Month: August 2023

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Arts Culture

Black Violin

Black Violin. Supplied photo.

Modern beats meet classical virtuosity in Black Violin, a hip-hop duo from Fort Lauderdale. Classically trained musicians Wil Baptiste and Kev Marcus met in high school, and got their start covering hip-hop songs on their violins in local clubs. The act has since worked with a variety of names, from Kanye West to Tom Petty, and Lupe Fiasco to Aerosmith. The duo’s new album, Take the Stairs, takes the quintessential Black Violin sound to a new level, with songs that incorporate funk, Slavonic dance, Al Green-style bass lines, and viola solos.

Friday 9/1. $33–118, 8pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. jeffersontheater.com

Categories
Arts Culture

Lewis Reining in the HotSeat

Lewis Reining. Supplied photo.

Whatever the occasion—a morning commute, an all-night study sesh, or Sunday brunch—WTJU has the radio hour you need. The station was founded in 1955, and today Lewis Reining is one of the producers who helps keep the music playing and the conversation flowing. Reining, who’s been with the station for over a decade, was recently named one of 22 rising stars in public media by national news source Current. Reining was recognized for the impact he’s made at WTJU, and his hard work, which has directly contributed to the station’s growth. Tune in at wtju.net

Name: Lewis Reining.

Age: 33.

Pronouns: He/him.

Hometown: Seoul (birthplace), Purcellville (grew up).

Job: Producer & operations director (i.e. keeping the station running).

First job: Language practice assistant with Rosetta Stone’s online courses.

Worst thing about living here: Housing.

Best thing about living here: The people.

Favorite restaurant: Doma.

Where do you start and end a night out: The apartment, a real homebody.

Who is your hero: Anyone who does something creative and puts themselves out there.

Best advice you ever got: Be curious.

Proudest accomplishment: Being part of WTJU’s growth this last decade.

Describe a perfect day: Eat a curry croquette, play games with my partner, read xianxia, check email and phone at midnight to find no fires or problems.

What’s something about yourself that people would be surprised to learn: Published author (piece on experiences as Korean adoptee in Seoul).

If you could be reincarnated as a person or thing, what would you be: Shiba inu in a loving family with a huge yard.

If you had three wishes, what would you wish for: Politicians with a non-theistic moral compass, living wage, just justice system.

Do you have any pets: None, hope to have some again someday soon.

Most embarrassing moment: Slid down my back porch when I was a kid and got a splinter in my butt, had to go to the E.R.

Favorite movie and/or show: “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God.”

Favorite book: So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane.

What is music to you: Another sense, another way of seeing the world and ourselves.

Favorite musician: Recently, Willi Carlisle.

What are you listening to right now: “Nobody” by The Crane Wives (Dogtown Studio version).

Go-to karaoke song: “Congratulations” by Eric Nam.

Favorite radio show: “World Turning.”

Favorite radio personality: Ed Walker.

How was your first time on air: Exhilarating and easier than I imagined.

Who’d play you in a movie: Marutaro.

Celebrity crush: Sa-Roc.

Most used app on your phone: Milanote.

Last text you sent: “Yup we can do thay”

Most used emoji: :3

Subject that causes you to rant: Health care or video game monetization.

Best journey you ever went on: Study abroad to Seoul, South Korea.

Next journey: Starting a radio drama-centric YouTube channel.

Favorite word: Solid.

Hottest take: In certain professions like radio, where someone is always on or broadcasting, 9-5/hard blackout times aren’t viable.

What have you forgotten today: To unfreeze fish for dinner. Again.

Categories
Arts Culture

Corey Harris

Corey Harris. Photo by Brian Blauser.

With imaginative compositions and an eye for eclectic experimentation, guitarist and vocalist Corey Harris has his own vision of the blues. Drawing on his origins as a New Orleans street singer and his travels through the South and Cameroon, Harris takes the traditional blues formula to the next level with influences from reggae, soul, rock, and West African music. Insurrection Blues, his 20th album, sees Harris return to a solo acoustic format. With Jamie Dyer and David French.

Thursday 8/31. $25–30, 7pm. The Front Porch, 221 E. Water St. frontporchcville.org

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News

Powering down

City schools’ new cell phone policy applies to students at Buford Middle School, Charlottesville High School, and Lugo-McGinness Academy. Image courtesy yondr.

