u/snooka77_

I am rarely speechless, especially about theatre. Since I don’t get paid if I remain silent, I will make myself criticize a play I don’t feel I have any right to judge. Gotta pay the rent, and all that.

I came into this performance of WitchDuck by Cadence at Firehouse Theatre with a vague understanding that this had some historical relevance to “witch” dunking (or ducking, as they would have said it at the time) in Virginia in the late 1600s and early 1700s. I knew it had something to say about feminism.

What I didn’t expect was a surgically precise vivisection of historical (and current) male fragility in the service of a savage patriarchy. And oh, the sarcasm. The jokes are served up thick, rapid-fire, potent, damning in their truth, and not shy of being baldly insulting, in the best ways.

This is the world-premiere run of the play, but it feels like it’s been in residence for decades.

This all-female cast delivered an experience that everyone should have to sit through. It characterizes so well the pervasiveness of misogyny and its violent absurdity with broad, but stinging, comedy. I was left in stitches as often as I was left in awe. Imagine the most socially relevant Monty Python’s Flying Circus performance and make it somehow funnier, while it sharpens its cultural spears against the grain of white male supremacy.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/theatre/review-ducking-awesome-witchduck-is-smart-sharp-and-ruthless.html

Governor Abigail Spanberger speaking today at the Big Dipper Innovation Summit on the Virginia Supreme Court decision to void the state’s redistricting vote.

via RVA Magazine

Big Dipper Innovation Summit isn’t just happening inside Main Street Station this week. The conversations are spilling out into Richmond, with a full slate of after-hours events under the Extended Play banner.

From receptions and garden socials to rooftop sets, intimate performances, and a Scott’s Addition block party, Extended Play is built around the idea that some of the best connections happen after the panels wrap. 

RVA Magazine is part of that lineup with After The Summit, happening Wednesday, May 13 from 6–9 PM at The Library at Harry’s at The Hof + Rooftop. Our event is free to attend and designed as a relaxed landing spot after the day’s programming, with Manifesto Hour from 6–7 PM, live music from Theocles on the rooftop, and DJ sets from Elliott and Aimée Lauren inside The Library.

Other Extended Play events include The Kickoff Reception at Havana ’59, The Garden Social at Agecroft Hall, Get Tight Takeover, the BDIS26 Summit Block Party in Scott’s Addition, Ant the Symbol & Friends at Common House, and Rebuild the Algorithm at Bingo Beer Co.

https://rvamag.com/music/extended-play-big-dipper-keeps-the-conversation-going-after-hours.html

I sat down with Salaam Bhatti to talk about redistricting, campaign finance, and a government operating outside the interests of its donor class. What stood out to me most was his sincerity and the kindness in his politics. He presented a connection between empathy and a functional democracy. But beyond that tone, what emerged in our conversation was a candidate deeply focused on structural reform and the mechanics of how government actually works.

Bhatti offers a version of American politics rooted in kindness, but also one grounded in policy and lived experience. Here, I want to explore the core themes of my interview with Salaam: the importance of community, the fight against the donor class, and how structural reform might actually take shape.

I was initially drawn to Bhatti’s campaign because of its focus on kindness and love, something that feels largely absent from modern politics. When I asked what values he believes are missing most, his answer was immediate: “Love is not just saying hi, but actually caring like they’re your family… knowing if they’re struggling, if they have food in their bellies.”

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/politics/virginia-politics/we-are-the-ones-weve-been-waiting-for-bhattis-vision-for-a-different-politics.html

According to the Virginia Department of Health, there were 1,548 drug overdose deaths among Virginia residents in 2024, a 37% decrease from 2023. Emergency department visits for overdoses also declined, with 18,292 reported, down 16% year over year. While those numbers mark a significant drop from the peak of 2,622 deaths in 2021, the impact remains widespread across the state.

A new report ranks Virginia among the states with the lowest overall drug problems in the country, placing it 46th out of 51 nationwide. The study, released ahead of National Prevention Week May 10-16th, compares states across 20 metrics, including overdose rates, opioid prescriptions, drug arrests, and access to treatment.

But like most national rankings, the data comes with limits. Statewide averages often flatten what’s happening at the local level, and in cities like Richmond, the picture can feel very different.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/overdose-deaths-fall-in-virginia-but-richmond-providers-warn-of-strain.html

According to the Virginia Department of Health, there were 1,548 drug overdose deaths among Virginia residents in 2024, a 37% decrease from 2023. Emergency department visits for overdoses also declined, with 18,292 reported, down 16% year over year. While those numbers mark a significant drop from the peak of 2,622 deaths in 2021, the impact remains widespread across the state.

