Washington City Paper (August 30, 2019)

CITYPAPER WASHINGTON

NEWS: IN THE WEEDS ON DISPENSARY CONTRACTS 4 FOOD: SECRETS OF THE FOOD PORN INDUSTRY 16 ARTS: HOW TO WEAR A SCULPTURE 18

FREE VOLUME 39, NO. 35 WASHINGTONCITYPAPER.COM AUG. 30–SEPT. 5, 2019

AN ORAL HISTORY OF GENTRIFICATION IN SHAW AND U STREET NW Longtime black business owners tell the story. P.10 Edited by Christina Sturdivant Sani

Photographs by Darrow Montgomery

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INSIDE

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COVER STORY:

AN ORAL HISTORY OF GENTRIFICATION IN SHAW AND U STREET NW 10 Longtime black business owners reflect on the changing demographics of the quintessential D.C. neighborhood.

DISTRICT LINE 4 Smokescreen: DC Health and the holder of a marijuana dispensary license face off over anti-monopoly rules.

SPORTS 8 Such Great Heights: Local climbing gyms build youth programs before the sport’s Olympic debut.

FOOD 16 Under the Influence: Instagrammers are using their influence to eat well and make money.

ARTS 18 Redesigning Women: Natalie Abrams’ jewelry doubles as sculpture.

20 Booksmart: Highlights from this weekend’s National Book Festival 22 Curtain Calls: Klimek on Signature Theatre’s Assassins 23 Speed Reads: Tuten on Evvie Drake Starts Over 23 Scene and Heard 24 Short Subjects: Zilberman on Love, Antosha

CITY LIST 27 31 31 32

Music Books Theater Film

DIVERSIONS 33 Savage Love 34 Classifieds 35 Crossword

DARROW MONTGOMERY 700 BLOCK OF 9TH STREET NW, AUGUST 20

EDITORIAL

EDITOR: ALEXA MILLS MANAGING EDITOR: CAROLINE JONES ARTS EDITOR: KAYLA RANDALL FOOD EDITOR: LAURA HAYES SPORTS EDITOR: KELYN SOONG LOOSE LIPS REPORTER: MITCH RYALS CITY DESK REPORTER: AMANDA MICHELLE GOMEZ CITY LIGHTS EDITOR: EMMA SARAPPO STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: DARROW MONTGOMERY MULTIMEDIA AND COPY EDITOR: WILL WARREN CREATIVE DIRECTOR: JULIA TERBROCK SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER: ELIZABETH TUTEN INTERNS: ELLA FELDMAN, AYOMI WOLFF CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: MICHON BOSTON, KRISTON CAPPS, CHAD CLARK, MATT COHEN, RACHEL M. COHEN, RILEY CROGHAN, JEFFRY CUDLIN, EDDIE DEAN, CUNEYT DIL, TIM EBNER, CASEY EMBERT, JONATHAN L. FISCHER, NOAH GITTELL, SRIRAM GOPAL, HAMIL R. HARRIS, LAURA IRENE, LOUIS JACOBSON, JOSHUA KAPLAN, CHRIS KELLY, AMAN KIDWAI, STEVE KIVIAT, CHRIS KLIMEK, PRIYA KONINGS, NEVIN MARTELL, KEITH MATHIAS, BRIAN MCENTEE, CANDACE Y.A. MONTAGUE, BRIAN MURPHY, NENET, TRICIA OLSZEWSKI, EVE OTTENBERG, MIKE PAARLBERG, PAT PADUA, JUSTIN PETERS, REBECCA J. RITZEL, ABID SHAH, TOM SHERWOOD, CHRISTINA STURDIVANT SANI, MATT TERL, IAN THAL, SIDNEY THOMAS, HAYWOOD TURNIPSEED JR., JOE WARMINSKY, ALONA WARTOFSKY, JUSTIN WEBER, MICHAEL J. WEST, DIANA MICHELE YAP, ALAN ZILBERMAN

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washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 3

DISTRICTLINE Smokescreen

DC Health accuses a cannabis company of a straw ownership scheme. The company denies the allegations as “false” and “inflammatory,” and is now suing the city.

It was supposed to be completely routine.

Once a quarter, players in D.C.’s medical marijuana scene get together with the Department of Health (recently renamed DC Health) to share updates. But when they all met up on a brisk day last October, the Department had big news. In 2017, the agency had solicited applications for a single new dispensary in Ward 7, which was a huge business opportunity: One finalist for the spot predicted that if they got the license, they’d bring in almost $16 million annually within a few years of opening. Only one company could get approved, though, and that day, the Department revealed that after a long, extremely competitive (and, it would later be revealed, rather bizarre) process, they’d crowned a winner: Charmed L.L.C. Andy Hai Ting, one of Charmed’s owners, was there to accept his entrée into the hallowed elite of D.C. bud. But something he said that day later proved fateful: He told everyone he was there to represent the new dispensary, Charmed, and also to represent another dispensary, Dupont Circle’s National Holistic Healing Center (NHHC). This seemingly innocuous comment apparently prompted a months-long investigation into his business—an investigation that would end with DC Health accusing him of lying to the department, attempting to skirt the rules and open a “front” for two of the cannabis industry’s most prominent entrepreneurs. And for one attendee, Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn, co-owner of the dispensary Takoma Wellness Center, Hai Ting’s comment came as a shock. “We were confused and surprised,” he recalls, “and wondered if the Department of Health had changed the regulations.”

The District’s anti-monopoly rules forbid anyone from applying to hold more than one marijuana dispensary license, a rule designed to keep the medical cannabis industry from being dominated by chains and big business. But the regulations are slightly ambiguous, and Kahn had long been interested in opening a second dispensary. A few years

Darrow Montgomery/File

By Joshua Kaplan

prior, trying to figure out how strict the rule was, he wrote to the Department—perhaps he could open a second dispensary if he shuffled around some of the owners of his business so it wasn’t all the same people at the new outfit?

DOH told him no. “We have nothing against anybody,” Kahn says. “But we were wondering why we were told one thing and someone

4 august 30, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

else was told another.”

According to court records, shortly after that fateful meeting last October, DOH started an “in-depth” investigation of Charmed’s connection to Dr. Chanda Macias and her husband Michael Bobo, who together own NHHC. Macias is a minor campaign donor to Mayor Muriel Bowser and a major figure

among the District’s cannabis providers. In 2017 court records, she wrote that 30 percent of the city’s medical marijuana patients were customers at NHHC, which had grown into a $6.5 million business just two years after it opened. And thanks to that remarkable business acumen, she’s also risen to prominence nationally, with her photo on the covers of industry magazines.

She’s now involved in a handful of pot businesses across the country. But her success has not come without controversy.

This June, several industry figureheads— including Baltimore Ravens star turned cannabis maven Eugene Monroe—wrote to the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, urging them to investigate another company Macias co-owns, Advanced Biometrics, that had recently won a contract with Southern University’s medical program. Monroe alleged that he’d been brought on as an Advanced Biometrics owner to “fulfil [the program’s] demand for greater minority ownership” during the application process, but that he and several other putative owners were promptly shut out of the organization once the application was approved. The people who signed the letter also claimed that Macias engaged in “self-help” by acting as an informal advisor to the program while she

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DISTRICTLINE fought to get its contract. (When asked about the incident over email, a spokesperson for Charmed and NHHC pointed City Paper to an article where the chair of the university’s board defended Macias. He said they would not investigate and that they had no business getting involved in the company’s internal disputes.)

Examining an ownership dispute closer to home, D.C.’s Department of Health wouldn’t have to look far to realize Charmed had close ties to NHHC: They’d said so in their own application. Both of Charmed’s putative owners, Hai Ting and Andrew Carter, explained in the application that they were employees of NHHC. The Board of Directors is listed as having four members: Hai Ting, Carter, Bobo, and Macias. Macias is also listed as the chair of the board, and she repeatedly identified herself as Charmed’s CEO. To make it all a bit clearer, the application, now court record, also included an organization chart helpfully explaining who’s in charge of who. Hai Ting is listed as COO of Charmed and Carter as the director of quality assurance.

In the chart, Carter answers directly to Hai Ting, and Hai Ting answers directly to Macias.

But at the time, it appears, the Department of Health either didn’t notice this or didn’t care. Fielding dozens of hopeful applicants,

by March 2018, they’d narrowed the finalists down to three. It was a race between Charmed; the national weed conglomerate PharmaCann; and another local start-up, D.C. Holistic Wellness.

All that was left was to see what the ANCs had to say. District law mandates that ANCs have “great weight” in deciding which dispensaries get to open up, so all the ANCs in Ward 7 had a chance to weigh in on the contest. The owner of D.C. Holistic Wellness, Norbert Pickett, had been getting ready for this for months. According to Anthony Lorenzo Green, an ANC 7C commissioner and a 2020 contender for Ward 7 Councilmember Vince Gray’s seat, Pickett first reached out in the summer of 2017. He wanted to open a dispensary in Deanwood, and Pickett, Green, and the other Deanwood commissioners started discussing what he could do for the community. Green says they told Pickett the area needs an urgent care center—there are currently zero east of the Anacostia—and he agreed. He’d open one up, adjoined to his dispensary.

Ultimately, ANC 7C voted unanimously to approve D.C. Holistic. The only other Commission to cast a vote was 7B, where Hai Ting and Carter’s dispensary would be based.

Charmed fared worse: ANC 7B voted unanimously against Charmed getting a license.

However, their votes didn’t matter much.

In July, the Department of Health told Charmed they’d won, and let the other finalists know their applications were denied. But

Pickett didn’t go down easy. In short order, he filed a lawsuit against the Department, stating that “DOH provided no rationale” for denying his license and he wanted to appeal. And over the course of the trial, as the Department revealed more and more information about the process, his lawyer’s statements became increasingly irate. To make the final decision, DOH had convened a sixmember panel of government employees and patient advocates in the community, who reviewed the all the Commissioners’ comments and assigned each applicant a score: That score was to be one of the main factors in the final decision. But despite the fact that ANC Commissioners widely favored D.C. Holistic, the panel ultimately gave Charmed and D.C. Holistic very similar scores.

And Pickett’s attorneys wrote that one rev-

manager.” She would only “conduct inventory reviews,” he told them, and she would work as a cashier.

According to DC Health, Hai Ting also explained where all Charmed’s money came from: It was entirely funded by a one million dollar loan from NHHC, although he told them nothing about the loan existed in writing. Pressed to elaborate, DC Health wrote that he “initially suggested that he didn’t think there was a requirement to repay the loan.” However, he later said “he thought the loan would be repaid through reductions in his salary.”

The following week, DC Health told Charmed’s attorney that if unless they “disproved” that Macias was the real owner, their license would be revoked. Two months went by, and in January, not having received any

“The District’s anti-monopoly rules forbid anyone from applying to hold more than one marijuana dispensary license, a rule designed to keep the medical cannabis industry from being dominated by chains and big business.” elation stood out to them as particularly “irrational.” One of the panelists, it turned out, scored ANC 7C’s unanimous vote for D.C. Holistic exactly as if the Deanwood Commissioners hadn’t voted at all.

City Paper was unable to ask the panelist why the panelist had made that decision: DC Health denied City Paper’s request for a list of the panel’s members, saying it is “not public information.”

DC Health also declined to comment for this article, since “DC Health is unable to comment on pending litigation.”

Initially, the Department of Health vehemently opposed Pickett’s appeal. However, shortly after the October meeting that Kahn found so confusing, their attitude changed.

Just a couple weeks later, on Nov. 6, DOH brought Hai Ting in for questioning. They pressed him to explain why Macias was listed as CEO in Charmed’s application, with charts indicating she was both owners’ boss.

According to a letter in which DC Health recounted the interview, Hai Ting responded that the application was incorrect—Macias is not the CEO, he claimed, and “he does not report to her as indicated in the [organization] chart.” They also said Hai Ting claimed that while “Macias has applied for a Manager’s registration for Charmed, she will not be a

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response to the allegations, they wrote a letter to Charmed. After a long investigation, they’d reversed their decision: Charmed would not receive a license.

In that letter, DC Health recounted their discussion with Hai Ting, making a harsh conclusion. “DC Health does not find it reasonable or plausible that Chanda Macias and Michael Bobo gave or loaned one million dollars to a competitor,” wrote Arian Gibson, manager of the District’s medical marijuana program, unless they were “to share in the profits of the dispensary, or at a minimum to receive repayment of their loan.”

Gibson also detailed new findings. She said that Charmed’s five-year budget, submitted in the application, contained no plan to pay back the loan, and that Macias and Bobo were using the same bank account to fund both NHHC and the new dispensary. Additionally, the overlap in employees was even greater than the application indicated. Dispensary workers have to apply with DC Health for a license, and the Department said that all eight of the people who’d applied to work at Charmed either worked at NHHC or were currently applying to.

Furthermore, Macias’s husband, Bobo, had personally submitted all eight applications, and paid the employees’ application

fees “on behalf of NHHC.” Gibson concluded that Hai Ting and Carter had “falsely attested” in sworn affidavits that they were the true owners of their business in order to “circumvent the prohibition set forth in [the city’s anti-monopoly regulations],” and that they were “strawmen that Ms. Macias and Mr. Bobo used to register [Charmed] to serve as a front for their dispensary.”

Charmed’s attorney quickly responded to that letter, categorically denying the allegations and demanding that the Department “immediately retract the false, inflammatory, and damaging statements” made about Hai Ting and Carter. She said they had never “concealed” anything: They’d said repeatedly in their application that Macias was the CEO of both Charmed and NHHC. She claimed that Macias and Bobo were simply employees of Charmed, not owners, and that DOH had a “fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between ownership and employment.” She also wrote that DOH’s interview with Hai Ting was unfair.

That day, the Department had “demanded” he submit to a “same-day interview,” and she claimed that Hai Ting had said he wasn’t sure about certain details, but DOH had accepted them as fact. In truth, she wrote, Charmed would have to pay back the money to NHHC. A spokesperson for Charmed and NHHC tells City Paper that the funds were actually a line of credit Charmed would have to pay back with interest, and that this is “common practice in the medical marijuana start-up [scene] since banking loans are not available to any businesses in the industry.” She added, “There is no profit structure in which NHHC participates.”

Charmed soon filed a countersuit, which is still pending. Responding to the lawsuit, DC Health argued against Charmed’s claim to innocence, saying they failed “to challenge any of the 24 individual findings of fact that [led] DOH to conclude that Mr. Hai Ting and Mr. Carter had made false statements when they attested to being the true and actual owners of the business.” As for why DC Health took so long to notice the parts of the application they later deemed significant, they wrote that when they first reviewed the applications, they “were not searching for evidence of false statements.”

Meanwhile, D.C. Holistic Wellness opened its doors earlier this month, and Pickett’s getting ready to open that urgent care. D.C. Holistic is the seventh dispensary to successfully break into D.C.’s nascent legal cannabis scene: an industry so closed off—and in which the government exercises such arbitrary gate-keeping power—that some advocates say it incentivizes hopeful entrepreneurs to go into the illicit market, or fight dirty.

CP

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MEET A PENGUIN! washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 7

Kelyn Soong

SPORTS

This is what the Washington Spirit’s future can look like. washingtoncitypaper.com/sports

Such Great Heights Before rock climbing debuts at the 2020 Olympics, local gyms are investing in their youth programs.

By Kelyn Soong ElliE SEpúlvEda opEratES on a different level than most of the members who come through the Sportrock Climbing Center in Alexandria. As one of the country’s top rock climbers in her age group, the 16-year-old from Fairfax Station often travels for youth and open division competitions and trains on the most difficult routes on the gym’s 60-plus-foot walls.

Her needs don’t exactly match up with those of more casual climbers.

