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From The Church To Film Festivals, Storyteller Ron Dillard Jr Is A One Man Creative Army

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Ron Dillard Jr. does it all. He writes his own plays and screenplays. He has television shows in his head ready to go out into the world. A storyteller has to have stories to tell, and Ron is ready to tell his. Finding his way through the business of filmmaking and finding an audience hasn’t been easy, but to hear him tell it, this is all part of the plan.

Ron Dillard Jr: I am a writer, director, producer, actor, I was born in Petersburg, Virginia, moved to Richmond, Virginia in 2004. I have a background in theatre and started off doing church plays and in high school. When I went to college, I went into acting, producing and directing plays then starting Ron Winston Entertainment.

I knew there was a lot of theatre being done in Richmond. There were a lot of stories being told, but from the 1800s perspective. I had these ideas for stories about today, and how we treat each other. Stories that I really wanted to dive into and to give myself an opportunity to play characters that I don’t think other people would have cast me in.

So that’s how I got started to where we are now.

ron dilliard by kimberly frost
photo by Kimberly Frost

Richard Anthony Harris: And what was your first short film? Or play?

RDJ: The first play that I did with my company was in 2008. It was called I Deserve Better and it was about domestic violence. This isn’t a new topic, but I don’t want to do a production unless I can bring something different to it.

In I Deserve Better, we saw the abused [person’s] perspective as to why she stays, and the abuser as to why he does it. Not so much to give him a pass — there’s no excuse for it — but to understand why someone does something can give you a key to hopefully help them. In this story, we see the father aspect, because 70% of men who abuse women have seen [abuse] in their childhood. He saw it growing up.

In this production, the father is now reformed and trying to discipline his son. His son is like, “How dare you? You taught me to be how I am right now.” So that was an interesting dynamic that we showcased to some really good results.

RAH: How difficult is it taking a play and making it into a film?

RDJ: I have yet to take one of my plays and make it into a film, but what I wanted to do with that play is turn it into a mini-series. I want to basically do it where we tell three generations of stories within two episodes, so it’s not difficult when you have a perspective of it.

When you start thinking about exactly what you want to say and how you want to say it, the outline is the writer’s best friend. To be able to sit down, think about what you want to do, and most importantly, why do you want to do it? And then, how can you do it to do it in an effective way to tell a story?

RAH: When you started to get into film, did you have a lot of support? What was the process of “I’m gonna start doing some films”? How difficult was that to do in Richmond?

RDJ: For me, I have a great, great crew that has been working with me since I was doing my theatre productions. It really wasn’t until I met a young man named Shirod Green and partnered with him. I needed someone to be the director of photography, to deal with the lighting and the shots, someone to edit the films, since that is something that I don’t specialize in.

I found out about Shirod through Kelli Lemon. She did a post about The Art Of Noise and she tagged Shirod Green. I checked out his Instagram, I looked up his website, and I reached out to see if he’d meet with me. Fortunately, he took a meeting with me, and I told him about these short films that I want to do. I told him the plan of how I wanted to have them premiered — I want to take them into film festivals — and where I wanted to go. After that meeting, we kept in contact, and he ultimately said he would come on and work on it.

Once I had that in place, I had the confidence that we can go and do these now four films. I felt like we could be very successful with them.

RAH: What is the biggest obstacle to getting your films out in a town like Richmond, and finding an audience?

RDJ: When I did my second, A Player’s Last Play, I did these three commercials to promote them. The three commercials were everything that happened before the play, and I put them on television.

I remember a woman gave me feedback, since she saw the commercials. She loved the commercials but didn’t know anyone in the play, so she didn’t come. Having a name attached to the project is something I understood as an issue. That is the biggest detractor in the Richmond market.

RAH: Well, it seems to me like you’re getting them out there. I want to say congratulations on having three of your films showing in film festivals all over the world.

RDJ: Thank you, yes. We’re very, very fortunate to have all three films in the same film festivals multiple times. We have been fortunate to win now over 30 awards. We have won awards domestically and internationally. These films have been screened in Europe and places like India, Brazil. All over the United States. We’ve been really, really fortunate with the reception of these films.

RAH: I am really curious, what is it like talking to organizers of a film festival in Turkey? In places that don’t speak English, do you feel your ideas come across?

