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When do you need to think about colorectal cancer screening? It could be sooner than you think.
You can reduce your risk of colorectal cancer by:
Getting screened
Eating a healthy diet
Avoiding alcohol
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People without a family history of colorectal cancer should begin screening at age . If you have a family history, you may need to start screening sooner. There are many options for screening, including lower-cost at-home tests. Talk with your healthcare provider about when to start screening and the best screening option for you.
Not smoking
Exercising
Learn more at uvahealth.com/colonscreen or email your questions to crcscreening@virginia.edu. Maintaining a healthy weight
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INSIDE 5 MY MONTICELLO Jocelyn Nicole Johnson discusses Race and Space in ‘My Monticello’.
9 DARNELL LAMONT WALKER Get to know Darnell Lamont Walker who recently wrote episodes for a show on Netflix.
22 NEXT NEW STORE Windy Cooper’s store From Me 2 U goes into year two of operation.
Vinegar Hill merch has partnered with Discover Black C-Ville to provide merch for those who want to celebrate and lift up the experience of Black people in Charlottesville, past, present, and future. Discover Black C-Ville was created to tell modern, historically accurate, and inclusive Black stories in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. Authenticity and ownership are key aspects of these stories. This mission is in direct alignment with that of Vinegar Hill and it makes perfect sense for us to collaborate. We are a media organization that just so happens to have dope merch and now we are adding Discover Black C-Ville Merch. Get the mag, buy the mech, join the conversation. Buy at: www.vinegarhillvintage.com
Vinegar Hill Magazine is a space that is designed to support and project a more inclusive social narrative, to promote entrepreneurship, and to be a beacon for art, culture, and politics in the Central Virginia region. l Photos by Billy Hunt, Hunnis, and Harmony Branding unless otherwise specified. Advertising and Sales Manager(s) SteppeMedia Publisher Eddie Harris Layout & Design Sarad Davenport © 2021 Vinegar Hill Magazine. All rights reserved. w w w. v i n e g a r h i l l m a g a z i n e . c o m | V I N E G A R H I L L M A G A Z I N E 3
The In-Between A Discussion with Jocelyn Nicole Johnson about Race and Space in ‘My Monticello’
by Sarad Davenport | Photos by Billy Hunt
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson describes herself as an ‘artsy, nerdy, and introverted person who is interested in thinking about the world and what it could be.’ In October of this year, she released My Monticello, a book that includes a novella about a near-future dystopian reality where white supremacists violently take siege of Charlottesville. The story is told from the perspective of the main character, Da’Naisha, who has deep Charlottesville roots and is also a descendent of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. While the community burns, Da’Naisha and a group of people escape via an abandoned Jaunt bus to Monticello and try to find meaning in their new exiled reality. The novella and one of the stories, ‘Control Negro’ has been picked up by the national media in a way that continues to center Charlottesville as the epicenter of the broad intercultural discussion. The audiobook employs Lavar Burton and Aja Naomi King as a few of its narrators and gives the world a look into a reality that is not far-fetched, especially to people who
lived through the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August of 2017. In many respects, Joceyln contextualizes and gives the taste and feel of what it is like to be a Charlottesvillian through time —particularly a Black Charlottesvillian. Origins and Belonging My Monticello continues to command the attention of more and more people even after its initial rollout, and it may have left some people wondering just where did this writer with such soul-piercing prose come from. How did Jocelyn Nicole Johnson come to be, and how did she arrive at this moment? Jocelyn grew up in Reston, Virginia which is a bustling suburb of Washington, D.C., but she also has deep family roots in South Carolina. “My whole extended family is from South Carolina,” she said. “I kind of claimed Virginia as my home even though I’ve often found myself disconnected from this place,” she said. Jocelyn went on to talk about how Virginia and Charlottesville in particular exist for many people as a place of ‘in-between’ where there are constant Continued on page 6
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Continued from page 5
dren carry so much.
reminders particularly for Black people that they don’t belong.
The Teacher Writer Twenty years ago, Jocelyn became an art teacher in an effort to remain artistic but practical at the same time. Jocelyn just so happened to be an art teacher at James G. Johnson Elementary School in Charlottesville, ironically where I once attended long ago.
