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Masking Up

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A new program from Mayor Levar Stoney’s office is helping ensure that Richmonders have access to masks protecting us all from the spread of COVID-19. Masks are now available for free at many locations around the city.

As COVID-19 continues to spread across the country and governors issue statewide face-covering mandates, Mayor Stoney’s office and the City of Richmond have been working to make those face coverings accessible to everyone in the river city.

In a press conference last Friday, Mayor Stoney announced the city’s plan to distribute free disposable surgical masks to Richmond residents at 42 pickup locations around the city.

“Wearing a mask is the easiest way to show love and respect for your neighbor,” said Mayor Stoney during the press conference. “Masks are scientifically proven to help stop the spread, so we’re making sure everyone has access to them, regardless of the money in their pocket or zip code they live in.”

The CDC recommends wearing a face covering in public in order to limit the spread of the disease that has killed more than 175 thousand Americans and about 800 thousand globally.

The mask distribution network has been months in the making. It originated from a pilot program in the spring between the Mayor’s office, the Richmond Fire Department, and the state government.

“As soon as the pandemic became a problem in mid-March, Mayor Stoney acknowledged that the accessibility of PPE would be utmost priority,” said Sam Schwartzkopf, a spokesperson for the office of Mayor Stoney’s press secretary. “Because even though it took a while for CARES Act dollars to start rolling in, the need was immediately there.”

In the pilot program, the state provided 40,000 masks, hand sanitizer bottles, and health literacy pamphlets; the city used socio-economic data to identify the city’s most underserved and at-risk communities; and the Fire Department delivered the masks, sanitizer bottles, and pamphlets to those neighborhoods.

The city’s current mask distribution network has been a collective effort by several Richmond public offices, including Parks and Recreation, Richmond Public Library, and RVA 311.

“It truly was a collaborative effort,” Schwartzkopf said. “[The Press Secretary’s Office] created the RVA Strong page. We made sure through working with the Office of Multicultural Affairs that the information was available on an all-Spanish page as well. We worked with the Department of Information Technology to make sure that there would be an interactive map.”

The 42 current pickup locations of the Richmond mask distribution network. Blue dots are Richmond Public Library branches and red dots are Parks and Recreation community centers. To access the interactive map and find the nearest pickup location to you, visit rvastrong.org/getamask.

The pickup locations include Richmond City public buildings including Richmond City Health District Resource Centers, Richmond Public Schools meal distribution sites, Parks and Recreation Community Centers, and Richmond Public Library branches. Residents may come to these locations and pick up two masks per member of their household for no charge. Residents can visit rvastrong.org to determine their nearest pickup location, or apply to become a pickup location as an institution. Before going to a pickup site for masks, residents are strongly encouraged to call ahead to make sure they have masks in stock.

“It’s not required that you call ahead, you don’t need to set a pickup time, you don’t need to reserve an appointment or a slot or anything like that,” Schwartzkopf said. “We [just] don’t want you to go on a long walk and at the end of the walk hear, ‘We just gave out out last mask an hour ago, sorry.’”

Institutions and organizations can also get a delivery from the Fire Department of a bulk package of masks for free.

“The city would rather be in the position of ensuring that everyone is celebrating, gathering, worshipping, receiving services, etc. safely, rather than not having provided those masks and risking more Richmonders getting sick,” Schwartzkopf said.

RVA 311, Richmond’s information and public service hotline, had a hand in expanding the pickup network, and actually came to the mayor’s office with the idea to create the institutional request, where organizations can order between 50 and 300 masks.

“They said, ‘We want to collaborate across departments to make this a reality and to use RVA 311 as a tool to make sure everyone has access to a mask,’” Schwartzkopf said.

The mask network had small beginnings but has since grown into a true city-wide effort that is poised to continue growing.

“We started with just the Fire Department headquarters and City Hall,” Schwartzkopf said. “And we worked together across those three departments — Fire, RVA 311 and the mayor’s office — to recruit almost 50 locations throughout the city for the launch.”

