Lloyd on Washington's Other Monuments

"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."

Read more about Lloyd Wolf's work here.

Craig on Dragging Washington into the 21st Century

"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.

Katie Balloons on Being a Balloon Artist

"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.

Amy on DC SCORES

"I was born in Austin, Texas, but grew up in Falls Church, Virginia. I started playing soccer at age seven. That was the earliest you could play soccer then. Now it is three years old. I grew up in a neighborhood where everyone played in the street. I started playing recreational soccer and then went on to play on travel teams, including the Virginia State Team. Sports was pretty much all I did growing up. Sports is and was a large part of my identity. 

"My college decision was 100 percent informed by soccer. I went to North Carolina State and loved it. The college athletic experience for a non-revenue sport was very familial. I had this group of 20 women who were my best friends, and we spent 40 hours a week together. After college, I coached a lot of youth soccer while doing a number of Master's programs. After my second Master's program, an opening came up at Bryn Mawr, a small Division III women's college, to coach. The college is not exactly an athletic bastion of talent, but it was fun. I felt that my challenge was to harness their natural instinct to be competitive with their moderate soccer ability, to create a fun and competitive experience on the soccer field.

"After Bryn Mawr, I moved to D.C. because my husband, who is from D.C., was living here and I got a job with DC SCORES. D.C. SCORES is one of the largest after-school programs in D.C. We have about 730 kids in our program. Our goal is to get students involved in school and physically fit through soccer, and to bring up their self-worth and sense of belonging in the community. There is a natural complimentary skill set between a sport like soccer and self-expression. When kids trust each other on the soccer field, they feel comfortable to write about their communities, share stories about their lives, and work on group projects to figure out how to change their communities.

"One of the interesting things about working here is seeing how soccer is viewed differently in different neighborhoods. In Columbia Heights, some of these kids grew up around soccer, but have never played in an organized league. East of the river, many students have never heard about soccer before they join our program. Some of the coaches at those schools have basketball and football backgrounds and are new to soccer, so they will tell the kids, 'Okay, you've got the ball. It's like you're the quarterback, go boost the ball.' 'Quarterback' in soccer? 'Boost' the ball? But it works and the kids really love playing." 

Amy Nakamoto is the Executive Director of DC SCORES.

Akiva on Connecting to People Using a Dead Guy's Words

"I grew up in the near suburbs of Boston. My family would probably tell you that they had to sit through a number of my interminable theater performances when I was eight years old. When I was 15, I read "Hamlet" and it really impacted me. I think that everyone reads "Romeo and Juliet" in freshman year of high school and just blows it off because they're forced to read it. I did the same thing, but when I read "Hamlet" on my own, that made all the difference. I tore through it in three hours and wondered, ‘Does anyone else know about this Shakespeare guy? He’s great!’ Shakespeare became a real love of mine. In college, I founded a Shakespeare Theatre that performed in the dorms. People would wander up in their pajamas and watch. There was something about the words, the style, and the subject matter that just got to me, and continues to get to me.

"When college ended, I thought I would say goodbye to that part of my life, but it turned out that I wasn’t ready to be a stock broker or an English professor. I wanted to keep this as part of my life and connect with people. Strangely, I felt most connected to people using this dead guy’s words. Still, I didn’t know that one could make a career in the arts; I thought that was just for hippies.

"It was a bet that I could find someone who would hire me to work in the arts after I finished graduate school. Now I work in a giant theater, with 775 seats, putting on these plays. Working at the Shakespeare Theatre was a dream job, where I could get my arms around the historical background, the language, and the interface with the audience.

"For me, one of the most satisfying things about working here is reminding the politicians, judges, and lawyers in the audience that a lot of these plays are about them. The reason these plays have lasted is because they have these eternal questions that people are always working on: How do you make your country better? How do you lead other people? To whom do you look when you need a leader? These are the questions that people engaged in this city are answering every day.

"There was this wonderful episode from the 16th century, when Queen Elizabeth was elderly and subject to a lot of revolts and uncertainty about who was going to succeed her. Before her conspirators launched their rebellion against her, they ordered Richard II to be put on stage because it is about deposing the king. After the conspiracy failed and she learned about the performance, she apparently turned to her aides and says, 'Know you not that I am Richard II.’ That’s a wonderful story because it's about someone really getting what history and drama have to do with their life in a political situation.

"At the end of the day, the politicians and I are working with the same material. Mine is just written down and they are making it up as they go along. It's funny to me that people come over to me and say, ‘You work in theater. That's so cool!’ I am thinking, yeah, but you are running the country. That’s pretty cool, too!"