According to Jocelyn, this book tackles the issue of ‘race and class and all of its complexity and draws from things that happened in real life.’ When speaking of the case of Black University of Virginia student, Martise Johnson, she spoke of the pain of seeing him bleeding on the ground and “looking heartbroken.” Perhaps, heartbroken at the fact that he did everything right, so much so, that he was admitted as a student at such a prestigious University, but the brutality of those officers was there to remind him that he didn’t belong. It was a reminder that no matter how controlled a Black man becomes, it does not render him safe in America. In some respects, writing this book was a way of reclaiming space. “This is my home and should be—unequivocally,” she stated plainly. “My child,” she said speaking of her own son. “How do you protect your kids as a mother of a Black boy? We make Black boys hold more than they should have to,” she said in a way that made it all the more perplexing why we make our chil-
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“I have the disposition of an elementary art teacher. It gave me access to human beings and all of their idiosyncrasies. When you create a sense of community, it can be a place where it’s greater than the sum of its parts when it works.” Even while in school and later while teaching, Jocelyn made her artistic pursuit a lifelong quest and has the artifacts to prove it. As a teenager, Jocelyn was invited to UVA in her writing capacity. “I came to the young writers’ workshop at UVA when I was in high school. I met young writers from all over the country,” she indicated. This, in some respect, shows how Joceyln did not just miraculously show up at this moment but has been on her way to this moment for quite some time.
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Trusting the Process As it turns out, the teaching profession is an ideal bi-vocation for the writer, especially because summers are usually free. “I took a class at the writing center here in Charlottesville. I submitted short pieces to The Writers Eye and won once. I also went to a summer writers workshop in Portland called Tin House,” she relayed. Jocelyn wanted to make it clear that My Monticello comes after years of development and preparation. It came after writing several other works that didn’t sell and never really saw the light of day. This new work comes on the heels of relationships with agents and publishers that just didn’t work out. Jocelyn really loved the craft of writing but had the ultimate intent of having people read her work broadly and “to have an audience” as she put it.
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Everything seemed to come together for My Monticello when New York Times best-selling author Roxanne Gay mentioned one of Jocelyn’s short stories, ‘Control Negro’ in a Tweet. “She ended up being the editor of the collection. Control Negro is included in the book as short fiction. That was the first time strangers really responded to me.” The days of working and creating in obscurity were over and it was time to take things to the next level. “I knew this time was different from the past,” said Jocelyn. She wanted to make sure that the people supporting her work were as excited about the work as she was. With the engagement of Roxanne Gay and her agent Meredith Kaffel Simonoff, Jocelyn felt like she had the right people around her to build a real audience for
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the work. Jocelyn said of Meredith that “she has connections and was already whipping up excitement and helped me to have a really successful group of editors.” The book was inevitably picked up by Henry Holt and Company which is one of the oldest and renowned publishers in America. My Monticello will leave lasting impressions on the collective American psyche as we all grapple with issues of race, class, possession, and dispossession. Find out more at https://www.jocelynjohnson. com/ and be on the lookout for the adaptation that will soon be featured on Netflix.
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LIVING BEYOND THE LIMITATIONS
A Conversation with Darnell Lamont Walker by Sarad Davenport | Photos by Photographer: Hunnus (IG: @hunnus)
We took some time to catch up with Darnell Lamont Walker, a writer for Netflix’s hottest new animated series by Ludacris, “Karma’s World.” Over the last few years, Darnell’s journey has taken him from the Sesame Street Writers Room to creating incredible content for children on global shows like Blue’s Clues & You, Two Whats?! And a Wow!, and many others he can’t currently mention but promises our kids will see very soon. Darnell describes himself as ‘just a happy guy from Charlottesville.’ “I’m a creative. I’m an artist. A filmmaker.
