This spoken-word showcase is an experience you don’t want to miss. What to expect? Says founder Godchild the Omen: “Mind-blowing, raw talent. Something you have never experienced.”

Classical ballet is a balance of strength and delicacy, precision and abandon, emotion and technique, calculation and artistry–the ballet Giselle is an exemplary representation of this balance.

“It is a dance like a fight, and a fight like a dance…you can’t separate them. Like all of us, we’re all fighting for everyday life. We are all constantly fighting… We always want to overcome the struggle.”

“From what I can tell, more people relate with Salvadore Dali, but Van Gogh is my homeboy.”

He didn’t think he could ever be an artist without art school. He stopped skating, stopped painting and started partying. He says, “I would see people drawing or something and I would think, I kinda remember doing something like that.”

“Personally, I believe the only reason to euthanize a dog is if he or she is very sick and no amount of effort or money is going to cure him or her…”

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked”

I tried my hand at the “kick it” and the “jungle boogie.” Though I have (very) limited experience with hip hop, I reveled in the style and the music and did my best to lose my “ballet-ness.”

Name: Don Shipp Age: 42 Hometown: Portsmouth, Virginia Connection to the local area and/or day job: Trader Joe’s – Virginia Beach Online presence: www.behance.net/donshipp Next >>

The store’s proprietor, 23-year-old Kelsie McNair, opened the doors to her shop just 5 months ago; however, it’s rapidly growing popularity indicates how desperately the Ghent neighborhood needed a store catering to a more fashion forward clientele.

“The only difference between a bright and bleak future is being inspired along the way.” – Sam Welty

Urban sprawl has invaded us. That is why I like taking pictures of things from the past. Old and abandoned homes, bridges, buildings, and barns.

Every few weeks we seek out Walt Taylor, follow him around for a while, and collect what falls out of his mind’s pocket.

Though I have only been a resident of Hampton Roads for a little over a decade, the O.V parade has become part of what makes it feel like home.

“Hopefully, for me, it makes people want to help, want to support organizations like the YWCA that keep women from winding up in these places.” – Karen Levy Newnam of RipplAffect