The Music Man: Mark Morris

CONTENTS

February 28, 2019

21

Volume 25 Issue 42

JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS

Hoax, Architect or Hate Crime Victim — the Societal Implications of the Jussie Smollett Case.

By Kenya Hutton

THE MUSIC MAN

26

Mark Morris won’t let his dancers perform to recorded music, and his venerated company is all the more thrilling for it.

Interview by Doug Rule

34

FRENCH TWIST

Neil Jordan’s Greta builds taut suspense around a potent performance from Isabelle Huppert.

By André Hereford

SPOTLIGHT: THE SLEEPING BEAUTY p.7 OUT ON THE TOWN p.10 THE FEED p.19 FORUM: JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS p.21 FORUM: BY THE BOOK p.27 COMMUNITY: FIELD TRIPS p.23 COVER STORY: THE MUSIC MAN p.26 GALLERY: HILL CENTER GALLERIES p.31 FILM: GRETA p.32 FILM: RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR p.33 STAGE: REYKJAVIK p.34 NIGHTLIFE p.37 SCENE: NIGHT OF 1,000 MOIRAS AT TRADE p.37 LISTINGS p.38 NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS p.39 LAST WORD p.46 Real LGBTQ News and Entertainment since 1994 Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Online Editor at metroweekly.com Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley Contributing Editors André Hereford, Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrator Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Troy Petenbrink, Bailey Vogt, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla Patron Saint Lou Harrison Cover Photography Beowulf Sheehan 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.

4

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

TONY POWELL

Spotlight

T

The Sleeping Beauty

HE VERY FIRST PRODUCTION OF THE SLEEPING Beauty was presented in 1890 at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was the second ballet composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and was the first piece he worked on with Marius Petipa, one of history’s most influential ballet masters. It ran over four hours long and featured a cast of 130 dancers. The version being staged at The Washington Ballet through Sunday, March 3, runs two-and-a-half hours and features approximately 45 dancers. And that’s just fine by Julie Kent.

“We have a company of 32 dancers plus a pseudo company of 12 and trainees,” she says. “We're in the Eisenhower Theater, which is a smaller theater, a smaller orchestra pit, so everything kind of has to be scaled to the right size and tone and speed. But we're really excited about how it will fit.”

Kent — who, along with husband Victor Barbee, is

staging the current production — hopes it will become a signature piece for the ballet, further bolstering a repertoire she’s been reshaping since taking over as artistic director a few years back from Septime Webre.

“We're thinking of it as the crafting of a couture gown for our company,” she says. “It will have a great tone to it and a great sense of charm, and a sense of theatricality, a nice, modern tempo.”

Kent says the appeal of Tchaikovsky’s ballets are forever enduring, for both their music and their subject matter.

“The music is identifiable and is really beautiful,” she says. “It's so evocative. When you hear the music in The Sleeping Beauty, it’s unlike anything else. It makes you feel things. And then, the stories also are so familiar and charming. There's something very, very comforting when you are going to see a story that you've known since your childhood.” —Randy Shulman

The Washington Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty runs through Sunday, March 3 at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater.

Tickets are $25 to $160. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.washingtonballet.org.

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

7

Spotlight ALICE SMITH

Soul-pop singer-songwriter Alice Smith is understated, sophisticated, and every bit as vocally talented as fellow four-octave ranger Christina Aguilera — except her music is better. Any moment now we should finally hear new music from Smith, with Mystery, a full-length set of original compositions. No doubt she’ll preview tracks from the album on tour, as well as perform from many of the phenomenal songs on her last album, the astonishing She, which charts the ups and downs and ins and outs of love, even just friendship, with musical twists and lyrical turns as sharp and surprising as they come. Saturday, March 9. Doors at 6:30 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St. NW. Tickets are $35. Call 202-888-0050 or visit www.thelincolndc.com.

SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK

Formed nearly 50 years ago by four women associated with the former professional theater group the D.C. Black Repertory Company, this Grammy-winning a cappella ensemble carries on the tradition of offering socially conscious songs, such as the plaintive ballad “Are We A Nation?”

Originally written in response to a restrictive immigration law passed in Arizona in 2010, the song, steeped in the music of the civil rights era, has taken on added resonance of late with Trump’s push for immigration restrictions at the national level. Sunday, March 3, at 7:30 p.m. Birchmere, 3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria. Tickets are $45. Call 703-549-7500 or visit www.birchmere.com.

THE HEIRESS

C. STANLEY

Arena Stage’s Deputy Artistic Director Seema Sueko directs a new production, staged in the round, of this classic thriller suggested by the Henry James novel Washington Square and focused on a 19th-century young woman’s journey to find her voice. Laura C. Harris portrays Catherine Sloper while Jonathan David Martin is her possible suitor in a production also featuring Lise Bruneau, Lorene Chesley, Janet Hayatshahi, Nancy Robinette, Kimberly Schraf, James Whalen, and Nathan Whitmer. To March 10. In the round in the Fichandler Stage, Mead Center for American Theater, 1101 6th St. SW. Tickets are $40 to $95. Call 202-488-3300 or visit www.arenastage.org.

8

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Spotlight FINDING NEVERLAND

JEREMY DANIEL

The National Theatre presents the touring production of Tony-winning director Diane Paulus’ take on the 2004 Oscarwinning film telling the story behind Peter Pan. Written by composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie, Finding Neverland is billed as a “classic tale [that] springs spectacularly to life in this heartwarming theatrical event.” Now to March 3. National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Tickets are $54 to $114. Call 202-628-6161 or visit www.thenationaldc.org.

DISSONANCE DANCE THEATRE: FLUID

A perennial draw at the Atlas Intersections festival, the top-notch professional company founded and led by gay African-American choreographer Shawn Short returns with a new evening-length contemporary ballet. Set to the music of Ezio Bosso, Fluid draws inspiration from physical theater and Afro-modern dance and features a cast exploring the emotional issues of trust, lost, betrayal, and love. Sunday, March 3, at 2:30 p.m.

The Paul Sprenger Theatre in the Atlas, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $30. Call 202-399-7993 or visit www.atlasarts.org.

ORIANA KOREN

JACOB TOBIA

Brought up as a boy and shamed as a “sissy,” Tobia has become a leading voice on behalf of the nonbinary and genderqueer communities as creator and co-host of the NBC News series “Queer 2.0” and as a member of the Biden Foundation’s Advisory Council for Advancing LGBTQ Equality.

In Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story, Tobia writes with wit, humor, and sass about the challenges of living between genders, with a goal of overturning assumptions about gender and celebrating gender diversity. The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart joins Tobia to lead a discussion about the book. Wednesday, March 6, at 7 p.m. Politics and Prose at the Wharf, 70 District Square SW. Call 202-488-3867 or visit www.politics-prose.com.

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

9

Out On The Town

DC INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL

Billed as the oldest of its kind in the nation’s capital, this year’s DC Independent Film Festival offers several screenings of note for the LGBTQ community, including Transformistas (pictured), Chad Hahne’s documentary portrait of Cuban drag queens that will be have its world premiere, with a post-screening reception with the director, on Wednesday, March 6, at the Human Rights Campaign. Others include WBCN and the American Revolution, Bill Lichtenstein’s documentary about Boston’s underground radical radio station that in 1973 launched “The Lavender Hour,” the first LGBTQ program on commercial radio, on Thursday, March 7, at the Carnegie Institution for Science; and Dakota, a locally made feature by director Roberto Carmona about a talented young singer who aspires to stardom and features singer-songwriter Phoebe Ryan in her debut acting role alongside Jake Etheridge from Nashville and Holly Twyford, on Saturday, March 9, at the Carnegie Institution. The festival opens Friday, March 1, at its primary venue, the Miracle Theatre in Barracks Row, with Ordinary Gods, highlighting the resilience and relationships it takes to thrive in the world’s most beloved sport of soccer, the debut feature from director Pascui Rivas. And in its first two nights it presents three screenings in a retrospective of director Phillip Noyce, including Dead Calm with Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill, and Billy Zane, Newsfront with Bill Hunter, Gerard Kennedy, and Wendy Hughes, and The Quiet American with Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser. Most directors will be in attendance at the festival, which runs to Sunday, March 10. Individual tickets are $8 to $11 plus fees. Passes range from a one-day weekend pass at $48, to an all-access festival pass at $210. For a full schedule and details, visit www.dciff-indie.org.

Compiled by Doug Rule

FILM OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS 2019: ANIMATION

At their best, short films are often regarded as the launching pads for the directing stars of tomorrow, allowing for a remarkable variety of inspiration and technique. Every year, the Academy Awards nominates a dozen or so shorts, and Landmark Theatres offers cineastes the chance to see the nominees, which screen in three separate programs. This year’s animated category includes the Oscarwinning Bao by Domee Shi and Becky Neimann-Cobb, Weekends by

10

Trevor Jimenez, and One Small Step

by Andrew Chesworth and Bobby Pontillas, all from the U.S, plus Ireland’s Late Afternoon by Louise Bagnall and Nuria Gonzalez Blanco and Canada’s Animal Behaviour by Alison Snowden and David Fine.

The program is rounded out with a couple of additional animated works. Now playing. Landmark’s E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW. Also Bethesda Row Cinema, 7235 Woodmont Ave. Call 202-452-7672 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS 2019: LIVE ACTION

There are five live action shorts nominated at the 91st Academy Awards, all of which screen locally courtesy of Landmark Theatres. The

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

nominees are: Madre by Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Maria del Puy Alvarado from Spain, Detainment by Vincent Lambe and Darren Mahon from Ireland, the Oscar-winning Skin by Guy Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman from the U.S., and Fauve by Jeremy Comte and Maria Gracia Turgeon and Marguerite by Marianne Farley and Marie-Helene Panisset, both from Canada. Now playing. E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW. Also Bethesda Row Cinema, 7235 Woodmont Ave. Call 202-4527672 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

SILK STOCKINGS

Fred Astaire stars in this 1957 musical film adaptation of the 1955 stage musical, itself an adaptation of the

1939 film Ninotchka Landmark’s West End Cinema returns the work to the big screen as part of its invaluable Capital Classics series.

Wednesday, March 6, at 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 p.m. 2301 M St. NW. Happy hour from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $12.50. Call 202-534-1907 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

STAGE AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’

Joe Calarco directs Signature Theatre’s production of Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show, for which he converted the Shirlington complex’s large Max Theatre into a 1930s-era Harlem nightclub in tribute. Iyona

ALLISON MICHAEL ORENSTEIN

of doing good in a morally ambiguous environment. A foreign policy expert at the Institute for Policy Studies, Feffer has performed his previous one-man shows at Capital Fringe and other festivals, and also garnered a solo performance award from the Maryland State Arts Council in 2016. He’s directed in Next Stop: North Korea by established local theater artist Angela Kay Pirko of Nu Sass Productions.

Performances begin Friday, March 1. Weekends to March 24. District of Columbia Arts Center, 2438 18th St. NW. Tickets are $15 to $20.

Call 202-462-7833 or visit www. dcartscenter.org.

ONCE

SIGNATURE THEATRE’S SONDHEIM AWARD GALA FOR AUDRA MCDONALD

It’s a pricey ticket, but for a great cause — Signature Theatre itself — and the star power is through the roof for musical theater fans. Tony winner Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple), Heidi Blickenstaff and Norm Lewis will perform in tribute to record-breaking six-time Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award winner Audra McDonald, along with Helen Hayes Award winners and Signature favorites Tracy Lynn Olivera (A Little Night Music) and Nova Y. Payton (Hairspray). McDonald, an early and fierce advocate for marriage equality and equal rights, will be feted with Signature’s 10th Stephen Sondheim Award, joining other towering musical theater giants from Angela Lansbury to Bernadette Peters, Harold “Hal” Prince to Jonathan Tunick. Meanwhile, U.S. Representative Don Beyer, of Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, will be honored with the inaugural J. Watkins Distinguished Service Award, a new recognition for community leaders who’ve made an extraordinary impact in the greater D.C. community through advocacy and passion for the arts and arts education. Monday, March 4. Embassy of Italy, 3000 Whitehaven St. NW. Individual tickets to the Black Tie event, including dinner and cocktails, are $1,000. Call 571-527-1828 or visit www.signature-theatre.org.