RDJ: You know, it’s interesting that after we got into our first 15 or so festivals, we started to have other film festivals from like India, from Turkey, from Hong Kong, from Japan, who were actually asking us to enter into their festivals, which was so overwhelming.

And the way that we’ve been able to communicate even in different languages has been astonishing, because some of the film festivals that we have won, they are in another language. The good thing is that we have films that really communicate very well, when you’re watching it — whether you can follow it in English, or if you have to have a translator.

RAH: That’s amazing, Ron, I think, you know, just following your story, it is amazing that you are all over the world. Does it ever pop in your mind, as a as a Black filmmaker, that maybe you’re opening doors for other Black filmmakers in this local market?

RDJ: I’ve never thought about it like that as a Black man, from a Black perspective only, because I look at Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, I look at directors who are very good at what they do.

My favorite director is Ridley Scott, and I never looked at him saying, “Hey, he’s a proficient Englishman!” I’m looking at him as a director who has taught me a lot, and if I see his films, I’m going to get a great story. I know that he’s a master of the craft, and that’s what I look to do.

I’m a director. First, I’m a good storyteller. And that’s how I want my brand to be known, when Ronald Dillard, Jr. does a film or tells a story, it’s going to be good. It’s gonna be something interesting. That’s what I work towards, to ensure that’s what people expect from me.

RAH: You are a storyteller.

RDJ: Absolutely. When you think about When We Prey On Them, it deals with one of the worst issues dealing with a lot of Black men, being slayed by police officers. That’s something very, very specific in the film that I couldn’t turn away from anymore. I had to find a way to do it. And we were able to get it done. Again, it’s all about the story. It is wrong to be taking lives when you don’t have to, or just taking life so irresponsibly.

So that’s the overall point for that film, is hoping that it brings humanity back to people when they’re thinking about life. At least, that’s what I hope it does.

ron dilliard by kimberly frost
photo by Kimberly Frost

RAH: What themes do you come back to in your films and what are you trying to figure out?

RDJ: I see a common theme in all of my films. A lot of times people who are pushed around or ignored, or a lot of times may take the high road, they have their say. [I hope] for my audience to really think about how they’re treating their fellow man. And I’m hoping that in my plays, or my films, to stop for a moment, hopefully generate some conversation and say, “Hey, am I like this? Do I portray this?” A lot of times, unless it hits them personally, most people don’t care. But to be able to sit back and let this fictional character give us an opportunity to think about ourselves and what we could do better, how we can be better — what is better than that?

RAH: As an independent filmmaker in Richmond, do you feel like you you get enough support here? Are there enough crew, actors, and professionals to help you?

RDJ: There was a time where I didn’t feel like that there was a lot of support but now, I look at it as that is my fault. The way I approach it now is that, number one, I have to get out to meet people. I have to get out here and make sure I’m meeting people, being active, and knowing who’s available.

ron dilliard by kimberly frost
photo by Kimberly Frost

RAH: My last question for you is, in regards to your career, what are you excited about this year?

RDJ: This year I have three television shows that I have created, and I’m starting to have meetings to pitch. I’m looking to transition into television show-running.

You can tell amazing stories over several seasons, and that’s really appealing to me. One of the reasons I made those films was to be able to tell different stories, and if you are going to go into television, you’re going to have to be able to have those chops.

It was a chance to do some great films and to hopefully draw conversation, but then to show my talent to tell more than one story — be more than a one-trick pony. Meaning you can put stories together time and time again, because that’s one of the elements you’re gonna need to go into doing television.

RAH: You have another movie coming up?

RDJ: We just finished a film called Unbrotherly Love, scored out of Ireland. So we review that and hopefully start putting that into some film festivals. And that is going to be another film we’re looking to get out into distribution, along with It’s The Color In Your Eyes, A Monster, and When We Prey On Them.

RAH: Ron, that’s amazing. I just want to say thank you for taking the time to speak to me today.

RDJ: Thank you so much for asking.

Follow Ron Dillard Jr on Instagram HERE

photos by Kimberly Frost

A Week Of Culinary Black Excellence

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The fourth annual Richmond Black Restaurant Experience shows that in a city gaining a reputation as a food destination, black restaurants and black culture are an essential factor.