Akiva Fox is a literary associate at the Shakespeare Theatre.

Carl and Seshat on Kids as Therapy

Carl – “My name is Carl. Some call me Kokayi. I’m a native Washingtonian who was born and raised mainly in Southwest D.C., and partially in Mannheim, Germany. I’ve been to over 35 countries, all without being in the military, taught hip-hop clinics at prestigious universities, worked with the State Department doing cultural exchanges with my band, had two major label record deals in a foreign country, got nominated for a Grammy in 2009 — all while remaining in relative obscurity. I still work on music, but have a full-time job, mostly because I became a realist about my love affair with music and the realities of the modern music business.

“I’m a parent to two hilarious kids who are my therapy. I never thought that I’d be able to have kids. It was my biggest fear throughout my early 20’s. I feel blessed to be able to spend my time on this rock with them, watching them grow and seeing them prosper into great adults. Until I met my wife, I had very little belief in stable relationships. I wanted one, but didn’t believe they could exist for me. She helped redirect my life’s course and is my best: friend, critic, motivator, source of truth, and publicist, and is the one I’ve entrusted with my heart, fears and insecurities, all of which I know she would never harm intentionally.”

Seshat – “I was a small-town, country girl from the Eastern Shore. I graduated from a university in rural Pennsylvania and threw myself into an unknown city to live and intern at one of the largest homeless shelters on the East Coast. I created programs for the women residents, taught GED classes and worked the women’s floor. To say it was a life-changing experience is to put it mildly. Now, I’m a mama, wife, writer and playwright residing in Northeast D.C. I have a love for Ward 7. Our neighbors are friendly and look out for one another. We love walking. Our house is charming, which is a classy word for small. I hate that our only sit-down restaurant is Denny’s, though I know that the new H Street Trolley will change all of that.

“My husband and I met when I was hired by his band mate to be a publicist for their hip-hop band. We became good friends out of sharing our stories of unrequited love and failed relationships. We got married in Malcolm X Park on August 26th, 2000. My husband is my best friend. I believe being best friends has allowed our marriage to survive so far. We can tell each other everything and anything. I believe that, in a marriage, you have to agree to disagree. We go through it like anyone else because we’re both very strong-willed. But we usually get over our disagreements quickly. We both have a sick sense of humor and believe that our kids are the best entertainment in the world. My daughter, Phina, is a natural debater, music snob, public defender, bookworm and girly girl. My son, Dahvi, is a block-builder, architect, designer, mini-paleontologist, and stand-up comedian, and espouses random facts. People have come to us over time wondering how we are raising kids in such an expensive city with sucky schools. There’s no manual for this. Our parenting skills straddle somewhere between the traditional and ‘how-about-we-do-this’ approach. This is what works for us:

1) Teach our kids to always tell the truth.

2) Teach our kids not to be afraid of their own people.

3) Teach our kids to stick up for themselves.

4) No TV during the week and little on the weekends.

5) Put our kids into a great, diverse charter school that challenges them and makes them think about their place in the world. 6) Take them to every free, age-appropriate educational and cultural event we can.

“For the most part, my kids are pretty good kids. I believe my kids have some edge living in the city, yet they remain kids. They’re still sensitive, innocent and inquisitive. They also get to go visit my parents in the country a couple of times a year, which balances it out. Personally, I can live either in a city or the country. I can’t do the suburbs. We are planning to purchase a property this year. It’s not easy in this land of overpriced, big-on-features but, small-on-space condos. We’re going to make it work somehow. Laughing helps.”

Duane on Anacostia's ARCH

"I first came to D.C. in 1961. I lived in Anacostia and worked as a summer intern for a Congressman from Reading, Pennsylvania. Back then, this was a thriving community. It was 50% white and 50% black. All of the stores were open and there were jazz clubs and restaurants here. Things changed after the riots. In 1980, I came back to D.C. I used to be the Director of Energy Conservation for the state of New Jersey. I was a political appointee and when my boss left, I applied for a job at the Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco) in charge of their energy conservation programs and was eventually put in charge of their community economic development programs. Out of that, we started the ARCH Training Center. Marion Barry, who was Mayor at the time, and then City Council Chair John Wilson, both of whom I knew from the civil rights movement, worked with us to establish the program in an old school in Anacostia. Pepco gave me release time to develop the ARCH programs and funded them until 1996.  

