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RVA Shows You Must See This Week: June 1 – June 7

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FEATURED SHOW
Friday, June 3, 10 PM
Queer Fundraiser, feat. Harli & The House Of Jupiter, Cherub Tree, Roughshod, Neurotix @ Ipanema – $7 (order tickets HERE)
Welcome to Pride Month, everyone! There was a time when I felt really good about where things stood, and where things were going, with the LGBTQ community. However, with authoritarian conservatism in ascent, and repressive laws coming into effect that, under some circumstances, could make the very existence of people like me (I’m transgender, ICYMI) a crime, it’s hard to feel anything but vague concern when I think about Pride-related things these days. Not that I’m entirely without hope; my wife has taken to pointing out the many ways in which positive depictions of LGBTQ people are pushing the kind of people who want to oppress and erase us all further and further to the cultural margins, and she has a good point. However, if the repressive forces continue down the path toward minority rule (which the United States Constitution not only allows but tacitly encourages), our cultural victories may not be enough.

To me, that just means we need to try that much harder to stay proud, keep fighting for our rights, and most importantly, taking care of each other, and of our allies in struggle, so that we can get through this long hard time. With that in mind, the work of Peter’s Place, a Richmond-based organization that does addiction recovery work with a focus on support for LGBTQ people, is highly essential. This fundraiser at Black Iris [NOTE: It has been moved to Ipanema -ed] is raising money for Peter’s Place, and considering how many of us struggle to find hope in the face of the terrible sociopolitical landscape we face now, we can use all the help we can get. So this show is, without a doubt, raising money for a great cause.

It’s also shining a light on several up-and-coming local and regional musical talents who absolutely deserve the shine. Harli & the House Of Jupiter are located in Richmond these days, but I first heard about them from my friends in Charlottesville, and the sound they’re bringing to RVA is absolutely worth the praise the C-ville kids gave them. With a sound that mixes heavy proto-metal riffage and a driving rock n’ roll pulse with Harli Saxon’s arresting, soulful vocals, Harli & The House Of Jupiter are worth hearing immediately if not sooner. Washington DC’s Cherub Tree have some intriguing acoustic indie sounds to offer as well, bringing a minimal, atmospheric sound to their recent singles, including the memorably titled “Maybe It’s A Stomach Bug.” Local talents Roughshod and Neurotix round out a lineup that brings great sounds for a great cause to RVA this Friday night. You know what to do.

Wednesday, June 1, 8 PM
Daniel Romano’s Outfit, Carson McHone @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $15 in advance, $18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Canada is an intriguing nation. We have a decent picture of what it’s like — after all, it’s just right across the border up there, basically like the northern Midwest but colder. However, there’s a lot that goes on up there, especially where culture is concerned, that we never find out about. That might be why I didn’t really know much about Daniel Romano and his Outfit, who will be bringing the power-pop sound of their latest LP, Cobra Poems, to Capital Ale House’s Richmond Music Hall tonight. I liked what I heard when I checked it out, and if you’re a fan of dudes like Ben Kweller or Paul Collins, he of the American Beat, you’ll probably find a lot to like here as well. What surprised me, though, was the extensiveness of Romano’s resume, once I started digging a little deeper. Starting as the frontman for Canadian punk group Attack In Black, he’s gone on to record over a dozen solo albums since 2010, as well as seven albums backed by the Outfit, who’ll be backing him on this trip through Richmond.

One thing Daniel Romano’s Outfit has done, which should give you an idea about where they’re coming from, is a 2020 album called Daniel Romano’s Outfit Do (What Could Have Been) Infidels by Bob Dylan and The Plugz, a full-length reimagining of Bob Dylan’s 1983 album, Infidels, as if Dylan had recorded the album with Los Angeles Chicano punk band The Plugz backing him up (as they did on a single David Letterman performance in 1983). It’s hard for me to see that level of nerdery as anything other than awesome, and considering that album followed up a full-length collaboration with Tool drummer Danny Carey, and that Daniel Romano’s Outfit have released three more albums since that Dylan covers album came out two years ago, I am also impressed by the man’s prolific nature and the impressive stylistic variety of his music. That of course also means that I have no idea what version of Daniel Romano’s Outfit we’ll get at Richmond Music Hall tonight. But whatever he chooses to lay on us, I’m sure it will be awesome.

Thursday, June 2, 8 PM
Posture & The Grizzly, Marshall’s Law @ The Camel – $10 in advance, $12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Ever go to a show and get so blown away by some opening act you’d previously never heard of that the set by the band you came to see almost feels like an anticlimax? That happened to me back in 2014 when I caught Posture & The Grizzly second on a five-band bill at the Broadberry. The band I’d come to see was The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, and Posture & The Grizzly’s four-piece lineup that night was mostly made up of moonlighting TWIABP members. However, it was the outstanding emo-punk songs written and memorably performed with a ton of heart by frontman Jordan Chmielowski that blew me away, and it was clear that his talent would shine through no matter who was backing him up. That held true on 2017’s I Am Satan, the followup to Posture & The Grizzly’s 2014 debut, Busch Hymns — an album I played to death, just like I had with Busch Hymns before it.

In the years after I Am Satan, though, the band seemed to go dormant, and I stopped expecting new material from them. Unfortunately for me, that meant they caught me sleeping with their return to action in the form of 2021’s self-titled third album. It came out last December, but I just discovered it last month, and sure enough, I’ve been playing it to death ever since. As a longtime fan, I can tell you that the band’s songs are thicker, more muscular, sounding more rocked-out than ever — even in spite of the fact that the latest incarnation of the group has slimmed down to a trio. Regardless, they’re still outstanding, with new songs like “Red Light,” “Creepshow,” and “Promise” standing right alongside past classics like “Because I Got High” and “Kill Me.” When they bring these tunes to the stage, it’s sure to be every bit as mindblowing as it was for me to see them eight years ago. I have no idea who else is on this bill — I couldn’t find a damn thing anywhere online about mysterious openers “Marshall’s Law” — but it doesn’t matter. Posture & The Grizzly’s all you need to have a full night of great music.

Friday, June 3, 7 PM
Test Pattern 03, feat. Moor Mother, Ohbliv, Vitche-Boul Ra, justmadnice, Elijah Hall @ VCU’s Institute For Contemporary Art – Free! (Register for event HERE)
Shows at bars and clubs are cool and all, but there’s something really essential about live musical performances that take place at venues like this one — a contemporary art-focused space within an august institution of higher learning. The vibe is much more fearlessly avant-garde when live music is completely disconnected from any expectation of catchy music for bar patrons to down beers to. And if it’s avant-garde you want (and it certainly is what I want, at least some of the time), the ongoing Test Pattern series at VCU’s ICA is a great place to find it. Case in point, this third event in the ongoing series, where Moor Mother will be the headlining performer.