With the start of the school year, Charlottesville City middle and high school students are adjusting not only to new classes, but to a new cell phone policy too. Students must have their phones “Off and Away the Entire Day”—something previously only applicable to CCS elementary students—and will eventually be required to seal phones in magnetically locked pouches. While many parents support stricter cell phone policies, the new rule has also raised concern.

Students are now required to put their phones and other personal devices away for the entirety of the school day, including non-instructional periods like lunch. Though teachers continue to remind students to do this, CCS policy dictates that upon a student’s first violation, administration will be notified, the device confiscated, and it will be returned to the student at the end of the day.

In an infographic detailing the policy, the district outlined potential benefits of Off and Away the Entire Day. “Disconnecting from phones will allow us to connect with each other, connect with learning, and connect with calm,” CCS wrote. “Let’s all work together to improve our learning relationships and mental wellness.”

Later this school year, CCS plans to move to “Off, Yondr, and Away,” which would require students to lock their phones in Yondr pouches at the beginning of the day. Several parents and guardians have expressed concern about this because it would make contacting students in an emergency difficult.

In an August 18 letter to the CCS community, Superintendent Royal Gurley said the district would take time to get feedback, conduct more research, answer questions, and make adjustments before implementing the use of Yondr pouches. He also mentioned meetings about the new device policy, which were held before the start of the school year.

“We held those meetings …  because we wanted to alleviate any confusion that we will be launching Yondr on day one, and we wanted to answer questions about Off and Away the Entire Day,” says CCS Community Relations Liaison Amanda Korman. 

“I think we are still really wanting to make sure we know that it is going to work because our students and families have buy-in and understand the value of the program,” says CCS Supervisor of Community Relations Beth Cheuk. “And that may take a while because people have legitimate questions. And we want to work and do some research and find out how Yondr has worked at other school divisions.”

Though the district does not currently have any additional meetings scheduled to discuss Yondr, Korman encourages families to reach out with questions. “As we are able to get answers to families’ questions and get that buy-in, that’s when we [implement] Yondr,” she says.

While it is still early in the school year, both Korman and Cheuk claim the new policy has already been successful. “We’re just getting some reports that teachers are super happy,” says Cheuk. “[There have been] few discipline reports over phones, just a handful, and the parents have been very supportive of them.”

When asked why the district will implement Yondr pouches despite the claimed success of Off and Away, Cheuk and Korman say the pouches will help students tempted to use their phones regardless of the rules. “At one of the last school board meetings, we heard the story of this student who confessed that even with some of her favorite classes, she would sometimes slip out under the guise of needing to use the restroom … so she could check her phone to stay [caught up] with whatever drama her friend group was up to,” says Korman. “And for a student like that, we hope that she knows that by having the phone in the pouch, that temptation is off the table.”

CCS has already ordered the Yondr pouches. However, the district says it is listening to families’ feedback. If there’s a need to contact students during the day, CCS recommends either emailing the student or calling the front office.

“For the bigger category of those more emergent situations, I think the thing we can do is to turn to other school divisions,” says Cheuk. “We’ve identified at least one in Virginia, but also some nationally … [that] have had lockdowns … [and] emergency situations. I would like to learn from those school divisions and from parents in those school divisions. How did they navigate this world? And what can they say that would make our parents feel better about the situation and understand that they have a good option?”

Albemarle County Public Schools does not currently plan to alter its cell phone policy. According to Public Affairs and Strategic Communications Officer Phil Giaramita, “We prohibited the use of cell phones prior to the 2019-2020 school year in our middle schools, with the intent that the policy would be tested and considered for extension to high schools. High schools limited cell phone use three years later, coming out of the pandemic. Both changes have worked very well and there is no intent right now to make any changes.”

Categories
Culture

All of Morrow’s parties

Getting to know Nick Morrow, C'ville Pride's new president. Photo by Eze Amos.

Nick Morrow recently took over as president of Cville Pride, adding to his impressive portfolio of professional activism. 

