2023 Holiday Markets
Holiday Boutique November 17 through December 24 Virginia Beach Art Center artcentervb.org Impress loved ones with unique, hand-crafted gifts of fine art and artisan crafts. Give a gift like no other. Mistletoe Market November 18 Wells Theatre vastage.org...
2023 Holiday Lights & Parades
HOLIDAY LIGHTS & PARADES Garden of Lights Norfolk Botanical Garden Through December 31 5-9:30 PM Nightly NBGlights.org Get out and enjoy the spectacular 1.5 million lights at Norfolk Botanical Garden through New Year’s Eve. Barks & Bulbs Norfolk...
NEON Shines Bright with The Arts
(Kyle Confehr’s The Kindness of Strangers mural. Photo by Jon Abrahams of Jpixx) By Jerome Langston When urbanist and scholar, Richard Florida, first introduced the “creative class” into our popular lexicon back in the early aughts, his ideas were heralded as being...
Hoggard. Remembering Joe
By Jim Raper On a fall night sometime in the late 1980s I dined with a professional group of about 20 at Joe Hoggard’s Ships Cabin restaurant in Norfolk’s East Ocean View. Our main course this evening would be cioppino. “It’ll be the best fish soup you’ve ever had,”...
100-Year-Old Norfolk Family Business is Bringing City’s Historic Railyard District Back to Life
By Joel Rubin “To Janit…The Sweetest Little Girl I Know.” So wrote John Frank in 1958 on the wall of what was likely a bar on Hampton Boulevard at 25th Street in Norfolk. John and Janit’s relationship was lost to history until workmen uncovered the quote, part of a...
ESSAY: A Fan’s Notes
By Tom Robotham Over the years, I’ve written a lot about my love of baseball, and it’s on my mind once again as the World Series approaches. Lately, though, I’ve been reflecting on this in a broader context: Why are sports in general so captivating? I realize, of...
TCC Opens New Visual Arts and Design Center
By Jim Roberts Marcia Conston didn’t live in Norfolk in 2011—the year Farm Fresh closed its grocery store in downtown Norfolk—but she fully understands the impact of Tidewater Community College expanding into that long unused space. “I never imagined that we could...
Stockard’s 10-Year Transformation of Norfolk State Theatre Company
By Jeff Maisey Over the past decade, Anthony Mark Stockard’s passionate vision for theatrical arts has been transformational for Norfolk State University. In what was more or less an afterthought on the curriculum offerings at Norfolk State, the establishment of...
BOOK REVIEW: Homeward Bound
(Author Michael Pearson on the road in Ireland. Courtesy photo) By Tom Robotham Over the last three decades, Michael Pearson—former professor of creative writing and literature at Old Dominion University—has written seven books of nonfiction focusing on his two great...
ESSAY: An Education
By Tom Robotham Recently, I received a notice from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh that my graduating class would be among those honored during this year’s homecoming weekend. Until then, it hadn’t dawned on me that 2023 marks 45 years since I donned...
ART NEWS: Remembering Anne Iott
(Anne Iott’s “Fallen Tree II,” Watercolor, 1998) By Betsy DiJulio On October 8, this community lost someone who has been called a “lodestar of my better self,” “a force of nature” and “a pit bull for her faculty.” As five people who worked with Anne Iott for decades...
A Symphony Concert of Profound and Positive Hope
(Thomas Wilkins, conductor) By Montague Gammon III Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s Brahms and Dvořák with Thomas Wilkins November concert features “music that is going to make you feel better about yourself at the end of the evening,” says the VSO’s Principal Guest...
All Things Equal is Unequalled Theatre
(Michelle Azar stars as Ruth Bader Ginsburg Photo courtesy of Bay Street Theater.) By Montague Gammon III The most important play that anyone in Hampton Roads will see this year, and probably for many years to come, crops up for just one single early November night...
Beloved Aladdin Brings Joy to Chrysler Hall
(Adi Royas as Aladdin. Photo by Deenvan Meer/Disney.) By Jerome Langston “To me, it kind of feels like destiny. It’s like a full circle moment for me,” says actor Adi Roy, who plays the title role of Aladdin, in the Broadway touring production of Disney’s “Aladdin,”...
Virginia Opera’s Edge of the Seat Comedy
Mezzo soprano Hilary Ginther By Montague Gammon III One of the most popular and well known of all operas, Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” comes to the Harrison Opera House the first weekend of November in a brand new Virginia Opera production that...
