Washington City Paper (October 25, 2019)

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FREE VOLUME 39, NO. 43 WASHINGTONCITYPAPER.COM OCT. 25-31, 2019

FESTIVAL SPECTACLES The cranky victims of failed food festivals have questions.

Festival planners and food business owners have answers about their risky industry. P. 12

By Laura Hayes

2 october 25, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

INSIDE

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COVER STORY: FESTIVAL SPECTACLES

12 The messy business of planning and executing food festivals

DISTRICT LINE 4 Tunnel Vision: NoMa residents whine about the smell of homeless encampments in emails to city leaders.

6 Death and Delay: A Congress Heights woman who delivered a stillborn baby faults her wait for an ambulance.

SPORTS 8

Fanning the Flames: Tips for jumping on the Nationals’ bandwagon from City Paper reporters who saw pennants raised in other cities 10 The Nationals Pastime: Longtime fans reflect on what the Nats’ World Series berth means to them.

ARTS 18 A Walk to Remember: Poet Kim Roberts leads a literary tour of U Street NW. 20 Collective Action: Three local authors discuss their newest poetry collections.

22 Short Subjects: Gittell on Jojo Rabbit

DARROW MONTGOMERY

CITY LIST 25 27 28 28

Music Books Theater Film

DIVERSIONS 29 Savage Love 30 Classifieds 31 Crossword On the cover: Photo illustrations by Darrow Montgomery and Julia Terbrock

700 BLOCK OF 15TH STREET NW, OCT. 18

EDITORIAL

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

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DISTRICTLINE Tunnel Vision

Darrow Montgomery/File

In emails to city officials, NoMa residents call for underpass encampments to be cleared.

By Chelsea Cirruzzo On a crisp October morning, the residents of the K Street NE underpass were in full motion. They gathered up their belongings in large black garbage bags or wrapped them in tarps. Others collapsed tents. One tent, seemingly empty, had writing on it in halting black ink: DO NOT TOUCH. NOT ABANDONED. Aaron Howe, a Ph.D. candidate at American University completing their dissertation on the encampments, walked briskly between the makeshift communities on M Street NE and K Street NE, pausing to give one unsheltered resident cigarettes.

By 10 a.m., city officials would be there to clean the area and, by then, all tents and personal property needed to be removed for a couple of hours or disposed of.

With an hour to go and a city official on scene providing trash bags, the atmosphere was calm—the kind of calm that comes with focused, familiar labor. But there was a layer of tension underneath.

Just 12 years ago, the thousands of people living in the area reaching north of Massachusetts Avenue near Union Station wouldn’t have known what NoMa even was. The area was rebranded when the NoMa Business Improvement District formed in 2007.

That same BID posted a controversial open letter on Aug. 21, 2019. Signed by NoMa BID president Robin-Eve Jasper, the letter said the conditions in the underpass encampments were worsening. Jasper wrote of complaints that detailed bloody needles, harassment, and rotting food. She called for more focus on what the BID said

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was the core of homelessness: mental health and substance use disorders.

The letter also called on NoMa residents to contact Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen and Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage with complaints.

The reaction to the letter was swift. Advocates, including the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (NLCHP) and community nonprofit HIPS, hit back, calling the letter dehumanizing. Both said the focus should be on supportive housing where people experiencing homelessness can also receive mental health treatment, job training, and other services.

Encamped residents also said the letter was harsh, coming just days after someone was found dead in a nearby tent.

When City Paper wrote about the letter in

August, few residents would say they wanted the people living in the underpasses to leave.

City Paper perused comments left on social media and online forums regarding the underpasses, and just one resident, who would only identify herself as Kate, would tell City Paper she agreed. Kate insisted that the people in the underpasses wanted to live there to avoid paying rent.

But in emails to the city, NoMa residents showed different colors. A Freedom of Information Act request to Turnage’s office and Allen’s reveals both the contents of these emails and the demands the BID made of city officials in the months leading up to Jasper’s public letter.

Today, the city is weighing legislation to modify the encampments and create pedestrian-only passages that would separate the encamped individuals from other NoMa residents.

The ciTy esTablished an encampment protocol, or clean-up process for the tent communities, back in 2005, according to Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless attorney Ann Staudenmaier.

Known fully as the Protocol for the Disposition of Property Found on Public Space and Outreach to Displaced Persons, it outlines the roles of various D.C. departments, including DMHHS, Metropolitan Police Department, and the District Department of Transportation in engaging with encampments. It states what the city can and cannot do with property within the encampments.

It allows the city, for example, to dispose of unclaimed property left in public spaces, but prevents the city from throwing out certain items, including identification documents, functional tents, and bikes. These must be stored by the city. It also outlines the process of standard disposition, the cleanup process that is scheduled two weeks in advance, and immediate disposition, an urgent clean-up process when a complaint is made that shows the encampment poses an immediate health, safety, or emergency risk.

Both require encampment residents to move, dispose of, or store their belongings during the clean-up.

The protocol also says the involved D.C. government agencies must visit the encampments in the 14 days leading up to a standard clean-up to inform residents of the process and offer to connect them with housing and shelter resources.

While the protocol is seen as necessary and welcome by many unsheltered residents, it comes with frustrations. Michele Hydier, who used to live in the encampment on M Street NE, previously told City Paper that

it means temporarily relocating one’s entire home and exposes residents to potential theft.

It also ignites fears that the city will take people’s tents and other property.

“That’s someone’s entire life belongings,” Staudenmeier says. The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless sends representatives for clean-ups to oversee the process and inform unsheltered residents of their rights. One of their main concerns is ensuring valuables that are supposed to be stored aren’t thrown away, which is why the group developed signage for residents who cannot be present on the day of a clean-up.

“We created those signs to make it harder for the city to argue that the property is abandoned,” Staudenmeier says. Without legal representatives there, she says, no one is advocating on behalf of the encampment residents. She says outreach by the city could be better and more active. “I’ve never once seen Charles Allen out there, nor have I seen Wayne Turnage. I think [Turnage] once might’ve been there,” she says.

Both Howe and Staudenmeier say frustration is mounting among encamped residents regarding the way the city handles clean-ups.

Alexandra Bradley, mobile services manager at the nonprofit HIPS, says the organization has seen more external negativity from passersby since the letter and knows more people have been making complaints.

“I think that the letter kind of emboldens people to make complaints in a way that they might not have thought to do before,” she says, adding that these complaints do not impact the mission of HIPS, and that many unsheltered residents do not know about these complaints or pay much attention to them.

On the recent October morning in the encampment, Howe pointed to the sidewalk in front of a boutique cycling studio. “Sometimes people will move their stuff here,” they said, which is not allowed and often leads to items being thrown out by the city. This is where the idea of encamped residents becoming serviceresistant comes from, Howe explained: People get frustrated with the government and less likely to trust it.

After NoMA BID’s letter came out, more than 30 NoMa residents took to Allen and Turnage’s inboxes with their complaints.

Many of the emails echoed the sentiment of NoMa BID’s letter: Residents say they feel empathetic toward people experiencing homelessness, but add that the area smells and is full of trash. Some detail incidents of harassment and drug use. Most, if not all, express concern about their personal safety and wellbeing.

“My heart breaks for the men and women who find themselves living on the street. I realize how fortunate I am to live the life that I do,” wrote John Cove on Aug. 26. He wrote that he no longer walks through the M, L and K Street encampments. “The smell of urine and feces is overwhelming, needles and other drug-related items litter the ground, and the aggressive panhandling has reached new levels,” he wrote.

Another resident, Jonathan Frank, called

the underpasses a public health and safety concern. “We all care deeply about affordable housing and mental health challenges facing these vulnerable neighbors in the encampments, but allowing them to remain in the underpasses— harassing pedestrians, relieving themselves in plain view, exacerbating the rodent crisis, and creating insufficient space for disabled passersby—is NOT a solution and is NOT compassionate to anyone involved,” Frank wrote.

Joshua M. Gibson wrote he had once used public housing and food assistance himself, but that the encamped individuals were violating the laws of “both D.C. and decency itself.” “The encampments are growing. They appear permanent. They are becoming more aggressive and emboldened ... And someone is going to get hurt,” Gibson wrote.

Some emails were harsher.

“The homelessness is becoming unbearable. They have tents under the bridge but the worst part is the trash, rodents and smell of urine there. It’s disgusting. Can either of you do something please. It’s no pleasant go to [sic] and see this every morning or evening,” Juan Oscar Torres-Douglas wrote to Allen and Turnage on Sept. 2.

Several people referred to the encampments as illegal and asked the city to immediately remove them.

“It’s gotten ridiculous: not only do the homeless people harass women, several have erected fences because they evidently feel they can stay there so long. There’s trash everywhere, it smells truly horrendous, nowhere to walk except through them, and is generally a blight,” Gerardo Zampaglione wrote, before calling for rapid action from the D.C. government.

Others reference businesses they feel that they can no longer access, including Barre3, La Colombe, Red Bear Brewing Co., CycleBar, and a nearby dog park.

“I am a 23 year old woman who walks alone through the underpass daily to attend classes at CycleBar NoMa and things have gotten massively out of control,” Grace Collins wrote. “My roommate has had several times where people living there have yelled at her, and even blocked her pathway for ‘not looking at them’ or ‘acknowledging them.’”

Matthew Orchant wrote that he could no longer visit his favorite restaurant, Laos in Town, which he would visit every two weeks if he could. “However, because I must travel through [an underpass] to get there, at night, I go once every few months,” he wrote.

Others described physical altercations that left them fearful. Hannah Shea wrote that she has been chased through the underpass.

Meredith Whitcomb wrote about being followed through an underpass after one of her fitness classes and when walking her dog.

“As a 23-year-old woman I do not feel safe walking around my own neighborhood at night or even during the day at times,” Whitcomb wrote.

Ravynn Li, 34, lives in a tent along M Street NE with his fiancee, Rayne. They were evicted from their place on Minnesota Avenue NE

about two months ago and have been waiting for housing through the Pathways to Housing program. “Complaining is not gonna help, staring is not gonna help,” Li says of the people who emailed their complaints to Allen and Turnage and who walk by. Some of them take pictures and videos of the tents, he says. “It makes you feel like you’re in a zoo.”

Li says he hasn’t witnessed any altercations between residents and passersby, but acknowledges that it’s conceivable. He points to the tidy space around their tent and their trash bundled in a black bag.

“We’re taking care of our area,” he says.

“And as far as interactions with people, the only thing we say is ‘good morning,’ ‘how you doing?’ ‘nice coat,’ shit like that. We don’t want anything from you, but you’re not gonna just stare at us like we’re animals either.”

Sometimes a conversation can go a long way, he adds. “Shit like that can save somebody’s life. People don’t understand that.”

Rayne, 29, says “you gotta find your happiness anyway you can. And like he said, nobody wakes up and is like, ‘I’m tired of my good paying job and 401(k) and I’m going to live under the bridge.’ The fact that people look down on us is just really…” She shakes her head.

Esperita Mills, whose tent on L Street NE is draped with blankets to keep it warm, says she and some other residents work to keep their space clean. She says she’s lived on the streets for the past two years.

“This is the best we can do,” Mills says. “We try to stick together here and clean up. We try to make sure everybody out here does their part. We’re one big family.”

In the first couple of weeks after the NoMa BID letter, just one NoMa resident sent an email denouncing the letter. In an email sent to Jasper on Aug. 21, Matthew Mead called the letter condescending and lacking empathy. “Clearly you’ve lost touch with the community you claim to represent. You do not speak for me,” Mead wrote.

In their responses, city officials offered information on the clean-up schedule. Some residents responded with their own suggestions for the encampments: porta-potties, more designated storage areas, and more trash cans.

Most of the emails to Allen and Turnage’s offices occur after Jasper’s letter, but among the emails City Paper received, some show the lead-up to her letter.

The idea of a pedestrian-safe passage zone that Jasper advocated for in her letter first surfaced in a May 6, 2019 email exchange with Allen, the Department of Human Services, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office, and employees of DMHHS. Jasper wrote then that she had floated the idea of the passages within the First Street NE and K Street NE underpasses with the mayor’s office already. The zones would bar tents from specific areas inside the underpass to allow for pedestrians to pass through.

“We were assured that amendments to the Encampment Engagement Protocol to address this issue were under consideration and would soon be promulgated. It has been

months and we have heard nothing further on this matter,” Jasper wrote.

Jasper said these amendments would resolve the pedestrian issue, “diminish the suffering associated with the frequent encampment engagements that often end with people returning to the exact same spot they were removed from in hours or even minutes.”

On July 16, Jasper wrote to Allen asking for his input on a joint legislative strategy for the amendments to be sent to Mayor Bowser. On Aug. 7, the letter was sent to Bowser and Allen was cc’d on it, along with Turnage, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, ANC 6C Commissioner Drew Courtney, and Laura Zeilinger, director of DHS. In an email exchange on Aug. 18, Allen told NoMa resident David Anderson that he was exploring legislation to create such a zone. He also said he was looking into supportive housing and attributed the causes of homelessness to behavioral and mental illness, much like the NoMa BID letter did.

A few days after Allen’s emails, Jasper’s letter was posted online, calling for the zones.

A spokesperson with the NoMa BID tells City Paper that the BID has been in discussions with DMHHS on the proposal and, as far as they knew, the city is considering it.

Allen also confirms with City Paper that he is looking into some legislative ideas, but wants to work with the mayor’s office on a policy “that makes sense across the city as well as specifically with NoMa.” “Ultimately we need to land on a long-term solution that balances the need for dignified housing for a population that is tough to serve with ensuring our sidewalks and public space are accessible and welcoming to everyone. But any legislative fixes would take months or even a year and we need changes to happen much sooner to improve the situation beneath the underpasses as the temperature drops,” he says.

Rayna Smith, chief of staff at DMHHS, tells City Paper that her office is working to improve upon the engagement protocol.

“Health and safety of all District residents is paramount and we’re working on ways to improve our processes in hopes of seeing better service connectivity and longer lasting sanitary effects after an Encampment Protocol Engagement (cleanup),” she says.

She also says DMHHS is working to improve the way sidewalks are cleaned after a clean-up and placing more trash cans in certain areas to “better meet the needs of residents living in encampments.”

WheN AskeD WhAt would happen, theoretically, if everyone at these encampments could no longer return after a clean-up, Howe said the answer was simple.

“They will go somewhere,” but not far, Howe imagined. Perhaps they’d form smaller groups or find a different location within NoMa. “I don’t think they would leave the area. It’s where they do everything, you know?”

CP Mitch Ryals contributed reporting.

washingtoncitypaper.com october 25, 2019 5

DISTRICTLINE Death and Delay

Congress Heights resident Shaquana Bates had a stillborn baby.

She faults an ambulance delay.

By Amanda Michelle Gomez

Darrow Montgomery Darrow Montgomery

On Saturday, July 6, Congress Heights resident Shaquana Bates went into labor with her son, Daymarion Sams. Bates, who is 26 years old, was 32 weeks pregnant at the time.

Her mother, Tamara, called 911 for an ambulance at 9:22 p.m., but one did not arrive at her home until 9:53 p.m. Bates arrived at Medstar Washington Hospital Center at 10:23 p.m. and gave birth shortly thereafter, at 10:53 p.m.

Daymarion was stillborn.

“I blame the city,” says Bates. “They just got to understand that there’s more than just one person out here who’s been through something like this.”

It’s difficult if not dangerous to give birth in the District. The city has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country: 36.1 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2018. The infant mortality rate isn’t much better: 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018. Black residents are disproportionately impacted. Between 2014 and 2016, 75 percent of District mothers who died of pregnancy or childbirth complications were black.

These statistics represent structural and systemic failings. D.C. is working to address this crisis with a new review committee that is investigating pregnancy-related deaths and near misses. But Bates, who flinches every time a fire truck or ambulance drives by, wants the city to be held accountable for her traumatic childbirth experience. She’s contacted two different law firms to determine if she has standing to file a lawsuit. She’s also looking into filing a direct complaint with the DC Fire and EMS Department.

Bates, a black resident who works as a family engagement specialist in the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, still finds herself thinking a lot about that day—how long it took for an ambulance to get to her home and how the first responders seemed to lack a sense of urgency when they arrived.

“I wish I recorded that night,” Bates says.

Bates didn’t expect to have an emergency delivery. Not only was she giving birth to her second child, but she says no medical professionals told her she had a high-risk pregnancy. She worked full-time into her eighth month of pregnancy and scheduled a Caesarean section for Aug. 23 at Washington Hospital Center. On July 2, Bates was told her baby was healthy after having a 3D ultrasound. She voiced concern to the ultrasound technician and the doctor that de-

Shaquana Bates

Shaquana Bates holds a picture of her son, Daymarion Sams. livered the results about pelvic and uterus pain she’d experienced on and off since April. They assured her everything was fine.

