434 | Summer 2022

All about town.

SUMMER 2022

A BOUQUET A WEEK | IX'S NEW IT MAN | BETTERIN G BL AC K BUSINESS

SCHOOLING This green wrap dress symbolizes love, calm, and feeling soothed. It was a gift from my husband, and reminds me of how well he knows me.

THE This shirt makes me feel bold, flowy, and free. It was originally worn by my uncle, then my dad, then passed down to me.

1 ABODE

WHY SHOULD

WE CARE

ABOUT WHAT

WE WEAR?

The shoes I wore when sharing Empathable with the chief of medicine at Mass. General Hospital. Wearing them, I feel playful, brave, and daring.

EMOTIONS

featuring

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Massage Therapy, Yoga, Ayurvedic Consultations & Bodywork, Ayurvedic Workshops Schedule online or call to book an appointment www.KalaAyurveda.com 434.964.7966

The 23rd annual Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival September 8-18, 2022 Top musicians performing compelling concerts Tickets On Sale This Summer www.cvillechambermusic.org (434) 295-5395

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Table of Contents

Metro 9 9 Petal peddlers Floral CSAs in full bloom this season.

10 Pie in our eye Vita Nova’s success, slice by slice.

13 Ready, set, grow 13 Totally awesome Two-hundred miles for the hungry.

Front and Center 15 15 Warm welcome Get to know gallery manager Tori Cherry.

17 Unity in art The many faces of Saul Kaplan.

19 It’s the climb New Hill’s vision for Black business.

TRISTAN WILLIAMS

A kid’s book about Vinegar Hill.

Feature 34 When Micah Kessel started Playground of Empathy with Kelley Van Dilla in 2017, they dreamt up an immersive experience that would teach the skill of empathy through videos and tangible objects.

Now, they’re working to translate the idea for the bigger picture: How can DEI training be transformed to include empathy at its core?

20 Self/work

Summer in the city

Gwen Cassady brings past to present.

Check off each of these sunny-day activities this season. PAGE 29

22 Down the line Local genealogists keep digging.

25 Leading role Ix’s new exec director brings the energy.

FOR A GOOD DAY, CALL... Jason Elliott. Page 38 On the cover: Empathable team members explain the meaning of their clothes. Photo: Tristan Williams

434, a supplement to C-VILLE Weekly, is distributed in Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and the Shenandoah Valley. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. 434 Editor Caite Hamilton. Copy Editor Susan Sorensen.

308 E. Main St. Charlottesville, VA 22902 (434) 373-0073 n c-ville.com c-ville.com/434

Designer Tracy Federico.

Art Director Max March. Graphic

Account Executives Chloe Heimer, Lisa C. Hurdle, Gabby Kirk, Stephanie Vogtman,

Beth Wood. Production Coordinator Faith Gibson.

Publisher Anna Harrison. Chief Financial Officer

Debbie Miller. A/R Specialist Nanci Winter. Circulation Manager Billy Dempsey. ©2022 C-VILLE Weekly.

434 5

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MEDICAL PROFILES MEDICAL PROFILES MEDICAL PROFILES

PEDIATRIC ASSOCIATES PEDIATRICASSOCIATES ASSOCIATES PEDIATRIC OF CHARLOTTESVILLE MEDICAL PROFILES OFCHARLOTTESVILLE CHARLOTTESVILLE OF EXPERT PEDIATRIC CARE – SEVEN DAYS A WEEK

PEDIATRIC ASSOCIATES c 1011 East Jefferson Street | Downtown | c 434.296.9161 1011 Jefferson Street | Downtown OF CHARLOTTESVILLE 1522East Insurance Lane, Suite A | North|Office | c 434.974.9600 c 434.296.9161 1522 Insurance Lane, Suite A | North Office | c 434.974.9600 EXPERT PEDIATRIC CARE – SEVEN DAYS A WEEK EXPERT PEDIATRIC CARE – SEVEN DAYS434.296.9161 A WEEK 1011 East Jefferson Street | Downtown |

1522 Suite A || North | c 434.974.9600 2411Insurance IvyEXPERT Road |Lane, West Office 434.296.8300 c CARE –Office SEVEN DAYS A WEEK 2411 Ivy Road | PEDIATRIC West Office |c 434.296.8300 2411 Ivy Road | West Office | 434.296.8300 c 71 Jefferson Court | Zion Crossroads | c 540.406.4100 71 Jefferson Court | Zion Crossroads 1011Court East Jefferson Street | Downtown c |540.406.4100 c 434.296.9161 71 | Zion Crossroads | c| 540.406.4100 www.charlottesvillepeds.com wJefferson 1522 Insurance Lane, Suite A | North Office | c 434.974.9600 www.charlottesvillepeds.com w w www.charlottesvillepeds.com 2411 Ivy Road | West Office | c 434.296.8300 71 Jefferson Court | Zion Crossroads | c 540.406.4100 What w services and treatments are offered at www.charlottesvillepeds.com

Whatservices services and treatments offered What and treatments areare offered at at Pediatric Associates of Charlottesville?

Pediatric Associates of Charlottesville?

Pediatric Associates of Charlottesville?

Pediatric Associates of Charlottesville is a private practice clinic Pediatric Associates ofand Charlottesville ainprivate practice clinic Pediatric Associates of Charlottesville is a isprivate What services and specialize treatments are offered at whose doctors, nurses staff thepractice care ofclinic infants, whose doctors, nurses specialize in care the care of hours, infants, whose doctors, nurses andand staffstaff specialize in have the ofoffice infants, children, adolescents and their families.

We daily Pediatric Associates ofWe Charlottesville? adolescents families.

We have children, adolescents andand theirtheir families. dailydaily officeoffice hours, aschildren, well as evening and weekend hours forhave emergencies.

All ofhours, our Pediatric Associates of Charlottesville is a private as well as as evening andand weekend hours for emergencies.

Allpractice ofAll our as well evening weekend hours for emergencies. of clinic our physicians are certified by the American Board of Pediatrics.

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They They physicians are certified by the American Board of sub-specialties Pediatrics. also have fields of interests in certain pediatric children, adolescents and their families.

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All of our including care, allergy, asthma, attention deficit/ including adolescent care, allergy, asthma, attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), infectious diseases, physicians are certified by the American Board ofanorexia Pediatrics.and They hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), infectious diseases, anorexia and and hyperactivity disorder also have ofa few. interestsinfectious in certaindiseases, pediatric anorexia sub-specialties sports medicine, tofields name(ADHD), sports medicine, to name a few. sports medicine, to name a few. including adolescent care, allergy, asthma, attention deficit/

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Charlottesville?

Associates Associates of Charlottesville?

What specialty services are offered at Pediatric

PediatricAssociates Associatesalso also provides specialty services with an on-site Pediatric provides specialty services with an on-site Pediatric Associates also provides specialty services with an on-site Associates of Charlottesville? audiologist, adolescent nurse practitioners, lactation consultants audiologist, adolescent nurse practitioners, lactation consultants audiologist, adolescent nurse practitioners, lactation consultants andnewborn newborn nurse practitioners.

