Month: May 2021

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Culture

PICK: Live Recipe Master Class

Garlic gets things sizzling in your home kitchen as you follow Antwon Brinson’s Ethiopian cooking class. Photo: file photo

Vegan Delight: The smell of garlic cooking can be pretty irresistible—just don’t let it burn! Chef Antwon Brinson of AB Concepts guides you carefully through the process of making the popular Ethiopian dish Bakela Alicha with Moroccan Chermoula Sauce during the next installment in his Live Recipe Master Classes series. The creamy dish makes white beans the star of the meal, accompanied by a sauce made with fresh herbs and garlic. The class includes a shopping list, recipe, and video recording. 

Thursday, 5/27, $29.99, 5:30pm. culinaryconceptsab.com/classes. 

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News

Lessons learned?

The graph above shows a breakdown of UVA faculty by race and gender. Data: UVA

By Amelia Delphos

Last week, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones was denied the position of the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the University of North Carolina’s Hussman School of Journalism. The tenured position seemed like a natural fit for Hannah-Jones, a UNC alum and one of the developers of the 1619 Project for The New York Times. Despite her backing by the university’s dean, chancellor, and faculty, UNC’s Board of Trustees decided to offer Hannah-Jones a five-year, non-tenured appointment following public and private outcries from conservatives.     

Supporters of Hannah-Jones have been quick to point out the racism that appeared to be at play in her tenure denial. All previous Knight Chairs had been offered tenure, and all previous Knight Chairs were white. 

Tenure denial to Black and Brown faculty is not unique to the University of North Carolina. In the Spring of 2020, 38 percent of UVA faculty participated in an inter-university research study “dedicated to improving outcomes in faculty recruitment, development, and retention.” Among underrepresented minority faculty, tenure policies and tenure expectations clarity were ranked as weaknesses of working at UVA. 

Then, in the summer of 2020, the university made national headlines. Paul Harris, a former professor in UVA’s School of Education, was denied tenure after five years in the department by an all-white review board. He appealed his tenure denial to the provost’s office and, after a months-long process and national attention, the university reversed the decision.  

The appeal took a toll on the Harris family. “Just the amount of time that it took us,” says Harris. “There was a lot of time and energy and emotional currency that we had to expend unnecessarily.” 

This month, Harris decided to leave the university for a position at Penn State’s College of Education. 

According to Harris, Penn State was an appealing university. “Dean Kimberly Lawless’ vision at the College of Education is one of building an anti-racist culture, and my work situates incredibly well within that larger vision and scope,” he says. “I felt confident that my work would be valued here and that I could add value to what’s happening.”

“This isn’t just UVA,” Harris says. “This is at many institutions across the country. There can be a reckoning with how structures and systems and policies in place perpetuate the status quo that privilege whiteness and marginalize racial minorities, particularly Black and Brown faculty.”

Since 1987, UVA or UVA-affiliated groups have released over 15 reports detailing the university’s shortcomings when it comes to racial equity. In 2020, as protests erupted around the country in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, UVA President Jim Ryan appointed a new Racial Equity Task Force to address racial equity concerns at the university. 

“We were in this particular moment in time in our country in which a number of things felt different,” says Kevin McDonald, a member of the task force and UVA’s vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion. “But there was definitely a level of racial reckoning and reflection, both personally and organizationally, that made our efforts feel a bit different.”

In addition to McDonald, the task force, which released its findings in the August 2020 Audacious Future Report, is made up of Ian Solomon, dean of the Frank Batten School for Public Policy and Leadership, and Barbara Brown-Wilson, assistant professor of urban and environmental planning and co-founder and faculty director of UVA’s Equity Center. The report outlined new goals for underrepresented faculty recruitment, promotion, and retention. 

The first recommendation—which has been completed—was to endow the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies. Most of the money from the endowment will go toward the hiring of new faculty and postdoctoral fellows for the institute.

The task force also recommended doubling the number of underrepresented faculty at UVA by 2030. Although this recommendation has yet to be completed, the university is making strides to meet this goal. A $5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation is dedicated to the growth of racial equity programs, funding post-doctoral fellowships, and supporting faculty teaching and research focused on racial equity. Additionally, the money will be used to build faculty and curriculum around the subject of race, place, and equity. The grant will allow the College of Arts and Sciences to hire more faculty, especially minority faculty.

“We anticipate that these openings, all focused on race and equity, will attract and sustain a strong community of BIPOC scholars and teachers who can contribute to real, lasting transformation at UVA,” said a UVA spokesman in a statement. 

