Latest News

Jennifer Swift • March 18, 2016

Respective heirs to the Washingtonian and Washington Post media empires, Catherine Merrill Williams and Katharine Weymouth, shared the trials and tribulations of running family-owned media corporations to earnest listeners at the George Town Club Jan. 28. While answering questions posed during Carol Joynt’s Q&A Cafe, Weymouth, the former publisher of Washington Post, and Williams, the current Washingtonian publisher and president, shared advice given to them by family members and mentors before taking the helm, such as going with their gut and running the business as they see fit—not their deceased relatives. 

Robert Devaney •

James V. Kimsey, well known for his business ventures and philanthropy in and around the nation’s capital, died March 1 at the age of 76 from cancer. He lived in McLean, Va.

Kimsey grew up in Arlington and attended Gonzaga College High School and St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C. He went on to Georgetown University on a year and then graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He served in the U.S. Army in South Vietnam.

Kimsey later bought downtown D.C. property and entered the bar and restaurant business but soon was working in the video and computer world, where he become the co-founder and CEO of America Online — AOL. He served as AOL CEO until 1995, when Steve Case took over the position. Kimsey was chairman emeritus at AOL.

Kimsey went on to found the Kimsey Foundation and was involved in many charities, non-profits and cultural and educational institutions — from the Library of Congress to the Kennedy Center to West Point. He was well known in Washington social circles and had many friends in the nation’s capital, around the country and across the world.

Kimsey’s three sons, Michael, Mark and Ray, issued the following statement:

“It is with deep sadness that we write to inform you of the death of our father, James V. Kimsey.   As many of you know, Dad had been battling cancer for several years, and his condition continued to deteriorate over the past few months, until he succumbed to the disease this morning, Tuesday, March 1, 2016.??

“In addition to having a loving family, Dad led a vibrant, adventurous life in the military, in business, and in philanthropy. He made a great difference in the lives of so many. We will miss him terribly.??

“We are in the process of planning a memorial service and will be in touch as things progress.”?

Georgetowner •

Bar à Vin on 31st Street

First, in 2012, there was Chez Billy in Petworth. Then, in 2014, there was Chez Billy Sud in Georgetown. Now, on March 7, Bar à Vin opens at 1035 31st St. NW, a long-vacant space adjacent to Chez Billy Sud. All three, and more, are the creations of dance-music producer Thievery Corporation’s Eric Hilton and his younger brother Ian. The new space, expected to feature a large, carefully curated, mostly French wine list, will be open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., accommodating those waiting for a table at Chez Billy Sud and others. The smaller of two rooms has a working fireplace.

Rite Aid on Wisconsin Avenue

The 24-hour Rite Aid Pharmacy in Glover Park at 2255 Wisconsin Ave. NW has opened; its phone number is 202-944-2703. Rite Aid is set to be acquired by Walgreens-Boots Alliance, a global enterprise consisting of Walgreens, Duane Reade, Boots and Alliance Healthcare. It will be part of the largest retail pharmacy in the United States and Europe.

Hinckley Pottery in Blues Alley

Hinckley Pottery has moved into 3132 Blues Alley NW, next to the Blues Alley jazz club. The 40-year-old pottery studio, which was in Adams Morgan for decades and first opened in Georgetown, wrote: “Our doors will open in late March or early April. Until then, we will get our wheels, kilns, shelves, pots and tools ready to welcome you to this wonderful, larger space. Our second floor studio will make it possible for us to expand beyond our ongoing wheel classes to provide space for potters who prefer to work independently. We also will offer two hand-building classes later this spring.”

Georgetowner •

Tudor Nights: March Madness!

March 10th, 2016 at 06:30 PM | 0-20 | fherman@tudorplace.org | Tel: 202-580-7321 | Event Website

Just in time for #MarchMadness, inner jocks meet inner history geeks at this lively cocktail evening centered on the sporting life at Tudor Place. Quaff cocktails, socialize in the house’s elegant reception rooms, and enjoy an up-close look at the collection’s “jock-iest” items, presented by Curator Grant Quertermous.

Address

1644 31st Street, NW

Botox Night – Georgetown Aesthetic

March 10th, 2016 at 05:00 PM | georgetownaesthetic@gmail.com | Tel: 202-802-0414 | Event Website

Georgetown Aesthetic, a cosmetic injectable practice, is exciting to begin its service here in Georgetown starting this month! Don’t miss the grand opening event, Botox Night, on March 10th from 5:00pm- 8:00pm. Botox Night will consist of RN, Cissy Wells introducing the practice, complementary wine and snacks, and an informational session about Botox.

