Arts & Entertainment

Local news in brief

Gay Catholics honor Catania, Whitman-Walker in the black and more

Published

13 years ago

February 10, 2011

Dignity Washington honored D.C. Council members David Catania (I-At-Large) and Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) for their efforts at passing a marriage equality bill. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Gay Catholics honor Catania, Mendelson

The local LGBT Catholic group Dignity Washington presented its annual community service award Sunday night to D.C. Council members David Catania (I-At-Large) and Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) in recognition of their role in securing passage of the city’s same-sex marriage law.

Several same-sex couples whose marriages became possible when the law took effect last March joined Dignity Washington President Allen Rose in presenting the group’s Veronica & Gerald Golfer Award to the two Council members at St. Margaret’s Church near Dupont Circle, where Dignity holds its weekly Sunday Mass.

Catania wrote and introduced the marriage measure and Mendelson, as chair of the committee with jurisdiction over the bill, managed its progress through the Council’s legislative process. Catania said he was pleased that polling data showed that D.C.-area Roman Catholics supported marriage equality in greater percentages than members of all other Christian denominations, despite the strong opposition to same-sex marriage by the Catholic hierarchy.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Whitman-Walker Clinic posts first operating gain in 10 years

The Whitman-Walker Clinic announced this week that it posted a four percent operating gain for 2010, its first such positive result in nearly 10 years.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment for our entire Whitman-Walker family especially in light of the many challenges the Clinic has faced in recent years,” said executive director Don Blanchon. “With our 2010 results, we have answered longstanding questions in the community about the Clinic’s financial viability. But more important than that, we have demonstrated that the Clinic offers high quality care to our patients.”

The Clinic’s management drew the ire of City Council member David Catania after posting consecutive years of multi-million dollar losses. Blanchon responded with layoffs and a restructuring plan. The Clinic posted operating losses of more than $4 million in 2007 and 2008. Losses were cut to about $750,000 in 2009 and for 2010 the Clinic posted an operating gain of about $890,000 on more than $20 million in revenue.

“To have such a dramatic turnaround in such a relatively short period of time, particularly given the state of the economy, is incredible,” Blanchon said.

STAFF REPORTS

Rehoboth’s outdoor bars can stay open until 1 a.m. — for now

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — The Rehoboth Beach Board of Commissioners placed a one-year moratorium on enforcing a law governing the hours a restaurant patio may stay open, and agreed to hire and train noise enforcement officers on how to use noise meters to measure noise levels.

The moratorium will allow restaurants with patios to serve food and drinks until 1 a.m., instead of 10 p.m. this summer.

The decisions followed a series of arrests in September of several business owners, including at establishments popular with LGBT patrons like Purple Parrot and Aqua, because of late night noise violations on their patios. The moves come after several months of discussions within the commission with business and community leaders, as well as a meeting with police officials from Newark, Del.

At the meeting last month, Commissioner Bill Sargent suggested that the noise ordinance should be based on noise being plainly audible, with distances of hearing the sounds being closer at night, but gay Commissioner Dennis Barbour suggested that would be a subjective way of determining noise levels.

Commissioner Stan Mills, who Barbour cited as the instigator of the police raids last year, said, “complaints of noise came from all over the place including from a residence known as the Arc, which is directly across Rehoboth Avenue from Rigby’s.” Rigby’s is another gay-owned establishment.

Lesbian Commissioner Pat Coluzzi introduced the resolution to keep the same noise ordinance and hire officials to monitor levels.

Because the moratorium requires a change in code, hearings must be held before the commission makes it official, but Mills expects that it could be implemented by mid-March.

PETER SCHOTT

D.C. family group elects officers

The Campaign for All DC Families, which helped lead the fight for marriage equality in the city, has elected its 2011 officers.

The organization will be led by: president Peter Rosenstein, vice president Aisha Mills, treasurer Reggie Stanley and secretary Joanne Savage.

“We will be vigilant as we fight spurious efforts by some members of Congress to interfere with the right of the people of the District to govern themselves. We will work with other supportive groups and the mayor’s office to ensure that marriage equality remains in place in D.C.,” Rosenstein said.

