Arts & Entertainment
Calendar for June 25
Friday, June 25, to Thursday, July 1

Friday, June 25
Ziegfeld’s Club reopening party is tonight. Shows at 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. Dancing before and after each show with DJ Spyke.
Countdown to Free at Apex, 1415 22nd St. From 9 to 10 p.m., drinks are $3. From 10 to 11 p.m., drinks are $2. From 11 p.m. to midnight drinks are free.
“Glee Club” is at Town tonight. Performances, sing-a-longs, karaoke, videos and “Glee” music. Doors open at 10 p.m., show starts at 10:30 p.m. For those 18-20, $10 all night. For those 21 and over, $5 before 11 p.m. and $10 after.
Divas Outdoors at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, 4155 Linnean Avenue, N.W. screens “My Little Chickadee,” staring Mae West and W.C. Fields at 8:30 tonight. At 7:45 p.m., judging of best picnic spread begins with winners being announced at 8 p.m. $15 public and members, $10 college students and children and teens 6-18. To order tickets, call 202 686-5807. For more information visit oneinten.org or hillwoodmuseum.org.
Queer Pulp For the Girls and Bois at Black Squirrel, 2427 18th St., N.W., is tonight at 9. No cover charge, 21 and over to enter.
Gay District, a weekly, non-church affiliated discussion and social group for GBTQ men between 18 and 35, meets tonight from 8:30-10:30 p.m. at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, 1820 Connecticut Ave., N.W. For more information, e-mail [email protected].
Celebrate Shabbat services, 8:30-10 p.m. at the Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th St. Services are followed by an Oneg social.
Saturday, June 26
Burgundy Crescent Volunteers helps with food preparation and packing groceries for Food & Friends at its new facility near the Fort Totten Metro Station, 219 Riggs Road N.E., at 8 a.m.
DC Front Runners fun walk/run at Rock Creek Park is today from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. The walk goes from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. and the run goes from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
PETS-DC presents Pride of Pets at Dupont Circle today. $25 unlimited entry or $6 per individual class. Check in begins at 2 p.m., show starts at 3. Rain date for adverse weather is Sunday. PETS-DC is dedicated to improving the health and well being of people living with HIV/AIDS or other disabling conditions and their companion pets. For more information visit petsdc.org.
Etxe Records & Productions and Sasha Lord present Night and the City, Fangs Out and Prom Concussion at Comet Ping Pong, 5037 Connecticut Ave. N.W., tonight at 10:30. All ages. Fangs Out is a two-piece band from Toledo comprised of multi-instrumentalists Samantha Wandtke and Mark Peterson. Night and the City is from Washington and comprised of Christin Durham, Christopher Goett, S.L. Noon, and Greg Svitil. They have formerly played in the Antiques, Girl Loves Distortion and Victor Victoria.
Sunday, June 27
HomoWood Karaoke at Cobalt, 1639 R St., N.W. is tonight. Show tunes and movie theme songs will be played and a drink special called $5 martini madness will be offered.
“Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” directed by Keith Baxter, will have two showings today, one at 2 p.m. and another at 7:30 p.m. at Sidney Harman Hall, 610 F St., N.W. Originally banned from the stage, “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” scandalized audiences upon its debut. The world of the idealistic Vivie is turned upside down when she learns that her family’s considerable wealth comes from her mother’s management of a chain of brothels.
Monday, June 28
Gay “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert performs tonight at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St., N.W. Doors open at 7 p.m. Also featuring Orianthi and Allison Iraheta. The concert is sold out but a tie-in event called “After Adam” is at Town. Doors open at 9 p.m. Free with concert ticket, $5 without. 18 and over.
Tuesday, June 29
Join Burgundy Crescent Volunteers to help pack safer sex kits tonight from 7-9 p.m. at EFN Lounge, on 9th Street between O and N streets.
Wednesday, June 30
American College Personnel Association presents “The Three Bs: Binaries, Boxes, Budgets,” a student affairs focused workshop, in the Atrium Room in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union at University of Maryland, College Park. Registration and continental breakfast at 8 a.m. The session will run from 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. with a break for lunch. For more information and to register online, visit myacpa.org.
Yappy Hour: Happy Hour for Dogs at Larry’s Lounge, 1836 18th St., N.W., is today from 4 to 8 p.m. featuring drink specials and giveaways.
Thursday, July 1
Atlas Performing Arts Center presents Summer Film Series: Gay 101 showing “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” starring Audrey Hepburn at the Paul Sprenger Theatre, 1333 H St., N.E., at 8 p.m. Buy tickets at atlasarts.org or at the box office one hour prior to the movie.
Books
A boy-meets-boy, family-mess story with heat
New book offers a stunning, satisfying love story