One of those quiet, understated shows that will sneak up and surprise you, Once deservedly won a whopping eight Tony Awards in 2012. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova’s romantic folk rock score is what surprises you most about the show, featuring a book by celebrated Irish playwright Enda Walsh and based on John Carney’s small indie film from 2006. The focus is on a man and a woman who make hauntingly beautiful music — which is all the more powerful because their songs express their love for each other in a way that the two, each already in complicated relationships, never fully realize otherwise. Gregory Maheu and Malinda Kathleen Reese lead a large cast of actors playing their own instruments in an Olney Theatre Center production directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, with music director Christopher Youstra serving as the show’s emcee. Extended to March 17. Mainstage, 2001 OlneySandy Spring Road, Olney, Md. Call 301-924-3400 or visit www. olneytheatre.org.

THE OLD MAN, THE YOUTH, AND THE SEA Blake, Kevin McAllister, and Nova Y. Payton lead an all-star cast performing the Waller-penned hits from the Tony-winning musical, including “The Joint Is Jumpin’,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” and “Handful of Keys.” Mark G. Meadows serves as musical director and onstage pianist, with choreography by Jared Grimes.

To March 10. 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. Call 703-820-9771 or visit www.sigtheatre.org.

BLOOD AT THE ROOT

A black student disrupts the status quo at her high school merely by venturing into an area typically occupied by white students, unintentionally provoking an uptick in hate speech, violence, and chaos.

Playwright Dominique Morisseau was inspired by the Jena Six, the black teenagers who were reflexively condemned and excessively charged after a 2006 altercation

12

with a white student turned brutal in their Louisiana small-town.

Directed by Raymond O. Caldwell, this Theater Alliance production features choreography by Tiffany Quinn and an 11-person cast including Molly Shayna Cohen, Billie Krishawn, Emmanuel KyeiBaffour, Deimoni Brewington, Paul Roeckell, and Stephanie Wilson.

Blood at the Root is touted as a moving, lyrical, and bold examination of the complexities of race and individual freedoms, as well as the link between justice and identity.

Opening night is Friday, March 1. Runs to March 24. Anacostia Playhouse, 2020 Shannon Place SE. Tickets are $40 to $50 and half-off during previews. Call 202-241-2539 or visit www.theateralliance.com.

CYRANO

An athletic, commedia dell’arte retelling of Edmond Rostand’s

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

world-famous story that, in true Synetic Theater fashion, is also wordless — brought to the stage

by Vato Tsikurishvili, the son of Synetic’s founders in his directorial debut. Cyrano revolves around the plight of Cyrano de Bergerac, a brilliant poet and soldier who decides to woo his beloved Roxane with the help of his charismatic and confident friend Christian. What could possibly go wrong? To March 10. 1800 South Bell St., Arlington.

Tickets are $20. Call 800-811-4111 or visit www.synetictheater.org.

NEXT STOP: NORTH KOREA

A one-man show that promises to take theatergoers “as close as possible to North Korea without leaving their seats,” Next Stop: North Korea is based on playwright/performer John Feffer’s visits to and work in the Kim Jong Un-run communist country, exploring the challenges

GALA Hispanic Theatre presents the world premiere of a play it commissioned from Irma Correa, one of Spain’s rising young playwrights, who takes on the tale of Spain’s renowned poet and philosopher Miguel de Unamuno, forced into exiled almost a century ago due to his opposition to the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera. Helen Hayes Award-winning director José Luis Arellano (2016’s Yerma) helms GALA’s production of El viejo, el joven y el mar, performed in Spanish with English surtitles featuring a cast led by Horacio Peña as Unamuno. When not plotting his escape from exile, the philosopher engages a young fisherman (portrayed by Victor De La Fuente), a journalist (Luz Nicolás), and a general (Delbis Cardona) in debates on matters of freedom, reason, and faith — in a play that explores the notions of conflicting loyalties to

Maple Ave., Falls Church. Tickets are $20 to $32. Call 703-436-9948 or visit www.creativecauldron.org.

MUSIC JAMES BAY

The 28-year-old British singer-songwriter, in the jaunty folkpop mold of Ed Sheeran, finally comes to the U.S. in support of his second album, last year’s Electric Light, which was inspired by everyone from David Bowie to Frank Ocean. Noah Kahan opens. Friday, March 8. Doors at 6:30 p.m. The Anthem, 901 Wharf St. SW. Tickets are $45 to $75. Call 202-888-0020 or visit www.theanthemdc.com.

KRONOS QUARTET

EVERY HOLE, A PORTAL: FILMS BY MADSEN MINAX

On two different evenings next week, the Washington Project for the Arts presents screenings of films by Madsen Minax. The queer experimental filmmaker and installation artist’s work in documentary and hybrid formats presents nonlinear narratives exploring hidden networks of interconnectedness, drawing on the filmmaker’s participation in justice-oriented communities. First up is Kairos Dirt & The Errant Vacuum, a surrealist feature-length film about a queer lunch lady and a non-binary student who discover a fantastic alternate dimension occupied by a genderless apparition, screening Thursday March 7, at 8 p.m. at Suns Cinema, 3107 Mt. Pleasant St. NW. Two nights later comes a screening of three of Minax’s short films: Because of Us, in which a mystical voice guides viewers through a near-death experience using found footage and animated skyscapes; The Source is a Hole, presenting another mystical voice and a series of holes through which viewers can travel, perceive, accept, and speak; and The Eddies, about a death-obsessed transsexual searching for human connection in the worlds of online hookups and storm tunnels.

After the screening comes a discussion with Minax, documentary filmmaker Dawne Langford, and photographer and Homosuperior musician Farrah Skeiky, moderated by curator Eames Armstrong, all taking place at WPA’s North Shaw locale, 2124 8th St. NW. Call 202-234-7103 or visit www.wpadc.org.

one’s country and to the moral fight for a just society. To March 3. Tivoli Square, 3333 14th St. NW. Tickets are $30 to $48. Call 202-234-7174 or visit www.galatheatre.org.

THREE CHEERS TO GRACE

Nearly 25 years after its founding by celebrated D.C.-based playwright Karen Zacarias (The Book Club Play), the Young Playwrights’ Theater presents its first-ever production of a full-length play by a student. Taking place in the wake of a tragic accident, Josie Walyus' Three Cheers to Grace focuses on one girl’s recovery as well as coming to terms with the condition of her best friend Grace, who remains comatose. Currently a sophomore at Arlington’s H-B Woodlawn high school, Walyus is an alumna of the company’s In-School Playwriting Program, which presented a con-

14

densed version of her work in its 2018 New Play Festival. Yet this obviously prodigious teenager wrote 90 pages for the original draft of Three Cheers to Grace. And YPT’s artistic director Lawal Harris along with director Eric Ruffin (Theater Alliance’s Black Nativity) worked with Walyus to realize the play as a full, intermission-less, 90-minute production, featuring a large, diverse cast of professional actors, including Madelyn Farris, Katie Rey Bogdan, Elenilson Ayala, Suzanne Edgar, Stefanie Garcia, Mimsi Janis, Tre’Mon Mills, Naima Randolph, Sisi Reid, Karen Romero, and Marlon Russ. To March 3. Dance Loft on 14, 4618 14th St. NW, 2nd Floor. Tickets are $25. Call 202-6213670 or visit www.danceloft14.org.

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

THUNDER KNOCKING ON THE DOOR

In honor of its 10th anniversary, Virginia’s Creative Cauldron revives Keith Glober’s humorous, crowd-pleasing musical featuring music and lyrics by Keb’ Mo’ and Anderson Edwards. Married local theater artists Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory Smith direct Clifton Walker III as Marvell Thunder, a mysterious bluesman who challenges Glory Dupree (Shayla Simmons), the blind daughter of his guitar-playing rival Jaguar, to a “cutting contest,” with a Faustian bargain: If Thunder wins, he gets Jaguar’s guitar, but if Glory wins, she gets her sight back. Host venue ArtSpace Falls Church is turned into a juke joint for the occasion, with Elisa Rossman serving as music director leading a four-piece band. Now to March 10. 410 South

Founded in 1973, the San Franciscobased, Grammy-winning Kronos Quartet has established itself as one of the most eclectic, inclusive, and internationally minded ensembles in all of classical music — as far from conservative as they come — in terms of everything from style to repertoire. In terms of politics, too, perhaps now more than ever in context of the group’s latest program developed by its founder and artistic director David Harrington. Music For Change: The Banned Countries is styled as an artistic response to President Trump’s 2017 Executive Order limiting travel to the U.S. by citizens of several largely Muslim countries, widely regarded as a discriminatory Muslim Ban. At Sixth and I, Washington Performing Arts presents a concert featuring Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Sunny Yang on cello, along with Mahsa Vahdat, a preeminent Persian vocalist, performing works by composers from the original seven banned nations: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Saturday, March 2. Doors at 7 p.m. 600 I St. NW. Tickets are $45. Call 202-408-3100 or visit www.sixthandi.org.

STEVEN ISSERLIS, CONNIE SHIH: COMPOSERS AND THEIR MUSES

The British cellist Isserlis, accompanied by Shih on piano, offers a noteworthy recital, pairing works by three famous male composers alongside works by three lesser-known female composers who influenced them as loves of their lives. As such, the program includes Three Romances by Robert Schumann, the 19th century German composer considered one of the greatest of the Romantic era — as well as Three Romances by his wife and the daughter of his original teacher/mentor Clara Schumann, an influential German piano educator and pianist. A century later came the Czech neo-classicist Bohuslav Martinů, who fell madly in love and carried on an

opera masters as part of his own development as a composer. The soprano Laura Choi Stuart joins the consort’s acclaimed chorus and orchestra to perform a program that includes Bach’s Non sa che sia dolore and Orchestral Suite No. 1, as well as Vivaldi’s Vengo a voi, luci adorate. Sunday, March 10, at 3 p.m.

National Presbyterian Church, 4101 Nebraska Ave. NW. Tickets are $10 to $69. Call 202-429-2121 or visit www.bachconsort.org.

COMEDY SASHEER ZAMATA

LAURA & LINDA BENANTI: THE STORY GOES ON

A year after Renée Fleming put together this mother-daughter cabaret as part of her Voices program at the Kennedy Center, the Barns at Wolf Trap offers a reprise. The star of the show is Laura Benanti, the Tony-winning Broadway triple-threat (Gypsy) taking a night off as Eliza Doolittle in the current hit Broadway revival of My Fair Lady. No question Benanti inherited the performative gene: Both of her parents were recognized theater actors, and Linda Benanti would go on to become her young daughter’s first voice teacher — helping to shape her musical outlook and career. The two will share stories and songs of their lives and careers, as well as reflect on and celebrate their relationship. Saturday, March 9, at 3 and 8 p.m.

1635 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $40 TO $45. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit www.wolftrap.org.

extramarital affair with his student Vítězslava Kaprálová, who went on to become an important Czech musician in her own right. Isserlis pairs Martinů’s 1929 Sonata No. 1 with Kaprálová’s 1940 composition Ritornelle. Finally, there’s the 19th century French composer César Franck and his pupil and the apple of his eye Augusta Holmès — represented by his Sonata in A Major and her Minstrel’s Chant.

Wednesday, March 6, at 7:30 p.m.

Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

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

THE JULIAN BLISS SEPTET: CELEBRATING GERSHWIN

Virtuoso clarinetist Julian Bliss leads his band on “A Stroll Down Tin Pan Alley,” sharing anecdotes and stories in between performances of American Songbook stan-

16

dards written by George Gershwin and his contemporaries. The program includes a suite from iconic Porgy and Bess, an excerpt from the beloved Rhapsody in Blue, plus classic tunes from “I Got Rhythm” to “Embraceable You” to “Lady Be Good.” Friday, March 1, at 8 p.m.

Merchant Hall in the George Mason University Center for the Arts, 4373 Mason Pond Drive, Fairfax. Tickets are $28 to $46. Call 888-945-2468 or visit www.cfa.gmu.edu.

