Richmond 2011: The year in review

rhonda harris richmond

2011 was quite a year, to borrow a favorite phrase from longtime resident Sims Thompson, in “our fair city.” I know that’s vague, but it’s tough to turn a pithy phrase that sums up a year in a vibrant, bustling and changing city. We had tragedy and triumph, tumult and harmony. Alliances and rivalries. Echoes of the past and glimmers from the future.

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Marquis Hamilton: Recollections of a life lost

marquis hamilton, slain north richmond man

Marquis Hamilton was a 20-year-old father of two. On Nov. 25, he became the fifth young adult homicide victim in the tiny neighborhood of North Richmond this year. Before that, a RichmondConfidential.org reporter got to know him a bit, and wants you to know him too.

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The ‘prince’ of North Richmond’s projects

Lavonta macho crummie in north richmond

In his songs and videos, he is “Macho,” the North Richmond everyman who sneers at his harrowing surroundings through jaundiced eyes. But despite the overt bravado and taunts toward rivals, the real Crummie is hopeful, witty, and funny, like an overgrown kid calloused by a life suffused in tragedy.

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Part 3: North Richmond blues

savoy club flier north richmond

The music scene that emerged in North Richmond featured a strong, bluesy, country twang that represented not only the influx of southerners to the area during World War II, but also other unique geographical and cultural heritages.

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