Three years ago, the diverse community of Orange County inspired Alyssa Waller and her fellow organizers to establish the first Tapestry Festival. After an extended hiatus, that same community banded together to give Waller the strength she needed to bring the multicultural celebration back for 2025.
The Tapestry Festival was held earlier this month in downtown Orange, but it originated in 2022 after a group of community-minded friends from varying backgrounds — Waller, Brittney Alexander and Dani Rivera — came together to solve what they saw as a lack of representation at local events of the diverse cultures present in Orange County.
A lightbulb went off for Waller as she remembered the collaborative nature of the block parties in her hometown, Irvington, N.J.
“Every family on that block contributed to the day, whether it was with food or music and dancing, bringing different things from their culture,” Waller said.
Alexander and Rivera agreed that the block party format was right for their event, and the first Tapestry Festival successfully took place in July 2022. However, a tragic loss put the festival on hold for several years after Alexander passed away unexpectedly from childbirth complications in 2023.
“[Alexander] was feeling like something was off, and she had kept going back to the doctor and trying to see if they could induce her,” Waller explained. “And initially, they kind of just brushed her off and thought it was nothing.” According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women in the United States suffer from higher maternal mortality rates, and studies have also shown that they are less likely to have their medical concerns taken seriously.
It was an especially difficult loss for Waller, who thought of Alexander as a sister and was still grieving the loss of her biological sister a year earlier. The next year, she was dealt another tragic blow when her mother passed away.
Ultimately, it was encouragement from supporters of the event that gave Waller the strength to work through her grief and revive the Tapestry Festival. Waller recalled receiving a phone call from Carver 4-County Museum Vice President Alan Johnson, whom she had assisted with event planning during the 75th anniversary celebration of George Washington Carver Regional High School, Virginia’s only regional school to offer secondary education to Black students in four counties during segregation.
“[Johnson’s call] was like a reminder, we need to go ahead and strike while the iron is hot. You can’t just give up,” Waller said. “And so he was holding me accountable for what I said I would do for the community, but then it also gave me something to become busy with, so I wasn’t just drowning in sadness and depression from losing so many people so close together.”
With Waller fully leading the charge as event organizer, friends, family and local businesses all pitched in to make the 2025 festival possible. Wayne Minor and Hit The Deck Entertainment handled music and publicity, Jess Thompson offered administrative assistance, and friends and family helped with raffle prizes and awards.
On the day of the festival, the excitement was palpable as hundreds of community members made their way down Short St. At the entrance near the Main St. intersection, attendees were greeted by Orange Pride, who offered face painting and a community art project in collaboration with creative arts facilitator Jannine Jones.
Near the Orange Visitor Center, crowds gathered to watch performances by the Orange County High School cheer squad and Sweet Illuzion Dance Team, listen to spoken word poetry by India Nixon and dance to the music.
Rachel Carlton, who recently took a job at Charlottesville City Public Schools after a career teaching at Orange County High School, was glad to see so many young people in attendance. She raised her children in Orange County, including 2023 OCHS valedictorian Sakhile “Solo” Mthethwa, who made waves at his graduation ceremony by delivering a speech calling out the racism he and other Black students endured over the course of their education. Carlton stressed the importance of striving to create a community where everyone is welcomed.
“How do you build community if people are left out?” Carlton asked. “Everybody has a part in our world. We’ve sometimes lost that, and we need to get back to it, and Orange can do it. We can bring people together if we want.”
Waller, who has worked with children most of her professional career, first at Orange County Public Schools and then as an administrative assistant for UVA’s department of neurodevelopmental pediatrics, had the next generation of Orange leaders front-of-mind while planning the festival.
“I think about that a lot. I always say the younger ones are going to be the change that we really need in this world, in this country,” Waller said. “I’m not going to say that it’s all perfect, but they get it as far as respecting each other’s differences and still being able to get along. Even if you don’t agree with everything they do, you can still love and celebrate that person.”
In the days leading up to the festival, Waller had her own personal experience learning the difference that representation can make in the lives of children. An introvert at heart, Waller initially was nervous about her upcoming media appearances to promote the event and tried to get the other organizers to take on the task.
“They all were like, ‘No, we’re not. You need to do it, and little girls need to see somebody like you out there doing it,'” Waller said.
As it turns out, those friends were right. When the video of Waller’s first radio interview aired on Facebook, her son Amir and eight-year-old granddaughters watched excitedly as a family on the TV.
“They were like, ‘So you really can do whatever you want to. You could be whatever you want to be.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, you can,'” Waller shared. “Then on the day of, they just kept running around and hugging me and said, ‘You did all of this.’ And I said, ‘Not by myself. I had lots and lots of help.'”
At a time when diversity initiatives have increasingly come under fire, from the Trump administration’s unprecedented pressure on the University of Virginia to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs to the administration’s attempts to censor references to slavery at the Smithsonian, Waller admitted she had concerns during the event planning process about the possibility of pushback and ensuring the safety of those in attendance. Despite this, she felt 2025 was the right time for the festival to return, honoring Alexander’s legacy of kindness and her efforts to bring attention to Orange County’s multicultural heritage.
“We can’t draw back in the shadows, because then that lets them win,” Waller said. “You can’t do that.”