It’s tough to even describe Moor Mother. A project of Philadelphia-based musician/poet Camae Ayewa, Moor Mother presents a multi-disciplinary sound that mixes soul, funk, hip hop, poetry, and musical experimentation in a manner both unpredictable and tremendously pleasing. 2021’s Black Encyclopedia Of The Air is Moor Mother’s latest release, and it’s an excellent and completely unique listening experience. You can expect no less from their performance at ICA this Friday night. They’ll be joined by Ohbliv, the prolific and incredibly talented DJ, producer, and sound artist who has been creating albums of instrumental vibes, moods, and beats at a rapid rate for over a decade now. Indeed, his most recent release is a double LP called Ragged Tranquility Vols. 1 and 2, which pairs his 2009 debut cassette with a brand new selection of work on a similar theme. No matter what era Ohbliv pulls from for his set at ICA, the vibes are sure to be thick enough to spread on a bagel and have a delicious musical meal.

Saturday, June 4, 7 PM
Shehehe, Toxic Moxie, Madison Turner @ Cobra Cabana – $5
Sometimes I miss the old days, when everything surrounding the live music scene felt a little less formal, a little less polished. The days when you got handed a paper flyer outside one show that told you about another one. The days when you couldn’t buy an advance ticket online, you just had to show up and see who else made it in the door. Cobra Cabana is one of a few local venues that have been bringing that pre-social media vibe back in the post-pandemic era, and I for one love to see it. What’s more, this is the kind of show I love to see that mentality being applied to; a show featuring two great local acts you love, plus an out-of-town group you haven’t necessarily heard, but can trust to be great based on who is bringing them to you.

Shehehe, who hail from Athens, Georgia, are the out-of-town band in question for this show, and their 2020 LP Pet Songs is a great listen, full of bouncy energy, driving riffs, and an overall sound that’s somewhere right on the border of power-pop and pop-punk… always a great place to be. These guys won’t actually be headlining — if the flyer’s any indication, they’ll be the second band of three on this bill — but that way, even if you don’t listen to Shehehe’s album yourself, you know there’s something worth showing up on time for, and something else worth sticking around to the end for. Assuming you’ve been around Richmond for longer than 10 minutes, you know exactly that about opener Madison Turner, a punk/folk/indie/ska-informed singer-songwriter with a surefire knack for catchy tunes, entertaining wordplay, and expressions of everyday anxieties that are both witty and relatable. Then there’s Toxic Moxie, the long-running disco-punk quartet who’ve been bringing the maniacal glitter-everywhere party vibes for close to a decade now, and show no signs of slowing down. This is going to be an absolute ripper of a show, and you don’t want to miss a second of it.

Sunday, June 5, 7 PM
Grocer, Lobby Boy, Knifing Around, Trapcry @ The Camel – $12 in advance, $14 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Here’s something you don’t see every day: a show in which both of the top-billed bands are named after anonymous working-class occupations that most people never think about. That’s not all Grocer and Lobby Boy have in common, either. Grocer, who come from Philly, play an energetic, neurotic form of post-punk that focuses on extreme tunefulness even as its songs manage some deceptively complicated musical feats. On their brand new album, Numbers Game, Grocer express a universal lament of our modern alienated economic landscape on single “Calling Out,” declaring, “What’s the point? I don’t wanna fucking do this. I’m calling out!” What’s not to love about that?

Lobby Boy’s own brand new album, Pretty Songs/Pursuits Of Personhood, also brings a strong sense of melody as a primary ingredient of their own postpunk musical melange. Where Grocer are a bit more about guitars, amps, and acoustic drums, Lobby Boy are more likely to mix synths, electro effects, and programmed beats into their sound. Despite — or perhaps even because of — the ways these two groups are sonically distinct from one another, they actually fit together perfectly on this Sunday night bill at The Camel. Both of these groups are going to keep you dancing throughout the evening, and you’ll probably find some opportunities to vent against the many day-to-day stresses that fill all our lives, to boot.

Monday, June 6, 7 PM
Fortezza, TVLPA, Magic Wand @ The Camel – $10 (order tickets HERE)
Mondays are tough, always. The end of the weekend, the beginning of another slog through the week… it’s a bummer. Even if you have the day off. So it’s a lovely development that The Camel is bringing us an excellent show this Monday night, so you can shake the blues off and rock the hell out. Asheville’s Fortezza have a ton of energy and a loose, scratchy punk sound that makes them the perfect band to help chase your cares away. On last year’s Windmill, the group bashed through 14 songs in about 40 minutes, never letting the energy level flag or the mood drop. Isn’t that exactly what we need on a Monday? Rest assured, it’s what Fortezza’s gonna bring.

They’ll be joined on this bill by TVLPA, a band named after the stylized spelling of an occult term meaning “physical being created through spiritual or mental powers.” And if that doesn’t tell you where this band is coming from, the fact that their new album, Walk With Me, features songs like “The Dreamer,” “The Lodge,” and “The Woman With No Face” should certainly offer further hints. Musically, they occupy territory covered by everything from black metal to screamo to post-rock to prog-metal, and their new album is a dynamic and riveting listening experience. So yeah, if you’re as new to TVLPA as I am, now seems like a good time to get familiar with what these folks are up to. Show up on time and catch a set of energetic punk rock from Magic Wand as well — it’ll do you no harm.

Tuesday, June 7, 7:30 PM
Beabadoobee, Drook @ The National – $22.50 (order tickets HERE)
Somehow, it seems, I have gotten through the past three years without writing about Beabadoobee on the RVA Mag website. I don’t know how I managed that, considering how much I’ve loved the last few releases, going back to 2019’s Space Cadet EP, which knocked me out with the lead single, “She Plays Bass.” A tribute to the band’s bassist, Eliana Sewell, who really is as talented as the song implies, it was the first Beabadoobee release which featured bandleader Beatrice Laus backed by a full band, rather than just doing the singer-songwriter thing on her own. That EP and the group’s debut LP, Fake It Flowers, found Beabadoobee doing that sort of guitar-driven alt-rock revival sound that has been in vogue for the past few years (a sound I’m just as much a sucker for this time as I was when it first came around back in the 90s).

