Washington City Paper (May 17, 2019)

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NEWS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF RON MOTEN 4 FOOD: D.C. RESTAURANTS SEEK REGULARS 16 ARTS: GO-GO ARTISTS KEEP THE MUSIC GOING 16

Faint of Art

Mayor Muriel Bowser wants big changes for the city’s arts commission— and that has many people in the arts community on edge. P. 12

By Matt Cohen and Kriston Capps

2 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

INSIDE

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COVER STORY: FAINT OF ART

12 Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed changes to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities have alienated one key constituency: artists.

DISTRICT LINE 4 #DontMuteRonMoten: The activist and political polymorph wants to use a new Anacostia development to empower local residents.

8 Loose Lips: As D.C. residents get wrapped up in the federally controlled parole system, advocates demand a change to the rules.

SPORTS 10 One-Two Punch: A lauded Metropolitan Police Department officer moonlights as an undefeated boxer.

FOOD 16 Come Here Often: The lengths restaurants go to to build a roster of regular customers

ARTS 18 Go-Going for Gold: The success of Moechella has galvanized the go-go community.

20 Theater: Klimek on Studio Theatre’s The Children and Folger Theatre’s Love’s Labor’s Lost 22 Curtain Calls: Shah on Shakespeare Theatre Company’s The Oresteia and Thal on Faction of Fools’ The Great Commedia Hotel Murder Mystery 24 Short Subjects: Zilberman on John Wick: Chapter 3–Parabellum and Olszewski on All Is True

CITY LIST 27 Music 28 Theater 31 Film

DIVERSIONS 32 32 33 35

Gear Prudence Savage Love Classifieds Crossword

DARROW MONTGOMERY 1300 BLOCK OF 4TH STREET NE (REAR), MAY 10

EDITORIAL

EDITOR: ALEXA MILLS MANAGING EDITOR: CAROLINE JONES ARTS EDITOR: MATT COHEN FOOD EDITOR: LAURA HAYES SPORTS EDITOR: KELYN SOONG CITY LIGHTS EDITOR: KAYLA RANDALL LOOSE LIPS REPORTER: MITCH RYALS HOUSING COMPLEX REPORTER: MORGAN BASKIN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: DARROW MONTGOMERY MULTIMEDIA AND COPY EDITOR: WILL WARREN CREATIVE DIRECTOR: STEPHANIE RUDIG CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: MICHON BOSTON, KRISTON CAPPS, CHAD CLARK, RACHEL M. COHEN, RILEY CROGHAN, JEFFRY CUDLIN, EDDIE DEAN, ERIN DEVINE, CUNEYT DIL, TIM EBNER, CASEY EMBERT, JONATHAN L. FISCHER, NOAH GITTELL, SRIRAM GOPAL, HAMIL R. HARRIS, LAURA IRENE, LOUIS JACOBSON, CHRIS KELLY, STEVE KIVIAT, CHRIS KLIMEK, PRIYA KONINGS, JULYSSA LOPEZ, NEVIN MARTELL, KEITH MATHIAS, PABLO MAURER, BRIAN MCENTEE, BRIAN MURPHY, NENET, TRICIA OLSZEWSKI, EVE OTTENBERG, MIKE PAARLBERG, PAT PADUA, JUSTIN PETERS, REBECCA J. RITZEL, ABID SHAH, TOM SHERWOOD, MATT TERL, SIDNEY THOMAS, DAN TROMBLY, JOE WARMINSKY, ALONA WARTOFSKY, JUSTIN WEBER, MICHAEL J. WEST, DIANA MICHELE YAP, ALAN ZILBERMAN

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DISTRICTLINE

#DontMuteRonMoten

By Cuneyt Dil In old d.C., there wasn’t so much traffic, Ron Moten is explaining. He snaps his fingers: That’s how long it took to drive uptown from Southeast.

Moten is running late. Lucky for him, on this Saturday morning in May, the empty streets resemble that former city. He was supposed to begin talking on a panel at U Street Music Hall 20 minutes ago, but at the moment he’s gunning his Chevy Impala down I-395.

When he arrives, the dim club is half empty, but people have shown up to find out what happens in the aftermath of #DontMuteDC. The uproar over a longtime Shaw phone store being asked to turn off its go-go soundtrack has rejuvenated the debate over the erasure of old D.C. Less than a month after the height of the controversy, organizers are hosting a conference where Moten is speaking with other activists.

Over the past three weeks, go-go has made an improbable public comeback. A decade ago, the city’s leaders drove a stake through the heart of go-go, evicting its most popular club on U Street and calling the music genre a crime magnet.

Nowadays, pols are overeager to prove they are guardians of D.C.’s indigenous culture.

Events have aligned well for Moten. If this will be a campaign to salvage Chocolate City, Moten may fancy himself its indefatigable, 5-foot-7 public face. For over two decades in the District, Moten has persistently reinvented himself, playing the part of a political rabble-rouser, organizer extraordinaire, and violence fighter, notching himself friends and enemies along the way.

It’s been seven years since the demise of Peaceoholics, the violence mediation nonprofit co-founded by Moten that received millions from the District government to broker truces between warring crews. After allegations of misspent money, Moten settled with the city, admitting no wrongdoing but agreeing to pay D.C. $10,000 and to not manage the finances of a nonprofit in the city.

The District again finds itself with a rising murder rate. This time, the city has its own violence intervention program that employs exoffenders to mediate conflict, a model not unlike that of Peaceoholics. And the city is making room for Moten. Last month, Attorney Gener-

al Karl Racine persuaded a judge to relax the Peaceoholics settlement, erasing the fine and giving Moten the option to start a nonprofit.

After a few quiet years, the 49-year-old is back in public life, propelled by the go-go triumph outside the Shaw Metro PCS store. His latest project is his most ambitious. Moten wants to buy the property that houses his business and community house, Check It Enterprises, on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE in Anacostia. Moten is partnering with Banneker Ventures, a construction and facilities management firm, to buy three buildings—the Check It shop and two neighboring structures—in a historic district where well heeled developers are chomping for bits of precious land.

It would mark the latest turnaround for Moten, whose comebacks are only outnumbered by his various titles over the years: former cocaine dealer, returned citizen, political loudmouth, entrepreneur, go-go impresario.

“He’s almost like a political polymorph,” says Philip Pannell, a Ward 8 fixture who has been friends with Moten for a decade. “He seems to find a 25th hour in a 24-hour day.”

Moten was 15 and mopping floors at an ice cream parlor in Friendship Heights when he saw a man who impressed him.

The man was dressed like a character straight out of Scarface, and Moten introduced himself. “Can you just give me a chance?” Moten remembers asking. He later supplied Moten his first half ounce of cocaine to sell.

After two separate trips to prison for drugrelated arrests, including a bust on the New Jersey Turnpike and a felony charge in D.C., Moten says he left prison in October 1994. He began engaging with criminals again, this time working with nonviolence groups to stop petty disputes. His anti-violence operation grew

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Darrow Montgomery

In his ninth life, D.C. fixture Ron Moten promotes his next act: a development project billed to save Anacostia.

into the nonprofit Peaceoholics, which he colaunched with Jauhar Abraham. Peaceoholics first got city funding under Mayor Anthony Williams in the early 2000s.

Moten grew up in Petworth, where his grandmother still lives. He attended Deal Middle School at the same time as Adrian Fenty, the former mayor who bankrolled Peaceoholics with government contracts. He didn’t know Fenty growing up, but Fenty knew him, he says.

That’s because the whole school knew Moten as the kid who took regular trips to the principal’s office. By 11th grade, Moten was kicked out of Roosevelt High School. He rents a basement in Hillcrest now, and is the father to six children; the oldest is 30 and the youngest is 4.

In 2017, Moten opened Check It Enterprises at 1920 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE, creating a retail apparel store and community hotspot. On either side of Check It is an identical one-story building.

Moten’s vision is to redevelop all three structures into a four- to five-story building, making it the tallest building in the vicinity.

Whether he can succeed will reveal how

D.C. is handling gentrification in 2019. City leaders once trusted Moten enough to lavish Peaceoholics with millions. He says the city— specifically, the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, headquartered a block away at Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road SE—could give him the funds to do the redevelopment.

“If our project don’t work, everybody in Anacostia can say goodbye,” he says, promoting his project as a bellwether for the future of the neighborhood. “’Cause this is a chance for the city to get it right.”

Moten’s last venture into real estate collapsed. In 2008, the Fenty administration’s Department of Housing and Community Development gave Peaceoholics $4.6 million to transform three apartment complexes into affordable housing for young men. The Washington Post documented how Peaceoholics was taken off the project in 2010 with zero units created, an embarrassment for the Fenty administration after its lax oversight. Moten says he wasn’t in charge of the project’s spending.

The co-founder of Peaceoholics, Abraham,

GRANTS DC Documentary Short Film Partnership Grant (DC DOCS) Washington, DC, as we know it today, has a treasured cultural legacy that spans generations.

HumanitiesDC (HDC) is committed to supporting projects that breathe life into the unique stories of our rich communities. HDC is seeking qualified partners for its DC DOCS program to help us with this mission.

AWARD AMOUNT: Applicants may request up to $30,000 depending on the scope of their projects.

PROJECT PERIOD: This opportunity is for documentary short film projects conducted between July 15, 2019-July 15, 2020.

DEADLINE: All proposals must be received by May 29, 2019.

DC DOCS provides financial and capacity building resources to established filmmakers interested in telling a humanities story about Washington, DC through a documentary short film. Potential projects must incorporate relevant humanities scholarship into the stories that they tell.

Selected partners will have the opportunity to work with the HDC grants team who will provide capacity-building and subject-matter support throughout the life of the project.

To view the full RFP, workshops and webinars, please visit www.wdchumanities.org.

DC Community Heritage Project Grant The DC Community Heritage Project (DCCHP)* puts the power of the past in the hands of the local historians who preserve, protect, and live it every day! Since 2007, these small grants have afforded communities, neighborhood organizations, churches, and others the chance to tell their stories through public humanities projects such as: written publications, documentary films, websites, lesson plans, tours, and many more. This year, we are seeking partners aiming to document the history and heritage of Washington, DC’s Asian and Pacific Islander communities including their major institutions, organizations, their culture, and their people.

AWARD AMOUNT: Applicants may request $5,000.

PROJECT PERIOD: This opportunity is for projects conducted between June 30, 2019 and October 30, 2019.

DEADLINE: All proposals must be received by Wednesday, May 29, 2019.

DCCHP Partnership grants are driven by the proposed final product which is added to an online archive and presented at a public showcase. One of the many things that makes HumanitiesDC’s funding programs unique is the close partnership awarded grantees forge with HumanitiesDC grants officers. This partnership produces academically authoritative, technically polished final products that will be of continued benefit to students, researchers, and the residents of Washington, DC as part of the DC Digital Museum, a permanent digital archive administered by HumanitiesDC. To view the full RFP, workshops and webinars, please visit www.wdchumanities.org.

Humanities Fellowship Program In effort to create stronger ties between Humanities departments in Washington, DC area colleges and universities and the city’s communities and neighborhoods, HumanitiesDC is offering fellowships to graduate students and young professional scholars. Each fellow will create a public humanities program based on their research or area of expertise, in conjunction with a community partner. The public programs will follow HumanitiesDC’s successful Humanitini model that brings thoughtful humanities discussions to Washington, DC’s happy-hour scene.

AWARD AMOUNT: Fellows will receive $2,000; half as a stipend, and half as the budget for their Humanitini program.

DEADLINE: We will begin accepting applications for fellowships taking place between April through December 2019 on March 1, 2019. The application will remain open on a rolling basis until all program funds have been distributed.

Each fellowship project will be free for the public to attend or experience. Fellows will also write an evaluative report on the challenges and successes encountered while translating their research for a public audience.

PROJECT PERIOD: Fellowships may be as short as one month or as long as six months depending on how much research and planning is required to develop the public program.

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. The pool of applicants will be reviewed on the third Friday of every month between March 15 and September 20. Selected Fellows will be informed of their awards no more than 4 weeks after the deadline for which they’ve submitted their application.

To view the full RFP, workshops and webinars, please visit www.wdchumanities.org.

HumanitiesDC | 1140 3rd Street NE 2nd Floor | Washington, DC 20002 | 202.747.6470 | www.wdchumanities.org

washingtoncitypaper.com may 17, 2019 5

DISTRICTLINE says “we never did anything with the intention to defraud the city.” (After Peaceoholics shuttered, a judge in 2014 ruled that Abraham owed the District $639,000 for using the group’s grant funds to buy two SUVs. Moten and Abraham, who denies that he misused any public funds, have fallen out since the lawsuit. Abraham says they were never friends in the first place.)

In his new project, Moten has help from developer Omar Karim, a Fenty pal who caught scrutiny after winning high profile contracts during his administration, benefiting so much from Fenty’s largess that he called the former mayor “God.” As Moten lays it out, Check It would own a 49 percent stake in the redevelopment, with the option in 10 years to buy the remainder from Karim’s Banneker Ventures. “I’m not a developer. You let people do what they do well, and you hire lawyers so that you and the people you represent don’t get fucked,” Moten says on what he learned from the Peaceoholics development debacle.

The Jack Kemp Foundation, which helped open Check It with a grant, is funding an attorney for the redevelopment project. The foundation honors the late Republican senator and congressman, whose son is a major supporter of Moten, also a Republican. The store’s name derives from the Check It gang, a crew of LGBT youth that banded together in the mid2000s to shield themselves from street violence. Its members own part of the business, selling custom T-shirts in the front. A community garden and go-go stage are the backyard.

Architecture firm Hickok Cole began working pro bono on the nascent development project last month, drawing up a concept for nine to 12 residential units, says founder Michael Hickok.

Hickok did not know Moten personally until his colleague met Moten at an event. “Our impression of him was that we like this guy,” he says. “He was very straightforward and to the point.” The firm is also working with developer Four Points on a massive hotel and residential project, known as Reunion Square, across the street from Check It. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration wants to give $60 million in tax increment bond financing for that project, but the neighborhood is split. Moten supports the deal, but the legislation was halted last November after Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White wanted more affordable units.

Since Anacostia is a historic district, Moten’s project would need approval from the Historic Preservation Review Board. Dave Wahl, associate principal at Hickok Cole, says existing retail space and the storefront facade would be preserved, with residential additions setback on top. Moten wants to include a museum for go-go. It’s unclear whether there will be affordable units.

City First Bank is engaged in acquiring the three properties for a total of $2.3 million, Moten says, before October. (Banneker did not re-

turn a request for comment.) “We’re close, but it’s going to take some help.”

Moten’s portfolio is growing in other ways. It has been years since he’s collaborated this closely with the District government to break up violence amongst crews, whose rivalries and alliances, if drawn up on a map of the city, can form a dizzying picture of lines crossing over each other.

Attorney General Racine has emerged as Moten’s biggest admirer in District government. He donated to Check It, where his name is listed on a wall under “gold sponsors.” Last year, Racine paid to print hundreds of re-election campaign T-shirts at Check It. “I view Ron, as an individual, not unlike all other people, including myself, who is certainly not perfect,” Racine says. “But I gotta tell you ...

I’ve not seen many more people more willing to go fully in for the betterment of the community and the uplift of our young people.”

In arguing to a judge to erase the financial penalty against Moten, Racine wrote in his filing that “Mr. Moten seeks to form and fundraise for new violence interruption initiatives and the terms of the current consent judgement prevent him from doing so.” He adds in an interview that Moten has indicated to him he is considering starting a nonprofit.

Moten isn’t so sure about, say, rebooting Peaceoholics. “I don’t want to be one of those old guys talking about quashing beefs,” he says one day last month at Check It. “It’s our job to train other people.”

And he’s not the biggest fan of nonprofits, favoring entrepreneurship. Not to mention, the city effectively barred him from running one for years, leading him to open Check It as a for-profit. “I’m never doing nonprofit work again, never,” he told City Paper in 2016.

For months, Moten has been training former felons, hired by the attorney general’s office to run its violence mediation program, known as Cure the Streets. A nationally developed model for violence de-escalation, the program is running in two small areas, in Northeast’s Trinidad and around Congress Heights and Washington Highlands in Southeast. The Council voted on Tuesday to inject an additional $3.86 million into the program, paving the way for an expansion.

The results aren’t too shabby, according to Racine, who on April 22 told the Council that there have been no murders in the two zones since the programs began after a deadly Memorial Day weekend last summer. He conceded there were two homicides “right on the border of our sites.”

But the Bowser administration isn’t so hot about the program. There’s more than a whiff of competition between Racine’s crime fighting outfit and the mayor’s, which is based out of the Office of Safety and Neighborhood Engagement. (Moten says he has worked with both,

6 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

making about $30,000 in less than two years.)

With the mayor’s program taking longer to set up, the Council in June 2018 found $360,000 to begin Cure the Streets as a pilot program. Since then, the two branches of government have simultaneously built programs that aim to mediate and reduce beefs between rival gangs.

In the process, a rivalry has formed, with nonprofits keeping close tabs on the competition to see who’s winning contract awards.

Early on, recruitment of the violence interrupters became a source of friction between Racine and Bowser officials. “We came to an agreement pretty quickly of no poaching,” says a city official. Moten muses there are enough beefs to go around for everyone.

But Bowser officials reason it’s too early to more than double Cure’s budget. “What we have are two programs that operate, in some cases, the same general geography,” City Administrator Rashad Young told the press last week. “I would hate for us to create a circumstance where we’re inadvertently pitting programs against each other,” he added, “or taking a program that isn’t yet ready, or has the experience to scale at the size that [the Council’s] investment suggests.”

It’s the collection of data that sets both of the city’s new crime fighting programs apart from Moten’s Peaceoholics, even if the latter’s former leaders contend they took extensive notes.

While the philosophy is similar, the city’s programs are tracking metrics like number of gun shots. With Peaceoholics, “there wasn’t a performance management program,” says the city official. “It was really like, you give them money, they go and spend the money and hire a bunch of people—and shootings go down. It was sort of like this magic box [where] you don’t know what’s happening with that money.”

For now, Moten maintains he only wants to train other violence prevention officers, not run the show. the #DontMuteDC panel last Saturday featured everything from speakers that gave a leftist takedown of gentrification to Moten, who told the crowd “I’m probably the only Republican you love.”

There’s a nine-lives quality to Moten, who left the Democratic party and registered as a Republican to unsuccessfully run for Council in Ward 7 in 2012, proclaiming the “R” stood for “Ron.” He says he didn’t vote for Donald Trump, but he’s visited the White House twice this year for events marking opportunity zones, the administration’s attempt to invest in underdeveloped urban areas.

Moten insists he’s over politics, but he’s back in the spotlight in another way with #DontMuteDC, a hashtag the mayor adores.

In recent years, Moten has mellowed in accordance with the tenor of D.C. politics. Gone are the titanic clashes between Fenty and his rival Vince Gray that provided Moten ample

room to become a walking megaphone for Fenty. (He still asserts that his campaigning for Fenty is what led Gray and others to look into Peaceaholics’ spending in 2010. The group’s bookkeeping was so lax, the D.C. Auditor found in 2011, that scrutiny was inevitable.)

When the political temperature rises, Moten still dials it up. Last fall, Moten was working for Independent at-large challenger Dionne Reeder, helping assemble a who’s-who of organizer talent in the majority black wards of the District. From the perspective of his critics, he was pouring kerosene on already-caustic campaign rhetoric.

“He used racially divisive politics in my campaign,” says At-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman, who won re-election. She cites a Moten-produced campaign music video, where he raps that she should enjoy her term “while it lasts.” “He is somebody who, I guess, likes controversy, and likes to be a rabble-rouser,” Silverman says.

For a moment there, the old political Ron Moten was back.

What would his detractors have to say? “That he’s brash. That he’s loud,” says Chuck Thies, a political consultant who counts Moten as a friend, even if they are typically on opposite ends in political fights (Reeder’s campaign was an exception). “He’s never met a camera he doesn’t like,” he continues. “But I got to tell you, what are those criticisms in politics? If you want to do something, you got to get attention, and Ron has learned how to get attention.”

Moten says he’s not raring to dive back in what he likes to call “politricks.”

Friends say Moten has matured, even if he can still have a short fuse. “Actually, you’re reaching rapprochement, detente, with some of the folks who are his detractors,” says Pannell. He raises a recent example. When Hilary Brown, a longtime civic leader in Ward 8, died in 2017, Moten attended his funeral, even though Brown “detested” Moten, rarely skipping a chance to bash Peaceoholics.

