Arts & Entertainment

Social Agenda of Feb. 5

Published

16 years ago

February 5, 2010

Friday, Feb. 5

Gay organist Charles Miller plays a recital today at 12:15 p.m. at his church, National City Christian Church in Thomas Circle. He’ll perform works by J.S. Bach, Louis Vierne, Pietro Mascagni and David N. Johnson as part of a weekly concert organ series dubbed “Magical, Mystical, Musical Machine,” which resumes today and runs every Friday at this time through May. It’s free. Gay organists David Christopher and Stephen Harouff play on the 12th and the 19th respectively. Miller plays again on the 26th. The recitals are a half hour each.

Lesbian rock/dance party HottBoxx returns to Phase 1 tonight from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and will happen the first Friday of every month. Doors open at 9. Phase is located at 525 8th St., S.E. Cover is $5.

A dance party featuring the music of Prince, Madonna and Michael Jackson is tonight at 9:30 club, located at 815 V St., N.W. Visit 930.com for more information.

Queer Shabbaton, an urban retreat for LGBT Jews and allies, is this weekend, beginning today at 5 p.m. and continuing through Sunday at the D.C. Jewish Community Center located at 16th and Q streets. The event, which has been held successfully three times in New York, is coming to Washington for the first time this weekend. It features workshops, services, opportunities for networking, yoga and meditation, kosher food and more with several high profile Jewish LGBT speakers. Admission ranges from $80 to $140. For more information, visit nehirim.org/qsdc.

The “So You Think You’re a Drag Queen” monthly contest is tonight at Town, at 2009 8th St., N.W. Doors open at 10 p.m. Visit towndc.com for more information.

Saturday, Feb. 6

“Divas of Pop,” a dance party spanning four decades of pop’s most iconic female singers, is tonight at 9 at State, located at 220 N. Washington St. in Falls Church, Va. Doors open at 7. Visit thestatetheatre.com for more information.

A singles-only event is today at Hillwood Museum & Gardens from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. A meet-and-greet, tour and lunch will be held. Tickets are $15. It’s hosted by Zoom Lesbian Excursions. Visit zoomexcursions.com for more information.

D.C. Front Runners, a local gay running group, starts a run today at 23rd and P streets (at the Shevchenko Monument) at 10 a.m. The group also runs Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7 p.m., though sometimes at other locations. Visit dcfrontrunners.org for more information.

D.C. Metro LGBT IT Professionals meets today from 10 to 11 a.m. at SteamCafe at 17th and R streets, N.W.

Gay singer/songwriters Tom Goss and Matt Alber play two shows tonight at the DeLaski Theater, located at 1700 Kalorama Road, N.W., in Adams Morgan. Shows are at 5 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $20. Visit tomgossmusic.com/store for tickets. Goss is based in Washington and is touring on his latest album “Back to Love.” Alber, who lives in Los Angeles, became an online sensation last year for his poignant video “End of the World.”

Sunday, Feb. 7

Local drag queen Shi-Queeta Lee hosts drag brunch every Sunday at Nellie’s Sports Bar, located at 900 U St., N.W. Brunch buffet is $20. Miss Lee performs at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Visit nelliessportsbar.com for more information.

Monday, Feb. 8

Equality Maryland Lobby Day is today in Annapolis. LGBT Marylanders are encouraged to help the group have a strong presence in the state capitol. A rally is scheduled for 5 p.m., meetings with lawmakers will occur from 6 to 8 p.m. and a special “Annapolis edition” of Guerilla Gay Bar Baltimore will be from 8 to 10 p.m. at Ram’s Head Tavern. Register to attend at equalitymaryland.org/lobbyday. Or contact Mike at 410-685-6567 or [email protected].

A week of musical theater cabaret dubbed “Broadway Today and Tomorrow” is being held tonight and all week at the Kennedy Center at 6 p.m. on the Millennium Stage. Tonight’s performers are Matt Cavanaugh, Peter Mills and Kate Baldwin. Many other Broadway up-and-comers perform each night through Friday. Free. For more information, visit kennedy-center.org.

Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, the District’s largest mostly gay church, has an HIV-positive support group for people of faith every Monday at the church. For more information, contact Matt Senger at 202-546-2159 or e-mail him at [email protected]. MCC-DC is located at 474 Ridge St., N.W. Visit mccdc.com for more information about the church.

