Arts & Entertainment

Calendar: May 25

Parties, exhibits, concerts and more through May 31

Published

14 years ago

May 24, 2012

Erin Durkin

‘Platform Walkers,’ a piece on display now at Touchstone Gallery. (Image courtesy Touchstone)

TODAY (Friday)

The HIV Working Group will be doing outreach at Town’s (2009 8^th St., N.W.) Bear Happy Hour this evening. Happy hour begins at 7 p.m. and tickets are $5. For more information, visit towndc.com or thedccenter.org.

Special Agent Galactica plays happy hour at Black Fox Lounge (1723 Conn, Ave. N.W.) this evening from 6 to 9 p.m. She will be performing music that includes artists like Duke Ellington, Ell Fitzgerald, Cole Porter and the Beatles. The performance will be free admission with full food and drink services still provided. For more details, go to pinkhairedone.com.

Phase 1 ( 525 8^th St., S.E.) hosts a “Dance Party with DJ Saylo” tonight. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $10. For more information visit phase1dc.com.

The Kennedy Center (2700 F St., N.W.) hosts the National College Dance Festival 2012 starting today through Sunday. There will be a performance today at 2 p.m. and another at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25. For more information visit kennedy-center.org.

A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor hosts a live broadcast in the Filene Center at Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Rd.,Vienna) starting at 8 p.m. Ticket prices for the event ranges from $25-$55. For more information visit walftrap.org.

Marcus Johnson, a jazz musician from Washington, plays tonight at the Hamilton (600 14^th St., N.W.). The show starts at 8:30 p.m. and tickets are $27.50. For more information visit thehamiltondc.com.

Saturday May 26

Positive Women Making Positive Choices hosts a family pride picnic and “celebration of love, commitment, family and community,” at Ft. Washington Park (13551 Fort Washington Rd., Ft.) today from noon to 8 p.m. Activities include kickball, volleyball, tug-of-war, three-on-three basketball and face painting. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.

Burgundy Crescent, a non-profit organization for LGBT volunteers, helps at Food & Friends today. Food & Friends (219 Riggs Rd., N.E.) feeds more than 1,100 people living with AIDS in the District and the surrounding area. Burgundy Crescent will be volunteering twice today: from 8-10 a.m. and from 9:45 a.m.-noon. Those wishing to volunteer should email to [email protected].

Town (2009 8^th St., N.W.) hosts a swimwear fashion show tonight exhibiting new 2xist swimsuits courtesy of Universal Gear. Music will be provided by DJ Chord. Doors open at 10 p.m. and cover charge at the door is $8 and $12 after 11 p.m. Visit towndc.org for more details.

Black Cat (1811 14th St. N.W.) has “Stereosleep” tonight at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10. To buy tickets or to find out more details, visit blackcatdc.com.

Sunday May 27

The D.C. Center has this month’s Food for the Soul: Soul Session Sunday Brunch fundraiser today from noon-3 p.m. at Tabaq (1336 U St. N.W.). Admission is free but there will be suggested donations. For more information, go to thedccenter.org.

African-American Collective Theater performs at the Warehouse Theater (1021 7^th St., N.W.) for the final time this evening at 5 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. This is their first D.C. Black Pride Theater Showcase where they will be reading the most recent plays by Alan Sharpe. Tickets are $15. Details can be found at thedccenter.org.

Black Cat hosts Pygmy Lush on its backstage tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets are $8. For more information, visit blackcatdc.com.

The Kennedy Center (2700 F St., N.W.) hosts the National Memorial Day Choral Festival today at 3 p.m. to commemorate those who served the country. The event is free, but tickets must be reserved. To reserve tickets or get more information, call 800-395-2036 or visit memorialdaychoralfestival.org.

Monday May 28

HIV+ Newly Diagnosed Support Group meets tonight at Whitman-Walker Health (1701 14^th St., N.W.) at 7 p.m. This is a confidential group for anyone who has been recently diagnosed with HIV. People of all sexual orientations and genders are welcome. The group requires previous registration. For more information, call 202-939-7671 or go to whitman-walker.org.

The play “Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play” by Anne Washburn opens at Woolly Mammoth (641 D St., N.W.) tonight at 6 p.m. The play showcases a post-apocalyptic world without electricity and how the survivors cope. Usually tickets would start at $30, but tonight is the theater’s special offer of pay-what-you-can. Tickets start selling at 5 p.m. and only two tickets will be sold per person. For more information or to buy tickets, visit woollymammoth.net.

