CONTENTS

JANUARY 25, 2018 Volume 24 Issue 37

14 CRAFTING ACTORS
For over four decades, the Studio Theatre Acting
Conservatory has been training some of the city’s
finest thespians.

By Randy Shulman

AGENT OF CHANGE
Facing the hostile realities of a Trump presidency,
the National LGBTQ Task Force’s Rea Carey believes
fighting back matters now more than ever.

Interview by John Riley

Photography by Julian Vankim
30
41 ALPHA WOLVES
Studio scores big with a sharp-as-nails, biting all-girl
comedy set in the world of high school soccer.

By André Hereford

SPOTLIGHT: JAMES WHITESIDE p.7 OUT ON THE TOWN p.13

CRAFTING ACTORS: STUDIO THEATRE ACTING CONSERVATORY p.14
WOMEN’S WORK: THE WOMEN’S VOICES THEATER FESTIVAL p.16 THE FEED p.21
COMMUNITY: SABBATICAL SHAKEUP p.23 SCENE: WHITMAN-WALKER 40TH ANNIVERSARY p.26
COVER STORY: AGENT OF CHANGE p.30 HYDE TIMES: SUE HYDE p.35 GALLERY: PASSAGES AT TORPEDO FACTORY p.37
STAGE: THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH / EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED p.39 STAGE: THE WOLVES p.41
STAGE: THE WAY OF THE WORLD p.43 NIGHTLIFE p.45 SCENE: LIVING ROOM p.45
LISTINGS p.46 SCENE: BALTIMORE EAGLE p.53
LAST WORD: SPECIAL WOMEN’S MARCH EDITION p.54

Real LGBTQ News and Entertainment since 1994

Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Managing Editor Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley Contributing Editor Doug Rule
Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrator Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers André Hereford,
Sean Maunier, Troy Petenbrink, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim
Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla
Patron Saint Jerry Clark Cover Photography Julian Vankim

Metro Weekly 1775 I St. NW, Suite 1150 Washington, DC 20006 202-638-6830
All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to
editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their
agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.
© 2017 Jansi LLC.

4 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 Spotlight

ERIN BAIANO

Balletics
ABT principal dancer James Whiteside has a side gig — and it’s not what you’d expect.

M
Y FRIENDS AND I WOULD JUST THROW ON
whatever sort of slightly feminine wear we had,”
James Whiteside says of his younger years, “and we’d
go out and terrorize the Boston nightclubs and basically just be
good bad kids. Nothing terrible, just debaucherous, fun nights.”
A dozen years later, when not singing and making music
videos as JBDubs, the 33-year-old still dons drag. “I like to do
that stuff in my free time, because it’s just fun and creative and
a nice outlet from the rigidity of classical ballet.”
Yes, ballet. Whiteside’s full-time job is as a principal danc-
er with the renowned American Ballet Theater Company. A
native of Connecticut who grew up training in various forms
of dance, he joined the Boston Ballet at the age of seventeen.
While there, he started performing with fellow dancers in a
drag act called The Dairy Queens. The now New York-based
ensemble is led by head heifer Milk from RuPaul’s Drag Race,
with Whiteside performing as Ühu Betch — named after Yoo-
Hoo. However, he has yet to merge the two worlds. “The
closest I’ve come,” he says, “is doing Mother Ginger in the
Nutcracker in Boston Ballet.”
Next week, Whiteside the ballerino will perform at the
Kennedy Center in two different works by famed ABT chore-
ographer Alexei Ratmansky, including a new full-length work,
Whipped Cream. “It’s got the wildest sets and costumes that
I’ve seen in a ballet,” says Whiteside, “and a really fun story
with great music. My character, Prince Coffee, is this egocen-
tric, suave, Johnny Bravo-type of character.”
The other piece, Serenade after Plato’s Symposium, is “essen-
tially just a big men’s dance,” Whiteside says. “Most of my
dancing in that ballet is pretty...loud. I don’t do too much adagio
work in that ballet. I’m jumping around doing pirouettes all
over the place.” —Doug Rule

James Whiteside performs with the American Ballet Theater in Plato’s Symposium Tuesday, Jan. 30, and Wednesday,
Jan. 31, at 7:30 p.m., and in Whipped Cream on Thursday, Feb. 1, and Friday, Feb. 2, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 3, at 1:30
and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 4, at 1:30 p.m., all in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Tickets are $49 to $249.
Call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org.

JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 7

 Spotlight
IMOGEN
An adaptation of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline by local artist
Charlie Marie McGrath, Imogen is noteworthy as one
of the first productions of the second Women’s Voices
Theater Festival (a total of 25 local productions by
women playwrights will be presented through mid-Feb-
ruary in this bid for greater gender parity in American
theater). McGrath, a directing fellow at the Shakespeare
Theatre Company, has reimagined Shakespeare’s original
adventure with Princess Imogen examining her expec-
tations when the fairytale strays from the tried and true.
DJ COREY PHOTOGRAPHY

Also, because it’s from Pointless, you can expect puppets.

To Feb. 11. Dance Loft on 14 Theater, 4618 14th St. NW,
2nd Floor. Tickets are $30. Call 202-621-3670 or visit
pointlesstheatre.com.

WASHINGTON AUTO SHOW

Several dozen manufacturers will cram more than 600 new
models into the Convention Center for the annual showcase
that is the largest public show in D.C. and touted as one of the
biggest shows in the country. Once again, Queer4Cars.com
hosts LGBTQ Family Night on Thursday, Feb. 2, expanded
to run from 5 to 9 p.m., followed by an after-party hosted
by Toyota and Lexus at a nearby location TBA. With addi-
tional sponsorship from Cadillac and Mazda, the evening
includes a private room to escape the crowds with snacks
and iced tea. Among other highlights, there’s the 3rd annual
“Art-of-Motion: A Visual Art and Fashion Exhibition,” an
8,000-square feet space on the third floor where avant-gar-
de designers will paint vehicles and murals in real-time, in
addition to other displays and discussions about their graphic
styles. Opens Friday, Jan. 26. Runs to Feb. 4. The Walter E.
Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place, NW. Tickets
are $12 per day, with various VIP Tours available. For more
information, visit washingtonautoshow.com.

NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC: COSMIC DESIGNS

It’s not everyday you stumble upon musicians and astronauts conversing in
the same space, much less get the chance to explore outer space via a sim-
ple outing to the symphony. But exactly that is on offer this weekend in a
program led by Piotr Gajewski and designed in collaboration with NASA’s
Goddard Space Flight Center. At the core of this multimedia production is
the performance by Strathmore’s well-regarded resident orchestra of two
standout 20th century classical works: Claude Debussy’s symphonic ode
to the ocean La Mer, and Gustav Holst’s Solar System-themed The Planets,
the latter heralded as one of the greatest masterpieces of the orchestral
repertoire, also including pipe organ and a trio of women’s voices, here
courtesy of members of the National Philharmonic Chorale. Original
NASA footage will complement the performance, and Goddard scientists
and engineers will also discuss their cutting-edge work, in addition to dis-
plays about the latest NASA discoveries and missions. Saturday, Jan. 27,
at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 28, at 3 p.m. Music Center at Strathmore, 5301
Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. Tickets are $42 to $82. Call 301-581-
5100 or visit strathmore.org.

8 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 Spotlight
4,380 NIGHTS
Playwright Annalisa Dias offers a critique of power, human-
ity, and what it means to be an American in her examina-
tion of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center and our post
9/11 world. The title refers to the length of time — trans-
lating to a deplorable 12 years — that Malik Djamal Ahmad
Essaid has been held without charge at Guantanamo, in
a play that explores the effects of his detention. Kathleen
Akerley directs Ahmad Kamal as El Kaim, plus Michael
John Casey, Rex Daugherty, and Lynette Rathnam. Now to
Feb. 18. Ark Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. Call
703-820-9771 or visit sigtheatre.org.
CHRISTOPHER MUELLER

AARON TVEIT
In 2010, he portrayed Peter Orlovsky, the partner of poet Allen
Ginsberg (James Franco) in Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s
Howl. Yet Aaron Tveit is far better known for musical theater,
on Broadway (Next to Normal, Catch Me If You Can) and on
screen (Danny Zuko in Fox’s Grease Live!). Tveit returns for two
evenings of cabaret at the Barns at Wolf Trap after making his
debut last year. Friday, Jan. 26, and Saturday, Jan. 27, at 8 p.m.
The Barns at Wolf Trap, 1635 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are
$40 to $55. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit wolftrap.org.

KATHLEEN BATTLE’S
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Almost a decade ago, the five-time Grammy-winning
opera star first put together this powerful program of
songs inspired by the secret network that helped trans-
port 19th-century slaves to freedom. With performanc-
es over the years at the Music Center at Strathmore and
the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Battle next brings what
she calls “A Spiritual Journey” — featuring classics
from “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” to “Wade In The
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Water” — to the Kennedy Center, accompanied by the

choir Voices of the Underground Railroad and pianist
Joel A. Martin. Sunday, Jan. 28, at 5 p.m. Kennedy
Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $25 to $129. Call 202-
467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org.

JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 9

TRAVIS SHIN

Out On The Town

Journey

JOURNEY & DEF LEPPARD

Hyped in its official press release as “promising to be the Tour of the Year,” this double-bill show features two of the big-
gest bands of the ‘80s — Journey, originally from San Francisco, and Def Leppard from Sheffield, England, are among the
biggest-selling musical acts of all time. Journey, led by founding vocalist Joe Elliott with original bassist Rick Savage and
longtime drummer Rick Allen, the British five-piece — responsible for metal hits “Rock of Ages” and “Photograph,” as well
as that suggestive sticky-sweet stomper “Pour Some Sugar on Me” — will trade opening and closing shows as one way to
keep things fresh on its second co-headlining trek with Journey after a similar route in 2006. Neal Schon, lead guitarist and
singer, is the sole original member of Journey in its current five-piece incarnation, with Arnel Pineda, the band’s lead singer
over the past decade, taking on the challenge of performing the band’s most popular soaring anthems originally performed
by Steve Perry — including “Faithfully,” “Open Arms,” and that big ditty still heard often enough, you don’t believe you
could ever forget it, try as you might. Tickets on sale Sunday, Feb. 3 for two area shows: Friday, June 8, at Jiffy Lube Live,
7800 Cellar Door Drive, Bristow, Va.; and Saturday, June 16, at Royal Farms Arena, 201 West Baltimore St., Baltimore. Call
703-754-6400 or visit livenation.com.

series. Screenings are Wednesday,

Compiled by Doug Rule
FILM
FORBIDDEN PLANET
A precursor to the science fiction
genre, Fred M. Wilcox directs Cyril
Hume’s far-out, very loose adapta-
tion of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Forbidden Planet follows a space-
craft as it travels to a distant planet
to explore the fate of a group of
scientists sent there decades earlier.
Years before Airplane! ushered in
his legacy as “the Olivier of spoofs”
(per Roger Ebert), Leslie Nielsen
starred as Commander John J.
Adams in a film also notable as the
first of any genre to use an entirely
electronic musical score, composed
by Bebe and Louis Barron. Part
of the Landmark Capital Classics
STAGE Bagley, who’s welcomed with open
Jan. 31, at 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 p.m., arms into the family at the heart
at the West End Cinema, 2301 M of Caryl Churchill’s mischievous-
#LAFOTO: A SELFIE AFFAIR
St. NW. Happy hour from 4 to 6:30
Two families are changed forever ly provocative comedy, which was
p.m. Tickets are $10 to $12.50. Call written in 1978. Churchill was nota-
when a selfie is sent to one person
202-534-1907 or visit landmarkthe- bly prescient on matters of gender
but shared by another in Gustavo
atres.com. identity and sexual orientation, and
Ott’s timely play, in a world-pre-
miere production by GALA the gender-blurring Cloud 9 is every
MAZE RUNNER: bit as gay-friendly and sex-positive
Hispanic Theatre. Performed in
THE DEATH CURE as today’s most enlightened come-
Spanish with English surtitles pro-
Based on the bestselling book series dies. It’s a struggle to keep things
jected above the stage. Abel Lopez
by James Dashner, the Hunger straight, in every sense of the word,
directs a cast including Luz Nicolas,
Games-style dystopian science-fic- in a deliberately confounding work
Carlos Castillo, Karen Morales, Jose
tion franchise draws to a close — and the confusion only adds to
Gonzalez, Samantha Rios, and Maria
with its third and final installment. the excitement. Natka Bianchini
Peyramaure. Opens Thursday, Feb.
Delayed by a year to allow its star directs a cast that includes
1. Runs to Feb. 28. GALA Theatre
Dylan O’Brien to recover from inju- Kathryne Daniels, Tavis Forsyth,
at Tivoli Square, 3333 14th St. NW.
ries sustained during filming, it’s Nick Fruit, Jonas Grey, Barbara
Tickets are $30 to $45. Call 202-
far from clear that it’ll be worth Hauck, Matthew Payne, and
234-7174 or visit galatheatre.org.
the wait. The Death Cure has thus Kristina Szilagyi. Opens Friday, Jan.
far garnered very middling reviews. 26, at 8 p.m., with a complimentary
CLOUD 9
Opens Friday, Jan. 26. Area the- post-performance celebration. Runs
It transpires that everyone — or
aters. Visit fandango.com. to Feb. 4. Theatre Project, 45 West
almost everyone, anyway — wants
to fuck British explorer Harry Preston St. Baltimore. Tickets are
$15 to $30. Call 410-752-8558 or
visit ironcrowtheatre.org.
continues on page 16

JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 13

 PHOTO COURTDESY OF STUDIO THEATRE

CRAFTING ACTORS
For over four decades, the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory
has been training some of the city’s finest thespians.

