Writer’s Block is RVA Magazine’s series highlighting contemporary writers working in Richmond and across the Commonwealth. Each week, we feature original poems, short stories, or essays. Just real voices writing right now. This week, we’re featuring two poems by...
Richmond’s journey into participatory budgeting has reached an impressive milestone. Following up on our earlier coverage, where we explored how residents could influence the allocation of $3 million, the Richmond People’s Budget initiative has completed its first idea collection cycle—and the results are worth celebrating. A Record-Breaking...
As Richmond recovers from a harsh winter storm, the city finds itself at the center of a national conversation about equality. Richmond resident and Executive Director of VoteEqualityUS, Kati Hornung, has been leading a campaign urging President Joe Biden to formally enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as the 28th Amendment to the U.S....
Richmond’s own Garry Callis Jr. has a lot going on right now. Whether he’s lighting up the dance floor or making his mark on the golf course, he’s forging his own path and inspiring others to join him along the way. Photo courtesy of Garry Callis Jr. RVA Hard Dance Collective: A Shot of Energy for Richmond’s Dance Scene It started with an idea as...
Only just last November, a visiting out-of-town friend and I met up at the Wayside Spring, and as far as sacred, spirit-filled destinations in this special piece of land go, that was natural magic. Even as we talked, a deer and other wildlife enjoyed the ecosystem the spring sustains. I had an awakening to the source of life and what is too often...
The start of every New Year often comes with people making resolutions to do more exercise, choose better eating habits, and make changes to improve one’s life. One of the newer traditions in recent years has been Dry January, which started in England but has spread worldwide and challenges people to spend the first 31 days of the year alcohol...
For 30 years, Venue Skateboards has been part of the Richmond story—a skate shop that’s never been just a skate shop. Since 1994, it’s been a meeting place, a community hub, and a home for skaters from all over the city. Kim and Maury Blankenship didn’t set out to change the world; they just wanted to create a space for skaters in a town that...
"Broad Street Bullies, it's like an anomaly. It's like a, it's interesting. It's like a self-supporting entity. There's either a lot of love for the situation, or there's like a lot of just sort of misguided, like non-understanding about it. And I've always thought it was such a cool thing. I remember the first time encountering them, I was on...
On Wednesday afternoon, Virginia Delegates Mike Jones and Holly Seibold addressed a crowd in freezing weather at a rally about the abuse at Red Onion Prison. This is an issue that The Virginia Defenders have been leading on, reporting about prisoners who are holding hunger strikes and intentionally burning themselves because of the abuse in the...
Richmond is no stranger to infrastructure challenges, but the recent water crisis has brought the city’s water treatment plant under intense scrutiny. A winter storm that caused a power outage at the plant quickly escalated into a disaster, leaving thousands of residents without water. The incident revealed systemic vulnerabilities in the city’s...
