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Bringing the Noise to the Flying Squirrels Tonight

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Flavor Flav, reality-TV firebrand and founding member of hip-hop group Public Enemy, will be throwing the first pitch at the Flying Squirrels game tonight, as well as conduct a meet-and-greet from 5:15 to 6 p.m. at Parney’s Pub before the game. The theme of the night is “Old School Hip-Hop.”

Tickets for the meet and greet are $40 and include a field level ticket to the game, two autographs per guest, and a viking hat.

Flav is best known for his role as ‘hype man’ in Public Enemy, whose socially conscious hip-hop and densely creative production style changed the landscape of rap and hip-hop in the mid 80s and early 90s.

The band had a diverse set of influences as far reaching as psych-funk, free jazz, and musique concrete, and their inventive production techniques created an anarchic tone that reflected the highly politicized lyrical nature of the music.

As the hype man for the band, Flav was rarely the lead on any of Public Enemy’s songs, but their 1990 hit, “911 is a Joke,” credits Flav as the sole writer on the single. Public Enemy is also credited with helping create the rap metal genre by collaborating with New York thrash band Anthrax on the song “Bring the Noise.”

In the 2000s, Flav became a reality TV celebrity best known for his outlandish outfits and bizarre aphorisms. On his VH1 reality dating series, Flavor of Love, he wore a viking helmet and a large clock around his neck for the duration of the show. These days, Flav keeps a lower profile, but perhaps he’ll bring some of his antics to the Flying Squirrels game tonight.

The game starts at 6:35 p.m.

The RVA Street Art Festival: An Expression of Creative Liberation

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“Street art liberates creative expression from the traditional art world” – Angela Huckstep

Richmond’s classic sports landmark, The Diamond, which has hosted thousands of baseball fans since 1954, has received a complementary face-lift courtesy of the fourth annual RVA Street Art Festival. The festivities were in full swing yesterday, with patrons, artists, musicians, and community leaders coming together to celebrate the venue’s transformation into a living work of art.

The location for this year’s festival was special, however, appealing to sports and art lovers alike – with hopes of melding the city’s burgeoning arts community with the city’s great American pastime.

Throughout the day Richmonders and visitors populated the stadium grounds; interacting with artists and their projects, trying their hand at painting mobile walls, and checking out local vendors and their wares, all of which were set against a range of activities that highlighted the spirit of camaraderie the city is known for.

The event, which enjoyed a steady but scattered crowd throughout the weekend, was spread between the inside of the stadium and adjoining parking lots. This year’s event included 35 artists, made up of a handful of local favorites like Chris Milk, Nils Westergard, Mickael Broth, Ed Trask, and Hamilton Glass, along with a few out-of-staters and one international artist.

Ed Trask

Given the sports-themed location, some of the artists chose to include related imagery—such as Parker Galore’s fractal-frenzied Nutzy, or Earl Mack’s homage to the former Braves’ mascot, Connecticut (a sculpture by Paul DiPasquale which now adorns the old Lucky Strike building in east Richmond)—but most of the artists chose their own original compositions to bring to life.

Event organizer and former city councilman Jon Baliles, who spoke with RVA Mag, mentioned that he did hear sentiments like, “I thought there was going to be more baseball stuff,” to which he replied, “You know, we let the guys and girls do what they do, we don’t tell them what to do.”

Regardless of what people’s perceptions might have been, the majority of artists started painting on Friday with a couple even starting earlier in the week. Yet most of the pieces really started coming together by midday on Saturday in front of curious onlookers and art enthusiasts. Unlike the two previous locations of the Street Art Festival, the Bus Depot on Cary Street and the Southern Silos in Richmond’s Manchester District, the Diamond offered a somewhat unlikely place to host Richmond’s Street Art Festival.

Nils Westergard told RVA Mag that the location poses a paradox of sorts since holding a “street art” festival away from direct and free public access can be somewhat counter-intuitive.

“For me it’s not so much whether people will see it, it’s that you have to pay to see it. I mean we are literally behind a gate here. I like to do this stuff for the public.” However, he did go on to say, “But don’t get me wrong, seeing all of the artists come together to create over this period of time is always so remarkable, and I truly acknowledge that they do their best with the location that they choose. I’m very happy to be here.”

