Realistic Colorful firework with smoke for celebrate happy new year 2021 countdown festival anniversary birthday party
Mountain high: There may be no better way to reconnect with our friends and neighbors this summer than watching the Celebrate Us fireworks display from Carter Mountain. Take the gorgeous view of the Blue Ridge mountains, add local ciders, craft beers, barbecue, ice cream, and donuts. Top it off with live music, dancing, and a sunset followed by fireworks, and give a salute to all the things that make America beautiful. A portion of the event’s proceeds will benefit the Ronald McDonald House of Charlottesville.
Sunday 7/4, $10-20, 5:30pm. Carter Mountain Orchard, 1435 Carter Mountain Trail. chilesfamilyorchards.com.
In the ever-expanding central Virginia beverage industry, distilled-spirits makers are keeping pace. Supplied photo.
Ivar Aass and his wife, Sarah Barrett, moved to Charlottesville from New York in 2012 with a singular purpose: to distill high-quality spirits in a place that, in Aass’ own words, has “heaps of local pride and an understanding and appreciation of all good drink and food.”
In 2015, Aass and Barrett’s Spirit Lab Distilling became the first distillery in the City of Charlottesville. While Aass says his previous experience in the wine and spirits industry was an asset, he faced numerous regulatory challenges at both the city and state level. This led to a “quiet start,” he says, but he feels genuinely moved by the growth and support the business has received in the past six years. “Our local fans really validate why Charlottesville was the perfect spot for us [to start a distillery].”
Spirit Lab makes a wide range of products sourced from local ingredients, but Aass’ true love is his own version of an American single malt whiskey. With a nod to tradition, along with the goal of a unique and truly local expression, the small batches he produces are a hit with fans and restaurants as far away as Washington, D.C.
Virginia Distillery Company, in nearby Lovingston, recently released its American single malt whiskey, Courage & Conviction, after many years of anticipation. With distilled products such as single malt whiskey, distillation is just the beginning of the process. The spirit must also rest in barrels for extended aging, which adds the color, flavor, and complexity that is so sought after. When Virginia Distillery Company was founded in 2011, it started with whiskey distilled overseas and finished locally. Soon, its popular Virginia-Highland product line featured whiskey that was a blend of local and Scottish distillate.
The new American Single Malt represents the first product in its line that is made from 100 percent North American-sourced malted barley, fulfilling a vision almost a decade in the making. The initial release is a blend that is 50 percent aged in Kentucky bourbon casks, 25 percent aged in sherry casks, and 25 percent aged in repurposed red wine casks. Recently released solo cask offerings may be of even more interest to whiskey aficionados as they showcase bourbon casks, sherry casks, and wine casks as single bottlings without blending. The four new singles also earned several awards from the American Spirits Council of Tasters in June 2021.
Ian Glomski started Vitae Spirits Distillery in Charlottesville after “what could possibly be called a midlife crisis.” Glomski had previous experience in beer and wine, and, like Aass, found the regulatory hurdles difficult. “Virginia ABC implements a convoluted set of statutes and regulations that are a spaghetti-mess of layers that have built up ever since the end of prohibition,” he says.
At Vitae, which was founded in 2015, the spirits are distilled from sugar cane, in the tradition of rum making. This base spirit is the foundation of such products as gin, coffee and orange liqueurs, and barrel-aged products. With all of these, Vitae focuses on local ingredients and features several collaborations with other area producers.
Both Glomski and Aass hope for a day when the regulatory landscape is friendlier to growth and sales. Glomski bemoans the “current set of laws that is specifically designed to throttle growth and success” of the industry. He would like a relaxation of regulations controlling what can be served in tasting rooms, an extension of wholesale pricing (distilleries must pay retail price to buy their own product from the state), and more attention given by ABC stores to local distilleries as compared to large international corporations.
Aass explains that Virginia takes a “massive” amount of the bottle price that would otherwise go to the producer. Supporting local makers is in many ways synonymous with looking for high quality,” he says, and the very high cost of doing business threatens the quality of the product. His hope is that legislators will begin to see Virginia craft distilleries less as a small source of tax revenue and more as a source of quality and local pride. “There are plenty of mediocre spirits being made by the huge distilleries, why add to that?” says Aass.
Sip and savor
Charlottesville-area consumers now have access to a wide range of well-crafted spirits, the result of many years of vision, planning, hard work, and persistence.
Virginia Distillery Company (vadistillery.com)
Courage & Conviction now available as single bottlings of bourbon, sherry, and cuvée cask (each $84.99). The Cuvée is recommended, but true whiskey lovers will want a bottle of each.
Spirit Lab Distilling (spiritlabdistilling.com)
Batch #9 of single malt whiskey is sold out. Look out for Batch #10 ($74.99). Everything is made in small production, so get on the email list to receive release notifications.
Vitae Spirits Distilling vitaespirits.com)
Two that stand out are Distiller’s Reserve Smoked Rum ($49.99) and Orange Liqueur ($38.99), which is made from locally grown Hardy oranges.
