People's District

People's District Has a New Home!

2010-06-21T09:03:00.001-04:00

From now on, you can find People's District at www.peoplesdistrict.com.

Thank you for reading.

Danny

Todd on Sign Language

2010-06-18T09:00:00.003-04:00

Todd is pictured with his tortoise, Lightning.

"Special education has always fascinated me. When I got into this work, they were still institutionalizing many people with special needs. As a student in Pennsylvania, they used to take us to visit the 'severe and profoundly retarded people,' as they called them in those days. I also remember once when we met these Siamese twins, Lori and Dori, who were connected at the head. I was always fascinated and inspired by people with special needs' desire to pursue a normal life despite the hardship.

"In 1977, I came to Washington to study sign language at Gallaudet University. I thought it would make me a more marketable special education instructor. At that time, the school only took hearing students at the graduate level who were studying education. Otherwise, all undergraduates had some degree of deafness. I gotta tell you, it was rough for me. I had a really hard time learning sign language and many of the kids were not that helpful. You know, every day, these kids would struggle in the hearing world trying to make people understand them. On 'their' turf, if you didn't understand, many people would just move on. I thought about leaving, but I stayed and I will never regret it. It is a great skill to have, especially in this city because D.C. is the number one employer of the disabled.

"My first job out of Gallaudet was at the Arizona State School for the Deaf and Blind. I am an east coast boy and had never been farther west than Pittsburgh. Here I was driving to Tucson. I had a class of deaf students who were all boys and didn't look at me. I used to think, how can deaf kids not look at an instructor and know what is going on? Turns out that they were Papago Indians and in their culture, they are not supposed to look an adult in the eye. Would have been a nice thing to know before I started in the classroom. After a year there, I realized that Arizona was not for me and I came back to D.C. I started teaching high school in Prince George's County and then came back to Gallaudet to teach adult education.

"While I was in graduate school, I dabbled in translation, but didn't get into it as a career until I left teaching adult education. Now, I do sign language interpretation full-time. I have done all kinds of events where I am standing right next to the president and other important people. These events are fascinating because you see all of the behind the scenes stuff and get a window into the lives of celebrities and politicians. I did an event for President Clinton right after the Oklahoma City bombing. Talk about fascinating.

"During these events, you become the speaker. Not only do you convey the words, but you convey the tone and affect. When they are loud, your signs are big. When they are quiet, your signs are small. The job has an element of being an actor, too. Every once in a while, I do an event for someone who can be difficult to understand. One time, I translated for the president of South Korea. At every event, there are always two translators, so that we can switch off every 25 minutes and spot each other. The off person sits in front of you and helps if you miss a word. I tell you, there were times when I couldn't understand a word of what this guy was saying. My colleague had no idea either. I was so nervous, but when I looked out into the crowd, it seemed like no one in the audience had a clue either, so it wasn't so bad.

"Another great thing about this job is that I also translate for students in different university and graduate programs around D.C. With all of the classes and programs I have translated for, I could have one M.D, one J.D., three Ph.Ds and at least 20 Masters. I follow these kids throughout their program and do all of the work, too. The school pays for all of this. A deaf school will never have to pay to make things accessible. For one guy at American University, I sat through his entire Ph.D. program in education, which is what I studied, including his comps and dissertation defense. Afterwards, the department chair asked me if I got any credit for the courses I had attended. I said, 'No.' He ended up offering me a scholarship to get my Ph.D. in education.

"Like I said, learning sign language has been one of the most rewarding and interesting things that I have done. Who would have guessed that I would have had all of these amazing experience through learning another language?'

Dinah on Settling Herself Down

2010-06-17T09:00:00.015-04:00

"I have been around kids my whole life, so I knew that being a bus attendant was the right job for me. I used to do manager stuff over at Blockbuster Video, but I needed a change. Three years ago, I went in and applied to work with the school buses. I never thought about being a driver. I knew that I wanted to sit in the back and be around the kids. It is a little bit of a step down from what I was doing before, but that's okay. I really enjoy my job.

"I grew up in D.C. and went to school in Montgomery County. I never rode school buses as a kid, only public buses, so this was all new to me when I started. Every day, the bus driver and I go and pick up kids around Maryland and D.C. A lot of the kids who take my bus have special needs, either physical or mental. I am there to help the kids get on-and-off the bus and make sure that they behave while they are on the bus. Sometimes, I interact with the kids while we are riding, but you have to be careful and keep your boundaries, so that they understand who is the boss.

"They really trained us for everything before I started. Turns out that everything that they said was the truth. I have never had really difficult kids, but I can't speak for everybody. Being here is also nice because there is a good work force. Sometimes we might argue, but that happens any where. In the end, we are like a family.

"If I keep working hard, I can move up to a management position and oversee the bus yard or be a timekeeper. Thing is that I want to go get my college degree so that I can be a teacher. After I graduated high school, I jumped from job-to-job trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I thought about college, but like a lot of people, I was young and wanted to party. But I settled myself down. Since I had my daughter, Mahira, I really settled myself down. I have to say that my work now has a lot of influence on me wanting to be a teacher and get ahead."

Arnold on Spreading the Joy

2010-06-16T09:00:00.003-04:00

"I grew up on a farm in Foster, Rhode Island, or 'Fostah' as we call it. I dropped out of high school at 18 to work and was drafted to be in the war that same year. I was trained as Military Police (MP) up in Augusta, Maine. They had me guarding German soldiers in Fort Devens, Massachusetts. These were guys from the Africa core who were older and pretty calm because they weren't in the desert and no one was shooting at them anymore. After that, they sent me to Fort Edwards where I was guarding the young, tough Germans who were off of Normandy Beach. These were some serious guys. They would come over to me and fold a bottle cap in half with their hands just to show off. You try that sometime. It ain't easy.

"Next, they sent me to Germany. I was an MP in Germany, which was a really dangerous job because about 75% of us got knocked off by sniper fire. A few weeks into my service, the war ended. When I heard, it didn't register. I couldn't believe it. One of the stories that really sticks with me from Germany was when we were patrolling an area and came across a house. We hadn't had a shower, hot meal, or decent shelter in weeks, so we took over the place and sent the lady living there to sleep in the barn. This woman had the same stature as my mother and took to me for some reason. She asked if she could wash my clothes and make me something to eat, so I let her do it. As we were leaving the house the next day, she took me by the hand over to a photo of her son who was about my age and wearing a Nazi uniform. She said in German, 'The war is over, but my son is not coming home.' We hugged and cried. In 1987, I went back to Germany with my wife to find that woman and say, 'thank you.' Turns out, a year before, she was killed in a traffic accident. I will never be able to tell her thank you. That always urinates me off.

"When I finally got out of the service, I came back to Rhode Island. I got a job digging ditches, but figured there was something better for me. I decided to finish high school and go to college at Pacific University in Portland, Oregon to study journalism. I got a job with the Evening Star in Washington as a news photographer in 1951. I covered everything in this town during my 13 years there. I got pictures of presidents, high society, criminals, you name it. I was a bachelor at the time and took all of the evening and weekend jobs. Went to parties that never quit with plenty of liquor and I danced with all of the high society people.

"After my service here, I decided to go to seminary and be an Episcopal priest. That took me away from Washington to southern Maryland for 22 years. My community was all pig farmers. But after growing up on a farm and taking pictures in Washington, I could talk to anyone. When I retired, I came back to D.C. because I love it here. I am an avid swing dancer and love that there is dancing every night of the week here. I used to dance for three hours straight when I was younger. I would finish dancing with some gal and before I got to the side, there would be a different gal tapping me on the shoulder for another dance. Now that I am 84, I can't dance like I used to, but still think that it is important to spread the joy with my dancing when I can."

Eugene 'Thunder' Hughes on the Midtown Youth Academy

2010-06-15T09:00:00.001-04:00

Eugene, right, is pictured with Jeffrey, one of the Midtown Youth Academy's boxing coaches and a graduate of Dr. Hughes' program.

'I was born over in a neighborhood that they tore down to build the Rayburn House Office Building. I was one of 13 children. We had an outhouse, oil lamps, an ice box, and had to chop wood for the stove. It was a different time then. When I was just a kid, maybe nine years old, I started boxing. I turned out to be pretty good and won pretty much everything there was to win in the world, from the golden gloves to the worldwide all-service tournament four years in a row when I was in the Marines.

"After I got discharged, I was out in California and went down to Watts. There, I joined the Black Panthers and was one of the first members. We were trying to reorganize Watts and let black people know that they were human. We made our own schools and built a parallel community to the white one. But, you know how folks be, those on the outside got real jealous and mad and came after us because we weren't going to live under them no more. When the people from the outside came in, we ended up burning Watts down. Many of us went to jail for the burning. I got four years, but got out in 18 months on good behavior.

"While I was in jail, I sent out an application to the University of Connecticut because I was still under the G.I. Bill. They let me in and I studied to be a lawyer because I wanted to get into the structure and turn things around. Even though I wanted to join the establishment, you never stop being a Black Panther. You always got to keep on.

"I ended up working on a few things up in Connecticut and organizing for a bunch of issues. After a while, I got tired and wanted to come home to Washington. When I came back, I became a roving leader in the Department of Recreation for Mayor Washington. When Barry came in, I worked with him, too. I grew up with Sharon Pratt Kelly in my younger days and became her personal bodyguard when she was mayor. I have worked with Williams and Fenty, too, to help get kids off of the streets and drugs and into college.

"I opened the first Midtown Youth Academy on 14th and T to teach reading, math, and boxing over forty years ago. I worked with kids to show them that they were somebody and could be anything they wanted to. On Sundays, I took em to church with me to celebrate God. The more kids we got, the more I looked for volunteers to come and help us. We believe in each one, teach one here. A lot of kids have come out of our program and opened businesses and been successful leaders of the community. In fact, I own this building, which we have been in for over 21 years, because some of the kids that I trained turned professional and helped me to buy this building. Some of the kids that came through here are people like Russel Davis, Tony Perez, and Sugar Ray Leonard. Even the ones who made it will tell you that there is no easy road in life.

"Now, we are the oldest boxing club in the city. People always tell me that I should change things here and make this place look new. I want to keep it the same way, so it is just like the people who trained here remember it. This is where they came from. They always need to remember that."

The Midtown Youth Academy is located at 2206 14th St. NW.

Josh on Magic

2010-06-14T09:00:00.012-04:00

"I don't have a specific memory of when I first got into magic, but I remember seeing magicians as a kid growing up in Maryland and loving them. My brother and I would get magic books from the library and do simple tricks for each other. Our first major trick was the old hide a carrot in your palm, cover your hand with a handkerchief, and stick needles into the carrot pretending it was your thumb. We did it to my Mom to freak her out.

"While my brother ended up having a passing interest in magic, I could not get enough of it. I started doing shows for my family during the holidays or other family events. I used to prepare for these shows by going to the magic shop or to magic meetings. Yes, magicians have magic meetings. It's crazy, you have 50 year old men drinking beer and smoking next to 12 year olds talking about card tricks. A lot of time, the kids are the best magicians because they have nothing but time to perfect their skills.

"At 14, I started doing magic professionally. I got my first job doing a 45 minute show for $45. I thought a dollar a minute was pretty good back then. The thing is that I was so excited that I did an hour and a half show and pulled out every trick that I knew. The local newspaper, The Carroll County Times, came and from that, I got more work. In high school, I had a show every weekend and was making more money in a weekend than my friends were making all week. I was amazed that I could do something I loved and make money from it.

"To make my parents happy, I went to college to study graphic design, but the plan was always to do magic professionally. During college, I got involved with a start-up and then after I graduated and came to D.C., I split my time between the start-up and my magic career. D.C. is a great city for magic because there are so many meetings and conventions here that need entertainment and it is a great town for networking. Magic has always been my full-time focus, even if it was not my full-time job. At a certain point, I realized that I needed to quit my job to focus fully on my magic career. I decided that I would give myself a year to try and make it as a magician. After the first two months, I realized that I wanted to make this my life. That decision was so liberating for me.

"People here are fascinated when I said that I am a magician. It is such an unusual profession anywhere, but especially in D.C. It always sounds like a joke. People say, 'No really, what do you do?' For me, the real pay off to magic is the reaction from people, whether I am telling someone that I am magician or seeing their response to a trick. You do the same trick you have done for ten years and every time, people are fascinated by it. It never gets old. I have also learned that the way that someone responds to a magic trick says a lot about their personality. Some people get mad at magicians when you really fool them. Not to stereotype, but these are largely lawyers, doctors, and accountants who get frustrated because they don't like not knowing how something is done. Other people are capable of not caring about how it is done and just enjoying it as a form of entertainment. Every once in a while, someone calls me an asshole, but this is the only profession where an insult is actually a compliment. It usually means, you really got me.

"I would encourage everyone to learn a little magic. I think that just like having a joke, everyone should have a magic trick. It's a great, fun thing to know and you don't have to be a magician to do it."

You can see Josh Norris perform every Sunday night from 6-8 p.m. at the Kemble Park Tavern at 5125 Macarthur Blvd NW. See Josh perform one of his tricks on a man at a barbershop here.

Reshell on Going to College

2010-06-13T09:00:00.002-04:00

"My family goes back three generations in D.C. We have always been in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. I really love it here and am going to miss D.C. a lot when I leave in August to go to college. I just graduated from Friendship Collegiate Academy on Minnesota Avenue and will be the first one in my family to go to college. My parents are a little sad that I am going so far away, but the University of North Carolina was the best school that I got into, and I got a scholarship.

"I have been in public charter schools most of my life in D.C. They prepared me a lot for college and taught me that I really like to help people. Now, I am studying health and want to go into physical therapy. I got part of that from my mother who does social work and helps people with all kinds of stuff. I think that because my parents didn't go to college, made them push me harder to do better than what they are doing now. They kept me focused and encouraged me to be my best. I have two younger siblings who are also in D.C. public charter schools and hope to go college, too.

"You know, I really am going to miss this city when I go. It is such a nice place."

Jahi on Listening

2010-06-10T09:00:00.004-04:00

"My parents moved down to Atlanta, Georgia from the D.C. area a few years before I was born. We spent a few years there and then came back up to the area. My Mom is a health practitioner and my father is a teacher, but was trained as a goldsmith. Interesting story, my grandfather was a goldsmith in D.C. He had one of the first black-owned jewelry stores, called Lee Jewelers, on 14th and L St. He then went and opened one in Atlanta. He died of an aneurysm at 45, which always reminded me not to work too hard. My father and uncle trained under him. They tried to teach me, but I never took to it. I was less of a hands on person and more into using my mind to address things like social justice.

"After college, I got a job teaching students advocacy through S.T.E.P Up DC. The idea was to bring youth voices into policy making in this city. In this city, we are used to certain communities dictating the agenda for most of the city. We are trying to change that. For example, a majority of students in SE commute out of SE for school. A lot of students choose to travel around the District for school rather than fight to make their neighborhood schools better. That breaks up a community and has really negative impacts on the surroundings. We help these kids develop their voices and share their words with people who are making the decisions.

"Since starting this work, one thing that I have found difficult is getting people to understand why we need to work to build better neighborhood schools in low-income black and Latino areas. Some people say, 'Well, aren't they just lazy? I mean, we made it. Can't they just get themselves together.' There is lack of understanding between communities in this city. I first saw this when I went away to Morehouse College in Atlanta and came into contact with the wealthier side of black D.C. I met and learned with people who didn’t experience the city the same way I did. People always talk about how D.C. can be a very racially segregated city, but it can even be segregated among people of the same race. I think my main point is that sharing and learning from each other’s experiences is one thing that will bring us together as a city. I learned a lot from those guys I went to school with and I feel they learned a lot from me.

"That makes this work difficult, but as Ella Baker said, 'The struggle is eternal. The tribe increase. Somebody else carries on.' Social justice is a long fight, but there is hope in the fact that you can fight. I get angry driving around town and seeing a lot of the things that go on. But there is hope in seeing how many people, especially youth, want to give back and make this a better place. It's pretty amazing to meet 19 year olds who are thinking about the next generation and want to make life better for them.

"I love building community and interacting with people. I think that one of the things that is really undervalued is the power of other people. I have learned so much from kids and the other people around me. To build a better world, we need to listen and learn from those around us. My lesson from all of this is to always listen and ask good questions. That is the key to everything."

Learn more about S.T.E.P. Up DC here.

Roberto on Coming to Terms with Himself

2010-06-09T09:00:00.013-04:00

"I am fifth generation born in El Paso, Texas. I grew up with my Mom and three sisters, as my Dad was not around. My Mom owned a hair salon and I spent a lot of time there. Back in the day, I never knew if I wanted to do interior design or hair, but I never did either because I thought they were too gay. I always knew that I was gay, but I just thought that I was a freak and there was something wrong with me that could be fixed. Seriously.

"My Mom and I are very close, but she is a really simple woman. One time, she told me that if she found out that her only son was gay, she would kill herself. What do you say to that? I mean, how could I tell my Mom that I wanted to go to hair school? It was basically like coming out of the closet. You spend your time doing hair and carrying around a bag with rollers and flat irons. I loved it, but that is pretty gay. I only decided to enroll in hair school when I came to terms with myself. Now, I am 38 and finally came out to my Mom three Christmases ago. She turned out to be cool with it. I think that she always knew. She was just in denial.

"For most of my life in El Paso, I lived two lives. In high school, I was still in the closet, so I did the whole girlfriend thing and played sports. Right out of high school, I met these guys from Juarez, Mexico who played on a gay volleyball team in El Paso. I started practicing with them and hung out with them because they were the only gay guys that I knew. The whole time, I also had my straight friends and my straight life. I never mixed the two worlds. If it was not for volleyball and meeting those guys, I don't know where I'd be. I'd probably still be straight and in El Paso.

"I ended up leaving El Paso and moving in with my boyfriend in Dallas. When that didn't work out, I was talking with one of my volleyball friends who encouraged me to move to D.C. where he was. When I got here, I worked at a law firm and as a courthouse and jail clerk while I went to hair school at night. It was scary to leave my federal job to pursue hair, but I fucking hated it. My first job was in a really conservative salon in the World Bank, so I wasn't getting a chance to be creative until I started working at Bang salon.

"D.C. is getting better, but it can still be pretty lame in terms of hair and design. Most people here are so afraid to do something different because they work in politics. I get tons of girls who come in and say, 'Do something edgy.' As soon as I give them ideas, they get scared and want to go back to their same haircut. What's that term, freak in the sheets and a lady on the streets. It's like that, I guess. Still, it is so much better than when I came here ten years ago.

"For the most part, I love my clients. I have had to divorce a few of them, but overall they are great. We talk about all kinds of stuff in the chair. Most of these people are sitting behind a desk all day and they want to gossip and hear my crazy stories. They tell me a lot of stuff, too. And I mean, a lot of stuff. I hear about women who cheat on their husbands or have had lesbian experiences. I've heard it all. I guess that girls love that whole Will and Grace thing and want to have a cool, gay best friend."

You can find Roberto at Bang Salon at 601 F Street NW.

Thomas on Having it Real Bad for Drums and Dancing

2010-06-08T09:00:00.010-04:00

"People think that I am African, but I have lived in Washington my whole life. My parents are from South Carolina and came up here in the early 40's. I grew up in a terrible neighborhood called Sursum Corda. I did a lot of dumb things as a kid. You know, I was hanging out with the wrong crowd. My Mom always said, 'If you hang with the wolves, you will howl.' It's true, but I didn't understand it at the time. Now, I tell that to my sons. I am blessed to say that I was never locked up. I have never been in trouble with the law. Getting in trouble with my parents, that's a different story.

"I think that dancing and drumming really saved me from taking the wrong path. I started drumming when I was eight years old. I was playing football for the Boys Club when I heard this drumming coming from the basement of the Boys Club. I was immediately drawn to it. I escaped from practice to find the drumming class and stayed there with my helmet and shoulder pads on. I was mesmerized, and have been ever since. I started dancing a little later bit later.

