Washington City Paper (February 7, 2020)

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NEWS: TOO MANY PEOPLE SUED FOR DEBT 4 SPORTS: A 26.2 MILE VICTORY LAP FOR LOCAL RUNNERS 10 ARTS: AN H STREET NE AP-ART-MENT BUILDING 18

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INSIDE

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COVER STORY: 2020 VISION

12 One cyclist’s illustrated journey through D.C.’s bike lanes and bureaucracy

DISTRICT LINE 4 For Debtor, For Worse: Debt buyers are suing D.C. residents with increased frequency. A legislative fix is stalled inside the Wilson Building.

8 Loose Lips: LGBTQ activists want councilmembers to address their budget needs.

SPORTS 10 Olympic Effort: Dozens of local runners push themselves to qualify and compete at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

ARTS 18 Locals Only: Work by 20 local artists decorates a new apartment building on H Street NE. 20 The Write Stuff: D.C.’s LGBTQ literary scene is thriving thanks to events, contests, and the efforts of many local writers.

22 Curtain Calls: Jones on Studio Theatre’s Pipeline, Klimek on Olney Theatre Center’s Miss You Like Hell, and Randall on Ford’s Theatre’s Silent Sky 24 Galleries: Sarappo on My Queer Valentine at Target Gallery 26 Liz at Large: “Change” 27 Short Subjects: Zilberman on The Traitor

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On the cover: Comic by Josh Kramer

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DISTRICTLINE CITY DESK

For Debtor, For Worse

Consumer advocates want to reform debt collection laws and practices.

But a bill that makes sure cases are legitimate is stagnant.

Darrow Montgomery

D.C. Superior Court Building B

By Amanda Michelle Gomez IndIvIduals lIne up one by one to check in with the small claims courtroom clerk Wednesday morning, every one with a different load. Some are carrying their babies, one is carrying a white cane. More than 70 D.C. residents are being sued over debt and had to appear in court to deal with it. When it is time to start, the six benches are filled so some sit in vinyl chairs or stand. Each hearing lasts a few minutes. The scene is dizzying.

D.C. is experiencing such an uptick in debt collection lawsuits that in October 2018, the small claims branch of D.C. Superior Court added an extra day for these cases to be heard.

They are now heard on Thursdays in addition to Wednesdays.

Last Thursday, 13 of the 17 cases on the cal-

endar were collection lawsuits. A debt buyer filed the first two cases the magistrate judge heard. The court ultimately entered a default judgement in both cases because the individuals being sued did not show up. Altogether, the debt buyer claimed a judgement balance of $3,625.99. Now that summary judgements have been issued, the debt buyer can garnish the individuals’ wages or bank accounts. Their credit, employment, and possibly housing are at risk.

Roughly 30 percent of D.C. residents have debt in collection, and the residents with debt are disproportionately people of color, according to the Urban Institute’s analysis of 2017 credit reports, putting them at financial risk.

Sometimes when this debt is seriously delinquent, individuals start getting collector calls or mail and when they don’t pay up, they can get sued. Increasingly, individuals are getting

4 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

served by a company they don’t even recognize that bought the debt in bulk for pennies and decided to collect.

Small claims court is designed to be a people’s court, where parties can go without lawyers. But collectors are being represented by counsel in these hearings. The individuals getting sued typically walk into the courtroom alone. Free lawyers are available, identifiable by the blue clipboards they carry in the courthouse.

Sometimes, as was the case last Thursday, individuals do not show up at all. The defendant’s seat is left vacant while the plaintiff ’s is occupied by a few rotating lawyers in suits responsible for multiple cases per day. One woman who missed her original court date said she couldn’t make it because she had a sick kid at home. She did appear in court on Jan. 30 and reached an agreement with the

credit lawyer for her case. The woman, who asked not to be named, represented herself.

There’s an explanation behind the chaos in court. The number of debt collection lawsuits is increasing, according to D.C. lawyers who represent individuals getting sued over debt. The reason for the uptick is manifold.

Sometimes these lawsuits aren’t even legitimate; companies have been known to buy excel spreadsheets of debt and not verify the information before suing.

Given the rise of collection lawsuits and reports of questionable behavior from collectors, consumer advocates have called for reform. A proposed D.C. Council bill would update the District’s decades-old debt collection law, codifying protections for the growing number of residents being sued over unpaid bills. But it’s been stalled for years.

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DISTRICTLINE In 2016, there were 5,580 new filings in small claims court, according to D.C. Superior Court statistical reports. That number jumped to 7,096 in 2017 and 9,261 in 2018. There is no report for 2019 yet. City Paper requested detailed data from D.C. Superior Court, who could not provide this information in time for publication. Ground experts, however, contribute the uptick in filings to collection cases.

“The court does not differentiate within the small claims report between debt collection and other cases, but the vast majority of those cases are debt collection, and we know that from docket reviews and and from our being in the court every day and/or week,” says Ariel Levinson-Waldman, founding president and director-counsel of Tzedek DC, an organization based at the University of the District of Columbia’s law school that provides free legal services to debtors of modest means. “We also know that the spike is from the debt collection filings—those are the only plaintiffs that use mass filings as a strategy in the superior court.”

Jennifer Ngai Lavallee, the supervising attorney at Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia’s Consumer Law Unit, and Benjamin Wiseman, the director of the D.C. attorney general’s consumer protection office, agree with Levinson-Waldman’s analysis.

“We have seen a sustained and even increasing volume of filings by debt buyers,” says Lavallee. “We are seeing a rise in incidents with debt collection companies,” notes Wiseman. In 2018, Attorney General Karl Racine joined a $6 million nationwide settlement with prominent debt buyer Encore Capital Group for using illegal tactics to collect spurious debt. “Through some of our investigations and litigation, we’ve uncovered debt buyers that are aggressively seeking to collect on consumer debts without at first substantiating those debts—knowing that debt is in fact owned by consumers that they are contacting, knowing for certain the amount of the debt itself.”

D.C. ranked first nationwide in collection complaints per capita in 2018, with 1,199 complaints per 100,000 people, according to a report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The report also says 8,319 collection cases were filed in D.C. between January 2018 and March 2018.

A bill signed into law in December 2016 only partly explains the increase. The District of Columbia Judicial Financial Transparency Act changed the jurisdictional limits for small claims court by increasing the maximum amount in controversy from $5,000 to $10,000. It’s likely cases that were filed in civil court were moved to small claims in the aftermath. It’s also possible that collectors are filing cases now that they wouldn’t have before because small claims court, comparatively, has looser procedures, faster timelines, and cheaper filing fees.

The increase isn’t isolated to D.C. “Leading up to the Great Recession, there was a spike in

cases and then following, a reduction,” says Lisa Stifler, the state policy director for the Center for Responsible Lending. “In the past couple of years, based on some of the research we have done in other states, there does seem to be somewhat of a pattern of increase in debt collection cases again.”

It’s hard to definitely say why there’s a proliferation. “There is some macroeconomic data indicating that people are taking on more debt,” says Stifler. “Are collectors or others more aggressively using the courts now compared to previously? I’m not quite sure there’s any indication related to that.”

Levinson-Waldman, however, believes there’s a logical inference: Debt buyers are emboldened by the Trump administration’s appointments to the CFPB. “The quantity of enforcement has gone down.

The message to large scale debt buyers has been it’s open season,” says Levinson-Waldman. Case in point: In 2018, two debt buyers, Encore Capital Group and PRA Group, purchased and collected record amounts of debt.

Debt collectors call Halle four to five times a day.

“It makes you depressed because you don’t have money to pay them. They are harassing you for money you do not have,” she tells City Paper.

Social security is Halle’s only source of income because she is unable to work after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and spinal stenosis, medical conditions that make it hard for her to move. Her father used to help her out financially, but he died in 2016. That’s when Halle’s money troubles started. In 2017, she was sued over unpaid credit. While she reached an agreement with the company in 2019, she says she is still getting collector calls. She doesn’t know all the companies calling her. Recently, one collector told her to start collecting bottles and cans to make money.

“The system needs to be kinder,” says Martha. “It could be you at any time.”

Martha was also sued over debt. She was laid off from her D.C. government job in 2016 after working in social services for more than 30 years. “I should have probably been a better manager of savings,” she says. “Anything I had extra, I would give to other people.” When it came time to decide whether to pay her mortgage, groceries, or credit card bill, she prioritized keeping a roof over her head and eating.

The collection calls began after she couldn’t pay her credit card bill. “It’s a sick feeling. You wanna do right, you wanna pay but you can’t,” she says. “Them getting money is more important than you being a human being.” In 2019, Bank of America sued her for roughly $3,000 dollars. She reached an agreement with the company in January.

City Paper agreed to use pseudonyms for Halle and Martha because of the stigma associated with debt. Martha, for example, worried

6 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

if a potential employer Googled her and saw this article, she wouldn’t get the job. “People who go through the claims court are not bad people. People go through things. People make mistakes,” Martha says.

Debt is becoming a widespread worry in D.C. Based on a DC Consortium of Legal Services Providers survey of more than 500 lowincome residents published in 2016, nearly half reported problems with debt. The most common problem those with debt cited was receiving calls from collectors. To address the problem, approximately 5 percent sold their own property or took out a payday loan.

“People are suffering as a result of [collection lawsuits],” says Levinson-Waldman of the Legal Aid Society. “It also reflects a lot of suffering and reflects the massive problems of being poor in an expensive place. And it reflects the fact that we live in a jurisdiction with extraordinary differentials by race when it comes to wealth.”

According to national data the Urban Institute published, “white family wealth was seven times greater than black family wealth and five times greater than Hispanic family wealth in 2016.” The racial wealth gap, Levinson-Waldman says, is reflected in D.C.’s debt collection calendar. Black and brown residents are more likely to be sued over debt because they have fewer financial resources to fall back on when hardships arise.

A ProPublica investigation of three cities— St. Louis, Chicago, and Newark, New Jersey— found collection suits actually cluster in black neighborhoods. The rate of judgements were twice as high in predominantly black neighborhoods than in predominantly white ones, even when accounting for income. numerous experts say D.C.’s current debt collection law has not kept up with a growing problem, calling it “antiquated.” For example, it contains no mention of debt buyers, even though they’ve been filing lawsuits in large numbers since the early 2000s. They don’t even have to register with a D.C. agency.

“The only way they announce themselves is with the filing,” says Levinson-Waldman.

Wiseman says “We think that it would be appropriate to update the law, to provide better notice and better protections for consumers.”

Advocates have thrown their support behind the Debt Buying Limitation Amendment Act. The bill strengthens the existing law in numerous ways, like placing requirements on debt buyers; requiring companies to have specific information before collecting money from debtors; and eliminating the issue of “zombie debt” (old debt that companies try to revive).

“It adds these kinds of pleading requirements and documentation requirements and verification requirements and says you can’t file something that’s outside the statute of limitations. It would require more of the plaintiff before they

get to the point of suing someone in court,” says Lavallee. “I think that that alone would probably have a pretty substantial impact on filings.”

“Our hope is that if this bill or some version of this bill were enacted, the level of required scrutiny that would come with all of these cases would also impact the default judgment rate for collections cases,” she adds. An informal analysis of small claims filings, she says, puts the rate at 30 percent.

The bill would also help consumers who have problems with debt buyers. “We get people contacting us about debt—that they don’t know where this came from. That’s a common concern. People are like ‘I don’t even know what this came from or who this company is that is contacting me.’ People don’t know they have the right to ask for specific information about the debt,” says Wiseman. “That’s something that this law addresses.”

Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh has introduced the bill four times since 2014, most recently in 2019. But it’s been stalled in the Committee on Business & Economic Development and Committee of the Whole, despite collective efforts to at least schedule a hearing.

“This bill is not about helping consumers avoid the debts they actually owe—it is about providing for a fair debt collection system in which District residents are not harassed or intimidated into paying debts or subjected to wrongful legal action,” says a 2017 letter signed by nine advocacy groups.

It’s unclear why the bill hasn’t moved, particularly when other states like Maryland have taken up reform.

“It’s very very frustrating for me because I know that there is a great need for it. I know a lot of this misbehavior is going on, and here I presented a tool for helping to deal with it and it languishes in a committee because it’s not my committee and the chair of that committee is not moving it,” says Cheh. “For what reason? I don’t know.”

Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, who chair committees with jurisdiction, have been known to side with debt collectors— just see their 2018 vote on an amendment to a wage garnishment bill. Additionally, Cheh and McDuffie have been known to clash.

When asked about a hearing, Mendelson’s spokesperson says: “It is on the Chairman’s radar for some time after performance and budget.” The spokesperson adds that Mendelson is “not familiar with the legislation in-depth and usually reserves judgement until after a hearing is held.”

“The legislation is under review within the Committee on Business,” according to McDuffie’s spokesperson, who declined to explain why the bill’s been snubbed for so long.

“With over 150 measures referred to the Committee for action this Council period, it is unfortunately not possible for the Committee to take action on all of them.”

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DISTRICTLINE LOOSE LIPS

Rainbow Room The LGBTQ community felt snubbed during last year’s budget season.

They’re making louder demands this time around.

D.C. CounCil Chairman Phil Mendelson mingled among a group of LGBTQ activists, advocates, and neighborhood-level elected officials last summer during a vigil in Dupont Circle in honor of slain transgender women. The death of Zoe Spears, a transgender woman killed on Eastern Avenue in Prince George’s County, was receiving a lot of attention, and the chairman was on the shit list of some in the LGBTQ community.

Days before the vigil, the Rainbow Caucus of LGBTQ Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners sent a letter admonishing Mendelson and the rest of the Council for ignoring their requests for an increase in city funding in the fiscal year 2020 budget. Specifically, the letter expressed disgust with the Council’s “refusal to provide even $1 in increased funding for the Office of Human Rights, and Office of LGBTQ Affairs that 15 organizations advocated for.”

As the sun set on the Friday afternoon gathering, and Mendelson started strolling away, Ruby Corado, founder of Casa Ruby, a community center for LGBTQ individuals, called him out for what she and others in the community saw as a budget snub.

LL tweeted Corado’s statement, and shortly after received a call from the chairman, who left a voicemail pointing out that he left the vigil after being there for an hour and a half and that he didn’t hear Corado as he was leaving. (To be fair, Mendo appeared to be the only councilmember at the vigil. LL spotted staffers from other Council offices, though.)

“I hate to say this,” Mendelson said in the voicemail, “but they’re critical of the Council ignoring them, but … they did not do a very good job of alerting us to the funding needs. I was unaware of it until after the Council voted on the budget, and I regret that, but it’s hard to say we denied them when I was unaware of it.”

The chairman’s claims didn’t sit well with some who met with his staff earlier last year.

Multiple people who met with a staffer in Mendelson’s office say that they were told to make their request for more funding to Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd, who chairs the Committee on Government Operations and has oversight of the Mayor’s Office on LGBTQ Affairs and the Office of Human Rights (OHR). They say Todd told them to go back to Mendelson, who chairs the Committee of

Darrow Montgomery/File

By Mitch Ryals

the Whole and can move money in the budget wherever the hell he wants.

LGBTQ leaders are determined not to get the run-around this time.

In January, representatives from the Capital Pride Alliance, SMYAL, the Wanda Alston Foundation, the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, the DC Center for the LGBT Community, and the ANC Rainbow Caucus started meeting with councilmembers and the mayor’s office to lay out their budget priorities.

