Author: Irene Vargas

As NASCAR star Bubba Wallace hosts a ‘block party’ at Richmond Raceway geared toward Black fans, the legacy of a once forgotten pioneer looms. Like many bootleggers turned race car drivers across Virginia, the creation of a national stock car association meant the prospect of turning a hobby into a living. When Wendell Scott pulled up to the Richmond Speedway in 1949 to request a license, he was given a warning no other driver received. As told in Scott’s biography, an official said he was the first Black driver to ask for one. “You’re going to be knocked around.” “I…

You want to know why it’s called “Woo-wee” stuff to do this week? No? Good. Comedians Maria Bamford and Jackie Kashian at the National on Friday, Aug. 12 Lady Bamford is a comedy veteran of TV and stage, a lover of pugs, and she’s funny, with goofy voices and scrunchy faces for days. Recommended if you’re a fan of quirky comedians like Amy Sedaris. Need a sample of her supposedly controversial stand-up material? (Yes, it can be self-deprecating and it does deal with mental illness and family dysfunction, thanks Wikipedia): Here’s Maria imitating her religious mom: ‘Honey, when you don’t…

The Richmond Symphony is getting creative this fall and just announced its upcoming schedule, which can be viewed online here. And you can see that the Symphony is looking to attract a mix of younger audiences and the old school faithful. October, in particular, looks like an amazing month. Among the highlights: Cello great Yo-Yo Ma (Oct.4), Steve Hackman’s Brahms X Radiohead (Sept. 24), various performances at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, high octane violinist Jennifer Koh playing Tchaikovsky (Oct. 22) and the Music of Danny Elfman from the Films of Tim Burton (Oct. 29). Here’s a more complete list with…

Co-produced by VPM, the show airs its season finale this Friday, announcing winner. Even in record high summer temperatures, great food has the ability to bring people out of the house and keep them there. Earlier this summer, in promotion of its new PBS TV show, “The Great American Recipe,” VPM hosted a series of cooking demos in Harrisonburg, Richmond, and Charlottesville with local chefs from each respective area. Filmed in nearby Ruther Glen, Va. and co-produced by VPM, “The Great American Recipe” is an eight-part, uplifting cooking competition that celebrates multiculturalism. It airs its eighth and final episode of…

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) recently announced the election of Lynette L. Allston to the role of president of the museum’s board of trustees. In the 86-year history of the institution, Allston is the first Native American to hold this position and, according to a press release, the first Native American board chair of a top 10 U.S. comprehensive art museum. Allston serves as the current Chief and Chair Emeritus of the Tribal Council of the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia, “one of 11 tribes officially recognized by the Commonwealth.” “We are tremendously delighted to have Lynette serving…

The story of Richmond’s smart, hard-hitting alternative tabloid, The Richmond Mercury, began 50 years ago. In 1972, the radically conservative Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Richmond News Leader, and the virulent segregationist reputation they had championed on their editorial pages dominated Central Virginia’s print media landscape. Aware of this dominance, a group of Harvard and University of Virginia-educated Richmond natives became convinced the city could benefit from another voice. So in September of that year, Garrett Epps, Frank Rich, Rob Buford IV, Lynn Darling, Charles Hite, Harry Stein, photographer Joyce Heard, production manager Peter Galassi, and staff artist Bill Nelson partnered with…

Bert Shaffer is Richmond’s premier male burlesque performer. When Wyatt Carpenter auditioned for a spot in his first-ever burlesque show, his only training consisted of a routine he memorized off the internet and hours spent watching the movie “Moulin Rouge” on repeat as a child. As he danced and slowly stripped in front of Deanna Danger, the woman who would become his burlesque mentor, he didn’t even have a stage name yet. Carpenter never considered burlesque a potential creative outlet for himself until he attended Purple Life in 2017—a dance party at Godfrey’s featuring a DJ, new burlesque performers every…

Protest images by Richmond Free Press photojournalists remain at Branch Museum until Sept.11. “(Re)Framing Protest: Design + Hope” at the Branch Museum reminds us that space, regardless of how protected, ornate, or planned, belongs to the people. During the summer of 2020, it was the people who enlivened space by gathering on Monument Avenue to occupy the historic boulevard and, more importantly, redefine community. In illuminating a broader conversation, protesters showed a need to reclaim public spaces as places of human connection and political resistance. For 65 consecutive days that summer, Richmond Free Press photojournalists Regina H. Boone and Sandra…

A Grammy-nominated hip-hop legend strolls into the studio where you’re recording and asks if you’d like to work together on a song that will represent your home state. What do you say? “I was not afraid,” Virginia Beach-based artist Kingna Scott says of the moment Pusha T of Clipse proposed they collaborate on a song about their shared Virginian origins. “I wasn’t nervous. I was like, ‘Yes.’” The resulting track, “VA Sway,” is part of the Virginia Tourism Corporation’s Heart & Soul campaign, which shines a light on a Black creator or influencer each month. Scott grew up in Farmville…

Superbly acted, Lena Dunham’s “Sharp Stick” is obsessed by reproduction and its social impact. Since her breakout film, 2010’s “Tiny Furniture,” sexual anxiety has been writer-director Lena Dunham’s governing subject, and she has an uncanny ability to channel the fear of embarrassment and exclusion that reside in lust. With boldness, of course, comes peril. I tapped out of Dunham’s HBO show “Girls,” the launching port of a thousand think pieces, at around season four. Dunham’s narcissism and anti-vanity, which is really vanity under another name, wore me down on a week-after-week basis. Movies are a better, more concentrated form for…