Nils Westergard

Artist Esteban de Valle, who comes from Chicago but is now based in Brooklyn, had his own interesting take on the space. “It’s very unique. I like when my art is introduced to unexpected spaces,” he said. “This is a space that is designed for a certain function, where every decision is more or less a practical decision within that function… but then you introduce art.” Valle finished by saying, “So it’s really cool to see it in this space. It’s kind of bizarre.”

Esteban de Valle

One playful mural featuring an aerial view of the city with a UFO flying a ‘”River City” banner was a standout Richmond-themed piece. First year participant Brian Gonnella, an artist and writer from Pittsburgh who was responsible for the piece, remarked to RVA Mag that he’d never painted anything like this before. “It’s pretty cool, a unique experience,” said Gonnella. “I am kind of bummed out looking around at all this concrete and I just want to paint everywhere, but we are limited to a specific spot. But it’s pretty rad, I hope the building stays up for a while.”

Brian Gonnella

But that hope is currently up in the air.

Baliles made it seem as though the Diamond may be subject to the same fate as the Bus Depot, which eventually deconstructed its public art to make way for a condo development.

“It’s not a done deal yet, but it’s pretty apparent that VCU is going to be the owner of a new stadium, and they [the Squirrels] would be the tenant,” said Baliles. He explain further,  “I mean VCU will play there too, but here, the city owns the land and they basically have said, ‘This is yours, do what you want with it.’ So they lease to VCU, so it’ll just flip. VCU will own the stadium and the Squirrels would be the main tenant.”

When asked if he thought the new complex would incorporate any of the Diamond’s grounds, Baliles seemed to think that they’d just build a new one. “For the model of how baseball usually works today, it needs to be more flat and out. Most minor league stadiums these days have a family side, and a drink beer side.”

That being said, there seems to be an effort to update the sports complex space to serve the University’s needs, as well as accommodate the popular demand for minor league sports. Baliles continued, “They’ve done as much as they can here, but it seems like they’ll be needing to move.”

Despite the city’s development squabbles, the Street Art Festival at the Diamond produced another fantastic body of public art, and continues to deliver an action-packed weekend for the city.

Richmond artist Nico Cathcart, who is participating in her third Street Art Festival, said that the more condensed environment of the stadium this year was a boon to her experience. “The last location was very spread out. And that was fun, because it was in Manchester. But this one is really concentrated, and I love that because you get to interact with everyone around you.”

Cathcart’s observation is hard to miss. The setting made for a bustling atmosphere among the artists and patrons, allowing for more intimate encounters between both. This close-knit environment also provided artists with a colloquial forum to speak with onlookers about other projects or community-based activities they were currently working on.

Nico Cathcart

A participant since the first year of the festival, Hamilton Glass was able to share his upcoming partnership with the activist group Girls For A Change. “I am here with Virginia Credit Union, and we are doing a project on October 14 with Girls For a Change,” he said. “It will be on 24 E. Broad Street, and it will be a direct reflection of one of the Girls For a Change action groups that design the mural under the leadership of myself and a VCU student.”

The festival didn’t just provide a unique experience for the onlookers though, providing a level of novelty for the artist too. Creating art at the stadium was a first for artists Hasson Roberts and Rachel Owens. Even Galore, a community organizer of renown from Gallery 5 and the Party Liberation Front, had never been inside the stadium.

Parker Galore

“I’ve lived in Richmond since 1998, and this is the first time I’ve been in the baseball stadium,” he told RVA Mag. It’s great to see color come to somewhere that I’ve personally felt is drab, that I’m not attracted to. But as we know, art attracts lots of different kinds of people to a space that they may not have ever been before.”

Indubitably, the Street Art Festival at The Diamond will bring together crowds of sports fans and art lovers, bridging the gap between two important Richmond subcultures.

