Arts & Entertainment
The need for speed
Gay Games vet hopes for more gold
Chuck Harney at his shop, the Bike Rack on Q Street. (Washington Blade photo by Kevin Majoros)
As a teenager on his high school tennis team in Los Angeles, Chuck Harney had another thing on his mind. He had the need for speed. To fulfill that need, he began competing in downhill and slalom ski racing on Mammoth Mountain.
The thrill of racing down a mountain wasn’t quite enough, so while he was still in his teens, he transitioned to bicycle touring and spent his time trekking along the coast of California, Oregon and through parts of Europe.
“I love to be on my bike,” says Harney, 52. “I love the speed and I love the freedom.”
Harney moved to D.C. in 1991 and began racing in cycling on the local circuit and across the United States as a member of Team DC Velo. In 1994, he struck gold at the Gay Games in New York. He also captured gold in cycling at the Chicago Gay Games in 2006.
Looking for something to add to his cycling, Harney transitioned to triathlons (swim-bike-run), duathlons (run-bike-run) and Xterra off-road triathlons in 1998. He qualified for the World Duathlon Championships and competed for Team USA from 2008-2011.
After taking a few years off, Harney is back on the bike training for the Cleveland Gay Games in August. The Gay Games offers four events in cycling: road race, individual time trial, team time trial and criterium (closed-off short course racing).
As co-owner of the Bike Rack on Q St., N.W. in D.C., Harney always has one foot on the bike. In preparation for the Games, he will be spending a lot of long hours on the bike.
“I will also do race specific training,” he says. “Along with distance work with my teammates, there will be interval training and hill climbing. We will also probably compete in some local races leading up to the Games.”
There are a lot of hazards in the sport of cycling. Most cyclists sport road rash on a regular basis. For Harney, the crashes are just part of the sport, but he did share another hazard he faced at a duathlon race in Columbia, Md., on a very cold December day.
“It was so cold, that I decided to wear leg warmers on the first run,” he says laughing. “During the run they started coming down and were clumped around my ankles by the time I got to my bicycle. That was my first and last race in leg warmers.”
For the Games in Cleveland, Harney says his focus will be on supporting and hanging out with his teammates from D.C. Velo that will also be competing at the Games.
His competitive spirit emerged when he also added that he was putting a group together for the team time trial that should bring home the gold medal.
The need for speed never dies.
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.
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