RVAMAG
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Local culture since 2005 • RVA • Richmond, Virginia #rvamag @rvamag Find our stories here: https://linktr.ee/Rvamag
Where Witchduck took on the responsibility of satirizing historic injustices, Dog Mom brings us back to the home fires of the heart, demanding we examine the nature of love, bliss, devotion, and loss.
Review | Dog Mom is Theatre at Its Best, Here or Anywhere Else
Christian Detres reviews Cadence’s Dog Mom at Firehouse Theatre, a funny, moving production he calls one of Richmond’s best in years. Tate Elizabeth Hanyok’s play explores love, loneliness, devotion a...
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Studio Two Three has been around long enough to forget how likely it was to fail. Sixteen years ago, a small group of friends wanted to keep making art in Richmond. They pooled money from working in local restaurants to pay rent, borrowed equipment and built an organization one piece at a time.
Studio Two Three Is Beefing With Bots. Among Other Things
by R. Anthony Harris
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The creative soul of Richmond has been flourishing for years. Within the past two, it’s made itself known through Endling, a creative collective of underground hip-hop artists who have one goal: to prevent the underground from dying.
This is Endling
Richmond creative collective Endling is working to keep the city’s underground alive. From house shows to Ember Music Hall and performances in New York, Miami and Chicago, the young artists are buildi...
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Chuck Varga, a founding member of GWAR and the artist and performer behind the band’s Sexecutioner passed away over the weekend following a battle with cancer. He was 68.
GWAR Co-Founder Chuck Varga, aka Sexecutioner, Dies at 68
Chuck Varga, a founding member of Richmond’s GWAR and the artist and performer behind Sexecutioner, died Sept. 25 at 68 after a battle with cancer. Varga helped shape GWAR’s early visual identity and ...
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All sorts of Richmond classics this week. We got Jesse Welles’ triumphant return, a ton of killer local acts, and the classic John Prine tribute night.
RVA Live Music | Jesse Welles, Powerplant, John Prine Memorial Benefit
Griffin Smalley highlights this week’s Richmond shows, from Jesse Welles’ return at The National to Powerplant’s synth-punk takeover at The Camel and the sixth annual John Prine Memorial Benefit, feat...
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Monday night I got taken to a church of filth. The Pope of Trash, the Prince of Puke, the Sultan of Sleaze, John Waters, graced the Byrd Theatre for a sold-out one-man show.
Richmond Got a Little Filthier. John Waters Was Here.
John Waters brought his gospel of filth to a sold-out Byrd Theatre in Richmond for a night of trash, bad taste and perverted humor. Callie Watts reflects on the filmmaker’s influence, talks with drag ...
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Join us. We discuss his journey into individualism in life and making his way to Richmond, Virginia. Figuring out a way to encourage someone not to have their first tattoo be a forehead tattoo ..."
It’s Still Our City Ep. 24 | Ed Harrington
Richmond illustrator Ed Harrington joins It’s Still Our City to discuss his journey from VCU and Style Weekly to tattooing, freelance illustration and work for major brands. Harrington talks creativit...
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Protestors gathered on Saturday morning outside the Richmond International Airport to oppose and call attention to the airport’s role in ICE detainee transfers and deportation flights.
Richmonders Don’t Know How Many ICE Flights Are Happening
Protesters gathered near Richmond International Airport to call attention to its role in ICE detainee transfers and deportation operations. ICE Flight Monitor data shows enforcement flights out of Ric...
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I’ve rarely seen an entire room laugh so hard, so long, and so many times.
Review | Virginia Rep Gets Everything Wrong, and It’s Hilarious
Virginia Rep’s The Play That Goes Wrong turns a fictional murder mystery into complete theatrical chaos at the November Theatre. With physical comedy, collapsing scenery, perfectly timed pratfalls and...
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Last weekend lived up to the hype.
Photos | Jack White & LCD Soundsystem Headline Iron Blossom 2026
Iron Blossom returned to Richmond for its fourth year with Jack White, LCD Soundsystem, Phantogram, Portugal. The Man, Dijon, Geese, Die Spitz and more taking over Midtown Green. Photographer Vinny Ca...