“Now, if [Brown] had been alive, he would have probably asked Ron to leave his funeral,” Pannell cracks into laughter.

Moten’s next moves include building #DontMuteDC “committees,” using Check It as a space to brainstorm resistance to displacement.

The day the music was turned back on at MetroPCS in Shaw last month, the television cameras were fixed on Moten, and he produced a list of places and institutions on the losing end of gentrification. In gold rimmed sunglasses and a “Chocolate City” T-shirt, he demanded respect for black restaurants and churches he said were victims of yuppie contempt.

“There are several black businesses that are being attacked by gentrifiers,” Moten blared on the corner of Florida Avenue and 7th Street NW. “They move in our community,” he warned, “like they come with good intentions, but once they come in, they try to push us out.”

CP

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Tickets to the Taste of Dupont are $25 in advance for all locations and $40 on the day of the event. Online and in person sales must pick up your Master Ticket at 9 Dupont Circle, NW on the day of the event starting at 12:45 p.m.

On Saturday, May 18, from 1-4:00 pm, Dupont Circle restaurants will showcase their favorite appetizers, entrĂŠes, drinks, and desserts as part of the 12th annual Taste of Dupont. This restaurant event allows patrons to explore neighborhood eateries by going from place to place to enjoy the best Dupont restaurants have to offer.

Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets

washingtoncitypaper.com may 17, 2019 7

DISTRICTLINE

Parole Lord

before the Parole Commission.

For years, legal advocates, lawyers, and judges have pointed to the Parole Commission as a source of injustice and a major driver of the over-incarceration of D.C. residents.

They say Hall’s case is a prime example where local decisions are trumped by federal authorities. Especially at a time when marijuana is partially legal in D.C., and Mayor Muriel Bowser recently proposed legislation to legalize and regulate weed sales, Hall’s case seems especially egregious, advocates say.

In 2018, about 76 percent of the Parole Commission’s caseload, or 6,521 people, were D.C. code offenders, according to a 2018 report from the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, which is part of a coalition of organizations pushing to bring parole under local control.

Last year, the Parole Commission was reauthorized by Congress for two years, rather than the usual five. Advocates take that as a potential signal that the feds are looking to get out of the parole game. With a $12.7 million budget for the Parole Commission, the question is whether local officials are willing to take on the responsibility, and how.

“To me this is the biggest issue in criminal justice reform in D.C.,” says Phil Fornaci, an attorney with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee. “We’ve been trying to exert pressure on Council for quite some time, as well as the mayor. And the mayor has generally ignored us.”

Darrow Montgomery

Tyrone Hall was acquitted of a crime but still landed back in prison. Advocates say the federally controlled parole system needs reform.

By Mitch Ryals Tyrone Hall was smoking near the restaurant in Chinatown where he worked as a dishwasher. It was November 2017, and he was under court supervision after serving time for a 2015 armed robbery.

Hall had been out of prison for about four months when, while on his smoke break, Metropolitan Police Department Officer Orlando Perez approached. The officer suspected Hall of smoking weed, according to the police report. Perez describes in the report seeing a “hand rolled cigar” and smelling a “faint … pungent odor.”

Hall disputes the officer’s account and insists he was smoking a cigarette. He says Perez asked to see his ID, and when Hall couldn’t

LOOSE LIPS

provide one, the officer grabbed him. Hall struggled to pull away and grabbed the officer’s arm in the process. MPD officers later arrested Hall from his workplace, according to court records.

The scuffled earned Hall a charge of assault on a police officer. He was never accused of any marijuana-related crime—the reason Perez confronted him in the first place.

Hall was acquitted of the misdemeanor crime after a bench trial. He says the judge rebuked Perez for putting his hands on Hall and for producing no evidence to support the officer’s accusation that he was smoking marijuana.

“The judge was furious with this police officer,” says Whitney Louchheim, who was in the courtroom that day and has known Hall for nearly a decade through her organization, Open City Advocates, which works with juveniles involved in the criminal justice system.

8 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

She remembers the judge telling the police officer: “You had no right to touch Mr. Hall, and he had no responsibility to you to stop.”

Despite the judge’s harsh words for the officer, and even though Hall was cleared of wrongdoing in local court, his legal troubles were not over. The new charge meant that he’d violated the terms of his court-ordered supervision and would have to make his case to the U.S. Parole Commission—a federally controlled body that oversees parole and supervised release for D.C. offenders.

The Parole Commission gave Hall another 13 months in prison. In addition to the new charge, he’d also been testing positive for marijuana—a vice he says his supervision officer was aware of and one he was working to address. Smoking weed is technically a violation of his supervised release, but if not for the new charge, Hall believes, he would not have gone

In THe mId ’90s, as the District struggled to pay its bills, Congress stepped in. The National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act passed in 1997, and, among other things, federalized most of D.C.’s criminal justice system.

Specifically, the Revitalization Act abolished the D.C. Board of Parole and transferred decision-making and oversight duties to the U.S. Parole Commission, which still decides whether to grant parole for current inmates and whether to revoke it for those under community supervision.

Around that same time, Congress was planning to gradually eliminate the Parole Commission. The federal parole system ended in 1987, and its number of parolees dwindled.

Now D.C. offenders make up a majority of the commission’s caseload, along with federal inmates who were sentenced before 1987.

The Revitalization Act also created the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA), the federal agency that monitors D.C. code offenders after they’re released, and shuttered the Lorton prison.

Now D.C. offenders serve time in federal facilities throughout the country, often far from their families.

Court cases throughout the 2000s chal-

DISTRICTLINE lenged the Parole Commission’s decisions on releasing D.C. offenders.

One case, involving a man who was convicted of raping a Howard University student, was appealed to the Supreme Court. Ari Bailey was convicted in 1994, when the D.C. Board of Parole had its own a set of guidelines in place.

The Parole Commission denied Bailey parole in ’04, ’07, ’10, and ’12. Bailey’s attorneys argued that the commission ignored the defunct local board’s guidelines, which included a numerical score that aided in decision making. In 2010 and 2012, Bailey’s score “indicated that parole should be granted,” according to court records. Yet the Parole Commission kept him locked up.

In 2016, as Bailey’s case awaited a decision by the Supreme Court, 17 judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and legal advocates signed onto a letter that explained how the commission held D.C. offenders in prison longer than the system intended.

At the time Bailey was convicted, judges imposed sentence ranges, intending for offenders to serve the minimum number of years within the range. Without specific circumstances, such as bad behavior while in prison, offenders were presumed to be released, the letter says.

One of the signatories, the late Judge Mary Ellen Abrecht, told City Paper at the time that she was “surprised that the Parole [Commission] was sort of ignoring the judge’s sentence and establishing their own guidelines as to what kind of time the offense was worth.”

In Bailey’s case, the Parole Commission denied him release in part because he did not participate in rehabilitative programs, according to court records.

In 2018, with Congress renewing the Parole Commission for only two years rather than five, advocates are trying to draw the attention of local elected officials.

The D.C. Reentry Task Force, a coalition of legal advocacy groups, has organized “speak out” events where individuals affected by the Parole Commission’s decisions tell their stories. During an event in April, one woman said the commission denied her husband parole because he hadn’t completed rehabilitative programming. But, she said, the facility where he is being held did not offer any. Another woman said her husband had been denied parole four times.

In January, Mayor Bowser awarded a $75,000 grant to the Justice Policy Institute, a criminal justice research nonprofit, to study the logistics of taking back local control of parole. Their report is due in September.

Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Kevin Donahue says in an emailed statement that “we are pursuing measures to increase District autonomy over our local criminal justice system.” Donahue’s statement stops short

of giving specific support for local control of parole, saying the JPI study will guide the administration’s next steps.

A spokesperson for Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton writes via email that she will wait to weigh in until the mayor and Council have taken a position.

The path to local control would require D.C. legislation and funding for a new agency, as well as an act of Congress to amend the Revitalization Act. Fornaci believes D.C. Superior Court judges could play a role in a new localized parole system, but other advocates say D.C. should bring back a parole board. Either way, Fornaci says, “This is essential for D.C. statehood.

It makes no sense to talk about D.C. being a state if we don’t have control of our own criminal system.”

As he wAlks through the Shaw neighborhood where he grew up, Hall points to a few landmarks: Cleveland Elementary, where he went to school, and Wanda’s on 7th, the hair salon whose owner he used to ask for a dollar.

He stops near the Metro PCS store that blasts go-go music onto the corner of 7th Street and Florida Avenue NW. When he’s not working as an advocate for the National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens, this is where he hangs out most of the day.

“The stuff that I used to do when I was 17, I look back on it now, and I shake my head,” he says. “I used to rob people in my neighborhood and get locked up for it ’cause I ain’t care. I was hungry, I ain’t have no money, and my mom did the best she could, you get what I’m sayin’, but she couldn’t really do much.”

Hall’s mother adopted him when he was a baby. His birth mother abandoned him at just a few months old in a stairwell, according to a report filed in one of his old criminal cases.

He says by 12 years old he started getting in trouble for starting fires. By 17, he says, he was out of control. He finished high school but for the next decade cycled in and out of prison for drug possession, car theft, and robberies.

Before the Parole Commission sent him back to prison most recently, he says he was helping his mother while she was in hospice care. She died in August 2018 while he was still incarcerated.

Since he was released last November, Hall started working part time, has an apartment, and has testified in front of the Council about issues facing returning citizens.

Ultimately, he wants to start a nonprofit music studio that helps juveniles caught in the criminal justice system. In the meantime, he’s started enrolling in programs to build a business plan, write a resume, and start saving money, he says. And he’s trying to stay out of trouble. He’s still under supervision until October 2020.

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SPORTS

The citywide sports gambling app won’t be ready until 2020. washingtoncitypaper.com/sports

One-Two Punch

Courtesy Kent Green/@KgHotShots

By day, MPD’s Tiara Brown is “Officer Friendly.” At night, she’s an undefeated boxing champ known as the “The Dark Menace.”

By Harry Zahn On a balmy May evening, Metropolitan Police Department Officer Tiara Brown bounces around the ring at Old School Boxing Gym

in Fort Washington, preparing for her upcoming title fight. Her dreadlocks are tucked in a purple bandana and quarter-sized hoops dangle from her ears as she executes maneuvers that have become second nature after 17 years

10 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

between the ropes.

Brown’s coach, Marcus Patterson, feeds her encouragement: “Perfect,” he says as she bobs and weaves her head under his swinging arms. She churns out fluid combinations, un-

loading hooks and uppercuts to Patterson’s body shield and mitts. “You cannot train a wolf!” he shouts.

The round ends. Brown can’t stand still. She paces back and forth.

“You ain’t hungry enough to win no title, don’t be in the gym,” Patterson says during the break.

In a male-dominated sport, Brown is usually the only woman in the gym. “I’m pretty used to it, but I just feel like I always have to prove myself,” Brown says. “I always feel like I have to try to outwork the guys.”

And she does.

During the heat of the day, Brown patrols the streets of MPD’s sixth district, which experienced the most violent crimes and homicides in the city between May 2018 and May 2019. Through community outreach, a bubbly demeanor, and a reputation for respectful interactions, she is affectionately known to residents as “Officer Friendly.”

The rest of the time, she is “The Dark Menace,” a professional boxer boasting a record of 7-0 with five wins via knockout.

“I’m chasing my dreams,” says Brown, 30.

“I don’t want to leave any stone unturned.”

On Saturday, May 18, Brown will attempt to realize one of those dreams when she fights at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in D.C. for the North American Boxing Organization junior lightweight title.

Patterson says he normally doesn’t train female fighters, but Brown is different. “She works harder than any man I work with—that’s the only reason I work with her,” he says.

Brown typically wakes up at 3 a.m. to exercise. Around 4:30 a.m., Patterson receives a video on his phone of Brown running on the treadmill before work. She’ll typically patrol the streets on a bike for about 10 hours during her shifts.

After her post-work training session from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., she goes home and gets approximately five hours of sleep before repeating the process.

“There is a sixth gear to Tiara,” Patterson says. brOwn was bOrn and raised in Fort Myers, Florida, in an area she calls “a pretty bad neighborhood.”

“I remember sometimes I would go to school and a SWAT team would be like two houses down kicking in somebody’s door,” Brown says.

With this early exposure to law enforcement, familiarity began to breed admiration.

“You see the cops chasing the bad guy that did something [and] I wanted to be a part of

SPORTS that because it’s like they’re superheroes.

They’re real-life superheroes,” Brown says.

“I wanted to be a positive light.”

Brown’s mother and father split up before she was born. Her mother, Sharon Pointer, then reconnected with a former girlfriend and later married her. Brown’s mothers provided a solid foundation for her to flourish and instilled a sense of confidence that she and her two sisters could achieve anything.

But Brown was often bullied because of her family makeup.

“Me and my sisters got picked on a lot. We fought a lot because of that,” Brown says. “We were the kids with two moms.”

Pointer remembers the bullying took a toll, especially back then. “They went through hell, they really did, and it was hard, but you go that extra mile and you show them that with love you can overcome so many things,” she says.

Early on, Brown turned to athletics as an outlet—and excelled.

She dominated school field day events, played for a city basketball team, and occasionally swam. Brown would later attend Columbus State University in Georgia on a full track scholarship. Her cousins, though, were talented amateur boxers. She looked up to them and would watch tapes of their fights.

The sport intrigued her, and Brown internalized the punches, steps, slips, and blocks, even as her cousins beat her up in the gym.

Soon enough, that spark of interest grew into a flaming passion.

Tragedy sTruck in 2010, when Brown’s half-brother, Jermaine Thomas, was shot and killed in Fort Myers. Pointer recalls Brown wanted to leave school and come home, but Brown stayed and the loss strengthened her resolve to fight crime.

She also found refuge in the ring and began to dominate the amateur boxing circuit.

Brown used a jutting left hook as her weapon of choice, which she says once broke an opponent’s ribs. She became a three-time USA National Boxing Champion and won gold at the 2012 International Boxing Association World Championships in Qinhuangdao, China.

“All the pain that I felt actually helped me win all those fights,” Brown says.

Next up, she eyed Olympic gold, but in the Olympics, women’s boxing is restricted to just three weight classes. Brown, who at that time fought at 125 pounds, had to gain weight to fight at 132 pounds.

She wound up not making it past the Olympic trials.

“I knew I was a shoo-in to go to the Olympics and win gold at my weight,” Brown says, “but then, they didn’t take my weight so it was like a slap in the face.”

Her life turned nomadic for a time as she travelled and competed on the amateur boxing circuit. A few years after graduating from school in 2010, Brown started visiting D.C. during the summer to work as a youth boxing coach and facilitator at the Bald Eagle Recreation Center in Ward 8. There she met a number of local police officers and in 2015, decided to move to Maryland.

After reading the MPD code of ethics, Brown says she made up her mind.

“I started looking up to D.C. police,” Brown says, “I wanted to be a part of that because change really starts in the nation’s capital.”

But across the country, including in the District, tensions have flared between police officers and the communities they serve. Brown occasionally comes across citizens hostile to her uniform, and when she does, she strives for empathy: “The same way you don’t want to get stopped just because you look suspicious, don’t hate me just because I have on a badge,” Brown says. “When I say that to people, it clicks.”

For Brown, policing is about putting the community first and giving back.

She’s a regular at District Heights Church of Christ, feeds the homeless at Martha’s Table, and volunteers at the Humane Rescue Alliance on her days off.

“God planted that seed in my heart and it’s flourishing,” Brown says. “And I like doing it.

It makes me feel good.”

Celeste Santana, a master patrol officer who trained Brown, says that Brown was the only officer she knew who would follow up and check in on people afterward to make sure they had the services they needed, especially after domestic violence calls. She would even call to ensure that someone had their locks properly changed.

“Tiara cares about people. That’s just her personality,” Santana says. “You can’t learn that in the police department.”

Back in The gym, Brown shifts between orthodox and southpaw stances. She brings her right foot and shoulder forward and turns her body to mirror her usual stance. It’s an effort to further polish her craft so she can box lefthanded.

On March 19, 2019, just four years into her job, Brown walked across a stage to be honored as MPD’s 2018 “Officer of the Year.” The city of Fort Myers declared April 16, 2018 Tiara Brown Day, and in May 2018, she signed with major New York-based boxing promoter Lou DiBella.

But Brown’s not satisfied. She wants to one day unify all the belts at featherweight, super featherweight, and eventually work her way up to welterweight.

“I’m the best,” Brown says. “I want to show the world.”

CP

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washingtoncitypaper.com may 17, 2019 11

Faint of Art

D.C. artists and the organizations they run see a bleak future under Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed changes to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

By Matt Cohen and Kriston Capps

12 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

Last month at a public meeting of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Terrie Rouse-Rosario, the acting executive director, made a bold declaration: “I am the Commission!” she blurted out during a heated exchange at the full Commission meeting.

You won’t find that statement in the city’s official meeting minutes. It didn’t make it into the public record.

Rouse-Rosario was responding to Ward 1 commissioner Josef Palermo’s concerns about the current state of the DCCAH. The specific topic of discussion that led to her outburst: issues of transparency in the Commission’s budget. But Palermo wasn’t the only commissioner to voice worries in that meeting, and his particular issue wasn’t the only one raised.

D.C.’s arts community is on edge, and its diverse membership has been showing it. Mayor Muriel Bowser has proposed big changes to DCCAH, and many artists and arts organizations fear those changes will leave them behind, or leave them out entirely.

Among Bowser’s proposed changes: scrapping millions of dollars of arts grants and replacing them with loans, and a complete restructuring of the Commission that would turn it into a new Department of Arts and Humanities, giving the mayor direct authority over the arts commission and expanding its mission to include cosmetology and culinary arts.

Since she took office in 2014, Bowser has not been shy about her support for the District’s arts communities. Over the past several years, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities has been at the forefront of the mayor’s very public push to make D.C. an arts town. She has steadily funneled more money to the DCCAH each year.

And just last month she unveiled the city’s first Cultural Plan—a massive inter-agency survey of D.C.’s cultural communities that also outlines the myriad ways they can be supported and sustained by the District government.

As the District’s designated arts agency, it’s long been DCCAH’s role to support and promote the arts and humanities throughout the city. This takes the shape of public art programs and education. But the DCCAH’s primary function is as a grant-making agency.

The DCCAH is comprised of a full-time staff led by an executive director, as well as a Mayor-appointed, Council-approved independent volunteer Board of Commissioners who represent each ward of the city.

On the surface, Bowser’s support of the arts is a good thing. In a city whose identity to outsiders is all buttoned-up national politics, it’s nice to have a mayor who supports the creativity and cultural identity that defines D.C.—not Washington.

But peek under the lid, and find an arts commission that had been in growing turmoil for at least the past five years.

City Paper interviewed nearly a dozen current and former DCCAH staff and commissioners, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. They describe a commission that has gradually fallen into a state of internal anxiety and disarray. Bowser appointed Arthur Espinoza as its executive director five years ago,

but he stepped down from his position in June of last year; since then, the agency has had two different acting executive directors.

Kennisha Rainge, a Bowser staffer in the Mayor’s Office of Talent and Appointments who is a detailee to the DCCAH, quickly amended Rouse-Rosario’s surprising statement in that commission meeting: “We are the Commission. The staff, everybody, this agency is the Commission,” she said. The D.C. arts community wonders if that’s true anymore.

When arthur espinoza was appointed to lead the DCCAH in October of 2015, he had big plans.

“I think we’re poised to be leaders in the arts and humanities in a lot of ways. We have incredible talent, creativity, and history here,” Espinoza told City Paper in February of 2016.

“The more we can showcase that through a united effort—it’s not just the agency working in a vacuum on behalf of these organizations and individuals—in the collaborative nature that the arts are, we can push the envelope and make D.C. a destination for arts and culture.”

Espinoza was an inspired choice to lead the city’s arts commission. A former dancer, he

continued to hold the post across mayoral administrations, serving as the laureate for nearly 20 years. There was no plan in place for naming her replacement. Members of the poetry community began to talk about the future of the program in February of last year, and the DCCAH assembled an ad hoc committee.

In March, poets spoke before the Commission, outlining their hopes for the process for naming Kendrick’s successor. Namely they wanted transparency, term limits, and public input, according to Sandra Beasley, a D.C. poet and writer in attendance. The Commission appeared to be receptive to those goals, she says.

But in April, Steven Walker, the director for the Mayor’s Office of Talent and Appointments, told the Commission that the mayor’s office was taking over the process. Walker had sent an email to the ad hoc poet laureate committee to notify members that the mayor wanted to dissolve their committee.

