Group of artists craft original play to explain the diversity of blackness

Photos by Jenna Burling

The creation of the play Color Me Beautiful: An American Odyssey has itself been a kind of odyssey. What began as a therapeutic exercise in connection during 2020’s stay-at-home orders is now an important production that stands to change the future of theater.

Local actor, singer, writer, and director Joshua Carter decided to reach out when the isolation of last year had him feeling boxed in.

“I was in quarantine by myself in an apartment, and in the midst of me feeling sorry for myself, it hit me that if you think you’re alone, there are about ten other people who everybody may have forgotten about,” Carter says. “So I decided to gather some people and say, ‘Hey, let’s read plays on Zoom. Let’s pick plays every week and we’ll read.’”

Zoom calls led to Facebook readings, which led to Carter proposing that people share their original works to be read and reviewed virtually. Taking part in these creative exchanges ultimately inspired Carter to begin a virtual writing workshop.

“I thought to myself, ‘One of my goals is to get new works for Black theater, so let me do a writing workshop,’” he recalls. “I reached out to a few people, and we did a workshop all the way through George Floyd and everything. It was very therapeutic that we got to write from our hearts and share with each other during that time.”

What happened next was nothing short of serendipitous. Without knowing about his writing workshop,Alluvion Stage Company called Carter and asked for, as Carter puts it, “a play explaining why black lives matter.”

“We had no idea; we were just doing our therapy!” Carter exclaims. “Luckily, we were in place and had the tools to make it happen.”

Carter, along with writers Cameron Dashiell, Jasmine Pierce, and Joel Ashur, composed Color Me Beautiful: An American Odyssey, a play in which “a Black teen, overwhelmed by a chaotic world, meets a dark fate and must pursue the weight of his existence on a journey through the stars.”

The play, which is a collaboration among Carter, Dashiell, Pierce, Ashur, choreographer Meagan King, Alluvion Stage Company, and Building Bridges Productions, Inc., will be presented at The Black Box Theater in Lynchburg July 23-25.

Carter says that the process of creating the play was fueled by questions, both external and internal.

“I love to write with questions,” he notes. “When I was asked, ‘Why do Black lives matter?’ I was initially like, ‘Isn’t it obvious? Why do you need to ask that question?’ But then I asked myself that as an artist, and the answer is that our stories matter. The things people don’t see matter.”

“We knew we wanted to have a strong ‘why’,” added Pierce. “At the end of the day, we want people to look at Black people as just that: people. Not threats, not people who should be demonized. Just people with intrinsic beauty and value.”

Carter says one of the major themes of the play is the diversity of blackness. “Being African American comes with so many experiences and so many stories, and in our play, we travel through several stories,” he says. “We’re not always struggling through civil rights, although that’s a big part of how people understand who we are. It’s the conversations at the dinner table, it’s the moments before divorce, it’s the moments before death; we don’t see those things on stage because that’s not what people often see in reality. That’s what the humanities are for: we fill the gaps with life.”

When Carter looked inward at his own personal experience as a Black man as he worked on the play, the question he found there shook him to his core.

“My question as a creator on this project from my personal life was, ‘What if it was me?’” says Carter. “Take the case of Elijah McClain. He was very similar to me in that he was very calm and meek. He played the violin. He was caught up in a moment. He said, ‘My name is Elijah McClain. I play the violin, and I would never hurt anyone. I’m not that type of person.’ That put a little fear in my heart that sometimes it doesn’t matter what education you have or who you are; you don’t get time to share your credentials before you’re in a moment. A lot of the scenes I wrote came from a place of reflection on that question: ‘What if it was me?’”

In addition to addressing these and other complex and important questions, Color Me Beautiful will also help create opportunities for children, especially those who are underprivileged and at risk, through collaboration with local nonprofit theater organization Building Bridges Productions, Inc. Its founder, Janice Atkins Benejan, joined as a producer of the show.

Pierce says the partnership with Building Bridges means putting words into action.

“The arts offer a safe place to express the joys but also hurts of the world,” she says. “It provides people with a place to be vulnerable and oftentimes forces one to look at the world through someone else’s lens, creating a deeper sense of sympathy among people. This is vital for youth.”

One aspect of the partnership is Carter’s involvement with Building Bridges’ Story Makers Theater Camp this summer (June 28-July 9) for youth ages 12-18.

“Story Makers was already an idea in Janice’s head, but it really fit with Color Me Beautiful because it’s the same process of writing a script and producing it yourself,” Carter says. “I was brought into the team as an instructor to help make a curriculum for kids to write their own stories, produce them, and perform them for their families. Any child can sign up, but one of Janice’s goals is to reach underprivileged children, so scholarships will be offered.”

Carter believes that involvement in theater can help children—and adults—learn invaluable communication skills that will serve them in their real-world relationships.

“One of the skills that all people need to work on is communication: the abilities to step back, think, empathize, and be not only reactive, but also reflective,” he notes. “I think theater gives you tools for working on these things. Theater is a very spiritual exchange from one soul to another.”

Carter hopes that the production will create positive change on multiple levels.

“Tyler Perry famously said, ‘Stop asking to be at someone else’s table; build your own,’” he says. “I hope that this play inspires someone to say, ‘I can write a five-minute script.’ I hope that some actor, whether they be young or old, Black or white or Latino, will take authority of their narratives and their stories. I pray that when they come to see this, they feel like they can do the same. I also hope that it will help people understand a perspective that they may not have seen before.”

“I personally hope people will just see the utter beauty of engaging with new stories and cultures and people,” Pierce adds. “I hope they will feel immersed in our world that it encourages them to step outside of their own after the show in order to better get to know people they wouldn’t usually engage with.”