I
N 1975, A THEATER DIRECTOR, A GALLERY OWNER,
and a choreographer rented a townhouse on Rhode Island
Avenue, between 14th and 15th Streets NW. To call the
area at the time rough is charitable. Still, the townhouse served
as a hub for Margery Goldberg’s Zenith Gallery, Liz Lerman’s
modern dance company, and an acting conservatory helmed by a
woman who would later become a legend — and an unstoppable
propellant for artistic growth — in the local theater community.
“It was called the Joy Zinoman Studio,” recalls its founder.
Three years later, history was made when Zinoman, with her
friend, designer Russell Metheny, converted a nearby hot dog
vendors’ warehouse into what would become the first location
for the Studio Theatre.
The acting school was critical in helping fund the theater
in those early days. “All the profits of the school went to the
theater,” says Zinoman, who stepped down as Studio’s artistic
director in September of 2010. “While I was there, the school
was the intellectual foundation of the theater,” she says, noting
that her roster of students over the years has included such local
powerhouses as Sarah Marshall, Nancy Robinette, Kimberly
Schraf, Tom Story, and Holly Twyford.
The 43-year-old conservatory still exists as part of the current
Studio Theater complex, situated at the corner of 14th and P
Streets NW. “An entire floor of that building is the school,” says
Zinoman, “with six classrooms designed by Russell that are very
specific. They’ve got curtains and lights. There’s even a lounge
for the students.”
The Acting Conservatory is currently enrolling for its spring
semester, which starts on Feb. 5. “There are two entry points to
our three-year program,” says Zinoman. “One is called ‘Actor’s
Process,’ which is about the actor and themselves, their body,
their concentration. The other is called ‘Principles of Realism,’
which is the first class that begins with text. There are eight
entry level classes every semester but in the second year there
are only four. In the third year, there are only two classes. There
are no auditions to enter but you can’t continue from one class to
the next unless you’re, you know, recommended. Anybody can
come. But not everybody can continue.”
The conservatory offers side classes in Alexander Technique,
musical theater, movement, voice, dialect, auditioning, directing,
and “improvisation for the actor.” Zinoman encourages anyone
with a passing interest in exploring acting to apply. “Maybe
you just graduated from college and want to get a foothold in
Washington and find some community. Or maybe you have a
straight job and always wanted to try acting — you know, you
have a dream. Or maybe you’re someone who acted in high
school or college and were pulled away by life and now want to
come back.”
Primary acting classes cost $550, and meet once a week for
four months. “It’s pretty cheap,” says Zinoman. Ancillary classes,
such as voice and movement, cost less and can be discounted
further when partnered with an acting class.
Zinoman, who classifies her style as “Stanislavski-based real-
ism mixed with my profound interesting style” gets tremendous
satisfaction out of seeding the Washington acting community.
“It’s a meaningful thing for me,” says the 75-year-old power-
house. “And I still love to teach. So I keep doing it.”
— Randy Shulman

To learn more about The Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory and its spring classes, or to register,
call 202-232-0714 or visit studiotheatre.org/acting-conservatory.

14 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 continued from page 13
HAMLET
Hamlet is a monumental role for
any actor, and a few years after
personifying Barbra Streisand in
the one-man tour-de-force Buyer &
Cellar, Michael Urie returns to the
Shakespeare Theatre Company to
take on the troubled Danish prince,
one of the hallmarks of Western
literature. Yet if anyone knows Urie
is up to such a serious, dramatic
challenge, it’s Michael Kahn, who
directs his former Julliard student
directs Urie in a production that
includes Robert Joy, Madeleine
Potter, Keith Baxter, and Oyin
Oladejo as Ophelia. In previews.
Opens Monday, Jan. 22. Extended
to March 4. Harman Hall, 610 F
St. NW. Call 202-547-1122 or visit
shakespearetheatre.org.

IN SEARCH OF MY FATHER...
WALKIN’ TALKIN’ BILL HAWKINS
A one-man show tracing a bitter-
sweet journey of self-discovery,
writer/performer W. Allen Taylor
portrays a wide-range of colorful
characters in addition to sharing

WOMEN’S WORK
personal stories and memories. As
it happens, the father he never got
the chance to know was the first
black DJ in Cleveland. Director
Ellen Sebastian Chang helped the
COLIN HOVDE

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival returns for a second round Bay Area-based Taylor hone a show
to further spark the gender parity movement. that pays posthumous tribute to his
father by celebrating the rich cul-
tural legacy of black radio, with

N
inclusion of standout tracks from
OT TOO LONG AGO, D.C. HAD A GLARING PROBLEM: THEATER WAS STILL his father’s era. Taylor, who has
largely a boy’s club behind the scenes, particularly when it came to the number of plays performed the work all over for
written by women presented across the city. “I mean, the numbers were so bad when we more than a decade now, brings it
to D.C. for a run presented by the
began,” says Nan Barnett of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. “I know that [the festival] has Atlas Performing Arts Center. Pay-
had an impact. Theaters are being questioned about their seasons. Artistic directors are having to What-You-Can performances are
really look at what they’re doing before they announce an all-male season.” Thursday, Jan. 25, and Wednesday,
First launched in the fall of 2015, the festival and its push for greater gender parity came “early Jan. 31, at 8 p.m. To Feb. 10. Lab
on this wave of the new power that women have of course always had, but are really claiming now,” Theatre II, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets
are $20 to $35. Call 202-399-7993 or
Barnett says. Various movements have recently gripped the nation, including #MeToo and Time’s visit atlasarts.org.
Up, and Barnett notes that “D.C. and the festival were on the early edge of that, and I’m so delighted
that we’re doing it again in this really impactful time.” SEE ROCK CITY
This year, 30 theaters will each present at least one new play by a female or female-identified Having staged Last Train to Nibroc
last season, Washington Stage Guild
playwright as part of the festival, which, in its second outing, lands in the middle of the theater
offers the second in Arlene Hutton’s
season. “There are fewer plays involved, but each of them are running longer,” says Barnett, the “Nibroc Trilogy,” following a cou-
festival’s coordinating producer, who also leads the National New Play Network. In addition, the ple in the aftermath of World War
2018 festival also includes stronger, or at least more developed, shows — not only the hyped but II and beyond. Lexi Langs and
untested “world premieres.” “At NNPN, we’ve really pushed to make sure that both theaters and Wood Van Meter return as May
and Raleigh, and we see them at
audiences understand that the one-and-done model does not really allow for a play to have a life,” home in Kentucky with their very
she says. “So it was a personal crusade of mine to get subsequent productions included in the fes- different mothers, who have plen-
tival this year.” ty of ideas for how they should
As an example, Barnett highlights Familiar by Danai Gurira, this year’s contribution from proceed with their lives. To Feb.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. The production comes two years after the play had an 11. Undercroft Theatre of Mount
Vernon United Methodist Church,
extended run Off Broadway. “[Woolly is] letting [Gurira] have a chance, even after a major produc- 900 Massachusetts Ave. NW.
tion in New York, to come in and look at the script again, to look at the new artists that are involved Tickets are $50 to $60. Call 240-
in the project, to make the play more rich, more impactful, more vital.” 582-0050 or visit stageguild.org.
Of the festival’s future, Barnett is plainspoken: “As much as I would love to think it wouldn’t be
THE HUMANS
necessary to do another one, it probably will be. I really hope to see it spread across the country,
Stephen Karam’s uproarious, hope-
because I just think, if what we’re doing has magnified the issue, then having five, or 10, or 50 of ful, heartbreaking play, a keenly
these could really draw attention.” —Doug Rule observed examination of our mod-
ern age of anxiety, won the 2016
Tony for Best Play. It now tours
The 2018 Women’s Voices Theater Festival runs to Feb. 15 at participating theaters. Visit womens- the country with a six-member
voicestheaterfestival.org for a full lineup. A festival pass, priced at $15, grants a discount of 25 per- cast including Richard Thomas,
cent off all tickets to festival shows purchased through TodayTix.com. Pamela Reed, and Daisy Eagan, and

16 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane,
North Bethesda. Tickets are $25
to $65. Call 301-581-5100 or visit
strathmore.org.
BALTIMORE SYMPHONY
W/ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY:
DIVA TO DIVA
Ann Hampton Callaway has writ-
ten songs for her mentor Barbra
Streisand — plus the theme song
to the old TV series The Nanny.
But the lesbian jazz singer-song-
writer’s focus in the past few years
has been on the classics — whether
love songs from the Great American
Songbook to tributes to her idols
Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald.
The latter is the one of the tentpoles
in a return engagement with the
Baltimore Symphony, as Calloway
performs songs by divas, also
including Carly Simon, Carole King,
and Etta James. BSO Principal Pops
Conductor Jack Everly directs the
“Diva to Diva, From Ella to Adele”
program. Thursday, Jan. 25, at 8
p.m. Music Center at Strathmore,
5301 Tuckerman Lane, North
Bethesda. Also Friday, Jan. 26, and
Saturday, Jan. 27, at 8 p.m., and
Sunday, Jan. 28, at 3 p.m. Joseph
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212
Cathedral St., Baltimore. Tickets
are $33 to $99. Call 410-783-8000
CRAIG MCDEAN
or visit bsomusic.org.
BLACK MASALA
D.C.’s nine-piece Balkan and funk
brass band is focused on having a
whole lot of fun in a whole lot of dif-
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE ferent ways — as evidence, there’s
As eccentric as all get out, the soulful, gay British/ the three separately released, wide-
French singer-songwriter and poet has been compared ly varying collections of remixes
from the 2015 set I Love You Madly.
to Antony Hegarty and Nina Simone, as well as showered Black Masala also puts on one heck
with praise from critics and fellow innovators, including of a live show, which comes as no
David Byrne. His new album I Tell A Fly — the follow-up surprise given that the group con-
to the Mercury Prize-winning 2015 debut At Least For sists of members of the incredi-
bly lively Thievery Corporation. A
Now — finds the artist flying farther afield than mere regular at venues all around the
piano ballads with unorthodox structures to include region, Black Masala next performs
even harder-to-define, multi-instrumented tracks that a T.G.I.F. show as part of the band’s
debut at Pearl Street Warehouse on
serve as a base and springboard for unpredictable theat- the District Wharf. Philadelphia’s
rical vocalizations. Clementine kicks off his latest North fiery funk/soul act Swift Technique
American tour in D.C. on Sunday, Jan. 28. Sixth & I opens. Friday, Feb. 2. Doors at 7
Historic Synagogue. 600 I St. NW. Tickets are $25 in p.m. 33 Pearl St. SW. Tickets are
$15. Call 202-380-9620 or visit
advance, or $28 day of show. Call 202-408-3100 or visit pearlstreetwarehouse.com.
sixthandi.org.
FOLGER CONSORT: MUSIC OF
HILDEGARD VON BINGEN
In the Gothic nave of Washington
directed by Joe Mantello. Closes Lincoln Center. The scholar/activist National Cathedral, the acclaimed
Sunday, Jan. 28. Kennedy Center will share innovative spoken-word early music ensemble based at the
Eisenhower Theater. Tickets are text as part a piece exploring the Folger Shakespeare Library per-
$49 to $139. Call 202-467-4600 or importance of music in the fight forms soaring and ecstatic melodies
visit kennedy-center.org. for social change, with music com- of the great 12th-century vision-
posed by the Grammy-winning ary and composer. Notably, the
MUSIC O’Farrill, son of Cuban jazz band- program also includes works by
leader Chico O’Farrill. The 18-piece living female composers — Susan
ensemble will also perform other Botti, Kate Soper, and Pulitzer
ARTURO O’FARRILL & THE AFRO pieces written by its leader, includ- Prize-winner Shulamit Ran — per-
LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA ing Clump, Unclump, A Wise Latina, formed in new arrangements for
Dr. Cornel West is the special guest Afro Latin Jazz Suite, and The Three female voices and medieval instru-
for a performance of the Cornel Revolutions. Part of Strathmore’s ments. The female vocal ensem-
West Concerto by the jazz band Windows to the World series of ble Trio Eos and vocalists Shira
originally formed at the behest of international performances. Friday, Kammen and Christa Patton join
Wynton Marsalis at New York’s Feb. 2, at 8 p.m. Music Center at
18 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
Robert Eisenstein on viol and violin
and Christopher Kendall on lute.
Friday, Feb. 2, and Saturday, Feb.
3, at 8 p.m. Washington National
Cathedral, Massachusetts and
Wisconsin Avenues NW. Tickets
are $30 to $60. Call 202-544-7077
or visit folger.edu.
KIMBRA
“Everybody Knows.” If only the title
of one of Kimbra’s new singles were
true about the eclectic electro/
jazz artist herself. Of course many
people will remember her dramat-
ic cameo on Gotye’s massive 2012
chart-topping hit “Somebody That
I Used To Know.” Outside of the
mainstream spotlight, the 27-year-
old New Zealand artist has turned
out two solo albums full of notable
tunes that a Rovi critic rightly tout-
ed as “some of the most audacious
and playful fusions of jazzy R&B,
pop, and dance in the 2010s.” Due
in April, Kimbra’s third studio set,
Primal Heart, draws its title from
“Human,” the Kiwi’s newest sin-
gle, a striking, industrial, bass-heavy
track on which she shouts “I got
a heart that’s primal!” Innovative
indie-folk/rock four-piece Arc Iris,
initially created as a solo project of
former Low Anthem member and
classical composer Jocie Adams,
opens. Tuesday, Jan. 30. Doors at
7 p.m. 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW.
Tickets are $30. Call 202-265-0930
or visit 930.com.
MUSIC OF THE
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
“Strange Fruit: Music from, and
inspired by, the American Civil
Rights Movement” examines the
legacy of music from Nina Simone,
Marvin Gaye, Gil Scott Heron, and
Billie Holiday. A 10-piece jazz and
R&B outfit, made up of Levine pro-
fessors, offers an evening of big
sound and revolutionary culture.
Monday, Jan. 29, at 7:30 p.m. The
Aaron and Cecile Goldman Theater,
Edlavitch DCJCC, 1529 16th St.
NW. Tickets are $15. Call 202-777-
3247 or visit wjmf.org.
NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF
SONG: PASSION OF LEONARD
BERNSTEIN
Part of the international series
“Bernstein at 100,” this all-Bern-
stein program is led by Steven
Blier and Michael Barrett, both
Bernstein protégés and co-ar-
tistic directors of the New York
Festival of Song. The pianists will
present a tribute in their organi-
zation’s typically informative way
to the legendary composer’s genius
with selections from Bernstein’s
Arias and Barcarolles and featuring
up-and-coming vocalists Rebecca
Jo Loeb and Wolf Trap Opera alum
Joshua Jeremiah. Friday, Feb. 2, at
7:30 p.m. The Barns at Wolf Trap,
1635 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are
$40. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit
wolftrap.org.
 the other hand, Radiator’s bar team
helmed by Sarah Rosner wants
to lift your spirits with a cocktail
menu featuring both hot and cold
offerings — ‘tis the lingering sea-
son. Also on hand will be a winter
menu of “elevated bar bites” from
Executive Chef Jonathan Dearden.
And speaking of, Dearden has been
in the news of late, having won DC
Refined’s “Best Chef on the Block”
cook-off, a feeder contest to a forth-
coming new national chef compe-
tition on ABC’s The Chew. As the
designated D.C. representative, that
means national and TV exposure
is in the cards for the Sterling, Va.,
native. Maybe he’ll be good luck on
Groundhog Day, too. Friday, Feb. 2,
with happy hour starting at 4 p.m.,
and the dining room open at 5 p.m.
Mason & Rook, 1430 Rhode Island
Ave. NW. Call 202-742-3100 or visit
radiatordc.com.

