Prime Cut: Annie's Paramount Steakhouse

MARCH 28, 2019

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CONTENTS

CLUCK OFF

Chick-fil-A is still giving millions of dollars to anti-LGBTQ groups.

By Rhuaridh Marr

PRIME CUT

For 70 years, the James Beard Award-winning Annie’s has served the LGBTQ community with pride, love, and the kind of spirit only a family can offer.

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Volume 25 Issue 46

By John Riley Portraits by Todd Franson

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AFTERPARTIES

Brendan Maclean’s debut album is a superb collection of sad, gay tunes done right.

By Sean Maunier

SPOTLIGHT: CYNTHIA ERIVO p.9 OUT ON THE TOWN p.12 RAINBOW CONNECTION: D.C.’S DIFFERENT DRUMMERS p.14 THE FEED: CLUCK OFF p.21 THE FEED: UNCERTAIN ENDING p.22 COMMUNITY: TRANS VISIBILITY COMMUNITY FESTIVAL p.23 COMMUNITY CALENDAR p.23 COVER STORY: PRIME CUT p.27 DINING OUT FOR LIFE 2019 p.37 FILM: DUMBO p.41 FILM: HOTEL MUMBAI p.42 MUSIC: BRENDAN MACLEAN p.43 NIGHTLIFE: RED BEAR BREWING p.45 NIGHTLIFE LISTINGS p.46 BRONX BACCHANAL p.47 SCENE: STOLI KEY WEST COCKTAIL CLASSIC AT NELLIE’S p.51 SCENE: GLOE’S PURIM PARTY p.52 SCENE: COBALT CLOSING PARTY AT PITCHERS p.53 LAST WORD p.54 Real LGBTQ News and Entertainment since 1994

Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Online Editor at metroweekly.com Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley Contributing Editors André Hereford, Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrator Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Troy Petenbrink, Bailey Vogt, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla Patron Saint Annie Kaylor Cover Photography Todd G. Franson Metro Weekly 1775 I St. NW, Suite 1150 Washington, DC 20006 202-638-6830 All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.

© 2019 Jansi LLC.

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MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Spotlight

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Cynthia Erivo

HO BETTER TO TOAST LEGENDARY FEMALE singers like Aretha, Ella, and Dame Shirley Bassey than a young legend-in-the-making building her own platinum legacy? NSO Pops Conductor Steven Reineke seems to have exactly the right idea inviting back Cynthia Erivo for a concert celebrating some of music’s most cherished women.

Erivo made an indelible impression on Broadway with her Tony award-winning performance in the 2015 revival of The Color Purple, and she arrived on the big-screen last year in a big way, with a supporting role in the Viola Davis-led heist thriller Widows and as an aspiring singer who stopped at the wrong motel in Bad Times at the El Royale.

With her first major film lead coming soon — as abolitionist and all-around badass Harriet Tubman — Erivo is an artist currently experiencing the luxury of choice.

“I think it luxurious to be able to stand in front of a full orchestra and have that sound wash over everything that you do,” says Erivo. “The first time I did a concert with [the NSO Pops], I felt really special. The maestro was incredible, and I

was there listening to Yo-Yo Ma. It's just one of those ongoing dreams of mine.... I always want to be a part of an orchestra. I can't help it. It's something that I love.”

Like fans of the legendary women who will be paid tribute in the concert, Erivo has an affinity for these singers’ individual gifts — and their songs — which she aims to translate through her performance.

“My personal take and choice was to pick those women who have influenced the sound I make or the music that I love, and the way in which my voice has been influenced by those women, [and] that music,” she says. “And also, selfishly, the songs that I haven't been able to sing with full orchestras before and wanted to. So I've picked both out of selfishness and out of inspiration.

“There are very few people — even those who are in the music industry — who have the opportunity to stand in front of a symphony orchestra and sing Aretha or Nina Simone or Ella Fitzgerald,” she continues. “You don't get that opportunity very often, and I'm very glad to be able to have the chance to do it.”

—André Hereford

NSO Pops: An Evening with Cynthia Erivo is April 5 and 6, at 8 p.m., in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

Tickets are $29-$109. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

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Spotlight J HOARD

An out, young New York-based hip-hop/soul artist, Hoard earned a Grammy in 2017 for his work as part of the songwriting team behind Chance The Rapper’s “No Problem.” The Kennedy Center, through its “Direct Current” contemporary culture series as well as its free Millennium Stage programming, presents Hoard in a performance of protest and freedom songs, from spirituals to modern pop songs, that celebrate the shared experiences of those in the struggle for LGBTQ and racial equality. Thursday, April 4, at 6 p.m. Call 202467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

LAVERNE COX

The Weinberg Center for the Arts up in Frederick, Maryland, presents an engagement with the Emmy-nominated transgender actress and Emmy-winning producer from Orange is the New Black. The first trans woman of color to have a leading role on a mainstream scripted TV show, Cox’s list of firsts continues to grow as she spreads her empowering message of moving beyond gender expectations to live more authentically.

Wednesday, April 3, at 7:30 p.m. 20 W. Patrick St., Maryland. Tickets are $35 to $55. Call 301600-2828 or visit www.weinbergcenter.org.

LEVI KREIS

The gay singer-songwriter and Tony-winning actor (Million Dollar Quartet) reteams with one of his powerhouse co-stars from Smokey Joe’s Cafe when the show ran at Arena Stage in 2014. The Helen Hayes Award-winning Nova Payton (Signature’s Hairspray) will join Kreis to perform the rock and R&B tunes written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as featured in that jukebox musical (“Stand By Me” and “Hound Dog,” to name but two), as well as others from his solo career, including 2018’s set Liberated. Wednesday, April 3, at 8 p.m. City Winery DC, 1350 Okie St. NE. Tickets are $20 to $30. Call 202-250-2531 or visit www.citywinery.com.

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Spotlight A BRONX TALE

JOAN MARCUS

The streetwise Broadway musical directed by Robert De Niro and Jerry Zaks and based on Chazz Palminteri’s one-man show, this crowd-pleaser set in 1960s New York bursts with high-energy dance numbers and original doo-wop songs by composer Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast) and lyricist Glenn Slater. A Bronx Tale focuses on a young man caught between the father he loves and the mob boss he’d love to be.

Now to March 31. National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Call 202-628-6161 or visit www.thenationaldc.org.

CATVIDEOFEST 2019

Seattle-based filmmaker Will Braden (Le Chat Noir) has assembled an all-new, 70-minute program that’s a fancy feast for cat lovers, chock-full of cat videos both popular as well as new and undiscovered. CatVideoFest, a compilation of shorts culled from hours of unique submissions and sourced animations, music videos, and Internet classics, is styled as a communal experience where feline fanatics can bond over cute cat cinema and learn more about cats in need in D.C. and beyond. Friday, March 29, at 7:45 p.m., and Saturday, March 30, and Sunday, March 31, at 11 a.m.

8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. Tickets are $13 general admission. Call 301-495-6720 or visit afi.com/Silver.

CARSIE BLANTON

A feminist, socialist cabaret artist who composes her own smart, catchy, genre-defying music tours in support of strong new set Buck Up, the title track of which Rolling Stone Country has called “a bright, John Prine-worthy folk song about maintaining a bright disposition in dark times.” With natural appeal to Americana/folk fans, the New Orleans-based artist’s music is very much steeped in the American Songbook, making her worth seeking out for anyone with a penchant for jazz and pop and progressive politics. Wednesday, April 4, at 7:30 p.m. The Hamilton, 600 14th St. NW. Tickets are $13 to $33. Call 202-787-1000 or visit www.thehamiltondc.com.

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Out On The Town

SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been four decades since we first watched a man fly. In 1978, Richard Donner’s film ushered in a new genre of movie, one in which superheroes convincingly leapt, in a single bound, from the comic book pages to super-epic cinema. Superman: The Movie lumbers a bit (the sequel was more action-packed), but it benefits from a gorgeously stoic title performance by Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman’s scene-munching Lex Luthor. The special effects were breathtaking, and the nightflight between Superman and Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) is pure magic, and punctuated by a jaw-dropping scene on a balcony. The score by John Williams is nothing short of profound, and oh, those swooping opening credits. With Marlon Brando, Valerie Perrine, Glenn Ford, and Ned Beatty. The classic returns to the big screen as part of the Capital Classics series at Landmark’s West End Cinema. Wednesday, April 3, at 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 p.m. 2301 M St. NW. Happy hour from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $12.50. Call 202-534-1907 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

Compiled by Doug Rule

FILM WOMEN DIRECTORS FILM FESTIVAL: VISIONARIES, THEN AND NOW

On Saturday, March 30, the Smithsonian American Art Museum presents a free, all-day film festival highlighting visionary works by female directors. The festival kicks off at noon with an introduction

by Saisha Grayson, the museum’s curator of time-based media arts, and the film program Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, which features a handful of short films from the Kino Lorber collection: Alice Guy Blaché’s Falling Leaves (1912), Lois Weber’s Suspense (1913), Lule Warrenton’s When Little Lindy Sang (1916), and Zora Neale Hurston’s Child’s Play (1929), plus Lita Lawrence’s recently rediscovered Motherhood: Life’s Greatest Miracle (1925), which stands as the earliest surviving feature directed

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by an African-American woman and also an exceptionally rare example of a silent film addressing the then-taboo topics of birth control and abortion. Cynthia Fuchs of George Mason University and Lynanne Schweighofer from the Library of Congress join Grayson for a post-screening discussion. The festival continues with an afternoon “Envisioning Diaspora” program, pairing Trinh T. Minh-ha’s documentary Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1989) with Tiffany Chung’s short, split-screen video work The great simplicity thousands of years before and after (2012), followed by a discussion with Grayson and Yu-Min Claire Chen of St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Beginning at 6:30 p.m. comes the festival’s final program, centered around a screening of Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (1991), a film about Gullah women from South Carolina’s Lowcountry that became

MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

the first feature directed by an African-American woman to gain general theatrical release in the U.S. A post-screening discussion with Grayson, Christina Sharpe of York University, and the Virginia mixed-media artist Martha Jackson Jarvis concludes the program and the festival. McEvoy Auditorium, Lower Level, 8th and F Streets NW. Free. Call 202-633-1000 or visit www.americanart.si.edu.

STAGE DEAD DOG’S BONE: A BIRTHDAY PLAY

Nu Sass Productions, the female-focused local theater company, presents Veronica Tjioe’s family drama that’s equal parts irreverent and heartbreaking in its exploration of familial relationships, the melancholia of birthdays, and the goodness of dogs. Mara Sherman directs a cast including Dannielle Hutchinson, Schuyler Atkins,

Karen Lange, Aubri O’Connor, Erik Harrison, and Andy De. Now to April 14. Caos on F, 923 F St. NW. Tickets are $20. Call 202-215-6993 or visit www.nusass.com.

INDECENT

A few months after its debut at Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage offers another chance to see the latest work by Paula Vogel, which tells the story of a group of artists who risked their careers to perform Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance on Broadway in 1923.

The work was deemed “indecent” for tackling taboo themes of censorship, immigration, and anti-Semitism — but especially for depicting romance blooming between two women. Eric Rosen directs a cast that includes Ben Cherry, Susan Lynskey, John Milosich, and Max Wolkowitz. To March 31. 700 North Calvert St., Baltimore. Tickets are $20 to $74. Call 410-332-0033 or visit www.centerstage.org.

