27

TUESDAY

Spike Lee’s Bed-Stuy could be a neighborhood in D.C. You have an Italian pizza joint, a Korean grocery store, and some Latino b-boys, all staking out their places in a predominantly black neighborhood as white police officers drive slowly by. And in the summertime, the stagnant, sweltering air isn’t going anywhere—and neither is the income of people who work hard just to feed their families. Put all these ingredients together, and you have an environment simmering with trouble. As Bob Marley said, “A hungry man is an angry man”—and extra mozzarella or musical dedications from Mister Senor Love Daddy just don’t satisfy. Lee’s classic Do the Right Thing, screened tonight as part of American University’s Racism in America series, shows how such a neighborhood can erupt into fiery expression when law enforcement pulls a Rodney King. At 8 p.m. at American University’s SIS Lounge, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Free. (202) 885-2421. (Ayesha Morris)