"We started as an adult job training program. We expanded into a homeless organization, a housing organization, a community economic development corporation, and a construction company. Each of these programs grew out of the needs of the community. At the time, these organizations did not exist in Ward 8. There were no housing organizations, now there must be eight or nine. As more organizations here provided services, ARCH contracted to do the two things we did best: job training and small scale economic development using arts and culture and the creative economy as a way to regenerate Anacostia. 

"What ARCH is trying to do is to help develop businesses that either support the creative economy or are not totally dependent on the local population to support their businesses. There is not the disposable income in the neighborhood yet. Now, one of our projects is the Honfleur Gallery. If you took the physical facility of that art gallery and put it in SoHo, it would fit. It is a modern museum space and allows us to bring international artists, musical groups and poetry that attracts Ward 8 residents and those throughout the District. We try and combine the arts with the extremely relevant things that are going on here. 

"In the end, I think that it is more important to talk about Anacostia than to talk about me. Anacosita has a bad rap. The worst thing to ever happen to Anacostia was the Washington Post. If any crime happens east of the river, it is reported as being in Anacostia. For years, a murder would take place on Mississippi Avenue on the Maryland border and that would be Anacostia. We are working with a number of other individuals and organizations to try and bring back the feel of how this place used to be. We realize that now Anacostia is not a place of destination. People will only come here if there is something specific. People don't come her to walk around. We are trying to change that."

Duane Gautier is the founder and CEO of both ARCH Training Center and ARCH Development Corporation. Honfleur Gallery, a project of ARCH Development Corporation, opened in January 2007 as a contemporary arts space and cultural hub in Historic Anacostia. A second exhibition space and high end digital printing lab, Vivid Solutions, is dedicated specifically to photography and digital art, and opened in 2008.

Omotayo on Rebuilding What He Broke Down

"I was two or three when I came to D.C. from Nigeria. I remember going to elementary school in Southeast. It was a new experience. It was a rough experience. The neighborhoods were not the best, but I tried to keep myself right and do good in school. I didn't really travel much outside of my neighborhood, but I decided to go to Duke Ellington School of the Arts to get a different experience of this city. It was there where I got really serious about school. Now, I am in the National Honor Society and want to go to college in fine arts. D.C. kind of helped me with my artistic development because it is a small place and has a good reputation for art. A lot of my art is about my own story.

"In D.C, it was, like, kind of rough fitting in because everybody mispronounced my name. My name means child of joy. This was a hard environment for me. Usually, I would do what everybody else was doing. At the same time, I kept my Nigerian identity by going to the Nigerian churches here. My Mom spoke Yoruba, our language, a lot. At home, we would greet people traditionally. The funny thing about all of that is that I rejected those customs when I first moved here. These customs were what made me different. I didn't want to be seen as the African kid, I just wanted to be seen as another kid. I kind of regret doing that because I feel like I lost some things in that process. But now, I am trying to take all of that back in and rebuild what I broke down. My art represents a lot of that process. It's funny, after all of that time, I am now seen as an African-American kid because unless you know my name and story, you just assume that I am that, but I feel African. Interesting how age has helped me come back to who I am. Now, I feel African. Actually, I take that back, I am just an individual. I don't like being boxed into a category."

Denise on Making a Living out of Art

"I have been selling at Eastern Market since 1992. In some ways, the market hasn't changed that much although there are more imported items for sale now. Otherwise, the street wasn't closed off and most of the vendors were up on the plaza. When I started, people from outside the area used to tell me this place was full of crime and someone once told me it was the worst part of D.C. Even before they revitalized Eastern Market, I certainly never thought it was the worst neighborhood in D.C. Most of these people had never been here, but because of the Southeast label, so many people just assumed it to be the ghetto. It had its rough times, for sure, but you see how it has changed now. Just look at the kinds of people who are coming to and living around the market.  

"When I started, I was selling hand-made journals and paper products. I knew a lot of people who were artists or made jewelry, but they did it as hobbies and for their friends. Many people don't think about making a living out of art. I don't remember the exact point when I thought about converting my art into a job, but I just always knew that I wanted to do it. At some point, you should just do what you want to do and see what happens. It has been hard for me at times because D.C. is an expensive city, but when I need, I supplement my work here by bartending or waitressing. Otherwise, I am out here most every weekend. I mean, today is windy and 29 degrees and I am still out here. Although I have to say that 20 degrees is probably my breaking point. 

