Washington City Paper (March 1, 2019)

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FREE VOLUME 39, NO. 9 WASHINGTONCITYPAPER.COM MARCH 1-7, 2019

We don’t need your permission to be here and we care about the same things that you care about.

Marion Barry is mayor for life—don’t question why, just try and understand.

NEWS: FAIR ELECTIONS ACT OUTLOOK NOT SO GOOD 4 FOOD: KITCHEN WORKERS FIGHT WAGE THEFT 16 ARTS: MEMORIES OF SKIP GROFF, 1948-2019 19

The ‘trendy’ neighborhoods used to be homes to families who survived the riots and thrived through the crack epidemic.

Home Rulers Those born and raised in D.C. are here to tell you that the true heart of the District lies in its natives. P. 8

CLEAN UP AFTER YOUR DOGS. As this city changes, I would like for the newcomers to not be afraid to join natives in pushing back and standing up.

It’s important to be cognizant of the communities that got torn down or displaced to make so many of these new luxuries a reality.

Step outside of your comfort zone, challenge everything you think you know about other ethnicities, and immerse yourself immediately.

Not all mumbo sauce is created equal and you can’t get a half-smoke just anywhere.

TRANSPARENCY

SERVICES

QUALITY UNION JOBS

DC residents have had no voice about access to comprehensive health care in their communities and the impact on other area hospitals. Mayor Bowser is looking to circumvent the legal process, known as certificate of need, where public hearings are required and details of any agreement are made public.

Residents of Ward 7 and 8 deserve a full-service hospital with specialty services like cardiac and cancer care. There is no guarantee these will be offered at the new hospital.

These residents may now have to travel 30 - 45 minutes to Foggy Bottom for high-risk services.

Allow Howard University doctors to have privileges at the new hospital for training purposes.

UMC is the largest employer in the east end of DC. This deal calls for the closure of UMC, a heavily unionized facility, to replace it with a new, non-union facility with a labor hostile employer. Good, quality union jobs are in jeopardy at the new hospital and this will affect hundreds of families in Ward 7 and 8.

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INSIDE

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COVER STORY: HOME RULERS

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The winners of our essay contest share stories about what it means to be a D.C. native.

DISTRICT LINE 4

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Loose Lips: As the 2020 election rapidly approaches, the Office of Campaign Finance struggles to comply with portions of the Fair Elections Act. Social Skills: Sizing up the councilmembers’ behavior on social media

SPORTS 6

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If Ever a Wiz There Was: Jordan McRae, the best player in the NBA’s G League, waits for his shot with the Wizards.

Gear Prudence

FOOD 16 Payback: Kitchen workers who earn a fixed salary instead of hourly wages fight to recover the money they say they lost in overtime pay.

ARTS 19 Skip Groff, 1948–2019: Friends remember the late record store owner and DJ who mentored the region’s punk and underground artists.

21 Curtain Calls: Shah on Arena Stage’s The Heiress and Baskin on Constellation Theatre’s The Master and Margarita 22 Film: Select reviews from this year’s Capital Irish Film Festival 23 Short Subjects: Gittell on Ruben Brandt, Collector

CITY LIST 25 Music 31 Theater 32 Film

DIVERSIONS 33 Savage Love 34 Classifieds 35 Crossword

DARROW MONTGOMERY 1500 BLOCK OF K STREET NW, FEB. 23

EDITORIAL

EDITOR: ALEXA MILLS MANAGING EDITOR: CAROLINE JONES ARTS EDITOR: MATT COHEN FOOD EDITOR: LAURA HAYES SPORTS EDITOR: KELYN SOONG CITY LIGHTS EDITOR: KAYLA RANDALL LOOSE LIPS REPORTER: MITCH RYALS HOUSING COMPLEX REPORTER: MORGAN BASKIN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: DARROW MONTGOMERY MULTIMEDIA AND COPY EDITOR: WILL WARREN CREATIVE DIRECTOR: STEPHANIE RUDIG CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: MICHON BOSTON, KRISTON CAPPS, CHAD CLARK, RACHEL M. COHEN, RILEY CROGHAN, JEFFRY CUDLIN, EDDIE DEAN, ERIN DEVINE, CUNEYT DIL, TIM EBNER, CASEY EMBERT, JONATHAN L. FISCHER, NOAH GITTELL, SRIRAM GOPAL, HAMIL R. HARRIS, LAURA IRENE, LOUIS JACOBSON, CHRIS KELLY, STEVE KIVIAT, CHRIS KLIMEK, PRIYA KONINGS, JULYSSA LOPEZ, NEVIN MARTELL, KEITH MATHIAS, PABLO MAURER, BRIAN MCENTEE, BRIAN MURPHY, NENET, TRICIA OLSZEWSKI, EVE OTTENBERG, MIKE PAARLBERG, PAT PADUA, JUSTIN PETERS, REBECCA J. RITZEL, ABID SHAH, TOM SHERWOOD, MATT TERL, SIDNEY THOMAS, DAN TROMBLY, JOE WARMINSKY, ALONA WARTOFSKY, JUSTIN WEBER, MICHAEL J. WEST, DIANA MICHELE YAP, ALAN ZILBERMAN

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DISTRICTLINE Running Late

Will D.C.’s publicly funded elections program be functional in time for the 2020 election?

There’s noThing quiTe like an oversight hearing to give a government agency a kick in the ass.

It’s been more than a year since the D.C. Council unanimously passed the “Fair Elections Act of 2017,” which establishes a publicly funded election program in the District.

But the start of the 2020 election cycle is right around the corner, and the Office of Campaign Finance, which is in charge of overseeing public elections, doesn’t have the program up and running.

During a committee oversight hearing last week, OCF director Cecily CollierMontgomery revealed that the office has not procured the technology for the efiling system that tracks and verifies candidates’ campaign contributions. She said the office has not filled six of the vacant positions related to the Fair Elections Act, and expressed confusion over how much money is actually available to candidates in the budget for this fiscal year.

“This isn’t going to work on a hope and a prayer,” Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who chairs the committee with oversight of OCF, said during the hearing. “I’m trying to keep it in check here, but I am pretty frustrated that we’re sitting here five months into the fiscal year and this is where we are, and an election cycle is already upon us.”

Under the law, candidates for local office need a certain number of small-dollar donations in order to receive public dollars to subsidize their campaigns. To qualify, a candidate for mayor, for example, must take in at least $40,000 from at least 1,000 small-dollar donors who live in the District.

Individual contributions are limited to $200.

Ward Council candidates need at least 150 individual contributions totaling $5,000, with a $50 contribution limit.

Candidates for mayor, attorney general, all Council seats, and the State Board of Education are eligible for the public campaign program.

Candidates in the program get a base grant

LOOSE LIPS

Darrow Montgomery/File

By Mitch Ryals

($160,000 for mayor and $40,000 for Council) as well as public funds to match their smalldollar donations. Similar programs exist in Montgomery County and New York City.

The law is one piece of the Council’s campaign finance reform efforts aimed at curbing the influence of deep-pocketed donors in local races. Lawmakers also passed a bill in December 2018 that bans donations from corporations and their executives that have or are seeking contracts with the District government worth $250,000 or more.

The public elections law took effect after the November 2018 election and was fully funded by the Council to the tune of $2.8 million this fiscal year.

During the oversight hearing last week, Collier-Montgomery said the office needed about $400,000 more for the e-filing system that will support the public elections program. OCF had originally estimated that cost to be about $62,000, then upped it to $90,000 last year.

Collier-Montgomery said her office reviewed similar public elections systems in October 2018 and realized what functions the system needed to be capable of performing.

She said OCF intends to pay for the increase with funds from lapsed salary for the positions in the public elections program that they have not yet filled—another frustration of Allen’s.

As of last week, there were six vacant posi-

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tions in OCF’s fair elections division, though Collier-Montgomery said the office had scheduled interviews with several candidates for the end of February and early March.

Collier-Montgomery said OCF could not advertise the positions until the funding became available, which happened in October 2018.

Even with the funds identified, OCF hasn’t procured a new e-filing system yet, CollierMontgomery said, which is the backbone to the whole program. In the meantime, they will pay to develop a second, temporary system that she “hopes” will be up and running

by July 31, the next filing deadline for the 2020 election cycle.

“Do you have confidence in this secondary site system, that if someone reaches that qualification threshold, that they’ll be able to draw down the public matching dollars … and you’ve got the data in your secondary system to accurately capture that?” Allen asked.

Collier-Montgomery said she is confident that the shoe-string system could support the program. The main difference, according to OCF spokesperson Wesley Williams, is the system’s ability to automatically evaluate whether a candidate’s contributions qualify for matching public funds. That will have to be done manually, he says. Collier-Montgomery was less confident in her answer to whether the temporary system would be ready in time.

“Yes, that’s our hope,” Collier-Montgomery said. “But remember, at this point we have not even started the requisition process.”

“We very intentionally passed the legislation when we did, funded it the way we did to try to set up the lead time to not find ourselves in this situation,” Allen said. “I think this is an ambitious timeline to be ready, but I don’t think you have any other choice.”

A bizarre discrepancy also came to light during the oversight hearing. Collier-Montgomery and the other OCF staff who testified were under the impression that there was only about $550,000 in the budget for public elections this fiscal year. In fact, the Council dedicated a total of $2.8 million.

Allen says he doesn’t know how the discrepancy happened but he is confident it will be worked out. “The budget is the budget. It just seems like it’s not lined up in the right places,” he tells LL. “I’m not nearly as panicked about that, as I am about the other pieces where I feel like a stronger sense of urgency is needed to get program up and running.”

Finally, there’s the issue of the regulations.

Although the public elections program is technically active, and candidates could sign up now, the regulations that spell out how to comply are not finalized. Only a proposed version is published in the DC register.

Michael Bennett, who chairs the DC Board of Elections and testified alongside Collier-Montgomery, promised to accelerate the timeline to finalizing the regulations. Collier-Montgomery rescheduled a meeting with the D.C. Fair Elections Coalition, a group of organizations that recommended changes to the proposed regulations, from mid-March to late February to discuss the group’s ideas. The Board of Elections will vote on the revisions at its next meeting in the first week of March.

“Right now I think we’re still in at a place where we can get this program running on time,” says Ericka Taylor, the organizing director with DC Working Families, which is part of the Fair Elections Coalition. “It looks like OCF understands this is the time to really go hard. We would like them to be further along, and we’d like to see them go into high gear right now.”

During the hearing, Allen suggested calling OCF back for a roundtable at the end of March to check on their progress. Bennett and Collier-Montgomery agreed that’s a good idea.

“The legislation has been around for a minute, but this is a new program,” Bennett says in a separate interview. “It’s a major impact to go from no public funding to public funding in a jurisdiction with all new rules and regulations.

So it requires a lot of care and attention.” CP

DISTRICTLINE Social Skills We graded each D.C. councilmember’s social media presence.

By City Paper staff We don’t ask for much here at City Paper. We’re satisfied enough with reasonably prompt callbacks from sources, the occasional tip, and a councilmember with a vibrant social media presence. Things aren’t going well in that last category. Since we have to spend a lot of time tracking our local elected officials, we decided to grade them on their social media skills, handing out points for things like authenticity and animal photos, while detracting for boring pics of Council hearings, excessive event announcements, and wide-brimmed hats. wife, and his city. In between snoozy Council posts, this month White posted about several influential African Americans. Points for making us think— more of that please, less of that widebrimmed hat.

Charles Allen (Ward 6): C+ He’s usually in a suit, often using a microphone, sometimes riding a bike.

Yawn. Don’t think we haven’t taken note of all the Post articles on your Facebook timeline, Councilmember. His Instagram is slightly better than those of his colleagues, but it’s a low bar.

Trayon White (Ward 8): A Trayon White posts videos from the Council dais and from the driver’s seat of his car. He goes live from the scene of an emergency in Ward 8, throws up photos of himself parasailing in Mexico, and records his staffer fishing a cheesecake out of the trash can. Although his obsessive posting has gotten him into trouble, no one can compete with White’s social media prowess. His Facebook profile still says he’s the State Board of Education rep, but we’ll let that one slide—he always has just under the maximum 5,000 friends.

Robert White (At-Large): BThis much we know about Robert White from his social media accounts: He shakes a lot of hands, and he loves his daughter, his

Anita Bonds (At-Large): D Bonds uses social media like a grandma. She’ll congratulate you, she’ll offer condolences, she’ll wish you happy birthday, and she’ll invite you to watch Council meetings. Bonds’ Twitter lens offers a pretty rosy view. Except that one time she replied “Unbelievable, yet again,” to a tweet about a D.C. Auditor report on education funding. To which @20003ist replied: “Then do something Anita!!!” Also: perhaps the most boring Instagram of the bunch.

Phil Mendelson (Chair): CMostly photos of Mendelson in a suit and tie, standing behind a lectern or outside wearing a hat. But hang in there long enough, and you’ll find a gem—such as photos of his new kitten. Her name

is Luna, and she’s the “sweetest little kitten.” The chairman also joined Instagram a few weeks ago.

We’re not optimistic.

He has just over 100 followers so far. Trayon White has 26,000.

Elissa Silverman (At-Large): C Silverman’s Twitter is only slightly more interesting than the others. Lots of cat photos, but we award her no points for listening to Journey while reading an economic impact study. Her Instagram has no posts. But her Facebook profile pic of her and Mayor Marion Barry doesn’t hurt.

Brianne Nadeau (Ward 1): CFollow Nadeau’s Twitter and Facebook if you want to see her councilmembering or moming. Sometimes she’s doing both at once. There are two Instagram accounts attached to her name. One is sloppy and confusing. The other has no posts.

for the photo of your first grandchild, but give us your bicycle commute rants!

David Grosso (At-Large): C Just because the “Tweet all” option for Twitter threads exists, Grosso should know that doesn’t mean you have to use it. Even councilmembers should manually thread tweets, unless they enjoy spamming everyone’s timeline at once. Grosso does win points for Instagram pictures of his dog Diego, something lacking on his Facebook page.

Jack Evans (Ward 2): B Evans shines on Instagram by staying on brand, maintaining the image of a Georgetown socialite: black ties, dinners, and trips to the yacht club. He gets points for showing us his personal life, with pictures of family and sending his kid to college. His Facebook and Twitter accounts are dull in comparison.

Brandon Todd (Ward 4): CTodd’s Instagram profile photo shows him valiantly shoveling snow in a Burberry scarf. His feeds are, in a word, basic—as if he read a text book on how a politician should post on social media.

Todd on a city bus, Todd near a table with papers on it, Todd and a constituent holding a plaque.

Kenyan McDuffie (Ward 5): B+ McDuffie wins bonus points for maintaining two coherent Instagram accounts—one professional and the other personal. He also gets points for sharing his daughter’s take on LeBron James landing in L.A. His Twitter and Facebook have been delivering nearly daily content about Ward 5 black history during Black History Month, a major plus.

Mary Cheh (Ward 3): C It’s been six years since Cheh last ’grammed, while her Twitter feed is standard fare for ward pols. Facebook posts about community events are useful but devoid of personality. Thank you

Vince Gray (Ward 7): C+ Whenever Gray unsheathes his old mayoral Twitter account, something serious is up, like the continued shortage of health care east of the Anacostia River. But serious is about all you get from Gray, whose Facebook page is all official and could use more color. An Instagram post showing Gray holding court with the Citi Open’s panda mascots is a start.

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Women’s Sports Foundation

SPORTS

Alexandria native and pro rock climber Sasha DiGiulian embraces her platform as rock climbing enters the mainstream. washingtoncitypaper.com/sports

If Ever a Wiz There Was

Despite being the best player in the NBA G League, Jordan McRae is still waiting his turn for an NBA contract with the Wizards.

PoPs Mensah-Bonsu waits until Jordan McRae is out of earshot. Sitting in his usual courtside seat at the Entertainment and Sports Arena on a recent Friday night, Mensah-Bonsu laughs as McRae makes eye contact with him before sprinting into the locker room during warmups.

Only a few minutes remain before the start of the matchup between the Capital City GoGo, the Wiz ards’ G League a ffi l i ate, a n d the Greensboro Swarm. Instead of suiting up with the Wizards to play the Charlotte Hornets in front of thousands of screaming NBA fans, McRae, the G League’s scoring leader, is getting ready to fight through double teams in front of a sparse crowd on this late February weekend.

But in this moment, McRae cracks a smile knowing that Mensah-Bonsu, the general manager of the Go-Go, is likely praising him.

“He’s an NBA player,” says Mensah-Bonsu, a former NBA and G League player. “He’s the best player in the G League by far. Maybe just because of the situation, he hasn’t had much of an opportunity yet, but when his time comes, he’s going to be a very, very good NBA player. I haven’t seen many guys who can potentially score the ball like he does … Offensively, he’s one of the most complete scorers I’ve seen in awhile.”

The stats back up Mensah-Bonsu’s claims.

McRae leads the league with 30.8 points per game. He also averages 5.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists. He can score in all three facets of the game—from the mid-range, in the paint, and beyond the arc. He played for the Cleveland Cavaliers briefly in 2016 and 2017, and has an NBA championship ring from his time as a reserve on the 2016 team, which included LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.

McRae has seen the mountaintop of professional basketball, but lives the daily grind of a journeyman on the fringes. Less than an hour after the Swarm game, the team boarded a bus for a six-hour ride to Erie, Pennsylvania, to play the BayHawks. “It reminds you

BASKETBALL

of AAU,” he says. “Being on the bus, clowning, we watching movies, we all talking crap to each other. So that just makes it fun. [But] around the fifth hour, you’re ready, like all right, let’s get off this thing.”