As the first week of March approaches, black restaurant owners and cooks all over Richmond prepare for the fourth annual Richmond Black Restaurant Experience, a week-long celebration of black excellence in the culinary world. Established by Amy Wentz, Shemica Bowen, and Kelli Lemon, RBRE was founded on the premise of giving black minority restaurateurs the same exposure other Richmond restaurants have been given in recent years. 

“There was just a need for the black culinary industry in Richmond, that has a presence amongst [the black community],” Lemon said, “but wasn’t getting the national exposure, as Richmond was starting to make all these lists for being this foodie town.”

Over the past couple of years, several lists from publications like Bon Appetit, Insider, and Yelp have named Richmond as an up and coming destination for food lovers. With the national spotlight on the city, many restaurants have made the most of this attention by being involved in the city’s several food festivals. 

According to the founders of Richmond Black Restaurant Experience, Richmond Restaurant Week — a twice-yearly event that has been known to be very competitive and exclusive — has had a lack of representation for black restaurant owners. So they decided to create that representation themselves.

“We didn’t wait to be asked to be sat at the table, we just built the table,” Lemon said. “We just decided that we don’t have to wait to celebrate our culture.”

The goal of RBRE, Lemon said, is to introduce all of Richmond to black culinary ownership through a “celebration of cuisine.”

“We just want to make sure that when we are looking at Richmond as a whole, [black restaurants] are not left out of that whole,” said Lemon.

Over the past four years, RBRE has showcased over 20 restaurants, food trucks, and caterers each year, and has partnered with several non-profit organizations aimed to help the black community in Richmond.

This year RBRE, which has several sponsors including Dominion Energy, the City of Richmond, and the Virginia Lottery, will feature 35 different restaurants, food trucks, and caterers, including Mama J’s, Soul Taco, Southern Kitchen, and Chef MaMusu’s Africanne on Main. For a full list of participants, visit vablackrestaurantexperience.com.

RBRE will also be partnering with the Urban League of Greater Richmond Young Professionals (ULGRYP) as their non-profit beneficiary. In the past the RBRE has partnered with several food related organizations, but this year they decided on the ULGRYP because of their many initiatives that promote philanthropy and community engagement among young people of color, while also uplifting and finding the resources needed to support these individuals.

Although the main attraction to this week’s festivities is the food, Lemon also said that the goal is to focus on ALL artists of color in Richmond. According to Lemon, this week is about the complete black Richmond experience, not just the food.

“One of the things that we felt was missing this week was the art component,” Lemon said. “We look at food as art, but then there’s also music and fashion, hence these other activities planned.”

This year’s Richmond Black Restaurant Experience begins on Sunday, March 1 and lasts for eight days. The full schedule is as follows:

  • Sunday, March 1: Mobile Soul Sunday- Food Truck Fest at Kanawha Plaza, 12-5pm (Get tickets HERE)
  • Monday, March 2 thru Wednesday, March 4: Restaurant Focus- just eat, go to black owned restaurants and enjoy yourselves
  • Thursday, March 5: Afrikana Film Festival- Film Screening of Boss at Black History Museum and Cultural Center (‘dinner and a movie’), 7-9pm
  • Friday, March 6: Ready to Give- “Basement sweaty” dance party in the ‘Rabbit Hole’ at Vagabond
  • Saturday, March 7: ART for the Soul- Fashion, art and music showcase with culinary delights at Studio Two Three, 5-10pm (Get tickets HERE)
  • Sunday, March 8: Stick a Fork in It! – Chef demos and cooking contest put on by Richmond chefs and caterers at the Altria Theater, 12-5pm (Get tickets HERE)

All revenue from ticketed events like Mobile Soul, Ready to Give, Art for the Soul and Stick a Fork in It! will go to Urban League of Greater Richmond. As far as the restaurants themselves, check their social media pages for any food and drink specials offered throughout the week.

In the past, RBRE has been accused of being racist for having the word ‘black’ in the title. Lemon responded by saying that they don’t mind getting slammed for putting that word if it means people are now able to learn about something new and get out of their comfort zone.

“We created something because no one else would let us in,” Lemon said. “So people can be exposed to something different and start a conversation.”

Lemon, who is also the owner of Urban Hang Suite, a social cafe located at 304 E Broad St, acknowledges that there’s a lack of communication between the diverse groups of people in Richmond, which is why she built the cafe; to start that conversation.

