The Portraits of Todd Franson - Metro Weekly Special 26th Anniversary Issue

May 7, 2020

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Contents

EMPTY NEST

DC Eagle employees on the legacy of the city’s oldest LGBTQ nightclub, and the alleged mismanagement that brought it down

By John Riley

THE PORTRAITS OF TODD FRANSON

As Metro Weekly turns 26, we celebrate the work of a person who has helped to create and define its very essence.

Interview by Randy Shulman Photography by Todd Franson

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Volume 27 Issue 1

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GREAT CATCH

A Secret Love is in a league of its own documenting the history, love story, and struggles of two pioneering lesbians.

By André Hereford

OVERTURE p.5 SPOTLIGHT: BAKED GOODNESS p.7 BARD POWER p.8 ADVENTURES IN ONLINE WONDERLAND p.11 OUT ON THE TOWN p.13 THE FEED: CLOSING TIME p.21 BACKING BIDEN p.22 PREACHING HATE p.23 DINE AND DRAG p.24 PAPAL PROVISIONS p.25 LUNCH WITH LOVE p.26 GALLERY: CHRISTINE VINEYARD p.168 FILM: CLEMENTINE p.172 MUSIC: JOJO p.174 SELFIE SCENE p.175 LAST WORD p.176 Washington, D.C.’s Best LGBTQ Magazine for 25 Years 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 Illustrators David Amoroso, Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Troy Petenbrink, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla Patron Saint Steven Myers and Ben Morris Cover Photography Todd Franson Metro Weekly 1775 I St. NW, Suite 1150 Washington, DC 20006 202-638-6830 All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.

© 2020 Jansi LLC.

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Overture Extraordinary World I

T WAS FATE. It was fate in 1993 that guided me to a party thrown by the late, gifted artist Paul Myatt. Fate continued to rear its head a year later, when the doors of a publication Paul and I both freelanced for closed, paving the way for the creation of Metro Weekly on May 5, 1994.

It was fate that, in true, piece-by-piece jigsaw fashion, brought together a talented crew — writers Sean Bugg and Kate Wingfield, designer Daryl Wakeley, photographer Annie Adjchavanich — to devise a weekly LGBTQ magazine the likes of which the city had never seen. To be sure, the early Metro Weekly was an unusual product — an offbeat hybrid of bar rag and arts and culture magazine, combining high-end, literate writing and ravishing images with shockingly graphic advertisements that even make me blush today.

And it was most certainly fate that led to my first encounter with a talented young photographer by the name of Todd Franson. Little did I know while attending Franson’s remarkable exhibit Nightlights, at the subterranean 17th Street Restaurant Trumpets, that an indelible, indestructible creative partnership would be forged and endure 26 years later. The story of Todd’s unique, lasting, and vital involvement with the magazine is the subject of this week’s 26th Anniversary issue, and his interview, which begins on page 34, illuminates his approach to photography and life without, remarkably, one mention of Duran Duran.

The interview was meant to be followed by 26 of Todd’s portraits taken over the years. After hours upon hours upon hours of deliberation, we finally threw our hands up, realized that as a digital publication we didn’t have to worry about page count, and added 100 to the 26. I hope the visual journey, which is in loose chronological order, will surprise you, bring back memories of some who have been lost, and serve as a testament to the magnificent talent of Todd Franson and his commitment to photographing the LGBTQ community in its finest light.

We could have published hundreds more, but we had to stop somewhere. Together, Todd and I have curated what we think is representative of the breadth of his portraiture for this publication, but is also representative of our mission to capture LGBTQ history, art, culture, and news, in a powerful and unique manner. We will be doling out

more portraits and never-before-seen outtakes on our Instagram account throughout May. Follow us there at @metroweekly.

The cover proved somewhat of a challenge, until Todd suggested that he do his own self-portrait, something he had never tried before. The results, if I say so myself, are thrilling. (A residual rainbow from the lights appeared directly over his head — if that’s not fate intervening, what is?)

Metro Weekly has always put an emphasis on its visuals, and Todd and I have been fortunate to work alongside some of the best photographers (Annie, Michael Wichita, Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim), illustrators (Myatt, Scott G. Brooks, Kendra Kuliga, Stuart Haggis, David Amoroso), and designers (Wakeley, Nancy Saiz, Mike Heffner, and Tony Frye). I think all in turn would agree Todd’s involvement with Metro Weekly was an instance of good fortune for them as well.

A month and a half ago, when I announced in this space that we’d be taking the print edition of Metro Weekly on hiatus for a few weeks as the pandemic played out, little did I realize weeks would stretch into months, and that now we’re looking at even more months to come. I am proud of Todd and the entire staff for making this temporary transition to digital so effortlessly. To us, the digital version is no different than the printed edition. It’s not about the vehicle, I have come to realize, it’s about the content. And we are dedicated to providing you with the highest quality, most useful content possible. (Plus you can now watch video directly in our pages! How cool is that?)

As we start our 26th anniversary year, we thank you for your readership, and for your support of us and our advertisers. We have some fun surprises in store — just wait — and are thrilled that we can continue to deliver Metro Weekly right to your phone, tablet, or desktop. (To be alerted to a new issue automatically, download the free Issuu app and follow Metro Weekly at issuu.com/metroweekly.)

As a good friend remarked to me after the first digital edition came out, “This is fantastic. It feels like the future.” If you ask me, it feels like fate.

Stay safe and stay well, Randy Shulman Publisher/Editor MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF RED TRUCK BAKERY

Spotlight

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Baked Goodness

HEY’RE STILL MAKING THE DRIVE. THEY WANT all in-store operations “until further notice,” leaving in its wake to get out of the house,” says Brian Noyes of Virginia’s only the sales from nationwide delivery through UPS. Instead Red Truck Bakery. He’s referring to regular customers of shutting down altogether, Noyes decided to bulk up online who live throughout Northern Virginia and even as far away as by adding options for local pickup. “I built a new, local ordering D.C., roughly an hour away. “And our redbuds are in bloom, all website for preorders and parking lot pickup,” he says. The site, throughout the Virginia Piedmont. It’s worth the drive!” pickup.redtruckbakery.com, allows customers to place sameMore to the point, it’s a welcome departure from sheltering day orders at its main location in Marshall, Va. at home during the pandemic, and one that’s also perfectly legitThose orders go far beyond the gourmet sweet treat stanimate. “We’re a food business,” he says. “So we’re essential. And dards — Meyer lemon and rum cakes, say, or what Andrew we’re open.”

Zimmern calls “the best granola in North America” — to include With two locations in what Noyes refers to as “the boonies of lots of savory standouts, such as focaccia, sandwiches, and lasaVirginia,” Red Truck has been a popular draw for gna. “We always had a soup of the day,” he says.

Click to Visit “But darn it, it’s a whole new world! And we’re now discerning urban foodies for years, earning accolades and repeat business from President Obama, Marian making and selling frozen quarts of chicken noodle the Website Burros of the New York Times, and editors of Oprah’s soup and veggie lentil soup.

O Magazine. Noyes himself gave up a successful career in publish“Everything freezes really well,” he continues. “So customers ing, including stints as the art director of the Washington Post and are stocking up on frozen chicken pot pies now that we make Smithsonian magazine, to launch Red Truck a decade ago as “a them. We’re making flatbread, sending out meatloaf. It’s more sweet, little, charming bakery that people love.” than a bakery. It’s now bulk items that’ll last several months in Nearly two months ago, COVID-19 threatened to end all the freezer or a week or so in the fridge to keep a family fed. And that as the coronavirus’ rapid spread forced the suspension of they can get a pie or cake for dessert.” —Doug Rule Red Truck Bakery’s main location is at 8368 W. Main St., Marshall, Va. Pickup hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for same-day orders.

Visit www.redtruckbakery.com.

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DC METRO THEATER ARTS

Spotlight

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Bard Power

HE IRONY OF COVID-19 WAS NOT LOST ON SIMON Godwin. “We were running Timon of Athens when the shutdown came,” says the newly installed Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Theater Company. “Timon is the story about somebody that goes from being on top of the world, being incredibly generous and much loved, to suddenly, in a matter of days, losing their money and ending up alone, self-isolating in a wood, despairing at the state of the world.... We realized that this play was an incredible prophecy. We, ourselves, had gone from a place of golden happiness to suddenly walking home alone, our theater shut down, our future uncertain, and very much resembling a character from the play.”

Like so many other theaters in town, The Shakespeare adapted to the situation, first moving its final show of the season, Much Ado About Nothing, to Spring of 2021. Then, Godwin and his creative crew devised virtual solutions to keep audiences engaged during the region’s “stay-at-home” confinement. One was to showcase Britain’s National Theatre recorded streams, including the Godwin-helmed Antony & Cleopatra, with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo, free of charge, now through May 14, on the Shakespeare Theatre’s website.

“We are all in the same play now,” says Godwin. “It’s unheard of when so many millions of people across the planet are all in the same conditions — it's a drama that we're all sharing. We all also share a need for stories. The muscle in us that requires narrative is searching for how to get that. I think it's incumbent on theatres to go, ‘How do we freshly engage and provide narrative?’”

So Godwin and company devised “The Shakespeare Hour,” a weekly videocast that finds the director and dramaturg Drew Lichtenberg in conversation with various theatrical luminaries, discussing Shakespearean works. On Wednesday, May 13,

Godwin

Godwin welcomes the Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks, along with actor Patrick Paige and Tony-winning director Rebecca Taichman, to discuss The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest.

“I want it to be a chatty, informed, engaging exploration of why Shakespeare is great,” says Godwin of the series. “People should feel like they're with us in the room. It should feel intimate, it should feel spontaneous. It's a time to have access to people that you might not normally have access to.”

Godwin is finding ways to have hope through these times.

“To quote Emerson, ‘Every wall is a door,’” he says. “Every challenge is also an opportunity. It's been a great time, for me, of sadness, absolutely. But also one of reflection and really thinking carefully about what the theater is going to be standing for in the next few years. Theater is essentially the gathering of human beings, and that gathering part of our nature has been so present since the beginning of time. To survive so many trials, not least in Shakespeare's time of the plague, makes me feel that the overwhelming wish to be together will return and it will return stronger than ever. It might take a while, and it might take some breakthroughs in science before we are all comfortable to sit together as we once did, but when we do, I think it will feel newly important, significant, and powerful to be back in contact with each other as human beings.”

He notes that in Shakespeare’s time, the plague drove the Bard into his own isolation, where he wrote Macbeth and King Lear.

“He went back to Stratford-upon-Avon and thought to himself, ‘What does the world need when we come back? I think it might need one of the [most] harrowing tragedies ever written.’

And he gets his pen out and off he goes. So, in a way, we have to thank pestilence for giving us great artwork.” —Randy Shulman

“The Shakespeare Hour” has been extended through June 10. New episodes debut every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are free for STC Members and $10 for non-members. Visit www.shakespearetheatre.org/events/the-shakespeare-hour.

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Spotlight

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Adventures in Online Wonderland

S THE GENERAL MANAGER OF ATLAS OBSCURA’S Obscura LIVE,” a monthly variety show featuring “different preExperiences division, Megan Roberts has had a unique sentations that are built around a theme,” with Games the focus hand in making the website and its offerings as eclectic and of the next one, set for May 28. eccentric and entertaining as they come. Where else, for instance, Many of the new experiences stem from the Brooklyn-based could you get to know a Stroh violinist, learn about the supernat- organization’s Wonder From Home initiative, which, says Roberts, ural cats of Japan, meet a queer community-building soupmaker was launched “to highlight and support our community [of] and chef, learn how to make mead vinegar from honey, and take a incredible experts and artists and small businesses and collectors” “sound bath” with a theremin-playing drag performer? while also re-emphasizing a core value, that of “keeping open to “It’s a fun rabbit hole to go down,” says Roberts. a sense of possibility in a time that's really difficult for everyone.”

Founded in 2009 by Joshua Foer and Dylan Thuras, Atlas Says Roberts, “It’s been really amazing how quickly both our Obscura was “built to highlight and celebrate the world’s hidden audiences have responded to our online offerings, but also how wonders,” shared through original editorial content, highlights many of the artists and the experts in the locations that we work of which have been turned into a bestselling book, a second edi- with have just really been excited about [the] opportunity to tion of which was recently released. Roughly eight share their story with a global audience as opposed Click to years ago, Roberts signed on to help bolster that to just the people [in their] location.” content by helping to oversee the development of Since the pandemic, the site has also “seen a big Explore More events “to actually get our audience out experiencincrease in the number of submissions from people ing those incredible places, kind of hidden, untold histories, and who...instead of being out in the world exploring, are kind of obscure but fascinating finds.” reminiscing on some of the incredible things that they’ve seen in For the time being, in-person experiences have been put on the past and sharing those with us,” says Roberts. “We are loving hold, but the company has responded to the COVID-19 pandem- getting those submissions. So much of what we do and can offer ic by “building from scratch an online experience business.” is really because of our amazing community of contributors.”

Among the newer online offerings Roberts singles out is “Atlas —Doug Rule To explore the online offerings of Atlas Obscura, visit www.atlasobscura.com/experiences.

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VirtVual

Out On The Town

Roar

THE AFI VIRTUAL SCREENING ROOM

You may not be able to go to The AFI Silver in person at the moment, so they’re bringing the movies to you. The theater currently has several great streaming selections including Beyond the Visible-Hilma Af Klint, Halina Dyrschka’s course-correcting documentary about an abstract artist way ahead of her time who had been all-but-forgotten to art history due to patriarchal and capitalistic notions of artistic progress and value ($12 for a five-day streaming period on Vimeo); Sorry We Missed You, Ken Loach’s wrenching, intimate family drama from last year focused on the British working class and exposing the dark side of the “gig economy” ($12 for a five-day stream); Roar, the infamous (for all the wrong reasons) 1981 action-comedy, set in the African plains and starring Tippi Hedren and her family, including daughter Melanie Griffith, and a pack of wild lions who attack them as they battle for dominance ($9.99 for a one-week stream); The Dog Doc, a documentary filmed in a veterinary clinic ($12 for a three-day stream); and Best of CatVideoFest: Creature Comforts Edition, a new collection of feline-centric short films from the popular series, offered in a pay-what-you-want screening.

Ticket purchases benefit the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, with additional support to independent filmmaking and distribution. Visit www.afi.com/Silver.

Compiled by Doug Rule

FILM ALAMO-AT-HOME: VIRTUAL CINEMA OFFERINGS

While its physical cinemas remain closed, including its two locations in Northern Virginia, the arthouse film chain has put together a package of virtual streaming offerings that are as eccentric as they come. The lineup includes: a new 2K preservation of Keith Li’s 1982 gross-out classic Centipede Horror, a Hong Kong Category III horror movie never released on home video in the U.S., about a brother whose investigation into his sister’s mysterious death while on vacation leads to the discovery of a family curse and battles with wizards and lots of creepy crawlies (available for $7.75 for a one-week streaming period); Porno, Keola Racela’s 2019 scary tale about a group of repressed teenagers in a small conservative town “visited by

a sex demon that gives them a taste of the dark side,” ($12 for a 48-hour stream); Drug Stories, a compilation from the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) featuring many of the U.S. government’s “classroom scare films,” attempting to warn kids about the dangers of illicit substances by showing spiders on speed and animated LSD tabs, plus straight talk from Florrie Fisher, all as wildly entertaining as they were ineffective ($4.20 for a one-week stream); and the related Reefer Madness, the preposterous propaganda film from 1936 that has become a cult classic among stoners and movie aficionados, presented in a restored 2K offering from AGFA with additional features including vintage trailers, commercials, and reefer ephemera ($4.20 for one-week stream). All tickets purchased benefit the arthouse film chain as well as featured filmmakers. Visit www.drafthouse. com/alamo-at-home.