I’m just a happy person moving through life.” The truth is that Darnell is operating at the highest levels in the entertainment industry and is paving the way for young creatives from Charlottesville and beyond. “I wanted to be something I never really saw,” Darnell said of not being able to see representation of what he wanted to be locally. But there was a key transition that happened in Darnell’s life that helped him see that being a professional in the arts and entertainment industry was a real
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possibility. Terésa Dowell-Vest is who Darnell gives credit for helping him believe in himself as an artist. Dowell-Vest grew up in the Charlottesville and Covesville area and was the theater teacher at Charlottesville High School when Darnell was there. “She brought me under her wing,” Darnell said. Terésa herself went to James Madison University and Cal State Long Beach and brought those experiences back to Charlottesville and made lasting deposits in the psyche of Black students broadly but Darnell in particular. “She took me to Los Angeles in 10th grade,” Darnell remembers, not knowing at the time that someday he would go there to live and further his career. But first, he had to make it out of Charlottesville. “I was in the Drama club, ran track, and was in the German club,” said Darnell. According to Darnell, it helped him to see how Black students and other students were getting two very different educations— even in the same school. “My guidance counselor, Ms. Elder, believed in me and made sure I was on the right path to succeed, but there were other guidance counselors at CHS who were telling my friends that college wasn’t for them. They weren’t telling white kids that,” said Darnell.
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Boyz N Da Hood Darnell spoke of the inherent knowledge in the Black community that some kids have to escape to make it. He spoke of the nurture and protection that is given to certain kids that the community rallies around early on knowing that there is a sense of destiny about them. Darnell was one of those kids that always had a sense of destiny about him.
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“My grandma lived in the Projects [Westhaven if you are wondering]. My dad lived in Garrett [Friendship Court],” Darnell said. Those who are from Charlottesville or know anything about its history will know that ‘the Projects’ [Westhaven] and Garrett Square are public and subsidized housing neighborhoods in Charlottesville. So when Darnell says he has roots in these neighborhoods, that means something. For
“A lot of people recognize who can make it out. It created a hunger in me.” instance, when the Vinegar Hill neighborhood was razed, a large number of those families were displaced and housed in Westhaven. There is a rich culture and sense of belonging, yet there can also be excruciating poverty because of the lack of investment and resources. Early on, Darnell says that his cousins kept him out of the fray in the neighborhood because they knew that he was ‘going places.’ It was an unspoken code of protection because he would inevitably be able to inspire hope in others. “A lot of people recognize who can make it out. It created a hunger in me. I used to say to myself, ‘I want to be like Spike Lee,” he remembered. A Different World For Black people, Charlottesville can be a place where dreams are deferred or often come to die. Darnell said, “I figured out that I couldn’t be fed here. It’s crucial for my survival for me to be fed and I can’t get it here. I felt like I was dying here.” Darnell inevitably left Charlottesville to enroll at Bethune Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida. Darnell said he chose an HBCU because he remembered an episode of the sitcom ‘The Cosby Show’ where Clair Huxtable [Phylicia Rashad] went back to Hillman college to give a speech and said that “A degree from Hillman is as good as any degree anywhere.” Darnell spoke of HBCUs as a place where excellence is welcomed, nurtured, and developed. Darnell noted that his HBCU experience helped him to see how mediocrity is often accepted in many professions, but HBCUs w w w. v i n e g a r h i l l m a g a z i n e . c o m | V I N E G A R H I L L M A G A Z I N E 1 9
are designed to prevent mediocrity. Darnell said of the entertainment industry that, at times, “Some people are being rewarded for mediocrity,” and he said, he is quick to remind people when necessary that, “No, this is not that great!” Los Angeles After Bethune Cookman, after Howard University, after the degrees and growth, all roads led Darnell to Los Angeles. And this is where things get a little tricky. This hunger and desire to have his soul nourished and fed and share his art with the world left Darnell homeless and literally hungry. “It took a lot of sleeping on people’s couches for years,” he remembered. “It was hard in LA. I remember only having a dollar in my account and eating tacos. Knowing I could go home, but I would die there and lose my mind.” This literal hunger propelled Darnell to the space and success he now occupies and also the deep knowing that sometimes Charlottesville is a place that can crush the hopes of Black people desiring more. It was either starve in Los Angeles physically with hopes of becoming or spiritually and at a soul-level in Charlottesville—Darnell chose his soul. Karma’s World As mentioned earlier, Darnell is now a part of the writing team for Ludacris’ Netflix animated series, Karma’s World. With this project specifically, after years of working and being patient, this opportunity is one that Darnell pursued. “I worked my way into the kid’s television space. I had Sesame Street on my resume. I hit people up saying I wanted to work for y’all.” While Darnell was randomly cold-calling studios, he expressed his interest directly in working on Karma’s world. To his surprise, they reached back and told him that they needed him to sign this NDA (non-disclosure agreement). This meant it was getting real.
