The Georgetowner: September 13, 2023 Issue

FallArts Preview

Celebrating 90 Years

Since it was established in 1933 by my great-grandfather, Martin's has been an integral part of the Georgetown community, where generations of residents and their offspring have considered Martin's an extension of their families, and we have considered them an extension of ours.

We want to thank our friends, patrons, and staff for their continuous support, especially through the pandemic, enabling Martin's legacy to live on for decades to come.

~ Billy Martin

WESTLIGHT 1111 24th Street NW #93 Washington, DC

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Shamim Jawad +1 202 277 7322

Mark C. Lowham +1 703 966 6949

GEORGETOWN 1696 31st Street NW Washington, DC

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Michael Rankin +1 202 271 3344

DOWNCREST ESTATES 6029 Orris Street McLean, VA

$4,995,000

Ali Nasir +1 571 335 3155

Mark C. Lowham +1 703 966 6949

WEST END 2501 M Street NW #717 Washington, DC

$3,695,000

Jonathan Taylor +1 202 276 3344

COLUMBIA HEIGHTS 1223 Fairmont Street NW Washington, DC

$1,795,000

Brent Jackson +1 202 263 9200

Robert Sanders +1 202 744 6463

MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE HEIGHTS 2700 Calvert St NW #716 Washington, DC

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Jonathan Taylor +1 202 276 3344

GEORGETOWN 2727 Q Street NW Washington, DC

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Michael Rankin +1 202 271 3344

PALISADES 5811 Potomac Avenue NW Washington, DC

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Mark C. Lowham +1 703 966 6949

SHENANDOAH VALLEY 10312 Us Highway 340N Rileyville, VA

Price Upon Request

Lorraine Barclay Nordlinger +1 202 285 3935

GEORGETOWN 3132 O Street NW Washington, DC

$3,500,000

Michael Rankin +1 202 271 3344

OLD TOWN 1201 N Royal Street #404 Alexandria, VA

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Heather Corey +1 703 989 1183

GLOVER PARK 2118 Tunlaw Road NW Washington, DC

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ON THE COVER

An acrylic and graphite on canvas painting by artist Alma Thomas. Thomas was an educator and artist in Washington, D.C. and part of the Washington Color School, a group of abstract painters working in D.C. in the 1950s and ‘60s. In our Visual Arts Preview, we highlight the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s show “Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas,” opening Sept. 15.

PUBLISHER

Sonya Bernhardt

DIRECTOR OF CONTENT & ADVERTISING

Kate Oczypok

SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

Peggy Sands

FEATURE EDITOR

Ari Post

FASHION & BEAUTY DIRECTOR

Allyson Burkhardt

Lauretta McCoy

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Troy Riemer

Laura Argentieri

Julie Payne

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Philip Bermingham

Bill Starrels

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Robert Devaney

MANAGING EDITOR

Christopher Jones

CONTRIBUTORS

Mary Bird

Susan Bodiker

Allyson Burkhardt

Didi Cutler

Donna Evers

Michelle Galler

Amos Gelb

Wally Greeves

Kitty Kelley

Rebekah Kelley

Jody Kurash

Shelia Moses

Kate Oczypok

Linda Roth

Alison Schafer

Celia Sharpe

Mary Ann Treger

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TOWN TOPICS WHAT’S ONLINE

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RISTORANTE PICCOLO OWNERS PLEAD GUILTY TO $1.35 MILLION IN TAX EVASION, COVID FUND THEFT

BY ROBERT DEVANEY

MAPPING GEORGETOWN: GEORGETOWN MINISTRY CENTER A ‘SAFE PLACE’

BY MARILYN BUTLER

A 50-YEAR-OLD PRE-SCHOOL IN GEORGETOWN THAT’S DIFFERENT

BY PEGGY SANDS

At Little Folks School on Q Street: Reka Keller, Director of Communications and Enrollment, and Head of School James Gilroy. Georgetowner photo.

GEORGETOWN NEIGHBORS & LEGENDS: JENONNE WALKER

BY SAM SALLICK

Jenonne Walker, 2015. Courtesy U.S. Holocaust Museum.

THE PLAY, ‘INK,’ REVEALS HOW MURDOCH GOT INK

BY PEGGY SANDS

Kelly Andreae, executive director of Georgetown Ministry Center. Courtesy GMC.

Ristorante Piccolo at 1068 31st St. NW in Georgetown after June 29 fire. Georgetowner photo.

The cast of “Ink” at Round House Theatre, co-produced with Olney Theatre Center. Photo by Margot Schulman.

First Day for MacArthur High School

BY PEGGY SANDS

The club sign-up tables were out on the wide entrance sidewalk, as teachers, school administrators, Principal Harold McCray, Jr. and DC Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee were on hand to greet many of the 250 enrolled students and their parents or guardians during Saturday’s open house for the new MacArthur High School at 4530 MacArthur Blvd. NW.

Students came to pick up their high school schedules and see their brand new classrooms, library and cafeteria, gym and science facilities laid out fresh and sparkling in the renovated buildings on the former Georgetown Day School campus.

Everyone seemed excited. Everyone knows this day was historic. For the first time since 1972, an entirely new comprehensive public high school was opened — the first for the Palisades/Georgetown area since Western High School was replaced by Duke Ellington School of the Arts in the 1970s.

“The wait is over,” tweeted several MacArthur supporters over the week about the very first day of school on August 28.

Now, Georgetown area teenagers have a public high school of their own. They knew as they signed up that they and the newly assembled faculty and staff would be setting traditions that would be the basis of the school legacy for decades to come.

It already started with the studentcommunity selection of the name. First introduced as a temporary moniker just to locate it, summer surveys showed strong support for the name McArthur High School as a permanent one. That was quickly followed by a consensus that the wooly “Mammoth” should be the school’s mascot (maybe because it was different — not a big cat like other high schools in the area) and had some alliteration, McCray said with a smile, adding they chose navy blue and teal as the school colors on every new student’s t-shirt with school mascots and logos as they signed up.

“The bonding as the historic first class at MacArthur has already started,” McCray declared.

“I am really excited about these students,” Athletic Director Kenneth Watson said. “They

already are showing they’re open to new things, innovators willing to try new ways of doing things. They’re already ahead of the crowd.”

All eighth-grade graduates of Hardy Middle School had automatic transfer to MacArthur — and most all did, some 200. Those who decided not to mainly were staying with siblings at other high schools or getting into established varsity sports, McCray noted.

Everything will be start-up, of course, at the new school. Several competitive sports teams will be developed, including soccer, volleyball, cross country, basketball and potentially golf. The academic curriculum emphasizes English, mathematics, social studies and science. After surveys, the top three “world languages” students wanted were Spanish, Italian and Chinese.

Students and teachers at MacArthur will also be beneficiaries of state-of-the-art equipment and facilities and inclusive curriculum. All students will be enrolled in either preAdvanced Placement, AP or Honors classes. The emphasis in all the courses — combined with the centralized spacious library filled with computer and learning specialists — will be on how to find and use resources and to develop research and study skills for lifelong learning and particularly for college and advanced education completion.

The large airy and light-filled cafeteria will be open to all students for breakfast, one period of lunch (where everyone can sit together if they wish or go out to the campus fields) and take-home supper items. Home room periods and study hall are included almost daily; general physical education and wellness courses take place in two different periods twice a week. Two periods of music and a musical production are planned for the first year. A theater arts department is being developed.

“We expect to add 200 students or so a year until we reach about 800,” McCray said. “This year’s group of 50 sophomores will be our first graduates.”

Go to Georgetowner.com for the full article.

MacArthur High School Principal Harold McCray, Jr. and D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee pose with school mascot at the first entirely new public high school in a half-century. Georgetowner photo

Georgetown’s ANC Sets Up for Busy Fall

BY PEGGY SANDS

The first Georgetown-Burleith-Hillandale Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting (2E) for the 2023-24 season began with all present plus new commissIoner Daniel Chao representing 2E07. They quickly dispensed with the first important item – voting unanimously for a new Chairperson after the move and resignation last summer of Elizabeth Miller. To no one’s surprise, Commissioner Gwendolyn Lohse (2E06) was elected and welcomed.

Extra time was spent on the crime report. “I am getting a lot of comments from people who tell me it’s a gut feeling for them — they just don’t feel safe,” Commissioner Paul Maysak (2E03) said. Yet MPD Sgt. Robinson reported that crimes were down in Georgetown in almost every category. The most hit robbery victim in Georgetown? “Safeway,” Robinson reported. Petty theft. Too fast and tricky to quell immediately, he implied… More patrol officers. More cameras. But that didn’t count the robbery by knife at Georgetown Wine & Spirits on P and 27th last week.

School’s back open. A big alert on crosswalk

need three bags of paper trash, etc., before calling in for a free pickup.

Everyone was excited about the new McArthur High School which opened smoothly. Public transportation there is being carefully scrutinized for inequities. Despite millions in pandemic money for air cleaners, Hardy Middle School and the neighbors are still being bombarded by noise and the insecurity of a second-hand wacky AC unit that pleases no one, starting last year; it was not fixed before the first-year principal was let go in July suddenly and without explanation.

One big news item: the comprehensive study of Georgetown traffic and transportation including parking, streateries and sidewalk expansion is underway by the DC Department of Transportation. It will now undergo review and suggestions by neighborhood organizations, stakeholders, and individuals in the next few months. The Citizens Association of Georgetown is fully involved with their volunteer and professional experts and longtime expertise in the issues. A minutely detailed interactive community map showing parking and usages of just about every neighborhood

violations was issued. MPD advises: Watch the intersections near the schools, especially Hardy Middle School, and especially at 34th St. NW and Wisconsin Ave: complicated with kids, bikes, e-scooters, and mixed lanes of traffic. Theft from autos? Almost always the car was left open, especially work vans with tools to steal. Increased watch-outs by police for known persons who commit assaults with deadly weapons – even during the day, in Montrose Park last month. Most are repeat violators and known! What to do? Increased detention was not mentioned. Neighborhood walk-arounds with patrol officers were offered. (A post-meeting escape by a suspected murderer from police custody on Wednesday afternoon at George Washington Hospital did not help the mood – especially when he was apparently spotted but still not caught by Friday afternoon).

Less emotional was a report on the ANC budget. Balance $18,650. Personnel costs total about $12,000. “Can we qualify to get funds from grants?,” asked Commissioner Kishan Putta (2E01). It will be looked into.

City liaisons reported on various upcoming events being planned to post on their websites. One new trash law caused a stir: residents will

block in Georgetown will be publicly accessible to ascertain potential impacts, explained CAG transportation expert Stephanie Bothwell. Ideas and suggestions can be posted on the map. The plans also include the parking and access streets around Georgetown University.

Such collaborative planning is well known to Georgetowners, Putta reminded meeting attendees, as he reported that years of planning, town meetings, budgeting and contract surveillance for the complete renovation of the Jelleff Recreation Center at 3265 S St. NW, and pool and basement area (that has housed the popular Georgetown Boys and Girls Club for decades) now suddenly appears to be on hold. After twice not scheduling proposed town meetings in the summer and early fall, the contractors now indicate that plans have changed.

“One concern is, it appears that the usable indoor square footage … is significantly less than proposed in the feasibility study (due in part to all usable space being moved from the basement to above ground, the second gym, and the proposed second floor lobby),” the ANC resolution sent to the contractors read. “We ask you to hold your next public meeting before November – and announce it by mid-October.“

“I am getting a lot of comments from people who tell me it’s a gut feeling for them -- they just don’t feel safe,” —

Commissioner Paul Maysak (2E03)

Georgetown Art All Night Returns Sept. 29

BY CHRISTOPHER JONES

The third annual Georgetown Art All Night makes the scene on Friday, Sept. 29. Georgetown will “come alive with a multitude of free, immersive experiences for the whole family to enjoy. At every corner, you’ll discover something unique to engage in,” said sponsor Georgetown Main Street (GMS).

The extravaganza is a free annual arts festival bringing together local artists and businesses and is part of the city-wide Art All Night event, held in all eight wards and presented by Mayor Muriel Bowser.

The festival will highlight “visual and performing arts, including painting, photography, sculpture, crafts, fashion, music, literary arts, dance, theater, film, and poetry, [in] indoor and outdoor public and private spaces, including local businesses and restaurants,” as neighborhoods participate across the city.

GMS Executive Director Rachel Shank previewed Georgetown Art All Night to the Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 2E) at its Sept. 5 meeting.

