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Announcing the winning design of the Steppin’ Out 2015 t-shirt

March 26, 2015

Downtown Blacksburg, Inc. presents the 35th annual Steppin’ Out! Steppin' Out features over 250 artists and crafts people from around the US selling unique handcrafted items; sidewalk sales; festival foods provided by downtown restaurants; and three stages of live entertainment!

The Steppin’ Out t-shirt has become an annual collector’s item and is part of the great Steppin’ Out tradition! We are excited to reveal the design for this year’s t-shirt and to introduce you to the designer Maya Renfro. Maya entered and won the annual t-shirt design contest held by Downtown Blacksburg, Inc. The Steppin’ Out t-shirt will be printed by downtown merchant, High Peak Sportswear, and will be available to purchase in early May.

About Maya Renfro: I have been visiting Blacksburg since I was very young in order to see family so I have always been fond of this area. I ended up living there from 2008-2012 and in that time I grew even more attached to this communal and warmth-driven town that consistently creates its own fun. While I now live in Round Hill, VA with my boyfriend and artistic companion Jared Hall Garland, we still end up visiting Blacksburg about once a month in order to perform in our band Atoka Chase or just to visit all of our dear friends that live here. I play fiddle, guitar, and sing in the group while Jared stomps on his homemade suitcase drum and sings alongside his janky banjo that was handed down to him from my father. My mother and father actually met while clogging in Blacksburg and I am fairly certain that he purchased that banjo when Steppin' Out was still Deadwood Days!

At the moment I work at Catoctin Creek Distilling Company bottling whiskey (which is more fun than work), as a substitute teacher for Loudoun County Public Schools, and as a delivery woman for Cabinet Showplace. With our rather hectic musician's lifestyle I have to juggle multiple jobs in order to stay afloat. Between these jobs I also do freelance work as a designer and illustrator of apparel, logos, album artwork, promotional fliers, labels, packaging, and books. Hopefully one day I can be an artist and a musician full-time! At this very moment I am working on designs for both Rock the Blocks Festival and Fracktose Intolerant Fest which will be occurring in and around Blacksburg very soon. If you're interested in looking out for my artwork you may see it on some more shirts and fliers correlated to those festivals! http://mayarenfro.tumblr.com/ http://cargocollective.com/mayarenfro/ maya.renfro@gmail.com