Also, check out STRONG!, a film by Julie Wyman about the Olympian weighlifting Bronze medalist Cheryl Haworth. Today at brunch, Cheryl referred to her “bigness” — I call it her “awsomeness.” [And I’ve never used that word before in public.] That Cheryl is and so is fellow Olympian Cara Heads who also appears in the film. WHEN/WHERE etc. Saturday, June 30 at Busboys and Poets (2021 14th Street, NW), 5 PM. Cheryl Heads will be a guest speaker. It’s the final ITVS Community Cinema [DC] event for the season and it’s FREE. More information and reservations available at www.communitycinema-dc.org.
STRONG! is wrapping up SilverDocs in a sold out screening tonight at the AFI Silver theater in Silver Spring, MD.
Too much, too much. June must be the final push on the event scene before people begin dispersing to the vacation scene. Again, just scratching the surface:
ITVS COMMUNITY CINEMA PRESENTS – “TWO SPIRITS” June 5 at 3 PM (Washington DC Jewish Community Center) June 12 at 5 PM (Busboys and Poets)
FREE – For reservations click on this link or call 202-939-0794. Other FREE preview screenings nationwide
Filmmaker Lydia Nibley explores the cultural context behind a tragic and senseless murder. Fred Martinez was a Navajo youth slain at the age of 16. But Fred was part of an honored Navajo tradition – the nadleeh, or ‘two-spirit,’ who possesses a balance of masculine and feminine traits. In relating Fred’s story, Nibley reminds us of the values that America’s indigenous peoples have long embraced. Visit www.communitycinema-dc.org for more information.
AN INTERVIEW WITH JOURNALIST HELEN THOMAS, FIRST LADY OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS CORPS Sunday, June 5 at 5 PM, Busboys and Poets, 5th & K Streets, NW Known as “the first lady of the White House Press Corps,” Thomas covered every President of the United States from the last years of the Eisenhower administration until the second year of the Obama administration. She was the first female officer of the National Press Club, the first female member and President of the White House Correspondents’ Association, and the first female member of the Gridiron Club.
Busboys and Poets’ owner, Andy Shallal will interview Thomas about her life and work — including the controversial interview with blogger and Rabbi David Nesenoff that led to her resignation/retirement as a Hearst columnist. Thomas, who is of Lebanese descent, has written six books; her latest, with co-author Craig Crawford, is Listen Up, Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do (2009).
EATONVILLE RESTAURANT CELEBRATES CARIBBEAN [CULINARY] HERITAGE June 12 – 17
Eatonville Restaurant, 2121 14th Street, NW Washington, DC 20009
June is Caribbean Heritage month. Eatonville Restaurant is devoting a week to Caribbean Heritage cuisine. Guest Culinary Artist Chef Oji Jaja of Kingston, Jamaica will add a Caribbean flare to the restaurant’s brunch, lunch, and dinner menus including June’s Food & Folklore event, “Caribbean Connections.” Special focus on Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica with steel drum music and guest DJs. Eatonville’s mixologists will be serving delectable libations featuring rums of the Caribbean and Jamaica’s signature Red Stripe beer. Reservations required for Food & Folklore prix fixe dinner. For information call 202-332-9672
STEP AFRIKA! HOME PERFORMANCE SERIES “The Migrations: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence” June 15 – 26, Atlas Performing Arts Center
Step Afrika! teamed up with the Phillips Art Collection for a special collaboration involving their “Migration” series of paintings by the American artist Jacob Lawrence. Lawrence’s paintings, depicting the lives of African American who left the South for northern cities in the early 20th century, have been the inspiration for numerous performance works. Step Afrika! will bring their interpretation of this historic era in dance as only Step Afrika! can.