A new report ranks Virginia among the states with the lowest overall drug problems in the country, placing it 46th out of 51 nationwide. The study, released ahead of National Prevention Week May 10-16th, compares states across 20 metrics, including overdose rates, opioid prescriptions, drug arrests, and access to treatment.

But like most national rankings, the data comes with limits. Statewide averages often flatten what’s happening at the local level, and in cities like Richmond, the picture can feel very different.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/overdose-deaths-fall-in-virginia-but-richmond-providers-warn-of-strain.html

Writer’s Block is RVA Magazine’s series highlighting contemporary writers working in Richmond and across the Commonwealth. We feature original poems, short stories, or essays. Just real voices writing right now.

“Big Flame is Gonna Break My Heart in Two” by Richmond writer Nate Waggoner drifts through the blur of early college years, where friendships, parties, and half-formed relationships collide into something harder to shake than it should be. 

Waggoner’s work has appeared in Barrelhouse, Electric Lit, Peach Mag, and elsewhere, and he runs the Wild at Heart reading series at Gallery5.

If you’d like to be featured, send your work to hello@rvamag.com with the subject line “Writer’s Block.”

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/literature/writers-block-big-flame-is-gonna-break-my-heart-in-two-by-nate-waggoner.html

No shortage of good causes this week. It makes me so happy to know how many Richmonders are willing to come together to try to help their communities through music, never stop being you Richmond.

Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit me up at griffin@rvamag.com.

COURTNEY BARNETT, TRUMAN SINCLAIR
FRIDAY, MAY 8TH
THE NATIONAL

Australia’s lyrical laureate is making her way through Richmond this week. Courtney Barnett has been one of the most game-changing indie artists of the past ten years. It’s hard to match her wit or her ability to let a few notes linger in your head for days. Each track plays like its own small movie, with characters you end up rooting for and imagery that sticks with you. It’s all deeply relatable, but told in a way that feels entirely her own. Barnett has a knack for expressing those everyday feelings that usually go unnoticed. Her new record, released at the end of March, points toward what should be a strong live show.

Barnett is joined by Truman Sinclair, who brings a more emo edge into the indie mix. His music is raw and full of feeling, packed with emotional weight. At just 23, he already has a catalog that goes deeper than you’d expect, and he should be a solid way to open the night.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/rva-live-music-this-weekend-courtney-barnett-richmond-reproductive-freedom-fest-justin-golden-ramona-and-the-holy-smokes-bleed-out.html

Virginia political leaders are sharply divided following the Supreme Court of Virginia’s decision to strike down a voter-approved redistricting referendum, with Democrats condemning the ruling and Republicans defending it as a necessary enforcement of constitutional law.

The court ruled 4–3 that lawmakers failed to follow the constitutional process required to place the amendment on the ballot, invalidating the results of a special election in which more than three million Virginians cast ballots.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell called the decision “wrong on the law and unprecedented in its consequences.”

“For the first time in the 250-year history of our Commonwealth, our Supreme Court has set aside the results of a statewide election,” Surovell said.

Surovell also pointed to the court’s timing, arguing the justices allowed the vote to proceed before intervening after the fact. “Over three million Virginians participated in this referendum,” he said. “Their votes have been set aside not because of fraud… but because four justices have adopted a definition of ‘election’ that conflicts with state statute [and] federal precedent.”

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/virginia-redistricting-vote-voided-political-leaders-sound-off.html

Under the Manchester Bridge, what had been an idea for years turned into something tangible, at least for a day.

Hundreds of people moved through the space as muralists painted, DJs played, and passersby stopped mid-bike ride or walk to figure out what was going on. By the end of the afternoon, the one-day test of a proposed arts park felt less like a trial and more like a preview.

“I don’t know how it could have gone better,” said artist Ian C. Hess, an event organizer with Little Giant Society and owner of Supply Art Store. “It was crazy. People showed up from pretty much the moment it started to the moment it ended. All types of Richmond were out there.”

For Hess, the scale of the turnout didn’t fully register until midway through the event, when Richmond Mayor Danny Avula stepped up to paint.

“I was talking to him about the spray paint, a German brand called Molotow, telling him, ‘I swear this isn’t going to explode, you’re good,’” Hess said, laughing. “We went over to one of the walls and he agreed to throw up a tag. Then he turned to me and asked, ‘Can I get a skinny cap?’ I was like, ‘Yes, sir.’”

“I was just focused on talking to him, not really thinking about anything else,” he said. “Then I turned around, and it was just a wall of phones. I was like, ‘Oh shit.’”

