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October 2017 fresh Issue #1
October 2017<br />
In loving memory...<br />
"Awww, girl you don't need to be nervous, you're<br />
with family."<br />
----Lorna Pickney<br />
Rest in joy Lorna, you will be beautifully<br />
remembered.<br />
7/12/74 - 10/05/17<br />
1
Where does the trash go?<br />
There was never a<br />
time in my life that I felt<br />
more lost than a few<br />
years ago when I decided<br />
to become an<br />
entrepreneur. In deciding<br />
how I wanted the world<br />
to view me as a business,<br />
I found myself sifting<br />
through the trash that<br />
was all my old hopes, dreams, was aspirations, and<br />
emotional baggage. Why hadn’t I pursued them?<br />
Why was I still holding on to them? Why were they<br />
just sitting there in my “mental trash can” unattended<br />
if I didn’t plan on going back for them? Was I<br />
planning on going back for them? Where does the<br />
trash go if I’m not going back for them?<br />
Then it hit me that I was lost because there<br />
was so much trash all around that I couldn’t clearly<br />
see the things that made me the real me anymore. I<br />
had never taken the trash out so there was years and<br />
years of mental clutter built up in there. It was<br />
keeping me from being able to feel like I was starting<br />
fresh on anything I had ever done, and I needed a<br />
fresh start this time like I had never had before. So<br />
where was I supposed to put this trash?<br />
I have always been in love with art and<br />
anything creative, but as I got older, became a<br />
mother, worked myself to the bone, and went through<br />
some pretty intense life experiences, creativeness as<br />
my emotional outlet dwindled. I never even realized<br />
how important creating was to me and my sanity until<br />
well into adulthood. Due to my stagnant creative<br />
flow, my mental trash was unknowingly piling up<br />
year after year.<br />
2<br />
Though the experiences were long gone, the trash<br />
they created in my subconscious was still wreaking<br />
havoc. I needed to create, and I realized that very<br />
thing was what I wanted people to know me for if<br />
nothing else. My continuous need to produce<br />
something from everything that is poured into me<br />
every day is how I dump my trash, and to keep<br />
pushing forward for my family and anyone else who<br />
depends on me, I must feel full and refreshed. I<br />
encourage you take a good look at how you dump<br />
your trash and how often because carrying it around<br />
with you stinks big time! Reclaiming the real me was<br />
tough, but I am glad I took her back and let go of all<br />
that trash so that I could finally have my fresh start.<br />
How are you dumping your trash?<br />
Best wishes,<br />
Avian Mills<br />
Publisher<br />
Who we are<br />
Founders<br />
Avian Mills and Joi Donaldson<br />
info@evincivemag.com<br />
Evincive Magazine is a free monthly online<br />
TM<br />
publication. Evincive Magazine is a trademark of<br />
Evincive Media, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in<br />
part without written permission is prohibited.