LEONARDO: THE WORKS

Every single painting attributed to the world’s most famous artist, never seen before in a single film.

That’s the premise behind Phil Grabsky’s documentary, originally released last year to mark the 500th anniversary of da Vinci’s death.

Presented as part of the Exhibition On Screen series of documentaries about classic Western art and artists, Leonardo: The Works displays in Ultra HD The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, Lady with an Ermine, Madonna Litta, and more than a dozen other artworks. Having screened the documentary last fall, the Avalon Theatre now offers it for at-home streaming via Vimeo.

Tickets are $12 for a 24-hour streaming period, with all profits equally shared between the nonprofit theater and the film’s distributor, Seventh Art Productions. Call 202-966-6000 or visit www.theavalon.org/films/leonardo-the-works.

SPACESHIP EARTH

Matt Wolf’s new documentary concerns Biosphere 2, the replica of Earth’s ecosystem launched in 1991 by a group of “unconventional visionaries” who spent two years quarantined inside as an experiment in self-contained ecological sustainability. Wolf was drawn to the bizarre, true, stranger-than-fiction story in part because of how much media attention the experiment drew at the time, and even more how such a remarkable story was able to fade into the level of obscurity it faces today: barely remembered, hardly discussed, mostly unknown (with the possible exception of Bio-Dome, the 1996 comedy featuring Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin). All the more so given that its inventors and participants are still alive. This forgotten bit of history, according to the official synopsis, serves as “both a cautionary tale and a hopeful lesson of how a small group of dreamers can

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Harris, Liz Maestri, Psalmayene 24, Tim J. Lord, Audrey Cefaly, Dani Stoller, Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, and Caleen Sinnette Jennings. The company’s artistic director Ryan Rilette and associate artistic director Nicole A. Watson are offering remote direction during rehearsals to the actors, who are filming their parts from home with additional guidance on home lighting by designer Harold F. Burgess II and wardrobe

by Ivania Stack. Through June 29.

Visit www.RoundHouseTheatre. org/Homebound.

V. TONMY HAUSER

MOSAIC ALIVE

CITY WINERY’S MOTHER’S DAY CONCERT

City Winery New York is presenting a top-notch lineup that might actually please your mother. And because it’s a livestream, it’s also a concert you could consider watching (virtually) with mom on her special day even if you’ll be physically distant or apart.

Inspired by Billy Bragg’s “Can’t Be There Today,” a new song that touches on the emotional costs of the COVID-19 pandemic, the concert, Sunday, May 10 at 5 p.m. EST on YouTube, is geared as a musical celebration of mothers. The event will feature performances by Bragg and the City Winery All-Stars along with Roseanne Cash, Richard Thompson, the Indigo Girls, Rufus Wainwright, Loudon Wainwright, Mary Chapin Carpenter, the Mountain Goats, Shovels & Rope, Steve Earle, Joan Osborne, Todd Snider, KT Tunstall, Joseph Arthur, Stella Donnelly, Fink, Amy Helm, and Jorma Kaukonen.

And if that’s not enough, organizers promise “additional artists to be announced.” Rita Houston of New York’s WFUV Public Radio will host. The concert benefits the United Nations Foundation and its work in addressing sexual and reproductive health and rights during COVID-19. Tickets are $10 for a viewing link to be sent two hours in advance. Visit www.citywinery.com/newyork. potentially reimagine a new world.”

The Avalon Theatre is one among many venues around the country that will benefit by offering customers a link to screen the documentary, distributed by NEON. Streaming begins Friday, May 8.

Visit www.theavalon.org/films/ spaceship-earth.

STAGE 1ST STAGE: VIRTUAL COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS SERIES

With the COVID-19 pandemic keeping stages dark for a third month, Virginia’s 1st Stage becomes another area theater company taking to Zoom to connect artists with patrons and keep everyone interested and engaged in its work. The multi-Helen Hayes Award-winning troupe’s new weekly series kicks off with a “Meet the Staff” introductory event featuring the artistic and managerial staff this Saturday, May

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9, then continues with: “Artistic Directors in Conversation” featuring the company’s artistic directors, past and present, discussing their history and creative process, on May 16; “Performers in Quarantine,” focused on actors from the upcoming production of the gay-themed show The Nance sharing their experiences during the shutdown, on May 23; “How 1st Stage Develops New Work,” featuring the creative forces behind some of the shows that have premiered at the company, on May 30; “The Life of a Solo Artist,” featuring artists from The Logan Festival discussing their one-person productions, on June 6; and “Cultural Tysons,” focused on how arts and cultural organizations in the area have weathered COVID19 and what they have coming up, on June 13. All conversations are live at 2 p.m., with recordings of each posted online for later viewing. Register for each Community Conversation at www.1ststage.org

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HOMEBOUND

Round House Theatre won’t reopen its recently renovated space in Bethesda until the fall season, but the company has hired back nine actors who were slated to appear in three canceled spring productions for Homebound. An original web series that explores life under Stay-at-Home orders in the Nation’s Capital, the series stars Craig Wallace and Maboud Ebrahimzadeh and is progressing in a 10-episode “chain story” style, with each episode — one available for free every Monday evening — building off what came before but written by a different area playwright. Launched with “Connect!,” a 12-minute episode written by humorist and Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri, the series continues this week with “Episode Two: Human Resources,” a 13-minute episode written by Karen Zacarías and featuring Ebrahimzadeh and Alina Collins Maldonado. Subsequent weeks will offer episodes from Farah Lawal

Until it returns to regular programming at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in August, the Mosaic Theater Company has taken to Zoom and Facebook for twice-weekly discussions with its artists and other experts on relevant topics, all directly or indirectly related to productions and events in the company’s upcoming Season 6. Next up: “The Arts and the Struggle for Liberation: Making of The Till Trilogy,” a discussion focused on Ifa Bayeza’s The Till Trilogy, the world premiere of which has been rescheduled to close out Season 6 with a run next summer, on Friday, May 8, at 4 p.m.; “From Vision to Opening Night: The Director’s Process,” with details to be announced, set for Friday, May 15, at 4 p.m.; and “Peace Cafe: Peace, Resistance and Reconciliation,” focused on the life and legacy of Emmett Till as seen through the lens of Mosaic’s entire Encountering Emmett Series, on Monday, May 18 at 4 p.m. Still available for streaming is the Season 6 announcement from last Friday, when artistic director Ari Roth unveiled the lineup for the season that starts up in the fall, followed by a live discussion and Q&A. Visit www.mosaictheater.org/alive.

MOLLY’S SALONS AT ARENA STAGE

While the Mead Center for American Theater remains dark until September with the start of its next season, Arena Stage has come up with an eclectic package of free online programming, mostly taped discussions and performances. Among the offerings is this free, weekly series of half-hour discussions led by the company’s artistic director Molly Smith and featuring a rotating mix of Arena artists, leaders, and outside affiliates. Available for streaming from Arena’s website every Thursday night at 7 p.m., the upcoming lineup includes playwright Craig Lucas, set designer Ken MacDonald, and Maria Manuela Goyanes, artistic director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (May 7); Jenn Sheeetz, Arena’s properties director, Aerica Shimizu Banks, public policy and social impact manager

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May 7, Tim J. Lord (“We declare you a terrorist...”) on May 14, Aaron Posner (The Tempest: Classic Tale Magically Reimagined) on May 21, and Mfoniso Udofia (Sojourners) on May 28. Visit www.roundhousetheatre.org/RHathome.

MUSIC

TERESA WOOD

A NIGHT IN WITH THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA: BEETHOVENNOW

KENNEDY CENTER’S IN THE HEIGHTS

This week started with the sad yet not exactly surprising news that the Kennedy Center’s sold-out summer run of Hamilton is being postponed to a later period of time, still to be determined. It could end on a much happier note while still in the key of LinManuel Miranda, should you choose to stream the free, three-hour semi-staged concert performance of his first Tony-winning Broadway musical. Presented as part of the Kennedy Center’s Broadway Center Stage series of pared down, actor-centered productions, this In The Heights, from 2018, features a large cast led by Vanessa Hudgens (Gigi), Anthony Ramos (from the original cast of Hamilton), J. Quinton Johnson (also from Hamilton), Ana Villafañe (On Your Feet!), and Eden Espinosa (Wicked), all directed and choreographed by Stephanie Klemons, an original cast member and assistant dance captain of In The Heights on Broadway who also served as associate choreographer for Hamilton. It is uplifting, joyous, and remarkable to behold. Visit www.kennedy-center.org/video/digital-stage.

of Pinterest, and singer-songwriter Mary McBride (May 14); and playwright Lauren Yee, Kirk Johnson of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and Anita Maynard-Losh, Arena’s director of community engagement and senior artistic advisor (May 21). The previous four discussions in the series are also still available for streaming, with updates from choreographer Parker Esse, actors Nicholas Rodriguez and Edward Gero, playwright Karen Zacarías, and director Charles Randolph-Wright, among others. Visit www.arenastage.org/ tickets/intermission.

PLAY AT HOME

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Baltimore Center Stage are founding members of a small coalition of regional U.S. theaters formed in the wake of COVID-19 as an attempt to inspire and engage both professional artists as well as theater amateurs and novices — connected through the act of storytelling and performance. The

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“Play At Home” initiative features a growing series of plays under 10 minutes in length, created “specifically for this moment of unprecedented isolation, to inspire joy and connection for all.” Available as free downloads, the plays were written with the intimate setting of a private home in mind. The commissioned playwrights were also encouraged to think outside the box and allow for the inclusion of “elements that could not be reproduced for the stage.” The lineup includes Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi (The Diaz Family Talent Show), Aleshea Harris (If, Can, Mayhap), and Mike Lew (Performance Review), all specifically commissioned by Woolly Mammoth, Noah Diaz (House), Miranda Rose Hall (What Happened in the Kitchen), and Keenan Scott II (Strike) from Baltimore Center Stage, and Timothy Allen McDonald & Rob Rokicki (The Greatest 10 Minute Musical Ever Written!), a musical and reality TV show mashup from Jose Casas (Holyyyyyyy Hottttttt Cheetosssssss!!!!!!!) and Paige

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Hernandez (7th Street Echo), among those commissioned by the Kennedy Center with a focus on young audiences. Visit www.playathome.org.

ROUND HOUSE’S PLAYWRIGHTS ON PLAYS

One of the earliest offerings in its new digital programming slate “Round House at Your House,” this series features Round House Theatre-affiliated artists engaging in conversation with the company’s literary manager Gabrielle Hoyt, with a focus on the artists’ own work and a play of their choice that inspired them. The discussions are livestreamed every Thursday at 7 p.m., allowing participants to submit questions for the playwrights in real-time via comments. The series continues with Sarah Ruhl (Stage Kiss) discussing Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz, a darkly satirical play written at the height of the AIDS crisis, and Charles Mee’s Big Love, a “(re)making of Greek tragedy” exploring gender politics, on

In lieu of presenting spring concerts, including the return of the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra to the Kennedy Center, Washington Performing Arts has been promoting a “DIY package of content” through its Digital Engagement Focus Team for at-home cultural consumption.

One highlight is the world-renowned orchestra’s “BeethovenNOW: Symphonies 5 & 6” program. On March 12, music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin led the symphony in a concert, closed to the public due to COVID-19, that was performed and recorded in an empty Verizon Hall.

The program opened with the world premiere of Iman Habibi’s Jeder Baum spricht, written in dialogue with the two celebrated symphonies from the German master, who was born 250 years ago this year. Visit www.philorch.org/performances/ special-performances/live-stream.

KENNEDY CENTER COUCH CONCERTS

The Kennedy Center presents a free Millennium Stage concert every night at 6 p.m. under normal circumstances — that is, when the large campus is open to the public. Until it can reopen post-pandemic, the organization is offering Couch Concerts livestreamed direct from artists’ homes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 4 p.m. Even better, all past Millennium Stage and #KCCouchConcerts remain online for streaming anytime — a treasure trove that includes recent livestreams including the double bill of Kennedy Center Hip-Hop Advisory Council member Kokayi and up-and-coming local five-piece band Oh He Dead, and the Washington Women in Jazz Festival Showcase with Amy K Bormet, Christie Dasheill, and Nicole Saphos; plus recent Millennium Stage Encore shows from the 2013 concert by ’90s hit-making hip-hop group Arrested Development to the 2019 “Wind Me Up Chuck!” special tribute to the late godfather of go-go and featuring his namesake outfit The Chuck Brown Band, or from the 2018 concert by the four-part-harmony-focused Australian indie-folk band All Our Exes Live in Texas, to the 2019 concert featuring Mexican starlet and past Best New Artist Latin Grammy Awardee Gaby Moreno. Visit www. kennedy-center.org/whats-on/millennium-stage/couch-concerts.

SIXTH & I’S LIVING ROOM SESSIONS: CAT JANICE, LAUREN CALVE

Until it can once again host live events under the dome in its acoustically rich former synagogue space, Sixth and I has launched a Living Room Sessions series, co-presented by DCist, featuring select artists in free livestream performances.

The upcoming lineup includes Cat Janice, a D.C.-based indie-pop/rock singer in the mold of Bishop Briggs and Alice Merton with additional inspiration from the band Portugal.

The Man, on Friday, May 8; and Lauren Calve, a Northern Virginia Americana artist who is touted as “evoking Patty Griffin’s dynamic voice, Bonnie Raitt’s smoky aura, and Ben Harper’s slide style,” on Friday, May 15. Performances stream from Sixth and I’s Facebook page starting at 4 p.m. Free, although both RSVPs and donations, which will be shared evenly among the venue and the featured artists, are appreciated. Call 202-408-3100 or visit www. sixthandi.org.

SONIA: DIGITAL ACTS OF KINDNESS

Sonia Rutstein was supposed to be on her annual concert trek through Germany right now. Instead, the Baltimore-based folk-pop singer-songwriter, who records and performs as SONiA disappear fear, has entered the brave new world of livestreaming. While many of the physical appearances in Germany are being rescheduled for later this year or early 2021, all the virtual concerts are being performed on their original dates, most organized to celebrate a different album from SONiA’s 30-plus year recording career. The roughly hour-long shows, captured from her home music room, are presented on Facebook for free, though donations through PayPal are accepted. The remaining lineup includes: a show focused on the 2013 set Broken Film on Friday, May 8; another featuring Rutstein’s “favorite covers” on Sunday, May 10; an all-requests concert on Thursday, May 14; a show focused on the 2016 double-CD LiVE at MAXiMAL recording from Rodgau, Germany, on Friday, May 15; another focused on her most recent album By My Silence, on Saturday, May 16; and concluding with a spotlight on Small House No Secrets, SONiA’s new musical co-developed with playwright Jody Nusholtz and previewed at last year’s Kennedy Center’s Page to Stage festival, on Sunday, May 17. All concerts are livestreamed at 2 p.m. and available afterwards at www.facebook.com/disappear.fear.