“That’s when it hit me how many people were actually out there,” he said. “It kind of stuck in my brain what it is that we’re actually doing.”

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/art/after-strong-turnout-richmond-arts-park-enters-holding-pattern.html

Graeme McKinnon on how Home Front turned chaos into Watch It Die.

“I’d be lying if I said that Home Front’s not influenced by events… not just the horror show that’s going on but the feeling of being so insignificant.”

“But I’ve found, especially with this record that it was important for me to zoom in a little bit more… when we were making Watch it Die, it was constantly about community.”

Full interview coming. Cobra Cabana this Sunday.

#homefront #postpunk #rva #richmond

In 2009, I went to three different GameStops trying to find a Wii Fit Balance Board, and getting one started my path toward having yoga in my life. After two years of doing virtual yoga on a game system, I was challenged by a student to seek out meditation and yoga more formally through an Iyengar yoga class at Yoga Source in Carytown.

All of this changed my life and my art in deep and meaningful ways. Recovery and wellness became more than just words. They evolved into work and a daily practice, changing my posture when taking photos, deepening my care for my mind and body, and opening a pathway to movement and dance.

I’m excited to see how the community, while always changing, is still growing here in Richmond. I’m also looking forward to talking with the team behind this weekend’s Rest Fest, Rick Plautz and Lindsay Hess, to see what they have in store to help restore our energy and set us on more stable footing as we navigate stressful times.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/why-richmond-is-ready-for-rest-fest-right-now.html

There’s a lot of change happening in Richmond right now, and most of it can feel out of our hands. But the reality is, there are people in leadership shaping how the city and state grow, who it’s for, and where it’s going next. At some point, you either tune it out or start paying closer attention to who’s making those decisions and what they’re saying, because it affects all of us.

That’s part of the thinking behind our decision to partner with the Big Dipper Innovation Summit this year, bringing a bit of local culture into the mix. It’s a chance to hear directly from the people in those positions, whether they’re elected officials, business leaders, or the voices shaping how things move across the region. It also opens the door for our readers to step into those conversations instead of watching them from the outside.

When people from different worlds end up in the same room, it’s not a conference for the sake of it. It becomes something closer to an ongoing, working conversation in real time. That’s what the Big Dipper Innovation Summit is aiming for as it returns May 12–14 at Main Street Station.

Now in its latest iteration, the summit, still very much a work in progress, is positioning itself at the intersection of business, technology, policy, and culture.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/what-to-know-about-the-big-dipper-innovation-summit-in-richmond.html

If you are in the market for a glass eye in the same shade as your lover’s, some elaborate hair jewelry, or even an electric couch to use as a Victorian cure-all, then you need to head over to The Veiled Mirror. This Victorian antique store opened downtown in January, during the great icing of RVA. Olivia Lloyd and Kath Parker have curated a reliquary of curiosities from the Georgian to the Art Deco eras (1714–1939).

I stopped by the shop to get a little tour of some of their unusual antiquities and to find out if they had anything haunted. And my ghastly lil ghouls, there are so many fascinating pieces here… and there are ghosts.

Their dance with the macabre started during the pandemic back in 2021. The two were working together at the vintage shop Bygones, and while it was closed, they decided to start selling their jewelry online, straight from their own jewelry boxes. Things took off. They called their shop The Veiled Mirror, an appropriate name for a store that loves some Victorian mourning lore.

As Parker explains, “We know the Victorians had a lot of different mourning practices, and one of the practices was that when somebody died in the house, they would immediately cover the mirrors. They were worried that your soul would get trapped in the mirrors, so they would veil them.”

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/small-business/the-veiled-mirror-comes-with-ghost-stories-included.html

It was 72 and breezy. Unseasonably pleasant, almost chilly. 

VCU students were splayed out on picnic blankets in Monroe Park enjoying soft serve and the sunshine. Citronella and the smell of hot dogs wafted through the air from some folks having a cookout. 

“High energy, high discipline” was the chant from activists from the Richmond chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation as they prepared for their rally at the old coffee house, their red t-shirts proudly proclaiming “Socialism is the future.” 

It was May Day, and the latest in a series of general strikes that have taken place this year. As organizer for PSL Adam Malinowski-Liu put it, “the general strike is a strategy that the working class has used all over the world to agitate for better conditions and to protest unacceptable genocidal acts of governments.” PSL’s call to action included “no school, no work, no shopping” to demand a “new system funding the people’s needs, not the criminals in the White House.” 

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/politics/richmond-had-a-general-strike-and-a-first-friday-on-the-same-night.html

The worst kept secret in Richmond is finally official.

