Bill T. Jones: Jones-ology by Metro Weekly

March 21, 2019

CONTENTS

30 YEARS STRONG

Us Helping Us’s anniversary gala celebrates three decades of growth, including the expansion of new health services. By John Riley

HEADLINE

Dance legend Bill T. Jones leads audiences through an epic three-night odyssey at the Kennedy Center. Interview by André Hereford

Volume 25 Issue 45

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Jordan Peele’s Us may deliver the scares on a bloody platter, but it amounts to so much more than a simple horror film. By Randy Shulman

SPOTLIGHT: MEOW MEOW WITH THOMAS LAUDERDALE p.7 OUT ON THE TOWN p.10 THE FEED: GREAT DEBATE p.19 COMMUNITY: US HELPING US TURNS 30 p.21 COVER STORY: BILL T. JONES p.24 FILM: US p.31 STAGE: INTO THE WOODS p.33 STAGE: JQA p.34 OPERA: FAUST p.35 NIGHTLIFE: JEREMIAH LLOYD HARMON AT PITCHERS p.37 NIGHTLIFE LISTINGS p.38 NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS p.39 SCENE: GREEN LANTERN’S REWIND p.43 SCENE: AVALON’S ROBYN AFTERPARTY p. 44 LAST WORD p.46 Real LGBTQ News and Entertainment since 1994 Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Online Editor at metroweekly.com Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley Contributing Editors André Hereford, Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrator Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Troy Petenbrink, Bailey Vogt, 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 Arnie Zane Cover Photography Out Magazine 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 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Spotlight

Meow Meow with Thomas Lauderdale B ORN MELISSA MADDEN GRAY IN AUSTRALIA, the post-post-modern diva with the catty moniker comes to town to perform a cabaret accompanied by Lauderdale, best known as the gay founder and leader of Pink Martini, the quirky, self-styled 12-member “little orchestra” from Portland, Oregon. You could consider this a campy cocktail cabaret of the

first order. It also serves as a teaser for a forthcoming new Meow Meow recording. And if past is prologue, expect a surprise cameo if a certain NPR celebrity and frequent Pink Martini guest happens to be in the crowd. Monday, March 25, at 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St. NW. Tickets are $35. Call 202-888-0050 or visit www.thelincolndc.com. MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Spotlight HANDS ON A HARDBODY

CAMERON WHITMAN

Keegan Theatre presents the regional premiere of a recent Broadway show featuring music written by Phish’s Trey Anastasio and lyricist Amanda Green (Bring It On: The Musical), with a book by Doug Wright. Based on a real-life competition, captured in a 1997 documentary of the same name, Hands on a Hardbody focuses on ten Texans struggling to keep at least one hand on a brand-new truck in order to win it. Elena Velasco and Mark A. Rhea direct the Keegan production featuring a large, 19-member ensemble, with Jake Null directing an eight-piece pit orchestra. Now to April 6. Keegan Theatre, 1742 Church St. NW. Tickets are $52 to $62. Call 202-265-3767 or visit www.keegantheatre.com.

HOMOSUPERIOR

FARRAH SKEIKY

Joshua Vogelsong is well known around town via his drag alter-ego Donna Slash — and as the lead singer of LGBTQ band Homosuperior, both of which — the “punk rock Divine” and the punk rock band — he developed hand in hand. “The band is everywhere on the spectrum of queer,” says Vogelsong, who, depending on “how I feel and how much time we have,” occasionally performs as Joshua. “It's always been about blurring the lines, and having fun with sexuality and gender.... Sometimes you feel more feminine. Sometimes you feel more butch and just wanna get up there without any makeup on.” The fourpiece Homosuperior returns to Comet Ping Pong, where Vogelsong serves as bar and programming manager, to headline a show with two opening acts from Baltimore, HexGirlfriends and Wipeout. Friday, March 29, at 10 p.m. 5037 Connecticut Ave. NW. Tickets are $12. Call 202-364-0404 or visit www.cometpingpong.com.

LAS CULTURISTAS PODCAST: THE I DON’T THINK SO, HONEY! TOUR

Time Out New York has called this popular weekly podcast “addictively bitchy,” while Esquire and Vulture included it among their lists of Best Podcasts of 2019 and Best Comedy Podcasts of 2018, respectively. Gay Millennial hosts Matt Rogers, a regular with New York improv troupe Upright Citizens Brigade, and Bowen Yang, a writer for Saturday Night Live, bring Las Culturistas to life in a stop in D.C., presented by Union Stage at Capitol Hill’s historic Miracle Theatre, where a parade of comedians and performers will sound off in one-minute rants on any popular culture topics of their choosing. Saturday, March 23, at 8:30 p.m. 535 8th St. SE. Tickets are $20. Call 202-400-3210 or visit www.themiracletheatre.com. 8

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Spotlight QUENTIN TARANTINO RETROSPECTIVE

This weekend, Smithsonian Theaters celebrates the brilliant, twisted mind of Tarantino by screening several of his most influential works at the National Museum of American History. Thursday, March 21, features a Pulp Fiction party starting at 6:30 p.m. followed by a screening of the 1994 classic starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, and Uma Thurman at 8:15 p.m. Jackie Brown screens Friday, March 22, at 6 p.m. Kill Bill Volume 1 and Volume 2 at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively, and Inglorious Basterds at 9:25 p.m., all screen on Saturday, March 23. Django Unchained at 5 p.m. and The Hateful Eight at 8 p.m. conclude the festival on Sunday, March 24. The screenings are on an IMAX screen, but may not necessarily be screened in IMAX format. (Still, it’s pretty big and worth it.) The Warner Bros. Theater, 1300 Constitution Ave. NW. A Grateful Eight Film Package is $64, or $99 with Pulp Fiction Party; single tickets are $15.50 with fees. Call 202-633-1000 or visit www.si.edu/imax.

THE JEWISH QUEEN LEAR

C. STANLEY.

Mirele Efros is a wealthy widow and clever businesswoman whose children turn against her, causing a fall of Shakespearean proportions. Wildly successful at the turn of the 20th century and considered a masterpiece of Yiddish theater, Theater J presents Jacob Gordin’s play in a new English translation by Nahma Sandrow. Adam Immerwahr directs a large cast including Tonya Beckman, Valerie Leonard, Alana Dodds Sharp, Charlie Trepany, Christopher Warren, and Frank X. To April 7. The Gonda Theatre, Georgetown University’s Davis Performing Arts Center, 3700 O St. NW. Tickets are $30 to $70. Call 202-777-3210 or visit www.theaterj.org.

GOLDEN DRAGON ACROBATS

Regarded as the premiere Chinese acrobatic touring company, the Golden Dragons, led by world-renowned impresario Danny Chang and choreographer Angela Chang, combine award-winning high-flying stunts as well as traditional dance, spectacular costumes, ancient and contemporary music and theatrical techniques. The result is a display of breathtaking skill and spellbinding beauty. Thursday, March 28, at 7:30 p.m. Weinberg Center for the Arts, 20 W. Patrick St. Frederick, Md. Tickets are $22 to $27. Call 301-600-2828 or visit www. weinbergcenter.org.

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KATHERINE FOGDEN

Out On The Town

THE REDRESS PROJECT

In commemoration of Women’s History Month, the National Museum of the American Indian presents an outdoor art installation by Canadian/Métis multidisciplinary artist Jaime Black on view in the U.S. for the first time. In The REDress Project, several empty red dresses hang along the Riverwalk, located in the museum’s Native landscape, symbolizing missing or murdered indigenous women, in an effort to draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Native women. Collected through community donation, the dresses have been installed at several Canadian galleries and colleges since 2011. To March 31. Independence Avenue at 4th Street SW. Call 202-633-1000 or visit www.nmai.si.edu. Compiled by Doug Rule

FILM BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER

Director Jamie Babbit’s satirical take on the ”ex-gay” movement was light-years ahead of its time. Not that Cheerleader lacks for silliness and camp. RuPaul stars out of drag as a counselor at ”True Directions,” where cheerleader Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is sent to correct her budding lesbianism. Cathy Moriarty chews the scenery — colored in gender-reinforcing garish pinks and blues — as the camp director. Despite a few heavy-handed moments, Cheerleader’s raucous romp proves that one of the best ways to tear apart a movement that aims to ”change” us is one of the easiest — simply laughing at them. Screens on Monday, March 25, at 9 p.m. at the cozy Suns Cinema, 3107 Mount Pleasant St. NW. Tickets are $13.41 including service fee. Part of the Screen Queen series. Visit www. sunscinema.com.

CATVIDEOFEST 2019

Seattle-based filmmaker Will Braden (Le Chat Noir) has assembled an all-new, 70-minute program that’s a fancy feast for cat lovers, chock-full of cat videos both popular as well as new and undiscovered. CatVideoFest, a compilation of shorts culled from hours of unique submissions and sourced animations, music videos, and Internet classics, is styled as a communal experience where feline fanatics can bond over cute cat cinema and learn more about cats in need in D.C. and beyond. Friday, March 29, at 7:45 p.m., and Saturday, March 30, and Sunday, March 31, at 11 a.m. 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. Tickets are $13 general admission. Call 301-495-6720 or visit afi.com/ Silver.

DIANA ROSS: HER LIFE, LOVE, AND LEGACY

On the very night the Supreme pop diva turns 75, Fathom Events offers screenings at theaters nationwide of Steve Binder’s live concert documentary Diana Ross: Live in Central Park, recorded in 1983 but not

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

released until 2012. For this anniversary presentation, the director and the diva have added never-before-seen footage, plus messages from the Ross family, including sons Ross and Evan and daughters Rhonda and Chudney, with a passionate introduction by Golden Globe Award-winning Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross. The screenings are part of series of “Diamond Diana Celebration” events. Wednesday, March 26, at 7 p.m. at area Regal venues including Gallery Place (701 7th St. NW), Potomac Yards Stadium (3575 Jefferson Davis Highway), and Ballston Common (671 N. Glebe Road). Encore screenings come Friday, March 28, at 7 p.m. at area AMC venues, including Hoffman Center (206 Swamp Fox Rd., Alexandria) and Columbia Mall (10300 Little Patuxent Pkwy, Maryland). Tickets are $13.25. Visit www.fathomevents.com.

FAME

Alan Parker’s 1980 musical captured the rigors of making it in a high school for the performing arts. It’s a stunning film, not least for

Irene Cara’s exuberant take on the movie’s title song in a joyous lunchroom dance scene. It returns to the big screen as part of the Capital Classics series at Landmark’s West End Cinema. Wednesday, March 27, at 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 p.m. 2301 M St. NW. Happy hour from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $12.50. Call 202-534-1907 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

Fathom Events presents one of the most beloved films of all time: Horton Foote’s evocative adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prizewinning novel, directed by Robert Mulligan. Both screenwriter Foote and actor Gregory Peck won Oscars for the 1962 drama, focused on the iconic character of Atticus Finch, a Depression-era Southern lawyer who courageously defends a black man against a false charge of rape. Part of the yearlong TCM Big Screen Classic series, To Kill A Mockingbird is presented with preand post-screening insights by TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz. Sunday, March 24, at 1 p.m., and

serts, this 45-minute immersive experience from Third Rail Projects includes exclusive access to the magnificent Paster and SedgwickBond Reading Rooms in the Folger Shakespeare Library. On top of that, as the performance winds its way through massive and ornate spaces, theatergoers are invited to savor bite-sized delights designed by local pâtissiers. Presented in conjunction with the Folger’s current exhibition First Chefs (see separate entry under Arts & Exhibits). To March 24. 201 East Capitol St. SE. Tickets are $40 to $60. Call 202-544-7077 or visit www.folger.edu.

GER BLANCH

DINNER WITH FRIENDS

SILENT

Solas Nua, the D.C.-based company focused on presenting and producing contemporary theater and performing arts from Ireland, imports this touching, challenging Olivier Award-winning one-man show from Dublin’s new play company Fishamble. Written and performed by Pat Kinevane, Silent focuses on a homeless man who dives into his splendid past through the romantic world of Rudolph Valentino. “Dare to laugh at despair and gasp at redemption,” goes one tagline to the work, which raises awareness of homelessness in a way that the New York Times critic Ben Brantley reviewed as “passionate [and] carefully wrought,” further praising the way “Kinevane interprets Valentino’s highly theatrical screen presence to stunning effect.” Remaining performances are Thursday, March 21, through Saturday, March 23, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 24, at 3 p.m. Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $45. Call 202-3997993 or visit www.atlasarts.org. Wednesday, March 27, at 12 and 7 p.m. Area theaters including Regal venues at Gallery Place (701 7th St. NW), Potomac Yards Stadium (3575 Jefferson Davis Highway), and Ballston Common (671 N. Glebe Road). Tickets are $13.25. Visit www.fathomevents.com.

