Washington City Paper (August 31, 2018)

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DIStRICt LINE 5 housing complex: Residents in two Deanwood apartment buildings bond over a “deadbeat” landlord.

7 holy smoke: Following harrowing reports about the Catholic Church, Attorney General Karl Racine considers legal action.

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SpORtS 8 squash blossoms: Will new facilities make D.C. the squash capital?

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FOOD 17 yelp wanted: What some restaurant groups are learning from online review sites

ARtS 19 regicidal tendencies: Scholars and actors work together to revive a Restoration adaptation of Macbeth 20 short subjects: Olszewski on Nico, 1988 20 curtain calls: Ritzel on Passion at Signature Theatre

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DistrictLine Of Mice and Menschen The tenants at 711 and 719 49th Street NE have mastered the art of documenting dying mice, and other horrors. back, or at least didn’t leave any voicemails, and did not answer subsequent calls. Stephenson also did not have a lawyer respond to the city’s complaint, instead answering it himself.

“Defendant denies all the allegations of facts in the complaint,” reads his handwritten answer, filed July 18. “Defendant avers that the complaint made by tenants we [sic] made to avoid the payment of rent and to avoid eviction. All but one of the tenants have been evicted or have moved pursuant to an eviction order. The remaining tenant is scheduled to move.”

In fact, City Paper met with five different residents of Stephenson’s 49th Street apartments in August, and none of them had plans to leave. Tenants in the rent-controlled buildings, who have paid between $950 and $1,100 for a two-bedroom apartment, say they can think of only two vacant units. (It is true, however, that Stephenson has filed a number of eviction lawsuits against his tenants. A quick survey of D.C. Superior Court records indicates that Stephenson is particularly litigious.)

711 and 719 49th Street NE are hulking, three-story brick rectangles that sit on an overgrown lot, which is roped off to prevent residents from walking on it. Inside, on each staircase landing, cans of empty mango iced tea from 7/11 prop open the windows to increase circulation in the stairwell, which is narrow and punctuated with cobwebs and desiccated insects.

In Black’s third-floor apartment, a cluster of her neighbors and friends sit in a crescent across the living room, alternating between righteous anger and hysterical laughter when they talk about Stephenson. For nearly two hours they swap horror stories about their apartments and recount, with varying Darrow Montgomery

Jana Perkins

By Morgan Baskin The charges ThaT Phyllis Black outlines against her landlord in a sworn affidavit are sweeping and shocking. But if there’s one thing she wants him to know, it’s this: She isn’t leaving her home.

In the nearly two years she’s lived at 711 49th Street NE, the 54-year-old Deanwood resident says she’s dealt with below-freezing temperatures in her apartment, nests of mice, and gaping holes in her floor, to name just a few housing code violations.

But the price is right, the location is good, and the neighbors—you can’t beat them. Many tenants there have known each other for years, and they’ve formed a community. Black tells City Paper that they “bonded over the deadbeat landlord.” Her friends there, as well as those living in its sister building just a few yards away on the same lot, feel the same way.

Only about a dozen families live in 711 and 719

housing complex

49th Street NE. On June 28, the office of D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced it had filed a lawsuit against the landlord of those two buildings, Thomas K. Stephenson, for failure to abate a number of housing code violations.

Not two months later, Assistant Attorney General Stephon Woods filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against Stephenson, asking the court to “compel prompt abatement of housing code and other issues which threaten the health, safety, and security of the tenants.” In the motion, Woods cites at least eight different violations, with problems ranging from rodent infestations to faulty fire extinguishing equipment and smoke detectors.

The lawsuit is the culmination of years of drama: of friendships gone astray, of mortgages unpaid, of complaints and requests unmet.

When City Paper called Stephenson to comment on the city’s lawsuit, he told City Paper to talk to his lawyer, but declined to provide contact information for that lawyer, instead saying he would call the paper back. He didn’t call

degrees of indignation, the ways in which he has slighted them. Nothing gets them going like the mice.

“I’m telling you, it was miserable. Them things was everywhere. They were having babies everywhere,” Black says. It’s at this point that they all pull out their phones, tapping through months of documentation to find videos they’ve taken of dying mice struggling against traps.

Tenant Omar Williams pulls up a grainy video of a mouse caught on a sticky paper trap.

(Stephenson allegedly cuts new traps in half before giving them to tenants.) Because the trap is half the size it’s supposed to be, only half the mouse is stuck to it. Its lower back is trapped but its torso and the tip of its fleshy pink tail are free, and it cries something terrible as it flings its limbs around. “Just wait,” Williams says as the video ends. He flips to a photo of a rat the size of a baseball hunched over in his kitchen.

Black, not to be outdone, shuffles back into the room with a stack of photos in hand. Many are blurry shots of dead mice plastered to the traps, blood spattered like a Jackson Pollock behind them, but I come across one with a gelatinous pink blob and ask Black if that’s another mouse.

Casually, coolly, Black glances at the photo and says, “No, that’s a cluster of babies. Like it’s jelly beans stuck on the tacky strip.”

By all accounTs, Stephenson is a formidable landlord.

The 67-year-old is a veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department, having served there for 25 years—including as an undercover officer in the seventh district—until he retired in 2010.

Adding to his mythology is the time MPD placed him on administrative leave after federal agents at Miami International Airport seized 90 pounds of cocaine stored inside a piece of luggage apparently traveling alongside Stephenson on a flight from Guyana. It was detailed in a 2005 Washington Post article.

Many of his 49th Street NE tenants, including Williams and Black, have known Stephenson for years, either socially or because they’ve rented from him before. They call him “Tom-

washingtoncitypaper.com august 31, 2018 5

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my.” He used to invite them over to his Sheriff Road NE home for cookouts, and Williams and Black describe evenings sitting around with Stephenson, drinking and grilling.

Jana Perkins, who used to be homeless, says Stephenson allowed her to live in the laundry room in one of the two buildings he owns nearby on Sheriff Road NE, and she stayed there until she moved into 711 49th Street NE in November of 2016. But, as she points out, “being a good friend and being a good landlord are two different things.”

Tenants believe it’s this familiarity that makes Stephenson think he can say or do anything to them, to the point of harassment.

Black reports that he calls her “bitch,” and routinely yells at non-residents to “get the fuck off my property” if they stand on the sidewalk in front of the building. Residents of 711 and 719

What residents see him do for repairs, he does on the cheap. Black describes a day this spring when she came into her apartment to find a maintenance worker, who she didn’t know, passed out in her living room with a needle in his arm. He was supposed to be fixing a hole in her bathroom floor that led straight into her downstairs neighbor’s bathroom. (“She’d yell up at me, ‘Don’t look at me while I’m in the shower!’” Black chuckles. Another tenant who lived for nearly eight years on the first floor of the same building reported in an affidavit that water damage caused her bathroom ceiling to collapse.)

Williams was also friends with Stephenson for years before moving into 719 49th Street NE, and would occasionally complete contracting work for him. He used to think of him as “a cool person.” But Williams be-

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have taken to feeding Stephenson’s two pitbulls, which he keeps in a side yard on the property behind a chain-link fence crawling with poison ivy.

Almost immediately after acquiring the two properties on 49th Street NE in 2000 he encountered financial difficulties. Publicly available property records from the Office of Tax and Revenue show that Stephenson has racked up about $67,000 in liens since 2001 across his properties on 49th Street NE, Sheriff Road NE, and Foote Road NE, the bulk of that from the city’s water authority, which has cited him dozens of times for delayed payments.

He’s been fined as far back as 2006 by the city’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs for “wrongful housing” conditions at the 49th Street apartment buildings.

Property records also show that the banks that own the debt on his Sheriff Road NE and at 711 49th Street NE properties have threatened foreclosure multiple times—as far back as 2004 for 711 49th Street.

6 august 31, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

came turned off by Stephenson’s behavior when the property owner would try to shortchange him on payment.

“That’s how we fell out as friends,” Williams says from his living room. “But by that point, I was already living here.”

Since April of 2015, DCRA has cited or prepared to cite 719 49th Street NE at least 11 times for housing code violations. Next door, at 711, that number is 17.

The first full winter Black lived in her apartment, she tells City Paper, the heat went out and a thermometer in her living room at one point read 20 degrees. Other tenants have experienced similar problems. Perkins says she used to use her oven as a heater during the winter because the apartment would get so cold.

In her sworn affidavit to the attorney general’s office, Black says that her oven constantly leaked gas, prompting her carbon monoxide detector to periodically beep; she testified that she was hospitalized for carbon monoxide poi-

soning during the winter of 2017. Ten months after she moved in, Stephenson replaced her stove, but Black says she’s having issues with the new one, too.

Williams, who lives at 719 49th Street NE, recounts his own horrors: He says an air conditioning unit leaked fluid so badly this spring that it fell from the third floor down through the ceiling of his own first-floor unit. He was out buying snacks for his 9- and 13-year-old daughters, who were home at the time of the crash. “They said to me, when I came back, ‘Daddy, there was a loud thump,’” Williams says. He points to the stretch of ceiling that’s been visibly patched.

That hallway leads to the kitchen, where Williams says you’ll regularly see mice skittering behind his stove. Sure enough, he pulls the stove from the wall, and a handful of gray mice the size of matchboxes lay immobile on a trap. Every now and again, he’ll see a mouse make a beeline across his stove.

And don’t get him started on the dishwasher. “The smell that comes out of there is horrific. It’ll literally run you out of your apartment.”

He clasps his hands together, as if in prayer, and shakes his head. “I just thought, ‘Oh my god, I cannot do this.’”

During the group’s conversation inside Black’s apartment, the discussion turned toward how to evacuate in an emergency. (They are, after all, worried about the carbon monoxide.) Williams and Black consider the windows, but point to the screens, which in each building are drilled into the wall. “If a fire breaks out, I ain’t going through the window, because the screens are screwed in,” Perkins says.

Partway through this conversation there’s a knock on Black’s door, and a lithe, towering figure walks into the living room. Perkins’ terrier, Bear, immediately runs to the 59-yearold, who folds himself into a chair. His name is Xavier Drake, but everyone calls him Six. He’s wearing jeans, a baseball cap, and a jersey from D.C.’s NFL team, and he’s winded.

He’s just come from chemotherapy, but immediately turns to me and intones, “Ghetto’s not the word for my building.” Six lives next door at 719, and says he’s seen the way Stephenson has treated his tenants.

Inside an electrical closet in Six’s third-floor, two-bedroom apartment, a leaking condensation pump pools water onto the floor. The closet leads straight into the attic—“You can hear things running around up there at night,” he says—and there’s a sawed-out chunk of the wall from an unfinished repair.

When Six talks about Stephenson, he does it with a steely resolve. “He feels, in his heart, like he doesn’t owe anyone anything,” he says.

Next to him, Black cranes her head around to chime in: “We’re human, too,” Black says about their former friend. “I know he doesn’t live like this.”

CP

DistrictLinE

Holy Smoke Attorney General Karl Racine considers a probe of possible Catholic Church abuses in D.C. The Archdiocese of WAshingTon posted a recent evening prayer to its nearly 20,000 followers on Twitter: “Lord, give peace to our troubled world, and give to your children security of mind and freedom from anxiety.”

The anxiety of the archdiocese might have risen a bit this past weekend. D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine said he was “looking at” investigating the church here in the midst of ongoing sex abuse scandals that are roiling the religion.

“Those are horrific occurrences that took place,” Racine said Friday on WAMU’s Politics Hour (this reporter is the resident political analyst on that show), referring to the Pennsylvania grand jury report of more than 300 priests involved with more than 1,000 sexual abuse cases. “And obviously not limited to Pennsylvania,” said Racine. “So it is incumbent on law enforcement officials to use every bit of authority they have to, I think, conduct robust investigations.”

Time on the Politics Hour ran out, but while still in the studio Racine said he thought Archbishop of Washington Donald Wuerl should step aside while more is learned about Wuerl’s role. The Pennsylvania grand jury report contends that Wuerl—despite taking some steps to address abuse issues—helped protect priests while he was bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 until 2006, when he came to D.C. Wuerl has limited his public appearances and spoken only with select media. He insists he took serious steps to curb abuse.

This week, City Paper asked Racine to comment further on his response to what is a heartwrenching crisis for many Catholics.

“As a lifelong Catholic and a former student of St. John’s College High School, I am deeply anguished by the abuse allegations,” he wrote.

“A crucial part of our job at the Office of the Attorney General is to help protect abused and neglected children, and this issue has our full attention.

“Generally, we do not discuss confidential enforcement activity, but our office is reviewing the findings of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s report and we will consider taking action if appropriate.”

In response to Racine’s comment, the arch-

diocese said, “For more than 30 years the Archdiocese of Washington has had strong and proactive child protection policies and procedures,” including an independent, specialist review board on child protection, a Child and Youth Protection Office with licensed therapists, and published, audited reports on “all claims and activities around child protection.”

The archdiocese has an extensive section on child abuse on its website.

Archbishop Wuerl also is caught up in another controversy, this one over Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, who resigned as a cardinal after the church found that an accusation that he sexually abused a child was credible. Wuerl has denied knowing of the allegations against McCarrick in the years preceding, but Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò

Darrow Montgomery

By Tom Sherwood

says that Wuerl surely did know as soon as he began his work in Washington.

Racine has the authority to investigate financial and other activities of nonprofits, including religious organizations. Any findings of criminal wrongdoing would be referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office here.

“I can tell you that I have gotten several phone calls,” said Racine on WAMU, “and I can tell you my phone has been burning up after the Pennsylvania report with calls for action.” He told WAMU reporter and Politics Hour guest host Patrick Madden that none of the calls involved any persons citing abuse, but said all have been filled with deep expressions of concern.

The Archdiocese of Washington is a huge institution. It covers the District and five Maryland counties—Montgomery, Prince George’s, Charles, Calvert, and St. Mary’s. With 143 parishes, it operates 93 Catholic schools with about 27,000 students. Catholic Charities, the social service arm of the archdiocese, operates 58 programs in 36 locations throughout the archdiocese.

CP washingtoncitypaper.com august 31, 2018 7

Darrow Montgomery

SPORTS

Mayor Muriel Bowser has made it clear that she wants the local NFL team to build its stadium in Washington, D.C., telling councilmembers and the team’s representatives at a recent luncheon to “bring it home.” washingtoncitypaper.com/sports

Squash Blossoms

By Kelyn Soong

Beads of sweat drip down George Pollack’s forehead as he runs his hand through his mop of hair.