information about the show over 2 years ago.” What he loved about Ludacris’ Karma’s World project was, as he states it, ‘You see this dope Black girl with Big hair who’s brilliant, talented, and kind. She is black.” Darnell emphasizes this point because Karma is just herself, a little Black girl living fully and freely in the world. “I wrote my episode over two years ago,” he said. “Children’s animation takes a long time to come out.” When asked whose work he follows and who inspires him in entertainment and in the world, Darnell lists Kirk Moore, Jenn Nkiru, Donald Glover, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Darnell Moore, Kiese Laymon, Barry Jenkins, Tiffany Black, Halcyon Person, and everybody Black. Darnell reserves his highest praise for the renowned writer, poet, artist, and activist James Baldwin. “Everything he said about the world, the people in it, about America, he said unapologetically, boldly, and beautifully. Because those things needed to be said long before he said them. Those words and him are timeless.” As to the canvas of life, Darnell, this happy person moving through life says, “I want to leave nothing.” Every gift that is inside of him, Darnell wants to excavate it and share it with the world. He wants to continue to become what the people that believed in him always knew he would be. He says of his theatre teacher in high school, Terésa Dowell-Vest, “We are still great friends and keep in touch.” Sometimes all it takes is for someone to see more in you than you may even see in yourself for you to find the courage to go beyond the limitations that the world has set for us. Such is the case with Darnell Lamont Walker. To keep up with Darnell and to follow him on his journey, go to darnellwalker.com or @ cleverbastard on IG.
“They sent me an early trailer and
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There is Always a Next
From Me2U Celebrates a Year in Business by Sarad Davenport | Photos by Harmony Branding
Back in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Pastor Windy Cooper did something that seemed illogical and didn’t seem to make sense—to others at least. She decided to open a brick-and-mortar clothing store in the Rio Hill Shopping Center called From Me2U. It didn’t make sense because the world was in the midst of a pandemic. It didn’t make sense because of the overhead costs of having building rent when people weren’t even shopping and most retailers were closing their doors. But it made sense to her. Complexity Windy describes herself as a very complex
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person. “I wear many different hats,” she said. “I’m sure of who I am, but I am very complex.” The self-recognition of this complexity came at a very early age according to Windy. “I knew it when I was very young,” she said as she reminisced. Windy spent her early years growing up in New York City, “in the projects,” she emphasized. She was the youngest of seven children and grew up with both of her parents in the home. She witnessed firsthand the transition of her parents’ economic status as they moved out of poverty and settled in a more middle-class neighborhood
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“I had a lot of people that poured into me. There was this one evangelist at church that told me when I was a child, that God was going to use me someday.”
in Queens, New York. She said, “I was privileged to see the better version of my parents.” Church Girl Many know that Windy and her husband Pastor Christopher Cooper have been serving in leadership at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Charlottesville for seven years or in her words, “seven years as pastor and people.” Since Windy was a little girl, faith was a central part of her
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life. She said, “I had a lot of people that poured into me. There was this one evangelist at church that told me when I was a child, that God was going to use me someday.” Windy spoke of how the church was an incubator of sorts that protected her from some of the ills of city life. Growing up in New York City as a teenager was tough and had its struggles and temptations, but Windy gives church-going a lot of
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credit for keeping her out of the fray. “I didn’t fall into the pitfalls that many of my peers did. The church saved me,” she said. At church, she was able to see healthy families and intergenerational engagement on display on a regular basis and it was this village that raised her. She spoke about after church excursions to Long Island to see other neighborhoods and homes and said she
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“It’s been a unique situation. God has been in the midst of it all.” knew that “one day I would have one of my own.” Family In addition to co-pastoring Pilgrim Baptist Church with her husband and owning and managing the store, Windy has a central focus on her family. “My family is an amazing little family,” she said. They have a grown son and daughter and five grandchildren. They are a 26year military family and her husband Chris retired a few years back as a Major in the United States Army.