It’s been a couple of years since then, and the Beabadoobee sound has diversified on more recent releases. A distinct element from The 1975’s baroque emotional pop seeped into the sound of 2021’s Our Extended Play. Meanwhile, recent single “Talk” has a bit of a shoegaze vibe, and brand-new track “Lovesong” is a moody acoustic ballad with an understated yet devastating emotional tone. These last two are previews for Beabadoobee’s upcoming second LP, Beatopia, and this show will offer fans the chance to get to know all the rest of the new songs before they come to a streaming platform near you. I, for one, am excited.

Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers -– this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected]

RVA Shows You Must See This Week: March 23 – March 29

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FEATURED SHOW
Friday, March 25, 7 PM
Test Pattern 01, feat. DeForrest Brown, Madison Moore @ VCU Institute For Contemporary Art – Free!
Spring is officially here, folks, and not only that, but cases are down and community transmission is at a relative low here in the Richmond area. Now, while we all contemplate the possibility that we might truly be seeing the final stages of the pandemic (knock on wood), is a good time to get out of the house and out of your head. One intriguing way to do so is to head over to VCU’s Institute For Contemporary Art and take in the first live performance they’ve hosted in their auditorium for quite a while. And this one, the first of ICA’s new Test Pattern series, is a good one to start with. It is both a cerebral exploration of “vibrational technologies” and a deep dive into the roots of Detroit techno. And rest assured, there will be a whole lot of beats in the offing.

Under the name Speaker Music, DeForrest Brown Jr. creates rhythmic electronic music with a base in the history of Black American beats and percussion, calling on influences like jazz great Rashied Ali and hip hop producer Metro Boomin in his most recent release, last year’s Soul-Making Theodicy EP. The abstract, experimental beats that Brown creates in his work as Speaker Music can get pretty abstract at times, but they’re always grounded in a political consciousness and a focus on “the links between the Black experience in industrialized labor systems and Black innovation in electronic music,” to quote his bio.

At ICA, Brown will join up with VCU Queer Studies professor Madison Moore for a presentation that focuses on the history of Detroit techno, a form of music that clearly matters to Brown based on his work representing the Make Techno Black Again movement. That presentation will take the form of a musical performance exploring the aforementioned “vibrational technologies” — and I must admit, I’m really not sure what that even means, but I’m certainly intrigued. After the performance by Brown and Moore, philosopher Alexander Weheliye will speak with the performers in order to get deeper into exactly what the music they’re creating is saying to us all. Pay attention.

Wednesday, March 23, 6 PM
Polaris, Like Moths To Flames, Alpha Wolf, Invent Animate, Vilified @ The Canal Club – $18 in advance, $20 day of show (order tickets HERE)
If you, like me, are Of A Certain Age, you hear the name Polaris and you think of the Miracle Legion side project that attained ephemeral fame in the mid-90s with their theme song for The Adventures Of Pete And Pete. However, this is a different Polaris — and even though I have eternal love for anything Mark Mulcahy-related, I’m intrigued by this Polaris too. That’s mainly because they hail from Sydney, Australia, and I’m going through a bit of an Australia phase lately (ask me about Australian stock-car racing next time you see me). But the music has a lot to offer, regardless of where this band comes from, especially if, like me, you enjoy melodic, emotional metalcore.

The five-piece Polaris released The Death Of Me a month before the pandemic hit, and while Australia managed to use their relative geographic isolation to avoid the majority of COVID’s worst effects, the borders were all but closed for two years, and this is the first opportunity Polaris have gotten to support their by-now-not-all-that-new album on international stages. Luckily, it still sounds as great as it did the day it came out. Elements of the heavier end of early 00s metalcore — think Shadows Fall or Killswitch Engage — mingle with an undertone of melodic emotion a la Underoath or A Static Lullaby. The result is intense, energetic, and sure to connect with audiences all over the world, even here in Richmond. So come out to the Canal Club tonight and find out for yourself — you won’t regret it.

Thursday, March 24, 7 PM
Extinction A.D., Rhythm Of Fear, Blood Ritual, Love Gun, Blazing Tomb @ The Camel – $15 (order tickets HERE)
Long Island’s Extinction A.D. have an interesting public presence, and I say that because, if you check the PR hype, you’ll find this band largely represented as a crossover thrash-metal sort of group. However, if you look into their history, check out their band photos, and (most importantly) listen to their music, you might just come to the conclusion I quickly arrived at: this band is secretly a hardcore band. They’re a very heavy and metallic one, to be sure, but where their approach, their song structure, and a lot of their riffs are concerned, they’re closer to Hatebreed than Slayer. And clearly the hardcore scene knows this: their show at The Camel this Thursday night sees them headlining over a number of local hardcore bands who are sure to bring the mosh and get the whole room raging in preparation for Extinction A.D.’s set.

And let me say — regardless of how you categorize their music, you’re going to want to mosh when Extinction A.D. start playing. Their freshly released third LP, Culture Of Violence, furthers their established metallic hardcore sound and if anything takes things to the next level, simultaneously evoking hardcore’s heaviest recent exponents — think Harm’s Way — and classic politically-informed 80s crossover thrash, a la Sacred Reich or mid-period DRI. It all adds up to some true hard-hitting brutality, and I for one am here for it. You should be too — though if you’re still a bit iffy in these (barely) post-COVID times about diving into a raging mosh pit, you’ll want to stand back. This one’s gonna go hard.

Friday, March 25, 7 PM
Ellevator, Ben Butterworth, E. 33rd @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $10 in advance, $15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
This Friday night will be the perfect time to break up the heaviness (of life… what did you think I was talking about?) with some lovely Canadian pop music, and Ellevator are here to bring you exactly that. They’ve just recently played SXSW down in Austin, which I suppose means that traditional excuse for springtime tours is fully back in action, and Richmond is certainly benefiting from it here, as this trio from Ontario have a truly lovely sound that will be explored in full by their upcoming debut LP, The Words You Spoke Still Move Me, on Arts & Crafts Records.

That LP won’t be out til May, but Ellevator have allowed a few songs from it to go floating around the internet ether for a while now, and based on previews, it’s likely that this show will be one for the ages. Frontwoman Nabi-Sue Bersche has a strong voice and uses it to give voice to some powerful, affecting lyrics, which sit perfectly overtop of a pop sound that incorporates a small touch of the 80s-retro vibe that’s everywhere lately. Thankfully Ellevator are not content to be a mere nostalgia act, and layer those keyboard-driven pop vibes with a fair amount of alt-rock bite and intense energy that feels at least somewhat emo-derived to me. The result is one part Eisley, one part R.E.M., and a dollop of Jimmy Eat World. Or something like that, I don’t know. Band-by-band comparisons don’t really capture it; the point is, this is really good music. And being in the same room while these three talented musicians bring it to life is a great way for you to spend your Friday night.