In a letter sent to Mayor Muriel Bowser last week, those representatives asked for more resources for workforce development programs, funds to address LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness, a dedicated LGBTQ center with a $10 million price tag, and funds for OHR to relieve the backlog of complaints that have drawn the ire of local victims for years.

(OHR’s director, Mónica Palacio, resigned this week.)

The letter also calls for $2.6 million more in grant funding to flow through the LGBTQ affairs office, $700,000 for LGBTQ health data collection, and $600,000 for transitional

8 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

housing dedicated to LGBTQ youth ages 18-24 among other priorities that total $17.6 million.

“I think it’s a reach, but I think for the most part these are important things to get before the Council and add them to the debate,” AtLarge Councilmember David Grosso says.

“They may not get everything they ask for but they’ll probably get the majority of everything they need.”

Japer Bowles, an ANC from Adams Morgan and a member of the Rainbow Caucus, is cautiously optimistic.

“Everyone says they’re a supporter of LGBTQ issues,” he says. “And now we’re saying ‘put up or shut up’ and we’re giving the Council and mayor a chance to fulfill their promises.”

Grosso, who is not running for re-election but is one of the legislators who Bowles and company have met with this year, remembers last year’s snub well.

“I think last year they did bring their concerns to the Council, but for some reason their concerns were not elevated,” Grosso says. “It’s gonna take the full Council, and I think they were frustrated that Councilmember Todd did not put [more funds] in his [committee] report.”

“There’s an Ariana Grande gif, that’s like ‘thank you, next,’ and I think that’s where we all stand.”

Rewind to May 2019, when the Council huddled in the chairman’s conference room to hash out the budget before the vote: During that nearly 12-hour meeting, both Mendelson and Grosso asked Todd about the LGBTQ community’s requests for more resources for OHR, according to a video recording. Todd said he was unaware of such a request and therefore did not increase the budget.

This week, Todd acknowledged that he received a letter from the LGBTQ community in April 2019, shortly before the Council approved the budget. By that time, he says, it was too late in the process.

Todd says this year he’s “committed to taking a look at their priorities and working with the executive and the Council.”

For his part, Mendelson says the frustration expressed by those in the LGBTQ community was the result of “miscommunication and, um, not clear advocacy.”

None of the 12 current D.C. councilmembers are openly LGBTQ, which Bowles hopes will change in the next election. Ward 2 candidate John Fanning and Ward 7 candidate Anthony Lorenzo Green (who identifies as “same-gender loving”) would be the first openly LGBTQ councilmembers since David Catania and Jim Graham left in 2015.

Former Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans was historically supportive of LGBTQ issues, and introduced a bill on the eve of his resignation-in-lieu-of-expulsion to provide financial support for D.C.’s Pride celebration. But scandal has since tainted his credibility.

“I think he was a champion for anti-sodomy stuff and marriage equality, but we didn’t go to him to ask him to sponsor anything because there’s so many other issues [with his tenure],” Bowles says. “There’s an Ariana Grande gif, that’s like ‘thank you, next,’ and I think that’s where we all stand.”

For Sultan Shakir, the executive director of the LGBTQ youth services center SMYAL, one of the most significant requests is for $700,000 to fund a three-year pilot program aimed at helping transgender and gender nonconforming youths experiencing homelessness learn job skills.

The program would include social support, counseling, and outreach to prospective employers.

Shakir points to an OHR report from 2015 that found 48 percent of D.C. employers prefered “at least one less-qualified applicant perceived as cisgender over a more-qualified applicant perceived as transgender.”

Shakir says that after last year’s snub, Mendelson’s office has been responsive to their requests and helpful in navigating the budget process.

“I would say no [Council] offices to my knowledge were willing to commit, largely because no one has seen the mayor’s budget,” Shakir says. “There’s been support expressed from offices we’ve met with, but the key thing is to ensure the community turns out and continues the engagement of the Council so these issues stay at the forefront as the budget process plays out.”

CP

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Kelyn Soong

SPORTS

Bradley Beal’s All-Star snub elicited disappointment and anger among the Wizards. washingtoncitypaper.com/sports

RUNNING

Olympic Efforts

It’s not just pros. Dozens of elite amateur runners in the D.C. area have qualified to race in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

Brian W. Knight/Swim Bike Run Photo

Caitlyn Tateishi

By Kelyn Soong Two weeks before the 2016 Baltimore Running Festival marathon, Caitlyn Tateishi went on a 20-mile run near Hawaii’s Waikoloa Beach while in town for her cousin’s wedding.

During one of her loops, she noticed a woman who looked familiar blazing past her in the opposite direction.

A little later, Tateishi saw the same woman in a parked car scrolling through her phone at the nearby Waikoloa Village. She decided to approach her. The runner, Tateishi quickly confirmed, was 36-year-old Olympian Des Linden.

“I told her, ‘I’m not stalking you,’” Tateishi laughs. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, I watched you at the Olympics on TV.’” Tateishi told Linden, who was there to watch her husband, Ryan, compete in the Ironman World Championship, about her plans to run a marathon in under three hours.

She calls that moment “definitely the highlight of my running life.” Tateishi had no idea that just four years later, she would once again be seeing Linden—under vastly different circumstances.

On Feb. 29, the 33-year-old Tateishi, who lives in D.C., will be in Atlanta, along with Linden and the best long-distance runners in

10 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

the country. They’ll both be running the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

“It’s just crazy where life takes you,” Tateishi says.

TaTeishi is among the 512 women across the country who have qualified for the race that will determine which runners represent the U.S. in the marathon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. On the men’s side, 260 runners have qualified to run at the trials. Only the top three finishers for the men’s and women’s races will join the Olympic team.

Combined, there are approximately 30 runners that have qualified for the race––held in At-

lanta––who either live in the D.C. area or have a local connection through high school, college, or a former post-collegiate running club.

Most of them, like Tateishi, are not running because they expect to make it to the Olympics. Instead, the trials will act as a capstone of years of self-motivated training. Tateishi has the 328th-fastest women’s marathon qualifying time (2 hours, 43 minutes, and 35 seconds) compared to Linden, who has the 10th fastest (2 hours, 26 minutes, and 46 seconds).

To qualify, men had to run a marathon in 2:19 or less between Sept. 1, 2017 and Jan. 19, 2020 or a half marathon in 1:04 or less between Sept. 1, 2018 and Jan. 19 of this year. The qualifying standards for women were 2:45 for the marathon and 1:13 for the half marathon.

Qualifying for the Olympic Marathon Trials, as the New York Times’ Lindsay Crouse wrote in a recent article about her attempt, is “outrageously hard.” Only 198 women qualified in 2016, a number that has more than doubled this time. The number of qualified male runners increased, too, from 211 to 260.

Several factors explain the drastic jump.

The qualifying time for women in the last Olympic cycle was 2:43 for much of the qualifying window––two minutes faster than this year’s time. (USA Track & Field decided to lower the trials standard after World Athletics did the same for Olympic qualifying times in 2015.) And more runners than ever are wearing Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4% and ZoomX Vaporfly Next% shoes, which feature carbon plates and a springy midsole that may give the runners wearing them an advantage.

The increase in qualified runners is particularly staggering when you consider that the majority of them are non-sponsored athletes with full-time jobs outside of running.

Tateishi works as a legal operations business analyst at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and fits in training around her work schedule. She started the marathon cycle running about 70 miles a week, and recently topped that off at 103 miles.

In a typical week, Tateishi wakes up between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m. and has a strict bedtime around 9 p.m. Mondays are for running

hills, which will help prepare her for Atlanta’s hilly looped course of approximately 1,000 feet in elevation gain, with easier recovery runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Saturdays are for what she calls “shorter long runs” between 14 and 16 miles, and Sundays are reserved for long runs of up to 22 miles.

Jillian Pollack, a 30-year-old Arlington resident and another first-time trials qualifier, considers waking up at 6 a.m. sleeping in.

Most days she’s up around 5 to get to the pool in time for a workout. On other days, she’ll go for an hour-long run before work as a research manager for Investment Company Institute, a trade association for mutual funds in D.C. She runs to work once a week and also trains with the local Capital Area Runners club. Her teammates, Susanna Sullivan, a fifth grade teacher at Haycock Elementary School in Falls Church, and Alexandria’s Rachel Viger, a 28-year-old engineer in the U.S. Navy who also serves in the Navy Reserve, have also qualified for the 2020 trials. The 29-year-old Sullivan finished 20th in the 2016 trials.

Pollack hit the qualifying standard at the 2018 Berlin Marathon with a time of 2:44:44, just under the women’s 2:45 cutoff time. But shortly after returning from Berlin she suffered a stress injury on her calf, followed by a stress fracture on her femur that sidelined her for 10 weeks.

Running at the trials provided plenty of motivation to recover.

“I just had injury after injury, it would’ve been so easy just to give up,” Pollack says.

“Who wants to go to the pool every single day? ... Coming from work going to the pool, sometimes it wasn’t that much fun. But I knew I worked so hard to qualify for this, so there’s no backing down now.”

Finishing in 24th place at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Los Angeles didn’t drastically alter Kieran O’Connor’s life as a runner. Reporters didn’t flood his phone with interview requests. Shoe companies weren’t lining up to offer him sponsorship contracts.

“Can’t believe the modeling agencies didn’t come calling at least,” he jokes.

O’Connor, 32, followed an unconventional path to the Olympic Trials. He didn’t run seriously until after college, and hadn’t trained with a group until he joined the post-collegiate Georgetown Running Club when he moved to D.C. in 2013.

As soon as he did, he made the Olympic Trials his goal. He was close to qualifying, and now he had teammates who had done it before.

“It’s just kind of like the pinnacle for guys at my level,” says O’Connor, who lives in Arlington with his wife and two young kids. “I’m not going to make the Olympic team, so this is my Olympics. It’s kind of that honor to count yourself among best marathoners in the country.

It’s just a really cool thing.”

O’Connor will be joined by Georgetown Running Club members Kerry Allen, Zach Hine, Maura Linde, and Dan Meteer in Atlanta.

Meteer, 24, ran at Brown University, but sev-

eral injuries, including five stress fractures, a hip surgery, and a torn anterior cruciate ligament, derailed his career. He graduated in 2018, and immediately turned his attention to the marathon and qualified for the trials in his first attempt at the distance.

“I graduated with a sour taste in my mouth,” Meteer says. “The Olympic Marathon Trials is one of the more quantifiable goals as a postcollegiate runner, and it was something I could very much have as a tangible goal.”

Hine, who joined Georgetown Running Club last summer and lives in Kensington, finished in 31st place at the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials in Houston with a time of 2:16:40.

He has the fastest time from a local resident (2:16:36) entering Atlanta.

For the women’s race, Fairfax’s Bethany Sachtleben leads all area runners with a 2:31:20 qualifying time. Sachtleben, who turns 28 on Feb. 9, wants to use the Atlanta race as an opportunity to prove herself for the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials. Four years from now, Sachtleben says, she will be eyeing a top 5 finish.

But for now, she has more modest goals.

“I want to be top 10, and I think that’s really doable on a course this difficult, as long as I’m smart and take advantage of people who aren’t as smart or aren’t as good on hills,” Sachtleben says of the Atlanta course, which consists of three six-mile loops and one 8.2-mile loop. “I want to have a good race—anything can happen. I’m definitely not going just for a fun experience. I’m going to leave it all out there.” tateishi’s liFe isn’t like those of her Olympic running heroes. She can’t quite relate to Linden or 2017 New York City Marathon champion Shalane Flanagan, no matter how much they inspire her. But looking around on social media, she’s found plenty of women in the area, and around the U.S., who she can emulate.

Former Georgetown Running Club member Teal Burrell wrote in detail how she went from a 4:07 marathon runner to an Olympic Trials qualifier leading up to the 2016 race. It made Tateishi realize that those running in the trials weren’t just Olympians or professional runners. They had regular jobs. Some of them started off as mid-pack runners. (Burrell, who now lives in Richmond, has also qualified for this year’s trials.)

“I think you can never imagine something for yourself if you don’t see it represented somewhere else,” Tateishi explains. “If I hadn’t seen Teal, or read about her journey, I wouldn’t have ever imagined someone running a 3:38 [marathon] could run sub-three and then go to a 2:45.”

At the 2018 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, Tateishi remembers that a runner right behind her started to cheer. As she caught up to other women, Tateishi shouted encouragement at them, too. It felt empowering.

When she crossed that finish line, she joined an exclusive cohort of female runners. They had reached the same goal, one of shared pain and knowledge of the hard work it required.

A 26.2 mile victory lap awaits them in Atlanta.

CP

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CAPITOL HILL

AUTO SERVICE

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Paul L. | Yelp Arlington, VA | 7/14/2018

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“Extremely responsive, reliable, and quick. Straight up about cost and get you in and out as fast as they can.

Can’t recommend this place enough.”

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6 1 5 I N D E P E N D E N C E AV E S E | WA S H I N G T O N , D . C . 2 0 0 0 3 202-543-5155 | CAPITOLHILLAUTOSERVICE.COM washingtoncitypaper.com february 7, 2020 11

More people than ever are biking in D.C. As many as five percent of D.C. residents commute to work on bikes, which is tens of thousands of people. But while D.C. often makes an appearance on lists of the best U.S. biking cities, it can’t compete outside of the country.

More than half of Copenhageners bike to school or work. Vancouver’s transportation decisions are not allowed to negatively affect pedestrians and cyclists. Their needs are weighed above those of private vehicles. Both Copenhagen and Vancouver also have extensive cycling infrastructure.

In 2015, Mayor Muriel Bowser committed the city to Vision Zero, an international campaign to end pedestrian and cyclist traffic deaths by 2024. But despite that commitment, deaths of people on foot and on bikes in the District have increased in recent years.

But 2020 looks like it might be a turning point for bike safety. 2019 saw fewer fatalities and more options—5,000 e-bikes in addition to 4,300 Capital Bikeshare bikes at 500 stations. After years of mixed results and slow starts, Mayor Bowser may finally be focusing on bikes, the D.C. Council has taken up the cause with multiple bills, advocates have ramped up their organizing, and the District Department of Transportation is eager to innovate and experiment.

Real, substantive change is by no means guaranteed, but DDOT’s own targets are a great example of the shift. D.C. has 89 miles of painted lanes and 11.5 miles of protected routes like the one running through the center of Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Protected bike lanes aren’t just convenient; they’re safer than unprotected lanes. DDOT plans to build 20 more miles of protected lanes between now and the end of 2022. This isn’t as much as the Washington Area Bicyclist Association has asked for, but it is twice as many miles as DDOT had previously planned, in half the time.

“We feel the sense of urgency to deploy safety infrastructure across the District,” says Jeff Marootian, director of DDOT. These numbers tell a story, but I think that this moment in biking would be best suited to my preferred medium—comics. Biking in D.C. has created a lot of anger and fear, but also joy.

I want to draw that. In words and pictures, I’ll show you the bike lanes, the bollards, and the pneumatic road tubes, but I’ll also bring you to the places where D.C. residents have died. So come along with me and let’s see where this cycle track leads us.

12 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

washingtoncitypaper.com february 7, 2020 13

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washingtoncitypaper.com february 7, 2020 15

Important Facts About DOVATO

This is only a brief summary of important information about DOVATO and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and treatment.

What is the Most Important Information I Should Know about DOVATO? If you have both human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, DOVATO can cause serious side effects, including: • Resistant HBV infection. Your healthcare provider will test you for HBV infection before you start treatment with DOVATO. If you have HIV-1 and hepatitis B, the hepatitis B virus can change (mutate) during your treatment with DOVATO and become harder to treat (resistant). It is not known if DOVATO is safe and effective in people who have HIV-1 and HBV infection.

