Counter-protesters, including former Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy, demonstrating on A12.
Photo by Eze Amos.
Since August 11 and 12, 2017, Charlottesville has become a national political talking point. With the seven-year anniversary of A12 just around the corner, discussion of Charlottesville continues to be deployed by both national media and political campaigns, especially in the 2024 presidential election.
“We are living through a battle for the soul of this nation,” wrote President Joe Biden in an op ed for The Atlantic on August 27, 2017. This statement would go on to define Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, which centered on defending democracy by defeating then-President Donald Trump’s bid for reelection.
“Aside from January 6, Charlottesville 2017 may be the most concrete image the Democrats have in illustrating the idea of ‘threats to democracy,’” said Sabato’s Crystal Ball Associate Editor Miles Coleman in a comment via email.
During the June 27, 2024, presidential debate, Biden once again mentioned Charlottesville as his impetus for running and condemned comments made by Trump after A12.
While Trump disputed media interpretations of the comment, he did say there were “very fine people on both sides” but went on to clarify he condemned neo-Nazis and white nationalists “totally” during the infamous August 15, 2017, press conference. He drew comparisons between right-wing extremists and counterprotesters and has more recently called the events of A12 a “peanut” in comparison to “anti-Israel protests” in April.
Biden has since dropped his bid for reelection, but upholding democracy continues to be a central theme for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
The vice president has not directly discussed the events of A12 during her current campaign, but she has emphasized the importance of opposing anti-democratic policies like those proposed in Project 2025—a more than 900-page-long conservative agenda that includes policy proposals that massively increase the powers of the presidency and reduce checks and balances. (Trump has said he does not support Project 2025, but a significant number of officials from his former administration was involved in the creation of the policy plan.)
“At this moment, we face a choice between two visions for our nation: one focused on the future and the other on the past,” shared Harris on X/Twitter on August 2. “With your support, I am fighting for our nation’s future.”
Beyond Harris, the National Democratic Party has made the protection of democracy a major part of its platform and will likely continue to use “Charlottesville” as a shorthand for A12 in the coming months.
“As long as the Republican Party is dominated by Trumpism—which seems likely to be the case until the man literally drops dead, and probably afterwards too—pro-Democratic groups will probably suggest that Trump’s sympathy, or at least his indifference, towards the white supremacists is evidence of a growing illiberal trend within the GOP,” said Coleman.
On the Republican side, discussion of Charlottesville has focused on assertions that Trump’s “both sides” comment was not accurately reported and that left-leaning media have intentionally misrepresented the former president and his allies. A recent op ed shared in The Washington Times highlights how right-leaning media use Charlottesville as an example of media manipulation.a
“Newly minted vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance just had his Charlottesville moment and again the public is getting played,” said Newsmax host Tom Basile in the August 3 article. “We must appreciate [that] those telling us marriage and family don’t really matter are the same ones who told us Donald Trump is Hitler, President Biden was fit to serve, Ms. Harris had nothing to do with the open border, having boys in girls’ locker rooms is just fine, and J.D. Vance is weird.”
Shenandoah National Park's pilot Trailblazers program gets kids into conservation. Photo by Stephen Barling.
On the last Monday in July, in the fields behind the Fifth Street Starbucks, a crew of sweaty high school kids is taking a mid-morning break, swigging energy water and snarfing down bags of chips (after working outside all morning, they need the salt). Their blue T-shirts say “Trailblazers.” And that’s what they are—pioneers in a pilot program to get local youth acquainted with the outdoors and maybe introduce them to careers in conservation. An added bonus: These kids are earning a paycheck while providing much-needed maintenance on the popular Rivanna Trail encircling Charlottesville.
The Trailblazers: Charlottesville to Shenandoah program is one of those genius ideas that seem obvious—once everyone has done the work to make it happen. But it took four local organizations, two city programs, a local retailer, and a national nonprofit working together to make the idea into a reality.
The lead organization on the Trailblazers program is the Shenandoah National Park Trust, which runs a trail maintenance program called the Shenandoah Youth Corps, designed to provide young people with work experience in conservation. The Appalachian Conservation Corps has partnered with SNPT on the Youth Corps program for the last six years, providing experienced adult leaders for the youth trail crews and handling logistics.