STAGE BLOOD AT THE ROOT

A black student disrupts the status quo at her high school merely by venturing into an area typically occupied by white students, unintentionally provoking an uptick in hate speech, violence, and chaos. Playwright Dominique Morisseau was inspired by the Jena Six, the black teenagers who were reflexively condemned and excessively charged after a 2006 altercation

with a white student turned brutal in their Louisiana small-town. Directed by Raymond O. Caldwell, Theater Alliance’s production features choreography by Tiffany Quinn and an 11-person cast including Molly Shayna Cohen, Billie Krishawn, Emmanuel KyeiBaffour, Deimoni Brewington, Paul Roeckell, and Stephanie Wilson. Blood at the Root is touted as a moving, lyrical, and bold examination of the complexities of race and individual freedoms, as well as the link between justice and identity. To March 24. Anacostia Playhouse, 2020 Shannon Place SE. Tickets are $40 to $50 and half-off during previews. Call 202-241-2539 or visit www.theateralliance.com.

CONFECTION

A rollicking rumination on opulence, inequity, and teeny-tiny des-

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A Pulitzer Prize-winning modern dramedy from Donald Margulies challenging everyday presumptions about the people we think we know is brought to life at Baltimore’s Everyman Theatre in a 20th-anniversary production helmed by founding artistic director Vincent M. Lancisi. In the deliciously funny, sharply observed Dinner with Friends, two couples find themselves grappling with questions of loyalty, individuality, and commitment over dinner as one wife drops the bomb that her husband wants out of their 12-year marriage. The four-person cast features Megan Anderson, Danny Gavigan, Beth Hylton and M. Scott McLean. Now to April 7. Everyman Theatre, 315 West Fayette St. Baltimore. Tickets are $43 to $65. Call 410-752-2208 or visit www.everymantheatre.org.

INDECENT

A few months after its debut at Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage offers another chance to see the latest work by Paula Vogel, which tells the story of a group of artists who risked their careers to perform Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance on Broadway in 1923. The work was deemed “indecent” for tackling taboo themes of censorship, immigration, and anti-Semitism — but especially for depicting romance blooming between two women. Eric Rosen directs a cast that includes Ben Cherry, Susan Lynskey, John Milosich, and Max Wolkowitz. To March 31. 700 North Calvert St., Baltimore. Tickets are $20 to $74. Call 410-332-0033 or visit www.centerstage.org.

OIL

Olney Theatre presents the American premiere of a work called “scorchingly ambitious” by The Guardian from one of the U.K.’s fastest-rising playwrights, Ella Hickson. A genre-busting work full of theatricality, big ideas, and deeply personal emotions, Oil follows mothers and daughters over two centuries, from the dawn of the age of oil in 1889 to the demise of the “peak-oil” era sometime in the not-too-distant future. Tracy

Brigden directs a work featuring five separate but connected playlets, with a cast including Catherine Eaton, Megan Graves, Sarah Corey, Maboud Ebrahimzadeh, Chris Genebach, and Tuyet Thi Pham. To March 31. Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, Md. Tickets are $40 to $84. Call 301-924-3400 or visit www. olneytheatre.org.

THE JOSHUA SHOW

Billed as “a modern-day Mr. Rogers with hipster appeal” and heralded as one of “20 Theatre Workers You Should Know” by American Theatre magazine, Joshua Holden is a theatrical triple-threat with serious physical comedy and puppetry expertise honed per the national tour of Avenue Q, among other stage ventures. Holden shows off his skills, which extend to tap dancing, in a one-man show featuring an eclectic cast of puppet characters — kept close at hand. Musician Jeb Colwell accompanies Holden on the touring show with appeal for the whole family that has touched down all over the country, including a run at New York’s Lincoln Center. Saturday, March 23, at 1 p.m. Alden Theatre at the McLean Community Center, 1234 Ingleside Ave., Mclean, Va. Tickets are $15. Call 703-790-0123 or visit www. mcleancenter.org.

TOPDOG/UNDERDOG

WSC Avant Bard presents the tragicomedy about two AfricanAmerican brothers-in-struggle that earned playwright Suzan-Lori Parks a Pulitzer Prize 17 years ago. Jeremy Keith Hunter, a regular at Mosaic Theater, takes on the role of older brother Lincoln, a grifter-gone-straight, while Louis E. Davis, previously seen in Avant Bard’s King Lear, plays the younger brother Booth, seeking to become the greatest con man of all time. DeMone Seraphin directs. To April 14. Gunston Arts Center, 2700 South Lang St. Arlington. Tickets are $40. Call 703-418-4804 or visit www.wscavantbard.org.

MUSIC ANOUSHKA SHANKAR

This star sitar player has gone from being the protégée of her legendary father, Ravi Shankar, to the world music adventurer nearly as famous as her half-sister, Norah Jones. Shankar returns to D.C. and the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue for a pair of Washington Performing Arts concerts reprising her packed-house performances in spring of 2017 of a program devoted to North Indian classical music, as well as jazz, pop, flamenco, and more. Saturday, March 23, at 7 and 9:30 p.m. 600 I St. NW. Tickets are $40. Call 202-4083100 or visit sixthandi.org.

WHITE FORD BRONCO

Cheekily named after O.J. Simpson’s notorious failed getaway car, people just can’t seem to get enough of this local ‘90s-era party band. Playing through that decade’s songbook in all styles of popular music is a five-member ensemble consisting of singer/guitarist Diego Valencia, singer Gretchen Gustafson, guitarists Ken Sigmund and McNasty, and drummer Max Shapiro. White Ford Bronco seems to turn up at a different local venue practically every other week, though it’s always a bit more exciting and noteworthy when booked at the city’s prestige halls, such as the Hamilton. Friday, March 22, at 8 p.m. 600 14th St. NW. Tickets are $20 to $25. Call 202-787-1000 or visit www.thehamiltondc.com.

WILLIAM FITZSIMMONS

THE FOUR BITCHIN’ BABES

in G Major “Gypsy,” Mozart’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 32 in B Flat Major, and Beethoven’s Piano Trio Op. 70 “Ghost”. Saturday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m. Theatre 1 in Gunston Arts Center, 2700 South Lang St. Arlington. Tickets are $36, including post-performance reception. Call 703-276-6701 or visit www.nationalchamberensemble.org.

Raised by blind parents in Pittsburgh who valued playing music as a key way to engage and communicate, William Fitzsimmons’ folk music as a professional singer-songwriter is as expressive and richly orchestrated as you might expect from that sort-of upbringing, akin to Iron & Wine or Sufjan Stevens. But it’s also dramatically colored by years of training and work as a counselor and therapist, with lyrics often exploring complicated issues, such as the personal and psychological effects of divorce and mental health. Case in point, Fitzsimmons’ newest album, Mission Bell, tells the painful — yet healing — story of his decadelong marriage and recent separation from his wife. The set is further embellished by amped-up sounds from synthesizers, electric guitars, and drum loops. Wednesday, March 27. Doors at 6 p.m. Union Stage, 740 Water St. SW. Tickets are $20. Call 877-987-6487 or visit www.unionstage.com.

THE IN SERIES: LA PALOMA-AT THE WALL

COMEDY

Sally Fingerett, comedic singer Deirdre Flint, and former The Hags singer Debi Smith are more than 25 years into their run as a comedic music ensemble, always performing as a quartet, with the fourth performer in regular rotation among Nancy Moran, founding Babe Megon McDonough, or Christine Lavin — who assumes the mantle for 2019. In an interview with Metro Weekly several years ago, Smith summed up the Babes’ songwriting and performing, “We look at life, as it’s happening, usually in a comedic way — [and] through a wacky viewfinder.” A taste of what’s on offer can be found in the title of their most recent show, Hormonal Imbalance v2.5: A Mood Swinging Musical Revue. Saturday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m. The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. Tickets are $35. Call 703-549-7500 or visit www.birchmere.com.

CONGRESSIONAL CHORUS: JAZZ HOT!

The local music organization presents its popular annual cabaret featuring 90 singers and dancers celebrating the best in 20th-century jazz, from ragtime to bebop. Saturday, March 23, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 24, at 4:30 p.m. Church of the Epiphany, 1317 G St. NW. Tickets are $19 to $49. Call 202-347-2635 or visit www. congressionalchorus.org.

ELIOT SEPPA

A master of both the upright and electric bass, Seppa has worked as a sideman for many of the top jazz and R&B acts, including the Impressions, Raul Midón, Warren Wolf, and Sharon Clark. Seppa gets a chance to showcase his own jazz fusion sound, which draws from R&B, hip-hop, gospel, Latin, and African music, in two performances at the Mansion at Strathmore as part of a series featuring the 2019 class of the organization’s esteemed program Artists in Residence. Grammy-nominated Christylez Bacon, The Voice contestant Owen Danoff, and Prince- and Stevie Wonder-collaborator Frédéric Yonnet are just three of the 80-plus young musicians who have been mentored through the program

since 2005. Wednesday, March 27, at 7:30 p.m. The Mansion, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda. Tickets are $17. Call 301-581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

MARY GAUTHIER

In a career spanning over two decades, the lesbian country/folk artist has had her songs covered by everyone from Jimmy Buffett (“Wheel Inside The Wheel”) and Blake Shelton (“I Drink”) to Bettye LaVette (“Worthy”) and Candi Staton (“Mercy Now”). A native of New Orleans now based in Nashville, Gauthier returns to the area for an intimate concert supporting her powerful Grammynominated concept album Rifles & Rosary Beads, a collection of 11 deeply personal songs that she co-wrote with U.S. veterans and their families. Jaimee Harris opens. Sunday, March 24, at 7:30 p.m. City Winery DC, 1350 Okie St. NE. Tickets are $22. Call 202-250-2531 or visit www.citywinery.com.

NATIONAL CHAMBER ENSEMBLE: THE VIENNESE CLASSICS

Founding Artistic Director Leonid Sushansky leads a program featuring works by Vienna-based giants of the Classical Era. The concert includes Haydn’s Piano Trio No. 39

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“La Verbena de la Paloma,” the most famous and beloved Spanish zarzuela, is given new life in a bold reimagining presented by the In Series and set on the Tijuana side of the border between Mexico and the U.S. Nick Olcott directs a work from writer Anna Deeny Morales and composer Ulises Eliseo (based on classic melodies of zarzuela composers, foremost among them Tomás Bretón y Hernández), with Mexican folk dance choreography by Alejandro Gongora, performed by Corazon Folklorico DC, an ensemble inspired by Mexican son jarocho music. Performances begin Saturday, March 23, at 8 p.m. To March 31. GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square, 3333 14th St. NW. Tickets are $20 to $45. Call 202-234-7174 or visit www.inseries.org.

NOVEL COMEDY: THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP

Subtitled “The American Art of Laughing about Failed Attempts to be Marie Kondo,” the latest show from this literary-themed, bookstore-centric comedy organization — “just like your book club, but run by comedians” — features professional funny people from the area riffing on the celebrity selfhelp guru du jour. The goal is to present “a unique comedy show where we relive our favorite Marie Kondo moments, confess if we actually followed the KonMari method, and challenge audience members in clothing folding competitions.” Bonus: The bookstore and especially a bar serving boozy beverages will be open throughout. Saturday, March 23. Doors at 7:30 p.m. Solid

State Books, 600 H St. NE. Tickets are $7.08 including fees. Call 8974201 or visit www.solidstatebooksdc.com.

but RSVP requested. Call 202-6822245 or visit www.thedccenter.org.

READING

ORCHIDS: AMAZING ADAPTATIONS

CECILE RICHARDS

The former president of Planned Parenthood and daughter of late Texas Governor Ann Richards shares her story of a lifetime fighting for social justice and women’s rights in a best-selling memoir. A year after its initial release, Richards returns for another discussion the day after her Make Trouble: Stand Up, Speak Out, and Find the Courage to Lead is issued in paperback with a new Afterword from the author proposing a Women’s Declaration of Independence, as well as a new movement to transform our politics. U.S. Representative Lauren Underwood (D-Illinois), the youngest African-American woman to serve in the House, moderates the discussion. Note: There will not be a book signing, though pre-signed books will be for sale. Wednesday, March 27, at 7 p.m. Sixth and I Historic Synagogue, 600 I St. NW. Tickets are $30 including one book, or $45 for two tickets and one book. Call 202-408-3100 or visit www. sixthandi.org.

JENNIFER L. EBERHARDT

A professor of psychology at Stanford University regarded as one of the foremost experts on unconscious racial bias shows in her new book, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, which draws on research as well as experience, that you don’t have to be racist to be biased. In fact, no matter how fervently we believe in equality, we’re pretty much all biased to one degree or another. Eberhardt illustrates how bias affects representations and interactions in the media, education, and business. And knowledge and awareness is at least half the battle: Eberhardt argues that the biases holding us back may be hard-wired but they’re not immutable, and can be eradicated by working together. Tuesday, March 26, at 7 p.m. Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Call 202-364-1919 or visit www.politics-prose.com.

