Lakeside’s giant scissors, newly refurbished, will return in Sunday ceremony
A pair of giant wooden scissors will return to their prominent spot in Henrico’s Lakeside neighborhood this Sunday at 3 p.m., part of an “ASL Crawl” that will celebrate Richmond’s Deaf community.
The building, initially constructed as a hair salon, was purchased last year and will be repurposed into a “Shared Signing Community,” where deaf and hearing people work together, by a group called Common Thread RVA.
At the time of the purchase, the scissors, which are 13-feet-tall and made of wood, had begun to deteriorate.
The restoration project was led by Tim Lavelle, a Deaf cabinet maker, who worked with Jamel Lanier and Gavin Laurore, Deaf youth from the Richmond area.
“Since starting this project, I have been inspired by the history of these scissors,” said Lavelle, who lives in Fairfax. “I have realized how much the people of Lakeside value the scissors, and I am honored to bring them back to the community."
Emily Haynes McGee, who founded Mosaic Interpreting Services, is helping lead the effort. She wrote a blog post telling the story of purchasing the building, contingent on the inclusion of the scissors.
In a phone call this week, she said the original creator of the scissors, Dave Tench, drove by and saw the group working on the scissors, and is planning to come to Sunday’s event.
At one point the intention was to make the Lakeside space a café, but at the moment the group is still exploring all potential uses.
“As we’re figuring out where we’re going, one of the things that is guiding us is community values,” said Haynes McGee, who cited the work of Rachel Kolb, a Deaf writer. “She articulates this as a shared commitment to mutual understanding, which means showing up ready to collaborate and connect with people in whatever way works.”
Sunday’s events will start with yoga at 10:30 a.m. at Peak Experience, continue with a social at Davvero Gelato from noon-3 p.m., then the mounting of the scissors at 3 p.m. at 6201 Lakeside Ave., then an after party from 4-6 p.m. at Final Gravity Brewing.
The Common Thread RVA project has helped create community for Sylvia Crespo, a Lakeside resident who leads an ASL club at Lakeside Elementary.
She mentioned learning about the Lantz Mills community in Shenandoah, one of the earliest examples in the United States where deaf and hearing residents communicated with each other.
"It's so important to understand our history,” she said. “Because of the high concentration of Deaf residents, Lantz Mills became a 'shared signing community', where both Deaf and hearing people worked together. People collaborated around communication instead of existing separately. That's what I want to see happen here, but I don't want this shared signing community to fade. I value this space."
Haynes McGee concluded her blog post with a tribute to the community-building power of the Lakeside scissors.
“We get to build the world we want to live in,” she wrote. “And the world I want contains a giant pair of scissors that belong to the people.”
Contact Michael Phillips at mphillips@richmonder.org.