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Angine de Poitrine at Iron Blossom Music Festival in Richmond, VA last night. 🪐 🎥 by @radio_tokyo
Crazy good lineups this week, from some huge names, some up and coming names, some friendly names, all good stuff. Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit us up at griffin@rvamag.com.
RVA Live Music | Automatic, Switchfoot, Unseemlier, Christopher Janos
Richmond’s music calendar is stacked this week with Automatic and Accessory at The Camel, Unseemlier, Bashful and Heavy Friends at Banditos, and Switchfoot and Anberlin at The National. Plus, we check...
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Brown’s Island has been closed since November 2025 for a $30 million improvement project, the largest renovation of the six-acre island in decades. It will temporarily reopen for the Richmond Folk Festival, October 9 – 11th.
A First Look at the New Brown's Island
Richmond's Brown's Island is undergoing a $30 million renovation that will add permanent restrooms, drinking water, more shade and seating, a splash pad, improved accessibility and new landscaping. Th...
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Richmond has always had the bands and the audience. What it didn’t always have were enough places for that music to grow. Ahead of Iron Blossom, we talked with veteran promoter Ken Macdonald about the city’s changing live music ecosystem, from tiny clubs to festivals and the Allianz Amphitheater.
Iron Blossom is Part of a Bigger Richmond Music Story
Ahead of Iron Blossom, veteran promoter Ken Macdonald looks at how Richmond’s live music ecosystem has grown from small clubs and theaters to Brown’s Island, major festivals and the Allianz Amphitheat...
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I’d just walked out of the store and sat down on the curb and desperately googled: fake news, please more fake news. Then I had to call my mom. Dolly was generational for me. I sat there on the curb crying. It felt like I had lost a friend, not a close friend, but a friend.
Richmond Loves Dolly Parton
Richmond remembers Dolly Parton through the people who loved her, from drag performers and lifelong fans to children discovering her music. Callie Watts explores Dolly’s legacy through Richmond’s Doll...
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You can always kiss off into the air. Behind my back, I can see them stare. They hurt me bad, and I don’t mind. They hurt me bad, they do it all the time! Yeah, yeah. You just sang that in your head, didn’t you?
You Can Kiss Off! 45 Years of Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes singer Gordon Gano talks 45 years of making music, the staying power of “Kiss Off” and “Blister in the Sun,” doing karaoke to his own song, playing without setlists and returning to Ric...
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Richmond has no shortage of bands that arrive and then disappear. Night Idea has taken the opposite approach. They’ve been around for 16 years, and keep getting better.
Night Idea Has Been Here the Whole Time.
After 16 years, Richmond’s Night Idea is still evolving. Joey Anderson, Reggie Pace and Reyna Pannell talk about the band’s changing sound, Richmond’s musical ecosystem, why musicians seem to love Nig...
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Never let anyone tell you ska is dead, we got a little bit of it in every show on the books this week. If you are opposed to that you will have to take it up with my Two Tone tattoo. Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit us up at griffin@rvamag.com.
RVA Live Music | The Bouncing Souls, Human Worm, Nana Grizo, Fonville x Fribush
Ska isn’t dead in Richmond this week. The Bouncing Souls, The Suicide Machines and Strike Anywhere hit The National, while Nana Grizol plays Gallery5 and The Auricular celebrates eight years at The Ca...
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For more than a decade, RVA Magazine has worked with Virginia Pride to produce the Official VA PrideFest Guide, bringing together stories from Richmond’s LGBTQ+ community and everything you need to know for PrideFest this Saturday, September 12, 2026.
Read the Virginia Pride 2026 Pride Guide 🏳️🌈
Download the official 2026 Virginia PrideFest Guide from RVA Magazine, featuring the full schedule, festival map, parking info and stories from Richmond’s LGBTQ+ community.
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But in 1968, Clem was just 22 years old when her friend Lenore Gay, a social worker at what was then Richmond Professional Institute, came to her with a stack of papers and a problem. People needed healthcare, and Gay was struggling to get a free clinic started.