ROOTS & BRANCHES: AN EVENING OF QUEER MEMOIR

Jen Deerinwater moderates a reading and discussion at the DC Center for the LGBTQ Community featuring queer memoirists Victoria Stubbs, Tyler Mendelsohn, Anthony Moll, and Joe Braxton. Cheese and wine will even be provided at this free, public event presented by Outwrite, the Center organization that oversees the annual LGBTQ literary festival. Saturday, March 23, at 7 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW. Free,

ART & EXHIBITS

Right now, the Smithsonian Gardens offers an attractive alternative to Washington’s cherry blossom madness with the 24th annual orchid show. And unlike those fickle, fleeting cherry trees, you don’t have to wait for, or make last-minute arrangements to see, the hundreds of orchids in brilliant bloom as part this joint collaboration with the U.S. Botanic Garden. From now through the end of April you can see the stunning variety of orchids filling eight large marble planters in the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, nestled between the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in the former Old Patent Office Building complex. For optimal viewing, officials recommend you visit either as soon as the courtyard opens at 11:30 a.m., in hopes of catching the whiff that orchids give off to attract pollinators in the morning, or in the hour or two before it closes at 7 p.m., when there should be fewer people and more chances of catching an orchid bloom popping open. To April 28. 8th and G Streets NW. Free. Call 202-633-2220 or visit www.gardens.si.edu.

TODD G. FRANSON

A few memorable photos that you may remember from covers of this very magazine — Jim Graham as Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra, say, or the infamous Leather Kewpie for MAL — will be on display as part of the latest exhibition at the DC Center for the LGBT Community, all from Franson, Metro Weekly’s central portrait photographer for most of the past 23 years as well as the magazine’s longest-serving Art Director. Yet the focus is on artworks the professional photographer and graphic designer has created for other projects and pursuits, all of which are available for sale. The exhibition goes as far back as Franson’s days as a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, with four stylized gloves from the series Wear & Tear: Inspired by Irving Penn, newly reborn and printed on aluminum. A more recent passion of Franson’s has been capturing artistic shots of foliage, blooms, and landscapes at the National Arboretum. And then there are the dazzling and quirky photographs that come closest to conveying Franson’s personal sensibility — perhaps none more so than Dancing Bear, a vividly colored image of a bustling amusement park at dusk foregrounded by a giantsized teddy bear wearing a propeller beanie. Ongoing. The Center Arts Gallery, 2000 14th St. NW.

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Call 202-682-2245 or visit www. thedccenter.org.

TRANSCENDENCE

Works challenging the traditional binaries and patriarchal notions of gender in the Western world, created by artists who are also blurring the boundaries of genres, mediums, and visualities, are currently on display at the small contemporary gallery, in a Dupont Circle alleyway, formerly known as Hillyer Art Space and run by the nonprofit International Arts & Artists. Antonius-Tín Bui, who juried Transcendence, hopes the show will not only inspire visitors to reevaluate and change their thinking and behavior around gender but also how they actively and routinely support the LGBTQ community. “The cathartic, utopian visions of gender imagined by the artists are not accessible unless we collectively work towards justice,” Bui writes in the official Juror’s Statement. A total of 18 artists from around the country are represented, with the local contingent including Marion Colomer, Hillary Rochon, and Sarah Stefana Smith from D.C., Ash Cheshire and John Thomas Paradiso from Maryland, and Your Rouge Photography from Virginia. To March 31. IA&A at Hillyer, 9 Hillyer Court NW. Call 202-3380325 or visit www.athillyer.org.

ABOVE & BEYOND BIG APPLE CIRCUS

“Circus in general has a really long tradition of powerful women being in positions of creative responsibility,” says Stephanie Monseu, the fourth female ringmaster in the Big Apple Circus’s 41-year history. Indeed, the company’s current show, directed by several New York theater veterans, features an impressive number of female-led acts. “It really is Broadway under the big top,” Monseu says. “The production value is really high, the lighting is beautiful, the set is pristine, the band is phenomenal. And we have the full spectrum of thrilling skills,” from the “very unique horizontal juggling” ace Victor Moiseev, to comedic character clowns Mark Gindick and Adam Kuchler, to animal handler Jenny Vidbel rescue dogs and retired horses. “Vidbel is an incredibly humane and loving trainer who works with the animals to find out what they love to do naturally,” says Monseu, who goes on to note the natural, pivotal role horses have played in the development of this whole genre of entertainment — right down to the name. “The word ‘circus’ [itself] refers to the circle that was measured out based on the smallest circumference that a galloping horse could run…. For the Big Apple Circus, it's thrilling to be able to keep that tradition

alive.” Performances to March 24. National Harbor, 238 Waterfront St., Oxon Hill, Md. Tickets start at $15, or $25 for VIP access to the Mirror Room with special amenities, a specialty cocktail, popcorn, cotton candy, and welcome gift. Call 212-257-2330 or visit www.big apple circus.com.

DIRECT CURRENT: A CELEBRATION OF CONTEMPORARY ART

The Kennedy Center presents its second annual, two-week, citywide celebration of contemporary art and culture — with a focus on new works, interdisciplinary creations in which artistic worlds collide, and on innovative responses to topical concerns. The result is a lineup with some of the most provocative, original, and pioneering voices in the arts today. Although a concert by Hugar, a genre-defying musical ensemble from Iceland, is first up, on Sunday, March 24, the second Direct Current officially kicks off on Monday, March 25, in the Concert Hall with an evening-length performance featuring new music from Justin Vernon of indie-folk band Bon Iver and new choreography from TU Dance, known for combining modern and classical dance with African- and urban-based movement. Other highlights to come in the first week include: Tashera, a young Baltimore-bred, D.C.-based soul/R&B singer-songwriter, on Tuesday, March 26; two concerts featuring avant-garde guitarist Mary Halvorson, one with saxophonist Maria Grand Wednesday, March 27, at the Phillips Collection, the other with her quintet on Thursday, March 28; singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane, performing an evocative new song cycle based on his national road trip in the wake of the 2016 election, Wednesday, March 27; two concerts by the National Symphony Orchestra with music inspired by the natural world, including Philip Glass's Itaipú Thursday, March 28, and Lera Auerbach's ARCTICA on Saturday, March 30; and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company performing three separate evening-length works delving into the voice of the marginalized in our society, Thursday, March 28, through Saturday, March 30. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/series/DCT.

LA-TI-DO: THE ASIANS ARE AWESOME SHOW

Regie Cabico and Don Mike Mendoza’s La-Ti-Do variety show features higher-quality singing than most karaoke, often from local musical theater actors performing on their night off, and also includes spoken-word poetry and comedy. Last December, Mendoza and “honorary co-founder” Russwin Francisco hosted an alternative spin

craft-making with Japanese cultural and linguistic professionals, on Saturday, March 23, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; CHERRY BLOSSOM CELEBRATION in the Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, featuring taiko drummers and other Japanese musicians and dancers, plus face painting, cherry blossom-themed crafts, a scavenger hunt, and the chance to make individual tatebanko, or Japanese paper dioramas, on Saturday, March 23, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; THROUGH THE LENS: TOKYO TRANSECT, a discussion and showcase of work by National Geographic photographer David Guttenfelder, offering a journey across the world’s most populous city to reveal its culture, traditions, quirks, and last but not least cherry blossoms, Thursday, March 28, at 7:30 p.m., at the National Geographic Museum (tickets are $25); INDIGO

WARD MORRISON

THREADS: WEAVING JAPANESE CRAFTMANSHIP AND AMERICAN HERITAGE, an exhibition exploring

MONDAY NIGHT SKATING: ST. PATTY’S DAY SKATE

So what if the named Irish holiday will be a faded, week-old memory by the time Monday Night Skating rolls around? After all, being green isn’t easy — and it rarely comes and goes in a mere day (holy or otherwise). Nor is it only ever sad or sullen. In fact, as a certain green sage once put it in song, green is the color of Spring, and green can (also) be cool and friendly-like. And when surrounded by kindred spirits and — literally — rotating around all the many colorful members of the queer Rainbow Connection, well, you’ll likely be green mostly in attire only. Said to be “the gayest skate a Monday night can have and the most fun on eight wheels,” MNSkating is a longstanding LGBTQ roller-skating tradition held the last Monday of every month in Maryland. It includes couples/trios skating, limbo, conga line, and other fun games — “Ghostbusters Mayhem,” say — that are nothing to be afraid of. There’s also a charity-benefiting 50/50 Raffle and a Door Prize of a 90-minute massage courtesy of Metro Weekly photographer/professional masseuse Ward Morrison. Just don’t go in dreaming of green beer, or of imbibing a spirit of any kind — the Laurel Roller Skating Center is a dry venue. Monday, March 25, starting at 7:30 p.m. 9890 Brewers Ct., Laurel. General admission is $7 to $8.50, plus $4 for skate rental. Call 301725-8070 or visit www.MondayNightSkating.com.

on the usual format by featuring performances from other local talented Americans of Asian descent. It was such a hit, it’s now a monthly feature. Monday, March 25, at 8 p.m. Le Mirch, 1736 Connecticut Ave. NW. Tickets are $20. Call 202629-3577 or visit latidodc.wix.com/ latido.

NATIONAL CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL

We’re still two weeks out from the peak of pink-hued blossoms along the Tidal Basin, per the National Park Service’s prediction for the cherry trees (April 3-6). But the annual four-week festival waits for no bloom, kicking off this weekend with the OPENING CEREMONY

concert featuring the cast of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live, a new, unconventional musical derived from a girl-centric comic series written by Naoko Takeuchi; Yusaku Mochizuki, a World Juggling Champion who incorporates tap dance, video art, LED diabolos, and digital poi sticks into his act; Ikuko Kawai, a classical-crossover and film-score composer and violinist; and the 6821 Quintet, a classical ensemble named after the distance in miles separating Tokyo from D.C. Saturday, March 23, starting at 5 p.m. Warner Theatre, 513 13th St. NW. Tickets are sold out. Other activities over the next

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

week: PINK TIE PARTY, the festival’s “see and be seen fundraiser” featuring a silent auction, bites from local restaurants and cocktails via an open bar, plus music, dancing, and over-the-top decor, on Friday, March 22, starting at 7 p.m., Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center (tickets are $225); JAPANESE CULTURE DAY in the Young Readers Center of the Library of Congress, a chance for children, their families, and teachers to learn Japanese culture through reading, writing, and

the rich history of indigo-dyed fabric and garments, including denim, in Japan, all day Friday, March 29, at JICC: Japan Information & Culture Center; CHERRY BLAST, a party featuring “an unforgettable secret garden,” Japanese cultural performances, dueling DJs, art, as well as a headline performance plus DJ set from pop/R&B hitmaker and former The Voice judge/coach CeeLo “Crazy/Fuck You” Green, on Saturday, March 30, starting at 7 p.m., The Theater at MGM National Harbor (tickets are $25, or $100 for VIP with open-bar, exclusive suite and dedicated seating, and Japanese buffet); the TASTES

OF SPRING CHERRY BLOSSOM FOOD CRAWL, a self-guided crawl sampling diverse cuisine at popular restaurants, on Saturday, March 30, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (tickets are $84); and the 9th Annual BLOSSOM KITE FESTIVAL on Saturday, March 30, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., on the grounds of the Washington Monument. Visit nationalcherryblossomfestival.org for more information and additional events.

THE PRIDE OF PURIM: GLOE MASQUERADE PARTY

The Kurlander Program for GLBTQ Outreach & Engagement at the Edlavitch DCJCC once again presents D.C.’s only queer party for Purim, the Mardi Gras-like Jewish holiday celebrating Queen Esther and general confusion, mayhem, and mischief. The holiday calls for dressing up and drinking a lot — here, via discounted drinks at a private bar at the Dupont locale of Mexican restaurant Mission, which is this year’s host venue. Drag attire and costumes encouraged, Purim treats provided. Saturday, March 23, starting at 7 p.m. 1606 20th St. NW. Tickets are $10. Call 202-5252010 or visit edcjcc.org. l

theFeed

GREAT DEBATE

The HRC Foundation and UCLA will co-host a forum for 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. By John Riley

HE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN FOUNDATION crimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs will in employment, housing, credit, education, public accommoco-host a forum for 2020 Democratic presidential dations and access to federal funds. Many political observers candidates exclusively focusing on LGBTQ issues later expect the Equality Act to receive a floor vote and easily pass this fall. Set to take place on Thursday, Oct. 10 — on the the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives by eve of National Coming Out Day — early summer, especially since House at UCLA’s historic Royce Hall, the Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has forum will give presidential contendincluded the bill as one of her top ers an opportunity to speak about priorities this session. But the bill their platform as it applies to LGBTQ is expected to stall in the Senate, rights and their plans to advance where Senate Majority Leader Mitch equality for sexual and gender McConnell (R-Ky.) may prevent it minorities. from coming to a vote. In accordance with Democratic If the bill remains indefinitely Party rules, only those candidates stalled through the day of the forum, who have received 1% or more of the it will afford the 2020 Democratic vote in three separate national polls, presidential candidates an opporor have received donations from tunity to contrast their record of more than 65,000 different people in support for equality measures with 20 different states will be considered that of President Donald Trump, eligible for participation in the forum. decry Republican intransigence in The HRC Foundation previCongress, and make an argument for ously hosted similar forums with why a Democratic presidency (as well Democratic presidential candidates as a Democratic-run Congress) would — HRC’s Chad Griffin in 2004 and 2008, when a Republican be best for advancing LGBTQ rights. president, George W. Bush, was in “If any LGBTQ person were to the White House, with 7 of 9 major take a cross-country drive from HRC presidential candidates participating in 2004 and 6 of 8 headquarters in Washington, D.C. to UCLA’s campus, their major Democratic contenders participating in 2008. rights and protections under the law would change dozens The announcement of the presidential forum — a rare of times at every city line and state border,” HRC President opportunity for the LGBTQ community to have its collective Chad Griffin said in a statement. “Millions of LGBTQ people priorities addressed by a potential future Commander-in- will have their rights on the ballot in 2020 — but today we chief — coincides with efforts by LGBTQ advocates, includ- are also a powerful voting bloc that will help determine the ing the Human Rights Campaign, to pass the Equality Act. outcome. We’re excited to partner with UCLA Luskin and Introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in both create an opportunity to hear candidates’ agendas for movchambers last week, the Equality Act would prohibit dis- ing equality forward.”