October 2017<br />
20<br />
Spotlight<br />
20 On Display Feature Steven Casanova<br />
Departments<br />
04 Editor's Note Joi Donaldson<br />
08 On Display Jim Schlett, "L Pos" Davis, and more<br />
26 Community Blu's Dance Studio<br />
26<br />
08 10 16<br />
3
A Fresh Perspective<br />
We are pleased to deliver you the inaugural edition of our digital magazine<br />
Evincive.<br />
Evincive strives to bring you the art and perspectives that go against the grain -<br />
those that tend to fall through the cracks in the melee of “notice me.” With every<br />
issue, we ask you to think outside the box - tilt your head and view what’s in<br />
front of you differently. Our first issue dances around the meanings of “fresh.”<br />
What does fresh look like to you? Is it the bright red of a bushel of cherries? The<br />
smell of a newly-cracked can of paint?<br />
How does fresh look when it comes from a differing source?<br />
How do you deal when the familiar now tastes, smells, feels outside the norm?<br />
How is fresh expanded? What causes it to adapt and transform as time goes on?<br />
These are the questions we ask this issue of Evincive. We speak to featured artist<br />
Steven Casanova who shares a perspective on food that is both artful and<br />
informative. Our artists within this issue stretch fresh beyond its limits.<br />
Curl up and enjoy being fresh in all the best ways.<br />
Joi Donaldson<br />
Editor-in-Chief<br />
Advertise with us!<br />
info@evincivemag.com<br />
Visit www.evincivemag.com<br />
for more information.<br />
4
5<br />
October 2017
6
7<br />
October 2017
Jim Schlett's interest in photography began<br />
with a gift of a Polaroid camera from grade school in<br />
New Jersey many years ago. He later obtained an AA<br />
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degree in Photography and Art and continued to take<br />
workshops and courses, which has produced a wide<br />
range of thoughtful and well composed photographs.<br />
In 2011, after working for the Federal government as<br />
an Executive in Washington D.C., he “refocused” on<br />
his love for the National Parks and photography. He<br />
is a long-standing member of the Reston<br />
Photographic Society (RPS), Northern Virginia<br />
Alliance of Camera Clubs and the former President of<br />
the League of Reston Artists (LRA). Jim's great love<br />
of travel resulted in a large collection of many<br />
Visual<br />
pictorial images of almost all of the national parks,<br />
cityscapes and nature in nearly all fifty states. His<br />
images have been described as intense colors, vibrant<br />
and “pop.”<br />
His photographs have been published in the<br />
Washington Post, Reston Magazine, Fairfax Times,<br />
Elan Magazine, annual reports, newspapers, exhibited<br />
in local galleries and art shows, and won numerous<br />
competitive awards. One of his images was displayed<br />
in the Art Takes Times Square Exhibition in New York<br />
City in June 2012. He was the Artist in Resident at the<br />
Whiskeytown national Recreational Area in California<br />
in 2016.<br />
For more info visit: http://photomanva.zenfolio.com/<br />
8
October 2017<br />
Lassen Two at Dusk<br />
Taken at Lassen National Park in California<br />
late in the afternoon and the soft, haunting<br />
colors in fact reminded me of the<br />
Shenandoahs. The ridges of the mountains<br />
was bathed in beautiful blue tone.<br />
Memories of Spring<br />
Taken at the Hillwood Estate in DC in the early<br />
spring. The view and surroundings reminded<br />
me of a painting by Monet and I have heard<br />
comments saying the same thing from people<br />
who have viewed the print.<br />
IP Whiskeytown Fire in the Sky Taken at Whisketown National Recreational Park as I had found a great spot for<br />
sunset and dusk pictures. After the sun had set and most folks left the beach area, the sky and lake came alive in the<br />
reflections.<br />
9
Visual<br />
Larry “L Pos” Davis,<br />
which stands for “Live Positive”<br />
creates artwork that is a visual<br />
display of him sharing his testimony,<br />
with the world, about the positive<br />
impact that God has had in his life.<br />
References of Faith, Love, Peace,<br />
Hope, and Perseverance, are<br />
commonly seen throughout his work,<br />
and are the 5 core foundational<br />