• Worsening of HBV infection. If you have HIV-1 and HBV infection, your HBV may get worse (flare-up) if you stop taking DOVATO. A “flare-up” is when your HBV infection suddenly returns in a worse way than before. Worsening liver disease can be serious and may lead to death. ° Do not run out of DOVATO. Refill your prescription or talk to your healthcare provider before your DOVATO is all gone. ° Do not stop DOVATO without first talking to your healthcare provider. If you stop taking DOVATO, your healthcare provider will need to check your health often and do blood tests regularly for several months to check your liver.

What is DOVATO? DOVATO is a prescription medicine that is used without other antiretroviral medicines to treat HIV-1 infection in adults who have not received antiretroviral medicines in the past, and without known resistance to the medicines dolutegravir or lamivudine. HIV-1 is the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). It is not known if DOVATO is safe and effective in children.

Who should not take DOVATO? Do Not Take DOVATO if You: • have ever had an allergic reaction to a medicine that contains dolutegravir or lamivudine.

• take dofetilide.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before using DOVATO? Tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you: • have or have had liver problems, including hepatitis B or C infection.

• have kidney problems.

• are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. One of the medicines in DOVATO (dolutegravir) may harm your unborn baby. ° Your healthcare provider may prescribe a different medicine than DOVATO if you are planning to become pregnant or if pregnancy is confirmed in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. ° If you can become pregnant, your healthcare provider will perform a pregnancy test before you start treatment with DOVATO. ° If you can become pregnant, you should consistently use effective birth control (contraception) during treatment with DOVATO. ° Tell your healthcare provider right away if you are planning to become pregnant, you become pregnant, or think you may be pregnant during treatment with DOVATO.

©2020 ViiV Healthcare or licensor.

DLLADVT190033 January 2020 Produced in USA.

Learn more about Alphonso and DOVATO at DOVATO.com

16 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

Tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you: (cont’d) • are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you take DOVATO. ° You should not breastfeed if you have HIV-1 because of the risk of passing HIV-1 to your baby. ° One of the medicines in DOVATO (lamivudine) passes into your breastmilk. ° Talk with your healthcare provider about the best way to feed your baby.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.

Some medicines interact with DOVATO. Keep a list of your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine.

• You can ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist for a list of medicines that interact with DOVATO. • Do not start taking a new medicine without telling your healthcare provider.

Your healthcare provider can tell you if it is safe to take DOVATO with other medicines.

What are Possible Side Effects of DOVATO? DOVATO can cause serious side effects, including: • Those in the “What is the Most Important Information I Should Know about DOVATO?” section.

• Allergic reactions. Call your healthcare provider right away if you develop a rash with DOVATO. Stop taking DOVATO and get medical help right away if you develop a rash with any of the following signs or symptoms: fever; generally ill feeling; tiredness; muscle or joint aches; blisters or sores in mouth; blisters or peeling of the skin; redness or swelling of the eyes; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue; problems breathing.

• Liver problems. People with a history of hepatitis B or C virus may have an increased risk of developing new or worsening changes in certain liver tests during treatment with DOVATO. Liver problems, including liver failure, have also happened in people without a history of liver disease or other risk factors. Your healthcare provider may do blood tests to check your liver.

Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following signs or symptoms of liver problems: your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice); dark or “tea-colored” urine; light-colored stools (bowel movements); nausea or vomiting; loss of appetite; and/or pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of your stomach area.

• Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis). Lactic acidosis is a serious medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following symptoms that could be signs of lactic acidosis: feel very weak or tired; unusual (not normal) muscle pain; trouble breathing; stomach pain with nausea and vomiting; feel cold, especially in your arms and legs; feel dizzy or lightheaded; and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat.

• Lactic acidosis can also lead to severe liver problems, which can lead to death. Your liver may become large (hepatomegaly) and you may develop fat in your liver (steatosis). Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the signs or symptoms of liver problems which are listed above under “Liver problems.” You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver problems if you are female or very overweight (obese).

SO MUCH GOES INTO WHO I AM HIV MEDICINE IS ONE PART OF IT. Reasons to ask your doctor about DOVATO: DOVATO can help you reach and then stay undetectable* with just 2 medicines in 1 pill. That means fewer medicines† in your body while taking DOVATO You can take it any time of day with or without food (around the same time each day)—giving you flexibility DOVATO is a once-a-day complete treatment for adults who are new to HIV-1 medicine.

Results may vary. *Undetectable means reducing the HIV in your blood to very low levels (less than 50 copies per mL). † As compared with 3-drug regimens.

ALPHONSO‡ Living with HIV

What are Possible Side Effects of DOVATO (cont’d)?

• Changes in your immune system (Immune Reconstitution Syndrome) can happen when you start taking HIV-1 medicines. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that have been hidden in your body for a long time. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you start having new symptoms after you start taking DOVATO. • The most common side effects of DOVATO include: headache; diarrhea; nausea; trouble sleeping; and tiredness.

These are not all the possible side effects of DOVATO. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Where Can I Find More Information?

• Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist.

• Go to DOVATO.com or call 1-877-844-8872, where you can also get FDA-approved labeling.

October 2019 DVT:2PI-2PIL Trademark is owned by or licensed to the ViiV Healthcare group of companies.

Compensated by ViiV Healthcare

‡

Could DOVATO be right for you? Ask your doctor today. washingtoncitypaper.com february 7, 2020 17

Darrow Montgomery/File

CPARTS

What does your favorite local museum or gallery say about you? Here’s a very subjective key. washingtoncitypaper.com/arts

Locals Only

In the face of never-ending development, apartments can become showrooms for artists.

By Stephanie Rudig

Darrow Montgomery

Drop into the average apartment lobby or business waiting area in the D.C. region, and one is bound to see some black-andwhite photographs of area landmarks, a flat attempt to communicate a specificity of locale. Higher end condos and law office lobbies might feature some original art, sometimes of the liquid asset sort, selected more for how much the piece may appreciate than for its aesthetic value. Avec on H Street, a new apartment building opening on H Street NE, will hang art that’s a bit more meaningful—it’s all made by local artists.

Marta Staudinger of Latela Curatorial, which curates and acquires art for residential and corporate clients, is helming the project.

Latela also offers career development opportunities and workshops for artists, and mounts group exhibits. Across the multiple aspects of her business, Staudinger aims to support and hire local creatives. “Local art in general is really important to our business model,” she says.

“The more art consultants, the more artists, the more galleries, the better for this city,” she says.

Staudinger talked up the idea of using only local talent when pitching developer WC Smith, and set about finding enough pieces to present multiple options for various areas in the Avec complex, scouring local studios and galleries and putting out calls on social media, as well as tapping into her existing network of artists she’d worked with or shown in Latela’s gallery. “We totally opened the net,” she says. “We easily reached out to a hundred local artists to see how much we could place.

It was a nice opportunity to work with artists we hadn’t worked with yet.”

The result is a mix of works by established artists as well as some relative newcomers, ranging from series of paintings to shadow boxes filled with playful fiber art to a mural on the underside of a staircase. She describes it as “kind of like being in a group show.” Samantha Branchaud, vice president of property management for Avec at WC Smith, says that in choosing from selected works, “there’s so much that D.C. artists have to offer that it didn’t feel limiting whatsoever.”

At Avec, the works in common areas will be accompanied by placards with artists’ names and titles, and there are plans to produce a

Marta Staudinger

handout as part of the move-in package with information about all the works in the building. Branchaud also says that Avec management is “open to working with artists to do events in the building, or to help promote shows that they’re a part of,” as well as spotlighting the artists across their social media platforms. The installation of most of the artworks is finishing this week, with some to-becompleted mural projects.

Though an apartment building may seem an unconventional spot for an artist to hang their creations, it’s really not so different from a home sale. Staudinger points out that in a residential building, unlike a gallery show which typically only stays up for a month or two, “there’s a real root. It’s not just up temporarily.” Franklin Thompson, a painter who often works under the moniker of Apt 50 and who will have a painting at Avec, says “I think this is a great way to share art with the world, because people live in apartments.” He’s no stranger to showing in a home space—when he started out painting, he had difficulty finding gallery opportunities that didn’t require paying a hefty membership fee, and started doing residential art showings in private homes.

D.C. has become an increasingly challenging place to make it as an artist, partially due to a lack of studio and gallery space

18 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

to produce and show work, as well as rising rents that make the city less affordable for everyone. It’s perhaps ironic that a luxury development like Avec can offer a viable place to display work, as well as an opportunity for local artists to make real sales.

As Staudinger sees it, the ongoing construction and development of D.C. isn’t stopping anytime soon, so the local creative economy should get a piece of the pie. “I’m hoping to get more artists into buildings like this; developers have money and they need to use it,” she explains. “If they can use local art, why not?”

By now it’s a cliche to examine the breakneck pace of the city’s metamorphosis, but looking at the newly cast shadows of buildings along the H Street corridor, it’s nearly impossible not to marvel that the mammoth two-block-long site of Avec was a strip mall with a 7-Eleven and carryout joints just a few years ago. Developers like WC Smith are partly responsible for this transformation, and so artists and curators need to consider whether a relationship with developers benefits the creative community in the long run, and how projects like this fit into the surrounding neighborhood.

Newcomers to the city have sometimes clashed with longtime residents or attempted to alter the fabric of an existing neighbor-

hood, and newer developments have occasionally been at the center of such disputes.

Last year, residents of The Shay apartments in Shaw complained about the go-go music played at a Metro PCS store across the street, which sparked the Don’t Mute DC movement, and new apartments and condos can be regarded with suspicion. The art hanging in Avec may look like something tailored to suit changing tastes for a changing demographic. But the story of using the work of local artists could be a signal of investment in the surrounding community.

Artists like Thompson, who is a D.C. native, are excited about the concept of using homegrown talent in a new development, pointing out that a collection of this many local artists in a space like this is a rarity. “It’s cool that Marta’s representing local talent, because it’s easy to overlook something that was already here and utilize something that has just touched down in the city,” he says. “It’s great to have people who still care about what was happening here before ‘here’ was deemed the cool spot to live.”

As a D.C.-based business, the management of Avec felt an obligation to use other businesses in the area. Branchaud described the process of sourcing local artists as “the right thing to do, but also enjoyable to us.” Branchaud says that this is a concept that WC Smith would consider replicating at future properties, and Staudinger wants to see it spread even further.

“Avec is totally a leader, but they shouldn’t be the only ones,” she argues.

It’s true that the habit of working with local producers has become more common, particularly among the ever-growing crop of public murals around the city, but a commitment to using only local artists would be a small but doable measure for developers.

Staudinger concedes that trying to source local is not the easiest way to go about projects like this. “It’s a lot of work,” she says.

“I think it’s easier to just pick from a website. When you’re shopping online you can do that in a fourth of the time.” But having pulled it off once, she’s itching to do it again and utilize even more local artists she’s discovered. As she puts it, “could you imagine what kind of creative economy we would have if every building you went in featured 20 local artists’ work?”

CP

washingtoncitypaper.com february 7, 2020 19

CPARTS ARTS DESK

The Write Stuff

Exploring D.C.’s LGBTQ literary community with OutWrite chair Dave Ring

By Hannah Grieco

Dave Ring

Dave Ring

When you first hear D.C.-based, queer speculative fiction author Dave Ring read his work, you immediately notice his smile, both on his face and in his voice, his tone mischievous as he tells his story. His fiction takes you on a wild ride, fantastical and inventive while also sneaking in lessons about human nature.

When you sit and talk with him, his warmth is as contagious as his enthusiasm. He welcomes everyone to the table. Inclusiveness is part of who he is, both as a writer and a human.

“If you ask 10 queer writers about publishing, you’ll likely get 10 different opinions,” Ring says, with a laugh.

So it’s no surprise to hear that Ring’s new venture, Neon Hemlock Press, focuses on highlighting LGBTQ writers, telling the stories he always wanted to read himself and adding depth to D.C.’s literary and publishing communities. He founded the press in 2019, and is now the publisher and managing editor. Neon Hemlock allows him to expand on his previous work, such as the acclaimed Broken Metropolis: Queer Tales of a City That Never Was, a short story anthology he edited for local indie publisher Mason Jar Press in 2018.

Ring spent several years co-chairing OutWrite, an annual literary festival born out of the DC Center for the LGBT Community, before becoming the chair in 2018. The festival has grown in its 10 years, drawing in large crowds and talented featured writers—Kristen Arnett, Jericho Brown, and Wo Chan just last year. OutWrite also sponsors programs and writing competitions throughout the year, adding to an established, but still expanding, local LGBTQ literary community.

There are LGBTQ-friendly and focused literary events that take place on occasion throughout D.C., open mics and readings that lift up important voices in the literary community, but Ring would like to see more. He would also like to see OutWrite, and the LGBTQ literary community in general, embrace an intersectional attitude that includes more writers.

“My hope for OutWrite under my direction has been to create a space open to myriad connections with the diverse communities under the LGBTQ umbrella, because queer people

are not a monolith and our relationships with the idea of a shared community can be fraught,” he says.

Ring believes both in the inherent kindness in this community and also in its need to grow. He feels welcomed, but wonders about others who feel more marginalized.

“Would an Indigenous trans writer feel the same as I do about how inclusive the city’s literary circles are?’” he asks. “Likely not. So we all need to do better.”

Ring knows that the key to expanding community is accessibility, and his work with lo-

20 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

cal writers and activists focuses on that.

“Accessibility is an area that I’m looking to improve on within my own event planning,” he says. “Conversations with Kris King from MoonLit, plus local writers like Marlena Chertock and Day Al-Mohamed, have been really helpful in figuring out what accessibility even means with certain venues. For example, one venue was considered accessible because folks could get into the room, but the stage wasn’t accessible.”

Ring often collaborates with King, who creat-

ed MoonLit, a nonprofit that offers affordable, accessible writing classes and programs to the D.C. area. Like him, she works closely with independent bookstores to make sure all writers feel welcome. MoonLit’s events and classes regularly feature writers from a wide variety of backgrounds. Recent LGBTQ literary workshops included This is Gonna Be The Start of Better Days, taught by spoken word artist C. Thomas, which addressed using poetry as a tool for healing for LGBTQ writers, and Telling it Slant: Queer(ing) Form, taught by District poet Malik Thompson, who examined queer and trans poets who experimented with form to enhance their content.

“Accessibility and diversity are extremely important to MoonLit and drive much of our work,” says King.

For those who want to become more involved in the community, there are a variety of ways to learn, meet people, and support local writers. Attending events that frequently feature LGBTQ writers is a great place to start— events like the open mics that Regie Cabico, a well known gay poet and spoken word artist, hosts at Busboys and Poets. Rasha Abdulhadi, a queer writer, organizer, and leader in the literary scene, is the executive director of Split This Rock, which highlights writers with programs throughout the year.

Purchasing books from local indie presses is another way for readers to support marginalized writers. Small presses have long supported the work of LGBTQ writers when larger presses focused primarily on the gaze of non-LGBTQ audiences. And for writers, both LGBTQ and supporters, a big component of creating community is the act of lifting others up.

“Recommending names to event organizers is one of my favorite things to do, and I love getting recommendations from other folks in literary circles,” says Ring. “Also, as a writer who notices a representation imbalance, it can be helpful to offer up your spot on a reading or panel to make up for it.”