Last season, McRae opted to play in Spain with EuroLeague team Saski Baskonia, where a shoulder injury sidelined him for months. Back in the States, the 27-year-old has had to prove all over again that he can play in the NBA. “I just think this year, being out last year, my biggest thing is trying to come back and just showing people I belong back in the NBA,” he says. “Work on your game everyday, trying to improve, that’s the key.”

He signed a two-way contract prior to the

Ned Dishman/NBA Photos

By Kelyn Soong

season after a standard NBA contract never materialized, says his longtime agent Derrick Powell. In the NBA collective bargaining agreement signed in 2017, the league introduced two roster spots where teams can sign players to a “two-way contract.”

The deal allows players to play with the NBA team that signs them for up to 45 days, and the rest with the G League affiliate. Time with the NBA team is not certain, but the contract guarantees far more money than a regular G League deal. According to the G League website, “two-way players are paid a corresponding daily amount based on the number of days they play in each league.” McRae is making around $300,000 this season, his

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agent says, while the G League minimum salary is $35,000 for the five-month regular season.

It may also be keeping McRae from getting an NBA contract this season. The Wizards likely will not sign McRae to a standard contract because of their luxury tax situation— the Wizards have only recently dipped under the luxury tax threshold, and signing McRae would likely push them over.

McRae has only nine days left in the NBA before he hits the 45-day limit, according to Powell. And unless the Wizards waive him, he is not allowed to sign with another team. Some agents have cautioned their clients about signing a two-way contract for that reason.

“That’s just how the two way works for the most part. It gives the team leverage if they need the leverage,” says Powel l . Bu t , t h e agent doesn’t regret telling McRae to sign the contract .

“If Jordan was on an average G League deal, he probably would’ve been called up already, but put on a two-way, he’s making $300,000, has the NBA stage, and showed that he is an NBA player.”

McRae is averaging 4.3 points points in 19 games with the Wizards this season.

Despite the team’s luxury tax situation, Wizards coach Scott Brooks hasn’t shut out the possibility of signing McRae—with some caveats.

“There’s always a chance,” Brooks says.

“He’s our two-way guy and he’s earned some opportunities and he’s had some opportunities, but right now he just has to focus on getting better on both ends of the floor. We all know he can score the basketball. That seems to be he has a pretty good gift there, but yeah,

we have a lot of guys right now.”

Relayed Brooks’ comments, McRae responds diplomatically, saying that he’s trying to become a better 3-point shooter and defender. “Whenever the time presents itself, I’ll be ready,” he adds.

But after scoring 33 points to lead the GoGo to a 111-108 victory over the Swarm, McRae sounds disappointed in the situation. “I mean, I got a lot more work to do, apparently,” he says in response to a question about whether he deserves an NBA contract. “So I’m going to keep trying to do everything I can do.”

Mensah-Bonsu understands where he’s coming from. During his decade-long professional basketball career, the 35-year-old London native bounced around between the NBA and the G League, and also played in Europe.

They talk often, and have formed a close bond.

“Me and Pops, we have great relationship,” McRae says with a laugh. “The advice I can get from him, he’s been through it. I trust him …

One of the biggest things he tells me is control what you can. I can’t control the tax situation that I’m in, I can’t control me being here. The only thing I can control is being with the GoGo and trying to win games.”

His Wizards teammates understand his frustrations and are ready for his help as they make the final push toward the last playoff spot. But McRae will be ineligible to play in the NBA playoffs if he remains under a twoway contract. The NBA regular season ends on April 10, while the G League regular season ends on March 23.

“From the Wizards side, it’s kind of hard, a lot of stuff going on, it’s hard to give him that contract,” Wizards rookie Troy Brown Jr. says, “but I definitely feel like he deserves it for sure.”

Adds point guard Chasson Randle, who spent time with the Go-Go earlier in the season before the Wizards signed him: “He’s got a knack for scoring, man. He’s an incredible basketball player, offensive end. I think his time will come for sure very soon.”

Powell is confident the Wizards will sign him this season. “Oh, for sure,” he says. “I promise you this, if the Wizards do not sign Jordan, I have at least 10 other teams that will sign him.”

CP

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Gear Prudence

The Trump Resistance - The Beat Goes On!

Gear Prudence: I was in Adams Morgan having a smoke and a guy asked if I could watch his unlocked bike “for a minute” while he went inside to grab something to eat. Fifteen minutes went by. I don’t mind doing someone a favor for a minute, but I was not planning on waiting this long. After another 5 minutes, no guy, so I left. I don’t think I did anything wrong, but my girlfriend says that I should have waited for him no matter how long it took. Who’s right?

—When Asked To Care, Helper Eventually Relents Dear WATCHER: Everybody’s wrong. The guy who asked for the favor should have brought his own lock. Asking strangers to watch your stuff isn’t a great way to go through life, especially when there are obvious solutions. You’re being over-literal about his “minute” and unless you had a real emergency, you should have stuck around until he came back. If you didn’t want to watch his bike to completion, you should have simply said no. Once you committed to the awesome and taxing responsibility of remaining vaguely aware of an immobile object, it’s an abdication of duty to walk away. And your girlfriend is wrong for dating you because you seem like kind of a dick. Let’s hope everyone learns their lesson.

—Gear Prudence Gear Prudence: Do bike shops ever negotiate on price? I don’t mind haggling (I love flea markets) and it seems like there’s a lot of price variability across different shops. Is it offensive if I ask for a better deal, especially if I know that I can get the same thing online?

—Humbly Asking Good Gesture: Lowered Expenses Dear HAGGLE: You’re asking two very different questions. Do bike shops ever negotiate on price? Sure, and for lots of reasons. Whether it’s to move inventory, maintain a recurring customer, or close on a sale that might not otherwise happen, our wonderful capitalist system allows for a certain degree of flexibility in pricesetting. Is it offensive to pull up your phone and ask the store to meet an impossibly low price from an online retailer? Yeah, kind of. Like everyone else in our wonderful capitalist system, bike shops are trying to get by and every bit of savings you rangle from them eats into their margins, which aren’t exactly bountiful to begin with. Don’t be surprised if your attempt to haggle is rebuffed and maybe even scorned.

Online retailers can get away with charging less since they lack the same overhead. Moreover, decide whether it’s worth it to even try. A few bucks here and there isn’t worth damaging the relationship with your local shop, which can be vital to your bicycle’s well-being, especially if your bike is your primary means of conveyance. If you value your bike shop’s continued existence (and you should), pay them. —GP

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Home Rulers

For thousands of D.C. natives, the city is not the land of Congress, the president, or the court.

It’s home—their sweet, beloved, frustrating, evolving, enduring home.

Photographs by Darrow Montgomery

I

n January, City Paper launched an essay contest asking D.C. natives—people who were born in the city and learned the ropes of life within its boundaries—to tell stories of their upbringing, give advice to newcomers, and share what being from D.C. means to them. As a fellow native and guest editor for the contest, I was elated to receive dozens of submissions.

They offered an opportunity to reminisce about growing up in a “Chocolate City”— where Unifest was not to be missed, Flexx and Rane let us rep our ’hoods, and Union Station was the place for sneaking into R-rated movies and being seen in the latest Shooters apparel.

I was reminded of how much our city has changed, for better and worse, and how these transformations affect people who grew up here.

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D.C. native experiences span generations, racial and economic backgrounds, and interests. We have varied perspectives. Our passions lie in a myriad of places. We are not a monolith. But what we all seem to share is a fierce sense of pride, endless resilience, and immense respect for those who planted roots in this great city.

I’d like to believe that many natives also share my disdain for the term “DMV.” Note: If you grew up in Maryland or Virginia, it’s never OK to claim you’re from D.C.!

Without further ado, here are the four winning essays, plus pieces of advice to newcomers from other D.C. natives. As you read this collection of stories, I hope you, too, can reminisce, gain new perspectives, understand our struggles, and learn just why D.C. natives brag different.

—Christina Sturdivant Sani

be afraid to join natives in pushing back and standing up. This city can be great—together.”

—Markita Bryant, who grew up in Barry Farms/Parkchester, Galveston Place SE, and 16th Street SE “We were here making lives, raising our families, and being the fabric of communities before you arrived. We don’t need your permission to be here and we care about the same things that you care about and want the same things for our children and grandchildren that you want: safe neighborhoods, good education, opportunities, and a city that serves all and not just some. Talk with us and you may just find that we are more alike than we are different.”—Jennifer White, who grew up in Petworth “Develop alternatives to driving where possible because our roads are clogged, and take advantage of our public transportation. Read the Washington Post and Washington City Paper. Clean up after your dogs.”

—John M. Howard, who grew up in Bloomingdale and 16th Street Heights (Contest Winner)

Dear D.C. Newcomers, Take heed of these words from natives.

“Enjoy the ‘new’ while recognizing precisely what makes this place so desirable, so special, so comfortable: the vibe, the combination of ‘up North citified sensibilities’ with a down home feel.”

—David Combs, who grew up in Mount Pleasant “Don’t be surprised when you hear people call cigarettes ‘jacks.’ If you hear ‘Aye bob!,’ ‘Kill moe,’ or ‘it’s jhi like brr outside.’ Don’t ask us to repeat ourselves.” —Henry Shuldiner, who grew up in Cleveland Park “This city had a culture outside of the defaming ‘Murder Capital’ moniker and the Mayor Barry incident. D.C. was a place with pride and a pulse. The ‘trendy’ neighborhoods used to be homes to families who survived the riots and thrived through the crack epidemic to see their children and grandchildren graduate high school against odds and go on to college or the world’s stages. Those people and their descendants deserve respect for what they built and cultivated amongst the national and local turmoil. Yet they are met with little more than constant offers to buy their homes and calls to police for suspicious activity for going about their daily lives.” —Bria Culp, who grew up in Brightwood Park and LeDroit Park “Only here can you cross paths with so many different cultures and ethnic groups within a five block radius. That diversity has brought an influx of newcomers who we welcome with

open arms as long as you respect the rules.

Rule #1: It’s D.C. or Nothing! Rule #2: Chuck Brown is our superhero and every superhero has his theme music. That theme music is go-go.

Rule #3: Never disrespect go-go or mumbo sauce. Rule #4: Marion Barry is mayor for life—don’t question why, just try and understand. Rule #5: Please stand to the right of the escalators on Metro, especially during rush hour. Rule #6: Respect the locals. Your new home is amazing but there are elders and families on your block who have been here for years.

Rule #7: We are NOT Washington. We are D.C., Washington is where tourists hang and politicians work but D.C. is where the natives call home. Rule #8: We are cut from a different cloth!”

—Kevin L. Blackmon, grew up in Marshall Heights

“Whoever you are, whatever you’re looking for, you’re in the right place. Leave whatever identity baggage you bear at the door and open your mind to the unique and varied diversity and culture in D.C. Step outside of your comfort zone, challenge everything

you think you know about other ethnicities, and immerse yourself immediately. There are so many identities being celebrated here each day. Find your people, find your voice, find yourself. D.C. is four quadrants, but one community. Hope to see you around!”

—Dawn Smith, who grew up near New Hampshire Avenue NW and the Southwest waterfront (Contest Winner) “It’s important for newcomers to be aware of what once was, to be conscious of the lives that shaped this city and to understand how change has layers of impact. While on the one hand it’s great to be able to ice skate at the newly renovated Wharf or have gourmet ice cream in Navy Yard, it’s also important to be cognizant of the communities that got torn down or displaced to make so many of these new luxuries a reality.”

—Neena Robertson, who grew up in Uptown, Northwest “I get offended when newcomers try to rename spots. (It is not and never will be NoMa.) If you are coming here, be prepared to accept the city and its culture as is. This means don’t move near Gallery Place and try to enforce a noise restriction. Respect the legacy that is Dunbar High School—the first black high school in the country. Not all mumbo sauce is created equal and you can’t get a half-smoke just anywhere.”

—Sharnell Bryan, who grew up in Southeast

“The true heart of the city is the people who have been here, not the ones who drop in for a few years.”

—Monica Parran, who grew up in Fort Stanton “Never forget how much this is home to many—to people like me, my grandmother, my entire family fighting to survive in a city of those being constantly pushed out. As this city changes, I would like for the newcomers to not washingtoncitypaper.com march 1, 2019 9

Jim Crow Washington

By John Howard

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eing a native Washingtonian has meant that the city has been the site of my earliest pleasures and pain. It is where I have most often fallen down and picked myself up. D.C.’s institutions were environments in which I was formed. D.C. is the one place to which I am always happy to return.

I was born at Freedmen’s Hospital where most black babies were born in 1944 Jim Crow Washington. My mother was a fourth generation Washingtonian. My father came to the city from Ebenezer, Mississippi, during the Great Migration.

My first home was in the Eckington section of Northeast. It was formerly called Truxton Circle because of a circle that occupied

what is now the intersection of North Capitol Street and Florida Avenue. I was too young to remember the circle but I do remember the horse trough which sat at the end of the block.

I attended the local elementary school for blacks in the neighborhood. It was called Slater-Langston and was a combination of elementary and middle school. I never figured out whether my school was Slater or Langston.

After the first grade, my mother transferred me to Harrison School, the building of which still stands at 13th and V streets NW, harboring a charter school. It is directly across from what used to be the old Children’s Hospital.

I loved Harrison. My classes contained a mix of students—those who came from college-educated professionals, middle-class strivers, and poverty-stricken families including many from the alley dwelling homes which proliferated in the Shaw area.

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The black public education system in Washington was superb despite the lack of resources that the white schools enjoyed. The Miner Normal School turned out first-rate teachers who were often prevented from entering other occupations because of the country’s racism.

May Day was special at Harrison. We had a May King and Queen and each class danced around the maypole throughout the day. But the greatest thrill came when we looked across 13th Street NW to see that every window on that side of Children’s Hospital was filled with children of all races and creeds enjoying our performances.

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ocial contacts with whites were rare. We knew we were not welcome most places with whites but never had to ride on the back of the bus and the libraries were open to all.

My first experience with racial prejudice

occurred when my father took me to the circus. We were waiting to cross the street where a black police officer was directing traffic. A white man standing next to me yelled, “Boy, hurry up and let us cross the street.” Seeing one of Washington’s finest treated that way by a white supremacist taught me all I needed to know about white racism.

Gradually, black activists such as Mary Church Terrell helped us get served in white restaurants throughout the city. Union Station’s restaurant became open to us by a court decision interpreting the Interstate Commerce Act. The first private restaurant to open to blacks was O’Donnell’s, where my family frequently went. On weekends, lines of black and white patrons waited outside the plush seafood restaurant and I don’t remember any nefarious incidents.

My father studied law at Howard University in the ’30s and became the first black Assistant U.S. Attorney in the city. In 1950, he was appointed as the fourth black judge to the Municipal Court bench by President Truman.

That year, we moved to the 16th Street Heights section of Northwest and were the

first black family on our block. My mother told me that the real estate agent took them to see houses where he traditionally sold to blacks but my mother asked if there was something else to see. He paused and took them to the 16th Street Heights area.

When I was in the fifth grade, the Supreme Court had ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional, but my parents kept me at Harrison for my sixth-grade year so that I would not be subject to the hostility that might be waiting for me in the local elementary school.

I attended MacFarland Junior High School and for the first time I sat in classes with white students. I loved MacFarland, which was becoming majority black, but had a substantial white student body. There wasn’t much turmoil between the races, although the white students soon began to disappear.

I didn’t like to study and had low grades, but in the eighth grade I learned that my grades up to then didn’t matter, while the grades in the ninth grade went onto my high school record. I became a serious scholar very quickly.

I went on to Theodore Roosevelt High School. An English teacher declared that she had no sympathy for those of us who came out of the black schools and gave all of us Ds with few exceptions. Other than that teacher and

the tribulations of teen years, Roosevelt was a good time in my life.

My class went on to produce doctors, lawyers, judges, teachers, a general, a girl’s doowop group, the first female mayor of D.C., and many hardworking citizens.

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ur world centered on U Street NW, then known as the Black Broadway.

There were thriving businesses on every block. There was the Cortez Peters Business College, the owner of which appeared on television as the fastest typist in the world.

There was Industrial Bank, one of the most outstanding banks in our region to this day.

There were the theaters that showed films we couldn’t see downtown. The Lincoln showed the mainstream dramas and comedies, the Republic showed the cowboy and police thrillers, and the Booker-T showed independent movies including many in foreign languages.

Nothing compared to the chitlin’ circuit’s Howard Theatre.

Two of my high school classmates’ fathers were managers at the theater. One Saturday morning, one of them took some of us backstage where we saw Smokey Robinson and the Miracles rehearsing dance moves. They were kids, a little bit older than us, and I remember that they were wearing white bucks which

While on the one hand it’s great to be able to ice skate at the newly renovated Wharf or have gourmet ice cream in Navy Yard, it’s also important to be cognizant of the communities that got torn down or displaced to make so many of these new luxuries a reality. would emit white powder every time their feet would hit the floor.

There were some great restaurants; my father’s favorite was Al’s Steakhouse near 16th and U Street NW. There was even a notorious hot dog war where Ben’s Chili Bowl was trying to dethrone Anne the Hotdog Queen. Hot dogs and half-smokes were going at cheap prices. Clearly Ben’s won the war and still stands today. Another oldtime survivor is Lee’s florist on U Street NW.

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fter graduating from Tufts University, my

first job was as an elementary school teacher in the District. I failed miserably. I enrolled at Catholic University’s library school and became an academic librarian and after completing Catholic’s law school became a reference librarian in the Library of Congress’ law library.