Our hospital affiliation is and nurse practitioners.

Our hospital affiliation is with Pediatric Associates also provides specialty services with an with on-site and newborn nurse practitioners.

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Now Open Now Open Now Now OpenOpen Pediatric Associates is excited

Providers at Pediatric Associates of Charlottesville: Providers at Pediatric Associates Charlottesville: Providers at Pediatric Associates ofof Charlottesville: Providers at Pediatric Associates Charlottesville: PHYSICIANS (From Left to Right): Carlos E.of Armengol, Jr., MD

PHYSICIANS Left totoBouber, Right): Carlos E. Jr., MD PHYSICIANS (From Left to Right): Carlos E. Armengol, Jr., MD PHYSICIANS Left Right): Carlos E. Armengol, Armengol, Jr., MD Lori W. Balaban, MD(From | (From Gemila H. MD | Alaina Brown, MD PHYSICIANS (From Left to Right): Carlos Armengol, MD Lori Balaban, MD | |Gemila H. Bouber, MD || Alaina Brown, MDJr., Lori W. Balaban, MD | Gemila H. Bouber, | E. Alaina Brown, MD LoriW. W. Balaban, Gemila H. Bouber, MDMD Alaina Brown, MD Sheila F. Davis, MD | Jay M.MD Gillenwater MD | Teresa H. Hashisaki, MD W. Balaban, MD | Gemila H. Bouber, MD |H. Alaina Brown, MD SheilaF.Lori F.Davis, Davis, MD |||Jay Jay M. Gillenwater MD | Teresa Teresa H. Hashisaki, Hashisaki, MD MD to announce the opening of its Sheila MD Jay M. Gillenwater MD | Teresa Hashisaki, Sheila F. Davis, MD M. Gillenwater MD | H. MD Amanda Jones, MDMD | Sarah E. Knight, MDMD | Amy Malek, MD Pediatric is excited to announce opening Pediatric Associates excited to Through announce the the opening of of itsits Jones, Sarah E. Amy Malek, MD MD Sheila F. Amanda Davis, MD | JayMD M.||Gillenwater MDMD | Teresa H. Hashisaki, MD fourth location in Associates ZionisCrossroads. continued regional Amanda Jones, Sarah E. Knight, Knight, || Amy Malek, MD Amanda Jones, MD | Sarah E. Knight, MD | Amy Malek, D. Mika, MD | L. L. Paige Paige D’A. Perriello, MD | Marion Szwedo, MD Pediatric Associates isCrossroads. excited to announce thecontinued opening of its Katherine fourth location in Zion Crossroads.

Through regional Katherine D. Mika, MD | D’A. Perriello, MD | Morgan R. Newsome, DO MD fourth location in Zion Through continued regional Amanda Jones, MD | Sarah E. Knight, MD | Amy Malek, Katherine D.Trundle, Mika, MD ||L.L. Paige D’A. Perriello, MD | Marion Szwedo, MD growth, Pediatric Associates strives to provide convenient access to Katherine D. Mika, MD Paige D’A. Perriello, MD | Marion Szwedo, MD A. Robert MD | Paul P. Wisman, MD | Karyn E. Wolfe, MD fourth Pediatric locationPediatric in Zion Crossroads.

Through continued regional A. Robert Trundle, P. Wisman, MD || Karyn E. Wolfe, MD MD growth, Associates strives to provide convenient access growth, Associates to provide convenient access to to Katherine D. Mika, MDMD |MD L. |Paige Perriello, MD Marion Robert Trundle, MD | Paul Paul Wisman, MDMD Karyn E. Wolfe, MD exceptional pediatric care. The strives office, located at 71 Jefferson Court, A.A.Robert Trundle, | PaulP.D’A. P. Wisman, | |Karyn E. Szwedo, Wolfe, MD growth,exceptional Pediatric Associates strives to provide convenient access toCLINICIANS (From pediatric care.

The office, located atJefferson 71 Jefferson Court, Left to Right): Casee Dorsey, PNP | Jennifer Fontenot, PNP A. Robert Trundle, MD | Paul P. Wisman, MD | Karyn E. Wolfe, MD exceptional pediatric care.

The office, located at 71 Court, is now accepting appointments.

CLINICIANS (From Left to Right): Casee Dorsey, PNP | Jennifer Fontenot, PNP is nowpediatric acceptingcare. appointments.

(From Left (not to Right): Casee Dorsey, PNP MS, | Jennifer Fontenot, PNP The office, located at 71 Jefferson Court, CLINICIANS Kelly Vincel, CPNP pictured) Marian Fredner, CCCA/FAAA isexceptional now accepting appointments.

Kelly Vincel, CPNP (not pictured) Marian Fredner, MS, CCCA/FAAA CLINICIANS (From Left to Right): Casee Dorsey, | Jennifer Fontenot, PNP Kelly Vincel, CPNP (not pictured) MarianPNP Fredner, MS, CCCA/FAAA is now accepting appointments.

Kelly Vincel, CPNP (not pictured) Marian Fredner, MS, CCCA/FAAA www.OurHealthCharlottesville.com www.OurHealthCharlottesville.com6565

www.OurHealthCharlottesville.com 65 www.OurHealthCharlottesville.com 65

609 East Market St. 1 block north of the Downtown Mall www.tonic-cville.com

8 434

SHENANDOAH IMAGERY

Vibrant Food Fun Cocktails Communal Patio

FILE PHOTO

Metro

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FA R M F R E S H F LO W E R S

A drop in the BOUQUET

Radiant rudbeckia are a bright addition to any summer bouquet.

YOU’VE HEARD OF vegetable CSAs, but did you know you could have fresh flowers each week, too? Four local farms offer floral CSAs to keep you in blooms all season.

Leap Frog Farm

Sweet Greens Farm

Foothills Flower Farm

Aisling Flower Farm

leapfrogflowerfarm.com

sweetgreensfarm.com

foothillsflower.com

aislingflowerfarm.com

Each bouquet from Leap Frog contains 15 to 18 blooms plus filler stems, all wrapped in a charming kraft-paper sleeve—or BYOV (bring your own vase).

The summer bouquets from Sweet Greens boast unique and heirloom flowers like lisianthus, scented geranium, cosmos, gomphrena, and rudbeckia.

Beginning in mid-June and lasting through early August, this flower CSA includes heat-lovers like zinnias, sunflowers, and snapdragons.

Your Mason jar bouquet will include seasonal blooms—beginning in early June—from this family-run Keswick flower farm.

Cost: $120 for eight weeks

Cost: $25/bouquet for 14 weeks

Cost: $200 for eight weeks

Cost: $125 for six weeks

Pickup: Leap Frog Farm (4919 Miller Rd., Earlysville), delivery available

Pickup: The Wool Factory (1837 Broadway St.), Local Food Hub Market (1801 Hydraulic Rd.), Ix Art Park (522 Second St. SE)

Pickup: Foothills Flower Farm (3140 Doctors Xing), Dogwood Refillery (190 Zan Rd.), Moorehouse Studio (1575 Avon St. Ext.)