D.C.’s LGBTQ literary scene continues to grow, and there are several big literary and storytelling events featuring diverse writers to explore in the coming months. There’s Love Lit: A Valentine’s Day Salon at Smith Public Trust on Feb. 14, Smut Slam DC at Brixton on Feb. 20, and Out in the Open: LGBTQ Voices Across Genres at the Washington Writers Conference on May 9.

But Ring’s work is never done: Coming summer 2020, he and Neon Hemlock Press will release Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World That Wouldn’t Die, a post-apocalyptic short story anthology, and later, four new novellas from queer authors.

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THEATERCURTAIN CALLS

Pipeline is a play that takes time to process, one whose ideas need to slosh around in your head until they sink in. The actors telling the story know this, and pace their performances accordingly. Although the production runs less than 100 minutes, each scene will get replayed in the days that follow.

—Caroline Jones 1501 14th St. NW. $60–$90. (202) 332-3300. studiotheatre.org.

MOTHER AND CHILD REUNION Miss You Like Hell

SCHOOL SIGHS Pipeline

By Dominique Morisseau Directed by Awoye Timpo At Studio Theatre to Feb. 23 Where to send your child to school is a vexing decision for all parents and caretakers. It intersects with race, class, and housing policy, and each option comes with its own set of downsides. Is it better to take a kid away from a neighborhood school where violence is prevalent and resources are scarce if you can afford tuition at a fancy private school?

Will a black student find more success learning from black teachers at a public school, even if they aren’t pushed as hard academically? Will making the wrong choice irrevocably screw up said child’s future?

These questions are woven throughout Dominique Morisseau’s drama Pipeline, but don’t expect to find answers to them in Awoye Timpo’s production at Studio Theatre. The play forces audiences to think about their own educational experiences, education policy as a whole, and the choices they made or were made for them. It’s an exercise we could all stand to do more often.

Nya (Andrea Harris Smith) is a black English teacher at a public high school in the unnamed Mid-Atlantic city where she lives. It’s a hard job and she commiserates in the teachers’ lounge with Laurie (Pilar Witherspoon), a white teacher on the verge of retirement who’s just returned after recovering from an injury that occurred in her classroom, and Dun (Ro Boddie), the black school resource officer assigned to “protect” and “support” the students and staff. Based on what she’s seen professionally, Nya and her ex-husband, Xavier (Bjorn DuPaty), have decided to send their teenage

son, Omari (Justin Weaks), to a conservative boarding school out of town. There, they think, he will have opportunities his peers at Nya’s school will not.

That’s not the case. When a frustrated Omari puts his hands on his English teacher, he faces possible expulsion and the fortress Nya has spent years building begins to crumble. She’ll do whatever it takes to solve this problem and keep Omari safe, but she worries that his outbursts will prevent him from succeeding in the future. Smith encapsulates Nya’s fear and worry so specifically that her performance can, at times, be uncomfortable to watch. Projections, designed by Kelly Colburn, contribute to the feeling that the walls of the Mead Theatre are closing in.

Although Pipeline is ostensibly a drama about a serious topic, Morisseau includes moments of levity in the script. (“You are allowed to laugh audibly,” her rules of engagement, tucked into every program, remind audience members.) Omari and his girlfriend, Jasmine (Monica Rae Summers Gonzalez), are typical teens in love, bashful one moment and brazenly declaring their devotion the next. Gonzalez leans hard into the comedy of her scenes and in doing so, makes them among the play’s most memorable.

Of the six actors in the cast, Weaks has the hardest job: He has to convey Omari’s uncertainty, fear, and anger, and make it compelling to a room of mostly white, mostly older patrons. Omari doesn’t know what he wants to do or where he wants to do it—what 16- or 17-year-old does?—and Weaks shows it with the slightest of gestures. He shifts his gaze and wrings his hands when his mother demands answers. He squares his shoulders to make himself seem larger, then folds in on himself in a silent demand to be left alone when his father and Dun attempt to advise and comfort him. Morisseau does not have Omari verbally explain his feelings or thoughts, so it’s up to Weaks to make them known. He does so masterfully.

22 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

Book and lyrics by Quiara Alegría Hudes Music and lyrics by Erin McKeown Directed by Lisa Portes At Olney Theatre Center to March 1 the trailer for the forthcoming movie version of In the Heights, Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s multi-Tony Award-winning 2005 musical, is a stunner, but we won’t know until June whether the adaptation, for which Hudes wrote the screenplay, is successful. But to experience Olney Theatre Center’s production of Hudes’ and songwriter Erin McKeown’s 2018 musical Miss You Like Hell is to hope that this show, too, will one day be the beneficiary of a cinematic expansion.

Because much more than In the Heights, which worked beautifully on stages everywhere (including Olney’s, in 2017), it needs one. This is a show about geographical and emotional expansion, but it feels compressed. Director Lisa Portes’ minimalist staging, wherein the seven-piece orchestra remains visible onstage throughout the show and Thomas Ontiveros’ scenic projections work hard to supply that endless skyway that Woody Guthrie sang about, lacks the physical majesty this picturesque tale demands.

The plot follows an estranged mother and daughter’s attempts to build a relationship as they road-trip from Philly, where 16-yearold Olivia (Valeria Morales) lives with her unseen white father, to Los Angeles, where her 30-something undocumented mom, Beatriz (Karmine Alers), faces a deportation hearing. Yellowstone National Park becomes both a geographical and a metaphorical detour, and among a set of songs that are stylistically and qualitatively all over the map (pun intended), “Yellowstone” is one of the best. It’s arranged like a contemporary R&B slow jam, but the object of sensual adoration in the lyrics is the wilderness itself. Kayla Gross, playing a park ranger named Pearl who is also an avid reader of Olivia’s blog (the play is set in 2014, for no clear reason other than perhaps to account for the prominence of blogging), turns it into the musical highlight of the piece.

It’s a shame that Hudes also relies on the Ar-

cadian charms of Yellowstone to induce rapid-onset personality changes in her characters. She won a Pulitzer for her play Water by the Spoonful (superbly staged by Studio Theatre in 2014), which shares Miss You Like Hell’s reliance on cybercommunication as a plot device, but is populated by figures more fully drawn than the ones she’s given us here. Morales makes Olivia a believably contradictory and intelligent kid, one who compares herself to Zora Neale Hurston, Isaac Asimov, and Justin Bieber, and has sex regularly but goes days without bathing (even when she’s not trapped in a car). “The internet did a half-decent job of raising me,” she explains. But Beatriz, her mother, is too often just a leather jacket with a set of tics, and other characters, from a sympathetic state trooper who busts Beatriz for driving without a license to the retired gay couple celebrating marriage equality by renewing their vows in every state in the union, are just too uniformly saintly to be memorable.

One exception is Olivia Ashley Reed, who has a terrific scene as a court clerk, finding real dimension playing someone whose job it is to look like an efficient, cold-hearted functionary of an uncaring system.

It isn’t Hudes’ fault that buying into her optimistic vision of a gentle, forgiving, inclusive America is so hard now, or that U.S. immgration policy has only become crueler in the years since she wrote Miss You Like Hell.

(That In the Heights trailer suggests the threat of detainment and deportation has now been worked into that show, too.) But it’s going to take songs more tuneful than the ones she and McKeown have come up with here to make us set aside all we’ve spent the last four years learning, even for only 105 minutes.

—Chris Klimek 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney. $42– $84. (301) 924-3400. olneytheatre.org.

STAR TREKS Silent Sky

By Lauren Gunderson Directed by Seema Sueko At Ford’s Theatre to Feb. 23 ford’s theatre’s production of Silent Sky might be the brightest thing on 10th St. NW. Watching the opening scene of the Lauren Gunderson play feels warm and familiar—like your most rewatched sitcom or your favorite version of Little Women or Pride and Prejudice. In the scene, we meet future pioneering astronomer and resident dreamer of her household Henrietta Leavitt (Laura C. Harris), whose life the play is based on, and her sensible church-going sister, Margaret (Emily Kester). We’ve just encountered these women but we already know them well. The pair are bickering, as Henrietta plans to leave her family and their farm to go study the stars at the Harvard College Observatory and Margaret, en-

“ “

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Loads of fun – BROADWAYWORLD

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gaged and staying home, somewhat resents her flighty nature.

Harris and Kester portray their respective characters with ease, grace, and authenticity.

It’s easy to become invested in their stories.

The real Henrietta was born in 1868, making the play a period piece. But it’s one that is still just as relevant today.

Henrietta heads to the observatory, where she would go on to make scientific breakthroughs that change the field of astronomy—finding about 2,400 variable stars and documenting their changing brightness. Her work influenced Edwin Hubble and ultimately led to the realization that the universe is expanding. She and Margaret, despite loving each other dearly, remain very different. At one point, Margaret flippantly tells her while reading a newspaper, “You’d think a world war would make the stars seem trivial.” Henrietta retorts, “You’d think stars would make war seem trivial.”

Throughout the show, Henrietta is constantly asking the big questions: Who are we?

Where are we? When are we? How far away are those stars? She wants to uncover the secrets of the solar system, of the galaxy, of the universe. She’s not alone in her cosmic quest. Her peers at the observatory, Annie Cannon (Nora Achrati) Williamina Fleming (Holly Twyford), and Peter Shaw (Jonathan David Martin) are similarly devoted.

The characters contain multitudes. Henrietta has a grand vision and is completely dedicated to her work. Margaret is down to earth but eventually supports her sister’s desire to know what happens high above it.

Boisterous, cackling Williamina and serious, powerful Annie serve as both comic relief and grounded sounding boards for Henrietta, fellow women scientists who she can

lean on and make and celebrate discoveries with. And strange, ever awkward Peter is both Henrietta’s initial intellectual rival and love interest. Underneath their surfacelevel characteristics, the five are decidedly dynamic. It’s a joy to see them evolve during the production.

Milagros Ponce de León’s effective scenic design is also a pleasure to experience. At times, the play pauses for music and dance interludes on the grand staircase at the center of the set, making the drama feel like a celestial fairytale.

At its heart, Silent Sky is a character study, a showcase of sharp dialogue and the uplifting power of sisterhood and friendship. It knowingly portrays the importance of scientific discovery, and the dynamics between men and women in higher education, science, and astronomy, specifically. Mostly, though, it’s an inspiring tale about far-off dreams that suddenly don’t seem so distant, and the journeys people take to get to them— even through the lens of a powerful telescope.

Throughout Silent Sky, those who surround Henrietta always seem to be looking around at one another while she is always looking up to the heavens and down at her work.

Silent Sky accomplishes its mission to boldly show a life and a legacy that many people may not have known about, but that has meant so much to space exploration. When Henrietta and Margaret sit together after some time has passed and both their lives have changed, they have a frank conversation. Margaret tells Henrietta that she has a legacy. Henrietta says she only has work that she cannot finish. “That’s what a legacy is,” Margaret says.

—Kayla Randall 511 10th St. NW. $20–$70. (202) 347-4833. fords.org.

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GALLERIESSKETCHES

Q-PID’S ARROW

“Acrylic” by Aurele Gould, 2017

My Queer Valentine

At the Torpedo Factory Art Center’s Target Gallery to March 8 I took my girlfriend to see My Queer Valentine on a Monday morning; it was a date, I told her. We took the Metro down to King Street and walked to the Alexandria waterfront. Once we got there, we strolled into The Torpedo Factory Art Center’s Target Gallery, hands interlocked.

For My Queer Valentine, the contemporary gallery’s spring show, the small space is filled with large-scale photographic prints, paintings on both large and small canvases, and sculpture. Visually, the pieces cover a broad range of styles, including a digitally influenced take on Abstract Expressionism, geometric interpretations of fire, Basquiat-esque mark-making and writing over photographs, sculpture with few references to recognizable forms, canvases made three-dimensional by the attachment of glittery found objects, and small silkscreen prints. Thematically, they may at first seem to not cohere, but that’s only because My Queer Valentine’s juried works cover a diverse and rich swath of queer life.

As for taking my girlfriend, I had another motive that I didn’t say aloud, though she may have picked up on it. I wanted to enter that exhibition as a visibly gay person, and I wanted to see how that affected my experience of the art. It was the right choice. My Queer Valentine does more than curate work that examines what it means to be LGBTQ in the 21st century: It creates a queer space warm with the joy of recognition.

Some works speak directly to that joy, like artist Cat Gunn’s abstract canvases. Their dramatic patterns represent the harmony of being in a relationship where their partner sees them as their authentic, nonbinary self, they write in the wall text. There are glittering squares and wobbling lines moving back and forth across the plane, but things seem to be coming together the longer you look—parts that once made no sense have an internal logic that reveals itself with sustained attention and open mindedness. Recognition can be dangerous, and the closet offers safety, but it also means hiding behind a mask. The relief of dropping the charade and being seen is transcendent.

My Queer Valentine isn’t camp, not as a whole, but it’s full of artworks made by people who understand the humor and the wondrous pompousness of queer glamor. (That glamor and its high drama are knowingly selfimportant because there are still so many people who wish we didn’t have it.) The first pieces the viewer encounters play with the feminine trappings of artificial jewelry, glitter, plastic,

and resin, all in bright, loud colors; one piece dripping with sequins invites viewers to “lick me until ice cream.” That kind of playful sexuality thrives in many of the works, even the more subdued ones. A beige canvas on the opposing wall asks the onlooker to “come (cum on my) back.” The half-joking, half-serious attitude toward sex is one of My Queer Valentine’s greatest strengths, highlighting the laughter and joy inherent in queer life and queer sex.

Linda Hesh’s “Kissing Booth” is another joyful artwork. It’s not a stunning feat of technique and construction; it’s just a wood and steel booth, like one you might see at a county fair in the ’50s. It advertises itself as, unsurprisingly, “KISSING BOOTH.” It’s not anchored to a wall. Instead, it stands out from a corner and beckons viewers to come in, where they might notice that its ging-

24 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

ham pattern is made up of pictures of kissing same-sex couples. I’ll admit my biases here: I’ve always had a love for participatory art. But the booth’s standing invitation to come inside, to take a picture kissing underneath it, and to share that picture with the world is a brave act, even in 2020 in Alexandria—brave for the artist and the piece inviting those kisses, brave for the people who choose to do so. Even though queer desire is hypervisible in contemporary life, it’s not always recognized as a loving, human affect.

By asking people to kiss, Hesh affirms the romance of the gesture and the genuine safety of the space around it.

The most striking pieces were by D.C.based photographer Matt Storm, a transgender man. His work is challenging, cheeky, and hard to look away from. The two images on

display come from his Act of Looking series, where he returns to the same studio in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the famous gay vacation spot, to photograph his body “to create an expanded lexicon of ways to see a body, inclusive of ways to see my body,” he writes in his artist’s statement. In the first image, we see him standing naked, in a pose that looks relaxed but requires him to hold himself in place with his own strength. His muscles are tense but not flexed. His face isn’t overly expressive, but there’s a spark of playfulness in his eyes and a hint of a smile on his mouth.

And his arm drapes behind his back, coming to rest between his legs, where he holds his fingers playfully—an obvious commentary on how, as he says, “my body is incongruous with how we are taught to see bodies.” In another, he clasps his hands in front of his crotch, fingers crossed. We can’t see his face, but we can feel the humor. The piece is titled “Crossing my Fingers, Getting Away with Something.”

But a different series of works stopped me in my tracks. Aurele Gould’s photographs pulled my gaze from the moment I entered the gallery. When I saw her triptych of an athlete putting pre-wrap around another girl’s thigh, I felt a lump in my throat. “A moment of transference is constructed, a care and an intimacy among women,” she writes in the wall text. Immediately I thought of Barbara Kruger’s 1981 piece “Untitled (You Construct Intricate Rituals),” which famously says “You construct intricate rituals that allow you to touch the skin of other men” over an image of men roughhousing.