For Carter, Pierce and the rest of the Color Me Beautiful team, the ultimate dream is to see the play find success beyond Lynchburg so it can reach more audiences and spark even more transformative dialogue about race, representation, empathy, and life itself.

Says Carter: “This is just the beginning.”

Save the Date
Color Me Beautiful: An American Odyssey
July 23-25, 7:30 p.m.
The Black Box Theater
601 Mountain View Road (LU Campus)
Find tickets at Eventbrite.com.

Laura Beth Davidson never set out to be a professional photographer. With her newly purchased camera and a few online classes under her belt, she just wanted to have decent photos of her daughter without paying someone else to do it.

“I found this online community called Clickin Moms, which was designed to help moms take better pictures of their kids,” she joked. “But a lot of them end up being people who actually start taking pictures of other people’s kids.

It’s a funny cycle.”

Photo by Ashlee Glenn

That was 10 years ago. Now Davidson is a professional who does just that—however with three more daughters in tow. She and her husband, Andrew, call Lynchburg home after moving to Virginia a few years ago.

“I was always a creative person,” Davidson said. “[Photography] just ‘clicked’ as an outlet for my creativity. Having a cute toddler [at the time] as a subject made it so there was always something to take pictures of.”

As she began to expand her portfolio of her daughter, Jane, Davidson started with a fine art style, but quickly learned that she loved photojournalism.

“I loved shooting things that weren’t posed or directed,” she said. “My favorite clients have been the ones who just let me come into their homes and do this documentary approach, where I basically just spend a day with them at home or whatever they do normally and just fade into the background to capture the ‘real life,’ not just the perfect moments.”

Davidson decided to take that approach with her own family after reading about a social media trend called “100 Days of Summer,” where photographers would take a photo every day between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

“Sort of by accident, those first few photos I took [when I started in 2018] had all four of my girls in the frame,” she said. “I thought, ‘This would be a fun challenge.’ At that point, my twins were not quite two and the oldest was seven.”

Davidson said she loved the challenge, especially as a stay-at-home mom with four kids home during the summer.

It gave her a creative outlet and a task, but also a great collection of her girls.

“It’s very tricky not to repeat yourself with your photos,” Davidson said. “That’s what I love about it. I try to play a lot with reflections or shadows to try to make it clever so there’s a wide variety. When you have hundreds of photos, there are some that tend to duplicate, but the other side of that is that there are some that I’ve tried to recreate as an interesting marker of where they are each season.”

On the hard days where creativity doesn’t strike, Davidson said sometimes she’s not happy with the shot she does manage to get.

“But I did [get a shot] and the next day I’ll try to do better,” Davidson said. “That’s my goal.”

As someone who likes control, Davidson the project has helped her let go of her ideas of perfection.

“It makes photos where I really nail it so much better and they are special to me,” she said. “I’ve just had to accept that the light isn’t always going to be nice. I’m not always going to have great composition, but some days I will.”

The girls, for the most part, enjoy being part of the process, Davidson said. She says it helps that she doesn’t make them pose and that they put all the photos in a book at the end of the summer. She even got the opportunity to display a collection of her work titled, “Ordinary Time: A Visual Record of the In-Between” at the Academy Center of the Arts this March.

After focusing on the summer for the past few years, Davidson decided in 2020 she would focus on getting a picture every day: 365 days. Though the pandemic threw the Davidsons into a new season of life, documenting photos became even more important after Alice, one of the twins, was diagnosed with a Wilms tumor late last year.
“It’s the first time that one of them has experienced something that the other three girls haven’t,” Davidson said. “They have no idea what the experience has been like because of the pandemic. The girls haven’t been allowed to visit Alice when she’s in the hospital. We tell them what’s happening, but the only way they get to experience it is through the photos I take.”

Davidson hasn’t shied away from the harder days with Alice because she has always wanted her photos to be an honest look at life.
“It’s crappy,” she said. “She’s four and a half. She has a fantastic attitude and is just a happy kid. Sometimes it’s hard for me to remember that this is a big deal for her. I don’t think she fully understands it. I didn’t have any idea of what it was going to look like as a parent, and I’ve even thought about what I’m going to do with these photos after it’s all over.”

Davidson said continuing to be raw during painful moments is still hard, but she always looks back to that first summer when she started.

“Just like how starting [the project] gave me something to focus on as a stay-at-home-mom with four small children, I feel like this helps me compartmentalize or process it in a way. [Alice] has to sit here and have this needle stuck in her and she’s not going to like it. There’s nothing I can do about it in that moment so instead of sitting there and feeling broken by it, I can use that energy to frame a photograph that is heart-wrenching, but it gives me a role to play. We’ve had to hand off so much to the doctors, it really gives me something to do when I can’t be Alice’s primary caregiver.”

Documenting Alice’s journey is something that Davidson believes will help all the sisters process better in the future.

“Whenever they’re ready to know the full extent of what she’s going through, I think they’ll be able to experience it through the photographs in a way they can’t now because of their age and COVID,” Davidson said. “It’s almost like making this time capsule.”

With treatment for Alice scheduled until July and the world slowly reopening, Davidson said setting some expectation of what she wants to shoot this year often leads to disappointment.

“I try to keep an open mind about it,” she said. “But I do want to continue to photograph the girls’ relationships with each other. I’ve also been taking pictures of Alice’s appearance as she loses her hair and weight, gets more dark circles under her eyes. I want to make sure to document that as well as she dips and as she comes back up because the prognosis is very good. But I want to document Alice coming out of this and her sisters processing it as well.”

As she looks back, Davidson believes she could have never started out as a documentary photographer—that transformation happened during motherhood.