principles, for why his works exist.<br />
His mission is to positively influence<br />
anyone who gets a chance to view<br />
his work, and each story that lies<br />
within. "To God be all the glory. I'm<br />
just doing what He has called me to<br />
be...'A Light' (Matthew 5:16)," says<br />
Davis.<br />
"We create what we want to see, not what the world wants to show us. Be a Light, not a lampshade."<br />
--Larry “L Pos” Davis<br />
10
October 2017<br />
Gauge Your Dreams Outside the Box<br />
God has given each and every one of us beautiful<br />
dreams, passions, and ambitions, but these beautiful<br />
discoveries can not fully live to become what they are<br />
meant to be, unless we let them outside the box...our<br />
inner box, which is our comfort zone. In order for God<br />
to bless our talents and gifts, we must first trust Him,<br />
and then utilize what He has given us. We cannot keep<br />
hostage inside, what God has given us to share with the<br />
world. So whatever dreams, passions, ambitions, gifts<br />
and talents we possess, we must step outside our<br />
comfort zone and use what God has given us. Be free,<br />
and a prisoner of fear and failure no more! There are no<br />
limits outside the box. Start today, and let God's glory be<br />
seen through your good works.<br />
A Love 4 All Colors (Why Not America?)<br />
Why NOT America?! Why can't we just have a genuine love for all "Colors" of people? Why do we have to continue<br />
fighting back and forth about color and race, when none of us picked our nationalities in the first place? This wasn't a<br />
choice for anybody! Our beautiful skin tones and complexions were given to us by God Himself, and that's exactly what<br />
makes us all beautiful!<br />
A Night In Paradise (Heaven at Night)<br />
Late at night, while laying peacefully in your bed, have<br />
you ever just wondered, what paradise is really like?<br />
Yeah? Well I have too. Here's my vision, and<br />
expression of how, "A Night in Paradise", would look. I<br />
imagine it's a place so amazing, that once there, the<br />
mind still can't even comprehend it's beauty, and<br />
majesty. A place where the only thing that is constant is<br />
peace, in the very essence of the word. Everything<br />
there, is in it's rightful place. The breeze blows, as<br />
gentle as a child's touch. The climate is as perfect as,<br />
that vacation spot you've always wanted to escape to.<br />
And time stands still like you're not even moving.<br />
Everyday is the same as the last, and joy is never<br />
ending. Yes...this is exactly what "A Night in Paradise"<br />
would be like. Enjoy it in this moment, and maybe, just<br />
maybe, you can go there tonight.<br />
For more info visit:<br />
https://www.facebook.com/larry.l.davis.94<br />
11
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14
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October 2017<br />
Kizzie is a painter, collage artist, and Richmond, VA<br />
native.<br />
The Histrionic Mould<br />
This mixed media collage was created in reaction to the<br />
image of hyper-feminism, that society pastes onto<br />
women, in an effort to show that this is actually an<br />
atypical generalization of who we are as women today.<br />
Histrionic personality disorder is characterized by<br />
constant attention-seeking, emotional overreaction, and<br />
suggestibility. These are all characteristics that many<br />
men feel are "normal" for a woman, but these<br />
characteristics aren't present in all of us, and I feel<br />
women should continue to strive to change this image.<br />
We need a fresh new perspective on who we are because<br />
we are more than our looks and emotions.<br />
Kristina Trader's grandmother, whom she<br />
calls, "Nonny", is responsible for who she is today.<br />
Nonny always had a camera in her face since birth, which<br />
inspired her to get involved with photography. Since she<br />
was two years old, she lived with Nonny as the daughter<br />
she never had. The passion for photography just grew and<br />
eventually Trader took another class her senior year, and<br />
a course at John Tyler Community College when I<br />
graduated high school. A year after I graduated I became<br />
pregnant with my son, now eight years old. I put my<br />
passion on hold to take care of my son. Then, four years<br />