Pickup: Meade Park Market (Wednesdays), Laurie Holladay Interiors (123 S. Main St., Gordonsville) 434 9

Metro THE PERFECT SLICE

Pizza PI

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EXECUTIVE SEDAN We proudly feature late model Lincoln Sedans in our fleet.

Any of our Executive Sedans will fit 3 Passengers with luggage comfortably. These meticulously maintained vehicles are the mainstay of the Chauffeured Transportation Industry.

47–55 PASSENGER MOTOR COACH The Motor Coach is the largest vehicle type in our fleet. We have two sizes of Motor Coach, 47 Passenger and 55 Passenger, both of which are ideal for large groups. These vehicles enable you to transport a significant number of passengers at one time

25 PASSENGER MINI BUS Our Mini Buses are great vehicles for medium sized groups. These 25 Passenger vehicles, with their large viewing windows and individual seating, are a great way to tour the local area or shuttle guests from one location to another.

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“FRESH MOZZARELLA, TOMATO, and basil—that is the perfect pizza!”

Giovanni Sestito, owner of Vita Nova Pizza and Pasta Bar, sings the praises of the Caprese’s toppings. “When you look at it, it’s lively, it’s inviting. It’s flavorful, but it’s simple,” he says. Thanks to that compelling combo, the Caprese has remained a staple on Sestito’s menu throughout the years. “That never goes away,” says Sestito. “That stays.”

The same could be said for Vita Nova.

The pizza joint has been serving slices, calzones, pasta, salads, and tiramisu on the Downtown Mall for the past 25 years—more than half of the pedestrian mall’s entire existence. Now, due to building renovations, the restaurant has moved for the first time, directly across the mall to a bright corner location with a stylish interior.

Sestito is a quiet and unassuming man, an Italian immigrant in his 70s, devoted to pizza, but also a math major who speaks four languages. He says Dante’s La Vita Nuova inspired the name of his restaurant (it means “new life” in Latin). The name was significant in other ways too—when he opened Vita Nova, Sestito was embarking on a new life, as a recent arrival to the United States.

Sestito was 11 in 1954, when his family emigrated from Calabria, Italy, to San Juan, Argentina, joining a wave of Italians seeking better opportunities in South America post-World War II. Sestito grew up in Argentina, and made a living teaching math. Then, in the early 1980s, he won a scholarship to study at the University of Waterloo in Canada, where he earned a master’s degree in math. From Canada, Sestito followed his two brothers to the United States.

In Massachusetts, his career moved in a new direction, and with the help of his brother, Sestito opened his first restaurant.

When his brother moved south, Sestito did too, and arrived in Charlottesville in 1997.

He bought Sylvia’s Pizza on the Downtown Mall, and changed the name to Vita Nova in 2006.

How does a math major learn to run a pizza place? “By reading and the force of stubbornness,” laughs Sestito. He quickly became a pizza nerd who’s not afraid to do his research—he once called the General Mills hotline to get the nitty-gritty on a certain kind of flour.

EZE AMOS

Other things, however, you learn on the job, such as the quirks of the American palate. “One of my first experiences running the store,” Sestito remembers, “this guy came in and said, ‘I want a pizza with everything.’” To Sestito, this was ridiculous.

“I told him, ‘We have 72 toppings. Are you sure you want everything?’”

“In Italy, they don’t expect more than two or three toppings on their pizza,” he says.

Beyond the harmony of flavors, this ensures the dough rises properly in the oven, without getting too weighed down. But try telling Americans that.

Another early lesson came while working on the Downtown Mall during Fridays After Five. “It was surreal,” says Sestito. “There were double lines, for two, three, four hours. It was nonstop!”

As hectic as it was, he misses those days.

“The Downtown Mall was the heart of the city,” he says. What he sees today isn’t the

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Giovanni Sestito credits his Italian heritage and a background in math for his mastery of Vita Nova’s perfect pizza.

same. “The people on the Downtown Mall need support. The backbone of the American economy is small business, but they have been the hardest hit by the pandemic and online shopping.”

For Sestito, the key is thinking globally and shopping locally. “A small store on the Downtown Mall pays taxes to the city,” explains Sestito, so if you want your city to thrive, “you have to spend your money where you live.”

The pizzamaker experienced the power of community during the pandemic. With his lunch crowds disappearing due to online work, he seriously considered shutting down. But longtime Vita Nova customers were not about to let that happen. Sestito was astounded by the outpouring of support. “So many people asked me to stay,” he says. “And to stay on the mall, not anywhere else. That expression of solidarity really makes you rethink, so I decided to give this another chance.”

He’s grateful he stayed open, though it was not without hardships. Vito Nova went from a staff of seven employees to just two, and Sestito had to make the unexpected move to its new location. A typical week for him involves going into the shop every day, often working from 8 in the morning to 10 at night.

But pizzamaking is something he loves.

He waxes poetic on the finer points of pizza toppings, and gets a dreamy look in his eye when weighing in on the thin-crust/ thick-crust debate. What’s more, the business feels like family. Luis, the guy most likely ringing you up at Vita Nova, has worked with Sestito for 29 years.

When asked about his plans for the future, Sestito laughs. “My father didn’t retire till he was 85, so I still have a few years in me,” he says, as he gestures fondly to the new space. “I plan on being here for a while.”—Alana Bittner This story originally ran in C-VILLE Weekly.

434 11

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12 434

Metro

READING LIST

Local author Marc Boston writes stories for young people that emphasize the importance of diversity and inclusion. His latest picture book, A Promise to Grow, was created in partnership with area nonprofit City of Promise, which works to end generational poverty and foster a culture of achievement in all kids. Set in Charlottesville’s Westhaven community, the story follows CJ, whose pride in his neighborhood and kind heart move him to create a community garden. The book’s foreword tells a child-friendly, yet candid version of the loss of Vinegar Hill, and the afterword, written by Andrea Douglas and Jordy Yager, discusses pivotal moments and figures in the community’s history, including John West, a formerly enslaved man who became a civic leader.

SUPPLIED PHOTO

GROWTH spurt

R O L L A LO N G

This way to AWESOME

SUPPLIED PHOTO

IN THE EIGHT years since its 14 founders started the Journey of Awesomeness— a 200-mile bike ride from Ivy to Yorktown, Virginia—they’ve raised nearly $1 million for the hungry (through the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank) and the thirsty (through World Serve International). Get in on the action (and the healthy dose of smack talk) at journeyofawesomeness.org.

The race starts June 11.

434 13

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14 434

FRONT& CENTER

WHAT TO SEE, WHERE TO GO, WHO'S IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Getting to know:

TORI CHERRY A quickfire interview with New City Arts’ Welcome Gallery Manager By Caite Hamilton ANNA KARIEL

CONTINUED ON PAGE 1 6

434 15

Front & Center

20th Annual In The Pink Tennis Tournament

Friday, September 23, 2022 and Saturday, September 24, 2022 Grab a racquet and join us at seven clubs around town for tennis and pickleball to fight breast cancer and support women’s health at Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital

Register starting July 1, 2022 at mjhfoundation.org/in-the-pink Hosted by The Women’s Committee of Martha Jefferson Hospital Foundation

To Benefit Women’s Health and Breast Cancer Prevention In Our Community at Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital

mjhfoundation.org

Save the Date!