ABOVE
AND BEYOND
ANGELISA GILLYARD

RENWICK GALLERY: MURDER AT

MIDNIGHT PARTY
On Sunday, Jan. 28, the
Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery will
close its two wildly popular tem-
porary exhibitions that opened last
THE IN SERIES: JEROME KERN REVUE fall, Rick Araluce: The Final Stop
A Broadway pioneer and Great American Songbook original is given his due in another and Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances
lightly scripted, song-focused revue from stalwart vocal/cabaret presenting outfit the Glessner Lee and the Nutshell
Studies of Unexplained Death. Both
InSeries. Directed by Brian J. Shaw, All The Things You Are: Jerome Kern features soloists are going out with a big bang: a
including tenor Cornelius David, soprano Suzanne Lane, bass-baritone Jarrod Lee, bar- night-at-the-museum party this
itenor Garrett Matthews, and mezzo-sopranos Elizabeth Mondragon and Krislynn Perry. Friday, Jan. 26, that will go until
way, way, way past normal closing
Musical direction comes from pianist Reenie Codelka, who accompanies the singers
hours — essentially until the clock
in showtunes including “Ol’ Man River” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” from Kern’s strikes Saturday. Before the witch-
most enduring musical Show Boat and also “The Way You Look Tonight” from the less- ing hour, the museum will host a
er-known Swing Time, in addition to standards including “A Fine Romance,” “Smoke Gets scavenger hunt in Lee’s Nutshells
exhibit, a craft station where you
In Your Eyes,” and “All The Things You Are.” Remaining shows are Sunday, Jan. 28, at can make your own souvenir, and a
2:30 and 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 2, at 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 3, at 2:30 and 8 p.m., and Sunday, dance party with DJ Harry Hotter
Feb. 4, at 2:30 p.m. Sprenger Theatre in the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. — hardy-har-har. The party, free
all night, also includes all-evening
Tickets are $20 to $40. Call 202-399-7993 or visit atlasarts.org.
access to the exhibitions, Araluce’s
illusory abandoned underground
subway platform and Lee’s doll-
house-sized dioramas replicating
WASHINGTON NATIONAL Free. Call 202-467-4600 or visit ing to Sunday, Feb. 4. Visit ramw. crime scenes in miniature. Friday,
OPERA’S YOUNG ARTISTS kennedy-center.org. org/restaurantweek for a full list, to Jan. 26, from 5:30 p.m. to midnight.
CONCERTS book reservations, and to enter for The Bette Rubenstein Grand Salon,
FOOD & DRINK
Next week, opera buffs have two prizes including tickets, gift cards, 1661 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Free.
chances to see budding next-gen- and cookbooks. Call 202-633-1000 or visit america-
eration stars — specifically solo- nart.si.edu/renwick.
ists from the WNO’s Domingo- DC RESTAURANT WEEK RADIATOR:
Cafritz Young Artist Program. The The winter edition of DC GROUNDHOG DAY PARTY THE ASK RAYCEEN SHOW: FIX
Kennedy Center offers the first of Restaurant Week 2018 features 250 Punxsutawney Phil may conjure ME UP! SINGLE WOMEN’S MIXER
two free programs from the organi- restaurants offering three-course up six more weeks of winter on Rayceen Pendarvis hosts an evening
zation, a small, select recital of art meals for $22 at lunch or brunch, Groundhog Day next week, but of ice-breaker games as he attempts
songs and concert works explor- and $35 at dinner. The price point even if he does, that’s no reason to play matchmaker between eligi-
ing the relationship between text makes many of the more expen- to sulk in your shadow. Why not ble women. Local author Monika
and music, poet and composer, sive restaurants in town a bit more try your hand at a better future Pickett will join as a special guest.
pianist and voice, and featuring affordable and a more enticing way as part of an eccentric promotion Raffle tickets will be given out before
Alexandria Shiner, Eliza Bonet, for those restaurants to make a good at 14th Street’s Kimpton Mason 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, from 6 to
Alexander McKissick, and Michael first impression with newcomers. & Rook Hotel (formerly Hotel 8 p.m. Lower Level Meeting Room,
Hewitt. Accompaniment will come Although the promotion officially Helix). On the one hand, psychic Shaw Neighborhood Library, 1630
from pianist Christopher Koelzer, ends Sunday, Jan. 28, a number Ariana Lightningstorm will work 7th St. NW. Call 202-727-1288 or
with introductions from program of participating restaurants plan to to upstage the groundhog with per- visit AskRayceen.com. l
director Robert Ainsley. Tuesday, make it a two-week affair, continu- sonal prognostications via compli-
Jan. 30, at 6 p.m. Millennium Stage. mentary palm readings in Radiator,
the hotel’s restaurant and bar. On

20 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 theFeed
TIME FOR CHANGE
The latest cover of iconic newsmagazine features women candidates running
for office in response to Trump and GOP lawmakers. By John Riley
F
IVE OUT LESBIAN AND
transgender women endorsed
by the Victory Fund have
landed on the cover of Time, as part
of the magazine’s story about the
flood of women running for office
in response to President Trump and
Republicans’ actions at the federal
and state levels.
The cover features a number of
women who won election in 2017,
as well as a handful running for fed-
eral or state offices in 2018. Among
those elected officials on the cover
are Virginia Del. Danica Roem
(D-Manassas Park), Minneapolis
City Councilmember Andrea
Jenkins, and Seattle Mayor Jenny
Durkan.
Roem and Jenkins made history
when they became the first trans-
gender women elected to their respective positions last
November. Durkan became the first lesbian, and only the
second woman in history, to serve as Seattle’s mayor.
Also featured on the cover were Gina Ortiz Jones, run-
MURDERS ON THE RISE
New report details a huge spike in LGBTQ homicides in 2017, particularly in cases
where transgender women were the victims. By Bailey Vogt
L
AST YEAR WAS THE MOST FATAL ON RECORD
for LGBTQ people in the United States. The New
York City Anti-Violence Project’s annual “Crisis of
Hate” report found an 86% surge in violent LGBTQ homi-
cides in 2017, with a total of 52 reported incidents, or the
“equivalent of one homicide of an LGBTQ person in the U.S.
each week.”
Cisgender men and transgender women comprised the
majority of victims, while over 71% of those killed were peo-
ple of color. Transgender women of color have been particu-
larly targeted by violence, with NCVAP noting a “consistent
and steadily rising number of reports of homicides,” with 22
trans women of color killed in 2017.
NCVAP, which works to prevent, respond to, and end
all forms of violence against and within LGBTQ and HIV-
ning for Texas’ 23rd Congressional
District, and Lauren Baer, running
for Florida’s 18th Congressional
District. All five women have been
endorsed by the Victory Fund, an
organization that seeks to elect
LGBTQ people to public office.
“The Time Magazine cover is a
powerful display of the reaction to
Trump’s presidential win in 2016,”
says Elliot Imse, a spokesman for the
Victory Fund. “It shows that women,
and, in particular, LGBTQ women,
are energized and ready to run for
office, and be the change we want to
see in the world.
“To have five of our LGBTQ
endorsed candidates on the cover
is an honor and exciting, but it is
no accident. These women decided
to run for office to make change,
not just for the LGBTQ community, but for all people,
and are now either in office, delivering on their promises,
or running strong campaigns where they can make a real
difference.” l
affected communities, argues that this kind of violence is
not new, but social politics have made it more “amplified.”
“This past year has sparked a national conversation
about the escalation of hate violence against so many mar-
ginalized communities,” NCVAP said. “NCAVP hopes that
sharing this information now will encourage people to reject
anti-LGBTQ bias whenever it occurs, and to resist any hate-
ful rhetoric or policies put forward by this administration or
by legislators.”
NCAVP urged LGBTQ people to call their representa-
tives and discuss the rising homicide rates.
“Ask them what they will do right now to proactively
address hate violence,” the organization said, “and ensure
that their communities are safe and affirming for LGBTQ
people.” l
JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 21
 Community
THURSDAY, JAN. 25 dancing at the National City
Christian Church, 5 Thomas
Goddard College and The DC Circle NW, 7-9:30 p.m. Casual
Center will hold a SOCIALLY dress. 301-257-0517, dclamb-
ENGAGED ART AND LGBTQ dasquares.org.
ACTIVISM RECEPTION to cel-
ebrate the launch of new pro- DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds

WARD MORRISON FILE PHOTOS

grams at the college. The event practice. The team is always
will feature a special screening looking for new members. All
of No Homo, No Hetero: Sexual welcome. 7:30-9:30 p.m. King
Fluidity and Manhood in Black Greenleaf Recreation Center,
America, followed by a panel 201 N St. SW. For more infor-
discussion moderated by Dr. mation, visit scandalsrfc.org or
Zelaika Hepworth Clarke, a dcscandals@gmail.com.
social worker at The DC Center
and a Goddard faculty member. THE DULLES TRIANGLES
Light refreshments are avail- Mariner & Bush Northern Virginia social
able. Free to the public. 6-7:30 group meets for happy hour at

SABBATICAL
p.m. HRC Equality Center, Sheraton in Reston. All wel-
1640 Rhode Island Ave. NW. come. 7-9 p.m. 11810 Sunrise
For more information and a Valley Drive, second-floor bar.
link to tickets, visit thedccen- For more information, visit
dullestriangles.com.

SHAKEUP
ter.org.

The DC ANTI-VIOLENCE HIV TESTING at Whitman-

PROJECT, a group dedicated Walker Health. 9 a.m.-12:30
to combating anti-LGBT hate p.m. and from 2-5 p.m. at 1525
crimes, holds its monthly meet- While The Center’s director David Mariner takes 14th St. NW, and 9 a.m-12
ing at The DC Center. 7-8:30 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. at the Max
p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite
a much-needed break, Kimberley Bush Robinson Center, 2301 MLK Jr.
105. For more information, visit steps in to keep things running. Ave. SE. For an appointment
thedccenter.org. call 202-745-7000 or visit whit-

F
man-walker.org.
The National LGBTQ OR THE PAST DECADE, DAVID MARINER HAS
Task Force’s Creating been the public face of The DC Center. He’s attended IDENTITY offers free and
Change Conference hosts confidential HIV testing at
nearly every community event, sought to expand the two separate locations. Walk-
UNIÓN=FUERZA 2018, a full
day gathering on LGBTQ issues Center’s programming, and has lead the fight to find it a per- ins accepted from 2-6 p.m.,
in the Latinx communities. 8:30 manent home. But this week, Mariner announced he will be by appointment for all other
a.m-6 p.m. Marriott Wardman taking a three-month sabbatical. hours. 414 East Diamond Ave.,
Park, 2600 Woodley Rd. NW. Gaithersburg, Md. or 7676
“This sabbatical has been planned for many years — it’s New Hampshire Ave., Suite
Visit unionfuerza.org or creat-
ingchange.org. not a spur-of-the-moment thing,” Mariner says. “It’s good 411, Takoma Park, Md. To set
for both the Center and for me to have some time off. It gives up an appointment or for more
Weekly Events me the opportunity to reflect on my time there, and think information, call Gaithersburg,
301-300-9978, or Takoma Park,
about some of the bigger picture issues I don’t get to address 301-422-2398.
ANDROMEDA
when I’m at the Center dealing with day-to-day issues.”
TRANSCULTURAL HEALTH
offers free HIV testing and HIV Kimberley Bush, the Center’s director of arts and cul- METROHEALTH CENTER
services (by appointment). 9 tural programs, will step into the role of interim executive offers free, rapid HIV testing.
a.m.-5 p.m. Decatur Center, Appointment needed. 1012 14th
director, while Chris Rothermel, a certified nonprofit pro- St. NW, Suite 700. To arrange
1400 Decatur St. NW. To
fessional, will oversee day-to-day operations. “Kimberley an appointment, call 202-638-
arrange an appointment, call
202-291-4707, or visit androm- knows the Center, how we operate, and is a valuable team 0750.
edatransculturalhealth.org. member,” says Mariner. “And Chris comes to us with a lot of
SMYAL offers free HIV Testing,
expertise in nonprofit management, which I think is going 3-5 p.m., by appointment and
DC AQUATICS CLUB practice
to be valuable for us, not just now but for the foreseeable walk-in, for youth 21 and
session at Takoma Aquatic
Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 300 Van future.” younger. Youth Center, 410 7th
Buren St. NW. For more infor- Bush, who oversees multiple arts or cultural programs at St. SE. 202-567-3155 or test-
mation, visit swimdcac.org. ing@smyal.org.
the Center and also serves as executive director of the DC
Shorts Film Festival, is “honored” that the Center’s board of STI TESTING at Whitman-
DC FRONT RUNNERS run-
ning/walking/social club directors has confidence in her ability to take over the helm Walker Health. 10 a.m.-12:30
welcomes runners of all ability from Mariner. p.m. and 2-3 p.m. at both 1525
levels for exercise in a fun and 14th St. NW and the Max
“It’s an amazing opportunity for me to continue the work Robinson Center, 2301 Martin
supportive environment, with
that we, as a team, have done, and to lead the team over the Luther King, Jr. Ave. SE.
socializing afterward. Route
distance is 3-6 miles. Meet at next three months,” she says. “My main focus is to maintain Testing is intended for those
7 p.m. at 23rd & P Streets NW. what we’re currently doing, and the quality of service we without symptoms. For an
For more information, visit appointment call 202-745-7000
provide to our community. I’ve got a lot of experience work- or visit whitman-walker.org.
dcfrontrunners.org.
ing in the community, and I think I will do a pretty good
DC LAMBDA SQUARES gay darn job of leading the Center.” —John Riley US HELPING US hosts a
and lesbian square-dancing Narcotics Anonymous Meeting.
group features mainstream The group is independent of
For more information on The DC Center, or a listing of its UHU. 6:30-7:30 p.m., 3636
through advanced square
various programs, call 202-682-2245 or visit thedccenter.org.

JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 23

Georgia Ave. NW. For more infor-
mation, call 202-446-1100.
WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP
INSTITUTE for young LBTQ
women, 13-21, interested in lead-
ership development. 5-6:30 p.m.
SMYAL Youth Center, 410 7th St.
SE. For more information, call 202-
567-3163, or email catherine.chu@
smyal.org.
FRIDAY, JAN. 26
GAMMA is a confidential, volun-
tary, peer-support group for men
who are gay, bisexual, questioning
and who are now or who have been
in a relationship with a woman.
7:30-9:30 p.m. Luther Place
Memorial Church, 1226 Vermont
Ave NW. GAMMA meetings are
also held in Vienna, Va., and in
Frederick, Md. For more informa-
tion, visit gammaindc.org.
The DC Center holds its CENTER
AGING MONTHLY LUNCH social
for members of D.C.’s senior com-
munity. 12-2 p.m. 2000 14th St.
NW, Suite 105. For more informa-
tion, visit thedccenter.org or call
202-682-2245.
WOMEN IN THEIR TWENTIES
(AND THIRTIES), a social discus-
sion and activity group for queer
women, meets at The DC Center
on the second and fourth Friday of
each month. Group social activity
to follow the meeting. 8-9:30 p.m.
2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For
more information, visit thedccen-
ter.org.
Weekly Events
BET MISHPACHAH, founded by
members of the LGBT community,
holds Friday evening Shabbat ser-
vices in the DC Jewish Community
Center’s Community Room. 8 p.m.
1529 16th St. NW. For more infor-
mation, visit betmish.org.
DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a prac-
tice session at Howard University.
6:30-8 p.m. Burr Gymnasium, 2400
6th St. NW. For more information,
visit swimdcac.org.
PROJECT STRIPES hosts LGBT-
affirming social group for ages
11-24. 4-6 p.m. 1419 Columbia Road
NW. Contact Tamara, 202-319-
0422, layc-dc.org.
SATURDAY, JAN. 27
ADVENTURING outdoors group
hikes 11 strenuous miles with 2000
feet of elevation gain on Catoctin
Mountain near Thurmont, Md.,
Bring beverages, lunch, warm
layers, sturdy footwear, and about
$10 for fees. Carpool at 8:30 a.m.
from Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro
Station. Contact Jackson, 410-422-
9257 or visit adventuring.org.
24 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
CHRYSALIS arts & culture group
visits the Walters Art Gallery in
downtown Baltimore to see an
exhibition on “Faberge & the
Russian Crafts Tradition” and
its new installation of an Asian
art collection. Admission is free.
Lunch at nearby City Cafe. Carpool
at 9:30 a.m. from the Forest Glen
Metro Station. Contact Craig, 202-
462-0535 or visit craighowell1@
verizon.net.
Join The DC Center as it vol-
unteers for FOOD & FRIENDS,
packing meals and groceries for
people living with serious ailments.
10 a.m.-noon. 219 Riggs Rd. NE.
Near the Fort Totten Metro. For a
ride from the Metro, call the Food
& Friends shuttle at 202-669-6437.
For more information, visit thedc-
center.org or foodandfriends.org.
SUNDAY, JAN. 28
ADVENTURING outdoors group
hikes several miles on Gettysburg
Battlefield, focusing on a new
museum and trails on Seminary
Ridge and ending by walking in
the footsteps of Pickett’s Charge.
Lunch inside nearby fast food
establishment. Bring beverages,
snack, winter-worthy footwear,
lunch money, and about $20 for
transportation and museum admis-
sion fees. Carpool at 9:30 a.m. from
the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro
Station. Contact Craig, 202-462-
0535 or visit adventuring.org.
The AFROLATINX CAFECITO
at Creating Change 2018 gives
LGBTQ Black Latinos and Latinas
from across the country the chance
to connect and build community
with each other. 9:30-11:30 a.m.
POC Hospitality Suite at the
Marriott Wardman Park, 2600
Woodley Rd. NW. For more infor-
mation, visit facebook.com/center-
latinx or creatingchange.org.
Weekly Events
LGBT-inclusive ALL SOULS
MEMORIAL EPISCOPAL CHURCH
celebrates Low Mass at 8:30
a.m., High Mass at 11 a.m. 2300
Cathedral Ave. NW. 202-232-4244,
allsoulsdc.org.
DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a
practice session at Wilson Aquatic
Center. 9:30-11 a.m. 4551 Fort Dr.
NW. For more information, visit
swimdcac.org.
DC FRONT RUNNERS running/
walking/social club welcomes run-
ners of all ability levels for exercise
in a fun and supportive environ-
ment, with socializing afterward.
Route will be a distance run of 8, 10
or 12 miles. Meet at 9 a.m. at 23rd
& P Streets NW. For more informa-
tion, visit dcfrontrunners.org.
DIGNITYUSA offers Roman
Catholic Mass for the LGBT
community. All welcome. Sign
interpreted. 6 p.m. St. Margaret’s
Church, 1820 Connecticut Ave.
NW. For more info, visit dignity-
washington.org.
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL
UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
welcomes all to 10:30 a.m. service,
945 G St. NW. firstuccdc.org or
202-628-4317.
HOPE UNITED CHURCH OF
CHRIST welcomes GLBT commu-
nity for worship. 10:30 a.m., 6130
Old Telegraph Road, Alexandria.
hopeucc.org.
HSV-2 SOCIAL AND SUPPORT
GROUP for gay men living in the
DC metro area. This group will be
meeting once a month. For infor-
mation on location and time, visit
H2gether.com.
Join LINCOLN
CONGREGATIONAL TEMPLE –
UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST for
an inclusive, loving and progressive
faith community every Sunday. 11
a.m. 1701 11th Street NW, near R in
Shaw/Logan neighborhood. lincol-
ntemple.org.
METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY
CHURCH OF NORTHERN
VIRGINIA services at 11 a.m., led
by Rev. Emma Chattin. Children’s
Sunday School, 11 a.m. 10383
Democracy Lane, Fairfax. 703-691-
0930, mccnova.com.
NATIONAL CITY CHRISTIAN
CHURCH, inclusive church with
GLBT fellowship, offers gospel wor-
ship, 8:30 a.m., and traditional wor-
ship, 11 a.m. 5 Thomas Circle NW.
202-232-0323, nationalcitycc.org.
ST. STEPHEN AND THE
INCARNATION, an “interra-
cial, multi-ethnic Christian
Community” offers services in
English, 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., and
in Spanish at 5:15 p.m. 1525 Newton
St. NW. 202-232-0900, saintste-
phensdc.org.
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST
CHURCH OF SILVER SPRING
invites LGBTQ families and indi-
viduals of all creeds and cultures to
join the church. Services 9:15 and
11:15 a.m. 10309 New Hampshire
Ave. uucss.org.
MONDAY, JAN. 29
Weekly Events
DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a
practice session at Dunbar Aquatic
Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 101 N St. NW.
For more information, visit swim-
dcac.org.
GETEQUAL meets 6:30-8 p.m. at
Quaker House, 2111 Florida Ave.
NW. For more information, email
getequal.wdc@gmail.com.
NOVASALUD offers free HIV test-
ing. 5-7 p.m. 2049 N. 15th St., Suite
200, Arlington. Appointments: 703-
789-4467.
The DC Center hosts COFFEE
DROP-IN FOR THE SENIOR LGBT
COMMUNITY. 10 a.m.-noon. 2000
14th St. NW. For more information,
call 202-682-2245 or visit thedc-
center.org.
US HELPING US hosts a black gay
men’s evening affinity group for
GBT black men. Light refreshments
provided. 7-9 p.m. 3636 Georgia
Ave. NW. 202-446-1100.
WASHINGTON WETSKINS
WATER POLO TEAM practices 7-9
p.m. Newcomers with at least basic
swimming ability always welcome.
Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van
Buren St. NW. For more informa-
tion, contact Tom, 703-299-0504
or secretary@wetskins.org, or visit
wetskins.org.
TUESDAY, JAN. 30
Queer-identifying women who
have survived violent or traumatic
experiences and are looking for
support are invited to take part
in a bi-weekly QUEER WOMEN
WORKING THROUGH TRAUMA
GROUP at The DC Center.
Participants are encouraged to
do an intake assessment with
moderator and social worker Sam
Goodwin. 6-7 p.m. 2000 14th St.
NW, Suite 105. For more infor-
mation, email Sam at samantha@
thedccenter.org.
Weekly Events
DC AQUATICS CLUB practice
session at Takoma Aquatic Center.
7:30-9 p.m. 300 Van Buren St. NW.
For more information, visit swim-
dcac.org.
DC FRONT RUNNERS running/
walking/social club welcomes run-
ners of all ability levels for exercise
in a fun and supportive environment,
with socializing afterward. Route
distance is 3-6 miles. Meet at 7 p.m.
at Union Station. For more informa-
tion, visit dcfrontrunners.org.
DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds prac-
tice. The team is always looking for
new members. All welcome. 7:30-
9:30 p.m. King Greenleaf Recreation
Center, 201 N St. SW. For more
information, visit scandalsrfc.org or
dcscandals@gmail.com.
THE GAY MEN’S HEALTH
COLLABORATIVE offers free
HIV testing and STI screening
and treatment every Tuesday.
5-6:30 p.m. Rainbow Tuesday
LGBT Clinic, Alexandria Health
Department, 4480 King St. 703-
746-4986 or text 571-214-9617.
james.leslie@inova.org.
OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS
— LGBT focused meeting every
Tuesday, 7 p.m. St. George’s
Episcopal Church, 915 Oakland
Ave., Arlington, just steps from
Virginia Square Metro. For
more info. call Dick, 703-521-
1999. Handicapped accessible.
Newcomers welcome. liveandletli-
veoa@gmail.com.
Support group for LGBTQ youth
ages 13-21 meets at SMYAL. 5-6:30
p.m. 410 7th St. SE. For more
information, contact Cathy Chu,
202-567-3163, or catherine.chu@
smyal.org.
US HELPING US hosts a support
group for black gay men 40 and
older. 7-9 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave.
NW. 202-446-1100.
Whitman-Walker Health holds its
weekly GAY MEN’S HEALTH AND
WELLNESS/STD CLINIC. Patients
are seen on walk-in basis. No-cost
screening for HIV, syphilis, gon-
orrhea and chlamydia. Hepatitis
and herpes testing available for fee.
Testing starts at 6 p.m, but should
arrive early to ensure a spot. 1525
14th St. NW. For more information,
visit whitman-walker.org.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 31
The LAMBDA BRIDGE CLUB meets
at the Dignity Center, across from
the Marine Barracks, for Duplicate
Bridge. No reservations needed.
Newcomers welcome. 7:30 p.m. 721
8th St. SE. Call 202-841-0279 if you
need a partner.
The OUTWRITE WRITING
WORKSHOP SERIES features a
workshop on breaking stock char-
acters out of stereotypes when
writing. The class will be taught
by John Copenhaver, author of
Dodging and Burning. 7-9 p.m. The
DC Center, 20000 14th St. NW,
Suite 105. For more information,
visit thedccenter.org/outwrite.
Weekly Events
AD LIB, a group for freestyle con-
versation, meets about 6-6:30 p.m.,
Steam, 17th and R NW. All wel-
come. For more information, call
Fausto Fernandez, 703-732-5174.
DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC)
holds a practice session at Dunbar
Aquatic Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 101 N
St. NW. For more information, visit
swimdcac.org.
FREEDOM FROM SMOKING, a
group for LGBT people looking
to quit cigarettes and tobacco use,
holds a weekly support meeting at
The DC Center. 7-8 p.m. 2000 14th
St. NW, Suite 105. For more infor-
mation, visit thedccenter.org.
JOB CLUB, a weekly support pro-
gram for job entrants and seekers,
meets at The DC Center. 6-7:30
p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.
For more info, centercareers.org.
NOVASALUD offers free HIV
testing. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. 2049 N.
15th St., Suite 200, Arlington.
Appointments: 703-789-4467.
STI TESTING at Whitman-Walker
Health. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at both 1525
14th St. NW and the Max Robinson
Center, 2301 Martin Luther King,
Jr. Ave. SE. Testing is intended for
those without symptoms. For an
appointment call 202-745-7000 or
visit whitman-walker.org.
WASHINGTON WETSKINS
WATER POLO TEAM practices 7-9
p.m. Newcomers with at least basic
swimming ability always welcome.
Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van
Buren St. NW. For more informa-
tion, contact Tom, 703-299-0504
or secretary@wetskins.org, or visit
wetskins.org. l
JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 25
 Scene
Whitman-Walker Health’s 40th Anniversary Party at Town
Saturday, January 20 • Photography by Ward Morrison
See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

