Celebrating One Year of RVA R+W

The first time that I met "internet friends" in real life was August 24th, 2024.

After the inciting events that precipitated the creation of this group but before any sort of structure existed, we decided to meet up for an ice cream social.

Despite dozens of people who seemed interested and were interacting online, I'd never tried to bring anything like this together without knowing the people beforehand, and I had no idea whether to expect anyone to come. I'd like to think that I would have faced a zero turnout with grace and humility, but I am thankful that two of my long-time friends, Logan and Emma, did not leave me to the chance of this fate.

Then, a bit to my surprise, three other people actually did show up!

There was Kylie, whose social media was full of photos and videos of herself and the Richmond area, leaving no room for doubt that she was a local reader and author. Madison, who had been engaged in the group chats from day one, had a social media feed full of beautiful cosplay photos from a local garden.

Then there was Jess, who was also active in the group chats, but had no identifying details on her social media page. Her profile picture was, and still is, balls of yarn. It was her idea to bring a random balloon to make ourselves easily identifiable by sending a photo of it in the group chat first, but I was just glad it made her easier to spot as well.

Of note, it has been a year, and her profile photo is still the same bunch of yarn. We still like to give her a hard time about this (lovingly).

A year later, I so deeply admire the three new friends that I made that day, who came with no clue what to expect, without the security net that I was wrapped in by already having two friends with me, and with so much desire for connection and community that it was palpable.

August 24th, 2025 at Kline's Dairy Bar

the

first

day

We could call our origin date the first thread that I posted, or celebrate our birthday on the date that the group chat was born, but the day that just a few people took a socially daunting first step feels like a more fitting anniversary date for us to recognize where we truly started.

Over the course of the past year, we've done a few different things:

• Read thirty-six total books together

• Had four book clubs with the author, two of which were in-person, and one of which was hosted at the author's home.

• Collectively DNF'd one book and opted to have a dinner social instead because we believe it's okay not to finish every book that you start (even if I am still struggling with this one personally).

• Started using the bookclubs app to organize our meetings and host virtual clubs via in-app video chat, a massive step up from our initial organization within Instagram group chats,

• Spent more than 30 Thursday mornings together at Riverbend Roastery, a locally owned coffee shop in Church Hill, where the barista Han greats us with great joy, exclaiming "writers!" at our arrival each week, as if it is still a pleasant surprise. Here, you can find us working on our own projects while chatting over bagels and roasted s'mores lattes at the long table in the corner or the couches in the back.

• Began planning our first readers retreat for the fall of 2025.

• Organized a first chapter feedback event and paired writers with other authors who were in search of feedback. Over the course of the next month, we'll be working on critiquing other's work before meeting up at the end of September to put a name and face to each manuscript and exchange feedback in person.

• Occupied most of the left side of Abi's Books and Brews for more than 25 Tuesday mornings straight, enjoying the earliest coffeeshop hours in Richmond amidst a background of bookshelves, which are complete with a rolling ladder, much to our delight.

• Enjoyed a pool party book club so much last month that we have another scheduled for this weekend.

• Used an ipad to allow everyone to write their thoughts on one of our reads in their own handwriting, and then compiled this into a notebook style post to be shared with the community.

• Evolved into an online and in-person community that engages far beyond book recommendations. Most encouraging to me was seeing so many people who lived outside of the city limits offering up showers, water bottles, and laundry machines when the water in Richmond went out back in January.

• Tried out many schedules and platforms and quantities per month for our book clubs. For now, we've landed on three a month on a loose rotation of genres.

• Added a Sunday evening writers meet up, which is currently being hosted at Gramophone in Forest Hill, just before their 7pm karaoke.

• Celebrated our one year anniversary with a crafternoon where we made bookmarks and RVA R+W buttons, painted candles, and more.

• Established a process to suggest books and vote on them on a quarterly basis, allowing more advanced planning and time to request books from the library.

• Watched a movie adaptation of one of our book club reads together.

• Hosted a "books and barks" event with the trailer bookstore at Bluebird + Co after attending their first-ever Crozet Book Fest last year.

• Initiated a volunteer carpool for the second Crozet Book Fest, where we will be supporting their author green room while spending time together!

• Swapped blind dates with a book at our winter holiday social and traded used books on an impromptu basis at more than one book club.

Just to name a few.

When I walked away from that first ice cream social, I thought, "huh, maybe this could really be something." As in, maybe three or four people would want to read the same book and then talk about it together at the end of the month. It hadn't crossed my mind that we would ever pass 100 people in our bookclubs group, or that I'd be googling "max capacity in an instagram group chat" within just a month. Now, only a year later, I cannot imagine my life without all of you and the community that we have built.

RVA R+W exists because the threads algorithm decided to give voice to my first post about this idea last July. On the other side of my gratitude for that is a frustration that there is such an unknowable process behind the question of who will see our posts and events, especially without being a for-profit organization that can make targeted ads and run analytics. While I might not be in control of "the algorithm," I am responsible for how I respond to it and mitigate its influence whenever possible.

It is important to me that I acknowledge that the current demographic of this group does not reflect the makeup of Richmond, Virginia as a whole, and that's something that is forefront in my mind as we continue to grow beyond the small group that we started as. As we grow, I hope we can be mindful and intentional in becoming a more accurate depiction of the beautiful diversity that can be found in our city.

I want you to know that if you're into words, you're in the right place.