SILVERDOCS AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival June 20 – 26 – AFI Silver Theater, Silver Spring, MD
This is year 9 of the documentary festival featuring the work of U.S. independent filmmakers. THE SWELL SEASON, directed by Nick August-Perna, Chris Dapkins and Carlo Mirabella-Davis opens the festival on June 20th. THE SWELL SEASON follows musical artists Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, who captivated audiences and earned an Academy Award for their musical collaboration in the film, ONCE. REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR will close the Festival. The documentary, directed by Chris Paine, explores the triumphant reemergence of the “clean car,” focusing on four dynamic entrepreneurs dedicated to creating an environmentally friendly automobile. THE INTERRUPTERS, by HOOP DREAMS director Steve James, will be part of the festival. I’ve heard good things about this film. And the honorees for this year’s Guggenheim symposium are Chris Hegedus and D A Pennebaker (DON’T LOOK BACK, THE WAR ROOM, Al FRANKEN: GOD SPOKE, MONTEREY POP, KINGS OF PASTRY). Thanks to them, I have no desire to be a french pastry chef. Festival passes are on sale now.
“Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” Through August 7 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall
This exhibit of the late British designer Lee Alexander McQueen’s fashions has been up for some time. And I hope to pay homage in NYC this month. It doesn’t get any better than Bill Cunningham’s commentary, “McQueened” for the New York Times. Well, actually the museum videos narrated by curator Andrew Bolton of the Met’s Costume Institute are pretty good. The exhibit, just on the pieces alone, cannot escape what was the beauty, complexity, and tragedy that was Lee Alexander McQueen who committed suicide in 2010 at age 40.
Correction: June 21 is Father’s Day! . Earlier, I posted June 14 – But I still dig the video.
The holiday was started in Spokane, Washington, June 19, 1910. Sonora Smart wanted to celebrate the single parent who was her father after hearing a Mother’s Day sermon in chruch. William Jackson Smart lost his wife and Sonora’s mother leaving him to raise his children on his own. President Richard Nixon established a permanent national recognition of Father’s Day in 1972. PSA courtesy of Bomani (www.notarapper.com)
In today’s Washington Post, Robin Givhan reviews SEPTEMBER ISSUE, R.J. Cutler‘s documentary about the cover-to-cover process of putting together the door-stopper weighted September Vogue . Robin Givhan will moderate the post-screening discussion with R.J. Cutler (PERFECT CANDIDATE, THE WAR ROOM) at the SilverDocs screeningFriday, June 19th.
Audiences may not find her sympathetic. But director R.J. Cutler accomplishes what has eluded so many others: He makes Wintour human.
I’ve got tickets!
Washington Post published a special “Book World” insert with the summer reading list. But only for today.
IT’S 2009 HERE. WHAT YEAR IS IT IN IRAN? 1979, 2000?
While Iranian nationals dispute the election results, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has, for the second time, endorsed the “re-election” of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by a landslide over the reformist challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi. The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) is live-blogging the riots fall-out from Friday’s elections which for observers are described as having “irregularities.” Students in Tehran’s University are under attack and tweeting for help. Protests come to the Iranian Interest Section in DC according to Persianesque.com. Internet and web access is slowing to a creep in Iran.
Is this election reflecting more than just the digital divide?
NIAC will hold a policy conference: U.S. & Iran: Between Elections & EnrichmentWednesday, June 17, 8:00AM-12:10PMCapitol Visitors Center Auditorium, Capitol Hill
Breakfast & Refreshments will be served
RSVP ONLY by June 16 to Michelle Moghtader at rsvp@niacouncil.org or (202) 386-6319. Priority given to Members of Congress, Staff, & Accredited Media Update: A speaker list and more information is posted here.
Note: This is my 200th post. Just thought I’d share that.
HEALTH CARE REFORM ON THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S WATCH
See where the Obama administration is going with health care reform; submit your stories; read the reports. The healthreform.gov site is user friendly.
President Obama will appear in Green Bay, Wisconsin today to discuss health care reform in a town hall meeting.
SCHOOL FOR SWINGERS Trapeze School of New York has opened on the spot of the old Washington, DC Convention Center (between H Street and New York Ave., NW). Yes, this is the very same school featured in an episode of “Sex and the City.” Time for DC to get its Circus freak on minus the elephant march. The H Street site will be opened until the fall and then there’s a move planned for a tent set-up at Nationals Park. The cost is $120 for a 2-hour session that might enhance teamwork, trust building, or you can improve your sword fighting skills. The trapeze classes already seem to be sold out through July. They do offer jestering and juggling. Besides, a nice fall day wouldn’t be a bad time to swing through the air with the greatness of breeze. http://washingtondc.trapezeschool.com/classes/daily.php
WHAT’S YOUR D.C. STORY?
