Albemarle school board asks superintendent for resignation P.9
Lawsuit alleges CRHA falsely claimed nonprofit status P.15
Feast of Reason brings history to the table at wine week P.37
At Charlottesville's only supportive-housing SRO, residents describe troubling conditions, while staff defend a strained system
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Hello, Charlottesville.
Thank you for reading C-VILLE Weekly.
This week brought another milestone in the ongoing saga of extreme wealth: national headlines about Elon Musk becoming the world’s first trillionaire—a number so large it feels almost meaningless. (It would take nearly 2,740 years to spend $1 trillion at a rate of $1 million per day, one article I read said.)
But it wasn’t money I kept thinking about all weekend. It was attention. Wealth attracts attention. Power attracts attention. What local journalism does best, though, is direct attention somewhere else.
Case in point: Charlottesville Tomorrow recently finished publishing Erin O’Hare’s deeply reported, five-part series on Park’s Edge Apartments, the result of three years spent documenting the experiences of renters navigating mold, flooding, pests, and a system that often leaves them with few options when landlords fail to act. This week, in our own pages, Nathan Alderman’s cover story (p.24) examines similar conditions at The Crossings, a supportive housing community created in 2012 to serve some of Charlottesville’s most vulnerable residents.
Neither of those stories come with billion-dollar valuations or national headlines. But they do ask a version of the same question: What do we value enough to notice? At a moment when we can create unimaginable fortunes, why do we still struggle to provide the basics of dignity, safety, and human attention?
This week’s contributors
Nathan Alderman, C-VILLE’s senior news reporter, is a writer, editor, and Oxford comma enthusiast. He volunteers for civic causes, folds a lot of laundry, and adores his spouse and his large, loud, hungry children. He’s written for Macworld magazine and The Motley Fool, among others. Read his work on page 24.
Kristie Smeltzer is a writer, writing coach, and teacher. Her fiction has been published by Scribes*MICRO* Fiction, MonkeyBicycle, and Atticus Review. Smeltzer earned her MFA in creative writing at the University of Central Florida. Read her work on page 35.
Hey, thanks! These generous benefactors of C-VILLE have supported our work through our (now tax-deductible!) Save the Free Word campaign. To contribute, follow the QR code.
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CHARLOTTESVILLE AREA TRANSIT
IN THIS ISSUE
ED I TORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Caite Hamilton editor@c-ville.com
ART DIRECTOR
Max March max@c-ville.com
CULTURE EDITOR
Tami Keaveny
tami@c-ville.com
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
Nathan Alderman news@c-ville.com
NEWS REPORTER
Catie Ratliff reporter@c-ville.com
NEWS CONTRIBUTOR
Sean Tubbs
ASSOCIATE CULTURE EDITOR
CM Turner arts@c-ville.com
COPY EDITOR
Susan Sorensen
DIGITAL EDITOR
Tristan Williams
CONTRIBUTORS
Rob Brezsny, Dave Cantor, Carol Diggs, Shea Gibbs, Andrew Hollins, Erika Howsare, Matt Jones, Sarah Lawson, Lisa Provence, Sarah Sargent, Kristie Smeltzer, Jen Sorensen, Julia Stumbaugh, Jake Solyst, Paul Ting, Eric Williamson
No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.
JUNE 20:
WNRN Presents: The String Cheese Incident Just Keep Spinning Tour 2026
JULY 18:
Alison Krauss & Union Station ft. Jerry Douglas with Special Guest Theo Lawrence
JULY 26: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit Benefiting the Charlottesville Free Clinic
SEPTEMBER 8:
Sierra Ferrell A WNRN 30th Anniversary show Support from The Brudi Brothers
SEPTEMBER 22: Rainbow Kitten Surprise
SEPTEMBER 24: Sam Barber
More Announcements Coming Soon! LOW TICKET WARNING!
Aug 19: Dominic Fike
SEPT 5: WNRN Presents: Charley Crockett Age of the Ram Tour with Nat Myers
JUNE 19
Juneteenth Celebration
FRIDAYS AFTER FIVE: EBONY GROOVE w/ JEN TAL BAND 5:30-8:30 pm
AUGUST 15-ON SALE NOW MERAKI RECORD RELEASE WITH WORK WEAR
SEPTEMBER 12-ON SALE THURSDAY TWO RUNNER
SEPTEMBER 30-ON SALE THURSDAY RYAN DAVIS + THE ROADHOUSE BAND
WIND & FIRE PERFORMED BY THE INSIDE OUT BAND
06-21| KALETA & SUPER YAMBA BAND BROOKLYN AFRO FUNK
06-24| BABE HAVEN WITH SLOW FUNERAL & DESTRUCTO DISK
06-25| CHUCK RAGAN WITH KAI CROWE-GETTY AND WOODY WOODWORTH
06-26| NIRVANI - A NIRVANA TRIBUTE EXPERIENCE
06-27| THE SOUTHERN DRAG SHOWPRIDE MONTH EDITION HOSTED BY JACKIE OF ALL TRADES AND DARLING NIKKI FEATURING - TIFFANI HUNTER-MONIQUE, BEAU TOX AND SHOUJO-A-GO-GO
07-16| SHAWN MULLINS
07-18| SUMMER JAM AT WATKINS GLEN ANNIVERSARY SHOW FT. GRATEFUL ALLMAN BAND EXPERIENCE
Delayed response
Superintendent asked to resign amid outrage over handling of sexual assault allegations at elementary schools BY
After two days of heated public meetings regarding the district’s handling of sexual assault allegations against a former elementary-school staff member, the Albemarle County School Board requested Superintendent Matthew Haas’ resignation on June 11.
Michael J. Swiney, 37, started as a social and emotional learning coach at Woodbrook Elementary School in December 2021. For
CATIE RATLIFF
unknown reasons, he was transferred to Hollymead Elementary School at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, where he worked until an investigation into his conduct began in January 2026.
Swiney is charged with seven counts of aggravated sexual battery, one count of attempted aggravated sexual battery, and four counts of indecent liberties. The earliest known alleged incident dates back to August
21, 2024, but it was not uncovered until this year. Swiney was indicted via grand jury on June 1, and turned himself in to Albemarle County Police on June 3.
ACPD released a public statement on Swiney’s arrest on June 4. This was how many Albemarle families learned of the monthslong investigation into the staff member.
The final day of classes for ACPS students was May 29. ACPD says the indictment was
not intentionally scheduled after the end of the school year.
“The moment allegations were brought to our attention, the employee was placed on leave, escorted from the building, and completely banned from all school properties and grounds, devices, and contact with students,” said Haas at the start of a June 10 community conversation at Hollymead Elementary.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 11
A recording of the conversation is available on the district’s website. The video, which is unlisted on the ACPS YouTube page, and the accompanying FAQ from ACPS are difficult to locate on the district’s website without a direct link.
Parents, community members, staff, and teachers at the meeting expressed anger and frustration with the lack of accountability and answers from Haas and Hollymead Principal Joe McCauley, who has since been placed on administrative leave.
Haas could not answer many of the questions posed by attendees, frequently citing personnel record laws and concerns about compromising the investigation.
Many people expressed anger about the school district’s failure to notify parents of potentially affected students.
“We had an initial instinct to begin reaching out,” said Haas. “We did contact the police department and commonwealth’s attorney, and we agreed that the detective and that team would begin reaching out to parents with all the records that the school turned over as a part of the investigation.”
When an attendee asked how far into the list the detectives had gotten, a department representative did not give a direct answer, and instead said the list was received not “that long ago.”
Public Information Officer Logan Bogert confirmed via email that ACPS gave an initial list of students who had contact with Swiney to Albemarle County police on Monday, June 8—a week after the indictment and two days before the community conversation. Bogert confirmed that ACPD “has spoken to all of those families.”
ACPS did not respond to C-VILLE’s request for comment at press time.
Some parents allegedly voiced concerns about Swiney long before the investigation.
“How many other parents besides me said that Swiney was a predator and needed to be removed? … You told me I was overreacting. … I have the emails, we were complain-
EDUCATION NEWS
ing about Swiney from 2023 to 2025,” said one parent to McCauley. “Stop curating these ass answers and either tell the truth or cut this shit short.”
Other attendees also called on McCauley and Haas to be more transparent in their comments and “take accountability.” Anger and frustration simmered throughout the conversation, boiling over again when it was revealed that the district prepared no policy changes during the more than five-monthlong period in which it knew about the investigation into Swiney.
“These allegations came about in January 2026 and he was put on leave. You all have had five months to figure out your plan and to have a plan,” said a parent who identified herself as Bridget Rogers. “What I’m hearing tonight is that you don’t know the policy and you don’t have a plan.”
“There was an accusation … you did nothing then,” said another parent from the audience. “You knew there was an accusation and you were like, ‘Oh, I don’t need to change policy or notify parents or anything, I’ll just sit here and wait.’”
There is a growing concern about undocumented meetings with Swiney. The list of documented interactions that the district sent to ACPD does not include any that occurred off the record. An update on ACPS’s website says the district now has permission from investigators to contact families, and administration is “contacting teachers to identify whether they are aware of students they sent to [Swiney] where there may not be a written record.”
Families and community members called on the school board to review and quickly amend existing policies regarding student and staff interactions and communication with guardians.
There is currently no explicit rule that prohibits ACPS staff from being alone with students behind closed doors. While parents are supposed to be notified when their child meets with a counselor or social and emotional learning coach, the staff member meeting with them is responsible for the notification. SEL coaches are responsible for keeping written records of their interactions with students.
IN BRIEF
All the news you missed last week (in one sentence or less)
“It does not appear that was done effectively in this case,” the district’s FAQ page reads.
Tension from the June 10 conversation carried into the next day’s school board meeting, which began in closed session. The board moved all agenda items, except the consent agenda, to a future session to allow more community members to speak. Rules requiring speakers to address the entire board, and refrain from directing comments at specific people or positions, nearly resulted in an attendee being ejected from the meeting.
At the end of public comment, the school board returned to closed session to discuss the investigation and the district’s response. After nearly an hour, the meeting reopened to the public for less than five minutes to announce the request for Haas to resign, and plans to review and amend policies in the coming weeks.
“This is a difficult moment for our school division and for our community,” the board said in a June 12 statement. “Our first responsibility is, and must always be, the safety, well-being, and trust of our students, families, staff, and schools. We recognize the pain, anger, fear, and frustration that many members of our community are experiencing, particularly in connection with recent events involving Hollymead and Woodbrook Elementary Schools.”
