Vinegar Hill Magazine | Summer 2023

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INSIDE

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR, JULY 2023

Katrina Spencer

THE PEARL OF THE ANTILLES IN CHARLOTTESVILLE

Channing Mathews

REFLECTOR 02: A Queen Celebrates

Juneteenth and Black Freedom

Niya Bates and Ms. Maxine Holland

BUILDING A LEGACY THAT OUTLASTS YOU

Katrina Spencer

ZYAHNA BRYANT:

BLACK WOMAN ACTIVIST

Naila A. Smith

HOWEVER YOU DRINK, DRINK IN HARMONY

Channing Mathews

Letter from the Editor, July 2023

Dear Readers:

Greetings anew. It’s Katrina again, writing to say that it is always our pleasure to be in your company. Thank you for joining us on our shared journey. This summer 2023 issue of Vinegar Hill Magazine celebrates initiative. Black joy and Black excellence, too, remain some of our favorites, central to our ethos, and deserving of our time, attention, and, care. At this moment, we make space especially for innovators and risk takers: folks who weren’t so sure they’d have a “return on investment” when picking up something new, but remained steadfast, watering their visions and doing things out of the ordinary in anticipation of growth, meaning, and sustainability.

Katrina Spencer Editor & Content Manager

More than 10 years ago, the founder of this periodical, Eddie Harris, featured on the cover, put his foot to the pavement in creating a source of media to represent the local Black community. Educator Ms. Maxine Holland dedicated her life’s work to expanding the minds of youth in the classroom and through the group she founded, Men On A Mission. Business owners Sober and Zakiah Pierre launched a Pan-Caribbean, culinary oasis on historic ground. Activist Zyahna Bryant’s critical engagement changed the literal landscape of Charlottesville, which has long been haunted by its Confederate past. And entrepreneur Matt Harmon decided that Cville’s most popular libation, wine, would be his domain, too. These initiators nursed seeds of ideas, hovered as they sprouted, and watched them bloom, and for this they win our applause.

If you or someone you know is showing Black initiative with an aim to build, protect, or sustain local community, send us a message at vinegarhillmag@gmail.com and let us know about the good work being done. We’d love to learn more about the efforts aimed to enrich Central Virginia. Remember that you can access more stories, free of charge, from Vinegar Hill Magazine at vinegarhillmagazine.com. To learn more about our latest national collaboration, visit blackfuturenewsstand.com, and to see more initiators from our local community, scan the QR code below to have a look at the documentary short developed by Life View Marketing & Visuals.

The Pearl of The anTilles in CharloTTesville

by

The story of Pearl Island Cafe is a search for identity, passion, and roots. The delightful smells and artwork of the Caribbeaninspired restaurant draw you in for a warm taste of the Caribbean, right in the heart of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and the historic Vinegar Hill Neighborhood in Charlottesville. Starting from the first jar of pikliz, a cabbage-based, vinegarforward, and spicy condiment, sold at the Charlottesville Farmers’ Market, Pearl Island is thriving as Charlottesville’s premiere Caribbean lunch and catering space.

Named to honor owner Sober Pierre’s Haitian roots, the restaurant pays homage to Haiti’s reputation as the Pearl of the Antilles, a place filled with treasures and turmoil throughout its complicated history. “Part of what I am doing right now is to reflect

the beauty of Haiti. You know the richness that it had then, I want to emphasize that now. [I ask myself] ‘How do I showcase the beauty in the flavor, the people, and the culture as a whole?’”

Born to Haitian immigrants in Miami, Florida, Sober had an early knack for business, using recycled wire from downed and inactive power lines to make bracelets for sale. But his business savvy would take a backseat to his educational pursuits. Sober attended Tuskegee University, a historically Black University in Alabama, to pursue mechanical engineering and a football scholarship. Upon graduation, he pursued job opportunities at John Deere and Caterpillar, where he discovered his interest in engineering was not aligned with his desire for something more: “I loved engineering, like the innovation of it, but I also wanted something I was more

passionate about.”

