“Symbiotic Tango” finds the common ground between two very different artistic visions. Image courtesy of the gallery.
Likening their artistic collaboration to dancing the tango—following, giving, and then stepping back, Michelle Gagliano and Beatrix Ost decided to call their venture “Symbiotic Tango.” Chroma Projects is currently showing a selection of Gagliano/Ost works that give us a taste of what the collaboration looks like. A more extensive “Symbiotic Tango” show will be presented by the William King Museum of Art in Abingdon in December.
At Chroma Projects, the work is hung inside its bank vault. This intimate shrine-like setting is the perfect backdrop for pieces limned, framed, and splashed with gold. This precious metal’s glint enlivens an artwork visually, but gold also connotes high value as it pertains to the object and its message. For Gagliano and Ost, this high esteem also extends to the collaboration itself, which has enriched them both in untold ways.
“Before this, I was never drawn to abstraction,” says Ost. “But, now I’m in it. I’m in Michelle’s abstract world.” For Gagliano, working with Ost’s narrative has been expansive. “I never studied surrealism,” she says. “But getting to know Beatrix’s life, and seeing how it extends on to the canvas has been an incredibly enriching experience.”
How did the Gagliano/Ost collaboration come about? Like just about everyone else during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two artists were struggling with isolation. So in November 2020, they hatched a plan to begin working collaboratively, transforming the ensuing months into a time of flourishing artistic output and creative growth.
One wouldn’t necessarily have thought to put the two artists together. Gagliano produces shimmering atmospheric, abstract compositions, while Ost’s ornate narratives boast a complex surrealist iconography that she uses to explore the human condition. But, this stylistic divergence works to their advantage as each brings her unique perspective to the project. “It’s like a collision of contemporary surrealism and abstracted nature,” says Gagliano.
The women do share many significant similarities. Both derive real sustenance from their practices, which have provided them not only a living, but an identity and psychic fulfillment. They are also each the mother of three sons. But, perhaps most important for their practice, Ost and Gagliano both grew up on large farms: Gagliano on a dairy farm in Upstate New York, and Ost on a farm in Bavaria that specialized in cabbages used in sauerkraut. This birthright has engendered in both artists a deep reverence for nature in its many forms—its bounty, its fury, and its fragility.
Gagliano and Ost work sequentially, completing paintings that they then exchange for the other to add to. To let go of something you’ve labored over to completion, giving it to someone else to work on as they wish, would give most of us pause, and in the beginning, it was challenging for the two. The artists were leery of stepping into the other’s painting for fear of mucking up the vision. It got easier as time passed and they became more in tune to each other and appreciative of the process.
The “Dissected Presence” series of paintings was begun by Ost. The works feature densely packed forms and images from her rich visual lexicon, creating a sumptuous allover effect. In two paintings from the series, an ancient-looking plaster idol reminiscent of the stylized Cycladic schematic figures is affixed to each panel. Their significance isn’t directly spelled out, but they seem to allude to a feminine goddess along the lines of Gaia. All of the works in this series are shot through with diagonal shafts of gold added by Gagliano. These metallic embellishments add a dynamic thrust of movement. They also disrupt the illusion of three-dimensional space, without obscuring the original composition.
Begun by Gagliano and finished by Ost, the series with the same name as the show, “Symbiotic Tango,” has nine paintings. Here, the focus shifts to the surfaces—Gagliano’s forte. She says she was inspired by the James River, with the churn and splash of paint intended to evoke water flowing over rocks. The explosions of paint resemble swirling clouds of vapor and the work can be taken to represent an emergence of some kind. The paintings boast hidden narrative tidbits—faces, birds, strange toothy creatures, a disembodied hand—that one must really look for in order to see. These partial glimpses of recognizable things amid the chaos of swirling medium suggest an excavated wall where only fragmentary sections remain, with the rest degraded or covered with dust or mud. Ost revels in these instances where the abstract meets the surreal. “That’s how the mind works,” she says. “It understands both the abstract and the surreal. It’s the eyes that want order.”
Working as an artist can be a very solitary pursuit. Many spend hours alone in the studio trying to figure things out. With another artist in the mix, it’s not only companionable, but there’s another person invested in the process to act as a sounding board. This is helpful in completing a piece by reinforcing the decisions and choices involved in its creation. It’s also easier to appreciate the artistic output and derive pleasure from its creation because you have someone else experiencing the same reaction and reinforcing one’s own. “I get so much from her and she gets so much from me,” says Ost. It’s a joint endeavor of listening, trust, and support.
Under the mononym L’Rain, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Taja Cheek performs music rooted in R&B, jazz, noise, and pop. Her sophomore album, Fatigue, blends hauntingly delicate vocals with an array of keyboard and synth, and incorporates manipulated samples and voice memos in the production. The record “is an exploration of the simultaneity of human emotions … the audacity of joy in the wake of grief, disappointment in the face of accomplishment,” says L’Rain.
