Author: Maeve Hayden

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Arts Culture

Book looks

Laura Gao speaks about her graphic novel at Making Sense of the World: Making Sense of Ourselves, a virtual event on March 20. Photo courtesy of VA Festival of the Book.

Rust Belt Vegan Kitchen cooking demo 

March 18, 2pm | Virtual event

When Meredith Pangrace decided to go vegan as a teenager, her grandmother made sure she was still included at family dinners. “She didn’t judge me, didn’t criticize,” writes Pangrace in her new community cookbook, Rust Belt Vegan Kitchen, “and she lovingly accommodated my choice with extra servings of potatoes, pasta, and, of course, cabbage when I came for dinner.” 

Rust Belt Vegan Kitchen takes culinary favorites and staples of the Rust Belt and makes them accessible for vegans. A true community effort, the cookbook features recipes and stories from home chefs and professionals, including Dave Huffman of “Bitchy Vegan Homo” and Dustin Vanderburg of Vegan in the Hood. Inside, you’ll find recipes for desserts, hearty casseroles, party food favorites, and renowned regional dishes, including Cleveland-style Polish boys, Chicago deep dish pizza, Detroit-style coney dogs, Cincinnati chili, and more. 

“More than anything, this book is not going to criticize you for whatever choices you make in your diet,” writes Pangrace. “It will encourage you to open your mind and enter the Rust Belt Vegan Kitchen. Trust us, it’s a delicious place to be.” 

Pangrace shares a cooking demo of one of the recipes from this community cookbook of Rust Belt culinary favorites, updated for today’s vegan diet.  

Making Sense of the World, Making Sense of Ourselves: Graphic Memoirs

March 20, noon | Virtual event

Laura Gao was born in Wuhan, China. When she was 3 years old, she and her family immigrated to a small town in Texas. No one had heard of Wuhan. Until 2020, when COVID hit. “What used to be innocent confusion has been replaced with disgust and pity. However, I’m done hiding away this time,” writes Gao in her viral web comic, “The Wuhan I Know,” which addresses anti-Asian racism and gives insight into the culture, people, and history that she knows and loves. 

Messy Roots is Gao’s debut book—a coming-of-age graphic memoir that explores her identity as an Asian American and queer person, and gives readers an intimate, personal look at her hometown after it became famous for all the wrong reasons. Gao illustrates Wuhan with shades of buttery yellow, glowing orange, and earthy green—a stark contrast to the washed out browns of her Texas or the calm blues of San Francisco.  “This is the Wuhan I knew. Infinite rice paddies…peaceful lily pad ponds…and my cousins and me, with no internet and too much energy.”

Gao and author Courtney Cook (The Way She Feels: My Life on the Borderline in Pictures and Pieces) explore how growing up and living life is hard enough, let alone with the added spotlight of a pandemic or the effects of borderline personality disorder.

Secrets, Sisters, and Spies

March 18, 7pm | Jefferson School African American Heritage Center

Kellye Garrett is a pro at brainstorming ways to commit murder. The crime writer worked in Hollywood for eight years, writing for the CBS drama “Cold Case” and observing all the interesting personalities that flock to the movie capital of America. 

Garrett’s writing has a captivating cinematic quality. Her Detective by Day series is humorous and light, filled with fun characters and fast-paced mysteries that make for a perfect weekend read. Her new novel, Like a Sister, is a darker whodunit, set in the modern world of social media influencers and reality TV stars.

Desiree Pierce, a disgraced reality TV star, is found dead on a playground in the Bronx. The police and media call it an overdose and leave it at that, not interested in looking any further into the death of a Black woman. Desiree’s estranged half-sister, Lena Scott, knows something isn’t right, and embarks on a dangerous journey to uncover the truth. Garrett deftly examines race, class, and gender in this authentic story about family, fame, and sisterhood. 

Join mystery authors Garrett, Naomi Hirahara (Clark and Division), and Alma Katsu (Red Widow) in person as they share their latest work. Each novel reveals different facets of American culture, and the heroines work to solve inexplicable deaths and long-hidden secrets.

