a&e features
Olivia Newton-John on what really matters to her
Cancer survivor talks music, ‘Grease,’ her memoirs and why she can never seem to slow down
Olivia Newton-John says she’s been making music more meaningful to her in the last few years. (Photo by Denise Truscello)
Capital Caring
40th anniversary benefit concert
Hospice Comes to Washington
Malen Smith Davis, president Capital Caring
Olivia Newton-John
Beth Nielsen Chapman
Amy Sky
Monday, May 1
Ronald Reagan Building
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
7 p.m.
Tickets: $95 (meet-and-greet package: $350)
Olivia Newton-John, center, with music pals Amy Sky, left, and Beth Nielsen Chapman. They’re in Washington Monday night for a benefit concert. (Photo courtesy Caprio Media Design)
Multi-talented singer, actress and activist, Olivia Newton-John will make a special stop in the nation’s capital at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center Monday, May 1 for Capital Caring’s 40th anniversary.
The “Physical” singer and “Grease” icon will perform a special acoustic show with Amy Sky and Beth Nielsen Chapman in honor of their album together, “Liv On.”
Released in October, “Liv On” is about healing and coping with loss. In a statement about the album, the three women say it’s “intended for those who wish to transcend loss while walking a journey toward newfound meaning and hope.”
The album is extremely personal for the three women as each have suffered loss in recent years. Newton-John lost her sister to brain cancer, Sky lost her mother to cancer and Nielsen Chapman lost her husband to cancer as well. Newton-John and Nielsen Chapman are also breast cancer survivors or “thrivers” as they call themselves.
WASHINGTON BLADE: You’re in D.C. for Capital Caring’s 40th anniversary. Why is this an important event for you to be a part of?
OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN: Well, I’ve never been part of this event before, but I just recorded an album with two of my dear friends, Amy Sky and Beth Nielsen Chapman. We recorded an album called “Liv On.” Have you heard it yet?
BLADE: I have actually. It’s a great album, very soothing and comforting.
NEWTON-JOHN: Aw, thank you. So the album is about loss and grief and moving through it. We were asked to do this event and it seems to fit in with the theme of the album, am I correct?
BLADE: You are. The event is also celebrating the 10th anniversary of Hospice Comes to Washington as well.
NEWTON-JOHN: Exactly, so that’s why we’re proud of this album. The three of us have all experienced the emotions of loss and grief and this album is really inspired by when I lost my sister nearly four years ago now to a brain tumor. I realized there wasn’t music about going through loss and grief and I would write songs and my friends Beth and Amy had written some songs on the same subject and we started collaborating and writing some new ones. It’s a healing experience for us.
BLADE: You worked with Amy on “Grace and Gratitude.” Had you worked with Beth before?
NEWTON-JOHN: Yes, we wrote a few things together and she’s an amazing writer and friend. We’re friends more than anything. She had breast cancer and I talked to her and helped her through that time period, so we’ve been friends for a long time.
BLADE: In 2014, a year after the death of your sister, you released a great EP called “The Hotel Sessions.”
NEWTON-JOHN: Yes, thank you. I did the EP with my nephew, Rona’s son (Brett Goldsmith).
BLADE: Was that part of the healing process for the two of you?
NEWTON-JOHN: No, not really. We had started it four years before. Every time I’d go to Australia I’d go to his house in Melbourne and we’d finish another track. We had just finished it right around the time she got sick. It was just perfect timing.
BLADE: How long did the process of recording “Liv On” take?
NEWTON-JOHN: It took about a year. We had to write the songs and I was in Vegas and the girls have their own careers, so we had to find a time we could all get together. It was a long process, but it was really worth it because it’s a timeless subject that everyone can relate to.
BLADE: You’ve done a few shows so far with Amy and Beth. What can fans expect?
NEWTON-JOHN: It’s going to be the album plus maybe a song or two of our own. It’s a trio, you know. It’s been wonderful working with them and singing as a trio rather than by myself and having the support of them on stage with the emotional aspect of this, it’s been fabulous.
BLADE: Have you heard from fans and what their reactions have been to “Liv On”?
NEWTON-JOHN: Oh yes, they love it. We’ve had some strong reactions to it. You know, everybody goes through loss and pain in their life and not everyone has someone to talk to about it and that can be very devastating. I think it’s a wonderful outlet for people to share.
BLADE: Family is important to you and in 2015, you released “You Have To Believe” with your daughter, Chloe Lattanzi and it went to No. 1 on the Billboard U.S. Hot Dance Songs Chart. Was that a surprise for you?