“Competition … it’s a very unique style that you don’t get to set in commercial settings because members don’t like it,” Sepúlveda explains. “It’s hard, it’s weird, it’s confusing.”

By February of next year, Sportrock in Alexandria plans to launch the Sportrock Performance Institute, a 9,000-square-foot bay with walls and practice space for advanced junior climbers like Sepúlveda. The company, which also has a location in Sterling, Virginia, envisions that there will be more climbers like her in the future, especially once the sport makes its debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

In 2016, the International Olympic Committee voted to include sport climbing and four other sports at the Tokyo games.

Local indoor climbing gyms like Sportrock and Earth Treks are preparing to capitalize on the expected wave of interest. In addition to building the new junior team-focused facility, Sportrock has hired Taylor Reed, an experienced elite youth climbing coach, to be the director of the performance institute.

“It’s made gyms want to invest more money into their junior team programs and to the level of their coaches,” Jeremy Hardin, Sportrock’s senior director, says of the Olympics effect. “Five to 10 years ago, you couldn’t be a rock climbing coach and make a living … but now there’s probably a dozen coaches out there making close to six figure salaries … Our junior team used to have maybe 30 kids total, and now we’re close to 200.”

Earth Treks, which has several locations in the local area, including in Rockville and Crys-

Darrow Montgomery

ROCK CLIMBING

Ellie Sepúlveda and Abigail Humber, Sportrock Climbing Center in Alexandria tal City, has revamped its youth programming “to increase the size of our youth competitive climbing teams starting this fall,” according to Janet Hirsh, Earth Treks’ regional director of instruction.

Sepúlveda learned how to climb at the Sportrock in Alexandria and started competing for the company’s youth teams around age 11. But at some point in recent years, she began training on her own due to her demanding schedule. Her father, René, hopes the performance institute will help give climbers like his daughter the individualized training that’s become the norm in high-level youth athletics.

Climbers like Sepúlveda and Abigail Humber, another advanced youth climber at Sportrock, didn’t grow up dreaming of competing in the Olympics. Until three years ago, it simply wasn’t an option, but the addition of the sport at the Summer Games has given them a tangible goal to work toward. Sepúlveda is eyeing the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

“I think without the Olympics, I wouldn’t have a pinpoint date for a goal so far in advance,” she says. “I don’t know if it’s changed my motivation. I’ve always been very selfmotivated. I’m very content on doing better, whether that’s making nationals or making na-

8 august 30, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

tional teams, I’ve always wanted to get better and get to the next level. And the Olympics just provides another level to get to.”

In Tokyo, climbers will compete in sport climbing, a combination of three different disciplines: speed climbing, bouldering, and lead climbing. All will take place on artificial walls with colorful, synthetic holds, as is customary at competitions and indoor gyms.

Speed climbing, as the Olympics website explains, involves two climbers going up a standardized route on a 15-meter wall as quickly as possible. In bouldering, climbers attempt to ascend fixed routes on a 4-meter wall under a specific time without the assistance of a rope or harness, and in lead climbing, the athletes are required to climb as high as possible on an increasingly difficult, 15-meter-high wall in a fixed amount of time.

Elite climbers have been critical of the combined nature of the events at the Olympics. A new format that would separate speed climbing has been proposed for the 2024 Olympics.

“It’s like asking track athletes to run a marathon, do hurdles, and do 400-meter sprints, which is totally unfair to the athletes,” Sepúlveda says. “Bouldering and

lead can be combined but speed individual athletes, they get kinda screwed in this situation. So I’m excited over the years to see climbing separate in the Olympics. It’s just not fair to the athletes to force them to do everything. I would like to do everything ’cause that’s me as a person, but some of the best people are the specialists.”

So far only one American climber, Colorado’s Brook Raboutou, has qualified for the 2020 Olympics.

Part of the reason the United States is behind other countries in competitive climbing is because of the lack of gyms focused solely on youth climbing, says Jeff Shor, Sportrock’s youth programs coordinator. He believes climbers will begin to see more specialized training centers open in the future with the Olympics on the horizon.

“I think there was a push in the organization before the Olympics to really emphasize youth climbing,” Shor says, “but the Olympics has definitely been a catalyst. The performance institute we’re building, we are absolutely using the timeline of the Olympics to push the development of the program.”

Megan Lynch, a 21-year-old from Rockville who competed for Earth Treks and is a junior at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, agrees that access to training facilities makes a difference, especially at the international stage.

“It’s hard to say why, as a team, the Americans are a little behind the other advanced places like Japan and Slovenia … I definitely think they have a lot more training facilities, big teams, coaches,” says Lynch, who won the women’s bouldering competition at the 2018 World University Championships. “For us, when it became an Olympic thing, it’s kinda like, let’s make a facility, let’s try to get a team together to train more often. I think they’ve just had those things longer than we have.”

Both Sepúlveda, a rising junior, and Humber, a rising freshman, attend the George Washington University Online High School in order to fit in more time to climb. Sepúlveda says she trains in the gym for four to five hours a day, five days a week, and crosstrains on off-days. Humber is at the gym roughly five days a week, for five to six hours at a time. That comes out to between 25 and 30 hours a week.

It sounds, in many ways, like the lifestyle of potential Olympians.

“It’s a job for me, basically,” Sepúlveda says. “I made that shift last year. It’s no longer a hobby that I’m training for. This is a job. I need to be a professional about it and make sacrifices.”

CP

washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 9

AN ORAL HISTORY OF

GENTRIFICATION IN SHAW AND U STREET NW

Black business owners who have survived gentrification in Shaw and U Street NW define their neighborhood.

Stacie Lee Banks

Edited by Christina Sturdivant Sani Photographs by Darrow Montgomery Interviews by Amanda Michelle Gomez, Mitch Ryals, Emma Sarappo, Christina Sturdivant Sani, Elizabeth Tuten, and Ayomi Wolff When Winnifred Lee and William P. Lee opened their flower shop on U Street NW in 1945, the neighborhood was “like a hub for African American businesses,” according to the couple’s granddaughter Stacie Lee Banks.

At the time, Jim Crow laws restricted black people from entering many downtown shops less than two miles away, explains Banks.

In 1968, the couple purchased the property at 1026 U Street NW, where Banks currently runs Lee’s Flower and Card Shop with her sister Kristie Lee. They lease the space from their father, who owns the building and passed the shop’s baton to his daughters in 2012.

Ben Ali and Virginia Ali put down roots in the U Street corridor in 1958 when they opened Ben’s Chili Bowl at 1213 U Street NW. “When we met, fell in love, and wanted to be married, he wanted to be self-employed,” Mrs. Ali says. Mr. Ali, who came to the U.S. from Trinidad, had been working his way through college in restaurants and had

become a maître d’ “at one of the big restaurants downtown,” Mrs. Ali says. “‘I don’t know anything about the restaurant business, but I’m willing to learn,’” she thought at the time.

Lee’s Flower and Card Shop and Ben’s Chili Bowl are two of few black-owned businesses to survive after the 1968 uprising in response to the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In the two decades that followed, Banks and Mrs. Ali recall a neighborhood overrun by drugs, causing some of their middle-class African American clientele to desert the District for its suburbs.

In the late ’80s and into the early ’90s, the D.C. government facilitated a series of large-scale developments such as the Franklin D Reeves Municipal Center on U Street

10 august 30, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

NW, Green Line Metro stations, and the MCI Center and the Walter E. Washington Convention Center downtown. Making the area more appealing to new residents, these projects contributed to what has made U Street and Shaw two of D.C.’s most gentrified neighborhoods today, according to Derek Hyra, author of Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City.

As crime rates began to decrease in the ’90s and early 2000s, groups such as Cultural Tourism DC began what Hyra calls “black branding” with offerings such as the African American Heritage Trail. WMATA began selling properties near Metro stations that were redeveloped into high-end residential properties such as the Ellington apartments, named after African American jazz compos-

er Duke Ellington, at 1301 U Street NW. The proliferation of jobs throughout the D.C. region after the recession prompted white millennials, who had already begun entering the city in years prior, to come in droves, according to Hyra’s research.

By 2010, the African American population in the Shaw and U Street neighborhoods had decreased to 30 percent from 80 percent in 1980. Across the city, more than 20,000 black residents were displaced between 2000 and 2013, per a report from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

As the area’s racial demographics changed in the ’90s, more black retail businesses opened up in Shaw. But like their predecessors on U Street NW, few have survived.

Donald Campbell

When James stokes joined the business team at the Gospel Spreading Church of God at 2030 Georgia Avenue NW, the church had already owned several properties in D.C. including the four-story brick building that sits at 2002 Georgia Avenue NW. “We found out that Florida Avenue and Georgia Avenue was one of the busiest intersections in this area,” says Stokes, who happens to be this editor’s great uncle. In 1995, the church opened the Gospel Spreading Bible Bookstore on the ground floor of the building. “There was a need for that type of business in the area because bookstores had moved away and it was difficult for people to get to them because we didn’t have the type of bus service that we have today,” says Stokes, who was most concerned about seniors and other churches in the area who needed the store’s offerings.

Diagonal from the bookstore, Donald Campbell opened Central Communications—better known as the Metro PCS store— at 1915 7th Street NW in 1995. The store has become famous for blaring go-go music that rocks the corner of Florida Avenue and 7th Street. Earlier this year, Campbell was thrust into the limelight after a resident of a near-

“There’s a cultural and political displacement aspect. It’s about power and space and place.”

—DOMINIC MOULDEN by luxury apartment building tried to kill the corner’s signature vibe.

After the person made a complaint, T-Mobile, which owns Metro PCS, ordered Campbell to cut the music. Shortly thereafter, a viral tweet and #DontMuteDC hashtag made the store the center of local, and even international news stories examining gentrification in Shaw. “In four days, we had 86,000 people sign a petition—and that was very big.” Oftentimes in situations like this, “the big guy crumbles the small guy,” Campbell says, referring to his store as the underdog. But this time, “the community stood up for the culture” and that go-go beat returned to the street.

Campbell isn’t the only longtime business

owner in Shaw who relies on the strength of the community. Wanda Henderson opened her hair salon in the U Street corridor in 1997 and moved to Shaw, at 1851 7th St. NW, in 2003. A year later, she was told that the property was being redeveloped and she had to leave. “7th and T street has had its challenges, but it’s always been a great location to make money. We always had so many clients,” Henderson says. “Change is good as long as we’re all included. And I didn’t want to be excluded from my space.”

Henderson negotiated a deal with the developer that allowed her to move in 2010 and reopen her shop, Wanda’s on 7th, in the new building five years later. “I really wanted to be

here—my community is here,” she says. “A lot of young people in the community admire me and like the fact that the presence of what was old is still new. Ms. Wanda was here, she left, she came back, she’s doin’ great business. There’s a lot to teach your children, your college students—being a resource for your community.”

Cuttin’ Up Barber Shop at 750 N St NW is one of the last black-owned barbershops in Shaw. Though owner Anthony (Stoney) Quindlen has had to navigate a changing clientele and contend with sharp increases in rent since opening this location in 1996, he says that his shop has thrived as a safe place for the community. “We continue to do the same and be ourselves,” he says. “Everybody likes to talk about current events, sports, politics, concerts, social media, and celebrities. A lot of people come to hear that [because] they don’t hear it at home or at their jobs. So they come here once a week to get all the current events until they come back again.”

The few black business owners whose shops still inhabit Shaw and U Street storefronts have had a front-row seat to the impacts of gentrification, in a myriad of ways.

“It’s not just a change in one class of people

washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 11

Wanda Henderson

who are wealthy moving out the poor class of people, but in the United States and in Shaw, it’s racialized,” says Dominic Moulden, the resource organizer at ONE DC, an advocacy organization based in Shaw. “There’s a cultural and political displacement aspect. It’s about power and space and place.”

In the following series of questions, the aforementioned business owners share, in their own words, stories of survival in one of D.C.’s most heavily gentrified areas and how they navigate serving a changing clientele in a neighborhood that once mostly looked like them.

—Christina Sturdivant Sani Describe the neighborhood at the time you opened—the businesses that were around and the people who frequented them.

Virginia Ali (Ben’s Chili Bowl): We found an architect, a contractor, an electrician, a plumber, and a cabinet maker within a few blocks of here because this had been a historically segregated African American community, so these were all black businesses that we were able to take care of building our Chili

Bowl. [When Ben’s opened in 1958], it was a very vibrant, busy community. And the Chili Bowl was popular quite early. Because of the vitality in the community, we were open until 3 o’clock in the morning and 4 on Friday and Saturday nights.

James Stokes (Bible Bookstore): The first day we opened, on a Saturday in 1995, the bookstore was successful. We could see the potential that it would have so we started reaching out to people and churches in the community—especially to elderly people, most of whom could not drive. There were a lot of businesses in the area at the time— the drug store, Popeyes. We did not see a lot of walking traffic, especially in the early part of the night, so we decided our hours would be 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Saturday. That worked out quite well.

How has the neighborhood, and your clientele, changed over time? When did you first see signs of gentrification?

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Stacie Lee Banks (Lee’s Flower and Card Shop): It’s been ebbs and flows. During the ’40s, it was like a great economic corridor. Then with the riots from 1968, it went down to like a drug infested area [through] the ’80s. Then the Metro construction lasted about five or six years, that kind of completely closed down the street. And it was kind of desolate then.

In the 1990s, there were not a lot of shops, not a lot of restaurants. And these condos weren’t here. But when Metro opened, more shops, condos, and luxury apartments came—it has become more of a vibrant area.

But with gentrification and all of that, it’s kind of bittersweet because it’s very vibrant now. We’re not complaining about anything, but the dislocation of people … that’s hard to swallow.

Virginia Ali (Ben’s Chili Bowl): The big change came in 1968 when the riots occurred.

On that April 4th evening in 1968 when Dr. King was shot, someone rushed into our front door and said, “Dr. King has been shot!”

We couldn’t accept it, didn’t believe it.

Someone else comes in, then someone else

with the same story and finally we find a transistor radio and they’re playing hymns. We realized Dr. King has died. People were coming in tears, crying, sobbing, very upset. And I guess time went on and sadness turned to frustration and frustration turned to anger and the uprising began.

The uprising progressed to the point that the mayor had to put on a curfew to keep people off the streets. Ben’s Chili Bowl was the only place allowed to remain open during three nights of curfew—that provided a place for first responders, police officers, city officials, and even activists to come in, have something to eat, and maybe have a discussion about what we could do to stop the violence.

It was a scary time. I know what tear gas smells like. I know what it’s like when you hear glass shattering and see smoke going.

When that was over, many of the businesses did not reopen. Middle-class African Americans began to move away. Heroin moved in.

There was a time when they were making black films and that kept business for us. It kept the theaters open. [When segregation ended], you could go downtown and we lost

a lot of residents to that time. We became a serious ghetto and went downhill for 20 years with the promise of something being done— the building of a subway system which they didn’t even consider construction until 1988, 20 years later.

When they did finally decide, research showed that in this immediate vicinity, we had three black-owned businesses—Industrial Bank, Lee’s Flower Shop, and Ben’s. Most other places just could not hold on. Marion Barry came into power and decided to build a municipal building that brought many people back into the neighborhood. Since then, property taxes have gone up and it’s been outrageous.

James Stokes (Bible Bookstore): We saw some of the small businesses in the area closing up [in the early 2000s]. It didn’t hurt our business because we gathered all the churches in the area and started advertising over the radio. We found that our advertisements were far reaching and started drawing customers from all parts of Maryland and as far away as Manassas.

The big things that happened were the development of condominiums and homeowners selling their homes to Caucasians. The next thing you know, there was the Hispanic population moving in.

So all of a sudden, we started seeing a complete change in the area around U Street that was mostly African American-owned businesses. We started seeing businesses owned

by Caucasians and some Hispanic.