Morrow is communications director for Vote.org, the country’s largest nonpartisan digital voter engagement organization. Before landing with the national nonprofit, he led the Human Rights Campaign communications team while living in Washington, D.C., with his now-fiancé.

Morrow recently spoke with C-VILLE about his background, what Pride means in Charlottesville, and Cville Pride Fest, set to pop off on September 17.

What does Pride mean to you?

LGBTQ+ rights have always been near and dear to my heart. I got started in my career in grad school with a PR firm that helped with incoming media requests when the Supreme Court was debating marriage equality. To get involved with that at age 23, that grew the interest in me. As a gay man myself, it is something I really responded to. 

What brought you to the Charlottesville Pride Community Network?

I moved down here with my fiancé just because we wanted to move out of the city. His company had an office here, and my job had been fully remote since COVID. But we didn’t even move with that in mind—it just happened. I am from Tennessee originally and went to school at the University of Tennessee. I love Tennessee so much and have a love for the South in general—despite its relationship with the LGBTQ+ community being fraught. When you have a place you love so much—that you call home—not being the most welcoming, it makes it really important to serve the community. 

I worked for the Pride organization in Knoxville. That was a passion project for me that launched so many things I’ve done professionally. One of the first things I did when we moved here was reach out to the Pride Network. I just said, “I would love to help.” It had been a transitional moment for the organization coming out of COVID. For an organization that puts on a big festival, being unable to gather was very difficult. I started getting really involved, and the former acting president decided to move out of the area. I talked to people throughout the organization, and they asked that I step into the role.

What does it mean for the group’s big annual event to be back?

Last year was a return to form for the organization. We had the big event at Ix, and we just expect it to balloon from there. I have been really honored to step into the president role, and I’m just working toward the fall and being able to use the skills I have to expand on the community that has been here and doing the work longer than I have. I want to make sure we are serving the community.

As a new Charlottesville resident, what’s your perspective of the LGBTQ+ community?

I think that it is one of the most omnipresent communities I have been a part of. I have never been in a place where so many members of the LGBTQ+ community are prominent business owners, serving in government positions, and being really forward-facing. There are so many people that are the backbone of this community, and I think that is a really special thing that doesn’t exist in a lot of places. 

What can an event like Cville Pride Fest do to help the effort?

We are hoping to connect and amplify the community and add something cool and new. We’re not trying to be the biggest organization. We want to work alongside the people already doing incredible work. We’re in the process of nailing down the schedule, but people can definitely expect a market with local vendors. We’ll have some politicians and elected officials come and give remarks. We’ll be about six weeks out from elections here in Virginia, and that will give those people a chance to connect with the LGBTQ+ community. We’ll have local entertainers, drag performers that are so talented and wonderful, local singer-songwriters, and some other things. It’s going to be a great day for people to gather to support local businesses.

How would you describe the national mood around LGBTQ+ rights?

It feels very important this year to have a Pride celebration. It has been a wild year, just in how people in the larger political conversation are talking about LGBTQ+ rights. People are boycotting Target or Bud Light for their inclusiveness. I think that is a troubling trend. We don’t want to let these things rain on our parade during Cville Pride, and it’s important for us not to cave in to that pressure, so being out there and in even stronger force feels extra important. And that underscores my point about supporting local businesses and people that are supportive of us. We’ve seen that is not a given. Sometimes Pride celebrations can go a little corporate, and that comes on tenuous ground.

Why does Charlottesville hold its big Pride event in September instead of June?

So, June is national Pride month, but it is also jam-packed with existing celebrations. A few years back, some Southern cities started moving their events to other months. Atlanta moved to October, Miami moved to April, and Richmond moved to September. We have latched ours to the weekend before Richmond’s. Also, a fun tidbit: I’m getting married on the 23rd of September, so Cville Pride Fest is the Sunday before our wedding, and the Richmond festival is the day after. It is going to be a week full of so much joy and love.

What’s up

Here’s what you can expect to find at this year’s Cville Pride celebration, starting with a kick-off party on September 16.

Saturday, September 16 (Common House rooftop)

Rainbow Disco dance party
Dance the night away while DJ Cadybug spins the tracks. 