The cost of the 180 thousand masks purchased by the city ahead of last Friday’s launch was reimbursed by federal funds from the CARES Act, and whether or not there will be another federal relief bill in September, the city is committed to providing free masks to Richmonders for as long as COVID-19 is still a threat.

“We are going to keep purchasing masks as long as there’s a need for them,” Schwartzkopf said. “As long as the residents of Richmond need them to feel safe.”

Top Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Fighting the Housing Crisis with HOME

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Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia sets sights on reform, working to change housing policy in the Commonwealth by informing the public through art. 

On chilly winter mornings, patrons begin gathering at the steps of the main branch of the Richmond Public Library to await its 10am opening. 

A security guard pulls open the doors, and as library guests begin funneling in, they are greeted first not by a bookshelf or a computer lab; instead, the first thing that visitors see when entering the library are two tall columns of brown blocks, with “EVICTION CRISIS” stenciled in white letters. They are surrounded by what appears to be bags of trash. Instead of bookshelves, visitors are entering an art exhibit, with doorknobs, keys, Monopoly homes, and broken outlets highlighting Richmond’s eviction rates on orange and black posters. 

Photo by Jason Boleman

The exhibit is a current project from Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, a Richmond-based organization whose mission is “to ensure equal housing access to all people.” Through advocating for legislation and community outreach, HOME of Virginia has its goals set on changing housing policies in the Commonwealth. 

In the current General Assembly session, HOME’s main concern has been adding sexual orientation and gender identity protections to the Fair Housing Act of Virginia. Both the House of Delegates and Senate versions of that bill passed their respective chambers on February 6. 

“We’ve been working almost two decades on that,” said Mike Burnette, Director of Communications for HOME. “That’s going to be a huge change. We have never moved the needle this far.” 

HOME’s other main legislative focus is House Bill 6, introduced by Del. Jeff Bourne, D-Richmond, which “adds discrimination based on a person’s source of income to the list of unlawful discriminatory housing practices.” The bill passed the House on February 7 and the Senate on March 3. 

Photo by Jason Boleman

HOME began in September 1971 to enforce the Fair Housing Act. Burnette says its biggest win as an organization came in 1982, when Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman went to the Supreme Court of the United States. The ruling allowed anyone aware of a fair housing violation to sue, including “testers” who are looking for violations. 

“That really changed the way we do things, not just for housing organizations, but any other organizations that want to sue,” Burnette said. 

Today, HOME employs testers to act as prospective renters, in order to see if local landlords are complying with fair housing policies. 

Currently, the organization employs around 30 full-time employees, and is funded primarily by government grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as from state and local governments. Aside from those sources, Burnette said HOME receives funding from foundations, institutions, individual donors, and companies, including Wells Fargo, the only corporate sponsor of the “Eviction Crisis” art exhibit.

Photo by Jason Boleman

HOME president Heather Crislip said the organization will ensure equal housing access, and address the systemic barriers that prevent implementation of fair housing policies. 

As for the exhibit, Burnette says this current display is expected to at least ride through this full year, but did not rule out future art exhibits. 

“We’ll see what the next crisis is, or the next issue that we feel we need to raise up,” Burnette said. 

Scott Firestine, director of the Richmond Public Library, said the exhibit is among the best of his tenure. According to Firestine, the exhibit achieves the library’s mission to inform, enrich, and empower. 

“The best and most rewarding thing to happen as a librarian is that people are using this to become informed,” Firestine said. “Then they are asking, ‘What can I do?” 

Top Photo by Jason Boleman

TDOR 2019: Commemorating Those We’ve Lost, Celebrating Those Still With Us

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Today on Transgender Day Of Remembrance, commemorations around Virginia will memorialize members of the transgender community who lost their lives over the past year due to anti-trans violence.