“Somehow the process and governing body that’s trusted to do so much important arts curation for our community, and has been trusted for that role legislatively for 50 years, is somehow not trusted to have the primary voice in this decision,” Beasley says.

“The recognition that a poet has to first and foremost be a creative force, and not a diplomatic force, is really important. It’s how we make sure that the poet laureate isn’t a bureaucrat assigned to art.” had spent the bulk of his career in the ballet and opera worlds with stints working with the Colorado Ballet, the Milwaukee Ballet, Central City Opera, Canyon Concert Ballet, and Opera Fort Collins before he joined the Washington Ballet in 2010. Three years later, he was tapped for a senior executive role as the ballet’s managing director.

One of Espinoza’s—and the mayor’s—first opportunities to shake up the arts commission came in November 2017 with the death of Dolores Kendrick, D.C.’s poet laureate.

Kendrick was only the second person to occupy the post. It was launched to honor Sterling Brown, the poet, critic, and Howard University luminary, who held the laureateship for 5 years until his death in 1989. Afterward, the office fell into dispute; the city didn’t name another laureate for a decade, until E. Ethelbert Miller, poet and host of the weekly WPFW radio show On the Margin, successfully advocated to the city on Kendrick’s behalf.

As poet laureate, Kendrick shored up several aspects of the position. She won an office and a salary for the laureateship. While she was initially named to a three-year term in 1999, she

Now, the laureateship will no longer come with a salary, a move that Beasley says will make the position more elitist; most poets can’t afford to work for recognition as pay. A city job listing describes a rigorous set of expectations, including composing poetry for government events, reading at the request of the mayor, and serving as an official ambassador to the community.

It also describe the poet laureate as a full-time, entry-level position, with an “advance retainer and/or reimbursement” negotiable.

Limiting candidates for future laureates to those with independent financial support would make the position more exclusive at a time when the poetry community would like to see greater representation and recognition east of the Anacostia River, Beasley says.

She worries that the changes proposed by Mayor Bowser’s office will undo Kendrick’s work and steer the laureateship toward a more administrative function.

“The recognition that a poet has to first and foremost be a creative force, and not a diplomatic force, is really important,” Beasley says.

“It’s how we make sure that the poet laureate isn’t a bureaucrat assigned to art.”

For the DCCAH staff and some members of the Board of Commissioners, the poet laureate debacle was just one of several blunders that crippled morale.

It wasn’t long after Espinoza’s arrival that problems in the Arts Commission started to emerge. According to several sources who worked in the DCCAH under Espinoza that spoke to City Paper under the condition of anonymity, Espinoza’s management style was to micromanage to an extreme.

“There were late-night editing sessions where he was changing commas in to semicolons,” the source says. (Espinoza did not respond to City Paper’s requests for comment.)

A nitpicky boss might be annoying, but that was just the beginning of the problems. Soon, Espinoza’s severe management style evolved into a series of firings. It started with Tonya Jordan in December of 2017, and others soon followed. By April of 2018, Espinoza had fired five people from the commission and the rest of the DCCAH staff picked up on a troubling pattern: All five employees Espinoza fired were black, and four of the five were women.

On April 18 of 2018, a group of seven DCCAH staffers sent a letter to Espinoza raising concerns about his management style, and copied the Commission’s human resources advisor, along with senior-level Bowser administration staff, including Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Brian Kenner and City Administrator Rashad Young.

“Each of the five people you have fired during your time at DCCAH have been Black... four of whom were Black women. You likely had your reasons for firing each person, but combined, they constitute a pattern that is in direct opposition to our core values,” reads the letter, which was obtained by City Paper and independently confirmed by several of its authors.

The letter went on to request that the DCCAH’s Board of Commissioners work with the appropriate parties within the mayor’s administration to determine if each of Espinoza’s actions were “truly warranted” and if the patterns of race and gender in the firings were “coincidental.” The signers of the letter also requested the Board determine if the staff’s salaries were equitable across race and gender and, “in what ways, in the future, if others are fired, they can be treated with a higher level of dignity and respect.”

In early June of 2018, Espinoza quietly stepped down from his executive director role, and Bowser appointed Angie Gates, the Director of the Office of Cable Television, Film, Music and Entertainment, as DCCAH’s interim director.

When angie gates first took over the commission, it was like a breath of fresh air. “She [had] this sort of down home, very warm and friendly kind of approach,” one source tells City Paper. “Angie was coming in and speaking to each person—‘Good morning, how are you?’—which was something Arthur had never done. It was a nice culture shift.”

But with Gates came an increased air of secrecy that had started with Espinoza. As an independent, volunteer body, the Board of Commissioners works in tandem with the executive director and DCCAH staff to accom-

washingtoncitypaper.com may 17, 2019 13

plish the goals of the agency—primarily, to award public art grants and decide on other public-facing arts endeavors in the city. The Board of Commissioners and the DCCAH’s executive director and staff have a symbiotic relationship, one built on healthy communication in order to achieve the agency’s goals.

But beginning with Espinoza and continuing with Gates, and now with DCCAH’s current acting executive director, Terrie Rouse-Rosario, communication between the Board of Commissioners and the DCCAH has become increasingly strained. Several commissioners who spoke to City Paper said that, in the past year, they’ve been left out of a bulk of the planning of some of the DCCAH’s biggest endeavors, including the development of the Cultural Plan.

Gates didn’t come to the DCCAH alone; a team of Bowser staffers came with her to help with the transition. But their roles and titles in the DCCAH were never clearly established, and soon the existing DCCAH staff became suspicious, as Gates and her staff became more secretive about the Commission’s day-to-day work and long-term goals. Regular communication between DCCAH staff and commissioners, which prior to Gates’ arrival was a common occurrence, was barred.

“All of a sudden there was to be no staff conversations with board members for any circumstances,” one source remembers being told. “It was a nice culture shift [from Espinoza], except that there’s all this rampant speculation about her being very close to the mayor,” the source tells City Paper. “‘What is the mayor trying to do? Who are all these people?’”

The parTicular sTresses of the Angie Gates era of the DCCAH came to a head in the fall of 2018 after the DCCAH sent a notice to the most recent round of grant recipients to notify them that their award came with an amendment: No project may be “lewd, lascivious, vulgar, overtly political, and/or excessively violent.” In other words: The DCCAH was preemptively censoring the work of its grantees.

The surprising move, which was signed by Gates, came on the heels of an installation at the Franklin D Reeves Municipal Center by artist Marta Pérez-García. The piece, which was made with the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence and $50,000 in funds from the DCCAH, featured cloth rag dolls and silhouettes suggesting police outlines. Some told broadcast news outlets that the installation looked like a lynching. Gates declined to comment on the reasons for the censorship amendment.

“This was a time where walking into the office every day is like walking into a hurricane,” a DCCAH source tells City Paper about this incident. “All the grantees are mad. All the leadership is mad. There were yelling matches in the office. It was an ugly, ugly place to be.”

After swift backlash from the arts community, Bowser herself made sure the amendment was rescinded. But by then, the damage to the DCCAH’s reputation was already done and Gates would soon be replaced by RouseRosario in December of 2018.

During her first Council hearing as direc-

tor, in February, Rouse-Rosario hinted at a sea change to come. “I speak with experience when I say that this agency is going through transition, not just in leadership, but changes with the city,” she said. Within a few weeks, the city would find out what she meant.

In March, Bowser presented her draft budget for fiscal year 2020. One proposal has major implications for DCCAH: Bowser wants to revoke the Commission’s dedicated funding stream.

Last year, the Council enacted a law that devotes 0.3 percent of the city’s 6 percent sales tax to the Commission; Bowser’s budget would restore the budget as a mayoral appropriation.

In her short time as DCCAH’s executive director, Rouse-Rosario has established herself as a soldier for the mayor’s agenda. The new director, who comes to the District from the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta—where she also ran the Atlanta Ballet—has sided with Bowser’s efforts to remake the Arts Commission.

On April 29, she wrote a letter to the Council’s Committee of the Whole endorsing Bowser’s proposal to eliminate dedicated funding for her agency. A mayoral appropriation would provide greater transparency and flexibility, she argued. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson was not convinced.

“As was stated by Chairman Mendelson at the budget hearing, repealing the dedicated funding will not improve transparency or provide the agency more flexibility,” reads the committee’s markup of Bowser’s budget. “In fact, the repeal of the dedicated funding would create more angst and anxiety in the arts and humanities community because they are con-

focus groups to talk about subjects like housing and ward outreach, but they needn’t have bothered. Everyone wanted to talk about loans.

D.C.’s new Cultural Plan calls for a number of big shifts, including a new arts czar working within the Office of Planning and a steering committee to implement the program. But one feature has dominated discussions within the arts community: The mayor’s budget calls for converting millions of dollars in grants from the Commission’s budget into loans under the Cultural Plan.

Bowser’s proposed 2020 budget would zero out several purses under the Arts Commission and transfer funding to others; if passed, the budget would eliminate some $8.3 million in commission grants. The budget also introduces $8.4 million in funding for the Cultural Plan, including $5 million for a Cultural Facilities Fund and $2 million for an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Loan Fund.

While details about how these loan programs will function are virtually nonexistent, the loans are already a lightning rod for the arts community. The subject dominated the breakout groups during the Eaton session. Artists and administrators expressed fears that a semi-reliable source of arts funding would be transformed into a small-loan bank.

“For a long time I’ve been learning how to play the game. The Cultural Plan says what the new game is going to be,” says Charles Jean-Pierre, a multimedia artist in attendance. “But people are saying this shouldn’t be a game at all.”

Rainge, who is now the Commission’s new chief of staff as of this month and a former associate director at the Mayor’s Office of Tal-

“I read the Cultural Plan and felt like, if I can’t profit, my ass has to go.” cerned that the funding for the Commission could be reduced at any time if the funds are not provided through a dedicated funding stream.”

The same day that Rouse-Rosario asked the Council to let the mayor strip her agency’s funding, the arts community met up to talk about that “angst and anxiety.”

On April 29, more than 150 people assembled at the Eaton Workshop for an emergency meeting to discuss the stormy weather on the arts horizon. Artists, nonprofit administrators, and theater directors were among the attendees in the standing-room-only crowd. Palermo and at least two other commissioners were in attendance. Peter Nesbett, the director of the Washington Project for the Arts, and Sheldon Scott, an artist and D.C. ambassador, were among those leading the proceedings.

The forum broke down into several smaller

14 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

ent and Appointments, was on hand to answer questions about the Cultural Plan (but not from the press). Commission staff circulated a flyer to provide context for the divisive loan program. The flyer expressed that cuts to nearly $10 million in grants—much of which is to be converted to Cultural Plan loans—will come from D.C. Council earmarks.

“If you ask in particular some of the smaller and medium-sized arts organizations, none of them think that [the earmarks] process is fair because it tends to favor larger organizations,” says Kenner, the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. Many of those earmarks only go to large cultural institutions in Wards 2, 3, and 4, he added.

The argument, at least as it was presented at the Eaton forum, failed to impress anybody. At this gathering, it mattered less who signs the

checks than the fact that they don’t come with a repayment program.

“How are we creating sustainable models for artists and arts organizations?” said Adrienne Gaither, a D.C. painter, at Eaton. “I read the Cultural Plan and felt like, if I can’t profit, my ass has to go.”

Marie Whittaker, the interim chief of staff for the Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development, says that the same grants that individual artists applied for this year will be available next year. The main loan fund under the Cultural Plan, the new Cultural Facilities Fund, would be “aimed at organizations who are looking for loan funding, who maybe can’t find it through the traditional route, from a bank or other places where they can access capital,” she says.

“I already have a mortgage,” Kristi Maiselman, executive director for CulturalDC, told City Paper in April. “I don’t need to borrow more money.”

Others raised questions during the session about how existing Commission grants work.

Rouse-Rosario has trumpeted some of those changes. The Commission’s recently released 2018 annual report shows a 63 percent increase in grant funds awarded over fiscal year 2017 (for a total of $23 million). The number of grants went up, too, by 24 percent (to 692 total grants). And 168 of those Commission grants went to new awardees (about one in four).

“The number of people we serve has increased by 900 percent. The number of our organization’s budget has increased by 500 percent,” said Christie Walser, executive director of Project Create, an Anacostia-based art studio. “But last year, the grant we received went down by 18 percent.”

Mendelson and other councilmembers are pushing back against these changes. His budget markup restored dedicated funding for the Commission and called for a hearing on the Cultural Plan. Kenner, who tells City Paper that Mendelson’s reversals are “vindictive,” says that the mayor is trying to codify practices that are already in place. “Some of the proposed changes that I think came out of the Committee and from the Chairman seem to go in the completely wrong direction,” Kenner says.

At her first Council hearing, Rouse-Rosario pledged to expand the reach of the Commission, bringing more programming and funding to underserved communities east of the Anacostia River. She is also championing a mission by the mayor that members of the Commission and the arts community say is wrong. The Eaton arts forum settled on three points: The loans have to go. The Commission should keep its fixed funding. And the Commission must retain its independence.

Rouse-Rosario, who declined multiple requests for interviews, has argued for the reverse. Her vision aligns with Bowser’s: an Arts Commission that operates under the executive, with funding set by the mayor, and with a system of loans to replace grants aplenty.

“If the Commissioners are gone, it’s game over,” says Nabeeh Bilal, an illustrator and animator. “We have no voice.”

CP

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DCFEED

what we ate this week: Pici with uni, tomato, pea shoots, and garlic breadcrumbs, $26, Tail Up Goat. Satisfaction level: 5 out of 5. what we’ll eat next week: Rohan duck breast confit, duck fritter, green hummus, and marcona almonds, $27, Birch & Barley. Excitement level: 4 out of 5.

Come Here Often

Increased competition and a thirst among diners to try what’s new leaves restaurants scrambling to attract regular customers.

D.C. will have about two dozen carriers of “The Card” by the end of this month. They’re made of metal, much like Chase Sapphire Reserve credit cards.

You can feel the weight of one in your pocket or purse— gravity does the work of reminding you that you’re a Very Important Person.

But “The Card” isn’t for swiping or collecting airline miles. Rather, it’s Bourbon Steak’s new strategy for rewarding customers who have patronized the Georgetown steakhouse for the decade it’s been serving marbled beef and lobster pot pie. Have one? Call the restaurant, present them with your card number, and General Manager John Gilbert will guarantee you a table for up to four people within the hour.

The promise is even good on bustling Friday and Saturday nights. “We’ve ordered 200 cards,” Gilbert says. “But that’s a very high number. If 200 people need a four-top on a Saturday night, I’m in deep trouble. We’re going to start with 25 and go from there.” How will free tables materialize in a fully committed dining room? “I don’t know, some magic I would say.”

Don’t bother asking for one. The restaurant will hand-deliver the complimentary cards to their most loyal customers. They’re non-transferable and no other Bourbon Steak in the country has them. D.C.’s program is the pilot.

“Georgetown has a microclimate where there’s lots of competition,” Gilbert says. “Cafe Milano does a good job at guest recognition. So does Fiola Mare. And we have CUT [by Wolfgang Puck] that’s opening up. There’s going to be stiff competition and we want them to feel like we recognize their loyalty.”

Yes, there’s a cluster of restaurants competing for the black car set in Georgetown, but restaurants across D.C. are just as eager to fill tables with familiar faces to stay afloat. Restaurateurs report that the population density required to support the city’s constant crush of new restaurants, plus the eateries that have endured for years, isn’t there yet.

YOUNG & HUNGRY

When a restaurant opens, the buzz lasts about six months, then it drops off. Think of the last time you went on a double date. Did you and the other couple tick off new restaurants until you found one that no one in the group had sampled? You’re not alone. D.C.’s check-list diners are thirsty for new flavor combinations and cuisines, or at least angling to be among the first to Instagram a dish or a drink.

Market forces make elusive regular diners worth their weight in caviar. That’s why restaurants carefully track their preferences—a favorite server, preferred table, or frequently ordered

tomer retention programs. If you don’t think you’re a contender for “The Card,” look for something a little more mainstream. All-Purpose Pizzeria’s “Super Fun Pizza Wizards Club” proves that punch cards aren’t just for coffee shops. Buy six pizzas for lunch or takeout and the seventh one is free.

General Manager Jared Barker, who coined the club’s name, says it’s the restaurant’s way of showing guests hospitality if they can’t dine in. It also boosts business in areas where there’s room for growth. They hand out the cards liberally.

good people.”

He predicts other restaurants in the upscale casual space will look to adopt similar programs. “There’s general fear in the market,” he says. “People thought their brands were strong enough … that they didn’t have to go after it.”

Frenchy’s Naturel has a loyalty card the EatWell DC group carried over from the previous restaurant they operated in the same space off Logan Circle, The Bird. Regular guests receive loyalty cards that admit them into “The Breakfast Club.” You don’t have to quote the

drink—and use the knowledge to pamper their regulars a little. Some send out gratis Champagne, a round of appetizers, or dessert. Still more train employees to recognize regulars’ faces and encourage them to remember kids’ names and favorite sports teams.

Others, like Bourbon Steak, formalize cus-

“We want people that are coming here more frequently to feel like they’re better taken care of,” he says. “We don’t have VIPs because of who they are. We have VIPs because they’re important to us. They’re the people who live around the corner or who had their first date here. We love to reward good behavior and

coming-of-age flick to cash in on free coffee and non-alcoholic drinks with every brunch visit. After five brunch meals, cardholders earn free appetizers during dinner.

“Our brunch business was very strong and we were trying to improve dinner business,” explains Assistant General Manager Ben Bron-

Darrow Montgomery

By Laura Hayes

16 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

DCFEED stein. The card creates an incentive to come in after the sun sets. “Regulars are one of the most important things right now because there is so much competition,” Bronstein continues. “So many restaurants are opening all the time and you see places that have been around for quite a while that aren’t able to compete anymore.”

Bronstein believes EatWell DC has carved out a niche for itself by operating neighborhood restaurants. Their portfolio also includes Commissary, Logan Tavern, and The Pig, all less than a mile from Frenchy’s Naturel. “At our core it’s all about hospitality and really getting people to come in not just one time for a great experience, but over and over again,” he says. “Finding our regulars and developing more regulars is one of the most important things we can do.”

“Neighborhood restaurant” is becoming a watered-down term. Restaurants often fold the buzzwords into press materials, social media posts, and job boards before they open, signaling they’re looking for repeat business from the immediate surrounding area, when in actuality their goals are much loftier—Michelin Star!

Destination restaurant! Hottest table in town!

“We are thrilled to partner with celebrated

chef Wolfgang Puck to launch a new neighborhood restaurant that will further ignite the local dining scene,” reads a press release announcing CUT’s forthcoming opening inside the Rosewood Washington, D.C. hotel, for example.

CUT’s New York City location serves a panroasted 2-pound Maine lobster with French black truffle sabayon. Not exactly Tuesday night fare compared to the $27 steak served with green salad, bottomless fries, and a choice of a sauce at Frenchy’s Naturel.

That’s not to say refined restaurants can’t hook regulars. Seafood-tower spot Whaley’s has a unique approach to convincing neighborhood diners to return, especially since the number of eateries in Navy Yard seems to have tripled over the past two years. Co-owner Nick Wiseman partnered with restaurant financing app inKind to offer Whaley’s devotees the opportunity to create a “house account.”

A house account essentially asks diners to prepay for food and drinks in exchange for dining credit. If you put $250 into your house account, you get $310 to spend. The gifted money increases at each level. If you pay $500, you get $650, and if you pay $1,000 you get $1,335.

“It’s basically a way to reward loyal custom-

ers,” Wiseman says. “That’s become one of the biggest challenges in full-service [dining] as people are chasing new restaurants. How do you become a neighborhood restaurant that’s more enduring?”

In addition to bonus money, house account holders receive other perks like access to the Rosé Garden at Whaley’s before it opens.

“It’s not about getting people into the door— it’s about the people who are there and a valued part of the community of the restaurant,” Wiseman says.

He recalls that Fabio Trabocchi Restaurants did something similar. A representative confirms that there is still a VIP Club, but she notes that they’ve reached their desired membership level and are not currently accepting new members.

Christianne Ricchi runs a different kind of club to keep diners engaged with her 30-yearold Italian restaurant, Ristorante i Ricchi. “I started a women’s club six or seven years ago,” she says. It’s a nod at the fact that the restaurant is woman owned and operated. On Tuesdays, members of the women’s club receive 50 percent off of their checks.

“It encourages women to come and net-

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work or have fun or do business,” Ricchi says.

And sometimes there are events tailored to women’s club members. Last Tuesday, designer Maria Pinto (who has made clothes for Oprah and Michelle Obama) put on a fashion show in the restaurant during lunch.