Once I passed the bar exam, I signed up at Superior Court as a court appointed attorney.

My first office was on 5th Street NW, one building from my father’s law office when he first started out.

I represented misdemeanor and felony clients, people facing civil commitments to Saint Elizabeths hospital, and others who wanted to commit relatives to the hospital.

I most enjoyed my work advocating for developmentally disabled clients, who were all wards of the city. I had a real feel for that work, as my older brother was mentally disabled.

I worked diligently at these tasks for 35 years before retiring in 2017, but that’s another story.

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Voiceless in D.C.

By Lillie Lainoff

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or many D.C. natives, our first experience with government is an elementary school field trip to Capitol Hill. The heart of American government just a bus ride away.

We stared up at imposing monuments, the Senate buildings, the White House. Learned about democracy and voting. How our voices would mean something, how when we turned 18 we’d have control over who spoke for us.

Traveling back to school, face pressed to the window, I imagined a day in the agonizingly distant future when I’d walk into a little booth, check off a box, and return through the curtain, transformed into “a voter.” A butterfly, emerging from an 18-year-old chrysalis. I wanted to be someone whose voice mattered enough that people listened. A voice that, when combined with others, could change history.

What our teachers didn’t tell us as we stood in Lincoln’s formidable shadow was that our voices would only be heard if we left.

Washington, D.C. is a federal district under the jurisdiction of Congress. Not a state, nor part of a state; we’re just a cracked diamond territory that floats between Virginia and Maryland. Despite having a greater population than Vermont and Wyoming, we don’t have voting representation in Congress.

We have a delegate who can urge, even sponsor legislation—but her vote does not count.

Shadow representatives for a city that lies in the shadow of Capitol Hill. We elect our city government, yes, but that shadow is omnipresent. Our budget, our laws, they’re all subject to the whims of Congress.

I left D.C. for college, but I always seem to find my way back. D.C. is a strange, ferocious beast of a city. It is not one that never sleeps, yet it is still exhausted. It is small and wide, green and gray. It is a city of contrasts.

To be a D.C. native is a complicated thing.

We have a fierce pride for our people, our place—yet, at the same time, to think about our home is to be frustrated. I suppose many people feel that way about their hometowns when they grow up. Many become disillusioned with the buildings they once thought were grand, beautiful. With the parks filled with rust-bitten playground equipment, the streets filled with men who haven’t yet learned that everything the light touches is not meant for their touch as well. Many people have hometowns that suffer income disparity, discrepancies between the quality of private and public education (I am a product of both), inaccessible public everything, and gentrification.

But D.C. is the only city regularly vilified for things that have very little, if anything, to do with the city itself. My home has become shorthand for Congress, which means it’s also shorthand for all of America’s problems. It is

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the swamp crawling with corruption as thick as mosquito ponds in July.

Despite my complicated feelings that surround my home and all it represents, I still feel obligated to defend it. In new, unfamiliar places, I’ve developed a strategy of recounting facts about D.C.—a refrain to stave off the pervasive outrage it stokes in non-natives. How only one in 10 jobs in the D.C. area are related to the federal government. How we are one

of the most diverse metropolitan areas in the entire country. And always, without fail: how we are so much more than Congress. So much more than a handful of expensive white buildings filled with rich white men on a hill.

What I never say, but is always on my mind, is how much I resent my home for not allowing us a voice. Of course, being voiceless in America is so common you’d think it was actually still part of the Constitution, but being voiceless in D.C. provides another, extra layer of bitter irony. No matter how much outrage swells over voter disenfranchisement, no matter how many laws are passed to prevent voter rolls from being purged and protect marginalized Americans at the polls, the more than 700,000 people who call D.C. home still won’t have true representation in Congress. And perhaps the greatest irony of all: Over half of these 700,000 are people voting rights legislation is specifically designed to protect.

In these conversations, I don’t even have time to describe the sound of different languages being spoken all at once. There’s no time to mention the food, the music, the smell of cherry blossoms. My defense takes up so much breath it leaves me gasping. And, eventually, the very act of defense starts to wear away at all this good. When the rest of the country labels you broken, a symbol of all that is wrong with America, it is hard to remember that the defense of D.C. is not all that D.C. is.

I have not yet learned how to reconcile my love and resentment for this place. I am not sure I ever will. Home and disenfranchisement sound wrong together. Two words that shouldn’t belong in the same paragraph, much less the same sentence. But perhaps that’s the point. I’m not the one who gets to decide the spaces those words inhabit. As much as D.C. belongs to us in our hearts, we have no real ownership of our home. It belongs to everyone in America except us, the people who actually live here.

Unseen In My Own Home

By Eboni-Rose Thompson

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hen I was a kid, I wondered why the only movies based in D.C. were political. They all seemed to be set at the White House. I could never understand why D.C. was only seen as the nation’s capital when I just saw it as home. Now as an adult, I often hear people start conversations by asking “What do you do?” It’s often followed by some version of, “I hate when people start with that, but this is D.C.” But for thousands of us, we aren’t here because we came to go to a university or work on Capitol Hill, for a think tank or campaign. For D.C. natives, we are here because this is home.

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eing a D.C. native is a constant exercise in helping others see past our collective invisibility.

I first became aware of my own invisibility when I started a job at a national organization based in D.C. My manager welcomed me during a morning gathering with my new colleagues over a breakfast spread. I was introduced, and they gave a quick overview of my resume— where I went to school, places I’d worked, a quick fun fact. My new colleagues nodded and smiled.

Then one asked, “Where are you from? “ I immediately and happily answered, “I’m from D.C.” She responded with confusion, saying,“No one is from D.C.”

er downtown or grabbed lunch from Chipotle.

What crystallized for me in that moment was that to non-natives, newcomers, and visitors, we are invisible.

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Those words cut me. They weren’t malicious, but they hurt. My face must have betrayed my thoughts, because the next thing I heard her say was, “Well I’ve never met anyone from D.C.” On my way into the office earlier that morning, I took a moment to stop at the CVS on the corner. I was pleasantly surprised to run into a familiar face—a high school classmate was the cashier and we caught up briefly.

When I heard those very matter-of-fact responses back at the office—“no one is from D.C.” and “I’ve never met anyone from D.C.”—I couldn’t help but think that she must have needed something and gone into that CVS before, stopped in one of the many Starbucks that cov-

here’s a common story ascribed to D.C. as a city of transplants like my colleagues and college classmates who followed some amazing opportunity to the nation’s capital and somehow ended up working off of K Street NW where it’s so convenient to take the bus to everyday.

There’s also an all too common story of my childhood friends and neighbors that’s less visible but happening alongside those stories.

They never felt like there was a lot of opportunity, but they somehow found a job (with benefits) and also ride the bus to work everyday.

As someone who works in education and youth development, I can’t help but think about my own path. I don’t think I’m particularly special and can’t justify what would make me an exception. I think about what allows me to cross from the D.C. I have always considered home—where it’s expected that I can count how many generations my family has been here— into the national D.C., where it’s expected you’ll be able to count all the places you’re thinking about going next.

Class is inextricably linked to race and educational attainment, and in D.C. we have both the highs and lows. We live in a city with a poverty rate 4 percentage points higher than the national average of 15 percent. Yet, its median income is over $73,000, which is much higher than the national median of $55,000. D.C. also consistently ranks as one of the most educated cities in the United States. In the last census, data showed the District as having the highest percentage of degree holders in the country, with 42 percent of adults holding a bachelor’s degree and 19 percent of adults having achieved a master’s, professional, or doctorate degree. That’s roughly twice the national average for advanced degrees.

At the same time, D.C. has a high school graduation rate of 68.5 percent, much lower than the national average of 84.1 percent.

These disparities show how D.C. is a place of relentless opportunity for some and a place where opportunity seems fleeting, at best, for others.

From here, the question we should ask is not how can both of those points of view be right.

We should ask why we allow these dual realities to exist.

A Richly Diverse Upbringing

By Dawn Smith

I

n December 1968, a scared 18-year-old girl called the 16-year-old boy she’d been dating with a life-changing message: “I’m at Washington Hospital Center, and I just had your baby.”

Fifty years later, here I am. That young

mother walked away, and my story commenced on 16th Street and New Hampshire Avenue Northwest, under the care of my paternal grandmother.

For me, being a D.C. native means maintaining self-pride, while truly valuing all diversity. I’m proud to claim a city that is a cauldron of cultures, ethnicities, food, and identities—each unthreatened by the next.

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he picture of strength and resilience, my grandmother migrated from South Carolina after losing both her parents. She said D.C. was a big city with southern charm.

Grandma started out doing domestic work for a wealthy family in Chevy Chase. She left for work in the predawn hours and returned after sunset. I cherished weekends when she didn’t work and we ran errands like to Miss

Peggy’s dry cleaners. Whether we had items for her or not, we stopped to say hello, and she always had a treat for me.

Saturday nights were full of life. Grandma and I watched from the window as hipsters paraded up and down the block donning well shaped afros adorned with feathered fedoras cocked to the side. My uncles spent all day picking double-knit bell bottoms, butterfly collared

washingtoncitypaper.com march 1, 2019 13

shirts, and platform shoes to later wear at the Foxtrappe nightclub. My older cousins headed to the skating rink on Kalorama Road NW. Sometimes Grandma and I stayed up until we heard the clamor of cousins “cackling,” as she called it, up the stairs of our four-story walk-up. By then, people started to filter back into our neighborhood with Little Tavern or Ben’s Chili Bowl bags, sitting on the stoop “joning” until the wee hours.

On Sundays after church, Grandma would sometimes take me to a “picture show” at the Booker-T movie theater. She walked fast and my Boyce and Lewis brogans made it hard to keep up. I whined and she’d say D.C. had everything we needed, but we had to move with a sense of purpose to get it.

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hortly after landing a better job at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, we got subsidized housing in a high-rise building in Southwest. That section of town looked a lot different than our old neighborhood. Singed, boarded storefronts were replaced by patches of grass, green trees, and the Waterside Mall.

In Southwest, I could walk to the waterfront. The Potomac River seemed to do a rhythmic runway walk along the railed cement walls. I loved walking to school with friends, then pooling coins for penny-candy at High’s on the way home.

We spent weekends jumping neatly trimmed bushes and climbing massive trees. Our frolicking and unrestricted voices garnered glares from the middle-class residents whose balconies overlooked manicured grasses.

During the summer, we traveled in packs on bikes or skates following the glazed-pebble sidewalk to the Wharf. We stood in doorways where guys steamed crabs until someone finally offered a freebie. Some days, we split into two or three groups, at as many doorways. With steaming crabs in hand, we made a mini-feast.

Sometimes, instead of begging for crabs, we begged the young, crew-cut MPs guarding Fort McNair for entry to the bowling alley,

where we shared shoes, balls, and 40-cent hamburgers.

Other summer destinations included the National Zoo, Hains Point, and the National Mall.

The days were long and hot, and ended when the streetlights came on.

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e did our shopping downtown. Although I complained, Grandma always made me wear my Sunday’s best calico skirt when our trip included Woodward & Lothrop. I preferred shopping at Lerner’s or Kinney’s, but my grandmother wanted to be seen strutting in Woodies.

When she needed something really special, we went to the other side of downtown and shopped at Garfinckel’s or Hahn’s. There weren’t as many stores over there, but on a good day we would stop at Reeves Restaurant for lemon meringue pie. Grandma knew the doorman, so he got us in and told the lady at the counter to give us the biggest slice they had.

In fifth grade, my teacher, Ms. Kelly, invited me to come along when she hosted her grandkids from out of town. With Ms. Kelly’s

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blond-haired grandkids, I spent the day museum hopping, carousel riding, and paddle-boating. We sat in the warm sun on the National Mall (back then people could get in the Reflecting Pool) and had a real picnic while playing tag. This was my official introduction to the Smithsonian museums, in which I marveled at the marble walls, red carpets, and gold accents of the majestic hallways.

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y high school, I’d fallen in love with gogo music. I loved hanging at the Coliseum or Masonic Temple, cranking E.U. or Trouble Funk. By then, I could also ride the bus alone and admire Cool “Disco” Dan’s tag in obtrusive places.

I loved high school and all that came with it: my first boyfriend, my Miss Notre Dame crown, and my would-be lifelong best friend, Rebecca.

Becca was one of two white girls in my school. She was loud and carefree in a way I didn’t recognize. She said whatever she was thinking, broke all the rules, and loved life.

Becca’s part of town was unfamiliar to me. I tried not to gawk when I first visited her huge house in Brookland. Her tree-lined street had detached houses on both sides, with big backyards behind. When I referred to it as Brooklyn, she proudly corrected me, then took me to Colonel Brooks’ Tavern where her sister worked as a waitress.

Brookland had picture window storefronts seemingly untouched by the D.C. riots. On a nice day, we’d walk to the National Cathedral and sit on the steps watching people come and go. We even named some of the gargoyles after the mean girls at school.

During the Christmas season, one man led Becca’s entire neighborhood to go caroling together. It was a different experience for me.

We loved hanging out in Georgetown, and frequenting Swensen’s ice cream shop. Access to Metro meant we could also enjoy movies at the Foundry 7 or Union Station and recruit groups of friends to bring toilet paper and raincoats for the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

With Becca’s affinity for dressing like Madonna, and me in my red Chucks, we were a colorful pair, garnering attention everywhere we went.

Our families had lots of questions about our mixed-race friendship, but we laughed and decided they would have to get used to it. The strength of our bond seemingly overpowered everything wrong in the world.

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fter high school, I started college at Temple University in Philadelphia and Becca moved to California. With D.C. memories in tow, we set out to conquer the world. Though I found fun in Philadelphia, and later, excitement in New York, the beauty, history, culture, and spirit of D.C. remains unmatched by any other city.

One fall day in Philadelphia, I sat on a bench outside, enjoying a hot pretzel, wondering where I should go next. It was a gorgeous day, and the weather was perfect. There, on the steps of Philly’s famed art museum, I knew it was time to come home.

Like Grandma’s my hero, D.C. is my home. CP

Hear these essayists and resident suppliers of advice speak at Solid State Books, 600 H St. NE, on Sunday, March 3 at 6 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

VOTING ENDS SUNDAY! washingtoncitypaper.com/bestofdc2019 For advertising opportunities contact your Account Executive or call 202-650-6937

washingtoncitypaper.com march 1, 2019 15

Darrow Montgomery/File

DCFEED

3 Stars Brewing Company will open a sprawling beer hall in an adjacent space this May with 30 taps, a selection of food, live music, and a private event space.

Payback

By Laura Hayes a former Thip Khao employee sued the Lao restaurant for close to $200,000 this past weekend. The plaintiff, William, alleges that the restaurant paid him a flat salary that effectively denied him minimum and overtime wages. He worked preparing and cooking food for over three years, about six days a week, the complaint says. This is the second time the restaurant and owner, Seng Luangrath, have been sued for the same reason.

The first was in 2016. (The restaurant declined to comment.)

Attorney Jonathan P. Tucker of DCWageLaw (PagoJusto, in Spanish), reports that more than half of his caseload for restaurantrelated lawsuits are similar: workers fighting for back pay, accusing their employers of misclassifying them as exempt and paying them salaries. The plaintiffs argue that they should have been classified as nonexempt employees entitled to time-and-a-half overtime pay, as mandated federally by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and locally by the District of Columbia Minimum Wage Act Revision Act. The Thip Khao lawsuit may be the most recent example, but over the past two years, kitchen workers filed at least 19 similar lawsuits against D.C. restaurants in federal court alone.

Additional cases exist in D.C. Superior Court.

Tucker, who commented on the issue broadly rather than on specific cases, says most defendants pay workers a salary because they find keeping track of hours and timesheets too cumbersome. A much smaller percentage of cases, he says, are more sinister in that they involve restaurants “promoting” a worker to a salaried position with a new title such as “head prep cook”—suggesting that the employee has new managerial duties, when they don’t.

YOUNG & HUNGRY

Both scenarios have the same troubling consequences.

“It’s problematic because you’re not getting overtime and frequently you’re getting paid less than the D.C. minimum wage per hour,” Tucker says. Most of his clients staring down this situation are immigrants who work demanding, low-paying jobs in casual to upscale casual restaurants. “They get away with not paying the minimum wage,” says Tucker.

“In my mind, that’s the real scandal.”

Wage theft Was thrust into local discourse in 2018 when the debate about Initiative 77 spun on for seven months. The ballot measure sought to gradually eliminate the tipped minimum wage for “front-of-house” restaurant workers, among others. It passed in June, but the Council overturned it in October.

Having a tipped minimum wage, or “tip credit,” allows restaurants to pay workers who get tips a lower minimum wage ($3.89) with the stipulation that employers are required to make up the difference if gratuities don’t carry the worker over the standard minimum wage ($13.25). Proponents believed that if workers received the full minimum wage directly from their employer, it would make reporting and enforcing wage theft easier.

The problem with Initiative 77 was it only addressed tipped workers, while “back-ofhouse” employees with job titles like “cook” and “kitchen hand” report the most wage theft and tend to earn the least. These workers typically aren’t eligible for gratuities because they don’t interact directly with customers. They therefore depend on their employers to do the right thing—pay them as nonexempt workers who are entitled to the minimum wage, plus overtime for any hours worked past 40 hours per week.

Under the fLsa, an employee must pass three tests to be considered exempt from overtime

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Darrow Montgomery/File

When restaurants pay kitchen workers a fixed salary, it can mean they miss out on overtime and minimum wages. Some have fought back by filing suits.

pay. First, they must earn more than $23,660 a year, which comes out to $455 per week.

