Metro Weekly - March 02, 2017 by RP MEDIA ARCHIVE

CONTENTS

MARCH 2, 2017

Volume 23 Issue 41

ONE BIG, HAPPY TENT? Conservatives embraced LGBTQ Republicans at this year’s CPAC, but transgender rights remain a sticking point By John Riley

TRAGEDY IN THE RING

In Terence Blanchard’s stylized, jazz-infused Champion, a boxer struggles to come to grips with his sexuality with operatically devastating results. By André Hereford

CLAWS OUT

Screen legends Crawford and Davis find the boys, the booze and Baby Jane in Ryan Murphy’s delectable Feud: Bette & Joan By André Hereford

SPOTLIGHT: GMCW p.7 OUT ON THE TOWN p.11 GLOBE SPANNING: LYNN VERONNEAU p.12 THE FEED: ONE BIG, HAPPY TENT? p.15 FORUM: MOONLIGHT AT THE OSCARS p.17 COMMUNITY: WIG NIGHT OUT p.19 COVER STORY: TRAGEDY IN THE RING p.22 GALLERY: LANIA D’AGOSTINO p.29 TELEVISION: FEUD p.31 OPERA: DEAD MAN WALKING p.33 MUSIC: ELECTRIC GUEST p.35 NIGHTLIFE: TEAM DC FASHION SHOW p.37 LISTINGS p.39 LAST WORD p.46 Real LGBTQ News and Entertainment since 1994

Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Managing Editor Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley Contributing Editor Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrator Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers André Hereford, Sean Maunier, Troy Petenbrink, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla Patron Saint Emile Griffith Cover Photography Todd Franson Metro Weekly 1775 I St. NW, Suite 1150 Washington, DC 20006 202-638-6830 All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

Spotlight

Show Business

Rinaldo Martinez and D’Andrew Parker photographed by Julian Vankim

NJOY IT, MY BOY! YOU ONLY GET TO BE ELVIS ONCE or twice in your lifetime!” John Moran offered those words of advice to Rinaldo Martinez upon selecting him to play the lead in Frank Loesser’s 1961 Broadway hit, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. The 35-year-old Martinez, who hadn’t sung in a musical since college, was relatively new to the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington. “I auditioned for this in November, not even thinking for one second that I would get a lead role,” Martinez says. “I just wanted to be in the chorus.” Yet Moran saw in Martinez his J. Pierpont Finch, a role first made famous by Robert Morse and later by Matthew Broderick. “[John’s] concept for this show was that we not change the script, that we not change the names of the characters,” says Theo

Kano, who replaced Moran after the director’s untimely death in December. “The show as originally written is typical Broadway, typical musical, boy meets girl. We have a man playing the part of Rosemary, so, of course, now it’s boy meets boy.” Only the role of Miss Jones, secretary to Finch’s boss J.B. Biggley, is played in drag by D’Andrew Parker. “Otherwise,” says Kano, “it’s just men playing men. But we’re doing some fun things to put our equality spin on it.” Kano, the artistic director of the GMCW, calls How to Succeed a “fun piece, kind of an escape, if you will, from the political storm.” Yet it also presents a tongue-in-cheek, art-imitating-life nod to our current reality. “This show,” she says, “is about a man who works his way to the top with no experience and no knowledge of the job.” —Doug Rule

Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington performs How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying on Friday, March 10, and Saturday, March 11, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 12, at 3 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St. NW. Tickets are $25 to $65. Call 202-328-6000 or visit gmcw.org. MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

Spotlight FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH

Amy Heckerling’s iconic 1982 teen drama is part of a Library of Congress series of 15 films celebrating, however indirectly, Women’s History Month. Based on a script by Cameron Crowe and his findings spending nine months undercover as a high school student for Rolling Stone, the film stars Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, and Sean Penn and was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2005. Saturday, March 11, at 7:30 p.m. Packard Campus Theater, 19053 Mount Pony Rd. Culpeper, Va. Free. Call 202-707-9994 or visit loc. gov/avconservation.

FICKLE: A FANCY FRENCH FARCE

Disguises, mistaken identities, palace intrigues and an improbable romance are in store in a world-premiere modern take on Pierre de Marivaux’s 18th-century French comedy The Double Inconstancy. Adapted by rising American playwright Meg Miroshnik, the delightful comic romp stars Tonya Beckman, Chris Dinolfo, Mark Jaster, Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan, Marcus Kyd, Kathryn Tkel, and Andy Reinhardt. Olney Theatre’s Artistic Associate Eleanor Holdridge directs. In previews. Opens Sunday, March 5. Runs through April 2. Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road in Maryland. Tickets are $45 to $65. Call 301-924-3400 or visit olneytheatre.org.

AMERICAN ELECTRIC

Having been described as “early Elvis Costello meets Neutral Milk Hotel,” this new D.C. indie-rock band is comprised of veterans of local groups Fire and the Wheel, Last Tide, and Loose Lips. American Electric is expected to preview songs from its debut EP, due this spring. Thursday, March 9. Doors at 8:30 p.m. DC9, 1940 9th St. NW. Tickets are $10. Call 202-483-5000 or dcnine.com. 8

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

Spotlight TAKODA: WHISKEY THREE-COURSE DINNER

The contemporary American restaurant located around the corner from Town Danceboutique offers two one-night-only, three-course dinners to showcase the differences in U.S.-produced spirits. On offer is a guided tasting of whiskeys — including Basil Hayden, Baker’s Bourbon and Knob Creek Rye — all selected by General Manager Sean MacDonald to be paired with three courses from Chef Damian Brown. Wednesday, March 8, from 5 to 9 p.m. Takoda Restaurant & Beer Garden, 715 Florida Ave. NW. Tickets are $55 per person not including tax and gratuity. Call 202-525-1252 or visit takodadc.com.

ERIC BURDON AND THE ANIMALS

Hailed by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 Greatest Voices of All Time, Eric Burdon will sing through his repertoire of hits with the latest iteration of the British Invasion band he took to the top of the charts 50 years ago. Think “House of the Rising Sun,” “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” and the Vietnam-era anthem “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place.” It’s all part of Montgomery College’s Guest Artist Series. Monday, March 6, at 8p.m. Montgomery College’s Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center, 51 Mannakee St., Rockville. Tickets are $75. Call 240-567-5301 or visit montgomerycollege.edu/PAC.

MRS. MILLER DOES HER THING

Emmy and Tony-winner Debra Monk stars in a comedy by Pulitzerwinning playwright James Lapine about Elva Miller, a songstress whose off-key singing found fame in the ’60s. Think of her as pop music’s Florence Foster Jenkins. To March 26. Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. Call 703-820-9771 or visit signature-theatre.org.

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

AUDREY MELTON

Out On The Town

PRIESTS

Nearly five years old, the D.C.-based band has generated national buzz for revitalizing, however indirectly, another aspect of D.C. culture — punk rock, specifically the ’90s-originating “Riot Grrrl” variant. Led by the strong, elastically voiced Katie Alice Greer and including drummer Daniele Daniele, guitarist G.I. Jaguar, and bassist Taylor Mulitz, Priests is a mixed-gender, hard-charging band with a cheekily religious name — owing in part to Greer’s upbringing as the daughter of a Methodist minister. The band tours in support of its debut full-length, Nothing Feels Natural, which Paste magazine said “might be the first great punk album of the Trump presidency.” It’s hard to disagree with music this sharp, passionate, and powerful. Coup Sauvage & The Snips and Atta Girl open. Saturday, March 11. Doors at 8 p.m. Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. Tickets are $16, with a dollar from each ticket donated to Casa Ruby. Call 202-667-4490 or visit blackcatdc.com.

Compiled by Doug Rule

FILM EXTREMIS

A 24-minute documentary by Oscarand Emmy-winning director Dan Krauss (The Kill Team), screened as part of the What’s Up? Docs! series from the Documentary Center at George Washington University. Released in 2016, Extremis explores the harrowing decisions families must make in end-of-life cases relying on machine-based life support. Marion Danis, NIH’s Division Chief on Ethics, and philosopher and bioethicist David DeGrazia are special guests during a post-screening discussion. Thursday, March 9, at 7 p.m. Amphitheater at Cloyd Heck Marvin Center, 800 21st NW. Free.

Call 202-994-6787 or visit documentarycenter.gwu.edu.

MATT SHEPARD IS A FRIEND OF MINE

Unity of Fairfax hosts an interfaith event with a screening of Michael Josue’s award-winning documentary, exploring the life and tragic death of Matthew Shepard in 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming. Similar to The Laramie Project, Matt Shepard Is A Friend of Mine relates the gay student’s struggles through the personal lens of his friends, family and those who were close to him. After the screening comes a discussion with light refreshments about LGBTQ equality and protections since Shepard’s murder and how everyday people can work to effect change. Saturday, March 4, at 2 p.m. Unity of Fairfax, 2854

Hunter Mill Rd., Oakton, Va. Call 703-281-1767 or visit mattshepard. eventbrite.com.

MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI

Will Forte, Nick Offerman, Ellen Page and Amy Sedaris lend their vocal talents to Claude Barras’ feature film debut, an audience award-winning favorite at various festivals and also nominated for Best Animated Feature at this year’s Oscars. Based on a novel by Gilles Paris and with a screenplay co-written by French filmmaker Celine Sciamma (Tomboy), My Life as a Zucchini is a stop-motion tale about a nine-year-old boy struggling with his new life with other orphans after the death of his mother. The hour-long film screens with another subtitled work by Barras, the eight-minute short The Genie in the

Ravioli Can. Opens Friday, March 3. Landmark’s E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW. Call 202-452-7672 or visit landmarktheatres.com.

TABLE 19

Pitch Perfect protagonist Anna Kendrick stars in a comedy by the Duplass brothers (The Skeleton Twins) as a woman who attends her oldest friend’s wedding, only to find her place among other guests who were only reluctantly invited. Amanda Crew, Stephen Merchant, Lisa Kudrow, Wyatt Russell, Craig Robinson, and Andy Daly are among the cast in this film directed by Jeffrey Blitz (Spellbound). Opens Friday, March 3. Area theaters. Visit fandango.com.

THE MUPPET MOVIE

Kicking off a Muppet Movies series,

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

PHOTO COURTESY OF VERONNEAU

the American Film Institute screens the 1979 original in which Jim Henson’s creations first took to the silver screen. Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Steve Martin, Dom DeLuise, Carol Kane, Richard Pryor, and Bob Hope all feature in the gang’s road trip to Hollywood, led by Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo and Miss Piggy. Later films in the series running through April include The Great Muppet Caper, Labyrinth, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird. Saturday, March 4, at 11 a.m., Sunday, March 5, at 11:30 a.m., Monday, March 6, at 5 p.m., Tuesday, March 7, at 5 p.m., Wednesday, March 8, at 4:30 p.m., and Thursday, March 9, at 5 p.m. Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. Tickets are $10 to $13 general admission. Call 301495-6720 or visit afi.com/Silver.