“Millions of LGBTQ people will have their rights on the ballot in 2020. We are a powerful voting bloc that will help determine the outcome.”

INHOSPITABLE HOST

Supreme Court rejects B&B owner’s request for a religious exemption to Hawaii’s civil rights law. By John Riley

HE U.S. SUPREME COURT HAS REJECTED AN appeal from the owner of a Hawaii bed and breakfast who refused to rent a room a lesbian couple because of her religious beliefs opposing homosexuality. On Mar. 18, the court decided not to hear the case of Phyllis Young, the owner of the Aloha Bed & Breakfast in Honolulu, who enlisted the help of the anti-LGBTQ legal

organization Alliance Defending Freedom to demand that she be granted a religious exemption from Hawaii’s civil rights law. Hawaii’s law prohibits discrimination in public accommodations based on a person’s sexual orientation. By choosing not to hear the case, the high court keeps in place lower court rulings that determined that Young had discriminated against Taeko “Ty” Bufford and Diane MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

theFeed Cervelli when she refused to rent a room to the two women because they were lesbians. Bufford and Cervelli had originally contracted Young to inquire about staying at the bed and breakfast because of its proximity to the home of a close friend who had just had a baby. But after Young turned them away, the two women filed a complaint against her. During the investigation that followed, Young revealed that her decision to turn the couple away was motivated by her beliefs that same-sex rela– tionships are “detestable” and “defile our land.” The First Circuit Court of Hawaii ruled in favor of Bufford and Cervelli, finding they were victims of discrimination. Young’s lawyers subsequently appealed that decision to the Intermediate Court of Appeals and the Hawaii Supreme Court, which both upheld the lower court’s decision.

Lambda Legal Counsel Peter Renn celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision, which appeared to signal an unwillingness by the high court — at least at the present time — to issue a decision that could potentially undermine or overturn LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination laws in place in 20 states and Bufford and Cervelli hundreds of municipalities across the country. “The freedom of religion does not give businesses a right to violate nondiscrimination laws that protect all individuals from harm, whether on the basis of race, gender, or Peter Renn sexual orientation,” Renn said in a statement. “The Supreme Court declined to consider carving out an exception from this basic principle when a business discriminates based on the sexual orientation of its customers. LGBT people deserve an equal right to go about their everyday life without the fear that discrimination waits for them around the corner.” l

“LGBT people deserve to go about their everyday life without the fear that discrimination waits for them.”

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Community DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds

THURSDAY, March 21

practice. The team is always looking for new members. All welcome. 7-9 p.m. Harry Thomas Recreation Center, 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For more information, visit www. scandalsrfc.org or dcscandals@ gmail.com.

AGLA hosts a meeting of its new AGLA MONTHLY BOOK CLUB at Crystal Thai Restaurant to discuss Young Man from the Provinces: A Gay Life, by Alan Helms. Everyone welcome. Please RSVP in advance. You may also wish to optionally dine (separate checks) if you desire. 7:30 p.m. 4819 1st St. N., Arlington, Va. To RSVP or for more information, email info@agla.org.

Weekly Events AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION offers free

walk-in HIV testing by appointment from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1-5 p.m. at its Blair Underwood Wellness Center, 2141 K St. NW, and its AHF Healthcare Center, 4302 St. Barnabas Rd., Suite B, Temple Hills, Md., and from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at its Benning Road location, 1647 Benning Rd. NE, Suite 300. For more information, visit www. hivcare.org.

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 www.andromedatransculturalhealth.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB practice

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

DC FRONT RUNNERS run-

ning/walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterward. Route distances vary. For meeting places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

DC LAMBDA SQUARES, D.C.’s

gay and lesbian square-dancing group, features mainstream through advanced square dancing at the National City Christian Church. Please dress casually. 7-9:30 p.m. 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more info, call 202-930-1058 or visit www. dclambdasquares.org.

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 www.dullestriangles.com.

TODD FRANSON

The DC Center holds a meeting of its POLY DISCUSSION GROUP, for people interested in polyamory, non-monogamy or other nontraditional relationships. 7-8 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. Visit www. thedccenter.org.

THE DULLES TRIANGLES

HIV TESTING at WhitmanHickson

30 YEARS STRONG Us Helping Us’s anniversary gala celebrates three decades of growth, including the expansion of new health services.

FTER 30 YEARS OF SERVING D.C.’S BLACK LGBTQ community and people living with HIV, Us Helping Us, People Into Living, Inc. is celebrating the milestone with a different kind of annual gala. “This year’s celebration is going to be more of a chic ‘after-5’ cocktail hour event, versus a sit-down gala with a plated meal,” says DeMarc Hickson, the organization’s executive director. “We want to highlight and share the history of Us Helping Us over the past 30 years, and just have people mingling and networking and having conversations. “We will also have a live band and opportunities for dancing. We want to make it a festive event.” Hickson says the organization will hold a silent auction where 30 pieces of artwork, representing three decades of service to the D.C. community, will be sold to the highest bidder, with proceeds benefiting UHU. A portion of the night’s program will take a more serious or somber tone, honoring individuals and organizations (yet to be named publicly) who have contributed to the fight against HIV or have undertaken efforts to promote holistic health. “We’ll have a release of lanterns for those that are no longer with us, who died because of HIV or AIDS,” adds Hickson. “We will also be launching our room-naming campaign. We’re renovating both of our office locations, and as part of a development fundraising opportunity, if you give a certain level, you can have the room named after you or a loved one for that year.” In addition to its regular programming and testing resources, UHU has seen the number of services it offer expand. Earlier this year, staff at both its Maryland and D.C. locations began prescribing pre-exposure prophylaxis for people at higher risk of contracting HIV, and later, in May of this years, the organization will start offering comprehensive health screenings to clients. “We’ll be screening for a variety of chronic conditions,” says Hickson. “You’ll have your height and weight taken, your blood pressure measurements, your heart rate, kidney and liver functions, and metabolic panel, including screening for diabetes, high cholesterol, and high triglycerides. We’re interested in promoting the health and wellness of the whole person.” —John Riley Us Helping Us’s annual gala, “A Passion for Living, A Celebratory Night of Giving” is Tuesday, April 2, from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at City Winery, 1350 Okie St. NE. Tickets are $150 per person and can be purchased via eventbrite.com. Visit ushelpingus.org.

Walker Health. 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 2:30-5 p.m. at 1525 14th St. NW, and 9 a.m-12 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. at the Max Robinson Center, 2301 MLK Jr. Ave. SE. For an appointment, call 202-745-7000 or visit www.whitman-walker.org.

KARING WITH INDIVIDUALITY (K.I.) SERVICES, 20 S. Quaker Lane,

Suite 210, Alexandria, Va., offers $30 “rapid” HIV testing and counseling by appointment only. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Must schedule special appointment if seeking testing after 2 p.m. Call 703-823-4401.

METROHEALTH CENTER

offers free, rapid HIV testing. Appointment needed. 1012 14th St. NW, Suite 700. To arrange an appointment, call 202-8498029.

STI TESTING at Whitman-

Walker Health. 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 2-3 p.m. at both 1525 14th St. NW and the Max Robinson Center, 2301 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave. SE. Testing is intended for those without symptoms. For an appointment call 202-745-7000 or visit www. whitman-walker.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.

FRIDAY, March 22 GAMMA is a confidential, vol-

untary, peer-support group for men who are gay, bisexual, questioning and who are now or who have been in a relationship with a woman. 7:30-9:30 p.m. Luther Place Memorial Church, 1226 Vermont Ave NW. GAMMA meetings are also held in Vienna, Va., and in

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Frederick, Md. For more information, visit www.gammaindc.org.

swimdcac.org.

The DC Center holds its CENTER AGING MONTHLY LUNCH for members of D.C.’s senior community. Lunch will be provided before participants take part in a group arts and crafts project. 12-2 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org or call 202-682-2245.

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. Walkers meet at 9:30 a.m. and runners at 10 a.m. at 23rd & P Streets NW. For more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

The DC Center’s TRANS SUPPORT GROUP provides a space to talk for 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 www.thedccenter.org.

DIGNITYUSA sponsors Mass for

WOMEN IN THEIR TWENTIES (AND THIRTIES), a social discussion and

SUNDAY, March 24

activity group for queer women, meets at The DC Center on the second and fourth Friday of each month. Group social activity to follow the meeting. 8-9:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

SATURDAY, March 23 ADVENTURING outdoors group

hosts a strenuous 12-mile hike with 2400 feet of elevation in the southern part of Massanutten Mountain, near New Market, Va. Bring beverages, lunch, sturdy boots, bug spray, and about $20 for transportation and trip fees. Carpool at 8:30 a.m. from the East Falls Church Metro Kiss & Ride lot. Return by 7 p.m. For more info, contact Peter, 202-3029606, or visit www.adventuring.org. Join The DC Center as it volunteers for FOOD & FRIENDS, packing meals and groceries for people living with serious ailments. 10 a.m.-noon. 219 Riggs Rd. NE. Near the Fort Totten Metro. For a ride from the Metro, call the Food & Friends shuttle at 202-6696437. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org or www. foodandfriends.org. OutWrite, an LGBTQ literary organization, presents “ROOTS AND

BRANCHES: AN EVENING OF QUEER MEMOIR,” a reading and

discussion of an LGBTQ memoir, featuring Victoria Stubbs, Tyler Mendelsohn, Anthony Moll, and Joe Braxton. Moderated by Jen Deerinwater. Cheese and wine will be provided. All welcome. Free and open to the public. 7-9 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more info, visit www.thedccenter.org/outwrite.

Weekly Events DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

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

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/

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

Join the NATIONAL QUEER ASIAN

PACIFIC ISLANDER ALLIANCE for its annual COMMUNITY CATALYST AWARDS DINNER,

honoring groups and leaders who have improved the lives of LGBTQ Asian-Pacific Islanders. This year’s honorees are David Do of the D.C. Department of For-Hire Vehicles, who previously served as the head of the Mayor’s Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs; and Bianca Humady Rey, of Capital Pride and Capital Trans Pride. The event will feature cocktails, dinner and an aerialist performance. All proceeds benefit NQAPIA and will be send to help local LGBTQ API leaders attend the NAtional LGBT API Leadership Summit and Training in 2019. Tickets must be reserved in advance. To purchase tickets, visit bit.ly/cca19dc.

MONDAY, March 25 MONDAY NIGHT SKATING

brings together members of the LGBTQIA+ community and allies for roller skating on the last Monday of every month. This month’s theme is “Go Green” to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. All people welcome and celebrated. 7:30-10:30 p.m. The Laurel Roller Skating Center, 9890 Brewers Ct., Laurel, Md. For more information, visit www.meetup.com/ MondayNightSkating or email MondayNightSkating@gmail.com. The DC Center, the DC AntiViolence Project, and Center Arts present BEYOND BARS:

POETRY AND PERFORMANCE OF FORMERLY INCARCERATED LGBTQ FOLX, a night of come-

dy, performances, and testimony from those with lived experience, followed by an open mic session. The event is free to attend. The event will be hosted by Rayceen Pendarvis, featuring MsNightLyfe, Anthony D. Oakes, Leadrew Nickens, Miss Chocolate, and more. 7-9 p.m. Busboys & Poets, 2021 14th

St. NW. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

TUESDAY, March 26 GENDERQUEER DC, a support and

discussion group for people who identify outside the gender binary, meets at The DC Center on the fourth Tuesday of every month. 7-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events DC AQUATICS CLUB practice

session at Takoma Aquatic Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, visit www. 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 distances vary. For meeting places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds practice. The team is always looking for new members. All welcome. 7-9 p.m. Harry Thomas Recreation Center, 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For more information, visit www. scandalsrfc.org or dcscandals@ gmail.com.