MASTERPIECES OF THE ORAL AND INTANGIBLE HERITAGE OF HUMANITY

Holly Twyford, Felicia Curry, and Yesenia Iglesias star in Heather McDonald’s drama as three women trapped in a ravaged museum during a catastrophic hundred years war. Nadia Tass directs a world premiere at Signature Theatre that comes as part of the Heidi Thomas Writers’ Initiative, a multi-year commitment to presenting works by female playwrights with female directors. The play sees the three women, including an art restorer and her military captor, struggling for common shreds of humanity as they try to save a small symbol of beauty in their broken world. To April 7.

The Ark Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. Call 703-820-9771 or visit www.sigtheatre.org.

DCDD

SMALL HOUSE, NO SECRETS

RAINBOW CONNECTION T

DCDD’s Capitol Pride Symphonic Band offers a colorful pride-themed spring concert.

HE MORE WE CAN TOUCH PEOPLE’S LIVES VIA MUSIC AND VIA ART, I THINK it increases the opportunity for people to really, truly understand our story, our struggle, and where we are today,” says Ashley Smith. The president of the Capital Pride Alliance will help D.C.’s Different Drummers in that regard next weekend, when he will serve as master of ceremonies for a pride-themed concert paying homage to the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots that sparked the LGBTQ movement. The event features the Capitol Pride Symphonic Band, the Different Drummers’ largest ensemble, led by Anthony Oakley.

“Music can evoke emotions like pride [as well as] images and colors,” explains Adam Sulewski, a percussionist with the band who also helps out with logistics and publicity. Rather than a program focused on LGBTQ-identified artists or LGBTQ-themed compositions, the group has opted for a more novel approach. “It’s a more conceptual show [where] each song is going to evoke one of the colors of the pride flag,” he says.

The concert includes Bach’s Fantasia in G, representing the color Indigo, which is tied to the value of Harmony, Barber’s “Sure On This Shining Night,” a song about Healing as reflected by the color Orange, and Bernstein’s Slava!, “an incredibly lively and spirited piece” that reflects the Spirit and the color Violet.

Sulewski says the Capital Pride Alliance was an obvious choice to partner with for the concert, “to help demonstrate how you can evoke pride through the medium of music. It's really interesting to support and cross-promote each other — there's not necessarily enough of that in the LGBTQ community.”

Smith is a particularly good fit as concert emcee, having grown up the son of a preacher, immersed in the performance of music, from singing and directing choir to playing trumpet and piano. He’s a firm believer in the power of music and art to unite people and advance equality — going so far as to suggest that today’s DCDD is doing right by the Stonewall forebears.

“Those who started Stonewall were fighting — maybe not directly, but indirectly — to create the safe space where we can actually have an organization that consists of predominantly LGBTQ members, who come together, unite, and are able to perform music that relates to pride,” he says.

“If people can come with an open mind, I’m hoping everyone will leave with a different perspective on how music can impact our lives in so many different ways. And how and what this struggle and this movement has done. and how many people it’s touched.” —Doug Rule Pride In Concert is Saturday, April 6, at 7 p.m., at the Church of the Epiphany, 1317 G St. NW. Tickets are $15 to $25 plus fees. Call 202-403-3669 or visit www.dcdd.org.

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The Baltimore Playwrights Festival presents its very first original production, a musical by writer/lyricist Jody Nusholtz and composer/lyricist Sonia Rutstein (lesbian folk artist SONiA). Set over Thanksgiving, Small House No Secrets focuses on the relationship-averse Liz, who is preparing to deflect her boyfriend’s expected marriage proposal the very moment a stranger stops by who turns out to be the lesbian lover she wasn’t ready for in college. Miriam Bazensky directs, with music direction by Tony Correlli.

Now to March 31. Sokal Stage on the second floor of Fells Point Corner Theatre, 251 S. Ann St., Baltimore.

Tickets are $18. Visit www.baltplayfest.org.

THE JEWISH QUEEN LEAR

Mirele Efros is a wealthy widow and clever businesswoman whose children turn against her, causing a fall of Shakespearean proportions.

Wildly successful at the turn of the 20th century and considered a masterpiece of Yiddish theater, Theater J presents Jacob Gordin’s play in a new English translation by Nahma Sandrow. Adam Immerwahr directs a large cast including Tonya Beckman, Valerie Leonard, Alana Dodds Sharp, Charlie Trepany, Christopher Warren, and Frank X. To April 7.

The Gonda Theatre, Georgetown University’s Davis Performing Arts Center, 3700 O St. NW. Tickets are $30 to $70. Call 202-777-3210 or visit www.theaterj.org.

THE SEAGULL

The two-year-old Wheel Theatre Company presents an adaptation of the classic by Anton Chekhov, which was famously considered a disaster upon its debut in 1896. The company’s co-founder and Artistic Director Jack Read adapted and directs this production, billed as an ode to our first drafts and our failures as well as “our futile, comic

search for reason.” Thomas Shuman leads a 10-person cast as famous writer Trigorin. Remaining performances are Thursday, March 28, and Friday, March 29, at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, March 30, at 3 p.m.

District of Columbia Arts Center, 2438 18th St. NW. Tickets are $15 to $20. Call 202-462-7833 or visit www.dcartscenter.org.

WSC Avant Bard presents the tragicomedy about two AfricanAmerican brothers-in-struggle that earned playwright Suzan-Lori Parks a Pulitzer Prize 17 years ago.

Jeremy Keith Hunter, a regular at Mosaic Theater, takes on the role of older brother Lincoln, a grifter-gone-straight, while Louis E. Davis, previously seen in Avant Bard’s King Lear, plays the younger brother Booth, seeking to become the greatest con man of all time.

DeMone Seraphin directs. To April 14. Gunston Arts Center, 2700 South Lang St. Arlington. Tickets are $40. Call 703-418-4804 or visit www.wscavantbard.org.

Folger’s celebrated early music ensemble performs Renaissance music from 16th-century Spain and Italy, a concert mixing lyrical Spanish villançicos and Italian frottole with instrumental works such as lively dances and dimunitions from Italy as well as some of the great wind band repertoire from Spain. Soprano Jessica Beebe and wind ensemble Piffaro, The Renaissance Band are featured musicians joining the Consort’s co-founders Robert Eisenstein on viol and Christopher Kendall on lute. The program is presented in conjunction with the current culinary-focused Folger exhibition First Chefs and the institution-wide project Before Farm to Table: Early Modern Foodways and Cultures.

Performances are Friday, March 29, at 8 p.m., Saturday, March 30, at 4 and 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 31, at 2 and 5 p.m. Folger Elizabethan Theatre, 201 East Capitol St. SE. Tickets are $42. Call 202-544-7077 or visit www.folger.edu.

MUSIC

I’M WITH HER, VERONA QUARTET

TOPDOG/UNDERDOG

PROCOPIO PHOTOGRAPHY

ERIN MCKEOWN

THE WASHINGTON BALLET: THREE WORLD PREMIERES

Reaffirming the organization’s commitment to the creative process and original masterworks that define the future of the genre, the Washington Ballet presents its annual program of exclusively commissioned works by emerging and globally acclaimed choreographers.

This year’s program features three never-before-seen works, including Wood Work, a story ballet exploring the relationships of a small Nordic village community by American Ballet Theatre star Ethan Stiefel that is set to music by the Danish String Quartet, which will be performed live, and Shadow Lands by former San Francisco Ballet soloist Dana Genshaft, set to Omnivorous Furniture

by Mason Bates, a work that showcases ballet technique and plays with angles, momentum, and abstract movement to show that when broken pieces come together, the whole is better and stronger than when apart. The most anticipated piece is Teeming Waltzes by renowned choreographer Trey McIntyre, touted as taking Strauss’ waltz music to another level, a piece that uses ball pits, bubbles, and other geometric shapes that come from a circle “to show that a shape can break a line in another way.” Performances begin Tuesday, April 3. Runs through Sunday, April 7. Sidney Harman Hall, Harman Center for the Arts, 610 F St. NW. Tickets are $25 to $100. Call 202362-3606 or visit www.washingtonballet.org.

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FOLGER CONSORT: TASTE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

The singer-songwriter, who long ago made Massachusetts her home base, has produced an eclectic, experimental repertoire over the past two decades, but her music is always tuneful, with strong melodies and clever lyrics expressed through a sweet, beguiling voice.

McKeown will no doubt touch on her work in musical theater, perhaps giving a sneak peek at the Great American Songbook-styled songs she’s developing for Terrarium Behaviour — a work-in-progress musical in which “power, gender, and ecology do battle in the humble little jar we know as a terrarium.”

Certainly she’ll perform from Miss You Like Hell, her musical collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes (Water by the Spoonful), whose Off Broadway run last year starred Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent) and garnered five Drama Desk nominations, including best lyrics, music, and orchestration. Perhaps she’ll even perform a song or two from 2013’s Manifestra, her pointed yet playful, politically oriented album — which closed with ”Baghdad to the Bayou,” a song co-written with her friend, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

Whatever she chooses, expect a wide-ranging show and showcase of her prodigious talents. Sunday, March 31, at 2 p.m. Jammin Java, 227 Maple Ave. E. Vienna. Tickets are $15 in advance, or $17 day of show. Call 703-255-3747 or visit www.jamminjava.com.

This folk supergroup of Grammywinning Americana/folk queens was birthed in 2014 at a jam session at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival with Sarah Jarosz, Sara Watkins of bluegrass outfit Nickel Creek, and Aoife O’Donovan of progressive bluegrass string band Crooked Still.

The trio of vocalists and multi-instrumentalists next performs a onenight-only concert as part of the Kennedy Center’s two-week series “Direct Current: A Celebration of Contemporary Art,” with accompaniment on select musical numbers by an internationally renowned multinational string ensemble comprised of Jonathan Ong and Dorothy Ro on violins, Abigail Rojansky on viola, and Jonathan Dormand on cello. Sunday, March 31, at 8 p.m. Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $29 to $49. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

LEIKELI47

Always disguised by a signature ski mask across her face, the Brooklyn rapper is increasingly becoming known for her rhymes and songs, from her work in opening for Skrillex and Diplo, to having her music soundtracking HBO’s Insecure and Freeform’s Grownish, to being selected by NPR Music as a highlight of this year’s SXSW lineup in Austin. Known as 47, the artist tours in support of Acrylic, her second in a planned trilogy of albums exploring female beauty, empowerment, and identity, with a concert at MilkBoy ArtHouse in College Park presented by LiveNation and Songbyrd.

Yung Baby Tate, the daughter of Arrested Development’s Dionne

at 7:30 p.m. Terrace Theater. Tickets are $39 to $49. Call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org.

DIMENSIONS CONTEMPORARY DANCE FESTIVAL SHOWCASE

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS

Presented as part of the NextLOOK Series by the University of Maryland’s The Clarice in partnership with Joe’s Movement Emporium, the choreographer Tariq Darrell O’Meally is joined

by Ronya-Lee Anderson, Candace Scarborough, Krystal Collins, and Jamal Abrams, plus the UNUM Dance Collective. All will take part in this week-long festival for area artists of color culminating in two showcase performances. Thursday, April 4, and Friday, April 5, at 7 p.m. 3309 Bunker Hill Road, Mount Rainier, Md. Tickets are $5 to $25 plus fees. Call 301-699-1819 or visit www.joesmovement.org.

