Personality: Teresa Cole

from Richmond Free Press Feb. 16-18, 2023 edition

Pregnant Rihanna soars in Super Bowl halftime performance

Spotlight on Fonticello Park Friends board president

of the nonprofit she created to improve the park are white, and the group is “actively working to change it.”

“Our plan is to continue engaging the entire community no matter what it takes,” she said. “We have removed traditional barriers to participation like monetary dues and in-person voting, to ensure we provide a myriad of ways for people to be involved.”

Ms. Cole’s work to restore Fonticello, she said, is not just about restoring the park in her neighborhood, but about equitable maintenance and access to beautiful parks for everyone, regardless of where they live.

Meet a proponent for parks and the outdoors and this week’s

Personality, Teresa Cole:

Volunteer position: Board president, Fonticello Park Friends.

Occupation: Former public school educator; currently program administrator for CodeVA.

Date and place of birth: Jan. 8 in Richmond.

Where I live now: Swansboro neighborhood.

Education: Bachelor’s in interdisciplinary studies and bachelor’s in English, Virginia Commonwealth University.

Master’s in curriculum and instruction, University of Richmond.

Family: My partner, Matt, and my three children, Caden

It was originally founded in the early 2020s by concerned neighbors.

Founders: Laney Sullivan, Jameson Price, Ja’Nai Frederick, Vaughn Garland, Traci Garland, Tyler Howell, Randy Minor, Carl Joseph, Charles Lawson, Alan Nicholas, Amanda Silvester, Charlie Schmindt, and Chris Ercolano.

Fonticello Park is located: In the Swansboro and Woodland Heights neighborhoods off of Bainbridge in Richmond’s South Side.

Brief history of Fonticello Park: This park has a LONG history. I encourage folks to check out our website at www.fontielloparkrva.co m to learn more. The spring on the property was frequented indigenous people prior to colonization. Then white people stole it and built a homestead on it around 1760, which changed hands multiple times in the 1800s until William Garland Taylor bought it. Around 1923, City Councilman Carter Jones began advocating for a park on the South Side, noting the inequality of parks opening for the white children on North Side Richmond, but there were no parks on the South Side for the over 1,500 Black children who lived there at the time. He established an 11-acre park that was heavily used from then until the early 2000s for local and school sports, as well as community events.

How I became involved with Fonticello Park Friends: My family and I are in the park daily, playing foursquare, biking, picnicking, rollerblading, or chilling in a hammock. We walk our dogs there daily. After the most recent shooting of three teens in September 2022, I went to a meeting with the Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities for Richmond and started volunteering to help with different tasks/projects and my involvement grew from there.

When elected board president: We are in the process of building governance, developing bylaws, membership structures and breaking down barriers to involvement.

Why I accepted the role as leader of the group: My mom always said I was a “natural leader” so I think I’ve slipped into the organizing role as we have gotten started.

Previous president’s name: Rose Marie Wiegandt.

Ways Fonticello Park Friends ensures it fully represents the entire community and not just newcomers: We are aware of the ways gentrification has impacted Richmond, including the Swansboro neighborhood.

We’ve gone door to door handing out flyers, talking to neighbors in the areas around the park that are typically underrepresented.

Who was 9-year-old Markiya Simone Dickson? She was just a little girl waiting to ride a pony in the park, enjoying a hot day in May with her family, celebrating the Memorial Day weekend. She was shot and killed there.

How Markiya’s tragic death impacted how the park has evolved or has not evolved: Unfortunately, not much has changed in the park since her death. In September 2022, more gun violence erupted in the park when six people were injured at a baby shower. The infrastructure has continued to decay. The park hasn’t had a playground since November 2020, and we have one that should be completed soon. Number one goal or project as board president: I’ve heard time and again that Markiya’s family wants her memory honored by creating a safe place for kids to play, without being reminded of the violence. For me, honoring that request is number one.

Strategy for achieving goals: We’ve prioritized creating a diverse board that represents the different lived experiences of the people in our community.

Upcoming events: SPCA Dog Safety Education Event on March 18; a community work day and a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new playground soon.

