Arts & Entertainment
Calendar: Dec. 27
Parties, concerts, support groups and more through Jan. 2

“Edie Beale LIVE at Reno Sweeney,” Jeffrey Johnson’s one-man recreation of Edie’s Beale’s appearance at Reno Sweeney Nightclub, plays at 54 Below (254 W. 54th St.) Monday night at 9:30 p.m. (Photo courtesy Johnson)
Friday, Dec. 27
Women in Their 20s, a social discussion group for lesbian, bisexual, transgender and all women interested in women, meets today at The D.C. Center (2000 14th St., N.W.) from 8-9:30 p.m. All welcome to join. For details, visit thedccenter.org.
Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) hosts “Bear Under Blacklight,” a glow-in-the-dark dance party, 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. 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, Dec. 28
DJ Kidd Madonny brings “The Kidd Show,” a décor installation dance party, to Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) tonight. Doors open at 10 p.m. Cover is $8 from 10-11 p.m. and $12 after 11 p.m. Drinks are $3 before 11 p.m. The drag show starts at 10:30 p.m. Admission is limited to guests 21 and over. For details, visit towndc.com.
Burgundy Crescent, a gay volunteer organization, volunteers for Food and Friends (219 Riggs Rd., N.E.) tonight from 8-10 a.m. Volunteers will chop vegetables and pack groceries. To volunteer, email [email protected]. For more details, visit burgundycrescent.org.
The Incomparable Freddy Cole’s Christmas Show is tonight at 8 p.m. at Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club (7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda). Tickets are $40. Visit bethesdabluesjazz.com or call 240-330-4500 for tickets.
Sunday, Dec. 29
Touchstone Gallery’s (901 New York Ave., N.W.) exhibit “Deck the Walls,” a holiday all-media exhibit of affordable art, ends today. For details, visit touchstonegallery.com.
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.
Monday, Dec. 30
If you happen to be in New York City, “Edie Beale LIVE at Reno Sweeney,” Jeffrey Johnson’s one-man recreation of Edie’s Beale’s appearance at Reno Sweeney Nightclub, plays at 54 Below (254 W. 54th St.) tonight at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $35. For more information, visit 54below.com.
The Birchmere (3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria, Va.) presents “Burlesque-A-Pades Holiday Spectacular!” at 7:30 p.m. with a vintage burlesque photos exhibit. The holiday-themed burlesque show features the host of “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” Angie Potani. The exhibit covers local burlesque history with a focus on a selection of past and present burlesque performs with ties to New York City. Tickets are $29.50. For more information, visit birchmere.com.
Tuesday, Dec. 31
Cady’s Alley (3330 Cady’s Alley, N.W.) hosts its holiday bazaar today starting at 11 a.m. Popular fashion and home décor brands will be on sale such as Chubbies, Read Wall, Tuckernuck and Victoria Road. Admission is free and all ages are welcome. For more information, visit cadysalley.com.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre (641 D St., N.W.) presents “The Pajama Men: Just the Two of Each of Us,” a comedic duo performance by Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez, at 8 p.m. tonight. The show blends improve and physical comedy.Tickets are $35 in advance and $75 at the door. For details, visit woollymammoth.net.
Wednesday, Jan. 1
The Tom Davoren Social Bridge Club meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E.) for social bridge. No partner needed. For more information, call 301-345-1571.
‘Zoolights,” a holiday light attraction, has its last day at Smithsonian’s National Zoo (3001 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) today from 5:30-9 p.m. Admission is free. For details, visit nationalzoo.si.edu.
Thursday, Jan. 2
The D.C. Center (2000 14th St., N.W.) hosts “Lesbian Studies, Lesbian Scholars: New Pathways, New Futures” today from noon-7 p.m. The goal is to build a strong network of scholars focusing on lesbians and current projects. For more details, visit thedccenter.org.
SMYAL (410 7th St., S.E.) provides free and confidential HIV testing drop-in hours today from 3-5 p.m. For more information, visit smyal.org.
Books
Tragedy and comedy intertwined in witty ‘Quietly Hostile’
Irby’s fourth essay collection addresses pandemic, TV writing career, more