Then on July 6, sometime between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., Bates started to experience a similar pain. When the pain became too much to bear, she called her grandmother, who advised her to call an ambulance. Instead, Bates decided to take a nap, remembering the assurances she received during her exam days earlier. When she

6 october 25, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

got up from her nap to use the bathroom, her water broke.

“Blood started running down my legs. It was a little bit of water at first, but then it was all blood,” Bates says. “That’s when I started to panic.”

First responders officially arrived at 9:27 p.m.

But the fire truck that came, Engine 32, wasn’t able to transport Bates to the hospital, so they waited for an ambulance. During that time,

first responders, which included three emergency medical technicians and one paramedic, checked her vital signs and had her lay on her left side. Bates remembers one of the first responders being visibly irritated that the ambulance was taking a while to come.

“That’s when I knew something was wrong,” says Bates. “It sounded like a circus,” her mother recalls.

When two ambulances arrived, 31 minutes after Bates’ mother first called for help, the first responders debated which vehicle would transport her, she says, making every second feel like lost time. Bates recounts other instances that felt this way: The ambulance stopped twice because the driver said the back door was open, and first responders sounded like they didn’t know where to go when they arrived to the hospital. The ambulance departed for the hospital at 10:02 p.m. and arrived at 10:23 p.m.

Bates delivered a stillborn baby. The obstetrician who delivered Daymarion said Bates too was at risk—she could have died due to blood loss. She received two blood transfusions, and stayed in the hospital for seven days after the birth. The hospital let Bates keep her baby in a refrigerated crib in her room.

“If the ambulance came on time, I don’t think I would be going through this,” says Bates.

“The only support I really had was the caseworker from Washington Hospital.”

The obstetrician told Bates she had a severe placental abruption, which is why she delivered a stillborn baby. It rarely happens, the obstetrician told her, and they couldn’t explain why it did.

The caseworker helped her navigate what became a complicated, expensive process.

Bates had 10 days after she left the hospital to collect Daymarion or he’d be cremated. It cost $30,043.72 to deliver her baby, per the hospital bills Bates shared with City Paper, $473.85 for the ambulatory care, per the Fire and EMS Department bill, and roughly $4,000 to bury him.

Health insurance will pay for some portion of the associated costs.

“I’m young, I’m 31. For me to bury my son, it’s devastating. It’s heartbreaking. I always wanted a son,” says Damon Sams, who’s been in a relationship with Bates since they were teenagers.

Sams was with Bates on July 6 and confirmed her recollection of that night. He too faults the ambulance.

“It just so happened that we had a bad ambulance,” says Sams. “I’m not saying all ambulances are not good or don’t respond quickly.”

The DC Fire and EMS Department confirmed the timestamps and reached out to Bates after City Paper requested comment. The medical director, Dr. Robert Holman, spoke with Bates Friday morning by phone. Bates says he apologized at various times during the 19-minute call and told her the department is investigating the incident. Bates did not receive a timeline, but Holman assured her she’d hear from him again.

“The DC Fire and EMS Department shares its sincere condolences about this loss,” Doug Buchanan, its chief communications officer, wrote in an email on Thursday. “The Department’s medical director is currently reviewing all records and reports associated with this call

for service to ensure that high quality medical care was provided in the field by our firefighter/ EMTs and firefighter/paramedics.”

The department says it quickly responded to the call: An engine company—whose first responders were all trained to deliver babies— arrived within the target goal, which is between four and six minutes. The Office of Unified Communications, which receives and processes emergency calls, got the 911 call at 9:22 p.m. and dispatched a truck 42 seconds later. The call was classified as serious but not life threatening, or for a “Basic Life Support” patient. The fire truck arrived in just under five minutes. The ambulance was dispatched at 9:31 p.m. and arrived 22 minutes later.

But the department also confirmed that there were issues getting transport vehicles on the scene. What appeared to be the closest ambulance to Bates was roughly 20 minutes away, so OUC dispatched another ambulance. However, that ambulance had “mechanical issues,” so the initial ambulance was back on call. And at some point, a second medical transport was also sent.

Ward 8 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Christopher Hawthorne has been sharing Bates’ story during community meetings as a way to draw attention to the lack of medical services east of the Anacostia River, where residents are predominantly black.

These neighborhoods are also home to larger shares of D.C.-born residents.

“We both see the same thing happening over and over again,” says Hawthrone. “She was one of the numbers that decided to say ‘Hey I’m going to speak to this issue. This is happening to me. The city is wrong and I’m going to sue them.’”

There have been no maternity wards east of the Anacostia since 2017, when United Medical Center shuttered its obstetrics unit, citing dangerous medical errors. Residents also lack a trauma center, so gunshot and stabbing victims need to be transported to hospitals in different quadrants.

Now residents are waiting for the promise of a new hospital. UMC is slated to close by 2022, and another community hospital is expected to open on the St. Elizabeths East site; negotiations are still ongoing.

“I’m hoping for a sense of urgency that kicks into the mindset of our city leaders,” says Hawthorne. “A full-service hospital is needed here east of the river.”

Dr. Jamila Perritt, a D.C.-area OB-GYN and fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, agrees with Hawthorne. But Perritt, who’s lived in District all her life and made her home, at one point, in Ward 8, says that a new hospital shouldn’t be viewed as the panacea to this public health crisis. Culturally responsive care is also critical.

“The presence or absence of a physical building doesn’t constitute quality care—that’s not an indictment on UMC but a statement of fact,” says Perritt. She cited the legacy of racism in clinical settings. “Both are true,” she says. “This has been going on for a really long time and it’s unacceptable that we don’t’ have a maternity ward in Wards 7 and 8.”

CP

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washingtoncitypaper.com october 25, 2019 7

WORLD SERIES

Kelyn Soong

SPORTS

City Paper contributor Tom Sherwood writes about how the deal to bring baseball to D.C. nearly fell apart. washingtoncitypaper.com/sports

Fireworks at Nats Park on Oct. 1

Fanning the Flames SportS are SuppoSed to be fun, and in a year where it feels like the world is crumbling, the Nats have given the region a reason to cheer.

Fans of all ages have danced and clapped along to “Baby Shark” during games. “Calma” by Puerto Rican artist Pedro Capó has become the team’s unofficial anthem. And on Friday, the city will host its first World Series game since 1933. For the second year in a row, a major D.C. sports team is in the championships.

So when Alexandra DeSanctis, a staff writer for National Review, tweeted on Oct. 16 that she does not “have respect for baseball fans who move to DC from other parts of the country and become Nationals fans,” Eireann Dolan had the perfect response.

“My husband and I moved to DC from Oakland in July 2017, are we allowed to be Nats fans?” she replied to DeSanctis. Dolan is married to Nationals reliever Sean Doolittle.

City Paper staffers and contributors who have watched World Series fever consume other municipalities understand the collective thrill that the event can bring a city. This is no time for bandwagon fan shaming. So crank up “Calma” and break out Gerardo Parra’s rose-colored glasses. The players don’t care how long you’ve been cheering for them. The applause sounds the same.

—Kelyn Soong Welcome aboard, new Nats fans Don’t be afraid to jump on the Nats bandwagon! I say this as someone who moved from D.C. to Boston roughly six weeks before the Red Sox won the World Series in 2007 and soon found myself screaming about Big Papi and Daisuke Matsuzaka. (Oh, it was a simpler time.)

To avoid looking like a total rube, you have to do a little research before hopping on board.

First, learn how to pronounce players’ names: Trea Turner’s first name is TRAY, not TreeUh. Respect the old guys: Ryan Zimmerman stuck around through a lot of garbage years, so don’t disparage him, even if he makes a mistake. Don’t wear orange until the series is over, unless you want to get mistaken for an Astros fan, and treat yourself to a piece of Nats gear if you really want to look the part. And if events prompt you to take to the streets, do so responsibly—don’t set things on fire, don’t push people, don’t flip cars.

—Caroline Jones

A World Series is for everyone I was, literally, a fair-weather fan when I went to Wrigleyville to watch the Cubs win the World Series. The skies were clear and the Cubs were up 5-1 when I hopped on the L from Evanston, and I’ve never regretted it. Sports are fun, but sports fandom is much better, and for a few weeks in 2016, I was truly part of something, even though Chicago wasn’t my hometown, and the Cubs weren’t my team. A World Series is for everyone—even newcomers and suburbanites.

When the Red Line rolled into Addison and let us off, hundreds of us took off running towards Wrigley Field, hoping to get there in time to witness history. The atmosphere was like nothing I’d experienced before or since. We found a spot in the crowd where we could peer through a bar window and catch a glimpse of the TV. Cops kept getting reprimanded by their higher-ups for turning around to watch the game instead of the crowd. Wrigleyville was on fire, and when the game ended, it exploded. That’s not an experience I’ll ever forget, and it’s one worth opening yourself up to, even if the Nats aren’t your team.

I’ll be cheering them on with thousands of my closest friends and neighbors.

—Emma Sarappo No time for fatalism Dance like nobody’s watching, sing like nobody’s listening, and love like you’ve never been hurt. This timeless Henry Kissinger quote [Note to the editor: This is a joke!] is particularly relevant for Washingtonians this week, as the Nationals play in their first-ever World Series. Sure, the Astros are heavily favored; sure, the Nats have made a habit of choking in October. Who cares? Now is not the time for history or probability. Now is the time to put your heart on the line for this team.

When my beloved Chicago Cubs went to the World Series in 2016 for the first time in 71 years, the entire city of Chicago was swept up into a sort of collective effervescence. Inside the ballpark, fans stood for every pitch and screamed for every line drive. Across the city, every head wore a cap, and every TV was tuned to the game. Sure, we all knew that the Cubs were the losingest bunch of losers in baseball history. It didn’t matter. We suppressed our

8 october 25, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

Darrow Montgomery

City Paper writers who have watched their teams play in the World Series share their advice for Nationals fans.

fatalism and willed the Cubs to victory.

So take a tip from Chicago, D.C., and live and die with this team for the World Series.

Don’t feel self-conscious if you aren’t a lifelong fan, because there is really no such thing. The only lifelong Nats fans around here are literal children, and who cares what children think?

The night that the Cubs won the World Series was one of the most joyful nights of my life.

Less than a week later, Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, and I haven’t really cared as much about baseball ever since. So seize the moment, Nats fans, because you never know what will come along to ruin it after it happens.

—Justin Peters Hold on to your superstitions Please excuse me if I’m not as excited as my colleagues. I grew up in St. Louis, where baseball is more religion than sport. So watching my hometown team whiff its way out of the playoffs—surrounded by Nationals “fans” no

less—was hard to swallow.

But, as a Cardinals fan, I’ve been here before—twice in my lifetime, actually. I’m still mourning the Cards’ loss, and will be wearing muted colors throughout this series, but I’ll be passively rooting for the Nats in this one.

In that spirit, here are a few pointers.

Wear red (or any Nats gear) to work, to the bar, to the gym, to bed. Don’t have enough to last the full series? Pick up an extra shirt or two, or get used to doing laundry every night. Hold on to those silly superstitions. They absolutely are the reason your team is winning. Although this “Baby Shark” thing could go down as the most embarrassing playoff baseball schtick in history, it seems to be working. Trust the tiny shark. (After all, the Cardinals relied on a freakin’ squirrel in 2011.) Wear layers to the game, bring a koozie (because beers are cold), bring whiskey, too. And next year, win or lose, show your team some love.

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SPORTS

WORLD SERIES

The Nationals Pastime This year’s scrappy Nats team has resonated with fans of all ages and backgrounds.

Darrow Montgomery

Fans at Nats Park on Oct. 1

By Kelyn Soong Beth Dahlman DiD not consider herself a sports fan growing up in the small town of Delano, Minnesota, located about half an hour west of Minneapolis. She would occasionally catch glimpses of Vikings games with her dad and remembers the excitement of the Twins’ World Series runs in 1987 and 1991, but otherwise, sports just weren’t part of her identity.

Now, Dahlman plans her vacation days around Washington Nationals spring training in Florida and is a season ticket plan holder for the team with her husband, Dan Nejfelt. They live in Navy Yard, just a couple blocks away from the ballpark, and Dahlman has met around 10 fellow Nationals fans through social media that she considers “real life dear friends.”

“It’s funny ... we talk about it a lot, like we never would’ve predicted this,” says Dahlman, who is 36 and came to D.C. in 2005. “What an amazing thing to have happened, something so silly and arbitrary ended up impacting our lives pretty significantly.”

That bond has only strengthened this season with the Nationals’ unexpected run to the World Series, led by players who have injected the game with levity. It’s brought together

an often-maligned city, and baseball fans of all ages and degrees of fandom have cheered on the team with equal vigor. Many of the team’s supporters are like Dahlman, who started following the Nats years after she moved to D.C. from another city.

Others are like Andy Tretler, a native Washingtonian who has rooted for D.C. pro sports teams his entire life. Tretler, 41, played baseball for St. John’s College High School in Northwest, and says he has only seen his dad, Bucky, cry twice: once at Tretler’s grandfather’s funeral in 1984 and the other time on April 14, 2005—opening day for the newly arrived Washington Nationals.

D.C. did not have an Major League Baseball team from 1971, when the Washington Senators left town, until the Montreal Expos became the Nats in 2005.

“I’ve thought about this, for nostalgic purposes. He would’ve liked to enjoy sharing baseball with me as a kid, and likewise with his father in some way,” Tretler says of his 66-yearold father. “Even though my granddad died when I was very young, the time he missed at the end of his life, being able to enjoy the game or sport … I think for him, it meant a lot for us to be able to share something that he wasn’t able

10 october 25, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

to share with his dad as he got older.”

Chris Farley also connected with his dad through sports. They watched Washington football team games together and traveled up to Baltimore to cheer on the Orioles, the closest MLB team many fans had in the area. While initially reluctant to shed his fandom for the Orioles, it didn’t take long for Farley, born and raised in Arlington, to trade in Baltimore orange for Nationals red.

“I didn’t immediately jump on the bandwagon,” says Farley, the owner of the Pacers Running stores in D.C. “A few years later, I could barely name anyone from the Orioles. It took me three years, but I was in. Now I’m all Nats, all the time.”

His father, who also went by Chris, died in 2015, and when the Nats swept the St. Louis Cardinals on Oct. 15 to reach the World Series, Farley, 43, thought about his dad and his own children, 3-year-old James and 1-year-old Paul.

He threw a few fist pumps in the air after the final out and then started to tear up.

“I’m a huge sports fan,” Farley explains. “I invest in a few things. I invest in my business. I invest in my family. I invest in my friends. I invest in my sports teams. I’m completely invested in these things, for better or for worse … I just couldn’t be-

lieve they swept it … This team continues to find a way … It was a really special moment.”

Henry Haley Goldman of Silver Spring had yet to turn 4 when the Nats moved to D.C., but he felt compelled to learn everything he could about the team.

Even though his parents didn’t watch baseball, Haley Goldman says, he would take the sports section of the Washington Post and ask his teachers to read it to him in elementary school.

He devoured every MLB box score and Natsrelated articles.

He calls Game 4 of the National League Division Series against the Cardinals in 2012 one of the best days of his life. The following game, the Nats blew a 6-0 lead and lost in the decisive Game 5, 9-7.

“I cried so much that night,” he remembers.

Now an 18-year-old freshman at Kenyon College in Ohio, Haley Goldman proudly cheers on the Nats in his dorm, even if his friends are mostly New York Mets fans.

He even got his dad to watch the clinching Game 4 of the National League Championship Series this season. He’s part of the generation that’s grown up seeing D.C. sports transform from laughingstock to potential champions.

“I feel really lucky with the Capitals and Mystics,” Haley Goldman says of the 2018 Stanley Cup and 2019 WNBA champions, respectively. “I feel like I’ve experienced enough of D.C. sports tragedy to understand the pain, but it’s definitely turned ... Everything’s changed now.”

Patty MacEwan has been to about 500 Nationals games, both at Nationals Park and in other cities.

This year’s team, which started the season 19-31, resonates with her on a personal level.

On Feb. 28, MacEwan had a stroke. The 55-year-old from Alexandria was in the hospital for nearly a month. One of her goals was to make it to the team’s opening day on March 28.

She got out on March 27, and so far she’s been to every home playoff game this season.

MacEwan says she no longer needs a wheelchair and plans to be at all the Nationals’ home World Series games, cheering along with longtime fans and those who have only recently jumped on the bandwagon.

“I think it’s great,” she says. “The more fans the better. I don’t care if you became a fan the day before they win, or after they win, or when they got here, or have been an Expos fan. It doesn’t matter to me. A fan is a fan.”