In search of greater fulfillment, Sober pursued business school at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, where the ideas for Pearl Island started to come together in his current food business. “My reasoning for going to business school was identifying something I was passionate about and connected to. Something that at the end of the thirtyyear career, I wouldn’t be questioning what it was all for.” This passion pursuit led him into a deep dive into his culture and identity exploration to learn about diversity of cultures in the Caribbean through the communal experience of food. “What we are trying to offer is access to the people and to the culture. Food being a very important, if not central part of it.”

But the marriage of business

Channing Mathews; featured photo by Kori Price

with food and identity did not necessarily mean the abandonment of his engineering background. In addition to partnering with his wife, Dr. Zakiah N. Pierre, an analytical chemist by training, Sober applied his engineering mind to the design of his kitchen to maximize efficiency and consistency of the brand. This was an especially important skill when COVID-19 resulted in Pearl Island becoming a one- man kitchen, as work staff became less consistent as the pandemic progressed. “We’ve evolved… my wife has always been in the background, supporting wherever needed. In 2020, when we had a large amount of transition, she took on more of the catering side of things. I reimagined the process in the kitchen that helped me to ensure that the full burden of producing a consistent product didn’t all fall on my shoulders.”

My experience of Pearl Island brought me back to my time living in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. To experience the food of Pearl Island is to experience the warmth and welcoming of what you might find in a Caribbean household with spices baked into the walls, and no written recipes beyond the magic of the chef’s hands. Every forkful of my curry chicken and sous poulet brought me back to the lush richness of food culture on the island, and made me chuckle as I fondly remembered my favorite street food vendors, who set up shop just outside of the kitchens within their home, inviting me to dine on their patios.

It seems that such a memory is not uncommon when experiencing the food at Pearl Island: “One of the things I miss most about the farmers market is that a lot of our customers were always excited to share about their travels to the Caribbean, and what our stand represented to them… It’s been a way for us to connect and to share our culture. It’s been great to have the experience of people enjoying [the food] and coming back.”

As a scholar of ethnic-racial identity development, I am always intrigued by the ways that food speaks to our racialized identities in the same ways that words and labels do. Food is where we share space and stories, moments that we share with others, years or even moments after we leave the table. Food is a place for us to take pause and inventory, to remind ourselves to slow down and spend time with old peeps, or find some new ones to create new memories. Pearl Island reminds us of those shared stories, by giving our tastebuds a new story to tell in community. “It shows that there’s promise and possibilities. Making the diverse flavors of the Caribbean more accessible is what I want to get to. And we are doing that.”

Oh yes, Mr. Pierre. Y’all are certainly doing that!

A tropical lemonade and trifecta platter of food from Pearl Island including chicken, pork, plantains, kale, rice, and pikliz (a spicy cabbage slaw). Photo credit: Kori Price

refleCTor 02:

a Queen CelebraTes JuneTeenTh and blaCk freedom

by Niya Bates and Ms. Maxine Holland

If you’ve attended a Black cultural event in Charlottesville, chances are you’ve seen Ms. Maxine Holland adorned in regal West African prints, with a gele (Nigerian) or duku (Ghanaian) head wrap crowning her head as she danced around the room educating people about Black history and culture. Or, perhaps, you were on the receiving end of a stern word of correction in Ms. Holland’s classroom. As her much younger cousin, and also a former student, I have seen and experienced the full breadth of Cousin Maxine’s zest for life, love for our family, and passion about our history. In every encounter, her voice and distinctive affect fill the corners of each space that she enters. Few people can command a room the way that Ms. Maxine Holland does. She is and has always been royalty within our community – a queen in all respects – and I’m not just saying that because I’m family.

Born in the unincorporated community of Cobham in northeastern Albemarle County, Ms. Holland came of age during the era of segregation. She attended the three-room Keswick Elementary School and later Rose Hill Elementary School. In 1967, she graduated from Jackson P. Burley High School as part of the last class of graduates before Albemarle County integrated schools. She was also Burley High School’s last homecoming queen. After high

school, Ms. Maxine remained at home to help her disabled mother. During that time, she worked a variety of jobs and developed a passion for working in the community. Through her many roles, she engaged community members of all ages and contributed to a diverse and vibrant African American community as church clerk at St. John Baptist Church, a troop leader for Girl Scout Troop #8, a volunteer for Johnson Halfway House, and Campaign Manager for Shirley Chapman, the first African American to seek a position on the Board of Supervisors in Albemarle County in 1970. Ms. Holland also launched numerous community initiatives including tutoring sessions for children in Cobham in nearby neighborhoods, teaching dance and rhythmic activities to preschoolers, conducting exercise classes for adults, organizing programs to raise awareness of Sickle Cell Anemia, and celebrating PanAfrica Day (1970).

