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.

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

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

“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.

Nora on the Nation's First Certified Organic Restaurant

"I was born in Vienna. In Austria , there is a lot of emphasis on fried foods, heavy sauces, and desserts. My parents were unusual in that my mother cooked very light and my father was into yogurt and fruit. He was also very much for outdoor exercise, which is typical in Austria . He always said that health is the most important thing that you have and you need to preserve it. From a young age, I was taught that food is important and you need to combine it with outdoor activity.

"I came to D.C. with my French journalist husband as a young bride in 1965. Here is where I first became conscious of what the food situation was like in America . I always say that D.C. was a culinary wasteland in the 60's and 70's. My first exposure to how awful food here was going to a supermarket. There were shelves and shelves of Wonder bread. When Pepperidge Farm bread finally came around, it was like a gourmet statement! The produce department was the smallest department. The biggest department was frozen foods. There were the same fruits and vegetables all year-round. Nothing seasonal or local. It was a shock to realize that this country, which was supposedly the richest country in the world, had no food culture.

"In response, I did a lot of research in the Yellow Pages and found ethnic markets and local farmers to get healthy and fresh food for me and my family. I read a lot, too, especially Elizabeth David and James Beard. Those books really inspired me. I also became interested in American agricultural practices. I remember finding a farm in Virginia where you could buy sides of beef. The woman there proudly told me that they fed the cows corn, so that they would fatten up. Then she went on and told me the cows were kept inside and regularly given hormones. That was the first time I realized that chemicals were used in agriculture. Then I learned about pesticides in fruits and vegetables. Things like this were not happening in Austria when I was growing up.

"At the time, I was cooking a lot and we were having people for dinner once or twice a week. A lot of people really liked my food and friends asked if I would teach them what I had learned through my little culinary journey. At the beginning, it was informal, but I also realized that I needed to make some money. I eventually opened a cooking school in my home in the evening. On the weekends, I did catering. It was very simple. I cooked something at home and brought it to someone's house, and they pretended they cooked it.

"I did that for about three years. Then one of my students asked if I would be interested in opening a restaurant in a small bed-and-breakfast in Dupont Circle called the Tabard Inn. First, I was a little scared, as I had never really committed myself to being a professional, but I realized I had to do it because my husband and I split up and I needed to support myself and my kids. The restaurant started off with only lunch and became very successful. We served natural meat, and I picked up vegetables from farmers in the area. The word got around that I was purchasing fresh and local items, so farmers starting coming to me. At the end, I was one of the first to do the farmer-chef restaurant connection. This was back in 1976. At that time, if you said organic, no one would come to your restaurant. It sounded like a biology class and people thought it would taste disgusting. It is only in the last ten years that people stopped associating health food with bad food.

"Two colleagues from the Tabbard and I opened Restaurant Nora in 1979. We found this location through pure chance. We wanted to stay south of Dupont Circle, near the Tabbard Inn, because there was already a group of people who supported us, but we couldn't find anything affordable. This space used to be a Yugoslav restaurant run by the father of some of the kids who were in school with my children. Sadly, he was ill and ended up selling us the restaurant. We all worked 24/7 and lived off of the tips. My kids would come here after school and do their homework, so I could watch them while I was cooking.

"For the first 15 or 20 years, people thought I was completely nuts and the whole organic business was not true. Restaurant reviewers criticized me for telling people how to eat. Still, people came to eat here because the food was good. When environmentalists became prominent was when I started to get more serious support for what I was doing with health and food. Things also changed when Fresh Fields came to D.C., which is now Whole Foods. The supermarket did a lot to educate people on where food comes from. We live in a very chemical world, and there are so many chemicals in our society. I think that people need to take responsibility for their own health. Now people tell me that they can't afford organic food. I tell them that they can't afford to be unhealthy. Would you prefer to spend your money on food or the doctor?"