His New York Mets T-shirt has turned a dark shade of blue from all the lunging, sprinting, and hitting he’s been doing for the past hour and a half inside a box. Since late February, this has been Pollack’s way to relieve stress from his day job on Capitol Hill. But for most of his life, he had dismissed squash as a leisurely activity for the elite. These days, the New York native plays four to six times a week.

“I had this preconceived notion of the sport, that it was more of the country club type, more of a lazy sport,” says Pollack, 24. “I learned my lesson quickly.”

On a hot summer afternoon in downtown D.C., Pollack and a few dozen other players are indoors, engaging in intense, sweaty roundrobin matches at Squash on Fire, the pay-toplay public squash facility that opened in May of 2017 on M Street NW. Amir Wagih, the former head coach of the Egyptian national squash team, is Squash on Fire’s head coach and has the audacious goal of turning the District into the hub for squash, a sport that has a larger presence in cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.

Next month, The St. James, a 450,000square-foot sports, wellness, and entertainment center will open its doors in Springfield, Virginia. Squash will be among the 30-plus sports the complex will offer, and Alister Walker, a semi-retired pro from England once ranked number 12 in the world, has been hired to lead the program. Walker, like Wagih, sees D.C. as the future of squash.

“I think D.C. is a market that has been underserved, and that’s one of the reasons it has not become a hotbed,” says Walker, who represents his birthplace of Botswana at tournaments.

“But the stage is set for it. … In a few years, you can turn it into as big of a hub as any.”

Opportunities for squash have been scattered and relatively scarce in the D.C. area.

squash

Private gyms like Equinox and private schools and colleges like The George Washington University, Georgetown University, Episcopal High School, and The Potomac School have a few courts, but the lack of a central location has made it tough for squash players to find partners or for the sport to attract interested newcomers.

(Wagih also serves as head coach of Georgetown’s men’s and women’s squash teams.)

Squash on Fire and The St. James are hoping to change that.

Both Wagih and Walker have chosen to make the D.C. area their homes for that reason.

“It shows that D.C. has become a hot spot for squash and I think more clubs will come here and a lot of people now will move to D.C. and train here,” says Wagih, 51. “I think this is going to be the capital of squash. D.C. is the capital for America. We also want it to be the capital of squash.”

Walker’s English father first introduced the sport to his mother in Botswana, and according to Walker, “She beat him pretty early in her learning cycle.” He started practicing with his mother, and discovered that he had a talent for the sport, eventually enrolling in a boarding school in England that specializes in squash.

The reputation of squash being an upperclass, private club-only, Ivy League sport has been slow to shed in the United States. No team outside the Ivy League had won the national women’s title until Trinity College won the Howe Cup in 2002, two teams from outside the Ivy League first competed for the men’s national championship in 2015, and most squash clubs require a pricey membership. But Walker had a different experience in the U.K. “It’s much more available to the working

8 august 31, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

Courtesy of Brandon Tobias

Local squash coaches and players see D.C. as the country’s future hub for the sport.

class,” he says. “It’s in the country, towns in communities based their lives around squash clubs.”

To play squash, you need a partner, a racquet, a rubber ball, and a four-walled rectangular court that is approximately 32 feet in length and 21 feet wide. The basic goal is to keep hitting the ball against the front wall until your opponent cannot do so. A player loses the point if the ball bounces twice when they are attempting to retrieve it, if they hit the ball into the floor before it hits the front wall, or if they hit the ball beyond the out lines.

Squash, players will tell you, requires technique and strategy.

“You have to be precise with your movements, very precise with your shots. It’s not just about hitting it hard,” says 50-year-old Zev Waldman. He’s one of the regulars who show up to the round-robin matches at Squash on Fire. These sessions routinely draw more than 20 players ranging in age from their early 20s to late 60s.

Waldman is one of the club’s 1,000 active users and executive director Margaret Gerety says she saw an average of five new users a week this spring. Squash on Fire does not require a membership, and a 45-minute court session costs $20. A sports membership for the St. James costs $150 per month.

“I think people are looking for an alternative

to working out at the gym,” says Gerety, who grew up in Philadelphia and played squash at Harvard. “It’s very interactive. It’s social. It’s fun. It’s very strategic. … D.C. is a really active, physical community and I think all sports are growing in D.C., which is great.”

Professionals from around the world have stopped by Squash on Fire to train. The location of the facility has been in line with the more metropolitan future of the sport as experts see it. In cities like D.C. and Philadelphia, more squash centers are opening in urban areas, Gerety says, and a free public squash court opened in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in April.

“Going from a very bougie sport to a very accessible sport is the journey squash is on right now,” says Wick Clothier, the head squash professional at the Equinox gym in D.C. “All of the patrons of squash can see the value in opening up these programs and the difference it’s making in kids’ lives. ...People look at England, at European countries where it’s a mainstay sport and not a bougie, gentrified sport. I think professionals in America would like it to open up, to be more a middle-class, upper middle-class sport. It’s too small right now, but it’s beginning.”

A large part of the growth of squash will come at the junior level. Gerety calls the youth players “the bedrock of any good squash program.”

At The Potomac School, an independent K–12 preparatory school in McLean with an annual tuition of $41,100 for high school students, there are plans to build more courts, adding to the existing four on campus, due to demand from the student body.

Players like 15-year-old sophomore Aalia Hussain are a part of that growing enthusiasm. Hussain picked up the sport four years ago and is now ranked within the top 100 nationally in the girls’ 17-and-under division. She has competed in cities around the country and witnessed an increased participation and appreciation for squash at her school.

“I see it becoming really competitive and I think we’re going to have a lot more coaches in the area,” she says. “When I go around and tell people I play squash, they actually know what it is. A few years ago, they wouldn’t even know what it was.”

For some time, Hussain says, she needed to travel hours for competition. But lately, she has been able to find players on her level in the area, sometimes on the same team. In mid-October, Squash on Fire will host a junior tournament, where approximately 200 of the top young players in the country, including Hussain and a few of her Potomac School teammates, are scheduled to compete.

Soon, they hope, this will be the norm. CP

Gear Prudence Gear Prudence: Let’s say you’re biking in the bike lane and get to a red light and in the backseat of the car next to you there’s an adorable Labradoodle puppy with his head sticking out the window and you have a Labradoodle too and you can tell this guy is really sweet and his cute face is just right there and it would be so easy to give him a quick pet and put your hand in his super soft fluff for just a second before the light turns green. That’s allowed right?

—Window Open, Obviously Friendly Dear WOOF: The struggle is real! While it’s supremely tempting, it’s also a no. You don’t pet dogs you don’t know without the owner’s permission and even if you can somehow negotiate with the owner before the light turns green, it’s probably safer if you don’t mix petting with pedaling. That way the driver can focus on driving and not worry about whether their dog is fully within the vehicle or in your hands. But all is not lost: You can (and should) still verbally shower the dog with copious praise, asserting his good boy-ness and making sure he knows that in another scenario you’d be all about the snuggles. Yes, this is less fun than full-on nuzzles. It’s also another point against driving—if the pup in question were being walked, it’d be far easier to give him the attention he rightfully deserves. Listen up, owners of adorable dogs: Just rearrange your travel habits to cater to the needs of dog-loving bicyclists. It’s the right thing to do.

—GP Gear Prudence: Are the dockless bikeshare bikes gone for good? I don’t see them anymore and I read that one company was selling some. What happened?

—Over-hyped Vehicles Ended Rapidly Dear OVER: The Dockless Vehicle Pilot Program hasn’t yet made it a year, but there have been some significant changes. Of the five companies that started with bikes, only one remains fully invested in dockless bikeshare. That’s JUMP, the now-Uber-owned provider of electric bikes.

Two of companies—Ofo and Mobike—have left the market entirely. And the other two companies have pivoted fully (Spin) or mostly (Lime) to those e-scooters that everyone has strong opinions about. As for why there’ve been so many changes, it’s complicated. D.C. has a hard cap of 400 bikes per company and some of the companies said they’re struggling to make money with so few bikes able to be rented. Scooters seem to be more profitable. Global business machinations (Ofo and Mobike are Chinese companies with much greater market share elsewhere) also play a role. And lastly, GP surmises that the presence and widespread use of Capital Bikeshare, the OG publicly owned docked service, was always going to make it harder for alternatives to gain adoptees. That said, the pilot isn’t over and the final rules haven’t been established. Once those are finalized, don’t be surprised if there’s a dockless resurgence.

—GP

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Hard Labor Women in D.C. face obstacles at every step of pregnancy and childbirth. The challenges range from difficult to deadly.

By Kayla Randall and Kaarin Vembar

MeliSSa eSpoSito walked two miles in the snow to get to her third prenatal appointment. It had been so hard to get a time with the doctor, she was scared to reschedule.

Danielle Lloyd endured pregnancy in the food and maternal care desert that is Southeast D.C. She worried about the 40-minute drive from her home to the hospital.

Capri Brown waited two hours to see a doctor after she told a nurse that her water broke. Her epidural hurt more than her contractions.

Renikia Smith was taken aback after she gave birth—her doctor told her that she didn’t have time to do her planned tubal ligation.

Tara Olson, a doula, is tired of watching doctors squeeze bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo in women’s vaginas as they give birth. theSe are coMMon tales of pregnancy from the District of Columbia, one of the worst places in the United States, and in the developed world, to deliver a child.

Thus far in 2018, D.C.’s rate of maternal mortality—women who die in pregnancy, childbirth, or in the year that follows—is 36.1 per 100,000 live births while the nationwide rate is 20.7, according to an analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And internationally, the U.S. is the only developed country to show a steady increase in maternal mortality from 1990 to

2015, according to a 2017 report funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Embedded in these numbers is a yet more sinister fact: Black women are three to four times more likely than white women to die from childbirth in the U.S. The District is a case in point. Dr. Roger A. Mitchell, D.C.’s chief medical examiner, testified at a December public hearing on maternal mortality that 75 percent of the maternal deaths D.C. recorded between 2014 and 2016 were black women.

As these numbers emerged, D.C. saw the closure of two maternity wards that served predominantly black and low-income women. Providence Hospital in Northeast closed its maternal and infant care department in October of 2017 without so much as a press release. United Medical Center in Southeast, the city’s only public hospital, permanently closed its maternity unit two months later, after reports of improper handling of patients. Among other issues, the hospital had failed to address, with an HIV-positive woman, the risks of vaginal delivery. The closures have left women east of the Anacostia River without local access to care and have stretched other city hospitals thin.

In late 2017, Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen introduced the Maternal Mortality Review Committee Establishment Act. The idea was to form “a multi-disciplinary committee to review all pregnancy-associated

10 august 31, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

Photographs by Darrow Montgomery

deaths occurring during pregnancy, childbirth, or in the year after,” and deliver an annual report based on the findings under the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME).

“Mortality is the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. Constance Bohon, practicing doctor and assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the George Washington University School of Medicine, at the December hearing, which dealt with the bill. “The morbidity is where we’re going to be able to prevent more deaths, by looking at those numbers.”

Morbidity is “any health condition attributed to and/or aggravated by pregnancy and childbirth that has a negative impact on the woman’s wellbeing,” by the World Health Organization’s definition.

At its worst, morbidity is a near miss—a brush with death.

Allen wanted to add morbidity studies to the bill. In the committee print, “severe maternal morbidity” is when a woman receives four or more units of blood products or is admitted to an intensive care unit while pregnant or within one year of giving birth. These women are still alive to talk about their D.C. childbirth experiences.

But in February, Allen struck “severe maternal morbidities” from the review committee bill, saying “The inclusion of morbidities would expand the MMRC’s scope beyond OCME’s current capacity.”

Sharnita Brice’S firSt birth felt like a near miss. She remembers seeing blood everywhere. She had gone into labor at 38 weeks with intense contractions. Then she hemorrhaged, and her son was no longer stirring in her womb—he wasn’t breathing. He had no heartbeat. Somehow, she says, her placenta had detached from the wall of the uterus, cutting off her baby’s oxygen supply and making her bleed heavily.

“Time froze,” she says. “Time literally stopped.” It was 2015 and she was 24 years old, laying in a pool of blood and waiting for the ambulance to come and get her. She wondered how she’d gotten here and if she’d ever be the same. She wouldn’t. Next time she gave birth, she thought, she’d have different insurance and a much better experience. She didn’t.

A D.C. resident, she’d planned her first pregnancy carefully. She wanted to deliver at a birth center rather than a hospital because she didn’t want to deal with what she perceived as the culture of hospitals. “In hospitals, you’re on a clock,” she says. “They want to hurry up and get you in and out. The first thought is intervention instead of naturally letting the body go through labor. Our bodies know how to give birth, but they’re quick to give C-sections, inductions, and epidurals. I feel like that’s because there’s money in the business.”

Because she couldn’t find a D.C. birth center that accepted her insurance, she chose one

Jessica Crawford

more than an hour away in Arnold, Maryland.

But the birth center wasn’t equipped for emergency cesarean sections, so Brice went by ambulance to Anne Arundel Medical Center to have her son, Shiah. She wasn’t able to see him until days later. To quell the depression that followed she’d constantly have to tell herself, “I went through something very traumatic and I’m still here.”

About two years later, Brice became pregnant with her second child. This time she decided to give birth at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, not far from her home in the Takoma-Brightwood area of Northwest. She was covered by AmeriHealth.

Right when she hit the 32 week mark, she got a letter from her insurance company.

“They sent me mail stating that they were not in partnership with MedStar Washington Hospital Center and that I wasn’t allowed to go there anymore, after I had been seen there my entire pregnancy and now I’m in my third trimester. When I contacted them, they were just like ‘No, we’re not partnered with them anymore, you can’t be seen there.’ But other places wouldn’t accept me because I was too far gone in my pregnancy. They just acted like

it wasn’t their concern.”

After that, Brice missed a month and a half of prenatal visits, and she was considered a high-risk pregnancy given her first birth. She kept trying to contact AmeriHealth, and was finally able to continue with her midwife at Washington Hospital Center.

She still planned to have a vaginal birth despite pressure from the hospital’s midwives to schedule a C-section. At 41 weeks, she went into labor. Days passed and she was still laboring, and doctors told her she needed a C-section because there was too much stress on the baby. Completely exhausted, she agreed. They told her all she’d feel was a little pressure and then she’d be able to have skin-to-skin contact with her baby. But when they began operating, she could feel everything. “I was screaming the entire process about how much pain my stomach was in,” she says.

Then something went wrong with her baby.

Her son inhaled meconium—the usually dark green substance of a baby’s first bowel movement. They had to rush him out of the room and he ended up in intensive care for days.

She says her doctors told her they weren’t sure when it could have happened. Once again, she

wasn’t able to hold her child, named Seven.

In a statement, Washington Hospital Center said, “We regret to hear of negative experiences our patients described to [City Paper].”