THE GAY MEN'S HEALTH COLLABORATIVE offers free

Support group for LGBTQ youth ages 13-21 meets at SMYAL. 5-6:30 p.m. 410 7th St. SE. For more information, contact Rebecca York, 202-567-3165, or rebecca.york@ smyal.org.

US HELPING US hosts a support

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

WEDNESDAY, March 27 The DC Center’s HEALTH WORKING GROUP, a volunteer-driven LGBTQ health outreach and education initiative, holds its monthly meeting. This month’s meeting will focus on substance use, particularly tobacco and alcohol use among LGBTQ youth and young adults. The event will feature special guests William Perrotta from the This Free Life Campaign and Allie Bobak from the Latin American Youth Center, which serves as a the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health Prevention Center for Wards 1 & 2. 6:30-8 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org/health.

Weekly Events 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.

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.

DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC)

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS

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 www.thedccenter.org. l

holds an LGBT-focused meeting every Tuesday, 7 p.m. at St. George’s Episcopal Church, 915 Oakland Ave., Arlington, just steps from Virginia Square Metro. Handicapped accessible. Newcomers welcome. For more info, call Dick, 703-521-1999 or email liveandletliveoa@gmail.com.

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

FREEDOM FROM SMOKING, a

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Jones-ology Dance legend Bill T. Jones leads audiences through an epic three-night odyssey at the Kennedy Center. Interview by André Hereford

NSIDE A NEW YORK CITY REHEARSAL STUDIO, not too long ago, Bill T. Jones was feeling fired up. The Artistic Director of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company had just presented a work-in-progress performance of Dora, an epic piece he had conceived and choreographed for the ensemble he co-founded in 1982 with his late partner Arnie Zane. Jones had by then devoted years to devising Dora, an opus about the extraordinary life of Dora Amelan, a French Jewish nurse who survived World War II and who happens to be the mother of Jones’ partner and collaborator of the past two decades, Bjorn Amelan. The work eventually would comprise the first movement of Jones’ Analogy Trilogy, which sees its D.C. premiere next week at the Kennedy Center. Heading into that open rehearsal, Jones had felt he “really was finding a stride, a way of bringing the dancers into the world of speaking and singing” Dora’s story. “We had invited people, and there was a person who I didn't expect to be there who had been a former board member for New York Live Arts, who had left the board, but she showed up,” he recalls. “And when I asked was there any questions during the showing of Dora, how did she say it? She said, ‘Is she Jewish? You're a black gay man, and you're going to have to answer to the dance world why you would want to make a piece about a Jewish woman. I mean, you tell me.’ I was flabbergasted. I was a little bit incensed.” A two-time Tony Award-winner and a Kennedy Center Honoree, Jones is unaccustomed to being told he needs to justify his intent in depicting a story that moves him. “And I mean nobody tells me, nobody ever told Arnie and me, what we would or would not do, or what we would or would not make a piece about,” Jones says. “And I certainly have not made my reputation on asking permission. But she said it, and I began to think there was something to the idea that maybe I could look even closer to home for what I was in search of.” So, rather than dismiss the comment, Jones built on the criticism to create other opportunities for connecting with his 24

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audience. He incorporated another biographical piece, revolving around his nephew, Lance T. Briggs, a former dancer, model, songwriter, choreographer, exotic dancer and male escort, whose life has been a struggle through addiction and recovery. The resulting Lance: Pretty AKA The Escape Artist forms a disco-, house- and R&B-infused middle chapter to Analogy Trilogy. In addition to Dora: Tramontane, the trilogy also includes Ambros: The Emigrant, another epic life story, based on W.G. Sebald’s crypto-queer novel The Emigrants. The three individual sections — Dora, Lance, and Ambros — are performed by the 11-member Jones/Zane Company over three separate nights. “I would encourage your readers to see as many of the parts as possible,” says Jones. “Don't ask me which one is the most important. For various reasons, there's one about a Jewish woman in World War II, there's one about a contemporary young black man, and the third one is about a quasi-fictitious character with a very colorful and poetic life, full of romance and tragedy. Pick your poison, as they say.” METRO WEEKLY: Beyond associating the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane

Company with you personally, people think about it being a company that presents dancers of diverse sizes, ages and racial backgrounds. Is that how you see the company? BILL T. JONES: Yeah, it is. I thought that was news maybe 15 years ago. It seems now that there's many more people of that description, but maybe not. We’ve been doing it for quite a while. Yes, the diversity in body types and so on, which started, I suppose, with Arnie Zane, who was five-foot-four and I'm sixfoot-one. He was Jewish-Italian, I'm African American, if that's what you're meaning. That has been in the past very important to who we were. We make the best work that we can, the work is always asking questions about form or content, poetry, the place where the personal and the private come together, the way political issues take on a personal cast, and personal issues take on a political cast at times. MW: This particular work, Analogy, draws upon biographical sto-

PHILIP HABIB

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things, and I thought my dancers would benefit from hearing from Dora, and actually trying to embody, since Dora was the age of some of them when the war started. That had been my first idea, I was going to do those two pieces together. It was a little bit too much, I really didn't know how to attack it. So I decided to do Dora alone, and that was a great idea. So much of it did continue to flow with the help of Nick Hallett, our composer, and Bjorn was only too eager to make the dĂŠcor, and that was a

have her just talk. I was going to make it as a gift for my companion and his brother, as she was a great storyteller. Some of the stories were stories that maybe they had not heard or that, as she was aging, were being lost. It sat in its original form, and at one point, [Bjorn] took it upon himself to transcribe them. I was able to read them, the interviews with Dora. Around that time I had been reading W.G. Sebald's brilliant work, out of which Ambros, the third section, comes. The book is called The Emigrants, and so I thought I would try to put Dora and Ambros together, because they were both dealing with Europe. Although the novel does not deal with the second World War, Dora is all about the second World War. But there was something about Europe, displacement, oppression of Jewishness, the oppression of outsiderness, all those

very, very important thing. Also at that time, I had begun a series of weekly phone calls with my nephew, Lance Theodore Briggs, who, I believe, had just gotten out of jail. He and I had always been close, he was my sister's only male child, and as it turns out, he's gay, but I didn't really know him as a gay person. I knew him as my nephew, and he had a pretty difficult life. He came to live with Arnie and I briefly. That didn't work out. Arnie was getting more ill, and he had to go back to San Francisco, something that was very, very difficult for him. My nephew, he felt abandoned, he didn't understand. He was too young to understand what we were going through as a household, and he was not mature enough to help us build a quote, gay household. To this day, he and I talk about it in those terms. I began to video record the talks, and I

MARCH 21, 2019 â&#x20AC;˘ METROWEEKLY

ROBIN HOLLAND

ries of your husband's mother in part one and your own nephew in part two. Did you have to do a lot of persuading to get them to share their experiences for this? JONES: Not really. Both of them came about I would say indirectly. As you know Dora Amelan is, as you say, my husband's mother, but it must have been, I guess, soon to be 15 years ago, if not more, I was enjoying so much knowing her and hearing her stories that I decided to put on a video camera at that time and

knew that there was something there. All of this was being hashed over imperfectly between bouts with anger, between the two of us. Who remembers what. But the recordings were there and I began to relate to his questions in the way that I did with Dora: where does your name come from, when were you born, tell me something about your family, your past, all those things. Dora was maybe 85 pages, Lance was 33 or so one-hour recordings. There's hours and hours and hours of he and I talking. We had to translate and transcribe all of those tapes. I began to see that the whole scope of this — the themes of family, the themes of identity, themes of art, love, sadness, all those things which I found in Dora, were there in spades in my nephew. When Lance: Pretty AKA the Escape Artist came together, I got the courage to go back to the original inspiration which was the semi-fictional character of Ambros from Sebald’s The Emigrant, which is where it all started. That's how the trilogy came together. MW: Someone questioned why you as a gay, black man are telling the story of a Jewish woman, but then you came around to really considering that criticism. How much is that responsiveness usually a part of your process? JONES: I'm very responsive. I’m a reactive kind of a personality. My work comes from questions to myself, oftentimes conflictual feelings that result in certain types of questions. It's not that unusual, I think it was more, it confused me in a way. I don't think that this woman had a right to say you have no right to make a piece about a Jewish woman, you're a black, gay man, what's she talking about? But, I did think I wanted to try to make something that wasn’t quite as mythologized as the life of this very brave woman who I love named Dora Amelan, or Ambros Adelwarth, a German man, I believe born in the 1890s, who came to New York in 1911, becomes the manservant of a Jewish man. The men had this very muted relationship, a very glamorous kind of Merchant Ivory experience together. The pieces began to speak together, and they were speaking through the echo chamber of my own heart, mind and preoccupation. That's how it’s always worked. MW: Each section of Analogy occupies its own evening. Why are they not performed together? JONES: Even though I knew each work when we premiered them like a year apart — [once] we had the opportunity to put them all on one afternoon, amazing connections happened. It's different night after night after night, but this is what the circumstances of the Kennedy Center engagement have left us with — we have to do them on separate days. I would encourage people to try to see all three. I know that's difficult for people, but it rewards if you do. Unfortunately, we cannot do them all on the same day. MW: Did you see aspects of yourself, not just in Lance but in Dora and Ambros? JONES: Yes, of course I saw aspects. If you're wondering what aspects? You have to work harder to get to that. MW: What aspects then? It’s sort of obvious what of yourself you might have seen in Lance, but it's less obvious with Dora. So, describe your connection to her. JONES: I don't know, she is my mother-in-law. Extremely broad-minded person. Very disciplined, French Jewish woman.

Her father's father and mother were quite Orthodox, so Dora had witnessed her parents softening those traditions. They were not a religious family. In my case, my mother was a very religious, black woman, a southern Baptist with very, very profound feelings about ethics and responsibility, and also something about how sad the world is. The world is a veil of sorrow, and all they would do is turn to God, and you will get your reward after this life. And I know that I was going against that most of my life. Dora also realized that life is now a time for living and acting. She was not putting

“I am considered a senior citizen now. Never thought it would happen. I think for many gay men, that’s a revelation. WE WOULD BE YOUNG FOREVER. YOU HAD TO BE YOUNG FOREVER BECAUSE THE GAY CULTURE DIDN’T WANT YOU IF YOU WERE OLD.” all of her belief in the spiritual realm. That was similar. Dora was interested in people, and she was interested in and she married an artist. That made her particularly interesting to me. Her son is a very kind, intelligent man, who has a whole other kind of upbringing, but bonded very well with African-American people in a way that was not full of neuroses or obsession. His ability to show affection and love without boast is something that came from Dora. It's something that I had to work to do myself, to love across racial and ethic lines. But Dora, who worked in Africa as a nurse and nutritionist, was able to love and stretch past the obvious lines of race and religion and so on. I saw that in myself as well. What can I say? She gave the world a man that I love. But, Lance, we're quite different, actually. You know? I'm a reader, he's not. I grew up in the hills of upstate New York. He grew up in San Francisco in the ’70s, which was, when you think about it, a nightmare time to have a young, gay child growing up in San Francisco. I never met a gay person until I was 19, 20 years old. I did not grow up in the inner city, he did. He was the only male in a family of women. There were eight boys and four girls in my family. His mother, my sister, who is only slightly older than I, had made a very big return to the black church. I never went back to the black church. He sees himself as a real Christian. The life he's led, he still feels very much Christ’s child. I do not. We have a lot of things different, but I suppose our gayness and my notion of gayness was forged in gay liberation of the ’70s. He was born in 1970. In a way, I think that's part of what Analogy/Lance is about. It's an inter-generational conversation between two men trying to find out how they really do love each other at this point in both their lives. MW: The press notes for Analogy describe your present preoccupation with developing your company into an ensemble that not only dances, but also sings and speaks. Is this the future of dance, or the future of your dance company? JONES: Well, first of all, I don't call it a dance company anymore. We are a performance ensemble, and I don't know what the future of the art form is. I know there's no guide book that tells you: “You will start out sure that you represent the way forward for a generation. Time will pass, and you will see that has shattered and gone in so many directions, aesthetic, political, social, MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

financial, and you, Bill T. Jones, must find a way to hold the course.” That's a really hard thing. You have to understand your art making in a broader sense as being the part of art making that has gone on in the past, and is going on in the present, but you also have to focus on what is you. You can't be thinking about what is the dance world doing. I mean, of course I think about it, but I've got to stay true to my impulses, and I love to read, I love to think, I like to think visually. I have people who surround me and a group of people who I trust, like my associate artistic director, Janet Wong, Kim Cullen, who heads our organization at the New York Live Arts, Kyle Maude, who is our producing director, and then there's my husband, Bjorn, who is a very talented artist, who is the creative director of the company, who I can always bounce ideas off of. He has a wide bandwidth in terms of understanding various