WASHINGTON BACH CONSORT

Dana Marsh, the consort’s new artistic director, continues the spring season with the second of two Italian-influenced concerts that, as he puts it, “showcase Bach’s attempt to out-Italian the Italians.”

Although Bach was never able to travel to Rome, he transcribed music by Vivaldi and other Italian

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Best known from her stint as a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live from 2014 to 2017, Zamata is a regular on the standup circuit and is regarded for her work as ACLU’s Celebrity Ambassador for Women’s Rights. She returns for another run of shows in D.C. Friday, March 1, and Saturday, March 2, at 7 and 9 p.m. Drafthouse Comedy, 1100 13th St. NW. Tickets are $20. Call 202750-6411 or visit www.drafthousecomedy.com.

READINGS ALYSSA MASTROMONACO: SO HERE’S THE THING….

So Here’s The Thing…: Notes on Growing Up, Getting Older, and Trusting Your Gut is a no-nonsense, no-holds-barred 21st Century girl’s guide to life by the former White House deputy chief of staff who served President Obama during both presidential campaigns.

Mastromonaco will be in conversation with Symone Sanders, a CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist who was the national press secretary for Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. Thursday, March 7, at 7 p.m. Sixth and I Historic Synagogue, 600 I St. NW. Tickets are $18, or $30 with one book, $45 with two tickets and one book.

Call 202-408-3100 or visit www. sixthandi.org.

DARIUS BOST

Bost, an assistant professor of ethnic studies at the University of Utah, shines a light on D.C.’s gay black community in the ’80s and ’90s at the height of the AIDS and crack epidemics. A time of hardship as well as disparagement by the mainstream white culture, the era also fostered a spirit of unity and a remarkable body of literary work. Billed as a revelatory excavation of the art and activism of late 20th-century gay black men in D.C. and also NYC, Evidence of Being: The Black Gay Cultural Renaissance And The Politics Of Violence examines Melvin Dixon’s unpublished diary, Essex Hemphill’s poetry, the biography of Joseph Beam, and the performance and activism of the

Other Collective. Monday, March 11, at 7 p.m. Politics and Prose at the Wharf, 70 District Square SW. Call 202-488-3867 or visit www. politics-prose.com.

DAVID THOMSON

A cinematic history of love and desire that doubles as a commentary on the culture of male supremacy that led to the rise and fall of Harvey Weinstein and others.

Thomson, a film critic and author of Moments That Made the Movies, focuses in detail on specific films for Sleeping with Strangers: How the Movies Shaped Desire, illuminating the on- and off-screen sexuality of a wide range of actors, directors, and producers, from Rudolph Valentino to Jude Law, Jean Harlow to Nicole Kidman, showing their influence on private and public expressions of desire. Friday, March 8, at 7 p.m.

Politics & Prose at Union Market, 1270 5th St. NE. Call 202-544-4452 or visit www.politics-prose.com.

PETER LOGE

Written by a soccer fan and player who has spent a career building and running teams and organizations, Soccer Thinking for Management Success suggests that today’s successful organization is decentralized and never stops moving. It is, in fact, a lot like a certain sport, where responsibility is distributed and everyone on the team works for everyone else and is in constant communication. Loge, a professor at the George Washington University, will discuss his book as part of a panel at Kramerbooks with Lori Lindsey, a US Olympian and professional soccer player for the Washington Freedom and Washington Spirit, and marketing executive Chris Hull of DC United.

DC Scores sponsors the event.

Thursday, March 7, at 6:30 p.m.

Kramerbooks, 1517 Connecticut Ave. NW. Call 202-387-1400 or visit www.kramers.com.

ART & EXHIBITS MARK BRADFORD: TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY

The Baltimore Museum of Art showcases the work of the gay African-American artist specifically through an installation of painting, sculpture, and video first presented at the 2017 Venice Biennale.

The installations on display in Tomorrow Is Another Day weave a complex, multi-layered narrative incorporating themes and figures from Bradford’s personal life as well as from Greek mythology and the universe. One example is Spoiled Foot, a behemoth collage installation inspired by the story of Hephaestus, the god of artists and makers, that hangs from the ceiling and literally bears down on visitors, pushing them to the periphery of the room. The exhibition also

conveys a belief in art’s ability to expose contradictory histories and inspire action in the present day, particularly among those in traditionally marginalized communities — by featuring silk-screened t-shirts and tote bags created by local youth from Baltimore’s Greenmount West Community Center with support and guidance from the Los Angelesbased artist, all available for purchase in a pop-up shop adjacent to the exhibition. To March 3. 10 Art Museum Dr. Baltimore. Call 443573-1700 or visit www.artbma.org.

A new exhibition at the National Geographic Museum puts a rare spotlight on the queens of ancient Egypt, including Hatshepsut, Nefertari, Nefertiti, and Cleopatra VII. The life and leadership of these legendary figures, whose rule ranged from the New Kingdom (1539-1514 B.C.) to the Ptolemaic dynasty (51-30 B.C.), is told with the help of more than 300 ancient Egyptian artifacts, including monumental statues, sparkling jewelry, and impressive sarcophagi — plus the use of advanced virtual reality technology providing a 3D flythrough tour of one of the most well-preserved tombs in the Valley of the Queens, that of Queen Nefertari. Many of the objects on display come courtesy of the Museo Egizio of Turin, Italy, one of the international cultural partners in the exhibition. And much of the research is based on the work of renowned Egyptologist and National Geographic Explorer Kara Cooney, author of the companion book When Women Ruled The World: Six Queens of Egypt, published by National Geographic Books last fall. Exhibition opens Friday, March 1. To Sept. 2. The museum is located at 1145 17th St. NW. Tickets are $10 to $15. Call 202-857-7588 or visit www.ngmuseum.org.

SECTION 14: THE OTHER PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

Before it became a gay desert mecca and a resort for the rich and famous, Palm Springs was a desert outpost — as well as home to the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation. The National Museum of the American Indian shines a light on this land battle in Palm Springs, yet another in a long string of conflicts between western expansion and Indigenous peoples’ rights. The focus is on Section 14, a one-square-mile tract in downtown Palm Springs that forms the heart of the reservation.

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians created the exhibition, which was organized by the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum. Opens Friday, March 1. On display through Jan. 2020. National Museum of the

SIMON PAULY

QUEENS OF EGYPT

LIONEL BRINGUIER WITH THE NSO

A dozen years after becoming the youngest-ever assistant conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic at the age of 20, Lionel Bringuier, that esteemed orchestra’s resident conductor since 2011, is more than ready for his Kennedy Center debut. Bringuier premieres with Mozart’s formidable Violin Concerto No. 5 featuring Gil Shaham, “one of today’s preeminent violinists” per the New York Times. This NSO program also includes symphonic fragments from The Spider’s Feast by Bringuier’s French compatriot Albert Roussel as well as Petrushka by Igor Stravinsky, two ballets that premiered a century ago. The opening concert, on Thursday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m., features a mini-recital “Organ Postlude” from Russell Weismann of Georgetown University on the Concert Hall’s Rubenstein Family Organ, while the Friday, March 1, performance at 11:30 a.m. is styled as a Coffee Concert, with à la carte breakfast items available in the KC Café starting at 9:30 a.m. Meanwhile, the concert on Saturday, March 2, at 8 p.m., is preceded by a scholar-led “behind the music” ForeWords session beginning at 6:45 p.m. Tickets are $15 to $89. Call 202-4674600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

American Indian, Independence Avenue at 4th Street SW. Call 202633-1000 or visit www.nmai.si.edu.

ABOVE & BEYOND ATLAS INTERSECTIONS FESTIVAL

“We're always looking to present art and artists that...in many ways informs and educates us about issues and concerns and themes of the day,” says Douglas Yeuell, executive director of the Atlas Performing Arts Center. Now in its 10th year, Intersections concludes this weekend with a slew of events, including several as part of the annual Youth Summit on Saturday, March 2. Among these: a workshop production of Dress Up Day, Jenna Murphy’s new musical for younger audiences about the drama that ensues when several kids, including a boy, want to play a princess, presented by LGBTQ-run, Helen Hayes Award-winning Monumental

Theatre Company; the In Series’ “Duke Ellington’s Neighborhood” cabaret, a kid-friendly tribute to the hometown jazz pioneer featuring a live jazz trio and singers; and the Atlas’s youth development program City at Peace featuring the GenOUT Youth Chorus of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington. The schedule also includes a free concert from Not What You Think, the LGBTQ a cappella ensemble, on Sunday, March 3, at 5:15 p.m.

All events take place at the Atlas, 1333 H St. NE. Ticket prices vary.

Call 202-399-7993 or visit www. atlasarts.org/intersections for a full schedule and details.

HATERS ROAST: THE SHADY TOUR 2019

More shade on stage, this year’s tour includes Monet X Change and Trinity The Tuck Taylor, the newly crowned dual winners of RuPaul Drag Race All Stars Season 4, along with the return of Jinkx Monsoon, Latrice Royale, and Thorgy Thor,

plus Darienne Lake as show host.

Presented by Murray & Peter Productions. Friday, March 8, at 8 p.m. Warner Theatre, 513 13th St. NW. Tickets are officially sold out, but available on legitimate online resale sites such as Vivid Seats as low as $57 to $73, and all the way up to $462 for center orchestra.

Call 202-783-4000 or visit www. warnertheatredc.com.

THE ASK RAYCEEN SHOW

Rayceen Pendarvis ushers in the eighth season of his free monthly variety show by hosting performances from local singer Cecily, gay rapper Tim’m West, burlesque performer GiGi Holliday, and announcer Anthony Oakes. Also on tap: music by DJ Honey, free catered food while supplies last, a cash bar, vendors, and exhibitors.

Wednesday, March 6. Doors at 6 p.m. HRC Equality Center, 1640 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Free. Visit www.AskRayceen.com. l

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

17

theFeed

SEEKING JUSTICE

Missouri Supreme Court says transgender student barred from restroom can sue for sex discrimination. By John Riley

O

N TUESDAY, THE MISSOURI SUPREME Court ruled that a transgender male student who was barred from the boys’ restroom and locker room has the right to sue for sex discrimination.

The ruling overturned a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the student, known as R.M.A., against the Blue Springs school district, reports The Kansas City Star. R.M.A. has identified as male since fourth grade, has been recognized as male in his school records, and has even been allowed to play on boys’ sports teams and take gym class with other male students. But he has been barred from male-designated spaces and facilities, and forced to use a unisex bathroom.

In October 2015, R.M.A. sued the district, alleging its policy on transgender students is discriminatory. A Jackson County Circuit judge granted the district’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, prompting R.M.A. to appeal the decision to the State Supreme Court.

The court’s ruling is significant because, in allowing R.M.A. to sue for sex discrimination, the court is embracing the interpretation that the Missouri Human Rights Law’s prohibitions against sex-based discrimination protect transgender people from discrimination in school or in the workplace.

Missouri’s Human Rights Commission has previously dismissed complaints of transgender discrimination, noting that the law does not contain explicit protections for sexual orientation or gender identity. The commission has largely embraced the view that “sex-based discrimination” only applies to instances where a person was discriminated against because of their biological sex at birth. But Tuesday’s ruling overturns that assumption.

“R.M.A.’s petition alleges he is a member of a protected class, he was discriminated against in the use of a public accommodation, his status as a member of a protected class was the basis for the discrimination he suffered, and he sustained damages…” the court wrote in its opinion. “At this stage of the proceedings, that is all that is required of R.M.A; therefore, the circuit court should have overruled [the school district’s] motion to dismiss.”

Based on its ruling in the Blue Springs case, the Supreme Court also ruled in another case that a lower court should reconsider the case of

Harold Lampley, a gay state employee who filed a sex discrimination complaint against the Missouri Department of Social Services alleging that he was harassed and given negative performance reviews at work because he did not conform to traditional gender stereotypes of what it means to be male.

In their dissent, Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Zel Fischer, joined by Judge W. Brett Powell, wrote: “The substantive principles of law within the [Missouri Human Rights Act] define the word ‘sex’ as biological sex. Consequently, the petition survives a motion to dismiss only if it alleges that, as a biological female, R.M.A. was deprived of a public accommodation available to biological males.”