"All of the dancing we do at Meridian Hill Park is from West Africa. I have been dancing and teaching at the drum circle for 20 years now. It all started because one of the lead drummers, who I knew because we performed together, invited me to come out. There was dancing here before me, but not a lot of West African dancing. You know, a lot of people say that I sound and move like I am from Africa. I guess I can just mark the accent and movement so well. Sometimes the accent comes out and I don't even realize it. It's funny, one time I was performing and this guy from Guinea came over to me afterwards. He thought I was from Guinea, too, and neglecting our country by not dancing at the embassy and for 'our' people more. As he spoke, he got more excited and eventually starting cussing me out in his language. I said, 'Look man, I am not African.' He felt really embarrassed and apologized.

"I guess I just transform into someone different when I dance. It is like a spirit takes over me. One time, I was driving by the U.S. Capitol and they had the Zulu dancers performing. I was in the car with my wife and son. The drums captured me and I jumped out of the car while it was still moving to get to the music. My wife had to jump in the driver's seat and take control of the car. I guess I just have it real bad for drums and dancing. My wish in life is to go to Africa and dance my heart out in Senegal and Guinea.

"I would say to everyone, you need to come up to the park and join us on Sundays. Who needs to pay for a class when you can come and dance with me and the drummers for free. Trust me, you aren't going to find an experience like this anywhere else here."

You can find Thomas and the drum circle in the upper area of Meridian Hill Park on Sunday afternoons.

Paula on Where Heroes Are Buried

2010-06-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

“When Justin finished high school, he decided that he wanted to join the infantry. I just blew up and said, 'You are my only kid, and the country is at war. Why would you put yourself in harms way?' He said, 'Mom, you should have had more kids. This is my dream and you need to man up and be strong.' I supported him, but I also used to clip news articles about war casualties for him to try and dissuade him, but he didn’t care.

"For all of his life, I preached college. He promised that when he got out of the Army, he would go to UCLA and then be a movie star. He was going to be the next Bruce Lee. It's funny, when he came back from basic training, he wanted to show me hand-to-hand combat, so he tried out his new moves on me.

"When he was first sent to Afghanistan, I was happy because I thought it was a safer place than Iraq. I barely even knew that the war was still going on in Afghanistan because we only heard about Iraq in the news. He was so excited because he was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division, which was one of the most deployed units in the military. He was being trained to fight and wanted to be deployed. He was sent to the Korengal Valley, which they call the valley of death.

"He was four months into his first deployment when he was killed by friendly fire on June 25, 2006 at the age of 19. I didn’t even know what that term meant until this happened. They were coming back from a mission and were being followed by the enemy. Justin's unit called for a mortar attack and someone got the coordinates wrong. He was the only one in his unit who was killed that day. The last time I spoke with Justin was on May 3oth, a month before he died. He said, ‘Don’t worry about me. You won’t hear from me for a while because we are going out on a mission. I'll be okay.’

"I was on a business trip out in Wyoming when this happened. When I was told I had to go, I was thinking, what if something happens to Justin? How are they going to find me? People told me not to think like that and take the trip. I had this anxiety and the worst thing that I thought could happen, happened. The Army eventually tracked me down and said they needed to send someone over to talk to me. I begged them to tell me over the phone, but they wouldn't. I thought they were coming to tell me that Justin was hurt and I would have to go to Germany, where the main hospital was.

"Finally, a few hours later, someone came over in dress uniform and asked, 'Are you Mrs. Davis.' I said, 'Yes.' The commander said, “Mrs. Davis, The United States Army is sorry.’ I just lost it and said this can’t be. I sat in a chair crying and crying. You always hear about that knock on the door. Mine came when I was thousands of miles away from home, in Wyoming of all places.

"After he died, the Army asked me where I wanted to bury him. Justin and I never talked about the what ifs. I remember him telling me once that all of the heroes are buried at Arlington Cemetery, so I knew that this is where he would want to be. Since he passed, I come here every weekend with my chair, Justin’s old backpack from school, some flowers, and my bible. I rush and work a lot during the week, so this is a nice time for me to slow down and reflect. I so feel Justin's presence when I am here. There are a number of people who also come here every weekend to see their loved ones. We take care of each other. We laugh and cry together and check up on each other. We have an informal support group.

"Since Justin, there have been so many other people buried here. I look out into the distance and think about all of the free land here just waiting for graves. I think about those families that will come here and grieve a loved one. I understand that there has to be war sometimes, but I think we should only go because nothing else that we have tried works."

Pfc Justin Ray Davis

1st PLT A Co 1-32 Infantry

1/28/87 - 6/25/06

Killed in Action in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan

Andrew on Reading D.C.'s Cards

2010-06-06T09:00:00.003-04:00

"I am originally from Texas and will spend the next few months travelling around the country. D.C. was my first stop because I had an audition for the television quiz show Jeopardy. I think it went really well and I will hear back sometime in the next 18 months if I made the show or not. I like to read and think a lot and play trivia with friends, so I hope that will help me out. If not, I will keep trying until I get on the show. Oddly enough, as a tarot reader, I really want to get a bible category if I do get on the show. I grew up with all of that stuff and usually get them all right.

"I remember when I was a lot younger and got my first tarot deck. I practiced a lot, but burned out on it. It can be a very intense experience. I ended up picking it up again when I started studying things of a more esoteric nature recently. There were a lot of similar patterns to what I was studying and tarot. It's an art form more than anything else. Now that I am traveling, I use tarot as a way to meet people, make some money, and learn about a place.

"I am not a fortune teller. I don't tell the future, but I believe that there are echos of the future in tarot. When someone comes to me with a question, we take a few slow and even breaths together and then look to the cards for the answers. I like to touch the person 's hand as I am doing this to get a feel for their energy as I am going through the cards. When I lay the eight cards out, I look at the Major Arcana or the trump cards of the deck as the vowels of the sentence. The Minor Arcana are the consonants. Tarot is looking for the meaning of and between the cards and reading into the person while you read the cards. Seeing their reactions to things can be amazing and helps to add context to the additional cards and meanings behind them.

(I asked Andrew to read cards for the city. He touched the deck to the ground, took a few breaths, and then laid out eight cards.)

"I think that D.C. is a place that has a lot going on. It is experiencing a rebirth and revitalization. But it is a place that is always under attack from people on the outside because it can be very abstract and elitist until you get here and see that is really a very honest, flesh-and-blood, and brick-and-mortar place. It is also under attack from people on the inside because of the segregation. There is a comfortable rythme that people have with the segregation and vast social and economic differences, but if three of four things go wrong in rapid succession, it could throw everything off in this city. People need to get to know their neighbors and realize that we have much more in common that we do in different. I think that humility is something that is good for everyone, but I wonder if there may be a deficit of it here. This city has so much potential to do great things."

Tal aka 'The Razor' on Checkers

2010-06-04T09:00:00.008-04:00

"I'm 79 and have been playing checkers my whole life. They call me 'The Razor' because I am known for giving close shaves. I beat people before they even know they are beat. I am considered a wise and sharp checkers player. That's why they gave me that nickname.

"I was born in Ozark, Alabama, and came to D.C. in 1953 to go to Howard University. I wanted to be a physician. When I enrolled, I needed a science major, so I picked chemistry. I graduated in 1957 and got into medical school a few years later. I spent a year in medical school and realized that it was not going to be my claim to fame. I left and took a job as a chemist for the Food and Drug Administration. In my time, I also worked with the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. This was the time of Sputnik when they were studying the atmosphere. At the same time, they started to explore the sea. I was involved on the team that was exploring the chemical elements of the Sargasso Sea, off the west coast of Africa. It was a collaboration of several countries and I met scientists from Russia, Brazil, and Germany.

"Meeting all of these people and traveling exposed me to how other countries play checkers. The strategies are similar the world over, but there are different styles of checkers. There is international checkers, with 100 squares and 20 men per side. We play American pool checkers on a 64-square board with 12 men per side. You can move forward one spot, but you can also jump backwards. When you get a king, he can move the entire square on whatever line he is on.

"I didn't start playing on a regular basis until 1980. At the time, we used to play at barber shops and under trees around town. In 1985, we raised enough money to open the club by charging membership dues to pay the rent. This is the only checkers club in Washington, D.C., but they do still play in other places like Mason's Barbershop in N.E. and at cab stands around the city.

"For 25 years, we have been playing here almost every day. We have about 30 members and I have been the president for 20 years. We play in checkers leagues and travel the country for tournaments. This year, we have already been to Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina. Our national tournament is coming up in July in North Carolina. We play competitively among ourselves to get ready for the tournaments. There are five categories of players for the tournaments, from beginner to master. They are: Blue Ribbon, Gold Bar, Junior Master, Master, and Top Master. Last year, I played as a Junior Master and did not lose a game, so I will probably get moved up this year to Master. One of the best checkers players in this club is a guy named Freddie Owens. He is one of the best in the country. He always comes out in the money.

"Everyday that I can, when I finish what I am doing, I am here. They say that people should exercise your body, but you need to exercise your mind, too. We believe that there is a relationship between checkers and warding off Alzheimer's. We have a saying that an idle mind is the devil's workshop. By playing checkers on a regular basis, we exercise our minds and develop a nice sense of camaraderie. Wherever you go, you will find checkers players. We know where to find a good game when we are out of D.C., and most checkers players from out of town know to come find us when they want a good game in Washington.

"See, we are passionate about our game. We love our game."

The Capital Pool Checkers Club is located at 813 S St., N.W.

Shanell on Fighting for It

2010-06-03T09:00:00.001-04:00

"Sometimes I wonder how and why I got where I am today, but I guess that God has a bigger purpose for me. I moved around a lot as a kid and came back to D.C. three years ago. When I was younger, I was placed in foster care with my brother. But my mother fought and got us back. She then sent my brother off to South Carolina, where my parents are from, so he could have a better life.

"Since then, life has been tough and we kept moving a lot. I mean, I was in four different high schools my freshman year. My Mom and I were also homeless for six months. She tried to keep me away from as much of it as she could, but I still knew what was going on. Nobody would help us and we lived in a women's shelter near Judiciary Square. I live with my Dad now because my Mom and I don't get along. We have two different personalities. I love her, but I can't live with her. I look at those experiences with my Mom and don't want that for myself. That gave me the motivation to get out of the environment I was in and make a better life for myself.

"Now, I am 19 and a senior at Anacostia High School. I graduate next Friday and will be going to Kentucky State in the fall on a scholarship. I still haven't seen the school, but I have friends on campus who say it is a nice place. I want to study to be a neuroscientist, like Dr. Ben Carlson. I read one his books in the sixth grade and it touched me. My mentor at the time told me to read it because I didn't have any direction and she thought it would help me. I have wanted to be a neuroscientist ever since then. I have done a number of science programs at places like the University of Maryland and George Washington to help prepare me to be a neuroscientist.

"In the future, I feel like I don't have any choice but to come back and help my community. I really think that I can reach people with my story. Not all of my friends are graduating from high school. Some have given up and probably don't feel like they have a future. But I know plenty of people who came from the negative, like me, and are turning it into a positive. I would tell people who are thinking about dropping out of school to keep the fight going. If you give up now, you are basically giving up on life. I know it's hard, but it wasn't meant to be easy. If you really want it, you have to fight for it."

Frank on Buttons

2010-06-01T09:00:00.006-04:00

"I was born in Baltimore and moved to Washington when I was five years old with my family. My parents had two grocery stores, real Mom-and-Pop stores, on the 1700 block of 10th Street NW and one on 5th and N St. As soon as I could count change, I was working at the counter. We didn't make much money, but everybody ate good. Back then, we had a book that people used to buy things. You bought things on credit and settled up at the end of the month. You don't see stuff like that anymore. People aren't as trusting as they used to be.

"I stayed in D.C. until I joined the National Guard and then went off to fight in Korea. I think that everyone should provide a year of some kind of service after high school. So many kids end up lost and don't know what to do. Public service is a good direction and an important way to help your country.

"When I got out of the Army, I came back to the area and got married at 25. My first job was selling insurance. Back then, I used to cold canvas. I went to a building and started at the top floor and talked my way down through every office trying to sell stuff. At the time, I could even go into the government buildings and walk around, too. I did get asked to leave the CIA because it was a secure building, but otherwise I could go most everywhere else.

"When I got fired from New York Life, I started selling buttons as souvenirs. Turns out I liked it a lot better. It started when my kids were in school and I went down to the government printing office to pick them up a copy of Kennedy's inaugural address for $o.50. I love history and thought it would be a nice present. When I came home, I told my wife, 'These look nice. I'll bet you can sell them.' She thought I was crazy. The first two people I showed them to wanted to buy them, so I bought 50 more and started selling them down at the Capitol. That was about forty years ago.

"I started selling all kinds of souvenirs and then I got really into buttons, especially the campaign buttons. I am the only guy in town who sells this stuff on the street. I got original stuff going back to McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt. I have Democrat, Republican, Vietnam War, peace and love, and even Socialist buttons. I try to have every button, so people don't have to argue with me about my politics. The average person will spend $10-15 on my buttons. Now, my most expensive button is $75. It is not super expensive, but some of this stuff gets up there. A Lincoln button could go for $1500.

"Buttons have been good to me. In 1984, I produced over one million buttons for the Reagan campaign. They were mostly those ethnic buttons, things like Greek-Americans for Reagan. Because of it, I was invited to both conventions and they called me up for a photo op with Nancy Reagan, so that was my 15 minutes of fame.

"I am 80 and think that I have another year or two out here. As long as my legs hold up, I will stay out here because I enjoy what I do. I meet a lot of great folks and have interesting conversations with people from all around the world. I'd much rather be doing this than staying home and watching television. I like to enjoy every day and tell people that every day that you are alive is like Christmas. If you are standing on your own two feet, you're doing good and should feel blessed."

SPC Bryan Camacho on Saying Thank You

2010-06-01T09:00:00.002-04:00

"I knew from the age of eight that I wanted to be in the Army. I had an uncle who was in the military who I really looked up to. He said that I had to find my own motivation and couldn’t join just because of him. As I got older, I realized that there wasn’t anything else that struck my interest like the Army did. I looked at colleges, but they didn’t appeal to me.

"My senior year of high school, September 11th happened and then one of my best friends from high school, Giovanni Maria, died fighting in Afghanistan a few months later. People thought that his death might push me away from the military, but it didn’t. I remember talking to Giovanni before he passed and telling him to wait a few more months for me to graduate, so we could be over there together kicking some ass. He died before I could get over there. He was 19 and I felt like I owed it to him to join the Army. I joined at 18 and it still feels right eight years later, even after my injury. I plan to stay in for the full twenty.

"During my third tour in Iraq, my Humvee was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) on December 21, 2007. We were out on patrol when we heard that another Company had been hit and one of my buddies, George Howell, was killed by an IED. We were on our way to help them when my truck got hit by an IED. The vehicle flipped over and I was thrown from the Humvee. I remember the explosion and the orange fire ball and then the next thing I knew I was on the ground and couldn’t sit up. I figured that when you are wearing 60 pounds of armor and you get knocked on your back, you are like a turtle who has been turned over and can't turn back. When the other guys came to me, they wouldn’t let me sit up because they knew that I was in trouble. They put me on a board and onto a helicopter. I blacked out and woke up in Germany. I broke my back, most of my ribs, and my right lung collapsed. Now, I am completely paralyzed and will be in this chair indefinitely. Most of the other guys in my vehicle got some rather significant injuries, too. One kid lucked out and didn’t have one scratch on him.

"The most difficult thing about the injury was being in a hospital so far away from my buddies. Even though I was injured, I wanted to go back into the action. I kept fighting with the people who were trying to help me and telling them to send me back. They obviously didn't for good reason. From Germany, they sent me to do my initial rehabilitation at Walter Reed and then I was transferred to the Kessler Institute in New Jersey where they specialize in spinal chord injuries.

"I just recently finished my therapy and now I am going back to work. There was a slip up in my paperwork for my first assignment after rehabilitation. I was given orders to join an infantry brigade headed to Afghanistan. I told them I would go, but obviously they couldn't send me with my injury and assigned me to work with wounded warriors and their families at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Now, I will do what I can to help those in need.

"My one big thing that I want to tell people is to say, 'Thank you' to soldiers and veterans. You don’t have to like what is going on, but those two words mean more to us than you all realize. I remember lying in bed at Walter Reed and people came by to say, 'Thank you,' and it made me feel like people actually cared about what we do and what we go through. Sometimes people say, ‘I’m sorry’ to me because they realize that my life is difficult now, but I wouldn’t have done anything differently. I have told countless people that I am glad I took most of the physical damage rather than anyone else. Of all of the guys in the truck, I had the most combat time. Even though some of them outranked me, I still called them 'kids' because I had been all over that country and served three tours.

"Today, I am at Arlington Cemetery to see my friend, George Howell. I have been in-and-out of hospitals for the past two years, so this was my first chance to come and see his grave. I lost nine friends over there and I eventually want to get out to see their graves, too."

Support the Wounded Warrior Project here.

Mark on the Dance of Days

2010-05-31T09:00:00.005-04:00

"The first thing to say is that I knew about the D.C. punk scene long before I came here. I grew up in one of the most rural and economically depressed areas in Montana and punk gave me the awareness of possibilities outside of what I knew. I am very proud of where I come from and I learned a lot there, but at the time, it felt like hell to me. Punk music, starting with the New York scene and Patti Smith and then the London scene with Sex Pistols and The Clash, gave me a reason to live. These were young people, more or less my age, creating this angry music that was ultimately so full of life. They were not waiting for change, they were going to make it themselves.

"Punk music helped me go to college. College was not one of those things that everybody did where I grew up. It was extremely optional. I wanted to study things that I believed in and become an activist. I wanted to change the world. That is why D.C. grabbed me. When I left college, I was very career oriented and came to Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. It was a pipeline into the establishment, for the better or worse.

"I was from a small town, so coming here was very overwhelming. I had never seen homelessness or racial segregation, and it just tore my heart apart. My crisis became even more profound when I went to Central America in 1985. The poverty there was at a whole new level and there was an ongoing war where the U.S. was not playing a positive role. At school, I was being trained to be a mid-level functionary in this system that was supporting these policies. I knew that I could not go forward in the direction I had just spent tens of thousands of dollars for school. At the time, the only thing that made sense to me was the D.C. punk scene. It was about doing things yourself and having a positive mental attitude. So for the second time, punk rock revolutionized my life.

"It was at that time that I thought that someone needed to write a book about the punk music scene here. It was an incredible story that mattered a lot to me. I get New York and London, but D.C. as a punk rock center, it seemed so unexpected. I wanted to share the story of how this happened. I started doing research in 1986 and the finished product came out in 2001. The D.C. punk scene and its continuing influence around the world is an astonishing an inspirational story.

"Punk music is a chapter of D.C. that many people don't know about, but more people should. People think that this is a buttoned-up town where we only import culture. There is a part of that stereotype that is true, but D.C. played a huge role in punk and rock music and exporting a positive mental approach towards living and tackling problems to everyone who could hear our music. For people who don't like punk music, that is cool, but you should try and embrace the spirit. This is a city built out of big dreams and D.C. punk is just another amazing representation of that."

Mark Andersen is the author of Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital. He is also involved with We Are Family, which is a senior citizen support network.

SM on Being the Ultimate Washington Insider

2010-05-29T09:00:00.003-04:00

"My name is Scott, but I go by my initials SM now. I used to live in Philadelphia and would come to D.C. a lot. I always had a better time here than I did in Philadelphia, so I chose to move to D.C. in 2006 at the age of 36. Hitting a new town in my late-30's, I really wanted to make it count. I felt like it was my last real go-around to tackle and own a town, or at least my little corner of it. I really wanted to become the ultimate Washington insider.

