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Rooted & Rising: Richmond Thrives With BLK RVA

Norrin Nicholas | September 11, 2019

Topics: addis ethiopian, afrikana film festival, amy wentz, art, big herms kitchen, black history museeum, black owned business, Black Restaurant Experience, black rva, blackrva, blkrva, C'est le Vin, chesterfield, Elegba Folklore Society, hanover, henrico, hippodrome, History, local business, mecca williams, music, nadira chase, new kent, Nickelus F, samantha willis, sheep hill bistro, tourism, treat shop rva

“It’s more than just what’s in your history books.” BLK RVA showcases the booming black cultural scene that’s made Richmond what it is today. 

In the last 10 years, Richmond has exploded as a creative hub — in a good way. As someone who was born and raised here, I understand the potential culture this city has to offer, and recently it has acted on that potential. Now more than ever, creative spaces are being opened, small festivals are spread out across the city throughout the year, and even small indie and underground artists are gaining an increase in recognition.

But as natives, this is something we’re all used to; we’re almost unbothered by some of these things, because they happen so often. Yet as we reach 2020, the city has grown into a creative hub not many would have believed possible looking back on it years ago. It’s not the largest hub there is, but it’s definitely there — and it’s definitely working. 

Photo via BLKRVA

Inside of the gears of the City of Richmond, the black community has been working tirelessly to bring more attention to the cultural efforts they’ve produced in our home. What they’ve produced is nothing short of amazing, and it’s been influential to the culture of the entire River City. 

The black community has helped complete an unfinished circle in the perfect Virginia experience: one that many people who call themselves Virginians have never truly seen before. Luckily for them, a platform that emphasizes this black Richmond experience is here, and sits at our fingertips at this very moment. 

BLKRVA is a platform that highlights black spaces and black faces. It showcases Richmond to travelers from all around the world, working to spread the history and culture of the city to the extent that it deserves. 

Its central base is a tourism website, which features a plethora of black-owned businesses, events, and artists — ultimately it’s everything you’d want to see in Richmond, that you’d never know is right around the corner. 

“We’re the only ones in the Commonwealth to do something like this, and I believe we’re the second in the nation, behind Philadelphia,” said Amy Wentz, Member of BLKRVA Action Team. 

Photo via BLKRVA

Because of our city’s history with slavery and as the capital of the Confederacy, outsiders may have cringed at the thought of visiting Richmond. But with the light in our dark history, we’ve grown with the past, and Richmond is more now than just a scarred city. Much of that is thanks to the very people who were scarred by that history. 

While the black experience is not all there is in Richmond, it’s a major part of the overall Virginia experience. BLKRVA has given this experience a louder voice, telling the public, “It’s more than just what’s in your history books, and you’ll never know until you see it.” 

Their key tagline, “Rooted & Rising,” serves as both a reminder and realization: a reminder of their rich history in the state of Virginia, but also a “call to action,” rising against the negative connotations that come with it. 

Richmond is a hot spot in commemorating the history of America, and with that comes a commemoration of enslaved Africans. Over time, they helped advance Richmond into what it is today, despite the hardships they faced in their lives. 

Though the BLKRVA campaign was only launched earlier this summer, the organizers have been working behind the scenes on this plan for years. They have seen success working with larger black-owned events, such as the Afrikana Film Festival and The Black Restaurant Experience, which brought crowds of people nationwide to see the new cultural perspective Richmond has to offer. As time went on, the members of the campaign noticed a surging trend in foreign visitors coming to appreciate the efforts of black Richmond culture. This led them to reformat their work, bringing a focus to black-owned businesses that are staples of the city. 

Photo via BLKRVA

From there, the BLKRVA campaign was created with Richmond Region Tourism as a one-stop-shop, categorizing all the different black Richmond events for visitors and residents alike. 

Their listings include well over 100 restaurants, attractions, and events that take place across the city throughout the year. Listings include Addis Ethiopian, the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Big Herm’s Kitchen, Treat Shop RVA, C’est Le Vin Art & Wine Gallery, the Hippodrome Theater, Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center, Sheep Hill Bistro, and many more.

Along with highlighting these black spaces in Richmond, BLKRVA also tells the stories of black citizens in the city, focusing on black creatives and writers. With this platform, creatives can explain their day-to-day activities to tell the story of a day in the life of a black Richmonder. Their interviews and features put the spotlight on public figures like Mecca Williams, Nadira Chase, Nickelus F, and Samantha Willis. 