They added: “R.M.A. makes no such allegation.

Instead, R.M.A. alleges he is a female who has transitioned to living as a male, and that the Defendants discriminated against him based on his sex by preventing him from using the boys’ restrooms and locker room.… The General Assembly has spoken, and R.M.A.’s petition fails to state a claim of unlawful sex discrimination under the MHRA.” Fischer’s contention has been embraced by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees cases out of Missouri.

Recently, a federal judge dismissed a sex discrimination lawsuit brought by a married lesbian couple against a St. Louis-area retirement community who embraces the Biblical view that only marriages between men and women should be recognized as valid. In that case, U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton cited a 1990 decision by the 8th Circuit finding that “Title VII does not prohibit discrimination against homosexuals.”

Tony Rothert, the legal director for the ACLU of Missouri — which, along with the national ACLU and Transgender Law Center, filed amicus briefs in support of LGBTQ plaintiffs in both the Blue Springs and Lampley cases — celebrated the high court’s decision, calling it “another step toward improving the clarity of Missouri’s nondiscrimination stance.”

“Members of the LGBTQ community should enjoy the same protections against sex-based discrimination as everyone else,” Rothert said.

“Excludingg LGBTQ individuals from legal protections was justified by outdated, destructive stereotypes and ignored the lived reality of thousands of people in our state.” l

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

19

theFeed

HISTORY MAKERS

Lesbian candidate finishes first in Chicago’s mayoral race. By John Riley

O

N TUESDAY EVENING, CHICAGO MAYORAL candidate Lori Lightfoot finished first among a field of 14 challengers, the most in the city’s history, even as voter turnout hit record-low levels citywide.

Lightfoot, a lesbian who would be the city’s first out LGBTQ mayor if elected, heads to an April 2 runoff election against Cook County President and former South Side Alderman Toni Preckwinkle. As a result, Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, is poised to have its first AfricanAmerican female mayor in history, regardless of which candidate wins the runoff.

In her victory speech, Lightfoot played up her “outsider” credentials, even citing her status as a member of the LGBTQ community.

“This, my friends, is what change looks like,” she said. I want to thank the voters of this great city for fighting through the noise and coming to a place where we brought in the light.

“As an LGBTQ+ person, I thought about running for mayor when no other LGBTQ+ person had ever made the ballot for mayor in this city. And as a mayoral candidate, I traveled across the city and saw people who looked like me and families like mine who were struggling in every neighborhood.

“I’m not here despite these hardships, despite the odds.

I’m here because my personal and professional experiences

have prepared me to lead with compassion, integrity and persistence,” Lightfoot added. “I’m here because I know on a deeply personal level that we need change.”

Lightfoot, who initially started far behind in the polls, did not earn an endorsement from the LGBTQ Victory Fund prior to Tuesday. But following her upset victory, the LGBTQ Victory Fund’s endorsement board unanimously agreed to upgrade her to a “Spotlight Endorsement,” entitling her to receive additional campaign and fundraising support from the organization, which seeks to elect out LGBTQ candidates to political office.

“Despite not having a legacy last name or a rolodex of rich friends, Lori’s fighting spirit and ability to transcend the murky machinations of Chicago politics has made the unlikely a reality — and Chicagoans will be better for it,” Annise Parker, the president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund and the former Mayor of Houston, said in a statement.

“While Lori is determined to improve the lives of all the city’s residents — whether downtown or on the South Side — the historic nature of her candidacy provides Chicagoans the rare opportunity to bring fresh perspectives and experiences to city hall,” Parker added. “With a victory in April, Lori will become the first Black woman to serve as Chicago’s mayor and will supplant me as the highest-ranking openly LGBTQ mayor in U.S. history. I am ready and excited for Lori to take on that title.” l

FAR FROM UNITED

United Methodist Church rejects plan allowing gay marriage and LGBTQ clergy. By John Riley

D

ELEGATES AT A SPECIAL SESSION OF THE United Methodist Church’s General Conference in St. Louis have rejected a plan that would have modernized the church’s stances on LGBTQ issues.

The delegates rejected a motion to substitute the so-called “One Church Plan” for the conservative Traditional Plan.

The One Church Plan would have lifted prohibitions on individual churches choosing to marry same-sex couples and allowed LGBTQ followers of the religion to become ordained ministers, reports The Nashville Tennessean. The motion failed by 75 votes, with 449 voting to keep the Traditional Plan in effect and 374 voting to adopt the more LGBTQfriendly plan.

Currently, the church’s official position is that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching,” and, as such, has opposed past attempts to liberalize its stances on LGBTQ-related issues.

The Rev. Tom Berlin, a delegate from the Virginia Conference who supported the One Church Plan, said that it would have allowed same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy, but would have also included robust protections for individ20

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

ual churches or pastors who are not as embracing of LGBTQ rights.

“What’s being said in private conversations is that if the Traditional Plan, the majority plan, is voted in today, you will be putting a virus into the American church and it will make it very sick and it will be sick quickly,” Berlin said.

While much of the debate surrounding the fractures over social issues within the Church has focused on more conservative elements, who have threatened to leave should the denomination become more LGBTQ-inclusive, Berlin noted that there are more liberal-leaning members of the Church who will be prompted to leave if the rigid prohibitions on LGBTQ inclusion remain intact. But Nancy Denardo, a delegate from the Western Pennsylvania Conference, argued that the Church should adhere strictly to Biblical teaching on human sexuality.

“The One Church Plan does not agree with the words of our savior and in so doing deceives young persons into believing that same gender marriage is OK with God when clearly it is not,” Denardo said. “There is danger to that not only to those being deceived but the deceivers as well.” l

Forum

JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS

Hoax, Architect or Hate Crime Victim — the Societal Implications of the Jussie Smollett Case. By Kenya Hutton

O

N JANUARY 29, 2019, THE WORLD WAS ROCKED by reports that Empire star Jussie Smollett had been the victim of a hate-crime involving racial and homophobic slurs, a noose placed around his neck, and evocations of President Trump via a “this is MAGA country” exclamation from his attackers. Immediately following, the Chicago Police Department stated they were investigating the attack as a “possible hate crime.”

In the ensuing days, cable news and media publications featured end-to-end coverage of the case. Smollett was met with a nationwide outpouring of support and strong condemnations of his assault. As corroborating evidence became harder to uncover, speculation regarding Smollett’s account gained traction. In response, Smollett decried skeptics and reaffirmed his account of events, an account he maintains to this day Shortly thereafter, Chicago Police announced that they had arrested and released two suspects (without charges) identified as Nigerian brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo.

They allegedly informed police investigators Smollett paid them to stage the assault, though they deny this allegation. Last Wednesday, the Chicago PD announced they had arrested Smollett on one count of felony Disorderly Conduct, for filing a false police report. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Smollett had staged the attack and “took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career.”

Supporters of Smollett have been quick to highlight the Chicago Police Department’s long history of impropriety relating to African American victims of crime, as justification for Smollett’s legal team’s statement that he’s been betrayed by the law. The city of Chicago has long been a hotbed for crime. With an estimated 241 shootings in 2019 (46 of which were fatal), many of which remain unsolved, Chicago PD has drawn intensive scrutiny for their inability to prevent and adequately investigate such crime when it occurs.

One undeniable byproduct of Smollett’s story is the attention it has brought to pervasive societal issues that are otherwise rarely addressed. Of primary concern is that expressed by LGBTQ activists who hope this “alleged hoax does not have a negative impact on real survivors of hate

crimes.” In comments to the Daily News, Center for Black Equity CEO Earl Fowlkes said, “I don’t see this as being indicative of other hate crimes that take place around the country. Each one has to be judged upon its own merit and no two are exactly alike.”

According to the FBI, hate crimes increased 17% last year within the United States, with nearly 60% related to race or sexual orientation. Moreover, an estimated 42 transgender individuals were murdered in the U.S. last year. As such, the prospect of a nationally televised hoax is understandably troubling for the symbolic justification it provides skeptics and those who would seek to undermine the legitimacy and investigative efforts afforded to actual hate crime victims. Activists are concerned this skepticism will disincentivize victims from reporting their attacks, exacerbating the estimated 54% of hate crimes that already go unreported.

In the wake of such uncertainty and division, many, such as Dana Vivian White, speaker and contributor for Out Magazine, have sought to reinforce the lengths society still has to go when addressing issues of violence against LGBTQ members. “[Smollett] didn't ruin Black History Month, set ‘us’ back, or make abuse cases unbelievable,” they wrote. “He showed me who our allies are, who will publicly doubt and disparage survivors before having all the facts, who wants to prove a point more than care for others, [and] who trusts police.”

As the facts of the Smollett case continue to unfold, two things are certain. In the United States, Jussie Smollett is entitled to a presumption of innocence, and all victims of hate crimes deserve to be believed (and have their stories investigated). To allow our culture or media to try and convince us otherwise is simply un-American. l

“The prospect of a nationally televised hoax is understandably troubling for the symbolic justification it provides [hate crime] skeptics.”

Kenya Hutton is the program director at the Center for Black Equity, and is one of the directors of CDG Community, a think tank that provides services for the House/Ballroom and LGBTQ Communities nationwide.

The opinions expressed in Forum do not necessarily reflect those of Metro Weekly or its employees. Add your voice.

Learn how at www.metroweekly.com/forum.

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

21

Forum

BY THE BOOK

Spike Lee and Roma got run over by the Oscar-winning, feel-good race drama Green Book. By André Hereford

A

S EVER, THE ACADEMY AWARDS HAVE DELIVered a final, glamorous farewell to a memorable film year. And regardless of ratings for ABC’s telecast of the ceremony (they were up more than 10% over last year), some indication that the Oscars still matter came with a tweet from the President, who, on the eve of an all-important summit with North Korea, felt urgently compelled to fire off an angry post in response to the awards.

It wasn’t Roma’s defeat for Best Picture or Olivia Colman’s shocking Best Actress win over Glenn Close that rattled the President’s nerves, but rather the acceptance speech of one of the night’s high-profile winners, filmmaker Spike Lee. While accepting his Adapted Screenplay award for BlacKkKlansman, Lee appealed to the audience and millions of viewers to remember that “the 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let’s all mobilize, let’s all be on the right side of history!

Make the moral choice between love versus hate. Let’s do the right thing!”

Lee’s speech never mentioned 45 by name, nor lobbed criticism at any party or ideology. But apparently the President felt attacked, tweeting, “Be nice if Spike Lee could read his notes, or better yet not have to use notes at all, when doing his racist hit on your President, who has done more for African Americans (Criminal Justice Reform, Lowest Unemployment numbers in History, Tax Cuts, etc.) than almost any other Pres!”

That Lee’s message to choose love over hate would be construed by this president as a racist hit seems to fit a common narrow-minded narrative that Lee is a race-baiting rabble-rouser. Thirty years ago on Oscar night, the genteel race relations drama Driving Miss Daisy was the big winner, while Lee’s incendiary take on racial tension, Do the Right Thing, nominated for two awards, was sent home empty-handed.

This year, Academy voters handed Best Picture to another genteel race relations drama, Green Book, choosing (again) a well-produced feature about a bigot’s journey

towards realizing that the nice black man in the car should be treated with dignity and respect. Meanwhile, Lee’s incendiary take on racial tension, BlacKkKlansman, was labeled by some critics as too divisive for telling the story of a pair of cops who partner to thwart racist terrorists in their community. So, a meta-textual satirical thriller about a black guy and a white guy teaming up to bring down the Klan is a divisive statement about race relations? Maybe it is to somebody who sees good people on both sides.

Green Book plays it safe enough to appeal to anyone on any side.

The movie might not be, as the L.A. Times declared, the worst Best Picture winner since Crash, but it's disappointing that a film that might have been a middling contender in 1988 beat out a clutch of nominees — from Roma and The Favourite to Vice and BlacKkKlansman — that more profoundly represented the best of 2018.