“We continue to unapologetically recognize the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” says McDonald. “There’s an intentionality to our work. We want our equity walk to match our equity talk.”

Categories
News

In brief: Walker running, Students must get vax

Photo: Eze Amos

Walker running again 

Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker officially announced on Friday that she’s seeking re-election to City Council in the fall. The announcement does not come as a surprise: Walker has hinted multiple times in recent months that she planned to run for a second four-year term on the council. 

During a 28-minute Facebook Live broadcast, Walker spoke about the fight for racial justice that has driven her work on council.

“As a Black woman sitting in this position, especially the last two years, I have been very exhausted,” Walker said. “Even though I’ve always been ready to battle with people, it’s been a challenge to be under attack all the time. But I am a fighter in my spirit.”

Walker said she decided to seek reelection because she felt she had a duty to her constituents, particularly young Black people. “What will giving up show people who have been inspired because you’ve been here?” she asked herself before throwing her hat in again. 

“I am tired, but we have to continue,” said Walker. “This is not just about us. The whole world is watching.”

Who’s she running against?

Strap in, this can get a little confusing. Two seats on Charlottesville’s five-person City Council will be up for grabs in the fall. In November, four candidates will compete for those seats: Mayor Walker, an independent, will run against another independent, 23-year-old entrepreneur Yasmine Washington, and two Democratic candidates. 

Those Dems will be chosen at a primary on June 8. Three candidates are running for the two Democratic nominations: School board member Juandiego Wade, UVA planner Brian Pinkston, and entrepreneur Carl Brown. 

Check back next week for a full preview of the June 8 Democratic primaries at both the local and state levels.

“More than anything, I’ll miss the fights. At a posh school like UVA, Sheetz provided a place to see the real side of people at night.”

—UVA student Sam Beidler, speaking to The Cavalier Daily about the announcement that the Sheetz on University Ave is closing

News briefs

Class of 2021 says farewell

The second of UVA’s back-to-back graduation ceremonies went off without a hitch last weekend, as the Class of 2021 took a well-deserved walk down the Lawn. We’re happy for the students—and also happy that we’ll be able to get a restaurant reservation this weekend.

Photo: Kristen Finn

Students must get vaccinated, says UVA 

UVA will require its students to get vaccinated before returning to Grounds in the fall, the university announced last week. Students have until July 1 to share their proof of vaccination with the school health system. Dozens of colleges and universities around the country have announced similar policies, including liberal arts schools like William & Mary and large state universities like the University of Michigan.

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News

Squad drama

The B.U.C.K. Squad has held child-focused community events in recent months. Supplied photo.

Last December, 32-year-old Jamarcus “Buck” Washington was found dead in the South First Street public housing complex, a victim of rising gun violence in Charlottesville’s predominantly Black neighborhoods over the past year. Pained by his friend’s murder, Pertelle Gilmore contacted his mentor Herb Dickerson, and recruited a handful of people in the city’s Black community to intervene in conflicts before they turned into deadly shootings. The group met with Washington’s family, and received permission to name themselves the B.U.C.K. Squad, an acronym for Brothers United to Cease the Killing.    

But now Washington’s father, Darnell Burton, is accusing the squad of dishonoring his son, claiming it is misusing donations.

“I thought they were going to use the money donated to them to do a good thing for my son,” says Burton. “But [the money] is not being used properly.”

“They’re buying all kinds of sweatsuits, traveling, going out to eat—just personal stuff,” he says.

Burton thinks the group does not focus enough on gun violence among adult men, pointing to several events the B.U.C.K. Squad hosted for children in public housing communities over the past few months.

“Kids is not out here killing each other,” he says. “These are adults killing each other.”

Burton also accuses multiple members of not answering his calls, and refusing to give his family any financial support. He urges the squad to change its name—and says if members refuse, he will sue them.

“Stop using my son’s name and honor my son. They’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” he says. “I want this to stop as soon as possible.”

B.U.C.K Squad associate director Herb Dickerson claims the accusations are based on “no facts whatsoever.” Though the group started off as a volunteer effort, it has received enough donations from the community to pay members a bi-weekly salary.

“We don’t have access to no money, at no time ever,” says Dickerson. All donations are immediately turned into the group’s accountant, Tommy Everett, who then distributes the paychecks. Most of the money received goes toward salaries, but the group is also saving to purchase a physical headquarters.

