Local singer-songwriter has found her calling— with motherhood.
PUBLICITY PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

Singer-songwriter Lauren Hoffman has long been a traveler — with trips to India, a burgeoning fan base in France, a strategic career move to Brooklyn, and now an album recorded in Israel. But all that’s changed now that she’s had a baby and come home.

“I’m really happy about being a mom and being in Charlottesville and being settled down,” Hoffman says. “There’s not much that will tempt me away from that.”

Hoffman’s own lineage involves music, as her father Ross taught Dave Matthews to write songs; and not long after Matthews shot to fame, Hoffman signed with Virgin Records for her 1997 debut Megiddo. While she toured to widespread critical acclaim, she eventually parted ways with the label after clashing with its publicity department. Subsequent work was dark and brooding; eventually she hit the road.

“I was about to turn thirty, I was here in C’ville renting a little place, and I felt that I could just stay here and thirty could turn into forty,” says the now 32-year-old musician. “I felt like I had one more adventure in me.”

Connections she made while traveling in India in turn led her to Israel, where she (more)

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Logan Coleman shows off a memento.
PHOTO BY ERIKA MAGUIRE

She’s traveled halfway across the world, organized her own month-long trip to Kenya, studied the modernization of African cultures, interned with the Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy, speaks near fluent Swahili, and one day hopes to work alongside the African Union. Oh, and she’s only 16 years old.

Logan Coleman, a Charlottesville High School junior, says she’s long had an interest in African culture. And although she’d been exposed to African customs and lifestyles through school, she realized early last year she wanted to experience the culture first-hand.

“For me, going to Africa has always been sort of a calling,” says Coleman, who (more)

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Andrew Perrault
PUBLICITY PHOTO

While he was a student at UVA, Andrew Perreault never took a film class, and he didn’t even attend a single annual Virginia Film Festival. So no one saw it coming when the 2005 civil engineering graduate announced four years later he would return to his alma mater to screen the feature film he produced.

“It really started with my brother,” explains Perreault, 26. “About two years ago, he approached me with some ideas for a script.” (more)

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Andy Deane.
PHOTO BY WILL WALKER

As the lead vocalist in goth band Bella Morte, Andy Deane is no stranger to the dark arts. No, this isn’t another story of wizardry and a boy-who-lived, but one filled with werewolves and rock music. Deane, 31, now has fans thirsting for his book.

Even before hitting bookshelves, his newly-published novel, The Sticks, hit #1 in pre-sales and #2 in digital downloads at Horror Mall, a top independent online horror shop.

It’s almost scary how (more)

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