STAGE BLUES IN THE NIGHT

GLOBE SPANNING

Twenty-five years ago, jazz singer Lynn Veronneau was part of the internet’s very first viral image

OT MANY PEOPLE CAN SAY THEY WERE FEATURED IN THE FIRST PICture on the internet. In fact, only four women can make the claim. “We were called Les Horribles Cernettes, or the acronym LHC,” Lynn Veronneau says. “I’m the one on the right in the red dress.” LHC was a parody pop group comprised of women who worked in Switzerland at the European Organization for Nuclear Research — or CERN, as it’s more widely known. “We had bouffant hairdos and big fluffy dresses, and we sang songs about physics.” LHC’s big moment came when fellow CERN employee and web inventor Tim BernersLee asked for their image — and subsequently spread it far and wide via hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). They were the first viral image, and the four women — all still singers, though now scattered around the globe — are considering reuniting this summer for the 25th anniversary of the photo. At the moment, however, Veronneau’s primary focus is on recording new music and touring with her eponymous, globally-inspired jazz band, formed half a decade ago in Northern Virginia with guitarist Ken Avis, her husband. Next week, Veronneau and her band will appear at Blues Alley, performing songs from their forthcoming third album. The appearnce precedes a tour to Veronneau’s native Canada and the U.K. over the spring and summer. Following the tour, the couple, who have lived in the D.C. area for 17 years, expect to finally be eligible for U.S. citizenship. It was an inevitability that Veronneau had never questioned, until recently. “I haven’t stopped biting my nails since November 8,” she says. “My family’s all back home saying, ‘Lynn, come back home.’ And I thought, that’s a definite option for us. It’s an attractive option, too.” Yet ultimately not as attractive as staying and fighting. “Now more than ever I want to be American,” she says. “After living here for so long, after building a wonderful life here, after meeting so many incredible people, I want the right to vote.... I want my say. I want to stand up. I want to not live in fear.” —Doug Rule Lynn Veronneau and her band appear Tuesday, March 7, at 8 and 10 p.m., at Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Tickets are $27, plus $12 minimum purchase. Call 202-337-4141 or visit bluesalley.com.

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

Virginia’s Creative Cauldron presents a scorching, Tony-nominated musical revue interweaving classic blues and American Songbook standards by Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Jimmy Cox, Ida Cox and more. Matt Conner directs a show originally conceived by Sheldon Epps. Closes Sunday, March 5. ArtSpace Falls Church, 410 South Maple Ave., Falls Church. Tickets are $50. Call 703-436-9948 or visit creativecauldron.org.

BOOTYCANDY

A cast of students from the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Montgomery College bring to life Robert O’Hara’s semi-autobiographical collection of 10 short plays about growing up gay and black. The subversive comedy, with mature themes and explicit sexual language, first came to life nearly six years ago at Woolly Mammoth and journeys from a budding gay youth’s childhood home and church to dive bars, motel rooms and nursing homes. Professor David Rothman directs. Opens Friday, March 3, at 8 p.m. Weekends to March 12. Theater 2 in Cultural Arts Center at Montgomery College’s Silver Spring campus, 7995 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring. Tickets are $10. Call 240567-5775 or visit montgomerycollege.edu/cac.

CHOIR BOY

Tarell McCraney’s drama focuses on the most talented — as well as most flamboyant — chorister at a hallowed African-American, all-boy prep school. A touching tale of bullying, homophobia, love and acceptance, the show’s greatest source of power is in McCraney’s subtle, graceful and evocative style of storytelling. To March 18. Richmond Triangle Players, 1300 Altamont Ave., Richmond. Tickets are $28

to $30. Call 804-346-8113 or visit rtriangle.org.

GIN GAME

Roz White and Doug Brown take on D.L. Coburn’s play, which the New York Times called a “thoroughly entertaining lesson in the fine art of theatrical finesse.” Thomas W. Jones II directs. To March 12. MetroStage, 1201 North Royal St., Alexandria. Tickets are $55 to $60. Call 800-494-8497 or visit metrostage.org.

KING CHARLES III

Three years after giving us Cock, British playwright Mike Bartlett returns with his latest theatrical effort. An Olivier-winning play that nods to Shakespeare, King Charles II explores how Prince Charles might rule were he to finally ascend to the British throne. The New York Times called it “an intellectually and emotionally gripping study of the strangely enduring anachronism that is the British monarchy.” Directed by David Muse. In previews. To March 18. Sidney Harman Hall, Harman Center for the Arts, 610 F St. NW. Call 202-547-1122 or visit shakespearetheatre.org.

PETER AND THE STARCATCHER

Kathryn Chase Bryer directs a Rick Elice’s prequel to Peter Pan, complete with swordfights, shipwrecks and mermaids, but also clever wordplay, daring ensemble movement and live music. Dallas Tolentino plays the Boy Who Never Grew Up, alongside Megan Graves as the plucky and precocious Molly and Michael John Casey as the Black Stache, determined to become the world’s most feared one-handed villain. To March 12. Source Theatre, 1835 14th St. NW. Tickets are $20 to $45. Call 202-204-7741 or visit constellationtheatre.org.

THE SELECT (THE SUN ALSO RISES)

John Collins directs New York’s Elevator Repair Service adaptation of the classic novel by Ernest Hemingway about a group of American and British expatriates who travel to Spain for the Running of the Bulls. Shakespeare Theatre Company hosts the acclaimed theater ensemble a decade after they came to fame with their spin on F. Scott Fitzgerald with Gatz. The Select is a streamlined edit of Hemingway that stays true to the writer’s distinct style. To April 2. Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th St. NW. Call 202-547-1122 or visit shakespearetheatre.org.

THE WHITE SNAKE

A magical adaptation by Mary Zimmerman, The White Snake is brought to fantastical life in grand spectacle in Baltimore Center Stage’s newly renovated Head Theater. Based on an ancient

Chinese fable, it tells the story of two animal spirits who take on human form as a beautiful woman (Aime Donna Kelly) and her sly servant. Natsu Onoda Power directs the production starring Aime Donna Kelly, Eileen Rivera and Joe Ngo and featuring an ensemble of actors and four actor-musicians led by music director Jeff Song. Opens Friday, March 3, at 8 p.m. To March 26. Baltimore Center Stage, 700 North Calvert St. Tickets are $20 to $69. Call 410-332-0033 or visit centerstage.org

MUSIC ALLE FARBEN

Frans Zimmer, whose artist alias means “all colors” in German, is another purveyor of the improbable but irresistible and increasingly popular blend of folk-dance music, merging tropical house with breezy downtempo pop and mournful electro-folk. The Berlin-based DJ and producer kicks off a short U.S. tour with a stop in D.C. in support of his new album Music Is My Best Friend, including the trumpet-sounding hit tune “Bad Ideas” and the Macy Gray-esque ditty “Please Tell Rosie.” Friday, March 4, at 10:30 p.m. U Street Music Hall, 1115A U St. NW. Tickets are $10. Call 202-588-1880 or visit ustreetmusichall.com.

KLEZMER BRUNCH: SETH KIBEL AND FRIENDS

Every other month, the Washington Jewish Music Festival presents a concert served with a kosher buffet at the Edlavitch Jewish Community Center on 16th Street. The next iteration features Seth Kibel and fellow musicians performing new arrangements of traditional Eastern European/Jewish melodies as well as original songs drawing upon jazz, classical, world beat, rock and other genres for an entertaining blend of music. Sunday, March 5, at 11 am. The Aaron and Cecile Goldman Theater, Edlavitch DCJCC, 1529 16th St. NW. Tickets are $16.88 for the concert only, or $33.75 for concert with brunch, but only if purchased by Wednesday, March 1. Call 202-777-3247 or visit wjmf.org.

KRONOS QUARTET

The Grammy-winning contemporary classical chamber ensemble returns for its first Washington Performing Arts concert in 15 years and the first as part of a five-year collaboration. The San Franciscobased string quartet will perform works it has commissioned by composers from around the globe, including American Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Reich, Azerbaijani Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Mexican rock band Cafe Tacvba, Netherlandsborn Yotam Haber and Polish composers Alter Yechiel Karniol and Aleksander Kosciow. Saturday,

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

ESPITA MEZCALERIA: FIRST BIRTHDAY COCKTAILS

The Southern Mexican-inspired Shaw spot, which has helped increase the popularity of tequila’s worm-infused spirit cousin mezcal, celebrates its first anniversary the first full week of March. From Monday, March 6, to Sunday, March 12, Beverage Director Megan Barnes offers five “fan favorite” cocktails, including the Oaxacan Sour with “excessive Angostura bitters,” Espadin mezcal, lemon and pineapple, the Beatriz, a play on a dry martini with Sotol, Cocchi Americano and elderflower, and the Guajillo Mango Highball, which combines house-made soda from chili peppers, fresh-pressed mango juice and mezcal. And each patron will receive a complimentary pour of Espadin mezcal with the purchase of an entree on Wednesday, March 8 — a year to the day since Espita Mezcaleria opened. Espita Mezcaleria, 1250 9th St. NW. The birthday cocktails are $12 to $16 each. Call 202-621-9695 or visit espitadc.com.

ABOVE & BEYOND

FOUND FOOTAGE FESTIVAL

Comedy writers Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, whose credits include Late Show with David Letterman, The Colbert Report and The Onion, return for another round of a festival that features found videos and live comedy drawn from garage sales, thrift stores, warehouses, and dumpsters around the country — including curiously produced industrial training videos and cheesy exercise tapes. Among the finds in the first new show since 2014 are clips from David Letterman’s VHS Collection, a montage of satanic panic videos from the ‘80s, and 10 years of bloopers culled from one hapless North Dakota news team. Pickett and Prueher also show some of the pranks they’ve been hired to play on several local morning news shows this year. Friday, March 3, and Saturday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m. Arlington Cinema N’ Drafthouse, 2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington. Tickets are $15. Call 703-486-2345 or visit arlingtondrafthouse.com.

March 4, at 8 p.m. Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. 600 I St. NW. Tickets are $40. Call 202-785-9727 or visit washingtonperformingarts.org.

SOUNDS OF THE CITY FEST

Local music acts get the spotlight in two concerts presented by online music magazine DC Music Download, part of a weekend-long D.C. Music Arts and Interactive Festival that also includes panel discussions with movers and shakers in the local music scene and a record label expo. First up is a Festival Kickoff Showcase featuring Ace Cosgrove with BobMoeKill, Ciscero, and DJ Ayes Cold on Friday, March 3, at 7:30 p.m. at Tropicalia, 2001 14th St. NW. Tickets are $10. The next night, Den-Mate, Nag Champa, Fellow Creatures, and Stronger Sex perform a Mainstage Showcase that coincides with a pop-up installation honoring memorable show posters from some of D.C.’s best visual artists in Five Years of D.C. Music in

Concert Posters, all starting at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 4, at the Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. Tickets are $12. Visit dcmusicdownload.com for tickets and more details.

DANCE THE WASHINGTON BALLET: GISELLE

Celebrating its first season under the aegis of Julie Kent, the 72-yearold organization brings the ballet classic to life in a re-staging by Kent and husband Victor Barbee based on choreography by Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa. Charles Barker leads the Washington Ballet Orchestra performing the Adolphe Adam. To March 5. Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Tickets are $33 to $130. Call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org.

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

FOOD CENTRAL MICHEL RICHARD

Executive Chef David Deshaies has put together a special menu of signature dishes given to him during 16 years of mentorship by the legendary French namesake of Central, who died last year. A week-long promotion kicking off what would have been Richard’s 69th birthday, the four-course prix-fixe dinner features: Smoked salmon terrine with leeks tartare and brioche to start, lobster ravioli with citronelle emulsion, 72-hour braised short ribs in a mushroom-syrah reduction, and Michel’s Profiteroles for dessert. All courses are available with optional wine pairings during dinnertime only. Tuesday, March 7, through Saturday, March 11. Central Michel Richard, 1001 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Cost is $80 per person, with an additional $45 for the wine pairings. Call 202-626-0015 or visit centralmichelrichard.com.