After new businesses started coming in and the clientele changed over, some businesses were not getting the support that they needed to maintain themselves. [The developments were] good for the District because they were still getting their taxes and perhaps their tax base increased, but what hurts is to see people who were there all their lives running their businesses all of a sudden go out. I had a lot of concerns about that.

Within the four blocks around the bookstore, we have all new restaurants and clubs. Only a few black-owned restaurants are still here.

Stoney Quindlen (Cuttin’ Up Barbershop): When this was basically an all African American neighborhood, we had a lot of hustler clientele. Then when they were building the convention center, it diminished from hustlers to construction workers.

Then once the convention center opened, we started moving more into business clientele and young men with higher education. And it just started to transform from then on out.

Now we have a diverse clientele.

Wanda Henderson (Wanda’s on 7th): It’s never a good thing to move a family out.

This is where they’re from. It’s a hardship. I mean where they gonna go? Even if they get vouchers, where are you going to get a two bedroom or three bedroom apartment to accomodate a family? And usually it’s the mother, daughters, and the son.

[As far as my business], we have the same

clientele and a whole new clientele. We have a lot of millennials who move to D.C. from around the world—we have almost every nationality here. We have a lot of Howard students and a lot of them have questions about business and how I got started and made it through because we were not a million dollar business when we started. We had to be very creative in funding and personal monies to make it work.

How close is the business community in Shaw?

Virginia Ali (Ben’s Chili Bowl): There’s good communication. I’m not involved as much anymore, but people looked out for each other.

Stacie Lee Banks (Lee’s Flower and Card Shop): I know some of the founders of businesses and a lot of them come here to get flowers for their businesses. I’ve been working in my family business since I was 12— some are people who I grew up with. Ben’s Chili Bowl, Kamal Ali. Doyle Mitchell from Industrial Bank—my grandparents were his godparents. Sunyatta at Calabash, Wanda’s hair salon—those are the old faithfuls that I’ve known for years. I know some of the new businesses as well.

Virginia Ali

James Stokes (Bible Bookstore): Maybe about three years ago, I had a stroke and that limited my mobility. Before that time, I had begun to visit some of the new businesses and a lot of the owners were not there. So we couldn’t really get a good relationship going because of that.

As a property owner, how have you weathered increases in taxes?

“My profit is my business and making sure there’s work. It’s important to me and my community that I stay here.”

—WANDA HENDERSON

Stacie Lee Banks (Lee’s Flower and Card Shop): The cost of doing business in the city is very expensive. And so I would imagine that if you’re not established, it would be hard to sustain a business.

One thing my grandmother told us is make sure you pay your taxes above anything else.

With the onslaught of business, we’ve been able to sustain it and pay them without any trepidation. But if they keep increasing, we may have issues.

James Stokes (Bible Bookstore): When we started seeing our real estate taxes going up every year, I got into a tussle with [the D.C. tax office]. We fought for an exemption because our church down the street was using this building for church services and ministry business which made us qualified for a real estate tax exemption. We had a hard time getting it but by being consistent, we were able to get that through and that allowed us to be able to let other businesses come into this building at a very low rent. And we did not increase their rents so that they could survive. It was all about helping the other African American businesses in the area.

washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 13

SHAW/U STREET GENTRIFICATION OVER THE PAST 30 YEARS, ACCORDING TO DEREK HYRA, AUTHOR OF RACE, CLASS, AND POLITICS IN THE CAPPUCCINO CITY:

Stoney Quindlen

1986: Opening of the Reeves Center at 14th and U streets NW 1991: Opening of the Green Line Metro stops in Shaw and along U Street NW 1990s: Initial influx of upper-income newcomers to Logan Circle area 1990s:The nonprofit and forprofit company rehabilitation of the neighborhood’s single family housing stock 1990s: The redevelopment of East Downtown and Chinatown with federal and local government and private sector funds, and the eventual northward expansion of the downtown area

“ This barbershop is a community for people who live in the neighborhood.”

1990-2000s: Decreasing crime rates in the community 1996-2000s: The black branding of the community by certain nonprofits, real estate developers, and restaurateurs 2000s: The sale and redevelopment of WMATA owned properties near the community Metro stops 2000s: Movement of young, white Millennials to the neighborhood 2003: The opening of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center 2004: The release of the D.C. government’s Duke [Ellington] small area community plan 2009-2013: The Great Recession recovery and the proliferation of jobs throughout the D.C. area, when other U.S. cities were losing jobs 2014: 14th Street NW becomes the city’s restaurant row with several high-income, mixed-use, and multi-family rental buildings

—STONEY QUINDLEN As someone who does not own your property, how much has your rent increased? How have you been able to keep up with the rising costs?

Stoney Quindlen (Cuttin’ Up Barbershop): It’s increased drastically but it’s manageable because we got the clientele that can afford the prices that we set. Now if we had the old prices, we would have never been able to survive.

Wanda Henderson (Wanda’s on 7th): We make a profit, but our rent is three times as much as it was. So I have to make personal adjustments before I can really look at my profit. My profit is my business and making sure there’s work. It’s important to me and my community that I stay here. And sometimes it’s not about the money that you make but how you can sustain your community and make a difference in helping people move up in the community by talking to them.

We can ask much more for our haircuts, but we don’t. We try to remember the community we had before.

Have you had to make any changes in your business model over the years to cater to the new clientele?

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Donald Campbell (Metro PCS): We do well with phone repairs and everybody buys accessories and runs out of chargers. But it’s not as busy as it once was despite the increase in people in the neighborhood.

We were extremely busy years ago. We went from selling tapes to CDs. Now we’re trying to provide a streaming service.

I’ve been collecting go-go since 1980 so I have over 30,000 CDs from different bands.

So we are trying to put together a streaming platform so that people from other areas who are curious about go-go can actually listen to it from their phone, their computer—making it available to everybody in the world.

Stacie Lee Banks (Lee’s Flower and Card Shop): Because of the increase of people living in the apartments and condos, there’s a bigger customer base to be had.

People don’t have to travel very far to get here, or they’ll come here on the way home on the Metro. So there’s a lot more walk-ins now. Before, our business was mostly callin, phone-in. And that was able to sustain us all those years.

[Because of ] the heavier foot traffic, we stay open later and we open on Sunday. We also opened a little gift shop within our shop

called Cross Pollination where we have local D.C.-made products [such as] candles, cards, and body products.

And we recently renovated and instituted different promotions like a flower power happy hour on Fridays, which the City Paper voted the best non-alcoholic happy hour. So we feel confident that we have a nice shop.

Virginia Ali (Ben’s Chili Bowl): We had three sons who we sent off to prestigious universities, and all of them decided to do Ben’s as a career—they expanded the menu.

People have always loved hot dogs, but now you’ve got the turkey dog, the beef dog, the veggie dog, all kinds of dogs.

Now, the half-smoke is the number one item on the menu. I think it’s a lot of nostalgia and it tastes so good. We have to keep up with the taste buds of our young folks. Perhaps we’ll have to bring on some seaweed and avocado. But we will always have our delicious half-smokes and chili dogs.

Considering all of the changes in the neighborhood and your business, how has your shop been able to survive all these years?

James Stokes (Bible Bookstore): We had offers coming in to buy the building where the bookstore is and we were getting all kinds of offers to give our church land in Maryland if we sold that building. As the treasurer for the church organization, I took a stand that we were not moving out of the area and we were going to continue the bookstore and church here.

We were the oldest church on George Avenue and that was our beginning. There was no need of us moving and we were not going to allow our church building to be turned into a nightclub. We were serving people mostly in D.C. and Maryland and as long as they were satisfied coming to D.C., it was important for us to be here.

And some of the churches that did move to Maryland did not survive. That’s how we’re still here.

Stoney Quindlen (Cuttin’ Up Barbershop): This barbershop is a community for people who live in the neighborhood. We saw the community grow. We support these little boys in football, basketball—we cheer for them at their sporting events. So they help us sustain throughout the time.

And we always try to do good work. We got a motto: We don’t do it for the money, we do it for the love. And that’s always [what] kept us.

Wanda Henderson (Wanda’s on 7th): I pray every day ’cause it takes that. You have to sit down and think [about] strategies you’re going to do to make it. And for me, I’ve been in the business for so long that I can scale back some of my personal earnings to make sure my business works.

Whatever I have to do to take from my personal [profit], I put it into my business because I believe in it.

What’s your vision for this neighborhood in the future? How can the D.C. government, other business owners, or the community ensure that longtime businesses like yours and new black-owned businesses thrive in this neighborhood?

Wanda Henderson (Wanda’s on 7th): [The D.C. government] has grants that have helped me with things like marketing, lights for my signs, and things that will increase my bottom line and keep the business open. And they’re constantly reaching

back to me to see how I’m doing, so they work very well with that.

That’s for me. I’m trying to think of other black businesses in the area. But whatever nationality they are, you still want to make sure that everyone is covered and everyone stays in the community because we all can work together.

Stoney Quindlen (Cuttin’ Up Barbershop): Go to the owner and ask how you can help. I needed help and I had to go to my father to get me through some of them hard times. He’s a carpenter by trade and he helped me build out. We did everything by hand. Painted everything. Hung drywall.

We had to have the license contractors for critical stuff like plumbing and electrical but he did basic stuff and helped buy the materials to save us some money.

Stacie Lee Banks (Lee’s Flower and Card Shop): Well, I would say if the community supports the businesses, they’ll be able to stay around. I look at Ooh’s and Aah’s across the street—they’re supported by everybody. Ben’s Chili Bowl is supported by everybody. Some businesses? I don’t know. I was in touch with Sankofa Books— it’s a black-owned bookstore and they cater to African Americans … so I don’t know.

Virginia Ali (Ben’s Chili Bowl): Affordable housing—right now there is no affordable housing in this entire city. And property taxes should be lower for people who have been around for so long and made an impact like Ben’s. If you’ve been there for 50 years, something should be done to help.

James Stokes (Bible Bookstore): I would like to see the development of more affordable housing so that people with low and moderate incomes will be able to live in the area. I think that’s very important to have that balance.

I don’t want to see this area go back to being all one nationality. We came through that in the early years. I don’t want to see all African American, Caucasians, or Hispanics. I want to see a balance so we can all work together and get along together. From time to time, we see a few Caucasian people come into our church. It’s going to take some time but I think it’s going to balance itself out.

Donald Campbell (Metro PCS): People can’t move to a particular city and say ‘I don’t want that particular culture.’ You either got to embrace it and listen to it or keep it moving. You have to respect whatever area you go to.

When you move to Nashville, you can’t say stop playing country music. You move to New Orleans, you can’t say I don’t want jazz. D.C. is go-go. That’s what we grew up on, that’s we know. People have to understand that [because] I’m going to keep the music alive.

CP

By

Heidi Schreck

Directed by

Oliver Butler

Photo: Jill Greenberg

Stacie Lee Banks (Lee’s Flower and Card Shop): [My grandparents] originally opened at 918 U Street in 1945. In about 1968, they purchased this building—that’s been one of the great legacies that they left us. I can’t stress the fact of owning your building. To me, it’s been the most important part of how we’re able to be here still.

We pay rent, we pay my dad, it’s nothing compared to what we would have to pay market rate.

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washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 15

Andrew Propp

DCFEED YOUNG & HUNGRY

Under The Influence

Nevin Martell and Julia Terbrock

Instagram influencers are cashing in on dining out.

By Nevin Martell he pictures pop off the screen, intended to excite the primal part of your brain that causes your mouth to water and stomach to rumble even if you just finished a meal.

A two-story burger, the patties jutting over the edge of the bun, heaped with too many toppings to count. A rainbow-sprinkles-spangled ice cream cone stacked high,

the bottom scoops melting onto a manicured hand. A spoonful of mac and cheese connected to the dish by gooey strands stretching across the frame like a web.

This is food porn. But it’s not just eye candy. Some enterprising eaters are dining out for free at the hottest restaurants in the District by posting pictures on Instagram. These so-called influencers can even earn a comfortable living doing so.

The biggest local player is 24-year-old Justin Schuble, who runs @dcfoodporn,

16 august 30, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

an account with 504,000 followers. He has a love-hate relationship with the title “influencer.” “It’s a good description of someone like myself who is influencing peoples’ choices, be that where they eat or where they travel or where they work out,” Schuble says, before adding, “It does sound a little pretentious.”

He started @dcfoodporn in 2014 while attending Georgetown University. It began as a hobby. “When companies started to reach out and restaurants started to invite me in

The owners of Supra are opening a second Georgian restaurant. When it debuts in Park View in late 2019, Tabla will specialize in khinkali (soup dumplings) and khachapuri (cheese breads). for free meals, I realized people put value on what I was doing,” he says. “That’s when the lightbulb went off that I could do this, grow this, and potentially do it full time.”

Once he reached somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 followers, Schuble started getting paid for posts. Now he claims to rake in six-figure earnings over the course of a year. hether they’re looking for cash or just a hot meal, influencers generally follow the same rules of engagement. If a restaurant employs a publicist, it’s usually their job to handle the onslaught of requests from influencers. Some local food-focused publicists say they are approached daily, and sometimes multiple times in one day.

The more professionally minded influencers have a well honed pitch: who they are, how many followers they have, their engagement rates, what they’re offering, and what they’re expecting in return. Some even have rate cards outlining their services. In researching this story, City Paper saw D.C.based influencers asking for as little as $45 and as much as $500 for a single static Instagram photo (as opposed to a story or video).

“They never call it paid advertising,” says Charissa Benjamin, a partner at Savor PR, a hospitality public relations agency with a number of restaurant clients, including Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken and Pizzeria Paradiso. “I call it just that, because that’s what this has evolved into.”

“I’ll get messages that say, ‘Yo, let’s collab,’” says Erika LaChance, founder of Crave Creative, which handles public relations for Bar Elena, Mola, and others. “That basically means, ‘Hey, I want to come in and take photos or videos in exchange for a free meal.’”

Some establishments actively court influencers. The W Hotel offers guests a “mukbang” experience inspired by South Korean videos where hosts film themselves eating ridiculous amounts of food. For $285, influencers and wannabes can create videos of themselves gorging on burgers, pizzas, fries, and a “carrot cake tower” using the provided microphone and cell phone stand.

Not everyone is as welcoming. “We have 100 percent of the time said, ‘No, thank you,’” says Andrew Dana, co-owner of Call Your Mother and Timber Pizza Company, who is approached regularly.

He’s not against people coming in to take photos of their experiences. Dana just wants their Instagram love to be legit. “Our whole brand is built on authenticity and realness,” he says. “Giving somebody a meal to take

photos, you instantly lose some of that.”

Whether the influencer is asking to be paid or just looking for freebies, it’s important that restaurants gauge the legitimacy of an account. Followers can be bought and comments can come from “pods” of Instagrammers who pledge to comment on each other’s posts. Both tactics allow an account to overstate its reach and influence.

There are online services that audit Instagram accounts, offering insights on the number of legitimate followers an account has amassed and other telling analytics.

These can be expensive. The site socialauditpro.com charges $500 to determine how many fake accounts are following an Instagrammer with 500,000 followers, for example. A cheaper way to ascertain if an account’s following is for real is to dive deep into individual posts.

Benjamin doesn’t bother counting “likes” anymore. “It’s about engagement and the quality of that engagement,” she says. “I read through comments—since podding is such a common trend now—to see who is doing the commenting. You have to dig through the content and be really thoughtful and qualitative about it.”

A lack of engagement is a dead giveaway that an account has inflated its influence.

“If you’re north of 50,000 followers and you’re only getting 1,800 views on your video, you’re a fraud and you’re not influencing anyone,” chides one longtime D.C. publicist who asked not to be named.