November 20 is the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), and today marks the 21st annual commemoration of this solemn occasion. First observed in 1999 to commemorate the murder of Rita Hester, TDOR has become an important way for members of the LGBTQ community to come together and remember those who’ve lost their lives to anti-trans violence over the previous year.

The week leading up to TDOR is known as Transgender Awareness Week, and this week, it began on Wednesday, November 13 with a commemoration held in the VCU Police parking lot. In March 2017, in an effort to bridge the gap between Richmond’s transgender community and local police forces — who’ve often been considered a threat by marginalized trans people, especially of color — the VCU Police came together with local TDOR organizing committee TDOR RVA to plant a cherry tree in the VCU Police parking lot, dedicated to transgender victims of violence. It was at that tree that the Transgender Awareness Celebration, hosted by GLSEN and Nationz Foundation as well as the VCU Police, was held last Wednesday.

At the beginning of Transgender Awareness Week, Transrespect vs Transphobia Worldwide released their annual Trans Murder Monitoring update, which is intended to, according to transrespect.org, “join the voices raising awareness of this day regarding hate crimes against trans and gender-diverse people, and to honour the lives of those who might otherwise be forgotten.”

The Trans Murder Monitoring project has recorded 3314 cases in 74 countries since beginning on January 1, 2008. This year’s update added 331 trans and gender-non-conforming people who’d been murdered between October 1, 2018 and September 30, 2019. That full list can be found here.

In the United States, Human Rights Campaign has documented at least 22 transgender or gender-non-conforming people killed by violent means so far in 2019. It is those names that will be read at Transgender Day Of Remembrance commemorations around the state today.

Here in Richmond, Nationz Foundation will be holding their annual Transgender Day of Remembrance and Resilience observation at the Main branch of the Richmond Public Library tonight at 6 PM. Nationz has been holding this event since 2017, when they created it to try and bring a less downbeat tone to the annual commemoration of transgender and gender-non-conforming lives lost to violence.

“We wanted to do something a little different than the normal TDoR by also honoring the resiliency of the transgender community and the individuals who are still with us now,” Nationz Foundation director Zakia McKensey told GayRVA in a 2017 interview. “And not making the event so morbid and depressing by celebrating those lives that were lost, and also uplifting ones that are still with us.”

This year’s event, which will be held in the library’s main auditorium, will commemorate the lives lost, but also “celebrate the strength and resiliency of our community,” according to a statement from Nationz Foundation. Expect music, poetry, food, and community conversation from this event, which will both remember those we’ve lost and celebrate those who remain here with us.

The Richmond Public Library’s Main Branch is located at 101 E. Franklin St in the downtown area. The Transgender Day Of Remembrance and Resilience event will begin tonight at 6 PM. There are quite a few other Trans Day of Remembrance events taking place around the state tonight as well, from Hampton Roads to NoVA to Roanoke, the Eastern Shore, and more. For a full list of these events and their locations, visit Equality Virginia’s website at equalityvirginia.org/tdor/.

Richmond Zine Fest: A World Of Creativity At Your Fingertips

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The 13th annual Richmond Zine Fest came to the Richmond Public Library last month and introduced attendees to an entire world of unique and wonderful do-it-yourself artistic expression.

On the second weekend in October, the Richmond Public Library’s main branch played host to the 13th annual Richmond Zine Fest — a small festival dedicated to the plethora of zine creators and artists around the city. Saturday’s Exhibitor’s Day showcase found tables crowding the perimeter of the basement and third floor of the downtown library, all cluttered with small, self-published booklets, as well as comic books, art prints, buttons and keychains, action figures, and even the occasional self-portrait. It was truly a wonderful sight.

I was first introduced to the idea of zines when I was in high school. I was astonished by the idea that I could input all my esoteric ideals and understanding of the world into a small booklet that I put together and printed myself, which would then be readily available to be picked up and read through by anyone.