The first 5 RSVP’s will receive free Botox!

To RSVP please email “RSVP Botox Night” to georgetownaesthetic@gmail.com

Address

4400 MacArthur Blvd. Suite 200 Washington D.C. 20007

KIPProm 2016

March 11th, 2016 at 06:00 PM | $100 – $1500 | events@kippdc.org | Event Website

Join us for a school dance for grown-ups benefiting the kids of KIPP DC.

What if you could do a “prom-over” and recreate all of the magic of prom night while supporting our amazing KIPPsters on their journey to and through college? Join us for an evening of delicious food, good company, awkward dancing, and spiked punch as we re-live this major milestone of our youth at KIPP DC’s grown-up prom! VIP DINNER: 6 – 8 PM. PROM DANCE: 8 – 11 PM

Address

Dock 5 @ Union Market; 1309 5th Street NE

Sports Stories from Finland

March 12th, 2016 at 11:00 AM | 0 | wasevents@formin.fi | Tel: 2022985800 | Event Website

The Embassy of Finland in Washington, D.C. has joined forces with the Sports Museum of Finland to create a unique exhibition, Sports Stories from Finland.The main focus of the exhibition is to study what kinds of relationships Finnish athletes have with the U.S. The story begins with the great long distance runners of the early nineteen hundreds such as Paavo Nurmi and Hannes Kolehmainen and continues all the way through to modern day NHL players and snowboarders.

Address

Embassy of Finland; 3301 Massachusetts Avenue NW

Quintessentially British: The Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams

March 12th, 2016 at 07:00 PM | $10-45 | office@fairfaxchoralsociety.org | Tel: 703-642-3277 | Event Website

In collaboration with the Amadeus Orchestra, A. Scott Wood, Artistic Director, the FCS Adult Symphonic Chorus, Youth Concert Choir, and Master Singers Women present some of Vaughan Williams’ most beloved works, including Five Mystical Songs, Magnificat, and Dona Nobis Pacem. The soloists are Danielle Talamantes, soprano, Jan Wilson, mezzo-soprano, and Matthew Irish, baritone. As Vaughan Williams once observed “The art of music above all the other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation.”

Address

Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall & Arts Center at NVCC Alexandria; 4915 East Campus Lane; Alexandria, VA 22311

WONDER Talk with Nicholas Bell and Lawrence Weschler

March 15th, 2016 at 05:30 PM | $0 | americanartprograms@si.edu | Tel: (202) 633-8534 | Event Website

Join Renwick Gallery curator-in-charge Nicholas Bell and scholar Lawrence Weschler as they share their thoughts on wonder and its role in our lives. Book signing to follow.

Address

1661 Pennsylvania Ave NW

Robert Devaney •

After 31 years as Paper Moon restaurant, the dining and drinking spot along 31st Street will renovate and rebrand to re-open in April as Flavio Restaurant.

Mariam Karabacheva, Flavio’s spokesperson and wife of co-owner Hamza Hadani, said the restaurant would remain Italian but with “a new menu and new atmosphere” as well as being “modern yet still cozy.”

“Paper Moon is still open but will be closing for a couple of days in about a week,” said Karabacheva, who said plans call for Flavio to open within the first 10 days in April. “We’re very excited.”

Dennis Fieldman, who was worked with Daniel Boulud, Michel Richard and Alan Wong, is Flavio’s consulting chef, according to Karabacheva. Most recently, Fieldman helmed Newton’s Table, Newton’s Noodles and Bethesda Barbecue Company.

Paper Moon founder and co-owner Mekki Karrakchou positioned his old standby (soon-to-be renewed) in 1984 at 1073 31st St. NW. It was later surrounded by other dining spots. Today, next door or across the street are il Canale, Ristorante Piccolo and Sea Catch Restaurant. Also nearby is the Grill Room at the Capella, just south of the C&O Canal — and let’s not forget Moby Dick House of Kabob.
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Robert Devaney • March 16, 2016

The evening began with winds, thunder and flooding, as participants made their way to Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall for a discussion of the town’s black past and its people as well as recognition of the 25th anniversary of the ground-breaking “Black Georgetown Remembered,” published by the university in 1991.

Spurred by the university’s bicentennial celebrations in 1989, the book tells the story of black Georgetown from the perspective of those living at the time and their memories of a town that included many more black people. “Black Georgetown Remembered” was a book that put black Georgetowners back on the map and in the mind of present residents.

