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Calendar: Events through Oct. 24

Parties, exhibits, concerts and more for the coming week

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Emeli Sandé, gay news, Washington Blade
Emeli Sandé, gay news, Washington Blade

This year’s Capitol Pride musical performer Emeli Sandé performs at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall Saturday. (Blade file photo by Tyler Grigsby)

Friday, Oct. 18

DJ Joe Gauthreaux spins at Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) tonight. Free rail vodka drinks from 11 p.m.-midnight. Cover is $10. Admission is 21 and up. For more information, visit cobaltdc.com.

Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) hosts Bear Happy Hour tonight from 6-11 p.m. There is no cover charge and admission is limited to guests 21 and over. For more information, visit towndc.com.

Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) holds a happy hour from 5-7:30 p.m. tonight with all drinks half price. Hip music begins at 11 p.m. Enjoy pool, video games and cards. Admission is $5 after 9 p.m. Must be 21 and over. For more details, visit bachelorsmill.com.

Saturday, Oct. 19

British singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé performs at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (1212 Cathedral St., Baltimore) tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets range from $29.60-$40. For details, visit bsomusic.org.

The Birchmere presents 2CELLOS, a cellist duo, at the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University (730 21st St., N.W.) tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets are $55. For more details, visit lisner.gwu.edu or call 202-994-6800.

The Bethesda Row Arts Festival runs today in downtown Bethesda (4841 Bethesda Ave., Md.) from 11 a.m.- 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.  Enjoy work from artists and crafters, listen to local music performances and participate in kid-friendly activities. The festival benefits NIH Children’s Charities. Admission is free. For details, visit bethesdarowarts.org.

Burgundy Crescent, a gay volunteer organization, volunteers today for the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation at the Falls Church PetSmart (6100 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church, Va.) at 11:45 a.m. today. You will be paired with a dog on a leash to walk around and play with. Wear casual clothes. For more information, visit burgundycrescent.org.

The Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance (AGLA) hosts its monthly brunch event at Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant (555 S. 23rd St., Arlington, Va.) today from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. The brunch is an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffer with made to order omelets and Belgian waffles with coffee, soda or juice. Cost is $9.95. Fore details, visit agla.org.

The Hamilton (600 14th Street, N.W.) hosts a free screening of the cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” tonight at 10 p.m. Doors open at 9. Go here for details.

Sunday, Oct. 20

Organist Ken Cowan performs at First Baptist Church of Washington (1328 16th St., N.W.) today at 4 p.m. Admission is free but contributions accepted. For more details, visit firstbaptistdc.org.

Perry’s (1811 Columbia Rd., N.W.) hosts its weekly “Sunday Drag Brunch” today from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. The cost is $24.95 for an all-you-can-eat buffet. For more details, visit perrysadamsmorgan.com.

Adventuring, an LGBT outdoors group, hosts its “Great Falls Difficult Run” hike through Great Falls Park (9200 Old Dominion Dr., Mclean, Va.) at 9:15 a.m. today. Alternately you can meet at the Tenleytown Metro (4530 40th St., N.W.) at 8:30 a.m. to carpool. The hike is 5.1 miles with an elevation gain of 250 feet. The walk has a view of the Falls from the Virginia side as well as the Potomac as it rushes through Mather Gorge below the Falls. The Difficult Run Trail has sustained flood damage and is steep and narrow. Bring water, snacks and bug spray. Cost is $2 for trip fee, $4 for the park entrance and $2 to reimburse the driver if you are carpooling from Tenleytown. For more information, visit adventuring.org.

Nellie’s Sports Bar (900 U St., N.W.) hosts the final day of its silent shoe auction today. Come make your final bids on sneakers decorated by the community toe benefit the AIDS Walk. For details, visit nelliessportsbar.com.

Special Agent Galactica is at L’Enfant Cafe (2000 18th St. N.W.) tonight at 7 p.m. with Peter Fields. Details at pinkhairedone.com.

