For more than a decade, RVA Magazine has worked with Virginia Pride to produce the Official VA PrideFest Guide, bringing together stories from Richmond’s LGBTQ+ community and everything you need to know for PrideFest this Saturday, September 12,...
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Tired of Guessing | What Adult Literacy Looks Like in Richmond
Editor’s Note: The following essay is by Mary Graham, CEO of READ RVA, a Richmond-based nonprofit focused on adult literacy. I learned early not to assume anything about who can read. A man once stopped me on Broad Street. He held out a scrap of paper with an address and directions scrawled across it and asked if I could read it. He didn’t...
Viral Video Sparks Questions About Cancer-Causing Gas in Richmond
A new Instagram video circulating among Richmond residents is raising questions about ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing gas used to sterilize medical equipment, and whether local facilities and warehouses could be contributing to an underrecognized public health risk. Ethylene oxide is a known carcinogen, and long-term exposure has been...
Photos | Thousands Gather for No Kings Protests Across Richmond
Two separate “No Kings” demonstrations took place across downtown Richmond on Saturday, March 28, drawing crowds to both Kanawha Plaza and Monroe Park as part of a coordinated nationwide day of action. The first gathering began earlier in the day at Kanawha Plaza, where organizers with the 50501 Virginia movement coalition held a rally from...
Remembering WRIR Founders and Leaders in a Year of Loss
Over the past six months, three people foundational to WRIR 97.3 FM, Richmond’s volunteer-run station built outside the expectations of corporate radio, rooted in a love of music, giving locals a voice, and creating space where there wasn’t any, have died. All from cancer. It’s hard to put into words, but for those of us who’ve been here a while,...
No Red Carpet, Just Films! James River Film Festival Is Back
Every spring, I look forward to one of Richmond’s best film traditions, the James River Film Festival. With the mantra “Eclectic Celluloid for the Cinematic Soul,” the James River Film Society curates programs spanning a wide range of subjects and styles. It’s always enlightening, informative, and inspiring. This year, the festival will run from...
Babe Improv Might Be The Funniest Thing in Richmond Right Now
There’s a moment during a Babe Improv set where you realize two things at once. First, they have no idea what they’re about to do next. Second, it’s all going to work out somehow. That tightrope is what makes it work, and when you have two people this in sync, it turns into something genuinely laugh-out-loud entertaining. Richmond duo Babe...
Hemp Retailers Say New Virginia Cannabis Law Would Shut Them Down
With a major cannabis bill now awaiting Governor Abigail Spanberger’s decision, Virginia hemp retailers, farmers, and small business advocates are urging her to step in before it becomes law. The Cannabis Small Business Association (CSBA) and a coalition of hemp businesses are calling on the governor to use her amendatory authority to revise key...
New Exhibit ‘We The People’ Explores What It Means to Be a Virginian
Walking into this exhibit, it’s hard not to think about the moment it’s opening into. Immigration isn’t some abstract issue right now. It’s at the center of national conversation again, shaping policy, headlines, and how people talk about who belongs and who doesn’t. It’s one of those topics that gets reduced quickly, turned into something...
Richmond’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy Season Has Arrived. Here’s Where to Go.
Every year around this time, Richmond slips a little. It starts small and you catch it out of the corner of your eye. Someone in armor pumping gas. A Jedi standing at the crosswalk on Broad, waiting for the light like everyone else. A guy in full wizard robes standing in line at 7-Eleven like this is all perfectly normal behavior. What used to...
