Arts & Entertainment
Wade in the water
Former NFL player Davis to speak at Youth Pride Saturday
Youth Pride Day
Saturday
Noon-5 p.m.
Dupont Circle
Youthpridealliance.org
Youth Pride Day, the regionās largest event for LGBT youth staged each year by the Youth Pride Alliance, is Saturday and about 500 teens and 40 organizations are expected for an afternoon of music, videos, dance, drag and more.
Wade Davis, a former NFL player who came out last year as gay, will speak at the event. He entertained a bevy of questions during a phone interview this week from his Manhattan office where he works as assistant director of job readiness and academic enrichment at Hetrick-Martin Institute. Some comments have been edited for length and clarity.
BLADE: How did the invitation come about to visit Washington?
DAVIS: They reached out and asked if I could come. Anytime I have an opportunity to work with young people, Iām gung ho. Iām also nervous because the expectations with kids are a lot different than they are with adults, but they inspire me and give me strength when they share their stories with me.
BLADE: Youāve spoken before about being able to pass for straight and how that saved you from likely grief in the NFL. Do you think queer teens who are more likely to be perceived as LGBT have a tougher time overall?
DAVIS: Yes, because not all kids have the ability to exist as I did and if their gender representation is deemed to be, say, more effeminate, they are targeted. Thatās one thing I try to do is illuminate the issue and point out that ā¦ itās not OK to bully and demean those who donāt have the option of passing.
BLADE: Does your youth advocacy work on LGBT issues dovetail with the youth work you do with Hetrick-Martin?
DAVIS: Yes, they fit in perfectly.
BLADE: What recurring theme you hear from LGBT teens has been the most surprising?
DAVIS: One of the big things is they say people who identify as LGBT are actually the ones that are most critical of them. They say our young people have to exist in certain ways to further the gay movement, like not wear pants that sag or talk to loud. They think they should be more buttoned up and show a more pristine view of what it means to be LGBT. The kids feel they arenāt accepted in many adult LGBT circles because people want them to act differently. I think itās very tragic.
BLADE: Youāve said before it was good you werenāt out during your years playing as you didnāt have enough LGBT experience or interaction to have contributed anything meaningful to the national dialogue at that time. Can you elaborate on what your feelings were at the time?
DAVIS: When I was playing from around 2000 to 2004, there were no conversations around gay athletes. It just wasnāt in my purview then and I had little if any contact with anyone who was gay. Even when I came out to myself in college finally ā I still wasnāt able to say the words but I was very conscious of liking guys ā but it was this unspoken thing that nobody was talking about so I certainly wasnāt going to talk about it either. When youāre not exposed to anything different, you donāt even have the language to really say what it is. I wouldnāt have even known how to articulate it. I didnāt know there was an acronym. I thought a transgender person was just drag. I had pretty much zero understanding so looking back Iām glad I didnāt say or do things at the time that would have been harmful to young people because of my lack of knowledge.
BLADE: Are you in a relationship now?
DAVIS: Yes. Iāve been in a relationship now for six years. He keeps me in line and makes sure I have a good work/life balance.
BLADE: You live together in Manhattan?
DAVIS: Yes, but heās trying to convince me to move to Italy one day soon. He owns his own line of high end Italian furniture and thinks we should live there.
BLADE: Heās Italian?
DAVIS: No, Steven is Australian, he just loves Italy.
Theater
Round House explores serious issues related to privilege
āA Jumping-Off Pointā is absorbing, timely, and funny
āA Jumping-Off Pointā
Through May 5
Round House Theatre
4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda, Md.
$46-$83
Roundhousetheatre.org
In Inda Craig-GalvĆ”nās new play āA Jumping-Off Point,ā protagonist Leslie Wallace, a rising Black dramatist, believes strongly in writing about what you know. Clearly, Craig-GalvĆ”n, a real-life successful Black playwright and television writer, adheres to the same maxim. Whether further details from the play are drawn from her life, is up for speculation.
Absorbing, timely, and often funny, the current Round House Theatre offering explores some serious issues surrounding privilege and who gets to write about what. Nimbly staged and acted by a pitch perfect cast, the play moves swiftly across what feels like familiar territory without being the least bit predictable.
After a tense wait, Leslie (Nikkole Salter) learns sheās been hired to be showrunner and head writer for a new HBO MAX prestige series. What ought to be a heady time for the ambitious young woman quickly goes sour when a white man bearing accusations shows up at her door.
The uninvited visitor is Andrew (Danny Gavigan), a fellow student from Leslieās graduate playwriting program. The pair were never friends. In fact, he pressed all of her buttons without even trying. She views him as a lazy, advantaged guy destined to fail up, and finds his choosing to dramatize the African American Mississippi Delta experience especially annoying.
Since grad school, Leslie has had a play successfully produced in New York and now sheās on the cusp of making it big in Los Angeles while Andrew is bagging groceries at Ralphās. (In fact, weāll discover that heās a held a series of wide-ranging temporary jobs, picking up a lot of information from each, a habit that will serve him later on, but I digress.)
Their conversation is awkward as Andrewās demeanor shifts back and forth from stiltedly polite to borderline threatening. Eventually, he makes his point: Andrew claims that Leslieās current success is entirely built on her having plagiarized his script.
This increasingly uncomfortable set-to is interrupted by Leslieās wisecracking best friend and roommate Miriam who has a knack for making things worse before making them better. Deliciously played by Cristina Pitter (whose program bio describes them as āa queer multi-spirit Afro-indigenous artist, abolitionist, and alchemistā), Miriam is the perfect third character in Craig-GalvĆ”nās deftly balanced three-hander.
