In 1994, my grandmother (the one who recently turned 95) and my dad created a 16-foot, 4-ton sculpture entitled “Guns into Plowshares.” The steel piece took more than 3,000 disabled handguns from a Washington, D.C., buyback program and reimagined them into the shape of a plow. “In this sculpture, we turned instruments of death into a symbol which cultivates life,” my grandmother said at the artwork’s dedication. “We are turning pain into art so we can bear it.”
Just as that work insisted that violence could be reshaped into something life-giving, this week’s cover story (p.18) looks at a new chapter in Charlottesville’s own transformation. The Confederate statues that once loomed over our city—objects long used to sanctify the Lost Cause—have been reworked, reimagined, and, in some cases, melted down entirely. The L.A. exhibition “Monuments” asks a question similar to the one my grandmother posed: What do we do with the pain we inherit? And how do we shape it into something that helps us move forward?
Hey, thanks!
This week’s contributors
These generous benefactors of C-VILLE have supported our work through our (now tax-deductible!) Save the Free Word campaign. To contribute, follow the QR code.
Towns Ackerman
Susan Albert
Catherine Anninos
Lori Balaban
Timothy Bambury
Catherine Barnes
Julie Basic
Susan Battani
Josh Baumann
Jennifer Beachley
Mayanna Bean
Denise Benson
Anne Bergamesca
Rebecca Berlin
Kim Biasiolli
Patrick Bird
Paddy Bowman
Olivia Branch
Paul Brewer
Susan Brickman
Claudia Murray
Brindle
Sumner Brown
Colette Brown
Jack Brown
Kate Buford
Cathleen Burgess
Carol Burger
Patricia Burkett
David Calhoun
Michael Callahan
Linda and Pat Canzanelli-Dantona
Brian Carlton
Helen Cathro
Janelle Catlett
James Clark Jr.
Diane Cluck
Karen Collins
Lorraine Collins
Beth Croghan
Margaret Crone
Emily Currier
Genny Dalton
Maria-Eugenia
Dalton
Charles Dassance
Pam and Peter Dennison
Nancy Dettor
Martha Donnelly
Vincent Draddy
Charlotte Drummond
Louise Dudley
Lee Elberson
Jane Elmore
Karen Emmitt
Ken Engebretson
Elizabeth Engle
Rosa Ellen English
Gail Esterman
Joe Ethier
Tom & Anna Ferrell
M. Fife
Jon Fink
Lavonne Fitts
Kevin Foley
Barbara Fornoff
Joan Forrest
Amy Gardner
Georgia Garrett
Gerald Giammatteo
David and Janna Gies
Donna Goings
Stephanie Goodwin
Trice Gravatte
Andrew Greeley
Jennifer Grover
Cara Hall
Kendra Hall
Jeremy HarrisMcDonnell
Wiliam Harvey
Madeleine Hawks
Ann Marie Haynes
Mary Haynes
Elain Heffelfinger
Chris Hellings
Stephen Herrick
John Heyser
Ezra Hitzeman
JoAnn Hofheimer
Lisa Hogan
Gina Hogue
Laura Horn
Christina Horton
Robert Inlow
Deb Jackson
Garth Jensen
Nina Johnston
Nicole Jones
Diane Jones
Janet Jospe
Brian Kelly
Trish Kenney
Tom Kirk
Kathryn Kluge
Julie Lacy
Marcia Langsam
Jacalyn LaPierre
Aaron Lawrence
Eric and Diane
Lawson
Elizabeth Lawson
Frances Lee-Vandell
David Lemon
Sean Libberton
Angeline Lillard
Peppy Linden
Jessica Lino
D. Little
Phillip Long
Rob Lynch
Catherine Maguire
Greg Mallard
Jeff Martin
Virginia Masterson
Jeanne and Bob
Maushammer
Erin Mayer
Kieran Mcdowell
Mary McIntyre
Gretchen McKee
Ruth McWilliams
James Mernin
Nicolas Mestre
Tim Michel
Parthy Monagan
Vic Monti
Hilary Moorman
Michael Morency
Harold E. Morgan
Michael Moriarty
Catherine Moynihan
Jim Mummery
Karen Myers
Monica Newby
Sandy Newhouse
Kathy O’Connell
Dennis O’Connor
Diane Ober
Cynthia Van Osch
Annette Osso
Laila Ouhamou
Annette Owens
Timothy Palmer
Michael Pantano
Dashton Parham
Susan Payne
Amanda Peacock
Joe Peacock
Elizabeth Perdue
Joann Peters
James Peterson
Damon Pettitt
Andrew Pevsner
Elayne Phillips
Robin Powell
Anne Price
Ernest Pugh
Harry Purkey
Leslie Quenichet
Frances Racette
T. Radsky
Scott Ransom
Sarah Ratcliffe
Stots Reele
Marjorie Rein
Cindy Richards
Kevin Richardson
David Robinson
Julia Rubarth
Carol Gilbert Sacks
Audrey Sarate
Claudia Scenna
Joan Schatzman
Sandra Schmidt
Eric Schultz
Karen Schuyler
Wendy Seay
James Seitz
Elaine Shaw
Chuck Shelton
Paul Shettel
John Smith
Kristina Smith
Rod Smith
Meredith Smoot
Mickey Speck
Maria Spence
Jim Spencer
David Stackhouse
Mariah Steele
Rod Stoner
Robert Strickland
Deborah Strong
Nichole Taylor
William Terrell
Emily Thiede
Reid Thompson W. McIlwaine
Thompson Jr.
Prue Thorner
John Titus
Jessica Tobin
Erica Toy
Rose Trapnell
Jill Trischman-Marks
Susan Uland
Rick Vergot
Christina Walker
Steven Ward
David Waters
Chris Waugaman
Phoebe Weseley
Kelly West
Gary and Anne
Westmoreland
John Whitlow
Jay Wildermann
Marcia Wilds
Andrew Wolf
Natalie Yancey
Suzanne Yeaman
Nura Yingling
Kelly Zalewski
Kathleen Zenker
Sean Tubbs moved to Charlottesville in 2002, and has sought to understand why development occurs the way it does. Since 2005, he’s helped innovate information gathering to try to help people know they belong and how they can have their say. Read his work on pages 11 and 13.
Max March, who originally hails from Alaska, has lived in the lower 48 since 2005. He’s been a designer at C-VILLE Weekly since 2012, and took over as art director in 2020. He received his bachelor of fine arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. His interests include letterpress printing and his son, Harry. See his work throughout the paper
My name is Jordan Hague and I created Equity Saver USA in 2008 to offer a better, more affordable service to disrupt and challenge what I personally experienced to be an outdated and flawed approach to Realtor compensation at the expense of sellers and buyers.
In 2024 the National Association of Realtors settled a billion dollar lawsuit related to inflated Realtor commission practices. This monumental settlement opens the door for true free market competition and innovation to thrive. I’ve successfully sold homes using a 1% model for nearly 2 decades proving the old “6% legacy” commission model is a waste of money and does nothing to help promote affordable housing. Contact me direct to arrange a no obligation meeting to learn more.
CULTURE 27
ED I TORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Caite Hamilton editor@c-ville.com
ART DIRECTOR
Max March max@c-ville.com
CULTURE EDITOR
Tami Keaveny tami@c-ville.com
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
Nathan Alderman news@c-ville.com
NEWS REPORTER
Catie Ratliff reporter@c-ville.com
NEWS CONTRIBUTOR
Sean Tubbs
ASSOCIATE CULTURE EDITOR
CM Turner arts@c-ville.com
COPY EDITOR
Susan Sorensen
CONTRIBUTORS
Rob Brezsny, Dave Cantor, Matt Dhillon, Carol Diggs, Shea Gibbs, Mary Jane Gore, Maeve Hayden, Andrew Hollins, Erika Howsare, Matt Jones, Sarah Lawson, Lisa Provence, Sarah Sargent, Kristie Smeltzer, Jen Sorensen, Julia Stumbaugh, Jake Solyst, Paul Ting, Eric Williamson
ADVERTISING
advertising@c-ville.com
DIRECTOR OF SALES Bianca Johnson bianca@c-ville.com
REAL ESTATE & CLASSIFIED ACCOUNT MANAGER
Brian Hrozencik brian@c-ville.com
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Stephanie Vogtman-Say stephanie@c-ville.com
Jacob Phillips jacob@c-ville.com
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Tracy Federico designer@c-ville.com
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR
Faith Gibson ads@c-ville.com
BUSINESS
PUBLISHER
Anna Harrison anna@c-ville.com
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Debbie Miller debbie@c-ville.com
A/R SPECIALIST
Nanci Winter accounting@c-ville.com
CIRCULATION MANAGER
Billy Dempsey circulation@c-ville.com
C-VILLE HOLDINGS, LLC
Bill Chapman, Blair Kelly
C-VILLE Weekly is Charlottesville, Virginia's award-winning alternative newspaper. Through our distinctive
TingPavilion.com
JUST ANNOUNCED!
APRIL 19
MAY 7 Lake Street Dive 2026 Tour
On Sale Friday, December 5 at 10am
Ole
60 with the Jack Wharff Band and Rob Langdon
On Sale Friday, December 5 at 10am
JUST ANNOUNCED!
JANUARY 16-ON SALE NOW SOS: THE RECESSION POP PARTY
BAND
FEBRUARY 26-ON SALE FRIDAY KENDALL STREET COMPANY
FEBRUARY 27-ON SALE NOW FULL MOON FEVER
MARCH 15-ON SALE NOW AMELIA DAY
APRIL 3-ON SALE FRIDAY HANNAH COHEN
12-05| BRISK - 90s/00s ALT ROCK TRIBUTE 12-06| THE HEAVY HEAVY WITH LANEY JONES AND THE SPIRITS 12-11| AN EVENING WITH MAGNOLIA AND JOHNSON ELECTRIC CO. 12-12| DAVID WAX MUSEUM AND LOWLAND HUM PRESENT THE GOLDEN HOURS PRESENTED BY WNRN 12-13| RAMONA & THE HOLY SMOKES / HANNAH JUANITA WITH MOSE WILSON PRESENTED BY 99.7 WCYK
12-14| RHETT MILLER (OF THE OLD 97s) 12-19| BRANDON WAYNE & HIS LONESOME DRIFTERS / IAN GILLIAM & THE FIRE KINGS
Come experience the beauty, stillness, and expectation of Advent in song.