I was also amazed by the variety of genres and categories zines could fall into; I’d only ever seen the highly-polished formats of the magazines you could buy in the grocery store, but the world of zines went in so many other directions. By the time I was out of high school, I’d officially decided to sacrifice my hands to the thousand paper cuts that come with self-publishing in order to create some of my wildest ideas.

Brian McDaniel (via Instagram)

Attempting to fit into the mainstream’s idea of literary and artistic creativity can leave a lot of creators at a dead end, searching for a way around the corners of creativity in which they’re less than comfortable. Zines allow artists to stretch out beyond the strictures of mainstream ideas and highlight their own unique talents for the world to see. The opportunity to go in all sorts of unconventional directions — replacing words with images, images with an artistic reformatting of word structure, and much more — makes zines a limitless space where everyone with a creative inclination can find a home.

That feeling is common in attendees of Richmond Zine Fest, even if they’ve never attempted to make a zine themselves. “I came here a year ago with a friend of mine and fell in love,” said one Zine Fest attendee. “It felt like a reunion of sorts… almost like a celebration for all of these artists.”

Finding your creative medium is only part of the battle for zine makers — finding your audience is just as big a struggle, one many zine creators face in the course of their work. Locating people who are as interested in your zine as you are is one of the hardest parts of the process. However, Richmond Zine Fest helps deal with this problem. If you’re a creator, at Richmnond Zine Fest, the audience comes to you.

“I’ve been coming for a couple of years now and every year it gets better,” said another Zine Fest visitor. “I always either find new work from some of my favorite artists, or find new artists with amazing work.”

Budget Press (via Instagram)

This year’s Zine Fest brought many different writers and artists together in one place, to enjoy the talents and ideals of their fellow creators. The floors of the library transformed into a sort of mall showcasing the independent art scene of Richmond and the surrounding reason. You could find all sorts of different work.

Richmond’s own Brian McDaniel, known around town for his fashion photography and his involvement in Dialogue Magazine, brought a selection of personal zines featuring his own writing, photography, and what he called “doodles.” DC-based zine publisher Budget Press brought a selection of work by many different creators, including founder Johnnie B. Baker. Yonic Youth, a collective focused on the work of women, POC, and the LGBTQ community, were on hand with issues of their zine as well as stickers and hats. And there were many, many more on hand as well.

“I’m a writer myself so it’s great to see things like this happening in the city,” said a visitor. “It’s a reminder that there is space for me and others like me to have our work appreciated in the public eye.”

Yonic Youth (via Instagram)

Richmond Zine Fest stands as an annual mecca for writing and illustrative artists from every subcategory imaginable. For anyone who feels there is no home for them in this vast, subjective field we call art, it offers a fire-lit cabin. If you missed it this time around, never fear — Richnond Zine Fest will be back next year. Until then, you can keep up with them on Instagram @richmondzinefest. Start working now and maybe next year, you can bring a zine of your own.

Top Photo via Richmond Zine Fest/Facebook

Bringing the Developing World Into Focus

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Scooping out a dry river bed. Trudging miles to a community tap just to collect clean water. Piling into a tiny room with dirt floors and mud walls with over 100 of your classmates packed inside to learn your daily lesson. These are just a few aspects of life in the developing world that most American children will never experience, and many adults don’t even think about.

The harsh realities of childhood in an underdeveloped country tend to be out of sight, out of mind for most Americans as we grapple with our own ever-growing problems. However, Richmond photographer Jake Lyell hopes to remind us that children all over the world face even bigger issues in his latest exhibit, “Safe Passage.”

A collection of 20 photographs at the Richmond Public Library, Lyell’s work gives a glimpse into the daily lives, hardships, and inequalities facing families, especially children, living in 10 countries including Ecuador, Peru, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Mali, Philippines, India, and Nepal.

“I wanted to express an idea of uniqueness and themes that you see across the developing world,” he said. “I wanted to bring issues of kids growing up in the developing world to light.”