“We live just like everyone who works and has a job,” Dickerson says. “[Burton’s] thinking that we’re making a lot of money, when I work two full-time jobs.”

In response to Burton’s gripes with the group’s custom gear, Dickerson says their shirts were made for free by member Bryan Page, who designs clothes professionally.

Dickerson says the squad invited Burton to become a member and participate in their work, but he hasn’t shown up. They also gave his family a significant amount of support after Washington’s death, when Burton told Dickerson he could not afford to pay for his son’s funeral.

“I spoke to my director [at The Haven], the funeral home director, and some people in the community that would help,” Dickerson says. “Me and Pertelle raised $14,000 to give [Washington] the burial that the family wanted…and we arranged the funeral.”

“To this day, we haven’t seen where that money even went. That hasn’t gone towards the funeral at all,” he adds. “And we never got a thank you.”

Though the squad’s every day work involves talking down groups of young men, its members hope to end the cycle of violence in Black communities by hosting events and programs for kids.

“Our main focus is the children, because if you can catch them at an early age, you can reclaim their brain to think another way, other than what they see in the streets or in their household,” says Dickerson. “And we work with all of the adults…to direct them to the right resources that can help them.”

Dickerson emphasizes that the squad does not plan on changing its name, which is now copyrighted. However, he says they would try to give Burton additional financial support if he came to them with a specific financial request, like rent assistance.

“We’re not using Buck’s name—we’re using Brothers United to Cease the Killing. This is just an [acronym] for that,” he says. “We don’t owe [Washington’s family] anything. If anything, they owe us.”

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News

Our backyards

The proposed Future Land Use Map shows were planners believe the city could benefit from zoning that allows increased density.

Lots of people want to live in Charlottesville. To help meet the demand for housing throughout the city, leaders have hired Arlington-based consulting firm Rhodeside & Harwell to rewrite Charlottesville’s Comprehensive Plan, a document that guides land-use policy in the city. As part of that process, the consultants are now taking public comment through June 13 on a colorful document known as the Future Land Use Map.   

The map “sets the stage for the city’s long-term vision of how it’s going to grow,” says Ron Sessoms of Rhodeside & Harwell. “You can think of this as the 10,000-foot view of the city, defining where there are opportunities for growth.” 

Some residents feel the process was rushed and that the proposed map would allow for too much new density. Others say the map doesn’t go far enough, and the proposed plans aren’t proactive enough.

“We’re really looking to increase the availability of housing in neighborhoods that have had what we’re calling more exclusionary zoning, that’s really limited to single-family uses,” says project manager Jennifer Koch. “At the same time, we do not want to increase pressure on neighborhoods that may be at risk for displacement, including lower-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods where people were displaced previously.”

It’s important to note that this land-use map is created to recommend policies for a subsequent zoning rewrite. This is not a final zoning map. Once the land-use map is adopted—currently expected to happen later this summer—the more granular zoning evaluation will begin. For now, the conversation is about the map, a purely advisory document.  

There are over 15,600 separate parcels of property, and each is represented on the map by a color. That color tells planners, builders, and the general public what level of development is desired in the state-mandated Comprehensive Plan. 

Right now, more than half of the city is rated  “low-density residential.” Under the draft map, many of those areas would remain low density, though the map recommends zoning changes to allow up to three units per lot on the large swathes of the city that are currently zoned R-1, allowing only single families. The name of this category would change to General Residential. 

The draft plan also creates a new category called Medium-Intensity Residential, that recommends zoning to allow multi-unit buildings with between four to 12 units. This would allow construction of row houses, townhouses, and other housing types known colloquially as “the missing middle.” 

Under the draft map, General Residential would make up 39.4 percent and Medium-Intensity Residential would be 14.4 percent. Many of the areas designated under the new category are along main thoroughfares such as Cherry Avenue, Rugby Road, and Grove Road. Other neighborhoods, like 10th and Page, remain essentially untouched by the new map.

Diana Dale, a resident of the Martha Jefferson neighborhood and member of a steering committee overseeing the Cville Plans Together Initiative, says her neighborhood association supports upzoning but isn’t sure why some neighborhoods were chosen for the possibility of increased density.

“The entire board is totally in agreement with the strategy of eliminating R-1 across the city and allowing for this soft density approach where you’re allowing for flexibility in in-fill,” Dale says. “When you look at this map, it’s clear that certain areas have been selected to carry the higher medium densities. When people look at this map, there isn’t any narrative about why these areas were selected.” 