Tuesday May 29

Today is the last day to check out art exhibitions “It’s My Nature” by Kate McConell and “Vivid Horizon: Color and Light” by Colleen Sabo at Touchstone Gallery (901 New York Ave. N.W.). For more information, go to touchstonegallery.com.

D.C. Center hosts a FUK!T Packing Party tonight from 7-9 p.m. at Green Lantern (1335 Green Court N.W.). FUK!T or TOOLK!T packets are safe-sex kits given out in Washington to combat HIV/AIDS. For more information, go to thedccenter.org.

Western Affairs plays Black Cat (1811 14^th St. N.W.) tonight at 8. Tickets are $8. For more information, visit blackcatdc.com.

The Bolshoi Ballet opens with “Coppelia,” a comedic story about mistaken identity, at the Kennedy Center (2700 F St., N.W.) tonight at 7:30. Tickets range from $29-$150. The show runs through June 3. For more information, visit kennedy-center.org.

Wednesday May 30

Capturing Fire Queer Spoken Word Summit & Slam begins tonight at Busboys & Poets (14 & V St. N.W.). This event is an international poetry festival where queer-identified writers gather for a showcase of poetry slam performances to increase visibility of LGBT performance artists. For more information, visit thedccenter.org/capturing fire.

Art exhibitions “Holding Patterns” by Susan Feller and “Rail Ways” by Shelley Lowenstein opens today at Touchstone Gallery (901 New York Ave. N.W.). Feller’s work focuses on the transitional moments in life where Lowenstein’s captures scenes of people at train stations. The opening receptions for both shows is Friday at 6 p.m. For details, visit touchstonegallery.com.

The Lambda Bridge Club meets at the Dignity Center (721 8^th St., S.E.) for duplicate bridge at 7:30 p.m. No reservations are required and all are welcome. Those without a partner should contact the group through lambdabridge.com.

Thursday May 31

D.C. Center and Capital Pride host a town hall discussion tonight at 7 at Hotel Palomar (2121 P St. N.W.). The topic is LGBT youth homelessness in Washington and will include a panel of specialists. For more information, go to capitalpride.org.

Ugly Purple Sweater, a local band that fuses pop music with tight harmony, plays tonight at the Black Cat (1811 14^th St. N.W.). Doors open at 8; tickets are $8. Visit blackcatdc.com for details.

The Grammy-winning Zac Brown Band plays Merriweather Post Pavilion (10475 Little Patuxent Pky. Columbia, Md.) tonight. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and tickets range from $42-$77. For details, visit merriweathermusic.com.

Movies

‘Hedda’ brings queer visibility to Golden Globes

Tessa Thompson up for Best Actress for new take on Ibsen classic

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

Susan Hornik

Tessa Thompson is nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a motion picture for ‘Hedda’ at Sunday’s Golden Globes. (Image courtesy IMDB)

The 83rd annual Golden Globes awards are set for Sunday (CBS, 8 p.m. EST). One of the many bright spots this awards season is “Hedda,” a unique LGBTQ version of the classic Henrik Ibsen story, “Hedda Gabler,” starring powerhouses Nina Hoss, Tessa Thompson and Imogen Poots. A modern reinterpretation of a timeless story, the film and its cast have already received several nominations this awards season, including a Globes nod for Best Actress for Thompson.

Writer/director Nia DaCosta was fascinated by Ibsen’s play and the enigmatic character of the deeply complex Hedda, who in the original, is stuck in a marriage she doesn’t want, and still is drawn to her former lover, Eilert.

But in DaCosta’s adaptation, there’s a fundamental difference: Eilert is being played by Hoss, and is now named Eileen.

“That name change adds this element of queerness to the story as well,” said DaCosta at a recent Golden Globes press event. “And although some people read the original play as Hedda being queer, which I find interesting, which I didn’t necessarily…it was a side effect in my movie that everyone was queer once I changed Eilert to a woman.”

She added: “But it still, for me, stayed true to the original because I was staying true to all the themes and the feelings and the sort of muckiness that I love so much about the original work.”

Thompson, who is bisexual, enjoyed playing this new version of Hedda, noting that the queer love storyline gave the film “a whole lot of knockoff effects.”

“But I think more than that, I think fundamentally something that it does is give Hedda a real foil. Another woman who’s in the world who’s making very different choices. And I think this is a film that wants to explore that piece more than Ibsen’s.”

