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Jordy Yager

@jordyyager.bsky.social
256 followers 165 following 171 posts

Journalist • JSAAHC Director of Digital Humanities • Raised/Razed co-Director & Writer • Plot of Land Executive Producer • Mapping Cville-Albemarle Founder

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Reposted by Jordy Yager
Hannah Davis-Reid @hannahdavisreid.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“Black Survival, Joy and Community at America’s 250th” was the theme last Saturday, when the Descendants of Enslaved Communities of Virginia held their third annual Descendants’ Day Symposium in Albemarle County. Read more here: www.vpm.org/news/2026-09...
vpm.org
Symposium helps descendants of enslaved people connect with family history - VPM
“We believe descendants should not simply be the subjects of research.”
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Hills I will die on: Chaps ice cream is so far superior to Sugar Bear ice cream it's just sad.
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
One day there should be a course offered to UVA professors about how to be less extractive.
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
We need an intervention when it comes to using AI on fliers.
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Had a visitor outside our kitchen window.
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I can't believe this is already next weekend, but also I'm so excited that I can't believe it's still a whole week away. vinegarhillmagazine.com/covesville-h...
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Mr. James Bryant, a longtime resident of 10th & Page, speaking last night at the JSAAHC about the state of housing in Charlottesville.
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Reposted by Jordy Yager
Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran. Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.

I'm not sure how to start this. So I'm going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.
But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.

The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don't lose sight of that.

Ed is my friend. I've known him for 13 years. We've shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I've grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we've had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I'm writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.

Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other
stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.

Ed was in …What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, "Free Palestine" becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me.

And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.

I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed.
Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation.

When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic:
لا شكر على واجب
"La shukra ala wajeb." There is no thanks for a duty.
That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human.

Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people be…
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Six years ago today Albemarle County removed the Johnny Reb statue and accompanying cannons that had sat outside the courthouse since 1909.
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
“We’ve been guided by this idea that Charlottesville can heal itself,” says Andrea Douglas JSAAHC c-ville.com/a-statue-rei...
c-ville.com
A statue reimagined - C-VILLE Weekly
Ever since it was awarded the statue of Robert E. Lee by City Council in December 2021, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center has been laser focused on its “Swords Into Plowshares Reca...
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
PSA: there’s no reason your car should be coming into the parallel lane beside it pretending like you’re a giant big rig needing a crazy wide and extended turning radius to take your not-sharp-at-all little regular ole turn.
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Sept. 16 @ 6PM. At the JSAAHC.
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Reposted by Jordy Yager
Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This week the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) awarded the Plantations to Pollution series as its winner in the Digital Media: Interactive Feature category. jordyyager.beehiiv.com/p/plantation...
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This week the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) awarded the Plantations to Pollution series as its winner in the Digital Media: Interactive Feature category. jordyyager.beehiiv.com/p/plantation...
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Jefferson School’s alumni are some of the most active drivers of Charlottesville’s civic & cultural life—organizing communities, preserving historic places, mentoring young people, interpreting history through art, and determining the narratives we hold into the future. mailchi.mp/jeffschoolhe...
mailchi.mp
An Active Legacy: Jefferson School Alumni Continue to Shape Charlottesville
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KEW @kidadaewilliams.com · 26/07/2026
"We are living through the opening act of a second Lost Cause. TFG & his allies are waging a battle over our historical memory, attempting to narrow the very definition of who is American, & consolidating power & wealth in the hands of an elite few." www.democracydefendersaction.org/insight/trum...
democracydefendersaction.org
Trump’s Plot to Make the Lost Cause Great Again | Democracy Defenders Action
Nearly a century ago, W. E. B. Du Bois identified one of American history’s darkest patterns. The administration and its allies are determined to bring it back.
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Hannah Davis-Reid @hannahdavisreid.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
On the 5th anniversary of the removal of the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee monument from Charlottesville's Market Street Park, the JSAAHC announced that MASS Design Group will design a public art project with the melted bronze from the former statue. www.vpm.org/news/2026-07...
vpm.org
MASS Design Group chosen as winner of Swords into Plowshares project
Their proposal repurposes bronze from a Confederate statue into a 27-foot baobab tree.
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VPM News @vpm.org · 13/07/2026
Boston-based firm Model of Architecture Serving Society will design a public art project with the melted bronze from the former Confederate statue. "I hope that it becomes a model for other cities to create something that is just for them, for the stories of their history," said sculptor Dana King.
vpm.org
MASS Design Group chosen as winner of Swords into Plowshares project
The proposal repurposes bronze from a Confederate statue into a 27-foot baobab tree.
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Reposted by Jordy Yager
Robert Gumpert @ragumpert.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
MASS Design Group chosen as winner of Swords into Plowshares project www.vpm.org/news/2026-07...
vpm.org
MASS Design Group chosen as winner of Swords into Plowshares project
The proposal repurposes bronze from a Confederate statue into a 27-foot baobab tree.
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
"We are deeply inspired by the courage and persistence of everyone who made this moment possible over the past decade, and we are honored to contribute to a future shaped not by inherited symbols, but by shared values and collective imagination.” www.architectmagazine.com/design/the-l...
architectmagazine.com
Rebuilding America's Memory
How MASS Design Group is transforming Charlottesville's Lee monument into a new civic landscape. Discover architecture's evolving role in public memory.
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WhiteRoseAFA @whiteroseafa.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Hell yeah!
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Nearly 1,000 weighed in, and now, 5 years after Charlottesville's Confederate monuments were removed, the next chapter begins. This Friday, July 10 at 6 p.m. at the Jefferson School—the final design team for Swords Into Plowshares will be announced.
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Richmond, Harrisonburg, Staunton-Waynesboro and Blacksburg all ranked as more affordable housing markets than Charlottesville. www.cbs19news.com/news/analysi...
cbs19news.com
Analysis: C'ville least affordable housing market in Virginia
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- A new analysis ranks Charlottesville as Virginia’s least affordable housing market, highlighting the widening gap between regional home prices and local wages.
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Zyahna Bryant. @zysaidso.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
yeah…
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johnedwinmason @johnedwinmason.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
I wonder how many people currently at Charlottesville's Daily Progress know that it was an overtly white supremacist newspaper up to about WWII & a bit less overtly white supremacist for many years after the war. When I moved to C-ville in the early '90s, people commonly called it the Daily Regress.
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Jane Smith @mustelina.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
You nailed it, Jordy. Thank you. I think I might have had steam coming out of my ears as I read the article a few minutes ago, so your incisive analysis does my heart good. Zy’s response on fb was also beautiful: “Allow your anger to move you to action that yields a positive, generational impact.”
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Laura @lkblivewell.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
This whole thread is worth your time if you plan to say anything at all about Charlottesville and housing and justice. Thanks so much, @jordyyager.bsky.social.
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
1/ Starting with the headline: "Hijack" implies illegitimate seizure rather than organized public advocacy or opposition. "Developer presentation" centers the event as belonging to the developer rather than as a required public engagement meeting designed to garner community feedback.
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DTM @thedtm.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Yesterday, a felony indictment brought by a special grand jury charging local activist Tanesha Hudson with voter registration fraud was quickly thrown out. But not before it caused Hudson to lose her job. “The process was the punishment,” says Hudson. www.charlottesvilledtm.com/p/special-gr...
charlottesvilledtm.com
Special grand jury singles out local activist in rare voter registration indictment
Tanesha Hudson, 44, has voted in the same Charlottesville location since she was 18 years old. This year, a special grand jury charged her with a felony for doing so.
