Join us for a screening of the Emmy and Telly Award–winning documentary film "Raised/Razed" followed by a discussion with the film’s writers and directors, Lorenzo Dickerson and Jordy Yager. The film dives deep into Charlottesville’s oldest African American neighborhood, Vinegar Hill, charting the lives of residents as they faced racially discriminatory policies and a city government that saw them as the only thing between it and progress. The story examines the hard truths of the federal Urban Renewal program and the broader history of its effect in Durham, North Carolina, and other communities across America.

Filmmaker Lorenzo Dickerson is the founder of the Maupintown Film Festival and Maupintown Media, which produces documentary films that focus on sharing stories of African American history and culture in Virginia. Journalist Jordy Yager is the digital humanities director at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, where he helped launch the African American Oral History Project and the Mapping Cville and Mapping Albemarle projects, the region’s first comprehensive mapping of every property record containing a racial covenant. 

This event is one of a series of programs highlighting stories of displacement in Virginia communities as part of the Library's programming related to the exhibition “House to Highway: Reclaiming a Community History,” on view through Feb. 28, 2026. Exhibition-related programming is provided with support from Virginia Humanities and the Mellon Foundation. 

This is a free event, but registration is required. For more information, contact education@lva.virginia.gov.