In it’s own way, this city space now exists as a grand-scale gallery space for patrons to peruse during baseball games. And inevitably this will foster a unique sense of engagement when people experience the stadium in the future. Street art liberates creative expression from the traditional art world or the way one would encounter art at a gallery, making for a more accessible and casual experience. Having these types of works in the stadium’s milieu fosters a newfound convergence of creative and recreational space for everyone in Richmond.

Some other photos from the RVA Street Art Festival can be found below.

Ian C. Hess
Michael Broth
Sellers
Silly Genius
Shaylen Amanda Broughton
Jacob Eveland
Rosetta and Michelle
Austin Fitch
Envys
Dennis McNett
Vandal Tribute
The Future

*Photos by Landon Shroder, Michael Broth photo by Caitlin Barberi

Cover image Hamilton Glass

 

Art Sponsored by Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art 

 

RVA Street Art Festival Brings Life to The Diamond this Weekend

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Street artists and muralists from all over the United States will flock to The Diamond this weekend, to turn the dull concrete baseball stadium into a vibrant piece of Richmond culture for the fourth RVA Street Art Festival.

More than 250 buckets of latex paint, cans of spray paint, sculpture supplies and more will be taken to the home of the Richmond Flying Squirrels to create a mixed-media canvas. 

Since the first RVA Street Art Festival in 2012, at the Canal Walk, the event has drawn people from all over the city and given artists an outlet to create freely.

“You’re not dealing with a client so within reason you’re able to do exactly what you want, completely your idea and your execution, that’s something that’s is always a draw for me,” said local muralist and board member Mickael Broth.  

It transformed the old GRTC bus depot in 2013, and last year, the street art fest went to Manchester to give life to the drab Southern States silos.

“In my mind, that’s the next arts district,” local artist and RVA Street Art Fest co-founder Ed Trask told RVA Mag in 2016 of Manchester. “It’s great when you can reinvent an industrial area like Manchester and instead of completely scrapping the history of what was here, you can start reinventing the buildings without losing the character so that’s why I love this area.”

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Photo by Arshan Yazdan

But for this year, the board is excited to partner with the Richmond Flying Squirrels to bring art and sports together. 

“It’s that interesting intersection of sports and art,” board member Katie Benson said. “The squirrels are in the business of having fun, they are a great family organization and the quintessential Americana and I think it will be really fun to see all that collide.”

Flying Squirrels Chief Executive Chuck Domino broke the news about the festival with Street Art board members in June and was equally excited to have the festival come to the stadium.

“This will be an incredible opportunity for the Squirrels. It’s going to help bring new people to our ballpark and help grow our charities supporting renovating inner city baseball diamonds in underserved communities,” he said in a spring news release.

One of the festivals missions is to showcase local and national artists. Richmond artists, Andre Shank, known as “Bomb Proof” has partnered with visiting Brazilian artist, Zéh Palito, to paint the crown of the stadium. The two started the project earlier in the week and plan to have every panel of the crown painted by Sunday.

“It’s really cool, think about people driving through Richmond on I-64 or I-95 and seeing that art on the crown,” Benson said.     

Along with the crown, the stairs, columns, walls and the interior of the VIP areas will become a canvas for the over 35 artists attending the event.

“The more I do this for a living (paint) the more I realize those opportunities are not that common and you have to use them as best you can,” Broth said.

One artist, Rachel Owens, earned her spot on the walls of The Diamond through a pop-up art event she won at Triple Crossing Brewing. This will be Owens’s first time painting on a wall and will be a great opportunity for her to showcase her talents.  

While the large murals will be the main attraction, the creativity of the event expands beyond the concrete canvas.

“While we are known as the Richmond Street Art Festival, we want to branch that out to not just street art but we have sculptures, we have music, and we have some interactive art with kids,” Benson said.

The festival will include an artist village where visitors can buy and see art from other local artists. Scott’s Addition print shop Studio Two Three will be there making screen prints and t-shirts. Art On Wheels will also be there doing a pendulum art piece and making a sculpture out of painted wood.