Bodies in Space & Time: Identity in Sci-Fi & Speculative Fiction

March 19, 2pm | Virtual event

“One of my favorite types of writing is magical realism,” says author Ryka Aoki. “Others may have their definitions, but for me, magical realism is a style that highlights what is sublime about everyday living—then enhances it with a bit of magic or religion or even the stuff of nightmares.” 

In Aoki’s Light from Uncommon Stars, the mundane is made magical and the possibilities are endless. It’s a story about queer love, making deals with the devil, and alien donut makers. Shizuka Satomi is a renowned violin teacher who made a bargain to deliver seven souls to hell. She’s got one more left, and time is running out. Katrina Nguyen is a young trans runaway who finally made it to Los Angeles and escaped her violent father. Lan Tran is an alien refugee who runs a donut shop. These three lives collide in a story that’s both fantastically fun and staggeringly real in its depictions of transphobia, racism, and violence. Aoki’s deeply moving writing invites readers to understand the power of found families, music, and delicious donuts. 

Aoki, Micaiah Johnson (The Space Between Worlds), and Lincoln Michel (The Body Scout) discuss the explorations of race, gender, and identity posed in their science fiction and speculative fiction.

Categories
Arts Culture

Modern magic

In A Thousand Steps Into Night, Traci Chee creates a fantastical new world with a language all its own, glossary included. Photo courtesy of VA Festival of the Book

For a genre that’s supposed to blow past the boundaries of what’s imaginable, fantasy can be predictable. The genre historically suffers from a lack of diversity on all fronts, and features a plethora of common tropes rooted in racist and sexist ideologies. (And some fans like it that way: When the cast of Amazon’s “The Rings of Power” was announced, the showrunners weathered a barrage of complaints that racial diversity was inauthentic to Tolkien’s made-up world.) 

Traci Chee is part of a new generation of writers changing the landscape of the genre. Her latest young adult novel, A Thousand Steps Into Night, takes place in the Japanese-influenced world of Awara, and follows an ordinary girl, Miuko, as she embarks on a quest to reverse a curse that transforms her into a demon. It’s a fun story full of magic, demons, and adventure that also invites reflection on real-world problems. 

“One of my favorite parts about writing fantasy is that you can pull together a lot of different inspirations and creative impulses,” says Chee. “[It’s] both a fun folk-tale road trip through a Japanese-influenced fantasy world populated by all manner of demons and spirits, and also an interrogation of American patriarchy and the many insidious ways that sexism manifests in our everyday lives, from microaggressions to social ostracization to violence.”

Dreaming up a whole new world wasn’t enough for Chee—she took things a step further by creating her own original folklore and language. She developed a syllabary, glossary, and basic grammar for the language of Awara, which includes gender-neutral pronouns (hei/heisu). As for the folklore, Chee was inspired by the Japanese children’s stories of her childhood. “I had so much fun daydreaming up bits of humble magic—like tree goblins that live in wood beams and shapeshifting magpie spirits obsessed with shiny things,” says Chee. “My favorite creature is actually one that almost got cut!” The tskemyorona, or heebie-jeebie spirit, is a centipede-like creature with fireflies for eyes. If you just got a chill up your spine—sorry! 

A Thousand Steps Into Night is fantasy for the young adults of today—and everyone else who reads YA (it’s never too late to start). It’s dark yet playful, creative, and takes readers along on Miuko’s journey of self-discovery, transformation, and growth. “I think there’s something so compelling about being a teenager—it’s such a fascinating time, when you’re figuring out so much about yourself and about the world and about who you want to be and what kind of a world you want to make,” says Chee. “What a privilege to be able to write about that.”

Chee will discuss A Thousand Steps Into Night on March 16 at 7pm, and her acclaimed novel, We Are Not Free, on March 17 at 7pm. Both events take place at the Irving Theater in the CODE building. More information at vabook.org.