"The thing is that I work for an ad agency in Georgetown, which is as far as you can get from politics and life on the Hill. But I started writing for the Huffington Post, which got me in a lot of doors. I'm not really sure why, though, because who doesn't write for the Huffington Post these days. Don't tell Arianna I said that! Through that, I got invited to stuff and people thought that I was someone of relevance. So, I pushed my way in to see how far into the interior of big time D.C. I could get. To me, I wanted the same thing that every high school kid wants, to be invited to the right parties, get recognized, and get photographed a lot. This is Hollywood for ugly people and I think that I am ugly enough to make it in this town.

"The thing is that official D.C. is so boring, don't you think? I recognized that I really did not want to be the ultimate Washington wonk. I prefer the Salahi model, I guess, and started to crash parties, like the White House Correspondents dinner, which I did three times. That event is like nerd prom, which made it great for me.

"Recently, I decided to give all of this up and stop living a lie. I came out to everyone that I had not been invited to these events and was just trying to see how far into the city I could get. You know, the Salahis should come join me on this side and be honest about everything. Now, I am happy to be in the same category as those tourists on the top of those double decker tour buses as the ultimate outsiders."

SM Shrake is also a storyteller and performer. You can see his work here.

Adrian on Living with No Regrets

2010-05-28T09:00:00.012-04:00

"I am 24 years old and grew up all over this city. I have learned that different parts of the city are, you know, different. We moved a lot because some of the neighborhoods were no good and because I kept getting put out of D.C. public schools. Eventually, I was put out of all of them. If I knew the things I know now, I probably would not have acted as I acted then. I can't change what caused me to do what I done did back then, but I don't live with no regrets.

"A lot of people don't understand that there are a lot of influences and things going on around you that make things, you know, stressful. All of this stuff is gonna affect you one way or another. There ain't nobody who can live on these streets and come away all normal. Sometimes, you fall in or sometimes you might be strong. I guess it depends on the person, but if you are subjected to all this long enough, it is going to get to you.

"After I was put out of school, I went to school in Maryland, but that didn't work out either. My only option to not be a failure in life was to go to Job Corps. I told my mother that I was going and wanted to do something with my life. She didn't make me go or nothing, I did it because I knew that it was the only option that I had left. I went to job corps in West Virginia and got my high school diploma and a learned business technology. They trained me to use Microsoft Office. The program was supposed to take two years, but I finished in six months. The stuff they were teaching, I already knew. See, I may have been put out of the schools here, but I ain't stupid. I got this stuff.

"I have a two year old daughter and I want her to go to college and do the things I was never able to do. I am still a young guy and ain't finished doing what I want to do, but feel like I missed out on a lot because how I was when I was younger. Ultimately, I want to get my degree in engineering, or something like that, and get certified in scuba diving. In high school, I got certified in a swimming pool and we were supposed to go out into the open water to get certified, but I got put out before that. I really miss it. I still love the water, and that was one of the things that they could never take away from me. Now, I work on the Odyssey, that cruise ship down on the waterfront. They give tours of the city and go over to Virginia. I am a deck hand and part of the marine crew. It is a nice way to stay close to the water. That's pretty much about all I got to say."

Adrian is pictured with his daughter Kierra.

Rita on Not Playing the Game

2010-05-27T09:00:00.001-04:00

"I was young and crazy when I came to this country from Ireland 20 year ago. That is really the only explanation I can give for why I am here. I had lived in so many places in my life and wanted to try New York. After some time, I wandered down to Washington for work, but I don’t think I will stay. The British Isles will always be my home.

"I came here to work for the federal government. I started as a statistician and now I work as an economist. I am not really interested in management or administrative work, but I found a nice fit doing research. I was really nervous about moving to Washington at first. Before moving here, I had only been here for anti-war marches. I would get on a bus at 4 a.m. to come down. All that I saw of Washington were the monuments and those austere style buildings. I had never seen a neighborhood, so I always associated this town with the issues I was here protesting.

"I eventually did move here and found the neighborhoods, but it took me a long time to settle in because my Mom died after I moved, which was very sad. But I came to like the open spaces and arts and all of the activities you can do here, like hula hooping. New York can be very pushy and noisy, but that doesn't seem to be a problem here. I do miss the mix of cultures, like they have in New York. Here, you have to go, I don’t know how many subway stops, to actually find ethnic people and restaurants. In Brooklyn, you had it on most streets.

"In New York, I used to work for the city government, mostly under the Giuliani Administration. At work, we used to talk about the government and politics and the mayor in our cubicles. We felt very open to speak our minds. With the federal government, you don’t talk at all about this stuff. People talk about the weather and the metro and their air conditioners instead. Sometimes, I think that things here are too controlled and people do not want to get out of line. A friend of mine keeps telling me that I have to learn how to play the game, though. It is not the people who work hard or speak their minds who get promoted, but the people who are always smiling and say, 'Oh, isn't everything so wonderful.' Basically, you have to be a total ass kisser. I like my job, but I prefer not to play the game."

Warren on Making the World a Little Richer and Sweeter

2010-05-26T09:00:00.020-04:00

"I was raised outside of Cleveland, Ohio and moved to D.C. in 1995 to do my law and public health degrees at George Washington University. When I graduated, I worked for Health and Human Services as a federal litigator. I enjoyed it, but found myself wanting more creativity. I knew that some of my natural talents were never going to be exercised as a lawyer.

"As a kid, I cooked all of the time and built a lot of models. While I was a social kid, I enjoyed the solitary and technical process of building things. When I started to teach myself how to bake to be a more well-rounded foodie, it reminded me of being a kid and building those model two inch soldiers. At the time, I was baking in my apartment on 13th and Belmont for fun. I would try out different recipes and baked cakes for people's birthdays or to bring into work. Through that, I got a lot of feedback on my stuff and it was a nice way to share my creativity.

"About ten years ago, I decided to leave my job and do this full-time. Before opening the first store on U Street, I ran the business out of the kitchen in what is now Saint Ex. It was a little bit of a rocky road at first, and I remember having a panic attack four days into it, as the decision to leave my job settled in. But, that passed and things worked out, thanks in part to people who helped me along the way.

"People used to ask me all of the time if I really wanted to turn my passion into a job. Of course I did. I loved all of the work connected to the bakery and felt like I was finally tapping into the things I was really good at and passionate about. Every inch of this business is literally covered with my blood, sweat, and tears. I have been touched by people who find my story inspiring. I never planned for things to turn out like this. I just wanted to do something that I liked and make more money than I was spending. In truth, I took a lot of risks at the time because I didn't fully recognize how risky they were. But things worked out and I found that opening a small business was one of the best ways to really see how this country really works.

"I really think that people should be more entrepreneurial about their own future. We need to encourage kids from a young age to be more artistic and entrepreneurial, so when they get older, they feel encouraged to take risks. Our community would be so much richer if people exercised their real talents and passions. We all should leave this world with little regrets.

"I hope that the world is a little richer and sweeter because of Cakelove."

Warren Brown is the founder and owner of Cakelove.

Carolyn on Common Sense

2010-05-24T09:00:00.005-04:00

"I was born in Wilson, North Carolina. My family was all sharecroppers, so I didn't get no education. I never learned no reading or writing. Now, my children read and write for me. I tried to learn when I was little, but my Mom and Dad were against it. They needed me to work the fields with 'em. I tried going to night school when I was older, but I had kids and had to raise them, so I ain't had no time for that. But, I got a lot of common sense for a 54 year old.

"I came up here in 1977. My grandmother had just passed in North Carolina and I had a friend living here who got me a job. I took my three kids, and we moved up here. I took care of an older man and we all lived with him until he passed. This was up on 51st Street Northeast. Then, I moved around a bit and ended up in Barry Farms some 20-something years ago. I done everything for work from babysitting to cutting grass to helping elderly people. Like I say, I didn't get no education, but I got a lot of common sense and I work hard.

"I still don't like Washington, but I stay for my kids. This place is too loud and crazy for me. I miss the quiet and peace of North Carolina. I don't know what my kids like about being here, but they sure do like something. I hope to go back home soon.

"Y'all have a blessed day."

Clifton on the Disconnect between Findlay and Washington

2010-05-22T09:00:00.001-04:00

"I was born in Laurel, Mississippi. I have been in labor all of my life. I started working at a Chrysler plant when I was 18. Now, I work as a laborer for the Cooper Tire and Rubber Company in Findlay, Ohio. I have been there for 28 years. Findlay is a big manufacturing town. We have Whirlpool and Marathon Oil, in addition to some smaller, non-union plants.

"I am here in Washington, as part of the Steelworkers Union, to promote green industry to help get us off foreign oil and promote American jobs. I come here pretty regularly to help promote our issues and share the realities of jobs leaving the United States with people in Washington. I really think that a lot of people in this town don't really understand the realities of what happens when manufacturing leaves American cities. Washington never fully depended on industry, so it is hard to feel its impact here.

"There is a town about 20 miles from where I live called Fostoria. It used to have more industry than Findlay. There were 1,000 workers at the Ford spark plug plant, 1,100 workers at the Chrysler plant, 1,500 workers at the Union Carbide plant, 300 workers at Grey printing, and many others. All of those jobs have now gone overseas and the town is dead. People in Washington need to know about this stuff and take action to stop it from happening again and again.

"There is so much potential in this great country of ours, but sometimes the policy makers here forget about that when they are looking for cheap foreign labor or foreign oil. As long as there remains a disconnect between the Findlays and Fostorias of America and Washington on our nation's priorities, we will continue to come here to support American manufacturing and American workers."

Jewell on Oral Histories

2010-05-21T09:00:00.003-04:00

“I grew up in Arizona and Hawaii. I first came to Washington in 1956 when my husband joined the Foreign Service. We were in-and-out of Washington from 1956 to 1985, and then settled here permanently. We were posted twice in Holland, once in Sierra Leone, Morocco, Curacao, Trinidad and Tobago, and Brazil. My husband was an economic officer and I was a tag along spouse. In those days, we couldn’t work, but we gave lovely dinner parties and brought up perfect children.

"When we came back to Washington, I was around 50 and no one would hire me. I had no resume or network, as I had been overseas for so many years. Saying that you gave a nice dinner party in Curacao didn’t do much for helping you get a job. My husband suggested that I start helping out the city. I started by helping to clean up our neighborhood and helping, in my small way, to bring my area of 16th Street back after the Martin Luther King riots.

"I also started doing oral histories. My first one was of foreign service spouses. Foreign Service wives had, in my day, been very quiet because they did not want their words or actions to reflect on their husband’s work. We used to be included in our husband’s efficiency reports, if you can believe that. They used to look at our dinner parties, philanthropic work, and the behavior of our children. In the end, I don’t think that stuff ever really mattered, though. A foreign service officer was successful if he was good at his job, but they wanted us to believe that our behavior mattered. Now, things are so different. Many of the spouses are men and most spouses are allowed to work, either in the Embassy, or the host country. We interviewed over 200 people and published a book, Married to the Foreign Service: An Oral History of the American Diplomatic Spouse.

"At the time, I was also involved with the Woman's National Democratic Club. The Hatch Act prohibited me from promoting either party when my husband was a government employee. When he retired, one of the first things I did was to join the club. I came to lunches here and joined different task forces. When my foreign service spouses book was finished, I came over and did an oral history here. With the foreign service spouses, I knew nothing about oral histories, but I knew my subject. This was the opposite. I missed the women’s movement and civil rights because we were abroad, but I knew how to do an oral history. I worked to publish Democratic Women about the amazing history of this place.

"The Woman's National Democratic Club has been around since 1922. Our building was originally a mansion designed by Harvey Page, a notable Washington architect, and built in 1892-94 for a descendent of the noted Adams family of Massachusetts. After she died, her son rented the building to senators and cabinet secretaries. We purchased the building in 1927 and started to grow the group. One of the members gave us an interest free loan and the Democratic National Committee helped us with our mortgage, the salary for the executive director, and funding our newsletter until the depression hit.

"This club has a lot of important history and gone through many changes. Eleanor Roosevelt was very involved with our work and we have had every sitting president here, expect for Clinton and Obama. In doing research for the book, one of my favorite stories about the club is about the musical Hair. When it was first screened in Washington, there was a lot of debate in the city about whether it was too racy. The club put on a special performance of the production and people resigned in protest that the club had sunk to such depths. The club has really been at the forefront of many important social and cultural issues, even if some of the membership moves a little slower. Now, my generation is the mainstay of the club, but there is a new youthful group, people in their 60’s, who are taking the lead here to move the club and its history forward."

The Woman's National Democratic Club is located at 1526 New Hampshire Ave NW.

Brother Hamza on Making Good on His Mistakes

2010-05-20T09:00:00.008-04:00

"I got home on November 30, 2009 after being incarcerated for 21 years, 6 months, and 20 days. See, I was married to a beautiful girl, Hafsa, who gave me a beautiful daughter, Ruqqiya. We had a beautiful life together. But, my daughter died of cancer at nine. Two years later, a man murdered my wife. So, I found the person who killed her and I killed him. I do not regret killing him at all. If I had my way, I would dig him up, bring him back to life, and kill him again. I will say this again, so that I am being real clear. I would dig him up, bring him back to life, and kill him again. I have no remorse whatsoever because he took away something very precious from me. You see these cracks in the sidewalk, that is how my heart feels every day. I don’t think that I will every marry again. She was the only one who made me happy.

"I came back to Washington after I got out because this is where my problem began and, Insha’Allah, this is where my problems shall end. I came back to rectify what I f-ed up and work to change the areas I once corrupted and tainted. I was a tyrant on these streets until I bit into Islam whole heartedly while I was incarcerated.

"I came to the faith on August 25, 1980. I was walking on New Jersey and 4th St. NW on a Friday and heard the call to prayer. It pricked my heart and I walked into the Masjid and everything became as clear as day. But, I did not live as a good Muslim until I was locked up. Some of the most beautiful times that I have had in my life were when I was incarcerated, especially the Muslim holidays. I was the Imam when I was locked up in Kentucky. People looked to me for guidance, strength, and help. While I am free now, sometimes I miss those days of having such a position of responsibility now that I am living on the streets.

"I have no family or home, but Allah places people in my path to help me. He places people in my path to feed me, clothe me, and give me knowledge. He also places people in my path, so I can give what I have back to them. There is a hadith in the Koran says that if you see a wrong, first change it with your hands. That means do something about it. If you can’t use your hands, use our mouth. That means speak on it. If not that, change it within your heart. I want to use my hands, words, and heart to spread wisdom and knowledge to people here. Allah has a purpose for me, which is to help my brothers and sisters and make good on my mistakes."

Noble on Staying Connected to Foreign Places

2010-05-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

"My Mom came up to D.C. with the Carter White House to work on urban revitalization. She knew Carter before he got into politics and worked on his campaign. I was about four when we moved here from Atlanta. I did most of my school here and then started doing development work in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

"In 2003, I got a call on a Sunday night, asking if I could go to Iraq that Monday for three weeks to work on a Department of Defense development project. I went and ended up staying for a year. Before I left, I didn't realize that I was pregnant. While I was in Iraq, I was pretty sick, but thought that I had worms. The food was so bad and everyone was losing weight, so I didn't think anything of it. Five months in, I went to a local doctor to get checked out. He told me that I was six months pregnant. I was shocked.

"At the time, the Americans did not know. I had pre-natal vitamins sent to me through my Army Post Office (APO) address, but someone opened my package and found out that I was pregnant. I finally had to inform everyone and they were definitely not happy about it. They were angry about the liability and resource issues given that we were in a war zone. But they said that I could stay in Iraq if I signed a release saying that if anything happened to me or my baby, the military would have no liability. I loved Iraq and the work I was doing. It was still during the time when people were optimistic and I thought that we could fix things.

"Three weeks before I gave birth, the Judge Advocate General (JAG) decided that he wanted me to leave Iraq and go to Frankfurt to have the baby. They were in the process of negotiating the arrangement when my water broke while unloading some cargo. My colleague took me to the Green Zone where the JAG and most of the doctors were upset about having to deal with this. They started bringing in U.S. military specialists from around the country to help with my labor. Right before I came in, the hospital got a call that there were wounded soldiers coming in. I ended up having a cesarian and was in-and-out in five minutes. With Alex, my baby, they had to modify everything. They put her in tupperware and jerry-rigged a ventilator out of someone's popcorn maker. All they had were death certificates, so they had to modify things to make a birth certificate.

"Amazingly, everyone there rallied around Alex. When she was a a little stronger, the nurse took her around to see the wounded soldiers. The whole place was packed with people with side arms passing her around. It was really surreal. When I got ready to leave the hospital, the JAG came by to tell me that it really upset him that I was going to have a baby there, but at the end, it really changed the morale of the place. He even asked to take a picture with me, Alex, and the birth certificate. She was born on an American base, so she is American, but her place of birth is Baghdad. That has put her on the no-fly list three times already as a six year old. I was the first American to have a kid like that, and I don't think they have allowed it since.

"We got evacuated a few months later when the security situation got much worse. From there, I went to Jordan and then came back to D.C. Since being back, we have travelled a bit, but have stayed mostly in D.C. I think that traveling is a great way to raise a child, but Washington also has so many great opportunities to keep that connection to foreign places and cultures."

Noble is pictured with Alex.

Lloyd on Washington's Other Monuments

2010-05-18T09:00:00.012-04:00

"I was born in Dayton, Ohio. My Dad was an aircraft engineer at the Wright-Patterson Air Force base. He eventually got a job on some new thing called computers and we moved around a bit before settling in the D.C. area in 1965.

"By hit or miss, I became a photographer while in college in Connecticut. When I came back to the area, my work was taking me all over the city and I started seeing these shrines to people who were killed on the streets. To me, it was like watching someone’s heart bleed in public. There is a huge amount of emotional content in them. They are homemade folk art and very specific to D.C. From my relatively small research, there have been shrines recorded back to the early Middle Ages in Europe. The instinct to build shrines varies from place to place, but they are immediately recognizable no matter where you are.

"I started photographing the shrines seven years ago. I have been to over 500 and documented over 200 of them. Many of them are very modest, just some police tape and a teddy bear, but others are huge. I have seen panties and condoms, but typically it is plush toys, balloons, and liquor bottles. I think that a lot of these items represent someone's hope for the deceased and for the community. Maybe it is a hope for a better, safer, and heavenly place for the deceased and a call against violence in the community.

"When newspapers were strong, you could find information about every shooting in the Washington Post. Now, someone getting shot doesn’t make the paper. Three or four people have to get shot before that becomes news. I still drive around looking for the shrines and also use the area police resources to keep up with what is happening. I think that I have been to almost every shrine in the area since I started. I do not document the vigils out of respect for the families, but I take photos of the shrines to capture crime’s aftermaths and how it affects people. I am interested in documenting and sharing the healing aspects of shrines and how people try and rebuild themselves using this folk art.

"Doing this is part of my own way of keeping my priorities straight. I think that our job in life, if we have a job, is to learn and enlarge the consciousness of ourselves and others. I do this with no support, but because it is the right thing to do. I would like to bring this work into a public awareness program and to people who can make use of it, like survivors of street violence.

"As one guy said to me at one of the shrines, 'No matter how bad you are, no one deserves this.' When someone is murdered, you don’t just kill a person. You are also killing their entire family. Life is a short, complicated, and mysterious gift. Some lives end too soon. I can’t imagine ending this work unless the murders disappear in this city."

Ajaé on Her Wish for D.C.

2010-05-17T09:00:00.003-04:00

"I am 32 and was born in SE, Washington, D.C. The city changed a whole-whole-whole-whole-lot since I've been around. I have seen SE fall and grow. I have seen the projects change and people move in-and-out of neighborhoods. Things were torn down and condemned and they brought in a lot of new stuff. They say it is for the better, but I am not certain. In the political aspect, yes,it is better, but for the city people, no.

"I want peace, tranquility and kindness in my neighborhood and for the city. I mean, a lot of stuff has calmed down. SE used to have a high rate for killings. Years ago, we wouldn't even be able to sit out here and have this conversation, but now the streets are safer. I am proud of the change here. Still, there is a lot stereotyping that they give SE, but there is also a lot that comes out of here. I contribute to the city by doing sexual outreach, things like handing out condoms to the community. That's how I try and make this place better.