later, my daughter was born. My heart was now twice as<br />
big than it was five years prior. I got a job in retail, going<br />
to work every day and coming home to take care of the<br />
kids, then going back to work to repeat the process.<br />
Something was missing. After receiving a DSLR camera<br />
as a gift from her husband, she decided to start her own<br />
photography business, and she aspires to have her own<br />
store front within the next two years. "I have learned to<br />
never give up on my passion. If you find what makes you<br />
happy in life, never let it go," says Trader.<br />
Paix (Peace) My family and I went to the zoo one<br />
sunny afternoon, and I took this shot of the Fennic Fox<br />
through the glass. He was sleeping so peaceful, he was so<br />
relaxed like he didn't have a care in the world.<br />
First My Mother, Forever My Friend<br />
This particular day was muggy, and filled with mosquitos<br />
at the location my client and I chose. We were not<br />
prepared, no bug spray, only our sweet meat for these<br />
blood suckers to feast upon! This shot was totally at<br />
random. I was getting my settings on my camera right,<br />
because the exposure on the water was much higher than<br />
on land. I was just snapping away and came out with this<br />
gorgeous piece.<br />
For more info, visit: www.facebook.com/kristinatraderphotography<br />
15
Sylvester Was a Weird Kid<br />
Author: Terri L. Jones<br />
Genre: Juvenile Fiction<br />
Literary<br />
Author's Note:<br />
Before I started writing marketing for a<br />
living, I kept my creative juices flowing<br />
by writing short stories. I love all things<br />
spooky, eerie and out of the ordinary. I<br />
also love children. So, in the 1990s, I<br />
came up with this suspenseful children’s<br />
short story, which went on to win the<br />
Edith Thompson Award for Juvenile<br />
Fiction.<br />
Sylvester wasn’t weird like other kids in<br />
Joey’s class, the ones who were really quiet or the<br />
ones who lit fires in the back of the school.<br />
Sylvester was weird in a way that Joey had never<br />
seen before. He wore black shirts and black pants all<br />
the time, never jeans and t-shirts like the other kids,<br />
and he could make his voice sound like it was<br />
coming from the front of the room when he was<br />
sitting in the back. He had a pet bird that he carried<br />
on his shoulder to the 7-11, he ate spiders and<br />
beetles for fun, and no one had ever been inside his<br />
house.<br />
All the kids in the school called him “freak” and<br />
no one would sit next to him at the lunch table<br />
because he always said he had things like bat wings<br />
and mouse tails between his Wonder bread. But Joey<br />
liked Sylvester because if you could talk him into<br />
playing soccer at recess he always could kick the<br />
ball harder than any other kid (no one ever could<br />
block his kicks). And Sylvester could definitely tell<br />
a good story.<br />
Sylvester was always making up stories, like the<br />
time he brought a plain old gray rock for show-andtell<br />
and said it had supernatural powers or last year<br />
when he told the teacher that his mother was a<br />
witch.<br />
Photography by Kizzie<br />
So when Sylvester told Joey that he had a glass eye,<br />
Joey just laughed. Joey knew real people didn’t have<br />
glass eyes, just like real people didn’t have vampire<br />
teeth and dogs couldn’t talk. That stuff was just in<br />
the movies. Sylvester was just a weird kid.<br />
Sylvester made up this particular story one day<br />
on the playground when Joey caught him “giving<br />
the evil eye,” as the older kids called it, to one of the<br />
little kids on the playground. Sylvester had this<br />
really funny way of looking at you. That was part of<br />
the reason the other kids made fun of him. If you<br />
were standing beside him and he looked over at you,<br />
one eye looked at you but the other one looked<br />
straight ahead. It made you feel really creepy when<br />
he did it and it made the younger kids run away<br />
crying.<br />
“Why do you have to scare the kindergarten kids<br />
like that?” Joey asked when he saw the little girl<br />
crying behind the monkey bars.<br />
“I have a glass eye,” Sylvester said, “I can’t help<br />
it. I can’t make it move like my other eye.”<br />