A freelance photographer and VCUarts graduate, Lyell has traveled to over 60 countries working as a photographer for various humanitarian organizations. On his assignments, he depicts the challenges people face, along with scenes from everyday life. Most of the photos in the exhibit come from Lyell’s work with Richmond-based Childfund International.

A child carries a bundle of firewood home for use in the family’s kitchen in Adama District, Ethiopia. The removal of trees for fuelwood is a major contributor to erosion and deforestation throughout the developing world.

Before moving back to Richmond in 2015, he lived in East Africa for six years, where he met his wife. While he’s been photographing in other countries for 15 years, the photos in the exhibit span from 2008 to 2018. The title “Safe Passage,” which stems from the photo of a little girl on a riverboat taxi in Peru, encompasses the central theme of the collection.

“Safe Passage is about the dangers kids might face when they’re growing up, also the joys and the connections they have and the relationships they have, and the organizations there that are actually making legitimate strides in helping kids get through,” he said.

From capturing the aftermath of the deadly 2015 earthquake in Nepal, to the ongoing food and water crisis in Ethiopia, to children battling malaria in sub-Saharan Africa to documenting forced child labor in the Philippines where children forgo school to work in sugar cane fields for hours, much of the time without pay, Lyell, through his work, hopes to bring these problems to the forefront of the conversation.

“I feel like Americans have forgotten where they came from and [are] oblivious to the outside world. So much about our country is founded on being a haven and a place for the rest of the world to become. Maybe something like this [exhibit] can help educate people,” Lyell said.

While he’s been all over the world, one of Lyell’s assignments has stuck with him and continues to be a subject that’s hard for him to discuss.

“I’ve seen a mom have to fight for the life for her kid, and lose, dying of HIV,” he said. “I was with her for like two weeks before it happened. That was my photo assignment to stay with this mom and kid to see what happened. The kid didn’t make it and I had to fight between being a photojournalist and caring person because I had developed a really good relationship with this mom.”

And even though a bulk of the collection sheds light on problems in developing countries, Lyell also showcases the efforts of humanitarian organizations on the ground. His photographs create a record of the impact of short and long-term aid, such as Childfund’s LEAP program, which seeks to lift and keep children out of sugar cane fields in the Philippines and end unsafe forced labor in other areas.

“I didn’t just want to show the problems, I wanted to show the solutions,” he said. Take a glimpse into Lyell’s “Safe Passage” exhibit below and be sure to check out his entire collection at the Richmond Public Library, which runs through Sept. 4.

A child crosses the Itaya River in the Amazon basin by boat taxi in the city of Iquitos, Peru.

Many children in the developing world are denied their right to an education. Here, a boy is employed as a brick-maker in Mukono District, Uganda.

Governments in the developing world often lack the resources to provide adequate infrastructure and services to its people. Classes can sometimes be found meeting under the shade of a tree or, as seen here in Kajiado County, Kenya, in a tiny mud shack

Opportunities to advance in education beyond the high school level are often extremely limited. Here, Sharda Kumari (18, L) learns sewing and tailoring at a ChildFund-supported vocational training center in Rajasthan, India.

Chickens are more than a hobby for families in Africa. Breeding and selling them brings needed income, while their eggs are a regular source of nutrition for kids. Here, Ndinda (13), feeds her families chickens in Makueni County, Kenya. The family relies on income from chicken sales to send Ndinda to school.

It’s not uncommon for girls to be married and bearing children at a young age in the developing world. Here, Tume (17) carries her 1-year-old son, Muro, on her back in Marsabit County, Kenya.

As 7-month-old Jjuma is treated for malaria at an underserved hospital in Bundibugyo, Uganda, his attending nurse substitutes a rubber glove for a tourniquet. In sub-Saharan Africa, about 445,000 people die of malaria each year, most of them children. 2017

Children from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) play on a home-made scooter in Kiziba Refugee Camp in neighboring Rwanda. Though the DRC is one of the most mineral and resource-rich countries in the world, economically it is the poorest due to political instability and fights for the control of these resources.

