WNRN’s Hear Together: St. Andrews School

WNRN is a great listener-supported independent music radio station with a growing presence in the Richmond area.

As part of their public affairs programming, they recently featured a profile on St. Andrews School:

Celebrating its 125th Anniversary this year, St. Andrew’s School was established in 1894 by Grace Arents, the niece of Lewis Ginter. Known as the “silent philanthropist,” Arents founded the institution to provide tuition-free education for the working class families that lived in the Oregon Hill neighborhood of Richmond.

Today, St. Andrew’s enrolls 96 children in kindergarten through 5th grade. Their “whole child” approach to learning doesn’t just include a focus on academics, but incorporates nutrition and wellness, a social/emotional program, and even a graduate support system that assists with middle school placement.

They recorded an short interview with with Dr. Cynthia Weldon Lassiter, the Head of St. Andrew’s, for their Hear Together profile. You can listen to the profile on their website (click here).

“Megan Leavey” At Virginia War Memorial This Saturday

Saturday, March 7, the Virginia War Memorial will celebrate Women’s History Month with a screening of “Megan Leavey” (2017, PG-13) – a story of a Marine and her military K9 dog – followed by a panel discussion with women veterans of the so-called “the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT)”.

Just keep in mind that “Hollywood isn’t in the business of telling true stories”, and some have criticized the film as being “oblivious to Iraqi suffering”.

Also, star actress of the movie, Kata Mara later joined the Humane Society in delivering close to 200,000 petition signatures to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, urging the agency to restore online records of inspections and violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act after it had suddenly purged many records.

The screening is free and open to the public. and doors open at 10:00 AM. Movie begins at 10:30 AM. Snacks will be available during the film.

Dirtwoman For The Rest Of The World – Spider Mites Of Jesus DVD Release

From the press release:

This coming Friday the 13th is a lucky one for Dirtwoman fans. The DVD and streaming versions of SPIDER MITES OF JESUS: THE DIRTWOMAN DOCUMENTARY will be available on DirtwomanDoc.com. The DVD will also be on sale in Carytown at Mongrel and Plan 9 (Richmond and Charlottesville).

Speaking of Cville, the FINAL PUBLIC SCREENING will be at Charlottesville’s Vinegar Hill Theatre
on Thursday, March 12, 7pm. Coming full circle, this is the theatre where the movie first premiered at the 2018 Virginia Film Festival.

Directory Jerry Williams will be there for Q&A and to sell early copies of the DVD

Williams also attended five additional festivals in 2019, visiting San Francisco, Palm Springs, Orlando and Atlanta. In January 2020, the film had a 4-week run at Movieland in Richmond. “I was expecting audiences who knew Dirtwoman from his notorious days, but was thrilled that younger viewers who had no idea about Dirtwoman were so enthralled by his outsize personality, plus a glimpse of Richmond’s counterculture from the 70s and 80s.”

Purchased in 2015 by Light House Studio, Vinegar Hill Theatre now screens independent and documentary films by filmmakers both local and abroad. This showing at the VHT holds a special place in Williams’ heart, “Not only did it premiere here two years ago, VHT is a special cinema for me. I went to many films there when I lived in Charlottesville in 1971, while running a record store.” Interestingly, the early film buff went on to review movies for TV, print and radio (and still is).

Read more about Donnie, watch the trailers and exit interviews at DirtwomanDoc.com.

Demolition of Historic Houses On Cumberland?

The entire row of houses on the 900 block of Cumberland has been surrounded by 8 ft fence. The St. Andrew foundation board, which owns the property, has not been forthcoming about their plans (and, close by, neither has the VCU administration), and many neighbors fear imminent demolition.

Its important to note that houses at 912-914 Cumberland Street and 200 and 202 South Linden Street, constitute one of the earliest examples of subsidized housing in Virginia and are part of Grace Arent’s legacy.

For many longtime residents this brings up ill will from a previous Linden Street demolition.

Flyer On Proposed Parking Permits

Some neighbors put together this flyer and distributed over 200 copies yesterday to residents within the proposed restricted parking zone.

It was produced with the disclaimer that it may have limited information due to space constraint, and that there may be more information related to the petition and city ordinance on restricted parking, but that all the information on it is accurate to the best of their knowledge.

Artist Reception At the Virginia War Memorial This Thursday

This Thursday from 6pm to 8pm, the Virginia War Memorial is hosting an artist reception.

From their site:

Join us at the Virginia War Memorial to celebrate the opening of the Veterans’ Art Gallery with a reception, presentation, and live music. Our inaugural exhibit contains stunning artwork in varied mediums from a collection of veterans. Come see, learn, and be inspired by this new, one-of-a-kind gallery. Our featured artist is Mike Fay.

Exhibit Artists included:

Mike Fay
Diana de Avila
Pamela Corwin
Bernie Donato
Dennis Hicks
Saxon Martinez
This event is free and open to the public.

Trash/Recycling Pickup Tomorrow

Alright, I think the schedule was thrown off by President’s Day, but we now have the 2020 schedule, and this Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

In recycling news, The NextGen Cup Consortium, an effort driven by McDonald’s and Starbucks, started reusable cup pilot programs at independent coffee shops around San Francisco and Palo Alto, California last week. The consortium is managed by Closed Loop Partners’ (CLP) Center for the Circular Economy, with the World Wildlife Fund serving as an advisory partner and design firm IDEO running the pilots.

It’s nice to see more sustainability efforts but everyone should be looking at corporate claims with a lot of skepticism. Greenpeace just released a report that includes a comprehensive United States survey of plastics recyclability. It found that U.S. companies are incorrectly labeling many plastic products as recyclable. The report, “Circular Claims Fall Flat”, states only PET #1 and HDPE #2 bottles and jugs are truly recyclable.

In more local news, this Saturday is the 6th Annual Shiver In The River, sponsored by Keep Virginia Beautiful. See more on that, but also more ‘about that’…