Emily Dreyfus, an organizer with the Legal Aid Justice Center, says the map needs to be refined to further demonstrate the city’s commitment to adding density to wealthy  single-family neighborhoods.

“This does not go far enough in terms of integrating neighborhoods that have been historically exclusive,” Dreyfus says. “We all knew it would come down to this kind of debate—people who live in those neighborhoods not wanting to see change.” 

Though the current engagement period is only for the land-use map and draft text, a subcontractor called Code Studio has been hired to work on the subsequent zoning rewrite. One consultant says one single color on the draft Future Land Use Map will not result in one single type of zoning.

“There would be two, three, four implementing zoning districts that might all have appropriate strategies for different types of the community, but those can’t quite be figured out until we can understand where they are likely to be applied,” says Lee Einsweiler. 

Einsweiler says he is hopeful to have a first draft of a land-use map to work off in the near future, and that there will be other opportunities for feedback. The current schedule shows adoption of the plan by the end of the summer, followed by work on the zoning rewrite. The next City Council will vote on that plan, which is currently scheduled to be adopted in the summer of 2022.

Planning Commissioner Lyle Solla-Yates says the goal of the plan is to figure out how much the city can build in the future.

“The way I think that the Planning Commission is thinking about the Future Land Use Map, which may be different from anyone else, is that it’s the outer envelope of what is possible,” says Solla-Yates. “It isn’t destiny. It isn’t what the city is forcing. It’s just the maximum we are imagining.” 

Dale says she and many others would like a delay in the process, to make up for a year where the pandemic distracted people from local issues.

An online petition from Barracks/Rugby residents to “slow down the vote” has garnered 210 signatures, though it’s not clear from the petition exactly what vote the signers are concerned about. They say they are specifically worried about the inclusion of two mixed-use nodes in their neighborhood.

Koch says a delay is being considered, but notes that the next important date on the project’s timeline is a June 29 work session with the Planning Commission. If you’re interested in commenting, email engage@cvilleplanstogether.com.

Updated 5/26: On May 25, Rhodeside & Harwell extended the deadline for the public comment period from May 31 to June 13.

Categories
News

Finding the answers

While serving as a magistrate judge in Virginia’s 23rd judicial circuit, Ashley Reynolds Marshall heard a case that made her rethink her entire career. An undocumented woman, who had fled violence in Honduras, needed protection from her abusive husband. Marshall offered to have the husband kicked out of the house and issue a restraining order, but the woman decided against it—she was terrified her husband would hurt her or their children, or call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to get her deported. And because her husband had not allowed her to learn English, the woman could not start the naturalization process to become a United States citizen.

“I couldn’t sit with the fact that because of her trauma, she wasn’t able to go through a process that she so desperately wanted to do, and there wasn’t anything I could do,” says Marshall, who was born and raised in Roanoke. “I realized that I wanted to be able to impact people before I saw them in the magistrate’s office, where my options were limited.”

So Marshall cast aside her black robe and picked up a master’s in public administration from Virginia Tech, and then she threw herself into public service, working with several nonprofits in the Roanoke area. Now, a decade after leaving the courtroom, she hopes to further address the needs and concerns of marginalized communities as Charlottesville’s first deputy city manager for racial equity, diversity, and inclusion.

“To see a community have a recognition that [racial equity] is an important consideration when you are trying to figure out how to best support your citizens was really impressive,” says Marshall, whose first day on the job was earlier this month. “It doesn’t happen very often. I really just felt moved to throw my hat in the ring.”

The process of creating the position began in August 2019, but hiring was slowed by COVID. 

Marshall will monitor Charlottesville’s new Office of REDI, Human Services and Social Services departments, Office of Human Rights, and Police Civilian Review Board, ensuring the city is tackling racial equity issues both within its own government and in the community. 

The newcomer describes her position as almost like a “blank slate.” 

“They want [me] to be able to dig into the community and figure out where it needs to go, what’s missing, and how this particular role can help,” says Marshall. “The city is not saying we have all the answers—it’s saying let’s find out the answers.”

“I get the really distinct honor and pleasure of interacting with members of the community to find out how I can be of service,” she adds. “Getting to be someone’s voice is such a privilege.”

Marshall received a B.A. in psychology from Hollins University, as well as a J.D from William & Mary Law School. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the Center for Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech.

While earning her M.P.A., Marshall interned for Roanoke’s city manager. She went on to lead United Way of Roanoke Valley’s Bank On program, which helped people set up checking and savings accounts, and provided them with free financial education. She also created and ran the nonprofit’s RISE program, which rehoused youth experiencing homelessness.