Georgetown Art All Night has “only been happening about three years, but we are

becoming a heavy hitter,” Shank said. “I think the community is starting to recognize that this is an event that should not be missed.”

Shank outlined what this year’s festival will look like. It’s a “free community-wide event,” running from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., Friday, Sept. 29, from N Street “near Martin’s Tavern, along Wisconsin Avenue,” up to R Street.

This year’s theme for Art All Night is “Dining, Art, Shopping, Music, Dancing, and Crafting All Night,” Shank said. A good starting point for attendees, she said, is the festival’s welcoming venue, the Georgetown Neighborhood Library at 3260 R St. NW. Last year’s festival drew “about 8,000 attendees, 48 percent of whom live within five miles of Georgetown,” Shank reported.

The festival will have 15 “activation locations” along Wisconsin Avenue, including Shop Made

in DC, Fathom Gallery, L’Enfant Gallery, Georgetown Lutheran Church, TD Bank parking lot, Calloway Fine Art & Consulting, Gallery Article 15, the African Union, Addison/Ripley Fine Art, Washington Printmakers Gallery and the Georgetown Neighborhood Library. Also, just off Wisconsin Avenue, N Street Place, the Chase Bank Parking lot, Hyde-Addison Elementary School, Klagsbrun Art Studio and the Georgetown Neighborhood Library.

Some of Georgetown’s local businesses will also be joining the celebration by staying open late and offering special activities for event attendees, including The Phoenix, StorieCollective, Compass Coffee, Donahue, Spicez and more. “We’ll have an official afterparty at Clubhouse DC starting at 11 p.m.,” Shank said.

The Georgetowner spoke with one of the stars of previous festivals, outdoor painter Caroline Karp, asking if she’s looking forward to putting on a show again this year. “Painting live at Georgetown Art All Night is always a thrilling experience, as I capture the vibrant essence of Georgetown,” she said. “This year, I’ll be painting a gorgeous scene from the National Arboretum… What’s so fun is that it’s a gigantic canvas… I started it already.”

Participating institutions for the festival include Book Hill Galleries, Georgetown Neighborhood Library, Georgetown Lutheran Church, Georgetown University, National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, Hyde-Addison Elementary School and the African Union. Shank reassured ANC 2E that GMS has logistics for the festival in hand. This year, no sidewalk widening should be necessary. GMS has made DDOT reservations, “in front of the Lutheran Church and in front of the library.” There will be no amplified sound past 10 p.m. No outdoor liquor sales will be permitted. Good lighting will be provided in two key locations where it’s “a bit dark.” MPD will be briefed, and informational flyers have gone out to residents.

For more information about Georgetown Art All Night – including a 36-page Event Guide from GMS – go to GeorgetownMainStreet. Com/aan2023.

Art All Night 2022. Courtesy GMS.

TOWN TOPICS

Crime Report

BY CHRISTOPHER JONES AND KATE OCZYPOK

kind about it though — he left elegant thank you notes at some spots. Gray is perhaps most well-known around Georgetown for being at Jackie Quillen’s side for 15 years. While the two dated, they attended parties and concerts, with Gray eventually moving into Quillen’s home at 3507 R St. NW.

Quillen has since died, but Gray faced courtfiled complaints that he stole her paintings, jewelry, and more worth tens of thousands of dollars. Quillen was a divorced granddaughter of Alfred Lee Loomis, an investment banker and accomplished physicist. It is noted that Gray stole 1920s Steuven martini glasses gifted to Quillen from Loomis.

Gray surrendered to authorities early last month, and has been accused in Manhattan of stealing at least seven pieces of high-end jewelry and selling them through a New York auction house. He is also facing felony larceny charges in Rhode Island.

MURDER SUSPECT ESCAPES POLICE CUSTODY AT GWU HOSPITAL, STILL AT-LARGE

“Wanted Escapee.” This alarming subject heading accompanied an AlertDC email via the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Sept. 6 at 5:05 p.m. And the alert’s message helped local residents in Georgetown and Foggy Bottom neighborhoods make sense of the swirling police helicopters overhead searching block-by-block, numerous traffic closures and long blockades behind police caution tape.

Christopher Patrick Haynes, 30, a murder suspect in police custody had escaped around 3:30 p.m. from George Washington University Hospital at 900 23rd St. NW.

For full story go to Georgetowner.com.

For a Happy Dog, Think Positive

BY THE GEORGETOWNER

“If you want a well-trained dog, you have to think like a dog. Unwanted behaviors, like excessive barking, leash-pulling or separation anxiety, are perfectly normal from a dog’s point of view. He or she is trying to tell you something: ‘I’m scared, I’m anxious, I don’t trust that other dog. I’m lonely. I’m bored.’ Our job, and yours, is to figure out what’s motivating this behavior and help your dog find a more acceptable way to live in your world.” So says John Erickson, lead trainer at Happy Paws DC, a training, boarding and daycare facility in Tenleytown. “Dogs need to feel secure and comfortable,” he adds. “And with positive reinforcement, we can give them a ‘moment of Zen.’”

As the name suggests, there’s no punishment in positive reinforcement. Instead of “no, no,” there’s “yes (I hear you) and (here’s what you can do instead.)” Rather than making a dramatic change — from leash-pulling, say, to walking calmly with a loose leash — trainers, working with the pet parent, take it literally step by step and reward each new achievement with a highvalue treat. “This way, we make it pleasant for the dog to recall and adopt the desired behaviors,” John explains.

Kiko and her owner, Hannah Joudi, would

They were very transparent with how Kiko’s training experience went whenever I picked her up, even providing a bit of homework for me to work on, which further cemented her learning at home. Overall, her training went really well and Kiko and I are closer and work better with each other now than we did before!”

Happy Paws has been welcoming dogs and their people since 2007 and now integrates training across all three services. We understand that dogs, like their people, have different socialization and learning styles, so our programs are personalized to address their unique needs and bring out their best behavior.

IMPECCABLY MANNERED THIEF LEAVES THANK-YOU NOTES FOR OVER $1 MILLION HE STOLE IN ART, JEWELS

Retired professor Lawrence Gray, 79, made off with over a million in jewels and art from homes across five states. The professor was

GEORGETOWN WINE & SPIRITS ROBBED AT KNIFEPOINT

On August 31, around 2:15 p.m., Pascal Valadier, the business manager for Georgetown Wine & Spirits at 2701 P St. NW fell victim to an armed robbery with a knife in broad daylight. Valadier told The Georgetowner’s Editor-in-Chief Robert Devaney that the perpetrator entered the store, cornered Valadier, threatened him with what appeared to be a vegetable knife, and demanded money from the cash register, getting away with approximately $800 in cash. The assailant was only wearing one glove, so Valadier is hoping detectives can lift fingerprints from the scene, Devaney said. “We’re currently awaiting a surveillance video or photo from MPD” from the incident.

MPD Second District Lt. Merzig told ANC 2E commissioners at their September 5 virtual meeting it was a “pretty brazen robbery in the middle of the day.”

Covert Cocktails

Photo by Ironi Schleder for Happy Paws.

Escapee Christopher Patrick Haynes, 30, a murder suspect. Courtesy MPD.

Georgetown Wine & Spirits at 27th & P Streets in Georgetown. Courtesy Google.

Lawrence Gray and Jacqueline Quillen in 2020.

Photo by Tony Powell.

Exclusive Interview: Chancellor Ferebee Confident at Start of School

BY PEGGY SANDS

DC Public Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee is in charge of more than 112 public elementary and secondary schools in the District, serving 50,000 students with more than 4,300 full-time teachers, and manages a constantly changing budget-in-progress process that includes cuts in pandemic programs and additions for new priorities.

Top among those priorities are math and reading achievement scores that have stubbornly hung below grade level for most of Washington, D.C.’s public school children. Those scores are accompanied by a widening gap between achievements of students with different economic backgrounds. Underlying it all is the most publicized challenge of all: violence in and around the city schools as well as inside school campuses.

Still, Ferebee, who has been chancellor since 2018, remains confident the challenges can be met and overcome.

“We lived through the pandemic when young people were and still are so challenged,” Ferebee told the Georgetowner during an online exclusive interview last week. “They got through so much, and I am so grateful at

how they have adapted to so much change. But it’s going to take time… a good year or two for this generation to learn relationship skills and for the budget to catch up to our needs in new instructional and school and student safety areas. But we will get through it.”

Perhaps one proof of that is that D.C. schools have not experienced the decline in student enrollment and teacher retention that many public school districts are experiencing throughout the nation. DC Public schools are full, and DCPS experienced a 90-percent retention of teachers identified as “effective” in teacher evaluations last year. The DCPS budgets continue to support some of the highest teacher salaries in the nation. Starting teachers can expect to begin with annual salaries of around $60,000; top salaries for experienced teachers in the District can exceed $110,000.

(It is important to note the alternative public school sector in D.C. not under Ferebee’s control. The District of Columbia Public Charter School Board regulates charter schools with an enrollment of 45,000 students.)

DCPS stability is reflected in and around Georgetown. Hyde Addison Elementary

School on O Street continues to attract one of the most diverse student bodies in the city with children who speak dozens of different languages and whose parents come from dozens of different nations. Hardy Middle School on 35th Street maintained a 62-percent, in-boundary student body last year — students who live in the immediate area of the school — and whose expectations to attend a local public high school led to the relatively speedy establishment of a general high school just for Georgetown area students.

The new MacArthur High School at 4530 MacArthur Blvd. NW will open its doors for the first time next week to a freshman class of mainly Hardy Middle School direct-feed students.

Ferebee said that it looks like the so-called temporary name, “MacArthur High School,” may be retained as a permanent name. Everyone has easily identified the school with that name, as students adopted their school mascot: the mammoth.

One of the most significant changes to come, Ferebee noted, is the support of city leaders for instructional changes in mathematics and literacy based on exciting and proven “brain research.” New discoveries in brain function and how people learn — the often cited black box that educators have been working to understand for decades — have the potential to help teachers and instruction coaches sculpt essential learning procedures to individual student learning development indicators.

Ferebee came to his career in education naturally — from birth, one might say. Both his parents were teachers. “While they did not push me to become a teacher myself, that’s where I found myself after college, an elementary school teacher,” Ferebee said with a chuckle.

Go to Georgetowner.com for the full article.

DC Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee. Courtesy DCPS.

Our Cultural Capital

Perhaps no city in the world possesses such a unique cultural heritage as Washington, D.C. Home to iconic public monuments of world significance – Lincoln gazing across the Reflecting Pool towards Washington’s monument, the Kennedy Center for the Arts, the Martin Luther King memorial across the Tidal Basin from the Jefferson Memorial – while, the nation’s greatest museums and galleries, storing and displaying our national treasures, are to be found here, free to the public. Few cities showcase as wide a range of architectural splendors, reflecting every period and style of America’s past.

But, D.C. also continues to be a cultural capital and hotspot in many other dimensions, from our multivarious musical forms and cuisines to the broad range of local arts institutions.

Destination DC has created a new advertising campaign dubbed “There’s only one DC.” The branding hopes to remind everyone that our capital matches other world-class cities in arts and culture. They’re also highlighting a key fact — no other city in the world can compete with D.C.’s monuments, museums, and galleries. In 2022, the city rebounded to 91 percent of

Clergy Express Support for Nonprofit

pre-pandemic figures, and the volume of international visitors to 60 percent.

We’re a unique city that bridges the historical past with the potential of the future. Where else can one find major events like The World Culture Festival alongside the reopening of the National Museum of the Women in the Arts? Or perhaps many a Smithsonian’s family-friendly programming alongside upscale events like the annual Meridian Ball? In September, DC Art All Night will showcase local art and artists all over the city, including in Georgetown September 29.

There’s nowhere quite like Washington where you can hobnob with senators in the morning and catch a pre-Broadway premiere of a new musical in the evening, or pop into a Kennedy Center’s free Millennium Stage or REACH performance.

Our city’s diversity and dedication to the arts allows our residents and visitors access to art and culture from around the globe. From our local artists, to our city government, to federal arts funding programs, Washington is a unique cultural beneficiary for which we should be thankful.

Arts Education Is Cultural Heritage

Washington didn’t become the sizzling arts capital it is today without our local artists shaping and enriching our cultural landscape. And perhaps there’s no better way to preserve our arts heritage than through arts education. Without it, audiences of the future will lack the capacity to critique, understand, and fully appreciate what they’re seeing or hearing, nor for artists or musicians to have every opportunity to gain creative inspiration to aspire to a career in the arts.

