Jacksonville Water Polo brings the Olympic sport to the First Coast.  The water glitters neon blue. Numbered spheres move back and forth, treading water, chasing the ball unnumbered and moving toward the goal posts on either end of the pool.  All of the spheres but one are heads attached to bodies. The one without the number is the ball. Moving underwater, they’re camouflaged under the illusion of refraction. Referees can only make calls on what’s visible in the air between splashes. A game of grabbing, kicking, dunking and pulling lives freely beneath the surface, where fouls are made even with …

The changing of Lee High School’s name will go to a vote this Spring. Robert E. Lee was an American general best known for leading the Confederate troops in the Civil War. During and after his surrender to the General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union armies, his name became synonymous with the Confederate cause, a symbol of Southern nostalgia.  Lee opposed the dedication of Confederate names and monuments, saying they would perpetuate the Civil War and hold the country back from reconciliation, but a statue was erected in his name in Virginia in 1883. The battle flags that the …

A dark saga developed over hundreds of years, creating an expansive cultural network. We spoke with key figures in the local scene on how the goth subculture lives on in Northeast Florida. It’s Resurgence Goth Night at 1904. Occult symbols project onto dark walls and absinthe drips from cups. A pulse creeps into a creaking bass and a guitar melody, summoning a sea of black cloth to the dance floor. Bodies in intricate layers of corsets and capes, adorned with silver, sway together to the ominous tones. A heavy echo on every note, a voice enters the mix three minutes …

Isa Barrientos Starting April 1, the 10-day event will bring spring to life in rural Northeast Florida. Agriculture is at the heart of the fair with livestock and farm equipment exhibitions, a charming tractor-turned-duckslide, a pig race and a rabbit fashion show. Lucky visitors to the Little Red Barn may even see a goat giving birth. The Early Florida Village is the fair’s “hidden gem,” said General Manager Tasha Hyder. It’s home to a series of exhibits honoring rural culture and local history. An original jail and schoolhouse from Penney Farms are on display, as well as a 100-year-old commissary …

Isa Barrientos The past decade gave rise to platforms in which artists create and promote their work independently of labels and managers. Truth exists online for its own sake, with each of us as individuals choosing to exhibit or evade identity, to take a profit or a loss. BennY RevivaL curated a cryptic persona that could only exist in a time of SoundCloud rap and Twitter virality. He poses in various locations in full costume or a sweatsuit and a mask. He’s a loner, he says, so most of these photographs are taken by strangers. Captions of eschatology and personal …