"Now, I do home health care work. I work with seniors, people with disabilities, or people who just need a home nurse. I went to several trade schools to get certified and I was impacted by Marion Barry's summer jobs program when I was 14 to 21. That program gave me something to do and helped my job training skills at an early age. As a teenager, you can't always depend on your parents, so it was also nice to have money in your pocket.

"Of course, Marion Barry is the longest serving mayor in D.C. He is well loved in the SE community because he did a lot and brought a lot to our communities. In terms of this new mayor, Adrian Fenty, he hasn't really stepped up to the plate. It may be because everyone is looking for another Marion Barry, but there will never be another Marion Barry. If I had a wish, I would bring him back. I don't see it happening again because he has a lot of controversy behind him, but I think that you will get a lot of positive feedback from the people in SE if he does."

Jovonne on her 2019 Bid for Mayor

2010-05-14T09:00:00.003-04:00

Jovonne, left, is pictured with her mother, Shirley.

"I was born in Washington D.C. and grew up on 6th St in Shaw. In my neighborhood, if you didn't have a good family or support network to help you, you would end up as another statistic. I feel blessed that I had both, but things were still hard. The first experience that made me think the world was crazy was at ten years old. I was outside playing and all of the sudden, I heard a car speeding down the street and this pop,pop..pop,pop. There were bullets everywhere and people were running in all directions. Can you imagine living in a place where the hustlers don't care who they shoot? I always wanted to tell them that it was them who made our neighborhood bad.

"There were way worse environments that I could have been in, though. There was an apartment building on 13th and S St. called Garfield Terrace. I went to school with some kids who lived there. When I saw how these kids were living, I felt like I lived in Georgetown. The dope heads were in their hallways. My Mom couldn't make sure that the neighborhood was safe for me, but she made sure that the area from our house to the corner was a safe environment. We were the house that no one messed with because people were scared of my Mom. She never had to apologize to me about our neighborhood because we were the lucky ones. It definitely was not the best neighborhood, but it certainly wasn't the worst.

"We lived in a nice, working class neighborhood. I felt like I was raised in a village. If a neighbor saw me jaywalking, they would tell me to go back across the street and wait for the green light, and then they would tell my Mom. My Mom allowed us to live our lives, but we had rules. The most important one was to finish high school. There was no dropping out in my house. College was an option, but high school was mandatory. I graduated from Cardoza High School in 2001 and went to college in Dover, Delaware.

"Since I was little, everyone around me expected a lot out of me. I think a lot of that comes from starting at the New Community for Children in 1990. Their program helped me to recognize my talents and opened my eyes to the world. With time, I recognized that I was setting trends and not following them. If I could get all of my friends to follow me in doing something silly at school, I thought of what it would be like if I led them to do something positive. I started to do community service and found a love for children. Everyone is not blessed to have a good family and supportive community, so if you can help just one child, you could change someone's life just like my life was changed.

"When I came back from college, I got a job here teaching 4th grade at New Community. I love the mission here, which is that each one teach one. I let my kids know that they can relate to me. Sometimes they are shocked that I know what things are like for them on the street. They look at me as an adult, not as someone who has been through the same things they go through everyday.

"I would be really interested in taking my experience and talking to kids in private or suburban schools about urban life. I would love to tell people that we are not different. We just live in different worlds. A lot of people glorify that world, especially those who don't live in these neighborhoods, but people lose their lives here every day. The streets will chew you up and spit you out if you are not strong enough to survive them. You can judge the life and decisions people make here, but until you live here, it is hard to beat the odds. I don't know too many lawyers or doctors, but I do know a lot of hustlers, drug dealers, and drug users. I might not be rich or famous, but I did beat the odds. So did my sister and brother. And these kids can, too. They just need people to believe in them and give them an opportunity.

"My goal is to be mayor and help make people's lives better and give people who want them opportunities. We don't need hand outs, but we need to help those who want to help themselves. So watch out for me in 2019. Jovonne Simpson, remember the name."

New Community for Children provides underserved children and families in Washington, DC with before school, after school, and summer programs that help them strengthen their academic skills as well as foster the self-confidence and creativity needed to realize their fullest potential. Donate your time or money here.

David on the Brickskeller

2010-05-13T09:00:00.002-04:00

"I was born at home at the corner of Rodman and Connecticut Avenue in 1950. People talk about being a native born Washingtonian, it doesn't get much more native than that. I played music professionally and lived on the road for about six years, but have been here otherwise. I guess I just can't figure out how to get out of here.

"My wife's grandfather started the Brickskeller in 1957. He was French and a Cordon Bleu certified chef. In the 1940's, he was a chef at Napoleon's, which was Washington's best restaurant at the time. He wanted to open his own place and leased a space over by the Mayflower Hotel and opened the restaurant Blackstones. Eventually, he bought this space and opened the Brickskeller in 1957. There were a lot of good restaurants at the time, so he wanted to make his stand out. At the time, places had good wine lists, but no one had a good beer list. This place opened with around 50 different beers available. We probably had the most beers in the world then, and we have tried to keep that up.

"There were a million bars called the Ratskeller at the time, especially around colleges. Ratskeller is a German word meaning a bar below street level that serves beer. He didn't want to have another ratskeller, but he liked the sufiix. The place was built of brick, so he combined the two words. The original menu of this place had Alaskan king crab legs for $1.75 and a pitcher of beer for $.85. Those prices are still good, if you pay in 1957 silver dimes.

"This bar has gone through many variations. In the 1970's, this was the largest dart bar in the country. The problem with darts is that the place was jam packed, but the bartenders were sitting on their asses because no one was drinking. They didn't want to screw up their game. The place also has an interesting music history. Emmylou Harris, Mama Cass, and Jose Feliciano played here. Jim Morrison used to hang out here when he lived in Virginia.

"During the bicentennial, someone dared the owners to have a beer from every state. Missouri, at the time, was a dry state, so they didn't succeed, but it planted the seed to expand the beer list. They bought a truck and sent it around the states to get beer from all over, including Alaska. We had about 400 beers when I came here in 1982, half of which were cans because can collecting had been popular in the 70's. I saw that the future of the industry was in better quality bottled beer. In the first year I was here, I increased the number of beers to 850. At one point, we had it up to 1,300 beers. Now, we have a little over 1,000. I like having the opportunity to present the world of beer to people who want to experience it.

"Since opening, this place is remarkably unchanged. People come in who haven't been here in 40 years and say, 'This place looks exactly the same.' I say, 'We probably swept a couple times."

The Brickskeller is located at 1523 22nd Street NW.

Laura on the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington

2010-05-12T09:00:00.004-04:00

"My family started in the grocery business in D.C. My great-grandfather came here in 1918, just two days after World War I ended. He opened a grocery store in Trinidad. My grandmother was a bookkeeper, and my grandfather sold milk and eggs at the market. My father was always very proud of being born in Washington and his roots here. I grew up with a strong awareness of local history and an attachment to the places and people here.

"I used to work as an international tax lawyer for the IRS. I loved it, but one day when I was walking home, I thought that these multinationals and all of their tax problems are so divorced from everyday life. I always knew that I wanted to do something that was going to make our community a better place. Ever since I was a kid, I was interested in historic buildings, the environment, and creating a sense of place. When I started to volunteer at the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington in 1993, things just clicked. A year later, the curator told me that the executive director was going to retire and I should apply. There were a number of people applying and I didn't think that I would get it. But, at the age of 35, I became executive director. Since coming on, I have been working to build a strong sense of pride in our Jewish community and history in Washington and help build bridges to the wider community.

"The Jewish population was always small here compared to other places. The Jewish community started to form in D.C. around the 1840's. By community, I mean 20 families of around 400 Jews who came in through the ports in New York, Boston, and Baltimore. The presence of the government helped lure additional people. Until World War I, we only had about 2,000 Jews in Washington. Later, the number of Jews grew dramatically, as a lot of Jews came here to work for the New Deal or the newly-formed government agencies. Now, Washington has grown into one of the most educated and affluent Jewish communities in the country.

"Jews have lived in all four corners of this city. While there were neighborhood enclaves, there was not one particular Jewish neighborhood in Washington that had all of the Jewish life. Jews largely spread to the thoroughfares, where they could open shops. In NW, it was 7th Street. In SW, it was along 4 1/2 Street, which isn't there anymore because of the urban renewal. Jews were also on H Street, NE, and in Anacostia. These were mostly mom-and-pop stores, but a number of the smaller shops ended up becoming department stores like Lansburgh's, Saks, Hechts, and King's Palace.

"In the 1920's, Jews started to move uptown to Petworth, Shepherd Park, and Silver Spring. As more and more Jews were living uptown, many of the synagogues left downtown - specifically I St between 5th and 8th Streets where there was a synagogue on practically ever corner - for bigger spaces and to be closer to their congregants. In the 1950's, that is when the commercial area on 7th Street started to go into decline. Things got much worse after the riots. After that, people were not coming downtown, as they were afraid. In 1969, many of the remaining Jewish groups, mainly the Jewish Community Center (JCC), the Hebrew Home, and the Jewish Social Service Agency, moved out of the city to Rockville. For them, it may have seemed like the clear choice because the Jewish community was largely uptown.

"Because there has been a real push to make D.C. more of a livable city in recent years, that has helped to reestablish some of the important historical Jewish sites in the city. Who would have dreamt that in 1997, the JCC would buy back their building on 16th and Q Street and there would be a downtown JCC again. Moving forward, I would love to see more of an emphasis on arts and culture in the Jewish community here. You look at places like New York, which has a dedicated Jewish museum, and Toronto, where the Jewish Federation has a vice president for culture. We are working to be able to do those kinds of things for the community here."

Laura Cohen Apelbaum is the executive director of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.

Saro on Who He Is

2010-05-11T09:00:00.001-04:00

"I'm 17. Throughout my life, I have lived in the whole D.C. metropolitan area. Now, I live in Arlington. I came out when I was 15. I always knew that I was gay. As a kid, I played dress up with the girls and loved Barbies. I really wanted to tell people before, but I couldn't. I finally decided to tell everyone how I really was in the 8th grade because I wanted to start high school as a new me. Telling my Mom was easier than I thought because she always knew. It was hard on my father, though. He took it worse than my Mom did. My friends already knew too, they were just waiting for me to say it.

"Now, it is fun being a young, gay teen. I have a lot of friends and do the normal stuff that teenagers do. I have a lot of straight friends, too. A lot of my friends don't care that I am gay. They know that even though I am gay, there are barriers that we won't cross as friends. Other people can be all fake towards me because they don't want to be perceived as gay because they are around me. So, we can be friends in private, but not in public. I tell you, I am not really one who is pressed to have a lot of friends, though. If you are close to me, you are close to me. If you are not, you're not. That is the way I carry it. I'm a fun, good person and like to party like everyone else. That's all that should matter.

"When I grow up, I want to work in fashion. I love fashion. I only read Vogue and W magazine. I grew up with style. My Mom is Vietnamese and black. My grandmother is German and my grandfather is Polish, so I grew up around a lot of different cultures and styles. They have all defined my own personal style. Now, I like to dress the way I like to dress and wear my hair the way that I like to wear my hair. This is just who I am."

Richard on the Treasury Building

2010-05-10T09:00:00.002-04:00

"I grew up in North Hampton, Massachusetts. I did my Masters and Ph.D. in Massachusetts. I have a doctorate in American and New England studies. When I finished my coursework, I took my first job as an architectural historian with the state of Vermont. That was followed by a job in the Virginia historic preservation office as an architectural historian. From there, I got a job as the curator of the White House of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia. Then, I crossed the Mason-Dixon line to work at the Treasury in 1990. I first worked as a collections manager and then as assistant curator and then curator and historic preservation officer for the Department of the Treasury.

"This building has a lot of history. The Treasury building is the third oldest federal building in the District of Columbia, preceded by the Capitol and the White House. The first Treasury building was built in 1800 and then burned by the British when they came to town in 1814. A second building was erected, which was burned again in 1833. After the first two burnings, Congress wised up and hired Robert Mills who was from South Carolina to come and build a fireproof building. Mills had worked on the Capitol and used the Bourse in Paris as his prototype for the Treasury building. He gave every employee his own office, and essentially created the first modern office building in the United States. Since then, the building has undergone a number of extensions and renovations and now essentially occupies an entire city block.

"Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, who served from 1921-1932, was one of the first to attempt to recognize Treasury's historical and artistic significance. He instructed one of his assistants to collect historic furnishings and was instrumental in celebrating the historical significance of this building. However, it was not until 1986, that the Treasury Department created the office of the curator. Now, comparable offices exist at the White House, Senate, Capitol, and State Department. As the curator, I am charged with the preservation, restoration, and maintenance of the Treasury building and the Treasury collection. Treasury has the most comprehensive and oldest portrait collection within the Executive Branch. We also have a large collection of antique office furnishings, as well as museum quality art that relates to Treasury's history, including serving as the temporary office of President Andrew Johnson after Lincoln's assassination."

Read more about the history of the Treasury Department here.

Melissa aka Sunny on Schools Being the Same

2010-05-09T09:00:00.001-04:00

"My friends call me Sunny because I am always wearing sunglasses. I've been collecting sunglasses since I was seven. I wear them at night and during the day. For me, it is more than fashion. I am very shy, but when I have my glass on, I feel more comfortable.

"My Mom is from El Salvador and my Dad is German and Dominican. I currently live on 14th Street, near the yard where all of the buses go at the end of the day. I really love this city. What I especially like about D.C. is Columbia Heights. The neighborhood brings out all kinds of different people. I have met artists and lawyers here and people from all different nationalities and races.

"The thing is that I go to Roosevelt Senior High School in the neighborhood, which is all black and Hispanic. That diversity on the street is not in my school. And in my school, the blacks and Hispanics hang out in class, but outside of class, both groups only really hang out with each other. That's just how it is.

"For me, school is tough, but I am trying to make the best of it. I have always felt that way. I do my best by doing my work and not doing what I am not supposed to be doing. It is hard to stay focused in that school, though, because a lot of people aren't focused and are doing what they shouldn't be doing. I try and avoid them. I really wish that all of the schools were the same, and that there were not 'good' schools and 'bad' schools - just schools."

David and John on Coming into the City

2010-05-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

David - "I'm 17. I live in Montgomery Country, Maryland, but hang out in D.C. all of the time. As a kid, I came in with my parents to see the museums and stuff. When I got older, I started coming into the city on my own to hang out. I am a hip-hop dancer and play guitar in a rock band, so I perform here a lot. Coming from the suburbs, I really like spending time here because of the diversity of people and things to do. Sometimes I wish that I lived here. Even though it is kind of dirty in some places, that adds to the character.

"There is so much going on here and I like that you can walk or take the metro everywhere. I think that social development and interaction is really important for kids, so the city is a great place to learn how to deal with all kinds of people. In the suburbs, it's not really like that. It is nice and clean, but a lot of the people there are kind of the same. When I am older, I would love to live in the city with my family. The only issue is making enough money to send my kids to good schools."

John - "I'm 18. I love the suburbs and don't think that I could survive living in the city. I like the open spaces and that everything is so accessible. I come in a lot to dance and hang out, but I like going back home at the end of the day. City kids always seem like they have more stuff to do, but they are all cramped up in apartments. Us suburban kids have more space, but we stay at home a lot and play video games because we can't walk anywhere. I am definitely going to raise my kids in the suburbs. It is really safe there and nothing bad can pretty much happens."

David, left, and John, right, are members of the Ajnin Precizion dance crew.

Jewel on Her First Time Voting

2010-05-07T09:00:00.004-04:00

"When I was born at D.C. General Hospital 55 years ago, my grandmother looked at me and said that I was precious, so she named me Jewel. I have raised my four kids here and am proud of what we have accomplished. For 23 years, I have worked as a cleaner in the Senate. I cleaned the offices of Senators Clinton, Kennedy, and Obama, and a bunch of the committees.

"You know, Obama's office was simple, but some of these senators have offices filled with antiques, fish tanks, and totem poles. A lot of these Senators are so nice to us and let us leave early on the holidays or let us play music in the offices when we are cleaning. Let me tell you about the time I met Senator Kennedy. Lord, it was so embarrassing! You know how some people need drugs for a boost. Well I need my music. I was playing my music in his office and was in the zone, dancing around. You know what music does to you. Next thing I know, I turn around to see Senator Kennedy, John John, and Caroline there. I ran to turn the music down, but Senator Kennedy was so kind and down to earth. He told me to keep playing my music and was always kind to me after that. Lord, I can tell you stories about some of these other Senators.

"One of the things that really kept me going these years was Obama. He really changed my life. I used to be a shop steward and would say to my people that you need to step up to the plate to make change. You got to do something to make a difference. I have a daughter who is a cop and a son in the military. They are making a difference. In my own way, I am, too. I knew that Obama would make a change for us. At work, I used to wear an Obama t-shirt and my 'Obama Mama' hat even though we were not allowed to wear political stuff. You know me, I had to represent. I even have a tree that someone in Obama's office threw away. I kept is as a way to feel closer to him. I call it my Obama tree.

"People used to tell me, 'You really think Obama is going to win.' I said, 'He is because I am going to vote.' See, I got baptized as a Jehovah's Witness 27 years ago because my husband was of the faith. Up until Obama, I made a decision not to vote and put my trust in God, as is instructed by our faith. The first time I ever voted was for Obama, and if he runs again, I will vote for a second time. I don't look for Obama to do everything, but I know that he is going to make a difference.

"I would like to meet President Obama and say, 'Thank you.' I saw so many of my black sisters and brothers say that he wouldn't make it as President. I always believed and said to them, 'What are you doing? Are you stepping up to the plate? What changes are you making?' I want to thank the President for doing something. "

Register to vote in D.C. here.

Derek on the Greatest Profession on the Planet

2010-05-06T09:00:00.001-04:00

"Me and my brother, my father, my grandmother, and my great-grandfather are all from Washington, D.C. My family has a strong connection to the city, but, like many families, we eventually migrated out of the city to the suburbs. I grew up in Maryland and spent most of my childhood there. I grew up in the hard-core scene in D.C., which is funny to think about now that I own a bar.

"As a teenager, I moved to Charleston, South Carolina, with my father. There is where I started to stray away from the idealistic, straight edge 14 year old and started drinking and partying with kids in high school. As soon as I could, I left South Carolina and came back to D.C. I had no plans or designs of being a wine-and-spirits professional at the time, but I got a job waiting tables at Rocky's in Adams Morgan, which is where Evolve is now.

"At the time, I was somewhat aimless. I know this is going to come off as a little harsh, but a lot of people in the restaurant industry are aimless, which is a nice way of saying losers. It is an easy way to make cash and support substance-abuse issues. I considered myself one of those losers. Fortunately, I didn't have substance abuse issues, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. Eventually, one of the bartenders left and Rocky asked if I knew how to bartend. I said, 'Yes,' but I really had no idea. She could sense my hesitation and asked me to make her a rum punch on the spot. I grabbed every rum on the rail and threw in some juice and sour mix and garnished it with every piece of fruit I could find. Amazingly, she said it was good and that is how I got my first job bartending. After that, I fell in love with it and knew that it was the job that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I think that bartending is the greatest profession on the planet. Sometimes it is hard because people can abuse alcohol. There have been instances when I had to cut off people who were my grandparents' age. As much as I lionize drinking culture, I recognize the need for moderation.

"After Rocky's closed, I went to work at a number of different places and then studied to be a sommelier. In the end, I didn't love being a sommelier as much as I loved being a bartender. While I was still a sommelier, some friends and I started a speakeasy during our days off. Eventually, I came back into bartending when I got involved with The Gibson and eventually opened The Passengerwith my brother, Tom, and Paul Ruppert. When we opened this place, we wanted a bar that was of the District. We were tired of the mentality that D.C. is not good enough, so we thought there was no better way to show pride in the District than putting a D.C. flag on the door with a sign that says, 'God save the District.' We also wanted to incorporate local things, like half-smokes and rickeys.