Ms. Maxine Holland is crowned Miss Homecoming and poses with her attendants at Jackson P. Burley High School in 1967. The photo is from the high yearbook, Jay Pee Bee.[/caption]

Ms. Holland was accepted to Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in 1972. That academic endeavor did not prevent her, however, from continuing to care for her mother. Every weekend, while in college, she traveled the 139 miles from Hampton to Cobham to relieve her grandmother, Mrs. Elsie Byrd, and other family members that were managing her mother’s care throughout the week. Unfortunately her mother, Susan Holland, made the transition before she graduated.

One year after completing a bachelor of science degree in physical education, she was offered a teaching assistantship at Hampton University. That position helped to pay tuition for

a master’s degree in health education. Following graduate school, her journey as a teacher started. She held teaching positions at Kentucky State University, Spelman College, Gideons Elementary School (Atlanta, GA), Yancey Elementary School, Albemarle High School, and Fluvanna County High School. Her experiences in both segregated and integrated communities underscored the central importance of linking teachers, parents, and community in a triangle of advocacy in order to successfully educate a child. She honors Black teachers and their educational strategies that developed generations of successful Black men and women, in spite of segregation. Ms. Holland maintains that the wisdom and strategies of Black educators were lost during the era of integration, which catapulted Black children into settings designed to arrest their cultural, social, and intellectual development. Therefore, at every level of education, she found herself incorporating some of the methods and strategies used by her teachers, especially their classroom management techniques. In addition, she integrated Black history into all subjects. She was more concerned with preparing students to function beyond the classroom with a sense of character and self-sufficiency than training them to get jobs and become consumers. Ms. Holland quips that she could speak at length about Black self-sufficiency, but that’s for another day.

Ms. Maxine Holland tutoring students at St. John Baptist Church in Cobham, Virginia, 1970[

Ms. Maxine Holland with Men on a Mission participants in Reverend Dr. Calvin Butt’s Office in Abyssinian Baptist Church of Harlem, 1998[/caption]

Prior to leaving public education, she founded and directed Men On A Mission, a club designed to help raise the level of consciousness among young African American men. With the help of Diallo Sessoms, Brian Wilson, James Bryant, Greg Davis, and Harold Boyd, Black male youths partook in many cultural and historical experiences, including traveling to some major cities to see how their ancestors had contributed to the overall growth and development of the United States. Accompanied by Ms. Holland and others, the club visited Harlem (NYC), Atlanta, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma where they toured cultural centers like the Schomburg in Harlem and historic Civil Rights Movement sites like the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. As a result of Men on a Mission, Ms. Holland believes the young men were able to move through time and space with a greater sense of competence, confidence, character and courage. She later founded and directed The Shule (shoe-lay) Society, a rites of passage program for young Black women intended to help them navigate the challenges of life while maintaining peace and harmony in their lives. Around the same time, she organized and served as Facilitator of the Family Council at The Cedars Nursing Home, which was a support group for nursing home residents and their families.

After twenty-eight years of teaching, Ms. Holland retired in 2015 but kept her passion for working in the community. She will tell you that her motivation for doing community work is an attempt to continue the tradition & legacy of women who were servant-leaders during segregation and worked tirelessly to help meet the needs of the community. Ms. Holland credits the following women for inspiring her: Mrs. Ann Dickerson, Mrs. Shirley Chapman, and Mrs. Susan Holland (all of the Cobham Community); Mrs. Sally Turner and Mrs. Bernice Mitchell (Cismont Community); Sis Elizabeth Washington (Keswick Community); Mrs. Virginia Carrington and Mrs. Grace Tinsley (Charlottesville).