Sunday, September 17 (Ix Art Park)

Morning (11ish): Vendors open for business
Browse a wide array of vendors, organizations, and other community partners, with a special focus on locals first. “We, of course, also will have a ton of great LGBTQ+ vendors and community leaders providing resources,” says Cville Pride President Nick Morrow. 

Early afternoon (1ish): Brief speaking program
Hear some brief remarks from local leaders, folks running for office in the November elections, and from Pride about the importance of Pride and why it’s vital to show up at Pride events.
“It’s only going to help us build bigger and better Prides in the coming years,” says Morrow.

Afternoon (2ish): Entertainment! 
Catch drag performers and singer-songwriters putting on a show.

Pride guide: Three vendors to anchor offerings at Cville Pride Fest

The Charlottesville Community Pride Network is experiencing a resurgence with its annual festival now in its second year back after COVID, and three local vendors will headline the event’s all-day market on September 17.

“The people here in the area are really invested in the LGBTQ+ community, and that’s a priority for the festival itself—having local vendors and entertainers, having people connected to the area,” Cville Pride President Nick Morrow says. “We’re still coming off the heels of the pandemic, so giving these folks the opportunity to book gigs … is just really heartening.”

Critter Butts

Joan Kovatch and Dylan West of Critter Butts are still working on their marquee line. 

The company, which the partners tagline Queer Feral Trash Creature Art, started as an idea for underpants—specifically, undies with funky characters and captions. Now two years into operation, they’ve yet to produce a panty, but they’re having fun with designs on other canvasses.

When Critter Butts comes to Cville Pride Fest, the two-person design firm will offer T-shirts, tote bags, greeting cards, and stickers, all with their already-beloved designs, like the “be gay do crimes” squirrel and “live fast eat trash” raccoon.

“It’s a mind-blowing opportunity,” Kovatch says. “We’re so delighted to get to share our art with such a huge and joyful crowd—and honestly a little terrified, too. We’ve never done anything nearly this big. It’ll be a blast, though, and we can’t wait to meet all the new queers who might enjoy our work.”

Queer Cville Trainers

Ryan McCarthy and their wife have been putting on movement/outdoor play events for about a year for Queer.ish.cville. In that time, McCarthy says they’ve “connected with a bunch of queer folks in the movement and self-care space.” That’s involved meeting people in countless communities—CrossFit, strongman, yoga, cycling, running, physical therapy, chiropractic… 

At Cville Pride, they’ll look to bring together all those communities as Queer Cville Trainers. 

“The hope is to set up a space where visitors can meet trainers, learn about welcoming places in town, and also get their hands on some fun mini-challenges,” McCarthy says. “I believe building physical strength and resilience works really well with the broader mission of Pride Fest to celebrate and empower our community and want to show people who maybe haven’t always felt welcomed in ‘gym’ spaces that they definitely do belong and can have fun in the process.”

Out & About Lounge

Festivals are all about fun in the sun, but Jason Elliott also wants to give Pride Fest-goers a place to cool off.

To that end, Elliott will offer up the Out & About Lounge, a shady space located near the festival stage with free water and sunscreen a-flowing. 

“It’s a place to relax a little, but people will also be able to take pictures with the entertainers and enjoy everything the day has to offer—without roasting in the sun,” Elliott says. 

An active organizer of LGBTQ+ events around town himself, Elliott says Pride Fest’s setting during Virginia Pride Week in September makes it a unique opportunity to celebrate the local community. He plans to partner with multiple local organizations, as well as an international outdoor furniture provider, to give people a comfortable spot to recharge.

Categories
Arts Culture

Tale of fire and ice

Age of Fire rekindled its ’90s metal sound after founder Greg Brown (center) put some of the band’s early recordings online, and “people listened.” KMS Photography.

If the origin story of local metal band Age of Fire were a rom-com, there wouldn’t be a dry eye in the theater at this point. Put on some Evanescence and try to dig it.

Boy meets girl in South Florida in 1982—but in this case, the girl is heavy metal. After six years of being in love with the girl, something comes of the relationship: a band’s eponymous debut album, Age of Fire.

The boy and girl part ways all too soon. He moves to Charlottesville, Virginia. After 20 years, the boy makes contact with the girl in 2008. But it’s not the same. For the boy, the girl is frozen in time, a memory of his youth. He’s unable to save her from the nothing she’s become (sorry, Evanescence).