Joining isn’t like pledging a sorority. All you have to do is turn over your email address so that it can be added to the restaurant’s e-newsletter that advises regular customers about upcoming events. Ricchi puts on “Need to Know” dinners featuring guest speakers like former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler and Anita McBride, who once served as the chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush.

Ricchi thinks her strategy of differentiating her restaurant from the competition through innovative clubs, events, and promotions is working. “It’s created a large community of regular customers,” she says. “Even if they don’t attend every single thing, we’re top of mind. If they have to book a special event or a private party for their business, they think of us. When you’ve been around as long as we have, you need to do things so people don’t forget about you.”

CP

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CPARTS

The winners, losers, and best moments from the 2019 Helen Hayes Awards washingtoncitypaper.com/arts

Go-Going the Distance

The success of Moechella and the #DontMuteDC campaign is galvanizing go-go.

By Alona Wartofsky For the longest time, the Go-Go Live concert at the old Capital Centre was considered go-go culture’s proudest moment. That may have changed with last week’s Moechella, the latest musical rally inspired by the burgeoning #DontMuteDC movement.

Headlined by Backyard Band, the event drew so many people into the area around the Reeves Center that someone made a graphic comparing the aerial view to Trump’s sparsely populated inauguration crowd.

Presiding over it all was Backyard Band bandleader and unofficial prince of the city Anwan “Big G” Glover, who at one point held a large D.C. flag aloft before wrapping it around his shoulders, creating an instantly iconic image representing both resolute pride and resistance to the inexorable advance of gentrification.

“It brought chills through my body to see the culture and how our city came out in those record numbers,” says Big G. “We had people we grew up with; we had Council people, police officers, firefighters, and business owners. We had the new generation and the old generation, people in wheelchairs and kids in strollers, babies and grandmothers and aunties. It was such a beautiful thing.”

The remarkable gathering served as a powerful reminder of go-go’s tenacity. The size of the turnout, which stretched for blocks, surprised even the music’s long-time supporters.

“Looking at all those pictures, I was in awe, because it speaks volumes about the longevity of go-go,” says TMOTTGOGO’s Kevin “Kato” Hammond. “With the bird’s-eye view showing how large the crowd was, my first thought was, ‘Boy, I wonder what the neighbors think now?’”

The neighbors he’s referring to live in a luxury high-rise down the street from Central Communications, the Metro PCS store at 7th Street and Florida Avenue NW; some residents complained to T-Mobile, which owns Metro PCS, about the gogo that store owner Donald Campbell has played on speakers outside the shop for years. After T-Mobile instructed Campbell to bring the music inside, the outcry was loud enough—and racially charged enough—for T-Mobile to quickly rescind that order. Still, the #DontMuteDC movement continued to gain traction, and the news that gentrifiers were walking their dogs on the Howard University campus furthered the outrage of locals who have had enough of the frequently rude interlopers they sometimes refer to as “colonizers.” (Anyone who doubts the odiousness of at least some of those colonizers need only visit the comments section of an item PoPville ran on Moechella.)

And so #DontMuteDC continues to tap into resentment resulting from decades of gentrification and neglect. To be sure, this is not just about physical displacement; it’s also about val-

Big G at Moechella on the corner of 14th and U streets NW

18 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

Adrian McQueen

MUSIC

idation of the music that has been the soundtrack of D.C.’s Chocolate City for generations.

“They’ve been holding us back for so long,” says Big G. “Now these new people are coming in and trying to stop our culture, and we’re not just going to sit by and watch. I think we’ve showed them that.”

Like the previous #DontMuteDC rallies, Moechella drew attention far beyond the DMV, with stories appearing in national blogs and news sources. It now seems that moving forward, go-go will be linked with resistance to the whitening of African-American cities.

If Moechella’s organizer, Justin “Yaddiya” Johnson, looks familiar, it’s because he emceed nightly “Kremlin Annex” protests at the White House for much of last year. Now the 32-yearold activist is using the lessons he learned in Lafayette Park to help energize the go-go community with the movement he has dubbed #LongLiveGoGo. “An important concept that I took away from the White House is that music is a powerful way to

communicate the message in rallies and demonstrations,” he says. “Now I’m formulating my own rallies around music with political commentary to advocate political engagement, activism, and get my community more engaged in politics and actively involved in voting.”

Moechella was the result of a perfect storm of Yaddiya’s activism, long-simmering resentments, the overwhelming love D.C. holds for go-go, and the massive popularity of Backyard Band, but social media also played a crucial role. While in the past, go-go musicians and their supporters may have lacked efficacy against the trifecta of government, police, and media that have long scapegoated and undervalued the music, the dynamism of social media has changed all that.

“It’s a new day and age with social media. Now every person has a voice, and those voices need to be heard,” says Backyard congas and timbales player Keith “Sauce” Robinson.

“The go-go community has realized that we can be heard.

People are comparing Moechella to the Million Man March,

CPARTS which might sound extreme, but we had a lot of people who turned out.”

Moechella was the third event that Yaddiya has organized in support of #DontMuteDC. The first, on April 19, featured bounce beat bands TOB and Mental Attraction Band 2.0; by his estimate, it drew 1,500 people. He says that the second event, with bounce beat acts TCB and New Impressionz, drew 2,500. (The Metropolitan Police Department would not comment on crowd estimates.) For all three rallies, the bands involved donated their services; other expenses for the first two were covered by Yaddiya. Some smaller area businesses, including the company behind the political advocacy app Showupia, helped cover Moechella’s other costs.

“One thing that has been accomplished is that we’ve restored the energy and pride of this community,” says Yaddiya.

“Now we’ve got people’s attention. The first step before anyone is going to get anything done is to get the attention of the people who are making the decisions.”

In the days following Moechella, many in the go-go community have been enjoying the afterglow. “Just having the music there is huge, and having all those black bodies there is really important,” says Howard University professor Natalie Hopkinson, author of Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City. “I’m so impressed, especially with these black millenials in D.C. These are D.C. natives, and they’ve become really accomplished and come together in a way that’s really encouraging. They have big ambitions to take on displacement, education, and other policy advocacy work.”

Others believe it is important to emphasize that, like the

other #DontMuteDC rallies, Moechella was peaceful. “There hasn’t been a single incident during any of these events, which is important because go-go has long been stereotyped as violent,” says We Act Radio co-founder Kymone Freeman.

Community activist Ron Moten and others continue to hold meetings and planning sessions related to future events.

All agree that Moechella clearly demonstrated the strength of a culture that has been downplayed for years. “The last few weeks have proven that this music is not only still thriving, but here to stay,” says go-go artist Michelle Blackwell.

“The problem has always been outlets, which they have been systematically shut off decade after decade after being scapegoated for violence.

“All we want is the same thing the government and communities want, and that is safe spaces. Go-Go needs safe spaces too, and we were victimized by violence just as much as the community has been,” Blackwell continues. “Instead of blaming our music, it makes more sense to continue to give young people a way to express themselves and celebrate and come together through music, because music unifies.”

It is, of course, unlikely that gentrification will come to a halt, but it is possible that the new D.C. can do better in finding a place for the city’s homegrown music. “To call go-go just a genre of music is an understatement,” notes Yaddiya, who grew up in Silver Spring. “It’s bigger than that. It’s how we dress, how we move. It’s everything.”

The friction between gentrification and go-go is not new, but something about the Metro PCS incident was different.

“Usually things are done, and we don’t even realize it has hap-

MON, MAY 27 AND TUES, MAY 28 TICKETS GO ON SALE AT 10 AM ON TODAYTIX

pened until afterwards,” says Kato. “This time, it was right here, blatantly in our face. Now this thing is way bigger than the Metro PCS store, but that was the fuse that was lit. We’ve been here through these grimy years, and now that the city is beautified up, you wanna take us out. We’re not saying you can’t do what you do, but please don’t try to erase what we do and what we’ve done.”

How the #DontMuteDC and #LongLiveGoGo movements will impact go-go remains to be seen, but many agree this is a galvanizing moment for the music. An online petition is collecting signatures to “Bring More Go-Go to the Kennedy Center,” a worthy proposal for the big box that seems more interested in hip-hop programming than exploring its city’s homegrown sound. In early June, TRIBEFESTDC is hosting a series of workshops on art and advocacy; TRIBEFESTDC founder Maryam Foye is hoping to attract the same people who turned out for Moechella. “I don’t want to see this type of momentum wasted without some kind of tangible policy change or forward movement,” she says.

Rare Essence is currently collaborating with other local artists on a song responding to #DontMuteDC. “We’re just adding on to the conversation, and hopefully it will turn into a bigger conversation,” says Rare Essence guitarist and bandleader Andre “Whiteboy” Johnson.

“This time now is an opportunity for all of us,” says Brant “Deuce 9” Akumu, a sound engineer for Backyard Band.

“This is a great time for bands to cut new records and for us all to organize and capitalize off the buzz that go-go is having now and gain some more traction nationally.”

CP

Friday, July 12, 8pm Music Center at Strathmore

BY RAJIV JOSEPH DIRECTED BY JOHN VREEKE

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THEATER

All Out of Love

A drama about the aftermath of a nuclear event and a comedy about sexually deprived royals show audiences different survival mechanisms.

By Chris Klimek

The Children

The Children

By Lucy Kirkwood Directed by David Muse At Studio Theatre to June 2 “The personal is poliTical” was a feminist rallying cry long before British playwright Lucy Kirkwood was born. The aphorism offers instruction not merely on how to live but how to create art, and with The Children—a quietly tectonic eco-drama receiving its regional premiere at Studio Theatre following a Broadway run last year—Kirkwood proves she’s mastered the lesson as well as any living playwright.

She’s boiled an examination of what sort of sacrifice will be required if our species is to survive the century into a 95-minute, threecharacter drama that unfolds entirely inside a kitchen.

Sounds awful, doesn’t it? Didactic, preachy, hand-wringing? No, no, and only a little. At issue is the existential threat we created for ourselves when we dared to split the atom. Kirkwood’s genius, like pioneering nuclear physicist Ernest Rutherford’s, is in her manipulation of forces invisible— memory, jealousy, desire, duty—but profound in their effect.

The Children is set in the aftermath of a disaster at a coastal power station in England modeled on the real one that struck Japan in March of 2011: A tsunami followed an earthquake, toppling a line of poisonous dominoes that culminated in the meltdown of three of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant’s six nuclear reactors.

In this fictional version, Hazel (Jeanne Paulsen) and Robin (Richard Howard), a pair of long-married, now-retired nuclear engineers who helped open the British plant 40 years earlier, have retreated to a relative’s vacation cottage because their farm is inside the irradiated Exclusion Zone. They’ve adjusted their daily routines in deference to the scheduled blackouts, drinking bottled water, staying offline, and lamenting the erasure from their diets of the meat and eggs their now-contaminated livestock once gave them.

As the play opens, their long-ago colleague Rose (Naomi Jacobson) has dropped in so suddenly that Hazel bloodied her nose, mistaking the unexpected guest for a hostile in-

truder. But just because Hazel didn’t intend to punch Rose in the face doesn’t mean she’s glad to see her. Rose’s shaking of the marital tree will prompt some George-and-Marthastyle bloodsport between the old couple, once its male half arrives, that is. For a long time, we’re alone with Rose and Hazel in that kitchen, catching one another up on the middle decades of their respective lives while an uncanny tension hangs over them.

Each observation of their differences feels like an accusation: Hazel has raised four children with her husband; Rose never married and had none. Hazel stayed in England; Rose went to America. Hazel is a disciple of yoga, exercise, and organic dining; Rose, even after a battle with cancer, smokes cigarettes. Hazel knows which cupboard in this borrowed house holds the drinking glasses ... and Rose does, too.

Why Hazel, so candid and rational, is so

20 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

clearly threatened by Rose’s arrival points to something of greater portent than an expired love triangle. Anyone who followed the news from Fukushima eight years ago might have an inkling, if not a road map, of where Kirkwood is going. Still, the reason for Rose’s visit, when at last she reveals it, lands with the force of, well, an earthquake.

Paulsen’s wholly unaffected performance is the primary reason. Less familiar to local audiences than the prolific Jacobson, she’s an ideal foil. Her suspicion of her old acquaintance battles with her compulsion to be polite in a way that feels utterly natural and ungoverned. It falls to Paulsen to give us the play’s only direct images of the disaster (“it looked like the sea was boiling milk”). In underplaying this monologue, she makes her recollections all the more vivid for us.

If Jacobson seems a little more overdetermined in early moments here than we’ve come

to expect from her, well, Kirkwood’s slowburning plot provides a justification for that, too. Richard Howard’s turn as Robin, who welcomes Rose rather too warmly for his wife’s liking, is a sensitive portrayal of regret masked by conviviality. Without undervaluing the delicate work of this strong trio of actors, one must recognize how convincingly Kirkwood, born in the Orwellian year of 1984, has imagined the inner lives of characters roughly twice her own age.

Studio’s 2015 production of Kirkwood’s superb international thriller Chimerica featured a dozen actors playing multiple roles and ran about three hours. That The Children has so much smaller a footprint (and only 25 percent as many feet!) befits its ecological theme. We’re all going to have to get by on less in the coming decades and—optimistically—centuries.

That makes director David Muse’s deci-

THEATER Love’s Labor’s Lost

Ballet Across America

Dance Theatre of Harlem and

Miami City Ballet

sion to close the show with an expensivelooking, unscripted flourish that doesn’t add much to The Children’s already hefty emotional payload a bit of a head-scratcher. The play itself is not: It doesn’t rely on the magical realist filigree that animated, for example, Ella Hickson’s Oil—a much more expansive drama about learning to ration our material comforts, also by a millennial Englishwoman playwright, also first produced in 2016.

Oil’s U.S. premiere at Olney Theatre Center this past March was a knockout. That means The Children is only the second most haunting production to crash over a D.C. stage this year. I’ve no doubt Kirkwood, railing against the consequences of unchecked individualism, is okay with that.

1501 14th St. NW. $20–$97. (202) 332-3300. studiotheatre.org.

Love’s Labor’s Lost

By William Shakespeare Directed by Vivienne Benesch At the Folger Theatre to June 16 The rarely sTaged comedy Love’s Labor’s Lost concerns a different sort of deprivation: The King of Navarre and three of his loyal confederates take a vow to immerse themselves in study for three years, abjuring the company of women, taking only one meal per day, and sleeping but three hours each night. Their pledge is exceedingly illtimed, as the king is obliged to receive the visiting Princess of France and her courtiers, a duty he has forgotten.

Predictably, the arrival of the ladies tests the fellows’ resolve, with some misdelivered love letters adding a layer of screwball confusion to the mix. Love’s is Shakespeare’s rhymiest play and one of his earliest, with the poet

himself coming off as a little drunk on his own emerging gifts. That sheer zeal, and an ending more compatible with modern thinking than the serial weddings that conclude his later, more philosophically astute comedies, would be reason enough to spin this deep cut more often.

Director Vivienne Benesch has imagined her Love’s Labor’s Lost as what you might call a site-specific piece, working with scenic designer Lee Savage to make the Folger’s Elizabethan Theatre into a replica of the Folger Library Reading Room, just a few dozen feet west of the stage. (We even see a recreation of the U.S. Capitol through an open door.) She’s also set the play in the early 1930s, when the Folger Library opened.

This decision gives license to costume designer Tracy Christensen to put the women of the court in flapper dresses and furs and hats with veils, while the dudes get wide-lapeled three-piece suits, striped silk pajamas, and white-jacketed tuxedos.

Though Eric Hissom (as Don Armado, a “fantastical Spaniard” soldier), Louis Butelli (as the schoolmaster Holofernes) and Tonya Beckman (as both an attendant to the princess and the servant Armado falls for) are all strong comic players who’ve worked at the Folger a lot, the presence of some lesser seen actors in the key romantic roles brings a welcome sense of buoyancy and renewal. As the princess and the king, respectively, Amelia Pedlow and Joshua David Robinson temper their beauty and mutual longing with sobriety. Zachary Fine’s performance as Berowne, the king’s right hand, who bemoans his vow of chastity and hunger as “flat treason ’gainst the kingly state of youth,” is the company’s other standout. Abstinence-only education has seldom been as sexy as this.

201 East Capitol St. SE. $42–$85.

(202) 544-7077. folger.edu.

Jennifer Lauren, Shimon Ito, and Alexander Peters in Miami City Ballet’s Heatscape, photo by Alexander Iziliaev

Dance Theatre Of Harlem program (May 28–30) Shared Celebration program (May 31) Miami City Ballet program (June 1 & 2)

May 28–June 2 | Opera House with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra

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

Support for Ballet at the Kennedy Center is generously provided by Elizabeth and C. Michael Kojaian.

Major support for Ballet Across America is provided by Virginia McGehee Friend.

Ballet Across America is presented as part of The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives.

washingtoncitypaper.com may 17, 2019 21

THEATERCURTAIN CALLS

MURDERER’S SHOW

The Oresteia

The Great Commedia Hotel Murder Mystery

Written and directed by Paul Reisman At Eastman Studio Theater at Gallaudet University to May 19 at the hotel MacGuffin, a once-reputable resort fallen on hard times after a scandalous incident, the officious Concierge (Colin Connor) struts like a tuxedoed flamingo, noting the business is close to bankruptcy. But a mysterious unsigned letter promises a chance to reverse the declining fortunes of the MacGuffin: Guests will be arriving soon, each bearing a similar letter.

The guests include the paranoid plutocrat Bernard Bottomdollar (Kelsey Painter) and his wife, the glamorous celebrity gossip writer Signora Zelda Bottomdollar (Francesca Chilcote), the ravenous attorney Doctor Lionel Lastword (Graham Pilato), and a hotel lobby Lothario (Darius Johnson). Some antics ensue as the guests pop in and out of each other’s rooms, while the staff pursue their own petty rivalries, obsessions, and infatuations. Soon they are all gathered in the drawing room, the electricity goes off, and when the lights return, one of the guests has been murdered!

If one suspects that The Great Commedia Hotel Murder Mystery owes something to Agatha Christie, the sudden arrival of Detective Emile Auguste Paragon (a bombastic Ben Lauer) eliminates all reasonable doubt. A Hercule Poirot pastiche, he is narcissistic, dapper, and persnickety about how many napkins come with his afternoon tea service. Most importantly, he cultivates a ridiculous moustache.

Without leaving the drawing room, Paragon pursues his investigation, and each suspect’s alibi replays scenes of the earlier sex farce as seen from the other side of a hotel suite’s closed door, only to have Paragon interrogate himself as a suspect.

Faction of Fools has repeatedly demonstrated the vitality of the centuries-old commedia dell’arte idiom; stagings of works by Chekhov and Shakespeare have given audiences new ways of looking at and thinking about classic plays. The plot of this show is lighter and closely follows the basic formula of a Poirot mystery, sending up what one expects to be sent up, but Paul Reisman has been directing this troupe for long enough that he knows to write to his actors’ individual strengths, and the ensemble’s rapid delivery of verbal, physical, and, given the Faction’s commitment to the integration of American Sign Language (and longstanding residency at Gallaudet University), digital comedy.

This being commedia, much of the stage time is devoted to the hotel staff ’s antics––

even if their business is largely peripheral to the crime drama, it’s what commedia aficionados come for. Leading the zanies is Kathryn Zoerb, the company commedia coach, as the frenetic bellhop of the MacGuffin, whether acting as the Concierge’s hyperactive foil, chasing after flies with a battachio (the traditional slapstick) crab-walking the guests’ luggage to their rooms, lusting after the French maid, Babette (Tori Boutin), or being pursued by the knife-wielding cook (Chukwudi Kalu) whose kitchen the bellhop repeatedly wrecks.

Chilcote’s Signora exudes a sultry sense of entitlement, while Johnson’s dubious Gentleman carries himself with an over-the-top swagger. His dance skills enhance a pas de deux sequence (first with Chilcote, then with Connor) involving a dropped handkerchief, but he becomes increasingly aware that he’s nowhere as sophisticated as the Signora he hopes to seduce.

Bridgid K. Burge’s scenic design for the hotel is particularly effective for the sudden scene shifts and flashbacks. Costume designer Kitt Crescenzo has assembled a gorgeous wardrobe for Zelda and eye-popping uniforms for the MacGuffin’s staff. Mask designers Aaron Cromie and Tara Cariaso provide a sly commentary on the influence of commedia’s archetypal characters: The gentleman seducer and the detective both wear variants of the Capitano mask, signifying the similar tension of flamboyance and insecurity.