Joey just snickered. “You don’t have to try to<br />
fool me.”<br />
“Do you want to see it? I can take it out and you<br />
can even hold it?” Sylvester said.<br />
16
October 2017<br />
Just as Sylvester said this, Liza, one of the girls in<br />
their class, walked by. The boys in Joey’s fourth-grade<br />
class didn’t really like the girls much, but you couldn’t<br />
really count Liza as one of the girls exactly. She never<br />
wore dresses and she didn’t mind getting dirty like the<br />
other girls. And everyone said she had “gazelle legs”<br />
because she could run faster than anyone in the class.<br />
All the boys, including Joey, thought Liza was ok. Joey<br />
had even seen Sylvester talking to her once or twice,<br />
probably showing her his magic rock or something.<br />
Liza stopped in her tracks. “Yeah, do it, do it!” she<br />
said and Sylvester grinned, sliding his eyelid back and<br />
digging his thumb and forefinger until they practically<br />
disappeared into his eye socket.<br />
Joey felt his stomach do a somersault.<br />
He turned to Liza whose eyes were still glued to<br />
Sylvester. “He’s just making up stories again,” Joey<br />
said.<br />
Liza just shrugged and walked away.<br />
Sylvester looked after her. Then squinting his eyes<br />
up tightly, he glared at Joey. It wasn’t exactly his usual<br />
“evil eye,” but it was close enough.<br />
“You’ll see” was all he said and walked away. The<br />
hairs prickled on the back of Joey’s neck.<br />
At the end of the day as Joey was chaining his<br />
bicycle up outside the school, Sylvester came up to<br />
him. “I’ve got my eye on you,” Sylvester whispered to<br />
Joey, winking over and over. Boy, was that Sylvester a<br />
weird kid.<br />
When Joey slid his books in the rack under his desk<br />
the next morning, he heard something hit the floor.<br />
Looking down, he saw a greenish marble rolling across<br />
the floor toward the back of the classroom. He sure<br />
hadn’t put it there. The teacher didn’t let you have toys<br />
in class; she had a whole drawer full of stuff she had<br />
taken from kids.<br />
The marble rolled all the way to the coat room and<br />
stopped. Just as Joey was about to go grab it, the<br />
teacher walked in so he sat back down. When the bell<br />
rang for lunch, he walked to the back of the classroom<br />
and looked for the marble. It was gone. He was a little<br />
disappointed because it didn’t look like any other<br />
marble he had ever seen before and would’ve<br />
looked cool in his marble jar.<br />
Sylvester wasn’t in school that day or the day<br />
after when Joey noticed the marble tucked snugly<br />
behind the teacher’s chair leg. It was big and green<br />
and glinting in the sunlight. When he tried to pass a<br />
note to Liza about it, the marble rolled out from<br />
beneath the teacher’s chair and slammed so loudly<br />
against the wall that it made Joey jump. No one<br />
else in the room seemed to notice.<br />
By the end of the day, just like the day before,<br />
the marble had vanished.<br />
Joey caught up with Liza as they left school.<br />
“Have you seen Sylvester lately?” he asked her<br />
since she was really the only other kid he had even<br />
seen talk to Sylvester.<br />
She scratched her head. “I don’t think so, not<br />
even in his backyard,” Liza said. “He’s usually out<br />
there blowing up something or looking through his<br />
telescope.”<br />
Joey didn’t know they lived on the same street.<br />
“Yeah, he’s sort of a weird kid,” said Joey.<br />
Just then, something hard hit him right between<br />
the shoulder blades. He spun around to see if some<br />
kid had lobbed a rock at him, but there was no one<br />
in sight. Whatever had hit him seemed to instead be<br />
dribbling around – as if gathering steam -- inside<br />
his backpack. Then with even more force than<br />
before, it pelted him right where his dad had told<br />
him his kidneys were. “Oweeeeee,” he squealed in<br />
pain.<br />
“What’s the matter with you?” Liza stared at<br />
him funny.<br />
He yanked the backpack off before the crazy<br />
jumping bean inside could cream him again.<br />
“Ummm, I’m ok, see you…” he managed to get out<br />
before taking off at a fast clip to find a safe place,<br />
away from the other kids, to let his attacker loose<br />
from his backpack.<br />