"The rickey is actually D.C's native cocktail. The gin rickey may be the most popular rickey, but the bourbon rickey was the original, and it was invented at Shoomakers, which was on Pennsylvania Avenue, in 1893. It was described quite literally as a shit hole. One of the bartenders, George C. Williamson, was considered Washington's greatest bartender at the time. The Washington Post called him the 'King of Julep' makers and he invented the rickey. Every President visited Shoemakers except for Rutherford B. Hayes, who was dry. I went and made drinks for President Obama, but can you imagine that presidents actually used to go visit that guy to get a drink. It blows my mind. In his obituary, it said that Williamson likely had a hand in every political decision of the time, as Shoomakers was where all of the politicians and journalists hung out and talked about work.

"Shoomakers eventually closed because of prohibition, which came to D.C. earlier than the rest of the country. Morris Sheppard, a senator from Texas, wanted to make an example of the District. D.C., now as then, drinks more per capita than any city in the country. Correspondingly, the indicators of drunkenness are 36th or 37th in the nation, which means that we can hold our alcohol."

Derek Brown is the co-owner of The Passenger at 1021 7th Street Northwest. He is also a regular contributor to The Atlantic.

John aka Unique on Fighting Back

2010-05-05T09:00:00.003-04:00

"I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island. The community that I lived in was overrun with crack cocaine. A lot of my friends got into selling drugs. I, personally, didn't think that was for me, and I went in the opposite direction. When I was eight years old, I joined the Young Marines. When I was older, I remember seeing the Guardian Angels in my neighborhood. I thought they were a gang because of how they looked. They were all wearing the same outfits and looked like gangsters. But I questioned them about what they were doing, and they told me they were out to be role models and help the community.

"When I was 14, I joined the Guardian Angels. You needed to be 16 to join, but I lied about my age. I didn't have any brothers, only younger sisters, so it was nice to have all of these guys as older brothers to me. Every Angel has a code name. I always thought that John was too common. They call a man without a name John Doe. A toilet is a john. A man who picks up prostitutes is a john. I said that I needed something unique and that's where the name come from.

"I came to D.C. 21 years ago, when I was 19. At that time, crack cocaine was terrible in the D.C. area. A lady in Bladensburg, Maryland, reached out to the Angels in New York and asked us to come help her keep the Mattapony Apartments safe. The police were outmanned and outgunned, and they heard about the good work that we were doing up in New York. I was just out of high school and offered to move. I came down to patrol the area, recruit people, and start the Guardian Angeles in the area. I had a couple of guys come down from New York occasionally to help me, but I basically did this by myself. It was my duty to stay here and help make the community safer.

"My goal is to get as many young people involved and keep kids away from drugs and violence. The problem is that we are working against so much negative stuff on TV, in the rap videos, and on video games. Plus, so many young black men don't have black guys to look up to. We are working to be role models for these kids and bring the positive back to the neighborhoods. People want to do something to help their community. They just don't know how. We help provide positive options. We don't want to bring people from outside the community to fix things. We want the change to come from within, which is why we recruit people from the neighborhoods where we work.

"The truth is that I haven't seen that much of a difference in crime since I got here. Statistics show that crime has dropped, but I personally don't see it. Obviously, it depends on where you are, but we are in Southeast now and people here don't feel safe. There are still murders and drugs on these streets. Years ago, if someone robbed a woman here, you would need the police to come and stop the community from beating the thief. Now, they don't call the police at all because they don't trust the police or because they've given up.

"People always say to me they don't have time to help. Come on, put down that XBox and come and help your community. Right now, I could be home relaxing, but I am here. I drive the Bolt Bus five days a week back-and-forth to New York and I still make time to patrol these streets. If we don't fight back, the criminals will take over."

John "Unique" Ayala is the Director for the D.C. Metropolitan area Guardian Angels.

Maxcine on the Michael Jackson House

2010-05-03T09:00:00.006-04:00

"The first time I heard Michael Jackson was when Thriller came out. When I first saw the video, I was scared of him as I was just a child. But the more I saw Michael Jackson, I got mesmerized by him and his music. I couldn't believe that this kind of person existed. I bought every CD of his and have seen every performance of his on television. His music captures you and you just can't get enough of it. I never did try to dress like him, but you may catch me doing the moonwalk every once in a while.

"I was in my sister's room when we learned that he died. I didn't believe it at first. I thought someone was playing a cruel joke on all of us. I just broke down and couldn't stop crying. How could this be? He had kids and a family and so much more to give the world. When he died, I felt like a part of me was gone, too. I wanted to do my part to honor his life and share his legacy with the city

"I started by putting a picture of him on a chair in my yard. After that, my Mom and sister pitched in and started buying more things to add to the memorial. Other people started contributing as well, and now our house and yard is a shrine to him. People know us as the Michael Jackson house. We want to do our part for the city to keep his memory alive and let everyone know that D.C. loved him and his music. My mother and I are out here playing his music 24/7. We ask that people who come by the house to admire the memorial, dance like him or do something to pay tribute and keep his memory alive.

"The one thing that I want people to know about Michael Jackson is that whatever you read about him, that was not him. He was the kind of person who would do anything and everything for everyone. For the media to paint him as a child molester is just wrong. His song Childhood says, 'Before you judge me, try hard to get to know me.' He wanted people to get to know him. I want people to know him as a kind and genuine good hearted person. I want D.C. and the world to know the true Michael Jackson."

The Michael Jackson House is located at 922 8th Street Northeast. Watch Joy, Maxcine's eight year old nephew, dance like Michael in front of the house here.

William on Being a Good and Faithful Servant

2010-04-30T09:00:00.001-04:00

"I am originally from South Carolina. I came here by myself when I was 17. I have been living in D.C. about 53 years. I am 71 and the Lord has been good to me. I met my wife here and we had ten children. They all grown now and got their own places in D.C. and Maryland. They occasionally come in and check on me.

"I raised my kids all over this city: in Northeast, Northwest and Southeast. It was rough in D.C. when I first came here and then it got rougher with all the drugs. Now, things are getting a little better as the police are trying to get them drugs out of this town. When the police got out of their cars and started walking and riding bicycles about four years ago, that made a difference. Hopefully, we can get all of the crime out of here and make this a better place to live.

"I tried to keep my kids out of this by teaching them discipline and faith. I would sit down and talk with my kids about what was right and wrong. If they did wrong, I would take out the rod. That was back before all of this talk of child abuse. When they stopped people from whooping their children, that's when kids got wild. I was raised with discipline and I raised my kids the same way. If you don't try to keep your children straight, they are going to sassy out on you. They need to know who is the boss. When they grow up to raise their own children, they will thank you for it.

"I was raised in a Christian home. My father was a preacher. We come from a religious family and I raised my kids in a religious home. Things in this city got worse when they took prayer out of the schools. A lot of kids had parents who worked two jobs and didn't have the time to teach their children about the Lord's prayers. They should put prayer back in schools. The way I see it, you should always keep the Lord first and then everything else will fall in place. I just thank the Lord that I raised my kids before they put the child abuse laws in place and while you could still pray in schools. Now, they are all grown and have good jobs.

"The older I get, the stronger I believe. Some of the things that I have been through, I would not have made it without the Lord. I was in a car accident and the doctors gave up on me, but the Lord brought me through. Now, I spend my days enjoying Jesus and the space that he gave us to live in. When he calls me home to Heaven, I hope that I will hear him say, 'Well done, William. You have been a good and faithful servant.'

"That's about the best I can tell you."

William, left, is pictured with his wife, Connie.

Natalie on Loving Who We Are

2010-04-29T09:00:00.000-04:00

"I was born in Saint Mary, Jamaica. I spent most of my life traveling between Jamaica and the U.S., as my Dad lives in New Jersey. Please, no Jersey jokes. My husband works for the United Nations and our first post was in New York, but we lived in New Jersey. In 2008, we were posted to Washington.

"I do community relations at the embassy. I work with Jamaicans in the D.C. metro area on things like how to give back to Jamaica and I organize our social events. The Jamaican community in D.C. is different than the Jamaican communities in New York and New Jersey. New York and New Jersey Jamaicans acts as though they own the entire United States. In D.C., the Jamaicans are a little calmer and quieter. The environment has influenced them. Because D.C. is more of a policy oriented place, the Jamaicans have evolved with the culture. In D.C., you find that Jamaicans are very organized and want to give back, which is consistent with Jamaicans across the United States.

"There is a strong relationship between our two countries, especially because of the significant Jamaican immigration to the United States, specifically in the late 70's. Every Jamaican that you meet has at least three or four relatives in the U.S. There are speculations that there are more Jamaicans living outside of Jamaica than in Jamaica. A large number of those are in the U.S. We think that New York alone has one million Jamaicans. As much as Jamaicans here are happy to be Americans, they don't want to let go of the fact that they are Jamaicans.

"We have a saying that within three weeks of arriving in the U.S., every Jamaican can tell you where to find salt fish and all of the things that we love to cook. Even when you move to the U.S., you still want that part of home. Jamaicans want what they are used to. There is a comedian named Russell Peters who says that you never see a Jamaican wanting to be anyone else, but you see other nationalities trying to be Jamaicans in the way they dress and speak. We just love who we are.

"For a number of years, all we were known for was reggae music, Bob Marley and our food, but now we have the fastest man, Usain Bolt, and woman, Shelly-Ann Fraser, on earth. At the Embassy, we are working to increase people's understanding of Jamaica. We are a small island of 2.7 million people, but have a large influence. Many people think that everyone in Jamaica lives in poverty. We are so much more. Look at academics. If there are Jamaicans at a school or university, you bet they are going to be on the honor roll. A lot of these students go on to be lawyers and doctors.

"I have enjoyed my time in Washington, This is one of those cities where you need to live in life. It is a serious place, but there is lots of stuff to do and great night life. It is also a great place to raise their kids. Being in D.C. makes me appreciate Jamaica more. Here, you feel like you are consistently on a treadmill. In Jamaica, we use the term, 'You lyme,' which means to relax and hang out with your friends. Here, you need to make plans two weeks in advance. In Jamaica, people call and say, 'Nat, open the gate. I am five minutes from your house.' In the Jamaican community here, people still do that with each other, but realize they can't always do that with non-Jamaicans. Being a diplomat, we have to take on more of the formality in our work.

"After this posting, we will likely be posted somewhere in Africa. One of the advantages of the foreign service is seeing the world. I would love to live on most of the continents, but I am an island girl at heart."

Natalie Campbell-Rodriques is the Community Relations Attache at the Embassy of Jamaica.

John on Doing What He Must

2010-04-28T09:00:00.001-04:00

"I was born in Poland, but I grew up in Italy. In 1958, I was molested by a Catholic priest at the age of 15. He was the priest of a small village where I was camping in the mountains on Italy. To this day, I still do not know the name of the priest. He offered to tutor me in Latin and then he molested me. In my case, it was only once. I can't imagine what it is like for people who are molested more than once. I was so traumatized. It was literally like being hit by lightning.

"After that, I was totally crushed and helpless. My first thought was that I ruined my life forever. My personality changed. I started to stutter and it stunted my growth. It made me insecure and withdrawn. When I went back to high school, people used to ask me why I was so sad all of the time. I used to tell them that my best friend died to get them off my back. The worst thing is that I blocked it out of my mind for 39 years.

"When I was 20, I left home and went to Canada by myself to get away from everything. When my younger brother wanted to join me, he was not able to get a Canadian visa, so we moved to Washington in 1963 because the American government was still issuing visas. We served in the U.S. Army together and then I went on to work in construction. I never really made anything of my life as I was so traumatized by my molestation. In my head, I was always a dish washer. My father had two Ph.D.s and a good job in Italy. I disappointed everyone in life - my parents, my wife, and my children.

"In 1997, there was a scandal in Texas and a boy committed suicide over molestation. I learned about the scandal in the news and that was the first moment that I started to recall my experience. I went to talk with a priest in Maryland about it. I was so nervous that I drove miles from my home so nobody I knew would see me, parked in a shopping center nearby and then walked to the church to to see the priest. He sent me to therapy, but the therapist was a religious Catholic. You can't be a religious Catholic and an impartial therapist about an issue like this.

"The priest told me to write a letter to the Diocese and send a copy to the Vatican's Embassy. In the fall of 1997, that is what I did. Sometime later, I received a letter from a bishop who seemed concerned and asked for more information. I wrote another letter with all of the details I had. No answer. I wrote another letter. No answer. I wrote a third letter. No answer. They were ignoring me. By then, I realized how much damage this had done to my life. I could not let this go by.

"At the time, I was not ready to talk about my molestation publicly, so I stood outside the embassy with a huge question mark and a sign that said, 'Bishop, why don't you recognize my letter?' The bishop eventually wrote me back saying that the priest who allegedly molested me died ten years ago, but he would pray for me and the church would pay for my therapy. I thought that prayers of the Bishop were not quite good enough for a wasted life. So, in 1998, I made this big sign that said, 'My life was ruined by a Catholic pedophile priest.' I stood on this corner where I still stand today. There were many intelligent people who would give me a thumbs up or a victory sign. But, every day people would yell, 'Hey, loser' to me. Can you imagine standing with that sign and people yell, 'Hey, loser' to you? I have also had people give me the finger and insult me, including priests. Can you imagine?

"I have been here everyday, seven days a week, since 1998. I want reparations. The money would show that they suffer a little bit. If I got reparations, I would stop doing this. They are scared of paying me, though, because of the precedent. There are thousands of kids who were molested in Italy alone. And look at all of the cases that are coming out now around the world.

"There is a quote by John F. Kennedy that has guided me through all of this, 'A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.'

"Would you give up? I couldn't live with myself if I did. Life would make no sense if I didn't do this."

Read more about John here.

Lonnie on Letting People See Your Greatness

2010-04-27T09:00:00.000-04:00

“I love music. I just play music wherever I go and am always carrying an instrument around with me. Today, I got a harmonica, which some people call a mouth organ or harp. I would love to take a piano around, but I can't fit that in my pocket. See, music is healthy for you. I play gospel music, which is good for running the evil spiritsfrom you. I ain't trying to impress nobody when I play on the street, this is just how I am. I don't like to hear all of the negative talking out here, so I prefer to play my music while I am walking on the street. People stop me all of the time and some even give me money. I never ask for it, though. I just play out of love. That is God's honest truth.

"Whenever I see a mother or father, I stop to tell them to teach their kids to play an instrument. Music helps children be smart in school. It does something to both sides of your brain and will help make your child an A student. Every one of us has so much good stuff inside. You got a gold mine, a diamond mine, and all other kinds of mines down there inside of you. God gives everyone something special. For me, it is music. I know he gave you something, too.

"I tell you, the graveyard is the richest place in the world. People take with them all kinds of things that they could have done during life: a business they could have done or something to elevate humanity. Don't let your talent die with you. Let people see your greatness."

Anne on Doing Her Little Bit

2010-04-26T09:00:00.002-04:00

"I moved to D.C. in August 2001 after getting my Master's degree in International Relations. I have lived in the same building in Adams Morgansince coming here. When I first moved in, nobody was doing any landscaping around the building or on our block. I started redoing the tree boxes myself and got the city to replant a number of trees. After that, some neighbors and I started doing the landscaping for our building as our management company wasn't really doing much. I talked to the person in charge of the building who said that as long as it looked neat and clean, it was okay to do it. I pay for the plants myself as I thought that it would be nice to have flowers in the neighborhood. I wanted to create something nice for our community.

"The idea is to plant things that are also native to this area. Not to go into a biology lesson, but there is a lot of value in having native plants. The more you reintroduce native species, the more you support wildlife. In a way, it is my own way of helping climate change. I am not in the Senate or anything, but I can do my little bit. It makes me feel better and less helpless.

"Doing this has also been a great way to meet people in my building and the neighborhood. People always talk about how you have to go out of your way to get a sense of community. In some ways, you just need to be out where you can see and talk to people."

Sidra on Raising Your Kids Right

2010-04-23T09:00:00.003-04:00

"D.C. was great when I was growing up, but this ain't no place to raise children any more. Now that I got two kids, there isn't too much that I like about D.C. I really want to get out of here. Don't much mind where I go, as long as it is not here. I am being for real.

"I was raised uptown in D.C. and then moved to Maryland. I liked it there for my kids because it was safe and quiet, but I be going crazy with nothing to do. I recently got an apartment in Southeast. I really didn't want to move there, but an apartment came through the city where I would be able to live on my own with my two kids.

"I tell you, Southeast ain't nothing but corruption. I don't want to live or raise my children here. It's like every time he gets up out of the house, he gets into it with somebody. My son is four years old. My daughter is one and too young to deal with all of this. What is wrong with these parents where my son can't just go outside and play? These parents ain't raising their kids right.

"See, I teach my children discipline. My son knows what's right and what's wrong. You can see a difference in how I raise my child and how they do. But we all got to suffer from these parents who don't care. That just ain't right. So, I got to shield my child and keep him in the house or bring him to Northwest when he wants to go to the playground. But now that it is getting hot outside, it is too hot to be in the house all of the time. When he does go out, I keep him close where I can watch him.

"I want my kids to be successful. I want them to stay in school and go to college. That is why I am trying to get them away from Southeast. Most of them other kids, I can tell, aren't going to get too far. As for me, I am 26 and starting college. I want to be a nurse and get out of this city."

Sidra is pictured with her son, Mekhi.

Yacob on Learning How to Ride a Bike

2010-04-22T09:00:00.006-04:00

"I'm seven and in the 2nd grade at Bancroft Elementary School. I just learned how to ride a bike three weeks ago. I saw other people riding bikes and it looked like fun, so I wanted to do it, too. My Mom's friend taught me how to ride. He took me to Turkey Thicket Recreation Center and said, 'Keep looking up and pedal real hard. Whatever you do, don't look down!' I was a little bit scared when I first tried, but he would run along with me holding the bike. I remember when I rode all by myself. I was so excited!

"I am still a beginner, but I can ride really fast. I like to practice in Meridian Hill Park because people here play on the grass, so there are not many people on the sidewalk. Here, I can practice riding uphill and downhill and over curbs. When I get really good, I will be able to do tricks.

"I like Washington because I have tons and tons of friends and, sometimes, my Mom takes us all to the park so we can ride together and have races. My Mom has a bike and we like to ride together, too. Another reason I like Washington is because we have a home and food and my Mommy has money. We have everything we need, which is important because a lot of people don't have those things."

Etienne on Seeing His Son Again

2010-04-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

"I am the 1963 model of Etienne. So, I will be 47 this year. I was born in Baltimore and came to D.C. a while back. I came here because I lost my family and my home. I used to represent people's Social Security claims in court, so that they could get the benefits they deserved. I used to have money, cars, and everything. Looking back, I used to be such a ho. Ladies, oh my, they are so lovely and I was always with them. I could talk to any woman. I finally met the right one and she introduced me to the Gospel. She got pregnant with my son in 2001.

"But, I made some mistakes and my wife and the courts took my son away from me, so I now have no connection with my family. Since then, I can't sleep. I have no taste. I feel no joy. I remember my youngest son. I used to speak to him in the womb. I cut his umbilical cord. I love him so much. My youngest son will be nine on June 22. I try not to think about it, though. I have done everything that I can to get him back, but there is nothing that I can do.

"What a boo-hoo story I could weave, but I figured that I would channel all of my energy and my broken heart to God. The only thing that brings me relief, peace, joy, and love is to bear witness to him and to preach the good word to other men out here, so they don't make the same mistakes that I did. That's why I am out here huffing-and-puffing on my megaphone until my batteries go dead. Not everyone is church going, so you got to meet the men where they are at and spread the Gospel. Men, you need to lead with the head above, not the head below. You know what I am saying. Once you start to ho, the whole thing gets all messed up. Trust me. I want to plant seeds of goodness and purity and the Gospel in everyone, especially men.

"I originally had two megaphones. The other one was much bigger and so much louder, too. An officer decided that she wanted to take it from me. Mind you, it was 1am when I was using it, but God's word does not sleep. I will continue to be out here using what I use to preach the good news. Hopefully, God and the courts will let me see my son again."