As the new executive director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Aaron Myers, told us last month, he would “much rather a young person pick up an instrument than a gun,” or push back through their artistic expression rather than resort to drugs or violence.

He’s not wrong. We believe the community should encourage our leaders to fully-fund arts programs in all schools.

When budget considerations come around, the arts are often first on the chopping block. It’s important to remember, however, that whether students are practicing lines for their spring

musical, or writing and illustrating their first picture book, or learning the ins-and-outs of painting, sculpture, filmmaking – you name it – these engaged activities nourish their creative minds, helping to develop their fine motor skills and emotional intelligence. Even if students don’t want to pursue art careers, the field can still be a crucial contributor to lifelong learning and overall academic and career success.

Finally, in this world of intense competition in schools, pandemics, social media, mass shootings and unrest, the arts can provide a safe haven and a stress reliever. Many students see their arts classes as a time they can enjoy and express themselves, rather than fuel anxiety about all of life’s stressors.

There’s nothing like playing an instrument, selling your first painting, taking an A+ photograph, or singing your first song in front of a sold-out theater. Why not allow the next generation the opportunity to pursue or enjoy all the arts has to offer?

And the benefits will redound to our rich cultural heritage.

We, the clergy leaders of Georgetown congregations, support Georgetown Ministry Center (GMC) because it is the single most important resource for our neighbors experiencing homelessness in this community. GMC is a place for the unhoused to belong and be accepted. As the only service provider of its kind in Georgetown, GMC forms relationships with and supports a vulnerable population often ignored and misunderstood. GMC also attempts to connect individuals in need with stable housing options. Through the hospitality and services offered at the drop-in center, as well as their street outreach and winterfeeding programs, GMC seeks to respond to the needs of guests, with a particular emphasis on providing need-based resources.

The work done by GMC is not easy. A web of societal and structural barriers to effective service to individuals experiencing homelessness must be negotiated on a regular basis.

In the past year alone, GMC served 1,042 guests with:

• 13,564 meals

• 2,556 loads of laundry

• 3,834 showers

• 240 psychiatry visits

• 1,438 street outreach interactions

• 170 vital documents

• 90 guests matched with housing vouchers.

With the increasing rates of homelessness in our city, these services are essential to meeting the basic needs of our unhoused neighbors. The services provided by GMC are also critical to honoring the human dignity of these neighbors while enabling them to transition out of homelessness.

Our congregations helped found the

Georgetown Ministry Center in 1987 and we continue to support its vital work through our financial gifts, volunteer support, and organizational involvement.

We encourage all our Georgetown neighbors to join us in supporting the essential work of GMC by helping this important organization continue to meet the ongoing needs of those experiencing homelessness in our neighborhood and our community.

• The Rev. Timothy Cole, Christ Church, Georgetown

• The Rev. Rachel Cornwell, Dumbarton United Methodist Church

• The Rev. Stefan Megyery, Epiphany Roman Catholic Church

• The Rev. Robert K. Pines, First Baptist Church, Georgetown

• The Rev. Brett Wilson, Georgetown Lutheran Church

• The Rev. Camille Cook Howe, Georgetown Presbyterian Church

• The Rev. David Wacaster, Grace Episcopal Church

• The Rev. Kevin Gillespie, Holy Trinity Catholic Church

• Rabbi Hyim Shafner, Kesher Israel Congregation

• The Rev. Selena Johnson, Mt. Zion United Methodist Church

• The Rev. Gini Gerbasi, St. John’s Episcopal Church

• The Rev. Richard Wall, St. Paul’s Parish, K Street (Episcopal)

• Msgr. Paul Dudziak, St. Stephen the Martyr Catholic Church

Witcover on Politics: The Stain of Indictment, from Agnew to Trump

BY JULES WITCOVER

Fierce partisan division is underway within the Republican Party over the recent indictments of former President Donald Trump on numerous charges. He’s been implicated for federal election obstruction, mishandling classified documents, falsifying business records, and racketeering. His blatantly aggressive mug shot from his Georgia District Attorney’s criminal conspiracy case against him has wrought a political firestorm.

I remember another similar firestorm during the 1970s, when beleaguered Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and his three lawyers negotiated one of the biggest pleabargaining deals in U.S. history. He was indicted for taking bribes and conspiring against the U.S. government. Agnew, like Trump, symbolized the aspirations and

prejudices of a broad segment of American society. After his indictment, however, he became persona non grata…

My last personal encounter with Agnew came some years later, when I spied him at a table with friends, later identified as old Secret Service agents, at a restaurant in a downtown Washington hotel near my old stomping grounds at The Washington Post. I walked over and, admittedly somewhat mischievously, proposed that I write another book telling his side of the resignation story. He later said: “I burst out laughing every time I think of that incident. After dipping his pen in poison to write two books about me, Witcover had the nerve to ask me to help him write another!”

I took that as a “No.”

Martin’s Tavern: Cheers to 90 Years

BY ROBERT DEVANEY

When someone or something marks 90 years, you take notice. When this 90-year-old place is full of history and legends, you know there are stories to be told. When this place is Martin’s Tavern — owned by Billy Martin IV — in the same place for 90 years, full of friends, food and fun, it’s time to celebrate a Georgetown tradition and a neighborhood favorite that’s up-to-date and has an international following.

The restaurant at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and N Street was opened in 1933, around the end of Prohibition, by former Major League Baseball player William Gloyd “Billy” Martin, along with the help of his father William S. Martin, who hailed from Galway.

William A. Martin, the third Martin in succession, was a Golden Gloves boxer and started behind the bar in 1949. He sold the business to his son — the Billy we know today — in 2001, after our current owner begin working at Martin’s in 1982. He had to pony up more than $1 million with loans from neighborhood businesses and supporters. His first year, the place grossed about $2 million; this year, he expects $9 million in gross revenue.

The Georgetowner sat down with the 64-year-old Billy Martin for a candid, insightful interview on Aug. 30. The result was a master class on how to be an authentic restaurateur and community leader. (You can listen to it soon at Georgetowner.com.)

What is most important to Martin — besides his tavern’s lucky spot in history and the nation’s capital — are his tenacious, professional staff and his excellent, ever improving menu. He said he could not have survived the pandemic lockdown without “a core of five staffers” — and financial support from the federal government. “The core management staff I have here give their heart and soul to this place,” he said.

Come in this week or whenever, and you’ll be part of year 90 at Billy Martin’s Tavern, which encompasses a lot of history, a lot of presidents, a lot of Georgetown itself. Try to get the legendary booth where JFK proposed to Jackie. There’s a lingering memory of political power brokers leaning over bourbon or scotch

and steak, whispering plans to each other, be it Democrat or Republican.

Here, JFK had breakfast after Mass almost every Sunday. Sam Rayburn mentored LBJ. Gen. William “Will Bill” Donovan met with others from the Office of Strategic Services. There are booths for Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, George W. Bush, Harry Truman and other luminaries, such as Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn. And, of course, Madeleine Albright loved the place.

The food is often described as hearty or classic American. With consistent and very

good cooking, the extensive menu makes a journey through eggs Benedict, Guinness mussels, burgers, steaks, fries and crab cakes all the way back to Welsh rarebit and shepherd’s pie. There are Lamb chops and lobster risotto, too. Lately, chefs have touted their braised short ribs — and new seafood combinations. (Curiously, waffles are not on the menu.)

Martin takes credit for reviving the brand after he took over. “Before these years, people asked ‘What is Martin’s?’ or ‘Is that place still open?’ We put Martin’s on the map,” he told us earlier. Today, he’s also aware that social media can trumpet his brand — but knows it’s even better to include stories and news about the community, he said.

This fourth Billy and his wife Gina have two adult children, “who love this business immensely,” Martin said. Daughter Lauren will get married on Nov. 11; son William (the fifth Billy Martin) is in the Navy. The father hopes they will work again at the tavern, perhaps before its centennial.

Also, as the business approaches its 100th year, Martin said the building housing his famous restaurant is “busting at the seams, constructed in the mid-1880s and that there’s going to be some TLC given to the building sometime, like many in Georgetown.” He speculated, “I may have to find a pop-up,” temporarily moving to someplace else on

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

DANCING ON THE WATERFRONT

Sept. 16, 23, 30, Oct. 7, 5-9:00 p.m. BID, 3300 Water St. NW. Every Saturday night through October.

THE HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURE OF GEORGETOWN AND WASHINGTON, D.C.

Sept. 20, Oct. 5, 6-8:00 p.m. City Tavern, 3206 M St. NW.

Wisconsin Avenue as the place is renovated. He worried which changes might have to be done to bring the building to code.

Meanwhile, Martin is involved in the local restaurant association and on the board of the Georgetown Business Improvement District and other business groups. He’s also a big supporter of the Citizens Association of Georgetown and Georgetown Ministry Center.

He has opinions, of course, about raising the minimum wage of tipped employees, in stages, to match that of non-tipped employees in the District. “It will be a challenge,” he said. And he worries about burgers costing more than $30.

As for the future of Georgetown, Martin admires how the residents, the businesses and the university “are so intertwined together … and we sit up on this little hill … [above] the river.”

With “great views, great history, great homes,” he said, “Georgetown is a very unique and special place to be … It’s on the upswing right now. There’s a lot of good things happening. … I see nothing but great things going forward.”

In the Oct. 11th Georgetowner — when the newspaper begins its 70th volume — look for a continuation of our conversation with Billy Martin.

CULTURE POWER BREAKFAST WITH DR. JACQUELINE J. LEARY-WARSAW

Sept. 21, 8:00 - 9:30 a.m. The Georgetowner, Four Seasons Hotel,

2800 Penn. Ave. NW. Our first fall breakfast series speaker is the founding dean of Catholic University’s School of Music, Drama, and Art. For information and for tickets go to Georgetowner.com.

MEETING, COMMISSION OF FINE ARTS

Sept. 21, 9:00 a.m. 401 F. St. NW, Suite 312. Filing Deadline: Sept. 7.

GEORGETOWN COMMUNITY DAY

Sept. 23, 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., , Georgetown University, Healy Lawn. Join neighbors, students, faculty, and staff for a day of fun and family-friendly activities, face painting, moon bounces, music, games, and a community picnic with free food. The community fair features tables from local schools, churches, community organizations, government agencies, and university departments with giveaways. For more information or to host a table for your organization, email Karen Salmeron at communityengagement@georgetown.edu.

GEORGETOWN ART ALL NIGHT

Sept. 29, 6-8:00 p.m. GMS, Wisconsin Ave. NW, N St. to R St. Enjoy gallery hopping, live performances, craft workshops, kids’ activities, dancing, and more. For info go to GeorgetownMainStreet.com.

VIRTUAL MEETING, ADVISORY NEIGHBORHOOD COMMISSION

(ANC 2E)

Oct. 2, 6:30 p.m. For agenda, go to Anc2e.com.

MEETING, OLD GEORGETOWN BOARD

Oct. 5, 9:00 a.m. –401 F. St. NW, Suite 312. Filing Deadline: Sept. 14.

FALL MARKET

Oct. 14 - 15, 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. GMS, Book Hill, along Wisconsin Ave., from O St. to Reservoir Road. Enjoy small business promotions, fall-inspired menus, and autumnal activities.

Jacqueline Leary-Warsaw of Catholic University

Billy Martin, fourth generation, standing in front of Martin’s Tavern. Photo by Jordan Tovin.

INS & OUTS

BY ROBERT DEVANEY

IN: BLANK STREET COFFEE TO OPEN SEPT. 16

Next door to Van Leeuven Ice Cream, Blank Street Coffee at 3235 Prospect St. NW expects to open Sept. 16. “With a limited, quality menu and state-of-the-art coffee technology, Blank Street makes the daily coffee run quick and easy,” we’re told. Its Georgetown location is part of the coffee company’s broader expansion in Washington, D.C. where it’s already in Dupont Circle and Shaw.

REOPENED: BITTY & BEAU’S COFFEE

COMING: CLUB PILATES IN NOVEMBER

A Club Pilates will be arriving in Georgetown in the former Paddywax Candle Bar space — the second floor above South Moon Under retailer — at 1065 Wisconsin Ave. NW. The mind-body exercise regimen has been a “movement of movement” since the early 20th century. The boutique fitness company was founded in 2007 in San Diego and is based in Irvine, California with more than 600 franchises in North America.