Tuesday 6/20. $15–18, 8pm. The Southern Café & Music Hall, 103 First St. S. thesoutherncville.com
Ti Ames directs Charlottesville Players Guild's production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Photo by Anna Kariel.
Tensions rise between members of a blues band and the owners of a recording studio in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Ti Ames directs the drama as part of Charlottesville Players Guild’s production of playwright August Wilson’s American Century Cycle. If you miss the sign up for Rock & Reel, you’ll be able to catch some of the performers on June 17 at a special intermission performance followed by a post-show discussion with the cast and crew.
Through 6/25. $20, times vary. Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, 233 Fourth St. NW. jeffschoolheritagecenter.org
Sheila Arnold performs at Rock & Reel: Monticello’s Folk Traditions. Supplied photo.
In celebration of Juneteenth, Early Music Access Project presents Rock & Reel: Monticello’s Folk Traditions, a concert that explores the unique repertoire of accomplished Black fiddlers, including Sally Hemings’ three sons and the Scott family, who lived on Main Street and played for multiple presidents. Raucous reels, stately minuets, and a new composition by Jonathan Woody will be performed by storyteller Sheila Arnold, fiddler Benjamin Hunter, violinist David McCormick, and more.
Attorney Creigh Deeds has represented Charlottesville and Albemarle in the state Senate for more than 20 years. UVA economics professor Sally Hudson, elected to the House of Delegates in 2019, is working hard to make this term his last. Photo by Eze Amos.
When Virginia ended gerrymandering, one of the benefits touted was more competitive elections without the lopsided districts drawn to favor an incumbent. Perhaps not so widely anticipated is that the race for the new 11th District in the state Senate June 20 primary would pit two well-regarded incumbent Democrats vying to represent Charlottesville and Albemarle.
Senator Creigh Deeds, 65, a lawyer, has represented this area since 2001, when he won the 25th District seat previously held by Emily Couric. Delegate Sally Hudson, 34, an economics professor at UVA, has served two terms and was the first woman elected to represent Charlottesville in the 57th District in 2019.
The candidates, who share more Democratic ideals than not, have posed a quandary for some Dems. “I’m so confused,” says one city resident. “They’re both good candidates.”
J. Miles Coleman, associate editor for Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the Center for Politics, casts the race as “seniority for Deeds versus ideology with Hudson.” And he compares it to New York, if “[Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] challenged [Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer for Senate.”
At stake is control of the General Assembly under Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and all 140 seats are up for election. Dems narrowly control the state Senate with a 22-18 majority, while the GOP has a 52-48 majority in the House.
And it’s the first election in Virginia with an un-gerrymandered map after voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2020. That’s resulted in a wave of retirements in both chambers, including longtime Del. Rob Bell. Before, reliably blue Albemarle and Charlottesville were eviscerated into six General Assembly districts. Now the area has three districts, all facing competitive Democratic primaries.
The former 25th District stretched from Charlottesville to Bath County, from whence Deeds hails, at the West Virginia border. For years he carried bills to end gerrymandering, to no avail until the Democratic sweep of the legislature in 2019 under then-governor Ralph Northam. Like many incumbents, Deeds found himself no longer living in the district he’d represented. He moved to Charlottesville.
“I probably should have moved after my son died,” says Deeds. During a mental health crisis in 2014, Gus Deeds took his own life after attacking his father. “I lived in that house too long.”
“He moved here from almost two hours away,” says Hudson. Charlottesville “is one of the progressive strongholds on the state map, and I think the senator for Charlottesville has to be willing to push the pace of change in Richmond.”
“I’ve got a long record of getting things done,” says Deeds, who spent 10 years in the House of Delegates before winning the Senate seat. “[Virginia Public Access Project] says I get more bills passed than anyone else.”
Creigh Deeds. Supplied photo.
Hudson says she wouldn’t have sought the state Senate seat without redistricting, which was her gateway to politics as a grassroots volunteer for the anti-gerrymandering organization OneVirginia2021. She stresses the significance of this “once-ever” election: “You only end gerrymandering once.”
Hudson has challenged an incumbent before, when she announced her House candidacy before David Toscano, then House minority leader, said he would not seek another term. And as in 2019, she brings cash from mega-donor Sonjia Smith and Smith’s hedge-funder husband Michael Bills’ Clean Virginia, which contributes to candidates who eschew Dominion Energy donations. Hudson also got a $20,000 check from top Berkshire Hathaway strategist Ted Weschler, who co-owns C-VILLE Weekly, according to VPAP.
Deeds also received a donation from Clean Virginia, as well as from best-selling author John Grisham and his wife Renee. He was sitting on more cash in the last filing period, with the largest segment of donations coming from fellow legislators and fellow lawyers, but Deeds pooh-poohs his cash advantage and suggests Hudson will receive more money after the filing deadline. Both candidates are running nonstop television ads.