But I thought of it less because of its artistic impact and more because, for years, queer kids on Tumblr have been using it as a memetic reference point for jokes about the forbidden, magnetic pull of another person’s skin. In the three images of the piece, we see hands grab the inner thigh, let go to wrap the tape around, and return to place both hands on the partner’s leg.

Likewise, I’d been primed to see Gould’s piece “Acrylic” before I walked in—it represents My Queer Valentine online—but I stopped myself from making a beeline to it. When I did make my way over and allowed myself to look, I noticed for the first time the two models’ sharp, long, matching acrylic nails gently cradling each other’s faces. That striking image is made more striking by those glittery nails. Gould knows this: “I like how thought processes can fold unto each other, like thinking about when stereotypes can be used and who they can be used by,” she wrote in the wall text. I felt a pang of recognition. I smiled. The two lovers in the photograph stared at me, nails shining, and I took my girlfriend’s manicured hand and stared back.

—Emma Sarappo 105 N. Union St., Alexandria. (703) 746-4587. torpedofactory.org.

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“Change” by Liz Montague Liz Montague is a D.C.-based cartoonist and cat mom. You can find her work in The New Yorker and City Paper.

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TRAITOR WOES The Traitor

Directed by Marco Bellocchio There is a moment in The Traitor where the Brazilian police try to get a mafia soldier to talk.

They threaten him, they beat him up, then they take him up in a helicopter. A second helicopter appears, and the cops dangle the soldier’s wife from it. She’s terrified and screaming, but he does not flinch. He calls their bluff. The Traitor is based on a true story, and while we don’t know whether this incident actually happened, it presents such an operatic, intense web of betrayal and violence that every scene is at least somewhat plausible. No courtroom drama has ever been this wild or bombastic.

Director Marco Bellocchio presents a lot of exposition very quickly. We learn that Sicily’s Cosa Nostra controls the world’s heroin trade, and two rival factions are vying for power. This war leads to hundreds of deaths, and Bellocchio includes an on-screen counter of every grisly murder. Tommaso Buscetta (Pierfrancesco Favino) is one small cog in this massive criminal enterprise. After effectively retiring to Brazil, he is extradited back to Italy and meets his rival, judge Giovanni Falcone (Fausto Russo Alesi). A funny thing starts to happen: Tommaso starts to talk. He supplies the Italian government with valuable information, leading to the downfall of his organization.

The big question is why Tommaso does all this, and the film takes its time to answer it. His rationale is bizarre and self-serving—he feels his accomplices abandoned a moral code to which he still adheres. What makes this reckoning so dramatic is how Bellocchio presents the trials where Tommaso is the star witness. He is in the room with every mobster he identified, all of whom are powerful, violent men, and the judges can barely control their outrage. There are other wild incidents, like when the mafia wives show up, or when one defendant mutilates himself to guarantee his silence. All this suggests the power Cosa Nostra once wielded over Italy. They were not just tolerated; for some civilians, they were essential to everyday life.

Throughout the film, Tommaso remains a stoic, almost passive character. He rarely says what he is really thinking. This is a shrewd way for The Traitor to involve the audience in its unlikely protagonist, although Bellocchio stops short of calling him a hero. Instead, there are small sequences of recognizable eccentricity. After the first trial, Tommaso and his family relocate to the United States under a witness protection program. His scenes of assimilation are wry and comic, particularly when he decides to buy an AR-15 rifle in a grocery store. Maybe Bellocchio’s view of American life is cynical, but then again, he ably conveys the gnawing paranoia of a man who is wanted by the world’s deadliest criminals.

The Nastro d’Argento is Italy’s equivalent of the Academy Awards, and The Traitor received several top prizes, including best actor for Favino. Like other great mob movies, Favino portrays nuance without making excuses for his duplicitous, brutal nature. Tommaso’s scenes with Judge Falcone are the film’s moral center, a back-and-forth debate with two men who ultimately see themselves as equals, maybe even friends. Tommaso is sympathetic here because he finally seems capable of introspection. But Bellocchio never lets us forget what Tommaso is capable of, and there are disturbing scenes where Favino’s blank stare seamlessly shifts into something way more sinister.

Throughout The Traitor, there are alarming details about the mob’s omniscience. Rather than face prison time, Tommaso attempts suicide. There is a march in the street where blue collar workers express sympathy for Cosa Nostra. One bravura sequence shows a car bomb from the inside of the car (the chaos and complete loss of body autonomy is disturbing). There is a lot of action in this film, but it is all meant to punctuate the lengthy, bitter courtroom arguments between Tommaso and the men he accused. Sometimes the accused have the opportunity to confront Tommaso head on, arguing over who said what and when. The grim punchline is that, once the mafia lose all that illusion of power, these men have no recourse but to argue exactly like kids who got caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

—Alan Zilberman The Traitor opens Friday in theaters everywhere.

the

AN EVENING WITH

AMISH

OUTLAWS FRIDAY FEB

THIS SATURDAY

Syrian clarinetist and Silk Road Ensemble veteran Kinan Azmeh leads his polished and pulsequickening CityBand in an inventive blend of classical music, jazz, and the music of his homeland.

Young Patron Event: Join the WPA Junior Board for a post-concert happy hour at Silo. (Cash bar.)

Special thanks: Galena-Yorktown Foundation

7

love songs

NEWMYER FLYER PRESENTS

THE BEATLES VOL. 7 SATURDAY

FEB 8

WED, FEB 12

AN EVENING WITH

NBC UNIVERSAL’S

MARTINIS & MURDER PODCAST

MELISSA ALDANA QUARTET

THU, FEB 13

AN ACOUSTIC EVENING WITH

DONAVON FRANKENREITER

W/ CHRISTINA HOLMES FRI, FEB 14

AN EVENING WITH TONY

SANDS AS FRANK SINATRA

SAT, FEB 15, 8pm SIXTH & I The first female winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, Chilean-born tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana dazzled a WPA audience in last season’s Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour concert. Now, she showcases her trademark harmonic sophistication with her own ensemble.

Special thanks: Susan S. Angell, GalenaYorktown Foundation. Honorary patron: His Excellency Alfonso Silva, Ambassador of Chile

MATTHEW WHITAKER Special guests: WPA Children of the Gospel Choir

SAT, FEB 29, 8pm SIXTH & I

SAT, FEB 15

NEW ORLEANS SUSPECTS W/ SOL ROOTS

SAT, FEB 15 11:30pm UNTIL...

TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND AFTERPARTY:

NEW ORLEANS SUSPECTS TUE, FEB 18

THEO KATZMAN W/ RETT MADISON WED, FEB 19

SLATE PRESENTS AMICUS W/ DAHLIA LITHWICK THU, FEB 20

AN EVENING WITH SPYRO

LIVE GYRA

FRI, FEB 21

9pm UNTIL...

TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND AFTERPARTY:

THE RON HOLLOWAY BAND W/ GORDON STERLING AND THE PEOPLE SAT, FEB 22

A piano and Hammond B-3 organ wunderkind, 18-year-old Matthew Whitaker is steeped in tradition yet pushes the music forward into a groove-infused space of his own.

Special thanks: Lydia Micheaux Marshall, Jacqueline Badger Mars and Mars, Incorporated, Galena-Yorktown Foundation

MARDI GRAS BOOGALOO 2020

FEAT. THE DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND & NATHAN AND THE ZYDECO CHA CHAS THU, FEB 27

BIG HEAD TODD & THE MONSTERS

FEAT. HAZEL MILLER W/ LOS COLOGNES

TICKETS: WashingtonPerformingArts.org (202) 785-9727

Tickets At TheHamiltonLive.com

washingtoncitypaper.com february 7, 2020 27

Merriweather Post Pavilion • Columbia, MD M3 ROCK FESTIVAL FEATURING

Kix • Tesla • RATT • Night Ranger and more! ..................MAY 1-3 For more info and a full lineup, visit m3rockfest.com

FEBRUARY

Luke Bryan w/ Morgan Wallen & Caylee Hammack....................... JUNE 20 Halsey * w/ blackbear & PVRIS ................................................................. JULY 19 Rod Stewart * w/ Cheap Trick ................................................. AUGUST 15 Daryl Hall & John Oates * w/ Squeeze & KT Tunstall .. AUGUST 22

MARCH (cont.)

Dead Kennedys w/ D.O.A. ......W 11 Radical Face w/ Axel Flóvent ..Th 12

THIS WEEK’S SHOWS ALL GOOD PRESENTS

The Dustbowl Revival

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

w/ Birds of Chicago

Early Show! 6pm Doors .....................F 7 D NIGHT ADDED!

FIRST NIGHT SOLD OUT! SECON

Raphael Saadiq

The Motet & TAUK ................F 13 ZZ Ward w/ Patrick Droney.......W 18 Best Coast

merriweathermusic.com • impconcerts.com • Ticketmaster.com * Presented by Live Nation

w/ Mannequin Pussy ..................Th 19

w/ Jamila Woods & DJ Duggz .......Su 9

Railroad Earth w/ Kyle Tuttle Band

Echosmith

w/ Weathers & Jayden Bartels....W 12

Lincoln Theatre • 1215 U Street, NW Washington, D.C.

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

2-Night Passes available! ....F 20 & Sa 21

JUST ANNOUNCED!

BYT’S FUTURE IS FESTIVAL PRESENTS

Caribou

The Lily’s Nora Knows What To Say feat. Nora McInemy

w/ Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith ............Th 26

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

Matinee Show! 2pm Doors........................................................................ SAT MARCH 28

L’Impératrice

Big Something and Andy Frasco & The U.N.

NPR’s Ask Me Another feat. Ophira Eisenberg, Jonathan Coulton & More TBA

Early Show! 6pm Doors .....................F 27

w/ Kyle Ayers ...........................Th 13

Galactic feat. Anjelika Jelly Joseph and special guest Chali 2na (Sa 15 - w/ Southern Avenue).F 14 & Sa 15

STEEZ PROMO PRESENTS BASS NATION FEAT.

Blunts & Blondes

Evening Show! 5:30pm Doors .................................................................... SAT MARCH 28

w/ SubDocta & Bawldy Late Show! 10pm Doors ...................F 27

AEG PRESENTS

RUSSELL BRAND: RECOVERY LIVE

Soccer Mommy w/ Tomberlin

AN EVENING WITH

16+ to enter. ........................................................................................................... MAY 28

Early Show! 6pm Doors ...................Sa 28

Super Diamond -

The Neil Diamond Tribute ....Th 20

Bruno Major w/ Adam Melchor

On Sale Friday, February 7 at 10am

Late Show! 10pm Doors ...................Sa 28

Refused w/ Youth Code & Racetraitor ........F 21

Poliça w/ Wilsen .......................Su 29

Wolf Parade w/ Jo Passed

APRIL

Early Show! 6pm Doors ..................Sa 22

White Ford Bronco:

Leslie Odom Jr.........................W 1

DC’s All-‘90s Band

Late Show! 10pm Doors ..................Sa 22

Josh Abbott Band • Randy Rogers Band • Pat Green ..Th 27 Drive-By Truckers

STEEZ PROMO PRESENTS

Manic Focus + Mersiv w/ Russ Liquid.............................Th 2

STEEZ PROMO PRESENTS

Minnesota

w/ Buffalo Nichols............F 28 & Sa 29

w/ Of the Trees • Eastghost • Thelem • Abelation ........................F 3

MARCH

Pussy Riot w/ Deli Girls ............Sa 4 The Glitch Mob

of Montreal w/ Lily’s Band ........M 2 Koe Wetzel w/ Read Southall ...Th 5 ALL GOOD PRESENTS

The Lil Smokies & Joe Pug

Early Show! 6pm Doors ....................Sa 7

STEEZ PROMO PRESENTS

PEEKABOO

w/ MoodyGood • ZEKE BEATS • ISOxo Late Show! 10pm Doors ..................Sa 7

The Districts w/ And The Kids .Tu 10

thelincolndc.com • impconcerts.com •

U Street (Green/Yellow) stop across the street!

9:30 CLUB PRESENTS AT U STREET MUSIC HALL

Drink the Sea- 10th Anniv. Tour w/ Ivy Lab ....................................Su 5

Deafheaven

w/ Inter Arma & Greet Death ........M 6

Aterciopelados & Los Amigos Invisibles ..........W 8 Delta Rae w/ Frances Cone &

Carrie Welling ..............................Th 9

MANY MORE SHOWS ON SALE! 930.com impconcerts.com

9:30 CUPCAKES

Whindersson Nunes .......... MAR 16 Sucker For Love ................... FEB 14 Welcome to Night Vale Jonathan Richman & w/ Dessa .............................................APR 2 Bonnie “Prince” Billy ........ MAR 7 Walk Off The Earth w/ Gabriela Bee ..................................APR 5 Brian Fallon & Kurt Vile with The Howling Weather w/ Justin Townes Earle & Worriers .MAR 13 Cate Le Bon .............................APR 24 STORY DISTRICT’S

The best thing you could possibly put in your mouth Cupcakes by BUZZ... your neighborhood bakery in Alexandria, VA. | www.buzzonslaters.com

Anna of the North Tall Heights w/ Victoria Canal .......Tu 10 w/ Dizzy Fae ........................ Th FEB 13 Shing02 & The Chee-Hoos: A Tribute to Nujabes .................W 11 9:30 CLUB & ALL GOOD PRESENT Moon Hooch w/ Paris Monster ......Sa 22 City of the Sun w/ William Wild .....Sa 14 Sango w/ Anik Khan & Savon............W 26 Social House w/ Cobly O’Donis ....... M 16 VÉRITÉ w/ Arthur Moon ..................F 28 Mondo Cozmo w/ Reuben and the Dark ...................W 18 GARZA (Rob Garza of Thievery Corporation) .Sa 29 Colony House w/ Tyson Motsenbocker ..................Sa 21 Audrey Mika w/ Souly Had ..... W MAR 4 Dorian Electra ........................Th 26 9:30 CLUB & ALL GOOD PRESENT The Soul Rebels .........................F 6 Kat Dahlia ...............................Tu 31 • 930.com/u-hall • impconcerts.com • Buy advance tickets at the 9:30 Club box office. •

TICKETS for all shows are available at IMPconcerts.com, and at the 9:30 Club, Lincoln Theatre, The Anthem, and Merriweather Post Pavilion box offices. Check venue websites for box office hours.

HAPPY HOUR DRINK PRICES impconcerts.com AFTER THE SHOW AT THE BACK BAR! 28 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

PARKING: The 9:30 Club parking lot is now located at 2222 8th St NW, just

past the Atlantic Plumbing building, about a 3 minute walk from the Club.

Buy your advance parking tickets at the same time as your concert tickets!

930.com

CITYLIST

The Club at Studio K

Music 29 Books 30 Theater 31 Film 32

L AVA IMITE ILAB D ILIT Y

Chris Distefano

S A T. , F E B . 8 | 7 : 3 0 & 9 : 3 0 P. M .

CITY LIGHTS: FRIDAY

Bilal: Valentine’s Day Residency F E B . 1 3 & 1 4 | 7 : 3 0 & 9 : 3 0 P. M .

SPOTLIGHT ON IMPROV COMEDY Baby Wants Candy: Historical Hip Hop Edition F E B . 2 0 | 7 : 3 0 & 9 : 3 0 P. M .