In sending up the mystery genre, Reisman, serving as both writer and director, draws our attention to what commedia (especially the comedies of Carlo Goldoni) and the detective stories of Agatha Christie have in common: the fine-tuned clockwork plot structure in which every seeming ornamentation has a narrative function. But most importantly the Faction reminds us that, unlike magicians who revel in secrets and spectacles, the performance of both a comedian and fictitious detective is not done until they reveal the means by which either the crime or the gag is accomplished.

–Ian Thal 800 Florida Ave. NE. $12–$22. factionoffools.org.

22 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

TRAGEDY TONIGHT The Oresteia

By Ellen McLaughlin Adapted from the trilogy by Aeschylus Directed by Michael Kahn At Sidney Harman Hall to June 2 I have always considered the Shakespeare Theatre Company to be one of the region’s more serious companies for its ambitious productions, many of which boldly reinterpret the classics in contemporary settings. That reputation has not been built overnight; it stems from the coherent view and guidance of artistic director Michael Kahn, who has guided this company since it set up shop at the Folger Theatre in the 1980s and transformed it into an organization with two wonderful stages in downtown D.C. To mark the end of his stewardship of the company, Kahn has reached back to the dawn of theater and plucked a Greek classic, The Oresteia, to down the curtain on his distinguished run.

Aeschylus’ The Oresteia is one of drama’s great tragedies and a meditation on justice.

Aeschylus lived in tumultuous times: He was a hoplite in the Athenian army during the Persian wars, and a citizen of Athens when it switched to a democratic system. He mined both experiences to write Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides, the three plays that comprise The Oresteia. Playwright Ellen McLaughlin has modified and compressed the three plays into one, revising them for contemporary times. Inevitably, much is lost in the compression, and significantly, a lot is altered in the transition, so if you are familiar with the original, gripe like a Game of Thrones final season fan.

The play starts with the return of Agamemnon (Kelcey Watson) from the Trojan wars.

Elsewhere in the classical canon, Odysseus is making his long, convoluted journey home. Odysseus will return to a loyal wife who loves him, but Agamemnon expects no such welcome. His wife, Clytemnestra (Kelley Curran), seethes at the return of her husband. Agamemnon sac-

rificed their daughter before setting sail—the gods demanded it—and now he has to pay.

Clytemnestra lays out a crimson carpet— the first red carpet in history—for Agamemnon and, despite his reluctance, hesitating at this ostentation and display of pride, he walks on it into his house, a forbidding, gloomy, wine-red structure with a huge door, set against the backdrop of a dark, starry night, and dies. Death also finds Cassandra (Zoë Sophia Garcia), Agamemnon’s spoils of war; her warnings fall on deaf ears in the middle of Susan Hilferty’s rocky set, which evokes tragedy and heartbreak.

Curran is excellent as Clytemnestra, capturing the mother’s anger, and her vengeful rage. “He has achieved his just end,” she proclaims of the slain Agamemnon. Watson plays the leader as proud and stiff, a man respectful of the gods in nearly every circumstance.

The two stars of the remainder of the play are Orestes (Josiah Bania) and Electra, (Rad Pereira), the children of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra who demand violence for violence enacted, and seek revenge for their murdered father. McLaughlin’s adaptation pays more attention to Electra, and Pereira fills the space given to her extremely well. Bania’s performance is also strong, particularly in his one major speech conveying the dilemma and pain of the son who had to murder his mother to avenge his father.

But at issue, again, is the excision of the text. Orestes is not just avenging his father and Electra is not just consumed by anger over losing him; in Aeschylus’ original, the issues of status, of loss of power, of family pride, are important. For example, in the original, Orestes kills both his mother and her lover, who has usurped his father’s, and eventually his, role as ruler. Snipping this narrative strand weakens the motivations of the characters.

The third act, based on The Eumenides, is revealing in this regard. It lays the foundation of the democratic legal system, arguing for a trial by jury and circumscribing the system of private, aristocratic, and religious justice based on private passions that lead to honor killings. In Aeschylus’ telling, after lots are cast, Athena’s vote for Orestes breaks a hung jury. In the current staging, the jury is not broken by the gods; instead Orestes and Electra are simply forgiven after debate. The intervention of the gods would be an apt judicial and political metaphor for our current troubled and deeply divided times.

Despite these quibbles, this is an entertaining staging. Kahn does a great job directing this troupe; it is a testament to his skill that one of the best parts of the production is the wonderful performance of the chorus as its members debate justice. And, as a political and contemporary work—the Greeks used the theater to educate the public, after all—it is enthralling and instructional to see cycles of private violence finally leashed by an institution.

—Abid Shah 610 F St. NW. $44–$118. (202) 547-1122. shakespearetheatre.org.

“★★★★★ ”

–Theatre Bloom

“HEART-STOPPING.”

-The Washington Post

Ellen McLaughlin’s

THE

ORESTEIA Freely Adapted from Aeschylus Directed by

Michael Kahn

PICASSO • DALÍ • MIRÓ • TANNING • MASSON • ROTHKO

NOW PLAYING

ORDER TODAY! TICKE TS START AT $ 4 4

Made possible by:

SHAKESPEARETHEATRE.ORG 202. 547.1122 Restaurant Partner: Photo of Rad Pereira and Josiah Bania by Tony Powell.

FEATURING WORKS BY MORE THAN 30 OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY’S MOST CELEBRATED ARTISTS

FEBRUARY 24 — MAY 26, 2019 TICKETS AVAILABLE AT ARTBMA.ORG/MONSTERS Chained dogs suffer day in and day out.

They endure sweltering temperatures, hunger, and thirst and are vulnerable and lonely. Keep them inside, where it’s safe and comfortable.

This exhibition and related programs have been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and by generous funding from Transamerica, The Alvin and Fanny B. Thalheimer Exhibition Endowment Fund, and The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Salvador Dalí. Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War). 1936. Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950, 1950-134-41. © 2019 Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: Don Flood (donfloodphoto.com) • Makeup: Mylah Morales, for Celestine Agency Hair: Marcia Hamilton, for Margaret Maldonado Agency • Styling: Natalie and Giolliosa Fuller (sisterstyling.com)

washingtoncitypaper.com may 17, 2019 23

FILMSHORT SUBJECTS between rage and serenity. He never seems too surprised by the injuries and obstacles that befall him, and while his performance is understated, you can hear the rage that only gets more focused as the film continues. Action franchises run the risk of overstaying their welcome, and the uneven John Wick Chapter 2 indeed created some cause for worry. By making Parabellum tighter on a larger canvas, you’ll be aching for John to bring the whole damn system down.

—Alan Zilberman

John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum opens Friday in theaters everywhere.

around the house, seeming to annoy Anne and his daughter Judith (Kathryn Wilder), until he comes up with the idea of creating a garden in honor of his late son, Hamnet. Though Hamnet died 17 years prior from the plague, his father mourns him as if he’d just passed, talking about him constantly and touting his brilliance as a budding poet. Judith, Hamnet’s twin, has been saddled with survivor’s guilt and has turned into a bitter young woman with seemingly no desire to marry or have children. (“The golden boy is gone, and I’m just left with the girl,” she hisses to Dad, imagining his thoughts.) Shakespeare, meanwhile, wants nothing more than a grandson from her or his other daughter, SuAll Is True

GUN FU John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

Directed by Chad Stahelski John Wick has morphed from the world’s deadliest dog lover into an avatar for righteous revenge. His abundant, improbable skills help him wage war against hypocrisy and corruption. Anyone who has ever been frustrated by their workplace culture will find some wish fulfillment in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, an action thriller where the hero makes the leadership pay and looks great doing it. Director Chad Stahelski seemingly reverse-engineers his impressive action sequences—taking absurd concepts, then finding practical ways to film them—and the sheer variety of brutal violence will have audiences cheer or wince in perfect harmony.

Parabellum picks up right where the second film left off. John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is the world’s greatest assassin, and after breaking the rules of the High Table (the guild in which he operates), his longtime friend Winston (Ian McShane) labels him “excommunicado.” This means John no longer has any of the privileges afforded to his fellow assassins, and there is a $14 million bounty on his head. After a breathless opening where John fights for his survival, he secures passage to Casablanca where he hopes to reason with the guild’s leadership. Meanwhile we meet an intriguing new character: Asia Kate Dillon plays the Adjudicator, a dispassionate authority from the High Table who cleans up John’s mess. The Adjudicator enlists the assistance of Zero (Mark Dacascos), another deadly assassin, so that they’re ready when John finally returns.

While the original John Wick and its sequel had their share of gallows humor, this entry is even more aware of how absurd this all sounds. Sure, there is the typical ballet of violence that ends with John vanquishing his foes, except now there is slightly more self-awareness about it. Consider a sequence where John fights two guys in an armory. There are gorgeous, ornate cases filled

with an assortment of swords and knives. They keep running out of weapons, so what’s the solution? Smash the cases, and grab as many knives as necessary. That slapstick quality slackens the grim stakes, which then lets the audience relax.

When the brutal moments of death finally arrive, don’t worry about feeling gross afterward. Parabellum was designed to be satisfying in this way.

In between the mayhem, the story unfolds like a detached comedy of manners. John visits several people who owe him a favor, and each one treats him with a mix of deference and hostility. These scenes are intriguing because of how they riff on the tired “honor among thieves” trope. Anjelica Huston and Halle Berry play characters who have a past with John and are not happy to see him, yet they cannot deny that they are also obligated to him. The script builds an inevitable subtext: The norms where these people operate are fundamentally byzantine and unfair. In a wry performance that could have been flat, Dillon’s the Adjudicator further clarifies that idea. They are dispassionate and exacting, and their coiled presence is a jibe at John, who shuffles through one nasty injury after another.

All this intrigue and world-building would not matter, however, if the film didn’t deliver. In terms of pure action spectacle, Parabellum is kinetic and carefully choreographed. Aside from the aforementioned knife fight, folks will likely remember an elaborate motorcycle chase. You can imagine the meeting with Stahelski and his team: Someone asks “how would a sword fight even work on motorcycles?” Other sequences are borne out of challenges the filmmakers create for themselves, while the simpler shoot-outs and fights are satisfying on a purely visceral level. At one point, John fights dozens of armored guards, so he needs special armor-piercing shotgun shells. The pleasing explosions of shotgun fire are louder than anything else in the movie, and the splattered skulls only add to the macabre sense of satisfaction.

Without Keanu Reeves, the John Wick films simply would not exist. That is not just because of his commitment to martial arts and stunt work. His performance strikes a strange note

24 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

TOO MUCH TO DO ABOUT NOTHING All Is True

Directed by Kenneth Branagh as a director, Kenneth Branagh has spent decades bringing the works of William Shakespeare to the big screen. So it’s only fitting that he now plays him as a man. All Is True, which Branagh also directs, tells the story of the last few years of the Bard’s life. It wasn’t a happy time, and the film is utterly devoid of the lightness Branagh brought to his adaptations of Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing. That, combined with a barely there plot, leaves the project largely uninteresting and ultimately unsatisfying despite a few juicy dramatic moments.

Branagh wears extensive prosthetics to not only resemble Shakespeare but also to appear nearer in age to Judi Dench, who plays Shakespeare’s wife, Anne. (Anne was eight years older than William, whereas 26 years separate the actors.) His fake nose, chin, and comically expansive forehead are distractions and prevent Branagh from being terribly expressive as he plays the writer in retirement; after a fire destroyed a London theater showcasing his Henry VIII (alternate title: All Is True), Shakespeare decided never to write again and returned to his family in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Like any fresh retiree, Shakespeare putters

sannah (Lydia Wilson), who’s unhappily married and accused of infidelity.

That’s just one of several subplots that don’t go anywhere except in search of a genuine three-act story. Writer Ben Elton (a former actor who had a part in Much Ado) fills the script with sound and fury but no through line besides Shakespeare’s crippling grief. There are a few masterful scenes here, including Shakespeare’s intimate and homoerotic chat with his patron, the Earl of Southampton (Ian McKellen), and his confrontation of Anne and Judith regarding the true cause of Hamnet’s death. (Why he becomes suspicious, though, is anybody’s guess.) But nearly as much time seems to be given to outdoor establishing shots; though the tranquil scenes nicely contrast with the turbulent household, they further hamper a pace that was already slow to begin with.

Branagh’s the one who gets to showboat here, while Dench is largely wasted in a toosmall role. Wilder is the most impressive, however, her Judith full of anger over not one but two family secrets. The character represents the discrimination women faced at the time— and, let’s be honest, for centuries afterward— viewed only as baby-makers (“All women want children!” Shakespeare crows to her) and incapable of having skills of their own. The critique is commendable, and Judith’s ends up being the strongest story in the film. But it’s not enough to keep All Is True from meandering, while failing to much illuminate Shakespeare’s own late-life truth.

—Tricia Olszewski All Is True opens Friday at Landmark’s E Street Cinema and Bethesda Row Cinema.

Merriweather Post Pavilion • Columbia, MD JUST ANNOUNCED!

WPOC SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY FEATURING

Old Dominion • Michael Ray • Jordan Davis • Lauren Alaina • Dylan Scott • Jimmie Allen • Brandon Lay • Filmore ......... SEPTEMBER 29 On Sale Friday, May 17 at 10am

THIS WEEK’S SHOWS D NIGHT ADDED!

FIRST NIGHT SOLD OUT! SECON

THIS SUNDAY!

Jim James (of My Morning Jacket) w/ Amo Amo

DC101 KERFUFFLE FEATURING

Two-Night Pass available ............................................................................... Sa MAY 18 STEEZ PROMO PRESENTS The Floozies Late Show! 10:30pm Doors ......................................................... Sa 18

Superorganism w/ Simpson ....................................................................... Tu 21 Chromatics w/ Desire • In Mirrors • Tess Roby ............................................. W 22 MAY

JUNE (cont.)

No Scrubs: ‘90s Dance Party

Who’s Bad: The World’s #1

with DJs Will Eastman & Ozker, Visuals by Kylos .........................F 24

Michael Jackson Tribute Band Early Show! 6pm Doors ...................Sa 15

U STREET MUSIC HALL PRESENTS

Priests w/ Mock Identity

Late Show! 10pm Doors ..................Sa 15

CloZee w/ Bluetech & Choppy Oppy (live) .Sa 25

White Ford Bronco: DC’s All ‘90s Band .....................F 21 Can’t Feel My Face:

JUNE

Greta Van Fleet • Young The Giant • The Revivalists • Tom Morello • SHAED • THE Blue Stones ............................................... MAY 19

Florence + The Machine * w/ Blood Orange ................................. JUNE 3 CAPITAL JAZZ FEST FEATURING

Gladys Knight • BabyFace • Gregory Porter • Kem and more! .. JUNE 7-9 For a full lineup, visit capitaljazz.com.

Brandi Carlile w/ Lucius ........................................................................ JUNE 14 Willie Nelson & Family and Alison Krauss w/ Lukas Nelson (A Star is Born) ............................................................... JUNE 19 Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit & Father John Misty w/ Jade Bird ............................................................................................................ JUNE 21

Phish ........................................................................................................ JUNE 22 & 23 Pitbull .............................................................................................................. JULY 11 Thomas Rhett w/ Dustin Lynch • Russell Dickerson • Rhett Akins ........... JULY 18 Third Eye Blind & Jimmy Eat World * w/ Ra Ra Riot..... JULY 19 Blink-182 & Lil Wayne * w/ Neck Deep ........................................ JULY 21

Kevin Morby w/ Sam Cohen .....Sa 1 Local Natives w/ Middle Kids ....................M 3 & Tu 4

2010s Dance Party with DJs Willy Joy and Ozker and visuals by Kylos ...............Sa 22

WPGC BIRTHDAY BASH FEATURING

Alex Aiono w/ 4th Ave & Aja9 .Su 30

LORD HURON w/ Bully ....................................................................JULY 23

JULY

311 & Dirty Heads w/ The Interrupters • Dreamers • Bikini Trill .......... JULY 27

Jacquees • Megan Thee Stallion • Summer Walker • Q Da Fool • Kiana Lede ........W 5 FRENSHIP w/ Glades ................Th 6 Dennis Lloyd ..............................F 7 Pink Sweat$ w/ Raiche Early Show! 6pm Doors ......................Sa 8 Mixtape Pride Party with

Story District’s Out/Spoken This is a seated show. Sa 6 Nick Murphy (aka Chet Faker) .W 10 Randy Rogers Band .............Th 11 Yeasayer w/ Steady Holiday ......F 12 BENT: Back with a Bang ........Sa 13 Beyoncé vs Rihanna Summer Dance Party ...............F 19

DJs Matt Bailer, Lemz, Keenan Orr, Tezrah Late Show! 10pm Doors .....................Sa 8

STEEZ PROMO PRESENTS

Ibeyi w/ Sudan Archives ..............Su 9 Monsieur Periné ....................M 10 Wolfmother .............................W 12 The Lemonheads w/ Tommy Stinson ......................Th 13

G Jones w/ Ivy Lab & tiedye ky .F 26 THE CIRCUS LIFE PODCAST 6TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT FEAT.

Justin Trawick and The Common Good • FeelFree • The Dirty Grass Players • Mystery Friends ....Sa 27

MANY MORE SHOWS ON SALE!

9:30 CUPCAKES

930.com

CHRYSALIS AT MERRIWEATHER PARK

CDE PRESENTS : 2019 SUMMER SPIRIT FESTIVAL FEATURING

Anthony Hamilton • Jhené Aiko • Raphael Saadiq • DVSN • PJ Morton and more! .....................................................................AUGUST 3

Train/Goo Goo Dolls * w/ Allen Stone ...........................................AUGUST 9 Ticketmaster • For full lineup & more info, visit merriweathermusic.com • impconcerts.com * Presented by Live Nation

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

The Waterboys .......................................................... SEPTEMBER 22 ALL GOOD PRESENTS

NAHKO AND M EDI C I N E F O R TH E P EO P L E

w/ Ayla Nereo ............................................................................................. SEPTEMBER 29

METROPOLITAN ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS

ZAZ ...................................................................................................... FRI OCTOBER 4

A N G E L O L S E N w/ Vagabon............................................ FRI NOVEMBER 1 On Sale Friday, May 17 at 10am

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

THIS SUNDAY!

Glen Hansard w/ Junior Brother .JUN 3

Chromeo (Live Band)

w/ Will Eastman .................................MAY 19

9:30 CLUB PRESENTS AT U STREET MUSIC HALL

Running Touch w/ Yoste .......F MAY 17 Damien Jurado w/ Anna St. Louis ..Sa 18 Tacocat w/ Sammi Lanzetta & BRNDA . Su 19 Filthy Friends w/ Dressy Bessy ...... M 20

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever w/ RVG .......................................W 29 Geographer w/ Manatee Commune ............... W JUN 5 Charly Bliss w/ Emily Reo ................F 7

POLITICS AND PROSE PRESENTS

Elizabeth Gilbert: Yann Tiersen A Discussion on City of Girls .JUN 6 (Solo In Concert) ..........................MAY 24 STORY DISTRICT’S

AN EVENING WITH

Breaking Bread: True Stories by

Apocalyptica Plays Metallica By Four Cellos Tour .MAY 28

Celebrity Chefs & Industry Insiders . JUL 27

• thelincolndc.com • U Street (Green/Yellow) stop across the street!

• Buy advance tickets at the 9:30 Club box office • 930.com

TICKETS for 9:30 Club shows are available through TicketFly.com, by phone at 1-877-4FLY-TIX, and at the 9:30 Club box office.

9:30 CLUB BOX OFFICE HOURS are 12-7pm on weekdays & until 11pm on show nights, 6-11pm on Sat, and 6-10:30pm on Sun on show nights.

HAPPY HOUR DRINK PRICES impconcerts.com AFTER THE SHOW AT THE BACK BAR!

PARKING: THE OFFICIAL 9:30 parking lot entrance is on 9th Street, directly behind the 9:30 Club. Buy your advance parking tickets at the same time as your concert tickets!

930.com washingtoncitypaper.com may 17, 2019 25

26 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

CITYLIST

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

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

Tix @ Ticketmaster.com

Music 27 Theater 28 Film 31

Music

FREDERICK DOUGLASS FAMILY MATERIALS FROM THE WALTER O. EVANS COLLECTION

FRIDAY COUNTRY

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. Suzy Bogguss. 8 p.m. $25–$40. citywinery.com.

ELECTRONIC

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Hannah Holland. 11 p.m. $10–$15. dcnine.com.

FOLK

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. Laura Gibson. 8 p.m. $16. citywinery.com.

