2019 Pride Photo Album - Metro Weekly - June 13, 2019

CONTENTS

June 13, 2019

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Volume 26 Issue 7

TAMING THE BEAST

Matt Conner forgoes the spectacle and focuses on the music and narrative in Creative Caudron’s take on a Disney hit.

By Doug Rule

THE POWER OF PRIDE Not even a massive disruption at Saturday’s parade could stop D.C.’s LGBTQ community from enjoying Capital Pride weekend.

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Story by John Riley Photography by Todd Franson, Ward Morrison and Randy Shulman

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PERK UP, DOLLY!

Stage legend Betty Buckley delivers a tender matchmaker in a lush but logy Hello, Dolly!

By André Hereford

SPOTLIGHT: LUCY SPRAGGAN p.7 OUT ON THE TOWN p.10 FEAR NOT, FIGHT ON: JOSH HOWARD’S THE LAVENDER SCARE p.12 TAMING THE BEAST: BEAUTY & THE BEAST p.14 THE FEED: FLAG HATER p.21 THE FEED: ABUSE OF POWER p.22 SCENE: DC DYKE MARCH p.24 COMMUNITY: A FISTFUL OF PRIDES p.29 COMMUNITY CALENDAR p.29 COVER STORY: THE POWER OF PRIDE p.33 SCENE: CAPITAL PRIDE PARADE p.35 SCENE: CAPITAL PRIDE FESTIVAL p.40 FILM: SHAFT p.49 STAGE: HELLO, DOLLY! p.51 NIGHTLIFE: 12TH ANNUAL LATINX LA FE p.55 NIGHTLIFE LISTINGS p.56 NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS p.57 LAST WORD p.64 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 Lambda Rising Cover Photography Randy Shulman 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.

© 2019 Jansi LLC.

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JUNE 13, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

COOKING VINYL

Spotlight

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Lucy Spraggan

UCY SPRAGGAN ENDS TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY by singing a beautiful anthem to her wife: “Thanks for choosing me, do you know how lucky we are?” A listener is apt to feel similarly lucky in love after even just one spin of Spraggan’s new album, a strong, 14-song affair full of beautiful anthems of an honest and upbeat folk-rock nature.

Something like a cross between Brandi Carlile and KT Tunstall — with a little Courtney Barnett thrown in for good measure —

Spraggan came to fame in her native U.K. via a stint on The X Factor in 2012, and earlier this year opened for Melissa Etheridge on a leg of the lesbian icon’s U.K. and European tour. Now the 27-year-old is on a headline tour of the U.S. in support of Today Is A Good Day and to showcase her stellar songwriting, exemplified by “Lucky Stars,” “Home Wasn’t Built In A Day,” “Love Is The Best Revenge,” and “As the Saying Goes” — to cite just four of the greatest among her latest handiwork. — Doug Rule

Spraggan appears on Sunday, June 16 at the Songbyrd Music House, 2477 18th St. NW. Doors at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15.

Call 202-450-2917 or visit www.songbyrddc.com.

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Spotlight KLYTMNESTRA: AN EPIC SLAM POEM

MANAF AZZAM

Danielle Drakes directs the latest Theater Alliance production, a dynamic one-woman show written and performed by local black trans woman Dane Figueroa Edidi. A saga of strong women, the men who seek to destroy them, and the dangerous extremes this kind of society can have if left unchecked, Klytmnestra is a multicultural retelling of the classic Greek myth written to vindicate a mother slain by her own son’s hand, incorporating Kabuki and African dance elements along the way. To June 16. Anacostia Playhouse, 2020 Shannon Place SE. Tickets are $30 to $40. Call 202241-2539 or visit www.theateralliance.com.

KIM PETRAS

COURTESY OF LIVE NATION

A performer at Capital Pride 2018 along with Troye Sivan — who she opened for last fall at the Anthem — the German-born, L.A.-based trans dance-pop artist Petras is a bubbling-under act you’ve no doubt heard here or there via hits “Heart to Break,” “I Don’t Want It All,” “All I Do Is Cry,” and “Broken.” Petras drops by the Fillmore Silver Spring on her Broken Tour through the U.S. Mazurbate opens. Saturday, June 15. Doors at 8 p.m. 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. Tickets are $20 to $23. Call 301-960-9999 or visit www.fillmoresilverspring.com.

BYE BYE BIRDIE

As part of its Divas Outdoors programming on the lawn, Hillwood screens the 1963 movie adaptation of the Broadway musical by composer Charles Strouse, lyricist Lee Adams, and book writer Michael Stewart. Ann-Margret is the young fan whom rock star Conrad Birdie will sing to in a televised performance before he’s sent off to war via the draft in a movie also starring Dick Van Dyke and Janet Leigh. The evening begins after gates open at 4 p.m. with tours of the mansion and new special exhibition Mid-Century Master: The Photography of Alfred Eisenstaedt as well as picnicking on the Lunar Lawn and the option of purchasing sandwiches and light snacks plus a champagne cocktail, beer, wine, and either alcoholic or non-alcoholic frozen beverage at the Merriweather Café. Screening starts at 8:45 p.m. Friday, June 14, at the Hillwood Estate, 4155 Linnean Ave. NW. Tickets are $10 to $15. Call 202-686-5807 or visit www.HillwoodMuseum.org.

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JUNE 13, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Spotlight WOMEN CELEBRATING WOMEN

Bethesda’s Triangle Art Studios honors the women’s suffrage movement and the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution with an exhibition and open house featuring studio artists Jill Newman, Maruja Quezada, Barbara Siegel, and Clare Winslow. Nonprofits supporting women, including Emerge Maryland, Empowered Women International, the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, and Emily’s List, will earn 25 percent of proceeds of art sales during the Opening Reception on Friday, June 14, from 6 to 8 p.m. On display through June. Triangle Art is located in the Cheval Condominium, 7711 Old Georgetown Rd., Bethesda. Call 301-215-6660 or visit www.bethesda.org.

RICHARD III

BRITTANY DILIBERTO

Synetic Theater offers its 14th “wordless Shakespeare” production, an athletic, futuristic, cyberpunk adaptation of King Richard III’s Machiavellian rise to power, highlighting the terrifying extremes made possible through the abuse of modern technology. Synetic’s Paata Tsikurishvili directs Alex Mills in the title role, with Irina Tsikurishvili portraying Queen Elizabeth. The cast also includes Matt Stover, Maryam Najafzada, Thomas Beheler, Philip Fletcher, Jordan Clark Halsey, Aaron Kan, Tim Proudkii, Nutsa Tediashvili, Ana Tsikurishvili, and Scean Aaron.

Closes June 16. 1800 South Bell St., Arlington. Call 800811-4111 or visit www.synetictheater.org.

LILLY KING

A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2

Holly Twyford, Craig Wallace, and Nancy Robinette lead a powerhouse cast in this clever and sharp “sequel” to the Ibsen classic, circa 1879 from contemporary playwright Lucas Hnath (currently represented on Broadway with Hillary and Clinton). Nicole A. Watson directs a Round House Theatre production staged at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s secondary house while the Bethesda company’s venue undergoes a dramatic renovation.

Now to June 30. Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th St. NW. Call 202-547-1122 or visit www.roundhousetheatre.org.

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Out On The Town

THE DONALD J. TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL TWITTER LIBRARY

Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah offers a pop-up exhibit that riffs on “the finest works from Trump’s Twitter collection,” just in time for President Trump’s 73rd birthday. A hit in Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, the cheeky exhibit will “memorialize and celebrate the many ‘unpresidented’ moments of President Trump’s Twitter history,” and also includes a new display on First Lady Melania Trump’s main initiative, “An End to Cyberbullying,” described as “her battle against those who use personal attacks, threats of violence, and really dumb nicknames in a vain attempt to soothe their own insatiable insecurities.” Other attractions include: the “Commander-In-Tweet” interactive installation replicating the Oval Office in which participants wil be presented with a crisis situation and have 30 seconds to compose a tweet “while sitting on a golden toilet, just like the president”; “Sad! A Retrospective” video display of the people, places, and things the president has deemed “sad!”; “Trump Vs. Trump,” which documents the president’s “unique ability to hold a variety of different opinions on the same subject”; and “Verified Survivors,” a series of testimonials recounting the trauma of being attacked by Trump on Twitter from high-profile individuals. Friday, June 14, through Sunday, June 16, from noon to 8 p.m. The Showroom, 1099 14th St. NW. Free. Visit www.thedailyshow.com/trumptwitterlibrary.

Compiled by Doug Rule

FILM BLOW-UP

Next up in the popular Capital Classics series at Landmark’s West End Cinema is a 1966 mystery thriller about a London fashion photographer who believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. Starring David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Jane Birkin, Tsai Chin, Peter Bowles, Gillian Hills, and the model Veruschka, Michelangelo Antonioni’s first entirely Englishlanguage film was co-written with

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British playwright Edward Bond.

Blow-Up is especially notable for featuring what was at the time of its American release considered explicit sexual content — from a major Hollywood studio in direct defiance of the Production Code, and its subsequent success influenced the abandonment of the code in 1968 in favor of the MPAA system. Wednesday, June 19, 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 202-5341907 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

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FIELD OF DREAMS

This Father’s Day — Sunday, June 16 — Fathom Events offers a 30th anniversary screening of Phil Alden Robinson’s film celebrating baseball and one man’s journey to ease his family’s pain. Part of the yearlong TCM Big Screen Classic series, the classic film fantasy about fathers, sons, baseball, and the power of unwavering belief is presented with pre- and post-screening insights

by TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz. Sunday, June 16, at 1 and 4 p.m., and Tuesday, June 18, at 4 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.

LATE NIGHT

A cutthroat late night talk show host (Emma Thompson) teams up with her new — and only — female writer (Mindy Kaling) to try and save her show, after it’s threatened with cancellation. Kaling wrote the script and it’s helmed by Transparent director Nisha Ganatra, which suggests a compelling comedy-drama, but if anything Late Night only reminds us that there is currently just one female late night host,

Samantha Bee, and on cable network TBS. Opens Friday, June 14.

Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema, 7235 Woodmont Ave. Call 301-6527273 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com. (Rhuaridh Marr)

THE DEAD DON’T DIE

Writer/director Jim Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive) offers a star-studded horror comedy featuring an ensemble of Jarmusch regulars — Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Chloë Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Iggy Pop, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits — as well as newcomers including Selena Gomez, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, and Carol Kane. A raucous, rueful, and satirical glimpse at American habits and desires at the end of the world.

Opens Friday, June 14. Landmark’s E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW. Call 202-452-7672 or visit www. landmarktheatres.com.

FEAR NOT, FIGHT ON

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Josh Howard’s The Lavender Scare offers a bracing look at the federal government’s decades-long campaign of homophobia.

VEN HALF A CENTURY AFTER STONEWALL, IT STILL TAKES COURAGE, AS Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted in Metro Weekly last week, for LGBTQ people to be their out, authentic selves at home, on the streets, and at work. Filmmaker Josh Howard’s eye-opening documentary The Lavender Scare, premiering this Tuesday, June 18 on PBS, offers a stark reminder that being out at work, especially for federal employees, was and is a right that cannot be held lightly, lest it be stolen away from us with the swipe of a Presidential pen.

The hour-long film — narrated by Glenn Close and inspired by the book of the same name by David Johnson — takes stock of the harrowing period when employees of the federal government were hounded out of their jobs. In 1953, President Eisenhower signed an executive order demanding the firing of so-called “sexual perverts” — that is, gays and lesbians, who were deemed dangerously susceptible to blackmail by hostile powers due to their presumed clandestine lives and practices.

Purged through an invasive, deliberately humiliating process of investigation and intimidation, LGBTQ people were targeted despite, as the film reiterates, no cases, to this day, of any gay or lesbian federal worker coughing up state secrets to the Commies due to blackmail. The process sounds monstrous, and lasted, surprisingly, until recently. Yet, this chapter of American history isn’t that widely known.

“I wasn't familiar with it at all, and that's really what drew me to the project,” says Howard, who says he personally hasn’t experienced harassment due to being out at work. “I just happened to come across David Johnson's book, and I was stunned really when I was reading it. I was fourteen when Stonewall happened, so I kind of grew up in that generation, but I had no idea the extent to which the government had this apparatus to investigate, identify, and then fire employees who were gay, and certainly had no idea how many tens and tens of thousands of people were affected by this policy.”

Happily retired from a long career in television news, Howard “wasn't necessarily looking for a project, but this story just seemed that it needed to be told.” He also wanted to ensure that no one who cares about LGBTQ equality forgets how fragile these rights are. “When you look at the political environment we're in now, with the ban on transgender Americans serving in the military, and the judges who are being appointed to federal courts who clearly have histories of ruling against the interests of LGBTQ people, the whole religious liberty movement, I think we have reason to be concerned. I hope the film does serve as a little bit of a wakeup call, and a reminder of when things weren't quite so good.” —André Hereford The Lavender Scare airs Tuesday, June 18, on PBS. Check your local listings for times and repeat broadcasts, or visit www.pbs.org.

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JUNE 13, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

THE FRONT PAGE HIS GIRL FRIDAY

The American Film Institute concludes its important “The Fourth Estate Film Series” showcasing a handful of Hollywood’s most acclaimed journalism-themed hits with two comedies based on the same story, derived from the 1928 Broadway play The Front Page from newspapermen-turned-playwrights Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

First up, on Saturday, June 15, at 2:45 p.m., is The Front Page, the 1931 adaptation by director Lewis Milestone and screenwriter Bartlett Cormack, full of the play’s rapid-fire, smart-alecky dialogue and focused on its star crime reporter Hildy Johnson (Pat O’Brien) and his hard-driving, manipulative editor Walter Burns (Adolphe Menjoy).

In 1940, director Howard Hawks and screenwriter Charles Lederer re-arranged the madcap humor and endless wisecracking and recast the two main characters as former paramours Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant, upping the sexual tension to create one of Hollywood’s greatest screwball comedies. His Girl Friday screens Sunday, June 16, at 2:45 p.m., followed by a discussion with The Atlantic’s film critic Christopher Orr, New Yorker staff writer Margaret Talbot, and Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi, and moderated by Eric Cortellessa, digital editor of the Washington Monthly. 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring.

Tickets are $13 general admission per screening. Call 301-495-6720 or visit www.afi.com/Silver.

WOODSTOCK: THREE DAYS THAT DEFINED A GENERATION

Less than two months after Stonewall, another event in New York sparked a related revolution, this one the result of its organizers’ counterculture manifestation of “peace and love.” Directed by

award-winning filmmaker Barak Goodman (Scottsboro: An American Tragedy) and written by Goodman and Don Kleszy, Woodstock commemorates the 50th anniversary of the legendary music event, which drew half a million people to a small dairy farm upstate. A fascinating story of how Woodstock came to be, telling the story of the political and social upheaval leading up to the festival as well as the extraordinary happenings over the course of its three days, including never-before-seen footage. Opens Friday, June 14. Landmark’s E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW. Call 202-452-7672 or visit www. landmarktheatres.com.

NOAH TAYLOR

STAGE DESCRIBE THE NIGHT

TAMING THE BEAST

Matt Conner forgoes the spectacle and focuses on the music and narrative in Creative Caudron’s take on a Disney hit.

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HEN IT OPENED ON BROADWAY, DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST WAS panned by major critics for emphasizing spectacle over stagecraft. Twenty-five years later, Virginia’s Creative Cauldron is out to prove that the musical can get by on its familiar romantic, fairytale narrative and remarkably sturdy score by Alan Menken, even when staged within the confines of the smallest of theater spaces.

“This show has 27 cast members,” says director Matt Conner. “It's not the junior version — it's the entire two-act version with every song you have ever heard. We have been very challenged to fit this show in our space.”

Conner himself had never encountered the stage production. “I've never seen it professionally,” he says. “I'm not coming at this with some sort of Disney brain. I'm coming at it as a director who is not doing anything but looking at the text and saying, ‘Okay, where do we put Chip?’ Which has been interesting for me because I've made a lot of bolder choices. We've turned one song into a little bit of a vaudeville, Kander & Ebb-style number. I don't know if that's ever been done. The opening takes place in a library, and the story pops out of everyone's imagination while being in a library.”

Aiding in the cause is what Conner calls a “beautiful, brilliant” cast, as well as designer Margie Jervis’s creativity in developing appropriate costumes and props.

“Our biggest challenge was thinking about the costumes. People know these costumes [have a] certain iconic look. So we've taken our own twist on what these characters would look like. I can definitely say that you have never seen Beauty and the Beast like this.”

Ultimately, it’s Menken’s music that powers the production. “Every day I leave rehearsal [thinking], ‘Wow, this is really, really going to be beautiful and magical.... When they sing those songs and you're right there, it just sounds incredible,” he says. “Not to mention, we're going to have a seven-piece orchestra — the largest we've ever had in that space.”

One notable alteration in Conner’s hands pertains to the relationship between Cogsworth, the mantle clock who runs Beast’s castle, and Lumiere, the candelabra who is its maître d'. “I have them dancing at the end, when they become human again,” he says. “It's almost like they lose themselves in such freedom that they, for a moment, feel like they can do whatever they want.”

The inference is that Cogsworth the clock is “closeted” and “uptight,” while Lumiere burns for anyone. Says Conner, “He’s sexually fluid, if you will.” —Doug Rule Disney’s Beauty and the Beast runs through June 23 at ArtSpace Falls Church, 410 South Maple Ave. Tickets are $20 to $32. Call 703-436-9948 or visit www.creativecauldron.org.

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The stories of seven lost souls are connected across decades by history, fiction, lies, and blood in the latest play from Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rajiv Joseph (Guards at the Taj), based on the diary of Russian Jewish writer Isaac Babel. Recipient of the 2018 Obie Award for Best New American Play, Describe the Night makes it D.C. debut in a Woolly Mammoth Theatre production directed by John Vreeke and featuring Tim Getman and Kate Eastwood Norris as part of a cast also including Moriamo Temidayo Akibu, Regina Aquino, Danny Gavigan, Jonathan David Martin, and Justin Weaks. To June 23. 641 D St. NW. Call 202-393-3939 or visit www. woollymammoth.net.

FALSETTOS

It’s a notable achievement that William Finn and James Lapine’s musical is touring the country now, nearly 30 years after the show became one of the first to present gay life and same-sex love on Broadway. Yet far from being outdated, the two-time Tony-winning musical has proven it still resonates with contemporary audiences, even those seeing it for the first time in the current Lincoln Center Theater production, once again directed by Lapine. For one thing, there’s the story, which fundamentally is about the rewards and ramifications of coming out and being true to oneself — as timely as ever. And then there’s the music, which elevates the show to another level, says Nick Adams, currently playing the role of Whizzer opposite Max von Essen as Marvin. “The score really has some of the most beautiful melodies in the musical theater catalog,” Adams says. “And that’s the thing — people get wrapped up in the emotion that’s carried in the songs.

It’s just fantastic. But as a full piece, to see it — God, it’s a ride.” To June 23. Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Tickets are $49 to $139.

Call 202-467-4600 or visit www. kennedy-center.org.

there’s Carlile’s eminently captivating voice, supple and expressive, not too dissimilar from Sia’s. Carlile continues to tour in support of sixth set By The Way, I Forgive You, full of dramatic story-songs. The four-piece indie-pop band Lucius, known for the tight harmonies between dual lead vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, opens.

Friday, June 14. Gates at 5:30 p.m.

Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, Md. Tickets are $46 to $76. Call 800-551-SEAT or visit www.merriweathermusic.com.

DC JAZZ FESTIVAL

AFI DOCS

This year’s 17th annual documentary film festival, bringing global stories and experiences to the heart of our nation’s capital, will screen 72 films of varying length, kicking off with True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, a world-premiere profile of a prominent national lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, which provides legal services for the poor and is the driving force behind a national lynching memorial, on Wednesday, June 19, at 6:30 p.m., at the National Archives (Constitution Avenue between 7th and 9th Streets NW). Next weekend brings screenings of two feature-length LGBTQ-themed documentaries: Gay Chorus Deep South (pictured), a look at the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and its tour, with the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, to faith-based communities in red states after the 2016 election, which screens Friday, June 21, at Landmark’s E Street Cinema (555 11th St. NW), and Saturday, June 22, at 2:30 p.m. at the AFI Silver (8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring); and a 30th anniversary screening of Tongues Untied, Marlon T. Riggs’s revolutionary and moving film that gave voice to the discriminatory struggles as well as the artistic expression of communities of black gay men, incorporating poetry, music, performance, and autobiographical revelations into the mix, on Friday, June 21, at 9 p.m., at E Street. Other notable titles exploring this year’s theme exploring artists and their contributions to the creative world include Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, David Crosby: Remember My Name, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements, Shangri-La, The Apollo, and Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice — the latter the latest from the Oscar-winning gay filmmaking duo Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Times of Harvey Milk). Festival runs to June 23. Tickets are $12 to $15 each; $50 for the opening night film; passes are available starting at $150. Call 301-495-6720 or visit www.afi.com/afidocs.