Moderated by Georgetown professor Maurice Jackson, the panel on stage included the book’s co-authors Valerie Babb and Kathleen Lesko joined by black Georgetowners Vernon Ricks, Monica Roache and Neville Waters.

“Once a Georgetowner, always a Georgetowner” was a phrase heard in a film shown to the audience and spoken by a panelist or two. They meant the black town’s past and present. Eva Calloway was shown in the film, saying that her part of Georgetown “had that love” of family, neighbors and business owners.

At the beginning of the discussion, Babb brought up the memory of Raymond “Pebbles” Medley, who lived at the Jesuit community from an early age and was well known around campus to students and teachers alike. She gave him for credit for sparking an interest in Georgetown’s black history. Lesko noted that the book was “a transformative project.”

Babb also asked what were the cost of changes to a community these days, especially that Georgetown seems more and more exclusive.

The older Ricks, who was born across from Rose Park, recalled a happy childhood where everything was available in town as well as the ice man, the coal man, the watermelon man — and pulled no punches, calling the exodus of blacks from Georgetown “deportation or gentrification.”

Roache, a fifth-generation Georgetowner, spoke next of how much Georgetown has changed in just the last 25 years. As the newest advisory, neighborhood commissioner, she asked, “What can I do to continue the legacy?” Roache ask those black Georgetowners, past or present, in the audience to stand and take a bow.

Waters, who has lived on P Street and now lives in the same place where his father was born and died, recalled the service workers, such as the knife sharper, who came every Saturday, dinging his bell for the. One day, he did not hear the bell and knew the man had died or gone away. He said, “We were to be Georgetowners,” adding that he went to Georgetown University, too, and was “proud to be a Hoya.”

After the discussion, audience inquiries ranged from Jackie Kennedy bringing Caroline to Rose Park and to how housing covenants froze blacks out of Georgetown and bigotry destroyed a neighborhood.

After the greetings at the reception afterwards, as participants departed, the sky in a manner of a few hours was calm, clear, blue and illuminated by a near-full moon — as if a sign from long-past ancestors.

Georgetowner • March 10, 2016

Winter Ice Soiree

February 26th 2016 07:00 PM | $22 | Tel: (202) 965-4601 | Event Website

BKE and Jonn Marc proudly presents Winter Ice Soiree – a performance art installation at L2 Lounge on Friday, February 26th, at 7 p.m. This event is co-hosted by Herlife Magazine. This is a performance art piece that uses sculpture, painting and live models being painted. Everything will be white like a winter-ice wonderland, two models will be laying on warm fur throws. These models will be painted during the performance. A ballerina (from Washington Ballet) will dance on the canvas following a path of paint as the models are painted. Once the body painting is complete the models will stand up and walk around for a photo opportunity. The artist, Jonn Marc, will continue to paint the canvas floor and the tree, adding color to the winter scrape.

Address

L2 Lounge; 3315 Cady’s Alley NW

Opening Reception: Carol Reed: not just black or white

February 26th 2016 06:00 PM | Free | gallery@callowayart.com | Tel: (202) 965-4601 | Event Website

On Friday, February 26 from 6-8 p.m., stop by Susan Calloway Fine Arts for the opening reception of Carol Reed: not just black or white. Carol Reed is an established creative professional and experienced studio artist. Her background includes undergraduate degrees in art education, studio/painting and printmaking plus a master’s degree in design. Additionally she holds an MFA in studio painting from the Maryland Institute, College of Art. She has won numerous distinctions including grants from the Maryland State Arts Council, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship. She was Assistant Professor of design at the University of Alberta, Canada, before joining the staff of the Smithsonian Institution in educational travel and museum outreach. As a cultural heritage and communications consultant for the World Bank she designed exhibitions and education programs to put a public face on cultural partnerships. Her work is included in national and international collections including Embassies of the United States, Tel Aviv, New Delhi, and Bujumbura; The Alberta Arts Foundation; Canada; The Library of Congress, National Museum of Women in the Arts; The Art Bank DC. Her work has been exhibited at The Alberta Provincial Museum and Archives, Canada; American Centers, Delhi, Mumbai India; The Center for Book Arts, NYC; Women’s Caucus for Art’s National Invitational Exhibition, Glendale, CA; The Arts Club of Washington, Reagan National Airport, Washington, DC.