She hasn’t gone back to full-time work since birth and doesn’t know when she will. A talented painter, she now stays home with her children and expresses her creativity through her art. It’s been cathartic. She just wants to be home with her children. parSed out, nearly every element of Brice’s story is familiar for pregnant women in D.C. The more than 30 women City Paper interviewed—most of them mothers at each stage of pregnancy and birth, but also doctors, doulas, midwives, and other experts—reported similar hurdles, and many additional ones.

Problems begin with the most basic of tasks: scheduling prenatal medical appointments.

When Lexa Lemieux, 37, of Shaw first discovered that she was pregnant she called her OB-GYN to schedule an appointment at GW Medical Faculty Associates, and was told that she could see a doctor in three months. “I discovered I was pregnant on February 15th, and they were like, ‘She can see you for the first time

at the end of June, or the end of May,’ or something. And I’m like, ‘I’ll be past my first trimester by the time you can see me!’” says Lemieux.

Lemieux and her husband decided against seeing her regular doctor due to wait time and instead went to the first person available within the practice. To do that, they had to travel to Bethesda. Following that appointment, Lemieux attempted to make an appointment with the same doctor in Bethesda, but couldn’t get in. She then went to a third doctor within the same practice.

A limited number of available appointments means high competition for available slots. This also means moms-to-be may have to see whichever doctor is available rather than receiving consistent care from the same physician.

It snowed on the day of Melissa Esposito’s third prenatal appointment. The city was nearly shut down, but the appointment had been so hard to get that she and her husband decided to walk almost two miles in the wet cold to the office.

Esposito, now 36, had already been through a confusing number of weeks trying to see a doctor. Her insurance company, Kaiser Permanente, told her that it was their policy to sched-

washingtoncitypaper.com august 31, 2018 11

ule her first prenatal appointment eight weeks after she suspected she was pregnant. She finally saw a doctor, confirmed she was pregnant, and scheduled a follow-up appointment.

But when they arrived at Kaiser Permanente Capitol Hill Medical Center in the snow for the third appointment, the office was closed.

In a statement, Kaiser Permanente tells City Paper that it often delays the first appointment for two months: “For a low-risk pregnancy, we have general guidelines to schedule the first prenatal visit for the seventh or eighth week of pregnancy. We usually recommend this time period because it optimizes the chance to see the fetal heartbeat.”

When Celia Valdespino, also 36, first moved from Miami to D.C. she was six months pregnant. “I didn’t think it would be very hard to find a doctor,” she says. Her insurance was through her husband’s military job, so she had to see a doctor at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. It took her three hours round-trip to go to that appointment. “I had to take the bus and then Metro and then walk,” she says.

She was soon able to switch her insurance plan in order to theoretically have more flexibility in the location of future doctor’s appointments. She attempted to schedule at GW

Medical Faculty Associates. “I called GW in December and they said, ‘Oh, we don’t have any appointments until March.’” And I was like, ‘Alright, well, the baby is due March 6th, so what do you want me to do?’ Finally they got me an appointment in the Bethesda office.

And that just got me into the system.”

Esposito, Lemieux, and Valdespino are all financially stable with excellent health insurance for these, their first pregnancies. Yet they were consistently thwarted by confusing and overbooked systems.

Women who live in the city’s maternity care deserts—including those with good jobs and insurance—face the same scheduling issues, but also deal with increased travel times and a lack of access to healthy food.

Sharon Culver lives in River Terrace in Northeast but works in Fort Washington, Maryland as a teacher. It’s a struggle for her to get from there to her appointments at Washington Hospital Center, where she plans to give birth. “I do often think about how far it is,” she says. “It’s very chaotic and tricky. Even just coming from my house can be a bit much. If there was something closer, in our ward, that would be beneficial.” She is 31, and due on Oct. 8.

Danielle Lloyd, 33, had to travel from her

home in the Capitol View area of Southeast to get to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Northwest to be induced to give birth to her now 10month-old daughter, Demi. It’s a 40-minute trip without traffic. “It was scary because if I went into labor at home in the middle of the day, we might have a problem,” she says.

“It’s not just access to healthcare in wards 7 and 8,” says Lloyd. “I mean, the area in which I live is a food desert.” Lloyd goes to Maryland and other parts of D.C. for groceries, something that she notes is a luxury to be able to do.

She had to do a lot of vetting of doctors and plenty didn’t have availability. It was not her choice to give birth to her child at Sibley, but the obstetrician that she chose only delivered at Sibley.

It was the same for Kiara Haughton, which is why she traveled from her home in Southeast to Sibley to have daughter Zora in April.

“Unless you literally live in Foxhall or off MacArthur Boulevard, there’s nothing convenient to Sibley,” says Haughton, 31. “Those appointments, I’d take the day off or half the day.” It took her more than an hour to get to the hospital when she went to have her labor induced, and she ended up giving birth via an unplanned C-section.

These are the mothers fortunate enough to have stable housing in D.C. Those who don’t face additional hurdles. Jessica Crawford, who is 28 and gave birth to a daughter, Jazarah, on Aug. 18, lived in transitional housing at Mary Claire House in Northeast through So Others Might Eat, or SOME, a nonprofit that serves the poor in D.C. The scariest aspect about pregnancy in the District for her is what she has found to be a lack of dedicated, quality housing for pregnant women experiencing homelessness and housing instability.

Now that her daughter has been born, she has to move because the house is only for adults experiencing persistent mental illness.

“I should be nesting, but there’s really no way for me to nest or prepare a space for my child,” she said in the last weeks of her pregnancy.

A caseworker helped her get approved for an apartment, but it wasn’t available until weeks after her due date. “To be moving around after birth and with a newborn is stressful,” she says. “I’m just so grateful that I’ll have housing, so I’m willing to do it.”

Scheduling and keeping doctor’s appointments and travel times have also played hugely into Crawford’s pregnancy. It took her two bus rides in the D.C. summer heat to get from Mary Sharon Culver

12 august 31, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

Tara Olson

Claire House to MedStar Georgetown for her prenatal appointments.

“I knew it wouldn’t be easy when I decided to keep my baby, but I don’t believe that anyone should have to give up their children or not have their children because they’re poor or because they’re homeless,” she says. “Having this baby is the best thing that ever happened to me, and I know I’m going to be a good mother if I have available resources. The problem is they can give me job training and education programs but if I don’t have stable housing none of that is going to be helpful.”

Crawford, who is white, adds that experiencing housing instability while pregnant is an issue that she has seen primarily hurt black women. She is frequently the only white person in her programs. “It’s heartbreaking seeing all these women suffering,” she says. “How long has this been going on and why has it continued to go on?”

Capri Brown, who has also experienced homelessness in the area, says that giving birth to her second child, her now 2-year-old son Dominic, was a nightmarish ordeal at Howard University Hospital. “When I told the nurse to go tell my doctor that I think my water broke, the doctor came in two hours later,” she says.

She was then administered an epidural. She hadn’t felt her epidural when she gave birth to her now 7-year-old daughter in Virginia, but she felt this one. “This hurt more than my contractions did,” she says.

Her son contracted an infection post-birth and had to stay in the hospital for 5 days, which Brown says was triggered by the huge delay between when she told the nurse that her water broke and when she actually received care. She

and her son both spiked fevers during her 30hour labor and delivery. She remembers that his heart rate dropped and he stopped breathing for a time. “I was just laying in the hospital bed miserable,” she says. “They were really disgusting and rude. Howard is disgusting.”

(Howard University did not respond to several requests for comment.)

Now 27, Brown says she felt that hospital staff viewed her as just another “young, dumb girl in here having another baby.”

Experiences like these contribute to a culture of doctor and nurse mistrust. Congress Heights resident Kaliyma Johnson says she felt pressure from doctors to have an abortion in her first trimester. When the 33-year-old was pregnant with her now 3-year-old son, she says that male specialists she saw for her thyroid condition at George Washington University Hospital told her that due to her thyroid complications, she should terminate the pregnancy and have thyroid surgery instead. If she did the surgery, she wouldn’t be able to have a vaginal delivery ever again.

She cried for two days after that. “They were super pushy,” she says. Her female doctor was her saving grace. “My OB was like, ‘You have time, you don’t have to make this decision today.’” She couldn’t see herself terminating the pregnancy, so she pushed on.

Before Renikia Smith, 33, of Southeast D.C. delivered her now almost-2-year-old daughter Samantha, she knew she wanted a tubal ligation to prevent future births. Samantha is her sixth child. But her doctor with Unity Health Care in Northwest had other plans for after the birth. “My doctor told me that she would do my tubal ligation the next day because she was

going to go do her pilates,” she says. “She was going to go do her pilates, so she’ll catch me in the morning.”

She went back to Unity when Samantha was due for her 2-month shots. Surrounded by a crowd of women and their babies also in need of shots, she found out that the clinic only had half the shots she needed. “They were like, ‘You have to understand,’” she says.

“No, I don’t. This is my child. She needs these shots. I need my child to be immunized before I drop her in daycare.”

Unity responds that it offers free vaccines to children in need through the DC Department of Health’s Vaccines For Children, a federally funded program. “While we do our very best to make sure we always have vaccines in stock, on rare occasions we may run low,” wrote Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Diana Lapp in an emailed statement. She noted that patients can make another appointment or travel to another center to get the shots.

Smith never ended up getting the tubal ligation, and was pregnant again a little more than a year later with her seventh child, a daughter. pregnant woMen walk through a revolving door of doctors, sometimes seeing five or more of them, and with no guarantee that the doctor a mother likes and has chosen to be her personal provider will deliver her baby. A doctor who meets a woman for the first time when she’s in the delivery room will not be aware of all the intricacies of the patient nor have developed a rapport with her family, all of which puts mental stress on the mother, who is in the midst of producing life.

Sharon Culver says she doesn’t even re-

member who delivered her first baby four years ago; there were so many people in the room. “You don’t really know what they’re doing,” Culver says.

Kaliyma Johnson’s delivery doctor was a stranger that she met while in labor at GW. “There was a student shadowing my doctor and checking on me,” she says. “When you’re delivering a child, you want experienced people.”

D.C. women who can afford it have found a patch to cover the massive gaps in their care: They hire a doula. The existing medical system in D.C. is not likely to give a woman a consistent doctor—someone who knows a woman’s body, medical history, and desires for delivery. A doula can be that person, but it costs anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

For their part, doulas see the system in its entirety, over and over again.

Doula Tara Olson, who has served the D.C. area for 10 years and has four children of her own, says that healthcare functions as a system in this country, and therefore it must be assessed and improved on a systemic level, not simply at the level of individual practices.

A number of system-wide practices worry Olson. She has seen doctors mistreat mothers’ bodies frequently throughout the region.

“No one is talking about the way doctors manhandle a woman’s vagina,” she says. “I’ve seen doctors stick four fingers in and push, push, push back and forth because they have an epidural and they don’t feel anything. But she’s going to feel it later. Imagine someone doing that to you right now. You would feel it for days.”

She continues, “Would you squeeze a bottle of baby shampoo up your vagina? That’s what they do. When the baby’s coming out, they squeeze baby shampoo all over the vagina, all over the baby’s head for lubrication. And that’s a standard practice.” George Washington University Hospital, she says, at least uses mineral oil. Either way, most mothers never fully know what has happened to them during birth.

This loss of body autonomy for mothers becomes the elimination of choice. It creates an atmosphere in which their bodies are no longer theirs, but instead completely at the mercy of doctors and nurses and the property of the healthcare system.

And this is the crux of the cesarean problem: If you tell a woman in labor that she needs to have a C-section, she will have the C-section.

The hospital’s power over a woman in labor is nearly 100 percent.

One way for mothers to bypass the potential risks of cesarean surgery is to simply choose a hospital that has a lower rate of unplanned Csections. But that’s not possible when hospitals aren’t required to report their data.

“C-sections, as anybody who works in healthcare knows, are a really, really big problem in this country,” says Erica Mobley, director of operations at The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit that tracks hospital data, including the rates of C-sections throughout the United States.

Although some mothers choose cesareans for a variety of medical reasons, it is a surgical

washingtoncitypaper.com august 31, 2018 13

procedure that comes with the risks of infection, blood clots, increased blood loss, and potential for complications on future deliveries.

A May 2015 report by the CDC states that there is a lower morbidity rate for vaginal births, and that the potential for maternal morbidity increases with the number of C-sections given to a patient.

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion sets a target rate of 23.9 percent for cesarean sections for first-time mothers giving birth in the head-down position, and Leapfrog has adopted that target.

The George Washington University Hospital’s C-section rate increased from 15.7 percent to 22.2 percent over the last year, and Howard University Hospital’s went from 24.1 percent to 25.1 percent, according to Leapfrog. Sibley Memorial Hospital’s rate was 32.7 percent last year, and though its 2018 Leapfrog data is under review, it reported to City Paper a current rate of 34 percent.

In a statement, a Sibley spokesperson said that the average age of a woman giving birth there is 35, while the national average is 28.

“Sibley Memorial Hospital is committed to lowering its C-section rates, but at the same time, the hospital recognizes that these efforts must also be balanced against the need to protect the health and safety of mother and child,” the spokesperson wrote.

MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and MedStar Washington Hospital Center didn’t report their rates to Leapfrog this year or last. All hospitals can respond or update their statistics until December 31.

Michelle Cohen is a certified doula who owns a local practice called Savor It Studios. Cohen has seen first-hand how hospitals can influence the possibility of having a C-section. “I have had, over the years, clients births present in similar fashions with similar scenarios, but they are at different hospitals … and the births are managed completely differently,” she says.

Olson says doctors and nurses intervene in births with C-sections and other intrusions on a systemic level. She sees some doctors explain things logically, and others use fear tactics to coerce women into having the cesarean.

“This is America, we litigate,” says Olson. “I think there’s doctors who are worried about liability, more than a midwife would. A midwife is going to let you have a lot more time, a midwife’s not going to say ‘You need to progress a centimeter every two hours in order to not intervene.’ A doctor’s going to say ‘We need to intervene to make this happen.’ In that sense, there’s a lot of unnecessary C-sections, in which just waiting would have helped. Once you’ve intervened, you’ve intervened. You can’t go back.”

The midwifery program at GW is well known within the region for its comprehensive care. Anna Ravvin, 37, of Cleveland Park had an excellent experience delivering both of her children utilizing the program. “I’m a big supporter of the GW midwives. I think they work,” she says.