Marshall later became the executive director of Mental Health America of Roanoke Valley, offering free mental health care to uninsured and underinsured community members. And before coming to Charlottesville, she served as the chief executive officer of the YWCA of Central Virginia, overseeing programs assisting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, as well as providing housing for low-income women.

Marshall credits her parents for her passion for serving others. Her mother is a surgical technologist, while her father has been the assistant city manager of Roanoke, city manager of Martinsville, and now the deputy city manager of Danville.

“I got to see [my father] lead in a way that I wanted to emulate,” says Marshall. “He leads with heart and integrity, and so does my mom. It really is ‘how can I be of service’—that’s how I was raised.”

Over the past year, gun violence has spiked in Charlottesville’s predominantly Black neighborhoods, a pressing issue Marshall has a personal connection to. When she was a teenager, her cousin was a victim of gun violence. She also has family members who are or who have been incarcerated, and who live in public housing in Roanoke.

“While I’m not from here, I do know how hurtful those issues can be [and] how complex those concerns can be,” she says. “I’m looking forward to listening [to city residents], from the position of someone who knows how hard it is to have to bury your kid cousin.”

As a Black woman, Marshall says she is humbled to be a part of bringing systemic change to Charlottesville, pointing to the city’s long history of slavery, Jim Crow, and white supremacy.

“I know how much my ancestors went through to allow me to sit in the office where I’m sitting,” Marshall says. “It is an honor to be able to try to continue the hard work that people who look like me have done for eons now.”

“Everyone should have the opportunity to not just survive, but to thrive,” she adds.

Categories
Culture

Dancing our way

By Alana Bittner

As we fumble our way back to normal, Edwin Roa has a suggestion for reconnecting with other humans and gaining a new understanding of each other: social dancing. 

Roa says social dance can cure everything from partisanship and close-mindedness to existential crises. We are “at the risk of being so logical, we are losing our own humanity,” he warns. “We all come from different backgrounds, but we all desire the same thing: to be understood. You and I don’t have to agree, but we can have a dialogue. And that dialogue is the dance.”  

In the 1990s, Roa moved from Bogotá, Colombia, to Charlottesville to work in textile design. Dance was not part of the plan. But on a whim, he started taking classes. That soon turned into teaching dance, and before he knew it, his career path had changed entirely. Today, he’s the face of Zabor Dance, The Dance Spot, and The Charlottesville Salsa Club. 

For Roa, what makes social dance special is the social part. “We are meant to be around people, we are meant to communicate,” he says. For 20 years, The Charlottesville Salsa Club has provided just that: a place for people from all over Charlottesville to come together, put aside their differences, and dance.

When the pandemic hit, Roa was faced with a question: What do you do when your life’s passion “becomes a superspreader?” He was not alone. The pandemic has forced social dancers around the globe to rethink how to do what they love.  

Anya Faruque and Tim Wegert are the couple behind Charlottesville’s zouk community. Zouk, a smooth, wave-like partner dance from Brazil, first enchanted Faruque and Wegert a couple years ago, leading them to offer classes and socials north of town.

Charlottesville’s dance scene is small, which means it’s also close-knit, and Faruque learned to dance at Zabor Dance. After only a few classes, she jumped into salsa parties. “My little confident self at the time was like, ‘I don’t need a class, I’ll just follow!” she laughs. It was at one of those parties that she met Wegert. “I don’t even think I asked his name, I just danced with him,” she remembers. Six years later, they teach zouk classes all over the world. 

In March 2020, they had just returned from teaching in Quebec, finished a zouk intensive in California, and were about to drive to a dance congress in Virginia Beach. Then everything shut down.

The reality sank in slowly. “At first, I thought it would last maybe a couple weeks,” says Faruque. “Then this event is canceled, that one’s canceled, this is postponed…once consistent things kept canceling, we realized that this would be a while.”

This new reality put Roa into panic mode. “I got really scared because my whole business depends on group classes,” he says. For the first few months, things were rough. He even considered changing his career path entirely, picturing himself working at Target or The Home Depot. 

But to his “absolute surprise,” a shift occurred. “About four months into it, people were getting cabin fever,” Roa says. “So they were reaching out to me, seeing if I was willing to do private classes. I needed that.” Roa’s business has changed completely. While he originally relied on socials and group classes, he’s now sustained entirely by private lessons. 

