Howardena Pindell exhibit opening at VMFA
If the 50-year plight of a female artist’s career through a life of racial and gender disparities was never the topic on the fall school reading list, the season is prime to learn from Howardena Pindell’s life story.
16th Annual Happily Natural Day this Saturday
Happily Natural Day returns this weekend to the site of a large vegetable and berry garden in South Side. The 16th edition of the event will be 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 25, at the 5th District Mini Farm, 2208 Bainbridge Street, it has been announced. The event is open to the public.
Carver Elementary’s ‘enemies are internal’
Re Letter to the editor, “Carver Elementary’s success became ‘a target on its back,’ ” Free Press Aug. 9-11 edition: Like many others, I could not have been more disappointed in the behavior of teachers and administrators over the Standards of Learning debacle, especially because I was a student at Carver Elementary School the very first year it opened.
Medieval manuscript returned after museum discovers it was stolen
One year after the Green family — owners of the craft store chain Hobby Lobby and principal sponsors of the Museum of the Bible — agreed to pay a $3 million fine for illegally importing artifacts from Iraq, the museum is returning a medieval New Testament manuscript to the University of Athens after learning the document had been stolen from the Greek institution.
UR religion professor honored for 54 years
There is one word in the English language that Frank Edwin Eakin Jr. never utters: “Retirement.” Dr. Eakin has spent 54 years teaching religious studies courses, including 52 years at the University of Richmond, and he’s still going strong.
Free back-to-school health clinics scheduled
Offering everything from vaccinations to physicals and dental and vision checkups, free health clinics will be held in the next two weeks to help ensure children are ready for the start of school, it has been announced.
Prayers go out to ‘Queen of Soul’
Icon Aretha Franklin reportedly is in hospice at her Detroit home; family at her bedside
Prayers from across the nation and the around the globe are pouring in for legendary singer Aretha Franklin, who has fallen gravely ill. Ms. Franklin, 76, a legendary gospel and R&B singer whose reign as the “Queen of Soul” spans more than 50 years, is under hospice care at her home in Detroit’s Riverfront Towers, according to publicist Gwendolyn Quinn.
Henrico schools hosting back-to-school events
Henrico County Public Schools is hosting a back-to-school rally and a series of meet-and-greet events with the new superintendent to get students and parents ready for the new school year.
Fall registration still open for J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College
J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College will host “Registration Super Saturday” 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, Aug. 18, at it Downtown Campus, 700 E. Jackson St., and Parham Road Campus, 1651 E. Parham Road, in Henrico County.
Model farm field day Aug. 17
New technologies and farm production practices will be on display Friday, Aug. 17, at the National Black Growers Council Model Farm Series Field Day.
City to hold minority contractor workshop for new schools project
The City of Richmond’s Office of Minority Business Development is holding a workshop for minority-owned and emerging small businesses to learn how to participate in the planned $110 million city school construction projects.
Mitchell named GRTC interim CEO
GRTC has never had a female chief executive. Nor did any of its predecessor public transit companies. That is not changing as the bus company moves to replace David Green, who announced last week that he would step down as GRTC’s chief executive officer at the end of the month.
GRTC proposes service improvement to Maymont-Randolph area
A modest plan to restore a portion of the bus service that was cut from the Maymont-Randolph area as part of GRTC’s overhaul of bus routes is headed to the board of the transit company for approval.
Neo-Confederates returning to city
4th rally in a year
Once again, Richmond must deal with a potentially volatile gathering of neo-Confederates seeking to preserve the Confederate statues on Monument Avenue.
More money found for city school maintenance
A preliminary review of city and Richmond Public Schools’ financial records has turned up $9.5 million that possibly could be used for maintenance and repairs at the city’s 44 public schools.
ACLU calls for prohibition of ‘marijuana smell’ warrantless searches
Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring is aware that police officers are using the claim of “I smell marijuana” to justify pat-downs of people and car searches, particularly “in poor communities of color.”
White nationalist rally sputters in D.C. on anniversary of bloody Charlottesville protest
A white nationalist rally in the heart of Washington drew two dozen demonstrators and thousands of chanting counterprotesters last Sunday, the one-year anniversary of deadly, racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Va.
Personality: Marjie Patterson
Conflicts around the world have forced thousands of families to flee their homelands and seek refuge in other nations. ReEstablish Richmond helps refugees and their families rebuild their lives in Metro Richmond and become self-sufficient.
Dr. Katie G. Cannon, renowned scholar who elevated role of black women in theology, dies at 68
Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon made history in 1974 as the first African-American woman to be ordained a Presbyterian minister in the United States. Dr. Cannon would use that breakthrough to become a driving force in creating the womanist theology that promotes the inclusion of women of color in shaping the understanding of faith.
You smell that?
The African-American community has long lived with the trauma of police harassment and abuse. Civil rights leaders and lawyers have pushed back for decades to end these deplorable, and many times, unconstitutional, practices.