‘Quietly Hostile: Essays’
By Samantha Irby
c.2023, Vintage
$17/304 pages
You know from the get-go that “Quietly Hostile,” essayist, television writer and humorist Samantha Irby’s fourth essay collection, is filled to the brim with the author’s mordant wit, cynicism and empathy. Who else but Irby, 43, who has struggled with depression, would write: “This book is dedicated to Zoloft”?
There are zillions of essay collections. But few are as memorable, poignant, funny (sometimes grossly, in a good way) and heart-filled (a term Irby might hate) as “Quietly Hostile”

This long-awaited collection is filled with what Irby would call “good shit”: from hilarious descriptions of her bad dog in doggie day care to bits about, literally, shit, (that will gross you out, but reduce your shame about pooping).
Irby, who is Black and bisexual, grew up in poverty in Evanston, Ill. Her parents died when she was 18 (her mother from multiple sclerosis; her father, who gambled, likely, suffered from post traumatic stress disorder).
At the age of nine, Irby’s mother’s MS went out of remission. While still a child, she was called upon to care for her Mom.
“When I was an actual kid growing up on welfare with a sick mom and expired Tuna Helper from the dollar store, the future and its infinite possibilities stretched before me like a sumptuous buffet I couldn’t afford to go to,” Irby writes.
There is a backdrop of pain, sadness and, sometimes, anger to much of Irby’s humor. But self-pity and rage don’t consume the book.
Irby, the author of “Meaty,” “We Are Never Meeting in Real Life” and “Wow, No Thank You,” knows that the cliche is true: tragedy and comedy often are often intertwined.
It’s fun to learn in “Quietly Hostile” that Irby, who was a writer for the popular TV shows “Shrill” and “Tuca & Bertie,” is as much a fan as the rest of us of the TV shows she loves.
In 1998, Irby couldn’t afford cable or HBO. She had to wait to watch the “City” until it came out on VHS. “The show reflected nothing of my life,” she writes, “but provided something of a road map for my future…” she writes.
In a future, she wouldn’t have dreamed of then, she grew up to become a writer on “And Just Like That,” the “Sex and the City” reboot. (She’s a writer on season two of “And Just Like That” which premieres on June 22 on Max.)
Irby was stunned when Michael Patrick King of “And Just Like That” asked her to write for the show. “I was like … Are you allowed to work on a show like this if you only wear nine-dollar T-shirts,” she writes, “and have no idea how many Brooklyns there are.”
“During my interview,” Irby jokes, “I said, ‘Can I give Carrie diarrhea?’ and I was hired immediately.”
Even ardent “Sex and the City” aficionados may find too much of SATC in “Quietly Hostile.”
No worries: Irby who speaks of herself as being “fat” and “sick” (she has arthritis and Crohn’s disease), riffs on many things in “Quietly Hostile.” Irby turns her sharp wit on everything from what it’s like to run for a public toilet when you have diarrhea to why she’s a David Matthew’s fan girl to her love for (approaching addiction to) Diet Coke to the “last normal day” before the pandemic to the “food fights” that are a part of the most loving marriages.
Grab a Diet Coke (or libation of your choice), tell your bad dog to quit barking and enjoy “Quietly Hostile.”
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
Theater
Arena’s ‘Exclusion’ is a piece of art about art
Majority Asian production features intelligent performance by Karoline