Twenty-six years of being a military family had its ups and downs but afforded them a lot of opportunities also. Windy remembers, “We were able to travel.” They have been able to see the world as a family and as a result, their children became very well-rounded adults. “Both of my children are musicians. They can sing. They play [instruments],” she emphasized. Even though things were tough, especially through some of Chris’ overseas deployments, Windy believes that everything that she hoped
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and prayed for as that little girl in New York has come true. She said, “It was everything I wanted. God gave me everything I wanted. I just sit back and I am in awe.” In somewhat of an irony, Windy gives a lot of credit for her faith and strength to her daughter Elizabeth. There were times when Chris was deployed that Windy found herself at some of her lowest points. “When I was depressed, my daughter stepped in.
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She grew up to help me to navigate through the family. I leaned on her for her support. It gave us a stronger mother and daughter bond.” It is often the case as parents, we believe that we have a God-given assignment to the child when in fact, at many points we may be the assignment of the child. Windy says of the situation, “It’s been a unique situation. God has been in the midst of it all.” The New Venture Windy was quick to remind me that, From Me2U, which was named by her grandson Jonathan and it is not a second-hand clothing store. “What I have to remind people of is that I am a buyer,” she said. For those who don’t know, a fashion retail buyer is responsible for filling retail stores with fashionable outfits that the consumer will purchase. When selecting pieces for the store, Windy deploys all of her unique complexity and her New York style. But much more than a mere store, Windy sees the store as a ministry. “I get to undress them and dress them,” she said. Windy says it is a great responsibility to see people and meet people where they are and also show them a vision of where they could be. Running a business is not new to Windy. Before she and the family went into full-fledged leadership at
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Scholarships are available Pilgrim seven years ago, they owned a restaurant and catering company and also a clothing boutique in Orange, Virginia. Of these moves, Windy emphasized that “I knew that God had a next and would give me a next.” Through all of their life travels, Windy is convinced that God will always have a next for them. She also doesn’t see a conflict between her work in the church and the business, saying, “Ministry is a business and business is a ministry. I am steward over God’s business, but it’s all God’s business.”
Next Windy has a donation rack that people can donate to and buy from where the proceeds are totally given to the Building Goodness Foundation, a nonprofit organization that designs, builds, renovates, and repairs structures to support the mission of community-based organizations. So, even though she is enterprising, Windy has made sure that this business is making a difference in the community broadly. You can make donations to the rack after 12 pm on Tuesday through Saturday.
From Me2U is also planning a new location in 2022 (to be announced soon). Stop by to see products you can’t typically find in Charlottesville or Virginia for that matter. Windy concludes by saying, my store is eclectic and has one-of-a-kind pieces. Visit From Me2U at 1754 Rio Hill Shopping Center | Charlottesville, VA or at www.fromme2youfashions. com and Facebook. They are celebrating their one-year anniversary.
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Have you been previously incarcerated? Do you need money to get your driving license, start a business, or pay initial rental deposits?
THE FOUNTAIN FUND MAY BE ABLE TO HELP
We provide low-interest loans (3-5%) to provide the elevation you need.
Located in the Jefferson School City Center, the Fountain Fund’s mission is to improve the lives of the formerly incarcerated through lending, financial education and community support.
To learn more, call Martize Tolbert, our Client Partner Navigator, at 434-234-3600.
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WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU REALLY LISTENED TO
THE UVA DEMOCRACY INITIATIVE INVITES YOU TO TAKE ONE SMALL STEP… We are seeking people of all backgrounds and beliefs from the Charlottesville area to take part in One Small Step, a collaboration between UVA and StoryCorps. It’s a chance to meet someone new with a different political view and get to know their story.
onesmallstep.virginia.edu
A PERSON
SIGN UP for a ONE SMALL STEP
WHO DOESN’T
conversation! We are dedicated to supporting sustained dialogue between members of our community.
SEE THE SCAN HERE TO SIGN UP
WORLD LIKE WE ARE PROUD TO PARTNER WITH THESE LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS
YOU DO? 32
VINEGAR HILL MAGAZINE WINTER 2021