Category Archives: Entertainment

Environmental Events At VCU This Week

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The Partnership For Smarter Growth is sponsoring an author talk on Monday, October 6:

Please join PSG and the VCU Urban and Regional Planning Student Association (URPSA) as we welcome Benjamin Ross, author of

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Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism

Monday, October 6
7:00 p.m.- 8:30 p.m.
VCU Student Commons, Commonwealth Ballroom A

Benjamin headed Maryland’s Action Committee for Transit during much of its long fight to build a light rail line outside Washington, D.C. After a 25-year battle, the Purple Line will begin construction next year.
In Dead End he traces how the ideal of a safe, green, orderly retreat where hardworking members of the middle class could raise their children away from the city mutated into the McMansion- and strip mall-ridden suburbs of today. He finds that sprawl is much more than bad architecture and sloppy planning. Its roots are historical, sociological and economic.

It is free, but please register by clicking here and signing up for a ticket.

Then, on Friday, James River Association & Green Unity VCU are co-hosting the award-winning film Damnation at 8 pm, also at the VCU Student Commons.

Some call it a movement, others call it a generational shift in values. DamNation documents both – and the undeniable momentum behind river restoration that has begun to take hold in our country.

Stripers at the Main Library This Friday

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“Stripers: The Quest for the Bite,” a new documentary by Miller Productions, will be screened this Friday, 6pm at the downtown library auditorium. Free. There will be a discussion and DVD/photo signing after with music by Jim Westlyn.

David Miller’s previous documentary, “Breathing Life Into the Chesapeake”, was a top prize winner at this past February’s RVA Environmental Film Festival’s first annual Local Documentary Contest. The second annual Contest will be announced tomorrow.

(Also, many of the local documentaries from this year’s RVA Environmental Film Festival will be at the Celebration of the James film series at North Avenue Library this Saturday at 2pm. See the Style article on this by clicking here.)

From “Oregon Hill” To “Parker Field”

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Howard Owen‘s sequel to his charged crime novel, Oregon Hill”, is “Parker Field” and it dives right into Richmond’s baseball past (no, not the questionable future).

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“Parker Field” is the third in Owen’s series featuring Willie Black, an alcoholic reporter for a struggling Richmond newspaper. In this new one, the character becomes personally involved with a shooting, the motive for which goes back to the days of the Virginians baseball team.

Doug Childer’s review in the Times Dispatch picks up on Owen’s sense of place:

Often, it feels as if you could read the Willie Black series with Google Street View open on your laptop and track Black’s movements, page by page. Or use the books to stage Willie Black tours.

A sample: “I drive over to Oregon Hill. The weather, fickle as ever, has turned from late winter to full-blown spring overnight. Along Laurel Street, the camellias are blooming and the trees seem to have turned into a yellow-green canopy, shading the sidewalks their roots are slowly destroying.”

For Richmond readers, it’s a particular thrill. Don’t be surprised if you glance up apprehensively at the ninth-floor windows of the Prestwould the next time you walk through Monroe Park, though.

Wednesday: The Defenders Present: Battle for Brooklyn (2011)

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There is a documentary screening this Wednesday evening at 6:30 at the William Byrd Community House. From the FaceBook event page:

The Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality are pleased to present the documentary “Battle for Brooklyn,” a 2011 film that tells the story of residents of the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., and their 8-year fight against the big developers and city politicians who attempted to seize 22 acres of land via eminent domain in order to build a basketball stadium surrounded by dense development.

You can see a trailer for the film here:

The film (1 hour, 56 minutes) will be preceded by a brief introduction by Ana Edwards, Chair of the Defenders’ Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, on the parallels between the Brooklyn struggle and the Richmond community’s fight against a Shockoe stadium.

Light refreshments will be provided. Children are welcome. We are currently trying to arrange for childcare, but this is not certain yet. If you have accessibility concerns, please contact Kat.

While this event is free, donations are appreciated and will help us continue our all-volunteer work.

Note: This film is being made available free by the filmmakers as their contribution to the efforts to stop a Shockoe Stadium.