Washington City Paper (September 6, 2019)

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K-12 Street A brief history of D.C.’s charter school influence machine P.8

By Rachel M. Cohen

NEWS: WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS ... IS IN FOIA DOCS 4 FOOD: MEASURING MEAT BOARDS 16 ARTS: A 16-DAY KENNEDY CENTER LOVE FEST 18

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

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Jenn Tisdale, Creator/Director of the Death Becomes Us True Crime Festival produced

by Brightest Young Things & MD RennFest connoisseur, weighs in on her top picks for this year’s Crafty Arts & Makers Festival. Be sure to mark your calendars for November 8 - 10 when #DeathBecomesUs returns to the Lisner Auditorium in DC! #StayCrafty Mt. Royal Soap Co. Hey it’s me, your friend who occasionally makes her own face masks and wants to have a “quick” 30 minute chat about your skincare routine. I am obsessed with soaps and skincare products that will not treat your skin like garbage. It’s the largest human organ you have and deserves respect. I’m always on the lookout for anything natural and 100% free of phthalates and parabens (no really do you have 30 minutes to chat about why these things are bad). Mt. Royal Soap Co. has the kind of products I’m always on the hunt for, free of everything bad, filled with everything good and will legit help your skin. Also guys sunblock...please.

Alternate Histories I love history so much. I once went to Gettysburg just so I could stay in a home that was briefly converted into a hospital during the Civil War. I guess you could say it was the first pop-up. Therefore I am absolutely going to make a beeline for the Alternate Histories booth because who says you can’t have a little fun with the past? Alternate Histories adds monsters, zombies, robots and other sci-fi creatures of notes to old maps, photos, etc...to make them, well, better! Sure, you’ve seen the Washington Monument hundreds of times but have you seen it with huge octopus tentacles wrapped around it? Now you can!

John W. Fesken Art Nothing bad has ever come out of New Orleans. From its history to its music

to its food to its Anne Rice novels, New Orleans is the best. Heck Nic Cage is going to be entombed there in a mausoleum that looks like a giant pyramid (true story). New Orleans is one of the most magical cities in America. It’s no wonder that I was immediately drawn to John W. Fesken’s art which has that odd, cooky, creepy vibe that I have grown to love from the Big Easy. Using handmade objects as well as heavily deconstructed found items, Fesken creates incredibly interesting and let’s face it weird 3D art. And since I’m a weirdo, I’m on board.

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Eilisain Jewelry Did I mention I’m kind of creepy? In a chill way. And as such I willing to toss out any amount of money for offbeat jewelry made from polished gemstones, crystals, talons, claws, teeth and bone. Now if you’re picturing something from A Texas Chainsaw Massacre you can banish those thoughts immediately. Lisette Fee, the artist behind Eilisain Jewerly, makes absolutely stunning pieces inspired by the myths and legends of ancient cultures. Each piece is different. Each piece has its own story. Look, you don’t have to be someone drawn to the stranger side of life to appreciate what she’s doing. You just have to be fun.

Wrong World Ceramics I’m definitely noticing a pattern regarding my choices and that pattern

is dark. And by dark I mean more of a fun and flirty Addams Family kind of dark, but dark nonetheless.

Wrong World Ceramics describes itself in a way that would make me swipe right on Bumble if this was a bio: Wrong World Ceramics captures brutal and ritualistic elements combined with light hearted cynicism and a self-deprecating view on this stupid world. Thank you to Wrong World for finally making the version of Live Laugh Love that I crave...Die. Cry. Hate.

@CraftyFestivalDC • CraftyFestivalDC.com 2 september 6, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

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

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COVER STORY: K-12 STREET

8

The money that funds charter school advocates’ anti-transparency lobbying efforts comes from D.C. taxpayers.

DISTRICT LINE 4 Loose Lips: Tallying the costs and benefits of the D.C. government’s annual Vegas trip 5 Every Space You Take, I’ll Be Watching You: New enforcement tools could mean more parking tickets for drivers in the District.

SPORTS 6 The Washington Football Dream: JP Finlay’s journey from insurance to insider

FOOD 16 Meat, Your Maker?: Charcuterie experts explain the ubiquity of meat boards on local menus.

ARTS 18 Reach for the Stars: Can a major expansion make the Kennedy Center more attractive to creators?

20 Documentary Meow!: Highlights from the second annual Cat Film Festival 22 Curtain Calls: Ritzel on Olney Theatre Center’s Cabaret and Klimek on Mosaic Theater Company’s Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine 23 Short Subjects: Gittell on Official Secrets

CITY LIST 25 Music 27 Theater 28 Film

DIVERSIONS 29 29 30 31

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On the cover: Illustration by Julia Terbrock

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DISTRICTLINE LOOSE LIPS

What Happens in Vegas?

The Council and mayor’s annual trip to Sin City cost more than $41,000. It involved supermarket deals and gaudy hotels.

By Mitch Ryals D.C. pols are well aware of the optics. Every spring, taxpayers fund a trip to Las Vegas for councilmembers, the mayor, their staffs, and other government officials. The tab for the annual excursion to the conference, hosted by the International Council of Shopping Centers, inevitably runs into the tens of thousands of dollars.

“For those of us in Washington, there aren’t the distractions of interactions or other meetings,” Chairman Phil Mendelson says of the conference’s benefit. “I do think that because there are so many different opportunities to talk to developers and retailers that it’s a very good opportunity, but at the same time, the public is concerned about what looks like a fun trip to Las Vegas.”

This year, the bill to fly 21 D.C. government officials to Sin City and put them up in hotels for several nights was at least $41,000, according to records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. But not every official’s trip was included in those records, and some records were incomplete. For example, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office only provided the cost of the stay at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel (which includes among its amenities classes in pizza baking, floral arrangement, and sake-tasting) for Herronor and her chief of staff, John Falcicchio. The cost of airfare and ground transportation were not provided.

The attendees’ Vegas bills varied widely, from a low of about $670 up to $3,500.

Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White’s total trip was the most expensive, according to records. For a four-night stay in a “luxury suite” with a view at the Venetian Resort (which boasts an “Instagram-worthy” pool and spa), airfare, and per diem, District taxpayers paid $3,546. White’s committee director, Nate Fleming, accompanied his boss but only racked up a $1,800 bill, including $1,215 for a four-night stay at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, records show.

The bill for then-Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Brian Kenner’s trip was the next priciest, costing taxpayers about $2,900. The cost includes $1,800 for

five nights in a “luxury suite” at The Palazzo, a 720-square-foot space with more room than some studio apartments in D.C. Records show that Kenner arrived Friday, May 17, two days before the conference began.

Kenner announced he was leaving the D.C. government for a job with Amazon just a few weeks after he returned from Vegas. Falcicchio has replaced Kenner on an interim basis.

The bills for Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie’s committee director, Chanell Autrey, and Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd’s trips ranked right behind Kenner’s at about $2,900 and $2,700, respectively.

Among the ch ea p e r t ri p s were those of AtLarge Councilmember Anita Bonds’ staffers Irene Kang and David Meadows.

The total damage for each of them came to about $1,500 and $1,400, respectively. They both stayed at Treasure Island Hotel and Casino.

Bonds was scheduled to attend and her trip would have cost taxpayers about $2,000 for airfare and a three-night stay at The Palazzo, where she had booked a “luxury” king suite. But she cancelled May 17, the day before the conference began.

Bonds’ spokesperson says he doesn’t know why the councilmember cancelled at the last minute, but records show her hotel payment was refunded. The Office of the Secretary to the Council says Bonds’ airfare was not refunded. Instead, the councilmember can use any credit when she flies for official business.

Other District officials who attended the conference include McDuffie, Ward 7 Councilmember Vince Gray and his constituent services director, Sedrick Muhammad; Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans’ chief of

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staff Schannette Grant (Evans did not attend); Beverly Perry, Rachel Williams, and Eugene Kinlow from the Office of the Senior Advisor; Randall Clarke, Latrena Owens, and Sarosh Olpadwala from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development; Director of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs Ernest Chrappah; and Paul Blackman Jr. from the Department of General Services.

The cheapest traveler, according to records given to LL, was Mendelson. His total trip, including three nights at Treasure Island and a $200 plane ticket, cost taxpayers $673. Among Treasure Island’s features are a 25-person hot tub that could seat the entire D.C. delegation; it’s unclear whether anyone took a dip.

Reached by phone several weeks ago, the chairman was quite proud of his thriftiness.

“I’m told I was one of the cheapest on the trip,” he says.

In aDDItIon to covering lodging and airfare, the D.C. government shelled out about $435,000 in a grant to the Washington DC Economic Partnership, a nonprofit public-private entity that organizes the ICSC conferences in Las Vegas in May and at National Harbor in March, according to Karima Woods, director of business development and strategy for DMPED. That money funds WDCEP’s retail attraction efforts throughout the year, says Keith Sellars, president of the partnership, which culminate in the annual ICSC conference. Sellars points to an economic impact study suggesting WDCEP’s efforts will have generated more than 20,000 jobs and $117 million in annual sales tax revenue by 2022.

The Vegas gathering is billed as the “world’s largest retail real estate convention” and boasts more than 35,000 attendees. Woods says this year’s cost is down from last year, when taxpayers paid $598,000 “because it was our 20-year anniversary.”

District officials have attended the Las Vegas conference for the past two decades to woo retailers, and they attribute 300 retailer and restaurant openings to their continued attendance. But this year, the only concrete benefit local officials brought home was a new grocery store for Ward 7.

The new store, Lidl, which will anchor the long-delayed Skyland Town Center development, is a much needed addition to an area that severely lacks grocery options. Lidl is expected to open after the first phase of the development is completed in 2020, the Washington Business Journal reports. Residents of that part of Southeast D.C. have sought a grocery option for years, especially since Walmart backed out of a deal to open in the Skyland development in 2016.

District officials who defend the annual cost of the conference say that their consistent attendance is necessary to show sustained interest and form relationships with retailers.

“It’s one thing [for businesses] to say ‘I heard from the Ward 7 councilmember’ or ‘I heard from the mayor,’” says At-Large Councilmember Robert White, who has gone on the trip for the past three years and this year took his chief of staff, Mtokufa Ngwenya.

“But it’s another to say ‘I spoke with the mayor and the Ward 7 councilmember and they’re in alignment.’ That’s what happens in these meetings.”

Three years ago, District officials were in talks with Lidl about opening up multiple stores in D.C. Then last year, “Lidl was nowhere to be found,” White says.

“It really is a negotiation, and I think you have to see it as a long-term initiative,” he says. “We may not be able to get somebody on board one year, but D.C. changes in a year, business plans change in a year, and people come back to the table.”

White adds that the conferences have given him a greater understanding of retailers’ business calculations. “It helps us craft better legislation and better incentives,” he says.

Todd, who also took his chief of staff, Sherryl Newman, tells LL that he was focused on finding a grocery store to anchor the Walter Reed development in his ward.

He says he met with representatives from Safeway, Giant, CVS, and Walgreens, but did not come back to the District with any agreements in place.

CP

DISTRICTLINE Every Space You Take, I’ll Be Watching You Park carefully. Both the District and your fellow Washingtonians have new ways to monitor your vehicle.

The District writes more than 1,300,000 parking tickets every year. (Yes, that’s one million, three hundred thousand.)

But in a growing, crowded city, apparently that’s not enough.

In October, city ticket writers will have a brand new tool to generate more tickets, more rapidly. Separately, a private company is beta testing a new app that could allow thousands of ordinary D.C. residents to easily report parking violators that now escape enforcement.

First, the Department of Public Works is going to roll out its new enforcement tool next month. DPW ticket writers will use cameras to photograph license plates of improperly parked vehicles. Those photographs will automatically generate tickets and mail them to offending owners just as red light and speed cameras do now. The change will allow a ticket writer to record dozens of violations in the time it normally would take to physically tap out a ticket, print it, and place it on the windshield.

“It drives me nuts … I see people blocking the bike lane, delivery trucks blocking a whole lane of traffic,” says DPW Director Christopher Geldart, commenting on his own drive to work and around the District. Geldart says he hopes to start a 15-day warning period in October and then begin writing real tickets.

Meanwhile, the District government could get some help for enforcement and, more importantly, street redesign improvements from an experimental private app. Now being tested, it’s called How’s My Driving. Over the past few months, individual testers have used the app to tweet thousands of parking violations in real time, showing not only the violating vehicle but whether that vehicle has outstanding tickets.

“After a few months this year,” says Mark Sussman, co-founder of the app, “the first thing I look up is the total citation amount outstanding; it was over a million dollars.” Some

Tom Sherwood

By Tom Sherwood

offenders have as much as $30,000 in outstanding tickets. Sussman says he turned to his partner Daniel Schep—who created the app—and remarked, “Daniel, I think there is something here beyond just our Twitter bot.”

Initial results from the app show that the almost-always-crowded intersection of 14th and Irving streets NW has prompted the most Twitter app reports, detailing this nerve-jarring confluence of car and truck traffic, bus stops, and pedestrians and cyclists adjacent to a Metro stop.

Recently, How’s My Driving did a one-day

survey of the District’s highly touted bus-only lanes on H and I streets NW. Mayor Muriel Bowser herself had helped paint the special lanes and said they’d be rigorously enforced.

However, How’s My Driving volunteers monitoring the lanes recorded almost 300 vehicles stopping, standing, or parking in the lanes.

“The lanes [effectively] were always blocked,” Sussman tells City Paper. He says it’s part of the parking syndrome that each individual driver believes, “I’m just parking for a minute, so I’m going to park illegally,” and chance a ticket. Replicated thousands of

times, drivers and trucks can keep lanes everywhere almost constantly blocked in some fashion. The app’s initial finding showed bus lanes may have to be blocked off to be effective—the same for rampant parking in unprotected bike lanes. (You can read about this project in Sussman’s own words in Greater Greater Washington.)

“These are momentary infractions, very difficult to capture in a systematic way,” Sussman says, noting it would be a staff and management nightmare to patrol thousands of blocks of city streets, writing tickets and towing offenders. Both DPW’s Geldart and Department of Transportation Director Jeff Marootian are familiar with the app and tell City Paper they are watching its development. “I think the premise behind the app is great,” says Geldart. “And I applaud them. I’d be glad to talk to them. There is a whole range of possibilities.”

Greg Billing, executive director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association and an unpaid advisor to Sussman, says, “There is so much a lack of information, this is another way for people to get involved. The point is to get users of all modes of transportation to report things.”

As satisfying as the app is now for irritated cyclists, pedestrians, or other drivers who might want to park-shame violators or point out dangerous situations, Sussman says Twitter isn’t the end game.

“People can certainly share on social media, but our goal is to get off of Twitter.” He and his partner, Schep, are talking about monetizing their app, and having conversations with Arlington and other cities like Austin and Pittsburgh about their data collection. A pilot project right now is linking the app with the District’s Department of For Hire Vehicles, which could speed DFHV enforcement and monitoring of taxis and other for-hire drivers.

Sussman’s app overall would aggregate violations, showing real-time hot spots. But he says the app, which is soon to be renamed #OurStreets, also is not designed to be just an enforcement tool squeezing more money from drivers. He says such real-time data could more quickly guide city transportation officials on how to make immediate traffic calming changes and aid the redesign of city streets.

“Our mission is not about shaming people.

If all of it is just bitching, it’s not going to go anywhere,” Sussman says, adding that he sees the app “as a force for good.”

And it could be, unless in the meantime you are the one getting tickets from tougher enforcement.

Tom Sherwood is a City Paper contributing writer and the Resident Political Analyst for the WAMU Politics Hour.

CP

washingtoncitypaper.com september 6, 2019 5

Courtesy Patricia Ferguson

SPORTS FOOTBALL

The Washington Football Dream NBC Sports Washington’s JP Finlay took a meandering path to becoming one of the most prominent local voices covering D.C.’s NFL team.

By Matt Terl

NBC Sports Washington

JP Finlay talks a lot.

As the lead “insider” covering the local NFL team for NBC Sports Washington, Finlay talks on a daily TV show, records a podcast at least three times a week (often more), and does guest spots all over the D.C. sports media landscape. He talks fast, gets his thoughts across clearly, and is often willing to let his commentary run a little more freely than his bosses might prefer, all traits that make him an entertaining local sports voice.

But he does not seem to love talking about himself, because as soon as you ask him about his success, he starts by preemptively apologizing for it.

“Answering those types of questions sucks,” he says, “because you sound like a cocky bastard sometimes.”

