• Chloe McCormick and Marvin Hicks introduce residents to a powerful space collecting and digitizing community stories.  
• City Council and district meetings are up and running! 
• Hispanic Heritage Month brings opportunities to connect through food and music.
• RPS wants to hear from residents about School Modernization plans. 
• The Poet Laureates share highlights from their fall. 
• Photos capture a meaningful remembrance of the 9/11 25th Anniversary. 

"Watch us Work” invites you into the spaces where Richmond’s public servants do the essential, often unseen work that keeps our community strong. Discover their stories and everyday work that shapes life in Richmond. 

Series conceived and article written by Haldar Kolluri, 2026 Mayor’s Fellow Intern 

At Richmond Public Library, Chloe McCormick and Marvin Hicks guide residents as they explore and preserve their personal and community histories. Together, they support the Memory Lab, which helps community members digitize home media, record histories, and more. Every Richmonder can learn to preserve their story easily alongside RPL staff. 

Meet Chloe and Marvin 

Chloe McCormick has been with the library for more than three years and serves as the senior librarian overseeing special collections. Her role includes local history, genealogy, and supervision of the Memory Lab. As a relatively new Richmonder, she credits the city’s local history resources with helping her feel connected to the people and history of Richmond. “There’s no better way to get to know a city than through the kinds of questions that people come in with, because you learn something new every day,” Chloe says.  

Chloe’s interest in local history grew as she worked with visitors searching for family records or researching community stories. She says those experiences have shaped her understanding of the city’s past and present. 

“It’s really special to share those kinds of experiences with other people,” Chloe says. “In the Memory Lab, we’re getting to see videos of weddings and children taking their first steps! We get to take part in those moments while providing access to ways to preserve and share these memories.”  

For Marvin Hicks, working for RPL feels like a natural extension of his roots. Marvin joined RPL in 2023 and works as a community memory fellow. As a native Richmonder, Marvin says his connection to the City’s history began far before his time with RPL. “Since I am a Richmond native, my family’s history is very tied to the city,” Marvin says. “Hearing stories from the older folks in my family and people in my community of what things used to be and how they are now are really interesting to me.”  

Understanding the Memory Lab  

The Memory Lab offers a space where people can digitize home media by turning VHS tapes, photos, and other media forms into digital files. In 2024, RPL received a Public Knowledge grant from the Mellon Foundation, allowing them to significantly increase their Memory Lab materials. Now, the Memory Lab holds reservable workstations and upgraded preservation tools that are free for all patrons, widening access and availability of these tools to the public.  

The focus on personal history aligns closely with Marvin’s belief that safeguarding the past is essential to moving forward. 

“You can't go into the future without knowing the past,” he says. “We provide a place where folks are able to preserve those stories and preserve their past, especially those whose stories haven't been valued in the past.”  

Patrons also have the option to donate digital versions of their preserved materials to RPL’s digital special collections if they would like to help expand Richmond’s historical records. Chloe highlights a specific photo of two sisters that was donated to the digital special collections library. 

“It is an important image to her because it shows two daughters playing as children but might be important to someone else because it depicts a block of the Fan District in the 1970s,” she says.  

When we share memories with our community, we open doors for connection and impact. Your history may help others understand their own stories. 

“A former classmate, a next-door neighbor, or a fellow church member may have exactly the photograph that helps dozens of people better understand their family or neighborhood history,” Marvin says. “Every donation has the potential to fill in another piece of Richmond's story.”  

Memory Lab is designed to feel welcoming, regardless of someone’s comfort with technology. Staff guides patrons through the digitization process step-by-step, ensuring that residents feel increasingly confident with the new tools.  

Appointments for the Memory Lab are strongly encouraged and can be booked through the Memory Lab webpage, or patrons can reach out to Chloe or Marvin directly to schedule a time. 

“Relax, bring your things, and we will take it from there,” Marvin says. 

City Council is in full swing after the August recess, and there are a ton of ways to connect! Knowing how to get involved is especially important as Council considers the third draft of Code Refresh. Updating a 50-year-old zoning code is no small feat, and City leaders and Council alike are listening closely to residents as you share thoughts about Richmond’s past, present, and future. 

Did you know . . .  