But fitting in to the criteria of the program is another challenge. According to their website, expecting mothers must, “Be in excellent

Ebony Marcelle with a client’s baby

health. Be committed to natural birth. Have partners who are engaged in the pregnancy and natural childbirth process and additional labor support (a doula).” These parameters filter out women who may not have access to healthy food or a supportive partner. GW did not respond to City Paper’s specific questions about its midwifery program in an emailed statement. healthcare reiMBurSeMent rateS in the D.C. area are some of the lowest in the country.

Dr. Angela Marshall, founder of Comprehensive Women’s Health and board member of the nonprofit organization Black Women’s Health Imperative, says that declining reimbursement rates, combined with the high cost of living, creates a divide in who is receiving exceptional maternal care.

“It’s caused a lot of physicians to opt out of insurance companies altogether,” she says.

“That leaves an access problem for everybody, but especially for African-American women who may not have the disposable income to be able to pay for concierge practices,” such as doulas.

Most people in D.C. are insured, but that doesn’t mean that the insurance saves them.

According to DOH’s Perinatal Health and Infant Mortality Report for 2015-2016, mothers whose births were Medicaid financed were almost two times more likely than mothers with other types of insurance to have a low birth weight baby.

“Just because you happen to have an American Express card doesn’t mean you have a place to use it,” says Councilmember Allen.

“So, if you don’t have a high-quality health-

14 august 31, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

care provider in your community, you don’t have a trusted primary care doctor, you don’t have the acute care you may need, what does that insurance get you?”

Healthcare guidelines also mean that women are permitted only one doctor visit after delivery. While new parents will have a smattering of appointments to check on the health of their newborns, a 6-week postpartum checkup is the only time that a doctor will see a woman about her recovery.

It is estimated that more than half of women do not attend that postpartum care visit.

A 2016 report by Maternal and Child Health Journal found that women miss this appointment for a variety of reasons, including problems finding childcare, difficulty with work and school schedules, and the hassle of finding transportation.

Flexibility with insurance and the ability to see a doctor multiple times following childbirth could identify potential health complications before they turn deadly.

Marshall says that women’s health must become a priority if the city wants to see any progress. “I think sometimes the medical community, the powers that be, really haven’t made black women’s health a priority,” she says. “Women’s health in general has been neglected.” d.c.’S Maternal care tragedy is not new.

CDC data from 1987 to 1996 show that the District then had a maternal mortality rate of 22.8 per 100,000 live-born infants, the highest maternal mortality rate after all 50 states.

(The data set compared D.C. against states rather than other large cities, and the District

had by far the highest percentage of births to black women.)

This April, DC Department of Health released its Perinatal Health and Infant Mortality Report for the 2015-2016 year. Black mothers throughout the city—but particularly mothers living east of the Anacostia River— were significantly disadvantaged. Only 52 percent of non-Hispanic black mothers entered prenatal care in the first trimester compared to 86 percent of non-Hispanic white mothers and 64 percent of Hispanic mothers.

The District’s response continues to be as meager as the data are devastating.

Councilmember Allen’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee became law, sans morbidity studies, in June. The committee had an initial budget of $88,000 for one full-time employee for the first year, and expects to add a second.

Mayor Muriel Bowser will host a “maternal and infant health summit” with “mayors and leaders from across the country” in September, according to a press release. “We are working every day to ensure that all women have equal access to high-quality health care before, during, and after child birth—regardless of background, zip code, or income,” said Bowser in the release.

As far as tangible change, Howard University Hospital and Unity Health Care have partnered to open a new Unity health center in Ward 7 in 2019. It will provide prenatal care, but it won’t be a hospital with a functioning maternity ward. George Washington University Hospital, along with Bowser and her administration, has signed a letter of intent to open a hospital that will provide obstetrics, expected to open in 2023 on the St. Elizabeths

East campus in Ward 8.

“If you look at it,” says Ward 7 Councilmember Vince Gray, “the baseball stadium that was housing the Nationals in the District of Columbia at this stage was done in 22 months, which is far faster than what this timetable is currently for the new hospital.”

“It’s a huge issue that we don’t have a hospital east of the river,” says Ebony Marcelle, the director of midwifery at Community of Hope’s Family Health and Birth Center in Northeast, which primarily serves black women from wards 7 and 8. “UMC wasn’t perfect and they definitely have their drama. I get it. However, for me, a lot of times it was like a gateway for my women in Ward 8. It would be a start sometimes for them. It takes two hours to get across town on a bus to Northwest,” she says.

“As far as care is concerned, we have a lot of cultural barriers that we’re not really discussing. I keep sitting in these meetings and everybody looks at the ground when I’m like, ‘Can we talk about the generational distrust?’

Let’s not act like things did not happen. I know I’ve got an auntie that was in the North Carolina unknown sterilization project,” she says.

“There’s a reason why we are nervous. Then when you add on the complexity of women in poverty who are trying to survive, their bodies, their health is not a priority. You keep asking her to prioritize herself. She doesn’t know how to.”

Renikia Smith, whose doctor rushed to pilates after she requested a tubal ligation, lives in Southeast near Community of Hope’s Conway Health and Resource Center. She receives prenatal and medical care and participates in pregnancy centering groups there. “It’s like family,” she says. “Once you find someone you can trust and you can actually deal with, you don’t want to let them go. It’s hard to find reliable doctors that you actually like and want to be around.” In her centering group, she and the other women painted casts molded from their pregnant bellies with the help of volunteer doula Stephanie Law. Sylvie Nguyen-Fawley, who lives on Capitol Hill, says she had a wonderful pregnancy. She gave birth to her daughter, Adeline, at 37 via a planned C-section at Sibley. NguyenFawley contributes her positive experience to a number of factors. “I’m privileged,” she says.

“I worked at a very supportive office, had sick leave, and had good health insurance.”

She actively sought out connections with other new moms on Capitol Hill in order to build a network of support. “I leaned so much on people. I asked questions and followed up with my own research.”

“Care providers, employers, family—all of these things have to work together,” says Kiara Haughton. “And at any point in time in D.C., especially if you’re black and especially if you’re a black woman, any one of those

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The brighT spoTs in the morass for the pregnant women of D.C. are friendships and community groups, doulas and midwives. When Marcelle is training midwifery students or talking to residents, she always tells them one thing: “Do not forget how much power you have to impact women’s lives through your care.”

Places like Community of Hope and Mamatoto Village, a maternity support services organization directed by Aza Nedhari, are helping women across the city buck the strains of the healthcare system. Instead of being rushed in and out of medical offices and experiencing doctors who treat them like a cog in a baby-pumping machine, women are getting personal, individualized care from doulas and midwives who are there to advocate for pregnant women.

things can not work and can set you in a tailspin situation.” She hired doula Ravae Sinclair to help her through her pregnancy, and sings her praises.

Jessica Crawford thinks that women should not be punished in their city for having the audacity to be pregnant. “I just want to be a mother,” she says. “I just want the opportunity to focus on what colors I want in my baby girl’s room, to think about things like breastfeeding and where she’s going to go to daycare. I just want to be able to focus on becoming a mother.” CP Do you have a pregnancy or childbirth story you want to share? Let us know at washingtoncitypaper.com/pregnancy or email krandall@washingtoncitypaper.com.

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Yelp Wanted

Not all restaurateurs shun Yelp. Some devote beaucoup resources to make sure reviewers know they’re heard.

Stephanie Rudig

on investment is crystal clear,” he says. “The analogy is if a guest said to a server, ‘I want to talk to a manager.’ Can you imagine not going? There’s the positive return for engaging and the negative cost of not engaging.”

He believes hyperbolic ones t a r re v i e ws , while impactful on a restaurant’s overall rating, are not the norm. “I know it’s a megaphone and people can say really mean things and people can write things that are untrue,” Simons says. “But that’s not what it’s about. That’s at the fringes. To get wrapped up in the fringes is just really silly.”

Horror stories of Yelpers behaving badly abound. Disgruntled guests look for freebies or threaten poor reviews in exchange for a better table, so restaurants don’t always consider the site a valuable resource. “You know when you run into those people,” Simons says.

“They want to talk to someone in corporate.

They’ve got a playbook. The beauty of not having a boss is I can say whatever the fuck I want, but I teach my team to ignore the small fraction of people that are just trying to beat you or scam you.”

Farmers Restaurant Group assigns five employees from its communications team to monitor and respond to reviews on Yelp and six other sites. “It’s emotional feedback and it’s hard to sift through,” says vice president

By Laura Hayes If you’ve ever written a Yelp review and felt like you were shouting into an abyss with no one there on the other side to hear your feedback, you’d only be right part of the time. At least five of D.C.’s largest restaurant groups have employees scurrying around behind the scenes tracking patterns, making adjustments, and strategically responding to aggrieved patrons who chose not to voice their criticisms in person.

“I love Yelp,” says Farmers Restaurant Group co-owner Dan Simons. He has six full-service restaurants in the region, including Founding Farmers in Foggy Bottom. When the restaurant hit 10,000 reviews

young & hungry

earlier this year, it became the most Yelped restaurant in D.C. “The only thing I ever disagreed with Tony Bourdain on was his disdain for Yelp. But I understand it because he wanted to defend the restaurateur or defend the chef. You don’t need to be defended from people who are upset. You need to engage them.”

The late chef and TV personality’s disdain for the review site was well documented. In 2017, he told Business Insider, “You open a restaurant, you struggle for a year to put together the money, you work your heart out, and then 10 minutes after opening, some miserable b---- is tweeting or Yelping, ‘Worst. Dinner. Ever.’”

While some restaurateurs live to put Yelpers in their place, others like Simons can’t fathom ignoring free advice. “The return

of marketing and communications Meaghan O’Shea. “But you have to get to the core of what is actually wrong, own it, and try to make it right. To say this doesn’t matter, you’re basically saying the guest doesn’t matter.”

They make real world adjustments based on Yelp. Farmers Fishers Bakers in Georgetown once had a server who traversed the dining room doling out free pastries to customers in the morning. But those toward the front of the dining room got first dibs, leaving diners in the back of the dining room jealous because they never got any cinnamon buns or biscuits. “Now when you’re seated, the server rings and then the pastries get run [directly] to the table,” O’Shea says.

The change happened because staff saw it mentioned in reviews.

Farmers Restaurant Group uses Venga, a D.C.-based third-party service to aggregate its star ratings across multiple platforms. The company spits out average scores for food, service, and ambience. “There’s also a word cloud,” O’Shea says. “If meatloaf gets mentioned three times for being salty, it will be red in the word cloud.”

They use the aggregated scores to stoke healthy competition among their eateries.

“There’s some level of accountability in a good way,” she says. “Anytime an employee is mentioned in either a positive or negative way, we follow up whether it’s a coaching point or time for praise.”

Neighborhood Restaurant Group Chief Strategy Officer Amber Pfau also noticed that Yelpers mention servers by name. “We get to go tell our staff what a great job they’ve done—it’s one of the best parts about investing in Yelp,” she says. Reviews from professional critics are quick to high-five or knock an executive chef or bartender by name, but they seldom mention waitstaff.

About a year ago, Pfau decided to put more elbow grease into tracking and responding to reviews on Yelp. “There were people who were clearly dining in the restaurants and feeling positively or negatively about something and not conveying it to the restaurant at the time,” she explains. The first step she took was to look for patterns at the group’s 18 businesses using Excel sheets and plenty of patience.

Pfau and her team found that Bluejacket patrons were clamoring in large numbers for fries instead of chips with the brewery’s burger, for example. “It actually became comical that it happened so many times in one month,” she says. They adjusted their food costs so they could make the switch. “We did it and people seem to like our burger better,” says Pfau.

washingtoncitypaper.com august 31, 2018 17

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The exercise proved advantageous enough that Pfau wanted to dig deeper and correspond with reviewers. She tasked the general manager at each restaurant with responding to every review on Yelp, TripAdvisor, RESY, and OpenTable, regardless of whether it was positive or negative.

“The hot button issues are the prices and timing and they’re so subjective based on the person,” Pfau says. “Someone will say something is too expensive when we’ve literally priced it the same at our restaurant as every other neighborhood restaurant ... Then you know it’s not about the price. It’s really about the experience. Something about the experience is making them feel like the dish is expensive.”

NRG takes reviews so seriously that they’ll do deep data analysis. “If someone says, ‘I waited a long time for a drink,’ you don’t know what they consider a long time,” Pfau says. “We can go and look at the ticket times and say, ‘to us that is a long time. You shouldn’t have to wait 20 minutes to get a cocktail.’”

When they spot a situation where the restaurant is at fault, they take Yelp’s advice and stop short of offering free food or drinks to bait disgruntled customers into returning. “That’s the number one rule,” she says. “We abide by it. You shouldn’t be defensive and you should not offer them anything.”

O’Shea takes a different approach. “We have a whole recovery process,” she says. “We want to make sure the punishment fits the crime.” If drinks took too long to come out, Farmers Restaurant Group might invite them in for a round of drinks and an appetizer on the house. “In the long run, that amount of money is a drop in the bucket to potentially have them update their review or have them come back. It’s more expensive to acquire a new guest than it is to maintain a current guest.”

O’Shea, Pfau, and others in the industry know what to filter out. “Traffic, a bad day, a break-up, it all comes out in a Yelp review like you’re talking to a therapist,” Pfau says.

“These are the things servers and managers have been trained on when it comes to reading a table.” The only difference with Yelp is that the comments are digital.

“It’s amazing how much people talk about the weather and how that influences whatever happened,” Pfau says. The elements factor into the dining experience at Iron Gate because customers covet its patio. “We’ve tried everything in our power to make it as large and covered as possible. But if you can’t sit outside because of the weather, you don’t tend to blame it on mother nature. You tend to blame it on [Chef] Tony Chittum.”

That’s why it’s critical to know your businesses and their nuances, according to Ivan Iricanin. He owns two Ambar locations in

the area, plus Tacos, Tortas and Tequila and Buena Vida in Silver Spring.

“I can read reviews and tell what’s accurate and what’s not,” he says. “Sometimes you have uneducated diners and it’s a platform that anyone can say whatever they want, but in general you can learn a lot about your business.”

He describes a review where a Yelper was disappointed that one of his restaurants didn’t do “anything special” for restaurant week.

“We had all-you-can-eat for 70 items for $35,” he says. “It’s the best deal in the world.

You’re going to get a lot of those, but if you understand your business, you can read through the bogus reviews.”

Clyde’s Restaurant Group and José Andrés’ ThinkFoodGroup also dedicate manpower to monitoring review sites on a daily basis. “When a guest has an unfortunately negative experience, it is our opportunity to be able to turn that around and create an even stronger engagement and connection,” says ThinkFoodGroup COO Eric Martino. “Being able to recover and relying on your guests to provide feedback and accepting that feedback is key to help you thrive.”