Saturday, March 26, 7 PM
Shred Flintstone, Blunt, Cassidy Snider and the Wranglers, Wallpaper @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $12 in advance, $15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Between the goofy name and the photo on their bandcamp depicting the majority of the band members wearing overalls, I was expecting some post-hippie jam vibes from Shred Flintstone. And I gotta tell ya, if I’d been right, you’d likely be reading a recommendation for a different show entirely. Thankfully, I stayed open-minded long enough to listen to Shred Flintstone’s latest LP, 2021’s Unlimited Power. Boy, this is a great slab of hard-rockin’ guitar music. And that’s what you’ll get — at top volume, no less — when Shred Flintstone hits Capital Ale House’s Richmond Music Hall this Saturday night.

If you wondered why I called it “guitar music” in the last paragraph, it’s because Shred Flintstone’s music is hard to categorize beyond that vague term. At times, it feels more like garage rock, at others it’s closer to postpunk, or even noise-rock. There’s definitely a sense of humor to be found within it, as seen on song titles like “Friend Of A Friend Of The Devil” and the band-name-joke-recycling “Shred Durst.” And you can tell these guys are up for jamming hard on any big, powerful riff, no matter how over the top it is. At times, that makes me think of the band Red Fang. But I think Shred Flintstone are ultimately ill-served by any one-to-one comparison. These guys are weird, in the best possible way. And they rock hard as hell. If that’s not something that appeals to you, I honestly have no idea why you’re still reading this column.

Sunday, March 27, 7 PM
Omen Stones, Weed Coughin, Faith In Jane, Small Bones @ Another Round Bar And Grill – $10
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my time in the salt mines of music journalism, it’s that you can’t please everybody. When I did a whole bunch of jazz coverage last week, I got comments giving me crap for the fact that these columns usually feature a lot of heavy metal music (clearly I have NOT learned yet that reading the comments is always a bad idea). That made me hesitate a couple times when picking shows this week. “Am I picking too much metal?” I thought. “Maybe I should feature an 80s retro synthwave band here instead.” In the end, I decided I was overthinking it. It’s like with fantasy football: when in doubt, play your best players. Pick your best shows.

Here’s one of the undisputed best shows of this week, and it’s on a Sunday night out in Lakeside. Maybe you’ll need to grab a ride north of the city to catch this one, but I assure you it’s worth it, because some truly great metal is getting unleashed at this one. Of course, Omen Stones are your headliners for a reason; featuring members of Richmond heavy hitters like Druglord, Parasytic, and Tel, their 2019 self-titled debut was a real monster. But that was three years ago — do they have more tunes yet? Only one way to find out. And even if the answer’s no, learning will be a very fun way to headbang your Sunday night blues away. Maryland’s Weed Coughin, who lead with the riffage and throw one hell of a musical good time on their brand new full-length debut, Other Worldly, will be a crucial addition to this heavy evening. Their fellow Marylanders Faith In Jane will bring some powerful doom grooves of their own to the table, and Richmond’s Small Bones will get this one started with a hard-rockin’ opening set. Don’t overthink it, y’all — just come headbang.

Monday, March 28, 6:30 PM
John Hollenbeck’s GEORGE, Scott Clark’s Dawn & Dusk @ Spacebomb Studio – $20 in advance, $25 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Just to prove I haven’t entirely left the RVA jazz scene behind, here’s a great Monday night jazz show for all of you for whom last week’s double dose wasn’t enough. This one focuses on the latest project from Canadian drum great John Hollenbeck, who formed GEORGE during the pandemic with three talented players from a variety of backgrounds: avant-garde jazz flute and sax player Anna Webber; saxophonist, rockabilly bandleader, and real-life Treme character Aurora Nealand; and microtonal-synth genius/electro-pop producer Chiquita Magic. Right now, all GEORGE have released is one song, recorded remotely during the pandemic, but their debut LP, Letters to George, is coming from Flexatonic Records in a couple of months, and their performance at Spacebomb will act as an essential preview of coming attractions.

The evening will also feature a performance from local percussion genius Scott Clark’s latest combo, Dawn & Dusk. This sextet brings together several of the players from Adam Hopkins’ School Work — not just Clark and Hopkins but also trumpeter Bob Miller and saxophonist JC Kuhl — along with pianist Michael McNeill and vocalist Laura Ann Singh, in order to do something entirely new and unforeseen. Truly, I have no idea what it’ll sound like, but with this level of talent coming to the table, I’m ready to listen to anything Scott and his latest combo want to put in front of me. So yes, it’s always a good time to get your jazz vibe on, and Spacebomb is the place to do it this Monday night. You know how to roll.

Tuesday, March 29, 7 PM
Andy Shauf, Helena Deland @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $20 (order tickets HERE)
Once again, folks, it’s time to head over to Capital Ale House’s Richmond Music Hall, in order to appreciate the music of an unconventional songwriter who often uses his music to cut through the extraneous crap of daily life and get to the heart of the matter. Andy Shauf comes from Canada, and his quietly intense acoustic songs have a real literary feel; in 2016, he released The Party, an album that examined different characters and incidents that all came together at a single party. 2020’s The Neon Skyline sat with some regulars at a bar, learning what those people were about through overheard conversations and attempts at flirtation with one another.

On Shauf’s Wilds, released last fall, his literary elements are more self-contained, creating narratives song by song rather than spreading a unified story across an entire album, but the moods and memorable turns of phrase come across no less clearly for all that. Musically, there are elements of everything from The Beatles to Shauf’s fellow Canadian singer-songwriter Destroyer, plus some Mountain Goats and a variety of other things in the mix besides. The overall feel is simultaneously challenging and comforting, enveloping the listener in an intense virtual world. That world will take over Richmond Music Hall this Tuesday night; you should spend at least a few hours living in it.

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Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers -– this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected]

Reparative And Equitable Practices And Partnerships

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My vision of a racially equitable Richmond is one in which resourced institutions, such as higher education, invest in reparative and equitable practices that respect lived expertise and are built on partnerships.