With its controversial history, Lemon refers to Richmond as a tale of two cities; there’s Richmond and there’s RVA. Richmond is the food deserts, lack of affordable housing, lack of public transportation, high crime, and poor education. And then there’s RVA: the James River, craft beer, great food, and a good place to start your business. Lemon says that because of the city’s long history of division and segregation, these two places don’t know each other.

“Black Richmond knows, feels and is ready to take back our heritage,” Lemon said. “White Richmond wants us to forget about it; ‘The past is the past; we’re not that anymore’.”

Although black Richmond is still struggling in terms of opportunity, Lemon said that events like RBRE are letting the world know that, “Yeah, Richmond has a very horrible history, but what has come out of it is pride, leadership and a sense of belonging.”

At the end of the day, Lemon just wants people from all races and all areas of the city to come out and enjoy the vibes and atmosphere.

“Grab your family, grab your friend, grab your coworker, and go experience this with someone,” said Lemon. “There are a lot of different options, and we took care of everyone’s dietary needs.”

Appreciation of local culture in all its forms is Richmond Black Restaurant Experience’s ultimate goal, Lemon said.

“We just want people to think outside the box and celebrate a culture that in Richmond is truly vibrant.”

Photos courtesy Richmond Black Restaurant Experience

Culture Meets Cuisine At 2019’s Black Restaurant Experience

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“People in Richmond don’t talk to each other,” said Kelli Lemon, owner of Urban Hang Suite. She created her coffee shop last year to make a comfortable space for customers to connect with one another despite their differences.

Lemon is also tri-owner of the Virginia Black Restaurant Experience — an opportunity for people throughout the Richmond and Henrico area to connect and to enjoy the diversity of meals offered by black-owned restaurants.

The third annual Richmond Black Restaurant Experience starts Sunday and runs through March 10. This year the event features 30 restaurants as well as food trucks, caterers and local chefs.

The theme is Culture Meets Cuisine, and the food is served up for a good cause: It will raise money for the Mary G. Brown Transitional Center, a nonprofit agency that helps people with housing, job training and other services. With every event ticket purchased, proceeds will go directly to the center. Events that serve alcohol will give 100 percent of their sales to the center.

Urban Hang Suite, located at 304 E. Broad St., is a coffee shop that offers a traditional grab n’ go setting in the front with an open space in the back for people to connect. Photo by Madison Manske.

Each restaurant participating in the RBRE will have a passport that lists all other restaurants included in the experience. Mama J’s, Vagabond, Pig & Brew and Urban Hang Suite are a small handful of what to expect — with vegan options available at certain restaurants.

Throughout the week, the RBRE will also sponsor various events that require a ticket:

  • Mobile Soul Sunday on Sunday (March 3)
  • A Seat At The Table — Dinner Party Social on Monday (March 4)
  • Zumba and Cocktails with Jackie Paige and DJ Nobe on Monday (March 4)
  • Wine Tasting and Pairing at C’est Le Vin on Tuesday (March 5)
  • Hip Hop Karaoke with Pro DJ Direct and Unlocking RVA on Tuesday (March 5)
  • Afrikana Film Festival – Invisible Vegan on Thursday (March 7)
  • ART for the SOUL on Friday (March 8)
  • Brunch Trolley Tour on Saturday (March 9)
  • Diaspora and Untold RVA on Saturday (March 9)
  • Stick A Fork In It! on Sunday (March 10)

In its first year, the RBRE consisted of 19 restaurants. Last year, 10 restaurants joined the list bringing it to 29. Every year, more jobs are created and more money is raised through special event ticket sales.

The experience was created by Lemon, Amy Wentz, and Shemicia Brown with the aim of addressing economic disparities within the city’s minority-owned business community as well as advancing Richmond’s growing culinary tourism scene.

The inaugural event helped launch the business the three women operate as Virginia Black Restaurant Experience. Events such as the Richmond Black Restaurant Experience operate under the VBRE umbrella, Lemon said. The women organize the annual RBRE with support from Dominion Energy.

“We felt like what we do is bigger than just a week, so we started Virginia Black Restaurant Experience,” Lemon said. “It’s just an experience of celebrating culture and cuisine that often times gets ignored for various different reasons.”

Photo by Madison Manske

Benefiting a community organization

For the last two years, the beneficiary of the RBRE was Renew Richmond, an organization dedicated to increasing healthy food efforts by creating urban gardens and offering educational and other programs.