Of the differences between Hudson and him, Deeds says it’s “probably more style than substance.” For example, they both mention they’ve been commended by abortion rights groups.
Hudson points to marriage equality, the death penalty, and gun safety as issues in which she thinks Deeds is out of step. “I think historically Senator Deeds has come around when the coast is clear, and I think the senator from Charlottesville has to be willing to stick their neck out before it’s safe,” she says.
“Silly” is how Deeds characterizes Hudson’s assessment, while he concedes that some of his positions have evolved over the decades. He supported Virginia’s 2006 constitutional amendment limiting marriage to between a man and a woman, citing his conservative Christian upbringing. “It’s an issue a lot of people evolved on, and I came around before Barack Obama,” he says.
Hudson says Deeds crossed party lines to repeal Virginia’s ban on purchasing more than one handgun a month in 2012, voted against a bill that would hold parents accountable for safely storing firearms, and voted against an assault weapons ban in 2020, “issues that are deeply important to this community.”
The assault weapons bill “was clearly overbroad, broader than federal legislation and would have included rifles,” says Deeds, who carried an assault weapons bill this year. “And I didn’t vote against it. I voted to send it to the crime commission for study.”
Sally Hudson. Photo by Eze Amos.
During her two terms, Hudson says she’s proudest of repealing restrictions on insurance coverage on abortion, fossil fuel subsidies, and the coal tax credit. She puts economic justice at the top of the list.
“I’m an economist by training so my focus is almost always on the financial challenges that are facing Virginia families,” she says, especially in “one of the most deeply unequal districts” in Virginia, where some of the wealthiest live, and Charlottesville, where 23 percent of its residents live below the poverty line.
“She brings a different expertise,” says former Charlottesville vice mayor Dede Smith. “She’s not a lawyer—and there are a lot of lawyers in the House and Senate. She’s a labor economist, and she deeply understands that sector and that need. She’s smart and she immediately grasps issues.”
Says Smith, “As a baby boomer, it is time to pass the baton to a younger generation that’s so much savvier about how to make change.” She adds, “We do need to recognize that policy and change will be felt more by the younger generation.”
Toscano, a Deeds supporter, sees Deeds’ seniority—if reelected he’ll be the number two Democrat in the Senate—as the way change will be made. Deeds co-chairs the Judiciary Committee, which appoints judges. He’s also on the powerful Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, which determines what gets funded in the budget, including teachers’ salaries, educational funding, and mental health spending, the first person from this area to do so in decades.
“If Sally had run for the House, she would have easily won reelection and come into the body with a lot of seniority,” says Toscano. “If Creigh goes, this region loses all its seniority because Sally comes in at the bottom.”
Hudson maintains that seniority is no longer that big a deal in the House, where the Democratic caucus leader has four years experience like she does. It’s a culture change that’s “really healthy,” she says, and needs to be imported to the Senate.
Toscano calls Deeds a “progressive champion,” and wonders why voters would “throw someone out who has had such a great run and is in a position to do so much more.” Says Toscano, “I look at what Sally has to gain and what we have to lose. The biggest question is, ‘Why?’”
One of the issues Deeds says he’s not willing to walk away from is mental health reform. That’s a task he compares to “eating an elephant. You take a big bite, and feel like you’ve accomplished a lot. Then you look ahead and realize how much more there is to do.”
Both Deeds and Hudson see a dire situation if Republicans gain control of the Senate. “We could be looking at a six-week abortion ban,” says Deeds.
“I could see both chambers go either way,” says the Center for Politics’ Coleman.
He mentions a 2020 Massachusetts race in which Joe Kennedy challenged incumbent U.S. Senator Ed Markey—and lost. “There’s not much appetite to get rid of incumbents who didn’t have any obvious apostasies. Deeds hasn’t gone out of his way to antagonize the Democratic base.”
And even if Hudson loses, Coleman would not be surprised if she carries the city of Charlottesville.
Albemarle makes up the majority of the district, which includes Nelson, Amherst, and a slice of Louisa County. Predicts Toscano, “The race is going to be won or lost in Albemarle County.”
Toscano worries more about the money spent in this primary on two safe seats that could be used in other parts of the state to bolster Democrats.
“That’s not how fundraising works,” says Hudson. “The reality is that primaries pull more people into the process. Competitive elections engage people,” and are a healthy thing for communities. Hudson won her primary in 2019 against former city councilor Kathy Galvin.
Deeds and Hudson have themselves a competitive primary. However it plays out in the 11th District, across the state, with dozens of legislators retiring from the capitol and others facing competitive primaries, “It’s a generational election for Virginia,” says Hudson. “It’s tectonic change.”
The City of Charlottesville agreed to pay half of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s $10 million purchase of Dogwood Properties, 74 units that have been rented to low-income individuals since the 1980s. Supplied photo.
Sometime this month, the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority will officially take the keys for more than six dozen homes across the city that since the 1980s have been rented to low-income households.