IN: LESLIE MAYSAK HEADS UP CITY TAVERN PRESERVATION FOUNDATION

The City Tavern Preservation Foundation named Leslie Maysak its new executive director.

The foundation said: “Maysak’s background as an Executive Director, combined with her passion for historic preservation and community based institutions will further advance the Foundation’s mission of historic preservation with particular respect to the history and architecture of the Federal era City Tavern, built in 1796 and the oldest operating tavern in Washington, D.C. The City Tavern is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.”

For the past 24 years, Maysak has lived in Georgetown with her family. Most recently, she served as the executive director for the Citizens Association of Georgetown, and before that, executive director for the Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 2E).

Maysak oversees all day-to-day operations, programming and fundraising, including planning for the annual holiday gala, scheduled at the City Tavern for Dec. 1.

“I’m thrilled to be given this wonderful opportunity and important responsibility to care for a precious piece of our living history in a building I pass by nearly every day,” Maysak said.

“With the mission and intention to broaden awareness of this landmark property and protect its historic fabric into the future, Leslie’s experience fits well and we are delighted to have her join us,” said Board President Zana Metelski.

The executive director will work out of the historic City Tavern building at 3206 M St. NW, where the foundation, an independent 501(c)(3) holds lectures, events and regular tours in the Georgetown landmark building.

Maysak can be contacted at Leslie@ CityTavernDC.org.

After temporarily closing in March, Bitty & Beau’s Coffee, the North Carolinabased company that “reinvented the coffee experience,” reopened at 3207 M Street NW. Named after their two children with Down syndrome, the brand was launched by the Wright family in 2016 and adds that it is a “human rights movement disguised as a coffee shop.”

IN: SANDRO AT 33RD & M

Another fashion brand has landed in the former Intermix space at 3300 M St. NW. It’s Sandro Andy S.A.S, commonly known as Sandro Paris, a French ready-to-wear brand founded in Paris in 1984 by Évelyne Chetrite, who has described the philosophy of the brand as “casual but always chic” and “sophisticated but cool.”

CLOSED (TEMPORARILY): TODD SNYDER MEN’S WEAR

Todd Snyder, the recently opened men’s clothing store at 3211 M, has temporarily closed because of a fire on the top floor of the commercial building. The Aug. 14 fire sent smoke billowing from the dormer windows at the top of the three-story building on M Street — and triggered a multi-alarm response from DC Fire & EMS.

Club Pilates tells us: “We serve up over eight million workouts each year to our dedicated members … and we’re just getting started. … Pure to Joseph Pilates’s original Reformer-based Contrology Method, but modernized with group practice and expanded state-of-the-art equipment, Club Pilates offers high-quality, life-changing training at a surprisingly affordable price.”

Other D.C. locations are in Tenleytown and Mount Vernon Square. Need more info on the Georgetown location? Email will.beale@ clubpilates.com.

Q ST. CAPITAL ONE BUILDING TO GO RETAIL

Empty since May 2022, the Capital One bank property at Wisconsin and Q Streets NW has been acquired by Roadside Development and Waterview Capital Management.

The building and its parking lot at 1545 Wisconsin Ave. NW were purchased for $3.15 million and will be redeveloped for retail use. “A great deal,” remarked more than one Georgetown business owner.

“We’re very excited to partner with Waterview on this exciting acquisition,” Roadside partner Jeff Edelstein told the media. “With our long history in urban retail, we feel this property is a perfect fit for our team and we look forward to re-energizing the building with new tenancy.” Roadside led the City Ridge mixed-use project on Wisconsin Avenue in Friendship Heights.

OUT: ROLL BY GOODYEAR ROLLS AWAY

The new tire-change concept Roll by Goodyear store that opened in February 2021 at 1336 Wisconsin Ave. NW has closed.

Leslie Maysak of the City Tavern Preservation Foundation. Courtesy Leslie Maysak.

Auction Block

BY KATE OCZYPOK

September’s auction block sees the wrapping-up of summer auctions. A rare book from Doyle, paintings out of Bonhams and Potomac and a Jean-Michel Basquiat from Christies are highlighted.

DOYLE

Trouting Along a Tributary of the Lehigh, by Benjamin Marriott

BONHAMS

“A Refreshing Drink” by Ernest Lawson (1873-1939)

SOLD FOR: $16,640

An impressionist oil on canvas by CanadianAmerican painter Ernest Lawson sold for nearly $17,000. The painting (c. 1915), signed “E. LAWSON” in the lower left corner is named “A Refreshing Drink,” and features a horse with a boy sitting atop the animal.

CHRISTIES

After Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)

ESTIMATE : $70,000-$100,000

SOLD FOR : $126,000

The screenprint in colors and on museum board from 2016 is signed and dated 5/13/16 by the Basquiat Foundation administrators in pencil. The artist’s estate stamps are on a label on the reverse. The art is framed and in generally very good condition.

THE POTOMACK COMPANY

Charles Francois Felu “After Rembrandt”

ESTIMATE: $400-$600

SOLD FOR: $1,400

The oil on canvas by Belgian painter Charles Francois Felu (1830-1900) is titled “After Rembrandt” and inscribed, dated and signed. On the original canvas, the work has one patch on the verso. Some inpaint is found, particularly around the head of the Virgin Mary.

GEORGETOWN’S NEWEST BOUTIQUE CONDOMINIUM combines unparalleled luxury, thoughtful design, architectural detail and solid construction for the ultimate in convenience and style.

Priced from $3,250,000 TO $7,750,000

OPEN HOUSE

Tuesday, September 19th (call for schedule)

Saturday, September 23rd, 2:00 to 4:00

Sunday, September 24th, 2:00 to 4:00

H I C KO R Y T R E E FA R M

The Plains, Virginia • $7,950,000

304 acres | Main house, stunning guest house w/ garage, 2 tenant houses, manager’s house, apartment complex, pool, 5 barns, approx 60 stalls, 3/4 mile all weather sand track, pond & extensive paddocks, fencing & sheds | Panoramic views of Bull Run Mountains & the Blue Ridge Mountains | Original home site still surrounded by towering trees, garden & stone walls

Helen MacMahon (540) 454-1930

U P P E R V I L L E L A N D

Upperville, Virginia • $1,300,000

Total of 44.55 acres of which 15 acres were producing grapes | Prime location w/mountain Views & privacy | Vineyard infrastructure still remains &includes fencing, irrigation system and computerized well | Perc site for 4 bedroom home. Property is in conservation easement |

Property can be converted to Residential use.

Paul MacMahon (703) 609-1905

Brian MacMahon (703) 609-1868

info@sheridanmacmahon.com www.sheridanmacmahon.com

M I D W O O D

The Plains, Virginia • $4,900,000

64 acres on a lake in2 parcels & Little River frontage | French Country stone home w/slate roof | 5 bedrooms, including 2 large suites w/balconies | Large pool w/spa & pool house, pavilion, tennis court, gazebo, barn w/2 apartments, equipment building/garage & 2 generators | Open fields and rolling pasture w/extensive wooded trails in prime Orange County Hunt territory

Helen MacMahon (540) 454-1930

1 0 3 W F E D E R A L S T R E E T

Middleburg, Virginia • $874,900

2 commercial spaces side by side | Entire complex has been renovated & both units are currently leased to established businesses | All details provided reflect both units being offered together | Both units include a fully finished lower level for additional retail space or storage | High ceilings , hardwood floors | Nice foot traffic and large display windows | Private off street parking.

(540) 687-5588

F U LT O N R U N Middleburg, Virginia • $2,982,250

Middleburg Hunt location | House built in 2020, frame exterior | 3 BR, 3 1/2 BA, 11 ft ceilings, moldings | Antique french doors | 50 acres are gently rolling & useable | 40 fenced acres | 4 large paddocks & 3 small holding fields | 24x48 barn/farm structure w/ tack room, 24x14 run in shed, 12x36 2-bay run in shed w/ feed room, 12x14 tack room

Paul MacMahon (703) 609-1905

G L E N D O N N E L L

Warrenton, Virginia • $1,500,000

Stone Neo-Tudor home built in 1918 | Features light-filled rooms, a center hallway w/ arched doorways | Kitchen gives the gourmet cook all the amenities for efficient food prep | 5 wood-burning fireplaces | A separate office and gym on the first floor | 4 bedrooms, 2 full baths, 2 half baths | stone patio for outdoor entertaining | Detached garage w/ storage | 1.14 Acres

Brian MacMahon (703) 609-1868 Lynn Wiley (540) 454-1527

L E E D S M A N O R R O A D Markham, Virginia • $575,000

Classic farmhouse on 1 acre, constructed in 1899 | Traditional floor plan | Sitting area, large living room & family room | Galley kitchen extends to the dining room & sunroom w/views of the countryside | Upstairs, there is a primary bedroom, 2 additional bedrooms, a full bath, & a sleeping porch | Basement contains a rec room , ample storage | Spacious backyard, 2 large outbuildings

Marqui Simmons (703) 774-6109

F O R E S T H I L L R O A D

Bluemont, Virginia • $250,000

East side of Blue Ridge | All wooded, old logging trail, could clear views of Loudoun Valley and Bull Run Mountains | 10.94 acres, easy access to Routes 7 and 50 | Tough to match the seclusion

110 East Washington Street Middleburg, Virginia 20117

FALLARTS PREVIEW

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ARTSWATCH

Page 20

PERFORMING ARTS

Page 21-22

Dance and Theater

Page 23-24

Opera and Classical Music

Page 25

Jazz, Pop, Rock and Hip-Hop

VISUAL ARTS

Page 26 – 30

Featuring The National Gallery of Art, The Phillips Collection, National Museum of Women in the Arts, and more

TRANSFORMING LOCAL ARTISTS

Page 32-33

Washington, D.C. comes alive in the fall. Gone are the summer days and in their place are fresh new plays, art exhibits, dance performances, musicals, and more. Our arts expert Richard Selden has compiled a comprehensive guide to the arts landscape for the new season.

Kate Oczypok spoke to artists involved in Transformer DC, an art gallery that empowers artists for a brighter future. Don’t miss our preview of Georgetown’s and DC’s Art All Night by Christopher Jones, featuring your favorite businesses and artists from all eight wards of D.C.

There’s so much to see, it will have you proclaiming “Encore!”

Artist Mx. Noir. Photo by artist Stephen Benedicto.

Artswatch

BY RICHARD SELDEN

HANA SHARIF FOLLOWS MOLLY SMITH AT ARENA STAGE

As successor to Molly Smith, who retired last summer after 25 years as Arena Stage artistic director, Arena’s board appointed Hana S. Sharif, artistic director since 2018 of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. With a B.A. from Spelman College, in her birthplace of Atlanta, and an M.F.A. from the University of Houston, in the city where she grew up, Sharif began her theater career at Hartford Stage. In 2014, she moved to Baltimore Center Stage as associate artistic director, launching the 99-seat Third Space and helping develop “Marley” (later titled “One Love”) by Kwame Kwei-Armah, among other projects.

ATLANTIC FESTIVAL RETURNS TO THE WHARF, SEPT. 28-29

The Atlantic Festival, “addressing the most significant issues of our time with today’s boldest thinkers as we bring The Atlantic’s journalism to life onstage,” will return to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 28-29 at the Wharf, where the magazine — founded in Boston in 1857 as The Atlantic Monthly — is now headquartered. The list of more than 70 speakers includes Antony Blinken, Spike Lee, Jake Tapper and Kerry Washington. A festival pass is $200; mainstage programming can be live-streamed for free. Details are available at theatlantic.com.

HEYWARD PICKS UP BALTIMORE SYMPHONY BATON

On the last weekend of September — including a Sunday concert at Strathmore — Jonathon Heyward will begin his first season as Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director. Succeeding Marin Alsop, Heyward is only the second Black conductor of a major American orchestra (the first, composer William Grant Still, conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 1930s).

A graduate of South Carolina’s Charleston County School of the Arts and the Boston Conservatory, he also studied at London’s Royal Academy of Music, was assistant

Congratulations to the 2023 Washington Award Winners

The eleven ar tists working in the fields of visual and interdisciplinar y ar t, dance and music , received either $15,000 unrestricted cash prizes or year-long studio residencies at The Fillmore School in Georgetown.

conductor of The Hallé in Manchester and leads the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany.