Clockwise from top left: Ha, Karavani, Izadi, Rolando, and Elhady

COMEDY AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

A show that President Trump doesn’t want you to see, Maryland’s Improbable Comedy has recruited more immigrants and first-generation comics for another Comedy As A Second Language program. Taking the stage at the Busboys & Poets in the Takoma neighborhood of D.C. will be Naomi Karavani, Ryan Ha, Elahe Izadi, Danny Rolando, and Yasmin Elhady. Thursday, April 4, at 7 and 9 p.m. Busboys and Poets, 234 Carroll St. NW. Tickets are $16 to $20, or $10 for students and immigrants. Call 202-726-0856 or visit www.improbablecomedy.com.

Farris, opens. Saturday, March 30.

Doors at 7 p.m. 7416 Baltimore Ave., Maryland. Tickets are $20 to $25.

Call 240-623-1423 or visit www. milkboyarthouse.com.

NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC: A TRIBUTE TO LOUIS ARMSTRONG

Byron Stripling’s electrifying and heartfelt tribute to Armstrong, “Sounds of New Orleans,” is billed as one of today’s most popular orchestral pops program. The virtuosic jazz trumpeter next performs from the Satchmo songbook bolstered by Strathmore’s resident orchestra led by Piotr Gajewski.

Saturday, March 30, at 8 p.m.

Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda.

Tickets are $39 to $79. Call 301-5815100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

THE PEABODY OPERA: AS ONE

As part of the Kennedy Center’s Direct Current, its second annual celebration of contemporary art,

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the venue welcomes a performance of this transgender-focused contemporary chamber opera. As One eschews opera’s traditional grandiosity to tell the story of Hannah, a transgender woman, coming out and living freely. Loosely based on the life story of filmmaker Kimberly Reed, the one-act opera was composed by Laura Kaminsky with a libretto by Mark Campbell and Reed and features a male baritone and a female mezzo-soprano both performing as Hannah. The prestigious Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore offers a performance directed by James Harp with conductor JoAnn Kulesza, a production reduced from the string quartet as originally written to keyboard accompaniment alone overseen by Samuel Mungo, the managing artistic director of the Peabody Opera Theatre Program. Monday, April 1, at 6 p.m. Millennium Stage. Free.

Call 202-467-4600 or visit www. kennedy-center.org.

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DANCE DEMO: NOW BY DAMIAN WOETZEL

The former New York City Ballet principal dancer turned director/ choreographer/producer as well as president of The Juilliard School curates and hosts a program featuring some of today’s most creative voices in dance and music. Part of the Kennedy Center’s Direct Current series, the one-night-only concert features a world premiere

by John Heginbotham (choreographer of Broadway’s forthcoming new production of Oklahoma!) set on dancers of Dance Heginbotham accompanied by the Juilliard String Quartet. The program also brings together in new collaborations composer Caroline Shaw, dancers Patricia Delgado and Caleb Teicher, Hamilton musical director and pianist Kurt Crowley, poet Sarah Kay, and pianist Joel Wenhardt. Friday, March 29, and Saturday, March 30,

COMEDY THE QUEER QUEENS OF QOMEDY

Hard-working veteran comedienne Poppy Champlin — named “America’s Funniest Real Woman” on The Joan Rivers Show — has organized a “high octane, high caliber” all-lesbian standup show for a decade now. This year’s lineup, sponsored

by Sapphire Books Publishing, also includes Karen Williams, touted as the nation’s first openly lesbian black comic to include specifically lesbian material in her act, and Kathy Arnold, a regular at Governor’s Comedy Club in Long Island. The latest stop in our area is an official Baltimore Pride event, with some proceeds benefiting the GLCCB, Baltimore and Central Maryland’s GLBT Community Center. Sunday, March 31, at 5 p.m. Magooby’s Joke House, 9603 Deereco Rd., Timonium, Md. Tickets are $25, or $45 for VIP including preferred seating and a meet-and-greet with the queens before the show. Call 410252-2727 or visit www.magoobysjokehouse.com.

WASHINGTON IMPROV THEATER: FIST 2019

WIT’s popular, month-long Fighting Improv Smackdown Tournament is an elimination tourney in which audiences vote to decide the teams of improvers deserving to advance to the championship. The 13th Annual FIST features a grand total of 44 matches grouped into six rounds, with two matches every day — and four on Sundays. A sampling of the team names competing in the opening weekend: Glass Ceiling, Presidential Pals, Love Language, Roll Tide, Confess!, Sheathes, Roommate Love, Bombo Buntcakes, and Ramen Hood. Runs to final round on April 1. Source, 1835 14th St. NW. Tickets start at $15 to $30. Call 202-204-7760 or visit witdc.org.

DIRECT CURRENT: A CELEBRATION OF CONTEMPORARY ART

The Kennedy Center presents its second annual, two-week, citywide celebration of contemporary art and culture — with a focus on new works, interdisciplinary creations in which artistic worlds collide, and on innovative responses to topical concerns. The result is a lineup with some of the most provocative, original, and pioneering voices in the arts today. Highlights to come in the second week include: two concerts by the NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA with music inspired by the natural world, including Philip Glass's Itaipú Thursday, March 28, and Lera Auerbach's ARCTICA on Saturday, March 30; BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE COMPANY performing three separate evening-length works delving into the voice of the marginalized in our society, Thursday, March 28, through Saturday, March 30;

SJDANCECO & GABRIEL MATA/ MOVEMENTS, a performance

merging dance and physical theater and a group collaborative exploring the multi-generational experiences of its cast, on Friday, March 29; DEMO: NOW BY DAMIAN WOETZEL, on Friday, March 29, and Saturday, March 30 (see entry under Dance); AMIR ELSAFFAR

AND TWO RIVERS ENSEMBLE,

weaving together Middle Eastern musical languages with jazz and pushing the boundaries of each tradition, on Saturday, March 30; the U.S. premiere of WHERE WE LOST OUR SHADOWS, a work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun and Palestinian videographer Khaled Jarrar, depicting the timeless struggle of human migration and celebrating the resilient human spirit, and performed by an orchestra and soloists, on Sunday, March 31; YUKA C HONDA’S REVERT TO SEA, an hour-long multimedia work performed with the avant-garde pop composer on electronics alongside guitarist Nels Cline of Wilco, drummer Alex Cline, harpist Zeena Parkins and bassist Dave Harrington of Darkside on Sunday, March 31; I’M WITH HER

ACCOMPANIED BY THE VERONA QUARTET, on Sunday, March 31 (see entry under Music); THE PEABODY OPERA performing Laura Kaminsky’s As One chamber opera, on Monday, April 1 (see entry under Music); CHANTICLEER, the Grammy-winning male vocal group perform a program of 20th and 21st century choral music anchored by Sirens, a song cycle by the Kennedy Center’s Composer-in-Residence Mason Bates, on Tuesday, April 2; a concert featuring Jamaican dancehall’s “first lady” SISTER NANCY WITH DOLLARVAN, on

JAMES NELSON

ABOVE & BEYOND

THE IN SERIES: LA PALOMA-AT THE WALL

“La Verbena de la Paloma,” the most famous and beloved Spanish zarzuela, is given new life in a bold reimagining presented by the In Series and set on the Tijuana side of the border between Mexico and the U.S. Nick Olcott directs a work from writer Anna Deeny Morales and composer Ulises Eliseo (based on classic melodies of zarzuela composers, foremost among them Tomás Bretón y Hernández), with Mexican folk dance choreography by Alejandro Gongora, performed by Corazon Folklorico DC, an ensemble inspired by Mexican son jarocho music. To March 31. GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square, 3333 14th St. NW. Tickets are $20 to $45. Call 202-234-7174 or visit www.inseries.org.

Wednesday, April 3; J HOARD performing protest and freedom songs by American composers, on Thursday, April 4(see entry under Music); THEO BLECKMANN, a Grammy-nominated Berlin vocalist and contemporary composer performing a Renée Fleming VOICES concert on Thursday, April 4;

ing many exquisite Russian imperial eggs and other fanciful Fabergé creations. You can also take a tour of Hillwood’s working greenhouse most days. Saturday, April 6, and Sunday, April 7, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hillwood Estate, 4155 Linnean Ave. NW. Suggested donation is $18. Call 202-686-5807 or visit HillwoodMuseum.org.

atrical production with marionette puppetry created in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in collaboration with butoh dancer Dai Matsuoka, on Thursday, April 4, and Friday, April 5; and TANYA TAGAQ, an Inuit throat singing electronica/metal/punk artist, on Friday, April 5. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

THE ASK RAYCEEN SHOW: MINI BALL

PHANTOM LIMB COMPANY’S FALLING OUT, a multimedia the-

HILLWOOD’S FABERGÉ EGG FESTIVAL

The former estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post hosts an annual two-day festival in which guests can take part in a traditional Russian egg-rolling game, decorate their own Fabergé-inspired egg, take in performances from the Samovar Russian Folk Music Ensemble and Kalinka Dance Ensemble, and listen to stories of Russian Easter traditions in a fun family play produced

by Happenstance Theater. All that in addition to admiring all of the finer things Post collected, includ-

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MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

For the latest edition of his monthly show, Rayceen Pendarvis hosts the annual #AskRayceen Mini Ball, with music by DJ/producer Vjuan Allure and announcer Anthony Oakes. The competitors will vye for bragging rights in categories including: Women’s Face, B.Q. Face, Face Over 40, B.Q. Realness, F.Q. Realness, Butch vs Transman Realness, B.Q. Body, and Voguing in a Jersey. Also, everyone can compete in the categories Best Dressed Spectator and Runway in All Black.

The Grand Prize: “Night at the Opera,” with one winner receiving a $200 cash prize and trophy. The evening will also include interviews with special guests, vendors, a cash bar, and free catered food for early arrivals. Wednesday, April 3. Doors at 6 p.m. HRC Equality Center, 1640 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Free. Visit www.AskRayceen.com. l

theFeed

CLUCK OFF

Chick-fil-A is still giving millions of dollars to anti-LGBTQ groups. By Rhuaridh Marr

I

F YOU’RE STILL REGULARLY EATING AT CHICKFIL-A — or recently returned, thinking it was okay to do so — here’s some food for thought: the fast-food chain continues to donate millions to anti-LGBTQ groups.

Yes, the chicken sandwich purveyor, long decried by LGBTQ activists for suspect corporate donations and CEO Dan Cathy’s opposition to same-sex marriage, is still helping fund organizations that oppose LGBTQ rights. According to Think Progress, the Chick-fil-A Foundation, the fast-food chain’s charitable arm, donated more than $1.8 million to three anti-LGBTQ groups in 2017.

The largest sum, $1.6 million, went to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a religious organization that requires its members to adhere to a “sexual purity” policy that outlaws “homosexual acts.” $150,000 was given to the Salvation Army, which has long been at odds with LGBTQ rights, including saying they don’t discriminate against hiring LGBTQ people while also fighting against laws that would prevent them from discriminating against LGBTQ people.

A third donation of $6,000 was given to the Paul Anderson Youth Home, a “Christian residential home for troubled young men,” but which reportedly teaches that being gay is wrong and same-sex marriage is against “Jesus Christ and his values.”

On its website, Chick-fil-A claims that its donation to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes was “used to fund sports camps and school programs for inner-city youth in various locations,” and that “[children] who participate in the sports camps and school programming are not required to be members of FCA or sign any FCA pledge.”

The Salvation Army donation reportedly “funded several programs, including camps for kids and the Angel Tree program in Atlanta,” the latter of which provides clothing and other items to families in need.

The Paul Anderson donation supported “a bike ride fundraiser, operational support, an annual Christmas dinner theatre for local children as well as technology capital campaign,” according to the company, which also notes that “[as] of June 2017, the Chick-fil-A Foundation no longer supports this organization.”