Join us for three beautiful Choral Evensongs this Advent season:
Sunday, November 30 | The season begins with radiant music for Advent and evening, including Brewer’s Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, Gawthrop’s Come, thou long-expected Jesus, and the haunting Blessing of Light.
Sunday, December 7 | This special service features Taylor & Boody Opus 51, the continuo organ of Christ Church, on generous loan. The Schola will sing works by Orlando Gibbons for choir and continuo, in a rare appearance from the front of the church!
Sunday, December 21 | In final moment of Advent calm, this service will feature the sublime “A tender shoot” of contemporary composer Kerensa Briggs alongside perennial seasonal favorites.
Choral Evensong is offered every 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sundays of each month, at 5:30 p.m.
Learn more about worship at stpaulsivy.org/worship
Close call
Fluvanna School Board race goes to recount amid complaints of Election Day misconduct BY CATIE RATLIFF
NEWS POLITICS
Election season ended last month for most of Virginia. But in Fluvanna County, one race—roiled by allegations of Election Day misconduct—is finally coming to a close. With the Election Day tally divided by just 20 votes, the Cunningham District School Board contest between incumbent Charles Rittenhouse and challenger Sarah Johnson went to a recount December 2.
Rittenhouse has represented the Cunningham District since 2012. At press time, the recount was ongoing.
Kelsey Cowger, who worked with the Johnson campaign, filed a formal complaint with the state board of elections on November 6. The complaint alleges that Rittenhouse spoke to voters still in their vehicles and crossed the 40-foot line around the polling place in Scottsville to campaign multiple times on Election Day.
Photos taken by the Johnson campaign on Election Day, and included with the complaint, show Rittenhouse speaking to two people in their vehicles, a black Toyota truck and a dark red Jeep.
When invited to comment, Rittenhouse declined an interview but sent a written statement. “The complaint that I was supposedly approaching people before or as they exited their vehicles, is absolutely untrue,” said Rittenhouse. “I have not seen the picture, but the description sounds like my neighbor’s truck. He did pull up to where I was standing, I turned around, he rolled down his window, and asked if he was allowed to park there. I told him the sign said, ‘voter parking,’ so he should be fine. We may have exchanged a hello and how have you been, but we never discussed the campaign or voting.”
Roman Bakke, vice chair of the Fluvanna Electoral Board, is also named in the complaint. A video from Election Day shows
Bakke telling Johnson and current school board member James Kelley that they created “an environment that is confrontational.” The Johnson campaign can be seen near, but not crossing, the 40-foot line in videos from Election Day that the campaign shared with the Fluvanna Electoral Board
“My goal was mainly to remind voters that day that there was a back of the ballot and I was on it,” said Johnson. “It’s a two-sided ballot. This year, the school board is the only race on the back of it. A lot of people don’t remember to flip their ballot.”
Prior to the recount, a total of 2,498 ballots were cast in the Cunningham District School Board race. Based on data from the Virginia
“We are going to look into it. I think now both the Democrat and Republican members of the Board [of Supervisors] now agree we need to find a more neutral spot, if we can.” SCOTT NEWMAN, FLUVANNA ELECTORAL BOARD CHAIR
IN BRIEF
All the news you missed last week (in one sentence or less)
Department of Elections, most Cunningham District voters completely filled out their ballots, with 2,685 votes cast from the precinct in the gubernatorial election.
With the contest between Rittenhouse and Johnson so close, every vote cast—or not, if voters didn’t flip their ballots over— was crucial. Candidates and campaigns can engage with voters outside the 40-foot line under Virginia law, but cannot “hinder or delay a qualified voter from entering or leaving a polling place.”
Beyond alleged campaign law violations, videos from the Johnson campaign raise questions about the neutrality of the Cunningham polling site. While state guidelines prefer precincts to be in government buildings, two voting districts in Fluvanna do not have public sites compliant with accessibility requirements. As a result, the Cunningham District’s precinct is located at Antioch Baptist Church— where Rittenhouse serves as a deacon.
A video from Election Day shows Rittenhouse, Johnson, and supporters discussing the rainbow knit hat Johnson had on, and its potential offensiveness to members of the church. In response to Johnson’s statement that the site was “not a church today, it’s a polling precinct,” Rittenhouse says in the video: “It’s a church out of this line,” waving at the 40-foot marker. “It’s a church property.”
The Johnson campaign’s complaint has been forwarded to the commonwealth’s attorney’s office. While the state board of elections weighs the Johnson campaign’s concerns, the Fluvanna Electoral Board and Board of Supervisors are considering changing the polling site for the Cunningham District.
“Most of the other buildings that might work are churches also,” said Scott Newman, chair of the Fluvanna Electoral Board. “We are going to look into it. I think now both the Democrat and Republican members of the Board [of Supervisors] now agree we need to find a more neutral spot, if we can. It’s not that the church has done anything wrong, necessarily, but Democratic voters have complained in the past about not really feeling welcome there.”
UVA Hospital sock drive collects 42,000 pairs for the unhoused. Charlottesville resident Cole R. PealeGrody pronounced dead November 24 at the scene of a single-vehicle crash on Monacan Trail Road. One victim shot November 25 at a roving party on Toms Road in Barboursville. Charlottesville City Schools announces completion of 262.9-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system at Charlottesville Area Technical Education Center. Analysis from Charlottesville-based mental health company Thriveworks reveals seasonal depression peaked in late November. Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger appears on Jon Stewart’s podcast, “The Weekly Show.” Twice is Nice awards more than $300,000 in grants to 31 local nonprofits benefiting seniors.
Charles Rittenhouse has represented the Cunningham District on the Fluvanna School Board for more than a decade.
Forward progression
The University of Virginia dominated the Commonwealth Clash on November 29, besting Virginia Tech 27-7.
The Hoos swiftly took control of the game with an early interception-turnedtouchdown. The Cavs kept the Hokies off the board until late in the fourth quarter, when Tech scored its sole touchdown of the night.
Despite freezing temperatures, Scott Stadium reportedly drew a crowd of 58,832—the highest attendance since the 2011 game between the rivals.
The decisive win marked Virginia’s first victory over Tech under Coach Tony Elliott’s leadership. At a postgame press conference, Elliott dedicated the win to the families of Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler, and D’Sean Perry, the three students who were killed in the 2022 shooting on Grounds.
“It was a long two weeks to get here, and we went through a very, very difficult week with [Christopher Darnell Jones’] sentencing,” said Elliott. “Hopefully this brings them some joy as they really kind of now get a chance to embark on their road to healing and recovery. I think that all of us outside of the families—the Davis family, the Chandler family, the Perry family—have had an opportunity to kind of move forward a little bit and grieve and heal. They haven’t. It’s been a very, very long three years for them … and hopefully tonight is just an opportunity for them to just find some joy in the program that their sons were a part of.”
With the victory over the Hokies, UVA wrapped its regular season with a 10-2 overall record, putting the team at the top of the ACC. The Hoos face Duke in the ACC Championship game on December 6 at 8pm. A win would mark Virginia’s first ACC Championship victory, and could send the Cavs to their first appearance in the College Football Playoffs. Catie Ratliff
Standalone status
Area economic development officials seek state recognition of Piedmont Virginia region BY
The Virginia Tourism Corporation currently divides the Commonwealth into 10 distinct regions, from the Southwest Heart of Appalachia to the Coastal Virginia Eastern Shore.
“Tourism regions are established by and for the VTC solely to organize the tourism product in a defined geographic area and to present that information to the consumer through a variety of media platforms in an orderly, accurate, consistent, and uniform format,” reads the VTC’s guidelines for these areas.
The Charlottesville area is included within the Central Virginia district along with the Richmond area, including places like Sussex County close to the Tidewater. Various tourism and economic development officials would like to make an adjustment.
On Wednesday, December 3, the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors will be asked to adopt a resolution to formally request that the VTC create a new designation called Virginia’s Piedmont that would cover the same 11 localities as Go Virginia Region 9, a publicprivate partnership that promotes economic development through various incentives.
“With this shift, our area stands apart from Richmond, defining a new Piedmont Virginia brand that raises awareness of our distinctive features and characteristics, as well as shift Virginia Tourism Corporation resources towards recognizing and studying our region separately from the Richmond region,” said Courtney Cacatian, the executive director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau.
For instance, Cacatian said the Richmond area attracts many visitors for sporting events, something the Charlot-
SEAN TUBBS
tesville area does not really share, aside from the University of Virginia. A distinct Piedmont region would allow more detailed work to capitalize on strengths and build on weaknesses.
The CACVB Board will take up the request at its meeting on December 15. The deadline for the change to be considered for 2026 is February 1.
The new tourism region would also encompass some places currently lumped in with Northern Virginia, including Culpeper, Fauquier, and Rappahannock counties. The resolution argues that these areas would be better served if they joined their southern neighbors in a district that would span southward to Nelson County.
“These localities share strong cultural, historical, and natural tourism assets, including presidential estates, the Monticello American Viticultural Area, Shenandoah National Park, vibrant small towns, and rich
agricultural landscapes,” reads a staff report for the meeting.
The resolution argues the localities share the Blue Ridge Mountains and a landscape increasingly known for producing wine. In November 2023, Wine Enthusiast named the area Wine Region of the Year.
In recent years, Go Virginia Region 9 has invested $324,125 in two studies to identify ways to take the industry to another level. The VTC has multiple grant programs that could help implement some of the ideas.
“By establishing an officially recognized Virginia Piedmont tourism region, VTC and localities can better coordinate marketing, improve data collection, enhance targeted investment, and strengthen the Commonwealth’s statewide tourism strategy,” the staff report for the Fluvanna meeting continues.