Categories
Arts Culture

Galleries: March

Fumi Ishino’s “On the Palette of Scarlet” is on display at Visible Records until April 15. Photo: Courtesy of the gallery

A sense of displacement: Fumi Ishino’s “On the Palette of Scarlet” at Visible Records

“There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust,” writes Edgar Allan Poe in his short story “The Masque of the Red Death.” Inspired by the weird atmosphere of Poe’s work, there’s plenty of the beautiful and the bizarre in photographer Fumi Ishino’s “On the Palette of Scarlet,” currently on display at Visible Records. 

Ishino, who divides his time between Los Angeles and Tokyo, was drawn to Visible Record’s unique program. “It’s rare to find a community-based platform that focuses on art, social context, and education in Los Angeles,” says Ishino. “I was intrigued to learn more.” After a discussion with Visible Record’s Co-director Morgan Ashcom, where they discussed Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” the idea for the exhibition was born. 

Photo: Courtesy of the gallery

In the short story, Prince Prospero is locked away in his abbey, hiding from a plague called the Red Death. He throws a masquerade ball in seven rooms—each decorated in a different hue—which is ultimately interrupted by an ominous figure that wends its way through the colorful rooms, scaring partygoers, and leaving them dead in its wake. The spatial and conceptual aesthetic of bizarre tones from the story fit perfectly with Ishino’s body of work, which includes photographs taken over the last five years, all with various representations of the color red. 

“Fumi’s work was meant to function as a group as opposed to the single image,” says Ashcom. “You’re not going to have a full experience if you only see one piece. I think it’s ambitious to work that way with photographs.” The exhibition utilizes space and light as a medium of its own to create a tangible atmosphere of unsettling bizarreness, where the familiar becomes peculiar and there’s a sensation of monitoring and being monitored. A strong red light makes it feel like you’re underwater, and is used to illuminate specific aspects of the environment, giving viewers a constantly shifting perception of the space and work. “I want them to feel a sense of displacement and consider what displacement means and how it impacts society,” says Ishino. 

“The color red carries diverse and often contradictory meanings,” says Ishino. A photograph of a jungle gym contrasts vivid hues of red with stark shadows. “It’s a spot once associated with safety, social, and physical well-being. With a shift in perspective the spot can be viewed as dangerous, a place where injury or sickness may occur.” In another photograph captured near the red-light district in Shinjuku, a town in Tokyo, a glistening maraschino cherry sits suspended in ice in a parfait glass. The images pose questions of perception and representation. Space and time are jumbled—the color red an unreliable yet constant presence, sometimes representing danger or safety, exclusion or rejection, regulation or freedom. You’ll really just have to see it for yourself.—Maeve Hayden

March Shows

Artistic Remedies for Creative Hearts 8767 Seminole Tr., Suite 101, Ruckersville. “Trains, Planes and Automobiles” features work from ARCH members and “A Collection of Words as Pictures” showcases works by Rodrick Rhodes. Opens March 5. 

Atlas Coffee 2206 Fontaine Ave. Paintings by Kris Bowmaster and Nat Rogers. Through March 31.

Baker Gallery Woodberry Forest School, 898 Woodberry Forest Rd. “From the Moment” features new paintings by Darrell Rose. Through March 5.

The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative 209 Monticello Rd. “Inherited Innocence” by JaVori Warren and Megan Richards uses abstraction, violence, and the distortion of forms and bodily symbols as a way to explore both politicized limitations and expansive possibilities of the body. First Friday event March 4.

The Center at Belvedere 540 Belvedere Blvd. “Black and White” highlights work from 16 artists in a variety of mediums, including calligraphy, graphite, intaglio prints, acrylic, and fiber. First Friday event March 4.

From left to right, Ana Marie Liddell at Chroma, Cyndi Mylynne at Crozet Artisan Depot, and Deloris Thomas at Jefferson School. Photos courtesy of the galleries

Chroma Projects Inside Vault Virginia, Third St. SE. “Stillness” features graphite renderings from Ana Marie Liddell and Fran Smith interpreting the meaning of the word. First Friday event March 4.

CoArt Gallery 22 W. Beverley St., Staunton. “Inflorescence,” florals in oil by Katharine B. March, and a spring-cleaning studio sale. Through March 31, and March 25-27, respectively.

Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd. “Adventures in Paper Art,” free hanging paper wall art pieces and one-of-a-kind wooden lamps with paper shades by Cyndi Mylynne. “Evolving Vessels,” pottery by Wendy Werstlein. Through March 31. Meet the artists at 1pm on March 12. 

Crozet Library 2020 Library Ave., Crozet. Paintings by Shveta Karmankar.

C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Functional Woodworking” features home and office accessories handcrafted from local woods by Alex Pettigrew. First Friday event March 4.

Jefferson School African American Heritage Center 233 Fourth St. NW. “Memory Quilts” displays nine quilts by Deloris Thomas that explore the relationship between color and form and utilize old patterns, some associated with the Underground Railroad. “Picturing Climate Justice” features photographs, artwork, and maps alongside interactive data tools to shed light on the nature of climate injustice in our region. Open March 5 and 12, respectively.

Kweisi Morris at Studio IX (left) and Eileen French at Live Arts (right). Photos courtesy of the galleries

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection 400 Worrell Dr. “Irrititja Kuwarri Tjungu |(Past & Present Together)” features works from Papunya Tula artists from 1996 to 2021. Opens March 17.

Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Turn on the Light!” is a memorial show in honor of Lyn Bolen Warren. The group exhibition features light-filled and Warren-inspired work from artists she represented throughout her career. Opens March 5. 

Live Arts 123 E. Water St. Figurative paintings by Eileen French. Through March 31.

The Local 824 Hinton Ave. New works in oils by Kris Bowmaster. Through April 18.

McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the Smith Gallery, “Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art.” On the first floor, “Presenting Bozart Fine Art Collective” features the latest paintings and photography from 13 artists. On the second floor, works by Roberto Kamide. First Friday event March 4.

New City Arts 114 Third St. NE. “Delights:Disparities—a spectrum of life lived in the meantime,” a solo exhibition by Jess Walters. First Friday event March 4. 

Northside Library 705 Rio Rd. In the lobby, abstract acrylic paintings by Hannah Franke-Fuller. In the Quiet Room, watercolors by Susan Landes. 

PVCC Gallery 501 College Dr. In the North and South Galleries, “These Memories Can’t Wait,” lifetime artworks by former visual arts department chairperson Beryl Solla. As a nod to her passion for sharing and democratizing art, husband James Yates has lent a selection of tiles Solla had prepared for future projects. Part of a “make it” table, attendees are invited to create their own piece of art, using Solla’s ingredients. Through March 26. 

Quirk Gallery 499 W. Main St. Mary Holland’s “Compositions in Blue: Cyanotypes” and Priscilla Whitlock’s “Eden.” Through March 27.

The Ruffin Gallery 179 Culbreth Rd. “I will never get tired and you will never get tired of me” by James Scheuren. Through March 25.

Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. In the Main Gallery, “A Suh Wi Dweet,” mixed-media works by Stuart Robertson. In the Dové Gallery, “Ghana to Gullah,” photography by Marley Nichelle. Through March 25. 

Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital 500 Martha Jefferson Dr. In the second floor Lab hall, paintings by Randy Baskerville. Through April.

Shenandoah Valley Art Center 126 S. Wayne Ave., Waynesboro. In the Invitational Gallery, the 10th Annual “40UNDER40” exhibition, featuring 40 works from Virginia artists aged 40 and under. In the Member’s Gallery, “Pink,” works by SVAC members in a variety of mediums. Through March 26.

Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “We are our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams” features works by the Charlottesville Black Arts Collective as part of the Prolyfyck Exhibition Series. First Friday event March 4. 

Vault Virginia 300 E. Main St. “Nature, Us, and The Future,” a female artists’ group exhibition. First Friday event March 4.

Visible Records 1740 Broadway St. “On the Palette of Scarlet,” photographs by Fumi Ishino. Through April 15. 

Edit: A previous version of this article previously misstated Visible Records’ name as Visual Records

Categories
Arts Culture

Moving tributes

“A Good Cry” by Derrick J. Waller will be on display at Studio IX Gallery through December 31. Image courtesy of the artist

The act of running can be solitary and isolating—a way to get the recommended 30 minutes of exercise a day and nothing more. “To be honest, I don’t like running,” says Derrick J. Waller. “I’m not sure if I will ever like running.” Surprisingly, Waller is a member of the local Prolyfyck Run Creww.