ART: Climate and Culture Dominate Enos Exhibition
By Betsy DiJulio A quick look at the paintings and drawings of Solomon Enos would leave one with the impression that his work gives form to a dystopian, post-apocalyptic future. But that’s why a quick look at art is rarely adequate. While the work leans heavily into...
Violent Femmes Happy to Return to Norfolk
By Jeff Maisey This year marks the 40th anniversary of American folk/punk band Violent Femmes. The Milwaukee-based group made an impressive debut in 1983 with the self-titled album which spawned the longtime classic singles “Blister in the Sun” and “Gone Daddy...
The Gift of the Fiddler
By Jerome Langston “In all honesty, it’s kind of the gift that keeps on giving. If you have to be associated with one show repeatedly in your career, I couldn’t think of a better one to be associated with,” says Gary John La Rosa, the famed director/choreographer,...
Rocking Rachmaninoff
By Jeff Maisey Earlier this year, the Virginia Arts Festival celebrated in grand style the 150th birthday of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff with a series of chamber music concerts featuring the internationally acclaimed Dali Quartet and violinist Tianwa Yang as...
Still Ga Ga Over the Goo Goos
By Jim Morrison For a decade after they formed in Buffalo and before they became radio stars, The Goo Goo Dolls toured in a van, a trio sometimes headlining and sometimes opening for bands like The Gun Club or Motorhead. Their first album, recorded on a $750 budget...
These (Pink) Boots Are Made for Brewing (and more) – The Pink Boots Society
By Diane Catanzaro and Chris Jones Women have been involved with the craft beer movement from the beginning, although their contributions were frequently overlooked. In 1977 Suzy Stern co-founded and brewed at New Albion, America’s first craft brewery since...
757 Battle of the Beers Celebrates 10 Years in September
By Jeff Maisey Over the last decade, craft beer festivals have come and gone in the Hampton Roads. Today the 757 Battle of the Beers, celebrating its 10th anniversary on September 24, is the longest running beer event in the region. The 757 Battle concept was...
RESTAURANT REVIEW: Quemar’s Vegan Menu is on Fire
By Betsy DiJulio An open kitchen with a wood fired grill is not all that smolders at Quemar. The namesake smokiness is this restaurant’s signature, lending distinction and a nuanced layer of flavor to the cuisine while wrapping diners in a subtle...
RESTAURANT NEWS: A Gateway to India
By Marisa Marsey Paul Chhabra, the civic-minded, seasoned restaurateur who’s been broadening Hampton Roadsters’ palates with biryanis, bharthas and basmati for over three decades, is pulsing with boyish energy early this morning as he pulls up in a U-Haul to a...
REVIEW: Stay for the Food at Civil Libation Bistro
Words & Photo by Betsy DiJulio With a persistent heat index in the triple digits and a cute hand-drawn cocktail menu, no one will judge if you go to Civil Libation Bistro for the hand-crafted cocktails, but be sure to stay for the food. While this southern...
Love Song Hits All the Right Plant-Based Notes
By Betsy DiJulio “I’m not gonna write you a love song ‘Cause you asked for it ‘Cause you need one…” Nope, like alternative pop artist, Sara Bareilles, lilts, “I’m not gonna write you a love song ‘cause its make or breaking this.” Why? Because Virginia...
Tea is Just One Jewel in Prince Tea House’s Crown
(Afternoon tea, anyone? Photo courtesy of Prince Tea House VB.) By Marisa Marsey When someone says tea house, what do you picture? A stiff upper-lipped British parlor, fine bone china, crustless watercress sandwiches and clotted cream? Perhaps your thoughts race to a...
BEER: Crossing the Thin Brew Line
(Beer-tender Cara and Thin Brew Line’s new brewer, Raf Corredor. Photo by Chris Jones.) By Diane Catanzaro & Chris Jones There you are in Virginia Beach, looking for a place to get a libation, a sip of suds, a beer. You’d like something fresh, delicious, and...
The Grey Goose Turns 40
(The Grey Goose now serves brunch six days a week. Photo by Grey Goose ) By Marisa Marsey “That was really tasty,” said Phillip Epstein as he and his wife Dana exited The Grey Goose Tea Room in Downtown Hampton. “But I don’t need to go back again.” The year was 2007....
Mexican-Inspired for Cinco de Mayo
By Jeff Maisey Mexican lagers have been a favorite amongst local beer lovers, especially on Hampton Roads’ notoriously humid, hot days of spring and summer. Beer brands from South of the Border like Modelo, Dos Equis, Tecate, Cerveza Pacifico Clara have...
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