STRATHMORE: “LIVE FROM THE LIVING ROOM”

Every Wednesday, Strathmore offers livestreams primarily featuring solo performances of its multigenre Artists in Residence, both

those from the current 2020 class as well as a select few alumni of the esteemed A.I.R. program. Each concert presents bite-sized performances — roughly 20 minutes in length — captured live from the living rooms of local musicians and streamed via Facebook Live starting at 7:30 p.m. The lineup continues with Mark G. Meadows, a well-known local theater pianist and vocalist (May 13), AYO, a smooth pop vocalist known for confident lyrics and empowering messages (May 20), and urban jazz harmonicist Frédéric Yonnet (May 27). Fortunately, you can also access recordings of past concerts in the series on the Facebook page @StrathmoreArts, among them: Christian Douglas, a budding pop artist and theater artist who most recently performed in the ensembles of Arena Stage’s Newsies and Signature Theatre’s Gun & Powder; Niccolo Seligmann, a gay artist merging the sounds of obscure folk instruments with early classical music; Christylez Bacon, the celebrated Grammy-nominated progressive hip-hop artist and multi-instrumentalist; and the Bumper Jackson Duo, Jess Eliot Myhre and Chris Ousley’s American roots project merging country and jazz. Call 301-581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

TOM GOSS: DANCING IN MY ROOM VIDEO PROJECT

The former D.C. resident and gay indie-pop artist Goss is grooving into new territory with a new single. “Dancing In My Room” is an upbeat synth-pop bop featuring fellow indie artists Natalie Jane, Max Emerson, and Sam Renascent, who raps in French. The song’s main video features all four artists plus a ragtag assortment of fans of all types and stripes from around the world, all dancing around their environs to relay the simple yet compelling message: you may be “stuck at home, but you’re not alone.” Goss launched the project with a built-in #AtHomeDisco challenge, encouraging others to create their own versions of the song and video; so far, another quartet of artists has created a version sung in Spanish with a rap in Mandarin, while a trio performs it in French with a Korean rap — in total, “11 artists of all ages and backgrounds across seven different countries and five continents. A reminder that we are not alone.” All proceeds from streams of the song and videos will benefit United Way Worldwide and its work in supporting community service organizations, which have been hit hard during COVID-19. Search for @tomgossmusic across social media platforms, or visit https://youtu.be/u9iDytpVHk0.

WHISKEY SOUR HAPPY HOUR

Last week, actor and comedian Ed Helms, best known from NBC’s The Office as well as The Hangover film trilogy, kicked off

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a new “21st-century online variety show” along with his band the Bluegrass Situation. Presenting a mix of music, comedy, and interviews, the four-part series was launched to raise money for charities supporting both the musical and medical communities through MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund and Direct Relief. The series wraps up its original four-week run with a show Wednesday, May 13, at 8 p.m., with a likely guest performance from Chris Thile, among others to be announced and to appear as surprises. Meanwhile, the first three shows remain available for streaming, with guest performances from Billy Strings, Aubrie Sellers, Yola, Lee Ann Womack, the Watkins Family Hour, David Garza, Madison Cunningham, and cartoonist Matt Diffee in Episode 1; Ben Harper, Rodney Crowell, Sierra Hull, Margaret Glaspy and Julian Lage, Robert Ellis, and Matt the Electrician in Episode 2; and Caitlin Canty & Noam Pikelny, Avi Kaplan, Shakey Graves, Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O'Donovan, Jerry Douglas, Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi, and comedian Jim Gaffigan in Episode 3. Visit www.thebluegrasssituation.com.

YMUSIC: TRUE TO NATUREINSPIRED CONCERT

The extraordinary Brooklyn-based contemporary classical chamber ensemble yMusic had been scheduled to present a concert at the National Gallery of Art on April 19.

The concert was planned in conjunction with the exhibition True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870. The museum has since posted exhibition resources online, and in turn, yMusic has also made the program it developed for the concert available online. See the light- and atmosphere-filled landscapes, seascapes, and skyscapes from the exhibition that inspired the ensemble, and hear the musical compositions the musicians have paired with these “en plein air” paintings — most of which are yMusic originals, with additional works by Gabriella Smith, Andrew Norman, Sufjan Stevens, and Caroline Shaw. The program is presented piece-by-piece through videos along with program notes from guest artistic director Kate Nordstrum. Visit www.liquidmusic.org/blog.

DANCE DISSONANCE DANCE THEATRE: HIS EYES SAW DANCE

Earlier this year, Dissonance Dance Theatre and the company’s artistic director Shawn Short debuted a new streaming docu-series, one that has landed in this COVID-19 time when the company’s regular programming has been put on hold. His Eyes Saw Dance follows the day-to-day work and artistry of Short, the gay black choreogra-

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pher who leads both Dissonance and its school, the Ngoma Center for Dance, as he works to navigate — to quote the official release — “the white-dominated world of D.C. concert dance” and to chart a black dance legacy. Short’s company is the only “nationally recognized, black-managed contemporary ballet” organization, despite D.C. having a majority-black population.

In a recent interview with Metro Weekly, Short revealed that the idea for the series came from a former student of his who now works for Netflix. As Short recalled director Donovan Johnson’s pitch: “As much as you’ve done, it would be really cool if there was some type of episodic something that we could watch. So that if you die today or tomorrow, everybody knew what the hell you did.” The first three episodes, ranging in length from 15 to 40 minutes, are now available for streaming through Vimeo, with a fourth set for release this month.

Visit www.ngcfddt.org/hiseyes.

COMEDY THE OVERACHIEVERS COMEDY SHOW ONLINE

Touted as one of the top comedy shows in the country, The Overachievers moves to Zoom until the DC Improv can welcome people back into its subterranean laugh lair.

The show is hosted by Martin Amini with music by DJ Bo, with the next edition featuring guests Matt Rife, a semi-finalist on NBC’s Bring The Funny who came to fame on MTV (Wild N Out, TRL reboot), and Mia Jackson, a semi-finalist on Season 9 of NBC’s Last Comic Standing who has appeared on Viceland and Inside Amy Schumer. Ticket-holders will be sent an email 30 minutes prior to showtime with instructions on how to log in to watch the show.

(While on the DC Improv website, take a listen to “Living the Fairy Tales Vols. 1 and 2,” with comedic spins on the Brothers Grimm stories, including The Fisherman and His Wife as ready by Dylan Vattelana, and Hansel and Gretel as read by Rahmein Mostafavi.) Saturday, May 16, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5. Call 202-2967008 or visit www.dcimprov.com/ home/overachievers-online.html.

TIGHT 5 LOOSE 5: A VIRTUAL SHOW

Also working to bring the funny to Zoom is the D.C. Comedy Loft with a show featuring comics, all regulars at the venue’s intimate space near Dupont Circle. The premise: five comedians performing five minutes of old jokes followed by five minutes of new. The lineup for the next three scheduled shows: Neel Nanda, Natasha Pearl Hansen, and D.C.’s Dylan Vattelana, plus the show’s host, Comedy Loft regular Blaire Postman, and “a surprise guest” as the fifth entertainer, on

MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

Sunday, May 10; Felonious Munk, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Robin Montague, host Postman, and “a surprise guest,” on Sunday, May 17; and Jackie Fabulous, Hannah Dickinson, Kasaun Wilson, host Postman, and “a surprise guest,” on Sunday, May 24. Shows are at 8 p.m., with the Zoom link emailed to ticket-holders the day-of. Tickets are $5, with a portion of sales going to the Comedy Loft Employee Lay Off Fund. Call 202-293-1887 or visit www-dccomedyloft-com.seatengine.com/shows/125909.

READINGS & DISCUSSIONS AMY SPITALNICK: HATE OF PANDEMIC PROPORTIONS

The executive director of Integrity First for America (IFA) will discuss how far-right extremist groups are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to spread fear and hate online and off in conversation with Sixth and I’s Senior Rabbi Shira Stutman. In lieu of being able to meet in person, Spitalnick and Stutman will take to Zoom to highlight effective measures that can be taken to protect against extremist attacks. Also up for discussion: IFA’s groundbreaking lawsuit against the leaders of the white supremacist movement and the inciting of violence that erupted in the deadly altercation in Charlottesville in August of 2017. Wednesday, May 13, at 7 p.m. Free, with donations to support virtual programming appreciated; advance registration includes event link. Call 202-408-3100 or visit www.sixthandi.org.

JOHN MOE: THE HILARIOUS WORLD OF DEPRESSION

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Sixth and I is doing its part for the cause by welcoming Moe, host of The Hilarious World of Depression podcast. Moe will also discuss his new book of the same name chronicling his journey with depression, followed by a conversation with Sean Doolittle, pitcher for the 2019 World Series-winning Washington Nationals, and Linda Holmes, host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. Thursday, May 14, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 plus fees, or $32 plus fees for a signed copy of Moe’s book (to be mailed after the event), and include virtual access to the event. Call 202-408-3100 or visit www.sixthandi.org.

FOOD & DINING SLATE WINE BAR, XIQUET: MOTHER’S DAY TO-GO MEALS, GIFTS

You can’t go with a simple restaurant reservation to celebrate mom on her special day this year, set for Sunday, May 10. Among the many

creative ideas for a culinary offering that doesn’t require much time at all in the kitchen while also adhering to our current stay-at-home predicament, consider the extensive Heat & Eat menus that Danny Lledó has put together as a culinary toast to both your mother and his motherland. At the chef/owner’s two restaurants in Glover Park, Lledó offers an extensive selection of small plates and entrées-to-go chiefly inspired by the diverse cuisine of Spain, including that of his hometown of Denia in Valencia — all of it available for take-out or delivery only if ordered at least 24 hours in advance. At his revamped Slate Wine Bar, in addition to the to-go items offered a la carte, you could spring for one of two packaged multi-course options: the Vegetarian Meal for 2 ($45), which includes a Cheese Platter with three types of cheese, three types of salads, and two chocolate chip cookies, or the Mediterranean Feast for 4 ($140), including Cheese and Charcuterie Platters with three types of cheese and three types of cured pork, plus two types of salad, four Meat Pies, Four Chicken Lollipops with hot sauce and chips, Oxtail Stew with potatoes, and four chocolate chip cookies. Meanwhile, upstairs at Xiquet, the Valencianfocused restaurant the chef opened at the start of March, meal options for two include a Roasted Amish Chicken Meal ($60), the WoodFire Grilled Salmon Meal ($50), and the Xarcuteria Ibèrica Platter with ham, loin, and chorizo offerings served with crostini ($30), while a family of four could enjoy the Roasted Duck Meal ($170) or the Roasted Strip Loin ($90) — all capped off with a Biscuit de Carlota Carrot Cake ($20) for dessert. To wash it down, consult Slate’s curated list of 16 red, white, rosé, and sparkling wines, available at prices ranging from $19 to $90 per bottle, or Xiquet’s wine list with eight varieties priced from $23 to $90 per bottle. Xiquet also offers a Mimosa Kit, including sparkling wine and orange juice, for $20.

If that’s all too much — or not quite enough — Lledó also offers two sure-to-please specialty gift baskets: The Spanish Gift Box, which includes full-sized bottles of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and cava from the Mediterranean nation as well as packages of Tartana bomba rice, Agromar white tuna in olive oil, and milk chocolate pieces, all for just $68, or the Happy Hour Gift Set, featuring a full-sized bottle of Tierra Tempranillo Crianza wine, 7oz packages of manchego cheese and Iberico chorizo, and Carr’s cracker collection ($75). Slate Wine Bar and Xiquet are at 2404 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Call 202-9134671 or visit www.slatewinebar. com or www.xiquetdl.com.

ART & EXHIBITS ART TALK WITH SHANA KOHNSTAMM

A featured artist last summer at the 32nd Biennial Exhibition of the Creative Crafts Council at Strathmore, Shana Kohnstamm will discuss and demonstrate her art and its creation through felting, the ancient method of shaping and firming wool that she uses to make signature soft sculptures. Kohnstamm will give two Art Talks as part of the free virtual programming series from Strathmore this Friday, May 8 — one at 10:30 a.m. geared toward kids, the other at 4 p.m. for adults.

Free but registration required for Zoom access. Call 301-581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

HILL CENTER GALLERIES: REGIONAL JURIED EXHIBITION

Over the years, this exhibition, featuring works in various mediums and subjects, has grown to include 85 artists from D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. This year’s juror is Myrtis Bedolla, owner of Baltimore’s Galerie Myrtis. Bedolla selected 94 pieces of original hanging work, in any medium, submitted by 85 artists, all of which was moved online, giving it a longer shelf life than usual. Linda Lowery’s Aya was awarded 1st Place, while Jim Haller’s Triptych came in 2nd and Sally Canzoneri’s DC Stores: 1942 and 2014, 3rd. Honorable Mentions: Kasse Andrews-Weller (In The Beginning Quilt...), Sean Dudley (Dukochanmon), Chris Hanson (Early Morning Walk), David Harris (Thorny Issues), Maria Illingworth (Rosie), James Klumpner (#57), Sharon Malley (School Churns), Khanh Nguyen (Porcelain III), Felicia Reed (Choices), and Glenn Strachan (Woman in Recline, Siem Reap, Cambodia). To begin the buying process or to inquire about specific artwork, contact Galleries@ HillCenterDC.org or visit www. hillcenterdc.org/artist/2020-regional-juried-exhibition.

SPRING DREAMS VIRTUAL GALLERY

Gallery Underground, the visual arts space for the Arlington Artists Alliance and part of Crystal City’s Art Underground, goes virtual for its May art exhibit, a display of new, colorful works made while featured artists worked in isolation and created with the intention “to inspire and offer respite in current circumstances.” Spring Dreams features artworks in a range of subjects, styles, and media, from painting to glasswork, sculpture to mixed media. On display through May 31.

Call 571-483-0652 or visit www.galleryunderground.org.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON-LINE ART AUCTION The

W-E-R-A-palooza

Virtual

The Barber of Seville

OPERA PHILADELPHIA’S DIGITAL FESTIVAL O

With its season cut short due to COVID-19, Opera Philadelphia, touted by the New York Times as “a hotbed of opera innovation,” is another preeminent arts organization that has taken up the digital mantle by making streams available of past productions — in this case, as an attempt to raise $4 million by May 31 so the company can move forward with plans for its 2020-21 season. The digital streaming festival features video streams of five hit productions, including four recent world premieres, such as its 2020 International Opera Award-nominated production Denis & Katya, which is already streaming. The timely and immersive multimedia chamber opera by composer Philip Venables and librettist-director Ted Huffman was commissioned in collaboration with Music Theatre Wales and France’s Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier. Inspired by the true story of 15-year-old runaways Denis Muravyov and Katya Vlasova and their armed stand-off with Russian Special Forces that culminated in their own deaths, the recording of Denis & Katya features American baritone Theo Hoffman and German-American mezzo-soprano Siena Licht Miller. This Sunday, May 10, at 7 p.m., is the online premiere of composer Daniel Bernard Roumain and librettist Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s We Shall Not Be Moved, a hit 2017 production directed by Bill T. Jones that returns as a way to also commemorate the 35th anniversary of the deadly bombing of West Philadelphia’s MOVE compound, where the opera takes place. The festival will continue with the online premieres of the company’s popular 2014 staging of The Barber of Seville on May 15; Sky on Swings, the 2018 chamber opera with an unflinching yet uplifting exploration of Alzheimer’s disease from composer Lembit Beecher and librettist Hannah Moscovitch and starring mezzo-sopranos Marietta Simpson and Frederica von Stade, on May 22; and Breaking the Waves, a 2016 adaptation of the Lars von Trier film from composer Missy Mazzoli, librettist Royce Vavrek, and director James Darrah, on May 29. Special opening-night content for each production includes pre-show interviews with featured artists. The productions remain online and on-demand for varying lengths of time through August 31. Visit www.operaphila.org.

Concert is just one aspect of a Spring Fund Drive to help long-standing community media outlet Arlington Independent Media and WERAFM make it through the COVID19 shutdown. The campaign also includes an art auction featuring artworks donated by some of the area’s finest artists and craftspeople.

Among items available for bidding: Paintings by Andrew Wodzianski, David Amoroso, and Michael

Auger, photographs by Metro Weekly’s Todd Franson and Jason Horowitz, block prints by Rosemary Felt Covey and JP Pineda, and needlepoint by Liz Martin. Also available: Virtual tarot readings, acupuncture sessions, pies by ACME Pie, a virtual art class/cocktail party with craftswomen Dawn Benedetto and Maribeth Egan, tickets to the Washington Ballet’s Nutcracker, and a recording session at Inner

Ear Studio with punk veteran Don Zientara. The auction is open until 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, May 10. Visit www.arlingtonmedia.org/showmust-go-line-fundraising-auction.