In 2000, Mrs. Tamyra Turner organized the first Juneteenth celebration. Ms. Holland was asked to be a presenter. Her presentation was about some of the dances that originated on the plantation like the Cake Walk, Juba, Ring Shout, Jig, Buck and Wing and demonstrated how movements in those dances mimic dances that evolved in the 1950s and 1960s. Starting in 2001, she helped Mrs. Turner plan and organize the Juneteenth celebrations. From 2001-2015, the celebrations were held on the campus of Piedmont Virginia Community College. Then, in 2016, the celebration moved to the African American Heritage Center in collaboration with Dr. Andrea Douglas.

Juneteenth is among the oldest celebrations of freedom in this country. The celebration originated in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1866, and its name is derived from blending June and nineteenth – the date in 1865 that U.S. Army

Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston to read a proclamation announcing the end of the Civil War and the freedom of those who remained enslaved. The celebration grew out of the euphoria surrounding the transition from slavery to freedom. It also represents the

joy of freedom and the chance for a new beginning. As a historical note: slavery did not end for all enslaved people at the same time because the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, issued by then President Abraham Lincoln, was not recognized in the confederate states that had seceded

from the Union. Thus, the American Civil War brought about freedom for nearly four million people. Depending on what state you’re in, Juneteenth might alternatively be known as Liberation Day, Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day or Freedom Day. In Charlottesville, we celebrate

Ms. Maxine Holland (2nd from left) during a reenactment of village life in Togo, Ghana, and Nigeria during the 2003 Juneteenth program at Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC)

Liberation and Freedom Day on March 3rd. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.

Juneteenth celebrations throughout the country typically feature song and dance, parades, historical demonstrations, and ceremonies honoring Black veterans. Drawing from the Black power and Pan-African movements, Juneteenth

celebrations feature the colors red, green, black, and blue prominently. This includes the food! Favored Juneteenth foods include red velvet cakes, red punch, tea cakes, sugar cookies, soul food, barbeque, and foods representing luck and abundance in Black culture, for example greens and black eyed peas. All of these festive elements have been part of our local Juneteenth

celebrations over the years.

Over the years, Ms. Maxine Holland has been adamant about maintaining the historical significance and integrity of Juneteenth. She ensured that the presenters, activities, and overall content were relatable and relevant. Last year’s celebration was among the best. It included a parade with over 300

A woman dances to African drumming during the 2019 Juneteenth event at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.

participants, lots of dancing, singing, socializing and Black joy. Celebrating life in a nation seemingly dedicated to Black suffering and death helps to make Juneteenth so very special because not only do we celebrate freedom, but also Black joy in the process.

After 20 years of planning and organizing, Ms. Holland “passed the baton” to the next generation. She encourages Black families to start a tradition of celebrating Juneteenth –host a cookout, play baseball games, share family history– and encourages us not to rely on an outside source to plan the celebration. By doing those things, she hopes Black communities can resist the commercialization and appropriation of Juneteenth by other audiences.

While there are many more reasons to give this queen her flowers, her work to raise awareness of and to celebrate Black culture locally remain paramount. In 2015, Ms. Holland became co-founder of the Veterans Committee of Central Virginia. Its Mission is to

more fully contextualize and honor through education the often overlooked stories of Black military service in the United States Armed Forces, past and present. Each year, the group hosts a commemoration of the African American military experience. This year will mark its ninth year. While Ms. Holland is leaning into her well earned retirement, she plans to continue as executive director of the Veterans Committee.

Ms. Maxine Holland believes that many of the problems that plague the Black community can be countered by educators and leaders who have a clear sense of history, culture, identity, group unity and self-determination. She further encourages Black folks to study our history. Paraphrasing from Carter G. Woodson, the “Father of Black History”, Ms. Holland writes, “if a people had no recorded history, its achievements would be forgotten or ignored and eventually claimed by others.” She continues, “If you destroy the history, you destroy the evidence. Don’t let that happen.”

Ms. Maxine Holland (center) with Sgt. Major Keyana Washington (right) during the Veterans Day celebration in 2022.

