Get ready to build your dream fashion boutique website from scratch with some fun, hands-on web design tips!
Website Build Lab: Create Your Fashion Boutique Site
Join us for a fun, hands-on workshop at Simone Cherie Fine Lingerie and Mastectomy. Whether you’re starting your own fashion boutique online or just curious about website building, this lab will guide you step-by-step to create a stylish, professional site. Bring your ideas and let’s build something amazing together!
What Participants Will Learn
A Jazzy Christmas Show, hosted by Grammy‑nominated and internationally acclaimed jazz saxophonist and flautist Najee, will feature performances by #1 Billboard charting saxophonist Marion Meadows, pianist and composer Brian Simpson, the incredibly talented flautist Althea Rene, and local favorite The Fuzz Band. This electrifying evening showcases a dynamic blend of talent guaranteed to put you in the holiday groove. Come ready to jam to holiday classics, participate in raffles and silent auctions, and crank up the season—all for a great cause.
“This phase is really the beginning of Elmiene,” says the 24-year-old artist, born Abdala Elamin. “[It] feels like the first time I can really say with full confidence, every single thing I did on this project was intentional. Instead of like ‘I don’t know how I pulled that off, that was crazy!’” he laughs. It’s hard to believe that his voice wasn’t always destined for this path but, a poet-turned-accidental-artist initially, it was Elmiene’s very first song attempt that sparked the whirlwind start of his career. And his ascent to international soul prodigy status has been swift and captivating ever since. Before he knew it, he was soundtracking a Louis Vuitton show, gaining early fans in the likes of Benji B, Sampha, Stormzy and more and going viral online with covers of his favourite artists.
But since that fateful debut in 2022, he’s shown no signs of slowing, or of winging it. The fluke-like journey he’s referencing has seen him documenting his entire process of curiosity, exploration and often striking gold, in the form of five critically-acclaimed projects in just three years (11 if you count the live and remix versions). It’s seen him featured on the BBC Sound of Poll, nominated for Rising Star awards at both the BRITS and The Ivors, supporting Stevie Wonder and SZA, gracing NPR’s Tiny Desk, and touring around the world to sold-out swooning crowds.
With all that under his belt, this year brings the British-Sudanese artist’s debut full-length album, titled sounds for someone. Not unlike the songbook style label of his idol Stevie’s Songs in the Key of Life, it’s a name that promises to deliver on both the personal and the universal, a project that’s intimate and ambitious. “To me personally, it’s about my dad and my relationship with him when he was alive, and the loss, me and my mum’s relationship with him, their relationship, it’s basically a collection of songs based on all the emotions centred around him,” he says. “But I’m a firm believer in ‘the songs belong to you until you release them’… it’s up to people to experience and listen to in their lives, whatever they may be. So that ‘someone’ was perfect because it does kind of [imply] that it’s about a specific person, but it keeps it open where that someone for you could be anyone.”
Written over the course of dedicated months writing between Barbados and LA, the project’s central muse felt less like a choice and more of a pressing urge. “I couldn’t help it. Every time I sat down to write a song, the direction always went [towards my dad],” he says. “When I wrote ‘Cry Against the Wind’, I realised I have a song that the rest of the body of work will revolve around. That really talks about the crux of my feelings of guilt with my dad, acceptance, grief, all of these things embodied in this one song, and I went ‘a-ha, this is it.’” The first track released, it’s a raw declaration of love, as he cries, ‘I’d watch the whole world drown to see you cry again’. Laced with hazy guitars, provided by Mk.gee collaborator Andrew Aged – who plays across the whole project – the track builds and its mournful mist transcends in a thrilling new sonic direction for the singer. ‘Reclusive’ in contrast is a honeyed meditation on self-isolation that is sung so sweetly it almost sounds like a daydream. Written about a bout of sickness where the Oxford-raised singer didn’t leave the house for 14 days, and in the process, found a renewed appreciation for the outside world. ‘Time Doesn’t Heal’ flips that script once again to imagine his father’s perspective on the sacrifice he made when he left his family, his whispery falsetto chronicling that specific, permanent sting of feeling unchosen by fate.
“I really hate the idea that… because an album has songs that all sound very similar, that means it’s cohesive,” says Elmiene. “As soon as you look at all the classics, you realise that that doesn’t track. Whether it’s Lauryn Hill, whether it’s any Stevie album, take your pick, Wu Tang, Donny Hathaway, Prince, Michael Jackson, the songs didn’t sound the same. You could never play a song, think it’s one and mix it up with another one.” That philosophy of variety is crystal clear here, each track offering a new face to an artist who already subverts expectation routinely. Production was handled by what he describes as ‘his very own league of heroes’ including Sampha, Andrew Aged, Buddy Ross, NO ID, Ghostnote, Jeff ‘Gitty’ Gitelman and Raphael Saadiq. The tracklist flows dynamically with all the natural ebbs and flows of a life, a relationship or a single stream of consciousness. It’s a project that feels less like a ‘vibe’ and more like a complete portrait.
‘Lie With Me’ is an irresistible ode that’s equal parts delusion and devotion, fittingly channeling retro-pop electronics reminiscent of Prince in dedication to a love that’s on its last legs. Elsewhere, ‘Moment’ is the album’s arresting piano opener that invites right into the room, as he croons about a thankless, formless champion of the downtrodden, with a subtle swing-like lilt that cradles you. ‘Special’ envelops you with a weightless jazz-infused warmth while ‘Told You I’ll Make It’ transmutes an energy directly from church pews into something entirely new. He even enlists new-gen vocal force Baby Rose and soul veteran Raphael Saadiq to further bolster its sultry textures. “Soul is really all music,” Elmiene explains. “If the definition of ‘soul’ is music that comes from the soul, then your experiences can paint that in an infinite amount of colours.” sounds for someone is a masterclass in that thesis.
