vol. 285 / PrideExploring and celebrating the place we all love to call home.
VOL. 285 / Pride
This week's guest editor is Amanda Blatnikserves as Chair of Virginia Pride, leading volunteers to organize Pridefest and events that celebrate Richmond's LGBTQ+ community.
Since joining the committee in 2024, Amanda has created the inaugural Pride Week (September 20-28), expanding the celebration with diverse programming designed to offer something for everyone. Amanda is passionate about creating safe, inclusive spaces where people can celebrate their authentic selves.
Professionally, Amanda is a Senior Management Analyst for the City of Richmond's Department of Economic Development, bringing 15 years of nonprofit and government experience in project management and process improvement.
Amanda loves living life to the fullest - enjoying Richmond's great food scene, dancing with friends, and taking walks in the city's parks. They're also a self-proclaimed nerd who enjoys fantasy shows, Dungeons & Dragons, and comic conventions.
Take it away, Amanda ...
Pride Anthem Karaoke at Barcode
Sing it loud, sing it proud! Celebrate Pride with a special edition of Barcode’s weekly karaoke night, featuring an endless catalog of queer icons and anthems - Cher, Tina, Gaga, Madonna, Chappell Roan, Tracy Chapman, k.d. lang, and more. Plus, enter the midnight raffle for a chance to win Pridefest VIP tickets. (And if you catch the karaoke bug, Barcode hosts it every Thursday!)
Vitals:
Pride Anthem Karaoke / Thursday, September 25 / 9:00 PM – 1:00 AM / Barcode, 6 E Grace St, Richmond, VA
Pride After Dark at Thirsty’s
Who needs sleep the night before Pridefest? Not us! Pride After Dark brings the party to Forest Hill with vendors, drag entertainment, dancing, and more at Thirsty’s, the small but mighty gay bar owned by Keyan Herron and his husband Cameron. This 18+ event celebrates Pride’s sultry side—so come ready to shop, cheer, and let loose, because Pride doesn’t end when the sun goes down.
Vitals:
Pride After Dark / Friday, September 26 / 8:00 PM – 1:00 AM / Thirsty’s, 3516 Forest Hill Ave, Richmond, VA / $10 suggested donation
Pride Bowling Bash
Close out Pride Week with strikes, spares, and spectacular drag flair. Drag superstar Mhiya LePaige - famed for her acrobatics and high-energy performances - takes the stage, while local legend Alvion Davenport hosts. Plus, appearances from the fabulous 2025 VA Pride Court. And yes, there will be plenty of bowling.
Vitals:
Pride Bowling Bash / Sunday, September 28 / 4:00 – 8:00 PM / River City Roll, 939 Myers St, Richmond, VA / $25 tickets
More about Virginia Pride:
Virginia Pride celebrates diversity, is committed to seeking equity and inclusion for all in the LGBTQ+ community, and seeks to make our region a better place for LGBTQ+ people to live, work, and visit.
Virginia Pride’s priority is to create experiences that embrace individuals of all identities as well as intentionally working to elevate those of our LGBTQ+ community that are disproportionately impacted including people of color, trans individuals, and those that identify as non-binary or gender non-conforming.
vol. 284 / TaylorExploring and celebrating the place we all love to call home.
VOL. 284 / Taylor
This week's guest editor is Taylor Scott, a community organizing powerhouse! Originally planning to join the FBI, Taylor found her calling in grassroots organizing and mutual aid work. In 2020, she founded RVA Community Fridges after her hydroponic garden's abundant harvest sparked her understanding of food systems and community needs.
What began as one fridge in Church Hill, created with friends, has grown into 15 locations across Richmond, with a focus on communities affected by redlining and food apartheid. Scott has helped establish community fridges throughout Virginia and beyond. She also co-runs Matchbox Mutual Aid, a brick-and-mortar kitchen space that partners with Richmond Food Not Bombs to host community cook days, events, and free food-based courses.
A New Orleans native who now calls Richmond home, Taylor enjoys fiber arts like sewing, crocheting, and knitting. She shares her space with Serrano, a 3-year-old Red Foot Tortoise named after the pepper.
Take it away, Taylor ...
Fund the Fridge Concert ft. Erin Lunsford and Deau Eyes
Experience an evening of live music and community care at this special pop-up show, featuring performances by Richmond favorites Erin Lunsford and Deau Eyes, with all proceeds supporting the #35thStFridge — a vital neighborhood resource providing free food and essentials. Come out, enjoy the music, and help keep the fridge full.
Bring your needlework and join a welcoming community of stitchers for an afternoon of cross-stitch, embroidery, and sewing. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned maker, this casual gathering is all about sharing skills, stories, and creative company over coffee.
Roll up your sleeves and cook for the community! Join RVA Community Fridges at Matchbox Mutual Aid for an evening of preparing meals that will stock local community fridges and feed neighbors in need. A great way to connect, share skills, and support mutual aid in action.
Vitals:
RVA Community Fridges Cook Day / Tuesday, September 23 / 5:00 – 8:00 PM / Matchbox Mutual Aid, 2919 North Ave.
More about RVA Community Fridges:
The RVA Community Fridges are open to everyone in the community — take what you need or give what you can. Operating 24/7, 365 days a year, the fridges are maintained by community members just like you.
Donations can be made at rvacommunityfridges.com, where voting is currently open for future fridge locations. Community members can submit new location suggestions and vote on existing proposals.
Join Taylor and her team at upcoming community cook days, classes, and events. Stay connected through their Discord and follow @rvacommunityfridges on Instagram and Facebook for the latest updates.
vol. 283 / TraskExploring and celebrating the place we all love to call home.
