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 TAKE NOTE  ABOUT TOWN  EVENTS

When she swept the 109th Virginia Kentucky District Fair, the internet erupted with admiration for Linda Skeens, churning out memes, comments, even a ballad. Skeens edged out 150 competitors, winning for her cake, pie, cookies, breads, candy, corn relish, chow chow, embroidery, Christmas décor, and more. “Everybody is thanking their stars that Linda doesn’t quilt,” one woman deadpanned on the fair’s Facebook page.

“This wasn’t her first rodeo,” says Ashley Chandler, a fair volunteer who helped Skeens log in her entries. “She’s won big in the past. To her family, this was no surprise.” Chandler’s daughter, Emma, 20, the fair’s arts exhibition chair, posted the winners, which then ricocheted around the world.

Skeens, a Russell County grandmother, doesn’t use email or social media. So, as the post went viral, “people got desperate to find her,” says Chandler, who helped guard her privacy while another Linda Skeens—of Blacksburg—fielded a hailstorm of inquiries. “Ya’ll know I can’t cook a lick,” she wrote on Facebook, “but I can run a weed eater!!”

Skeens finally broke her silence with a Today Show appearance, but Chandler believes this mystery has a bigger message: “Find the Linda Skeens in your own life,” she says. “The grandmother who adds a dash of this, a pinch of that. Take those handwritten recipes with spills and stains and organize them in a family recipe book. Cook, bake, eat, laugh, talk. Make memories that last a lifetime.” Next year’s fair, the 110th, takes place June 13-17, 2023. Facebook: @vakyfair.

A PRIVATE COLLECTION GOES PUBLIC

A gift to the Chrysler Museum includes works by American masters.

ASEISMIC $34 MILLION GIFT to the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk from philanthropist Joan Brock includes paintings by American masters John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, and William Merritt Chase. “I could not be happier to make this gift to the Chrysler, and to the Hampton Roads region that has been my home for most of my life,” Brock said in a statement referencing her late husband, Dollar Tree founder, Macon Brock. “Our collection has brought us true joy, and I’m hoping museum visitors will be inspired as we have by these great artists.”

Brock’s gift of 29 paintings will introduce works from the Hudson River School, American Impressionism, the Aesthetic Movement, and 20th Century American Modernism to the museum’s current collection. The donation will also endow two positions at the museum and support the expansion of the museum’s Perry Glass Studio.

“The Brock Collection is one of the most significant private collections of American art assembled in the 21st century,” notes Corey Piper, Brock Curator of American Art. “Major paintings and works on paper by the most important artists of the late-19th and early-20th centuries chart a broad history of American art of the period and will allow the Chrysler to tell new and more compelling stories of our nation’s artistic history.” A selection of new works will be on view in a winter exhibition at the museum. Chrysler.org

—by Konstantin Rega

Above: Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910). Portrait of Elizabeth Loring Grant, 1866. Charcoal, chalk and pencil on paper. Promised gift from the Brock’s collection.

SWAN LAKE IN SUFFOLK

The Kyiv City Ballet from Ukraine will perform and enrich.

THE 45-MEMBER KYIV CITY BALLET of Ukraine comes to Suffolk this month, in the only Virginia stop on the company’s 13-city U.S. tour. The ballet’s four-day residency will include workshops, master classes, and cultural outreach programs with local schools and dance companies, culminating on Sept. 22 with a performance of Swan Lake at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts’ Birdsong Theater. The company will also appear in New York, Detroit, Chicago, and Charlotte.

Just one day before Ukraine was invaded by Russia in February, members of the ballet company unknowingly took one of the last flights out of Kyiv to begin a long-planned tour, which began in Paris. Since the

Kristina Kadashevych of the Kyiv City Ballet.

A CONTEMPORARY OPERA TAKES SHAPE

The groundbreaking story of Loving v. Virginia will be retold onstage.

Mildred and Richard Loving in 1967.

TO CELEBRATE its upcoming 50th anniversary, Virginia Opera is collaborating with the Richmond Symphony to develop a new opera based on the famous Loving v. Virginia case.

Composer Damien Geter of Chesterfield County will create the score, with librettist Jessica Murphy Moo on board to shape the story of Mildred and Richard Loving, the Virginia couple sentenced to a year in prison in 1958 for marrying. When the Supreme Court reversed the ruling a decade later, race-based marriage restrictions ended.

Starting in November, the community is invited to public workshops hosted by The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University to track the progress of the libretto, vocal writing, orchestral score, and production design.

“We believe that by introducing more people to the creative process, we can all learn deeply and intimately why the Loving story resonates for so many of us,” said Dominic Willsdon, executive director of the ICA at VCU. “And we can understand what it takes to create, together, a major new work of art.”