Go Virginia Region 9’s growth plan for 2025 identifies five industries to target with food and beverage manufacturing as one of them.
Rather than being classified as Central Virginia, Charlottesville may soon be in Virginia’s Piedmont region.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2025
Ting Pavilion on the Downtown Mall (Course: 1 mile)
Registration begins at 9am, the run is promptly at 10am
Adults - $25 • Children 4-12 years - $15 3 years and younger is FREE! BE A CLAUS FOR A CAUSE!
All proceeds from this event go to support the programs and services at The Arc of the Piedmont for people in Charlottesville and the surrounding community living with developmental disabilities. This year we ask companies, families, and individuals to get together with some of their closest friends, family, and co-workers and raise money for The Arc of the Piedmont’s mission of serving people with developmental disabilities.
REAL ESTATE NEWS
Developing pathways
Albemarle County to display routes for Three Notched Trail at community meeting
BY SEAN TUBBS
Building new transportation projects can take many years as ideas make their way through competitive processes to decide what gets funded.
One concept in Albemarle County is to create a shared-use pathway to follow along Three Notch’d Road, a route to the west first carved out of the landscape in the 18th century during the colonial period. This idea is in the county’s Comprehensive Plan, as well as the Virginia Outdoors Plan, and the Rivanna Trails Foundation has been leading the charge to make it a reality.
“We see the Three Notched Trail being a part of a larger Mountains-to-Sea Trail, connecting the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay,” reads the RTF’s website on the concept.
In 2022, Albemarle County received a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to conduct a feasibility study and create for the 24-mile Three Notched Trail. It hired the firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin to do the work.
After nearly a year of preliminary work, Albemarle County planners will reveal, on December 4, the first set of possible routes for a future shared-use path to connect the Blue Ridge Tunnel to Charlottesville via Crozet.
Maps depicting some of the alternatives will be set up at Western Albemarle High School’s cafeteria beginning at 6pm on Thursday. People who attend can ask questions and make comments on the proposed alignments.
Initial feedback was given in March at a local conference sponsored by the Piedmont Environmental Council, which had about 25 attendees. Around 150 people went to the first open house at Crozet Elementary School in May.
Community engagement continued with an interactive survey held over the summer in which 620 people participated with dozens of specific comments about different spots on the map. A summary on the county’s website indicated only one person opposed the project.
The summary identifies six themes across the hundreds of responses, including a desire for the trail to be separate from vehicular traffic.
“Residents described existing roads as unsafe for biking and walking, and expressed strong support for a fully protected, car-free corridor linking Crozet and Charlottesville,” reads a description of the first theme.
Respondents also want the trail to be both a destination for recreation as well as a practical way for people to get around. Other hopes are that the trail would become a way to boost tourism in the same way the Virginia Capital and Virginia Creeper trails have been for other parts of the Commonwealth.
“The trail should highlight Albemarle County’s natural beauty while minimizing ecological impacts,” the summary continues.
The grant funding the project covers a second year of work allowing the consultant to further develop an alignment that can then be used to try to obtain more money to pay for it from the federal government and the Virginia Department of Transportation. At that point, it will compete with many of Albemarle County’s other transportation priorities.
The process is not nearly far enough along for the county to be considering the purchase of land.
Annie Gould Gallery
Albemarle County planners have several possible routes in mind for a future shared-use path connecting the Blue Ridge Tunnel to Charlottesville.
Very nice Townhouse in convenient River Run. New roof and gutter leaf filters. Well maintained. Easy access to town and Penn Park. Easy walking distance to the Community pool.82
Recast reframed
Confederate statues have roiled Charlottesville since at least 2016, when Charlottesville High School student Zyahna Bryant petitioned City Council to remove them, a request that culminated in 2017’s deadly Unite the Right rally.
Charlottesville and its Lost Cause legacy have once again taken the national stage, this time as part of a major Los Angeles exhibition called “Monuments,” a collaboration eight years in the making between the Museum of Contemporary Art and The Brick.
The controversial statues of generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson have been transformed into bronze ingots and a centaur-like sculpture, respectively. Jackson’s rose granite plinth is now reenvisioned as flowers. And the museums commissioned 18 new pieces to be juxtaposed with the old.
Hamza Walker, director of The Brick, cites 2017’s Summer of Hate as his inspiration for the show. He notes that the 2015 massacre at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, sparked the first wave of Confederate statue removals, starting in New Orleans.
“What does contemporary art have to say about the issues?” he asks. “Monument removal was the most significant sociopolitical and cultural event of 2017. It’s a big deal. What does it mean for those statues to come down?”
Walker grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, which quietly removed its Confederate statues after a neo-Nazi drove into a crowd of Charlottesville counterprotesters in 2017, killing activist Heather Heyer and injuring dozens.
“Charlottesville is essential to the exhibit,” he says. And it was the only municipality that called for RFPs that mandated a “transformation, not further veneration,” of the Lost Cause icons, he points out.
“The statues were toxic after Unite the Right,” says Walker. “The link between Confederate statues and white supremacy was explicit.” He put in a proposal for the Jackson monument, which was deeded to The Brick, which in turn deeded it to artist and co-curator Kara Walker (no relation to Hamza).
MOCA’s Bennett Simpson, who attended UVA and is a “Monuments” co-curator, explains some of the obstacles in mounting the exhibit, starting with the fact that MOCA is a contemporary art museum. “These are not contemporary works,” Bennett says. “It’s public art owned by cities and museums.” But what has come from the show is “novel and new.”
There’s Jefferson Davis from Richmond, toppled and spray-painted, with an arm reaching up. There’s Supreme Court justice Roger Taney, who wrote the Dred Scott decision. There’s graffitied pieces of the statues that once towered over mere mortals.
The cost and the logistics involved in moving multi-ton statuary across the country were also a consideration. The Brick, which was LAXART at the time, paid $50,000 to cover expenses for the Jackson statue.
“These are highly charged objects that had just come down,” Simpson says. “We had to assure folks that we were not trying to make fun of them and this was not political.” The MOCA board had questions about why the exhibit was important and why it was so expensive, but ultimately, was very supportive, he says. “I am amazed every day that it actually happened.”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 21
Recast & reframed
BY LISA PROVENCE
Confederate statues from Charlottesville get a contemporary twist in L.A.
Artist Kara Walker transformed the bronze Charles Keck statue of Stonewall Jackson, which used to stand in Charlottesville’s Court Square Park, into “Unmanned Drone.” It is the centerpiece of “Monuments,” on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles through May 3, 2026.
Stonewall reckoning
Artist Kara Walker, who has long delved into America’s racist history and is perhaps best known for her silhouettes of plantation life, butchered the bronze Charles Keck statue of Stonewall Jackson. In the reassembled work, “Unmanned Drone,” parts of the horse and Jackson are still identifiable, but not as the Confederate hero ready to charge into battle.
Her sculpture, she told The New York Times, “exists as a sort of haint of itself— the imagination of the Lost Cause having to recognize itself for what it is.”
“It’s horrific but still elegant,” says Hamza Walker. “It’s articulating a kind of violent set of historical circumstances about the systemic denial of rights to African Americans.”
He questions what Confederate monuments say about the “men who fought for white ethnicity and the perpetuation of child slavery,” and who were seen as heroes, at the same time African Americans were subjected to violence for “decades and decades.”
The piece “forcefully and forthrightly addresses that relationship,” he says, and could never be done “in a fashion that didn’t express that horror and pain.”
“This piece—it’s grotesque, in the best sense of the word,” says Jalane Schmidt, who co-founded Swords into Plowshares to transform the Lee statue, which was melted in 2023, into a new work of public art.
She acknowledges that Keck’s sculpture was fine art, but, “It was propaganda art. It had masked a lot of the ugliness of the Lost Cause. A lot of lies were supported by this propaganda art.
“What Kara Walker did was she literally turned it inside out and exposed the grotesqueries of slavery,” says Schmidt.
Andrea Douglas, Jefferson School African American Heritage Center executive director and Swords into Plowshares co-founder, was already familiar with Walker’s work and not surprised by “Unmanned Drone.”
“She’s always turned things inside out,” says Douglas. Walker was “already addressing the antebellum and enslaved and post-enslavement period ... and the trauma and horror and debasement of bodies, particularly Black bodies. To me it makes perfect sense.”
Not everyone in Charlottesville is thrilled with Jackson’s new incarnation. “You probably wouldn’t be able to print what I really think,” says Lewis Martin, an attorney who appeared frequently at the Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces meetings in 2016 when the city grappled with what to do with the monuments.
He recalls walking by the statue when he was 5 years old and his father telling him that it was one of the finest equestrian statues in the world. That sentiment was also noted on the city’s website. “What community would want to tear down what is considered the finest equestrian statue in the world?” he asks.
Martin thinks the city should have done what Albemarle County did with its “At Ready” statue, known by some as Johnny Reb, which was donated to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.
Stonewall Jackson should be there for those interested in fine equestrian statues, says Martin, “before it was turned into something grotesque. It’s just hideous.” This era, he believes, will be looked on in the same way as the Cultural Revolution in China.
Alexandria Searls, former director of the Lewis & Clark Exploratory Center, also favors preservation. “I don’t want authoritarians to be able to praise an artwork and then have their opponents destroy it … it gives too much power to authoritarians, and takes away from the historical record,” she says. CONTINUED ON PAGE 23
COURTESY JALANE SCHMIDT
Bronze ingots from the melted-down Robert E. Lee statue are also part of the L.A. exhibition.
Where are they now? Albemarle County dispatched its mass-produced Confederate soldier in 2020, and the following year Charlottesville removed four statues commissioned by Paul Goodloe McIntire. Here’s where they stand now.
“At Ready,” aka Johnny Reb
A Northern foundry that produced both Rebel and Union soldiers, depending on the requester, manufactured the statue that was installed in front of the Albemarle County courthouse in 1909. The county shipped its Lost Cause memorial to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation. Johnny Reb now presides over the New Market Battlefield.