The Black Version F E B . 2 1 | 7 : 3 0 & 9 : 3 0 P. M .

Wild Horses F E B . 2 2 | 7 : 3 0 & 9 : 3 0 P. M

M A S O N B AT E S ’ S KC J U K E B OX

Ekhodom and Mason Bates F E B R U A R Y 2 7 | 7 : 3 0 P. M .

L AV IMIT

AILA ED BILI Story District’s TY Funnier Than Fiction

F E B R U A R Y 2 8 | 7 : 3 0 & 9 : 3 0 P. M .

Jason Palmer, “Upward” F E B R U A R Y 2 9 | 7 : 3 0 P. M .

Music FRIDAY COUNTRY

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. The Dustbowl Revival. 6:30 p.m. $20. 930.com.

ELECTRONIC

ECHOSTAGE 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Liquid Stranger. 9 p.m. $25–$35. echostage.com.

SOUNDCHECK 1420 K St. NW. (202) 789-5429. JVNA. 10 p.m. $10–$45. soundcheckdc.com.

FOLK

BARNS AT WOLF TRAP 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. Art Garfunkel. 8 p.m. $82–$97. wolftrap.org.

TAKOMA PARK COMMUNITY CENTER 7500 Maple Ave., Takoma Park. (301) 891-7100. A Night of Guitar Music with Yasmin Williams. 8 p.m. Free–$10. takomaparkmd.gov.

POP

FILLMORE SILVER SPRING 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Tove Lo. 8 p.m. $35. fillmoresilverspring.com.

ELECTRIC GUEST

SOL

Electric Guest’s Asa Taccone and Matthew Compton wanted to do something a bit different for KIN, the Los Angeles band’s third full-length album. Instead of responding to turbulent social and political times with angst, they turned to upbeat pop. And instead of representing all the glitz and glamor of the industry—luxury cars, big mansions, diamond-studded bling—they made an album that their average fan could hopefully relate to. But not everything about this album is different. Taccone’s distinct falsetto drove past hits, like 2012’s “This Head I Hold” and 2017’s “Dear to Me.” Thankfully, his sound is back and better than ever in KIN. Lead single “Dollar” perfectly captures the group’s falsetto-driven vocals and upbeat vibe. While the music video still features popstar fashion and a few fancy cars, it also offers wholesome shots of small businesses and smiling families. It’s safe to say that D.C. is in for a treat when Electric Guest take the stage, and Taccone’s sweet vocals will make him dear to you in no time. Electric Guest perform at 10 p.m. at 9:30 Club, 815 V Street NW. $26. (202) 265-0930. 930.com.

—Sarah Smith MILKBOY ARTHOUSE 7416 Baltimore Ave, College Park. Prep. 8 p.m. $15–$20. milkboyarthouse.com.

ROCK BIRCHMERE 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Three Dog Night. 7:30 p.m. $79.50. birchmere.com.

PIE SHOP DC 1339 H St. NE. (202) 398-7437. Fellowcraft, The Warhawks, and Higher Numbers. 8 p.m. $10–$12. pieshopdc.com.

WORLD BOSSA BISTRO 2463 18th St NW. 202-667-0088.

Alfredo Mojica Group. 10:30 p.m. $5–$10. bossadc.com.

BGR!Fest Secret Shows

DO

UT

M A R C H 5 – 7 | 9 : 3 0 P. M .

D I R ECT C U R R E N T

jaimie branch’s Fly or Die M A R C H 1 1 | 7 : 3 0 P. M .

Kennedy-Center.org (202) 467-4600

Groups call (202) 416-8400 For all other ticket-related customer service inquiries, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540 Major Support for Comedy:

Major Support for Jazz: The Buffy and William Cafritz Family Foundation

SATURDAY

Major support for Hip Hop, KC Jukebox, and DIRECT CURRENT: The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives

CLASSICAL

Additional Design Support: Vicente Wolf of Vicente Wolf Associates and Margaret Russell

SIXTH & I HISTORIC SYNAGOGUE 600 I St. NW. (202) 408-3100. Kinan Azmeh’s CityBand. 8 p.m. $35. sixthandi.org.

David M. Rubenstein Cornerstone of the REACH

washingtoncitypaper.com february 7, 2020 29

FOLK

BARNS AT WOLF TRAP 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. Art Garfunkel. 8 p.m. $82–$97. wolftrap.org.

FOLK

MANSION AT STRATHMORE 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Niccolo Seligmann.

7:30 p.m. $19. strathmore.org.

FUNK & R&B

ROCK

BIRCHMERE 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Eric Roberson. 7:30 p.m. $65. birchmere.com.

WORLD

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Raphael Saadiq. 8 p.m. $40. 930.com.

JAMMIN JAVA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. Bob Marley’s 75th Birthday Tribute Event feat.

Adwela & The Uprising + Space Koi + Reckless Island.

9:30 p.m. $12–$22. jamminjava.com.

ROCK

JAMMIN JAVA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. Maggie Miles and Secondhand Sound. 7:30 p.m. $5–$10. jamminjava.com.

BOSSA BISTRO 2463 18th St NW. 202-667-0088.

Manacá Trio. 7:30 p.m. $10. bossadc.com.

THURSDAY COUNTRY

AMP BY STRATHMORE 11810 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Cris Jacobs Band. 8 p.m. $25–$30. ampbystrathmore.com.

UNION STAGE 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. William Clark Green. 8 p.m. $18–$30. unionstage.com.

JAMMIN JAVA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. Jack Broadbent. 7 p.m. $18–$20. jamminjava.com.

RHIZOME DC 6950 Maple St. NW. Hide, Thirst Church, and Lazuli. 8 p.m. $12. rhizomedc.org.

PIE SHOP DC 1339 H St. NE. (202) 398-7437. Pimmit Hills, Seasick Gladiators, and Collider. 7:30 p.m. $12. pieshopdc.com.

RHIZOME DC 6950 Maple St. NW. Joe Lally, POA, and Bed Maker. 8 p.m. $10. rhizomedc.org.

WORLD

BOSSA BISTRO 2463 18th St NW. 202-667-0088.

Tumbao y Raul Morel. 10:30 p.m. $5–$10. bossadc.com.

WARNER THEATRE 513 13th St. NW. (202) 783-4000.

Moein. 8:30 p.m. $55–$140. warnertheatredc.com.

SUNDAY FOLK

BARNS AT WOLF TRAP 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. Art Garfunkel. 7 p.m. $82–$97. wolftrap.org.

FUNK & R&B

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Raphael Saadiq. 7 p.m. $40. 930.com.

ROCK

BIRCHMERE 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Blue Öyster Cult. 7:30 p.m. $59.50. birchmere.com.

PIE SHOP DC 1339 H St. NE. (202) 398-7437. Freddy Leighton Memorial Show featuring Knife Wife and Sir E.U. 5 p.m. $10. pieshopdc.com.

MONDAY FUNK & R&B

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Josh Stokes. 8 p.m. $12. dc9.club.

POP

SONGBYRD MUSIC HOUSE AND RECORD CAFE 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Beach Bunny Listening Party. 6 p.m. Free. songbyrddc.com.

WORLD

SONGBYRD MUSIC HOUSE AND RECORD CAFE 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Coastcity and Domino Saints. 8 p.m. $15. songbyrddc.com.

TUESDAY DJ NIGHTS

VELVET LOUNGE 915 U St. NW. (202) 462-3213. Kaytranada Night with DJ Damn Kham. 9 p.m. Free. velvetloungedc.com.

POP

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Saint Motel.

7 p.m. $28–$88. 930.com.

WORLD

BOSSA BISTRO 2463 18th St NW. 202-667-0088.

Cheick Hamala’s Griot Street. 9:30 p.m. Free. bossadc.com.

ELECTRONIC

SOUNDCHECK 1420 K St. NW. (202) 789-5429. Getter.

10 p.m. $20–$25. soundcheckdc.com.

FOLK

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Daughter of Swords. 8 p.m. $15. dc9.club.

JAMMIN JAVA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. The Currys. 8 p.m. $12–$20. jamminjava.com.

FUNK & R&B

BIRCHMERE 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Durand Jones & The Indication with Y La Bamba. 7:30 p.m. $25–$105. birchmere.com.

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. Algebra Blessett. 6 p.m. $35–$45. citywinery.com.

HIP-HOP

FILLMORE SILVER SPRING 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. YBN Cordae. 9 p.m. $25– $75. fillmoresilverspring.com.

SIDNEY HARMAN HALL 610 F St. NW. (202) 547-1122.

Happenings at the Harman: IMAG. 6 p.m. Free. shakespearetheatre.org.

JAZZ

ALLYWORLD 7014-C Westmoreland Ave., Takoma Park. (301) 891-9035. Satoko Fujii and KAZE. 8 p.m. $20.

BLUES ALLEY 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Marion Meadows. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $35–$90. bluesalley.com.

MUSIC CENTER AT STRATHMORE 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Jake Shimabukuro and Sierra Hull. 8 p.m. $28–$58. strathmore.org.

GRANDMASTER FLASH

We call a lot of rappers and MCs who were active in the ’80s trailblazers, but Grandmaster Flash has the receipts. The South Bronx DJ was the first hip-hop artist inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and “The Message,” a song he recorded with his group the Furious Five, was the first piece of hip-hop music archived in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.

Last year, the King of Sweden presented Grandmaster Flash with a lifetime achievement award.

(Really, look it up.) Flash is one of the true architects of hip-hop, and it’s hard to calculate his impact on popular music. Before sampling as we know it existed, he pioneered a technique called backspin or “quick-mix theory” that consisted of manually looping an isolated break on copies of the same record. He also helped popularize punch-phasing and record scratching, so it’s fitting that his live shows aim to portray “the mecca of where hip-hop started,” as he told NME last year. It’s a history lesson about rap’s roots, taught by a man who embodies that very history. Grandmaster Flash performs at 10:30 p.m. at U Street Music Hall, 1115 U St. NW. $20–$30. (202) 588-1889. ustreetmusichall.com.

—Will Lennon

ROCK

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. Christopher Paul Stelling. 8 p.m. $15. citywinery.com.

PIE SHOP DC 1339 H St. NE. (202) 398-7437. The Bobby Lees, More AM Than FM, and Teen Mortgage. 8 p.m. $10–$12. pieshopdc.com.

Books

ACT-SO POETRY READ-IN The Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics Poetry Read-In showcases the talents of the next generation of poets and community members, who read the works of black poets for Black History Month.

Randolph Road Theater. 4010 Randolph Road, Silver Spring. Feb. 8, 2:45 p.m. Free. (301) 337-8290.

AMBER SPARKS Sparks will discuss her book And I Do Not Forgive You: Stories and Other Revenges . Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Feb. 11, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

CONSTANCE SAYERS Sayers will discuss her book A Witch in Time. Politics and Prose at The Wharf. 70 District Square SW. Feb. 12, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 488-3867.

WEDNESDAY

CRAIG FEHRMAN Fehrman will be discussing his book Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote. Politics and Prose.

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Feb. 12, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

SOUNDCHECK 1420 K St. NW. (202) 789-5429. INZO. 10 p.m. $10. soundcheckdc.com.

DAVID MICHAELS Micheals will discuss his book The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception in conversation with Nell Henderson. Pol-

ELECTRONIC

CITY LIGHTS: SATURDAY

30 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

CITY LIGHTS: SUNDAY

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER

In the company’s first stop of its 2020 tour, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater concludes a week of Kennedy Center performances with a program uniting choreographers at the heart of the company’s repertoire and contemporary artists continuing their legacy—a fitting harbinger of Black History Month. Sunday’s performance melds old (“Divining,” the 1984 work by artistic director emerita Judith Jamison) and new (Darrell Grand Moultrie’s “Ounce of Faith” premiered this past summer), illustrating the company’s distinct ability to use the past to look forward. But it’s the company’s soulful hallmark, “Revelations,” that brings the program together. It’s a reminder to dancers, audience members, and even choreographers (Moultrie cites a performance of the work he saw a school field trip as a source of inspiration) not just of the power of dance, but its ability to forge community—celebrating difference, sparking hope, and moving the company into its next decade. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs at 1:30 p.m. at the Kennedy Center Opera House, 2700 F St. NW. $49–$199. (202) 467-4600. kennedy-center.org.

—Zara Corzine

itics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Feb. 9, 1 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

CITY LIGHTS: MONDAY

FLOWER ARRANGING WORKSHOP

GISH JEN Jen will discuss her book The Resisters in conversation with Jane Leavy. Politics and Prose.

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Feb. 13, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

ILAN STAVANS Stavans will discuss his book How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish in conversation with Corey Flintoff. Politics and Prose at The Wharf. 70 District Square SW. Feb. 11, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 488-3867.

JESSICA STERN Stern will discuss her book My War Criminal: Personal Encounters with an Architect of Genocide in conversation with Susan Glasser. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Feb. 9 5 p.m.

Free. (202) 364-1919.

JOHN SAYLES Sayles will discuss his book Yellow Earth. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Feb. 8, 6 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

KEVIN MERIDA AND STEVE REISS Merida and Reiss discuss their book The Fierce 44: Black Americans Who Shook Up The World in the children’s section.

Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Feb. 11, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

LACHLAN MARKAY AND ASAWIN SUEBSAENG Markay and Suebsaeng, reporters for The Daily Beast, discuss their book Sinking in the Swamp: How Trump’s Minions and Misfits Poisoned Washington in conversation with Jonathan Swan. Politics and Prose at Union Market. 1270 5th St. NE. Feb. 13, 7 p.m. Free.

(202) 364-1919.

It’s no secret that adding fresh flowers to your living space helps to brighten your mood. A bouquet adds a pop of color and a burst of refreshing fragrance, helping turn even the most average living room into fodder for a lifestyle Instagram account. But if you’re sick of grocery store bouquets and not a fan of florist prices, local flower enthusiast Olga Berman has the perfect solution for you. In addition to running food blog Mango & Tomato (the name is an homage to her favorite fruit and vegetable), Berman is an expert on turning store-bought bouquets into works of art. She’ll be presenting the hand-tying technique, a method where individual flower stems are grouped and then bunched, allowing for the most eye-catching arrangements. Who knows—by the end of the workshop you might be set on going DIY for your wedding florals or launching your own blog. And if your green thumb leans more toward foliage of the potted variety, Berman will also be answering questions on house plants and propagation. The workshop begins at 6:30 p.m. at Solid State Books, 600 H St. NE. $60. (202) 897-4201. solidstatebooksdc.com.

—Sarah Smith

CITY LIGHTS: TUESDAY

TANGLED

Janet Matthews took up photography full-time when she retired as an art teacher at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring.

She’s produced still-life narratives using vintage objects, as well as images of carnival rides made with a toy Holga camera. But in 2017, after a heart attack focused her mind on her own mortality, Matthews became fascinated with bare trees covered with gnarled vines, which she found in various locations around Maryland. To Matthews, the twists and tangles she saw seemed to embody the chaos in her head. “As I took photographs of them and worked on post-processing the images, my obsessive thoughts started to become quiet contemplations,” she said. The images, now on view at Multiple Exposures Gallery, document Matthews’ efforts to return to health. The exhibition runs to March 15 at Multiple Exposures Gallery at the Torpedo Factory, 105 North Union St., Studio 312, Alexandria. Free. (703) 683-2205. multipleexposuresgallery.com.

—Louis Jacobson

!