17
Literary<br />
Sylvester Was a Weird Kid continued...<br />
Author: Terri L. Jones<br />
When he reached the bike rack, he dropped the backpack to the<br />
ground. He unzipped it slowly, his heart hammering so hard in his<br />
ears that he couldn’t hear anything else. He slowly peered inside.<br />
There, at the bottom beside a chewing gum wrapper and a dirty<br />
penny, lay the marble. The sun hit its glassy surface and it seemed to<br />
wink up at him.<br />
Joey waited a few moments to see if the marble would begin to fly<br />
around again but it seemed to have worn itself out and was now<br />
completely still. He picked it up and held it in the palm of his hand to<br />
get a closer look. It was definitely bigger than any marble he had ever<br />
seen and it was mostly green but it had a small black center and a few<br />
pinkish streaks through it. Joey stared at it for a really long time. He<br />
rolled it around in his palm a few times, but each time, the green part<br />
rolled back up to face him like it was weighted or something. It was<br />
hard for Joey to tear his eyes away from the marble.<br />
On the ride home, he didn’t put the marble back in his backpack<br />
but held it tightly in his fist. Joey knew, without looking, that the<br />
green part was facing up the whole way.<br />
Joey thought he had left the marble on his dresser when he went to<br />
dinner that night but somehow when he took his plate to the kitchen,<br />
the marble was sitting by the doorway as if it were waiting for him.<br />
For the rest of the night, he kept it tucked between his thumb and<br />
forefinger as he did his homework, as he watched TV, even as he<br />
took a bath. When he was in the tub, he heard the phone ring in the<br />
hallway. He heard his mother say, “I’ll tell him…ok. Goodbye.”<br />
She opened the bathroom door an inch. “That was your friend<br />
Sylvester, honey,” she said through the crack in the door. “He said<br />
he’ll be back in school tomorrow. And he also said something odd.<br />
He said ‘tell Joey I don’t like water in my eyes.’” His mother<br />
laughed. “That Sylvester is a strange child.”<br />
The next day, Joey couldn’t decide whether to take the marble to<br />
school. If he did, it was bound to cause trouble. If he didn’t, he was<br />
afraid it wouldn’t be there when he got home. But all morning as he<br />
got dressed, the marble kept catching his eye from its place on the<br />
dresser. Finally he just grabbed it and tossed it in his backpack.<br />
During the whole ride to school, as he pumped the pedals, the marble<br />
thudded heavily against his back, almost as if keeping beat with some<br />
tune Joey couldn’t hear.<br />
Inspired words<br />
We understand that sometimes<br />
it's hard to get your creative<br />
juices flowing, so here's a<br />
couple of prompts you can use<br />
to get your wheels turning. Use<br />
either of the prompts below to<br />
craft some genre of creative<br />
writing and submit it to us to be<br />
included in a future issue. Make<br />
sure to indicate the prompt<br />
number in which you are writing<br />
from.<br />
Prompt #1:<br />
Tell about a time when an<br />
unexpected transformation<br />
changed how you felt about<br />
something or someone.<br />
Prompt #2:<br />
Tell about the hardest thing you<br />
have ever had to let go of in<br />
your life.<br />
18
October 2017<br />
At school, Joey looked around for Sylvester but<br />
his seat was still empty when the teacher called roll.<br />
He guessed eating “disease-carrying rodents,” as his<br />
mother called them, had finally caught up with him.<br />
Joey came back to his desk early after lunch.<br />
Sometimes when his dog was locked up in his cage<br />
all day, a few minutes of running around outside<br />
would calm right down. Maybe marbles were like<br />
dogs and they just didn’t like to be cooped up. But<br />
when he unzipped his backpack and looked inside,<br />
the marble was nowhere to be found. Only the<br />
chewing gum and the penny were at the bottom of<br />
the bag. He turned the backpack upside down and<br />
shook it, but it was no use. The marble was gone.<br />
He felt his stomach drop to his knees, kind of like<br />
when he left his brand-new baseball glove in the<br />
rain all night.<br />
“Where could it be? Where could it be?” he<br />