Second, exempt employees must be paid on a salary basis, meaning there’s some amount of guaranteed minimum pay the employee can count on in any given work week. “If you’re salaried, you would still get your salary if you miss a day because you’re sick,” Tucker explains. “There are some restaurants that will take money. Let’s say you’re paid $1,000 per week and the restaurant takes $200 off if you miss a day. The argument there is you were never truly salaried to begin with.”

The third test, known as the “duties test,” is the trickiest. Only employees involved in relatively high-level work can be considered exempt. They typically fall under three categories: professionals or creatives with specialized or advanced education, administrative workers who crunch numbers or otherwise support a business’ operations, or managerial employees who make personnel decisions. This latter group is the most relevant in restaurants.

An exempt employee should regularly supervise two or more workers; manage others as the primary duty of their position; and have

genuine input into major decisions like hiring and firing. Another consideration is whether an employee is in charge of the business or a recognized division or department. Tucker believes the general manager, bar manager, and executive chef are the most likely employees to be properly classified as exempt.

“A sous chef can be properly classified as a managerial exemption, but it goes down to the work duties,” he explains. If the sous chef has a say in who gets hired, who should get a raise, and who should face disciplinary action, they could be exempt. “But if the sous chef is only cutting vegetables and preparing sauces, they’re a substitute laborer that you’re taking advantage of.” It’s about the tasks, not the title.

City PaPer dreW from recent cases to illustrate how these claims and calculations play out. Most civil cases settle outside of court, as neither the plaintiffs nor the defendants want to bear the risks and costs associated with a trial. Settlement figures are usually confidential, making it hard to discern a restaurants’ ultimate culpability. City Paper elected to use first names only for plaintiffs to protect them should they continue to seek work in the restaurant industry.

DCFEED According to a complaint filed in federal court in March 2018, a plaintiff named Maria worked as a cook at two restaurants owned by Med Lahlou—Station 4 and Lupo Verde— from November 2009 through December 2017. She primarily worked at Station 4 and her duties consisted of preparing food and cleaning. The complaint says Maria worked between 55 and 66 hours per week. She was paid by the hour for the first seven years she worked for Lahlou, but she began receiving a flat weekly salary of $750 in August 2016, the complaint says.

City Paper calculated what Maria would have made before taxes had she been paid as a nonexempt employee during a hypothetical week in August 2016 when she worked her maximum of 66 hours per week.

At the time, the minimum wage in D.C. was $11.50. That means Maria would have earned $460 for her first 40 hours worked. For the additional 26 hours of overtime hours worked Maria would have been paid time-and-a-half, which comes out to $17.25 per hour. That’s an additional $448.50.

Combining the two, Maria would have earned $908.50 that week instead of $750—a difference of $158.50. Taking the same scenario in 2017, when the minimum wage increased to $12.50 per hour, Maria would have lost out on $237. Annually then, Maria would have been shorted anywhere between $1,625 and $12,324, depending on whether she worked 55 hours per week, 66 hours per week, or somewhere in between.

A few months before Station 4 allegedly switched Maria over to a flat salary in 2016, three similarly situated kitchen workers sued sister restaurant Lupo Verde for failing to pay overtime wages. They asked for $194,096 in damages. Maria’s complaint alleges the two events were linked.

“Defendants’ sole purpose for paying Maria a flat salary was to hide their liability for overtime wages,” it reads. “She continued to do the same work as she had when she was an hourly employee. For example, she continued to wash meats, peel vegetables, cut and chop vegetables and meats, prepare patties of ground meat and crab meat for hamburgers and crab cakes, and clean the kitchen.” Both cases appear to have settled outside of court.

Lahlou responds, “I cannot comment on any specific cases. I can, however, assure you that we have a policy of following the law and all applicable rules and regulations and take affirmative steps to ensure that happens.”

In March 2017, a kitchen worker brought a similar case in D.C. Superior Court against Woodward Table owned by Jeffrey Buben.

A plaintiff named Pablo alleged that when he worked for the restaurant for five months in 2016 as a junior sous chef, Buben misclassified him as an exempt employee, thus denying him

minimum and overtime wages. He prepared sauces, did inventory, cut vegetables and meats, made sandwiches, and washed dishes, according to the complaint, which also says he worked 80 hours per week except for every third week, when he worked 96 hours.

The complaint says the restaurant paid Pablo a flat weekly salary of $846.15. “When [Pablo] worked 80 hours in a workweek, defendants paid him an effective hourly rate of $10.57,” the complaint reads. “When [Pablo] worked 96 hours in a workweek, defendants paid him an effective hourly rate of $8.81.”

The minimum wage at the time was $11.50 and the complaint says the restaurant didn’t pay overtime. Pablo asked Woodward Table to pay him just over $8,500 in unpaid minimum and overtime wages. The case was swiftly resolved as Pablo removed his lawsuit within a few months. Buben did not respond to requests for comment.

A federal lawsuit filed against Zentan in 2018, the former restaurant inside the Kimpton Donovan Hotel, illustrates how several of the exemption tests come into play. Remember an employee must pass all three tests to be

public, shows Kimpton paid Joshua $12,500, which is just short of the $13,238.06 the complaint called for.

Tucker, whose firm represented Pablo and Maria, says these cases frequently land on his desk for three reasons: Restaurants have a lack of respect for their employees, are trying to find ways to save money, or find it hard to track hours. Attorney Keith Lively of Doyle, Barlow & Mazard PLLC agrees to some degree, though he sometimes finds himself on the other side of these lawsuits, like he did in the case Maria brought against Station 4.

“Sometimes you have a true bad actor who is trying to screw the employee,” Lively says.

“But I’ve seen a lot in the context of trying to save the headaches.” He used to specialize in employment law and still takes on a couple wage cases per year. “I commiserate with employers in employee-friendly jurisdictions because there are a ton of rules and regulations that apply.” He considers D.C. such a place.

“A lot of people jump into restaurants because it’s glamorous,” Lively continues. “They think, ‘This is going to be fun!’ Then you have

“They get away with not paying the minimum wage. In my mind, that’s the real scandal.” considered exempt. A plaintiff named Joshua was a sous chef there from September 2016 through February 2017 and worked anywhere from 43 to 67 hours per week without receiving overtime.

While Joshua passes the first exemption test because his employer paid him an annual salary of $43,000 (well beyond the threshold of $23,660), the complaint makes the argument that he fails the duties test not from the managerial perspective, but from the professional angle.

It reads that Joshua does not hold a four-year culinary degree—which is to suggest that the cook is not a highly learned professional who might qualify as an exempt employee.

While Kimpton denied that Joshua was entitled to overtime compensation and argues he was paid properly in court documents, the company decided to settle, citing a desire to avoid the time and expense of continued litigation. The agreement, which was made

these huge problems dealing with regulations.

It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t comply with them, but it’s a lot of work.”

He asserts that while there’s nothing wrong with paying an employee a flat salary so long as they ensure the worker is being paid more than what’s owed to them under minimum wage and overtime laws, it’s riskier.

“If you’re paying people a flat rate, you’re probably not doing timesheets,” he explains.

“When the [DC] Department of Employment Services or Department of Labor come after you and you don’t have timesheets to rely on to defend yourself, employees can say whatever they want and DOL and DOES will give the benefit of the doubt to the employee if records don’t exist.”

Lively also points out that workers can ask for four times what they’re owed in lost wages. “If you owe someone $5,000 over a couple of years, all of the sudden you can owe $20,000,” he says.

Tucker conTends ThaT misclassified workers could be better protected if the government was willing to step in and raise the minimum salary requirement from a paltry $23,660 to a figure that reflects modern costs of living. That almost happened in the last year of the Obama Administration when DOL attempted to roll out a new rule in 2016 that would have increased the minimum annual salary to $47,476.

But on Aug. 31, 2017, a federal judge in Texas struck down the Obama-era salary threshold rule. The judge said the increase exceeded DOL’s authority, thus rendering it invalid.

There haven’t been any changes since, which is why the federal minimum salary requirement is still $23,660.

“D.C. could make its own exemption,” Tucker says. “D.C. does that in many cases, like they do with minimum wage.” The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and hasn’t budged since 2009. Meanwhile, the District has one of the highest minimum wages in the country. It’s currently $13.25 and will increase to $15 on July 1, 2020.

At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman chairs the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development. It would be in that committee’s purview to bring legislation forward changing the minimum salary requirement employers must pay if they’re not paying overtime wages.

Silverman was actively involved in the debate over Initiative 77 last year. Before the repeal votes were cast by most of her colleagues, Silverman offered an amended version of the bill that would have kept parts of Initiative 77 intact for “front-ofhouse” support staff such as bar backs and bussers. It failed.

When City Paper asked Silverman if she had considered the wage issue of restaurants misclassifying “back-of-thehouse” employees as exempt as a way of skipping out on minimum and overtime wage requirements, the councilmember acknowledged this was the first time someone brought it to her attention. “If you’re a worker who is mostly doing non-managerial work, then you are entitled to overtime,” she says.

Silverman says she’s interested in how pervasive the problem is and encourages restaurant workers to come forward, noting that they’re welcome to do so anonymously. She also emphasizes that the Council has “a good partner in the attorney general.” Karl Racine recently beefed up his wage theft division.

“The restaurant industry is a very important industry that employs a lot of people, and we know that wage theft is an issue,” Silverman says. “We want to make sure workers are paid fairly and make sure we’re enforcing the current law.”

CP

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Read select reviews from the 20th annual DC Independent Film Festival. washingtoncitypaper.com/arts

Skip Groff, 1948-2019

Skip Groff (center) with Ian MacKaye (left) and Henry Rollins (right)

By Alona Wartofsky Skip Groff waS best known as the owner of Yesterday and Today Records, the shop that, despite its location in a suburban Rockville strip mall it shared with an Entenmann’s outlet and a coin store, served as a crucial hub of the D.C. punk scene.

Groff, who died last week at the age of 70, was also a DJ and programmer at several area radio stations, avid record collector, record producer, and label owner. He was, by all accounts, remarkably knowledgeable about the music he loved. Groff mentored the area’s punk and alternative underground, releasing records by The Slickee Boys, The Velvet Monkeys, The Razz, and Black Market Baby as well as guiding Dischord Records with its earliest releases, records by Teen Idles, SOA, and Minor Threat.

The news of his death last week was widely reported, with stories appearing locally and on Brooklyn Vegan, Punknews, and Deadspin. The Washington Post, whose coverage of local music has grown scant, ran not one but two stories exploring Groff ’s impact. Rolling Stone’s story extensively quoted an affectionate statement by Dischord Records’ Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson that began “To say that Dischord Re-

cords wouldn’t exist had it not been for Skip Groff isn’t really a stretch.” (Friends say that recognition from Rolling Stone would have been particularly gratifying for Groff.)

Arrangements for a memorial are still in planning stages; Sunday morning from 9 a.m. to noon, Takoma Park’s WOWD will air what is sure to be one of multiple tributes to Groff.

Groff taught people how to consider music, to understand it deeply, and he encouraged them in their own musical forays by providing financial and other support. “It’s impossible to underestimate how much Skip contributed to the D.C. music scene,” says photographer and Dischord alum Bert Queiroz.

“His production and support, from Pentagram, to Slickee Boys, to Bad Brains, Manifesto, to the entire Dischord scene...

His support of the bands—producing and releasing their records, advertising their shows, hiring musicians at Yesterday and Today—was massive.”

Perhaps most importantly, Groff gave the young musicians who surrounded him a kind of validation.

MacKaye describes the 1978 compilation :30 Over D.C.~~Here Comes The New Wave! on Groff’s Limp Records as “an extremely important record for me” and says that Groff had an enormous

Courtesy of the Groff Family

Remembering the D.C. music legend, who inspired and shaped a generation of local punks

impact on him and his friends. “When you’re a kid growing up in a town where music culture isn’t taken seriously by the power structure, you’re just this little punk and even ridiculed by some of the older punk rockers, there’s a sense of dismissiveness,” he says.

“Skip actually took us seriously. He encouraged us. He was older and somebody in a position of authority who didn’t laugh at us.”

Groff enjoyed his role as educator, and friends say he was only occasionally curmudgeonly. He possessed a sharp sense of humor—an early radio alias was Captain Applesauce, and the name of his short-lived record label, Limp, was a riff on Britain’s Stiff.

Many of the kids who were drawn to him pushed back against the conformity of the ’70s and ’80s.

Shirley Sexton was 14 when she met Groff; he had recently opened his first music shop in Kensington. Seeking refuge from a home environment she now describes as severely abusive, Sexton discovered Hit and Run Records, where records were stacked floor to ceiling. In a Facebook post, Sexton described her introduction to the store: “Going through the door that first time was my entrance into my own rock and roll Narnia… I spent hours flipping through the racks, examining album washingtoncitypaper.com march 1, 2019 19

CPARTS covers and listening to Skip talk about music. I never told Skip about my troubles at home. I don’t know if he had an inkling of how scared I was. He sent me on sandwich runs and let me write up a few sales. Hit and Run was my haven.”

Groff sold his share in that store, and in 1977 he opened Yesterday and Today in Rockville’s Sunshine Square. Sexton, who later married Stiff Little Fingers’ Jake Burns, one of the bands whose records Groff sold, came to work there. So did MacKaye, Queiroz, Brendan Canty, Guy Picciotto, Sharon Cheslow, Tommy Keene, Ted Niceley, Danny Ingram, and dozens of other local musicians. Some spent so many hours hanging around the store that Groff eventually offered them jobs. In between buying trips to England, after which he would lug home suitcases crammed with hundreds of records, he schooled both customers and staff about various music genres.

It is entirely possible that MacKaye and others would have figured out ways to record their music and start their own labels without Groff. “The movement was bigger than him, and if he hadn’t been there, probably someone else would have played that role. But he was the one who was there, and he did play that significant role,” says Mark Jenkins, longtime local music writer and co-author of Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation’s Capital.

Jenkins notes that Groff was intent on boosting local music.

“His own personal taste was very much British power-pop,” he says. Groff released music “that he probably wouldn’t have been interested in if it came from Cleveland or London.”

It wasn’t long before Yesterday and Today’s reputation extended far beyond the D.C. area. “The fact that a store—or two stores once he opened the 45 shop—in a strip mall in the far sub-

urbs became a must-visit destination for any music fan or band coming into D.C. shows the import of what Skip had put together with Yesterday and Today,” notes Queiroz.

For so many area musicians, Groff was a friend, a producer, a boss, and more. When he married his wife Kelly in 1988, Nicely and several members of Fugazi were included in the wedding party, donning matching tuxes for the occasion.

Moments after his family announced his passing on social media, the tributes began to appear as a community of musicians and music fans, once tightly knit but scattered over the decades, sought to reconnect in a rush of grief.

Since then, folks who loved Groff have been exchanging condolences and stories. There was the time that he wrote a negative review of a set by Boyd Farrell’s first band, The Snitch. In retribution, Farrell and bandmate Paul Cleary decided to pay a menacing visit to Yesterday and Today. “We drove up there and marched in like we’re gonna be all badass,” recalls Farrell.

“There were all these people buying records. We were standing there with our arms folded trying to intimidate him, but he was so busy he didn’t even notice we were there.” Later, after Groff had released music by Farrell’s band, Black Market Baby, they laughed about that episode, which Groff found hilarious.

Ted Niceley recalls the day he almost incinerated the store with a heater during one of Groff ’s buying trips. “There was all this smoke in the store,” says Niceley. “We called Skip in England to tell him that the store almost went up in flames.” Groff thought that was really funny, too, though he might have felt differently if his thousands of records had melted.

MacKaye remembers a conversation they had when Groff ’s health began to fail: “He said, ‘I think I’m falling apart.’ So I

asked him ‘What’s the B side of such and such?’ and he immediately told me everything imaginable about the record. I said, ‘Well, something’s still in there.’”

Groff ’s friend, longtime employee, and fellow record obsessive Steve Lorber recalls that he and Groff often mocked their own music mania. “We used to joke that we were like Rain Man characters, because we could talk for hours about things that were of no interest to anyone in the world except for one or two guys,” says Lorber. They would debate arcane issues such as whether the D.C. hardcore punk movement took attention away from other worthy styles. (For the record, Groff insisted it did not).

“I think there’s a certain kind of person—not glamorous, who loves music and has zero musical talent, who gets invested in the fantasy of the music, and they get close to the music by acquiring it,” says Lorber. “Skip was totally focused on records.

It was fun for him, and he could make a living at it.”

If Groff ’s exhaustive music knowledge suggests an asocial nerd, he was in fact thoroughly committed to helping young musicians find their way and fostering a music scene with his generosity and guidance.

Long before the advent of the internet, he taught his acolytes to discover music that’s far better than what’s being mainlined into your brain by commercial radio. To find musicians whose worldview resembles your own, whose music helps you define yourself or maybe just feel a little better.

“Skip was a role model for us, and like him, we were not listening to what was being spoon-fed to us,” says Sexton. “I think that idea is instilled in hundreds and hundreds of people at least, if not thousands, that Skip touched in some way.” CP 1615 Rhode Island Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036

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THEATERCURTAIN CALLS

YOU CAN’T RELY ON THE OLD MAN’S MONEY The Heiress

By Ruth Goetz and Augustus Goetz Suggested by the novel Washington Square

by Henry James Directed by Seema Sueko At Arena Stage to March 10 It Is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a husband; it is also true that she will be targeted by wastrels and bounty hunters, and that she will have an overprotective father to protect said fortune from wastrels and bounty hunters. This central conceit of Arena Stage’s production of The Heiress, in a nicely

keeps comparing her to the memory of her dead and perfect mother. Given this baggage, it is no surprise that Catherine wilts in the presence of her father. When Morris Townsend (Jonathan David Martin), a poor spendthrift with no visible means of supporting himself, shows up wooing, Catherine falls for the charming man with a laser-sharp focus on her. Austin flares up in suspicion, surmising that Morris may be more interested in Catherine’s money than in her. The conflict between father, daughter, and suitor prompts the characters and audience members to investigate the meaning of love and attraction.

