a&e features
k.d. lang revisits her ‘Ingenue’ days in advance of Strathmore concert
Singer weighs in on coming out, her famous Vanity Fair shoot with Cindy Crawford and more
k.d. lang says she enjoyed revisiting her classic album ‘Ingenue’ on tour in Australia last year. (Photo by Matt Duboff)
k.d. lang
With the Grigoryan Brothers
“Ingenue Redux: 25th Anniversary Concert”
Sunday, March 25
Music Center at Strathmore
5301 Tuckerman Lane
North Bethesda, Md.
Tickets: $48-98
VIP meet-and-greet packages available
k.d. lang does not waste words. She’s delightful. Pleasant. She balks or hems at no question put to her.
Yet her economy of language is a bit startling.
So, of course, as any regular reader of celebrity profiles realizes, almost never is a Q&A a verbatim transcript of the conversation exactly as it went down. Quite often, in fact, we have to add a disclaimer that says so-and-so’s comments have been “slightly edited for length and clarity.”
But not with Miss lang. Aside from a few lines of opening pleasantries, this is the full chat. Verbatim.
She’s touring behind the 25th anniversary edition of her breakthrough album “Ingenue.” She plays the Strathmore on Sunday, March 25.
WASHINGTON BLADE: Where are you right now?
lang: Calgary, Alberta.
BLADE: I read you had moved to Portland a few years back. Do you still live there?
lang: Portland and Calgary. Back and forth.
BLADE: So “Ingenue” was such a change of pace for you musically. How much label convincing did that radical a change take? “Shadowlands” had done quite well I understand, so were they pushing for “Shadowlands part two” as they so often do or not?
lang: Yeah, uh, no, I was really successful at the time I switched because “Absolute Torch and Twang” won the Grammy Award for best country female vocalist and “Shadowland” I was the highest selling country album of that year and then I made “Ingenue. Um, I don’t remember them having an issue with it. I think they trusted me. I was signed to Sire Records, which was, you know, Madonna, Talking Heads, the Ramones, Chrissie Hynde. I was kind of from an alternative rock/punk label and I don’t think they had an issue with it. They trusted me and supported me. The issue was me coming out, really.
BLADE: Yeah, we’ll get to that. The only bonus material on the 25th anniversary edition for “Ingenue” is just your MTV Unplugged special. Why didn’t you put some b-sides if there were any, alternate vocals, demos, stuff like that on it?
lang: I didn’t really have any.
BLADE: Did you have the master tapes or were they sitting in some label warehouse somewhere all these years?
lang: Yeah, the label has them. But I didn’t even think about that and I don’t think we have any alternate takes because we just — I don’t think we have any. We just kept working on it until it was the finished deal.
BLADE: Was it a given that “Constant Craving” was going to be the first single? Did you and the label feel it had the most radio potential?
lang: Yeah, it was obvious to everyone that it was really the only one on the album that had any chance (chuckles).
BLADE: You’re credited with playing harp on “All You Can Eat” and “Watershed.” Is that like the big concert harp and how did you learn it?
lang: (chuckles again) I just make noise on the harp and it’s a tiny little one.
BLADE: So you never, like, studied the harp or took lessons or anything.
lang: No, no, no.
BLADE: Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like you did a ton of stuff for the LGBT groups in the ‘90s, like GLAAD, HRC but not so much in recent years. Do you get a lot of requests to make appearances from those kinds of groups anymore?
lang: I certainly did a lot back in the day, but no. I kind of, well obviously there’s a lot more people available to do the work now and I think I made my contribution and now I’m really just trying to walk the walk. I think I also wanted after years of being the spokesperson, you know, the poster “dykon,” I wanted the music to kind of come to the forefront again.
BLADE: Is it true your manager and label didn’t know you were going to do the Advocate interview when you came out? What was their immediate reaction?
lang: Well, they knew I was going to do the interview, but they didn’t know I was going to come out. Obviously people gave me their opinions but they knew I had to follow my heart and do whatever I felt was the right thing. They certainly supported me either way whether I came out or not. I think the obvious concern was that it would affect my career and it did, but in a very positive way.