In a statement to Think Progress, Chick-fil-A said it had no intention of ceasing donations to either the Fellowship of Christian Athletes or the Salvation Army. “[S]ince the Chick-fil-A Foundation was created in 2012, our giving has always focused on youth and education,” the statement said. “We have never donated with the purpose of supporting a social or political agenda. There are 140,000 people — black, white; gay, straight; Christian, non-Christian — who represent Chick-fil-A. We are the sum of many experiences, but what we all have in common is a commitment to

providing great food, genuine hospitality, and a welcoming environment to all of our guests.”

However, that wasn’t enough to satisfy the city of San Antonio, which voted on Thursday to deny Chick-fil-A a planned location in San Antonio International Airport, NBC affiliate WOAI reports. Councilman Roberto Treviño specifically highlighted the company’s 2017 donations — and the anti-LGBTQ bias of the organizations that received Chickfil-A funds — as reason why the proposed seven-year deal should be revoked.

“With this decision, the City Council reaffirmed the work our city has done to become a champion of equality and inclusion,” Treviño said in a statement. “San Antonio is a city full of compassion, and we do not have room in our public facilities for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior. Everyone has a place here, and everyone should feel welcome when they walk through our airport. I look forward to the announcement of a suitable replacement by Paradies.”

Chick-fil-A told WOAI that the decision was “disappointing.”

“We would have liked to have had a dialogue with the city council before this decision was made,” the company said in a statement. “We agree with Councilmember Treviño that everyone is and should feel welcome at Chick-fil-A. We plan to reach out to the city council to gain a better understanding of this decision.”

Chick-fil-A has repeatedly come under fire for its perceived anti-LGBTQ stance, in part due to CEO Dan Cathy’s views on Christianity and homosexuality and corporate donations to anti-LGBTQ groups.

Cathy caused controversy in 2012 when he publicly stated his opposition to same-sex marriage, telling the Baptist Press: “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”

Not helping matters was the revelation that in 2009 Chick-fil-A donated almost $2 million to anti-LGBTQ groups, including the Marriage & Family Legacy Fund, the National Christian Foundation, the Eagle Forum and the Family Research Council.

Last year, New Jersey’s Rider University barred Chickfil-A from opening a restaurant on campus, with president Gregory G. Dell’Omo and vice president Leanna Fenneberg making clear that it was due to the company’s anti-LGBTQ history.

“Although it was included in previous surveys, Chickfil-A was removed as one of the options based on the company’s record widely perceived to be in opposition to the LGBTQ+ community,” Dell’Omo and Fenneberg wrote in a letter to students. l

MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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theFeed

UNCERTAIN ENDING

All charges dropped against Empire star Jussie Smollett. By Rhuaridh Marr

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MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

tion involving a dismissal at the end of the case," he said. "To think that there is some type of infirmity or something that we learned about the case or something that we don't want aired is not true."

Speaking outside the court following the hearing, Smollett reiterated his innocence and thanked those who had stood by him, Variety reports.

“I have been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one,” he said, adding, “I would not be my mother’s son if I was capable of one drop of what I’ve been accused of.”

Smollett said it has been “an incredibly difficult time… one of the worst of my entire life,” adding that he is a man of faith and I am a man that has knowledge of my history and I would not bring my family, our lives or the movement through a fire like this. I just wouldn’t.”

“Now I’d like nothing more than to get back to work and move on with my life,” he continued. “But make no mistakes, I will always continue to fight for the justice, equality and betterment of marginalized people everywhere. So again thank you for all the support. Thank you for faith and thank you to God. Bless you. Thank you very much.”

A spokesperson for 20th Century Fox Television, which produces Empire, refused to comment on the matter.

“Many of you have reached out regarding today’s developments in the Jussie Smollett case. As of this time, the studio and network have no comment,” the spokesperson told CNN. “I will of course let you know if that changes.”

Smollett was suspended from the Fox drama in February, with producers calling the allegations against him “very disturbing.” They confirmed that his character on the show, Jamal, won’t appear in the last two episodes of season five.

At the time of his arrest, Chicago police accused Smollett of staging the attack because he was unhappy with his Empire salary.

Smollett, who is black and openly gay, claimed he was attacked in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood by two masked men during the early morning hours of Jan. 29.

Smollett said the men shouted racist and homophobic slurs at him, beat him, put a noose around his neck, and poured a chemical believed to be bleach on him. Smollett’s manager, Brandon Moore, claimed that he heard the attackers calling Smollett “Empire faggot [racial expletive]” and shouting, “This is MAGA country!”

Police initially said they were investigating the attack as a possible hate crime, before the investigation shifted to focus on Smollett himself. l SCHURE MEDIA GROUP

A

LL CHARGES HAVE BEEN DROPPED AGAINST Empire star Jussie Smollett, after he was accused of lying about a homophobic attack in January.

Prosecutors dropped sixteen counts of disorderly conduct brought against Smollett earlier this month, after Chicago police claimed he lied to them about the attack. Smollett, who pleaded not guilty, appeared in court in Chicago on Tuesday, where a judge reportedly sealed the case.

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said it had made the decision to drop Smollett’s charges after reviewing the case and Smollett’s $10,000 bond.

“After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr. Smollett’s volunteer service in the community and agreement to forfeit his bond to the City of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case,” the office said in a statement.

Smollett’s attorneys Tina Glandian and Patricia Brown Holmes praised the decision, saying in a statement that the 36-year-old actor’s record had been “wiped clean.”

“He was a victim who was vilified and made to appear as a perpetrator as a result of false and inappropriate remarks made to the public causing an inappropriate rush to judgement,” the lawyers said. “Jussie and many others were hurt by these unfair and unwarranted actions.”

They continued: “The entire situation is a reminder that there should never be an attempt to prove a case in the court of public opinion. That is wrong. It is a reminder that a victim, in this case Jussie, deserves dignity and respect.

Dismissal of charges against the victim in this case was the only just result.”

Glandian and Brown Holmes said that Smollett is relieved to have this situation behind him,” and that the actor is “very much looking forward to getting back to focusing on his family, friends and career.”

However, Joe Magats, first assistant state’s attorney in Cook County, Illinois, told local CNN affiliate WLS that despite dropping charges against Smollett he did not think the actor was innocent.

“We believe he did what he was charged with doing," Magats said. "This was not an exoneration. To say he was exonerated by us or anyone else is not true."

He noted thousands of examples of other cases where charges are dropped despite, but that Smollett was receiving more attention due to his celebrity status.

"There are plenty of other cases...over 5,700 that have gotten some type of alternative or deferred type of prosecu-

Community THURSDAY, March 28

places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

DC LAMBDA SQUARES, D.C.’s

Join people from all over the D.C. metro area for an LGBTQ SOCIAL IN THE CITY at The Embassy Row Hotel’s Station Kitchen & Cocktails Lounge.

Free to attend. Everyone welcome. 7-9 p.m. 2015 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Dupont Circle Metro is two blocks away.

For more information, visit www.meetup.com/GoGayDC. The DC ANTI-VIOLENCE PROJECT, a group dedicated to combating anti-LGBT hate crimes, holds its monthly meeting at The DC Center. The meeting is open to all and the public is encouraged to attend.

7-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

The DC Center holds a roundtable discussion as part of its

COMING OUT DISCUSSION GROUP on the second Tuesday and fourth Thursday of each month. This group is for those navigating issues associated with coming out and personal identity. 7-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events ANDROMEDA TRANSCULTURAL HEALTH

offers free HIV testing and HIV services (by appointment). 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Decatur Center, 1400 Decatur St. NW. To arrange an appointment, call 202-291-4707, or visit www.andromedatransculturalhealth.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB practice

session at Takoma Aquatic Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS run-

ning/walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards. Route distances vary. For meeting

DC LAMBDA SQUARES, D.C.’s

gay and lesbian square-dancing group, features mainstream through advanced square dancing at the National City Christian Church. Please dress casually. 7-9:30 p.m. 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more info, call 202-930-1058 or visit www. dclambdasquares.org.

DCATS

gay and lesbian square-dancing group, holds a square dance open house for people who are interested in joining the group and learning more about modern western square dancing.

7:30-9:30 p.m. National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more information, call 202-930-1058 and leave a message, or visit www. dclambdasquares.org.

FREE VISIBILITY

At the Trans Visibility Community Festival, the transgender community celebrates itself, free of charge.

T

HERE AREN’T MANY DAYS THAT EXCLUSIVELY celebrate the trans community,” says Jamison Crowell, executive director of the DC Area Transmasculine Society. “Trans Pride is usually tacked on to Pride Month, and it’s usually a side event compared to the other events. Then you have the Trans Day of Remembrance, which is important, but is a bit more of a somber event. But since the International Transgender Day of Visibility has taken off, it’s made us stand back and think about what kind of visibility we want.”

Transgender Day of Visibility will officially be celebrated on Sunday, Mar. 31. However, DCATS, Deaf DAWN in D.C., a local organization aimed at ending domestic violence among members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, and local LGBTQ community center Casa Ruby will be holding a Trans Visibility Community Festival on Saturday, Mar. 30 to mark the occasion.

The festival is intended to introduce attendees to a variety of local organizations that either serve the transgender community or are run by trans individuals.

“A lot of trans-specific organizations are priced out of events like Pride,” Crowell says. “Even at Capital Trans Pride, the lowest amount you can buy a table for is $250. For Capital Pride, it gets closer to $400. We wanted to create a space where we could bring these service organizations together and members of the trans community into a space to celebrate visibility, connect trans people with the resources of their community. It’s free to table, free to participate, free to attend. So it’s very similar to what you see at Pride festivals, except it’s more accessible.”

Crowell notes that the festival started out much smaller, but has grown as a larger number of organizations began participating, even forcing organizers to turn people away at the door because they were at full capacity in past years. This year, the festival will be held at Spaces NoMa in Northeast D.C. The festival will feature food, a raffle, a panel discussion of trans visibility, two open mic sessions featuring multiple performances of five minutes or less, and a series of short film screenings, including films by “America in Transition,” a documentary series looking at social change through the lens of the transgender community, and “My Genderation,” an ongoing film project celebrating trans lives.

“A big part of our event is trying to be more diverse and inclusive,” notes Crowell. “So we want to think about how can we reframe trans visibility to be more inclusive of the full spectrum of the community.” —John Riley The Trans Visibility Community Festival is on Saturday, Mar. 30, from 1-5 p.m. at Spaces NoMa, 1140 3rd St. NE. Free and open to the public. Visit www.transvisibilityfestival.com.

DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds

practice. The team is always looking for new members.

All welcome. 7-9 p.m. Harry Thomas Recreation Center, 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For more information, visit www. scandalsrfc.org or dcscandals@ gmail.com.

THE DULLES TRIANGLES

Northern Virginia social group meets for happy hour at Sheraton in Reston. All welcome. 7-9 p.m. 11810 Sunrise Valley Drive, second-floor bar.

For more information, visit www.dullestriangles.com.

HIV TESTING at Whitman-

Walker Health. 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 2:30-5 p.m. at 1525 14th St. NW, and 9 a.m-12 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. at the Max Robinson Center, 2301 MLK Jr. Ave. SE. For an appointment, call 202-745-7000 or visit www.whitman-walker.org.

KARING WITH INDIVIDUALITY (K.I.) SERVICES, 20 S. Quaker Lane,

Suite 210, Alexandria, Va., offers $30 “rapid” HIV testing and counseling by appointment only. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Must schedule special appointment if seeking testing after 2 p.m. Call 703-823-4401.

