COMMUNITY

Mayo Island is Finally Whole

Mayo Island is Finally Whole

The acquisition of the island's last privately owned parcel clears a major hurdle for Richmond's plans to create a public park along the James River. The long-running effort to transform Mayo Island into a public park took a major step forward this week after the...




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Metro Sound Is Still Here. Richmond Just Keeps Making It Harder.

When Mark Szafranski bought the building at 117 West Broad Street in 1991, the property was in disrepair. Water seeped from the upper floors, the windows were falling in, and downtown Richmond was, at the time, more forgotten than revitalized. But Szafranski, a...

Waitress is the Show for Anyone Who has Ever Worked a Double

A woman works in a diner. The kind with refills, regulars, and fluorescent lights that never quite turn off. She’s married to a man who doesn’t deserve her. She bakes pies that are better than most people deserve. And she wants out. That’s Waitress, more or less....

Richmond Showed Up. Now the Real Work Begins. Get Involved.

Richmond showed up this weekend. We’ve got to hold our leaders accountable—applaud them when they get it right, and hit the streets when they don’t. But protest is just one part of the work. If you were out there—or even if you wanted to be—don’t let it end with the...

Richmond Ranked a Top 10 City for Millennials in New National Study

Richmond has been ranked one of the top 10 metro areas in the country for Millennials, according to a new study by SmartAsset. The city landed at #7 overall, up from 15th place last year, marking one of the largest jumps in the national rankings. The annual study...

Why Norfolk’s NEON District Works—and What Richmond Can Learn

In 2013, a two-day event transformed a neglected stretch of Norfolk, Virginia, into a pop-up arts district. It wasn’t a city plan—it was a vision. Volunteers opened temporary galleries in boarded-up storefronts. Food trucks rolled in. Sidewalks were painted with...

Writer’s Block | Poems by Brittany Butchello

A Sunday series from RVA Magazine featuring writers from Richmond and Virginia Writer’s Block is RVA Magazine’s Sunday series highlighting contemporary writers working in Richmond and across the Commonwealth. Each week, we feature original poems, short stories,...

Municipal Waste | 25 Years of No Mercy

When you think of Richmond’s heavy music scene, four names immediately come to mind: Lamb of God, GWAR, Avail, and Municipal Waste. These are the bands that have bled into the city’s veins and shaped the sound of this place over the last several decades. And this past weekend, Municipal Waste took a well-deserved victory lap to celebrate 25 years...

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Virginia March for Life Rally and Progressive Language

On a slightly chilly morning earlier this month, the largest anti-abortion rally in Virginia was in preparation, the Virginia March for Life. Busses were unloading passengers from across the state. The Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus were outside of The Family Foundation's headquarters with a large sign that read "Equality...

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Guerrilla Filmmaking as Art and Ethos

After a night spent on the coziest sofa in all of Appalachia, we headed up early to the top of a university parking deck, parked beneath a sign that read “No Parking / No Loitering,” and lined up the shot—my director and me, just the two of us that morning to grab a simple scene of my character looking off into the mountains, being sure to...

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Guerilla Filmmaking by Eric Kalata_RVA Magazine 2025