“We also recognize that words alone are not enough,” the statement continued. “The Board is committed to reviewing the concerns that have been raised, listening to families and staff, and ensuring that appropriate steps are taken to strengthen student safety, communication, and public trust.”
More information on ACPS’s response and next steps can be found at k12albemarle.org. The investigation into Swiney is ongoing, and detectives believe there may be more victims. Anyone with information should contact Detective Scott Godfrey at 296-5807.
High times Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger reportedly reaches agreement with legislators on a budget item legalizing retail cannabis beginning in July 2027. Tall order Virginia’s Attorney General’s office announces that it’s found the two giraffe calves missing from Natural Bridge Zoo since 2025, and placed them in safe care. Tick talk CDC warns of an unusually bad season for ticks, as local populations of the blood-sucking, disease-spreading parasites flourish. RIP Charlottesville police are investigating the June 10 death of a 57-year-old man found inside his tent at the Rivanna River encampment near Free Bridge. Tough lesson A malfunctioning attic fan caused a fire June 10 at the Miller School of Albemarle, damaging one apartment there; no one was hurt. Positive steps 2026 Stepping Stones report, tracking key indicators for Charlottesville & Albemarle youth, shows college attendance up and violent crime and poverty rates down. Dry counties Despite passing storms, Charlottesville and Albemarle are among the 38 percent of Virginia (including, ironically, Bath County) now facing extreme drought. Fines? Fine! To welcome more people to the library, JMRL’s branches will stop charging fees for overdue books in most circumstances, starting July 1. Bubble bust UVA launches a program to flatten unhealthy consumption of sugary drinks among kids and parents across Appalachia.
Albemarle County Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Haas, who’s led the district since 2018, has been asked to resign amid concerns regarding the division’s response to child sex crime accusations against a staffer. The school board said it would name an interim superintendent in the coming days.
SERENITY RIDGE RETREAT CENTER
Ancient Tibetan Buddhist Teachings for Modern Times
Join us in the serene foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and in Charlottesville!
June 26–July 11, 2026
The Clear Light of One’s Natural Mind ~ A Meditation Retreat with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Step away from the busyness of daily life and into the beauty of Serenity Ridge. Enjoy meditation, time in nature, and practical guidance for bringing more peace and clarity into daily life—open to all. Dzogchen teachings and practice from the ancient texts of the Twenty-One Nails and Six Lamps, and direct guidance in a retreat setting. The second week of the retreat will include four days in silence.
Options to attend: June 26–28; June 26-July 4; July 5–11or join us for the entire retreat from June 26–July 11.
June 20, 2026
Serenity Ridge Open House. Begins 9:30 a.m. with a tour and dharma talk with Lama Kalsang Nyima. Check our website for more information.
MONTHLY PRACTICE IN CHARLOTTESVILLE
Location: Jefferson Memorial Regional Library, Downtown Charlottesville Date: June 24, 2026 | Time: 6:30-8:00 PM | Led by Lama Kalsang Nyima
Learn More and Register: SERENITYRIDGEVA.ORG
Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Shipman, VA
NEWS COMMUNITY Two for one
Jefferson School and Black Business Expo join forces to celebrate and uplift Black community members
The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and Charlottesville Albemarle Black Business Expo combine forces on June 20 for their third annual joint event. The all-day gathering is the culmination of months of preparation and years of history.
Before coming to the Jefferson School, Charlottesville’s Juneteenth Celebration was held at Piedmont Virginia Community College and organized by Maxine Holland and Tamyra Turner, who is credited with founding the city’s first official Juneteenth event in 2000.
In the roughly 10 years since the celebration came to the Jefferson School, the event has shifted to become more celebratory, according to JSAAHC Executive Director Andrea Douglas.
“Wherever you are participating, what you’re participating in is an event that celebrates the moment of freedom,” she says.
“In Charlottesville that moment is actually March 3, it’s not June 19. But Galveston,
BY CATIE RATLIFF
and getting to Galveston … represents a process, and we are calling attention to that longer process.”
JSAAHC has been working on this year’s Juneteenth Celebration since at least December. Much of that time has been dedicated to assembling the parade—now the only parade in Charlottesville since the retirement of the Dogwood Festival. The parade will be marshaled by Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce President Andrea Copeland, and will start at Burley Middle School and finish at the Jefferson School City Center.
Before lining up at Burley, JSAAHC employees and volunteers will start the morning by setting up tents for the Charlottesville Albemarle Black Business Expo around 6am. Douglas and expo co-founder Ty Cooper work closely together, with the Jefferson School taking the lead on Juneteenth coordination while Cooper handles planning with vendors, panelists, and the business pitch competition.
This year marks the 10th annual expo, which began as a response to the descent of the alt-right on Charlottesville in August 2017. More than 40 vendors will be at the expo this year, with several more on the waitlist in case a spot opens up, according to Cooper. Interest in the business pitch is similar, with six participants competing for the $1,500 prize and three more on standby hoping for a spot to open up.
“There’s no parameters … you do not have to have a current business, it could just be an idea,” says Cooper. “But if you pitch it well, and it’s something that the judges feel as though it has legs, then it deserves a prize, no matter if you have it running today or you may not have it running [for] five years.”
Previous winners of the business pitch include Carrington Epperson, owner of vegan
bakery Chanterelle Cafe, and Casandra Rodriguez, who runs Vegan Comforts Soul Food.
“Come through, take note, get some business cards, and then put them on your refrigerator when you go home, or take a picture on your phone,” says Cooper. “This is not just for Black people, this is to support Black-owned businesses. … We have a reggae artist performing, who’s international. We have a jazz/R&B group performing. This is music. This is for everyone.”
The Juneteenth Celebration and Charlottesville Albemarle Black Business Expo will begin at 9am on June 20. More information on the schedule of events and vendors can be found at cvilleblackbusinessexpo.com.
C-VILLE Weekly is a sponsor of the Charlottesville Albemarle Black Business Expo.
Upward swing
Spending in the city and surrounding counties rose year over year in the first three months of 2026, according to a June 12 report from the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The report, based on Virginia Department of Taxation’s Local Option Sales Tax Data, found that the area brought in roughly $1.44 million more in retail sales tax revenue during Q1 of 2026 compared to Q1 of 2025—an 8.85 percent increase.
Some localities saw bigger sales spikes than others. Louisa had the largest increase at 19.24 percent, while Greene posted the smallest, a 4.24 percent hike. Charlottesville reported the second-highest relative increase in year-over-year local sales tax revenue, 13.28 percent, while Albemarle recorded a more middling 5.91 percent revenue boost.
“Despite a couple of late-winter storms impacting foot traffic, our retail members and their customers tell us they remain cautiously optimistic, even as they continue to navigate ongoing economic uncertainty,” said Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Andrea Copeland in the June 12 release. “While it’s too early to call these results a trend, it’s encouraging to see positive movement across the region.”—Catie Ratliff
It’s a match!
Western Albemarle High School enjoyed another successful weekend on the court, with the boys tennis team bringing home its ninth consecutive state title.
The Warriors wrapped the spring season with a 14-2 team record on June 11, then went on to sweep the Class 3 boys singles and doubles brackets. Gage Sturman won the singles final at 9am on June 13, then headed right back to the court with doubles partner William Schundler to triumph in the doubles final at noon.—CR
state tennis championship with a 5-0 sweep of Maggie Walker on Thursday, June 11.
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Center picking
Planners review staff recommendations for areas to focus county resources
BY SEAN TUBBS
As Albemarle’s population continues to grow, the official policy is to concentrate development in about 5 percent of the county. Staff in the county’s Community Development Department are working on a new initiative to focus infrastructure to locate jobs, housing units, and other uses for what it refers to as activity centers.
“Weldon Cooper [is] telling us that within the next 20 years, we can expect 31,000 people in our community, and hopefully most of those will be in the development area, and a lot of them will be in these activity centers,” said Michael Barnes, director of planning, at the June 9 meeting of the Planning Commission.
The new Comprehensive Plan lists 22 activity centers and eight employment centers. The county only has enough resources to create a plan for one per year for the next three years.
“Each plan will provide a detailed look at a defined study area, incorporate collaboration with property owners and community stakeholders, and result in a list of county-led investments, catalyst projects, tools, and actions needed to achieve desired outcomes,” said county planner James Wilkinson.
During the next three years, staff recommends creating plans for South Pantops, the intersection of Rio Road and U.S. 29, and a portion of the Hollymead area.
The Hollymead activity center would be along U.S. 29 between Airport Road and Ashwood Boulevard. The Places29 Master Plan adopted in 2011 called for an extension of Berkmar Drive through the area and longrange planner Ben Holt said a new plan could provide an updated vision for an area that includes some land designated as rural area.
“The area could be ripe for a fresh planning effort to address land use, multimodal connectivity, new housing, and affordable housing, and to consider this location’s development area boundary in a coordinated manner,” Holt said.
A Rio/29 center plan would build off a small area plan adopted in 2018 that enabled a vision for a walkable, mixed-use urban center. Holt said Albemarle County has built off of that plan, with one example being a public-private partnership that led Home Depot to build a new store in a portion of the Fashion Square Mall.
“Constraints facing an activity center planning effort in this area include high through traffic volumes on Rio and 29, in particular limited transit resources, uncertain property owner interests and timelines for redevelopment of Albemarle Square,” Holt said.
Holt suggested the South Pantops area could be pursued third in part because coordination with the City of Charlottesville would be needed to help with river crossings. A plan here would include redevelopment of the Pantops Shopping Center through to State Farm Boulevard.
Barnes said not all the plans will look the same. Success will depend on working alongside property owners, unlike small area plans where coordination often did not occur.
“The idea here is really to try and identify opportunities that are in these areas and what investments can be made both in the private sector and the public sector,” Barnes said.
There will be further outreach to the public and other stakeholders before recommendations go before the Board of Supervisors, according to Barnes.
A plan in the South Pantops area would include redevelopment of the Pantops Shopping Center through to State Farm Boulevard.
Despite temperatures in the 90s, the Western Albemarle High School boys tennis team captured its ninth straight
TRISTAN WILLIAMS (TOP LEFT), SCRIMMAGE PLAY (BOTTOM LEFT), EZE AMOS (RIGHT)
After years of separate events, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center’s Juneteenth Celebration and Charlottesville Albemarle Black Business Expo began working together in 2024.
COURTS NEWS
Default fault?
Legal mercenary ensnares CRHA in lawsuit over COVID loans BY SEAN TUBBS
Like many organizations and companies across the county, the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority applied for federal loans to keep payroll checks flowing in the early days of the pandemic.