Finally, three decades after first falling for the girl, the boy decides he’ll do whatever it takes to get her back. He wins the girl’s affection again, and their torrid love affair resumes.

The boy here is Greg Brown, founding member of the now-resurgent Age of Fire. In 2018, after re-releasing his band’s debut album for the second time in 30 years, he decided to grab fate by the collar and re-form. Just five years later, the band is touring to support its second album. They’ve played Atlanta, Birmingham, Myrtle Beach, and several dates in Europe. They’ve announced a streaming show on September 5 from In Your Ear Studios in Richmond, and will head to L.A. to play the Whiskey a Go Go, opening for Burning Witches, on December 6. And in the meantime, they’ll be back in the studio this fall to work on the band’s second full-length album—on Sliptrick Records—since getting back together.

“I’m laser-focused on what we are trying to do,” says Brown. “Richmond has been great to us—really embraced us. In this town, metal doesn’t seem to be very well supported. It’s a different beast.”

Charlottesville’s metal scene has been beset by recent losses, both of venues and promising acts. And while Brown admits he operates in “a bit of a bubble,” he’s never given up on the genre, even while pursuing others after Age of Fire disbanded in 1993. 

Brown returned to metal around 2012, after a cancer diagnosis. With a chemo port implanted in his chest, the classical guitar he had come to favor became impractical. The smaller body on his old electrics didn’t rub against the port, and the less technical ax work made playing easier, given his limited mobility.

“I was always into the shredders: Metallica, Megadeth,” Brown says. “But that’s actually the same thing that attracted me to classical and flamenco, the virtuosity of it.”

Working mostly from old-but-never-released recordings, Brown put together a new Age of Fire LP in late 2018, the same year he released the band’s debut for the third time. He “threw it up on the web,” he says, and people listened.

The 10-track Obsidian Dreams, Age of Fire’s first new record in 30 years, caught the attention of Sliptrick Records. Delighted, surprised, and humbled, Brown put together a band. He found a local bass player in Mike Heck and joined forces with a new lead vocalist, Laura Viglione. In 2020, Age of Fire released its first album of all new music since the band formed in 1988: Shades of Shadow. A European tour followed. It was more than Brown could’ve dreamed of when Metallica’s Kill ’Em All first made him fall in love with metal.

Heck and Viglione left the group after the Shades of Shadow tour, but Brown was undaunted. He found local bass player Ric Brown and drummer Bill Morries and decided to retake Age of Fire’s lead vocals. The latest iteration of the band independently released an EP, Through the Tempest, last year, and it’s been well received by indie pubs. 

Brown says Age of Fire still has a strong following in Europe, and he’s optimistic about the future, including the forthcoming album on Sliptrick. “Metal is starting to pick up,” Brown says. “It’s still huge overseas. In the United States in the ’90s, we went grunge, but the rest of the world didn’t.”

Age of Fire’s music has been described as dabbling in various heavy metal subgenres, including thrash, symphonic, melodic, and progressive. But for those who grew up with the ’90s shredders like Brown, it’s Metallica they’ll hear first.

Now, what’s old is new again. Age of Fire has been played on more than 1,000 traditional and satellite radio stations around the world after an unheard of four-decade hiatus. The band has attracted attention from media outlets from Portugal to Slovakia to Norway, and endorsements from Solar Guitars, Scorpion drumsticks, and Dirtbag clothing.

Still, Age of Fire isn’t Brown’s full-time gig. By day, he’s an educational services representative for Guitar Center’s Music & Arts. He says working with music teachers to develop in-school programming frees him up to make his own tunes on weekends and during summers.

As Brown tries to help kickstart the local metal scene, he looks back on his career and thinks of all the young musicians who could use a push toward his favorite music genre.

“I feel bad. … I ran a music store in this town for many years, and kids would come in playing Pantera licks or whatever,” he says. “I would think, ‘Where do these kids play?’ There doesn’t seem to be a supported infrastructure in this town for this type of music, and I would have been lost without it my entire life.”

Watch Age of Fire’s livestream performance on September 5 at In Your Ear Studios via youtube.com/@shockoesessionslive.