NEWTON-JOHN: It was a wonderful surprise! (laughs) We thought it would do well, but for it be number one was fantastic.
BLADE: For some of the die-hard fans out there, is there a vault of unreleased Olivia songs that are just waiting to see the light of day?
NEWTON-JOHN: You know what, there are. I’m going to be doing a box set at some point.
BLADE: Have you thought about releasing a memoir?
NEWTON-JOHN: Yes, I’ve thought about it. It’ll probably be in the works at some point.
BLADE: Along with the “Liv On” shows, you’re also touring with your own show. You wrapped up Vegas last year and are doing select dates across the country. Do you prefer doing a residency or do you have more fun hitting the road?
NEWTON-JOHN: I like them both for different reasons. I wouldn’t say one over the other. I enjoyed my three years in Vegas and I liked the consistency and waking up in the same bed, having my husband and my animals with me, so that was fantastic. Touring is a whole other thing too, but it’s fun and different.
BLADE: Your last few albums have been more on the inspirational side. Any thought on releasing any more pop music?
NEWTON-JOHN: Ummm, well, I don’t close the door on anything. Who knows what will happen. What I’m doing now is more of what I’ve wanted to do lately.
BLADE: During your concert shows, you pay tribute to your country music beginnings. When you first came to Nashville, there was a lot of opposition with you treading into this established traditional community. Did you ever feel the backlash back then?
NEWTON-JOHN: You know what, I wasn’t really aware of the backlash till afterward. I was traveling and touring and I heard about it after and heard Dolly and Loretta had backed me up so I had great support. It was just a few people, you know — it was change. John Denver and I were the first people to cross over from country to pop and I think that was threatening to them, but they later on saw the advantage (laughs).
BLADE: You sparked some excitement recently when you announced you were planning something for the 40th anniversary of “Grease.”
NEWTON-JOHN: I didn’t actually make any announcement (laughs). I don’t know where that came from. I said we’ll probably do something is all I said. I’m not sure what we’re going to do yet for it.
BLADE: Do you feel any of your movies were overshadowed by the success and popularity of “Grease”?
NEWTON-JOHN: Not really. I don’t think so. I made “Xanadu” afterward and a few little movies that were fun to make. I did one about five years ago called “A Few Best Men” that was pretty funny, but I don’t think it’s gotten released here in the States.
BLADE: Over the last few years you’ve been hinting about retiring and taking it easy. Do you think you could ever really settle down outside the spotlight?
NEWTON-JOHN: I’m gonna do less. I’ve been saying for 10 years I was gonna do less, but fun things come up and I never know what’s going to happen. That’s the fun of it really.
BLADE: Everyone knows you from something different — some from your acting, your music, charity work. What do you want to be most remembered for?
NEWTON-JOHN: Gosh, I haven’t really thought about that. Well of course for having nice music, lovely music and if I may have touched someone’s heart or helped them in some way. And of course for the hospital (Olivia-Newton John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre). I’m hoping my hospital is where we’ll see an end to cancer, that’s my dream.
a&e features
New book celebrates 1970s dance music icons
‘A Night at the Disco’ features interviews with Donna Summer, Debbie Harry, more
If you’re a fan of 1970s-era dance music, don’t miss the irresistible new book by Christian John Wikane and Alice Harris, “A Night at the Disco,” which revisits more than 90 interviews conducted with some of the biggest names in pop culture.
“A Night at the Disco” (ACC Art Books) was published on March 24, and distributed by Simon & Schuster. It celebrates more than 100 artists who sparked a phenomenon in dance music from 1970-1979 and features excerpts from interviews with everyone from Donna Summer to Debbie Harry.
Lost City Books (2467 18th St., N.W.) will welcome author Christian John Wikane for a book signing and conversation about “A Night at the Disco” on Thursday, April 16 at 6 p.m. Details at lostcitybookstore.com. Bird in Hand Coffee & Books in Baltimore (11 E. 33rd St.) )will also host a Q&A with the author on Wednesday, April 15 at 6 p.m. Details at theivybookshop.com.
Below is an excerpt from “A Night at the Disco.”
“I’ll let in anyone who looks like they’ll make things fun.” Steve Rubell is guiding a New York Times reporter through Studio 54 as resident DJ Richie Kaczor dazzles the crowd with records by CHIC, Odyssey, and T-Connection. “Disco, that’s where the happy people go,” The Trammps sing as dancers spin and twirl underneath tubes of flashing lights. Seven months since Rubell and co-owner Ian Schrager opened Studio 54 in April 1977, it’s welcomed untold numbers of “happy people” … at least those lucky enough to pass through the doors.
