Ready to rumba: Before settling into a style influenced by the gypsies of Southern France, self-taught guitarist Vincent Zorn studied music in various global outposts, including Spain, Turkey, and Mexico. The Charlottesville-based musician, who frequently plays with his duo Berto & Vincent and tours with flamenco dance band Last Caravan, will perform his lively, mesmerizing gypsy rumba solo during the Live on the Hill series.
Sunday 3/7, Free, 1pm. Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards, 5022 Plank Rd., North Garden. pippinhillfarm.com.
Summer better: Nothing says summer like a ripe tomato, fresh from the vine. But for novice gardeners, growing one may not be as easy as it looks. Ira Wallace, owner/worker with the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, talks viewers through trellising, pruning, mulching, watering, preventing disease, controlling pests, and amending the soil in her virtual lecture Better Backyard Tomatoes, part of Piedmont Master Gardeners spring series. Wallace speaks from decades of gardening experience, and her expertise is Virginia specific, as evidenced by her books The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast and the new .
Comic energy: When it comes to fine art, comic books have long been excluded, but anyone who’s curled up with a good one knows they can be creative masterpieces. With their virtual series The Art in Life, The Fralin Museum of Art and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection are on a quest to remove the arbitrary and often unhelpful labels that plague Western conceptualizations of art. In the latest installment, illustrators J. Gonzo, Shilpa Davé, and Jonathan Marks Barravecchia discuss the legacy, ingenuity, and creativity of comic books.
If not for the current pandemic, Now & Zen chef/owner Toshi Sato would be planning a party to celebrate the restaurant’s 10th anniversary this month. Instead, he and his staff will continue to offer limited, socially distanced indoor dining and takeout.
Photo by Zack Wajsgras
By Will Ham
Just 10 days after opening Now & Zen in 2011, chef/owner Toshi Sato’s hometown on the east coast of Japan was struck by a devastating tsunami. The disaster in Kesennuma was dubbed the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the seismic activity destroyed large parts of the region, spilling fuel from the town’s fishing fleet, which caught fire and burned for four straight days.
“It was such a chaotic moment,” says Toshi, “I couldn’t reach anybody for multiple weeks, and, as the restaurant had just opened, I was having to work day and night. Fortunately, all my family and friends were okay and they still live there in Kesennuma.”
It was a difficult and uncertain time for Sato, but he persevered by focusing on his new restaurant and connecting with the community by creating food that he loved. A decade later, Now & Zen is a successful, beloved Charlottesville restaurant, and Sato finds himself once more calling on his resilience during another disaster—the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite unexpected challenges, Sato considers himself fortunate to have realized a lifelong dream of bringing his culinary creativity to his own restaurant. The chef was in graduate school studying constitutional law when he realized that wasn’t his true calling, so he transferred to a Japanese cooking school. After a few years apprenticing in Tokyo restaurants, he emigrated to Charlottesville in 1987 and, through a mutual friend, was introduced to Ken Mori of Eastern Standard Catering. Together they opened Tokyo Rose, where Toshi spent seven years refining his skills. Sato then joined the kitchen staff at Keswick Hall, where he stayed for 17 years before striking out on his own to open Now & Zen.
Sato says that in Charlottesville he’s found an encouraging and vibrant culinary community that helped him foster his talent and passion for traditional Japanese cooking. “I love my job and living near nature,” he says. “I didn’t even think about moving to another place.”
And foodies keep coming back to Sato’s place for his adventurous signature dishes, such as the tuna carpaccio, a green salad topped with thinly sliced tuna, and a citrus-wasabi vinaigrette, and the aburi salmon, a sweet and spicy seared salmon nigiri prepared with maple-soy glaze, cracked black pepper, and fresh jalapeños.
“Our menu is so different compared to other Japanese restaurants,” says Sato. “I hope I can keep creating interesting and original dishes.”
Employee Brian Moon, says it’s Sato’s life experience that makes him, “the best boss I’ve ever had, a great person. …From coming to Charlottesville from Japan decades ago, working in various restaurants, to eventually starting a successful establishment, I think his story is wonderful.”
Distributing newspapers is hard enough without people leaving explosive devices next to our boxes! PC: Eze Amos
Budget business
New City Manager Chip Boyles has released a proposed budget for the 2022 fiscal year.
Even after coronavirus revenue losses, the $190.6 million plan is just a hair smaller—around $500,000 less—than the current operating budget. The new budget does not raise taxes, and includes budget increases for multiple departments and commissions.
The Charlottesville Police Department would receive an additional nearly $900,000, boosting its budget to almost $19 million.
According to Finance and Debt Manager Krissy Hammill, the department requested more funding because its body-worn cameras can no longer be paid for by the Capital Improvement Program. In addition, funds will go toward computers officers use while in the field, which are “old and outdated.”
Chip Boyles PC: Supplied photo
The proposed budget also reflects a pay increase for several city departments from fiscal year 2020.