profoundly emotional. Some of my best performances would happen when Bjorn would be cooking dinner, and I would put on some music in New Mexico. He has a big living room in this gorgeous adobe house, and visiting him and everyone is getting mellow, I would move. Sometimes for dollars. Tony Morrison asked me to do a solo for Mr. Obama's second inauguration, a fundraiser, here in my local town of Nyack — it's online. I'm dancing to Al Greene's “How Do You Mend a Broken Heart?” That all being said, after the trilogy was made, I began to think what else? I had an opportunity to work at the gorgeous Armory here in New York, make a new work, and what would that work be? That work would be trying to talk about the trajectory of being a solo, lonely figure. I'd say, yes, I was with Arnie Zane, yes, I was part of a kind of community of improvisors or makers, American Dance Asylum, being an example, but I was black in a white avant garde. And it was only when I was reading Melville's Moby Dick, yet again, that I fixated on the character, Pip. The black boy — kind of a cabin boy — who gets abandoned in the Pacific Ocean, and he's bobbing around and the water “jeeringly kept his finite body up,” says Mr. Melville, “but drowned the infinite of his soul.” Things began to speak to me about my feelings of loneliness, the transcendental longing I had had all these years to quote “tell truth,” to find the truth in beauty and the beauty in truth, to survive in a lonely ocean. MW: Do you have a title for this? JONES: It's called Deep Blue Sea. Initially, I thought, “Well, why don't you make that 100 Black Men, and it sounded good, it would definitely read well on paper, wouldn't it? But, that's not really the way I operate. My world has always been multi-racial, multicultural, and it continues to be that in my company. I purposely try to keep it as diverse as possible, and as much as I would love to take refuge in my identity as a black man, I want to have that identity as a black man in a broader identity. I want to stay in the world. I want to believe what Martin Luther King said about “free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, I'm free at last.” I want to be able to take hands with people who are different than I am. And all this is work. With middle age, one settles in a certain way of thinking and feeling. One decides who your friends are, one decides what your tastes are like. That’s why it very good to constantly be interacting with people who are younger. Frustrating as all hell. Millennials will drive you fucking crazy, but there's something about what they don't know that you do, and what they know and that you don't, which is rich and it keeps one afloat, and it gives direction. It certainly has for me. So Deep Blue Sea will be premiered in 2020, and it will be I think in April of that year and then we'll be touring it around some places in the States and in Europe. MW: That's exciting. As a choreographer, does it ever feel like all the dance language has been written, and now it's just about reorganizing the same movements into different phrases? JONES: It's interesting you should say that. Arnie Zane and I formulated that we were not trying to invent a new language, but we were interested in what we called syntax, how we took existing languages, be they stylistic or aesthetic languages, and re-combining them and juxtaposing them, and sometimes just crashing them into each other, as our two personalities crashed into each other. That's what I thought. I don't know if the gen-

I was an art model in college. I was brazen in terms of sensuality and freedom. We were fighting against all sorts of body fear, so BEING NAKED WAS ALMOST KIND OF A SYMBOLIC EXPRESSION OF FREEDOM.” cultural effects, and their relevance or lack of relevance. Our relationship is a healthy place for sorting out how to go forward as an artist, as a man, as two men who are committed to each other, who are no longer young boys. I am, I think officially, considered a senior citizen now. Never thought it would happen. I think for many gay men, that's a revelation. I was born in ’52, so what I'm about to say is influenced by being a person born in the middle of the 20th-century. We would be young forever. You had to be young forever because the gay culture didn't want you if you were old. Suddenly, oh my God, you're an elder. What does it mean to be an elder? You never thought, AIDS crisis, whatever, you never thought you'd be around, but you are. What are you doing for yourself, for your loved ones, for your art? How do you participate in the world? How have you dealt with your demons? Self-loathing is a profound one for many of us. Gay people, you've got to deal with self-loathing. Self-introspection is always good. Self-loathing is not. And, can you be trusted with other people's feelings, because I think there's something about the world as it is, but also gay culture that makes one turn inward. A lot of us are still high school boys — I don't know about girls — high school boys wanking off in the solitude of our rooms. We go through life as feeling it's always this furtive action, that we can't make contact, we can't make connections. That's no longer good enough for me, and I hope the gay culture in general we’re allowed to become adults now with all problems that adults have. MW: In addition to considering yourself senior, do you also consider yourself retired as a performer? When do you dance? JONES: Well, it's funny you should say that. I had said up until just very recently that my last public performance was at the Louvre. I think that was 12 years ago. I decided my body was aching and I just wanted to turn my attention to other things, other than my own performing. That was good enough. I would continue to move when I was very, very happy or very, very 28

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STEPHANIE BERGER

eration of young makers now even depend on the term dance. MW: You are the only person that I've interviewed who lives on a poster on my wall, shot by Herb Ritts, and you're nude in the poster. A friend's daughter who was here, she was nine at the time, she asked, “Why is he naked?” I tried to answer the question thoughtfully and helpfully — JONES: Well, why wouldn't he be naked? Why are we clothed? Why are we wearing clothes, is the question, I think. Naked is our natural form. MW: But how have you dealt with that “Why is he naked” question? JONES: Oh, nobody asks me why am I naked. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I was an art model in college. My body was this thing that people would study for the anatomy of it. I was brazen in terms of sensuality and freedom. I loved to sweat. We were fighting against all sorts of body fear as men, as women, as black people, as white people. So being naked was almost kind of a symbolic expression of freedom, and to this day, nudity is still a potent symbol in the culture. Who is nude, and why are they nude? Are they nude because of their own volition? Do they have agency? Are they being exploited? My nudity has always been [that] I feel empowered when I was naked. I felt I had nothing to hide, and my black body — my strong black body — is a result of a lot of forces, good and evil. Evil in the sense that I have the body of a field worker, which is what my people were and I'm proud of it. Now, I don't show the body in the same way. I'm getting older and all, but I'm still comfortable in my skin. My knees and lower back might disagree, but I'm comfortable in my skin. So, Herb Ritts, maybe, did he play to my vanity. He said, “I want to do some art photos.” One day in Los Angeles, I was at about ready to go back to New York, and he had me up on the roof of a studio there with this crew of like five people moving almost like a bit of choreography, handing him camera after camera. It was a good shoot. He loved the photos, and he had a show coming up at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He made me the subject of that show — without asking me, of course. And then he proceeded to work out a deal with Donna Karan, so for a year after that, I was used in all of her advertising. I did not get paid for that other than clothing, which pissed me off, but it was a learning experience. I'm a generous person, very generous and my generosity wants to be, “Look I am not afraid. Racist, homophobic, bigoted culture, I stand in front of you naked, and I feel beautiful. I trust your gaze, and I trust my body.” That's why it is all right that the photos are naked. They're beautiful photos. They're kind of cowardly in the fact that they couldn’t keep my dick in. They had to airbrush out the dick. MW: Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. JONES: Well, don't ask me, ask the publisher. Why did they do that? Because, they wanted this glossy coffee table book, and Herb was a commercial photographer, so he had an instinct about what he can and cannot do. That's how they did it. It's all a learning experience. MW: This leads to a question about another famous gay photographer you posed for: Have you seen the film Mapplethorpe, or do you intend to?

JONES: Which film Mapplethorpe? There’s so many of them,

aren’t there? There's been several documentaries. I participated in at least one or two. What are you saying, though? MW: How does it feel to witness circles that you swirled in, people that you knew, depicted as this crystallized era? JONES: Like everything else in life, there is no guidebook that will prepare you for the machinations, if not the crushing effect, of time. Ideals that were once ideals and taboos, with passage of time are sometimes distorted or crushed into unrecognizability. Things that were minor at one point, suddenly are the center of the culture. It's all part of my philosophical, spiritual understanding of what this thing is called life. And that's why I'm an artist and not a politician. That's why I'm an artist and not a teacher. I want to understand — in the way that religious people understand through their religion — I want to understand the world through art. l The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company’s Analogy Trilogy runs March 28-30, in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater as part of the Direct Current series. Tickets are $29-79. Call (202) 4674600 or visit www.kennedycenter.org. MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Movies

Double Trouble

Jordan Peele’s Us may deliver the scares on a bloody platter, but it amounts to so much more than a simple horror film. By Randy Shulman

ARNING: DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILERS FOR US. EVEN IF YOU’VE seen them in passing leading up to opening weekend — and, let’s face it, they’re inescapable — it turns out they contain a moment that, quite frankly, I’m flabbergasted director Jordan Peele let get through. But maybe he doesn’t have final say on how studio marketing divisions sell his films. Regardless, the anticipation is high because of that very brilliant marketing campaign. Audiences are primed to be scared senseless by Peele and company. If Us (HHHHH) doesn’t quite scare you senseless, it’s still plenty terrifying. More to the point, it seems to be Peele’s way of telling society to come to its senses before it’s too late. It layers on the allegories like mayo generously slathered on a ham and cheese sandwich. And while some work, some do just miss their target. Still, Us packs a quadruple punch: it’s scary, troubling, thought-provoking, and vastly, vastly entertaining. Why can’t every movie be like Us? Admittedly, the lead up to Us is probably more anxiety-producing than the final product. Yet, as with his breathtaking debut feature, Get Out, Peele has more on his mind than to merely offer up a scary ride. His films burst with ambition. He won’t settle for less, and he wants his audiences to do more than scream. He wants them to think, debate, question. He wants them engaged on every possible level. Most importantly, he wants his horror films to mean something, he wants them to resonate — as they did back in the glory days of The Birds, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Exorcist, back before the genre was hijacked by routine slashers and hackers. The evil in Us is more than just an immortal lunatic in a mask trying to even a score with a wacky, old rifle-toting family

member. It is the family member. Or, as one character quiety puts it, “It’s us.” The movie’s premise is by now well-established: A family of four on vacation are terrorized by another family of four who look, but don’t quite act, exactly like them. These doppelgangers — soulless, feral, and scissor-wielding — call themselves “The Tethered,” and they’ve come to “untether” themselves of their earthbound others who, in some supernatural way, control their lives, their movements, their destinies. Let the violent games begin. Of the four, only one, Red (Lupita Nyong'o) can speak, and only in an achingly strained, raspily halting voice. When Adelaide Wilson (also Nyong’o) asks “Who are you people,” Red declares “We are Americans.” It gets a laugh, but there’s a far deeper meaning to that statement that doesn’t become fully clear until we’ve seen film’s final, dread-inducing shot. Get Out dealt pretty much with racism, and veered more toward satire than full-on horror, but Peele is now edging the other way. He’s ready to test his ability to terrify. (He passes.) The Wilson family — Adelaide, Gabe (Winston Duke), Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex) — and their tormentors may be African-American, but Peele has even

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

bigger things on his mind than racial relations. He’s aiming more broadly here, firing at society-at-large, in particular, the divide — arguably caused by the rich, the Republican Party, the xenophobic, and the intolerant, all exacerbated by President Trump — tearing this country apart. The film is dense with allusions to the sociological troubles currently plaguing our country — the “haves” and “have nots,” the sensationalization of mass murders — but it also takes a dip into a pool of sci-fi gloomery, the kind that reminds us that experiments aren’t always conducted for the greater good. Peele’s imagination is clearly firing on overdrive, and he takes a cue from Hitchcock’s The Birds by refusing to provide clear answers to every little detail, even though several aspects of Us, in retrospect, make absolutely no sense at all. Still, the film’s themes get under your skin, and its logic haunts you like few others in recent memory. Which is box office mojo in the making. Audiences are going to quickly go back for second and third helpings of Us to decipher its true meaning. (Here’s a hint: start with Jeremiah 11:11.) Us is more frightening than Get Out, and contains a fair share of sudden jump scares and jolts, rousting the audience into wholly expected and supremely satisfying wild frenzies. But Peele is careful never to make things so terrifying that they become unbearable. (This is no Hostel, thank God.) That said, a scene between Zora and her double, Umbrae, set in an empty car, is pure, visceral thrill, and a dance-like fight between Adelaide and Red, perfectly set to Michael Abels’ stunning score, is heartstopping in its perfection. Peele injects enough humor to

balance out the scares, and, like most contemporary directors, finds ingenious ways to reference other films that clearly had an influence on him, notably Jaws. Enough can’t be said about the performances, particularly Nyong'o, whose Adelaide at first seems classic protective mother tiger but evolves into something more. Her Red, meanwhile, is a masterpiece of dreadfulness and originality. She’s like a shudder come to life. It’s a performance bourne out of deep pain and suffering, out of revenge and vengeance, out of extreme darkness. It’s like peering into madness, but a lucid kind of madness, one with an insidious, fully cogent purpose. Duke offers much needed comic relief, and both Joseph and Alex are excellent. Tim Heidecker and Elisabeth Moss fill in with somewhat smaller — yet no less significant — roles, with Moss, in particular, rising to the challenge when the story demands. You don’t hire Moss and expect her to not have a huge moment. When it comes, offset by a window reflection, it reminds us of why she is among of our greatest living actors. Peele is about to unveil a new version of Rod Serling’s classic, The Twilight Zone, on CBS All Access. Us feels like a preamble to the series — giving us a taste of hopefully mind-bending, supernatural swirls to come. But it’s demeaning to call Us a simple horror film and Peele a horror movie director. It’s clear, with this second outing, that Peele is in the process of inventing a whole new genre all by himself. He’s determined that we get something out of the scary movies we so eagerly flock to. He’s determined to give us more than a good primal scream. He’s determined to make us use our minds. So far, he’s doing a pretty goddamn good job of it. l

Us is Rated R for violence and terror, and opens nationwide in area theaters on Friday, March 22. Visit www.fandango.com.