The CARES Act, signed into law in March 2020, created the Paycheck Protection Program as a lifeline for businesses and other organizations at a time when the entire economy was shut down to prevent COVID-19 from spreading.
According to ProPublica, CRHA received two rounds of PPP loans from the Small Business Administration in 2020 and 2021 for a total of $473,225, and these loans and the interest were later forgiven. Despite being a government entity, CRHA allegedly checked a box claiming to be a nonprofit organization in the applications.
That’s a fraudulent act, according to an active lawsuit in the United States Western District Court of Virginia filed by Utah attorney J. Bryan Quesenberry. A provision of the federal False Claims Act allows people to sue on behalf of the United States government to recover damages from fraud. If proven or otherwise adjudicated, penalties are three times the amount of the unlawful loans.
Quesenberry has filed similar suits across the United States and has received a portion of the share of many settlements. He originally submitted a complaint to the court in March 2024 that names CRHA and several other Virginia-based organizations.
“Defendants knowingly presented or caused to be presented to the SBA claims for approval of PPP loan applications for which they were ineligible because they are government-owned entities,” reads a portion of an amended complaint filed last November.
Charlottesville voters approved the creation of the CRHA in 1954 as a political subdivision of Virginia that was empowered to use eminent domain to build the first generation of public housing units. Charlottesville City Council appoints the organization’s Board of Commissioners.
Under what is known as the qui tam process, a federal court seals the filing while federal officials decide whether they want to join the case. The U.S. declined, but allowed Quesenberry to pursue the case. An electronic summons was issued to all of the entities including CRHA last November 20.
All of the other defendants responded to the summons, including the Rappahannock Rapidan Community Services Board, which filed a motion to dismiss on February 27. According to court records, the CRHA did not respond. CRHA Executive Director John Sales was served with the summons on February 17 and had until March 10 to respond.
The agency did not, and Quesenberry filed a motion on March 24 to enter CRHA into default, meaning there is no further opportunity to defend the claim in court.
A notice of the entry was mailed to Crescent Halls but marked “Return to Sender” and “Unable to Forward.” On April 30, the plaintiff filed a motion for default judgment, which would compel CRHA to pay $1.5 million.
On June 10, Judge Robert Ballou ordered that CRHA be served with all of the documentation, but has not yet ruled on the motion for default judgment. As of June 15, the court record indicates service has not been confirmed.
Sales did not respond to a request for comment. The City of Charlottesville referred all questions to CRHA.
Annie Gould Gallery
The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which manages Crescent Halls, is under fire for allegedly claiming to be a nonprofit in its 2020 and 2021 PPP loan applications.
$599,000 | MLS 676693 | Charlottesville Charlotte Dammann, 434.981.1250 Tim Michel, 434.960.1124 EDNAM
Mid century modern, 4.4 landscaped acres $1,225,000 | MLS 677126 | Charlottesville J. Faulconer, 434.981.0076 W. Faulconer, 434.987.9455
BROKEN ISLAND
Adjacent to Rivanna River, 5,600 sq.ft., private lot
$960,000 | MLS 676962 | Palmyra J. Faulconer, 434.981.0076 W. Faulconer, 434.987.9455
LANGFORD FARMS
Custom built in Ivy with 4-BR, 3-BA
$829,000 | MLS 678223 | Charlottesville Charlotte Dammann, 434.981.1250
SOMERSET
Renovated 1923, 3-BR, 3-BA, outdoor deck
$1,090,000 | MLS 676405 | Charlottesville J. Faulconer, 434.981.0076 W. Faulconer, 434.987.9455
Custom build, quiet lane & 4,400 sq.ft. $949,500 | MLS 675547 | Keswick J. Faulconer, 434.981.0076 W. Faulconer, 434.987.9455
Comfort meets convenience & 2,211 sq.ft.
Exceptional 5.6 acres, 2 approved homesites
$415,000 | MLS 676489 | Somerset
Bridget Archer, 434.981.4149
Pam Dent, 434.960.0161
Very nice Townhouse in convenient River Run. New roof and gutter leaf filters. Well maintained. Easy access to town and Penn Park. Easy walking distance to the Community pool.82
BAYWICK CIRCLE
Fabulous mountain views and golf course frontage with fenced yard. The popular Fairview floor plan was expanded and slightly modified. Tremendous great room with a 2 story wall of windows and stone fireplace overlooks the back terrace and beautifully landscaped yard. State of the art, gourmet kitchen opens to the sunroom and great room. Light-filled and in pristine condition with many recent updates. The lovely turned staircase leads to the open second floor loft and 3 bedrooms. Set on a small quiet circle with a center island green space. $995,000
ROLLING VALLEY COURT
Great views from this elevated lot. Beautiful morning light! This home offers 5 bedrooms, great kitchen appliances, a wonderful floor and screened porch. Lovely mature trees behind the home make the property feel private.$675,000
GORDONSVILLE ROAD
Mulberry Hill Circa 1900 in the heart of Keswick Hunt Country. Set on over 22 acres of beautiful land, offering the opportunity to build an estate home and stables on the back portion of the property. The stately residence features a 11’x23’ grand entry hall with 10’ ceilings. The original 2 over 2 home was added on to over the years. The light filled dining room and kitchen additions overlook the backyard. Wide cased openings with fine woodwork and trim lead to the parlor and living room. The one bedroom guest cottage is currently rented. Both residences qualify for historic renovation tax credits. Wonderful for gardening and has a bold stream. A charming county property. $1,390,000
N WASHINGTON STREET
Circa 1895. A pristine, boutique, residence, offering timeless elegance with contemporary living. A unique find in the convenient, upscale Newtown neighborhood. No expense was spared during the full sympathetic renovation. Top of the line kitchen features premium appliances; Sub Zero refrigerator, Kitchen Aid gas range, warming drawer, “rain-fall” marble countertops and butler’s pantry Spaquality baths with heated floors and luxury finishes. Other features; 9’ ceilings, open staircase, heart pine floors, working transoms and built-in cabinetry. Charming rear courtyard overlooks the spires of downtown. Set on a quiet one way street, just 2 blocks to wonderful restaurants and shops. $595,000
Our retail store is open regularly and we carefully curate and host a variety of 21+ events, supporting local artists and artisans, to bring cannabis lovers together. Whether you are passing through the city or found your forever home in Charlottesville, Virginia, The Hidden Leaf will continue to provide a safe haven for all of us. We look forward to welcoming you with open arms in a
and known.
TWO STORY BUILDING
BUILDING
Tenants report alarming conditions in supportive housing community, while staff say they’re doing their best to help
BY NATHAN ALDERMAN
PHOTOS BY TRISTAN WILLIAMS
We know a little about how Jerome Jones lived. We don’t know for certain when he died.
We know from his obituary that Jerome Lee Jones was born on June 13, 1966. We know he worked at the University of Virginia for 20 years, that he rooted for the Dallas Cowboys, that he “loved the dance floor and lit it up with his moves,” that he was “everyone’s favorite dance partner.” We know he was just 59 when he died. From court records (documenting when he seemingly fell behind on, then caught up on, rent payments) we know that he lived in unit 309 at The Crossings at 4th and Preston at 401 Fourth St. NW in Charlottesville.
On January 16, 2026, 911 records show police were called to that address to investigate a death. Those records remain sealed amid an ongoing investigation. But the date matches Jones’ obituary, and friends from the building identify him as the deceased.
Jones’ brother, Lavon Jones, and sisterin-law, Joyce Jones, say they arrived at Jones’ efficiency apartment shortly after he died. In a brief phone conversation, Lavon and Joyce recalled seeing moldy food in pots on his stove. The air conditioning unit, bearing what looked like black mold, blew foul-smelling air. The pair didn’t see evidence of bedbugs, though Jones had complained of them.
They did see roaches, and broken tiles on the floor beneath his bed when they moved it. They threw his belongings in garbage bags and got out of the room as fast as they could.
Joyce Jones works at a funeral home. In her professional opinion, her brotherin-law had been dead at least 24 hours.
Karen Cooper, 69, lived at The Crossings from 2018 until her eviction in May. “It just tore everybody up in here,” she says of Jones’ death. “We don’t know how long he was there, but we started smelling the smell coming from his room, and then his sister came. Somebody must have called her, somebody from here … she came, and her brother was laid up in there dead.”
Though not all of the residents C-VILLE spoke to described identical experiences, multiple current and former tenants, and their relatives, reported serial bedbug infestations; appliances left unrepaired; awful odors and black mold in the HVAC system; and allegations that some deceased tenants were left undiscovered for extended periods, among other concerns.
Officials from SupportWorks Virginia, the nonprofit that manages The Crossings, say they’re working hard to address some of those issues, and seemed genuinely shocked to hear about others. But they couldn’t always provide solid answers for why conditions in the building have deteriorated, or to some residents’
concerns about how management allegedly treated them.
The City of Charlottesville spent generously to help create The Crossings, to alleviate a shortage of safe, dignified housing for people who desperately need it. Fourteen years later, the return on that investment looks uncertain.
Levels of care
The Crossings opened in 2012 as the area’s only single-room occupancy supportive housing facility. The city purchased the land it sits on for $1.55 million in 2010, then donated it to The Crossings as a conditional contribution to the $8.2 million project.
The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority refers eligible tenants on its waiting list to The Crossings whenever vacancies open up. The building’s 60 efficiency apartments are split equally between affordable housing units and residences for the formerly unhoused.
Half those units come with federal project-based vouchers: Tenants pay 30 percent of their gross adjusted income in rent, and the vouchers cover the rest, says Sheila Parker, SupportWorks’ director of property management. “If a resident has no income and they’re in a project-based voucher unit … that may mean that their rent is zero.”
“In 2024, out of 38 persons who entered the program [at The Crossings], 15
(40%) entered without income and 20 (53%) entered with a monthly income of $1,500 or less, which is insufficient for a studio unit at [fair market rate],” SupportWorks wrote in a successful 2026 application for a Virginia Housing Trust Fund Homeless Reduction Grant. The majority of the $110,000 The Crossings received from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development covers salaries for two full-time support staff at the building.
Building support staff say The Crossings and other SupportWorks properties in Richmond and Hampton Roads operate on a “level of care” system, offering personalized, voluntary services designed to meet specific residents’ needs.
“We might have a resident that we try to touch base with every day as a check-in,” says Jennifer Tiller, SupportWorks’ director of services. “We might have somebody that they’re on a weekly schedule, a monthly schedule. But everybody is once a month, minimum.”
Tiller says support staff talks daily about residents and their well-being.
