Category Archives: calendar

Harrison Street Closure Next Week

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From City press release:

For Immediate Release
June 13, 2017
For more information, contact:
Paige Hairston – (804) 646-3659

Street Closure – South Harrison Street
WHO: City of Richmond Department of Public Works

WHAT: Street Closure

WHEN: Starting at 6 a.m. on Sunday, June 18 and ending at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, June 20

WHERE: South Harrison Street between Grayland and Parkwood Avenues

BACKGROUND: The area will be closed to resurface the bridge over the Downtown Expressway. Traffic will be detoured around the work zone. Please use caution and obey the traffic signs.

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Oregon Hill and Randolph Neighborhood 5th District Cleanup

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From 5th District City Council Liaison Amy Robins:

Hi OH neighbors! Your neighborhood cleanup is this Saturday from 9am-12pm.
Jimmy Blackford is going to need 4-5 volunteers to help in the alleys with the city waste truck. He’ll be meeting you at Pleasant’s Park (Albemarle & S. Laurel).
Councilmember Parker Agelasto & I will be meeting everyone else at Idlewood & Harrison along with Randolph neighbors. (This is the official neighborhood line.) We will tackle litter pick up, graffiti removal, and I’m trying to line up some more Tree Stewards for clearance pruning.
Being the dork I am, I normally have a birthday cleanup. This year since the dates were so close together I decided to leverage the volunteers into this one event. After the cleanup (~12:15pm), we’ll be doing a quick pot luck in P. Jones Park (Idlewood & Temple) in Randolph. Bring a swim suit if you like, it’s right next to the Randolph Pool and there is a playground for the little ones too.
My wife & I will provide water, plates, napkins, condiments, hotdogs, buns, and birthday cake. If you can bring a dish, chips or whatever please do. If you can’t, don’t let that hold you back from swinging by after volunteering!
I hope to see you at some point on Saturday!
Amy

From Cherry Street neighbor Jimmy Blackford:

William Byrd Center finally mowed the grass in their overgrown lot (& the baseball field, too!). So we can keep up the momentum with this Saturday’s Oregon Hill Alley Cleanup. Can you join us at 9 am Sat. 6/17 at Pleasant’s Park? We’ll go thru the alleys with a city trash truck to gather all the discarded furniture etc. If that’s not your bag, join us anyway & we’ll give you a trash bag & grabber fior you to pick up litter in the neighborhood. We’ll meet at the park at S. Laurel St & Albemarle St.

Also, here’s the link for the FaceBook Event Page.

Open High Fundraiser Thursday

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From a parent:

At Open High, students are grouped into families. As a school, we will be hosting an Art and Talent Show, to be held on from 5:30-8 pm on Thursday, June 1, at Clark Springs Elementary School.
We will have food, art work for sale, a fashion show, a hair show, dancing , spoken word, a taco bar and dessert for sale… all wrapped up into one evening with musical accompaniment.
PROCEEDS FROM THE AUCTION GO TO SUPPLIES FOR THE ART DEPT. AND PROCEEDS FROM THE FOOD GO TO THE OPEN HIGH PTSA.

61st Commonwealth’s Memorial Day Ceremony

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From the Virginia War Memorial website:

Monday, May 29, 2017 – 10:00am to 11:00am
VWM Grounds
Join us as we honor and remember all veterans who gave their lives to preserve our freedoms from the Revolutionary War to today’s conflicts. Guest speaker will be Major General Timothy P. Williams, The Adjutant General, Virginia National Guard. Co-hosted with the 11th District American Legion. The Galanti Education Center will be open extended hours Memorial Day until 7 pm.

The “Never Forget Memorial Run” is a 1.4 mile silent run from VCU and finishes at the Virginia War Memorial just past noon on Memorial Day. The run is hosted by the VCU Police Department to honor fallen U.S. armed service members.

The Thomas Jefferson High School Alumni Cadet Corps and Friends Band will play patriotic tunes in the Shrine of Memory at 2 pm on Memorial Day. Bring your own chairs and set up in the Virginia War Memorial’s Shrine to be a part of this invigorating program!

As always parking and admission is free of charge.

The Foundry Market At Tredegar This Sunday

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The American Civil War Center at Tredegar Iron Works is hosting ‘The Foundry Market’ from 12 pm to 4 pm this Sunday (and also June 11).

From event description:

The American Civil War Museum’s Foundry Market is an artisan craft fair with an emphasis on handmade, local products. We’ll have vendors from across the state, demonstrations of craftsman at work, and food trucks.

Bring the whole family down for a Sunday at Historic Tredegar and imagine what our bustling ironworks might have been like 150 years ago.

