Start your week with arts news you can use, the headlines you may have missed, and interesting notes for you to know—like the return of D.C. Pride and the Dyke March.
Not Gay As in Happy, but Queer as In: The Capital is never short on Pride, but the annual celebration, honoring the 1969 Stonewall Riots, returns to D.C. this week with an array of events to help our city’s queer and trans communities celebrate however we feel necessary. The official celebrations, put on by the Capital Pride Alliance, run the gamut of spoken word, the annual parade, festival, and loads of parties. The parade returns to Dupont Circle with a modified route on Saturday, June 11, from 3 to 7:30 p.m. Sunday’s festival and concert take place from noon to 10 p.m. along Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Headliners include the Joe Jonas-fronted DNCE and two Drag Race stars, Willow Pill and Symone. Queer indie-pop darling VINCINT will also perform as will Jody Watley, Tracy Young, and some local LGBTQ DJs.
As for unofficial, unrelated, and unaffiliated events, the DC Dyke March returns after two long years on June 10. Kicking off at 6 p.m. at Franklin Park, the theme for this year’s march is Dykes for Body Liberation: Hands Off Our Bodies (amen), which targets everything from the imminent threat of overturning Roe v. Wade, ongoing gun violence, state attacks on trans and queer youth, the demand for body autonomy, fat and disabled rights, and defunding police. “All of these topics might seem kind of disjointed, but for us, they really fall under the umbrella of body liberation,” a Dyke March organizer told DCist last week.
Parties include the much-beloved Booty Rex (IYKYK) from the DJs of Anthology of Booty and She Rex (RIP), returning to Black Cat on June 10. Lure and Tagg Magazine team up for FUSE at Howard Theatre, also on June 10. Likewise, EchoStage has a Friday night party with Capital Pride, which also hosts the Saturday night celebration at City Winery (both are 18 and up). The city’s newest queer bar, As You Are, is also hosting tons of events like Greetings from Queer Mountain and As You Aren’t, its own Saturday night Pride party. There’s more, but this should get you started.
And All That Jazz: We celebrated the return of the National Gallery of Art’s Jazz in the Garden, but then those free tickets were hard to come by, selling out faster than night two of Phoebe Bridgers’ concert (that’s this weekend, btw). So today, June 6, the NGA announced it will begin offering limited day-of passes for the weekly Friday evening event, which will be available online each Friday at 10 a.m. This week Hawaii native and L.A.-based Grammy winner Daniel Ho will perform alongside some friends. Ho’s award-winning music puts a touch of island life in contemporary instrumentals.
The Good Kind of Dox: Washington is getting a new film festival. The DC/DOX festival, which won’t technically host its inaugural event until June 2023, will focus on showcasing and celebrating the art of documentary filmmaking. Founded by industry vets Jamie Shor and Sky Sitney, the fest promises to unite “innovative visions, bold voices, and timely stories.” The president of PR Collaborative, Shor has worked with local film festivals and production companies. Sitney directs Georgetown University’s film and media studies program and and is the co-creator of Double Exposure.
In the June 3 press release announcing the festival, Sitney said, “Washington, D.C. has always been an essential home for leading-edge documentary films. With the explosion of nonfiction storytelling in recent years, we wanted to create a new space to showcase this vital work.” Though it’ll be a year before the full fest kicks off, DC/DOX hosts a one-night-only launch event on June 15 at the Landmark Atlantic Plumbing Cinema. Expect screenings of seven 2022 documentaries, including one on America’s maternal health crisis and another on an all-girl heavy metal rock band from Lebanon, followed by conversations between the filmmakers and local journalists. In the press release, Shor says the launch event will introduce “film lovers of D.C. to DC/DOX, inviting them to join us in celebrating these incredible stories on film, and serving as a critical marketplace for the launch of prestige documentary films in the nation’s capital.”
Gimme More More More: From The Crown to Spencer, it seems everyone wants to tell Princess Diana’s story lately. For local Anglophiles, the latest venture in covering the life of the People’s Princess as a “walk-through documentary” is coming to Tysons Corner. Princess Diana: Accredited Access Exhibition opens June 8 and features massive images alongside never-before-heard stories from Princess Diana’s royal photographer, Anwar Hussein. According to the press release, this is the “world’s first-ever walk-through documentary that showcases a stunning, audiovisual journey through the life and legacy” of the Princess of Wales. In addition to the photos, visitors will also see paper sculpture recreations of Diana’s—and her daughter-in-laws’—most memorable fashion moments, made by multimedia artist Pauline Loctin.
Art But Make It Local: Shop Made in DC has signed a 10-year lease at its new Georgetown location at 1304 Wisconsin Ave. NW. The new space provides more room for local makers as well as an upstairs for workshops and gallery events. PROUD, the gallery’s first exhibit, features four dozen works from queer and trans makers in honor of Pride Month. Also reopening this week is Femme Fatale DC’s pop-up shop. The local grassroots retail venture returns to 3409 Connecticut Ave. NW with its continuing goal of creative immersive retail, event space, and a thriving market for women and nonbinary creators to grow.
