Edgar Degas at the Phillips Collection
• May 3, 2012

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As geniuses tend to be, Edgar Degas was a compulsive revisionist. Returning to his canvases again and again, often over the course of decades, the artist left behind a wealth of visual pathways into his process upon his death in 1917. As geniuses tend to be, Degas was also a bit of a contradiction. He was a founding member of the Impressionist movement, though he vehemently rejected the label and his association with it.

Degas was a champion of an artistic revolution that moved painting beyond the gratifying of patrons and into the realm of true artistic exploration, paving the way for the explosion of cubism, abstract expressionism and beyond. He fought among critic circles for the collective reputation and legitimacy of himself and his colleagues—Monet, Renoir and Delacroix to name a few—and produced among his most acclaimed works in this time (roughly 1870s – 1880s). Yet he called himself a “realist” and rejected comparisons among his contemporaries. “What I do is the result of reflection and the study of the great masters,” he said.

But within each individual work, Degas managed to embody the monumental nature of artistic practice; he achieved a harmony and perfection of nature through practice, observation, trial, revision and an ever-scrutinizing eye.

His methodical, repetitive practice is frequently compared to the subject of his recurring painterly infatuation, the ballet dancer. While the spontaneity of his compositions may seem frozen precipitously in time—his ballerinas in imperfect repose between moments of rehearsal, turning out, warming up, preoccupied with nothing beyond their physical composition—the delicate beauty of these moments turn out to be nothing less than the result of countless studies and immeasurable, tedious compositional revisions. This relentless strive toward an ephemeral balance, delicate as the air floating about the plane of the canvas, is illuminated remarkably in the Phillips Collection’s current retrospective of his ballet paintings, focused around his seminal work, ‘Dancers at the Barre.’

“No art is less spontaneous than mine,” Degas once said. It would seem fitting then that he was focused so irrevocably on professional dancers. The effusive, explosive nature of a pirouette, for instance, must be fluid and natural within the movement of the dance, but that graceful fluidity is something that only comes with obsessive, endless practice and repetition. And Degas painted not the climax of the twirl, but the tenuous moments leading up to it—the revision, the edits, the scrutiny of practice. And he painted it within its own terms.

Upon entering the third floor of the Phillips Collection, which has devoted the entire level to the exhibition, you immediately come upon the ‘Dancers at the Barre’ painting, the two ballerinas stretching side by side in their matching blue practice skirts. On the other walls of the room hang two other studies of the same scene, one nearly identical in composition, and one of the central model posing nude in the same stance.

Throughout the exhibition, the Phillips chose to highlight Degas’ variation and repetition, even exhibiting infrared and x-ray photos of a number of the artist’s paintings to show them in their various stages of completion, exposing the way he moved and positioned his subjects about the canvas as well as their own axis—the adjustment of a leg, the arch of a back, the direction of a subject’s hair.

There is also a large showcase of the connections made to Degas within the ballet in recent years, focused around a video of acclaimed choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s 2004 production of ‘Swan Lake’ at the Pennsylvania Ballet, which conceived its costumes and sets reminiscent of the nineteenth century Paris Opera as depicted by Degas.

But the crowning achievement of this exhibition is exactly what it should be: the collection of the artist’s works brought together for this stunning exhibit. The beauty and wonder of Degas is heroically and intimately displayed, showcasing his most acclaimed paintings alongside his sketches, prints, charcoal drawings and enticingly tactile sculptures. It is an exhibit that shows us the complete portrait of not just the subjects, but of the artist.

“Conversation in real life is full of half-finished sentences and overlapping talk,” said Degas. “Why shouldn’t painting be too?” This is an exhibit for those of us who want to experience the full conversation, and long to fall into a fierce, satisfying discussion with Degas in his own time.

Degas’s Dancers at the Barre: Point and Counterpoint, will be at The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St. NW, through Jan. 8, 2012. For more information visit PhillipsCollection.org. [gallery ids="100309,107971" nav="thumbs"]

‘Parade’ Shows Our Past and Present Dark Sides
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“Parade” (now at Ford’s Theatre through Oct. 30) sounds like a musical, it pretends to be a musical, it has fast numbers, soft numbers, ballads and rousing numbers that make you want to tap your feet.
As musicals go, “Parade,” with a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, is kind of subversive, so much so that an audience can get tricked into clapping after a rousing song sung by a gifted singer and then almost instantly feel weird for do so.

The number in question is “That’s What He Said,” sung by Kevin McAllister as Jim Conley, an African-American janitor at a pencil factory in Atlanta in 1913. What Conley is singing is his testimony at a trial in which Leo Frank, the northern Jewish factory manager, is being tried on charges that he murdered 13-year-old Mary Phagan, a factory worker and dumped her body in the basement. Conley is singing a song, a bald-faced lie of a story in which he says he was witnessed to the aftermath of the murder and helped Frank dispose of the body. He sings “That’s What He Said” in friendly, furious fashion, it’s almost a vaudeville tune that gets people going, makes you want to dance, in fact.

Of course, that’s not what you should want to do. You should be appalled, shocked, torn and bewildered by your own feelings, the natural inclination to clap for a show-stopping number at war with the horrible lie being told that will help railroad Frank to the end of a rope.

More important, this is a true thing, a horrible event in post-Civil War southern history that was already replete with regular lynching and murders of blacks during Jim Crow days. Frank, a northerner from Brooklyn, had married a southern Jewish woman named Lucille and moved down South to manage the factory. Mary Phagan was killed on Confederate Memorial Day in Atlanta, which included parades and picnics, a holiday memorial celebrating Confederate valor and the loss of the old South.

“Parade,” which had a run on Broadway under the auspices of producer Harold Prince no less, won a couple of Tonys but not much acclaim. It should get some here, where the story and theme resonate mightily. It’s also been deemed the centerpiece of the programming for the Lincoln Legacy Project and is a co-production with Theater J.

It’s also an often powerful, gut-wrenching hybrid theatrical evening. Unsettling and disjointed, a sharp, thoughtful and creatively staged and performed piece that has some of the aspirations of both a serious opera and the kind of conscience-hitting plays that came from Arthur Miller. But it’s also not exactly what it seems to be, which is a musical. You sometimes think that Uhry and Brown are using the genre to get audiences to interact with the material in unaccustomed ways, the better to make an impact.