City residents turned in thousands of comments on the latest draft of the Future Land Use Map (right). The current zoning map is shown on the left.
City responds to proposed land-use changes
In May and June, the consulting group hired to rework the city’s land-use policy received more than 2,000 comments, through a variety of mediums, on its most recent draft of the city’s Future Land Use Map, a document that would guide the city’s rezoning process in the coming months and years.
The submitted responses to the draft map capture a divided community.
“Most people seem to agree that affordability is an issue, but there are varying opinions on how to best address this issue and what levels of housing development and intensity may be appropriate and where,” says Jennifer Koch, project manager for the Cville Plans Together initiative.
“I do not like the idea of changing the tenor of neighborhoods,” wrote one Lewis Mountain resident, aged 55-64, who did not support the planners’ vision. “I do not want low-income housing in my neighborhood.”
But one of that person’s younger neighbors did support the idea of increasing residential density, especially in neighborhoods where single-family homes are the dominant housing type. “Charlottesville needs to place a significant focus on not only allowing but encouraging housing density, especially through the construction of more multifamily and affordable housing,” the neighbor wrote.
The consulting firm, Rhodeside & Harwell, received 498 emails through an organized effort by the Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition to encourage adoption of a Comprehensive Plan that encourages development of apartment buildings. Meanwhile, a new group called Citizens for Responsible Planning submitted a petition with 401 signatures asking that the process be delayed for another six months.
In a report published last week, Rhodeside & Harwell attempted to tease some key themes out of the data.
According to RHI, 46 percent of respondents called for more residential density in “historically exclusionary, majority-white communities.” Other general themes with high levels of support were 43 percent of commenters who want even more density in “general residential” areas and the 46 percent who want a plan that stops “displacement of Black and low-wealth residents by protecting low-wealth and majority-Black communities.”
Some Charlottesville residents are skeptical of the plan, however. Fifteen percent requested more time, 14 percent had concerns over the effects larger residential densities would have on infrastructure, and 14 percent were suspicious about what developers really want from the plan.
Cville Plans Together also cataloged 429 responses submitted through a multiple-choice feedback form.
The poll’s fifth question asked, “Do you think this Future Land Use Map can lead to an increase in housing options and housing affordability throughout the city?” A third of respondents answered “Yes Completely” or “Yes Mostly,” whereas 39 percent responded “Mostly Not” or “Not at All.” Another 18 percent responded “Unsure/Maybe” and 11 percent left the response blank.
An additional 225 people left comments on an interactive version of the map. Many took this opportunity to comment on the placement of medium-intensity residential plots in areas currently set aside for low-intensity development. A section of the Greenbrier neighborhood between Keith Valley Road and Meadowbrook Heights Road is designated as Neighborhood Mixed-Use Node on the new map, which would allow up to five stories with a mixture of uses.
“This is among the most mean-spirited of your proposals,” reads one of about two dozen comments in this area.
“Currently, Greenbrier feels very isolated,” reads a different comment. “Can imagine kids in this neighborhood getting to walk to do something in this mixed-use area, or people in the neighborhood getting to grab something easily from the local market.”
On Tuesday, June 29, the Charlottesville Planning Commission met for a work session to discuss the community’s input. That meeting ended too late for this issue, but watch this space for more coverage of the Comprehensive Plan process.—Sean Tubbs
“Racist!”
—an unidentified speaker, interrupting a congressional hearing as Congressman Bob Good explained why he feels Virginia high schools should not teach critical race theory
In brief
Suspect arrested after Madison Hall break-in
On Thursday morning, a break-in was reported at UVA’s Madison Hall, which houses the Office of the President and the Office of Major Events. Two days later, a Charlottesville resident was arrested and charged in connection with the crime. There have been five other break-ins off Grounds over the past week, according to UVA police. They have occurred on University Circle/Court, Grady Avenue, Virginia Avenue, and Preston Place. UPD has not said whether the break-ins are connected.
Nelson will celebrate pipeline demise
You might have July 4 circled on your calendar, but in Nelson County, they’ll be celebrating on July 5, too. Earlier this month, the county’s Board of Supervisors resolved to officially recognize the one-year anniversary of the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a 600-mile natural gas pipeline that would have bisected the scenic county. “We should celebrate that we all got together to stand up to something that didn’t make sense,” said Supervisor Skip Barton at the meeting, reports the Nelson County Times.
Hoos fall in Omaha
The Cavaliers ended their College World Series run on Thursday, falling 6-2 to the No. 2 Texas Longhorns. The Hoos started the season 4-12 in the ACC, but put together an improbable postseason run that featured a string of elimination wins, a no-hitter, and a large delivery of Dippin’ Dots, thanks to a viral interview from closer Stephen Schoch. Though it ended in defeat, this baseball season won’t be forgotten by the UVA faithful any time soon.
