Tag: HotSeat

Katen Reynolds has served as director of advancement at The Front Porch for nearly five years, and this summer she’ll step into a new leadership role when founder Emily Morrison completes her tenure as executive director. Before joining The Front Porch, Reynolds worked as a gardener, dance teacher, and most recently, an elementary school teacher. Now, she’ll lead the nonprofit as it continues to connect the community through music with classes, weekly jams, intimate concerts, and Roots & Wings, an outreach program that brings music to underserved communities. frontporchcville.org

Age: 39. 

Pronouns: She/her.

Weirdest job: When I was in AmeriCorps, part of my job involved working at an aviary, feeding dead lab rats to birds of prey. 

Why here: It’s beautiful, not too big, and only an hour drive to see my family. 

Best thing about living here: The Rivanna River and the many walking/hiking trails close to town.

Worst thing: Housing costs.

Favorite hangout spot: My friends’ houses.    

Favorite restaurant: Monsoon Siam.  

Bodo’s order: Poppy seed bagel with olive cream cheese.

Where do you start and end a night out: Start on my porch. End at C&O downstairs.

Who is your hero: My best friend Lilly. 

Biggest lie you’ve ever told: Not the “biggest” per se, but self abandonment through silence.

Proudest accomplishment: Learning to play guitar. 

Describe a perfect day: A lazy coffee morning, time outside on the river with my dog, good food with friends, and playing music or seeing a live show. 

If you could be reincarnated as a person or thing, what would you be: A mermaid.

Most embarrassing moment: Scoring an own goal playing soccer as a kid.

Do you have any pets: Yes, a blue heeler named Jack. I fostered him through Dogs Deserve Better and couldn’t let him go :). 

Favorite movie or show: Right now, “Ted Lasso.”

Favorite album: Gillian Welch, Time (The Revelator).

Favorite song: I can’t ever answer this question. Depends on the day and my mood.

Favorite book: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

First concert: First big one was Dave Matthews Band in middle school.

Best concert: I can’t choose just one. Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings pop-up show at The Floyd Country Store and Taj Mahal at Basement East in Nashville.

What are you listening to right now: The Bros. Landreth and Bella White. 

What’s a song you pretend you don’t like because it’s embarrassing that you love it: “The Shape of You.”

Favorite curse word: Shit. 

Who’d play you in a movie: No idea.  

Celebrity crush: Ryan Gosling.  

Most used app on your phone: Slack. 

Last text you sent: “haha no way”

Most used emoji: 🙂

Subject that causes you to rant: When people don’t want to buy tickets to see their friends’ bands. Buying a ticket is one of THE BEST ways to support your friends, people!!

Hottest take: I had to google “hot take.” I don’t really like the idea of them. (Is that one? hehe.)

Best journey you ever went on: Traveling through New Zealand.  

Next journey: Being executive director of The Front Porch.  

What have you forgotten today: My water bottle. 

Last fall, Kalela Williams hit the ground running as the new director of the Virginia Center for the Book—she only had six months to organize the Virginia Festival of the Book, a process that usually takes well over a year. Williams came to the festival from Philadelphia, where she previously worked for Mighty Writers and the Free Library of Philadelphia. In her spare time, she’s writing her debut YA novel, The Tangleroot Papers, coming next year from Feiwel & Friends. Now, the 2023 festival is a week away, and boasts a lineup of bestselling authors and page-turners from the likes of Matthew Quick, Nyle DiMarco, and Rebecca Makkai. The Virginia Festival of the Book (vabook.org) takes place from March 23-26. Stay tuned for our festival coverage in next week’s C-VILLE.

Age: 44. 

Pronouns: She/her.

Why here: I live in Staunton because it’s cute, small, and cool.  

Worst thing about living here: The hills—they give you a challenging walk! 

Best thing: The hills—they give you amazing vistas!   

Favorite restaurant: My house. My boyfriend’s cooking could win a reality show.  

Favorite hangout spot: Redbeard’s in Staunton. There’s always people you know and usually something fun’s going on. 

Bodo’s order: Whatever my colleagues bring to the office. I like carbs, so I’ll take ’em any way I can get ’em.

Who is your hero: My ancestors. All of them.

Best advice you ever got: Bring a jacket. 

Biggest lie you’ve ever told: I don’t need a jacket.

Proudest accomplishment: Getting a publisher. 

Describe a perfect day: It would involve eating, hiking, writing, and drinks. 

Do you have any pets: Three ridiculous cats: Courage, Trapezoid, and Wheatley. 

Favorite writers: Oof, that’s a really tough one. I especially like works that engage with the past, whether it’s one’s own lineage or history in a broader sense, because that’s what I write. So I read a good bit of old letters and diaries, but in terms of more familiar authors, it’s perhaps Geraldine Brooks, Annette Gordon-Reed, Li-Young Lee, Nathaniel Philbrick, and Jacqueline Woodson.

Favorite book: If I had to choose, The Good Lord Bird by James McBride. The Age of Phillis by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is also a big one for me. 