METROHEALTH CENTER

offers free, rapid HIV testing.

Appointment needed. 1012 14th St. NW, Suite 700. To arrange an appointment, call 202-849-8029.

STI TESTING at Whitman-

Walker Health. 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 2-3 p.m. at both 1525 14th St. NW and the Max Robinson Center, 2301 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave. SE. Testing is intended for those without symptoms. For an appointment call 202-745-7000 or visit www. whitman-walker.org.

US HELPING US hosts a

Narcotics Anonymous Meeting.

The group is independent of UHU. 6:30-7:30 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. For more information, call 202-446-1100.

MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

23

FRIDAY, March 29 AGLA hosts its monthly AFTERNOON COFFEE JOLT, a

time for members of the LGBTQ community in Northern Virginia to socialize and make connections over a cup of coffee. Organizer Eric will be wearing gold and purple Mardi Gras beads for easy identification. 2:30-3:30 p.m. Detour, 946 N. Jackson St., Arlington, Va. For more info, visit www.agla.org.

GAY DISTRICT, a group for

GBTQQI men between the ages of 18-35, will hold a “Game Night” where attendees can bring their favorite board or card games. 8-10 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www. gaydistrict.org.

Members of the LGBTQ community and the broader public are encouraged to testify at a CONFIRMATION PUBLIC ROUNDTABLE focusing on legislation to approve longtime local LGBTQ activist Ben de Guzman as the director of the Mayor’s Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs. The Committee on Government Operations, which considers nominations, allows individuals 3 minutes to provide oral testimony. Additional written statements are encouraged and will be made part of the official record. Written statements may be submitted by email to GovernmentOperations@dccouncil.us and must be received by April 9. 1-2:30 p.m. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Room 123.

Those who wish to testify should contact Manny Geraldo, senior legislative counsel, at 202-724-6633 or mgeraldo@dccouncil.us by 1 p.m. on Mar. 28, the day prior to the roundtable.

The DC Center and Liz Sabatiuk of Tango Mercurio hold a QUEER TANGO CLASS for beginner students. The course will combine instruction on fundamental tango vocabulary and technique with discussion and exploration of the assumptions about gender, masculinity, and femininity — and how that might affect how one dances and interacts with others.

Students will be invited to experiment with both roles and reflect on their experiences. Tickets are $10, with proceeds benefiting The DC Center. Sliding-scale tickets are available for those of lower incomes. 7-9 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105 For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org/ events/queertangoclass or email supportdesk@thedccenter.org.

SATURDAY, March 30 ADVENTURING outdoors group

takes a scenic but very strenuous

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MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

13.5-mile hike with 3000 feet of elevation in the southern section of Shenandoah National Park, near Port Republic, Va. Experienced hikers only. Bring beverages, lunch, sturdy boots, bug spray, sunscreen, and about $20 for fees. Carpool at 8:30 a.m. from the East Falls Church Metro Kiss & Ride lot.

Return after 9:30 p.m. For more info, contact Peter, 202-302-9606, or visit www.adventuring.org.

LEADING WITH PRIDE, D.C.’s

annual LGBTQ youth-centric conference focusing on the needs of youth aged 13 to 24, takes place at Cardozo Education Campus.

Online registration and checkin for conference participants, their families and guests, or GSA Advisors will run from 10 a.m.-12 p.m., during the time allotted for morning workshops. There is also a 9 a.m. pre-conference offered for parents of elementary parents and queer families. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 1200 Clifton St. NW. For more information, visit sites.google.com/dc.gov/ leadingwithpride18.

LULAC LAMBDA, an organization

focusing on LGBTQ Latinx youth, will hold a Potomac River Clean-Up at Gravelly Point Park, located near the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Arlington, Va., just down the street from the Arlington Cemetery Metro Station stop.

Gloves, trash bags, and tools provided. Arrive by 9:45 for orientation.

Stay hydrated and dress warmly. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. For more information, visit www.lulaclambda.org.

The DC Center holds a

FACILITATOR TRAINING session

for those interested in leading or facilitating discussions for The Center’s many support groups. 12-2 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, email justin@thedccenter.org or visit www. thedccenter.org.

The TRANS VISIBILITY

COMMUNITY FESTIVAL, cele-

brating International Transgender Visibility Day, offers a free-ofcharge festival where participants and local organizations dealing with transgender advocacy work and services can interact, network, and share stories. The festival also features a showcase of trans-created art and culture, including an art gallery, screenings of several short films from America in Transition, and an open mic session. 1-5 p.m.

Spaces NoMa, 1140 3rd St. NE, F2.

For more information, visit www. transvisibilityfestival.com.

SUNDAY, March 31 CHRYSALIS arts & culture groups sponsors guided walking tour through the historic Brookland neighborhood in Northeast

Washington, including stops at the gardens of the Franciscan Monastery and at a Civil War fort. Free. Walk will not exceed 3 miles over hilly ground. Lunch in a restaurant near Catholic University follows around 1 p.m. Meet at 10 a.m. near kiosk of the BrooklandCatholic University Metro Station.

For more info, contact Craig, 202-462-0535 or craighowell1@ verizon.net.

more information, visit www. scandalsrfc.org or dcscandals@ gmail.com.

MONDAY, April 1

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS

CENTER AGING, an LGBTQ

seniors group of The DC Center, will hold its MONTHLY ADVOCACY MEETING to gauge feedback on The Center’s programs and services for older adults, and see what other issues may need to be addressed. This meeting will be immediately after the Center’s regularly scheduled weekly Coffee Drop-In from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. (See weekly listings below.) 12:30-1:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www. thedccenter.org.

CENTER FAITH, a group of The DC Center, will hold a planning meeting to discuss upcoming initiatives, especially the upcoming annual Capital Pride Interfaith Service on June 11. Planning meetings will take place on the first Monday of each month leading up to June. 6-7 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www. thedccenter.org.

The DC Center holds a monthly VOLUNTEER NIGHT for those interested in giving back to the local LGBTQ community. Activities include sorting through book donations, taking inventory, or assembling safe-sex packets. 6:30-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www. thedccenter.org.

TUESDAY, April 2 Weekly Events DC AQUATICS CLUB practice

session at Takoma Aquatic Center.

7:30-9 p.m. 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, visit www. swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/

walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards.

Route distances vary. For meeting places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds practice. The team is always looking for new members. All welcome.

7-9 p.m. Harry Thomas Recreation Center, 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For

THE GAY MEN'S HEALTH COLLABORATIVE offers free

HIV testing and STI screening and treatment every Tuesday.

5-6:30 p.m. Rainbow Tuesday LGBT Clinic, Alexandria Health Department, 4480 King St. 703746-4986 or text 571-214-9617. holds an LGBT-focused meeting every Tuesday, 7 p.m. at St. George’s Episcopal Church, 915 Oakland Ave., Arlington, just steps from Virginia Square Metro. Handicapped accessible.

Newcomers welcome. For more info, call Dick, 703-521-1999 or email liveandletliveoa@gmail.com.

Support group for LGBTQ youth ages 13-21 meets at SMYAL. 5-6:30 p.m. 410 7th St. SE. For more information, contact Rebecca York, 202-567-3165, or rebecca.york@ smyal.org.

US HELPING US hosts a support

group for black gay men 40 and older. 7-9 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. Call 202-446-1100.

Whitman-Walker Health holds its weekly GAY MEN’S HEALTH AND WELLNESS/STD CLINIC. Patients are seen on walk-in basis. No-cost screening for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. Hepatitis and herpes testing available for fee.

Testing starts at 6 p.m, but should arrive early to ensure a spot. 1525 14th St. NW. For more information, visit www.whitman-walker.org.

WEDNESDAY, April 3 RAINBOW HISTORY PROJECT

holds its annual meeting to gauge interest in the project and ways to get involved. Socializing will take place from 6 to 6:30 p.m., followed by a report on the project’s past progress and their plans for 2019.

6-8 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.rainbowhistory.org.

Weekly Events AD LIB, a group for freestyle con-

versation, meets about 6-6:30 p.m., Steam, 17th and R NW. All welcome. For more information, call Fausto Fernandez, 703-732-5174.

FREEDOM FROM SMOKING, a

group for LGBT people looking to quit cigarettes and tobacco use, holds a weekly support meeting at The DC Center. 7-8 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org. l

MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

25

Prime Cut For 70 years, the James Beard Award-winning Annie’s has served the LGBTQ community with pride, love, and the kind of spirit only a family can offer.

W

ALK INTO ANNIE’S PARAMOUNT Steak House on any Saturday morning and you’re likely to feel as though you’ve entered a family kitchen, rather than a bustling 17th Street restaurant.

By mid-morning, people begin crowding into tables, booths or filling up the seats along the bar as they recount the prior evening’s activities over coffee, eggs, and hash browns.

Waiters sprint back and forth, taking orders and delivering food, ’90s-era pop music trickles from speakers over the din of customer chatter and the clink of cutlery and dishes, punctuated by occasional bursts of laughter from patrons reacting to witty one-liners doled out by longtime bartender Scott Paxton and veteran server Al Sekscienski. If Mano is on duty, and you’ve ordered steak to go along with your eggs over easy, he’s likely to commandeer your knife and fork and lovingly carve a few pieces to get you started. The overall atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable, the mood light and festive, as customers and staff alike smile, joke, and banter.

“People come in just to see you and hang out,” says Paxton, who has worked at Annie’s for 19 years. “They know that they’re going to have fun. What I always tell people is, ‘If you sit at my bar and you don’t have a good time, there’s something wrong with you.’ Because I make it fun and friendly and carry on with people, and have my quips and fast snapbacks and everything like that. They’re like, ‘Oh, it’s dinner and a show,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, pretty much.’”

Recently named by the James Beard Foundation as one of its 2019 America’s Classic award winners, the steakhouse and

By John Riley Portraits by Todd G. Franson “comfort food” restaurant has long been a fixture in the Dupont Circle neighborhood — and particularly in the LGBTQ community, whose members started patronizing Annie’s in its earliest years. Its patrons are fervently loyal.

Loyalty, however, goes both ways. The restaurant has consistently given back to the community, whether holding fundraisers for Whitman-Walker, donating money to the NAMES Project Foundation’s AIDS Memorial Quilt, sponsoring the Gay Men’s Chorus, or, donating to Food & Friends — the local nonprofit that delivers meals to people with life-threatening illnesses — through its popular, citywide fundraiser, Dining Out for Life. Annie’s has been participating in the event since its inception in 1997.

As part of this year’s Dining Out for Life, next Thursday, April 4, Annie’s will continue a longstanding tradition of donating 100% of that evening’s dinner receipts to Food & Friends. For owner Paul Katinas, it’s yet another way for Annie’s to support LGBTQ people, who comprise a significant portion of Food & Friends’ client base.

“Dining Out for Life is great, because I don’t have to orchestrate a major fundraiser,” says Katinas. “It’s there, built in for us.

This is a way we can show our support to the gay community and show that we genuinely care. It’s a worthy cause.”

The night of Dining Out for Life is always busy, and the restaurant is typically crammed to capacity, with lines winding out the door and along the sidewalk. Paxton enthusiastically welcomes the throngs.

“I love working that particular night because it’s very busy,” says Paxton. “It’s standing room only, and mainly because we do give 100% [to Food & Friends]. I think that’s one of the reasons MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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why we have the support we have, because we do give back where we can. [The event] brings new faces in. And now that we’ve won the James Beard award, I see even more new faces.”