wondered, his mind spinning so fast that he didn’t<br />
even notice someone standing behind him. When he<br />
turned around, he practically crashed right into<br />
Sylvester.<br />
“Looking for this?” Sylvester asked, and in his<br />
hand was the marble, all green and twinkling in the<br />
sunlight. Sylvester was winking at Joey again.<br />
When Joey went to scoop the marble out of his<br />
open hand, Sylvester raised his hand to that winking<br />
eye and Joey heard a kind of popping sound. When<br />
Sylvester dropped his hand again, it was empty and<br />
instead of winking, Sylvester was now just staring<br />
at Joey. Joey blinked at the bright-green eye looking<br />
back at him.<br />
Yep, that Sylvester definitely was a weird kid.<br />
Terri L. Jones<br />
When Terri was a kid, she would climb into a tree and read while her friends played kickball and rode bikes below.<br />
She started writing her own poems stories in elementary school, and from that point on, never veered from “wanting<br />
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Spotlight<br />
Steven Casanova<br />
We met at Broad Appetit, clad with<br />
signage and a wealth of knowledge about<br />
food and the spirit behind it. His pace was<br />
eager; his work full being able to tell it's<br />
enjoyable - a labor of love. “Have you<br />
heard of the Black Belt?”, he asked myself<br />
and the couple beside me. He then takes us<br />
on a journey that culminates into The<br />
Richmond Cookbook. Here, he shares his<br />
passion.<br />
Walking into his joint exhibit within The<br />
Anderson at VCU named Reach Out and<br />
Touch, you first come across a color-coded<br />
map of Richmond. Highlighted with red,<br />
blue, yellow and white, I learn it’s the<br />
demographic makeup of the city and If<br />
you’re familiar, you can tell which area is<br />
“Food address all your<br />
senses at once. You tap<br />
into so many memories<br />
- good or bad.”<br />
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October 2017<br />
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home to who. As you walk farther, you<br />
reach an arch of recipes strung from the<br />
ceiling. As you visited the space, you were<br />
asked to add your favorite recipe. They run<br />
the gambit of vegan, your college go-tos<br />
remixed, expensive full-course creations,<br />
gag recipes and fully fleshed out dishes.<br />
Along the walls are photos of meals inside<br />
of kitchens.<br />
Steven Casanova is a photographer, a<br />
socially aware artist and lover of food. We<br />
sat on bean bags in The Anderson at VCU<br />
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“I have been humbled<br />
hearing their stories<br />
across the spectrum”<br />
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October 2017
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as his audio installation played in one room<br />
and the slideshow of video he took around<br />
the city ran across the walls of the other.<br />
He shares growing up eating both Puerto<br />
Rican and “American” foods. Boxed<br />
macaroni, Farm Fresh chicken, Hamburger<br />
Helper - the foods many of us hold with<br />
special consideration as staple faves. His<br />
tastes for authentic Puerto Rican food grew<br />
in college where he decided to travel deeper<br />
into his gastronomic roots The nuisance and<br />
love for it grew deeper.<br />
“I need to look at this<br />
differently and realize<br />
that every interaction is<br />
the art”<br />
What the Health is brought into the<br />
conversation where we laugh about the<br />
hyperbolic nature of the director who gives<br />
off the hard-hitting vibes of Michael Cera.<br />
“You were like the second person to tell me<br />
about it which made me say, ‘I’m not<br />
watching it. Too many people like it’”, he<br />
laughs as we begin to discuss eating habits.<br />
“The problem I have with the idea that<br />
veganism will cure everything is that it<br />
ignores the fact that we just eat too much.<br />
It steers the conversation in a good<br />
direction but it still doesn’t address the<br />
overeating.” Sitting down with Steven is<br />
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October 2017<br />
like encountering Dan Pashman who is<br />
ready and able to open a new world of<br />
