DARN IT I missed the Feast....

I had high hopes and assured expectations that I would be able to post my delayed review of Feast RVA's September dinner event before they hosted their new event yesterday (Sunday December 7th).  But alas, last week was too busy and crazy to allow THAT to happen *fist shake*  

I was also very sad that I was unable to make it to the dinner last night, the last one of 2015!  Darn prior commitments...the holiday season...Oy, amirite? 

So better late than never...?  I don't even know.  But I can at least promote this great event (for those of you who haven't heard of it yet) by giving a recap of September's Feast RVA, as well as some general info about last night's dinner. 

The goal of Feast RVA is to identify and reward the variety of creative projects coming out of Richmond. Through recurring public dinners, they "democratically" fund new and emerging art makers (i.e. we take a vote).  Hope you all enjoy my recap and check out the next one for yourself!!

Feast RVA September Dinner

I was fortunate enough to attend my 2nd ever Feast RVA event on September 6th, 2015, at Black Iris Gallery at 321 W. Broad Street.  And almost like a dream come true, the meal was catered by Tarrants this time (one of my favorite restaurants).  Music before and after dinner, as well as during voting time, was played by Patrick Bates.

As always, MC's Josh Epperson and Johnny Hugel took to the stage to set up the night's possible grantrees-to-be.  

But unlike Feasts in the past, which had three entries, there were only two entries this time:  

1. Cocoa Manna presented by Travis Bjorklund
2. Big Planet, Small World presents Dear Richmond presented by Julie Pennini
3. (The third group was supposed to be the Bijou Film Society, but they had to back out due to being booked for a moving screening at The Byrd Theater - not exactly a bad thing ey?!)

Coco Manna was presented (as listed above) by a guy named Travis Bjorklund.  Apparently he and his wife have a passion for "finding and sharing the world's best small-farm cocoa beans" and their health benefits, and really believe they can get it off the ground with some helpful funding.  They hoped to accomplish two things with the help of Feast.  1) To know where it could be sold successfully in Richmond, and 2) to send it to a lab to be able to determine its nutrition levels/how healthy it really is.  They need the intel on the RVA market because their batches are roasted ("with lots of love") in Culpeper, VA, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  So while they're still local to the state, not so much this city.

Big Planet, Small World presents Dear Richmond is actually a small part of a much bigger project.   Big Planet, Small World believes in "connecting cultures through creativity" (as stated on their Facebook page) and the presenter Julie Pennini even as an Instagram to post pictures from the project as it develops.  This specific smaller part revolved around the UCI World Biking Championships that were coming to Richmond later in the month.  Dear Richmond was her global exhibition idea for the bike race in particular, which was to have people from all over the world send in postcards to Richmond regarding the bike race.  Then someone from here in town would pick one and respond to it.  The goal was to "connect cultures and celebrate our unity while highlighting what makes us unique"  (according to an event page for Dear Richmond). Pennini said postcards were sent from all over the world expressing their love for their city or country for the whole world to see (I LOVED this idea).

Then it was time to get food, vote, and EAT.

In the end, Big Planet, Small World won.  They held their Dear Richmond event at Art Works Inc. at 320 Hull Street.  

All-in-all, it was another great event.  A creative member of the community was helped.  The food was delicious (of course).  The music was lovely.  The people were lovely.  And I even made a new business contact with the VMFA (hopefully, so far it appears I was tricked into a date, but...we'll see).

This was an especially important Feast however, as there was an important announcement made at the end.  Founders Josh Epperson and Johnny Hugel took the stage to announce that Hugel, an organizer and one of the founders of the semi-quarterly-annual event (lol), would be stepping down from the Feast family.  No terrible reason behind it - just felt that it was time to move on.  But it was very cool to be there for that announcement and his speech.  Good luck in the future Mr. Hugel! PROPS!

Feast RVA December Dinner
As always, last night's Feast RVA dinner was hosted at Black Iris Gallery (address above) and doors opened at 6:00 pm.

The options on the ballot (from their event website):

1. Createspace presented by Elliot Roth
2. Carverponics presented by Arthur Kay 
3. Code for RVA Brigade presented by Andreas Addison 

Createspace wants to create a STEAM-focused co-working space a block from Virginia Union University. We aim to offer educational programs and workshops to give artists and makers new tools for creation and starting businesses.

Carverponics is a permaculture outreach for local youth.

Code for RVA Brigade is a group empowering Richmond's citizens' collective abilities to advance how they interact with local government through improving access to data, information and services.  (I actually saw this group at RVA Makerfest last year and thought they were awesome!)

Food was provided by En Su Boca.  Music was TBD.  Still no postings on who took the grand prize last night.

Keep an eye on their Facebook for the next one!  And for more information or to learn more about past grantees and their progress, check out the Feast RVA website here!