“I think having four children [changed that],” she jokes. “It was more than I bargained for, and some days we’re doing the best we can. I think that’s mirrored in my photographs: choosing the things you can control—like where I’m standing in relation to the girls or having patience not to just go for the first shot. That’s part of the beauty of it. When you look back at the photos, it’s obvious I’m not telling them what to do. It is really like I’m not even there. That’s the goal.”

Lynchburg Living Editor Shelley Basinger: Heather, your cookies and other baked goods are certainly eye-catching! When did you first develop a passion for baking?

Heather Sollers: As a child, I used to love making recipes from my mom’s cookbooks and surprising my family. I started off with small snacks, then meals, and, eventually, baked goods. I also remember making chocolate chip cookies every year with my family at Christmastime and everyone sharing cookies they had made after Christmas Eve dinner. This is a tradition I continue with my own family. I have five kids ranging from ages 6 to 20, three girls and two boys.

SB: At what point did your baking turn into more of an artform?
HS: I first tried my hand at making more complicated, artistic cakes for my daughters’ joint birthday party back in 2005. I made a princess castle cake for my then four-year-old and a 3D baby sitting on a cloud for my then one-year-old. After my son was born in 2011, I made my first decorated sugar cookies—a flower cookie pop bouquet for the nurses.

SB: When did you officially start up your business, Creative Confections by Heather?
HS: I actually had a completely different job when we lived in New Jersey. I went to mortuary school and became a funeral director and only baked cakes and cookies on the side. In March of 2014, my husband was transferred and we moved to Lynchburg. Later that same month, I had my daughter and made cookies to thank the wonderful nurses at the Birth Center. A year later, I did the same when I had my son. The nurses quickly spread the word about my cookies and that’s when my business really started. In 2016, I created my LLC, got my business license, and became a state-inspected manufacturer.

SB: What types of techniques do you use?
HS: For the most part, I’m self-taught. While there are a number of ways to ice and decorate a cookie,
I use royal icing because it is easy to work with, dries hard, and is extremely versatile. With it, I am able to decorate with the wet-on-wet technique to create various designs, and when the icing is dry, I can layer it, airbrush it, do brush embroidery, hand paint, and use edible markers to add small details. I am always experimenting and learning new techniques.

SB: Do you have any favorites you’ve created?
HS: One of my favorites was a three-tier, ’80s-themed cake that I made for an E.C. Glass reunion a few years ago. I love everything ’80s!
My most memorable cookies would be the “Riverdale” cookies from 2017. They were my first to go viral, shared by Archie Comics and Seventeen Magazine, among others. That was pretty exciting!

SB: Likewise, what are some of the most unique requests you have received?
HS: Every year, usually for Halloween or Christmas, my husband’s cousin comes up with some crazy idea that she wants me to turn into a cookie. We’ve done everything from zombie snowmen to creepy dolls and scary nuns. But, I love the challenge!

SB: You’ve been baking for the Craddock Terry Hotel since 2016. How is that going?
HS: I started off making the red shoe cookies then quickly added many other items. Currently, I make all of the enhancements, custom orders, and the food items in their gift shop. I also bake custom items and treats for Shoemakers and Waterstone, and for the City of Newport News.

SB: What do you love the most about what you do?
HS: I love that I have a unique outlet for my creativity that also contributes to the memories of someone’s special day or event. I love the excitement my customers have when they are ordering and then when they see their cookies for the first time. I also feel very blessed to be a volunteer Sugar Angel for Icing Smiles. Through Icing Smiles, I am able to share my gift by providing dream cakes, celebration cakes, and cookies for families who are impacted by the critical illness of a child. Seeing the excited, appreciative smiles when a child receives their cake or cookies is something that I will always remember.

Four Local Workshops Offer Inspiration When It’s Needed Most

As we pass the one-year mark of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., many of us can say we have spent the extra time at home tackling new projects. However, many of us can also say we have learned that brainstorming and acquiring materials for these endeavors can cause major burnout.

In the past year, several local DIY workshops in Central Virginia—with their expanded, pandemic-friendly offerings—have become an outlet for those wishing to create meaningful and beautiful home décor, without all of the guesswork and legwork. Regardless of your desired DIY experience, inspiration is teeming in and around the Lynchburg community and is only a mouse click—or short drive—away.

For those seeking an at-home DIY experience without spending hours scouring Pinterest for ideas and deciding on materials at home improvement and craft stores, take-home kits are ideal. For a more social experience, you may want to consider signing up for a virtual class or arranging a virtual party so you and a group of friends can delve into your kits and create together.

Board & Brush Creative Studio in Forest now offers BB@home kits that include everything you’ll need, including tools, to create your own custom wood sign.

“The BB@home kits are perfect because they come with everything you need to complete the project!” says owner Stefanie Feese. “Your board comes already stained and your stencil is ready to be applied. You get paint, sponges, cups for mixing paint, sandpaper for distressing, a B&B sticker for the back of the board, a color mixing guide to help create desired colors, and a full page of instructions, complete with pictures!”

Feese adds that Board & Brush has sold the kits for art classes for children doing virtual school, for birthday parties, and for people of all ages simply looking for a rewarding new activity. Virtual workshops are also available.

AR Workshop Lynchburg, which offers a wide variety of DIY projects, opened in November 2020. As such, kits and virtual events were immediately an integral part of the local workshop’s offerings even though they were new to AR Workshop as a corporate entity.

“The pandemic truly made us think outside the box on how we could better serve our community and continue to create a DIY outlet for them,” says owner Jessica Herndon. “Our DIY kits include all materials including stencils, wood, a PrimARy Paint Essentials Kit, brushes, and instructions. Our PrimARy Paint Essentials Kit includes a color-mixing guide to give you endless color options!”