E.J. DIONNE, JR. Dionne will discuss his book Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Feb. 7, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

LAUREN PEARLMAN & BRANDI THOMPSON SUMMERS Pearlman and Summers will discuss their books Democracy’s Capital: Black Political Power in Washington, D.C.,1960s-1970s and Black in Place: The Spatial Aesthetics of Race in Post-Chocolate City.

Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Feb. 8, 1 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

LESA CLINE-RANSOME AND JAMES RANSOME The Ransomes discuss their children’s book Overground Railroad, the story of a young girl’s train journey from North Carolina to New York City during the Great Migration. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Feb. 12, 10:30 a.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

MYRA SKLAREW Sklarew discuss her book A Survivor Named Trauma: Holocaust Memory in Lithuania.

Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Feb. 9, 3 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

NATHALIE HANDAL, ELIZABETH LINDSAY ROGERS, AND CHET’LA SEBREE The Three authors will discuss their books Life in a Country Album, The Tilt Torn Away From the Seasons, and Mistress. Politics and Prose at Union Market. 1270 5th St. NE. Feb. 9, 1 p.m. Free.

(202) 364-1919.

NEAL D. BARNARD Barnard will discuss his book Your Body in Balance: The New Science of Food, Hormones, and Health. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Feb. 8, 3:30 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

RASHID KHALIDI Khalidi will discuss her book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Feb. 10, 7 p.m. Free.

(202) 364-1919.

Theater

THE 39 STEPS Four actors embody over 150 characters in this remix of the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name, including Richard Hannay, who starts a night at a London theater and ends it accused of murder. Constellation Theatre at Source. 1835 14th St. NW. To March 8. $19–$45. (202) 204-7741. constellationtheatre.org.

THE AMEN CORNER James Baldwin’s play The Amen Corner examines the role of the church in black communities as a 1950s Harlem pastor must confront a figure from her troubled past. Sidney Harman Hall.

610 F St. NW. To March 15. $35–$120. (202) 547-1122. shakespearetheatre.org.

BLOOMSDAY A couple meets on a walking tour of James Joyce’s Dublin, but a misunderstanding drives them apart; 35 years later, they reunite and confront the missed opportunity. Washington Stage Guild at

3701 Mount Vernon Ave. Alexandria, VA • 703-549-7500

For entire schedule go to Birchmere.com Find us on Facebook/Twitter!

Tix @ Ticketmaster.com

Feb 6

LIZZ WRIGHT ERIC ROBERSON

8 13

In the

!

DURAND JONES & THE INDICATIONS with Y LA BAMBA

14

in BURLESQUE-A-PADES LoveLand

featuring ANGIE

15

PONTANI, MURRAY HILL

Daryl Davis Presents

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES 2019!

DC’s Finest Talent Honors The Artists We Loved & Lost in 2019

with Daryl Davis, Tommy Lepson, Patty Reese & many more!

16

CHANTÉ MOORE

21

THE KENTUCKY HEADHUNTERS

HARMONY SWEEPSTAKES A CAPELLA FESTIVAL 23 JEFFREY OSBORNE 24 DIGABLE PLANETS 22

25 Peter

Asher & Jeremy Clyde

PETER & JEREMY (of Peter & Gordon/Chad & Jeremy)

26

SARAH HARMER

28

ARLO GUTHRIE

CHRIS PUREKA

20/20 Tour featuring 'Alice's Restaurant' with Folk Uke

Mar 1

HAYES CARLL (Solo)

with ALLISON

5

6

MOORER

SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS

The Inevitable 25th Anniversary Tour Performing the entire debut album in concert, along with other hep musical stylings!

THE OAK RIDGE BOYS

7

On A Winter's night With

Christine LAVin, JOhn gOrKA, CherYL WheeLer, PAttY LArKin, & CLiFF eBerhArDt 8 TODD SNIDER 12 THE HOT SARDINES 13&14 THE HIGH KINGS 17

THE DIRTY KNOBS

20

10,000 MANIACS

21

with MIKE

CAMPBELL

An Evening with

TOM RUSH

with Matt Nakea 'First Annual Farewell Tour!'

WATCH Awards Ceremony -7pmRachael 24 HOWARD JONES Sage

22

Acoustic Trio Tour

washingtoncitypaper.com february 7, 2020 31

Undercroft Theatre. 900 Massachusetts Ave. NW. To Feb. 16. $25–$60. (240) 582-0050. stageguild.org.

BOY Based on a true story, Boy depicts a misguided doctor who convinces new parents to raise their infant son as a girl after a botched circumcision, and the consequences that ripple through their lives.

Keegan Theatre. 1742 Church St. NW. To March 7. $41– $51. (202) 265-3767. keegantheatre.com.

THE CLEMENCY OF TITUS The Havana Lyceum Orchestra and Carlos Diaz, one of Latin America’s most cutting-edge directors, stage a Cuban adaptation of Mozart’s opera La Clemenza di Tito. Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. 2700 F St. NW. To Feb. 15. $39–$149. (202) 467-4600. kennedy-center.org.

EXQUISITA AGONÍA (EXQUISITE AGONY) A middleaged woman tries to find love with the young man who got her dead husband’s transplanted heart in this witty and poignant play. In Spanish with English supertitles. GALA Hispanic Theatre. 3333 14th St. NW. To March 1. $40–$48. (202) 234-7174. galatheatre.org.

THE GREAT DIVORCE The Fellowship for the Performing Arts presents C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, a fantasy about heaven and hell and choosing between them, directed by D.C.-born Christa ScottReed. Michael R. Klein Theatre. 450 7th St. NW. To Feb. 9. $49–$89. (202) 547-1122. shakespearetheatre.org.

HATE MAIL A fast-paced, quick-witted comedic play about outrage, scandals, and falling in and out of love. Before social media outrage, there were other, much more personal, ways of spewing venom at faceless adversaries. The Auld Shebeen. 3971 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax. To Feb. 15. $20. theauldshebeenva.com.

HEROINE Sgt. Davis is on a dangerous mission inside a combat zone—and if she wants to make it home safely, she has to work with the person who sexually assaulted her. Kennedy Center Family Theater. 2700 F St. NW. To Feb. 14. $29–$45. (202) 467-4600. kennedy-center.org.

I WAS THERE An Israeli soldier is kidnapped in Gaza, and a reserve officer attempts to confess the damage he’s caused—but higher-ups don’t want to hear it. Mosaic Theater Company at Atlas Performing Arts Center. 1333 H St. NE. To Feb. 10. $15. (202) 399-7993. mosaictheater.org.

LOVE & MARRIAGE & MURDER Die Laughing Productions will present a murder mystery performance.

AMP by Strathmore. 11810 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda. To Feb. 13. $22–$37. (301) 581-5100. ampbystrathmore.com.

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR Falstaff has a plan to woo Windsor’s wealthy housewives, but they team up to teach him a lesson, and his comedic comeuppance is well-deserved. Folger Elizabethan Theatre.

201 E. Capitol St. SE. To March 1. $27–$85. (202) 5447077. folger.edu.

MISS YOU LIKE HELL This new musical tracks the love between an estranged mother and daughter who take a weird and wild road trip from Philadelphia to California. Olney Theatre Center. 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney. To March 1. $37–$79. (301) 9243400. olneytheatre.org.

MOTHER ROAD William Joad is ill, and he wants to pass his plot of Oklahoma farming land down to a descendant who moved West. When he learns his only living descendants are Mexican American, the bits of the family must confront racism and who they really are. Arena Stage. 1101 6th St. SW. To March 8. $51–$95. (202) 488-3300. arenastage.org.

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Synetic’s movementdriven adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera features a female Phantom enraptured with the ingenue Christine. Synetic Theater at Crystal City. 1800 South Bell St. , Arlington. To Feb. 29. $19–$65. (866) 811-4111. synetictheater.org.

PILGRIMS MUSA AND SHERI IN THE NEW WORLD Egyptian immigrant Musa hooks up with waitress Sheri after her shift ends, and a night of passion becomes a night of undermining cultural assumptions. Mosaic Theater Company at Atlas Performing Arts Center. 1333 H St. NE. To Feb. 16. $20–$65. (202) 399-7993. mosaictheater.org.

PIPELINE Nya, a single mother of a teenage son, is trying to give Omari the best education—and life—that she can. But when an incident at his private school threatens his future, Nya must fight for her child in a broken education system. Studio Theatre. 1501 14th St. NW. To Feb. 16. $20–$80. (202) 332-3300. studiotheatre.org.

RECENT TRAGIC EVENTS On Sept. 12, 2001, Waverly waits in her Minneapolis apartment to hear from her New York-based sister Wendy. Prologue Theatre at

Atlas Performing Arts Center. 1333 H St. NE. To Feb. 16. $20–$35. prologuetheatre.org.

THE ROYALE Jay “The Sport” Jackson wants to be the heavyweight champion of the boxing world, but 1905 boxing is racially segregated, and the odds are against him. 1st Stage. 1524 Spring Hill Road, McLean.

To Feb. 23. $15–$42. (703) 854-1856.

1ststagetysons.org.

CITY LIGHTS: WEDNESDAY

SHIPWRECK: A HISTORY PLAY ABOUT 2017 In this radical play, the wounds of the 2016 election are ripped open after the 45th president sends a consequential dinner invitation. Woolly Mammoth Theatre.

641 D St. NW. To March 8. $15–$64. (202) 393-3939. woollymammoth.net.

SILENT SKY A decade before women gained the right to vote, Henrietta Leavitt and her fellow women “computers” transformed the science of astronomy.

In the Harvard Observatory, Leavitt found 2,400 new variable stars and made important discoveries about their fluctuating brightness, enabling fellow scientists to map the Milky Way and beyond. This inspiring drama explores the determination, passion and sacrifice of the women who redefined our understanding of the cosmos. Ford’s Theatre. 511 10th St. NW. To Feb. 23. $22–$72. (202) 347-4833. fords.org.

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS This adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel focuses on two Afghan women in Kabul who become unlikely allies in the face of brutality and must make a dramatic decision.

Arena Stage. 1101 6th St. SW. To March 1. $56–$105.

(202) 488-3300. arenastage.org.

THE TOXIC AVENGER Melvin Ferd the Third falls into a vat of radioactive waste and emerges as a sevenfoot-tall freak called The Toxic Avenger, who’s ready to clean America up. Rorschach Theatre at the Silver Spring Black Box. 8641 Colesville Road, Silver Spring.

To March 1. $10–$65. (202) 399-7993. rorschachtheatre.com.

Film

BIRDS OF PREY The Joker’s sidekick Harley Quinn leaves him behind and teams up with superheroes Black Canary, Huntress, and Renee Montoya. Starring Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Ewan McGregor. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

EARTHGANG

The cover of EarthGang’s Mirrorland is an Afro-futurist masterpiece. It’s covered in hot air balloons, a Lion King menagerie featuring a giraffe, an elephant, hyenas and more, dueling hoopties, oversize portraits of members Olu and WowGr8, and a rolled out red carpet bearing the legend “NMBK,” short for “no more bad karma.” After coming together in high school and toiling in the rap underground throughout their twenties, the pair’s run of good karma began in earnest when they were signed by superstar J. Cole to his Dreamville imprint in 2017. Cole has provided the Atlanta pair with a platform for their old-meets-new take on Southern hip-hop. Every rap duo that comes out of Atlanta gets compared to OutKast, and while that legendary act’s influence is here, it’s no more evident than in any other rap album made by kids who came of age listening to Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. And EarthGang’s journey is their own. “Coast to coast,” WowGr8 raps on “Bank,” “All I know, ain’t no SpottieOttie, sorry bro.” EarthGang perform at 8 p.m. at The Fillmore Silver Spring, 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. $22.50–$81. (301) 960-9999. fillmoresilverspring.com.

—Chris Kelly

CITY LIGHTS: THURSDAY

AFRICAN LEGACY: FRANCOPHONE FILMS 1955 TO 2019 The National Gallery of Art and the Embassy of France bring together 14 Francophone films from Africa and the African diaspora in the first of an annual program. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) THE RHYTHM SECTION After a plane crash kills her family, a woman seeks revenge on the people behind it. Starring Blake Lively, Jude Law, and Sterling K. Brown. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) THE GENTLEMEN A British drug lord attempts to sell off his lucrative empire to some Oklahoma billionaires. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell, and Henry Golding. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) THE TRAITOR This Italian film follows the real story of Tommaso Buscetta, the first mafia informant in 1980s Sicily. Starring Pierfrancesco Favino, Luigi Lo Cascio, and Fausto Russo Alesi. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) THE TURNING This adaptation of The Turning of the Screw brings the young governess tasked with caring for a strange pair of children into the contemporary world. Starring Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard, and Brooklynn Prince. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

32 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

PERSPECTIVES: 20/20

The group show Perspectives: 20/20 connects more with the divergent “perspectives” part of its title than the unified focus suggested by “20/20.” Alan Lipton contributes a series of drippy oil-on-canvas studies of mechanical objects; Jennifer Duncan offers green-and-blue botanical works; Kimberley Bursic contributes vigorous, red-toned abstractions. Elena Stamberg impresses with a series of thread-and-linen works that feature Chagall-like floating figures, while William Bowser offers both oddly angled, architectural ceramics and elemental pastel works on paper that echo 20th century high-literary book covers. The sole photographer, Steven Marks, is a standout, contributing four large images of shadowy figures that exist within disorienting, almost cubist planes. The exhibition runs to Feb. 22 at Studio Gallery, 2108 R St. NW. Free. (202) 232-8734. studiogallerydc.com. —Louis Jacobson

SAVAGELOVE I started reading your column when I was a 20-year-old kid. Now I’m an old married lady with 20 years of (more or less) blissful married monogamy behind me. My oldest daughter, who is 23, just came out to me as a sex worker. She’s been making a slim living as a cam girl. She recently graduated with a marketable degree, but she hasn’t been searching for a job in her field because, as she puts it, “It’s hard to want to apply for a minimum wage job when I make the same working from home.”

I’m finding this very hard to process on a number of levels. First, and I hope you will believe most importantly, it’s very hard for me to see her giving up what used to be her dreams. But that’s not the part I think you can help me with. I used to be a sex worker. For three years in the early ’90s, I was a dancer at the Lusty Lady on First Avenue in Seattle. That was before the internet really existed, but I think the job is actually fairly analogous to cam work: nudity and masturbation for the pleasure of others, with no actual physical contact. I found sex work to be corrosive to my personal goals. As a heterosexual woman, I hoped to fall in love with a man and have a family, and for me, the longer I did that type of work, the more impossible those goals seemed. I saw men at their worst 40 hours a week. As time went by, I felt myself withdrawing more and more from the possibility of any kind of affectionate relationship with a man. Quitting for me was an act of self-preservation.

I did my best to react non-judgmentally when my daughter confided in me, but truthfully I’m really unhappy about it. I worry about the effect sex work will have on her future—both her intimate relationships and her professional goals— and while there are people working to reduce the stigma attached to sex work, that stigma still exists. I worry that she will become mired in poverty, barely getting by, and I worry that she will not be able to find loving relationships with men who value her worth. What do I do, Dan? Do I stand back and love her? Do I try to give her the benefit of my experience, even if that seems shame-y? Is this even any of my business, given that she’s older now than I was when I gave birth to her?

—The Cam Girl’s Mom Your daughter made this your business when she shared it with you, TCGM. So my advice would be to lean in (not stand back), love your daughter, and share your own experiences with her. But the goal shouldn’t be to get your daughter to stop doing sex work—that’s not the “benefit” you’re after—but rather to open the lines of communication and keep them open.