PARTICIPATING VENDORS:
Beego Handmade
Flourish Creative
Grid+Love
Liberatus Jewelry
Matthew Pellman
Morris and Norris
MudLOVE
New Custom
Nicholas Creek Forge
PaperFreckles
Paper Rose
Petite Shards Productions
Renan Banjos
Robin’s Egg Jewelry
Ruby Belle Adornments
Sew Brave Designs
The Bird & Elephant
The Timbered Wolf
The Wild Wander
thimbleberry

….and more!

‘Dirtwoman’ Documentary Benefit

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There is documentary being filmed for one of Oregon Hill’s most infamous progeny and Richmond’s most famous drag queen, Donny Corker, aka ‘Dirtwoman.’ In order to raise funds and capture memories, the Sound of Music studio, now in Scott’s Addition (1710 Altamont Ave.), will be holding ‘Dirtwoman Toast’ on Sunday, May 21, at 7 pm. The admission cost is $10.Part of the proceeds will go to producing the documentary and part of them will go to Corker to help defray medical cost hardships.

Excerpts from recent Style article:

Everyone over a certain age has a Dirtwoman story. Corker’s antics as Richmond’s most well-known 400-lb. drag queen are legendary, from the 1993 pin-up calendar to running for mayor, to his years as Mrs. Claus at the annual Hamaganza. Just as noteworthy is Corker’s pre-Stonewall role-modeling: He’s been unabashedly out as gay since he was a teenager.

In the works is a documentary about Dirtwoman that began 15 years ago on the occasion of Corker’s 50th birthday with an event at Caffeine’s featuring go-go boys, drag queens and people sharing their own Dirtwoman tales. Now at 65 and with major health issues, Corker’s life story is on track to finally be completed by local video producer, Jerry Williams.

“This is the culmination of my 45 years as a video producer and director,” Williams says of the passion project. “I’ve never had a story that I was willing to commit a year of my life to making, but this is it.”
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For those who missed Dirtwoman’s glory years, the Toast is also an opportunity to hear anecdotes from a life so colorful that even John Waters’ biggest star, Divine, was a fan. And for those curious about how the name Dirtwoman originally came about, let’s just say it involved some inappropriate behavior in the back seat of a cop car and leave it at that.

From the FaceBook event page:

The TOAST is being held to compile stories from Donnie’s fans for the documentary. Everyone who attends will be invited to spend a few minutes on stage with Donnie to pay tribute and share their favorite memories. There will also be a special “private” studio for people who would prefer not to go on stage. People are encouraged to bring any pertinent photos or other memorabilia.
To have an idea of timing, Williams requests that people who want to speak, please email him at TVJerry@TVJerry.com.

‘Oregon Hill’ Author To Speak At Crime Novel Talk Tomorrow

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From Kelly Justice, proprietor of Fountain Bookstore (in Shockoe Slip):

Join us for a night of conversation about what goes on behind the scenes of writing successful and award-winning series crime fiction. I will be moderating Swinson and Owen (two very charming gentlemen in addition to being very talented) about their books.

I paired them together because they both have so much in common: both have main characters on the more serious side of flawed, both employ the blackest of humor to great effect, both write with a deeply rooted sense of place. Swinson’s books take place in D.C., Owen’s in Richmond.

This is a good opportunity to ask Owen questions about his ‘Oregon Hill’ novel as well as his more recent works.

The Foundry Series- Combat, Racial Violence & Resilience

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Quite a title, right? The American Civil War Museum at Tredegar is hosting this event Thursday evening:

Following the Civil War and Emancipation, Union veterans and African American civilians faced physical and mental challenges that put their resilience to the test in new post-War environments.

Gather for snacks, drinks, and socializing at 6pm, talks begin around 6:30pm.

Featuring:

Never Get Over It: What Night Riding Meant to African American Families
Kidada E. Williams, Ph.D., Wayne State University
From 1868-1871, armed southern white men raided African American communities, holding families hostage and subjecting them to torture, rape, and assassination. Using victims’ testimonies before Congress, Kidada E. Williams presents the story of how survivors understood the consequences of this violence, specifically how it unmade their families and compromised their ability to fulfill their visions of freedom.

Sublimity,Terror and Love: Veterans and the Psychological Impact of War
Stephen A. Goldman, M.D., FAPM, DFAPA, Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, American Psychiatric Association, and Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Tools of war have undergone significant technological advances since the American Civil War, but the experience of battle and its effects on the combatant remain strikingly similar and profound in our time. The multifaceted psychological impact of war includes not only combat stress reactions, but also emotional resilience and successful societal reintegration. Explore the great influences, positive and negative, of combat and military service on veterans’ lives, and what has been learned throughout history about treating those who’ve been under fire. Following a remarkable group of severely wounded Union soldiers and sailors, discover how their powerful warrior identity spurred commitment to Reconstruction and racial equality, and sustained their collective belief in the causes for which they had fought.

Program Partners
Black Minds Matter Project
YWCA Richmond
Virginia War Memorial
Virginia Veteran and Family Support

Cost: $10.00, $8.00 members