NEW SITE, NEW NAME: CAPITAL JEWISH MUSEUM

The Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum opened to the public on June 9, the same date the original Adas Israel building, attached to the new SmithGroupdesigned museum facility, was dedicated in 1876 as the District’s first purposebuilt synagogue. Having been moved a short distance three times, the small brick synagogue is now in its final home at 575 3rd St. NW, part of the huge Capitol Crossing mixed-used development. Executive Director Ivy L. Barsky, former CEO of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, joined the museum early in 2022. The exhibition “Notorious RBG” is on view through Nov. 30.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC STARTS TO BUILD BASE CAMP

After breaking ground last fall, work continues on the National Geographic Society’s $250-million project, designed by Hickok Cole, to transform its headquarters at 17th and M Streets NW into “Base Camp”: a place like none other, where visitors will come to experience stunning imagery and photography,

bold storytelling, and learn about the rich discoveries and expeditions of the past, with a watchful eye to the future and protecting our planet.” In June, UrbanTurf reported that plans submitted to the District included a proposal for a 160-room hotel on the upper floors. Base Camp is due to open in 2026.

‘HOW POOR ARE THEE THAT HAVE NOT PATIENCE!’

Closed since March of 2020, the Folger Shakespeare Library, adjacent to the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill, will not reopen on Nov. 17 as planned. A new reopening date, in 2024, will be announced later this year. Additional time is needed for the “configuration, testing and recalibration” phase of the Folger’s $80.5-million, KieranTimberlake-designed renovation, which has added 12,000 squarefeet underground. The postponement of the library’s public reopening is not expected to affect the 2023-24 Folger Theatre season in the same building, set to begin on Oct. 24 with “The Winter’s Tale.”

To explore their work visit: www.sandrevermay.org/washington-awards, and follow S&R Evermay on Instagram: @sandrevermay

The Atlantic Festival returns to The Wharf this month with over 70 speakers expected to appear.

Arena Stage Artistic Director Hana Sharif.

Photo by Cheshire Isaac.

FALL PERFORMING ARTS PREVIEW

Don’t cry for me, William Shakespeare?

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Evita,” directed by Sammi Cannold and choreographed by Eily Maltby and Valeria Solomonoff, is at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Harman Hall (through Oct. 8). Rising star Whitney White will portray another memorable first lady in her musical “Macbeth in Stride,” directed by Tyler Dobrowsky and Taibi Magar and choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly, in STC’s Klein Theatre (Oct. 10 to 29).

Though the Folger Shakespeare Library won’t reopen until next year, its Folger Theatre will admit the public for a seasonal dose of the Bard, “The Winter’s Tale,” directed by Tamilla Woodard (Oct. 24 to Dec. 3).

Theater J’s season at the Edlavitch Jewish Community Center begins with two intergenerational comedies — “The Chameleon” by Jenny Rachel Weiner, directed by Ellie Heyman (Oct. 11 to Nov. 5); and Iris Bahr’s “See You Tomorrow” (Nov. 14 to 22) — along with “Here I Am,” “a triptych of tourde-force performances” (Nov. 14 to Jan. 14).

BY RICHARD SELDEN

D A N C E

Partnering with Dupont Underground, The Washington Ballet will pop down for four pop-up performances (Sept. 28, 29 and 30).

TWB’s main fall event, “Such Sweet Thunder: An Evening Inspired by William Shakespeare” — also looking ahead to Duke Ellington’s 125th birthday, April 29, 2024 — will happen at the Warner Theatre (Oct. 26 to 29).

Glade Dance Collective will share works in progress during a yearlong “In the Lab” series at the Atlas Performing Arts Center starting this Sunday (Sept. 17). Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at the Atlas’s Café Flamenco, two cabaret-style performances by Furia Flamenca Dance Company with guitarists

T H E A T E R

Torcuato Zamora and Juan L. Romero and percussionist Henry Rodriguez (Oct. 21).

Several of the Kennedy Center’s fall dance offerings originate in Asia: Kalanidhi Dance’s “Sagarika: The Sea-Maiden,” in the Terrace Theater (Sept. 22); China Arts and Entertainment Group’s “Mulan,” in the Opera House (Sept. 29, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1); and, back in the Terrace Theater, a solo work in the language of the classical Indian dance Bharatanatyam: Malavika Sarukkai’s “Anubandh – Connectedness” (Nov. 10 and 11).

Also in the Terrace Theater: Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company will kick off its 30th anniversary season with an evening of mixed repertory performed to live music (Nov. 30).

GALA Hispanic Theatre co-founder Hugo Medrano passed away on May 22, aged 80. His life and legacy will be celebrated this Monday evening at GALA’s home, the landmark Tivoli Theatre in Columbia Heights (Sept. 18).

Top award-getter at this year’s Helen Hayes Awards, GALA is presenting “Baño de luna (Bathing in Moonlight)” (through Oct. 1), “Picasso” (Oct. 14 to 21) and “Leyendas de mi tierra (Stories from Home)” (Oct. 28 and 29).

Next from In Series: Euripides’ tragicomedy “Alceste,” sung to music by Handel, directed and conducted by Artistic Director Tim Nelson (Sept. 23 and 24 at Dupont Underground, Sept. 29 and 30 and Oct. 1 at Baltimore Theatre Project and Oct. 7 and 9 at GALA).

At Signature Theatre in Arlington, the audience follows “Lauren” on a quest through San Francisco’s Chinatown in Lauren Yee’s “King of the Yees,” directed by Jennifer Chang (through Oct. 22). Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner will direct “Ragtime,” the Tony Award-winning musical by Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens based on E. L. Doctorow’s novel (Oct. 24 to Jan. 7). In November, a cabaret, “How Sweet It Is: The Men of Soul,” will pay tribute to Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding and Bill Withers (Nov. 7 to 19).

Playing at Bethesda’s Round House Theatre is James Graham’s “Ink,” directed by Jason Loewith, about the young Rupert Murdoch (through Sept. 24). After that comes Katori Hall’s jaw-dropping take on Martin Luther King Jr.’s last night, “The Mountaintop,” directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (Oct. 11 to Nov. 5).

Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company. Photo by Jeff Malet.

Onstage at Olney Theatre Center is “The Brothers Paranormal” by Prince Gomolvilas, co-directed by Hallie Gordon and Aria Velz, about two Thai American brothers assisting a Black woman who seems to be haunted by a Thai-speaking ghost (through Oct. 7). There’s also a ghost in Olney’s next show, “Fiddler on the Roof” — remember? — directed by Peter Flynn with music direction by Christopher Youstra and choreography by Lorna Ventura (Nov. 8 to Dec. 31).

At Ford’s Theatre, Seema Sueko is directing “Something Moving: A Meditation on Maynard” by Pearl Cleage, who worked for legendary Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson (Sept. 22 to Oct. 15). More politics: Arena Stage is bringing us “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive” by Selina Fillinger, directed by Margot Bordelon and starring Naomi Jacobson and Natalya Lynette Rathnam (Oct. 13 to Nov. 12).

And Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is presenting the world premiere of Kellie Mecleary’s adaptation of Sasha Denisova’s “My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion,” translated by Misha Kachman and directed by Yury Urnov, a piece inspired by the playwright’s online chats with her 80-plusyear-old mother in Kyiv under siege (through Oct. 8).

Studio Theatre takes us to a Cancún resort — in “Espejos: Clean” by Christine Quintana, translated and adapted by Paula Zelaya Cervantes and directed by Elena Araoz (now playing) — and a North Carolina barbecue pit — in James Ijames’s reimaging of Hamlet, “Fat Ham,” directed by Taylor Reynolds (opens Oct. 25).

The new season for Mosaic Theater Company, based at the Atlas, has begun with Psalmayene 24’s “Monumental Travesties,” directed by Artistic Director Reginald L. Douglas, in which Abe Lincoln’s head is missing from the Capitol Hill Emancipation Memorial (through Oct. 1). Then comes “Confederates” by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Stori Ayers, about Sara, an enslaved rebel turned Union spy, and Sandra, a present-day tenured professor, united across time (Oct. 26 to Nov. 19).

Also at the Atlas: Solas Nua will present “The Honey Trap,” in which two British soldiers meet two local girls on the outskirts of Belfast in 1979, a world premiere by Leo McGann, directed by Matt Torney (Nov. 2 to 19).

But wait, there’s more at the Atlas. ExPats Theatre will present “Scorched” by Lebanese Quebecois playwright Wajdi Mouawad (Sept. 23 to Oct. 15). And check out these two one-nighters: “The Other Side of the

Holly Twyford plays Mother in Woolly Mammoth’s world-premiere production of “My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion.”

Hallway,” from the Breaking Ground summer theater program for LGBTQIA+ youth of color (Sept. 30); and “Crucified,” from SDH Entertainment, about a young woman’s battle with addiction (Oct. 21).

Rejoice, lovers of Broadway movie remakes. Playing this fall are: “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” in the Kennedy Center Opera House (through Sept. 24); and “Mrs. Doubtfire” (Oct. 10 to 15) and “The Wiz” (Oct. 24 to 29), at the National Theatre

A timely reminder: This is your last chance to catch Lynn Notage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning picket-line drama “Sweat” at Dupont’s Keegan Theatre (through Sept. 16).

O P E R A

For this fall’s free Opera in the Outfield presentation, Washington National Opera will stage Puccini’s “La bohème” in Nationals Park (Sept. 30). The regular season in the Kennedy Center Opera House begins with a world premiere. A co-production with the Met, Jeanine Tesori’s “Grounded,” based on George Brant’s play about a woman fighterpilot, will be seen and heard first in D.C., with mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo as Jess (Oct. 28 to Nov. 13). Next up is Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet,” featuring Adam Smith and Rosa Feola and directed by Shakespeare Theatre

PERFORMING ARTS

Company Artistic Director Simon Godwin (Nov. 4 to 18). Cafritz Young Artists will appear in major roles on the second-to-last night (Nov. 17).

Washington Concert Opera’s late-fall production in George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium will be “a recovered gem”: Rossini’s Trojan War opera “Ermione,” with leads Angela Meade, Lawrence Brownlee, David Portillo and Ginger Costa-Jackson (Dec. 2).

C L A S S I C A L

On the program for the National Symphony Orchestra’s season-opening gala in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall: works by Rossini and Elgar, Carlos Simon’s “Fate Now Conquers” and Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” (Sept. 23). Music Director Gianandrea Noseda will also conduct an allRachmaninoff program featuring the Piano Concerto No. 4, with soloist Denis Kozhukhi, and “The Bells,” with the Choral Arts Symphonic Chorus (Sept. 28 to 30). Other NSO highlights: the Halloween Spooktacular (Oct. 22) and performances conducted by Kevin John Edusei of “JFK: The Last Speech” with Phylicia Rashad, inspired by President Kennedy’s 1963 speech at Amherst College (Oct. 26 to 28).

PERFORMING ARTS

In the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater: the Pan American Symphony Orchestra will perform “Tango Sinfónico” (Oct. 14).

New Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director Jonathon Heyward will mount the Strathmore podium for programs featuring Dvořák’s “New World Symphony” and Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet (Sept. 30) and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 and Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with soloist Emanuel Ax (Nov. 18).

Also at Strathmore: National Philharmonic Music Director & Conductor Piotr Gajewski will conduct a “Gershwin, Price & Beethoven” program with Michelle Cann as “Rhapsody in Blue” piano soloist (Oct. 14). The Washington Chorus will join the Nat Phil for “Universal Longings/Anhelos Universales,” with works by James Lee III and Venezuelan composer Antonio Estévez, conducted by Eugene Rogers (Nov. 5). And at the Atlas: Capital City Symphony, led by Artistic Director and Conductor Victoria Gau, will play works by Louise Farrenc, Canteloube, Hovhannes and Grieg (Oct. 15) and, on two successive afternoons, synchronize performances of Andrew Earle Simpson’s original score to screenings of Buster Keaton’s “One Week” (Nov. 11 and 12).

Let’s add some voices. The Russian Chamber Art Society will return to the Embassy of France for performances of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” “The Nursery” and “Songs and Dances of Death” by mezzo-soprano Anastasiia Sidorova, baritone Anton Belov and pianists Artyom Pak and Thomas Pandolfi (Oct. 13).

At Washington National Cathedral, Steven Fox will lead the Cathedral Choral Society, joined by Washington Bach Consort, in the program “Two Cathedrals: Baroque Splendor from Mexico City” (Oct. 22).

