Blog Archives
By Lauren hunt | Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments on Come See#CWV
With weather warming up and life creeping to some sense of normalcy, what better time to come see #CWV than now? Keep reading for ways to make your CWV weekend getaway a success!
After a Friday spent traveling, you’ve likely worked up quite the appetite for dinner. No matter what type of cuisine you may be in the mood for, the Capital City has you covered. Two local favorites are Black Sheep Burrito and Brews located at 702 Quarrier Street and Pies & Pints located at 222 Capitol Street.
Start your Saturday off right with coffee and a cozy atmosphere at Taylor Books. In addition to its café, Taylor Books offers a wide array of local and regional fiction and nonfiction titles, used books and unique magazines. This eclectic Capitol Street bookstore also carries a collection of greeting cards, stationery and all sorts of toys.
After a bit of coffee drinking and book buying, you could walk across the street for lunch to a Charleston classic — Graziano’s Pizza. This family-owned restaurant offers multiple types of pizza, pasta and calzones that are sure to please even the pickiest of eaters.
Now that you’ve catered to your carb cravings for the day, it’s the perfect time to satisfy your sweet tooth at Rock City Cake Company. If you’re lucky, you may also catch a live performance while visiting this rock music-themed shop. Located at 205 Capitol Street, this full-service bakery strives to create innovative and delicious desserts. If you feel overwhelmed by the aesthetically pleasing dessert cases, you cannot go wrong with any of Rock City’s cupcakes or cookies! 
A wonderful way to wrap up your day is by heading across town to Elk City and shopping at Kin Ship Goods and Base Camp Printing Company. Kin Ship Goods sells hand-printed cozy wear and quite the collection of home goods. Base Camp Printing Company designs and prints its own letterpress prints that will jazz up your home or office space.
As your CWV weekend getaway comes to a close on Sunday morning, Mea Cuppa Coffeebar in the Capitol Market makes for the perfect caffeine pit stop with its convenient location right off the interstate at 800 Smith Street.
By Lauren hunt | Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments on Download Our App!
Planning the perfect day in Charleston just got much easier! We’re excited to unveil the Charleston Guide on our site with integrated mobile apps, an interactive way to map out everything you don’t want to miss in Charleston. Designed with our partners at , this tool provides a new way to explore what the city has to offer, including hotels, popular restaurants, activities, shopping, and more. View it all at once or search by categories like Family Fun, Fine Dining, or Spectator Sports.
See a concert you don’t want to miss? Click “Join” and the event will be added to your plan.
That Restaurant everyone keeps telling you about? Click “Add to Plan” and you won’t forget to try it.
Want to invite some friends? Share your plan with them directly or via social media, email or SMS.
No need to waste another sheet of paper – planning is now digital. With this planner, Visit Charleston can help you get organized and maximize your time!
Already on your way to Charleston or live here? Download the app for your iPhone or Android and take your plan with you!
By Lauren hunt | Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments on CWV Hometown Fav. – Jennifer Garner
For our first Women’s History Month spotlight, we’re featuring one of our most famous Charleston natives: actress and advocate Jennifer Garner.
Photo courtesy: George Washington High School Year Book
The daughter of a chemical engineer and an English professor, Jennifer grew up in Charleston from the age of three. She attended George Washington High School, where she played the saxophone in the high school marching band and was a member of the swim team. After school, she worked at Kelley’s Men’s Shop.
Jennifer started out at Denison University as a chemistry major, but eventually switched to theater. She quickly gained traction starring in regional productions. After moving to New York and then Los Angeles, she got her break in a starring role as Sydney Bristow in the TV show Alias, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Drama and four consecutive Emmy nominations. Her first role as lead actress in a film was in 13 Going on 30 in 2004, and she has received major acclaim for roles in films like Juno, Dallas Buyers Club, Ghost of Girlfriends of Past, and many more.
She often visits her hometown and is well-known for supporting local. As a Charleston Light Opera Guild alumna, she’s been known to attend shows, and has said that Taylor Books is her “top favorite bookstore in the world.” Last month, she also encouraged Kanawha County students to fill out their FAFSA.
Jennifer is also a strong advocate and on the Board of Trustees for Save the Children, an organization that is on the front lines of emergency and humanitarian responses around the world. If you’d like to donate to Save the Children, head here.
And for a fun tutorial on WV slang (in which she talks about Tudor’s Biscuit World), check out this interview with Vanity Fair.
By Lauren hunt | Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments on The last African-American Everyman – Bill Withers
We’ve all tapped our toes to his many hits, “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean on Me,” “Just the Two of Us” and “Lovely Day.” Born and raised just south of us was a trail-blazing soul music singer and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer: Bill Withers.
A native of Slab Fork, a small coal-mining town in Raleigh County, Bill Withers spent much of his young life in Beckley. He was born with a stutter that made it hard for him to fit in. But he always found comfort in music, and was inspired at a young age by gospel, country, blues, and bluegrass. Speaking to The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, he described how growing up in that small town, with neighbors helping neighbors, heavily influenced his hit “Lean on Me”: “My family didn’t have a refrigerator, and the people across the street across the street from us didn’t have a phone. So we helped each other. They gave us ice, and we let them use our phone.”