"You know, it is hard to make a decent wage when you are selling your own art work. But, I think that Eastern Market is a unique market because many artists and painters can make a living selling their things here. When you say market, many people think it is a place where you spend $2 on something. Here, there are a lot of people who understand the quality of handmade stuff and are ready to put down some money for a quality item. So, it's unique in that sense." 

Sierra on Being Herself and Being Happy

"I was born in Colorado and moved here when I was four. I cried and cried when I got here. I called my Mom and said, "How could you do this to me!?' In Colorado, you don't see homeless people, you don't see trash or a lot of poverty. When I got here, it was another planet. I mean, my first memory of this place was the smell. This place stank! But, there were nice things, too. I had never been around so many different kinds of people and things. Everything here was new for me: the bodegas, the metro, the bus, the hair and the style. I still think that the metro is the greatest thing to ever happen to me. I don't ever want to get a driver's license!

"Growing up here, I went to a number of different schools and my Mom eventually decided that I needed more structure and sent me to Holton-Arms, a private school in Bethesda. That place was not for me, though. My mind was too all over the place. I really started to find myself when I came to Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

"You know, I honestly don't have that many friends around my neighborhood in Southeast because it has always been hard for me to fit in. This sounds kind of cliche, but sometimes I don't feel black enough. When I went to Holton-Arms, I was one of the blackest people there. But, when I was in my neighborhood, I still did not feel black enough and I went through a couple of stages of trying to be blacker. You know, dressing like a hood rat or acting differently, but that wasn't me. I realized that I had to worry less about what people thought of me and more about what I think of myself. I still struggle with that because identity is perceived as something given to you by other people. That's not true, though, you have to control your own identity.

"Now, I feel like me. I am a junior studying literary media and communications and feel like this is the right place for me. I still go back-and-forth with my identity, but I am much more comfortable with who I am. This school gave me a pride in who I am and what I do. I appreciate this school so much because it allowed me to be happy. I thank D.C. for helping me find Duke Ellington, which helped me to find myself."

Sierra, right, is pictured with a classmate on top of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts' "soapbox."

Jason on the Old Post Office

"I have been working as a park ranger in D.C. for four years. I used to be a teacher and feel like this job allows me to teach and be outside at the same time. I grew up around the Park Service as my father works for them. This job is great as it is a progressive education on this city. They give us a lot of research time to learn about buildings and the city. During my four years, I have worked at the Washington Monument, Jefferson, Lincoln, Vietnam, FDR, and Korean War Memorials. Now, I split my time on the Mall and the Old Post Office Tower at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue. 

"The Old Post Office was built from 1892 - 1899 as an urban renewal project. It was constructed as both a post office as well as the Postal Department's National Headquarters. This area was once known as Hookers Bay. Hookers Division stayed here during the Civil War and that brought a lot of prostitution and alcoholism. In addition, the canal connecting the Capitol to the Potomac River, used to construct the Capitol Building, had become stagnant and disease infested. The government built this beautiful building to try and bring up this part of town. The style is called Richardsonian Romanesque. It is based on the work of H.H. Richardson who is known as the first major American architect. This building is almost an exact replica of the Allegheny Courthouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which Richardson thought was his best piece of work. So, D.C. has a replica of one of the most important pieces of early American architecture. 

"However, when it was completed, people didn't like this building because the Richardsonian style was then about twenty years out of date. People used to call this the old tooth. They also thought it was too decadent and an example of government waste. It was not as functional as many people would have liked. Because of that, the building was almost destroyed in the 1930's, but because of the Great Depression the government couldn't afford to tear it down. It stood for about forty years during which time the FBI used it as a D.C. field office as did some other government agencies.  

"By the 1970's, it had really fallen into disrepair. At that point, they were going to tear it down as originally planned, but Nancy Hanks who was the head of the National Endowment for the Arts convinced Congress to save the building as a historic landmark. It was renovated in 1983. Now, it houses the offices for the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation and some other government agencies. It also became the first building in D.C. to serve the three functions of housing government offices, supporting a commercial area and food court and being a tourist destination staffed by the Parks Service." 

Learn more about the Old Post Office here. When not working as a park ranger, Jason plays in the band Sun Committee. Check them out here. 