Huge followings aren’t necessarily the key to a good influencer. Aba Kwawu, president of TAA PR, which counts Punjab Grill, Ocean Prime, and CUT by Wolfgang Puck among its clients, has success working with micro-influencers, who have 5,000 followers or fewer, “because they are laser focused on a certain subject matter,” she says. “Their followers are super engaged, so our client’s numbers—likes and followers—go up even more than when we work with those influencers with more than a million followers.”

Sometimes it’s not about numbers at all.

Deciding whether to agree to have an influencer come into a restaurant for gratis grub or a paid gig can come down to brand alignment. “If the influencer is someone who generally covers hot dogs and burgers—and there’s nothing wrong with that—I won’t jump at an opportunity to have them ‘collaborate’ with Punjab Grill,” Kwawu says.

“It’s not a good fit.”

Publicists describe influencers as part of the contemporary media landscape, though they hedge that traditional print and digital press is still the gold standard, especially when restaurants open. But after the opening stories and first reviews publish and traditional media outlets move on to chasing new leads, influencers can help keep the buzz going. nce the decision-maker determines whether they’re going to work with an influencer, the bargaining begins. The

overwhelming majority of publicists City Paper talked to do not pay influencers for their work. Instead, they offer free food and drink with the stipulation that the influencer leave a tip.

Rose Collins, social media manager for Neighborhood Restaurant Group, which operates Hazel, Birch & Barley, The Partisan, and others, takes this approach. In exchange, the influencer will post one or more pictures of their meal and allow the restaurants to use their photos. “It’s a mutually beneficial partnership,” she says, “because they’re looking for content to feed their channels.”

Sometimes restaurants ask influencers to dine at slow times so as to not inconvenience staff or other diners. In other instances, Instagrammers ask to come in when a restaurant isn’t open to the public, either so they can have full use of the space for a photoshoot or to take advantage of natural light.

Some simply shoot on their phones, others have DSLR cameras and come in with one or more assistants.

Publicists can’t mince words when spelling out what they’re offering on behalf of restaurants. “Unless you’re specific, there’s this feeling they’re going to come in and get whatever they want,” Benjamin says. “No, the $600 bottle of Champagne is not part of your offering this evening.”

Another longtime D.C. food publicist agrees. “It’s almost like a God complex,” they say. “They think they can have whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want it.”

There are ample stories of influencers putting too much food and drink on a restaurant’s tab. Kwawu once arranged a complimentary meal at an unnamed client for an influencer who rang up a bill of more than $600. Now she requires influencers to sign contracts, which include everything from food and drink budgets to whether the restaurant will be able to access engagement statistics on the posts that follow a meal.

She’s one of the rare publicists who will pay influencers if she feels it will get results.

“They can create content we just can’t create,” she explains. The most she ever paid a food influencer was $4,000 for three separate restaurant visits. If this sounds like a lot, consider that Kwawu once paid a major fashion influencer $10,000 to attend an event and post one picture on Instagram. ictures aren’t the only way Instagram influencers can earn a living. Many will share “sponsored posts,” which is a fancy phrase for advertisements. These ads, often for national or international brands, can bring in serious money.

Justin Schuble of @dcfoodporn says he’s been paid $4,000 to $6,000 for a single picture for such clients. In the past, he has worked with 7-Eleven, Potbelly, and olive oil producer Bertolli. His goal is for these posts to fit seamlessly into the rest of his content, even though he includes the hashtag

#ad. “I try to not make the ads overly ad-y and in your face, because that turns people off,” he says.

K i m b e r l y Ko n g , 3 2, co - operates @nomtasticfoods (39.1K followers) among other accounts. She says she makes between $50 to $1,000 per post, depending on the size of the brand, what’s required, and where it will be posted. She has done sponsored content for Boston Market, Wilson Creek Winery, Prairie Organic Spirits, and Michelob ULTRA. Danny Kim is even more enterprising.

Through his two accounts, @dannygrubs (114K followers) and @eatthecapital (63K followers), the 24-year-old offers a full suite of services including consulting and social media management for restaurants.

He says he oversees a quarter milliondollar company, based on annual revenues, which employs a dozen part-time staffers and a full-time project manager. He was unwilling to provide proof of his company’s net worth. “Nobody knows how we do it, but there’s a way,” he says.

Kim did reveal some of his clients, including Union Market bao stand Bun’d Up, island-themed Tiki Taco, and seafood eatery Pesce. All have been featured on @eatthecapital’s Instagram feed without any mention of Kim’s business relationship with them.

This illustrates the gray area some Instagram influencers work in. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to know when they are getting paid or otherwise compensated for the content they’re sharing, even though they are required by the Federal Trade Commission to disclose when that’s the case. Did the Instagram influencer you follow post a picture of a dish because they enjoyed it?

Or were they in it for the free frites or a paycheck? sing instagram’s built-in “insights” tools, it’s easy to surmise how many new Instagram followers or account visits a restaurant garnered from an influencer’s post, which speaks to the tangible, real-world impact these influencers can have.

There’s anecdotal evidence that influencers can help a restaurant’s bottom line. Collins notes that when @dcfoodporn posted a picture of cinnamon roll at Bluejacket, the restaurant noticed a spike in guests specifically requesting it.

But there’s also evidence that hearts and comments do not add up to dollars and cents for the restaurant. One veteran food publicist who asked not to be named required an influencer with 30,000 followers to include a unique promo code in their post. There were zero redemptions for the code at the restaurant.

“It buys awareness, but it’s difficult to determine how that translates into sales,” Benjamin adds. “It’s part of your overall marketing budget.” It’s like the money you take to a casino. Consider it lost and you won’t mind losing it.

Every publicist had horror stories, though most were not willing to share them on the record. Katherine Cotsonas, director of BCENE Public Relations, which oversees PR for Sauf Haus Bier Hall & Garten and Public Bar Live, says she contracted and paid an influencer to do some work for one of her restaurant clients, but they never delivered. Ultimately, she marked it a loss. “I wasn’t going to take them to small claims court for $500,” she says.

Most of the drama is on a smaller scale, involving the influencer either no-showing or arriving late for a reservation, both of which are an inconvenience, and potentially lost revenue, for the restaurant. Other times, Instagrammers post something careless or sloppy. LaChance remembers having an influencer in for National Gin Day. They posted a cocktail that clearly featured bourbon. Cotsonas also recounts getting latenight texts from influencers asking if they can stop by a client’s establishment to score free food and drink, which has the desperate feel of a booty call.

Those looking to take advantage of publicists or restaurants should think twice. “The PR and marketing community is smaller in D.C. than people think it is,” Cotsonas cautions. “The bad influencers build a reputation for being not great.”

For Kong, hearing about other Instagram influencers behaving badly makes her wince. “My goal is to put the restaurant first,” she says. “We’re trying to help them out and get them more exposure. There are a lot of people who don’t care and are just enamored by getting free stuff. I don’t want to be lumped in that category.” s an experiment, City Paper set up an Instagram account with the handle @whattoeatinwashdc. Rather than put in all the work of organically growing followers, City Paper Googled “buy Instagram followers” and spent a little over $100. As soon as the payment for what the invoice called “freelance software services” went through, @whattoeatinwashdc skyrocketed to 11,000 followers within minutes.

Over the next few weeks, @whattoeatinwashdc posted a series of food pictures, followed food-related accounts in the D.C. area, and interacted with other users. In no time, restaurants and other food influencers tagged the account in their posts. Voila! @whattoeatinwashdc was well on its way to becoming an Instagram influencer—though City Paper never asked anyone for a free meal or to be paid for posts.

Seeing how quickly it was possible to rack up followers and gain a modicum of influence was both surprising and sobering. It can make one a more thoughtful Instagram consumer. As loveable as double-patty burgers, sprinkles-covered ice cream cones, and super creamy mac and cheese are, one would hope the shutterbugs behind them are being straightforward.

CP

washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 17

Shaughn Cooper

CPARTS

Meet three artists featuring their work at this weekend’s Flower Bomb Fest. washingtoncitypaper.com/arts

Redesigning Women

Natalie Abrams’ wearable sculptures will bring fistfuls of punk to the District of Fashion’s runway next week.

Vinylic collar

Photographs by Elizabeth Tuten

Resin and paint beads

By Elizabeth Tuten Natalie abrams didn’t want to be an artist.

“I studiously fought against it,” says the 52-year-old Chicago-born sculptor turned jewelry designer. “I come from a long line of engineers. I didn’t want to be an engineer, but I wanted my parents’ respect and all that.”

Abrams started studying fashion at Colorado State University, but she found the program boring and switched to interior design and construction management. After college she worked for several architecture and consulting firms in Colorado and New York City.

“I ended up making art because I wanted it and couldn’t afford to buy it,” Abrams says. “The art thing was the one thing that really stuck with me and it kind of became

consuming.” She started out making multimedia sculptures before transitioning to jewelry fit for a punk warrior goddess, which she’ll show as Abrams Wearable at the District of Fashion Runway Show on Sept. 5.

For the runway, Abrams is focusing on optically striking pieces that will stand out in a crowd. Her relationship with color presents an interesting dichotomy: She’s very much a color specialist, but also calculated with how she uses it. A lot of her work, she says, uses an especially muted palette combined with a few spots of intense pigmentation. Abrams Wearable’s signature colors are white, black, and red, but the studio is littered with pops of neon and jewel tones.

Much of Abrams’ work involves optical illusion. “You have all clear at the bottom, a layer of pink, and then a layer of yellow, but because of the curvature of the bulb and the matte finish, the pink travels through the

18 august 30, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

clear to cast a halo on the bottom, but there’s no actual color there,” she says, referencing a bright, marble-esque resin orb dangling from a nylon filament. “With these, when you look at them head on at eye height they are clear but when you wear them they pop and fill with color.”

Abrams Wearable feels as though it sprung into existence fully formed, like Athena from the head of Zeus. But the brand evolved incrementally over six years.

By 2013, Abrams had left design and project management behind for her sculpture practice as a resident at the McColl Center for Arts + Innovation in Charlotte, North Carolina. The following year, she spent a month at the Sam & Adele Golden Foundation, a nonprofit residency program connected to Golden paint company. Abrams worked with research and development, learning about their acrylic mediums and developing cus-

tom paint formulas. Paint remained a constant as Abrams’ practice evolved.

She began dipping different core lines made from a variety of nylon filaments and braided stainless steel micro cables in acrylic paint. One paint formula Abrams developed created spontaneous beading as it ran down the lines and dried, creating tiny beads of paint that gave the otherwise sleek cords texture. “It’s almost like you’re capturing this specific moment in time,” Abrams says of the effect.

She had planned to use the dipped filaments in her sculpture practice, but a jewelry making class inspired a shift in perspective.

She’d gone into it with loose objectives, but a friend who was orchestrating the workshop later told her that she had an eye for jewelry.

The comment stuck with Abrams, who started making the dipped lines longer and longer, bending and shaping them with

CPARTS an eye toward wearability. “I made one of them and had to go to a function and had one wrapped around my neck, and I had all these women coming up to me saying, “What are you wearing?” and feeling it. It was like, maybe I’m onto something. People started borrowing them. That was kind of the start.”

The transition from sculpture to jewelry was challenging. “With sculpture, you can hide stuff,” Abrams says. “There’s a place to hide the ugly bits. With jewelry, there’s no place to hide the ugly bits. You really have to think of every aspect of it: How do you put it on? How do you wear it? Is it comfortable? Can it be easily taken on and off? How does it move with the person who’s wearing it? There are all of these things to take into consideration that I didn’t have to think about before.”

In 2016, Abrams moved to Herndon, Virginia, to join her partner in business and in life, Bryan Hammock, 48. The two met in a Facebook group for artists and brokered a friendship around Abrams’ creative methods. She’d get stuck creatively, she says, and he’d come up with ideas she never would have thought of. Hammock conceptualized the spindle and tank method of dipping the lines, a custom system Abrams built out that allows her to dip more lines at once than she

Natalie Abrams and Bryan Hammock

could by hand. In the spring of 2018, Abrams Wearable opened a studio and retail space in Alexandria’s Torpedo Factory Art Center.

Hammock grew up in D.C., playing punk shows at Black Cat before attending Penn State to be a writer. “I’ve been around art

my whole life, I’ve just never really found my niche,” Hammock says. “I always tell everybody to have a partner in any regard because it’s easy to quit and when you have a partner you can’t really quit. We make a great team.” Hammock says he’s the marketer,

and Abrams is the artist. But, Abrams says, the pair are truly co-designers.

A spiky, glossy vinylic collar is the first piece they developed together. Abrams says it’s still their most popular piece. “It does become this sculptural element that you wear,” she says. “It’s jewelry then it’s also a sculpture.”

“We’re still not even scratching the surface,” Hammock adds. “When we started this, we planned out about five years worth of designs. Some of our best stuff we haven’t even come close to doing yet. We’re trying to get to a place where we can stop designing for a little while, put out some product and be able to expand to museum stores and boutiques.” Pieces are currently available for purchase at their Torpedo Factory studio, online, and will also be on sale at the trunk show preceding the Sept. 5 runway appearance.

Influenced by the hardcore punk scenes in Chicago and D.C., there’s no subtlety to Abrams and Hammock’s shared vision.

“I had a really hard time finding jewelry for me, because I’m not delicate,” Abrams says. “I see a woman put on our collar and they just change, just transform immediately, and I love that. I love being able to give someone this feeling that they are on top of the world.”

CP

BEGINS SEP 4

The Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning masterpiece about faith, ambiguity, and the price of moral conviction.

202.332.3300 | STUDIOTHEATRE.ORG washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 19

CPARTS ARTS DESK

Booksmart

Illustration by Emma Sarappo

By Emma Sarappo

The Library of Congress’ National Book Festival is this Saturday, and as usual, it promises to feature a deluge of fascinating panels featuring authors and books of every genre. How’s a reader supposed to decide which ones to attend? We’ve sorted through the many panels and presentations (not including the signing events) to recommend a few of the best.

Panel: Changemakers 11 a.m. on the Understanding Our World Stage How does a man make history? Well, being a man helps. So does having a position of power. That’s the formula Winston Churchill used to become a symbol of Western diplomacy—that and a lifelong attention to his trajectory, as detailed in Andrew Roberts’ biography Churchill: Walking with Destiny. Churchill is the kind of figure who could be the subject of a panel by himself, but Roberts speaks alongside Andrea Barnet, author of Visionary Women: How Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters Changed Our World, and David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. Blight’s subject’s significance is obvious: Douglass was born enslaved, taught himself to read and write, fought for his freedom, and spent his life pushing past the boundaries America circumscribed for his intellect and humanity. Barnet’s 20 august 30, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

book covers four women who pushed their boundaries, too, though each in very different ways. History is complicated and rarely as neat as the narratives we’d prefer to present. But these authors have taken on the task with aplomb, and there’s a lot to ponder about the biographies we might read of today’s leaders and visionaries 50, 100, or 150 years from now.

Conversation: Animal Emotions and Human-Animal Relations 12 p.m. on the Science Stage Back when humans were domesticating animals for work purposes—creating efficient and specialized vermin-catchers, beasts of burden, transportation methods, tools for hunting, and food sources— we could have really used the research coming out of Alexandra Horowitz’s Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard.

There are still plenty of applicable uses for better un-

derstanding the mind of man’s best friend, but many of us just want answers to this: Does my dog love me?

Does he know how much I love him? Horowitz’s new book Our Dogs, Ourselves: The Story of a Singular Bond explores that question, among others, in an illuminating look at our symbiotic bond with canines. But our curiosity about animal emotion really reflects our curiosity about our own—that’s the point Horowitz’s panelmate Frans de Waal makes in his book Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves, which follows the story of a chimpanzee, our closest genetic relative, and her feelings about Jan Van Hooff, a Dutch biologist. The conversation will be moderated and enriched by Betsy Herrelko, a behavioral scientist at the National Zoo. Susan Choi 3 p.m. on the Fiction Stage

Susan Choi’s new novel Trust Exercise is a doozy.