Address

Susan Calloway Fine Arts; 1643 Wisconsin Ave NW

Itamar Zorman

February 26th, 2016 at 07:30 PM | $35 | wolftrap@wolftrap.org | Tel: 703-255-1900 | Event Website

This award-winning violinist’s “astonishingly intimate and intense” (The Guardian) performances have graced the stages of Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, Avery Fisher Hall, as well as Lincoln Center, Zankel, and Weill Recital Halls. Don’t miss him in this rare recital appearance.

Address

The Barns at Wolf Trap; 1635 Trap Road; Vienna, VA 22182

Discover Engineering Family Day

February 27th, 2016 at 10:00 AM | Free | Tel: 202-272-2448 | Event Website

Free. Drop-in program. Ages 6 and up. Engineers design the bridges you drive across, improve the food you eat, work on the fabrics you wear, and even build computers like the ones we used to make this calendar! Engineers help to create or improve many of the things you use in your daily life. Join us for this free, hands-on, fun-filled family day, where you can get creative with real engineers and test out your bright ideas at over 20 creative activities designed for kids.?

Address

National Building Museum; 401 F Street NW

Heart Ball

February 27th, 2016 at 06:30 PM | Roxana.hoveyda@heart.org | Tel: 703-248-1712 | Event Website

The Heart Ball brings together more than 500 of the region’s most prominent physician, corporate, health care, and community leaders. The evening includes, live and silent auctions, dinner, dancing and special presentations. Also the official after-party, Heart After Dark returns to keep the festivities going until 1am. Proceeds from the Heart Ball benefit lifesaving research and American Heart Association education and advocacy campaigns.

Address

The Mandarin Oriental; 1330 Maryland Ave SW

The Washington Chorus New Music for a New Age

February 28th, 2016 at 05:00 PM | $25-$35 | info@thewashingtonchorus.org | Tel: (202) 342-6221 | Event Website

As a part of its annual New Music for a New Age series, The Washington Chorus presents the music of Luna Pearl Woolf on Sun. Feb. 28, at 5 pm at the National Presbyterian Church. The program features Après Moi, le Déluge, with renowned cellist Matt Haimovitz and The Pillar. Additional soloists include soprano Marnie Breckenridge, tenors Rexford Tester and Jonathan Blalock, and baritone James Shaffran. Tickets are $25-$35 contact TWC Box Office at 202-342-6221 or www.thewashingtonchorus.org.

Address

4101 Nebraska Avenue NW, Washington, DC

Juliana Zovak •

Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security presented the Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards for Advancing Women in Peace and Security during a Feb. 22 ceremony in Gaston Hall, titled “Human Security in the Face of Violent Extremism.”

U.N. Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Bangura and New York Times journalist Alissa Rubin were honored for their work in exposing sexual violence that women face in war and their push for justice and accountability.

The ceremony was held by Georgetown’s Global Futures Initiative with GIWPS, the Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and the university’s President’s Office.

After an introduction from John DeGioia, president of Georgetown University, Bangura spoke to the audience about her work in preventing sexual violence in conflict zones and addressing systemic ignorance of the issue in areas like Syria and South Sudan.

“No political or military leader is above the law, and no woman or child is below it,” she said.

Upon presenting her with the award, GIWPS executive director Melanne Verveer commended Bangura’s commitment to justice, human rights and her campaign to address crimes of sexual violence used in war.

Verveer also presented the Global Trailblazer Award to Rubin, who currently serves as the Paris bureau chief of the New York Times. She headed the Afghanistan Bureau for five years beginning in 2009, where she reported on the Middle East.

“In reading her stories, one is transmitted and transported to the front lines,” Verveer said. “Witnessing war through her accounts, the battles, the bravery, the humanity of combatants and civilians, today we honor her not just for her courageous reporting but for her commitment to illuminating women’s experiences during violent conflict.”

Following the presentation of the awards, Bangura and Rubin participated in a question-and-answer session with the audience with closing remarks from Ashley Judd, actress and activist.

Judd thanked Rubin and Bangura for their work and then asked the audience to stand and do what she called “funeral talk.” She requested that for 30 seconds, everyone say to the two honorees what they would say if they were standing in front of them.

“And I want it to be kind of loud,” Judd said. “Because the cacophony of sexual violence and conflict is really loud.”

Judd then encouraged the audience to draw inspiration from Bangura and Rubin and go forth with a passion for seeking justice.

“This talk doesn’t end when you all leave the room. That is when the work begins,” she said.

Juliana Zovak •

D.C. Public Schools has cut funding for the Fillmore Arts Center from its proposed budget for the 2016-2017 school year, according to Friends of Fillmore.