‘When the Harvest Comes’
By Denne Michele Norris
c.2025, Random House
$28/304 pages
Happy is the bride the sun shines on.
Of all the clichés that exist about weddings, that’s the one that seems to make you smile the most. Just invoking good weather and bright sunshine feels like a cosmic blessing on the newlyweds and their future. It’s a happy omen for bride and groom or, as in the new book “When the Harvest Comes” by Denne Michele Norris, for groom and groom.

Davis Freeman never thought he could love or be loved like this.
He was wildly, wholeheartedly, mind-and-soul smitten with Everett Caldwell, and life was everything that Davis ever wanted. He was a successful symphony musician in New York. They had an apartment they enjoyed and friends they cherished. Now it was their wedding day, a day Davis had planned with the man he adored, the details almost down to the stitches in their attire. He’d even purchased a gorgeous wedding gown that he’d never risk wearing.
He knew that Everett’s family loved him a lot, but Davis didn’t dare tickle the fates with a white dress on their big day. Everett’s dad, just like Davis’s own father, had considerable reservations about his son marrying another man – although Everett’s father seemed to have come to terms with his son’s bisexuality. Davis’s father, whom Davis called the Reverend, never would. Years ago, father and son had a falling-out that destroyed any chance of peace between Davis and his dad; in fact, the door slammed shut to any reconciliation.
But Davis tried not to think about that. Not on his wedding day. Not, unbeknownst to him, as the Reverend was rushing toward the wedding venue, uninvited but not unrepentant. Not when there was an accident and the Reverend was killed, miles away and during the nuptials.
Davis didn’t know that, of course, as he was marrying the love of his life. Neither did Everett, who had familial problems of his own, including homophobic family members who tried (but failed) to pretend otherwise.
Happy is the groom the sun shines on. But when the storm comes, it can be impossible to remain sunny.
What can be said about “When the Harvest Comes?” It’s a romance with a bit of ghost-pepper-like heat that’s not there for the mere sake of titillation. It’s filled with drama, intrigue, hate, characters you want to just slap, and some in bad need of a hug.
In short, this book is quite stunning.
Author Denne Michele Norris offers a love story that’s everything you want in this genre, including partners you genuinely want to get to know, in situations that are real. This is done by putting readers inside the characters’ minds, letting Davis and Everett themselves explain why they acted as they did, mistakes and all. Don’t be surprised if you have to read the last few pages twice to best enjoy how things end. You won’t be sorry.
If you want a complicated, boy-meets-boy, family-mess kind of book with occasional heat, “When the Harvest Comes” is your book. Truly, this novel shines.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.

The Victory Fund held its National Champagne Brunch at the Ritz-Carlton on Sunday, April 27. Speakers included Tim Gunn, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Gov. Wes Moore (D-Md.), Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) and Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.).
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

















Music & Concerts
Tom Goss returns with ‘Bear Friends Furever Tour’
Out singer/songwriter to perform at Red Bear Brewing Co.

Singer Tom Goss will bring his “Bear Friends Furever Tour” to D.C. on Sunday, June 8 at 8 p.m. at Red Bear Brewing Co.
Among the songs he will perform will be “Bear Soup,” the fourth installment in his beloved bear song anthology series. Following fan favorites like “Bears,” “Round in All the Right Places,” and “Nerdy Bear,” this high-energy, bass-thumping banger celebrates body positivity, joyful indulgence, and the vibrant spirit of the bear subculture.
For more details, visit Tom Goss’s website.
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