Saturday October 15

CONTINUED FR OM PAGE 1 5

T

ori Cherry’s work with New City Arts started long before she was hired as its Welcome Gallery Manager. The 2021-2022 Aunspaugh Fellow at UVA worked at a co-instructor for Summer Studio @ The Fralin, which culminated in a week-long show at New City. In November of 2021, she exhibited her own work, a collection of still life and figurative paintings entitled “In Good Time.” “‘In Good Time’ refers not to any anticipated moment or ending but instead to an implied attitude of patience,” Cherry said in her artist statement. “Patience is what enables me to see value in unlikely subjects.”

As Welcome Gallery Manager, Cherry will lead programs, exhibitions, and events. We challenged her to a quickfire interview to get to know her better.

First art memory: I grew up going to my grandparents’ church, which meant getting to church early and staying for almost the entire day. I’d say my earliest memory would be sitting in church pews drawing on the back of the service pamphlets. Being an only child, I had to find ways to keep myself entertained. My mom always encouraged me to carry around a little notebook and pen in the spirit of productivity (which I still do today), so drawing was what I did to keep myself busy. I’m sure she didn’t mean for my productivity to look like constant doodling, but she saw I was invested in it and encouraged me regardless.

Favorite artist: Really tough question, and I have to pick two because they’re both tied for my top spot: Jennifer Packer and Nicolás Uribe.

Most-used emoji:

IX Art Park | Downtown Mall Shop, Eat, and Have Fun… With a Purpose 16 434

What are you watching?

I’m currently rewatching a favorite show of mine called “Sense8.”

What are you currently reading?

Transit by Rachel Cusk.

What’s the top song on your Spotify playlist?

“Talk Down” by Dijon.

If past lives are real, what was yours?

I think in my past life I was an ornithologist.

First career you dreamed of having as a kid: I had a really long phase where I was totally convinced I’d be an astronaut. I’m still super interested in space and weather, but I’m not nearly as invested as I was as a kid. I think once I heard about how physically taxing it is for your body to be in space, I was a bit turned off.

Favorite thing about Charlottesville’s art scene: The community support! I’m so amazed by how much talent there is just within Charlottesville, and how supportive local artists and art-lovers are to each other. People go out of their way to attend each others’ art events, buy local art, and are just so encouraging. I always feel really motivated and supported whenever I get a chance to engage with the arts community here.

FIGURING it out Saul Kaplan sees unity in a thousand faces By Matt Dhillon

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I

n February, Saul Kaplan marked both his 93rd birthday and the release of a new book of artwork. The self-published Sketches: Faces of Life & Love highlights what is perhaps the artist’s most discreet and most intimate medium, his drawings.

Having retired to an apartment in Martha Jefferson House, the ceramics and painting that were the priority of Kaplan’s artistic career became more difficult. But Kaplan cannot sit down with a pen without coming away with a drawing. It’s a habit he’s developed from over 60 years of practicing.

“Drawing is a muscle memory, eye muscle coordination,” Kaplan says. The memory that keeps returning to the muscles of his fingers, wrist, and arm is the memory of human faces.

Over the years, Kaplan has drawn thousands of human faces, and on every page his book is populated with that most familiar of images.

“The human face expresses everything,” he says.

Kaplan’s simple lines craft expressions on the shifting array of faces, digging for the bare-bones of emotion buried there. We see eyes meet, or downcast, or slitted, eyes tired, or gentle, or cunning. Lips are curled, puckered, pouting, or tense. Noses sharp and soft, cheeks broad and narrow.

Perhaps it is this simplicity of bare lines that makes drawing, as Kaplan says in the book’s prologue, “the most intimate and direct form of visual communication.” While intricacy serves to expand and amplify, the simplicity of the line drawings in Faces of Life & Love go in the opposite direction, seeking to distill the essence of an eyebrow, or a lip, and identify the essential lines that carry emotion. In the most minimalist renderings, Kaplan refines a somber face into just a handful of lines.

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Saul Kaplan began his professional artmaking in 1948 at the prestigious Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts, where he studied drawing under Hofmann, who was a contemporary of Henri Matisse.

Kaplan also alludes to ancient Egyptian drawings. “The style of the Egyptian eye has been repeated over history,” he writes. “The eye I draw, like Picasso did, had its beginning in Egypt.”

That eye—drawn over and over for centuries—mirrors Kaplan’s endless creation of faces throughout the years. In this obsessive repetition and focus on the geometry of shape, Kaplan’s drawings search for something basic about the human face, its composition, and its familiarity. As the Egyptians did, Kaplan attempts to use the very specific and precise lines of a face to strike a resounding chord.

In this collection, we see the warm human population that Kaplan has created as a result of that repetition. Most of them are not alone, drawings occupied by two or more figures in some form of relationship to each other. Often, their bodies overlap or blend so that we see two faces that share one eye, or three heads that share one torso. In these fusions there is a sense of togetherness, of something shared that merges the characters in a visceral way.

Each drawing, he says, is a kind of personal signature. “[As artists] we are making our mark some way or another. It’s a kind of waving and saying, ‘I’m here.’”

Kaplan, like his characters, tries to merge with something bigger than himself, participating in the collective story.

“That’s what an artist really does,” Kaplan says. “He tries to use the medium he’s in to express something—it could be anything—but it is now part of history, a part of mankind.”

In the same way that the thousands of Egyptian eyes are actually one eye, iterations of the same form, Kaplan’s endless faces resolve into one face, waving at the world.

This story originally ran in C-VILLE Weekly.

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Front & Center

A NEW HILL to build on Envisioning a future for Black business in Charlottesville

By Brian D. Hamilton

N

ew Hill Development Corporation got its start from a series of conversations about the history and future of Black wealth in Charlottesville. In early 2017, Wes Bellamy and Kathy Galvin, then City Council members, gathered a group of Black entrepreneurs and community leaders to talk about Black representation in city development. But the scope of the discussion quickly grew.

They wanted to develop sustainable economic power for Black communities, so they set out to understand the history of that power.

They uncovered a story that is only now becoming more widely known, a story about a Charlottesville that was majority-Black after the Civil War, about a Charlottesville whose largest landowners were Black, and about a Charlottesville with a flourishing Black entrepreneurial class, concentrated especially in Vinegar Hill. They also uncovered a story

their Starr Hill Vision Plan—and, as of last November, saw it officially incorporated into Charlottesville’s Comprehensive Plan­­­­—but knew that it would be impossible, with the inevitable redirection of resources and energy, to enact it immediately. What would they do in the meantime? “People should not have to wait for generations for things to change,” Harrell says. New Hill wanted to act.