Does it matter if Morris is attracted to both Catherine and to her money if he still loves her and makes her happy?

As Catherine, Harris acutely conveys her innocence, anger, and frustration at her circumscribed role in her house, trying to find a voice and assert her personality in the face of ruthless and relentless parental criticism. At the same time Martin is very convincing as a charming, worldly, and well traveled Morris, who has expensive taste, and who knows how to spend but not earn money. The dynamic beThe Heiress

wrapped package of class and gender conflicts, makes for a splendid evening’s entertainment.

Entertainment was probably furthest from Henry James’ mind in 1880, when he wrote Washington Square, the novel that Ruth and Augustus Goetz adapted for the stage in 1947 and retitled The Heiress. James, a master of dense three-page meditations on the human soul, treated Washington Square with contempt because the novel was too accessible and popular. Given the highly engaging nature of this production, James is probably rolling in his grave right now.

The story is a potboiler. Catherine Sloper (Laura C. Harris), the titular heroine and upper-crust New Yorker, is heir to a substantial $30,000 a year. Her demanding, graceless father, Austin Sloper (James Whalen), criticizes his daughter’s plain looks, her lack of charm, and her paucity of wit, not understanding that he might be the cause of these deficits as he rubs her spirit into the ground, robs her of all confidence, and

tween Harris and Martin, and the fast clip of their courtship, is convincing in its speed, as is their later interaction in the face of obstacles.

Whalen has an excellent turn as a father so fixed in his idealization of the perfect woman, and so protective of his daughter, that he fails to see her as a person. Austin loves his daughter but in such a controlling, patriarchal way that their relationship is acidic. These performances, the excellent pacing of the play, and the exploration of patriarchal control, love, and class, are credit to the excellent direction of Seema Sueko, who has dragged strong performances from not only the three main actors, but also from Nancy Robinette as Lavinia, Austin’s widowed sister and conspiring confidant to both Catherine and Morris, who wants her niece to settle down and find a partner for life even if there is a risk of her not marrying for ‘true love.’

The production is complemented by the gorgeous, rich costuming by Ivania Stack. As always, Arena’s Fichlander Stage is the best

venue in the city to stage drawing room plays, and Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams takes full advantage of this to create a wonderful set.

Watch this well paced, well acted play and inquisition on the capacity to love with your partner. Then have a deep, engaged, and happy discussion about the nature of your love, the size of your trust fund or, depending on where you are in life, your Venmo account and student loan debt.

—Abid Shah 1101 6th Street SW. $41–$95. (202) 554-9066. arenastage.org.

THE DEVIL AND THE DETAILS The Master and Margarita

Adapted by Edward Kemp Based on the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov Directed by Allison Arkell Stockman At Source to March 10 In Edward KEmp’s adaptation of the genredefying 1967 novel The Master and Margarita, the devil is in just about everything.

He’s the subject of characters’ philosophical discussions, their works of fiction, their meetings with psychiatrists. He’s also on the streets of Moscow, arranging the decapitations of intellectual foes, and hosting a cult-like orgy in the apartment of a nonbeliever.

In the world of author Mikhail Bulgakov’s Soviet Russia, almost everyone is a nonbeliever: Atheism and cultural homogeneity reign supreme, and to buck that tradition means social ostracization, or worse. The Master and Margarita challenges this thinking in a skewering satire of this slice of Soviet political life, telling the story of what happens to the capital’s normcore elite when the devil himself comes to town.

It’s a clever show that, like Bulgakov’s work, is always one step ahead of the viewer.

More than Bulgakov’s story does, Kemp’s play largely hinges on one scene: the moment when, by happenstance, the pseudonymous Master (Alexander Strain)—a lonely, polylinguistic historian, hard at work on a play about the adjudication of the trial of Jesus—bumps into the effervescent Margarita (Amanda Forstrom) on a busy Moscow street. Theirs is an at-first-glance kind of love, and the pair are almost hostile with anticipation and a preternatural familiarity.

This relationship provides the emotional bedrock for the story, with Margarita serving as the Master’s greatest spiritual and intellectual champion as he navigates professional crises (Am I as talented an auteur as I hope?) and psychic ones (Have I hallucinated my encoun-

ters with Satan, or is he stalking me?).

Constellation Theatre Company’s production mostly revolves around the will-they/ won’t-they drama of Margarita and the Master, a nickname bestowed on him by his beloved, after he is shuttled off to a psychiatric facility over the contents of his play, which his colleagues consider a much too sympathetic look at Jesus’ final days.

This spare adaptation lends itself well to Source’s intimate black box, and director Allison Arkell Stockman oversees it handily.

Clever blocking and stylish lighting allow the cast to tik-tok between the Master’s play on one side of the stage and the Master himself on the other. The dual narratives play off each each other nicely, and it’s a sophisticated way to fold the master’s play—presented as a novel in an entire chapter in Bulgakov’s work— onto the stage.

Strain plays the Master with heartening idealism that veers occasionally into the saccharine, and Forstrom complements him as the forceful Margarita. Each plays their part ably, with moments of real clarity, though their initial meeting feels not quite right—perhaps too concerned with lust, and not enough sense of the kind of intimacy that could make, for example, a woman turn to the devil for help freeing her soulmate.

Pure delight is Satan himself, who operates under the disguise of Professor Woland (Scott Ward Abernathy), a teacher of magic, and his coterie of acolytes, which include a manic black cat (Louis E. Davis) and an impish lothario (Dallas Tolentino). Abernathy’s unstudied, mischievous ease is a natural and recognizable take on the character; it feels familiar, and he turns expertly from humor to menace.

This crew is genuinely funny and mad, and I found myself wishing there was more of them in the show.

Constellation bills its show as a “powerful indictment of corrupt government and authoritarian rule,” but it comes across as more of an indictment of the corrupt on a much smaller scale: the hive mind of indolent magazine editors and intellectual elites who spend their hours talking masturbatory circles around each other, de facto censoring Master and his play.

In one particularly memorable scene, during Woland-cum-Satan’s inaugural performance of magic, these players—themselves atheist and effectively responsible for the Master’s imprisonment—lunge greedily after the devil’s money, convulsing for trays of jewels and dresses he makes appear.

It’s not an unsubtle metaphor. But even if it’s not what it set out to be, The Master and Margarita lands in a place that doesn’t feel too different than where we find ourselves now, despite the new century and different continent.

Like hell and its proprietor, Bulgakov’s work is eternal.

—Morgan Baskin 1835 14th Street NW. $29–$71.

(202) 204-7800. constellationtheatre.org.

washingtoncitypaper.com march 1, 2019 21

FILM The Hole in the Ground

ing on Sarah’s becoming increasingly aware that her son might be a macabre imposter. Unfortunately, the film falters because it relies so heavily on tropes. The kid is precocious and unsettling in exactly the way you would expect, and Cronin uses jarring music to telegraph every scare before it happens. Anyone with a passing familiarity of the genre will see the end coming a mile away, which is a shame since The Hole in the Ground does have a palpable sense of atmosphere, and committed performances.

Screens Friday, March 1 at 9:30 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center.

Don’t Leave Home Directed by Michael Tully

Green Screen

Reviews from the annual Capital Irish Film Festival

By Alan Zilberman St. Patrick’s Day is approaching, which means the D.C. area is a little more Irish than usual.

Thanks to the Capital Irish Film Festival, you can find out that means more than getting drunk on stale green beer and vomiting in the street. If you’ve ever been to Ireland, it will not be a shock that these characters are warm, quiet, and self-deprecating. But there’s an edge to these films, too, and we don’t mean U2’s guitarist. Two of these films are thrillers, with creepy children and a serious attempt to reckon with the country’s problematic past. Ireland is often forgotten in the wake of England’s influence, and no matter the genre, that redheaded stepchild quality informs these films.

They know they’re eccentric, and to their credit, they don’t care what you think about that.

The Drummer and the Keeper Directed by Nick Kelly

The Drummer and the Keeper is a feel-good comedy that is also a little frustrating. It is insightful about mental illness, giving the audience characters to care about, but it keeps them in a strict, ultimately unrealistic formula. Dermot Murphy is Gabriel, a rock ’n’ roll drummer with bipolar disorder. After a par-

ticularly nasty episode, he attempts to stay sober and has mandated exercise as part of his recovery. That is where he meets Christopher (Jacob McCarthy), a keeper (or goalie) with Asperger’s. They form an unlikely friendship, with the usual mix of highs and lows. It is perhaps reductive to say this film is a cross between Once and Rain Man, but director Nick Kelly does little to elevate the material from its obvious inspiration. The frustration is that he has a strong sense of Gabriel and Christopher’s nature—there is a tough scene where we consider just how easy relapse is for Gabriel— but he contorts the situations in order to tug at the heartstrings. A better, more daring film would follow these misfits to whatever unlikely, dark place their natures led them. Kelly instead opts for a contrived happy ending, and while the film goes down easy, it could have had more actual substance.

Screens Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center.

The Hole in the Ground Directed by Lee Cronin

They say a mother bonds with her child the moment she discovers she is pregnant. The baby grows inside her, creating a connection and

22 march 1, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

On the heels of Get Out, Don’t Leave Home is a horror film whose title also serves as good advice. Also like Jordan Peele’s megahit, writer and director Michael Tully shoehorns ambitious themes into a genre framework. His slow-burn story considers the nature of faith and whether bad priests are worthy of forgiveness, and his restraint is downright admirable. Our entry point is an American artist (Anna Margaret Hollyman) whose sculptures recreate infamous child disappearances from Ireland’s history. One such disappearance involves a disgraced priest in exile, and soon he invites her to his isolated country house so he can commission a new work. Nothing is quite as it seems, of course, and the artist uncovers the priest’s true, macabre nature. There is a lot of symbolism in Don’t Leave Home, and Tully

Don’t Leave Home

sense of responsibility that rarely waivers. The Hole in the Ground is about the nature of that connection, using a typical horror framework to explore a fear that’s primal and urgent. Seána Kerslake plays Sarah, a young woman who relocates her son Chris (James Quinn Markey) to a new school. There’s something creepy in the forest adjacent to her new digs, and after Chris goes missing in said forest, somehow he is not quite himself. Director Lee Cronin apes the “creepy kid” trope for all it’s worth, focus-

keeps things at a gentle, almost lazy pace so you have time to consider it. Impatient viewers may yearn for the good stuff—there is a supernatural element to the film—but it has more interest in character than big horror set pieces.

With more thoughtfulness than suspense, this might the rare horror film that non-fans may enjoy more than the diehards.

Screens Saturday, March 2 at 8:30 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center.

FILMSHORT SUBJECTS

ART ME UP Ruben Brandt, Collector Directed by Milorad Krstic

With another contentious awards season behind us and a cookie-cutter blockbuster season ahead, what we need now is a palate cleanser. I’m talking about a cinematic vision so singular that it soars above the culture of comparison that defines our discourse on movies. Luckily, we have Ruben Brandt, Collector, an animated heist film/psychological drama that forges a unique style from the colors and shapes of art’s greatest masters, all without losing its popular touch.

The title character is a psychiatrist with an unusual specialty: He treats “artistic souls.”

Really, he treats criminals using an artistic approach. There’s the two-dimensional thief whose eating disorder is impacting his ability to slide under doors; Ruben has him sculpt his cravings out of stone to process his dysfunction. The Cockney muscle-for-hire with a nasty habit of talking too much? He is tasked with emulating a statue because “statues don’t talk.” Ruben has his own issues, burdened by horrible visions of being attacked by priceless art. Like everything else in this visionary film, these scenes are drawn with both precision and imagination. It admirably recreates works by Hopper, Monet, Warhol, and others, and then draws well outside the lines to meld them with the characters’ inner lives.

Mimi, a professional thief whose raging kleptomania is surprisingly a hindrance to her work (she often steals the wrong item just because it catches her fancy), drops into Ruben’s troubled practice. Ruben himself becomes the next object of her desire, and she hatches a plan to cure him of his dreams by stealing the actual works that are haunting him. Meanwhile, a private investigator hired by one of her

disgruntled bosses wrestles with his own obsessions while tracking the gang down.

It’s an exceedingly clever plot brought to brilliant life by first-time feature director Milorad Krstic. The characters’ faces are in two dimensions, often evoking cubism, but the world behind them is painstakingly rendered in 3D. Some characters have two faces or three eyes, while a cutaway will show a hyper-realistic close-up of a mosquito biting an arm and draining it of blood. It’s a beautiful film to simply look at, but Krstic is never content to just inspire gazing. The film’s use of style creates its own narrative, invoking philosophical debates about the intersection of art and life.

For those of us who value art of all kinds, Ruben Brandt, Collector is a cornucopia of pleasures. Art historians will likely have the most fun—I felt about a thousand references go over my head—but Krstic’s high-art aesthetic and subject matter are balanced by a genuine commitment to lowbrow devices.

The film is bookended by genuinely thrilling chase sequences that would not be out of place in a Bond movie or the next Fast and Furious chapter. Krstic stages these scenes with as much verve and imagination as he does his art-school dream sequences.

Similarly, the film uses pop references to lighten the mood and reach out to the cheap seats, from a chase scene set to The Contours’ “Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance)” to a lounge version of “Oops!...I Did it Again” that is actually listenable. There is titillating nudity and unnerving violence.

There are throwaway references to Blood, Sweat & Tears, and the 1986 comedy ¡Three Amigos! With this seamless melding of high and low art, Ruben Brandt, Collector is a visual feast for all audiences, and it makes a coherent, anti-elitist statement that is no less profound for its simplicity: Art literally is everywhere.

—Noah Gittell

Limits

WORLD STAGES

Cirkus Cirkör

March 6–9 | Eisenhower Theater Groups call (202) 416-8400

Kennedy-Center.org

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

(202) 467-4600 Theater at the Kennedy Center is made possible by

Kennedy Center Theater Season Sponsor

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

Ruben Brandt, Collector opens Friday at Landmark E Street Cinema. washingtoncitypaper.com march 1, 2019 23

THIS WEEK’S SHOWS

Big Head Todd & The Monsters w/ Blue Water Highway .............. Th FEB 28 AEG PRESENTS

Cole Escola This is a seated show. Early Show! 6pm Doors .............................. F MAR 1 STEEZ PROMO PRESENTS Manic Focus Late Show! 10pm Doors ................................................................... F 1 BASS NATION PRESENTS Dirt Monkey Late Show! 10pm Doors.................................................................. SA 2

WET and Kilo Kish w/ Hana Vu .................................................................... Tu 5 MARCH

MARCH (cont.)

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

TRILLECTRO PRESENTS

JJ Grey & Mofro w/ Southern Avenue ....................Th 7

Lil Mosey w/ Polo G .................W 27 Failure & Swervedriver w/ Criminal Hygiene ..................Th 28

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

BoomBox w/ Late Night Radio ...F 8 ALL GOOD PRESENTS

D SHOW ADDED!

FIRST SHOW SOLD OUT! SECON

The Motet w/ No BS! Brass Band .................Sa 9 Sabrina Carpenter w/ Maggie Lindemann ...............Su 10

U STREET MUSIC HALL PRESENTS

Big Wild w/ Robotaki & Mild Minds

Early Show! 6pm Doors .....................F 29 STEEZ PROMO PRESENTS

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

J Boog w/ EarthKry & Eddy Dyno .M 11

Boogie T.rio w/ Mersiv & Vampa ...................Sa 30

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

Trevor Hall w/ Dirtwire & Will Evans ............Tu 12 Smallpools ...............................W 13 ALL GOOD PRESENTS

Mike Gordon ............................F 15 Teenage Fanclub w/ The Love Language ...............Sa 16 Jonathan McReynolds w/ Anthony Brown & Jason Nelson .Su 17

APRIL

Let’s Eat Grandma ..................M 1 BASS NATION PRESENTS

Getter ........................................Tu 2 Patty Griffin w/ Ruston Kelly ....W 3 Emily King .................................Th 4 ALL GOOD PRESENTS

The Infamous Stringdusters w/ Jon Stickley Trio .......................F 5 ALL GOOD PRESENTS

ALL GOOD PRESENTS

Railroad Earth Two-night passes available. ..F 22 & Sa 23 AN EVENING WITH

Nils Frahm .............................Su 24

Beats Antique w/ Axel Thesleff

M3 ROCK FESTIVAL FEATURING

Whitesnake • Extreme • Warrant • Skid Row • Vince Neil • Kix and more! .....................................................MAY 3-5 For a full lineup, visit m3rockfest.com

Slayer w/ Lamb of God • Amon Amarth • Cannibal Corpse ................................... MAY 14 Jason Aldean w/ Kane Brown • Carly Pearce • Dee Jay Silver ..................... MAY 17 DC101 KERFUFFLE FEATURING

Greta Van Fleet • Young The Giant • The Revivalists • Tom Morello • SHAED • THE Blue Stones ................................................. MAY 19

Florence + The Machine * w/ Blood Orange ................................. JUNE 3 Brandi Carlile w/ Lucius ........................................................................ JUNE 14 Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit & Father John Misty w/ Jade Bird ............................................................................................................ JUNE 21

Phish ........................................................................................................ JUNE 22 & 23 Thomas Rhett w/ Dustin Lynch • Russell Dickerson • Rhett Akins ............. JULY 18 Third Eye Blind & Jimmy Eat World * w/ Ra Ra Riot ..... JULY 19 Train/Goo Goo Dolls * w/ Allen Stone ...........................................AUGUST 9 Chris Stapleton * w/ Margo Price & The Marcus King Band ................ AUGUST 11 Heart* w/ Joan Jett and The Blackhearts & Elle King........................... AUGUST 13 Beck & Cage the Elephant * w/ Spoon & Sunflower Bean . AUGUST 22 Pentatonix * w/ Rachel Platten ........................................................... AUGUST 26 The Chrysalis at Merriweather Park

LORD HURON w/ Bully ....................................................................... JULY 23 Ticketmaster • For full lineup & more info, visit merriweathermusic.com • impconcerts.com *Presented by Live Nation

Capital One Arena • Washington, D.C.