Other organizations have also revamped their business model. Terry Dean’s Blue Light Ballroom provided area residents with dance classes for years, but the pandemic forced the studio to evolve into a new organization: Charlottesville Ballroom, which adapted quickly to social distancing.  An air purification unit was purchased, group classes were capped according to CDC guidelines, and spots were marked on the dance floor to ensure everyone kept a safe distance during class. Unlike pre-COVID classes, there is no partner switching, and dance socials have been moved to Zoom. 

Partly because of these measures, Charlottesville Ballroom hasn’t had a single COVID case come from its studio—but socially distanced dancing has its challenges. At its core, dancing is inherently social, and without that connection, it isn’t quite the same. 

But the pandemic helped dancers find different ways of connecting. Faruque and Wegert both have careers outside of dance, and didn’t feel pressured to continue teaching classes. That meant that for the first time in a long time, they could focus on their own training. “Both of us were able to grow a lot as dancers, because we actually had consistent time to work on stuff,” says Faruque.

With the coming of summer and rising vaccination rates, the Charlottesville dance community is slowly emerging from hibernation. Roa, Faruque, and others have begun offering outdoor classes and workshops (below). It’s hard to gauge what this will look like next fall or beyond. But for Faruque, the uncertainty brings hopeful optimism. “For me, the world is a playground to explore and I’ll go wherever dance takes me,” she says.

Roa agrees. “The honest truth is that no one knows where the pandemic is going to take us But just like a dance, we’re moving through it. And it will go wherever it needs to go.”

Let’s Dance

Edwin Roa leads Zoirees (45-minute outdoor classes in salsa, bachata,
cha-cha, and tango) at IX every Thursday at 7pm. ixartpark.org.

For more information on what Edwin’s up to, go to www.zabordance.com or email zabordance@gmail.com

Follow Anya Faruque and Tim Wegert on Facebook and Instagram (anya_faruque; tim.allen3) for info on upcoming classes.

Charlottesville Ballroom offers American tango, advanced rumba, line dance, and more. charlottesvilleballroom.com.

Charlottesville Tango on Water Street is not currently offering classes, but is likely to begin outdoor sessions in the next few months. charlottesvilletango.com. 

USA Dance Charlottesville has classes in ballroom, Latin, nightclub, and swing.  usadancecville.org.

Smooth Sailing Ballroom offers private lessons in a variety of different dance styles. smoothsailingballroom.com 

SwingCville are purveyors of fine vintage moves. danceswingcville.org. 

Charlottesville Swing Dance
Society is a West Coast swing dance club. cvilleswingdance.com. 

Categories
Culture

Seeing Charlottesville

Painter Edward Thomas was an architect, historian, and prolific artist who, with his folding easel, was a familiar site in Charlottesville. His artist statement attributes his style to minimal thought during the process: “Thinking gets in the way and leads to artifice; painting what you think is there rather than what is there.” Photo: Will Kerner

Most days, Charlottesville artist Edward Thomas could be found with his folding easel, set up on a sidewalk, by the river, or at a construction site, engaged in capturing “what the world looks like from where I stand,” he’d say. Thomas died May 8, 2021, at the age of 49.

“Edward had an extremely good eye and extraordinary sense of color,” says his friend and mentor Richard Crozier. “He painted with a kind of bravura.” He produced faithful renditions of his subjects, with formal elements—palette, marks, and gestures—having a stand-alone integrity that transcends their narrative role.

Thomas had a rare ability to convey the quality of air and light, enlivening his paintings with particular vitality. He also experimented with various forms of animation, made filmstrips based on flip book technology, built at least two cycloramas (which allowed the viewer to experience a 360-degree panorama), and a number of praxinoscopes (similar to a zoetrope), nine of which were featured in a 2015 show at Second Street Gallery. He built tabletop versions and a giant one the Dave Matthews Band took on tour.

A graduate of the University of Virginia School of Architecture, Thomas was an inveterate builder and tinkerer, creating and adapting with constant inventiveness. He described his house on 6 1/2 Street as “a perpetually unfinished architectural laboratory” where he could employ his knowledge of brick masonry, constructing, among other things, a wall that showcased the history of masonry techniques, transitioning from neolithic drystack to Jefferson-inspired arches that formed an aqueduct. He also excavated and built a subterranean, groin-vaulted wine cellar with a tunnel connecting it to the house. 