Cory on Bringing More Character to D.C. Design

“I started working as a designer right after graduating from the University of California at Santa Barbara. With time, I got tired of my boss and Santa Barbara and quit my job on September 10, 2001. That made the next day all the more tragic for me. I was in limbo for almost a year and ended up getting into the design program at the Corcoran in D.C. I packed up my truck and drove cross-country in about five days. When I got here, I was totally out of my element. It took me a good while to adjust because people have such a different mentality on the East Coast. People were so tied in to their professions and ambition here in a way that I did not experience on the West Coast. To this day, that singular focus on profession gets to me because I feel like people here are not present and can’t appreciate the little things. But, that sense of ambition is something that I absorbed and apply to my work in design. After graduating from the Corcoran, I started working at the Affinity Lab in September 2005. The lab is the perfect combination of everything I love about back home and here. 

"People always ask me, ‘You moved here from California!?’ They’re confused, but I say that I have never felt more at home anyplace else. There is a sense of history here. California is so easy and beautiful, but this place has edge and challenges you. I am always looking to position myself in a place where I am being pushed. You go to Philly, New York or Chicago and you know what those places taste like. D.C. tastes like poi, it’s flavorless and goes well with certain things. Being here, you are pushed to find those certain things, which makes you appreciate them so much more when you find them.

"One unfortunate thing about D.C. is that there is not much inspirational design. I always feel like D.C. maintains a support system for the mundane. I don’t get to experience a lot of visually challenging things there. There haven’t been enough people here focused on pushing the boundaries. Most people who come here have one focus: how to find fame, fortune or notoriety in politics and business. When you are going for those traditional professions and you don’t have something that supports experimentation, you don’t get really intriguing cultural elements. We need to create more what the fuck is this moments with design in D.C! Everything is too conventional. D.C. needs more character big-time. A lot of the character traditionally comes from the historical communities in cities. Sadly, many of those communities have been pushed out or are under-appreciated by those who come with a singular focus. Through my design, I am trying to bring more of that here."

See Cory's work here. 

Devil on His Father's Shadow

"My Mom’s Puerto Rican and my Dad is from Trinidad. My Mom was in the army and my Dad is an artist, so I was an Army brat growing up. I lived all over the place, but my Dad eventually settled in Washington, D.C., and teaches art at Howard University. The fun thing about growing up in an art house was that the things that my mother wouldn’t let me do, my father would, if I said I was doing it for 'art'. So, I’m blowing up rats or breaking the neighbor's windows, but I was doing it for 'art!' That’s the only good thing with being a young kid in an artist’s house. You could get away with anything because of the 'art' excuse.

"My Dad, Michael Platt, has been painting since he was in his 20’s. He graduated college at 21 and then started teaching at a number of places before landing at Howard. He is a well-recognized painter, but it was a long struggle for him to get there. For me, I am just getting started. I tell you, it is tough growing up in my father’s shadow. Sometimes, it is hard for me to talk about it.

"People always say to me, 'You are following in your father's footsteps.' Yeah, but, I mean, I am different. See, my Dad is a painter, but I am a tattoo artist. I also do photography and am a radio DJ. My Dad always used dull colors in his paintings, so I use neon colors and anything and everything from the 80’s and up. I really try to push the boundaries. I mean, look at my tattoos. I got my first tattoo at 12 and have been getting them ever since. Now, I am putting UV ink into my tattoos, which makes my tattoos glow in the dark. My whole thing is to be more expressive and stand out more than other people. Even though they still haven’t proven it to be cancer free, I don’t care. I am always trying to cause a commotion with myself and my art.

"The competition for art in this town is pretty fierce. People say New York is tough and that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. That’s all bullshit, man. Those people have never spent time trying to make it as an artist here. This little city of ours runs everything in this nation, including art. I think that D.C. is second only to London in terms of art. I am always inspired by the city of D.C."

Svetlana on Brightest Young Things

“When I got to DC, I knew no one. At the time, I had a boyfriend who lived in LA, such a bad idea. I spent a year traveling back and forth and not giving DC a chance at all, just meeting a person here and there. Then, I broke up with my boyfriend and I decided to focus and really like DC and make it mine. I always used to take pictures and write stories on MySpace, basically narrating what was going on around town. My site really grew and I started getting 500 people a day or so checking out my photos. And, all of these people would come up to me and say, “Hey, you’re that girl who does those pictures.”

“So, my friend, Jason, suggested that we put the website out into the larger world. In 2006, we converted my site into a shitty blog and called it Brightest Young Things. I always wanted to call the blog that after Evelyn Waugh's novel, Vile Bodies. I wanted the name to be funny. The book talks about all of these kids running through London in the 1920's and they have nothing, but partying and live a very superficial life. In the book, they call those kids bright young things. Some people get the joke and some people don’t.