History tells us—and it’s no secret to tell the results—that in the end, Frank was convicted on almost totally fabricated, suborned lies and testimony by the victim’s friends, by the janitor and the Franks’ maid, among others, to satisfy the still bitter devotion to the Glorious Cause, a lasting hatred of northerners and blacks by the local Ku Klux Klan, supported by the establishment including a rabid newspaper publisher and author whose next book was going to offer up reasons why Jesus was not a Jew.

The approach doesn’t always work. The casual use of non-traditional casting in having African-American actors be members of crowds celebrating the Confederacy seems somehow altogether wrong, for instance. The music is often stirring, or, in quieter pieces with Frank and his wife, lovely and touching. Then again, songs pop up like period pieces from the times, and then again, you get a piece like “A Rumblin and a Rollin’,” which opens the second act, sung by black servants at a party with almost teeth-bared bitterness, a song that nicely is a bookend to a young Civil War-era soldier singing “The Old Red Hills of Home” setting off for war.

In a large cast, some of whom double and triple up, Euan Morton and Jenny Fellner stand out as Leo and Lucille Frank, who, singing and acting, manage to give a full portrait of a married couple. Often at a distance from each other in the early going they reveal their boundless love for each other in crisis. Will Gartshore is downright scary as an extremist politician and newspaper owner, steely and merciless. Stephen Schmidt as governor, John Slaton and Hugh Dorsey as a solicitor general with political ambitions, effectively define men dealing with their consciences: Slaton finds his; Dorsey misplaces it.

In the end, Slaton, after reviewing trial transcripts, commuted Frank’s death sentence to life, costing him his political future. A mob of KKK types broke into jail and hauled Frank out and lynched him. Frank’s murderers were not brought to justice and Mary Phagan’s killer was never found. Frank was granted a posthumous pardon in 1986, showing again, as if we didn’t know, that the wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow.

“Parade” is, I think, a complicated, nuanced work, and the production does it justice and honor. It is not a history lesson, or even a heavy-handed dose of moral lesson. It’s a powerful hybrid that uses the musical theater form as a way of reminding us in disturbing, moving, complicated ways, of how we live today, how far we’ve come, and how issues of tolerance, race, ethnicity, and just plain expressions of out-and-out irrational hatred remain with us. [gallery ids="99240,104014,104018" nav="thumbs"]

Love Ball
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The Love Ball supporting the work of the Montgomery Country Humane Society, an event “for everyone who loves animals,” was held at the Hyatt Regency Bethesda on Nov. 13. Clearly many people fit that description. They were accompanied by canines on their best party manners, many garbed in festive attire—elegant doggie coats, tutus and other fabulous creations. Nary a bark was heard at the seated dinner hosted by Holly Morris of FOX 5 Morning News with special guests Aly Jacobs of MIX 107.3, 9 NEWS NOW at Noon anchor JC Hayward and Angie Goff of WUSA9 TV. As one speaker refreshingly noted, “protecting our animal friends crosses all political lines. [gallery ids="99555,104564,104595,104569,104591,104574,104587,104579,104583" nav="thumbs"]

Shoot Like a Pro: Get the Most Out of Your Digital Camera.
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The current crop of digital cameras puts enormous power in your hands, but you have to know how to use it. Many of these suggestions may involve an additional investment, but you will find yourself amply rewarded.

Read the manual. Your camera is a sophisticated electronic device and may include macro features, various lighting settings, video capabilities and more. You will get the most use out of your camera’s features if you read the manual and learn how to use them. While it is tempting to use your camera’s automatic settings, you may be missing out on a lot of creative potential.

Consider stepping up to a Digital Single Lens Reflex camera (DSLR). These can use interchangeable lenses and generally have larger image sensors than compacts. The camera’s sensor is the electronic device which captures images. Larger sensors, generally speaking, are superior because more light can be stored on them, which produces a sharper image with a less digital “noise“. It is not just the numbers on the imaging chip that is important, but also the size of each pixel. Cameras with larger sensors also generally work better in low light (and higher ISOs).

Get good editing software. Pictures can always be improved after the fact by adjusting for color balance and saturation, composition, contrast, exposure and sharpness.

Take many pictures and use a large memory card, taking care to use the highest quality setting. In difficult lighting situations, experiment by bracketing your exposures.

If your camera allows you to save information in the RAW image format, do so, though this will involve an extra step to convert that image to a JPG in your computer. The purpose of RAW image formats is to preserve the maximum amount of data obtained by the camera’s sensor. RAW files may be substantially larger than JPGs, but allow for greater control over the final image.

Don’t be afraid to use flash in some daylight situations. Try to avoid shooting in harsh sunlight, which often introduces unacceptably high contrast and deep shadows. Unless there is cloud cover, early morning or late afternoon is usually preferable. When you are confronted with a bright mid-day sun, and your subjects are close to the camera, try using your flash to “fill in“ (lighten) the deeper shadows. Consider investing in an external flash for additional power, and an attachment to diffuse (soften) its light.

Innocents At Risk Conjures Up Old Havana
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Innocents At Risk and Airline Ambassadors hosted a Standup For Children Gala: An Evening in Old Havana on Oct. 19 at The Mayflower Hotel, which hails itself as “Washington’s Second Best Address.” Mike Walter emceed the program which included a video produced by Innocents At Risk, the internationally recognized nonprofit to stop the scourge of human trafficking founded by Deborah Sigmund in 2005. The evening was co-chaired by Nancy Rivard, who in 2009 brought additional support from Airline Ambassadors. Gabriela Ferrer and members of The Miami Sound Machine opened their performance with “How Can You Take Something that Does not Belong to You?” [gallery ids="100358,110062,110088,110084,110067,110080,110076,110072" nav="thumbs"]

Project Inspiration
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The very definition of a non-profit is the opposite of many of the motives that drive most organizations. It is work for a cause, a right, a group, an enterprise to help and serve others: the sick, the hungry, the economically and culturally underserved or starved. People who work in non-profits hold up the mirror to those who don’t. The non-profit motive exists as an emblem of the spirit of charity, giving, helpfulness and empathy, creativity and caring.