As someone who once held a role similar to Finlay’s, with notably less success, I’m fascinated by his achievements. (I was the D.C. football team’s official blogger from 2008 until 2011.) And as someone who will discuss my shortcomings without even being asked, I’m fascinated by his reticence.

Finlay, 37, grew up in Montgomery County, earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland at College Park and his graduate degree at Georgetown University.

And, as used to be common, he grew up rooting for the local NFL franchise. The team’s victory in Super Bowl XXVI, after the 1991 season, looms particularly large.

“That season had a tremendous impact on my life,” Finlay says. “I don’t think we’re sitting here and talking about this shit without that.”

After graduating from Maryland in 2003, Finlay sold insurance; he was generally successful and didn’t hate the work. “But then I turned 25,” he says, “and I was like, ‘Oh, shit, I don’t wanna do this forever.’” He followed his love of writing to Georgetown, and then, in his words, “Started grinding.”

JP Finlay and Wale

Finlay would take whatever writing gigs he could. He talked to Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown about his swing while covering Congressional softball for Roll Call. He moved to North Carolina and worked for a small local paper. He returned to D.C. and wrote for a trade press covering the business of power lines.

All the while, he continued working toward sportswriting in a path that was pretty common at the time. He kept his own blog, then contributed to a successful local indie blog (MisterIrrelevant.com), then signed on to the local outpost of a national site network for pennies-per-hour (SB Nation DC) and found a way to be part of an established local outlet just dipping its pinkies into sports (Washingtonian).

Eventually, he took over the graveyard shift at Comcast SportsNet (now NBC Sports Washington, a broadcast partner for the Washington football team), tweeting out the scores of games and trying to generate viral content.

“At that point in 2013 it was basically just a TV station and a website,” Finlay says. “So getting good clips from our air and from games

6 september 6, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

onto the web was still priority number one.”

He joined the network full time on a management track, not a writing track—the insider roles at the time were held by more established writers and reporters. Finlay hustled to pick up football-related assignments around his management duties, and when lead football insider Tarik El-Bashir moved back to covering hockey, Finlay’s bosses gave him his shot.

“That job had been pretty high-profile for a while,” Finlay says, “and I definitely was not, but they let me take it and it’s worked out pretty well so far.”

(This would usually just be the “full disclosure” portion of this piece: Finlay and I are generally friendly and have crossed paths in a number of places over the course of our media careers. I also wrote for Mr. Irrelevant, and currently do a podcast with one of the site’s founders. The Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg helped both Finlay and me get exposure by linking to our work when we were writing for minuscule audiences. I used to appear on-air on Comcast SportsNet to yap mindlessly about

How Otis Ferguson IV’s love for golf led to a historic moment at Howard University washingtoncitypaper.com/sports the football team. I also went to College Park, and also grew up in Montgomery County.

Transcribing my conversation with Finlay, though, is the first time I’ve ever caught myself sounding like I’m in therapy. When I listen to Finlay’s story, it’s like listening to an alternate version of my own, if I had been more successful at it.)

Finlay’s fellow insider was Rich Tandler, and the two formed a complementary pair—Tandler was older, more focused on the details of football, while Finlay gravitated toward showing the personal side of players. They brought that dynamic to a podcast, which has gone from humble beginnings to the most successful podcast across all regional NBC Sports networks.

The podcast caught fire, Finlay says, in part because he still has a very clear understanding of the team’s fans, especially because he grew up as one of them. The team, he says, was “the the most important entity in my life until I was 25 years old, especially as a kid.”

As the podcast has grown, it has taken on more of the ballast of a traditional corporate program—sponsored ad reads and clear production—but Finlay believes that a big part of what contributed to the show’s success was its charge-ahead nature, and he is determined to maintain that. “They used to let me run it all,” Finlay says. “And I would absolutely, unequivocally forego audio quality for speed. And I, frankly, still think that’s the right move, but that’s a conversation to have with my 800 bosses.”

Tandler died suddenly at 63, five games into the 2018 football season. When I heard the news, I felt faintly sad that he had likely spent so many of his final moments thinking about quarterbacks Alex Smith and Colt McCoy, but Finlay took a different lesson from the loss of his friend and sparring partner. “With Tandler, his lifespan with this shit was almost inverted,” Finlay says. “He spent the bulk of his life in restaurants and jobs he didn’t love.

At the end, he’s doing what he loved, so he’s thrilled.”

An NFL beat demands a crushing amount of time, and Finlay is keenly aware of that. He has two young children, which is brutal for anyone on the beat (“I worked a fucking preseason game on her fourth birthday,” Finlay says). Finlay’s wife knows that even on his days off, he’s going to be locked to his phone, scrolling through text messages and Twitter.

“Some of the asks on me are tremendous, but I also push for more and more all the time,” he says. “So some of it is a me issue. You asked, how did it happen? A lot of it is me just hitting the accelerator all the time.”

Which, in the end, is probably a major reason for his success. There are much worse “me issues” to have.

CP

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K-12 Street Illustration by Julia Terbrock

D.C.’s taxpayer dollars help fund a charter school lobby bent on keeping the inner workings of charters out of the public eye.

By Rachel M. Cohen

Reporting for this story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

L

obbyists mobilized quickly when they learned the D.C. Council would be proposing legislation to subject the city’s charter schools to freedom-ofinformation laws. The day before the bill was released in mid-March, charter leaders were armed with a list of talking points divided into two categories: “soft response” and “harder-edge messaging.”

The “soft response” included points like: “this bill cares more about paperwork than school performance” and “devoting schools’ resources to yet even more compliance will divert from more important student needs, such as mental health counseling.” The “harderedge messaging” went further, charging the legislation with “bureaucracy-building and political playback masquerading as watchdogging.”

The legislation is intended to let parents,

teachers, and journalists access more information about the schools’ internal operations, and it comes on the heels of a series of scandals that fomented public distrust. But the talking points encouraged charter advocates to tell their councilmembers that it’s insulting to suggest that the schools need additional oversight. “We resent the implication that the hundreds of community and parent volunteers who serve on charter schools’ boards are not putting students’ needs first,” the talking points read. “The real agenda that needs uncovering is the union strategy to force charter schools to behave exactly like the school district bureaucracy.”

This coordinated pushback didn’t come out of thin air. In fact, D.C. taxpayers might be surprised to learn they helped fund the lobbying themselves. Every year D.C. charter schools collectively funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars from their budgets to private organizations that then lobby government agencies against efforts to regulate the schools. Be-

8 september 6, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

tween 2011 and 2017, for example, local charters paid the DC Association of Chartered Public Schools, which calls itself “the collective voice of DC’s Chartered Public School Leaders,” more than $1.2 million in membership dues for its advocacy services, at a rate of $8 per student annually.

While most D.C. charters contribute to the Association, nearly all also pay $8 per student annually to a second group called Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, better known as FOCUS. Last year all but three charters kicked over FOCUS’ “voluntary student payments,” totaling more than $340,000.

In return for their contributions, charters have received dedicated advocates in the halls of city government and in public debate. In practical terms, this has mostly entailed keeping local lawmakers off charters’ backs. A July 2018 invoice that FOCUS sent to one charter leader said that the school’s payments “have already had an impact” in 2018, securing a “reduction in unreasonable monitoring and over-

sight” by “blocking or fixing five major pieces of legislation.” FOCUS’ executive director thanked the school leader for their annual donation, which ensures “a strong, steady, and committed” voice “to preserve your autonomy, increase your funding and improve your access to facilities and government services.”

Documents obtained by City Paper show that these two organizations produced the talking points from earlier this year. But they’re not the only players on the charter advocacy stage, and the D.C. Council’s charter transparency bill is not the first to hit a hard wall of lobbying resistance. Under DC Code Section 1-1161.01, lobbying is defined as “communicating directly with any official in the legislative or executive branch of the District government with the purpose of influencing any legislative action or an administrative decision.” And for more than two decades professional charter school advocates have successfully marshalled powerful arguments about limiting government intrusion into charter

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hile FOCUS has long advocated on behalf of nearly all charter schools in the District, its leaders are quick to emphasize that it is not, in fact, a membership-based organization. “We asked charter schools to support our advocacy efforts, but we never wanted to be a membership organi-

zation because [they] can’t act as quickly and as decisively as non-membership organizations,” Cane tells City Paper. “And we wanted the freedom to disagree with charter schools.”

But a membership-based charter advocacy organization would eventually come on the scene, with the advent of the DC Association of Chartered Public Schools in 2004.

Its founders wanted to give black-led char-

tor, explains.

Still, many charters were active in both groups, and FOCUS and the Association often worked together, sometimes with the assistance of the Public Charter School Board, to fight back on legislative efforts they felt might encroach on charter freedom.

“Autonomy is everything to charter schools, and autonomy is basically nothing Robert Cane

Darrow Montgomery/File

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any factors have aided the local charter advocacy apparatus over the past two decades—from a struggling traditional school district that drove parents away, to a weakened teachers’ union consumed with its own problems, to a conflict-averse Council that largely welcomed the relinquishment of school oversight duties.

But charter advocates’ biggest asset has been the School Reform Act—federal legislation enacted in 1996 authorizing the creation of charter schools in the District. Since its passage, the law has been used to ward off attempts by local lawmakers who sought more control over the public charter schools they were funding.

Congress’ involvement did not happen overnight. DC Public Schools had been declining for decades, as families left the city or turned to private schools. 149,000 students were enrolled in 1970. That number plummeted to about 80,000 two decades later. Academic performance was also a source of embarrassment, and scandal routinely wracked the District’s school administration. In 1995, a federal body created to help restore local public school finances came to the stunning conclusion that “for each additional year that students stay in DCPS, the less likely they are to succeed.” Half of all students dropped out before graduation.

That same year, Rep. Newt Gingrich (RGa.), was elected Speaker of the House and soon announced his goal to improve D.C. schools. He pledged to transform the city into “an urban jewel” and tasked another Republican in his inner-circle, Rep. Steve Gunderson (R-Wisc.), with drafting education policy recommendations.

The bill Gunderson put forth originally included both the creation of charter schools and vouchers for private schools, but it soon became clear that vouchers would never garner enough Democratic support in the Senate, and were ultimately stripped. Charters were an easier sell: The nation’s first charter school had launched in Minnesota in 1992, and plenty of Democrats, including then-president Bill Clinton, were enthusiastic supporters of the idea.

Many D.C. residents balked at Congress’ actions. When Clinton signed the School Reform

Act into law in the spring of 1996, it was over the strong objection of D.C.’s non-voting Congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who protested Congress’ interference in the city’s local affairs.

Josephine Baker, board chair and executive director for the city’s charter authorizer, the DC Public Charter School Board, from 1996 through 2011, reflected on this process in her 2014 memoir: “The way [D.C. charters were established] left a terrible taste in the mouths of many life-long and civically engaged Washingtonians. It also represented a selling out of sorts to some community members who felt Republicans in Congress were acting as political imperialists.”

These misgivings over home rule did not stop charters from claiming legal independence, however. Professional advocates worked for years to convince the public and elected officials that D.C. lawmakers were legally unable to regulate their city’s charter sector if doing so conflicted in any way with the letter or spirit of Congress’ law. As Baker put it, “We used the charter law, deemed one of the best in the nation by the Center for Education Reform, as our shield.”

FOCUS, the charter advocacy group, has been the driving force behind these efforts.

FOCUS was founded in 1996 by Malcolm Peabody, a Republican real estate developer who had strong political relationships in Congress and the local business community. A quarter-century earlier, Peabody helped pioneer the very idea of housing vouchers for low-income renters, when he served a stint under his brother, the governor of Massachusetts, and then later at HUD under President Richard Nixon. Peabody’s belief in vouchers for housing paved the way to supporting vouchers for schooling, but he understood the lack of political support for the concept in D.C., so limited FOCUS’ focus to charters.

“We were interested in vouchers before Congress passed the law, but when it became clear that charters were a better way to go, we shifted over,” he tells City Paper.

From 1998 to 2015 FOCUS was led by Robert Cane, a former attorney and school principal from Virginia drawn to the nascent charter movement in D.C. “Robert Cane was a force,” says Kathy Patterson, D.C.’s auditor who served as the Ward 3 representative on the Council and chaired its education committee. “[Cane] and Mike Peabody, they were the ones who convinced everyone that there was no authority locally to legislate charters, and I think that’s been a myth that’s been around since 1996. They convinced councilmembers of that, they convinced people in my office [at the D.C. auditor’s] of that. I guess if you just say it over and over and over again for long enough then people will believe it.”

Kathy Patterson

Darrow Montgomery/File

school operations, so leaders can better focus on teaching and learning.

For those who envision public-school politics as frazzled parents huddled in middle school gymnasiums, the world of D.C. charter advocacy might come as a strange sight. It’s a place where philanthropic money, revolving political doors, high-dollar galas, and a bevy of well heeled organizations have all been deployed to help charter schools shape their own regulations—or, more preferably, keep regulation away. Now, in the face of questions and community frustration, lawmakers are again under pressure to act. But if city leaders are going to bring newfound transparency to the charter world, they’re going to have to overcome a formidable influence machine with a long history of winning fights in D.C.

“They were the ones who convinced everyone that there was no authority locally to legislate charters, and I think that’s been a myth that’s been around since 1996.” ters a more organized voice in city politics, as FOCUS’ leaders were predominantly white.

“School founders and school leaders wanted to distance themselves from external advocacy groups that had their own agendas, but they wanted to improve their well-being through democratically arrived at positions,” Ramona Edelin, the group’s executive direc-

to the government, and that’s really the crux of it,” Cane says.

F

rom the very start of D.C.’s charter movement there have been concerns about oversight. An inspection of one school in 1999 revealed poor attendance, incomplete student health records, and an “insufficient

washingtoncitypaper.com september 6, 2019 9

focus on the core academic subjects.” Another charter provided its students with no textbooks for a full year, with a student explaining that when visitors came in, administrators instructed them to “keep [their] notebooks open” to conceal the lack of books. At another charter closed early for financial mismanagement, officials reported that the principal had “awarded $60,000 in bonuses to himself, his wife and other staff members, and tried to hold student report cards hostage to avoid prosecution.”

In 2001, D.C.’s inspector general and its chief financial officer, Charles Maddox and Natwar Gandhi, respectively, testified before Congress asking for greater authority to oversee local charter school finances. The following year Gandhi turned to the Council to ask for legislative authority over the schools, saying that all charters should be assessed by a single auditing firm, selected by the D.C. government.

“Such legislation is completely unnecessary and is antithetical to the idea of charter schools,” Cane argued at the time. He and other advocates successfully rebuffed the idea.

Politically there were tensions from the getgo, too. During the mayoral election in 1998, one candidate ran on a charter school moratorium, two others ran on platforms to limit the number of new charters issued annually, and a fourth candidate, Anthony Williams, ran on a charter-supportive platform but said there needed to be more careful monitoring.

Williams won.

In 2000, the D.C. financial control board authorized Mayor Williams to manage surplus school property, news that charter advocates cheered, as they long suspected D.C. officials had been denying them access to vacant school buildings to stymie their growth. Advocates hoped Williams would be easier to work with.

But it didn’t take long for charter advocates to get frustrated with Williams too, and charge his administration with facility sabotage. “We have a joke we always say [at charter school coalition meetings],” one leader told City Paper in 2001. “You may be paranoid, but that doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”

FOCUS leaders decided to take matters into their own hands, by leveraging their power on Capitol Hill. In 2004, at the urging of FOCUS, charter supporter Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) slipped an amendment into the D.C. Appropriations Act requiring D.C. officials to give charter schools a “right of first offer”—instead of a “preference”—to purchase or lease vacant D.C. school buildings at a 25 percent discount. Remarkably, Sen. Landrieu did not consult with any D.C. officials before making this change.

Local leaders—again including Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton—were outraged by this federal brazenness.

“We’ve now gotten them very angry at us, and I’m sorry about that, but each one of those councilmembers has been advocates themselves—some of them very successful at it— and I think they would have done the very same thing in our position,” Peabody told the Washington Post at the time. Perhaps predictably, the maneuver set up future conflicts. When the city

opted to hang on to some empty properties for future use rather than quickly sell or lease them to charters, charter advocates responded by accusing D.C. officials of violating the law that the charter advocates themselves helped re-write behind city leaders’ backs. Such criticisms continue to this day: A video released this past summer by the DC Association of Chartered Public Schools featured Edelin, the group’s director, condemning city leaders for failing to give charters a “right of first offer” to buildings.