If painting is your passion, Imagination Station Studio in Forest has a couple of kit options for you. “Our Take Home Kits include everything you need to create a project,” says co-owner Gladys Attin. “Ceramic kits include a ceramic character, a set of paints, a paintbrush, and an apron. Paint at Your Own Pace kits include a pre-drawn canvas, paints, brushes, an apron, and a video tutorial that will go step by step for you.” Imagination Station also offers Zoom parties and art camps.

Like AR Workshop, Lynchburg home décor workshop Blue Mountain Barn opened in June of last year and thus had to quickly find its footing during the pandemic. Co-owners Tressa Sariñana and her daughter, Ashtyn, are working to expand their kit offerings, but they are focused primarily on offering small in-house DIY experiences.

“We began to offer classes right away,” Sariñana says. “We offer them in an intimate setting of usually five to eight people. We make sure to space appropriately, wear masks, and have the appropriate PPE on hand. The intimate setting we offer creates a cozy, warm atmosphere. We have a fireplace and a big screen TV with HGTV or the DIY Network on.”

Individuals and groups of two or three people are able to stop by and create whenever the workshop is open, and groups of five or more people are encouraged to reserve exclusive times to come create.

Although DIY class sizes have decreased across the board due to the pandemic, local workshop owners are taking the changes in stride.

“I will admit that I have loved the smaller class sizes,” says Feese. “I thoroughly enjoy the relationships that are built in the smaller setting. You are creating a piece that will be on display in your home, and in the process, you will also be creating memories with the people you choose to attend the workshop with.”

She adds that the most popular class at Board & Brush is currently the PYP (Pick Your Project) class. “These workshops allow each person who registers to select and create their own piece rather than everyone making the same thing,” she notes. “Half of the fun is looking around the room and getting ideas for your next project!”

Herndon says that in-person classes at AR Workshop have continued to thrive because of an enduring desire for connection. “As humans we long to connect with others,” she says.

“Our workshops are such a great way to get together and share laughs, memories, and lots of sawdust! I love the laughter and smiles the shop brings people.”

She notes that porch-related projects such as signs, doormats, pillows, and door hangers have been popular lately because “there is nothing better than a refreshed porch to come home to.”

At Imagination Station, paint nights are now limited to 16 people with precautions in place and two-hour time slots for small private parties are available. Attin hopes that their projects—whether done at the workshop or at home—are therapeutic. “Painting can help you experience and express feelings, gain skills and confidence, and learn coping skills that will provide an outlet for stress,” she says.

Regardless of the particular DIY experience you choose, local workshops can help you find the perfect balance of creativity and connection. “DIY is very important because of the many things it can accomplish,” says Sariñana. “DIY is not just a trend, a meme, or initials. It offers an outlet and provides people with a sense of purpose and a sense of community. Helping people explore their own creativity is so rewarding.”

Wood-Fired Pottery

Lynchburg Living Editor Shelley Basinger: Beatriz, you aren’t originally from the area—or even the country! Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Beatriz Gutierrez: I grew up on the island of Tenerife, Spain. My journey with clay began in Scotland at the age of 28 and continued when I moved to America to study at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina in 2010.

SB: What other types of training have you received to improve your skill?
BG: I am grateful for the mentorship I have received from other potters since the beginning. Most recently, I have been studying wood firing with
Kevin Crowe at Tye River Pottery in Amherst County. We stopped last March when the COVID-19 pandemic began. He has a big kiln that requires 12 people and seven days to be fired. All the work is loaded into the kiln, but we are still waiting for when we can gather safely to fire.

SB: I’m sure you are looking forward to that day! Meanwhile, you spend a lot of time at your own studio in the Coleman Falls area of Bedford County.
BG: We have been building my studio for most of the past decade, using reclaimed materials collected over the years, including all of the bricks used in the construction of my kiln. That is one of the reasons why everything has happened very slowly. I have broadened my skills by being involved in every step of the process. I have worked mostly with my husband, Paul, with the occasional help of friends and neighbors.

SB: What is a typical day like for you at your studio?
BG: Depending on the weather and the time of the making cycle, I start my days with wood preparations: splitting and stacking. In addition to wood from my property, I purchase locally harvested wood from a logger down the road. The wood needs to be dried enough for the success of the firing—that is why it is stacked is so carefully. Inside the studio, you will find me clay mixing, reclaiming clay, mixing, maintaining my glazes and throwing. I mainly use a kick wheel to make my work and I harvest local clay to make my pieces.

SB: What types of challenges have you faced?
BG: Transitioning from mid-range temperature electric firing (how I used to make my pottery) to wood firing has been a difficult challenge. Over the past year, I have not had a lot of work available to sell because I am still working out the details of the kiln.
It could take me one to three months to produce enough work to fire my kiln and with the preheat,
it takes three days to fire.

SB: What are some of your favorite pieces you
have created so far?
BG: I love all of the shapes I am making. Tea pots are so much fun! Making the jars with the right curve is always a good challenge. Then, the lids
and the spouts and the handle. I love putting all of the parts together in a way that pleases my eye. When they end up working beautifully, it’s a great feeling of satisfaction.

SB: That transitions perfectly to my next question. What do you love so much about working with clay?
BG: Clay has memory—it records the process of making, shows the quality of the thoughts I had when working. When the clay is exposed to the flames of the fire in the kiln and vitrifies, all the conscious and unconscious choices in the making process are revealed. This is always a bit shocking. The power of pots relies on how ordinary and mundane they are. Objects we use every day on our tables.