At the core of it, and so much incredible soul music, this is an album powered by love and how it shapes us; it investigates its ability to fuel us, connect us, hurt us but also save us. “[Love] is such a world-shaking thing. So of course, there’s endless possibilities, because it’s like what do you want to talk about that’s affected by love? Everything. Even the lack of it is an infinite discussion.” Love is a topic that Elmiene is no stranger to. In fact, as an avid R&B fan, it’s an emotion his voice has come to be synonymous with. And yet, he feels he’s still just scratching the surface of it. “I think it’s pretty endless because I’ve never been in love before and I’ve written so much about it already,” he laughs. “So I’m like shit, I wonder what’s gonna happen when it does happen?” In the meantime, he finds it continues to surround him: “The magic is to open your ears and listen. It’s not complicated. There are so many examples of love and different forms of it everywhere, in every single thing.”
Join us for Helios: The Sixth Annual Public Arts Festival at Old Dominion University — a celebration of our campus’s remarkable research, creative talent, and synergistic collaboration taking place Friday and Saturday, November 6th and 7th, from 5-9pm. The festival serves as a platform for the intersection of art and science, while inviting attendees to engage with innovative projects and enjoy immersive experiences. At its heart is our belief in fostering community engagement and dialogue through the transformative power of art in public spaces.
For this year’s festival, we’re excited to welcome back Luke Jerram, the artist behind the Museum of the Moon and Mars artworks featured at our 1st and 2nd Public Arts Festivals in 2021 and 2022. Helios, his newest piece, is an inflatable sculpture of the Sun at a scale of 1:200 million, and it will be making its first appearance in North America at our festival. When viewed at night, Helios will be illuminated from within and its surface will appear to be animated by solar storms.
Based out of the United Kingdom, Luke Jerram is an internationally-acclaimed, multidisciplinary artist who specializes in installations and immersive public art. Helios, like Museum of the Moon and Mars before it, will tie the sciences back into our festival not only through the artwork itself, but through the campus and community partners who will help us engage attendees of all ages.
Helios: The Sixth Annual Public Arts Festival will take place on 43rd Street in Norfolk, VA, between the Barry Art Museum and the Chartway Arena. As always, this festival is free and open to the public thanks to our generous sponsors and members.
Virtual Book Talk: The "Rape" of Japan, The Myth of Mass Sexual Violence During the Allied Occupation
Thursday, July 23, 2026
Dr. Walsh will discuss the primary sources he used in debunking this longstanding myth regarding sexual violence by American occupation forces in Japan from 1945-1951 and his conclusions about the truth behind this largely accepted fiction.
On Thursday, July 23, 2026 at 7:00 pm EST, the MacArthur Memorial will present a free virtual lecture by Dr. Brian Walsh on his recent publication, The “Rape” of Japan: The Myth of Mass Sexual Violence During the Allied Occupation (2024).
Dr. Walsh will discuss the primary sources he used in debunking this longstanding myth regarding sexual violence by American occupation forces in Japan from 1945-1951 and his conclusions about the truth behind this largely accepted fiction. An audience Q&A will follow this presentation.
Brian P. Walsh has lived, worked, and studied in Japan for eighteen years. He received a master’s degree in Japanese Studies from the University of Washington in 2003 and a Ph.D. in modern Japanese history in 2016. His major areas of study are US-Japanese relations in the 1940s and 1950s and problems surrounding the development of a new postwar Japanese national identity. He has published articles in the Journal of Military History, the Journal of American-East Asian Relations, and the Pacific Historical Review. He supervised his wife Ayumi’s Japanese translation of Richard B. Frank’s biography of Douglas MacArthur. At present, he is at work on a project about the end of the Asia-Pacific War and the myths that have developed in both Japan and the United States about that subject. He teaches Japanese history and international relations at Kwansei Gakuin University in Nishinomiya, Japan.
Why see a show when you can BE the show?
Choir! Choir! Choir! is the fully interactive, participatory show that turns the audience into the performer. Get ready to laugh, dance, and SING your hearts out with hundreds of other music-lovers just like you. It’s like a big birthday party for the greatest songs of all time, and you’re invited!
Choir! Choir! Choir! Presents: Landslide: An EPIC Fleetwood Mac Sing-Along will be the most fun you’ve had in years. Nothing feels better than belting out songs like these with a room full of Fleetwood Mac fans. Channel your inner Stevie Nicks, grab your best friends and frenemies, and create harmonies that you won’t believe.
Since 2011, Choir! Choir! Choir! directors Daveed Goldman + Nobu Adilman have blurred the lines between performer and audience, traveling the world to create harmony with strangers and friends alike. They’ve collaborated with renowned artists like Patti Smith, David Byrne, Brandi Carlile, Rick Astley, Rufus Wainwright, and even Kermit the Frog at New York’s Lincoln Center, creating memorable videos that have garnered millions of views. Now it’s your turn to SING.
They Teach. You Sing. Everyone Wins! All voices welcome, no experience necessary.
Grab your friends, get your tickets, and we’ll C! you there! #NeverStopSinging