Carving out community: Woodworking enthusiast teaches traditional technique
Stepping into Joshua Farnsworth’s Wood and Shop schoolhouse is like wrenching open a time capsule. Traditional woodworking instruments, including saws and handheld shaving tools, dangle from pegs and hug the surrounding white walls. Walking among the homemade workbenches and rustling up a rush of sawdust, you slip back a few centuries. Farnsworth began to home […]
Comfort in calligraphy: Local artist disseminates hope with engraved jewelry
One night when artist Laurel Smith was sleeping, her mind projected her future onto the backs of her eyes. She dreamt up a whirring dremel tool, a jewelry-making instrument then somewhat unfamiliar to her, and awoke with a newfound sense of purpose. A D.C.-based event planner in her 20s at the time, Smith sensed she […]
Writing past wrongs: Author Jocelyn Johnson looks for new American truths
When local author and teacher Jocelyn Johnson started receiving Twitter direct messages from literary giant Roxane Gay, she thought to herself, “Something good is going to happen.” Just like that, a series of emphatic pings announced her arrival into a rarefied sphere: Johnson’s story, “Control Negro,” was hand-selected by Gay to be featured in Best […]
Homegrown hero: Lucy Dacus on newfound fame and trusting the process
Lucy Dacus is as humble as they come. For starters, she recently secured an address in her hometown of Richmond. A move to a major arts hub like L.A. or NYC? Not on the radar. She exclusively speaks about her self-titled act using the plural pronoun “we,” naturally tugging her bandmates into the conversation and […]
Travel guidance: Erika Howsare channels a late Victorian explorer for her new book
Author Erika Howsare first made acquaintance with Isabella Bird as an undergrad, while sifting through a reading assignment. Bird, a Victorian British traveler, had lived and written nearly a century and a half before Howsare sat studying; still, she felt akin to the historic figure, making note of their mutual affinity for travel. Years later, […]