“Right now, our traffic is about 100,000 visitors a month. Sometimes, upwards of 10,000 a day. Now, we have 30 photographers, 60 contributors, and it’s a tight group of friends. So, we just went full-time in July. In the future, we are going to do more festivals and things that take over whole neighborhoods, especially parts of the city that many people don’t normally think of.

“I think that the parties we throw couldn’t happen in any place but DC. DC is an exceptionally smart city and its, like, a conquerable city so there is a sense of familiarity and everyone knows everyone. If you give people a chance to have fun and do something different and creative here, of course everyone is going to jump at it. To think that I needed something to do to avoid thinking about my breakup and now I have BYT, it’s pretty awesome. “

Brightest Young Things is organizing The Bentzen Ball, a comedy festival, this weekend. Get tickets here.

Amy on Crafty Bastards

“Crafty Bastards was started about six years ago by The City Paper because we wanted to have an event that we felt spoke about the city and The City Paper. And, what people think of DC is that it is very button down. You know, the K Street crowd, blue suits and red ties, and that is not the DC that we know and love. Crafty Bastards has over 150 crafters that make things, most of which are not mass produced. Some make things only for this event. You can’t find this stuff unless you come to Crafty Bastards. We bring them together with about 20,000 people who come to shop.

"The event puts us in touch with people who read and look at The City Paper and it’s a great conversation starter. Crafty Bastards is the unique, one-of-a-kind thing. It reflects our advertisers, many of whom are local Mom and Pop stores. That is the advertising that has always worked for The City Paper.

“And, isn’t this a great location? I remember when they took me down to the school for the first time to see the site. I remember saying, “You’re crazy.” But, it is a perfect space. When the school was built in the late 60's, early 70's, the plaza was built for community purposes and it was supposed to be used like this, yet it never is, with very few exceptions. So, we’re actually using this space as it was intended.

“In the past, it was not so difficult to get the permits, except for this year. The DC government had us doing much more work and permitting for the event than in the past. If anyone is listening in the District government, that is a difficult and expensive process!

“We tried doing Crafty Bastards twice a year. We did one other one in Silver Spring last year and it was too much. You know, it is not our core. We are too busy writing and publishing to do more than one a year."

While the next Crafty Bastards is a year away, you can find links to this year's fair vendors and support their work here.

Amy, left, is pictured with Hunter.

Jeff on Building a House of Washington

“I am a city planner trained as an architect. One principal characteristic that distinguishes Washington, DC, from most American cities, and most European cities, too, for that matter, is the rectilinear urban grid overlaid by diagonal streets creating all of these awkward, strange street corners. If you read the urban historians who discuss Washington, DC, they see it as a real disadvantage to the design of the city.

"What is interesting, though, if you look at what the urban planner Haussmann did in Paris and the outcome of his slashing avenues through the medieval street network of Paris, there are actually a lot weirder building lots in Paris than in Washington. But, the design mentality of post-Haussmann in the late-1800s, as opposed to the mentality when DC was designed in 1798, meant that people were more willing and interested in making weird-shaped buildings on weird-shaped lots. Thus, when DC was being designed, a lot of these lots sat empty.

"Now in design, there is a lot less admiration of pure forms. Symmetry is out. Why have a square building when you can have a rhombus or a parallelogram or something that is kind of funky? These weird leftover lots in DC give an architect the opportunity to do a building with an exciting shape without violating the shape of the lot.

“I wanted to make a house that was of Washington and couldn’t really exist anywhere else. I went looking for a very sharp triangle. My wife and I rented a Zipcar, mapped out the flatiron lots around town and visited every one. And, this was the one that seemed the most available, but it still took a year and a private detective to find the owner and another year to clear the title. Even though our house occupies the footprint of what was historically here and I just wanted to fill the same lot, it took three variances and nine months to do that. According to the zoning laws, I was also required to build a garage on site, but I didn’t have a car. Parking a car on site would have meant replacing a public good, street parking, for a private good, my own parking space, and I didn’t want to do that. I spent months fighting that too.

"The key issue in DC is that the current zoning code does not take into account strange lots. If you wanted to build a traditional urban row house on a lot in DC, you would not have a problem, which puts DC far ahead of most American cities. It is these weird left over blocks where you have the problems. I am no longer surprised when I see how long it takes to rehabilitate empty lots here because the tax burdens and title problems associated with a lot of them make it really difficult to actually do anything."

Learn more about what Jeff is doing in DC and around the world to promote smart growth and sustainable design here. See his house here.