Monday, Oct. 21

Rainbow History Project presents “Prejudice and Pride,” a panel discussion about discrimination against African Americans in the D.C. LGBT community in the 1970s and 1980s, at the Thurgood Marshall Center (1816 12th St., N.W.) today at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit rainbowhistory.org.

Us Helping Us  (3636 Georgia Ave., N.W.) holds a support group for gay black men to discuss topics that affect them today, share perspectives and have meaningful conversations. For details, visit uhupil.org.

Tuesday, Oct. 22

Genderqueer D.C. holds a discussion group at The D.C. Center (13181 U St., N.W.) at 7 p.m. tonight. The group is for anyone who identifies outside of the gender binary as bigender, agender, genderfluid or any label outside of cisgender. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.

Whitman-Walker holds free HIV testing at Panam Supermarket (3552 14th St., N.W.) tonight from 7-9 p.m. For details, visit whitman-walker.org.

SMYAL (410 7th St., S.E.) hosts a “Rap Group” today from 5-6:30 p.m. Discuss stressful issues like school, bullying, getting into college or finding a job in this support group. For more details, visit smyal.org.

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore will read from her memoir “The End of San Francisco” this evening at Busboys and Poets (1025 5th Street, N.W.) at 6:30 p.m. in the Cullen Room. More information at mattildabernsteinsycamore.com.

Wednesday, Oct. 23

The Lambda Bridge Club meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E.) for duplicate bridge. No reservations required and new comers welcome. If you need a partner, call 703-407-6540.

The D.C. Center and Pros in the City host “Forty Plus Gay Men Speed Dating” at Finn and Porter D.C. (900 10th St., N.W.) at 7 p.m. tonight. Speed dating will last approximately one hour. After enjoy a mixer with fellow speed daters. There will be a cash bar. Check-in is at 7 and dating begins at 7:20. You will be able to contact anyone you meet through an exclusive online messaging system 48 hours after the event. Tickets are $30. Three hour complimentary parking offered to guests who purchase two drinks or other items from the bar or restaurant. For more details and to purchase tickets, visit prosinthecity.com.

The HIV Working Group holds a meeting at The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) tonight at 7 p.m. The HIV Working Group is a volunteer-driven HIV/AIDS outreach, education, and advocacy initiative of the Center. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.

Thursday, Oct. 24

Washington Blade hosts its “2013 Best of Gay D.C. Party” at The Huxley (1730 M St., N.W.) tonight from 6-9 p.m. Winners of the “Best of Gay D.C.” will be announced. You can also win a pair of tickets to see Cher. For details, visit facebook.com/washingtonblade/events.

Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV) holds a meeting at The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) tonight from 7-8:30 p.m. GLOV works to reduce violence against LGBT individuals through community outreach, education and assisting members of anti-LGBT violence. For more details, visit thedccenter.org.

Rude Boi Entertainment hosts “Tempted 2 Touch,” a ladies dance party, at the Fab Lounge (2022 Florida Ave., N.W.) Doors open at 10 p.m. Drink specials $5 and vodka shots $3 all night. No cover charge. Admission limited to guests 21 and over. For more details, visit rudeboientertainment.wordpress.com.

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Celebrity News

HRC releases ‘Queer Renaissance Syllabus’

Beyoncé’s hit album inspired curriculum

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Beyoncé performs at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., on Aug. 6, 2023. The Human Rights Campaign has released a curriculum that her "Renaissance" album inspired. (Washington Blade photo by Isabelle Kravis)

In a move aimed at celebrating the beauty, brilliance and resilience of the LGBTQ community, the Human Rights Campaign unveiled the “Queer Renaissance Syllabus” that Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” album inspired. 

Curated by Justin Calhoun, Leslie Hall and Chauna Lawson of the HRC’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities Program, the syllabus includes a variety of academic articles, essays, films and other media rooted in Black queer and feminist studies. Each piece is directly inspired by the tracks on Beyoncé’s Billboard 200-topping dance album, “Renaissance.”