It’s hard to see the cultural or artistic progress of the last three decades in a film like Green Book that’s still preaching the virtues of black folks quietly waiting for prejudice to be driven out by fried chicken and understanding. As far as many viewers were concerned, Miss Daisy struck again at this year’s Oscars, and Lee agreed. “I’m snakebit,” the director joked in the press room after Green Book’s Best Picture victory. “Every time somebody’s driving somebody, I lose. But they changed the seating arrangement!” And the Academy has changed enough that, this time, Lee and his film did not go home empty-handed. l

“It’s disappointing that a film that might have been a middling contender in 1988 beat out a clutch of nominees that more profoundly represented the best of 2018.”

22

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

André Hereford is a film and theatre critic and contributing editor at Metro Weekly, and co-chairs film programming for Reel Affirmations: DC's LGBTQ Film Festival. He formerly worked in story development at Spike Lee's 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks.

The opinions expressed in Forum do not necessarily reflect those of Metro Weekly or its employees. Add your voice to Forum. Learn how at www.metroweekly.com/forum.

Community

THURSDAY, FEB. 28

ANDROMEDA TRANSCULTURAL HEALTH

DC LAMBDA SQUARES, D.C.’s

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.

gay and lesbian square-dancing group, holds a square dance open house for people who are interested in joining the group and learning more about modern western square dancing. 7-9:30 p.m. National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more information, call 202-930-1058 and leave a message, or visit www. dclambdasquares.org.

LGBTQ SOCIAL IN THE CITY

at The Embassy Row Hotel’s Station Kitchen & Cocktails Lounge. Free to attend.

Everyone welcome. 6-9 p.m.

2015 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Dupont Circle Metro is two blocks away. For more information, visit www.meetup.com/ GoGayDC. The DC Center holds a roundtable discussion as part of its

COMING OUT DISCUSSION GROUP on the second Tuesday and fourth Thursday of each month. This group is for those navigating issues associated with coming out and personal identity. 7-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

The Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and DC Health host a

CELEBRATION OF LGBTQ BLACK EXCELLENCE, an

event celebrating Black History Month and the legacies of Audre Lorde and Bayard Rustin. The event will feature a compelling theatrical performance of “Safe Words for Sexual Beings” by the Brave Souls Collective and African American Collective Theater.

Free and open to the public.

6-9 p.m. The Eaton Hotel, 1201 K St. NW. Tickets available via eventbrite.com. For more information, visit lgbtq.dc.gov.

Weekly Events AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION offers free

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

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-

THANG TL

Join people from all over the D.C. metro area for an

DC AQUATICS CLUB practice

FIELD TRIPS

Adventuring offers D.C.-area hikers a chance to commune with the great outdoors every weekend.

T

HERE ARE PLENTY OF PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY who like outdoorsy stuff — hiking, biking, all kinds of activities like that,” says Craig Howell, the woods coordinator for Adventuring, an LGBTQ activity group. “The ideas for what to do come directly from our members. It just depends on what the trip leaders want to do and when they can schedule it.”

Adventuring lets would-be hikers know about the physical demands of each hike beforehand, and reserves more strenuous activities for experienced hikers in good physical shape. Still, Howell says that’s the exception more than the rule. Typically, the average Adventuring outing attracts up to 10 people during the winter months, and up to two dozen during peak hiking season.

As the group prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary, members are planning a hike in Shenandoah National Park, and possibly even a whole weekend of camping and fishing at Rapidan Camp, the site of a residential cabin in Shenandoah where former President Herbert Hoover and his wife used to vacation when they lived in the White House. Pete Kostik, one of Adventuring’s co-founders, is even being coaxed out of retirement to lead the excursion.

One of the group’s favorite adventures is the “Blackberry Ice Cream” hike, which occurs during the summer, when hikers head for the mountains to escape the sweltering heat in the District.

“People don’t think about this, but the higher the elevation, the drier and cooler it is,” says Howell. “The temperature can drop as much as 10 to 15 degrees at the highest elevations of Shenandoah National Park. Every time we do one of those hikes, we end up at one of the park lodges, like Skyland or Big Meadows, where they make this blackberry ice cream that’s just out of this world. We realized that we had to start advertising these hikes based on the main attraction, which, in this case, is the ice cream after the hike.” —John Riley Adventuring’s next outing for all ability levels is a 6-mile hike through the southern section of Gettysburg Battlefield in Gettysburg, Pa., on Sunday, Mar. 10. Attendees will carpool from the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro Station at 9:30 a.m. For more information and a list of other upcoming trips, visit www.adventuring.org.

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

DC 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.

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

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

23

Luther King, Jr. Ave. SE. Testing is intended for those without symptoms. For an appointment call 202-745-7000 or visit www.whitman-walker.org.

US HELPING US hosts a Narcotics

Anonymous Meeting. The group is independent of UHU. 6:30-7:30 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. For more information, call 202-446-1100.

FRIDAY, March 1 CHRYSALIS arts & culture group

visits the Brewmaster’s Castle at 21st Street and New Hampshire Avenue NW to see exhibit on the history of D.C.’s brewing industry.

Free admission. Refreshments may be purchased on site. 6-8 p.m.

Contact Jeff, 301-775-9660 or jeffreyhughes@me.com.

GAY DISTRICT, a group for

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

For more information, visit www. gaydistrict.org.

Join LGBTQ people from all over the D.C. metro area for GoGayDC’s

FIRST FRIDAYS HAPPY HOUR SOCIAL at Pinzimini Lounge in

the Westin Arlington Gateway.

Everyone welcome. No cover.

801 N. Glebe Rd., Arlington, Va. Ballston Metro is two blocks away.

For more information, visit www. meetup.com/GoGayDC.

SATURDAY, March 2 ADVENTURING outdoors group

takes a strenuous six-mile hike with 1800 feet of elevation h a scenic canyon in Shenandoah National Park. Experienced hikers only.

Carpool at 8:30 a.m. from the East Falls Church Metro Kiss & Ride lot.

Contact Peter, 202-302-9606, or visit www.adventuring.org.

CENTER GLOBAL, a group that

advocates for LGBTIQ rights and fights against anti-LGBTIQ laws in more than 80 countries, holds its monthly meeting on the first Saturday of every month. 12-1:30 p.m. The DC Center, 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

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

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

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/

walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environ-

24

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

ment, with socializing afterward.

Route distance will be 3-6 miles.

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

DIGNITYUSA sponsors Mass for

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

SUNDAY, March 3 CHRYSALIS arts & culture group

takes a private tour of the National Building Museum. Admission is $5 per person. Lunch in cafe follows.

Meet at 1 p.m. by the admissions desk, near the F Street entrance across from the Judiciary Square Metro Station For more information, contact Ralph, 301-787-7170, or ralph.watkins1@verizon.net.

Weekly Events BETHEL CHURCH-DC progressive and radically inclusive church holds services at 11:30 a.m. 2217 Minnesota Ave. SE. 202-248-1895, www.betheldc.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

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

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/

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

Route distances vary. For meeting places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

DIGNITYUSA offers Roman

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

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST wel-

comes all to 10:30 a.m. service, 945 G St. NW. For more info, visit www. firstuccdc.org or call 202-628-4317.

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

Visit www.hopeucc.org.

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

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

Join LINCOLN

CONGREGATIONAL TEMPLE – UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST for

an inclusive, loving and progressive faith community every Sunday. 11 a.m. 1701 11th Street NW, near R in Shaw/Logan neighborhood. Visit www.lincolntemple.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/

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

Route distances vary. For meeting places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA services at 11 a.m., led

DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds prac-

by Rev. Emma Chattin. Children’s Sunday School, 11 a.m. 10383 Democracy Lane, Fairfax. For more info, call 703-691-0930 or visit www.mccnova.com.

tice. 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.

NATIONAL CITY CHRISTIAN CHURCH, inclusive church with

THE GAY MEN'S HEALTH COLLABORATIVE offers free

ST. STEPHEN AND THE INCARNATION, an “interracial,

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS

GLBT fellowship, offers gospel worship, 8:30 a.m., and traditional worship, 11 a.m. 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more info, call 202-232-0323 or visit www.nationalcitycc.org.

multi-ethnic Christian Community” offers services in English, 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., and in Spanish at 5:15 p.m. 1525 Newton St. NW. For more info, call 202-232-0900 or visit www.saintstephensdc.org.

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.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF SILVER SPRING

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.

MONDAY, March 4

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

CENTER FAITH, a group of The DC

US HELPING US hosts a support

invites LGBTQ families and individuals of all creeds and cultures to join the church. Services 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. 10309 New Hampshire Ave. For more info, visit www.uucss.org.

Center, will hold a planning meeting to discuss upcoming initiatives, especially the upcoming annual Capital Pride Interfaith Service on June 11. Planning meetings will take place on the first Monday of each month. 6-7 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

The DC Center holds a monthly VOLUNTEER NIGHT for those interested in giving back to the local LGBTQ community. Activities include sorting through book donations, taking inventory, or assembling safe-sex packets. 6:30-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www. thedccenter.org.

TUESDAY, March 5 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.

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

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

Testing starts at 6 p.m, but should arrive early to ensure a spot. 1525 14th St. NW. For more information, visit www.whitman-walker.org.

WEDNESDAY, March 6 BOOKMEN DC, an informal men’s

gay-literature group, discusses Choire Sicha’s Very Recent History: An Entirely Factual Account of a Year (c. AD 2009) in a Large City. All are welcome. 7:30 p.m.

Cleveland Park Library, 3310 Connecticut Ave. NW. For more information, visit www.bookmendc.blogspot.com. l

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

25

M

ARK MORRIS CALLS HIMSELF “A musician in the guise of a choreographer.”

Morris is not just any choreographer, though. A New York Times critic has hailed him as “arguably the most successful and influential choreographer alive — and indisputably the most musical.”

So musical, in fact, Morris is the rare non-musician to be recognized with the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society, an honor presented

by Bard College and authorized by the Bernstein estate.

Curious to know what is so elevating and indisputable about Morris when it comes to music? It’s all on full display at every performance of his venerated namesake company, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year.

“All of my shows, always, are with live music,” Morris says.

its own vocabulary and language,” he says. “That’s the biggest draw for me. It’s almost like being in a company where you work for different choreographers, because every dance is so different.”

This weekend, Smith will join a dozen dancers and six musicians from the company in a showcase of all that musicality and diversity at the George Mason University Center for the Arts. The show features three relatively new, already acclaimed Morris works. Smith performs in the newest and biggest piece, set to Schubert’s Trout Quintet. When prompted, Smith declined to elaborate on the choreography, or on what viewers can expect beyond the music in the show, which also features Numerator, set to work by composer Lou Harrison, and Little Britten, set to piano etudes by Benjamin Britten.

Morris himself took a similar stance during a recent phone interview from a company stop in his hometown of Seattle. In

The Music Man Mark Morris won’t let his dancers perform to recorded music, and his venerated company is all the more thrilling for it.

“We don't do another kind of performance. So that's part of the appeal to come and see our show: I have great musicians as well as very, very great dancers.”

Live music is a rarity in the world of dance performance today, at least outside of prominent ballet companies and prestigious performing arts centers. Yet Morris’ commitment is more than just a concert extravagance, or expensive window dressing.

“When you have live music, it kind of adds lungs to the dance: It breathes more,” says Billy Smith, a member of the Mark Morris Dance Group. “It becomes more of a living thing rather than something that you’re looking at behind a frame. Usually the musicians are in the pit, close to the audience, so it’s almost like this bridge between the audience and the stage. It connects us a little more.

“There are very few choreographers who [truly] choreograph to music,” Smith continues. “Others might have music as inspiration, but they don’t really connect to it in the way that Mark does.

Mark doesn’t just connect to it rhythmically — that’s a very surface way of connecting to music. He listens to the darkness and the light, and the consonance and dissonance, and the dynamic and tone of the music, and really finds a way to almost enhance it with his choreography.”

As thrilling as it is, the chance to perform to live music was not the primary reason the 33-year-old Smith signed on to be a dancer in Morris’ company a decade ago. It was the dances themselves — Morris’ rich and diverse choreography, exhibited in a strong repertory of 180 works (and counting). “Every piece that Mark makes is its own unique vision, its own world. It has 26

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

describing the program, he keeps the focus on the music — for reasons, as it turns out, that go beyond the obvious. As Smith explains, “Mark doesn’t like to tell people what to look for, or what to experience, or what a dance is even about. He encourages everyone — and I totally agree with him — to go in with no expectation, listen to the music, watch the dance, and draw whatever conclusion you get out of it.”

