RYSE mixtape collects beats from the heart

Noel Perez records his song "What Makes Her" in the RYSE center studio on Tuesday.

Dodging guitars, cords and speakers scattered throughout the room, Noel Perez makes a beeline to the small padded booth in the RYSE center. He squares himself with the microphone, phone clenched in hand, awaiting the go-ahead from his producer. Music floods the small space, almost bursting from the room. The bass pounds like the heartbeat…

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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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