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building a legaCy ThaT ouTlasTs you

Written by Katrina Spencer; featured image by Kori Price

When we sit down, it’s at the Shenandoah Joe’s on 10th & Preston, right alongside Washington Park, the area Eddie Harris grew up in, “on the Height.” It’s unseasonably warm outside-- over 80 degrees-- and we’re only three days into spring. Not all the cherry blossoms have opened up yet. The UVA students are back from break. And the uptick in gun-related deaths in Charlottesville has us all a bit more alert about local activity than perhaps we want to be.

For me, it’s a big moment. I am now the steward of stories of the magazine that Eddie created some 12 years ago, and for four months now, I have tried to do his vision justice with the writers, stories, and themes I recruit.

Sometimes I wonder if I veer well off the path. But Eddie assures me that Vinegar Hill Magazine (VHM) is boundless in its aspirations. He is our publisher and my elder, and my position exists because of the seed of an idea he nurtured long before I even knew what Charlottesville was.

He’s wearing black VHM swag and chewing a chocolate chip cookie. I’ve frosted my fro in a goldish pink and, as my generation demands, I’m trying to stay hydrated. We’re different and the same. He’s a Southerner who knew segregated schools in the 1960s and whose life introduced him to street hustles and hard knocks early on. I’m a transplant from California whose classmates’ last names from elementary

through grad school, 1990- 2016, ranged from Ávila to Bekmezian to Chun to Go to Oni and to Surendranath, to name a small, but diverse subset. My first real job? Librarian. It don’t get no mo’ strait-laced than that.

But there’s at least two things we clearly have in common: we’re proud to be Black and are invested in the restoration of our people’s dignity. So we find ways to compile our goals, negotiate our strategies, and find common ground. We both want to support narratives that inspire discovery, possibility, and truth.

At my prompting, Eddie begins to tell me his story-- one of a close and intimate community that offered supportive guidance and a strong sense of identity. Within it, he was loved by his biological and chosen families. Though he lost his father early on to lung cancer, there were enough parental figures about to make him, the baby of the family, feel whole. While he wasn’t rich in dollars, he was in loving care.

When the Charlottesville schools were desegregated, however, Eddie’s sense of normalcy was destabilized and his identity shaken. This historic event would become a major turning point in his life. Where before the people on his left and on his right all looked like him, once integration efforts came underway, he had to travel a greater distance to school. He and his peers were subjected to abuse, which included verbal harassment by strangers as they plodded their new paths there. And often he was the only Black male in his classes. While his family and loved ones celebrated his intelligence and athletic performance, the new schooling environment seemed to persistently suggest to him that he was less than, inferior in some inexplicable but inherent way, and the cognitive dissonance got to him. He carried this friction within him that resisted resolution and festered into a sense of resentment.

It wasn’t long before his actions and behaviors started to match the low and poor expectations the broader systems of power had of him. The loving community, his allstar baseball team, and even the pro-Black politics of the ‘70s wouldn’t be able to save him from tripping over the proverbial snares in his path. The streets were calling his name, and he answered. Getting caught up on the wrong side of the law, Eddie would be incarcerated, staring down a potential sentencing of 30 long years. “But God…won’t He do it?”

Divine intervention kept Eddie’s time behind bars relatively low-- about a tenth of what was expected. Rehabilitative programs like the Locust Therapeutic Community and work release gave him the opportunity to demonstrate that there was nothing mean, hardened, criminal, or irredeemable in him-just a general disorientation and a need to reset his mind. So while he was detoured and delayed, he was able to resume a stable path.

Eddie Harris as a child. Photo provided by Eddie Harris[

In 2011, Vinegar Hill Magazine (VHM) was born. [Kind of.] It didn’t look like it does now: glossy, full color, 40 pages long, and full of ads promoting local businesses. No. VHM was a humble newsletter before it was a magazine. It was made up of just a few pages. Local contributors wrote in their stories, and Eddie would distribute the publication by hand to anyone who would take it. Grassroots all the way. Since its early beginnings, VHM has covered stories of Black entrepreneurship, local politics, travel, community arts, events, and more, providing evidence that counters the idea that Black people are any less than any other. Eddie, then, is obliterating the same tension that discomfited him as a boy and nurturing his community in doing so.