26 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 27
28 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
 Agent
of
Change Facing the hostile realities of a Trump presidency,
the National LGBTQ Task Force’s Rea Carey believes
fighting back matters now more than ever.
Interview by John Riley • Photography by Julian Vankim
R
EA CAREY IS OFTEN CALLED UPON TO PLAY
the role of happy warrior. A leader in the fight
against attempts to deny the existence of LGBTQ
people — or reverse our equal standing in the eyes
of the law — she is always ready to dive into the
breach once again. And the urgency of that fight has never been
more acute under the Trump administration, which Carey sees
as a direct threat to the LGBTQ community’s way of life.
“Living in the D.C. metropolitan area, there is protest after
protest after protest,” she says. “We have to keep those up. And
believe me, I know people are getting tired. There are days
when my alarm goes off and I think, ‘How can I get up and do
this again?’ But we all have to. Because if we don’t, the trajecto-
ry that this administration is on will not be stopped.”
As the executive director of the National LGBTQ Task
Force, Carey finds herself at the forefront of countless battles
on behalf of the LGBTQ community and its progressive allies,
including racial justice groups, organized labor, and immigrant
advocates. Much like LGBTQ people, those groups frequently
find themselves under siege from right-wing lawmakers across
the country.
Born and raised in Colorado by politically engaged parents,
Carey became active at an early age, knocking on doors and
handing out fliers supporting various candidates for office.
As an adult, she joined the HIV prevention movement, before
moving on to LGBTQ youth issues as the executive director of
the National Youth Advocacy Coalition. Years later, she served
as a consultant for a number of LGBTQ-focused clients before
eventually landing at the National LGBTQ Task Force in 2004
as its deputy executive director.
Even though Carey is keenly aware of the uphill battles that
the LGBTQ community and its allies face, she couldn’t be any
less hopeful that we will rise to the challenge.
“I do not buy into [the idea] that people are born leaders. I
30 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
believe people can express leadership in extraordinary ways if
given the opportunity,” she says. “When there is an utter vac-
uum not only of leadership, but of moral leadership, I believe
that the LGBTQ community is in a unique position to step up
and show leadership in thousands of ways across the country.”
Some of those future leaders will travel to Washington this
weekend to take part in Creating Change, an annual five-day
conference, produced by the Task Force, that seeks to connect
LGBTQ activists with one another and serve as a sounding board
for ideas on how to achieve major goals related to equality.
Carey notes that each individual activist at Creating Change
will have their own interests, special skills, or areas of exper-
tise, creating a breadth and depth of experience on which the
equality movement can rely. By employing different strategies,
each person can make their own contributions, whether it’s
passing comprehensive nondiscrimination laws, or defeating
bills that would legalize various forms of discrimination.
“I think for our community to be able to assert who we
are, to be able to stand up and say, ‘Yes, this is who I am, this is
what I deserve, this is my family, this is who I wanna be,’ takes
tremendous strength given the odds, and given what we are
sometimes up against,” says Carey. “Creating Change provides
an opportunity for people to come together to be all of who they
are, to learn, and to go home and get to work.”
METRO WEEKLY: Let’s start with your childhood and upbringing.
REA CAREY: I was born in Boulder, and grew up in Denver,
Colorado. I have one brother, with whom I’m very close. And
my family, they were grassroots politically active. I was a little,
itty bitty kid, and what we did on weekends was to go knock
on doors, hand out fliers, and talk to people. I later realized not
every family did that.
My mom was, at the time, very involved in juvenile justice,
criminal justice issues, women’s issues. Both of my parents
JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 31
were involved in political work. And what it taught me, or into this work over the years from a place of wholeness and
maybe what I just absorbed, is that people can get involved and pride, and pride in our community. There were odds and ends of
work together, because we worked with groups of people you’d homophobic things that happened to me, but certainly nothing
meet in the morning and then you’d start knocking on doors on the scale that so many people unfortunately experience.
and everything. MW: Where did you go to college?
MW: What was your personality like when you were a child? CAREY: First, I went to Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
CAREY: I was a baby lesbian jock all
the way. And a wonk, I would say.
I went to public schools all the way
through. And, interestingly, during the
’70s, with what was happening in the
country in terms of segregation and
desegregation of schools, our neigh-
borhood was very racially diverse. I
was a jock, I played soccer, I played
volleyball, I skied — I’m a Coloradan, of
course — and was very involved in my
school in a variety of ways.
MW: When did you realize that you were
a lesbian?
CAREY: I knew from a very young age.
When I went to elementary school, I
didn’t know I was a “lesbian,” because
the words that were used for being
a lesbian were very derogatory, and
what I felt didn’t feel bad. I had crush-
es on all my girl classmates. But I
knew that I was different, and I knew “We are
that it had something to do with being seeing threats
attracted to other girls.
Eventually, I learned that they
to democracy,
weren’t all derogatory words, and I the ascension
could be proud of who I was. Now, it’s of a racist white
incredible: There are so many people
coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual,
supremacist
trans, or queer in elementary school and religiously
and junior high school and high school. conservative
But at that time, that wasn’t really the
case. I came out at 16 and there were
point of view,
other people who were identifying at and THE USE OF
least as lesbian and gay and bisexual INSTITUTIONS IN THE
in our high school. So we had our own
group of folks that we knew we’d be
GOVERNMENT TO ALLOW
safe with. FOR RELIGION TO BE
MW: What was your parents’ reaction USED AS AN EXCUSE TO
when you came out?
CAREY: Well, it’s funny, because actu-
DISCRIMINATE AGAINST
ally when I say I “came out,” I came THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY.”
out to some people, and I didn’t have
to come out to others. I actually don’t remember coming out to It was a big culture shock for me. I was coming from Colorado
my mom, because she already knew. In fact, when I look back on to Connecticut, I hadn’t spent a lot of time on the East Coast. I
coming out, I think the very first person I came out to was my also went to a high school that was majority people of color. And
brother, and told him who I was, what my experience was, who then I went to a college where I think in my entering a class of
I am in the world. And he was — and is — incredibly supportive, seven hundred or so, there were seven people of color. Given
as were my parents. my experience growing up and my life, that was a big cultural
My dad, in particular, was concerned about my safety. I difference.
think he worried quite a bit and had to deal with his own feel- One of the things that was happening in my life, starting in
ings around that. But my parents were very supportive. And I high school, is that my friends, and other people who I heard
think, in large part, because growing up they had friends who about, were getting infected with HIV. I remember the first
were gay, people I continue to call my uncles. newspaper articles that came out about this unusual illness
I am incredibly fortunate, because I didn’t have to face as that a few gay men were getting. I lost my uncle’s partner to
much of the discrimination as so many other people do. I am what was then called GRID — Gay Related Immune Deficiency
forever grateful for that, because I think it’s allowed me to move Syndrome. So, even before it was AIDS, even before they had