MacEwan is confidently predicting that the Nats will win in five games. To her, the way the players rebounded from a tough start and the way they’ve clinched games after falling behind in the playoffs make them the “team of destiny.”

“They’re never out of it,” she says. “I think it’s just that, you have to keep the faith. Attitude is an important part of any recovery, and I tend to have a very positive attitude about that … They just keep the faith and never give up.”

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AvivA CopAken just wants some damn mac and cheese, and Kraft won’t cut it. She’s tried to attend three mac and cheese festivals in 2019. All three were cancelled.

“The first time I was like, ‘It happens,’” she says. “The second time I was like, ‘Seriously?’ And after this third one I’m like, ‘This is all bullshit. It’s ludicrous. It’s the new Fyre Festival. It’s such a simple thing. It’s mac and cheese. It’s not crepes or something delicate.’”

These pasta fests promised caloric afternoons of sampling ooey gooey Instagram bait from food trucks and restaurants. “There are so many horrible things nowadays in the world,” Copaken continues. “To give people a little joy and take it away is cruel.”

“Absolute nightmare.”

“Disaster.”

“Highway robbery.”

These are all words attendees used to describe various food festivals in the D.C. region since City Paper started tracking them in April.

The knife-twisting reviews of pizza, taco, jollof rice, beer, mac and cheese, and paw paw parties gone wrong are red flags flown too late— comments left on zombie event pages when they’re already over. Downtrodden foodies like Copaken seem to relish comparing disappointing experiences with the not-so-luxurious Fyre Festival in the Bahamas.

While complaints of long lines, skimpy food, and hot sun don’t actually have much in common with the 2017 debacle that defrauded Bahamians and attendees out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, there are plenty of people who feel they blew their weekend budget on a food festival that didn’t live up to the hype.

Entry to these events, which are often in stadiums, on fairgrounds, or on closed-off streets, tops out at around $70 per person unless attendees pony up for VIP add-ons like early entry. Some charge less for admission and require that attendees purchase food or drink tickets once through the gate. They typically feature a line-up of food trucks, caterers, and restaurants eager to add new revenue streams and gain recognition.

There’s obvious potential for fun, but even organizers admit that their industry is risky and complex enough that few festivals go off without an issue to overcome. “I say we’re in the circus business,” says Charlie Adler of TasteUSA Festival Management. “The question is, who are the clowns? Are they the food trucks? The attendees? I don’t know.”

Should you spring for a ticket next time you see food porn topping an advertisement for an all-you-can-munch taco fest in a parking lot? Consider the three following case studies, chosen from a larger selection of troubled 2019 festivals, followed by explainers from festival organizers who have been at this for decades and perspectives from truth-telling food vendors.

The Case of the Too Popular Filipino Food Festival The Taste the Philippines: DC Filipino Food Festival sought to spotlight Filipino chefs and

FESTIVAL They thought it was simple: a day dedicated to mac and cheese, paw-paws, Filipino food, or some other delightful fare.

Then things went awry.

12 october 25, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

SPECTACLES

By Laura Hayes

Photo illustrations by Darrow Montgomery and Julia Terbrock washingtoncitypaper.com october 25, 2019 13

cultural performers on June 22. But when people craving pancit and lumpia arrived at The Wharf, they encountered two lines leading to their destination, District Pier. Even those who bought tickets in advance had to join queues.

“It was like I was at Black Friday or a concert,” says Edward E. Brooks. “It just kept going and going. Both lines looked a half a mile long. There’s nothing I hate more than waiting in line. We took the Metro to the Pentagon City Mall and got Chinese instead.”

An attendee named Anna stuck it out because she bought advance tickets and was eager to introduce her American boyfriend and his children to her culture. When she got through the entry line, she discovered that some vendors were out of food an hour into the four-hour event. Anna says she stood in line for a total of two hours for two bites of food. “As a Filipino, we always make more food than normal,” she says.

The afternoon took a turn. “They weren’t emptying the trash bins,” Anna continues.

“My boyfriend’s son got stung by a bee while standing in line. He’s sitting there crying. A woman offered to give him some ice out of her drink so I could keep him from screaming at the top of his lungs. I don’t blame him.

This is just insane. There was no organization.” Cathal and Meshelle Armstrong, who own Kaliwa at The Wharf, put on the festival together with Joni Rae from Mindset Communities and others.

Another attendee, Lynne, worries about how restaurants who participated in the festival will be perceived. “Hopefully they won’t get a bad rap because people have a sour taste because they were part of the event,” she says. “They need to have a very confident and capable organizer when they try to do these festivals because there’s a lot of things at stake.”

Patrice Cleary owns Purple Patch, a restaurant in Mount Pleasant. She was hesitant to sign up to serve food at the festival. “Filipinos are very critical of what you do—it has to be perfect,” she explains. “I know from opening a Filipino restaurant. Sometimes I choose not to do things because I don’t want to be criticized. But no risk, no reward.”

Organizers told Cleary to bring 2,000 portions of food because they expected up to 3,000 festival-goers. Then 21,300 showed up. Cleary prepared boxes of garlic fried rice with tocino and papaya salad. Attendees were grabbing eight to 10 at a time. “I empathize with the people that set this whole thing up because no one in their right mind would expect so many people to come,” she says. “You could fill a soccer stadium.”

Cleary hypothesizes that organizers got tripped up by the “X factor” of social media commitments. Most festival organizers create event pages on Facebook. The public can mark themselves as “going” or “interested,” even if they haven’t bought tickets.

While some organizers depend on Facebook for low-cost marketing, they must also grapple with whether to trust these RSVPs. For example, attendees question why organizers weren’t more prepared since Ka-

liwa posted a message on Facebook nine days before the festival boasting that nearly 2,000 people said they were going and “a whopping” 18,000 were interested.

“You were even bragging about the number of attendees and interest in it a week ago,” Lynne says. “So saying ‘unanticipated’ doesn’t sit well.” The email organizers sent offering refunds to individuals who bought tickets but couldn’t get in said they were “blown away by the excitement for this event and Filipino culture,” and “due to this unanticipated demand, we were not able to serve everyone to our highest standards.”

“We had to go off [actual] ticket sales,” Rae explains. “Ticket sales were really low at that time. When you’re putting on an event

sweeping generalizations about Filipinos and Filipino culture. “You need to hire real event organizers—Filipino are simply not good at it,” one wrote. “Filipinos are chaotic,” said another. One individual said the festival was “run like the government of the Philippines.”

Next June, Rae says they will run two time blocks to stagger the crowd and will limit attendance to pre-sale tickets. “I’m truly sorry,” Rae says. “I learned so much and was humbled by this experience. We are definitely going to make it right.”

The Case of the Missing Paw-Paws The Montgomery Parks Paw-Paw Festival may also need a mulligan. The annual festi-

up being a very negative and acrimonious thing. Who would have thought something as graceful as this would have gone awry?”

Khalil didn’t buy a ticket in advance like other attendees, but sensed that even those who committed early didn’t get to try the green-skinned fruit. Rushika Mehta was one such individual. She pre-registered part of her group, paying the $5 entry fee in advance. She says she arrived around 1 p.m.

“I’m talking it up to my son,” Mehta says.

“It’s going to be so cool. You’ll get to try this fruit. He was so excited, and he was starving too. When we got up there, there was the disappointment of being told there’s nothing. I was visibly upset.”

Mehta was floored volunteers were still asking attendees for $5 even though beer flavored with paw-paws was the only thing left.

“It seemed in bad faith that they were still accepting payment even though there were people who prepaid and got nothing out of it,” she says. “It was an absolute nightmare.”

She eventually secured a refund.

The director of the nature center, Carolina Giraldo, says this was the 7th annual pawpaw festival. Based on previous years’ attendance, she anticipated 500 people would come, not 800. While she admits they ran out of trees for sale, fruit, and samples, she disputes Khalil’s claim that it happened early on. “We didn’t sell out until 1:45,” Giraldo maintains. “There were definitely long lines that might have contributed to that feeling that we were out of stuff.”

She confirms no one reserved fruit for those who bought tickets in advance.

“Around 1 p.m. when things were getting pretty hectic, we said whoever is here has first dibs. It’s not something I want to repeat for sure.” Next year, they too will do pre-sale tickets only, according to Giraldo.

The Case of the Disappearing Mac and Cheese Festivals

like this, you don’t realize the cost associated with everything. To get ready for an 18,000 person event just didn’t make sense to us at that time.”

After the festival, the event’s social media page became a sounding board for almost 800 incensed people to spew negative feedback. “Stay away from social media, my good friends told me, and I listened,” Rae says. “I did feel it. I was the one processing refunds. I got all of the emails and read them. It was definitely heartbreaking.”

Most commenters bemoaned the lines and shortage of food and sniveled about far they had traveled. Others made small-minded,

14 october 25, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

val paying tribute to the region’s most mystical native fruit didn’t go as planned on Sept.

7. “Everyone is always saying it’s the most delicious fruit in the world,” Ahmed Khalil says. “Some people say it’s like passionfruit, mango, and banana mixed together.”

The festival, which doubled as a fundraiser for the Meadowside Nature Center, kicked off at noon. Khalil says he arrived at the gate at 12:25 p.m. “As I was approaching there were a couple of grumbly people leaving,” he says. A woman emerged from the crowd to tell fellow attendees there were no paw-paws left. “It sounded like such a fun thing to do with my daughter and ended

Copaken first tried to attend the April 27 NOVA Mac & Cheese Meltdown Festival organized by NOVA Food Fest Productions.

But just days before the event, attendees received an email from a company representative announcing that the Leesburg, Virginia event would not go on. Michelle Godfrey, who has also gone by Michelle Hale, pinned the cancellation on the Loudoun County Health Department.

“We happened to be on vacation last week and we returned to a slew of emails from our food vendors that were unhappy and didn’t even want to attend the event on Saturday because of the dealings with the health department,” Godfrey told City Paper in April.

The health department countered, arguing they provided Godfrey with a packet detailing the lead time required to put on a safe event.

Food festival organizers, especially when they’re just starting out, can find themselves at a fork in the road when they suspect their plans are falling short, sometimes for reasons outside of their control. Should they

cancel the event and offer ticket holders refunds, hoping they can repair their reputations? Or do they hold the flawed festival and brace for backlash?

At first, NOVA Food Fest Productions did neither. When they “rescheduled” the Leesburg event, initial correspondence obtained by City Paper explained that in lieu of refunds, tickets would be transferred to another mac and cheese festival four months later in Frederick, Maryland.

This didn’t sit well with Jocelyn Bothe, who bought four VIP tickets for a total of $155. She didn’t think a festival nearly 30 miles from the original site was equivalent. Bothe wrote to the Better Business Bureau and created a Facebook support group: “NOVA Mac & Cheese Meltdown Victims.”

If attendees couldn’t make the Frederick festival, they could also exchange their tickets for three other events: The DMV Chicken Wing & Craft Beer Festival on June 29 at Little Bennett Golf Club in Clarksburg; the MoCo Community Mac & Cheese Festival on Sept. 7 at the same golf club; and the MoCo Sandwich Festival on Oct. 5 at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.

After City Paper published a story about the Leesburg festival, Godfrey doubled back and offered refunds. It’s a good thing, because all four alternative festivals did not take place, according to each venue. Copaken planned to attend the one in Frederick.

A number of individuals lodged complaints against NOVA Food Fest Productions on the company’s BBB page, prompting the consumer protection site to pen a September article titled “Canceled Food Fest Creates a Fuss, Leaves Complaints Unanswered & Future Events Uncertain.”

It implores readers to consider an organization’s history before buying tickets and notes that BBB gets reports of fake festivals or festivals that promise more than they deliver annually. “Victims purchase tickets and show up at the time and location, only to find a crowd of frustrated ticket holders,” it reads. “The festival either never existed or fell far short of the organizers’ promises.”

City Paper discovered that Godfrey registered the trade name “Grub DC” in Maryland in July. That’s the company behind the forthcoming Breakfast Festival of Maryland on Nov. 16 at the Frederick County Fairgrounds. The venue confirms it has the event on its calendar, but the festival was originally set for Oct. 5, according to an Aug. 25 Facebook post: “The Maryland Breakfast Festival event for 10/05 will be canceled. We will be refunding all of the tickets that were purchased. We are actively looking for another venue to host the event at a later date. Thank you for your understanding. Grub MD Management.” City Paper interviewed Godfrey in October about her new venture, but she later retracted her comments.

The most recent mac and cheese festival Copaken bought tickets for wasn’t one of Godfrey’s. TasteUSA cancelled the Oct. 5 NoVa Mac and Cheese festival in Ballston

eight days in advance. “We sold more tickets than the food vendors could have handled,” Adler says. “The challenge is selling the right amount of tickets, but you don’t know until you do it. Have we made mistakes? Absolutely.”

When food festival organizers first start out, they have no choice but to run with a festival, even if it’s not up to snuff, according to Adler. “You literally get in there and do what you can,” he says. “Now I can afford to drop an event and say, ‘Sorry, this is a loser. I’m not going to be able to perform.’”

TasteUSA’s message to attendees blamed “challenges that would have impacted the overall quality of the event.” Some attendees balked at the vague rationale, even

Is she game? “I would consider it because I really love mac and cheese and my heart has been set on doing at least one and I’m pretty stubborn,” she says. “But I’m definitely cautious about it because I’ve been scarred so much and truthfully, if I decided to try one last time and this doesn’t happen, I’m fairly certain I’d be done with all food festivals.”

Three area fesTival organizers have been in the game for at least a decade: Greg Nivens of Trigger Agency, Charlie Adler of TasteUSA, and Steuart Martens of Taste of DC. They explain just how hard it is to pull off a flawless festival.

Nivens has been in the industry since 1993

“IF IT HAD RAINED AT ANY OF THE FIRST THREE I DID I WOULD HAVE BEEN OUT OF BUSINESS. CAN YOU IMAGINE LIVING LIKE THAT FOR THE FIRST YEAR AND A HALF?” though it came with a refund and free tickets to the Richmond Mac and Cheese Festival. “Clearly someone is trying to cover their butts,” Francesca Bunker says. She was looking forward to the event. “Transparency and accountability are always at the forefront of my mind.”

Copaken is considering yet another chance to sample copious variations of one of her favorite foods. There’s a DC Mac + Cheese festival on Oct. 26. The Trigger Agency is behind the event. One advertisement reads, “Our festival is happening on 10/26 and WILL NOT be cancelled! It’s the BIG CHEESE!”

and estimates that he’s carried out about 400 events. “It’s a disease,” Nivens says.

He planned his high school prom and served as his college fraternity’s social chair. “You catch it and it never goes away.”

Based in Baltimore, Nivens operates the Trigger Agency, under the motto “Drink.

Eat. Relax.” Some of his recurring D.C. area festivals include Beer, Bourbon & BBQ; the NATIONAL Wine & Food Festival at National Harbor; the Chesapeake Crab, Wine & Beer Festival; and Tacos N’ Taps.

Nivens enjoys the challenge of continually trying to make an event better. “And hopefully you continue to make money,” he says.

“Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t.

I’ve lost $100,000 in one eight-hour day.

People look at us and think, ‘These people print money. It’s so easy, they don’t really work.’ They have no idea of the mess you have to deal with at events.”

He even thinks some other organizers underestimate the toil involved. “They host a show, lose money, don’t pay people, and people who bought tickets get screwed,” Nivens says. “And then I get screwed because people think we’re all the same. We live in a world where people don’t give a shit about anything and everything is replaceable. I don’t live in that world.”

Typically, organizers gain control of their event space the day or night before, leaving logistics teams with less than 24 hours to “build” a festival. That can mean erecting stages for live music, pitching tents, posting signage, arranging porta-potties, securing the perimeter with fencing, and setting up entry gates. “People have a strange series of expectations in their brain of what can be done on a temporary basis,” Nivens says.

Festivals, Nivens continues, are legalized gambling. “You roll the dice every time you have a festival,” he explains. For a long time, the weather was the biggest threat. Festival organizers monitor the radar more aggressively than a neurotic couple planning an outdoor wedding in April. Nivens doesn’t cancel for rain, but will for high winds or lightening.

Alcohol is another risk, as some of Nivens’ festivals include unlimited drink pours.

He finds attendees respond better to all-youcan-drink pricing than buying drink tickets on top of the cost of admission. All-you-caneat events are dodgier.

“If you ever say in the food business it’s unlimited food, you better get ready,” Nivens cautions. At one of his all-you-can-eat crab fests, his team caught people Old Bayhanded, loading crabs into coolers to take home, even though that was prohibited.

“They get mad when we bust them on that.

When is enough enough?”

Swirling winds and overserved patrons are no longer the greatests risks for organizers like Nivens. “Nowadays you get somebody who wants to do a mass shooting,” he says. On July 28, a man used a tool to cut through a fence at the Gilroy Garlic Festival where he opened fire, killing three people and wounding more than a dozen others.