D

.C. lawmakers have tried to regulate the charter sector over the years but are usually unsuccessful, like in 2006 when the majority of the Council backed legislation to improve open meeting laws. These laws dictate what exactly regular residents can access when it comes to the decision-making of public bodies.

“In our estimation, the District of Columbia has the most outdated, ineffective open meetings statute in the country,” the head of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press testified at the time, urging D.C. “to catch up with the rest of the country.”

Part of the reforms would have subjected charter school boards to the city’s open meet-

signed by nearly 6,000 people. The bill died, and it marked one of FOCUS’ biggest political victories to date.

“It’s hard to say exactly why it failed because so much of this stuff goes on behind closed doors,” says Mary Levy, a longtime independent budget analyst for D.C. schools.

“My guess is there were all sorts of big time business people involved.”

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hoever killed the 2008 bill, things were only about to ramp up for D.C. charter advocacy. That year, largely thanks to the pro-charter Walton Family Foundation, FOCUS started raising a lot more money. At the turn of the century, FOCUS’ budget stood at $287,000, according to tax filings. A decade later, it would hit $2 million, and it reached nearly $3 million in annual revenue by 2016. Between 2008 and 2017, the Walton Family Foundation gave FOCUS more than $7.7 million. And with the infusion of new funds came greater capacity, with the organization taking on new efforts like data analysis, school support services, and consulting.

As FOCUS’ budget went up, so did its lobbying expenses. In 2008, the organization reported $39,000 in total lobbying expendi-

“As drafted, this bill would substantially interfere with your exclusive control over school operations, and would create major reporting burdens for your school,” Pearson wrote. “We hope you can join the discipline discussion so that we can protect the foundations of the School Reform Act.” ings law. The then-chair of the D.C. Council’s Committee on Government Operations, Vincent Orange, argued that given how much public funding the schools receive, and because they would not exist without government-issued charters, they should not be exempt.

As The Common Denominator, a now-defunct local news organization, reported at the time, advocates like Edelin and Cane were some of the most ardently opposed to the bill, and ultimately succeeded in getting the government to back off open meetings for charter schools.

Charter advocates succeeded again two years later in 2008, when two councilmembers, Chairman Vince Gray and Ward 6 representative Tommy Wells, introduced legislation to increase government oversight over the city’s charters, and add new rules restricting how easily new schools could open or expand.

Existing law has grown “outdated and proven ineffective to ensure the Council’s ability to provide effective oversight,” Gray argued back then. Wells stressed that there was too little coordination between the Council and the charter sector, which spends public funds.

FOCUS launched a robust campaign against the proposed legislation, recruiting parents, teachers, and students to lobby local lawmakers and deliver a pro-charter petition

10 september 6, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

tures. Two years later, FOCUS hired Michael Musante to be its new director of government relations. According to city ethics disclosures, FOCUS reported $120,000 in lobbying expenses in 2013, $130,000 in 2014, $145,000 in 2017, and $165,000 in 2018.

In addition, according to congressional disclosures, Musante also spent $206,000 since 2016 lobbying Congress on behalf of American Federation for Children, a national organization that supports private school vouchers.

Another major force aiding D.C’s charter sector has been CityBridge, a foundation headed by local philanthropist Katherine Bradley. A 2015 City Paper cover story detailed Bradley’s unique influence over school policy in Washington, though the full extent of her advocacy is hard to track, as she has never registered lobbying activities with the city.

“CityBridge is very familiar with D.C. lobbying laws, and our attorneys have told us that we—like hundreds of other charitable organizations in the District—do not need to register,” Bradley says.

“The threshold for registering is quite low. If you’re aware of anyone making lobbying contacts the odds are very high that they should be registered,” says Craig Holman, a registered lobbyist with Public Citizen, a nonprofit that advocates for consumer protections.

Yet another player entered the charter advocacy scene in 2015, with the founding of Democrats for Education Reform DC, or DFER-DC. Democrats for Education Reform, a major national backer of charter schools, is actually a constellation of different entities: a political action committee, a 501(c)3 nonprofit called Education Reform Now, and a second 501(c)4 nonprofit—controlled by the same people—called Education Reform Now Advocacy. This split structure enables the group to lobby and spend vast quantities of money in elections. The national organization is further divided into state chapters, of which DFERDC is one.

Most of DFER-DC’s political spending comes in the form of independent expenditures—hiring paid canvassers, sending political mailings, and running TV, radio, and digital ads. In 2018 alone, DFER-DC raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in such funds, including nearly $200,000 from Alice Walton, the Walmart heiress tied to the Walton Family Foundation. By the time the June 2018 primary rolled around, the group had already spent $300,000, and would go on to spend at least $150,000 more during the general election.

The Washington Teachers’ Union, by contrast, spent just $2,100 in direct campaign contributions in 2018, and nothing in independent expenditures.

A woman named Catharine Bellinger directed both DC Education Reform Now, and its PAC, DFER-DC, for its first three-and-ahalf years. Despite frequently engaging lawmakers both in and outside the Wilson Building, she never registered as a local lobbyist.

In one email dated May 2016 with the subject-line “DFER’s top priority this budget cycle,” Bellinger wrote to At-Large Councilmember and education committee Chairman David Grosso asking him to press Council Chairman Phil Mendelson on increasing funds for charter school facilities. “I’d like to ask you to consider personally urging Chairman Mendelson to make this [2.2%] increase,” Bellinger wrote. “My sense is that a call from you, as Ed Committee chair, would really make the difference. Is that something you might consider?” In another email sent in June 2018, a month before moving to Texas, Bellinger wrote Grosso to say, “I’d love to get together with you for breakfast or a coffee to hear about your priorities as Ed Committee chair for the next session as well as share some thoughts we have on the proposed education research entity”—referring to legislation the Council was considering at that time.

“All of my advocacy efforts on behalf of ERN [referring to Education Reform Now] were in compliance with DC Code for nonprofit organizations,” Bellinger tells City Paper.

Josh Henderson, a political consultant and the former government relations liaison for the public charter school board, then took over as acting DFER-DC director. Despite also engaging lawmakers over legislative issues, he too never registered as a city lobbyist. When asked about this, Henderson cited a provision of the DC Code—noting a lobbying exemption applicable to nonprofit social welfare organi-

Darrow Montgomery/File

Scott Pearson

zations—to explain why DFER’s (c)3 activities would not need to be registered.

Yet it’s not clear this provision is meant to exempt DC Education Reform Now from disclosure. “This is an obviously inaccurate reading of the law,” says Public Citizen’s Holman.

“All of us regular nonprofits who spend $250 or more on lobbying the D.C. government must register and disclose our activities.” Other (c)3 organizations that register their lobbying include Jews United for Justice, the Nature Conservancy, and even FOCUS. “As nonprofits, we are given a break in the lobbyist registration fee,” Holman adds.

Henderson tells City Paper that their (c)4 arm, Education Reform Now Advocacy, is a registered lobbying entity in D.C. and they hire the firm Arent Fox to lobby on specific legislation. Records show that the registration occurred in 2018, and between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2018, Education Reform Now Advocacy paid Arent Fox $72,919.00 for the “promotion of policies benefiting public education, particularly charter schools.” Arent Fox earned an additional $63,150.00 during the first three months of 2019.

In July, DFER-DC hired Jessica Giles to

serve as its next deputy director. Giles came directly from Grosso’s office, serving the last four years on the education committee.

Outside of Wilson building lobbying and campaign expenditures, DFER works to cultivate relationships with political leaders by hosting them at upscale private events. For example, public records requests made by City Paper reveal that DFER invited Grosso and his wife to sit at one of its two “VIP tables” at a Howard Theatre gala in 2016. “[We] are assembling a small group of education, civic, and philanthropic leaders to join us,” Bellinger wrote in her invitation.

The next year DFER invited Grosso and his wife to another gala, this time at the Ritz-Carlton, where they had a table sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation. Bellinger likewise invited Council Chairman Phil Mendelson to join her for a dinner event in 2016 at the RitzCarlton, again at a table sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation. And in April 2018 she extended yet another invitation to Mendelson for a Walton-sponsored table, this time at a gala hosted at the Newseum.

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n D.C., the entity that directly oversees charters is the Public Charter School Board. Publicly funded through administrative fees charged to each school’s annual budget, the agency is the sole authorizer for D.C. charters—meaning it’s tasked with opening, closing, and monitoring the schools. But the board has also embraced a significant advocacy role, fighting back against regulatory efforts it thinks may hurt charter school operations.

Sometimes this means D.C.’s charter school board coordinates with private advocacy groups in unusual ways. In 2015, for example, according to a public records request, the board’s general counsel emailed Irene Holtzman—who had recently taken over for Cane as FOCUS’ executive director—to strategize about securing changes in a language access bill the Council was considering. “Since we still have two bites at this, in my opinion, what would be helpful now is for the Council to hear from FOCUS and more charter schools,” the general counsel wrote. She encouraged FOCUS to submit testimony, “citing its position on autonomy as it has in the past on issues such as this that try to loop charter schools in with DCPS.” A subsequent fight over school discipline

reform reveals a more extraordinary example of charter board advocacy. In the fall of 2017 Grosso was gearing up to introduce legislation that would set legal limits on how schools could discipline students. Among other things, the bill would ban most suspensions through eighth grade and cap the number of days a child could be suspended in a year.

In October 2017, according to an email obtained by City Paper, charter board executive director Scott Pearson emailed representatives from every charter school with an urgent warning to protest this forthcoming bill. Pearson also copied his director of government relations, Drew Snyder, and Holtzman from FOCUS. “As drafted, this bill would substantially interfere with your exclusive control over school operations, and would create major reporting burdens for your school,” Pearson wrote. “We hope you can join the discipline discussion so that we can protect the foundations of the School Reform Act.” (Bold lettering matches Pearson’s original email.)

He urged charter leaders to contact Grosso’s office. “Many of you are busy with the day-to-day operations of your school but we need you to share your perspective during any

washingtoncitypaper.com september 6, 2019 11

and all meetings or in writing if necessary,” he wrote, adding that Snyder and Holtzman are both available to provide “information, or assistance in preparing testimony, talking points, or written submissions.”

If the call to action were not explicit enough, Pearson ended his email by requesting charter leaders “let Drew or Irene know” if they can submit testimony or attend the next Council meeting on the legislation.

Pearson acknowledges that as the city’s sole charter school authorizer, making such requests could place undue pressure on the schools he’s charged with regulating. He also notes that not all charter schools opposed Grosso’s legislation like he did.

“I don’t think I’ve ever button-holed a single school and said, ‘You need to do this,’” he tells City Paper. “Because to me that would go beyond what’s appropriate given I’m the authorizer and I know schools might feel like they need to do that to please me.” It would cross a line, he says, if he asked an individual school leader to testify, or “if I was somehow showing that we were keeping track, like here’s a list of the leaders who signed up [to speak].”

While Pearson says there have been in-person meetings where he’s encouraged school leaders to “make their voices heard” on other legislative matters, the school discipline bill is the only example he can think of where he sent an email out like that. He thought the bill represented a “five-alarm fire.”

When City Paper asked Holtzman why she didn’t just send that advocacy blast herself, she explained she felt charter leaders would be more likely to open the email and act if it was sent by Pearson. “I think Scott’s intent was to amplify my message because the truth is … I’m their friend, maybe a critical friend, but I’m not their auth[orizer],” she said. “And I said to Scott… I didn’t think at the time we were going to get a ton of traction, I think Scott was like, ‘If I send out an email, they open emails that come from Scott Pearson.’”

The lines between the two organizations have been close in other ways. The charter board’s second-in-command from January 2012 up until this past June, Naomi DeVeaux, had come from FOCUS. “She was my right-hand person,” Cane says. Other FOCUS alums would go on to lead different parts of D.C.’s educational establishment, like Erika Wadlington, who led advocacy and outreach at FOCUS and later went on to direct the Council’s education committee.

Cane emphasizes that there were times when the charter authorizer took positions that FOCUS felt encroached on charter autonomy, and FOCUS would make their concerns known. Still, Cane “was very close” with Pearson. “I would say there’s an attempt on both sides to cooperate, a close working relationship, because both PCSB and FOCUS are interested in the survival of the public charter school movement,” he says.

Holtzman agrees there have been times when FOCUS and the charter school board were not perfectly aligned, but says she thinks “Scott and the PCSB are like the authoritarian dad ... and I might be like the cool aunt ... But we’re all part of one family and we all play re-

ally different roles.” (Holtzman abruptly left FOCUS at the end of June.)

Pearson recognizes that his predecessor, Josephine Baker, was less engaged in advocacy, but suggests that was easier to do when the charter sector’s market-share was smaller. Today nearly half of all public schools students in D.C. attend charters.

Pearson says he personally sees political advocacy as an essential part of his job. “To be an effective authorizer doesn’t just mean doing a great job of oversight of schools, it also means being an advocate so the schools are operating in an environment that allows them to thrive,” he explains. And unlike the DC Public Schools chancellor, who works for the mayor, Pearson and his colleagues can publicly criticize the executive branch.

T

raditional public schools have advocates too, but they’ve struggled and have very little money.

“I remember the charter board as kind of a non-entity,” says Gina Arlotto, who in the mid2000s led an advocacy group for D.C.’s traditional public schools, called Save Our Schools

parents to advocate for school reform. It has quickly grown into a powerful force with deep pockets in the city.

PAVE was founded in 2016 by Maya Martin Cadogan, through an education reformbacked “entrepreneur-in-residence” program.

She had previously worked at two local charter schools, and served on the DFER-DC advisory board.

With a first-year budget of $450,000, PAVE had the early financial backing of groups like CityBridge, the Walton Family Foundation, and DFER. By 2018, its budget had increased to $1.2 million, and today has 11 full-time staffers. While charter parents were its sole focus in year one, it’s since expanded to parents in both sectors.

Last December, the group held its inaugural PAVE Parent Power Gala at District Winery in the Navy Yard, where Grosso was awarded the “Parent PowerED Policymaker Award.” The event had many high-dollar sponsors, including Katherine Bradley and her husband who contributed $25,000, the Walton Family Foundation, which gave $10,000, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which gave $5,000, and Pearson of the charter school board, who

“I think for a long time the Council just really drank the Kool-Aid about charters being self-regulating and the market taking care of problems.”

Southeast/Northeast. “They left the heavy lifting to FOCUS.” Arlotto’s now-defunct organization took a critical stance on charters.

It formed around 2003, and Arlotto says many community members were not receptive to their efforts. “It was sad we couldn’t get more people to just see what we were trying to do,” she says. “We wanted people to look at charters and be a little skeptical to protect the public investment.”

In the fall of 2004, their group filed a lawsuit alleging that top city officials had neglected their duty to the traditional public schools and were violating their constitutional obligations by spending so much money to advance school choice. “Robert Cane hated us, we got into it with him a bunch of times,” recalls Arlotto. “He’d call us ‘losers,’ ‘racist,’ tell us we’re never going to win.”

They didn’t win, as their case was dismissed in 2006 for lack of standing, and the group stopped organizing in 2009. And unlike in other cities, where teacher unions have played an active role in slowing charter school growth, the Washington Teachers’ Union has been politically weakened for years, following an embezzlement scandal where union leaders diverted more than $2.5 million in membership dues.

“They had scandals, they were in disarray, we were lucky in that sense that we didn’t have to spend time on them,” says Cane.

These groups form a stark contrast with education reform-backed parent advocacy. One of the newest groups to emerge on the charter advocacy side is Parents Amplifying Voices in Education, or PAVE, which trains local

12 september 6, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

donated $2,500.

Since its founding, PAVE has also organized an annual “Parent Voice and Choice Week” where it hosts catered meetings between advocates and lawmakers at the Council. This past year parent leaders met with 11 elected officials and Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn. Advocates ended the week with a reception co-sponsored by PAVE, DFER, FOCUS, and the Bradleys.

In June 2018, Valerie Jablow, a DC Public Schools parent and charter critic, filed a complaint with the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability, raising concerns that PAVE staff were engaged in unregistered lobbying; she noted they join parents in their meetings with lawmakers. “My complaint is not to indict the work of PAVE or anyone else for that matter, but to ensure that our laws are followed for lobbyists,” she wrote in a subsequent email to the agency. “In this case, pretending PAVE is just a group of parent volunteers specifically disadvantages actual volunteer parents like me, who approach elected officials on their own or as the unpaid representatives of groups, like PTAs, that are also unpaid and 100 percent volunteer. This is why, in fact, we have lobbying laws that define who a lobbyist is—to level the playing field to ensure those with money do not have disproportionate power.”