‘Exclusion’
Through June 25
Arena Stage
1101 Sixth St., S.W.
$56-95
Arenastage.org
When Asian-American historian Katie’s best-selling book about the racist Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 is optioned for a mini-series by a Hollywood mogul, she couldn’t happier. However, artistic and commercial visions clash and things go awry. This is the premise of Ken Lin’s new comedy “Exclusion” now at Arena Stage.
Katie is played by Karoline, the mononymously named New York-based actor who brings intelligence and energy to every role they tackle.
“I’m similar to Katie — honest to a fault, optimistic, both strong and naïve,” says Karoline, 28. “For me, the challenge is watching Katie choose yes or no at every turn. Should she address what’s coming at her with truth or not? Or hide what she’s thinking? My struggle in life has been similar. How do I stay true and at the same time get what I want in a corrupt world.”
When asked to be part of “Exclusion’s” early development, Karoline was unsure: Doing a piece of art about art can be tricky. But they soon changed their mind.
“The workshop changed my life. I got into the room and it was majority Asian. Seeing Ken [Lin] talk about coming back to theater and about being able to write about Asian people with a play that’s ostensibly a comedy and obviously super personal, drawing from his life and what he’s learned from colleagues.”
Karoline describes their experience with anti-Asian racism as more microaggressions. “I don’t have people point at me saying ‘you’re a chink.’ It’s been subtler versions of that.”
As a stage actor, they’ve had an activist history, taking complaints of racism to a company’s board, a move that can be contentious. Typically, it’s preferred actors “be grateful, listen and interpret, and not speak up.”
When a respected mentor later asked Karoline whether they wanted to be an actor or an activist, they didn’t understand why it had to be mutually exclusive. “I was too young to say it could be both. Now it depends on the situation. Maybe both in theater because I have more of a career there. But in TV, I don’t know.”
Karoline was born in Shanghai and grew up in South Texas where they had little exposure to the arts. After graduation from a pre-med magnet high school (with no intention of a career in medicine), they headed off to Harvard on full scholarship: “I showed my family that I can be smart, but I was going to do my own thing.”
They took a gap year from Harvard to train at Atlantic Acting School, then went to apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Weeks after moving to New York they were cast as closeted lesbian Bo in Tom Stoppard’s “The Hard Problem” at Lincoln Center Theater.
“I’ve played more than one lesbian in my career,” says Karoline with a chuckle. In the fall, they can be seen in the entire first season of “Death and Other Details” (Hulu) as a very rich lesbian heiress, a darkly funny role.
“It seems when you’re Asian, you’re expected to talk about your parents’ accents or dumplings,” they add. “The narrative is vivid and bright. I wanted to do classical theater so my work could speak about everything else. From the start, I was ready to do the work, and hoped to have a long career that included many different things.”
Not long ago, Karoline shed their surname owing to a difficult childhood and a feeling of estrangement from their family. “It’s unusual, especially for Asian Americans, but after some self-healing and thinking, I decided I didn’t need it. Now I feel a lot freer.”
And there have been other changes in addition to their last name including coming out as queer and sharing their gender identity. This is the first year they’ve only used “they” pronouns.
“When you’re queer, I believe you’re always queer even if you’re not in a queer relationship. I think of my character like that. In this space and time, Katie’s with a man but that doesn’t mean that’s the whole conversation about this person.
“For me, playing Katie in ‘Exclusion’ has been a huge vote of confidence. Sometimes it takes someone writing something wonderful and casting you for you to know where you need to be.”
Out & About
Mayor’s office to host Pride tie-dye party
Guests to make colorful shirts for ‘PEACE. LOVE. REVOLUTION’ theme

The Mayor’s Office for LGBTQ Affairs will host “Love Out Loud: Tie Dye Party for Pride” on Wednesday, June 7 at 5 p.m. at the Frank D. Reeves Center of Municipal Affairs.
The event, hosted along with the DC Center for the LGBT Community and Capital Pride Alliance, will be an afternoon for community and artistry. Guests are encouraged to bring their creativity to make some colorful tie-dye shirts in line with this year’s Pride theme, “PEACE. LOVE. REVOLUTION.”
This event is free to attend and more details are available on Eventbrite.
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