Beyoncé’s album “Renaissance” stands as a cultural milestone, celebrating the Black queer roots of dance music while shedding light on overlooked Black queer artists. Inspired by her late-Uncle Johnny, the album not only garnered critical acclaim but also shed light on the often marginalized contributions of Black queer artists. Winning four Grammys and yielding chart-topping hits like “Break My Soul” and “Cuff It,” the album sparked discussions about economic impact and cultural representation.

Amid its success, legislative challenges arose, with Florida and Texas enacting bans on DEI initiatives in public colleges. Recognizing the album’s transformative potential, HRC developed the “Queer Renaissance Syllabus” to leverage its impact for education and activism.

Tailored for educators, youth-serving professionals, DEI practitioners, higher education leaders and admirers of Beyoncé’s artistry, the syllabus aims to encourage meaningful discussions, enrich lesson plans, and explore innovative ways to honor the vibrancy and significance of LGBTQ individuals and their culture.

With six themes anchoring the syllabus, ranging from “intersectionality and inclusivity” to “social justice and activism,” it provides a comprehensive exploration of various facets of LGBTQ experiences and expressions. Fan-favorite tracks from the album are paired with scholarly readings, offering insights into empowerment, self-acceptance and the transformative power of artistic expression. The syllabus also reinforces HRC’s efforts to highlight, amplify and re-center Black and queer voices.

By providing links to articles, books, podcasts and interviews, each associated with a song from the album, it celebrates the rich cultural heritage and contributions of the Black queer community.

The concluding section of the syllabus includes Beyoncé’s tribute to O’Shea Sibley, a young Black queer person who was murdered in Brooklyn, N.Y., last July while voguing to “Renaissance” songs at a gas station. HRC also includes a statement that condemns hate crimes.

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Movies

Neo-noir ‘Femme’ offers sexy, intense revenge fantasy

A work of real and thrilling cinematic vision

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George MacKay and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett star in ‘Femme.’ (Photo courtesy of Utopia)

They say “revenge is sweet,” and it must be true. Why else would so many of our popular stories, dating all the way back to “Medea” and beyond, be focused on the idea of getting “even” with the people who have done us wrong?

It’s a concept with obvious appeal for anyone who has felt unjustly used by the world – or, more accurately, by the people in it – but that has particular resonance, perhaps, for modern queer audiences, long used to being relegated to the status of “victim” in the narratives we see on our screens. In “Femme” — the new UK indie thriller helmed by first-time feature directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, now in limited theatrical release and expanding wider over the next two weeks — it provides the irresistible hook for a gripping tale of calculated vengeance in the face of anti-queer violence. Like the best of such stories, however, it’s as much a cautionary tale as it is a wish-fulfillment fantasy.

Set in London, it centers on Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), aka Aphrodite Banks, a popular drag performer in the city’s queer club scene who, after a performance one night, steps out in full costume to buy a pack of cigarettes and becomes the victim of a traumatic “gay bashing” incident at the hands of a young man goaded to violence by a thuggish gang of friends. Months later, though he’s recovered from his physical injuries, he is still deeply affected by the inner scars that linger. Robbed of the confidence that allowed him to perform, he’s withdrawn into a reclusive life, until concern from his friends and housemates prompts him to finally venture out into the world for a night of cruising at a gay sauna – where he encounters his bully doing the same thing. 

Unrecognizable and anonymously masculine out of his drag persona, Jules finds himself beginning a dangerous and duplicitous game in which he plans to “out” his former attacker – whose name, as he learns, is Preston (George MacKay) – in the most humiliating way possible. As his scheme begins to play out, however, he encounters an obstacle: in getting to know the closeted Preston, he is surprised to discover not only empathy for someone living their life in terrified camouflage, but a mutual attraction that develops despite the horrific history between them.

Framed as a self-described “neo-noir” story, a designation that implies a certain flavor of moral ambiguity as much as it does a tense and shadowy tale of intrigue or a psychologically complex tone, it’s a movie that relies heavily on style in order to sell its conceptual premise. Realistically, we might question the boldness that permits our protagonist to enact such a potentially hazardous scheme, but in the context of its genre trappings we are lulled into accepting it. And while most of us are likely “jaded” enough to question the possibility of tenderness between its two leading characters, the accepted conceits of the film noir form are enough to sell it to us – or at least allow us to grapple with it alongside Jules, whose righteously Machiavellian master plan is threatened by the feelings he “catches” in spite of himself.