Robert E. Lee
The bronze remains of the Confederate general, installed in 1924 and melted into ingots in 2023, are now part of the “Monuments” exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. When the exhibition ends, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center’s Swords into Plowshares will proceed with its plan to create a new work of public art. It has three finalists, will mount drawings in March, and hopes to announce the winner July 10, 2026, five years after Lee came down.
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
Jackson was deeded to the former LAXART, now The Brick, which deeded it to artist Kara Walker. She dismantled the bronze Charles Keck statue and her
new work, “Unmanned Drone,” is the centerpiece of the “Monuments” exhibit. It will be on display through May 3, 2026.
Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea
“Their First View of the Pacific,” the Keck monument that used to sit at the intersection of West Main and Ridge streets, now resides at the Lewis & Clark Exploratory Center in Darden Towe Park. The statue is not beside a dumpster, but a gardening shed, clarifies former center director Alexandria Searls. The center is open by reservation only, but according to Searls, scholars and thousands of elementary school children from around the state have visited.
George Rogers Clark
“The Conqueror of the Northwest,” the fourth McIntire donation, formerly resided at Monument Park across from the Corner, where, among the seven figures depicted on the 20-foot-long monument, Clark charges into Native Americans. It was removed in the same July 2021 sweep of the other McIntire donations, and is now in storage, according to UVA. A new design for University Avenue Park has been approved and “developed to interpret the deep history of the Commonwealth, its people, and landscape,” and will soon go out for bid.
Clockwise from bottom left: Richmond’s Jefferson Davis statue, toppled and spray painted, with an arm reaching up, is also on display. Kara Walker’s “Tread” was created from the granite base of Charlottesville’s decommissioned Jackson monument. A graffitied fragment of the city’s Robert E. Lee statue’s base. Baltimore’s Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee statue, removed in 2017, is part of “Monuments.”
Total meltdown
Giving the Jackson and Lee statues to a Confederate-honoring organization in 2020 was exactly what Swords into Plowshares’ Douglas and Schmidt did not want. Schmidt calls the Lost Cause iconography “toxic waste” that shouldn’t be shipped down the road. “What Black kid in the year of our lord 2020 deserves to grow up in a town with this Lost Cause narrative looking down from a pedestal?”
They were poised to melt Lee after a series of legal hurdles: A law prohibiting removal of war memorials was repealed in 2020. An injunction prohibiting the generals’ removal was dismissed in 2021, and both Swords into Plowshares and what was then LAXART were ready with responses to the city’s Request for Proposals. The lawsuit to preserve Lee was finally settled in 2023, and the new owners–Swords into Plowshares—fired up the foundry.
“White supremacy is bad for everyone,” says Schmidt, and any decision on Lost Cause monuments—whether to give them away or keep them in storage or transform or destroy them—is a “moral choice.”
She observes wryly, “It really would have been easier to put them in storage.”
Schmidt and Douglas were in Los Angeles for the opening of “Monuments” at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary, a former police car warehouse. “It felt like an affirmation of the strategy we adopted,” says Schmidt.
“It was great to see the statues no longer on their pedestals,” she says, “brought down to size by protest.”
Lee’s granite plinth is still spray-painted with “As White Supremacy Crumbles.”
Bronze ingots that look like gold are neatly stacked on two pallets. Black slag, the impurities from the melting, is displayed nearby.
“It has cost so much time, effort and money” to get to the stage of bronze ingots, says Douglas. “Now there’s the possibility of what we can do with that.”
UVA art professor Kevin Everson was commissioned to make a film for the exhibition, and he was also at the opening. “I was really surprised everything in the show had room to breathe,” he says. When opera singer Davóne Tines sang “Let It Shine,” “it was amazing,” says Everson. “It gave the space a place to heal with all that Confederate crap.”
Everson’s film is about Richard Bradley, who climbed a flagpole three times in San Francisco in 1984 to remove a Confederate flag. “I asked him how he got up that pole,” says Everson. “Practice, practice, practice,” responded Bradley, which became the film’s title.
“It was the most African American show I’ve ever been in,” Everson notes. “Timely and fascinating.”
MOCA did not want the exhibition to be political, and it was conceived well before the current Trump administration. Nonetheless, it is taking place at a time when museums like the Smithsonian are being scrutinized for “improper ideology,” where plans are underway to reinstall a toppled Confederate statue in Washington, and with a president who complains that there’s too much emphasis on “how bad slavery was.”
Such discussions are what the curators believe should come from the show to address the legacy of slavery, as well as that of the 2015 slayings in Mother Emanuel, August 12 in Charlottesville, and the January 6, 2020, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“There’s been a thirst, a desire for something that speaks to what happened in the past decade in meaningful ways,” says Hamza Walker. “The response has been overwhelmingly positive.”
C
Tomorrow Talks Series
Join this year-round conversation & explore what courage looks like in our personal lives, our neighborhoods, our communities, and our society.
Courageous Listening: The Bravery to Really Hear Each Other
Wed Dec 3 | 6:30pm with Charlottesville Mayor Juandiego Wade
The Courage to Connect: The Simple Act of Gathering Your Neighbors
Thur Dec 4 | 6:30pm with Sam Pressler of Connective Tissue
Courageous Consciousness - Religious Freedom and Sacred Psychedelic Ceremonies
Thur Dec 18 | 6:30pm with Jeffrey Breau of Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religions
2026 Conference Creator
Each year, Tom Tom is built with the community. Through our 2026 Conference Creator, we invite you to help shape the sessions, speakers, and stories that define this year’s Festival.
Applications close Dec 19.
Community Partner Program
Our schedule is catalyzed by community-led workshops, performances, installations, talks, and events that showcase amazing work here and across the nation. Share your skills and missions to help build a brighter tomorrow.
Applications close Dec 31.
The Heavy Heavy with Laney Jones and the Spirits
The Heavy Heavy isn’t the first outfit from the U.K. to present as American. In fact, 61 years since the British Invasion, it’s not shocking to hear lead singers who sound like they’re straight out of Nashville or the Hollywood Hills introduce their next song with a Cockney accent, mirroring a character from your favo(u)rite BBC comedy.
Launched by Malvern, England-based twin vocalists, keyboardist Georgie Fuller and guitarist William Turner, The Heavy Heavy sounds like its music was spawned on a sunny patch of U.S. soil. The band’s female/male dynamic arrives unfettered by production or songwriting trappings, bereft of the advances to emerge in the last five decades.
Anachronistic in its big, bold harmonies, the band’s tracks like “Happiness” climb to heights scaled previously in the
late ’60s or early ’70s. And true or not, even the instruments reverberate with the must and wear of vintage originating in last-century manufacturing spots like Fullerton, California, or Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Fuller and Turner nurture their big songs to full bloom with the assistance of a drummer, second guitarist, and bassist—and when the latter two join in on backing vocals the results are hard to tell apart from their recordings. Four-part harmonies land in the crowd with the same finesse applied to labored vocal tracking in an expensive recording studio.
THE SOUTHERN CAFÉ & MUSIC HALL Saturday 12/6
Arrangements are smart, songs don’t overstay their welcome, and choruses carry a singalong invitation that extends as less anthemic than just openly friendly. If there’s any complaint for such a well-delivered set by clearly dependable musicians, it’s that the lyrics hold little in the way of unique observations and reach no new ground; words are often chosen because they rhyme, which listeners will see coming from miles away. Openers Laney Jones and the Spirits bring an indie folkrock honesty that will either speak to your soul or agitate your sense of expression, depending on your tolerance for raw, heartfelt trios. Check out “We Belong Together”—its left-turn marching chorus, and Jones’ emotive gist should help you decide whether to arrive early or take your time getting downtown.—CM Gorey
NICHOLAS O’DONNELL
John A. Hancock, 1/4 page advert, Mid/Late November, 2025, C-VILLE Early December, 2025, C-VILLE
TO-DO LIST CULTURE
THURSDAY 12/4
HIP-SWIVELIN’ SEASON
The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll is back in the building this holiday season for Christmas with Elvis. Renowned Presley impersonator Matt Lewis takes the stage backed by the 12-piece Long Live the King Orchestra—also known as Charlottesville’s own Big Ray and the Kool Kats—who open the show with some seasonal favorites. Enjoy a classic Elvis repertoire with “Blue Christmas,” “Here Comes Santa Claus,” and songs from his rockabilly era, the 1968 “Comeback Special,” and the Las Vegas years. $29.75–39.75, 7pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net
Wednesday 12/3
music
Open Mic Night. Mic check to all musicians, poets, and everyone in between. All ages welcome. Free, 9pm. Holly’s Diner, 1221 E. Market St. dance
Weekly Swing Dance. Beginner-friendly swing dance lessons teaching the Lindy Hop, Charleston, Balboa, and blues. No partner needed. Stay for social dancing after the class. $10, 7pm. The Front Porch, 221 E. Water St. frontporchcville.com classes
Eco-Friendly Ornament Painting. Use plant-based eco-friendly, natural-earth acrylic paints on sustainable wood to create two holiday ornaments with customizable elements. $25, 10:15am and 5:30pm. The Scrappy Elephant, 1745 Allied St. scrappyelephant.com
Wreath Workshops. Design and create a beautiful wreath at this time-treasured Charlottesville tradition—now in it’s 39th year. $95, 4pm. Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, 931 Thomas Jefferson Pkwy. monticello.org
etc.
Bent Theatre Improv. A hilarious evening of improv comedy where you make the show by suggesting scenes for the players to act out. Free, 7pm. Decipher Brewing, 1740 Broadway St. benttheatre comedy.com
Bingo Night. Four rounds of family-friendly fun with prizes after each round. Free, 6pm. Firefly, 1304 E. Market St. fireflycville.com
Dürty Karaoke. Dive-bar karaoke for your hump days. Free, 8:30pm. Dürty Nelly’s, 2200 Jefferson Park Ave. durtynellyscharlottesville.com
Thursday 12/4
music
Berto and Vincent. A night of wild flamenco rumba and Latin guitar. Free, 7pm. The Bebedero, 225 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. thebebedero.com
Christmas with Elvis. Elvis is in the building this Christmas as Matt Lewis and the 12-piece Long Live the King Orchestra—aka Charlottesville’s own Big Ray and the Kool Kats—take the stage. $29–39, 7pm.