"God bless you, amen."

Bob on Being a Rowing Official

2010-04-20T09:00:00.003-04:00

"My son came home from high school one day and said, 'Dad, I signed up for crew and I signed you up to be a parent volunteer.' That was 24 years ago. At the time, I knew nothing about crew. My big activity in college was debate. My daughter is a debater and I used to take her around to all of her debates. My son said, 'If you support her, you have to support me, too.' So I studied the rule book and rowed one summer to see what it was like. It really is a terrific sport.

"I worked as a parent volunteer for four years and then I thought that I might as well get my license as an official. I had to pass a written and practical exam with a variety of situations. Every year, officials have to go to a clinic to maintain our license. We do all of this for really big pay...nothing. We're all volunteers. I spent my career, 30 years, at the Defense Department and retired a number of years back. Now, I can officiate more regattas. Many of the other officials in the areas are former rowers, parent volunteers, or other retirees. I really love to do this and be out on the water.

"In my 24 years, I have probably done more regattas at the Georgetown waterfront than anyone else because I love this location. It is a very challenging course. I tell new referees to come and work here because if something is going to go wrong, it will go wrong here. You have fishermen, kayaks, sight seeing and pleasure boats, so you need to be constantly on guard. I have worked a few regattas where a race is cancelled midway through because there is a cabin cruiser in the middle of the course. The local organized committee will reserve the water and send a notice to the Coast Guard who then shares it with mariners. People are supposed to read it, but they usually don't. Those who spend $300,000 on a boat feel like they can do what they want. That's why we, as officials, prefer cold weather for races when there are less people out on the water. As officials, our first, second and third priorities are safety and fourth, fifth and sixth are fairness.

"Many people don't know that D.C. has by far the largest concentration of high school rowers. When my son started rowing 24 years ago, the area had eight high schools teams. Now, there are 35 or so within the Washington, D.C. area, and 50 between Baltimore and Richmond. Rowing also did a lot for women's athletics in the area. There are more women high school rowers in Washington D.C. than there are men. We also have a lot of women officials in Washington. Now, a lot of colleges come to D.C to recruit rowers. Another interesting fact is that while rowing was an elitist sport in many places, it wasn't so in Washington. For a while, only public schools rowed here. Eventually, private schools were allowed to join.

"One last funny anecdote. After high school, my son went off to row at Wesleyan University. When he came to live at home after graduating, I told him that if he wanted to not pay rent, he had to sign up to be an official with me. So everything came around full circle after he pushed me into this 24 years ago."

Lisa on Her Path Back to the Cathedral

2010-04-19T09:00:00.008-04:00

"I have been carrying my city swag since I was 8. To me, that is walking with purpose and not showing fear. I went to John Eaton Elementary School in Cleveland Park. My Mom and I were living in Shaw, but she had a friend who lived near the school and we used her address so I could go there. As everyone knows, D.C. does not have the best schools. In the 80's, they were even worse, especially in Shaw. I come from a family of teachers and my Mom was insistent that I get a good education. John Eaton was a diverse school and most of the kids that I knew at school did not live in the neighborhood. I don't know if everyone was using someone else's address to go there. After school, a bunch of the latch key kids would trek across town after school by ourselves. Every day, I took a metro and two buses to get home.

"Ironically, my Mom is a social worker and worked in the child protection section of Children's Hospital. Because she had strange hours, I ended up on my own a lot and had to grow up very quickly. After I made the trip from school to home, I was to stay in the house until she got home. I could not go out, so I would just look out the window at the street outside. Because of that, I was not really able to develop relationships with kids in my neighborhood. Shaw was a very drastic change from Cleveland Park. There was a lot of PCP, or Love Boat as it was called, in the neighborhood. I always thought that the name was interesting because I watched the Love Boat and I never saw people stripping off their clothes and running down the middle of the street naked and high on drugs. And I certainly never saw Captain Stubing, Isaac, and Julie around our neighborhood.

"When I was 10, I got a babysitter from around my way who was 16. I was so excited because she would meet me at my house after school and I could hang out with her. She would take me everywhere she was going. Through her, I learned what boys on my block were hustling and saw people go to jail. I used to think that jail was like a gym because when the boys would come back, they'd be full of muscles. I probably saw a whole bunch of stuff I was not supposed to see. At the same time, I used to go to my friend's houses from school who lived this very sheltered life on the other side of town. Their Moms would always be home with snacks and they had lots of bedrooms and yards. It was very fairytailish and the kids seemed kind of naive to me.

"Even though I felt more comfortable and safe in Cleveland Park, I never felt a part of it. The level of privilege I encountered there, especially when I went to National Cathedral School, was unlike anything I had ever seen. The kids had stuff that was exorbitant to me. I remember going off to my Mom once because some girl in my class spent $8 on a pair of socks. I couldn't believe it. I felt like this was their world and I was just passing through it. What I did not envy, though, was the family dynamics that I saw in a lot of households. I didn't see a lot of loving homes. Even though we had to make a lot of sacrifices, my parents were very loving and attentive. In around 8th grade, kids started drinking in school. The big thing was screwdrivers in water bottles. What kind of situation is a child coming out of where they feel like they need to drink a screwdriver at 1pm?

"After high school, I didn't spend any time around Cleveland Park. I was very rebellious and kind of turned away from those experiences. About ten years ago, I got frustrated about something and went on a long walk. I didn't know where I was going, but I ended up coming back to the National Cathedral. I knew the path here so well from all of my trips as a kid. Coming back helped me to recognize how important this place was for me and my development. Now, it is like home and I don't look at myself as being an 'outsider' anymore. This place is a part of me.

"Now, several of my closest adult friends are friends from my time at Cathedral. In addition to rediscovering the place, I reconnected with the people just like I did with the grounds. We come from different worlds, in many ways, but the foundation laid from our adolescent years makes for a very close bond. It is the place, for sure, but the people are the marrow of my connection to that place. I love it mostly because I love them. Most people that know me will tell you that they have been here at some point because this is where I drag people to hang out or to sit and work. I look around and my footprints are all over this place. I now realize how much a part of me this place is."

Anthony aka Big An on Breaking the Cycle

2010-04-16T09:00:00.000-04:00

"I'm 14. I was born down on Morris Road. I'm going to school to get educated. I'm in the 9th grade and studying math. I like school because it keeps me out of trouble. You know, it is hard growing up on the streets because people ain't playing out here no more. There ain't no fighting with your hands no more, people go straight to weapons. I try and avoid fighting when I can by staying focused on school and football.

"See, I want to get out the ghetto when I grow up. My parents and grandparents were born in the ghetto. They tell me lots of their stories about living here and I don't want to live like that no more. I am going to break the cycle and get out. When I grow up, I want to be an NFL player. I have been playing football my whole life. Now, I play defensive tackle on my high school team. If that doesn't work out, I will work in technology."

Big An, left, is pictured with his friend, Brandon.

Paul on Riding Through History

2010-04-15T09:00:00.008-04:00

"I was born in Camp Pendelton, California. I came to the D.C. area in 1968. My Dad was in the Marine Corps and just came back from Vietnam and was stationed to Marine headquarters. I was in the 5th grade, so I followed him. I went away to college and finally finished last year. I was on the 34 year plan and finally finished with a degree in biology at George Mason.

"Growing up in Virginia, my Mom would take us to lunch or dinner every Christmas in the District. I didn't get my real feeling of the District until I started working on the Hill during college. In my time here, I got to see Washington from a lot of different perspectives. I have done all kinds of work here. I have worked in the bowels of the beast on K Street and on the Hill. I have done stuff at the homeless shelters and seen that side of Washington. D.C. is a very diverse place. One of my favorite studies is by the Brookings Institute called Polyglot Washington, it says that 21% of the people who live in this city do not speak English as a first language at home.

"I started driving a pedi-cab in July of 2009. I really love D.C. and think that I am a permanent tourist here. There are so many worlds in this 60 square miles area.There is a lot to see and know in Washington and I am always learning. Many of us don't realize that we are walking, or riding, through history every day here. When I have passengers, I like to know where people work and what their interests are, so I can tailor the tour to what they like. The great percentage of people that I pick up and take on tours are nice, honest folks who share my love of Washington. Every once in a while, I get a few bad apples.

"I have been all around the world and Washington D.C. in the spring is probably the most beautiful place in the world. And I am not just talking about the cherry blossoms. Look at all of this beauty around us. This place is really amazing."

Read more about Paul's adventures in D.C. here.

Sommer on DCist

2010-04-14T09:00:00.003-04:00

"I was born in Phoenix, but raised mostly in Tucson, Arizona. I did my freshman year of college at Arizona State and then dropped out to go to a film program in Vancouver and write a screen play. Looking back, the script was really bad. It was all about rich kids in Arizona who pretend to be homeless and panhandle. At the time, I was just proud of myself for writing a whole script before I turned 20. I then moved to Los Angeles, thinking I would write for TV. I starting as a lowly production assistant, then an assistant, and then the coordinator of the props department. I worked on a bunch of shows, like Six Feet Under, The Shield, Crossing Jordan, and First Years, which you probably never heard of because it got canceled after three episodes.

"After a few years, I decided that I should probably finish college. I started taking night classes at UCLA Extension and then eventually quit my job and graduated from UCLA with a major in international economics. I was a bit older than everyone else at school and already knew the city, so I found myself taking the role of forcing people to see other parts of the city. I have always wanted to be an expert on where I live and to introduce people to things they didn't know about. I also got back into writing and became the arts editor of the newspaper at school.

"By the time I was done with college, I was ready to leave LA. Like every college graduate, I was panicking about what I was going to do. I had this TV experience and a degree in international economics, and I was interested in being a journalist. I eventually found a small documentary company based in D.C. that makes videos about non-violent conflict and revolutions. I ended up writing the company a long letter and asking how to get involved in that line of work. After several months, I got a job with them and worked on a film about the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.

"I was not writing a lot for work and wanted to get back into it. I randomly met a couple of people who were writing for DCist and eventually became the arts editor. DCist was started in September 2004 at the bequest of Gothamist, the publisher. I came in about a year after it started. There were about eight people working and we would post four or five things a day. What really drew me to contributing to DCist from the beginning was that I wanted to force myself to figure the city out. For me, I have always found that the best way to do that is to write about it. We were all doing this as a hobby in addition to our full-time jobs. Over time, a lot of people running the site left. At some point, I was the only person left. At the time, we had built DCist up into something, but it needed someone working on it full-time. I started lobbying Gothamist to hire me full-time as Editor-in-Chief to turn DCist into something more substantial. They eventually agreed. Since then, it has really grown. We have 40 contributors and post 15-20 things a day. When I started full-time in May 2007, we were doing about 300,000 page views a month. Last month, we did 3 million.

"The more that I have learned about the city, I see that it has gone through some real highs and lows and still has a long way to go. I get that my readers and friends are frustrated by the pace of progress, but I have seen a lot of changes since I moved here five years ago. In D.C., almost always, the changes are for the better. I don't always see that in other cities. Very rarely am I finding myself wanting to keep the status quo here. Not that everything in the city is positive, but I think that things are getting better.

"Since moving here, I have really grown to love D.C. I don't know where else I would live. I have always said that the nice thing about D.C. is that no one cares if you are cool, they care if you are smart. It is nicer for me to live in a place where you are judged by whether you know things rather than if you are wearing the right kind of pants. My impression is also that there are a lot of people who really care very deeply about their city and neighborhoods. They want D.C. to be a nice place to live for everyone. I don't see D.C. residents as being complacent about the future of our city."

Chuck on Being the Godfather of Go-Go

2010-04-13T09:00:00.123-04:00

"Go-go is a groove, man. It is a mixture of Latin percussion, jazz, blues, and African call and response. To me, it has also always had a spiritual vibe because the roots of go-go came from a church that my Mom used to take me to as a kid. At our church, people used to jump and shout, just like they do now when they are listening to go-go.

"D.C. is where go-go got started. I always say that D.C. is my hall of fame. I was raised in all four corners of this city. When I was a kid, we used to live in a little shack by the railroad tracks. I used to beat on a rock to the beat of the train going by. Everyone in my family could sing, but my Mom could outsing anyone. We used to sing at church together, and she took me around to sing at house parties. We would pass around a hat to make some money. Then, I started shining shoes around town. One time, I shined Louis Armstrong's shoes outside of the Howard Theater. Back then, I would make $2 or $3 in a day, as shoe shines only cost a dime. I remember he gave me a whole dollar tip. I will never forget that. I told myself that one day I would play at the Howard Theater.

"I left home and school at 13. I had all kinds of jobs and got into a bit of trouble. I spent my share of time behind bars, and then I did an eight-year stint at Lorton Reformatory. I had been to several other jails before, but all those experiences taught me was how not to go to those same jails no more. When I went to Lorton, it changed my whole life. That was over 50 years ago, and I ain't never been to jail since. I am proud of me for that. To me, Lorton was college. There, I got a high-school diploma, learned a trade, and learned the guitar. In Lorton, I paid a young man five packs of cigarettes to make me a guitar in the wood-working shop. I watched some of the cats there play, but pretty much taught myself the guitar. At Lorton, chow time and showtime used to both be at 5 p.m. on Saturdays. After about six months of practicing, I made it onto the show. When word got out that I was playing, they had to change the chow time to 7:30 p.m. because no one was at the mess hall when I was playing. That let me know that I could put on a show.

"When I got out, I used to play in a group called Los Latinos and the Earls of Rhythm. In 1966, I started my own band, Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers. I liked to keep the music going in between songs, so there was not a break. See, the music just goes and goes. I mixed up the Top 40 with a lot of the Latin percussion and the call-and-response. At the time, they had go-go clubs and go-go girls, but no go-go music, so I decided to call it go-go. When they heard my music, people started coming out of their clothes and moving the tables and chairs out of the place, so there was more room to dance. The music really caught on in 1976. After that, we put out a tune called Bustin Loose. That was our biggest hit. In 1979, we were on Soul Train, which meant that go-go had arrived. Then, some of the other bands started catching on, like Rare Essence, Trouble Funk, and the Junkyard Band.

"Still, when I get on the stage, I become enraged and forget about my age. A lot of people ask me when I am going to retire. I say, 'Come on, I still got the fire, the desire, and I am getting hired. Ain't no need to retire.' People call me the Godfather of Go-Go. I didn't give myself that name; it was the fans and the DJs. They made it all happen and I appreciate it. Looking back, I still would have been happy had go-go just been popular in D.C. I didn't expect it to go anywhere, but it went all over the world. I will always be grateful to D.C. for that -- and for my family. You got a lot of love in D.C. I found my first wife here. We stayed married for 27 years. I then got remarried and have been with my second wife for 25 years. Both of them were great. I am the one that wasn't so great, but I am cool now because I am too old to be anything else. Now, I have four kids. I lost one son in an automobile accident 20 years ago. We have five grandkids and another grandkid on the way. I really feel lucky.

"Last thing I gotta say is that for all of you who want to be on your feet dancing for hours, you need to go to a go-go."

Jen on Moms on the Hill

2010-04-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

"I grew up in Staten Island and then did high school in New Jersey. There is certainly a lot I miss about those places, but there is something really special about living in D.C., especially around the Hill. I find the people here really passionate and informed. I came to D.C. with my husband, then boyfriend, in 1995. We met in college and came here for his graduate school. I didn't think we'd be very long, but now I can't see living anywhere else.

"During our 20's, we lived in Columbia Heights before it was cool and had a metro. I did a variety of weird jobs, like working as a puppeteer. It was fun to tell people here that I was a puppeteer, as everyone works for the government or a non-profit. When we were pregnant with our first child in 1999, we moved to the Hill, near H St. Northeast. Just by chance, someone saw our current house and told us about it. We moved a block off of H St. and have seen the neighborhood change. It is amazing to see that there are now restaurants and bars, many of which are kid friendly close by.

"After we moved here, I gradually met other moms in the neighborhood. We started having a regular playground and this group of friends was the original Moms on the Hill (MOTH) group. One of the Mom's started a yahoo group because her husband was tired of having his inbox clogged. With time, the site grew and we all invited new Moms we met to join the group. In September 2001, I wrote an article for the Hill Rag about being a Mom on the Hill and MOTH. After that, the group got bigger and bigger and now we have over 3000 people in our group.

"I always say that MOTH is a combination of old fashioned neighborliness and the Internet. One of my favorite things that we do is meals on wheels. Yes, we stole the name. Every time someone has a baby, we get people in the neighborhood to volunteer and cook them dinner. It is really nice to bring food to someone, especially to parents of a new baby. It is such a kind gesture that is so greatly appreciated. We're not used to accepting kindness from a stranger anymore, but it is a really wonderful way of helping the parents of newborns.

"We don't have a public site and we are not a non-profit. We keep an informal email group because it allows people to do what they want with it. Because it is so informal, it keeps the energy of the site up. A group of people met through MOTH and started Two Rivers Charter School. After that, a lot of people started to develop an interest in the local public schools. There has been a resurgence in a lot of the elementary schools and that is due in some part to these families having the ability to connect through MOTH. Everyone who leaves the area says that there is nothing like MOTH in other neighborhoods or cities. There are other listserves and websites, but there is something really special about this community here."

Sid on the History of D.C. Hip-Hop

2010-04-09T09:00:00.001-04:00

"When God made me, he made a musical mismatch. My father was into jazz and spirituals and my Mom was raised on country music. So, I was raised listening to everything. When I got older, I was all about go-go. That was all I knew. That was all I wanted to know. In the late 80's, a guy named Zay moved to our neighborhood and started talking about hip-hop music. We weren't trying to hear that because go-go was king. Zay became the manager of a club called the Krib that had a lot of rappers come through. I started hanging out around the club and got exposed to the hip-hop culture. In those days, there were no local hip-hop artists, so all of the music was coming down from New York or Philadelphia. But, eventually D.C. started to produce its own hip-hop in the late 80's.

"About five years ago, I really got into hip-hop and decided to write a book about its history in D.C. At the time, there were no books and very little research done, so I interviewed a lot of the local artists for my book. While small, D.C. has a rich hip-hop history. The first local hip-hop record to really hit in D.C. was called Stone Cold Hustler by DC Scorpio. I am pretty sure that the go-go band Rare Essence played the music for the track, so it definitely has a D.C. feel to the record. After him, there were other go-go rappers, as they were called, like Stinky Dink and Fat Rodney. The influence of these rappers was tremendous because it showed the ability to cross between these two genres. Still, hip-hop has always been and remains a step child to go-go in D.C..

"As hip-hop developed in D.C., there became two distinct movements.The U Street movement, which were a lot of college kids who hung around Howard University, was centered around Bar None, now Pure Lounge. That place is legendary because it is where a lot of rappers got their start. The U Street movement is very lyrical and melodic. Then, there is the uptown scene, centered around the Island Cafe. Uptown is more gangster rap, for lack of a better term. The two groups don't overlap that much, except for the open mic nights.

"D.C. hasn't really broken out on the national hip-hop scene because a lot of the music isn't even hitting in D.C. I say it again, go-go still kills it here. Some people have gotten national attention, though, like Nonchalant, D.C. Scorpio, the Section 8 Mob, Question Mark Asylum, and DJ Kool. Of all of the D.C. rappers, I think that Wale is the really the first to make national moves. I think that 2010 is going to be a great year for D.C. hip-hop. There is a lot of energy and collaboration right now, especially with Obama as President.

Sidney 'DCSuperSid' Thomas is author of Diamonds in the Raw.

Daniel on Being the Wig Man

2010-04-08T09:00:00.008-04:00

"I think that everyone is introduced to politics when they are little. We all read books about George Washington in elementary school. What really got me into politics is that when I was in high school, I won the titles of most talkative, most likely to have a talk show, and most likely to become president. What is unique is that I was not even in the student council. Those titles really affected my decision to enter politics later in life.