The pandemic was devastating for all business owners, but it was especially so for Black entrepreneurs. The U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Small Business reported that 41 percent of Black-owned businesses closed their doors between February and April of 2020. As New Hill worked with Blackowned businesses to stay afloat, it saw a need for a more robust network of support for Black entrepreneurs, leading to the creation of BEACON: the Black Entrepreneurial Advancement and Comabout white legislators who passed laws munity Opportunity Network. meant to keep Black people from acquirWith a critical mass of Black entrepreing new land, about white city officials neurs in the food industry, that’s where who neglected the infrastructure in Black BEACON’s energies would be focused. And neighborhoods, and about white city true to form, the incubator would not foplanners who decided to raze Black propcus on only one area of need. In addition erty, using the infrastructure they had to training—not only general education neglected as justification, in order to for entrepreneurs, Harrell says, but spemake space for new development. In cialized training about the food industry— short, they found a story of the suppresBEACON will provide marketing and sion and destruction of Black wealth. bookkeeping help that will enable its “Just as there was intention around demembers to get loans and leases, access stroying something, there has to be intento a commercial kitchen so no one will be tion around building something back,” burdened with crippling startup costs, and says Yolunda Harrell, one of New Hill even storefront space for testing new conDevelopment’s founders and now its CEO. cepts and getting off the ground. The BEAOver the last five years, New Hill has CON project has already begun building been building. Its first major initiative, out training and support, and is looking the initiative that gave it its name, was a for funding for kitchen and storefront small area development plan that aimed spaces. “What we wanted to do,” Harrell to revitalize Black housing and business says, “was to look at a way of helping in Starr Hill. At the heart of the plan people embrace their dream withthat was developed in 2019—itself “Just as there was intention out risking their financial future: ‘I a master class in holistic urban development­—is an ingenious re- around destroying something, can dare to dream this dream if I want to.’” imagination of City Yard, a 10-acre there has to be intention Vinegar Hill flourished before; it piece of city-owned land, as a around building something is no pipe dream to think a new hill mixed-use residential and comback.” YOLUNDA HARRELL can flourish, too. If it does, it will be mercial area. It’s a perfect illustrabecause of the patient, enterprising, tion of entrepreneurial spirit: and determined work of people like Hartransforming a municipal storage site into rell. “We want to make sure that somethe heart of a revivified Vinegar Hill. thing is happening,” she says. “We are in The coming of the pandemic in 2020 a position to help move lives forward in a forced Harrell and New Hill to turn way that the community wants to move their creativity and resourcefulness their life forward.” back on themselves. They completed 434 19

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Turning the PAGE Gwen Cassady faces her past, focuses on philanthropic future By Shea Gibbs

G

wen Cassady speaks like she works: In many directions, all at once. She’s built her a professional life around countless nonprofit and for-profit projects, and she’s overcome much to get there.

Abused and trafficked by her mother and others as a child, and later driven into homelessness multiple times, Cassady spoke with C-VILLE in early 2020 just weeks before she visited the United Nations to detail her experiences on the street. Two years later, she tells 434 she’s still pushing causes at a torrid pace.

434: What’s the latest for Gwen Cassady?

Gwen Cassady: When I went to the U.N. and presented, they were trying to determine two resolutions pertaining to the global homelessness pandemic. The first was for a measurement system to count the world’s homeless population.

The second was to create a definition of homelessness. They were unable to come to terms with the definition, but they have started to count the homeless utilizing a new measurement system and metrics. It was the first intergovernmental dialogue that the U.N. has ever had on homelessness.

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You’re also working on a housing project as you pursue a masters in global development practice at Harvard.

Yes, the Cville Villas. It will be the first net zero small-home community in Virginia, and it will be located in Albemarle County. Currently, we are not able to do everything we want to because of zoning; it will not be totally off the grid. It will have four quads, one for homeless veterans, one for foster kids, a third for domestic violence survivors, and the fourth will be for vacation rentals to raise rev-

enue. Residents will have unique skillsets so everyone can live and work together. I have started to make some headway in terms of meeting the right local officials. We have a strong team we are collaborating with.

Why is homelessness so important to you?

Everybody would say homelessness is important to me because I have been homeless four times, starting at the

age of 14, but it is much deeper than that. It is so personal. I was forced to endure situations as a child that were beyond deplorable. That is the underlying reason.

You haven’t offered many details about the abuse you suffered in the past.

It’s coming out soon, so it is important to go ahead and lay the groundwork. I don’t want to scare people, though. I

Gwen Cassady stays motivated knowing her many organizations are helping others in need.

↓

had to go through some heavy shit, and I didn’t have my memories surface until I was in my 40s. I had a specialist help me walk through the more detrimental and disturbing things, and I was able to uncover so much. It was a truly cathartic process.

Where exactly will your full story be coming out?

We are turning the short documentary If It Could Happen to Me, It Could Happen to You into a full-length feature. It premiered at the U.N. I am hoping that by the time this goes out, we will be close to finishing the full-length.

Tell me about some of your other projects.

Through Managing Love, we are working with a delegate in northern Virginia on a new anti-trafficking law to fight it at the systemic level. The first time I spoke with Delegate Delaney, I bawled my eyes out. It was powerful and cathartic to be taking that baby step toward something good. There has to be goodness in the world that comes out of what I had to endure as a child.

ANNA KARIEL

What is Managing Love’s relationship with Earth Day? We just had our second Love Mother Earth festival—this is really cool. We are a partner with the international Earth Day Network. They nominated me as one of seven out of 6,000 global volunteers to be recognized. Essentially, it’s promoting Earth Day and the Earth Day organization and all the work they are doing globally.

I know you also do some for-profit work to support Managing Love.

How do you find time for it all?

What keeps me going is the love and appreciation that I receive from individuals we are helping. It is each individual, unique person that really drives me. It is being an advocate for causes and social injustices and for those that don’t have a voice. This is going to make me cry—it’s okay, I love it—but it’s all for that little inner child, that 4-yearold inside of me who couldn’t do anything about my situation even when I tried my hardest. There are some scars that will never truly heal, but that is what keeps me going.

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Front & Center

Pulling back the CURTAIN Local genealogists work to bring family histories home By Maryanne Xue

T

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he Freedmen’s Bureau, founded after the Civil War, was a government agency with the goal of providing goods and services to newly freed African Americans, helping them become self-sufficient following emancipation. An 1867 request to the bureau for food describes a household of five: one 48-year-old, two 80-year-olds, and two 100-year-olds, one of whom was named Betsy.

When she saw this record, Dr. Shelley Viola Murphy, descendant project researcher at UVA, had several thoughts run through her head. Betsy was born before the country became the United States of America. She had likely been enslaved her whole life. And after emancipation, there she was, 100 years old, seeking food assistance.

Stories like Betsy’s drive Murphy’s passion for genealogical research, which involves tracing a person’s ancestral descent in order to learn more about their family.

“If I was a descendant [of Betsy’s], if I had the time, I would try to research her, to call out her name, because you know what? She lived through the torment, the violence, the servitude, the whole nine yards, and it’s more to be proud that she survived it,” says Murphy. “It’s about the stories. And no matter what, families gotta tell these stories, and they gotta call out their names, so they’re really not forgotten.”