Molly Quigley, Clyde’s’ director of communications, reads about Yelp and participates in webinars to glean best practices. The restaurants in her group—Clyde’s, The Tombs, 1789, Old Ebbitt Grill, The Hamilton, and The Soundry—receive about 100 reviews a day combined. “We reach out to however many we can,” she says. “Sometimes it’s two.

Sometimes it’s 20.”

Quigley takes the approach of responding privately. “We see this as us talking to them,” she says. “Yelp recommends the opposite.

They think everything should be public. We’re just trying to talk to them, we’re not trying to increase our rating or SEO.” Overall, the extra effort is worth it. “There’s so much power behind Yelp,” Quigley says.

“In the last year, 600,000 people went to Old Ebbitt’s Yelp page … There are so many restaurants and they’ve chosen to come to ours. People use it so you can’t ignore it.”

Pfau agrees that restauraters would be remiss to ignore Yelp, calling haters unwise for thinking anyone is unqualified to make a judgement about a restaurant. “There’s no exam you need to take before you’re able to go somewhere,” she says. “It’s challenging to hear criticism in any format … but once you let your guard down and recognize it as a real opportunity to provide your guest with the experience they’re telling you they’d like to have, it makes you realize how important of a tool it is.

We’re already doing it in our restaurant. This expands it beyond our doors.”

CP Eatery tips? Food pursuits? Send suggestions to lhayes@washingtoncitypaper.com.

CPArts

Meet Ajani Amiri Thomas, the 21-year-old D.C. filmmaker documenting hate and turning it into art. washingtoncitypaper.com/arts

Regicidal Tendencies

Scholars and thespians collaborate to revive a 1600s blockbuster Macbeth rewrite.

Lady Macduff is on stage with Macduff rehearsing a scene that doesn’t exist in most productions of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. They’re not sure where to stand and how to relate to one another, and Chris Genebach, the actor playing Macduff, keeps calling “Line!”

Just when the actors begin to work it out—to comprehend the relationship between two characters who never even speak to each other in the original version of the play—they get word that time’s up. It’s their turn to go down to the basement and talk to a bunch of academics.

“Ugh, scholar talks,” groan Genebach and Karen Peakes, the actress playing Lacy Macduff. They linger for a few more minutes with director Robert Richmond before heading to their meeting.

This is rehearsal for Sir William Davenant’s 1664 rewrite of Macbeth, a hit production that took the London stage half a century after Shakespeare died. Davenant adapted it during a period known as the Restoration— both the restoration of the theater and the restoration of the monarchy.

Theater had been banned for 18 years under the Puritans, ultra-religious Brits widely known to be the enemies of fun. During the height of their movement, King Charles I, whom the Puritans considered too Catholic, was executed under a treason charge. Charles I’s head rolled in 1649 and his son Charles II fled, not to return to London and power until 1660, at which time he reopened the theaters. So many years had passed since anyone had seen the original Macbeth that Davenant’s version became the only one audiences knew. (Those old enough to remember Shakespeare’s were surely either too senile or too thankful to nitpick over the extensive differences in the two shows.)

Starting Sept. 4, D.C. theater-goers will have the exceedingly rare chance to see Davenant’s Macbeth. The production at the Folger Shakespeare Library is weird, alive, and took years of research and collaboration to mount. down in the basement of the Folger, a few weeks before performances are scheduled to begin, the scholars are sitting around a long wood table, wrapping up a conversation with the singing witches. Framed paintings of people wearing big white collars hang on the walls and a pink floral carpet completes the room.

“Have we got the Macduffs?” asks one of the scholars.

“Yeah, they’re coming at 1:30,” replies another.

“It’s 1:31.”

Minutes later, Genebach and Peakes arrive. Peakes played Lady Macduff at the Folger back in 2008, when she was 7 months pregnant with her son Owen. Owen, now 10, is playing Fleance in this production. Her husband, Ian Merrill Peakes,

del’s Messiah and John Eccles’ Macbeth score sound very similar, though Handel’s lyrics are about the glorious life of Christ (“His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor”), while Eccles’ are about gore (“We shou’d rejoice when good kings bleed”).

“The elaborate singing and dancing witch scene held its place for 170 years,” says Winkler. “And in the 1800s, they had these massive great choruses with beautiful ladies in gauzy gowns.”

The music has consumed her thoughts for decades. Asked if ever, in all her years of studying, she had an “ah ha” moment regarding Davenant’s Macbeth, Winkler doesn’t hesitate. It happened around 1996. “I was looking through some microfilm and found the manuscript for Eccles’ music for the witches’ scenes in Macbeth. It did not correspond in any way to my expectations for a witches’ scene. Where was the Ian Merrill Peakes horrible, dissonant music?” she says. “I spent a lot of (Macbeth) and Kate time investigating the historical reasons why witches Eastwood Norris might have sounded this way. Watching our witches (Lady Macbeth) sing and dance on the Folger stage has showed me how their music works in a dramatic context—and it does work, beautifully.”

This is the kind of knowledge the actors and directors can derive from their scholar team. And they do, for all their grumbling, appreciate it—and even find it intimidating, despite many of them being career Shakespeare actors.

The scholars are in a veritable scholar heaven at the Folger. “We’re silent during the rehearsal, but often invited to speak,” says Schoch. “Robert has been very warm and generous and has invited us in.”

Richmond, as director, has added his own layers to the show. He’s set the play in Bedlam. Mental patients are putting on a production of Macbeth, the warden is playThe two versions of the play are different in a few key ways. ing King Duncan, and patients are playing the rest of the roles.

Davenant removed anything funny to make the play a pure trag- “The sewer is backing up, so they’re doing a charity play,” says edy, and he created a counterpoint to the evil Macbeths by turn- Richmond. “And the play goes horribly wrong.” He means that ing Lady Macduff into a fully formed character. “She’s the mor- the mental patient playing Macbeth actually kills the warden playing Duncan. “When they murder Duncan, the wind blows al center,” says Winkler. “I love her,” says Karen Peakes.

Davenant attempted to smooth out Shakespeare’s master- through the windows and the tone changes,” says Richmond.

This is also in line with Davenant’s version. “One of the supiece. “Restoration theater was very interested in balance and symmetry,” says Winkler. “Shakespeare was the problem child,” perstitions is that someone in the Restoration version was acsays Schoch. “His plots were messy, his language too antiquat- tually murdered on stage,” says Richmond.

The Davenant script held on for more than 30 years, and then ed, he had all of these sub-characters running around. But Davenant’s version is as clean as a whistle.” (Shakespeare was no faded gradually for another 30 years, though aspects of it enone’s first choice in Charles II’s revived theater. Producers fa- dured in productions for more than a century. Eventually the vored works by Ben Jonson, Francis Beaumont, and John British embraced Shakespeare’s messy subplots and side characters, and Davenant went to the library shelf. But many other Fletcher.)

But Davenant also made the witches who foretell Macbeth’s rewriters followed him, altering and recreating Shakespeare, or future into a singing, dancing chorus of witches. According to pulling out one character and dreaming up his origin story.

Shakespeare is the 400-year through line, the one who lives Schoch, Restoration productions even featured mechanisms and is reborn. Says Schoch, “He always seems to be able to carthat allowed the witches to fly across the stage.

“It’s got this chorus where they’re rejoicing at the prospect of ry whatever we put on his back.”

CP regicide,” says Winkler, “and it almost sounds like something that could be from one of Handel’s oratorios.” George Frideric Han- 201 E Capiton St. SE. $42-$79. Sept. 4-23. folger.edu. plays Macbeth, as he did in 2008.

The key scholars at the table are Richard Schoch, a theater historian and English professor at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Amanda Eubanks Winkler, a musicologist and professor at Syracuse University. They’ve been working on this project since 2014 when they led a weekend-long Davenant workshop in which they “did Macbeth and a little bit of Measure for Measure,” according to Schoch.

After that workshop, which took place at the Folger, they applied to the U.K’s Arts and Humanities Research Council for a three-year grant to study Davenant’s work and bring it back to the stage. Winkler and Schoch won their money, and this production at the Folger is the culminating event.

Brittany Diliberto

By Alexa Mills

washingtoncitypaper.com august 31, 2018 19

BlacKkKlansmen

FilmShort SubjectS

TheaTerCurtain Calls

GoinG UnderGroUnd

Crazy Love

Nico, 1988

Directed by Susanna Nicchiarelli Nico, 1988 is about the last two years of Christa Päffgen’s life. Päffgen, aka Nico, was a German singer whose biggest claim to fame, much to her frustration, was recording three songs with The Velvet Underground for their seminal debut album. Even though she had a 20year solo career after that experience, journalists and fans preferred to focus on her time with the VU. Perhaps it was because Nico’s music can be regarded as “hideous,” at least according to one of her managers in Susanna Nicchiarelli’s film. Her instrument was the harmonium and

her go-to sound was drone rock, its one-note rumbles made further irritating by Nico’s tendency to go off-key because of her partial deafness. In Nico, Danish actress Trine Dyrholm captures the singer’s subterranean vocals perfectly whenever she lords over a mic, cigarette usually in hand and heroin forever coursing through her veins.

As portrayed in the film, she was the prickly sort. “Don’t call me that!” she tells an interviewer when he refers to her as “Lou Reed’s femme fatale.” “I don’t like it.” In the next scene, her manager (John Gordon Sinclair) gets the rebuke. “Don’t call me Nico!” she tells him. What else doesn’t she like? Band members who don’t pull their weight onstage. (“What the fuck are you doing?” she asks one in the middle of a song.) That she’s still separated from her depressed son. (The only voiceover here is from court proceedings.) And, she claims, music. (“I really don’t care about music anymore,” she says.)

That last bit is unconvincing. Nico was on a European tour before she died at the age of 49 from a cerebral hemorrhage. And though

she does look like she’s phoning it in for many performances here—or is it the character of the music itself?—her relatively upbeat “My Heart Is Empty” is electric, performed at a secret show while she was in a brief withdrawal from heroin. Dyrholm throws herself into the rhythm, thrashing her head and rousing the crowd. Unfortunately for both Nico and the film’s audience, the concert is short-lived as the traveling crew has to high-tail it when authorities bust up the fun.

The end credits state that Nico, 1988 is based on a true story—and if that singular fact is purposeful, it’s a meandering if not uncompelling one. Nicchiarelli largely keeps scenes moving quickly with some disorientating flashbacks, lending the film an impressionistic feel in between more static looks of the tour. Nico’s attempt to bring her adult son, Ari (Sandor Funtek), back into her life is the central subplot, along with a romance between two band members that serves to highlight the effect that heroin has on the group. Nico is always shooting up and her bassist is always fucking

up, and both suffer when a border crossing prevents either from carrying a stash. But mostly the plot is more intangible, about her unhappiness: “I’ve been on the top, I’ve been on the bottom,” she says. “Both places are empty.”

Dyrholm is appropriately world-weary, standing with a manly hunch and often being shown in unflattering close-up, her skin wrinkled and eyes baggy. Her Nico is an abrasive protagonist who nonetheless earns your sympathy; her feeling of hollowness is palpable. A little too obviously, the character makes two references to growing old near the film’s end, yet her metaphorical ride into the sunset evokes true sadness. Nico carried around an audio recorder wherever she went. When someone asks her if she was looking for something in particular, she mentions the thunderous bombing of Berlin at the end of World War II that she heard when she was a little girl. What she was looking for, she says, is “the sound of defeat.”

—Tricia Olszewski Nico, 1988 opens Friday at Landmark E Street Cinema.

20 august 31, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

Passion

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Book by James Lapine Directed by Matthew Gardiner At Signature Theatre to Sept. 23 In an essay published this summer in The New York Times, Tony-nominated soprano Melissa Errico reflects on how, for more than two decades, she has been continually cast as fair ladies with little to no agency, starting with her Broadway debut as Eliza Doolittle.

“I have spent most of my life exploring classic musical theater roles for women, which often turn out to be, when you inspect them, well, problematic and, yes, misogynistic,” the actress writes.

Omitted from Errico’s astute reflection was Stephen Sondheim’s Passion, a 1994 musical now receiving a beautiful revival at Arlington’s Signature Theatre. In a 2013 off-Broadway production of the musical, Errico played Clara, the more voluptuous corner of a love triangle also involving an Italian officer and a terminally ill woman.

I had hoped Errico would address both her own role and that of Fosca, Clara’s insecure, melancholic rival. She does not, although her insights into Guenevere, Eliza, and Daisy Gamble are worthwhile, and can guide any viewers wrestling with a deeply unsettling musical like Passion.

Listen closely. Did the director and the performers dig deeply into the lyrics—even if all they found was a redeeming line or two—and strive to make these characters multi-dimensional heroines? And if they’ve accomplished that, is the whole show now worth swallowing?

Passion is, but just barely. Sondheim’s intricately orchestrated score, full of long, spunout melodies, has saved this musical from being jettisoned by less chauvinistic minds.

Signature’s design is stunning, the 14-member orchestra sublime, Gardiner’s direction nearly flawless, and the performances by female leads perfection.

Lingering discomfort audiences feel can be blamed on the writers, the mid-19th century patriarchy, and the 1981 film that served as Sondheim’s source material.

Natascia Diaz, the Italian actress who has become a regular at Signature, calls Fosca “the biggest, most challenging role I’ve ever done.” That’s apparent in both her Instagram captions and her performance.

The musical opens in a Milanese apartment, circa 1860. The captain (Claybourne Elder, last seen as a brooding Georges Seurat in Signature’s Sunday in the Park with George) and Clara (the golden-throated Steffanie Leigh) are lolling around naked, singing “Happiness,” Sondheim’s major-key ode to post-coital lovers, lying skin-toskin, concerned only with the world between sat-

in sheets. The nudity is unscripted, but not gratuitous. This is a relationship based on sex, and that sex is highly empowering for Clara. “I’ve never known what love was,” she sings before stepping confidently into a gorgeous sheer chemise.

When Giorgio first meets the pale, sickly Fosca, he’s been transferred away from his love nest to a remote mountain town. He’s greeted by anguished screams from his colonel (Will Gartshore)’s bedridden cousin, a woman “whose nerves are exposed,” a doctor tells him. But she loves to read, and so the captain loans her some Rousseau. They talk of French literature at breakfast, and soon are wandering arm-and-arm toward the gardenias, depicted in Lee Savage’s design as a flower wall hanging from the catwalks.

Fosca and the captain share an intellectual connection that he and Clara may not. That’s important to remember as she falls for him and becomes obsessed, to the point of stalking him on trains and cutting herself. “Loving you is not a choice, and not much reason to rejoice. But it gives me purpose. It gives me voice,” she sings.