• All City Council meetings and standing committee meetings are open to the public in person and virtually. You can explore the full calendar and agendas for each meeting on Legistar.  
• If you care about a particular issue on a City Council agenda, you can sign up with the City Clerk to make public comment. 
• City Councilmembers also host regular district meetings so that they can hear directly from their neighbors and constituents. Find out which district you’re in, and then connect with your Councilmember to learn about opportunities to share your thoughts!  

Hispanic Heritage Month began on September 15. For the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Engagement (OIRE), celebrating this month is an important extension of the work they do all year round. The team is especially proud to be observing the month through their Flavors without Borders program.  

Cultural Engagement Coordinator Patty Parks has been bringing people together through food and cooking throughout her career. When she arrived at OIRE, the team named her program “Flavors without Borders” and a new community favorite was born.  

“It was such a good fit for the office,” Patty says. “What is it that brings us together? Food! It’s about traditions, it’s about longing for your culture and remembering your favorite cookies from your grandmother, or whatever the recipe might be. You find out that you have shared memories and stories that are similar in every culture. When people talk about food and recipes, they’re also sharing something about how they gather and spend time together.” 

Once a month, OIRE invites a local chef or cook to guide a group of 25 community members through preparing a meal or recipe from their culture. Patty says the guest chef puts everyone to work. “Everyone’s got a knife, everyone has something they’re doing, we’re all learning how to make something. While we work, the chef shares the story of their journey.” 

 Not everyone in the room speaks the same language, so the group communicates through the food and by learning things about one another’s languages. “Cooking becomes our form of communication,” Patty says. People like to get to know new neighbors. It’s a networking opportunity and a storytelling opportunity.”  

September’s session—featuring pupusas from El Salvador—is already full, but you can follow OIRE on Instagram (@richmondoire) to see when the next session drops. And if you’re looking for more opportunities to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month through food, music, and connecting with neighbors, head out to Virginia Fiesta on Saturday, September 26, at Southside Community Center!  

With a 1% sales tax referendum to fund school construction on our ballots this November, Richmond Public Schools is hosting a series of “Facilities Modernization Meetings” to educate residents about construction needs and to hear directly from community members about construction priorities.

An intentional plan helps the lengthy process of school modernization move forward. This is your chance to learn more and make an impact!  

Richmond Laureates Moe and Rosa are all over town connecting with youth, other poets, and even Richmond Animal Care and Control. Here’s what they’ve been up to (and check out some ways to get involved): 

Poetry Is Going Back to School 

The RPS Poetry Tour kicks off September 14–18, and we’re looking forward to bringing poetry into Richmond Public Schools. We want students to experience poetry as more than something they study on a page. Poetry can be spoken. It can be performed. And it can help us understand one another. This tour is just the beginning of what we hope will become a meaningful year of poetry, writing, mentorship, and creative expression throughout RPS. 

Poetry at RACC 

The celebration of poetry from The New Sentience by Medusa Was Black and Sunflower Mo from Richmond's Slam Community, by Jeff Strange representing Richmond's Open Mic Community and from Devon Walker-Figueroa representing VCU's MFA Community was just a terrific amount of fun. The new Richmond Animal Care and Control space was filled with animal poems including the one below and we can't wait to fill it with poems again when it opens next year!

raccoon prayer

oh Master Of All Who Take And Wash

And Eat lift me away at the end into evening

forever into sanctified crumples of paper

and peelings curled over my hand

i have scavenged as i must

among the hairless

now welcome this bandit into the kingdom

just as you made him

barefoot and faithful and clean

by Lucilie Clifton, From The New Sentience, Edited by Alison Titus and Ashley Capps 

From left to right: Alison Titus, Rosa Castellano, Jeff Strange, Sunflower Mo, Medusa Was Black, Devon Walker-Figueroa, and RACC Director Christie Peters celebrate the launch of The New Sentience at what will be RACC's new adoption center!

An Opportunity for Virginia's Young Poets 

Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor has announced a Poetry Contest for K–12 students across the Commonwealth. Opportunities like this reinforce something we want Richmond students to understand: their stories matter, their perspectives matter, and their voices deserve to be heard. Students, families, educators, and mentors can learn more through the Lieutenant Governor’s announcement on Instagram.  

Ready for more poetry?

Come on out October 18th for a workshop and poetry reading featuring local poets Fairouz Bsharat, Felix Salmoran, and Addie Tsai. The program is cohosted by the Laureates, Richmond Public Library, and the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Engagement. Learn more and register at go.rva.gov/homage.

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