Woodard Properties is selling 74 units that collectively go by the name Dogwood Properties, the name of the entity founded by civil rights leader Eugene Williams in 1980.
“Woodard Properties is honored to be able to assist in CRHA’s mission of providing affordable quality homes now and in the future, and to be a partner in ensuring that Eugene Williams’ critical work is honored forever,” says Anthony Woodard, the company’s CEO.
The City of Charlottesville agreed in April to pay half of the $10 million purchase, and CRHA is using an interest-free loan from Riverbend Development for the rest. CRHA will get to keep all the revenues from rent.
Woodard estimates that the sale price is 30 percent below the market-rate approval for the properties.
As part of that deal, CRHA will agree to keep the properties rented to families and individuals with incomes below 60 percent of the area median income. This provision will be formally recorded in the deed.
The units will not technically be public housing, but will instead be managed as part of the CRHA’s growing collection of properties with rents subsidized by federal housing vouchers.
CRHA Executive Director John Sales says the purchase will allow the agency to accomplish its mission at a time when the landscape for federally funded affordable housing is changing.
“The acquisition of Dogwood will allow CRHA to better utilize the vouchers we administer through the Housing Choice Voucher program,” Sales says. “We have removed the barriers that many landlords have in place for families that are hard to house due to criminal history, credit score, or rental history.”
Last year, CRHA purchased two duplexes on Coleman Street as well as a single family home on Montrose Avenue. Earlier this month, City Council agreed to cover half the cost of the purchase of 100 Harris Rd., another single-family home.
Meanwhile, on the public housing side of CRHA, the first residents have begun to move back into Crescent Halls, a 105-unit structure built in 1976 that has now been fully refurbished as part of a $20 million project. New units are also open at South First Street, a $15 million development built on top of a former ball field.
Half of the units at Crescent Halls are public housing units. At South First Street, 13 are public housing units, 24 are funded through vouchers, and 25 have no subsidies at all.
As for Woodard Properties, it has spent the past several years acquiring properties in the Cherry Avenue corridor including the former IGA at 501 Cherry Ave. Woodard held a community meeting with the Fifeville Neighborhood Association on June 3.
Trainer Adam Goerge (pictured with his wife, Nicole, at their Elevate Training Studio) says a video inspired him to compete in the Trans Am Bike Race. Photo by Amy and Jackson Smith.
Personal trainer Adam Goerge is taking his love for cycling to the next level by racing across the country in the Trans Am Bike Race.
Spanning from coast to coast, the trail is approximately 4,200 miles long and follows the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail. Owner (with his wife, Nicole) of Charlottesville’s Elevate Training Studio, Goerge says cycling is a major part of his life, but preparing for the cross-country journey is still a massive undertaking.
“I’ve done various distance things like Iron Man … marathons, etc.,” he says. “I saw a video, Inspired to Ride, about the TransAmerica Bike Race from 2014, and thought it looked cool, and figured, ‘You know, okay, why not? Let’s see what I can make happen.’”
To prepare for the race, Goerge did “long rides on the weekends, anywhere from 100 to 280 miles, 400-mile weekends on the bike. And then during the week doing various speed workouts … trying to ride at least five or six days a week if not more.”
Since January 1, 2023, Goerge has put more than 5,000 miles on his bike.
On top of physical preparations, he surveyed the course for hotels, convenience stores, and water refilling spots. During the race, which started June 4, the clock does not stop, so participants must carefully budget their time between riding, resting, and refueling. Planning for food and rest stops is particularly important for Goerge because he plans to eat 8,000 to 10,000 calories a day.
While Goerge says he will “sleep on the side of the road” if need be, researching the course ahead of time gave him a better idea of where he could rest. Goerge plans to sleep only three or four hours each night, so he can maximize his time on the bike.
“I’ll be … trying to ride 17 to 18 hours a day for as many days as it takes to get across the country,” he says. “Under 20 days is the plan to get this done. The current record right now is 16 days and nine hours. I’d like to see how close I can get to that.”
Since kicking off in Astoria, Oregon, Goerge and his fellow participants have been pedaling their way across the country. With the race running through Charlottesville, the trainer will be zooming by around Father’s Day, but plans to keep pushing on to the finish line in Yorktown, Virginia.
While Goerge was somewhere in the Rocky Mountains at press time, he’s already anticipating reuniting with his family at the finish line. “I’m very appreciative of all the support I’ve gotten from my wife, from my friends, as I’m training for this thing,” he says. “I hope that I can get it done quickly and get back to see everybody here soon.”
The TransAmerica Bicycle Trail closely follows the route of the 1976 Bikecentennial event, which commemorated the 200th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence. While the Bikecentennial was not a race, cyclist Nathan Jones created the Trans Am Bike Race in 2014 using the pathway. The race has been held every year since its founding except for 2020, and has expanded beyond traditional bikes into other modes of transportation, including velomobiles.