"I graduated from college at 20 with three majors -- business, psychology and communications. After school, I worked as a reporter, and, later, editor, in Shaker Heights, Ohio. From there, I moved to Connecticut and was the editor of the weekly newspaper, the Greenwich Post. On 9/11, I was in one of the cities most impacted by what happened on that day, because so many people in Greenwich were working in or near the World Trade Center. 9/11 really hit me, and I didn't like how President Bush evolved the confusion and anger of that day into a war against Iraq. Presidents shouldn't do those things, especially under such extreme and uncertain circumstances. Statistics prove that about 95 percent of America supported the war at one point or another. I was one of only 5 percent of America who did not ever support the Iraq war.

"Even though I was only 31 at the time and the youngest Republican in U.S. history to ever run for President, those experiences really affected me and were a direct reason why I ran for president against George W. Bush. I only campaigned in a few states: Iowa, Connecticut, Ohio, Texas, and New York. I had volunteers, but I was doing most of it myself. I lived in a truck that I called Air Ford One. My campaign slogan was, 'Small ideas for America.' Presidents should really focus on small ideas because those sometimes mean more in the end than big ideas. I never made it onto a ballot for president, but I got a lot of media attention, which I then used in future campaigns.

"When I was doing research in Iowa for my first book, Will You Run for President?, someone told me about a Halloween party in Washington, D.C. at the Guards Restaurant.They suggested that I go dressed as George Washington to get a feel for what it was like to be president. I rented a George Washington costume, but I had to buy the wig for hygiene purposes. I went to the costume party in D.C. and it was a great experience. People really interacted with me differently, and I did feel very presidential. The next morning, I was wondering what made me feel that way - was it the outfit or the wig? I experimented by wearing the wig along with my normal clothes. My first experience was walking into an elevator with these two maids. They kept wanting to salute me. I realized they thought I was a dignitary or something because of the wig. So, I spent that day walking around Washington, D.C., with the wig on and noticed that I got a lot of attention. Years later, I used the wig for political events and in my campaigns for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois against Barack Obama and for U.S. Senator in Maryland against Michael Steele. Now, I am running for county executive in Montgomery County as Daniel 'The Wig Man' Vovak.

"Some people don't view the wig as serious. I think it's better to look in terms of who historically has not been taken seriously and their ultimate impact on America. People like Andrew Jackson, Ronald 'The Gipper' Reagan, and Gerald Ford were not taken seriously until they became president. Certainly, nobody took Jesse 'The Body' Ventura seriously until he became governor. The way to be considered serious in America is to be elected. One day, when I am elected, people will take me seriously. At that point, it will be up to the voters to decide whether or not I wear my wig in office.

"You know, I am a Republican, but I am worried about the party. As far as I'm concerned, we need to be a party of optimism. We need to find a way to look at America's good points and help shape America's problems for the better. I don't always see that among Republicans. Now, the optimism is low, which is normally the case when a party is out of power. We need more great optimists as candidates."

Daniel 'The Wig Man' Vovak is an author, movie producer, and currently running for county executive in Montgomery Country, Maryland.

Cindy on the Congressional Cemetery

2010-04-07T09:00:00.020-04:00

"I was born in Mayfield, Kentucky and was raised in Memphis, Tennessee. When I finished college, I got a job with the Agency for International Development in Washington. I am a Republican and very involved in politics. At the time, I was asked to become the Executive Director of the National Young Republicans. When Richard Nixon left office, I was devastated and went home to Memphis in distress. I came back ten years later when I married my husband. We moved to Capitol Hill and have been here ever since.

"In 1984, my husband was working with the Congress and the president of the association that runs the Congressional Cemetery was a good friend of his. He said, 'Paul, I need you and Cindy to come and help us clean the cemetery on Saturday.' I thought that it would be a fun thing to do, so I showed up wearing sandals, shorts and I had my Japanese farmers knife, which is used for pulling weeds. We drove up in front of the cemetery and saw the terrible condition of the place. I said, 'This is not going to work. Take me back home.' I put on boots, long pants and used a sickle, rather than a weeding tool, as the grass was above my knees.

"At the time, the cemetery had no money and nobody to keep it up. Most of the people who are buried here don't have anyone left as we have been burying people since 1807. There used to be hookers in the east end and wild dogs in the west end and the drug dealers on the front of the property. An association was formed in 1974 to help take care of the place. The association sought help from Veterans Affairs and the National Parks Service, but both organizations could not help for different reasons. So, they decided to have a bake sale and raised $35. Then, they had a fundraiser at someone's house and raised a few hundred dollars. Then, they had a Halloween party here and raised a few thousand dollars. Then, they sent out a letter to all of the people in the neighborhood to seek members. In 1978, the Association raised enough money to mow the grass three times a year. They couldn't rake or do anything about the snow. The rest of the time, the mowing was done in pieces by volunteers.

"After I volunteered in 1984 and 1985, I did not come back to the cemetery until 2005. When I came back, I was stunned at how much the cemetery had changed. At the time, the association was looking for someone to manage and build upon the history of the cemetery and put out a request for proposals for an executive director. The vice chairman of the board, who I had met a number of times, asked if I would consider applying . I said, 'I don't want to run a cemetery.' She said, it is more than just running a cemetery. I said, 'Well, if I can do what I want to do, I'd love to take the job.'

"When I got here, there was one nice lady who answered the phone for four hours a day, three days a week. There are now seven of us. We are working to tell the stories of the people in this cemetery who made a difference in American history and for this city.There are 55,000 people buried here, including 1,200 veterans. This cemetery still has people who own plots, but haven't used them because they are still alive. We bury around 12 people a year.

"When L'Enfant drew up plans for the city, the Southeast corner was called Reservation 13 and set aside for the insane asylum, the pauper's house, the jail, and the hospital for the terminally ill and diseased. The cemeteries were established up near Takoma Park and in upper Southeast, but the location that was chosen for this cemetery was marshland. The U.S. government swapped the original location with a piece of Reservation 13. The cemetery was originally 4 1/2 acres. The first person buried was the master stone mason of the Capitol. The third person buried was the wife of the Commandant of the Navy Yard. The fifth person buried here was Senator Uriah Tracy. By 1812, we buried 12 members of the House and Senate and a Vice President and a number of Cabinet officials and military leaders. At that time, Congress declared us the Congressional burying ground because there was no embalming. When you died, you had to go someplace pretty fast. This was the only cemetery in the federal city.

"Probably our most famous person is the March King himself, John Philip Sousa. He was the very famous director of the Marine Corps Band. Matthew Brady was a photographer in the 1800's who took pictures of the Civil War and also took the famous picture of Lincoln that is on the $5 bill. We also have J. Edgar Hoover buried here. Some people feel that he was not straight. I don't know if that is true or not, but his longtime secretary, Clyde Tolson, who was number two in the FBI and his housemate and inherited all of his property bought a site as close to Hoover as he could get, which was about 12 sites away. We also have Leonard Matlovich who was the first person kicked out to the army for being openly gay. His tombstone says, 'When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.'

"We are still a secret in D.C. Even people on the Hill have no idea where this place is. For the last 40 years, we haven't done anything to publicize ourselves. Until ten years ago, we were embarrassed about our condition. Now, we have specialized and general tours, pageants, plays and musicals. We are also developing materials to help D.C. students learn about the history of this city. There are 26 people buried in this cemetery for whom D.C. schools are named. We have the first ten mayors of the city buried here. We have the man who designed the Washington Monument. We have editors of the first and second newspapers here. We have Senators, Congressmen, and Vice Presidents. We have the guy who designed the Navy Yard and the man who ordered it burned, so that the British couldn't get it. This cemetery is full of stories about D.C. and our nation's history."

Cindy Hays is the Executive Director of the Congressional Cemetery at 1801 E Street SE.

Cedric on His Way of Running

2010-04-06T09:00:00.016-04:00

"I am a young 57. I was born in D.C. General Hospital in 1952. My family history goes way back in D.C. I was raised in Georgetown and came through the Catholic schools as a three-sport athlete. I played basketball, baseball and football. After high school, I got a football scholarship to play defensive back at the Community College of Baltimore. While I was there, I was recruited to play for the University of Pittsburgh. At the time, my high-school sweetheart was having one of my first babies, so I decided not to go. I dream about that missed opportunity all of the time. Tony Dorsett was there at the time, and I would have won a national championship. It would have changed my whole life had I made that move. I am not mad, though, because I am still happy with what I have accomplished. I've been married for 30 years. I have six kids and four grandkids. I am blessed by my family. Everybody has a destiny, and I think that this was my destiny.

"When I didn't go to the University of Pittsburgh, I came back to D.C. to be a bus driver. Ever since I was younger, I had always wanted to drive a bus. I used to see the bus drivers looking all cool and talking to the ladies, and wanted to be just like them. Four months later, I was driving a bus for the southeast division of Metro. I was always good at my job because I am a people person and an excellent driver. I tell you, my driving is smooth. I have driven every route in the city. I did 25 years for Metro and now I have done 12 years driving the mobile lounges at Dulles Airport.

"A friend at Metro got me into running. Before, I was all about playing sports: tennis, basketball, and touch football. I started running with him in 1975 and said, 'This ain't so bad.' Since then, running has changed my life. Because I knew all the bus drivers, I would race the buses from my place on H Street, Northeast, to the White House. I was crushing them. Running forward, I can beat anyone. In 1984, I said, 'Why not start running backwards?' I started doing the spinning thing while I run to work on my endurance. I wanted to make my body stronger. And I am blessed with incredible peripheral vision, so I always know what is around me. When I am on a run, you will always see me moving. I will run in place or spin around the intersections or in the middle of traffic to keep from stopping.

"A lot of people don't know me, but they recognize me because of how I run. See, I am very vocal. I listen to whatever is rocking on the radio and will yell out, "HOOT! HOOT!" to my bus driver friends and the cabbies. Some people have even stopped me and told that I am an inspiration to them. Because of me, some people started exercising. I tell you, I really feel blessed.

"When I first started running, my wife used to say, 'Why you gotta run all the time?' Now, if I don't run, she thinks something is wrong with me. Just like waking up in the morning and washing my face, running is a part of my life. The only reason that I will ever stop is because God wants me to. Until then, I will keep running the same route every other day. I go straight down H Street, past the White House to 20th Street, and come back the same way."

Roxanne on a City Full of Life

2010-04-05T09:00:00.001-04:00

"I was born in Washington, D.C. at the Washington Hospital Center. I was raised in Petworth, but then moved all over the country to live with family. I have lived in New Mexico, California, Vermont, Cincinnati, and Atlanta. I came back to D.C. in 2001.

"When I left, I brought the music of D.C. with me. There is a genre of music here called go-go. We were always talking about and listening to go-go at home. It took me leaving the city to realize that this was a style of music particular to D.C. When I was living in other cities, I would request go-go on the radio or at the skating rink, but people didn't know what I was talking about. Outside of that, I liked living all over the place. It exposed me to so many different people and places.

"When I finally came back to D.C., I noticed that gentrification had just started in Petworth. I was worried because I saw that my neighborhood was changing and my friends and family were moving out. But the gentrification also presented new opportunities for the community and a chance for me to meet new people. In a way, gentrification brought the whole country to me, which was nice for me after having lived in so many different places all of my life. I ended up meeting people who came from all of the places I had lived in growing up. So, I realized that the changes were not that bad because it created more diverse neighborhoods and a more exciting city.

"There is still so much of D.C. that I want to see. I told myself that I would try and go somewhere new every weekend. I usually just get up and go wherever my feet take me. While I sometimes feel like I can have a love-hate relationship with this town because it can feel very small at times and because of the violence in the neighborhoods, I will always love the life in the city. Everyone here, including the panhandlers on the corner, are so full of life and doing something interesting."

Ron on Giving Things an Extended Life

2010-04-04T09:00:00.002-04:00

"I was born in New Olreans, but my memory of that place is limited, as we moved to the Washington area when I was 4. I grew up in the suburbs of Washington and the long-standing attitude towards living in the city was, 'Who would want to do that?' I was around during the riots and very much aware of their impact on the city. I did eventually move into D.C. in 1974. This city was a ghost town after rush hour. At the time, I was on a limited budget and there were ten restaurants throughout the whole city where I could afford to eat. Now, there are 20 reasonably priced restaurants on every block. To me, it was a no-brainer that this city would come back, especially because of the stabilizing effect of government.

"At the time, all of these neighborhoods had such interesting architecture and there was very little being done to celebrate it. Now, you can appreciate how beautiful this place is, but back then, you saw everything through smokey glasses. There clearly were several neighborhoods that were interesting and well-kept. One of them was Adams Morgan, were I moved shortly after coming to the city. Back then, I worked at George Washington University in the Physical Plant. Through that, I learned about the demolition process. I remember my first lesson in the business of demolition. When they were tearing down my apartment building, I was determined to buy this beautiful brass doorknob in the house. My Dad used to have an old porcelain door knob as a paper weight. I can't help but think that got me interested in door knobs. That also inspired the name for our store, theBrass Knob. I walked up to the demolition guy, Cool Breeze, and said, ‘How much for the door knob?’ He said, ‘$5.’ I said, 'How much for the door?’ He said ’$5.” If I had asked just for the door, I would have gotten the door and the doorknob for the same price. So, I ended up deciding to buy the contents of the house for $90. That was a pretty good purchase and was my introduction into the salvage business.

"My business started because I had a truck and a place to store my stuff. My partner and I opened our first store in Adams Morgan, in the space next to the current Brass Knob store. We split into two different corporations a few years ago when I opened this warehouse, but we still work together closely. I find my stuff through a lot of different ways. The guys that are in the demolition business are my first leads. I met and befriended them and gained their trust a long time ago. You had to prove that you will not hurt yourself or steal anything on site. Those are the two big tests. I also have pickers who bring me stuff. With some of them, there is always a question of whether they are bringing me a legitimate take. I have to be very clever about finding out where the materials came from. On occasion, there have been issues when people bring me things that are not from a legitimate take and I am very quick to cooperate with the police.

"To me, this business started because I could not get over the idea that people were throwing all of this value away. I used to go the dumpsters with a friend and strip all of the hardware off of the doors. See, I always enjoyed the collecting part of this business. You go into these deep mysterious dark buildings, basements, attics, and cubby holes looking for treasure. There is so much history in the buildings here and it is nice to take parts of those buildings and bring them to a new life. It is always fun to tell people where things come from. We get stuff from Embassies and sell the bathtubs of the rich and famous. I bought the bathtubs of Pamela Harriman's Georgetown building, she was a socialite and Winston Churchill's mother, so I can conjecture that some famous people probably took a bath in one of my bathtubs. Even if it is an insignificant piece of history, it is nice to think that things will have an extended life."

Ron is the owner of the Brass Knob Backdoors Warehouse on 57 N Street NW.

Carol on Showing the Beauty of D.C.

2010-04-02T09:00:00.012-04:00

"I am 60 years young. I have been living in Northeast for about 50-some years. I left once to go to Newark, New Jersey and stayed gone for eight years. I came back because I could not live no place else but D.C. The people in New Jersey were fine and everything, but there wasn't a sense of closeness. If I walk down the street and look at you and say, "Good morning,' what would your reply to me be? In New Jersey, they don't know. You say good morning and they don't say nothing. Here in Washington, even the winos say good morning to you.

"Today, I am taking my granddaughter, my great niece, and the two girls I take care of out on a stroll. These girls have no connection to D.C. because no one has taught them anything about this city. What they know about this city is that if you hear gun shots, you hit the floor. But there is so much beauty here, especially on H Street, that I am trying to show them. Back in the 60's, H Street was a beautiful place to walk and go shopping. On Sundays, parents would stroll up and down the street after church. After the riots, it all changed.

"As I look around, our black children need help. There are a lot of bright, young black kids out here, but there is not a lot out there for them. All they need is something to do and somewhere to go, so that they can be proud of themselves. I am so proud that my granddaughter wants to be a doctor and my great niece wants to be a lawyer. But no one talks about that - what black children want to be. They talk about what they do that is not right. Like I said, there are a lot of positive black children out there. We need to help them for a change.

"I would like to get a hold of the people passing laws and just shake 'em. Some of those people have no knowledge of what life is really like in the inner city of Washington, D.C. They just pass these laws. I mean, laws are fine, but if they are not working year-after-year, why are you keeping them? Some of them are as silly as silly can be. Look at what is going on with H Street. Why are you going to put in a streetcar? We already have buses and cabs. Instead of putting in this nonsense, build some schools. Streetcars were on H St. when I was a little girl. You decided to tear them down once already. Now, you want them back? This is silly nonsense. If you want to develop this area, develop the schools and help our children.

"When I went to school, you could play in peace. There was no cussing and fighting going on like you have today. You didn't have children running for their lives. I lost my son to these streets. He was a professional boxer and had been accepted to the University of Maryland. He got caught up with the wrong crowd. You know, the day he died, I had a bad feeling. Mothers can sense things. I remember driving to work and seeing an ambulance pass. I said, 'Lord, someone just lost their baby.' It turns out that it was my son in the ambulance. He had been shot. I was working as a nurse at the time, so they let me see my boy at the hospital. He was shot in the head and up and down his arm. I knew my baby was gone. People say that this is part of life on the streets, but I won't accept that. See, I believe in God. My son did not belong to me, but to God. I guess God wanted to take him back. I accept that, but I will never accept the violence in my community."

From left to right, Precious, Dominique, Oluwaferanmi, Leondria, and Carol.

Councilmember Kwame Brown on Changing with the District

2010-04-01T09:00:00.004-04:00

"My Dad came here in the 1960's. He was always involved in D.C. politics from being a part of the civil rights movement to helping Marion Barry get elected to running for school board in 1986. He was always talking about how to change things in D.C. My Mom's family is from the Alexandria area. She is an ordained minister and very religious. She didn't start wearing pants until I was 36. My parents are two very different people who exposed me to very different parts of this city.

"During my career, I worked for the private sector and for President Clinton. After that, I really wanted to work to make a difference in D.C. I decided that instead of talking about the problems here, I was going to run for office. People said, 'You are crazy and can not win.' There had never been a graduate from the Mayor's Youth Leadership Program who was elected to City Council. No one east of the Anacostia had ever won an At-Large seat. And my name is Kwame, which some people thought was a problem. They wanted me to run as just 'Brown.' Add to that running against a 16 year incumbent. Once I started to run, I knew that losing was not an option. I wanted to show that you could be a graduate of D.C. public schools and live east of the river and participate in changing in this city. I proved that.

"Now, I feel strongly that it is time for young people to take over the world. I am all for respecting our elder statesmen, but we need to beat a new path to the future. There is always some battle between me and my old man over approaches on how to get there. The old guard is driving and looking out of the rearview mirror. We need our younger generation, who is forward thinking, to get in the left lane and pass the older generation. You see that happening with things like same sex marriage. That never would have happened back in the day. You also see the younger generation holding up economics as a leading factor to make lasting change in this city.

"If you go back from the 60's to now in the District, we were really interested in attacking the social issues, Now, I believe, it is economic issues that should drive us forward. We need to ensure that the city is economically strong. You can't change the social issues without economics. The best way to get people off of welfare or into affordable housing is through economics. We need to build the new generation and give them skills so they can get jobs and succeed. We used to have seven vocational schools in D.C. We got rid of all of them and said we would get everyone into college. You and I know that we can't do that. That just led to a generation of people graduating from high school with no technical skills. That's why I worked to re-open the Phelps Career High School. so people could leave with technical skills. We had zero people being trained in 2009. Now, we have 145 people trained annually.

"In addition, you have so many kids who were failed by this city in the 80's. Now, there are too many grandparents raising their grandchildren. We need parents to raise their kids. We see the impact of a generation of people who got caught up in drugs, incarceration, and broken homes. The question becomes how do we deal with this. We can't socially spend our way out of this, we need economics to help people get jobs and ensure that we have mixed-use and mixed-income developments where these people can live. You used to be able to meet someone in D.C., fall in love and raise your kids here. It is not like that anymore. It's no longer the affordable, family friendly city I remember.