MUSE .................................................................................................................. APRIL 2 Ticketmaster

Early Show! 7pm Doors .....................Sa 6

BENT:

The New LGBTQ Dance Party Returns Late Show! 11:30pm Doors . Sa 6

MANY MORE SHOWS ON SALE!

9:30 CUPCAKES

Merriweather Post Pavilion • Columbia, MD

930.com

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

9:30 CLUB PRESENTS AT U STREET MUSIC HALL

Ibibio Sound Machine ............... M 18 American Aquarium w/ Timmy The Teeth ............... Su MAR 3 Token w/ Kur .............................Tu 19 Stella Donnelly w/ Faye Webster ....F 15 Maggie Rose ...........................Sa 16 Mansionair w/ Beacon .................W 20

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

Alice Smith ................................. MAR 9 Whindersson Nunes .......... MAR 23 Meow Meow + Thomas Lauderdale (of Pink Martini) .............................. MAR 25 Spiritualized ............................APR 16 Citizen Cope .............................APR 17 D NIGHT ADDED!

FIRST NIGHT SOLD OUT! SECON

Imogen Heap with special guest Guy Sigsworth of Frou Frou ............... MAY 4

Josh Ritter & The Royal City Band w/ Penny & Sparrow ............MAY 17 Yann Tiersen (Solo In Concert) .........................MAY 24 AN EVENING WITH

Apocalyptica Plays Metallica By Four Cellos Tour .MAY 28

AN EVENING WITH

Glen Hansard ...........................JUN 3 AEG PRESENTS

Bianca Del Rio JOHNNYSWIM .........................MAY 15 It’s Jester Joke ........................ OCT 18 • thelincolndc.com • U Street (Green/Yellow) stop across the street!

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

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

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

HAPPY HOUR DRINK PRICES impconcerts.com AFTER THE SHOW AT THE BACK BAR! 24 march 1, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

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

930.com

CITYLIST

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

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

Tix @ Ticketmaster.com 800-745-3000

Mar 1

Music 25 Theater 31 Film 32

MARSHALL CRENSHAW & THE BOTTLE ROCKETS

Empty BOB SCHNEIDER ThePockets 3 SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK 7 MADELEINE PEYROUX & PAULA COLE

2

Music

CITY LIGHTS: FRIDAY

FRIDAY BLUES

8

THE MANHATTANS

CLASSICAL

9

SUGAR SAMMY

14

KINKY FRIEDMAN & DALE WATSON "Long Tales & Short Songs

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

Swampcandy. 10:30 p.m. Free. thehamiltondc.com.

CLARICE SMITH PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Stadium Drive and Route 193, College Park. (301) 4052787. Kurt Weill Festival. 8 p.m. $10–$25. theclarice. umd.edu.

KENNEDY CENTER CONCERT HALL 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. National Symphony Orchestra: Shaham & Mozart. 11:30 a.m. $15–$89. kennedy-center.org.

15 16

COUNTRY

HILL COUNTRY LIVE 410 7th St. NW. (202) 556-2050.

Ray Scott. 9:30 p.m. $15-$20. hillcountrywdc.com.

18

MUSIC CENTER AT STRATHMORE 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Rosanne Cash & Band. 8 p.m. $35–$75. strathmore.org.

19

HIP-HOP

EAGLEBANK ARENA 4500 Patriot Circle, Fairfax.

(703) 993-3000. TOBYMAC. 7 p.m. $16–$69.75. eaglebankarena.com.

FILLMORE SILVER SPRING 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. Quinn XCII. 8 p.m. $48– $151. fillmoresilverspring.com.

JAZZ

BETHESDA BLUES & JAZZ 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. (240) 330-4500. Spyro Gyra. 8 p.m. $59.50–$79. bethesdabluesjazz.com.

BLUES ALLEY 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Joey DeFrancesco. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $25–$30. bluesalley.com.

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

Dirty Dozen Brass Band. 8 p.m. $25–$30. thehamiltondc.com.

HYLTON PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 10960 George Mason Circle, Manassas. (703) 993-7759. The Julian Bliss Septet. 8 p.m. $28–$46. hyltoncenter.org.

MILKBOY ARTHOUSE 7416 Baltimore Ave, College Park. Ravi Coltrane Quartet. 7 p.m.; 9 p.m. $10–$30. milkboyarthouse.com.

POP

UNION STAGE 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. Nina Nesbitt. 6:30 p.m. $15–$50. unionstage.com.

ROCK

BIRCHMERE 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Marshall Crenshaw and The Bottle Rockets. 7:30 p.m. $29.50. birchmere.com.

DEL & DAWG

(Del McCoury & David Grisman)

TOM RUSH NM Reed TODD SNIDER Foehl att akoa

WE THREE 20 LUNASA 22 OHIO PLAYERS 23 THE FOUR BITCHIN' BABES

SOUNDCHECK 1420 K St. NW. (202) 789-5429. Jason Ross. 10 p.m. $15–$20. soundcheckdc.com.

JAMMIN JAVA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. Ellis Paul. 7:30 p.m. $20. jamminjava.com.

alston

Cash Cabin Sessions Vol. 3, Album Release Tour!

ELECTRONIC FOLK

featuring Gerald

THE DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND

At the heart of New Orleans is the big brass band. That’s the way it has always been and that is how it shall continue to be. On any given night in the city, you can hear the glorious sound of a symphony of horns calling. The New Orleans-based Dirty Dozen Brass Band have been creators of that sound for as long as most people in town can remember, officially founded in 1977.

The band is joy, and love, and pure New Orleans euphoria—the soul of a city. It’s hard to imagine any Mardi Gras season without their sweet trumpet, trombone, saxophone, sousaphone, drum, and guitar music filling the French Quarter, the Marigny, and every Crescent City mother’s living room. “My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now” and “It’s All Over Now” are must-listens. Seven members strong, the band calls their special blend of jazz, funk, and soul a “musical gumbo.” Get a taste of the 504 at The Hamilton. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band perform at 8 p.m. at The Hamilton, 600 14th St. NW. $25–$30. (202) 769-0122. thehamiltondc.com.

—Kayla Randall

SATURDAY

DJ NIGHTS

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

Jonny Grave. 10:30 p.m. Free. thehamiltondc.com.

ELECTRONIC

BLUES

CLASSICAL

CLARICE SMITH PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Stadium Drive and Route 193, College Park. (301) 405-2787.

The Xylophone Poems as Solo Opera. 5 p.m. Free. theclarice.umd.edu.

HYLTON PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 10960 George Mason Circle, Manassas. (703) 993-7759. Manassas Symphony Orchestra: Tesoros Hispanos. 7:30 p.m. $16–$20. hyltoncenter.org.

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Andy Suzuki & The Method. 8 p.m. $15. dcnine.com.

KENNEDY CENTER CONCERT HALL 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. National Symphony Orchestra: Shaham & Mozart. 8 p.m. $15–$89. kennedy-center.org.

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

Arkells. 7 p.m. $21. ustreetmusichall.com.

SIXTH & I HISTORIC SYNAGOGUE 600 I St. NW. (202) 408-3100. Kronos Quartet. 8 p.m. $45. sixthandi.org.

BLACK CAT 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-4490. Right Round. 7:30 p.m. $10. blackcatdc.com.

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

Sally Fingerett, Debi Smith, Deidre Flint, & Christine Lavin

THE RIPPINGTONS RUSSfeaturing FREEMAN 26 ROBERT EARL KEEN 27 DAVID ARCHULETA 28 BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY 25

29

HILL COUNTRY LIVE 410 7th St. NW. (202) 556-2050.

The Honey Dewdrops. 9 p.m. $15. hillcountrywdc.com.

FUNK & R&B

GYPSY SALLY’S 3401 K St. NW. (202) 333-7700. Kung Fu. 8:30 p.m. $17–$20. gypsysallys.com.

Mo' Fire

In Gratitude: Tribute to EWF and Motown & More!

30 HARMONY SWEEPSTAKES Mid-Atlantic Regionals 2019 31

FOLK

JIM"Share BRICKMAN The Love"

24

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

Apr 1&3

2

BRIAN CULBERTSON ROBIN TROWER

HIP-HOP

EAGLEBANK ARENA 4500 Patriot Circle, Fairfax.

(703) 993-3000. TOBYMAC. 7 p.m. $16–$69.75. eaglebankarena.com.

APRIL 2, 2019 - 8PM

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

TICKETS ON SALE NOW AT TICKETMASTER.COM/800-745-3000. presents

washingtoncitypaper.com march 1, 2019 25

CITY LIGHTS: SATURDAY

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

NAS

ILLMATIC – 25TH ANNIVERSARY

NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

SHERYL CROW JUL 18

JUL 14

PLACE AND DISPLACEMENT BEN HARPER & THE INNOCENT CRIMINALS TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE AUG 22

STING

AUG 26–28

DIANA ROSS JUN 27

DISPATCH

Andrew Currie and Patricia Howard are photographers, but in their joint exhibition at Photoworks, they are urbanists at heart. Currie photographs the suburbs of Northern Virginia, though he focuses less on its leafy residential precincts than its concrete highway barriers, deserted pedestrian plazas, and desolate parking lots. His square images are generally limned in inky blackand-white, but one standout breaks the mold by capturing a speeding Metro train in striking cyan tones. Howard’s works, meanwhile, are notable less for their imagery than their backstory. She returned to the eight homes her mother had lived in between the 1920s and 1940s, all in Spencer, Indiana, pairing modern-day photographs of the homes with vintage family snapshots. What’s most poignant is Howards’ deft deflation of the American dream: In her clear-eyed text, she explains that “none of the moves represented an improvement.” The exhibition is on view to March 3 at Photoworks at Glen Echo, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo. Free. (301) 634-2274. glenechophotoworks.org.

—Louis Jacobson

ANDERSON EAST

JUN 29

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE SWAN LAKE JUL 11–13

RINGO STARR & HIS ALL-STARR BAND AUG 10 + 11

JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA WITH WYNTON MARSALIS AUG 16

26 march 1, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

CITY LIGHTS: SUNDAY

METAL HEART

Now in its 13th year, the Capital Irish Film Festival, presented by the AFI Silver and Solas Nua, offers the best in contemporary Irish cinema. And Metal Heart, a coming-of-age drama, proves the universality of the human condition—especially when it comes to teenagers. Emma (Jordanne Jones) and Chantal (Leah McNamara) are fraternal twins who could not be more different. The sunny, pretty Chantal runs a popular blog, Forever Young, while her sister Emma is a brooding goth used to people walking away from her when she approaches. But even though the twins have drifted apart, they still have a blood bond, and when they venture out of their comfort zones to make new mistakes—about boys, of course—they just might reconcile. Sure you’ve seen it before, but with strong lead performances and a synth-pop and metal soundtrack, the trials of adolescence eventually rock out. The film screens at 7:30 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. $11–$13. (301) 495-6700. afi.com/silver.

—Pat Padua

washingtoncitypaper.com march 1, 2019 27

CITY LIGHTS: MONDAY

RON STABINSKY

To gain the world, would you sell your soul?

It’s hard to know where to place Ron Stabinsky in the context of jazz piano. He is an improviser and an avant-gardist—but not of the Cecil Taylor, relentless-atonal-blitzkrieg school. Instead, he starts in warm, richly rhythmic meditations that often develop into motifs that he can explore.

Other times, the meditations themselves simply expand and contract as he creates a linear melodic line over them. The atonal, free-form explosions take their time about arriving, and when they do so (as keyboard slaps, or riffs run amok, or prepared-piano weirdness) it’s as logical extensions (or culminations) of several minutes of groundwork. It’s beautiful, thoughtful stuff, but trying to assign a “recommended if you like” status gets complicated. Keith Jarrett without the blues feeling or classical mannerisms? Ahmad Jamal without the asceticism? Duke Ellington without his harmonic fingerprints? It becomes a series of caveats that isn’t helpful. Stabinsky is a unique, deeply compelling pianist—that should be enough.

Ron Stabinsky performs at 7 p.m. at the Arts Club of Washington, 2017 I St. NW. $25–$30. (202) 3317282. artsclubofwashington.org.

—Michael J. West

JAZZ

BLUES ALLEY 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Joey DeFrancesco. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $25–$30. bluesalley.com.

Faust March 16–30 | Opera House

Music by Charles Gounod / Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe’s Faust: Part One Sung in French with projected English titles. Casting available at Kennedy-Center.org/wno

Kennedy-Center.org (202) 467-4600

Major support for WNO is provided by Jacqueline Badger Mars.

David M. Rubenstein is the Presenting Underwriter of WNO.

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

WNO acknowledges the longstanding generosity of Life Chairman Mrs. Eugene B. Casey.

WNO’s Presenting Sponsor

POP

ROBERT E. PARILLA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 51 Mannakee St., Rockville. (240) 567-5301. Ronnie Spector. 8 p.m. $45–$55. montgomerycollege.edu/pac.

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

SHAED. 7 p.m. $18. ustreetmusichall.com.

ROCK

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

6 p.m. $25. 930.com.

BIRCHMERE 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

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

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

MUSIC CENTER AT STRATHMORE 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. RAIN: A Tribute to The Beatles. 8 p.m. $49–$89. strathmore.org.

UNION STAGE 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. The Beths. 8 p.m. $15–$30. unionstage.com.

SUNDAY BLUES

BIRCHMERE 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Sweet Honey in the Rock. 7:30 p.m. $45. birchmere.com.

CLASSICAL

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART WEST GARDEN COURT 4th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. (202) 8426941. Noah Getz and Friends. 3:30 p.m. Free. nga.gov.

PHILLIPS COLLECTION 1600 21st St. NW. (202) 3872151. Chiaroscuro Quartet and Kristian Bezuidenhout.

4 p.m. $5–$45. phillipscollection.org.

HIP-HOP

DC9 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000. Mass Appeal.

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

28 march 1, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

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

JAZZ

BLUES ALLEY 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. (202) 3374141. Joey DeFrancesco. 8 p.m.; 10 p.m. $25–$30. bluesalley.com.

POP

JAMMIN JAVA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. Rebecca Loebe. 7 p.m. $15–$20. jamminjava. com.

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

Imogen Heap. 8 p.m. $40–$60. thelincolndc.com.

ROCK

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. Citizen Cope. 7 p.m. $45. 930.com.

MONDAY CLASSICAL

GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR THE ARTS 4373 Mason Pond Drive, Fairfax. (888) 9452468. Mason Symphony Orchestra Concerto. 8 p.m. $5–$20. cfa.gmu.edu.

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

HIP-HOP

JAMMIN JAVA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. Nobigdyl. 7:30 p.m. $12–$25. jamminjava.com.

ROCK

UNION STAGE 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. Cass McCombs. 7:30 p.m. $20–$22. unionstage.com.

TUESDAY CLASSICAL

KENNEDY CENTER TERRACE THEATER 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Shai Wosner and Orion Weiss.

7:30 p.m. $45. kennedy-center.org.

MUSIC CENTER AT STRATHMORE 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. WPA: András Schiff. 8 p.m. $40–$80. strathmore.org.

washingtoncitypaper.com march 1, 2019 29

CITY LIGHTS: TUESDAY

The Last Supper WORLD STAGES

Orient Productions The Temple Independent Theatre Company US Premiere by Egyptian playwright and director Ahmed El Attar

SENATOR DOUG JONES

In 2017, Senator Doug Jones won an anomalous special election thanks in part to historic black turnout. Jones was the first Democrat to win one of blood-red Alabama’s Senate seats since 1992 (the last Dem to pull it off, Richard Shelby, switched parties soon after his election), and hungry Republican opponents are already lining up to unseat Jones in the 2020 cycle. Before his Senate run, Jones’ claim to fame was his record as a U.S. Attorney. Jones prosecuted white nationalists and domestic terrorists, including those responsible for the infamous 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham in 1963. For more than a decade after the bombing, which occurred at the height of the civil rights movement, there were no convictions. Jones convicted two bombers in 2001 and 2002. Jones’ soon-tobe-released book, Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights, will be the subject of his talk at Politics and Prose, a chronicle of the years Jones and other prosecutors spent bringing the church bombers to justice. Doug Jones speaks at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. (202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com.

—Will Lennon

FUNK & R&B

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

John Scofield Combo 66. 8 p.m. $25–$58. thehamiltondc.com.

HIP-HOP

POP

THE HAMILTON 600 14th St. NW. (202) 787-1000. Jon Cleary. 7:30 p.m. $20.50–$25.50. thehamiltondc.com.

FILLMORE SILVER SPRING 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. (301) 960-9999. A Boogie Wit da Hoodie. 8 p.m. $35–$134. fillmoresilverspring.com.