To coincide with the renovation of Buford, the city schools superintendent recommends changing its name to Charlottesville Middle School. If the school board approves the name change, it would go into effect in 2025. Supplied photo.
By Sofia Heartney
Ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony at Buford Middle School, marking the start of a multi-million-dollar renovation, Charlottesville City Schools Superintendent Royal A. Gurley Jr. recommended changing Buford’s name to Charlottesville Middle School. According to a press release, school board members discussed a name change during a recent meeting. After gathering community feedback, the board plans to vote on the change at its June 27 meeting.
“This recommendation follows the current trend to move away from school names that honor individuals,” Gurley said in the June 5 press release. “In addition, it indicates that we are essentially building a new school serving grades six to eight. The recommended name is fitting since this middle school will become the place that welcomes all Charlottesville sixth-graders from their neighborhood elementary schools.”
The board had been soliciting community comments on a possible Buford name change since May 25, making the school the latest educational institution in the area to formally consider undertaking a full renaming effort. In January, the board voted to change the name of Clark Elementary, named for General George Rogers Clark, who owned enslaved people and led the genocide of Native Americans, to Summit, and Venable Elementary, named for Charles S. Venable, a member of the Confederate Army and a math professor at UVA who perpetuated myths about slavery, to Trailblazers.
But in April, the board voted to pause the city schools’ renaming of Burnley-Moran and Johnson elementaries, and continue engaging with the community to consider new names for the schools. Those involved in the renaming process hope this pause will allow time for more public dialogue to decide on “lasting names that the communities of the schools would embrace,” in the words of board member Sherry Kraft. She says the ultimate goal of the pause is “to make sure that we are approaching this in the very best way we can for our community.”
The school board first began the process of reconsidering school names by appointing the Naming of Facilities Committee in 2020. The following year, the committee began surveying community members on their views of the names of various Charlottesville City Schools. In the January 2023 survey, about 61 percent of respondents supported changing the name of Burnley-Moran, and approximately 50 percent of respondents believed Johnson should be renamed.
Based on information that was collected, the committee recommended that Burnley-Moran and Johnson be renamed Blue Mountain and Cherry Avenue, respectively. These names have been criticized, however, for not being sufficiently relevant to Charlottesville, which led to the renaming pause.
“We want to find the name that will be most appropriate for each of the schools that, again, fits into the values of the school system,” says Beth Baptist, chair of the Naming of Facilities Committee.
During the current pause, the Naming Committee will continue to propose new names for the schools. It plans to talk to local experts about possible names inspired by plants or geographical features unique to Charlottesville, conduct further discussions with the schools’ staff through outside consultants, and solicit names from the public. Ultimately, committee members hope to arrive at names that are informed by “purpose and place within the community,” according to Baptist.
The renaming process has been criticized by some, who argue that it has moved too quickly, relies on inaccurate research, and has not incorporated enough community feedback. Derek Hartline, a former student and teacher at Johnson Elementary, has spoken against changing the name of Johnson at several school board meetings. In an interview, he explained that he opposed the name change because, during Johnson’s time, “there were a lot of merits and achievements that he did that really were strong and put the school system in the right direction early on.”
Johnson Elementary is named for James G. Johnson, who was superintendent of Charlottesville City Schools for 35 years, until 1946. He, Carrie Burnley, and Sarepta Moran were part of the district when it was still segregated, and Burnley and Moran are purported to have had ties to the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
In Johnson’s case, Hartline argues that “there wasn’t any evidence … whether he was for [Jim Crow] or against it.” He has criticized the process of the Naming Committee, saying its members “promised that they would have transparency, and they really just haven’t from the start.”
Specifically, he points to issues he has with the community survey the committee conducted, saying he “felt that the survey was biased in a way, because you couldn’t just say, ‘Keep the name the same.’ You had to vote on names that they created that had to do with ‘purpose’ or ‘place,’ when it wasn’t discussed if that’s what the community wants.”
“Regardless of the accomplishment or merit of these individuals, these schools’ names commemorate an era of segregated education that no longer reflects the division’s values,” said Charlottesville City Schools in an update on its website.
“I think it’s important to send a message that we embrace the diversity of our community,” says Kraft, “and that we want our schools to represent that and to represent our values, rather than just commemorating an individual.”
Ultimately, says Kraft, while “you can’t please all of the people all of the time,” she hopes the school board’s pause of the renaming process will allow it to “please a few more people.”
Add a visit to UVA’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers to your list of must-dos on Juneteenth. Photo by Stephen Barling.
Celebrating Juneteenth
The Charlottesville community is again coming together to celebrate Juneteenth, which commemorates the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865, when General Gordon Granger read the declaration to enslaved people in Texas, announcing their freedom and ending the practice of slavery in the southern United States. While Juneteenth has been celebrated since 1866, it did not officially become a federal holiday until 2021.