GREASE

Go for a drive up to Columbia if you’d like to go back in time — all the way back to the 1950s — for Toby’s Dinner Theatre’s production of Grease, the hit musical circa 1971 by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical-writing duo set the show in a mid-20th century American high school — one where even cool kids can’t resist breaking out into the sing-along fun of such hit staples as “Summer Nights,” “You’re The One That I Want,” and “Hopelessly Devoted to You.” Mark Minnick directs and choreographs a that stars Matt Hirsh as Danny and Nicki Elledge as Sandy. To July 28. 5900 Symphony Woods Rd. Columbia, Md. Tickets are $47.50

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to $63, including buffet-style dinner and coffee and tea. Call 301-5966161 or visit www.tobysdinnertheatre.com.

RIPCORD

Megan Thrift directs Keegan Theatre’s latest, a production of David Lindsay-Abaire’s dramatic comedy about a seemingly harmless bet between two old women that quickly escalates into a dangerous game of one-upmanship. The setting is a sunny room on an upper floor in a senior living facility, which the cantankerous Abby (Deb Gottesman) had to herself before the arrival of the infuriatingly chipper Marilyn (Claire Schoovoner), setting the stage for the bet. Jared Shamberger, Kari

JUNE 13, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Ginsburg, Oscar Ceville, and Robert Bowen Smith round out the cast.

Previews begin Saturday, June 15.

Opens Tuesday, June 18. To July 6.

Keegan Theatre, 1742 Church St. NW. Call 202-265-3767 or visit www. keegantheatre.com.

MUSIC BRANDI CARLILE W/LUCIUS

Twins Phil and Tim Hanseroth write, sing and play with lesbian frontwoman Brandi Carlile, whose music is an intriguing country-rock blend, with additional influence from gospel and folk — think Indigo Girls blended with Johnny Cash and a touch of Elton John. And then

Billed as the fastest-growing jazz festival in the U.S., as well as the largest and most diverse music festival in D.C., this 15th annual event offers 150 performances in 40 venues around town, from the Phillips Collection to Twins Jazz Club. The second and final weekend of the festival, presented by EventsDC, offers marquee events at venues on the Southwest Waterfront, including two concerts at the Anthem: the first, Friday, June 14, featuring Brooklyn-based instrumental fusion band Snarky Puppy along with “Lean on Me: José James Celebrates Bill Withers”; the second, Saturday, June 15, a New Orleans Party featuring Jon Batiste & Stay Human and Brass-A-Holics. The weekend also offers free performances on multiple stages down at the District Wharf, with Saturday, June 15, headlined by Joshua Redman Quartet and Michael Franks at the District Pier, and Allyn Johnson and Sonic Sanctuary and Sasha Berliner Quartet on the Transit Pier; and Sunday, June 16, bringing a lineup including Joey Alexander Trio, Terri Lyne Carrington & Social Science, and Ralph Peterson’s GenNext Big Band to the District Pier, Girls in Airports, Cinema Italia, and the Jazz Academy of Music to the Transit Pier, plus a Jazz in the ‘Hoods International Showcase at Pearl Street Warehouse. The festival closes on Sunday, June 16, at 8 p.m., at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall with the star-studded Great Masters of Jazz concert paying tribute to Quincy Jones, Roy Hargrove, Nancy Wilson, Shirley Horn, and Fred Foss, and featuring Patti Austin, Justin Kauflin, Kenny Garrett, Joshua Redman, Princess Mhoon Dance Project, Roberta Gambarini, Adam Clayton Powell III, Sharon Clark, Leon Harris, Angela Stribling, Paxton Baker, Cassandra Wilson, Willard Jenkins, and Sunny Sumter. Call 855-3327767 or visit www.dcjazzfest.org for the full lineup and ticket details.

FIREFLY MUSIC FESTIVAL

Spread out over a scenic, woodsy 100 acres at Dover Downs, Delaware’s Firefly, now in its eighth year, offers non-musical diversions, including

Jukebox the Ghost, Nombe, VHS Collection, and Magic Giant on Sunday, June 17. The Woodlands of Dover International Speedway, 1131 N. Dupont Highway, Dover, Del. Passes start at $129 for a single day or $319 for a Weekend pass.

Call 855-281-4898 or visit www. fireflyfestival.com.

JAZZ IN THE GARDEN: ADWELA & THE UPRISING, BLACK MASALA

THE DRAG BY MAE WEST

The Shakespeare Theatre Company celebrates Pride Month by offering a free reading, as part of its ReDiscovery Series, of a banned drama by gay icon and sex symbol Mae West, known for her eyebrow-raising double-entendres and sex-positive comedic stylings. One of the earliest depictions of gay life on the American stage, The Drag focuses on the murder of a closeted gay man who is married to the daughter of a famous gay conversion therapist, but this 1927 melodrama also features a raucous drag ball that featured West herself as a guest. Written in collaboration with West’s cast of gay male actors, The Drag was Broadway-bound after previews in Connecticut and New Jersey — but then the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice stepped in, arresting West and cast on charges of obscenity for her Broadway production of Sex, a sentimental drama about a sex worker. New York State subsequently passed a law prohibiting the representation or discussion of homosexuality on stage. The Shakespeare Theatre’s reading, directed by producing artistic director of Maryland’s Rep Stage, is followed by a talkback with local activists, performers, and scholars.

Monday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m. Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th St. NW. Tickets are free but required. Call 202-547-1122 or visit www.shakespearetheatre.org.

The Great Atlantic Campout, an immersive camping experience including daily yoga, panels, meetand-greet events, silent discos, “Spruce Up” stations and showers, plus a farmers market, bar, and general store. But the chief focus is on catching many of music’s latest and greatest. Panic! At The Disco, Tyler, The Creator, Zedd, Travis Scott, Kygo, Death Cab for Cutie, Post Malone, Vampire Weekend, and DJ Snake are this year’s headliners.

Other notable acts in the lineup include, per day: Louis The Child, AWOLNation, Courtney Barnett,

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X Ambassadors, Bob Moses, TLC, The Knocks, Ekali, Cuco, Arkells, Grizfolk, and Shaed, on Friday, June 21; Passion Pit, Young The Giant, Alison Wonderland, Dashboard Confessional, King Princess, Bishop Briggs, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Tank and the Bangas, Joywave, MansionAir, Max, Let’s Eat Grandma, Great Good Fine Ok, Rubblebucket, Max Frost, and Yoke Lore, on Saturday, June 22; and Griz, Walk The Moon, Lykke Li, Gucci Mane, AJR, Car Seat Headrest, Jessie Reyez, LovelyTheBand, Nora en Pure,

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A summertime staple for 19 seasons, the National Gallery of Art offers free outdoor concerts immediately after work every Friday through late August. Bands offering a range of jazz styles, from swing to Latin to ska, perform amidst the museum’s collection of large-scale sculptural works while patrons enjoy food and drinks, including beer, wine, and sangria, as sold by the Pavilion Café. New menu items for 2019 include the popular vegetarian Teriyaki Impossible Burger, a Bahn Mi Turkey Burger with ginger soy aioli, and more traditional sandwiches of pulled pork and beef brisket, all available at grill stations throughout the Sculpture Garden. The series continues with a reggae concert from Adwela & the Uprising on June 14, and “world steam punk” from popular local band Black Masala, consisting of members of Thievery Corporation, on June 21. Evenings from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Sculpture Garden, between 7th and 9th Streets NW. Call 202-2893360 or visit www.nga.gov.

PRIESTS

This largely LGBTQ-identified, mixed-gender, hard-charging D.C. band returns to the 9:30 Club to celebrate the release of its second full-length album The Seduction of Kansas. Led by the strong, elastically voiced Katie Alice Greer and featuring drummer Daniele Daniele and guitarist G.I. Jaguar, the band’s cheekily religious name originated in part from Greer’s upbringing as the daughter of a Methodist minister. The band will be joined by bassist Alexandra Tyson in performance on tour, along with the post-hardcore quartet Mock Identity, a D.C.rooted group consisting of vocalist Adriana-Lucia Cotes, guitarist Jeff Barsky, bassist Joshua David Hoffman, and percussionist Nate Scheible that will open the show.

Saturday, June 15. Doors at 10 p.m.

9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. Tickets are $20. Call 202-265-0930 or visit 930.com.

THE IN SERIES & INNOVĀTIŌ: THE TALE OF SERSE

The plot to Serse, George Frideric Handel’s vibrant, revolutionary Italian-language opera, is streamlined into a simple story of love in a new In Series production.

Director Timothy Nelson intends to transform the 18th-century work by broadening its appeal to today’s

more culturally sensitive, globally aware audiences. The Tale of Serse features new spoken English narration, crafted from the poetry of Rumi in a nod to the story’s Iranian roots, with scenic calligraphy and painting by artist Parinaz Bahadori of the Iranian-American Community Center. Handel’s magnetic and visionary score is rendered by the In Series’ new period instrumental ensemble Innovātiō featuring Nelson as conductor and harpsichordist. Friday, June 14, and Saturday, June 15, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, June 16, at 3 p.m Baltimore Theatre Project, 45 West Preston St. Baltimore. Tickets are $20 to $30. Call 410-752-8558 or visit www.theatreproject.org

DANCE CITYDANCE CONSERVATORY DANCERS IN CONCERT

At its annual year-end showcase, young dancers from the CityDance Conservatory will perform a rich collection of reportory from summer and guest artists, including Koresh Dance Company, Bruce Wood Dance, YY Dance, and Yuanyuan Wang, along with a restaging of the classical ballet Swan Lake by the conservatory’s ballet master Stanislav Isaaev. The showcase will also feature original contemporary works by CityDance faculty members, including gay CityDance Choreographer-InResidence Robert J. Priore, who will be honored with the 2019 Pola Nirenska Award for Outstanding Achievements in Dance from Washington Performing Arts this year during the program Saturday, June 15, at 7 p.m. Additional dates are Friday, June 14, at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, June 15, at 2 p.m. Our Lady of Good Counsel High School, 17301 Old Vic Boulevard, Olney, Md. Tickets are $25. Call 301-5815204 or visit www.citydance.net.