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

CAROL ROSEGG

Stage

Enchanted

Ford’s Into the Woods hits all the right notes, from dazzling design and soaring voices to a heartwarming cow. By André Hereford

OMEBODY’S HAULED A FABULOUS EIGHT-PIECE ORCHESTRA INTO the enchanted forest of Ford’s new production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods (HHHHH), and the brilliant, Tony-winning score, conducted by music director William Yanesh sounds great. The songs, including the title tune, might not wield the phantom pull of the familiar, but the rolling melodies and canny lyrics compensate. And the mostly sharp delivery of director Peter Flynn’s talented cast can keep the listener hanging on every word of Sondheim’s winding lines. The characters, derived from fairy tales, are plenty familiar to just about anyone over the age of four. Sondheim and frequent book writer James Lapine send Cinderella (Erin Driscoll), Little Red Ridinghood (Jade Jones), and Rapunzel (Quynh-My Luu) into the forest, and Jack (Samy Nour Younes) up his beanstalk, to frolic with giants, and princes, and big bad wolves. These are treacherous woods, less an idyll for peaceful strolls to grandma’s house than a fateful crossroads of change. Milagro Ponce de León’s forest set, rippling layers of flattish trees and vines, definitely carries through the creators’ image of the woods as a foreboding place and time, a field of dark unknowing. That looming danger might be anything, but it’s a hazard that must be crossed by every innocent in the story, including the Baker (Evan Casey) and his Wife (Awa Sal Secka), who venture into the woods to seek items that might break a curse set upon their house by a vengeful Witch (Rachel Zampelli). Flynn and company do a marvelous job delineating every major and minor character in this vast storybook population of kings, commoners, cows and chickens, even with some actors performing several roles. But let’s start with the cow, Jack’s beloved bovine Milky White, rendered in a warmly expressive performance by Tiziano D’Affuso, aided

by simple but effective costume design by Wade Laboissonniere. The costumes take on more lush and elaborate form for the likes of the Witch and Rapunzel and the Wolves (Christopher Mueller and Hasani Allen), who dog Red Ridinghood’s path on her way to see Granny (Karen Vincent). The elaborate make-up works wonders, too, especially in the case of Zampelli’s Witch, whose surface appearance transforms dramatically, although throughout, the villainess retains the power of Zampelli’s zestful voice and charisma. A powerful voice and charisma come wrapped in a blood-red cape with Jade Jones’ Red Ridinghood, an appealing mix of wide-eyed fawn and tough cookie. Jones presents not the most nuanced reading of the character, but she connects exceedingly well to everyone she encounters onstage, and in turn with the audience. Similarly, Milky White’s robust rapport with practically everyone, not just Jack, adds heart to the overall mood of fear and gloom that grips all who enter the woods. Gloom hangs heavily over the cursed Baker and his wife, but their love sustains them through all manner of trials. Casey and Secka, whether Baker and Wife are arguing, or singing of sweet togetherness in “It Takes Two,” create a sympathetic pair who in the midst of mayhem and

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

mystery seem grounded in the reality of genuine human need, longing, and loss. Casey, not the strongest singer, limns a solidly comic Baker, and Secka, fantastic in Signature Theatre’s recent Judy Garland tribute cabaret, simply sounds lovely always. Secka, Casey, Zampelli, and Jones receive winning support from Mueller and Allen, wonderfully pompous as the one-upping princes; from Vincent in a variety of roles, including Cinderella’s mother; and Scott Sedar as both the show’s sly Narrator and the Mysterious Man who march us through the sometimes harrowing tale. Flynn’s absorbing staging marches with gusto into the second act, which examines, or pokes holes in, the contentment

that comes after Happily Ever After. But the show hits a few roadblocks. The pace slackens, and the fire wanes, until a hardy finish. Of Michael Bobbitt’s choreography, there seems to be not much of it. It’s the incidental movement, be it choreographed or ad-libbed, that’s more arresting — the flounce of a skirt, or a frightened double take, or the ridiculous bounding of the princes over bushes and branches. Sometimes it’s the small details that delight the most. But, as a whole, Ford’s production beautifully conveys the weight and lightness of Sondheim and Lapine’s journey into the woods, where characters forced to coerce, deceive, or steal from strangers can find whatever they believe might bring them happiness. l

C. STANLEY

Into the Woods runs through May 22 at Ford’s Theatre, 511 Tenth St. NW. Tickets are $20 to $83. Call 888-616-0270, or visit www.fords.org.

Presidential Histrionics Arena’s JQA is best left to the tourists and those who can never get enough educational theater. By Kate Wingfield

E IT AS PLAYWRIGHT OR A DIRECTOR, WHEN AARON POSNER IS AT THE helm, the synapses prepare for a certain kind of firing: there will be wit, intelligence, and a brand of subversive warmth even a cynic can love. Unfortunately, in JQA (HHHHH), Posner, both writing and directing, delivers no such sparks, and one can only wonder why. Is the auteur simply too upset with America to think straight? Consisting of a series of vignettes tracking John Quincy Adams from the late 1700s through the mid-1800s, Posner covers a smattering of seminal events, influences, and moments (real and imagined) in the sixth president’s personal and political life. There are key discussions, pivotal monologues, and occasionally some humor. But if this life might be interesting, the political conversations around governance and slavery relevant, and the chronic marginalization of intelligent women worthy of a knowing nod, nothing here gets much past potted political and historical lessons and pained expressions. One of the problems is the delivery system. There may be an intriguing struggle for optimism at the heart of the effort, but it’s buried under too much stilted expository, speechifying, and the kind of mindless patriotism that makes the sentient feel like weeping with despair. When will Americans get over having to constantly claim that this is the greatest country on earth? Surely, at this point, we’ve graduated to a bit of realism? And while we’re at it, why are iconic American figures always depicted like

talking statutes in a historical theme park? Surely they hemmed and hawed, stumbled over words and ideas, and grunted and burped mid-sentence just like the rest of us. Such matters aren’t helped by the execution. In bringing his vignettes to life, Posner has his four actors trade off playing JQA and a few other relevant characters. If there is something in seeing him played through different races and genders, it isn’t edginess. And without a much stronger sense of his personality and more directorial control, little continuity survives the transitions. Also insurmountable, at least for two of the four actors, is Posner’s expository-laden language and pontifications. The most challenged here is Phyllis Kay, whose JQA and George Washington are delivered in the kind of teacherly tones that make one want to scratch graffiti into the desk. As Adams’ elderly mother Abigail, she begins to approach convincing, but does little more than channel the hard-bitten Boomer boss we’ve all seen and heard enough of. Also letting down the side is a highly-charismatic Jacqueline Correa who fails to convince anywhere except as Adam’s wife Louisa. Kay and Correa’s scene as Adams and Lincoln so deflates Posner’s wit, it gives one the distinct feeling that the play would be better read than performed. Doing more with the tall order is Joshua David Robinson, who brings an invested touch of character and nuance to his portrayals. But praise must go to Eric Hissom for his John Adam senior, and the fabulously awful political rival Henry Clay, each given as much life and humor as the play allows. In truth, both Robinson and Hissom seem primed for the political play Posner may yet still write. l

JQA runs through April 14 in Arena’s Kogod Cradle, 1101 6th St. SW. Tickets are $67 to $115. Call 202-488-3300 or visit www.arenastage.org. 34

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SCOTT SUCHMAN

Opera

The Devil Wears Pantaloons A

An old-fashioned charmer enhanced by an artistic eye, the WNO’s Faust gives the Devil his due. By Kate Wingfield

S WITH EUGENE ONEGIN, THERE IS ANOTHER PRODUCTION THAT has not seen the velvety-red walls of the Washington National Opera in a couple of decades: Gounod’s Faust (HHHHH). Unlike the modern skein of minimalism informing Eugene, this production is happy to embrace — rather than update — an oldworld classic. Think of it as a box of chocolates your granny might bring out after dinner: the lid is renaissance pastoral, the confections quaintly flavored for another era’s palate. It may require patience and an abeyance of judgment, but indulging granny and her treat will entertain, delight, and even move the spirit. Of course, Faust’s story is as pricelessly antiquated as it is accessible: the Devil grants the titular alchemist a wish and, envisioning the curvaceous villager Marguerite, the old goat opts for his youth. Aided and abetted by his demonic wingman, Faust seduces the pious Marguerite, but soon absconds, leaving her to a life of scorned, single motherhood. Returning from battle, her scandalized brother Valentin challenges Faust to a duel, but it doesn’t end well, and curses abound. By the time Faust feels remorse, Marguerite is awaiting execution (for the killing of her baby), and she has gone mad. The lovers part ways for eternity, with Faust heading to Hell and Marguerite ascending into an all-forgiving Light. What’s not to love? Well, one or two things. First, for those new to opera, as succinct-sounding as the plot may seem, when told through the opera lens, there may be moments when you will question the opera house upholstery and its ability to cushion. Characters agonize, the

music lingers. But it pays to remember the pleasure-pain principle of opera (and time with granny): if you can hang in there, there’s usually something good coming around the next bend. In this case, it’s often the Devil. And director Garnett Bruce makes the most of this Houston Grand Opera production, giving, without fail, something for the eye (as well as the ear) to behold. There are the sets of American artist Earl Staley, who gives his swaths of swirling color, often hiding faces and images, a grandeur evoking William Blake but also evoking the charms of a puppet theater in a distant painted castle, primitive effigies, and giant movable tree boughs. If his gardens look a bit AC Moore and the uneven “stone” steps give the performers pause, it’s a small price to pay. And some of it is even thought-provoking: the Christian mores that break the fragile Marguerite’s spirit are only the most recent to occupy this ancient land. Other feasts for the eyes are the choral choreographies: they open in a tableau, like some lovely, peasant-populated painting and conduct happy festivals while the protagonists have their dramas. If there is the odd moment of vocal blurring, again, it’s worth it to enjoy their complex maneuvers. As for the cast, there is much to enter-

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SCOTT SUCHMAN

tain. Reminiscent of a bemused John Travolta in his dyed-goatee phase, this is a genteel Mephistopheles, the kind of demon who’d rather be liked than loathed, an entity who gets irritated rather than monstrous. If it starts a bit slow, given enough time, Raymond Aceto’s Devil becomes quite fun and charismatic. And with an attractively growly and expressive bass, he makes the most of his long Sparafucile notes (Rigoletto premiered just a few years before Faust). Keeping in the Hollywood mood, Marcelo Puente plays his Faust with a kind of Mathew McConaughey chewing of the scenery. It works quite well. If he offers perhaps a tad too much vibrato at times and not quite enough “lift” at others, his tenor is

nevertheless enjoyable. Does he have chemistry with Erin Wall’s Marguerite? Not a boatload. But Wall is so watchable, it doesn’t matter. Indeed, by turns girlish, pious, and searching, Wall delivers all that’s required: good intentions that are no match for raging hormones. In truth, there isn’t a whole lot to be done with Marguerite’s psychology since Gounod never answers the very interesting questions of why she kills her baby, and whether she went mad and then killed, or the act itself drove her mad. Singing with much sweetness, albeit with two power notes that feel less controlled, Wall brings enough pathos to make Gounod’s finale — beautifully washed in pale painted clouds by Staley — quite lovely. All that said, costuming needs to take up her hems a few millimeters — she seems on the verge of tripping over them more than a few times. Other standouts are a quite fabulous and fully-committed Joshua Hopkins as Valentin, acting for Shakespeare and singing with an exciting, fulsome baritone. If his disgust with his sister is bizarre by modern standards, Hopkins sells it through sheer outrage. Also wonderful is Allegra De Vita in the trouser role of Siebel, the young man who longs in vain for Marguerite’s love. De Vita’s mezzo-soprano is as deliciously rich and sweet as dark chocolate and she, thankfully, refuses to overplay her adolescent male. In smaller roles, Deborah Nansteel sings in honey tones and has fun turning the tables on the Great Seducer, while Samson McCrady is convincing and sings ably as Valentin’s countryman. An old-fashioned charmer enhanced by an artistic eye, this Faust gives the Devil his due. l