What follows is a list of several Juneteenth events throughout the greater Charlottesville area.
On June 15 from 6 to 8pm, the Brooks Family YMCA will host a celebration that includes guest speakers, events, performances, and free food while supplies last. The event is open to the entire community, and will highlight local leaders like Vice-Mayor Juandiego Wade and Pastor Alvin Edwards from Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church.
The Jefferson School celebrates the holiday with a June 17 parade that kicks off at 9am, followed by an Emancipation concert that begins at noon. A special performance of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (see p. 25) starts at 7:30pm.
Outside the city, James Madison’s Montpelier will host a two-day event, Celebrating Stories of Freedom. The celebration starts on June 17, and runs from 10am to 4pm at Montpelier, while day two is on June 19 from 11am to 2pm at Church Street Park. Both days feature live music, storytelling, food trucks, and community information tables.
On June 19, the Ivy Creek Foundation will host tours of the historic River View Farm at 11am and 4pm. During the tours, participants can learn about the Carr/Grier family and its impact on the Albemarle area.
Later in the month, the Southern Albemarle Juneteenth Celebration includes a tour of Scottsville African American historical sites on June 24 at 10am. Starting at Union Baptist Church, the tour includes stops at Washington/Rosenwald Scottsville School, the Minerva Bell Lewis Historical Marker, and the Scottsville Museum’s Juneteenth African American Exhibit.
For those looking to celebrate on their own timeline, consider visiting the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at UVA and the “Pride Overcomes Prejudice” exhibit at the Jefferson School. While the exhibit is closed on June 19, it is a permanent installation, and will be open the rest of June.
Another way to observe Juneteenth is by donating to organizations supporting the Black community. Among those to consider are: the ACLU, Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Central Blue Ridge, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, National Black Child Development Institute, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the Pretty Brown Girl Project, Southern Poverty Law Center, Thurgood Marshall College Fund, and the United Negro College Fund.
In brief
CASPCA volunteers released
The Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA has released more volunteers, who were informed of their dismissal by interim Executive Director Sue Friedman. According to Friedman, the volunteers were dismissed for being “rude, disrespectful, and/or inappropriate in their interactions with team members.” Friedman asked that these volunteers not return for the remainder of the summer to “allow [the CASPCA] this time to create a safe and supportive space for our team members…our staff.” Watchdog group CASPCA Concerns released a statement condemning the dismissals, noting the lack of specific examples or evidence of volunteers’ behavior, and the blaming of volunteers for ongoing issues at the shelter.
ACPS appoints Hayes
Albemarle County Public Schools has appointed Chandra Hayes as its next assistant superintendent for instruction. Hayes has extensive experience, including in her current role as the director of equity and student support services for Chesterfield County Public Schools. Her term begins July 1.
Chandra Hayes. Photo courtesy Albemarle County Public Schools.
Canada smokes C’ville
Smoke from Canadian wildfires has blanketed Charlottesville and much of the East Coast, drastically decreasing air quality. The city released a news alert on June 8, when the air quality in the area was deemed “very unhealthy” by the Environmental Protection Agency. While air quality has since improved, the city urges residents to “monitor local air quality reports and use … discretion when traveling outside” while the smoke persists.
We know, we know: Ice cream? For summer? Groundbreaking. But there’s literally no better time to write about one of our favorite treats than the hottest season of the year, cliché or not. It’s practically a requirement: Before the summer’s over, you must try one of these hot (cold?) spots. And for those of you who’d rather not sweat it out with the masses in line for a sweet scoop, we’ve rounded up a DIY kit of sorts. All you need is a recipe. (Hey, we can’t do all the work.)
By Shea Gibbs, Caite Hamilton, and Maeve Hayden
Photo: Tristan Williams
SWEET TREATS
Chaps still serving up frozen goodness
Strolling the Downtown Mall with a post-dinner Chaps ice cream cone is like a rite of passage.
You’ll know you’re where you want to be when you see the blue awning, teal booths, neon signs, and longtime employee Brenda “Granny” Hawkins serving up scoops from behind the counter.
On warm summer nights, it’s not uncommon for the line of dessert seekers to wind out the door, but Granny handles it like a seasoned pro, which is no surprise seeing as she recently celebrated her 25th Chaps anniversary.
Chaps has been a mainstay on the Downtown Mall since it opened in 1985, standing strong through mall turnovers, increasing rent, and a pandemic. Tony LaBua opened the Downtown location, taking over for his uncle who ran a Chaps in a different part of town, before selling to new owners in 2022.
Today, manager Rhys Aglio and employees like Granny keep the good scoops rolling.
“We make ice cream at least three or four days a week right now,” Aglio says. “It will probably go up to five days a week in the summertime. We make somewhere around 25 flavors.”
Ask any Charlottesvillian their Chaps order, and they’re sure to have a ride-or-die recommendation. Flavors with cult followings include butter pecan, cherry vanilla, black raspberry, Four Cs (chocolate cherry chocolate chip), and pistachio.
