CULTURE




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A Richmond Beginning, a Typographic Legacy: Teddy Blanks In Focus

In the Richmond of 2005, Teddy Blanks was everywhere—playing packed shows with Ross Harman as the pop duo The Gaskets, writing sharp film reviews and interviews for the early issues of RVA Magazine, and even acting in a short film that, for me, still holds personal...

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...

It’s Still Our City | Ep. 7 Tony Harris, RVA Mag

"A long, long time ago, I was in a Richmond, Virginia–based band called The Jefferson Plane Crash. We were writing an album, and our practice space was the old, infamous Compound. I distinctly remember walking into the restroom to hit the head, and I noticed a...

VHS Club | Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

“Everything seemed the same, but it wasn’t. It was a nightmare.”  By 1978, the American Dream was officially dead. The counterculture of the ’60s and early ’70s had been absorbed into the mainstream, packaged and sold through a matrix of unlimited consumerism and...

Sound Check! No BS Brass! Teen Mortage! Dhemo! & More!

It’s a great week to be a Richmonder. I tried to cover a little bit of everything here—something to calm the storm, something to shake it up more—and as always, if you’ve got something, let me know. Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music?...

Styles P Shines, But So Do We

The room was charged the moment the doors opened. Richmond showed up ready—you could feel it in the air, like the bassline of a song you know by heart. And at the center of it all stood The Ghost himself: Styles P. Live at Ember Music Hall. A masterclass in presence,...

Revolution on Display. Protest on the Sidewalk. Welcome to Richmond.

Last weekend in Church Hill, Richmond did something that only Richmond can do — it let history walk and talk right in front of us. Inside St. John’s Church, the scene was familiar. A reenactor delivered Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech to an...

Richmond Music of Right Now 2025 Poll Results!

This marks the third year of our annual poll, and for the first time it really feels like a passing of the torch. Richmond’s next wave of musicians is taking center stage. That shift likely has something to do with who showed up to vote. The majority of this year’s voters were under 25, and they’re actively shaping the city’s music scene with new...

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Tiny Porch Concerts Seeks Performers for 2025 Season—Apply Now!

Tiny Porch Neighborhood Concert Series, a grassroots music showcase in Richmond’s Woodland Heights, is looking for musicians to fill its 2025 season. Organizers recently reached out to us after seeing the range of artists featured in our Richmond Music of Right Now poll, using it as a guide to find emerging talent in the city. Their hope is...

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SuperName! A Love Letter in Spray Paint to Kids Fighting Cancer

Names have power. They carry history, identity, and meaning. In street art, a name on a wall is a statement: I was here. I matter. For Richmond muralist Basta, names are more than words—they’re a tribute to strength. Through his project SuperName, he’s turning graffiti into a symbol of resilience for young people battling cancer. Photo courtesy...

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SuperName by Basta_RVA Magazine 2025

Fighting Cancer with Music | Richmond Musicians Rally for Justin Golden

Some musicians don’t just play—they shape a city’s sound, quietly stitching themselves into the cultural fabric with every note. Justin Golden has been doing that in Richmond for years, sliding his bluesy riffs into our collective consciousness. You might’ve caught him live, lost in a groove, or maybe you’ve just soaked in the atmosphere he...

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