Arts & Entertainment
Calendar: Oct. 5
Parties, exhibits, concerts and more through Oct. 11
A still from ‘Call Me Kuchu,’ which will be screened at the Katzen Art Center in Washington next week. (Blade file photo)
TODAY (Friday)
Whitman-Walker holds HIV testing at Anacostia Metro Station (1101 Howard Road SE) this afternoon from 1-3:30 p.m. For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.
Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) hosts Bear Happy Hour tonight from 6-11 p.m. This event is for people 21 and older. There is no cover charge. For details, visit towndc.com.
The Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) is having its happy hour tonight starting at 5 p.m. All drinks are half off until 7:30 p.m. After 9 p.m., admission is $10. The dance floor opens at 11 with DJ Tim-Nice and DJ Cameron. For details, visit thebachelorsmill.com.
Phase 1 (528 8th St. SE) has its weekly dance party with DJ Jay Von Teese tonight starting at 7:30. Cover is $10. For more information, visit phase1dc.com.
The D.C. Asian Pacific American Film Festival continues tonight at 7 at Freer and Sackler Gallery of Art (1050 Independence Ave. SW) and later at 8 at the Goethe-Institut (812 7th St. NW). The festival is featuring films through Sunday, and tickets range from $12-$20. A VIP pass for all the screenings is $88. For details, visit http://www.apafilm2012.com.
Saturday, Oct. 6
Burgundy Crescent, a gay volunteer organization, is helping in food preparation and packing groceries for Food and Friends (219 Riggs Road, NE) this morning at 8. Later in the same morning, the group volunteers with the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation at Falls Church PetSmart (6100 Arlington Blvd, Falls Church) at 11:45 a.m. The organization is looking for dog handlers for their adoption events. For more information, visit burgundycrescent.org.
Adah Rose Gallery (3766 Howard Ave., Kensington) hosts the opening reception for “The Day Turned Into the City and the City Turned Into the Mind,” a series of paintings by Tom Drymon and photographs by Julie Wolstynski, this evening at 6:30. The night will include live music by White Chihuahua. For details, visit adahrosegallery.com.
Sunday, Oct. 7
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) holds its weekly Martini Sundays and Homowood Karaoke tonight. Karaoke starts at 10 p.m. and there is no charge for admission. For details, visit cobaltdc.com.
Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) hosts “WTF: Check Up” tonight starting at 10. Cover is $5. For more information, visit towndc.com.
Monday, Oct. 8
The Youth Working Group Meeting is this evening at 6 at the D.C. Center (1318 U St., NW). The group is dedicated to positively impaction D.C. youth. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) hosts its Martini Monday tonight at 10 p.m. There is now cover charge and martinis are $5. For more information, visit cobaltdc.com.
Whitman-Walker Health (1701 14th St., NW) holds its HIV+ Newly Diagnosed Support Group tonight at 7. It is a confidential support group for anyone recently diagnosed with HIV and the group welcomes all genders and sexual orientations. For details, visit whitman-walker.org.
Tuesday, Oct. 9
DC Bi Women meets tonight at 7 at Dupont Italian Kitchen (1637 17th St. NW) in the upstairs room. For details, visit thedccenter.org.
Green Lantern (1335 Green Court, N.W.) hosts its Safer Sex Kit packing program tonight from 7-10:30. The packing program is looking for more volunteers to help produce the kits because they say they are barely keeping up with demand. Admission is free and volunteers can just show up. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W) hosts its Flashback dance night with DJ Jason Royce starting at 10 p.m. There is no cover charge. For more details, visit cobaltdc.com.
Whitman-Walker Health (1701 14th St., NW) holds its Coming Out-Women support group tonight at 7 p.m. This is a 10-week confidential discussion group for women who are exploring their interest in other women. It is open to all women regardless of age or experience in the coming out process. Registration is required to attend. For details, visit whitman-walker.org.
Wednesday, Oct. 10
Whitman-Walker Health (1701 14th St., NW) holds its gay men over 50 support group this evening at 6:30 p.m. The group is for gay men entering a new phase of life. Registration is required to attend. For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.