His friends describe Thomas as witty, hardworking, kind, gentle, and endlessly creative. He cared about the world around him, volunteering for Food Not Bombs and The Salvation Army, and using his art as a means to conserve countryside and old farms targeted by developers. He drove one of the first (if not the first) hybrid cars in Charlottesville, a 2000 Honda Insight. Thomas was an avid gardener, and shared the vegetables he grew with friends. He loved animals and had three dogs, Five, Jupiter, and Zero. 

UVA architecture professor Peter Waldman says of Thomas, “He was joyful and poignant. His is a great loss as he mirrored for us all Charlottesville, making the ordinary splendid.”

Categories
Culture

Stream Sequence

The zany online music variety show “Empire of Excellence” launched last fall, and its second season runs through July 3. Supplied photo.

Ivan Christo and Trevor Chase were headed to a themed party—a post- apocalyptic themed party, of course. So they invented two characters, vigilantes Ace Fondo and Lex Blazer, “a couple of badass guys” who “fought in every war, flexing their biceps while smoking cigars.”

Now years later, “Ace & Lex: American Heroes, Elite Commandos” anchor Christo and Chase’s pandemic pet project, “Empire of Excellence,” a livestreamed music and variety show available on Facebook Live and Twitch, and archived on YouTube. The show’s first season ran from October to November last year, and it’s currently in its second season, with eight episodes running biweekly through July 3.

So, just what is “Empire of Excellence”? It’s often said good writers don’t know what’s going to happen in their books until they get there. Christo and Chase are kind of like that, only they ain’t writing books, and where they’re going probably isn’t in this dimension.

“The whole show has a connecting theme, but it is all kind of absurdity,” Christo says. “All the art and the music is about embracing the over-the-top nature of 1980s action.”

Take the duo’s plug for season two. The golden boy is missing, they say. To find him, they’ll have to do business with a nomadic bartering fortune teller—not to mention their unwitting real-life musical and poetry guests—and navigate an intertwined television, cosmic, and real world, all while battling the Gwar-like musical villain Crab Action and some force known as the Big Bad.

Christo and Chase’s goal is to create a fun, semi-coherent space to celebrate live music and art in the post-pandemic world: “A platform for everyone to come together and entertain,” Christo says. But musicians, poets, and others joining the fun—the Reverend Bill Howard of the Judy Chops is a regular guest, for example—do so at their own peril.

“There is an element of Japanese game show challenges that the guests will not expect,” Chase says. “We do throw our guests into the narrative without telling them.”

And where do all their head-in-the-clouds ideas come from? While Christo and Chase, also running buddies, pound the pavement.

“A lot of it formulates naturally on runs,” Chase says. “We’ll be on a run and have all these dumb ideas. Then I will be editing some of the show together and see some stupid special effects on YouTube.”

Christo and Chase are part of a trend—over the past year, scores of creatives have joined the stream team. From March 2020 to April 2021, Twitch reported a massive bump, going from 5.1 million to 7.2 million active channels. Twitch’s livestream viewership has also exploded, with 79 percent growth year-over-year since March 2020. And while a good portion of the traffic comes from online gaming, Twitch reported music and performance arts category viewers increased from an average of 92,000 last February to 574,000 last March.

It’s hard to say where “Empire of Excellence’’ fits in with the overall streaming trend, but it has been drawing several hundred more viewers with each installment, and pulls about 500 comments per show.

Christo had a following prior to the livestream experiment as Jaguardini, an electro–nic synth pop project he describes as “low-fi beats” with “a lot of shredding and yelling into the microphone.” Chase has played in and out of bands over the years, and been a supporter of the local music scene, selling merchandise and serving as an ad hoc hype man.

As for their day jobs, both Christo and Chase are educators, and their hope going forward is simply that “Empire of Excellence” continues to sustain itself as a new outlet to their multimedia side hustles.

“Ten years ago, when [Christo] was getting started, he used a similar format,” Chase says. “It was an inclusive cooperative. He was the bedrock, and other people came and went.”

It’s been no easy feat sustaining “Empire of Excellence” thus far—Christo and Chase have put considerable time and money into their studio green screen and audio and video equipment—but the two friends expect to continue it, releasing episodes seasonally in four to eight show blocks. To stay afloat, they collect donations during their episodic streams, and recently landed a grant from the Arts Council of the Valley in Harrisonburg.

When musicians start touring again, Christo hopes he’ll be able to draw acts from Charlottesville or Harrisonburg to the studio for interviews and antics—the whole process is intended as a way to promote independent music.