The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net
Studio of Stephanie Nakasian Voice Students’ Recital. Performances from a variety of genres such as jazz, pop, theatre, rock, blues, R&B, folk, and original music by students who have studied voice with Nakasian during the fall of 2025. Free, 7pm. Newcomb Hall Theater, Newcomb Hall. music.virginia.edu
Tea Time Recitals. UVA students present a varied menu of musical delights. Enjoy the fruits of a semester’s worth of musical training and practice. Free, 1pm. Old Cabell Hall. music.virginia.edu
The JOHNNYSWIM Christmas Show. The magnetic duo of Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano Ramirez effortlessly enthralls audiences with heartfelt melodies and imaginative tales. $57–75, 8pm.
The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. jeffersontheater.com
The Marmalade Duo. Jake and Louis of Kendall Street Company get funky as a duo. Free, 5pm. Bottle House, 608 W. Main St. bottlehouse.net
crack codes, unravel riddles, and sample Charlottesville’s best brews. Players get $1 off pints at each brewery. $15, noon. Starr Hill Brewery, Dairy Market. puzzledbee.com
Thursday Evening Holiday Series. Local holiday shopping amid seasonal décor, twinkling lights, and live entertainment from local musicians. Free, 5pm. Carter Mountain Orchard, 1435 Carters Mountain Trl. cartermountainorchard.com
Vineyard Puzzle Hunt. Like an escape room but at a winery. Crack codes and unravel riddles while sampling Charlottesville’s best wine, beer, and cider. Play when you want and go at your own pace. $15, 5pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. puzzledbee.com
Friday 12/5
music
Atlanta Rhythm Section. Southern rock band formed in 1970 in Doraville, Georgia, a small town northeast of Atlanta. $45–92, 8pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. jefferson theater.com
Bob Bennetta Trio. Live jazz. Free, 6:30pm. Afghan Kabob House, 200 Market St. afghankabobhouse.com
Brisk. Paying tribute to the classics that defined grunge, alternative, emo, and pop punk while mixing in deep cuts from the one hit wonders of the ’90s and 2000s. $15–20, 8pm. The Southern Café & Music Hall, 103 S. First St. thesoutherncville.com
Chickenhead Blues Band. Charlottesville’s premier boogie-woogie, beat, rhythm and blues dance band. Free, 9pm. Holly’s Diner, 1221 E. Market St. Hard Modes. Holiday collision of jazz and video game music with nonstop, controller-bashing fury. Free, 8pm. The Stage at WTJU, 2244 Ivy Rd. wtju.net
Jerron Paxton & Dennis Lichtman. Multi-instrumentalists and vocalists with a love for history and the stories behind the music. $30, 8pm. The Front Porch, 221 E. Water St. frontporchcville.com
Travis Elliott. Thoughtful takes on classic and contemporary covers and originals. Free, 10pm. Rapture, 303 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. rapture restaurant.com
stage
A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens’ timeless tale of redemption and generosity follows Ebenezer Scrooge as he discovers the true spirit of Christmas. $41–75, 7:30pm. Blackfriars Playhouse, 10 S. Market St., Staunton. americanshakespearecenter.com
Ruffin Gallery Performance: The 13th Chair A multimedia installation and live performance by Maria Villanueva and Sean Lopez explores transformation through a contemporary reenactment of the Last Supper. Free, 6pm. The Ruffin Gallery: Department of Art at UVA, 179 Culbreth Rd. art.as.virginia.edu
words
Monticello Inn & Cottage: From Sacred Space to Historic Inn. A Historic Preservation Lecture Series presentation on the rehabilitation of the former Slate Hill Baptist Church. Free, 6pm. Lane Auditorium, Albemarle County Office Building, 401 McIntire Rd. albemarlehistory.org
classes
Mini Paint & Sip. Keeping it fun and manageable by painting adorable 4x6-inch mini masterpieces. Bar drink or mocktail included. $40, 6:30pm. Pikasso Swig Craft Bar, 333 Second St. SE. pikassoswig.com etc.
Brewery Puzzle Hunt. An escape room meets a pub crawl. Visit the Preston Avenue breweries,
Justin Storer & Friends. Storer celebrates the holiday season with a bunch of guest musicians. Free, 5pm. Bottle House, 608 W. Main St. bottle house.net
Mamma Mania! Prepare to be transported back to the vibrant 1970s as New York City’s premier ABBA tribute band brings the classic hits of one of pop music’s most iconic groups to life. $25–30, 7pm. Pro Re Nata, 6135 Rockfish Gap Tpke., Crozet. prnbrewery.com
Songwriter’s Appreciation Night. Calling all singers, songwriters, and music lovers for a night of musical innovation and exploration. Hosted by Nicole Giordano. Free, 5pm. Albemarle CiderWorks, 2545 Rural Ridge Ln., North Garden. albemarle ciderworks.com
Tea Time Recitals. See listing for Thursday, December 4. Free, 1pm. Old Cabell Hall. music. virginia.edu
Virginia Women’s Chorus’ 42nd Annual Candlelight Concert. Revel in a thoughtfully curated selection of reflective songs with harpist Anastasia Jellison alongside celebratory, lively pieces as the student-led chorus brings warmth and joy to the season. $10–20, 5:30pm. University Baptist Church, 1223 W. Main St. virginiawomenschorus.org Whistle Pig & The Trooperbuebies. A night of music and dancing. Free, 10:30pm. The Whiskey Jar, 227 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. thewhiskey jarcville.com
dance
Cville Swing with Zuzu’s Hot 5. Swingin’ tunes and vintage moves with a swing dance lesson followed by a concert to try out your new moves or simply enjoy. Free, 5pm. Potter’s Craft Cider, 1350 Arrowhead Valley Rd. potterscraftcider.com
Friday 12/5
Winter Open Performance. ORH Dance welcomes the season of celebration with dance and merriment. Tickets required. Pay-as-able, 6pm. McGuffey Art Center, 201 Second St NW. orhdance.com stage
A Christmas Carol See listing for Thursday, December 4. $41–75, 7:30pm. Blackfriars Playhouse, 10 S. Market St., Staunton. americanshakespearecenter.com
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown A hot musical farce of female resilience takes you to a sexy 1980s Madrid. Based on the film by Pedro Almodóvar. $5–35, 8pm. Live Arts, 123 E. Water St. livearts.org classes
Winter Holiday Themed Mosaic 101. A very beginner workshop focused on the tools, materials, and basics of cutting tile and glass, how to properly adhere mosaic bits to a substrate, make a curve from a square, and grouting. Ages 15+. $65, 10:30am. The Scrappy Elephant, 1745 Allied St. scrappyelephant.com
Wreath Workshops. See listing for Wednesday, December 3. $95, 6pm. Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, 931 Thomas Jefferson Pkwy. monticello.org etc.
Brewery Puzzle Hunt. See listing for Thursday, December 4. $15, noon. Starr Hill Brewery, Dairy Market. puzzledbee.com
Cookies with Santa. Santa Claus is coming to town for a special holiday event with storytime, cookies, and special treats for the adults, too. Free, 5:45pm. Tasting Room and Taphouse at Mount Ida Reserve, 5600 Moonlight Dr., Scottsville. mountidareserve.com
Paramount On Screen: Home Alone. An 8-yearold boy, Kevin McCallister, is accidentally left behind when his family goes on a Christmas vacation to Paris, forcing him to defend his home from a pair of burglars. $9–11, 8pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net Trivia with Olivia. Get the weekend started with beers and trivia. Free, 6pm. SuperFly Brewing Co., 943 Preston Ave. superflybrewing.com
Vineyard Puzzle Hunt. See listing for Thursday, December 4. $15, 5pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. puzzledbee.com
Saturday 12/6 music
Blue Ridge Chamber Orchestra Fall Concert. A classical string ensemble performs pieces by Dvořák, Holst, Pärt, Vivaldi, and Warlock. Suggested donation $10, 3pm. Christ Episcopal Church, 120 W. High St. christchurchcville.org
Cake Fight. Charlottesville’s premier cakethemed pop and classic rock cover band. Free, 5pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwoodfarmandwinery.com
Family Holiday Concert: Charlottesville Symphony with UVA University Singers. Performing audience favorites including “Carol of the Bells,” Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride,” “Twelve Days of Christmas” with merry audience participation, and “Hallelujah” from Handel’s Messiah. $11–59, 7:30pm. Old Cabell Hall. music.virginia.edu
Goth Takeover. A monthly night filled with alternative spookies featuring a variety of Gothy DJs and bands. All ages welcome, guests under age 18 must be accompanied after midnight. Free, 9pm. Holly’s Diner, 1221 E. Market St.