Prolyfyck isn’t just an exercise group. The organization was founded by runner William Jones III over a decade ago, when he realized he wasn’t seeing many other Black runners. The support he received when he ran through Charlottesville’s predominantly Black neighborhoods led him to start the group’s first iteration, Run These Streets, alongside James Dowell and Dr. Wes Bellamy. Later rebranded as the Prolyfyck Run Creww, (from Nipsey Hussle’s song “Victory Lap”), the group rejects the suppression and co-opting of the talent of Black and brown people by celebrating running, and working for the empowerment of the community.

Three mornings a week, runners meet in front of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and embark on a walk, run, or jog (all levels of athleticism are welcome). The workouts raise awareness and funds for local causes including The Uhuru Foundation, B.U.C.K. Squad, and Reclaimed Hope Initiative, as well as for PTSD awareness, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and the #stopasianhate movement. PRC also hosts annual teen gift card and toy drives to support local kids.

Running with Prolyfyck is about more than breaking a sweat. “It’s building mental toughness that I can apply throughout life,” says Waller. “This crew means everything to me because they encourage me to accomplish. This is my family.”

Waller, a documentary photographer, began photographing the Prolyfyck Run Creww in 2019. “I had no clue if the group would want to use my pictures or not, but I figured shooting the events would be good practice for me.” Three years later, he has carefully combed through thousands of images to create his debut solo exhibition, “A Good Cry.”

Images courtesy of the artist

“A Good Cry” at Studio IX tells the story of a community filled with love, hope, joy, and growth. “The Creww welcomes all,” Waller says. “However, a major focus is the empowerment of those in the historically marginalized Black and brown communities. My goal was to show this through the work. I want us to be seen. I want us to be heard. I want us to be felt.”

Waller’s black-and-white photographs capture moments of human connection: Runners hustle up hills, faces contorted in agony or glee, toward finish lines teeming with cheering teammates. Hugs of relief and triumph are shared, and a small tap on the back offers support mid-run. Children run alongside the adults, and fathers hold their victorious sons on their shoulders.

Family was a driving force for Waller when creating “A Good Cry,” which is dedicated to his late mother, who passed away 10 years ago this month. “It was her unexpected passing that led me to photography,” he says. “It was the wake-up call for me to stop thinking about picking up a camera and actually do it.” He had his camera ready years later when his 4-month-old daughter was laying in bed, and stuck her little fist up. The resulting image is a serene portrayal of hope and strength—a chubby baby’s fist raised upward, surrounded by ethereal light.

Other moments of quiet strength appear throughout “A Good Cry.” One large photograph shows William Jones III almost entirely submerged in the Rivanna River, his fists and head held above water, a look of intense focus on his face. Nothing strange about that—except it was February and the temperature was below 20 degrees. “Will mentioned that he was going to do some natural cryotherapy and take a dip in the Rivanna,” says Waller. “I don’t think anyone believed him.” Waller snapped his shots during Jones’ brave three-minute dip.

“A Good Cry” is on display at Studio IX as part of The Prolyfyck Exhibition Series, a year-long program in support of local artists who run, and organizations that work to uplift our community. The idea for an art show came when Creww member and Studio IX curator Greg Kelly realized this group of everyday athletes had something else in common. “It became apparent that the Prolyfyck community included a number of artists, some of whom had never seen themselves as such or shown their work before,” says Kelly.

Every month, a different artist from the Creww exhibits work and chooses a local organization as the beneficiary of artwork sales. Waller chose to support Cultivate Charlottesville, a local non-profit working to create food equity, which fosters a community garden on the Prolyfyck Run Creww’s regular route through the city.

Clearly not in it just for the exercise, Waller includes an inspiring excerpt from Prolyfyck’s mission statement in his exhibition: “working together with a spirit of unity and love to create a world where everyone can be prolyfyck!”

“It’s just running, right?” says Waller. “I dare you to come find out.”