Marin Alsop will conduct the Choral Arts Symphonic Chorus and Orchestra with Chorus Master Anthony Blake Clark at a “Festival of Voices” in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall celebrating British composers (Nov. 8).

Turning to the chamber music scene: Music from Chamber Dance Project’s upcoming season of contemporary ballet, always with live music, will be performed across the river at the Alexandria History Museum at the Lyceum (Sept. 21).

As part of the Kennedy Center’s Fortas Chamber Music Concerts in the Terrace Theater, violinist Augustin Hadelich and pianist Orion Weiss will perform sonatas by Beethoven and Prokofiev, along with pieces by Amy Beach, John Adams and Daniel

Bernard Roumain (Oct. 15); and the 47-yearold Emerson String Quartet will give its second-to-last-ever performance; the show is “currently sold out” (Oct. 20).

Right here in Georgetown: Trio Con Brio Copenhagen at Dumbarton Oaks (Oct. 15 and 16) and cellist David Teie at Dumbarton United Methodist Church’s Dumbarton Concerts (Oct. 21).

The Phillips Collection’s Sunday Concerts in the Music Room will start off with British pianist Isata Kanneh Mason (Oct. 15) and Vijay Iyer with the Parker Quartet, playing Iyer’s music for piano quintet (Oct. 22).

Led by Angel Gil-Ordóñez, PostClassical Ensemble’s 2023-24 opening program in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater is titled “Bouncing Off The Walls: Music

Pianist Mahani Teave will perform on Oct. 28 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Max Weinberg’s

and Architecture,” featuring overtures by Beethoven and Rossini and works by Gabrieli and Haydn, with commentary by Washington Post critic Philip Kennicott (Nov. 16).

Roll out the pianos! The first performance in Washington Performing Arts’ Hayes Piano Series in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, by 2022 Van Cliburn Competitionwinner Yuchan Lim (Sept. 23), is sold out, but tickets are still available for Mahani Teave (Oct. 28). Also from Washington Performing Arts in the Terrace Theater: “Between Boundaries: An Evening with Paul Huang,” with the violinist joined by pianist Helen Huang and the Percussion Collective (Oct. 19); and a four-hand piano program by Simone Dinnerstein and Awadagin Pratt (Oct. 30).

One more: Chih-Long Hu will perform in

Catholic University’s Ward Recital Hall as part of the Washington International Piano Series (Oct. 7).

J A Z Z , P O P R O C K A N D H I P- H O P

Highlights of the fall lineup at Georgetown’s Blues Alley: Gerald Albright (Sept. 21 to 24), Bill Charlap (Oct. 13 and 14), Najee (Nov. 2 to 5) and Stanley Jordan (Nov. 9 and 12, solo; Nov. 10 and 11, with Kevin Eubanks). The Oct. 5 to 8 performances by the Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Band have been postponed.

Coming to The Birchmere in Alexandria: Marshall Crenshaw’s 40th Anniversary Tour

2023/ 2024 SEASON

(Oct. 1), The Bacon Brothers (Oct. 7, 8 and 9), Jeffrey Osborne (Oct. 13 and 14), Mary Chapin Carpenter and Shawn Colvin (Oct. 27 and 28), Sheila E. (Nov. 10) and Rufus Wainwright (Nov. 16). The Birchmere will present Lucinda Williams at Capital One Hall in Tysons (Oct. 24).

Did you celebrate the Judy Garland Centennial in 2022? You can still join the party at Strathmore with Michael Feinstein (Sept. 21). Also at Strathmore: Itzhak Perlman performs a klezmer program, “In the Fiddler’s House” (Sept. 28); Anoushka Shankar leads an all-star quartet playing Indian masterworks, presented with Washington Performing Arts (Oct. 6); and Brian Stokes Mitchell sings show tunes and American Songbook favorites (Oct. 21).

Meanwhile, in the Barns at Wolf Trap: Andy Summers of the Police (Oct. 13), the Branford Marsalis Quartet (Oct. 17 and 18), Pablo Cruise and Jim Messina (Oct. 20 and 21), Max Weinberg’s Jukebox (Oct. 25 and 26), Linda Eder (Nov. 2), Pinchas Zukerman’s musical birthday celebration (Nov. 3 and 4), and Kathy Mattea (Nov. 8 and 9).

The Warner Theatre is running the gamut from Hot Tuna (Sept. 30) and Little Feat’s The Albums Tour (Oct. 3 and 4) to American Girl

PERFORMING ARTS

Live! In Concert (Oct. 18) and Randy Rainbow for President (Oct. 20).

Capital One Arena is a stop on the big tours, such as: Peter Gabriel’s i/o The Tour (Sept. 20), Wu-Tang Clan and Nas’s NY State of Mind Tour (Sept. 26), Aerosmith’s Peace Out: The Final Farewell Tour, with The Black Crowes (Sept. 27), Ms. Lauryn Hill and The Fugees’s Miseducation of Lauryn Hill 25th Anniversary Tour (Oct. 21) and Depeche Mode’s Memento Mori Tour (Oct. 23).

The Anthem has snagged a few tours too, some already sold out: Janelle Monáe’s Age of Pleasure Tour (Sept. 24 and 25), Hozier’s Unreal Unearth Tour (Sept. 26 and 27) and Thundercat’s In Yo Girl’s City Tour (Oct. 19).

Here’s to hip-hop at the Ken Cen. Lady Wray (Oct. 12) and Flex Matthews (Oct. 13) will appear on Millennium Stage; Wale (Nov. 10) and Clipse (Nov. 17) in the Concert Hall; and Beat Street in the Terrace Theater (Nov. 19).

Finally, as your Spidey-Sense has already hinted, the National Theatre will screen the Academy Award-winning animated film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” with live symphonic music by Daniel Pemberton and a DJ adding songs by Post Malone, Lil Wayne, Jaden Smith and Nicki Minaj (Sept. 30).

John Edward Hasse, Guest Curator

Jukebox will set down in the Barns at Wolf Trap on Oct. 25 and 26.

MUSIC. DANCE. EXHIBITS. CRAFTS. FOOD. COMMUNITY.

GEORGETOWN ART ALL NIGHT.

SEPTEMBER 29.

6PM - 11PM.

FALL VISUAL ARTS PREVIEW

Artist Steven Cushner, whose work will be appearing at the AU Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, stands in front of one of his works.

CUSHNER

American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center

Through Dec. 10

One of six fall exhibitions at the American University Museum at the Katzen Center, “Cushner” displays 34 examples of current work — from woodcuts, drawings and paintings on paper to large-scale paintings — by Steven Cushner (b. 1954), among the capital region’s most accomplished contemporary artists. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design who earned an M.F.A. at the University of Maryland, Cushner was a painting teacher at American University and the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

His abstract imagery — created through the performance of painting as the distillation of gesture into iconography — is derived from the logic of simple functions: the mechanics of a stack of firewood, the weave of a fisherman’s net, the movement of a buoy in the ocean. The other fall shows feature work by painter Lillian Klein Abensohn, sculptor Rachel Rotenberg, painter Franklin White, photographer Bernis von zur Muehlen and Czech photographers Karel Cudlin, Jan Dobrovský and Martin Wágner.

ELLSWORTH KELLY AT 100

Glenstone

Through March 2024

A major survey of the work of minimalist painter and sculptor Ellsworth Kelly (19232015), including “Yellow Curve,” a floor

painting spanning nearly 1,000 square feet, at the Potomac, Maryland, museum of 20th- and 21st-century art.

Ellsworth Kelly’s Color panels for a large wall, 1978 National Gallery of Art (overall each of 18 panels 48 x 68.5 in.)

“The Wind,” 2019. Steven Cushner. Courtesy AU Museum.

VISUAL ARTS

AFRICAN MODERNISM IN AMERICA, 1947-67

The Phillips Collection

Oct. 7, 2023 – Jan. 7, 2024

Drawn primarily from a collection donated to Nashville’s Fisk University by the Harmon Foundation, a key 20th-century patron of Black artists, “African Modernism in America, 194767” is the first major exhibition to present work by Black modernist artists in Africa and America in the context of mid-20thcentury culture and society. By challenging assumptions about African art, the network of artists, curators, scholars and funders that developed in those years encouraged artistic dialogue between the continents. Among the 50 artists featured are Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), known for, among other works, “The Migration Series,” jointly purchased by the Phillips Collection and the Museum of Modern Art; and David Driskell (1931-2020), an influential faculty member at Fisk, then at the University of Maryland. Others include Sudanese painter Ibrahim El-Salahi and Nigerian artists Ben Enwonwu, Demas Nwoko and Uche Okeke. The exhibition also includes a newly commissioned work by Londonborn, Nigeria-based artist Ndidi Dike (b. 1960) addressing the presence and absence of women in the narrative of African modernity.

COMPOSING COLOR: PAINTINGS BY ALMA THOMAS

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Sept. 15, 2023 – June 2, 2024

The first graduate, at age 30, of Howard University’s art department, after retirement from a 35-year career teaching art at Shaw Junior High School — during which she took classes at American University — Alma Thomas (1891-1978) blossomed into a major Washington Color School painter. “Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas” draws on the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s holdings, the largest public collection of Thomas’s work, including 13 pieces bequeathed to the museum after her death. With examples that trace Thomas’s evolving practice during her most prolific period, 1959 to 1978, the exhibition is organized around the themes of Space, Earth and Music, expressions of a fundamental life force that she captured through a bold interplay of pattern and hue. Color in her work is not only symbolic but multisensory, suggesting the movement, sounds, scents and temperatures found in nature. New research into Thomas’s materials and techniques reveal an unflagging commitment to artistic innovation, as well as the need to adapt to the arthritis from which she suffered in her later years.

“Yoruba Forms #5,” 1969. David C. Driskell. Courtesy Phillips Collection.

VISUAL ARTS

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

National Museum of Women in the Arts

Oct. 21, 2023 – Feb. 25, 2024

Closed since the summer of 2021 for a $67.5-million renovation project, the first since its 1987 opening, the National Museum of Women in the Arts will reopen this fall with “The Sky’s the Limit,” an exhibition that celebrates the museum’s commitment to collecting and exhibiting large-scale, visionary sculpture by women. Through the

postwar years, curators and critics routinely ignored or minimized women’s innovations in sculpture, notably the use of handwork, repetition and unconventional materials. The dozen sculptors represented in the show by works on loan from private collections, recent NMWA acquisitions and pieces never before exhibited — created from aluminum, blown glass, wool, paper, wire, cedar wood and found objects such as silver-plated vessels, hair combs, faux flowers, ostrich eggs and parasols — include Petah Coyne, Cornelia Parker, Mariah Robertson, Shinique Smith, Joana Vasconcelos and Ursula von Rydingsvard. In the updated gallery spaces, the artists’ provocative works will hang from the ceiling,

cascade down walls and extend beyond their footprints.

SIMONE LEIGH

Hirshhorn Museum

Nov. 3, 2023 – March 3, 2024

In 2022, Simone Leigh (b. 1967) became the first Black woman to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, winning a Golden Lion for her work “Brick House,” a 16-foot-tall, 5,900-pound bronze bust of a Black woman commissioned for the High Line Plinth in Manhattan. Covering approximately 20 years of her production in ceramic, bronze, video and installation —

and featuring pieces from “Simone Leigh: Sovereignty,” her show at the Biennale — the Hirshhorn exhibition (previously seen in Boston and traveling to Los Angeles in 2024) is the first comprehensive survey of Leigh’s work. Born in Chicago to Jamaican missionaries and trained as a ceramicist, Leigh developed a strong interest in African and African American art, referencing them in her sculpture, installations and video art. Gaining recognition for work that directly engages the public, her social practice focuses on Black femme subjectivity, exploring ideas of race, beauty and community in visual and material culture across a wide swath of historical periods, geographies and traditions.

“Daisies Up Your Butterfly,” 2013. Shinique Smith. Courtesy National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Simon Leigh’s “Facade” (2022) and “Satellite” (2022). Photo by Timothy Schenk. Courtesy Hirshhorn.