“That’s my biggest fear.”

Festival organizers began paying a premium to secure festivals earlier, according to Martens. “After the Boston Marathon bombing [in 2013], we started seeing huge changes in terms of creating a controlled environment,” he says. “The price skyrocketed to close down a street.” When he used to barricade Pennsylvania Avenue NW to host Taste of DC, he says the police bill started at $100,000. Another festival organizer who uses the same site confirmed this average cost.

Martens revived Taste of DC in 2010. He’s been in the hospitality industry since he was

washingtoncitypaper.com october 25, 2019 15

14. He loves what he does, but it challenges him. “If I could give my younger self some wisdom, it would be don’t get involved in the festival business,” he jokes. “We’re not perfect—we’ve had plenty of flops of our own.”

Vendors and attendees complained after Taste of DC in 2017. Martens moved the two-day event showcasing D.C.’s culinary scene off Pennsylvania Avenue NW and into RFK Stadium. During the event, Post columnist Gene Weingarten tweeted: “Do not go to #TasteOfDC at RFK Stadium. Total ripoff.

Endless lines, no food. Spent $25, left without eating or drinking. #WasteOfDC.” The same year, Taste of DC experimented with radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. Festival-goers were to load money onto Fitbit-like bracelets that could then be held up to reading devices to buy food. The cashless system largely malfunctioned.

“Don’t cook a new dish on Thanksgiving,” says Captain Cookie and the Milkman founder Kirk Francis. Taste of DC used to be one of his most lucrative festivals when it was held on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The food truck owner reports making $5,000 in one day. That didn’t happen in 2017, nor in 2018 when Taste of DC was at Audi Field.

It pains Martens that there aren’t as many affordable festival venues in D.C. proper compared to what he’s encountered in “second-tier cities.” Others confronted similar issues, including brick oven producer Francesco Marra, who had to postpone a 2019 pizza festival in D.C. because he couldn’t find a venue similar to what he utilized in Boston and Los Angeles. On Facebook, 97,000 people said they were interested in attending.

Martens preaches that having ample bathrooms, short lines, and cold beer separates good festivals from bad ones. “There are a lot of other things that make a great festival, but you have to win at those three things,” he says. “That’s where you’ll get nabbed on social media.”

Adler calls social media an art form and carefully monitors responses after a festival wraps up. He admits to removing some negative comments. “If it’s a personal attack, I just pretty much delete it,” he says. “I’m unique in that I want some criticism and I want it to be public because I want people to realize that we’re not perfect. I like to leave a certain amount on there even if I fixed it.”

He left one up from the Pittsburgh Mac and Cheese festival that read, “This event was probably the worst festival I have ever attended … We sampled 2 of the worst tasting Mac n cheese I have ever had … We may have stayed longer but it was so hot and there were no tents set up anywhere to shade people from the sun.”

“Is it the job of the promoter to provide shade?” Adler retorts. “In a tent you’re going to get steamed to death.”

Adler started out hosting wine events in 1997 through his first company, TasteDC, until business dried up during the 2008 recession. He returned to the events indus-

try in 2016 when he first produced the Virginia Wine Festival and founded his second company, TasteUSA. Adler’s other recurring events include Taco, Beer, Tequila; regional mac and cheese festivals; and the DC Chocolate, Wine & Whiskey Festival.

“If it had rained at any of the first three I did I would have been out of business,” Adler says. “Can you imagine living like that for the first year and a half?” Some financial insecurity remains. “You’re always living on your next festival,” he explains.

Festival revenue can experience dramatic swings. Adler says he makes most of his money off ticket sales, while others, like Martens, rely on corporate sponsorships.

According to Adler, an organizer can lose $100,000 if it rains. If the weather is beautiful and ticket sales are strong, it’s possible to make $100,000, especially if a festival is in its third or fourth year. “It balances out on average to be maybe $20,000 to $40,000 per festival.”

Outgoing funds are easier to predict.

Adler calculates that it costs $100,000 to $200,000 to put on a large outdoor festival. Others estimate closer to $300,000.

The priciest line items are the venue rental, staging and entertainment, security, fencing, tenting, seating, labor, porta-potties, and alcohol.

In dreaming up large-scale food events, Adler considers the environment of music festivals combined with the indulgence of eating at a county fair and tries to elevate the experience. “[People] want to envision themselves eating something that’s overthe-top,” he says. “I turn food into an OMG experience … Oh. My. God. Do we always get that? We get it pre- but can we get it during or after? That’s what we’re working on.”

There’s a steep learning curve, according to Adler. Inaugural events are often self-fulfilling prophecies because an untested event with a fledgling organizer will have trouble securing prime food vendors and entertainment, leaving attendees wanting more.

“There’s no school for festivals,” Adler adds.

But there is an annual conference. Laurie Kirby, an entertainment lawyer turned festival producer, has put on FestForums for the past five years. She convenes festival organizers for panels on best practices in areas such as safety, ticketing, and sponsorship.

The best festival Kirby ever attended was an Asian food festival in Los Angeles: “The decor was beautiful, food amazing, lines were short, admission was frictionless, trash bins were plentiful, and the restrooms were luxurious. Those are the elements that go into creating a good festival experience.”

Struggling festival organizers shouldn’t give up, Kirby coaches. “There are many many festivals that have failed. They come back. The model takes at least three years.

The failure rate is very, very high. Same as the restaurant business.”

A food festivAl is only as good as its food vendors, and when an event goes awry, the

16 october 25, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

organizers and vendors sometimes play the blame game. “You have to look at relationships with vendors like a marriage,” Martens says. “You go through good times and bad times together.”

Where a county fair relies on concession stands that hawk high volume, standard fare such as funnel cake and corndogs, many food and drink festivals have moved toward highlighting local restaurants, caterers, and food trucks.

“There are a lot of companies that do concessions,” Nivens says. “But [organizers] don’t use them because they’re not a food truck. We live in a hipster world. Food trucks are great, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not skilled at events and can’t move fast enough. It takes 30 minutes for you to get your cow tongue taco with cilantro.”

Organizers cash in off vendors in various ways. Some charge a flat fee up front, others take a percentage of revenue at the end, and there’s also a hybrid combining both. Sometimes attendees pay cash or credit for a fullsize portion of food, other times vendors are asked to come up with sample-size options that attendees pay for with tickets. In the latter scenario, the festival organizer typically reimburses vendors a percentage of the value of each ticket.

To participate in the 2018 Taste of Arlington food festival put on by the Ballston Business Improvement District, food trucks had to play a flat fee of up to $500. Festival attendees then purchased tickets worth $5 each that could be redeemed at food trucks for a few bites. When the gates closed, event organizers reimbursed food trucks between 25 and 75 cents per ticket.

“I couldn’t even comprehend it,” Francis told City Paper last year. “I assumed the tickets were being sold for a dollar. Even that would be bad, but this is just laughable.”

Flash forward to 2019 and Francis has learned to negotiate with organizers. “We’re not paying what was advertised,” he says. He makes a case about dependability and argues that a dessert truck has a smaller per transaction revenue. “It’s not all roses for people holding events. They deal with a lot of last minute cancellations and flat tires.

Captain Cookie always shows up.”

When deciding whether to roll up to a food festival, Francis argues that the most important factor is past performance. “If we’ve done it before, we’ll do it unless they’ve done something to screw it up like if they’ve moved from a great location,” he says. “If something’s been rescheduled twice and moved locations once, it’s not a good indication.”

Lebanese food truck operator Chef Roro says he turned a profit on five of the six festivals he participated in over the past year.

He broke even on the other. He can earn as much as $2,000 to $5,000, but there are costs to doing business such as the participation fee, labor, gas, and ingredients. “I need to make at least a thousand to make it worth it,” he explains. Roro typically participates in festivals charging $200 to $300

and prefers if they have a charitable component. It’s often an arduous day that can start with a 5 a.m. load-in time followed by an eight-hour shift.

Roro asks that organizers stop short of overestimating their reach in order to properly ensure the ratio of food vendors to attendees is advantageous. “I suggest first time festival operators be on the conservative side of hiring vendors and food trucks, he says. “The worst thing you can have is 20 food trucks for five people. It takes a village of businesses to make an event successful. You don’t want to think your event is going to be a Coachella when it’s your first one.”

Making money is the first check mark, but some vendors seek out opportunities to be in front of a crowd. “I think a lot of it is marketing and exposure,” says Rocklands Barbeque marketing manager Candice Siegel.

“We don’t have an advertising budget. Our advertising is participating in all of the area events. It’s always helpful for us to put food in people’s mouths instead of paying for a print ad of a pork sandwich.”

Peter He used to participate in a range of food festivals with People’s Bao. His experiences have been hit or miss, and he agrees with Francis that location is the most important factor. Neighborhood Restaurant Group held Snallygaster, a monster-themed craft beer festival, on Pennsylvania Avenue NW for the first time in 2018. He says he made more in five hours than he did at Taste of DC in two days the same year. While he hypothesizes that anything in that location will do well, he adds that Snallygaster’s “rates are very reasonable and the people are very easy to work with.”

He is not the only vendor to prop up Snallygaster as proof that a well organized festival is possible.

This year’s meeting of the beer nerds was on Oct. 12 on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. NRG scrapped drink tickets in favor of higher admission prices for the first time, allowing attendees to drink without whipping out their wallets. VIP tickets were $100 and allowed for early entry while general admission tickets cost $50.

Both sold out.

“I think we killed it just based on reactions and the way people responded at the event,” says NRG’s Director of Operations Erik Bergman. The event garnered rare positive feedback online. One attendee gave kudos for the breweries in attendance, the “buffet-style” ticket, the venue, the music, and the fact that most beers were still available well into the festival.

Bergman says they reserve the space nine months in advance and start overall planning for Snallygaster about six months out.

“Just like service in the restaurant, there are a million things going wrong in the back that we’re hiding from everybody,” he says. “Sometimes it’s harder to hide at these kinds of events. We created a temporary city for a minute.”

CP

washingtoncitypaper.com october 25, 2019 17

Bill Kipp

CPARTS

Caroline Kipp, curator of contemporary art at the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, discusses her new gig.

washingtoncitypaper.com/arts

A Walk to Remember

Taking a U Street tour with a local poet dedicated to preserving D.C.’s literary history

I meet KIm RobeRts on a Wednesday afternoon on U Street NW. Our exact location: right next to the Metro between 12th and 13th streets NW, across from Ben’s Chili Bowl and the Lincoln Theatre with a Starbucks and an &pizza looming behind us. The spot quite literally reflects the tension in the District between long standing black businesses and residents, and the younger, primarily nonblack shops and people who have steadily arrived and caused physical and cultural displacement over the past few decades. Clipboard in hand, Roberts kicks off our Harlem Renaissance walking tour of the neighborhood.

Roberts is an award-winning poet, editor, and literary historian who’s lived in D.C. for 35 years.

She’s the author of five books of poetry: The Wishbone Galaxy, The Kimnama, Animal Magnetism, Fortune’s Favor: Scott in the Antarctic, and The Scientific Method. She’s also the author of A Literary Guide to Washington DC: Walking in the Footsteps of American Writers from Francis Scott Key to Zora Neale Hurston, a pocket-sized guidebook featuring four literary-themed walking tours and profiles on significant authors with ties to the city, released last year. “When it comes to writers we think of as sort of changing literature, it’s surprising how many of them have lived here,” she says.

Our tour begins with a discussion of the Harlem Renaissance’s nomenclature. “The name came long after the 1920s had passed, and is misleading, because the movement took place in several cities simultaneously, not just New York,” says Roberts. “You could even argue that it was born

Jon Gann

By Ella Feldman

Kim Roberts at Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens

“When it comes to writers we think of as sort of changing literature, it’s surprising how many of them have lived here.”

18 october 25, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

in D.C.” She directs my attention across the street to the swirling details above the iconic Ben’s sign, which I’d never noticed before. “It used to be a theater,” she says.

As we walk, Roberts paints a picture of what the neighborhood would’ve looked like in the 1920s.

At the time, U Street NW was the place to be for D.C.’s well established black middle class, filled to the brim with black-owned clubs, bars, and restaurants. T Street NW was a little less fancy, and a younger crowd, drawn to the street’s many pool halls, frequented it. Although she occasionally glances at her clipboard to fact-check herself, Roberts gives most of the tour from memory, and her knowledge about and passion for the subject matter is clear.

After stopping at a few notable locations—the Whitelaw Apartment building, which was formerly the city’s only first class hotel for black visitors, and the former residences of Harlem Renaissance figures Jean Toomer, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Langston Hughes, and Duke Ellington—we arrive at a two-story brick house with dark blue details on the corner of 15th and S streets NW. It’s the former residence of Georgia Douglas Johnson, a poet central to the Harlem Renaissance. With a gleam in her eye, Roberts tells me about the Saturday night intellectual salons Douglas Johnson would host for local creatives. Cake and wine, much sought after in the Prohibition era, were staples, and Alain Locke and Zora Neale Hurston were regulars. “This house was arguably the most important extant location for the Harlem Renaissance,” Roberts says.

Roberts has expert knowledge of the former residences of liter-

CPARTS ary figures in D.C., like the Douglas Johnson house. Upon her arrival to the city, she immediately started researching the topic, primarily focusing on the homes of Walt Whitman, one of her favorite authors. She and fellow poet and friend Dan Vera developed a hobby of going to the former addresses of writers to see if the buildings were still standing. “You could say I’ve been writing this book for a really long time,” Roberts says of A Literary Guide to Washington DC, “but I didn’t know that it was a book.”

Roberts started turning her escapades into actual walking tours about 20 years ago. She would write down her routes and notes and give them to local schools and nonprofits. In 2010, she and Vera launched DC Writers’ Homes, an online database that displays the former houses of authors in the D.C. area on a map. Not too long after, she got to work on the book.

She gives a few tours a year to groups that reach out to her, but doesn’t regularly offer them to the public. “I’m not a tour guide,” she says. “The book is really meant for people to do self-guided tours.” In addition to the Harlem Renaissance tour, the book contains walking tours on the Civil War, the Post-Reconstruction era, and the Gilded Age. All tours start and end at a Metro stop.

These days, Roberts can be found working from home on her next book, an anthology of early D.C. poets that is yet to be titled.

The University of Virginia Press is set to publish the book in 2021, but her deadline for wrapping it up is this October. What will she be doing in 2020? DC Writers’ Homes will be due for an update, and she’ll find something else to fill her time. She likes a big, meaty project: “I can’t imagine that I’ll just sit there and twiddle my thumbs,” she says.

Her books and website are her way of trying to reclaim the city’s literary history, and in her view, it’s a history for which D.C. doesn’t take enough credit. She partially attributes D.C.’s lack of a reputation as a true literary and arts city to its overwhelming reputation as a government town. But, she says, anyone who’s lived here knows D.C. is much more than that.

The silver lining to the District’s lack of artsy status, Roberts says, is that the arts community is extremely generous. “I’ve lived in other cities and it’s much more competitive than it is here,” she says. “I can tell you, in particular with the writing community, writers support other writers here.” The strong community is part of the reason Roberts plans to stay in her Park View home. “I own my house here.

I have no intention of leaving.”

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We make our way from the Douglas Johnson house to 14th Street, and as we walk down the bustling row back to U Street, we discuss how rapidly the area has changed in our time here. “Unfortunately, with all this new development, a lot of older buildings are being torn down,” says Roberts.

“It kind of breaks my heart.” Looking for a place to get some coffee and chat further, we land at Busboys and Poets—fitting, both as an homage to Hughes and as a controversial establishment caught between trying to push a progressive agenda and preserve black D.C.’s culture and representing the city’s ongoing gentrification.

Over iced coffee and sparkling water, Roberts tells me about her poems, her favorite spots in the city (the Frederick Douglass house in Anacostia ranks highly), and how being a literary historian has impacted her life. Roberts’ work remains firmly grounded in place, and for her, D.C. will always be a special place. “I’ll just be wandering around the city, and almost every neighborhood you go to there’s some association with some writer,” she says. “It changes how you see a place. For me, it changed my relationship to the city.”

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CPARTS ARTS DESK

Collective Action Three local poets discuss their riveting new collections.

By Hannah Grieco Poetry is a powerful force in D.C., weaving its way in and out of literary, political, and social discourse. Local poets read their work at state dinners, protests, and art installations, and publish their pieces in national journals and in their own collections from publishing houses both large and small.

Three 2019 collections—Scattered Clouds, A Constellation of Half-Lives, and A Short History of Monsters—are captivating readers with their accessibility. Don’t expect flowery, light dances from these poets. Instead, their poems open up the art form to readers who might normally prefer prose, and re-establish why poetry is such an important way of sharing words.