Photo by Stephen Barling.
Tommy Safranek, a Rivanna Trails Foundation volunteer who had previous experience as a youth trail crew leader, had applied for a grant from outdoor retailer Public Lands in hopes of starting such a program here—right before the city hired him as its bike and pedestrian coordinator. Safranek is also on the board of the RTF, which is always looking for ways to get the community involved in both using and caring for the Trail—as is the Charlottesville Area Mountain Bike Club, whose members also use and help maintain the Trail.
“We’d been having conversations with Zach Foster [ACC’s executive director] about how to go about diversifying the Shenandoah Youth Corps, so that was fresh in my mind when I ran into Tommy Safranek one night while he was out walking his dog,” recalls Ethan Serr, SNPT’s corporate and foundations development manager. “We started talking about our different organizations and found a shared challenge in the need to diversify trail usage. He had mentioned that they were exploring the idea of a youth trail crew for the Rivanna Trail, which got me thinking about how we could collaborate as a means of developing a pipeline for more diverse participation in the Shenandoah Youth Corps. I pitched the idea to the Trust’s executive director and the director of partnerships, and they of course were interested and took the lead from there.”
Last August, SNPT and ACC met with RTF to discuss building a paid youth corps program in the Charlottesville area. SNPT was willing to act as lead, but the other organizations contributed as well, with added financial support from Safranek’s Public Lands grant and funding from the Virginia Outdoors Foundation.
It made sense that the adults managing the youth crew would be hired from the ACC staff. “We’re in charge of actual implementation,” explains Foster, “because we have [the Youth Corps] experience at managing the work. We handle the transportation, the risk management, and have the crew leaders who provide mentorship. But CAYIP was really the key because they can recruit the participants.”
CAYIP—the city’s Community Attention Youth Internship Program—finds local retailers and organizations willing to provide Charlottesville youth with paid summer internship programs that widen their experience and help them develop career skills. Latara Ragland, interim CAYIP coordinator, says, “We became highly interested and truly excited about the program. CAYIP is always looking for site partners that are conducive to mentoring young people while they receive a hands-on work experience. [Trailblazers] made it even more exciting because of the commitment and dedication all these agencies were already investing in our community and young people.”
This spring, CAYIP added Trailblazers to the youth internship recruitment efforts it runs every year in Charlottesville schools. Applicants for Trailblazers had to be city residents aged 16 to 18. Participants are expected to work up to 20 hours a week for the six-week session and will earn a performance-based stipend of up to $15 per hour (not to exceed $1,800). They are also expected to build a resume at the end of their internship.
On a Monday in July, five of the program’s eight interns were working on installing a series of steps where the Rivanna Trail heads into an underpass below Fifth Street. Photo by Stephen Barling.
Trailblazers team lead Emma Callan of ACC says the eight interns spent their first day in the field learning how to use the tools of trail maintenance. Each day starts with a “stretch-and-safety circle,” not just to get ready for hard physical work, but to reinforce safe practices “and remind everyone to stay hydrated.” After seven weeks of trail work, the program ends with an intensive three-day camping and trail maintenance project in Shenandoah National Park—a new experience for most of these young people.
On the day I visit, Callan and her colleague Jon Rice have a crew of five—Wes Swanson, Jamond Johnson, Eagan Matthews-Huba, Matthias Zimmerman, and Will Wright—working on installing a series of steps where the trail heads down into an underpass below Fifth Street between the Starbucks and the former Christian Aid property. (Other crew members Christian Martinez, Nava Khurgel, and Nick Brown are out today.)
“Some of these kids are active outdoors—they do sports, some have used the trail,” says Callan. “But they are mostly trail newbies in terms of manual labor.” I arrive during their late morning break (hence the drinks and snacks); the boys are sweaty but good-humored and put their hard hats back on cheerfully when work resumes.
Overseeing construction is Tim Pare, a retired engineer and longtime RTF volunteer. “The trail was being eroded here,” he points out. “This is low ground that gets flooded and gravel would wash away, so we’re cutting in steps, framing them out with lumber, and filling in with a combination of gravel and concrete called lean mix.” (The trail intersects a section of sewage lines at this point, so the Albemarle County Service Authority donated the materials for these steps.)
