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THURSDAY
A skateboarder’s relationship to injury is as much a part of his art as his relationship to the urban environment. My own life catalog of skate-inflicted personal destruction bears this out: If it’s not for the sake of art, then I must just be an idiot. Performance artist Bill “Crutchmaster” Shannon approaches wheeled exertion somewhat differently. Afflicted since childhood with a degenerative disease, the former Easter Seals poster boy discovered skateboarding as a means to ease the pain of his daily movement. As a breakdancer, crutch acrobat, digital-video artist, and provocateur, Shannon is fascinated by his own ability to transcend limitations and by people’s responses to him and his many spectacular falls. To find out why injury can be anything but crippling, join him tonight for “Elegance and Accident,” at 7 p.m. at the Kennedy Center’s Education Resource Center. Free. (202) 416-8811. (Colin Bane)