It was at this time that the idea for building a media platform that would honor the Black community began to churn inside him. He noted that stories in the local media were casting his people in a poor light, and it rubbed him all wrong. But moreover, the depiction he saw simply didn’t represent the warmth, care, and bonds he knew. Only a portion of the truth was being told, and that portion wasn’t large enough. And if the phrase “If you want something done right, do it yourself” was a person, its name would be Eddie Harris.

One of the original issues of the Vinegar Hill Newsletter from the early 2010s, photograph provided by Eddie Harris[

And since chief operating officer Sarad Davenport signed on to help steer the periodical in 2013, he reports that VHM can boast over 6,000 followers, subscribers and members combined, more than 10 contributing writers, a staff of nine part-time staff and contractors, quarterly print circulation, an open access website, gear you can purchase by clicking “Merch” at vinegarhillmagazine.com, a variety of sponsorships for local events, a partnership with the Charlottesville Inclusive Media Project, and the recent win of the Borealis Philanthropy grant. In other words, it seems to be doing pretty well by most any metric.

Eddie affirms that the magazine is more than a mere publication. Rather, it is representative of a mindset. His desire has always been to create something larger than himself, larger than any one editor, and something that will outlive us all. One thing we agreed on early in our discussion is that the Church and the family aren’t the central and unifying institutions they once were for the Black community. Knowing this, Eddie hopes to see VHM rewrite history, to become a household name, and to be a thread that reunites the local Black community. Another phrase that embodies Eddie’s

vision? “The sky is the limit.”

I scratch out copious notes listening to Eddie’s aspirations, alternating between lamenting my failing penmanship and lending him my eye contact, frequently grunting to indicate I hear him. As politely as she can, a barista reminds us all that the coffee shop closed six minutes ago. I gather up my things knowing that not only did I have more questions to ask Eddie and that we were just getting started over an hour into conversation, but also that there are three submitted VHM stories I’m due to edit this week from our writers on a local and historic restaurant, a trip to Europe that reveals its Black diaspora, and media makers like Thomas Jerome “TJ” Sellers. It seems, Eddie, we are on our way to building that much yearned for legacy, and we hope to do you proud.

To become a member of Vinegar Hill Magazine, visit https://www.vinegarhillvintage. com/products/annual-contentmembership. Find Vinegar Hill Magazine’s stories at vinegarhillmagazine.com. If you have excellent writing skills and want to write for the publication or seek coverage of a story or event, write vinegarhillmag@gmail.com.

Sarad Davenport, Chief Operating Officer of Vinegar Hill Magazine, photo provided by Sarad Davenport

Katrina Spencer, Content Manager and Editor of Vinegar Hill Magazine, photo provided by Katrina Spencer

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Zyahna bryanT: blaCk Woman aCTivisT

by Naila A. Smith, PhD

Zyahna Bryant is a powerhouse. At 22 years old, the Charlottesville native, youth activist, and community organizer, has shown up, spoken out, and been a catalyst for change in her community for the past decade.

Zyahna’s first racial awakening came around age 12, following the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the self-appointed neighborhood watch captain who shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenage boy in Sanford, Florida, to death. She recalls this as the first major incident of racial injustice that happened in her lifetime. Deeply impacted by this event, she organized a protest in Charlottesville seeking justice for his death and that of other unarmed Black men who had died due to police violence.

Soon after, Zyahna became connected to a network of local leaders, activists, and community organizers in the city of Charlottesville and embarked on her journey of student activism. She served on the Charlottesville Youth Council, a group of 17 young people who help inform the local government and community about issues affecting the youth. With this group, she recommended actions to improve the city and attended local government meetings and events.

In 2015, in her first year at Charlottesville High School, she also started the Black Student Union (BSU) to create a space for Black students to come together and build community. The BSU soon organized to create change in the local high school. Importantly, the group was concerned about the racial disparities in the student groups enrolled in advanced placement (AP) and honors courses. Zyahna, who was enrolled in several AP courses, saw very few Black students who looked like her. The BSU organized a walkout and list of demands for several initiatives including that the school district diversify AP and honors courses and hire more Black teachers.