LA-TI-DO

Started by Regie Cabico and DonMike Mendoza and now held every other Monday, La-Ti-Do is a variety show chiefly focused on music and singing, enlisting professionals from the theater or opera worlds performing on their night off, but also including spoken-word poets, storytellers and comedians. Some of the performers at the next round, which is chiefly dedicated to songs from the 1960s: Christopher Richardson, Gerdean Ward and poet Drew Anderson. Also participating is organizational partner DC Opera on Tap and Arlington’s Dominion Stage. Pianist Taylor Rambo provides accompaniment and Mendoza and Anya Randall Nebel co-host. Monday, March 6, at 8 p.m. Bistro Bistro, 1727 Connecticut Ave. NW. Tickets are $15, or only $10 if you eat dinner at the restaurant beforehand. Call 202-328-1640 or visit latidodc.wix. com/latidodc.

RESIST COUNTER CABARET

Feminist punk performance group Tia Nina presents another free variety show aimed at bringing progressive-minded artists and audiences together, for a cathartic expression of the world around them. Expect performances by dancers, musicians, theater artists, comedians, clowns and more at the Capital Fringe complex, including its Fringe Arts Bar, which opens at 6 p.m., while the show starts at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 10, in the Trinidad Theatre, 1358 Florida Ave. NE. Free. Call 202-733-6321 or visit capitalfringe.org. l

theFeed

ONE BIG, HAPPY TENT?

Conservatives embraced LGBTQ Republicans at this year’s CPAC, but transgender rights remain a sticking point By John Riley

ETER BOYKIN, THE PRESIDENT OF GAYS FOR Trump is attending his first ever Conservative Political Action Conference. To say he’s in his element is an understatement. “I would much rather be here than a gay club any day, because everyone’s friendly,” he beams. “I like to have the opportunity to come out and voice my opinions. It gives me an advantage to be around people that I really feel comfortable around. All the Trump rallies I went to, I felt so much love.” For Boykin, a 39-year-old North Carolina resident, CPAC has largely welcomed gays with open arms — something he feels contrasts with the way many LGBTQ people treat conservatives, particularly religious conservatives. “It’s funny,” he says, “they always talk about Christians pushing away the LGBT, but it’s really the opposite. It’s the LGBT liberals pushing their conservative family members away.” Boykin dismisses the narrative that the GOP is hostile to LGBTQ rights as “fake news,” a perception he says is fed, in part, by a lack of outreach from the GOP to the LGBTQ community. “There’s a big social aspect to being LGBT,” he says. “The Democrats go to the Pride events. You don’t really see the GOP set up there. The GOP doesn’t really know how to approach the LGBT.” Which is why, later this year, Boykin and other representatives from Gays for Trump plan to attend Pride celebrations throughout the United States, in order to start conversations with the community about the appeal of the Republican Party. Boykin’s desire to bridge the gap between the GOP and the LGBTQ community mirrors a larger aspect at this year’s CPAC. Attendees stressed the importance of a “big tent” approach to building the party, which demands outreach to communities that have traditionally favored Democrats, including LGBTQ people. Groups like Log Cabin Republicans are an important part of that process, says Martha Ruiz of Washington, D.C. “That’s an example that shows that the Republican Party is a party of inclusion and diversity,” the 30-year-old says. “We’re not pushing them out of the party because they have another sexual preference. We all have conservative ideals, so why can’t they be part of our party?” Charlotte Davis, the 19-year-old president of the College Republicans at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, agrees with the influence Log Cabin Republicans can have on outreach. “Organizations like the Log Cabin Republicans are being

very influential in how they approach millennials and this generation, because we are the future of the conservative movement,” says Davis. “I don’t think we are necessarily as ideological as the conservative movement used to be, which helps us to rebrand the conservative movement to fit the times we’re in.” But Log Cabin hasn’t always enjoyed such a warm reception at CPAC. Just last year, their presence at the conservative conference made headlines. This year? Barely a ripple of controversy. In fact, Log Cabin’s booth at the CPAC “hub” — an area where various organizations promote their respective causes — was one of the most popular, particularly among the throngs of college students who attended this year’s conference. “Our sponsorship of CPAC this year is a non-event, which is exactly the way I’ve always wanted it to be,” says Gregory T. Angelo, president of the Log Cabin Republicans. “The exciting thing is, much like last year, there’s been a constant stream of visitors and supporters here. Our reception has not just been overwhelmingly positive, but unanimously positive.” For Angelo, CPAC provides the opportunity to be a strong voice for the LGBTQ community. Through conversations with conference attendees, they try to build trust with conservatives by proving that Log Cabin shares their basic values — a commitment to limited government, support for constitutional principles, an emphasis on individuals rather than identity politics, and on personal liberty instead of growing government power. Starting those conversations is the only way to move forward on LGBTQ issues, Angelo says, particularly working directly with, appealing to, and compromising with Republicans. It’s why he believes his group is best poised to act as a conduit between the LGBTQ community and GOP lawmakers at both the state and federal levels. “We need to meet Republicans where they are,” he says. “With Republicans controlling the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the majority of governorships, the majority of State Houses, any movement in the direction of LGBT equality is going to have to address the concerns that people of goodwill have with passing LGBT nondiscrimination legislation. There has to be some détente between advocates for religious liberty and LGBT equality.” Log Cabin and Gays for Trump may be welcome entities, but transgender issues are a pricklier topic. The GOP has in many instances spearheaded the various “bathroom bills” and other anti-transgender legislative movements that have swept the country of late. Particularly with regards transgender students accessing facilities that match their gender

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

theFeed identity, many CPAC attendees feel those policies are best genuinely just want to know more, and they don’t always decided by state officials or local school boards, a view that’s know how to ask.... We have had a few people make a snide typified modern-day conservatism. comment here or there, but it’s probably a super-minority.” “It should be a state’s rights issue,” says Clare McKinney, Looming over this year’s CPAC was a move by the 20, of New Lenox, Ill. “I go to an all-women’s college, so Departments of Justice and Education to reverse Obamait’s interesting to see the way things are shifting. Because at era guidance that enabled transgender students to be treated an all-women’s Catholic college, you’d never have thought according to their gender identity. The Trump adminthey’d allow men to join. istration has defended the move, “But recently, we had a survey calling the Obama guidance an by the president’s office, and it list“overreach” and saying decisions ed transgender as one of the gender surrounding transgender bathroom options. So I became curious if we access should be made at the state actually have a transgender student or local level. at the college, and it hasn’t been “This year’s been so tough, and made known.” particularly with what happened Viraktep Ath, of Lake Elsinore, Wednesday night,” says Williams, Calif., also supports leaving the tearing up as she refers to the decision up to the states. rescinded guidance. “There are “That’s a conservative stance,” nearly 200,000 transgender kids says the 23-year-old. “But I’m a who found out from the federal Christian and a social conservative. government that you’re an other, I think there’s only two genders and that you’re foreign, that you’re not bathrooms should reflect that fact.” even part of the LGB communiJennifer Williams, a 48-year-old ty. It sends a signal to them that transgender woman from Trenton, the government doesn’t have their N.J., is committed to changing back, isn’t looking out for them, and that belief. She wants to serve as doesn’t want to make sure they get an ambassador for the transgeneducated. It also sends a signal to der community through her intertransgender adults that, ‘All right. actions with her fellow cisgender You’re on the plate. What are you conservatives, who may be unfagoing to do about it?’” miliar with the issues surrounding Evans is “devastated” about the LGBTQ rights. Trump administration’s decision, “Since transgender people, parthough she expected it to happen, ticularly, and the LGB communiconsidering the political landscape ty were on the election ballot this and the people Trump had put in year, it was really a duty that I come charge of the Justice and Education and speak to conservatives,” she Departments: Attorney General Jeff says. “And speak to them as the first Sessions and Education Secretary transgender person they’ve ever Betsy DeVos. met and de-mystify our community. “I don’t really care for [Trump’s] — Viraktep Ath, 23, “Even though we’re argument about state’s rights when Lake Elsinore, Calif. Republicans, I try to follow the it comes to this issue, because when Harvey Milk Rule: for every person it comes to basic civil liberties like that knows you, they’re less likely this, this should be an issue that the to vote against you.” feds do have oversight on,” Evans On the first day of CPAC, Williams, along with fellow says. “If people want to bring up the 10th Amendment issue, transgender attendee Jordan Evans, held up a Gadsden I just remind them that all constitutional amendments matflag reading “Don’t Tread on Me,” with signs indicating ter. There was a Glenn v. Brumby case that found we could they were transgender and conservative. Both women were be covered under protections of the 14th. That matters just initially nervous about making the statement. Their fears as much as the 10th Amendment.” proved to be unfounded. While internal debates among conservatives and “You kind of come into this expecting the worse, because Republicans regarding transgender access to bathrooms are according to a Harris poll a few years ago, only 16 percent not likely to be resolved anytime soon, the mere presence of all Americans had met a trans person,” says Evans, a and engagement of LGBTQ Republicans could pay divi26-year-old elected official from Charlton, Mass. “Assuming dends in the future. But the key to success requires keeping that’s even less for people who identify as conservative, channels of communication open between the two sides. I came down here expecting I was going to have a lot of “I’m of two tribes. I’m of the LGBTQ tribe, and I’m of the difficult conversations, things might get a little dicey, but I Republican conservative tribe,” says Williams. “I know we was wrong.... People have been absolutely wonderful. I’ve can talk to each other, and hopefully I’ve been a small part gotten a lot of questions. They’ve all been very civil. People of proving that.” l

“I’m a Christian and a social conservative. I think there’s only two genders and bathrooms should reflect that fact.”

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

Forum

Welcome to Forum,

Metro Weekly’s newest section. It’s a place for curated conversations and ideas, a place to discuss — seriously and, perhaps, humorously — LGBTQ issues vital to our times (or to look at any current topic from an LGBTQ perpective). Some weeks it will be a collection of voices, other weeks, one or two selected opinions. As the section evolves, both in print and online, we’ll be adding new components. Feel free to weigh in at metroweekly.com/forum and potentially add your own voice to our pages. For our debut, we thought it fitting to ask people how they felt about Sunday night’s Best Picture win for Moonlight — as well as the unfortunate envelope mishap surrounding it. We’ll kick things off by saying we couldn’t be more overjoyed that Hollywood finally did the right thing and truly rewarded a motion picture worthy of the best picture title — albeit in a way that ultimately stripped an historic moment for both the African-American and LGBTQ community of some of its glory. Still, no film in recent Oscar history was more deserving of the top nod than Moonlight, a poetic, ethereal, emotionally resonant film about coming to terms with yourself, your love, and your life. — Randy Shulman, Editor-in-Chief

AISHA MOODIE-MILLS, President and CEO, Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute: Last night’s Oscar wins for Moonlight were incredible. To watch history made with a black film focused on the LGBTQ community was phenomenal. Our current political climate has placed targets on our community and others that are outside of the white, cis-gendered, straight, Christian demographic, so to see a film with representation of the beauty and love within our community was inspiring. As both [director] Barry Jenkins and [playwright] Tarell Alvin McCraney mentioned in their acceptance speech for Best Adapted Screenplay, this film matters to the young black and brown boys and girls and gender non-conforming kids, as well as adults, to see their lives reflected back — not as a news story or as a statistic, but as love. CLARENCE FLUKER: I was extremely happy and proud to see Moonlight receive the Oscar for best picture. Never before had I seen a film explore the vulnerability and strength of a black boy’s journey into manhood in such a way. Every Chiron out there knew that the world sees them. There is something so powerful and empowering in knowing that you are acknowledged, that someone sees and embraces you. JUNE CRENSHAW, Executive Director, Wanda Alston Foundation: I knew this film was magical the first time I saw it. It was simplistically complicated and skillfully, artfully intertwined sexuality and masculinity. Moonlight aptly depicts the challenges of poverty in the black community, experienced in every city, including affluent Washington, D.C. More importantly, Moonlight brilliantly showed unanticipated examples of amazingly gentle giants in our community that helps to raise our kids and support our lives — examples we rarely see in the movies.

