::city chickens::

I spent a recent afternoon with these great kids and their funny feathered friends.

::learning to::

...belly dance.

::game on::

been shooting some basketball. they're in black and white because.

::stepping::

Step & Dance Competition at MLK Performing Arts Center

I recorded some of the stepping to put into a slide show. My audio equipment isn't great, so excuse the sound quality...I'm working on it.

::inauguration::

I covered the inauguration viewing at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlotteville. I'm sure it was tame compared to the D.C. festivities, but I found it remarkable how many people wanted to be around other people in their community for this event - the fact that people lined up early in the cold to get into the arena to watch the swearing in shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers, was very moving.

::meetings::

I've heard many photographers groan when they have to cover a local meeting, but I'm a sucker for photographing a good meeting. There is something timeless about community meetings - in an age where people can organize themselves online, I like the fact that people still gather around a table and talk to other people in their community about issues.

Here are a few pics from a meeting at the Virginia Organization Project - the topic of the meeting was restoring voting rights to former felons in Virginia. Virginia and Kentucky are the only two states that don't automatically restore voting rights to ex-felons. The top photo is of the meeting organizer, Harold Folley.

::Mr. Williams::

I spent about an hour with Eugene Williams last week. What a great hour it was. Williams is a proponent of making affordable housing available in buildings throughout town as opposed to being limited to large, isolated blocks of housing. "The key principle that I've kept in mind was [that] we wanted to rehabilitate the property but also rehabilitate the people in the neighborhood,” said Williams, “I feel so strongly about Section 8 that I am not going to turn them down for any reason.”