JAZZ

CLARICE SMITH PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Stadium Drive and Route 193, College Park. (301) 405-2787.

Spring Big Band Showcase. 7:30 p.m. Free. theclarice.umd.edu.

JAMMIN JAVA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. Oz Noy, Dave Weckl and Jimmy Haslip. 8 p.m. $25–$40. jamminjava.com.

POP

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. WET and Kilo Kish. 7 p.m. $25. 930.com.

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

Oliver Tree. 7 p.m. $20. ustreetmusichall.com.

UNION STAGE 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. Cold Cave. 8 p.m. $20–$35. unionstage.com.

ROCK

HILL COUNTRY LIVE 410 7th St. NW. (202) 556-2050.

Cowboy Mouth and Eric Lindell. 8:30 p.m. $45–$55. hillcountrywdc.com.

March 14–16 | Family Theater Kennedy-Center.org (202) 467-4600 Theater at the Kennedy Center is made possible by

Kennedy Center Theater Season Sponsor

30 march 1, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

Groups call (202) 416-8400 For all other ticket-related customer service inquiries, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540 International Programming at the Kennedy Center is made possible through the generosity of the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts.

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

WEDNESDAY CLASSICAL

UNION STAGE 740 Water St. SW. (877) 987-6487. The Black Queen. 8 p.m. $20–$35. unionstage.com.

ROCK

JAMMIN JAVA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. Tony MacAlpine. 8 p.m. $20–$30. jamminjava.com.

THURSDAY CLASSICAL

ATLAS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 1333 H St. NE. (202) 399-7993. Capital City Symphony presents Mythical Melodies. 5 p.m. $15–$25. atlasarts.org.

MANSION AT STRATHMORE 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda. (301) 581-5100. Paul Galbraith. 7:30 p.m. $30. strathmore.org.

FOLK

JAMMIN JAVA 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. (703) 2551566. Alice Phoebe Lou. 7:30 p.m. $12–$25. jamminjava.com.

POP

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

Gavin James. 8 p.m. $20–$35. unionstage.com.

ROCK

9:30 CLUB 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930. All Good Presents JJ Grey & Mofro. 7 p.m. $30. 930.com.

BIRCHMERE 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

(703) 549-7500. Madeleine Peyroux and Paula Cole.

7:30 p.m. $59.50. birchmere.com.

KENNEDY CENTER TERRACE THEATER 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600. Steven Isserlis. 7:30 p.m. $55. kennedy-center.org.

COMET PING PONG 5037 Connecticut Ave. NW. (202) 364-0404. Mike Krol and Wildflowers of America. 9 p.m. $12. cometpingpong.com.

JAZZ

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

CLARICE SMITH PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Stadium Drive and Route 193, College Park. (301) 405-2787.

Spring Big Band Showcase. 7:30 p.m. Free. theclarice.umd.edu.

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

Little Feat. 8 p.m. $43–$265. warnertheatredc.com.

CITY LIGHTS: WEDNESDAY A celebration of contemporary culture

AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ Signature Theatre transforms into Harlem for this swing-filled, Tony-winning celebration of the songs of legendary jazz pianist, composer, singer, and entertainer Thomas “Fats” Waller.

Signature Theatre. 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. To March 10. $40–$84. (703) 820-9771. sigtheatre.org.

AMONG THE DEAD Three time periods come together in a small Korean hotel room: A Korean American travels to Seoul in 1975 to retrieve her father’s ashes, a young American soldier fights in the Burmese jungles in 1944, and a Korean comfort woman awaits the return of her father’s daughter in 1950. Spooky Action Theater. 1810 16th St. NW. To March 10. $20–$40.

(202) 248-0301. spookyaction.org.

BLOOD AT THE ROOT Inspired by the tensions and protests surrounding the 2006 Jena Six case in Louisiana, Blood at the Root centers a fictional Black student who occupies a traditionally white space and inadvertently triggers hateful violence in her community. Anacostia Playhouse. 2020 Shannon Place SE. To March 24. $30–$40. (202) 290-2328. anacostiaplayhouse.com.

THE DOYLE AND DEBBIE SHOW A musical by Bruce Arntson, The Doyle and Debbie Show is a parodic send-up of country music’s tradition of iconic duos and their battle of the sexes. DC Arts Center.

2438 18th St. NW. To March 30. $50. (202) 462-7833. dcartscenter.org.

THE HEIRESS Reserved and ordinary, Catherine Sloper has languished for her entire life under the critical eye of her bitter father. When an earnest suitor rekindles Catherine’s hopes for love and life, a

Be a part of today’s art—and tomorrow’s transformation.

For a full listing of events, plug in at direct-current.org Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company Analogy/Ambros: the Emigrant Photo by Andrew Jernigan

HUCKLEBERRY FINN’S BIG RIVER An hour-long, PGrated adaptation of the Tony-winning musical based on Mark Twain’s novel. The play follows Huck Finn and Jim, an enslaved teen escaping bondage, as they travel down the Mississippi River and prove that kids can change the world. Adventure Theatre MTC. 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo. To March 10. $20. (301) 634-2270. adventuretheatre-mtc.org.

JQA Written by award-winning playwright Aaron Posner and the recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, JQA imagines the confrontations between the intelligent, eloquent, and fiery sixth President of the United States and a collection of America’s most influential figures including George Washington, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and John Adams. Arena Stage. 1101 6th St. SW. To April 14. $92–$115. (202) 488-3300. arenastage.org.

NELL GWYNN Former Drury Lane orange seller Eleanor Gwynn was a prolific comic celebrity figure of the Restoration period, King Charles II’s favorite mistress, and one of the first actresses on the English stage.

Much lauded for its London run, Nell Gwynn, a portrait of this amazing woman, premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe and won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. Folger Elizabethan Theatre. 201 E. Capitol St. SE. To March 10. $42–$79. (202) 544-7077. folger.edu.

ONCE This Tony-winning musical with music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, based on the 2006 film which won an Oscar for Best Original Song, took Broadway by storm with its romantic folk-rock ballads. Set in contemporary Dublin, Once ponders the mysteries of music and love as a street guitarist is about to give up on his dreams when he meets a curious woman who wants to know all about him and the pair embark on a remarkable musicmaking journey. Olney Theatre Center. 2001 Olney-

Highlights include:

Theater

betrayal soon compels her to reclaim agency over her destiny. Arena Stage. 1101 6th St. SW. To March 10. $41–$99. (202) 488-3300. arenastage.org.

March 24–April 7, 2019

Moon Medicin, Photo by Tim Trumble

“When I was a child and took the boat from Finland to Sweden, I was trying to feel where the border was. I couldn’t imagine how there can be a border in something that is constantly moving,” says the narrator during the trailer for Cirkus Cirkör’s Limits. Director Tilde Björfors, founder of the Swedish contemporary circus company, conceived the 2016 show as a response to many European countries’ tightening of borders both to refugees and to each other using the circus arts of juggling, object manipulation, contortion, trapeze, and aerial somersaults as metaphors for fleeing war zones and crossing seas, and then adapting to new lives in new lands. The music is provided by frequent Cirkus Cirkör collaborator, composer and multi-instrumentalist Samuel “LoopTok” Andersson. The colorful costumes and acrobatic spectacle may enchant and thrill, but they also provide another way to imagine our responses to human crises. The show runs to March 9 at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater, 2700 F St. NW. $19–$85. (202) 467-4600. kennedy-center.org.

—Ian Thal

Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Photo by Julienne Schaer

CIRKUS CIRKÖR: LIMITS

Gabriel Kahane—Book of Travelers - March 27

Where We Lost Our Shadows - March 31

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company: Analogy Trilogy - March 28–30

Brooklyn Youth Chorus: “Silent Voices”: Lovestate

Mason Bates’s KC Jukebox: Chanticleer— Sirens - April 2 Moon Medicin - April 4

April 1

Kennedy-Center.org/DIRECTCURRENT (202) 467-4600 Groups call (202) 416-8400

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

DIRECT CURRENT is presented as part of The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives.

washingtoncitypaper.com march 1, 2019 31

“Raunchy, action-packed adventure”

CITY LIGHTS: THURSDAY

Washington Post

BALI BABY

“A vibrant, juicy comedy” Washington City Paper

“Raucous, riotous, and full of heart” Brightest Young Things

“A thought-provoking, joy-filled ride” Washington Informer

“BLKS is a triumph” Broadway World

BY AZIZA BARNES DIRECTED BY

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Aztec Two-Step ft. Rex Fowler & Friends

Shinyribs

Zelula Tributo Caifanes, El Cruce Los Prisioneros Tribute

MAR 4

MAR 5

MAR 6

MAR 6

MAR 7

The Tossers

Cheryl Pepsii Riley

The Accidentals

Angela Johnson & Darien Dean

in the wine garden

christopher cross

Take Me As I Am Tour 2019

w/ Gallows Bound in the Wine Garden

in the wine garden

in the wine garden

MAR 7

MAR 8

MAR 8

MAR 9

MAR 9

The Fred Eaglesmith Show

Eminence Ensemble

Arrested Development Everyday People Tour 2019 (2 shows!)

Dwele:

Damn The Torpedoes

Starring Tif Ginn

Album Release w/ special guest Tiger Party

ivory & cream tour (2 shows!)

A Tribute To Tom Petty in the wine garden

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When it comes to up-and-coming rappers—especially female ones—you’re either a Doll (like Asian Doll, Cuban Doll, and Dream Doll) or a Baby (like Yung Baby Tate and dudes Lil Baby and Sada Baby). The newest addition to the latter category is Bali Baby, a 21-yearold from Jacksonville, North Carolina, who migrated to the heart of hiphop in Atlanta. Bali Baby has been on a tear for the last year or so, tackling Atlanta trap and SoundCloud rap with a dangerously cute aesthetic. Lyrically, expect the usual, mind-numbing boasts and threats, but with “muah” kisses mixed in. And while she has an ear for punishing, in-the-red beats, like the ones on last year’s Halloween-themed RESURRECTION mixtape, she’s also toyed with synth-pop-punk on her perfectly-titled Baylor Swift mixtape. Plus, she’s an openly queer rapper in a space that still isn’t all that accepting. “I feel like gays and females get bullied,” she told i-D last year. But she hopes her experience and her identity make her a role model. “Just be you. Do what you wanna do.” Bali Baby performs at 8 p.m. at DC9, 1940 9th St. NW. $12–$15. (202) 483-5000. dcnine.com.

—Chris Kelly

Sandy Spring Road, Olney. To March 10. $37–$84.

(301) 924-3400. olneytheatre.org.

QUEEN OF BASEL Strindberg’s Miss Julie mixed with the hedonistic excess of Miami’s Art Basel, Queen of Basel sees recently humiliated Julie hiding in the kitchen of her father’s hotel. It is there she meets cocktail waitress Christine and her fiancé John, giving rise to a confrontation about class, power, and immigration status. Studio Theatre. 1501 14th St. NW. To April 7. $20–$90. (202) 332-3300. studiotheatre.org.

RICHARD THE THIRD This Shakespearean tragedy depicts the Machiavellian tactics employed by the ruthless Richard of Gloucester to attain the crown at any cost. A penetrating account of megalomania.

Shakespeare Theatre Company Studios. 610 F Street NW. To March 10. $44–$125. 202-547-1122. shakespearetheatre.org.

TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 Staged during the Los Angeles riots of 1992, Anna Deavere Smith’s play draws on more than 200 interviews conducted over the course of nine months to reconstruct a diverse city in flames through the performance of one actress. Twilight surveys race, class, politics, and the human impact of the Rodney King verdict. Horowitz Center at Howard Community College. 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. To March 17. $10–$40.

(443) 518-1500. repstage.org.

VAMPIRE COWBOY TRILOGY A live comic book anthology of three comedies that skewer three genres: hard-boiled crime fiction, the war story, and monster fantasy. DC Arts Center. 2438 18th St. NW. To March 30. $50. (202) 462-7833. dcartscenter.org.

VANITY FAIR From The Wall Street Journal’s 2017 Playwright of the Year comes an irreverent dance hall pageant that stars two complicated and vivacious women. Becky Sharp and her friend Amelia climb social ladders and test fate to reclaim and reshape their destinies. Shakespeare Theatre Company Studios. 610 F Street NW. To March 31. $44–$118. 202547-1122. shakespearetheatre.org.

Film

FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY A young girl from a family of fighters must work to realize her dream of being a professional wrestler and joining the WWE. Starring Dwayne Johnson, Lena Headey, and Vince Vaughn.

(See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) GRETA A lonely widow befriends a young woman but harbors sinister plans for her. Starring Isabelle Huppert, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Maika Monroe. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD When dragon rider Hiccup discovers a hidden dragon utopia, he must find it before an evil tyrant. Starring Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, and F. Murray Abraham. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) A MADEA FAMILY FUNERAL Madea and her family’s latest reunion becomes an unexpected chaotic mess as they must plan a funeral on the fly while visiting backwoods Georgia. Starring Tyler Perry, Cassi Davis, and Patrice Lovely. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information) RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR To quell his terrible nightmares related to works of art, famous psychotherapist Ruben Brandt and his four patients decide to steal the works. Starring Iván Kamarás, Gabriella Hámori, and Zalán Makranczi. (See washingtoncitypaper.com for venue information)

SAVAGELOVE I’m a gay guy in my late 40s with a straight sister in her early 50s. She’s been married for a bit over two decades to guy who always registered as a “possible” on my average-to-good gaydar. But I put “BIL,” aka my brother-in-law, in the “improbable” bucket because he actively wooed my sister, was clearly in love with her, and fathered four boys with her, all in their late teens now. I’m sure you already saw this plot development coming: It turns out BIL has been far more “probable” than I thought. He has a boyfriend but is still very much closeted and denies he is gay. My sister has apparently known about this arrangement for four years, but has kept it a secret for the kids’ sake. But she recently filed for divorce and told our parents and me what’s been going on. Their kids have been informed about the divorce, but not about their father’s boyfriend.

BIL needs to gay-man-up and admit the truth to himself and the rest of his family and start the healing process. That’s obvious. Unfortunately, there’s no way I can talk him into it (we’re not close), and my sister is left holding this terrible secret while her bewildered kids watch their parents’ marriage crumble with no clue why.

I think the kids deserve the truth, and that neither my sister nor the kids can start to heal until that happens. If BIL won’t do the right thing, my sister is going to have to tell them the truth.

What can I do to help her with this? She’s awfully fragile right now and I don’t want to pressure her and I can’t tell the kids without causing a big stink. But dammit, Dan, someone needs to start speaking some truth in that house.

—Dishonest Gay Brother-In-Law Secret second families—and a secret boyfriend of four years counts—aren’t secrets that keep. So your nephews are gonna find out about dad’s boyfriend sooner or later, DGBIL, and sooner is definitely better. Because in the absence of the actual reason why their parents are splitting up—in the absence of the truth— they’re likely to come up with alternate explanations that are far worse. And when they inevitably discover the real reason, your nephews’ anger at having been lied to or left in the dark will reopen the wounds.

Backing way the hell up: seeing as BIL actively wooed and “was clearly in love with” your sister, and seeing as he successfully scrambled his DNA together with hers four times and remained married to her for two decades, DGBIL, I don’t think BIL is a closeted gay man. My money’s on closeted bisexual man.

I shall now say something that will delight my bisexual readers: I’m sure you’d like to live in a world where everyone is out, DGBIL, or, even better, a world where no one ever had to be in. But in the world we live in now, bisexuals are far less likely to be out than gays and lesbi-

Bisexuals are far less likely to be out than gays and lesbians, and the belief that a guy is either gay or straight keeps many bisexual guys closeted.

ans, DGBIL, and the belief that a guy is either gay or straight keeps many bisexual guys closeted. Because if a bisexual guy who’s married to a woman knows he’s going to be seen as gay if he tells the truth—if no one will ever believe he loved his wife or wanted all those kids—he’s unlikely to ever come out. So you can’t fault BIL for not being out, DGBIL, when it’s attitudes like yours that keep bi guys closeted in the first place.

I shall now say something that will piss off my bisexual readers: A family-minded bi guy can have almost everything he wants—spouse, house, kids—without ever having to come out so long as that bi guy winds up with an opposite-sex partner. Coming out is a difficult conversation and it’s one many bi people choose to avoid. And who can blame them? I wasn’t thrilled by the idea of telling my mom I put dicks in my mouth, but it was a conversation I couldn’t avoid. Faced with the choice between telling my mother the truth and possibly being rejected by her and thereby losing her or cutting her out of my life in order to keep my secret and definitely losing her, I chose to tell her the truth.

If I’d been, say, your average hetero-romantic bisexual man instead of a huge homo—if I enjoyed sex with men and women but only fell in love with women—I could’ve avoided coming out to her and very well might have.

Back to your nephews, DGBIL: They should be told the truth but you shouldn’t be the one to tell them. Their parents should. Sit down with your sister and make the argument I did above: Yes, your kids are upset about the divorce and it will add to their upset to learn their father is in a relationship with a man. But they’re going to be angry about being lied to when they inevitably find out. And if she’s keeping this secret solely at BIL’s request, well, he can’t ask that of her if doing so will damage her relationship with her kids. I don’t think she should immediately out BIL, but she can and should let him know that she will have to tell the chil-

dren if he doesn’t. You should have a conversation with BIL. Open it by telling him that life is long, marriages are complicated, and that you know he loved your sister. But to stick the dismount here—to end his marriage without destroying his relationship with his kids—he can’t hide from them. If he doesn’t want to tell his boys about his boyfriend because he fears he might lose them, DGBIL, then he’ll have to cut his kids out of his life—and that means losing them for sure. And then butt the fuck out.