REA CAREY, Executive Director, National LGBTQ Task Force:

I was thrilled to see Moonlight win for Best Picture, particularly in this time of attacks on people of color, in this week of attacks on trans kids and the LGBTQ community by the President.

ZAR NA, Project Manager, Team Rayceen: The win feels overdue and revolutionary at the same time. Maybe now more films will be made to which I can relate and which represent my community. REV. AKOUSA (ABENA) MCCRAY-PETERS, Founding Pastor,

Unity Fellowship Church: Is is my hope that this win will open the eyes, hearts and minds of those who struggle with their sexuality, in addition to those who speak out of against those who identify as same-gender-attraction.

DANIELLE MOODIE-MILLS, Vice President, SKDKnickerbocker: It was honestly one of the best feelings I’ve had since the election. To see this beautiful story of black love and LGBTQ acceptance win the biggest prize of the night was magnificent. Our stories and our voices matter and are largely erased from the greater American narrative. This prize did a lot to signal to the industry that people want to see diverse stories, and that they want to connect with them and celebrate them. EARL FOWLKES, President/CEO, Center For Black Equality:

I was disappointed when I saw that Moonlight did not win at first. I was watching the Oscars at a bar and didn’t realize that in fact Moonlight won Best Picture until I got home. I was so very happy to see this film win Best Picture.

CAREY: With the wrong envelope being handed to the presenters, causing the cast, director, and producers of

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

Moonlight having to wait for their deserved moment in the spotlight, the mirroring of racial dynamics in society, was stark, painful and more than ironic. KIMBERLEY BUSH, Director of Arts and Cultural Programs, The DC Center: What happened was completely unacceptable. And it truly shows how even Hollywood’s seasoned actors didn’t have any faith or belief that a film created by POC’s about LGBTQ POC could possible take such an honor. Moonlight’s limelight was stolen and that crucial moment in history can not be regained. You can’t do a second take. You can’t rewind. Barry and Tarell’s prideful, celebratory and momentous life experience was soiled. They were cheated. REV. MCCRAY-PETERS: The gaffe,

was just what it is: “a mistake made in a social situation.” We see that happening almost daily under our current administration. It was simply a social blunder and doesn’t in any way change the actual winning.

CATHY RENNA, Principal, Target

Cue: My heart sank when La La Land was announced as the winner, and then suddenly found myself jumping with joy. Frankly, I think the snafu will help - the media has covered the gaffe so much that the film is getting a lot more attention than it would have otherwise.

DANIELLE

MOODIE-MILLS: We need to move past the mishap and instead focus on the brilliance of this film and why it’s more important than ever for your young black and brown queer kids and gender non-conforming youth to see themselves when their government is turning its back on them.

RAYCEEN PENDARVIS, Host, The Ask Rayceen Show: Hopefully

“I think the gaffe sits next to the accomplishment but doesn’t overshadow it. Moonlight won the Oscar for Best Picture. That will always be an important historical fact. Period.”

Hispanic Theatre: I was personally rooting for Moonlight. It was a profound and affecting piece of art, but it is not historically the kind of film that the Academy rewards. Look no further than Brokeback Mountain. I thought, “Only a true miracle can make this happen.” And then to my astonishment, that miracle happened.

SULTAN SHAKIR, Executive Director, SMYAL: I think the gaffe

sits next to the accomplishment but doesn’t overshadow it. It’s a part of the story of the win, but not above the win. Moonlight won the Oscar for Best Picture. That will always be an important historical fact. Period.

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

this will greenlight more diverse stories to highlight the different experiences within the LGBTQ community. But we should continue to make art for the sake of artistic expression, not just as a means to gain mainstream recognition.

RON SIMMONS, Retired President/ CEO, Us Helping Us: The idea that this is a watershed moment will be tested next year when we see how diversified the Oscars are. Since films are expensive and hard to make, there may not be any good ones in next year’s crop of awardees. We need to begin a structural change in Hollywood, putting colored faces behind the set as technicians, writers, directors and producers if the Academy Awards are to be fully diversified. AISHA MOODY-MILLS: Last night’s

Oscar’s looked like America. It’s not just about diversity for diversity’s sake. These films and actors of color that won last night didn’t win because we needed diversity — they won because their talent is beyond exceptional and the stories they are elevating need to a part of the fabric of the American story.

MOODY-MILLS: The breadth and depth of stories and lives that were celebrated at this year’s Oscars signaled progress for an industry that has long worked to elevate lived experiences of White America while denying the multi-dimensional lives of people of color and specifically queer people of color. We are as beautiful and as diverse as the rainbow we represent. There are so many stories that have gone untold. Maybe now, thanks to Moonlight’s win they too will have a shot to shine.

— Sultan Shakir

JOSE CARRASQUILLO, Associate Artist, Theater J, GALA

SERGE SEIDEN, Managing Director and Producer, Mosaic Theater Company: To see it lose and then to win was an emotional roller coaster. The tone of the culture is shifting, progressing. Years of people of color demanding accurate representation and different stories to be told and this felt like a response, an answer, to those demands.

DANIELLE

ZAR NA: I look forward to the day when all types of people are

represented without it being a conscious effort. But I think we can all agree on one thing: The Oscars broadcast is way too long! l

Have your voice heard! Be a part of Metro Weekly’s Forum. Visit metroweekly.com/forum for details on how to contribute.

Community

THURSDAY, March 2 DC SENTINELS basketball

team meets at Takoma Park Middle School Gym. For players of all levels, gay or straight. 7-9 p.m. 7611 Piney Branch Rd., Silver Spring, Md. For more information, visit teamdcbasketball.org.

Weekly Events ANDROMEDA TRANSCULTURAL HEALTH

offers free HIV testing and HIV services (by appointment). 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Decatur Center, 1400 Decatur St. NW. To arrange an appointment, call 202-291-4707, or visit andromedatransculturalhealth.org.

WARD MORRISON

DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC) practice session at Takoma Aquatic Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, visit swimdcac.org. DC FRONT RUNNERS runParticipants at 2016’s Wig Night Out

BOBS, BOUFFANTS, AND BEEHIVES, OH MY! Annual event at JR.’s raises funds for Point Foundation and Whitman-Walker Health

UR SECOND YEAR, WE HAD WIG NIGHT OUT DOWNSTAIRS AT LEVEL One, in the Cobalt complex,” says Jack Jacobson. “The ceiling was so low, too many wigs were hitting [it], because some people brought out really big, beautiful wigs. A lot of people were walking stooped over. “That year, my mother and I had matching beehives,” Jacobson, one of the organizers of the annual fundraising event, continues. “We’re both short, so we weren’t hitting the ceiling, but we were getting pretty close.” Wig Night Out was since moved to JR.’s, where nobody need worry about a ceiling flattening their hair — whether it’s a ’50s-style bouffant or a Marie Antoinetteemulating pouf with cascading ringlets. “The bar is just about the right size,” says Jacobson. “We get just a little bit of traffic off 17th Street, and JR.’s is always incredibly supportive of philanthropy in the city, so they’re a really terrific partner for this event.” Half of the proceeds from this year’s event will benefit the Point Foundation, which provides scholarships for LGBTQ students seeking to attend a four-year college, community college, or grad school. The other half will go to Whitman-Walker Health, which has spent decades serving D.C.’s LGBTQ community. To participate, all one needs is a wig and a $10 donation. Says Jacobson, “It’s a lighthearted, super easy event with a lot of color and flash.” —John Riley The 8th annual Wig Night Out is Saturday, Mar. 4 from 9 to 11 p.m. at JR.’s, 1519 17th St. NW. For more information, visit facebook.com/wignightout.

ning/walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterward. Route distance is 3-6 miles. Meet at 7 p.m. at 23rd & P Streets NW. For more information, visit dcfrontrunners.org.

DC LAMBDA SQUARES gay and lesbian square-dancing group features mainstream through advanced square dancing at the National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW, 7-9:30 p.m. Casual dress. 301-257-0517, dclambdasquares.org. DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds

practice. The team is always looking for new members. All welcome. 7:30-9:30 p.m. King Greenleaf Recreation Center, 201 N St. SW. For more information, visit scandalsrfc.org or dcscandals@gmail.com.

The DULLES TRIANGLES Northern Virginia social group meets for happy hour at Sheraton in Reston. All welcome. 7-9 p.m. 11810 Sunrise Valley Drive, second-floor bar. For more information, visit dullestriangles.com.

HIV TESTING at WhitmanWalker Health. 8 a.m.-8 p.m. at 1525 14th St. NW, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center, 1701 14th St. NW, and 8 a.m-5 p.m. at the Max Robinson Center, 2301 MLK Jr. Ave. SE. For an appointment call 202-745-7000 or visit whitman-walker.org.

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

IDENTITY offers free and confi-

dential HIV testing at two separate locations. Walk-ins accepted from 2-6 p.m., by appointment for all other hours. 414 East Diamond Ave., Gaithersburg, Md. or 7676 New Hampshire Ave., Suite 411, Takoma Park, Md. To set up an appointment or for more information, call Gaithersburg, 301-300-9978, or Takoma Park, 301-422-2398.

METROHEALTH CENTER

offers free, rapid HIV testing. Appointment needed. 1012 14th St. NW, Suite 700. To arrange an appointment, call 202-638-0750.

SMYAL offers free HIV Testing, 3-5 p.m., by appointment and walk-in, for youth 21 and younger. Youth Center, 410 7th St. SE. 202-5673155 or testing@smyal.org. Us Helping Us hosts a NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS MEETING. The group is independent of UHU. 6:30-7:30 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. For more information, call 202-446-1100.

WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE for young LBTQ

women, 13-21, interested in leadership development. 5-6:30 p.m. SMYAL Youth Center, 410 7th St. SE. For more information, call 202567-3163, or email catherine.chu@ smyal.org.

FRIDAY, March 3 GAY DISTRICT, a group for

GBTQQI men between the ages of 18-35, meets on the first and third Fridays of each month. 8:30-9:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit gaydistrict.org.

Join people from all over the DMV area for an LGBTQ SOCIAL. All welcome. Free to attend. 6:30-8:30 p.m. Pinzimini Lounge inside the Western Arlington Gateway, 801 N. Glebe Rd., Arlington, Va. Ballston Metro is 2 blocks away. For more information, visit gogaydc.org. The DC Center hosts a meeting of its TRANS SUPPORT GROUP, focusing on issues important to transgender people and those who identify outside of the gender binary. 7-9 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.

SATURDAY, March 4

PROJECT STRIPES hosts LGBT-

affirming social group for ages 11-24. 4-6 p.m. 1419 Columbia Road NW. Contact Tamara, 202-3190422, layc-dc.org.

Weekly Events DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC)

ing and inclusive church. GLBT Interweave social/service group meets monthly. Services at 11 a.m., Romanesque sanctuary. 1810 16th St. NW. 202-387-3411, universalist.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/

MONDAY, March 6

walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterward. Route will be a distance run of 8, 10 or 12 miles. Meet at 9 a.m. at 23rd & P Streets NW. For more information, visit dcfrontrunners.org.

Weekly Events

DIGNITYUSA offers Roman Catholic Mass for the LGBT community. All welcome. Sign interpreted. 6 p.m. St. Margaret’s Church, 1820 Connecticut Ave. NW. For more info, visit dignitywashington.org.

fights against anti-LGBTI laws and cultures in 80 countries, holds its monthly meeting on the first Saturday of every month. 12-2 p.m. The DC Center, 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.

BET MISHPACHAH, founded

by members of the LGBT community, holds Saturday morning Shabbat services in the DC Jewish Community Center’s Community Room, followed by Kiddush luncheon. 10 a.m. 1529 16th St. NW. For more information, visit betmish.org.

