Over the days ahead, there’s a look back at last summer’s tumultuous events with a film screening at Maymont, a party in a parking lot, a chance to live out your racetrack fantasies and laughs with Julia Scotti at the Sandman. Enjoy your week!
Historic Premiere
Look back at last year’s protests with Wednesday’s premiere of “How the Monuments Came Down,” a documentary about Richmond’s history of white supremacy and Black resistance by Field Studio in association with VPM. Presented by the Afrikana Film Festival alongside The JXN Project, Maymont and VPM, the outdoor screening will be held at Maymont and includes a performance by jazz group Butcher Brown and a pre-screening discussion with panelists including Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Executive Director Christy Coleman, University of Richmond professor Dr. Julian Hayter, JXN Project founders Dr. Sesha Joi Moon and Enjoli Moon, and Pulitzer Prize-winning Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Michael Paul Williams. Pods for up to four people are $10. Gates open at 7 p.m.
—Rodrigo Arriaza, Staff Writer/Assistant Editor
Comedy Gold
At 69 years old, Julia Scotti isn’t slowing down, performing her standup at Richmond’s Sandman Comedy Club, Thursday-Saturday, June 24-26. The transgender comic’s material usually includes jokes about her age. During the Showtime comedy special “More Funny Women of a Certain Age,” Scotti quips, “Golden years? Let me tell you something, I stood in front of the mirror naked this morning, and if these are the golden years, the price of gold just collapsed.” I discovered Scotti, as many others did, when she performed on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” in 2016. She had me during her audition when this unassuming woman dropped an F-bomb in her unabashed telling of how she wouldn’t give up a seat on a lifeboat. She’ll take the stage for five performances, and tickets are $20. Read more about RVA’s newest comedy club in our recent article.
—Nicole Cohen, Special Projects Editor
Getting up to Speed
Take a spin around the Richmond Raceway from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 26, as part of the Track Laps charity fundraiser. Give $20, which benefits the American Cancer Society in Virginia, and you can drive your ride on the track for five laps. But you’ll have to leave the blistering speeds to the pros: You can go no faster than 55 mph; the Official Toyota Camry Pace Car will keep drivers in line. Drivers must be at least 18 years old.
—Tharon Giddens, Lifestyle Editor
A Lot to Celebrate
Celebrate the arts downtown with an afternoon of music, food and fun at Richmond Performing Arts Alliance’s annual Parking Lot Party on Saturday, June 26, from 4 to 7 p.m. Enjoy music from Mekong Express and Whitney & The Saying Goes, graze on food truck offerings, and create art with Studio Two Three, Art Love, Richmond Urban Dance and more. Kids are welcome, and proceeds benefit RPAA’s art education initiatives.
—Susan Morgan, R•Home Managing Editor
The Space Between
The paintings in Miguel Carter-Fisher’s “Negative Shapes” exhibition — on view though July 9 at the Eric Schindler Gallery in Church Hill — bring form to life. Kirsten Gray, owner and director of the gallery, recalled how one of the exhibit’s installers described the work: “These look like what you’d see in a castle or a museum.” The robust paintings evoke a classical style of myth and history while also depicting real and contemporary life. If one spends any time in museums, among the older figurative works one begins to see the viewers of the paintings in the works themselves, as though they’ve stepped from the frame and are clothed in modern fashions (or not).
—Harry Kollatz Jr., Senior Writer
Other Suggestions
- Hanson performs at Meadow Event Park June 26.
- Get a Taste of Virginia at Innsbrook June 26.
- The exhibit “Hill of Heroes — 12,000 for 12,000” is on display at the Virginia War Memorial June 25-July 9.
River City Roundup is Richmond magazine's weekly compilation of the best things to see, do and experience in the region, compiled by our editors. Get each week's installment directly in your inbox every Monday by subscribing to our e-newsletter.