"Every day, I am up here, I realize that it is not about what I want, but about how to help people, especially the young people. I want to help create the next generation of entrepreneurs, politicians, doctors, and lawyers. The younger generation here needs to kick down the door and take it because no one is going to give it to us. The District has changed and we need to change with it."

Councilmember Brown was first elected to the City Council in 2005. He is the Chairman of the Committee on Economic Development. He is also a member of the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment, Libraries, Parks and Recreation, Finance and Revenue, and Public Works and Transportation. Learn more about Councilmember Brown here.

Cyndee on Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive

2010-03-31T09:00:00.001-04:00

“I was born in Utah and then traveled around the country with my folks while my Dad was doing graduate school. I moved to the D.C. metro area when I was 8. I left for college and then ended up back in D.C., but did not plan on staying here. Bikini Kill, a band that I was really into, did a benefit concert for Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS). Throughout my life, I had really close friends who chose to do informal sex work because working the graveyard shift at 7-11 sucks. In doing that, many of them got into abusive situations and did not have the resources to get help. HIPS seemed like the right place for me to volunteer at the right time. I started as a volunteer in 1994 and have been here in different capacities every since. I became the executive director in 2001.

"At HIPS, we are working to improve the health and welfare of sex workers rather than trying to 'save them' from what they were doing. We work using a harm reduction strategy. At HIPS, we work with sex workers to help them decide what is and is not working in their lives. It’s all about self determination. There are few people who we interact with who are doing sex work in whatever capacity for a new purse or a $600 pair of shoes. Most of the people we work with are trying to feed themselves and their families or pay the rent. Some have chosen to do this over other forms of employment. More often than not, they are doing this because it is a last resort. Some are also supporting drug habits and some have not had access to education or job counseling. It is very hard to live in this city on minimum wage. The myth about upward mobility in employment does not play out all that well. As much as we work with job training, it is challenging for many of these people to find regular employment.

"The more we push sex work underground, the more dangerous it gets. Since the institution of the prostitution free zones in D.C., which are similar to drug free zones, and gentrification, sex workers are working increasingly in poorer, more dangerous neighborhoods. Now, we are also seeing how technology is changing sex work. When I started at HIPS, it wasn’t really safe to stroll without working for an established pimp or manager. In some ways, technology gives sex workers more ability to work independently if you have the access and knowledge. Yet, in some sense, it has made sex work less visible and more underground. Now, you don’t have that person on the corner who is going to make sure you get back from your date alright. We do outreach to both those on the corners and online to help them stay safe and informed.

"We have varied interactions with the powers that be in Washington. We are funded publicly by the health department for HIV prevention, needle exchange and victims services. Thanks to their support, we are able to make sure that our clients, sex workers, have the tools they need to reduce the public health problems normally associated with this work. Obviously, our goal is different than law enforcement and sometimes, we can be at odds. Our goal is to help empower sex workers. The only real tool that the police has is mass incarceration, which is a success story to them, but in our view is not a success story in the long run.

"Our approach is that we want to live in a healthy community that is free of violence, coercion, and disease. Unfortunately, those in sex work get the brunt of those things. By working with that population to address their health and wellness, we are raising the bar for this city. Because we make those conditions less miserable, sometimes sex workers have the ability to do something different. We find that the less coerced and dependent people feel, the more they are able to make informed decision about sex work. The more we can improve their lives, the more they will settle on a job that they like that gives them agency."

Cyndee Clay is the executive director of HIPS.

Bijan on the Basketball Capital of the United States

2010-03-30T09:00:00.002-04:00

"I came to D.C. in the first grade. My family moved around Washington a couple of times, and we eventually settled in Brookland when I was 8. Moving to that neighborhood got me really interested in sports. One of my neighbors was McKinley Armstrong, the famous basketball coach from McKinley Tech High School. He had a son my age and a hoop in his yard. I always played sports in the neighborhood and eventually started playing on intramural and school teams as I got older. Where I grew up, if you didn’t follow sports, you were out of the lunch-room conversation. Sports became the all-consuming pastime in my life, whether it was playing them, following them, or watching them on TV.

"After high school, I was playing less, but I was following all of the sports in D.C. religiously, especially basketball, and got interested in writing about sports. Through that, I really learned about Washington's amazing basketball history. Little did I know when I was a little kid that high-school basketball in D.C. is as popular and well-played because of something that happened in a century ago. There was a gentleman with a doctorate from Harvard named E.B. Henderson, who learned basketball from James Naismith, the inventor of the game. Dr. Henderson introduced basketball to schools in the D.C. area, especially the segregated schools, and to the first historic YMCA down on 12th Street, which won a colored national championship in 1910. While D.C. did not have the size, it became a hotbed of basketball. Because of that, by the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s, D.C. had some very good teams. Great local players like Elgin Baylor, Dave Bing, Adrian Dantley, Danny Ferry, and Len Bias are largely an outcome of the growth of the game here, and of the great local high-school basketball programs like Armstrong High, McKinley Tech, Cardozo, De Matha Catholic, and St. Anthony's. Recruiters started beating a path to D.C. to find the next great players.

"D.C., for its size, has produced more elite college basketball players than any other city. We have also had over 200 players drafted to the NBA from the D.C. area. When Street and Smith's did its 100 greatest college players of all time, ten were from D.C. No other metropolitan area had even close to that many. The former Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach once said that D.C. has the best schoolyard basketball in the country, and he is from Brooklyn. It was a lot of local talent that built some of the great D.C. collegiate basketball programs, like American and Georgetown. When John Thompson left St. Anthony's High School to coach at Georgetown, he brought some players with him to build the nucleus of his first successful team.

"D.C. athletes, whether in the NBA, college, high school, military, prison, or community leagues, are always some of the most outstanding basketball players. As a writer, I am trying to draw attention to the fact that basketball is an important part of the history of this place, just like the music history, the civil rights history, and the home-rule history. D.C. is not only the capital of the United States, but the basketball capital of the United States."

Read more about D.C. basketball's past, present, and future on Bijan C. Bayne's website and blog.

Craig on Dragging Washington into the 21st Century

2010-03-29T09:00:00.005-04:00

"I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. There was nothing really extraordinary about my childhood. I played little league and ate Twinkies, Ho-Ho's and Cheez Whiz. You know, typical stuff. I always had this urge, though, to leave Ohio. I went to college on the east coast and then went to teach English in Eastern Europe. After that, I went to law school and moved to Washington. When I was moving, everybody said, ‘You don’t want to live in Washington. It is dangerous.’ So, I joined all of the other young, white, upwardly mobile people and lived in my little enclave in Arlington, Virginia where I still am. But I have always worked in downtown Washington.

"My first job was practicing tax law, which I did for seven years. When I look back, it was worse than a bad marriage! Where did my life go for those seven years? I used to travel a lot to sustain myself and also spent a lot of time on the Internet. Without the Internet, I would have killed myself. I am a master of web surfing and minimizing the screen when your boss comes into the room. I used to joke with a colleague of mine that I have read every site on the Internet. During that time, I also started buying and selling art that I would buy on eBay and Craigslist and resell at auctions. I have always been into art and I also started getting into design. I didn’t even know what I was doing. I just started buying pieces that I liked.

"My first idea big idea on how to leave law was to open a wine bar in Washington. This was way back before they opened one up on every street corner. My business partner and I passed around the idea for five years, but things kept falling apart. We never found space and ultimately me and my business partner broke up. At the same time, art was becoming like a drug to me and I thought about opening a gallery. There was no one doing unique and museum quality 21st century functional art. I hate to call it furniture, but that is a simple way to describe some of the pieces.

"I put together a business plan and went to go and see the Cultural Development Corporation, who told me about this space above Conner Contemporary Gallery. I drove by last summer and my first thought was that I did not want to open a space in Trinidad. Last year, there were police blocking people from bringing guns into Trinidad because it had the highest homicide rate in the city. But I really liked the space and think that Conner Contemporary is one of the best galleries in the country. So, I decided to pursue it. I only told my family and a couple of friends about the gallery. With the wine bar, I told everyone under the sun and ultimately it got to be embarrassing because people thought I was all talk. With the gallery, I didn’t tell anyone until the lease was signed. People thought I was crazy for doing it in this economy and in Trinidad. But people's second response was, 'I am really proud of you. That’s amazing that you’re opening a gallery.'

"I found artists who were receptive and were very interested in Washington. No matter what you think about Barack Obama, he has brought a lot of energy to this city. My first artist was a guy named Shlomo Harush. When the show opened, my law firm sent out an email to every single lawyer, almost 250 lawyers, in my firm. Only three of them emailed me back to congratulate me! Even better, one of partners I work with daily to this day has never said a word about it. I was stunned, but it opened my eyes, too, that I made the right decision. Now, I am still doing two jobs, but the goal is obviously to transition into doing this full-time. Even if I lose everything, at least I can say that I did it. I did not want to have any regrets.

"So far, I have been getting a great response outside of Washington. But, in Washington, things have been slower to catch on. I always joke that Washington is ten years behind what is happening in New York. For example, this whole cupcake fad, come on! Wow, Congratu-fucking-lations Washington, you have cupcakes! New York had them ten years ago. We need to catch up with the rest of the nation. People in New York just think we must be a bunch of backwards hicks because we are so behind the times. I live here and love it, but I want to drag people, myself included, into the 21st century with my gallery. I want this gallery to have a national focus, but to also make it clear that Washington can be an important design resource."

Craig Appelbaum is the owner of the Industry Gallery at 1358 Florida Avenue NE.

Shahid on the Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency

2010-03-27T09:00:00.005-04:00

"I was born in England and my family moved to rural Missouri when I was two. We lived there until I was ten and then moved to the suburbs. I went off to Chicago for college at 16 and stayed there for ten years. I spent a lot of my time there down-and-out. My parents lost their house. I had to leave school and couldn’t really hold down a job or an apartment. That time in my life was very disempowering. Starting law school was the first time I really felt hyper-empowered. It’s an amazing transformation to go from feeling like a passive observer to being an active participant in the world around you.

"After law school in California, I moved to D.C. in 2003. I’d been organizing anti-war resistance on the west coast and wanted to take it east to D.C. I came here with a fancy-shmancy law firm job and immediately began organizing street demonstrations. I felt like there was a lot of possibility here professionally, but what rooted me here was the artistic community. Once I got exposed to the local counter culture, I really developed a sense of hope about this city. A lot of people come here from all over the world, inspired to work on all kinds of different causes. If any place reflects a collective action dilemma, it is those of us in the “non-profit industrial complex”: we’re all zoomed in on our respective issues, so a movement uniting those causes gets ignored.

“For me, art has been a way to pull people out of that insularity and draw them together. After co-founding some artist collectives on the west coast, at Stanford in 2002 and then SF in 2003, we started the DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency in Dupont Circle in September 2003 as a way to bring people together. It’s political theater and an arena for people to speak their visions creatively. What we do is sort of like spam marketing: we are going to bring issues to you, whether about troop deaths or climate change, whether you want to hear it or not. Maybe you won’t listen to a talking head, or read a paper, but you’ll listen to perspective if there’s a beat behind it or if it’s poetic.

"At our events, we see the full range of responses, from right-wing types who heckle us, to people who stand thoughtfully and listen. My favorite interaction is when someone walking by randomly grows moved to take the mic and share something on their mind, or pick up a drum and play. We want to collapse the distinction between audience and participant, which is maybe the biggest lesson I took away from my years at Burning Man. Sometimes, a few of us guerrilla poets take the Poetry Insurgency on the METRO, spitting revolutionary rhymes or doing call-and-response chants. You see different attitudes on different train lines: on the blue and orange lines heading into Virginia, people are usually very cold and just try to ignore you. On the red line, you have a 50/50 split, where some people will engage you and others will look away. But the green line rocks! We’ve even been asked not to leave the train – it’s amazing.

"People say that 'the antidote to despair is action,' and that seeing the momentum of a social movement can inspire more energy. Art gives a chance to get back to the basic principles that get lost a lot of the time in policy discussions. I think that what drives people to this town is not the minutiae, but the grand vision that they carry with them from whenever they came. It’s important for people, especially here in our seat of government, to recognize the opportunities we each have as individuals to speak our minds and get back to that vision."

See some of Shahid's poetry here.

Katie Balloons on Being a Balloon Artist

2010-03-26T09:00:00.005-04:00

"I grew up in Newport News, Virginia. Professional entertainment has been the bulk of my income since I started working. When I was 19, it seemed like a good idea to drop out of college and become a go-go dancer, as I wasn’t interested in college. In my naïve mind, I thought that go-go would be a good acting challenge as I was also doing dinner theater at the time. So Lacie, my go-go girl character, was a great role for a couple of years. My parents didn’t like it too much.

"At the time, I was earning at least 30% of my income in professional entertainment. I thought, why can’t I make it 70% or 100%. So, I did. I got a job at a haunted house. I was also working at dinner theater and I took a job as a storyteller at a children’s theater. I was not looking for artistic jobs, but the jobs that paid the most. Someone at the haunted house said he was going to make $50 an hour as a clown. That was more than I was making in a night there, so I decided that I was going to be a clown, too. I looked in a phone book and found the ad that I thought was the classiest and told them I wanted to come in for an audition. They asked if I could do balloons and I said, 'Yes' because I remember mastering the balloon kit my Mom got me when I was seven years old. For the audition, I did the best clown face that I could and learned how to make some basic balloons animals. I also decided that at my clown audition, I would wear my five inch go-go heels. In acting, it is important to have special skills and I thought that the high heels would show my versatility.

"Afterwards, the guy said, ‘Kid, you’ve got what it takes to make it in this business. But I am not going to train you to be a clown, but a balloon artist.’ I went to his house everyday and he taught me balloons. A few months in, I was making an extra couple of hundred of dollars a week. I thought that balloons were a nice way to make some extra money as I pursued a career as an actor. It turns out that there was a big balloon convention the same time as the opening weekend of dinner theater. My boss said, 'You go with me or you are not working with me anymore.' On a wing and a prayer, I quit acting to pursue balloons. At the convention, I met some amazing people who eventually took me to China to work with some of the world’s most important balloon artists. I also met my fiancé there. These experiences introduced me to real balloon art. Before, I thought it was just for kids in a restaurant. I realized that not only was this a field I could conquer, but it could fulfill my love of sculpture and art.

"After my fiancé and I broke up, I was sitting around for a few weeks feeling sad. While I was in China working the festival, I met a lot of artists from the D.C. area. Some of them told me to come to D.C. because of all of the balloon opportunities in D.C. and Northern Virginia. Just like that, I moved here in 2008. Before I moved here, I made a balloon dress and walked around town passing out cards just to make my presence known. The first week I got here, I made no money, but from the second week on it's been coming in steady. Most of my work is kids parties, but I also work for corporate clients, like Boar’s Head and Harley Davidson. I've always worked a number of jobs, so I also stilt walk, fortune tell, and do singing telegrams as Marilyn Monroe. I love making art, but this is also my business."

Learn more about Katie Balloons here.

Ray and William on a Parent and Four Kids Living on the Streets

2010-03-25T09:00:00.002-04:00

Ray - "I was born in Salisbury, Maryland in 1959. My wife died a little while back of an aneurism. A vein popped in her brain and she died. I was there when it happened. I tell you, I am a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War and this was the hardest thing I have ever been through. I didn't know how to handle things and started drinking heavily. I still love her so much. My wife took care of all of my paper work and kept things in order because I don't know how to take care of myself. See, I am under-educated. After she died, I lost my job and me and my four kids lost our house. I have two boys and two girls who are 13, 15, 17, and 19. My sister helped us out at first, but then she threw us out. Three and a half months ago, me and my kids ended up on the streets of D.C.. We live on the steps of a church. We tried the shelters, but got bed bugs. It is better on the streets.

"Living on the street means I have to do a lot of panhandling, a lot of begging, and sometimes I steal to get food for my kids. Now, I don't drink as much, but when I get stressed, I may have a beer or two. And it's a lot of stress being one parent with four kids on the streets. Whatever happens, I don't want the system to get no part of my children. They are not going to take my kids and put them in a foster home. These are my children."

William - "I am 17. It was pretty nice growing up in Salisbury. We lived in a small town and I love the country life. My Mom and I had a good time together before she passed. We used to sit back and talk about a lot of things together. Back in the day, my Mom took us to D.C. all of the time to see the monuments and parks. Since she passed, I have been spending a lot of time with my Dad. I am trying to help him get his act together and slow down his drinking. Sometimes, I feel like I am a parent, too.

"My friends probably don't know that I am here living on the streets as we just upped and left one day without saying nothing to nobody. It is tough living out here on the streets, but I am trying to make things better for us. Sometimes you have to take things one step at a time. Now, I am trying to find some type of job as some of my brothers and sisters are too young to work. I will do whatever: cleaning, selling papers, construction, stock clerk, security guard, whatever. I miss the country life now that we are in the city, but this city seems to be pretty alright. Everybody is so nice. Sometimes, it even reminds me of Salisbury. "

Ray, left, is pictured with his son William.

Dan on Seeing Washington from a Piano Bench

2010-03-24T09:00:00.003-04:00

“I was born in Buffalo, New York in 1935. Of course, I’ve been lying about my age and telling people that I am 38…Celsius. Those were some tough times. We're talking the Depression, now. My father had a job pumping gas. He used to wear a leather bow tie to work. Can you imagine that? I tell you, he was just lucky to have a job. To have babies during that time when you didn’t know what you were getting into was a big deal. But we laughed a lot and played music as a way to keep things positive in our family. One of my father's great passions was the piano and now me and my brother are pianists.

"My parents would have their friends come over and we would perform for them. If we were naughty, they would send us to bed without applause. Even now, we still put on the same act. It hasn’t changed at all. I got my break when we moved to Miami. At the time, the coaxial cable had not come down from New York, so the only way you could get television programs was by mailing them on kinescope from the studios. So, Florida was always a week behind in television. That gave a great break to kids who had a lot of moxie to be local entertainers. At the time, I had my own radio and TV shows and a column in the paper. I even played in Miami Beach at the famous Sagamore Lounge of the Sagamore Hotel. Get this, we would do punch lines in Yiddish and we didn’t know what we were saying. Then, I got a national commercial for cigarettes, which was a huge deal. I look back now and that was crazy, as cigarettes killed everyone in my family.

"I always thought that I was going to be an actor. Music was very easy to me, so I didn’t respect it. I moved to D.C. to go to Catholic University and stayed for many years after as an actor. We were doing a scene from Henry IV, Part 1 at the Mayflower Hotel the same night the French singer Edtih Piaf was performing at the hotel. Her piano player didn’t show up, so they asked us if anyone knew how to play French music. Of course in show business, when anyone asks you if you do something, you say. 'Yes!' That was how I got my start at the Mayflower Hotel back in the Eisenhower Administration. That’s how long I’ve been here.

"People call the Mayflower Washington’s second best address after 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. All of the President’s have stayed here. We have all of the Inaugural galas. There is a lot of history here. Listen to this true story, the hotel used to have a strolling fiddle player named Julian Altman. He got sick at 85 and on his deathbed, he tells his wife, 'This fiddle is pretty important.' Turns out it was a Stradivarius that had been stolen out of a dressing room of Carnegie Hall. I don’t think he stole it, but it's an amazing story.

"Now, I work at lunch at the Prime Rib and evenings at the Mayflower. Both places get the same kind of lobbyist and Congressmen crowd. You can always tell the difference when they’re at dinner because the lobbyists picks up the check. When I play, I look at people and think about what was popular when they were 18. That is the key. I also get a lot of requests. Guys usually want As Time Goes by from Casablanca. Women always like Memory from Cats. Late in the evening, after people have had a few, they usually come and sit on the bench with me, crying about how they wish they had practiced piano when they were little. I tell you, I've really seen a lot from this bench."

Catch Dan Ruskin playing lunch daily at the Prime Rib (2020 K St. NW) and in the evenings at the Mayflower Hotel (1127 Connecticut Ave. NW.) Listen to one of his original tracks here.