Categories
Arts Culture

Coral grief

Glass artist Kiara Pelissier reproduces the tragic effects of climate change on the planet’s coral reefs in her show “House on Fire” at Quirk Gallery through September 29. Image courtesy of the artist.

Coral reefs are wondrous marvels of natural beauty. They are both living things and ecosystems for a myriad assortment of other creatures, and are a vital link in the chain of life. It’s estimated that 1 billion people benefit from coral reefs in the form of food, coastal protection, clean sea water, and income from tourism and fishing.

With “House on Fire” at Quirk Gallery, Kiara Pelissier uses glass to draw attention to the existential threat the earth and all its inhabitants are facing as our climate changes and temperatures rise. Pelissier focuses on the devastation happening to coral reefs around the globe. These beautiful animals are struggling to survive in an environment that is becoming untenable. Mass bleaching events, unknown until the 1980s, are now common occurrences in our oceans, which absorb 93 percent of the heat trapped by CO2.

Each coral is made up of polyps that are attached to a reef at one end, and have an open mouth surrounded by tentacles at the other. One of the most remarkable things about coral is its symbiotic relationship with algae. Each coral polyp contains millions of algae cells, called zooxanthellae. The coral provides them with an environment in which to thrive and photosynthesize, which, in turn, helps sustain the coral. At night, corals become active, extending their stinging tentacles to capture floating plankton.

Coral polyps are actually transparent—it’s the zooxanthellae that provides the pigment that gives coral its vivid and varied color. Coral can be hard or soft. It lives and grows connected to other corals. Soft corals resemble plants. Hard corals use the calcium in seawater to form outer skeletons that become the structural basis of a coral reef. Bleached coral is not dead, but without the algae inside, it is more at risk for starvation and disease, and if the situation doesn’t improve, it will die.

Taking the title of the show from Greta Thunberg’s famous 2019 Davos speech, Pelissier continues the metaphor of the burning house with the introduction of a portion of a roof. Her intention is to bring what’s happening out of sight, beneath the sea, quite literally home. Pelissier’s roof is mostly white, interspersed with cobalt, amethyst, and lime-green tiles—the white alludes to bleaching and the other distinctive colors appear in certain corals when they experience heatstroke. The message is clear: The roof, our home, our planet, like the coral, is in mortal peril.

The heatstroke colors appear again in the dramatic sheaths of glass rods at the opposite end of the gallery. It isn’t until you see that these pieces are all titled “Scream” that you note the urgency to the upward thrust of the rods. Pelissier wants us to understand the direness of the situation: The coral—out of sight and out of mind—is screaming for our help.

“Anthropocene” refers to our current era of human domination, and features drooping clear polyps placed against a mirror. From a visual viewpoint, it’s a dazzling display of silver and glass, but it’s also a powerful memento mori. The polyps, drained of color and deflated, bear little resemblance to healthy coral. They’ve expelled the algae living in their tissues as a reaction to stress. Transparency is the final stage in coral’s death spiral before all “flesh” is gone and only a skeletal superstructure remains. It’s impossible to look at this piece without seeing ourselves reflected in the mirror, just as it’s impossible to look at what’s happening to coral without confronting our role in its demise.

“In My Lifetime,” spans decades from the 1950s to the 2020s, and presents a series of 13 glass coral clusters. Pelissier suggests movement by incorporating slightly mushed polyps into her arrangements to mimic the swaying of ocean currents. The early clusters are luscious explosions of colored glass. It’s not until the 1980s, when the first mass bleaching event occurred, that we begin to see white clusters. After 2000, there are no more entirely colored ones, just predominantly white with only a few bright-hued polyps. The last three have lost not just their color, but most of their mass, leaving behind skeletons.

A video features Pelissier producing one of these blooms. It’s magical watching the molten bubble of glass being pushed down onto the arrangement of upside-down polyps, and then the whole weighty thing lifted and plunged into the fiery glory hole (the name given to the furnace used for reheating the glass during its manufacture). You can feel the heat and sense the effort and determination involved in producing blown glass pieces of this scale and complexity.