Live music, a variety of food vendors, and beer trucks will be at the event as well. And the festival has a solid musical lineup for the day with soul/funk powerhouse Kenneka Cook, jazz.hip hop artist Mckinley Dixon and Crystal Pistol Records founder/folk artist Saw Black. Feral Conservatives, Chance Fischer, Michael Millions, Dead Letter Officers, Manatree, DJ Mike, and Mekong Xpress & The Get Fresh Horns are also scheduled to perform. 

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Over 11,000 people are anticipated to come out this weekend and to enjoy all the festival has to offer which is aiming to bring people from all over Richmond together and beautify a part of the city “in need of creativity and love.”

“When you put street art up you don’t know how long they are going to be up for, but during that place in time when we are all together in the community it’s beautiful,” Benson said.

Another goal of the festival is to raise money for arts education for children. This year’s beneficiary is Connor’s Heroes, an organization dedicated to supporting children undergoing cancer treatment and utilizes art as a medium of healing.  

The 2017 RVA Street Art Festival kicks off Fri. Sep. 22nd from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will continue Saturday from  11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

 

Art Sponsored by Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art 

 

Human cannonball Dave “The Bullet” Smith hits The Diamond Thursday

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While most kids only get to visit the circus once a year, one high-flying man grew up living and breathing it, which would shape his daring, life-long career.

David “The Bullet” Smith, Jr. has been shooting himself from the family cannon about 300 times per year for 21 years, and will do so at the Flying Squirrels baseball game this Thursday.

His human cannonball act follows a tradition begun by his father, who started the family business before Smith was born. A true circus aficionado, Smith said he wouldn’t want to do anything else.

“I have to be where all that fear is gone. No time to think about it. You react, you got to fly for a second, and be ready for something that is very intense,” Smith said. “I try to keep it where it’s challenging. It keeps me on point, let’s me know I’m doing the best that I can, and entertains the crowd. I’m giving them the best show I can give.”

TORONTO ,Ontario, August’05 — HUMAN CANNONBALL — David “the Bullet” Smith on the barrel of his cannon chatting to the crowd and posing before his launch photo by Norm Betts 

Although the family had a home in Oregon, with plenty practice room for their cannonball act, Smith was born on the road and spent much of his life traveling with his trapeze-artist parents from city to city.

Smith, 40, has performed in 15 countries and been to nearly every U.S. city performing around 7,000 shows, on average exerting 10 units of g-force at every takeoff and breaking four world records, which had previously been set by his father.

David Smith Sr. was a human cannonball for almost 50 years, first performing as a trapeze artist with his wife after receiving an unusual offer from an old friend.

“One of my dad’s best friends from college who competed in gymnastics called him up,” Smith said. “Three days later my mom and my dad sold everything they owned and hit the road.”

In 1976, Smith’s parents won the Circus World Championship in London while performing for the Queen as the “Rock Smith Flyers,” and performed again in 1977 while his mother was pregnant. It was after this that his father decided to become a human cannonball, beginning a family tradition that has collectively lasted almost 70 years.

Although Smith, Jr. had been shot from the cannon at home twice when he was 17, he didn’t start his own performance career until two years later.

“When I was 19, my dad called me up and was like, ‘Hey, son, I hurt my back. I need you to do some cannon shots for us.’ And that’s what I did. Three days later I shot out of the cannon in Madison, WI,” Smith said.

His first shot in a show was 85 feet long, which Smith said was, “pretty pathetic.”

However, he has since set world records both for distance at 198 feet 8.8 inches as well as height, a total of 85 feet 4 inches, which he achieved on the set of “Guinness World Records Unleashed.”

Unfortunately, his career has not come at physical costs. While Smith takes measures to prevent himself from injury, such as a consistent workout routine to ensure his body is warmed up before performing, being a human cannonball can be dangerous.

“I’ve hurt pretty much everything. It’s a very physical thing to do,” he said. “You need to have the capacity to be flexible and strong at a very high speed. You have to be physical enough and flexible enough to end up in whatever position you end up in when you are at your full stopping weight.”

After being shot from the cannon, Smith lands in a large net. Though he has never missed the net, the force with which he lands can be challenging for his body.