Sharon Shapiro’s “Stars and Stripes” is on view in “Social Fabric,” her exhibition at Second Street Gallery. Courtesy of SSG.
“You can’t paint swimming pools without thinking about class and thinking about race,” says Sharon Shapiro. Pools figure largely in “Social Fabric,” Shapiro’s show at Second Street Gallery. Originally drawn to swimming pools for aesthetic reasons and because “they’re fun to paint,” Shapiro began to dig deeper into their history. “We didn’t really talk about it in the South when I was growing up. Like, why weren’t there any Black kids at the public pool?” She goes on to point out that, following integration, many municipalities opted to fill in their pools rather than integrate them—one small example of how racism hurts everyone.
Initially, Shapiro, who is white, was hesitant to paint people of color and their experiences. “But then when 8/12 [the Unite the Right Rally] happened right here in Charlottesville, I thought, ‘I can’t not make work about this.’”
Her pools run the gamut, from the Villa Artemis’ Grecian-style exemplar in Palm Beach, Florida, immortalized in a 1959 Slim Aarons’ photograph of socialite C.Z. Guest, to an above-ground number in the yard of a foreclosed house, and the abandoned pool at the defunct motel on the top of Afton Mountain.
Collage has always been an important aspect of Shapiro’s work. She produces both actual collages and trompe-l’oeil versions made by layering media and images. In both cases, what occurs is a fracturing of the image akin to how things appear in dreams and memory. Shapiro uses a language of bright colors and quotidian settings to depict exceedingly serious matters. This contrast between messaging and content serves to highlight the latter, and the comfortably familiar trappings enhance the sense of foreboding inherent in the work.
Various iterations of the American flag are repeated throughout this exhibition. The flag has become a loaded symbol, often co-opted by the political right, but in Shapiro’s work the flag seems to express a plaintive entreaty to remind us of who we can be. Other recurring objects include Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee statue, a Palladian window and lantern from the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, tiki torches, and three teenage girls. The work focuses on what it means to be female in America and, given the themes explored in the work, their patent vulnerability jolts the viewer. Not only are they young and tender, they’re also members of a generation that faces a troubled legacy on many fronts. Shapiro’s girls seem to be watching while functioning as symbolic reminders of what’s at stake.
The triangular arrangement of “Traveller’s Rest” recalls heroic academic-style paintings. In this case, the mounted general and his horse are relegated to the background. The main action is in the contemporary color scene at the bottom.
What are the girls doing here? Why is one of them gesturing with an American flag, and what does the expression on her face mean? We’re not quite sure what’s up except that an overall feeling of discord pervades the work. Shapiro is adept at adding just the right cultural references—flip flops, Birkenstocks and wrist adornments—and then positions the works in their time period. Similarly, the artist appropriates architectural items, the Palladian window and lantern, as vestiges of an antebellum South.
Shapiro’s use of watercolor has an insubstantiality that goes well with the pool theme and also the fragility of the girls. The work has the feeling of collage, with the foreground superimposed on the statue. Photo transfers of newspaper and Playboy magazine articles are scattered across the surface, reinforcing the collaged effect and alluding to the patriarchal forces surrounding the girls. Lee’s horse, Traveller, is beautifully rendered in graphite, and while the statue’s clearly been demoted, it still looms over us.
In “Stars and Stripes,” the girls appear again, this time in front of an expanse of graffiti. They appear to be on a balcony or a viewing stand of some sort, with an unraveling flag draped over the balustrade. To their left hangs a fancy chandelier. The girl in green (the same model as the girl in red) is partially replicated, like an oddly disturbing Photoshop gone wrong. The girls are watchful, of each other and of things we can’t see.
A 13-star flag forms the background of “Miss 1976 (Spirit).” Again, Shapiro layers mostly pool-related images—the above-ground pool, assorted vintage lawn furniture, an inflatable tube. She reduces the palette to yellow, orange, and hot pink with a touch of blue, recalling the Day-Glo aesthetic of 1970s posters. Examining the photo transfers, one sees the girls standing in front of the Lee statue plinth, casually holding tiki torches like lacrosse sticks over their shoulders. These once-benign items now trigger traumatic memories of the Unite the Right torchlight parade.
In “Anthem (Once Upon a Time)” Shapiro replaces the WASP icon at the Villa Artemis with a young Black woman wrapped in the flag. She doesn’t have a shadow, which may mean she’s otherworldly, and perhaps just an apparition. But her being here proclaims she has as much right to a place in this narrative as someone like Guest.
“For me it’s got to be both,” says Shapiro about balancing aesthetics with the underlying message of her work. “It’s got to be something that I want to investigate. Painting is like a puzzle, you’re setting up problems and then you’re solving them with paint.” With “Social Fabric,” Shapiro remains true to her goals, creating works brimming with drama and visual allure that urge us to ponder the issues she explores.
Second Street Gallery is located at 115 2nd St. SE, and can be found online at secondstreetgallery.org.
