Here are some of the many Haikus currently posted around the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District. These examples are found on K Street. I like how the Golden Triangle BID finds creative ways to make the area interesting — something that a Georgia Avenue Main Streets should consider when one is established.
![IMG_0284[1]](https://parkviewdc.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/img_02841.jpg)
![IMG_0285[1]](https://parkviewdc.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/img_02851.jpg)
![IMG_0286[1]](https://parkviewdc.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/img_02861.jpg)
Here’s a local opportunity to participate in the Humanities Council of Washington, DC’s Humanitini Program. On Thursday, May 21, the next program will be held at The Coupe in Columbia Heights. The program is free and runs from 6:30 to 8:00 pm, though registration is requested.
Thursday’s program will focus on New Americans, and leads in with the question How long will the enclave of immigrant communities such as DC’s Ethiopian, Chinese and Greek communities retain their unique identities in wake of so much historical assimilation and displacement?
Following are the details from the Humanities Council Web site:
At the turn of the 20th century, Washington, DC was a patchwork of European immigrant communities representing a wide array of nationalities and ethnicities. Like most east-coast metropolitan areas, there were Irish, Italian, German, Greek, and Jewish enclaves, each with relatively insular cultural traditions and self-sustaining economic systems. But at various points over the ensuing five decades these communities would become shadows of their former selves, leaving traces scarcely visible to the casual streetscape observer.
In more recent years, other previously vibrant immigrant communities have become increasingly diffuse. The Chinese community’s cultural predominance in the Chinatown neighborhood hinges on the programming and awareness conducted by the Chinatown Community Cultural Center and the dwindling population of the Wah Luck House. Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights and Mt. Pleasant, once bastions of the DC’s Central American culture, have experienced a dramatic exodus to the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. The Washington, DC metro area is currently home to more people of Ethiopian descent than any city outside Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. The core of this community is a small portion of the Shaw neighborhood sometimes (controversially) known as “Little Ethiopia.”
How long will these communities retain their unique identities in wake of so much historical assimilation and displacement? Have ethnic enclaves in other cities experienced so much fluidity, either nationally or globally, or is the phenomenon unique to Washington? How are historians, anthropologists, and other scholars working to preserve the cultures of extant immigrant communities while reclaiming those that have been rendered invisible?
Speakers:
Moderator – Jill H. Wilson, Senior Research Analyst, Brookings Institute
Panelists: Christine Warnke, Ted Gong, Olivia Cadaval, Quique Aviles, Ana Rodriguez, Trymaine Lee
LiveArtDC to Stage ‘R+J: Star-Cross’d Death Match’ from July 10 – 26, 2014 as Part of the 9th Annual Capital Fringe Festival
Award-winning neighborhood bar to host a production of Shakespeare’s most famous love story — re-imagined with liberal libations, competitive flip cup and lots of audience participation
Washington, D.C. — May 23, 2014 — LiveArtDC will host the DC premiere of Three Day Hangover’s “R+J: Star-Cross’d Death Match” for the 2014 Capital Fringe Festival at Georgia Ave’s finest watering hole, DC Reynolds — which has won the best happy hour prize in the annual City Paper Best of DC Readers’ Poll for two years running. From rap battles, dance-offs and beer-filled flip cup competitions, the boozy retelling of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” brings the audience into the middle of theater’s best-known family feud.
The play was adapted and created by Ben Charles and Lori Wolter Hudson and originally produced byThree Day Hangover, a New York City theater company that produces fresh, unexpected, immersive, and joyful productions of classic plays in bars. Hailed as “one of the smartest productions of a Shakespeare play” by Theatre Online, the show sold out its initial run and was critically acclaimed. (more…)
Yesterday, a reader brought an article from the City Paper to my attention that focused on the future of the Capital Fringe Festival (Capital Fringe Web site here). The article is a follow up to one from last spring and collectively they focus on the Capital Fringe’s need to move from the Mount Vernon Square area and find new quarters elsewhere in the District. The article from last week includes Fringe’s “ambitious plans to procure a long-term lease of a 10,000- to 15,000-square-foot new space, which the organization will program year-round.”