Fire and heat have special relevance to those who work with blown glass. Pelissier herself has experienced the profoundly deleterious effects of exposure to hot temperatures, developing an allergic reaction to the heat she needs to produce her work. It got so bad, she almost abandoned glassblowing altogether, pausing her practice for a full six years. Fortunately, she has figured out a way to limit her exposure and also limit the amount of time her 2,000-degree furnace is on—a necessary piece of equipment that she acknowledges is not exactly green. She is helped in this effort by the fact that her current pieces are composed of numerous smaller elements that form each coral cluster, allowing her to organize her production in stages so as to use the furnace as efficiently as possible.

Like many of us during the pandemic, Pelissier turned to Netflix for some welcome diversion. Watching Chasing Coral introduced her to the plight of coral and inspired this body of work. It is a galvanizing documentary, well worth your time. The artist is donating a percentage of sales to coral reef rehabilitation and research.

Categories
News

In brief

Image courtesy Omni Hotels.

Making room(s)

The Omni Charlottesville Hotel is nearing the end of a nearly $15 million renovation. Postponed for several years due to COVID-19 and supply chain disruptions, significant work began in early May of 2023.

The renovated Omni, located on the west end of the Downtown Mall, will include spruced-up guest rooms and meeting spaces, an extended patio with new fireplaces and a “chic” style, and a revamped restaurant and bar. 

“The renovation has affected all areas of the hotel,” says the Omni’s General Manager Paul Maher. “We had to create a temporary restaurant that has been relocated several times throughout the process. It has been a challenging endeavor, but at the same time, we’ve found it to be an enjoyable and exciting experience.”

Minimizing inconvenience to guests during the renovation, while ensuring the hotel meets their needs and preferences, was a priority for everyone over the past several months.

The hotel enlisted the expertise of HITT Contracting, a specialized construction company in hospitality work known for its skill in navigating complex renovations. 

Conceptually, the design team was inspired by the cultural scene, history, and hospitality of Charlottesville. 

“The design is inspired by Thomas Jefferson, his interests, and his home, Monticello,” says Jillian Tomaro, senior interior designer with Omni Hotels & Resorts, who has been in charge of guest room renovations. “His mark encompasses the City of Charlottesville and it only made sense to include him in the design concept. We wanted the guest rooms to feel unique and part of the city’s history. They are special because it feels like a modern-day extension of Monticello.”

Tomaro adds that guests will be able to experience a kind of storytelling within the guest rooms through the furniture and artwork. The bell curve design of the headboards flanked by sphere finials offers a renewed take on Neoclassical design, and each headboard is inset with a custom mural reminiscent of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

Tomaro says that it was crucial to honor the beautiful landscape of Charlottesville. 

“For repeat guests, they will be pleasantly surprised by the guest bathroom transformation,” she says. “The bathrooms are brighter and much more spacious due to the swing door to barn door conversion. In terms of finishes, we mixed a clean aesthetic with vintage elements.”

While many parts of the hotel are expected to become new and improved, certain elements will remain the same, such as the seven-story glass atrium and fountain. 

The Omni’s restaurant, The Pointe, is located on the mall, and connects to the outdoor patio and atrium. Maher explains that the grandeur of the natural-light-filled atrium will be accented by  a garden conservatory and a free-standing bar with a mix of modern and transitional furnishings and greenery.

“I truly believe guests will be blown away at the transformation of the atrium space,” says Tomaro. “The new bar with cocktail seating will be a space that guests and locals alike will visit to gather and socialize.”

The hotel’s renovations are expected to be wrapped up by the end of this month.—Nicole Milanovic

In brief

Going viral

COVID cases in Charlottesville are on the rise, according to local doctors, but low levels of case reporting and the discontinuation of case tracking systems are making the increase difficult to follow. Recent UVA Health data indicates COVID hospitalizations are up to 11.4 patients per week, compared to 2.7 patients per week at the beginning of August. The increase in cases is not unique to Charlottesville, with hospitalizations up 21.6 percent nationally this week, according to the CDC.

Homer statue sentencing

On August 27, Shane Michael Dennis was convicted of disorderly conduct after pleading guilty to placing a noose on the Homer statue at the University of Virginia last September. Charges related to the incident were amended from public display of a noose with intent to intimidate to disorderly conduct, partially due to evidence that Dennis’ actions were not racially motivated. The Albemarle County General District Court sentenced Dennis to a six month suspended jail sentence and one year of good behavior for the offense.