TRUE TO NATURE: OPEN-AIR PAINTING IN EUROPE VIRTUAL TOUR

Open-air painting was a core practice for emerging artists in Europe in the late 18th- and early 19th-cen-

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highlights with ticket availability as of press time include: Tammie Brown (“A Little Bit of Quarantined Tammie”) on Friday, May 8, at 9 p.m., and Friday, May 15, at 3 p.m.; Alaska (“Anus Album Show”) on Friday, May 8, at 10 p.m., Saturday, May 9, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, May 10, at 9 p.m.; Jinkx Monsoon (“Jinkx Monsoon Watches RPDR S12 EP11”) on Saturday, May 9, at 5 p.m.; Brandon Stansell (“Nothing But ‘90s Country”) on Saturday, May 9, at 11 p.m.; Bob The Drag Queen (“Bob The Quarantine Queen”) on Sunday, May 10, at 4 p.m., and Sunday, May 17, at 2 p.m.; BenDeLaCreme (“Still Home After All These Years”) on Sunday, May 10, at 6 p.m., and Sunday, May 17, at 8 p.m.; Sherry Vine (“Sherry Vine 2051: A Drag Odyssey”) on Thursday, May 14, at 9 p.m.; Latrice Royale (“Eat It! (A Cooking Show)”) on Friday, May 15, at 5 p.m. Visit www.digitaldragfest.com.

W-E-R-A-PALOOZA VIRTUAL CONCERT

The Diane Scream Show

On Friday, May 8, many leading figures in the area’s indie-rock and folk scenes will perform from their living rooms and studios as part of a Spring Fund Drive to support local community media outlet Arlington Independent Media. Co-presented by AIM’s “Radio Arlington” channel WERA 96.7 FM, the virtual concert includes performances by Klezmer virtuoso Seth Kibel, Cathy D of RoseRiot, queer folk/pop artists Crys Matthews and Heather Mae, Rachel Levitin, Emma G, Dan Barry, Jasmine Gillison, Flo Anito, Cynthia Marie, Kaileen Marie of The Ferns, Jahnel Daliya, Jason Mendelson of Metrosongs, Luke James Shaffer, Cat Janice, Ms. Fridrich, Yellow Tie Guy, and Elizabeth II. Also the queer-led tribute act to music’s Talking Heads, named in parody of a real-life talking head, The Diane Scream Show, featuring lead singer and dulcimer player Christian Crowley and multi-instrumentalist Chris “Sea” Griffin. And D.C.’s sideshow girl Mab Just Mab hosts. Ticket-holders will be sent a link to the show in advance. The concert is from 7 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $5; with additional support welcome, including tips to performers through virtual tip jars. Visit www.arlingtonmedia.org/w-e-r-palooza.

turies, and those artists skilled at quickly capturing effects of light and atmosphere often went to great lengths to capture breathtaking sites in person, from the Baltic coast to the Swiss alps to the ruins of Rome.

The National Gallery of Art organized this exhibition of roughly 100 oil sketches by intrepid artists from the period, including Jean-BaptisteCamille Corot, John Constable, Simon Denis, Jules Coignet, and André Giroux. While the temporary exhibition’s run was cut short due to COVID-19, the gallery has worked to create a digital version by virtue of a dynamic virtual tour allowing users to zoom in on the works as well as click to read the wall texts and artist biographies. Supplemental materials available online include A Curator’s Quick Tour, or highlights as presented by curator Mary Morton; an Introduction to the Exhibition lecture from Morton, the head of French paintings at the National Gallery, in conversation with Jane Munro of Christ’s College,

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Cambridge, and private collector Alice Goldet; “Painting in the Open Air,” a conversation between artist Ann Lofquist and Morton; and “Weather in Art: From Symbol to Science,” a lecture from the National Gallery’s art historian David Gariff.

Although available on mobile, the tour is best viewed on desktop or tablet. Visit www.nga.gov/features/ true-to-nature-virtual-tour.html.

David Amoroso, as well as Maribeth Egan, Kate Fleming, and MasPaz. Ultimately, though, anyone is encouraged to make and post artwork based on the submitted words and tagged #WordsToArtArlington.

Continues to Sunday, May 24. Visit www.arts.arlingtonva.us.

WORDS TO ART SPRING 2020: ARLINGTON COMMUNITY ART PROJECT

DIGITAL DRAG FEST 2020

Arlington Arts has been asking participants to post one word a week expressing their feelings and perception of COVID-19, which will then spur five area artists to select words to turn into original sketches to be shared on social media.

Originally conceived by Sushmita Mazumdar in 2018 as a collaboration with bus drivers and Arlington’s Art on the ART Bus project, the relaunched 2020 version features work by Metro Weekly contributor

MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

ABOVE & BEYOND For over a month now, Producer Entertainment Group and Stageit. com have been presenting a series of online performances mostly featuring drag queens from the ranks of RuPaul’s Drag Race. The festival, which keeps getting extended, continues to feature a sizable contingent of queer celebrity creators in thirty-minute shows that “will never be recorded or re-released.”

Most tickets cost $10 and sales are limited to roughly 100 transactions, “to keep audience sizes small and the experience intimate.” Upcoming

GEORGETOWN’S VIRTUAL FRENCH MARKET

Every year, on the last weekend in April, the Georgetown Business Improvement District (BID) presents an outdoor event in its charming Book Hill corridor intended to evoke the outdoor markets of Paris.

Since there can be no open-air market and sidewalk sale this year, the affair — minus whimsical street performers, face painters, and live French music and gypsy jazz — will still take place online, where it’s been extended to run to the second Saturday in May. More than 15 locally owned boutiques, cafés, and galleries on that particular stretch of Wisconsin Avenue will offer online promotions plus special programming ranging from virtual storytime and music for children to a French baking demonstration. Specific promotions include: A “Survival Six-Pack” of six French wines for only $60 (plus donated delivery fee) from Bacchus Wine Cellar; a selection of croissants, cakes, and quiches available for order from Patisserie Poupon; a sale with discounts on antique prints, paintings, and drawings, plus 200 new promotion-specific artworks, from Calloway Fine Art & Consulting; a specially priced collection of limited-edition photos of France from Washington Printmakers Gallery; a sale granting 10-percent off gift cards and all online sales of $40 or more from the British-centric home and furnishings store Pillar & Post; and a half-off sale at T&U Mongolian Cashmere by GOBI. The online market continues through Friday, May 8, when 10 percent of sales from participating retailers will benefit the COVID-19 relief efforts of Martha’s Table and Christ Child Opportunity Shop. Visit www.georgetowndc.com/frenchmarket. l

WARD MORRISON / FILE PHOTO

theFeed

Closing Time

Ella Fitzgerald

Ziegfeld’s/Secrets nightclub is permanently closed, owners confirm to Metro Weekly. By John Riley

Z

IEGFELD’S/SECRETS ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEX, the dual-bar establishment that featured drag shows downstairs and nude male dancing on the upper level, has shut down. The D.C. bar, which had served the LGBTQ community for 40 years, relocated in the mid-2000s from southeast to southwest following the announcement of plans to build Nationals Stadium.

In a Facebook post, the club’s owners wrote: “Ziegfeld’s/ Secrets regrettably has been forced to close our doors. We all have been honored to bring you the best in entertainment for 40 years. Regrettably, the option to stay and even have a closing event has been taken from us during this crisis. To the many dancers, drag queen, bartenders, DJs, and support staff over the years, thank you for making us one of DC’s best venues. Stay safe and healthy. Til next time....”

According to the D.C. Office for Tax and Revenue, the building was purchased on April 23 by Buzzard 1800 Half Street Property Owner LLC, a limited liability corporation whose address matches that of local real estate developer MRP Realty.

The Washington Business Journal reports that MRP Realty signed an agreement in 2016 to acquire several nearby properties, as well as the Ziegfeld’s/Secrets complex, and develop them into a 300,000-square-foot “multifamily-over-retail project.”

“It’s not like they just came out of the blue,” says Steve Dellerba in an exclusive interview with Metro Weekly. “This area has been slated to be developed for years — stadiums, condos, etc.” Dellerba, who co-owns the club with Allan

Carroll, says they have been asked to completely vacate the building within three weeks. “I’m sorry that we can’t continue it,” he says, “but that’s what happens when you don’t own the building.”

Dellerba is disappointed that, because of the current state of the coronavirus pandemic, the club will not be able to hold a proper closing party. He is hopeful, however, that Ziegfeld’s/ Secrets will be able to reopen in a new location at some point down the line. “But I don’t think the environment is right at this moment,” he says, pointing to the current state of the city’s stayat-home orders.

Ella Fitzgerald, a local drag legend who headlined the venue’s weekly drag performances, also took to her personal Facebook page to thank longtime fans.

“I have just received a phone call that Ziegfeld’s/Secrets is officially closed for good!” Fitzgerald wrote. “I personally would like to thank each and everyone of you for your many years of loyalty, support and dedication to Ziegfeld’s/Secrets. May you always treasure the fun times that we shared for the last 40 years. We hope to see all of you on the other side of this pandemic. May God bless you, your family and friends.”

Dellerba is similarly grateful to the community, which has patronized Ziegfeld’s/Secrets for the past four decades.

“We appreciate all the support,” he says. “The people over the years that have done so much for the business in coming out and supporting it through everything. It’s been a good ride. We love you and we will miss you.”

MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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PHIL ROEDER

theFeed

Backing Biden

Biden

Human Rights Campaign endorses Joe Biden for president. By John Riley

T

HE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN, THE NATION’S largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, has officially endorsed former Vice President and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s 2020 bid for the White House.

The Human Rights Campaign’s board of directors, comprised of 26 community leaders from across the United States, unanimously voted to endorse Biden for the presidency on May 6, the eight-year anniversary of when the former Vice President came out publicly in favor of marriage equality during an interview with Meet the Press. That interview was credited with convincing then-President Barack Obama to embrace marriage equality amid his 2012 re-election bid.

“Vice President Joe Biden is the leader our community and our country need at this moment,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “His dedication to advancing LGBTQ equality, even when it was unpopular to do so, has pushed our country and our movement forward.”

To coincide with its endorsement, the Human Rights Campaign released two new videos highlighting the reasons or issues fueling its decision. Among those reasons were Biden’s longstanding support for strengthening hate crime laws to protect LGBTQ people; his vocal support for marriage equality at a time when it wasn’t politically convenient; and his support for various types of nondiscrimination legislation, from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in the ’90s and 2000s, to the Equality Act, a comprehensive LGBTQ civil rights bill that was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last year but has since stalled in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.

HRC also noted Biden’s opposition to attempts to introduce constitutional amendments that would have banned same-sex 22

MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

marriage, his support for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, the reauthorization of PEPFAR, a government initiative to increase funding and set targets for the treatment, care, and prevention of HIV/AIDS across the globe, and his support for repealing a ban on visas for people who are HIV-positive.

The former vice president is also credited with fighting for the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy banning LGB service members from the U.S. military, and the lifting of the ban on transgender service personnel — something that was reversed when President Trump introduced his own version of a ban.

HRC also claimed that Biden — who has previously called transgender rights the “civil rights issue of our time” and has spoken out against reports of violent attacks or murders of transgender women of color — has adopted an LGBTQ platform that is the “most comprehensive LGBTQ equality plan by a presumptive presidential nominee in our nation’s history.”

David later went on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to defend the endorsement, telling hosts Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist that Biden’s promises on LGBTQ rights stand in direct contrast to the policies of President Donald Trump.

“We have, in Joe Biden, someone who is a fighter for equality, who will protect marginalized communities,” he said.

David has also vowed to mobilize HRC’s more than 3 million members, who will “work day and night” to encourage approximately 57 million so-called “equality voters” — those for whom a candidate’s positions on LGBTQ issues play a significant role in whether to support that candidate — to head to the polls in the upcoming November election.

“This November, the stakes could not be higher. Far too many LGBTQ people, and particularly those who are most vulnerable,

theFeed million equality voters at risk of not turning out this year who could help determine the outcome of this year’s election.

Notably, the addition of Texas — which many political observers believe still leans too Republican to be considered a “swing state” — speaks to HRC’s confidence that it can help expand the electoral battlefield this year. One prominent political observer has said that at least nine Republican-held congressional districts in Texas, eight of which have anti-LGBTQ politicians representing them, should be legitimately competitive this year.

“Texans need change, and Vice President Biden will bring it to our state and our country,” HRC Texas State Director Rebecca Marques said in a statement. “For too long, our community has lived in fear: fear of losing our jobs without statewide or national non-discrimination protections, fear for our lives as members of our community are attacked in the streets or fear of the next horribly anti-LGBTQ regulation coming from the Trump-Pence administration.

“Trump has demonized immigrants and stripped people of their access to health care. Joe Biden will help us turn the page to a brighter future,” Marquez added. “Together, we can work toward the full equality we deserve — in Texas, and across America.”

PHOTO CREDIT

face discrimination, intimidation, and violence simply because of who they are who they love,” David said in a statement. “But rather than have our backs, Donald Trump and Mike Pence have spent the last three-and-a-half years rolling back and rescinding protections for LGBTQ people. Joe Biden will be a president who stands up for all of us.”

HRC has previously enjoyed success through its investments in various states to mobilize “equality voters” with the intent of electing pro-LGBTQ lawmakers who can push policies and laws that make LGBTQ people’s lives better. In 2018, the organization placed full-time staff in six battleground states to engage voters and recruited thousands of volunteers to carry out get-out-thevote efforts, successfully electing pro-equality candidates in six of six U.S. Senate races and four of five gubernatorial races where it endorsed a candidate.

Ultimately, the organization claims it was able to boost turnout among “equality voters” to 56% in the 2018 midterms, an increase from the 36% rate among the same group of people in the previous midterms, in 2014.

As November approaches, HRC is mobilizing staff and volunteers in seven key states: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. The organization estimates that there are 3.4

Jeffress and Trump

Preaching Hate

Anti-LGBTQ Trump ally calls gay marriages “counterfeit,” blames them for decline in marriage rates. By Rhuaridh Marr

R

OBERT JEFFRESS, A PASTOR AND MEMBER OF Donald Trump’s “Evangelicals for Trump” coalition, has described same-sex marriages as “counterfeit” and blamed them for a decline in the number of couples choosing to marry.

Jeffress made the comments to OneNewsNow, the news division of anti-LGBTQ hate group the American Family Association, in an article headlined: “Marriages on decline? You can thank Joe marrying Joey” After the National Center for Health Statistics reported that marriage rates had dropped to an all-time low — 6.5 marriages

per 1,000 people in 2018 — Jeffress claimed that the decline was due to the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling which legalized samesex marriage nationwide.

“Whenever you counterfeit something, you cheapen the value of the real thing,” Jeffress said. “And if you expand marriage to, basically, any definition you want — two men, two women, three men and a woman — I mean, if marriage is what you want it to be, why bother to get married at all?”

However, Jeffress did say that the “ship has sailed” on reverting to heterosexual-only marriage, saying that the moral high MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

23

theFeed cal voters in the 2020 election.

Jeffress is also a vocal opponent of LGBTQ rights, having previously called gay people “filthy” and linked homosexuality with bestiality. He has said that LGBTQ people have a “miserable lifestyle,” called homosexuality “perverse,” said same-sex marriage was “a sign of the coming apocalypse,” and described transgender people as “a rebellion against God’s plan.”

Jeffress has also previously advocated for the use of conversion therapy — the widely debunked practice of trying to forcibly change a person’s sexuality or gender identity — including suggesting that a lesbian teenager who had “seriously contemplated suicide” over her sexuality should undergo conversion therapy.