BRAZILIAN GLBT GROUP, including others interested in Brazilian culture, meets. For location/time, email braziliangaygroup@yahoo. com.

DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC)

holds a practice session at Montgomery College Aquatics Club. 8:30-10 a.m. 7600 Takoma Ave., Takoma, Md. For more information, visit swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/

walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterward. Route distance will be 3-6 miles. Walker meet at 9:30 a.m. and runners at 10 a.m. at 23rd & P Streets NW. For more information, visit dcfrontrunners.org.

DIGNITYUSA sponsors Mass for

LGBT community, family and friends. 6:30 p.m., Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill, 3606 Seminary Road, Alexandria. All welcome. For more info, visit dignitynova.org.

GAY LANGUAGE CLUB discusses

critical languages and foreign languages. 7 p.m. Nellie’s, 900 U St. NW. RSVP preferred. Email brendandarcy@gmail.com.

ADVENTURING outdoors group

hikes several miles over Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Md. Bring beverages, lunch, mud-worthy boots, and about $12 for fees. Carpool at 9 a.m. from Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro Station, return by 6:30 p.m. For more info, contact Craig, 202-4620535, or visit adventuring.org.

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

UNIVERSALIST NATIONAL MEMORIAL CHURCH, a welcom-

holds a practice session at Wilson Aquatic Center. 9:30-11 a.m. 4551 Fort Dr. NW. For more information, visit swimdcac.org.

CENTER GLOBAL, a group that

SUNDAY, March 5

Weekly Events

SMYAL’S REC NIGHT provides a social atmosphere for LGBT and questioning youth, featuring dance parties, vogue nights, movies and games. For more info, email catherine.chu@smyal.org.

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

welcomes all to 10:30 a.m. service, 945 G St. NW. firstuccdc.org or 202-628-4317.

HOPE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST welcomes GLBT community for worship. 10:30 a.m., 6130 Old Telegraph Road, Alexandria. hopeucc.org.

HSV-2 SOCIAL AND SUPPORT GROUP for gay men living in the

DC metro area. This group will be meeting once a month. For information on location and time, visit H2gether.com.

INSTITUTE FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT, God-centered

new age church & learning center. Sunday Services and Workshops event. 5419 Sherier Place NW. isddc.org.

LUTHERAN CHURCH OF REFORMATION invites all to

Sunday worship at 8:30 or 11 a.m. Childcare is available at both services. Welcoming LGBT people for 25 years. 212 East Capitol St. NE. reformationdc.org.

METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH OF WASHINGTON, D.C.

services at 9 a.m. (ASL interpreted) and 11 a.m. Children’s Sunday School at 11 a.m. 474 Ridge St. NW. 202-638-7373, mccdc.com.

RIVERSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH,

a Christ-centered, interracial, welcoming-and-affirming church, offers service at 10 a.m. 680 I St. SW. 202-554-4330, riversidedc.org.

UNITARIAN CHURCH OF ARLINGTON, an LGBTQ welcom-

ing-and-affirming congregation, offers services at 10 a.m. Virginia Rainbow UU Ministry. 4444 Arlington Blvd. uucava.org.

The DC Center hosts a VOLUNTEER NIGHT for community members to lend a hand with various duties, including cleaning, keeping safe-sex kit inventory, and sorting through book donations. Pizza provided. 6:30-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC)

holds a practice session at Dunbar Aquatic Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 101 N St. NW. For more information, visit swimdcac.org.

GETEQUAL meets 6:30-8 p.m. at Quaker House, 2111 Florida Ave. NW. For more information, email getequal.wdc@gmail.com. NOVASALUD offers free HIV test-

ing. 5-7 p.m. 2049 N. 15th St., Suite 200, Arlington. Appointments: 703789-4467.

The DC Center hosts COFFEE

DROP-IN FOR THE SENIOR LGBT COMMUNITY. 10 a.m.-noon. 2000

14th St. NW. 202-682-2245, thedccenter.org.

US HELPING US hosts a black gay

men’s evening affinity group for GBT black men. Light refreshments provided. 7-9 p.m. 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. 202-446-1100.

WASHINGTON WETSKINS WATER POLO TEAM practices 7-9

p.m. Newcomers with at least basic swimming ability always welcome. Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, contact Tom, 703-299-0504 or secretary@wetskins.org, or visit wetskins.org.

TUESDAY, March 7 Queer-identifying women who have survived violent or traumatic experiences and are looking for support are invited to take part in a bi-weekly QUEER WOMEN

WORKING THROUGH TRAUMA GROUP at The DC Center.

Participants are encouraged to do an intake assessment with moderator and social worker Sam Goodwin. 6-7 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, email Sam at samantha@ thedccenter.org.

THE HIV WORKING GROUP of

The DC Center hosts a “Packing Party,” where volunteers assemble safe-sex kits of condoms and lube. 7-9 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events

and herpes testing available for fee. Testing starts at 6 p.m, but should arrive early to ensure a spot. 1701 14th St. NW. For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.

WEDNESDAY, March 8 THE LAMBDA BRIDGE CLUB

dinner in Dupont/Logan Circle area, 6:30 p.m. For more information, email afwash@aol.com, or visit afwashington.net.

meet for Duplicate Bridge. 7:30 p.m. Dignity Center, 721 8th St., SE (across from Marine Barracks). No reservations needed, all welcome. Call 202-841-0279 if you need a partner.

DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC)

Weekly Events

ASIANS AND FRIENDS weekly

practice session at Takoma Aquatic Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, visit swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/

walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterward. Route distance is 3-6 miles. Meet at 7 p.m. at Union Station. For more information, visit dcfrontrunners.org.

DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds practice. The team is always looking for new members. All welcome. 7:30-9:30 p.m. King Greenleaf Recreation Center, 201 N St. SW. For more information, visit scandalsrfc.org or dcscandals@gmail. com.

THE GAY MEN’S HEALTH COLLABORATIVE offers free

HIV testing and STI screening and treatment every Tuesday. 5-6:30 p.m. Rainbow Tuesday LGBT Clinic, Alexandria Health Department, 4480 King St. 703746-4986 or text 571-214-9617. james.leslie@inova.org.

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS

— LGBT focused meeting every Tuesday, 7 p.m. St. George’s Episcopal Church, 915 Oakland Ave., Arlington, just steps from Virginia Square Metro. For more info. call Dick, 703-5211999. Handicapped accessible. Newcomers welcome. liveandletliveoa@gmail.com.

SUPPORT GROUP FOR LGBTQ YOUTH ages 13-21 meets at

SMYAL. 5-6:30 p.m. 410 7th St. SE. For more information, contact Cathy Chu, 202-567-3163, or catherine.chu@smyal.org.

AD LIB, a group for freestyle con-

versation, meets about 6-6:30 p.m., Steam, 17th and R NW. All welcome. For more information, call Fausto Fernandez, 703-732-5174.

DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC)

holds a practice session at Dunbar Aquatic Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 101 N St. NW. For more information, visit swimdcac.org.

FREEDOM FROM SMOKING, a group for LGBT people looking to quit cigarettes and tobacco use, holds a weekly support meeting at The DC Center. 7-8 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit thedccenter.org. HISTORIC CHRIST CHURCH

offers Wednesday worship 7:15 a.m. and 12:05 p.m. All welcome. 118 N. Washington St., Alexandria. 703549-1450, historicchristchurch.org.

JOB CLUB, a weekly support pro-

gram for job entrants and seekers, meets at The DC Center. 6-7:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more info, www.centercareers. org.

NOVASALUD offers free HIV testing. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. 2049 N. 15th St., Suite 200, Arlington. Appointments: 703-789-4467. PRIME TIMERS OF DC, social club for mature gay men, hosts weekly happy hour/dinner. 6:30 p.m., Windows Bar above Dupont Italian Kitchen, 1637 17th St. NW. More info, contact Carl, 703-573-8316. WASHINGTON WETSKINS WATER POLO TEAM practices 7-9

US HELPING US hosts a support

Whitman-Walker Health holds its weekly GAY MEN’S HEALTH AND WELLNESS/STD CLINIC. Patients are seen on walk-in basis. No-cost screening for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. Hepatitis

Submit your community event for consideration at least 10 days prior to the Thursday publication you would like it to appear. Email to calendar@metroweekly.com.

group for black gay men 40 and older. 7-9 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. 202-446-1100.

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

Washington’s LGBTQ Magazine

THURSDAY, M

KEN HOWARD

Tragedy in

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MARCH 2, 2017

metroweekly.com

n the Ring In Terence Blanchard’s stylized, jazz-infused Champion, a boxer struggles to come to grips with his sexuality with operatically devastating results.

André Hereford

MERICAN BARITONE AUBREY ALLICOCK — SLATED to make his Kennedy Center debut this week as Emile Griffith in Washington National Opera’s premiere production of Terence Blanchard and Michael Cristofer’s Champion — is steady, ready and in fighting shape for his return to a role he originated in this modern opera. He’s feeling inspired to be appearing in “a story that needs to be told.” For Allicock, reprising the part, alongside famed mezzo-soprano and D.C. native Denyce Graves (also returning to a role she originated), offers a liberating opportunity, now that the piece has legs, “to delve into the nuances and really make bigger points and gestures.” Boasting a score by five-time Grammywinning composer, musician, and bandleader Blanchard, and a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winning gay writer and actor Cristofer, this “Opera in Jazz,” as Blanchard dubbed his first foray into the form, is in itself a grand gesture: a stylized, thought-provoking, emotional portrait of the bisexual black boxer who accidentally killed an opponent in the ring. Champion boxer Emile Griffith had fought Benny “The Kid” Paret twice in the ring before their final, tragic bout at Madison Square Garden on March 24, 1962. In Griffith and Paret’s two previous contests, they had traded victories, with Paret entering their final match holding the welterweight belt that six months prior he’d won back from Griffith, who had taken the title by knockout in their first fight. During the weigh-in, hours before their final fight, the rivals also traded blows, after Paret reportedly hurled an insult at MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