Murphy is just one of several genealogists in the central Virginia area working to unearth local family histories. Beyond satisfying curiosities, genealogy has other benefits. Research suggests that children who have a greater understanding of their family history tend to have higher self-esteem, are more resilient, and have a greater sense of control over their lives, reports The New York Times.

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Brendan Wolfe, a former editor at Virginia Humanities’ Encyclopedia Virginia, started his own genealogy research service in 2021. After realizing that some of his potential clients faced financial barriers to accessing his services, Wolfe introduced a cost-free arm of his enterprise. Every two months, he will select one applicant to receive 20 hours of research and writing, valued at $1,000. The clients will receive a detailed report that includes family relationships, historical context, sources, and images.

“When your service is connecting people to their own history, I feel like that’s really important,” Wolfe says.

“Thinking more broadly, I feel as if in Charlottesville, of all places in central Virginia, we really understand what’s at stake with our history.”

Wolfe says he received over 100 applications within the first three days of the

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Local genealogists fill in family histories for the descendants of enslaved people who worked at UVA, including those commemorated by the school’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers.

announcement, and that he hopes to recruit other genealogists to help out or find additional funding to support the initiative.

Genealogy depends on the existence of historical records, which means that events like wars and fires impact whether any records can even be found. Many records were lost, especially during the Civil War, leading to some difficulties finding records from that time period in Virginia. Otherwise, central Virginia is a good location for genealogy research.

“This place is just steeped in history, and full of people who are interested in history,” says Wolfe. “And so I think it makes it easier in some ways to do genealogy.”

Murphy specifically conducts research to try and find the descendants of enslaved laborers who built UVA, a process that involves going back in time but also tracing the line of descent for-

ward. Her mantra for genealogy is understanding “time, place, and asking a bunch of questions.”

Murphy works from a list of over 2,000 enslaved laborers who were identified by examining the university’s financial records. The Freedmen’s Bureau is one of Murphy’s go-to collections for records of former slaves whose names were not on the census until 1870. These surviving records are often incomplete, though—some contain only first names, or common last names, making it difficult to discern who’s related to whom.

On Friday, Murphy and other local genealogists spoke at a genealogy panel hosted by the UVA Black Faculty & Staff Employee Resource Group.

Gayle Jessup White, public relations & community engagement officer at Monticello, learned that she was descended from Thomas Jefferson after eavesdropping on a conversation between her older sister and her dad when she was 13. It took her 45 years to track down the full picture—she is a descendant of Jefferson on his father’s side and was the great-great-great-granddaughter of Sally Hemings’ brother, Peter.

White chronicles her genealogical work in her book, Reclamation: Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant’s Search for Her Family’s Lasting Legacy. The process was really about “waking up to our historical truths” and understanding how history brought her to where her and her family are today, she said.

Sly Mata, director of diversity education at UVA, spoke about how after his mother and grandmother passed, he lost access to their records—legal documents, but also things like family recipes.

Although he can try to recreate them, they’ll never be the same because the records no longer exist.

“We want to be able to capture and tell those stories, and have that pride of knowing we have that knowledge. Because right now we don’t, and we’re afraid of generational curses…because we don’t know our family,” said Mata.

Thinking about Betsy and all the other stories waiting to be unearthed keeps Murphy up at night.

If she found Betsy’s family, Murphy says she’d say: “‘Did you know? Do you know about her?’ I would love to be able to hand that legacy of hers [to them].”

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Front & Center

Mr. IX it Art park’s new director brings youthful energy, ideas

By Shea Gibbs

A

Fundraising will be a crucial task for Ix's new executive director, Alex Bryant.

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Bryant knows fundraising will be a critical part of his efforts. Ix has long operated on an event funding model, fueling operations with gate fees. But the pandemic tested the approach. As they ramp up fundraising, Bryant and his team hope to draw funding from the grassroots, rather than one-time handouts from deep-pocketed organizations, attracting donations one person—and even $1—at a time.

Assuming the money is where it needs to be, Bryant sees the way forward clearly: To cultivate a pocket of creativity drawing folks not only from around the city but from all over Virginia and beyond to experience the humanity he sees as being inherent in art.

“A world in black and white…in boxes and completely orderly, the humanity of it is just gone,” Bryant says. “Art is what makes us people.”

EZE AMOS

lex Bryant is not even 30 years old, and being named Ix Art Park Foundation executive director in January was only the latest milestone along his ascent to local leadership.

Bryant joined the Charlottesville community in 2011, enrolling at UVA as an engineering student. He switched to music when an advisor told him to do what he loved. That led to his first job out of school: coordinator for Monticello’s Heritage Harvest Festival. He then moved along the festival circuit to the Tom Tom Foundation, where he took only three years to leapfrog the ranks to managing director.

In 2021, Bryant went to work alongside Ix Art Park executive director Susan Krischel. Less than a year later, he assumed Krischel’s role as she stepped away from day-to-day operations.

“She was looking to pass the torch,” Bryant says. “We had talked, and we share a similar vision.”

And what is Bryant’s vision? He starts with the Ix building’s history—a former textiles factory sitting dormant for more a decade and a half as downtown Charlottesville grew increasingly vibrant around it. Reopened and reimagined, Krischel and her co-founders believed the area could be a hub for creativity and productivity. It could be a commercial center with restaurants and shops, but it could also be more.

Through his experience with Tom Tom and beyond, Bryant brings a wealth of nonprofit programming knowledge to Ix, and that stands to be his focus as the park moves forward. Art classes, dancing, festivals, outdoor film screenings, farmers’ markets, concerts—it’s all critical to keeping IX alive, and a lot of will continue to be “absolutely free,” Bryant says.

“People can come down to the park, they can paint with watercolors, and they can just exist in a free space,” he says.

“The art and the public space portion of it is the magic jewel. You don’t have to

be doing anything. You can just read a book or take a nap.”

Bryant hopes to build on Ix’s existing relationships with the local Boys & Girls Club, Cville Pride, and other community organizations. And he wants to continue drawing people to The Looking Glass, Ix’s 2-year-old immersive art exhibit.

When she stepped down from the Ix directorship, Krischel said, “Alex has the energy, vision, and talent to guide us through our future growth plans.” And the young leader has already had opportunities to prove her correct. Ix is in the process of building a new children’s nature area and a 20-foot x 70-foot pergola using beams from the original Ix factory to give park users shade during the summer—the latter being a $100,000 improvement.

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S

Sunny days ahead YOUR CHARLOTTESVILLE SUMMER BUCKET LIST

We’ve been waiting for this all year—the weather is warm, friends and neighbors are back outside, and the hustle and bustle of summertime activities is underway. But how to fill your calendar? Leave it to us. We’ve compiled 24 must-dos for your summer bucket list. Check them off as you go, and hashtag us (#cvillesummerbucketlist) to share what you’re up to.

B Y CA I T E H A M I LT O N 434 29

summer Eat a hot dog from the grill.

Go fly a kite.

We say hot dog, but really anything will do (see: Pick a peck of peaches). The point is: Grill it, eat it. (Need a grill? Ace Hardware sells a classic Big Green Egg, but many picnic shelters at Pen and McIntire parks have grills, too.)

No, really.