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Henry Jamison. 7:15 p.m. $15. dcnine.com.

THE HAMILTON 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000.

Chris Smither. 8 p.m. $20–$40. thehamiltondc.com.

LINCOLN THEATRE 1215 U St. NW. (202) 888-0050.

Josh Ritter & The Royal City Band. 8 p.m. $45. thelincolndc.com.

HIP-HOP

THE ANTHEM 901 Wharf St. SW. (202) 888-0020.

Juice WRLD. 8 p.m. $50–$250. theanthemdc.com.

JAZZ

MONTPELIER ARTS CENTER 9652 Muirkirk Road, Laurel. (301) 377-7800. Chieli Minucci and Special EFX. 8 p.m. $25. arts.pgparks.com.

ROCK

STATE THEATRE 220 N. Washington St., Falls Church.

(703) 237-0300. Kick. 9 p.m. $20. thestatetheatre. com.

WORLD

HOWARD THEATRE 620 T St. NW. (202) 803-2899.

Julian Marley and Subatomic Sound System. 8 p.m. $29.50–$35. thehowardtheatre.com.

SATURDAY CLASSICAL

MUSIC CENTER AT STRATHMORE 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. BSO: Brahms Violin Concerto. 8 p.m. $35–$90. strathmore.org.

ELECTRONIC

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Hannah Holland. midnight $10–$15. dcnine.com.

FUNK & R&B

BIRCHMERE 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Maceo Parker. 7:30 p.m. $45. birchmere.com.

POP

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Peace Pit. 10:30 p.m. $5–$8. dcnine.com.

ROCK

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. The Blasters. 8 p.m. $22–$30. citywinery.com.

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Matthew Logan Vasquez. 6:45 p.m. $15. dcnine.com.

WORLD

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

Boleros con Miramar at Bossa Bistro. 7:30 p.m. $15. bossadc.com.

Friday, July 12, 8pm

CITY LIGHTS: FRIDAY

“My feet have been so cracked with the frost, that the pen with which I am writing might be laid in the gashes,” writes Frederick Douglass in a typically riveting passage from his classic autobiography about the deprivations he endured growing up enslaved on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Douglass’ legacy as an orator and statesman often overshadows his greatness as an author, one of the indispensable literary voices of 19th-century America. That voice is in abundance in a new exhibition featuring a treasure trove of letters, manuscripts, photographs, and family scrapbooks from the collection of Dr. Walter O. Evans. The righteous thunder of Douglass’ speeches and public writings retain their prescient power: “Our country is again in trouble…A spirit of evil has been revived which we fondly hoped was laid forever.” But what makes the exhibition a must-see for Douglass aficionados are the intimate glimpses of the quiet joys of family life at Cedar Hill in Anacostia, precious time away from the turbulent, all-consuming public life of one of our most famous figures. One of the most touching items is an 1893 letter to his grandson, Haley George, who had penned a thank-you for a flute that Douglass had given the 11-year-old: “Mrs. Douglass and I, both agreed—that your letter was a nice one—Go on, my dear boy, you are a Boy now, but you will be a man some day—and I hope a wise and good man. Your affectionate Grand pa.” The exhibition is on view to June 14 at the National Gallery of Art, 4th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Free. (202) 737-4215. nga.gov.

—Eddie Dean

SUNDAY ELECTRONIC

LINCOLN THEATRE 1215 U St. NW. (202) 888-0050.

Chromeo. 8 p.m. $35. thelincolndc.com.

FOLK

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. Jonatha Brooke - “Imposter” Album Release Show. 7:30 p.m. $25–$35. citywinery.com.

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Olden Yolk. 8 p.m. $12. dcnine.com.

THE HAMILTON 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000. Red Molly. 7:30 p.m. $19.75–$42.50. thehamiltondc.com.

HOWARD THEATRE 620 T St. NW. (202) 803-2899.

Soledad Pastorutti. 8 p.m. $65–$105. thehowardtheatre.com.

FUNK & R&B BIRCHMERE 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Jonathan Butler. 7:30 p.m. $55. birchmere.com.

Music Center at Strathmore

Tickets at Strathmore.org or call 301-581-5100.

WHINE DOWN Jana Kramer & Mike Caussin 17 NRBQ & SKIP CASTRO BAND 16

with

Desperado’s/Wax Museum Reunion

MACEO PARKER 19 JONATHAN BUTLER T 20 STEVE EARLE & THE DUKES M 21&22 THE NILS LOFGREN BAND 23 THE AMY RAY BAND w/Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters 18

he asTersons

24

An Evening with

THE SELDOM SCENE "CD Release Show!"

WALTER BEASLEY Pressing 30 JOANNE SHAW-TAYLOR Strings Steve 31 PAUL THORN Poltz 26

“Ain’t Love Strange” 20th Anniversary Tour

Chelsea MARC COHN Williams THE MUSICAL BOX "A Genesis Extravaganza"

June 1 2 4

DAVID CROSBY & The Sky Trails Band US Tour 2019

THE ENGLISH BEAT NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART WEST GARDEN COURT 6 MINDI ABAIR & The Boneshakers 4th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. (202) 8426941. Yumi Kurosawa. 3:30 p.m. Free. nga.gov.

7 the subdudes 8 JUNIOR BROWN MONDAY JAZZ 9 FUNNY WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE BLUES ALLEY 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Georgetown Day School Jazz Ensemble. 7 p.m.

14 THE NEW BIRTH $15. bluesalley.com.

15 SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY & THEmay ASBURY JUKES27 washingtoncitypaper.com 17, 2019 WORLD

5

BLUES ALLEY 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Edmund Burke School Jazz Ensemble. 9 p.m. $15. bluesalley.com.

VOCAL

KENNEDY CENTER MILLENNIUM STAGE 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. The Best of the D.C. Boys Choir.

6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

TUESDAY ALLIVE PRESENTS:

THE BARBECUE

CLASSICAL

MUSIC CENTER AT STRATHMORE 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Evgeny Kissin.

8 p.m. $50–$135. strathmore.org.

FUNK & R&B

BLUES ALLEY 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Karen Linette. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $22. bluesalley. com.

POP

THE ANTHEM 901 Wharf St. SW. (202) 888-0020. The 1975. 7 p.m. $49.50–$69.50. theanthemdc.com.

KENNEDY CENTER CONCERT HALL 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. NSO Pops: Michael Bolton. 8 p.m. $29–$119. kennedy-center.org.

H

H

5/16 THU THE 9 SONGWRITER SERIES $12/$15 5/18 SAT STOP LIGHT OBSERVATIONS + LITTLE STRANGER $12/$30 5/21 TUE THE BARBECUE FEAT SIRIUS CO. FEAT. MS KIM & SCOOBY $20/$25 5/25 SAT SCOTT KURT & MEMPHIS 59’S MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND BASH 5/28 TUE THE BARBECUE FEAT SUTTLE & WE THE FIX $20/$25 5/30 THU SOUTHERN CULTURE ON THE SKIDS W/ JUMPIN‘ JUPITER $16/$20 5/31 FRI BENNETT WALES & THE RELIEF $5 6/4 TUE THE BARBECUE FEAT TEAM FAMILIAR $20/$25 6/6 THU DHARMASOUL + CASSADAY CONCOTION $10/$12 6/7 FRI JOHN BAUMANN BAND + JAMIE LIN WILSON $12/$15 6/8 SAT VEGABONDS + HANNAH WICKLUND & THE STEPPIN’ STONES $12/$35 6/11 TUE THE BARBECUE FEAT BLACK ALLEY $20/$25 6/13 THU KIND COUNTRY $10/$12 6/14 FRI TIME SAWYER & HANNAH JAYE & THE HIDEAWAYS $10/$12 6/21 FRI JACKSON DEAN & THE OUTSIDERS & JIMMY CONNOR $12/$15 6/22 SAT DADDY LONG LEGS ALBUM RELEASE SHOW $12/$20

HILL COUNTRY BARBECUE MARKET 410 Seventh St, NW • 202.556.2050 HillCountry.com/DC • Twitter @hillcountrylive

Near Archives/Navy Memorial [G, Y] and Gallery PI/Chinatown [R] Metro

ROCK

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Wooden Shjips. 8 p.m. $18. dcnine.com.

WEDNESDAY

CITY LIGHTS: SATURDAY

JIM JAMES

The music Jim James plays with My Morning Jacket oscillates between a syrupy folk sweetness and a crusty country earthiness. MMJ was founded in the ’90s but blew up in the 2000s, paving the way for an urban-rustic aesthetic that would culminate in the ubiquitousness of The Lumineers and Mumford & Sons.

Thanks to an open approach to live performance, individual MMJ songs mutate and take new forms over time. James takes a similar approach with his solo work, using a level foundation in rock and country as a lab for conducting sonic experiments. In interviews, James comes across as a starry-eyed creative type, a seasoned journeyman who approaches his work with a childlike sense of wonder. His new album, Uniform Clarity, bets hard on acoustic minimalism, but there are impressions of soul in the vein of Marvin Gaye or Otis Redding in his earlier work. No matter how highly produced his albums sound, Jim James’ songs come across like they have been lovingly crafted by leathered hands. The result is a sensitive, indie-inflected slice of southern-fried rock. Jim James performs at 6 p.m. at 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $41. (202) 265-0930. 930.com.

—Will Lennon

CLASSICAL

MANSION AT STRATHMORE 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Seán Heely. 7:30 p.m. $17. strathmore.org.

JAZZ

CITY LIGHTS: SUNDAY

POP

DUKE ELLINGTON WALKING TOUR

BLUES ALLEY 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Steven B. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $22. bluesalley.com.

HOWARD THEATRE 620 T St. NW. (202) 803-2899.

Daniela Darcourt. 8 p.m. $55. thehowardtheatre.com.

ROCK

BLACK CAT 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. Shame.

7:30 p.m. $15. blackcatdc.com.

ROCK & ROLL HOTEL 1353 H St. NE. (202) 388-7625.

Lady Lamb. 8 p.m. $18. rockandrollhoteldc.com.

THURSDAY FOLK

KENNEDY CENTER TERRACE THEATER 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Russian Renaissance. 7:30 p.m. $29. kennedy-center.org.

WOLF TRAP FILENE CENTER 1551 Trap Road, Vienna.

(703) 255-1900. The Avett Brothers. 7:30 p.m. $45– $75. wolftrap.org.

FUNK & R&B

BLUES ALLEY 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Earth, Wind & Fire Tribute Band. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $22. bluesalley.com.

HOWARD THEATRE 620 T St. NW. (202) 803-2899.

Melanie Fiona. 8 p.m. $39.99–$45. thehowardtheatre.com.

VOCAL

KENNEDY CENTER MILLENNIUM STAGE 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Wilson Senior High School Vocal Music Program. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

Theater

THE CHILDREN After a natural disaster, married retired nuclear physicists live out their days in a remote cottage on the British coast only to have an arrival from their past upend the balance they’ve carefully curated. Studio Theatre. 1501 14th St. NW. To June 2. $20–$90. (202) 332-3300. studiotheatre.org.

GOD OF CARNAGE After their adolescent sons get into a physical altercation on the playground, two Brooklyn couples meet up in an attempt to resolve the disputes of their offspring. As the night progresses and the alcohol flows, civilized courtesies devolve and taboo discussions materialize in the bitter air.

28 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

Celebrate D.C. Natives Day with the ghost of Duke Ellington, one of the holiday’s most notable namesakes.

Meet on U Street NW to walk the neighborhood with tour guide Michon Boston, who will show you the sites of music schools, clubs and speakeasies, dance halls, churches, and Ellington family residences, and talk about the community that inspired and nurtured Ellington the musician. Boston is herself a D.C. native, an alumna of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and an occasional contributor to City Paper. She also has an old family photo album that includes, among its shiny black-and-whites, many candids of young Duke.

Want to know how that happened? You’ll have to join the tour. It concludes with a beer tasting at Right Proper Brewing Company, which is the site of Frank Holliday’s Pool Hall, where jazz musicians shared techniques while shooting pool. Ellington credits the pool hall patrons with teaching him to be a better musician. The tour begins at 2 p.m. at Ben’s Next Door, 1211 U St. NW. $20–$30. (202) 939-0794. michonbostongroup.com.

—Alexa Mills

Keegan Theatre. 1742 Church St. NW. To May 25. $20– $50. (202) 265-3767. keegantheatre.com.

Stage. 1101 6th St. SW. To June 2. $96–$115. (202) 4883300. arenastage.org.

INTO THE WOODS Stephen Sondheim’s beloved, Tony-winning musical is a blackly comic medley of well-known fairy tale characters like Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack (of the Beanstalk). At the heart of the story is The Baker and his Wife, their quest to reverse a witch’s curse and have a child of their own the driving force behind this twisted tale of wish fulfillment and the relationship between parents and children. Ford’s Theatre. 511 10th St. NW. To May 22. $27–$81. (202) 347-4833. fords.org.

LOVE’S LABOR’S LOST The King of Navarre and his three compatriots swear off women for three years of focused study and humble fasting in this early Shakespeare comedy. The Princess of France and her ladies render their lofty ambitions precarious; hijinks and affairs of the heart ensue. Folger Shakespeare Library. 201 E. Capitol St. SE. To June 9. $42–$79. (202) 544-7077. folger.edu.

JUBILEE First organized in 1871 on the Fisk University campus, the Fisk Jubilee Singers—an African-American a cappella ensemble—triumphed in the face of racism and prejudice in the U.S. and abroad. This a cappella musical boasts more than three dozen songs (including spirituals and hymns like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Wade in the Water”) to bring the enduring legacy of the Singers to life. Arena

THE ORESTEIA A new version of the only surviving Greek tragedy, The Oresteia poetically combines the works of Aeschylus to tell the ten year tale of grief and murder that characterizes the interlocking lives of Queen Clytemnestra, her husband Agamemnon, and Orestes. Shakespeare Theatre Company Studios.

610 F Street NW. To June 30. $44–$118. 202-547-1122. shakespearetheatre.org.

THE WHITE SNAKE A snake spirit transforms into a woman in order to experience the human world and

washingtoncitypaper.com may 17, 2019 29

CITY LIGHTS: MONDAY

FORGOTTEN WORKERS: CHINESE MIGRANTS AND THE BUILDING OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD

DINE & DRINK

A century and a half ago, after years of isolated, often fatal labor in the American West, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroad converged at Promontory, Utah. It marked the completion of the nation’s first Transcontinental Railroad and revolutionized the way Americans got from here to there. To commemorate this historic moment and its 150th anniversary, the National Museum of American History is spotlighting Chinese migrants, a community of people sidelined from the better part of this country’s formal narrative despite their monumental contribution to the modern engineering age. Though the exhibition focuses on these forgotten laborers (or “silent spikes”) through everyday artifacts––chopsticks, a soy sauce jug, a worker’s hat––it also details the ways in which the railroad’s construction precipitated the displacement of indigenous peoples, the destruction of the environment, and the near-extinction of the American buffalo.

As mainstream institutions pay careful attention to how storytelling may uplift or disregard the most marginalized, Forgotten Workers is a promising example of the former. The exhibition is on view to spring 2020 at the National Museum of American History, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Free. (202) 633-1000. si.edu.

—Amy Guay

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MAY 17

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Jackie Greene

Suzy Bogguss

Laura Gibson

The Blasters

Jonatha Brooke

w/ Jumpin Jupiter

“Imposter” Album Release Show

MAY 19

MAY 20

MAY 21

MAY 22

MAY 23

Tio Chorinho in the wine garden Part of JxJ

The DC Moth StorySLAM: FLAWED

Phaze II

Isle of Klezbos Beregovski Suite

Faycez U Know

Part of JxJ

(Dance Floor)

MAY 24

MAY 25-26

MAY 26

MAY 26

MAY 26

Roy Ayers

Daniel Kahn And The Painted Bird

LOW TICKET ALERT! w/ Elise Davis

in the wine garden

ft. Avon Dews

NO COVER!

Bela Dona (dance floor)

in the wine garden | part of jxj

Black Alley in the wine garden

Rooftop Brunch with DJ Jealousy

1350 OKIE ST NE, WASHINGTON DC | CITYWINERY.COM/WASHINGTONDC | (202) 250-2531

30 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

CITY LIGHTS: TUESDAY

TONAL VISIONS

D.C.-area photographer Alan Sislen’s new exhibition, Tonal Visions, represents an extension of his 2014 project Frozen Music, offering a range of sublimated architectural forms that were photographed in color but printed, with tonal modifications, in black-and-white. The resulting images—of such landmark buildings as Los Angeles’ Getty Center, New York’s Chrysler Building, and D.C.’s National Museum of the American Indian—emphasize their subjects’ sinuous lines and gradations in tone. This required significant post-production work, Sislen says.

(Some images strongly echo Carolyn Russo’s photographs of air traffic control towers, shown in 2015 at the National Air and Space Museum.) Sislen says he made a point of respecting the distance between architect and photographer. An architect, he says, “designs the ‘whole’ of the structure. As the photographer, I had the luxury of picking and choosing particular elements of the structures that resonated with me. I often feel that selected parts can be more interesting and compelling than the whole.” The exhibition is on view to June 15 at Multiple Exposures Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria. Free. (703) 683-2205. multipleexposuresgallery.com.

—Louis Jacobson

Take Metrobus and Metrorail to the...

CITY LIGHTS: WEDNESDAY

CHROMATICS

It is no surprise that directors like David Lynch and Nicolas Winding Refn love to use Chromatics’ spare compositions in their projects. The band’s music sounds like a neon-noir looks: supple, but bloody, every note dripping with sensual, minimalist melancholy.

Somewhere beneath Chromatics’ glossy exterior are punk rock roots, but those have gotten much harder to detect. The sleek aesthetic comes thanks in part to Johnny Jewel, the band’s mercurial creative driver and the idiosyncratic grandmaster of its label, Italians Do It Better. It is also thanks in part to Jewel that Chromatics’ forthcoming album, Dear Tommy, eagerly anticipated since it was announced in 2014, has entered Chinese Democracy levels of delay. Supposedly, Jewel entered a warehouse in Glendale, California, where copies of the album were waiting to be shipped out and destroyed them. A near-death experience had inspired him to start from scratch. Chromatics perform at 7 p.m. at 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $31. (202) 265-0930. 930.com.

—Will Lennon

A DOG’S JOURNEY In this sequel to A Dog’s Purpose, happy-go-lucky dog Bailey finds a new home and destiny. Starring Dennis Quaid, Kathryn Prescott,

FRIDAY 6/14

SNARKY PUPPY LEAN ON ME:

JOSÉ JAMES

CELEBRATES BILL WITHERS

SATURDAY 6/15 A NEW ORLEANS THROWDOWN

PRESENTING SPONSOR

If American Football’s Mike Kinsella couldn’t remember all of his teenage feelings and the meanings back in 1999, what hope might he have of recalling them 20 years later? The band reformed in 2014 with an unexpected reunion but has gone on to become a full-blown revival, having released its third full-length album earlier this year on Polyvinyl. Kinsella doesn’t invoke those aforementioned teenage feelings on LP3, and he was wise to avoid trying. But he does imbue the songs with a mix of exasperation, longing, and humor that reflects a reluctant transition into middle age. Emo for adults might initially sound disparaging—and as a descriptor it doesn’t sound great, if I’m honest. But it’s a joy to hear Kinsella capture the emotional depth and texture of a different phase of life, constructing a bridge between one’s initial struggles and how they shift over time but never fully dissolve. The ensuing decades have most certainly changed him but the feelings persist. Thank goodness for that. American Football perform at 7:30 p.m. at Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. $27–$30. (202) 667-4490. blackcatdc.com.

—Matt Siblo

ALL IS TRUE This biography chronicles the final days and trials and tribulations of playwright William Shakespeare’s life. Starring Kenneth Branagh, Lolita Chakrabarti, and Jack Colgrave Hirst. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

901 WHARF STREET, SW • 8:00 PM (DOORS 6:30 PM)

FOR ARTISTS AND COMPLETE SCHEDULE, VISIT DCJAZZFEST.ORG

AMERICAN FOOTBALL

Film

DC JAZZFEST AT THE

JON BATISTE & STAY HUMAN BRASS-A-HOLICS

CITY LIGHTS: THURSDAY

falls in love with a pharmacist’s assistant, only to have her newfound happiness threatened by a narrow-minded monk. Constellation Theatre at Source.

1835 14th St. NW. To May 26. $15–$45. (202) 204-7741. constellationtheatre.org.