The Police Civilian Review Board will receive an extra $200,000, which will be used to hire an executive director. And $225,000 will be set aside for hiring the first-ever deputy city manager for racial equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Nearly $7 million will be spent on affordable housing initiatives, including the redevelopment of public housing sites.
Because Boyles has only been on the job since February 15, most work on the budget had been done without him. However, his comments and directions were “very well received,” he said during a press conference on Friday.
The next budget work session is March 4, and the plan will be finalized in April.
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Quote of the week
“If the police can’t demonstrate where the dollars are going, then cut them off. Otherwise you’re being extorted [by] an armed group, and you can’t hold them accountable.”
—City resident Brad Slocum on the lack of transparency in the Charlottesville Police Department budget
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In brief
Bombs away
The Virginia State Police Bomb Squad was called to the Downtown Mall on Saturday afternoon when a suspicious package was spotted on Fourth Street. The device was in fact explosive, and the bomb squad executed a small controlled detonation. Law enforcement is searching for more clues about the provenance of the device.
Internal issues
The Charlottesville Police Department has investigated the Charlottesville Police Department, and found that the Charlottesville Police Department was not guilty of racial profiling in a January incident in which white Officer Joseph Wood detained Black local musician LaQuinn Gilmore by the side of the road. The department’s internal investigation process found that Wood detained Gilmore unlawfully, though the report says the “takedown” move that sent Gilmore to the hospital was executed with legal technique. Gilmore was not charged with any crime before or after the altercation.
Officers cleared in Xzavier Hill shooting
The Virginia State Police troopers who shot and killed 18-year-old Xzavier Hill were justified in their actions, ruled a grand jury on Friday. Along with the verdict, the police released dash cam footage of the incident, which protesters and family members had been calling for since news of Hill’s death first broke. In the footage, Hill can be seen speeding down I-64 before pulling off onto the side of the road after officers began pursuit. Two officers then approached Hill’s car with their guns drawn. It is impossible to tell from the footage what Hill was doing inside the car. Hill was shot before the car door ever opened.
Protesters from Black Lives Matter 757 gather to demonstrate for Ty Gregory at Market Street Park on February 26. Gregory lost an eye after a confrontation with police earlier this year. PC: Zack Wajsgras
Woman struck by car during protest
On Friday, before the grand jury verdict was released, protesters from Black Lives Matter 757 marched through town calling for racial justice. As the protesters moved through the intersection of 10th and West Main, a truck drove through a red light and hit a woman in a crosswalk. The woman, who was not affiliated with the protest, sustained minor injuries. After the incident, Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney was critical of the protesters, saying in a statement, “The behaviors exhibited today do not unify the community or keep the community safe.”
UVA students who have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 are quarantined at local hotels, including the Fairfield Inn. PC: Staff photo
More than 1,300 UVA students have contracted coronavirus this semester. Though cases have declined since last month’s controversial fraternity and sorority rush events, over 300 students currently have the virus.
Per the university’s coronavirus guidelines, students who live in school-run housing facilities and test positive for the virus are moved to on-campus isolation dorms for 10 days. And those who’ve been in close contact with someone with COVID-19 are put into quarantine housing: an assortment of local hotels. (Students who live off-Grounds are required to isolate or quarantine inside their residence. They may also go home if it’s safe to do so, as can on-Grounds students.)
From the moment they found out they’d been exposed to the virus, some students report receiving inconsistent communication from the university.
After one of her close contacts tested positive, first-year Zulma Escobar claims that she and four friends (who also had been exposed to the virus) all received different instructions when they contacted Student Health. Though Escobar was advised to get tested the following day, her friends were not tested at all before checking in to their quarantine hotel.
“Sometimes things were just poorly communicated, both to the people trying to help us and to us,” says Escobar.
While students in isolation have roommates, those in quarantine are in rooms by themselves and are not allowed to interact with others. However, these safety guidelines are not always enforced.
At his hotel, first-year Patrick Cloud says he heard students congregating in rooms and hallways, and even smelled marijuana at times. He called the front desk and the dean on call to report his concerns, but he says they both claimed there was nothing they could do about it.
For many students, the biggest downside to quarantine has been the food, which is delivered twice a day by a catering company. The meals often arrive cold, and microwaves can be hard to come by, report students. Those with restrictive diets or food allergies may not even be able to eat them.
Sometimes things were just poorly communicated both to the people trying to help us and to us.
Zulma Escobar, UVA first-year
First-year Alexa Williams says her suitemate, who cannot eat most carbs, contacted the university about her dietary restrictions and was told to order her own groceries.
“Not all students have access to those resources, so it’s a little concerning,” says Williams.
Another student says she lost 20 pounds during her hotel stay because the quality of the food left her eating just once a day.
“The lunches have been pretty sparse. [One day] all I got was a banana and 50 calorie salad,” says fourth-year Quintin, who asked that we not use his last name. “It’s been a couple times where I’ve had to call friends to ask them if they can drop off Taco Bell or something, just to avoid nasty delivery fees.”