“We wanted to give someone else the opportunity to be able to grow their nonprofit,” Lemon said.

This year’s beneficiary, the Mary G. Brown Transitional Center, is a partner in the Richmond Food Justice Corridor, a network of organizations seeking to address food access, build community, reduce violence, inspire youth and accomplish other community goals.

Richmond is a popular food destination where Lemon says minorities in the food industry often get overlooked. When Lemon opened Urban Hang Suite in October, she wanted to open a space that allowed engagement to anyone who walks in the door.

Located at 304 E. Broad St., her coffee shop offers a traditional grab ’n’ go setting in the front with an open space in the back for people to connect.

According to Lemon, black-owned restaurants can face challenges in terms of obtaining financing, promoting and managing the business.

“Because of that lack, we found it important to be an assistant or just to be an ally to these restaurant owners in pursuit of giving them a true, proper place within the Richmond culinary scene,” Lemon said. “You have to realize that in some of these smaller black-owned restaurants, they’re the chef, they’re the marketer, the GM — they may be a host one day.”

Photo by Madison Manske

Inner City Blues, home of Carolina Bar B Que, has participated in the RBRE every year so far. Co-owner Alicia Hawkins said she and her husband see higher sales each year, and that allows them to be more active in the business and the community.

“Richmond is a foodie town, and a lot of times with the small businesses, a lot of people don’t know that these small businesses exist,” Hawkins said. “I have customers come in all the time to say, ‘We didn’t know you were here,’ which is kind of strange.”

Before the restaurant moved to 3015 Nine Mile Road in 2014, it was Inner City Blues Takeout on Gilpin Court in Jackson Ward. When the landlord wanted to make changes, Hawkins and her husband had to relocate. After the owner of their current building retired, the space opened up for them.

“It was a business opportunity that it was just as if God had opened the doors,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins went to the original Armstrong High School. Having grown up in the area, she was familiar with her new business location.

Hawkins said the RBRE is a chance to showcase restaurants like hers.

“We also saw the lack of black-owned restaurants in the larger restaurant weeks,” Lemon said.

Richmond is home to many food festivals from Richmond Oktoberfest to Festival of India. According to Lemon, when VBRE was created, the organizers got criticized and called racist for celebrating African-American restaurants.

“We had to remind everyone of the other festivals that happen all the time in this city,” Lemon said. “All these festivals celebrated culture and heritage, and that’s all we’re trying to do.”

For a full list of participating restaurants and event/ticket sale information, visit www.vablackrestaurantexperience.com. The website also has a link for donations.

“It’s very important for those that are not familiar with this week to know that it is open to everyone,” Lemon said. “We hope that people come out of their comfort zones for this week.”

By Madison Manske, Capital News Service. Top Photo by Madison Manske.

Controversy/History Exposes Racist History of Virginia’s Health Care System

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From body snatchers to windowless basement clinics, the history of African-American health care in Virginia is an ugly one. And as The Valentine’s Controversy/History series revealed last week, some of those problems are still all-too-prevalent today.

Beliefs based in pseudoscience made access to Virginia’s healthcare system harder for African-Americans across generations, according to the most recent installment of the Valentine’s ongoing series of conversations, Controversy/History.

Over 50 Central Virginians attended the latest program in the Controversy/History series, “Healthy Community: Disease and Disparity,” to discuss racial discrimination in the history of the healthcare system.

Disparity in the healthcare system dates back 400 years, to when the first Africans arrived in Virginia. This was highlighted as part of the discussion life-expectancy rates in Richmond neighborhoods today. In Westover Hills, a predominantly white neighborhood, life expectancy averages 83 years. But in Gilpin Court, a historically black neighborhood on the North Side, life-expectancy is as low as 63 years.

Community members bonded early in the meeting as they split off into small group discussions about how they have been let down by the health care system.

“I had a close call,” said Richmond resident Bernadette LeMasters. “I had no health insurance because I didn’t have a job.”

LeMasters had a health emergency soon after gaining access to health insurance through employment.

“I would have been paying $60,000,” LeMasters said. “I’m just so thankful that insurance covered virtually all of it.”

Not all Virginians have been so lucky. An estimated 2,700 Virginians aged 25-64 died between 2005 and 2010 because of a lack of health care coverage. Roughly 20 percent of uninsured Virginians are African-American, according to the Virginia Health Care Foundation. Those percentages may be higher when looking at specific diseases, according to Rodney Lofton, the Deputy Director of Diversity Richmond, who spoke at the Controversy/History event about the racial disparities in health care that still exist in Virginia today.

