511 N. Adams St., Richmond
Created in October 2020 by artists Hamilton Glass and Eli McMullen as part of the Mending Walls Project, this mural honors the work of the late Lorna Pinckney, the founder of Tuesday Verses, a weekly open mic poetry and music series.
This mural is named after a 2014 documentary series that featured work by Pinckney and other Black cultural and artistic leaders in the city.
Pinckney started Tuesday Verses at Tropical Soul restaurant on Second Street in 2002. While the space welcomed everyone, it centered Black artistic expression. Its Jackson Ward location was also significant. Known in the early 20th century as the Harlem of the South, Jackson Ward was a leading Black cultural center at the time, as epitomized by its most prominent entertainment venue, the Hippodrome Theater. When Tropical Soul closed in 2011, largely due to repeated police intrusions to enforce a new noise ordinance driven by neighborhood gentrification, the weekly gathering moved to Addis Ethiopian restaurant in Shockoe Bottom.
Pinckney died one week before the 15th anniversary celebration of Tuesday Verses in 2017, but her leadership and vision that created Tuesday Verses illustrates the burgeoning artistic and cultural scene led by Black artists that took root in the city during the late 1990s and early 2000s. It served as a critical catalyst for what has evolved into the city’s present-day explosive artistic and creative scenes.
To visit nearby:
- Urban Hang Suite Social Café at 304 E. Broad St.
- Addis Ethiopian Restaurant at 9 N. 17th St.
To learn more:
- Mending Walls: A Healing Art Project: https://www.mendingwallsrva.com/
- Listen to Kelli Lemon’s interview with Lorna Pinckney on her podcast Strangers with Coffee RVA: http://coffeewithstrangersrva.com/tag/lorna-pinckney/
- Willis, Samantha. “Richmond Mourns Lorna Pinckney.” Richmond Magazine, October 6, 2017.
Image: Finding Tomorrow mural. Photo courtesy of Kim Lee Schmidt, 2020.