“Anything can change at any time, and so that level of care system is flexible,” she says. “We don’t wait for something to happen. We try to be really proactive and [make] sure we know people and we recognize signs.”
Those efforts don’t always seem to succeed.
Alone for days
“The people that we’re trying to support,” says Allison Bogdanovic, SupportWorks Virginia’s executive director, “are very vulnerable, and they do have health issues. They’ve had hard lives. And unfortunately people pass away with us, and I think that they pass away with us more than in a traditional apartment building.”
Victor Cooper, 68, is Karen Cooper’s younger brother. He lived at The Crossings for eight years before his eviction in April. “I done seen so many people die,” he says. “I’ve seen so many people where I walked up in the room and the man laying in the floor … They won’t even check on the people that’s sick.”
Not every death in the building fits that description. Todd Jones, 57, died in unit 322 on May 13, per 911 records. His parents, Wayne and Theresa Williams, say he died of natural causes. The Williamses say he was found within four hours of his death by his sister, who also lives in the building. They say Todd’s room had no insect infestations or maintenance issues.
But multiple people described or corroborated residents like Jerome Jones dying in their units and not being found for days. Four are members of the Cooper family, three of whom are former residents. A fifth is not related to the Coopers, and is a current tenant.
Lanitra Cooper is Victor and Karen’s niece. She says she lived at The Crossings from “2014 or 2015” until, according to court records, she was evicted in 2023.
“The first couple of weeks I was there, a guy had OD’d,” Lanitra Cooper says. “And I kept telling them that I had smelled the decomposed body. That man stayed in that apartment almost two to three days later after I had smelled him.” 911 records show one DOA investigation at The Crossings within that timeframe, on October 26, 2015.
According to The Crossings’ 2026 grant application, three residents died—which the application refers to as “exited to deceased”—in 2025.
Per 911 records, three people have been found dead at The Crossings so far in 2026: Todd Jones, Jerome Jones, and a woman Victor and Karen called Lisa.
Through a FOIA request, C-VILLE found records that matched the late-February date and general circumstances the Coopers described for Lisa’s death.
“She was a good friend of me and [Karen’s], and we just wondered why we hadn’t seen Lisa,” Victor Cooper says. 911 records show the deceased lived in unit 319, just down the hall from Karen in 316.
“Wasn’t but four or five days we hadn’t seen her, and come to find out she had laid up in there. She was dead, up in her room. Ain’t nobody know.”
On May 23, a fire in a third-floor apartment at The Crossings triggered that unit’s sprinkler system. The fire department believes the fire originated on a mattress, but is still investigating. Water from the sprinkler extinguished the fire but damaged apartments on all three floors of that wing of the building. The second-floor unit, depicted here as of June 3, was under repair for that water damage. Common areas of the building, including the closed fitness center, were photographed in late May or early June.
or get to the bathroom, for two or three days. “I was screaming and hollering. They ain’t getting nobody at all. So it didn’t make no difference. Then a friend of mine ... heard me [calling] from the hallway, because I had made it to the door enough where I could reach up and unlock the door. So I unlocked the door and she ran and got my brother.”
Records timestamp the first 911 call shortly after noon on February 24. In a recording of one call, a Crossings employee tells the operator that “maintenance was doing rounds today, and they found one of our residents unresponsive.”
The employee repeatedly states she hasn’t seen the body herself.
When the operator asks whether the person is breathing, the employee sighs.
“I don’t really know,” she says. “I have no idea why they had me—I know she has health issues. They’re just saying she’s not responding at all.”
911 records do not describe the condition of the body, nor an estimated time of death
A year before Lisa’s death, Karen Cooper says she nearly died at The Crossings herself. In early February 2025, she reportedly slipped on a rug in her room. Karen says she lay there, unable to get up
“Maintenance found her because they was going in there to put a shade up in her room,” Karen Cooper says, adding that to her knowledge, Lisa had been there “for two or three days.”
Victor Cooper and two other members of the Cooper family confirmed Karen’s fall; Victor and one other family member supported her account of her injuries. 911 records from 1:30am on February 11, 2025, report a woman with a broken arm in unit 316, Karen’s apartment. The system doesn’t preserve recordings that far back, but written records note the “caller wasn’t clear about when the injury happened” and they are “calling for another person on the third floor who hurt their arm yesterday.” Emergency responders transported Karen to UVA Hospital.
“If we die up in here, then if our families ain’t coming here to see us or checking on us, then we just here until somebody come in and fix something in the room,” Karen says. “Nobody never checks us.”
“I haven’t heard of this happening,” Bogdanovic says when asked about Karen Cooper’s fall. “It hasn’t happened at the scale that we felt we needed to evaluate our policy, but that doesn’t mean we can’t, CONTINUED ON PAGE 28
right?” She calls the idea that any tenant could be lying in their apartment without receiving help “abhorrent.”
“We are an independent living community,” Parker says when asked about deaths like Lisa’s and Jerome Jones’, and accidents like Karen Cooper’s. “If management is made aware of a concern, then yes, we will make wellness checks, but we don’t just routinely or randomly enter a unit.”
“One of the situations you brought up, we’re very familiar with,” Tiller says, without identifying the specific incident. “[We] immediately brought the team together, debriefed on what happened, the timeline review, who responded, who called, did you follow the protocol, do we need to adjust the protocol? … When something comes up, we don’t ignore it. We absolutely respond to it. Like I said, we’re not perfect. We’re dealing with human beings. It’s not a science.”
Creepy crawlies
The Crossings’ lease agreement includes the building’s responsibility to “provide extermination services on a monthly basis.” But multiple current and former residents described infestations of bedbugs and roaches bad enough to leave common areas of the building, including the day room and fitness room, locked and inaccessible for months at least.
Tenants confirmed that The Crossings regularly sprayed for bugs. Two current residents said they’d had bedbugs on one occasion, but that The Crossings had resolved the issue. Four current and former tenants, including all three of the Coopers, said bedbugs or other pests kept coming back again and again, in their rooms or others’.
The Crossings “kept doing the same old treatment over and over and over again,” says Victor Cooper. “It’s not solving nothing.” He said bedbugs had never reached his unit, but reported roach infestations so severe that when he opened his front door, the insects would fall down on him from above. Lanitra Cooper and another relative who visited Victor corroborated this account.
Karen Cooper says she stopped paying her rent, and ultimately got evicted, because the building couldn’t get rid of bedbugs. She says she and other family members had to repeatedly purchase new beds for her as each mattress got reinfested. “I don’t have no money like that,” she says.
Parker says the day room has been closed for several months, along with other facilities. (Some residents and visitors said the facilities had been closed longer than that; C-VILLE could not verify this.) When C-VILLE visited The Crossings in early May, the day room that leads to the building’s outdoor terrace
Karen Cooper lived at The Crossings from 2018 until her eviction in May. She says she stopped paying rent because the building repeatedly failed to resolve a bedbug infestation in her apartment.
area was locked, as was the door to the fitness center. On a June 11 visit, the day room had reopened, as had the groundfloor phone and computer rooms, but the fitness center remained inaccessible.
Parker says it will reopen soon.
Parker says the building has been working hard to remedy its bedbug problems. In addition to a prior inspection by bedbug-sniffing dogs, she says The Crossings also performed a ‘100 percent unit inspection’ in February. (Two current residents do not remember their rooms being inspected or dogs coming into the building, but may have been out of the complex at the time.)
Parker says The Crossings changed its pest control provider March 1. “Even though their protocol was industry standard protocol, we just still were not happy,” she says. The new company’s treatment method she described—high heat to kill bugs in an infested unit, with chemicals sprayed in cracks and crevices in every adjacent unit to prevent them from escaping and spreading— matches what another pest control provider described to C-VILLE as “the gold standard” for stopping the bugs.
Mold and maintenance
Multiple current and former tenants and visiting family members reported what looked like black mold around the building’s air conditioning units—one of the most consistent issues C-VILLE heard about.
“You can’t turn it on at all because black mold is coming from it,” says Karen Cooper. “It’s leaking puddles of water. … I told them about this, like seven months ago. When you turn the air conditioning on, it comes out with a bunch of brownlooking stuff.”
“Hard rocks and stuff be falling out of there,” says one current resident. “I don’t know what it is, it’s just falling out on the floor. I gotta get the broom and just sweep it up.”
“The regional maintenance guy came around, I think last year, and he sort of half cleaned [my A/C unit],” another current tenant says. “It’s working better now, but still has little black chunks coming out.” Parker says the building has no record of mold or odors from HVAC units.
Residents also report a range of maintenance response times. One current tenant says that when they mentioned a broken refrigerator, management brought a temporary replacement to the unit within minutes.
But Victor, Karen, and Lanitra Cooper, along with Karen’s son Lindsay, all say that the building failed for months to repair or replace Victor’s refrigerator in his second-floor unit—leading him to store food in his sister’s unit.
When something broke, “it wouldn’t get fixed, until the individual, such as myself or another tenant, actually walked up on the maintenance man and asked him about it,” says Lanitra Cooper.
“I’m not aware of any situation with anybody where a refrigerator went unrepaired for any period of time,” Parker says. “We have been known to take the refrigerator out of our community rooms in order to give it to a resident, put it in a resident’s unit if we are unable to get their unit fixed or purchased within a reasonable amount of time, being within the same business day.”
Parker says the building keeps detailed maintenance records. Asked for records for Victor’s unit, Parker says divulging that information would violate the company’s tenant privacy protections.
In the days before this story’s deadline, Parker sent C-VILLE release forms for the Coopers to sign that would allow The Crossings to share information about their particular cases. Support staff at The Crossings expressed eagerness to provide more details, but said they could not without written permission. C-VILLE was unable to meet with the Coopers in person in time to get those forms signed and returned.
Double Crossings
Over months of reporting, C-VILLE heard two stories about The Crossings. In one, staff care about the residents and seem entirely sincere in their desire to help. The other depicts a development with what residents say are unhealthy, even dangerous, conditions, where too many people die alone and unnoticed.
“The building needs to be shut down,” Lanitra Cooper says. “If it don’t benefit me, because I was a tenant there a while back, it’ll benefit the next ones that come in.”
“I think it started out as a good program,” she says, “but that is definitely not a safe nor a good place to live.”
“The place just needs to be inspected and shut down,” Victor Cooper says. “I feel sorry for them, people just living like that. They got them people living like an animal. And it’s a shame that somebody’s doing that.”