Lyrical City Writing Workshops offers writers new and “marinated” to season their work from a D.C. perspective cultural and otherwise: Thomas Sayers Ellis leads “Inside the Pocket: City as Ryhythm” on June 14, Toni Asante Lightfoot leads “Jean Toomer in DC: City as Identity” on July 5, Sharan Strange leads “The Personal is National: City as Monument” on August 23, and Holly Bass leads “City as Soundscape” on September 6th. All seminars meet Sundays from 2:30 to 5:00 pm at the Washington Historical Society at 801 K Street NW, DC. Workshops are open to all. To apply: send your name, a brief statement (50-150 words) explaining what you hope to get out of the workshop, a writing sample (one poem or short prose piece). Pre-registration required; limited to 12. Cost: $25 for each workshop; some scholarships available. Email: langstondays@gmail.com.
Sunday, June 14 at 2 PM TAROTE – The Arts Reaching Out Through Education is holding auditions for its Summer Players Academy at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (The County Room, University of Maryland, College Park). Students 7 – 17 are invited to be part of the summer production “From Harlem to Hip Hop.” Guest instructors include actor, comedian, radio/tv host “Lazee” Lamont King; Broadway tap dancer Baakari Wilder; and a special workshop session with Grammy-Award winning Songwriter and Vocal Coach Glenn Standridge. There’s a $25 audition fee. Camp dates are June 29 – July 24, M-F 8 AM – 4 PM. For information visit www.tarote-usa.org or call 888-850-4852.
SILVERDOCS – June 15 – 22
AFI Silver Theater, Silver Spring, MD on Colesville Road (Take Red Line Metro to Silver Spring)
• 8 days
• 100+ films representing more than 60 countries
• 14 Academy Award nominated films
• 25,000 festival attendees from around the globe SILVERDOCS is an eight day internationally recognized film festival that celebrates independent thinking and generates global media attention.
Shorts by Albert Maysles and David Maysles will be one of the features at the festival. This is the brothers production team that brought us “Grey Gardens” (1975) the honest yet exposing cinema verite documentary of the two Edith Beales, an eccentric and somewhat cloistered mother-daughter duo living in East Hampton. The cult-like success of the film is most likely rooted in the fact that the Beales were the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. The documentary has been inspiration for a Broadway musical as well as a recent HBO drama that starred Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange as Little Edie and Big Edie. A “Grey Gardens” book release and festival starts tomorrow in New York. Visit: http://www.mayslesfilms.com/
Listen to Albert Maysles on “The Power of Documentary,” this year’s Silverdocs Guggenheim Symposium honoree.
Another doc featured in the festival is a Brazillian “Billy Elliott” titled ONLY WHEN I DANCE by filmmaker Beadie Finzi. The documentary premiered at the Tribecca Film Festival this year.
From the filmmaker’s bio/interview – Silverdocs on-line We looked at a number of social projects and became fascinated by a little run-down ballet school called Centro de Danca in a northern suburb of Rio. It was very unusual in that it offered 70 free places every year to kids who could not pay for class. Irlan and Isabella were two such students, then in the final year of the dance school. And as soon as I laid eyes on them, I knew we had our characters. Not only were they incredibly talented as dancers but both so charismatic and charming.
On the flip side of the theme is another doc DANCING WITH THE DEVIL about the drug wars in Rio de Janeiro.
DC’s LIVING MAYORS LOOK AT 30 YEARS OF CHANGE IN THE CITY WEDNESDAY, June 24th from 6-8:00pm The Humanities Council of Washington, DC presents a discussion on the transformation of Washington, DC over the past 30 years with the city’s four living Mayors: (clockwise in photo) Adrian Fenty, Anthony Williams, Marion S. Barry, Jr., and Sharon Pratt.
LOCATION: Historical Society of Washington, DC, 801 K Street, NW across from the Walter Washington Convention Center (named for the city’s first Mayor). Closest Metro: Mount Vernon Square/Convention Center Metro.