Reuben Jackson Reuben Jackson’s Scattered Clouds was decades in the making. He wrote Fingering the Keys, the first section in the collection, many years ago and incorporated it into this larger work. Jackson is known locally for his poetry, teaching, and vast musical knowledge, and it’s impossible to attend a literary event without running into at least one of his writing students. But his poetry sings its own song, and Scattered Clouds draws in readers with its warm, and often blunt, truth-telling.

WCP: What was the hardest part about writing this collection?

RJ: The hardest thing about this collection—and keep in mind, Fingering the Keys was my first book, published nearly 20 years ago—was trying to balance the thematic and emotional ratio. There is such a thing as too much longing and grief, even for a pretty wistful dude such as myself. There was also the fear that the poems in Fingering might make folks wince. Like, say, high school yearbook pics. Overall, I think things turned out pretty well.

WCP: What poet or poetry collection has impacted your writing the most?

RJ: I am indebted to countless poets and their published efforts. Not to mention musicians. If I could cheat a little, I’d certainly have to include Miles Davis, for his use of space and his lyricism. Poetically speaking, I would say William Carlos

Williams. I love nearly everything he has written, but I am especially drawn to a late volume entitled Journey To Love.

WCP: What poem was the most vulnerable work to include in the collection?

RJ: The “Amir” and “Khadijah” poems reflect an unfettered tenderness I will probably never be able to recapture again. Amir would say they are testaments to the human heart in love.

WCP: How is your writing process different now than when you first wrote Fingering the Keys?

RJ: I would say I’m goofier, more profane, a tad ornery, and more emotional.

I’d say my writing is less bashful. It doesn’t defect to the wallflower’s corner quite as much as before.

WCP: As an artist and teacher known throughout D.C., what local poets and authors in the should we be reading and listening to?

RJ: D.C. is blessed with tons of gifted wordsmiths. I especially love spoken word geniuses Tarica June, Head-Roc, Priest Da Nomad, and poets Alan King, Silvana Straw, Maritza Rivera, Sami Miranda, Kenneth Carroll. I could go on and on.

Seema Reza Seema Reza is known throughout the D.C. area for both her poetry and her work with Community Building Art Works. Her collection A Constellation of

20 october 25, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

Half-Lives came out this April, and it’s a stunner, with Reza sharing a deeply personal series of poems that leave readers aching.

WCP: How did you go about writing such a personal collection?

SR: To write these poems I had to look directly at things I actively avert my gaze from in order to live an ordinary life—school shootings, the conflicts our country is involved in, the incessant passage of time. I was working full time, so I lowered myself into that darkness each weekend and then I’d lift my head out and put on the mask and go make small talk. A very wobbly time.

WCP: What poetry collections inspire your writing?

SR: I come back to Mary Oliver’s The Leaf and the Cloud all the time. I keep buying copies and giving them away and buying new copies. And A Catalog of Unabashed

Gratitude by Ross Gay. They’re the same spirit. The celebration, the nod to grief.

WCP: What poem is the most personal for you to perform?

SR: Every single time I perform “Belemnite” I have a brief moment of “What have I done?” when I am approaching the line that mentions masturbation.

So, I guess that might be it! But honestly, there’s a part of me that truly believes no one reads anything I write, and that keeps me writing and publishing the hardest truest things.

WCP: You write so tangibly about your son as a little boy, but he’s older now.

How did you reconnect to that time as a mother?

SR: I was gathering these poems while my son was preparing to leave for college, and feeling nostalgic not for the big moments, but the many ordinary humdrum moments that blur together and

CPARTS WCP: These poems take place at different times, with pop culture references grounding us in many of them. Can you speak to the process of sharing moments through time and creating such an overarching collection?

are the real meat of who we are. I kept examining the ordinary objects in our household, the ones we barely see anymore, and imagining what they’ve seen.

That’s our life.

WCP: Your poems paint a vivid picture of war. What connection do you have to violence that is geographically so far away?

JP: All the various cultural references are a way of placing within, specifically, the culture of America from the ’60s on up to the end of the 20th century. As the child of immigrant parents, who travelled here by boat from the Philippines circa 1950, I wasn’t quite sure who I was. Early on, I wished I could fit in better as the sort of American you’d see portrayed on television, for example. A lot of that experience was my experience as well, and I wanted to show that. Of course, there were numerous points where my immigrant culture clashed with the predominant American culture. When I was a kid, I would have loved to be an actor, but even then, I knew that for an Asian American to make it as an actor was an incredibly rough undertaking. As it was, I had to write, go into detail about all this, connect the dots in my poems and say, this is America, this is me, this is where we intersect, this is where we don’t. But isn’t that interesting too?

SR: For the past decade, I’ve taught art and poetry to active duty service members receiving care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, first through a DoD contract and now through the nonprofit Community Building Art Works. I’ve had the privilege of helping people find the words for these visceral, unsweetened stories. When someone tells you a real honest story, you feel it in your body. And of course, no human being is untouched by war. I come from a family that has experienced a great deal of it; it’s why we immigrated to America.

I am of the first generation in four to not have lived in a war zone (so far).

Jose Padua The 2019 Miller Williams Poetry Prizewinning A Short History of Monsters is Jose Padua’s first full-length collection, but Padua is no new-comer to poetry. He has also been a featured reader at the Split This Rock Poetry Festival and won the New Guard Review’s 2014 Knightville Poetry Prize. This latest work incorporates pop culture throughout, setting the stage for both the time periods of the pieces and Padua’s state of mind while writing them.

WCP: Your poetry speaks to people who aren’t usually interested in the medium.

How do you respond to that and what do you want to achieve with your work?

WCP: What went into writing this first fulllength collection?

JP: Well, this collection comprises my earliest published work, including poems I wrote when I was living in New York in the early ’90s. I lived on Avenue B in one of those buildings where you’d see people shooting up in the foyer, and where the heat would go out in the winter on occasion. And the East Village/Lower East Side, in those days when a poet without a regular job could still manage to scrape by, was always a fascinating place. I couldn’t have written this collection—and perhaps even a lot of what I’ve written since then—without having lived there.

WCP: Who and what has influenced you most as a poet?

JP: My first lengthy exposure to poetry was probably this slim anthology we

had as one of our textbooks when I was a freshman in high school. It was called On City Streets and had a nice mix of poets like Lucille Clifton, Langston Hughes, and William Carlos Williams. It’s where I first read Gwendolyn Brooks’ famous poem, “We Real Cool,” which had me thinking, ‘Oh, this is something I’d like to do.’ I was focused more on math and science in high school and that’s what I was better at then. When it came time for college, I ap-

plied to two places: Caltech and Catholic University in D.C. At this point I’d read poets like Frank O’Hara, and had gotten into Jack Kerouac, James Joyce, etc. I turned down Caltech and went to Catholic, where I majored in English. People thought I was crazy for turning down Caltech. They were right. But, like a lot of people, I feel much more among the living when I allow myself to be crazy in some regard.

JP: I do hear that. People will tell me that they don’t usually like poetry, but they like my work. Often, the people who have to be convinced of its merits are those in the regular poetry establishment, which I think is why it took so long to get my first full book published.

And also my love of avant garde jazz, which doesn’t create some smooth, soothing atmosphere where the cigarette smoke wafts gently up from the bar. Not that there isn’t smoke in my work, but it’s most likely because you’ve held the cigarette for too long and it’s starting to singe your fingers.

I’d like my work to show that you can enjoy, for instance, Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood” as well as an avant garde masterpiece like Sun Ra’s “Magic City.” As I note in the last poem in the book, “On These Days Driving,” I’m not particularly enamored of perfection or anything that might be described as being slick. Of course, I have Tourette syndrome, ADD, OCD, and who knows what else, so slickness is beyond me. I’ll take an awkward, uncomfortable exchange over fully-lubricated small talk any day.

CP

washingtoncitypaper.com october 25, 2019 21

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Cece Peniston 11.19

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22 october 25, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

Once in a director’s career, if they’re lucky, capitalism and creativity converge for the chance to make a film as wonderfully strange as Jojo Rabbit. In 2017, writer-director Taika Waititi, after making independent films for years in his native New Zealand, breathed new life into the superhero genre with the hilariously funny Thor: Ragnarok. Suddenly, he had the artistic and financial freedom to do anything he wanted. The success of Ragnarok was an improbable feat, but he was just getting started. For his next trick, Waititi will attempt the impossible: a Holocaust comedy.

In the last days of the Third Reich, Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) is a precocious 10-yearold who roots for the Nazis the way a kid today might root for the Nats. He just really loves the uniforms. He spends his days at a Nazi youth camp, where he learns basic skills like how to identify Jews and the proper form for throwing hand grenades. At home, he faithfully practices his Nazi salute and dreams about befriending Hitler. He even conjures an imaginary version of Hitler (played by Waititi himself ), who encourages Jojo’s anti-Semitic fantasies and pouts like a scorned lover every time the kid starts to think for himself.

Things change for Jojo when he discovers Elsa (Thomasin MacKenzie), a Jewish teenager who his radical mother (Scarlett Johansson) has hidden in their attic. Although the propaganda he has internalized initially constrains him, Jojo soon lets down his guard, and his hatred gives way to a détente. He agrees to keep Elsa’s lo-

cation a secret if she will answer his questions about Jewish people. The boy’s shallow bigotry quickly begins to erode under the scrutiny. The fact that Elsa is a pretty girl sure doesn’t hurt.

The film hews closely to the child’s perspective, using candy-colored set design and jaunty pop music to signal a world in which youthful naiveté obscures harsh realities. In this world, a Nazi camp is a gleeful romp in the forest, and the nonsensical Jewish stereotypes Jojo has faithfully memorized—that Jews smell like cabbage, for example—generate laughs in their absurdity. In lesser hands, of course, this would all be a disaster, but Waititi lets us live entirely in Jojo’s world, without lecturing the audience on the atrocities occurring just outside the frame.

The degree of difficulty is so high that, even when the film falters, you appreciate the effort. The clearest misstep is Waititi’s performance in front of the camera. The filmmaker surely got a kick out of casting himself as Hitler, but his broad, mugging performance feels cheap, when set against the film’s otherwise elegant complexity. Giving Jojo an imaginary friend was likely a hedge, in case a child actor capable of conveying his interiority couldn’t be found, but the young Davis, who gives a brilliant lead performance, renders it unnecessary. In the furrows of his brow and widening eyes, he captures the profound confusion of a premature adolescent, and he earns our sympathies.

Still, it’s a confection that may be too sugary for some viewers, and there will surely be others who chafe at any sympathetic portrayal of Nazis. These responses are reasonable, but they may miss the point. Humor can be a powerful weapon against hatred, and Jojo Rabbit is a master class in how it works. —Noah Gittell Jojo Rabbit opens Friday at Landmark E Street Cinema and Landmark Bethesda Row.

Jazz Jason Moran

Artistic Director

Dorado Schmitt and The Django Festival Allstars

featuring Samson Schmitt, Amati Schmitt, Ludovic Beier, Pierre Blanchard Friday, November 1 at 7 & 9 p.m. | Terrace Theater The fearsomely talented Django Festival Allstars are back by popular demand with the high-energy “hot jazz” stylings of legendary Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt. This internationally acclaimed ensemble is comprised of guitarist/violinist Dorado Schmitt, his guitar-playing sons Samson and Amati; his cousins Gino Roman (bass) and Francko Mehrstein (rhythm guitar), accordion player Ludovic Beier, and violinist Pierre Blanchard. If Django were around today, this is what he’d be playing.

Direct from Rajasthan, India

WORLD STAGES

The Manganiyar Seduction Directed by Roysten Abel

November 1 & 2 Eisenhower Theater Kennedy-Center.org (202) 467-4600

Groups call (202) 416-8400 For all other ticket-related customer service inquiries, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540

Major support for Jazz programing at the Kennedy Center is made possible by The Buffy and William Cafritz Family Foundation.

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

International programming at the Kennedy Center is made possible through the generosity of the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts.

WORLD STAGES: The Manganiyar Seduction is made possible by the Discover India Initiatives.

washingtoncitypaper.com october 25, 2019 23

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

AEG PRESENTS

Trixie Mattel SIMON SINEK

.................................................................................. MARCH 1

.......................................................................... FRI MARCH 6

PUPPERS LAGER PRESENTS

THIS WEEK’S SHOWS

Josh Abbott Band w/ Ray Fulcher ...................................................... Th OCT 24

LETTERKENNY LIVE! ............... FRI MARCH 20 On Sale Friday, October 25 at 10am

U STREET MUSIC HALL PRESENTS

Lost Frequencies (Live) w/ Throttle & Ryan Farish

Late Show! 10:30pm Doors ...................................................................................... F 25

HellBENT featuring Lemz, Jacq Jill, Ed Bailey, DJ Damn Kham •

Hosted by Pussy Noir • Visuals by Ben Carver • Performances by Ana Latour, Betty O’Hellno, Sasha Adams, haus of bambi .................... Sa 26

bea miller w/ Kah-Lo & Kennedi ................................................................... M 28 Big Freedia w/ Low Cut Connie .................................................................... Tu 29

THIS WEEK!

THE BYT BENTZEN BALL AN EVENING WITH

MARIA BAMFORD

Come dressed in your best! ............. OCT 31

Early Show! 6pm Doors ................... OCT 24

LOS ESPOOKYS LIVE

Late Show! 9:30pm Doors ................ OCT 24

PETE HOLMES w/ Jamie Lee - LIVE! NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

The Maine w/ Twin XL & Nick Santino .............F 1 The Cinematic Orchestra w/ Photay & PBDY ........................Sa 2 Chelsea Wolfe w/ Ioanna Gika

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

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

Must purchase 2-Day Pass with

Mumiy Troll w/ MadMeg Late Show! 10pm Doors ......................Su 3 Cavetown w/ Field Medic & Spookyghostboy..M 4

12/7 PPPP @ The Anthem to attend. .....F 6

Devendra Banhart w/ Black Belt Eagle Scout Early Show! 6pm Doors .....................Sa 7 Lucy Dacus w/ Haley Heynderickx

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

SunSquabi w/ Goose .................F 8 Ra Ra Riot w/ Bayonne .............W 13 Wild Nothing w/ Kate Bollinger .........................F 15 Neon Indian w/ Sateen ...........Sa 16 Alice Merton w/ Raffaella ......Tu 19 Christone “Kingfish” Ingram .....................................Th 21 San Fermin w/ Wild Pink ..........F 22 Sasha Sloan w/ Winnetka Bowling League Early Show! 6pm Doors ....................Sa 23 Alex Cameron w/ Emily Panic & Holiday Sidewinder

Late Show! 10pm Doors ......................Sa 7

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

The Marcus King Band w/ Ian Noe ..................................Su 8 Omar Apollo w/ Alexander 23 & Silver Sphere Early Show! 6pm Doors .....................F 13 Cautious Clay w/ Remi Wolf Late Show! 10pm Doors ......................F 13

Samantha Fish w/ Nicholas David .......................Tu 17 Daughters and HEALTH w/ Show Me The Body .................W 18 Turnover & Men I Trust w/ Renata Zeiguer ......................Th 19 Hot in Here Holiday Spectacular:

Late Show! 10pm Doors ....................Sa 23

La Dispute w/ Touché Amoré & Empath .......Su 24

2000s Dance Party with DJs Will Eastman and Ozker • Visuals by Kylos ........................F 20

U STREET MUSIC HALL PRESENTS

Miami Horror w/ Argonaut • Wasp • Ozker ......F 29 Alice Smith .............................Sa 30

THE NEW NEGROES FEAT.

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong w/ lespecial

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

D NIGHT ADDED!

FIRST NIGHT SOLD OUT! SECON

Thievery Corporation w/ The Archives ..........................Su 22

MANY MORE SHOWS ON SALE!

9:30 CUPCAKES

Early Show! 5:30pm Doors ............... OCT 25

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

Collie Buddz w/ Keznamdi ......Su 1 Mac Ayres..................................Tu 3

930.com

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

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

ROXANE GAY:

A Smart, Funny, Real Afternoon In Conversation with Sasheer Zamata Matinee Show! 1pm Doors............... OCT 26

TIG NOTARO: B ut E nough A Bout Y ou

Early Show! 5pm Doors .................... OCT 26

CALL YOUR GIRLFRIEND L ivE !

Late Show! 8pm Doors ..................... OCT 26

24 october 25, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

D NIGHT ADDED!

FIRST NIGHT SOLD OUT! SECON

Angel Olsen w/ Vagabon ............NOV 2 U Up? Live ....................................NOV 4 D NIGHT ADDED!