Summer of Drag heats up IX Art Park on Saturday. Publicity image.
Dragging your heels: The Summer of Drag celebration at IX Art Park features Virginia queens such as London Bacall, Christina Doll, and Enya Salad, who bring the glitz, glam, and body-ody-ody, as well as awe-inspiring death drops you never would have thought possible in stilettos. With hearty doses of lip syncs and laughs, summer is anything but a drag. Saturday 6/26. $10-15, 8pm. IX Art Park, 522 Second St., SE. ixartpark.org.
Turn happy hour into a happy month by celebrating with the Charlottesville Pride Community at Vitae. File photo.
Rally around the rainbow: Every day is pride day, but especially on Thursdays in June at Vitae Spirit’s Pride Party Happy Hour. The bartenders serve up rainbow-colored cocktails as they bop to a fabulous playlist, and you can peruse a selection of queer prints and artwork made by staff or enter a raffle benefiting the Charlottesville Pride Community Network. If you show up decked out in rainbows, expect an especially enthusiastic reception from everybody in the place.
Thursday 6/24. Free, 5-9pm. Vitae Spirits Distillery Downtown, 101 E. Water St. vitaespirits.com.
La Bohème cast
members rehearse ahead of two
Charlottesville Opera shows this week at
the Ting Pavilion. Publicity photo.
Living on love: There’s something timeless about cash-strapped bohemians in love, which may be why La Bohème, first staged in 1896, has become one of the most performed operas in the world. Charlottesville Opera’s outdoor performance is updated to occur during the profound social changes of 1960s Paris, and the 90-minute abridged production features Charlottesville’s own Jeremy Weiss as a principal player. Oh, and the chemistry between the singers who play the lead couple? It ain’t faked—the pair are married in real life.
Thursday 6/24 & Saturday 6/26. $15-50, 8pm. Ting Pavilion, 700 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. tingpavilion.com.
Join Fawn Over Flora and make new friends at Cardinal Point Winery on Thursday. Publicity image.
Friendly arrangement: It’s hard to make a vase of flowers look bad, but an expert floral arranger can take your bouquet to another level. Debi Burdick of Fawn Over Flora leads a sunset gathering filled with flowers, wine, music, and friends at Flower Party at Cardinal Point Winery. Local farms provide the blooms, and copies of Erin Benzakein’s Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden will be available at a discounted price.
By Alana Bittner, Amelia Delphos, Brielle Entzminger, Shea Gibbs, and Tami Keaveny
Each summer, C-VILLE publishes the Power Issue. Traditionally, that’s meant a roundup of the same old bigwigs and string pullers—politicians, landlords, university administrators and so forth. This year, we’re taking a different tack, and focusing on the city’s next generation of leaders. Get to know these under-30 all-stars—people who are making a difference here in town, with their ideas, passion, dedication, and youthful energy.
Obviously, this list isn’t comprehensive. If you know a rising star who you feel deserves further recognition, definitely tell us about them!
(Warning: This feature might make you feel old.)
Photo: Eze Amos
Zeniah and Zaneyah Bryant, 15
Fighting against systemic racism and injustice runs in the family for the Bryant twins. They grew up watching their mother, Zeneida Howard, stand up for Black residents in town. And you already know about their older sister, Zyahna, who has become a global powerhouse in the years since she first petitioned City Council to remove the Robert E. Lee statue.
Now, the 15-year-old activists are making their own mark on Charlottesville. Following the murder of George Floyd last year, the pair led multiple demonstations demanding justice for Black people killed by police. They also founded the Charlottesville Black Youth Action Committee to address racial issues in policing and education, like the school-to-prison pipeline.
But activism is way more than just protesting, the sisters emphasize—it’s mutual aid, too. Throughout the pandemic, BYAC has distributed free food, water, money, and other necessities to unhoused people on the Downtown Mall, as well as paid for their hotel rooms. The new group has also hosted teach-ins on student activism, fundraisers for young Black mothers, and a Black joy festival.
This fall, the rising Charlottesville High School sophomores plan to revive CHS’s Black Student Union—started by their sister—and encourage their peers to take advanced classes. They ultimately hope to inspire other Black youth to speak up for themselves, and refuse to be silenced.
“There are generations coming after us,” said Zaneyah (standing on the right in the photo). “If we set things in place, they may not have to go through what we’re going through right now.”
Supplied photo
Ti Ames, 26
Ti Ames’ theatrical roots grew early. Ames began singing as a child in church, and was attending Live Arts summer theater camps at age 9; by 12, they had joined the Virginia Consort, Charlottesville’s chamber chorus. After graduating from Oberlin College with degrees in theater and Africana studies, Ames returned to Charlottesville to dive even deeper into its theater and music scene. Ames is now leading those summer camps at Live Arts, and considers the Charlottesville Player’s Guild their “second home.”