Tuesday, Feb. 9

Cobalt has “Flashback,” a retro night, every Tuesday at 10 p.m. Rail vodka drinks are free from 10 to 11 p.m. Cobalt, a gay bar and dance club, is at the corner of 17th and R streets, N.W.

Wednesday, Feb. 10

Rainbow Response has its monthly meeting tonight at 7 p.m. at National City Christian Church, located at 5 Thomas Circle, N.W. The group is a meeting of individuals and agencies collaborating to discuss intimate partner violence in the local LGBT community. The meeting is typically held on the second Wednesday of each month. Visit rainbowresponse.org for more information.

The Gertrude Stein Club, a local group of gay Democrats, is having a speed dating event tonight at the D.C. Center at 6 p.m. Refreshments will be served. Attendees will go on three-minute dates, fill out evaluation forms and be informed of matches upon which contact information will be shared. Cost is $10 in advance or $15 at the door. The Center is located at 1804 14th St., N.W. Visit steindemocrats.org for more information.

Ladies First night is tonight and every Wednesday at Fab Lounge, located at 1805 Connecticut Ave., N.W. For more information, visit myspace.com/ladiesfirst.

Thursday, Feb. 11

D.C. Lambda Squares, a local gay square dancing group, meets every Thursday for square dancing. For more information about the group or to find out when beginner classes are available, visit dclambdasquares.org.

Friday, Feb. 12

Gay District meets tonight. The group was formerly known as the Twenties Group but has expanded its age range for gay, bi, trans and questioning men from 18 to 35. The group meets for weekly discussion from 8:30 to 9:30 every Friday at St. Margaret’s Church located at 1830 Connecticut Ave. Those interested can visit the group on Facebook under the name “GD: Gay District.”

A new Friday night drag show at Ziegfeld’s has started with a new hostess. The Ladies of Illusion hosted by Kristina Kelly has performances every Friday at 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. Ziegfeld’s is celebrating its one-year anniversary this weekend.

Saturday, Feb. 13

Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, the District’s largest mostly gay church, has its annual Valentine’s dance tonight at 7 p.m. at the church. Refreshments will be served. A $7 donation is suggested. Contact 202-638-7373 or [email protected] for more information. The church is located at 474 Ridge St., N.W.

“Love,” a concert by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, is today with shows at 5 and 8 p.m. at Church of the Epiphany located at 1317 G St. N.W. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased at www.gmcw.org/tickets, by phone at 202-293-1548 or at the HRC shop at 1633 Connecticut Ave., N.W. The concert will feature a chorus transcription of Brahm’s “Liebeslieder Waltzes” by chorus member Robert T. Boaz and a performance by the Rock Creek Singers, a chamber ensemble of Chorus members.

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FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM

Movies

‘Hedda’ brings queer visibility to Golden Globes

Tessa Thompson up for Best Actress for new take on Ibsen classic

Published

10 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Susan Hornik

Tessa Thompson is nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a motion picture for ‘Hedda’ at Sunday’s Golden Globes. (Image courtesy IMDB)

The 83rd annual Golden Globes awards are set for Sunday (CBS, 8 p.m. EST). One of the many bright spots this awards season is “Hedda,” a unique LGBTQ version of the classic Henrik Ibsen story, “Hedda Gabler,” starring powerhouses Nina Hoss, Tessa Thompson and Imogen Poots. A modern reinterpretation of a timeless story, the film and its cast have already received several nominations this awards season, including a Globes nod for Best Actress for Thompson.

Writer/director Nia DaCosta was fascinated by Ibsen’s play and the enigmatic character of the deeply complex Hedda, who in the original, is stuck in a marriage she doesn’t want, and still is drawn to her former lover, Eilert.

But in DaCosta’s adaptation, there’s a fundamental difference: Eilert is being played by Hoss, and is now named Eileen.

“That name change adds this element of queerness to the story as well,” said DaCosta at a recent Golden Globes press event. “And although some people read the original play as Hedda being queer, which I find interesting, which I didn’t necessarily…it was a side effect in my movie that everyone was queer once I changed Eilert to a woman.”

She added: “But it still, for me, stayed true to the original because I was staying true to all the themes and the feelings and the sort of muckiness that I love so much about the original work.”

Thompson, who is bisexual, enjoyed playing this new version of Hedda, noting that the queer love storyline gave the film “a whole lot of knockoff effects.”

“But I think more than that, I think fundamentally something that it does is give Hedda a real foil. Another woman who’s in the world who’s making very different choices. And I think this is a film that wants to explore that piece more than Ibsen’s.”