As of mid-June, Victor Cooper was living with Lindsay and another relative. Karen stayed briefly with Lindsay and Victor, then with another son, before receiving a referral from Region 10 for a 30-day stay in a facility in Radford. (She describes past experiences with sporadic substance abuse, including during her time at The Crossings.) After those 30 days, she says she hopes to return to Charlottesville and find a new home.
SupportWorks is currently constructing a second supportive housing facility, Vista29, along U.S. 29N at the site of the former Red Carpet Inn. Vista29 will offer 80 apartments for residents making up to 40, 50, and 60 percent of the area median income, with in-building services like those at The Crossings. The project costs an estimated $26 million, including $2.5 million from the state and at least $1.5 million from the city and county, and is tentatively scheduled to open later this year.
We asked Bogdanovic: Once you build a new facility, how do you preserve it as a good place that helps people? How do you keep it from sliding into the conditions that have plagued The Crossings?
“From when a bright, shiny building is opened to 10 years later, 12 years later, there isn’t a lot of money to put into keeping it looking like that,” she says. “We are serving people with the lowest incomes, and we take that responsibility really seriously, but it is hard to keep up the facilities to look as good as we can. I want to be candid about that. We do the best we can with the resources that we have.”
The Crossings operates as its own LLC, separate from SupportWorks’ finances, and its “expenses are going up faster than revenues,” she says. “And revenues are very limited, between some subsidies that we do get and what people can afford to pay. Just like everyone else feels the pinch when they go to the grocery store … we feel that [with] the cost of operating the communities, from the utilities to the insurance, all of that. It’s challenging, but that doesn’t reduce the expectation that we have on ourselves to provide a place to live that we all want to live. I don’t want to use that as an excuse.”
“I’m not okay with any of the things you’ve described,” Bogdanovic says, “and I want to make sure that we address them at The Crossings. And obviously, if things need to change, we need to address that before Vista29 opens.”
There’s more to this story. Read the full version at c-ville.com.
Victor Cooper alleges that some residents who died in their apartments would not be found for days.
THIS PAGE COSTS
Virginia Cenedella
Mary Jae Abbitt • Brown & Eure Households • Patti Cary & Todd Stansbury
Pam & Frank Edmonds
CULTURE
SATURDAY 6/20- SUNDAY 6/28
A SURE LOCK
The Virginia Theatre Festival opens its 2026 season with Moriarty: A New Sherlock Holmes Adventure. Penned by Tony Award-winner Ken Ludwig, the play features just five actors who play multiple roles. When an investigation into the Bohemian king’s stolen letters cascades into an international mystery filled with spies, blackmail, and intrigue, Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Watson team up with American actress Irene Adler to face off against the brilliant criminal mastermind Professor James Moriarty and his cadre of henchmen. $15–40, times vary. Ruth Caplin Theatre, 109 Culbreth Rd. virginiatheatrefestival.org
CULTURE TO-DO LIST
Wednesday 6/17
music
Holly’s Open Mic Night. Mic check to all musicians, poets, and everyone in between. Free, 9pm. Holly’s Diner, 1221 E. Market St.
The Wavelength. Vintage rock, blues, and original tunes for your mid-week music boost. Free, 6:30pm. The Whiskey Jar, 227 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. thewhiskeyjarcville.com
stage
Bent Theatre Improv. Charlottesville’s best performance troupe of 2025 performs off-the-cuff comedy. Free, 7pm. Three Notch’d Craft Kitchen & Brewery, 520 Second St. SE. threenotchd brewing.com
etc.
Fund the Fight: Board Game Night. Hang out, play board games, and support the Blue Ridge Abortion Fund. Free, 6pm. Firefly, 1304 E. Market St. fireflycville.com
Rapture Karaoke. Hosted by Thunder Music. Free, 9pm. Rapture, 303 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. rapturerestaurant.com
Teen Writers Club. Teens ages 14–18 are invited to the Teen Space for an hour of writing, collaborative editing, and optional writing challenges in the company of other creative, writerly teens. Snacks provided. Free, 4pm. Central Library, 201 E. Market St. jmrl.org
Thursday 6/18 music
Baby Jo’s. Boogie-woogie takes on classics with a full horn section, groovy rhythms, shredding guitars, washboards, and the queen of boogie. Free, 9pm. Rapture, 303 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. rapturerestaurant.com
Berto and Vincent. A night of wild flamenco rumba and Latin guitar. Free, 7pm. The Bebedero, 225 W. Main St., Downtown Mall. thebebedero.com
Blackwood Station. RVA folk and psychedelia. With Paxton Henderson. Free, 7pm. Dürty Nelly’s, 2200 Jefferson Park Ave. durtynellys charlottesville.com
Michael Clem. Accomplished singer-songwriter performs on the porch. Free, 5pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwoodfarm andwinery.com
Songwriter’s Open Mic. A space for all levels, styles, and ages. Amps and mics provided. Sets limited to one original song per performer. Hosted by Erynn Legna McLeod. Free, 7pm. Potter’s Craft Cider, 1350 Arrowhead Valley Rd. potterscraftcider.com words
Artists in Conversation: Franchell Mack Brown + Justice Dwight. Fellow artists come together to discuss Brown’s works on view in the current exhibition “Aww Sookie Sookie Now.” Registration required. Free, 5:30pm. Second Street Gallery, 115 Second St. SE. secondstreetgallery.org
VA250 Program Series—We Demand: Student Activism and the Struggle for Racial Justice at UVA. Claudrena Harold examines how student activists have transformed the intellectual, political, and social life of UVA and the broader Charlottesville community. Free, 6pm. The Center at Belvedere, 540 Belvedere Blvd. thecentercville.org
classes
Mandalas for Presence: Mandala Making with Brielle DuFlon. Learn about the meditative practice and history of mandala making, then take a
SATURDAY 6/20 & SUNDAY 6/21
HEAR YE, HEAR YE
Charlottesville’s urban Renaissance faire returns for its fifth iteration with Fae Festival 2026. Revelers are invited to don their finest fantasy garb and meander through a medieval market featuring wares and fare that dazzle the eye and satiate appetites, while roaming performers and musical magicians perform to lift spirits and incite celebration. A performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Sunday adds fairy-inspired theatricality. $10–20, times vary. IX Art Park, 522 Second St. SE. ixartpark.org
guided walk around the farm to gather natural materials to create your own ephemeral mandala. $39, 6pm. Oakencroft Farm and Winery, 1455 Oakencroft Circle. oakencroftfarm.com
Paint + Sip: Moonlit Flowers. Paint the supplied design in a step-by-step format. No experience necessary, all materials and first drink included. $40–45, 6pm. Pro Re Nata Farm Brewery, 6135 Rockfish Gap Tpk., Crozet. prnbrewery.com
Tots & Dots. A visual literacy program engages early learners ages 6 months to 4 years and their caregivers in looking at and talking about art, followed by a fun hands-on activity. Registration required. Free, 10am. Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA, 400 Worrell Dr. kluge-ruhe.org etc.
Brewery Puzzle Hunt. An escape room meets a pub crawl. Visit the Preston Avenue breweries, crack codes, unravel riddles, and sample Charlottesville’s best brews. Players get $1 off pints at each brewery. $15, noon. Starr Hill Brewery, Dairy Market. puzzledbee.com
rhythm and blues dance band. Free, 6pm. Chisholm Vineyards at Adventure Farm, 1135 Clan Chisholm Ln., Earlysville. chisholmvineyards.com
Drew Pace. Country music singer-songwriter from Scottsville with a unique sound showcasing his voice and charm. With Matt Potting. $10, 7pm. Pro Re Nata, 6135 Rockfish Gap Tpke., Crozet. prnbrewery.com
Eli Cook Band. Music from the crossroads of blues, the highways of rock, and the backroads of country. Free, 9pm. Holly’s Diner, 1221 E. Market St. Fridays After Five: Ebony Groove. A Juneteenth celebration featuring Ebony Groove’s distinct blend of D.C. go-go, R&B, jazz, and hip-hop. With Jen Tal Band. Free, 5:30pm. Ting Pavilion, 700 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. tingpavilion.com
Haywood Giles. A live set built around standout saxophone staples. Free, 5pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwood farmandwinery.com
John Kelly. Long-time local musician, writer, and producer brings rock-solid guitar playing and singing, rooted in traditional and country styles. Free, 5pm. DuCard Vineyards, 40 Gibson Hollow Ln., Etlan. ducardvineyards.com
Kolby Cooper. Bringing a signature blend of wailing electric guitar and stadium-level country music anthems. $27, 8pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. jeffersontheater.com
Sam Elmore & the Ghosts. Americana music out of D.C. Free, 7pm. Dürty Nelly’s, 2200 Jefferson Park Ave. durtynellyscharlottesville.com
Susie & The Pistols. Cajun-tonk sounds performed by Susannah Hornsby, Andrew Green, Paul Rosner, and Michael Clem. Free, 6pm. Glass House Winery, 5898 Free Union Rd., Free Union. glasshousewinery.com
etc.