It was with the CPG that Ames directed Black Mac, an all-Black adaption of Macbeth, and more recently, staged their own original radio play, See About the Girls. Ames also teaches vocal lessons, using an Africana aesthetic that plays off of call and response. As they explain in a video for the Front Porch, “The song itself is a character. It gives you things to work with, and it is your job to respond to whatever it’s giving you.”
Photo: John Robinson
Henry Borgeson, 28
Henry Borgeson knows his way around a board meeting—and a charcuterie board. The avid cook and passionate foodie has been bringing his combination of epicurean passion and business savvy to his profession since 2017, when he became an indispensable member of the team at Charlottesville-born restaurant group Roots Natural Kitchen.
The Roots empire launched in 2015 with just a single restaurant on the Corner. In less than six years, the eatery chain has grown to include three Virginia locations—in Charlottesville, Richmond, and Blacksburg—as well as further afield in Newark, Delaware, and State College and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Borgeson, a 2014 UVA grad, began serving as Roots’ director of finance in 2017 and quickly moved into the C-suite, starting as chief financial officer in November 2018. If you want to turn leafy greens into greenbacks, Borgeson’s your man.
Photo: Tristan Williams
Jeremiah Jordan
When Jeremiah Jordan started working at Ivy Provisions in 2017, he was a line cook with little passion for food and zero professional culinary experience.
Jordan had tasted excellence before—he went to college to play football and had a bright future ahead. But legal issues brought him home and away from his athletic career. That’s when a friend helped Jordan get his foot in the door at Ivy Provisions. In just two months, the restaurant promoted him from cook to kitchen manager. By May of this year, he had worked his way up to Ivy Provisions’ sous chef.
“Ivy welcomed me back with open arms,” Jordan says. “I love food. It’s become more of a passion because I take pride in my work.”
Photo: Zack Wajsgras
Shelby Marie Edwards, 26
When George Floyd’s murder sparked worldwide protests against police violence last year, actor and poet Shelby Marie Edwards felt a shift inside herself. She wanted social justice to play more of a role in her day-to-day life, but was unsure what her next move should be. She soon learned that the Public Housing Association of Residents was hiring its first-ever executive director, and—after a pep talk from activist Joy Johnson—felt called to continue the work of her mother, former vice-mayor Holly Edwards.
For years, the elder Edwards served low-income Charlottesville residents as a program coordinator for PHAR and a parish nurse for the Jefferson Area Board for Aging. Following her mother’s death, Edwards moved back to Charlottesville in 2019 from Chicago, where she’d been teaching theater and writing classes for Black youth. She began working as a development coordinator for Live Arts, and offering performance arts classes through the Boys & Girls Club of Central Virginia.
Since joining PHAR in December, Edwards has hired a leader for the nonprofit’s Residents for Respectful Research program and revamped its website and online presence. She’s also working to bring on more resident organizers, as well as expand the resident-led redevelopment of the city’s public housing.
Edwards hopes to act full-time one day, but plans to stick around at PHAR long enough to build up the next generation of young Black resident leaders. And she doesn’t rule out following in her mother’s footsteps.
“If I just so happen to be in Charlottesville for a long time, it is not outside of the possibility that I would run for City Council,” she says.
Photo: Tristan Williams
Karina Monroy, 28
Karina Monroy arrived from California a couple of years ago, and since then she’s wasted no time getting involved in the Charlottesville community. She’s the executive director of Creciendo Juntos, on the planning committee at the Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative, and co-creator of the wellness podcast Cultivando Tu Bienestar. That on its own would be enough to merit a mention as a rising star, but Monroy is also a gifted artist. Lately, she’s been creating delicate needlework renditions of figs and pomegranates, fruits she remembers from her grandmother’s home in Southern California.
For Monroy, a daughter of Mexican immigrants, a typically feminine task like needlework is an entryway to exploring the nuances of womanhood in Mexicano and Chicano culture. As she puts it in a video made for New City Arts, “It’s been my way of showing the women in my culture that the work we’re doing is appreciated and an art form.” She’s spreading that feeling of appreciation and sisterhood with La Cultura Cura, an intergenerational support group for Latinx women and femmes, that promotes “sisterhood, culture, social solidarity, and self-actualization.”
Photo: Tristan Williams
Alicia Simmons, 27
Have you had a great meal in Charlottesville recently? If so, there’s a good chance Alicia Simmons was involved. She began her career in cuisine at Tavola, in Belmont, after graduating from the Piedmont Virginia Community College culinary arts program. A standout sous chef at the Italian eatery from 2015 to 2020, Simmons left Tavola last year for a gig as the sous chef at Restoration Crozet at Old Trail Golf Club.
But now she’s back in Belmont—as Tavola’s executive chef, a job Simmons chose over several other offers.
“She got her start here, and the talent was immediately obvious,” Tavola owner Michael Keaveny says. “[We] watched her grow into a leader and are very excited to have her take on the next era of Tavola.”
Supplied photo
Abel Liu, 21
Abel Liu is a UVA Echols Scholar, Royster Lawton Fellow, Truman Scholar, and the nation’s first university student government president who was openly transgender when elected.