John Kelly. Charlottesville-based singer-songwriter with more than two decades of solo acoustic performing experience. Free, 12:30pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwood farmandwinery.com
Josh Mayo and The House Sauce. One of Charlottesville’s finest entertainers takes on the party porch. Free, 9pm. Vision BBQ & Catering, 247 Ridge McIntire Rd. visionbbqcville.com
Ken Matthews. Saxophone and clarinet focusing on jazz from the 1930s–40s with a nod to New Orleans. Free, 2pm. DuCard Vineyards, 40 Gibson Hollow Ln., Etlan. ducardvineyards.com
Matt Johnson. Local favorite featured on NBC’s “The Voice.” Free, noon. Keswick Vineyards, 1575 Keswick Winery Dr., Keswick. keswickvineyards.com
Scuffletown with Matty Metcalfe. Mac Carraway and John Whitlow are joined by local treasure and long time Scuffletown partner Metcalfe for an evening of high energy, genre bending and eclectic music. $10, 7pm. The Batesville Market, 6624 Plank Rd., Batesville. batesvillemarket.com
Tab Benoit. Renowned for his distinctive guitar tone and Otis-Redding-esque voice, Benoit has been a captivating figure in the roots music world for over thirty years. With Jesse Dayton. $45–57, 8pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. jeffersontheater.com
Tara Mills. An original blend of folk, bluegrass, and Americana. Free, 2:30pm. Albemarle CiderWorks, 2545 Rural Ridge Ln., North Garden. albemarle ciderworks.com
The Heavy Heavy. Era-bending sounds from the U.K.-based band delivering a soulful breed of rock ‘n’ roll untouched by modern artifice. $33, 8pm. The Southern Café & Music Hall, 103 S. First St. thesoutherncville.com
The Pollocks. The Press Play music series features the group led by former frontman for the multiplatinum rock band Seven Mary Three. Free, 5:30pm. Potter’s Craft Cider, 1350 Arrowhead Valley Rd. potterscraftcider.com
The Radiance of a Star: A Spanish Renaissance Christmas. This year’s Christmas program from Zephryus vocal ensemble visits 17th-century Spain for a collection of exquisite motets and festive villancicos for Advent and Christmas. $5–20, 7:30pm. St. John’s Episcopal Church, 410 Harrison St., Scottsville. zephyrus-va.org
Virginia Women’s Chorus’ 42nd Annual Candlelight Concert. See listing for Friday, December 5. $10–20, 3:30pm. University Baptist Church, 1223 W. Main St. virginiawomenschorus.org
stage
A Christmas Carol See listing for Thursday, December 4. $41–75, 7:30pm. Blackfriars Playhouse, 10 S. Market St., Staunton. americanshakespearecenter.com
Charlottesville Ballet’s The Nutcracker The family favorite tradition, featuring the professional company and more than 250 dancers, singers, and musicians from across Central Virginia. $20–75, 12:30pm and 4:30pm. Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center, 1400 Melbourne Rd. charlottesvilleballet.org
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
See listing for Friday, December 5. $5–35, 8pm. Live Arts, 123 E. Water St. livearts.org
classes
Hand Sewing with Felted Fabric. A choose-yourown-adventure class on hand sewing seasonal projects with recycled felted wool. Patterns and instructions provided. Ages 12+. $30, 3:30pm. The Scrappy Elephant, 1745 Allied St. scrappyelephant.com
String Star Decorations. Make lovely star decorations using string in your choice of colors. Add biodegradable glitter for optional sparkle. Ages 12+. $30, 1pm. The Scrappy Elephant, 1745 Allied St. scrappyelephant.com
Wreath Making Party. A fun and creative wreathmaking party led by Leap Frog Flower Farm. One glass of wine included, walk-ins welcome. $45, 1pm. Chisholm Vineyards at Adventure Farm, 1135 Clan Chisholm Ln., Earlysville. chisholmvineyards.com
TO-DO LIST CULTURE
THROUGH SATURDAY 1/3/26
MUSICAL IN MADRID
Find yourself whisked away to steamy 1980s Madrid with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Directed by Xavier Taylor with choreography by Liberty DeLeon and music direction by Erica Umback, the sizzling musical farce of female resilience based on the film by Pedro Almodóvar reveals the unraveling world of voice-over artist Pepa as her wandering lover and a cast of memorable characters serve up black comic chaos with a specially laced batch of gazpacho and an irresistibly Spanishflavored beat. $5–35, times vary. Live Arts, 123 E. Water St. livearts.org
Wreath Workshops. See listing for Wednesday, December 3. $95, 10am and 2pm. Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, 931 Thomas Jefferson Pkwy. monticello.org
Zentangle: Mad About Plaid. Create a faux-plaid pattern using pen and pastel pencils. All materials provided, ages 13+. $30, 10am. The Scrappy Elephant, 1745 Allied St. scrappyelephant.com etc.
Brewery Puzzle Hunt. See listing for Thursday, December 4. $15, noon. Starr Hill Brewery, Dairy Market. puzzledbee.com
Crozet Trolley’s North Pole Express. Calling all children: All aboard for a ride to the North Pole, where you’ll play reindeer games, enjoy hot chocolate and cookies, receive a small gift, and meet Santa. $39, 1pm. The Square, Crozet. crozet trolley.com
Crozet Winter Brews & Booze Festival. Celebrate the change of season with unlimited tastings from craft breweries, cideries, and distilleries to benefit Crozet Park. $30, noon. Claudius Crozet Park, Crozet. crozetbeerfest.com
Screening: Invisible Nation. Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, centers this portrait of the constantly colonized island, as it struggles to preserve its hard-won democracy and autonomy. Free, 2pm. Culbreth Theatre, 109 Culbreth Rd. drama.virginia.edu
Film Screening: YAPs. WTJU presents a new documentary film produced by Victory Hall Opera that follows young opera singers pursuing their dreams. Director Miriam Gordon-Stewart will be present for a Q&A after. Free, 5pm. The Stage at WTJU, 2244 Ivy Rd. wtju.net
Paramount On Screen: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation ’Tis the season to be jolly when all-time square Clark Griswold and family attempt to have an old-fashioned Christmas. $9–11, 7pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net
Paramount On Screen: This Christmas This year, Christmas with the Whitfields promises to be one they will never forget. $9–11, 2pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net
Film
Saturday 12/6
Ride the Downtown Express. Trackless train rides for children and families. Free, 10am–1pm. The fountain at Central Place, Downtown Mall. friendsofcville.org
Storytime. Featuring readings from recent storybooks and the classics kids know and love. Rain or shine. All ages welcome. Free, 11am. New Dominion Bookshop, 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. newdominionbookshop.com
Vineyard Puzzle Hunt. See listing for Thursday, December 4. $15, 5pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. puzzledbee.com
Winter Open House. Guests can explore Highland’s core exhibition “Window to a New America” amid festive holiday touches and hear an introductory history talk. Free, 10am. James Monroe’s Highland, 2050 James Monroe Pkwy. highland.org
WinterSong. A family-friendly event to kick off the holiday season where music, community, and festive spirit come together in the best possible way. Free, 3pm. Rivanna River Company, 1520 E. High St. frontporchcville.org
Sunday 12/7
music
Beleza Duo. An evening of funkalicious samba soul—music that moves you from the inside out— with Madeline Holly-Sales on vocals and keys, and Berto Sales on guitar, voice, and loops. Free, 1pm. Southwest Mountain Vineyard, 2300 Whipper In Ln., Keswick. smvwines.com
Cville Band Presents: The Charlottesville Band Holiday Concert. The Municipal Band closes its 103rd season with a family-oriented program featuring traditional holiday favorites, a sing-a-long, guest vocalists, and a visit from Santa. Free, 3:30pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net
Family Holiday Concert: Charlottesville Symphony with UVA University Singers. See listing for Saturday, December 6. $11–59, 3:30pm. Old Cabell Hall. music.virginia.edu
Jazz Sundays with Dr. Forde. Live jazz music led by local guitarist Dr. Forde with a rotating jazz combo. Free, 5:30pm. SuperFly Brewing Co., 943 Preston Ave. Ste. 2. superflybrewing.com
WTJU Vinyl Takeover. Five full hours of tracks on wax with your favorite WTJU Radio DJs to keep you grooving and relaxing all day long. Free, 1pm. Potter’s Craft Cider, 1350 Arrowhead Valley Rd. potterscraftcider.com
stage
A Christmas Carol. See listing for Thursday, December 4. $41–75, 2pm. Blackfriars Playhouse, 10 S. Market St., Staunton. americanshakespearecenter.com
Charlottesville Ballet’s The Nutcracker See listing for Saturday, December 6. $20–75, 5pm. Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center, 1400 Melbourne Rd. charlottesvilleballet.org
Charlottesville Ballet’s Nutcracker Sweets
A short and sweet sensory-friendly performance offers an abridged show that runs less than an hour long and is perfect for audiences of all ages and abilities. $12–60, 2pm. Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center, 1400 Melbourne Rd. charlottesvilleballet.org
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
See listing for Friday, December 5. $5–35, 2pm. Live Arts, 123 E. Water St. livearts.org
words
Green Gathering Book Club. This month: Take inspiration from Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life and talk all about fungi, the strange and amazing life forms that continue to fascinate and inspire
TO-DO LIST CULTURE
SATURDAY 12/6
SONG OF THE SEASON
In a family-friendly event to kick off the holiday season, the fifth annual WinterSong combines music, community, and festive spirit. Bring your own instrument and join a community jam, enjoy a performance by the Hometown Choir, live music and dancing from the Blue Ridge Irish Music School, and carols led by The Front Porch as campfires roar. Holiday treats and beverages will be available for purchase onsite (bring your own cup for concessions as all drinks are on draft). This outdoor event is weather dependent. Free, 3pm. Rivanna River Company, 1520 E. High St. frontporchcville.org
researchers. Free, 10am. James Monroe’s Highland, 2050 James Monroe Pkwy. highland.org
classes
Fabric Mosaics: Create Your Own Kinusaiga Art. Craft a 12 x 12-inch art panel from foam board and fabric scraps in this no-sew fabric art class. Ages 16+. $40, noon. The Scrappy Elephant, 1745 Allied St. scrappyelephant.com
Needle Felted Mushrooms for Beginners. Make soft and colorful mushroom decorations using a specialized barbed needle to sculpt beautiful dyed wool in a beginner-level felting class. Ages 12+. $30, 1pm. The Scrappy Elephant, 1745 Allied St. scrappyelephant.com
Paint + Sip: Festive Wreath. Paint the supplied design in a step-by-step format. No experience necessary, all materials included. $40, 1pm. Tasting Room & Taphouse at Mount Ida Reserve, 5931 Blenheim Rd. blueridgebrushes.com
Paint + Sip: Holiday Cheer. Paint the supplied design in a step-by-step format. No experience necessary, all materials included. $40, 2pm. Hazy Mountain Vineyard & Brewery, 240 Hazy Mountain Ln., Afton. blueridgebrushes.com
Watercolor Holiday Cards. Learn simple watercolor techniques to design and paint your own set of festive greeting cards. All experience levels welcome. Ages 12+. $30, 2:30pm. The Scrappy Elephant, 1745 Allied St. scrappyelephant.com
Santa is Coming to Eastwood. A special visit from Santa with opportunities to take your own photos, plus holiday milk-and-cookies flights available for the kids. Free, noon. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwoodfarmandwinery.com
Vineyard Puzzle Hunt. See listing for Thursday, December 4. $15, 5pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. puzzledbee.com
Monday 12/8 dance
Talmi Entertainment Presents: NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet. Tchaikovsky’s timeless score sets the stage for a Christmas your family will never forget. Featuring an international cast, whimsical puppetry, and opulent hand-crafted costumes and sets. $33–182, 7pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net
words
Storytime. A magical storytime adventure where the pages come alive and imagination knows no bounds. Free with museum admission, 10:30am. Virginia Discovery Museum, 524 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. vadm.org
etc.