Brewery Puzzle Hunt. See listing for Thursday, June 18. $15, noon. Starr Hill Brewery, Dairy Market. puzzledbee.com
Juneteenth Jubilee. Celebrate Juneteenth with traditional desert, music, and the chance to learn more about the Southern foodways that still help shape this holiday, with Black Women Who Wine. Free, noon. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwoodfarmandwinery.com
Juneteenth Pop-Up Set. DJ Runway and special guest DJ Double U spin hip-hop, dance hall, and classic R&B. $10, 10pm. Rapture, 303 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. rapturerestaurant.com
Vineyard Puzzle Hunt. See listing for Thursday, June 18. $15, 5pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. puzzledbee.com
Trivia & Tunes. Music trivia hosted by musician and entertainer Rachael Karpo. Free, 5pm. Chiswell Farm & Winery, 430 Greenwood Rd., Greenwood. chilesfamilyorchards.com
Vineyard Puzzle Hunt. Like an escape room but at a winery. Crack codes and unravel riddles while sampling Charlottesville’s best wine, beer, and cider. Play when you want and go at your own pace. $15, 5pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. puzzledbee.com
Friday 6/19
music
Bob Bennetta Trio. Live jazz. Free, 6:30pm. Afghan Kabob House, 200 Market St. afghankabob-house.com
Caleb Caudle & The Sweet Critters. Fresh off his Grand Ole Opry debut and the release of Heavy Thrill, Caudle brings his country sound to town. $23, 8pm. The Southern Café and Music Hall, 103 S. First St. thesoutherncville.com
Chickenhead Blues Band. A sunset soirée featuring Charlottesville’s premier boogie-woogie, up beat,
Saturday 6/20 music
Acoustic Aubrey. Covers of classic R&B, jazz, acoustic rock, and more. Free, 2pm. DuCard Vineyards, 40 Gibson Hollow Ln., Etlan. ducard vineyards.com
An Evening with Shining Star: The Music of Earth, Wind & Fire. An unforgettable night of nonstop energy with a spectacular live tribute experience performed by the incredible InsideOut Band. $25, 8pm. The Southern Café & Music Hall, 103 S. First St. thesoutherncville.com
Anthony Semiao. A performer who grew up on ’80s metal and glam rock, but just cannot get enough of the acoustic guitar sound. Free, 12:30pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwoodfarmandwinery.com
Doctor Rhythm. R&B, blues, soul, and reggae tunes. Free, 6pm. Chisholm Vineyards at Adventure Farm, 1135 Clan Chisholm Ln., Earlysville. chisholmvineyards.com
F.O.G.. Music to dance to. Free, 5pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwood farmandwinery.com
Ian Gilliam & The FireKings. Born out of a love for blues, rock ‘n’ roll, honky-tonk country, rockabilly, and other classic American music. $10, 7pm. The Batesville Market, 6624 Plank Rd., Batesville. batesvillemarket.com
Jazz Connection. Contemporary jazz quartet plays standards and jazz versions of popular tunes. Free, 5pm. Glass House Winery, 5898 Free Union Rd., Free Union. glasshousewinery.com
John Paul Douglas & The Bitter Trades. A soulful blend of country, blues, and rock ‘n’ roll. Free, 5:30pm. Potter’s Craft Cider, 1350 Arrowhead Valley Rd. potterscraftcider.com
Lady Taij. Third Rail welcomes the award-winning Virginia hip-hop artist, accompanied by soul punk shredder Harli Saxon. Free, 8pm. The Stage at WTJU, 2244 Ivy Rd. wtju.net
The String Cheese Incident. From the mountains of Colorado, SCI has emerged as an undeniable phenomenon, spreading their relentless musical energy world-wide. $54–69, 7:15pm. Ting Pavilion, 700 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. tingpavilion.com
Travis Reigh. Traditional country music and rock ‘n’ roll. Free, 7pm. Pro Re Nata, 6135 Rockfish Gap Tpke., Crozet. prnbrewery.com
XOAP. An SCI afterparty. Free, 9:30pm. Rapture, 303 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. rapturerestaurant.com stage
As You Like It. The noble Orlando wins a court wrestling match—and Rosalind’s heart—but before their love can take root, she’s banished from court. $40–75, 2pm and 7:30pm. Blackfriars Playhouse, 10 S. Market St., Staunton. american shakespearecenter.com
Hot Improv Summer. Monthly shows made up on the spot. $5–10, 7pm. Light House Studio: Vinegar Hill Theatre, 220 W. Market St. lighthouse studio.org Ken Ludwig’s Moriarty: A New Sherlock Holmes Adventure An investigation into the Bohemian king’s stolen letters cascades into an international mystery filled with spies, blackmail, and intrigue. $15–40, 7:30pm. Ruth Caplin Theatre, 109 Culbreth Rd. drama.virginia.edu words
Author Event: Michele Evans. Evans reads poems from her new chapbook februaries, inspired by her participation in the National African American Read-In. A conversation with retired librarian Karen Ashby-Bowers follows. Free, 4pm. New Dominion Bookshop, 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. ndbookshop.com
New Dominion Storytime. Readings from recent storybooks and the classics kids know and love. Rain or shine. All ages welcome. Free, 11am. New Dominion Bookshop, 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. newdominionbookshop.com classes
Embroidery Stitch Sampler. Create a piece of fabric with a variety of stitches for practice or future reference. Beginners welcome, supplies provided. Ages 13+. $25, 11am. The Scrappy Elephant, 1745 Allied St. scrappyelephant.com
Making Miniatures 101: Upholstered Furniture. Learn the basics of making miniature upholstered furniture out of everyday materials. Ages 16+. $30, 3pm. The Scrappy Elephant, 1745 Allied St. scrappyelephant.com
Mending Workshop: Repairing Holes. Learn to mend clothing with visible or invisible mending techniques. Basic knowledge of sewing by hand or machine preferred. Ages 15+. $20, noon. The Scrappy Elephant, 1745 Allied St. scrappyelephant.com
Paint + Sip: Lakeside Twilight. Paint the supplied design in a step-by-step format. No experience necessary, all materials included. $35, 2pm. Blue Ridge Brushes Studio, 1110 E. Market St. #13h. blueridge brushes.com
TRIED IT IN C'VILLE CULTURE
Walking it back
The Downtown Mall turns 50 this year. As a transplant to Charlottesville, the Mall has felt so intimately woven into the fabric of this beloved town that it’s hard to imagine a time before its existence. The Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society’s exhibition “Then & Now: Charlottesville in the 1970s” allows visitors to time travel back to that transformational decade through newspaper articles, photos (with baby trees), and painted portraits of local pioneers.—Kristie Smeltzer
What
Visiting the “Then & Now: Charlottesville in the 1970s” exhibition in the VAULT Virginia first-floor gallery.
Why
To better understand Charlottesville’s history and learn about pioneers (and artists) who brought about great change.
How it went
I learned a lot and left with a deeper understanding of our community.
I first happened upon “Then & Now” by accident, and it turned out to be a happy one indeed (imagine Bob Ross’ dulcet tones). The exhibition uses portraits by local artist and activist Frances Brand as focal points, and supplements her art with newspaper articles, photos, and other visual artifacts from the ’70s. Brand’s vibrant, colorful paintings show the influence of her time studying in Mexico, and her subjects are all local pioneers—people who broke ground (literally and figuratively) to be the first in their area of expertise.
I had the privilege of crashing a guided tour that ACHS Executive Director Olivia Brown was leading for a local organization. We started with photos of Main Street— from the time of its closure to vehicular traffic to the pedestrian mall it is today. Brown cheekily compared the disruption the construction caused then to the current work at the Mall crossings.
In Brand’s portrait of Charles Barbour, Charlottesville’s first Black city councilor and first Black mayor, he sports a patchwork coat of earthy red and green squares. It’s displayed beside an image of Barbour and other city councilors breaking ground on the Downtown Mall in 1974. The decision to change the way community members experienced the area wasn’t made without dissent. Local business owners feared the construction would disrupt their livelihoods. Another image shows intrepid pedestrians moving around construction equipment to patronize businesses.
“Then & Now” is about more than just the Mall’s origins. The likeness of Imogene Bunn, a local activist and nurse, graces another wall. Her portrait highlights kind eyes and features her in a dark dress with a crisp white collar
that suggests trustworthiness. She was the first local nurse to provide house calls to Black and white patients alike. Bunn helped desegregate the University of Virginia hospital as well as the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center and Blue Ridge Sanatorium.
Nearby, Virginia Anne Scott’s long blond tresses grace the shoulders of her crimson sweater. She sought to transfer into UVA’s College of Arts & Sciences in 1969, before it was coed, and became one of several plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit on behalf of all women barred admittance to UVA based on their gender. The case forced UVA to become fully coed sooner than planned.
Perhaps my favorite weird, wonderful part of the exhibit are the portraits of Frances Brand herself, nestled into an actual bank vault leftover from the building’s past. One
is a self-portrait in which Brand represented herself as much younger than she was at the time she painted it. The other is the only portrait in the exhibit that Brand didn’t paint. That 1983 piece is by Frank Walker, and it
“Then & Now: Charlottesville in the 1970s” Vault Virginia albemarlehistory.org
shows her at a finer vintage, looking just as colorful and eccentric as one would expect based on her artistic aesthetic.
“Then & Now” is open to the public Monday through Friday. Guided tours are available on Fridays from 9am to 5pm, through July.
Painter Frances Brand made her mark capturing Charlottesville history through portraits of pioneers.
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FITZGERALD SERVICES
CULTURE TO-DO LIST
Saturday 6/20
etc.
Black and Gold Gala. Celebrate the African American Juneteenth legacy through poetry readings and jazz music. Light refreshments provided. Ages 18+. Free, 1:30pm. Northside Library, 705 W. Rio Rd. jmrl.org
Brewery Puzzle Hunt. See listing for Thursday, June 18. $15, noon. Starr Hill Brewery, Dairy Market. puzzledbee.com
Charlottesville City Market. Explore fresh produce, local foods, and handmade goods from 100+ local vendors. Free, 9am. Charlottesville City Market, 100 Water St. E. charlottesville.gov
Fae Festival 2026. Clad thyself in thy finest garb and prance gaily through the medieval market, rejoice to the tune of lively minstrels, partake in sumptuous feasts from the finest vendors, and uncover marvels untold. $10–20, 3pm. IX Art Park, 522 Second St. SE. ixartpark.com
Labyrinth Farewell and Guided Walk. Discover the labyrinth’s journey, partake in a special farewell ritual for the current labyrinth, and join the final guided walk with a certified labyrinth facilitator. Free, 5:30pm. Botanical Garden of the Piedmont, 950 Melbourne Rd. piedmontgarden.org
Vineyard Puzzle Hunt. See listing for Thursday, June 18. $15, 5pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. puzzledbee.com
Sunday 6/21 music
An Lár Traditional Irish Music. Fast-paced jigs and full throttle reels alternating with lyrical
waltzes and melancholy airs. Free, 2pm. The Batesville Market, 6624 Plank Rd., Batesville. batesvillemarket.com
Gina Sobel Duo. Accomplished on multiple instruments, Sobel is a natural improviser bringing together elements of funk, jazz, and American folk music into a fresh and compelling sound. Free, 2pm. Potter’s Craft Cider, 1350 Arrowhead Valley Rd. potterscraftcider.com
Kaleta & Super Yamba Band. Blending deep grooves from ’70s West Africa with raw funk and Afrobeat fire, this band turns every room into a dance floor and every crowd into a celebration. $25, 7:30pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. jeffersontheater.com
Pat Anderson. A roots rocker possessed with tough-minded country-rock sensibility. Free, 2pm. DuCard Vineyards, 40 Gibson Hollow Ln., Etlan. ducardvineyards.com
Ramona Martinez. Artist and songwriter performs honky-tonk and mariachi-inspired music. Free, 1pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwoodfarmandwinery.com
The Pollocks. Awesome acoustic sounds. Free, 2pm. Glass House Winery, 5898 Free Union Rd., Free Union. glasshousewinery.com stage
Ken Ludwig’s Moriarty: A New Sherlock Holmes Adventure. See listing for Saturday, June 20. $15–40, 2pm. Ruth Caplin Theatre, 109 Culbreth Rd. drama.virginia.edu classes
Downtown Lantern Making Workshop. Create your own lantern for the community lantern parade celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Downtown Mall, taking place on July 3. Ages 13+. $25, 1pm. Live Arts, 123 E. Water St. downtowncville.com
SATURDAY 6/20
STRONG PULL
The String Cheese Incident brings its signature blend of American jam rock from the mountains of Colorado for another show that’s certain to be a fun-do. The band undoubtedly shreds, packing setlists with grate originality, no matter how you slice it. From face-melting riffs to rich and complex vocals, SCI spreads its sonic flavor through ripened deep cuts that never curdle, and fresh finds that linger below the rind. $54–69, 7:15pm. Ting Pavilion, 700 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. tingpavilion.com
etc.