And those new faces sit alongside mainstays that return to Annie’s week after week, even as the Dupont Circle neighborhood around the restaurant has begun to evolve, and what was once known as the “gayborhood” has experienced an influx of young, upwardly mobile professionals.

“We opened our doors to the gay community at a time when [most] doors weren’t open,” says Katinas, who at 59 still retains the youthfulness of a man half his age. “It wasn’t a fake door opening, it was the real thing. ‘You’re welcome to come in here, and we’re going to take care of you as best we can.’

“I started working back full-time at the old location [near JR.’s] when I graduated from college in '82,” he says. “I started working the lunch shift. At lunchtime, it was a little bit more of a mixed crowd, but still a good 50 percent was the gay community, and everybody got along. At nighttime, we'd get to almost 80 or 90

there. They make you feel at home.

“Annie’s is my home away from home, to be honest, and after working here for 19 years, you get to know people,” says Paxton. “We have a lot of employees that genuinely get to know the customers, and they come in to see them as well as get really good food.”

“When people walk into a restaurant, they can feel whether it's loose and laid back and comfortable or not,” says Katinas. “I think when people walk in, that atmosphere is here. It’s comfortable. Because we like to make people feel like they’re at home.”

Or, as one of Annie’s most well-known employees, Mano, who has been with the restaurant for 43 years and was one of the first male servers hired, says, “There are a lot of restaurants.

Food, you can find it anywhere. This place is for love. To me, you’re not a customer, you’re a part of my family.”

For Katinas, Annie’s is a family business. It was started by his father, and has employed an estimated 50 extended family members over the span of seven decades — including, most notably,

“There are a lot of restaurants. Food, you can find it anywhere. This place is for love. TO ME, YOU’RE NOT A CUSTOMER, YOU’RE A PART OF MY FAMILY.” — Mano percent gay. Everybody had a blast. Everybody loved it. Then it seemed D.C. expanded, with lots of restaurants, and the door had been opened for the gay community a lot more, so the younger generation had lots more choices. They haven't totally adopted us.”

Katinas believes that being named one of “America’s Classics” by the James Beard Foundation has sparked renewed interest in the restaurant, particularly amongst the area’s Millennial “foodies.” He feels that younger LGBTQ patrons, once they dig into Annie’s savory and tender Queen Cut Prime Rib or signature, sizzling Bull in the Pan or perfectly grilled New York Strip, will quickly become regulars.

When it comes to the menu offerings, Katinas is happy to stick with traditional, tried-and-true dishes that are wholesome and filling, rather than attempting avant-garde or exotic fare like those seen on the latest trendy cooking shows.

“The menu doesn’t change that often,” he says. “The staple is definitely the steaks. The chicken has picked up, especially as of late. There's some seafood here and there. A strong enough variety where people have choices. Lots of salads and things that people enjoy, sandwiches. The portions, in my opinion, are good and people won’t go away hungry. I think that’s important as far as comfort food goes.

“During our 70th anniversary year, we had a nice review

by The Washington Post, but in my opinion, it’s not the kind of review we like to have, because it was more of, ‘Is this a five-star eating environment?’” he adds. “That’s not what we’re about. If you look at the write-up from the James Beard Foundation when we won the America’s Classics award, that’s what we’re about.

We provide the best food for the best prices that we can.”

There are few places in town where you can get more satisfying appetizers to share — Jalapeno Poppers and fried calamari immediately spring to mind. Or a variety of steak, seafood, and poultry that never wavers in quality, or in the reliability of its preparation. And, oh, those Annie’s cocktails — generously sized and flawlessly mixed. The Spicy Bloody Mary, rimmed with a thick coating of Old Bay Seasoning is, in particular, the epitome of the perfect “anytime” drink.

Annie’s is also renowned for its service. Even when the restaurant is operating at capacity, the staff virtually dotes on you. They make you feel like you’re the most important person 28

MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

his aunt, Annie Kaylor, the restaurant’s flamboyant and friendly namesake, who passed away in 2013.

“Initially it was just my father,” says Katinas. “Then he brought in his sisters, Annie and Sue, who both worked the bar.

They were like night and day. Annie was this showtime bartender that was like a hurricane in the bar, stirring drinks with her fingers, eating mashed potatoes while she’s talking to her customers. Sue was very meticulous. She used a shot glass for each one of her drinks — very much a perfectionist. The important thing was all the customers absolutely loved them. And Annie and Sue loved the customers.”

Beyond Katinas’ own family, Annie’s has also employed relatives of employees for many years, and — perhaps most importantly — has managed to retain employees for decades in an industry notorious for high staff turnover.

“I get along with anybody, but the employees know I’m not scared to get on my hands and knees to clean something or things like that,” says Katinas. “They know I don’t think I’m any better than they are. It makes them comfortable, and it makes them want to stay dedicated to the establishment.”

Of course, some of the restaurant’s employees with largerthan-life personalities continue to carry on the tradition, started by the original Annie, of making their dining experience at the restaurant as entertaining as possible.

“I’ve had people dancing on the tables, showing me body parts I didn’t want to see,” says Al Sekscienski, who has worked at Annie’s since late 2000. “But that’s kind of normal for here. “[Annie’s] just feels like home to people, and it’s very friendly,” he continues. “I met my boyfriend here. Friends of mine have met friends they’ve had for 10, 15 years now. You’ll always meet interesting people here. And that’s why I love it.” l Food & Friends’ annual Dining Out for Life is next Thursday evening, April 4. For a list of local participating restaurants, see our Guide to Dining Out for Life on page 37 or visit www. foodandfriends.org.

Annie’s Paramount Steak House is located at 1609 17th Street NW. For more information, call 202-232-0395 or visit www.anniesparamountdc.com.

Paul Katinas Owner

29

Raul DeGuzman General Manager, 11 years

Tim Osborn Bartender, 2 years

Scott Paxton Bartender, 19 years

Al Sekscienski Server, 18 years

Ja’Dawn Wynn Bartender, 5 years

Blago Shapevski Server, 1 year

Cyril Shapevski Server, 4 years

Mano Server, 43 years

A COMPLETE GUIDE TO

DINING OUT FOR

LIFE THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019

A complete guide to all participating restaurants as of press time, by neighborhood, including meals and what percentage of each bill will be donated to Food & Friends. This year’s Dining Out for Life takes place on Thursday, April 4th. Please note that RESERVATIONS ARE SUGGESTED at most restaurants. Please call ahead or book online. For an up-to-date list of restaurants visit foodandfriends.org/diningout.

Washington, D.C. .

ADAMS MORGAN

Blaguard 2003 18th St. NW 202-232-9005 Fixed Donation Mintwood Place 1813 Columbia Rd. NW 202-234-6732 Dinner, 25%

t

TODD FRANSON / FILE PHOTO

18th & U Duplex Diner 2004 18th St. NW 202-265-7828 Dinner, 25%

Beau Thai

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Red White and Basil 1781 Florida Ave. NW 202-518-7021 Dinner, 25% Perry's 1811 Columbia Rd. NW 202-234-6218 Dinner, 25% Pop’s SeaBar 1817 Columbia Rd. NW 202-534-3933 Lunch & Dinner, 25% BROOKLAND Brookland’s Finest Bar & Kitchen 3126 12th St. NE 202-636-0050 Lunch & Dinner, 35% CAPITOL HILL Café Berlin 322 Massachusetts Ave. NE 202-543-7656 Lunch & Dinner, 25% Hank's Oyster Bar on the Hill 633 Pennsylvania Ave. SE 202-733-1971 Dinner, 25% Matchbox 521 8th St. SE 202-548-0369 Fixed Donation Mr. Henry’s Restaurant 601 Pennsylvania Ave. SE 202-546-8412 Lunch & Dinner, 35% CHEVY CHASE Blue 44 DC 5507 Connecticut Ave. NW 202-362-2583 Dinner 25% Buck’s Fishing and Camping 5031 Connecticut Ave. NW 202-364-0777 Dinner, 50% Comet Ping Pong 5037 Connecticut Ave. NW 202-364-0404 Dinner, 50%

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CITY CENTER Momofuku CCDC 1090 I St. NW 202-602-1832 Fixed Donation CLEVELAND PARK Cactus Cantina 3300 Wisconsin Ave. NW 202-362-0776 Lunch & Dinner, 25% COLUMBIA HEIGHTS Lou’s City Bar 1400 Irving St. NW (202) 849-2782 Dinner, 25% DUPONT CIRCLE Annie's Paramount Steakhouse 1609 17th St. NW 202-667-9148 Dinner, 100% Dupont Italian Kitchen 1637 17th St. NW 202-328-3222 Dinner, 25% Grillfish 1200 New Hampshire Ave. NW 202-331-7310 Lunch & Dinner, 25% Hank's Oyster Bar & Lounge 1624 Q St. NW 202-462-4265 Dinner, 25% Hank's Cocktail Bar 1624 Q St. NW 202-462-4265 Dinner, 25% Contribution Lauriol Plaza 1835 18th St. NW 202-387-0035 Lunch & Dinner, 25% Urbana 2121 P St. NW 202-956-6650 Dinner, 25% FRIENDSHIP HEIGHTS Le Chat Noir 4907 Wisconsin Ave. NW 202-244-2044 Dinner, 35%

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Matisse 4934 Wisconsin Ave. NW 202-244-5222 Dinner, 25%

The Pig 1320 14th St. NW 202-290-2821 Dinner, 25%

GALLERY PLACE/ CHINATOWN

MOUNT PLEASANT

Free State Atlantic Bar 501b G St. NW 202-601-7216 Dinner, 35% Contribution Matchbox 713 H St. NW 202-289-4441 Fixed Donation GLOVER PARK Rockland’s Barbeque & Grilling 2418 Wisconsin Ave. NW 202-333-2558 Lunch & Dinner, 25% Slate Wine Bar + Bistro 2404 Wisconsin Ave. NW 202-333-4304 Dinner, 25% H STREET Le Grenier 502 H St. NE 202-544-4999 Dinner, 35% IVY CITY City Winery 1350 Okie St. NE, 202-250-2531 Fixed Donation LOGAN CIRCLE Commissary 1443 P St. NW 202-299-0018 Lunch & Dinner, 25% Le Diplomate 1601 14th St. NW 202-332-3333 Fixed Donation Logan Tavern 1423 P St. NW 202-332-3710 Lunch & Dinner, 25% Frenchy’s Naturel 1337 11th St. NW 202-518-3609 Dinner, 25%

Beau Thai 3162 Mount Pleasant St. NW 202-450-5317 Lunch & Dinner, 25% Purple Patch 3155 Mt Pleasant St. NW 202-299-0022 Dinner, 25% PETWORTH Taqueria Del Barrio 821 Upshur St. NW 202-723-0200 Dinner, 25% Top Spanish Café & Catering 3541 Georgia Ave. NW 202-723-1596 Dinner, 25% SHAW Beau Thai 1550 7th St. NW 205-536-5636 Lunch & Dinner, 25% BKK Cookshop 1700 New Jersey Ave. NW 202-791-0592 Lunch & Dinner, 25% Shaw's Tavern 520 Florida Ave. NW 202-518-4092 Dinner, 25% U ST. Compass Rose 1346 T St. NW 202-506-4765 Dinner, 25% Matchbox 1901 14th St. NW 202-328-0369 Fixed Donation UNION MARKET St. Anselm 1250 5th St. NE 202-864-2199 Dinner, 25%

WATERFRONT

ROCKVILLE

Hank’s Oyster Bar - The Wharf 701 Wharf St. SW 202-817-3055 Dinner, 25%

Il Pizzico 15209 Frederick Rd. 301-309-0610 Dinner, 35%

MARYLAND Maryland

Mosaic Cuisine 186 Halpine Rd. 301-468-0682 Dinner, 25%

BETHESDA

SILVER SPRING

Trattoria Sorrento 4930 Cordell Ave. 301-718-0344 Dinner, 25%

All Set Restaurant & Bar 8630 Fenton St. 301-495-8800 Dinner, 75%

KENSINGTON

TAKOMA PARK

Frankly...Pizza!