December Garden Site Tour. Director of Development Laura McCall leads a 45-minute guided walk through the botanical garden site highlighting current projects, seasonal updates, and future plans. Free, 3pm. Botanical Garden of the Piedmont, 950 Melbourne Rd. piedmontgarden.org
Tuesday 12/9 music
58th Annual Messiah Sing-In. Community members and singers from the University Singers, Chamber Singers, Glee Club, and Women’s Chorus fill the venue with Handel’s glorious music. $5–15, 8pm. Old Cabell Hall. music.virginia.edu
Vincent Zorn. Lively flamenco rumba guitar with a unique percussive technique that incorporates a diverse range of strumming styles, rhythms, and taps. Free, 7pm. The Bebedero, 201 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. thebebedero.com
words
Wintry Felted Soaps. Learn a wet felting process for making colorful scrubby soaps covered in soft wool, a perfect present for the holidays. Ages 12+. $30, 3pm. The Scrappy Elephant, 1745 Allied St. scrappyelephant.com
Wreath Making Workshop. Join Hope Henderson of Flora Design for a holiday wreath making event. $85, 2pm. Oakencroft Farm and Winery, 1455 Oakencroft Circle. oakencroftfarm.com
Wreath Workshops. See listing for Wednesday, December 3. $95, 2pm. Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, 931 Thomas Jefferson Pkwy. monticello.org etc.
Brewery Puzzle Hunt. See listing for Thursday, December 4. $15, noon. Starr Hill Brewery, Dairy Market. puzzledbee.com
Holidays in Gordonsville. Visit historic Main Street to enjoy horse-drawn carriage rides, carolers, a special performance by Brushwood School of Dance, and festive treats. Free, 11am. Town of Gordonsville, 112 S. Main St., Gordonsville. townofgordonsville.org
Paramount On Screen: White Christmas A successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general. $9–11, 7pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net
Plot Twisters Teen Book Club. Avid teen readers are invited to join and read a book of their choice on a monthly theme or genre, then meet to discuss the books, do crafts, and eat snacks. For ages 11–18. Free, 5pm. Central Library, 201 E. Market St. mrl.org
etc.
Geeks Who Drink Trivia. Good trivia, good times. Teams of two to six people compete to win prizes like gift certificates and pint glasses, plus bragging rights. Free, 7pm. Firefly, 1304 E. Market St. fireflycville.com
Hospice of the Piedmont: Memorial Illumination. The 34th annual community event features live music, reflection, and remembrance honoring loved ones with light and hope. Suggested $20 contribution, 5pm. First Presbyterian Church, 500 Park St. hopva.org
Moms Lit Society: Books After Bedtime. A book club for moms who love to read, featuring Virginia women authors, lively discussion, and community connection. This month: Johanna Porter Is Not Sorry by Sara Read. Free, 6:30pm. Starr Hill Brewery, Dairy Market. charlottesvillefamily.com
Open House and Holiday Market. Meet the eight resident artists and make an ornament of your own. Shop and celebrate locally this year. Free, 4pm. Malleable Studios, 1304 E. Market St., Studio T. malleablestudios.com
CLICK DATE
Snap, sip, swoon.
Calling all singles for a fun, first-date adventure. Each duo starts with a portrait session with a local photographer, capturing those first-date sparks, and then heads to a nearby bar for drinks and conversation. It’s part photo shoot, part cocktail hour—and all about seeing if you…click.
GALLERIES CULTURE
December Exhibitions
Angelo Jewelry 220 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “To Hold The Light,” recent canvases exploring themes of luminosity, scale, and collective presence by Randall Stoltzfus. Through December 31.
Botanical Fare Restaurant 421 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. Paintings by Judith Ely. Through December 31.
Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. The Winter Gift Market, a curated celebration of local talent featuring guest artists and crafters alongside current exhibitors. Through January 4, 2026.
C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “All That Glitters,” a showcase of different facets of gemstone creativity by Natalie Darling, including and extending beyond conventional jewelry. December 5–31. First Fridays opening reception with the artist, 5–8pm.
The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “Haiti’s Time: Selections from the Collection of Beverly and John Fox Sullivan” draws upon works by some of this island nation’s most esteemed artists to reveal exceptional paintings that offer a timely view of Haitian history, spiritual realms, and daily life. Through January 4, 2026. “In Feeling: Empathy and Tension Through Disability” features works by nine contemporary artists that reckon with how we empathize. Exploring the relationship between empathy and tension, this exhibition highlights and celebrates perspectives that challenge assumptions about ways of being and living. Through January 4, 2026. “The World Between: Egypt and Nubia in Africa” showcases the deep cultural embeddedness of ancient Egypt in Africa, beyond merely acknowledging its geographical position on the African continent. The exhibition demonstrates the complex interaction of different cultures in Egypt and Nubia, from prehistory through the post-Meroitic era. Through June 14, 2026.
The Gallery at Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “Skip Castro, Johnny Sportcoat and the 11th Street Stumble,” a retrospective look at two legendary Charlottesville bands (Skip Castro and The Casuals) and two notorious music venues (Trax and the Mineshaft) narrated with show flyers and other ephemera by portrait photographer Rich Tarbell. December 5–31. First Fridays opening reception, 5–7pm.
IX Art Park 522 Second St. SE. “The Looking Glass,” an immersive art space featuring a whimsical enchanted forest and kaleidoscopic cave. Ongoing.
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA 400 Worrell Dr. “In the Beginning: Paintings by Senior Artists of the Spinifex Arts Project” presents the bold, dynamic
THROUGH 12/21
work of internationally renowned artists from the Spinifex Arts Project. Through March 8, 2026. “Tjukurpa | Handle It,” sculpture and mixed media works by Robert Fielding. Through January 11, 2026. In the Upper West Oval Room of the Rotunda at UVA, “Ma atja-Ma atja | For the Next Generation: Printmaking at Mimili Maku Arts,” a group show featuring prints by various artists. Through January 13, 2026. Annual Holiday Gift Shop sale December 5–7.
Jefferson School African American Heritage Center 233 Fourth St. NW. In the Contemporary Gallery, “Finally Remembered: The Black Patriots of Central Virginia” shines a light on the African American men and women who served in the Revolutionary War, curated by Dr. Shelley Murphy. Through January 31, 2026. Permanent exhibition, “Pride Overcomes Prejudice,” explores the history of peoples of African descent in Charlottesville. Ongoing.
The John P. & Stephanie F. Connaughton Gallery at the UVA McIntire School of Commerce Rouss & Robertson Halls third floor, East Lawn. “Beyond the Surface,” paintings by Susan Willis Brodie and Ellyn Wenzler. Through December 12.
McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In all galleries, the Winter Market features
an all-member cash-and-carry collection of original artwork, home goods, prints, ceramics, cards, fiber arts, ornaments, wearables, jewelry, and countless other creative surprises. Through December 28. First Fridays reception with pay-as-able ticketed performances by ORH Dance 5:30–7:30pm. Incubator Studios benefit: Make Your Own Handblown Ornament workshop with Raging Buffalo Glass December 6, noon–6pm.
The PVCC Gallery V. Earl Dickinson Building, 501 College Dr. The 18th annual “Let There Be Light” outdoor art exhibition, featuring illuminated artworks, projections, a parade, food trucks, warm apple cider, and hot chocolate. December 12, 6–9pm. “Spare Parts,” a group showcase featuring a variety of collage and assemblage works curated by Fenella Belle in response to PVCC’s One Book program selection: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Through January 10, 2026.
Ruffin Gallery UVA Grounds, Ruffin Hall, 179 Culbreth Rd. “The Thirteenth Chair: A Multimedia Experience” explores transformation through a contemporary reenactment of the Last Supper via video, installation, and performance, by Maria Villanueva and Sean Lopez with choreography by Rori Smith. Through December 12. Live performance December 4, 6pm.
For its final show of 2025, Les Yeux du Monde offers “GROUNDING,” featuring new paintings continuing a decades-long exploration of light as both subject and substance by longtime gallery artist Annie Harris Massie. In an intimate turn inward, Massie’s oil paintings on canvas and panel landscapes and botanical studies represent the forests and gardens surrounding her home and family farm in Lynchburg, Virginia. Within these familiar scenes, Massie’s world becomes a meditation on the quiet intersections of place, memory, and light, balancing the dualities of permanence and transience, materiality and immateriality. Les Yeux du Monde, 841 Wolf Trap Rd. lydmgallery.com
SCAN—Gallery on Valley 460 Valley St., Scottsville. In the Main Gallery, “Gratitude,” celebrates community and creativity with works from local creators, including fabric art, dress and jewelry design, quilting, wood works, sculpture, ceramics, paintings, photography, and more. November 6–30. In the Associates Gallery, “The Works of Bob Cronk.” November 6–December 7. Opening reception and artist talk November 8, 5–7pm. Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. In the Main Gallery, “Passenger: Riding the Rails,” photographs from an ever-expanding archive of images shot from moving trains by Stacey Evans. In the Dové Gallery, “Possibility,” photographs documenting the rewilding of an 1800s Virginia farmhouse by Courtney Coker. Both shows run December 5, 2025–January 23, 2026. Ticketed VIP reception and exhibition preview party December 4, 5:30–7:30pm. First Fridays opening reception 5–7:30pm. Holiday sidewalk art sale December 6, 10am–2pm. Artists in Conversation gallery talk with Stacey Evans and John E. Mason December 6, 2–3pm. Free Family Studio Day event December 13, 10am–2pm.