Before winning the Student Council presidency in a landslide last spring, Liu served as a Student Council representative and chair of the Representative Body for two years. The rising fourth-year says he’s passionate about building systems of dual power by using an institution like Student Council alongside a counter institution, such as Young Democratic Socialists of America at UVA, Minority Rights Coalition, or the Virginia Student Power Network, to exert the maximum amount of pressure and leverage against the ideological and political hegemony of the university.
In recent months, Liu worked alongside YDSA, Minority Rights Coalition, and the Covid Action Now campaign to secure optional credit/no credit grading policies for the entire 2020-2021 school year and a tuition freeze for 2021-2022. Currently, he’s teamed up with Housing and Residence Life, the Equity Center at UVA, UndocUVA, the Black Student Alliance, PLUMAS, and the University Police Department to set up alternative sources of care in non-violent situations, such as mental health crises or alcohol poisoning. He hopes this will lead to long-term funding in Student Health and Counseling & Psychological Services.
With that many initiatives underway, it might seem like Liu is all business, but he has a more relaxed side, too. In his free time, he enjoys bird watching and hiking with Chip, his 6-month-old puppy.
Photo: Eze Amos
Raylaja Waller, 24
Raylaja Waller has always been passionate about working with kids. Born and raised in Charlottesville, she grew up babysitting her siblings and cousins. Since graduating from CHS in 2015, Waller has served as a camp counselor for Charlottesville Parks & Recreation and a substitute teacher for the city schools. And now she is the fifth- through eighth-grade pathway coach at City of Promise, which prepares youth living in Westhaven, 10th and Page, and Starr Hill for college and careers.
Waller joined City of Promise’s first youth council as a high schooler, helping to organize free community events for children. While earning her degree in criminal justice and political science from Virginia State University, she returned to City of Promise multiple times to speak about her college experience.
Now, as a pathway coach, Waller helps kids explore career options and extracurricular activities. She’s currently creating a curriculum of skills for students to develop before high school, including critical thinking, media and technology literacy, time management, leadership, and self-empowerment. In the future, she plans to collaborate with City of Promise to create her own nonprofit to help divert youth who are headed in the wrong direction by providing them with mentorship, jobs, and career development.
“Become that teacher, become that lunch lady or man, become that school janitor—they also make a difference,” she says. “Having that Black person in the building that cares for these kids, even if you’re not the one teaching them, is giving us a better outcome of how our kids act and what they get involved in.”
Supplied photo
Milla Ciprian, 21
Milla Ciprian is a standout volleyball player—but also a standout for her work off the field, where she’s become an important advocate for Black student-athletes at UVA. Milla helped start an organization called BOSS, or Black Student-Athletes Offering Service and Support. BOSS aims to create and build community among Black athletes and to create a safe space where they can authentically be themselves.
Throughout COVID, Ciprian worked to set up talks with Black alumni, and orchestrated conversations between the Black student-athlete community and the non-Black student-athlete community to figure out how they can work together to move the needle forward within the athletic community. Last fall, BOSS collaborated with the university’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee to register all student-athletes on every team to vote. And if all that wasn’t enough, Ciprian was also chosen to sing the national anthem before the start of the UVA men’s basketball team’s 2019 Final Four appearance. Oh say can you see a bright future for Ciprian? Because we sure can.
Photo: Eze Amos
Ibby Han, 26
Ibby Han is an organizing powerhouse—not just in Charlottesville, but throughout the commonwealth. As the co-executive director of Virginia Student Power Network, Han has supported students across the state in organizing efforts, from VCU’s campaign to get police out of mental health crises to UVA’s Covid Action Now campaign, calling for better support for students and workers during the pandemic. Han’s work centers around creating sustainable student organizing, which can be difficult when student leadership turns over every four years. VSPN spends a lot of time running training and leadership development programs for student organizers. In addition to helping students directly, VSPN does statewide legislative advocacy, and has advocated for financial aid for undocumented students and marijuana legalization.
Han says one of her proudest moments was the community’s COVID response last year. She worked with Cville Community Cares and Congregate Charlottesville to design mini-grant programs to move money quickly to those who needed it.
Han emphasizes that everything she’s worked on has been with a tight-knit team of people who have deep trust in each other. Still, it’s clear that any team with Han on it is a team that gets things done.
Behind Bryant, rapper Chefwavy rehearses for IX’s Barkõdz event held on June 18, featuring additional performances by Keese Allen, Aceway, Equally Opposite, Sons of Ichibei, Kushgang, and SG the DJ. Photo: Eze Amos
Alex Bryant, 28
When it comes to working for your community, Alex Bryant walks the walk. In addition to serving as the new associate director of IX Art Park, Bryant is president of the Downtown Business Association, secretary for the African American Teaching Fellows, and a board member at Bennett’s Village and Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Central Blue Ridge.
