Feedback: “Genre-fluid” Yola is a woman with a mission.

Free Movie Friday: Everything Everywhere

All at Once. A zany, dark comedy and multiverse adventure, science fiction film. Free, 7:30pm. Piedmont Virginia Community College, V. Earl Dickinson Building, 501 College Dr. pvcc.edu Magic: The Gathering. A casual evening with multiple formats, including draft, modern, legacy, and pioneer, and prizes for participants. $5, 6pm. The End Games, 374 Hillsdale Dr. theendgames.co

Merrie Mill Farm & Vineyard Art Festival.

Featuring exhibitions from over 16 artists, demonstrations, and live music from The Mojo Parker Express. Free, noon. Merrie Mill Farm & Vineyard, 594 Merrie Mill Farm, Keswick. merriemillfarm.com

Paramount Presents: National Geographic Live—Kobie Boykins, Exploring

Mars. An evening exploring the red planet, with an update on the latest chapter in Mars exploration. $19-29, 7pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net

Saturday 9/17

music

Berto’s Brunch. Join Berto and Vincent for brunch, wild gypsy rumba, and Latin guitar. Free, 11am. Tavern & Grocery, 333 W. Main St. tavernandgrocery.com Blato Zlato. Balkan tunes. Free, 7pm. North Branch School, 221 Mickens Rd., Afton. blatozlato.com FarAway. Sara Davenport and Brian Franke perform originals and covers. Free, 1pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwoodfarmandwinery.com Side Hustle. Rock and soul. Free, 1pm. Merrie Mill Farm & Vineyard, 594 Merrie Mill Farm, Keswick. merriemillfarm.com The Heavy Heavy. Unfettered rock ‘n’ roll. $15-17, 8pm. The Southern Café & Music Hall, 103 S. First St. thesoutherncville.com The Michael Elswick Gathering. Jazz, blues, ballads, and Latin tunes. Free, 2pm. Glass House Winery, 5898 Free Union Rd., Free Union. glasshousewinery.com Uncle Pen. Enjoy live music by Alex Caton and her new band. Free, 2:30pm. Albemarle CiderWorks, 2545 Rural Ridge Ln., North Garden. albemarleciderworks.com Yola. With Jac Ross. $27-33, 8pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. jeffersontheater.com

words

Kerry Malawista: Meet the Moon. Maryland writer and psychoanalyst discusses her coming-of-age novel. Free, 7pm. New Dominion Bookshop, 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. ndbookshop.com Storytime. Featuring recent storybooks and classics kids know and love. Free, 11am. New Dominion Bookshop, 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. ndbookshop.com

outside

Charlottesville City Market. Fresh produce, handmade gifts, homemade baked goods, and more. Free, 8am. Charlottesville City Market, 100 Water St E. charlottesville.gov Farmers Market at Ix. Over 60 local vendors with produce, prepared foods, artisan goods, and more. Free, 8am. Ix Art Park, 522 Second St. SE. ixartpark.org Native Plant Walk. Phil Stokes leads this tour through blooming fields. Free, 9am. Ivy Creek Natural Area, 1780 Earlysville Rd. vnps.org

Yola only lives once

Multi-talented rising star sets her mind on creative brain function

By Shea Gibbs

arts@c-vile.com

She’s a six-time Grammy nominee who’s coming off a buzzy cinematic debut playing Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. So why isn’t Yola, who’ll take the Jefferson Theater stage with her band on September 17, a household name?

A few answers come to mind when talking to the self-proclaimed “genre-fluid” British songstress. First, she’s difficult to brand. Genre fluidity is something some people just can’t dig. And second, she’s skeptical of the media.

“I felt like all people want to do is put you in a little box—or even in a large box,” Yola says. “But white guys can do anything. We thought they couldn’t do hip-hop. They were too far from the streets and elitist. That hasn’t stopped them.”

Household name or not, Yola can sing. And play guitar. And write music. Oh, and she’s an avid student of the human brain.

After her breakout first album, the fourtime Grammy-nominated Walk Through Fire, Yola hit a creative dry spell. Her solution? Go deep into her own songwriting process and turn it on its head. “I managed to kind of deconstruct the way I create on a scientific level,” she says. “I am aggressively sciency.”