10417 Armory Ave. 301-832-1065 Lunch & Dinner, 25%

Mark's Kitchen 7006 Carroll Ave. 301-270-1884 Lunch & Dinner, 25%

Virginia VIRGINIA

OLD TOWN ALEXANDRIA

CLARENDON

Chadwicks 203 The Strand 703-836-4442 Dinner, 25%

Delhi Club 1135 N Highland St. 703-527-5666 Dinner, 50% CRYSTAL CITY

Hank's Oyster Bar Old Town 1026 King St. 703-739-4265 Lunch & Dinner, 25%

Freddie’s Beach Bar 555 23rd St. S. 703-685-0555 Dinner, 110%

Hank’s Pasta Bar 600 Montgomery St. 571-312-4117 Dinner, 25%

FALLS CHURCH

PINECREST

Clare and Don's Beach Shack 130 N. Washington St. 703-532-9283 Lunch & Dinner, 35%

Foxfire Grill 6550 Little River Tnpk.

703-914-9280 Dinner, 25%

POTOMAC

Delivery DELIVERY

Amici Miei 6 N Washington St. 301-545-0966 Dinner, 25%

RSVP Catering 15% of Drop Off Catering l

MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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Movies

Grounded

T

With Dumbo, Tim Burton turns the familiar Disney fantasy into a moving family drama that’s not as fun as it should be. By André Hereford

HE CROWS AREN’T SINGING AND THE TRAINED MICE DON’T DELIVER pep talks in Disney’s Dumbo (HHHHH), a surprisingly grounded, occasionally moving reimagining of the studio’s 1941 animated classic. In an odd turn for a live-action remake of the talking-animals tearjerker, this adaptation, directed by visual stylist extraordinaire Tim Burton, feels more firmly grounded in human drama. The famous flying elephant seems a supporting player in his self-titled tale, upstaged somewhat by the family redemption journey of World War I vet Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) and his two precocious children, Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins). The resulting recalibration leaves Burton’s Dumbo feeling not as wondrously transporting as the original, although the film does render a touching portrait of a family reconnecting post-trauma.

Once the stallion-riding star of the Medici Brothers Circus, Holt has returned from the war a decorated hero, yet a damaged man, in body and spirit. He lost an arm in combat, while, at home, he and the kids lost his wife to illness. Adding insult to injury, gruff but lovable circus owner Max Medici (Danny DeVito) sold off Holt’s prize horses, so if the single dad wants to keep his job in the circus, he’ll need to get off his high horse, so to speak, and start cleaning up after the elephants.

That includes Max’s latest acquisition, an enormous Asian elephant named Mrs. Jumbo, then soon thereafter, her floppy-eared baby boy, who’ll come to be dubbed Dumbo.

Burton and screenwriter Ehren Kruger (Transformers: Age of Extinction) pour substantial energy into developing the hardscrabble, post-War environs of the Medici Circus, which, like haggard Holt, has seen better days. Burton presents a colorful, boisterous country caravan of big tents, dusty animal pens, and claptrap railcars, populated by a misfit family of performers and exotic beasts (almost all of them computer-generated).

But a cloud of sadness hangs over this carnival, and over the unfortunate Farrier

family. Farrell, trying on a decent Kentucky twang as “One-armed Cowboy” Holt, offers a tender take on the humbled hotshot, and creates a poignant fatherkid rapport with credible young actors Hobbins and Parker.

As science-obsessed Milly, Parker (daughter of actress Thandie Newton and film director Ol Parker) supplies the spunky personality and well-meaning ambition that fans of the original might better associate with Timothy Q. Mouse.

Here, it’s Milly and little bro Joe who help inspire Dumbo to ever greater heights, after they and dad discover that those floppy ears can take the little elephant aloft.

The visual effects team achieve a genuine sense of physical weight and dimension for Dumbo that adds to the suspense preceding the CGI pachyderm’s plunges off towering platforms and other fearful heights. His whizzing flights over the bigtop audience capture the crowd’s collective awe and excitement.

Yet, the film never really feels fun.

Rather, it strikes a melancholy chord similar to that of another recent Disney “live-action” reboot, Christopher Robin.

Despite a general brightness, and DeVito’s sardonically comic performance — and, you know, a flying elephant — this Dumbo seems short on whimsy and gaiety, the cartoon lightness that makes a big-budget balloon like this fly. The film’s last-act trip to an anachronistically high-tech amusement park called Dreamland, “where the impos-

MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

41

sible is possible,” adds spectacular visuals, without adding much to the story other than the quasi-villainous baron of Dreamland, V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton).

The film’s detour to Dreamland also introduces a love interest for Holt, and potential mother figure for the children, in the form of high-flying trapeze artist Colette (Eva Green), who hatches plans to ride Dumbo in her act.

The idea of any grownup riding Dumbo is not one of this update’s welcome innovations. A few other updates to align

this version of 1919 with the cultural zeitgeist of 2019 are more welcome, though clumsily executed. Milly’s girl-power pronouncement that she wants to be respected for her mind sounds conspicuously like a literal response to focus group comments, as does a different character’s pronouncement that caging wild animals is morally wrong. More naturally integrated are the heartwarming stories of these two charming families, one human, one elephant, who rely on each other to overcome tremendous losses, and to help make all their dreams take flight. l

Dumbo is rated PG, and is now playing in theaters everywhere. Visit www.fandango.com.

Heart-racing Hotel

T

Hotel Mumbai delivers taut suspense in its streamlined take on real-life terror. By André Hereford

HE FACT-BASED THRILLER HOTEL MUMBAI (HHHHH) OPENS IN A tense register that rarely lapses. From the first baleful notes of score playing under images of a golden morning dawning over Mumbai, to the explosive standoff that concludes this vivid chronicle of the November 2008 terrorist attacks throughout the city, the film maintains an atmosphere of almost palpable fear and foreboding.

Its occasional lapses into Hollywood-style hokum can puncture the otherwise airtight pacing, but they’re not enough to topple this impressive feature directing debut by Anthony Maras, who also co-wrote the script and co-edited. Maras seems to be aiming for some combination of the stark docudrama storytelling of Paul Greengrass’ United 93 and an Irwin Allen disaster pic, in the vein of The Towering Inferno. The combo works best when it favors the nuance and character-building of the former, rather than the rote heroics that come with the latter.

There’s intrigue and illuminating detail in practically every moment, quiet or suspenseful, that the movie spends in the company of the terrorists who launch the high-

ly-coordinated and highly-armed attacks on a dozen targets, including the five-star Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Forgoing any effort to explain their faith or their actions, the film does humanize these men enough to convey how some foul indoctrination has rendered them cruelly indifferent to the lives and humanity of their victims.

And, while so many lives were taken violently during the horrifying fourday siege, Hotel Mumbai focuses on the guests and staff at the Taj. Following a smooth setup that introduces Dev Patel as hard-working family man Arjun, a server in the Taj’s restaurant, Anupam Kher as his tough but caring boss, the head chef Oberoi, and Armie Hammer and Nazanin Boniadi as a wealthy guest couple, David and Zahra, the movie tracks suspenseful action across a half dozen disparate storylines.

Kher is a standout, conveying Oberoi’s decency and sense of confident command before and during the attacks, and Patel makes quite the credible action hero as Arjun consistently overcomes his own fear to step up in the struggle for survival. But the film falters with the David and Zahra thread, a glaringly clichéd collection of big-strong-man-to-the-rescue moments.

It’s not just patronizing that David grasps his wife’s face and tells her, “I need you to be strong,” before he runs off to save their nanny and baby, trapped upstairs. But since she carried that baby and pushed it out of her body, telling her to be strong just sounds like bad writing.

Surely not every woman caught up in this terrifying siege just cowered in a corner waiting for the nearest man to tell her what to do next, but alas, that’s how this film plays it. Fortunately, Boniadi’s performance as Zahra makes it clear that, with or without her husband mansplaining grace under pressure, she’d figure out how to keep her cool in a crisis, even one as unfathomably frightening as this one. l

Hotel Mumbai is rated R, and is now playing at Landmark’s E Street and Bethesda Row Cinemas.

Visit www.landmarktheatres.com/washington-d-c.

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Music

Afterparties

Brendan Maclean’s debut album is a superb collection of sad, gay tunes done right. By Sean Maunier

B

RENDAN MACLEAN’S FIRST ALBUM IS ONLY TECHNICALLY A DEBUT. Despite his low profile outside Australia, Maclean is a prolific artist who you may remember from his single “Stupid,” his pop EP funbang1, or his viral and extremely NSFW music video for “House of Air,” which racked up over 700,000 views before being yanked from YouTube.

But in the couple years since his lovingly choreographed tribute to the hanky code, he has gotten introspective. And The Boyfriends (HHHHH) is a categorically different work than the EP that preceded it. Where funbang1 was upbeat, celebratory, and at times manic, the new album is a more tightly focused and noticeably more somber collection of tracks.

While it may be more subdued, it’s far from dull. The disco-adjacent lead single “Hibernia” starts things off on a high note, and the symbolism in an opener about a fire accidentally starting at an afterparty is hard to miss. Luckily, Brendan stops short of burning down everything that came before. Despite the greater range of material and the obvious shift in tone, And the Boyfriends still brings all the honesty and emotional intensity that has marked his work up until now.

“Where’s the Miracle” is a deceptively upbeat track with a darkness that sneaks up on a listener, its instrumentation full of tension that is mirrored in the line, “You don’t wanna know where my head is at.” He doubles down on this ambiguity on the hypnotic and infectious “Not Too Stoned,” casually throwing out lyrics like, “Don’t mistake a lack of rage/I’m enraged,” with a chillingly matter-of-fact anger. Each time he returns to the line, “I’m not too stoned for you to fuck with,” his laconic tone carries an unstat-

ed threat or even a challenge, although the deeper context it teases is left to the listener’s imagination. Lyrics like these are dropped throughout the album, punctuating it with moments of directness that are jarring and unexpected.

Three tracks in, by the end of “Not Too Stoned,” it might be easy to get the idea that we are dealing with a self-possessed, even cocky persona, but Maclean is happy to spend the rest of the album casually and methodically deconstructing that notion.

“Goes Without Saying” has a world-weariness about it that is practically made for a walk home at three in the morning.

Following it is “Tenderness,” a gentle, almost spoken-word meditation on a possible future, dashed with the closing line, “I searched for you in Europe/but never found you.”

“Layer on the Love” has Maclean and the album’s co-writer Sarah Belkner trade lines on an emotional gut-punch of a duet, but it is the understated closing track that might be the most disaffecting and moving song on the album. “Wolf Run” is a stark reckoning with masculine aggression layered over backing vocals that ominously repeat the phrase “boys will be boys.”

This sense of vulnerability and uncertainty balanced alongside Maclean’s honest

MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

43

and thoughtful reflections lend this album a sense of emotional maturity.

Longing for what could be or what might have been is an understandable, deeply relatable impulse, but rather than a search for closure, And the Boyfriends is more of a level-headed acceptance of life’s many uncertainties and conflicts.