Midway through the two-hour, no-intermission show, Sondheim clumsily tucks in an expository flashback explaining that Fosca was formerly married to an Austrian count who squandered her dowry and abandoned her.

Here is the problem with this backstory, with Fosca and with Passion: Her must-getlaid-before-I-die M.O. is more consistent with a desperate virgin than a woman previously married to a royal asshole. (Or faux-royal asshole, as it turns out he was not actually a count.) One would think the experience left Fosca hardened and more emotionally mature. Had Sondheim written her just a smidge less crazy, this entire musical would be more convincing, and easier to watch.

As is, there were multiple moments at Signature when audience members chortled in disbelief, particularly during the scene where Fosca dictates a fake love letter from Giorgio.

Letters are key to the storytelling, and Signature’s black box space has been arranged so as letters are received, the sender steps out to sing. The stage extends down the center of the theater, with risers on both sides and balconies at either end. Juxtaposing Clara and Fosca complements Sondheim’s lyrics, his two opposing depictions of desire.

In her final letter, Fosca opines that being loved has made her want to live. The song is in C minor, an odd choice for musical theater finale, and it ends on huge chord that’s not on the C minor scale. You don’t need to be music major to recognize the music as deliberately unsettling.

“All true heroines,” Errico wrote to close out her essay, come “to own (their) complexity.” Fosca does. Recognize that change, revel in this music, and Passion is still worth revisiting.

—Rebecca J. Ritzel 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. $40–$99.

(703) 820-9771. sigtheatre.org.

“JOYFUL AND HILARIOUS.” —Vulture

A “whip-smart satire of fear and loathing” (New York Times) from a MacArthur “Genius” Grant-winning playwright

BY BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS DIRECTED BY KIP FAGAN

SEPTEMBER 3 – SEPTEMBER 30

BY BESS WOHL DIRECTED BY RYAN RILETTE

PAY-WHAT-YOU-WILL

PERFORMANCES MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 & TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4

WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANY

WOOLLYMAMMOTH.NET // 202-393-3939 // #WOOLLYGLORIA

WMTC_CityPaper_8.30.indd 1

“What’s done cannot be undone”

AYING NOW PL

H SEP 23

THROUG

ORDER TODAY!

240.644.1100 | RoundHouseTheatre.org Bethesda Metro: 1 Block | Convenient Parking!

8/21/18 2:25 PM

SHAKESPEARE’S

Adapted by William Davenant

Music performed by Folger Consort

LIMITED RUN SEPT 4 — 23

folger.edu/theatre 202.544.7077 Photo of Ian Merrill Peakes and Kate Eastwood Norris by Brittany Diliberto

The 2018 cast of The Wiz at Ford’s Theatre. Photo: Carol Rosegg.

TOP SHOWS. BOTTOM DOLLAR. $15 & $35 TICKETS TO 20+ PRODUCTIONS AND FREE SPECIAL EVENTS!

SEPTEMBER 12 – OCTOBER 7, 2018 | THEATREWEEK.ORG

washingtoncitypaper.com august 31, 2018 21

22 august 31, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

CITYLIST

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

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

Tix @ Ticketmaster.com 800-745-3000

Aug Guitar 30 Legend

Music 23 Books 27 Theater 27 Film 28

Music

CITY LIGHTS: FRIDAY

SAM ANDERSON

FRIDAY BluES

Blues Alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Chris Thomas King. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $25–$30. bluesalley.com.

COuNtRY

Hill Country live 410 7th St. NW. (202) 5562050. Drew Fish Band and Chuck Briseno. 9:30 p.m. $10–$15. hillcountrywdc.com.

ElECtRONIC

eAgleBAnk ArenA 4500 Patriot Circle, Fairfax.

(703) 993-3000. A.R. Rahman. 8 p.m. $69–$499. eaglebankarena.com. eCHostAge 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Alison Wonderland. 9 p.m. $33.50. echostage.com.

FuNk & R&B

BetHesdA Blues & JAzz 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. (240) 330-4500. Chante Moore. 8 p.m. $59.50–$74. bethesdabluesjazz.com.

HIp-HOp

kennedy Center MillenniuM stAge 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Light Beams. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org. songByrd MusiC House And reCord CAfe 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Beau Young Prince. 8 p.m. $10. songbyrddc.com.

JAzz

BirCHMere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Kim Waters. 7:30 p.m. $35. birchmere.com.

ROCk

tHe HAMilton 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000.

Flow Tribe. 8 p.m. $15–$25. thehamiltondc.com.

Wolf trAp filene Center 1551 Trap Road, Vienna.

(703) 255-1900. Gavin DeGraw and Phillip Phillips. 8 p.m. $30–$60. wolftrap.org.

SAtuRDAY

A lot happened during the 2012 NBA Finals: the crowning of a king who had finally reached the pinnacle of NBA success, the beginning of a new era in the NBA in which a burgeoning Oklahoma City Thunder team, with superstars Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden, would dominate.

But after losing to LeBron James’ Miami Heat, the team fell apart.

Harden was traded before the first game of the 2012-2013 season. Durant eventually left for the Golden State Warriors. Westbrook, talented as he is, remained Westbrook.

As writer Sam Anderson writes in his new book Boom Town, the near success of that chaotic, fascinating team was representative of Oklahoma City itself. The city was born in chaos, as thousands of people rushed in to claim it in an 1889 land run. Fittingly, Boom Town’s subtitle is The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-Class Metropolis—and Anderson profiles the likes of The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Thunder general manager Sam Presti. Ultimately, it’s a profile of Oklahoma City, an attempt to get to the root of what exactly makes this weird, intriguing, and surprisingly dramatic midwestern town tick.

Turns out, it’s a blend of history, basketball, big dreams, and fate. Would you have it any other way? Sam Anderson speaks at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. (202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com.

—Kayla Randall

BluES

Blues Alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Chris Thomas King. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $25–$30. bluesalley.com.

ElECtRONIC

eCHostAge 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Alison Wonderland. 9 p.m. $28.50–$33.50. echostage.com.

FuNk & R&B

BirCHMere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Jeffrey Osborne. 7:30 p.m. $85. birchmere.com.

JAMMin JAvA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. Cargo and the Heavy Lifters. 8 p.m. $15–$25. jamminjava.com. songByrd MusiC House And reCord CAfe 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Martha Afework. 8 p.m. $12–$15. songbyrddc.com.

JAzz

JAMMin JAvA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. The Hot Lanes. 1 p.m. $15. jamminjava.com.

ROCk

9:30 CluB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. End of Summer Jam. 9 p.m. $40. 930.com.

SuNDAY

BlACk CAt 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490.

OHMME. 7:30 p.m. $10–$12. blackcatdc.com.

Blues Alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Chris Thomas King. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $25–$30. bluesalley.com.

ElECtRONIC eCHostAge 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Hardwell. 9 p.m. $30. echostage.com.

ROCk

songByrd MusiC House And reCord CAfe 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Wax Idols. 8 p.m. $12. songbyrddc.com.

MONDAY ElECtRONIC

FOlk

eCHostAge 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Virtual Self. 8 p.m. $40–$50. echostage. com.

BirCHMere 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. The Earls of Leicester. 7:30 p.m. $39.50. birchmere.com.

BlACk CAt 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. Shonen Knife. 7:30 p.m. $16–$18. blackcatdc.com.

ROCk

An Acoustic Evening with

NILS LOFGREN & FRIENDS 17 MICHAEL NESMITH 14,16

& The First National Band

THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND 20 RED MOLLY 21 EUGE GROOVE 22 WMAL FREE SPEECH FORUM 18

feat. Mark Levin, Chris Plante, Larry O’Connor, Mary Walter, Vince Coglianese

BUDDY GUY

24 27&28 29 30 Oct 1

ERIC BENET HIROSHIMA BASIA CHICK COREA TRIO CHICKS WITH HITS

3

TERRI CLARK, PAM TILLIS, SUZY BOGGUSS 4&5 6

GO-GO

BlACk CAt 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. Garbagefest 3. 7 p.m. $12. blackcatdc.com.

BluES

DICK DALE 31 KIM WATERS Sept 2 THE EARLS OF LEICESTER Presented by JERRY DOUGLAS 8 THE SELDOM SCENE & JONATHAN EDWARDS 9 JON B 13 THE BRIAN McKNIGHT 4

7

THE STEELDRIVERS MICHAEL FRANKS

HERMAN'S HERMITS starring PETER NOONE

BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY 10 LEO KOTTKE 11 THE JAYHAWKS 12&13 THE WHISPERS 14 KEIKO MATSUI 15 LISA STANSFIELD 9

washingtoncitypaper.com august 31, 2018 23

CITY LIGHTS: SATURDAY

: ind h t l a e he M H d t n Sousic and Mu TICKETS FROM

$20!

Shaping Our Children’s Lives Through Music Engagement Music and the Mind brings together some of today’s most innovative artists and leading neuroscientists to explore connections between music, rhythm, and brain development. Join us for performances, discussions, and workshops for you and your family to learn, play, and interact!

FORM & FUNCTION: THE GENIUS OF THE BOOK

You may read and own physical books, but have you ever taken a moment to consider their beauty? With words inked onto a page, bound together in leather, cloth, and every other texture imaginable, each book is a little marvel.

The Folger Shakespeare Library’s Form & Function: The Genius of the Book summer exhibition serves to show visitors just how precious books are. The exhibition, curated by the Folger’s head of conservation Renate Mesmer, showcases the library’s diverse and rare collection. It’s a deep dive into craftsmanship, from a vibrant yellow floral-patterned Italian book published in 1620, to a 1566 book wrapped in parchment manuscript. There are books bound in pigskin over wooden boards, and books with herringbone stitches sewn into the binding. We don’t often think of books as technology, particularly in our current smartphone purgatory. But books are some of our oldest—and greatest—tech. They’ve lasted as a medium, evolving now into electronic form. Constantly facing threats of becoming obsolete, let’s hope the book continues to last. The exhibition is on view to Sept. 23 at the Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capitol St. SE. Free. (202) 544-4600. folger.edu.

—Kayla Randall

Friday, September 7 in the Concert Hall

CITY LIGHTS: SUNDAY

Music and the Mind: The Concert featuring Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain, Jason Moran, Renée Fleming, and others Fresh from last year’s sold-out event, today’s most innovative artists join top neuroscientists for our groundbreaking concert experience. 8 p.m.

Saturday, September 8 in the Terrace Theater Say It With Rhythm!

A Performance Demo with Dr. Nina Kraus featuring Mickey Hart and Zakir Hussain 11 a.m.

Take Note! Why Music Education Matters A Panel Discussion Moderated

by Renée Fleming 2 p.m.

Learning and Bonding to the Beat: Optimizing Your Child’s Development with Dr. Laurel Trainor and Special Guests 4:30 p.m.

The Art of the Spark: Musical Creativity Explored with Dr. Charles Limb and Special Guests 8 p.m.

Plus FREE EVENTS throughout the day on Saturday, Sep. 8!

Visit kennedy-center.org for a complete schedule.

kennedy-center.org (202) 467-4600 For all other ticket-related customer service inquiries, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540.

Major support for Sound Health: Music and the Mind is provided by The Music Man Foundation.

Sound Health is made possible by

Sound Health is also presented as part of The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives.

24 august 31, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

END OF SUMMER JAM

Have you felt it? It’s been picking up with increased frequency the past few days; a wind that blows by with a whisper: “Summer is coming to a close.” But summer ain’t over yet, and it won’t be until there’s one final blow-out, a party to properly say adios to one season and welcome the next one. This weekend, 9:30 Club is the place to be with its End of Summer Jam—a go-go celebration like no other. The inimitable Backyard Band headlines probably one of the dopest bills of the summer, with TCB, Reaction, TOB, and CCB joining in on the party. Founded in the early ’90s, Backyard Band quickly made its way to go-go royalty, alongside the forefathers of the genre, Rare Essence, Experience Unlimited, Trouble Funk, and the Godfather of Go-Go Chuck Brown. True go-go heads know the dopeness that Backyard’s been crankin’ out all these years, but the rest of the world got a taste when a pair of covers—Adele’s “Hello” and Solange’s “Cranes in the Sky”—went viral. It’s helped open them, and the world of go-go, up to a whole new audience, one that can truly understand why go-go is D.C.’s native beat. The show begins at 9 p.m. at 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $40. (202) 265-0930. 930.com.

—Matt Cohen

washingtoncitypaper.com august 31, 2018 25

CITY LIGHTS: MONDAY

ONE YEAR: 1968, AN AMERICAN ODYSSEY TICKET INCLUDES ADMISSION TO THE PARTY, YOUR F

IRST BEER FIRST BEERAND ANDAADONATION DONATIONTOTOLIVING LIVINGCLASSROOMS CLASSROOMS. .

A small room in the vast National Portrait Gallery holds an exhibition about a year that evokes many memories with just its four digits.

An American Odyssey is worth your time. Find it across from a hallway lined with portraits of Founding Fathers and their friends. Walk inside the exhibition room, and look to your left: Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy are side by side. They were assassinated two months apart that year.

On a television in the corner, watch Janis Joplin’s wild face as she sings, and to her left, see photos of Black Panther leaders. The most haunting face in the room is not Richard Nixon’s or Spiro Agnew’s (they also share a wall), but that of Lieutenant William Calley, who led the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. He was convicted of murdering 22 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians. A TIME Magazine cover shows his spooky face in pixels and shadows. The exhibition is on view to May 19, 2019 at the National Portrait Gallery, 8th and F streets NW. Free.

(202) 633-8300. npg.si.edu.

—Alexa Mills

tuESDAY

pOp

Hill Country live 410 7th St. NW. (202) 556-2050.

Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds. 8 p.m. $15–$20. hillcountrywdc.com.

tWins JAzz 1344 U St. NW. (202) 234-0072. Sirintip.

8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $10. twinsjazz.com.

COuNtRY

FuNk & R&B

tHe AntHeM 901 Wharf St. SW. (202) 888-0020.

Miguel. 8 p.m. $45–$295. theanthemdc.com.

JAzz

Blues Alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Dwayne Adell Trio. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $22. bluesalley.com.

ROCk

tHuRSDAY ClASSICAl

goetHe-institut WAsHington 1990 K St. NW, Suite 03. (202) 847-4700. Chamber Music at Noon. noon Free. goethe.de/washington.

FOlk

tHe AntHeM 901 Wharf St. SW. (202) 888-0020.

Punch Brothers. 8 p.m. $35–$179. theanthemdc.com.

dC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Bottled Up. 8 p.m. $8. dcnine.com.