In 1956, Withers signed up for the Navy, where he served for nine years as an aircraft mechanic. During that time, he developed an interest in songwriting and worked determinedly in speech therapy—finally overcoming his stutter. He then settled in Los Angeles, working in the aviation industry by day and singing in nightclubs while waiting for his big break. When he signed to Sussex Records in 1971, he released his debut album Just As I Am. “Ain’t No Sunshine” was a #3 R&B radio hit and won the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song that year. It’s now on Rolling Stone’s list of the Greatest 500 Songs of All Time.
When Bill Withers passed away in 2020, there was an outpouring of love on social media for “the last African-American Everyman,” whose cheery tunes were performed at presidential inaugurations, whose music can lift anyone up on a bad day. In addition to all those things, we’ll remember him as one of our finest West Virginians.
By Leslie Smithson | Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments on S.S. Katherine Johnson
American aerospace and defense technology company Northrop Grumman announced that its latest spacecraft is named in honor of native West Virginian Katherine Johnson. Due to launch Feb. 20, 2021, the S.S. Katherine Johnson will deliver supplies to the International Space Station.
Noting the company’s tradition to name each Cygnus spacecraft after an individual who played a pivotal role in human spaceflight, Northrop Grumman wrote in a news release that “[Johnson’s] hand-written calculations were critical to America’s success during our first human spaceflight missions.”
Johnson, a Black mathematician, was born in White Sulphur Springs in 1918. She attended West Virginia State College (now University), where she earned degrees in both mathematics and French. Johnson’s career spanned decades, first at the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics and later at NASA. Her calculations helped put the first Americans in space and to land on the moon.
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. A book the following year, “Hidden Figures,” told Johnson’s story, and the movie of the same name was a box office hit.
Image courtesy NASA
West Virginia State University erected a bronze statue in Johnson’s honor in 2018, just prior to her 100th birthday. Katherine Johnson died in February 2020 at age 101.
By Lauren hunt | Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments on The Father of Black History Month
Did you know the Father of Black History Month is from right here in West Virginia? In 1926, Huntington’s own Dr. Carter G. Woodson established Negro History Week in the second week of February, inspiring what would later be Black History Month.
The son of former slaves, Dr. Woodson’s father moved his family to West Virginia at the end of the Civil War, where a school for black children was to be built in Huntington. After previously dropping out to support his family in the coal mines of Fayette County, Dr. Woodson graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in Huntington in just two years. His academic talents eventually led him to be the second Black American in history (after W.E.B. DuBois), as well as the first Black American descended from formerly enslaved people, to earn a Ph. D from Harvard.
Photo courtesy of: WV Gazette Mail
Dr. Woodson placed a high value on education and believed that it was the key to improving society and race relations. After he published his first book, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, he created an organization called the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which promoted the study of Black American culture. While running the organization, he continued to take on roles within the academic world, including serving as dean at West Virginia State.
He firmly believed in educating students of all ages on black history and not just black students. Dr. Woodson had the idea in 1926 to devote a week to celebrating and studying the achievements by Black Americans: Negro History Week. He chose the second week of February because it coincides with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Educators rapidly adopted Negro History Week, and eventually Black History Month expanded into a national observance by President Gerald Ford in 1976. In 1995, Huntington erected a statue of Dr. Woodson on Hal Greer Boulevard, near Ninth Avenue.
“What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.” –Dr. Carter G. Woodson.
By Lauren hunt | Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments on Charleston Needs: The Empty Glass
No one is missing live music more than The Empty Glass.
The Empty Glass is THE place for live music in Charleston. Open on the East End since 1985, the stage at “The Glass” has been graced by acts like Jason Isbell, Gov’t Mule, Tyler Childers and more bands than we can begin to name.
The post-Mountain Stage Jam sessions are must-see. You’ll get an intimate show from Charleston’s own Carpenter Ants, and a surprise visit from some of that night’s Mountain Stage performers.
The Empty Glass is more than just a music venue…it’s iconic.
By Lauren hunt | Categories: Things To Do, Uncategorized | No Comments on Charleston Needs: Charlie’s Boutique
Charlie’s is a boutique that offers a little bit of everything. They have been open for over 15 years. Carrying women and men’s apparel.
Along with locally made jewelry and many other accessories and gifts.
By Lauren hunt | Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments on Charleston Needs: Ooh La Lucy
Guest blogger: Mikayla Dent
Hello, I’m Mikayla Dent, the owner and founder of Ooh La Lucy!
Here is everything you need to know about Lucy.
Growing up in Charleston, WV, I dreamed of a career in fashion. After earning my degree from the University of Kentucky, I am happy to report that I am back in WV running the boutique of my dreams. Ooh La Lucy allows me to bring fab fashion to women all over the country with our online store and throughout West Virginia in a chic pink mobile boutique truck and in our storefront location!
As a young entrepreneur being able to serve customers online, in our store, and throughout West Virginia is truly a dream come true. My mission is to bring unique and affordable clothing directly to you no matter where you live. Ooh La Lucy is here to take the stress out of shopping and add in the fun factor.
By Lauren hunt | Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments on Charleston Needs: Buck & Bette
Named for two of their favorite West Virginians (their grandparents), Buck & Bette carry fancy and staple goods for Appalachian life: home, apparel, accessories, and both custom and ready-to-buy paper products.
Buck & Bette platforms two types of products: they feature boutique brands that they have fallen in love with that can’t be found anywhere else in the Kanawha Valley. These American-made goods bring fresh ideas and culture to our city. And they also love the opportunity they have to provide retail space to small West Virginia-made brands. Buck & Bette are thankful to be part of the downtown community and the historic Capitol Theater.
Hurry in!
