Arts & Entertainment

Calendar: Oct. 29

Events through Nov. 4

Published

16 years ago

October 28, 2010

Editor’s note: Go here for Halloween events.

Today

Margaret Cho will be at the Warner Theatre (513 13th St., N.W.) tonight at 7:30 p.m. with her show, “Cho Dependent.” Tickets are $40.50 or $57.60 and can be purchased at livenation.com. An after party will be held at Ziegfeld’s/Secrets (1824 Half St., S.W.).

Zoom Urban Lesbian Excursions hosts “Night at the Museum” tonight at 8:30 p.m. at the Museum of Crime and Punishment (575 7th St., N.W.) as it turns into a haunted torture chamber. Attendees are welcome to wear costumes, but masks are prohibited. Tickets are $23 and can be purchased at zoomexcursions.com.

Caron is holding its annual Metro D.C. community awards breakfast today at 8 a.m. at Maggiano’s (5333 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.) featuring Tara Conner, former Miss USA as the keynote speaker. The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington will receive the Educational Excellence Award for their performance of “Through a Glass Darkly.” Daniel O’Neill, chair of the D.C. Center HIV Working Group will receive the Unsung Hero award.

Peach Pit, a monthly ’90s dance party, will be held at Hirshhorn Museum (Independence Avenue and 7th Street, S.W.) tonight from 8 p.m. to midnight. DJs Matt Bailer and Robert Bozick will be teaming up to celebrate the first anniversary of the party. Members can get in for free. Tickets for quests are $18 and can be purchased online, by calling 202-633-4629 or from the Smithsonian IMAX theater box offices. For more information, visit hirshhorn.si.edu/afterhours.

Blackout, a blacklight and glow party will be at Ziegfeld’s/Secrets (1824 Half St., S.W.) tonight hosted by Latroya Nichole with music by DJ Steve Henderson. There is a $5 cover from 9 to 10:30 p.m. and $10 afterward.

Level One (1639 R St., N.W.) will be hosting a special dinner show with Sherry Vine tonight at 8:30 p.m.

Ganymede Arts presents Gerald Duval’s “Edie Beale Live at Reno Sweeney” starring gay actor Jeffrey Johnson, is tonight at Noi’s Nook at go mama go! (1809 14th St., N.W.) at 8 p.m. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit ganymedearts.org.

Busboys & Poets will be hosting ASL open mic poetry tonight from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. at its 14th and V streets location (2021 14th St., N.W.). Anyone with sign language knowledge may sign up to recite a poem or sign a song by e-mailing [email protected]. There is a $5 cover.

Saturday, Oct. 30

Women in their 30s will be having its monthly outing today to the Rally to Restore Sanity on the National Mall in D.C. from noon to 3 p.m. The group is meeting up at the Archives Metro Rail stop around 11:45 a.m.

Douche Bag City, an exhibition of video-animation, painting and sculpture by Federico Solmi, opens today with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at Conner Contemporary Art (1358 Florida Ave., N.E.).

Tom Paxton and Janis Ian, “Together at Last,” will be at the Birchmere (3701 Mt. Vernon Ave.) in Alexandia, tonight at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased at ticketmaster.com.

Busboys & Poets will be holding a post-rally event with Amy Goodman and Van Jones at 7 p.m. at its 5th and K streets location (1025 5th St., N.W.). Busboys & Poets will be participating with ColbertRally.com in an effort to raise funds for DonorsChoose.org, an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need.

Sunday, Oct. 31

Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: the Art Exhibit, inspired by Alice Walker’s new book of the same name, is showing at Busboys & Poets at the 5th and K streets location (1025 5th St., N.W.) featuring work by artists such as Liana Cohen-Matteini, Charles Jean-Pierre, Innocent Buregeya and JJ Tiziou.

Blonde Redhead will be performing at 9:30 Club tonight at 10 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at 930.com.

“Hair,” 2009 Tony award winner for Best Musical Revival will be at the Kennedy Center (2700 F St., N.W.) today at 1 p.m. Tickets range from $25 to $115 and can be purchased at kennedy-center.org.

Monday, Nov. 1

Hope Operas, whose founder is openly gay, has its fourth week of five new shows tonight to raise money for charity. The shows are at 8 p.m. at the Comedy Spot, in Ballston Mall (4238 Wilson, Blvd.), in Arlington. Each show benefits a different charity. Tickets are $12 per show. For more information call 323-788-8970 or e-mail [email protected].

Cloud Cult, a band established as a non-profit, will be performing at Black Cat (1811 14th St., N.W.) tonight with Fort Wilson Riot on the mainstage at 8 p.m. Tickets are $16 and can be purchased at blackcatdc.com.

