From Sunday’s column:

The Virginia Museum of Transportation and the Historical Society of Western Virginia have received a $5,000 grant from the Virginia Foundation of the Humanities to fund “Cotton to Silk,” an oral history project that will collect tales of the railroad.

“Cotton to Silk” has been gathering stories from the transportation museum’s African-American Norfolk & Western Heritage Celebration group, a group of retired railroad employees who meet monthly at the museum, as well as other employees of the Norfolk & Western and Norfolk Southern railroads.

Their testimonies will be assembled into a book and an online exhibition, and be made part of the museum’s “African American Heritage on the Norfolk & Western 1930-1970” exhibit.

Historian and author Sheree Scarborough is supervising the project, in consultation with Ted Delaney, chairman of the Washington and Lee University history department, C.W. Sullivan, a Hollins University faculty member and professor emeritus from East Carolina University, and George Kegley, former director of the Historical Society and a retired business editor of The Roanoke Times.

From Sunday’s column:

Photo by REBECCA BARNETT | The Roanoke Times. This opening shows a portion of the Taubman Museum of Art’s IMAX theater space that was never finished.

The Taubman Museum of Art has begun offering an unusual behind-the-scenes tour.

For $25 ($20 for members), this hour -long tour will take visitors to the heart of what makes the museum’s signature building work — its state-of-the-art boiler room and air conditioning units, its heated and air-conditioned dock for receiving artwork, its massive freight elevator.

The artistically inclined might wonder what the appeal would be, but the mechanically inclined might find it fascinating.

The tours will take place during the museum’s new “Thursday Night Live” events, which started this week. The museum has extended its Thursday hours until 9 p.m., and programming for these evenings also includes live music and, starting July 18, art classes for adults.

Conducted by museum facilities supervisor Kris Stober, the behind-the-scenes tours even stop by the cavernous second-floor space above the museum’s theater, where an IMAX projector was originally intended to go.

(For those curious what it would take to put an IMAX in there , Stober explained that it would involve the demolition of the unfinished room’s concrete floor. A more financially feasible option would be to turn it into another gathering space or gallery, though the room would have to be finished and brought up to code.)

Click here to read the rest of the column.

Theater reviewer Nona Nelson shares her thoughts on “Stuart Little.” If you’ve seen the play yourself, feel free to share what you thought in the comments.

Roanoke Children’s Theater’s ‘Stuart Little’ lively and fun
By Nona Nelson

Generations of children have been captivated by the adventures of “Stuart Little” — and Roanoke Children’s Theatre chose to introduce the tiny hero to his newest young fans in an energetic musical.

The production has all the key ingredients for an entertaining experience for youngsters: colorful characters, not-too-scary villains and whimsical songs. Mixed well by the company’s artistic director, Pat Wilhelms, this retelling of the tales of the metropolitan mouse is lively and fun.

Based on the 1945 book by E.B. White, the play revolves around Stuart, the second son of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick C. Little of New York City. Stuart, unlike his older brother George, is inexplicably a mouse . No matter; his parents love him, make him tiny clothes and instill him with confidence.

The play follows most of the stories told in White’s book, which is more a series of short vignettes from Stuart’s life than a cohesive story.

Stuart shares his home with the Little’s pet Snowbell — the original grumpy cat — and natural cat-and-mouse tension develops. But Stuart has a taste for adventure, and finds it as he explores Manhattan. He captains a boat in a race in Central Park. He dodges dogs. He becomes enamored with Margalo, a bird living on his apartment building’s roof.

Click here to read the full review.

Photo by Rebecca Barnett. David Ramey draws at his kitchen table.

Every morning David Ramey sits down at his kitchen table and draws what’s on his mind.

He might be responding to a news story that bothers him, or re- creating a beautiful mountain view he saw years ago.

Or he might set down on paper one of his memories of Henry Street, back when its clubs were hopping and its businesses thrived, before that center of Roanoke’s black business community and its surrounding neighborhoods were demolished through urban renewal.

Roanoke County folk art collector Bill Jones said the historical importance of Ramey’s Henry Street drawings can’t be overestimated.

“There are no photographs that exist of the scenes that he remembers,” Jones said. “If he hadn’t done this, that history would be gone.”

“It’s a history that nobody else is telling right now, and most of the people that could tell it, they’re dead,” said Charlene Graves, a member of the Roanoke Arts Commission and past organizer of the Henry Street Heritage Festival.

With Graves’ help, Ramey, 74, self-published a book, “The Times and Life on Henry Street,” that records his memories of that lost era in words and pictures. In the book’s introduction he writes, “Anything I see, I can put to paper or canvas. So let me take you back in time … to the glory days of Henry Street.”

Click here to read the rest of the story and view a photo gallery.

To fund its new digital projection system, The Lyric Theatre turned to Kickstarter, and ended up surpassing its $50,000 goal. (And there’s still a few hours left before the campaign ends.)

By a nose, the Lyric’s campaign has edged out Blacksburg tech entrepreneurs Josh Milas and Alex Obenauer’s Kickstarter for Mail Pilot, a new email organizing program, as Southwest Virginia’s largest in terms of funds raised.