Shane Michael Dennis received no additional jail time for putting a noose around UVA’s Homer statue. Image courtesy UVA.

CHAP deadline extended   

The deadline for Charlottesville Homeowner Assistance Program applications has been extended to 5pm on September 8. While the application deadline typically falls on September 1, the window was extended to account for scheduled system maintenance. Homeowners can apply for the program online, in person, or over the phone. For more information about the application and eligibility requirements, visit charlottesville.gov/1513/Real-Estate-Tax-Relief

Categories
Arts Culture

Caroline Vain

Caroline Vain. Supplied photo.

Richmond-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Caroline Vain blends introspective and poetic lyrics with memorable hooks and captivating riffs. Since graduating from London College of Music in 2021, Vain has released three singles, “Casual Love,” “Better,” and “A Song For You,” a romantic and plucky exploration of the simple pleasures of platonic and romantic relationships. Vain and her
band perform a show of original music and interpretive covers full of energetic guitar and fiddle solos.

Tuesday 9/5. Free, 7pm. Dürty Nelly’s, 2200 Jefferson Park Ave. durtynellyscharlottesville.com

Categories
News Real Estate

Sensitive no more? 

The city decided not to include new land-use tools to help provide protection to communities most sensitive to displacement, which are highlighted in red on the Future Land Use Map above. Image by City of Charlottesville.

A driving force of the Cville Plans Together initiative has been to make sure the city changes its land-use policies to redress the past.   

“Single-family zoning has historically been a tool to create and reinforce racial segregation in Charlottesville,” reads the Affordable Housing Plan adopted by City Council in March 2021. 

The plan called for new zoning to allow “soft density” in single-family neighborhoods, “while limiting displacement of low-income communities.” The plan recommended identifying specific neighborhoods. 

Eight months later, City Council adopted a Comprehensive Plan that includes a Future Land Use Map that called for the end of single-family housing in every neighborhood by allowing at least three dwelling units on all lots. This map also used census data to designate areas where there are more residents prone to displacement due to low incomes, as well as higher concentrations of Black households. 

The plan called for new zoning tools and other policies for these “sensitive communities” to keep people in place and to support wealth building. The plan was clear that these areas were to be further outlined and that each might feature steps unique to that community. 

Policy tools might have had funds to help pay for rehabilitation of owner-occupied homes. Potential zoning tools considered included allowing smaller lots and commercial uses, as well as more subdivisions and reduced parking minimums. 

The Comprehensive Plan said the zoning rewrite should mitigate “the potential for displacement.”  The Future Land Use Map also proposed restricting buildings in these areas to one unit per lot rather than the three allowed in all other neighborhoods. 

Two neighborhood associations say the final draft of the development code didn’t meet that bar.

“All protection against gentrification and displacement has been surreptitiously removed in ways that were intended to hide its removal,” reads the letter from the Meadowbrook Hills/Rugby Neighborhood Association and Lewis Mountain neighborhood associations. “It’s clear that this was never about protecting those citizens in Charlottesville who are in greatest need for protection from development.”

As the zoning rewrite continued, the city did publish a document this spring that addressed these sensitive communities. 

“We are working to determine the best path forward for supporting mitigation of displacement in the Sensitive Community Areas through the Zoning Ordinance in the context of the current draft, including affordability measures,” reads a portion of the four-page document, which goes on to say that more information about sensitive communities would be shared.

“We intend to share any updates to the strategies related to Sensitive Community Areas with the refined draft,” the document continues. Yet the phrase “sensitive communities” doesn’t appear in the final draft of the development code. 

“After review, as well as focus groups with those who live and own in those areas, it was decided that land-use regulations were not an effective tool to address the needs expressed by the communities,” says Missy Creasy, the city’s deputy director of Neighborhood Development Services.

The city has followed through with other recommendations in the Affordable Housing Plan, such as putting at least $10 million toward affordable housing projects. This has included funding to Piedmont Housing Alliance for projects such as Friendship Court (recently renamed Kindlewood), and $5 million in funding to allow the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority the dozens of affordable units known as Dogwood Housing.