Tuesday, Nov. 2

The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) will be having a discussion about crystal meth use in the LGBT community tonight from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The meeting will be facilitated by Michael Giordano and David Schwartz.

DC Cowboys Dance Company will be holding auditions from 7 to 8:30 p.m. tonight in Dupont Circle. The group is looking for dancers of all levels interested in performing with an exciting, high-profile dance group. Broadway-style or jazz training or experience preferred but not required. E-mail to [email protected] for audition information.

Wednesday, Nov. 3

The Tom Davaron Social Bridge Club will be meeting at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E. across from Marine Barracks) for social bridge. No partner is needed. Visit lambdabridge.com and click “Social Bridge in Washington, D.C.” for more information.

Busboy & Poets will be holding an organic beer happy hour today at 4 p.m. at its Shirlington location (4251 S. Campbell Ave.) featuring Peak, a nut brown ale, Wolavers, a brown ale, and Bison, a chocolate stout.

Thursday, Nov. 4

The gay-helmed Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company will be performing works by Anna Sokolow in the Ina and Jack Kay Theatre in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park. Tickets are $30 or $24 for subscribers, and can be purchased online at claricesmithcenter.umd.edu. There will be a pre-performance discussion led by dance professor Sandra Perez at 7 p.m. in the Lead M. Smith Lecture Hall, room 2200, in the same building. No ticket is required for this discussion.

In conjunction with the exhibit, “The Very Queer Portraits of Heyd Fontenot,” a discussion “The Queerest of Discussions: A Curator’s Talk with Heyd Fontenot and Anne Goodyear” will be held at the Art Gallery at the University of Maryland tonight from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. This is a free event. For more information, visit, artgallery.umd.edu.

Books

New book reveals what we can learn from animal sex

‘Poking the Squid’ on homosexuality, gender swapping, and more

Published

8 hours ago

July 13, 2026

Terri Schlichenmeyer

(Book cover image courtesy W.W. Norton)

‘Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn from Animal Sex’
By Perrin Roosevelt Ireland
c.2026, W.W. Norton
$29.99 241 pages

Birds do it.

According to Cole Porter, bees do, too, but it’s not exactly what he imagined. Wild and tame, avians, insects, and mammals all have sex – although not always as you’ve been told or for reasons you might think. Even educated fleas do it and, as in the new book, “Poking the Squid” by Perrin Roosevelt Ireland, humans can learn from them all.

If you read through scientific papers on animal reproduction, you might notice something unusual: for scientists, the word “sex” means a lot of different things.

Says Ireland, “It’s used to describe behaviors, biology, life histories, and more.”

That might be because animals are not simply binary.

Take, for instance, hyenas. It’s easy for the casual observer to mistake a male hyena for a female and vice versa because of stereotypes of anatomy. Mating, for hyenas, requires subordination for the male and a nifty trick on the part of the female’s body to get things done.

Our feathered friends are no birdbrains, either: black-browed albatrosses were once thought to be monogamous but global warming seems to have changed their nesting habits sometimes. Male flamingos have sex with one another, as a territorial thing; other birds and animals form same-sex pairs for other reasons.

The Chinese mantis eats her mate after fertilization. Female snakes, alpacas, guinea pigs, and monkeys are anatomically able to enjoy sex. Genitalia between species varies quite a bit; in fact, the vaginas of ducks “are highly complex.” Lionesses will mate up to 100 times when in heat. Female damselflies will change into a “third sex” to avoid overly aggressive mating males. Bearded dragons can change their sex, if needed, as can yellow clown goby fish. And seahorse pregnancy and birth sparked a book banning in Tennessee.

So, asks Ireland, if animals, including us, vary so much in biology and life, “… why are we using the word sex like it means something, anything, consistent?!”

Pick up “Poking the Squid,” page through it a few seconds, and you’ll see that the information here is largely told through cartoon-like drawings mixed with captions. It seems to be something on the lighter side, but don’t let that artwork fool you.

Author Perrin Roosevelt Ireland offers readers solid information that cozies up to the scholarly, with hard science, philosophy, feminism, and quotations from researchers to support it, thus furthering the narrative and hitting the points squarely. If you see the art and expect something lighthearted, comic, and small-talk-worthy, you could be disappointed.

On the other hand, if you want solid, wryly serious facts, you’re in for a treat.

There’s lots of learning to be gleaned here, and some slight nudge-wink whimsy to emphasize the absurdity of wrong-headed thinking. This can make readers feel like they’re in-the-know on the jokes, and the playfulness balances the seriousness of the information well.

So, serious, scholarly, or slightly silly, none of these are negative but you’re going to know what you want from a book like this. For the right reader, someone in the mood, “Poking the Squid” is wild.

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