BLADE: But did your manager say, like, “Gee, could you have at least given us a heads up?” or anything like that?
lang: No, no. They knew I was doing the interview and then as soon as I did, I let everyone know that I did, in fact, come out.
BLADE: So there was a chance you might have done an Advocate interview and not come out?
lang: Yeah, there was that chance but I pretty much knew that was the right place to do it.
BLADE: What’s it been like on this tour singing “Ingenue” straight through. It’s such a restrained album and you’ve talked about it almost requiring a classical-type approach. So often records sound great at home on the stereo but making that work live in a room is a whole other thing, especially an album like this I would imagine.
lang: Yes, you’re absolutely right and I feel like it’s really my energy and presence and focus that translates to the audience so if I’m bored with it or if I’m doubting myself, I think people pick up on that so it’s really up to me and the musicians to deliver it with absolute truth and integrity. I try to do that anyway, but especially, like you said, when you’re doing a record in sequence, you know, it’s a lot for an audience to digest. But I also think the fact that the audience has had 25 years to develop their own relationship with the record, it creates a space anyway and I never try to superimpose my relationship or my emotions on the song to supersede that of the listeners. I really try to deliver it in a way that everyone can relieve their experiences with the record.
BLADE: How did it go when you were touring it in Australia and Canada last fall?
lang: Very, very well. It was really for me, a beautiful musical experience. Really wonderful interplay with the band and with the audience and, you know, it’s a pretty quiet, pretty introspective show. It’s not in-your-face entertainment, stars show 101. But it’s pretty musical.
BLADE: Besides “Constant Craving,” had you done many of the other “Ingenue” songs much live over the years?
lang: Yeah, yeah, I’ve, you know, done “Save Me,” “Mind of Love,” “Wash Me Clean,” “Miss Chatelaine.” There’s always been a handful of songs in the rotation on any tour that I do from “Ingenue.”
BLADE: You originally toured that album over a year. How are the live arrangements different, or are they, from how you performed them back in ’92-’93?
lang: It’s a mix. Some are straight ahead exactly like the record which it’s also fun to kind of shadow the record, but some are very different so it’s a mix.
BLADE: How much of the vocal stuff you do live is improvised in the moment, like holding a certain phrase or using a different inflection on a lyric, or are some those little things the same each night?
lang: (pauses) Well, I definitely approach things different vocally. It depends how I feel, how my throat feels, how the hall sounds and how the audience is. If they’re rambunctious, I sing slightly different than if they’re very quiet. How the band is, what they’re throwing at me harmonically, so there’s a lot of variables. But I also get sort of attached to certain little phrases that I like to do every night, so I would say it’s a mix.
BLADE: How long did it take to shoot the famous Vanity Fair cover with Cindy Crawford? Was that an all-day thing or more like snap-snap-snap and you were done in an hour?
lang: Uh, no, it was probably like a full day’s work.
BLADE: Was it a fun process?
lang: Yeah, because we were all friends. I was really close to Herb (Ritts) at the time and Cindy was really close to Herb and I knew Cindy through Herb so it was just, you know, like we were just hanging out taking pictures. It was work, it was very professional, but it was also very easy.
BLADE: How did you like Tony Bennett’s album with Lady Gaga?
lang: I haven’t heard a lot of it but, um, I don’t — you know, it’s great, it’s awesome. I love those kinds of collaborations.
BLADE: I just find it interesting that you and Lady Gaga are the only female artists Tony Bennett has ever made full albums with.
lang: (chuckles) Yeah, we’re just different choices.
BLADE: It feels like there was this ‘90s wave of out women singers with you, Melissa Etheridge, the Indigo Girls, then it felt like there was this long, barren stretch before we got to, say, Tegan and Sara. Do you think maybe there was a backlash for a while and maybe female singers were a bit more skittish about coming out after that initial wave?
lang: (pauses) I’m afraid I can’t enlighten you on that one at all. I don’t know.
BLADE: Are you with anyone now?
lang: Yeah, I’m with somebody. I have a very nice home life.