Holman, of Public Citizen, explains that one of the more difficult aspects of enforcing lobbying laws—both in Congress and on the local level—is monitoring who should be registered in the first place. “If you don’t register

no one is going to know what you’re up to, and the way this is policed is often through self-policing,” he says. “So when I realize that I’m in a lobbying meeting with other people who aren’t registered, it’s up to me to file a complaint so the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability can pursue an investigation and even levy fines for violating the law.”

This past April, the agency’s director Brent Wolfingbarger wrote Jablow to say they had conducted a preliminary investigation and were dismissing her complaint as they found insufficient evidence to support the claim that PAVE staff should register as lobbyists. Wolfingbarger emphasized that all PAVE staffers did was set up meetings between parents and lawmakers, but never communicated with lawmakers about legislative issues themselves.

Yet emails unearthed from a public records request paint a different picture—one in which PAVE staff also meet and converse with lawmakers and their staffers alone. In one email dated Aug. 6, 2018, Kerry Savage, PAVE’s associate director of policy and advocacy wrote to the Council’s education committee director, Akeem Anderson, to say, “As we discussed, I’d love to grab coffee to learn more about you and your work. I know Councilmember Grosso shares many of PAVE’s policy priorities, including mental health supports and transparent funding, and I’d love to discuss potential opportunities to partner together.” Emails show Savage and Anderson scheduled a meeting at the Wilson Building on Aug. 8.

About two months later, Anderson emailed Savage to say, “We should grab [sic] catch up soon. Are you available Friday or sometime next week?” The next month Savage emailed Anderson asking him to “let me know if there are any good days for you to chat in the next couple weeks and I’ll compare with my schedule.” Roughly a month after that, Anderson sent an email connecting Savage with Katrina Forrest, the deputy chief of staff in Grosso’s office. “I want to connect you with Katrina in our office to discuss School Based Mental Health and our budget priorities as we move into the next Council Period,” he wrote. “Hopefully you two can find time to connect soon.” Savage wrote back to both staffers and said, “Katrina, I’d love to talk soon about our shared priorities.

Is there a good time for you this week? Otherwise happy to connect after the holidays.”

“No PAVE staff have discussed specific legislative priorities one-on-one with [council] staff, and our staff, myself included, do not engage in lobbying,” Cadogan tells City Paper over email.

City Paper asked Anderson if he ever discussed specific legislative priorities one-onone during his meetings and conversations with Savage. “Councilmember Grosso and staff met with and provided all relevant information about our meetings with parent advocates and staff of PAVE to the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability, which has concluded its report,” spokesperson Matthew Nocella wrote in response.

In July, Jablow attended BEGA’s monthly board meeting to raise her concerns, and call for a continued investigation. Wolfingbarger in-

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The Kennedy Center is celebrating the opening of the REACH, its first-ever expansion.

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

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

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

Support artists.

Shop handmade.

Bootsy Collins

TONIGHT!

JENNIFER HUDSON

NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

SEP 5

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

Saturday, September 14

The Chuck Brown Band featuring Bootsy Collins is sponsored

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

FAMILY DAY

SPOTLIGHT ON JAZZ

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

Sunday, September 8

Sunday, September 15

Mo Willems hosts MO-a-PALOOZA LIVE!

SPOTLIGHT ON THEATER

OUTDOOR FILM SCREENING

The Just and the Blind

Black Panther

Tuesday, September 17

Tuesday, September 10

In Conversation with Yalitza Aparicio

SEP 6

SPOTLIGHT ON CLASSICAL AND POPS National Symphony Orchestra at the REACH is sponsored by Jennifer and David Fischer.

Wednesday, September 11

Master classes with Alan Menken, Steven Reineke, and Joseph Kalichstein SPOTLIGHT ON RENÉE FLEMING VOICES AND SOUND HEALTH Sound Health is supported by the Music Man Foundation.

Thursday, September 12

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

Friday, September 13

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

Buzzard Point DC

CITYPAPER WASHINGTON

Thievery Corporation with opener The Archives

SUNDAY!

GIPSY KINGS FEATURING NICOLAS REYES AND TONINO BALIARDO VILRAY

SEP 8

Judah Friedlander

The Chuck Brown Band featuring Bootsy Collins

THE PEOPLE WE ARE: CELEBRATING FIRST NATIONS CULTURES

THEPIANOGUYS

Thievery Corporation

HIP HOP BLOCK PARTY

Monday, September 9

TOMORROW!

Angélique Kidjo

OPENING DAY

John Coltrane-Inspired Jazz and Meditation Service

at

arts & makers festival

Renée Fleming

Saturday, September 7

Volunteer

CRAFTY

Yalitza Aparicio

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

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

David M. Rubenstein Cornerstone of the REACH

Black Panther is sponsored by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

SPOTLIGHT ON WASHINGTON NATIONAL OPERA

Thursday, September 19

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

SPOTLIGHT ON COMEDY

Friday, September 20

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

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

Saturday, September 21 Fela! The Concert CLOSING DAY

Sunday, September 22

Howard University “Showtime” Marching Band and Netflix: HOMECOMING: A Film by Beyoncé

Plus check out drop-in spaces for hands-on discovery like the Moonshot Studio, the Virtual Reality Lounge, and Skylight Soundscapes!

Programs, artists, and schedule subject to change.

Download the REACH Fest app!

washingtoncitypaper.com september 6, 2019 13

sisted again that all PAVE staff has done is schedule meetings for parents—nothing more. “PAVE does the organizing of the meetings, but doesn’t actually present arguments or try to persuade,” he said, in an audio recording of the meeting.

Wolfingbarger tells City Paper his team found no evidence that PAVE met one-onone with councilmembers or their staff. He did not respond to a voicemail and three follow-up emails with City Paper’s questions regarding details about their investigation, including the time period BEGA’s team studied, and whether their search involved a review of Council communications, like email.

forward with.” Since becoming committee chair, Grosso says he’s been “able to get my priorities through.”

G

athered on the fourth floor of the Wilson building this past June, at a Council hearing for bills to track the flow of funds to the city’s most vulnerable students, dozens of public witnesses turned out to testify about a different matter: increasing transparency in D.C.’s public charter schools.

Unlike most other cities and states, D.C.’s charter schools are not subject to public records requests, and a proposed piece of legislation, not due for a hearing until Oct. 2, seeks to change that. Supporters of that bill feared

T

lic charter schools as public agencies,” testified Shannon Hodge, the executive director of Kingsman Academy, a charter located in Ward 6. “We are not public agencies and we are not intended to be.”

Royston Lyttle, an Eagle Academy principal, agreed. “We don’t need more bureaucracy and red tape.”

“We have seen the playbook of the [National Education Association] for how to act against charters, and unfortunately some of what is happening right now, it’s coming straight out of the playbook,” says Edelin, executive director of the DC Association of Chartered Public Schools. Peabody echoes her comments, saying the transparency bill David Grosso

Darrow Montgomery/File

he School Reform Act has protected charter schools against city interference for years, but signs are emerging that this legal armor is starting to corrode.

That’s in part due to a failed federal lawsuit brought in 2014 alleging D.C. had illegally underfunded charter schools by hundreds of millions of dollars, in violation of the School Reform Act. The Association and two local charter schools were named plaintiffs, and FOCUS helped finance the litigation.

D.C.’s then-Attorney General Irvin Nathan argued the case should be dismissed on the basis that “these are distinctively local decisions.”

He emphasized that the School Reform Act does not “relieve the Council of its Home Rule Act authority” to determine school funding.

A federal judge denied Nathan’s dismissal request, but in 2017, she ruled against the plaintiffs. The charter groups appealed, and this past July, the D.C. Circuit dismissed the case for lack of federal jurisdiction.

“I think the winds have changed,” says Patterson, the auditor. “I think the litigation is informing sitting policymakers that they can do what they think is right and not run into legal problems because Congress enacted it.”

“I think for a long time the Council just really drank the Kool-Aid about charters being self-regulating and the market taking care of problems,” adds Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund, an advocacy group for school facilities.

Aside from the lawsuit, Grosso has also been more willing than past lawmakers to test the limits of the School Reform Act. In 2014, before he was committee chairman, Grosso introduced legislation to restrict the number of suspensions and expulsions for preschool students. The charter sector fought the bill, leveraging their federal supremacy arguments, but Grosso went forward anyway. It passed in 2015, the year he was named committee chair.

In 2017, again over the strong objections of most charter advocates, Grosso introduced his next school discipline bill to restrict suspensions and expulsions for all public school students.

“I focus the work of the Committee on Education from a perspective of what is best for students and how can I put every student in D.C in the position to succeed in school,” Grosso tells City Paper. “We always set out from that framework. When we have a priority—like [the school discipline bill]—I do a legal analysis with my office and general counsel to make sure that it’s something we can move

pushed for it.

With reform chatter in the air, D.C.’s network of charter advocates is gearing up to go to battle once again.

They call the push for public records and other transparency rules an effort by unions and charter opponents to undermine the schools, by draining charter resources and hobbling them with bureaucracy. They say that just because other states successfully apply sunshine laws to their charters does not mean D.C. would see similar success.

This past spring, Education Reform Now, DFER-DC’s affiliate, funded a text-message campaign against the proposed transparency bill, using the same internal talking points

the late date was selected to neutralize their momentum, and so they came out earlier to make their case.

This local political battle comes on the heels of a recent fight in California, where advocates had also long sought to bring charters under the state’s sunshine statutes. At the end of 2018, California’s attorney general issued a sweeping opinion around charter transparency, rejecting the idea that nonprofit charters should be exempt from public record requests, and this past March the state’s governor signed a bill bringing all California charter schools under the same open meetings, public records, and conflict-of-interest laws as traditional public schools.

Grosso has already stated his interest in subjecting charters to open meeting laws, something he and other councilmembers rejected back in 2015 when government watchdogs last

14 september 6, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

endorsed by FOCUS and the Association.

“The D.C Council is considering legislation that would divert resources in quality public charter schools away from helping students achieve to completing onerous paperwork and bureaucracy,” one text read. Another encouraged recipients to click on a link, which provided them with a pre-drafted email to send to their local representatives opposing the legislation. “I am writing to express disappointment in your recently introduced bill to unfairly target public charter schools,” the form email read. “Our kids need teachers and resources not more legal burdens.” DFER-DC did not answer City Paper’s inquiries regarding how many residents received the texts.

At the June hearing some charter leaders made similar points against additional oversight.

“I see this Council and others moving in a direction that troubles me, treating pub-

is “part of what the national union is proposing to improve the charter schools, but what they’re really saying is if you weaken, surround them by red tape, then they won’t be as good as they are now.”

About three hours into June’s eight-hour hearing, At-Large Councilmember Robert White suggested that charter advocates try another approach going forward. “The biggest opposition to the FOIA piece from charter schools that I’ve heard is that it’s this huge burden. I don’t have a position on this right now, it’s something I’m still listening to, but if the strongest argument from the charter schools is that this is a burden— I don’t think that’s a strong enough argument,” he said. White invited advocates to share “more reasons, other reasons” as to why charter schools believe they should be exempt.

“Yeah it’s a burden, but is it an insurmountable burden?” he asked. “No, it’s not.”

CP

washingtoncitypaper.com september 6, 2019 15

Kate Warren

DCFEED YOUNG & HUNGRY

Meat, Your Maker?

Charcuterie is on more than one hundred menus in D.C., but certain factors make it hard to tell if you’re getting a good value.

Darrow Montgomery/File

Charcuterie at The Partisan

By Laura Hayes Leading up to the opening of the first Red Apron Butcher in Union Market, Chef Nate Anda was squeezing sausages, hoping a bright red oil would coat his palms when he unfurled his fingers. This testing method came about after José Andrés chided Anda at the Penn Quarter farmers market.

“He would come down and eat the samples,” Anda explains. “One day he was like, ‘What is this?’ I was like, ‘It’s chorizo.’ He’s like, ‘No, it’s not. In order for it to be chorizo, it has to bleed red.’ He held it in his hand and nothing was coming out. I used that as my gauge.” The color comes from the smoked paprika that flavors the smoky, aromatic sausage.

“Once I got José’s approval, I started selling it again. I’ve never changed the recipe since.”

Anda is a perfectionist, which has served him well in his pursuit to build one of the most robust house-made charcuterie line-ups in

the country. Since he first became consumed with butchering, curing salami, and stuffing sausages in the early aughts, Anda has grown his charcuterie portfolio to about 60 products within Neighborhood Restaurant Group.

Thirty-eight are currently available to try at The Partisan for $4.50 an ounce. The restaurant keeps portions small in hopes that diners will experiment. “If you’re going to get four items, get three you might recognize and shoot the moon on another one,” Anda advises.

Among his creations are pork heart flavored with Chianti; spreadable ’nduja; a pig head whose flavors imitate Vietnamese pho; and basic pepperoni. “One of the biggest misconceptions about charcuterie is that it’s all made of lips and assholes,” Anda says. Some of his more creative cured meats are inspired by cocktails such as the “Campari Rosemary,” which tastes like a sweet and bitter negroni.

While Anda’s roster is creative and extensive, NRG restaurants are far from the only

16 september 6, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

places in the District that serve charcuterie or its synonyms such as “salumi.” Charcuterie, often found in the appetizer section of menus, translates to “pork butcher’s shop” in French and has come to mean the art of preparing and assembling cured and other meat products alongside various accompaniments such as jam, nuts, and bread. City Paper found 101 restaurants in Northwest D.C. alone that offer a board with at least two meats on their dinner menus. Prosciutto, bresaola, coppa, soppressata, and finocchiona appeared most frequently.

The least expensive board we found was at Breadsoda, where you can get prosciutto, hot capicola, Genoa salami, and Black Forest ham for $10.95. On the other side of the spectrum is Jaleo’s $40 trio of Spanish meats, including a 48-month cured Ibérico ham.

Unlike Breadsoda and Jaleo, many restaurants don’t list what’s on their boards and others don’t describe where their charcuterie is

Chef Mathew Ramsey will open a D.C. restaurant featuring elevated comfort food from around the world.

Washingtonians know him from his blog-turned-cookbook PornBurger.

Cold Beer will open in 2020. from, making it hard for customers to discern if they’re getting a good value. Blindly ordering a board feels like perusing a wine list that doesn’t include each bottle’s region, producer, or vintage.

Chris Johnson, the co-founder of local charcuterie company Cured DC, has been disappointed lately. “Almost every restaurant nowadays has charcuterie,” he says. “I order it and I’m always taken aback. I don’t think I’ve ordered a board that’s under $25 and they’re all kind of light in terms of meat. There’s a lot of accoutrements, but not a huge amount of actual charcuterie … A lot of places are buying it from other places. The mark-up is pretty high.”

It’s even difficult to tell if a restaurant is making its charcuterie in house or relying on outside purveyors. This general lack of transparency conflicts with current trends. Diners today want to know as much as possible about their food, and restaurants have largely answered the call through more verbose menu descriptions or by training staff to relay details.

Is it local? Sustainable? Grass-fed? Hormonefree? Halal?

Curious about the proliferation of charcuterie, City Paper set out to learn why so many D.C. eateries from fine dining Spanish and Italian restaurants to neighborhood brew pubs serve it; what barriers prevent more chefs from making their own; and how diners can tell if they’re shelling out for something special versus something they could find at Safeway.

Restaurants and bars each have reasons for selling charcuterie. Some are simple. “I think people like anything where they get bread,” says Pub & The People Executive Chef Ben Schramm. “There’s still this ’90s thing, where diners are like, ‘What? I’m not getting [free] bread and butter?’ So when they see it has bread, they order it.”

The bar doesn’t list what’s on its $15 charcuterie board because Schramm says it changes frequently. He talks servers through each day’s array so they can tell diners. Recently Schramm has been bringing in jamón serrano and duck sausage, but he makes head cheese in house. It involves braising a pig’s head for hours with lime, ancho chili, shallots, and garlic until it breaks down. Once the parts are tender, Schramm forms a terrine and slices it. He calls it pork rillette “so we can get more people to try it.”

At Osteria Morini there’s a strong focus on charcuterie or “battilardo” from Emilia-Romagna. “We have first-time diners come in and sit down with us and it’s something we really push because we’re trying to recreate the experience of going to that region of Italy,” says Chef de Cuisine Thomas Levandoski. He’s

also picked up on an uptick of diners who graze. it, he and other NRG team members attend“There are a lot of younger diners who come ed classes at Iowa State University’s Meat Sciinto a place like Morini and get something like ence department.