UVA Medical Center Main hospital lobby, 1215 Lee St. “Expressive Color” features 29 realistic landscapes and floral paintings by Karen Rosasco. Through January 14, 2026. Visible Records 1740 Broadway St. “Th ng / Nh (Loving / Remembering),” textiles and installation by Ph ng-Duyên H i Nguy n. December 5, 2025–February 21, 2026. First Fridays opening reception 6–9pm. Drop-in sewing performance December 13, 11am–1pm.
Annie Harris Massie, Corner of the House, 2025. Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 inches.
BJJ BASICS COURSE
Fishpond Blizzard Cooler
THIS PAGE COSTS
And each week, we print 500,000 of them. Every page, every story, every voice costs only pennies—but losing them would cost our community much more.
FOR FUN PUZZLES
SUDOKU
#1
#1
#4
#2 #5
PUZZLES FOR FUN
20. Worm work?
31. “Hamilton” creator ___-Manuel Miranda
32. Mooch in the “Mutts” comic, e.g.
33. Org. that looks over Heat and Thunder
34. Cereal holders
37. Ruin
38. Eleanor in a Beatles song
40. Actress de Armas
41. Gained
42. Granola bit
43. Reached the temperature of some Greek vowels?
50. The most recent Bond
51. “___ be a pleasure!”
52. Former “All Things Considered” co-host Shapiro
53. Catches, as fly balls
54. Raw material
55. Bowie rock genre
56. Nebulous area between a “Simpsons” bully and the late MMA fighter Slice?
(Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I’m taking a risk here by urging you cautious Capricorns to at least flirt with the Finnish tradition of drinking alcohol at home alone in your underwear with no intention of going out. I’m certainly not encouraging you to get so hammered that you can’t safely wander outdoors. My point is to give yourself permission to celebrate your amazing, mysterious, beautiful life with a bout of utterly uninhibited relaxation and totally indulgent contentment. I authorize you to be loose and free and even slightly irresponsible. Let your private pleasures reign supreme.
Aquarius
(Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the Quechua language, the word ayllu refers to a kinship system not just of people, but of animals, ancestors, dreams, and nature. To be aligned with one’s ayllu is to live in reciprocity, in the ongoing exchange of care and meaning among the entire web of life. “We belong to what we love,” the Quecha elders say. Aquarius, I believe you’re being asked to focus on your ayllu. Who or what comprises your circle of belonging? Which beings, places, and unseen presences help weave the pattern of your treasured destiny? Whom do you create for—not as audience, but as kin who receive and answer your song? As you nourish your connections in the coming weeks, pay special attention to those who respect your idiosyncrasies. It’s not your birthright to simply fit in. Your utter uniqueness is one of your greatest gifts, and it’s your sacred duty to give it.
Pisces
(Feb. 19-March 20): In Yoruba cosmology, the divine spirit Oshun presides over rivers, love, beauty, and sweet water. But her sweetness isn’t a weakness. It’s a sublime power, as evidenced by how her waters once restored life to the barren earth when every other force had failed. You Pisceans are now channeling extra strong currents of Oshun energy. Your tenderness is magnetic. Your imaginative flourishes are as valuable as gold. And your love, when rooted in your sovereign self-respect, is healing. But don’t let your nurturing be exploited. Choose wisely where you share your bounty. The right people will honor your flow, not judge it or try to change it. Your duty is to be uninhibitedly yourself and let your lyrical truths ripple freely.
Aries
(March 21-April 19): Here are two of your birthrights as an Aries: to be the spark that ignites the fire and the trailblazer who doesn’t wait for permission. I invite you to embody both of those roles to the max in the coming weeks. But keep these caveats in mind: Your flame should provide light and warmth but not rouse
(Nov. 22-Dec.21): The world’s oldest known musical composition is the Hurrian Hymn No. 6. It was discovered etched on clay tablets in Syria, dating back to 1400 BCE. When finally decoded and performed, it revealed harmonies that still resonate with modern listeners. Your projects in the coming months could share this timeless quality, Sagittarius. You will have an enhanced power to bridge your past and your future. A possibility you’ve been nurturing for months or even years may finally ripen into beautiful completion. Watch for opportunities to synergize tradition with innovative novelty or deep-rooted marvels with sweet, breezy forms of expression.
scorching agitation. Your intention should be to lead the way, not stir up drama or demand attention. Be bold and innovative, my dear, but always with rigorous integrity. Be sensitive and receptive as you unleash your gorgeous courage. In my vision of your future, you’re the wise guide who inspires and includes, who innovates and reflects. You fight for interdependence, not dominance.
Taurus
(April 20-May 20): Here’s a key theme: microdoses of courage. You don’t need to summon splashy acts of epic heroism. Subtle rebellions against numbness and ignorance may be all that’s required. Your understated superpowers will be tactful surges of honesty and gentle interventions in challenging transitions. So be brave in ways that feel manageable, Taurus. Don’t push yourself to be a fearless warrior. The trembling truth-teller is your best role model. As an experiment to get started, say yes to two things that make you nervous but don’t terrify you.
Gemini
(May 21-June 20): Your inner ear contains three canals filled with fluid. They act like gyroscopes, telling you which way is up, how fast you’re moving, and when to stop. Your ability to maintain your balance depends on their loyal service. Without them, you couldn’t orient yourself in space. Moral of the story: You stabilize yourself through constant adjustment. Let’s make this a metaphor for your current assignment. Your ability to remain poised, centered, and grounded will require ongoing adaptations. It won’t work to remain still and fixed. You will have to keep calibrating and adapting.
Cancer
(June 21-July 22): Let’s extol the value of productive confusion: the disorienting state when your old maps no longer match the territory. Your beloved certainties shudder and dissipate, and you don’t know what you don’t know. This isn’t a failure of understanding, but the ripe precondition for a breakthrough. The caterpillar doesn’t smoothly or instantly transition into a butterfly. First it dissolves into chaotic goo and simmers there for a while. Conclusion: Stay in the not-knowing a little longer.
Leo
(July 23-Aug. 22): Coffee from Java, orchids from Iceland, and grapes from Vesuvius, Italy: What do these bounties have in common? They flourish in the extra fertile soil created by volcanic eruptions. The molten lava that initially leveled everything in its path later cooled and became a repository of rich nutrients. I expect a milder version of this theme for you, Leo. Events and energies that at first cause disruption will eventually become vitalizing and even healing. Challenges will lead to nourishment.
Virgo
(Aug. 22 to Sept. 22): Gardeners in Japan spend years training bonsai trees to grow into elegant shapes. The process requires extraordinary patience, close listening, and an intimate relationship with an ever-changing life form. I invite you to approach your current projects with this mindset. You may feel tempted to expedite the growth that’s unfolding. You might feel pressure to “complete” or “optimize.” But the flourishing of your work depends on subtle attunement, not
brute progress. Pay tender attention to what wants to emerge slowly. Tend to it with care. Time is your collaborator, not your enemy. You’re weaving lasting beauty.
Libra
(Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The Swedish concept of lagom means “not too much, not too little, but just right.” It suggests that the best option may be in the middle rather than in the extremes. Yes, sometimes that means an uneasy compromise. But more often, it’s how the power and virtue come fully alive and thrive. Many people don’t like this fact of life. They are fixated on the delusion that more is always better. In the coming weeks, Libra, I invite you to be a connoisseur of lagom. To do it right, you may have to strenuously resist peer pressure and groupthink.
Scorpio
(Oct. 21-Nov.21): In Bangkok markets, elderly women sell caged birds. Why? For the specific purpose of releasing them. Those who buy a captive sparrow or dove immediately open the cage door and let the creature fly away in a symbolic gesture of compassion and spiritual aspiration. It’s a Buddhist act believed to bring good karma to the person who sets the bird free. I invite you to imagine yourself performing this sacrament, Scorpio, or perhaps conducting an actual ritual with the equivalent purpose. Now is a fun and fertile time to liberate an outdated belief, a conversation you keep replaying, or a version of yourself that’s no longer relevant. Take your cue from the signs that appear in the Bangkok market: Letting go is a form of prayer
Expanded weekly audio horoscopes and daily text message horoscopes: RealAstrology.com, (877) 873-4888
P.S. TRENDING
The good, the bad, and the Charlottesville
Submit your own at c-vile.com.
C-VILLE
UVA football team defeats Virginia Tech to win the Commonwealth Clash and earn a spot in the ACC Championship game against Duke. Kamala Harris calls Zyahna Bryant to congratulate her on school board win. Tonsler League’s annual turkey drive gives away more than 300 birds and meal bags for Thanksgiving. ReLeaf plants trees in several city neighborhoods. Charlottesville police host its second Firearm Safety and Buyback Program. Dogwood Vietnam Memorial will add 26 UVA students who died in the war. More drop-off locations for local Toys for Tots’ annual drive.
C-VILE
It’s cold. Victoria Cobb, president of The Family Foundation and Founding Freedoms Law Center, visits Western Albemarle High School. Jim Ryan says UVA Board of Visitors was dishonest about its role in his ouster. Two baby giraffes go missing from Natural Bridge Zoo. Traffic delays on Water Street. Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger and Glenn Youngkin go at it over UVA BOV appointments and search for new university president. Tim Kaine’s one of eight Democrats to vote with Republicans to end government shutdown.
brighter. brighter.
Did you know that Charlottesville has become one of the most expensive metro areas in the Eastern U.S.? Relative to income, housing is more expensive here than in Northern Virginia. With your support, we can help families who, despite working 40+ hours/week, are struggling to make ends meet.
Here are some of the programs that community members’ donations help fund: Together, we can make the season
Transportation assistance that helps families get to work reliably and advance their careers
Childcare scholarships to high-quality early learning centers for children 0-5
Scan the code to help local families thrive by supporting United Way programs and resources.
Pathways to homeownership that empower families to build generational wealth