SB: What’s next for you? What do you have planned in the coming year or in the future?
BG: There are so many pots I want to make this coming year: casserole dishes, planters, baking dishes. Each new form is an adventure.

The Bower Center’s mission continues to evolve, with new offerings in 2021

The year 2021 marks 15 years since the Bower Center for the Arts first opened its doors. What initially began as the Bedford Academy for the Arts with a broad mission of “promoting the cultural arts” has evolved—big time.

Over the years, the center has become an access point for the arts in Central Virginia and a downtown anchor for the Town of Bedford. And even though the center hosts national juried exhibitions that attract artists from across the nation, it continues to honor its original mission of providing cultural arts to the community with an enhanced focus on making the arts accessible to all, which serves as the heartbeat for this nonprofit.

Celebrating Creativity & Self-Expression
On any given day, you might find executive director Susan Martin greeting a host of tiny toddler ballerinas skipping through the Bower Center’s doors, or you might find her collaborating with professional artists and educators on how to best deliver a watercolor workshop over a digital platform. She might be answering questions on upcoming pottery classes or overseeing the next community art installation in the front window of the center.

Gallery admission is always free of charge—that’s just one way the Bower Center fulfills its mission of eliminating barriers and improving accessibility to the arts. “Providing high-quality art classes at an affordable price tops the list,” Martin explains, noting that the center plans to expand its current scholarship program to include adults.

“We want to be available to different audiences and more individuals in the community in different ways,” she adds, which includes expanding existing partnerships and entering collaborations with Bedford Domestic Violence Services and the Department of Social Services.

Equal parts community art center, renowned gallery, and performance venue, the Bower Center serves as a gathering place for anyone interested in any kind of art. From community art events to “2nd Friday” programs and paint nights, “we want this to be a place for community connections, for building relationships, growing your creativity,” Martin explains. “That’s the direction we’re going in—we want to celebrate creativity in all its shapes and forms.”

Serving the Community
The center serves up offerings from a diverse menu of creative programs and opportunities designed to inspire, encourage, and promote artistic expression in a variety of forms. Some classes take place year-round, and others are Saturday morning one-time workshops; many are now available online. Whether someone is interested in photography, fiber arts, creative writing, jewelry-making, or learning to play the bass guitar, the options are varied and nearly endless. Essentially, if someone is interested in learning more about the visual, literary, or performance arts, they will find a class or workshop to meet their needs at the Bower Center—and if they can’t, they can make a request.

In fact, the center invites those requests as it relies on community feedback to curate appealing offerings and to meet community needs. It was because of such input that classes in fiber arts and pottery appeared on the class schedule along with more single-session workshops and an extensive youth art program, including a new program for homeschool students.

While the center was providing after-school enrichment classes to students through its partnership with Bedford County Public Schools, it also recognized that Bedford County is home to one of the largest populations of homeschool families in the state. With that in mind, the Bower Center created Homeschool Mondays in order to better serve the homeschooling community. This program, made possible by grants from the Pacific Life Foundation, the Nora Roberts Foundation, and the Rea Charitable Trust, invites homeschoolers to the center every Monday for age-appropriate art classes and workshops.

Expanding Services in Times of Uncertainty
Martin shares that the recent pandemic compelled the center to consider ways to improve services and reach more people, including those unable to take part in multi-week, live classes.

“It made us start looking at how we better serve our community instead of just doing what we always did,” she says.

With that in mind, the Bower Center pivoted, putting all of their exhibits online along with the family art scavenger hunts to encourage families to appreciate and enjoy art together. Even paint nights went virtual, with Bower supplying at-home art kits. Even in the midst of pandemic-related challenges, the center sought out ways to make the arts fun, interesting, available, and safe.

Adding virtual components and live-streamed classes helped the Bower Center continue providing services during an otherwise uncertain time, and these changes have helped guide future plans. “Even though life won’t always be the way it’s been during the pandemic, we want to continue growing and offering things in different ways,” Martin explains.

Wellness, Creativity, & the Healing Arts
Not only will the Bower Center welcome new faces onto its board in 2021, but it will also support the expansion of a dream that has been long-discussed ever since it opened its doors 15 years ago. This will be the year the center brings expressive arts therapy and the healing arts into focus. The healing arts, which consist of music, movement, poetry, and visual art, are frequently used to promote wellness, deal with stress, and provide avenues for meaningful self-expression.

The center has offered wellness classes periodically over the years, and yoga and Tai Chi have been calendar mainstays. The demand for more “Music and Mindfulness” workshops continues to grow along with requests for more workshops in the healing arts. The center will launch regular workshops and offerings in the healing arts in 2021. Plans also include partnering with area funeral homes to provide art therapy sessions with local grief support groups.

“We know that art is healing and we want to help each other connect, communicate, and share through the arts,” Martin explains. “Through this pandemic, we know people have to have opportunity to express themselves, and we want to help them in any way we can to provide a safe and healthy environment to engage in the arts.”

Playwright and Performer

• JLP Productions, owner
• DC Black Theatre Festival, committee member

Lynchburg Living Editor Shelley Basinger: Jennifer, you have a very long history in the area’s theater community—particularly writing your own original plays. When did you first develop a love for the stage?
Jennifer Petticolas: I worked behind the scenes doing set design and building sets while attending Livingstone College
in Salisbury, North Carolina. When I declared my English major, my dean said, “Are you sure you don’t want to do theater?”

He saw something in me then that I didn’t see. But I chose English because I have always enjoyed writing and especially creative writing. That love started at Dunbar High School in Lynchburg, with Mrs. Jordan and Mr. Watson.

