It's festival season again in RVA. And as we all know, Richmond always throws a good party. Our best annual festivals are able to transform its participants by escaping the familiar while engaging all the senses. Despite the pandemic, the show will go on in 2020 in new and interesting ways. Sure, it won’t be the same, but that’s the thing – the power of art is more important than where or how we see it.
Afrikana Film Festival
In 2014, Enjoli Moon launched the Afrikana Independent Film Festival, a Richmond based film festival dedicated to showcasing the cinematic works of people of color from around the world. Dedicated to using film as a catalyst for conversation and authentic connection, she has created a space that celebrates and elevates Black stories, Black voices, and Black lives. Starting today, Enjoli will kick off this year's Afrikana Independent Film Festival in a virtual format with a variety of short films, roundtable discussions, engaging dialogue, a sneak peak at VPM’s new documentary, and an opportunity to meet emerging and established filmmakers throughout the African diaspora. Richmonders can purchase tickets, watch films from the on-demand catalog, and join special events online over the next four days at afrikanafilmfestival.org. This year’s festival will also offer free Afrikana Interludes streamed live from The Valentine’s garden featuring music by Mighty Joshua (Thursday), Radio B x Michael Millions x The Queen's Cipher (Friday), Afrobeta (Saturday), and Chet and Christine (Sunday).
The popular ¿Qué Pasa? Festival is back again, this time taking place online, but with all the same opportunities from previous years to celebrate the food, art, music, and dance of Virginia’s Latin American community. Designed as a fully-digital interactive experience honoring Hispanic Heritage Month, ¿Qué Pasa? Festival will recreate the feeling of a street festival and take place from September 15 – October 15. Festival goers can visit QuePasaFestival.com every day during this time to enjoy a vibrant virtual space for free performances, demonstrations, tours, and conversations. The month-long celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month will culminate with a Virtual Hispanic Gala honoring Hispanic Bridge Builder Award recipients making a difference and building bridges to better the community. ¿Qué Pasa? Festival is organized and hosted by the Virginia Hispanic Chamber, which has worked for twenty years to create economic development and cross-cultural commerce opportunities between the Hispanic community and the community-at-large throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. The chamber’s goal is to use this year’s festival to help Hispanic and Latino led businesses stay afloat during the pandemic.
You can’t say festival in this town without automatically thinking of one the largest around, the Richmond Folk Festival. Now in its 16th year, the Richmond Folk Festival will once again bring the community together during the weekend of October 9-11 for a virtual event hosted through a series of special television programs, radio broadcasts, and online streaming. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy the Folk Festival site and adjoining grounds. From now until October 13, you can participate in the Folk Festival Scavenger Hunt that covers the grounds of the Folk Festival between Dominion Energy and the Manchester Bridges. Visit richmondfolkfestival.org/scavhuntintro to get started exploring the hills, steps and hidden surprises that you've likely never noticed during previous festivals. Along the way, the Richmond Folk Festival will share a few songs to enjoy and after a successful hunt you will be entered into a drawing for Folk Fest merch rewards.
These one-of-a-kind journals, sporting the Richmond flag, are the same ones being used in our creative writing and journaling project in the Here Weekly/Richmond Grid mailbox hidden in a secret spot in the James River Park System. The Dear Richmond journal was created for you to write a love letter to the city, a call to action, the words you need to hear, or as a place to document your journey. We loved them so much, we're making them available for journaling at home too!