food and information to you. In creating<br />
The Richmond Cookbook, he has spoken<br />
with all walks of life - a woman whose<br />
most precious meal is a tomato sandwich,<br />
someone who finally found a delicious<br />
Filipino restaurant after living 20 years in<br />
the city, a family who shared both their<br />
photos and their country’s dishes. His<br />
work takes him into one of the most<br />
intimate spaces of home - the kitchen.<br />
On October 6th, 2017, Steven and Reach<br />
Out and Touch closed the exhibit with a<br />
potluck and open mic with donations and<br />
benefits going to aid small Puerto Rican<br />
farmers recovering from Hurricane Maria.<br />
Reach out to him to find out more ways<br />
you can help this effort.<br />
Story and photography by Joi Donaldson<br />
Steven has discovered that it’s possible to<br />
tackle the toughest mindsets and stances<br />
over a good meal.<br />
For more info, visit: http://www.stevencasanova.com/richmondcookbook/<br />
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Evincive sat down with 10 year old Zaniyah<br />
Moore and Coach Aishah “Blu” Ramsey after<br />
dance troupe practice.<br />
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Empower<br />
Evincive: Why do you love dance?<br />
Zaniyah: I love dance because a friend taught me<br />
how to dance and I felt inspired by her. I started to<br />
like dance after that.<br />
E: You’ve been trusted to lead many classes, from<br />
troupe to Tiny TuTu. You’re basically Blu when<br />
she isn’t here. How has that responsibility been for<br />
you?<br />
Z: When Blu first called me to lead I was scared. I<br />
didn’t know what to do. There’s another girl in our<br />
class Blu uses to lead so I started copying her until I<br />
got the hang of it.<br />
E: What does it feel like to be one of the girls Blu<br />
counts on?<br />
Z: I feel like a leader.<br />
E: What does Blu’s Dance Studio mean to you?<br />
Z: It makes me feel like when I grow up I can be a<br />
professional dancer. But for now, when I go to<br />
parties, I’ll be getting it.<br />
(Aishah asks Zaniyah a question)<br />
A: How do you feel you’ve changed since you’ve<br />
been at Blu’s Dance Studio?<br />
Z: Well… after all the times you told me I had two<br />
left feet I feel like I’ve improved! (laughter)<br />
Dance Like<br />
Nobody's<br />
Watching<br />
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October 2017<br />
Z: I am proud of myself<br />
A: I am very proud of you too. You came in here shy<br />
with two left feet to now leading different dances. I<br />
know I can call and count on you to get the job done.<br />
You do very well.<br />
E: So Zaniyah has explained how much Blu’s Dance<br />
Studio means to her. Tell me how Zaniyah’s presence<br />
here makes you feel?<br />
A: I love her presence. I can count on her. She has<br />
moved forward past obstacles she didn’t think she<br />
could overcome. She’s here five days a week. Her<br />
social skills have blossomed. We love her here and<br />
when she’s not she’s surely missed.<br />
Meet Zaniyah and Coach Blu at Blu’s Dance Studio<br />
at 11023 Hull Street Road to dance like nobody’s<br />
watching!<br />
Blu's Dance Studio<br />
(804) 621-5038<br />
For more information, please visit:<br />
http://www.blusdancestudio.com/<br />
Interview and photography by Joi<br />
Donaldson<br />
PINOCCHIO $12<br />
Saturday, October 14, 2017<br />
Saturday, October 14, 2017<br />
11:00 am<br />
1:00 pm<br />
Presented by VA Rep on Tour! Fun for all ages! Imagine Geppetto’s surprise when the puppet he<br />
carves from a most unusual piece of wood suddenly springs to life. The wooden boy, named<br />
Pinocchio, becomes like a son to the kindly old wood carver who provides him with a loving home.<br />
But the mischievous Pinocchio has other ideas and sets off on a series of fantastical adventures.<br />
Along the way he learns valuable lessons that lead him back home to Geppetto and earn him the<br />
thing he most desires – to be a real boy. Based on the novel by Carlo Collodi. Book and Lyrics by<br />
Bruce Craig Miller. Music by Michael Strong.<br />
GET TICKETS<br />
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Glen Allen Cultural Arts Center<br />
2880 Mountain Road PO Box<br />
1249 Glen Allen, VA 23060
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