Yola’d been curious about the brain and its relationship to singing and songwriting since battling vocal nodules early in her career. After struggling with average medical care and vocal coaching during her recovery, she decided to learn exactly what was happening to her. Applying a similarly scientific approach to songwriting was only natural when she had to overcome writer’s block for her second LP, Stand for Myself.

Yola breaks it down like this: Many of the songs she wrote for her first record came from her prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that does all the consciously clever stuff. But on a few songs, she figures she was able to draw from her midbrain, which is responsible for the senses. Those midbrain songs express ideas that spring to mind and “bump together” without help from the clever prefrontal cortex, and they’re more inspired.

“The idea of using that part of the brain that holds everything we have ever sensed and creates this ‘soup’—that’s the thing that allows you to make more elegant connections,” Yola says.

Using that part of the brain is easier said than done. But Yola, like so many of us, had a lot of time to putter around the house and try things over the past couple years. One strategy that worked consistently was watching meditative television—track and field, Formula One racing (she’s a “massive fan”), or the Tour de France—into the early hours of the morning.

Sitting in her living room or idly performing household tasks with burst-of-activity sports playing in the background, Yola was

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Yola is poised for major stardom following the release of two Grammy-nominated albums, and an appearance in the film Elvis. She performs at the Jefferson on Saturday, September 17.

able to enter a less cognitive state, ignoring basic motor functions and focusing on her midbrain soup. The process yielded at least a third of the tracks on Stand for Myself, Yola’s first album to debut on the Billboard 200 (at 196). Another third came from ideas that had been in her head for years, and for the final third, she credits her producer and collaborator, Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, for taking them to the next level.

“Foundationally, Dan and I are both music fans,” she says. “He was able to imagine me doing feasibly anything, and that was also important for me to realize: I can feasibly do anything.”

At this point in her career, Yola refuses to be tied to a genre or put in a box, but she also has a well-defined mission ahead of her. After playing Sister Rosetta in Elvis, she’s considering more acting gigs and has been in talks with producers. But any role would have to be on her own terms.

“I am going to see what speaks to me,” she says. “If I play someone, that character is going to be nontoxic to Black women. That is the brand.”

When it comes to music, “it’s about reclaiming everything that has been stolen from Black people,” she says. She doesn’t want to see what happened to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who had her role in inventing rock music scrubbed from the history books, happen to other marginalized people.

“The machine that we live in has constantly tried to program you against the efforts we’re making to be better. It is an attack on our brains,” Yola says. “Once we realize we didn’t come out of the womb like this, we can say, ‘Okay I have just got to stop these things from attacking my brain and know exactly what we are consuming.’”

Yola says her two genre-fluid records to this point have been building blocks, bridges to something even bigger. Now that she’s showcased her abilities in multiple genres, she’s free to focus on one if she chooses, maybe with a blues record here or a disco album there.

For now, though, she and her band will bring big shows to her fans, even as she plays smaller venues like the Jefferson between festival junkets and major-city headline spots.

“Everywhere we go, we still bring the same bus with the same trailer,” Yola says. “One thing that is maybe different from a festival set is I like to strip everything back on a few songs and show people an original version from before I took it to anybody else. I like to give people that.”

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Saturday 9/17

etc.

Cville Sabroso. The area’s only festival celebrating Latin American culture through art, music, dance, and food. Free, 2pm. Booker T. Washington Park, 1001 Preston Ave. @cvillesabroso

Daily Tour of Indigenous Australian Art.

See listing for Wednesday, September 14. Free, 10:30am and 1:30pm. Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA, 400 Worrell Dr. kluge-ruhe.org Oktoberfest 2022. A festive weekend with fall-themed beers on tap, live music, a stein hoisting competition, and more. Free, all day. Starr Hill Brewery, Dairy Market. dairy marketcville.com

Sunday 9/18

music

Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival.