There might be no track that distills the spirit of the album better than the bright, earnest “Quiet Company.” Starting slowly and building unhurriedly to a euphoric conclusion, it mirrors the process of self-realization he narrates in the song. The opening lines set this particular confession at an afterparty, exactly where we started on “Hibernia,” and, incidentally, the kind of setting where someone is most likely to hear the unspoken question

that is threaded through the album: “What now?”

At this point in the game, he seems to prefer posing questions and playing with them rather than providing any resolution. To be fair, resolution is hardly the point, and the closest he comes to an answer is to spend the next track toying with the idea of coming back from the dead.

Dense with emotion yet refreshingly clear-eyed about it, Brendan Maclean’s first full-length album plays to all his strengths as an artist and features his best songwriting yet. And the Boyfriends is a thoughtful and beautifully crafted collection that demands multiple listens to pick up on its many subtleties. It is that rare album that makes you want to dance, cry and call up your exes — maybe all three at the same time. l

And the Boyfriends can be purchased on Amazon.com and iTunes, and is available on most major streaming services.

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NightLife Photography by Ward Morrison

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Scene

Red Bear Brewing Co. Grand Opening - Saturday, March 23 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

DrinksDragDJsEtc...

Thursday, March 28 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Shirtless Thursday, 10-11pm • Men in Underwear Drink Free, 12-12:30am • DJs BacK2bACk

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • $15 Buckets of Beer all night • Sports Leagues Night NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Thirst Trap Thursdays, hosted by Venus Valhalla, 11pm-12:30am • Featuring a Rotating Cast of Drag Performers • Visit pitchersbardc.com

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Bottles of Wine, 5pm-close TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS All male, nude dancers • Open Dancers Audition • Urban House Music by DJ Tim-e • 9pm • Cover 21+

Destinations A LEAGUE OF HER OWN 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.facebook.com/alohodc AVALON SATURDAYS Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW 202-789-5429 www.facebook.com/ AvalonSaturdaysDC 46

MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Friday, March 29 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 Rail and Domestic • $5 Svedka, all flavors all night long • Onyx Mid-Atlantic presents Leather and Lace: A Pre-Code Red Bar Night, 10pm-close • Featuring DJ IcyFunk • $5 Cover (includes clothes check) NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Open 3pm • Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer,

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR 555 23rd St. S. Arlington, Va. 703-685-0555 www.freddiesbeachbar.com GREEN LANTERN 1335 Green Ct. NW 202-347-4533 www.greenlanterndc.com

$15 • Weekend Kickoff Dance Party, with Nellie’s DJs spinning bubbly pop music all night NUMBER NINE Open 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover • Friday Night Piano with Chris, 7:30pm • Rotating DJs, 9:30pm PITCHERS Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am • Visit pitchersbardc.com

TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 • Otter Happy Hour with guest DJs, 5-11pm ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm • Guest dancers • Rotating DJs • Kristina Kelly’s Diva Fev-ah Drag Show • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:30pm and 1:45am • DJ Don T. in Ziegfeld’s • Cover 21+

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR 900 U St. NW 202-332-6355 www.nelliessportsbar.com NUMBER NINE 1435 P St. NW 202-986-0999 www.numberninedc.com PITCHERS 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.pitchersbardc.com

BUNNYZ

BRONX BACCHANAL

New York’s storied Black Party celebrates a seminal anniversary with a new era and venue.

Saturday, March 30 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-3am • Video Games • Live televised sports AVALON SATURDAYS @Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW LGBTQ Dance Party, 10pm-close • Drink specials • General admission $15 • Visit www.dougiemeyerpresents.com FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Saturday Breakfast Buffet, 10am-3pm • $14.99 with one glass of champagne or coffee, soda or juice • Additional champagne $2 per glass • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Freddie’s Follies Drag Show, hosted by Miss Destiny B. Childs, 8-10pm • Karaoke, 10pm-close

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5 Bacardi, all flavors, all night long • The Imperial Court of Washington D.C. presents An Underwear Dance Party, 10pm-close • Music by DJs Alpha and Omega • $5 Cover (clothes check available) NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-3am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs NUMBER NINE Doors open 2pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Rotating DJs, 9:30pm

SHAW’S TAVERN 520 Florida Ave. NW 202-518-4092 www.shawstavern.com TRADE 1410 14th St. NW 202-986-1094 www.tradebardc.com ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS 1824 Half St. SW 202-863-0670 www.ziegfelds.com

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VERYBODY BEMOANED THE END OF ROSELAND,” SAYS THE SAINT At Large’s Stephen Pevner. “But as a producer there for 24 years...it felt like we were the longest-running show on Broadway. I thought, ‘Okay, let’s shake this up a little.’”

And shake it up he has: This year’s fetish dance extravaganza, The Black Party, the fifth since the loss of the storied Hell’s Kitchen haunt Roseland Ballroom, has been uprooted to the Bronx. But while it’s located in New York’s northernmost borough, the party’s new venue, the New York Expo Center, is actually more central and better situated than recent venues for the storied party. (Free shuttles with stops in Hell’s Kitchen and Williamsburg should also help ease getting to and from the massive warehouse space.)

Pevner increasingly thinks of his party as “a kind of mini-gay mecca festival.” And like any popular music festival, “part of the fun is getting out of your comfort zone and traveling to them.” Not to mention all the dancing, carousing, and frolicking you’ll do for an extended period — as long as 18 hours.

The Black Party is also something of an American version of the marathon EDM/techno-focused parties currently popular in Europe — notably, the sexually charged, gay-rooted Berlin bacchanal Berghain. This year’s Black Party DJ lineup features two Berghain residents, Boris from Berlin and Roi Perez from Israel, along with Mike Servito and Ryan Smith of Brooklyn, Byrell The Great from New York’s Ballroom scene — and Black Party virgin DJ Harvey, a London native.

As the 40th iteration since the original Saint’s first Black Party in 1981, this year’s affair, stylized XL, has been accorded “the ultimate Roman theme. It will feel like Caligula’s Rome, from all of the architecture to all of the costumes, and the strange live acts.”

“We're actually writing a whole storyline and re-enacting it,” Pevner explains. “Caligula comes to the throne because he's killed the previous emperor. And of course it's his last party — he gets ‘murdered’ during the event. What ensues is just a night of complete debauchery, as one would expect in Caligula's time.” —Doug Rule “Ritex XL, The Black Party: Caligula, The Last Party” is Saturday, April 6, from 10 p.m., to Sunday, April 7, at 3 p.m., at the New York Expo Center, 1110 Oak Point Ave., in the Bronx. Tickets are $175 in advance, or $75 for those under age 27; $60 for Sunday entry after 9 a.m. Call 212-674-8541 or visit www.saintatlarge.com.

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PITCHERS Open Noon-3am • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am • Visit pitchersbardc.com SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with $15 Bottomless Mimosas, 10am-3pm • Homme Brunch, 12pm, Second Floor • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • HalfPriced Pizzas and Select Appetizers TRADE Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm-4am • Guest dancers • Ladies of Illusion Drag Show with host Ella Fitzgerald • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:30pm and 1:45am • DJ Don T. in Ziegfeld’s • DJ Steve Henderson in Secrets • Cover 21+

Sunday, March 31 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-12am • $4 Smirnoff and Domestic Cans • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Ella’s Sunday Drag Brunch, 10am-3pm • $24.99 with four glasses of champagne or mimosas, 1 Bloody Mary, or coffee, soda or

juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Gayborhood Piano Night, 5-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close

beer selection • Pop Goes the World with Wes Della Volla at 9:30pm • No Cover

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Karaoke with Kevin downstairs, 9:30pm-close

PITCHERS Open Noon-2am • $4 Smirnoff, includes flavored, $4 Coors Light or $4 Miller Lites, 2-9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Visit pitchersbardc.com

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-1am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Dinner and Drag with Miss Kristina Kelly, 8pm • For reservations, email shawsdinnerdragshow@ gmail.com

TRADE Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Half-Priced Burgers • Paint Nite, 7pm • PokerFace Poker, 8pm • Dart Boards • Ping Pong Madness, featuring 2 PingPong Tables

Monday, April 1

NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Singles Night • Half-Priced Pasta Dishes • Karaoke, 9pm

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Shaw ’Nuff Trivia, with Jeremy, 7:30pm

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long • Singing with the Sisters: Open Mic Karaoke Night with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, 9:30pm-close

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TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

Tuesday, April 2 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco Tuesday • Karaoke, 9pm

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GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Drag Bingo with Sasha Adams and Brooklyn Heights, 7-9pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close NUMBER NINE Open at 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Burgers and Pizzas, 5-10pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Visit pitchersbardc.com

MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Wednesday, April 3 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • $6 Burgers • Beach Blanket Drag Bingo Night, hosted

by Ms. Regina Jozet Adams, 8pm • Bingo prizes • Karaoke, 10pm-1am GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4pm-9pm • Bear Yoga with Greg Leo, 6:30-7:30pm • $10 per class • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR SmartAss Trivia Night, 8-10pm • Prizes include bar tabs and tickets to shows at the 9:30 Club • $15 Buckets of Beer for SmartAss Teams only • Absolutely Snatched Drag Show, hosted by Brooklyn Heights, 9pm • Tickets available at nelliessportsbar.com NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Visit pitchersbardc.com

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Piano Bar with Jill, 8pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 l

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Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic at Nellie’s - Monday, March 18 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

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GLOE Purim at Mission Dupont- Saturday, March 23 - Photography by Randy Shulman See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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Cobalt Farewell Party at Pitchers- Friday, March 15 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

MARCH 28, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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LastWord.

People say the queerest things

“I do not approve of their politics, but I kind of approve of their chicken.”

— Mayor PETE BUTTIGIEG, speaking with New York’s Power 105.1 about Chick-fil-A’s anti-LGBTQ corporate history, including donating millions of dollars to anti-LGBTQ organizations. “Maybe if nothing else, I can build that bridge. Maybe I’ll become in a position to broker that peace deal,” Buttigieg said. “We’ve got to find a way to use our identities to reach other people.”

“I am proud to display this flag as a symbol of my support for transgender people across the country. ” — Sen. BERNIE SANDERS, in a tweet showcasing a transgender pride flag alongside the U.S. flag outside his office.

“Discrimination has no place in our society,” Sanders said. “We must stand with transgender people in all of our communities.”

“The world is not exactly swimming with gay 20-something actors who have mild cerebral palsy.”

— RYAN O’CONNELL, star of upcoming Netflix series Special, about a gay man living with cerebral palsy, speaking to Queerty about casting for the show. Based on O’Connell’s autobiography I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves, producers tried casting for the show but ultimately picked O’Connell himself to star.

“It was all a hoax and a moral violation.”

— Chicago Mayor RAHM EMANUEL, speaking to CNN after all charges were dropped against Empire actor Jussie Smollett over allegations that he had lied to police about being the victim of an anti-gay and racist attack in January. Emanuel called the dropping of charges “an abomination of my sense of justice.” “He went out and spoke on ABC to the country, as an African American and a gay man, about being the victim of a crime,” Emanuel said, adding, “He used the hate crime laws to advance his own career and he got caught.”

“I read it and I immediately started praying.”

— ELISABETH HASSELBECK, speaking on The View about former co-host Rosie O’Donnell admitting she had a crush on the conservative personality in a book about the show. Hasselbeck said she found O’Donnell’s admission “offensive” and “disturbing,” and said if O’Donnell was a man it would be “objectification of women in the workplace.”

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