MORE IN COMMON SHOW

ground couldn’t be reclaimed by Christians who oppose samesex civil marriage.

“It will never change is my prediction,” Jeffress said. “But that doesn’t mean the Church of Jesus Christ cannot continue to teach what the Bible says about marriage.”

The NCHS noted that marriage rates had “steadily declined” between 1982 and 2009. Marriage equality was banned in all 50 states until 2004, when Massachusetts began licensing and recognizing same-sex marriages.

Jeffress, lead pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas and Fox News Contributor, has been described as one of Trump’s closest evangelical advisers. He is a member of the “Evangelicals for Trump” coalition, which was created to help mobilize evangeli-

Drag Queens at Fiddlehead

Dine and Drag A

Indiana restaurant hires drag queens to deliver curbside pickup. By Rhuaridh Marr

RESTAURANT IN INDIANA HAS HIRED DRAG queens to deliver customer’s curbside orders as part of efforts to lift spirits during COVID-19. Fiddlehead Restaurant in Michigan City has, like many eateries during the pandemic, switched to offering takeout and delivery for its customers in order to remain open.

But the LGBTQ-owned diner is aiming to stand out with its “Dragside Pickup” service. Operating on Saturdays, it features drag queens accessorized with face masks and gloves delivering takeout options to customers waiting in their cars outside the restaurant.

“We thought it would be a good idea to brighten some people’s days, having something that’s a little different and a little fun,” Aaron O’Reilly, the diner’s owner, told ABC affiliate WLS-TV. He added: “This is to put a smile on your face. This is to show 24

MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

that better days are ahead for all of us. Be lighthearted and take some pics from the comfort of your car. We are all in this together and we will get through it together.”

Wilma Fingerdo, one of the queens working at Fiddlehead, said the response from customers has been “a lot of fun.”

“We’ve gotten a lot of good, positive feedback, and certainly we’re selling a whole lot of food,” Fingerdo added.

Speaking to WLS-TV, one customer who collected food with her child called it a “good way to get out” of the house, and said being able to talk with the queens “is just a fun experience.” She added: “I love drag queens and I think they’re the sweetest.”

Another customer said it was a “fantastic idea.” They added: “How cool is this when everybody’s sitting inside the house? Everybody’s been cooped up. God bless these guys for doing this.”

YEO KHEE

theFeed

Papal Provisions

Vatican City

Catholic bishop helps trans sex workers affected by COVID-19. By Rhuaridh Marr

A

GROUP OF TRANSGENDER SEX WORKERS IN ITALY has received help from an unlikely source, after COVID19 impacted their ability to work. The women, who live in a beach town near Rome, sought help from their local priest in order to buy food. He in turn contacted Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Vatican’s distributor of alms, as COVID-19 had already impacted the parish’s resources, Reuters reports.

Krajewski, an appointee of Pope Francis who has been dubbed “the Pope’s Robin Hood,” sent money to the priest to help the women, a decision he dismissed as entirely normal for the Catholic Church to make — despite the church’s stance against transgender people.

“I don’t understand why this is getting so much attention,” Krajewski told Reuters. “This is ordinary work for the Church, it’s normal. This is how the Church is a field hospital.”

He added: “Everything is closed. They don’t have any resources. They went to the pastor. They could not have gone to a politician or a parliamentarian. And the pastor came to us.”

Krajewski noted that the sex workers are likely undocumented immigrants, which limited their ability access state benefits, and said that they “are really in difficulty because sometimes their passports were taken away by the mafia pimps who control them.”

The 56-year-old Krajewski is one of the Catholic Church’s youngest cardinals, and has a history of helping those in need, including homeless people and immigrants.

The Catholic Church’s official stance opposing LGBTQ identities is increasingly out of step with many Catholics, particularly Catholic Americans, who are among the leading religious communities who express support for LGBTQ issues.

Not helping matters is the somewhat mixed messages from Pope Francis, who has frequently expressed a more open and caring attitude towards LGBTQ people, including last year saying that who discard gay people “don’t have a human heart.”

However, Francis has also previously said that the issue of gay clergy members “worries” him and is a “serious matter,” and that sexuality must be “adequately discerned” from prospective clergy candidates. He also told bishops to seek out and prevent gay priesthood applicants, telling them to “keep your eyes open” and “if in doubt, better not let them enter.”

And in 2018 he condemned same-sex families at an event for Catholic families, saying same-sex couples did not deserve to have their families recognized by the Church.

“People speak of varied families, of various kinds of family [but] the family [as] man and woman in the image of God is the only one,” he said.

MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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TONY RIVENBARK

Lunch with Love

Freddie’s has partnered with Amazon to provide thousands of meals to frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. By John Riley

O

N SATURDAY, MAY 2, A DOZEN EMPLOYEES IN face masks bustled throughout Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant, assembling turkey and ham sandwiches, tossing salads, and preparing hot meals, including ravioli and meatloaf. The food was then placed into takeout containers, complete with utensils and cartons of water, and packed into boxes. The boxes were then delivered to local workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, a “thank you” to first responders.

“For dinners, we’ve been making meat lasagna, meatloaf, chicken pesto fettuccine, and then [for] vegetarians we've been doing cheese ravioli, eggplant parmesan, and tie-dyed tortellini,” ays Tony Rivenbark, the manager of Freddie’s. “The Arlington County Police Department came and picked up some of the food.

We’ve also delivered some to the Arlington County Sheriff's departments and the 9-1-1 center, and to the Arlington and Alexandria Fire Departments, as well as the fire department at Fort Myer and at Reagan National Airport.”

Next week, during National Nurses Week, meals will be 26

MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

delivered to workers at the Virginia Hospital Center, and for the two weeks following, meals will be sent to the Cooperative for a Hunger-Free Arlington, to support struggling local families that may be experiencing food instability.

Freddie Lutz, the restaurant’s owner, says the idea to provide the meals was the brainchild of online shipping giant Amazon, which recently announced its intention to deliver more than 10,000 meals to frontline workers and vulnerable populations throughout the month of May. Arlington was recently chosen as the site of Amazon’s planned “HQ2” headquarters, and last year, the Arlington County Board approved the company’s request to construct twin 22-story towers and a surrounding complex, with construction scheduled to finish in 2023.

A spokesperson for Amazon told Metro Weekly that the company had previously planned to reach out to its neighbors in nearby Crystal City, but that outreach became even more necessary after the COVID-19 pandemic forced local bars and restaurants to close their doors temporarily. The company

decided to show its support for the local community during this unprecedented and difficult time.

Amazon previously donated $5,000 in Amazon Gift Cards and $5,000 in product donations to the Capital Area Food Bank in Arlington, as well as an additional $3,000 in gift cards to DC Central Kitchen. The company gave $155,000 to Arlington and Washington D.C.-area food banks, including DC Central Kitchen, Capital Area Food Bank, Martha’s Table, Central Union Mission, and the Arlington Food Assistance Center.

Meanwhile, to carry out its stated intent of delivering readymade, individually-packaged meals, Amazon decided it would be best to partner with local restaurants that have developed and fostered strong relationships with the community.

“I got a call from Amazon and they said to me, ‘We love Freddie’s Beach Bar, and we’d like to partner up with you and

do a delivery thing for the first responders, police, hospitals,’” says Lutz. “I was delighted to accept their invitation. In the course of our discussion, we decided to reach out to a few of the restaurants on 23rd Street and let a few of them help out with this thing, too, so that we can involve some of the other people on the street.”

Other restaurants being brought on board with the project include Urban Thai, Enjera Restaurant, which specializes in Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine, and Crystal City Sports Pub. Brian Huseman, vice president of public policy at Amazon, said in a statement that the company is “proud to work alongside Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant, a beloved local restaurant in our new neighborhood, to ensure that we’re thanking our neighbors who are keeping us safe and caring for our neighbors who need extra support right now with hearty MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

27

meals throughout May.” Lutz is optimistic about the project, and feels Amazon HQ2 will be “wonderful neighbors.”

“I think this is the neighborly thing for them to do, and it's enabling me to put my own staff back to work,” he says. “It's very meaningful for us to be able to do that, as people are eager to get back to work, and this is an opportunity that may actually help segue us into reopening, at least for curbside service and carryout.”

As someone who sits on the board of the Crystal City Business Improvement District, and is president of the 23rd Street Merchants Group, Lutz makes an ideal partner for Amazon, given his relationships with other business owners in the area.

“To be honest with you, we’re the only gay bar in Northern Virginia, and I think one of the reasons Amazon loves us is because we bring that sort of diversity and fabulousness to Crystal City,” Lutz says, referring to both his restaurant’s largerthan-life personality — embodied by its trademark purple decor and assortment of Barbie dolls, beach-themed decorations, and plastic flamingoes — and his highly visible profile in the area.

“I think Freddie's is probably the only restaurant in Crystal

the neighborhood.

“People, from my personal experience, are inherently afraid of change,” says Lutz. “I’m just thrilled by this neighborly outreach and the chance to work with them on this wonderful project.”

“As a property owner myself in Arlington, and from talking to others, I’ve gotten mixed feelings from some different people,” says Rivenbark. “But the one thing that I see as a huge advantage to local businesses specifically in Crystal City is that Amazon will only be able to provide food and meals for 25 percent of their employees in their building. The other 75 percent of their employees will have to go out into the community to spend money.

“I think that’s something they do at their other locations as well, but I know that’s something they’ve agreed to do here, which is going to be hugely beneficial. All of Crystal City is going to benefit from that.”

The Amazon spokesperson said that while they cannot speak to the specifics of any plan, the company has installed small cafeterias in its Seattle office that are not intended to feed all employees, thus pushing Amazon workers into the surrounding neighborhoods to patronize local businesses.

The hope is for HQ2 is to cultivate an atmosphere similar to that which exists in Seattle, where employees regularly spend money at local establishments, helping to boost revenues and make the surrounding neighborhood “a place you want to go to, not drive through.”

Amazon also intends to install street-level retail options in its properties, with the idea of introducing tenants that fit in well with the surrounding neighborhood, the spokesperson said.

—Freddie Lutz The company plans to have a “significant amount” of new retail at HQ2 and has City that’s a small business and very active in almost every launched a process to incorporate feedback from local residents aspect of the community,” says Rivenbark. “We've always been as to which shops should be installed. active in everything, and not just in the gay community, but the Lutz and Rivenbark are hopeful that the influx of new neighborhood.”

Amazon employees — an estimated 25,000 in total, once conLutz was able to use his connections to reach out to the struction is completed — will help bring a needed influx of Crystal City Business Improvement District, which has assisted revenue to Freddie’s and other restaurants in Arlington’s 23rd in making the meal delivery efforts more “green” by using its Street corridor. connections with Boxed Water to provide beverages alongside Both men note that Freddie’s, and the Crystal City neighborthe packaged meals. The BID also provided compostable con- hood in general, took a significant hit after the departures of the tainers that will not clutter up landfills once disposed of.

Naval Sea Systems Command in 1994, the Naval Air Systems “Small businesses are the backbone of our community and Command in 2000, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in a key component of a vibrant downtown,” Tracy Gabriel, the 2002, and thousands of other federal employees following the president and executive director of the Crystal City BID, said Base Realignment and Closure process in the mid-2000s, a in an email to Metro Weekly. “During this challenging time, cost-cutting measure that shut down what the federal governthe Crystal City BID is focusing its efforts on finding ways to ment considered “excess” military installations. enhance the long-term viability of our businesses.”

“When I started at Freddie’s 17 years ago, we were open at Gabriel said the BID is “pleased to support this worthy cause, lunch every day,” says Rivenbark. “And after the federal closures which will support a number of establishments on Crystal City’s happened, the entire Crystal City restaurant industry lost out big Restaurant row, while also providing meals to those in our com- time, and it’s lasted for maybe 12, 14 years. But now, we’re going munity who need it most.” to be able to open for lunch once again, the pandemic aside.”

While many across America have been skeptical of big Adds Lutz, “All because of Amazon.” l corporations generally, and Amazon, specifically, for a host of reasons — including its miniscule effective federal income tax For more information on Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant, visit rate, its efforts to stop workers from unionizing, its reliance on www.freddiesbeachbar.com.

Chinese manufacturing, and concerns that it will force smaller local businesses to shutter their doors permanently — Lutz and For more information on Amazon’s initiatives supporting local Rivenbark are much more optimistic about HQ2’s presence in communities, visit blog.aboutamazon.com/community.

“I think this is the neighborly thing for [Amazon] to do, and IT'S ENABLING ME TO PUT MY OWN STAFF BACK TO WORK.”

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APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

DAVID UY / FILE PHOTO

Empty Nest

DC Eagle employees on the legacy of the city’s oldest LGBTQ nightclub, and the alleged mismanagement that brought it down. By John Riley

W

HEN NEWS BROKE ON TUESDAY THAT THE DC Eagle was closing, longtime patrons, leather enthusiasts, and casual fans alike took to social media to express their shock, share fond memories, and raise concerns about the future of nightlife in the city.

But for some former employees of the District’s oldest and largest LGBTQ nightclub, the news wasn’t so much a surprise as a disappointment, a result of alleged financial mismanagement and a resistance to changing and adapting with the times.

The closure announcement, made to employees during a Zoom meeting on Monday evening, makes the DC Eagle the second LGBTQ bar in the D.C. area to close in the past week — Ziegfeld's/Secrets, the Southwest D.C. club that offered live drag and nude male dancers, confirmed last Friday that it would permanently close.

According to one employee, who spoke to Metro Weekly on condition of anonymity in order to talk openly, the DC Eagle’s co-owners Ted Clements and Peter Lloyd are expected to dissolve the business. There are currently no plans to relocate or reopen the bar in another location at this time.

The employee claimed that staff and managers had seen signs that the business was not on strong footing even prior to being forced to close due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, adding, “It's been a constant struggle to get things done that needed to get done.”

Throughout its 48-year history, the DC Eagle has served as a popular hangout for members of the leather, levi, kink, fetish, and BDSM communities, and more recently had begun reaching out to other non-traditional communities. It also boasted of having the longest-running leather title contest of any bar in the country, even prior to the start of the International Mr. Leather contest.

The bar has relocated and changed ownership many times since first opening in 1971 at 904 9th St. NW, in the city’s Mount Vernon neighborhood. It shifted every couple of years, relocating to 950 9th St. NW, then to 925 5th St. NW, and finally 639 New York Ave. NW, where it remained for 26 years, from 1987 30

MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

to 2013. In 2014, the club relocated to its current location at 3701 Benning Rd. NE, opening the doors of its newly renovated warehouse in early 2015.

Due to its resilience and the persistence of its various owners to keep the DC Eagle brand alive, the frequent moves gave the club an air of indestructibility among some of its most loyal customers and staff.

But the Eagle employee said that, over time, concerns about the bar's financial stability began to develop, especially after the building was sold to Estervera LLC in June 2019 for $1.5 million.

The club's owners told local media that they had sold the property to generate revenue with the intent of leasing the building from a new owner in order to continue operations.

That sale occurred less than a year after the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue sold the option to buy the Eagle's building because the Eagle owed close to $32,000 in overdue property taxes for the period from 2016 to 2018.

Under D.C. law, owners whose properties are sold at a tax sale can stop the purchaser from taking over the property by paying back the overdue taxes, plus fees and penalties, in full before the last day of the sale. Records from the Office of Tax and Revenue show that a payment of $25,000 was made in October 2018, and another payment of $49,000 was made in June 2019, the same month it was sold to Estervera LLC. Nine months later, on April 3, 2020, the building was sold again, this time to Benning Rock, LLC for $3 million, according to the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue.