From my Inbox to you:

Local Quarterly Chronicles Roanoke for Issue 2

Magazine that explores U.S. towns chooses the Star City for its sophomore edition

HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA — Local Quarterly is an experiment in hyper-local journalism focusing on America’s overlooked communities. The magazine will chronicle one town per issue, in each of the 50 states. The first issue was released in January 2013 and featured the Borough of Jersey Shore, Pa.  In the second edition, Local investigated the Star City of the South, Roanoke, Va.

As a group of outsiders, Local’s collective of contributors travels to each town for an extended period of time, discovering the unique qualities and quirks of each place. In this issue, they collaborated with Roanoke-based writers and artists (e.g. Roland Lazenby, Mary Bishop, Jes Gearing and Tiffany Robinette, to name a few). And through those partnerships, they generated a 116-page magazine with a plethora of germane and historical pieces. In this issue, stories range from the more weighty, like racial remapping due to “urban renewal” programs, to the more whimsical, like Happy’s Flea Market and a pseudo-fictional short about Bill Murray. Read more »

A single sheet of a paper like construction material called Tyvek stretches along one wall, with incredibly detailed scenes cut out by hand all along its length that depict people moving through a surreal city.

Nearby a paper tornado rises 14 feet to the ceiling, with dozens of toy soldiers suspended between the paper strips.

That’s just a sample of the meticulously crafted, thought-provoking art assembled in “Papercuts,” a traveling exhibition on display at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University until Sept. 14.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

From my Inbox to you:

3rd annual RoboParade is Saturday

Show off your robot — or just celebrate robotics! — this Saturday, June 8, at the 3rd annual RoboParade.

The event is organized by the Roanoke Blacksburg Technology Council and Roanoke Robotics Club, and hosted by the Science Museum of Western Virginia.

• 10:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Pre-qualifications, Workshops and Table-top displays (Science Museum)
• 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Parade (Center in the Square atrium)

The parade features robot floats constructed and programmed by students of all ages. The robot floats are programmed to stop and start without human help. Floats may have extra mechanisms and programming to show off during the parade route.

The theme this year, in honor of the reinvented Science Museum, is butterflies! Build a robot that represents the new butterfly exhibit at the Science Museum! We will award participants with a free pass to the butterfly garden (admission to Science Museum is still required).

Click here for further details, rules and registration. 

Courtesy of Facebook and Ripple Roanoke:

[Where] Ripple, 112 Market Street SE, Roanoke, Virginia 24011
[When] Saturday, June 15, 2013
[Time] 12:00pm until 6:00pm

Ripple is hosting a Show and Signing with the infamous Robbi Cohn! She is a legendary in her chosen field of Live Music Photography.

Robbi Cohn has been photographing musicians since 1984, specializing in images of the Grateful Dead. Her body of work is extensive and prolific and includes many other artists besides the Dead: Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Rolling Stones, Bruce Hornsby, Sheryl Crow and hundreds of other performers.

Jerry Garcia as captured by Robbi Cohn on June 30, 1995 in Pittsburgh.

Many of her images are iconic and have appeared across the gamut of musical art. Robbi’s work has appeared in Deadbase, Relix Magazine and a myriad of other media. She has done CD work for Bruce Hornsby, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Steve Winwood. Her images have been used for officially released stamps from Mongolia and Montserrat and have also appeared on J Garcia merchandise hangtags.

She was the first photographer to have ever been licensed by the Grateful Dead and is the only photographer who still retains licensing. Robbi’s primary motivation has been to “preserve the memories” and she continues to capture images from the music she so dearly loves. Music is Robbi’s rasison d’etre!

We hope you will join us for this magical journey down memory lane!
https://www.facebook.com/events/138908822935400/?fref=ts

River Laker

In addition to the press release below, former PechaKucha organizer David Verde (who runs our Style Street blog) emailed me this statement:

” Running these events without a large planning team is a full-time job, and under the agreement with PechaKucha’s global office, as organizer I couldn’t accept payment for putting them on. My businesses sacrificed greatly last year from the time I committed to PechaKucha. Professionally speaking, I couldn’t make that mistake two years in a row. I took six months, but I’m happy that someone has finally stepped up to keep these events going in our area. Hopefully they will be able to continue the events at the same standards I tried to set last year so PechaKucha can continue to grow.”

From my Inbox to you:

The mirco presentation event, PechaKucha Nights will continue this summer with a new director. The local chapter of the global event, founded by David Verde who also served as director in 2012, is passing the torch after organizing four successful 20×20 nights in Roanoke and Blacksburg last year.

River Laker, founder and president of Silver Seas PR in Roanoke, will take the helm of PechaKucha SWVA for its Sophomore year of events. Laker has stated that Ride Solutions will act as a financial sponsor for all of its planned 2013 events. Currently, Laker plans to up the frequency of events from quarterly to bi-monthly, however the event is unlikely to see as any changes of venues and locale, under the new direction. All 2013 PechaKucha Nights are slated to happen in downtown Roanoke. Laker does intend to continue inviting speakers from the NRV as well as inviting speakers for Lynchburg.

The first PechaKucha Night is tentatively planned for the last week in July.

For futher questions or statements, please contact David Verde via email at angel@angelspov.com or phone 540-550-8102. You can contact River Laker via e-mail at contact@silverseaspr.com. Read more »