As a society, we value expertise. Expertise is the skill or knowledge that emerges from experience, training or study, and it is critical to addressing complex societal concerns because it helps us understand, question, evaluate and innovate. Who we consider or see as “experts” matters because it represents the perspectives we value, and informs how we see our roles in addressing community challenges. Trained experts, including academics, have knowledge, tools and resources to address complicated issues. Context experts are people with lived experience of the situation; these experts live in the places, deal with the challenges and are (already) working toward solutions. The problem is when we systematically elevate trained expertise gained through credentials over lived expertise.

I felt tension between trained expertise and lived expertise for the first time after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast in 2005. This national disaster motivated the most renowned firms to provide weeks of pro bono design assistance for many communities. The hurricane literally left a clean slate in many areas, so designers established a new physical vision. Working class communities were transformed on paper through renderings of beautiful mixed-use corridors and residential areas with a new aesthetic common to coastal vacation towns. On its face, these designs were an incredible offering to the Gulf Coast communities, which had limited capacity to plan post-disaster. But there was more to the story.

I was a city planning graduate student when Katrina made landfall and was part of a university team providing technical planning assistance in Mississippi. My team felt the resistance from that initial planning and design work, and observed that the experience left communities skeptical about planners and designers from outside of their communities. So many of the designs were inappropriate because the firms were not from or familiar with the Gulf Coast, and did not incorporate local and lived knowledge about the history, culture, or physical characteristics of the region. Most residents were displaced by the hurricane to other cities, so only those with considerable resources to return for this planning event could participate in the charrettes and public meetings. In the end, none of the design schemes developed by these out-of-state firms were implemented; local residents and officials simply called them “pretty pictures” — beautiful renderings of a wealthy coastal community, which was not their community. 

Despite all of the classroom learning, this was where I learned that those with degrees and certifications are not the only — or even the primary — experts in community planning and decision-making. Little did I know then that I would spend my career as a university professor continuing to wrestle with the tension between trained expertise and lived expertise in my teaching and research. 

Dr. Meghan Z. Gough

I accepted a faculty position in Urban and Regional Planning and Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government Affairs, primarily because VCU was among the few urban public research universities that was also classified as community-engaged, which means that community engagement is institutionalized into VCU’S mission, identity and commitments. VCU was a national leader in community engagement, and had built infrastructure to support the development of responsible community-university partnerships. 

VCU, like other public research universities, was established with a civic mission to develop knowledge that could enhance the economic and social conditions in communities and to prepare students to play an active role in a diverse, democratic society. Despite universities’ efforts, many lack the infrastructure required to build mutually beneficial community partnerships that result in tangible benefits for the surrounding residents. It is time for higher education to renew this civic mission and do the hard work of self-reflection: How are we teaching students to understand and play active societal roles toward racial justice? Are we succeeding in developing mutually beneficial and non-paternalistic partnerships with communities?

As a white, female academic working at a large, urban public research university in Richmond, Virginia, I regularly critique my role and responsibility as a researcher and teacher, training (mostly white) city planning students to work with and serve (mostly Black) communities. Although racial and ethnic diversity has increased among university professors, there is still an imbalance between faculty and students. As a profession, urban planning is still exceedingly white, raising the importance of assessing the role of whiteness in planning education, and what that means for how we have been advocating, teaching, engaging, and planning for equitable cities. 

My dual role as a professor and a planner accentuates the importance of problematizing the profession’s history of swooping in to initiate, fix or otherwise address community issues without first understanding the community context and engaging with lived expertise. Co-production of knowledge and humility need to be a critical part of shifting planning’s approach to power. As we rethink our roles and responsibilities, we should invest in reparative and equitable planning practices that include 1) acknowledging structural racism as a societal problem; 2) prioritizing lived expertise; and, 3) building long-term and mutually-beneficial partnerships:

Acknowledge Structural Racism as a Societal Problem 

We need to acknowledge, teach and address policies that have reproduced structural racism in our communities, including Richmond. In 2018, when Rothstein’s The Color of Law was published, I used it in my classroom. Although I had previously taught about policies that racially segregated our cities, this book pulled together in one place the evidence of these policies and their impact on racial segregation. When my students read the book, they felt a lot of emotions, but one that was consistent across white, Black and brown students was outrage; how could they have not known the extent of this systematically imposed racial segregation? What followed was an honest and hard discussion, which some white students characterized as uncomfortable. This was an important first conversation, one which students referred to and built upon as they started to “see” how the legacy of structural racism is imprinted in our streets, parks and neighborhoods. The discomfort started to dissipate in their second, third and ongoing conversations, and it was replaced by the beginnings of a collective determination to redress the harms of urban planning. 

Our perspectives are shaped by our experiences, but also by what we learn. We have a responsibility to learn, teach and acknowledge urban history — generally, and the specific ways that racist policies have excluded communities of color in Richmond from home ownership, wealth-building opportunities, and access to educational resources, jobs and healthy neighborhoods. We need to continue to acknowledge the racist legacies of our universities and institutions, and confront their roles in enforcing systems of oppression. It may feel uncomfortable, especially for white people who are trying to reconcile their roles in this history. But there is important learning to be done as we wrestle in this discomfort, seeking to emerge better equipped to help plan for racially just cities.

Prioritize Lived Expertise

Better decisions are made when they are informed by both trained expertise and lived expertise. This truth was evident when my planning studio class was asked to work with North Highland Park on a Quality of Life Plan in 2011. In our first meeting with community advisory board members, we spent time discussing what “quality of life” meant for residents. My students noted that many of the ideas they were eager to share — based on best practices they had researched — were not consistent with what they heard from residents that day. At the time, Highland Park was not interested in bike lanes or green walls, but about public safety, employment opportunities and youth empowerment. My class had to pivot quickly that day, letting go of preconceived ideas, and pursuing new options based on what we learned from residents. 

In addition to community-university relationships, prioritizing lived expertise is also relevant for other institutions with decision-making power. Trained and lived expertise can work together in a complementary, and not hierarchical, relationship. RVAgreen 2050, the City of Richmond’s equity-centered climate action and resilience planning initiative, adopted a structure that prioritized (and compensated) experts with lived experience, and used their knowledge as a guide for establishing planning goals. In this initiative, trained experts offer data, access to research, and synthesis of information that can be shared with the community, while experts with lived experience identify priorities, local history, and trauma that is critical for informing decisions.