9:30 CLUB SHOW SOLD OUT! 2N

The New Pornographers w/ Lady Lamb ......................................NOV 6 Kishi Bashi w/ Cicada Rhythm ....NOV 8 Judge John Hodgman Live ................................................NOV 10 Sasha Velour’s Smoke & Mirrors .................NOV 11 BenDeLaCreme & Jinkx Monsoon: All I Want for Christmas is Attention .NOV 29 Robert Earl Keen Countdown to Christmas

w/ Shinyribs........................................DEC 6 D NIGHT ADDED!

FIRST NIGHT SOLD OUT! SECON

AEG PRESENTS

Girls Gotta Eat ........................ JAN 10

Riceboy Sleeps with Wordless Orchestra .......... OCT 28

AEG PRESENTS

Jónsi & Alex Somers -

Tim and Eric ............................. FEB 8 X Ambassadors Michael Kiwanuka ................ FEB 12 w/ Bear Hands & LPX ....................... OCT 29 • thelincolndc.com • U Street (Green/Yellow) stop across the street!

9:30 CLUB PRESENTS AT U STREET MUSIC HALL

Maxo Kream Abhi The Nomad w/ Atwood ............F 8 w/ Q Da Fool & Slayter .............. F OCT 25 Sinéad Harnett ......................... M 11 BJ the Chicago Kid Black Midi w/ Fat Tony .................W 13 w/ Rayana Jay & KAMAUU ...............Su 27 Last Dinosaurs w/ Born Ruffians & Ginger Root ..............................Th 14 White Reaper w/ Nude Party & Wombo .................Th 31 Chastity Belt w/ Strange Ranger ......F 15 Kindness ............................. F NOV 1 Charlotte Lawrence w/ Goody Grace ............................Sa 16 Futuristic w/ Ray Vans • Scribe Cash • Yonas • NoBigDyl ............................Su 3 Skizzy Mars w/ Yoshi Flower & Zaia .Su 17 Ayokay w/ Wingtip ........................Tu 5 White Denim w/ Spaceface ..........Tu 19 • 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!

Puddles Pity Party w/ Dina Martina Halloween Costume Contest!

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

ELIANE

ELIAS

Music 25 Books 27 Theater 28 Film 28

W/ GUTIERREZ MEDEIROS

Music FRIDAY DJ NIGHTS

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

Orchard Lounge. 10:30 p.m. $10–$20. ustreetmusichall.com.

ELECTRONIC

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Lost Frequencies. 10:30 p.m. $25. 930.com.

ECHOSTAGE 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Fisher. 9 p.m. $30–$40. echostage.com.

FOLK

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Cat Clyde. 7 p.m. $12–$15. dcnine.com.

HIP-HOP

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

Maxo Kream. 7 p.m. $20. ustreetmusichall.com.

JAZZ

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. Madeleine Peyroux. 6 p.m. $60–$70. citywinery.com.

POP

SONGBYRD MUSIC HOUSE AND RECORD CAFE 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Ruel. 6:30 p.m.; 9:45 p.m. $20–$30. songbyrddc.com.

ROCK

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Cigarettes After Sex. 6 p.m. $30. 930.com.

AMP BY STRATHMORE 11810 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Van Morrison & Bruce Springsteen Album Tributes. 8 p.m. $35–$48. ampbystrathmore.com.

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

Sleater-Kinney. 8 p.m. $37.50–$62.50. theanthemdc.com.

BLACK CAT 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. The Make-Up. 8 p.m. $20–$22. blackcatdc.com.

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

Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors. 7:30 p.m. $30–$105. unionstage.com.

WORLD

EAGLEBANK ARENA 4500 Patriot Circle, Fairfax.

(703) 993-3000. Juan Luis Guerra. 8 p.m. $105–$350. eaglebankarena.com.

EATON DC 1201 K St. NW. (202) 900-8414. Vibrations from Yemen: Traditional and New Sounds. 7 p.m. $30– $40. eatonworkshop.com.

SATURDAY BLUES

SIXTH & I HISTORIC SYNAGOGUE 600 I St. NW. (202) 408-3100. David Bromberg Big Band. 8 p.m. $45– $49.50. sixthandi.org.

COUNTRY

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

Ruston Kelly. 7 p.m. $20. ustreetmusichall.com.

FUNK & R&B

AMP BY STRATHMORE 11810 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Leonard, Coleman & Blunt.

8 p.m. $30–$40. ampbystrathmore.com.

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

Lloyd Unplugged. 8 p.m. $30–$35. thehowardtheatre.com.

FRIDAY OCT

CITY LIGHTS: FRIDAY

AN EVENING WITH

WAR AND PIECES

FABperform FAUX

If the dish ran away with the spoon and had a porcelain love child, it might look something like the chaotic fine china sculptures of Dutch artist Bouke de Vries. War and Pieces both pays homage to and upends the tradition of decorative dinner sets and figurines, the likes of which are abundant across Hillwood Estate’s collections. De Vries draws inspiration from 17th and 18th century European figurines that were arranged in elaborate scenes on tabletops, with the earliest examples molded out of sugar (and later porcelain). His ramshackle reinterpretation shows seven tableaus of violence and destruction; in one, aristocratic ladies wield tea spoons and salad forks like swords, and in another, a mushroom cloud made of shattered angels and Christ figurines looms over the table.

Like any good subversive dollhouse, it warrants up-close inspection to catch every detail. The exhibition runs to April 5 at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, 4155 Linnean Ave. NW. $5–$18.

(202) 686-5807. hillwoodmuseum.org.

—Stephanie Rudig

THE PUBLICK PLAYHOUSE 5445 Landover Road, Cheverly. 301-277-1710. Lean On Me: José James Celebrates Bill Withers. 8 p.m. $25–$30. arts.pgparks.com.

HIP-HOP

UNION STAGE 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. Jack Harlow. 8 p.m. $20–$80. unionstage.com.

POP

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

Alessia Cara. 7:30 p.m. $40–$175. theanthemdc.com.

GW LISNER AUDITORIUM 730 21st St. NW. (202) 9946800. Leila Forouhar & Mansour. 8 p.m. $55–$150. lisner.gwu.edu.

ROCK

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

FILLMORE SILVER SPRING 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Deja Foo. 9 p.m. $7.75– $15.50. fillmoresilverspring.com.

THE HAMILTON 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000. The Fab Faux. 6:30 p.m. $44–$93.50. thehamiltondc.com.

PEARL STREET WAREHOUSE 33 Pearl Street SW. (202) 380-9620. Marco Benevento. 8 p.m. $17. pearlstreetwarehouse.com.

SONGBYRD MUSIC HOUSE AND RECORD CAFE 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Vinnie Caruana. 7 p.m. $12. songbyrddc.com.

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

Ruston Kelly. 7 p.m. $20. ustreetmusichall.com.

WHITE ALBUM SELECTIONS AND A SET OF FAVORITES

SATURDAY

OCT 26

FRI, NOV 1

REBIRTH BRASS BAND SAT, NOV 2

NIGHT I

NIGHT II; 6:30pm & 9:30pm

REBIRTH BRASS BAND FRI, NOV 8

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

CRIS JACOBS BAND & MIDNIGHT NORTH SAT, NOV 9

NEWMYER FLYER PRESENTS

THE LAST WALTZ TRIBUTE WED, NOV 13

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS THU, NOV 14

ANTHONY B W/ NKULA AND SPECIAL GUEST RAS HAITRM

FOLK

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. Sawyer Fredericks. 8 p.m. $20–$24. citywinery.com.

HIP-HOP

ECHOSTAGE 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. (202) 503-2330. Kevin Gates. 7 p.m. $37.50–$137.50. echostage.com.

SONGBYRD MUSIC HOUSE AND RECORD CAFE 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. Domo Wilson. 8 p.m. $15– $75. songbyrddc.com.

POP

FRI, NOV 15

FRANK SOLIVAN & DIRTY KITCHEN

W/ MAN ABOUT A HORSE SAT, NOV 16

YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND W/ PIERCE EDENS TUES, NOV 19

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

AN EVENING WITH

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

Tegan and Sara. 7 p.m. $40.50–$76. thelincolndc.com.

ROCK

BLACK CAT 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. DIIV. 7:30 p.m. $17. blackcatdc.com.

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

WHOSE HAT IS THIS? WED, NOV 20

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

RISING APPALACHIA W/ RAYE ZARAGOZA

FRI, NOV 22

DEANNA BOGART AND TORONZO CANNON

MONDAY CLASSICAL

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

National Symphony Orchestra: An American in Paris.

8 p.m. $15–$30. theanthemdc.com.

SUNDAY

KENNEDY CENTER TERRACE THEATER 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Maxim Lando. 7:30 p.m. $20– $45. kennedy-center.org.

BARNS AT WOLF TRAP 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. David Finckel and Wu Han. 3 p.m. $50. wolftrap.org.

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

Jónsi & Alex Somers. 6:30 p.m. $59.50–$99.50. thelincolndc.com.

CLASSICAL

25

SAT, NOV 23

THAT 70’S PARTY W/ SUPERFLYDISCO

ELECTRONIC

THEHAMILTONDC.COM

washingtoncitypaper.com october 25, 2019 25

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

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

Tix @ Ticketmaster.com

Oct 24

The Voice of The Moody Blues

JUSTIN HAYWARD

'All The Way & More Tour!' with Mike Dawes

STEPHANIE MILLS 27 BRUCE COCKBURN Nov 1 DELBERT McCLINTON 2 RAVEN'S NIGHT 2019 “Bellydance, Burlesque, & More!”

25

OLETA ADAMS SUPERCHUNK “Foolish” A 25th Anniversary Acoustic Show

3 4

Performing “Foolish” in its entirety!

THE WAILIN' JENNYS 11 MARCUS MILLER 13 THE GIBSON BROTHERS and ROB ICKES & TREY HENSLEY 6

14

An Evening with

THE FLATLANDERS

Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock 15& 17 19

PAULA POUNDSTONE CARMINHO ‘Portugese Fado Star!’

SIERRA HULL and NOAM PIKELNY & STUART DUNCAN 21 GAELIC STORM 20

22&23

An Evening with

CHRIS BOTTI 24 HERMAN'S HERMITS featuring PETER NOONE 25 BONEY JAMES 29 THE SELDOM SCENE & DRY BRANCH FIRE SQUAD 30 MARY PRANKSTER "PRANKSGIVING 2019"

Dec 1 3 4

TANYA TUCKER THE FIXX

Royston Langdon

A PETER WHITE CHRISTMAS

with Peter White, Euge Groove, Vincent Ingala, & Lindsey Webster

MIRACLE THEATRE 535 8th St. SE. (202) 400-3210.

Will Reagan and Andrea Marie. 7:30 p.m. $22. themiracletheatre.com.

POP

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

SONGBYRD MUSIC HOUSE AND RECORD CAFE 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. The Diane Scream Show: Talking Heads Tribute Concert. 8 p.m. $10. songbyrddc.com.

TUESDAY CLASSICAL

KENNEDY CENTER TERRACE THEATER 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Spektral Quartet: Looking Skyward. 7:30 p.m. $40. kennedy-center.org.

FUNK & R&B

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Big Freedia.

7 p.m. $25. 930.com.

ROCK

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Pale Lips. 8 p.m. $10–$12. dcnine.com.

FILLMORE SILVER SPRING 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Atreyu. 6:30 p.m. $25. fillmoresilverspring.com.

SONGBYRD MUSIC HOUSE AND RECORD CAFE 2477 18th St. NW. (202) 450-2917. The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die. 8 p.m. $16–$18. songbyrddc.com.

WEDNESDAY FOLK

BARNS AT WOLF TRAP 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. George Winston. 8 p.m. $42–$47. wolftrap.org.

Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Baltimore tickets @ ticketmaster.com

PATIO

Buzzed-about Brooklyn post-punk trio Patio (they were recently named an NPR Favorite New Artist and one of Stereogum’s Best New Bands of 2019) make their D.C. debut in promotion of their first album, Essentials. In the midst of a quarter-life crisis in 2014, music journalist Loren DiBlasi joked to her friend and guitarist Lindsey-Paige McCloy that she played in an imaginary band called Patio.

The two soon decided to make the band a reality and recruited newly-minted drummer Alice Suh to round out the group. Drawing inspiration from their dreams, Talking Heads, and chicken sandwiches, the women of Patio sound like old pros as they deconstruct the mythology of the millennial ego. The band infuses the weary introspection of its songwriting with the bright-eyed outlook of indie pop as Suh’s unwavering drum beats guide listeners through the soft bite of DiBlasi and McCloy’s alternating vocals. Joining Saturday’s lineup are local bands BRNDA and Poppy Patica for a night of ennui-laced DIY rock. Patio perform at 10 p.m. at Comet Ping Pong, 5037 Connecticut Ave. NW. $12. (202) 364-0404. cometpingpong.com.

—Mercedes Hesselroth

CITY LIGHTS: SUNDAY

KEVIN GATES

SIXTH & I HISTORIC SYNAGOGUE 600 I St. NW. (202) 408-3100. J.S. Ondara. 8 p.m. $20–$25. sixthandi.org.

FUNK & R&B

CITY WINERY 1350 Okie St. NE. (202) 250-2531. Chantae Cann & Ashleigh Smith. 8 p.m. $25–$30. citywinery.com.

JAZZ

MUSIC CENTER AT STRATHMORE 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Washington Performance Arts: Chick Corea Trilogy. 8 p.m. $35– $85. strathmore.org.

POP

UNION STAGE 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. Hirie + RDGLDGRN. 7:30 p.m. $15–$30. unionstage.com.

ROCK

BLACK CAT 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. 999 and The Clap. 7:30 p.m. $20. blackcatdc.com.

FILLMORE SILVER SPRING 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Simple Plan and State Champs. 6:30 p.m. $33.50. fillmoresilverspring.com.

PEARL STREET WAREHOUSE 33 Pearl Street SW. (202) 380-9620. The Main Squeeze. 8 p.m. $17. pearlstreetwarehouse.com.

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

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

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

Matt Maeson. 7 p.m. $20. ustreetmusichall.com.

THURSDAY CLASSICAL

KENNEDY CENTER CONCERT HALL 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. National Symphony Orchestra: Urbański conducts Tchaikovsky’s Fourth/De La Salle plays Chopin. 7 p.m. $15–$99. kennedy-center.org.

Saturday november 9 at 8 pm

CITY LIGHTS: SATURDAY

FOLK

BARNS AT WOLF TRAP 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. (703) 255-1900. George Winston. 8 p.m. $42–$47. wolftrap.org.

26 october 25, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

Kevin Gates’ latest headline sounds like the type of boast he’d rap in one of his songs: After flashing too much cash on a recent visit, the 33-year-old has been banned from Louisiana correctional facilities. While not incarcerated, the Baton Rouge talent has built a career with his gravel-toned street raps, balancing real-world menace with an R&B crooner’s sexplicit lyricism. There’s plenty of both on I’m Him, his latest album and the follow-up to 2016’s Islah, which nearly topped the Billboard charts on the strength of songs like “2 Phones” and “Really Really.” As ever, Gates’ sense of melancholy melody brings gravity to his songs. “Sometimes it’s painful to relive the past,” he says on “Walls Talking.”

“But sometimes you gotta relive the past in order to heal from it.” For a rapper whose career has almost been sidelined by too much time on the other side of the glass, perhaps being literally banned from prison is a sign of better things to come. Kevin Gates performs at 8 p.m. at Echostage, 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. $37.50–$147.50. (202) 503-2330. echostage.com.

—Chris Kelly

JOE BONAMASSA LIVE IN CONCERT

CITY LIGHTS: MONDAY

PAT STEIR: COLOR WHEEL

Pat Steir’s abstract paintings look like they belong to a different era, although it’s not always clear which one. Steir pours her works a bit like Jackson Pollock, and they casually resemble the whispery doodlings of Cy Twombly, but while her paintings stand shoulder to shoulder with postwar American titans, theirs isn’t quite her milieu. Steir’s cascading waterfall paintings are both reductive and elemental, closer to Zen brush painting than Ab-Ex tradition. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has assembled 28 of the artist’s immersive paintings for a show that will span the entire perimeter of the museum’s second floor. With the eponymous exhibition of Steir’s paintings, the museum will build a Rothko Room–like experience for viewers who long to get lost in deep painting. The exhibition runs to Sept. 7 at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Free. (202) 633-1000. hirshhorn.si.edu.

—Kriston Capps

CITY LIGHTS: TUESDAY

THE EYE OF THE SUN

On the heels of mounting a photography exhibit titled By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar Photographs (still on view to Jan. 5), the National Gallery of Art is now presenting another one titled The Eye of the Sun: Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art. As it happens, though, the celestial concordance is coincidental. Pegged to the 180th anniversary of photography, the 140-image exhibit focuses on works made during the medium’s first 50 years, a period of rapid technological and stylistic development that stretched from the daguerreotype to the first Kodak camera. Among the photographers whose works are included are such early giants as William Henry Fox Talbot, Hill and Adamson, Roger Fenton, Julia Margaret Cameron, Eadweard Muybridge, and Carleton Watkins. The exhibit runs to Dec. 1 at the National Gallery of Art, 4th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Free. (202) 737-4215. nga.gov.