As a photographer, Walter Grio believes in the spirit of the non-profit world. Whatever he shoots—be it a fashion show, a wedding, a portrait or a special events—he insists that he not be paid himself, but rather that his fee go toward a charity or non-profit organization.

He’s even made a name for what he does: it’s called “Shoot for Change,” and since 2007, he has raised over $85,000 by way of his philanthropic photo projects.

His latest project salutes a gallery of 15 Washington philanthropist and non-profit leaders, shining a little light and giving a little credit to the people who do a lot for a lot of people.

“In the course of some of the projects I’ve done, I’ve gotten to know a lot of these people and I really admire their spirits,” says Grio. “I thought it would be really fantastic to help celebrate what they do.”
Over several days of shooting, Grio, tried to bathe his subjects in the glamorous light of old Hollywood, at places like L2 Lounge in Georgetown and the Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home in Chevy Chase.

The result is Project Inspiration, a special exhibition of Grio’s philanthropic people portraits, on display at the L2 Lounge on Nov. 16.

“I’ve been very lucky when it comes to my photography,” Grio says. “I was working and traveling in Europe when I was asked to shoot some people I had run into in Sweden, and they offered to pay me for the result. It opened up a world for me. In Washington, a lot of people have been helpful and responsive to the idea. This is giving back.”

The 15 groups and organizations represented in Project Inspiration occupy a wide range in the non-profit world of Washington: Red Cross; “Blessed Heaven,” which helps youths transitioning out of foster care; the non-profit Fashion Group International of Greater Washington; Washington Empowered Against Violence; Freedom in Creation; FAIR Girls; West Potomac Academy Fashion Design; The Kreeger Museum; Nova Salud; SOS Children’s Villages; Capital Breast Care Center; Global Partnerships; UN Foundation; the Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home; and the Children’s Law Center.

Linda C. Mathes
CEO, American Red Cross of the National Capital Area

Mathes began her career with the Red Cross in Dallas, Texas in the early 1970s, and never looked back. But even while moving around the country with the world’s best-known humanitarian organization, Mathes has found time throughout the years to work and serve regularly within her community—a practice that hasn’t gone without notice. Since her CEO appointment in 1991, she has received a number of accolades for her efforts, including the DC Chamber of Commerce Business Leader of the Year Award in 1998, and a Washingtonian of the Year award in 2008.

Among her associations in the region, Mathes has served on the board of directors of Leadership Greater Washington, as co-chair of the Nonprofit Emergency Preparedness Task Force of Greater Washington, and as a member of the regional Human Service Working Group.

These days, Mathes is a member of the Board of Directors of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce and American Red Cross Retiree Association, the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington, the Emergency Preparedness Council of MWCOG, and Tiffany Circle. Mathes sets the bar as a community organizer and activist and serves as an inspiring model for a new era of public service.

Elizabeth Gore
Vice President of Global Partnerships, United Nations Foundation

Elizabeth Gore bridges the gap between international policy and community activism, connecting people, ideas and resources to help solve global problems to hyperlocal degrees. “I love leading the campaigns of the UN Foundation because we offer anyone the opportunity to think globally and act locally,” says Gore. “I think everyone, no matter what their station in life, has the opportunity to give back and save lives, whether donating a ten dollar bed net to protect a child in Africa from malaria or signing a petition to prevent a girl from being married at 10 years old.”

Growing up on a cattle ranch in Texas, Gore was the first in her family to go to college, and became inspired to advocate for a cause when a friend became pregnant and was forced to drop out of school because of its lack of campus childcare and support. From fighting for the rights of her fellow female students, Gore moved on to volunteer in the Peace Corps, where she wrote, received and managed a USAID grant to better the food availability and economic situation for the Chaco in Bolivia.

Gore has since spent her life working on behalf of the underserved, currently bolstering support for UN programs to direct large-scale partnerships with global corporations and organizations. She manages partnerships with members of the UN Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council and with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and in 2008 was named by People as one of the top 100 Extraordinary Women. “Thanks to the internet, globalization and increased international travel, ‘helping thy neighbor’ has a new meaning,” she says. “A teenage girl in Texas can now interact with and learn about a teenage girl in Ethiopia. They can help each other, learn from each other, and ultimately be global leaders together. My passion is to provide the opportunities through the United Nations to make these connections.”

Susannah Fox
Director of Development, Capital Breast Care Center

Inspired to help those in need, and motivated by the death of her father from cancer, Susannah Fox has made a career advocating for the medically underserved and for cancer research, raising nearly $10 million to date. “Although I am neither a scientist nor do I have a medical mindset or degree, I hold other talents that enable me to raise awareness for breast cancer and help others to avoid the pain I have experienced. I love to build relationships with people and hear their stories.”

Hearing stories of people’s extraordinary battles propels Fox and her work. “The single mother who was recently laid off and has no health insurance, the woman who works multiple jobs to provide for her family or the woman with insurance who is scared and keeps putting off her mammogram because her own mother had breast cancer… These stories fuel my efforts and passion to raise funds to improve the lives of the people of the community.”

Fox’s skill and passion for relationship building and developing innovative ways to secure philanthropic funding has worked wonders for individuals and families battling illness and is a perfect match for the Capital Breast Care Center (CBCC). For the past three and a half years, Fox has held her position of Director of Development at CBCC, a community initiative of the Georgetown Lombardi Cancer Center.

L. Ward Orem
CEO, Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home

The life’s work of L. Ward Orem on behalf of senior health care and support was never even a question. “How is it that what I have done for over 35 years can be viewed as anything other than just giving back to those who have so generously given to me?” he says. “I see my dad through my mind’s eye, doing his duty as a soldier in WWII and working for years as a Baltimore City cop, always encouraging me to do my best and to work to make a difference in this world… How could anyone not be moved to recognize the value in a human life, a human spirit, and the beauty of the journey?”