Griffith. As the story goes, Paret, a Cuban native, grazed Griffith’s “I think what makes a man a man is being responsible,” says buttocks and called him a “maricón,” the Spanish slur for “fag- Blanchard. “Being open. Being compassionate. Having drive. got.” That night, before a packed Garden crowd and the national I think just in general we have misconceptions about mascuTV viewing audience, Griffith and The Kid entered the arena, linity and femininity.” When it comes to sexual orientation or and twelve brutally hard-fought masculinity, he adds, “the most rounds later, only one competitor important thing about that to me emerged conscious from the ring. is that those aren’t the things that In the words of famed author necessarily make a man a man.” Norman Mailer, who sat ringBlanchard, who is straight, side that night, Griffith, enraged, grew up in New Orleans, in a fought “like a cat ready to rip predominantly African-American the life out of a huge boxed rat.” neighborhood, with a father who Pummeled into a coma, Paret loved opera and considered himdied ten days later. self a pacifist. “He was always The story of Griffith’s life the person that made me try to before and after March 24, 1962 respect other people’s feelings — born in St. Thomas in the U.S. and their rights and their intenVirgin Islands, he and his seven tions,” he says. “So I grew to siblings abandoned by their really respect my father in my father, he trained and fought his young adulthood because I startway to a Golden Gloves title, six ed to understand how he treated world championships in three people equally. He treated them different weight classes and a with respect. No matter how they career of 85 wins, 24 losses and treated him. He persevered and 2 draws — would make for comhe lived by his code of ethics.” pelling drama even without the Emphasizing his father’s protragic context of the fateful Paret found influence on his life and on fight. However, add to the plot his work, Blanchard tells how he the fertile twist of taboo sexualsaw reminders of his late dad in ity, and the story becomes posthe real-life Emile Griffith. itively Shakespearean. Paret’s “My friend, Michael Bentt, insult had so powerfully struck the heavyweight champion, knew — Aubrey Allicock a chord in Griffith, because — as Emile. He said everybody talked Griffith would finally admit nearabout just how sweet of a person ly half a century later, and, as was he was. [My father] was a very heavily rumored at the time — he was a closeted bisexual, in an sweet person. Very funny, hilariously funny. He was the life era when being openly queer still entailed living to some degree of the party. And I see a lot of those characteristics in Emile. in the shadows. Because here’s a guy, while he became a professional fighter, Despite Griffith’s efforts to closely guard his secret sojourns that wasn’t who he was. You see it in the opera. He was kind of to the gay bars scattered around Times Square, gossip about his reluctant to even enter into the sport. Because it wasn’t someproclivities spread throughout the hyper-macho boxing world. thing he thought about.” Yet, as Griffith later told biographer Ron Ross, “Nobody ever But Griffith did enter a violent, unforgiving sport, and, called me faggot.” That is, until Paret. Griffith was haunted the while his rise in the ring might have coincided with Free remainder of his life by the accidental death he’d caused. He Love’s coming into fashion, coming out in the ’60s still could famously lamented, “I keep thinking how strange it is.... I kill a mean death to a sports career, if not worse. Thankfully, since man and most people understand and forgive me. However, I then things have changed for many LGBTQ individuals, in all love a man, and to so many people this is an unforgivable sin; this walks of life, though we still can point to suspiciously few male makes me an evil person.” professional athletes as successful as Griffith was in the boxing Griffith hit upon a wicked paradox that even now, 55 years arena who have decided to live openly, publicly gay lives. Of since that night in the Garden, our society and artists continue to course, how important is it to know whom, or what gender, grapple with, as is perhaps best exemplified in Champion by its our favorite Caps, Nats or Wizards prefer? Sure, in the case of signature aria, “What Makes a Man a Man.” Sung by Allicock’s artists from James Baldwin to George Michael, or politicians Young Emile, the piece not only foreshadows the shocking like Barney Frank, all of whose work specifically affects or consequence of Paret’s casually tossed-off slur, but poignantly addressed the reality of living, breathing LGBTQ people, it locates the torment of living in the closet. confers some insight to know that the person behind the platAs composer (and boxing aficionado) Blanchard explains, form identifies with the community. But in the case of a boxer, the questions the aria raises about manhood, and humanity, are or football player, or Olympic diver, who cares who they’re primarily what drew him to Griffith’s story, which his sometime sleeping with as long as they score? training partner, retired heavyweight champion Michael Bentt, The world does care, apparently — enough that presently no introduced to him several years ago. As Blanchard puts it, “to be out gay athletes are suiting up in the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, in in the year 2017 and to have people think” that a gay or bi man Nascar, or on the UFC, PGA or ATP Tours. Sure, the NBA has is any less of a man, “is just ridiculous. That’s one of the reasons Jason Collins — or had. The NFL has Michael Sam — or had. we did the opera.” MLS still boasts in Robbie Rogers the only openly gay male ath-

“Isn’t it awesome? There are drag queens, guys dancing with each other, I get to make out with a guy, and you get to see emotionally what Emile goes through and how he feels that connection to another guy.”

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Aubrey Allicock as Emile Griffith photographed by Todd Franson

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lete competing in a major North American sports league. So what is the value of being out? Visibility fuels movements, LGBTQ activists say, but there doesn’t appear to be much movement towards greater LGBTQ visibility in sports. Just days ago, teen-age trans-male high school wrestler, Mack Beggs, forced by discriminatory state regulations to compete in the girls’ division, triggered a horrendous backlash for capturing the Texas Girls’ Wrestling Championship. Pressured to forgo competing with the boys, or against the girls, Mack Beggs would be left scant space to exist as a highly trained and effective competitor. His

HENRY ADEBONOJO

“I think what makes a man a man is being responsible. Being open. Being compassionate. Having drive. I think just in general we have misconceptions about masculinity and femininity.” — Terence Blanchard

dilemma echoes the larger issue of LGBTQ athletes being forced to conceal part of their existence in order to compete. Clearly, the WNO and the Kennedy Center appreciate the impact of promoting universal LGBTQ visibility alongside wonderful artistry: they’ve installed in the Center’s Hall of Nations a remarkable exhibit of photographer Jeff Sheng’s photos celebrating out LGBTQ student athletes. The exhibit will run concurrently with Champion, and is well worth passing through to read about these courageous athletes’ struggles to find the sort of peace and wholeness that for most of his life eluded Emile Griffith. His story, and Benny “The Kid” Paret’s, might have been drastically different had they lived in a more tolerant, compassionate time for gays and lesbians. In a hugely positive turn that Griffith almost certainly couldn’t have predicted, one of the men portraying him onstage in Blanchard and Cristofer’s groundbreaking opera (in addition to the great American bass, Arthur Woodley, as an older Emile) is Allicock, an out gay artist. “Being in the entertainment industry, there are a lot of gay and lesbian singers, actors,” he says. “It’s much more common, so it’s no big deal in this field.” The singer urges that everyone “just be who you are. Life’s too short.” He points out that although there still is a fear of 26

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coming out among professional athletes, “As more and more athletes, or anybody in a position of power, or that are [in the public eye], come out as who they are, it empowers other people to do that. And I think that’s the key to really squash [homophobia and discrimination].” The 33-year-old Allicock grew up singing in the church choir in Tucson, Arizona, the son of an American mother and a Guyanese immigrant father. Like Blanchard, Allicock reveals that he looked to his own father, a strict disciplinarian who prized education, as his main touchstone for understanding the soft-spoken and oft-misunderstood Emile Griffith. Describing his late dad, Allicock gushes with pride: “He was the best example of how to live life, how to treat others in any situation, even if they’ve done you wrong. He was always that strong force for us.” Allicock adds that he also found strength in coming out, and that he feels lucky to work in a business where “everyone’s open,” from the big-money supporters to the opera fans who buy tickets. “They don’t care, they love you for who you are,” he says. Yet, as any gay opera buff can tell you, that openness and acceptance in the opera world has not led to an abundance of gay-themed compositions or characters. So it’s doubly radical that Blanchard and Cristofer’s opus not only wrestles with bi and gay sexuality, but inhabits queer spaces. “Isn’t it awesome?” Allicock says, clearly excited to play in Champion the only gay bar scenes he ever has been asked to perform onstage. “There are drag queens, guys dancing with each other, I get to make out with a guy, and you get to see emotionally what Emile goes through and how he feels that connection to another guy.” Without much prompting, Allicock also divulges that he changes out of his boxing trunks onstage, baring a glimpse of the operatic sex symbol in just his jockstrap. The experience took the performer back to his own first time at a gay bar, “before I was out. It felt a little naughty. I went with a few friends who didn’t care — I was out to a few, select people — and it felt like a different world.” l Champion runs to Mar. 18 at The Kennedy Center Opera House. Tickets are $35 to $300. Call 202-467-4600, or visit www.kennedy-center.org. Fearless Project by Jeff Sheng remains on display in the Hall of Nations through March 19. Free and open to the public.

Selections from Fearless by Jeff Sheng

David, Track and Field, Lewis-Clark State College, 2015

Lypheng, Varsity Cross Country and Track and Field, Mastery Charter Schools-Thomas Campus, PA, 2015

Rose, Softball, Swarthmore College, 2013

Derrick, Basketball, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2014

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Gallery

Lania D’Agostino Earnestine had a Brilliant Idea - mixed media DAgostinoStudios.com MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

Television

Claws Out

Screen legends Crawford and Davis find the boys, the booze and Baby Jane in Ryan Murphy’s delectable Feud: Bette & Joan By André Hereford

ELEBRITY FEUDS FLARE UP AND FIZZLE OUT WITH THE BLISTERING speed of a few mean tweets. Rarely are A-list beefs so bitterly compelling and long-fought that they achieve true infamy for how they end (Tupac vs. Biggie), or how they endure (Trump vs. O’Donnell). The battles royale that do cement their standing in the public’s fascination, however, usually have a couple of things in common: stars of equal magnitude who share a genuine enmity and a yen for feeding the flames of rancor. Enter Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, whose decades-long Hollywood feud was sparked in the 1930s and burned hot through multiple film studios, husbands, hits, flops, setbacks and comebacks, finally peaking on the set of the only motion picture the two ever made together, Robert Aldrich’s Academy Award-winning, 1962 horror classic Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? Davis and Crawford’s long-running rivalry generated loads of gossip, reams of deliciously catty quotes (“I wouldn’t piss on Joan Crawford if she was on fire”), and inspired author Shaun Considine’s entertaining dual biography, published in 1989, Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud. Now, TV maestro Ryan Murphy — riding the critical and commercial success of his FX limited series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story — ups the ante by assembling a cast of heavy-hitters to portray the film legends’ notorious on-set conflict in Feud: Bette & Joan (HHHHH), led by Jessica Lange as Crawford and Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis. Lange and Sarandon, formidable Hollywood survivors themselves, have big

shoes to fill. Murphy, directing as well as co-writing the series’ debut episode, makes it clear right from the show’s saucy Saul Bass-style opening credit sequence that this team came to play. Deploying the framing device of a documentary crew shooting a film on Hollywood feuds, Murphy first introduces beloved “twotime Academy Award-winning actress” Olivia de Havilland (Catherine ZetaJones) to set the table, as she elucidates with grave astuteness the origins of the Crawford-Davis feud, and the nature of feuds in general. Appearing only briefly, Zeta-Jones strikes a resonantly knowing tone that perfectly fits Murphy’s facetious tale. Feud’s makers have gone out of their way to honor fans of cinema’s Golden Age with plenty of winking inside jokes, while keeping this well-oiled machine accessible to everyone else with overflowing dishes of Tinseltown dirt. For those well-versed enough to know that Crawford relied on her trusty German maid, “Mamacita,” as her fierce right hand and brick wall of protection, Feud rewards the knowledge with an endearing portrait by the ever-reliable

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Jackie Hoffman. Mamacita warmly reflects the episode’s assertion that loyalty among women — particularly women of a certain age — can move mountains in an industry seemingly institutionally opposed to recognizing older women’s worth. But this is no screed. Any Real Housewives or Dynasty fan who loves campy, ballsy melodrama starring elegantly costumed dames battling for control over their glamorous realm will relish every shady glance and cutting bon mot. It might or might not be true that Davis took fiendish pleasure in always addressing Crawford by her given name, Lucille, but it suits the legend and it plays like gangbusters here. Lange — who often dives into character transformation with a zeal that rivals Davis’ — wears Crawford’s thick brows, “jungle red” slash of lipstick and auburn pompadours with aplomb, but she’s no dead ringer for Mommie Dearest. Crawford moved all her life with a dancer’s silky determination, and Lange doesn’t capture that lithesome grace, though she does dial into Crawford’s very studied, and firmly protected, hauteur. Onscreen, Crawford projected an unadulterated conviction that as long as she was in the room, she was the one everyone should be paying attention to. Even when she was gone, they should

still be talking about her. Lange nails Crawford’s superstar pridefulness, adding a strong dash of every performer’s need to be liked, and the rest falls into place. Her Crawford dominates the pilot, as the industrious actress buzzes from Hollywood to Broadway, cunningly assembling all the main components of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? — including bringing the film’s harried writer-director Aldrich (Alfred Molina) on board. Bette Davis, on the other hand, is relegated mostly to tantalizing teases and glimpses, like the shark in Jaws, lurking just out of view until she screams to the center to take someone’s head off. Sarandon, who doesn’t require much makeup to accentuate her resemblance to Davis, has the cadences and comic timing down, along with Davis’ confounding mix of humility and towering self-regard. The pilot does provide Sarandon with one showstopping moment, as Davis makes her first entrance on the set of Baby Jane in her iconically creepy pancake makeup. Sarandon delivers on every last beat of ghoulish spectacle. If the remaining episodes are half as enjoyable in pitting Crawford’s Hollywood cool against Bette’s white-hot realness, this tribute to fame, feuds and aging goddesses will have more than earned its bones. l

Feud: Bette and Joan, an eight-episode limited series, premieres Sunday, March 5 on FX, with a finale scheduled for Sunday, April 23. Check your local cable company or visit FXnetworks.com.

