What is Ellwood Thompson’s now? That feels like a fair question most people should be asking right now after this week’s news that the company that owns one of Richmond’s most recognizable stores is being taken over by another company whose primary business is data...
Nearly a decade after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis is back in the headlines and this time, she’s asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 ruling that made marriage equality the law of the land. In 2015, Davis defied the court’s decision and...
Pour one out, or maybe just crack open a seltzer, for America’s drinking habit. According to Gallup’s 2025 Consumption Habits survey, only 54% of U.S. adults now say they drink alcohol. That’s the lowest level Gallup has recorded in nearly 90 years of polling, down from 67% just two years ago. In Richmond, the picture is more nuanced. Nightlife...
The City of Richmond has awarded more than $9 million through its Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) to support eight development projects expected to deliver nearly 600 new or preserved affordable housing units across the city. The funding also includes $2.2 million for the Healthy Homes Rehabilitation Program, which helps low-income...
Richmond’s creative economy has always been powered by risk-takers like musicians, painters, actors, writers, photographers, makers, and the small business owners who keep the city’s galleries, venues, and shops alive. Many piece together a living from passion projects, gig work, and side hustles, often without the safety net of employer-provided...
I was recently reflecting on a line I am particularly proud of. The tail half is: “I’ll go to the funeral if I get off of work.” As I am prone to do, it got me thinking about my abrasive hatred towards AI, especially in art. But I have to justify myself, if a computer wrote that line, would it still be a good line? The reason I think it is good...
Editor’s Note: With a new mayor in Richmond and Virginia’s governor’s race on the horizon, alongside ongoing federal redistricting battles and policy shifts, the question of how we build and hold power is more urgent than ever. In this guest commentary, a reader argues that too much of today’s activism has slipped into performance at the expense...
“The rebel yell, reinforced by a glorification of the lost cause was everywhere manifest,” reported John Mitchell Jr., editor of the Richmond Planet, an African American weekly newspaper, at the time of the Robert E. Lee monument’s unveiling. It was the spring of 1890. Boxes adorned with Confederate flags held the 12-ton bust, as a faithful...
My bunk gets sweaty when I lay it in. The walls sweat, too — you can see it. We’re in an oven. It’s too hot. It was an average Tuesday, nearly four in the afternoon, and I was saturated with sweat. Everybody was. All we could do was corral around a stand-up fan and try cooling off. Even the wall-mounted fans didn’t help us stop sweating. Shoot,...
When RVA Magazine approached me about becoming their regular theatre critic, I was tickled at the idea. I hadn't been too involved in the local scene, but I had been very critical - of everything, always. I was curious as to the state of quality. Regional theatre is a fall guy for numerous jokes in an industry puffed up with a hierarchy...