“We work hard to accommodate student needs,” says UVA spokesman Brian Coy. “If issues arise, we ask that they contact the university so that we can address them as quickly as possible. We recognize isolation or quarantine are difficult for our students, and our team works hard to make it as comfortable as possible.”
To improve quarantine conditions, students ultimately hope the university will provide clearer and faster communication, and completely revamp its meal program to meet all dietary needs.
“I don’t know anyone who didn’t order food or groceries at least once,” says one first year after a quarantine stay. “It’s ridiculous.”
The Kitty Foster Memorial, located on UVA’s South Lawn, is a stop on the Liberation and Freedom Days Reparations Run/Walk. PC: Staff photo
As I made my way down Jefferson Park Avenue, I felt a sense of familiarity. Just two years ago, I took the bus this way almost every day, praying I would make it to my classes at the University of Virginia on time. But that familiarity faded to sadness once I arrived at my destination: the Kitty Foster Memorial.
While attending UVA, I learned a bit about the oddly shaped metal structure that symbolizes the former home of Catherine “Kitty” Foster. After being freed from slavery in 1820, Foster purchased two acres of land south of the university in a Black community called Canada. She bought the property in 1833, lived there until 1863, and passed the land down to her descendants. Only now, though, did I realize that Foster, along with 31 other African Americans, was buried in the rolling mounds next to her memorial. For years, I passed their unmarked graves without giving them a second thought.
Foster’s resting place is one of many overlooked facets of local Black history on the Reparations Fun Run/Walk that’s being held during Liberation and Freedom Days, which celebrates the arrival of Union army troops in Charlottesville, and the emancipation of over 14,000 enslaved people on March 3, 1865.
Hosted by the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, the 9.03-mile race takes participants past more than a dozen Black historical sites, as well as seven Black-owned businesses. The organizers’ goal is to raise $45,000 to support six local Black-led organizations: African American Teaching Fellows, the Jefferson School’s teacher training program, the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP’s youth council, Vinegar Hill Magazine’s Black business advertising fund, We Code Too, and 101.3 JAMZ.
“We tried to pick [institutions] that were, number one, led by Black people, number two, engaged in their communities, and number three, advancing the city’s desire for equity,” says Andrea Douglas, the Jefferson School’s executive director. “And wanting to do it in a way that’s significant, so that we’re not just putting on a band-aid.”
Participants can complete the race individually, and on their own time. (No pressure to do all nine miles in one day.) Direct donations can also be made on the event’s website.
But the run/walk is more than a fundraiser—it’s also a crucial step towards repairing the centuries of harm inflicted upon Black people in Charlottesville, explains Douglas
“How do you bring a community to understand it’s full and complete history?” says Douglas. “You cause them to engage with those spaces that tell more of that history than what we have been typically exposed to…[They] describe very much the harm that was created.”
The race begins at the Jefferson School, a Black grade school from 1894 to 1926 that became Charlottesville’s first Black high school until Jackson P. Burley opened in 1951. After the end of Massive Resistance, the school continued as an integrated junior high.
It’s a little tougher for African Americans to get out there, get a loan, get businesses started, and get the clientele to come in.
Angelic Jenkins, owner of Angelic’s Kitchen
Following the route map, which explains the historical significance of each stop, participants pass multiple churches, like Pilgrim Baptist and Mount Zion First African Baptist, safe havens and organizing spaces for the Black community since emancipation. The route also passes two of the few recreational areas Black residents had access to under segregation: Booker T. Washington Park and Benjamin Tonsler Park.
In addition to Foster’s former home, several burial grounds and memorials are part of the route, such as Daughters of Zion Cemetery. Established in 1873 near what is now IX Art Park, it is believed to contain more than 600 graves, including important Black Charlottesville leaders like Tonsler. Just a short walk across the Downtown Mall, the Court Square auction block—which has yet to be replaced by the city, after a white resident threw the original sidewalk plaque into the James River last year—memorializes thousands of enslaved people bought and sold there.
Walkers and runners are encouraged to support the route’s Black-owned restaurants, which are all located in (or nearby) historically Black neighborhoods: Royalty Eats, Mel’s Cafe, Pearl Island Catering, Marie Bette Cafe & Bakery, and Angelic’s Kitchen.
After operating a food truck for two years, Charlottesville native Angelic Jenkins, owner of soul-food eatery Angelic’s Kitchen, opened her first brick and mortar space inside Dairy Market in December. When she found out her new location would be a part of the reparations race, she was proud and honored.
“It’s a little tougher for African Americans to get out there, get a loan, get businesses started, and get the clientele to come in,” says Jenkins, who is known for her fried fish made with a signature seafood breading.
Now more than ever, Jenkins says it’s important to uplift Black-owned businesses.
“In order for us to be successful and grow, we need support,” she says. “We don’t have enough minority-owned businesses around here, and if the younger generation sees that we are continuing to grow, [hopefully] they’re going to say if that person can do it, I can do it too.”
The Liberation and Freedom Days Reparations Run/Walk ends March 6.