Most embarrassing moment: I have this recurring nightmare that I go out in public with no pants on, and then I’m like, “Oh, wow, why did I think it was okay for me to wear this?” Or rather, not wear this. And in my weird dream, I’m sneaking around, trying to hide behind ferns and stuff. So I woke up in full “Gah!!!” mode the other day, relieved it wasn’t real, but you’d think I would’ve taken more care getting dressed. Nah. I put my pants on backwards, and didn’t realize it until the middle of my workday after a bunch of meetings. There I was, just strutting around with my back-pockets forwards. I should’ve found myself a ficus tree and planted myself there. (Ha! Planted. My jokes are another source of embarrassment.) 

What are you listening to right now: Elevator music. 

What’s a song you pretend you don’t like because it’s embarrassing that you love it: Maybe it’s a genre. I have a little soft spot for country.

Who’d play you in a movie: Amber Ruffin.  

Celebrity crush: I don’t crush on celebrities anymore, but my girlhood loves include Cary Elwes (as you wiiiiissssh!), the boys in a short-lived ‘90s group, The Boys; the guy who played Lando Calrissian, and David Bowie in Labyrinth (but ONLY in Labyrinth. Outside of that? Meh).  

Most used app on your phone: MS Outlook (sigh). 

Last text you sent: “I have exploding head syndrome when I’m exceptionally sleep-deprived but aliens are new to me.”

Most used emoji: A heart.

If you could be reincarnated as a person or thing, what would you be: I would be a ridiculous house cat so that I could bask in the sun all day, demand that people rub my belly, then bite them for no good reason.  

Subject that causes you to rant: Banned books. 

Best journey you ever went on: A solo trip to Toronto, which I took because the Royal Ontario Museum had a special exhibition on blue whales: a skeleton AND its plastinated heart.  

Next journey: Wherever my next writing research project takes me.  

If not yourself, who would you be: No one. I love being myself because it always makes things interesting.  

Favorite word: “Gah!”  

Hottest take: Avocados are gross and olives are the devil’s eyeballs. 

What have you forgotten today: Gah! Probably everything! 

Director Ti Ames is booked and busy. The lifelong thespian, who first encountered musical theater at Live Arts as an 8-year old, is directing the community theater’s production of Crumbs from the Table of Joy, a touching memory play about a Black family, told through the eyes of 17-year-old Ernestine Crump as she comes of age in Brooklyn in 1950. Ames, who also acts and sings, serves as Live Arts’ education director, and will be directing Charlottesville Players Guild’s production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom this summer. Crumbs from the Table of Joy opens March 3. livearts.org

Age: 27

Pronouns: They/them

Hometown: Technically Baltimore, Maryland, but I’ve been in C’ville since I was 8 years old 

Why here: My current full-time job brought me back home

Worst thing about living here: Subtle racism, queerphobia, and performative allyship that really ain’t all that subtle 

Best thing about living here: My maternal ancestors were enslaved here and settled here after emancipation, so I love being closer to them, and nothing can beat these Blue Ridge Mountain views 

Favorite hangout spot: My room

Favorite restaurant: Pearl Island and Yuan Ho carryout

Bodo’s order: Cinnamon raisin bagel with light cream cheese (a compromise for my lactose intolerance) and lemonade 

Where do you start and end a night out: Start: usually work. End: my bed.

Who is your hero: Any Black person who chooses rest over work

Best advice you ever got: “It makes no sense to work in a different mindset than how you live. Give only 100 percent to yourself.”

Biggest lie you’ve ever told: I had a happy childhood (thank God for therapy and better communication skills)

Proudest accomplishment: Winning a national Shakespeare competition in high school and studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art 

Describe a perfect day: I’m tryna rest more these days: wake up early-ish, make breakfast, take a nap, get up to watch Netflix/sing a bit/take a walk, then a night in/out with friends. 

Do you have any pets: None of my own, unfortunately. I just want another cat, man!

Most embarrassing moment: Y’all don’t need to know everything…

Favorite movie/show: Bride & Prejudice, “Arrested Development”

Celebrity crush: Two: Winston Duke and Sara Ramirez

Favorite writer: bell hooks, Amiri Baraka

Favorite book: I’ll go for play—“The Slave,” by Amiri Baraka

Who’d play you in a movie: Dear God, I have no clue 

Most used app on your phone: TikTok

Last text you sent: “Thank youuuuu”

Most used emoji:  

If you could be reincarnated as a person or thing, what would you be: A domesticated house cat, hands down

What song are you listening to right now: Current hyper-fixation is “My Queen is Harriet Tubman,” by Sons of Kemet

What’s a song you pretend you don’t like because it’s embarrassing that you love it: “Hot Wings (I Wanna Party)” from the Rio Soundtrack 

Subject that causes you to rant: Neurodivergence in Black culture 

Best journey you ever went on: Driving from London to Edinburgh/attending Edinburgh Fringe 

Next journey: Grad school? 

Favorite word or curse word: I work with kids, so Ima chill on this one. I use the word beautimous (pronounced “bootimous”) quite a bit. 

Hottest take/most unpopular opinion: It’s your responsibility as an adult to heal your trauma and seek out help to do so, no matter who caused it. Stop hurting people just ’cause you’ve been hurt. 

What have you forgotten today:
My brain, in four different places around town