—Louis Jacobson

HIP-HOP FILLMORE SILVER SPRING 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Chief Keef. 8 p.m. $29.50. fillmoresilverspring.com.

ROCK 9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Jukebox The Ghost presents HalloQueen. 7 p.m. $30. 930.com.

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

Umphrey’s McGee. 8 p.m. $35–$75. theanthemdc.com.

BLACK CAT 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. Amber Run. 7:30 p.m. $20–$25. blackcatdc.com.

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

White Reaper. 6:30 p.m. $20. ustreetmusichall.com.

Books

ALEX DIMITROV AND DOROTHEA LASKY Dimitrov and Lasky will discuss their new book Astro Poets: Your Guides to the Zodiac. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Oct. 31. 7 p.m. Free. (202) 3641919. politics-prose.com.

ANNE NELSON Nelson discusses her new book Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Oct. 30. 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com.

DANIEL MENDELSOHN Mendelsohn will discuss his book Ecstasy and Terror: From the Greeks to Game of Thrones. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Oct. 26. 6 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. politicsprose.com.

DOUG SALATI Salati will discuss his children’s book Lawrence in the Fall, about a fox who needs to find something for show-and-tell. Solid State Books. 600 H St. NE. Oct. 26. 10:30 a.m. Free. (202) 897-4201. solidstatebooksdc.com.

Emmylou Harris • Jackson Browne Steve Earle • Patty Griffin • The Mastersons Thao Nguyen • David Pulkingham Emmylou Harris • Jackson Browne SteveEmmylou Earle • Patty Griffin • The Browne Mastersons Harris • Jackson Emmylou Nguyen DavidHarris Pulkingham Steve Thao Earle • Patty •Griffin • The Mastersons Thao Nguyen • David Pulkingham Jackson Browne

Steve Earle • Patty Griffin The Mastersons • Thao Nguyen David Pulkingham

ELIZABETH KNAPP Knapp discusses her poetry collection Requiem with an Amulet in Its Beak. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Oct. 27. 1 p.m.

Free. (202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com.

EVE RODSKY Offering a 21st-century solution to the age-old problem of women shouldering the brunt of domestic responsibilities, Fair Play identifies the 100 main tasks in any marriage in this combination howto guide for couples and modern marriage manifesto.

Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. 600 I St. NW. Oct. 28. 7 p.m. $18–$42. (202) 408-3100. sixthandi.org.

November 5, 2019 • 8pm • warner theatre

Produced by

Tickets at Ticketmaster.com

FUSCHIA DUNLOP Dunlop will discuss her new book The Food of Sichuan. Politics and Prose at Union Mar-

washingtoncitypaper.com october 25, 2019 27

November 5, 2019 • 8pm • warner theatre

ket. 1270 5th St. NE. Oct. 26. 6 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com.

GAIL COLLINS Collins, a New York Times columnist, discusses her new book No Stopping Us Now: A History of Older Women in America. Politics and Prose.

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Oct. 28. 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com.

GENE WEINGARTEN Weingarten will discuss his book One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Oct. 27. 5 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com.

CITY LIGHTS: WEDNESDAY

JAY SOM

PORT AUTHORITY Three generations of Dublin men navigate lost love and missed opportunities in this show directed by Jack Sbarbori, who directed Quotidian’s 2009 production of the play. Quotidian Theatre Company at The Writer’s Center. 4508 Walsh St., Bethesda. To Nov. 17. $15–$35. (301) 816-1023. quotidiantheatre.org.

GRACE BLAKELEY Blakeley will discuss her book Stolen: How to Save the World from Financialisation in conversation with The New Republic writer Osita Nwanevu. Politics and Prose at Union Market. 1270 5th St. NE. Oct. 29. 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com.

RAGS Rags is the story of immigrants to the United States coming through Ellis Island and the intertwining of America’s history with immigration and its deeply held values, set at the turn of the 20th century. George Mason University Center for the Arts. 4373 Mason Pond Drive, Fairfax. To Nov. 3. $15–$30. (888) 945-2468. cfa.gmu.edu.

JOHN MCMILLIAN McMillian will discuss his book American Epidemic: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Opioid Crisis with Margaret Talbot. Politics and Prose at Union Market. 1270 5th St. NE. Oct. 30. 7 p.m.

Free. (202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com.

RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN A young man makes a mistake at 17 that haunts him years later, because the internet never forgets—so he goes on a crusade to erase the event that puts him up against the biggest tech companies in the world. Arena Stage. 1101 6th St. SW. To Nov. 10. $72–$95. (202) 488-3300. arenastage.org.

KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR Taylor discusses the new book Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership.

Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Oct. 27.

3 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com.

MEGAN PHELPS-ROPER Phelps-Roper, the granddaughter of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps, will discuss her new book Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church.

Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Oct. 26.

3:30 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com.

STEPHEN KEARSE Stephen Kearse and Sheldon Pearce discuss In the Heat of the Light, Kearse’s debut novel. Sankofa Video, Books & Cafe. 2714 Georgia Ave. NW. Oct. 26. 3 p.m. Free. (202) 234-4755. sankofa.com.

SUSAN GOLDBERG Goldberg, who introduced the new book Women: The National Geographic Image Collection, will discuss the new book. Politics and Prose. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Oct. 26. 1 p.m. Free.

(202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com.

TERROR IN THE RED RUM: TALES FOR HALLOWEEN Join six local horror authors and D.C.-based Open Boat Editing at Black Cat for a night of dark tales to get your bones chilled in time for Halloween. Black Cat. 1811 14th St. NW. Oct. 29. 7 p.m. Free. (202) 667-4490. blackcatdc.com.

Theater

A CHORUS LINE Signature stages one of the most classic American musicals, A Chorus Line—the story of hopeful dancers in an audition room hoping for a spot in the chorus line. Signature Theatre. 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. To Jan. 5. $40–$110. (703) 820-9771. sigtheatre.org.

DAY OF ABSENCE This 1965 script features a discovery that upends a southern town in a comedic commentary on racism. Theater Alliance at H Street Playhouse. 1365 H St. NE. To Nov. 3. $20–$40. (202) 2412539. theateralliance.com.

E2 In Bob Bartlett’s modern-day retelling of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward the Second, Edward makes a choice that could rock his dynasty, all the while challenging notions of gender and sexuality. Horowitz Center at Howard Community College. 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. To Nov. 17. $15–$40.

(443) 518-1500. repstage.org.

ESCAPED ALONE D.C. actress Holly Twyford directs Escaped Alone, a short play about the sometimes mundane, sometimes catastrophic fears that we all face in the modern 21st century. Signature Theatre.

4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. To Nov. 3. $55–$93.

(703) 820-9771. sigtheatre.org.

EVERYBODY Branden Jacobs-Jenkins revisits the 15th century play Everyman in a production where the main role is assigned by lottery among a small cast of actors. Lansburgh Theatre. 450 7th St. NW. To Nov. 17. (202) 547-1122. shakespearetheatre.org.

FENCES Directed by Timothy Douglas, one of a handful of directors who has directed all 10 of August Wilson’s Century Cycle canon, Fences follows former Negro League baseball star Troy Maxson as he struggles to provide for his family and wrestles with the

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS Seymour Krelborn is a shy floral assistant—until he discovers Audrey II, an amazing plant that makes him famous. There’s just one downside: Audrey II has an unfortunate taste for blood. Constellation Theatre at Source. 1835 14th St. NW. To Nov. 17. $19–$55. (202) 204-7741. constellationtheatre.org.

Melina Duterte composes indie rock sweet nothings as Jay Som. Her sound is often described as bedroom pop or dream pop, not necessarily because of the crooning guitars or drowsy vocals, but because it feels so intimate. A classically trained musician, Duterte has a talent for making her songs sound like full-band compositions. But she prefers to work alone, and has recorded, produced, engineered, and mixed all of her albums by herself in her bedroom studio. Her solitude permeates her music, inviting an intimate introspection to her writing. And yet, despite Duterte’s penchant for privacy, she has attracted masses of young women to her live performances. As an Asian American woman, Duterte advocates for more inclusion and representation of women, people of color, and queer people in a mostly white-male dominated indie music scene. Jay Som performs at 8 p.m. at Rock & Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NE. $18. (202) 388-7625. rockandrollhoteldc.com.

—Casey Embert

CITY LIGHTS: THURSDAY

JUKEBOX THE GHOST PRESENTS HALLOQUEEN

This Halloween, catch two bands (kind of) for the price of one. Jukebox the Ghost—a threepiece act of rockers who met at George Washington University in 2003—will mark the spookiest night of the year with the fifth iteration of their two-set show. In the first act, the group perform as themselves, playing pop-rock hits like “Fred Astaire,” “Girl,” and “Hold It In.” But during the latter half of the night, the trio transform into one of the most hallowed rock bands of all time: Queen. The shift is more than just a costume change, though it’s worth noting that pianist Ben Thornewill has previously sported a chevron mustache in order to better resemble frontman Freddie Mercury. Instead, the segment serves as a tribute to the musical giant, adopting Queen’s singular sound while acknowledging the influence the band has had on Jukebox the Ghost’s own style. “HalloQueen,” as they call it, promises to be a raucous night of mischief, music, and magic, featuring opener Zach Jones and the Tricky Bits masquerading as Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Jukebox the Ghost perform at 7 p.m. at 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $30. (202) 265-0930. 930.com.

—Meilan Solly constraints systemic racism and his own hubris have placed on his life. Ford’s Theatre. 511 10th St. NW. To Oct. 27. $20–$70. (202) 347-4833. fords.org.

GRAPES OF WRATH The American Shakespeare Center’s performs Grapes of Wrath, originally a book authored by John Steinbeck. Frank Galati’s adaptation for the stage won the 1992 Tony for Best Play. McLean Project for the Arts at the McLean Community Center. 1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean. To Oct. 27. $30–$40.

(703) 790-1953. mpaart.org.

28 october 25, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE This play, based on the 1959 novel by Shirley Jackson, follows three strangers who are invited to join a mysterious Dr. Montague in a spooky house on a hill. The Little Theatre of Alexandria. 600 Wolfe St., Alexandria. To Nov. 9. $21–$24. (703) 683-0496. thelittletheatre.com.

KID PRINCE AND PABLO Kid Prince and Pablo reimagines Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper in a kidfriendly, modern, hip-hop version. Kennedy Center Family Theater. 2700 F St. NW. To Nov. 3. $20. (202) 467-4600. kennedy-center.org.

STORMY WEATHER The Tempest is retold from the perspective of Sycorax—Caliban’s mother and Ariel’s mistress—through Billie Holiday’s music, creating an immersive story about colonization and subjugation.

Atlas Performing Arts Center. 1333 H St. NE. To Oct. 27. $21–$46. (202) 399-7993. atlasarts.org.

THEORY Mosaic Theater Company presents Theory, a play where a young professor tests the limits of free speech in her classroom—and ends up in a digital catand-mouse game, fearing for her life. Atlas Performing Arts Center. 1333 H St. NE. To Nov. 17. $20–$65.

(202) 399-7993. atlasarts.org.

WASHINGTON NATIONAL OPERA: Otello The Washington National Opera performs Verdi’s version of the Shakespeare classic, where Otello confronts his own hubris and jealousy. Kennedy Center Opera House.

2700 F St. NW. To Nov. 16. $45–$299. (202) 467-4600. kennedy-center.org.

WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN Part play, part pageant, part homegoing celebration, What to Send Up When it Goes Down addresses racial violence and physical—and spiritual—death in the black community. Woolly Mammoth Theatre. 641 D St. NW. To Nov. 10. (202) 393-3939. woollymammoth.net.

Film

THE LIGHTHOUSE Two men work as lighthouse keepers on a mysterious New England island in the 1890s. Starring Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson, and Valeriia Karaman. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) GEMINI MAN An aging hitman has to battle his younger clone. Starring Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Clive Owen. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP A group of survivors move into the American midwest after a zombie apocalypse. Starring Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Jesse Eisenberg. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) THE ADDAMS FAMILY The creepy and kooky family goes on more misadventures. Starring Charlize Theron, Finn Wolfhard, and Chloë Grace Moretz. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL Maleficent and her goddaughter Aurora are pulled apart by Aurora’s upcoming wedding. Starring Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, and Michelle Pfeiffer. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) PAIN & GLORY A film director has to reckon with his past when his life comes apart. Starring Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz, and Cecilia Roth. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) THE CURRENT WAR Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse battle to be the man whose electrical system would power the country—and the world.

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, and Matthew Macfadyen. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

SAVAGELOVE M DOOGALS THE FAMOUS

C

I am a guy in my 40s, handsome, more financially successful than most, and a classic sexual scoundrel. I cheated on my ex-wife and every girlfriend I’ve ever had. I’m currently dating a woman in her 20s. We are both each other’s ideal type. She has as scandalous a past as I do but has “accomplished” more in a shorter time. We met via a hookup app. Then another one. And another one. We enjoyed each other’s company from the moment we met, and the sex was great.

(We share a few not-easy-to-match kinks.) Most of her stuff is now at my house. We’ve had many deep dives into our respective pasts. We cringe now at how we met and why we’ve hooked up with so many random people. Here’s the issue: After 12 months together, with too many breakups to count, we have no idea how to move forward. We cannot establish trust. We are in love and everything’s great … so long as we have our eyeballs on each other. Once out of direct sight, we both turn into possessive assholes. So many phones have been stolen and thrown away, I can’t count. How do two sluts find peace?

—Can’t Part Over Sex

You’ve cheated on everyone you’ve ever been with, and your girlfriend has presumably cheated on everyone she’s ever been with. (That’s what you meant by “she has as scandalous a past as I do,” right?) But instead of embracing the cheats and sluts you both know yourselves to be and thanking your fucky stars for bringing you together, CPOS, you felt obligated to disavow your past behaviors—some of which sound legitimately terrible—and slut-shame yourselves and each other. And for what? You are still the people you were before you started theatrically cringing about how you met.

She doesn’t trust you not to cheat on her, and I don’t see why she should. You don’t trust her not to cheat on you, and I don’t see why you should. So why promise not to cheat?

Why waste time and emotional energy policing each other for evidence of what you both know to be true: You’re going to cheat on each other. That you can trust in. So instead of making promises you can’t keep and then having meltdowns and stealing each other’s phones and breaking up and getting back together, CPOS, make a promise you can keep.

Not to be faithful but to be considerate. And discreet. Promise not to do anything that makes her feel like she isn’t your top priority even if you do fuck around occasionally, and ask her to make the same promise to you.

Then you can move forward as honest sluts and not lying cheats.

—Dan Savage I am in love with a happily married woman.

I was the “other man” almost 20 years ago, before she was married but when she was living with the man she’s with now. We fell madly in

love, but we didn’t end up together. In the intervening years, we both married and had children. We’ve reconnected a couple times over the years and it became a sexual relationship again.

Here’s the tricky part: My then-wife was an undocumented immigrant. My marriage was unhappy, but for my child’s sake I couldn’t leave my wife, for fear of his mother getting deported. This year, she got her green card and we divorced. Then I reconnected with my ex again. We desperately want to get married, but she is scared to end her marriage. She’s in a relatively happy marriage, and divorce will be a bombshell.

She worries about the shock and destabilizing effect on her children, who are still young. And she fears that nothing short of admitting she’s in love with someone else could end her otherwise happy marriage, but admitting that she’s been unfaith-

“...you can move forward as honest sluts and not lying cheats.” ful will make co-parenting impossibly hard going forward. We agonize over this situation but can’t bear the thought of not being together. We understand that pain will have to happen, but we just don’t know what the best course of action is.

—Pensive And Incredibly Nervous If you two can’t wait until her kids are a little older before you marry, PAIN, then there’s no way to avoid the most painful possible version of this shitshow. But your girlfriend’s husband deserves the whole truth right out of the gate, even at the risk of complicating their co-parenting arrangements in the short run. Letting her soon-to-be-ex-husband twist in the wind wondering why his decent, loving, seemingly stable marriage suddenly collapsed would just be cruel—and pointlessly so, as he will inevitably learn the truth. You two don’t plan to marry in secret, right? Which means her soon-tobe-ex and their kids are going to find out about you, the new husband and stepfather, at some point in the very near future. The whole truth, all at once. Don’t draw it out. Inflicting pain on the installment plan won’t assuage your guilt.

