WHO SAYS POLITICAL art has to be all serious? Michael Scoggins' message in "Friday Night Gun Fight" is all business, but his playful delivery could have visitors cracking up. Large-scale notebook pages that look as if they've been ripped from a second-grader's homework proclaim messages like "I <3 My Gun." In another work, a drawing of the United States being menaced by a hairy monster is accompanied by the caption, "Boogyman is going to get us!"
» Project 4 Gallery, 903 U St. NW, through Oct. 25; 202-232-4340. (Shaw-Howard University)
Photo Courtesy of Michael Scoggins
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ALTHOUGH A TRUCE between two main rival street "crews" in Shaw is holding, D.C. police say a feud involving a man recently released from prison who is part of another gang not party to the peace accord has sparked an increase in gunfire and other violence in the area near the Washington Convention Center.
As The Post's Petula Dvorak reports:
Grandmothers are afraid to leave their homes; children are being kept inside. Longtime residents are saying, "Not again," while newcomers are posting items on blogs about the outbreak of violence, including many nights when gunshots can be heard in the area.The center of activity has been at the intersection of 7th and O streets NW, where the Metropolitan Police Department has set up a 24-hour watch.
» "Gunfire Incidents in Shaw Rattle Residents, Prompt More Patrols" [WaPo]
AT THE CORNER of 9th and Q streets NW in Shaw, one of the District's many triangle parks sits waiting for upgrades.
In 2006, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, working in collaboration with the Washington Convention Center Authority and the D.C. government, announced the selection of an artist to craft a sculpture honoring Carter G. Woodson, the African-American historian and writer whose work led to the creation of Black History Month. Woodson lived in a house around the corner on 9th Street, which will be renovated by the National Park Service for use as a Woodson museum.
Continue Reading "Plans for Park Improvements in Shaw Are Stalled" »
ON A RECENT EVENING, a pair of diners sat in the window seat at Queen of Sheba on 9th Street NW in Shaw. Between them, they shared traditional Ethiopian vegetarian plates, like Atkilt, a stew made with carrots, potatoes, cabbage, red pepper and onions. They glanced directly across the street, at the Shiloh Baptist Church, raised their Heineken beers and took a swig.
It was a somewhat ordinary scene — but, after a nearly two-year battle for a liquor license, it's one that owner Embzam Misgina now takes comfort in. "It was very difficult," he said, of the unexpected fight he faced with the church when opening his restaurant in early 2006. "We wouldn't have opened here if we had known."
It was unexpected because both a corner liquor store and a nearby Giant supermarket sell alcohol. Yet, when Misgina applied for a license, the church contested it because Queen of Sheba was located less than 400 feet from Seaton Elementary School. Twenty-two months, a legislative change and protest hearing later, the restaurant was allowed to start serving alcohol a month ago.
Continue Reading "After Battle With Church, Shaw Restaurant Thrives" »
IT'S BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD for the D.C. government's plan to lure Prince George's County-based Radio One into the city now that the D.C. Council has balked at a proposal that's been labeled a land giveaway.
The District government had offered $16 million in public financing and free land near the Shaw-Howard University Metrorail station worth $6 million as an enticement for Radio One, the nation's largest broadcaster catering to African-Americans, to build its $115 million Broadcast Center One on 7th Street NW.
As The Post's Nikita Stewart reports, two council members, Kwame Brown and Jack Evans, told D.C.'s planning and economic development office to revisit the proposed deal.
» "D.C. Council Members Balk At Deal for Radio One Offices" [WaPo]
» EARLIER: "To Lure Radio One to Shaw, D.C. May Grant It Land" [Free Ride/Express]
IT SOUNDS LIKE A PRETTY NICE GIFT: $16 million in public financing and $6 million's worth of land along 7th Street NW in Shaw. That's what Prince George's County-based Radio One would get from the D.C. government if it moves back into the District, where the nation's largest radio station catering to African-Americans got its start years ago.
As The Post's Nikita Stewart reports, the D.C. Council is holding a hearing today on the proposed deal, in which Radio One would move into a $115 million mixed-used project that's been proposed adjacent to the Shaw-Howard University Metrorail station.
The proposed Broadcast Center One would be part of the D.C. government's plan to promote economic development along 7th Street NW in Shaw and the lower Georgia Avenue corridor near Howard University.
» "D.C. Plans Project as Home for Radio One" [WaPo]
ONCE UPON A MICROPHONE, a somewhat shy Marsha Ambrosius dreamed of solo success. Then some personal and Industry obstacles derailed that dream.