Tickets at dcjazzfest.org | @dcjazzfest

and Betty Gilpin. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 — PARABELLUM Assassin John Wick goes on the run and becomes a target after killing a member of the international assassin’s guild. Starring Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, and Ian McShane. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) PHOTOGRAPH In Mumbai, a street photographer convinces a stranger to pose as his fiancée, amid pressure from his family to marry. Starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, and Sachin Khedekar. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

GOLD SPONSORS

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BRONZE SPONSORS

The DC Jazz Festival®, a 501(c)(3) non-profit service organization, and its 2019 programs are made possible, in part, with major grants from the Government of the District of Columbia, Muriel Bowser, Mayor; with awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts; the Office of Cable Television, Film, Music & Entertainment; the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development; and, in part, by major grants from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Galena-Yorktown Foundation, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, Gillon Family Charitable Fund, the NEA Foundation, Venable Foundation, The Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts, The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, and the Reva & David Logan Foundation. ©2019 DC Jazz Festival. All rights reserved.

PODCAST

Every week, City Paper reporters interview someone who helps tell the story of D.C.

PODCAST

Subscribe at washingtoncitypaper.com/podcast or wherever you get you podcasts.

THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR Two very different young people meet and fall in love over the course of one magical day. Starring Yara Shahidi, Charles Melton, and Keong Sim. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

washingtoncitypaper.com may 17, 2019 31

Gear Prudence Gear Prudence: After riding a hand-me-down, I’m about to buy my first brand-new bike. I’m going to go to a bike shop, see what they’ve got, ask a bunch of questions, and then do a test ride. But what exactly should I test? Any new bike is going to be better than the old one I have, so how can I tell if it’s the right one for me?

—Test Riding, Yet I’m Trepidatious Dear TRYIT: The most crucial thing to determine when test riding a new bike is how good you look on it. Take your test ride somewhere you can see your reflection, like past downtown storefronts, by a serene lake, or through the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. Ideally, at some point during the ride, someone you pass will lower their sunglasses like in an ’80s movie and then you’ll know for sure.

Vanity aside, you should test how the bike actually feels. For fit, think about your limbs: Do your legs and arms feel overstretched or bunched up?

Assess the bike’s weight by gauging how much effort it takes to get moving. On the ride, think about how much road vibration you feel. Do your teeth chatter at each bump? The bike’s geometry will make it react with greater or lesser sensitivity to the way your body moves. Does changing direction feel twitchy or sluggish? Don’t forget to test the gearing and the shifting system, too.

Test ride multiple bikes to see how they compare and don’t hesitate to test the same bike a few times. Inquire about whether the shop will let you borrow a bike for a longer time period before you buy. Take your time.

—Gear Prudence Gear Prudence: About six months ago, I moved from D.C. to the suburbs. As far as biking is concerned, I feel like I moved 30 years back in time.

That I commute by bike to work raises eyebrows, and when I suggest that we should install more bike lanes, I get laughs. Everyone has a bike, but no one uses it. Is convincing my suburban neighbors that they should ride more a lost cause?

—Some Unwelcoming Byways Undermine Robust Biking Dear SUBURB: Not at all! While cycling can be an easier lift in urban environments where distances between places are shorter and streets weren’t specifically designed around the car, there’s plenty of room for both biking and bike advocacy in the suburbs. It might just look a little different from what you’re used to. Focus on shorter trips within the community—to schools, parks, Metro stations, etc.—rather than on long commutes into the city. Trails can be vital connectors in car-oriented places, so push hard for those and cherish any you have. Mostly, just don’t give up. Change takes time, and just because your suburb isn’t a bike paradise now, it’s not condemned to stay that way forever. Even Amsterdam didn’t always look like Amsterdam now.

—GP

SAVAGELOVE Garbage human here. I’ve had herpes for about 15 years. The first five years, I was in a relationship with a guy who also had it. The last 10 years, I haven’t been in a serious relationship. I’ve been a (rare, drunk) one-night-stand type of gal, and I don’t usually tell the guy because, like, everyone has herpes. (I get that one in five isn’t everyone, but if you count HSV-1? I’ve seen numbers as high as 80 percent.) Frankly, it seems about as significant medically as minimally contagious mild acne. (Some risks to pregnancies and immunosuppressed people exist, and I know logically it’s not my call to determine what may be serious for someone else.) I justify nondisclosure to myself these ways, even though I know it’s not ethical. On the occasions where I have disclosed, I’ve been made to feel like a leper by dudes who 10 minutes before were begging me not to have to use a condom. I obviously have a lot of resentment over having this stupid thing and over the guilt I have around nondisclosure, and I suspect my history of casual sex is influenced by not wanting to deal with this conversation. Which brings us to now. What I thought was a one-night stand has turned into a months-long affair, and I’m amazed to report I find myself liking and respecting this guy. (I know, I know: If I really respected him, I’d have told him before I ever knew I respected him.) What do I do? I have to tell him. But how? Is there any justification for what I’ve done? Can I just say, “Oh man, I noticed a thing and went and got tested and guess what?”

That just adds to the lie. There’s no way I can have a relationship with this guy based on trust going forward, is there? I’ve fucked this up and I have to bail, don’t I? Am I going to be alone for the rest of my life?

—Deserves To Be Alone You’re not a garbage human, DTBA. You didn’t share something you should’ve—the fact that you, like upwards of 50 percent of everyone, have herpes—but weren’t obligated to. The problem with not disclosing, as you now know, is that casual sex partners have a way of becoming potential long-term partners. And by the time you recognize someone’s long-term potential, the stakes are so high that bailing looks like an easier option.

“We don’t think DTBA needs to bail,” Momo and Felix wrote in a joint email after reading your letter. “And we don’t think she’s destined to be alone for the rest of her life.”

Momo and Felix are the co-creators of My Boyfriend Has Herpes (instagram.com/my_ boyfriend_has_herpes), an Instagram account that has amassed more than 15,000 followers in just a few months. Using simple, direct prose and Momo’s charming illustrations, Momo and Felix educate others about herpes while sharing the story of their relationship—from how they met, to Felix’s disclosure, to Momo’s initial hesitation to get involved with someone who has herpes.

32 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

“Our stance is pro-disclosure, always, but we know this isn’t possible for everyone living with HSV,” said Momo and Felix. “Unfortunately, one of the significant pitfalls of [not disclosing early on] is the difficulty it adds to the potential of a long-term relationship. And while we don’t agree with DTBA’s choice to not disclose to her partners, we understand why she might have made those choices. The stigma against herpes is terrible.”

Momo and Felix both feel—and I’m with them—that you need to be completely honest with this guy, even if it means the relationship could end. But it might not end, DTBA. He

Casual sex

partners have a way of becoming potential longterm partners. might have a disclosure of his own to make— he could have herpes, too—or the relationship could end for other reasons. You’ve been dating this guy for only a few months, and he could decide to end things for reasons that have nothing to do with the disclosure you’re about to make and/or your failure to make it sooner. Or you might learn something about him down the road that’s a deal breaker. (Have you searched his place for MAGA hats?)

So how do you broach this topic?

“She obviously cares about this person,” wrote Momo and Felix. “She made a mistake and she wants to make it right. DTBA needs to acknowledge her actions (opting for nondisclosure) and their impact (putting her partner at risk without his informed consent). DTBA’s partner may very likely feel betrayed or deceived. He might want to end the relationship, and his feelings would be valid. Unfortunately, all that DTBA can do is acknowledge her mistake, make herself vulnerable, and accept his reaction.”

“But whatever happens, she doesn’t deserve to be alone,” they said. “We all make mistakes, and we all have the opportunity to do better.”

—Dan Savage I’m a 24-year-old bisexual female, and the new person I’m dating just disclosed their HSV-2 status. I really like them and was all set to get intimate with them. But their disclosure made me change my mind. They are understanding but sad. But I feel terrible about it! They did the right, honest

thing, and now they’re getting punished for it. Herpes isn’t dangerous, it’s usually not even symptomatic, and the social stigma (the chances of someone like ME saying no) is the worst part. I get all that, intellectually. And I’d still rather … just … not take the risk of becoming someone who has to have a slightly harder dating life, because of the stress of disclosing to judgmental people like myself. Have I perpetuated the stigma of having herpes because I’m scared of ending up in the “life is harder now” group?

—Help A Reluctant Miss I shared your letter with Momo and Felix, HARM, and they wanted to respond to you individually. But first a quick download: Herpes is caused by two different viruses: HSV-1 and HSV-2. HSV-1 is commonly called “oral herpes” and HSV-2 is called “genital herpes,” even though both are transmitted in similar ways—vaginal, anal, and oral sex, as well as simple skin-to-skin contact—and both can cause sores on the mouth or genitals. Herpes is incredibly common: Some studies have found that more than two out of every three people have herpes. But most people who have herpes don’t know they do—which means that you could already have herpes yourself, HARM. “It’s HARM’s right to choose not to sleep with anyone for any reason,” said Momo. “But I do think that she’s perpetuating the stigma by rejecting someone just because they have HSV. I totally understand her concerns, and I had the same concerns before deciding to be intimate with Felix. But after doing my research and contemplating, I decided that I’d rather contract HSV than feed into the stigma. I don’t expect everyone to share the same feelings as me, but that was my choice. Plus, if she walks away from this person and keeps on dating, there’s a very good chance that a future partner might have HSV and not know it. So really, is she taking less risk by not dating them?”

“Like Momo said, everyone has the right to choose who they do or don’t sleep with, regardless of their reasons,” said Felix. “Is HARM perpetuating the stigma against HSV? A bit. But I think her feelings are super-understandable. It’s important for people to educate themselves and take action toward dismantling the stigma, but to potentially take on the burden of living with the stigma is a huge leap.

I don’t know if being concerned about becoming a victim of the stigma is the same as perpetuating it. But while HARM fears that contracting HSV will limit her dating life in the future, if she walks away from a relationship with potential, then her feelings have already limited her dating life.”

—DS Email your Savage Love questions to mail@savagelove.net

contacting: Kristin Yochum E.L. Haynes Public CharAdult . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Leather & Lace ter School StoneAuto/Wheels/Boat Massage for the Phone: . . . 202.667-4446 . . . . . . . . 42 Gentlemen Only (Servext 3504 Buy, Sell, Trade . . Email: . . . . .kyochum@ . . . . . . . . . . . ing Rockville/Potomac/ Bethesda) 301-655elhaynes.org Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 0598 Community . . . . . Request . . . . . . .for . . Proposals . . . . 42 Vended Meals Employment . . . . Cedar . . . . .Tree . . . .Academy . . . . 42 Breakthrough MonPCS Health/Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tessori Public Charter Cedar Tree Academy School intends is Body & to Spirit . . . . Public . . . . .Charter . . . . .School . . . 42 enter into a Sole Source advertising the opportuHousing/Rentals . . . to . .bid . . on . . .the . . . 42 contract with Heutink nity International for the Legal Notices . . . management . . . . . . . . . of . . break . . 42 purchase of Montessori fast, lunch, snack and/or classroom materials. Row .

CACFP Music/Music . . . .supper . . . . .program . . . 42 To view the complete to children enrolled at . . . please . . . . . . . . the . . .school . . . . for . . .the . . 2019 . 42 NoticePets of Intent, contact emily.hedin@ 2020 school year with Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

42 breakthroughmontesa possible extension of sori.org or (202)Housing 407Shared . (4) . . .one . . .year . . .renewals. . . . . 42 7021.

All meals must meet at Services . . . . . . . . a . minimum, . . . . . . . .but . . are . . 42 not E.L. Haynes Public restricted to, the USDA Charter School National School BreakREQUEST FOR PROPOSfast, Lunch, Afterschool ALS Snack and At Risk AUDIO VISUAL Supper meal pattern CLASSROOM UPrequirements. Additional GRADES specifications outlined in E.L. Haynes Public Charthe Request for Proposal ter School (“ELH”) is (RFP) such as; student seeking proposals from data, days of service, qualified vendors to meal quality, etc. may provide professional be obtained beginning painting services for our on May 17, 2019 from schools this summer.

LaTonya Henderson at E.L. Haynes is seeking Lhenderson@Cedartreesolutions (products and dc.org services) in the area of Proposals will be acAudio/Visual Interactive cepted at 701 Howard Classroom Upgrades Rd, SE, Washington, and installations for DC 20020 on June 17, classrooms and confer2019, not later than ence areas. Contracts 2:00PM resulting from this RFP All bids not addressing will be written for our all areas as outlined 4501 Kansas Ave NW in the RFP will not be site in Washington, DC. considered.

Contents:

Search classifieds at washingtoncitypaper.com

Proposals are due via email to Kristin Yochum no later than 5:00 PM on Friday, May 31, 2019.

We will notify the final vendor of selection and schedule work to be completed. The RFP with bidding requirements can be obtained by

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Landlord and Tenant Branch 2019 LTB 005626 D.C. Housing Authority : Plaintiff, v.

Betty Jenkins Defendant.

NOTICE TO HEIRS OF Adult Phone BETTY JENKINS Entertainment Betty Jenkins, who lived at 1425 N Street, NW, Livelinks Chat Lines.

Flirt, chat Unit 702, Washington, and Talk toatsexy singles DC date!

20005, thereal time in your area. Call now! (844) of her reported death, 359-5773 is the subject of an action for a Complaint for Legals Possession by Plaintiff D.C Housing Author-GIVEN NOTICE IS HEREBY ity, THAT:in the Landlord and Tenant of the INC. TRAVISA Branch OUTSOURCING, (DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Superior Court of the DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER District of Columbia, AND REGULATORY Case No. 2019 LTBAFFAIRS FILE NUMBER 271941) for HAS 005626.

A judgment DISSOLVED EFFECTIVE NOVEMpossession may lead to BER 27, 2017 AND HAS FILED eviction andDISSOLUTION the loss ofOF ARTICLES OF personal the DOMESTIC property FOR-PROFITin CORresidence.

PORATION WITH THE DISTRICT Any interested person, OF COLUMBIA CORPORATIONS DIVISION but not limited including to creditors, heirs, and Alegatees CLAIM of AGAINST TRAVISA the deceOUTSOURCING, INC. onMUST dent, shall appear INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE June 13, 2019 at 10:00 DISSOLVED CORPORATION, am in Courtroom INCLUDE THE NAME B109, OF THE in the Landlord CLAIMANT, INCLUDEand A SUMMATenant RY OF THECourt, FACTS located SUPPORTING at 4 th Street NW, TO THE510 CLAIM, AND BE MAILED 1600 INTERNATIONAL Washington, DC, to DRIVE, SUITE 600, MCLEAN, VA 22102 show cause if there be any reason why the ALL CLAIMS WILL BE BARRED complaint for possession UNLESS not A PROCEEDING should be granted TO ENFORCE THE CLAIM IS COMand theWITH plaintiff MENCED IN 3 take YEARS OF possession, dispose of, PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE or take any other acIN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION tion as ordered by this OF 29-312.07 OF THE DISTRICT Court of anyORGANIZATIONS personal COLUMBIA ACT. property contained in the may Two unit.

RiversInquiries PCS is soliciting be directed to: project manproposals to provide Lisa J. services Dessel,forEsq. agement a small conMusolino & Dessel PLLC struction project.

For a copy of the RFP, please email procurement@ 1615 L Street, NW Suite tworiverspcs.org. Deadline for 440 submissions is December 6, 2017.

Washington, DC 20036 (202) 466-3883 E.L. Haynes Public Charter School REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR CELLULAR SERVICES E.L. Haynes Public Charter School (“ELH”) is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to provide professional painting services for our schools this summer.

E.L. Haynes is seeking Legals proposals from interested and qualified DC SCHOLARS PCS REQUEST service providers to proFOR PROPOSALS – Moduvide Cellular Services; lar Contractor Services - DC estimated quantity 40 Scholars Public Charter of School devices bundled solicits proposals for voice/ a modular data, approx.

2000 mincontractor to provide professional utes minimum management and pooled, construction services to construct a modular with unlimited data and/ building to house four classrooms or text service. Room to and one faculty offi ce users suite. The add and remove Request ProposalsPlease (RFP) with no for penalties. specifi cations can be obtained on see section 3 for scope and after Monday, November 27, details.

2017 from Emily Stone via communityschools@dcscholars.org.

Proposals duebevia All questions are should sent in email toe-mail.

Kristin writing by No Yochum phone calls regarding will PM be acno later this thanRFP 5:00 cepted.

Bids must received by on Friday, Maybe31, 5:00 PM on Thursday, December 2019.

14, 2017 DC Scholars Public We will at notify the final Charter School, ATTN: Sharonda vendor of selection and Mann, 5601 E. Capitol St. SE, schedule to be Washington, work DC 20019.

Any bids completed.

RFPaswith not addressing The all areas outbidding lined in therequirements RFP specifi cations will can be obtained by not be considered. contacting: Kristin Yochum for Rent Apartments E.L. Haynes Public Charter School Phone: 202.667-4446 ext 3504 Email: kyochum@ elhaynes.org WASHINGTON GLOBAL PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL NOTICE OF INTENT TO Must see! semi-furENTER A Spacious SOLE SOURCE nished 1 BR/1 BA basement CONTRACT apt, Deanwood, $1200. Sep. enStudent Assessment trance, W/W carpet, W/D, kitchServices en, fireplace near Blue Line/X9/ Washington Global V2/V4. Shawnn 240-343-7173.

Public Charter School intends to enter into Rooms for Rent a sole source contract with The Achievement Holiday Special- Two furNetwork forfor student nished rooms short or long assessment services term rental ($900 and $800toper help and close month)identify with access to W/D, WiFi, and Den. Utiligaps Kitchen, in student ties included. location learning forBest theN.E. upcomalong H St. Corridor.

Call Eddie ing school year 2019202-744-9811 for info. or visit 2020. www.TheCurryEstate.com ● Washington Global Public Charter School constitutes the sole source for The Achievement Network for student assessment services that will lead to student achievement. ● For further information

regarding this notice, Construction/Labor contact bids@washingtonglobal.org no later than 4:00 pm Tuesday, May 28, 2019.

Ingenuity Prep PCS solicits proposals for POWER DESIGN NOW HIRthe INGfollowing: ELECTRICAL APPRENOF ALL SKILL LEV* TICES Bus Transportation * ELS! Copier Lease * Mobile Services and about the position…

Equipment you love working with * Do School Uniforms your hands? Are you interFull RFP(s) by request. ested in construction and Proposals shall be in becoming an electrician? submitted as PDF Then the electrical apprentice documents position couldno belater perfectthan for 5:00 on Tuesday, you! PM Electrical apprentices are able earn aContact: paycheck May 29, to 2019. and full benefi ts while learnbids@ingenuityprep.org ing the trade through firsthand experience.

SUPERIOR COURT

OF THE DISTRICT OF what we’re looking for…

COLUMBIA Motivated D.C. residents who Landlord and the Tenant want to learn electrical Branch trade and have a high school 2019 LTBor000897 diploma GED as well as reliable transportation.

D.C. Housing Authority : Plaintiff, a little bit about us… v.

Power Design is one of the Lawrence Carpenter top electrical contractors in Defendant. the U.S., committed to our NOTICE HEIRS values, toTO training and toOF givLAWRENCE CARPENTER ing back to the communities Lawrence in which weCarpenter, live and work. who lived at 1845 HarmoreStreet, details…NW, 613, vard Visit powerdesigninc.us/ Washington, DC careers or the emailtime careers@ 20009, at of powerdesigninc.us! his reported death, is the subject of an action for a Complaint for Possession

by Plaintiff Financial Services D.C Housing AuthorDenied Credit??

Work and to Reity, in the Landlord pair Your Branch Credit Report With The Tenant of the Trusted Leader in Credit Repair.

Superior Court of the Call Lexington Law for a FREE District of Columbia, credit summary Case report No. 2019 LTB& credit repair consultation. 855-62000897. for at 9426. JohnAC.judgment Heath, Attorney possession may lead to Law, PLLC, dba Lexington Law eviction and the loss of Firm. personal property in the residence.

Homeperson, Services Any interested including but not limited Dish Network-Satellite Teleto creditors, heirs, and vision Services. Now Over 190 legatees of the decechannels for ONLY $49.99/mo! dent, shall onFREE HBO-FREE forappear one year, June 13, 2019 10:00 Installation, FREE atStreaming, am in Courtroom B109, FREE HD. Add Internet for $14.95 the Landlord and ainmonth.