Restaurant Nora became the nation's first certified organic restaurant in 1999. Nora Pouillon is the author of Cooking with Nora.

Trita on a Collective Voice for Iranian-Americans

"I was born in Southern Iran. My father was a university professor and twice got in trouble with the Shah's government for making critical comments. He was thrown in jail and tortured. By the time he got out, we realized that it was time for us to leave the country. We left forSweden when I was about four-and-a-half years old, which was months before the revolution. After the Iranian revolution, my Dad was put on a list of people to be executed on the spot should he return because of false accusations made against him. Still, he returned toIran to clear his name. He was put in jail again, but did manage to clear his name. After he was released, he never went back to Iran. Meanwhile, in Sweden, we were all glued to the TV watching the images of the revolution and its aftermath. Those were the first experiences that really shaped me and my brother's personalities, and I suspect that they had  something to do with why we are so passionate about politics. 

"I was days into my Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins when 9/11 happened. At that time, the Iranian-American community was united in its opposition to the attacks, but had not found a way to collectively voice our opposition to the terrorist attacks or to organize politically. Many Iranian-Americans' experiences in politics were rooted in their experiences in Iran, where nothing good came out of speaking up. There was a sense, therefore, that, in America, you should keep your head down, study, and buy a big house and as many BMWs as you could. But if you don't get involved in politics in this country, you do not exist and have no voice or influence. 

"After 9/11, a lot of Iranian-Americans were concerned that their children would go through the same thing they did during the Iran hostage crisis when it was tough to be an Iranian in this country. It was because of all this that we created the National Iranian-American Council. We started by educating the Iranian-American community on how to get involved and be influential. People needed to stop arguing with their TVs and start doing something. As we grew, we became politically involved and started taking positions. The first big was one was standing against war with Iran in 2006. 

"We also work to educate policy makers and the media on Iran. Iran's problem is that it has not been a sufficiently important country to get approval for American universities to get funds to do Persian-language or history courses. One has to couple that with the absence of diplomatic relations and the fact that the Iranians grant something like 300 visas a year to Americans. We live in a country of 300 million.  Thus, knowledge of Iran is at a very low level. To the extent that the knowledge grows, it is usually due to negative developments in Iran because of the Iranian president saying something outrageous about the Holocaust or because of what they are doing with their nuclear program. 

"NIAC works to make sure that the impression of the Iranian-American community is not dependent on news coverage of U.S. views on Iran, which 99 times out of 99 is negative. The Iranian-American community has made significant contributions to this country. Those stories have rarely been told and won't be told until Iranian-Americans tell those stories themselves." 

Trita Parsi is the President of the Washington-based NIAC and the author of Treacherous Alliance - The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States.

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.

Skip on a Different City

"I came to Washington. D.C. as a student at Georgetown University in the fall of 1968. At that time, Washington was a very different city. There were virtually no cars in the city on the weekends, and my classmates and I would walk from Georgetown up to Capitol Hill and barely encounter anyone. In those days, there was no security and all areas of the Capitol, including the subterranean chambers and hallways, were all open. We would spend hours walking around those areas and admiring the beautiful frescos and marble floors. Back then, the Capitol was truly open to all people. That period of D.C. has some very precious memories for me. It is a pity that we have to live in such fearful times, and we can't have access to government buildings like we used to. 


"Another thing that I notice is the changing role of the suburbs. When I first lived here, the suburbs were very small and there was definitely a feeling of Washington as a self-contained place. People used to live and work in the city. Now, I think there is more of a mentality that one can work in the District and live out in Maryland or Virginia and feel less of a connection to D.C. I have known people who only know how to get from their suburban home to their office and don't know how to get anywhere else in the city if their life depended on it. I think that is sad as this is such a great city."