READINGS & DISCUSSIONS MORTIFIED LIVE PODCAST: PRIDE EDITION

An unsent love letter he had written as a teenager didn’t just send David Nadelberg on a wistful trip down memory lane. It sparked the idea for a project focused on the strange, extraordinary, or just plain embarrassing things people create as kids.

Launched in 2002, Mortified is a spin on the popular genre of curated storytelling shows in which strangers from all walks of life take to the stage — as well as the airwaves a la podcast — to “share the shame” of their “teen angst artifacts,” created when they were all so young and impressionable. Revealing such memorabilia, organizers say, can be

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ADVENTURE PARK

and a Lie, a dance work weaving together seven short pieces from D.C.-based company Agora Dance.

And during the Solstice Saturday event on June 22, the building will remain open until midnight with “Soulstice Soundscapes” by Les The DJ plus performances by Nicoletta Daríta de la Brown and Shanna Lim. Among highlights elsewhere, there’s the By The People Art Fair featuring 51 local artists, curated

by Nina O’Neil in partnership with Monochrome Collective and on display in the former Jonathan Adler Store (1267 Wisconsin Ave. NW).

Festival runs to Sunday, June 23.

Call 202-796-4240 or visit www. bythepeople.org.

SUMMER SOLSTICE AT GEORGETOWN WATERFRONT

THE ADVENTURE PARK: KEEP IT LIT PRIDE NIGHT

Billed as “the largest man-made outdoor climbing park in the world,” the Adventure Park at Sandy Spring was created nearly a decade ago as a fundraising entity for Sandy Spring Friends School. Located on the school’s 140-acre property, the park is 20 miles north of downtown D.C., and three miles east of Olney, in Maryland’s leafy Montgomery County.

This Saturday, June 15, ushers in the second annual Pride Night evening event. “I like to call it the Adult Swim of Adventure Park: We kick all the kids out,” says owner John Hines. The park’s 13 different aerial trails, each consisting of a dozen climbing challenges and a few short “reward ziplines” — and ranging in difficulty from “absolute beginners” to “insanely difficult” — will be lit up via colored tube lighting. And the whole experience, for ages 18 and up, will be musically enhanced. Those who don’t want to climb or zipline can simply stick to the walking trails underneath — for free. Why Pride Night? Because Sandy Spring “is a Quaker school,” and Quakers, as Hines puts it, “have been on the forefront of every social issue in the world. It means a lot to us.” Located at 16701 Norwood Rd., Sandy Spring, Md. Tickets are $34 per two-hour climbing session per person for Keep It Lit. Call 240-389-4386 or visit www.theadventurepark.com.

a revelatory experience: “You’d be surprised what you discover in the process.” The June show features childhood diary entries, stories, and other adolescent scribblings “exploring sexual and gender identity, coming out, and other LGBTQ stories.” Friday, June 14. Doors at 8 p.m. Black Cat Mainstage, 1811 14th St. NW. Tickets are $17 in advance, or $20 at the door. Call 202-6674490 or visit www.blackcatdc.com.

ABOVE & BEYOND

BY THE PEOPLE: ARTS AND DIALOGUE FESTIVAL

Dozens of installations, pop-up performances, and discussions — many of them free — will take place over the next week at various venues around town, from Union Market to the hotel Eaton DC to a floating art barge on the Potomac River, all part of the annual arts and innovation festival organized by Georgetown’s

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Halcyon House. Yet the majority of activities take place at the Smithsonian’s Arts + Industries Building (900 Jefferson Dr. SW), which once again serves as the festival hub on weekends, with installations including: Walking on Clouds

by New York mixed-media collage and digital technologies artist Jonathan Rosen; Post Referendum....

More Than a Number, featuring 272 pedestals commemorating the lives of the enslaved people sold

by Jesuit priests at Georgetown University in 1838, by Baltimore multimedia artist Ada Pinkston; Cosmic Warrior, an augmented reality sculpture from Virginia interdisciplinary artist Alexis Gomez; Pillar of Salt: Illuminated History in Writing, a series of crowdsourced written histories and light sculptures exploring gender equality, by interdisciplinary artist Mengxi “Althea” Rao; We The People, an augmented reality reflection on the embrace and expression from one

JUNE 13, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

citizen to another, by digital artist and animator Marjan Moghaddam; various sculptures from D.C. artist Martha Jackson Jarvis; a work exploring the delicate threads of directions presented, journeys chosen, and paths leading you here, by D.C. mixed-media fiber artist and printmaker Rania Hassan; Eye See You, a comment on the age of surveillance, by D.C.-based NigerianAmerican painter Victor Ekpuk; Red/Act, a virtual reality experience featuring poetry written by incarcerated and previously incarcerated indigenous women, by Cherokee Nation citizen Jessica Mehta; 108+1, collaborative performances calling for collective healing through sound baths and an immersive live experience and featuring Naoko Wowsugi and Estefani Mercedes; Night Light: Half-World, a work-in-process meditative, contemporary dance and movement piece from UNUM Dance Collective founder Tariq Darrell O’Meally; and Two Truths

The Georgetown BID, in partnership with Athleta, presents this three-hour event featuring free outdoor fitness classes, prizes, and giveaways and all to celebrate the official start of summer as well as International Yoga Day and the longest day of the year. A special offshoot of the free Georgetown Sunset Fitness classes held every Wednesday at 6 p.m. and featuring the neighborhood’s more than 40 studios and athletic specialty stores, this Solstice event on Friday, June 21, starts at 4 p.m. and offers hour-long yoga classes sponsored by Down Dog Yoga, The Wing, and Athleta, plus bottled water and healthy snacks.

(Attendees must bring their own yoga mat.) The first 300 attendees receive an Athlete swag bag filled with goodies and discount coupons and surprises, while all attendees will get the chance to win a $100 Athleta gift card, a Down Dog Yoga 10-class pack, a Tuckernuck clutch and earrings, and a Kendra Scott giveaway, among other prizes. And attendees sporting their #GeorgetownSummerSolstice Wristband will be offered drink specials and discounts at nearby businesses including Church Hall, The Tavern, Pinstripes, and Tuckernuck. Visit www.georgetowndc.com/summersolstice for more information and to register.

WIKIPEDIA EDIT-A-THON: LGBTQ+ EDITION

The Smithsonian American Art Museum hosts a workshop at which participants — of all levels of technological proficiency — will learn to edit and create new articles on Wikipedia, specfically about artists and on themes from the LGBTQ community. The free program kicks off with a special tour of works

by LGBTQ artists from the museum’s collection. Saturday, June 15, from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. MacMillan Education Center, 8th and F Streets NW. Free but registration recommended. Call 202-633-1000 or visit www.americanart.si.edu. l

GAGE SKIDMORE

theFeed

Pence

FLAG HATER

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Mike Pence says Trump banning embassies from flying Pride flags is “the right decision.” By Rhuaridh Marr

ICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE HAS SAID THAT the Trump administration banning American embassies from flying Pride flags was “the right decision.”

Pence — no stranger to anti-LGBTQ statements or actions — said he supported the move, which led to at least four embassies — Germany, Israel, Brazil and Latvia — being denied permission to fly rainbow flags in support of Pride month.

While embassies were free to fly Pride flags on flagpoles under President Barack Obama’s administration, now they must instead hang or display Pride flags elsewhere.

The State Department argued that only the U.S. flag should fly on embassies, to which Pence told NBC News, “I support that.” Asked what he would say to LGBTQ people, given a few days before news broke of the flag ban Donald Trump had tweeted in support of LGBTQ Pride Month, Pence didn’t give a direct answer.

“As the president said on the night we were elected, we’re proud to be able to serve every American,” Pence said, adding, “We both feel that way very passionately, but when it comes to the American flagpole, and American embassies, and capitals around the world, one American flag flies.”

Trump was heavily criticized for his Pride Month tweet on May 31, in which he urged people to “recognize the out-

standing contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation.”

While it marked the first time Trump had recognized Pride Month during his presidency, he was accused of “gaslighting” and “gross hypocrisy” by LGBTQ organizations, who pointed to the dozens of anti-LGBTQ actions of his administration since taking office in January 2017.

Just a few days after Trump’s tweet, news broke that the State Department was rejecting embassy requests to fly the Pride flag, leading to a curt response from LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD: “Remember last week when President Donald Trump was pretending to celebrate Pride Month?”

It also forced openly gay Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, a Trump appointee and supporter of the president, to deliver a pro-Trump statement to NBC News while ignoring the fact that his boss had denied the German embassy’s request to fly a Pride flag.

“The President’s recognition of Pride month and his tweet encouraging our decriminalization campaign gives me even more pride to once again march in the Berlin Pride parade, hang a huge banner on the side of the Embassy recognizing our pride, host multiple events at the Embassy and the residence, and fly the gay pride flag,” Grenell said. l

ABUSE OF POWER

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New Jersey minister accused of using oral sex to extract “evil spirits” from men. By Rhuaridh Marr

NEW JERSEY MINISTER ALLEGEDLY USED oral sex to extract “evil spirits” from three men he was counseling. Rev. Dr. William Weaver, of Linden Presbyterian Church, has been accused by Elizabeth Presbytery, which has jurisdiction over the church, of “multiple acts of idolatry and sexual misconduct,” dating back to 1999.

In January, he was due to face an internal church trial to hear the charges against him and face his accusers.

However, one day prior to the trial, Weaver, 69, renounced the jurisdiction of the church and moved to a gated retirement community in Lakewood, NJ. All three men said that they had reported Weaver to authorities as well as to the church, but the Union County Prosecutor’s Office refused to confirm whether they were investigating Weaver, My Central Jersey reports.

