MS. ELISHA MARIE SHARP PERFORMS IN PORTSMOUTH

PORTSMOUTH

The Singletary Piano and Violin Studio presented a Sunday afternoon Recital on January 29 at the Church of the Resurrection on Cedar Lane in Portsmouth, featuring Ms. Elisha Marie Sharp on piano and violin.

Ms. Sharp, 12, has been a student of Dr. Richard Singletary since the age of five when she began her music lessons. Violin was the first instrument Dr. Singletary introduced to her; however, said her mother, Mrs. Rosemarie Sharp, Elisha also wanted to learn how to play the piano to which Dr. Singletary agreed.

About 50 guests were on hand to enjoy the varied selections of classical music performed by the recitalist who was accompanied on piano by Mr. Nick Nespoli. She is the daughter of Attorney and Mrs. Elijah Sharp.

“Richmond has been the site of many stories that have shaped our understanding of who we are as Americans, but public commemoration in Richmond historically has been limited to only a few,” Elizabeth Alexander, president of the Mellon Foundation, said in the press release.

“Today, the people of this city are lifting up the collective memory of its historic Black communities, unflinchingly addressing the city’s past as the capital of the state with the most enslaved people prior to the Civil War, and participating in the reimagining of the city’s public spaces to better reflect the fullness of its history. We are proud to support the remarkable grantees across the city leading this work,” Alexander said.

Richmond will receive $11 million to launch multiple projects including the Shockhoe Bottom train shed. This new building will memorialize and commemorate the history of the slave trade in Richmond. Shockhoe Bottom was once an early slave-trading depot where slaves landed in America, were sold in Virginia and transported to plantations in the Deep South.

The Skipwith-Roper Homecoming and JXN Haus will receive $1.5 million to illustrate the pivotal role that Richmond’s Jackson Ward, (the nation’s first historically registered Black urban neighborhood) played in changing the national Black American experience.

The Valentine Museum will receive $1.2 million to reimagine the studio of Edward Valentine, sculptor of Lost Cause memorabilia, and also reinterpret the plantation called the Wickham House.

New research will encourage a broader and more honest interpretation of the history of both the Richmond region and the Valentine Museum.

Cary Forward will receive $1 million, (via fiscal sponsor Earshot Jazz Society of Seattle). This project will support a multidisciplinary arts space, interpretive center, artist/scholar residency, and archival library in Richmond to address false narratives and preserve and promote omitted history. Untold RVA will receive $850K (via fiscal sponsor Non-Profit Connection) to underwrite research on the enslavement-era history of Richmond. This project will launch walkable urban exploration routes with mobile phone-activated street art monuments that will provide genealogical information to visitors.

Reclaiming the Monument will receive $670K (via fiscal sponsor the Valentine Museum) to support its “Recontextualizing Richmond” public art project. This non-profit project is a series of temporary lightbased artworks that will address historical, racial, and social justice in the city of Richmond and surrounding region.