Photo via BLKRVA

“If you want to be as a local would be, these interviews will give you everything you need,” said Wentz. 

It’s not often that people like this are given a voice, which makes their recommendations even more special than before. Ultimately, it fills the visiting experience for those who want to see our city from a different perspective. 

“It’s time for us to start celebrating and uplifting the black experience here; because of the easier access to travelling now, it’s up to us to change that connotation about Virginia,” Wentz said. “And it starts with things like this.”

PHOTO: BLKRVA

A decade ago, Wentz started “BlackRVA” single-handedly, as the original plan for showcasing black events and black-owned business in Richmond. With the help of her action team, she was able to manifest BLKRVA into the large, influential position it’s in today. 

“When I first started it, I had so much going on. I could hardly manage it how it should be… how it is now,” said Wentz. “So I’m very grateful to be able to work with so many different creatives, and bring out the true potential that BLKRVA had to offer.” 

As BlackRVA grew into BLKRVA, a Richmond Region Tourism platform, the potential to highlight the black culture scene in Richmond has grown along with it. They’ve expanded their coverage beyond the Greater Richmond area, and further into surrounding counties like Hanover, New Kent, Henrico, and Chesterfield.

Because of the innovative boom in the city, a new atmosphere has grown. It has allowed BLKRVA to flourish and prosper into successful platform — from one woman’s idea to the powerhouse of a team it is today, time has treated BLKRVA well, and given the team the tools they needed to build the organization up. 

“It feels great to know that these places are trusting us with what we do, because it’s never been done before. If we don’t make these places noticeable, they may never get the recognition they deserve,” said Wentz. “It’s one thing to do your own advertising, but to work with a cohesive brand and a team of other businesses just makes the impact more effective.” 

If you want to get involved with BLKRVA, check out their website to become a part of their upcoming events in the 2019 season, or message them to talk about volunteer or donation opportunities. 

Whenever you’re thinking about how to change your Richmond experience, I’d advise paying BLKRVA’s website, at visitblkrva.com, a visit. You may find exactly what you’re looking for. 

Top Image via BLKRVA

Opinion: The Valentine’s Controversy History Series On Monuments Fails to Address Real Issues

Nidhi Sharma | December 7, 2017

Topics: Capital Region Collaborative, monuments, Richmond Magazine, The Valentine, tourism, vcu

“Rather than focusing just on Monument Avenue tonight, I’d like us to take a look at the landscape of the city,” said Bill Martin, Director of The Valentine Museum. “So, if you’re here to talk about the removal of the statues, you’re in the wrong place.”

Martin, along with Richmond Magazine, Capital Region Collaborative, Kelli Lemon (Coffee With Strangers) and VCU professor John Accordino, made up a panel for an event Monday evening meant to highlight the connection between monuments and tourism in the city, as part of its ongoing Controversy/History series.

Instead, it exposed the deep divide that exists within Richmond, born from the construction of six Confederate statues on Monument Avenue more than 100 years ago.

These statues have inspired countless protests in the River City, rallies crowded with Richmonders condemning the monuments, and even spray-painted graffiti on multiple monuments — all for the sake of drawing attention to social and racial justice.

The Valentine Museum fell short of appropriately applying history to today’s issues and addressing the racial charge behind these monuments, and instead, focused mainly on the history of monuments in Richmond, and later, on the economic value of the Confederate statues.

The museum, along with its partners, polarized entire groups of Richmond citizens by discussing the topic of monuments as a niche academic issue, when it is an inherently political one.

The event began with a clarification from Bill Martin that the evening would not be about the controversy surrounding the statues on Monument Avenue, but instead a discussion on Richmond’s elaborate history of building monuments.

Image may contain: 1 person, indoor
Photo by The Valentine

And yet, throughout this history lesson, Martin danced around the topic of Confederate statues. He specified that only the Robert E. Lee monument was planned — it was the only one with a roundabout. Everything else came years later, he said.

However, at one point, Martin did touch on the opposition to the Lee statue. The opposition was voiced by Kelli Lemon quoting John Mitchell, Jr., an African American who was once editor of the Richmond Planet, a newspaper founded in 1882 by 13 Richmond African Americans freed from slavery. In a May 1890 article, Mitchell wrote the statue was a “glorification of a lost cause“,  which Lemon voiced to the audience. It’s here that The Valentine succeeded, if only for five minutes, in mentioning racism and Confederate statues in the same breath.

What was promised to be a simple history lecture quickly turned into a spiel on the value of historic tourism, by John Accordino, Dean of VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. 