The men each painted a picture of an apparent pillar of the community who, in private, sexually manipulated them JUNE 13, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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theFeed

PHOTO BY SKYLER GERALD ON UNSPLASH

during particularly vulnerable times in their lives.

A.J. Meeker, 37, said in a statement that he started seeing Weaver for counseling in 2000. At the time he was struggling with “abandonment issues, depression and anxiety,” and after joining Linden Presbyterian found Weaver to be “a kind and compassionate person who was very easy to talk to.”

During the counseling, which was held in Weaver’s bedroom in his manse, Weaver allegedly claimed Meeker was filled with evil energy, citing Native American rituals and blaming “individuals based around the Watchung Reservation.”

In order to remove the claimed evil, Weaver had Meeker lie naked on his bed, before placing coins and gemstones on his body, and ordering him to lie still. Weaver then put his tongue in Meeker’s mouth and moved it around “to see if I had anything in my mouth or throat.” This then progressed to Weaver performing oral sex on Meeker.

“He would then ingest my ejaculate and then would spit up multiple pieces of plastic or metal into a Ziploc bag,” Meeker said. Weaver claimed these pieces were “hits,” created from his evil energy, and they needed to be removed.

Weaver held Meeker and told him “he loved me and he would protect me, and he would never let anything bad happen to me.” He also told Meeker not to tell people what they had done, as “nobody would understand.”

William Weist, 52, made similar accusations against Weaver. He said he sought Weaver’s help in his 30s, after witnessing the death of his wife’s son, saying he was at “an extremely low point.”

After initially discussing “Bible and Bible verses, and Jesus loves you, and all this stuff,” the counseling sessions “just evolved,” with Weaver allegedly introducing gemstones and discussions of “evil spirits.”

Despite these oddities, Weist felt he was improving after the trauma of seeing a dead body, saying, “I was able to now have those memories and not get upset by them, so I thought it was all helping.”

But things allegedly progressed to a similar place as Meeker, with Weist naked, ordered to remain still, and with Weaver telling him he would remove his “hits” through masturbation.

“I felt uneasy, but I took his word that this was necessary,” Weist said, adding, ““Feeling mortified was an understatement, but I didn’t want to say he was wrong, after he helped me to this point. I was so confused and upset I remember praying to God please let me get this over with!”

At his next session, Weist was told only oral sex would remove his “hits.”

“When it was over,” Weist said, “he showed me what looked to be a tiny metal ball and said that was what he got out of me.”

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JUNE 13, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Weist says his low mental state was what allowed Weaver to take advantage of him: “I was so scared with everything that I was dealing with. I just felt scared, it was very raw.”

Weist suffered through several more sessions before he stopped attending counseling, saying it had left him feeling “so small and worthless, like a piece of trash in the street. I just couldn’t face what had happened to me.”

Jared Staunton, 36, said Weaver took advantage of him after his partner and father died just two months apart.

“I began to have a nervous breakdown right in front of him,” Staunton said. “It was at that moment, when I was completely broken and lost, that he took control over me.”

“Mentally I was gone,” he added, stating that he followed Weaver’s instructions because “all I could be was compliant.”

Staunton made similar allegations, including that Weaver kissed him on the mouth, examined his naked body, and told him “‘You don’t have to be afraid anymore, I’m your protector now.'”

Audrey Pereira, associate representative to the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter No. 779, where Weaver had served as chaplain, told My Central Jersey that Weaver was a “smart and cunning” man.

“We don’t know who else has been hurt by this,” she said.

“God forbid there are more out there…. He did good on one hand, but he’s like a Jekyll and Hyde. On the other hand, he did this evil to who knows how many. It can’t just have been these guys, there has to be more.”

Rev. Leslie Dobbs-Allsopp, interim leader of the Elizabeth Presbytery, said in a statement that the presbytery took seriously the allegations against Weaver, and that they had received “allegations of multiple instances of sexual misconduct perpetrated by William Weaver” in April 2018.

“Mr. Weaver was placed on administrative leave while the Investigating Committee conducted interviews with multiple witnesses,” Dobbs-Allsopp said. “The allegations were found to be credible, and disciplinary charges were filed, and an ecclesiastical disciplinary hearing date was set.”

However, because Weaver renounced the jurisdiction of the church, “the disciplinary charges became public subject to the Presbytery’s sexual misconduct policy.”

Robert Fuggi, of the Fuggi Law Firm in Toms River, told My Central Jersey that Weaver’s alleged conduct could be considered criminal. “[The victims] were misled, and he used fraud and he used other tactics, or techniques, to manipulate these people into being sexually abused,” he said. “It’s really horrifying that he took his position of a pastoral role, one they look up to, and he manipulated them.”

He added that the victims were “unwilling and unwitting” and “did not consensually engage in the sexual assaults, they consensually engaged in what they thought was a pastoral counseling session.” l

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Dyke March - Friday, June 7 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

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Community THURSDAY, June 13

A FISTFUL OF PRIDES

Weekly Events ANDROMEDA TRANSCULTURAL HEALTH

offers free HIV testing and HIV services (by appointment). 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Decatur Center, 1400 Decatur St. NW. To arrange an appointment, call 202-291-4707, or visit 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 afterwards. Route distances vary. For meeting places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

DC LAMBDA SQUARES, D.C.’s

LGBTQ square-dancing group, features an opportunity to learn about and practice various forms of modern square dancing. No partner required. Please dress casually. 7:30-9:30 p.m.

National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more info, call 202-930-1058 or visit www.dclambdasquares.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 DULLES TRIANGLES

Northern Virginia social group meets for happy hour at Sheraton in Reston. All welcome. 7-9 p.m. 11810 Sunrise Valley Drive, second-floor bar.

For more information, visit www.dullestriangles.com.

HIV TESTING at Whitman-

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 202-849-8029.

June and July offer people in the DMV plenty of opportunities to celebrate their LGBTQ identity.

S

AD THAT CAPITAL PRIDE IS OVER? FEELING the need for even more celebrating? Never fear — there are at least 12 local Pride festivals scheduled in the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area within the next month.

You can also join the millions expected to attend New York Pride/World Pride on the weekend of June 28-30, marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that sparked the modern-day LGBTQ rights movement.

Local festivities start on Saturday, with the 4th Annual Pride in the Park, hosted by BloominGays, an LGBTQ group in D.C.’s Bloomingdale neighborhood. The afternoon features a party that moves among six houses surrounding Crispus Attucks Park, between U and V Streets NW and 1st and North Capitol Streets NW. Tickets cost $30 per person and can be purchased online at the group’s website at www.bloomingays.com. Also on Saturday, Sandy Spring Adventure Park in Montgomery County, Md., hosts Keep it Lit Pride Night from 6-11 p.m. Attendees can climb, zipline, and balance their way through an obstacle course aglow with neon and rainbow lights while music plays over loudspeakers nestled in the trees.

That same weekend, Charm City will celebrate its Pride celebration, with a “high heel race” at 12:30 p.m. near 25th and N. Charles Streets, followed by a parade running 11 blocks down N. Charles Street from 1-3 p.m. and a block party kicking off at 4 p.m. The following day, the Baltimore Pride Festival, featuring musical acts, entertainers, exhibitors, and a variety of food trucks, takes place at Druid Hill Park from 12-6 p.m. Visit www.baltimorepride.org.

On Saturday, June 22, Frederick Pride takes place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Carroll Creek Linear Park in downtown Frederick. That same day, Hampton Roads will hold its PrideFest from 12-8 p.m. at Town Point Park. Part of the festival includes the ninth annual Pride Boat Parade, the only event of its kind in the United States. Later in the day, the Hampton Roads’ Pride Block Party will kick off at 7 p.m. at Norfolk Scope. The following afternoon, Sunday, June 23, the first annual Pride at the Beach will be held at Neptune’s Park in Virginia Beach from 2-7 p.m.

On Saturday, June 29, various pride celebrations will be held in Howard County, Annapolis, and Winchester, Va., and Rockville Town Square, in Montgomery County, Md. Heading out to western Maryland, the city of Cumberland will hold a Pride kickoff luau at The Churchill Pub and Restaurant at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 6, followed a week later by its official Pride Festival on Sunday, July 14 at the McCoury Family Stage from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. And nearby Hagerstown will hold its Pride celebration on Saturday, July 13, from 12 to 6 p.m. at The Central Lot and Elizabeth Hager Center Lot in downtown Hagerstown. —John Riley

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, June 14 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 Frederick, Md. For more information, visit www.gammaindc.org.

WOMEN IN THEIR TWENTIES (AND THIRTIES), a social

discussion and 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.

Weekly Events BET MISHPACHAH, founded

by members of the LGBT community, holds Friday evening Shabbat services in the DC Jewish Community Center’s Community Room. 8 p.m. 1529 16th St. NW. For more information, visit www.betmish.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB holds

a practice session at Howard University. 6:30-8 p.m. Burr Gymnasium, 2400 6th St. NW. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

PROJECT STRIPES hosts LGBTaffirming social group for ages 11-24. 4-6 p.m. 1419 Columbia

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Road NW. Contact Tamara, 202-3190422, www.layc-dc.org.

Weekly Events

SMYAL’S REC NIGHT provides a

practice session at Montgomery College Aquatics Club. 8:30-10 a.m.

7600 Takoma Ave., Takoma, Md. For more information, visit www. swimdcac.org.

social atmosphere for LGBT and questioning youth, featuring dance parties, vogue nights, movies and games. 4-7 p.m. For more info, email rebecca.york@smyal.org.

SATURDAY, June 15 ADVENTURING outdoors group

takes an easy-to-moderate 8-mile round-trip on the C&O Canal at historic Fort Frederick State Park, near Hancock, Md. Dinner in Hancock follows. Bring plenty of beverages, lunch, bug spray, sunscreen, comfortable walking shoes and about $15 for fees, plus dinner money. Carpool at 9 a.m. from Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro Station. For more information, contact Craig, 202-462-0535, or visit www.adventuring.org.

ADVENTURING outdoors group

takes a 15-mile circuit hike with 2600 feet of elevation gain in the northern section of Shenandoah National Park. Bring plenty of beverages, lunch, sturdy boots, bug spray, sunscreen, and about $20 for fees. Carpool at 8:30 a.m. from East Falls Church Metro Kiss & Ride lot. For more information, contact Jackson, 410-422-9257, or visit www.adventuring.org.