For his part, Smith was roundly impressed upon his first encounter with Morris’ work a dozen years ago, during one of the company’s first of what are now regular, near-annual visits to Mason. In fact, Morris plucked Smith from the campus soon after the Fredericksburg, Virginia native graduated. “I always like coming back to Mason because I get to see all of my old teachers who helped me get to where I am now,” says Smith, who graduated in 2007. “And the program there has taken off since I left — they’ve built three beautiful new studios, they’ve gotten a lot of funding, they’ve got a lot of good talent.”

Morris couldn’t possibly disagree with that. After all, the artistic director counts two Mason alum among his company’s current ensemble, the other being Durell R. Comedy.

“The dance department at George Mason University is exemplary,” Morris says. “It's very unusual that a university-level dance department is [so] great. They produce really wonderful dancers. There's something going right there.”

METRO WEEKLY: Can you elaborate on what your company be per-

forming this weekend at George Mason Center for the Arts?

MARK MORRIS: We're doing three pieces, all quite new. The

BEOWULF SHEEHAN

Interview by Doug Rule

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

27

first piece is called Little Britten, and it is set to some very early piano pieces the composer Benjamin Britten had written when he was a teenage prodigy. It's juvenilia, and people don't know that music. They know his later work. That's a piece for piano and three dancers.

Then there's Numerator, which is to a piece of music by the great American composer Lou Harrison called Varied Trio, and it is for piano, violin, and percussion. And that’s in multiple movements, and it's for six men in my company.

The last piece is a very big one — it's for 11 dancers, and it's to the extremely well-known piece of chamber music by Franz Schubert called the Trout Quintet. It's a piano quintet, but instead of second violin, there's a double bass — there’s violin,

I've always been thrilled by it. So I would say I'm a musician in the guise of a choreographer.

MW: You grew up in a musically engaged and artistically supportive household in Seattle. Was coming out a struggle?

MORRIS: No. A lot of the time people know you're gay before you do. My mother knew I was gay, of course. How could she not?

She lived with me. So no, I came out officially at 17, but I think times have changed. It's a different kind of stigma, or the lack thereof. I used to get credit for being gay, now it doesn't matter anymore. I think that's good.

MW: You used to get credit for being out?

MORRIS: Yeah. "Oh great, at least I'm special in some way." Now it's great because it's not special anymore. Some of the subculture is missed, because it was kind of interesting and a secret club, but I'd rather “My mother knew I was gay, how could she not? She lived everybody be able to do whatever the hell they want. So that battle's mostly been with me. I came out at 17, but times have changed. won from my point of view. But I'm in my It's a different kind of stigma, or the lack thereof.

60s, so there you go.

MW: Do you think it's easier for people to come out these days?

MORRIS: Oh, that's none of my business.

It's difficult for people to be curious, and aware, and serious, and interested. So whatever the hell you want to do, it's up to you, basically. At a certain point, you have viola, cello, bass, and piano. That's what's unusual about it and to let your parents off the hook. And there are so many varieties wonderful. That's a piece in five movements, and that is the new- on all of this now, it's dazzling. So, hooray! Everyone should just est one. It's a very, very recent dance. do what you want, and not expect anybody else to agree with MW: Have you faced challenges in terms of your commitment to you, and then we'd all get along fine. live musicians, in getting people to support that aspect of it?

MW: What motivated you to start your own company?

MORRIS: You mean is it expensive? Yeah, very. Absolutely. It'd MORRIS: I was tired of dancing for other people. I danced with a be much, much less expensive to travel with recorded music, lot of different companies and I was full of ideas. I used to irribut I won't. I always used live musicians whenever I could, tatingly dance around the periphery of other people's rehearsals. even before I could. We made the commitment to using only If somebody did that at my rehearsal, I wouldn't like that. I was live music in all of our shows about 20 years ago. In fact, we bill always making up dances all the time. I just didn't have a place ourselves as Mark Morris Dance Group and Music Ensemble — for them, or a company to do it in. My first shows in the early they're inseparable. To keep a roster of very fine musicians, it of ’80s in New York and Seattle were [with] friends from class, course means traveling with more people, and more personali- and friends from other people's companies. I started with peoties, and more hotel rooms — I wouldn't have it any other way. ple who had sort of defected from other dance companies, or The great part is that a lot of my dancers who are with me now worked with them simultaneously, as I did for a long time. have never danced to recorded music, which I think is great.

MW: Is there anyone in your company who has been with you from That also carries over to our school in Brooklyn, where every the beginning, or from near the beginning? class has a musician playing — unless of course you're doing MORRIS: No, that's way too long ago. I've had people for 20 years, music that requires using recorded, or produced, music. Of but that still doesn't get near the beginning of my company. My course there's nothing wrong with that. But if you're taking a executive director, Nancy Umanoff, we've been working togethclass or performing with us, it's always with live musicians. er for 30-plus years. So that's the longest going back. But I've MW: Let’s turn to how you got started. Which came first for you, been around for a long time. So some of my dancers saw my work dance or music? when they were adorable children, and they grew up to study me MORRIS: Well, there was music in my house always from when in college and then join my company — so that's kind of interestI was little. My father played keyboards. My sister sang. There ing. That's what happens if you stick around long enough. was always singing — just how you sing in the car, around the MW: How has the company changed since you started? house. But, a lot. No one was a professional musician. So there MORRIS: People come and go over the years, and many people was always music around, and I started dancing when I was stay for a very long time because it's a really good job, and there probably nine. I started with Spanish dance, because I'd seen are very few dance jobs in the United States. Very, very few. So, some and I loved it, and I asked for lessons. So, from the very this sort of company like mine, run by an artistic director/chobeginning it was both of those things. reographer that only does my work, there are very few of those.

I didn't play an instrument — I danced. I learned to read One hand's worth. music very young. I sang in all the choirs at school. I was always It's a model that doesn't really exist anymore. Most people singing. And then I did a lot of folk dancing — a lot of Balkan-area work by engagement. They rehearse for a little while, and put dancing — which required singing and dancing at the same time. on some shows, and go on tour a little bit, but it's nearly imposSo both of those things were always very important to me, but I sible for anybody besides the big ballet industry. It's very hard to never studied to be an instrumentalist. I'm fluent in music, and maintain a company, and for people to live, to have a legitimate

I used to get credit for being gay, now it doesn't matter anymore.

I think that's good.”

28

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

dance point of view, I have a big school. We do a lot of outreach, a lot of education, a lot of involvement wherever we go on tour, and in Brooklyn, where my studios are.

MW: What would you attribute to your success?

MORRIS: I think it's because I do really, really good work. My success is that people want to see it. If nobody came to our shows, we wouldn't exist. So it's all dependent on everybody. I work with really great people in every category — my staff, the dancers, the musicians, and everybody who works in the organization. And, it's now a big operation. I have a very big school in Brooklyn, and that's running sort of independently of me and my company, although we're in the same place, and it's all based on

education, and of deep thought. That's really distressing to me.

So I do what I can. I'm not trying to teach anybody a lesson.

We present these choreo-musical shows for everybody and hope they come, because it's good stuff and you don't see it anywhere else. We do what we can. It's all I know, but it's also — I'm not trying to heal the world. You can't do that through the arts.

That's ridiculous. And it's not necessarily therapeutic, or necessarily good for you. But it is a point of view and a way of looking at things culturally and personally that is of very, very deep importance as far as I'm concerned. And so, from a music and

my aesthetic. I mean, I'm lucky, too, but mostly it's because we work really hard and do really good work.

MW: Is it possible for people to tour your dance center?

MORRIS: Yeah, sure. You can show up and ask to be shown around or something. I mean, most people come and take class and rehearse. [But] yes of course you can. It can be done.

MW: Do you teach?

MORRIS: I teach my company class almost exclusively. I do occasional workshops. We do sort of intensive workshops a couple of times a year, and I usually teach a couple of classes. Mostly

LOIS GREENFIELD

vocation of being a professional, concert-performing dancer. It's very peripheral as far as the arts go.

MW: Why do you think it’s such a challenge to have a fully fledged, full-time dance career?

MORRIS: Part of it is the anti-art and anti-intellectual culture of a large part of this country, and the paucity of arts education in public schools. The pressure on people to conform, and to the conservatism of our country in general. I don't want to talk about politics, because it's suicide-provoking. But I will say that the arts in general are not valued nearly as much as they are in just about every other country in the world, including developing countries. So there's really an embarrassment about the arts and

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

29

based on music, and rhythm and composition, more than I teach technique.

I love teaching. But it's also why my point of view, technique-wise, is part of the whole aesthetic. The other people who work with us at my school — the physical therapists, other teachers, Pilates teachers — are all based on the same, a big point of view of anatomy and musicality and the things that make dancing interesting. We're all coming from the same direction [because] I can’t [do it all]. It's too big for me to do it all myself, so I have a lot of dancers who are very good teachers. We have a big program for people with Parkinson's Disease. There's a whole lot of stuff going on, and it's a thriving center of the community in Brooklyn, so I'm very, very proud of that.

MW: Do you do much or any dancing yourself these days?

MORRIS: Very little. I perform very rarely. Right now the program we're doing here, I'm singing in it — I sing in one of the pieces, in the [orchestra] pit, thank God. And, I still perform in The Hard Nut, my Nutcracker, every year. I occasionally conduct a little bit, so I'm involved in that aspect of performing, but I don't really dance that much anymore. I don't want to.

MW: How often do you sing?

MORRIS: Just in this piece. We just put it together to do a few places, so I took it on. So that was nervous-making, but it's fine.

Once a week, my company has a choral-singing class. We learn music theory and how to sight sing, so it's very productive for everybody, so they're more comfortable with music.

MW: Just to be clear: Will you be singing, will that piece be performed in Virginia?

MORRIS: No. Maybe we've done it there — that's possible, too. I don't know. We have a big repertory, so we rotate stuff and keep it active and interesting.

MW: Let’s talk about your repertory and your efforts to keep your work in continuous circulation. Is that a core element to your recently announced legacy plan?

MORRIS: Yes. Dances for the Future is what we're calling this project, which is for me to provide new work for when I can't choreograph anymore — whether I'm dead or just can't do it. I've been making up one dance or two a year that no one sees, but will be completely choreographed and designed, and lit, and finished, and then taught. Just like every other dance, dancers learn it, they pass it onto other dancers, so that it's a living thing. And then, after I'm dead, we'll be releasing these pieces gradually as needed, so it's not just doing old pieces over and over again. Even though I have a very large repertory — there's a lot of work to do — I thought it would be kind of nice to have a world premiere every once in a while from beyond the grave.

A lot of companies keep going for a while, or forever, after whoever was the principle choreographer or founder isn't around anymore. But I want that to happen with some fresh dances.

MW: You’re 62 now, which puts you near traditional retiring age.

Despite your legacy planning, do you plan to keep working for the foreseeable future?

MORRIS: Yeah, sure. That's what I hope.

MW: You mentioned The Hard Nut. Any chance we might see that in D.C.?

MORRIS: We've been talking about doing it in the Kennedy Center, and we'll see, that might happen in the future. I would love that. But that's just a dream of mine. We've done it all over the place. We do it pretty much every other year in New York.

This year, we’re probably doing it in Seattle. It's a very big show.

It's a big, gorgeous piece that's been around for twenty-something years.

30

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

MW: I know you’ve dabbled in choreographing for ballet companies

and directing opera. Do you still do that from time to time?

MORRIS: Yes, I do. We're reviving my Orpheus and Eurydice at the Met next year. And there’s a Rameau opera we're bringing back. So I do some. My principal work is with my company and that's how I like it. But I work occasionally in other modes, occasionally with ballet companies and in opera.

MW: How often are you on the road?

MORRIS: We're on tour almost half the year.

MW: Do you enjoy it?