Whitman-Walker Health (1701 14th St., NW) holds its HIV+ Newly Diagnosed Support Group tonight at 7. It is a confidential support group for anyone recently diagnosed with HIV and the group welcomes all genders and sexual orientations. For details, visit whitman-walker.org.
The Lambda Bridge Club meets tonight at 7:30 at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., SE) for duplicate bridge. Everyone is welcome and reservations are not needed. For more information, visit lambdabridge.com.
Rainbow Response Monthly Meeting meets tonight at 7 at the D.C. Center (1318 U St. NW). This is a group of individuals collaborating to address intimate partner violence among the LGBT people in the D.C. area. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Phase 1 (525 8th St. SE) hosts Jell-o wrestling tonight at 9. Attendees can enjoy $3 Miller Lights and Bourbon Gingers along with $4 shots of Hornitos. The club asks attendees to bring a towel and a change of clothes if they want to wrestle. For details, visit phase1dc.com.
The Big Gay Book Group meets tonight at 7 p.m. to discuss the gay classic “Kiss of the Spider Woman” by Manuel Puig, which explores sharp dialogue between a young socialist revolutionary and a middle-aged movie-obsessed gay man in an Argentine jail cell. Members meet at 1155 F Street NW, Suite 200. Newcomers welcome. For details, e-mail to [email protected] or visit biggaybookgroup.com.
Thursday, Oct. 11
Whitman-Walker Health provides HIV testing at The Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) tonight at 10. For details, visit whitman-walker.org.
“Call Me Kuchu,” a documentary about LGBT individuals in Uganda, is being screened at the Katzen Arts Center (4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW) this evening at 5:30. A q&a session will take place after the showing. For details, visit thedccenter.org.
D.C. Center hosts a reception with Blessed B Rwomushana, who works with Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights for Youth in Uganda, tonight at 6. There is a $5 suggested donation. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Burgundy Crescent, a gay volunteer organization, is helping in food preparation and packing groceries for Food and Friends (219 Riggs Road, NE) this evening at 6. For more information, visit burgundycrescent.org.
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W) is hosting its weekly Best Package Contest tonight at 9 p.m. There is a $3 cover and there are $2 vodka drinks. Participants in the contest can win $200 in cash prizes. The event is hosted by Lena Lett and music by DJ Chord, DJ Madscience, and DJ Sean Morris. For details, visit cobaltdc.com.
The Petal Release Party and Drag Show was held at Spark Social on Friday, July 31. Performers included Tiara-Missou, Labianna and Darcy de la Cuadra.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Celebrity News
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Kylie Minogue made surprise appearance alongside gay icon
AMSTERDAM — Madonna on Sunday headlined the final night of the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam.
The gay icon took the stage shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday) during Club Confessions, a set that MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term HIV care, organized.
“Mother is here and this is gay heaven,” said Madonna when she took the stage inside Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall that can hold up to 6,000 people.
Stuart Price, who produced Madonna’s 2005 “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album and “Confessions II,” which debuted on July 2, DJed the set.
Kylie Minogue made a surprise appearance. She and Madonna performed a new remix of “Love Sensation” from “Confessions II.”
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
“Throughout my career, I’ve always supported efforts to fight HIV and AIDS, and that fight begins with education and access,” said Madonna in a MISTR press release. “With MISTR, (CEO) Tristan (Schukraft) is expanding access to HIV prevention and sexual healthcare for everyone. Through this work, he’s helping preserve and strengthen LGBTQ+ spaces while investing in the communities and culture that have long sustained us.”
Minogue in an Instagram post thanked Madonna, Price, Schukraft, and MISTR.
Madonna appeared at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., in April. Madonna in June celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York’s Times Square.
Jake Resnicow and Insomniac produced the World Pride Music Festival that also featured Bebe Rexha and Paris Hilton, among others.
“Pride has always been about bringing our community together,” said Resnicow. “At a moment when too many people are being told to hide or make themselves smaller, gathering openly, joyfully, and without apology matters more than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of what this festival brought to life in Amsterdam — one dance floor, completely free.”