AGLA holds its MONTHLY BRUNCH at Freddie’s Beach Bar

on the third Saturday of the month.

Brunch is all you can eat for $9.99 per person. Attendees are encouraged to help AGLA with its ongoing service projects, including collecting travel-sized unused soaps, shampoos, and lotions for A-SPAN, which provides life-sustaining services for homeless people, and nonperishable food items for AFAC, a community organization providing nutritious food to those in need. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. 555 23rd St. S., Arlington, Va. For more information, visit www.agla.org.

KHUSH DC, a support group for

LGBTQ South Asians, hosts a meeting at The DC Center. 1:30-3 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www. facebook.com/khushdc.

The DC Center hosts a monthly LGBT ASYLEES SUPPORT MEETING AND DINNER for LGBT refugees and asylum seekers. 5-7 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www. thedccenter.org.

The DC Center hosts a meeting of its LGBTQ PEOPLE OF COLOR SUPPORT GROUP, facilitated by Dakia Davis. 1-3 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

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DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/

walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards.

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.

SUNDAY, June 16 ADVENTURING outdoors group

takes a strenuous 11-mile roundtrip hike with 2000 feet of elevation gain in central Shenandoah National Park to see a high waterfall, plus spectacular views from one of the highest peaks in the park. Bring plenty of beverages, lunch, sturdy boots, bug spray, sunscreen, and about $15 for fees, plus money for ice cream and other refreshments afterwards. Carpool at 9 a.m. from East Falls Church Metro Kiss & Ride lot. For more information, contact Joe, 202-2765521, or visit www.adventuring.org.

CHRYSALIS arts & culture group

visits the National Geographic Museum to see its exhibition Queens of Egypt. Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors.

Refreshments to follow. Meet inside the museum by the box office on 17th Street NW, south of M Street. For more information, contact Craig, 202-462-0535 or craighowell1@verizon.net.

Volunteers are needed to help prepare CASA RUBY’S MONTHLY DINNER. Held on the third Sunday of each month, in conjunction with The DC Center and Food Rescue DC, the event provides a hot meal to those housed at Casa Ruby. Homemade or store bought meals welcome. 7-8 p.m. Casa Ruby Shelter, 1216 Kennedy St. NW. For more information, contact lamar@ thedccenter.org, jon@thedccenter. org, or visit www.casaruby.org.

MONDAY, June 17 Join Bet Mishpachah, D.C.’s LGBTQ synagogue, for a BOARD GAME NIGHT at The DC Center.

New classics like Qwirkle and Blockus will be on hand, as well as old favorites like Monopoly.

This group is open to all who are interested in connecting with other queer Jews in a fun atmosphere.

Light snacks will be provided.

Attendees are encouraged to bring

their favorite games and snacks as well. 6:30-9 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.betmish.org or www. thedccenter.org.

The Metro D.C. chapter of PFLAG, a support group for parents, family members and allies of the LGBTQ community, holds its monthly meeting at The DC Center. 7-9 p.m.

2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

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

DC’S DIFFERENT DRUMMERS

welcomes musicians of all abilities to join its Monday night rehearsals.

The group hosts marching/color guard, concert, and jazz ensembles, with performances year round.

Please contact Membership@ DCDD.org to inquire about joining one of the ensembles or visit www.

DCDD.org.

The DC Center hosts COFFEE

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

14th St. NW. For more information, call 202-682-2245 or visit www. thedccenter.org.

US HELPING US hosts a black gay

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

WASHINGTON WETSKINS WATER POLO TEAM practices 7-9

p.m. Newcomers with at least basic swimming ability always welcome.

Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, contact Tom, 703-299-0504 or secretary@wetskins.org, or visit www.wetskins.org.

TUESDAY, June 18 CENTER BI, a group of The DC

Center, hosts a monthly roundtable discussion around issues of bisexuality. 7-8 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. Visit www.thedccenter.org.

THE HEALTH WORKING GROUP

of The DC Center hosts a “Packing Party,” where volunteers assemble safe-sex kits of condoms and lube.

7-9 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit 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 afterwards.

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

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.

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS

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.

WEDNESDAY, June 19 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.

FREEDOM FROM SMOKING, a

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

HISTORIC CHRIST CHURCH

offers Wednesday worship 7:15 a.m. and 12:05 p.m. All welcome. 118 N. Washington St., Alexandria. 703-5491450, www.historicchristchurch.org.

JOB CLUB, a weekly support program for job entrants and seekers, meets at The DC Center. 6-7:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more info, email centercareers@thedccenter.org or visit www.thedccenter.org/careers.

WASHINGTON WETSKINS WATER POLO TEAM practices 7-9

p.m. Newcomers with at least basic swimming ability always welcome.

Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, contact Tom, 703-299-0504 or secretary@wetskins.org, or visit www.wetskins.org. l

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The Power of Pride Not even a massive disruption at Saturday’s parade could stop D.C.’s LGBTQ community from enjoying Capital Pride weekend.

Story by John Riley Photography by Todd Franson, Ward Morrison and Randy Shulman F NOTHING ELSE, THIS YEAR’S CAPITAL PRIDE celebration was a testament to the resilience and unflappable nature of the LGBTQ community. While the festivities did not go according to plan — particularly the Capital Pride Parade, disrupted by false reports of an active shooter in Dupont Circle — the other celebrations, including the Capital Pride Opening Party, “Crack of Noon” Pride Brunch, Capital Pride Block Party, Defiance Dance Party, and Capital Pride Festival proceeded without a hitch.

“The key thing that was shown to me,” said Ashley Smith, president of the Capital Pride Alliance, “was that even through everything on Saturday during the parade, many people still went out to that evening’s event at City Winery...and other events, and had a great time, in celebration of the Pride season and Pride weekend.

“Even with the rain that took place on Sunday, the number of people who were there was phenomenal,” he continued.

“The entire weekend was very successful because it showed our community is united in wanting to be supportive, and that we are not going to allow any obstacle to get in the way of having a wonderful community celebration.”

The sentiment was echoed by Amy Cannon, of Manassas, Va., who was among the thousands of Washington area residents who refused to be deterred from celebrating Pride with her daughter. Cannon, who marched in the parade on Saturday with PFLAG, was unaware of the parade disruption until after she had finished marching, when she began receiving Facebook messages from friends asking if she was safe. But Cannon said she never thought about not attending the Capital Pride Festival the following day, despite the initial uncertainty surrounding the disruption of the parade.

“I’ve never let fear keep me out of my city,” said Cannon.

“On the night of Sept. 12, 2001, I was down here, over by the Washington Monument. I will never let fear keep me away.”

I

PANIC AT THE PARADE ON FRIDAY NIGHT, Capital Pride was progressing as expected, with Riot!, the opening party at Echostage on Friday night, sold out, and thousands gathering on Saturday afternoon to watch the Capital Pride Parade from various vantage points along its 1.5-mile route. Marchers began lining up near the intersection of 22nd and P Streets NW by mid-afternoon, putting finishing touches on their floats, hoisting banners, donning face paint and glitter, and chatting with longtime acquaintances as they waited for the signal to begin marching.

Around 7:20 p.m., about two-thirds of the way through

the allotted time period for the parade, attendees stationed in Dupont Circle Park reported hearing “pops” that mimicked gunshots, sparking fears among some of a possible shooter. The surge was instant, and barricades toppled, as parade-watchers flooded out of the circle en masse, pouring into the street and in all directions screaming “Run! Run! Run!” Hundreds of people tore through P Street, 21st Street, and New Hampshire Avenue, with the ensuing chaos caught on video and shared to social media.

Elizabeth Hernandez, 19, of Falls Church, Va., recounted how she was pushed into a restaurant by a man she didn’t know, spraining her ankle in the process. She hid in the restaurant’s bathroom, while others hid under tables and moved away from windows for fear that there was an active shooter. “Everyone was just running,” Hernandez recalled. “It looked like a movie scene.” A second wave of panic followed, allegedly set off by someone dropping a tray on the ground, according to local newsradio station WTOP. D.C. Police later confirmed that a man was arrested for possession of a firearm. Commander Guillermo Rivera, the head of MPD’s Special Operations Unit, told reporters that there was JUNE 13, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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“no evidence at all that any shots were fired,” despite several phenomenal. We had some great acts. Many of the artists came witnesses reporting hearing gunshots. back and spent some time at the festival, just to enjoy themselves According to documents filed in D.C. Superior Court, 38-year- after they performed. old Aftabjit Singh allegedly drew a gun on two men who were “Everyone who I spoke to that day [were] amazed at how protesting the Pride parade and allegedly sprayed his wife with everything turned out. Even in light of everything on Saturday, mace after she bumped into them. He confronted the men, and people loved what we did, collectively, as a community.” Smith was hit and maced himself. praised the Capital Pride staff and An officer responding to reports volunteers who worked hard behind of someone with a gun arrived to the scenes to make the day a success. find Singh at the fountain in Dupont For most of those in the crowd, the Circle, with a partially open brown inclement weather and Saturday’s disbag nearby. The officer observed what ruption were just sidenotes to a weekappeared to be the body and trigger end focused on celebrating LGBTQ of a silver handgun in the bag, which identity and a spirit of community. was determined to be Singh’s. Singh Even musical artist Big Dipper, one told the officer it was a BB gun, later of the day’s concert headliners, marconfirmed. veled at the number of people who While being arrested, Singh attended. allegedly said, “I’ll be back. I’ll shoot “It was raining, so I was really the motherfucker.” In police custody, impressed that so many people were he admitted to pulling the gun out and ready to stay and watch the show,” pointing it at the two men after he he said in his trailer following the had been maced. He has since been performance. “You think when you charged with possession of a BB gun, perform on such a big stage that it’s and threats to do bodily harm. just like a wall of people, but from —Ashley Smith, The disruption ended the parade the stage, you can actually see every early, though Capital Pride’s other person out there. You can make eye President, Capital Pride Alliance events and festivities continued. contact with them. The energy that I D.C. resident Ananikay Nelson, 25, felt was incredible.” was near Dupont Circle when the chaos broke out. She did not Noting that not all Pride attendees may have been familiar hear any gunshots, but was also not willing to stick around after with his work, Big Dipper said he saw a change in how the audirealizing people were panicking. She felt it was unfortunate ence was receiving him after a few minutes. that the rest of the parade wasn’t able to continue. “I was really “It seemed like quizzical and maybe skeptical at the beginenjoying it, I’ve got my beads, my bracelet saying ‘Love Means ning which often happens at my gigs,” he said. “People are Love,’ but what can we do about it? We just gotta move forward,” curious about who I am. And about three songs in, I begin to she said. win them over and by the end, people seemed really excited and Even Hernandez said Saturday’s incident won’t prevent overjoyed to be celebrating all together out in the street. her from coming back in the future. “I’m not gonna be not gay “For me, as an artist, being able to be a queer person getting because something happened,” she said. up on a stage and living as freely as I get to for the 20 minutes Capital Pride says that this year’s disruption, while unfor- that I just did is an incredible privilege. It’s something really spetunate, will help the organization to develop contingency plans cial and unique to a Pride stage. For that, I’m grateful.” and bolster security for next year’s festivities.