MORRIS: No, I don't. I hate traveling because the airline industry is so horrific with all of the security and stuff. The way [they] treat people, everyone is a criminal when you go to the airport.

I love being other places and I love traveling and performing with my company. But just the tedium of traveling in our super fucked-up system of transport and treating people so guiltily. It's really horrific. It's very unpleasant. And I'm not a likely terrorist, but you still feel like shit when you show up at an airport in the United States.

And I've got it made. I travel business. I make a good salary.

My company's wonderful. I have a wonderful life. So for me to harp on details about [things] that I don't like, I'd rather not do that. I'd rather sound more optimistic, because I am.

MW: You mentioned earlier working with those affected by Parkinson’s. What exactly are you doing and what inspired that?

MORRIS: It's a really big [project]. It was started 15 years ago.

When we first opened our building in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Parkinson's group called and asked if we would send someone to teach. And we said, "No, you come here."

What started as a class once a month with a few people has turned into an enormous, worldwide organization of dancing and music classes for people with Parkinson's and their caregivers. There are classes all over the U.S., all over the world, where we train people in our particular technique, our particular pedagogy. And they develop this syllabus together, a couple of dancers from my company, and the Brooklyn Parkinson's group.

MW: So it wasn’t motivated by any personal or family connection to Parkinson’s then?

MORRIS: No. I mean, of course, just about everybody knows somebody, or is touched by somebody, who has P.D. But no, it's what we do 'cause we think it's important. And it just happened quite organically.

MW: Maybe it’s by design, but there’s not a lot out there about your personal life. I suspect all the traveling affects that, to some degree.

Are you in a relationship?

MORRIS: Oh, I have relationships with the people I work with.

I have friends. I have colleagues. I have no mate, and I'm not interested in that. Or children. No children, no mate. And that's how it stands with me.

MW: So that’s not how you're passing on your legacy, exactly?

MORRIS: Yeah, that's part of it, sure. I have a million adorable children at my school. Plus, a bunch of old people. Plus everything in between. So it's a very full and active sort of community.

That's very satisfying. l The Mark Morris Dance Group and Music Ensemble performs Friday, March 1, and Saturday, March 2, at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the George Mason University Center for the Arts, 4373 Mason Pond Drive, Fairfax. Tickets are $25 to $50. Call 888-9452468 or visit www.cfa.gmu.edu.

The Mark Morris Dance Center is at 3 Lafayette Ave., in Brooklyn, NY. Call 718-624-8400 or visit www.mmdg.org.

Gallery

Khanh Nguyen - Crane

CinCin Fang - Silk + Pearls

Hill Center Galleries: Regional Juried Exhibition O

Madison Bolls - Hollywood

VER THE YEARS, THIS EXHIBITION, featuring works in various mediums and subjects, has grown to include over 80 artists from D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. This year’s juror is Caitlin Berry of Hemphill Fine Arts.

Artists represented include Lory Ivey Alexander, Katherine Altom, Fabiola Alvarez Yurcisin, Kasse Andrews-Weller, Kimberley Bursic, Elizabeth Casqueiro, Marilyn Christiano, Kim DiDonatoMurrell, Christopher Fowler, Ric Garcia, Paul Hrusa, JoAnn Lamicella Laboy, Phet Lew, Rashad Muhammad, Khanh Nguyen, Zachary Reid, Judy Searles, Carol Ward, and Acquaetta Williams. On display to Sunday, March 3. At the Old Naval Hospital, 921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. Call 202-5494172 or visit www.HillCenterDC.org.

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

31

JONATHAN HESSION - FOCUS FEATURES

Movies

French Twist

Neil Jordan’s Greta builds taut suspense around a potent performance from Isabelle Huppert. By André Hereford

T

HE WRY, COMPACT THRILLER GRETA (HHHHH) RISES ON A NICE, slow buildup that starts with Frances, a fresh-faced young transplant to New York City, going out of her way to do a good deed. Frances finds a smart-looking ladies’ handbag on the subway and kindly seeks to return it to its owner, who turns out to be Greta, a lonesome piano-playing widow.

The first feature in six years from Oscar-winning director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game), Greta hews closely to the form of fairy tales and film thrillers from the ’80s and ’90s. Jordan began his career reimagining Red Riding Hood with the dreamy horror of The Company of Wolves, but he and co-writer Ray Wright don’t seem to be interested in reimagining formula here, just executing it solidly.

Fans of movie thrillers of the past thirty years will be waiting for the other psycho stiletto to drop as soon as they see Greta’s weird, rear-courtyard townhouse. And Jordan does provide Greta a few striking eccentricities that help distinguish her from the pack of unhinged friends, exes, babysitters, roommates, and pet monkeys that have terrorized movie heroes and heroines in the wake of Fatal Attraction.

What most distinguishes Greta, of course, is that she’s embodied by screen goddess Isabelle Huppert, an actress who makes standing still an act of sheer menace in one suspenseful sequence in the loner’s escalating campaign to hold onto her new friend Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz). Greta also deploys dramatic recitals of Liszt’s Liebestraum and Hungarian Rhapsodies to turn the screws on Frances and ramp up tension. The movie, abetted by detailed production design and cinematography, isolates 32

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Frances in a city where she’s basically on her own. She’s surrounded by people on the street, on the subway, at the restaurant where she works as a waitress, but no one’s ever really paying attention to her — until Greta, who pays way too much attention to her.

It feels right, via Moretz’s layered performance, that Frances both fears Greta and fears that they’re made for each other, although sex stays buried in the background. Huppert and Moretz’s close-up encounters and tête-à-têtes over tea deliver desire as subtext. This is a story more about companionship and human connection in a world where everyone bounces along inside their own bubble. Frances might not be losing her mind, but she feels the same aching loneliness that partly motivates Greta.

At least Frances does have one good friend in the city, her caring roomie Erica (Maika Monroe), and she hopes to repair her rocky relationship with her widower dad Chris (Colm Feore). Unfortunately, Frances’ dad stays too busy to help his daughter heal the grief they’re both experiencing since her mother died.

So, Frances is off to hell in a handbag, in this swiftly-paced, four-character

PATRICK REDMOND - FOCUS FEATURES

fugue, that twists and turns, though it never truly surprises.

Rather, it bears down on constructing a good trap to lure the damsel to distress, and make the audience squirm while she and they figure out how she’ll ever escape.

Led by Huppert’s oddly delightful turn as the devious, if utterly certifiable, Liszt-loving lunatic, Greta generates pulse-pounding results by strictly following the rules. That means also throwing in some laughably dumb moves on the part of naïvely trusting Frances, and a few standout clunkers of dialogue. But what would a good thriller be without a few glaring Don’t go in there! moments? Jordan doesn’t appear to be taking the tone of the movie too seriously, nowhere near as seriously as Greta takes keeping her friends close, and her enemies closer. But with friends like Greta, who needs enemies? l Greta is rated R, and is now playing at Landmark’s E Street and Bethesda Row Cinemas. Visit www.landmarktheaters.com.

Paint It Black Ruben Brandt, Collector spins a dizzying animated mystery out of a therapist’s unhealthy obsession with art. By André Hereford

G

REAT MASTERPIECES OF ART FUEL VISIONS THAT TWIST INTO NIGHTmares for the title character in Milorad Krstić’s trippy animated thriller Ruben Brandt, Collector (HHHHH). To rid himself of his horrifying hallucinations, prominent psychotherapist Brandt (Iván Kamarás) enlists a quartet of crooks to steal the thirteen paintings that have “tormented” him for most of his life. Or, rather, the crooks enlist themselves, led by lithe art thief, Mimi (Gabriella Hámori), who happens to be one of Brandt’s patients.

Mimi has taken to heart a philosophy espoused by Brandt: “Possess your problems to conquer them.” So, she and her cronies, also Brandt’s patients, are glad to help the doctor by attempting robberies from the finest museums on the planet.

Hungarian animator Krstić directed, conceived, and designed the visually distinctive, Freudian fantasy, and he’s ensured that Brandt’s terrors are vividly nightmarish.

The doctor is attacked by Velasquez’s L’Infante Marguerite, kidnapped to Arles by Van Gogh’s Postman, and mauled by a man from Hopper’s Nighthawks. Even Botticelli’s

Venus comes to life with deadly intent.

Like guest stars on The Simpsons, these famous faces of modern and classical art are rendered in the film’s layered cubist and surrealist style. The characters’ bodies and features look as if painted by Magritte, Léger, or Picasso, some with eyes or lips on the side of their head.

The quirky style extends to the art heists, highlighted in the first act by a sprightly, action-packed chase through Paris. Femme fatale Mimi escapes the scene of a crime in a cherry red Mercedes convertible, pursued by detective Mike Kowalski (Csaba Márton) in his Citroën.

The car chase suddenly gives way to an extreme parkour race around the Seine, and the cat-and-mouse between Kowalski and Mimi keeps evolving as its own subplot among many — too many to maintain interest in all the criss-crossing cops and criminals.

The story occasionally loses focus, bouncing between Brandt, Mimi, Kowalski, and a nefarious gang that’s out to shut down the art-stealing mastermind known underground as “The Collector.”

The effective score by Tibor Cári helps keep it all on track, though, adding jolts to Brandt’s daydreams, and propelling the gunfights and fast and furious vehicular mayhem. For good measure, Krstić even throws in twisted jazz covers of familiar pop tunes like Radiohead’s “Creep” and Britney’s “Oops!…I Did It Again,” along with a dance number inspired by Pulp Fiction, although that’s not one of the many film references that Krstić acknowledges in the end credits of this spellbinding mystery. l

Ruben Brandt, Collector is rated R and presented in English without subtitles, and is now playing at Landmark’s E Street Cinema.

Visit www.landmarktheaters.com.

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

33

C. STANLEY

Stage

Hot ’N Cold

Husbands and hustlers explore sex, love, and violence in the saucy but unsatisfying Reykjavík. By André Hereford

I

T CAN BE STRANGELY REFRESHING TO HEAR CHARACTERS ONSTAGE speak the frank, profanity-laced language of contemporary bedroom conversation.

And Steve Yockey’s Reykjavík (HHHHH), an episodic escapade through the bars, backrooms and hotel rooms of the Icelandic capital, hits a sweet spot of real talk in its series of interludes including husbands on holiday (Dylan Arredondo and Robert Bowen Smith); a role-playing hustler (Josh Adams) and his john (Arredondo); and a tourist (Adams) who hooks up with a local or two (Arredondo and Carlos Saldaña).

The thrust of Yockey’s sardonic study of mostly gay male desire comes through clearly enough in Rick Hammerly’s staging for Rorschach Theatre inside the spacious Silver Spring Black Box. Nearly every character floating through Reykjavík in search of a transcendent love, or love affair, finds that mistrust or violence gets in the way.

But, as these bed-partners and bedroom scenes shuffle on and off, some of them amusing, others suspenseful, absurd, or just unconvincing, they don’t gather much cumulative effect. The messages remain mixed, or indistinct, as do several of the characterizations.

The multitasking, six-person ensemble, led by Adams and Arredondo, captures the script’s odd mood of sex, whimsy, and suspense. Tonally, it’s a not-surprising witches’ brew coming from a playwright who also writes and produces the CW’s long-running genre hit Supernatural. A few of the confessional, erotic episodes turn bloody, while the story of the married couple creeped out by ravens roosting outside their hotel window takes an intriguing turn towards the absurd.

Not just any old birds, these are observant, opinionated ravens — critics, if you will — who send terse notes to the hotel management offering analysis of everything they’ve 34

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

observed in the husbands’ room.

Scenes between a hustler and john who either are playing out a rescue fantasy, or living through a horrifying reality, strike a less novel chord. Hammerly’s approach to the storyline, which might have brought some urgency and unexpected wit to a discussion of sex-trafficking, lands it squarely in the too-familiar realm of gay male fiction about damaged hustlers and johns.

Adams makes the hustler, Hank, an enigmatic manipulator, but doesn’t do enough to distinguish the guy from the other characters he’s playing. Perhaps his Hank and tourist James and lover Ebon are one person, or versions of one person.

Maybe the ravens can tell us.