It’s not just us saying that. The Atlantic called it “an elaborate trick,” Vulture called it “inventive and polarizing,” and The New Yorker said it “toys with themes of appropriation, and with the reader.” We’ll try to avoid spoilers, but Trust Exercise rolls out a red carpet for its readers in its first act and violently yanks it out from under them in the second. Choi, who’s written novels fictionalizing the life of people like Patty Hearst and the Unabomber, circles back to the impulse writers have to tell other people’s stories for them. Trust Exercise questions notions of truth, accuracy, and ownership in storytelling and asks what, exactly, we owe the people we write about—even in fiction. It’s enough to make your head spin. Choi will be in discussion with Ron Charles, the book critic at the Washington Post, to help dissect the tricky novel.

Hold On So many books, so little time—and so little money, too. Stocking up on newly released hardcovers can really put the hurt on your wallet. Thankfully, you can always turn to the DC Public Library, but you might have to compete with all of the other book lovers in Washington. Here’s a small guide to which of the National Book Festival’s participants’ acclaimed books have big time library holds, according to their online catalog as of press time. —Emma Sarappo

Julia Alvarez 3 p.m. on the Poetry & Prose Stage Julia Alvarez published her groundbreaking novel In the Time of the Butterflies 25 years ago. She had risen to prominence three years before with her novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, which follows four sisters who flee the Dominican Republic during Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship—a story that mimics her own biography. But In the Time of the Butterflies made an even bigger splash. The book depicts the lives of the four Mirabal sisters, called Las Mariposas, “The Butterflies,” who secretly opposed the Trujillo regime until the day three of them were beaten to death and thrown off the side of a cliff. Today, the Mirabals are recognized as martyrs. There’s a Dominican province named for them, they’re featured on the currency, and the anniversary of their deaths is now the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Alvarez’s novel is a major literary achievement, plus a turning point for Latina writers in the U.S. She will discuss the Mirabals, the novel’s legacy, and her life as a Dominican American writer with Peruvian American writer Marie Arana.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. 3:20 p.m. on the Children’s Green Stage Gates, a titan of public intellectualism, isn’t speaking on this year’s festival main stage. That’s not a snub, though; he’s actually on two panels. One is a discussion about race in America with two other authors of comprehensive popular histories. The other addresses the perfect audience for his newest book, Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow, on one of the children’s stages. Americans have long struggled with how to tell our children about the brutality and inequality that has defined our country, and Gates tackles the subject masterfully in Dark Sky Rising, a book recommended for readers 9 to 12 years old. The vocabulary here is appropriately challenging, and the history is handled unflinchingly. But it comes with illustrations and timelines to help students just wrapping their heads around the past situate themselves in the story. Most importantly, it tells the truth about the ways Reconstruction was purposefully undermined after nearly a century of revisionist history.

A new generation of readers will learn that Jim Crow wasn’t inevitable—it was a choice we made, and a choice we have to reckon with.

From 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place NW. Free.

(202) 249-3000. loc.gov.

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai This novel, which follows a group of young men in Chicago during the AIDS epidemic and explores the ways it still impacts characters’ lives in the present day, won multiple awards and was a National Book Award and Pulitzer finalist.

DCPL Copies: 56, 1 in large print DCPL Holds: 209, 38 for large print Makkai will discuss The Great Believers at 10 a.m. on the Fiction Stage.

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein Epstein, a former ProPublica reporter, lays out the case for cultivating a diverse skill set instead of focusing on a few facets.

DCPL Copies: 24 DCPL Holds: 92 Epstein will discuss Range at 10 a.m. on the Understanding Our World Stage.

The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson Atkinson’s first volume in his Revolutionary War trilogy covers the first 20 months of the battle against the British.

DCPL Copies: 14 DCPL Holds: 44 Atkinson will discuss The British Are Coming at 7 p.m. on the History & Biography Stage.

The Other Americans by Laila Lalami Pulitzer finalist Lalami’s new novel follows multiple narrators in the wake of a Moroccan immigrant’s death in a suspicious hit-and-run.

DCPL Copies: 20 DCPL Holds: 35 Lalami will discuss The Other Americans at 5 p.m. on the Fiction Stage.

Vegetables Unleashed by José Andrés and Matt Goulding James Beard Award-winning writer Goulding and star chef and D.C. legend Andrés’ new cookbook hopes to highlight the power of vegetables to replace—and transcend—what meat does in dishes.

DCPL Copies: 17 DCPL Holds: 23 Andrés will discuss Vegetables Unleashed and We Fed an Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time at 1 p.m. on the Main Stage.

washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 21

THEATERCURTAIN CALLS @CraftyFestivalDC CraftyFestivalDC.com

DEAD PREZ Assassins

Book by John Weidman Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Directed by Eric Schaeffer At Signature Theatre to Sept. 29

Support artists.

Shop handmade.

Volunteer at

CRAFTY arts & makers festival

Saturday & Sunday September 28-29 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Buzzard Point DC

CITYPAPER WASHINGTON

22 august 30, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

The early 1990s, when Assassins — Stephen Sondheim’s trigger-happy ode to a couple of successful President-slayers and a few more also-rans — appeared Off Broadway and then in London and then at Signature Theatre, where it has just opened again, were boom times for guns. Police departments across the U.S. were combating a decades-long upswing in violent crime by replacing the sixshot revolvers they’d issued for more than 50 years with semi-automatics that allowed officers to fire 12, 15, or even 18 rounds without reloading. During that decade, D.C.’s police department became the deadliest in the nation, killing more people per resident than law enforcement agencies in New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago. So many of these shootings were accidental, and so many of those were blamed on the comparatively light trigger pull required to discharge the Glock 19 pistol that replaced the old revolvers, that the entire force was retrained.

That was before police killings of unarmed black people were broadcast on the internet. It was also before reality TV gave emotionally unstable attention seekers like the ones who populate Assassins a natural habitat in which to thrive.

Most importantly, that was before killing sprees made possible by the ready availability of assault rifles, never mind high-capacity handguns, became the dominant means by which deranged people expressed themselves through violence.

We live under the most despised president in U.S. history, and yet the very notion of assassination feels quaint. The sort of people who used to try to kill presidents now shoot up Walmarts and outdoor music festivals.

All of which is a very long way of saying that however provocative Assassins might’ve felt a generation ago, it’s a museum piece now— more so than Sondheim and book writer John Weidman, expanding on an idea they got from Charles Gilbert Jr., meant for it to be. Even allowing for the show’s Brechtian insularity, it still needs a rethink for the chaotic world it essentially predicted, one that Signature artistic director Eric Schaeffer hasn’t given it.

The show’s second Signature production, which Joe Calarco directed in 2006, felt more

contemporary than this one. Its set was a row of bleachers, inviting the audience to look, in effect, at itself. In the current version, designed by James Kronzer, the cast performs in front of a rotting wooden facade. Stage left, there’s a replica of the balcony that John Wilkes Booth lept from after shooting President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

The production’s lack of specificity is most readily seen in its weapons. The nine principal characters wield pistols in every scene, fire them frequently, and occasionally point them at the audience. Charles Manson acolyte Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, played by Rachel Zampelli, is armed with what looked to me like a Beretta 92, a pistol that didn’t become commonplace until about a decade after Secret Service Agents tackled the real-life Fromme for pointing a much older handgun, a Colt Model 1911, at President Gerald Ford. The show isn’t going for historical accuracy, of course, nor is it trying to tell anything like a linear story. John Hinckley Jr., who shot President Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton in 1981, is in it (and is played beautifully by an unrecognizable Evan Casey), for example, but the show climaxes with Lee Harvey Oswald firing out the window of the Texas Schoolbook Depository in Dallas, 17 years earlier.

Even so, giving one wannabe killer a recognizably anachronistic handgun while all the ones who came before and after her strut around with revolvers less closely identifiable to a specific era feels careless, especially in a show that finds the clearest expression of its core idea in a number called “Gun Song.” Had Schaeffer directed his props department to arm his cast with assault rifles, that might’ve been update enough to make Signature’s second 21st century Assassins feel touched by the horrors of the 21st century.

The cast is strong. Zampelli is marvelous as Fromme, channeling menace and hippie dissipation in equal measure. (It’s not a fair comparison, but she’s more dimensional than Dakota Fanning is as Fromme in Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.) Vocal powerhouse Tracy Lynn Olivera is appealingly insane as Ford’s other wannabe killer, Sara Jane Moore, and Bobby Smith is heartbreaking as Charles Guiteau, hanged for killing President James Garfield in 1882.

The other standout performer is Vincent Kempski as the haunted-eyed Booth, the man whose flamboyance set a standard to which all other would-be POTUS killers have aspired. He was, after all, an actor.

—Chris Klimek 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. $40–$110.

(703) 820-9771. sigtheatre.org.

BOOKSSPEED READS

Scene and

Heard

ON SALE NOW!

Getting Around, August 2019

BEGIN AGAIN Evvie Drake Starts Over

By Linda Holmes Penguin Random House, 304 pages The love sTory at the center of Evvie Drake Starts Over unfolds timidly in the wake of identity-destroying loss. For Evvie, the loss is her emotionally abusive high school sweetheart husband, Tim, who died in a car accident the night she finally dared to leave him. The novel opens on this scene—Evvie is tossing a suitcase and cash into her car when she gets the call that Tim has been in a crash. The rhythm of her life, formerly punctuated by the tense staccato of Tim’s anger and disapproval, goes silent.

Author Linda Holmes draws the dizzying stillness of depression with the fine point of someone who’s been there. Listeners of The Hilarious World of Depression podcast know that she has. And for listeners of Holmes’ podcast, Pop Culture Happy Hour on NPR, the witticisms and references sprinkled liberally throughout Evvie Drake Starts Over will feel as familiar as Evvie’s old pilled sweater.

But where Pop Culture Happy Hour moves at a joyful clip, the novel trails languidly through boggy grief, coming up for air with just enough frequency to still work as a summer beach read.

For former professional baseball player Dean, the loss is his ability to pitch. A mean case of “the yips” ended his career, and now he has to decide what’s next. Dean can’t throw a baseball and Evvie can’t reconcile with the memory of her dead husband, but Holmes’ measured and empathetic writing

sets these two losses on equal footing. In a story rife with a variety of sorrows, Holmes never undermines characters’ suffering.

Evvie and Dean find themselves suffering in close quarters when their mutual friend Andy suggests that Dean wait out the media firestorm surrounding his forced retirement in Evvie’s spare apartment. Dean and Andy are childhood friends, and Evvie and Andy are present day best friends in smalltown Maine. Andy and Evvie’s relationship toys with the classic When Harry Met Sally quandary: Can a straight man and a straight woman really be platonic friends?

Evvie Drake Starts Over isn’t sure, but it helps when the male friend in question has a hot pro athlete friend who needs a place to stay for a few months.

Dean is about as dynamic as a blowup doll. He’s attractive, sure, and he checks every “good guy” box, but to borrow a favorite turn of phrase from the author herself, hoo boy howdy is he basic. This is what we know about Dean Tenney: He has an inspirational tattoo, drinks whiskey, covets pinball machines, loves his parents, keeps his nutritional supplements organized, and has also gone pro at disassociating from his emotions.

But Evvie doesn’t need spectacular; she craves normal and boring. Her artsy mother left when she was a kid, she raised herself while her dad manned a lobster boat for 12 hours a day, six days a week, and the wealthy, ambitious town hottie and eventual asshole doctor chose her against all odds before dying as dramatically as he lived. No wonder Evvie wants to lie down the whole book. She’s tired.

Evvie Drake Starts Over is ideal for equally world-weary readers who want to escape into a book that’s as easy to pick up as it is to put down.

—Elizabeth Tuten

Maybe it was the rainstorm that made people want to do something—anything— other than get in a car. A man in an empty petty cab kicks off the weekend-long antiautomobile celebration on Saturday morning. He sing-chants as he bikes uphill “assholes in cars, idiots in cars, morons in cars!”

That’s just the beginning. All weekend long people stroll, bike, scoot, and moped from here to there, enjoying cool breezes and mild weather. But the piece de resistance comes Sunday evening.

People rush from their homes and restaurants and shops to see it. The sidewalks grow crowded as the rumble grows closer and louder. A cavalcade of dirt bikes and ATVs makes its presence known on 14th Street NW. Their drivers pop wheelies and shout and raise their hands, as if to acknowledge the onlooking crowd.

Gas and smoke choke the air as the parade continues. It seems endless. The drivers overfill the road, spilling into the opposite lane as they turn left on Rhode Island Avenue NW. One dirt bike even takes to the sidewalk, zipping around pedestrians as it cuts its own path toward Logan Circle. A few riders have taken alternative routes, entering the circle from the north, but they find their friends and head downtown.

Back on 14th Street NW, a French bulldog gets low and yaps at the riders as they zip by, adding its voice to what will become a chorus of complaints online about this reckless way of getting around.

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

TONIGHT + TOMORROW!

WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME!

AUG 29: SPECIAL GUEST CHEF JOSÉ ANDRÉS AUG 30: SPECIAL GUEST RENÉE FLEMING

SUNDAY!

UB40

FEATURING ALI CAMPBELL & ASTRO

SHAGGY NKULA

SEP 1

TUESDAY!

MARY J. BLIGE SEP 3

JENNIFER HUDSON

NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

FOLLOW

SEP 5

THEPIANOGUYS SEP 6

GIPSY KINGS FEATURING NICOLAS REYES AND TONINO BALIARDO VILRAY SEP 8

Please recycle this paper. washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 23

FILMSHORT SUBJECTS

See the latest films with on-screen captions at DC movie theaters!

Movie theaters in the District are offering select showtimes with the captions displayed on the screen. Visit opencaptionsdc.com for movie listings and more details.

PARTICIPATING THEATERS AMC Georgetown 14 - AMC Mazza Gallerie 7 Angelika Pop-Up at Union Market - Landmark Theatres Atlantic Plumbing Cinema - Landmark Theatres E Street Cinema - Landmark Theatres West End Cinema - Regal Gallery Place & 4DX

24 august 30, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE Love, Antosha

Directed by Garret Price In the punk rock thriller Green Room, there is a point where the film transcends its genre trappings into something more grim and serious. A group of terrified kids barricade themselves in a room, except one of them has part of his arm on the other side of the door. The kid starts screaming—something terrible is happening to his arm—and you can tell by the look on his face that there’s no going back.

Because the kid was played by Anton Yelchin, it leaves an impression. It’s one of many great performances from the actor, who died from a freak accident at age 27, and the documentary Love, Antosha explores his life. It is not just a biography or a highlight reel of his work, but an intriguing look at how a blossoming, devoted talent influenced others.

Yelchin’s parents nurtured his creativity.

Director Garret Price offers a brief prologue, where we learn that they were figure skaters in the Soviet Union who escaped the Iron Curtain. Yelchin started making home movies at a young age, and took up the guitar. You can see glimmers of the actor he would become, yet Price focuses more on his relationship with his mother.

The biggest surprise in Love, Antosha is that Yelchin lived with cystic fibrosis, a genetic, life-threatening disorder that creates chronic lung problems. He didn’t let it get the better of him, even if it meant he had to spend hours each day clearing his airways. Instead, the film suggests it made him more serious, more focused. He watched films studiously, learning as much as he could. While on movie sets, he never went back to his trailer, preferring to watch the crew in action. He kept diaries and wrote constantly. His writings in this

film are narrated by Nicolas Cage, who captures Yelchin’s self-deprecating intelligence without being showy about it.