The Eagle employee claimed that, prior to the Benning Rock sale, Clements had not paid rent on the property “in a long time,” enough for Estervera to “exercise a part in the lease that says you’ve broken the lease and [Estervera is] able to get out of the lease agreement.” As such, when the building was sold, Benning Rock “was purchasing it with a tenant who was moving out,” the employee said.

The employee said that Benning Rock plans to take control of the building in September. In February, the Washington Informer

reported that a company named CORE, LLC planned to install a 300-bed halfway house in the Eagle building, under a contract with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons. That report sparked opposition from Councilmember Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7), who represents the area around the club, but appeared to confirm rumors that had been circulating throughout the LGBTQ community for months, Eagle employees say.

A second former Eagle employee, also speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of backlash from the owners and former colleagues, told Metro Weekly that, like his co-worker, he casts much of the blame for the Eagle's woes on Clements, whom he accused of financial mismanagement. He also alleged that there was seldom documentation of how much money was on hand at any given time.

"Ted refused to have any daily reconciliation. There was no form of cash management," he said. "When we installed the Square register systems [to accept card payments], he refused to use them. He made people pay cash when he was bartending by himself. And there’d be one or two drinks sold each night, and it wouldn't line up with what other employees would have rang in his place. There was zero accountability or oversight."

The second employee also noted that some workers would often be advised to wait before cashing their payroll checks.

"We'd actually have payroll checks bounce a couple of times, because money would get shuffled around, or bills wouldn’t get paid properly," he said. "I had three consecutive paychecks bounce, and didn't get paid one check until six months after I left."

The former employee also alleged that, between the old location on New York Avenue and the relocation to Northeast D.C., Clements had overpaid the electric bill by five figures because he would "round up" the amount owed. As a result, it took months for PEPCO's legal team to apply the overpayment as a credit to the Eagle's account, the employee claimed.

Christopher Paul Garrett, a former manager at the DC Eagle for more than two years, says its closure wasn’t surprising, particularly after reading about the building’s sale last year.

Garrett says he wasn’t privy to certain details of the business, such as its bills, but that many of the criticisms lodged by Metro Weekly’s sources resonate with him, adding that some of the alleged actions would not be “out of character” in terms of how the bar was run. “[The owners] simply didn’t share information about certain parts of the business if it wasn’t pertinent to my job,” he says.

“Unless it was something I directly needed to know to make the building run during the day, they really didn’t share that information with me.

“I can completely and happily confirm that it was definitely a struggle to get things done,” he says. “When I started, I was shocked and appalled that they did not have a cash management system installed. I was one of the reasons they adopted Square.

I had worked with many different types of computer electronic systems at restaurants in the past, I had helped program them.

I actually suggested Micros to them, and they went with Square because it was a cheaper option. But they did not start proper management of the cash and stuff until Square was able to give them a daily report of what was happening.”

Garrett says Clements was resistant to using the new technology, something he chalked up to a generational divide and technophobia. As to claims that Clements had overpaid his electricity bills to PEPCO, Garrett said he had no information on that, but saw “a lot of unopened PEPCO mail.”

Regarding the overdue back taxes, the second anonymous employee claims he was in the room when co-owner Lloyd was attempting to teach Clements about the MyTax DC system, which requires business owners to pay their taxes online. The employee claims this is what led to staff at the Eagle learning from outside sources that the building had been sold in the tax sale in 2018.

"Peter was trying to go over with Ted, ‘Hey, here is how you

"THE EAGLE WAS A PLACE WHERE YOU COULD LET YOUR FREAK FLAG FLY. You could really be just who you were, whether you were into heavy S&M or were just someone who liked the look of a leather vest. To me, it's devastating." —Jon Rybka, bartend sign into MyTax DC, the system is changing, you have to do it online, you can no longer mail them a check,’ and walked Ted through the whole process of doing that at least twice," the employee said. "And it came out a few months later that he had been sending them checks, and of course, they’re not cashing them, because they weren’t accepting mail-in cash payments."

Lastly, the employee alleged, Clements was stubborn and didn't want to adapt or cater to new customers beyond the traditional leather community, even though the parties or "raves" that the club would occasionally hold were quite profitable. He was also initially resistant to bringing in drag shows, but later relented.

"He'd say, 'That's not our core customer,'" the employee claimed.

The employee also accused Clements of intimidating staffers who spoke up or attempted to introduce changes, and said that, due to his minority share in the business, Lloyd was unable to rein in Clements.

"Ted very regularly would say, 'I’m running this company.

This is how it is,'" the employee said. "Anytime you’d try to challenge him, it was like working for a miniature Donald Trump.

He’d try to turn everybody against you. And he was better friends with a lot of the leather clubs and people in the scene, and he’d try to use that influence to throw you under the bus."

Garrett confirms that Clements was resistant to some of the changes that managers wanted to introduce to adapt to changes MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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in the bar industry.

“Ted was always the stern father energy of the group. And Peter was the maternal, loving energy,” says Garrett. “If you wanted to complain about something or had concerns about the job, you took it to Peter, not to Ted. That was just common knowledge.

“Ted could be reasonable, but you had to try really, really hard to make him listen. Once he was listening, he used logic.

But Ted was not easy to communicate with. I think it’s just his personality style.”

A message left with Clements seeking comment was not returned, while an attorney for Clements declined to comment

started working there, I was shocked and amazed at how I was welcomed. There were different aspects of that world, and now the city is going to be without, because those scenes don’t necessarily have a home. It’s sad that the younger generation will miss out on things we had.”

Garrett adds that he mostly had positive experiences during his time at the bar.

“Up until the point where I was let go” — for reasons that were untrue, he claims — “it was a dream job. I wasn’t being paid nearly what I should have been. But I got to do the things I never would have dreamed of.

“I let go of religion years ago. I worship DJs now,” he adds.

“I got to work with my idols, like DJ Abel and Tracy Young, and those people know my first name, and that’s because of the Eagle.

The club became a family to me.

I was challenged the way I never had been before in other jobs, and I was able to rise to those challenges.”

Other former employees say the Eagle was a place where they felt accepted and appreciated.

Alex Gomez, who moved up the ranks from barback to bartender, says he was "heartbroken" at hearing the news of the Eagle’s closure.

"The Eagle is a very special place to me. It's the first place that —Christopher Paul Garrett, former manager offered me a job as a bartender when I was in school. I experion the employees’ allegations. An attorney for Peter Lloyd also enced very many sexual 'firsts,' and very many other types of declined to comment. (The Eagle’s full list of creditors, of whom 'firsts' in my queer experience," he says. "I loved it so much that Metro Weekly is one, is unknown at this time.)

I wanted to work at it."

Although the Eagle's current employees — which number Gomez noted that there had been rumors that the club was 25, including part-time contractors like DJs and drag per- going to close that would frequently circulate, only to be shut formers — received paychecks, courtesy of the Small Business down or dispelled by management.

Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, many will now "I think everybody knew that the Eagle was having a hard have to seek out other work. Since closing, the Eagle has held time financially. Though to be honest, I don't know what the online fundraisers for individual staffers, and posted links on its financial situation was," he says. "I still got paid every time my website to people’s Venmo, CashApp, and PayPal accounts so paycheck came around." patrons could financially support their favorite bartenders, DJs, In fact, Gomez says, he began to see the Eagle as a sort of or other performers while the club was out of commission. resilient figure in his life that could weather any trouble.

But the first employee we spoke to was concerned for com"It always seemed like regardless of the issues it went munities that had established the DC Eagle as their go-to place through, it kind of stood the test of time, through a lot of differ— from the puppy community to the rave community to drag ent hardships, and I'm not going to lie, I thought this pandemic queens — and questions whether they will be able to find a sim- was going to be one of those hardships that it would outlast," he ilar space. says. "I guess it was just its time."

“I’m happy to have been a part of it, but I worry what this Gomez never experienced any problems with his immediate means for different segments of our community,” the employ- supervisors or managers. He had heard rumors about problems ee said. “There are countless numbers of people who came to with higher-level management, but dismissed any rumblings of the bar on a regular basis, because, to them, it was the only bar discontent as just "gay boy drama." He feels there is going to be a where they could be themselves. It was a bar where they could significant "gap" in the queer nightlife community that the Eagle express their individuality, and it was a second family — and would have normally filled had it remained open. sometimes even a first family — for many people. They’re now "I think people who appreciate kink and fetish and sex posgoing to be stuck finding out where they can enjoy themselves itivity are going to sorely miss a space where they were able to and be themselves.” practice and promote that," he says. "That's just not available at Garrett echoed those sentiments, noting that the DC Eagle other bars in the city." was his first foray into the leather community.

Jon Rybka, the lead bartender at the DC Eagle on Friday “I was not part of the leather community at all. I went to and Saturday nights, knew there had been discord between the the old Eagle maybe a total of three times,” he says. “When I owners individually, as well as between some of the staff mem-

“I can completely and happily confirm that it was definitely a struggle to get things done.

When I started, I WAS SHOCKED AND APPALLED THAT THEY DID NOT HAVE A CASH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM INSTALLED.”

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bers and the owners, but still didn't expect the club to close as suddenly as it did, believing the Eagle would survive as it had previously during other times of hardship.

"I was in shock,” he says. “I was really sad, because it's a second family to me. I was just kind of gutted. It's the end of a legacy."

While Rybka knows some of his former co-workers will complain about the negative experiences they had, he tries to take a positive view of his time at the club.

"There's so much negativity in the world, and so much bullshit and hatred and anger and infighting, that I choose not to be a part of it, because I want everybody to be happy. My fellow workers became like kids to me. They called me 'Mama Shelby,' because I watched over them and made sure everybody was happy, and was always an ear to listen to. And I was that middle person that could go to management and say, 'Look, this person's unhappy' or 'What are we going to do about this?' For better or worse, it was my family."

Rybka is not sure that any other bar or nightclub will be able to fill the niche that the DC Eagle did.

"The Eagle was a place where you could let your freak flag fly," he says. "You could really be just who you were, and what you wanted to be, whether you were into heavy S&M or were just someone who liked the look of a leather vest, or if you liked to dance and party, you could do that, too. To me, it's devastating."

Brooklyn Heights, a drag queen who had hosted shows and a weekly viewing of RuPaul’s Drag Race at the DC Eagle every Friday, says employees had suspected that the bar might close, but didn’t know when it would actually occur.

“The Eagle is not in the inner city of D.C., so it’s a hike to

get over there,” Heights says. “Attendance would be low some weeks. As far as warning signs for management, everyone has their bickers now and then, but there was nothing where we said, ‘Oh, we’re going to close because so-and-so are fighting,’ or anything like that.”

She says she and the other drag queens never had issues getting paid on time, and that even though there were rumors of a pending closure, there was nothing she saw personally indicating that the club was in dire financial straits.

Heights says regular patrons of the DC Eagle have reached out to her and tried to support her financially and make sure she’s doing well — something she says is a sign of a strong LGBTQ community. However, she doesn’t know where she’ll end up performing once people stop social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ve done drag for almost eight years, and I do it six days a week,” she says. “Brooklyn will still be around, it’s just ‘Where is she going to be Friday nights?’ will be the question now. There just aren’t many places these days.”

Even though more LGBTQ bars appear to be closing up shop locally, Heights believes there’s still a need for queer-only spaces.

“There need to be gay bars,” she says. “You can’t do everything on social media. As far as meeting people and having a face-to-face experience, I think they’re needed.

“I think the biggest thing we need to do is support our local venues,” she continues. “Obviously, you can watch drag on television now, that’s become mainstream. But people need to leave their houses, support their local bars, and eat at the places that offer food. If you can drive 30 minutes to a hook-up, you can travel 15 minutes to a venue and support them.”

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PHOTO: ADEDAYO KOSOKO • HAIR AND MAKEUP: ANA B

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Photo: Adedayo Kosoko Hair and makeup: Ana B

FOR

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THE

Portraits OF Todd Franson As M etro We e k l y tur ns 26, we ce l e brate th e wor k of a pe rson w ho has helpe d to create a nd def in e i ts ve r y esse nce.

I nte r v i ew by Ra nd y Shulma n Photogra phy by To dd Fra nson

W

AY BACK IN 1995, A YOUNG, GAY, 23-YEARold photographer grabbed a copy of Metro Weekly and carefully combed through its masthead. He sent the entire staff personal invitations to his show, Nightlights, an assortment of glamorous, black and white portraits of people behind the dance-based fundraisers that were, at the time, extremely popular in the Washington, D.C. LGBTQ community.

The stack of envelopes arrived at the Mount Pleasant office, and each was doled out to the appropriate staffer. One, however, stood out. It was addressed to Alan Turing, the deceased gay mastermind who famously helped crack the Nazi code during World War II. Turing had been listed in that week’s masthead under Patron Saint, an “easter egg” in every issue that continues to this day.

“I didn't know my gay history very well,” laughs Todd Franson, somewhat sheepishly.

Over the past 25 years, Todd Gregory Franson has more than learned his LGBTQ history — he’s become part of it. As the central photographer for Metro Weekly, Franson has been responsible for more than half of its 1,300-plus covers and interior shots.

Perhaps more than anyone else in the magazine’s history, he has shaped and defined the publication’s various looks and visual atmospherics. In 2007, he became the magazine’s sixth (and longest-serving) art director, further cementing his place as a key figure in the magazine’s history.

A graduate of the prestigious Savannah School of Art and Design in Georgia, Franson had his sights set on a career in photography and art direction since graduating in 1991. He began his career in Washington, D.C., as an assistant in the now-defunct Woodies’ catalog department, and later worked for its rival, the also now defunct Hecht’s. But the majority of his adult profes34

MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

sional life has been spent at Metro Weekly, capturing members of the community, celebrities, politicians, and other assorted assignments — from interiors of homes to glorious photographs of food to the vibrancy of the Capital Pride Parade and the 17th Street High Heel Race — as required.

As Metro Weekly’s art director, Franson has further refined the work forged by his predecessors. His standard of excellence and quest for perfection produces a publication that is as enjoyable to gaze at as it is to read. Whether using his own work, or the work of other photographers or illustrators, Franson finds the perfect balance each week between text and image. He nails it consistently. And his covers exist as proof.

The sweetly congenial, playfully acerbic 50-year-old with a Duran Duran obsession that is well-known among his friends, currently resides in Maryland with his husband of eight years, Collin Ingraham, who works in cultural historic preservation for the state of Maryland. Theirs is a deeply loving homelife filled with gourmet cooking, perpetual gardening, and ensuring that their boisterous corgi, Abby, doesn’t dash after the deer and rabbits that frequent their vast backyard. A visible and active member of D.C.’s leather community, Franson has also been an Associate Member of the Centaur Motorcycle Club for several years. His home office is cluttered with trinkets and toys, oddities and visual treats, not to mention volumes upon volumes of art books dedicated to Blade Runner and the various Alien films.

There’s even a Gizmo Furby.

In 2019, Franson endured back-to-back tragedies when his father, Alvin, passed away in April, followed by his mother, Alice, in June. The grief, obvious to those who know him intimately, did not stand in the way of his duties or commitment to a weekly deadline. In fact, it was about a year ago that he strode into the Capitol, photographic equipment in tow, to capture

one of the defining photographs of his Metro Weekly career: a portrait of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who sported a pink dress and a rainbow tennis wristband for the occasion. Franson’s instant, friendly rapport with the Speaker of the House produced a relaxed, beautiful, transcendent image. One for the Congressional Record books, as they say.

“It's always impressive and humbling to go into the Capitol and photograph one of the representatives of the people of this country,” says Franson. “It’s an honor to get alone time with them, to just be with them, and for the camera to capture them.

It's nothing I would have expected from when I was that guy twenty-five years ago thinking that I didn't want to do portraits.”