DOROTHEA LANGE: SEEING PEOPLE

National Gallery of Art

Nov. 5, 2023 – March 31, 2024

WHISTLER: STREETSCAPES, URBAN CHANGE

National Museum of Asian Art

Nov. 18, 2023 – May 4, 2024

The close relationship between Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919) — eminent collector of Asian art and founder of the Freer Gallery, the original building of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art — and expatriate painter James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) resulted in the museum holding the largest collection of Whistler’s works (including the Peacock Room). Opening this fall, “Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change” will bring together oil paintings, watercolors,

pastels and prints — some on view for the first time in the museum’s history — documenting the artist’s career-long fascination with urban landscapes. The picturesque, historic neighborhoods in London and Paris that Whistler frequented and depicted were in many cases soon to be razed for redevelopment as parks, thoroughfares and residences for the wealthy. Relating this activity to that of present-day Washington, D.C., the exhibition will feature commentary by Anacostia and Capitol Hill residents Mēlani Douglass, Tony Ford, Scott Kratz, John Johnson and Ron Moten on how the artworks on view speak to their neighborhoods’ current challenges.

Also of note …

Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) grew up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and studied photography at Columbia University. Through her work for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression and for the War Relocation Authority during the World War II evacuation and internment of Japanese Americans, Lange was one of the originators of modern documentary photography. Early in 1966, a Museum of Modern Art exhibition of her work was MoMA’s first retrospective dedicated to a woman photographer. Nearly 70 years later, “Dorothea Lange: Seeing People,” presented in the National Gallery of Art’s West Building, seeks to reframe Lange’s work through the lens of portraiture. While emphasizing her concern with social issues such as economic disparity, migration, poverty and racism, the show, featuring 101 photographs, will highlight her ability, formed over more than four decades, to discover and reveal the character and resilience of those she photographed, both in the United States and abroad.

“A MORE PERFECT UNION: AMERICAN ARTISTS AND THE CURRENTS OF OUR TIME”

National Museum of American History

Sept. 19 to Oct. 1

An Art in Embassies traveling exhibition of contemporary art, supplemented by a Jenny Holzer light projection on the museum’s exterior (Sept. 17 to 21) and an afternoon of free public programming (Sept. 19).

“Flower Market: Dieppe,” 1880s. James McNeill Whistler. Courtesy National Museum of Asian Art.

Dorothea Lange, Drought refugees from Oklahoma, camping by roadside, Blythe, California, August 17, 1936. Gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art.

TRANSFORMING LOCALARTISTS

BY KATE OCZYPOK

Local artists are the lifeblood of a city’s cultural scene. Transformer DC knows this, and cultivates local talent, allowing fresh creative works to be shared with the city’s residents and the wider culture to be enriched.

Transformer was co-founded by Victoria Reis, who serves as executive and artistic director of the non-profit organization. Reis was a speaker at one of The Georgetowner’s Culture Power Breakfasts in September 2022. She shared how Transformer advocates for unconventional contemporary art and highlighted the importance of private donors in addition to national and district arts funders. Reis believes in paying her staff fair wages and paying artists for all that they do, calling Transformer “artist centered.”

In celebration of Transformer and local artists, we spoke with some of the artists

featured in the auction and Transformer’s new book, “transformer20.”

Responses edited for clarity and space. For more information on TransformerDC ‘s fall events, go to TransformerDC.Org.

FELIPE GONCALVES

My first D.C. solo show is coming up at the end of the month. I’m very excited and terrified at the same time. The fall to me means spending a lot of time in D.C. I’ve been a part of Transformer’s annual auction for over a decade. It’s been an honor and privilege to contribute for so long. D.C. has been my preferred venue to show work for a long time. There’s an energy that’s not comparable and rather contagious. With the wide array of diversity and demographics, it’s the perfect setting to connect with the widest audience possible.

Local artist Felipe Goncalves, whose first solo D.C. show is coming up at the end of the month.

LOCAL

NAOCO WOWSUGI

Tranformer features a wide variety of artists in terms of their medium, location, experience, background, and age. I appreciate their effort to introduce such a diverse range of artists and celebrate their creations. I enjoy meeting new people, not only artists but also collectors, enthusiasts, art administrators, professionals, activists and sometimes ambassadors.

As a BIPOC and first-generation immigrant, and as a community-engaged artist interested in expanding the boundaries of what art can be and how artists can engage, I feel safe and supported as an artist in D.C. Here, I can connect with allies, whether they are in art of not, who share similar values as me.

THIS FALL AT SIGNATURE

OCTOBER 24 – JANUARY 7

The iconic musical epic as you’ve never experienced it before.

Naoco Wowsugi. Photo by Sarah Mattozzi.

LOCAL ARTISTS

GET HAPPY!

MICHAEL FEINSTEIN CELEBRATES THE JUDY GARLAND CENTENNIAL

Thu, Sept 21

Multimedia musical celebration of a legendary entertainer

FATOUMATA DIAWARA

Fri, Sept 29

Modern African music

STRATHMORE & WASHINGTON PERFORMING ARTS PRESENT ANOUSHKA SHANKAR

Fri, Oct 6

All-star quintet performs Indian neoclassical masterworks

GIPSY KINGS FEATURING NICOLAS REYES

Fri, Oct 13

Fresh pop fusion meets old-world flamenco

HIROMI’S SONICWONDER

Thu, Oct 19

Electrified quartet led by jazz piano virtuoso

BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL

Sat, Oct 21

Tony-winning baritone

ANDREW DEMIRJIAN

*Note: Demirjian is based in New York City, but will be living in D.C. for the month of September as a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow.

I’m really looking forward to the book launch, it’s an amazing accomplishment to make it 20 years as a non-profit art gallery amidst the chaos of our hypercapitalist world. It will be great to reconnect with friends we made while working at

PIAF! THE SHOW

Sat, Oct 28

Tribute to the iconic French singer

RANKY TANKY WITH VERY SPECIAL GUEST MS. LISA FISCHER

Fri, Nov 3

Music from the Gullah tradition

AIR PLAY WRITTEN AND CREATED BY SETH BLOOM AND CHRISTINA GELSONE

Sat, Nov 11—Two Shows! A circus-style adventure

Transformer. Most of my time in D.C. has been spent going to smaller galleries and independent spaces; it is easy to take the Smithsonian for granted. However, there’s a gem of a show at the Archives of American Artists (in the Smithsonian American Art Museum) that’s made from staff picks from the Archive. It’s a super intimate look at the everyday experience of artmaking over a century or so. Also, it’s free!

Air Play by Florence Montmare, Hiromi by Mitsuru Nishimura, Ms. Lisa Fischer by Alex Logaiski, Fatoumata Diawara by Shelby Duncan

Andrew Demirjian builds linguistic, sonic and visual environments that disrupt habituated ways of reading, hearing and seeing. The is one of his works.

Artist Andrew Demirjian, who is a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow this month.

MX. NOIR

Fall is always like a second pride season for queer entertainment and art. I am most excited to see the new shows from drag artists and performance artists. I’m showing my latest couture collection at the Kennedy Center, inspired by the short film I finished

LOCAL ARTISTS

this past spring titled “Swann Queen,” based on the life and legacy of America’s First Queen of a drag, William Dorsey Swann. In November, I will be producing and performing a new work for the Transformer auction.

IMPORTANT TRANSFORMER FALL DATES

Transformer20 Book Tour

September 14, 6:30-9 p.m., Eaton DC, 1201 K Street NW

Artist conversations and community gathering in collaboration withEaton DC’s A2B Vinyl Listening and Storytelling Series.

Exhibition

November 4-17

Benefit Gala

November 18, American University’s Katzen Arts Center

FOR MORE ARTS STORIES VISIT GEORGETOWNER.COM

Music Moves Inside

BRANFORD MARSALIS QUARTET

MAX WEINBERG’S JUKEBOX

OCTOBER 17 + 18

LINDA EDER

NOVEMBER 2

ANDY SUMMERS OF THE POLICE

OCT 13

MAGPIE A 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

OCT 14

SAM BUSH

OCT 22

THE NEW YORK ARABIC ORCHESTRA

OCT 27

RED BARAAT

OCT 28

MADISON McFERRIN

OCT 29

PAN AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA NOV 5

OCTOBER 25 + 26

PINCHAS ZUKERMAN, VIOLIN AMANDA FORSYTH, CELLO MICHAEL STEPHEN BROWN, PIANO CHAMBER MUSIC AT THE BARNS

NOVEMBER 3 + 4

KATHY MATTEA NOV 8 + 9

JOHN SCOFIELD TRIO

FEATURING VICENTE ARCHER & BILL STEWART NOV 16

ORION STRING QUARTET

THE FAREWELL CONCERT CHAMBER MUSIC AT THE BARNS NOV 19

THE LONE BELLOW IT’S (STILL) ALRIGHT

10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TOUR NOV 26 + 27

AN EVENING WITH JOAN OSBORNE NOV 29 + 30

DARREN CRISS

A VERY DARREN CRISSMAS

DEC 2 + 3

And many more!

Wolftrap.org/barns

• Addison Ripley interview by Kate Oczypok

• Review of “Ink” by Peggy Sands

• “Ford’s to Present a Pearl Cleage Premiere,” by Richard Selden.

Cocktail of the Month 1933 Drinks to Celebrate 90 Years of Martin’s Tavern

BY JODY KURASH

It’s a Georgetown landmark. You might know it as the place that serves brunch every day of the week… or for its display of sports memorabilia in the “dugout” room which served as a hangout for baseball greats such as Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Ty Cobb. Maybe you’re a fan of the oyster stew which was named the best on the East Coast… or know its storied history as the meeting spot for Supreme Court Justices following deliberations in the Brown v. Board of Education decision. And any true Washingtonian will tell you it’s where Sen. John F. Kennedy proposed marriage to Jacqueline Lee Bouvier.

Martin’s Tavern is Washington, D.C.’s oldest family-run restaurant. With its yellow façade, and green shutters, Martin’s has been perched on the corner Wisconsin Avenue and N Street NW since 1933. It was founded by family patriarch great-grandfather William Solomon Martin, and grandfather, former Major League Baseball player, William Floyd “Billy” Martin, and opened as Prohibition ended.

This month marks the beginning of a 90th anniversary celebration for the legendary

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venue that will last until the end of the year. Customers have been asked to share their favorite memories of dining at Billy Martin’s and the recollections will be collected for a special digital scrapbook to be displayed at the tavern.

And, of course, what would a party at a tavern be without cocktails?

From Sept. 12 through the remainder of the year, Martin’s Tavern will feature three 90th-anniversary cocktails, which will be “a proprietary reset of 1933 drinks with 2023 sensibilities.”

The first cocktail, the French 75, actually dates back to the First World War in France. A mixture of gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, and Champagne, this classic tipple was invented by Harry McElhone, proprietor of Harry’s New York Bar, another legendary watering hole which still stands in Paris.

Because this potable packed a powerful punch, it was named after the Canon de 75 Modele 1897, the French 75mm field gun. At that time, this shooter was a formidable weapon. It was capable of firing 15 rounds

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INGREDIENTS

• 1 OZ. GIN

• ½ OZ. LEMON JUICE, FRESHLY SQUEEZED

• ½ OZ. SIMPLE SYRUP

• 1 OZ, CHAMPAGNE OR SPARKLING WINE

INSTRUCTION

Add the gin, lemon juice and simple syrup to a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled. Strain into a Champagne flute. Top with the Champagne. Garnish with a lemon twist.

per minute and it’s been credited with playing an important role in the victory of Allied Forces. The French 75 cocktail is said to have had such a kick that it felt like being shot by one of these guns.

The second cocktail, the Sidecar, also has origins in WWI. Some stories also trace it to Harry’s Bar or the Ritz, but its exact origins are unknown. According to David Embury of “Difford’s Guide for Discerning Drinkers, ” It was “invented at a bar in Paris and was named after the motorcycle sidecar in which a captain customarily was driven to-andfrom the little bistro where the drink was born.” This cocktail is composed of Cognac, Cointreau, lemon juice, and sugar with an orange twist.

The Last Word was a popular cocktail during Prohibition when it was forged from “bathtub gin.” It’s our third special to celebrate

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Martin’s 90th anniversary. It’s been called “ about as close to perfect as cocktails can be” by Liquor.com. The mixture of gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur with lime juice and garnished with a cherry was originally developed at the Detroit Athletic Club. It appeared on the club’s menu in 1916 for a whopping 35 cents, and was the establishment’s most expensive drink at that time.

This trio of specials will cost you a little more in 2023. Each is priced from $12 to $14.

Proceeds from these three special cocktails are going to Georgetown Ministry Center. “Martin’s Tavern is a community institution,” states Kelly Andreae, Executive Director, Georgetown Ministry Center. “The Georgetown Ministry Center is honored to celebrate their commitment to the Georgetown community.”