Contemporary music for flute, percussion, and strings, and a Mozart masterpiece. Free$25, 3pm. Old Cabell Hall, UVA Grounds. cvillechambermusic.org Sunday Blues & Jazz. Paulien performs live. Free, 1pm. Merrie Mill Farm & Vineyard, 594 Merrie Mill Farm, Keswick. merriemillfarm.com Sundays at the Winery. Mimosas, award- winning wine, cider, beer, food, and live music. Free, 1pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwoodfarm andwinery.com Swansong. Violinist M. Alan Pearce and pianist Rene Sanchez perform classical, rock, soundscapes, soundtracks, jazz, and tango. Free, 2pm. Glass House Winery, 5898 Free Union Rd., Free Union. glasshousewinery.com Zuzu’s Hot 5. Cold, award-winning cider and Zuzu and her Hot 5’s blues and jazz provide a romantic escape. Free, 2:30pm. Albemarle CiderWorks, 2545 Rural Ridge Ln., North Garden. albemarleciderworks.com

etc.

Carniville for Charlottesville by Greek-

4Good. Live music, food trucks, inflatable activities, obstacle courses, raffles, and more, to raise money for three nonprofits. Free, noon. Madison Bowl, UVA Grounds. greek4good.org Cville Pride Street Fair & Fun Day. Drag, music, nonprofits, local crafters and artisans, food, activities, and more. Free, 11am. Ix Art Park, 522 Second St. SE. cvillepride.org

Daily Tour of Indigenous Australian Art.

See listing for Wednesday, September 14. Free, 10:30am and 1:30pm. Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA, 400 Worrell Dr. kluge-ruhe.org Dungeons and Dragons. Start a group or join an existing one. No materials or experience required. $5, 4pm. The End Games, 374 Hillsdale Dr. theendgames.co

Paramount at the Movies Presents: The

Artist. This black-and-white silent film recalls the glamour of 1930s Hollywood, and how the industry could make you or break you. 25 cents, 2pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net Santa in September. A family-friendly event full of yard games and crafts to benefit Mason’s Toy Box Foundation. $2-50, 2pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwoodfarmandwinery.com

My Morning Jacket with Joy Oladokun

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Monday 9/19 | Ting Pavilion

Monday 9/19

music

Baby Jo’s. Tunes from the seven-piece, New Orleans-inspired boogie and blues band. Free, 6:30pm. The Whiskey Jar, 227 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. thewhiskeyjarcville.com Gin & Jazz. Brian Caputo Trio performs in the hotel lobby bar. Free, 5:30pm. Oakhurst Hall, 122 Oakhurst Cir. oakhurstinn.com Berto & Vincent. Rumba rumba. Free, 7pm. South and Central Latin Grill, Dairy Market. southandcentralgrill.com

Marinus in the Vineyard: Dover Quartet.

Enjoy wine, bring your own picnic, and listen to a short, intimate concert in the round from the Grammy-nominated quartet. $25, 6:30pm. King Family Vineyard, 6550 Roseland Farm, Crozet. marinusensemble.com My Morning Jacket with Joy Oladokun. American rock ‘n’ roll. $55, 7pm. Ting Pavilion, 700 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. tingpavilion.com

words

L.Y.A.O Comedy Open Mic Night. Chris Alan hosts this talent showcase. Free, 8pm. The Southern Café & Music Hall, 103 S. First St. thesoutherncville.com

Tuesday 9/20

music

Josh Mayo and The House Sauce. A tunefilled Tuesday evening. Free, 9pm. Rapture, 303 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. rapture restaurant.com

Marinus in the Vineyard: Dover Quartet.

See listing for Monday, September 19. $25, 6:30pm. King Family Vineyard, 6550 Roseland Farm, Crozet. marinusensemble.com The Afghan Wings. With Pink Mountaintops. $30-130, 8pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. jeffersontheater.com Vincent Zorn. Solo wild gypsy rumba. Free, 7pm. The Bebedero, 225 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. thebebedero.com

etc.

Daily Tour of Indigenous Australian Art. See listing for Wednesday, September 14. Free, 10:30am and 1:30pm. Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA, 400 Worrell Dr. klugeruhe.org Family Game Night. Enjoy dinner, refreshing cocktails, mocktails, and beers, and play a variety of games for all ages, including corn hole, jumbo Jenga, cards, and more. Free, 5pm. Dairy Market, 946 Grady Ave. dairymarketcville.com Geeks Who Drink Trivia Night. Useless knowledge means everything at this authentic homegrown trivia quiz. Free, 8pm. Firefly, 1304 E. Market St. fireflycville.com