DaCosta making it a queer story “made that kind of jump off the page and get under my skin in a way that felt really immediate,” Thompson acknowledged.

“It wants to explore sort of pathways to personhood and gaining sort of agency over one’s life. In the original piece, you have Hedda saying, ‘for once, I want to be in control of a man’s destiny,’” said Thompson.

“And I think in our piece, you see a woman struggling with trying to be in control of her own. And I thought that sort of mind, what is in the original material, but made it just, for me, make sense as a modern woman now.”

It is because of Hedda’s jealousy and envy of Eileen and her new girlfriend (Poots) that we see the character make impulsive moves.

“I think to a modern sensibility, the idea of a woman being quite jealous of another woman and acting out on that is really something that there’s not a lot of patience or grace for that in the world that we live in now,” said Thompson.

“Which I appreciate. But I do think there is something really generative. What I discovered with playing Hedda is, if it’s not left unchecked, there’s something very generative about feelings like envy and jealousy, because they point us in the direction of self. They help us understand the kind of lives that we want to live.”

Hoss actually played Hedda on stage in Berlin for several years previously.

“When I read the script, I was so surprised and mesmerized by what this decision did that there’s an Eileen instead of an Ejlert Lovborg,” said Hoss. “I was so drawn to this woman immediately.”

The deep love that is still there between Hedda and Eileen was immediately evident, as soon as the characters meet onscreen.

“If she is able to have this emotion with Eileen’s eyes, I think she isn’t yet because she doesn’t want to be vulnerable,” said Hoss. “So she doesn’t allow herself to feel that because then she could get hurt. And that’s something Eileen never got through to. So that’s the deep sadness within Eileen that she couldn’t make her feel the love, but at least these two when they meet, you feel like, ‘Oh my God, it’s not yet done with those two.’’’

Onscreen and offscreen, Thompson and Hoss loved working with each other.

“She did such great, strong choices…I looked at her transforming, which was somewhat mesmerizing, and she was really dangerous,” Hoss enthused. “It’s like when she was Hedda, I was a little bit like, but on the other hand, of course, fascinated. And that’s the thing that these humans have that are slightly dangerous. They’re also very fascinating.”

Hoss said that’s what drew Eileen to Hedda.

“I think both women want to change each other, but actually how they are is what attracts them to each other. And they’re very complimentary in that sense. So they would make up a great couple, I would believe. But the way they are right now, they’re just not good for each other. So in a way, that’s what we were talking about. I think we thought, ‘well, the background story must have been something like a chaotic, wonderful, just exploring for the first time, being in love, being out of society, doing something slightly dangerous, hidden, and then not so hidden because they would enter the Bohemian world where it was kind of okay to be queer and to celebrate yourself and to explore it.’”

But up to a certain point, because Eileen started working and was really after, ‘This is what I want to do. I want to publish, I want to become someone in the academic world,’” noted Hoss.

Poots has had her hands full playing Eileen’s love interest as she also starred in the complicated drama, “The Chronology of Water” (based on the memoir by Lydia Yuknavitch and directed by queer actress Kristen Stewart).

“Because the character in ‘Hedda’ is the only person in that triptych of women who’s acting on her impulses, despite the fact she’s incredibly, seemingly fragile, she’s the only one who has the ability to move through cowardice,” Poots acknowledged. “And that’s an interesting thing.”

Arts & Entertainment

2026 Most Eligible LGBTQ Singles nominations

We are looking for the most eligible LGBTQ singles in the Washington, D.C. region.

Published

2 days ago

January 7, 2026

Staff reports

We are looking for the most eligible LGBTQ singles in the Washington, D.C. region.

Are you or a friend looking to find a little love in 2026? We are looking for the most eligible LGBTQ singles in the Washington, D.C. region. Nominate you or your friends until January 23rd using the form below or by clicking HERE.

Our most eligible singles will be announced online in February. View our 2025 singles HERE.

Photos

PHOTOS: Freddie’s Follies

Queens perform at weekly Arlington show

Published

3 days ago

January 6, 2026

Michael Key

The Freddie's Follies drag show was held at Freddie's Beach Bar in Arlington, Va. on Saturday. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Freddie’s Follies drag show was held at Freddie’s Beach Bar in Arlington, Va. on Saturday, Jan. 3. Performers included Monet Dupree, Michelle Livigne, Shirley Naytch, Gigi Paris Couture and Shenandoah.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)