JAMMin JAvA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. John Craigie. 8 p.m. $15–$25. jamminjava.com.

WORlD

FuNk & R&B

kennedy Center MillenniuM stAge 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Marcelo Rojas. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

WEDNESDAY FOlk

union stAge 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487.

Acoustic Open Mic. 7:30 p.m. Free. unionstage.com.

JAzz

Blues Alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Steve Wilson Quartet. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $25. bluesalley.com.

26 august 31, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

tHe AntHeM 901 Wharf St. SW. (202) 888-0020. Mac Demarco. 8 p.m. $35–$55. theanthemdc.com.

u street MusiC HAll 1115 U St. NW. (202) 588-1889.

Bernhoft & The Fashion Bruises. 7 p.m. $20. ustreetmusichall.com.

JAzz

tWins JAzz 1344 U St. NW. (202) 234-0072. The Twins Jazz Orchestra. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $10. twinsjazz. com.

ROCk

roCk & roll Hotel 1353 H St. NE. (202) 388-7625.

Strung Out. 8 p.m. $20. rockandrollhoteldc.com. songByrd MusiC House And reCord CAfe 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. The Mattson 2. 8 p.m. $13–$15. songbyrddc.com.

JOIN US FOR

CITY LIGHTS: tuESDAY

MIGuEl

Miguel has spent the decade back-to-thefuturing R&B’s glory days, and he’s never been shy about nodding to his influences.

“Pineapple Skies,” off last year’s War & Leisure, has a vocal melody so similar to “Sexual Healing” that Marvin Gaye is credited as a co-writer. It also has promises of “pineapple purple skies” that evoke images of Prince, and makes plans to “Stevie Wonder through the night”— an obvious ode to the legendary soul singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Those artists—plus bits of Michael Jackson, Babyface, and Lenny Kravitz—form the foundation for the 32-year-old crooner. Across his four albums, Miguel has strummed and strutted his way through sun-dappled songs full of love and lust, carving out space for lightheartedness and buoyancy during a decade in which R&B often overdoses on hip-hop. He promised that War & Leisure would have “political undertones,” but don’t expect fiery, funky polemics. Instead, he closes the album with “Now,” a windswept hymn to working together and finding common ground that plays like “What’s Going On” for today. Miguel performs at 8 p.m. at The Anthem, 901 Wharf St. SW. $45–$295. (202) 888-0020. theanthemdc.com.

—Chris Kelly

union stAge 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. Foxing. 8 p.m. $15–$17. unionstage.com.

1517 Connecticut Ave. NW. Sep. 5. 6:30 p.m. Free. (202) 387-1400.

WORlD

sAM Anderson Sam Anderson chronicles the rich history of Oklahoma City In his new book Boom Town, from its bizarre “land run” origins in 1889 to the recent near-triumph of the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Aug. 31. 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

fillMore silver spring 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Davido. 8 p.m. $25. fillmoresilverspring.com.

Books

AdAM sisMAn Adam Sisman discusses his book A Life in Letters, an extensive collection of letters by war hero and acclaimed travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor. Politics and Prose at Union Market. 1270 5th St. NE. Sep. 4. 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

AlBert sAMAHA Albert Samaha discusses his new book Never Ran, Never Will, the inspiring story of a boys’ football team in an impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood. Politics and Prose at Union Market.

1270 5th St. NE. Sep. 6. 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

April ryAn White House reporter April Ryan talks about her book Under Fire, an inside look at the the White House under Trump and how reporters adjusted to the chaos. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Sep. 4. 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.

Arlie HoCHsCHild Arlie Hochschild introduces her new book Strangers in Their Own Land, which explores the political leanings of the impoverished residents of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and the reason they favor candidates like Donald Trump. Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe. 1517 Connecticut Ave. NW. Sep. 6. 6:30 p.m. Free. (202) 387-1400.

CHApo trAp House Hosts of the political entertainment podcast Chapo Trap House sign copies of their new book The Chapo Guide to Revolution, a hilarious anti-Trump call to action. 9:30 Club. 815 V St. NW. Sep. 5. 8 p.m. $28. (202) 265-0930. greg lukiAnoff And JonAtHAn HAidt Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt discuss their new book The Coddling of the American Mind, which analyzes the increased polarization, depression, anxiety, and culture of safetyism on college campuses. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Sep. 5. 7 p.m. Free.

(202) 364-1919. norM eisen CNN political commentator Norm Eisen chats about his debut book The Last Palace, which examines the last hundred years of European history through the lives of the residents of a legendary house in Prague. Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe.

VALET & SECURE PARKING aVAILABLE

HAPPY HOUR

sAndHyA Menon New York Times bestselling author Sandhya Menon signs her latest novel From Twinkle, With Love, a YA romantic comedy about an teen aspiring filmmaker who finds love. One More Page Books. 2200 N. Westmoreland Street, No. 101, Arlington. Aug. 31. 7 p.m. Free. (703) 300-9746. yuvAl noAH HArAri Bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari tries to make sense of our chaotic present in his book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. 600 I St. NW. Sep. 6. 7 p.m. $18–$35.

(202) 408-3100.

5PM-7PM, M-F

RESTAURANT | BAR | MUSIC VENUE | FULLY FUCTIONING WINERY | EVENT SPACE

UPCOMING SHOWS AUG 30

AUG 31

SEP 2

SEP 3

SEP 4

Joanne Shaw Taylor w/ SIMO

Jeff Bradshaw & Friends FT. Glenn Lewis & Conya Doss

Terry Bozzio

Carolyn Wonderland / Shinyribs

An Evening With rickie lee jones

SEP 5

SEP 6

SEP 7

SEP 7

SEP 8

Wayne “The Train” Hancock in the Wine Garden

Just Jokes & Notes w/ April Sampe & Timmy Hall

RONNIE LAWS

Beth Bombara w / Lauren Calve in the Wine Garden

black alley

SEP 9

SEP 11

SEP 12

SEP 14

SEP 14

Eric Essix “More”

Ana Popovic

Mason Jennings

It Came From the ‘70s Superflydisco

Jill Sobule “Nostalgia Kills”

album release show

album release show

in the Wine Garden

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

Mayor Muriel Bowser presents

Labor Day Weekend

Music Festival

2018

SATURDAY | SEPT. 1 | 7:00 PM

Theater

tHe Bridges of MAdison County Based on the bestselling novel, this musical was developed by the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning creative team of Jason Robert Brown and Marsha Norman. It centers on a lonely Italian war bride who has an affair with a photographer who has traveled from Washington to photograph the county’s famous covered bridges. Keegan Theatre. 1742 Church St. NW. To Sep. 11. $45–$55.

(202) 265-3767. keegantheatre.com.

CoMo AguA pArA CHoColAte (like WAter for CHoColAte) Making its U.S. premiere, this production centers on a young woman who is forbidden to marry because of family tradition and takes to expressing herself through cooking. It is based on the novel by Laura Esquivel, adapted to the stage

by Garbi Losada and directed by Olga Sánchez. Performed in Spanish with English subtitles. GALA Hispanic Theatre. 3333 14th St. NW. To Oct. 7. $20–$48.

(202) 234-7174. galatheatre.org. gloriA Written by Pulitzer Prize-finalist Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, this new dark comedy centers on a group of ambition Manhattan editorial assistants.

When an average workday turns into a living nightmare, two survivors must compete to turn their experience into a career-making story. Woolly Mammoth Theatre. 641 D St. NW. To Sep. 30. $20–$61. (202) 3933939. woollymammoth.net.

Latin Flavor Night Hosted by Pedro Biaggi

Elena & Los Fulanos Verny Varela Pablo Antonio y La Firma

SUNDAY | SEPT. 2 | 7:00 PM

GoGo Fusion Night Hosted by Joe Clair

The Experience Band DuPont Brass Full Throttle Band The JoGo Project FREE ADMISSION LINCOLN THEATRE 1215 U STREET NW, WASHINGTON, DC Artists and schedule subject to change.

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

FOR OTHER 202CREATES SEPTEMBER EVENTS, VISIT WWW.202CREATES.COM washingtoncitypaper.com august 31, 2018 27

HAMilton Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway hit finally comes to the Kennedy Center. The world famous hiphop musical chronicles the extraordinary life of United States Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. Kennedy Center Opera House. 2700 F St. NW. To Sep. 16. $99–$625. (202) 467-4600. kennedy-center.org.

FLOW TRIBE W/ THE TRONGONE BAND FRIDAY

AUG 31

An evening with

PRINCE TRIBUTE SHOW

ALL-STAR PURPLE PARTY FEAT. JUNIE HENDERSON SATURDAY SEPT

1

WED, SEPT 5

AN EVENING WITH SEVEN

VOICES: A TRIBUTE TO PATSY CLINE

FEATURING JESS ELIOT MYHRE (BUMPER JACKSONS), KAREN JONAS, LETITIA VanSANT, SARA CURTIN (SWEATER SET), LAUREN CALVE, BRIAN FARROW AND KITI GARTNER FRI, SEPT 7

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

GIANT PANDA GUERILLA DUB SQUAD AND THE MOVEMENT

W/ ROOTS OF A REBELLION SAT, SEPT 8

THE IGUANAS W/ THE CRAWDADDIES SUN, SEPT 9

AN EVENING WITH HOLLY

BOWLING

MACBetH Amended by Sir William Davenant, this Restoration-era adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic is directed by Robert Richmond and features music

by John Eccles performed live by Folger Consort. In this timeless tragedy, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are tormented by guilt after they murder King Duncan and take the Scottish throne. Folger Shakespeare Library. 201 E. Capitol St. SE. To Sep. 23. $42-$79.

(202) 544-7077. folger.edu.

MArie And rosettA Directed by Sandra L. Holloway, Mosaic Theater Company presents a musical celebration of two extraordinary black women. Marie and Rosetta chronicles the unlikely first rehearsal between Rosetta Tharpe and Marie Knight, who would go on to become one of the great duos in music history. Atlas Performing Arts Center. 1333 H St. NE. To Sep. 30. $50–$68. (202) 399-7993. atlasarts.org.

MelAnCHoly plAy: A ConteMporAry fArCe This emotional comedy follows Tilly, a perpetually melancholic bank teller whose life and relationships are changed when she suddenly discovers happiness. This production is directed by Nick Martin and written by Sarah Ruhl, acclaimed playwright of The Clean House and Dead Man’s Cell Phone. Constellation Theatre at Source. 1835 14th St. NW. To Sep. 2. $19–$45. (202) 204-7741. constellationtheatre.org. sMAll MoutH sounds This Ryan Rilette-directed play opens Round House’s 41st season. When six strangers arrive at a week-long silent retreat in the woods in search of enlightenment, they discover that finding inner peace isn’t as easy as they thought.

Round House Theatre Bethesda. 4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda. To Sep. 23. $36–$57. (240) 6441100. roundhousetheatre.org. soutH pACifiC This regional production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical is directed by Alan Muraoka and choreographed by Darren Lee. Set during World War II on a distant Pacific island, South Pacific tells the sweeping love story of nurse Nellie Forbush and French plantation owner Emile de Becque. Olney Theatre Center. 2001 OlneySandy Spring Road, Olney. To Oct. 7. $64–$84. (301) 924-3400. olneytheatre.org. turn Me loose This John Gould Rubin-directed play traces comic genius Dick Gregory’s rise to fame as the first black comedian to utilize racial comedy, intertwining art and activism and risking his safety in the process. Arena Stage. 1101 6th St. SW. To Oct. 14. $56–76. (202) 488-3300. arenastage.org.

THURS, SEPT 13

LIVE NATION PRESENTS

ASHLEY McBRYDE

THE GIRL GOING NOWHERE TOUR W/ SPECIAL GUEST DEE WHITE

FRI, SEPT 14

BRASS-A-HOLICS SAT, SEPT 15

DREAM DISCS: VAN MORRISON’S MOONDANCE NEWMYER FLYER PRESENTS

AND BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’S THE WILD, THE INNOCENT, & THE E STREET SHUFFLE SUN, SEPT 16

EILEEN CARSON BENEFIT

FEAT. FRANK SOLIVAN & DIRTY KITCHEN, TONY TRISCHKA, CATHY FINK, AND MARCY MARXER

THEHAMILTONDC.COM

Film

tHe HAppytiMe Murders Melissa McCarthy stars as a disgraced detective who discovers the murders of the puppet cast of a beloved children’s show and takes on the case. Co-starring Elizabeth Banks and Maya Rudolph. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) kin A recently released ex-con and his adopted teen brother must go on the run with only a strange weapon to defend themselves from criminals, feds, and super soldiers. Starring Carrie Coon, James Franco, and Zoe Kravitz. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) tHe little strAnger When a doctor visits a family’s crumbling manor, ominous things start to occur.

Starring Ruth Wilson, Domhnall Gleeson, and Josh Dylan. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) operAtion finAle Secret agents embark on a covert mission to find the Nazi officer who masterminded the logistics that led to millions of Jewish people dying in concentration camps. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) tHe Wife On the way with her writer husband to watch him receive a Nobel Prize, a wife questions their entire relationship, including the sacrifices she’s made in her own life for him. Starring Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, and Christian Slater. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

28 august 31, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

CITY LIGHTS: WEDNESDAY

AIMlESS WAlk REpRISE

Bethesda-based photographer Michael Borek grew up in a small, blue-collar neighborhood in Prague. Over the past decade, he has regularly returned to its eclectic mix of post-communist wasteland and stubborn, primeval overgrowth. Eventually, Borek began seeing posters advertising a large, mixed-use development. Initially, the idealized affluence they offered seemed incongruous, but as the posters disintegrated, the construction churned ahead and the project is now near completion. Though he didn’t intend to turn his visits into a documentary project, Borek ended up taking some 2,000 photographs, some of which are now on display at the Multiple Exposures Gallery exhibition Aimless Walk Reprise—bits of metal detritus, weedy parcels, crumbling renderings of frolicking yuppies, and muddy tire tracks at quiet construction sites. “Even though I hated these posters at first, they grew on me,” Borek says, “and I must admit that I felt quite sad when on the day I arrived last year to shoot them again and they were gone, along with the fence on which they had been displayed and the road that ran alongside the fence.” By now, Borek has come to peace with the changes. The exhibition is on view to Oct. 14 at Multiple Exposures Gallery, 105 N. Union St., Studio 312, Alexandria. Free. (703) 683-2205. multipleexposuresgallery.com.