“We were part of the chosen few,” says André De Shields, who immortalized the title role in The Wiz on Broadway at the time. “We could show up at Studio 54 and the doorman at the velvet stanchion would look over everyone and point to us from The Wiz to come in, that kind of thing.” As the lead vocalist in the GRAMMY-nominated Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, whose debut modernized big band sophistication for the discothèques, Cory Daye had carte blanche in the club. “The energy was like a New Year’s Eve party every night,” she says. “I would go up to the mezzanine and watch the mechanical light pillars go up and down, metallic confetti falling from the ceiling, the spoon and the moon. I was so fascinated and enamored by it.
“When a certain song came on, the people would just rush to the dance floor. There was no contact dancing — the hustle was pretty much on its way out — but it was just an amazing experience to see all the cultures together. It was a fusion of cultures, which described my life and my band, so I was right at home there.”
“Studio 54 was the place,” adds Linda Clifford. “Crazy parties. If you could think it, you would see it. It was like a circus. Just an amazing place to be. I worked 54 so many times. It was like a second home to me. The people there treated me so well. The crowd always seemed to enjoy my show. I always had a good time with them. That was the most important thing: making sure that they had fun.”
Well before Studio 54 opened, disco had become a business juggernaut. “A four billion dollar market and still growing,” Billboard announced in February 1977, with dance music offering more variety than ever. “There is no longer a single, readily identifiable disco beat, but a kaleidoscope of sounds that are melodic and danceable,” Tom Moulton told the magazine. In the clubs, records by veteran artists like Stevie Wonder and the Bee Gees were mixed in with a range of new acts like Grace Jones, Boney M., and The Ritchie Family, while everyone from ABBA to Marvin Gaye scored number one pop hits with songs that had club-centric storylines.
Beyond the charts, disco itself remained as idiosyncratic as ever, especially on several productions by Laurin Rinder and W. Michael Lewis, whose studio creations, El Coco (“Let’s Get It Together,” “Cocomotion”) and Le Pamplemousse (“Le Spank”), joined their own “Lust” from Seven Deadly Sins (1977) among the most tantalizing releases on AVI Records. Rinder & Lewis also produced acts for the newly hatched Butterfly Records in Los Angeles, where Saint Tropez (“On a Rien à Perdre”) and Tuxedo Junction (“Moonlight Serenade”) reflected the duo’s high gloss sound, spanning everything from European sophistication to a more literal translation of the ’40s sensibilities popularized by Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band.
12-inch singles had also grown as the preferred format to approximate the club music experience at home. Nearly a year after Atlantic Records introduced its series of promotional 12-inch singles for DJs, New York-based Salsoul Records released the industry’s first commercially available 12-inch single, “Ten Percent” by Double Exposure, in May 1976. A year later, T.K. Records was the first label to certify a gold record for a 12-inch single when Peter Brown’s “Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me” tallied one million sales.— Christian John Wikane
(From “A Night at the Disco” by Alice Harris & Christian John Wikane. Published by ACC Art Books.)
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a&e features
Award-winning D.C. chef reaching new culinary heights
Anthony Jones of Marcus DC competing on ‘Top Chef’
In Anthony Jones’s kitchen, all sorts of flags fly, including his own. Executive chef at award-winning restaurant Marcus DC, Jones has reached culinary heights (James Beard Award semifinalist for Emerging Chef, anyone?), yet he’s just getting started.
Briefly stepping away from his award-winning station, Jones took a moment under a different set of lights. Recently, he temporarily gave up his post at the restaurant for a starring small-screen slot on the latest season of “Top Chef,” which debuted in March. (The show airs weekly on Bravo and Peacock).
Before his strategic slice-and-dice competition, however, Jones, who identifies as gay, draws from his deep DMV roots. In the years before “Top Chef” and the top chef spot at Marcus, he was born and raised in Sunderland, Md., in southern Maryland, near the Chesapeake.
Early memories were steeped in afternoons on boats with his dad bonding over fishing, and wandering the garden of his great-grandparents spread with fresh vegetables and a few hogs. “It was Southern, old-school ethics and upbringing,” he said. “Family and food went hand in hand.” Weekends meant grabbing bushels of crabs, dad and grandma would cook and crack them. Family members would host fish fries for extra cash. In this seafood-heavy youth, Jones managed time to sneak in episodes of the “OG” Japanese “Iron Chef” show, which helped inspire him to pursue a career in the kitchen.
Jones moved to D.C. after graduating from college, ending up at lauded Restaurant Eve, and met famed chef Marcus Samuelson, who brought him to Miami to be part of the opening team for Red Rooster Overtown. After three years, Jones moved back to D.C., where he ran Dirty Habit, reinventing and reimagining the menu, integrating West African flavors and ingredients.