Photo by Stephen Barling.
In comments provided by ACC, Swanson said he found out about the program through his school’s career fair. “It’s really cool learning how the trails are designed and learning how to make it the right angle so the water flows off it in the right way. It’s also really fun using all the machinery. I definitely want to find a way to work in conservation after this experience. Maybe I could do it every summer during college. I would love to have a career related to this.”
Similarly, Zimmerman, a CHS senior, said, “I’ve always been around the Rivanna River and live right near the trail, so it’s awesome to be making this area even better. I’m learning more skills so I can really use what I have learned to better my community. I was definitely thinking about going into forestry as a career—or something with outdoor nonprofits in the future.”
As this year’s pilot program is wrapping up, the consensus is that Trailblazers has been a success all around. “We are so proud of the interns—all eight successfully completed this session,” says Ragland. “Their feedback has been consistent: They have truly enjoyed the experience.” In fact, she notes, “We had more students interested in the program than we could accept this year, and we hope this interest grows in the future as more teens learn about it.”
“The crew is putting in really solid work, and the kids are getting real skills working with RTF and CAMBC,” says Lauren Croissant, ACC youth program coordinator. That’s good news for ACC and SNPT as well, since these organizations hope the Trailblazers internship will lead a more diverse group of young people into programs like the Youth Corps and help the Park build relationships and encourage interaction with surrounding communities. In fact, Serr says SNPT has had interest in programs similar to the one in Charlottesville from Richmond, Harrisonburg, and Washington, D.C.
Photo by Stephen Barling.
In a Trailblazers press release, Bobby Casteen, a CAMBC board member, calls Trailblazers an important initiative “because it promotes collaboration between community organizations to create change, and it can influence youth to see the value in community engagement and service.”
Safranek sees awareness of the city’s natural resources as another of the key goals of the Trailblazers program. “As the city’s bike and pedestrian coordinator, my job is to get more folks in our community walking and biking,” he says. “Sometimes that means building more sidewalks and bike paths, but this program allows our youth to discover the amazing trail resources that we have right here in Charlottesville. So, my hope is that they not only make our community more friendly to walk and bike, but they also now choose to bike or walk next time they need to get around town.”
For Callan, one of the rewards for the Trailblazers interns is the sense of accomplishment and community pride it gives them. “Once these steps are done—or any of our projects they worked on—they can come back to the trail and show their families and friends, ‘Hey look, I built that!’”
Hailing from the Lone Star State, Robert Earl Keen has honed his craft as one of Texas’ most accomplished singer-songwriters over the past three decades. With 21 records and thousands of concerts on his resume, REK’s poetic musings delivered through Americana melodies have impacted audiences far and wide. We put the country-western crooner in the HotSeat ahead of his August 10 show at The Paramount Theater.
Name: Robert Earl Keen
Age: 21+
Pronouns: He/Him
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Job(s): Dock worker, roughneck, secretary, kitchen boy, railroad commission, [working for] Hatch Show Print (the oldest printing press in America), long-haul car driver for transport, book seller. But the real job and the best job is a long-time performing artist. It’s a great life if you can make it work.
What’s something about your job that people would be surprised to learn? Sometimes there are songs that are recorded and never looked at again. But then a fan requests that song, and I don’t remember it and I’m stumped! So I have to cheat really quick to learn it on the spot.
What is music to you? Music to me is a trip down a really colorful winding road to a spiritual summit where no one else is. You can feel all the pleasures of the universe.
First concert you attended: I have a half brother who moved to California, and he played the drums. They did a concert at the local high school and they played “Wipe Out.” I thought that was the coolest experience ever. Also I blew off my prom to go see Willie Nelson at The Half Dollar in Houston, and that was a top night as well. Everyone just danced and drank the night away. Way better than my senior prom.
Last concert you attended: Other than my own, I saw Tyler Childers in Austin, Texas at The Moody Center. Outstanding show!
Favorite venue or city to perform in: The Birchmere is my favorite venue, but New Orleans and cities in the Southeast really have a hunger for Americana music. It’s a fertile ground for a songwriter like myself.