Hired by the Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home in 1978, Orem has expanded its scope of service with the addition of a 60-bed state-of-the-art nursing facility. Through the Home, Orem successfully assimilated the residents of several other not-for-profit senior facilities in DC, blending the charitable missions of similar service providers with that of the Home. Ward has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of both St. Margaret’s School in Tappahannock, VA and St. John’s Community Services in Washington, DC.

There is no greater legacy for Ward than the knowledge that the Home will continue to advance its mission of providing extraordinary health and life care services to the elderly poor of the District of Columbia long after he is gone, continuing to empower them to live their lives to the fullest.

Susan Morchower Hargreaves
Administrator, Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home

Susan Hargreaves is inspired by people. From her mother and father, to her husband and children, to the elderly residents at the the Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home, her personal and professional vision includes hope for all seniors and for the continued success of the Home for generations to come.

It’s no surprise that Hargreaves has devoted herself to helping the elderly. “From an early age, I was inspired by my grandparents,” she says. “When I was with them, I felt loved, safe, and appreciated… They had incredible love and devotion for us and were generous with their wisdom and lessons to share.” It is Hargreaves’ life mission to give back the sense of love and security that she received from her grandparents.

Overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Home where she is charged with ensuring that low and modest income seniors from the District of Columbia receive the highest quality of health and life services available to them, Hargreaves has also served on the Board of the District of Columbia Health Care Association (DCHCA) in various capacities, and is the President Elect for 2013. Additionally, she served for six years on the Board of Sarah’s Circle, a charitable organization in Adams Morgan for independent seniors. She has been active on several task forces and committees which center around the needs of seniors in the community and the nation, including her current position as a National Administrator’s Board Reviewer and a member of the National Association of Social Workers.

Jenifer Gamble
Executive Director, Washington Empowered Against Violence

Dr. Jenifer Gamble found her calling at an early age. “When I was a sophomore in high school,” she says, “one of my teachers spoke to my class about her volunteerism as a hospital advocate for sexual assault victims. I remember thinking that being there through such a horrible process had to be one of the most important things you could ever do for someone.”

Since then, Gamble has worked to improve the lives of millions of people, fighting against gender-based violence and introducing legislation to improve our justice system.

Gamble has spent more than fourteen years in victim services, currently serving as the Executive Director of Washington Empowered Against Violence (WEAVE, formerly Women Empowered Against Violence) in Washington DC. WEAVE engages the metropolitan Washington DC community in the elimination of intimate partner abuse and gender-based violence through empowering, innovative and holistic services. WEAVE operates a 1.2 million dollar budget and provides long-term holistic legal and therapy services at no-cost to survivors, and engages the community through extensive training, outreach and education. Gamble has championed victim services around the United States, presenting at local, state and national conferences and forums throughout her career. “Bearing witness and accompanying a person through examinations, court appearances and counseling is a privileged and sacred position,” Gamble says. “It always seemed as though I would have a very impacting experience right about the time I was feeling disconnected.”

Elaine Mensah
Publicity Chair, Fashion Group International of Greater Washington, DC

The fashion industry and non-profit work is not a likely pair. In fact, to most people, they seem more like mutually exclusive entities. But not to Elaine Mensah. Her first experience bridging the two worlds came in 2007, when the non-profit organization Fashion Fights Poverty offered her the chance to raise awareness about ethical, sustainable and eco-friendly fashion.

For the next three years, Elaine served as Fashion Director & Vice-President of Production for Fashion Fights Poverty, in which she found great joy in showcasing emerging designers and stylists and mentoring students. Under her production, the organization was named Washington’s Top Fashion and Beauty Event by Biz Bash Magazine two years in a row. Elaine has also styled TV personalities including Jack Mackenroth of Project Runway Season 4 and The Bachelor’s Andrew Baldwin, as well as various campaigns for designer lookbooks, print editorials including Washington Life Magazine’s 2009 Holiday Issue, and in-store events for Macy’s Inc.

With The Fashion Group International of Greater Washington, she has maintained the group’s impeccable status as one of the most credible voices in all of fashion. “The organization’s reputation, record of success, and influence in the community is beyond inspiring,” she says. “FGI has allowed me to bring both of my worlds together. As an organization that is run by a board of volunteers and that raises money to support its members and the DC fashion community, I am constantly challenged to be innovative, creative, and philanthropic. In a city like Washington, DC, which is not necessarily viewed as a ‘fashion’ capital, [FGI] inspires me to push the boundaries of what’s possible and to understand, appreciate, and continue to develop my desire to give back.”

Andrew Briggs
President and Founder, Freedom in Creation

Andrew Briggs is an inspiration, plain and simple. Since college, he has devoted his life to social betterment and justice worldwide. Briggs graduated from Taylor University, having studied, served, and traveled to over twenty-five countries during his undergraduate years. From such exposure, his notion of social responsibility grew to encompass the global village.

Searching for a long-term cause to which to devote his efforts, Briggs learned about “Africa’s longest war” between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda, whose destruction encompasses the displacement of nearly two million people and the abduction of sixty-five thousand child soldiers (which continues to this day in Congo). Above all, the oppression endured by the children of Northern Uganda caused him to undertake research in Northern Uganda and join hands with its people, and in 2007 he founded Freedom In Creation (FIC).

Through FIC, Briggs works to empower war-affected or at-risk communities through increased access to the therapeutic qualities of art, international education and fresh drinking water. By providing therapeutic art classes for at-risk children and exhibiting their artwork internationally, FIC raises funds to provide participating communities with water and educational infrastructure. Having taken part in the process, the children are credited with bringing the water and infrastructure projects to their communities.

“Faith, an understanding of the reciprocal blessings of service and cross-cultural conversations, and the importance of the voice of the artist inspired me to start the organization,” he says. On top of running FIC, Briggs has served as an artist, lecturer, panelist, and scholar-in-residence at embassies, universities, galleries, and with humanitarian organizations.

Kate Marie Grinold
Director of Development, FAIR Girls

In the United States, the average age of entry into forced prostitution is 13. Today, nearly 300,00 children are at risk of being exploited for sex, having experienced homelessness, abuse and extreme poverty. Kate Marie Gold has made it her life’s work to put an end to this hellacious trend. “A 13-year-old should be in school, safe, cared for and happy,” she says. “She should not be on the streets, alone, forgotten and bought and sold for sex. At FAIR Girls we believe that every girl deserves an investment and that given the opportunity, girls will grow into strong, happy, healthy women… More than anything, we believe in girls.”

