A new Richmond tourism campaign is hoping to put the black experience front and center for people visiting the region.
This week, Richmond Region Tourism is launched its BLKRVA campaign with a new website and video. The campaign paints Richmond as a city whose history, and progress, has been shaped by its black residents.
“This is Richmond...We are at the center of the black experience. The birthplace of the black journey in America,” says the narrator in the BLKRVA launch video.
Richmond Region Tourism created the new ads in coordination with a community advisory board called the Black Experience Initiative. They worked alongside Ryano Graphics, owned by Richmond resident Shannon Bass, to create the multimedia marketing campaign.
Enjoli Moon headed that board and she’s the founder of the Afrikana Independent Film Festival. Moon said BLKRVA will work to promote black business and culture in Richmond, alongside all of the breweries and restaurants the city has become known for.
“Fifty percent of our population is black and that fifty percent of the population pours into the experiences that you have here,” she said. “We are part of what makes the city vibrant. It’s not one homogenous group that has gotten the city to where we are.”
Moon said the website, VisitBLKRVA.com, will serve as an events calendar and trip planner for tourists and residents alike.