In the spring of 2016, Bryant, then 15, continued her work for racial justice when she wrote a petition calling for the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue and the renaming of the park, formerly known as Robert E. Lee Park, just across from the Downtown Mall. This petition, born from a classroom assignment on “how to make a change” inspired others across the nation and led to the formation of a special council by the city of Charlottesville to deliberate on the statue’s removal. The proposed action was eventually approved by vote and would precede the fatal clash between

white supremacists and counter protesters between August 11th and 12th of 2017.

Before Activism: Growing Up in Charlottesville

In some ways, Zyahna’s experiences growing up did not seem like they would have led her down a path of student activism and community organizing for racial justice. Her family, she says, was like a lot of Southern Black families when it came to conversations about race and racism: they cautioned her “not to do too much” and to be careful about going into spaces where she might be the only Black person.

Like many African Americans in the South, Zyahna grew up in the church and was very active at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church, a predominantly Black church, where on Sundays she rarely saw white people in the congregation. In her words, Mt. Zion was a place “where Black people found community.” However, while most of her neighborhood friends attended Charlottesville public schools, for several years Zyahna attended St Anne’sBelfield School, a prestigious, independent boarding and day school serving pre-K through grade 12. At St. Anne’s-Belfield, most of her peers were white and rich and she found it difficult to authentically connect with them. In her words, her home and school life simply “didn’t mix.”

Moreover, despite her academic prowess, Zyahna also describes having other difficulties at St. Anne’s-Belfield. Specifically, she shared how she got suspended a lot and the school tried to push her out. Zyahna’s “push out” experiences mirror those of other Black girls across the United States who experience disproportionate rates of school discipline, resulting for some in school dropout and interactions with the justice system.

Developing a Critical Perspective

Zyahna credits this policing of her voice as a Black girl as one reason why she may have developed a sharp critical perspective at such a young age. She shared that while growing up, people frequently didn’t see things the way she would, causing her to have to advocate for herself. Moreover, being in a space where she was being socialized around white people made her more aware of the anti-Black messages perpetuated in society.

As her social analysis sharpened, she also became increasingly aware of how colorism intersected with her experiences as a Black girl. She began to notice how most girls in her honors courses were biracial, and women in Black church leadership roles were mostly light-skinned, and how teachers tended to treat darker-skinned girls differently than girls with a lighter complexion. Her observation is supported by research that has found that darker-skinned girls are more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions than lighter skinned girls.

While her work continues to be rooted in racial and educational justice, Zyahna has also focused her activism on issues pertaining to Black women and queer and trans people. She said she underwent a second awakening in 12th grade, when had personal experience with how Black women are often marginalized in the racial justice movement. For example, when research Zyahna led made it to Capitol Hill, she was miscredited and given a lesser role than what she merited.

As a result of this focus, during the pandemic, she engaged in several initiatives for Black women and girls such as mutual aid organizing, takeovers with Canadian pop star Shawn Mendes, and virtual panels. She is especially passionate about lifting up Black women’s organizing practice and strategizing. She shared, “We hear a lot of emotional accounts of Black women’s contribution but not a lot of

discussion of their contribution to strategy like Latosha Brown.” Latosha Brown founded Black Voters Matter, an organization that has led to significant voter turnout in recent elections in Alabama and Georgia state.

Zyahna currently works as a program lead for Black Girls (EM)Power, a part of the Youth Mentoring Action Network based in Upland California. She recently graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelor of arts degree in African American and African Studies in the Distinguished Majors Program. In the

fall, she will be enrolled in the Bridge to the Doctorate program at University of Virginia. She plans to pursue a doctorate in History. She credits public historians as being critically important to supporting her activism across the years and sees historians as laying the foundation for activism.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU REALLY LISTENED TO A PERSON WHO DOESN’T SEE THE WORLD LIKE YOU DO?

THE UVA DEMOCRACY INITIATIVE INVITES YOU TO TAKE ONE SMALL STEP…

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hoWever you drink, drink in harmony

by Channing Mathews, featured photo credit: Niya Bates

If I’ve ever met anyone who has very much embodied the spirit of their own brand, it is Matt Harmon of Harmony Wines. Matt is a Charlottesville native whose roots always seem to draw him back to the city. “I’ve tried to leave Charlottesville multiple times, but it just keeps pulling me back in.” His newest venture, Harmony Wines, has been a labor of love and inclusion in a business that is well known for its pretentiousness. Matt’s approach to wine is simple: “I want Harmony to be the wine that makes people feel comfortable no matter the setting. Putting my wine in cans really pushes the narrative of ‘However you drink, drink in Harmony.’”