“The D.C. government and a lot of local that and then go explore somewhere else.”

Anda has another theory. “There’s a good health departments don’t really understand profit margin in it, but it’s also a social thing to charcuterie still, even though there’s a lot more do,” he says. “It’s a good way to start a meal, a of it,” Johnson adds. He initially produced good way to meet up with friends and have a out of Union Kitchen. “When we were goboard of meat in front of you and take it down.” ing through the regulatory process, it was a lot He adds that cured meats pair well with every- of education for the health department staff because they didn’t know. As soon as you tell thing from sour beers to brown spirits.

Anda believes charcuterie today is where them you’re sitting meat above regulated temthe farm-to-table movement was 10 years ago. peratures they’re like, ‘Absolutely not!’ It took “It was really hard to source good products, us a while to convince them this is safe.”

Johnson is trying to find a space to open a whether proteins or vegetables, and then purveyors figured out that chefs were willing to go charcuterie beer garden or similar concept, the extra mile,” Anda says. “There’s a lot more but his efforts have been futile. “Everything quality available now for places that want to has gotten so expensive we can’t afford to do it,” he says. “Especially because we need buy and put stuff on their menus.”

Sourcing charcuterie from high-end outfits space to cure and age things.” He’s not willlike International Gourmet Foods, Julius Sil- ing to string up meat in spaces that serve othvert, and D’Artagnan is sometimes the more er purposes like wine cellars, as some restausensible thing to do, given the various hurdles rants do covertly. Johnson isn’t giving up. He to making charcuterie on site. “You want to loves how charcuterie blurs the line between have the best product,” Levandoski says. “We art and science.

Ordering charcuterie can could sit here and make our feel like a gamble, but there “Charcuterie own prosciutto, but we don’t are ways to tell if you’re behave the space or time to sit on shouldn’t need ing duped. “For me, it’s what 20 months, so we look to proanything else to leads when it hits your palate,” fessionals and people who do this for a living.” enjoy it. Because Anda says. “Is it fat-forward?

Salt-forward? What’s the texMaking charcuterie is a speit’s a ‘by-itself’ ture? I want to be able to put cialized skill. “A lot of people say they know how to do it, but product, quality is ham in my mouth and not use when it comes down to doing super important. my teeth that much.”

When it comes to texture, it consistently, that’s a chalYou can’t hide Johnson adds that “something lenge,” Johnson says. Chefs fresh will also be real sticky in are already saddled with upbehind butter.” a sense.” Color is important dating menus seasonally, managing staff, and monitoring food costs. too when it comes to prosciutto and coppa.

“If it’s really dark red and kind of brittle, you “They’re not going to have time to go deep.”

Anda took a three-week charcuterie course immediately know it’s not fresh.”

“You have to read the room,” Levandoski in culinary school, but that wasn’t enough to feel confident. “While it’s hands on, you get says. More specifically, see if you can spot a fanout of it and you’re like, ‘Shit, how do I do cy slicer like a big red Berkel that indicates a resthis?’” he recalls. He benefited from appren- taurant has invested in its charcuterie program.

Also look for variety. “If there are only two meats ticing at two butcher shops in Napa Valley.

Making charcuterie can also be prohibitive- and a cheese, you could think, ‘Ah, they’re probly expensive. Often you have to deal in whole, ably just doing it to do it.’ The fact that we give a half, or quarter animals, which requires sig- variety and you build your own [board] is anothnificant up-front money and an expansive er way to tell that we take this seriously.”

“Slicing is very important,” notes La Jambe kitchen. Then you need an area with the requisite humidity and temperature to cure and co-owner Anastasia Mori. She imports Euage certain products. Several restaurants like ropean charcuterie for her wine bars, save for The Eastern, La Jambe, and Dino’s Grotto the pâté and terrines she and her staff make serve hybrid boards where chefs source cured from family recipes. Back when Mori lived in meats but make fresh items like smoked sau- France, she worked for a supermarket chain with 60 stores. She handpicked charcuterie sages, rillettes, roulades, and pâté.

“A lot of things can go wrong,” Anda says, for the company by visiting producers in Itanoting that he’s tucked a few charcuterie ex- ly, Spain, and France.

“If you go to a restaurant where the properiments in between two slices of bread when they’re not up to snuff. “When you get sciutto is sliced very thick or the salami has the whole animal it’s a lot of money. You’re al- big chunks, it’s a no-go because that’s how you ready thinking, ‘How am I going to make my will find it in supermarkets,” Mori says. “If it’s sliced thinner, it doesn’t stay as well. The Italmoney back on this?’”

Another thing charcuterie makers need is ians are the ones famous for slicing their meats approval. Anda had to write a Hazard Analysis to order and extremely thin to enjoy the flaCritical Control Point (HACCP) plan—where vor more. Charcuterie shouldn’t need anyhe identified and addressed the risks that thing else to enjoy it. Because it’s a ‘by-itself ’ come with making charcuterie—and submit product, quality is super important. You can’t it to the District’s health department. To nail hide behind butter.”

CP

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MEET A PENGUIN! washingtoncitypaper.com september 6, 2019 17

Michael O’Connell

CPARTS

Hear from Black Cat’s sound department manager about his job and new podcast. washingtoncitypaper.com/arts

Reach for the Stars

Richard Barnes

With its long-in-the-making first major expansion, the Kennedy Center seeks to create a space for immersive arts experiences.

By Sriram Gopal Since itS opening in 1971, the Kennedy Center has become a cultural treasure in the nation’s capital, managing to balance its role as a living monument to a fallen president, a preserver of the classical arts, and an artistic incubator through its commissions and educational efforts. The Kennedy Center draws millions of visitors every year to paid and free programming which includes classical symphonies, opera, ballet, and jazz, while also breaking new ground by being one of the first arts institutions of its stature to el-

evate hip-hop into its regular programming structure.

The institution takes a major step forward on Saturday with the opening of The REACH, its first major expansion in its almost 50 years of existence. The project’s name comes from the Kennedy Center’s vision for it: to renew, experience, activate, create, and honor both President Kennedy’s legacy and the performing arts. Kicking off the 16-day celebration is a parade featuring more than 200 artists. In total, the festival will present more than 500 free events with more than 1,000 participating artists.

18 september 6, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

“Why 16 days? The three weekends and two week model gives us an opportunity to tell the varied stories that The REACH is capable of telling,” says Robert van Leer, the Kennedy Center’s senior vice president of artistic planning. “We’re going to present the color, flavor, and variety that reflect the breadth and opportunity of the whole campus.”

While the opening day is a microcosm of the festival aimed at illustrating The REACH’s potential, the festival concludes on Sept. 22 with a West Indian-style sunset dance party. Debbie Allen, Thievery Corporation, Bootsy Collins, De La Soul,

Robert Glasper, and Renée Fleming are just a few of the artists scheduled to participate throughout the course of the festival.

The REACH’s story began in the early part of this decade, when the Kennedy Center was under the leadership of its former president Michael Kaiser. The primary purpose was to house educational facilities, rehearsal space, and Kaiser’s brainchild organization, the DeVos Institute of Arts Management.

The Kennedy Center awarded the design contract to Steven Holl Architects, an internationally renowned studio with offices in New York and Beijing, in January 2013.

Holl’s proposal went beyond the initial competition brief and presented a more ambitious vision for the development.

“The whole southern end of the Kennedy Center, which at the time was a bus parking lot, could be transformed into a new front for the Kennedy Center,” recalls Chris McVoy, senior partner at Steven Holl Architects. “It could transform the Kennedy Center from a monument that was inward oriented to being an active landscape that was connected to the city and the river.”

Later in 2013, Kaiser announced his early departure and the moving of his institute to the University of Maryland. In December of that year, Deborah F. Rutter was named the Kennedy Center’s next president and she assumed the position in September of 2014.

The official groundbreaking subsequently took place in December 2014, but changes were afoot. The original concept was for two land-based structures at one end of the campus with a third on the Potomac River. A group of rowers objected to the structure in the Potomac, stating it would interfere with their activities, and it became clear that this would be a significant obstacle to construction. Rutter asked for a land-based option for the pavilion, which became part of the final design.

Additionally, Rutter’s vision of The REACH evolved. She held a series of meetings with the architects and a cross-section of Kennedy Center staff that included multiple levels of artistic and educational pro-

CPARTS grammers, members of the production, special events, and development staff, as well as representatives from every department within the center’s organizational structure.

During that process, Rutter realized that while the Kennedy Center is at the top of the field in terms of traditional performance spaces, it was lacking in spaces for exploration, participation, and more immersive arts experiences.

Rutter decided to pause construction as she and her team developed a more finely tuned view for how artists and the public might use The REACH. The new vision did not result in a wholesale redesign, but it did call for tweaks in terms of opening up the space and designing it for multi-disciplinary functionality.

“If you walk into the center today, you never have any idea what’s going on in the building,” Rutter says. “The biggest difference was the idea of transparency.”

Van Leer sees The REACH’s role in terms of the arc that an artistic endeavor takes from conception to presentation to the audience response. Historically, the Kennedy Center has focused on the latter part of the curve by putting creative work in front of the public and then creating opportunities to learn from and engage with that work. The REACH presents an opportunity to go further back in that creative arc.

Artists now have spaces to workshop new ideas and engage with each other in an informal setting while visitors can observe them doing so. At the same time, The REACH provides much needed educational facilities to bring new creativity into the fold. “[Artists] often view us as part of the end product and we want them to see us as partners in that creative developmen-

tal process,” van Leer says. “The thing we’ve had to do is walk into the light about moving from the metaphor of what this could mean into the action of what it should mean.”

The revised plans received approval in the summer of 2015 and construction resumed that fall. Holl and his architectural team collaborated with larger firms that had more robust engineering, technological, and production capabilities. Their final product is three pavilions, dubbed the Welcome Pavilion, the Skylight Pavilion, and the now landbased River Pavilion. The 4.6 acre site adds 72,000 square feet of public interior space that exists largely underground and beneath 130,000 square feet of greenspace and public gardens.

There were several core principles that the architects held throughout the process. One was using innovative materials to maintain an aesthetic continuity with the grandiose original building designed by Edward Durell Stone, which is why The REACH’s exteriors are made of titanium white concrete. Others principles include connecting the center with the river, which it does with a new walkway that spans Rock Creek Parkway, infusing the new space with natural light and ecological integration—The REACH is on track to receive LEED Gold certification.

In its scathing 1971 architectural review, The New York Times described the Kennedy Center as a “superbunker,” and “disquietingly reminiscent of the overscaled vacuity of Soviet palaces of culture.” The REACH is an attempt to bring the Kennedy Center to a human scale and make it more welcoming for visitors and artists, removing some of its ivory tower veneer.

“The physical space is dope as fuck, let me just say that,” says Marc Bamuthi Joseph, vice president and artistic director for social impact at the Kennedy Center. “What we want is to be more than just a vault for pre-existing performative happenings. I’m curious about what happens to the people in the room before or after a show.”

Joseph’s role at the center, as he describes it, is to “work at the intersection of the performative and the social contract.” His team is using the new space to launch a number of residencies from individuals and groups who work at the intersection of the arts and social justice. Artists from historically marginalized communities—including LGBTQ, refugee, disabled, Latinx youth, and First Nations artists—are being asked to host events at The REACH. “We are going to program these spaces with incredible art, that’s a given,” Joseph says. “I’d like to think that we’ll program these spaces through the invitation of incredible people. Let them figure out what the space is going to entitle.”

Eventually, there will be an assessment of whether The REACH is on track to live up to the initial vision that led to its creation. Rutter and her team will look at whether the programming is overbooked or underbooked, and whether there is a sound balance between educational, artistic, and social activity. Those are objective markers, but Rutter also hopes The REACH will trigger a deeper curiosity in those who experience it.

“If you think of a dance party, is the emphasis on ‘dance’ or ‘party,’ or is it about an artistic expression?” Rutter asks.

“There’s an opportunity for us to do an even deeper exploration of ‘What does art mean?’”

CP

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EVERY SATURDAY & SUNDAY 1-4PM

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

washingtoncitypaper.com september 6, 2019 19

CPARTS Documentary Meow!

Welcome to the Cat Film Festival

Mittens from Kittens

ARTS DESK

Beth Is Not a Cat

20 september 6, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

Guardians of Recoleta

Samantha and the Rock Cats

Cat Nation

The internet was made for cats.

Cat memes abound, but if you’re looking for a more illustrative, cinematic expression of your love for felines, the second annual Cat Film Festival will make a stop at Landmark E Street Cinema from 7 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 10.

The two-hour festival features a meaty melange of short films ranging from two to 26 minutes. And, according to the festival organizers, all films are “free of physical or verbal abuse toward people or animals.

The only tears you might shed would be tears of joy for happy endings.” Also, a portion of every ticket benefits Humane Rescue Alliance. But please note that for the most part, cats will be unclothed.

Here are a few of the selections to be shown at the festival, but, like the affections of a cat, the lineup is subject to change.

Little Works of Art takes viewers to the American Museum of the House Cat in Sylva, North Carolina, where Harold “Catman” Sims celebrates cats with more than 10,000 cat-related objects on display.

Dive deep into Japan’s obsession with all things feline in Cat Nation: A Film About Japan’s Crazy Cat Culture.

Samantha and the Rock Cats follows a traveling band of talented cats and their momager on tour.

Learn how one woman spins cat hair into being useful in Mittens from Kittens.

Beth Is Not a Cat, but she’s dressed like one—much to her actual cat’s chagrin.

Guardians of Recoleta travels to the iconic Buenos Aires Recoleta Cemetery to examine what becomes of the colony of cats residing there.

Little Works of Art

By Elizabeth Tuten

Reputations are relative.

SHAKESPEARE’S

1

henry IV SEP 3 – OCT 13

E D WA R D G E R O A S FA L S TA F F Photo by Brittany Diliberto

FOLGER.EDU/THEATRE | 202.544.7077

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I am quiet and loving--I like to play, but I know how to respect boundaries. I just love to be pet! I am great on the leash and I’m not reactive at all while walking. I have only barked once at my foster family’s house and it was just because I saw a deer! Even though I had a rough start to life, I still love human affection. I would fit in anywhere--I don’t bark or howl, I could be an only dog or a companion to an older dog, I like to snuggle but know when to keep my distance if necessary--I’m just a perfect dog! I can’t wait to find my forever home where I can share all the love I’ve got to give!

Please contact Rural Dog Rescue www.ruraldogrescue.com to complete an application or visit us at the adoption event this Saturday from 12-2 at Howl To The Chief 733 8th Street SE, DC.

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washingtoncitypaper.com september 6, 2019 21

THEATERCURTAIN CALLS

EVERYBODY LOVES A WINNER Cabaret

Music by John Kander Lyrics by Fred Ebb Book by Joe Masteroff Directed by Alan Paul At Olney Theatre Center to Oct. 6 Last May, actress Alexandra Silber cryptically shared her latest casting coup on Twitter.

“I was just offered a dreamy role I literally *never* thought I’d play, with a team and in a city I adore,” Silber wrote. “Allow life to surprise you, friends.”

Saturday night, the dream became reality for Silber and those audience members able to schlepp out to Olney Theatre Center. (OK, so the “city” part of her tweet was not entirely accurate.) There, at a performing arts complex in the far reaches of the Montgomery County suburbs, Silber stepped into the spotlight as Sally Bowles, singing siren of the Kit Kat Club and star of the Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret.

Silber may say she never thought she’d play the iconic English dame who serenades a Berlin nightclub at the dawn of Hitler’s reign, but at Olney she sings “Don’t Tell Mama,” “Cabaret,” and “Maybe This Time” like she’s been practicing her renditions of these classics since she was 16.

In addition to applauding Silber, audiences should cheer director Alan Paul, choreographer Katie Spelman, and the whole team at Olney.

And kudos to D.C. theater in general for attracting a performer of Silber’s caliber who not only says yes when she gets an offer to perform at our farthest flung Equity venue, but gushes about her luck on Twitter.

Olney’s Cabaret is a sparkling milestone.

And yet in some respects, the production is inferior to the region’s last Cabaret: the 2015 smallscale staging at Signature Theatre. Matthew Gardiner—D.C.’s other 30-something wunderkind musical director—created his immersive Kit Kat Club in a black box. Smash standout Wesley Taylor slunk around on stage in lederhosen as the Emcee and Barrett Wilbert Weed of Mean Girls fame shone as Sally.