There is undeniable value in what, Accordino calls “heritage tourism” — tourism designed to let tourists experience places and activities that authentically represent the past and present to the people that live there. And according to Accordino, heritage tourism brings in over six billion dollars in Virginia every year.

Accordino also conveyed at the event, that Richmond’s Confederate statues could be used as heritage tourism if represented the right way.

“Richmond’s Confederate monuments do not offer an experience, or tell a Civil War story — as they did not exist during the Civil War,” he said. “But they do remind us of the story of a lost cause, which may attract heritage tourists.”

Accordino emphasized that Berlin, Germany could serve as an example to appropriately provide heritage tourism, and still make money. He used the example of stumbling stones in Berlin, which are brass plates embedded in the sidewalks, inscribed with names and life dates of those persecuted and executed by Nazis.

They are meant to remind citizens of the tragedies in Germany’s history. In Accordino’s opinion, it is possible to do something similar here in Richmond.

“Taking on and accepting parts of your history is important,” Accordino said. “I don’t think we want to take away history. I want to tell the complete history, and acknowledge our full story.”

There are several things wrong with this statement. First, Accordino compares the Confederate statues, built in the 1890s, to Berlin’s stumbling stones, built in the mid-1990s. These are two extremely different monuments — one is to commemorate the victims who were murdered during the Holocaust, and the other is a symbol of the glorification of Confederate generals, who, at the time, fought for the preservation of slavery. 

Inscribed in Jefferson Davis’ statue on Monument Avenue are the words “crescit occulto velut arbor aevo fama”, which means “may it grow as a tree through the ages.”

The inscriptions on stumbling stones or “Stolperstein”, are tiny square brass bricks, each one inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution located at their last place they lived or sometimes worked. One commemorates those who died in concentration camps, not those who advocated the oppression in the first place.

They do not memorialize the greatness of those who once believed some humans were lesser than others.

Second —  and this is most important — none of the people who should have been there for this conversation were there. Thanks to some questions answered by the audience using clickers in the beginning, I found that 74 percent of the audience was white. Forty-three percent of them made more than $100,000 per year, and the rest weren’t far below. 

The Valentine Museum had opened up this conversation about how monuments could help with tourism, and refused to talk about what they mean in today’s conversation over race and social justice. On top of that, there were such few people of color there who could actually insist on having a conversation about these issues.

Instead, it was one white man telling an audience full of rich, white people that they could appropriately tell the story of slavery and oppression of African-Americans, while still keeping the monuments up, while still making money. All the while still memorializing Confederate generals who fought for slavery.

At the end, Accordino opened up the panel for questions. Susan Winiecki, of Richmond Magazine, moderated the event. She called on an African-American man who — finally — voiced the thoughts that had been festering in me since the beginning of the event.

“I feel sick,” he said. “The only time you talked about the systemic racism that relates to me is when you mentioned Jim Crow, softly,” the man said. “You’re thinking too much about cost-benefit analysis and not enough about human-benefit analysis. You’re saying we should create tourism based on those that have been and continue to be exploited.”

Accordino and Winiecki, comically, were at a loss. Winiecki kind of just stood there — and Accordino fumbled to reassure this man that he wasn’t trying to undermine anybody.

The worst part is, I don’t think the entire panel even realized that the discussion they’d been having for the past hour and a half was so wildly skewed — because it was an academic lecture for the privileged, by the privileged.

There was such little mention of race, of poverty, and of oppression. Instead, most of the discussion was about money, economics, and history. Had they even thought about how the words they’d written down would sound, once they spoke them out loud?

The Q&A section moved on without any further controversial comments. It was easy to pretend the African-American man, in the beginning, had never spoken.

A lady in pearls and a sweater set raised her hand and said she thought it was a good idea to make money off heritage tourism like the statues, then use that money to tell the “full story.” She called it an investment.

I left thinking about how deeply some people had buried their heads in the sand, convinced that they knew what the solution was when they’d never even really seen the problem.

After years of work and much anticipation, the Virginia Capital Trail makes its official debut this weekend

Amy David | October 2, 2015

Topics: bike community, biking, cycyling, rva trails, tourism, trails, VDOT, Virginia Capital Trail, Virginia Capital Trail Foundation, walkers

An idea that formed decades ago, and a project that has been under construction for the last 10 years, the Virginia Capital Trail will finally be open to runners, cyclists, walkers and the like in its
[Read more…] about After years of work and much anticipation, the Virginia Capital Trail makes its official debut this weekend

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