
Navigating the River
Impact Story: Horace Scruggs — Horace Scruggs is a skilled outdoorsman in Fluvanna County. He is working with our Virginia Folklife Program to pass along his skills in navigating the river to apprentices Hanna Scruggs (Horace’s daughter) and Niya Bates.

Seeding Innovation
Rural communities have faced economic hardship and population decline. Chris Kukk and Sheri McGuire recently created the SEED Innovation Hub in Farmville, Virginia to spark rural entrepreneurship and bring innovative ideas to life.

How Hot is Your Honey
Fifty years after the last atmospheric nuclear tests on American soil, radioactive elements remain in our food supply. Jim Kaste says the honey is especially hot.

HBCU Renaissance
What does William Faulkner and a cool pair of sneakers have in common? More than you might think.

More Than a Fraction: The Power of the Merry Tree
A recent grant from Virginia Humanities, awarded to More Than a Fraction Foundation, supported the first public phase of a long-term project, that is bringing together the descendants of two families—one whose ancestors were enslaved; the other whose forebears enslaved them.

Helping Teens Make Sense of the Refugee Experience
An innovative program uses the imaginary world of “Fruitopia” to help refugee and non-refugee teens better understand each other.

Restoring & Preserving Fluvanna’s Black Cemeteries
In the fall of 2021, we awarded the Fluvanna County Historical Society a grant through the Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan program. The historical society is using the funds …

Riding Jane Crow
American railroads of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century were littered with racial, gendered traps. And from working in the food car to sitting in first class, Black women are critical to the history of the American railroad. Miram Thaggert’s new book is Riding Jane Crow African American Women on the American Railroad.

Borderlands
The colonial era is usually seen as prim and proper – a time when manners were refined and marriage was sacrosanct. But that period may have been much wilder than previously thought. Liz Elizondo says in colonial Spanish Texas, love affairs didn’t just occasionally happen…they were the norm.

The Wonder Years
Being a Black girl in a mostly white space can bring stress, frustration, anger, and all kinds of mixed emotions.