Love is shown between Memory Mwemba (23) and her daughter Nancy (20 months) at a nutritional outreach and growth monitoring session supported by ChildFund in Chainda, Zambia.

All Photos By Jake Lyell. Main Photo: Sita Shresthra (49) and her son, Bisan (2), of Gorkha District, Nepal were made homeless following the devastating 2015 earthquake that killed more than 9,000 people. 

The 11th Annual Richmond Zine Fest to feature 140 zines, workshops & more this weekend

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The last weekend of September marks the 11th Annual Richmond Zine Fest, held for the second year in a row at the Richmond Public Library. The Richmond Zine Fest is a two-day event for local and national zine-makers can gather to sell, trade their zines–self-published magazines with small print runs and DIY production values–and network with other people in the zine community. Zine Fest’s organizers are firm believers that the event is not just for zine creators and zine distributors. It’s an open event for all ages, featuring tablers selling zines as well as other DIY items, along with informative and fun workshops throughout the afternoon.

The 2017 Richmond Zine Fest is organized by Celina Williams and Brian Baynes, who have been involved in the planning for the Fest for nine and five years respectively, and will feature about 140 different zines.

Williams first attended the Zine Fest when it was still held outside on the street, and fell in love with the community. “The first time I went to Zine Fest, it was outside of Firehouse Theatre and the Camel, and I asked, ‘How do I get involved?’” Williams said.

Celina Williams with members of feminist zine collective Elbow Room

Afterwards, the Zine Fest moved to the Gay Community Center of Richmond. This is where Baynes first attended and began his involvement. “I just like buying zines,” Baynes said. “I didn’t even start making them until I started organizing this, but I love to trade zines with other zine-makers.”

Since its inception, the Richmond Zine Fest provides a service to any and all zine-makers, collaborators, and lovers of fine art. In one space, a patron can experience the thriving zine community both within the city and beyond. 

“Last year was the first year we held the Richmond Zine Fest at the Richmond Public Library,” Baynes said. “They are a non-profit, and they donate the space to us, which cut costs significantly. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship. We get to hold the Zine Fest in a larger venue with two stories, and we bring bodies into the library on the weekends.”

Brian Baynes tabling at the 2016 Zine Fest

When Williams and Baynes moved the 2016 Richmond Zine Fest to the library, they had the opportunity to split the Fest into two days with two distinct, separate programs. “At first, all of the Fest’s programs were held in one day, and that caused some issues,” Williams said. “If a tabler wanted to attend a workshop, they’d have to close their table down for a couple of hours, and by the time they returned, they would’ve missed a good majority of the Fest.” 

With the current schedule, this is no longer a problem. Discussions, workshops, small groups, and panels centered around making zines, literature, and art now take place on the first day of the Fest, Fri., September 29. Then, on Saturday, the tabling takes place, the part of the Fest where you can browse, purchase, and trade zines and have personal conversations about their work.

This year marks the second year of Zine Fest offering stipends to increase the diversity of those taking part. “When we moved to the library [in 2016], we ended up having a little extra cash,” Williams said. “So we implemented a print stipend available to persons of color and members of the LGBTQ community. It was such a success that we’re doing it again this year. We wanted the Richmond Zine Fest to be inclusive to everyone.”

“We’re trying to make Zine Fest much more diverse,” Baynes added. “For all the people who feel like Zine Fest isn’t the place for them, the print stipend was created for them, to apply and represent their art.”

The 11th annual Richmond Zine Fest will kick off Fri. Sept. 29 with a full day of zine-centric workshops, starting at 11am. Then, starting at 11am the following day, all zines will be available for casual consumption. The festival will take place at the Main Branch of the Richmond Public Library, located at 101 E. Main St. If you’re looking for a way to start your zine collection, then you’ve found the right place.