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johnedwinmason @johnedwinmason.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Charlottesville masquerades as a progressive city. lol. In any case, read about this targeted prosecution of a local Black woman activist.
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Black residents are told, in so many words, that their voices—and futures—don't matter in civic decisions that directly impact them. They're told that these decisions are for the betterment of the city. But what’s left out is *whose* city. jordyyager.beehiiv.com/p/from-vineg...
tinyurl.com
From Vinegar Hill to Fifeville-Castle Hill
Earlier this week +140 people gathered to express their opposition to a student apartment building proposed for the Fifeville-Castle Hill neighborhood.
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johnedwinmason @johnedwinmason.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
This was an incredible meeting. Developers & city council members heard scores of Black people & some white allies express their frustration & anger over how Black neighborhoods are being ignored & steamrollered — their sadness at living through the disappearance of Black communities.
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
+140 people came out last night to share their community expertise with the developers of a proposed 7-story student apartment building in the Fifeville-Castle Hill neighborhood.
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johnedwinmason @johnedwinmason.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Black Charlottesville is disappearing. The numbers are truly disturbing. A decline from 22% of the population to 15% since 2000. People have been displaced & neighborhoods lost due to gentrification & unrestrained development. We're fighting back. It's a steep uphill battle, but we won't give up. 👇🏽
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Jamie Dyer @jamiedcville.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
🧵 It's a goddam shame but Charlottesville has a long, ugly history of bending over for monied interests and slitting the throats of its residents in favor of larger entities.
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Democracy and trains @wingedisis.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
As someone who floats through cville fairly often, it really is striking how much the university grounds and the neighborhoods where faculty live are totally off-limits to wildly out of scale development, and how much black neighborhoods are absolutely targeted. Like the least subtle I’ve ever seen.
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cvilledems.bsky.social @cvilledems.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Last night (6/23) the Fifeville Neighborhood Association met in the Fellowship Hall of First Baptist Church to discuss a new giant student apartment building (“The Mark”) proposed to go up right behind the church. A straw poll went 72-0 against the project, but it has been approved by City Council.
Front door and steeple of First Baptist Church, Main Street in Charlottesville.
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
This part. Over the last several years I've been asked hundreds of times: 'What lesson should we take away from Vinegar Hill?' Every time I say this over & over: Listen—like, *actually* listen—to Black people.
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johnedwinmason @johnedwinmason.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Building housing heedlessly has absolutely caused displacement, especially in Black communities. Two things can be true at once: We need more housing. And new housing done wrong can intensify gentrification. We're seeing it in Charlottesville.
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johnedwinmason @johnedwinmason.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Charlottesville's Black community is under siege. Our share of the population has fallen from 22% to 15% in the last 25 years. The causes? Lack of economic opportunity, plus gentrification & heedless development in our neighborhoods. Come out next Monday & Wednesday to help us turn things around. 👇🏽
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Two events coming up next week: Monday & Wednesday…please consider coming if you can.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Gonna just drop this in family chat.
McMillan Cottom: I would also like to get my mother to put down her phone. So before we get into generational warfare, I think we all need to put down the phones, to be fair.
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
"Since 2010, Charlottesville has had the 8th largest increase among over 3,000 U.S. counties or equivalents in the share of families earning above $200K in 2024 dollars, between Silicon Valley (7th) and DC (9th), and Park City, Utah (10th)." -- From Hamilton Lombard @ Weldon Cooper
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Welp www.vpm.org/news/2026-03...
vpm.org
Jefferson School announces Swords into Plowshares finalists
Voting on the community art proposals is open through May 30.
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 30/05/2026
I’m a climate scientist. Let me fix this headline. “Nearly a century ago, scientists showed that burning fossil fuels warms the planet. Today, we know human emissions account for over 100% of the warming. Yet dark money and disinformation still work to keep Americans addicted to fossil fuels.”
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Before the Lee statue, this land was tied to enslavers, Confederate memory, Vinegar Hill & the violent denial of Black freedom. This Friday, the Swords into Plowshares feedback period closes. On 7/10/26—5 yrs after the statue's removal—JSAAHC & SIP plan to announce the final design choice.
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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 24/05/2026
In Charlottesville, after white supremacists staged a violent rally around a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in 2017, the city took down the statue and organizers melted it so it would never rise again. Then they faced a dilemma. What next?
washingtonpost.com
How artists want to use a melted Robert E. Lee statue to heal a wounded city
The bronze ingots left over from a Robert E. Lee statue that once ignited violence will now be part of a new work of public art.
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DTM @thedtm.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Swords Into Plowshares is moving closer to choosing one of three concepts for a new work of public art to replace the Lee statue that once stood in Market Street Park. So far, 424 people have provided public feedback, which is being accepted until May 31. Go to: www.sipcville.com wapo.st/3RqDm7q
wapo.st
How artists want to use a melted Robert E. Lee statue to heal a wounded city
The bronze ingots left over from a Robert E. Lee statue that once ignited violence will now be part of a new work of public art.
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Jonathan Feingold @jpygold.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
this exchange bw @janainelson.bsky.social & @nhannahjones.bsky.social captures, with precision, why pro-democracy movements will not prevail unless they are self-counsciously and outspokenly anti-racist movements. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/22/m...
“It needs to be emphasized again and again: What is happening is an assault on democracy, and they’re using the easiest vector, which is anti-Black racism, because it’s the easiest thing you could do, the laziest thing you can do,” Nelson said. “They are cementing absolute minority control because they do not represent a majority of this country. And when they — if they — get away with the heist, we will be locked out of multiracial democracy for at least a generation.”
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Jordy Yager @jordyyager.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
This coming Saturday @ Visible Records:
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