“These one-on-one connections are the ripples that will start creating a really cohesive community,” he says. “I want to do whatever I can do to help to foster and build that community. In Charlottesville it hasn’t always been that way, and there’s a lot of work to do ahead.”
After receiving a degree in music from the University of Virginia in 2015, Bryant, originally from Richmond, became the coordinator of Monticello’s Heritage Harvest Festival, highlighting the impact and influence enslaved laborers had on Southern food. He then began volunteering with the Tom Tom Foundation’s food programs before serving as the nonprofit’s project manager, operations director, and, eventually, managing director.
“It’s so easy to just give money to a nonprofit…but everyone’s got time and talents that they have,” he says. “Just showing up and asking, ‘How can I plug in and use what I know to help you guys?’—that’s what I really love.”
At IX, Bryant says he’ll work to make the arts more accessible through community outreach, educational programming, and partnerships with local art galleries and organizations. He also plans to expand The Looking Glass immersive art space this fall, as well as collaborate with diverse local artists to redo the art park’s murals and sculptures. And most importantly, he will make sure IX remains free for everyone.
Photo: Eze Amos
Allison Wrabel, 28
If you love local news, you owe Allison Wrabel a big thank you. Over the past six years, she has written more than a thousand stories for The Daily Progress.
After receiving a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 2015, Wrabel, a Cleveland native, was tapped to apply to the Progress by a mentor at her school. Then-Progress editor-in-chief Nick Matthews had reached out, and was looking to hire new grads from his alma mater.
Wrabel started off at the Progress reporting on the local business community, and has been on the Albemarle County beat since 2017. In addition to covering hours-long government meetings, she writes about transportation, housing, land use, and other pressing issues that impact the county.
“I really enjoy talking to people. That’s the part I like most about it,” she says of her job. “I love helping people know what’s going on in their community.”
It’s no secret that journalism is in a period of upheaval, with layoffs and pay cuts happening at news organizations across the country. But Wrabel wants to stay in the business for good. She sees herself doing long-form investigative reporting in the future, perhaps in a bigger city.
“When will that happen? I don’t know,” she says. “But eventually someday, hopefully!”
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Sabrina Hendricks, 18
School photos are the worst. The artificial pose. The forced smile. That cloudy blue background. The set up leaves almost everyone looking awkward.
Enter Sabrina Hendricks. When she chose photography as an elective in her freshman year at Charlottesville High School, she couldn’t have imagined that she’d graduate with her own thriving portraiture business—as an alternative to the corporate school picture services that create the same posed images over and over, Hendricks spent much of her junior and senior years taking photos of her fellow students.
“I created an Instagram account (@shendricksphotography), which attracted attention, and my business grew from there,” says the 2021 grad. She estimates that she’s snapped over 5,000 shots since launching in 2019, and says Sabrina Hendricks Photography will remain in business while she attends the University of Virginia in the fall.
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Cabrel Happi, 22
Zimbabwe native and UVA soccer player Cabrel Happi has been a winner in the student-athlete community on Grounds. As president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, he’s made it his mission to empower student-athletes and utilize the power and platform that they have. Happi says student-athletes have a unique college experience, living season by season rather than semester by semester, which makes it easy for them to forget that life exists outside their sport. He says he hopes to remind his peers that they’re students first, and that the platform student-athletes are given should be used for the betterment of society. He pointed to the Groundskeepers initiative, started last fall by Black football players, as an example of student-athletes taking advantage of their platform to empower and educate others.
You might think that a soccer player’s feet are his most valuable asset, but Happi has another trick at his fingertips. When he’s not advocating for change or speeding down the pitch, he works as a hand model—his wrists have appeared in multiple watch advertising campaigns. So watch out, everyone!
John Robinson
Priscilla Martin Curley, 29
If Priscilla Martin Curley tells you to drink garnacha with your margherita pizza, by god grab the garnacha. A certified sommelier and expert on little-known and indigenous Italian wines, Martin Curley is a Culinary Institute of America grad, alumnus of Boka (one of Chicago’s most successful restaurant groups, which features in its portfolio everything from Italian to sushi), former Tavola wine director, and co-owner of The Wine Guild of Charlottesville. Before arriving at Dairy Market’s Springhouse Sundries, her food and wine skills were put to good use at Monticello and The Wool Factory.
Now, she’s turned her talents to the specialty beverage and food store, which features local cheeses, artisanal olive oils, fancy jams, and the like—y’know, the good things in life.
Photo: Eze Amos
Yas Washington, 23
Yas Washington is running for City Council. Oh, and she’s only 23.
After graduating from Albemarle High School in 2015, Washington served as an administrative assistant for the Albemarle Housing Improvement Program and as a youth counselor in the city’s human services department. In 2019, she founded Rocket Science Integrated, which uses art to raise awareness about equity issues.