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Fall 2023 Gala Guide

BY KATE OCZYPOK

Here’s our guide to all the best fall events and galas in D.C. this season. Stay tuned online as more will be added to this list.

SEPTEMBER 2022

The Washington Concert Opera

Wednesday, Sept. 20 – 6 p.m.

2023 Gala La Maison, Francaise, 4101 Reservoir Rd. NW

Featuring Erin Morley. Proceeds will directly benefit performances, professional training initiatives with young musicians, community outreach events and educational programming.

All the Bestbest Jean-Louis  Reunion

Thursday, September 21, The Watergate in Washington DC 6 p.m. For information and tickets at kingmoon.com/ticket.html

2023 Wolf Trap Ball

Saturday Sept. 23 – 7 p.m.

The Golden Hour Filene Center, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna VA 22182

Mark the close of Wolf Trap’s summer season and the culmination of the transformative “Campaign for Wolf Trap: Our Next Chapter.” The event will be inspired by the magical nightly moment when everything is aglow.

NSO Opening Night Gala

Saturday Sept. 23, The Kennedy Center Concert Hall, 2700 F St. NW

The spectacular new season begins with “Fate Now Conquers,” inspired by Beethoven’s journal entry of that phrase from the Iliad.

Prevent Cancer Foundation’s 29th Annual Gala

Wednesday, Sept. 27, Cocktail reception 6 p.m. – Dinner-7 p.m. National Building Museum, 401 F St. NW

The Prevent Cancer Foundation Annual Gala is recognized as one of Washington’s premier events, attracting more than 1,000 guests from the business, diplomatic, government, medical, philanthropic, sports and social communities.

Lombardi Live! Concert to End Cancer Featuring White Ford Bronco

Thursday, Sept. 28, VIP 5 p.m. – Public doors open at 6 p.m. to The Bullpen, 1201 Half St. SE.

Friends of Lombardi’s Concert to End Cancer is returning to The Bullpen, partnering once again with the band White Ford Bronco To support life-saving cancer research at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

OCTOBER 2023

The Spirit of Georgetown 2023

Wednesday, Oct. 4 – 6-8 p.m.

King & Spalding LLP, 1700 Pennsylvania Ave. NW

Georgetown Ministry Center honors longtime employee Delores Jackson.

Citizens Association of Georgetown

Thursday, Oct. 12 – 6-9 p.m.

Fall Fundraiser & Cocktail Party

Romanian Ambassador’s Residence, 3003 Massachusetts Ave. NW

Enjoy cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and celebrate the CAG and vitality of our Georgetown neighbors.

2023 Fair Chance Butterfly Bash

Friday, Oct. 13 – 7-11 p.m.

The Renwick Gallery, Pennsylvania Ave. at 17th St. NW

Join Fair Chance for a festive evening of food, drinks, music and dancing in support of our vision of a world where every child succeeds.

The Annual Virginia Fall Races

Saturday Oct. 14 – Post time-12:30 p.m. Glenwood Park, Middleburg, VA 20117

The races have been a must-attend event since 1955.

Berkley

Berkley

4811 W St NW

4811 W St NW

HRC National Dinner

Saturday Oct. 14, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt. Vernon Pl. NW

The Human Rights Campaign annual event celebrates advancements in the fight for full LGBTQ equality.

The 48th Annual National Italian American Foundation Gala

Saturday, Oct. 21 – 7 p.m.

Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert St. NW

Join leaders in business, politics, and the arts at the NIAF 48th Anniversary Gala. The black-tie dinner will celebrate the 2023 Region of Honor, Emilia-Romagna, the Global Italian Diaspora and the 2023 honorees.

The 36th Annual Bark Ball

Saturday, Oct. 21 – 5:30-10 p.m. The Washington Hilton, 1919 Connecticut Ave. NW

The 36th Annual Bark Ball benefiting the Humane Rescue Alliance (HRA) will be held on Saturday, October 21. We hope you will join us – with your canine companion – in celebrating the people, animals, and members of the community that make up the HRA community. For more Gala events see georgetowner.com.

4 Levels | 5 Bedrooms | 5.5 Bathrooms | 2 Car Garage

4 Levels | 5 Bedrooms | 5.5 Bathrooms | 2 Car Garage

// Italian Renaissance Revival-style Residence

// Italian Renaissance Revival-style Residence

// Higher ceilings, 20-foot central hall, more generous proportions, and more luxurious finishes

// Higher ceilings, 20-foot central hall, more generous proportions, and more luxurious finishes

// Approximately 7,000 square foot interior with an oversized central skylight and two immense Palladian windows that overlook the garden

// Approximately 7,000 square foot interior with an oversized central skylight and two immense Palladian windows that overlook the garden

// Unique large double living room, with great sight lines and traffic flow, perfectly appointed kitchen

// Unique large double living room, with great sight lines and traffic flow, perfectly appointed kitchen

// Professionally landscaped front and rear gardens with a beautifully executed hardscape and a unique lighting plan

// Professionally landscaped front and rear gardens with a beautifully executed hardscape and a unique lighting plan

// Located at the nexus of suburban living and urban oasis

// Located at the nexus of suburban living and urban oasis

Vlad Dallenbach & Rosina Del Monaco M: 703.906.3236 | O: 703.229.8935

Vlad Dallenbach & Rosina Del Monaco M: 703.906.3236 | O: 703.229.8935

vlad.dallenbach@compass.com dchomesforsale.com

vlad.dallenbach@compass.com dchomesforsale.com

‘August Wilson: A Life’

THIS BIOGRAPHY’S BRILLIANCE APPROACHES THAT OF ITS SUBJECT.

REVIEWED BY KITTY KELLEY

The celebrated playwright August Wilson (1945-2005) was born Frederick August Kittel Jr. to a Black mother and a White father who abandoned his wife and six children. The fourth child and namesake son was called Freddie, but when his father deserted the family, Freddie took his mother’s surname and became August Wilson. The fatherless child never discussed the scars of being abandoned, but the loss permeated his life’s work.

Wilson adored his mother, Daisy, and desperately sought her approval, but she wanted him to be a lawyer and remained unimpressed by his poetry or even his award-winning plays. “You be a writer when you get something on television,” she told him. The day his play

“The Piano Player” aired on CBS’ Hallmark Hall of Fame, February 2, 1995, Wilson gazed up to heaven and thought, “Look, Ma. I did it.” Reflecting on his mother’s passing, the heartbroken son explained:

“It is only when you encounter a world that does not contain your mother that you begin to fully comprehend the idea of loss and the huge irrevocable absence that death occasions.”

Although biracial, Wilson identified as Black and resented any attempt to be defined

otherwise. He became irate when Henry Louis Gates Jr. questioned his Blackness in the New Yorker by writing, “He neither looks nor sounds typically Black — had he the desire he could easily pass — and that makes him Black first and foremost by self-identification.” As a playwright, however, Wilson subscribed to the creed of W.E.B. Du Bois, who promoted the four fundamental principles of “real Negro theater”: 1) About us 2) By us 3) For us 4) Near us. In each of the 10 plays that comprise the Pittsburgh Cycle, Wilson — hailed as “theater’s poet of Black America” — portrays the AfricanAmerican experience in a different decade of the 20th century. They all opened on Broadway, two of them posthumously:

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (1984)

“Fences” (1987)

“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” (1988)

“The Piano Lesson” (1990)

“Two Trains Running” (1992)

“Seven Guitars” (1996)

“King Headley II” (2001)

“Gem of the Ocean” (2004)

“Radio Golf” (2007)

“Jitney” (2017)

Wilson insisted his plays be produced and performed only by Black artists and denounced “color-blind casting,” asserting that “Blacks have always, historically, been the custodians for America’s hope.” Yet as Patti Hartigan writes — gloriously — in “August Wilson: A Life,” the first major biography of the man, Wilson’s genius was singular and his work universal, winning him two Pulitzer Prizes and 29 Tony Awards.

While Hartigan, a former theater critic for the Boston Globe, genuflects to Wilson’s monumental talent, she does not spare him his faults. Hypersensitive to slights and given to explosive rages unleashed on waitresses or workmen below him in status, Wilson was an errant husband who married three times and took countless lovers. His first priority in life — above family and friends — was his work. “For him,” Hartigan states, “writing was a force necessary for survival.”

As a high-school dropout with an IQ of 143, young Wilson haunted the aisles of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Library, where he was relegated to the “Negro section.” He spent hours reading Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison and Paul Laurence Dunbar. He described the neighborhood in which he grew up as “an amalgam of the unwanted,” filled with a mishmash of Greeks, Jews, Syrians, Italians, Irish and Blacks, “each ethnic group seeking to cast off the vestiges of the old country, changing names, changing manners… bludgeoning the malleable parts of themselves. Melting into the pot. Becoming and defining what it means to be an American.”

While Wilson described himself as a “race man,” and all his characters are Black, their stories of pain and sorrow and joy and resentment resonate as shared human verities. “There are always and only two trains running,” he once said. “There is life and there is death. Each of us rides them both.”

Wilson believed that African Americans needed to keep their history alive and cherish their heritage — complete with all its ancestors and all its ghosts. Maintaining that Black culture is unique and worthy of celebration, he sought out Black directors and dramaturges who understood his mission: to celebrate the lives of ordinary Black people.

This was lost on Bill Moyers when he interviewed Wilson in 1988 for the PBS series “A World of Ideas.” Moyers claimed that Blacks in America needed to embrace the mores of the dominant white culture to succeed and suggested that Blacks ought to aspire to the kind of bland middle-class life depicted on “The Cosby Show.” Those familiar with Wilson’s hair-

trigger temper expected him to lay into the obtuse host, but knowing he was on national television, Wilson remained calm and simply remarked that Cosby’s show “does not reflect Black America to my mind.”

Moyers further humiliated himself by asking, “Don’t you grow weary of thinking Black, writing Black, being asked questions about Blacks?”

Again, Wilson responded with restraint:

“How could one grow weary of that? Whites don’t get tired of thinking White or being who they are. I’m just who I am. You never transcend who you are. Black is not limiting. There’s no idea in the world that is not contained by Black life. I could write forever about the Black experience in America.”

When Cosby gave a speech castigating Black youth for “stealing Coca-Cola” and “getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake,” Wilson blasted him. “A billionaire attacking poor people for being poor,” he told Time Magazine. “Bill Cosby is a clown. What do you expect? I thought it was unfair of him.”

Hartigan mentions in her author’s note that she had to paraphrase many of Wilson’s intimate letters, early plays and poems because his estate declined to authorize their use in this book. Still, thanks to prodigious research and significant interviews, including notes from the days she spent with Wilson in 2005 for a Boston Globe Magazine profile, she has crafted a spectacular biography of “a truth teller” whom she eloquently describes as “a griot who accurately depicted the ordinary lives of honorable people whose stories were ignored by the mainstream culture.”

As William Styron once wrote, “A great book should leave you with many experiences and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.” Patti Hartigan has written just such a book about an illustrious playwright.

Georgetown resident Kitty Kelley has written several number-one New York Times best-sellers, including “The Family: The Real Story Behind the Bush Dynasty.” Her most recent books include “Capturing Camelot: Stanley Tretick’s Iconic Images of the Kennedys” and “Let Freedom Ring: Stanley Tretick’s Iconic Images of the March on Washington.” She serves on the board of BIO (Biographers International Organization) and Washington Independent Review of Books, where this review originally appeared.

Meet the Breast Medical Oncology Team at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.

Every patient is unique, and so is their cancer. Our nationally recognized breast cancer specialists are here to diagnose and treat your cancer, offering a variety of treatment options that address your specific cancer.

Through our research partnership with Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center—the area’s only comprehensive cancer center designated by the National Cancer Institute—we are offering tomorrow’s treatments, today. Our multidisciplinary team prioritizes compassion, respect, and empathy through every interaction because that’s the kind of care we’d want for our family members.

Meet our team.

Seated: Elaine Walsh, MD; Beth Strand, NP. Standing from left: Theresa Harrington Stukus, NP; Candace Mainor, MD; Miriam Jacobs, MD; Joyce Slingerland, MD; Nadia Ashai, MD; Claudine Isaacs, MD

If you would like to schedule an appointment or consultation with a member of our breast medical oncology team, part of the MedStar Georgetown Cancer Institute, please call 202-444-2223.