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

SCOTT SUCHMAN

Opera

Walking Tall

The Washington National Opera’s Dead Man Walking is what modern opera should be By Kate Wingfield

HIS MAY SOUND CHURLISH, BUT IT’S NOT: SEE THE WASHINGTON National Opera’s Dead Man Walking with no expectations. Don’t expect Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon, don’t expect La Boheme. Because, quite simply, if you can get through the opera doors without expecting anything, you’ll be blown away. And that’s saying something, because contemporary opera gets a bad rap. When it’s atonal, it’s inaccessible. When it’s accessible, it can sound like bad incidental music. Then there’s the whole problem of storytelling: Should it be slice-of-life modern or should it try to capture some kind of epic tale of our times? What works so brilliantly about Jake Heggie’s Dead Man (HHHHH), is that he clears all these hurdles, and then some. Based on the true account of Sister Helen Prejean, the opera follows her decision to serve as spiritual advisor to Joseph De Rocher, a man convicted of a horrendous crime, who awaits execution on Death Row. As dramatic as the crime is (it is depicted as a prelude with just enough care and discretion), the real focus here is the profoundly turmolic aftermath: the distraught families, the question of whether Joseph is innocent, the facing of death — planned or otherwise — and the value of making some kind of peace before the end. Each and every one of these themes touch a universal nerve and it makes for an opera rich with emotional and spiritual dilemmas. But much like another contemporary composer, the iconic Benjamin Britten, Heggie understands that one of the keys to accessibility is having the music not so much accompany as tell the story. Here, the score is nothing less than a lively, emotionally involved narrator. Setting the scene with flavor and mood one minute, then describing with wild, emotional gesture the next, it is as present as any of the actors. And just as a storyteller puts on voices for his characters, so does Heggie’s music. A

wonderful example is the way in which tendrils of southern jazzy blues braid their way through Joseph’s songs. It tells us not just what he is — one in a long line of Louisiana rough-necks — but who he is: lost and wistful. As with Britten, Heggie’s is a “voice” that captures poignantly the horror of revelation, that mix of the distraught, touched by panic. What he does equally well is grow suspense, be it hovering, ominous strings or the frantic hammer of an alarmed glockenspiel. Heggie’s singers ride the music like so many waves, but they also become — as in jazz — instruments that mingle like soloists with the orchestra. All told, it’s an extraordinarily riveting tapestry of sound, all of it accessible, all of it an ideal vehicle for this emotionally traumatic story. To direct this opera must be something of a tightrope act. One must embrace Heggie’s incredibly talkative score without letting the actors/singers turn feverish under its spell. Francesca Zambello does a superb job of keeping the acted narrative clear and concise — never out of step with the music, never overdone. Indeed, what works so magically here is the way in which it is the singing voices that meet the emotional highs of the score. If Zambello allows Heggie his one corny moment — the bonding of Joseph and Sister Prejean

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SCOTT SUCHMAN

over Elvis — well, it could have been worse. Completing the brilliance of the production is a stellar cast. In the role of the innocent but gutsy Sister Prejean, Kate Lindsey sings with a sweet, rich beauty that only increases as the evening progresses and emotions grow. If her “aw-shucks” demeanor is a tad overdone in the beginning, it is more than outweighed by her later descent into near-despair, described in numerous touching arias and sung with true delicacy. It is a long and intense role and Lindsey is utterly memorable. Fully her match, Michael Mayes plays Joseph as large as the role needs, but never goes overboard. Indeed, it is his understated performance that makes his terror at the end all the more disturbing and meaningful. A beautiful, gratifyingly dense baritone, Mayes relishes the score’s long, sonorous notes, but he simply stuns with his dexterity. In Joseph’s mini-aria, in which he imagines peaceful evenings on the lake with a woman, Mayes moves seamlessly between opera and jazzy-blues, his voice gliding like liquid gold. Extraordinary.

Another standout is Susan Graham as Mrs. De Rocher, Joseph’s mother. Graham gives pitch-perfect expression to this woman who is not quite white trash, but who has had too many debts and too little education to ever improve her lot. Graham never lets her become a cliché, singing with gorgeous soaring power, while her last moments with Joseph are acted and sung with exquisite despair. If these are the highlights, there are countless other smaller moments and performances here that make this production one to remember. Just one example is the inestimably clever ways in which Heggie and librettist Terrence McNally suggest the terrible loss at the heart of the story — not just through the grief — but through the innocent memories of a mother’s love shared between Sister Prejean and her colleague Sister Rose, played and sung thoughtfully by Jacqueline Echols. The takeaway is that this is what modern opera should, and must, be: beautiful and compelling in its own, original way. Once you see Dead Man Walking, you’ll expect nothing less. l

Dead Man Walking runs to March 11 at the Kennedy Center Opera House. Tickets are $35 to $300. Call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org.

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

NICK WALKER

Music

Resurgence

Electric Guest emerges from hibernation with a collection of catchy, expertly crafted tunes By Sean Maunier

FTER FIVE YEARS OF RUMOURS, FALSE STARTS, AND A PROLONGED “period of self-reflection,” Electric Guest’s sophomore album has finally arrived. After such a prolonged hiatus, though, many will no doubt be discovering the pairing of vocalist Asa Taccone and drummer Matthew Compton for the first time. The L.A.-based duo has been compared to Scissor Sisters and Tame Impala, and their new album Plural (HHHHH) is certain to invite more of the same. Even so, there is something unique about Electric Guest’s particular brand of breezy, summery electropop. It is music that evokes their home city, or at least the nebulous, idealized version of L.A. that exists in the minds of outsiders. Plural inhabits a sonic space that recalls constant sun and haze, a carefree yet vast and lonely place in a constant, unhurried sort of motion. Plural finds the already talented band with a renewed sense of purpose, more confident in their craft. Compared to their (still stellar) debut, the songwriting seems more focused and deliberate. If Electric Guest’s first outing occasionally felt uncertain and uneven, it may have been because they were trying out a lot of styles, to see what stuck, and as it turned out, the final product featured plenty of both. This time, they have parsed things down to a cleaner, more straightforward electronic sound that feels well-suited to their talents. Plural is a more focused album a result, but Taccone and Compton remain as committed to eclectic, multifaceted work as ever. The pair plays off of a spectrum of influences, ranging from electronica to R&B to indie rock.

Synths lifted directed from ’80s pop lend the album a sense of nostalgia, while the occasional burst of falsetto and the acoustic elements like the piano intro to “Zero” speak the indie pop sensibility of their first album. Midway through, HAIM is brought on board to lend their otherworldly vocal harmonies to “Dear To Me,” elevating an already stellar track into the album’s high point. As Electric Guest flirts with a wide range of moods and genres over the album’s 11 tracks, it becomes clear that they have come into their own as songwriters. Plural shows a dedication to craft and attention to detail that does not feel obsessive or labored over. Refreshingly, it also avoids the sometimes frustrating sense of aimlessness sometimes embraced by other artists who dabble in the same sort of hazy, chillout electropop. Instead, Taccone and Compton infuse the tracks with a sense of movement. Compton in particular animates the songs and gives them a sense of direction and purpose, qualities often neglected in a genre where drum beats are often an afterthought, relegated to the background if they even show up at

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all. Tracks like “Glorious Warrior” and “See The Light” are effortlessly chill, laid back enough to slink into the background, but energetic enough to keep a listener’s head nodding along. Even when the tracks meander, as the Mondo callback “Back For Me” does, they are carried forward by a confident, unhurried rhythm. Electric Guest may not be in a rush to get where they’re going, but stopping entirely is out of the question. Though their debut was a strong record on its own, Plural almost does Mondo it a disservice by making it seem more like a practice round. Electric Guest’s growth since 2012 is readily apparent. One notable difference the absence of production by electronica veteran Danger Mouse, whose presence was unmistakable on Mondo and probably did much to influence their sound and direction early on. Plural was written and produced entirely by Taccone and Compton, and in taking control of the process for themselves, they have refined their sound, stripping it of some of its initial overbearing production and making it more distinctly their own. One readily apparent advantage of the lighter hand they take to production is that it

allows Taccone’s vocals to shine. His falsetto, ubiquitous on the first album, is used more selectively in favour of his natural voice, which itself is decidedly more confident. Autotune occasionally makes an appearance, but its use is similarly restrained and purposeful. They have learned to economize, and Plural is better off for it. The bright, easy optimism of the album belies the personal and creative difficulties surrounding its release. Plural, in its final state, only came about after Electric Guest scrapped months of previous work they deemed unsatisfactory. Taccone had long planned a follow-up to Mondo, but by all accounts, and even the pair’s own admission, their nearly-complete album was enough of a clunker to be discarded entirely and send them back into the studio. What was undoubtedly a tough decision has paid off. The album is thoughtfully made, with tracks that hold together well and that merit multiple listens. It can only help that Electric Guest has learned sooner than some of their peers that a follow-up they can be proud of is better than half-hearted work turned out under pressure. l

Plural is available on most streaming services, such as Spotify and Apple, and is available for purchase at Amazon.com Electric Guest appears on Wednesday, March 8 at U Street Music Hall, 1115A U St. NW. Doors at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10. Call 202-588-1880 or visit ustreetmusichall.com.

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

NightLife Photography by Ward Morrison

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Scene

DrinksDragDJsEtc... Thursday, March 2 9 1/2 Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • Music videos featuring DJ Wess COBALT/30 DEGREES Happy Hour: Tops Down $6 Top Shelf, Bottoms Up $3 Rail, $3 Bud Light, 4-9pm • Stonewall Darts AfterParty, 6-10pm • Locker Room Thursday Nights, 10pm-close • $3 Rail Drinks, 10pm-midnight, $5 Red Bull and Frozen Virgin Drinks • DJs Sean Morris and MadScience • Best Package Contest at mid-

night, hosted by Ba’Naka & Kristina Kelly • $200 Cash Prize • Doors open 10pm, 21+ • $5 Cover or free with college ID DC EAGLE Doors open at 8pm • Strip Down Thursdays Happy Hour — Shirtless guys drink $2 off all drinks, 8-10pm • Jock or underwear gets $2 off all drinks, 10pm-2am • Free Shot of Captain Morgan Cannon Blast while supplies last • No Cover • 21+ FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • Karaoke, 8pm

Team DC’s Annual Fashion Show and Model Search at Town Saturday, February 25 • Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Ladies Drink Free Power Hour, 4-5pm • Shirtless Thursday, 10-11pm • DJs BacK2bACk NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Drag Bingo NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 Rails and House Wines & Half-Priced Pizzas • $4 Heineken and Coronas, 5pm-close

TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS All male, nude dancers • DJ • 9pm • Cover 21+

Friday, March 3 9 1/2 Open at 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • Friday Night Videos with DJ Justin Morse, 9:30pm • Expanded craft beer selection • No Cover