My critical subconscious spent Saturday night’s performance cranking out a comparison chart. It’s an unfortunate hazard of the profession, but also a sign that both Gardiner and Paul have served one of the 20th century’s best musicals well. Signature’s Cabaret was intimate, classy, and heartbreaking. Olney’s Cabaret is bigger, broader, and gayer, with Silber, a fantastic band, and a choreographer on the rise.

Once everyone has received a warm “Willkommen” from the Emcee, the opening scene of Cabaret finds writer Clifford Bradshaw

training toward Berlin, hoping to hole up in a German attic and crank out the great American novel. A fellow passenger points him toward a boarding house with passable rooms and a nightclub where he can while away time.

Off to the Kit Kat Club we go, and soon Sally is calling on the gentleman seated at Table No. 2.

One of Gardiner’s genius moves was casting a Shakespearean actor, Gregory Wooddell, in the role of Cliff, the outsider who falls under Sally’s alluring spell. Gardiner treated the script’s suggestion that Cliff had a previous liaison with one of the Kit Kat Boys as a dalliance and running joke. Paul, however, goes out of his way to put Cliff in the closet. Both approaches can work, but the latter requires an actor who can simultaneously convey a conflicted inner life, sincere affection for Sally, and enough gumption to take on the Nazis. At Olney, Greg Maheu is not up to the task.

Silber easily overpowers the young actor, whose local credits include mostly ensemble roles, and her Sally—with henna-red wigs, vivid smears of eyeshadow and a suitcase full of bustiers—is too much for this milquetoast turtleneck wearer.

Audiences, meanwhile, will love gawking at Silber. She’s played plenty of ingénues, including Sophie in Master Class on Broadway and Guenevere in Shakespeare Theatre’s Camelot, where she teamed up with Paul last year. Clearly, she relishes this unexpected chance to play an old fashioned broad. Silber begins “Maybe This Time,” with a deep, throaty rumble and ends with a sotto voce whisper rather than a soprano belt. It’s gut-wrenching. But Silber also possesses a pure-toned higher range. If she deployed that crystalline voice a bit more in Cabaret, her vocal acrobatics would stand out.

Instrumentalists impress more consistently than the cast. Olney Theatre became an allunion shop a few years ago, boosting the quality of its pit. Music director Christopher Youstra stands before a 10-member ensemble that delivers a big band look and sound with the bonus of strings, harp, accordion, and banjo. A fancy faux proscenium hangs inside the real thing, and Spelman utilizes the steps leading down into the audience for both kicklines and slow, measured descents.

This is a production that celebrates theatrical artifice. Where Signature created a cabaret, Olney does glitter and be gay. The wig budget alone must be towering. Costumes, by Kendra Rai, are strappy and exaggerated. Mason Alexander Park earns his sequins, leather, and furs as the fabulous Emcee who looks and acts like Timothée Chalamet, if Chalamet were the son of Alan Cumming and Taylor Mac. Paul has good reasons to forego any sense of realism. His final scene is a chilling, contemporary acknowledgement that evil prevails when too many people ignore politics. This is Cabaret as an entertaining morality play rather than a tale of love and denial in 1930s Berlin. What’s so great about Kander and Ebb’s musical is that

22 september 6, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

it works both ways. What’s so great about D.C. theater is that we’ve now seen two great productions of it in five years.

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

THE WEIGHT OF LIES Fabulation, or The ReEducation of Undine

By Lynn Nottage Directed by Eric Ruffin At Mosaic Theater to Sept. 22

In the earLIest and weakest section of Lynn Nottage’s serio-comic fable Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine, its heroine, the founder of a Manhattan P.R. firm, describes her job to us as “catering to the vanity and confusion of the African American nouveau riche.” Before she was the mighty Undine Barnes Calles, she was merely Sharona Watkins from Brooklyn. But she was ashamed of her blue-collar family—security guards who aspired to be NYPD cops—so she gave herself a fancy name, cut off contact with her kin, and then, in an especially malicious flourish, told Black Enterprise magazine that her family burned to death. But when Undine’s husband drains her accounts and disappears, leaving her pregnant and penniless, she must cross the East River and ask the Watkinses, still alive and unburnt, to take her back.

That’s how Nottage has chosen to approach her literary reclamation project, repolishing a chestnut from Teutonic folklore that inspired novelists from a couple of prior centuries. Heinrich Karl de la Motte Fouqué’s Undine was published in 1811 and Edith Wharton reinterpreted the story as The Custom of the Country in 1913.

Nottage’s version was first staged in 2004, and it certainly feels like the product of a bygone era: In the intervening years, the playwright has become the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice, for one thing, for plays far more tragic and naturalistic than this one. You may have heard that we elected our first African American president, and that he used up most of his political capital getting a major health care law passed early in the first of his two terms.

(Much of Fabulation’s midsection is spent mak-

ing the case that the health care system fails the poor and must be remade.)

More recently, we’ve seen a serious re-examination of the notion that a heterosexual woman must have a male partner in her life if she she is to be a mother, or if she simply wants to be made whole. Like its precedents, Fabulation ends with Undine choosing to form a nuclear family with a good man she’s known for only a few weeks— they met in the court-ordered drug-counseling group Undine was wrongly sentenced to attend; it’s a long story—never mind that this guy cannot match her in intellect or ambition. (He’s played by the same actor who plays her bastard husband.) Are we meant to conclude that overvaluing these attributes was a symptom of Undine’s hubris?

None of these questions render the concerns of Fabulation moot, exactly, but they all make it feel more tentative than it may have when it was new. Mosaic Theater’s new production is a showcase that the brilliantly talented Felicia Curry has more than earned, but her performance here is so strident and over-punctuated with dramatic pauses, especially during her many protracted monologues, that it smothers much of the comedy. And once we get past the truly dreadful first 15 minutes, with Undine torturing her assistant with overly specific Starbucks orders and that sort of thing, there is rich comedy to be had.

Curry’s castmates, all of them playing dual roles, are unburdened by her narrative responsibilities, and director Eric Ruffin allows them to cut loose. Aakhu TuahNera Freeman is memorably wry as Undine’s tough cellmate and her smack-addicted grandmother, while Kevin E. Thorne brings a surprising dimension to the piece as Undine’s brother Flow, the member of the family who has the hardest time forgiving her disappearance. When he isn’t lecturing the shoplifters he’s pinched on the legacy of Nelson Mandela, Flow is composing an epic poem about Br’er Rabbit, a trickster with antecedents in West African folklore.

Ruffin’s most substantial flourish is to have the members of Undine’s family perform a “ring shout,” a call-and-response group dance ritual that enslaved people performed to give strength and succor to one another and to commune with their ancestors. It’s the most riveting section of the show, and the only part of it that feels more powerful than it might have in 2004.

—Chris Klimek 1333 H St. NE. $20–$65. (202) 399-7993. mosaictheater.org.

FILMSHORT SUBJECTS

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9

& TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 TICKETS GO ON SALE AT 10AM

Official Secrets

Directed by Gavin Hood In 2019, there’s something quaint about a whistleblower drama like Official Secrets.

Directed efficiently by Gavin Hood (Ender’s Game), it tells the true story of Katharine Gun, a British intelligence agent who tried to stop the Iraq War by leaking state secrets.

The real-life events are worth documenting, and the film holds together nicely. But a good historical film often tells us something about the present, and Official Secrets, with its unblinking faith in the justice system, seems stuck in the past. Its view of corruption reflects none of our era’s chaos.

When we first meet Keira Knightley’s Gun, she is an average citizen, politically aware but not yet active. A translator for a British surveillance agency, she is moved to act when she receives a shocking new assignment—to assist the U.S. government by spying on the leaders of underdeveloped nations in the hopes of blackmailing them to back a UN Resolution supporting the war. Unable to justify her role in propping up what she perceives as an illegal war, she leaks the directive to the press, and quickly finds herself facing the very serious charge of violating the Official Secrets Act, which some call treason.

At the very least, Official Secrets will work marvelously as a fetish item for viewers who get a thrill from watching smart, good-looking people wearing business suits arguing in

well lit conference rooms. First up are the journalists. The leaked document gets into the hands of reporter Martin Bright (The Crown’s Matt Smith), who battles his prowar editors to publish it. He believes in publishing the truth, but they fear damaging their friendly relationship with the prime minister’s office.

After the document is published and Gun is charged, Knightley has some terrific scenes with her Ralph Fiennes-led legal team. Sitting around a conference table, they strike and parry, armed with top-notch dialogue, as they search for a credible defense. Official Secrets is overflowing with characters who believe deeply in their causes—be it a free press, the law, or their opposition to war—and it’s a pleasure to watch this talented cast sink their teeth into such high-stakes material.

The film falters when it depends on character rather than procedure. Gun endures serious risk: Her job, her husband (a Muslim immigrant subject to deportation), and her freedom are all at stake. But we know so little about who she is that the attempt at creating emotional tension falls flat. While it’s stirring to see such passionate anti-war activism represented, Gun is more of a totem for radical patriotism than a human being to invest in.

Political symbols are substantial in their moment, but their value recedes the further away we get. In the face of the overwhelming systemic dangers we face today, individual sacrifices like Gun’s seem almost passé. That’s a symptom of a deeper tragedy, and here’s another: Official Secrets is an effective entry in a genre that has outlived its usefulness.

—Noah Gittell Official Secrets opens Friday at Landmark E Street Cinema and Bethesda Row Cinema.

WINNER OF THE 2019 PULITZER PRIZE FOR DRAMA

PLAYING SEPT 9 THRU OCT 6 WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANY

ONLY AT

WOOLLYMAMMOTH.NET // 202-393-3939

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washingtoncitypaper.com september 6, 2019 23 © 2019 GroundUP Music

© 2019 GroundUP Music

Merriweather Post Pavilion • Columbia, MD THIS THURSDAY!

MORRISSEY

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

w/

THIS SATURDAY!

O.A.R.

Andrew McMahon

Recording their 7th live album!

THIS WEEK’S SHOWS D NIGHT ADDED!

FIRST NIGHT SOLD OUT! SECON

dodie w/ Adam Melchor............................................................................. F SEPT 6 Deerhunter + Dirty Projectors ............................................................... Su 8 Wilder Woods (Bear Rinehart of NEEDTOBREATHE) w/ Rodrick Cliche & Four20s ............................................................................ W 11 SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBER (cont.)

CHICKEN & MUMBO SAUCE PRESENTS

BLISSPOP & U ST MUSIC HALL PRESENT

Crank Karaoke with Live Band, Go-Go Karaoke, and Jam Session featuring Walk Like Walt, Crank Karaoke Band, & DJ Money ...............................F 13 Barns Courtney w/ The Hunna Early Show! 6pm Doors ....................Sa 14 Polo & Pan w/ Mindchatter ......Su 15 Band of Skulls w/ Demob Happy ........................Th 19 Grace VanderWaal w/ Patrick Martin .........................F 20 grandson w/ nothing,nowhere.

BLISSPOP DISCO FEST feat.

The Black Madonna, Josey Rebelle, Wayne Davis & Lisa Moody (Deep Sugar), Amy Douglas, and more! Late Show! 10pm Doors ...F 27 Chromeo (DJ Set), DāM-FunK (DJ

Set), RAC (DJ Set), and more!

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

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

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

THE BENTZEN BALL COMEDY FESTIVAL FEAT.

ROXANE GAY : A Smart, Funny, REAL Afternoon LOS ESPOOKYS LIVE

Matinee Show! 1pm Doors .............................................................................SAT OCT 26 Late Show! 8:30pm Doors ..............................................................................SAT OCT 26

Sasha Velour’s Smoke & Mirrors .........NOVEMBER 11 On Sale Friday, September 6 at 10am

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

Joseph w/ Deep Sea Diver ...........W 2 Caravan Palace Early Show! 6pm Doors. .....................Th 3 Built to Spill - Keep It Like A Secret 20th Anniversary Tour

w/ Prism Bitch & Love As Laughter .F 4 Luna performing Penthouse w/ Olden Yolk Early Show! 6pm Doors. ....................Sa 5

930.com

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

Benjamin Francis Leftwich w/ Abraham Alexander ...............Th SEP 5 Ceremony w/ Choir Boy • Glitterer • Truth Cult ...Tu 10 Black Pumas w/ Rudy De Anda ......Th 12 Wovenhand .............................Su 15

Ticketmaster • For full lineup & more info, visit merriweathermusic.com • impconcerts.com

AN EVENING WITH

9:30 CLUB PRESENTS AT U STREET MUSIC HALL THIS THURSDAY!

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

Tinariwen w/ Lonnie Holley ........ SEP 19

MANY MORE SHOWS ON SALE!

9:30 CUPCAKES

WPOC SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY FEATURING

Jade Bird w/ Flyte Early Show! 6pm Doors. ....................Sa 28

U STREET MUSIC HALL PRESENTS

The Joe Kay Experience A Special 4 Hour Set Late Show! 10pm Doors ...................Sa 21 Ride w/ The Spirit Of The Beehive ..Su 22 Whitney w/ Hand Habits ............M 23 half•alive w/ Sure Sure Early Show! 6pm Doors. .....................F 27

in the Wilderness & American Authors...................SEPT 7

w/

Bleached w/ Paranoyds ...............Tu 17 Louis Cole w/ Thumpasaurus ........Th 19 BANNERS w/ The Man Who .............F 20 Raveena w/ Dianna Lopez .............Su 22 SCARLXRD ...............................W 25 Phum Viphurit w/ ESTEF ............. M 30

The Waterboys ..................... SEP 22

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

THE BYT BENTZEN BALL AN EVENING WITH

MARIA BAMFORD ..................... OCT 24 PETE HOLMES w/ Jamie Lee - LIVE! Early Show! 5:30pm Doors ............... OCT 25

Cat Power w/ Arsun ................... SEP 25 THE NEW NEGROES FEAT. SECOND NIGHT ADDED!

POLITICS AND PROSE PRESENTS

Ta-Nehisi Coates The Water Dancer Book Tour ....SEP 27 (Moderated by Ibram X. Kendi)

BARON VAUGHN • OPEN MIKE EAGLE • DULCE SLOAN • JABOUKIE YOUNG-WHITE • HAYWOOD TURNIPSEED JR. • VIOLET GRAY

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

TIG NOTARO: B ut E nough A Bout Y ou Early Show! 5pm Doors .................... OCT 26

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

Nahko and Medicine AEG PRESENTS for The People w/ Ayla Nereo . SEP 29 Jónsi & Alex Somers -

METROPOLITAN ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS

Riceboy Sleeps

Zaz ................................................... OCT 4 with Wordless Orchestra .......... OCT 28 Natasha Bedingfield ........... OCT 14 X Ambassadors w/ Bear Hands & LPX ....................... OCT 29 The Band Perry w/ Phangs ......................................... OCT 15 Puddles Pity Party w/ Dina Martina Halloween Costume Contest!

AEG PRESENTS Come dressed in your best! ............. OCT 31 Bianca Del Rio It’s Jester Joke ........................ OCT 18 Angel Olsen w/ Vagabon ............NOV 1 Ingrid Michaelson U Up? Live ....................................NOV 4 All 9/24 9:30 Club tickets will be honored. w/ Maddie Poppe ............................. OCT 23 Kishi Bashi ..................................NOV 8 • thelincolndc.com • U Street (Green/Yellow) stop across the street!

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

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

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

HAPPY HOUR DRINK PRICES impconcerts.com AFTER THE SHOW AT THE BACK BAR! 24 september 6, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

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

930.com

CITYLIST

BIG SAM’S

Music 25 Theater 27 Film 28

FUNKY NATION W/ ANDREW DUHON

Music FRIDAY COUNTRY

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

Gretchen Peters. 7:30 p.m. $18–$20. citywinery.com.

ELECTRONIC

ECHOSTAGE 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Lost Kings. 9 p.m. $25. echostage.com.

GO-GO

THE RONALD REAGAN BUILDING AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTER 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. (202) 312-1300. Sirius Company featuring Scooby and Ms. Kim. Noon. Free. itcdc.com.

POP

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

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

Phantogram. 8 p.m. $40–$75. theanthemdc.com.

SONGBYRD MUSIC HOUSE AND RECORD CAFE 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Emily Blue. 9 p.m. Free. songbyrddc.com.

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

Crooked Colours. 7 p.m. $15–$20. ustreetmusichall.com.

ROCK

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. BoDeans & Dan Tedesco. 8 p.m. $32–$45. citywinery.com.