As Director of Development at FAIR Girls, Grinold works to educate and empower girls against exploitation and human trafficking, and begin the process of recovery and self-determination of those who have suffered by providing them with tools, resources and love through therapeutic programs.

Grinold is a leader for change in Washington, DC. Named a 2011 Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum and one of Washington DC’s 250 most influential leaders under 40 three years in a row on Young & the Guest List (2009-2011)—among a list of other philanthropic and humanitarian honors—Grinold is one of the leading volunteers and activists in our community.

“Over the years, the resiliency and determination of young [girls] has continued to amaze me,” she says. “I have watched them go to college, find jobs and enter into healthy relationships. I have also seen the battles they face, swimming against a tide of violence, abuse and poverty. But their spunk and tenacity has shown me that while the road to recovery is long and difficult, there is no limit to what an empowered 13-year-old can achieve.”

Maggy François
Fashion Designs Director, West Potomac Academy Fashion Design

Maggy François believes in education through design. “The impact of educating through design is more than just creating clothing,” she says. “It is fashioning a way of life for young adults to express themselves and their ideas into tangible items. What they create in life can impact upon others, and as an individual they can influence a generation.”

With a career in event production that began over fifteen years ago and found her working with working closely with a community of top designers, François has been featured for her education and design work in The Washington Post, The Washington Examiner, BISNOW, and The Washington Times, to name a few. Teaching for fifteen years, she stands out among fellow educators for her design sensibilities and the ability to provide students with life-changing opportunities that prepare them for their futures, from internships to experience with professional designers, nonprofit organizations and business partnerships.

“Today’s youth are the future of the fashion and design industry,” François says. Being able to make young people feel like they are part of something that matters encourages me to push myself harder… [and] become a better and more visionary individual.”

Molly Huh
Head of Marketing and Public Relations, The Kreeger Museum

From an early age, Molly Huh’s passion for culture and art was deeply engrained. Fond memories of frequenting museums, historic sites and festivals with her grandparents made her realize the importance and wonder of cultural institutions in fostering a sense of interaction between parent and child, student and teacher, scholar and material, the public and their art.

Huh has been involved with non-profit museums, arts, and cultural organizations in Washington, DC for nearly a decade, with a focus on arts and education. At the Kreeger Museum, she has helps to plan a wide variety of enriching events for adults and children including Conversations at the Kreeger Museum, the first program of its kind, providing a forum for dialogue and connection for individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers.

Along with her work at the Kreeger, Huh regularly serves as a juror for the American Assocation of Museum’s MUSE Awards, which recognizes innovation and excellence in the field of art, and is a weekly volunteer at Inova Fairfax Hospital’s Ronald McDonald House.

“The Kreeger Museum is an institution which holds in its trust, for this generation and those that follow, masterpieces of art available to all,” Huh says. “I am constantly humbled and inspired to be a steward of the arts and hope that institutions such as The Kreeger will be available for my children… as a setting for cultural appreciation and interaction.”

Ellin Kao
Program Director and Co-Founder, NovaSalud, Inc.

Ellin Kao has spent over a decade working in international public health in Africa and Latin America, providing technical assistance to developing country health systems in HIV/AIDS/STD prevention and women’s reproductive health. “I spent the first ten years of my career in Africa and Latin America working with marginalized communities on improving health outcomes,” she says. “As a witness to the devastation of disease, HIV/AIDS’ devastation is the most socially pervasive. It takes away the most productive members of society. Men and women between the ages of 18 to 49 carry the weight of this disease. These are the mothers and fathers, sons and daughters who provide and care for the family and contribute to the economic productivity of society. Take away a large number of this group and what remains is the aged and young, most with very little financial means to support themselves.”

Kao first joined the fight against HIV/AIDS armed with only the belief that to work towards its awareness and prevention was a must. After spending time in Africa, however, she was shocked to come home to Washington, DC and find that its HIV infection rates were as high as in the developing countries that she had been serving.

She has since turned her efforts toward our community, conducting HIV/AIDS research at Children’s National Medical Center and providing HIV counseling and prevention education in Northern Virginia for Whitman Walker Clinic. She is also a member of a regional planning committee tasked to develop a regional HIV/AIDS prevention plan for Northern Virginia. “Public and private funding for HIV work has dwindled and further exacerbated by a tight economy,” Kao says. “But we are still here and working, and we will, one day, win the fight.”

Diane Lebson
Director, Major Gifts, SOS Children’s Villages, USA

In January of 2010, Diane Lebson had not even heard of SOS Children’s Village. But with the determination to work for an international children’s rights organization, she was drawn in by the soul of SOS, embodied in the lives of the nearly 80,000 orphaned and abandoned children it raises in over 130 countries around the world.

Today, SOS Children’s Villages is refuge for children whose lives have been torn about by modern tragedies like the recent earthquake in Haiti, horrific floods in Pakistan and famine in Somalia. “The moment I became Director of Major Gifts for this noble organization,” says Lebson, “I committed to serving as the voice for these little people, telling every corporation, foundation, individual who would listen about the heroic things these children had to do to merely survive.”

Diane has an established track record of accomplishment in non-profit brand management and fundraising. Prior to joining SOS Children’s Villages in March 2010, she ran a similar program as an executive with the Washington, DC office of the United Way, where she oversaw a 122% increase in major donor contributions as part of a significant rebranding initiative.

While she recently left the country with her husband, who took a position working for the government in Australia, Lebson continues to work as a consultant and remains a strong advocate for the work SOS Children’s Villages does to raise orphaned and abandoned children worldwide.

Judith Sandalow
Executive Director, Children’s Law Center

Judith Sandalow joined Children’s Law Center as Executive Director in January 2000. Under Ms. Sandalow’s leadership, CLC has grown from a staff of three to a staff of 75 and over 300 pro bono attorneys from 70 area law firms, who represent over 1,000 at-risk children in the District each year. She graduated from Yale Law School in 1990 and returned to the District of Columbia as a Juvenile Justice Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center.