The question that was put to me was essentially this: Do you think Capital Fringe would be a good fit on Georgia Avenue?
My initial reaction was sure, why wouldn’t it be? We have good transportation, past surveys of community wants and needs have identified arts as desirable, and (very important right now) our recent developments seem to fill the residential units quickly, but have difficulty filling the commercial spaces at this time. I also think that something like the Capital Fringe could also be an anchor, hub, or destination that would not only promote the arts, but help generate additional foot traffic that in turn would support our existing neighborhood small businesses.
I’ve already begun reaching out to the developers who I know have planned projects on Georgia Avenue to get a sense of their responses but don’t have any news to share on that front. I am interested in feedback from residents. Would this be a good fit for Georgia Avenue? If so, is there an existing building that would be ideal, or would this need to be a goal for a future development project?
Below is a rendering that the City Paper posted showing what the Fringe’s new space could look.
Here’s a program I’m participating in tonight that might be of interest (and which I’ve previously posted about) — a panel discussion about the role of preserving history in maintaining community ties. All in all, it promises to be a good discussion.
Details from an email sent out by the Humanities Council:
Who: Local real estate professionals, community historians, and government officials will discuss the importance of historical preservation and knowledge in relation to a modern sense of community.
Joining us will be:
This panel will be moderated by Jane Freundel Levey, Director of Heritage and Community Programs, Cultural Tourism DC.
What: Because of the high cost of living and residential displacement, there is a growing rift between long-time residents and more recent arrivals. The annual summer DC Community Heritage Project symposium will address how residents’ knowledge of D.C.’s history can establish a sense of community.
When: Tuesday June 25, 2013 from 6:30-8:30
Where: 1840 14th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20009 (Three blocks from the U Street Metro Station)
RSVP today for this FREE opportunity at http://dcchpsymposium.eventbrite.com/. For more information, please call (202) 387-8391, or emailing info (at) wdchumanities (dot) org.
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities has announced the winners of its grants for 2012, totaling $3.7 million. Of the 227 grants awarded to local artists and nonprofit organizations, 43 went to individuals and groups based in Ward One, and of that number, three that we could identify went to artists in Park View.
The funds were distributed through eight separate grant lines. Recipients in Park View were Kim Roberts (with two grants, in Individual Artists and Community Arts), and Regie Cabico (with one grant in Individual Artists).
Other recipients included organizations and individuals in Mt. Pleasant, Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan, and U Street. One grant, in arts education, went to an organization called Mentors of Minorities in Education in nearby Pleasant Plains.
A few Ward One grantees got multiple grants, applying through different grant lines simultaneously, such as: City Arts (which creates public murals, based in Mt. Pleasant, 2 grants); Critical Exposure (student photography, U Street neighborhood, 2 grants), the Dance Institute of Washington (Columbia Heights, 3 grants); SpeakeasyDC (storytelling for adults, Columbia Heights, 2 grants); GALA Hispanic Theater (Columbia Heights, 2 grants): Words Beats & Life (hip hop, Mt. Pleasant, 3 grants): and the biggest winner, Young Playwrights Theater (Columbia Heights, 5 grants).
Grants ranged from just over $1,000 to $50,000. Of all the applications for funding received by the commission, 43% were offered full or partial support. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities estimate that the arts provide a total economic impact of over $746 million annually in Washington.
"The territory comprising Park View extends from Gresham Street north to Rock Creek Church Road, and from Georgia Avenue to the Soldiers' Home grounds, including the triangle bounded by Park Road, Georgia Avenue, and New Hampshire Avenue" (from Directory and History of Park View, 1921.)
Unknown Feed Washington Business Journal
Park View, D.C. 