Build Long-term and Mutually-beneficial Partnerships 

As a resourced institution, higher education must model sharing power as knowledge-builders for our students. If we want to use research to support community priorities, we must commit to building infrastructure that supports long-term relationships with the community instead of rushing into a community, eager to contribute, fix or otherwise do their work, and then leave. It is through partnerships that we can realize more effective and equitable outcomes for community challenges. But inequitable power dynamics often make long-term community partnerships difficult to sustain and inequities even harder to redress. 

As of this writing, Richmond does not have strong examples of the long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships that are necessary to support an equitable city. But we can work toward building them if we are led with intention as opposed to leaning on established or institutionalized ways of doing things. Based on my experience, research and teaching, partnerships need to start with humility and a willingness to learn from each other. They demand time and resources: initially, to establish relationship, trust, and learn about others’ goals and needs; and then as an on-going manner to support idea generation, implementation, dissemination of work. And, just like any relationship, partnerships need frequent communication, compassion, and adjustments here and there to thrive. 

Conclusion

A racially equitable Richmond is possible only through the investment of many. Among others, city planners, universities and other anchor institutions have an important role to play in eliminating racism in their internal systems, policies, and structures, but also in their practices of interacting with and valuing the expertise in the community. As part of this, white people and institutions need to use their power, privilege and resources to help dismantle systems of oppression. A racially equitable Richmond invests in reparative and equitable practices that respect lived expertise and are built on partnerships. It will demand intention, possible discomfort, and a willingness to make mistakes, learn and adjust. 

Meghan Z. Gough is an Associate Professor of urban and regional studies and planning at Virginia Commonwealth University’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. Her work emphasizes civic capacity building and planning for more livable and equitable communities. Meghan’s contributions to research help to elevate the importance of community-based decision-making and partnerships in the development of plans and policies to support sustainable community development.

This essay is part of the Richmond Racial Equity Essays series, exploring what racial equity looks like in Richmond, Virginia. It is reprinted here with permission. Check out the full project, the accompanying videos, and the podcast.

My job is pretending and the better I pretend the more jobs I get: catching up with actor Justin Dray

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I met Justin Dray in Richmond way back when I was still in the VCU Arts Program. Back then, he ran a small production studio called Yellow House. It became a meeting place for a pocket of creative folks and I fell right in. Never afraid to jump into doing something fun, Justin and his motley crew just made stuff up and took chances.

Since then Justin moved on to Los Angeles to be an actor. He has over 75 film+ credits on IMDB from Always Sunny in Philadelphia, to Ad Astra, to popular shows on cable and television, he continues to be an inspiration to his friends and family.

We got a chance to catch up over a few drinks and here is our conversation. Maybe it will motivate another actor(s) in town to strive for their dreams.

photo by Kimberly Frost @kimberlyfrost

Justin Dray: My name is Justin Dray actor, slash pizza enthusiast, slash Triscuit lover. (laughs)

R. Anthony Harris: You got your start here and been in LA ever since — how long have you been in Los Angeles?

JD: I moved to Los Angeles August of 2008.

RAH: How difficult was it get to get started as an actor in Los Angeles?

JD: The show business is just that — it’s a business, it’s not “show friendship”. I was lucky that I had opportunities in Richmond but one of the biggest hurdles was getting into the union. Luckily, that was one of those hurdles that I was grateful wasn’t terribly difficult.

Then through connections and people that were generous with their time, getting representation to get you into the offices you need to legitimize your work. What I was told is that nobody really gives a care what you had done before you got to LA, so you need representation.

I am very grateful to the people that had come before me that were willing to extend their contacts and their knowledge. I’ve always tried to do that for everybody that comes out and says, “Yo Justin, what can you do? Or can you give me a guide?” Because I really had no idea. I thought I knew that I had an idea, but just the volume and the business side of it, whereas in Richmond, you didn’t have that side at all really.

But even with all that stuff, it was difficult, and then it remains to be difficult.

RAH: What do you like about acting?

JD: Acting is literally just being able to play as an adult. I don’t think we get to play enough as adults. We are supposed to fit who we are told to be and an actor gets to basically pretend. In theory, my job is pretending and the better I pretend the more jobs I get. And so, I’ve always liked that.

Also, it’s about communication and being honest. Things that are not said are just as important as the things that are said — actions speak louder than words. What’s the subtext? There’s a difference between knowing your lines and owning your text. Ken Campbell at Theatre VCU, always said there’s difference between knowing your lines and owning the text. And that was just something wonderful. That extends to the metaphor of the actor is basically just the person living their life. That’s why I’ve always been attracted to acting, living the fullest life you can. Cherish the tears, as well as laughs, because they all make you who you are.

photo by Kimberly Frost @kimberlyfrost

RAH: You do comedic stuff, you do some serious stuff — what roles do you look for?

JD: That’s tough and unfortunately just leads to more questions. The kind of work that I’ve had the opportunity to do has probably been less “juicy” because of the way it’s structured. You have to get a bunch of co-stars credits, and then you can get up to guest star, then you can get to supporting character, and then if you’re lucky enough you can get to be a recurring character, or like a series regular and then on from there.

Obviously you are striving to do the longer roles but I’ve had roles that I’ve worked for a week or two weeks that have been very — you struggle because you’re grateful to have the work — but the work is pretty benign, it’s just not very fulfilling. My joke is the roles that I was going for was the valet and I’d say, “Here are your keys, sir.” And that’s it! That’s the job, and you’re like, hell yeah, I got it — that’s gonna go to my insurance or something. That work isn’t necessarily fulfilling so it’s a constant striving.

I did have a chance to work on a season of Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous on MTV with Bo Burnham and Still The King with Billy Ray Cyrus, that was a real fun role. Getting to work in Nashville, on a few episodes and actually having like an arc of the character. Anything where you actually get, and I call it “juice”, you have a little bit of juice, and you are not just a day player. Where you don’t have any history and there isn’t a lot of homework to do, you just show up say the line kind of stuff. Anything where you get to have a character that goes through something or has a change or has growth, I’m always grateful for.

The reality is most of the things that I audition for in Los Angeles are not that. However, it’s the donkey with the carrot, you’re always hoping that work begets work and that whatever the next kick up will then lead you to that next thing.

photo by Kimberly Frost @kimberlyfrost

RAH: Any advice for actors just starting out?

JD: Here’s the deal. The best thing I would tell anyone that’s interested in acting, best thing you can do is take an improv class, not that you want to become an improv thing but that it gets you in touch with your body. It gets you thinking outside yourself. Often we get to fall in love with the idea of ourselves versus who we really are, and the actor really needs to really work on their own beliefs in that and allow themselves to become someone else other than themselves, without judging that character whatever your beliefs are. You have to admit that your character might not have your same beliefs and be willing to really act. It just begins to work those muscles that you probably don’t think about.