After starting a juvenile clinic at DC Law Students in Court, she developed a successful criminal defense practice specializing in representation of juveniles charged with serious crimes. Ms. Sandalow is a foster and adoptive parent and a member of the board of directors of the Foster and Adoptive Parents Advocacy Center. She was a 2007 winner of the Meyer Foundation Exponent Award, which recognizes strong and effective nonprofit leaders with a track record of accomplishment. Ms. Sandalow also received the 2009 Outstanding Service Award from Positive Nature for her work on behalf of DC’s most vulnerable children and families. She is a member of the Leadership Washington class of 2004. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute.

Danielle Jennings
Executive Director, Blessed Haven, Inc.

Danielle Jennings formed Blessed Haven to prevent foster children from suffering the same fate that she did.

Jennings is one of the approximately 495,000 adults that grew up as a foster child. At the age of 15, already suffering from a tumultuous childhood, she was moved into a teen shelter while the courts determined her future. She was put into a home with a permanent rotation of at least three other girls at a given time, where she was treated as a housekeeper and servant, and was made to sleep in the mildewed basement. “We were…only allowed on the main level to clean,” she says. “Failure to comply resulted in being beaten.”

Fortunately, Jennings was rescued by her godmother and finally found a loving, nurturing family that nursed her soul and heart back to health.

Now grown, she devotes her life to making sure orphans and foster children have loving homes to grow up in. “As a foster child you are a number…a case,” Jennings says. “Every person deserves to feel loved, supported and empowered, regardless of their history… That is what Blessed Haven does.”

Blessed Haven is a family, Jennings says, with an inexhaustible network of individuals in the community that love and support foster youth and alumni. As Executive Director, she actively mentors foster youth and young adults not only in the DC area, but nationwide through various partnerships across the country. Blessed Haven’s programs include physical, emotional, spiritual and financial wellness, and provide career and educational programs.

Jennings’ heart lies with the youth in these demographics, and she works tirelessly to show that “foster” truly does mean “family.” These otherwise forgotten youth have a family in Jennings.

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Karen Zacarias on the Drama of ‘Book Clubs’
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I took the Green Line Metro to meet with Karen Zacarias for an interview at Arena Stage, where her play, “The Book Club Play,” would be premiering the following night. I went to see the play, too, but in a somewhat altered state of mind.

In the in the interest of full disclosure, this is a somewhat different story than I had perhaps intended. The intent was to write a feature about “The Book Club Play,” a play that has gone through a number of re-writes, incarnations and productions, making it the product of an unusual process. It intrigued me also because it was about people who belonged to a book club and was therefore about books, to which I am as devoted as a caveman is to his clubs and sticks (even as the rest of the tribe seems to be moving on to technologically superior gadgets like bows and arrows and iPads).

Zacarias sat down with me in the upper-level dining area of the new Arena building—which still has a pinch-me quality about—and I started to ask some questions conversationally, and we both allowed that we looked familiar to each other. Then I made mention of my dog Bailey and Lanier Place, where I live. And then of course it clicked. “You’re Bailey’s dad,” she said. “I’m your neighbor.”

Well, it turns out that we’ve run into each other infrequently over the years, usually in the company of our dogs. As it appears, her dog, Frieda, and my dog, Bailey, have a relationship of mutual curiosity, interest and affection. But, as often happens with dog owners, we only ever talked about dogs, not our professional lives. So I did not know that Zacarias was a prolific playwright whose plays had been performed at Arena Stage and other theaters and that she was an adjunct Georgetown University professor, for that matter. And she wasn’t aware that I wrote about theater for The Georgetowner. This is not unusual; sometimes it takes years for names to be exchanged between dog owners, let alone professional information.

I know now that the playwright Zacarias has lived on the firehouse side of Lanier Place for a number of years and is raising three children—Nico, 9, Kate 7, and Maia, 5—with her husband, Rett Snotherly, a patent attorney. I also now know that she also belongs to a book club.

What I didn’t know before is that Zacarias, who was born to a Danish mother and a Mexican father, has already had a number of plays staged, including two at Arena, “Legacy of Light” and an adaptation of the Julia Alvarez novel “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.”

And it was “The Book Club Play” that has brought her back to Arena and back to director Molly Smith. The play has already been performed at Round House Theater in Bethesda and at the Berkshire Theater Festival in Stockbridge, MA.

But Zacarias felt that she was not done with the play, and she continued to work on it—right up to its premiere at Arena. “I think now it’s deeper,” she said. “And it’s also funnier.”

“The Book Club Play” is about a group of people who meet regularly at a one of the member’s homes to discuss a book chosen by one of the members that all have read. At the center of this club is a woman named Ana, a successful columnists and feature writer for a Post-like newspaper. A strong woman, compulsively controlling, Ana treats the club as if it’s the center of her world, like a family or child she has created. She loves the club members: her husband, who rarely reads the assigned books and always hopes for a movie version; an academic and school friend; a jazzy, high-energy younger colleague at the paper; and a paralegal with a confidence problem. But when a newcomer arrives—a pushy, intrusive professor of comparative literature—along with the fact that the club is the ongoing subject for a film documentary (a camera is recording their every meeting), sparks fly, secrets erupt and drama, comedy and theater ensues.

Zacarias got a chance to revisit and rework “The Book Club Play” after being accepted to an Arena playwright-in-residence program, which specifically focuses on allowing playwrights to either write new plays or look again at older works.

“Some of the characters have changed a little, and the structure, the frame of the documentary is different,” Zacarias said. “But I think the dynamics are similar. But they’re more detailed, more dramatic.”

Books, of course, are very much on her mind. “There’s always this debate, about what art is, what literature is and what’s popular— and the value of books,” she said. “That’s part of the drama, the fuel for the drama and conflicts—the husband wants to do a “Tarzan” book, but ends up with Edith Wharton’s ‘The Age of Innocence.’ Other members want to take on the ‘Twilight’ books. It’s kind of a challenge to Ana, who takes books seriously, but it’s the kind of discussion we all have, I think. We all like to read so-called pop or junkie books.”