Samuelson, however, wouldn’t let a talent like Jones stay away for too long. Pulling Jones back into his orbit, Samuelson elevated Jones to help him open his namesake restaurant Marcus DC, which has been named a top-five restaurant by the Washington Post. Since then, Jones has been nominated as a semifinalist for the RAMMYs Rising Culinary Star in 2026 and won the Eater DC’s Rising Chef award in 2025.
Samuelson’s Marcus is a tour de force interpreting the Black Diaspora on the plate, from the American South to West Africa, along with his signature “Swedopian” touches. Yet it’s Jones who has deeply informed the plate, elevating his own story to date. Marcus DC is primarily a seafood restaurant, which serves Jones well.
“Where I’m from is seafood heavy, and as I’ve progressed in my career, I’ve moved away from meat.” Veggies and fish are hero dishes. His own dish, Mel’s Crab Rice, was not only lauded by the Washington Post, but is framed by his youth carrying home the crustaceans from Mel’s crab truck. It’s a bowl of Carolina rice, layered with pickled okra, uni béarnaise, and crab. Jones also points to a dish on the opening menu, rockfish and brassica, paying respect to a landmark D.C. institution, Ben’s Chili Bowl. Jones reverse engineered a favorite bowl of chili that’s seafood instead of meat forward, leveraging octopus and rockfish along with different riffs of cauliflower: showing his intellectual, creative, and cultural sides.
While “Top Chef” is showing Jones’s spotlight side, he also lets his identity show at work. “In the kitchen, I make sure we’re inclusive. We don’t tolerate discrimination. Everyone that’s here should feel confident to express themselves. There are so many different flags in the kitchen.”
Jones says that he didn’t fully express his gay identity until fairly recently. He felt reluctant coming out to certain family members, “you’re scared to tell them about being different,” he says, and while that anxiety ate at him, “I’m lucky and fortunate to have unconditional love and that weight off my shoulders.”
Today, “I’m me all the time, Monday to Sunday. I’m honest with people, and my staff is honest with me.”
“Being a chef is hard,” he says, “and being a chef of color is even more difficult.”
Yet his LGBTQ identity is a juggling act, he says. “I need to keep that balance, because once someone finds out something about you, their opinion can change, whether you want it or not.”
Being on a whole season of TV cooking competition, however, might mean millions more might have an opinion of him (Jones has appeared on TV already, on an episode of “Chopped”). To prepare, he says, “I’ve just kept a level head. It’s just an honor to be on top chef with amazing people happy to be there.”
Plus, this season is set in the Carolinas, and Jones attended Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C. “It’s a full story of my life, now a monumental moment for me.”
Jones also recently was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award. “JBF has been a north star, a dream for so long. I always had this goal on my wall.”
Being at the top spot at Marcus DC, making waves through his accolades, and cooking on Bravo means that Jones is highly visible. “I think that if someone has a similar background to me, and can see our story, trajectory, and success, they can have more ability to be themselves. This is my goal.”
Back at Marcus, Jones has plenty up his chef’s white’s sleeves. A new spring menu is in the works. He’ll be launching a new tasting menu “dining experience,” he says, and has plans to work on more events and collaborations with chefs and friends to bring in new talent and share the culinary wealth.
a&e features
Introducing the Torchbearers Awards honoring queer, trans women and nonbinary people
Meet the Legends and Illuminators lighting new paths
The Torchbearers Awards are more than recognition—they are a continuation of legacy. They honor the quiet architects of progress in our community: those who organize, advocate, build, and protect, often without fanfare but always with purpose. Rooted in a belief in intentional recognition, this honor names those who carry our movements forward—those who make room for others, who remind us that change is both generational and generative. In a time marked by uncertainty and challenge, these leaders push forward with courage, clarity, and an unwavering commitment to expanding opportunity and equity.
This year’s honorees reflect the full breadth of our community, spanning generations, backgrounds, identities, and industries. From Legends, with decades of leadership and having created pathways for others, to Illuminators, who are lighting new paths with creativity and innovation, each Torchbearer represents the power of intergenerational leadership and the strength found in our diversity. They are organizers, advocates, artists, policy leaders, healers, and changemakers whose lived experiences shape a shared vision for equity and liberation.
This award is our love letter to queer and trans women and nonbinary people who carry the flame when it would be easier to let it dim. To those who consistently show up, who use their voice and visibility and stand firm, often without recognition, so that others may live more freely and fully. The Torchbearers Awards celebrates not just what has been done, but the enduring spirit, responsibility, and collective care that ensure the work continues, and that the flame is always passed forward.
