There’s more to Richmond than this downtown view. (Photo via Getty Images)
Each year, readers can count on the Sourcebook, our biggest issue, to feature essential information about the region — lists of events, attractions, hospitals, schools, restaurants and more — but we strive to offer something fresh with each edition.
This year, we used 2020 as our jumping-off point, making a connection between 20/20 vision and a look at where Richmond is heading in the future. We also explored the different ways people see the region, starting with our opening feature on Page 30, which showcases the work of photographers and painters who draw inspiration from the River City in all of its complicated beauty.
Another such artist is Kehinde Wiley, whose “Rumors of War” statue is a direct response to the Confederate memorials he saw on Monument Avenue during a 2016 visit to the city for the opening of his exhibition “Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic” at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
“I’m a black man walking those streets,” he recalled of strolling down Monument Avenue, in an interview conducted in September, when the statue was unveiled in New York’s Times Square before its permanent installation outside the VMFA in December. “I’m looking up at those things that give me a sense of dread and fear.”
The statue’s Richmond debut on Arthur Ashe Boulevard drew journalists from across the country who wrote about its symbolic significance in the “former capital of the Confederacy,” painting a picture of Richmond as a city struggling to come to terms with its past. “Today,” Wiley said during the unveiling, “we say yes to something that looks like us. We say yes to inclusivity. We say yes to broader notions of what it means to be an American.”
As I write this, Richmond is again in the national spotlight after an estimated 22,000 gun-rights activists, some armed and decked out in military surplus gear, some from out of state, filled the grounds of the Virginia Capitol and surrounding streets to protest proposed changes to the commonwealth’s gun laws. Thankfully, the protest went off without serious incident, though images of heavily armed individuals on downtown streets may color the way many outsiders see Richmond.
What does Richmond look like to you? Is it the James River, Maymont Park and “Rumors of War”? Scott’s Addition breweries, Broad Street art galleries, historic sites and museums, and a thriving restaurant scene? Or do you see housing projects, panhandlers, the nation’s second-highest eviction rate and the legacy of the slave trade? Or maybe all of it? Richmond is complex, a perfectly imperfect city that can be just as ugly as it is beautiful.
“Rumors of War” (Photo by Jay Paul)
On Page 43, we feature an essay from Sarah Mendelsohn Kim, former deputy director of The Valentine, who is leaving Richmond for a two-year adventure in New York. Perhaps she puts its best, writing, “While I choose to see the beauty in the people and spaces that make Richmond unique, I know that Richmond is plagued by a difficult past and present. Too many struggle to meet basic needs; the river that is now a source of enjoyment is also a reminder of the slave economy that built our city. My mind struggles with these issues daily, and I feel conflicted when I say, ‘I love Richmond,’ but I really do.”