Brewery Puzzle Hunt. See listing for Thursday, June 18. $15, noon. Starr Hill Brewery, Dairy Market. puzzledbee.com
Fae Festival 2026. See listing for Saturday, June 20. $10–20, 10am. IX Art Park, 522 Second St. SE. ixartpark.com
Vineyard Puzzle Hunt. See listing for Thursday, June 18. $15, 5pm. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. puzzledbee.com
Monday 6/22
music
Ramona Martinez. Local favorite serenades with her signature mix of country western and mariachi. Free, 5:30pm. The Fitzroy, 120 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. thefitzroycville.com
etc.
Grown-Up Game Night. Play board games and make new friends. Bring your own game or play one of the library’s, and enjoy a tutorial for a different game every month. Ages 18+. Free, 6:30pm. Northside Library, 705 W. Rio Rd. jmrl.org
Summer of Steam Stop in Gordonsville. The legendary Norfolk & Western 611 pulls into town. Learn about the Virginia Scenic Railway and watch the 611 in action. Free, 11am. Town of Gordonsville, 112 S. Main St., Gordonsville. townofgordonsville.org
Tuesday 6/23
music
BRIMS. An open jam with the Blue Ridge Irish Music School. Free, 6:30pm. Dürty Nelly’s, 2200 Jefferson Park Ave. durtynellyscharlottesville.com
Tuesday Jazz with Jeff Massanari. A cast of great players joins the guitar virtuoso. Free, 6:30pm. Rapture, 303 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. rapture restaurant.com stage
Ken Ludwig’s Moriarty: A New Sherlock Holmes Adventure See listing for Saturday, June 20. $15–40, 7:30pm. Ruth Caplin Theatre, 109 Culbreth Rd. drama.virginia.edu
words
Pursuits of Knowledge: Conversations at Monticello. James Traub discusses his book The Cradle of Citizenship: How Schools Can Help Save Our Democracy, a critique of our failure to prepare students for citizenship—and a roadmap to a better way. $10, 6pm. Monticello, 1050 Monticello Loop. monticello.org etc.
Beer & Board Games. A casual evening with a little friendly competition. Pull up a chair on the porch or gather around a game table. Whether you’re in it to win or just here to chill, there’s a spot for you. Free, 6:30pm. The Batesville Market, 6624 Plank Rd., Batesville. batesvillemarket.com
Geeks Who Drink Trivia. Good trivia, good times. Teams of two to six people compete to win prizes like gift certificates and pint glasses, plus bragging rights. Free, 7pm. Firefly, 1304 E. Market St. fireflycville.com
Retrospective Film Series Screening. A series of short documentaries on individuals from the community who have lived interesting and inspiring lives. Featuring Bill Wellington, Trish Crowe, David White, Mary Hillard, and Diana Ellis. Free, 6pm. Light House Studio: Vinegar Hill Theatre, 220 W. Market St. lighthousestudio.org
Teen Space Tuesdays. Teens ages 11–18 can beat the heat by dropping in to discover a different craft or activity. This week: decorate a dinosaur egg. Free, 1pm. Central Library, 201 E. Market St. jmrl.org
THE WORKING POUR CULTURE
Growing cycle
Coursing out the discourse at wine week’s Feast of Reason
BY PAUL H. TING
This year’s Monticello Wine Week (June 22 to 28) includes a new event that deserves further conversation.
On June 27, Eastwood Farm and Winery will host the Feast of Reason dinner at the Virginia Wine Collective, with chef Leah Branch in the kitchen and food historian Deb Freeman at the table.
Branch, a Virginia native and executive chef at The Roosevelt in Richmond, cooks Southern food with a careful eye toward the region’s foodways and the people who shaped them. Her work has been featured in Garden & Gun, Eater, and on the Cooking Channel and she is a 2026 James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic.
Freeman is a Virginia-based writer and Emmy-winning documentarian whose PBS film Finding Edna Lewis and award-winning podcast “Setting the Table” have made her a respected voice on Black culinary history in the South.
The event name comes from English poet Alexander Pope, who called intimate dinner conversation “the feast of reason and the flow of soul.” Thomas Jefferson’s tables at Monticello and the President’s House (now the White House) were known for that kind of conversation, and Monticello has built an ongoing program from the concept.
The wine week dinner was developed in partnership with Justin Reid, one of Monti-
cello’s two inaugural Civic Partnerships Fellows. Reid is a public historian from Farmville, where members of his family were litigants in the 1964 Griffin desegregation case, and he coordinates a slate of Feast of Reason events around Charlottesville. Monticello’s Getting Word African American History Department, which documents descendants of the enslaved at Monticello, is also a co-sponsor.
Wine sits at the center of the evening. For Virginia wine, the event feels timely because the region has largely moved beyond simply proving that it can make serious wine; it is beginning to ask how those wines can carry a fuller story of place, history, and community.
Jefferson famously envisioned Virginia as a world-class winegrowing region, and the wines at the table embody both the roots and the present-day energy of the Monticello AVA. Tracey Love, executive director of the Monticello Wine Trail, sees the lineup as central to the event because it reflects the breadth of Virginia wine through multiple voices, styles, and perspectives.
Jefferson Vineyards anchors the historic thread, with wines coming from land Jefferson gifted to Tuscan winemaker Philip Mazzei in 1773 to launch Virginia’s first vineyard. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation acquired the land and winery in 2023, bringing the story full circle. Eastwood Farm and Winery represents a newer chapter in Vir-
ginia wine, both through its own wines and as owner of the Virginia Wine Collective, which has become an incubator for small and first-time Virginia producers since opening last summer.
ZC Wine, the newly launched label from Tasha Durrett, founder of Black Women Who Wine, reflects the kind of small-batch producer the Collective was built to support. Corry Craighill, winemaker at Septenary and maker of Valley Road’s 2023 Cabernet Franc Reserve, the 2026 Governor’s Cup winner, contributes Wound Tight, her small-lot, exploratory label.
Expect an evening at a long table, with thoughtful dishes, slow pours, and unhurried talk. The family-style dinner invites guests to reflect, through food, wine, and conversation, on where Virginia’s been and where it’s going.
Monticello Wine Week 2026
monticellowinetrail.com
Monday 6/22
Winemakers’ Golf Tournament. Hit the links with Monticello Trail winemakers and wine poured between holes. Spring Creek Golf Club.
Thursday 6/25
Winemakers’ Dinners (two options). Two simultaneous dinners, each course poured by the winemakers themselves. Choose a rooftop setting downtown or visit the elegant and newly restored Birdwood Mansion. Up on the Roof and Birdwood Mansion.
Friday 6/26
Gold Medal Celebration. The signature evening of the week: Wineries pouring on the tented green, plus cookout fare and live music, culminating with the announcement of the Monticello Cup winner. Boar’s Head Resort.
Saturday 6/27
Monticello Rosé Festival. An afternoon of rosé and picnic fare set against Hark’s vineyard views. Hark Vineyards. Feast of Reason Dinner (see above, below, left, right?)
Sunday 6/28
Sparkling Brunch Showcase. A festive end to the week featuring sparkling wines, chef-driven brunch stations, and beautiful mountain views. Hazy Mountain Vineyards.
Feast of Reason features food historian Deb Freeman leading a conversation paired with Virginia wine and fine Southern cooking at Eastwood Farm and Winery on June 27.
FOR FUN PUZZLES
SUDOKU
#1
#1
#4
#2
#3
#2 #5
#4
PUZZLES FOR FUN
CROSSWORD
BY MATT JONES
Room for development
ACROSS
1. Vamoose
6. Campaign ctrs.
9. “That’s the way ___”
13. Wrestler Stratus
14. Well-behaved
16. Computer-generated art, uncharitably
18. Criticize harshly
19. “Can I bother you?”
21. Abbr on a vitamin bottle
22. Boston skyscraper nickname, with “the”
23. Before, in poems
24. “___ Beso (That Kiss!)” (1962 Paul Anka hit)
25. “Jeopardy!” end-of-season event, for short
26. Completely asleep
27. Cheese exterior
29. “The Santaland Diaries” occupation
31. Face-in-hands reaction to a bad landing, perhaps
33. Racecar driver?
35. Gem finder
36. Beachside establishment where “there’s always money,” on “Arrested Development”
39. Coastal area
41. Yogurt brand founded in Colorado
42. “The Color Purple” author
44. Senior exec. with a J.D.
45. Yanks’ opponents
49. Ugandan dictator Amin
50. Floatie filler
52. Row or verb ender?
54. Guardians, on the scoreboard
55. Network launched in 1981
56. Report card stat
57. Log off
59. Like someone shivering in a cold wind, maybe
62. Chooses by ballot
63. Goes along with
64. Nebraska’s largest city
65. Sit for a painting
66. Assessment
67. As bad as it gets
1. Theater director, say
2. A ___ (deductively)
3. Pay attention
4. Ibiza, por ejemplo
5. The items over there
6. In great demand
7. Cube-hopping ‘80s arcade creature
8. Recreational watercraft brand
9. Number opposite IX on a clock
10. Value of a U.K. note currently depicting Jane Austen on the back
11. Butt in
12. More heavyset
15. Euros replaced them in Greece
17. Spanish currency before the euro
20. Costa Rican currency (or, without the accent, a punctuation mark)
28. Former German currency, for short
30. Swiss currency used in Liechtenstein
jinx-breaking team, casually
By Rob Brezsny
Cancer
(June 21-July 22): A large earthquake doesn’t relieve stress evenly along a fault. Instead, it creates zones where stress is reduced and others where stress increases, making future ruptures more likely. So the stress is redistributed, but not uniformly. According to my reading of the omens, Cancerian, you recently experienced a metaphorical shake-up. I suggest you identify where stress has grown and where it has dissipated. Your next moves should account for this new distribution of pressure. Some areas of your life are now more vulnerable, while others have become more stable. Read the landscape accurately before proceeding.