Mary File Clem and the Richmond Legacy of Fan Free Clinic 🏳️🌈
At 22, Mary File Clem helped create Richmond’s Fan Free Clinic, Virginia’s first free clinic and the organization now known as Health Brigade. Patience Salgado reflects on Clem’s legacy, the mutual ai...
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What a kick it is to hang out with Philip Crosby, executive director of Richmond Triangle Players. We spent a good hour talking about a range of topics du jour in the queer communities RTP serves. The joys, the fears, lessons learned, trends being realized and eulogized.
Philip Crosby on Queer Theater, Pride and Not Backing Down 🏳️🌈
Richmond Triangle Players executive director Philip Crosby talks queer theater, the AIDS era, political pressure, Pride and why RTP remains committed to telling LGBTQ+ stories.
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Tiera Craig has been executive director of Diversity Richmond for a couple of months, and she has spent much of that time listening. As someone new to the city and trying to understand the community she now serves, it is a good first step.
Meet New Diversity Richmond Chief Executive Director Tiera Craig 🏳️🌈
Meet Tiera Craig, Diversity Richmond’s new executive director, as she discusses listening to Richmond’s LGBTQ+ community, the challenges facing local nonprofits, and her vision for the organization’s ...
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Recessed lighting, hypnotic wall treatments, reflective surfaces, and a backlit wine bottle wall to tie it all together rang the bell of recognition. It started dawning on me that this was something new. A THC-infused mocktail joint.
RVA Cannabis Co. Is Building a Different Kind of Bar in Richmond 🏳️🌈
RVA Cannabis Co. is bringing THC-infused mocktails, edibles and a new kind of cannabis-focused social space to downtown Richmond’s Canal Walk.
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Dressing as a poodle carrying a cross, painting on paper towels, putting wigs on fans, Monsieur Zohore is a Richmond-based artist who is not afraid to offend and twist your brain using comedy in art.
Monsieur Zohore’s Art Is Funny, Until You Think About It 🏳️🌈
Richmond-based artist Monsieur Zohore turns paper towels, wigs, performance and comedy into work designed to charm, disarm and unsettle. Callie Watts talks with Zohore about Puppassions, race, his Ivo...
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He just directed his first feature film, The Cashier, set to premiere at the Richmond International Film Festival on September 22. I was asked to get together with him and shoot the shit about this side quest in an otherwise linear career.
Virginia Film Chief Andy Edmunds Made a Movie
After decades helping bring major productions to Virginia, Virginia Film Office director Andy Edmunds has made a movie of his own. He talks with filmmaker Christian Detres about writing and directing ...
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TVJerry is a mainstay champion of the Richmond media world, filing reports and reviews of stage plays, streaming media, TV shows, and movies for several decades
TVJerry on Richmond Movies, Midnight Shows and Lost Media 🏳️🌈
For more than 50 years, Jerry Williams, aka TVJerry, has watched Richmond’s film and media world evolve. He talks with RVA Magazine about reviewing movies on Channel 6, Tales from the Grips, midnight ...
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Lots of great stuff going on this week, I am particularly looking forward to that Dogo Du Togo show! If you see me there come say hi! Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit us up at griffin@rvamag.com.
RVA Live Music | Dogo Du Togo, Box Factory, Condition Critical, Sprawl
This week’s Richmond music picks include Dogo Du Togo, Box Factory, Cherry Moon, Luna Light, Condition Critical, Circle Breaker and Excrementia, plus Sprawl’s new album Jumpline Bleeder. From Togolese...
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Labor Day weekend is here, and if your plan was to sit around doing absolutely nothing for four days, Richmond has other ideas. Here are ten things worth getting out of the house for this Labor Day weekend.
A Quick Guide For This Labor Day Weekend in Richmond
Richmond has plans for your Labor Day weekend. From underground music and Radical RVA Pride to First Fridays, local art, festivals, hardcore shows and late-night drive-in movies, here are 10 things wo...
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