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

Young Dubliners. 6:30 p.m. $19.75–$29.75. thehamiltondc.com.

WORLD

BLACK CAT 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. Mdou Moctar & Boogarins. 8 p.m. $18–$20. blackcatdc.com.

SATURDAY COUNTRY

JIFFY LUBE LIVE 7800 Cellar Door Drive, Bristow.

(703) 754-6400. Jason Aldean. 7:30 p.m. $29–$357. livenation.com.

WOLF TRAP FILENE CENTER 1551 Trap Road, Vienna.

(703) 255-1900. Kacey Musgraves. 8 p.m. $35–$138. wolftrap.org.

CITY LIGHTS: FRIDAY

THURSDAY SEPT

BOUKMAN EKSPERYANS

The third annual Flash of the Spirit international music festival kicks off this year with Boukman Eksperyans, a Haitian band that got its name from a vodou priest, Dutty Boukman, who helped lead that country’s 1791 revolution, and from the last word in The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The Portau-Prince based combo, which has been together in various configurations since 1978, combines polyrhythmic carnival beats and rock guitar with spiritual and activist call-and-response vocals. Led by Theodore “Lòlò” Beaubrun and his wife Mimerose “Manzè” Beaubrun, the group has long drawn from Haiti’s African-rooted Vodou religion and music as well as from Bob Marley’s socio-political messages. Lyrically, that has meant songs such as 1991’s “Ke’m Pa Sote,” which featured French Creole lyrics decrying the conditions under Raoul Cédras’ military dictatorship. It also meant that the group feared for their own lives and went into exile for a period. Back in Haiti again, their 2018 album, Isit E Kounyea La, has an English language song called “Who’s Going to Change the World,” and some rapped verses, too. The album sounds best when singer Manzè Beaubrun takes the lead. Her robust yet melodic vocals are ideal for powering Boukman’s moral missives and danceable sound. Boukman Eksperyans perform at 7:30 p.m. at Tropicalia, 2001 14th St. NW. $20. (202) 629-4535. tropicaliadc.com.

—Steve Kiviat

KENNEDY CENTER MILLENNIUM STAGE 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. The Chuck Brown Band with Bootsy Collins. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

POP

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Hatchie. 8:30 p.m. $15. dcnine.com.

SONGBYRD MUSIC HOUSE AND RECORD CAFE 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Joey Pecoraro. 8 p.m. $10–$12. songbyrddc.com.

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

SG Lewis. 7 p.m. $15–$25. ustreetmusichall.com.

THU, SEPT 12

CEG & NOLAFUNK PRESENT

ELISE TESTONE’S ALL-STAR AMY WINEHOUSE BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE

FEAT. MEMBERS OF TREY ANASTASIO BAND, PRINCE, SNARKY PUPPY, & MORE SAT, SEPT 14

NEWMYER FLYER PRESENTS

AN ALLEN TOUSSAINT DANCE PARTY WED, SEPT 18

ROCK

SUNDAY CLASSICAL

KENNEDY CENTER REACH 2700 F St. NW. (202) 4674600. Brandee Younger. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

COUNTRY

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. Seven Voices: A Tribute to Patsy Cline. 7:30 p.m. $15–$25. citywinery.com.

ROCK

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Deerhunter + Dirty Projectors. 7 p.m. $35. 930.com.

BOWLING

CHATHAM COUNTY LINE

MONDAY

ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY “JAZZ GOES TO THE MOVIES”

POP

UNION STAGE 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. Jupiter Coyote. 3:30 p.m. $20. unionstage.com.

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. Tony Terry. 7 p.m. $32–$45. citywinery.com.

THE LEGENDARY WAILERS FEAT. JULIAN “JUNIOR” MARVIN

SUN, SEPT 22

ELECTRONIC

FUNK & R&B

SAT, SEPT 7

UNION STAGE 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487.

Stabbing Westward. 7:30 p.m. $30. unionstage.com.

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

Girl in Red. 7 p.m. $15. ustreetmusichall.com.

HILL COUNTRY BARBECUE 410 7th St. NW. (202) 556-2050. Paleface. 9:30 p.m. $10. hillcountry.com.

SEPT 6

W/ THE DIRTY GRASS PLAYERS

MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. (410) 715-5550. O.A.R. 6:30 p.m. $45.50–$75.50. merriweathermusic.com.

FOLK

FRIDAY

FRI, SEPT 20

DJ NIGHTS

ECHOSTAGE 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Audien + Tritonal. 9 p.m. $30. echostage.com.

W/ DUBLIN 5

SONGBYRD MUSIC HOUSE AND RECORD CAFE 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Ryley Walker and Wild Pink. 8 p.m. $15. songbyrddc.com.

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

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

DUBLINERS

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

Babymetal. 8 p.m. $52–$300. theanthemdc.com.

BLACK CAT 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. Boris. 8 p.m. $20. blackcatdc.com.

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

Hot Chip. 10:30 p.m. $10–$20. ustreetmusichall.com.

the YOUNG

AN EVENING WITH HOLLY

GO-GO

5

ROCK

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Two Door Cinema Club. 7 p.m. $45. 930.com.

AN EVENING WITH

FRI, SEPT 27

AN EVENING WITH

DAVE STRYKER EIGHT TRACK BAND SAT, SEPT 28

KAT WRIGHT W/ THE RAD TRADS

SONGBYRD MUSIC HOUSE AND RECORD CAFE 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Jesse Marchant. 9 p.m.

Free. songbyrddc.com.

TUE, OCT 1

WORLD

JIMMY HERRING AND THE 5 OF 7

RHIZOME DC 6950 Maple St. NW. Sihasin and Les Filles de Illighadad. 2:30 p.m. $20. rhizomedc.org.

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

FRI, OCT 4

THE STEEL WHEELS

TUESDAY POP

UNION STAGE 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487.

Ashe. 8 p.m. unionstage.com.

THEHAMILTONDC.COM washingtoncitypaper.com september 6, 2019 25

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

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

Tix @ Ticketmaster.com

CITY LIGHTS: SATURDAY

RAGING BULL

STEVEN ’N’ SEAGULLS

presented by

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

TUESDAY, SEPT. 17 || $15ADV/$20DOS

H

9/6 FRI 9/7 SAT 9/12 THU 9/13 FRI 9/17 TUE 9/19 THU 9/20 FRI 9/20 FRI 9/21 SAT 9/26 THU 9/27 FRI 9/28 SAT 9/29 SUN 10/3 THU 10/5 SAT 10/9 WED 10/10 THU 10/11 FRI 10/12 SAT 10/14 MON

H

THE JAKOB’S FERRY STRAGGLERS / COLEBROOK ROAD $10/$13 PALEFACE $10/$12 THE 9 SINGER SONGWRITER SERIES $12/$15 JOE HERTLER & THE RAINBOW SEEKERS + STOP LIGHT OBSERVATIONS $15/$18 STEVE’N’SEAGULLS $15/$20 MATTHEW MAYFIELD BAND $12/$15 EARLY SHOW WITH HUDSON MOORE BAND 8PM $12/$15 LATE SHOW WITH THE DETROIT COBRAS 10PM $15/$20 TRAGEDY: ALL METAL TRIBUTE TO THE BEE GEES & BEYOND $12/$15 PIERCE EDENS AND ROB BAIRD $12/$15 WILD ADRIATIC + BELLA’S BARTOK $12/$15 MO LOWDA & THE HUMBLE+ PATRICK SWEANY BAND $15/$20 ROANOKE W/ KENTUCKY AVENUE $10/$12 CHUCK HAWTHORNE + GREYHOUNDS $15 AFTER FUNK + OF TOMORROW $10/$12 ANDREA VON KAMPEN+ IRA WOLF $12/$15 LITTLE BIRD $10/$12 MYSTIC BOWIE’S TALKING DREADS (TALKING HEADS TRIBUTE) $15 SUNNY LEDFORD W/ PONYTAILS & COCKTAILS $15/$20 SLAID CLEAVES $22/$28

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

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

THE FABULOUS HUBCAPS 7 DANNY GATTON BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION! Sept 6

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

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

8

"Remembering Doc: A TRIBUTE TO DOC WATSON"

with T. Michael Coleman, Jack Lawrence, Wayne Henderson

THE MANHATTANS featuring GERALD ALSTON 14 An Evening with MAYSA 13

15

The Trifecta of Folk Tour:

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

22

A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE TO ROY BUCHANAN

Martin Scorsese’s best protagonists are snowflakes. Tommy DeVito, Rupert Pupkin, and Jordan Belfort are all aspects of male insecurity personified, but perhaps no other Scorsese character is as singularly driven by paranoia and fear as Jake LaMotta. LaMotta, portrayed in Raging Bull by a tweaked-out Robert De Niro, was a real-life middleweight boxer, but the movie makes him into a creature of Scorsese’s New York. It’s a city crawling with priests and gangsters, honeycombed with ratty apartments and smoky clubs. In Raging Bull, Scorsese develops this familiar world in stark black and chrome and exposes it as a cesspool of toxic masculinity. Though in theory, this is a boxing movie, the fights don’t advance the plot. Instead, they are projections of LaMotta’s psyche, an arena where he can unleash hate, seek retribution, and set himself up for a tragic fall.

To this end, Scorsese makes the ring a surreal Hell by blending the screams of jungle animals into crowd noises. Explosions from the paparazzi’s flashbulbs (on which the production spent $90,000 when all was said and done) are enhanced by the sound of glass being crushed. Amid these sensory horrors, Raging Bull deconstructs the legends that modern warriors like LaMotta craft, protect, fetishize, and—in fits of the very rage that enabled them to achieve such Olympian heights—destroy. The film screens at 5:25 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. $8–$13. (301) 495-6700. afi.com/silver.

—Will Lennon

with Billy Price, Mike Zito & more!

25

/Fath RICK WAKEMAN Kaula

"Grumpy Old Rock Star Tour"

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

with DARRIN BRADBURY

2

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE with special guest JESSE MALIN

TALL THE PAPER KITES HEIGHTS 4&5 KINDRED THE FAMILY SOUL 6 GARY PUCKETT AND THE UNION GAP 7 KEIKO MATSUI 9 OTTMAR LIEBERT & LUNA NEGRA

3

26 september 6, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

CITY LIGHTS: SUNDAY

DEERHUNTER

Deerhunter had been working in the indie music scene for years before their breakout album Cryptograms threw them into the spotlight in 2007 and their expansive, genrebending Halcyon Digest cemented their place in the decade’s indie rock canon. The band was founded by a group of Atlanta outcasts in 2001, who came together under an arbitrarily chosen name—one frontman Bradford Cox hates, apparently—and survived two bandmates’ deaths, put together four studio albums, and opened for bands like Nine Inch Nails, Spoon, and The Smashing Pumpkins. Cox, the band’s lead singer and most recognizable member, is a force of nature onstage. He towers over the crowd—he’s notoriously tall and skinny and talks openly about Marfan syndrome, the genetic disorder that helped make him that way—and provides color commentary onstage, just as he’s known to in interviews and online (when asked if “Breaker,” a track from 2015’s Fading Frontier, was a pop song, he told the Observer “I could say it’s a used battery, you know? I could say it’s a discarded condom.”) Cox and his longtime bandmates will play tunes from their contemplative new release, Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?, at a show they’re co-headlining with shapeshifting indie collective Dirty Projectors. Deerhunter perform at 7 p.m. at 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $35. (202) 265-0930.

930.com.

—Emma Sarappo

CITY LIGHTS: MONDAY

RACHEL MONROE

Many of the headlines for reviews of Rachel Monroe’s new book Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession ask things like “why do we find true crime fascinating?” But Monroe’s book isn’t concerned with a generic “we.” It specifically asks why women are drawn to narratives where other women are raped, brutalized, kidnapped, and murdered. That group includes Monroe herself, who uses the book to dissect her own fascination with these gory, frightening tales. The women she profiles represent different archetypes of true crime lovers—the amateur sleuth, the murderer’s fangirl, the voice for victims— but each is connected to impulses in the heavily saturated genre market that we can easily see among our favorite directors, podcast hosts, and authors. Savage Appetites also looks squarely at true crime’s obsession with white, youthful, virginal women and the real-life consequences of using the justice system to soothe our most neurotic fears about violence. But Monroe understands that in true crime, the very real terror of living in a violent, misogynistic culture is discussed openly—and that can be irresistible. Rachel Monroe speaks at 7 p.m. at Solid State Books, 600 H St. NE. Free. (202) 897-4201. solidstatebooksdc.com.

—Emma Sarappo

ROCK

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Two Door Cinema Club. 7 p.m. $45. 930.com.

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. The Vibrators.

8 p.m. $15. dcnine.com.

SONGBYRD MUSIC HOUSE AND RECORD CAFE 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Luke Temple. 8 p.m. $12– $15. songbyrddc.com.

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

Ceremony. 7 p.m. $15. ustreetmusichall.com.

WORLD

HILL CENTER AT THE OLD NAVAL HOSPITAL 921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. (202) 549-4172. Che Apalache.

7 p.m. $18–$20. hillcenterdc.org.

JAZZ

KENNEDY CENTER REACH 2700 F St. NW. (202) 4674600. Soloman Howard, Afro Blue, and The Mellow Tones. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

POP

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

Black Pumas. 7 p.m. $15. ustreetmusichall.com.

ROCK

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

Judah & the Lion. 8 p.m. $35–$100. theanthemdc.com.

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

King Crimson. 8 p.m. $82–$335. warnertheatredc.com.

KENNEDY CENTER REACH 2700 F St. NW. (202) 4674600. Keali’i Reichel. 6 p.m. Free. kennedy-center.org.

ELECTRONIC

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

Ed Rush & Optical with Mampi Swift. 10:30 p.m. $10– $20. ustreetmusichall.com.

POP

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Wilder Woods. 7 p.m. $25. 930.com.

SONGBYRD MUSIC HOUSE AND RECORD CAFE 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. The National Parks. 8 p.m. $13–$15. songbyrddc.com.

ROCK

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

Peter Frampton. 7:30 p.m. $76–$1,076. theanthemdc.com.

BLACK CAT 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. The Messthetics. 7:30 p.m. $15–$18. blackcatdc.com.

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. The Supersuckers. 6 p.m. $17–$20. citywinery.com.

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Future Thieves. 7:30 p.m. $15. dcnine.com.

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

Fontaines D.C. 7 p.m. $15. ustreetmusichall.com.

THURSDAY ELECTRONIC

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

Jlin. 10:30 p.m. $10–$20. ustreetmusichall.com.

FUNK & R&B

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

Elise Testone. 6:30 p.m. $22–$32. thehamiltondc.com.

HIP-HOP

UNION STAGE 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487.

Dominic Fike. 8 p.m. $20–$40. unionstage.com.

Theater

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

BUTTERFLY The Puccini classic Madame Butterfly is given new life in a version stripped of the artifice and exoticism of the original. Performances will be in English and in Italian, so audiences can choose how to experience the dynamic opera. Source Theatre. 1835 14th St. NW. To Sept. 22. $21–$46. (202) 204-7800. sourcedc.org.

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

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

LA VIDA ES SUEÑO La Vida es Sueño by Pedro Calderón de la Barca and directed by Hugo Medrano with adaptations by Nando J. López is about free will, destiny, and tyranny. It will be presented in Spanish with English subtitles. GALA Hispanic Theatre. 3333 14th St. NW. To Oct. 13. (202) 234-7174. galatheatre.org.

By

Heidi Schreck

Directed by

Oliver Butler

Photo: Jill Greenberg

WEDNESDAY

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT. TWO WEEKS ONLY!

September 11–22 Eisenhower Theater

Groups call (202) 416-8400

Kennedy-Center.org

For all other ticket-related customer service inquiries, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540

(202) 467-4600

Theater at the Kennedy Center is made possible by

Kennedy Center Theater Season Sponsor

LOVE SICK Based on The Song of Songs, Love Sick tells the story a young wife in a lifeless marriage who

washingtoncitypaper.com september 6, 2019 27

discovers she has a secret admirer and begins a mysterious, dizzying journey of sexual and personal empowerment. Theater J. 1529 16th St. NW. To Sept.