I eyed the book I had brought for the Metro: “The Affair,” a Jack Reacher thriller. Not exactly high-minded art. “There you are,” she said. “Everybody has something like that.”

“I also like to think that the play is kind of a celebration of theater,” she said. “It engages people, I know that. People have talked back during the previews—literally, out loud—which usually doesn’t happen.”

People may or may not see themselves on stage, and if they do, it’s probably at least in part because of a strong cast—especially Kate Eastwood Norris as Ana, a character who could easily be annoying with her attempts at defining and controlling her friends and husband. Norris makes her almost innocent in her cluelessness hitched to determination. There’s no malice there.

But “The Book Club Play” is not a documentary, nor is it the theater of realism. It is engaging to audiences because it looks so familiar. It’s not so much about the people on stage as it is about what happens in theater, what happens on the screens we watch constantly in all their guises. And it’s about what happens between the covers of a book. This is the stuff of our daily lives—the secrets in novels and plays, the high-energy emotions of stories, the shocking humor of embarrassment and ignorance—revved up to drama. We engage the men and women in “The Book Club Play” like we engage the characters in “The Sopranos,” or a Bette Davis movie, or a rambunctious door-slamming farce. We laugh, we cry, we recognize, and I think that’s why audiences react the way they do, which is to say in kinetically, energetically responsive ways.

Ana herself manages to write a novel about her book club, yet another way of avoiding motherhood—or rather, having another substitute child. But her friends think otherwise. They think it should be a play.

One of them says, “Imagine Up In Lights: The Book Club Play.”

Imagine that.

It would be like having a playwright living down the street and not knowing it. Very cool.

“The Book Club Play,” written by Karen Zacarias and directed by Molly Smith, will be at Arena Stage through Nov. 6, 2011. For more information visit ArenaStage.org

7th Annual Night of Sitar Stars
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The Sitar Arts Center in Kalorama embodies Patricia Sitar’s vision to provide arts education to the youth of Adams Morgan in a protected environment that currently has grown to serve over 700 students each year. On Oct. 20, Sitar hosted an open house followed by a reception at neighboring Meridian House with wine and copious hors d’oeuvres. The program opened with music by DJ Shea Van Horn, Sitar student presentations and great vibes knowing that more than 100 dedicated volunteers teach and mentor students from low-income households in their personal and artistic growth. [gallery ids="100360,110087,110113,110109,110092,110105,110101,110097" nav="thumbs"]

Septime Webre on the grace of ‘Gatsby’
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Septime Webre is fresh.

Celebrated, influential and exceptionally charismatic, Webre has been the Artistic Director of the Washington Ballet since 1999. Whether talking about Balanchine or the weather, everything he says seems fresh, in the moment, right now. He may have a spiel, but if he does, it is surely of his own immediate invention.

Walking through the halls and mirrored classrooms of the ballet school on Wisconsin Avenue, you get the sense that Webre’s mind is a restless one. He is thinking ahead and remembering all at the same time, while somehow maintaining total focused.

No questions about it, he’s got the charisma, a star quality that is also down-to-earth and earthy. You’re likely to end up talking about anything at all, not just the subject at hand.

The subject at hand is the return of “The Great Gatsby,” Webre’s spectacular dance version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, an unforgettable take on the grand theme of the American dream.
“That’s exactly it,” he says. “That’s what it’s all about. The idea, the imagining of the American dream. I loved that movie version with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, which seems to be an ideal visualization of the book. It was just, I don’t know, enthralling.”

This is the second go around for Webre’s “Gatsby,” but if you listen to Webre, it’s as if he just thought about doing it a minute ago—and for a lifetime too.

“Two years ago, it was a huge success, no question about it,” he says. “But we had no idea that’s what was going to happen. I thought it was a risky thing, adapting a great American novel and making a ballet out of it. There was another version of it in Pittsburgh, but that’s the extent of it to my knowledge. And what I saw was something that transcended classical ballet and modern pieces. It was a dance based on a novel, a modern story ballet.

“I knew this would require new ideas, new ways of doing things, different sorts of music. It would be very American in spirit, look, tempo, movement and sound. We tried to get the sound of the times—the roaring twenties—into it. That up-beat, Charleston music, the blues, beginning jazz and ragtime. It had a certain tempo and I knew it would be very different than what audiences were used to. It goes against the grain of classical story ballet but it is a story ballet.”

Sitting behind his desk, Webre still looks lanky and casual, his hair dark and loose as if spent the morning dancing and was still shaking it off. He is the type that wants to share what’s on his mind, the kind of stuff he dreams or hears in music. The late and strange jazz singer Chet Baker is a strong favorite of his and you could see how his music might work its way into the background of a dance piece. “Baker was an original,” he says. “We didn’t use his music, but we incorporated narration, blues singing, tap dancing .

“We didn’t know what to expect,” he says of his first production of Gatsby. “We had no idea how it would be received, or if anyone would come.”

They did. While critical reaction was sometimes mixed, Webre was applauded for creating something different, new and original, and audiences came in droves. “In attendance terms, it was our best production outside of ‘Nutcracker’,” he says.

“But that’s not the only reason to do it and see it,” he goes on, trailing evermore into the winding pathways of his thoughts. “Two years ago we were in a recession, and we’re still in hard times—look what’s happening out there. There’s this vast divide economically. People on the outside looking in. And that’s what Gatsby is, an outsider. That’s what drew me to the project. I understand that feeling. I’m an immigrant. And it’s the central tragedy of Gatsby.”

But his motives reach beyond the immediate present. “I also wanted to make it big, sprawling, entertaining,” he says. “I wanted to capture a time when the American Dream seemed possible for anybody, not just the moneyed class that Daisy Buchanan comes from. There is a tremendous amount of energy in this production. We’ve done more than try to get at the essence of a novel. It’s about the spirit of an age in American history where anything was possible.”

That’s why you have E. Faye Butler, one of Washington’s finest singers and actresses, fresh off two big successes at Arena stage, singing in the production. And there’s tap dancer Quynn Johnson and actor Will Gartshore. The music—a distillation of jazz age works by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey and original music by Billy Novick—is performed by Novick’s Blue Syncopators.
Webre’s description of specific sequences—a dance set on a golf course, one of Jay Gatsby’s gin-driven parties, a solo focusing on the plight of the anguished and betrayed George Wilson—puts you almost right into the production before you even see it.

