Shaw Streets • Pleasant Mann

Shaw Streets

by Pleasant Mann

Shaw Gets Another Mural!

Shaw Joining Open Streets June 4 On Saturday, June 4, Seventh Street between Pennsylvania Avenue NW all the way up to Florida Avenue NW will be closed to vehicular traffic from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The closure will be part of the District Department of Transportation’s Open Streets initiative. Started in 2019, Open Streets closes major thoroughfares for part of a day to devote streets to the people and to demonstrate how they can be enlivened by reduced auto traffic. This one-and-ahalf-mile route will connect Shaw, Mount Vernon Square, Chinatown and Penn Quarter as people ride, bike, walk, socialize and participate in programming planned exclusively for Seventh Street.

Open Streets is designed for people of all ages and backgrounds. Want to ride uninterrupted across different neighborhoods? Care to join a dancing or fitness class with your friends? Prefer to sit back and enjoy the lineup of diverse musical performances? How about bringing the kids out to enjoy familyfriendly activities in one of downtown’s most popular corridors, without having to dodge cars? The programmed activities include a Children’s Traffic Garden, Double Dutch competitions, a demonstration creating a curb extension mural and parklet, fitness classes, a Transportation Oasis, an eBike demonstration along with (of course) a go-go band and

Live Art workshops. Seventh Street is a particularly appropriate location for an Open Streets event. It is one of the oldest commercial corridors, offering the city’s first streetcar route during the Civil War. The 1937 WPA guide to DC, “Washington: City and Capital,” gave Seventh Street its own chapter. “A lively street with a “distinct individuality of its own,” said the guide, noting that “on Saturday nights Seventh Street’s stores, movies, restaurants and almost every place where money can be extracted from customers are wide open.” People have been noticing a recently completed mural at the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue Admiring a new Shaw mural, “She Got We,” by artist Cita Sadeli, aka Miss Chelove. Photo: Alexander Padro, courtesy Shaw Main Streets and Seventh Street NW. Celebrating the initiative of women, “She Got We” features photo-realistic portraits of multiethnic, multigenerational women, whose expressions and postures support a feeling of strength, pride, interdependence, resilience and confidence. Artist Cita Sadeli, also known as Miss Chelove, is a Javanese-American muralist who has created murals in Shaw and other parts of the District. Her work is also featured in a short documentary, “Miss Chelove,” that was just screened at the 2022 DC Film Fest and the Maryland Film Festival in Baltimore. “She Got We” was funded by a DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Public Art Building Communities grant to Shaw Main Streets,

Photo: Alexander M. Padro, Courtesy Friends of Watha T. Daniel Shaw Neighborhood Library

which managed the project. ere will be a dedication ceremony for the mural on June 4 as part of the Open Streets festival.

Watha T. Daniel Library Book Sale

e Friends of the Watha T. Daniel/ Shaw Neighborhood Library will hold their rst book sale since the beginning of the pandemic on Saturday, June 4, during the Seventh Street Open Streets festival. e donated books for sale cover a broad range of subjects, something you expect from an erudite community such as Shaw. Titles, some of them rare, encompassing philosophy, classic novels, contemporary non ction and largeformat art books, will be o ered at extremely a ordable prices, as low as 25 cents. ere is also a large collection of children’s and young adult titles. e sale will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. downstairs in the main meeting room of the library.

Shaw Nets RAMMY Award Nominations

presented annually by Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, have been announced, with Shaw establishments in the running for potential honors. Plant-based Oyster Oyster is nominated for New Restaurant of the Year, while Service Bar could win Cocktail Program of the Year. Two Shaw chefs on the same block, Cedric Maupillier of Convivial and Rob Rubba of Oyster Oyster, will be competing for the title of Chef of the Year. Amanda Bell of All Purpose-Shaw is nominated for Employee of the Year, while Rob Heim of Shaw’s Tavern is in line for the Manager of the Year award.

Another set of awards will be determined by a vote of the public. Among the Shaw names nominated are Nina May for Best Brunch of the Year and Cracked Eggery for Hottest Sandwich Spot, while Convivial and Kinship compete for the Splendid Holidays at Home award. e winners will be announced at the 40th Annual RAMMY Awards Gala, Sunday, July 24, held appropriately enough at Shaw’s Walter E. Washington Convention Center. To vote on the publicly voted categories or purchase tickets to the event, visit www.therammys.org.◆

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