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SATURDAY

A couple of days after getting kicked off the ballot, Mayor Anthony A. Williams finally stepped out from behind his lawyers and began making pit stops around the city. At Tryst, he stiffly sidled up to patrons and asked them what he should do next. Outside the trendy spot, his campaign lackeys buzzed on cell phones, hoisted campaign signs, and bullshitted with each other. One Williams crony parodied what the campaign should say. He riffed that the mayor’s ordeal was something out of MLK’s playbook: that he’d “been to the mountaintop” and seen the “promised land.” And Tryst was it. Every campaign buppie laughed hard. It was the type of honest joke that would make white liberals (and Jesse Jackson) wince. It was a moment made for a Spike Lee film. More than anything, Lee is an expert on capturing these scenes: His movies, the good and the awful, brim with intimate conversations on hard subjects. As part of tonight’s lecture, expect Lee to dish on Hollywood, race, and, of course, persuading people to give him money to make another film. And expect a lot of unguarded moments between the director and his audience. Lee will appear at 7 p.m. at the Kennedy Center’s Education Resource Center. $15. (202) 467-4600. (Jason Cherkis)