SB: Where did life take you with that English degree?
JP: After finishing college, I got a teaching job at a junior high school in Baltimore.

I had been teaching three or four years when the faculty wanted to do a play about the history of our country and incorporate some dance into it, so I volunteered to write it. That was the first play that I wrote, and it really piqued my interest.

SB: When did you return to Lynchburg? And did you get involved in theater right away?
JP: I came back to Lynchburg in 1976. I remember my oldest daughter was trying out to be in Annie and told me, “Mom, I want to be Annie.” I told her I didn’t know if they would cast her in that role, and she ended up being casted as one of the orphans. She said, “Well, if I can’t be Annie, I’m going to be the best dancing orphan up there.” I thought if she can do it, I can do it too! Later on, I was cast in For Colored Girls and started getting involved with the Fine Arts Center (now Academy Center of the Arts).

SB: Since then, you’ve written numerous plays that have gotten acclaim both locally and beyond. What are some of your favorites?
JP: One piece that I was most proud of focused on suicide awareness. A friend, Kim Kittrell, came to me and told me about how her daughter, a former E.C. Glass student, had committed suicide at college. She wanted to get the message out that there is help for people who are struggling with depression. I did an interview with Kim, which was a very difficult process. She talked about her daughter being a dancer and how her daughter always felt like every woman should have a little black dress. I titled the play that, Little Black Dress, to symbolize a sophisticated woman and also, depression. I also got help from the medical community to make sure we were giving out the right message. This play has been performed in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. The Campbell County Branch of the NAACP presented us with an award for the play.

Another favorite is Sunday’s Child, a play I wrote for Johnson Medical Center about the life of Dr. Robert Walter Johnson.

I did a lot of research for that one, including interviewing about 30 or 40 people on the telephone and visiting his grandson’s house in Maryland.

SB: You also have focused on black history through the years. Most recently, “People Died: The Struggle for African American Voting Rights” was shown at the Lynchburg Museum.
JP: That was a little different than a play, six short monologues highlighting six real-life individuals who died fighting for African American voting rights in the ’60s. After we did that Lynchburg City Council Member Sterling Wilder came to me and said, “That lit a fire under me.” It just feels good to know that you are making a difference, causing people to think differently. That has been my whole purpose.

SB: Could we see anything new from you in the coming year?
JP: Suga is a play I started working on a few years ago. It’s about a husband and wife—the husband has diabetes and high blood pressure—and how his health affects their sex life. I’ve thought about taking that off the shelf. When George Floyd was killed, I started working on a piece about Floyd and Emmett Till.

It feels like I’m always working on something!

SB: Finally, what advice do you have for aspiring playwrights?
JP: Just keep pushing. You have a story in you, I think we all have stories in us. Write those stories. If you need help, reach out.

Get in Touch:
Email Jennifer at jlp7139@yahoo.com
or send her a message on Facebook.

Mosaic Artist

Lynchburg Living Editor Shelley Basinger: Dotti, there are very few people teaching and specializing in mosaics. How did you develop an interest for it?
Dotti Stone: Back in the late ’70s and early ’80s,
I started doing some stained glass commission work while having a career doing portraits, weddings, and corporate photography in Northern Virginia and D.C. until 2005. In the early 2000s, when I went to visit a cousin in Rochester, we went to an art show and I saw some mosaics there. I thought, “This is kind of interesting,” so I started taking some classes.

SB: What intrigued you the most about mosaics?
DS: The history of it goes back so far, thousands of years, and it’s such a solid, durable artform. There are a lot of excavations going on in parts of the world, and they uncover these magnificent floors. That’s what I love about mosaics. You can make things that go on the wall, sculptural works, or, in some cases, you can walk on them. It became a passion of mine to get this out to people, to appreciate the history and enjoy it as an art form.

SB: You are able to do that through your mosaics classes at Bower Center for the Arts in Bedford.
DS: Yes, I teach beginner kids all of the way up to more experienced adults. A lot of people enjoy just taking a pot and putting a lot of different colors on it. But in all of my classes, I try to get more into the art form of it. Even with kids, they like to play with things, but they like to see something that takes on some shape.

SB: What is one of your favorite pieces you’ve created so far?
DS: “Breaking Down the Barriers to Cultural Diversity” is one of my favorites (see photo at top). It was a part of the Immigration exhibit the Bower Center hosted last year. When we did that exhibit, we had no idea what kind of response we would get. But it was very well received.

SB: And coordinating exhibits like that one is another role you play at the Bower Center?
DS: I’ve been associated with the Center since 2009 or a little before. I started teaching a class at that point. Then, somewhere along the way I became the exhibits manager. There is an exhibit committee, and we plan what exhibits we are going to have. Several years ago, Bower Center began reaching out to artists in other states to participate in one or two annual national juried exhibits, in order to diversify the artwork the community can enjoy in addition to following their favorite local and regional artists.

SB: What are you working on now?
DS: I’ve been working on a mandolin that I’ve had for ages. I mosaicked a travel guitar and a violin. At one point, I wanted to do a cello, until I realized how many square feet I would be working with!

SB: That would be a LOT of work! How do you plan out your mosaics?
DS: I usually start with a few sketches, but when I want to be able to move or resize one or more components without constantly redrawing, using a computer facilitates these design changes, experimenting with color, plus enlarging to the final size to make a “cartoon,” which is mosaic vocabulary for the pattern.

SB: Seems like patience is important if you are interested in mosaics.
DS: It does take a long time to complete a piece, and you do have to have patience. The time doesn’t matter if it’s really something you are just drawn to and, as warn I my students, it’s very easy to get hooked on mosaics.