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Photos

PHOTOS: Night of Champions

Team DC holds annual awards gala

Published

3 days ago

April 21, 2024

Michael Key

Team DC President Miguel Ayala speaks at the 2024 Night of Champions Awards on Saturday. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Team DC, the umbrella organization for LGBTQ-friendly sports teams and leagues in the D.C. area, held its annual Night of Champions Awards Gala on Saturday, April 20 at the Hilton National Mall. The organization gave out scholarships to area LGBTQ student athletes as well as awards to the Different Drummers, Kelly Laczko of Duplex Diner, Stacy Smith of the Edmund Burke School, Bryan Frank of Triout, JC Adams of DCG Basketball and the DC Gay Flag Football League.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

Photos

PHOTOS: National Cannabis Festival

Annual event draws thousands to RFK

Published

3 days ago

April 21, 2024

Michael Key

Growers show their strains at The National Cannabis Festival on Saturday. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The 2024 National Cannabis Festival was held at the Fields at RFK Stadium on April 19-20.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

Covering the @NatlCannaFest at RFK Stadium for @WashBlade . Stop by the LGBTQ+ booth and pick up a paper if you are here. pic.twitter.com/is7hnsaPns
— Michael Patrick Key (@MichaelKeyWB) April 20, 2024

Theater

‘Amm(i)gone’ explores family, queerness, and faith

A ‘fully autobiographical’ work from out artist Adil Mansoor

Published

4 days ago

April 20, 2024

Patrick Folliard

Adil Mansoor in ‘Amm(i)gone’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre. (Photo by Kitoko Chargois)

‘Amm(i)gone’
Thorough May 12
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
641 D St., N.W.
$60-$70
Woollymammoth.net

“Fully and utterly autobiographical.” That’s how Adil Mansoor describes “Amm(i)gone,” his one-man work currently playing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre.

Both created and performed by out artist Mansoor, it’s his story about inviting his Pakistani mother to translate Sophocles’s Greek tragedy “Antigone” into Urdu. Throughout the journey, there’s an exploration of family, queerness, and faith,as well as references to teachings from the Quran, and audio conversations with his Muslim mother.

Mansoor, 38, grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and is now based in Pittsburgh where he’s a busy theater maker. He’s also the founding member of Pittsburgh’s Hatch Arts Collective and the former artistic director of Dreams of Hope, an LGBTQ youth arts organization.

WASHINGTON BLADE: What spurred you to create “Amm(i)gone”?

ADIL MANSOOR: I was reading a translation of “Antigone” a few years back and found myself emotionally overwhelmed. A Theban princess buries her brother knowing it will cost her, her own life. It’s about a person for whom all aspirations are in the afterlife. And what does that do to the living when all of your hopes and dreams have to be reserved for the afterlife?

I found grant funding to pay my mom to do the translation. I wanted to engage in learning. I wanted to share theater but especially this ancient tragedy. My mother appreciated the characters were struggling between loving one another and their beliefs.

BLADE: Are you more director than actor?

MANSOOR: I’m primarily a director with an MFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon. I wrote, directed, and performed in this show, and had been working on it for four years. I’ve done different versions including Zoom. Woolly’s is a new production with the same team who’ve been involved since the beginning.

I love solo performance. I’ve produced and now teach solo performance and believe in its power. And I definitely lean toward “performance” and I haven’t “acted” since I was in college. I feel good on stage. I was a tour guide and do a lot of public speaking. I enjoy the attention.

BLADE: Describe your mom.

MANSOOR: My mom is a wonderfully devout Muslim, single mother, social worker who discovered my queerness on Google. And she prays for me.

She and I are similar, the way we look at things, the way we laugh. But different too. And those are among the questions I ask in this show. Our relationship is both beautiful and complicated.

BLADE: So, you weren’t exactly hiding your sexuality?

MANSOOR: In my mid-20s, I took time to talk with friends about our being queer with relation to our careers. My sexuality is essential to the work. As the artistic director at Dreams of Hope, part of the work was to model what it means to be public. If I’m in a room with queer and trans teenagers, part of what I’m doing is modeling queer adulthood. The way they see me in the world is part of what I’m putting out there. And I want that to be expansive and full.

So much of my work involves fundraising and being a face in schools. Being out is about making safe space for queer young folks.

BLADE: Have you encountered much Islamophobia?

MANSOOR: When 9/11 happened, I was a sophomore in high school, so yes. I faced a lot then and now. I’ve been egged on the street in the last four months. I see it in the classroom. It shows up in all sorts of ways.

BLADE: What prompted you to lead your creative life in Pittsburgh?

MANSOOR: I’ve been here for 14 years. I breathe with ease in Pittsburgh. The hills and the valleys and the rust of the city do something to me. It’s beautiful, it’ affordable, and there is support for local artists. There’s a lot of opportunity.

Still, the plan was to move to New York in September of 2020 but that was cancelled. Then the pandemic showed me that I could live in Pittsburgh and still have a nationally viable career.

BLADE: What are you trying to achieve with “Amm(i)gone”?

MANSOOR: What I’m sharing in the show is so very specific but I hear people from other backgrounds say I totally see my mom in that. My partner is Catholic and we share so much in relation to this.

I hope the work is embracing the fullness of queerness and how means so many things. And I hope the show makes audiences want to call their parents or squeeze their partners.