Even more popular than the fun flavors is the tried and true trio of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.
“They’re our most ordered flavors,” Aglio says. “And vanilla shakes are surprisingly popular.”
Chaps also incorporates seasonal flavors, like peach and peppermint, into its menu, and the kitchen is always messing around with some new flavor.
“We’re always trying out random other things,” Aglio says. “We recently made a test batch of maple bacon ice cream. Last time we made it it was too much bacon and not enough maple syrup, and this time it was too much maple syrup and not enough bacon. So we’re working that out.”
One of the most exciting new additions to the menu are cake cups. The cups layer together ice cream, cake, and crushed Oreo, sprinkles, or chocolate chips, depending on the flavor. Other offerings include custom ice cream cakes, and, for furry friends, pup cups loaded with banana and peanut butter.
It’s easy to get lost in the fun of ice cream flavors, but one of the best parts of Chaps is plopping your scoops on top of one of the homemade waffle cones. They’re perfectly flavored and crisp, yet chewy. In this case, the answer’s always cone.—MH
What’s the scoop?
Cup or cone?
Rhys Aglio: That’s a hard question. Cones are more fun but cups are easier.
How do you get the perfect scoop?
Very minimal wrist movement, it’s more shoulder, it’s pulling and turning. Get your whole body in there and pull it out. Some of them are softer, some get a lot more dense, they’re colder. And it does help to know the technique.
Photo: Eze Amos
OLD-SCHOOL SCOOPS
The OG of local ice cream shops, Chandler’s remains a hot spot
Chandler’s Ice Cream, a small stand tucked off Long Street and cherished by many, literally rolled into town on the bypass a quarter century ago.
The trailer that now houses Chandler’s began its life as Willy’s Ice Cream in Waynesboro. Jon Lee, a young family man working in the hospitality industry, was a friend of the owner, who told Lee he was building more permanent digs.
Lee quickly snapped up the creamery-on-wheels. He drove it to Charlottesville with help from friends and family and set up shoppe.
The Lees leased space fronting River Road next to Tractor Supply, anchored their newly acquired trailer, arranged a few picnic tables and whiskey barrels, and started serving up no-frills chocolate and vanilla soft serve. It was a hit.
“We like to keep it simple,” Lee says.
Chandler’s also offers some hot food, but it’s become known for its generous portions of fully loaded sundaes, creamy milkshakes, and huge banana splits. “The banana boat is the biggest seller,” Lee says. “We buy our bananas by the case, so it’s hard to say how many we go through. But people definitely look at me like I’m crazy when I buy them all.”
Chandler’s is now in its 26th year of selling “real ice cream,” Lee says, and he doesn’t expect to change things up any time soon. His eldest son, Chandler’s namesake, helps out around the business, as do two of his daughters. His wife, a local schoolteacher, provides emotional support.
Lee says Chandler’s business fluctuates with the weather, but it’s resilient during tough economic times. He’s always looking to draw customers by making the place more visible from the bypass, but he figures his low-cost treats put a smile on folks’ faces no matter how well they’re doing financially.
When he’s not at Chandlers, Lee cooks for the Dominican priests at St. Thomas Aquinas University parish and spends time with his family and beloved dogs. He loves to see customers eating their cones with their canines, and Chandler’s offers free pup cups—whipped cream in a Dixie—to all four-legged friends. That even goes for the cloven.
“Today, our first customer pulled up in his old pickup, and he had a goat in the back,” Lee says. “I handed the ice cream cone to him, and he turns around and starts to feed the goat.”—SG
Photo: Tristan Williams
PEACHY KEEN
Is it really summer if you haven’t had an ice cream treat from Chiles Peach Orchard? The juicy fruit shows up in mid-June and lasts through the middle of September, which gives you plenty of time to sample the soft serve in all its splendor: in a waffle cone, as a milkshake, or (our personal favorite) topped with a donut, aka a dondae.—CH
Photo: Tristan Williams
SMALL TOWN SCOOPS
Crozet Creamery serves up big flavors
On Christmas day in 2022, disaster struck Crozet.
Piedmont Place, a multi-use building at the heart of the small town, experienced a water main break. The businesses inside were forced to close while the damage was reversed, and, unfortunately, many of them decided to shutter their doors for good. It was a big blow to Crozet, which lost a taco shop, barbeque joint, and gym, in one fell swoop.
Crozet Creamery, however, is here to stay. The little shop that could reopened in early March, ready to get back to business serving up small-batch, handcrafted ice cream in a variety of rotating classic and creative flavors.
The ice cream joint has been a fixture of Piedmont Place, and a must-visit for daytrippers from Charlottesville, since the building opened in 2017. Manager Erik Schetlick joined Crozet Creamery shortly after it opened.