You have to be willing to release control and release that search for validation. You have to find self validation, instead of finding validation from somebody else. And that’s a struggle, working on being okay with failure.

So friggin take an improv class then audition, audition, audition, because auditioning is a weird muscle. It is a muscle that if you don’t use it, you lose it. Auditioning has nothing to do with being an actor. And I didn’t really understand that until I got to Los Angeles. Audition, audition, audition, audition while taking improv classes and get with your friends and make content.

Also, there used to be the triple threat of the actor, singer, dancer, and now really you have to be the actor, writer, director, producer sound guy, social media, and your own manager.

RAH: Thank you Justin.

JD: Well, thank you Tony. It’s wonderful to see you.

See all of Justin Drays credits HERE

Photos by Kimberly Frost

Virginia Universities Reckon With Confederate Symbols

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In the wake of last summer’s protests and the pulling down of Confederate monuments around the state, universities within the commonwealth are dealing with the remnants of the Confederacy and of systemic racism that remain on their campuses today.

Virginia universities in the former heart of the Confederacy are reckoning with their past as students, faculty and staff call for the removal of Confederate symbols.

Richmond housed the capital of the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865. Over 150 years later, remnants of the commonwealth’s Confederate history remain, including in academia.

At least 71 symbols of the Confederacy were removed from public spaces in Virginia last year, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. That includes multiple renamings of public schools. Only one symbol was removed prior to the murder of George Floyd. 

Gov. Ralph Northam sent a letter to school board chairs in the commonwealth last July, urging public officials to change names and mascots that memorialized Confederate leaders.

“When our public schools are named after individuals who advanced slavery and systemic racism, and we allow those names to remain on school property, we tacitly endorse their values as our own,” Northam stated. “This is no longer acceptable.”

Several months later, the University of Virginia in Charlottesville removed the name of Confederate soldier Henry Malcolm Withers from a law school building. 

The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg approved the renaming of Trinkle and Maury halls. Trinkle Hall was named for former Virginia Gov. Elbert Lee Trinkle who signed Jim Crow legislation, according to the college’s board. Maury Hall was named for Matthew Fontaine Maury, who resigned his post as a U.S. Navy commander to join the Confederacy and helped it acquire ships.

The Virginia Military Institute in Lexington paid over $200,000 to remove a statue of Stonewall Jackson and relocate it to the Virginia Museum of the Civil War and New Market Battlefield State Historical Park.

Freeman Hall at the University of Richmond was recently renamed Mitchell-Freeman Hall. Photo courtesy of the University of Richmond.

University of Richmond

Anthony Lawrence, an accounting major at the University of Richmond, is president of the Richmond College Student Government Association. He established a space for multicultural students in the student commons his freshman year and is currently working to remove Confederate symbols on campus.

The university has two campus buildings named for men associated with slavery and segregation. 

Ryland Hall is named for slave owner Robert Ryland, the first president of Richmond College, the University of Richmond’s predecessor. Ryland also served as a pastor to the first African Baptist church in Richmond, according to the university. He called slavery a “divine right” and routinely enslaved and loaned slaves to others during his time as president, according to university researchers.

Mitchell-Freeman Hall was first named for Douglas Southall Freeman, who graduated from the university and served on the board of trustees. The university updated the name of Mitchell-Freeman Hall on Feb. 24 to honor former Richmond Planet Editor John Mitchell Jr. who was Black. Freeman was a journalist who advocated for segregation through “the Virginia Way” which suggests the elite have a duty to guide others, according to UR researchers. 

“If they want to have the historical impact that they say they do, there can be more, much more, done than a name on a building to tell the historical story,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence suggested plaques that explain the buildings’ history to inform students without honoring Confederate leaders. The university also could require a course to teach about the history of the university and associated officials. There is currently no explanation for the building names on campus, Lawrence said.

“There’s nothing that’s really stopping them from changing the name except for their own, I guess, stubbornness,” Lawrence said.

The Black Lives Matter movement helped people examine the names and roles of campus buildings, Lawrence said.

“It can come to a head now because of the wonderful activism that we’ve seen in these past couple of years,” Lawrence said. “This past summer has really been an example of what can happen when we see change.” 

Students formed The Black Student Coalition in March to advocate for the wellbeing of Black students.

“Now it’s impossible for the administration; it’s impossible for the board of trustees to silence us because we’re so strong, and because we have this coalition, and because we have each other,” Lawrence said.

Six percent of Richmond students identify as Black, according to the university. This makes Lawrence a minority student leader on campus.

“It’s exhausting but the work is rewarding in a way that I don’t think I ever would have known,” Lawrence said. 

Demonstrators pulled down the Richmond Howitzers Monument at Virginia Commonwealth University (June 2020). The university was in the process of auditing Confederate symbols on its two campuses and has since begun removal and renaming of those symbols. Photo by Andrew Ringle, The Commonwealth Times.

Virginia Commonwealth University

The board of visitors at Richmond-based Virginia Commonwealth University voted in September to remove Confederate symbols from campus. The decision came after more than three years of review. 

More than a dozen dedicated spaces, memorials and plaques will be removed from both campuses, according to the university. The decision includes de-commemorating buildings with Confederate affiliation, such as the Jefferson Davis Memorial Chapel. Davis was the president of the Confederacy. 

“The committee’s analysis revealed a more complete story of the meaning behind these memorials and commemorations that we can neither ignore nor celebrate and that impede our mission to serve all,” stated VCU President Michael Rao. 

Washington & Lee

Washington & Lee University in Lexington is named for former U.S. President George Washington and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Lee was president of the college for five years and the name was changed to Washington & Lee upon his death in 1870. Lee is buried on the campus. 

Students walked out of the university in late March to support dropping Lee’s name, according to WVTF. The board of trustees began soliciting input in July 2020 on the university’s name and Confederate symbols. The board will issue a final decision on the name in June, according to a statement by Rector Mike McAlevey.

Some professors also favor changing W&L’s name, including Mohamed Kamara, an associate professor of French and Africana studies. Kamara has been teaching at W&L since 2001 and was a founding member of the Africana Studies Program.

Kamara was drawn to the university because of the physical environment and academic freedom the administration offered him. 

“I am here because I love Washington & Lee, so that same love that I had for it when I first came here, I still have it,” Kamara said.