Working on campaigns for Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingley in 2019 and Congressional candidate Dr. Cameron Webb in 2020, Washington came away with a passion for criminal justice reform, affordable health care, and environmental sustainability. She realized she wanted to be more involved in setting critical policies and making systemic change.
“Just because [someone] lives in a particular area and wouldn’t typically have access to certain things or opportunities, that shouldn’t cause them to be put in a predicament where they’re not able to see themselves in a different position,” she says.
If elected to City Council, Washington’s top priority is to work with the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail to allow people charged with low-level offenses or nonviolent crimes to be released before their trial with affordable bonds. She also wants to reallocate ACRJ funds to social work, education, and civic programs, and see more people diverted to alternatives to incarceration.
No matter the results in November, Washington sees herself in politics for the long run. “The true way to bring about change and break down barriers is by having more Black Americans not just in elected positions, but positions of power,” she says.
Albemarle County, which had outgrown its downtown office building and was leasing additional space, is now reassessing what jobs require employees to work on-site. PC: Skyclad aerial
You get to wear slippers all day. You don’t have to commute. You have more flexibility with childcare. After a year of remote work, is the office a thing of the past?
A high local vaccination rate makes the return to in-person work feasible for many area businesses, but that doesn’t mean everyone is headed back in. Some outfits have ditched office space and others are downsizing, as hybrid work arrangements become more common.
Before COVID hit, many businesses were already accommodating employees who wanted to work from home occasionally—but others had to scramble. “When the shutdown happened, Albemarle County didn’t have a teleworking policy,” says Emily Kilroy, director of communications and public engagement for the county. “Within three days, people were sent home, and we had to make sure they had the equipment and IT they needed—which sometimes meant borrowing or renting laptops.”
ArcheMedX, which develops software for life sciences and health care clients, was at the other end of the spectrum. “We have always had some remote employees, but most worked in our downtown office,” says Joel Selzer, co-founder and CEO. “As soon as the pandemic hit, we moved everyone to remote. We got them whatever they needed—workstations, desks, even furniture—from the office, and everything else we gave away or put into storage.” And the firm isn’t looking back. The company used to rent offices on East Main Street, but gave up the space last summer.
“Our offices never went completely remote—we had staggered schedules, so attorneys could come in to work with staff a couple days a week,” says Mike Griffin, business manager at Tucker Griffin Barnes P.C., a law firm with four offices in central Virginia. “The decision now is when to allow clients back into the office, and how do we do that safely.”
After safety, the big concern for employers and their workers is child care. “Fifty percent of our employees have children under the age of 18 at home,” says Kilroy, so the re-opening of schools was a critical factor in bringing employees back. Tim Tessier, one of the principals at Bushman Dreyfus Architects, agrees: “I have teenaged boys, and we had homeschooled for a while—but that’s not as challenging as for employees who have grade-school kids.”
Our employees have found they can get so much more done at home. But they also need contact with colleagues and clients.
Dawn Heneberry, Old Dominion Capital Management
As schools and daycares re-open, why would employees want to continue working from home? “Productivity,” says Dawn Heneberry, managing director of wealth management firm Old Dominion Capital Management. “Our employees have found they can get so much more done at home. But they also need contact with colleagues and clients to be part of a team. So they’re telling us they want a hybrid model, where they can be in the office two or three days a week.”
“Sometimes the need to focus [on a project] means working from home works better,” Tessier says. “But a lot of what architects do is collaborative—showing your ideas to a colleague, noodling it through. Some of our teams have been getting together for meetings with masks.” His 14-person firm is in the process of developing a hybrid model that combines the best of both approaches. “We recently had our first face-to-face all-office meeting [since the shutdown]—which was just really nice.”
But business owners also have to consider their customers’ needs and expectations. While most people seem to have adapted to Zoom meetings and digital data exchange, many still prefer in-person interaction. “We’ve given clients the option to meet anywhere they felt comfortable—in our office, at their home, outdoors at a restaurant, on Zoom,” says Heneberry. “I think that will continue.”
Then there are logistical concerns. Would a hybrid model, allowing both remote and in-office work, mean supplying employees with high-tech workstations in both places? Do employees still need individual office space if they are only coming in one or two days a week? With employees working flexible hours, how does the company ensure responsive service and client coverage? Many of these decisions have an impact on the bottom line.
What about offices themselves? Pre-pandemic, Kilroy says, Albemarle County had almost outgrown its downtown office building and was leasing additional space. Now, with a teleworking policy in place, every manager is being asked to designate which positions can offer flexibility and which will require on-site work, so the county can reassess its space needs.
ArcheMedX, which currently has core staff working out of office space at Vault Virginia, is also in the process of deciding what’s next. “We’ve proved we can do much more than we thought we could virtually, but there are times when being together with a white board is necessary,” says Selzer. “We’ll likely continue in a hybrid model, with some [physical] presence downtown—Charlottesville is still the heart and soul of ArcheMedX.”
“I hope we can embrace what has worked,” says Selzer, “but there’s always a time and a need to meet face to face.”