Find a fun one at Alakazam or Shenanigans, then head to Pen Park and let ’er rip.

Pop by City Market.

If you don’t visit the City Market at least one Saturday morning in the summer, did summer even happen? Head downtown to reunite with in-season favorites like Planet Earth Diversified, The Orchid Station, and Caromont Farm. And, duh, grab some Shenandoah Joe to go.

Be a tourist in your town.

If the last time you visited Monticello was on a sixth grade field trip (guilty), take advantage of Monticello’s Local Discount—if you’re an area resident, enjoy a reduced rate of $22 for self-guided tours. (Or, get in free when you accompany an out-of-towner who’s paying full price!)

Pick a peck of peaches.

Return to the Corner.

White, yellow, or donut (the flat ones that are good for snacking), Chiles peaches are a must-have in the summertime. Pick your own, then grab a cone (or two) of the Crozet spot’s signature seasonal ice cream and enjoy the Blue Ridge Mountain view.

Ah, summertime. Birds are chirping, flowers are blowing in the breeze, and the Corner is all but emptied of co-eds. We like to take the opportunity to explore this uncharted (during the school year, at least) territory.

Dance to live music.

Shoot for the stars.

Summer offers an abundance of opportunities to get your groove on, from free concerts at Fridays After Five or The Garage to ticketed shows at Ting Pavilion.

Or, catch a glimpse of live music through the windows of downtown restaurants. Miller’s and The Whiskey Jar often have bands jamming loud enough to have a listen.

The Leander McCormick Observatory public night program (it’s free on the first and third Friday nights of every month) has resumed.

Register early to observe celestial objects through the observatory’s 26-inch McCormick Refractor—and keep your eye out for UFOs.

30 434

Watch a fireworks show.

A tradition for locals, McIntire Park’s Patriotism in the Park event is always poppin’—literally. It’s the best fireworks show in town come July 4.

Go on a bike ride.

Ready to feel the wind in your hair?

Blue Ridge Cyclery offers bike rentals for $60 per day.

Go to the fair.

Two words: funnel cake.

guide Dine al fresco.

Plant veggies for fall.

We don’t have to tell you the best place to do this (ahem, the Downtown Mall).

Another good option?

Pack a picnic and stroll UVA’s Pavilion gardens.

You reap what you sow, so get your fall vegetable bounty going in the summertime for optimum results. In July, plant beans, beets, broccoli, carrots, kale, peas, radishes, spinach, and winter squash from seed.

Head to Blue Hole.

Take a staycation.

Go fish!

The final destination of a hike through Sugar Hollow, Blue Hole isn’t actually blue. It’s a refreshing swimming hole with a small waterfall that cascades into the basin. In other words, a great spot to relax after a 1.5-mile hike.

Can’t get away? Live like a tourist in one of the area’s 300+ vacation rentals through Airbnb or, more locally, Stay Charlottesville. Let the hosts be your guide to the city, with recommendations for restaurants and tourist attractions.

Walnut Creek, Chris Greene Lake, Ragged Mountain Reservoir...

There’s no end to the great places you could catch a fish in our area.

The return of summer means the return of Chandlers Ice Cream stand, that Instagrammable soft-serve spot on River Road.

Sure, you could hike to Humpback Rock, but we recommend more urban destinations to see the sunset: the Belmont Bridge, the Lawn at UVA, or the top of a parking garage downtown.

Hit up a baseball game.

Catch a firefly.

Head to Crutchfield Park and root for the home team. The Tom Sox—40+ elite collegiate baseball players from across the country— kicked off their 42-game season in early June. Admission is free. Find the full schedule at tomsox.com.

When the weather warms up, humidity-loving fireflies come out to play. Trap one with your hands or in a jar and watch the magic of bioluminescence come to life.

If life’s handed you lemons, Splendora’s owner PK Ross recommends the gelato shop’s lavender lemonade: Pour boiling water over two cups of dried lavender and four cups of sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves. Cover with plastic to steep for 20 minutes with 1kg lemon juice in an eight-quart container. Strain the lavender syrup and then top with water to 5kg total weight.

TOM DALY

Get drippy with it.

Watch a sunset.

Make lemonade.

Join a CSA.

Eat watermelon.

Float on the Rivanna.

Fresh veggies all season long?

Sign us up.

Grab this classic summer treat from the City Market, slice it open, and go to town.

Bonus bucket-list points if you let the juice run down your chin.

In the movie of Charlottesville’s life, the Rivanna would be a major character. Not only is this 42-mile tributary of the James a glimmering topographical feature of our area, it’s also the coolest (literally?) place to be in the summertime. Grab a tube and put in anywhere you can.

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VIOLET the Musical

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CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY

by Lynn Nottage March 3-19, 2023

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The

style of empathy T Micah Kessel wants to change the way we do DEI

hink about the clothes you have in your closet. Or in your dresser. Or in the pile next to your bed. Think about a piece that has some special meaning to you.

My mind goes to a watch that my partner (who, full disclosure, is the editor of this magazine) gave me on our wedding day, and to a loud floral shirt I would never have chosen on my own that she encouraged me to wear. Wearing the watch makes me feel closer to her; to me, it’s a more powerful symbol of our marriage even than my wedding ring, partly because nobody else knows what it means. Wearing the shirt—even just seeing it hang there in the closet—makes me feel more confident, because it reminds me that someone else has confidence in me.

What are those pieces of clothing for you? What’s meaningful about them?

These are questions that Micah Kessel, executive director of the Playground of Empathy, often poses to groups going through the immersive, empathy-build34 434

ing experiences he and his team have designed. Some people resist, denying that they care that much about what they wear. But the emotions slowly come out. One person has a really comfortable sweater they always pull out at the start of fall. Another has a pair of slippers their grandfather wore.

After everyone has shared, Kessel asks members of the group to reflect on what they’ve appreciated from the stories they’ve heard. Without fail, no one mentions a single piece of clothing. What they remember are the emotions.

“No one talks about the slippers, ever, ever, ever,” Kessel says. “It’s almost like a little magic trick that we get to watch every time.”

The magic is empathy. The conversation about clothes provides a way of grasping the subjective validity of another person’s relationship with the world, and thus brings us closer together. *** Kessel started Playground of Empathy with his friend Kelley Van Dilla in 2017. Van Dilla’s main work is in theater and film (they debuted their autobiographical film/play, Let Go of Me, last year at Live Arts); Kessel’s focus has been experience design (having worked on everything from escape rooms to restaurant design to art installations). Their first big project together was to build a giant shoe.

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Who, what, wear MICAH KESSEL This cap is from our invitation to exhibit Empathable at Harvard GSD's Black in Design Conference. Post exhibition, through vibrant dialogue with attendees, our belief in Empathable's approach was propelled forward. Wearing it now I feel emotions of understated, bold advocacy, of making safe space for other POC, and hope.

TRISTAN WILLIAMS

JENNELL LYNCH This modern black dress was designed by a female designer and resold by a female-led e-commerce platform. On two levels, this dress represents women supporting women, which makes me feel empowered and compassionate.

