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‘Wonder Woman’ anchors summer movie season
Gay-themed series and revivals featured heavily in area festivals
Gal Gadot in ‘Wonder Woman.’ The Amazon warrior/princess finally makes it to the big screen in a new film opening this weekend. (Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)
The summer 2017 movie season leaps into action this Friday (June 2) with the long-awaited release of “Wonder Woman.” Israeli actress Gal Gadot plays the Amazon princess in her first solo cinematic outing.
Patty Jenkins (“Monster”) directs; she’s the first female director to helm a live-action movie with a budget of more than $100 million and the first woman to direct a major superhero movie. Chris Pine plays American Steve Trevor who draws Diana into the trenches of World War I where she discovers her own true powers.
Some of the other major studio releases this summer include “The Mummy,” (June 9) with Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe; “Transformers: the Last Knight” (June 9); “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (July 7) starring Tom Holland who recently wowed audiences with his spectacular drag performance to Rhianna’s “Umbrella” on Spike’s “Lip Sync Battle”; and, “War for the Planet of the Apes” (July 14) featuring an epic battle between humans led by Woody Harrelson and apes led by Andy Serkis.
Tom Holland in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming.’ (Photo courtesy Sony Pictures)
Following on the heels of “Snatched,” the raunchy summer comedies continue with “Rough Night” about a wild bachelorette party. Written and directed by Lucia Aniello, the movie stars Scarlett Johansson and out actors Kate McKinnon and Colton Haynes, along with Zoë Kravitz and Ilana Glazer as bickering ex-lovers.
On a smaller scale, several great films will be screened at regional film festivals.
In Baltimore on Saturday, June 3, the Creative Alliance hosts Rainbow Fest 2017, a fabulous celebration of queer cinema. The festival opens with “The Passionate Pursuits of Angela Bowen,” a window into the amazing life of a woman who was a classical ballerina, a legendary dance teacher and a black lesbian feminist activist organizer, writer and professor. The festival continues with “Hot Shots,” a collection of short queer films that were selected by a jury of LGBT community members, and concludes with a special screening of the camp classic “Mommie Dearest” hosted by Baltimore drag superstar Betty O’Hellno.
The beautifully renovated Parkway Theatre in Baltimore’s Station North neighborhood will also host a series of LGBT films during Baltimore Pride (June 16-22). The full schedule can be found at mdfilmfest.com/parkway.
Reel Affirmations, D.C.’s LGBT film festival and monthly series, opens its summer season with “Kiki” on June 16. The movie is a fascinating exploration of the “Kiki” scene in New York, an artistic activist subculture founded by queer youth of color.
Reel Affirmations’ monthly XTRA Film Series continues with the dramedy series “195 Lewis” on July 14 and “Kings, Queens and In-Betweens,” a documentary focused on gender, on Aug. 18. All films will screen at the HRC Equality Center Screening Room.
AFI Docs, the acclaimed celebration of documentary films led by openly gay filmmaker Michael Lumpkin, runs at various venues around D.C. from June 14-18. Queer highlights include “Whitney: Can I Be Me,’” an intimate portrait of the late pop star; “Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer,” an examination of the career of Marcelo Gomes, an openly gay principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre; “All Good Things,” about a polyamorous relationship; and, “Lady Eva,” which spotlights a contestant in a pageant for “letits,” transgender women in Tonga.
AFI Docs also includes a screening of “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” a follow-up to Al Gore’s Academy Award-winning 2006 film, which will also have a theatrical release later in the summer.
On June 23 and 24, D.C. Shorts presents D.C. Shorts Laughs which brings together favorites from the popular festival celebrating short films and area stand-up comics.
Meanwhile, the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in downtown Silver Spring continues to explore the richness of American and world cinema with its exciting combination of first-run indie features and curated collections of classic films from Hollywood and the world. The queer highlight of this summer’s schedule is the screening of two restored films from the acclaimed Merchant Ivory collection. The groundbreaking gay classic “Maurice” (screening June 23-24) stars James Wilby and Hugh Grant as forbidden lovers in Edwardian England. The Academy Award-winning “Howard’s End” (June 30 and July 1) features stellar performances from Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham-Carter and Vanessa Redgrave.
James Wilby and Hugh Grant in the gay classic ‘Maurice,’ based on the novel by E.M. Forster. (Photo courtesy Cohen Film Collection)
Other offerings at AFI Silver include the D.C. Caribbean FilmFest (June 9-12) which features the Puerto Rican film “Memories of a Penitent Heart” about a deceased gay family member who was forced to hide his sexual orientation and his HIV status and “Play the Devil,” a coming-of-age/coming-out story set during Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival season; the Recent Restoration Series (through July 6); Directed by David Lynch (May 12-July 6); and a number of encore presentations of recent favorites.
A number of great independent movies are also slated for theatrical release in D.C. this summer. As of press time, they include:
• “My Cousin Rachel” (June 9), starring Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin based on the novel by bisexual author Daphne du Maurier (“Rebecca” and “The Birds”).
• “Manifesto” (June 9), an astounding film that features Cate Blanchett recreating a number of famous historical manifestos in a variety of characters.
• “It Comes at Night” (June 9), a stylish psychological horror movie about two families trying to survive in the aftermath of an unnamed cataclysm.
• “Beatriz at Dinner” (June 16), a clash of wills between New Age healer Salma Hayek and businessman John Lithgow.
• “The Hero” (June 16) stars Sam Elliott as an ailing movie star coming to terms with his past and his mortality.
• “The Beguiled” (June 30), a Civil War drama about a Union soldier who takes refuge in a girls’ boarding school. Sofia Coppola recently won the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her work on the movie, which stars Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Colin Farrell.
Nicole Kidman in ‘The Beguiled.’ (Photo courtesy Focus Features)
• “Wish Upon” (July 14) marks a generational shift as former teen star Ryan Phillippe plays a father whose gift to his troubled daughter unwittingly sets off a horrific chain of events.
• “Detroit” (Aug. 4), Kathryn Bigelow’s examination of a 1967 police raid that led to one of the largest citizen uprisings in U.S. history.
• “Brigsby Bear” (Aug. 4), a delightfully quirky comedy about a young man kidnapped as a child who is restored to his birth family.
Kyle Mooney stars in ‘Brigsby Bear.’ (Photo courtesy Sony Pictures Classic)
• “Patti Cake$” (Aug. 18), a breakout festival hit about a white woman from New Jersey and her unlikely quest for rap stardom.
Finally, the summer season comes to a close with two very different films based on Steven King novels. “The Dark Tower” (Aug. 4) settles the ancient vendetta between Idris Elba (the Gunslinger) and Matthew McConaughey (the Man in Black). And “It” (Sept. 14) is the cinematic retelling of the popular story of the evil clown Pennyfeather who haunts the children of Derry, Maine.
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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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.
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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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