From Salvation Tattoo’s FaceBook page:
We are lucky to announce our good friend Kyle Sajban @k_sajban will be guest spotting here August 23rd-26th. Interested parties please feel free to email him at slayban@gmail.com for any tattoo related inquiries. While he’s here feel free to swing by, say hello and give proper high fives. Cheers!
From announcement:
Richmond, Virginia- Richmond Police Department will meet with formerly incarcerated youth, artists, and advocates for juvenile justice reform in a community forum designed to create an exchange of perspectives on issues concerning the juvenile justice system. The event will be hosted at the Richmond Public Library’s Main Library (101 E. Franklin St.) on August 26, 2016, from 5:30-8 p.m. The hope for the forum is to spark an honest and heartfelt conversation about the relationship between the needs of young people and law enforcement.
This event will be the culmination of three trainings conducted that week for up to 75 officers of the Richmond Police Department. During the training the officers will create a piece of art that allows them to present themselves not as officers, but as fellow humans. Their artwork will be exhibited alongside various artworks created by young people incarcerated at the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center during a program called Performing Statistics offered by the nonprofit ART 180.
Since June, teens from the detention center have been meeting three days a week at ART 180’s teen art center ATLAS. Working on various projects including poetry, video, photography, and stenciling, their work addresses their experiences in the system and the support they wish they had in the community. “If justice was transformed, I would be doing work, not time,” wrote one teen.
Conceptualized in 2014, the Performing Statistics project is now a permanent program of ART 180 in partnership with Legal Aid Justice Center. The unique collaboration connects incarcerated youth to juvenile justice reform advocates in Virginia with the goal to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. The art created by the teens shares a rare perspective of the juvenile justice system from a first-hand experiencer. Ultimately, Performing Statistics looks to the youth most affected as the experts whose voices are important for building a more just, equitable world. As one of the program participants explained, “It’s not where you’re from, but where you want to go.”
Future events to look out for are an October exhibition at ART 180’s ATLAS gallery that will feature the work created this summer by incarcerated teens,, as well as the program’s second annual Justice Parade for Incarcerated Youth.
More on ART 180 at www.art180.org
More on the Performing Statistics project at www.performingstatistics.org
Oregon Hill residents have had a real love/hate relationship with the annual fireworks displays surrounding the Fourth of July. And if asked, I am sure it would mostly be ‘love’.
That said, this year the RVA Fireworks on The James (usually on July 3rd) is not happening. Before everyone complains and accuses certain Oregon Hill residents of being NIMBY party poopers, it should be recognized that the reason that they are not happening is that major sponsors decided not to support the event this year.
So, fireworks fans can certainly attend other fireworks displays throughout the area, including the free one sponsored by the City at the Dogwood Dell on the 4th. What happens in future years is anyone’s guess, but one way to adjust is to change the nature of the fireworks displays themselves by making them more respectful of nature.
The New York Times has a wonderful recent article on the increasing popularity of ‘quiet fireworks’:
In parts of Europe, quiet fireworks displays have grown increasingly common. In Britain, venues close to residents, wildlife or livestock often permit only quiet fireworks. One town in Italy, Collecchio, passed a law in 2015 that all fireworks displays must be quiet.
By relying on rich color effects and tight visual choreography, designers of quiet fireworks programs can forgo the big explosions and still deliver a stunning show. The hope is that softer celebrations mean less stress for noise-sensitive children, veterans, older people, pets and wildlife.
“We’ve seen more competitors in the last decade or so,” said Rino Sampieri, a senior display manager at Fantastic Fireworks, a company based in England that started selling a quiet fireworks package 30 years ago. “Today, quiet fireworks are part of everybody’s inventory.”
Quiet fireworks are not a new invention. In fact, they are used routinely in classic firework shows as visual effects to accompany the loud bangs. Think of the “comet tail,” which shoots into the sky with a trail of sparkles before quietly fizzling out. Or the “flying fish,” which features tiny tadpole embers scattering away from a silent burst.
What is new is the emergence of a genre of low-key, quiet fireworks displays for audiences that want the fanfare of fireworks without the auditory disturbance.
In addition, there is more development being done on ‘green fireworks’ that do not dump as much heavy metal residue as regular ones. Still, there are a lot of compelling reasons to just not do fireworks altogether. Perhaps the City leaders can take more responsibility and promote better alternatives. Laser light shows, for example, are becoming increasingly sophisticated and crowd pleasing.
If you like the annual All The Saints Halloween Parade that rolls through our neighborhood then you might want to consider a donation to help All The Saints build a puppet barn.
From the gofundme.com page:
“Dearest friends and supporters of All the Saints Theater Company,
Although we are losing the present location of the Puppet Library, the show must go on! The puppet lending and puppet organizing and collaborating, parade making, spaghetti dinner hosting, and Lily performances will continue until the end of time..because it is just what we do.
But the way we do it needs to change in order to sustain Richmond’s raising cost of living and real estate. Sooo we have mastered a plan!
Our plan? To raise $$$ for a Puppet Barn in Lily’s backyard in Southside Forest Hill where the community can continue to have access to the puppets and workshops that she offers without the stress of month to month rent and the reality behind a gentrified Richmond.
Our goal is $7, 000 to…
-raise a barn big enough, dry enough, and warm enough that Lily can continue her work in a peaceful and productive way!
Please help us in the crucial time of transition to create a space that can always be the bastion of radical puppet theater in RVA!
Donations of $100 + can have an option of taking home your own puppet from the library current collection.
Tourist maps are always fun for their distortions as well as their inclusions and exclusions.
The photo below is an excerpt from “The Character of Richmond”, circa 1990, made by Atlantic Graphics. It seems more oriented towards Fan businesses and notably left out all of the Southside. I got it from former Oregon Hill neighbor Greg Wells, who has a booth or two at Mixie’s in Mechanicsville. He has more copies of this map for sale, along with a lot of other cool memorabilia, Richmond and otherwise.
I have seen more recent ones around town that leave Oregon Hill out, showing just the Virginia War Memorial right next to Hollywood Cemetery.
Anyway, this post also gives a little foreshadowing to an announcement coming this Thursday.
It looks like a scene from Oregon Hill’s Riverside Park, but its the painting “Morpheus” from the new Kehinde Wiley exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. This painting draws from a Jean-Antoine Houdon sculpture.
Given that muddy and swollen James River is not good for swimming right now, the museum might be a good leisure alternative right now.