—Louis Jacobson

CITY LIGHTS: tHuRSDAY

tHE SHINING

Stanley Kubrick’s unsettling 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s thrilling novel The Shining departs wildly from its source, but the film’s ambiguities help make it one of the great horror movies of all time. Jack Nicholson stars as Jack Torrance, an author who takes a job as winter caretaker of the grand Overlook Hotel, where he hopes the quiet will break him out of his writer’s block. Much to the dismay of his wife (Shelley Duvall) and precocious son (Danny Lloyd), the isolation inspires not creation but destruction. The Shining has inspired endless parodies and elaborate conspiracies, and from “redrum” to “Here’s Johnny!” it has become part of the collective cultural consciousness even if you’ve never seen it. The AFI Silver is the perfect place to savor the movie’s eerie, cavernous spaces and imagine you are transported back in time to your own Art Deco hell. The film screens at 9 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. $8–$13. (301) 495-6700. afi.com/silver.

—Pat Padua

SAVAGELOVE This woman has gone down on me (I’m a man) more than half a dozen times in the last three months. Each time seems to be better than the previous! She does not want reciprocation. She has also turned down all my offers for intercourse.

As far as I know, she is heterosexual just like me.

What’s with that? I am getting a bit frustrated.

Also, without going all the way, am I considered a friend with benefits?

—Just Chilling You’re benefiting here—think of all those blowjobs—and if she’s a friend, you can certainly regard yourself as a friend with benefits. As for why she won’t allow you to eat her pussy or put your dick in her pussy, JC, well, a few things spring to mind. She could be one of those women who love to give head and that’s all she wants from a casual partner. Or she could have body-image issues. Or she could have a sexually transmitted infection, and she’d rather blow than disclose. Or she might be unwilling to risk pregnancy. Or she could be intersex or trans and not ready to open up. If you enjoy those blowjobs—if you’re enjoying the benefits—focus on what you are getting instead of what you’re not.

—Dan Savage My husband and I occasionally go to swingers clubs. I don’t want to inadvertently fuck any Trump supporters, but I hate the idea of bringing up politics and killing everyone’s collective boner. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

—Occasionally Swinging At the risk of killing your boner forever, OS, the organized swinging scene “leans right,” as pollster Charlie Cook would put it if Charlie Cook polled swingers. Easily half of the couples I met at a big swingers convention I attended in Las Vegas told me they were Republicans. One man—a swinger from Texas— told me he was a “traditional values” type of guy and that’s why he opposed same-sex marriage. Fun fact: His wife was off fucking someone else’s husband while we were chitchatting in the hotel bar. Good times.

—DS I’m a happily married 35-year-old mom. I have a loving and devoted husband. Recently, I started a job to get out of the house more and interact with more people. Well, it turns out my new boss is a real hottie. I have a crush on him and often find myself fantasizing about him. While I know these feelings can be normal, I tend to fixate/obsess. I’m basically looking for advice on how to move past this crush or maybe find a more productive outlet.

—Newbie Fantasizing Here’s a more productive outlet: Turn out the lights, climb on top of your husband, get him hard, then sink your pussy down on his cock and ride him while you fantasize about your boss. (Perhaps this is better described as a

more productive inlet?) Bonus points if you and your husband are both secure enough in your marriage and cognizant enough of reality to regard crushes on others as normal and, so long as they remain crushes, not a threat to your marriage or commitment. Because then you can talk dirty with your husband about your boss—he can even pretend to be your boss—while you ride your husband’s cock.

—DS

Easily half of the couples I met at a big swingers convention I attended in Las Vegas told me they were Republicans.

The other night while my wife and I were watching porn and masturbating together, I suggested we masturbate in front of DirtyRoulette. I briefly explained what the site is about. She asked me if that’s what I do—if I get on DR when I masturbate. I replied yes, sometimes—and she was so taken aback, she ended our masturbation session to process it. We’re fine now, but do you think this is “cheating”?

—Dirty Rouletting I don’t think it’s cheating, DR, but you aren’t married to me. In other words, if your wife regards you masturbating with strangers on the internet as cheating, then it’s cheating. There are, of course, some people out there who regard too many things as cheating—fantasizing about others, looking at porn, even non-webcam-or-porn-enhanced masturbation. People who think this way usually regard cheating as unforgivable and, consequently, their relationships are doomed to failure.

—DS I’m a gay woman in an open marriage. I have met some women I am interested in who are bi and have husbands or male lovers. While I’m into being with these women, I have a concern. I know that sperm can’t live outside the body very long, but it can still be alive and kicking inside a woman for several days. If a woman fucks a man, and hours or days later, I fuck that woman with fin-

gers or toys that are later inside of me, can I accidentally get pregnant? —Actively Looking No.

THE WHARF, SW DC DINER & BAR OPEN LATE!

—DS

I’m deep in the grips of a run-of-the-mill midlife crisis. My marriage is in a slump, and I’ve been sexless longer than at any time since I was a teenager. My wife has granted me the DADT “hall pass,” but I have no idea how to go about using it. My life is work, children, activities related to the children, and a few solo hobbies to keep myself fit and sane. I rarely meet new people, except at work, and I can’t start a relationship with anyone I meet there. In fact, my career means I am subject to a fair amount of social scrutiny and discretion is paramount. Do you have any suggestions?

—Hall Passing Remember Ashley Madison? The hookup site for married people looking for affair partners?

The site that did a terrible job of protecting its user data? The site that got hacked? A hack that outed millions of adulterers and ruined lives? According to a story at The Outline, Ashley Madison is back, baby, and lots of women— real women, not the bots that plagued the site pre-hack—are using it. “Once the dust had settled and other scandals entered the headlines, many people largely forgot about Ashley Madison,” Stephanie Russell-Kraft reports. “This might explain why Ashley Madison’s user numbers have shot up in recent years.” —DS Any etiquette tips or best practices for introducing my husband to my boyfriend?

—Poly Processing Keep it casual and keep it brief, PP. A quick drink before you and your husband head to a sold-out show you have only two tickets for. If your husband has an unexpectedly emotional reaction to meeting your boyfriend in the flesh—if it dredges up jealousy issues—you won’t be putting him in a situation where he has to bottle that up for hours or, worse yet, for a weekend.

—DS Hey, Dan, you missed an opportunity in your response to Afraid To Bleed. She wrote that she bleeds whenever she has sex, and she was concerned about her partner’s aversion to blood, which you did address. But women should not bleed after vaginal intercourse. There are many reasons why they might—so it needs to be investigated. Please encourage ATB to visit a doctor.

—Concerned Reader Big oversight on my part, thank you for writing in!

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

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washingtoncitypaper.com august 31, 2018 29

and/or periodical: Washington City Paper/Washington Law Reporter Adult . . . . . . . . . . Name . . . . of . . Person . . . . . Rep . . 42 Request for Proposals Student Data Manresentative: Auto/Wheels/Boat . . . . . . .William . . . . 42 agement Services Anderson Glasgow Trade . . TRUE . . . . TEST . . . .copy . . . . . . . .

LAYC Buy, CareerSell, Academy Anne Meister Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 LAYC Career Academy is Register of Wills advertising the oppor- . . . . . Pub Community . . . Dates: . . . . . August . . . . . 30, 42 tunity to bid on Student September 6, 13.

Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Data Management Services for one (1) Health/Mind . . . . Superior . . . . . . .Court . . . . .of . the . . . year starting January 1, District of Columbia 2019 Body with possibility of . . . Family & Spirit . . . . . . .Court . . . . . . . 42 renewal. Additional Domestic Relations Housing/Rentals . . . . . - . Adoption . . . . . . . 42 specifications outlined Branch in the Request for Adoption Case 2018 Legal Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Proposals (RFP) such as; ADA 24 schoolMusic/Music information, andRow .

Judge . . . .Yvonne . . . . .M. . .Wil . 42 service needs may be liams Pets . . . . . on . . . . . . Ex . . Parte . . . . in . .the . . Matter . . . 42of obtained beginning August 31, 2018 from Real Estate . . . . . the . . .Petition . . . . . of . . . . . 42 Jeremy Vera at (202) D.C. & K.S. 319- 2244 or jeremy@ Shared Housing . For . . .Adoption . . . . . . of . .a . Minor . 42 laycca.org Chid Services . . . . . . . . NOTICE . . . . . .TO . . FATHER . . . . . OF 42 Proposals will be accepted at until September PENDING ADOPTION 28, 2018 at 12 PM. PROCEEDING AND ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE All bids not addressing TO: UNKNOWN BIRTH all areas as outlined FATHER in the RFP will not be You are hereby notified considered. that an adoption petition is pending before the SUPERIOR COURT Superior Court of the OF THE DISTRICT OF District of Columbia conCOLUMBIA cerning the minor child, PROBATE DIVISION Harlem Karter Holmes, 2018 ADM 000927 born on October 3, Name of Decedent, Lucy 2015, in the District of Beale Eastham. Notice Columbia. of Appointment, Notice You are ordered to apto Creditors and Notice pear for a show cause to Unknown Heirs, WIlhearing scheduled for liam Anderson Glasgow, Thursday, September whose address is 2042 6, 2018, at 10:30am in Pierce Mill Rd NW, Courtroom JM-4, before Washington, DC 20010 Judge Yvonne M. Wilwas appointed Personal liams, to show cause as Representative of the to why the Court should estate of Lucy Beale not permit the adoption Eastham who died on without your consent on June 19, 2018, with a the ground either that Will and will serve with(a) you have abandoned out Court Supervision. this child and voluntarily All unknown heirs and failed to contribute to heirs whose wherehis support for a period abouts are unknown of at least 6 months, or shall enter their appear(b) you are withholding ance in this proceedyour consent contrary to ing. Objections to such the child’s best interest. appointment shall be See D.C. Code 16-304 filed with the Register (d)-(e). of Wills, D.C., 515 5th You have the right to Street, N.W., Building A, seek custody of the 3rd Floor, Washington, child or to challenge the D.C. 20001, on or beadoption. However, in fore 2/28/2019. Claims order to do so, you must against the decedent either personally appear shall be presented to at the Show Cause the undersigned with a Hearing or file a written copy to the Register of objection with the Court Wills or to the Register within 20 days after you of Wills with a copy to receive this notice, or at the undersigned, on or least 20 days before the before 2/28/2019, or be date of the Show Cause forever barred. Persons Hearing, whichever date believed to be heirs or is earlier. All written legatees of the decedent objections must be who do not receive a sent to: copy of this notice by Central Intake Center mail within 25 days of Family Court, JM Level its publication shall so Superior Court of the inform the Register of District of Columbia Wills, including name, 500 Indiana, Avenue, address and relationNW ship.

Washington, DC 20001 Date of first publication: If you fail to appear 8/30/2018 in person at the show Name of Newspaper cause hearing or to file

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Talk toup sexy realright singles have given any in your area. Call now! (844) to object to the adop359-5773 tion, and the Court may terminate your legal Legals rights, responsibilities and obligations as the NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN parent THAT: of this child.

Unless appear forINC. TRAVISA you OUTSOURCING, (DISTRICT COLUMBIA DEthe showOF cause hearing PARTMENT OF CONSUMER or file a written objecAND REGULATORY AFFAIRS tion before the hearing, FILE may NUMBER 271941) noHAS you not receive DISSOLVED EFFECTIVE NOVEMtice of subsequent court BER 27, 2017 AND HAS FILED action ARTICLESand OF proceedings DISSOLUTION OF in the case.

DOMESTIC FOR-PROFIT CORIf you doWITH not wish to PORATION THE DISTRICT seek custodyCORPORATIONS or chalOF COLUMBIA DIVISIONthis adoption, lenge you may consent to the Aadoption, CLAIM AGAINST providedTRAVISA you OUTSOURCING, INC.andMUST do so voluntarily INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE of your own free will. If DISSOLVED CORPORATION, you do wish to consent INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE to the adoption, CLAIMANT, INCLUDE Aplease SUMMAfile a THE statement of RY OF FACTS SUPPORTING consent CourtTO THE CLAIM,with AND the BE MAILED 1600 at theINTERNATIONAL address listedDRIVE, SUITE 600, MCLEAN, VA 22102 above.

You may retain a lawyer ALL CLAIMS WILL to represent youBEinBARRED the UNLESS A proceeding PROCEEDING TO adoption ENFORCE THE CLAIM IS COMor, if you are financially MENCED WITH IN 3 YEARS OF unable to do you PUBLICATION OFso, THIS NOTICE may request the IN ACCORDANCE WITHCourt SECTION to appoint lawyer to OF 29-312.07 OF aTHE DISTRICT represent See D.C. COLUMBIA you.

ORGANIZATIONS ACT. Code 16-316.

You also entitled Two are Rivers PCS is soliciting to seek to free assistance proposals provide project manthrough the Family agement services for a small conCourt’s Self-Help Center, struction project.

For a copy of the RFP, pleaseinemail procurement@ located JM-570 of the tworiverspcs.org.

Superior CourtDeadline of the for submissions December 6, 2017.

District ofisColumbia.

So ordered Date June 26, 2018 Associate Judge Yvonne M. Williams Superior Court of the District of Columbia SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION 2018 ADM 000892 Name of Decedent, Laura Ericson. Notice of Appointment, Notice

30 august 31, 2018 washingtoncitypaper.com

to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs,Legals Sifu Jai, whose address is DC SCHOLARS PCS REQUEST 20 West Hurley Road, FOR PROPOSALS – ModuWoodstock, New York lar Contractor Services - DC 12498 Scholars was Publicappointed Charter School Personal Representative solicits proposals for a modular of the estate of professional Laura contractor to provide Ericson whoand died on management construction services1st, to construct a modular June 2018, without building to house four classrooms a Will and will serve and one faculty offiSupervice suite. The without Court RequestAllfor Proposalsheirs (RFP) sion. unknown specifi cations can be obtained on and heirs whose whereand after Monday, November 27, abouts unknown 2017 fromare Emily Stone via comshall enter their appearmunityschools@dcscholars.org. ance in this proceedAll questions should be sent in ing. such writingObjections by e-mail. Noto phone calls regarding this RFP willbe be acappointment shall cepted.with Bids must be received by filed the Register 5:00Wills, PM onD.C., Thursday, of 515December 5th 14, 2017 N.W., at DC Scholars Public Street, Building A, Charter School, ATTN: Sharonda 3rd Floor, Washington, Mann, 5601 E. Capitol St. SE, D.C. 20001, on or Any be-bids Washington, DC 20019. foreaddressing 2/23/2019.

Claims not all areas as outagainst decedent lined in thethe RFP specifi cations will shall be presented to not be considered. the undersigned with a copy Apartments to the Register of for Rent Wills or to the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 2/23/2019, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its publication shall so Must see!

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House style Artist's digs Fountain's point Room with a concierge, often "Milk's Favorite Cookie" Logical conclusion?

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