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Last year, Jen Kirkman quit Twitter. For the heavily followed stand-up comic and Chelsea Lately panelist, that was a big gesture. “I’m on a Twitter strike,” she blogged at the time. “I am so sick of the way men on Twitter treat lady comics.” Then Kirman started a Tumblr called MA’AM, or “Men Aligned Against Misogyny,” that invited dudes to sound off about sexism and its discontents. Kirkman’s minicampaign against Internet-enabled misogyny might have achieved only a microscopic surge forward in the ongoing battle against the patriarchy, but here’s hoping it won her legions of feminist fans—people like me who were tempted to write her off as a mean-spirited Chelsea Handler carbon copy. Kirkman’s precisely not that. She’s become one of the best and most versatile storytellers in comedy, just as comfortable on a morning radio show as she is on culty “alt” podcasts. Earlier this week, she finally saw the release of her debut memoir, I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids—an extension of some of her most thoughtful and successful material. But perhaps the best way to laugh with Kirkman is in the same room as her—or on Twitter, which she eventually rejoined. Jen Kirkman performs at 10 p.m.
Friday and 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday at Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse, 2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington. $20. (703) 486-2345. arlingtondrafthouse.com.