“I just make sure that everything that might have to take a hit, or take an impact, or take pressure, is ready to do that. So I am at a full sweat before I ever get in that cannon. I try to be at the point where you’re just pumped.”

Of course after 21 years, Smith has become accustomed to absorbing this type of force and only continues to increase his physical stamina.

“The cannon adapts your body. My body would be nowhere near as strong as it is now if I weren’t a human cannonball,” he said.

Although the family recipe for a perfect human cannonball shot is under lockdown, Smith does reveal that everything is calculated in advance with painstaking measurements. He must take into account not only his own weight and height, but also the sun, wind, temperature, time of day and location.

While his calculations are incredibly exact, he can’t always anticipate every adjustment needed, as the weather often has its own agenda.

“One time it was windy when I got in the barrel and the wind hit while I was in there. It whooshed, I was like ‘What was that? Alright, let’s go.’ I came out and I was so close to the side [of the net], and it cost me my left knee. I taped it up, taped sticks to it, duct taped it for [cannon] shots, and I didn’t miss shows. We don’t miss the shows.”

Smith has performed four shows for the royal family in England, been featured during Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards, performed at the Sultan’s Festival in Oman, and was even a stunt double for Ewan McGregor in Tim Burton’s film, “Big Fish.”

Yet with all his fame, his priorities rest with his family–both his own blood family and the family he’s made along the road.

“My kids are with me on tour, the three little ones. They wake up, kick open the front door and go, ‘Oh cool! We’re at a baseball game!’ They love it,” Smith said.

Although Smith has a home in Florida, he and his family spend most of their time on the road, as Smith did with his parents. Along the road, he has been able to create a community with other people in the industry that ensure the shows continue, as well as create a home both for Smith and his children.

“I have these great wonderful relationships with all the old-time guys,” he said. “We’ve been pretty well blessed to be keep going back to wonderful places.”

And every now and then, he returns to perform with the circus.

Be sure to visit The Diamond at 3001 N Boulevard at 5:30 p.m. to see Dave “The Bullet” Smith perform his act as well as watch the Squirrels take on New Hampshire. For more details or information about tickets, visit the Flying Squirrels website.

The RVA Street Art Festival returns this fall to use The Diamond as its canvas

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Monday morning in a press conference held at The Diamond, John Baliles and Flying Squirrels Chief Executive Chuck Domino announced that the baseball stadium would be the new canvas for the upcoming 4th RVA Street Art Festival.

The festival, to be held in the fall, will feature painted murals, projection lighting, landscape art, stairwell art, and other forms of mixed mixed art and bring together dozens of local, national, and international artists according to the Flying Squirrels’ release.

A concert series, food and beer trucks and activities for children and adults in the parking lot around the stadium, and Street Art-influenced Flying Squirrels merchandise are also on the schedule for the festival.

“I have been coming to this site to watch baseball since I was 6 years old when it was Parker Field and I was here the day this stadium opened,” said Baliles, in a statement on the partnership. “It is an absolute thrill to now have the opportunity to bring some of the best artists and creative minds in Richmond and beyond to transform the Diamond into a unique, artistic jewel.”

Last year, the festival was held at the Southern Silos in Manchester and prior to the that, the mural project was held at the former GRTC bus depot on South Davis Avenue. In September, the property was sold to local developers DKJ Richmond to be turned into a mixed use property.

Proceeds from the festival will support Connor’s Heroes, an organization that gives support and companionship to children in cancer treatment and their families which Domino believes will be a great way to draw in attendees. 

“This will be an incredible opportunity for the Squirrels. It’s going to help bring new people to our ballpark and help grow our charities supporting renovating inner city baseball diamonds in underserved communities,” he said in the news release. 

Co-founder of the RVA Street Art Festival and local muralist Ed Trask, was equally excited to have the upcoming festival at The Diamond.

“This is one of the most unique canvas’ I have ever seen and the possibilities for creativity are endless. This takes the transformational power of public art to the next level,” he said in the release. 

The 4th Street Art Festival will be held Sept. 22-24 at The Diamond. Keep your eyes pealed on RVA Mag as details emerge about the forthcoming festival.