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

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

LIVE MUSIC | BOURBON | BURGERS

SEPTEMBER WE 4 HAPPY HOUR SERIES FEATURING SUNNY WAR TH 5

NIGHT OF AFROBEAT FEATURING TONY ADE “SERAPHIC ALPHA” TOUR

FR 6

AUDACITY BRASS BAND

SA 7

VIRGINIA COALITION (VACO) w/ STRONG WATER

TH 12 CYCLES w/ JONNY GRAVE TRIO FR 13 LATIN CELEBRATION WITH ELENA & LOS FULANOS (VOLCÁN RECORD RELEASE) AND CRISSA PAZ (BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION)

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

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

WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME This play

by Heidi Schreck—a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize— follows Schreck’s reckoning with our founding document from the perspective of her 15-year-old and current selves. Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. 2700 F St. NW. To Sept. 22. $49–$169. (202) 4674600. kennedy-center.org.

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

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

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

SA 14 SERATONES w/HANORAH TH 19 MAGGIE KOERNER w/ JEREMIE ALBINO FR 20 THE LONG RYDERS w/ JOE NOLAN SA 21 JUSTIN TRAWICK AND THE COMMON GOOD RYAN JOHNSON AND THE UNSUNG HEROES TH 26 KITCHEN DWELLER FR 27 JONAH TOLCHIN SA 28 (7:00PM) TAMECA JONES SA 28 (11:30PM) PHOAM (A TRIBUTE TO PHISH) SU 29 WESTERN CENTURIES w/ DIRTY MAE

OCTOBER TH 3

DAN BERN “REGENT STREET” ALBUM RELEASE

FR 4

THE POWELL BROTHERS w/ THE WALKAWAYS

SA 5

AUSTIN PLAINE

SU 6

MARTI JONES & DON DIXON

TH 10 JAMIE McLEAN BAND THE ROCK-A-SONICS FR 11 CHOPTEETH TU 15 THE CANVAS PEOPLE

pearlstreetwarehouse.com

FOLLOW US @PEARLSTREETLIVE 33 PEARL ST SW DC •THE WHARF

Film ANGEL HAS FALLEN A secret service agent is framed for murdering the President—and has to solve the mystery while evading the FBI. Starring Gerard Butler, Frederick Schmidt, and Danny Huston. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) AQUARELA This documentary follows the power of water and ice across the globe. Directed by Victor Kossakovsky. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON A New York woman changes her life by training for a marathon. Starring Jillian Bell, Jennifer Dundas, and Patch Darragh. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) COCO Miguel leaves his home, where music is banned, and enters the Land of the Dead to find his ancestor, a famous musician. Starring Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, and Benjamin Bratt. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) DON’T LET GO A man’s family is murdered—but then he gets a call from his supposedly dead niece. Starring Byron Mann, Storm Reid, and Mykelti Williamson. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) THE GOLDFINCH Based on the novel by Donna Tartt, this film follows a boy in New York after his mother is killed by a bomb at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Starring Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson, and Ansel Elgort. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) IT CHAPTER TWO A phone call brings the Losers’ Club back to Derry 27 years after they first battled the evil creature Pennywise. Starring Bill Skarsgård, Jessica Chastain, and James McAvoy. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information OFFICIAL SECRETS A British whistleblower makes a 2003 illegal NSA spy operation public. Starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, and Ralph Fiennes. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) READY OR NOT A wedding night goes wrong when a bride’s new in-laws force her into a dangerous and deadly game. Starring Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, and Mark O’Brien. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

28 september 6, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

CITY LIGHTS: TUESDAY

CEREMONY

Some bands develop a niche, nurture that sound, and then slightly refine it throughout their career. And then there is a band like Ceremony, straight out of Rohnert Park, California, whose musical restlessness has led them through numerous phases that have ranged from power violence (it sounds exactly like what you’d think) to gloomy post-punk. 2012’s Zoo first extricated the band from the confines of traditional hardcore, while 2015’s The L-Shaped Man, a record that wore its Joy Division influences like a formfitting black duster, moved toward the bleaker side of things. The recently released In the Spirit World Now delves deeper into the ’80s for inspiration, but substitutes its former dourness with jauntier new wave leanings—think the Goth flair of mid-era The Damned mixed with Devo and The Human League. Case in point: Ceremony have taken to covering Gary Numan’s synth-pop hit “Cars,” sandwiching the glossy ode to urban alienation between its older blasts of thrashing fury. Ceremony perform at 7 p.m. at U Street Music Hall, 1115 U St. NW. $15. (202) 588-1889. ustreetmusichall.com.

—Matt Siblo

CITY LIGHTS: WEDNESDAY

MALCOLM GLADWELL

Making sense of strangers is more difficult than one might think— or so Malcolm Gladwell argues in his new book, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know. Drawing on new interpretations of case studies including the trial of Amanda Knox, the death of Sandra Bland, and the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal that rocked Penn State, the podcast host and bestselling author examines how humans assess individuals they’ve never met. In sitcoms like Friends, Gladwell writes, characters’ inner workings are evidenced by their facial expressions, but in real life, outward displays of emotion don’t always align with people’s private thoughts. This disconnect, in conjunction with the prevailing assumption that others are typically telling the truth—consider, for example, how long Bernie Madoff was able to keep winning new clients’ confidence, or the fact that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain initially viewed Adolf Hitler as a “a man who could be relied upon when he had given his word”—can lead to encounters with potentially devastating consequences. Talking to Strangers outlines the manifold ways in which a meeting of unknown parties could go wrong; but the book posits that at the same time, society wouldn’t be able to function without some degree of implicit trust. Gladwell will discuss his findings with Sam Sanders, host of NPR’s It’s Been a Minute, during a live taping of the show. Malcolm Gladwell speaks at 7 p.m. at the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University, 730 21st St. NW. $40. (202) 994-6800. lisner.gwu.edu.

—Meilan Solly

CITY LIGHTS: THURSDAY

JLIN

Jerrilynn Patton—known by her stage name Jlin—seemingly emerged fully formed, like Athena from Zeus’ head. Out of nowhere, a track by the erstwhile Gary, Indiana, steelworker appeared on the second volume of Planet Mu’s influential footwork compilation Bangs and Works back in 2011, and Patton has been ascendant since. Her 2015 debut Dark Energy lived up to its title, exploring the recesses and mysteries of footwork, the Chicago-born electronic dance music style known for repetitive loops and frenetic tempos. But it was her follow-up, 2017’s Black Origami, that truly demonstrated the eldritch forces that Patton had mastered. Black Origami uses footwork as a jumping off point, and then falls into the void, mixing musical influences from around the world into a hypnotic vision of dance music’s present-future. Featuring collaboration with underground favorites William Basinski and Holly Herndon and drawing comparisons to the groundbreaking work of Aphex Twin, Black Origami also established Jlin as a leading figure in electronic music—even if that seemed clear from the very beginning. Jlin performs at 10:30 p.m. at U Street Music Hall, 1115 U St. NW. $10–$20. (202) 588-1889. ustreetmusichall.com.

—Chris Kelly

SAVAGELOVE I don’t listen to your podcast religiously, but as soon as I told my best friend this story, she said, “That’s a question for Dan Savage!” Backstory: I have a monogamous partner who I live with. It’s a heterosexual relationship, but we are both bisexual. That little inkling of homosexuality really drew me to him when we first met. He also told me early on about his previous girlfriend, who looked like a “suicide girl” (tattoos, short skirts, dyed black hair, heavy eye makeup) but had serious issues (they had sex only 10 times in three years). I’m by no means a suicide girl. I’m pretty average looking with natural hair and no tattoos. I don’t wear makeup, and I have an affinity for baggy T-shirts and jeans. I love having sex but rarely do I present myself as “sexy.” Recently I learned that my boyfriend follows hundreds of women on Instagram, and 95 percent of them look absolutely nothing like me. (Remember the hot suicide-girl girlfriend? They mostly look like her.) It made me really upset. I felt insecure about myself. I felt distrustful of his positive comments about how I look, like he doesn’t actually think I’m sexy. It certainly doesn’t help that I want to have sex way more often than he does. He’s always “tired.” I was angry at him and instantly craving to go back to a sexual relationship with past partners who thought I was the bee’s knees.

He has no idea why I would be upset. He says he feels like he’s supporting these women and that they feel “empowered” by all the men leaving comments like “Show me your boobs” and “I wanna shove my cock in you.” He says he deleted his Instagram just to make me happy, but I still feel shitty about the whole thing. Am I being oversensitive? Is he being insensitive? Could we be sexually incompatible? At this point, I’m ready to look outside of our relationship for sexual interactions.

—Your Very Ordinary Instagram Girl I don’t listen to your podcast, either, YVOIG, so that makes us even. (I assume you have a podcast. Everyone does these days.)

Zooming out: If we’re going to tell people they shouldn’t be so shallow as to date only their “ideal” physical types and we’re going to tell people they can learn to find a broader array of people attractive and we’re going to tell people they can find a person’s insides so attractive that they warm to their outside—and it’s mostly men people we tell these things, as women people seem less hung up on/entitled to their physical ideals—then we also need to tell people not to freak the fuck out when they stumble over evidence that they aren’t their partner’s ideal physical type. Additionally, we need to tell people that just because their partner has a particular type, that doesn’t mean their partner isn’t also attracted to them.

Zooming in: You don’t have a great sex life with your boyfriend, YVOIG, as you seem to have mismatched libidos—and one partner “al-

ways” being tired isn’t a problem that gets better over time. These are both signs that you probably need to end this relationship. (Already looking outside your monogamous relationship for sexual interactions? Another sign.) But you can end things without having a meltdown about the fact that your soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend was also or usually or, hell, even exclusively with one notable exception (YOU!) attracted to “suicide girl” types.

Instead of telling yourself that every compliment your soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend ever gave you was a lie, you could tell yourself that while your soonto-be-ex-boyfriend definitely has a type, he also found you attractive. Because you are attractive.

You’re so attractive that you caught his eye despite not being his usual type.

If your sex-positive friends give you any more grief about the age difference, give them grief about their ageism and misogyny.

In other words, YVOIG, you don’t have to feed your self-esteem into a shredder as you end this relationship.

—Dan Savage P.S. Your soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend may have deleted his old Instagram account, but I promise you he quickly created another one. And here’s hoping your soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend only directs “empowering” comments like “I wanna shove my cock in you” at the kind of people on Instagram who regard those types of comments as “supportive.” They’re out there—men and women—but there are fewer of them out there than too many men, gay and straight, seem to believe there are.

someone is hopelessly perverted or disqualifying, LEASH, but because they’ve never imagined themselves peeing on someone or keeping a boyfriend on a leash. The request conjures up a mental image that conflicts with a person’s selfconception—they never thought of themselves as the peeing-on-other-people or keeping-theboyfriend-on-a-leash type—and nervous laughter is a common response to that particular brand of cognitive dissonance. It would be better if people didn’t have this reaction, of course, but you should brace yourself for it, laugh/shrug it off, and then proceed to explain why this is such a turn-on for you and what’s in it for her. (It sounds like a pretty easy way for her to crank you up when she’s feeling horny.)

If the reactions of the last three girlfriends left you scared and scarred, LEASH, tell your current girlfriend via text. (“Hey, remember when you asked if I had a kink? I do: being on a leash.”)

Then, if her first reaction is to laugh, you won’t be there to hear it. You might get a “LOL, what?” in response, but don’t let it shut you down. Keep texting, keep it light and playful, show her that you have a sense of humor about it … and you could finally end up on that leash.

—DS I’m a 43-year-old woman who has been enjoying the company of a much younger man (he’s 24).

His energy, enthusiasm, and straight-up bravery in the face of the current horrors of the world are giving me a renewed sense of purpose. Plus, the sex is phenomenal. What’s giving me pause is that my generally sex-positive friends are deeply creeped out by this relationship due to our age difference. He lives on his own, he has a degree and a career, and he supports himself—so this isn’t a “sugar mama” situation. I have no authority over him in any capacity. I also have no delusions of this lasting forever. Am I really so wrong for enjoying this while I can? My friend circle includes all manner of kinky and queer folks, so their reaction is really throwing me for a loop.

—This Older Woman Needs Youth

I’m a 28-year-old straight guy with one kink: I want to be collared and on a leash. That’s it. In private. Basically, I just want to curl up at my girlfriend’s feet with the leash in her hand. Just me on the floor next to the couch while she watches television, or me on the floor next to the bed while she reads. I’ve had three serious girlfriends, and all three laughed in my face when I told them about this. I’m dating a girl now that I like a lot, and she actually asked me if I had any kinks, and I couldn’t bring myself to tell her. I’m worried about her laughing in my face, too.

—Laughter Erases All Sexual Hopes

My hunch is that your sex-positive friends have made two assumptions. First, they’ve assumed you have more power in this relationship because you’re older (as if youth and maleness don’t confer their own powers!). And, second, they seem to have assumed you have to be abusing your power somehow. It’s a legitimate concern—power is so often abused, and we should all be thoughtful about it. But “often abused” does not equal “always abused,” TOWNY, and in no way are you abusing this grown-ass 24-yearold man. If your sex-positive friends give you any more grief about the age difference, give them grief about their ageism and misogyny. —DS

People often have knee-jerk, sex-negative reactions to kinky requests not because they necessarily think peeing on someone or leashing

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

Scene and

Heard Requiem for a Scooter, August 2019 I used to run this town.

I have conquered its sidewalks, roads, and bike lanes. I have taken well suited young professionals downtown, lest they get too sweaty biking or walking in the August heat.

I have helped tourists misidentify the monuments and snap pictures in front of the Department of the Treasury, thinking it the White House. I have brought you back from work and happy hours and school. You have welcomed me as a friend into your home to recharge while you sleep.

When one of my brothers erupted in flame, I continued on.

Yes, I used to run this town.

Now I am decapitated. My handlebars sit just inches from my body as I lie, unceremoniously, in a patch of grass off 14th Street NW. I should be taking you to boozy brunch, like I did in my salad days, but no, I am decapitated.

I always knew I would one day scoot off this mortal coil—we all do—but there was so much more I longed to do. I wanted to circumnavigate the Tidal Basin in spring.

I wanted to go leaf peeping in Rock Creek Park. I wanted to race a moped.

Oh, how I long for the warm touch of your hand! For the quick, furtive glance of a QR code scanner. I wanted to bring you from one Metro-less neighborhood to another.

Just one more time.

But alas, I am decapitated.

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

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11 Mountainous region of northern Israel 12 Periodictable item 13 Hurting souls 19 GHWB's successor 21 Power brokers 24 Big-ticket ___ 25 Burst upon, as a stage 26 Long fingernails 27 Brief confession 28 Character study 33 Scenic view 36 ___ Casspi (first Israeli to play in the NBA) 37 Airplane assignment 38 Not good, but not bad 39 "___ may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."

(Frank Sinatra) 40 Valvoline product 41 They sometimes get the house 44 Holder of secrets that conspiracy theorists really want their hands on 45 Rationally defensible 46 "Take Me to the River" singer 49 Record Store Day purchases 51 Versailles monarch 52 Fantasy ringbearer 53 Put in stitches 58 "I'll pass" 59 New Nordic Hair ___ (baldness product) 60 Play a part 61 See 62-Across 62 With 61-Across, vehicle used in drag racing

WHERE'S THE BEEF?

By Brendan Emmett Quigley

1 Lorenzo of the Brewers 5 LOVE sculptor ___ Indiana 11 Bosch alternatives 14 Large boats 15 Bush that blooms in the spring 16 In the style of 17 Author Stibbe 18 Boxer grimaced?

20 Orange Is the New Black star Aduba 21 Charged particle 22 Guitar god who had an Experience, to fans 23 Spots where the victors all hang together?

29 Makes bootees, say 30 Movie tough guy Ray 31 Dr. who treats vertigo and sleep apnea 32 Super-satisfy 33 Slowness metaphor 34 Anal probe overseers, supposedly 35 "Russia's capital is DA BOMB!"?

Across

39 Sure shot 42 Intends 43 Shaving product that sounds like when you might use it 47 Fish for breakfast 48 Completely transfixed 49 It's similar to slander 50 What an assistant to Robert Schumann did for his 1st Symphony?

54 Mixture of everything 55 Scale parts 56 Distance of a proverbial epic journey 57 Freaking out, and a hint to the theme answers 62 Conform 63 Washington bill 64 Defender room 65 Lille lady 66 Some NFL linemen 67 Dragster's wheels 68 Typical Insta user

Down

1 Hockey team with an orca in its logo

2 Big name in shit iced tea 3 Phrase said when the lights turn on?

4 Anti-Russian election meddling org.

5 Unwanted discovery in home inspections 6 Form of oxygen 7 It's got the goods 8 1/3 of a gallon 9 RV part: Abbr.

10 The way, out East

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