Jared Nelson will again perform the role of Jay Gatsby, and Jonathan Jordan is returning as Nick Caraway. Emily Ellis and Maki Onuki will share the role of Daisy Buchanan.

Webre says this production is not the same as the one performed two years ago. “We have different cast members, for one thing. But we’ve also refined it, tightened things up. I see it a little more clearly now, “ Webre said.

In the future, Webre hopes to venture more often into modern literature as a source for choreography and dance. “I think about Tennessee Williams’ work,” he says. “’Streetcar,’ for one. It’s an opportunity to stretch boundary, to meet new challenges.” Frankly, that’s exactly what Webre has achieved with “The Great Gatsby.”

“The Great Gatsby” will be performed at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater Nov. 2 through 6. For more information visit Kennedy-Center.org.

‘30 Americans’ Say It Loud
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Walking up the grand staircase of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and into the rotunda, a noose tied at the end of a twenty-foot rope hangs from the middle of the domed ceiling. It floats heavily about ten feet off the ground. Circling the noose are nine wooden chairs on which Klan masks sit upright, their hollow eyes facing the rope as if in worship. The next things you see in the gallery, taking up the enormous wall at the entrance to the “30 Americans” exhibit, are the words “SAY IT LOUD.” You can feel James Brown belting into the microphone and you finish the lyrics quietly to yourself:

I’m black and I’m proud.

Brown recorded that song in 1968. There were still documented lynchings in the U.S. in 1968.

Like this juxtaposition, “30 Americans” offers an unrestrained and uncompromising dialogue on what it means to be black and American, exposing the racial, societal and cultural demons in us all, and forcing us to confront those things we spend our lives trying to ignore.

I am not a cultural historian, and I cannot pretend to understand the society or struggles of black America across the last century on any more than a literary level. So in order to discuss this show with any honesty or integrity, I have to strip away my third-party neutrality, my anonymous journalistic voice, and face it as a human being. I am a young white male. The baggage I carry into this show is that of ambiguous, quiet guilt, self-imposed ignorance and displaced confusion. I cannot help feeling a little self-congratulatory—and subsequently low—to be partaking in this act of cross-cultural dialogue, this academic diplomacy in exploring the art and sensibilities of another culture that is actually sort of my own culture. Was it going to isolate my whiteness? Are the stereotypes my own social filtering, or am I seeing them because the artist intended to show them outright? Coming into this exhibition, however, I felt connected with so much of this work.

The affectations and fetishized materials used by artists throughout the exhibition—shea butter, wax, cotton, soap, plastic rhinestones—the symbols and references to slavery, sharecropping and lynch mobs, the societal pigeonholes of basketball and hip-hop, were all things I fundamentally recognized. The often excessive glitz and grime of the work found me experiencing a world of which I have always lived just outside. I found unusual comfort in my kinship with the material, in understanding the ironies, injustices and tribulations of black America better than I realized. That was a short-lived and rather diluted epiphany.

Zora Neale Hurston, the seminal African American folklorist and anthropologist, wrote on the subject of understanding African American culture:

[African American culture is] particularly evasive. You see we are a polite people and we do not say to our questioners, “Get out of here!” We smile and tell him or her something that satisfies the white person because, knowing so little about us, he doesn’t know what he is missing…

A self-portrait by Xaviera Simmons shows the artist with her brown skin colored coal black and sitting naked before her camera in an overgrown wheat field with a righteous afro. In the opposing image, Simmons stands in the field, wrapped in a trench coat as black as her darkened skin. The images are a surge of carnal and spiritual defiance, pointing to the stigma of African heritage and its increasingly dramatic, often misguided interpretations. We may see her and we may judge her on the surface, but that doesn’t mean we understand anything about her. We have not been let in.

Hank Willis Thomas exposes the trappings of African American youth culture with pop-poster-like images you might see tacked onto the wall of a college dorm room, but with a dark and troubled conscience. ‘Basketball and Chain’ depicts the lower half of two young black men in basketball jerseys jumping high into the air, a basketball chained to their leg. In another image, a Nike brand-shaped scar is etched into the shaved head of a young black man. It is not difficult to intellectualize the paralyzing societal delusions of urban teenagers striving for athletic fortune without other foreseeable options, but the struggle is not in seeing it. The struggle is in living with it or being able to change it.

Men stand poised between self-righteousness and preemptive submission in the paintings of Barkley L. Hendricks. A freestanding wall made of raw cotton and wax reaches almost to the ceiling. The cryptic symbology of Jean-Michel Basquiat and the divine, tragic beauty of Kehinde Wiley’s monumental 25-foot portrait, ‘Sleep,’ both have the power to unhinge your jaw in wonder and contemplation: what does it feel like to be black and American?

The difficulty in dealing with such deeply rooted, socially inflammatory subject matter is that it can tend toward the overwrought, and vehemence often gets in the way of true significance, running the risk of beating its audience over the head with its message. But “30 Americans” handles itself with grace and perspective, facilitating an open, honest conversation with its audience.

But the depths of what I may never understand linger in the back of my throat. I get the references to blaxploitation films. I am left sad and weak by the images of malnourished slaves and lynch victims. I empathize with the innumerable injustices the African American people have faced, and I admire “30 Americans” for providing a lens into the contemporary manifestations of these displaced feelings and issues. But the subtexts might forever elude me: what does it mean to be black and American today?

For some, this show is the embodiment of ambiguous race and class confusions neglected in our daily lives. For African Americans of my generation, I imagine “30 Americans” is a conversation across generations of families who have been dismantled and disassembled, and who put themselves back together through their stories, their art and the resilience of their spirit. “30 Americans” begins to explore what it would take to really exist in a post-racial society. It would seem that the answer is to understand—not shy away from—our distinctions.

“30 Americans,” at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, is on display through Feb. 12, 2012. For more information visit [Corcoran.org.](http://www.corcoran.com/)