Arts & Entertainment
A literary ‘Miracle’
Radical therapist profiled in exceptional novel
‘Tuesday Night Miracles’
By Kris Radish
Bantam Books
$15.00/487 pages
You were pretty sure your head was going to explode.
Oh, that’s right. You were mad – so mad that you couldn’t see straight, that anger was buzzing in your ears, that your blood was running a NASCAR lap around your insides. You were seeing red and three other colors, angry enough that you were afraid of yourself there for a minute.
Fortunately, you calmed down before you did something rash but in the new novel “Tuesday Night Miracles” by Kris Radish, four women weren’t so lucky.
On the eve of her retirement, Dr. Olivia Bayer was given a gift of sorts.
For years, Livie had wanted to do something bold and radical with her therapy groups, something that had never been done before. On the eve of her retirement, she was finally given permission and four color-coded folders, each representing a woman with a life in shambles.
It was no surprise that Kit Ferranti’s code was green, since envy played such a part in her childhood.
Reeling from the death of her mother, Kit had reacted strongly to her family’s usual taunting. She should have been used to it. It’d been happening since she was born, but this time, Kit snapped. She grabbed a broken wine bottle and went after her brother, Mike.
A red code fit Jane Castoria well.
Jane enjoyed a high-powered career as a Realtor for Chicago’s ritziest properties. She was powerful, smart, and always impeccably dressed. So when she attacked a colleague with one of her stiletto-heeled shoes, even that was apt.
Blue – the code of serenity – was all wrong for Grace Collins.
A single mother and busy doctor, Grace had been trying for years to hold a million things together but the problems were piling up. It was no surprise, then, that Grace lost her composure one night and rammed into her daughter’s boyfriend’s car.
Latecomer Leah Hetzer lived life under a black cloud, so a black code was fitting.
Sweet, gentle Leah married young and had two children that she adored and protected from their abusive father. So how could anyone explain the night she lost control and smacked her kids?
Dr. Bayer was given a gift on the eve of her retirement.
It’d take a miracle for it to work…
Despite that this book very badly needed proofreading, there are so many wonderful things about “Tuesday Night Miracles” that I don’t know where to begin.
Character development seems to be one of author Kris Radish’s strengths, and she uses it to the utmost. The women in this book are complex and interesting and, even as they admit their abundance of failings, they’re likeable. You almost wish they were real.
Radish employs wry humor with a light touch here, and she includes details that are believable and tantalizingly possible. These things kept me reading and they kept me loving this novel.
If your book group is looking for their next something, you should schedule this title now. For you, “Tuesday Night Miracles” is dynamite.
Celebrity News
Madonna announces release date for new album
‘Confessions II’ marks return to the dance floor
Pop icon Madonna on Wednesday announced that her 15th studio album will be released on July 3.
Titled “Confessions II,” the new album is a sequel to 2005’s “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” an Abba and disco-infused hit.
The new album reunites Madonna with producer Stuart Price, who also helmed the original “Confessions” album. It’s her first album of new material since 2019’s “Madame X.”
“We must dance, celebrate, and pray with our bodies,” Madonna said in a press release. “These are things that we’ve been doing for thousands of years — they really are spiritual practices. After all, the dance floor is a ritualistic space. It’s a place where you connect — with your wounds, with your fragility. To rave is an art. It’s about pushing your limits and connecting to a community of like-minded people,” continued the statement. “Sound, light, and vibration reshape our perceptions. Pulling us into a trance-like state. The repetition of the bass, we don’t just hear it but we feel it. Altering our consciousness and dissolving ego and time.”
Denali (@denalifoxx) of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” performed at Pitchers DC on April 9 for the Thirst Trap Thursday drag show. Other performers included Cake Pop!, Brooke N Hymen, Stacy Monique-Max and Silver Ware Sidora.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Arts & Entertainment
In an act of artistic defiance, Baltimore Center Stage stays focused on DEI
‘Maybe it’s a triple-down’
By LESLIE GRAY STREETER | I’m always tickled when people complain about artists “going political.” The inherent nature of art, of creation and free expression, is political. This becomes obvious when entire governments try to threaten it out of existence, like in 2025, when the brand-new presidential administration demanded organizations halt so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming or risk federal funding.
Baltimore Center Stage’s response? A resounding and hearty “Nah.” A year later, they’re still doubling down on diversity.
“Maybe it’s a triple-down,” said Ken-Matt Martin, the theater’s producing director, chuckling.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
HIV/AIDS group NMAC is ‘destabilized’ and in financial crisis: sources
Madonna announces release date for new album
Senegalese court issues first conviction under new anti-LGBTQ law
Evan Glass is leaning on his record. Is that enough for Montgomery County’s top job?
D.C. bar, LGBTQ+ Community Center to mark Lesbian Visibility Week
An effort to increase the number of psychiatrists of color
Comings & Goings
Trump budget targets ‘gender extremism’
Minimal version of ‘Streetcar Named Desire’ heading to Dupont Underground
