Arts & Entertainment
Out & About: June 22
Harpers Ferry Pride returns, Streisand impersonator comes to Baltimore, Food & Friends’ Chef’s Best Dinner & Auction on tap, and more
Harpers Ferry holds second Gay Pride Day
River Riders (408 Alstadts Hill Rd., Harpers Ferry) is hosting its second annual Gay Pride Day on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Activities include family-friendly adventures such as kayaking, canoeing, biking and tubing. The day concludes with a drag show.
River Riders is a service that provides equipment to those who want to go rafting, tubing, kayaking and similar adventures.
Space is being offered to venders who will be promoting awareness and information for free. Venders will be responsible for their own tents, tables, chairs and other equipment.
Carla DelVillaggio will bring her Barbra Streisand impersonation to the Gordon Center for Performing Arts, Sunday.
Streisand impersonator comes to Baltimore
Barbra Streisand impersonator Carla DelVillaggio will perform at the Gordon Center for Performing Arts (3506 Gynnbrook Ave., Owings Mills) on Sunday at 3 p.m.
DelVillaggio has been performing for 25 years and began her Streisand impersonation project in 2006. She has received several awards including “Best Overall Celebrity Re-Creation Award” at the Sunburst Convention of Celebrity Tribute Artists for 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Tickets range from $40-45. For more information, visit simplystreisand.net.
Chef’s Best slated for Tuesday
Food & Friends is celebrating its 22nd annual Chef’s Best Dinner and Auction Presented by the NACDS Foundation on Tuesday at the Washington Hilton (1919 Connecticut Ave., N.W.). VIP reception begins at 5:30 p.m. and the main event begins at 6:30 p.m.
Food & Friends is a service that provides meals and nutrition to members of the community with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-challenging illnesses.
Fifty-five of the best chefs in the region are invited to make delicious cuisine for 1,200 guests while enjoying a silent auction. Through the generosity of attendees, Food & Friends hopes to serve 2,800 individuals more than 1.2 million meals. The event will also be honoring CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield for their dedication to the group.
For more information about the event, visit foodandfriends.org/chefsbest.
The D.C. Center needs volunteers. Learn more about its needs at a fair at Town Saturday night. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Volunteer Fair recruits to benefit the LGBT community
The D.C. Center is co-sponsoring the District’s second annual LGBT Volunteer Fair at Town Danceboutique (2009 8th St., N.W.) on Saturday from 7-10 p.m.
The volunteer fair is a way for prospective volunteers to learn about opportunities to volunteer in the LGBT community. The event will also have LGBT organizations recruiting for volunteers.
Center staff will be present to answer questions about volunteering there.
For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
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.
Gay D.C. police lieutenant arrested on child porn charges
Demonstrators disrupt OMB director hearing over PEPFAR
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
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
