”
In addition, Fogel disputes the finding that Wood unlawfully detained Gilmore but didn’t use excessive force. “Any force used when affecting an unlawful detention is itself excessive,” he wrote.
During the press conference, Brackney also addressed the case of Jeffrey Jaeger, the other officer who was removed from duty. Last December, Jaeger was convicted of misdemeanor assault and battery for slamming Andre Henderson into a wooden fence during a March 3 arrest.
“Wood and Jaeger’s actions highlight the injustices that permeate the fabric of our society and of a criminal legal system that is rooted in supremacy and anti-Black violence,” said Brackney. “Their actions erode the community’s confidence, and elevate fears that Black and Brown communities…will be brutalized, overpoliced, and underprotected.”
“They have harmed this community, and for their actions I am sorry,” Brackney concluded.
Two days after putting up a poster criticizing UVA’s long history of racism and
oppression on her Lawn room door, fourth-year Hira Azher was forced to take it down,
or possibly be kicked out of her residence. PC: Courtesy Hira Azher
UVA’s Lawn is the school’s historic center. Here, prospective students and donors are wowed; here, a select few fourth-years are chosen to live, as a reward for their hard work on behalf of the institution and its associated clubs.
The university would very much like every blade of grass on the Lawn to stay in its place. And so Hira Azher’s signs have cut like a knife.
Last fall, the fourth-year stirred up controversy when she hung a large black sign on her Lawn room door. “Fuck UVA,” read the hand-painted sign. “UVA Operating Costs: KKKops, Genocide, Slavery, Disability, Black and Brown Life.” Other Lawn residents followed her lead and posted similar posters on their doors.
Some alumni and community members urged UVA administration to forcibly take down the signs, claiming they were offensive to Lawn visitors. (Azher says several people harassed her and tried to cut down her poster.) After consulting with its legal team, the university ruled that the signs were protected under the First Amendment and should stay up, though it also changed the policy for Lawn room door signs moving forward. Starting next year, their size will be restricted.
UVA President Jim Ryan penned a letter to the school community entitled “Great and Good, Revisited,” in which he wrote that “personally, I find the signs deeply disappointing,” but that “I believe it is a matter of principle and the obligation, especially of universities, to protect speech even when it is offensive.”
However, when Azher, a Muslim woman of color, put another poster criticizing the university on her door earlier this month, Housing and Residence Life accused her of inciting violence. She was told to take the sign down—or possibly be kicked out of her room.
“I was just really angry and frustrated,” says Azher. “This is so obviously not an incitement of violence.”
The second sign is a bright red poster showing the Rotunda surrounded by flames, its clock replaced with a camera shutter. Below the Rotunda is a camera, belt buckle, University Police Department badge, gun, and a banner stating, “Burn it all down!” A Ku Klux Klan robe, along with the Grim Reaper holding a scythe and wearing a mask, loom behind the building. Underneath the scene is a quote from civil rights activist Kwame Ture: “In order for non-violence to work, your opponent must have a conscience,” followed by Azher’s take: “UVA has none!”
Angered by the murder of Xzavier Hill and other acts of police brutality in the Charlottesville area, as well as the surge in COVID cases following fraternity and sorority rush, Azher put the poster on her door on March 11. Two days later, she says a university dean and a facilities management employee showed up, and told her they had to take down her sign. (Azher opted to take it down herself, so it would not be thrown away.) They also handed her a letter from Housing and Residence Life, claiming the sign “advocates physical violence” and was not protected speech.
“The threatening nature of this Lawn sign is particularly apparent in the face of recent history, including the fear and intimidation brought to the Lawn by torch-bearing rioters on August 11, 2017, the violence that continued the following day, and the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol that resulted in several deaths,” reads the letter.
“If you post this or a similar sign on your door in the future, you will be subject to further discipline, including potential removal from University housing,” the letter ends.
Azher argues that UVA completely misrepresented the meaning of her poster, which she says criticizes the school’s surveillance of students and the community, history of white supremacy and police violence, and its mishandling of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. UVA “does not care about the violence it inflicts upon the Charlottesville community and UVA students, especially on the most marginalized of those groups,” Azher says. “The [quote] combined with the ‘Burn it all down’ is a statement that this system entirely needs to be shut down.”
Virginia ACLU Executive Director Claire Guthrie Gastañaga also disagrees with UVA’s rationale for removing Azher’s poster.
In order to be exempted from the First Amendment, “speech must be ‘directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action,’” says Gastañaga. “[The poster] does not appear to be intended to produce ‘imminent lawless action,’ and neither is a poster with a quotation standing alone likely to ‘produce’ such action.”
A UVA spokesman did not respond to request for comment by press time.
The [Ture quote] combined with the ‘Burn it all down’ is a statement that
this system entirely needs to be shut down
Hira Azher, UVA fourth-year
Second-year Ella Tynch, UVA Young Democratic Socialists of America communications chair, accuses the university of being hypocritical when deciding what is acceptable and unacceptable on the Lawn. There will soon be additional restrictions on Lawn room signs, but “no restrictions on whether or not students can run naked down the Lawn,” Tynch says.
“It’s very clear that these restrictions are in response to a specific leaning [and] political opinion,” says Tynch, referencing last year’s “Fuck UVA” Lawn posters.
This is not the first time this spring that the university has tried to silence Azher’s acts of protest. On February 28, she put a poster on her door that was almost identical to the one HRL forced her to take down this month, but did not picture flames surrounding the Rotunda. The poster was torn down in the middle of the night the same day, she says.
Azher assumed a student had removed the original sign, but when HRL asked her to take down the recreated poster several weeks later, the residence administrators informed her they had removed the first sign, too.
“They had never told me why it was taken down, or that they had taken what was mine and I had worked so hard to create,” claims Azher. “This time maybe because I was closing the shutters at night, they weren’t able to take it down discreetly.”
Though Azher does not believe the university had legal grounds to remove her posters, she stresses that the issue is “so much bigger” than freedom of speech.
“[Freedom of speech] has historically always protected hate speech and white supremacy. It has never helped or protected us when we’re fighting for liberation and revolution,” she says. “It’s the same way those Unite the Right rally ‘protesters’ were protected.”
“What will actually be liberating and will actually help us is by focusing on what the issues are and what the sign is raising,” she adds.
Before graduating, Azher plans to put up one last sign—but will have to make sure it will not cost her her spot on the Lawn.
“Regardless of a little sign or not, I know that this resistance to UVA and these issues that have been brought up by people before me will continue to be brought up after me,” she says.