But his journey into the wine business was anything but simple. After securing a job in sales and marketing in Richmond, Harmon was laid off after less than six months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was this loss that gave him the final push to make Harmony Wines happen, manifesting a dream that he had been laying the foundation for throughout his career journey. “Prior to my sales job, I knew I wanted to start my own business. So one of the things I did was start a podcast [Bad Guy Good Wine] centered around wine. I would interview people in the business world, artists, creatives, people in the music industry. And from that I was able to leverage certain relationships to feature my wine.”

Yet, Matt’s love of wine did not stem from fancy wine tastings with splendid mountain views. It all started in his kitchen with an unfortunate dinner and wine pairing. “I love cooking, and one day my dad told me, ‘You should try some wine while you are cooking.’ So I went to the store and picked up a sweet white to have with a pasta I was doing. And it was not good. At all. And I became so intrigued about why it didn’t work. There is a science to it.”

Matt’s unfortunate pairing prompted a deep dive into the science of wine. He pursued the who, what, where, and whys of wine, visiting wineries and wine bars to find out more. In the process, he made an important discovery: “I fell in love with this idea of creating an atmosphere that felt more comfortable for me and my friends. Going to wineries was something that I enjoyed doing, but I noticed that my friends who looked like me were like, ‘Nah, I’m not going out there’.” And some of the biggest [reasons] were about music, dress, and being unaware of the wines and not wanting to look silly.” And it was through this discovery that he curated a wine business focused on curating inclusive spaces for wine through events and teaching spaces that did not require the pomp and circumstance of traditional wine excursions.

A prime example of such an event was the inaugural Daze of Rosé event that took place on April 15th. Not one to follow anyone’s tradition, Matt created his own blend of rosé that drew upon both French and Virginia grapes, which are two “no-no’s” in the wine business. “You don’t blend Virginia rosé with an actual Provence rosé. And then you definitely don’t put it in a can.” After being rejected from a wine competition due to his audacity to can rather than bottle his wine, Matt chose to create

his own competition featuring local wineries and the community. “The idea behind it was to get the voice of the people. A lot of times there’s judges and people don’t know who these judges are. And we are being told that this is a good wine because so-and-so said so. And I think it was cool to have people who are behind the product to say ‘Ooooh this is what we collectively say is the best rosé’, is a really cool idea. With DJ Nobe spinning smooth beats and weather to match, Matt reported an awesome turn out with folks coming from Norfolk and Richmond to participate in voting on the best rosé. The winner, Castle Hill Cider’s Rosé 2021 may have beat out Harmon’s canned experience, but the Daze of Rosé event was certainly Harmon’s true win.

Matt has come a long way from his original wine pairing mishaps, and now has a clear favorite. “I have this down to a ‘T’. It is a Cab Franc with a blue cheeseburger with bacon and sweet potato fries.” A burger and wine…can’t get more inclusive than that!

Two cans of Harmony Wine’s products, photo credit: Derrick Waller

P

A C K

A G E

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Full-Page Annual Package

-4 Print full-page ad (black and white)

-2 online banner ads (728x90, 970x90, or 300x500) full color- these rotate online and can be switched out throughout the month

-4 printed magazine copies

-Total cost for the year $908.00

Half-Page Annual Package

-4 Print half-page ad (black and white)

-2 online banner ads (728x90, 970x90, or 300x500) full color - these rotate online and can be switched out throughout the month.

-4 printed magazine copies

-Total cost for the year $628.00

1/4 Page Annual Package

-4 Print 1/4 page ad (black and white)

-2 online banner ads (728x90, 970x90, or 300x500) full color- these rotate online and can be switched out throughout the month

-4 printed magazine copies

-Total cost for the year $508.00

NEW

-Video News Post (appears in line with articles) $150.00

-Social Media (FaceBook, Instagram, & Twitter) $75.00

-Newsletter/Email Campaign (1-3 weekly) $75 00

-YouTube Page $75 00

-Total cost for the year $1,080.00