VOL. 283 / Trask
This week we welcome back artist, musician, and community leader Ed Trask as guest editor. A Richmonder requiring no introduction, Ed sums himself up like this: “Painter, drummer. A scattered mess trying to push stories, color, composition, rhythm, love, and light on to the masses.” That restless energy has defined Ed's work and his place in the River City for more than three decades.
A graduate of VCU with a BFA in Painting & Printmaking, Ed made Richmond itself his canvas, transforming forgotten buildings with murals that gave walls new life. After graduating in 1992, he kept painting wherever he went, sometimes illegally and sometimes while on tour with punk rock bands, always in search of rhythm and story.
Back home in Richmond, he has been a driving force in using public art as a catalyst for community. He co-founded the RVA Street Art Festival, served as a commissioner for the city’s Public Art Commission, and worked with nonprofits to bring inclusive, collaborative murals to neighborhoods across the region. He has also shared his perspective in classrooms, boardrooms and community spaces, reminding people that art is most powerful when it belongs to everyone.
Today Ed’s paintings and murals can be found in collections around the world, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ Modern & Contemporary Art Collection, but his roots remain firmly planted in Richmond, where he lives with his wife and two children. On the horizon for Ed is Universal, a gallery space created by Artists for Hope to incubate new creative endeavors that give back. Artists exhibiting at this nonprofit gallery will donate a percentage of their proceeds to the charity of their choice.
Take it away, Ed ...
Camera to Canvas Fundraiser
On September 12, I’ll join fellow Richmond artists for Camera to Canvas, an annual event that blends photography and painting to benefit the Friends of the James River Park System. For more than five decades, the James River Park has been Richmond’s beating heart. It's a place that has shaped my art, my music, and my life. I’ve biked its trails and paddled its rapids. I've cast a line into its waters and found endless inspiration for the stories that end up on canvas.
This year, I’ve donated my painting Train Songs, a piece that echoes the rhythm of steel, water, and movement along the mighty James. Few places capture Richmond’s creative pulse like the James River Park, and Train Songs is my way of honoring that soundtrack.
At Camera to Canvas, you’ll be able to bid on this painting, as well as photographs by Richmond photographer Bill Draper, plus original works from other artists. Attend the show, or bid on artwork online, or just spread the word. Every dollar raised helps protect and expand the park that we all love to call home.
Vitals:
Camera to Canvas / Friday, Sep 12, 2025 / 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM / 6228 Forest Hill Ave.
Walk the Dams Under the Manchester Bridge
This is my favorite spot to breathe, fish, and decompress. It is the perfect blend of nature and the energy of rushing water pounding rocks for millions of years, with trains in three-quarter time carrying goods, coal, and people slicing between osprey and herons looking to roost. The water drowns out the sound of the Manchester Bridge, which has its own rhythm of passing trucks and car horns. Together they create an orchestra that is peaceful, layered, and at times a little discordant, touching every sense. Yet just half a mile away, a completely different rhythm and song rises from the heart of a city that is changing rapidly. And here you can also walk the dam to the now-closed Pipeline Trail, a beloved spot for so many who seek solace and connection to a river that carries both a difficult history and the promise of unity. I encourage everyone to support the “Save the Pipeline” efforts led by groups such as RVA Paddlesports and the James River Outdoor Coalition, who are working to restore public access to this special place.
Vitals:
Under the Manchester Bridge, near the end of 12th & Byrd Street in downtown Richmond
Health Arts in Healthcare
I just wrapped up a collaboration with VCU Health Arts in Healthcare and the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, bringing a little extra color and energy to the Virginia Treatment Center for Children’s Northside campus. This mural is meant to welcome kids and their families with warmth and imagination, but most importantly with hope. While I was painting, it struck me that there are so many ways we Richmonders can support CHoR beyond large financial gifts. The Child Life Department keeps Amazon and Walmart wish lists for toys, books, and art supplies. And the Virginia Treatment Center for Children has its own wish list to support recreation therapy and mental health services.
You can also join events like Extra Life, which unites gamers from across the globe to play games to change kids' health to change the future. Donations stay local to fund critical treatments and healthcare services, pediatric medical equipment and charitable care at Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU. Or start your own project, from a neighborhood art show to a “Shop for a Cause” event at a local business. Supporting CHoR doesn’t always mean writing a big check. Sometimes it’s as simple as sharing your time, creativity, or even a box of crayons.
Do yourself a favor and revisit Kuba Kuba today. Here you can stand on the tiles worn down by nearly three decades of footsteps and lean against this well-worn neighborhood bar, its edges smoothed by years of elbows, while you wait for a plate of Cuban pork. Out front there's a mural I painted years ago, still bright with color. Inside, if I listen closely enough, I can still hear Papi reminding me that Rana's house hot sauce, not sriracha, is the sauce you want. Here you'll find sunlight drifting through the front door, cutting across the chorizo smoke. Regulars laughing over what is probably their fourth espresso of the day. The walls are lined with photos, chalkboards and well-loved artifacts that retell decades of neighborhood stories. Even the dogs know to pause at the door for milk bones. For me, Kuba Kuba has always been a home and a family, and Richmond is lucky to have it. If it has been a while, stop by. Order the pork, sip an espresso, and remember why we rally around the places that feel like home. Cheers, y’all.
This is not your normal podcast. It takes place on an island in the James River in downtown Richmond. For more than 200 years, Richmonders have built on this narrow sliver of land, only to watch the river reclaim it. Still, people keep returning, keep building, and keep trying to find their footing. That spirit is at the heart of Richmond’s newest podcast. Check out the recent episode featuring Ed Trask, recorded with feet in the sand and the city skyline in view, as guests talk about what it means to keep pushing the place we love to call home forward. Richmond Grid and Here Weekly are proud partners of the Sharp's Island podcast.
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