“African-Americans make up roughly about 13% of the U.S. population, but account for almost half of the reported HIV/AIDS cases,” Lofton said. “So we ask, what did we do wrong, or what is wrong with the system?”

Valentine Director Bill Martin and Coffee with Strangers host Kelli Lemon took the crowd through 400 years of Virginia history and the development of racial disparity in the healthcare system.

“Influential speakers like Thomas Jefferson perpetuated the belief in an inherent biological difference between the races,” Martin said.

Martin quoted Jefferson’s 1785 book Notes on the State of Virginia, saying, “Whether the black of the negro resides in the reticular membrane between the skin and scarf-skin, or in the scarf-skin itself; whether it proceeds from the color of the blood, the color of the bile, or from that of some other secretion, the difference is fixed in nature, and is as real as if its seat and cause were better known to us.”

Martin also condemned the acts of J. Marion Sims, the father of modern gynecology, who used enslaved women as test subjects for his surgical procedures. At the time, pseudoscience perpetuated the idea that people of African descent had a higher pain tolerance than white people, which Sims used to justify not using anesthesia on his victims.

The African-American people of Richmond faced similar eras of scientific experimentation. In 1994, construction on East Marshall Street in Richmond uncovered the remains of at least 53 individuals, mostly of African descent.

These were bodies stolen from graves in African-American cemeteries” Lemon said.

Nineteenth century body snatchers would take corpses fresh from their graves to be used as cadavers for anatomy students at Richmond’s Medical College of Virginia. Sycamore Cemetery in Barton Heights on the North Side and Oakwood Cemetery in the East End were frequented; however, it may not always have been corpses medical schools were after.

“According to some accounts, African-American children were warned against going near MCV at night out of fear of being kidnapped and dissected,” Lemon said.

The atrocities faced by the African-American communities only made healthcare access more difficult. Early in Virginia history, black healers and doctors lived within slave communities, but were often forbidden by law to practice healthcare. Slaves fell to yellow fever, malaria, and dysentery, but were often provided no treatment, and no time off to recover, Lemon said.

Over time, access to healthcare in slave communities from black healers and doctors worsened, while whites benefited from work done primarily by African-Americans.

“African-American women played a critical role in nursing and midwifery,” Lemon said. “Black women worked independently on plantations or assisted white doctors, making them an integral part of healthcare, until nursing became a white institution which denied black women access.”

A shortage of black health care providers meant that African-Americans had to receive healthcare from white professionals, healthcare that Lemon said was often “biased and inadequate.” Richmond’s own MCV didn’t even allow students of color to enroll until 1962.

During the influenza pandemic of 1918-19, a call for volunteers brought Richmond icon Maggie L. Walker to John Marshall High School, which was acting as an emergency hospital. Walker found ailing blacks confined to a windowless room in the basement. As the hospital continued to crowd, Walker convinced the governor to open Merchants Hospital in Gilpin Court, to be run out of Baker School by black doctors and black nurses, Martin said.

Karen Legato, the Executive Director of Health Brigade, was also in attendance at the Valentine event. Health Brigade started in 1968 as a small community clinic, known at the time as the Fan Free Clinic.

“Our response to the AIDS epidemic in the ‘80s and ‘90s was what Fan Free Clinic really became known for,” Legato said.

Echoing Lofton’s account of the response to AIDS, Legato told the crowd that providing care for AIDS patients was “very much a white gay movement at that time.”

“We did not have a sense of what that disease was in terms of race, and we were not paying attention to it,” Legato said.

Now, Health Brigade’s mission is, according to their website, to “provide quality health services, especially to those least served, in a compassionate and non-judgmental environment.”

“All of the patients who come to us are low-income, 18 and over, uninsured, underinsured, people of color, immigrants, LGBT, and other stigmatized populations,” Legato said.

The pursuance of intersectional access to healthcare was a common theme in Legato and Lofton’s goals for Richmond’s future.

“We’ve come a long way, but we’ve got so much further to go in order to make sure everyone in this city has access to affordable healthcare that is culturally appropriate, that’s culturally sensitive and provided in a respectful way,” Lofton said.