Loving v. Virginia will premiere at venues across the state in 2025. VaOpera.org —by Vayda Parrish

invasion began, the Kyiv City Ballet has been performing to sold-out crowds throughout Europe.

“We are honored to share the beauty of ballet with U.S. audiences, through Ukrainian artists,” said Ivan Kozlov, the artistic director of the Kyiv City Ballet. In addition to Swan Lake, the company will perform three Ukrainian works, including contemporary and neoclassical ballets and folk dances.

“We are thrilled to kick off our 17th performance season and celebrate the anniversary of our historic building with the Kyiv City Ballet,” said Lorelei Costa, executive director of the Suffolk Center. “These performances will appeal not only to fans of dance, but also to audiences who have never watched ballet before. What an honor to have these artists and athletes on our stage.” Adds City Mayor Mike Dumar: “Suffolk is privileged to welcome the members of this world-class ballet to our beautiful city.” SuffolkCenter.org, KCBTheater.com —by Constance Costas

CONVERSATIONS: ADRIANA TRIGIANI

As her 17th novel debuts, she’s thankful for librarians, local theater, and her Virginia upbringing.

New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani grew up in Big Stone Gap and, while she now lives in New York, her Virginia roots run deep. In The Good Left Undone (Dutton, April 2022), Trigiani, also a filmmaker and philanthropist, explores her Italian heritage. We caught up with her to find out more.

Virginia Living: How did you begin writing? Adriana Trigiani: It always starts with the librarian. My mother was a librarian. When I look at a book, the first thing I see is her face. If you want to write, you gotta read. To this day, I go into a library like a church. It’s a sacred space to me. It’s a wonderful thing to have a life-long mountain to climb. And every day you try to master it. I feel a debt to great teachers and librarians.

Virginia was an essential landscape for me, as well. I grew up in Big Stone Gap in the 1970s. It felt like we were in the heart of Appalachia. The first place I saw a play was at Clinch Valley College. I remember that like it happened yesterday. And I’m certain that was why I went to college and majored in theater and became a playwright. VL: And what does your work usually focus on? AT: I grew up in an Italian-American home where the word “immigrant” was a word of honor. My grandparents were immigrants. And coming from a working-class family, I’m also very proud of that. So that’s what I write about.

I try to make sense of the world through writing. When I started getting granular with my grandparents, I was going through the family lore, and what I discovered was the incredible stories. The Good Left Undone is a sprawling story of family, love, and war. The heart of the story was inspired by my grandmother giving me a piece of jewelry for my wedding. VL: You also co-founded “The Origin Project” to promote writing. Can you dive into that? AT: The Origin Project was developed because we needed an Appalachian story from the younger generations. It’s an in-school, year-round writing program, K-12. The kids work on one story the whole year, and it gets published at the end.

Virginia—the Merry ol’ England of the U.S.— is a unique state: you have the coast, the piedmont, the mountains, the industrial, the military, every aspect of the working class trade that built this country. Really it’s the base-note of the whole opera, and I benefited from it. The Origin Project was an extension of everything I’d grown up with that I thought was important to the development of a child and their imagination. VL: What do you want readers to get from your work? AT: So many of us are searching for a way to tell our family stories. I want people to come away with an emotional sense of how important and essential family is for your happiness. At the end of the day, you just try to make it work. —by Konstantin Rega

Adriana with her siblings, c. 1970s.

BEFORE CRAZY RICH ASIANS

In a new memoir, Constance Wu revisits a beloved Richmond bakery.

“I want to tell you about bread,” Constance Wu writes in Making A Scene (Scribner, October 2022). The star of Hustlers and box-office smash Crazy Rich Asians—a role that earned her a 2018 Golden Globe nomination, Wu grew up in Richmond and attended Douglas S. Freeman High School, while she also made … bread.

In a chapter titled “Montana Gold,” the actress shares fond memories of the bakery’s owners, Rich and Sher Lahvic. “I was there for about three years, working my way up from the counter, to the kneading table, to head pastry chef,” she writes. “It remains to this day, my favorite job I ever had.”

Her father, Fang-Sheng Wu, a biology and genetics professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, often took her to work with him during the summer months. In vivid essays, the book captures her journey from her Richmond ‘burb to New York City— where she worked for 10 years before her big break: a role on the TV series Fresh Off the Boat. Look for Wu’s next appearance in the movie Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, based on the children’s book, coming in October. SimonAndSchuster.com —by Constance Costas

BETH MACY’S RAISING LAZARUS

In her follow-up to Dopesick—adapted by Hulu and nominated for 14 Emmy® Awards— Beth Macy’s Raising Lazarus examines the aftermath of the opioid crisis that’s claimed the lives of more than one million people since 1996. —by K.R.