Kamara supports the student protests because of the effectiveness of protests in American history. He said the American Revolution was a protest of sorts where American colonists resorted to violence against Great Britain. 

“Most of what has been achieved in terms of positive development have been done through protests,” Kamara said.

Demonstrators pulled down the Richmond Howitzers Monument at Virginia Commonwealth University (June 2020). Photo by Andrew Ringle, The Commonwealth Times.

Changing the name of the university would harm no one, Kamara said. It would save Black students the trauma of dealing with the institution of slavery when they come across the university’s name.

“It brings that memory that is not pleasant at all,” Kamara said.

Black people still feel the aftereffects of slavery even though it ended in the U.S. over 156 years ago, Kamara said. 

“For those of us who are members of the Black race, we will back Washington for what he did for the university and Robert E. Lee for whatever he did for the university,” Kamara said. “But at the same time, we cannot ignore that component of the history that subjugated people like us.” 

Washington and Lee were both slave owners, though Lee’s name is often the one brought up during renaming discussions, Kamara said. 

“I believe that issue is going to come up,” Kamara said. “There was a time when nobody talked about removing Lee’s name.”

Kamara is fine with removing only Lee’s name, but he believes changing the whole name is an opportunity for the university to take an extra step.

“It may make sense, as a sign of goodwill, as a sign of good faith to be ahead of our times,” Kamara said.

Written by Katharine DeRosa, Capital News Service. Top Photo: Ryland Hall at the University of Richmond is named for slave owner and former Richmond College president Robert Ryland. Photo courtesy of the University of Richmond.

Richmond’s Institute For Contemporary Art Celebrates Third Anniversary

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Despite pandemic-related closures and declining attendance, the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU soldiers on. Recently, the ICA celebrated its third anniversary with an event launching upcoming exhibits.

The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond recently celebrated its third anniversary after a year marked by a four-month pandemic closure and declining attendance. 

The institute hosted a “Lunch & Launch” event in late April to commemorate the milestone and to preview upcoming exhibits. Previously featured artists spoke at the event. Guests previewed the upcoming exhibit “It Will Always Come Back to You,” by Cairo-based artist Ibrahim Ahmed, who creates work based on textiles and other mediums. Ahmed’s exhibition will feature a large sculpture commissioned by the ICA.

The institute opened in April 2018 with the exhibition “Declaration,” which featured more than 30 artists and ran through September 2018. “Declaration” was the institute’s first and most well-attended exhibition, according to Dominic Willsdon, ICA executive director. “Declaration” featured the most artists in an ICA exhibition and was the only exhibit to take up the entire institute.

The New York Times previewed the ICA in 2018 and lauded the institute’s potential to grapple with “pressing social issues” from its “historic pivot point” on the corner of a Richmond intersection that “once marked the boundary between Black and white communities.” Almost two years after it opened, USA Today named the ICA a top 10 best new museum — the only art museum on the list. 

The ICA’s 2020 “Commonwealth” exhibit features work from 10 artists including an outdoor installation created by community farmer Duron Chavis, who builds gardens throughout Richmond. The resiliency garden was installed in an asphalt lot next to the Institute for Contemporary Art and featured 30 raised beds of fruits, vegetables and flowers. Photo by VCU CNS.

Willsdon said over the past three years an increasingly large portion of the artwork on display is commissioned specifically for the institute. 

“Almost every exhibition involves commissioning new work,” Willsdon said. “The ICA doesn’t just show art of the past but brings new art into the world.”

Attendance at the ICA decreased in the second year of operation. It went down from over 100,000 in its first year to just over 54,000 in the second year, according to the ICA. The attendance figures are from April to April of each year. Willsdon said this was anticipated.

“The second year after a museum opens, it’s going to go down a little bit,” Willsdon said. “It didn’t go down quite as much as it might have.”

The institute’s attendance decreased to just over 10,000 in its third year, mostly because of the four-month closure at the start of the pandemic and the fact that no in-person events were hosted, according to the ICA.

Willsdon considers “Great Force,” which ran in the ICA’s second year, the institution’s keynote exhibit. It featured 24 artists and explored the theme of white and Black racial forces in the United States. It was on display from October 2019 to January 2020.

“Great Force has a special significance for us, in terms of the themes that recur in other exhibitions,” Willsdon said. “I found myself calling it a keynote in terms of the way it embodies what we’re about.”

The ICA has also featured art by VCUarts faculty members, such as Guadalupe Maravilla’s “Disease Thrower.” Maravilla, an assistant professor in the VCU School of the Arts, created the sculptures and banners in the exhibit to discuss themes of illness and immigration. 

The ICA has never shown work by VCU students, but Willsdon said it’s “not impossible” that they will do so in the future. 

“About half of our visitors are affiliated with VCU,” Willsdon said. “We’re really happy about interest in the student community.”

The ICA building in 2020. | Kevin Morley photo, VCU Marketing

The ICA also closed in March when other businesses throughout Virginia were shuttered due to COVID-19. It reopened in July 2020. The ICA currently hosts in-person exhibitions as well as online events. 

The ICA recently entered into a partnership with Virginia Public Media to create a podcast recording studio and workspace within the institute, though COVID-19 halted construction plans. After several months of online-only programming, construction on the podcasting studio is slated to begin in June and end in August, according to VCU assistant professor Chioke I’Anson. He is the director of the community podcasting space, which will have a soft opening on Sept. 10. 

I’Anson aims for the studio to be accessible to people who want to start a podcast but may not have resources such as recording and editing equipment. The studio launched virtually, which has gone well despite the lack of a physical location, I’Anson said. 

“We’ve had what we call ‘skill share’ sessions where one person shares their own lessons and everybody talks about it,” I’Anson said. “We have producers’ institutes, where we bring a guest from a podcast network to give a workshop on a particular editing technique.”

I’Anson said the focus has been on Richmond creators, but the center is “open to really anyone with an internet connection.” 

Willsdon said his goals for the ICA’s future are to bring in more international artists and experiment with more tactile and interactive exhibits. 

“We’ve actually thought more and more about tactile material exhibition,” Willsdon said. “We’re always looking at screens. Museums can be where a different type of experience is offered.”

Written by Anya Sczerzenie, Capital News Service. Top Photo: A small series of art projects outside the ICA provide visual commentary on the COVID-19 pandemic and a summer of protests after the death of George Floyd. | Kevin Morley photo, Virginia Commonwealth University Marketing