Why is supporting music education important? Anyone that loves music can answer this question. There is more to music than listening to music in your car or in your house. It’s a spiritual experience. Music is a universal magnet that pulls us all in.
What are you listening to right now? “Feelin’ Alright” by Joe Cocker. I listen to it every day and multiple times. I feel like it applies to me! It’s a way to get the day started.
Go-to karaoke song: Allegedly I have done karaoke, but I don’t remember it. But if I had a choice I would sing a really old country song—“Saginaw, Michigan” would be a good choice.
Are there any superstitions you abide by? I do have some stupid ones but don’t talk about them much. But an example is when I’m playing a room, and something really “feels wrong” about it, I won’t play it again. No fear of the typical black cats or spilled salt, but [after] a premonition dream with a symbolic snake or a fox, I would avoid those!
Proudest accomplishment: Proudest accomplishment objectively is my two daughters. My oldest—when she was 5—she won the Miss Apple Dumpling Beauty Contest. It knocked me out of my chair and I was so proud.
Describe a perfect day: Sitting down at a flatwater pond and fishing and sitting in the shade without a care in the world watching the day go by. Not even having to catch a fish! It’s such a solitary thing to do. Add a novel and a blanket and it’s complete, watching the clouds go by.
If you had three wishes, what would you wish for? A pint of Guinness, a lifetime supply of Guinness, and then another pint of Guinness.
Do you have any pets? I have my superdog Roadie, the two most beautiful orange cats in the world Handsome and Ransom, and three donkeys. Our Western Chill graphic novel features Zane and Mack—myself being Zane. Mack is my dog in real life and he is a real smartass and telepathic in the novel.
Subject that causes you to rant: People that design our highways and transportation. TXDOT!!
Best journey you ever went on: When I was young, my parents loved to go to Mexico. We went in my Dad’s 1973 Cadillac Eldorado and drove from Houston to Acapulco and it was incredible.
Next journey: Palo Duro Canyon.
Favorite word: Favorite word currently is “loud” when you are talking about smell. When something is very pungent, calling it “loud.” Using loud as describing a smell just gets me.
Hottest take/most unpopular opinion: “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John is a great song.
Isabelle Abbot’s “Morning Glow” is on view as part of “Influence + Conversation” at Les Yeux du Monde. Image courtesy of LYDM.
Artists Isabelle Abbot and Barbara Campbell Thomas met when Abbot was a student in the MFA program at UNC Greensboro where Thomas was a professor. Thomas became an important mentor to Abbot, helping her achieve a looser, freer painting style and chairing her thesis committee. “Influence + Conversation” at Les Yeux du Monde reunites the two women in an exhibition showcasing their parallel approaches and ongoing artistic dialogue.
The most potent tie linking the two artists is their shared appreciation of the natural world and what this brings to their respective practices. “Barbara has always been very supportive of my time outside in nature,” says Abbot, who became a regular visitor to Thomas’ farm while she was a student. “She talked a lot about note-taking when you’re outside, moving through the world and observing things.”
These plein air notes, a central facet of both artists’ practices, help build a visual language they can draw from. Thomas, whose work is abstract, uses what she gleans from her forays outdoors to develop what she refers to as contemplations of an interior landscape. Her paintings combine sewn fabric, collaged elements, and acrylic paint. “I don’t start with a solid piece of material; I basically build it piece by piece, using small sections of fabric, to form a ground that gets stretched. When I’m done with the sewing, I start adding the paint and collage.
“When I learned the technique of piecing fabric together it was like a lightbulb went off. I felt like it was the knowledge I needed. I don’t want to start with a large expanse of unblemished canvas; I want to make that too. It’s not something that’s a given. Instead, I build the ground myself.”
“Dear Star” by Barbara Campbell Thomas. Image Courtesy of LYDM.
Thomas’ reduced palette of blues and grays is inspired by a rag rug made by her great-grandmother. The rug features a pattern of diamonds, a motif Thomas has incorporated into “Central Medallion.” In this work, the artist plays with space in an abstract way. Surrounding the center diamond, four squares of fabric are attached to each other. Where the seams meet, the strips of material don’t exactly line up, imparting a kind of jangly energy to the piece. Lighter colored painted fabric around the edges frame the dark center, making it pop.