Yelchin gradually shifted from child roles into more complex parts, and Price includes many interviews with actors and directors on whom he made an impression. Kristen Stewart speaks with bittersweet fondness since he broke her young heart. Jennifer Lawrence tells a story about how he helped her become a better actor. There are countless more, including his castmates from the Star Trek films, and their memories depict a budding filmmaker and intellectual who was devoted to his craft.

Their candor is what keeps Love, Antosha from being too maudlin.

Aside from Yelchin’s unique investment in his roles, the film also includes insight into his personal life and other pursuits. He was a budding photographer who liked to shoot the seedier parts of Los Angeles, including S&M clubs. Several friends insinuate he was a Lothario, but not the sort that ever made anyone feel jealous. On paper, these vignettes sound like the typical flourishes of an artsy young adult male, but Price carefully edits all the footage—contrasting anecdotes with snippets of his acting—so that the cumulative impression is that, yes, Yelchin was the real deal.

In films like Alpha Dog and 5 to 7, you see an actor whose choices seem instinctive, and yet are informed by a tireless desire for self-improvement.

Yelchin died in the summer of 2016, and Love, Antosha wistfully considers this loss.

The film does not dwell on his death, nor does Price let his camera linger on his interview subjects in their more emotional moments. It’s a celebration of a life well lived, and how a creative kid transitions into the beginnings of a serious artist. We will never know what could have been, so at least this film could serve as an inspiration for doing the most with what you’ve got.

—Alan Zilberman Love, Antosha opens Friday at Landmark E Street Cinema.

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF JAZZ September 7–22, 2019 Join us for 16 full days and nights of creativity in action—ALL FREE! The Kennedy Center is celebrating the opening of the REACH, its first-ever expansion.

This brand-new campus of innovative indoor and outdoor spaces puts YOU at the center of the art—where you can chart your own course and connect what moves you to creative experiences beyond imagination.

Sunday, SEPT. 22, 3 P.M. The Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center 4915 E. Campus Drive Alexandria, Va. FREE, no tickets required

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

With nearly 500 events planned, there’s something for everyone!

City Paper 1-6 horizontal DB50.indd 1

Bootsy Collins

Yalitza Aparicio

Renée Fleming

Angélique Kidjo

Thievery Corporation

Judah Friedlander

OPENING DAY

HIP HOP BLOCK PARTY

The Chuck Brown Band featuring Bootsy Collins

J.PERIOD presents The Live Mixtape [The Healing Edition] feat. Maimouna Youssef aka Mumu Fresh

Saturday, September 7

The Chuck Brown Band featuring Bootsy Collins is sponsored

by Ambassador Susan E. Rice and Mr. Ian Cameron.

SPOTLIGHT ON JAZZ

Sunday, September 8

John Coltrane-Inspired Jazz and Meditation Service

Family Day is supported by the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates.

The Just and the Blind

Black Panther

Tuesday, September 10

In Conversation with Yalitza Aparicio SPOTLIGHT ON CLASSICAL AND POPS National Symphony Orchestra at the REACH is sponsored by Jennifer and David Fischer.

Wednesday, September 11

Master classes with Alan Menken, Steven Reineke, and Joseph Kalichstein SPOTLIGHT ON RENÉE FLEMING VOICES AND SOUND HEALTH

Thursday, September 12

Renée Fleming with Angélique Kidjo and Jason Moran in Concert SPOTLIGHT ON ELECTRONICA/DJ CULTURE

Friday, September 13 Thievery Corporation with opener The Archives

All events are free; timed-entry passes required for entry. Free passes and a complete day-by-day schedule of events at Kennedy-Center.org/REACH Patrons without passes may be admitted on a space-available basis.

Additional support is provided by Ford Foundation, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, The Prufrock Foundation, as well as anonymous supporters.

David M. Rubenstein Cornerstone of the REACH

9.1

Bela Dona

Tuesday, September 17

9.11

Thursday, September 19

Encore broadcast of WNO’s Show Boat Show Boat is sponsored by Mars, Incorporated.

An Evening with

(of Sixpence None The Richer)

Friday, September 20

District of Comedy Stand-Up Showcases with Judah Friedlander, Rachel Feinstein, and More NATIONAL DANCE DAY

National Dance Day is presented as part of the Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives.

Saturday, September 21 Fela! The Concert CLOSING DAY

Sunday, September 22

Howard University “Showtime” Marching Band and Netflix: HOMECOMING: A Film by Beyoncé Plus check out drop-in spaces for hands-on discovery like the Moonshot Studio, the Virtual Reality Lounge, and Skylight Soundscapes!

Corky Siegel’s

Chamber Blues w/ Lynne Jordan

9.15

Albert Cummings* 10.1

Liv Warfield

Shonen Knife*

10.2

SPOTLIGHT ON COMEDY

BoDeans w/ Dan Tedesco

9.20

9.17

Leigh Nash*

9.6

9.15

The Supersuckers* Lloyd Cole (2 sets)

Black Panther is sponsored by Amazon Web Services.

SPOTLIGHT ON WASHINGTON NATIONAL OPERA

9.6

Gretchen Peters*

Mo Willems hosts MO-a-PALOOZA LIVE! OUTDOOR FILM SCREENING

THE PEOPLE WE ARE: CELEBRATING FIRST NATIONS CULTURES

LIVE MUSIC | URBAN WINERY | RESTAURANT | BAR | PRIVATE EVENTS

Sunday, September 15

SPOTLIGHT ON THEATER

Monday, September 9

*

VALET & SECURE PARKING AVAILABLE

Saturday, September 14

FAMILY DAY

8/9/2019 11:13:58 AM

10.15

11.13

Bob Schneider (w/ Band) Edwin McCain

1350 OKIE STREET NE, WASHINGTON DC | CITYWINERY.COM/WASHINGTON DC | 202.250.2531

become a

join us for

member vinofile EXCLUSIVE PRESALE ACCESS, NO TICKETing FEES, complimentary valet & more!

brunch EVERY SATURDAY & SUNDAY 1-4PM DJ MISS H.E.R. EVERY SATURDAY DJ JEALOUSY EVERY SUNDAY

NEW YORK • CHICAGO • NASHVILLE • ATLANTA • BOSTON • WASHINGTON DC • PHILADELPHIA • HUDSON VALLEY

D.C.’s awesomest events calendar.

Programs, artists, and schedule subject to change.

Download the REACH Fest app! washingtoncitypaper.com

washingtoncitypaper.com/ calendar washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 25

Merriweather Post Pavilion • Columbia, MD THIS THURSDAY!

VAMPIRE WEEKEND

MORRISSEY AUGUST

THIS WEEK’S SHOWS SEPTEMBER (cont.)

Y! THIS FRIDA Xxxx : Xxx with Xxx No Scrubs: ‘90s Dance Party

half•alive w/ Sure Sure

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

This isDJs a seated ........................................................................................

F AUG x with Willshow.

Eastman and Ozker • BLISSPOP & U ST MUSIC HALL PRESENT Visuals feat.

by Kylos ........................F 30 DCXxx BLISSPOP DISCO FEST feat.

The Xx, SEPTEMBER The Black Madonna, Josey Sa x MXxxx, and more! ..............................................................................................

Rebelle, Wayne Davis & Lisa D NIGHT ADDED! FIRST NIGHT SOLD OUT! SECON Moody (Deep Sugar), Amy Douglas,

dodie w/ Adam Melchor ................F 6 Deerhunter + Dirty Projectors .....................Su 8 Wilder Woods

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

WPOC SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY FEATURING

Old Dominion • Michael Ray • Jordan Davis • Lauren Alaina • Dylan Scott • Jimmie Allen • Brandon Lay • Filmore.....................SEPT 29

Ticketmaster • For full lineup & more info, visit merriweathermusic.com • impconcerts.com * Presented by Live Nation

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

THE BYT BENTZEN BALL

PETE HOLMES

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

Crank Karaoke with Live Band, Go-Go Karaoke, and Jam Session featuring Walk Like Walt, Crank Karaoke Band, & DJ Money...............................F 13 Barns Courtney w/ The Hunna

K.Flay w/ Houses & Your Smith ..Su 29 Dean Lewis w/ Scott Helman...M 30

Polo & Pan w/ Mindchatter ......Su 15 Band of Skulls

Built to Spill - Keep It Like A

OCTOBER

Joseph w/ Deep Sea Diver...........W 2 Caravan Palace

Early Show! 6pm Doors ....................Sa 14

Early Show! 6pm Doors. .....................Th 3

Secret 20th Anniversary Tour

w/ Demob Happy ........................Th 19

w/ Prism Bitch & Love As Laughter .F 4

Grace VanderWaal

Luna performing Penthouse

w/ Patrick Martin .........................F 20

w/ Olden Yolk

Early Show! 6pm Doors. ....................Sa 5

grandson w/ nothing,nowhere.

Early Show! 6pm Doors. .....................Sa 21

Bombay Bicycle Club

U STREET MUSIC HALL PRESENTS

w/ The Greeting Committee Late Show! 10pm Doors .....................Sa 5

The Joe Kay Experience A Special 4 Hour Set

Steve Lacy .................................Su 6 Noah Kahan w/ JP Saxe ............M 7 Kero Kero Bonito

Late Show! 10pm Doors ...................Sa 21

Ride w/ The Spirit Of The Beehive..Su 22 Whitney w/ Hand Habits............M 23

w/ Negative Gemini ......................Tu 8

MANY MORE SHOWS ON SALE!

930.com

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

9:30 CLUB PRESENTS AT U STREET MUSIC HALL

Benjamin Francis Leftwich w/ Abraham Alexander...............Th SEP 5 Ceremony w/ Choir Boy & Glitterer .Tu 10 Fontaines D.C. w/ Pottery ............W 11 Black Pumas w/ Rudy De Anda ......Th 12

Recording their 7th live album!

Jamie Lee - LIVE!

w/ Early Show! 5:30pm Doors ......................................................................... FRI OCTOBER 25

Jade Bird w/ Flyte

CHICKEN & MUMBO SAUCE PRESENTS

Interpol ..................................................SEPT 5

w/ Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness & American Authors ................................SEPT 7

and more! Late Show! 10pm Doors ...F 27

Chromeo (DJ Set), DāM-FunK (DJ Set), RAC (DJ Set), and more!

(Bear Rinehart of NEEDTOBREATHE) ..................W 11

9:30 CUPCAKES

O.A.R.

w/

* w/ Christone “Kingfish” Ingram... AUGUST 29

Wovenhand .............................Su 15 Bleached w/ Paranoyds ...............Tu 17 Louis Cole w/ Thumpasaurus ........Th 19 BANNERS w/ The Man Who .............F 20 Raveena ..................................Su 22

On Sale Thursday, August 29 at 10am

Criminal Podcast

- Live Show .................................... SEP 11

Tinariwen w/ Lonnie Holley ........ SEP 19 AN EVENING WITH

The Waterboys ..................... SEP 22 Adam Ant: Friend or Foe w/ Glam Skanks................................. SEP 23

Cat Power w/ Arsun ................... SEP 25

THE BYT BENTZEN BALL AN EVENING WITH

MARIA BAMFORD ..................... OCT 24 THE NEW NEGROES FEAT. BARON VAUGHN • OPEN MIKE EAGLE • DULCE SLOAN • JABOUKIE YOUNG-WHITE • HAYWOOD TURNIPSEED JR.

Late Show! 9pm Doors .................... OCT 25

TIG NOTARO: B ut E nough A Bout Y ou .............. OCT 26

SECOND NIGHT ADDED!

POLITICS AND PROSE PRESENTS

Ta-Nehisi Coates -

The Water Dancer Book Tour ....SEP 27 (Moderated by Ibram X. Kendi)

AEG PRESENTS

Jónsi & Alex Somers Riceboy Sleeps

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

with Wordless Orchestra .......... OCT 28 Nahko and Medicine for The People w/ Ayla Nereo . SEP 29 X Ambassadors

METROPOLITAN ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS

w/ Bear Hands & LPX ....................... OCT 29

Zaz ................................................... OCT 4 Puddles Pity Party w/ Dina Martina Natasha Bedingfield ........... OCT 14 Halloween Costume Contest!

The Band Perry w/ Phangs .... OCT 15 Come dressed in your best! ............. OCT 31 Angel Olsen w/ Vagabon ............NOV 1 AEG PRESENTS Bianca Del Rio U Up? Live....................................NOV 4 It’s Jester Joke........................ OCT 18 Kishi Bashi ..................................NOV 8 Ingrid Michaelson Mandolin Orange All 9/24 9:30 Club tickets will be honored..................... OCT 23

w/ Sunny War ....................................NOV 14

BenDeLaCreme & Jinkx Monsoon:

All I Want for Christmas is Attention .NOV 29

• thelincolndc.com •

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

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

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

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

HAPPY HOUR DRINK PRICES impconcerts.com AFTER THE SHOW AT THE BACK BAR! 26 august 30, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

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

930.com

CITYLIST Music 27 Books 31 Theater 31 Film 32

CITY LIGHTS: FRIDAY

BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE 9/7 SAT

GREENBELT BLUES FESTIVAL

8/30 FRI

HILLBILLY GYPSIES

8/31 SAT

THE 8 - BALLS

9/1 SUN

DRUM CIRCLE 12PM THE NIGHTHAWKS 7PM

9/3 TUE

OPEN MIC

9/4 WED

CHRISTINE HAVRILLA

9/5 THU

WOLF’S OPEN BLUES JAM

9/6 FRI

MOONSHINE SOCIETY

9/7 SAT

SMOKIN POLECATS

9/8 SUN

PATSY’S HONKY TONK

9/10 TUE

OPEN MIC

12PM TO 11:30PM

9/11 WED RITA CLARKE & THE MYSTIC YAYA BAND

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is a 1989 sci-fi flick starring two blissed-out Van Halenites with a time machine. It’s also the kind-hearted adventure film we so desperately need in 2019. The dopey goodness of the film’s title characters (Alex Winter and a baby-faced Keanu Reeves) is refreshingly unambiguous. They’re pure, incorruptible good guys. We know this because the movie tells us—with a straight face—that our heroes are destined to become hard rock philosopher-kings whose music ushers in an era of global peace and prosperity.

The problem: Ted’s dad is threatening to ship his son off to military school if he doesn’t pass history class, thereby breaking up Bill and Ted’s band Wyld Stallyns and erasing the future-utopia before it ever has a chance to exist. To avoid being separated, Bill and Ted team up with a time-traveling operative from the future and shoot across the circuits of history in the ultimate class cram session. In the years since its release, Bill and Ted’s adventure has gone on to spawn a cereal and a Saturday morning cartoon, not to mention an inferior sequel that sees the Wyld Stallyns dropped into Hell. The trilogy’s cap, Bill & Ted Face the Music, is due out next summer. The film screens at 8 p.m. at Sonny’s Green, 1290 East-West Highway, Silver Spring. Free. (301) 495-6700. afi.com/silver.

—Will Lennon

Music FRIDAY CABARET

SIGNATURE THEATRE 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. (703) 820-9771. The British Invasion. $38. sigtheatre.org.

FUNK & R&B

AMP BY STRATHMORE 11810 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Let It Flow. 9 p.m. $20–$30. ampbystrathmore.com.

MGM NATIONAL HARBOR 101 MGM National Ave., Oxon Hill. (844) 346-4664. Jill Scott. 8 p.m. $76–$183. mgmnationalharbor.com.

HIP-HOP

FILLMORE SILVER SPRING 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Shy Glizzy. 8 p.m. $30. fillmoresilverspring.com.

ROCK

THE HAMILTON 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000. Kiti Gartner & The Drifting Valentines. 10:30 p.m. Free. thehamiltondc.com.