“[The owners] called me and asked if I wanted to run an ice cream shop,” Schetlick says. “Before this I had done some light ice cream work at restaurants, but I’ve always liked ice cream and eating ice cream …so I got excited at that prospect.”
Before Crozet Creamery, Schetlick had worked at local joints like Harvest Moon Catering, The Virginian, Michael’s Bistro, and The Ivy Inn. Now, he’s responsible for all of the fun, creative flavors found on Crozet Creamery’s menu.
The classics—vanilla, chocolate, java chip, birthday cake, cookies & cream, and mint chip—always have a place on the menu. While certainly deserving of a scoop or two, it’s the rotating selection of seasonal and one-off flavors that make Crozet Creamery special.
It’s hard to pick just one flavor to fill your cone or cup.
Banana Chocolate Puddin is one of the most popular flavors, alongside birthday cake and cookies & cream. The limited-run flavor is made with roasted bananas, vanilla wafers, and dark chocolate. Peanut Butter Swirl is another adult favorite, and features vanilla ice cream and creamy peanut butter, with Reese’s Pieces folded in.
“Once the summertime hits and the fruit season comes, a lot of people look forward to [our fruit flavors],” says Schetlick, who uses berries from Critzer Family Farm and peaches from Henley’s Orchard in flavors like strawberry and Critzers Cobbler, a blackberry ice cream with a butter folded in.
Skittles Sorbet is popular with the kids, the Arnold Palmer sorbet is one of the most requested flavors, and there’s always at least one dairy-free option on the menu. Other funky flavors that have made appearances in the past include Chai Tea and Sour Cream Blueberry Donut, which mixes sour cream ice cream, chunks of sour cream donuts, and a blueberry fruit swirl.
As for a specialty, it’s hard for Schetlick to say.
“Our specialty … I mean, obviously it’s ice cream, but I feel like it’s more than that. It’s such a great little community here, tons of families and kids. People come in here and have a great time. Our specialty is almost like happiness. It’s kind of what we do.”—MH
What’s the scoop?
Cup or cone?
Erik Schetlick: I think I’d go cone. … I think cone is better.
Favorite flavor?
Probably Banana Chocolate Puddin or Critzers Cobbler.
How do you get the perfect scoop?
Practice and have a good scoop. The key is not to dig down deep, you want to let it roll itself up. You don’t want to try too hard. Some people like to make a little “s” shape with their scoop and it kind of gets the thing to roll up on itself. Some people like to just kind of snowball it. It all depends on the ice cream too, some are a lot softer than others.
Photo: Tristan Williams
FRUITY FUN
La Flor Michoacana’s traditional Mexican treats
At some point in our lives, most of us have stood at the counter of an ice cream shop waffling over the choice of cup or cone. It’s an important decision that definitely impacts the ice cream-eating experience. At La Flor Michoacana, the answer is neither cup nor cone, it’s paletas.
Paletas are a traditional Mexican frozen treat, like ice cream in popsicle form. It’s the best of both worlds—the perfect portion that’s easy to eat on the go and doesn’t drip.
It’s been nearly eight years since the owners of La Flor Michoacana brought the sweet treat to Charlottesville. While on vacation in Cancún, Claudia and Birza “Jamie” Polnia tried paletas for the first time.
“I was so impressed, it was my first time having authentic and homemade ice cream in popsicles in Mexico,” says Jamie. “We started thinking, what about this business in Charlottesville?”
The couple came home, and Jamie started researching how to make this new dream a reality. He found a two-week course at a university in Mexico City to learn the recipes and technique, and back he went.
“It was learning every day. I met people from Brazil, Canada…it was a fun experience,” he says.
Jamie bought the proper machinery while he was in Mexico, and once he was home, he and Claudia began making test recipes and samples in their home and giving the bars away to friends and family. Now, they’re working out of a storefront and a separate production facility, producing 3,000 bars a day.
Every morning, they head out to the grocery store to buy fresh fruits, which they use to craft some of the 30 ice cream flavors and over 60 bar flavors they offer.
The flavors that make use of those fresh fruits are some of the most popular—and for good reason. Colorful bars like guava, passion fruit, and avocado are unique for their fruity, refreshing taste while maintaining a creamy, ice cream-like consistency.
Customers looking for a sweeter treat frequently order the blackberry cheesecake, Oreo cookie, and tres leches, and vegans can have their pick of one of the largest dairy-free menus of flavors in town. Occasionally, Claudia and Jamie will make some seasonal and fun one-off flavors, like pumpkin in the fall.
“Once he made a spinach and pineapple bar,” says Claudia. “I joke and say it was my detox juice bar.”
Business is booming, and, in addition to running the store, Jamie and Claudia are busy catering across the city and supplying wholesale bars to places like Foods of All Nations. This is also the first summer they’ve set up at the Ix Farmers Market, and soon they’re adding a new packing machine to their set-up, making it easier for them to keep Charlottesville well-stocked with fun, fruity bars of goodness.—MH