Optically, the thrust of the work appears to be receding down a deep well, while at other times, it feels like it’s extending out toward you. This spatial push/pull animates the work and reveals Thomas’ interest in how movement affects observation. “The visual rhythm and visual cadence of my work is aided by the fact that my body’s in movement,” she says. This attention to rhythm and cadence is also seen in “Night Space,” which features a prominent horizontal direction, and “Dear Star,” which brims with staccato intensity.
Abbot’s connection to the physical landscape is more obvious, although in many works she embraces an abstract direction, using landscape as the jumping-off point. She creates her preliminary sketches outdoors, then takes them back to the studio and tapes them to the wall. “I look at them and see what I would call my go-to marks, my go-to shapes that I put together in different ways.” Moving from one painting to another, you begin to see elements of that vocabulary: descending slopes, triangles, and similar amorphous forms that crop up repeatedly.
In much of the work on view, Abbot, who excels as a colorist, favors a highly keyed palette of turquoise, yellow, and cerulean. Yet in “Ode to Greenwood,” she uses a more naturalistic color scheme. The painting reads true to nature, but in approaching the picture, you see how the color is created with a gutsy amalgamation of gestural hues that work together to describe reflections on water, the choppy contours of soft, muddy land, and shadows.
In “Morning Glow,” blotches of bright pigment, resembling the fiery flecks that shimmer within an opal, denote pinkish sunlight glinting off structures and objects on distant ridges. The furthermost peaks are washed in pale yellow and pink, and Abbot uses vibrant brushstrokes and vivid aquamarine to convey a mountainside bathed in sun, tempering this bold choice with the dark verdant green of the adjoining hill.
For Abbot, like Thomas, it’s not just being in nature, but moving through nature. “For a long time, I painted the landscape like I was looking out a window at it. I framed it and composed it and then painted it.” But now she tries a more immersive approach, capturing the landscape in a holistic way. “It’s something that’s not way over there … you’re in it.” You see how this is implemented to great effect in “Field’s Edge,” a pastoral scene that is not just a stunning image, but is infused with the sensual qualities of its subject—buffeting breeze and warm sun—elements experienced by the artist firsthand and interpreted so effectively for us using her personal artistic language.
Old-school button-mashers and new-gen emulator kids alike can get behind Bit Brigade, musical purveyors of driving NES game soundtrack covers. They’ve powered up 8-bit classics into rockin’ renditions for more than 10 years, and they’re marching into town to boost your HP with full versions of “The Legend of Zelda” and “Castlevania.” The concert doubles as a live-scoring event because while the band shreds on stage, their designated gamer speedruns each retro title live—to the delight and stress of audience members.
Thursday 8/8. $17–20, 8pm. The Southern Café and Music Hall, 103 S. First St. thesoutherncville.com
Sometimes you’re in the mood for that mysterious alchemy of nostalgia and masochism that drives you to read your high school journal entries, love letters from exes, or hometown obituaries—searching for a good kind of sadness, a pain that reminds you of how precious and fleeting this life can be. And along comes Chloë Ester. This C’ville-native singer-songwriter is a storyteller with a penchant for soliciting sorrow. She’s been called “Melanchloë” by her peers in the scene, but Chloë Ester brings the full spectrum of emotions to bear throughout her setlist. Get into your feelings at your favorite DIY community arts and culture venue that doubles as a carport and relive some childhood trauma with strangers.
Friday 8/9. Free, 7pm. The Garage, First Street between Market and Jefferson streets. thegaragecville.com
It’s an all-day-into-night affair to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Veritas Vineyards and Winery. Starry Nights returns with live music, fun food, and plenty of wine. Tunes start with AbbeyRoad covering classics from The Beatles before Marie and Koda of Chamomile and Whiskey take the stage, then ’80s enthusiasts The Legwarmers close the show. Bring your own picnic, snag a snack from Ma’s Pizza Cones or Cousins Maine Lobster food trucks, or enjoy a stationed meal (if you opt for the Moon Experience ticket).