The Fillmore Arts Center provides arts education to students from the D.C. elementary schools of Hyde-Addison, Key, Marie Reed, Ross and Stoddert by offering art classes, after-school programs and Festival Evenings to showcase student work.

Friends of Fillmore, a non-profit volunteer board made up of parents and community members, posted on its website Feb. 19 that D.C. Public Schools told the five school principals that they would not receive any funding for the 2016-2017 academic year.

The center is funded in part by the individual schools, and DCPS funds the transportation, supplies and some of the salaries for the instructors. Without DCPS, the schools will have to pay for the entire program out of their own budgets.

The current operating budget for Fillmore is $1.6 million. DCPS provides $600,000.

The alternative is to have individual arts programs at each of the schools, but John Claud, president of Friends of Fillmore, says the five schools do not have the capability to run comprehensive arts programs on their own. Some are dealing with being over capacity and with being housed in temporary classrooms. They lack the space and funding to provide the spectrum of classes that the center has offered them and rely on Fillmore to give their students an opportunity to engage with the arts.

Claud believes that the Fillmore program is an affordable one, especially once the budget is examined and costs are trimmed down, including a transportation cost that was much higher this year than in any other year. Friends of Fillmore and the individual schools will be in conversation with DCPS to attempt to come to an understanding of an affordable budget to keep the program running, a discussion that did not happen before the announcement of the cut.

Posts on the Friends of Fillmore page as well as on the websites of Stoddert Elementary and Ross Elementary are encouraging parents and community members to call, email and tweet to DCPS and its chancellor Kaya Henderson in protest of the proposed cut.

A similar fight took place in 2013, when DCPS proposed a $300,000 budget cut for the 2013-2014 year, according to the Washington Post. DCPS eventually decided not to make cuts to the budget for that year.

Robert Devaney •

“I want to be richer than Donald Trump,” said chef, entrepreneur and philanthropist José Andrés during the welcoming ceremony Feb. 18 for the Halcyon Incubator fellows of the Spring 2016 Cohort.

Speaking on stage at Halcyon House with Ryan Ross, program manager of the Georgetown non-profit that fosters social entrepreneurs and their big ideas, the positive, likable Andrés was talking about a new capitalism that succeeds without taking advantage of others. He offered his entrepreneurial advice and enthusiasm to 10 fellow who are pursuing eight Halcyon Incubator projects, ranging from life-saving shelter to rooftop farming. They each spoke briefly to those assembled about their project.

Fitting in well with the do-gooder but worldly fellows, Andrés looked very much at home and said he sees this smarter way of working as saving capitalism.

In a not very veiled reference to Trump, with whom he is snarled in a lawsuit about a proposed restaurant (which the chef nixed after the presidential candidate’s comments on immigrants) in the upcoming Trump Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, Andrés said immigrants make good Americans and that there are “11 million undocumented” in the country.

The 47-year-old father of three said that when he arrived in America at the age of 19 he felt welcome — “and if not, I made them feel welcome.”

Andrés hit upon the large prison population in the U.S., saying that some inmates would do much better with mentoring — “make that person not a problem but a solution” — and perhaps make a new college for the jailed.

“Why throw money at a problem when you can invest in the solution?” he asked.

Touting “food as an agent for change,” the head of the ThinkFood Group, which owns most of its restaurants in and around Washington, D.C., spoke about going to Haiti and also helping during Hurricane Sandy. He noted that local is not always the best way to go — “buy avocados from Mexico” — and that the latest food fad or well-intentioned rescue can hurt farmers. Free rice to Haiti drove Haitian farmers out of business, he said. And quinoa? Local prices rose in Peru.

If you want to help Haiti, just show up — it’s not about money, he said. It’s how you think about it, Andrés said, questioning what people think about Anacostia.

We have to think smarter and invest more in the world, he urged. “To help the world we need to start looking at it like we’re investing in the world.”

Asked about failure, Andrés smiled and said, “I don’t like to read Yelp before going to bed.” As a chef, he said he knows that he is “only as good as his last plate,” unlike an artist who paints a masterpiece that everyone can enjoy for many years to come. “Failure keeps you awake . . . motivates,” he told the audience. “We need to make it a habit to celebrate our failure because there’s always a sunrise on the other side.”

Andrés offered a quote from Winston Churchill: “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”

Visit HalcyonIncubator.org — part of S&R Foundation — for more information about the program and its fellows.
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