Todd B. Waldo is an engineer, artist and community advocate serving the city of Richmond. Founder & Principal Consultant, Hugh Helen LLC

Duron Chavis was born in 1980 in Richmond Virginia. Also known as Brother Manifest; he has participated in the growth and enrichment of the African community for the past 10 years. Born in 1980 in during the rise of crack cocaine into urban communities throughout the US, he attended primary school overseas in Germany and came back to the United States at the age of 12 in 1992.

During his senior year at George Wythe High School, he was shot three times in an attempt to perform poetry at a local block party on Richmond's Southside. Graduating at the top ten of the George Wythe's Class of 1998, he received the Courage, Strength and Tenacity award for his diligence and unfaltering commitment to education in lieu of being a victim of gun violence.

Attending Virginia State University 1998-2000 as a Provost Scholar, Chavis became highly involved in student activism as a promoter of cultural awareness for people of African descent. Becoming ever cognizant of the importance of using art and mass media to promote ethnic heritage; Duron produced and hosted The Black History Chronicles; a live television show dedicated to historical and contemporary issues related to people of color and featured prominent scholars and community activists such as the late Benjamin Kareem, assistant to Malcolm X; for several seasons on Comcast Community Television.

Chavis started his career in community advocacy as first a volunteer then an employee of the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of VA. He worked as a museum coordinator developing programs and conducting guided tours for groups of all ages and backgrounds. In 2003 he founded the highly acclaimed Happily Natural Day festival as a grassroots effort to supplement the summer jazz concert that was held annually at the institution. A resounding success; the festival has inspired Africans from all over the globe to reexamine their relationship with the inferiority complex instilled into indigenous minds as a result Western imperialism and hegemony. The festival is a weekend long experience held annually in both Richmond VA and Atlanta GA that focuses on cultural awareness, health, wellness and social change. Chavis has worked with Dr. Llaila Afrika, Dr. Phil Valentine, Hakim Bey, Dr. Neely Fuller, Queen Afua, Runoko Rashidi, Ashra Kwesi, Ashanti Alston, Dhoruba Bin-Wahad, dead prez, Popmaster Fabel and many more community activists, scholars and organizations from all over the country.

Presently Chavis is engaged in coordinating innovative and dynamic initiatives around the topics of urban agriculture and food security in a culturally relevant way. In 2009 Chavis launched the Richmond Noir Market, a Saturday farmer’s market targeting low income communities located in what the USDA has designated as food deserts in Richmond Virginia. 2012 marked the development of the McDonough Community Garden, an urban agriculture project that promotes sustainable food growing, horticultural therapy and environmental stewardship.

Chavis has received numerable accolades for his work. He served in 2011 as a Clean Air Ambassador on behalf of Earthjustice and the Hip Hop Caucus. He is an alumni of Leadership Metro Richmond’s class of 2011, received Style Weekly’s Top 40 under 40 award in 2010, was featured as Richmond Free Press’s Personality of the Week and most recently was nominated for the 2012 Golden Trowel Award by Tricycle Gardens for his work around urban agriculture and food access.

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