Get in Touch d.stone@bowercenter.org

How a Stunning Portrait of a Lynchburg Icon Will Help LOCAL Students

When award-winning Lynchburg artist Kevin Chadwick attended an Old City Cemetery Candlelight Tour two years ago, he had no idea he would be walking away with the inspiration for his next painting. “The actor playing Blind Billy sitting on his stool looked like a painting to me,” Chadwick recalls.

Blind Billy, beloved Lynchburg fifer, was born a slave in 1805 and died a free man in 1855 after members of the Lynchburg community collected funds to purchase his freedom. His impressive musical prowess, displayed at balls and parties and on street corners, endeared him to the community and ultimately secured his freedom before he passed. Chadwick couldn’t stop thinking about Blind Billy and how he wanted to make sure this resilient character was a permanent piece of Lynchburg’s history.

“Upon hearing his story, I was hooked and came back the next week at dusk to ask the startled actor if I could photograph him,” Chadwick says. “He played the part so well that I could feel Blind Billy’s love and connection he had to his flute playing.”

That actor was Chris Evans, a highly involved member of the local theater community. Evans had no reference of Blind Billy before playing the role but says he used his perception of the time period as well as historical anecdotes to represent him as best he could. “People enjoyed his company. He was someone they benefitted from so they wanted him around. But I think not being able to see his environment was his benefit. It also was easier for people to accept him. He wasn’t intimidating,” Evans explained.

The painting took several weeks to complete, and Chadwick notes that the scene was a product of his imagination. “I imagined a darkened room with a fire going and Blind Billy quietly playing his flute,” he says. “Warm tones were used with bits of wallpaper to give me the chance to paint more patterns.”

Before painting Blind Billy, Chadwick already had experience painting Black individuals. “I had an old photo of a laughing woman in my files and every time I came across it, it made me smile,” he says. “Seeing it again years ago, I decided to paint it and posted it on Facebook. To my surprise, it got the most likes out of any of my earlier works and I thought that maybe I had hit on something. My technique has progressed through the years and more and more I find an invigorating challenge in capturing the likeness using all the beautiful tones and highlights found in painting dark skin.”

Combining oil paints and water-based paints poses an additional challenge, but it is one that Chadwick relishes. “It is a bit of a balance since the skin tones are in oils and the patterns are in flat water-based paints,” he notes. “Until the oil work is done at the end of the process, the paintings sometimes look flat. Painting the faces and hands brings the painting to life in a wonderful and sometimes surprising way.”

Chadwick’s exquisite portrait of Blind Billy is valued at $12,000 and could easily be displayed in a museum, but he chose instead to donate it to the Lynchburg Beacon of Hope and Lynchburg Art Club “Art for Achievement” event in November. The hybrid virtual event includes a live art auction featuring eight pieces of art, as well as a silent auction. Proceeds from the event will support Lynchburg Beacon of Hope’s college and career access work for thousands of Lynchburg City Schools students and help fund “Stay Close, Go Far” scholarships. “Stay Close, Go Far” provides free community college or a scholarship to one of Beacon of Hope’s local college or technical school partners for hundreds of LCS graduates from 2019-2024.

“With all of the violence and injustice happening on our streets these days, I felt I had to do something—and that permanent change can only happen with education,” says Chadwick. “The donation of ‘Blind Billy’ is a tremendous gift to our event this year,” says Joan Foster, Development Director of Lynchburg Beacon of Hope. “It is extremely important to our history in Lynchburg and to Lynchburg Beacon of Hope’s mission to tear down the barriers for young people that prevent them from achieving education and training after high school.”

Fittingly, Lynchburg Beacon of Hope originated in 2011 as a direct result of the City of Lynchburg’s Dialogue on Race and Racism in 2009 and 2010.

“The education sub-committee of these talks birthed the idea that any student who graduated from a Lynchburg City School would be supported to go on to post-secondary education by this community regardless of their GPA, economic status, or zip code in our city,” Foster says. “Beacon of Hope strives to empower and equip Lynchburg’s young people to seek higher education by building a pathway between high school and higher education.”

To help facilitate this mission, Beacon of Hope operates three privately-funded “Future Centers”: one at E.C. Glass High School, one at Heritage High School, and one at Central Virginia Community College. These centers provide mentoring, assistance in learning and practicing study skills, and much more.

Last year’s inaugural “Art for Achievement” event was a great success, and Laura Hamilton, Executive Director of Lynchburg Beacon of Hope, believes this year’s hybrid virtual event could be even more fruitful. “The Lynchburg community is an extraordinarily philanthropic one,” she says. “We have already seen some long-time events find their way into the ‘virtual space’ and we are hopeful that as our passion for supporting our young people has not waned during the pandemic, neither will the community’s passion for supporting our work.”

The partnership between Lynchburg Beacon of Hope and the Lynchburg Art Club imbues these “Art for Achievement” events with a strong sense of community. “‘Art for Achievement’ truly represents the home-grown nature of Lynchburg, as the Lynchburg Art Club was founded in 1895 by the then-Supervisor of Art in the Lynchburg Public School System, Bernhard Gutmann,” notes Foster.

Although this year has been challenging in unprecedented ways, events like “Art for Achievement” can provide a sense of hope and forward momentum while also helping us honor the memory of people like Blind Billy, who weathered the strongest of storms while also pursuing his passion.

“Like Lynchburg Beacon of Hope itself, ‘Art for Achievement’ represents the true grassroots nature of the Lynchburg community,” says Hamilton. “Artists coming together, young people coming together, philanthropists coming together—this collective of individuals can and will make a tremendous impact on the community now and for decades to come. It is an honor to be able to play a small role in community transformation, one painting and one student at a time.”