DaCosta making it a queer story “made that kind of jump off the page and get under my skin in a way that felt really immediate,” Thompson acknowledged.

“It wants to explore sort of pathways to personhood and gaining sort of agency over one’s life. In the original piece, you have Hedda saying, ‘for once, I want to be in control of a man’s destiny,’” said Thompson.

“And I think in our piece, you see a woman struggling with trying to be in control of her own. And I thought that sort of mind, what is in the original material, but made it just, for me, make sense as a modern woman now.”

It is because of Hedda’s jealousy and envy of Eileen and her new girlfriend (Poots) that we see the character make impulsive moves.

“I think to a modern sensibility, the idea of a woman being quite jealous of another woman and acting out on that is really something that there’s not a lot of patience or grace for that in the world that we live in now,” said Thompson.

“Which I appreciate. But I do think there is something really generative. What I discovered with playing Hedda is, if it’s not left unchecked, there’s something very generative about feelings like envy and jealousy, because they point us in the direction of self. They help us understand the kind of lives that we want to live.”

Hoss actually played Hedda on stage in Berlin for several years previously.

“When I read the script, I was so surprised and mesmerized by what this decision did that there’s an Eileen instead of an Ejlert Lovborg,” said Hoss. “I was so drawn to this woman immediately.”

The deep love that is still there between Hedda and Eileen was immediately evident, as soon as the characters meet onscreen.

“If she is able to have this emotion with Eileen’s eyes, I think she isn’t yet because she doesn’t want to be vulnerable,” said Hoss. “So she doesn’t allow herself to feel that because then she could get hurt. And that’s something Eileen never got through to. So that’s the deep sadness within Eileen that she couldn’t make her feel the love, but at least these two when they meet, you feel like, ‘Oh my God, it’s not yet done with those two.’’’

Onscreen and offscreen, Thompson and Hoss loved working with each other.

“She did such great, strong choices…I looked at her transforming, which was somewhat mesmerizing, and she was really dangerous,” Hoss enthused. “It’s like when she was Hedda, I was a little bit like, but on the other hand, of course, fascinated. And that’s the thing that these humans have that are slightly dangerous. They’re also very fascinating.”

Hoss said that’s what drew Eileen to Hedda.

“I think both women want to change each other, but actually how they are is what attracts them to each other. And they’re very complimentary in that sense. So they would make up a great couple, I would believe. But the way they are right now, they’re just not good for each other. So in a way, that’s what we were talking about. I think we thought, ‘well, the background story must have been something like a chaotic, wonderful, just exploring for the first time, being in love, being out of society, doing something slightly dangerous, hidden, and then not so hidden because they would enter the Bohemian world where it was kind of okay to be queer and to celebrate yourself and to explore it.’”

But up to a certain point, because Eileen started working and was really after, ‘This is what I want to do. I want to publish, I want to become someone in the academic world,’” noted Hoss.

Poots has had her hands full playing Eileen’s love interest as she also starred in the complicated drama, “The Chronology of Water” (based on the memoir by Lydia Yuknavitch and directed by queer actress Kristen Stewart).

“Because the character in ‘Hedda’ is the only person in that triptych of women who’s acting on her impulses, despite the fact she’s incredibly, seemingly fragile, she’s the only one who has the ability to move through cowardice,” Poots acknowledged. “And that’s an interesting thing.”

Arts & Entertainment

2026 Most Eligible LGBTQ Singles nominations

We are looking for the most eligible LGBTQ singles in the Washington, D.C. region.

Published

1 day ago

January 7, 2026

Staff reports

We are looking for the most eligible LGBTQ singles in the Washington, D.C. region.

Are you or a friend looking to find a little love in 2026? We are looking for the most eligible LGBTQ singles in the Washington, D.C. region. Nominate you or your friends until January 23rd using the form below or by clicking HERE.

Our most eligible singles will be announced online in February. View our 2025 singles HERE.

Photos

PHOTOS: Freddie’s Follies

Queens perform at weekly Arlington show

Published

2 days ago

January 6, 2026

Michael Key

The Freddie's Follies drag show was held at Freddie's Beach Bar in Arlington, Va. on Saturday. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Freddie’s Follies drag show was held at Freddie’s Beach Bar in Arlington, Va. on Saturday, Jan. 3. Performers included Monet Dupree, Michelle Livigne, Shirley Naytch, Gigi Paris Couture and Shenandoah.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)