D.C. resident Gourab Khan, 35, was celebrating his eighth “There’s definitely things for us to learn from this year as Pride. He said the inclusive nature of Pride, bringing together we prepare for future celebrations,” said Smith. “There’s things LGBTQ people and allies of all ages, is something that draws for us to be aware of, and we need to look at what we can do to him to the annual event. He feels people experiencing their first ensure safety, which is a critical part of our success.”

Pride should not be afraid of embracing the experience.

“I remember back in those days when I wasn’t out and I felt like I second guessed myself. ‘Should I even join?’ and ‘What CELEBRATING, would my friends or co-workers think?’ and ‘Will I get labeled?’

But now I see that there is nothing that should be holding anyWHATEVER THE WEATHER one back. So enjoy, have fun, and show up.” said she came partly because it’s a tradition, and partly SUNDAY’S FORECAST WAS GLOOMY, with rain predicted much of the day. But there were no serious downpours, and because she felt it was necessary to show her own pride.

“I have to show up for a lot of reasons,” said Siobhan Grayson, the minor sprinkles didn’t stop thousands from filling stretch of of Alexandria, Va., celebrating her twentieth Pride. “It’s being a Pennsylvania Avenue between 6th and 3rd Streets NW. Pride’s makeup hasn’t changed much over the past 20 years: female, being a lesbian, being black. All of those things are under there were booths manned by local community organizations attack. So I have to give face to who we really are. We are strong, (and major corporations) handing out free swag and informa- proud people. I want to be there to make sure I’m representing tion, various food stands, and several concert stages, including that. I want to live out and proud.” l the main one occupying its traditional berth, the Capitol rising For more information on all of Capital Pride’s year-round events, majestically in the background.

“The rain may have wanted to shut us down, but the com- or to get involved with next year’s festival, munity came out in full force,” Smith said. “The artists were visit www.capitalpride.org.

“We are not going to allow any obstacle to get in the way of having A WONDERFUL COMMUNITY CELEBRATION.”

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Movies

Play It Again, Sam Shaft leans hard on Samuel L. Jackson’s movie-star persona, and the lighter side of its action-comedy heritage. By André Hereford

D

ETECTIVE JOHN SHAFT CASTS A LONG SHADOW ACROSS MOVIE history as the private dick who cemented the blaxploitation genre, and in pop culture as an icon of black masculinity, in or out of his badass leather trench coat. Apparently the man’s aura casts too long a shadow for whomever names his movies. The new, gun-happy action comedy, directed by Tim Story, from a script by Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and The Goldbergs producer Alex Barnow, is the third film inspired by Ernest Tidyman’s Shaft novels to just be called Shaft ( ).

Following the late, great filmmaker John Singleton’s so-so 2000 Shaft, this makes two for star Samuel L. Jackson, who carries his own legend, with a screen persona as well-known and firmly molded as that of any actor currently working. For this go-round as Harlem’s coolest cat who won’t cop out, Jackson dials his motherfu***r-meter up to 11, and just has a good ol’ time, as John Shaft leads the son he barely knows — John Shaft, Jr. (Jessie Usher) — through a hazardous, but mostly humorous, murder investigation.

JJ Shaft, a straight-laced MIT grad who works as an FBI data analyst, comes looking for his dad’s help after his best friend Karim (Avan Jogia) turns up dead. This is the sort of crime caper where, just moments after popping up for an impromptu reunion with their other childhood pal, Sasha (Alexandra Shipp), and announcing he’s been keeping “clean,” Karim’s dead of an apparent heroin overdose, and JJ’s on the case. Portrayed as a wide-eyed, tech-savvy desk jockey, JJ is the sheltered Millennial who requires lessons from the o.g. in how to work the streets and lay it down like a real man. That’s how this Shaft is playing it.

As a shepherd of film franchises, Story has a spotty record. He launched one decent film series with Barbershop, and doomed another with his Jessica Alba-starring Fantastic Four movies. Recently, he’s done well directing the Kevin Hart-Ice Cube Ride Along action-comedies, and he’s working squarely in that mode here, guiding

Jackson and Usher’s engaging good cop/ bad cop rapport. Allowing Jackson to do his motherfu***ng thing, Story keeps the action moving efficiently, despite a plot so circuitously wound that the Shafts have to explain it to each other more than once.

Not that any of the tangled web of old friends, ex-soldiers, drug runners, and suspected terrorists matters one bit. The flimsy murder mystery takes a backseat in Shaft’s smokin’ ’71 Chevelle SS, as the movie steers towards comedy, played up in the cross-generational banter between father and son. The movie tries to check Shaft for his old-school machismo and unevolved ideas about what women want from a man, while also celebrating his alpha maleness. He’s slick but uncouth, and not p.c. He never stops for traffic, traffic stops for him. And sure, Sam Jackson can make just about anything look cool, but always crossing against the light and oncoming cars is obnoxious.

Shaft knows but he doesn’t care. The best thing the film does, besides nail a nice share of its jokes, is make a genuine story of Shaft learning to care about the example he sets for his son. JJ’s mom, played by the wonderful Regina Hall, had raised her son far away from Shaft in order to keep the boy out of harm’s way, and to ensure that he didn’t turn out to be anything like his dad. To no one’s surprise, father and son discover they have much to teach each other. Thankfully, the movie’s not too

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obvious about it, and Story doesn’t pour a drop of treacle into the cocktail of gunfights and family-time lesson-learning. He keeps it soulful, yet blasé, just like Shaft.

Jackson stays light on his feet in a role that suits his persona perfectly. Usher and Shipp — who’s so much better than her barely-there Storm in the recent disappointment Dark Phoenix

— are cute together holding it down for the young lovers. Too much of them, though, and the movie starts to feel like Shaft Meets the Scooby-Doo Gang. Just in time, Shaft brings in the big gun: the original John Shaft, Richard Roundtree, who can still rock a long leather trench, and looks like he’ll pop one of these whippersnappers in the mouth if they get too cute. l

Shaft is rated R, and is now playing everywhere. Visit www.fandango.com.

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Stage

Perk up, Dolly!

Stage legend Betty Buckley delivers a tender matchmaker in a lush but logy Hello, Dolly! By André Hereford

D

OLLY’S IN TOWN, AND IT’S NICE TO HAVE HER BACK, THOUGH HER traveling show doesn’t seem to have found its right tempo or temperature. The touring company of Jerry Zaks’ Tony-winning 2017 production of Hello, Dolly!

(HHHHH) might be in for one genteel run at the Kennedy Center Opera House.

For that matter, this staging of Jerry Herman’s classic showhorse musical doesn’t so much run as saunter. There’s trotting, too, by both human and horse, and a high-kicking corps of dancers making the most of Warren Carlyle’s sparkling choreography. Yet the production lacks a certain vigor.

Leading the lavish promenade, Betty Buckley, Broadway’s original Grizabella from Cats and a welcome sight on any stage, serves up a Dolly Gallagher Levi who is warm and endearingly meddlesome. But she doesn’t radiate the chutzpah to be, or have been, the toast of New York, known from Manhattan to Yonkers for poking her matchmaking finger into everybody’s business.

Yes, Dolly’s been feeling low of late, still mourning her dear, departed husband, Ephram. Buckley frames the couple’s love, and the widow’s grief, with moving directness, conveying the pathos underlying Michael Stewart’s script, whether Dolly’s alone onstage with just the memory of Ephram, or leading the band in the first act closer “Before the Parade Passes By.” Still, this lady could stand to polish up her brass if we’re to believe that the whole town’s so glad to see her, or that her imminent arrival at the luxurious Harmonia Gardens Restaurant would send the waitstaff into a giddy songand-dance of anticipation. “Show some snap, fellas,” exhorts the head waiter, Rudolph (Wally Dunn), and maybe somebody should have told Dolly the same.

A delicate rose, broken and bent, and striving to right herself to her former glory,

Buckley’s Dolly perks up in fits and starts.

So does the production, most reliably when that sprightly chorus trots or spins through the action, or when bright-eyed Analisa Leaming and Kristen Hahn are on hand as hat shop proprietress Irene Molloy and her daffy shop girl Minnie Fay. The two eligible New York City ladies welcome Dolly’s matchmaking machinations, and strike up sweet, potential love connections with visiting Yonkers shop clerks Cornelius Hackl (Nic Rouleau) and Barnaby Tucker (Sean Burns).

The show’s romance rises with Leaming’s lovely rendition of “Ribbons Down My Back,” and some of the surest comedy rides on Hahn’s smooth timing and twinkly rapport with Burns as her aw-shucks, lovestruck counterpart. In his glee and longing, Barnaby practically leaps from the stage and Burns’ dancing captures all the emotion that Barnaby can hardly contain. Meanwhile, Rouleau supplies energy and physical dexterity, if less dimension, as Irene’s bold beau Cornelius.

And Broadway vet Lewis J. Stadlen offers a solid, if unexciting, portrayal of Hay and Feed Store “half-a-millionaire” Horace.

At least Stadlen, among the entire cast, sounds like he’s been to Yonkers.