“There are a lot of shows that have variety acts, and there are interview shows,” Christo says. “But I haven’t seen anything quite like this.”

Categories
Culture

Drinking buddies

A great deal of mutual admiration shines through in locally produced beverage collaborations such as the Rosé Gose beer by Fine Creek Brewing and Blenheim Vineyards. Photo: Courtesy of Fine Creek Brewing

While most of us have been trying to keep our distance over the past year, there’s been lots of pairing up in the wine industry. Area winemakers have been pursuing both formal and informal collaborations as a natural expression of their intellectual curiosity and creative spirit. And as you can see from the sampling of collabs below, these projects also involve local breweries, cideries, and distilleries. 

Blenheim Vineyards and Fine Creek Brewing Company

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finecreekbrewing.com

In 2018, when Gabe Slagle was head brewer for Fine Creek Brewing Company in Powhatan, he visited Blenheim Vineyards and left some beer for winemaker Kirsty Harmon. This simple exchange led to the development of a professional friendship, as Harmon wrote back to say thank you and offered to provide grape skins if the brewery ever wanted to use them. When Slagle visited Blenheim again, he brought along Brian Mandeville, Fine Creek’s current head brewer, and the collaborations began in force.

Over the years, Blenheim has had the opportunity to do wine pop-ups at Fine Creek, and has served the beer at its winery during special weekend events. On the production side, Fine Creek has used several different varieties of grape pressings in its beer, including viognier and rkatsiteli. There have even been some rosé-style beers that utilized skins from red grapes. According to Harmon, Fine Creek has “really gotten creative with how they have been able to incorporate our grapes into their beers.” In addition, “they are just really great people,” and she is hopeful that the collaboration will continue.

Lightwell Survey and Troddenvale Cider

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Winemaker Ben Jordan is no stranger to co-fermentation, where different grape varieties are combined to ferment together into a final product. In a recently released collaboration between Lightwell Survey and Troddenvale Cider, which is run by Will and Cornelia Hodges and located in Warm Springs, the concept goes a step further when grapes and apples are fermented as a single mixture.

For the project, Lightwell contributed petit manseng and vidal blanc grapes and Troddenvale contributed Harrison and Golden Russet apples. (All the fruit was grown in the Shenandoah Valley.) The juice from this fruit was combined, with care taken to ensure that the resulting mix was exactly 50 percent wine and 50 percent cider. Then, each party took half of the mix, and the rest of the fermentation, aging, and bottling was done separately. While the producers share a low-intervention approach, and the resulting beverages have similarities, it is interesting to see how the same original juice can yield different results in the hands of a winemaker versus a cidermaker. The Lightwell version was fermented in stainless steel with a bit of sulfur dioxide added at bottling. The Troddenvale was fermented in neutral oak with no sulfur additions. Both are selling two-packs featuring the paired products.

When asked why they decided to do this, Jordan says, “These grape/apple fermentations are something we are both interested in, we are each a fan of what the other is doing, and honestly, we were looking to have fun.”

Joy Ting Wine and Spirit Lab Distilling

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A quick survey of the world’s wine regions reveals that winemaking is always accompanied by distillation of wine into brandy. It’s a natural partnership and, at least historically, it was always made from local grapes grown in the region. Inspired by world-famous brandies from the Cognac and Armagnac regions of France, winemaker Joy Ting (this writer’s wife) and master distiller Ivar Aass of Charlottesville’s Spirit Lab Distilling are collaborating to make a Virginia brandy that they call Esprit Joyeux.

Aass and Ting are both focused on the brandy as a true expression of Virginia. As Ting explains, “The grapes are grown in the Shenandoah Valley. They are specifically managed and picked with brandy production in mind. After fermentation into wine, distillation occurs at Spirit Lab. Finally, the brandy is aged in barrels made from wood that comes from a forest in Culpeper.”

Every one of the above-mentioned partners goes out of their way to express their love for each other’s products—and all of them speak highly of the production quality and skill level of their collaborators. More notably, there is frequent mention of the great ideas, character, and heart of the people behind the products. It’s clear that there are many rewards for these producers in pursuing these projects beyond the final product that is imbibed.

Ultimately, though, it’s area drink lovers who truly benefit from these collaborations. Creativity and curiosity are a wonderful driver of the industry, but finding partners who are simpatico can truly spur things forward. These cooperative projects, especially ones that cross the boundaries of the wine, beer, cider, and spirits categories, result in new ideas, new flavors, and even entirely new categories of beverages, making it an exciting time to drink locally.