32 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

identified it, people in my life were getting sick.
When I went to college, as someone who is out and someone
who was very aware that this was going to have an impact on
our generation, I started a speakers’ bureau. It was a handful of
us who were out as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, going to different
dorms and houses, answering questions and talking about our
lives. We’d have a little forum or something, or a little coffee
thing, and people could come and just ask questions.
I ended up transferring to Smith College, where I graduated.
I became a member of, and then eventually was the chair of,
the Lesbian Alliance. We eventually changed the name to the
Lesbian Bisexual Alliance. At the time, we thought it might be
so controversial, but we decided to change the name when we
applied for our budget. And then the next year, it was just in the
system. I tell that story to highlight the biphobia at the time,
and that continues, unfortunately, to exist in our community.
But also because it taught me a lesson about how to use a system
for change — if you write it down on a piece of paper, and that
piece of paper gets taken by the administration to list the clubs
the next year, it is so. Looking back on it, I try to think about
what we can get changed that could have a longer-term impact.
METRO WEEKLY: How did you end up in D.C.?
CAREY: I moved back to Denver, hoping to live there, work there,
maybe even eventually run for office. But Denver was going
through a big recession, and it was just really hard to find a job.
So I came to D.C. in 1989 for what I planned on being two years,
and then I’d go back to grad school or something. My very first
job in D.C. was as an administrative aide for an organization
that, at the time, was called The National Network of Runaway
and Youth Services.
Think about this. In 1989, they had not come up with any of
the HIV drugs that we have now. No one wanted to talk about
kids having sex, no one wanted to talk about queer kids, and
there were a set of organizations that did. And I was very for-
tunate to be a part of that work. It was called the Safe Choices
Project and was funded by the CDC. Over a period of a couple
of years, I got to be a trainer with that project and travel around
the country and work with people in runaway and homeless
youth shelters and young people themselves to train them how
to do HIV prevention.
When I came to D.C., I was doing that work, and started
lobbying on The Hill, trying to get funding and attention for
HIV prevention. I was also an ACT UP here in D.C., and another
direct action and activist group, OUT. And I was not unusual in
doing so.
When I look back at that time and what we were up against,
and our friends were dying daily, we were all doing everything
we possibly could. And sometimes we tried to play off each
other, “Well, you can deal with those activists in the street, or
you can have this conversation with me in your congressional
office.” And then the next day we’d switch.
We all came together, and created an organization that
eventually became known as the National Youth Advocacy
Coalition. We were focused on youth leadership. We had these
national and regional summits where we’d bring youth together
to learn skills, share experiences so they didn’t feel so alone, and
be able to go back to their communities and organize. I became
the first executive director of that organization.
In this country we have never won a civil right for any com-
munity based on one strategy or one tactic. It takes lobbying, it
takes talking to our friends and neighbors, sometimes it takes
civil disobedience, it takes doing the hard work of sometimes
working with governments. But it takes a lot of different strat-
egies. As I’ve moved on in my career, like the lessons that I had
learned before, knocking on the doors counts, talking to your
neighbors counts, what gets written down on the form counts,
and so do many different strategies to move us forward as a
people.
MW: How long did you work at NYAC?
CAREY: I was there for a little over six years. We did advocacy,
we worked on Capitol Hill, we worked with the administration
at that time to make sure that we were trying to get data, trying
to get lesbian and gay youth included in surveys. It was very
important to us to get questions on something called the Youth
Risk Behavior Survey, which happens in every state. And then,
nationally, we wanted to have questions around sexual orienta-
WHAT IS
CREATING CHANGE?
The nation’s premier conference for LGBTQ
progressives offers a chance to further the
movement from the ground up.
By John Riley
B
ACK IN 1987, SUE HYDE WAS WORKING FOR THE
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force on their Privacy
Project. In October of that year, the second national march
for LGBTQ rights was held in Washington, D.C.
“The message that was sent out to everyone at the march
and rally was ‘Go home, roll up your sleeves, and get to work,’”
says Hyde. Soon after, the office was beset by a deluge of phone
calls and letters from people seeking help.
Hyde and her office mate, Urvashi Vaid, realized that there
had to be a better way for people in the LGBTQ movement
to learn from one another without having to rely on the small
eight-person Task Force staff. The pair approached their boss,
Jeff Levy, with the idea for a conference.
“We said, ‘We want to launch a national organizing and train-
ing conference for our movement,’” recalls Hyde. “He looked at
us and said, ‘Are you crazy?’ And then he said, ‘Okay. Do it.’”
Thirty years after the first Creating Change conference in
1988, the principles behind it remain the same: provide space
for activists to meet, coordinate with others, and build a more
representative LGBTQ movement.
The current five-day conference features workshops, plena-
ries, panel discussions, and day-long institutes geared towards
specific communities or topics such as racial justice, transgender
and genderqueer issues, or the intersection between immigration
and LGBTQ communities. Each evening, Creating Change hosts
receptions, spiritual gatherings, and dances allowing attendees to
socialize with one another in a more relaxed setting.
One especially interesting program at this year’s Creating
Change is “Queer the Hill,” an advocacy day held today, Jan.
25, in which attendees travel to Capitol Hill to lobby their repre-
sentatives to support pro-LGBTQ or progressive legislation. The
number of people who signed up reached record numbers.
“It may very well be the largest LGBTQ lobby day that our
movement has had,” says Rea Carey, executive director of The
Task Force. “We hoped that maybe 100 people might show up.
We have over 500.” l
Creating Change runs from Jan. 24-28 at the Marriott Wardman
Park, 2600 Woodley Rd. NW. For a full list of events at Creating
Change, visit creatingchange.org.
JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 33
tion, and eventually gender identity, so we could advocate for
money and programs to serve LGBTQ youth, and we were very
successful.
MW: Where did you go from there?
CAREY: I wrapped up my work at NYAC, and I decided to go
back to grad school. In some ways I think it was to recuperate
from coming here, from being an executive director, and to get
some reflection on, “Okay, what has gone on the last decade of
my life?”
I got a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard
University’s Kennedy School of Government. I focused in
particular on leadership, studying and working on leadership
development in the nonprofit sector. When I finished, I wanted
to consult with a number of nonprofits. I worked with a group
here called the Management Assistance Group. And then also
went out on my own to work with nonprofits particularly
around strategic planning and leadership development. I was
doing consulting and worked with a number of clients, one of
whom was what was then called the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force. And I worked on their strategic plan in 2003. I met
their incoming executive director, Matt Foreman. And Matt
hired me to come onto staff, first as a senior strategist, and then,
shortly after, as his deputy executive director in 2004.
The rest is history, as they say. I was deputy executive direc-
tor for four and a half years under Matt’s leadership. When he
left, I wasn’t interested in becoming the executive director. I
loved my job, and was excited to see who we might be able to
bring on, and there were many exciting people, I think, who
absolutely could have been executive director. But long story
short, the board approached me and asked me if I would con-
sider it, and I did, and I’ve been executive director since 2008.
MW: What is the difference between the National LGBTQ Task
Force and other LGBTQ groups?
CAREY: One of the things that drew me to the Task Force, long
before I was on staff, are its values. We now describe ourselves
as a racial, economic, and social justice organization that serves
the LGBT community.
What our values stem from is an understanding that each of
us is a whole person. We can’t ask someone to be a lesbian one
day, Latinx the next, and a parent the third day. We are all of
who we are every day. So when I think about the Task Force’s
work, it stems from recognizing that there are a broad range of
issues that affect the lives of LGBTQ people.
We are often the organization, over the years, that has put
forth that voting rights is an LGBTQ issue, that immigration is
an LGBTQ issue, that criminal justice is an LGBTQ issue. And
even when we look at some of the other issues that the com-
munity has worked, like marriage equality, or even “Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell,” the Task Force’s take on those tends to be through
the racial, economic and social justice lens.
I’ll give you an example. We started the first project to
work against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The Task Force has long
believed that if there is a military and people get to choose to
be in it, then LGBTQ people absolutely should have the right
to choose. Everyone should have access. We also know that for
some people in society, and some people in this country, there
are very few opportunities for an affordable education or job
training or skills. And one of the few places they can get that is
the military. So, as an economic justice matter, if we are deny-
ing access to the military, we’re denying access to people from
education, from healthcare, and from job skills.
MW: What are some of your biggest concerns with the current
administration?
34 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
CAREY: I would say, among the many, many things that give
me pause, there are a few that are a threat. One is the threat to
democracy. And those who know me know I am not prone to
hyperbole. But I think we are seeing threats to democracy and
an undermining of not only the administration, but Congress
and the courts. Number two, the ascension of a racist white
supremacist and religiously conservative point of view. And
three, to emphasize a piece of that, the use of institutions in the
government to systematically allow for religion to be used as an
excuse to discriminate against not just the LGBTQ community,
but others as well.
We, as an organization, are literally trying to track the doz-
ens and dozens of harmful, outrageous things this government,
this administration has done to harm LGBTQ people. And that
includes LGBTQ immigrants, it includes LGBTQ Muslims, it
includes LGBTQ young people, and, in some ways, they are
countless. But we are seeing some trends. I think we have seen
some trends in anti-trans actions taken by this government,
anti-immigrant actions taken by this government, and the exec-
utive order put out last spring where Trump asked his agencies
to come up with how they were going to allow people to use
their religious beliefs to discriminate against others. And it is
one of the most terrifying things for our community that’s come
down the pike in a long time.
MW: How should the LGBTQ community fight back?
CAREY: There are short-term and long-term actions we have
to take. First and foremost, we have to call out what’s going
on with this government. The other thing I would say is that
democracy is not a passive endeavor. We have to vote, even
when the odds are against us. People have to get involved.
THE NATIONAL LGBTQ TASK FORCE
HYDE TIMES
Donald Trump is aiming to wreak havoc on the
LGBTQ community, but Sue Hyde is determined
not to let him succeed. By John Riley
A
s LGBTQ people, we [have] a very well resourced, well
organized movement that lives to erase us. That is still
true,” says Sue Hyde. “What is different is that there
is a federal governmental apparatus that is fully engaged itself
in the process of erasing us.”
 I was so heartened by what happened on election day in
2017. And I think a lot of people around this country were given
hope, particularly in our community, to see the number of
transgender candidates get elected, to see a Sikh mayor being
elected, to see people of color around this country being elect-
ed. It gave me energy. And I know, having talked to many other
people around the country, it’s giving other people energy.
We have to take that energy and focus and move forward.
There are primary elections coming up, there are ballot mea-
sures coming up, most states are in legislative sessions now, and
we have to be awake and pay attention, fight against not only
explicitly anti-LGBTQ legislation or ballot measures, but the
anti-immigrant bills. We’re seeing a lot of anti-labor work going
on in terms of minimum wage.
In the long-term, I think about how do we get our commu-
nity to focus on redistricting? How do we get our community to
focus on voting? I think we saw just in Virginia, literally every
vote counts. Control of the legislature just turned by one vote
and a drawing from a ceramic bowl. Every vote counts. If we
ever doubted that, we know that now.
But also, I think community engagement. This is always
true for me as an activist, but it is particularly true with this
administration. And it’s not just getting elected to office or
voting, it’s if there is a discussion in your school classroom,
what can you bring to the discussion that brings a different
perspective? If you’re at work and someone says something that
you disagree with, figure out how to have a conversation about
it and give your perspective. And organize, organize, organize.
And I say that not only as someone who’s been an organizer
for my whole career, but we’re about to have over 3,500 people
Hyde doesn’t use the term lightly. As the longest-serving
employee of the National LGBTQ Task Force and director
of the Creating Change conference — a networking event for
thousands of activists that teaches how to better organize and
fight for equality — she knows better than most the devastation
the Trump administration can wreak on LGBTQ people.
Hyde was first hired in January 1987 to run the Task Force’s
Privacy Project in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that
allowed state anti-sodomy laws to stand. Not prone to hyper-
bole, Hyde says that activists have as much, if not more, to
fear from the Trump administration than LGBTQ people did
during the ’80s under Reagan.
“In many ways, there isn’t that much that’s different,”
she says. “With the possible exception of the Jimmy Carter
administration, prior to Reagan, there had never been a federal
administration that cared a wit about LGBTQ people except to
try and crush us. And I’m not even sure Ronald Reagan himself
was that interested in that, but he did feel beholden to a con-
servative right wing. Even though I think he was personally
actually repulsed by them.
“So now, we have returned to those bad old days when there
is again a federal administration that is dedicated and devoted
to erasing and crushing LGBTQ people, in ways that we had
never before actually imagined. I don’t think we’d thought that
we’d go this far back, that we would lose this much in one year
of a Trump administration.”
Activists have lessons to learn from Trump’s presidency,
Hyde says, namely that “freedom is never free,” and that it will
take a great deal of organizing to win back what the current
administration has taken away. “We have to be as equally ded-
here in Washington, D.C. from all across the country who are
coming together to teach each other, to learn from each other,
and to go home and organize.
MW: Since you just referenced Creating Change, what has the con-
ference done to benefit the larger LGBTQ community?
CAREY: The power of Creating Change over three decades is that,
now, probably four generations of LGBTQ people and our allies
have come together to learn from each other, to make connec-
tions with each other.
In the early years of our movement, before the Internet, there
were a lot of people who really were alone. They felt alone, they
couldn’t connect with other people, there were very few places
they could learn how to be an activist, how to make a difference
in their community, and Creating Change has been that place.
We have been very intentional over the last number of years
to have Creating Change really be about the broader progres-
sive movement. We have people come to Creating Change from
the reproductive rights movement, from voting rights, from
immigrant rights, from so many different movements, coming
together to share strategies. And I think that’s a big shift in the
country, it’s a big shift in the progressive movement, it’s certainly
a big shift in the LGBTQ movement, that the Task Force and the
Creating Change Conference has helped to make happen, which
is seeing the connections between issues. It’s not just Muslims
who are being attacked, it’s not just immigrants, it’s not just
LGBTQ people, it’s not just women, it’s all of us.
I would also add that over the years Creating Change has
helped to incubate dozens and dozens of organizations. We have
an extraordinary program of workshops and plenaries and cau-
cuses. And a lot of the work happens in the hallways, or people
icated to fighting for ourselves as this administration is equally
dedicated to our destruction. A very good lesson would come
from the HIV movement, which as it grew and developed, was
hitting on every cylinder.
“We were in the streets. We were in the legislature. We
were in court. We were in the media. We were in community
meetings in our cities and towns. We were taking care of each
other. We were seeing to the basic needs of people who were
living with HIV and AIDS. And that kind of full throttle, every
cylinder moving, every venue possible being occupied by our
bodies and our voices and our thoughts and our ideas and our
dignity, that same level of engagement is what we need right
now.”
And that’s where Creating Change comes in: To teach
today’s activists how to organize and fight back on a range
of issues, whether transgender rights, immigrant rights, or
anti-bullying policies in schools.
“We like to think of it as, in a sense, one-stop shopping,”
Hyde says of the conference. “One of our goals with the pro-
gramming is to offer workshops, sessions, caucuses and train-
ings in just about every topic area that an LGBTQ person might
be interested in.
“Someone who attends Creating Change can expect a space
and a place where people are consciously making connections
with each other, learning from each other, and teaching each
other.” l
For more information on the National LGBTQ Task Force, visit
thetaskforce.org.
JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 35
 “In the early years of our movement,
before the Internet, there were a lot
of people who really were alone. They
couldn’t connect with other people.
THERE WERE VERY FEW PLACES
THEY COULD LEARN HOW TO MAKE
A DIFFERENCE IN THEIR COMMUNITY,
AND CREATING CHANGE
HAS BEEN THAT PLACE.”
grabbing a coffee together, or late night saying, “Hey,
I have this idea to create this thing at my school. Has
anyone else done this?” And, sure enough, someone
will say, “Yeah, here’s how I did it. Let me tell you that
story.” And then they help that person go home and
create something at their school. Or they found a new
organization where one didn’t exist. I think that shows
how powerful it is when people come together and
actually recognize that we are the experts — that we all,
as activists across the country, are the experts. And we
can teach each other how to create change.
MW: How do you train people at Creating Change to take
their message to a larger, non-LGBTQ audience?
CAREY: There are probably some folks that, no matter
what we do, are simply not going to be supportive of
LGBTQ people in their lives. However, there are many
people in this country, and I think that we saw this
during the marriage [fight], who, even as an entry point,
would say, “Well, I really don’t believe that LGBTQ peo-
ple should have rights or that you should be able to get
married, but you’re my cousin and I love you.”
Now, many of those people, thousands of those people, with tion to the public dialogue on marriage in the early part of this
a lot of work and a lot of conversation and a lot of education, and, century. But we have seen such power across the country when
frankly, a lot of risky conversations that people had with their progressive people of faith give voice to what they believe. And
own family members or coworkers, moved in terms of how they they are talking to other people of faith, including conservative
felt about marriage. people in faith.
There are many other issues that are far more challenging We had an extraordinary experience after the shooting at
than marriage that we’re dealing with. But I do believe that we Pulse Nightclub in Orlando where one of our organizers who is
can’t give up on asserting who we are, and in talking to other a person of faith reached out to an Evangelical pastor. And that
people about our lives. Some of those people will change their pastor eventually apologized for the role they played in Florida
minds and some of them won’t. I would give as an example that created a climate where anyone would think it is okay to
something that the Task Force has done over the last decade, discriminate or cause violence or murder an LGBTQ person.
which is we have long been known as the organization that And she ended up preaching to his church. That’s change.
trains people in grassroots organizing. We’ve done it, as far as I MW: How do you feel about the future of the LGBTQ movement?
know, since we were founded. CAREY: If there is one thing I know about our community, it is
And we realized, through the ’90s and into the 2000s, that that we are resilient and we are hellbent on survival. We have
we were being challenged to make progress because of the reli- seen that for decades. We have seen it through institutionaliza-
gious right. Faith has long been used as a license to discriminate tion and shock therapy decades and decades ago, through con-
against LGBTQ people, and not just in marriage. Recognizing version therapy now, through the AIDS crisis, through violent
this and learning from the last many years, the Task Force attacks on trans women of color, through police raids on our
has adapted. The majority of our grassroots organizing work community institutions. We are a community that is resilient
[is] with progressive people of faith. It is, in fact, our largest and survives, and that gives me hope. l
program at the Task Force, which some people don’t know.
We work with people, we partner with faith leaders, we train Creating Change runs through Jan. 28 at the Marriott Wardman
progressive people of faith, we engage people of faith across the Park, 2600 Woodley Rd. NW. For more information, visit creat-
country in campaigns. ingchange.org.
And it’s making a difference. What we know is that there are
many people of faith who believe it is immoral to discriminate For more information on the National LGBTQ Task Force, visit
against LGBTQ people. You would not know that paying atten- thetaskforce.org.