After weeks of speculation, Iron Blossom has confirmed what a lot of people were already betting on: Jack White and LCD Soundsystem are heading to Richmond this fall.

The festival will return to Midtown Green in Richmond on September 19 and 20 for its fourth year. The two-day festival will again feature two stages with no overlapping sets.

LCD Soundsystem, led by James Murphy, will perform Saturday with their signature dance-punk set.

Jack White, co-founder of The White Stripes, will close out the weekend with a headlining performance drawing from his solo work and past projects.

Additional artists announced include Geese, Dijon, Angine de Poitrine, Portugal. The Man, Phantogram, Kevin Morby, Die Spitz, along with Richmond locals Night Idea and Shera Shi among others.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/iron-blossom-steps-up-with-jack-white-lcd-soundsystem.html

Happy May Day! Special shoutout to anyone that plays music, works in music, or likes music, and anyone who has managed to not fit in one of those categories. Got a lot of really fun shows this week with an absurd amount of local talent.

Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit me up at griffin@rvamag.com.

-----------------------------
VALENTIN PRINCE, CHLOE ESTER, M. BRETT JONES
SATURDAY, MAY 2ND
GALLERY 5

Valentin Prince is fresh off of their 7th album in an impressive 4 years. The new record is called For Real and it is a whirlwind of psychedelia, smooth guitar playing, and gentle yet confident vocals. Valentin Prince has had strong R&B influence in the past which I think is still prevalent in this record, but they are also adding in some really interesting funky pop sounds that can be heard in tracks like “Interested.” I often categorize music in my head with colors and this record is a rainbow. It refuses to be cornered into one sound, style, or mood, and instead remains a living and breathing thing that grows like any cat, tree, or person. The whole album is great, but my standout track would probably be “Bought It Online,” a slow and relaxed piece that makes you see some new shapes and colors. 

Joining Valentin is Chloe Ester, who is also fresh off a release. Her new tune “Push/Pull” is some seriously rich songwriting. It is equal parts singer songwriter and indie rock ballad. I think her sound will fit right in with fans of Together Pangea and The Breeders. It is soft but has a solid edge that won’t get chipped easily. 

Last up we have M Brett Jones. Jones is cooking up some folk inspired psychedelic rock, or perhaps its psychedelic inspired folk, one to ponder for sure. He clearly has a talent for blending sounds as there is some great synth and keyboard mixed into some of his tunes. I love his very intimate and close up style of lyricism, all about the nitty and the gritty.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/rva-live-music-this-weekend-computer-kill-box-factory-valentin-prince-king-kaiju.html

Sometimes you have to catch someone at the bar and do the interview.

I’ve known Mike Ireland for a while now and we had talked about doing this for months, so after a quick round, we stepped outside and spent five minutes on it.

He’d just wrapped another run with I Am The Avalanche, and the first thing we talked about was the tour.

“It was incredible. So much fucking fun.”

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/music/metal-punk/mike-ireland-of-i-am-the-avalanche-on-faking-it-finding-it-and-coming-back-to-richmond.html

Editor’s Note: Max Winter is a University of Richmond alumnus reflecting on his time at UR in the late ’90s and the campus culture he experienced. You can read more of his work on his Substack HERE.

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Recently, while eating carnitas in East LA, I check my phone and get blasted with an absurd screenshot.

A text out of nowhere from my old college roommate, Dave: “Dude, been a minute! I was reading about the esteemed Kash Patel and wouldn’t you know, he went to the University of the Institution!”

(That’s Dave’s nickname for the University of Richmond — but more on that later.)

“He was a year younger than us. One of the leaders of ‘The Richmond Rowdies,’ a ‘spirit squad.’”

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/my-life-as-a-spider-the-two-years-i-tried-to-delete.html

Britain is trying something. They’ve approved a plan where, if you were born in 2009 or later, you’d never be allowed to legally buy cigarettes. The age just keeps moving up every year, and at some point there’s a whole group of adults who were never let in.

It still needs a sign-off from King Charles III, but it’s basically on its way. They’re calling it a “smoke-free generation.”

“This generation will be protected from a lifetime of addiction and harm,” said Wes Streeting, the British health secretary. “Prevention is better than cure.”

I keep circling back to what that would feel like in Richmond. Not the policy so much as the workaround, the cigarette dealer. The person who always seems to know where to find things. Not a big deal, just part of how stuff moves in the background.

Then again, maybe that says more about how my generation is used to things working.

via RVA Magazine

Read more, see more: https://rvamag.com/community/britain-wants-a-smoke-free-generation-now-picture-the-cigarette-dealer.html