1-800-373-6508 Tenant Court, located at 510 4 th Street NW,

Washington, DC, to Auctions 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 beWhole directed Foodsto: Commissary Auction Lisa J. Dessel, Esq. DC Metro Area Musolino & Dessel PLLC Dec. 5L atStreet, 10:30AMNW Suite 1615 1000s S/S Tables, Carts 440 & Trays, 2016 Kettles up Washington, DC 20036 to 200 Gallons, Urschel (202) 466-3883 Cutters & Shredders including 2016 Diversacut TWO PUBLIC 2110 RIVERS Dicer, 6 Chill/Freeze CHARTER SCHOOL Cabs, Double Rack Ovens & Ranges, FOR (12) PROBraising REQUEST Tables, 2016 (3+) Stephan POSALS VCMs, 30+ Scales, General Contractor Hobart 80 PCS qt isMixers, Two Rivers Complete Machine Shop, soliciting proposals to and much more! View the provide general contraccatalog at tor (construction manwww.mdavisgroup.com or ager at risk) services for 412-521-5751 construction of a middle school. For a copy of the RFP, please Garage/Yard/ email Rummage/Estate Dominique Fortune Sales at dfortune@bhope.org.

Flea Market every Fri-Sat Deadline for 10am-4pm.

5615submisLandover Rd. sions is MD. Thursday, Maybuy Cheverly, 20784. Can 30, 2019. in bulk.

Contact 202-355-2068 or 301-772-3341 for details or if intrestedPCS in being a vendor.

Briya solicits proposals for the following: * Development Instructor Full RFP(s) by request.

Proposals shall be submitted as PDF documents no later than 5:00 PM on Tuesday, May 29, 2019. Contact: bids@briya.org SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Landlord and Tenant Branch 2018 LTB 028523 D.C. Housing Authority : Plaintiff, v.

Lawrence Lynch Defendant.

NOTICE TO HEIRS OF LAWRENCE LYNCH

Lawrence Lynch, who Miscellaneous lived at 635 Edgewood Street, NE, 710, WashNEW COOPERATIVE SHOP! ington, DC 20017, at the time of his reported FROM EGPYT THINGS death, is the subject of AND BEYOND an action for a Com240-725-6025 plaint for Possession by www.thingsfromegypt.com Plaintiff D.C Housing thingsfromegypt@yahoo.com Authority, in the Landlord and TenantBAZAAR Branch SOUTH AFRICAN Craft Cooperative of the Superior Court of 202-341-0209 the District of Columbia, www.southafricanbazaarcraftcoo Case No. 2018 LTB perative.com 028523. A judgment for southafricanba z a ar @hotmail. possession may lead to com eviction and the loss of personal property in the WEST FARM WOODWORKS residence.

Custom Creative Furniture Any interested person, 202-316-3372 info@westfarmwoodworks.com including but not limited www.westfarmwoodworks.com to creditors, heirs, and legatees of the dece7002 dent,Carroll shall Avenue appear on Takoma Park, MD 20912 June 13, 2019 at 10:00 Mon-Sat 11am-7pm, am 10am-6pm in Courtroom B109, Sun in the Landlord and Tenant Court, located Motorcycles/Scooters at 510 4 th Street NW, Washington, DC, tofor sale.

2016 Suzuki TU250X 1200 miles.

Justbesershow causeCLEAN. if there viced.reason Comes why with the bike cover any and saddlebags. $3000 complaint for Asking possession Cash only.not be granted should Call 202-417-1870 M-F between and the plaintiff take 6-9PM, or weekends. possession, dispose of, or take any other acBands/DJs for Hire tion as ordered by this Court of any personal property contained in the unit. Inquiries may be directed to: Lisa J. Dessel, Esq. Musolino & Dessel PLLC 1615 L Street, NW Suite 440 Washington, DC 20036 Get Wit466-3883 It Productions: Profes(202) sional sound and lighting available for club, corporate, private, BREAKTHROUGH wedding receptions, holiday MONTESSORI PUBLIC events and much more. Insured, CHARTER SCHOOL competitive rates.

Call (866) 531REQUEST FOR PRO-for a 6612 Ext 1, leave message POSALS ten-minute call back, or book onBreakthrough Montesline at: agetwititproductions.com sori seeks bids for the following Announcements services: Special Education, Accounting, Announcementsand- PlayHey, all you loversProcurement of erotic and bizarre ground romantic fi ction!

Visit and Installation. To www. nightlightproductions.club and obtain a full copy of the submit your stories to me Happy RFPs, please contact Holidays! James K. West 202-246-1928 or emily. wpermanentwink@aol.com hedin@breakthroughmontessori.org. Bids for all three services must be received no later than May 24, 2019 at 5:00 PM. SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Landlord and Tenant Branch 2019 LTB 000896 D.C. Housing Authority : Plaintiff, v.

Linwood Deloatch Defendant.

NOTICE TO HEIRS OF LINWOOD DELOATCH Linwood Deloatch, who lived at 1845 Harvard Street, NW, 321, Washington, DC 20009, at the time of his reported death, is the subject of an action for a Com-

plaint for Possession by Events Plaintiff D.C Housing Authority, in the LandChristmas Silver Spring lord and in Tenant Branch Saturday, December 2,Court 2017 of of the Superior Veteran’s Plaza the District of Columbia, 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Case 2019Christmas LTB Come No. celebrate in 000896. judgment the heart of ASilver Spring atfor our possession lead to Vendor Village may on Veteran’s Plaeviction andbethe loss of za. There will shopping, arts personal in the and crafts forproperty kids, pictures with Santa, music and entertainment residence. to spread holiday cheer and more.

Any interested person, Proceeds will includingfrom butthe notmarket limited provide a “wish” toy for to creditors, heirs, children and in need. Join us at your one stop legatees of the deceshop for everything Christmas. dent, shall appear on For more information, contact June Futsum,13, 2019 at 10:00 am in Courtroom B109,or info@leadersinstitutemd.org in the Landlord and call 301-655-9679 Tenant Court, located at 510 4 th StreetGeneral NW, Washington, DC, to Lookingcause to Rent space show if yard there be for hunting dogs. Alexandria/Arlingany reason why the ton, VA area only. Medium sized complaint for possession dogs will be well-maintained in should not be granted temperature controled dog housand the advanced plaintiff animal take care es. I have possession, of,rid experience and dispose dogs will be or any other ac-oder. freetake of feces, flies, urine and Dogs will in a ventilated kennel tion as be ordered by this so they will be personal exposed to winCourt of not any ter and harshcontained weather etc.in Space property will needed as soon asmay possithebeunit.

Inquiries ble.

Yard for dogs must be Metro be directed to: accessible. Serious callers only, Lisaanytime J. Dessel, call Kevin,Esq. 415- 846Musolino & Dessel PLLC 5268.

Price Neg. 1615 L Street, NW Suite 440 Counseling Washington, DC 20036 (202) MAKE 466-3883 THE CALL TO START GETTING CLEAN TODAY. Free 24/7 for alcohol E.L.Helpline Haynes Public& drug addiction treatment.

Charter SchoolGet help! It is time to take your back! Call REQUEST FORlifePRONow: 855-732-4139 POSALS ADP Payroll System AdopPost Pregnant?

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Call us first. Living expenses, housing, medical, and continand System Optimizaued afterwards. Choose tionsupport Consultation adoptive family of your choice.

E.L. Haynes Public CharCall 24/7.

877-362-2401. ter School (“ELH”) is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to provide professional painting services for our schools this summer.

E.L. Haynes Public Charter School is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to provide post implementation support to help resolve a variety of issues with ADP’s WorkForce Now (WFN) payroll system.

Proposals are due via email to Kristin Yochum no later than 5:00 PM on Wednesday, May 29, 2019. We will notify the final vendor of selection and schedule work to be completed. The RFP with bidding requirements can be obtained by contacting: Kristin Yochum E.L. Haynes Public Charter School Phone: 202.667-4446 ext 3504 Email: kyochum@ elhaynes.org WASHINGTON GLOBAL PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL NOTICE: REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

washingtoncitypaper.com may 17, 2019 33

Washington Global Public Charter School in accordance with section 2204(c) of the District of Columbia School Reform Act of 1995 solicits proposals for the following services SY19.20: * Student Data Management Services * Math Coaching and Consulting Services Proposal Submission A Portable Document Format (pdf) election version of your proposal must be received by the school no later than 4:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, May 28, 2019 unless otherwise stated in associated RFP’s.

Proposals should be emailed to bids@washingtonglobal. org.

No phone call submission or late responses please. Interviews, samples, demonstrations will be scheduled at our request after the review of the proposals only.

Interested parties and vendors will state their credentials and qualifications and provide appropriate licenses, references, insurances, certifications, proposed costs, and work plan.

Please include any pertinent disclosures that may be present.

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION 2019 ADM 000371 Name of Decedent, Delores A. Harvey.

Notice of Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs, Kimberly Harvey Gaston., whose address is 6820 Brentwood Dr., Upper Marlboro, MD 20772 was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Delores A. Harvey who died on 12/16/2014, without a Will and will serve without Court Supervision.

All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 11/2/2019. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or to the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 11/2/2019, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship. Date of first publication: 5/2/2019 Name of Newspaper and/or periodical: Washington City Paper/

Daily Washington Law Reporter Name of Personal Representative: Kimberly Harvey Gaston TRUE TEST copy Anne Meister Register of Wills Pub Dates: May 2, 9, 16.

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Landlord and Tenant Branch 2019 LTB 000901 D.C. Housing Authority : Plaintiff, v.

Muhammad El Amin Defendant.

NOTICE TO HEIRS OF MUHAMMAD EL AMIN Muhammad El Amin, who lived at 5336 Colorado Ave., NW, 204, Washington, DC 20011, at the time of his reported death, is the subject of an action for a Complaint for Possession by Plaintiff D.C Housing Authority, in the Landlord and Tenant Branch of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Case No. 2019 LTB 000901. 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 legatees of the decedent, shall appear on June 13, 2019 at 10:00 am in Courtroom B109, in the Landlord and Tenant Court, located at 510 4 th 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: Lisa J. Dessel, Esq. Musolino & Dessel PLLC 1615 L Street, NW Suite 440 Washington, DC 20036 (202) 466-3883 KIPP DC PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS Cyber Security Platform KIPP DC is soliciting proposals from qualified vendors for a Cyber Security Platform. The RFP can be found on KIPP DC’s website at www. kippdc.org/procurement.

Proposals should be uploaded to the website no later than 5:00 PM EST, on May 31, 2019. Questions can be addressed to keon.toyer@kippdc. org. Subject Line: KIPP DC CSP IT Asset Management Inventory System KIPP DC is soliciting proposals from qualified vendors for an IT Asset Management Inventory System. The RFP can be found on KIPP DC’s website at www.kippdc.org/

procurement. Proposals should be uploaded to the website no later than 5:00 PM EST, on May 31, 2019. Questions can be addressed to keon.toyer@kippdc. org. Subject Line: KIPP DC ITAM SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Landlord and Tenant Branch 2019 LTB 000899 D.C. Housing Authority : Plaintiff, v.

Stanley Bradley, Defendant.

NOTICE TO HEIRS OF STANLEY BRADLEY Stanley Bradley, who lived at 1845 Harvard Street, NW, 602, Washington, DC 20009, at the time of his reported death, is the subject of an action for a Complaint for Possession by Plaintiff D.C Housing Authority, in the Landlord and Tenant Branch of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Case No. 2019 LTB 000899. 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 legatees of the decedent, shall appear on June 13, 2019 at 10:00 am in Courtroom B109, in the Landlord and Tenant Court, located at 510 4 th 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: Lisa J. Dessel, Esq. Musolino & Dessel PLLC 1615 L Street, NW Suite 440 Washington, DC 20036 (202) 466-3883 EARLY CHILDHOOD ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL, INC NOTICE OF INTENT TO ENTER A SOLE SOURCE CONTRACT Urban Teachers Early Childhood Academy Public Charter School (ECA) intends to enter into a sole source contract with Urban Teachers Washington, DC to provide resident teachers, coaching, and professional development and training to support Early Childhood Academy PCS in implementation of instruction during the 2019- 2020 school year. Urban Teachers will provide ECA with two resident teachers who will work in a prekindergarten through third grade classroom full-time from August 2019 through June 2020. Resident teachers will work

34 may 17, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

under the guidance and supervision of an ECA lead teacher. Resident teachers will complete a master’s degree in education through Johns Hopkins University and will pursue licensure in the District of Columbia.

For further information regarding this notice, contact Wendy Edwards at wedwards@ecapcs. org no later than 12:00 pm on Friday, May 24, 2019.

FRIENDSHIP PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS Friendship Public Charter School is seeking bids from prospective vendors to provide: * Whole Grain Bread Items * Milk and Dairy Products * Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Products * Paper Goods and other food service related products To children enrolled for the 2019-2020 school year, with a possible extension of (2) one year renewals. All items must meet at a minimum, but are not restricted to, the USDA National School Breakfast, Lunch, Afterschool Snack and At Risk Supper meal pattern requirements.

Additional specifications outlined in the Request for Proposal (RFP) such as; student data, days of service, meal quality, etc. may be obtained beginning on May 17, 2019. * Consulting Services to assist Friendship Schools with the technical and accounting services including the management of applications and related processes. The specific technical systems and services include: Microsoft Dynamics GP technical support, Dynamics GP application hosting, Vena budgeting support, Support on integration of GP and Vena system, Support and maintain the technical GP and Coupa integration, Provide managed accounting services for the accounting department.

The competitive RFP can be found on FPCS website at: http://www. friendshipschools.org/ procurement. Proposals are due no later than 4:00 P.M., EST, Friday June 14, 2019. Questions and Proposals should be submitted on-line at: Procurementinquiry@ friendshipschools. org. Proposals can be submitted in person at 1400 1st Street NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC. 20001. All bids not addressing all areas as outlined in the RFP will not be considered.

No proposals will be accepted after the deadline.

PAUL PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) Paul Public Charter School seeks bids for: ● Athletic Uniforms: uniforms and equipment options for both HS and MS sports ● Mural: artistic proposals for exterior wall art ● Gym door installation: creation of additional egress in existing gym, to include all permitting and drawing fees ● Gutter replacement/ repair: repair and/or replace existing gutters as needed to prevent roof leaks ● Finance and data support: support with all student/school data and financial audit and reporting needs More information on each project is available by request and building walk throughs are available by appointment.

Paul PCS reserves the right to cancel this RFP at any time.

Bids are due Friday, June 7th by 4:00pm to the following location: Paul Public Charter School ATTN: Shelby Legel 5800 8 th St NW Washington, DC 20011 slegel@paulcharter.org SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Landlord and Tenant Branch 2019 LTB 001682 D.C. Housing Authority :

Plaintiff, v.

Estate of Cosanders Adams Defendant.

NOTICE TO HEIRS OF COSANDERS ADAMS Cosanders Adams, who lived at 208 L Street, SW, Washington, DC 20024, at the time of her reported death, is the subject of an action for a Complaint for Possession by Plaintiff D.C Housing Authority, in the Landlord and Tenant Branch of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Case No. 2019 LTB 0001682. 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 legatees of the decedent, shall appear on June 13, 2019 at 10:00 am in Courtroom B109, in the Landlord and Tenant Court, located at 510 4 th 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: Lisa J. Dessel, Esq. Musolino & Dessel PLLC 1615 L Street, NW Suite

440 Washington, DC 20036 (202) 466-3883 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Landlord and Tenant Branch 2019 LTB 002162 D.C. Housing Authority : Plaintiff, v.

Eva Britt Defendant.

NOTICE TO HEIRS OF EVA BRITT Eva Britt, who lived at 3700 9 th Street, SE, 227, Washington, DC 20032, at the time of her reported death, is the subject of an action for a Complaint for Possession by Plaintiff D.C Housing Authority, in the Landlord and Tenant Branch of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Case No. 2019 LTB 0002162. 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 legatees of the decedent, shall appear on June 13, 2019 at 10:00 am in Courtroom B109, in the Landlord and Tenant Court, located at 510 4 th 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: Lisa J. Dessel, Esq. Musolino & Dessel PLLC 1615 L Street, NW Suite 440 Washington, DC 20036 (202) 466-3883 MAYA ANGELOU SCHOOLS REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS Case Management Software MAPCS is seeking proposals to purchase a case management platform to enhance the management of wrap around services to students and staff. This platform is intended to increase MAPCS’s responsiveness, accessibility, and accountability to stakeholders.

All bid proposals will be accepted until 12:00 PM on June 10, 2019. Interested vendors will respond to the advertised Notice of RFP via upload to https://app.smartsheet. com/b/form/a8c1e04a2e464eeb84dfc13bab1ddefd.

Complete RFP details can be found at www. seeforever.org/requestforproposals.

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Man of the house ___ bitch Bart's grandpa Up one Her autobiography is Becoming ESPN NFL analyst ___ Ryan Start of a quote by 31-Across Police rank: Abbr.

4th anniversary gift Steal Come to a point?

Quote, part 2 Kettle vapor Climber's peak A Legacy of Spies author [Your next favorite band will be on this spot, we promise] Rapper who had his firstever coffee and first-ever bagel in 2018 Canister covering ___ next door Breathalyzer meas.

Quote, part 3 "Gimme!"

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48 Quote, part 4 52 Indian chess master Viswanathan ___ 53 Fireplace piece 54 "I'll make an educated guess here ..."

58 Et : France :: ___ : German 59 End of the quote 63 Maiden name lead-in 64 Stun 65 Company with a photo kiosk in some drugstores 66 Rose at a concert 67 Tot spoilers 68 Incredibly stupid

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9 "Here's the truth," initally 10 "Down in front!"

11 Horace masterwork 12 Sire 13 Surplus item 18 HBO show set in New Orleans 23 Carpenter in a hill 25 Supercomputer of the '60s 26 Late

27 Like the verbs "to have" and "to hold": Abbr.

28 Calypso offshoot 29 Order of Maesters headquarters in Game of Thrones 31 Frontal sail 32 Dusting prop 33 iPad model 35 They're measured in cups 36 PC key near the space bar 39 Makes whoopee 41 Mariano Rivera's nickname 42 Demolition crew gear 43 Name shared by border counties in New York and Pennsylvania 44 Keep to oneself 46 Came out on top 48 Room for sweaters 49 Additional wing 50 She sings "Helpless" in Hamilton 51 Scrip numbers 55 Lunch quaff 56 It's roughly 99.4% Muslim 57 Rug rat 60 Reddit Q&A session 61 You might get in a bed 62 Have fun in the Alps, maybe

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Perry Street Preparatory Public Charter School REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS Perry Street Prep PCSâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; a nonprofit, PK-8th Grade Public Charter Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;seeks multiple proposals for the following services at 1800 Perry Street NE. â&#x20AC;˘ Slate Roof and Gutter Repairs â&#x20AC;˘ Food Service Management â&#x20AC;˘ Special Education Related Services â&#x20AC;˘ Temporary Employment Services The complete RFPs can be obtained by contacting Kelly Smith, ksmith@pspdc.org.

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WASHINGTON LATIN PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS Issued: 5/17/2019 The Washington Latin Public Charter School solicits expressions of interest in the form of proposals with references from qualified vendors for each of the 3 services listed below.

1. International educational travel services 2. Tutoring services for special education students 3. Legal services for loan financing Questions and proposals may be e-mailed to gizurieta@latinpcs.org with the type of service in the subject line.

Deadline for submissions is COB May 28 2019. No phone calls please.

E-mail is the preferred method for responding but you can also mail (must arrive by deadline) proposals and supporting documents to the following address: Washington Latin Public Charter School Attn: Finance Office 5200 2 nd Street NW Washington, DC 20011

Sun-drenched AdamsMorgan 1 bdrm duplex, completely renovated including new kitchen and bathrooms, appliances, windows, and ac/ heat, plus sky-lights, hardwood floors, double-hung closets, fantastic roof-deck, plus storage space and steps to everything, available 5/1 ($2,250) call 202518-6090.

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JOB FAIR SEEKING A HIGHLY QUALIFIED LEAD LAB ASSISTANT ONSITE INTERVIEWS 10AM-1PM ON 5/30/19 Here at PFC we provide service for the Police Officers and Firefighters of the District of Columbia â&#x201D;&#x20AC;â&#x201D;&#x20AC;â&#x201D;&#x20AC;â&#x201D;&#x20AC; RECEIVE AN ONSITE INTERVIEW AT PFC ON THURSDAY 5/30/19 10AM-1PM PLEASE BRING YOUR RESUME AND ADDITIONAL CREDENTIALS! â&#x201D;&#x20AC;â&#x201D;&#x20AC;â&#x201D;&#x20AC;â&#x201D;&#x20AC; Please donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hesitate to apply and take charge of your Career Path!

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