Arredondo, on the other hand, locates a different voice and center of gravity for each of his characters, including Robert and another who’s legitimately frightening. His performance might actually persuade some in the audience into believing they’re seeing two different actors from scene to scene. Dina Soltan also contributes an appealing versatility in a variety of supporting roles, and Jenna Rossman and Adams share a lovely latter scene between siblings.

Hammerly relies on Katie McCreary’s exceptional lighting design, as much as the actors, to distinguish plot, mood, and

C. STANLEY

location. The lights, along with Kylos Brannon’s evocative video projections, lend style, and, in the case of a momentary glimpse of the “Northern Lights,” some sweet spectacle to cut through the increasingly bitter taste of this cocktail of dour sexual encounters. l Reykjavík runs through March 3 at Silver Spring Black Box, 8641 Colesville Road in Silver Spring. Tickets are $20 to $30.

Call 202-399-7993, or visit www.rorschachtheatre.com.

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

35

NightLife Photography by Ward Morrison

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

37

Scene

Trade’s Night of 1,000 Moiras with the cast of Schitt’s Creek Friday, Feb. 22 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly. com/scene

DrinksDragDJsEtc...

Thursday, February 28 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Shirtless Thursday, 10-11pm • Men in Underwear Drink Free, 12-12:30am • DJs BacK2bACk

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • $15 Buckets of Beer all night • Sports Leagues Night NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Visit pitchersbardc.com

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Bottles of Wine, 5pm-close TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS All male, nude dancers • Open Dancers Audition • Urban House Music by DJ Tim-e • 9pm • Cover 21+

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

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Friday, March 1 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 • Davon Hamilton Events presents District First Fridays: Underwear Party — Jocks and Socks, 10pm-close • Featuring DJ Tryfe and GoGo Dancers • $5 Cover before 11pm, $10 after 11pm • $5 Margaritas, $8 Long Islands

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 • Visit pitchersbardc.com

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 • Otter Happy Hour with guest DJs, 5-11pm ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm • Guest dancers • Rotating DJs • Kristina Kelly’s Diva Fev-ah Drag Show • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:30pm and 1:45am • DJ Don T. in Ziegfeld’s • Cover 21+

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR 555 23rd St. S. Arlington, Va. 703-685-0555

NUMBER NINE 1435 P St. NW 202-986-0999 www.numberninedc.com

GREEN LANTERN 1335 Green Ct. NW 202-347-4533 www.greenlanterndc.com

PITCHERS 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.pitchersbardc.com

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR 900 U St. NW 202-332-6355 www.nelliessportsbar.com

SHAW’S TAVERN 520 Florida Ave. NW 202-518-4092 www.shawstavern.com

NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS Compiled by Doug Rule RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE SEASON 11: DRAG-HOSTED VIEWING PARTIES

At least seven queens will battle it out for the title of D.C.’s Best Host for a Reality Show Viewing Party starting this Thursday, Feb. 28, and continuing at 9 p.m. every Thursday into Pride season. The show in question is RuPaul’s Drag Race, the hit VH1 show preparing to hoist 14 new queens — plus the return of Vanessa Vanjie Mateo — on a suspecting America via its 11th Season. There’s a viewing party on the boards at just about every gay bar in town, including Pitchers, Nellie’s, Uproar, and JR.’s, the latter of which dangles the prospect of a 30-minute open bar for the patron who correctly guesses which queen will be sent packing per episode.

Saturday, March 2 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-3am • Video Games • Live televised sports AVALON SATURDAYS Lights Out 2.0 Dance Party, 10pm-2am • Featuring DJ Matt Bailer • General admission $15 • 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 • REWIND: Request Line, an ‘80s and ‘90s Dance Party, 9pm-close • Featuring DJ Darryl Strickland • No Cover NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-3am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs NUMBER NINE Doors open 2pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Time Machine and Power Hour, featuring DJ Jack Rayburn, 9:30pm

For total tucking immersion, it helps to wash it all down watching with a local drag queen or two. This season’s roster includes: Jane Saw at Trade, where DJ Wess will put some bass in your gawk, plus there will be games and the “usual antics,” including XL Happy Hour drink prices until 10 p.m.; Goldie Grigio at the 18th & U Duplex Diner; Crystal Edge, Katrina Colby, and D.C.’s own Drag Race alum Tatianna, plus additional guest stars each week at the DC Eagle, which caps things off with a Male Burlesque Revue in the Exile upstairs; Desiree Dik at Dew Drop Inn (www.dewdropinn.com), where every fourth Thursday, including Feb. 28, there’s a Twisted party with drag acts Bratworst, Bellatrix Foxxx, plus an amateur Slay contest; and Mister Mowens and the Queertopia party at the Dirty Goose, offering everything from the standard games and drink specials to look contests and queer art.

For contact information and links, visit www.metroweekly.com/nightlife.

GREEN LANTERN’S REWIND: REQUEST LINE

Darryl Strickland was one of the most prolific DJs in gay D.C. in the ’90s, which makes him eminently qualified to serve as VJ for this first-Saturdays party focused on playing the best video hits of the ’80s and ’90s. There are drink specials on offer and the ability to make requests all night long.

Saturday, March 2, starting at 9 p.m. Green Lantern, 1335 Green Ct. NW. No cover. Call 202-347-4533 or visit greenlanterndc.com.

ELECTRIC RAINBOW: LVE EDITION

The first Sunday of every month, DJ Chord throws a weekend winddown party in the unmarked space behind the freezer door in Capo DC, the Shaw sandwich shop. DJ TWiN joins Chord for a party to pop the cork on March and hurry up spring with heat-inducing performances from KC B. Yoncé and Jazzmine. Sunday, March 3, from 5 to 10 p.m. The BackRoom, 715A Florida Ave. NW. Call 202-910-6884 or visit facebook.com/TheBackRoomCapo.

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL: MARDI GRAS PARTY & FUNDRAISER

TRADE 1410 14th St. NW 202-986-1094 www.tradebardc.com ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS 1824 Half St. SW 202-863-0670 www.ziegfelds.com

Among the many gay ways to celebrate Mardi Gras, few others are likely to make you feel as good and as proud, and as close to God, as this.

The LGBTQIA Alliance of the Washington National Cathedral presents a Crawfish Boil at Brookland’s Dew Drop Inn, which will host the fundraiser to build “an epic Cathedral float” for the Capital Pride parade. In addition to all-you-can-eat shucked shellfish plus an open bar for two full hours, the #FundTheFloat party offers entertainment by way of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and, direct from Dallas, gay entertainer Paul J. Williams, who, befitting the occasion, will be in character as Sister Helen Holy, “ministering on behalf of the fictitious First Southern Fried Self-Satisfied Baptist Church.” Tuesday, March 5, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. The Dew Drop Inn is at 2801 8th St. NE. Tickets are $100. Call 202-791-0909 or search “Pride Parade Float” at www.cathedral.org. l FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

39

PITCHERS Open Noon-3am • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am • Visit pitchersbardc.com SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with $15 Bottomless Mimosas, 10am-3pm • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers TRADE Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm-4am • Guest dancers • Ladies of Illusion Drag Show with host Ella Fitzgerald • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:30pm and 1:45am • DJ Don T. in Ziegfeld’s • DJ Steve Henderson in Secrets • Cover 21+

Sunday, March 3 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-12am • $4 Smirnoff and Domestic Cans • Video Games • Live televised sports

40

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 • Zodiac Monthly Drag Contest, hosted by Ophelia Bottoms, 8-10pm • Karaoke, 10pm-close

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Dinner-n-Drag with Miss Kristina Kelly, 8pm • For reservations, email shawsdinnerdragshow@ gmail.com

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Karaoke with Kevin downstairs, 9:30pm-close

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

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

Monday, March 4 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

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Shaw ’Nuff Trivia, with Jeremy, 7:30pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

Tuesday, March 5 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco Tuesday • Karaoke, 9pm 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 • Visit pitchersbardc.com SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Burgers and Pizzas, 5-10pm • DC Bocce, Second Floor, 6:30pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

Wednesday, March 6 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 nelliessportsbar.com NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Visit pitchersbardc.com SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Paint Nite, Second Floor, 7pm • 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

Thursday, March 7

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

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

PITCHERS Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Visit pitchersbardc.com

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Gong Karaoke Contest, 8pm • Hosted by Labella Mafia and DeeDee Amor Dior GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Shirtless Thursday, 10-11pm • Men in Underwear Drink Free, 12-12:30am • DJs BacK2bACk NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • $15 Buckets of Beer all night • Sports Leagues Night

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Bottles of Wine, 5pm-close TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS All male, nude dancers • Open Dancers Audition • Urban House Music by DJ Tim-e • 9pm • Cover 21+

Friday, March 8 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

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

TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 • Otter Happy Hour with guest DJs, 5-11pm ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm • Guest dancers • Rotating DJs • Kristina Kelly’s Diva Fev-ah Drag Show • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:30pm and 1:45am • DJ Don T. in Ziegfeld’s • Cover 21+

Saturday, March 9 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-3am • Video Games • Live televised sports

AVALON SATURDAYS DC @Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW LGBTQ Dance Party, 10pm-close • General admission $15 • 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 • No Cover • Clothes check available • $5 Fireball, $5 Margaritas, $8 Long Islands

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

41

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-3am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs NUMBER NINE Doors open 2pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Pop Tarts, featuring DJs BacK2bACk, 9:30pm

42

PITCHERS Open Noon-3am • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am • Visit pitchersbardc.com SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with $15 Bottomless Mimosas, 10am-3pm • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers TRADE Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

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

Sunday, March 10 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-12am • $4 Smirnoff and Domestic Cans • Video Games • Live televised sports

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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 • Piano Bar with John Flynn, 6-8pm • 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 at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-1am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs

NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • Pop Goes the World with Wes Della Volla at 9:30pm • No Cover

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Dinner-n-Drag with Miss Kristina Kelly, 8pm • For reservations, email shawsdinnerdragshow@ gmail.com

PITCHERS Open Noon-2am • $4 Smirnoff, includes flavored, $4 Coors Light or $4 Miller Lites, 2-9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Visit pitchersbardc.com

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 l

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

43

44

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

LastWord.

People say the queerest things

“We made a film about a gay man, an immigrant, who lived his life just unapologetically himself. ” — RAMI MALEK, speaking about Freddie Mercury at the 91st Academy Awards. Malek took home Best Actor for his performance as Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. “The fact that I’m celebrating him and this story with you tonight is proof that we’re longing for stories like this,” he added.

“If we can be a church which brings Jesus to people who were told can’t be loved, that’s what I want our church to be.”

— JEFFREY WARREN, a gay delegate from New York to the United Methodist Church’s General Conference, in a passionate speech imploring the conference to support Methodist churches ordaining LGBTQ ministers and performing same-sex marriages. Of his evangelism at college, Warren said, “We have brought people to Jesus because they said they have not heard this message before: They didn’t know God could love them, because their churches said God didn’t.”

“Identify however you want, to each his own, but this is too far and unfair to so many.”

— DONALD TRUMP JR., in a tweet responding to news that the top-ranked NCAA women’s track athlete is a transgender woman.

Trump called it a “grave injustice,” echoing similar statements he made after two transgender students placed first and second at a Connecticut girls’ state track championship.

“This is the most masculine sport with the most masculine people and they can all stand around and not bat an eyelid.”

— CHRIS MCNAGHTEN, openly gay strongman competitor, speaking to PinkNews about the lack of homophobia among strongman athletes. “Go into other sports, where there’s less masculinity if you like, and for some reason it’s a big deal,” he continued.

“I think that’s a lot to do with insecurity in other people because there is no insecurity in strongman. These men are the biggest and strongest men in the world, there’s nothing to be insecure about.”

“I’m waiting for someone to accuse me of something, and me wondering whether they’re not telling the truth and me having forgotten. ” — SIR IAN MCKELLEN, in an interview for National Student Pride responding to accusations of sexual misconduct against actor Kevin Spacey and director Bryan Singer. McKellen said being closeted might have led to the alleged assaults, saying, “Both of them were in the closet.... If they had been able to be open about themselves and their desires, they wouldn’t have started abusing people in the way they’ve been accused.”

46

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY