Washington City Paper (June 19, 2020)

NEWS WHAT DOES “DEFUND THE POLICE” MEAN? 4 FOOD PUBLICISTS ASSESS SOLIDARITY STATEMENTS 12 ARTS PLYWOOD BECOMES A CANVAS FOR ARTISTS 18 THE DISTRICT'S FREE WEEKLY SINCE 1981 VOLUME 40, NO. 24 WASHINGTONCITYPAPER.COM JUNE 19–25, 2020

WHAT’S UP, DOCS? Reviews from the 2020 (virtual) AFI DOCS Film Festival

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TABLE OF CONTENTS COVER STORY 8 What’s Up, Docs?: Our reviewers highlight online offerings from the 2020 AFI DOCS film festival.

NEWS 4 Less Bang for the Buck: Activists explain what defunding the police could look like.

SPORTS 6 Voices Carry: Black athletes raise their voices to demand racial justice.

FOOD 12 Instant Messages: Evaluating restaurants’ anti-racist social media messages

ARTS 14 Open Invitation: Online book talks and storytelling events become more inclusive during the COVID-19 crisis.

15 Drawing Board: In Logan Circle and Dupont, plywood window coverings have become mural materials.

16 Film: Randall on Miss Juneteenth

CITY LIGHTS 17 City Lights: Learn about a series of local sit-ins or join an art museum’s book club.

DIVERSIONS 17 Crossword 18 Savage Love 19 Classifieds Cover Illustration: Maddie Goldstein

Darrow Montgomery | Rock Creek Park, June 14 Editorial

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NEWS CITY DESK

Less Bang for the Buck Black activists reimagine public safety in essays and poetry.

Naomi Chasek-Macfoy BYP100 DC Organizer What were you taught that the police are supposed to do? Do you believe the police have ever served that role? Do you believe they ever will?

Although police claim to provide safety and security to our communities, history and lived experience reveal the opposite to be true. The police present an ongoing and imminent threat to Black life, in D.C. and around the U.S. Their core function is to preserve the anti-Black racial hierarchies upon which capitalism rests, and to protect property rather than people. The safety of our communities cannot continue to be left in the hands of an organization that does not serve public interest.

In D.C., on stolen Piscataway and Anacostia indigenous land, Black people are in the midst of a public safety crisis. This crisis is caused by systemic dispossession, violence, and exploitation. It is a crisis maintained and exacerbated by the policing of Black communities. The call to defund the Metropolitan Police Department is a call for the urgent transformation of the daily conditions of Black life toward new conditions of safety and liberation. Rather than being a call to redesign law enforcement, it is a call to reimagine public safety.

Real safety lies outside the harassment and surveillance of policing. It lies outside of caging and imprisonment. The time is now for D.C. to defund MPD, as a step toward abolition. The time is now to decriminalize sex work and commit to rejecting proposals for the construction of a new jail. The D.C. Council must redirect its budgetary priorities toward the resources our communities urgently need: stable housing, access to food, free mental and physical health care, free public transportation, antiracist education, and good jobs.

What would it feel like to have access to the care you need? What new possibilities would emerge?

We are seeking to build an apparatus for

safety that has not yet existed at scale. This vision draws inspiration from the mutual aid and community care practices of the most marginalized members of our communities, including sex workers and unhoused people, who ensure each other’s safety and survival despite lack of resources. In order to enact real public safety for all Black people, we must reject the punitive posture of law enforcement and instead adopt an approach rooted in redistributing resources and cultivating relationships with friends and neighbors.

Defunding the police is one tool among many that will bring D.C. closer to real safety for all Black people. Safety is hard to come by for us. In particular, Black women (all Black women—transgender and cisgender), girls, femmes, gender nonconforming people, and queer people are facing a crisis of structural and interpersonal violence at the convergence of White supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism all at once. We have already been doing the work of building safety for ourselves, outside of the state, without protection or resources. We are often exposed to additional state violence as we attempt to care for each other. I write today in grief and mourning for Oluwatoyin Salau, a 19-year-old Black girl who was murdered after fleeing an abusive living situation and experiencing sexual violence. All Black people urgently need access to the basic resources of survival. Now is the moment for D.C. to get out of our way, to eliminate one (of many) statesanctioned sources of violence against us, and instead fund the resources we need to create safety for ourselves. Now is the moment to defund the police and begin to make real our shared value that Black Lives Matter.

Samantha Paige Davis Black Swan Academy Founder and Executive Director Black youth in D.C. and across the country are calling to remove police from schools. Yup! We

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Darrow Montgomery/File

Defund the police. These three words have dominated the national conversation in recent weeks as the country reckons with anti-black racism. Like other rallying cries that activists have used over the years to demand systemic change—“Abolish ICE” or “Medicare For All,” for example—this one elicits befuddled, if not skeptical, reactions from the layman.

So what does it mean? City Paper has written about the movement in D.C., as well as local lawmakers’ reactions to it. While not everyone who exclaims “defund the police” advocates for the outright abolition of the police, those leading the chants typically do. And in the immediate future, they want smaller police budgets and fewer officers.

City Paper asked individuals from two groups helping to lead this movement, Black Youth Project 100 and Black Swan Academy, to explain what would replace the current systems and imagine what public safety would look like if we could start again. “In short, police-free schools exist all over America. Just look at the majority white affluent schools in your jurisdictions,” says the founder and executive director of Black Swan Academy, Samantha Paige Davis. To ensure there is no confusion about what they mean, we published their own words.

—Amanda Michelle Gomez

are calling for police-free schools. We deeply believe that Black youth deserve to be protected from harm, that Black youth deserve dignity and love. We believe that Black youth deserve to learn in an environment that doesn’t assume they are criminals, that doesn’t rely on invoking fear or trauma through the presence of police. We believe that Black youth deserve for us to challenge the status quo and systemic racism that keeps us from investing fully in their humanity, development, health, and well-being.

The demand to defund the police, including police-free schools, is not solely about abolishing the institution of policing, but it is an invitation to reimagine safety and shift funding from carceral systems to those resources and services that are rooted in a liberatory framework. A framework that ensures our communities have what they need to thrive—housing,

health care, jobs, quality education, harm reduction initiatives, and crisis intervention, among others. Removing police from schools is just one way to reduce the role and power of police in our society, giving us the ability to dream up a new world that is safer, healthier, and more equitable.

We know that police do not keep us safe and, in fact, cause more harm. Black girls in D.C. are 30 times more likely to be arrested than white youth of any gender identity. 60 percent of girls arrested in D.C are under the age of 15, and many of them are disciplined and referred to police for their responses to experiencing sexual violence. The youth demand is simple and clear: Love us, don’t harm us.

Whether you understand this new world we are dreaming up or not, please lean into curiosity. Read. Learn. Share. And of course, take action!

NEWS

Sunday, June 7 on H Street NW Here is a quick rundown of what you should know: 1. This is not a new call. Black and Brown young people have been calling for police-free schools and standing up against police violence for years. Too often city leaders and adults dismiss the brilliance, expertise, and revolutionary work of youth. Don’t be one of them. Listen, believe, and support young people.

2. School policing is not a response to mass shootings. School policing, like all policing, is rooted in the further oppression and criminalization of Black youth who fight for their rights and dignity every day. Police presence in Black schools started in the 1930s, and began increasing after the civil rights movement, when Black youth protested for equitable education. Black teachers, Black history courses, and more resources were met with police in militarized gear. Sound familiar?

3. “Police in schools create the bridge from the school to the prison pipeline. That’s an experience that no child should have.” —Raven, 18 years old. Students of color across the country are assaulted by school police at a rate of about one assault per week. (The Advancement Project, a nonprofit focused on racial justice issues, defines “assault” as any time police hurts or harms a student for any reason.) When police are in our schools, students of color are more likely to be arrested and more likely to experience violence. In 2019, 100 percent of school-based arrests in D.C. were of students of color. (The 2019 School Report Card indicates that there were 338 total arrests of students across the District: 312 of the arrests were of Black students and 26 of the arrests were of Latinx students. 104 of the arrests were for students with disabilities.) These higher discipline rates are not due to higher rates of misbehavior,

but instead to systemic racism. We cannot end the school-to-prison pipeline without burning the bridge between schools and prisons.

4. Say it with me: Black youth are NOT criminal. Black youth are NOT violent. The most disheartening reason I hear about why police are needed in our schools is rooted in the racist, harmful narrative that Black youth are violent and that police need to protect us from them and them from each other. This is the “super predator” narrative that was used to justify stop-and-frisk, and harsher, longer sentences for Black people throughout the county.

It is simply not true. The actions of Black youth that we often rely on police to address tend to be acts of survival, normal expressions of adolescent behavior, or responses to trauma. The difference is in white affluent schools, those actions are met with resources instead of cops.

Schools with a majority Black student population are three times more likely than majority white schools to have more security staff than mental health personnel. We must stop normalizing the policing, surveillance, and criminalization of our youth. It is not normal! “Police in schools are scary. You’re carrying around a gun in an educational environment with children.

Why?!”—Sameya, 16 years old.

5. Policing our youth and our communities is ineffective and expensive, and it is taking away from essential resources our youth need to live and thrive. The dollars city leaders choose to direct to more policing could be used instead to invest in our communities, in the people of this city. In Mayor [Muriel Bowser]’s proposed budget, she chose to prioritize adding 17 more armed police in our schools with 2.5 million dollars, instead of twice the amount of mental health support to address the trauma that our youth are holding. D.C is the most policed jurisdiction in America. The Metropolitan Police Department’s budget is more than half a billion dollars and it continues to go up. This reliance on increased police presence and disregard for and divestment in community needs has resulted only in a continued increase in both interpersonal and state-sanctioned violence. “Instead of investing so much money for police in schools, it should be used to obtain more resources involving social workers, mental health specialists, nurses and therapists.”

—Carla, 17 years old.

6. Police violence does not just occur in Minneapolis, or Florida, or Oakland, or New York. Police violence is happening every day in D.C., from jump-outs to the harassment and handcuffing of Black youth as young as 9 years old. D.C. police are also responsible for the killing of Ralphael Briscoe, 18, D’Quan Young, 24, Marqueese Alston, 22, and Jeffrey Price, 22. The same police responsible for the trauma and deaths inflicted on our communities are the same police that are in our schools policing and criminalizing our youth. We cannot continue to put our youth in harm’s way. “Instead of maintaining a good environment for kids, they make us scared and escalate situations.

Students spend so much of their time in school, they deserve to be comfortable and not afraid.”

—Tamika, 14

Jonathan Butler BYP100 DC Organizer “And tomorrow I’ll wake” I And we open the scene with love warriors singing battle cries to the oceans and beating their feet to the cadence of laughter. the spell they cast ruptures mountaintops that level worries down to a smooth whisper. springs bursting from the bellies of old and young spirits alike. the block bounces from ear to ear with the riots of this year’s harvest. the only unfortunate thing we witnessed were dinner tables splitting open making more room for love to breathe in the aroma of fears being swallowed into the quiet void. we make symphonies with the way we hold the corners of each other’s smiles. letting the darkness we used to carry so freely retreat into distant memory II And the scene shifts to the moment of truth a pulsing hum begins to shake the floor as terror rips the thin veil between paradise and peril exchanging growing freedom for rituals of mourning spoiled tongues turn to the sky to curse the gods that would cause despair to choke the evening air and dispel chills that reach the back of our throats inspiring awe at the very thought of perfection of glory of a future absent of the fractures that make us human III And tomorrow i’ll wake To the possibility of all the ways That a community can become a garden And mourn and hurt and love and heal Just to come out on the other side of What was meant to bury us Radical and in bloom

washingtoncitypaper.com june 19, 2020 5

SPORTS

Voices Carry Black athletes use their public platforms to fight for racial justice.

Courtesy Natasha Cloud

Natasha Cloud

By Kelyn Soong @KelynSoong Natasha Cloud almost forgot about her assignment. The Washington Mystics guard had agreed to write an essay for The Players’ Tribune about the upcoming WNBA season

and the league’s new collective bargaining agreement, but her mind was in Minneapolis, where thousands of people were protesting following the killing of George Floyd.

The video of the incident shook Cloud. She called her editors and told them she couldn’t write—not about basketball, anyway. Instead,

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Cloud used her voice and platform as a black professional athlete to issue a direct challenge to anyone remaining neutral and not speaking out against anti-black racism and police brutality.

“If you’re silent,” Cloud wrote in the article published May 30, five days after Floyd’s death, “I don’t fuck with you, period.”

Professional athletes, particularly black athletes, have faced repercussions for verbalizing far less. In 2016, then-San Francisco 49ers quar terback Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem before games to protest police violence and the oppression of black people in the United States. He has not played in the NFL since the end of that season. It took a week’s worth of global protests after Floyd’s killing for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to even admit that the league was wrong for not listening to players, like Kaepernick, who protested peacefully.

And as much as some fans want sports to exist outside the reality of the world, athletics and activism are as interconnected as they have ever been during this moment in America. Black athletes of all ages continue to lead the way.

“I don’t know if it’s comfort [in being outspoken], but I know a lot of athletes are uncomfortable with where we are right now in the country,” says Cloud, who joined thousands of people in Philadelphia on Saturday, June 6, to protest anti-black racism and police violence. “They’re uncomfortable. So their uncomfortableness is pushing them out of their comfort levels, and it’s pushing them into taking a stance and saying something and stepping up to the plate where they necessarily haven’t before.”

Likewise, fans praised the Washington Wizards for the united statement from players released shortly after Floyd’s death. “We will no longer tolerate the assasination of people of color in this country. We will no longer accept the abuse of power from law enforcement,” the statement reads. “We will no longer accept ineffective government leaders who are tone-deaf, lack compassion or respect for communities of color. We will no longer shut up and dribble.”

Players told the Washington Post that Wizards guard Bradley Beal was the catalyst behind the words, and the team later released a joint statement with the Mystics that went further, demanding justice and that leaders “hear the cries of our black communities.”

But other local teams haven’t been as explicit regarding their support for the Black Lives Matter movement or fights against racial injustice. Earlier this month, fans blasted the Nationals for the team’s bland, uninspired statement that called for unity but left out the words “black,” “African American,” or “police.” The majority of NBA players are black, and MLB players are overwhelmingly white.

While some players on the local NFL team, including quarterback Dwayne Haskins Jr., have attended protests, and coach Ron Rivera has said he will support players who

choose to kneel during the national anthem, the recent protests for racial justice have also renewed pressure for the team to change its racist name.

Kenneth Shropshire, the CEO of the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University and the author of the book In Black and White: Race and Sports in America, isn’t surprised to see so many black athletes speaking up.

“At its core, this is about police brutality, police misconduct, and police murder,” he says. “And unfortunately, black athletes included, many black people have encountered that directly or almost for sure have family members or friends who have, so there is something that compels you to get involved in this.”

Shropshire also believes that the lack of leadership in the White House has led to a “vacuum” where vocal athlete activists have filled the void. He credits LeBron James’ public activism, which began in earnest nearly a decade ago, as a turning point for other athletes.

In 201 2, after Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, was shot to death by a neighbor in Florida, James posted a photo of himself and the rest of the Miami Heat wearing hooded sweatshirts that partially obscured their faces with the caption #WeWantJustice.

“When LeBron stepped out ... that signaled a new day, that it was OK, a superstar is doing this,” Shropshire says, pointing out displays of solidarity that the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA and players on the St. Louis Rams made in subsequent years.

In the pre-LeBron era, many high-profile athletes were reluctant to voice their opinions about issues they viewed as controversial for fear of affecting their bottom line. Michael Jordan once told teammates, “Republicans buy sneakers, too,” as a way of explaining his aversion to political statements. (Jordan recently clarified that he made the comment in jest.)

“There certainly were some, but not en masse, and not the superstars,” Shropshire says of athlete activists during Jordan’s era.

Black athletes who did speak up were vilified, like Kaepernick, before ultimately being celebrated for their courage years or decades later. Muhammad Ali famously refused to be drafted for the Vietnam War in 1967, resulting in him being stripped of his heavyweight title.

In one of the most indelible moments in Olympic history, American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos both raised a black-gloved fist to protest for human rights and raise awareness of the racism that black people in America faced during the medal ceremony for the men’s 200-meter race at the 1968 Mexico City Games. The two were expelled from the Games and sent home.

More than 50 years later, some of the same barriers remain in place. The International Olympic Committee still bans political

demonstrations, and a section of sports fans refuse to accept that sports and politics exist in the same world. Cloud says she was “really surprised” by the amount of love she received for her Players’ Tribune article, but that people still leave “ignorant comments” on her social media feeds. In the essay, Cloud praises reigning WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne, a white teammate, for her support and activism.

“We do have a very, very important and powerful entity in this particular situation,” Smith tells City Paper in a phone call from his home in Stone Mountain, Georgia, referring to athlete activists. “Back in 1968, we didn’t have much help in doing this, but there were a few of us that stood up, put our lives on the line. Now here it is again. Nothing has really changed.”

When professional sports return to the U.S. later this month, expect to see more athletes taking a stance. It’s already happening. Washington Spirit rookie Kaiya McCullough plans to kneel during the national anthem at National Women’s Soccer League matches, as she did while playing at UCLA. Several NBA players, including Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving and Lakers center Dwight Howard, have argued that the league’s return-to-play plan would be a “distraction” from the protests and have

“We do have a very, very important and powerful entity in this particular situation.

Back in 1968, we didn’t have much help in doing this, but there were a few of us that stood up, put our lives on the line. Now here it is again. Nothing has really changed.” considered sitting out the season, which is expected to resume in late July at the ESPN World of Sports Complex in Disney World.

Young black athletes, like 16-year-old tennis star Coco Gauff, have taken it upon themselves to be a voice of the marginalized.

“I stand back as proud as anyone you could ever imagine,” Smith says. “Because back in

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SPORTS

Tommie Smith the day, I did what I thought was necessary to move forward, I didn’t have very many people backing me because it was one of the first ones, it was something that had never been done before by athletes.”

The potential professional ramifications of writing her article didn’t concern Cloud.

“I’m not that player that won’t speak up out

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of fear [of] losing endorsements or not getting endorsements,” she says. “That’s the reality of who I am and what I believe in ... I’ll never not speak up about an issue. I’ll never not use my voice about an issue out of just repercussions for that.”

About a week after the article was published, Converse announced Cloud as the first WNBA player to have an endorsement deal with the shoe brand. Cloud’s activism is part of the reason why the company wanted her on its roster.

Earlier this month, professional stock car racing driver Bubba Wallace successfully got NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag at its events. Maya Moore, one of the most accomplished women’s basketball players in history, announced in February 2019 that she would not play in the WNBA that season to focus on her faith and life outside of basketball. She has found a passion as an advocate for criminal justice reform. Moore plans on sitting out this season as well.

“You can no longer just be an athlete,” Cloud says. “Because we have this platform, and all eyes are on us, instead of looking at it as something negative and seeing it as a microscope on you at all times, look at it as there’s a microphone surrounding you at all times, and you can use it in such a positive light. And I think you’re seeing that, now more than ever, people understand that.”

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All we have is our home and our neighbors. Our home is not just the physical space we may occupy or the city where we may dwell. It’s also the third planet from the sun in the solar system. Our neighbors are not just next door; they’re everywhere.

There are billions of them: people, and plants and animals, too.

In our daily lives, especially right now, we exist in our own spaces where, sometimes, it’s hard to see outside of those boundaries.

But the AFI DOCS Film Festival grabs you from your space and sends you on trips around the U.S. and across the globe to visit with people in Boston, Colombia, Bhutan, Kenya, and many other locales. The festival presents the stories of us: our planet, our people, our time. This year’s festival is virtual—the physical festival was a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic—and viewers can watch the films at home. Even though you may not be seeing the films in a theater setting, they still have the power to transport you, no matter where you’re watching them.

—Kayla Randall

9to5: The Story of a Movement Directed by Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar USA

This year’s AFI DOCS festival heads online.

Illustration by Maddie Goldstein

9to5: The Story of a Movement is billed as a look behind the curtain at the real-life movement that inspired the film 9 to 5, but it’s actually more of a step-by-step guide to unionizing a workplace. It begins on the cusp of the 1970s, a decade during which millions of women would enter the workforce, but mostly as “college-educated women doing incredibly dull work,” as we hear very early on. From there, connected strands of anti-war, anti-racist, and feminist activism combine in a set of women who unite the clerical workers of Boston to fight back against the sexual harassment, low pay, and discrimination they face at work.

The film is a snappy labor history that takes care not to get too starstruck by its celebrity connections and to be honest about the movement’s failures as well as its triumphs. While Jane Fonda appears both in flashback and in the present, she’s not the star of the show, beyond the memorable scene where she asks a room of women, “Does anyone here have fantasies about killing their boss?” They all did. Viewers are made to wait nearly 45 minutes for the iconic Dolly Parton song, though it pays off beautifully when we do get it.

Just as things seem to really get going for the 9to5 movement, though, it collides with a rapidly changing workforce and the union-busting Reagan years. The defeat stings, but it’s followed by causes for hope, like a brief shot of the 2017 Women’s March.

What’s meant to really inspire, though, are the shots of unionized domestic workers and fast food workers striking, chanting, and carrying Fight for $15 signs—organized actions that have much more of a claim to 9to5’s legacy.

—Emma Sarappo Available June 19 for 24 hours 8 june 19, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

First Vote Directed by Yi Chen USA Every four years, pundits and campaigners scour the electorate to find the demographic that could be the hidden key to the presidential election. First Vote makes the case for the Asian American vote. According to the onscreen text that opens the film, it’s a strong case: Five million Asian Americans voted in 2016, and one-third of them were first-time voters.

But which way do they lean? We never find out. The film eschews data analysis and instead provides portraits of a handful of Asian American voters and their disparate politics. There’s a middle-class professional from Ohio who hates illegal immigration, balanced by a North Carolina professor who teaches race theory and thinks Republicans are neofascists—a neat microcosm of the American population at large, ideologically split and resistant to political persuasion.

First Vote never really finds its narrative. It’s loosely centered around the 2018 election—a Senate race in Ohio, and a ballot initiative requiring a photo ID to vote in North Carolina—but it fails to create any dramatic movement. Story feels like an afterthought, and the film seems content to simply elevate a few Asian American voices, regardless of what they have to say—and in a culture that rarely makes room for those voices, this is important. A documentary with more curiosity and insight would have amplified those voices even more.

—Noah Gittell Available June 19 for 24 hours

Miracle Fishing Directed by Miles Hargrove, with co-director Christopher Birge USA

Miracle Fishing, a gripping documentary shot by the family of a kidnapping victim, is an antidote to the fictional fantasies of Hollywood action films that use kidnapping as a plot device.

It’s the true story of the Hargroves, an American family living in Colombia in the 1990s. When Mike, a husband and father of three, is kidnapped and held for ransom by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, his wife and children snap into action to bring him back home. But there are no rogue antiterrorist warriors here. Instead, they ask a family friend to negotiate with the cartels, and they hire two professional ransom consultants to advise.

We follow this family through a yearlong process that is unbearably tense, but soon comes to feel routine; a situation the family lives with, rather than an acute crisis. Filmed by one of the Hargrove sons, Miracle Fishing captures the agonizing uncertainty surrounding their loved one’s return, but it also shows the humanity of family. They share meals together. They argue over what music to listen to while waiting for the kidnappers to call them. They play with their dogs, who are thrilled to have so many people in the house. It eventually reaches a dramatic conclusion,

but by then Miracle Fishing has revealed itself not to be a kidnapping thriller, but a portrait of a loving family that emerges stronger after being tested.

—Noah Gittell Available June 19 for 24 hours

Freedia Got A Gun Directed by Chris McKim USA

Director Jerry Rothwell uses The Reason I Jump, a 2007 book by Naoki Higashida, a Japanese teenager with autism, as his starting point. Higashida describes his mental state with a keen mix of insight and metaphor, while Rothwell’s subjects illustrate the points he makes. A person in Arlington is able to use an alphabet grid to make complex thoughts, one letter at a time. Another person in India cannot speak at all, but is a talented painter whose work gets a gallery opening. One young man in England didn’t mature beyond childhood because of how his autism affected his brain.

Rothwell’s observant documentary reveals the trials and personalities of each of these people, as well as what their families go through to ensure their children have a rich life. It is easy for neurotypical people to wave off the austistic community, saying, “Oh, they prefer to be alone,” but they yearn for many of the same comforts we do. Higashida illustrates why dependability and routine can provide such comfort for people without verbal language, and this film is thoroughly enlightening, simply by taking the time to observe and listen. It has the power to permanently change how you think about and consider a community you may not have understood.

—Alan Zilberman Available June 20 for 24 hours

Sing Me A Song Big Freedia’s voice is the voice of New Orleans. It’s a booming, instantly recognizable sound for many people from south Louisiana, and when coupled with a bounce beat, it’s an irresistible call to dance and be joyous.

New Orleans is synonymous with its culture—the food, music, language, people, and places that you won’t find anywhere else.

But as is illustrated in the documentary Freedia Got A Gun, for the people who live there, the city can also be synonymous with gun violence, which continues to disproportionately impact Black communities. The bounce music icon’s own story is laced with gun violence: Freedia was shot in 2004, and survived. Freedia’s brother, Adam Ross, was shot and killed in 2018. The film takes viewers on a journey with Freedia through the area, and it covers the effects of everything from mass incarceration to Hurricane Katrina on the psyche of the people in the city.

We hear often from local educator Ashonta Wyatt; New York Times columnist, author, and Louisiana native Charles M. Blow; and many people from the city who talk about the nature of generational, cyclical Black pain and trauma, looking deeply into how and why this problem has plagued New Orleans for so long. As a Black woman born and raised in south Louisiana who loves Big Freedia’s music and cares deeply about the people of New Orleans and the people all across my home state, this film speaks to me. But this film is also for everyone — everyone needs to understand the plight of Black people growing up and living in poverty, and dealing with gun violence at increasingly young ages. At one point during the film, a middle school boy recalls that when he was 7, he held his father as he died slowly in his arms from a gunshot wound.

With this film, Freedia highlights the importance of community in ending violence, and shows how community is ultimately our greatest strength. Freedia Got A Gun is necessary viewing.

—Kayla Randall Available June 20 for 24 hours

The Reason I Jump Directed by Jerry Rothwell UK The Reason I Jump is a quiet, empathetic film about several young people with autism from all over the world who are unable to speak.

Directed by Thomas Balmès France/Germany/Switzerland For those of us with internet access, a life without it can be hard to imagine. It sometimes feels like our collective well-being is tied to whatever is happening in our iMessages, Slack channels, and Twitter and Netflix accounts, and social isolation has only underscored that reliance. In Sing Me A Song (emphasis on the initials SMS), director Thomas Balmès invites us to wonder whether our lives might be better without Wi-Fi connections.

Laya, a village in Bhutan, a Buddhist nation on the eastern edge of the Himalayas, recently became the last region on Earth to connect to television and the internet. Sing Me A Song begins there, with an 8-year-old named Peyangki who is determined to become a monk. Donning a shaved head and traditional kasaya

robe, Peyangki reveals that he is both excited and terrified for the imminent arrival of electricity and the internet. Fast-forward 10 years, and the shrill sound of a smartphone alarm sounding early in the morning, followed by an 18-year-old Peyangki casually rolling over to turn it off, reveals that Laya looks a little more like the rest of the world now.

The bulk of Sing Me A Song follows 18-year-old Peyangki, who appears less interested in being a monk and more interested in his smartphone and the people it connects him to—especially Ugyen, a woman he met in a chatroom. The prospect of Peyangki abandoning the monastery to join Ugyen in Bhutan’s capital city of Thimpu gives Sing Me A Song a gripping plot, but too-perfect shots of incredibly intimate conversations—such as Ugyen and Peyangki’s first meeting, during which she reveals that she has washingtoncitypaper.com june 19, 2020 9

a child—make it read more like reality television directed by Balmès than a documentary. The film is also dripping in moral judgement about technology, and unfortunately misses the opportunity to paint a fuller picture of Peyangki in favor of delivering a rudimentary lecture about how young people spend too much time on their phones.

—Ella Feldman

an unfortunate part of the present. The Letter, directed by Christopher King and Maia Lekow, chronicles the growing problem there, where elderly citizens are scapegoated as witches by the young. In some cases, a younger family member is simply

Available June 21 for 24 hours

herculean effort that goes into this work.

A narrative emerges in Through the Night about Hogan’s health, although Limbal reveals it slowly. As a middle-aged woman who is always on her feet, all it takes is one bad episode and a potential calamity can ensue. It should not have to be this hard, and child care centers should not have to operate with a constant spirit of sacrifice. This is the rare gentle and heartfelt film that nonetheless may provoke your sense of anger for justice. —Alan Zilberman Available June 21 for 24 hours

Blood on the Wall The Dilemma of Desire

Directed by Nick Quested and Sebastian Junger USA Five years ago, the Netflix original series Narcos captured audiences around the world with the dramatic story of Pablo Escobar, the Colombian leader of the Medellín drug cartel who made a fortune distributing cocaine in the 1980s. The acclaimed show was renewed for multiple seasons and produced a companion series, Narcos: Mexico, all of them chronicling sagas of Mexican and Central American drug cartels at the end of the 20th century.

Blood on the Wall is a stark reminder that narcotraficantes are not just binge-worthy characters, but real, powerful people who continue to run massive businesses throughout North and Central America. This National Geographic documentary attempts to explain how drug cartels have tipped the scales of power and affected the lives of everyday people in Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and, primarily, Mexico.

Dozens of experts, including American and Mexican journalists, writers, government officials, and former Mexican president Felipe Calderón, talk at length about Mexican history and political corruption, but the most gripping voices are those of people tangled up in the web of drug trafficking and government cor-

Directed by Maria Finitzo USA

trying to place the burden of their own failures on their elders and the situation is resolved easily with a cleansing before a local religious leader. In other cases, the accusation is a pretense for stealing land from the elderly, in which violence can and often does follow.

The film doesn’t seek to uncover the social conditions that led to the trends, although it hints that the growing influence of Christianity is a factor. Instead, we follow one such accusation against Margaret, the Christian matriarch of a family in a small village. Accused by her stepson, she takes the situation in stride, even as the sadness of being betrayed by a man she helped raise threatens to overwhelm her. Her grandson, who she also raised, comes to help negotiate a resolution.

The Letter is as much a portrait of a culture as it is a chronicling of one family’s situation. The passivity with which Margaret approaches her accusation is a distinct difference between the hyper-defensiveness with which we approach conflict here in the U.S. But it fits her world. As we watch her and her family quietly grapple with their conflict, the film meditates on the ongoing life in her small village. Shots of children hacking away at coconuts and animals grazing in fields fill in the empty spaces formed from the unanswered questions the film asks. The Letter is a film you’ll want to read deeply.

—Noah Gittell Available June 21 for 24 hours

Through the Night Directed by Loira Limbal USA ruption themselves. We meet Central American migrants fleeing violence and journeying through Mexico to reach the United States, farmers who know nothing besides working on poppy fields, and people involved in the drug trade at every level: crystal meth cooks, armed drug traffickers, and unassuming drug mules. They’re all given some level of anonymity, leading many to share intimate details about themselves. “I wanted to be a doctor,” one man says as he loads the trunk of a car with cocaine.

—Ella Feldman Available June 21 for 24 hours

The Letter Directed by Maia Lekow and Christopher King Kenya Accusations of witchcraft represent an infamous slice of American history, but for the people of Kenya, it’s 10 june 19, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

There are important, hard debates happening right now about the child care system in the United States. It was precarious before the novel coronavirus pandemic began, despite being a pillar of working and middle-class communities. Through the Night is not a polemic about child care, or a policy brief about suggested reforms. Instead, it shows the hard work that goes into operating one child care center.

Dee’s Tots Child Care in New Rochelle, New York, is one of the good ones. The center is clean, vibrant, and the kids usually have some activity to do. It is run by Deloris Hogan—the kids call her “Nunu”—and for her, it is more than a job. She loves and nurtures these kids, working constantly so their parents are able to go out and earn a living. Director Loira Limbal does not profile any of the kids, focusing most of her attention on Hogan and her colleagues.

Her patience is saintlike. There are no “problem children,” yet these kids have constant, specific needs. Hogan also provides overnight care for parents who work graveyard shifts, and there is no real opportunity for rest. There are endless opportunities to complain, but she is not resentful or desperate. She and Limbal simply want everyone, not just parents, to internalize the

Nearly nine minutes into The Dilemma of Desire, a briefly visible poster in artist Sophia Wallace’s workshop sums up the film’s argument, for better or for worse. “Freedom in society can be measured by the distribution of orgasms,” it reads. Wallace’s work, and the documentary, revolves around uplifting the clitoris to push back against the misogynistic society that consistently fails to study it, talk about it, or teach young women about their own sexual pleasure or power. The cause is understandable: Girls grow up in a profoundly sex-negative culture that actively denies them basic understandings of their own body (for example, the fact that the clitoris is much larger than is externally visible, or that vaginal penetration alone usually isn’t enough to bring someone to orgasm). But the analysis is shaky. Is closing

the “orgasm gap” the key to undoing patriarchy? Though it makes stabs at a larger philosophy, for the most part, the film seems to think so.

Dilemma is most interesting when it’s examining the social and sexual lives of young women, like when a small group discusses how they communicate their needs to a partner for the first time. And it follows a genuinely diverse group of subjects, including scientists, designers, and young people, some who already seem confident and self-actualized and others who are coming into themselves. A film more focused on them than Wallace’s CLITERACY, 100 Natural Laws, a text installation with pithy quotes like “The hole is not the whole” and “Democracy without cliteracy? Phallusy” would be a more subtle, and maybe more effective, look at how women understand their own pleasure. CLITERACY first debuted in 2012 in a fairly different feminist climate. About an hour in, Wallace discusses her idea of her clitoris art as “queer and open to everyone” and as “focused on power,” largely retreading her 2013 response to criticism that the project was transphobic and reductionist. Little has changed in how she thinks of the art.

Ultimately, the documentary doesn’t seem interested in asking what purpose, say, the vibrator on a necklace that San Francisco-based designer Ti Chang sells serves beyond starting conversations (and giving orgasms). Is that really a tool of liberation? Or is it just another thing to buy? —Emma Sarappo Available June 21 for 24 hours A full selection of AFI DOCS films is available at https://docs.afi.com/2020/all/alpha/all/

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FOOD YOUNG & HUNGRY

Instant Messages

Aba Kwawu

Black public relations professionals evaluate the anti-racist statements restaurants rushed to post on social media.

“I didn’t have time to think or feel. I jumped into the fire. That’s what we do,” says TAA Public Relations founder Aba Kwawu. When streets filled with people protesting anti-black racism and police violence following the killing of George Floyd, restaurants and other businesses rushed to react or express solidarity on social media. Kwawu’s clients called around the clock asking for advice.

“I was thrown, in the middle of the night, into writing statements,” she says. “My first question was, ‘How do you feel?’ I didn’t want to put words in anybody’s mouth. Once they told me what their true feelings were, I could say, ‘OK, how do we convey that in words?’”

Even her restaurant clients who sustained property damage wanted to express compassion for others. “There was truly heartfelt care for the family of George Floyd, for the people who were in pain or are in pain,” Kwawu says.

“It wasn’t bullshit. It was good for me to start from that place.”

Because public relations professionals like Kwawu craft messages for a living, they can recognize what’s sincere and what’s lip service. It’s part of the work they do year-round.

“We talk to our clients about racial injustice, anti-racism, and diversity constantly, because it’s part of our job to be a strategic advisor,” says Ashley Mason-Greene, a freelance public relations strategist and owner of Evergreene Group Public Relations. “A lot of that work is done behind the scenes. It can be steering a client in another direction or vetoing a name or idea they have. It’s insisting certain bloggers and writers are invited to events or calling clients out in moments where something offensive occurs.”

City Paper asked Kwawu, Mason-Greene, and three other black publicists who represent clients in the D.C. hospitality industry to assess restaurants’ public statements in response to recent events. Some rushed to scrawl lukewarm messages of support for the Black Lives Matter movement that weren’t tied to anything actionable. A few admitted mistakes and pledged to do some soul searching.

Darrow Montgomery

By Laura Hayes @LauraHayesDC

“People don’t know what to say or do right now,” Kwawu says. “In real time, there are mistakes that are going to be made.”

What kinds of messages did you react positively to?

Whitney Stringer, principal at Whitney Stringer PR & Events, wants to give businesses who tried participation trophies. “There’s a number of restaurants I frequent in my neighborhood that haven’t said anything,” she says.

The silence is deafening. “If you tried, that’s one tick in your box.”

That said, Stringer most respects restaurants that donated time or money, committed to taking action, or said they’re taking steps to listen to their black employees and customers. “I know restaurants are struggling right now and aren’t in a position to donate,” she says. “I’m not judging the size of your donation. You can even refer people to organizations worth supporting.”

When restaurants clearly describe what steps they’re taking to fight for racial justice in the workplace, it makes it easier for the public to hold them accountable in the future. “I’d love to see a check-in report on Juneteenth 2021,” Stringer says. “You can’t change overnight.”

Three 8 Communications founder and chief publicist Adra Williams agrees restaurants should get credit for trying “even if they got it wrong.” She also notes that some restaurants made donations or fed protestors quietly in lieu of posting on social media. “Whatever it is you’re doing to help energize the movement, I’m all for it, whether you’re posting or not.”

Mostly though, Williams looks for restaurant

12 june 19, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

owners who confessed to perpetuating systemic racism in their industry. “What moved me are messages of self-realization,” she says. “People who said, ‘I’m guilty of things that are being placed in the forefront.’”

Several publicists held up restaurateur Erik Bruner-Yang’s post as a good example. “I think it is important to reflect and then acknowledge my role in systematic racism and the role I’ve played in it,” he wrote on Facebook on May 31. “The times that I have not spoken up because it would impact me financially or the times I have poorly led my company and made decisions that weren’t racist in intent or nature, but in the end made someone feel less than and marginalized. It is not just about realizing my privilege but holding myself accountable for my role and the times I have failed.”

“I truly appreciated someone like Erik saying, ‘Wow, this is a moment of reckoning— before I can tell other people what to do, let me start at home,’” Kwawu says. “That’s so real.”

In his message, Bruner-Yang commits to doing the work to make dining rooms and kitchens safe and equitable spaces for people of color.

“Like #MeToo, this is another huge moment,” Kwawu continues. “Another culture shift for restaurants.”

“We all have space to grow,” Stringer adds. “If they’re willing to say, ‘These are the steps we’re taking and how I’m looking at myself’—I’d much rather you do that than give $1,000 to NAACP.” What messages disappointed you?

“After no message at all, it was all of the black squares,” Stringer says. On June 2,

which became known as #BlackOutTuesday, Instagram was awash with one solid black tile after another. Some posts tagged #BlackLivesMatter, making it harder for those leading protests to organize.

Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, black women who work in music, created the hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused to ask their industry to pause to consider how corporations and people in positions of power capitalize on “the efforts, struggles and successes of black people.” They sought to change the conversation, not mute it, and never called for people to post black squares or tag #BlackLivesMatter.

While most posts were well intentioned, the squares were an easy way for brands to feign solidarity without resolving to change. “They needed to be accompanied by some messaging on what you’re doing,” Stringer says. She would have been satisfied if brands accompanied their squares with a vow to share their action plans in a few weeks. “When something doesn’t feel super genuine, that feels like an additional blow,” she says.

Savor PR founder Charissa Benjamin agrees black squares with no significant comment don’t go far enough. She compares #BlackOutTuesday to when Americans posted vanity shots in front of the Eiffel Tower after the 2015 attacks when terrorists killed more than 100 people in and around Paris. “When I talked to clients who wanted to say something or do something, my advice was just that—the squares are an empty gesture,” she says.

Some businesses elected to couple their statements with advertisements attempting to sell

GET YOUR SMALL BUSINESS UP TO

FOOD products. It was jarring to read emails from restaurants that opened with statements condemning anti-black racism and continued on to promote their latest tasting menu or natural wine selections.

“My guidance would be not to conflate messaging,” Stringer says. “If you’re talking about Black Lives Matter, the rest has to be about amplifying black voices. Promotions shouldn’t be tied to your social justice conversation.”

Williams calls it opportunistic and cautions restaurants against diluting messages. “There are a lot of people who are making sacrifices to move the movement forward without pushing for their own personal gain, which shows true solidarity,” she says. “I’m not mad at you for trying to make money, but don’t attach it to something that has nothing to do with it.”

She’s worried this moment is not going to last, so businesses must make every word count. “We have to be as diligent as we can in capturing people’s attention,” Williams says. Accordingly, she was most bothered by business owners who used their platforms to complain about the damage their buildings sustained during the protests.

Mason-Greene believes some restaurants have an even greater responsibility to tackle the tough topics. “The messages that disappointed me the most were from brands that I feel benefit from black culture that aren’t black-owned,” she says. “It seemed again that they were using black people as props, black culture as a prop.

The ones that didn’t have any action attached to them were disappointing to see.”

She attributes some missteps to rushing. “I’m willing to consider that maybe they needed a few more days to think about their role in all of this,” Mason-Greene says. “We’re going to see a lot more squares on Instagram that are apologies and action plans based off of former workers calling them out because the business hasn’t lived, in their daily interactions, that black lives matter to them.”

What advice do you have for restaurants moving forward?

Benjamin likens watching social media posts from restaurants roll out over the course of a week to going through the stages of grief.

“Things were happening at such a fast pace,” she says. “I advised our clients that it was best to wait until you had a better understanding of what you wanted to do and for it to be as meaningful as possible … I think everyone jumped on the bandwagon quickly. The gravity of the situation requires a serious response and a meaningful message. You don’t have to be first.”

Going forward, Benjamin advises business owners to ensure their messages are followed by forward progress. “It’s not simply about hiring more black, indigenous, or people of color,” she says. “Are you treating them fairly and equally?

Are you looking at your own biases that exist?

People aren’t doing enough emotional digging.

It’s a messy and ugly topic, but part of moving forward has to be cathartic. We need to have open discussions of rights and wrongs.”

She also urges people in top positions to get ahead of the narrative. “I can’t shake the feeling

that there are a lot more scandals to be uncovered, and businesses owners and leaders should be proactive,” Benjamin says. “If an owner or someone in a leadership position has said or done hurtful things in the past, get ahead of it and own it before someone outs you on Twitter.”

“Do the work,” Stringer advises. “It might take you scrolling through articles, listening to podcasts, speaking to employees, and speaking to friends who are willing to talk to you. If it doesn’t come to you in your Instagram feed, you have to go get it. This is D.C., there are black people all around you.”

“If you’re a restaurant owner who’s torn over what to do, ask people in your circle,” Williams says. “We don’t expect people to continue donating. If you have that gut feeling that maybe there’s something wrong with your staff, that it looks a little non-diverse, make changes like that. Acknowledge the thing in your head where you play favorites. Face it head on and get rid of it.”

What would you like to see from the journalists you work with?

Publicists are an important resource for journalists and business owners. They pitch ideas in hopes of getting their clients’ work highlighted and they facilitate interviews and other requests for information when reporters can’t get a chef on the phone. But not everyone can afford to have a PR firm on retainer, especially small mom and pop restaurants.

“Make a concerted effort to make sure black and other voices are part of the conversation,” Stringer tells writers. “I recognize the difficulty.

It’s hard to correspond with restaurants. That’s why it’s easy to work with a publicist. You try to call and no one is answering. It’s harder work finding black- and brown-owned restaurants that don’t have great strategic communications or a point person. I know it’s harder, but the effort to make sure they’re included in those conversations is so important.”

Williams wants to see black chefs get a fair shake even if they can’t afford a publicist. “I know the flow of information to journalists is partially to blame for that,” she says. “But it’s up to journalists to step outside their inbox to taste and see and meet people.” Doing so comes with the added bonus of boosting readership. “People in the black community don’t feel connected to news. If where they patronize doesn’t get covered, why would they read it?” she asks.

Mason-Greene and Kwawu feel frustrated when they see black-owned businesses grouped together in listicles or relegated to round-ups.

“There’s this everyday lack of acknowledgement of us as equal people that I feel is prevalent in every system we live in, including food media and education,” Mason-Greene says.

“I want the media to keep their foot on the gas.

This is lifelong work.”

“Don’t just say, ‘Here’s a list of black-owned places,’” Kwawu emphasizes. “Who is the person who owns the coffee shop? How did a chef come up with their recipes? Cover it the same way anyone would be covered. Tell our stories.

We have a lot to say.”

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ARTS

How D.C.’s new virtual literary and storytelling world has become more accessible

By Hannah Grieco Contributing Writer Back in March, at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown, we began to focus on the basics. We worried about food and toilet paper, about helping our kids with virtual schooling. We prepared for a short period of sheltering in place.

But that time at home lengthened, and as our idea of normal slowly redefined itself, our need for the arts returned quickly and urgently.

Nowhere was this more evident than the D.C. literary and storytelling scenes. With events canceled and bookstores closed, writers had to find new ways to find inspiration and share their work.

To the surprise of many, the literary arts are bouncing back quickly and in exciting new ways.

The virtual landscape is shifting our collective idea of what an event even is, and with that change, D.C.’s literary scene is becoming more accessible to its writers and readers, some of whom cannot attend in-person events due to a variety of factors.

Zoom readings are packed now, drawing far more attendees than in-person events used to.

Workshops and literary happy hours fill quickly.

And virtual book launches continue to help authors reach readers.

These changes are good, opening doors that used to be locked. They also bring up difficult conversations and questions that are long overdue.

Laura Zam is a well-known D.C. writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times’ “Modern Love” column and Salon. Her candid new memoir, The Pleasure Plan, launched in early May, a time when many authors were struggling to find their footing.

“I came to realize that the restrictions presented by COVID-19 would be with my family, and our nation, for a very long time,” Zam says.

“It was time to find solutions.”

Zam dove into her online literary communities on Facebook, one of which focused on books that were about to be released by women and nonbinary writers.

“I’d been semi-active in this group, but I quickly got really engaged,” she says. “Every day, I learned so much from others who were in a very similar boat—launching during a plague.

We started creating opportunities for each other.

Someone started author interviews on Twitter several times a week. Two other writers offered

14 june 19, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

Jessica Haney

Mari Springer

Open Invitation

video interviews, even setting up panels, then streaming live on Facebook.”

She started Adopt Five Books, where 50 authors each chose 5 books to commit to reviewing and promoting. The authors came from a variety of backgrounds, with books ranging from memoirs to novels to essay collections.

“I don’t know if we ever would have created such a tight bond, or even come into close contact, without this crisis,” she says.

As the group grew, Zam learned about other virtual options, like online book clubs, giveaways, and virtual book tours. She discovered an entirely new type of community, one that began in a grassroots, DIY way. The results have been tremendous: Her own book hit bestseller status on Amazon, thanks to the buzz created from the snowballing PR of the virtual community.

“I’m not glad the pandemic struck,” she says.

“But I’m thrilled with what took place because of it. It’s more than a silver lining. It’s pure gold.”

Cara Foran is the producer and host of Perfect Liars Club, a monthly storytelling show at Bier Baron Tavern and DC Comedy Loft in Dupont Circle. She and her business partner, Pierce McManus, have been producing the show since 2015, and consistently sell out events. But COVID-19 stopped the performances in their tracks. Their shows rely on audience participation, so they were worried about the transition to virtual.

“We decided to pause and see what other folks were doing so we could learn from them,” Foran says.

That collaboration led to growth. They decided to work with Washington Improv Theater to do a free at-home edition of the show, and the combination of recorded stories and Zoom interaction worked well. They also started a free talk show called 6 Feet Apart with Cara and Pierce to keep in touch with the community. The experimentation has paid off, and now they’re working on paywhat-you-can shows that involve live stories and chat-run interrogation rounds.

“The storytelling community in D.C. is wonderful: tight-knit and supportive and just bursting with talent,” Foran says. “Keeping our connections with them has been great. Who knows, maybe we’ll be able to emerge from this crisis as a franchise in a couple years.”

She’s also found that going virtual has opened the D.C. scene up to people outside the area, which has been exciting in terms of both talent and visibility.

Jessica Piscitelli Robinson runs Better Said Than Done, a monthly storytelling show in both D.C. and Fairfax, and she’s had a similar gain in reach. Better Said Than Done is now performing three virtual shows a month, in addition to Robinson hosting story swaps (similar to open mics), and their workshops have more attendees than ever before.

“From a local show producer point of view, not only do I have the opportunity to support our local storytellers and put them in more shows than ever, but I am also able to have storytellers from all over the country—many of them famous in storytelling circles—join our shows,” Robinson says. “And because we are mixing nationally celebrated storytellers with local storytellers, we’re

getting an international audience.”

The theme of geographical inclusivity continues across the spectrum of events, workshops, and classes. Writers, speakers, and teachers are all finding connections on a broader scale, working and attending events with people from all over the country and the world.

The accessibility aspect hits closer to home.

Online readings don’t require wheelchair ramps or elevators. Virtual classes don’t involve crowds that heighten anxiety or threaten the health of someone who is immunocompromised.

Writer Jessica Haney is a single mom in Arlington. Child care needs mixed with her chronic health issues prevent her from attending many events. With literary offerings going virtual, she’s been able to attend book talks through Politics and Prose, participate in readings at The Writer’s Center, tune in to webinars and craft talks through groups like the Maryland Writers Association, and attend a variety of virtual literary events, such as Noir at the Bar. “Every little bit of connection these days makes such a difference to my mental state and my sense of there being a place for me in the wider writing community,” Haney says. “I know my career will benefit from the opportunities I’ve had access to during the pandemic.”

From less visible needs, like medical and mental health challenges, to accommodating visual and hearing disabilities and mobility issues, accessibility is a topic that the literary scene has only begun to touch on. Older buildings, for example, often don’t have accessible entrances or spaces, and affordable event locations can be difficult to find. These needs often get pushed aside, and with that, writers and audience members get excluded from events that take place in

brick-and-mortar establishments.

Haney would like to see these opportunities continue once in-person events restart.

“It would be terrific if some of these virtual offerings carried over into the future,” she says. “I will always enjoy attending events in person when I can, but I would love to see regular online offerings. I hope stores will add more virtual events and also offer a virtual option for many of their in-person events.”

At The Writer’s Center, hundreds of classes and events have gone virtual this spring.

“I was surprised with how quickly and easily people have adapted to the online format,” says Zach Powers, The Writer’s Center’s director of communications. “In fact, some workshops have better attendance than what I think we would have seen in person. This has me reconsidering how we define literary community. Yes, physical presence is great. But there are ableist assumptions in that kind of community building.”

“We moved our offerings online out of necessity, but that’s made them available to people who wouldn’t have had access to them before,” he continues. “That said, we’re still working on so many aspects of how to increase accessibility within an online framework. One of our staffers is furiously transcribing our online events so we can caption the recordings. We’re trying to find ways to offer captioning or ASL live. So we’re not there yet. And I hope we always strive to do better.”

Powers wants to take what they’ve learned about better serving people and carry that knowledge into future planning: “The worst thing we could do would be to abandon all that we learned and return to the old model. Live online workshops are here to stay, and we are dedicated to the cause of increasing access.”

ARTS

Drawing Board

Ragdah Noah

By Elizabeth Tuten @ElizabethGTuten Tarek Kouddous had 48 hours to find artists willing to paint murals on plywood in downtown D.C. Ted Brownfield of SJG Properties had asked him to fill the blank space on two buildings at 15th and H streets NW before the Saturday, June 6, protests. Kouddous mobilized quickly, tapping into his network to find available local artists, and the Radical Plywood project was born. The first mural went up at 7 a.m.

Saturday morning, as did a round of flyers along protest routes and a freshly minted Instagram account calling for artist submissions for additional murals. Eight days and 51 submissions later, 12 artists have painted 14 plywood murals around the District.

Kouddous has called D.C. home for seven years, moving from Cairo, Egypt, to attend undergrad at George Washington University.

After graduating in 2017, he worked as a federal emergency management consultant for FEMA. Feeling unfulfilled, he left in November 2019, and did some soul searching in Cairo. He returned to the District in January of this year and threw himself into his community, serving on the alcohol policy committee of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2F, the Logan Circle Community Association’s beautification committee, and Logan Circle Main Street under District Bridges.

He was soon leading Logan Circle Main Street’s Let’s Paint the Streets mural initiative, working out permitting to paint public utility boxes and organizing local artists.

At the same time, Kouddous was forming Radical Empathy, an events and activations startup targeting underutilized and vacant spaces around the District. “It’s turning space into place,” Kouddous explains.

“Spaces you don’t have a relationship with, you walk right by them, whereas places, you have a sense of belonging, it vitalizes your sense of hyper-local belonging.” Open areas and blank spaces around his Logan Circle neighborhood had caught his eye, but potential canvases multiplied exponentially across the city during the first week of June as businesses boarded up their storefronts amid protests against anti-black racism and police brutality.

Photos by Elizabeth Tuten

New startup project Radical Plywood activates local artists to turn “space into place.”

Musah Swallah

Tim Cunningham and Orly Raskin

When City Paper caught up with Kouddous, he was zipping among mural sites in Logan Circle and Dupont on a Capital Bikeshare bicycle, speaking to store owners and ensuring artists had what they needed to create murals on boarded-up windows and storefronts. He pays Radical Plywood artists a $250 stipend to cover supplies, but he hopes to offer further compensation by eventually auctioning off the painted plywood panels.

Brownfield, nonprofit visual arts organization Transformer, and District Bridges have funded the initiative thus far.

Silver Spring-based graphic designer and illustrator Ragdah Noah had never painted a mural before, but she submitted her series honoring victims of racist violence when a co-worker tagged her in the call for art on Radical Empathy’s Instagram. A few days later, she was freehand painting her digital illustration of George Floyd and his last words on the Meeps Vintage storefront on 18th Street NW. “These are real people and these are their last words,” Noah says of her design. “People should know their names and their stories—anything to spread awareness and be a voice for people who can’t have their voices heard.”

Artist Musah Swallah painted symbols from his native Ghana and the face of a young black woman for Stoney’s on P Street NW. The bar and restaurant had taken down their boards, but put them back up to have artwork made. A mutual friend connected Kouddous and Swallah, who has been in the U.S. for three years. “D.C. has been wonderful,” Swallah, a Northeast resident, says. “It’s what I am looking for as an artist and as an African. I can see people who look like me, I don’t feel left out in the city. As an artist, all I can do is use my artwork to communicate with other people, get my voice out.”

Fairfax native and artist Tim Cunningham was connected to Kouddous through his network of artists. His mandala on the front of Noah One Grooming, also on P Street NW, radiates out around the Black Lives Matter fist symbol. He was assisted by 8-year-old Fort Totten resident Orly Raskin, whose mom, Sarah Raskin, found Radical Empathy on Instagram. Using the interactive online map where Radical Plywood shares its mural locations, the Raskins found Cunningham’s board, and the spectators soon turned into participants.

When artists apply to Radical Plywood, they’re entering Radical Empathy’s artist database for future projects and activations, too. “We ask for a sketch for the Radical Plywood project, but we ask for a list of skills beyond that—dance, theater, rap, even landscaping—because that can feed into other ‘Radical Hustles,’” Kouddous says. He hopes to open farmers markets, pop-up activations, and open-air theater and art shows under the Radical Empathy umbrella in the future.

For now, artists can still apply to paint a plywood mural by emailing a mural sketch, other examples of work, and three additional skills to change@radicalempathynow.com.

washingtoncitypaper.com june 19, 2020 15

ARTS FILM REVIEW

DIVERSIONS CROSSWORD

Hooked On Phonics

By Brendan Emmett Quigley

Down 1. “The hell with this job�

2. Dispensary amount 3. Add an additional lane

45. Maker of Healthy Kitten food 46. Fills up the tank 47. “You gotta be kidding me�

48. With 8-Down, Christmastime treat 49. Bummed 50. No-win situation?

51. First lesson in canoeing school?

57. “She’s the one�

59. All-purpose truck 60. It’s hard to define (sorry this clue’s so vague) 61. A pair of preppie stores in the flesh?

65. University founder Cornell 66. Silk Road explorer 67. Real dickhead 68. Pointer’s word 69. “Hello ___â€? (cellphone ad catchphrase) 70. Tech-based CondĂŠ Nast title 71. Word said by those getting their Masters?

Across 1. State with the world’s largest wooden nickel 5. Keel over 10. Key with two sharps: Abbr.

14. British buck 15. Shiny 16. Actress Chaplin 17. Ctrl-Z command 18. Old-timey ski lift for mountain lions?

20. Cubes in a cooler 21. France’s bullet train 22. Sainte-___, Quebec City 23. Recent law school grad who’s determined?

28. Maps feature, for short 31. NYSE listings 32. Steps to the barre 33. Like inclement weather 34. One-up 37. “Couldn’t have said it better myself�

39. Alex and ___ (jewelry brand) 40. Demolishes some computer graphics?

44. Cricket need

24. Band with a bolt of lightning in its logo 25. Kitchen help 26. Erupts 27. Rolling Stone founder Wenner 29. Guests on “Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me!�

30. Big drinks 34. “Yes, however ...�

35. Eel served in maki 36. All-out 37. “Knowledge equals power,� e.g.

38. Delivery person?

41. “Not this shit again�

42. Way off in the distance 43. Throwing skill 48. French 101, day 1 lesson 49. Blizzasted 52. Case worker?

53. Carved grave marker 54. Humming amplifier 55. What a [sic] follows 56. Tent holder 58. Cooking acronym coined by Rachael Ray 61. Time to be back from lunch, maybe 62. Place where every goes in London 63. Uppercut’s target 64. X, in old Athens 65. Legendary imp

4. Big whoop at the Globe 5. “Actually ...�

6. Whiskey ___ (Hollywood nightclub) 7. <3 8. See 48-Across 9. BOAC competitor, once 10. Where you might get your kicks 11. Skip Spenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s psychedelic band from the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;60s 12. Actress ___ de Armas 13. Hit hard 19. Backwoods mail rtes.

LAST WEEK: WIPE THAT SMILE OFF YOUR FACE

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16 june 19, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

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) $ , 1 7 ' 0 $ $ * / 2 : 2 2 1 $ & 2 8 * $ 5 - % $ 5 7 * father 9 (Kendrick)Sampson), 2 < who often fails to support them financially or emotionally. $ & , 2 8 6 - ' * 3 6 People know Turquoise around town as & 2 6 the former 3 $Miss6Juneteenth 5 $whose : life went awry. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also how she knows herself, iniMiss Juneteenth2 8 7 ' 2 $ tially, 0 always ( 1 thinking of$her1former , pageant Directed by Channing Godfrey Peoples glory. . 1 2 & . 6 ' queen 2 : 1 $ - 3 ( * Despite being accepted into the competition % $ 7 , $ 0 6 ) 8 ( / 6 Teenager Kai Jones just wants to danceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; fold, Kai feels she doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fit into the pageant her mother has other8 ideas. * + ( * * scene. At one 6 point, $ the ' girls are being tested in Writer and director Channing Godfrey a lesson on tableware, and Kai is chastised for . (of a 6 7 ,mines ( the eternally 7 + ( picking - 6up a7salad5knife 2 instead dinner knife.

Peoplesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Miss Juneteenth The 7 messages Juneteenth compelling nature of mother-daughter + ( relation5 8 ( in Miss $ 5 7are deeply ships, and here itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s imbued with Texas charm. resonant, for this time or any time: Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about 5 anyone $ /(Nicole , Beharie) 9 ( and - & self-acceptance, 5 ( : and(not=letting mold Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the story of Turquoise her daughter Kai (Alexis 3 2Chikaeze), / 2 and their $ + you 2into/who (they want / you 2 to2be. The . film also journey to better understanding each other. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s takes moments to teach the important his5 of(Juneteenth ' )a holiday 2 5 commemorat( 0 2timed: 7 a2 as also a story that is perfectly film that: cel- , tory

Dancing Queen

ebrates Blackness called Miss Juneteenth releasing on video on demand this Juneteenth, during a month when people have taken to the streets to protest anti-Black racism and support the Black Lives Matter movement.

Turquoise wants Kai to compete in and win the Miss Juneteeth scholarship pageant, just as she did in her youth. If she wins, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll get a full scholarship to the historically Black institution of her choice. Kai would rather focus on making the school dance team, and hanging out with a boy from school.

Mothers and daughters who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fully see each other feels like film territory that serves as its own genre now. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a testament to the strength of that territory that films continue to explore these relationships, and in Miss Juneteenth, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s explored with warmth, sincerity, and heartâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;so much heart.

Turquoise works jobs at a barbecue restaurant and bar and a funeral home, striving to make ends meet and provide the funds for her daughter to compete in the Miss Juneteenth pageant. In her daily life, Turquoise deals with a distant, out of touch mother (Lori Hayes) who has struggled with alcohol addiction, and Kaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

ing Black freedom, and highlights the struggle Black people in America, like Turquoise and her daughter, continue to face. In one scene, Turquoiseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s boss tells her, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t no American dream for Black folks. We got to hold on to what we got â&#x20AC;Ś And when you get you something worth holding onto, you make sure canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t nobody take it from you.â&#x20AC;?

The filmmaking centers the performances, particularly Beharieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wistful Turquoise.

Beharie is moving in the role, and sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the beating heart of the film.

The best scenes are the ones in which Turquoise and Kai are just being mother and daughter. Turquoise wants the best for her daughter, but she doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t quite understand her yet. Instead, she wants to live vicariously through her. But she loves her, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clear.

And Kai knows her mother loves her, but she wants to live her own dreams, too.

There is so much love in Miss Juneteenth, and right now, for at least an hour and a half, that love could be the balm for many souls. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Kayla Randall Miss Juneteenth is available Friday on VOD.

CITY LIGHTS City Lights

Step Afrika!’s Juneteenth performance

This weekend, D.C. dance company Step Afrika! was meant to be onstage, performing its new show Drumfolk at the University of the District of Columbia’s Theater of the Arts. The piece’s inspiration is the 1739 Stono Rebellion, during which enslaved people rose up against their captors in what is now South Carolina, and its fallout. After the rebellion, in addition to curtailing enslaved Africans’ rights to movement, education, and assembly, colonial rulers banned the use of drums. “Ever since that moment, and this is something we’ve been studying for years at Step Afrika!, Africans began to use their body as the drum,” C. Brian Williams, Step Afrika!’s founder and executive director, explained in a promotional video. Like most cultural events in mid-2020, Drumfolk’s post-March engagements were canceled, but the show must go on. In its place, the company is celebrating Juneteenth with a new virtual program that will be streamed on the evening of June 19. It’s been experimenting with online content during the pandemic, like a remote performance put together from six individual videos at the end of May. The Juneteenth engagement promises to be made up of performances filmed in D.C., from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial to the newly christened Black Lives Matter Plaza, that honor “the rhythm, spirituality and resistance of the African American community through dance and song.” The performance will stream on Facebook and Youtube on June 19 at 8 p.m.

Registration is available at eventbrite.com. Free; donations encouraged.

—Emma Sarappo

City Lights

American Spy It’s late at night—or perhaps early in the morning—and there’s an intruder in Marie Mitchell’s house. From the very first pages of Lauren Wilkinson’s American Spy, Mitchell’s story is captivating. Turn a few pages. She grabs her gun;

the police are there; Mitchell is packing her bags and grabbing a fake passport. She’s leaving the country with her two young boys. Then, she’s in Martinique at her mother’s home. Who was the intruder, what is she running from, and why?

Those questions help jump-start Wilkinson’s novel, which is a cross between a gripping spy thriller and a family drama. Through a letter to her sons William and Tommy, Mitchell begins to unravel her career as an intelligence officer with the FBI in the 1980s. Since American Spy’s 2019 release, the novel has earned acclaim. A New York Times review commends Wilkinson for balancing a thrilling plot with “ambitious” social commentary. The Sellout’s Paul Beatty says American Spy “lays bare” the complicities of race, sex, and politics. Even from the beginning of the novel, that much is clear. Mitchell is a young black woman in the old boys’ club that is the intelligence community. Snippets of past conversations, her present-day interaction with the police, and flashbacks to a mission in Burkina Faso all combine to illustrate her story. If you’re itching to figure out just why Mitchell was on the run, pick up a copy of American Spy and sign up for The Phillips Collection’s monthly book club. After an hour of Zoom discussion, you’ll likely come away with even more appreciation for the thriller. The book discussion begins June 25 at 5:30 p.m. Free. Register at phillipscollection.org.

—Sarah Smith

City Lights

EveryBody: An Artifact History of Disability in America Fighting for fairness is a part of the American story. “For many persons with a disability, the greatest struggle is to have others accept them as human,” read just a few of the words interspersed with images and recordings in EveryBody: An Artifact History of Disability in America, an online exhibition the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History launched seven years ago this month.

That truth appears next to a stake used as a grave marker in 1882 that Katherine Ott, project director and lead curator, can’t forget. “The stark, rusting grave marker from the ‘Georgia Lunatic Asylum’ at Milledgeville cuts me emotionally, because it documents the brutality of segregation and the inhumanity of institutionalization,” Ott says. “It is especially powerful at this moment, because there are more people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities locked up than ever before in prisons, and a significant number of those killed and injured by police are people with disabilities.” Sometimes

who is silenced can shout loudest about society.

Sometimes what goes unnoticed by others is actually what should be paid the most attention.

Images of more recent artifacts include adapted flatware from the 1970s, used cane tips from the 1990s, and a purple T-shirt that says, “I Am NOT a Case, and I Don’t Need to Be Managed!” from 2002. The exhibition is organized by themes. The grave marker from Milledgeville appears on a page titled “Identity,” which is grouped under the “Place” category that’s divided, chillingly, into “Outside” and “Inside.” Inside, of course, means in an institution. Some subgroups are named after telling quotes, from “Help the Handicapped” to “Crip is Hip.” On a page titled “Civil Rights, Disability Rights,” which discusses efforts by disabled people to participate fully in society, a well-known poem by the late writer and activist Laura Hershey proclaims: “You get proud by practicing.” The exhibition is available at https://everybody.si.edu. Free. —Diana Michele Yap

City Lights

Read the Arlington County Sit-Ins timeline Sixty years ago, the multiracial Nonviolent Action Group integrated lunch counters in Arlington, Virginia, with a series of sit-ins between June 9 and June 22, 1960, during which activists endured violent harassment and arrests.

Now, Arlington County offers a day-by-day online history of this period. Through succinct text and reproduced newspaper photos, the timeline explains how a group of black and white college students, inspired by the February 1960 actions of North Carolina students, sat in at a number of segregated Arlington lunch counters. Time and time again, the drug stores served the white demonstrators of the Nonviolent Action Group, who passed the food to the black demonstrators; the stores responded by closing down the counters and removing the remaining seats. While some customers were supportive of the protesters, many more were not. At the Cherrydale Drug Fair, white Washington-Lee High School students shoved lit cigarettes into one black protester’s pocket and flicked a belt against another black protester, shouting the n-word at the group of six. At a Peoples Drug, four members of the Arlington-based American Nazi Party, wearing swastika arm bands, viciously harassed demonstrators. After days of protests, the Nonviolent Action Group called for mediation with the Arlington County Board and sent letters to Arlington businesses. When that was unsuccessful, they resumed sit-ins on June 18. On June 22, one by one, Arlington establishments announced they would desegregate. The Nonviolent Action Group then moved on to desegregate Glen Echo Park in Maryland. And today, some members of the Nonviolent Action Group, like Dion Diamond and Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, are still supporting movements for racial justice in Arlington, like the Black Lives Matter protests that are taking place nearly 60 years to the day after their sit-ins.

The timeline is available at projects.arlingtonva.us.

Free.

—Steve Kiviat

City Lights

Hirshhorn Artist Diaries The worst coronavirus memes are the scoldy ones. Lectures about how anyone who hasn’t finished reading the Neapolitan Novels yet isn’t serious about wanting more free time don’t seem to appreciate how stress bogs the spirit. So it’s a relief, sort of, to see that great contemporary artists are stuck at home, living through the same cycles of boredom and anxiety as the rest of us.

The Hirshhorn National Museum of Modern Art’s series Artist Diaries invited contemporary artists to share dispatches from their homes and studios back in April, and the results are affirming: Marilyn Minter checks in from her studio in Manhattan’s Garment District, which she’d been forced to temporarily evacuate. Christine Sun Kim says her Berlin studio practice is on hiatus, but that she’s “run out of energy to be anxious anymore” (a positive development). Ragnar Kjartansson shows some drawings from his studio in Reykjavík, where he says he’s currently “tackling [his] narcissism and Googling humility and shit like that.” Other contributors include Shirin Neshat and Hank Willis Thomas. Curated by artist Theaster Gates, the Hirshhorn’s series will eventually include entries from nearly 100 artists (to be posted via Instagram and YouTube). So far, the videos offer an unexpected and maybe unintended comfort: It’s a relief to know that nobody’s okay. The series is available at hirshhorn.si.edu.

Free.

—Kriston Capps

City Lights

Social Piranha Husband and wife duo Teen Cobra didn’t waste any time while stuck at home. Many artists, big and small, have chosen to delay album releases indefinitely amid a pandemic that’s massively disrupting the music industry. Veronica Magan and Neil Enet went against the trend, releasing their debut EP Social Piranha last month. They first formed the lo-fi punk rock partnership in 2017, and have been releasing singles since then, but the new release is exciting. It’s also bracingly short—the collection of six songs plays out in just over six minutes, giving the duo a mysterious feeling. But there’s no reason for listeners to worry. In fact, while promoting the EP, the duo reassured fans that nothing is sacrificed in making their “short and sweet” songs. Each features a full chorus and delightful melodies. “Stranger Danger” is the perfect start to the EP, diving in with an upbeat feeling and anthem-ready vocals.

Enet takes the lead, and also plays guitar. Magan’s backing vocals are sweet and angsty, and her drumming is skillful. There’s no time to settle, because in just 73 seconds, it’s time for “Girl of Mine.” Social Piranha makes for quite an interesting listening experience, but it’s fitting for the outof-the-box couple. Magan and Enet describe their sound as “marinated in juicy hell sauce.” If you’re not sure what “juicy hell sauce” sounds like, just give Social Piranha a listen. The EP is available on Spotify, YouTube Music and through Hidden Volume Records. Free–$10.

—Sarah Smith

washingtoncitypaper.com june 19, 2020 17

DIVERSIONS SAVAGE LOVE

ABUSE, SEX AND DRUGS A Novel by Taylor

THE LIFE OF TEENAGERS ON THE STREETS OF AMERICA The story of friends forced by circumstance to find a better life for themselves on the streets.

But the streets are hard, and the world is unforgiving. And unfortunately, not everyone is strong enough to make it.

AVAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON IN PAPERBACK AND FOR KINDLE

CITYPAPER WASHINGTON

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I’m a 32-year-old straight guy. My wife and I have been married for four years and together for nine. We have a great marriage and all is well.

We have been quarantining at home since March.

During this time, we have been exploring things sexually, which has been really fun. We have also been talking more about our kinks and fantasies. One thing my wife really wants to try is an MMF threesome. I’ve agreed and she’s been talking about how hot it will be to make this happen once quarantine is over. She is particularly turned on by the fact that this would be my first sexual experience with another guy. The only issue is, in reality, it won’t be. The truth is that when I was in high school, a guy friend and I fooled around a few times. I have no regrets but those experiences only served to reaffirm that I preferred women. I never did anything with another guy and I never felt the need to mention these early experiences to my wife. She just assumed I had never had a same-sex encounter. Now I feel like I’ve misled her or lied to her somehow. Should I tell her the truth or just let her believe our MMF threesome would be my first time with a guy?

—Nervously Omitted Homosexual Occurrences, Mostly Oral If your wife reads my column, NOHOMO, then you’ve just told her the truth, and the advice that follows is moot. So here’s hoping she doesn’t read my column: You don’t have to tell your wife about the handful/mouthful of times you messed around with another guy in high school.

If you’re like most straight guys with one or two cocks in your past, NOHOMO, I’m guessing you didn’t tell the wife because you didn’t want her to feel insecure or spend all her free time corresponding with advice columnists about whether her husband is secretly gay.

In fairness to the wife, NOHOMO, not every woman whose straight-identified male partner admits to a little same-sex messing around worries her boyfriend or husband is going to leave her for a dude or all the dudes. But this worry is common enough to be something of cliché.

A straight guy doesn’t even have to admit to having sucked one dick one time for his wife or girlfriend to worry he’s secretly gay; I get at least one letter every day from a woman who’s worried her husband is gay because he likes to have his nipples played with or his butt touched or because he has feelings. So while it’s not ideal that straight or mostly straight guys don’t feel they can be honest with their wives about their long ago and far away same-sex experimentation, NOHOMO, it’s understandable that many straight guys err on the side of keeping that shit to themselves.