—DS I’m married to a loving, handsome man. For the first several years of our relationship, we had amazing sex. At some point after moving in together, my interest in having sex with him decreased significantly. This has been a pattern in every long-term relationship I’ve ever had. Living together seems to diminish my attraction to

my partner, which is hugely problematic when I am in a long-term monogamous relationship.

The second problem is that my kink needs are not being met. My husband is aware of my kinks and is GGG in theory, but he lacks the skill to deliver what I’m interested in. Before I met my husband, I spent many years as a member of a very active kink scene in a big city. I miss the friendships and experiences I had when I was able to share my kinks. Unfortunately, in addition to living in a place without access to these kinds of events and workshops, my husband is monogamous without compromise. He is unwilling to co-top me alongside another Dominant partner and unwilling to let me bottom for others solo regardless of whether sex is involved. Within the past several years, this frustration has led me to seek out the occasional experience with others, which is always discovered. My sex drive seems intact when I fantasize about hot, rough scenes with other people, but I experience very little desire for my husband. I’m at a loss. I adore this man, and haven’t ever felt like it would be worth it to leave him just so I could get my kinky needs met, but we are at an impasse. Is it even possible to find a compromise?

—Sex Alacrity Diminished

Knowing what you do about yourself—your attraction to a partner craters after moving in together, you have a powerful need to explore your kinks with casual play partners— you shouldn’t be cohabitating and/or making monogamous commitments. But you are and you have, SAD, so what now? There’s no middle ground between an uncompromisingly monogamous marriage and the kind of freedom to explore your kinks that you need to feel fulfilled, partnered or not. But your husband caught you fucking around— or kinking around—and has presumably forgiven you, seeing as you aren’t emailing during your divorce proceedings. So perhaps if given a choice between letting you and losing you, SAD, he would let you. And who knows?

If all your long-term relationships have been monogamous, and they all resulted in the end of rough and adventurous sex with new partners, well, perhaps that’s what is cratering your desire for committed partners—the limitation, not the cohabitation. And who knows? If you were free to fuck around with other people—if your husband didn’t symbolize the end of sexy adventures—maybe you’d still want to fuck him. But if he does give you the freedom to fuck around and you still don’t want to fuck him, SAD, do your husband a favor and leave him. And then no more monogamy or cohabitation for you, got it?

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

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42 Name of Decedent, forever barred. Persons Jerlene J. Abbott. NoticeRow . believed Music/Music . . . . . to . .be . .heirs . . . or 42 of Appointment, Notice legatees of the decedent Pets and . . . Notice . . . . . . . . who . . . do . . not . . . receive . . . . . a42 to Creditors to Unknown Heirs, Real Estate . . . . . copy . . . .of . this . . . notice . . . . .by42 Angelita Buckman, mail within 25 days of whoseShared address is 712 Housing . its . . publication . . . . . . . .shall . . . so 42 7th Street SE, Apt 102, inform the Register of Services . . . . . . . . Wills, . . . . including . . . . . . .name, . . 42 Washington, DC 20003 was appointed Personal address and relationRepresentative of the ship. Date of first estate of Jerlene J. Abpublication: 10/17/2019 bott who died on May Name of Newspaper 12, 2019, without a Will and/or periodical: and will serve without Washington City Paper/ Court Supervision. All Daily Washington Law unknown heirs and heirs Reporter. Name of Perwhose whereabouts sonal Representative: are unknown shall Angelita Buckman

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CLAIM AGAINST TRAVISA OUTSOURCING, INC. MUST INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE SUPERIOR COURT DISSOLVED CORPORATION, OF THE THE DISTRICT INCLUDE NAME OFOF THE COLUMBIA CLAIMANT, INCLUDE A SUMMAPROBATE DIVISION RY OF THE FACTS SUPPORTING 2019 ADMAND 000868 THE CLAIM, BE MAILED TO 1600 INTERNATIONAL Name of Decedent, DRIVE, SUITE 600, MCLEAN, VA 22102 Rose Glascoe.

Name and address of AtALL CLAIMS WILL BE BARRED torney Rena L. Strauss, UNLESS Omega A PROCEEDING 15204 Drive, TO ENFORCE THE CLAIM IS COMSuite 210, MENCED WITHRockville, IN 3 YEARS OF MD 20850. OF Notice PUBLICATION THIS of NOTICE Appointment, Notice to IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION Creditors toOF 29-312.07 OFand THENotice DISTRICT Unknown Althea COLUMBIA Heirs, ORGANIZATIONS ACT. Hinds, whose address is 5809 3rd Street NE, Two Rivers PCS is soliciting Washington, DCproject 20011 proposals to provide manwas appointed agement services forPersonal a small conRepresentative theof the struction project. For of a copy RFP, please estate of email Roseprocurement@ Glascoe tworiverspcs.org.

Deadline who died on April 7, for submissions is December 6, 2017.

2003, without a Will and will serve without Court Supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or

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before 4/10/20. Claims Legals against the decedent shall be presented to DC SCHOLARS PCS REQUEST the undersigned with a FOR PROPOSALS – Moducopy to the Register of lar Contractor Services - DC Wills or Public to theCharter Register Scholars School of Wills with a for copy to solicits proposals a modular the undersigned, on or contractor to provide professional before 4/10/20, or be management and construction services tobarred. constructPersons a modular forever building to house four classrooms believed to be heirs or and one faculty offi ce suite. The legatees of the decedent Request who do for not Proposals receive a(RFP) specifi cations can be obtained on copy of this notice by and after Monday, November 27, mail from within days 2017 Emily25Stone viaof comits publication shall so munityschools@dcscholars.org. inform the Register of All questions should be sent in Wills, including writing by e-mail. Noname, phone calls regarding this will be acaddress andRFP relationcepted. Date Bids must be received by ship. of first 5:00 PM on Thursday, December publication: 10/10/2019 14, 2017ofat Newspaper DC Scholars Public Name Charter School, ATTN: and/or periodical:Sharonda Mann, 5601 E. Capitol St. SE, Washington Washington, DC City 20019.Paper/ Any bids Daily Washington not addressing all areasLaw as outReporter.

Name Per-will lined in the RFP specifiof cations sonal Representative: not be considered.

Althea Hinds TRUEApartments TEST copy for Nicole Rent Stevens Acting Register of Wills Pub Dates: October 10, 17, 24.

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Landlord and Tenant Branch 2019 LTB 020252 Parkside Terrace DevelMust see!LLC Spacious opment d/b/asemi-furthe nished 1 BR/1 BA basement Overlook at Oxon Run apt, Deanwood, $1200. Sep. enPlaintiff, trance, W/W carpet, W/D, kitchv. en, fireplace near Blue Line/X9/ David Washington V2/V4. Shawnn 240-343-7173.

Defendant.

NOTICE TO HEIRS OF Rooms for Rent DAVID WASHINGTON David Washington, Holiday Special- Twowho furlived at 3700 nished rooms for9th shortStreet or long SE, Washington, term 617, rental ($900 and $800 per DC 20032, the time month) with at access to W/D, WiFi, anddeath, Den. Utiliof hisKitchen, reported tiesthe included.

Bestof N.E. is subject anlocation along H St. Call Eddie action forCorridor. a Complaint 202-744-9811 for info. for Possession by or visit www.TheCurryEstate.com Plaintiff Parkside Terrace Development LLC d/b/a the Overlook at Oxon Run in the Landlord and Tenant Branch of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia,

Case No. 2019 LTB Construction/Labor 020252.

A judgment for possession may lead to eviction and the loss of personal property in the residence.

Any interested person, including but not limited POWER DESIGN NOW HIRtoING creditors, heirs, and ELECTRICAL APPRENTICES OFofALL LEVlegatees theSKILL deceELS! shall appear on dent, November 21, 2019 at about the 10:00 amposition… in Courtroom Do you working with B109, in love the Landlord your hands? Are you interand Tenant Court, lo-and ested in construction cated at 510an4th Street in becoming electrician?

NW, DC, ThenWashington, the electrical apprentice toposition show could cause therefor be ifperfect beyou! anyElectrical reason apprentices why the are able to for earnpossession a paycheck complaint and full benefi ts while learnshould not be granted ing the the trade through firstand plaintiff take hand experience. possession, dispose of, or take any other acwhat we’re looking for… tion as ordered by this Motivated D.C. residents who Court of learn any personal want to the electrical property contained in trade and have a high school the unit.orInquiries may diploma GED as well as transportation. bereliable directed to:

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Jillian Lewis, Esq. Power Design is one of the Musolino & Dessel PLLC top electrical contractors in 1615 L Street, NW Suite the U.S., committed to our 440 values, to training and to givWashington, 20036 ing back to the DC communities (202) 466-3883 in which we live and work.

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District of Columbia, Auctions Case No. 2019 LTB 11179. A judgment for possession may lead to eviction and the loss of personal property in the residence. Any and all heirs and/or potential heirs may enter their appearance in this proceeding after publication is completed.

Interested parties are Whole Foods Commissary toAuction appear October 31, DC Metro Area 2019 at 10:00 AM in Dec. 5 at 10:30AM Courtroom 109, in 1000s S/S Tables, Carts the Landlord and Ten& Trays, 2016 Kettles up ant Court, located at to 200 Gallons, Urschel 510 – 4th& Street, NWinCutters Shredders Washington, Inquicluding 2016DC. Diversacut ries may be 6directed to 2110 Dicer, Chill/Freeze : Brian D. Riger, Cabs, Double RackEsq. Ovens & Ranges, (12)6001 Braising Gildar & Riger Tables, 2016 (3+) suite Stephan Montrose Road, VCMs, 30+ MDScales, 701 Rockville, 20852 Hobart 80 qt Mixers, Briger6001@gildaranComplete Machine Shop, driger.com Counsel for and much more! View the Plaintiffs. catalog at www.mdavisgroup.com or SUPERIOR 412-521-5751COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Garage/Yard/ PROBATE DIVISION Rummage/Estate Sales 2019 FEP 000118 Date of March 7, 2019 FleaDeath Market every Fri-Sat Name of Decedent, 10am-4pm.

5615 Landover Rd. Ralph Moody Hall, Cheverly, MD. 20784. Can buy Notice Appointment in bulk. of Contact 202-355-2068 of Foreign Personal or 301-772-3341 for details or if intrested in being a vendor.

Representative and Notice to Creditors Brett Hall, whose address is 2710 Whispering Oaks, Rockwall, Rexas 75087 was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Ralph Moody Hall, deceased, by the Rockwall County Court for Rockwall County, State of Texas on September 11, 2019.

Service of process may be made upon Juanita F. Ferguson, 1376 C Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 whose designation as District of Columbia agent has been filed with the Register of Wills, D.C. The decedent owned the following District of

Columbia real property: Miscellaneous 310 East Capitol Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. NEW COOPERATIVE SHOP! 20002, Lot 4 in Sq. 786 Being Condominium Unit FROM EGPYT THINGS lettered A and Parking AND BEYOND Unit numbered P-5 in 240-725-6025 Colcord Condominium. www.thingsfromegypt.com The decedent owned thingsfromegypt@yahoo.com District of Columbia personal Claims SOUTHproperty.

AFRICAN BAZAAR Craft Cooperative against the decedent 202-341-0209 may be presented to www.southafricanbazaarcraftcoo the undersigned and perative.com filed with the Register southafricanba z a ar @hotmail. of Wills for the District com of Columbia, 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor, WEST FARM WOODWORKS Washington, D.C. 20001 Custom Creative Furniture within 6 months from 202-316-3372 info@westfarmwoodworks.com the date of first publicawww.westfarmwoodworks.com tion of this notice.

Date of first publication: 7002 Carroll Avenue 10/10/2019 Takoma Park, MD 20912 Name of Newspaper Mon-Sat 11am-7pm, and/or periodical: Sun 10am-6pm Washington City Paper/ Daily Washington Law Motorcycles/Scooters Reporter Name of Person Repre2016 Suzuki TU250X for sale.

1200 miles. CLEAN. Just sersentative: Brett Hall viced. Comes with bike cover http://www.washingtonciTRUE TEST copy and saddlebags.

Anne Meister Asking $3000 typaper.com/ Cash only. of Wills Register Call 202-417-1870 M-F between Pub Dates: Oct. 10, 6-9PM, or weekends.

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All related descendants of Dr. James Gibson A.K.A. “Guinea Jim” of Savannah Sound, Eleuthera, Bahamas please contact Richard Love at drjamesgibsonbahamas@gmail.com or (305) 528-6645 Get Wit It Productions: Professional sound andCOURT lighting availSUPERIOR able THE for club, corporate, private, OF DISTRICT OF wedding receptions, holiday COLUMBIA events and much more. Insured, PROBATE DIVISION competitive rates. Call (866) 5312019 001057 6612 ExtADM 1, leave message for a Name of call Decedent, ten-minute back, or book onGordon Marshall Burck line at: agetwititproductions.com AKA Gordon M. Burck.

Notice of Announcements Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Announcements - Hey, all you lovers of erotic and bizarre Heirs, Ellen B. Looney, romantic fi ction!

Visit www. whose address is 26695 nightlightproductions.club Finley Rd, Carvallis, Orand submit your stories to me Happy 97333 was appointed Holidays! James K. West http://www.washingtoncitywpermanentwink@aol.com

Personal Representative Events of the estate of Gordon Marshall Burck AKA GorChristmas in Silver Spring don M. Burck who died Saturday, December 2, 2017 on August 26, 2019, Veteran’s Plaza with a Will and will serve 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. without Court Christmas Supervi- in Come celebrate sion.

Allofunknown heirs the heart Silver Spring at our and heirs whose whereVendor Village on Veteran’s Plaabouts unknown za. There are will be shopping, arts shall enter theirpictures appearand crafts for kids, with Santa, music entertainment ance in thisand proceedto spread holiday cheer more. ing.

Objections toand such Proceeds from the market appointment shall be will provide a “wish” for children filed with the toy Register in need. Join us at your one stop of Wills, D.C., 515 5th shop for everything Christmas.

Street, Building For moreN.W., information, contact A, 3rd Floor, WashingFutsum, ton, D.C. 20001, on or or info@leadersinstitutemd.org before 4/24/20. Claims call 301-655-9679 against the decedent General shall be presented to the undersigned with a Looking Rent yard space copy totothe Register of for hunting dogs.

Alexandria/ArlingWills or to the Register ton, VA area only. Medium sized of Wills with a copy to dogs will be well-maintained in the undersigned, on housor temperature controled dog before or becare es. I have4/24/20, advanced animal forever barred. experience and dogsPersons will be rid believed beurine heirs free of feces,to flies, andor oder.

FIND YOUR OUTLET. Dogs will be of in athe ventilated kennel legatees decedent REPEAT soRELAX, theydo willUNWIND, not be exposed to winwho not receive a ter and of harsh etc.by Space copy thisweather notice CLASSIFIEDS HEALTH/ will bewithin needed as as possimail 25 days of MIND, BODY &soon SPIRIT ble.

Yard for dogs must be Metro its publication shall so accessible.

Serious callers only, http://www.washingtoninform the Kevin, Register of846call anytime 415citypaper.com/ Wills, including name, 5268.

Price Neg. address and relationship. Date of first Counseling publication: 10/24/2019 Name of Newspaper MAKE THE CALL TO START and/or GETTING periodical: CLEAN TODAY. Free 24/7 Helpline forCity alcohol & drug Washington Paper/ addiction treatment. GetLaw help! It Daily Washington is time to take your life back!

Reporter. Name of Per-Call Now: 855-732-4139 sonal Representative: Ellen B. Looney Pregnant?

Considering AdopTRUECall TEST copy Nicole tion? us first.

Living expenses, housing,Acting medical,Register and continStevens ued support afterwards. of Wills Pub Dates: Choose adoptive of your choice.

Octoberfamily 24, 31, NovemCall 24/7. ber 7. 877-362-2401.

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40 Asocial nerd 43 Toothpaste container 48 McCorvey who was "Jane Roe" in Roe v. Wade 49 Private route 50 Swab testing spot 51 Second-stringers 54 Onkyo rival 55 Horned beast 56 Wrap in a frat 57 "Am ___ stupid to understand?"

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Education: Bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Degree Experience: 12 months Hours: 40 Hours per week Paul Public Charter School, WDC. Fax resume to 202-291-4259.

William W Crocker Decedent NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS Rosemary Tate, whose address is 761 Quebec Place, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20010, is the personal representative of the estate of William W. Crocker who died April 15, 2002 without a will and will serve without court supervision. All unknown heirs and whose whereabouts are unknown. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned on or before 12/26/2019 or forever be barred. Persons believed to be heirs to the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address, and relationship.

Date of first publication: 10/3/2019 Washington City Paper Rosemary Tate Personal Representative TRUE TEST COPY Nicole Stevens Acting Register of Wills

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