Faust runs through Saturday, March 30, at the Kennedy Center Opera House. Tickets are $45 to $300. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

NightLife Photography by Ward Morrison

MARCH 21, 2019 â&#x20AC;¢ METROWEEKLY

Scene

Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon live at Pitchers - Thursday, March 14 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

DrinksDragDJsEtc... Thursday, March 21 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Shirtless Thursday, 10-11pm • Men in Underwear Drink Free, 12-12:30am • DJs BacK2bACk NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • $15 Buckets

of Beer all night • Sports Leagues Night NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Visit pitchersbardc.com SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Bottles of Wine, 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 • Open Dancers Audition • Urban House Music by DJ Tim-e • 9pm • Cover 21+

Friday, March 22 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Open 3pm • Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Weekend Kickoff Dance Party, with Nellie’s DJs spinning bubbly pop music all night NUMBER NINE Open 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover • Friday Night Piano with Chris, 7:30pm • Rotating DJs, 9:30pm

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm

Destinations A LEAGUE OF HER OWN 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.facebook.com/alohodc AVALON SATURDAYS Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW 202-789-5429 www.facebook.com/ AvalonSaturdaysDC 38

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 Rail and Domestic • $5 Svedka, all flavors all night long • Ottermaric: Otterotica, with Dean Sullivan, 10pm-close • Music by The Barber Streisand and Jesse Jackson • $5 Cover

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FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR 555 23rd St. S. Arlington, Va. 703-685-0555 www.freddiesbeachbar.com GREEN LANTERN 1335 Green Ct. NW 202-347-4533 www.greenlanterndc.com

PITCHERS Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am • Visit pitchersbardc.com SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers 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 • Otter Happy Hour with guest DJs, 5-11pm

ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm • Guest dancers • Rotating DJs • Kristina Kelly’s Diva Fev-ah Drag Show • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:30pm and 1:45am • DJ Don T. in Ziegfeld’s • Cover 21+

Saturday, March 23 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-3am • Video Games • Live televised sports AVALON SATURDAYS @Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW Pre-Cherry Weekend Kick-Off Party, 10pm-close • Open Bar on Tito’s Vodka and Jameson from 11pm-midnight • DJs Steve Sidewalk and Shane Marcus • Early Bird

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR 900 U St. NW 202-332-6355 www.nelliessportsbar.com NUMBER NINE 1435 P St. NW 202-986-0999 www.numberninedc.com PITCHERS 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.pitchersbardc.com

NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS Compiled by Doug Rule AVALON SATURDAYS + CHORUS.DC: OFFICIAL PRE-CHERRY EVENT The well-designed, boutique-sized downtown nightclub Soundcheck plays host to a Cherry-affiliated party this Saturday, March 23, starting at 10 p.m., with music by Steve Sidewalk and Shane Marcus, two New York DJs part of this year’s main Cherry Weekend lineup. Dougie Meyers and Avalon Saturdays co-present the Official Pre-Cherry Weekend KickOff event with Chorus.DC, a fledgling party production outfit heretofore affiliated with Cobalt. Doors open at 10 p.m., with open bar on Tito’s Vodka and Jameson Whiskey from 11 p.m. to midnight. Soundcheck is at 1420 K St. NW. Tickets are $15 online or $20 at the door; $25 for VIP with Express Entry and Private Lounge with dedicated bartender. Call 202-789-5429 or visit www.dougiemeyerpresents.com.

and Pre-Sale $15 Tickets available in advance via eventbrite.com • $20 at the door FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Saturday Breakfast Buffet, 10am-3pm • $14.99 with one glass of champagne or coffee, soda or juice • Additional champagne $2 per glass • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • 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, 9pm-close • Featuring DJs Chaim and C-Dubz • $5 Cover (includes clothes check) NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted by Chanel Devereaux,

10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-3am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs NUMBER NINE Doors open 2pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Jawbreaker: Music of the ’90s and 2000s, featuring DJs BacK2bACk, 9:30pm PITCHERS Open Noon-3am • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am • Visit pitchersbardc.com

SHAW’S TAVERN 520 Florida Ave. NW 202-518-4092 www.shawstavern.com TRADE 1410 14th St. NW 202-986-1094 www.tradebardc.com ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS 1824 Half St. SW 202-863-0670 www.ziegfelds.com

NELLIE’S DRAG BINGO & RAFFLE BENEFITING CASA RUBY “The Stunt Queens” of Stonewall Kickball will be calling the numbers during bingo this Tuesday, March 26, at Nellie’s Sports Bar. In addition to playing the numbers for gift cards and prizes, guests can purchase 50/50 Raffle tickets — priced at $1 for 1, $3 for 5, $10 for your arm’s length, and $15 for your inseam — with half of all ticket sales going to support Casa Ruby, the only bilingual, multicultural LGBTQ organization in D.C. The charity will also reap $1 from every Tito’s Vodka drink and soda beverage sold, so definitely come thirsty. The game, hosted by Guy Barnes, starts at 6:30 p.m. Nellie’s is at 900 U St. NW. Call 202332-6355 or visit www.nelliessportsbar.com. OTTERMATIC/OTTEROTICA This Friday, March 22, ushers in the third round of a new dance party at the Green Lantern named after a particular type of hirsute gay men. Conceived by Bryan Smith and Matt Strother, Ottermatic is “open to all people and self-identified animals,” especially those willing to be “vibrant and expressive” in how they dress and engage. The theme for the March iteration is set 13 years “in a dystopian future where all gay bars have all closed down.” The only thing remaining is a secret bar hidden in a back alley downtown “run by homosexual half-human, half-animal hybrids, a result of genetic experimentation.” High-quality local house DJ Dean Sullivan serves as “the post-apocalyptic pied piper” rallying “a romp of playful otter half-breeds” to move and groove on the dance floor in frisky but friendly fashion — governed by “the concept of consent and inclusion.” Grant Collins serves as party host, and the otter pinup will be aided in the cause by able bartenders Strother and Scott M. Douglass, as well as The Barber Streisand (Smith). Starting at 10 p.m. The Green Lantern is at 1335 Green Ct. NW. Cover is $5 for entry upstairs. Call 202-347-4533 or visit www.greenlanterndc.com. RED BEAR BREWING: GRAND OPENING CELEBRATION The fully gay-owned nanobrewery from two redheads, Simon Bee and Bryan Van Den Oever, along with Cameron Raspet, officially opens Saturday, March 23, with a party starting at 5 p.m. (The brewery actually opens at 11 a.m.) The band Cravin’ Dogs will perform and drag queen Kitti Chanel Fairfield will welcome neighbors and guests into the large, 7,000 square-foot space, located immediately next to the REI Store in the refurbished, historic Uline Arena building in NoMa. The celebration includes samples and pours of all the new Red Bear beers on draft. Red Bear is at 209 M St. NE. No cover. Call 202-8496130 or visit www.redbear.beer. l MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with $15 Bottomless Mimosas, 10am-3pm • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers 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 DC Rawhides LGBTQ Country Western Dancing Lessons: Play that Sax upstairs, Caliente downstairs. Doors open at 7pm, lesson from 7-8pm • Open Dance until 10:50pm • $5 Cover until 9pm, $10 after 9pm • Men of Secrets,

9pm-4am • Guest dancers • Ladies of Illusion Drag Show with host Ella Fitzgerald • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:30pm and 1:45am • DJ Don T. in Ziegfeld’s • DJ Steve Henderson in Secrets • Cover 21+

Sunday, March 24 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-12am • $4 Smirnoff and Domestic Cans • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Ella’s Sunday Drag Brunch, 10am-3pm • $24.99 with four glasses of champagne or mimosas, 1 Bloody Mary, or coffee, soda or juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm

• AGLA and the Imperial Court of Washington, D.C. co-present the 5th Annual Seizures are a Drag event, 6-9pm • Drag Show starts at 7pm • Co-hosted by Empress IV Muffy Blake Stephyns and Miss Gay Arlington 2018 Seeina B Diamond • All proceeds go to the Epilepsy Foundation of Virginia • Karaoke, 9pm-close GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Karaoke with Kevin downstairs, 9:30pm-close NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4,

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11am-1am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • Pop Goes the World with Wes Della Volla at 9:30pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open Noon-2am • $4 Smirnoff, includes flavored, $4 Coors Light or $4 Miller Lites, 2-9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Visit pitchersbardc.com SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail

Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Dinner-n-Drag with Miss Kristina Kelly, 8pm • For reservations, email shawsdinnerdragshow@ gmail.com 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

Monday, March 25 FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Singles Night • Half-Priced Pasta Dishes • Karaoke, 9pm

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long • Singing with the Sisters: Open Mic Karaoke Night with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, 9:30pm-close NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Half-Priced Burgers • Paint Nite, 7pm • PokerFace Poker, 8pm • Dart Boards • Ping Pong Madness, featuring 2 PingPong Tables NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail

MARCH 21, 2019 â&#x20AC;¢ METROWEEKLY

Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Shaw ’Nuff 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 26 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco Tuesday • Karaoke, 9pm

till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Visit pitchersbardc.com

Wednesday, March 27

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Burgers and Pizzas, 5-10pm

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Drag Bingo with Sasha Adams and Brooklyn Heights, 7-9pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close NUMBER NINE Open at 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover

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

PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • $6 Burgers • Beach Blanket Drag Bingo Night, hosted by Ms. Regina Jozet Adams, 8pm • Bingo prizes • Karaoke, 10pm-1am GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4pm-9pm • Bear Yoga with Greg Leo, 6:30-7:30pm • $10 per class • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR SmartAss Trivia Night, 8-10pm • Prizes include bar tabs and tickets to shows at the 9:30 Club • $15 Buckets of Beer for SmartAss Teams only • Absolutely Snatched Drag Show, hosted by Brooklyn Heights, 9pm • Tickets available at nelliessportsbar.com NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Visit pitchersbardc.com

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Cocu Social: Pasta-Making Class, Second Floor, 6:30pm • Piano Bar with Jill, 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 • Women’s Crush Wednesdays: A Monthly Happy Hour for LBT Women, Non-Gender Conforming, and Nonbinary folks who crush on or enjoy the company of women, 5-10pm l

Scene

Green Lantern’s Rewind: Request Line with VJ Daryl Strickland - Saturday, March 2 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Scene

Avalon Saturdays - Saturday, March 9 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

MARCH 21, 2019 â&#x20AC;˘ METROWEEKLY

MARCH 21, 2019 â&#x20AC;¢ METROWEEKLY

LastWord. People say the queerest things

“I’ve quite had it with J.K. Rowling piggybacking on LGBTQ+ folk

because it’s trendy to do so now, when she wasn’t prepared to make the sacrifices and fight at a time when it wasn’t so easy.

”

— Writer WILLIAM G. SARABAND, one of many LGBTQ folks on Twitter accusing Harry Potter author Rowling of trying to profit by pandering to the LGBTQ community without actually showing same-sex relationships in the books or movies. The backlash was spurred by comments Rowling made for the Blu-Ray DVD for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald on the gay relationship she imagined between characters Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald.

United States stand side-by-side in their efforts to ensure liberties and respect “Brazil and thethe traditional family lifestyles and respect to God, our creator,

against the gender ideology and the politically correct attitudes and against fake news.” — Brazilian President JAIR BOLSONARO, known as the “Trump of the Tropics,” in remarks made after a private meeting with U.S President Donald Trump at the White House reaffirming Brazil-U.S. ties and aligning himself with Trump’s agenda.

[expletive] come run up on me, trying to touch me “If any fagonpunk-ass all that gay shit, I’m letting you know right now,

if I ain’t got my gun on me, I’m knocking you the fuck out.”

— Boxer ADRIEN BRONER in a homophobic rant that he claimed was sparked by a man who tried to hit on him by messaging him on Instagram. Broner added, “I don’t want that gay shit.”

“I can’t understand why the government is asking for such high conditions.

”

I do want to change my legal gender, but surgery has such a high risk, so I don’t know yet.

— A 27-year-old transgender Japanese woman, speaking anonymously in a report compiled by Human Rights Watch objecting to Japan’s law requiring people who wish to change their gender designation to undergo gender confirmation surgery and be sterilized. That law was upheld by the country’s Supreme Court in February.

“ You have to eventually stop feeling sorry for yourself... The people you ‘ministered to’ are suffering so it’s time to stop licking your own wounds and start speaking out.”

— MICHAEL BUSSEE, a former conversion therapy advocate and co-founder of the now-defunct Exodus International, telling The Daily Beast about the shame and guilt that many former advocates feel when they realize how their work has been used to hurt other LGBTQ people and those struggling with their sexual orientation or gender identity.

MARCH 21, 2019 • METROWEEKLY