Portraying Horace’s headstrong niece Ermengarde, Morgan Kirner just sounds

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JULIETA CERVANTES

pained honking out the character’s trademark wail. She and much of the supporting ensemble render shorthand versions of the minor characters. Buckley’s performance as Dolly does the work to engender any interest in Ermengarde or her bland paramour Ambrose (Colin LeMoine). Similarly, it’s Dolly’s regard for Horace that might persuade the audience that she could

find something with him more precious than financial security to keep her happy.

Old-fashioned though this vintage musical may be, it’s just progressive enough to acknowledge that a modern woman of 1885 can decide for herself whom to marry, and whether for love or money, or not at all. She can support her husband’s business or maintain her own, be the woman of the house or a woman of the world. The women and men in Hello, Dolly! want and need each other, and even, at times, resort to charades and fabrications. Yet somehow starry-eyed notions of love at first sight, innocent passion, and romantic possibility remain uncorrupted.

The romance is uncorrupted and very well-appointed, courtesy of Santo Loquasto’s award-winning costumes. The colorful, sumptuous period wardrobe is better presented than Loquasto’s sets, which appear awkwardly deposited on the Opera House stage, not quite at home. Like Dolly herself, the show’s still glowin’ and crowin’ and looking swell — but just doesn’t feel as if its indomitable spirit is right where it belongs. l

Hello, Dolly! runs through July 7, at the Kennedy Center Opera House. Tickets are $49 to $159.

Call 202-467-4600, or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

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NightLife Photography by Ward Morrison

A FISTFUL OF PRIDES

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Scene

12th Annual Latinx La Fe at the DC Eagle - Thursday, June 6 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

DrinksDragDJsEtc...

Thursday, June 13 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 Bud Products 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 • Thirst Trap Thursdays, hosted by Venus Valhalla, 11pm-12:30am • Featuring a Rotating Cast of Drag Performers • Dancing until 1:30am

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, 9pm-close • “New Meat” Open Dancers Audition • Music by DJ Don T. • Cover 21+

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 56

JUNE 13, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Friday, June 14 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-3am • 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 • $3 Rail and Domestic • $5 Svedka, all flavors all night long • Ottermatic, 10pm-3am • Hosted by Grant Collins • Featuring DJs DVONNE and The Barber Streisand • $5 Cover (includes clothes check)

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 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

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 11:45pm • Music by DJ Jeff Eletto • Cover 21+

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail

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

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

BALTIMORE PRIDE: TWILIGHT ON THE TERRACE The 44th Annual Baltimore Pride officially kicks off this Friday, June 14, with the largest fundraiser for event organizer the Pride Center of Maryland, the GLBT Community Center of Baltimore. The glitzy 13th annual event, starting at 7 p.m. on the terrace overlooking the Baltimore Museum of Art’s sculpture garden, socializing, dancing with DJ Vince Christopher, and a silent auction including vacation packages to Alaska, Italy, Costa Rica, and Greece, plus fancy cocktails and gourmet fare from Gertrude’s Chesapeake Kitchen, the BMA’s acclaimed farm-to-table fine-dining institution. BMA is located at 10 Art Museum Dr. Tickets are $125. Call 410-889-3399 or visit www.gertrudesbaltimore.com.

Saturday, June 15 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-3am • Video Games • Live televised sports AVALON SATURDAYS @Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW Kim Petras After-Party with TWiN, 10pm-4am • $10 Cover with Kim Petras Concert Ticket • General admission $15 • Drink specials • Drag Show, 10:30-11:30pm, hosted by Ba’Naka and featuring a rotating cast of performers • Open Bar on Tito’s and Jameson, 11pm-midnight • Visit www.dougiemeyerpresents.com 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 • Freeballers Party, 10pm-close • Featuring DJs BacK2bACk • No Cover • $5 Fireball, $5 Margaritas, $8 Long Islands 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 playing pop music all night

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

BALTIMORE PRIDE AT LEON’S It’s one of the last LGBTQ venues still standing in Charm City — and one of the oldest on the East Coast, to boot. Naturally, that makes Leon’s a good place to drop by this weekend during Baltimore Pride festivities. And if you’re still standing after the shows and shenanigans of Saturday’s all-afternoon outdoor Pride Block Party in Station North, Leon’s is hosting a dance party starting at 9 p.m. with two of the city’s best-known veteran DJs, Scott Howard and Vince Christopher. Leon’s Backroom is at 227 W. Chase St. Call 410-539-4850 or visit www.facebook.com/leonsbackroom.

DEEP SUGAR DC It turns out you don’t have to go to Baltimore this weekend if you’re itching for some of its characteristic charm — specifically, its signature “Baltimore house” sound. All you have to do is hit D.C.’s preeminent subterranean dance venue to enjoy the sweet soulful house and disco vibes of Deep Sugar, which “the Sugar Girl Squad” — the DJ duo of gay-popular dance diva Ultra Naté (“Free”) and fellow Baltimorean Lisa Moody — has been producing in Baltimore for 15 years and in D.C. for roughly five. The next go-round at D.C.’s U Street Music Hall — set for this Saturday, June 15, starting at 10 p.m. — will feature spins of the decks from veteran Baltimore house producer Teddy Douglas (Basement Boys, Naté, Crystal Waters) alongside Moody, plus an opening set from gay D.C.’s own kindred soul/house DJ Keenan Orr. Deep Sugar always draws a mixed crowd, in all the right ways, making it one of the sweetest spots around.

U Street Music Hall is at 1115A U St. NW. Tickets are $10; “ages 18-20 by advance ticket only.” Call 202-588-1880 or visit www.ustreetmusichall.com.

KIM PETRAS AFTER-PARTY AT AVALON SATURDAYS Dougie Meyer, the former general manager of Town, has helped to soften the blow from last year’s loss of that LGBTQ nightclub on Saturday nights at the well-designed, boutique-sized downtown nightclub Soundcheck. Meyer presents the popular LGBTQ party Avalon in the venue, offering a different spin on the concept week in and week out. This Saturday, June 15, could very well feature a guest appearance by Kim Petras, stopping by after her concert earlier in the evening at the Fillmore Silver Spring. What is certain is that it’ll be a Petrasthemed evening, one featuring drag queens lip-synching to the rising trans pop singer’s songs during the Drag Show at 10:30 p.m., as well as Petras’ songs factoring into the mix by DJ TWiN during the Dance Party starting at 11:30 p.m.

Doors open at 10 p.m. Soundcheck is at 1420 K St. NW. Tickets are $15, or $10 with ticket stub from the concert; $20 for VIP including express entry, access to the private VIP lounge, and raffle entry to win signed poster. Call 202-789-5429 or visit www.dougiemeyerpresents.com.

SPLASHY POOL PARTY Nearly six years after forming their party partnership for the mega-popular holiday-Sunday party Flashy Sundays at Flash, Sean Morris and Kurt “TWiN” Graves are readying a special Sunday party of a different sort — one sure to make a splash. The pool at the Capitol Skyline Hotel near Nationals Park and the Navy Yard will play host to the Splashy Sunday pool party, soundtracked by the two veteran club DJs. Diving commences at 5 p.m., with swimming, synchronized and otherwise, until 10 p.m. The hotel is located at 10 I St. SW. Cover is $10.

Call 202-488-7500 or visit www.facebook.com/splashypool. l

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NUMBER NINE Doors open 2pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • THIRSTY, featuring DJ Chord Bezerra, 9:30pm PITCHERS Open Noon-3am • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am 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

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TRADE Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets upstairs, 9pm-close • Guest dancers • Ladies of Illusion Drag Show with host Ella Fitzgerald in Ziegfeld’s • Doors open at 9pm, Show at 11:45pm • Music by DJs Keith Hoffman and Don T. • Cover 21+

Sunday, June 16 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 • 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

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at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-1am • All Day Happy Hour • 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

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 and 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, June 17 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

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NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover

Tuesday, June 18

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 • Shaw ’Nuff Trivia, with Jeremy, 7:30pm

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

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

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FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco Tuesday • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long 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 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 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

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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

Wednesday, June 19 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 • $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 www.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 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 • 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 l

LastWord.

People say the queerest things

“Not all country boys are bigots.

Happy Pride Month. ” — A sign on the back of Oklahoma man CODY BARLOW’s truck, pasted either side of a rainbow flag. Barlow, a straight ally who lives in a rural part of the state, decided to celebrate Pride Month by decorating his truck, writing on Facebook, “I’m sure this is not a very welcome message around here, but this is going to be displayed on my truck for the entire month of June in support of pride month.”

“Dante’s legacy is one of boldness, bravery, compassion,’ and an unfailing commitment to a kinder and more just world for all. ” — The PHILADELPHIA MAYOR’S COMMISSION ON LGBT AFFAIRS, in a statement after Dante Austin, the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office’s first openly gay deputy sheriff and first LGBTQ community liason, took his own life on Friday, June 7. Sheriff Jewell Williams called it a “tragedy,” adding, “We send our deepest condolences to Dante’s family, and the many colleagues and community members whose lives he touched with his limitless kindness, expansive heart, and remarkable talent.”

“Freedom of religion is a fundamental right, but it cannot be used to harm others. ” — ALEXA KOLBI-MOLINAS, senior staff attorney with the ACLU, in a statement after the ACLU and other civil rights and healthcare organizations sued the Trump administration over a new rule that would allow healthcare workers to deny care to LGBTQ people, citing their religious beliefs as justification.

“[The document is] a gross misrepresentation of the lives of LGBT people

which perpetuates and encourages hatred, bigotry, and violence against them.

”

— FRANCIS DEBERNARDO, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for justice and equality for LGBTQ Catholics, responding to a new document issued by the Vatican that says transgender people “annihilate the concept of nature” and only identify as trans to be “provocative.” “The misinformation the document contains will cause families to reject their children, and it will increase alienation of LGBT people from the Church.”

“Thank you for loving my community, fighting for us, supporting us

fight for ourselves and others who are experiencing an increase of oppression and violence under this current administration.

”

— Pose star INDYA MOORE, in a tweet thanking her supporters after she became embroiled in a violent altercation with a Donald Trump supporter in New York City. In a video shared on Facebook, Moore took and stomped on a pro-Trump sign being held by a man outside the studio where Pose is filmed, telling him, “You’re not a fan of our show, and we don’t want you to be a fan of our show.” The two fought over the sign before the man violently shoved Moore twice.

Moore then snatched the man’s MAGA hat, before police separated them.

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