I’m JJ and I launched The City Salt with Roanoke-based artist John Woodrum in 2022 as a DIY zine covering community arts and makers, which we distributed around the Roanoke Valley. Chelse Warren (Openhead Takes Photos) and David Jones have been with us, as director of photography and videography respectively, almost since the inception of The City Salt. Back then it was produced and printed (with excruciating frustration) in my basement. Late in 2023, we self-produced, professionally printed, and distributed our first proper magazine; and in 2024, Amanda Vance joined as graphic designer, elevating the design to a professional level. We hope to continue producing special print editions of The City Salt as we continue, although our focus has shifted to short filmmaking, community building ,and curating a new microseries platform open for creators around the region to present their work as a series of short videos. While my background has primarily been with print and web publications centered on textual content, I’ve developed a curiosity for documentary storytelling as a new mode for exporting the tales of Virginia’s utmost music makers to the wider public, interests that we will explore in Scratchin’ Gravel, The City Salt’s flagship microseries channel. We have been fortunate to partner with other creators, including Klean Studios and Kimble Creative to create their our channels and we will continue working to expand our network of contributors.