Kuumba Dance Ensemble Continues to Thrive During Pandemic
Photography by Ashlee Glen

The beat of the drums was powerful and hypnotic and seemed intrinsically connected to the dancers leaping and gesturing adeptly across the floor. Dressed in beautiful, bright costumes, the performers seemed focused but also free. Their unified movements indicated that they had clearly rehearsed rigorously for this performance, but there was an easy exuberance in their presentation that created a relaxed, yet dazzling, environment—you couldn’t take your eyes away from them.

I first saw the Kuumba Dance Ensemble perform in 2018 at the Lynchburg Public Library, where I work as a youth services library assistant. On that day, there was someone else behind the scenes who caught my eye as well. Directing the dance routine was ensemble founder Sheron White. Her pride in her students was a joyous thing to witness. I was immediately struck by her positive and infectious energy and by the camaraderie she had fostered within the company. I knew then that I wanted to be part of this extraordinary group, and I got my chance to do so the following year.

Last fall, I had the privilege of participating in White’s Adult Afro-Caribbean dance class through Lynchburg Parks and Recreation. She and the other members of Kuumba made me feel so welcome and encouraged me to express myself at a time in my life when I really needed an outlet to do so. It was one of the best and most freeing experiences of my life, and I cannot thank Sheron enough. It is an honor to share a piece of her story and spotlight the important work she’s doing in our community.

White had a strong and varied dance background before eventually focusing on African dance in the mid-80s. In 1986, she moved from Lynchburg to Baltimore, where she taught dance at several middle schools and joined an African dance company. Her dance teacher suggested that she visit Africa, and she did so in 1996.

“My professor said, ‘You cannot teach African dance unless you go to Africa.’ So I went to Senegal, West Africa,” White recalls. “I learned so much. The culture in Africa was so amazing and accepting.”

Upon her return to the U.S., White moved to a different dance company in D.C. and became a principal dancer. She ultimately decided to move back to Lynchburg in 2013 and established Kuumba Dance Ensemble in 2017.

Kuumba was originally called “Lynchburg Afro-Caribbean Dance Ensemble,” but White found the name clunky and decided to change it.

“The reason I named it ‘Kuumba’ is because when I went to Africa, they named me ‘Kuumba’,” says White. “At first, I hated that name! We had a naming ceremony and everyone else got these cool names—I can’t remember what they were—but I got ‘Kuumba’? Well, that was my own inability to understand what that name meant. It means creativity. Come on, Sheron!”

Over the past three years, Kuumba has grown from four adult dancers and one drummer to about 40 dancers—30 of which are children—and seven drummers. A partnership with Lynchburg Parks and Recreation and the aid of donors such as the Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation have added to the ensemble’s momentum, and even a global pandemic hasn’t slowed it down.

“We wanted to engage our children and keep them motivated during the pandemic,” White says. To that end, White connected with a hip-hop instructor from Alabama who offered virtual hip-hop classes for Kuumba students twice a week.

Kuumba also participated in the Academy Center of the Arts’ Juneteenth 2020: An Exercise in Resilience event on June 19. The live-streamed event, which was put on by the Academy, the Juneteenth Coalition, and The Listening, Inc., featured several Black artists, performers, and local figures.

“The pandemic was in full bloom, so we practiced in my backyard,” notes White. “We were limited to ten people. It was difficult, but we made it happen.”

Part of the difficulty was learning how to work in masks, which includes practicing proper breathing techniques.

“We actually ended up performing in masks made by Cynthia Hudson, one of our drummers and seamstresses,” says White. “During practices, I always instruct the students to walk away, remove their masks, take deep breaths, and drink lots of water when they get winded.”

Safety is paramount for White, who cares for her 94-year-old mother. “It is huge for me to socially distance and keep things safe for everyone,” she says. “In addition to wearing masks, we take temperatures before classes. When bad things happen, we don’t get discouraged. We problem solve and figure out how to make things work.”

White and other members of Kuumba resumed classes in early July. Participants were able to choose between in-house lessons at Lynchburg Parks and Recreation and online lessons. Kuumba will hold a virtual recital on November 7, and White’s inspiration for the theme of the performance is very close to her heart.

“There is a book written by Mychal Wynn called The Eagles Who Thought They Were Chickens that I used to share with my students when I worked in schools,” White says. “I use this book to help children understand that they can soar and feel good about who they are no matter what other people think. This year, Kuumba is going to draw inspiration from this book to catapult us into talking about the beautiful eagles of Africa and how they soar, and about how when people cut you down, you rise above.”

In preparation for the recital, instructors from Africa will hold virtual dance classes and teach choreography inspired by eagles while White comes up with her own twist on the theme for additional choreography. Although tickets and other details are still in the works, there will be an opportunity to make donations to support Kuumba’s continued growth.

Kuumba also plans to perform at the annual Kwanzaa celebration at Miller Park on December 30 if conditions allow, and White hopes that the celebration will be extended next year. “In 2021, we’re looking at having Kwanzaa celebrations each of the seven days of Kwanzaa,” she says.

As Kuumba continues to adapt and thrive through these unprecedented times, the overarching goal of the group—to spotlight and honor African culture while also supporting and celebrating other cultures—will stay the same.

“I believe that, in Lynchburg, culture matters. Whether the culture is white, Black, Mexican, Asian, or something else, it’s rich here,” says White. “It’s a good idea for us to learn about other cultures. We wouldn’t be afraid of different cultures if we tried to understand where those cultures come from. We [at Kuumba] see what we do as an opportunity to teach people about African culture. When we perform, we hope to provide instruction, share a rich tradition, and show that we are all more alike than unalike. This is my calling.”