COBALT/30 DEGREES All You Can Drink Happy Hour • $15 Rail and Domestic, $21 Call & Imports, 6-9pm • Swap Sex Theatre Performance by Monumental Theatre Group • Freaky Fridays, 10pm • $6 Grey Goose all night • Two 30-minute open bars featuring Grey Goose, 11-11:30pm and 1-1:30am • DJ MadScience upstairs • DJ Keenan Orr downstairs • $10 cover 10pm-close • 21+ DC EAGLE Doors open at 8pm • Happy Hour, 8-10pm — $2 off everything • Mr. Leatherman of Color 2017 Kai Anderson on Club Bar, 9pm-2am • Daryl Wilson Productions presents First Fridays Reloaded in the Exile, 10:30pm-4am • $10 Cover • 21+

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • Karaoke, 8pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5 Smirnoff, all flavors, all night long • Otter Den DC presents Otter Crossing, 9pm-close • $5 Cover after 10pm NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR DJ Matt Bailer • Videos, Dancing • Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 NUMBER NINE Open 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover • Friday Night Piano with Chris, 7:30pm SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 Rails and House Wines & Half-Priced Pizzas • Tableside Magic, 8pm

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

TOWN Patio open 6pm • DC Bear Crue Happy Hour, 6-11pm • $3 Rail, $3 Draft, $3 Bud Bottles • Free Pizza, 7pm • No cover before 9:30pm • 21+ • Drag Show starts at 10:30pm • Hosted by Lena Lett and featuring Tatianna, Shi-Queeta-Lee, Riley Knoxx and Ba’Naka • DJ Wess upstairs, DJs BacK2bACk downstairs following the show • GoGo Boys after 11pm • Doors open at 10pm • For those 21 and over, $12 • For those 18-20, $15 • Club: 18+ • Patio: 21+ TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm • Guest dancers • Ladies of Illusion Drag Show • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:30pm and 1:30am • DJ Don T. in Secrets • Cover 21+

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

Saturday, March 4 9 1/2 Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut & Tito’s, $3 Miller Lite after 9pm • Expanded craft beer selection • No Cover • Music videos featuring various DJs COBALT/30 DEGREES Drag Yourself to Brunch at Level One, 11am-2pm and 2-4pm • Featuring Kristina Kelly and the Ladies of Illusion • Bottomless Mimosas and Bloody Marys • Happy Hour: Tops Down $6 Top Shelf, Bottoms Up $3 Rail, $3 Bud Light, 4-9pm • Rumba Latina: Latin Dance Party, 10pm-close • Doors open 10pm • $5 Cover • 21+ DC EAGLE Doors open 8pm • Happy Hour, $2 off all drinks, 8-10pm • C.O.M.M.A.N.D. MC from Baltimore hosts Club Bar, 9pm-2am • Cigar Social sponsored by The DC Eagle, Joe Whitaker, and HotCigarMen.com, 8-10pm • Joe Whitaker & ManUPP present DILF

Stop Light Party — men, music, drink, and so much more • 21+ FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Drag Queen Broadway Brunch, 10am-3pm • Starring Freddie’s Broadway Babes • Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • Freddie’s Follies Drag Show, hosted by Miss Destiny B. Childs, 8-10pm • Karaoke, 10pm-close GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5 Bacardi, all flavors, all night long • JOX: The GL Underwear Party, featuring DJ David Merrill, 9pm-close • $5 Cover (includes clothes check) NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Guest DJs • Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer, House Rail Drinks and Mimosas, $4, 11am-5pm • Buckets of Beer, $15 NUMBER NINE Doors open 2pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon • Time Machine, featuring DJ Jack Rayburn, 9:30pm-close

SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with Bottomless Mimosas, 10am-3pm • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 Rails and House Wines & Half-Priced Pizzas TOWN DC Rawhides host Town & Country: Two-Step, Line Dancing, Waltz and West Coast Swing, $5 Cover to stay all night • Doors open 6:30pm, Lessons 7-8pm, Open dance 8-10:30pm • Doors open 9pm • CRACK Dance Party and Stage Show, 9:30pm • DJs Kris Sutton and Aaron Riggins upstairs • Music and video by DJ Wess downstairs • Cover $12 • 21+ TRADE Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm-4am • Guest dancers • Ladies of Illusion Drag Show with host Ella Fitzgerald • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:30pm and 1:30am • DJ Don T. in Ziegfeld’s • DJ Steve Henderson in Secrets • Cover 21+

Sunday, March 5 9 1/2 Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • No Cover COBALT/30 DEGREES Happy Hour: Tops Down $6 Top Shelf, Bottoms Up $3 Rail, $3 Bud Light, 4-9pm • Homowood Karaoke, hosted by Robert Bise, 10pm-close • 21+ DC EAGLE Doors open at 12pm • Happy Hour, 12-6 pm — $2 off everything • $2 Bud and Bud Light Draughts all day and night • The DC

Eagle Pizza Party (no ghost peppers) — Free slice of pizza with each drink while supplies last • Stars of the Center Drag Show, hosted by Lace Love McCray, 7-11pm in the Exile • $10 Cover • 21+

SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with Bottomless Mimosas, 10am-3pm • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 Rails and House Wines & Half-Priced Pizzas

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Champagne Brunch Buffet, 10am-3pm • Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • Freddie’s Zodiac Contest, hosted by Regina Jozet Adams, 8pm • Karaoke, 10pm-1am

TRADE Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Mama’s Trailer Park Karaoke downstairs, 9:30pm-close

ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS All male, nude dancers • Decades of Dance • DJ Tim-e in Secrets • Doors 9pm • Cover 21+

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted by Shi-Queeta-Lee, 11am-3pm • $20 Brunch Buffet • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-close • Buckets of Beer, $15 NUMBER NINE Pop Goes the World with Wes Della Volla at 9:30pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • No Cover

Monday, March 6 9 1/2 Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • No Cover

COBALT/30 DEGREES Happy Hour: Tops Down $6 Top Shelf, Bottoms Up $3 Rail, $3 Bud Light, 4-9pm • Monday Night’s A Drag, featuring Kristina Kelly • Doors open at 10pm • Showtime at 11:30pm • $3 Skyy Cocktails, $8 Skyy and Red Bull • $8 Long Islands • No Cover, 18+ DC EAGLE Doors open at 8pm • Happy Hour, 8-10pm — $2 off everything • Endless Happy Hour prices to anyone in a DC Eagle T-Shirt • Monday Madness: Free Pool All Night and Day • $1 Bud and Bud Light Draughts all night • No Cover • 21+ FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • Singles Night • Karaoke, 8pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour all night long • Open Mic Night Karaoke with Kevin, 9:30pm-close

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

JR.’S Showtunes Songs & Singalongs, 9pm-close • DJ James • $3 Draft Pints, 8pm-midnight NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Texas Hold’em Poker, 8pm • Dart Boards NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 Rails and House Wines and Half-Priced Pizzas • Trivia with Jeremy, 7:30pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

Tuesday, March 7 9 1/2 Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • No Cover COBALT/30 DEGREES DJ Honey Happy Hour: Tops Down $6 Top Shelf, Bottoms Up $3 Rail, $3 Bud Light, 4-9pm • SIN Service Industry Night, 10pm-close • $1 Rail Drinks all night

NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover • After 9pm, $3 Absolut, Bulleit & Stella SHAW’S TAVERN Half-Priced Burgers and Pizzas • $5 House Wines and $5 Sam Adams TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • Karaoke, 8pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour all night long, 4pm-close NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Karaoke and Drag Bingo

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

Wednesday, March 8 9 1/2 Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • No Cover COBALT/30 DEGREES Happy Hour: Tops Down $6 Top Shelf, Bottoms Up $3 Rail, $3 Bud Light, 4-9pm • $4 Stoli and Stoli Flavors and Miller Lite all night • Wednesday Night Karaoke, hosted by India Larelle Houston, 10pm • No Cover • 21+ FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • $6 Burgers • Drag Bingo Night, hosted by Ms. Regina Jozet Adams, 8pm • Bingo prizes • Karaoke, 10pm-1am GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour all night long, 4pm-close

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR SmartAss Trivia Night, 8pm and 9pm • Prizes include bar tabs and tickets to shows at the 9:30 Club • $15 Buckets of Beer for SmartAss Teams only • Bring a new team member and each get a free $10 Dinner NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 Rails and House Wines and Half-Priced Pizzas • Piano Bar with Jill, downstairs, 8pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

Thursday, March 9 9 1/2 Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • Music videos featuring DJ Wess COBALT/30 DEGREES Happy Hour: Tops Down $6 Top Shelf, Bottoms Up $3 Rail, $3 Bud Light, 4-9pm • Stonewall Darts AfterParty, 6-10pm • Locker Room Thursday Nights, 10pm-close • $3 Rail Drinks, 10pm-midnight, $5 Red Bull and Frozen Virgin Drinks • DJs Sean Morris and MadScience • Best Package Contest at midnight, hosted by Ba’Naka & Kristina Kelly • $200 Cash Prize • Doors open 10pm, 21+ • $5 Cover or free with college ID

MARCH 2, 2017 â&#x20AC;¢ METROWEEKLY

DC EAGLE Doors open at 8pm • Strip Down Thursdays Happy Hour — Shirtless guys drink $2 off all drinks, 8-10pm • Jock or underwear gets $2 off all drinks, 10pm-2am • Highwaymen TNT host Hot Jock Contest, 11:30pm — prizes valued at over $250 • No Cover • 21+ FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-7pm • Karaoke, 8pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Ladies Drink Free Power Hour, 4-5pm • Shirtless Thursday, 10-11pm • DJs BacK2bACk NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Drag Bingo

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY

NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 Rails and House Wines & Half-Priced Pizzas • $4 Heineken and Coronas, 5pm-close TRADE 1410 14th St. NW Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS All male, nude dancers • DJ • 9pm • Cover 21+ l

LastWord. People say the queerest things

“It is time for President Trump to come face to face with the realities of his anti-immigrant and anti-American policies.” — REP. RUBEN KIHUEN (D.-Nev.), speaking to the Los Angeles Times. Kihuen was one of a number of Democratic lawmakers who invited Muslims, LGBTQ leaders and immigrants as guests to watch President Donald Trump’s first Joint Session address. Kihuen said Trump had to “understand that his rhetoric has a real impact on communities across the country.”

“I had my own suicide attempt.” — LAVERNE COX, in a video for Trans Children Deserve Better, opening up about her struggle to accept her gender identity. Cox tried to take her own life “because of shame, because of stigma, because I didn’t understand who I was.” She shared a message to trans youth going through similar struggles, saying: “I want to let all trans kids out there know that that is their history. That is who they are. And that they are beautiful and divine.”

“Except as the union of one man and one woman... no other union shall be recognised.” — An excerpt from Senate Joint Resolution 7, a recently passed resolution in Arkansas, which seeks to define marriage as between one man and one woman — directly contradicting the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling. State Senator Jason Rapert (R), who authored the resolution, told a local TV station that the “silent majority” was “going to speak again.”

“I’m going to shower across the street, make sure my change of clothes are around the corner, and I’m going to drive… take a different route to the gym.

”

— Former NBA star AMAR’E STOUDEMIRE, who currently plays in Israel, responding to whether he would have a problem with a gay teammate in an interview with Israeli site Walla Sport. Others in the clip intimated that they wouldn’t have an issue with a gay teammate. Pressed on his response, Stoudemire, who was fined $50,000 by the NBA in 2012 for using a homophobic slur, said: “I mean, there’s always a truth within a joke.”

“I don’t want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.” — BILL CONDON, director of the upcoming live action remake of Beauty and the Beast, speaking with Attitude magazine. Condon suggested that LeFou, manservant to Gaston, will struggle with his sexuality and his feelings for Gaston. “LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” Condon said.

MARCH 2, 2017 • METROWEEKLY