Ways to get involved: Come to a Friends meeting, become a member, volunteer at a workday, get involved in one of our projects, write your city councilperson to advocate for equitable parks, join our mailing list, come to one of our events, buy some merchandise or donate on our website www. fonticelloparkrva.com

A perfect day for me is: Doing anything outside with my family — hiking, camping, kayaking, skiing — just playing in nature is the best way for me to recenter.

Something about me that people may not know: In my free time, I’m a raft guide at Riverside Outfitters.

A quote that inspires me:

“The function of freedom is to free someone else.”— Toni Morrison

My friends describe me as: Intelligent, tenacious and determined.

At the top of my “to-do” list: Hike the Appalachian Trail. Best late-night snack: A handful of frozen M&Ms.

The best thing my mom ever taught me: As a woman, I’ve got to learn to do for myself. I don’t need anyone to help me get things done.

The person who influenced me the most: There are so, so many. My mother, my grandmother, Dr. Njeri Jackson and Dr. Rose Landrum Lee from VCU, my previous principal, Melanie Phipps, authors and activists bell hooks, Toni Morrison and Angela Davis, all of whom I’ve heard speak in person.

Book that influenced me the most and how: “Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors By Carolyn Finney.” I spend a lot of my free time in the outdoors and this really opened my ideas to the ways in which we continue to racialize the outdoors and perpetuate exclusionary practices.

What I’m reading now and my takeaway: I’m raising three teens. I haven’t read a book in months!

Next goal: I’d love to see the skatepark expansion at Fonticello Park come to fruition.

The Virginia Home Presents

An Evening With Jeff Henderson

March 16, 2023 / The Jefferson Hotel / 6:30 pm

MARCH

From humble beginnings in South Central Los Angeles to celebrity chef and best-selling author, Jeff is a role model for anyone who needs the encouragement to reinvent their life.

A bene t to support The Virginia Home.

PRESENTED BY

APRIL

To save the date and get your tickets, scan this code or visit: thevirginiahome.org/ events/stories-ofcourage-grace

By Debora Timms

Dwandalyn Reece, associate director for curatorial affairs at the National Museum of African Americn History and Culture, will bring the story of Black music to Virginia Commonwealth University as the 2023 VCU Libraries Black History Month Lecturer.

A musician, scholar and museum professional, Dr. Reece said her career has been centered around music collections and public humanities work. Before assuming her current role last year, she was the museum’s first curator of music and performing arts for 13 years. During that time, Dr. Reece built a collection of more than 4,000 objects and curated the museum’s inaugural permanent music exhibition, “Musical Crossroads.”

Of the many objects in the museum, Dr. Reece gives examples of just a few — an outfit associated with Marian Anderson when she performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, the P-Funk Mothership donated to the museum by George Clinton, and a banjo created for Charles P. Stinson, a Black minstrel performer in the late 1800s.

“These objects are really fascinating ways to tell us not only what music is in AfricanAmerican culture, but how it operates in society and how central it is to our daily lives and experience,” Dr. Reece said during a recent interview.

She considers it an honor to be asked to lecture at VCU, where her daughter is currently a graduate student in the university’s physical therapy program. She also saw it as a fortuitous opportunity to share glimpses into her newly released book, “Musical Crossroads: Stories Behind the Objects of African American Music.”

“I love music, I love history and I love storytelling. My excitement about music is getting to understand it and why it means something to us.

“Music is about community,” she added. ‘We are all part of music’s story. It’s not just about the singer on the stage.”

Dr. Reece will speak from 7 to 9 p.m. on Feb. 23, in the James Branch Cabell Library Lecture Hall, 901 Park Ave. The event will be live-streamed and is free and open to the public. Registration is required for both in-person and Zoom attendance at https://www.support.vcu.

Now Accepting Applications For

Jace Miles celebrates his victory in the 2nd Annual Bright Minds RVA Chess Tournament at the awards presentation Friday night at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia. The 13-yearold Henderson Middle School student, the son of Michael and Otesa Miles, received a trophy and $400 for his first place showing in the four-round competition involving 10 youths. Jace started playing chess in an afternoon elementary school program. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, he further developed his chess skills by playing online with a cousin who lives in New York. In between, he continued to play the game.

The nonprofit Bright Minds, founded by Richmonders Bernice Travers and Fleming Samuels, seeks to spread interest in the game among city youths by offering free lessons.