But your question isn’t, “Why didn’t I tell her then?” but rather, “Should I tell her now?” And I don’t think you have to. She wasn’t harmed by this omission—you didn’t deprive her of information she was entitled to—and disclosing now would only serve to deprive her of something, i.e., the excitement she feels about being there to witness what she thinks is your first same-sex encounter.

—Dan Savage My wife questions my use of the word gay as being potentially offensive and I’d like to get your take.

18 june 19, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

I’m male and my male friends like to flirt and joke about performing sex acts on each other. We’ve never actually carried through with it but I consider myself on the “spectrum” and might be open to gay sex. My male friends and I say we’re being or acting gay (though we’re all practicing heterosexuals) and this is where my wife takes issue. For example, I might say, “We’re so gay!” in our conversations but the word is used in a positive way.

My wife makes the point that the word has a history of being used negatively, so may be considered offensive, and should only be used casually by people who are more legit gay. Should I stop using the word gay this way?

—Gay Poser Jesus, just suck off one of your male friends already—just get it over with—and then you have my permission to keep using “gay” as a compliment, GP. —DS

“In fairness to the wife, NOHOMO, not every woman whose straight-identified male partner admits to a little same-sex messing around worries her boyfriend or husband is going to leave her for a dude or all the dudes.

But this worry is common enough to be something of cliché.”

I’m a 35-year-old seemingly straight man, but in the past year—roughly corresponding with the longest sex drought in the history of my adulthood—I have had recurring wet dreams where I suck myself off. Probably a dozen or so of these dreams, all up, and I very much enjoy both sides of the transaction. What do you think it means? Am I witnessing the stirrings of some latent bisexuality or am I just desperate? Should I heed the call?

—Originally Unilateral Regarding Oral But Oneiromancy Reveals Opening Sexuality I usually don’t allow elaborate signoffs, OUROBOROS, but I’m making an exception for yours because it’s brilliant. (To save my other readers the trouble of Googling: “oneiromancy” is the interpretation of dreams to predict the future and an “ouroboros” is an image of a snake swallowing its own tail, often used as an infinity symbol.) That said, I’m not sure

there’s really any call to heed here—other than a call to start doing the kind of stretching that would allow you to suck your own cock if you were able to get limber enough and your cock were long enough. But a desire to suck one’s own cock—or even an attempt, successful or not— doesn’t mean a man is latently bisexual or gay.

I assume you’ve been masturbating for more than two decades, OUROBOROS, and just as there’s nothing gay about all those handjobs you’ve given yourself, there’s nothing gay about the blowjobs you can only dream about giving yourself.

—DS I’m that rare gay man who doesn’t like sucking dick. It wasn’t hard for my VGL husband to find guys who wanted to blow him before quarantine and for years I didn’t ask about it because I didn’t want to know the details. But I knew he had videos on his phone of some guys blowing him that he sometimes watched and I recently asked to watch one and I was completely shocked. It wasn’t just a blowjob. He spat in the guy’s face, called him homophobic names, and was just generally brutal. The intensity and violence wasn’t something I’ve ever detected in my husband or been on the receiving end from my husband. When I pressed my husband he shrugged and said, “That’s how a lot of guys like it.” I’m not sure what to do.

—Gay And Gloomy Guy Extremely Disturbed I read your letter three times and I still can’t tell whether you’re appalled or jealous. Do you disapprove of your husband treating someone that way or are you disappointed that your husband has never treated you that way? If it’s the former, well, don’t watch any more videos of your husband throat fucking his subby cocksuckers. If it’s the latter (and I suspect it is), GAGGED, then you’re going to need to figure out how to articulate that clearly—something you failed to do in your letter—so you can tell your husband you’d like it like that, too. Not being used for oral like that, of course, since you don’t like performing oral sex. But maybe you’d like anal like that?

—DS Dear readers: This is gonna feel a little weird stuck on the end of this week’s column, I realize, but I wanted to say something about the protests all over the country and the world.

While I haven’t been able to personally attend a Black Lives Matters protest over the last two weeks—I have deeply shitty lungs and I’m concerned about contracting coronavirus—I fully support everyone who has taken to the streets to protest the violence of systemic racism and the specific violence inflicted on black people by racist cops. And while I can’t be at the protests, my husband and I made a donation to bail funds across the country to help out people who were arrested. (You can donate at actblue.com/donate/bailfunds.)

Please keep marching, please wear your masks (they work!), and please—please— make sure you and everyone you know is registered to vote.

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

CLASSIFIEDS Legal CAPITAL VILLAGE PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS SPECIAL EDUCATION & RELATED SERVICES CAPITAL VILLAGE PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL is soliciting proposals from qualified vendors for Special Education and related services for students with and without disabilities and/or Individualized Education Plans (IEPs.).

The RFP can be found on the Capital Village website at www.capitalvillageschools.org/rfps. Proposals should be uploaded to the website no later than 3:00 PM EST, on June 29, 2020. Questions can be addressed to Keina Hodge at: RFP@CapitalVillageSchools.org or (202) 5051375.

ACADEMY OF HOPE PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS General Contractor Academy of Hope Adult Public Charter School, in compliance with Section 2204 (c) of the District of Columbia School Reform Act of 1995 (“Act”), hereby solicits expressions of interest for General Contractor Services. The scope of work includes renovating approximate 5,000 square feet of an existing 1930-1949s building in which the School operates its adult education program. A video walkthough for potential bidders will be provided upon request. For directions and additional information, including architectural, structural, and MEP drawings, and statements of work, please email Ana Montano at amontano@ stoiberandassociates. com and Jeff Stoiber at jstoiber@stoiberandassociates.com. Academy of Hope reserves the right to terminate this RFP and any subsequent contact at any time. Deadline for submissions, proposals, and supporting documents is at 5:00 p.m., on Wednesday, July 1st.

Please email proposals to amontano@stoiberand associates.com.

E.L. HAYNES PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS Special Education Related Services and Evaluations E.L. Haynes Public Charter School (“ELH”) is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to provide school-based special education related services and evaluations by making available qualified providers for the areas of: * Adaptive Physical Edu-

cation, * Applied Behavior Analysis, * Assistive Technology, * Behavioral Support and Counseling, * Educational Audiology, * Educational Services (home and hospital services, specialized tutoring), * Neuropsychology, * Occupational Therapy, * Physical Therapy, * Psychiatry, * Psychology, * Speech Language Pathology * Counseling, * Transportation, * Vision, * Mobility and orientation training, * Interpretation, * Lindamood-Bell trained educators, and * Reading intervention.

Vendors will provide agreed upon regularly scheduled weekly services and any ‘as needed’ therapy services, evaluation, supervision, and support, at the request of the School. In addition, ELH is looking for providers who are able to provide evaluations and services in the areas listed above in Spanish or Amharic, as well as providers who can provide regular translation for meetings held with families requiring Spanish translation.

Proposals are due via email to Kristin Yochum no later than 5:00 PM on Thursday, July 2, 2020.

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 School Phone: 202.667-4446 ext 3504 Email: kyochum@ elhaynes.org SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION 2019 ADM 000197 Name of Decedent, Ione M. Lockhart (aka Ione Mary Lockhart). Name and Adress of Attorney, John M. Bryan, Esq, 2311 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 500, Arlington, VA 22901.

Notice of Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs, Thomas S. Goldbaum, whose address is 5012 Baltan Road, Bethesda, MD 20816, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Ione M. Lockhart (aka Ione Mary Lockhart) who died on January 30, 2019, with 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 12/18/2020.

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 12/18/2020, 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: 6/18/2020 Name of Newspaper and/or periodical: Washington City Paper/ Daily Washington Law Reporter. Name of Personal Representative:Thomas S. Goldbaum TRUE TEST copy Nicole Stevens Acting Register of Wills Pub Dates: June 18, 25, July 2.

KIPP DC PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CONSULTING SERVICES KIPP DC is soliciting proposals from qualified vendors for Leadership Development Consulting Services. 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 ET on June 30, 2020. Questions can be addressed to rebecca. maltzman@kippdc.org.

CHROMEBOOK AND LAPTOP INSURANCE KIPP DC is soliciting proposals from qualified vendors for Chromebook and Laptop Insurance. 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 ET on June 30, 2020. Questions can be addressed to keon. toyer@kippdc.org.

STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF CLARENDON IN THE FAMILY COURT THIRD JUDICIAL CIRCUIT 2020-DR-14-119 SUMMONS, NOTICE OF PUBLICATION AND NOTICE OF HEARING South Carolina Department of Social Services, PLAINTIFF, vs.

Shameka Johnson Billy Sweat a/k/a Gary Gates In the interests of: ) D. J. DOB 4/19/2003 ) Minor child under the age of 18. )

DEFENDANTS. TO: Billy Sweat a/k/a Gary Gates, THE DEFENDANT ABOVE NAMED: SUMMONS: YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED and required to answer the Complaint for termination of your parental rights in and to the Defendant minor children in this action, the original of which has been filed in the Office of the Family Court for Clarendon County, on the 20th day of April, 2020, a copy of which will be delivered to you upon request; and to serve a copy of your Answer to the Complaint upon the undersigned attorney for the Plaintiff, Cherie N. Long-Hardin, 236 Commerce Street, Suite 2, Manning SC 29102, within thirty (30) days following the date of service upon you, exclusive of the day of such service; and if you fail to answer the Complaint within the time stated, the Plaintiff will apply for judgment by default against the Defendants for the relief demanded in the Complaint.

NOTICE OF FILING: YOU WILL PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the action entitled above has been commenced by the Plaintiff against you in the Family Court of Clarendon County in the Third Judicial Circuit, Manning, South Carolina, by the filing of a Summons and Complaint for Termination of Parental Rights on the 20th day of April, 2020, and is available for inspection in the Office of the Family Court for Clarendon County, South Carolina.

NOTICE OF HEARING: A Termination of Parental Rights Hearing will be held at the Family Court of the Third Judicial Circuit, Clarendon County Judicial Center, 102 South Mill Street, Manning, South Carolina, on July 27, 2020, at 2:00p.m. May 21, 2020 South Carolina Department of Social Services Manning, South Carolina By:_Cherie N. LongHardin Cherie N. Long-Hardin, Esquire South Carolina Department of Social Services 236 Commerce Street, Suite 2, Manning, SC 29102 Kingstree, SC 29556 ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFF

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