Leo
(July 23-Aug. 22): Songbirds like zebra finches practice their melodies while asleep. Their vocal muscles move in ways that mirror daytime singing. These replay patterns help young birds learn their songs and adults maintain and refine their tunes over time. I suspect that you are engaged in a similar type of learning, Leo. You are enhancing skills and uncovering insights while asleep and dreaming. Bonus! Even when awake, you’re absorbing clues on a subconscious level. Your deeper intelligence is gathering information you will need for your upcoming breakthroughs. Hooray for mysterious help!
Virgo
(Aug. 22-Sept. 22): Architects who design concert halls know that perfect sound isn’t achieved through perfect smoothness. The best acoustics come from strategic irregularities, textured walls, and angled surfaces that distribute vibrations in pleasing ways. Too much uniformity creates dead zones and echoes; too much chaos creates muddle. Pleasing resonance arises from organized complexity. In my estimation, Virgo, your life is currently too smooth in some areas and too haphazard in others. You may need more strategic irregularity. Consider introducing productive unpredictability into relationships that have become too routine. Add inventive structure to efforts that have become shapeless. Don’t aim for either total order or complete randomness. What will generate maximum beauty?
Libra
(Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Have you ever been ambushed by unexpected bursts of gratification emerging from subtle miracles? Maybe a loved one finally grasps a truth you’ve been trying to convey for eons. Or you feel balanced in a situation that once made you feel lopsided. Or you grasp, with shivers of awe, that you got uncanny spiritual guidance at a key crossroads. I foresee at least three such blessings for you in the coming weeks. To ensure you recognize them, don’t get distracted in the pursuit of splashy bonanzas and gaudy prizes. Be nimbly alert for subtle breakthroughs.
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY FOR FUN
(May 21-June 20): Eastern monarch butterflies migrate annually from the American Midwest to central Mexico. The individuals who start the journey from Nebraska or Wisconsin die long before they reach the oyamel fir trees of Mexico. So do their children and their grandchildren. Their great-grandchildren finish the trip, though they have never been to the destination. Somehow they know where to go, navigating thousands of miles to trees they’ve never seen. Let’s apply this as a metaphor for you, Gemini. I suspect you are carrying navigational wisdom you didn’t realize you possessed. Inherited knowledge, encoded deep in your secret places, is ready to guide you. So pay attention to inexplicable certainties. Trust the directions that arrive without logical explanation.
Scorpio
(Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Poet Emily Dickinson rarely left her family home but bequeathed us a marvelous body of lyrical work as she roamed through vast inner worlds. Sci-fi novelist Octavia Butler rose early to write before long shifts at low-paid jobs, imagining visionary futures during her limited hours to be creative. Lucille Clifton raised six children while shaping poems of distilled, luminous insight, showing us how to summon fierce originality from a life crowded with responsibilities. Moral of the story: Buoyant power can flourish even when circumstances are limited. This lesson may be relevant for you in the coming weeks. If conditions seem imperfect or incomplete, trust that your resilience and adaptability can compensate for external obstacles. I have faith in your ability to generate useful beauty.
Sagittarius
(Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Our tongues are primed to heal astonishingly fast thanks to dense blood vessels, saliva’s repair proteins, and a rapid immune response. Wounds that would take more patience elsewhere can heal here in days. I suspect that your psyche now possesses your tongue’s high level of healing power. So I hope you will launch a phase of accelerated repair. Call on every possible form of therapeutic assistance, please!
Capricorn
(Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Now is an ideal time to clear out old romantic karma from the past. Please consider performing a DIY ritual to release painful memories, leftover grudges, and longstanding hurts that keep tugging at your in-
timate connections. The coming weeks will also be a favorable phase to discard rigid beliefs about gender and dismantle anything that blocks you from experiencing full-bodied sensual and sexual delight. Expect to be freed from at least some energies that have limited your ability to explore fun and vigorous ways of savoring your desires.
Aquarius
(Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I suggest you adopt a new honorary title like Charm Weaver or Emissary of Radiance or Beauty Whisperer. Why? Because I hope it will help inspire you to stir up delightful play and lyrical mystery wherever you wander. For instance: Infuse your conversations with sparkling harmony and sly, graceful humor. Burst into whimsical songs, fling out extravagant compliments, pose clever questions that spark fresh ideas, and call attention to systems and relationships in your world that are functioning wonderfully well. Many perks will flow your way as you do.
Pisces
(Feb. 19-March 20): Is there a dream from childhood that you’re ready to revive on a higher octave? Think of something you longed for before the world told you to be boringly realistic: an art you wanted to practice, a way you wanted to live, or the kind of person you hoped to become. The question isn’t “Can I go back and do it exactly the same?” but “What is the mature, wiser, present-day version of that dream?” You might write in your journal: “The childhood dream I’m ready to lift to a higher octave is ______,” and then add, “If I took one concrete step toward it, what would it be?”
Aries
(March 21-April 19): Aries mathematician Paul Erdős lived without a permanent address, traveling the world to collaborate with other mathematicians. He owned little, claiming “property is a nuisance.” His life was structured around doing mathematics and helping others do mathematics. He published over 1,500 papers, more than any mathematician in history. Was his minimalism a form of deprivation? I prefer to think it was liberation from everything that didn’t serve his purpose. What would your life be like if you eliminated things that don’t serve your deepest purposes, Aries? In the coming weeks, you have permission to be ruthless about your priorities. What are you maintaining out of habit rather than conviction? What burdens masquerade as responsibilities?
Taurus
(April 20-May 20): A friend told me about the creative writing class he took with renowned poet Brenda Hillman. “I recall being in class,” he says, “and having the thought, wow, this teacher works far harder at teaching than I do at learning.” Dear Taurus, please don’t indulge in a similar laziness anytime soon. Your educational opportunities are currently richer than usual. To extract the full benefit, you must match the verve and vigor of your teachers. (P.S.: The teachers may or may not think of themselves as teachers. They could even be animals, rainstorms, or ancestors.)
Expanded weekly audio horoscopes and daily text message horoscopes: RealAstrology.com, (877) 873-4888.
GEMINI
VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF ALBEMARLE
IN RE: ESTATE OF MARTHA M. KILBANE
SHOW CAUSE ORDER
It appearing that a report of the accounts of Julia Chadwell, personal representative of the estate of Martha M. Kilbane, deceased, and of the debts and demands against her estate, has been filed in the Clerk’s Office, and that six months have elapsed since the qualification of the personal representative, on motion of Julia Chadwell personal representative; IT IS ORDERED that the creditors of, and all others interested in, the estate do show cause, if any they can, on the 6th day of July, 2026, 9:00am, before this Court at its courtroom, against the payment and delivery of the Estate of Martha M. Kilbane, deceased, to the distributees, with or without refunding bonds as the Court prescribes.
I ASK FOR THIS:
April R. Fletcher
Virginia State Bar No. 35649
April R. Fletcher, PLC
215 Wayles Lane, Suite 125, Charlottesville, Virginia 22911 (434) 293 – 9241
aprilfletcher@aprilfletcherlaw.com
Counsel for Julia Chadwell, Administrator, c.t.a. of the Estate of Martha M. Kilbane
P.S. MISSED CONNECTIONS The Do-Over
Turns out, you do get a second chance. Visit c-ville.com/the-do-over to share your missed connection—or see if someone’s been looking for you. We’ll publish our favorites each month.
Chain reaction
You: Woman with a bookstore. Me: Guy who owned the giant chain trying to put you out of business. I thought you hated me, but somehow our anonymous emails got increasingly flirty. Let’s make our story spell L-O-V-E.
Wedding crasher
You were the groom in an expensive Chicago wedding. I was the maid of honor trying to convince you not to marry someone else. Timing was admittedly poor.
Game on
You beat me one-on-one when we were kids and never really stopped. We spent years competing for scholarships, championships, and each other’s attention. Still up for a game?
Mission failed
I was trying to prove I could make any woman fall in love with me. You were trying to make me hate you. Neither of us succeeded (and one of us killed a love fern).
Guess who
We exchanged emails about being gay in a small Southern town. I accidentally suspected roughly half the student body was you. Sorry about that. Meet me at the carnival?
Roommates? Sure.
To the woman whose family thought I was your roommate: I survived several awkward dinners, one deeply competitive sister, and a holiday scavenger hunt. If you’re ready to introduce me properly this time, call me.
Vienna waits
We spent a day wandering Vienna instead of being responsible adults. If you’re reading this, meet me at a train station in nine years.
Coast to coast
You were a recently widowed architect in Seattle. I was an engaged newspaper reporter in Baltimore who heard your son call a talk radio show and decided to make your grief everyone’s problem.
Late bloomer
To the playwright whose beach house I accidentally got stuck in: I arrived with a much younger woman. Then I had a heart attack, borrowed your glasses, cried in front of a doctor, and fell in love with you instead.
✔ How can I reach a highly targeted
strategy I can actually measure?
✔ Why is it harder than ever to earn visibility— or engagement—on social media?
✔ I’m investing in digital ads, but how can I tell if they’re delivering results?
✔ Who can execute smart, effective marketing for my business?
LUXURY BOUTIQUE INN
SURROUNDED BY HISTORY
A hidden gem nestled in one of Charlottesville’s most charming historic neighborhoods, Oakhurst Inn is an intimate boutique hotel conveniently located just steps away from the University of Virginia. Experience luxurious accommodations, delectable cuisine, an inviting ambiance, and picturesque surroundings. A place connecting visitors and locals alike.
JUNE 24
US Mint at Monticello: Celebrating the Declaration Coin
Join Monticello and the United States Mint for a celebration of the new Declaration of Independence Semiquincentennial Coin.
JUNE 28
1.776 Montalto Challenge
This popular 1.776-mile race up Montalto mountain features steep climbs and scenic views. Presented in partnership with Ragged Mountain Running & Walking Shop.
JULY 3
Dom Flemons & The Traveling Wildfires at the Paramount
An unforgettable evening of live music, rich with story from the “American Songster,” blending folk, ballads, and blues.
JULY 2
Culinary Diplomacy Project: Dinner with Cristeta Comerford
Join the former White House Executive Chef to explore how food bridges cultures, fostering understanding and connection.
4
Independence Day at Monticello
There’s no better place to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence than Monticello on July 4! Ceremony begins at 9 a.m. Family-friendly activities all afternoon.