"I was like, 'A solo career? Oh, no. That's not for me. ... Let me put all my focus on writing and production for other people,'" said Ambrosius.
While writing and producing, and also singing on the local circuit, she met spoken-word artist Natalie Stewart. That's how Ambrosius became the high-pitched half of soul- and R&B-laced duo Floetry.
"Floetry came about because we were cool. We weren't trying to put a group together; we were just doing poetry gigs together. It so happened that we got a deal out of it when we came over to the States," she explained.
WHILE IT'S NOT EVEN COMPLETE yet, Milt Peterson's National Harbor mega development in Prince George's County, pictured at left, has District business interests quivering in fear.
When completed and open for business, National Harbor is poised to drain a lot of convention business — and the revenue that comes with it — away from the nation's capital. The mammoth Washington Convention Center, the building pictured above, which dominates Mount Vernon Square and Shaw, is already a structure that hasn't lived up to expectations. And while bookings are up for 2008, there are concerns that the convention center's prospects will dim once Peterson's place downriver is up and running. There's some optimism, too — but not much.
Last week came word that all hope is pretty much lost on a deal to construct a convention center "headquarters" hotel, a notion near and dear to the convention industry. In his column, The Post's Steven Pearlstein lambasted the failure of the District government, private developer Kingdon Gould and the convention center authority to make the hotel deal happen.
Can the convention center be saved from turning into a white elephant? Could parts of the city's largest building be put to better use?
If the various public and private convention center interests can't move forward with a plan to increase the Washington Convention Center's competitiveness, perhaps it might be time to look at other options. Perhaps it's time to host one of those buzzworthy design charettes, where the public and local officials meet with architects and design firms, like Torti Gallas and EDAW, to gin up some innovative ideas.
In the meantime, we present a few ideas of our own, most of which we'll readily admit aren't that feasible. But some crazy visionary is bound to run with at least one of two of them. Maybe.
Continue Reading "Ideas to Save D.C.'s New Convention Center" »
AFTER ANOTHER SERIES of smoky eruptions shut down another batch of Metrorail stations during Monday's evening rush, Metro officials are considering the possibility that the incidents could have been caused intentionally.
"This is not normal," Metro General Manager John Catoe said, according to The Post's Lena H. Sun and Martin Weil. "This is highly, highly irregular."
Report Sun and Weil:
Asked whether he thought the incidents might be intentional, [Catoe] said: "Could it be something else [other than an accident]? Everything now is suspicious."Monday's delays began at around 7 p.m. after several trains lost power between the Pentagon City and Braddock Road stations on the Blue and Yellow lines, according to a Metro press statement. A track fire was reported at the Pentagon City station. A fire was also reported at the U Street-Cardozo station, which shut down both that station and the stop at Columbia Heights from 7:20 p.m. to 8:40 p.m., the statement said.A spokesman for the D.C. fire department said that the department was "very concerned" about the large number of incidents in a brief period and that the department would try to assist Metro in determining whether they were more than accidental.
Shuttle buses ferried passengers between L'Enfant Plaza and Huntington and also between the Georgia Avenue-Petworth and Shaw-Howard University stations.
Continue Reading "Smoke, Fire Cause Another Messy Metro Commute" »
CALYPSO WAS ONCE the musical equivalent of a tabloid newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago.
Songs with lilting melodies about politicians and colonialism were mashed up against percussive and ribald sexual and drinking tales, but they all had rich word play and double-entendre-filled lyrics that could make pointed social criticisms just as well as they could make listeners double over in laughter.
Of course, calypso's clever lyrics usually baffled American artists such as The Andrews Sisters, who had a huge hit in 1945 with a cover of the Lord Invader and Lionel Belasco tune "Rum and Coca-Cola."
The U.S. had set up military bases in Trinidad during World War II, and Lord Invader's lyrics speak to the way women were becoming prostitutes "working for the Yankee dollar."
Meanwhile, The Andrews Singers plowed through "Rum and Coca-Cola's" words in perfect harmony and made the angry tune sound like a happy-go-lucky party jam.
That is one of the better known tales in calypso lore, as is the controversy surrounding Harry Belafonte's massively successful 1956 LP, "Calypso." Both of these stories are recounted in the documentary "Calypso Dreams," but the film also digs deep into the history and artistry of this distinctly Trini roots music.
Trinidad and Tobago will celebrate its 45th year of independence from Great Britain on Aug. 31, and the T&T embassy in Washington, D.C., has prepared a weeklong celebration, which kicks off Friday with a free screening of "Calypso Dreams" at Howard University's Armour J. Blackburn University Center.
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