Co-Creators of the Torchbearers Awards: Shannon Alston, June Crenshaw, Heidi Ellis
Torchbearers Awards Advisory Board: Aditi Hardikar, Lesley Bryant, Jasmine Wilson-Bryant, Stephen Rutgers
ILLUMINATOR AWARDEES
- Representative Sharice Davids (she/her), (D, KS-03)
— U.S. House of Representatives - Greisa Martinez Rosas (she/her/ella)
— Executive Director, United We Dream - Paola Ramos (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Meagan A. Fitzgerald (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Jessica L. Lewis (she/her)
— Founder / Producer, Play Play DC - Savannah Wade (she/her)
— Founder, OAR Agency - Suhad Babaa (she/her)
— Filmmaker/ Former Executive Director of Just Vision - Ashlee Davis (she/her)
— Global Head of Inclusive Outcomes, Ancestry - Jazmine Hughes (she/her)
— Journalist and Former Editor at New York Times Magazine - Queen Adesuyi (they/she)
— Policy Advisor & Organizer, ReFrame Health & Justice - Michele Rayner, Esq. (she/her)
— Civil Rights Attorney, State Representative (Florida House of Representatives) - Gaby Vincent (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Jenny Nguyen (she/her)
— Founder & Owner, The Sports Bra - Denice Frohman (she/her)
— Independent Artist, Poet / Performer - Vida Rangel (she/her)
— Founder, Our Trans Capital - Roxanne Anderson (they/them)
— Executive Director, Our Space - Ann Marie Gothard (she/her)
— Co-Founder & President, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Diana Rodriquez (she/her)
— Co-Founder & CEO, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Wendi Cooper (she/her)
— Founder / Executive Director, Transcending Women - Toya Matthews (she/her)
— City of San Antonio, Texas - Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Charity Blackwell (she/her)
— Poet, LGBTQ Advocate & Community Leader - Wilhelmina Indermaur (she/her)
— Director of Communications, Tyler Clementi Foundation - Em Chadwick (she/her)
— CMO, For Them & Autostraddle - Kylo Freeman (they/he)
— CEO, For Them & Autostraddle
LEGEND AWARDEES
- Sheila Alexander-Reid (she/her)
— Executive Director, PHL Diversity, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau - Cassandra Cantave Burton (she/her)
— Interim Director of Thought Leadership & Senior Research Advisor, AARP - leigh h. mosley (she/her)
— Photographer / Educator, PhotoFlo Photography - Jenn M. Jackson, PhD (they/them)
— Assistant Professor of Political Science; Author & Columnist, Syracuse University - Jordyn White (she/her)
— COO, Washington Prodigy / VP of Leadership Development & Research, HRC Foundation - AJ Hikes (they/them)
— Deputy Executive Director, ACLU - RaeShanda Lias (she/her)
— Digital Creator, RL Lockhart - Donna Payne-Hardy (she/her)
— Educator, EEO Specialist, Founder of NBJC, Former Leader at the Human Rights Campaign - Courtney R. Snowden (she/her)
— Principal, Blueprint Strategy Group - Gaye Adegbalola (she/her)
— Musician & Activist, Musician / Inductee of the Blues Hall of Fame - Cheryl A. Head (she/her)
— Independent Author, Novelist (Crime Fiction) - Letitia Gomez (she/her)
— The American LGBTQ+ Museum, Board Chair - Lynne Brown (she/her)
— Publisher, Washington Blade - Shay Franco-Clausen (She/Her/Ella/Queen)
— Political Strategist and Organizer - Melissa L. Bradley (she/her)
— Founder & Managing Partner, New Majority Ventures - Meghann Burke (she/her)
— Executive Director, NWSL Players Association - Victoria Kirby York, MPA (she/they)
— Director of Public Policy & Programs, National Black Justice Collective - Joli Angel Robinson (she/her)
— CEO, Center on Halsted - Jeannine Frisby LaRue (she/her)
— CEO, Moxie Strategies - Alice Wu (she/her)
— Film Director (Saving Face, The Half of It) / Screenwriter - Storme Webber (she/her)
— Interdisciplinary Artist / Educator, University of Washington - Kim Stone
— CEO of the Washington Spirit, Washington Spirit - Mickalene Thomas
— American Visual Artist, Mickalene Thomas Studio - Erika Lorshbough (any/they/she)
— Executive Director, interACT - J. Gia Loving (she/ella)
— Co-Executive Director, GSA Network
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