JENNELL LYNCH I wear these tall black heels with everything. They make me feel strong, safe, and cute.

Since I'm often working with men, when we talk I want to ensure it's a direct, eye-to-eye conversation. I want them to remember that professionally we're on the same level.

NOAH ROSNER I like this shirt because my dad would wear it for his band gigs. As a kid I'd watch him playing shows like a rock star. When I was 18, he gave it to me for a party and I kept it. Now I wear it when I play gigs.

MICAH KESSEL Wandering a design fair in Oaxaca, I circled this jacket three times before trying it. It makes me feel introverted, like I can hide in its visual noise.

Growing up "different"-looking, I was averse to standing out, but being of half Asian heritage, maybe the kimono drape called me to it.

MICAH KESSEL These New Balances were the favorite of someone who showed me indescribable love and rightfully ended it after the worst lie I've ever told. They connect me to sadness, loss, and needing to move on. But also, I chose these. So I wear them, and live with all those choices.

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or anyone else on earth—ever.” Every experience is utterly singular.

Kessel is part of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Lab at Northeastern University, run by the esteemed psychologist of emotion Lisa Feldman Barrett. That experience has given him a scientific understanding of emotion and empathy that deeply informs his way of approaching the issue.

If every experience is singular and it’s impossible to grasp any experience from the outside, what is empathy? It starts with what Kessel calls subjective realism: “a comfort with the realization that our reality is our own, and no one else’s.” I have to accept that my experience is not the measure of yours, nor yours of mine.

But the distance between our realities does not doom us to separation. I can become curious about your experiences. I can share experiences of my own with you. When we do that, we grow closer to one another—even if neither of us has ever felt, or could ever feel, what the other is feeling. In encountering your experience, your reality, I learn to make space for you within mine. That’s the work of empathy.

In a paradoxical way, empathy is less about entering into another’s feelings than it is entering more deeply into your own. When I deepen my understanding of your experience of the world, I come to see my experiences in a new light. We grow closer to one another as we grow to know ourselves better, and we come to know ourselves better as we become closer to one another.

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After 13 years in Europe, Kessel moved to Charlottesville “in the midst of a national tragedy,” he remembers—just a month after August 12. The city was “in a deep state of processing.”

He had left his work as a behavioral design strategist in Amsterdam in order to think more deeply about the connection between emotions and education. Now that work seemed even more urgent. There are a thousand things to take away from that day, he says, “but for me personally, it was a reminder that the lack of emotional intelligence developed in our education system had become a harbinger for fascism.” He wanted to lay a foundation for the cultivation of real emotional nuance in this country.

Kessel and Van Dilla believed that empathy was a skill that could be taught and practiced.

But most of what we usually do to teach empathy is profoundly ineffective. That’s because we tend to leave things at the level of facts and concepts and moralisms, while empathy has to grow from experience.

They began collecting stories of marginalization and exclusion. The stories had to do with race, gender, sexuality, disability, body type—any number of ways people mark others off as alien.

Then they scripted and produced first-person enactments of those experiences that pulled the viewer into the action. Then, joining forces with sculptor and designer Annie Temmink, they built the shoe.

A vibrant thing of orange, green, and yellow stripes, tied with bright pink laces, the shoe was big enough to walk through. You entered, by yourself, and watched the videos, maybe even donning a piece of clothing that put you in the mindspace of the subject. Alone, in someone else’s shoe(s), it became possible to imagine inhabiting a different body, a different relationship to other bodies, and to recognize how different that experience must be.

The shoe was a hit. They traveled across the country with it, visiting a host of colleges and companies, talking about empathy and inclusion. In 2020, they won an Innovation Fund Award from the Harvard Culture Lab. The project has now evolved into an ambitious effort to reimagine what diversity training should look like—not a seminar, not a presentation, but an experience of other experiences of the world.

***

TRISTAN WILLIAMS

For the last year, Playground of Empathy has been contributing a regular feature to this magazine—“Charlottesville Street Style.” It spotlights local fashion, and crucially, asks the wearers why their clothing matters to them.

The answers are illuminating. Some are protesting expectations. Some are declaring freedom. Some are connecting with their roots, or bringing cultures into fresh conversation with one another. Some are looking for ways to make old things new. “These clothes disclose my testimony,” said La’Tasha Strother in the summer 2021 edition.

Empathable's Facilitation Director Noah Rosner, In keeping with Playground’s mission, the Organizational Management Consultant Jennell Lynch, and Executive Director Micah Kessel share the items point of these features is not to set an example; of clothing that mean the most to each of them. *** it is not to tell you how to dress. Kessel sometimes says that theirs is the only diversity and inclusion Empathy is a tricky concept. Kessel tells me that people often nod to the training in the country that does not tell you what to think. The point of what German term Einfühlung—a word that literally means “feeling into” anthey do, rather, is to give you an opportunity to encounter another person’s other—as the source of our definition. We usually talk about it as a matter experience, to open a window into the way that others relate to their clothing, of being able to feel what someone else is feeling. “But I think we’ve got it and so maybe to bring you closer to them. The point is to prompt you to rewrong,” he says. “I think we’ve really got it wrong.” consider yourself anew.

The problem is that, as we all know intuitively, truly feeling what someWe do not often think of empathy as having much to do with the way we one else is feeling is impossible. “The neural network that is making up get dressed in the morning. But for Kessel, our clothing can be “the great your state of being right now, that constellation of billions of neurons equalizer in a world of inequality: we’re all finding meaning in the items that firing, will never be felt before or again exactly how it’s being felt by you we connect to our embodied self.” This, perhaps, is the style of empathy.

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There is no day like a Friday in Charlottesville. Mine starts off with a sunrise breakfast on my balcony enjoying the most amazing sunrise overlooking the city, followed by a morning walk around Grounds. From there, I head to my therapy appointment—improving and maintaining my mental health is a priority of mine and I look forward to Communications manager at these sessions all week long. After therapy, I head to Virginia Department of Health, Bodo’s for my small decaf coffee. Every Friday, I meet host of “The Jason Elliott Show” with four of the most incredible women who have been breakfasting at Bodo’s for more than 30 years. They have adopted me as their Charlottesville grandson, and to my friends are affectionately known as my Bodo’s Babes. After we say our goodbyes, it’s off to the rooftop of Common House to work for the day (somehow work is a little easier with such great views). A firm believer in “work hard, play hard,” as soon as I clock out, I’ll grab a Ragged Branch Manhattan or a Potter’s Craft Cider. Then it’s off to Fridays After Five at the Ting Pavilion for some good music and socializing—but not for too long because me and my friends have dinner reservations at one of our Belmont favorites: Conmole or The Local.

The night is still young, so we head back downtown for a cocktail at Vitae or The Alley Light before a few rounds of billiards at Rapture. (None of us play well, but that doesn’t matter when you’re having a blast.) After the last 8-ball sinks, we head to Zocalo for some dancing, then The Fitzroy to close out the night. As we wrap up, I head home with a smile on my face—tomorrow’s sunrise will be here just in time to enjoy Saturday’s start at the IX farmers’ market and City Market, too.

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