That, of course, is part of the whole point. “Femme,” though it establishes itself by virtue of its very title as a testament to the struggle to “pass” for straight in a world that places a value judgment on perceived adherence to a strict norm for gender and sexuality, hinges on the idea that such things aren’t quite as clear-cut as we want to make them. Despite the black-and-white certainty we cling to when it comes to the subject of abusive or toxic relationships, there’s an emotional component that can only be ignored or dismissed at our peril, and even our most resolute intentions can be undermined by the shades of gray we discover in our hearts. 

Freeman and Ng – who also wrote the screenplay, adapting their own BAFTA-nominated short film from 2021 (starring Harris Dickinson and Paapa Essiedu) into a feature-length expansion – seem bent on challenging our snap judgments, on forcing us to sympathize with our oppressors by showing us the ways in which they, too, are prevented from living a fully authentic life by the expectations of their cultural environment. Even more challenging for many modern audiences, perhaps, may be the unavoidable observation that, in enacting his plan of revenge, Jules crosses the line between being a victim and being a victimizer – a fine point that may trigger uncomfortable implications in a social environment that has become marked by divisive moral constructs and hardline ethical posturing.

Before we scare you off with discussion of high-concept themes and “culture war” rhetoric, however, it’s crucial to bring up the elements that lift “Femme” above and beyond the level of so many such narrative films and makes it a somewhat unexpectedly potent piece of cinematic storytelling – and all of them have to do with the skill and intention behind it.

As to the former, the movie’s first-time directors manage a remarkable debut, steeping their film in moody, genre-appropriate visuals and murky morality. They pave a path beyond the easy assessments proscribed for us by conventional thinking, and force us to follow our sympathies into a disquieting confrontation between what we “know” as right and what we feel as true; at the same time, they push back against any natural sentimentality we might have about the situation, stressing the toxicity of the relationship in the middle of their film, the ironically-reversed insincerity of its dynamic – and, perhaps most importantly, the reality of the defining circumstances around it. While we might find ourselves longing for a happier resolution than the one we expect, the film makes no pretense that these two men might overcome the deep denial and traumatic associations – not to mention the calculated lack of honesty on the side of its de facto protagonist, to achieve some kind of “happy ending” between themselves. Nevertheless, we hope for it, in spite of ourselves.

That delicate dynamic works largely because of the movie’s lead actors. Both Stewart-Jarrett (“Candyman”) and MacKay (“Pride”, “1917”) deliver fully invested, utterly relatable performances, finding the emotional truth behind their interactions with as much palpable authenticity as they bring to the chemistry between them. They force us to abandon our preconceived ideas about each character by finding the human presence behind them, and it makes the story’s final outcome feel as heartbreaking as it does inevitable.

As for intention, “Femme” – which premiered at last year’s Berlin International Film Festival and went on to gather acclaim across the international film fest circuit – might be a little hard to take for the easily triggered, we won’t deny it. Still, it’s a work of real and thrilling cinematic vision that goes beyond easy morality to highlight the tragedy that comes from being forced to live behind a mask for the sake of societal acceptance. It’s also exciting, smart, and unexpectedly sexy – all of which make it a highly- recommended addition to your watchlist.

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Out & About

Trans Day of Visibility is here and here’s how to celebrate

Howard County LGBTQIA Commission to host Columbia event

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Howard County LGBTQIA Commission will host its inaugural event celebrating Trans Day of Visibility on Sunday, March 31 at 4 p.m. at Busboys and Poets in Columbia, Md.

The purpose of this inaugural event is to create a welcoming and inclusive space that celebrates and amplifies the voices of the trans community and its allies, highlights the joy and resilience of trans and non-binary individuals everywhere, and elevates their voices and shares their diverse experiences. 

This event is free and more details are available on Eventbrite

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