Theater
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
First five shows a reminder that ‘pressure is a privilege’
Madly talented and preternaturally energetic, Reggie D. White, 38, is about to launch his first season as artistic director of D.C.’s boundary-pushing Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
White brings a lot to the job. As actor, playwright, and director, his varied resume includes a 2019 Broadway acting debut in Matthew López’s Tony Award–winning play “The Inheritance,” his semi-autobiographic play “Fremont Ave.” that opened to acclaim last season at Arena Stage, and a number of exciting regional directing credits.
A longtime admirer of Woolly, the out theater-maker was selected from a pool of candidates before receiving the offer last November and starting work in January. His season of five world premieres kicks off with gay playwright Steve Yockey’s “Venus” (Sept. 9-Oct. 4), a darkly funny study of modern relationships told through two lesbians looking back on their first encounter.
White was introduced to Woolly Mammoth as a pre-law student at Cal State Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area, long before he foresaw a life in the arts. “As part of a random theater history course, I was assigned to write a paper on a counterculture company called Woolly Mammoth,” he recalls “Strange name. I was like what the hell is that?”
Nineteen-year-old White was intrigued. Research acquainted him with Howard Shalwitz who co-founded Woolly in 1980, and the company’s commitment to living playwrights and new work. He also learned how theater could be used as a tool for difficult conversations and shape the way people thought about social issues by employing imagination and rigor.
“Never in a million years did young me envision that one day I’d be Woolly’s third artistic director in its 46-year history,” says White. “It’s kind of serendipitously insane.”
WASHINGTON BLADE: Was there a moment when the enormity of the job hit you?
REGGIE D. WHITE: After I’d signed my contract and finished all the paperwork, I got my keys and sat in the theater by myself in the dark and thought about what an incredible honor it is to be trusted with what happens in this beautiful space [in D.C.’s Penn Quarter]. I might have cried. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember it’s real.
BLADE: Are you curating the upcoming 2026–2027 season?
WHITE: Yes, I am. It’s very rare that an incoming artistic director gets to program their first season, but I was lucky in terms of time. After being hired late last year, I asked Woolly’s managing director Kimberly E. Douglas, if she thought it would be crazy if I programmed the season. She warned me it would be hard.
I invoked tennis legend Billie Jean King’s maxim “pressure is a privilege” and got to work.
These plays [dubbed White’s “first five”] represent both the kind of theater that Woolly can do really well and speak directly to my voice as curator and how I want to contribute to the larger theatrical conversation in the DMV.
Getting here has meant a lot of late nights. But I knew the juice would be worth the squeeze.
BLADE: As a queer artistic director, what makes you unique?
WHITE: When I was playing in “Inheritance” on Broadway, after a performance, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayer came backstage to meet the cast. She spoke about how her lens on the world as a Puerto Rican woman shapes her decisions. Similarly, because I’m a queer Black man I see through a lens that shapes my work.
I know I’m not the only queer artistic director in town. For me, it influences how I make editorial decisions. Out of this season’s five plays there are explicitly queer characters in four [“Venus,” “Chanukkah Spectacular,” “Ten Grand,” and “Love I Awethu Further”] and I’m directing two [“Venus,” “Ten Grand”].
BLADE: Will we see familiar faces?
WHITE: Every show this season will feature a Woolly Mammoth company member in its cast. Our company also includes designers and directors who we’ll include. I’m invested in continuing to provide a showcase for their work.
BLADE: How do you think queer audiences will receive the season?
WHITE: Very well, I think. For queer people who’ve had to navigate the world subversively and solve problems in unique ways, I think it will be especially interesting. I find theater a potent place for questions.
Like all artistic directors. I’ll show up for the job in my own way. I’m just excited that I’ve been invited to bring the fullness of myself to the role.
PHOTOS: Petal Release Party
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
PHOTOS: Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade
Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade draws hundreds of thousands
BLADE ENDORSEMENT: Susan Stewart for mayor of Rehoboth Beach
PHOTOS: Lambda Legal in the Pines
Calendar: July 31-August 6
Taiwan’s government has failed to update process to change gender markers on ID documents