BLADE: How long has this relationship been and does she ever tour with you?
lang: About four years and yeah, she comes out once in a while.
BLADE: OK great, thanks.
lang: Thank you, take care.
k.d. lang says several factors affect her vocal delivery on any given night. (Photo by Matt Duboff)
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
a&e features
D.C. springs back to life with new, returning events
Cherry blossoms, Rehoboth season kickoff, and more on tap
Longer and warmer days are back meaning: It’s time to get out of the house and enjoy Washington D.C.’s many events. Below are a few to check out this spring.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts will host “Making their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection” until Sunday, July 26. This exhibition illustrates women artists’ vital role in abstraction, considers historical contributions, formal and material breakthroughs and intergenerational relationships among women artists over the last eight decades. For more details, visit. NMWA’s website.
Art in the Attic will host a pop-up on Saturday, March 14 at 6 p.m. at 1012 Madison St., Alexandria, Va. There will be a variety of vendors selling products across different modes of art. For more details, visit Eventbrite.
Play Play will host “Indoor Recess – The art of play” on Sunday, March 15 at 2 p.m. This event will embody classic recess energy, including opportunities to build and experience community and connections through games, movement, art stations, and creative freedom. Tickets are $12.51 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.
Spark Social will host “Gay Bar Crawl on U Street” on Friday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m. This will be a fun night out in gay D.C. with other gay people, whether you’re visiting D.C., new to the area, or just looking to expand your social circle. Many crawlers have formed lasting friendships and even romantic relationships after just one night out. Tickets are $35.88 and are available on Eventbrite.
Creative Suitland Arts Center will host “EFFERVESCENT: House of Swann” on Saturday, May 30 at 7 p.m. This will be a gay, good time where we will celebrate love, joy, wellness, and visibility for the LGBTQIA+ community. Tickets start at $17.85 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.
SWAG Works DC will host “Unapologetically Her” on Saturday, March 14 at 2 p.m. at 701 E St., S.E. This event is a powerful celebration of womanhood, resilience, creativity, and self-expression in honor of Women’s History Month. This all-women exhibition highlights the diverse voices, stories, and artistic perspectives of women who create boldly, live authentically, and stand confidently in their truth. This event is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
9:30 Club will host “Gimme Gimme Disco: A Dance Party Inspired by ABBA” on Saturday, March 14 at 6 p.m. There will also be a “Donna Summer Power Hour – The Queen of Disco” segment during this event. It’ll be one hour of music with no skips. Tickets are available on 9:30 Club’s website.
Harder Better Faster Stronger will host “Heated Rivalry Rave” on Friday, March 20 at 9 p.m. at Howard Theatre. This event is open to all ages. Tickets are available on the theater’s website.
CAMP Rehoboth hosts its 25th annual Women’s+ FEST, April 9-12 in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Entertainers include headliner Mina Hartong, a comedian, storyteller, and founder of Lez Out Loud; and singer Yoli Mayor. There are dances, dinners, pickleball, and much more. Details and tickets at camprehoboth.org.
Also in Rehoboth Beach, the Washington Blade’s 19th annual Summer Kickoff Party is set for Friday, May 15 featuring Ashley Biden, who will accept an award on behalf of her brother Beau. State Rep. Claire Snyder-Hall will also speak. More speakers and the venue to be announced soon.
The annual D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival kicks off March 21 at DAR Constitution Hall and culminates with Petalpalooza on April 4, the day-long, outdoor street party with music and art, stretching across Navy Yard, and ending with fireworks over the Anacostia River.
How Pepper the courthouse dog helps victims of abuse
Women’s FEST returns to Rehoboth Beach next week
Belarusian lawmakers approve bill to crackdown on LGBTQ rights
Calendar: April 3-9
How new barriers to health care coverage are hitting D.C.
‘Out for McDuffie’ event held at D.C. gay bar
Thousands attend ‘No Kings’ protests in D.C.
Ghanaian president welcomed to Philadelphia amid backlash over anti-LGBTQ bill
PHOTOS: ‘No Kings’ rally and march