—Dan Savage I’m a 24-year-old lesbian and I’ve been dating my girlfriend for three years now. She’s incredible but she isn’t completely out of the closet yet. I’ve been out since 2010. She’s only come out to a couple of her really close friends. I understand that everyone is different and it takes some people longer than others, but I can’t help the fact that it hurts my feelings. I don’t express this to her because I don’t want to be the reason she does something she’s not ready to. But at the same time, it’s killing me and she doesn’t even know it. We are compatible in every way possible: sexually, emotionally, and spiritually. But I can’t help but feel she’s ashamed of me. I know that sounds selfish but I want someone who will scream my name from the rooftop. I bring her around all my friends, family, and co-workers.

She’s fully a part of my life and I feel like I’m never going to be fully a part of hers. What do I do?

Set a time limit? She makes me so fucking happy but I’m starting to resent her for this and I don’t want to feel that way. Your thoughts, please!

—Being A Secret Hurts Every Day Two thoughts…

1. Your girlfriend is keeping a secret from her family and friends, BASHED, and she has to hide you to protect that secret. You’re keeping a secret from your girlfriend: Being hidden, being treated like her dirtiest secret, is making you miserable. Tell her how you feel about being hidden—because she needs to know being hidden is making you miserable.

2. “Don’t date closet cases” is one of my rules for out folks, BASHED, but there are exceptions to every rule. If an out person meets someone on their way out or someone who, for good reasons, can’t come out this minute (they’re dependent on bigoted parents) or possibly ever (they live in a part of the world where it’s too dangerous to be out), an out person can date a closeted person. But dating someone who can be out and isn’t and has no plans to come out? They’re not dating you, they’re dragging you back into the closet. Just say no.

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

LIVE MUSIC | BOURBON | BURGERS

FEBRUARY TH 28 ROCKABILLY NIGHT FEATURING KITI GARTNER & JAY JENC (FROM JUMPIN’ JUPITER)

MARCH FR 1

BENCOOLEN SWIFT TECHNIQUE

SA 2

MARDI GRAS PARADE & FREE SHOW FEATURING THE GRANDSONS

SU 3

GRAMMY NOMINATED FOR BEST CONTEMPORARY BLUES ALBUM DANIELLE NICOLE BAND w/ ASHLEIGH CHEVALIER

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A MARDI GRAS CELEBRATION ON THE WHARF FEATURING THE CRAWDADDIES

TH 7

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PSYCH NIGHT FEATURING PYSCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS FRANKIE & THE WITCH FINGERS

SU 10 THUMPASAURUS w/ ALBINO RHINO TH 14 BLUES SPEAKEASY NIGHT AT THE WHARF FEATURING MOONSHINE SOCIETY FR 15 ANDY FRASCO & THE U.N. w/ WILD ADRIATIC SA 16 ST. PATRICK’S DAY CELEBRATION FEATURING ICEWAGON FLU SU 17 JORDAN BROOKER TH 21 THE JACOB JOLLIFF BAND (OF YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND) FR 22 AN EVENING WITH THE NIGHTHAWKS SA 23 FLASHBAND PRESENTED BY 7DRUMCITY SU 24 SOUTHWEST SOUL SESSIONS w/ ELIJAH BALBED & ISABELLE DE LEON

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Body & Spirit . . . . pointment, . . . . . . . .Notice . . . . .to42 Additional specifications Creditors and Notice to Housing/Rentals . . . . . . .Heirs, . . . . Don . . 42 Unknown outlined in the Request for Proposals (RFP) such netta Wilson, whose Legal Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 address is 1414 Canal as; school information, and service needs may Row .

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OUTSOURCING, INC. (DISTRICT to OF be COLUMBIA believed heirs orDEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER legatees of the decedent AND REGULATORY who do not receiveAFFAIRS a FILE NUMBER 271941)by HAS copy of this notice DISSOLVED EFFECTIVE NOVEMmail within 25 days of BER 27, 2017 AND HAS FILED its publication shall so OF ARTICLES OF DISSOLUTION inform theFOR-PROFIT Register of DOMESTIC CORWills, including name, PORATION WITH THE DISTRICT address and CORPORATIONS relationOF COLUMBIA DIVISION ship.

Date of first publication: 2/28/2019 AName CLAIM AGAINST TRAVISA of Newspaper OUTSOURCING, INC. MUST and/or periodical: INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE Washington City Paper/ DISSOLVED CORPORATION, Daily Washington INCLUDE THE NAME Law OF THE Reporter INCLUDE A SUMMACLAIMANT, Name of FACTS Personal RepRY OF THE SUPPORTING resentative: THE CLAIM, AND Donnetta BE MAILED TO 1600 INTERNATIONAL DRIVE, Wilson SUITE MCLEAN, TRUE600, TEST copyVA 22102 Anne Meister ALL CLAIMS Register of WILL WillsBE BARRED UNLESS A PROCEEDING TO Pub Dates: February 28, ENFORCE THE CLAIM IS COMMarch 7, 14.IN 3 YEARS OF MENCED WITH PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE KIPP DC PUBLIC IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION CHARTER SCHOOLS 29-312.07 OF THE DISTRICT OF REQUEST FOR PROCOLUMBIA ORGANIZATIONS ACT. POSALS Strategic Planning and Two Rivers PCS is soliciting Consulting Services proposals to provide project management services for a small conKIPP DC is soliciting struction project.

For a copy of the RFP, please email procurement@ proposals from qualified tworiverspcs.org.

Deadline for vendors for Strategic submissions is December 6, 2017.

Planning and Consulting Services. The RFP can be found on KIPP DC’s website at www.kippdc.org/procurement.

Proposals should be uploaded to the website no later than 5:00 PM EST, on March 12, 2019.

Questions can be addressed to erin.huseby@ kippdc.org.

Print Deadline The deadline for submission and payment of classified ads for print is each Monday, 5 pm.

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34 march 1, 2019 washingtoncitypaper.com

SUPERIOR COURT Legals OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DC SCHOLARS PCS REQUEST PROBATE DIVISION FOR PROPOSALS – Modu2019 ADM 000126 lar Contractor Services - DC Name Decedent, ScholarsofPublic Charter School Earl Lee. Notice of solicitsR.proposals for a modular Appointment, Notice to contractor to provide professional Creditors and to management and Notice construction services to construct a modular Unknown Heirs, Virginia building to house four classrooms L. Olsson, whose adand oneisfaculty ce suite. The dress 550 offi Central Request forE16, Proposals (RFP) Avenue, Linwood, specifi cations can be obtained on NJ 08221 was appointed and after Monday, November 27, Personal Representative 2017 from Emily Stone via comof the estate of Earl R. munityschools@dcscholars.org.

Lee who died on be NovemAll questions should sent in ber 23, with a Will writing by 2018, e-mail. No phone calls regarding RFPwithout will be acand will this serve cepted. Bids must be received Court Supervision.

All by 5:00 PM on Thursday, December unknown heirs and heirs 14, 2017 whereabouts at DC Scholars Public whose Charter School, ATTN: are unknown shallSharonda Mann, 5601 E. Capitol St. SE, enter theirDCappearWashington, 20019. Any bids ance in this all proceednot addressing areas as outing. suchwill lined inObjections the RFP specifito cations appointment shall be not be considered. filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 Apartments for5th Rent Street, N.W., Building A, 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 8/21/19. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or to the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or Must see!

Spaciousor semi-furbefore 8/21/19, be nished 1 barred.

BR/1 BAPersons basement forever apt, Deanwood, $1200.

Sep. believed to be heirs orentrance, W/Wofcarpet, W/D, kitchlegatees the decedent en, fireplace near Blue Line/X9/ who do not receive a V2/V4. Shawnn 240-343-7173. copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of Rooms for Rent its publication shall so inform the Register Holiday SpecialTwoof furWills, rooms including name, nished for short or long address relationterm rentaland ($900 and $800 per ship. first publimonth)Date with of access to W/D, WiFi, Kitchen, and Den. Utilication: 2/21/2019 ties included.

Best N.E. location Name of Newspaper along H St. Corridor. and/or periodical:Call Eddie 202-744-9811 for info. or visit Washington City Paper/ www.TheCurryEstate.com Daily Washington Law Reporter Name of Personal Representative: Virginia L. Olsson TRUE TEST copy Anne Meister

Register of Wills Construction/Labor Pub Dates: February 21, 28, March 7 EARLY CHILDHOOD ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL INVITATION POWER DESIGN TO NOWBID HIRING ELECTRICAL APPRENTICES CHILDHOOD OF ALL SKILL LEVEARLY ELS! ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL about the position…

(ECA) request Do you love proposals for:working with your hands? Are you interested in construction and * in New Commercial Play becoming an electrician?

Equipment and apprentice InstalThen the electrical lation oncould Playground position be perfect for Space for School Facility you! Electrical apprentices are able to Under earn a paycheck Currently Conand full benefi ts while learnstruction – experienced ing the needed trade through firstvendor for the hand experience. sale and installation of

commercial playground what we’re looking for… equipment and soft who Motivated D.C. residents surfacing in new school want to learn the electrical facility.

Submission trade and have a high school deadline: diploma orECA GED will as well as reliable transportation. receive bids until 4:00 pm on Friday, March 8, a little bit about us…

2019.

Power Design is one of the top electrical contractors in * New Telephone the U.S., committed to our System values, toServices training andinto giv38,000 ft.communities School ing backsq. to the Facility Under in whichCurrently we live and work.

Construction - vendors more details… proficient in providing a Visit powerdesigninc.us/ telephone system either careersororcloud email hosted, careers@ locally powerdesigninc.us! including but not limited to the installation, configuration, training and support after theServices project Financial has finished. Submission Denied Credit??

Workreto Redeadline: ECA will pair Your Credit Report Withpm The ceive bids until 4:00 Trusted Leader in Credit Repair. on Wednesday, March Call Lexington Law for a FREE 13, 2019. credit report summary & credit For further information repair consultation. 855-620send email inquiries to at 9426. John C. Heath, Attorney bids@ecapcs.org.

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SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF Home Services COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION Dish Network-Satellite 2019 ADM 000076 Television Services. Now Over 190 Name of Decedent, Dochannels for ONLY $49.99/mo! ris J. Holman. of HBO-FREE for oneNotice year, FREE Appointment, to Installation, FREENotice Streaming, Creditors and Notice to FREE HD. Add Internet for $14.95 Heirs ,Monique aUnknown month. 1-800-373-6508

Holman-Smalls, whose address is 3415 Auctions Camden Street, SE, Washington, DC 20020 was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Doris J. Holman who died on 10/11/2018, with a Will and will serve without Court Supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts unknown Whole are Foods Commissary Auction shall enter their appearDC Metro Area ance in this proceedDec.Objections 5 at 10:30AMto such ing.

1000s S/S Tables, Carts appointment shall be & Trays, 2016 Kettles up filed with the Register to 200 Gallons, Urschel ofCutters Wills, D.C., 515 5th & Shredders inStreet, cluding N.W., 2016 Building Diversacut A,2110 3rd Dicer, Floor,6WashingChill/Freeze ton, D.C. 20001, or Cabs, Double Rackon Ovens & Ranges, (12) Claims Braising before 8/14/19.

Tables, the 2016decedent (3+) Stephan against VCMs, 30+ Scales, shall be presented to Hobart 80 qt with Mixers, the undersigned a Complete Machine Shop, copy to the Register of and much more! View the Wills or to the Register catalog at ofwww.mdavisgroup.com Wills with a copy toor the undersigned, on or 412-521-5751 before 8/14/19, or be forever barred. Persons believed to Garage/Yard/ be heirs or Rummage/Estate Sales legatees of the decedent who do not receive Flea Market every a Fri-Sat copy of this notice

by Rd. 10am-4pm.

5615 Landover mail within 25 days Cheverly, MD. 20784. Canof buy its publication shall so in bulk.

Contact 202-355-2068 inform the Register ofor if or 301-772-3341 for details intrestedincluding in being a vendor.

Wills, name, address and relationship. Date of first publication: 2/14/2019 Name of Newspaper and/or periodical: Washington City Paper/ Daily Washington Law Reporter Name of Personal Representative: Monique Holman-Smalls TRUE TEST copy Anne Meister Register of Wills Pub Dates: February 14, 21, 28.

WASHINGTON YU YING PCS REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS Facility Partner Washington Yu Ying

Public Charter School Miscellaneous (Yu Ying) serves about 570 students grades NEW COOPERATIVE PK3 - 5 th grade SHOP! in Washington, D.C.’s Ward FROM EGPYT THINGS 5. Yu Ying is seeking a AND BEYOND qualified firm to assist 240-725-6025 with securing a longwww.thingsfromegypt.com term facility for a 2nd thingsfromegypt@yahoo.com campus. The Facility Partner shall provide SOUTH AFRICAN BAZAAR Craft Cooperative oversight of the project 202-341-0209 to include site identificawww.southafricanbazaarcraftcoo tion and control through perative.com design and construction southafricanba z a ar @hotmail. activities. The specific com responsibilities of the Facility Partner will WEST FARM WOODWORKS include but are not Custom Creative Furniture limited to: search for 202-316-3372 info@westfarmwoodworks.com potential facilities, overwww.westfarmwoodworks.com see pre-development activities, identify fi7002 Carroll Avenuesecure nancing options, Takoma Park, MD 20912 a new facility, overseeMon-Sat 11am-7pm, ing 10am-6pm construction or Sun renovation / project management, and Motorcycles/Scooters provide technical assistance.

For TU250X a full RFP, 2016 Suzuki for sale.

1200 miles.

CLEAN. Just serplease email RFP@washviced. Comes with bike ingtonyuying.org . cover and saddlebags.

Asking $3000 Deadline for submisCash sionsonly. is on or before Call 202-417-1870 M-F between 12:00 PM (noon) on 6-9PM, or weekends.

March 15, 2019.

Please e-mail proposals Bands/DJs for Hire and supporting documents to RFP@washingtonyuying.org.

Earlier submissions are encouraged. Please specify “RFP for Facility Partner” in the subject line.

SUPERIOR COURT Get Wit Productions: ProfesOF THEIt DISTRICT OF sional sound and lighting availCOLUMBIA able for club, corporate, private, PROBATE DIVISION weddingADM receptions, 2019 000116 holiday events and much more. Insured, Name of rates.

Decedent, Shircompetitive Call (866) 531ley Notice for of a 6612B. ExtCooper.

1, leave message Appointment, Notice ten-minute call back, or booktoonCreditors and Notice to line at: agetwititproductions.com Unknown Heirs ,Reginil Cooper, whose address Announcements is 931 Still Pond Drive, Glen Burnie, MD Announcements - 21060 Hey, all you lovers of eroticPersonal and bizarre was appointed romantic fi ction!

Visit Representative of thewww. nightlightproductions.club and estate of Shirley B. Coosubmit yourdied storiesonto January me Happy per who Holidays! James K. West wpermanentwink@aol.com

10th, 2019, with a Will Events and will serve without Court Supervision. All Christmas inheirs Silverand Spring unknown heirs Saturday, December 2, 2017 whose whereabouts Veteran’s Plaza are unknown shall 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. enter their appearCome celebrate Christmas in ance in of this proceedthe heart Silver Spring at our ing. Objections to such Vendor Village on Veteran’s Plaappointment be arts za. There will be shall shopping, filedcrafts withforthe and kids,Register pictures with Santa, music and 515 entertainment of Wills, D.C., 5th to spread holiday and more.

Street, N.W., cheer Building Proceeds from the market A, 3rd Floor, Washing- will provide a “wish” toy foron children ton, D.C. 20001, or in need. Join us at your one stop before 8/14/19. Claims shop for everything Christmas. against the decedent For more information, contact shall Futsum,be presented to the undersigned with a or info@leadersinstitutemd.org copy to the Register of call 301-655-9679 Wills or to the Register General of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or Looking 8/14/19, to Rent yardorspace before be for hunting Alexandria/Arlingforeverdogs. barred.

Persons ton, VA area only. Medium sized believed to be heirs or dogs will be well-maintained in legatees the decedent temperature of controled dog houswho do not receive a care es. I have advanced animal copy of this experience and notice dogs willby be rid mail 25urine days free of within feces, flies, andofoder.

Dogspublication will be in a ventilated kennel its shall so so they willthe not Register be exposed to inform ofwinter and harsh weathername, etc. Space Wills, including will be needed soon as possiaddress andasrelationble.

Yard for dogs must publibe Metro ship.

Date of first accessible. Serious callers only, cation: 2/14/2019 call anytime Kevin, 415- 846Name of Neg. Newspaper 5268.

Price and/or periodical: Washington City Paper/ Counseling Daily Washington Law Reporter MAKE THE CALL TO START Name Personal GETTINGofCLEAN TODAY. Free 24/7 Helpline for alcohol & drug Representative: Reginil addiction treatment. Get help! It Cooper is time to take your life back!

Call TRUE TEST copy Now: Anne855-732-4139 Meister Register Wills Pregnant? of Considering AdopPub Dates: February 14, tion?

Call us first.

Living expenses, 21,housing, 28. medical, and continued support afterwards. Choose adoptive family of PUBLIC your choice.

TWO RIVERS Call 24/7. 877-362-2401.

CHARTER SCHOOL REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS Architecture and Engineering Services Two Rivers PCS is soliciting proposals to provide architecture and engineering services for middle school construction. For a copy of the

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