36 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 Gallery
Aaron Wax, Wallet, 2015. Archival inkjet print
Rafael Rodriguez, I’m Cold, 2017. Acrylic on canvas
Passages
A
NEW JURIED ARTIST SHOW IN OLD TOWN FEA-
tures personal works in various media exposing the
lasting effects migration can have on one’s cultural
identity and individual experiences, even when a generation or
two removed from being immigrants. The 16 artists represented
in this Target Gallery exhibition are either immigrants them-
selves or were raised in immigrant families, and their works, in
painting, sculpture, collage, and video reveal, as juror Adriana
Ospina of the Art Museum of Americas puts it, “a multi-layered
personal and complex process of journeys, cultural exchange,
Helen Zughaib, Syrian Migration series #1, 2016. Gouache on board
WonJung Choi, Borderless, 2017. Antique silver plate,
vintage metal, and rivets
assimilation, rejection, transculturation, and preservation.” Nine
of the 16 artists are from the region: Abiodun Eniyandunni,
Kanika Sircar, Marite Vidales, and Helen Zughaib of D.C.,
Bahar Jalehmahmoudi of Adelphi, Md., Rafael Rodriguez of
Hyattsville, Md., Jenny Wu of Alexandria, Ju Yun of Chantilly,
Va., and WonJung Choi of Richmond. Opens Saturday Jan. 27,
with a public reception Thursday, Feb. 8, from 6 to 8 p.m. On
display through March 4. The Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105
North Union St. Alexandria. Free. Call 703-838-4565 or visit
torpedofactory.org.
JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 37
DANIEL SCHWARTZ
Stage

Skin of Our Teeth

the world. Save the family, one Antrobus

insists, while another contends, “Except

Past Illuminations
for power and pleasure, what is there?”
Besides the existential angst, and explo-
ration of humanity’s progress, which feel
Constellation serves up a meaty Skin of Our Teeth, while Everything urgent at the moment, the play explores
Is Illuminated roams between laughs and lessons. By André Hereford unspoken gender dynamics that, striking-
ly, are more and more spoken about every

A
day. With that, and some of the play’s
SOLID TAKE ON A CHALLENGING PLAY, MARY HALL SURFACE’S portrayal of Mrs. Antrobus’ unwavering
staging of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer-winning drama The Skin of Our Teeth fealty to her husband, comes a stinging
(HHHHH) has its share of fun illuminating history. With a few exceptions, whiff of a point of view that might soon be
Surface’s large cast in the Constellation production taps into the same serio-comic, history itself.
absurdist sensibility that drives Wilder’s patently weird allegory of millennia of life
on earth. Especially good is Lolita Marie, delineating the many moods and misgivings JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER’S 2002
of Mrs. Antrobus, the doting wife of Steven Carpenter’s Mr. Antrobus, inventor of the debut novel Everything Is Illuminated told
wheel, the alphabet, and multiplication tables, just to name a few of his contributions a poignant Holocaust narrative from a
to humankind. perspective a few generations removed
The conceit is that he and she have been married for 5,000 years, with two kids, from that of most authors who have
Henry (Dallas Tolentino) and Gladys (Malinda Kathleen Reese). The pet woolly tackled the subject. The descendant of a
mammoth and T-Rex roaming the Antrobus’ yard in Excelsior, New Jersey are just Holocaust survivor, Safran Foer plotted
two of the more outlandish accoutrements of an otherwise conventional patriarchal parts of his story around family lore and
household. Also in residence, and outlandish in her own right, is their maid Sabina, recollections of the long-ago experiences
portrayed by Tonya Beckman, who, along with Marie, leads the ensemble in main- that shaped his very existence. Likewise,
taining the wry tone of Wilder’s meta monster-piece. It can’t be easy acting opposite the writer’s fictional stand-in, also named
a mammoth and a dinosaur, even if the craftwork used to create the creatures is Jonathan, has little more than an old pho-
effective for comedy. tograph and the stories he’s been told to
But the comedy comes crashing down as the Antrobuses face the potential end of guide him on his quest to recover precious

JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 39

C. STANLEY PHOTOGRAPHY

Everything Is Illuminated

truths from his family’s well of history. Adapted for the stage by
Simon Block, Everything Is Illuminated ( ) enacts the
writer’s quest in a nuanced Theater J production directed by
Aaron Posner.
Pursuing a link to his past, young Jewish American writer
Jonathan (Billy Finn) searches in rural Ukraine for the woman,
Augustine, who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Bearing
a photo of his grandfather in 1943 with Augustine by his side,
Jonathan hires a gregarious local named Alex (Alex Alferov) as
his translator and tour guide for searching the towns and villages
outside Odessa.
Alex is brimming with confidence, even if his skills as a trans-
lator are extremely limited. His knowledge of the Ukrainians’
past treatment of Jews seems equally limited, influenced by
whatever stories he’s heard from his cranky old grandfather
(Eric Hissom), who pretends to be blind, yet still serves as the
expedition’s driver.
Posner’s adventurous staging, rambling from roadside
bar to Grandfather’s busted car, flows like a road movie as
Jonathan and company make their way across the countryside.
During the journey, Alex acts as tour guide also to the audi-
ence, with Alferov ably modulating the character’s distinct
accent to varying degrees to denote when Alex is speaking his
colorful brand of English, or arguing in his native language
with his grandfather.
Alferov and Hissom form a fascinating familial pair, and the
tension between them, as much as the writer’s central quest,
carries the play’s first act. There’s also tension between fussy
Jonathan and relaxed Alex, but the performance of it feels more
forced, at least from Finn’s side of the characters’ clashing per-
sonalities.
For the most part, Block’s script doesn’t force the laughs,
finding a thoughtful balance between the humor of some of
the travelers’ circumstances and the seriousness of the quest.
However, Posner’s direction does stretch the comedy a bit broad
with Daven Ralston’s puppet-assisted turn as Grandfather’s see-
ing-eye dog, “Sammy Davis, Jr. Jr.”
The play strikes haunting notes of dread in the history it
evokes. Much of the lingering terror in this Holocaust story is
channeled through a mysterious soul the travelers meet along
their journey, an old woman (Nancy Robinette) who might or
might not be Augustine. She definitely knows something about
Trachimbrod, the shtetl where Augustine lived, before most of
the village’s population was wiped out by the Germans, with
help from local Ukrainian Nazi sympathizers.
A repository of untapped history and untold pain, the old
woman is brilliantly acted by Robinette, who also was wonderful
last season in Posner’s livewire Chekhov riff No Sisters at Studio.
Gazing into the past, she reveals the sacrifice and resolve that
Jonathan is longing to connect with and understand.
Starkly lit on scenic designer Paige Hathaway’s expressive
set of towering shelves and boxes, and floorboards built over
jars buried with history, Robinette delivers a riveting monologue
relating the survivor’s despair. The burden of pain that Jonathan
feels obligated or moved to share with his forebears practically
pours from her like warm redemption. l

Everything Is Illuminated runs to February 4, at Theater J, 1529 16th St., NW. Tickets are $39 to $69.
Call 202-777-3210, or visit theaterj.org.

The Skin of Our Teeth runs to February 11 at Source Theatre, 1835 14th St. NW. Tickets are $25 to $55.
Call 202-204-7741, or visit ConstellationTheatre.org.

40 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

TERESA WOOD
Stage

difficult to measure — the play’s explora-

Alpha Wolves
tions of loyalty, envy, competition, confor-
mity, and other aspects of life not exclu-
sive to 16-year old female soccer players
feel true enough. The girls trade jokes,
Studio scores big with a sharp-as-nails, biting all-girl comedy insults, wisdom and comfort, with each
set in the world of high school soccer. By André Hereford performer afforded a moment to shine
solo as well as in concert with the con-

O
nected cast. Bernhard and Kleiger distin-
FFERING A FLY-ON-THE-WALL GLIMPSE INTO THE PRIVATE WORLD guish themselves as the team’s two polar
of a suburban girls’ indoor soccer team, Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves (HHHHH) opposites, the shy outcast and the cocky
dives into the high-pressure depths of nine teammates, dropping in on private striker, both baring steely strength in their
conversations as they prep for matches. Conversations sound real, not written, yet para- roles, as does Maryn Shaw, wonderfully
doxically ring with the harmony and insight of the playwright’s assured ear for dialogue. expressive as eager #14.
The performances in Studio’s sharp-as-nails production, directed by Marti Lyons, While the entire cast gets to play
feel fresh and natural, even though it’s perfectly clear the ensemble has drilled hard DeLappe’s fast-paced comic repartee,
to synchronize the rhythms of their soccer warm-ups and teen angst-filled drama. To Shanta Parasuraman as #8 and Sara
their credit, no one drops the ball. Turner as #13 are especially reliable deliv-
The Wolves are in the midst of an undefeated season, when the arrival of a new ering their punchlines. They’re just as
teammate, #46 (Jane Bernhard), threatens to upset the team’s momentum. The new affecting when the tone turns dark, and a
girl’s self-conscious attempts to assimilate into the pack send subtle waves of discord heartrending loss causes each girl to reas-
rippling through the tight-knit friendships. And her prowess on the field could sideline sess her spot on the team.
the team’s alpha player, team striker, #7 (Katie Kleiger). Although the play’s shift to somber
Of course, wolf pack metaphors are easily applied, and the team’s diverse roster isn’t unexpected, it still reveals surprising
allows for the inclusion of girls to represent the voices and identities of myriad types of turns of emotion and action in the charac-
teenager. But the story overcomes that sense of calculation, taking intriguing shape as ters. In particular, a scene late in the play
the team’s season progresses from Saturday to Saturday. provides Gabby Beans, as #00, the team’s
One player suffers her fifth or sixth concussion, a cold gets passed around like bad goalie, a remarkable moment as she builds
gossip, they all make jibes at their drunkard coach Neil, secrets are shared and spilled, and releases pressure so intense it’s shock-
and the team continues to fight hard on the field. ing she could even contain it.
How much any of it relates to what it truly feels like to be a girl right now might be Such is the power of DeLappe’s play,

JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 41

 currently enjoying a season in which nearly two
dozen productions of The Wolves have hit stag-
es nationwide. First, with barbs flying fast and
fierce, the play is damn funny. Second, these
girls reflect the way so many in the world right
now, regardless of age, feel especially sensitive
to every tiny ripple that might upset them, and
wary of any explosion that could destroy them.
For athletes this committed, there’s little
time to enjoy the spoils of victory because
there’s always more work to be done in order to
stay on top. Fear and anxiety, as much as desire
and determination, motivate all they say and
do. And so much of what happens to them they
cannot control at all. So, they bite at each other,
sometimes good-naturedly, sometimes with
savage intent, and they jostle for power — or
bond, and try to teach each other. The play and
its cast convey a world of warmth whenever the
players turn to nurturing their pack to achieve
common goals.
The Wolves explores a fascinating micro-
cosm of an America that’s used to winning,
always plays to win, and yet still must learn how
to sometimes handle the taste of defeat. It’s that
TERESA WOOD

rare theatrical experience that grants an audi-

ence the guilty thrill of eavesdropping on the
intimate moments of strangers. l

The Wolves runs to March 11, at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. Tickets are $20 to $85.
Call 202-332-3300, or visit studiotheatre.org.

42 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

TERESA WOOD
Stage

shorter than a mini, the Abercrombie-

World Weary
worthy Eliza Huberth’s bare legs-up-to-
her-neck look is seriously distracting. Mae
might complain about it, but what’s the
meta-message here? She’s an uber-sexy
Theresa Rebeck’s The Way of the World has a few moments victim of her class culture? Or is this for
of brilliance, but not enough to redeem it. By Kate Wingfield our delectation? Both are unlikable, and it
seems an odd way to treat one’s heroine.

S
It doesn’t stop there. Showcasing
OMETIMES IT JUST DOESN’T COME TOGETHER. THERESA REBECK’S Huberth’s overall physical perfection so
adaptation and direction of William Congreve’s The Way of the World (HHHHH) garishly also sits in unpleasant juxtaposi-
has all the right ingredients: a fun concept, cleverly updated language, a few tion with the raft of insecurities plaguing
irreverent references, and an energetic ensemble. But with an entertaining first act the other female lead, Mae’s aunt, Rene.
and a tiresome second, the whole thing is a bit too much like a full-of-themselves party A woman “of a certain age,” Rene
guest who just won’t leave. lives with Mae in loco parentis. Filling
It’s a problem of balance. Taking its cues (if not much language) from the eighteenth her idle-rich days alternately bedding
century comedy of manners, Rebeck’s reboot asks whether true love can exist when younger men and complaining she feels
there’s a fortune at stake. The play is less an answer and more an excuse to lift a glit- old and overweight, this is a buffa role:
tery rock and have a good look at the creepie-crawlies underneath, along with all their meant to be hilariously funny with a
snarks and vulnerabilities. If turning Congreve’s toffs into air-kissing Hamptonites is touch of comeuppance and a hint of
fun and looks great against Alexander Dodge’s elegant confection of a set, two-plus pathos. But if Kristine Nielsen gives it
hours of it is going to need a certain kind of fuel. Think the wild updates of David Ives, her all — writ a tad too large and loud
in which he delivers a steady stream of wit (by turns caustic and playful) amid meadows for such an intimate space — the effect is
of joyous irreverence. Here, unfortunately, once the novelty wears off, so does the friv- hugely dampened by the glaring empha-
olous edge, and all that’s left is a collection of fairly unlikable characters working their sis on Mae’s fruitiness. Case in point
angst in a bubble it’s very hard to care about. is her arrival just in time to witness
Of course, humor is subjective, and some will find Rebeck’s ongoing rumble of one of Rene’s potential toy-boys fleeing
one-liners and her (and her actors’) choices for the physical comedy funny enough. the boudoir. As her aunt bemoans her
But for those that still hold the iconic British series Blackadder as the gold standard loss, Mae is put on the bed to squirm
for silly-but-clever wit, this really won’t move the needle more than a handful of times. around in pretend misery about her own
It’s not just about the humor, it’s some of the directorial choices. Front and cen- problems. It’s a fiction-breaking display
ter — literally — is putting the young female lead Mae into a costume that looks like that diminishes everything, including
something the Three Stooges might deliver. With the front of her maxi-dress cut Nielsen’s expertly crafted comedy and

JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 43


TERESA WOOD
pathos. It’s a choice devoid of the wit this play deserves.
Indeed, whether we are supposed to like Mae or see her as
a ninny remains a mystery throughout. The overall effect is of a
conceited young woman used to being the prettiest and the rich-
est in the room, and trying to figure out if she is worth rooting for
gets old. In fact, the scene in which she finally decides to forgive
the errant Henry is so self-satisfied, heavy-handed and unfunny,
it could bring on a case of hives. If all this is intended, then, quite
frankly, who cares if she finds true love? And, if it isn’t, then
between Rebeck and Huberth, the mark is well missed.
As Henry, the penniless hunk who may or may not have a
The Way of the World runs to Feb. 11 at Folger Theatre, 201 East Capitol Street, SE. Tickets are $35 to $79.
Call 202-544-7077 or visit folger.edu.
44 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
heart of gold, Luigi Sottile is another tremendous specimen.
But even with the odd shirtless moment, his body never feels
as vulnerably or gratuitously displayed as Huberth’s and
this adds to the imbalance here. Sottile has a Shakespearean
delivery that suggests potential even if it seems a little stiff
in this context. But the biggest problem here is his chemistry
with Mae — there just isn’t any. It is partly Huberth’s aura of
conceitedness, but it’s also that Sottile keeps this man quite
closed, despite his charismatic presence. He almost never
smiles, laughs or even smirks. Such are the glimpses of a
soul’s warm that make for a romantic lead.
Like a pair of mean-spirited bookends, frenemies Charles,
Henry’s gay friend, and Katrina, Mae’s gal pal, round out the
clique. Playing Charles without any redeeming qualities,
Brandon Espinoza is nuanced where it counts and has good
comic timing. As Katrina, Erica Dorfler is more intimidating
than funny, though she delivers Rebeck’s language with true
fluency. As Lyle, the out-of-towner roped into the machinations,
Daniel Morgan Shelley fits the bill and offers an understat-
ed presence. In another of Rebeck’s reworks, a waitress who
periodically gushes in monologue, Ashley Austin Morris does
her best with a thin, weakly-humored role. Indeed, the only
genuinely funny performance here comes from Elan Zafir as the
“dude,” Reg. Zafir is an excellent physical comic, his timing is
superb, and he absolutely nails it. Quite honestly, he makes the
night.
It feels as bitchy as one of its characters to say it, but The Way
of the World just isn’t all that. l
NightLife
Photography by
Ward Morrison

JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 45


DrinksDragDJsEtc...
Thursday,
January 25
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports • Expanded
craft beer selection •
Music videos featuring
DJ Wess
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Happy Hour, 3-9pm, all
liquors, beers and wines up
to 50% off • $5 Pitchers
of Miller Lite all night long
• $3 Well Drinks in Nest
until 11pm, $3 in Tavern
all day • RuPaul’s Drag
Race Viewing, hosted
by Washington Heights,
Whimsy Thrift and Anita
Minute, 7-10pm in the
Nest • Underwear Night,
9pm-2am • For men in
46 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
Scene
Dollhouse at The Living Room - Thursday, January 11
Photography by Ward Morrison
See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Friday, FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR SHAW’S TAVERN
Beat the Clock Happy Hour Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3
-- $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), January 26 Karaoke, 9pm Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon,
$4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of $5 Rails and House Wines
underwear, all well drinks
$2, 9pm-12am • Best
Beer $15 • Drag Bingo 9 1/2 GREEN LANTERN & Half-Priced Pizzas •
Underwear Contest at
NUMBER NINE
Open at 5pm • Happy
Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink,
Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5
Svedka, all flavors, and
Meredith Rounsley singing
live, 9pm
Midnight • Code enforced
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any 5-9pm • Friday Night $5 Fireball, all night long
in Code Bar after 9pm •
drink, 5-9pm • No Cover Videos, 9:30pm • Rotating • Winter Glow Party, TOWN
EDM: Life College Night
DJs • Expanded craft beer 9pm-close • Featuring DJ Patio open 6pm • DC Bear
Thursdays, 10pm-2am
SHAW’S TAVERN selection • No Cover Greg Anderson • Clothes Crue Happy Hour, 6-11pm
• Free admission to the
Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Check Available • Get • $3 Rail, $3 Draft, $3 Bud
Tavern • Admission to the
Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, BALTIMORE EAGLE Glow Painted by your Bottles • Free Pizza, 7pm
Nest is free until 10:30pm
$5 Rails and House Wines Baltimore Bear Happy favorite GoGo Dancer • No cover before 9:30pm
• After 10:30pm, $5 Cover
& Half-Priced Pizzas Hour, 3-9pm, all liquors, • 21+ • Drag Show starts
for 21 and up, $10 Cover
beers and wines up to NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR at 10:30pm • Hosted by
for 18-21 • thebalti-
TRADE 50% off • Bad Bears After DJ Matt Bailer • Videos, Lena Lett and featuring
moreeagle.com
Doors open 5pm • Huge Dark in the Code Bar, 9pm Dancing • Beat the Clock Miss Tatianna, Shi-
Happy Hour: Any drink • $5 Cover • DJ Vince Happy Hour -- $2 (5-6pm), Queeta-Lee, Riley Knoxx
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
normally served in a cock- Christopher in the Tavern, $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • and Ba’Naka • DJ Wess
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm •
tail glass served in a huge 9pm-2am • Summer Buckets of Beer $15 upstairs, DJs BacK2bACk
Karaoke, 9pm
glass for the same price, Knight’s XXX Cabaret in downstairs following the
5-10pm • Beer and wine the Nest, 10:30pm • Cover NUMBER NINE show • GoGo Boys after
GREEN LANTERN
only $4 is $7.50 in advance, $10 at Open 5pm • Happy Hour: 11pm • Doors open at
Happy Hour, 4-9pm
door • Elyx Vodka and Any 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm 10pm • For those 21 and
• Shirtless Thursday,
ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Red Bull Flavor for $7 all • No Cover • Friday Night over, $12 • For those
10-11pm • Men in
All male, nude dancers • day long • thebaltimoreea- Piano with Chris, 7:30pm 18-20, $15 • Club: 18+ •
Underwear Drink Free,
DJ • 9pm • Cover 21+ gle.com Patio: 21+
12-12:30am • DJs
BacK2bACk
TRADE
Doors open 5pm • Huge
Happy Hour: Any drink
normally served in a cock-
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
5-10pm • Beer and wine
only $4
ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS
Men of Secrets, 9pm •
Guest dancers • Rotating
DJs • Ladies of Illusion
Drag Show • Doors at
9pm, Shows at 11:30pm
and 1:30am • DJ Don T. in
Ziegfeld’s • Cover 21+
Saturday,
January 27
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut
and $5 Bulleit Bourbon,
9pm-close • Expanded
craft beer selection •
No Cover
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Happy Hour, 3-9pm
• Leather and Fetish
Saturdays, Code Bar,
8pm-2am • Code enforced
after 9pm in the Code Bar
• DJ Scott Howard in the
Tavern, 9pm-2am • Joe
Whitaker presents DILF:
Daddy Issues Throwback
Dance Party, 9:30pm-close
• Long Island Leather
Saturdays -- $5 Long
Islands all day • thebalti-
moreeagle.com
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Saturday Breakfast Buffet,
10am-3pm • $14.99 with
one glass of champagne
or coffee, soda or juice •
Additional champagne $2
per glass • Crazy Hour,
4-8pm • Freddie’s Follies
Drag Show, hosted by Miss
Destiny B. Childs, 8-10pm
• Karaoke, 10pm-close
JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 47
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5
Bacardi, all flavors, all
night long • JOX: The
GL Underwear Party,
9pm-close • Featuring DJ
David Merrill • $5 Cover
(includes clothes check)
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
Guest DJs • Zing Zang
Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer,
House Rail Drinks and
Mimosas, $4, 11am-5pm •
Buckets of Beer, $15
NUMBER NINE
Doors open 2pm • Happy
Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink,
2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5
Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close
• Jawbreaker, with DJs
BacK2bACk, 9:30pm
SHAW’S TAVERN
Brunch with Bottomless
Mimosas, 10am-3pm •
Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3
Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon,
48 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
$5 Rails and House Wines
& Half-Priced Pizzas •
The Harvey Sometimes
Band, 9pm
TOWN
CTRL DC, 10pm-close
• Featuring DJs Adam
Koussari-Amin, Devon
Trotter and Jeff Prior
• Music and video by
DJ Wess downstairs •
Morgan McMichaels
from RuPaul’s All Stars
performs in Drag Show
• Meet and Greet with
Morgan McMichaels, 9pm
-- $25 Tickets, available via
Flavorus.com • Drag Show
starts at 10:30pm • Hosted
by Lena Lett and featuring
Tatianna, Shi-Queeta-Lee,
Riley Knoxx and Ba’Naka
• Doors open 10pm • $15
Cover from 10pm-12am •
$12 after midnight • 21+
TRADE
Doors open 2pm • Huge
Happy Hour: Any drink
normally served in a cock-
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
2-10pm • Beer and wine
only $4
ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS
Men of Secrets, 9pm-4am
• Guest dancers • Ladies
of Illusion Drag Show
with host Ella Fitzgerald
• Doors at 9pm, Shows
at 11:30pm and 1:30am
• DJ Don T. in Ziegfeld’s
• DJ Steve Henderson in
Secrets • Cover 21+
Sunday, for $3 each time (excluding
energy drink mixers) •
NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on
January 28 thebaltimoreeagle.com any drink, 2-9pm • $5
Absolut and $5 Bulleit
9 1/2 FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Bourbon, 9pm-close • Pop
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any Champagne Brunch Buffet, Goes the World with Wes
drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut 10am-3pm • $24.99 with Della Volla at 9:30pm •
and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, four glasses of champagne No Cover
9pm-close • Multiple TVs or mimosas, 1 Bloody
showing movies, shows, Mary, or coffee, soda or SHAW’S TAVERN
sports • Expanded craft juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm Brunch with Bottomless
beer selection • No Cover • Karaoke, 9pm-close Mimosas, 10am-3pm •
Stoli Sundays: $5 Stoli
BALTIMORE EAGLE GREEN LANTERN Specials with DJ, 3:30pm
Lizzie Beaumont and Happy Hour, 4-9pm • • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3
Betty Whitecastle present Karaoke with Kevin down- Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon,
Queens Who Brunch, stairs, 9:30pm-close $5 Rails and House Wines
12-2pm • $34 per person & Half-Priced Pizzas
includes All You Can NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
Eat • Free pitcher of Drag Brunch, hosted TRADE
Mimosas per 4 admissions by Shi-Queeta-Lee, Doors open 2pm • Huge
• Reservations highly 10:30am-12:30pm and Happy Hour: Any drink
suggested and can be 1-3pm • House Rail Drinks, normally served in a cock-
made online beforehand • Zing Zang Bloody Marys, tail glass served in a huge
DJ Ryan W in the Tavern, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, glass for the same price,
4-9pm • T-Dance Sundays, $4, 11am-close • Buckets 2-10pm • Beer and wine
4-9pm • Buy a cup for of Beer, $15 only $4
$5 and fill it with any
Absolut Flavor and Mixer
Monday,
January 29
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports • Expanded
craft beer selection •
No Cover
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Happy Hour, 3-9pm, all
liquors, beers and wines up
to 50% off • Micro Brew
Draft/Bottle Mondays -- $4
all day • SIN: Service
Industry Night, 11pm-2am
• First Well Drink or
Domestic Beer Free • 10%
off your Food Order all day
• thebaltimoreeagle.com
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm •
Singles Night • Half-Priced
Pasta Dishes • Karaoke,
9pm
50 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour all night
long • Singing with the
Sisters: Open Mic Karaoke
Night with the Sisters
of Perpetual Indulgence,
9:30pm-close
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
Beat the Clock Happy Hour
-- $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm),
$4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of
Beer $15 • Texas Hold’em
Poker, 8pm • Dart Boards
NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • No Cover
SHAW’S TAVERN
Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3
Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon,
$5 Rails and House Wines
and Half-Priced Pizzas •
Shaw Nuff Trivia, with
Jeremy, 7:30pm
TRADE
Doors open 5pm • Huge
Happy Hour: Any drink
normally served in a cock-
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
5-10pm • Beer and wine
only $4
Tuesday,
January 30
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports • Expanded
craft beer selection •
No Cover
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Happy Hour, 3-9pm, all
liquors, beers and wines
up to 50% off • $6 Any
Flavor Martinis and $7
Manhattans (call liquors) •
thebaltimoreeagle.com
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco
Tuesday • Karaoke, 9pm
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour all night long,
4pm-close
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
Beat the Clock Happy Hour
-- $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm),
$4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of
Beer $15 • Karaoke and
Drag Bingo
NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • No Cover
SHAW’S TAVERN
Half-Priced Burgers and
Pizzas, 5-10pm • $5 House
Wines and $5 Sam Adams
TRADE
Doors open 5pm • Huge
Happy Hour: Any drink
normally served in a cock-
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
5-10pm • Beer and wine
only $4
Wednesday,
January 31
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports • Expanded
craft beer selection •
No Cover
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Happy Hour, 3-9pm, all
SmartAss Teams only •
Bring a new team member
liquors, beers and wines and each get a free $10
up to 50% off • Domestic Dinner
Bottles are $3 all day •
Team Trivia, 8-10pm • NUMBER NINE
thebaltimoreeagle.com Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • No Cover
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • $6 SHAW’S TAVERN
Burgers • Drag Bingo Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3
Night, hosted by Ms. Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon,
Regina Jozet Adams, 8pm $5 Rails and House Wines
• Bingo prizes • Karaoke, and Half-Priced Pizzas •
10pm-1am Piano Bar with Jill, 8pm
GREEN LANTERN TRADE
Happy Hour all night Doors open 5pm • Huge
long, 4pm-close • Bear Happy Hour: Any drink
Yoga with Greg Leo, 6:30- normally served in a cock-
7:30pm • $10 per class
• Upstairs opens 9pm •
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
Lantern GoGo Dancers, 5-10pm • Beer and wine
10pm-2am only $4 l
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
SmartAss Trivia Night, 8pm
and 9pm • Prizes include
bar tabs and tickets to
shows at the 9:30 Club •
$15 Buckets of Beer for
JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 51
 Scene
Baltimore Eagle’s 1st Anniversary - Friday, January 19
Photography by Ward Morrison
See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

52 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 LastWord.
People say the queerest things

The 2018 Women’s March on Washington. Photographs by David Uy.

54 JANUARY 25, 2018 • METROWEEKLY