Zooming out for a second …

The kind of sex work you did decades ago at the Lusty Lady was different in important ways. (I visited the Lusty Lady a few times in the early ’90s, TCGM, which makes you one of the few letter writers that I might’ve seen naked who didn’t enclose photos.)

The women who danced at the Lusty Lady were behind Plexiglas walls, men pumped quarters into slots to lift partitions that allowed them to see the women, and there were private booths for solo shows. But while you saw men “at their worst” (men can and have done worse), your daughter doesn’t have to look at the men she’s performing for. Her clients—her fans, if she has a following—aren’t on camera themselves.

They may send her messages, and she may interact with them via DM, but she doesn’t have to watch them jack off. And unlike a performer in a peep show, your daughter can block guys who give her the creeps or

“Working as a cam girl may give her the time and space she needs to figure out a new dream for herself. And as crazy as it sounds to some … there are women and men out there whose dream job is sex work.” who are in any way pushy or disrespectful.

But while she doesn’t have to see men leering at her or watch come drip down Plexiglas walls, she does have to worry that someone out there might be recording her sessions and posting them online. And unlike the Lusty Lady (R.I.P.), the internet is forever.

But the stigma around sex work is decreasing—Elizabeth Warren recently said she’s “open to decriminalizing” sex work (a tiny step in the right direction)—and with people of all ages furiously sexting each other, we’re quickly reaching the stage where everyone has nudes out there somewhere. Pretty soon it won’t be in anyone’s interest to punish or harass people whose pics or videos go big or viral because you could be next.

Something else to bear in mind: You worry that doing this kind of sex work—roughly the same kind you did—may make it impossible for your daughter to fall in love, create a family, pursue her professional goals, or even make a decent living. But you fell in love, created a family, and presumably make a good living yourself. And while it’s possible that doing this kind of work delayed achieving those goals, TCGM, you weren’t derailed or destroyed by it and your daughter doesn’t have to be either. (And is less likely to be with her mom in her corner.) Also, your daughter may not want the same things you did. Not everyone wants one committed, long-term part-

ner, and not everyone wants kids. And while you’re understandably distressed that she isn’t doing anything with her degree at the moment, it’s possible your daughter’s ideas about what she wants to do with her life have changed since she picked a major. Working as a cam girl may give her the time and space she needs to figure out a new dream for herself. And as crazy as it sounds to some … there are women and men out there whose dream job is sex work.

Your daughter opened a door when she shared this with you, and there must be a reason she shared it with you. Hell, it’s possible she may want to be talked out of doing it. So don’t hesitate to share your experiences and perspective with her. It’s not shaming to tell her you did this kind of work and found it dehumanizing and corrosive. That’s the truth of your experience. But after you share your perspective, TCGM, listen to hers with an open mind. And as all parents of adult children know or soon learn, TCGM, your kid gets to make their own choices and quite possibly their own mistakes. And sometimes what looks like a mistake to a concerned parent turns out to be the right choice for the adult child.

—Dan Savage I am a heterosexual male. My wife has been dating other men for the past year. When she started dating her first boyfriend, she told me she wasn’t ready for me to date other people but would process through it and then we could open up the relationship for me, too. After about six months, her first relationship ended and we both started looking for other partners. She found another guy pretty much right away and it took a few months before I started dating. I had a couple dates with this woman and then kissed her at the end of our second date. When I told my wife what happened, she got jealous and angry. A day later, my wife stole my phone and sent a message to the woman I’d been dating, ending our relationship, and then she blocked the woman from my social media accounts and deleted her number from my phone.

She broke up with her boyfriend and is insisting that our relationship is closed now. I love my wife, but I feel violated in so many different ways and I’m unsure what to do. —Married A Dictator

Your wife should’ve married a cuckold—a man who wants to remain faithful to a woman who fucks around on him and dates other men— and you should’ve married a woman who isn’t a controlling, manipulative, unhinged hypocrite. Luckily for you both, MAD, a divorce that would allow each of you to find a new partner—a cuck for her, a sane person for you—is still an option. —DS Email your Savage Love questions to mail@savagelove.net.

Scene and

Heard Emergency February, 2020 You’d think there must be some sort of emergency as a fire truck’s siren pierces a quiet Dupont side street Saturday afternoon. The spinning green light on the front of the truck glows angrily as a United States Postal Service vehicle, mid-delivery, blocks its path.

But in reality, there is no emergency, and the siren is pointed directly at this slow-moving USPS driver. Tensions have escalated to this breaking point. At first, the fire truck waited patiently behind another civically minded automobile. But as time passed and the car did not move, the operator of the fire truck began to lay on the horn, obviously frustrated. When still nothing happened, the driver turned to the nuclear option: the siren.

The USPS driver does return as the siren continues, and begins to pull away. They don’t make it more than half a block before they hit a traffic light that’s just turning yellow. The postal service driver delays for just a moment, long enough for the insistent fire truck to get stuck at the light as he coasts through the intersection. An onlooker sums up the inter-governmental squabble nicely: “A fight between the postal service and a fire truck? Move bitch, get out the way!”

—Will Warren Will Warren writes Scene and Heard. If you know of a location worthy of being seen or heard, email him at wwarren@washingtoncitypaper.com.

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washingtoncitypaper.com february 7, 2020 33

ance in this proceeding. Objections to Adult . . . . . . . . . . such . . . . appointment . . . . . . . . . 42 SUPERIOR COURT shall be filed with Auto/Wheels/Boat . . . . . . . . . . . 42 OF THE DISTRICT the Register of Wills, OF COLUMBIA Buy, Sell, Trade . . D.C., . . . . .515 . . .5th . . . Street, . . . . .

PROBATE DIVISION N.W., Building Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A, . 3rd 42 2019 ADM 001396 Floor, Washington, NameCommunity of Dece . . . . . D.C. . . . . 20001, . . . . . . on . . .or42 dent, Thelma Fagin Employment . . . . before . . . . . .8/6/2020. . . . . . . . 42 Hyman. Notice of Claims against the Health/Mind . . . . . . . .shall . . . .be . . . .

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Domestic Avenile CLAIMand AGAINST TRAVISA Relations District OUTSOURCING, INC. MUST INCLUDE Court THE NAME OF THE DISSOLVED The object CORPORATION, of this INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE suit is to: Terminate CLAIMANT, INCLUDE A SUMMARY THE FACTS SUPPORTING theOFparental rights THE CLAIM, AND BE MAILED of the Mother, Joy TO 1600 INTERNATIONAL DRIVE, Michelle Brown, of SUITE 600, MCLEAN, VA 22102 a female child born

ALL CLAIMS WILL BE to Joy Brown onBARRED DeUNLESS A PROCEEDING TO cember,THE 06, 2018.

ENFORCE CLAIM IS COMIt is ordered theOF MENCED WITH IN 3the YEARS PUBLICATION THISMiNOTICE defendantOFJoy IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION chelle Brown, appear 29-312.07 OF THE DISTRICT OF at the above-named COLUMBIA ORGANIZATIONS ACT. Court and protect

her Rivers interests or Two PCS on is soliciting proposals provide project before to3-11-20 @ management services for a small con2:30pm. struction project. For a copy of the Amy C Shifflette RFP, please email procurement@ Deputy ClerkDeadline for tworiverspcs.org. submissions is December 6, 2017.

TWO RIVERS PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS RTU Two Rivers PCS is soliciting price quotes from certified Trane vendors to install an RTU replacement. To request a copy of the RFP, email procurement@tworiverspcs. org.

Proposals are due by February 28, 2020.

Order of Publication Commonwealth of Virginia Charlottesville Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court The object of this suit is to: Terminate the parental rights of the Unknown Father of a female child born to Joy Brown on December, 06, 2018.

34 february 7, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

It is ordered the the Legals defendant Thomas Moneke, appear at DC SCHOLARS PCS - REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS – Moduthe above-named lar Contractor Services - DC Court and protect Scholars Public Charter School his interests ona or solicits proposals for modular before to3-11-20 @ contractor provide professional management 2:30pm. and construction services to construct a modular Amy C Shifflette building to house four classrooms Deputy Clerk and one faculty offi ce suite. The

Request for Proposals (RFP) specifi cations can be obtained on and after Monday, November 27, SUPERIOR COURT 2017 from Emily Stone via comOF THE DISTRICT munityschools@dcscholars.org.

All should be sent in OFquestions COLUMBIA writing by e-mail. No phone calls Landlord regarding thisand RFP Tenant will be acBranch cepted.

Bids must be received by 5:00 PM LTB on Thursday, December 2019 028196 14, at DC Scholars Public DC2017 Housing AuthorCharter School, ATTN: Sharonda ity 5601 E. Capitol St. SE, Mann, Washington, Plaintiff, DC 20019. Any bids not v. addressing all areas as outlined in the RFP specifi cations will Norfleet Mabry Jr. not be considered.

Defendant.

NOTICE TO HEIRS Apartments for Rent OF NORFLEET MABRY JR. Norfleet Mabry Jr., who lived at 3400 Banneker Dr., NE, 328, Washington, DC 20018, at the time of his reported death, is the subject of ansee! action forsemi-fura Must Spacious nished 1 BR/1for BA Posbasement Complaint apt, Deanwood, Sep. ensession by $1200.

Plaintiff trance, W/W carpet, W/D, kitchDCfireplace Housing Authoren, near Blue Line/X9/ ity inShawnn the Landlord V2/V4.

240-343-7173. and Tenant Branch Rooms Rent of the Superiorfor Court of the District of Holiday Special- Two furColumbia, Case nished rooms for short No. or long term rental ($900 and $800 per 2019 LTB 028196. month) with access to W/D, A judgment for posWiFi, Kitchen, and Den. Utilisession may lead to ties included. Best N.E. location along H St. Corridor.

Callloss Eddie eviction and the 202-744-9811 info. or visit of personalforproperty www.TheCurryEstate.com in the residence.

Any interested person, including but not limited to creditors, heirs, and legatees of the decedent, shall appear on February 26, 2020 at 9:00 am in Courtroom B109, in the Landlord and Tenant Court, located at 510 4th Street NW, Washington, DC, to show cause if there be any reason why the complaint for possession should not be granted and the plaintiff take possession, dispose of, or take any other action as ordered by this Court of any personal property contained in the unit. Inquiries may be directed to: Jillian K. Lewis, Esq. Musolino & Dessel

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Architectural SerVisit powerdesigninc.us/ vices careers or email careers@ powerdesigninc.us!

KIPP DC is soliciting proposals from qualified vendors Financial Services for Architectural Services. The RFP Denied Credit?? Work to RecanYour beCredit found onWith The pair Report KIPP DC’s at Trusted Leader website in Credit Repair.

Call Lexington Law for a FREE www.kippdc.org/procredit report summary & credit curement.

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Johnbe C. Heath, Attorney at Law, PLLC, dba Lexington to the website no Law Firm. later than 5:00 PM ET on February 19, Home Services

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Phase II Environmental Site Assessment Services KIPP DC is soliciting proposals from qualified vendors for Phase II EnvironWhole Foods Commissary mental Auction Site AssessDC Metro Area ment Services. The Dec. 5 at 10:30AM RFP can found on 1000s S/SbeTables, Carts KIPP DC’s website at & Trays, 2016 Kettles up to 200 Gallons, Urschel www.kippdc.org/proCutters & Shredders incurement.

Proposals cluding 2016 Diversacut should be 6uploaded 2110 Dicer, Chill/Freeze Rackno Ovens toCabs, the Double website & Ranges, later than (12) 5:00Braising PM Tables, 2016 (3+) Stephan ET on February 19, VCMs, 30+ Scales, 2020.

Hobart Questions 80 qt Mixers, CompletebeMachine Shop, should addressed much more! View the toand kevin.mehm@ catalog at kippdc.org. www.mdavisgroup.com or 412-521-5751 NetWAN/LAN work Installation Services Garage/Yard/ Rummage/Estate Sales KIPP DC is soliciting proposals from Flea Market every Fri-Sat qualified5615 vendors 10am-4pm.

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Contact 202-355-2068 Installation Services. or 301-772-3341 for details or if The RFP cana vendor. be intrested in being found on KIPP DC’s website at www. kippdc.org/procurement. Proposals should be uploaded to the website no later than 5:00 PM ET on February 21, 2020. Questions should be addressed to keon.toyer@kippdc.org.

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SUPERIOR COURT Miscellaneous OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA NEW COOPERATIVE SHOP! Landlord and Tenant THINGS BranchFROM EGPYT AND BEYOND 2019 LTB 028195 240-725-6025 DC Housing Authorwww.thingsfromegypt.com thingsfromegypt@yahoo.com ity Plaintiff, SOUTH AFRICAN BAZAAR v. Cooperative Craft Frederick Smith 202-341-0209 www.southafricanbazaarcraftcoo Defendant. perative.com NOTICE TOz aHEIRS southafricanba ar @hotmail.

OF FREDERICK com SMITH WEST FARM WOODWORKS Frederick Smith, Custom Creative Furniture who lived at 3400 202-316-3372 info@westfarmwoodworks.com Banneker Dr., NE, www.westfarmwoodworks.com 427, Washington, DC 20018, at the 7002 Carroll Avenue time ofPark, hisMD reported Takoma 20912 Mon-Sat death, 11am-7pm, is the subject Sun 10am-6pm of an action for a Complaint for PosMotorcycles/Scooters session by Plaintiff 2016 Suzuki TU250X for sale.

DC Housing Author1200 miles. CLEAN. Just serity inComes the Landlord viced. with bike cover andsaddlebags.

Tenant Branch and Asking $3000 Cash only.Superior Court of the Call 202-417-1870 of the DistrictM-F ofbetween 6-9PM, or weekends.

Columbia, Case No. 2019 Bands/DJs LTB 028195. for Hire A judgment for possession may lead to eviction and the loss of personal property in the residence.

Any interested person, including but not limited to creditors, heirs, and Get Wit It Productions: Professional sound of and the lighting availlegatees deceable for club, corporate, private, dent, shall appear on wedding receptions, holiday February 26,more.

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Court, located at Events 510 4th Street NW, Washington, DC, Christmas in Silver Springto show cause Saturday, Decemberif2,there 2017 Veteran’s be anyPlaza reason why 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. the complaint for Come celebrate Christmas in possession the heart of Silvershould Spring at our Vendor Village on Veteran’s not be granted andPlaza.

There will be shopping, the plaintiff take arts and crafts for kids, pictures with possession, Santa, music and dispose entertainment of,spread or take other to holiday any cheer and more.

Proceeds from the market will action as ordered provide a “wish” toy for children byneed. this Court of one any in Join us at your stop personal propshop for everything Christmas.

For information,incontact ertymore contained the Futsum, unit. Inquiries may info@leadersinstitutemd.org or be 301-655-9679 directed to: call Jillian K. Lewis, Esq. General Musolino & Dessel PLLC Looking to Rent yard space for 1615 dogs.

L Street, NW hunting Alexandria/Arlington, VA area Suite 440only. Medium sized dogs will be well-maintained in Washington, DC temperature controled dog hous20036 es. I have advanced animal care (202) 466-3883 experience and dogs will be rid free of feces, flies, urine Washington, DCand oder.

Dogs will be in a ventilated kennel 20036 so they will not be exposed to win(202) 466-3883 ter and harsh weather etc. Space will be needed as soon as possiForbeSale ble.Business Yard for dogs must Metro accessible. Serious callers only, call anytime Kevin, 415- 846Award-winning, 5268.

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Sona Kharatian and Eun Won Lee by Procopio Photography

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