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...
"You have to be delusional to be an artist." That’s how Peter Cochrane closes our conversation. We’re sitting across from each other in a quiet Richmond studio, the air thick with pollen and thought. The line lands not as a punchline but as a thesis offered without irony. What does it mean to believe in a practice that resists productivity...
Local community arts organization Studio Two Three has had a previously approved federal grant rescinded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), according to an email received this week. The grant, totaling $30,000, had been awarded for programming planned for the 2025 calendar year. In the email addressed to Kate Elizabeth Fowler, the NEA...
If you walk into the 2025 VCUarts MFA Thesis Exhibition expecting a finale or a big conclusion, prepare to encounter something else—something quieter and less resolved. A residue. A gesture mid-motion. An echo. When I walked into the opening reception on April 11, I was immediately haunted by my own MFA thesis exhibition from a year ago. I walked...
We’re probably past the point of sugarcoating where we are in America. The fear of authoritarian creep isn’t a fear anymore. Checks and balances, once the pride of our democracy, are failing. Congress has either abdicated its responsibilities or stood by in polite horror as the walls come crashing down. People are being disappeared into an El...
For the third year running, the Richmond Animation Festival returns to The Byrd Theatre with its signature mix of experimental flair, international shorts, and creative community energy. What started as a modest gathering of animation lovers has quietly evolved into one of the city’s most anticipated niche cultural events. Set for Sunday night,...
“Children walk into school with guns and execute their classmates and teachers. And we just say, ‘There’s nothing we can do about it.’” That line from my recent conversation with Randy Blythe hit me the hardest. And I have a high tolerance for pain. As I was writing this piece, a gunman walked into Florida State University and killed two...
The curtain comes down on Stay Gold: 20 Years of RVA Magazine & Gallery5 this Friday. Huge thanks to everyone who packed the place at the opening earlier this month. Big thank you to PLF, RVA Moon Market, Gallery5, Gull, Sweet Potatoes, No BS! Brass Band and The Head & The Heart's Rivers and Roads Foundation for partnering with us on this...
The Big Dipper Innovation Summit kicked off today, and if you’re not here yet, well, you’re already behind. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill business event—it’s where culture and business smash together in ways that actually mean something. Skeptical? We get it. But when these worlds collide, the opportunities are real. This is the spot to start...
Walking through Frida: Beyond the Myth at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts doesn’t feel like attending a documentary screening — it feels like slipping into Frida’s world. It disorients you into her mind. You step through doorways that feel like mirrors, gaze through archways into rooms you haven’t reached yet, and find yourself caught in a web...