Throughout his career, Franson has photographed a fair number of politicians, including Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin, Jared Polis, Mark Pocan, and, of course, Speaker Pelosi. He’s spent camera time with his share of major celebrities as well, notably Sir Ian McKellen (pre-Lord of the Rings), Sir Kenneth Branaugh, Michael Urie, Lynda Carter, Christine Baranski, Harriet Harris, Samira Wiley, John Glover, John Cameron Mitchell, Judy Gold, Alan Cumming, Heather Graham, Anna Deavere Smith, Maulik Pancholy, and John Waters.

In fact, he has photographed the legendary Waters three times in the filmmaker’s Baltimore home, most recently last November, to create what would become the most talked-about Metro Weekly cover of 2019: Waters at his dining room table, preparing to dig into an oversized plastic cartoon head of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, fake blood dribbling from its neck. The surreal photograph perfectly evokes the spirit of Waters, who threw a playfully ominous glare to Franson’s Nikon. It was a moment of quintessential bonding between a masterful photographer and his equally masterful subject.

Over the course of his tenure with Metro Weekly, Franson has photographed nearly every executive director of every major LGBTQ organization at least once: HRC’s Elizabeth Birch, Joe Solmonese, and most recently Alphonso David. The Task Force’s Tori Osborn, Darlene Nipper and Rea Carey. Us Helping Us’ Ron Simmons and DeMarc Hickson. Whitman-Walker’s Cornelius Baker and Don Blanchon. Sultan Shakir of SMYAL, Kimberley Bush of Reel Affirmations, and Mara Kiesling of the National Center for Transgender Equality.

He has photographed countless arts luminaries — The

Henry Krieger (Dreamgirls), Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray), and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights Terrence McNally and Edward Albee.

He captured the late D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham in Cleopatra garb and the late gay rights icon Frank Kameny in Monica Lewinski drag. He photographed notable authors like Keith Boykin, Edmund White, and David Sedaris. And he has lit up the pages with the purveyors of D.C.’s nightlife, people like Bill Cappello, former owner of The D.C. Eagle, Alan Carroll of Ziegfeld’s/Secrets, Nellie’s Doug Schantz, Pitchers’ David Perruzza (as a blood-drenched Carrie, no less), and Number 9, Trade, and Town (RIP) co-owner Ed Bailey, photographed in Nation Nightclub, before it was razed.

You’ll find some of those images on the pages that follow. The initial idea was to choose 26. But that became a daunting, nearly impossible task, so the number was increased by 100. It’s still not enough, but we had to stop somewhere. We’ll be posting more — plus never-before-seen outtakes — throughout the month on our Instagram page (follow @metroweekly).

As someone who has worked alongside Todd for 25 years, who has gotten to know him not just as his editor and employer, but as a close friend, it was a personal honor to finally sit down — by phone, of course — and finally interview him about his love of photography, what he feels makes for a great portrait, and why he believes that, pandemic withstanding, Metro Weekly, which turns 26 with this issue, will remain part of the city’s LGBTQ legacy and endure long after he decides to retire to a life of leisure and travel and conclude his photographic reign. (Though it’s doubtful he’ll ever stop chasing squirrels and gloves.)

Until that time — and we hope it’s not anytime soon — we count our blessings that Todd Gregory Franson sent a stack of invites for his Nightlights show to the staff of Metro Weekly (Alan Turing included).

As it turned out, it was the luckiest day in this magazine’s history.

METRO WEEKLY: When did you first get interested in photography,

specifically?

TODD FRANSON: When I saw my first Playgirl magazine.

MW: I need you to take me seriously.

FRANSON: [Laughs.] I know, I know! I'm trying! I first got inter-

“My mother was ranting and raving because my father had told her that I was gay. She went through this whole thing, like, ‘HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW YOU! MY GOD, HE THINKS YOU'RE GAY!’ AND I WAS LIKE, ‘OH, WELL, I AM. SORRY, MOM.’” Shakespeare’s Michael Kahn, Signature’s Eric Schaeffer, Paul Tetreault of Ford’s, Wolf Trap’s Arvind Manocha, the Washington National Opera’s Francesca Zambello, NSO Pops conductors Stephen Reineke and Emil de Cou, The Washington Ballet’s Septime Webre, Atlas’ Doug Yeuell as well as a legion of actors (Holly Twyford, Floyd King, Will Gartshore, Delia Taylor, Rick Hammerly, Tom Story) and musical artists (Bob Mould, Rich Morel, SONiA, Tom Goss, John Taylor). He photographed national theatrical legends like Walter Bobbie (Chicago), 36

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ested in photography because of my dad. When I was a kid, we travelled all over Europe, and he was constantly taking pictures.

He was one of those guys that took tons of slides on every trip.

He had the projector screen and everything and did slideshows of our trips.

Eventually, I asked for a camera, and my parents got me a little Kodak 110. I would only shoot black-and-white film, because it was cheaper to process than color. I was around seven or eight, and I was trying to take pictures of squirrels in trees and all sorts

Sir Ian McKellen Actor (1996)

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of crap. It was nothing artistic.

MW: The artistry came later.

FRANSON: Yes, in high school. I was always interested in art, so I was always taking art electives. I finally took a photography elective, and that kind of clicked for me.

MW: Were you doing portraits?

FRANSON: No, I did not do portraits. I was never really interested in taking pictures of people at all. I didn’t do portraits till the early ’90s.

MW: What did interest you?

FRANSON: Telling stories with objects. I would create things in front of the camera to try to express a story, an emotion, or a

FRANSON: Actually, the night I came out to my mother, she was

ranting and raving because my father had told her that I was gay.

She went through this whole thing, like, "When I divorced your father, I didn't mean for him to divorce his children! He doesn't even know you! My God, he thinks you're gay!" And I was like, "Oh, well, I am. Sorry, Mom." MW: Did she take it well?

FRANSON: It took her a little time, but not too long. She was always incredibly supportive. They both were always incredibly supportive.

MW: So you and I first met, I guess it was around 1995, I want to say, at one of your early exhibits. I remember going to Trumpets

“I was never really interested in taking pictures of people and I didn’t do portraits till the early ’90s. I was interested in objects.

I WOULD CREATE THINGS IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA TO TRY TO EXPRESS A STORY, AN EMOTION, OR A FEELING.” feeling.

MW: I've seen a lot of your work where you’ve photographed inanimate objects.

FRANSON: They're called still lifes.

MW: Okay, still lifes. Among my personal favorites are your “glove series.” I remember in the early days of Metro Weekly, when we were on the way to an assignment and you saw a glove on the ground, you'd stop everything to get a photograph of it. You were drawn to gloves for some odd reason.

FRANSON: The gloves were a metaphor for protective covering — our armor, our shield. Instead of your hands taking all the beating that the world throws at you, the glove does. The glove takes on all that for you. As time goes by, the glove gets more and more beat up, and you're still protected. So that's what I always liked about the gloves, that's what they meant to me.

I would go out to clubs and stuff, and I’d get depressed. I’d come home, I’d take out the glove, and impale it on a sword, tie it up, or do something to it to create these little vignettes with the glove to express how I was feeling at the time. I drowned it, I stabbed it. One of the most successful ones was a diptych.

It was inside versus outside. The glove has white wings on the outside, which is how everybody saw me, bright and cheerful and everything. And then for the inside version, I took the glove and just tied it all up with twine, so it's all twisted and bound up and everything. Anyway, that’s how the metaphorical glove series came about.

MW: They are striking images. I vaguely remember a bullfight series — photos of a ceramic matador?

FRANSON: Yes, and different bull images. Sometimes it would just be the shadow of a bull. The metaphor there was that I was the bullfighter trying to fight off homosexuality, yet it kept coming at me. I would kill the bull at one point, and it kept coming at me again.

MW: When did you finally come out?

FRANSON: Well, my dad always knew, so I came out to my mother. It was probably like '89 or so. I was in college.

MW: So you never said to your dad, "I'm gay."

FRANSON: I didn't need to, no.

MW: How were they with it?

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and seeing your remarkable show, Nightlights — all of these remarkable portraits of people from the LGBTQ community. I'd never seen anything like it.

FRANSON: I was very good friends with David De la Tour, and he had an idea to do portraits of 30 people who had turned gay nightlife in D.C. into fundraising events for AIDS charities. He wanted to honor them with portraits. He was going to take on all the expenses for the project and in return he would get a complete set of the prints of the images, which he still has in his house. The rest of the money would be a fundraiser for charity — the profits went to Food and Friends and SMYAL. I was at a period in my life where I'd been doing catalog photography at Woodward & Lothrop, and really enjoying that a lot.

He approached me and said, "Hey, do you want to do portraits for these people?" And I was like, "Never been interested in taking pictures of people.” But it seemed like a challenge, so I said, “I guess I'm up for this.” So he would give me a person’s name, and I'd give them a call and say, "Can I come over?" And go over to somebody's house and sit and talk for a few hours, and kind of get to know them, and then I would start doing portraits.

I'd probably do about three or four different setups on each person, just try to be as creative as possible and really show the people who they were. It took nine months to shoot the whole thing. It didn't get a cover story in Metro Weekly, but it made some money for charity.

MW: It got you in the door at Metro Weekly.

FRANSON: [Laughs.] I guess so, yeah.

MW: Do you remember your first assignment for the magazine?

FRANSON: It was a Food and Friends shoot. I was friends with Annie Adjchavanich, your photographer at the time. I was in the assisting circuit, getting assisting gigs from professional photographers. I would assist Annie on shoots occasionally. And she shared a studio with other photographers, and I would assist them occasionally. Annie liked studio work back then — she didn't like doing location stuff. So I got that assignment.

MW: The Food and Friends shoot was more of a documentary shoot. I honestly don’t remember your first portrait for the magazine. I do remember you and I covered the first AIDS Ride from Philly to D.C. together. We followed along in a car. I drove, you

David Sedaris

MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM Author

(1996)

39

hung out the window and took photos. I remember feeling guilty watching the riders struggling and gasping in the heat, while we were breezing along in an air-conditioned car.

FRANSON: [Laughs.] I remember Brent Minor saying, "Darling, those weren't hills, those were elevator shafts!" That's another thing I'd never been interested in — documentary-style photography and reportage. But doing it definitely puts you in the trenches and makes you figure out how to use your equipment, that's for damn sure.

MW: You eventually became our full-time photographer in late 1995. Do you remember anything special from the early years?

FRANSON: Oh, I mean, photographing Ian McKellen was pretty cool. I guess that was my first celebrity. And David Sedaris. I hadn't even read any of this stuff at the time. Now he's one of my favorite writers. There was a woman named Tori Osborn.

I really, really loved, really loved that portrait. She used it for a book that she wrote.

MW: That photograph was amazing. She was the Executive Director of the Task Force at the time. Amazing person. You photographed a lot of celebrities and non-celebrities alike. One of the things that I always felt about your work is that you took great care to make each one as special as possible. You've produced hundreds upon hundreds of images for this magazine. You couldn't have expected that this is where your life would have led you.

FRANSON: One of the things that always bugged me about photographer colleagues of mine in high school and college was they were like, "Oh, I'm going to be a documentary photographer."

Or, "I'm going to be a landscape photographer." They narrowed everything down, and I just never did that. I still photograph just everything. I just like the medium. There were periods where it gets a little reductive, but I knew eventually I wanted to merge photography with graphic design. My ultimate goal was to do both. And I am merging photography and graphic design with the magazine. So it's kind of where I wanted to be.

MW: You started as art director in 2007, following Tony Frye’s eight-year run, just as we moved to glossy wraps. You are the longest-serving art director as well as longest serving photographer for the magazine. How do you feel about Metro Weekly? Answer carefully....

FRANSON: I guess I got nothing better to do. [Laughs.] Well, I mean, obviously, I love Metro Weekly, because I'm still here doing it after 25 years. I remember before I worked for Metro Weekly, I would walk around D.C., and I'd see this really cool little black-and-white magazine, with a beautiful portrait on it, and just a logo and no text. And it was just always very intriguing. I knew it was very well put together, and it looked great, and it sure stood out from anything else.

MW: How has it been for you to watch the magazine evolve over the years?

FRANSON: It's always been a collaborative experience. Everybody who's ever been here has left a little DNA behind. To be honest, I don't really know how to answer that. I mean, I think it's as good as it's ever been, and it just keeps getting better. So, if it wasn't continuing to get better and improving and changing, I don't think I’d be doing it anymore.

MW: I’m curious, do you ever look back and feel especially proud of something that you've done?

FRANSON: I look back on something and am surprised by the joy that it gives me. Looking through all these pictures for this feature, the ones that I really like are the ones that show something that only photography can do and only somebody who knows how to use photography can do, like playing with light, long exposures, things like that.

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Some of those Clublife images were all done in camera with crazy lights. Double exposures and things like that. There is that one picture of Jason Royce that I just think is gorgeous. Really happy with the way that turned out. I think that a portrait is dictated by the subject. Some of them are very wild and crazy portraits and some are really sedate. You're not going to get Barney Frank to do something creative, but you can get Chris Griffin to do anything you want. So you can have fun with those people and that can be really, really fun. So you let who you are photographing be your style guide.

MW: What’s it like to photograph celebrities? You’ve done some huge names over the years: Lynda Carter, Ian McKellen, Samira Wiley, John Waters, Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

FRANSON: What's it like? Well, there was a period, that you know very well, where I was just incredibly anxious before a shoot. I'm over that now. There was a time that was very hard for me to photograph anybody, let alone a celebrity. But that's gotten a lot easier for me lately. You’ve got to be professional and you can't really be starstruck. You got to do your job. I’ve learned to be a little pushier, but not like you are.

MW: You’re saying I’m pushy?

FRANSON: You’re intense. For example, I was really comfortable with John Waters this time around. The last time I was there, he had me running around his house getting stuff. "Go to my bedroom, there's a fake martini on the right stand, go grab that for me." I was very calm this time and I knew that I was happy that we had a concept approved, and had a direction we were going in with the Rudolph head on a platter, so that was really nice.

MW: With regard to celebrities, one thing I don't think people realize is you typically don’t have a lot of time to get the shot.

Sometimes it’s less than five minutes. I remember you had Anna Deavere Smith for something like three minutes and came away with an amazing portrait.

FRANSON: Or with Ian McKellen. I had one roll of film — 36 exposures and that was it. So yes, it can be very, very little time.

There are times the PR people are right here at the very end of it and we've got like two minutes to do a portrait. So I've learned to get my lights set up and scope out the area. I know I just have that little bit of time, so I need to be prepared. I usually need to get two setups done. I’ll scope out two locations. If there's natural light, I'll try to do one with flash and then the second backup with natural light. So you have to be efficient with your time. I don't have an assistant — don't like having an assistant, actually, because I prefer to do everything on my own. For me having an assistant is just one more person to think about.

MW: Celebrities aside, what does it mean for you to photograph everyday members of our community?

FRANSON: Those are my favorites. One thing that is really important about the platform you have created is that we can elevate and give voice to people, not just celebrities. That's what I think the true value of Metro Weekly is to this community.

MW: Looking ahead, what do you hope to see for the magazine and for yourself?

FRANSON: For me, eventually retirement and travel. Working for a weekly magazine is what I love to do, but eventually, you’ve got to retire. I hope to hand it off to somebody really, really, really wonderful. And I hope the magazine continues going beyond Randy Shulman and Todd Franson. There's a lot of creative people out there. So I hope that it continues to live on. That's what I hope for our magazine.

Follow us on Instagram @metroweekly to see more of Todd’s portraits throughout our anniversary month of May.