HILL COUNTRY BARBECUE 410 7th St. NW. (202) 556-2050. Amy LaVere & Will Sexton. 9 p.m. $15. hillcountry.com.

U STREET MUSIC HALL 1115 U St. NW. (202) 588-1889.

White Ford Bronco. 10 p.m. $22–$25. ustreetmusichall.com.

JAZZ

U STREET MUSIC HALL 1115 U St. NW. (202) 588-1889.

DuPont Brass. 7 p.m. $10–$15. ustreetmusichall.com.

SATURDAY CABARET

SIGNATURE THEATRE 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. (703) 820-9771. The British Invasion. $38. sigtheatre.org.

FUNK & R&B

BIRCHMERE 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Atlantic Starr. 7:30 p.m. $49.50. birchmere.com.

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531.

Dwele. 5 p.m.; 9 p.m. $45–$65. citywinery.com.

9/12 THU

PAINT BRANCH CREEK

9/13 FRI

THE WHARF RATS

9/14 SAT

GOD MOTHER COUNTRY

9/15 SUN

FEZ TONES HAFLA

9/17 TUE

OPEN MIC

9/17 WED PUB QUIZ 9/19 THU

THE RESONANT ROGUES

9/20 FRI

MAGICAL MYSTERY GIRLS

9/21 SAT

PILE O’ROCKS

9/22 SUN

GREAT NORTHERN

9/24 TUE

WOLGEMUT

9/25 WED THE CAMPFIRE SESSIONS 9/26 THU

NEW BLUE SOUL

FREE PARKING • NEVER A COVER 113 Centerway Greenbelt, MD 20770 • 301.474.5642

W W W. N E W D E A L C A F E . C O M CRAFT BEERS • WINE • FOOD

washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 27

28 august 30, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

FUNK & R&B

MALCOLM X PARK 16th and W streets NW. The Capital House Music Fest. Noon. Free. capitalhousemusicfestival.org.

CITY LIGHTS: SATURDAY

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD

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

ROCK

GREENBELT LABOR DAY FESTIVAL 101 Centerway, Greenbelt. Johnny Seaton & Bad Behavior. 3 p.m.

Free. greenbeltlaborday.com.

TUESDAY

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

Tix @ Ticketmaster.com Aug

29

BRIAN COURTNEY WILSON

30

Newmyer Flyer presents

FUNK & R&B

w/ Gene Moore

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. Got My Own Sound. 7:30 p.m. $20–$25. citywinery.com.

HIP-HOP

WOLF TRAP FILENE CENTER 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. Mary J. Blige. 8 p.m. $45–$250. wolftrap.org.

ROCK

RHIZOME DC 6950 Maple St. NW. Simon Joyner, Amanda Glasser, and Ryan's Country Cookout. 8 p.m. $10. rhizomedc.org.

WORLD

THE RONALD REAGAN BUILDING AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTER 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. 202-312-1300. Orquesta Nfuzion. Noon. Free. itcdc.com.

U STREET MUSIC HALL 1115 U St. NW. (202) 588-1889.

Sonar Select. 10 p.m. $10. ustreetmusichall.com.

JAZZ

THE RONALD REAGAN BUILDING AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTER 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. 202-312-1300. Djangolaya. Noon. Free. itcdc.com.

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. 8 p.m. $35. 930.com.

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

Semi Hollow. 10:30 p.m. Free. thehamiltondc.com.

JAMMIN JAVA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. The Rockits & Randoll: 50th Anniversary Woodstock Show. 6:30 p.m. $10–$15. jamminjava.com.

WORLD

FILLMORE SILVER SPRING 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Noche de Rock. 8 p.m. $20. fillmoresilverspring.com.

SUNDAY ELECTRONIC

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

Sharam. 10 p.m. Free–$15. soundcheckdc.com.

FUNK & R&B

BETHESDA BLUES & JAZZ 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. (240) 330-4500. Millie Jackson. 8 p.m. $59.50–$74.50. bethesdabluesjazz.com.

POP

RHIZOME DC 6950 Maple St. NW. Concetta Abbate. 8 p.m. $10. rhizomedc.org.

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

Sung Si-kyung. 7 p.m. $82–$172. warnertheatredc.com.

WOLF TRAP FILENE CENTER 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. UB40 and Shaggy. 7:30 p.m. $40– $60. wolftrap.org.

ROCK

GYPSY SALLY’S 3401 K St. NW. (202) 333-7700. Garrett Gleason and Tetsuya Ueda. 8:30 p.m. $12–$14. gypsysallys.com.

JAMMIN JAVA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. Willie & the Bandits. 6 p.m. $10–$20. jamminjava.com.

JIFFY LUBE LIVE 7800 Cellar Door Drive, Bristow.

(703) 754-6400. Knotfest Roadshow. 5:30 p.m. $25– $370. livenation.com.

WORLD

ECHOSTAGE 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Teddy Afro. 9 p.m. $50. echostage.com.

MONDAY ELECTRONIC

DEEP TECH ON THE POTOMAC 3050 K St. NW. Mr. Wright. 5:15 p.m. $20–$25. wizdoment.com.

THE FABULOUS HUBCAPS 7 DANNY GATTON BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION! Sept 6

with Dave Chappell, Dave Elliott, Chick Hall, Tommy Lepson, Big Joe Maher,

John Previti, Tom Principato, Pete Ragusa, & many more!

"Remembering Doc: A TRIBUTE TO DOC WATSON"

with T. Michael Coleman, Jack Lawrence, Wayne Henderson

ELECTRONIC

ROCK

feat. The Lofgren Brothers (Tom, Mike, Mark), David & Ginger Kitchen, The Jelly Roll Mortals, Ruthie & The Wranglers, Willie Barry, Bob Berberich, Lynn Kasdorf, Louie Newmyer & more!

8

WEDNESDAY

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s cacophonous guitar rock may be derivative, but their otherworldly vibes are more than enough to compensate for debts owed to Sabbath, Zeppelin, Zappa, and Jethro Tull. Losing yourself in their discography is like being possessed by something that emerged after cracking open a cursed amulet on a hunt for prehistoric drugs. Even the band’s scale is fantastical—King Gizz is seven bodies strong (two drummers, three shredders, a couple of other guys), and they’ve dropped 15 albums since 2012. Five of those came out in 2017 alone, and the music’s quantity has no effect on its quality. One minute they’re doling out sludge metal, the next they’re shifting gears into blues-inflected, peyote-and-moonshine cowboy rock. But the most distinctive trait that binds the Australian band’s extensive catalogue together is, fittingly, cohesion itself. In the ’70s tradition, each Gizz Wiz song is a chapter in an album’s larger narrative. They make records with characterization, buildup, foreshadowing, and, most importantly, face-melting guitar solos that make you wonder whether maybe there were drugs in that cursed amulet after all. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard perform at 8 p.m. at 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $35. (202) 265-0930. 930.com.

—Will Lennon

A Tribute To The Everly Brothers & Grin Again

ROCK

THE ANTHEM 901 Wharf St. SW. (202) 888-0020. Of Monsters and Men. 8 p.m. $50–$199. theanthemdc.com.

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Nebula. 8 p.m. $15. dcnine.com.

THURSDAY

THE MANHATTANS GERALD ALSTON 14 An Evening with MAYSA 13

featuring

15

The Trifecta of Folk Tour:

THE KINGSTON TRIO THE BROTHERS FOUR THE LIMELITERS 18 JAKE SHIMABUKURO 19,21 BILLY BRAGG "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back"

BLUES

AMP BY STRATHMORE 11810 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Marcia Ball. 8 p.m. $35– $55. ampbystrathmore.com.

22

COUNTRY

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. Hot Club of Cowtown. 6 p.m. $22–$25. citywinery.com.

FUNK & R&B

WOLF TRAP FILENE CENTER 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. Jennifer Hudson. 8 p.m. $45–$65. wolftrap.org.

HIP-HOP

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531.

Phony Ppl. 6 p.m. $18–$22. citywinery.com.

JAZZ

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

Feedel Band. 9:30 p.m. $10. bossadc.com.

POP

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. dodie. 8 p.m. $25. 930.com.

U STREET MUSIC HALL 1115 U St. NW. (202) 588-1889.

Benjamin Francis Leftwich. 7 p.m. $17. ustreetmusichall.com.

ROCK

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

Jenny Lewis. 8 p.m. $40–$70. theanthemdc.com.

A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE TO ROY BUCHANAN with Billy Price, Mike Zito & more!

25

/Fath RICK WAKEMAN Kaula

"Grumpy Old Rock Star Tour"

THE ROBERT CRAY BAND 27 THE SELDOM SCENE & JONATHAN EDWARDS 29 THE STYLISTICS Billy 30 LOS LONELY BOYS Coulter Oct 1 JOHN MORELAND 26

with DARRIN BRADBURY

2

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE with special guest JESSE MALIN

MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. (410) 715-5550. Morrissey. 6 p.m. $45–$95. merriweathermusic.com.

THE RONALD REAGAN BUILDING AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTER 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. 202-312-1300. Feelfree. Noon. Free. itcdc.com.

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

Natalia Lafourcade. 8 p.m. $47–$325. warnertheatredc.com.

presented by

Warner theatre Sat. Sept.14, 8pm Tickets at Ticketmaster.com

washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 29

Mayor Muriel Bowser

CITY LIGHTS: SUNDAY

presents

SUNG SI-KYUNG

Labor Day Weekend

Anyone in the mood for post-hype K-pop?

When Sung Si-kyung burst onto the scene in 2000 at the age of 21, BTS’ members were all either in elementary school or getting ready for it, and the concept of a “Korean Wave” in music reaching America was dubious. Nicknamed “The Prince of Ballads,” Sung’s had ample success over the last 19 years, releasing seven full albums in Korean (plus two in Japanese) and selling millions of copies worldwide. Still, compared to the larger landscape, Sung is an odd duck. He’s a John Legend-esque crooner who prefers emotional love songs like “You’re My Spring” to the bombastic production of his peers. He’s also pivoted to hosting television shows, setting himself up as an elder statesman with good music that doubles as TV theme songs. But with the American market seemingly more open to K-pop acts than ever, South Korea’s foremost crooner has launched his first American tour.

Sung Si-kyung performs at 7 p.m. at the Warner Theatre, 513 13th St. NW. $80–$175. (703) 255-1900. warnertheatredc.com.

—Tristan Jung

Music Festival

2019

SATURDAY | AUG. 31 | 7 PM GoGo Symphony Zen Warship Kokayi

SUNDAY | SEPT. 1 | 7 PM

HOSTED BY

TONY RICHARDS

LINCOLN THEATRE

1215 U STREET NW, WASHINGTON, DC Artists and schedule subject to change.

Both evenings will have ASL interpreters.

FREE ADMISSION | RSVP TODAY! DCARTS.DC.GOV 202-724-5613

PABLO ANTONIO Y LA FIRMA, LABOR DAY WEEKEND MUSIC FESTIVAL 2018. IMAGINE PHOTOGRAPHY.

Main Swing Jazz Ensemble Akua Allrich & the Tribe Sheldon Thwaites Music

CITY LIGHTS: MONDAY

FOR OTHER 202CREATES SEPTEMBER EVENTS, VISIT WWW.202CREATES.COM

30 august 30, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

LIFE AS A TRANSIT EMPLOYEE

Before the Metro arrived in Washington, D.C., locals relied on a fleet of streetcars to ferry them around the city. This Labor Day, discover the lives of the individuals who kept D.C.’s early public transportation running with a visit to Life as a Transit Employee, a special exhibition on view at the National Capital Trolley Museum through the end of the holiday weekend. Featuring insights on aspects of the job ranging from negotiating labor contracts to battling extreme weather and organizing promotional campaigns, the event includes two afternoon showings of a 1940s recruitment film It’s a Big Job. Catch the movie at 1:30 or 3:30 p.m., then stop by the hall of streetcars to see a selection of historic trolleys from both the capital and farther afield. End your trip by catching a streetcar ride on the demonstration railway, which departs from the visitor center dispatcher’s desk and traces a one-mile path around the museum’s grounds. The exhibition is on view from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the National Capital Trolley Museum, 1313 Bonifant Road, Colesville. $8–$10. (301) 384-6088. dctrolley.org.

—Meilan Solly

CITY LIGHTS: TUESDAY

MARY J. BLIGE

After the 2009 inaugural balls, Michelle Obama ditched her ivory-colored gown for a T-shirt and sweatpants, Barack peeled off his tux down to shirtsleeves, and the first couple danced to Mary J. Blige’s “Real Love” on the second floor of the White House, a scene one usher recalled as “the most beautiful, lovely thing you could imagine.” Blige is a progenitor of a sound that came of age when Bill Clinton was dubbed America’s first black president, a genre-blurring New York style that evolved when breakbeat hip-hop grooves were laced with soulful, streetwise vocals. Blige was deemed “Queen of Hip Hop Soul” back when radio was king, and D.C. natives recall hearing her ’90s hits in heavy rotation during WPGC legend Albie Dee’s 18-jams-in-arow afternoon blocks. The nine-time-Grammy-winning singer’s fans have stayed loyal as she’s stretched out musically—and emotionally. Her later work unspooled a more cathartic, confessional take on songwriting, as the artist delved deeper into themes of anguish and resilience. Each of the 13 studio albums Blige has released over her three-decade career have reached Billboard’s Top 10. Mary J. Blige performs at 8 p.m. at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. $45–$250. (703) 255-1900. wolftrap.org.

—John Kruzel

WORLD

CITY LIGHTS: WEDNESDAY

OF MONSTERS AND MEN

The humid days of Washington summer are winding down, so it’s the perfect time to wrap yourself in the sonic Scandinavian hug that is Of Monsters and Men. The Icelandic pop-folk group will sail into The Wharf as part of their tour with the Baltimore indie pop band Lower Dens to promote their third record, Fever Dream. This latest production may sound like a departure from the band’s sonic roots like 2011’s “Little Talks,” a multi-platinum hit that was blasted from coffee shop speakers the world over, but as the group’s Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir told Billboard, “Some people won’t like it, because it’s different and people don’t like change, but that’s okay.” Starting with Fever Dream’s lead single “Alligator,” the band has veered into a space dominated by The 1975 and The National, employing banging synths and overpowering drums— the perfect mix for the cavernous venue. Recent sets in Los Angeles suggest a mix of new and old (plenty of callbacks to 2014’s Beneath the Skin and the likes of “King and Lionheart” from 2012) while also leaving time and space to lean into a new direction for the rest of their American tour.

Bring an open mind, your jumping shoes, and a ready appreciation for “Mountain Sound.” Of Monsters and Men perform at 8 p.m. at The Anthem, 901 Wharf St. SW. $50–$199. (202) 888-0020. theanthemdc.com.

—Christian Paz

UNION STAGE 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. The Green. 8 p.m. $20–$40. unionstage.com.

ROB HART Hart’s novel The Warehouse is a story of corporate espionage at a huge company called Cloud. Politics and Prose at Union Market. 1270 5th St. NE. Sept. 4, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

ROBERT KUTTNER Kuttner will present his book The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy. Politics and Prose at The Wharf. 70 District Square SW. Sept. 3, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 488-3867.

Books

BINA VENKATARAMAN Venkataraman will discuss his book The Optimist’s Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Sept. 3, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

CHRISTOPHER LEONARD Leonard’s reported book Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America explains the history of the Koch brothers’ influence in America. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Aug. 30, 7 p.m. Free.

(202) 364-1919.

MAIKA AND MARITZA MOULITE The Moulites present their book Dear Haiti, Love Alaine in conversation with Elizabeth Acevedo and Karine Jean-Pierre. Politics and Prose at Union Market. 1270 5th St. NE. Sept.

5, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

MARIE ARANA Arana discusses her book Three Crucibles in the Latin American Story with Carlos Lozada.

Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Sept. 5, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL Walter E. Washington Convention Center. 801 Mount Vernon Place NW. Aug. 31, 9 a.m. Free. (202) 249-3000.

PETER CATAPANO AND ROSEMARIE GARLANDTHOMSON Catapano and Garland-Thomson, editors of About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times, discuss the book. Politics and Prose.

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Sept. 5, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

RANDALL MUNROE Munroe, mastermind behind the webcoming xkcd, discusses his book How To with Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri. Sidwell Friends School. 3825 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Sept. 4, 7 p.m. $20–$35. (202) 537-8100.

SARAH HURWITZ Hurwitz, a political speechwriter, discusses her book Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life–in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There). Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Sept. 4, 7 p.m. Free.

(202) 364-1919.

Theater

A NITE AT THE DEW DROP INN This cabaret-style show features songs made famous by Etta James, Fats Waller, and Big Mama Thorton on a highlights tour about love found, lost, and renewed. Anacostia Playhouse. 2020 Shannon Place SE. To Sept. 21. $30– $40. (202) 290-2328. anacostiaplayhouse.com.

ASSASSINS Assassins is a musical based on John Weidman’s book with music by Stephen Sondheim. It is the dark comedy story of nine attempted and successful presidential assassinations and their assailants. Signature Theatre. 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. To Sept. 29. $55–$93. (703) 820-9771. sigtheatre.org.

CABARET Alan Paul, the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s associate artistic director, directs with Olney THeatre Center for the first time with this showing of Cabaret. Set in 1929 Berlin as Nazis rose to power, Cabaret focuses on the character of American writer Cliff Bradshaw and his foray into the world of cabaret and his romance with performer Sally Bowles. Olney Theatre Center. 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney. To Oct. 6. $42–$84. (301) 924-3400. olneytheatre.org.

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CITY LIGHTS: THURSDAY

PETER CATAPANO AND ROSEMARIE GARLAND-THOMSON

Disability is widely, blithely, and popularly misunderstood, even though as we age, most of us will personally encounter it. For example, after a scandalizing New York Post headline in July, Peter Catapano—editor of the New York Times’ opinion series Disability—had to write a column reminding readers that many wheelchair users can stand and walk sometimes, and that doesn’t mean they don’t need wheelchairs at all. Catapano’s series has been instrumental in tackling stubborn misconceptions like these through empathetic, rigorous, first-person prose detailing what it’s like to be deaf, to be autistic, to have diabetes, to have heart disease, or, yes, to use a wheelchair. This big-tent idea of disability owes much to scholar Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, whose 1997 book, Extraordinary Bodies, ushered in a new school of disability theory—one that examined disability as an overlapping social identity, not just a medical one. Garland-Thomson also kicked off the Times series with an essay, “Becoming Disabled,” that probed the thin border between the dual kingdoms of the disabled and the abled. Now, Catapano and Garland-Thomson have collected essays from the series in a book, About Us, that promises its readers (and its writers) “nothing about us without us.” Catapano and Garland-Thomson speak at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. Free. (202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com.

—Emma Sarappo DEAR EVAN HANSEN Dear Evan Hansen is the winner of six Tony Awards and a Grammy. It is directed by Michael Greif and features a score from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater.

2700 F St. NW. To Sept. 8. $79–$175. (202) 467-4600. kennedy-center.org.

DISNEY’S ALADDIN From the same producer as Broadway’s The Lion King, the new production of Disney’s Aladdin comes to the stage at the Kennedy Center with Clinton Greenspan as Aladdin and Kaena Kekoa as Jasmine. Kennedy Center Opera House.

2700 F St. NW. To Sept. 7. $39–$179. (202) 467-4600. kennedy-center.org.

DOUBT: A PARABLE Studio Theatre stages John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer-winning play Doubt: A Parable, where an allegation of abuse tears apart a 1960s Catholic school. Studio Theatre. 1501 14th St. NW. To Oct. 6. $20–$80. (202) 332-3300. studiotheatre.org.

LOVE SICK Based on The Song of Songs, Love Sick tells the story a young wife in a lifeless marriage who discovers she has a secret admirer and begins a mysterious, dizzying journey of sexual and personal empowerment. Theater J. 1529 16th St. NW. To Sept.

29. $34-64. (202) 777-3210. theaterj.org.

SHEAR MADNESS Shear Madness is an audienceinteractive crime comedy set in Georgetown about the murder of a pianist who lives in a hair salon. Each show delivers a unique performance based on the audience’s sleuthing. Kennedy Center Theater Lab. 2700 F St. NW. To Sept. 28. $56. 202-467-4600. kennedy-center.org.

SOUVENIR Florence Foster Jenkins became a famous singer, but she couldn’t even string together two in-tune notes, though she believed herself to be a world-class soprano. Souvenir is the story of Jenkins, told through the perspective of her accompanist who is at first bemused by her but later grows to feel fondness for her. Horowitz Center at Howard Community College. 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. To Sept. 22. $15–$40. (443) 518-1500. repstage.org.

THE WAR BOYS Three boys, best friends since childhood, spend their time patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border, learning lessons of belonging and who gets to be “American.” Joe’s Movement Emporium. 3309 Bunker Hill Road, Mount Rainier. To Aug. 31. $15–$25. (301) 699-1819. joesmovement.org.

WILD PARTY Andrew Lippa’s musical Wild Party is based on the book by Joseph Moncure March in 1928.

It’s the story of two lovers in an abusive relationship who invite guests to the party of the century in a desperate attempt to salvage their relationship. Greenbelt Arts Center. 123 Centerway, Greenbelt. To Sept.

15. $12–$22. (301) 441-8770. greenbeltartscenter.org.

Film

BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON A New York woman changes her life by training for a marathon. Starring Jillian Bell, Jennifer Dundas, and Patch Darragh. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) DON'T LET GO A man's family is murdered—but then he gets a call from his supposedly dead niece. Starring Byron Mann, Storm Reid, and Mykelti Williamson. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) GOOD BOYS Three sixth-grade boys ditch school and try to make their way to a highly-anticipated party.

Starring Jacob Tremblay, Will Forte, and Retta. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE A woman, tired of sacrificing herself for her family, takes off to reconnect with her creative side—and her daughter tries to find her. Starring Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig, and Judy Greer. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) ANGEL HAS FALLEN A secret service agent is framed for murdering the President—and has to solve the mystery while evading the FBI. Starring Gerard Butler, Frederick Schmidt, and Danny Huston. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) AQUARELA This documentary follows the power of water and ice across the globe. Directed by Victor Kossakovsky. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) READY OR NOT A wedding night goes wrong when a bride's new in-laws force her into a dangerous and deadly game. Starring Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, and Mark O'Brien. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

SAVAGELOVE M DOOGALS THE FAMOUS

C

I’m a straight woman and have been sexually active for about six years. I’m in my mid-20s now and about ready to become a “man-hating feminist.” I feel like I can figure out what a guy wants in bed pretty easily. I cannot remember a single time when I’ve had sex with a guy that he has not had an orgasm. I, on the other hand, have never had an orgasm. Quite the opposite! I’ve barely even been aroused lately when I am having sex because it’s easy to tell when the guy I’m with just wants to come and that is the only thing on his mind. This makes me want to just get it over with.

I’ve become really angry with the male population and their lack of care for pleasing a woman. Will it take a Women’s Pleasure Revolution for men to realize that their female counterparts have needs, too? Granted, I’ve had sex with only five guys— but in my mind, Dan, that’s five too many. I also have girlfriends in the same boat. Men skip foreplay, they don’t return the favor when it comes to oral, and they’re so eager to get their penises in my vagina, they barely touch me before doing so! THIS MAKES ME FEEL USED. I’m a giving woman by nature, but I feel like men just take. I don’t hate men. I actually really like men.

In fact, I was madly in love with one of the five.

—Really Enraged/Vexed Over Lazy Turds “Lots of foreplay, mutual oral, enough touch to get me going or, better yet, get me off at least once—all of these things have to happen before we fuck.” Practice saying that in a mirror, REVOLT, and then say it out loud to the next guy you sleep with. Say it and mean it. And if those things don’t happen—if he skips the foreplay or won’t go down on you or refuses to touch you with anything other than his dick—then he doesn’t get to fuck you. Get up, get dressed, and go. The sooner you walk out on guys who don’t want to do those things, the sooner you’ll find yourself in bed with guys who do. So no more having sex to “get it over with” (GIOW), no more sticking around for shitty GIOW sex that leaves you feeling used.

Some guys will be happy to see you go. Given a choice between a woman they can’t treat like a crusty tube sock and an actual crusty tube sock, a statistically significant percentage of straight guys will choose the crusty tube sock. Don’t waste your precious time or pussy on guys like that. And don’t waste a moment of your time or any of your pussy on guys who will engage in a little half-assed foreplay or go down on you for 30 seconds before they try to stick their dicks in you. Only fuck the guys who enjoy foreplay and are excited to eat your pussy before fucking you—or instead of fucking you.

The revolution you want isn’t going to come because some homo ordered straight boys everywhere to start engaging in foreplay and eating pussy. The revolution is only going to

come—you’re only going to come—if you and your friends and all women everywhere stop settling for GIOW sex. Now, some women have GIOW sex because they’re afraid a guy might react violently if they withdraw consent. They fear male violence, and that’s a sadly reasonable fear. But too many women have GIOW sex to avoid disappointing male partners who have already disappointed them; too many women slap on a smile and fake an orgasm to spare the feelings of dudes who don’t give a shit about their feelings or their pleasure.

You say you were in love with one of the five guys you had sex with, REVOLT, which I hope means you didn’t fear him and could talk to him. Yet every single time you had sex, you allowed this guy to essentially masturbate inside

Don’t waste your precious time or pussy on guys like that. you. You didn’t stick up for yourself, you didn’t advocate for your own pleasure, you didn’t say, “Here’s what you need to do to please me.”

Take a little personal responsibility here: You let Mr. One-In-Five get away with it. He let you down—he should have been more proactive about pleasing you—but you also let yourself down. No more. Insist on more and better from here on out, REVOLT, and you will get more and better.

P.S. If what you meant by “I have never had an orgasm” is that you’ve never had an orgasm at all, ever, alone or with a partner, then you need to start masturbating right now. You’ll enjoy partnered sex more if you know what it takes to make you come and you can show your partners exactly what that looks like. And whether you’re already masturbating or not, please get your hands on a copy of The Vagina Bible, Jen Gunter’s new book on everything vaginal, vulval, and clitoral.

—Dan Savage I’m a straight woman in my mid-30s. For most of my adult life, I’ve gotten off on fantasizing about my boyfriends fucking other women. So far it’s been fantasy-only, but I’m intrigued by the prospect of a real cuckquean scenario. However, I’ve always been reluctant to share my kink. It’s not that I fear rejection or judgment. I think most

guys would be into it, including the lovely man I’m currently in a committed relationship with. Rather, it’s my own discomfort with a kink that I fear stems from an unhealthy emotional place. Insecurity, avoiding intimacy, and difficulty trusting men are all issues I’ve struggled with, and the cuckquean kink plays right into all of that. I’ve worked with therapists over the years and gotten into a somewhat solid place emotionally. Alas, my kink remains, and has gotten stronger to the point where I’m imagining my guy fucking someone else about 99 percent of the time in order to come. I wish I could get more enjoyment from “normal” sex. I’ve read your column long enough to know that I should probably just embrace my kink and enjoy it. But while I’m trying my damnedest to be sex-positive, I can’t get around the nagging feeling that there’s something “unhealthy” about this fantasy. If my kink is based on specific insecurities/fears, do they get even more hardwired into my brain with every orgasm?

—This Reluctant Cuckquean Two quick questions: (1) How much more hardwired could something possibly become if you already have to think about it 99 percent of the time in order to climax?

(2) What if imagining your guy fucking other women is “normal” sex for you?

A lot of people’s kinks are essentially eroticized fears: the fear of being humiliated, the fear of being exposed, the fear of being cheated on, etc. Not everyone eroticizes these fears, of course, but so many of us do that it really should be covered in sexed courses. In your case, TRC, your erotic imagination took something that scares you—being cheated on—and turned it into something that arouses you. The difference between your worst fear and your ultimate turn-on is control. If your man fucks another woman, it will happen because you wanted it to (you gave him permission) and there will be something in it for you (it will get you off ). Which is not to say you ever have to act on this. You don’t. Plenty of straight men are turned on by the fantasy of their wives being with other men but know they couldn’t handle the reality of it, so they enjoy it as a fantasy only. But they don’t—or the healthy ones don’t— deny themselves the fantasy, whether it’s just playing it out in their heads or their monogamous partners indulging them with a little cheating-centered dirty talk during sex.

We can’t will kinks away, TRC, we can only embrace and accept them. Again, that doesn’t mean we have to act on them—some fantasies can never be realized for moral reasons—but to beat ourselves up about our kinks is a waste of time.

—DS

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34 august 30, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

Out with the

M

PUZZLE OLD TOWN ROWS

By Brendan Emmett Quigley

Across

1 Soprano's upper limit 6 Took things the wrong way 11 Stout alternative 14 Arm of the sea 15 1961 John Updike short story featuring three girls in bathing suits 16 TLC provider 17 Old town row #1 20 Fix, as torn clothing 21 Apartments in a complex 22 TV's Wonder Woman Carter 23 Shrewdly tricky 24 "I'm a big ___" 25 Old town row #2 34 "See you, mon frere" 35 New York magazine puzzle maker Cathy 36 Marvel Entertainment CEO Perlmutter 37 "I shit you not" 38 "Straight Up" singer Paula 39 Transport to some moguls 40 WSW's opp.

41 More sick (probably not more cool, nobody says that anymore) 42 Won all the games in a series 43 Old town row #3 46 Bear in a Barcelona baby book 47 Crossed (out) 48 Party spot of the Balearic Islands 51 Fruit tree with purplish flowers 54 Nervous movement?

57 Old town row #4 60 Miller's container 61 Job's comforter, in the Bible 62 Eel often served as kabayaki 63 Caboose 64 It is enharmonically equivalent to C major 65 Launch, as a smartphone app

Down

1 Wolfram|Alpha results 2 Clarifying phrase in memos 3 Beam

4 "Look at me" 5 Cosmic mystical creature created

by H. P. Lovecraft 6 Bollywood cover up 7 Diplomat's gift 8 Large burden 9 The, uh ... (checks notes) bad cholesterol, for short 10 Green testing spots 11 "Preach it!"

12 Booming 13 Where'd You Go, Bernadette actress Nelson

18 Single-named Irish New Age singer 19 Abbr. with the zip code 10001 23 "Go back to the original text" 24 Big bomb 25 Places one can get a latte and hang out for hours on their laptop 26 A Bell For ___ 27 Pulverized, as potatoes 28 Roof feature 29 Higher-up?

30 Photos by those who cannot take photos, e.g.

31 Media no-no 32 Safari animal with striped legs 33 Quaint "nonsense" 38 Maker of T-Bonz BBQ Pork Dog Treats 39 Like line drawings 41 "My hero!"

42 Rattle off 44 Let out goopily 45 Big test 48 Machu Picchu resident 49 Media no-no (supposedly) 50 Letters in the country?

51 The Amazing Race host Keoghan 52 Turkish title 53 Sulky look 54 Golf bunker 55 Othello antagonist 56 What a flavor saver points to 58 Frolicker of fantasy 59 Genetic strand

LAST WEEK: EDGE OF THE WORLD 3 6 < & + 6

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Shop handmade.

Volunteer at

CRAFTY OLD TOWN ROWS ANSWER

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washingtoncitypaper.com august 30, 2019 35

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