Cast membersā performances are layered. Salterās Leslie is all charm, practicality, and controlled ambition, and Gaviganās Andrew is an organic amalgam of vulnerable, goofy, and menacing. Heās terrific.
The 90-minute dramedy isnāt without some improbable narrative turns, but fortunately they lead to some interesting places where provoking questions are representation, entitlement, what constitutes plagiarism, etc. Itās all discussion-worthy topics, here pleasingly tempered with humor.
New York-based director Jade King Carroll skillfully helms the production. Scenes transition smoothly in large part due to a top-notch design team. Scenic designer Meghan Rahamās revolving set seamlessly goes from Leslieās attractive apartment to smart cafes to an HBO writersā room with the requisite long table and essential white board. Adding to the graceful storytelling are sound and lighting design by Michael Keck and Amith Chandrashaker, respectively.
The passage of time and circumstances are perceptively reflected in costume designer Moyenda Kulemekaās sartorial choices: heels rise higher, baseball caps are doffed and jackets donned.
āA Jumping-Off Pointā is the centerpiece of the third National Capital New Play Festival, an annual event celebrating new work by some of the countryās leading playwrights and newer voices.
Nightlife
Ed Bailey brings Secret Garden to Project GLOW festival
An LGBTQ-inclusive dance space at RFK this weekend
When does a garden GLOW? When itās run by famed local gay DJ Ed Bailey.
This weekend, music festival Project GLOW at RFK Festival Grounds will feature Baileyās brainchild the Secret Garden, a unique space just for the LGBTQ community that he launched in 2023.
While Project GLOW, running April 27-28, is a stage for massive electronic DJ sets in a large outdoor space, Secret Garden is more intimate, though no less adrenaline-forward. Heās bringing the nightclub to the festival. The garden is a dance area that complements the larger stages, but also stands on its own as a draw for festival-goers. Its focus is on DJs that have a presence and following in the LGBTQ audience world.
āThe Secret Garden is a showcase for what LGBTQ nightlife, and nightclubs in general, are all about,ā he says. āTrue club DJs playing club music for people that want to dance in a fun environment that is high energy and low stress. Itās the cool party inside the bigger party.ā
Project GLOW launched in 2022. Bailey connected with the operators after the first event, and they discussed Bailey curating his own space for 2023. āThey were very clear that they wanted me to lean into the vibrant LGBTQ nightlife of D.C. and allow that community to be very visibly a part of this area.ā
Last year, club icon Kevin Aviance headlined the Secret Garden. The GLOW festival organizers loved the its energy from last year, and so asked Bailey to bring it back again, with an entire year to plan.
This year, Bailey says, he is ābringing in more D.C. nightlife legends.ā Among those are DJ Sedrick, āa DJ and entertainer legend. He was a pivotal part of Tracks nightclub and is such a dynamic force of entertainment,ā says Bailey. āI am excited for a whole new audience to be able to experience his very special brand of DJing!ā
Also, this year brings in Illustrious Blacks, a worldwide DJ duo with roots in D.C.; and āhouse music legendsā DJs Derrick Carter and DJ Spen.
Bailey is focusing on D.C.ās local talent, with a lineup including Diyanna Monet, Strikestone!, Dvonne, Baronhawk Poitier, THABLACKGOD, Get Face, Franxx, Baby Weight, and Flower Factory DJs KS, Joann Fabrixx, and PWRPUFF.
Secret Garden also brings in performers who meld music with dance, theater, and audience interactions for a multi-sensory experience.
Bailey is an owner of Trade and Number Nine, and was previously an owner of Town Danceboutique. Over the last 35 years, Bailey owned and operated more than 10 bars and clubs in D.C. He has an impressive resume, too. Since starting in 1987, heās DJād across the world for parties and nightclubs large and intimate. He says that he opened āin concert for Kylie Minogue, DJed with Junior Vasquez, played giant 10,000-person events, and small underground parties.ā Heās also held residencies at clubs in Atlanta, Miami, and here in D.C. at Tracks, Nation, and Town.Ā
With Secret Garden, Bailey and GLOW aim to bring queer performers into the space not just for LGBTQ audiences, but for the entire music community to meet, learn about, and enjoy. While they might enjoy fandom among queer nightlife, this Garden is a platform for them to meet the entirety of GLOW festival goers.
Weekend-long Project GLOW brings in headliners and artists from EDM and electronic music, with big names like ILLENIUM, Zedd, and Rezz. In all, more than 50 artists will take the three stages at the third edition of Project GLOW, presented by Insomniac (Electric Daisy Carnival) and Club Glow (Echostage, Soundcheck).
Out & About
Washington Improv Theatre hosts āThe Queeriesā
Event to celebrate queer DMV talent and pop culture camp
The Washington Improv Theatre, along with the Mayorās Office of LGBTQ Affairs and the Gay Menās Chorus of Washington DC, will team up to host āThe Queeries!ā on Friday, April 26 at 9:30 p.m. at Studio Theatre.
The event will celebrate Queer DMV talent and pop culture camp. With a mixture of audience-submitted nominations and blatantly undemocratically declared winners, āThe Queeries!ā mimics LGBTQ life itself: unfair, but far more fun than the alternative.
The event will be co-hosted by Birdie and Butchie, who have invited some of their favorite bent winos, D.C. “D-listers,” former Senate staffers, and other stars to sashay down the lavender carpet for the selfie-strewn party of the year.
Tickets are just $15 and can be purchased on WITVās website.Ā
-
District of Columbia3 days ago
Catching up with the asexuals and aromantics of D.C.
-
State Department5 days ago
State Department releases annual human rights report
-
South America3 days ago
Argentina government dismisses transgender public sector employees
-
Maine4 days ago
Maine governor signs transgender, abortion sanctuary bill into law