Tori Osborn

National Gay & Lesbian Task Force41 MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM (1996)

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Sir Kenneth Branagh Actor (1996)

Brad Gooch Author (1996)

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Cathy Renna GLAAD (1996)

Cathy Renna as Barbara Walters

MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM Halloween Drag Makeover (1996)

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Paul Kawata National Minority AIDS Council (1996)

Paul Kawata as Madame Butterfly

Halloween Drag Makeover MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM (1996)

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Rick Hammerly as Martha Stewart’s Gay Brother, Stewart April Fool’s Issue (1996)

Walter Bobbie

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(1997)

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Dixie Carter

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Rich Tafel Log Cabin Republicans (1999)

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Bob Lohrmann 53 Actor (1999)

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DJ Mandrill (1999)

Matthew Cibellis

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Kendra Kuliga 57 Drag King (2004)

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Maya Keyes Activist (2005)

Delia Taylor, Jeanette Buck & Holly Twyford 59 Actors (2005)

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Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman

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Bob Mould Musician (2005)

Kathleen DeBold

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Mame Dennis The Academy of Washington (2005)

Scott Barker

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Bishop Kwabena "Rainey" Cheeks Inner Light Ministries (2005)

Larry Stansbury

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Steve Ranger

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Ed Bailey 71 VelvetNation (2006)

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Annie Kaylor

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Joe Solmonese Human Rights Campaign (2006)

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Frank Kameny 75 Activist (2006)

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Mario Acosta-Vélez

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Eric Schaeffer Signature Theatre (2007)

DJ Jason 11Royce Cobalt 79 (2007)

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Ella Fitzgerald

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Judy Gold Comedian (2008)

Thea Kano

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Ron Simmons Us Helping87 Us (2008)

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Rea Carey National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (2009)

Michael Crawford 89 Activist (2009)

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Bob Summersgill

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Brent Minor Team D.C. (2009)

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Lt. Daniel Choi Activist 95 (2009)

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Hank Stuever Washington Post TV Critic (2009)

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Dito Sevilla 97 Dito’s Bar (2009)

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Lynda Carter Actor / Singer (2009)

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Sarah Marshall Actor 99 (2009)

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Bill Capello DC Eagle (2009)

Earline Budd

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Cornelius Baker

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Terrence McNally 105 Playwright (2010)

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Jack Mackenroth Fashion Designer (2010)

Linda McAllister

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Kushaba Moses Mworeko

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Ward Morrison

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June Crenshaw

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Matthew & James Gardiner

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Kenya Hutton Us Helping Us (2011)

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Edward Albee 119 Playwright (2011)

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Septime Webre The Washington Ballet (2011)

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Tammy Baldwin U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (2013)

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Arvind Manocha Wolf Trap 127 (2013)

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Jerry Houston PRIDE Radio (2013)

Barney Frank

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Birdie LaCage Drag Personality (2013)

Jim Ball & Christopher Lynch 131 L’Enfant Cafe (2013)

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Pascal Tessier Eagle Scout (2013)

David Perruzza as Carrie

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Bishop Gene Robinson Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire (2015)

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Wesley Taylor Actor (2015)

Kimberley Bush

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Douglas Schantz Nellie’s Sports Bar (2016)

Freddie Lutz

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Tiziano D’Affuso & Solomon Parker 151 Actors (2018)

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Sir Eli Ra 155 ONYX (2019)

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Mara Keisling National Center for Transgender Equality (2019)

Michael Kahn

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Al Sekscienski Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse (2019)

Nancy Pelosi

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Michael Urie Actor (2019)

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Derek Smith 161 Actor (2019)

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Brian Sims Pennsylvania State Representative (2019)

John Waters

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Zack Powell Actor (2019)

Shawn Short

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Gallery

T

Christine Vineyard

HE MESSAGES THAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SENDING launched the project as a fundraising campaign for the DC me about why they're choosing to purchase specific Central Kitchen, an organization many of her students and prints...are almost as touching as the donations them- their families rely on even in normal circumstances. selves,” says Christine Vineyard. “I think it resonates with a lot “DC Central Kitchen is feeding so many more people now of people right now that these are places they can't access, but than they normally do because all these people are out of school that they love.” and work, and so they need these extra funds even more,” she In fact, it was that sentiment that sent Vineyard, an says. Vineyard is offering 8x10 prints of her nearly 60 illustrations art teacher at a D.C. middle school, to her drawing board for $22 each, with larger sizes available upon request. Proceeds shortly after the COVID-19 shutdown. “I just started doing from each transaction go directly to DC Central Kitchen, after these illustrations,” she says. “I started with production and packing costs. Vineyard plans the Anthem because of the message they to continue adding new works to the series Click to Follow have on their marquee: ‘We'll get thru this,’ Christine’s Instagram in the weeks to come. “I’m giving priority to which is really profound. Then I did Capitol businesses that are requesting to be included, Hill Books and the Hill Center, places that were important to because that is part of the focus,” she says. me. I began posting them on my Instagram and social media, Vineyard, who has been featured everywhere from FOX5 just as sort of my own goodwill.” Once followers to her @ to EaterDC to the HillRag is stunned by the response. “All the Lidflutters accounts began requesting specific illustrations, exposure is really awesome,” she says. “It's just getting more and especially after businesses started doing so, she knew attention to these businesses. And it's getting more money to DC she was onto something. Two weeks ago, Vineyard officially Central Kitchen, so it's a win-win.” —Doug Rule Visit www.lidflutters.com/shop or follow @lidflutters on social media.

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Movies

Great Catch

A Secret Love is in a league of its own documenting the history, love story, and struggles of two pioneering lesbians. By André Hereford

T

HEY MET ON A HOCKEY RINK IN MOOSE JAW, SASKATCHEWAN IN 1947, a quintessentially Canadian puck drop for a love match that would last more than 70 years. Two farm girls from Saskatchewan, Pat Henschel and Terry Donahue had been living most of their lives together as a couple in Chicago when Terry’s great-nephew, director and actor Chris Bolan, started filming them for what would become his quietly moving and intimate documentary A Secret Love (HHHHH).

When we first meet them in the movie, Terry is a feisty nonagenarian who still resembles the dynamic athlete she was decades ago as a player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, made famous in A League of Click Here Their Own. Three years her junior, Pat’s been doing her best to keep up the couple’s house in leafy, suburban St. Charles, while to Watch taking care of Terry, recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s. We the Trailer also learn that it was only recently that the longtime companions had come out to Terry’s close-knit family back in Canada. Her nieces’ and nephew’s apparent shock to find out that Auntie Terry and Aunt Pat have been more than friends all these years comes off as sweet rather than insensitive.

Terry’s niece, Diana, also the filmmaker’s mother, plays a pivotal role in the present-day drama the ladies face. Terry and Pat have reached an age where they’re forced to consider giving up their multi-story home and moving into a senior living facility, or into the home of a relative. Diana, like most of the nieces and nephews up North, doesn’t have much to say about the ladies coming out, but does register strong opinions about where they should move now that they can no longer live on their own. While

she’d like them to move to Canada, at least one of them all but refuses to go.

A Secret Love strikes an excellent balance between encapsulating Pat and Terry’s remarkable past and involving us in the dramatic familial conflict over their future. And it honors their legacy as courageous queer women, without ignoring the fact they hid their lives from many of their nearest and dearest. Tangible details — like a box full of treasured love letters, all with the signatures ripped off to conceal who had penned them in case they were ever found — add weight to the bouncy home movies and eye-opening archival footage. “They wanted us to look like ladies and play like men,” Terry says of her days playing for the Peoria Redwings.

Bolan has said in interviews that he doesn’t believe his great-aunt inspired any specific A League of Their Own character, but it’s easy to see in A Secret Love how this spitfire inspires her family. Not everyone in the audience can reach inside their pocket or purse and pull out their own official baseball card, but nearly everyone will have felt at some point the fear Terry felt about finally revealing her truth to the niece she cherishes like a daughter: “I didn’t want to lose her love.”

A Secret Love is currently streaming on Netflix. Visit www.netflix.com.

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Movies

Dawdling Clementine

Clementine squeezes scant suspense from its ostensibly juicy setup of two strangers at a lake house. By André Hereford

L

ARA JEAN GALLAGHER’S CLEMENTINE (HHHHH) BAITS ITS HOOK with the initial intrigue of apparently jilted lesbian Karen (Otmara Marrero) lurking outside her ex’s boho-chic L.A. pad. Karen wants her dog back, and maybe more. Desperate, she’s willing to drive to her ex’s lake house in Oregon, break-andenter, and hide out on the premises until her next ill-advised move. She won’t have to wait long, as she arrives to find teen temptress Lana (Sydney Sweeney) lolling around in a bikini by the lake.

The loaded scenario seems poised to go in any number of possible directions.

Karen and Lana’s fateful meeting could just as easily take a turn towards “Letters to Penthouse” as live up to its arthouse thriller potential. But instead, it doesn’t move in any compelling direction, neither winding the tension and thrills as tightly as it might nor plunging into the psychological Click Here depths of two restless strangers engaged in a dance of decepto Watch tion, or attraction, or something. There are lies and sexual tenthe Trailer sion, and a couple of bursts of action and danger, although it all registers as lukewarm at best, along with the chemistry between Marrero and Sweeney.

One of the sparkling young cast of HBO’s Euphoria, Sweeney captures her character’s odd come-hither coyness. Lana says she’s nineteen, but looks and acts younger.

She also says, after taking a hit off Karen’s joint, that she’s “done way worse” than smoke pot, and we can believe that she definitely has thought about doing bad. But the character stays stuck on coy, even after the lake house’s often-shirtless caretaker Beau

(Will Britain) gets thrown into the mix.

Beau helpfully supplies exposition, and mildly stirs the pot of intergenerational friction between Karen and would-be bad girl Lana, but the plot just simmers, slowly, stillness masquerading as mystery.

On one hand, stillness is intended to be a key element here, and the crisp sound and cinematography brings the atmosphere to life. First-time feature filmmaker Gallagher’s stylistic control is admirable, but shots of the shimmering lake and well-timed snippets of Katy Jarzebowski’s ominous woodwind-heavy score can generate only so much suspense or interest on their own. And neither the thin plotting, nor Marrero’s somnambulant performance as Karen, sustain the movie’s slight momentum towards the teased collision between truth and delusion.

Dirty hands do come clean, but the teasing doesn’t pay off to great satisfaction, with one plot thread wrapping with a dud of a dramatic monologue, and another with Karen’s dumbest move. Karen’s ex, D. (Sonya Walger), eventually makes a move of her own, and follows up her terse voicemails and phone calls by making an onscreen appearance. Here again, the film could opt to go in any direction of romance, intrigue, kink, or excitement, and instead doesn’t make a choice. The long-awaited showdown fizzles like a match tossed in a lake, or anticipation slowly dissipated.

Clementine is now playing in virtual cinemas everywhere, including Alamo Drafthouse Winchester, Virginia.

Visit www.clementine.oscilloscope.net.

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DENNIS LEUPOLD

Music

Self Improvement On her first album in four years, JoJo sounds relaxed, at ease with herself, and eager to share the feeling. By Sean Maunier

A

NY THERAPIST WILL TELL YOU THAT THE JOURNEY TO LOVING yourself is a rocky one at the best of times. Luckily, few of us will ever have to act that out in public, much less after a very public battle with our record label, but for artists like JoJo, there can be real power in working out one’s issues in front of an audience. Despite the many frustrations and difficulties it was born out of, Good to Know (HHHHH) finds JoJo sounding relaxed, at ease with herself, and eager to share the feeling.

While she has long been billed as a pop and R&B artist, JoJo leans pretty decidedly towards the latter, especially on this album. Her vocals are as strong as they have ever been, and she seems more than aware of it, absolutely milking the lyrics on hazy, sensual tracks like “Gold” and “Small Things.” Tighter production gives it a more polished feel than her previous album, the somewhat disjointed Mad Love. With the possible exceptions of “Think About You” and “Don’t Talk Me Down,” none of the songs are especially catchy, but they’re not trying to be, either. These Click Here are not empowerment anthems so much as songs to chill out to and learn to love yourself. to Watch The easy, assured tone of Good to Know nicely complethe Video ments its self-love vibes. Explaining her thought process in for Man the album’s release, JoJo herself says, “The project can be broken into three chapters. The first being: here’s what I do to numb myself... The middle part finds me realizing that I need to be on my own for the first time in my life to end patterns that aren’t serving me anymore. Toward the end, I knock on the door of self-love. Accepting where I’ve been and meeting myself where I’m at.”

JoJo’s vision of an arc bending towards self-love is a little hard to discern in practice. After all, each one ultimately boils down to finding peace in her own skin, her main preoccupation this time around.

Good to Know doesn’t really present a journey towards inner peace so much as its end product. She drives the point home on “Man,” with the line, “I need someone to love me like I love me.”

JoJo admits to a few mistakes and more than a few destructive tendencies, but always in the tone of someone who has recognized them in herself and worked to put them past her. When she sings on “Pedialyte,” “Swear I’m never gonna drink again,” it’s hard not to take her at face value. In the end, she comes out of it looking like someone who may still have a few kinks to work out of her life, but has arrived at a fairly solid sense of self.

There are some moments of real vulnerability and dark introspection, but by the time the closing track, “Don’t Talk Me Down,” concludes Good to Know on a positive, hopeful note, we are left with the feeling that it is mostly in the past tense.

It may be a one-note album, but it delivers plenty of good feelings packaged with low synths, slick R&B production and some truly head-turning vocals.

Good to Know is available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music, with “Proud” available only on Soundcloud, YouTube, and the physical album.

MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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SelfieScene

Be Scene! Take a selfie, and make it fun if you like, and TEXT to 202-527-9624.

Be sure to include your name and city. YOU could appear in next week’s Selfie Scene!

Tom, Scott and Swiffer (Baltimore, MD)

Freddie (Arlington, VA)

Bill (Winchester, VA) Julian (Washington, DC)

Mike (Baltimore, MD)

MAY 7, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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LastWord.

People say the queerest things

“His dedication to advancing LGBTQ equality, even when it was unpopular to do so, has pushed our country and our movement forward. ” —HRC President ALPHONSO DAVID, endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. David said Biden is “the leader our community and our country need at this moment,” and contrasted him with Donald Trump by saying Biden would be a president “who stands up for all of us.”

“I think it shows how everything and nothing has changed in the industry, and that the abuse of power, unfortunately, is pertinent. ” —JAKE PICKING, who portrays gay actor Rock Hudson in Netflix’s Hollywood, a retelling of the Golden Age of cinema centered on women, LGBTQ people, and people of color, to The Advocate about the treatment Hudson endured. Picking noted that Hudson’s agent required that any “signs of femininity had to be [eradicated]. His wrist was slapped, hips straightened this way, never cross your legs, fix your teeth, lower voice, all this stuff.”

“I’m starting a rumor on the Breitbart chats that Covid-19 turns you gay.

That should keep a lot of these idiots at home.”

—Actor GEORGE TAKEI, writing on Twitter in the wake of a number of armed protests across the country against coronavirus-related stay-at-home orders. Takei’s comments were noted by far-right website Breitbart, which caters to alt-right views and conspiracy theories, with the site publishing a warning to readers about Takei’s comments, lest they believe that COVID-19 does indeed cause homosexuality.

“People are fucking dying left and right and the gays are having full on house parties on a Monday night in NYC.” —Comedian, writer, and advocate PHILLIP HENRY, in a tweet sharing footage from Instagram apparently showing a private gay circuit party in New York City on May 4. The party was heavily criticized on social media, particularly given that New York City is the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, with over 13,700 confirmed deaths due to the virus as of May 5.

“One hundred years ago, everybody would have considered it to be absurd to speak of a homosexual marriage.

Today, one is being excommunicated by society if one opposes it. ” —FORMER POPE POPE BENEDICT XVI, speaking in new authorized biography Benedict XVI: The Biography: Volume One about same-sex marriage. Benedict XVI suggested same-sex marriage came from the “antichrist,” and that “it really needs the help of prayers on the part of an entire diocese and of the Universal Church in order to resist it.”

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