Ann and Mike on the Reagan Assassination Attempt

Mike - "I was in the press pool the day of the assassination attempt on Reagan. We had four people at the Associated Press covering the White House. We would rotate and it just happened to be my turn that day. I was sitting in the basement listening to his speech, which did not divert from the release given to us beforehand. Reagan spoke for a few minutes and then went to the VIP suite and holding area, which had an unmarked door that exited onto the street where his motorcade was waiting. I was standing with the rest of the press pool in a rope line outside of the VIP entrance.

"The story of the moment was the Solidarity Movement in Poland and whether the Soviets were going to clamp down on them. There had been some development in the story, and I wanted to get the President's comment. When the door opened and he stepped out, I shouted at him, 'Mr. President. Mr. President.' At the same time, I turned on my tape recorder to get his answer. I had barely said 'Mr. President' the second time when there was this loud pop,pop...pop,pop,pop,pop. Just like that.

"I knew it was gunshots, but I didn't see Reagan get hit. The Chief of Detail, Jerry Parr, grabbed Reagan and hurled him into the limo. Another agent slammed the door and the car took off. When I saw the wheels of the limo start to spin, I realized that now that the President was leaving, the story had stopped happening. I ran into the hotel to find a phone to call into work. I then went on to report that, 'Several shots were fired at President Reagan today as he left a downtown Washington hotel. There was no indication that the President was hit.' 

Ann - Mike, my husband, called me and said, 'Get over to George Washington University Hospital. That's where they are taking him.' When I got there, the Presidential limousine was in front and there were gunshot marks on the window. There were quite a few people outside and people were arguing about whether he had been hit or not. Some said Reagan was carried in and some said he walked in. Both were actually true. While we were waiting, I went running down Pennsylvania Avenue and took the microphone out of the closest phone booth and put it in my pocket, so no one else could use it. After 30 minutes, I saw Shelia Tate, who was Nancy Reagan's Press Secretary and yelled, 'Sheila, get someone out here to tell us what's going on! The stock market is going up and down. We need to know what's happening.' A few minutes later, Lyn Nofziger, one of Reagan's aides, came out and said, 'The president has been wounded. He is not in surgery at this time.' Meanwhile, the gurney was racing to the operating room, so he was technically right, but still misleading. I went running back to the phone booth with my microphone in my pocket. There was a drunk in the booth, so I went to a bar and screamed, 'Telephone!' I dictated a story that President Reagan was shot today and would be going into surgery. Mike and I were first on the story and we were right. I was especially pleased that my bulletin beat Sam Donaldson's.

"After Nofziger spoke, they informed us of additional briefings that would take place. I remember running down G Street with the other reporters because we wanted to get a good seat for them. The thing is that none of us knew exactly where we were going, but everyone was running in the same direction. We could have been running into the Potomac River! We eventually went into an auditorium at George Washington University Hospital, and they started briefing us on his developing medical condition. By that time, the most exciting part of the story was over and you had to fill it in with the boring little details. But so much of a story like that is about the stakeout and waiting for things to develop.

Mike - "I was still at the Hilton while this was going on. At the time, I knew that Jim Brady and a secret service officer had been wounded, and was telling a colleague what I knew. As I was describing this to her, an FBI agent asked me to come with him, as I was going to be held as a material witness. The United Press International guy, Dean Reynolds, who was our arch competition at the time, saw me being escorted into the building and followed me because he didn't want to miss anything. He also ended up getting arrested! After I was released and eventually got back to the office, I was told to write a first-person account of the story. We had computers at the time, but I was not yet comfortable using them. I was just about done writing, when everything disappeared from the screen. There was nothing to do, but start over. I got home about 2 a.m. By then, Reagan was out of surgery and there was a statement made that he was out of danger and things he said like, 'Honey, I forgot to duck.'

"As Reagan's recovery began, it was one jolly briefing after another. No one gave any clue as to how close he was to bleeding to death. Months later, we found out that we almost lost him on the operating table. The very dramatic story was of Jim Brady, Reagan's Press Secretary, because he was seriously injured and suffered brain damage. He was really well-liked by the press and had a good sense of humor. He survived and didn't lose his sense of humor, but, sadly, he was never the same again.

Ann - "One of the things that has always bothered me since that time is Jim Brady has a son who was the exact same age as our son. It could have been Mike who had been hit and not Jim Brady. It was just dumb luck. I know how this kid has been affected all of his life. Jim Brady is still alive, but has had a very tough time."

Mike - "By sheer dumb luck, we were so often in the right place at the right time during our careers in journalism. From Vietnam to Watergate, to the Reagan shooting to Reagan having cancer, to going to Moscow just as Gorbachev took power and the Communist Party was beginning to lose control, we were there and reporting. It made for a very exciting career!"

Ann Blackman is the author of "Seasons of Her Life: A Biography of Madeleine Korbel Albright," "Wild Rose" about Civil War spy Rose O’Neale Greenhow, and co-author of "The Spy Next Door," about the traitorous FBI agent Robert Hanssen. In her long career as a news reporter with Time magazine and the Associated Press, Blackman covered American politics, social policy, and the powerful personalities that make up Washington society. Mike Putzel covered the war in Vietnam, Watergate, the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and the fall of Communism during an award-winning career with The Associated Press. He also served as Washington bureau chief of The Boston Globe, covering the Clinton White House.

Dr. Shoe on his Ph.D in Shoeology

"My uncle taught me how to shine shoes in 1980 when I was 25. He started shining shoes when he was nine years old. During his time, it was illegal to shine shoes on the street. He used to sit out on a big string-bean can and keep the shoe polish in his pocket. When the cops came, he'd lose his chair, but still keep the polish. We call him Sugar Ray Liquor because when he got drunk, he used to think he was a prize fighter. He would also get so stinking drunk, he would shine your damn socks. But he was so damn good that people would still let him shine their shoes. They would just go home and wash their socks! He stopped drinking now and is still shining shoes. 

"I started off shining shoes at the car dealerships up on Georgia Avenue. After that, I wandered down near Dupont Circle and have been here for over 20 years. The thing is that you can't be by the Metro because everyone wants to move fast around there and no one wants to stop for a shoe shine. I set up a few blocks away in the morning, so people can slow down a bit. Then, I work all of the clubs on 19th and M St in the afternoon. After 5:30 p.m., I go by the Palm Restaurant and then head out by the bars until midnight. I get most of my shoe shines at night because, after happy hour, everyone is happy and wants to get a shoe shine. I put that glow on their toe. They call me Dr. Shoe because I have my Ph.D. in shoeology. See, I went to Shoe U. to make those shoes look new. My motto is that if you don't like your shine, you don't pay a dime. I want to make everyone look shiny and bright because, when I finish, everything's going to be alright. 

"In my years here, I have shined everyone's shoes from Muhammad Ali to Arnold Schwarzenegger and a lot of politicians and ballplayers. Anybody is a celebrity in my book when they get a shine. I like my first shine for the day to be brown because that gives me luck. No matter the color of the show, though, you know I'm gonna make 'em look good when they put that shoe on the wood. I want to show everyone my shine and make it worth their dime."

Charles on Building Relationships

"My Dad was in the Air Force, so I moved around a lot during my childhood, but went to high school in Largo, Maryland. I really started to figure out who I was when I went to Hampton University in Virginia. Back then I was a shy and quiet kid, but decided to try something different when I went to in college, I wanted to step out the box a little. I ran for class president and was actually the first person in Hampton history to be elected class president all four years. After I left Hampton, I went to law school at the University of Baltimore. There, I ran and was elected to the Student Bar Association. It was at that time, I thought to myself maybe I’ve found something that I really enjoy.

"When I moved to D.C., I bought my first house in the Trinidad neighborhood. It was a great place and I never had any problems. After three years, I got this epiphany to move out of the neighborhood and see what else was out there. I moved to Anacostia because I fell in love with the history and sense of community. I felt like this was home and where I needed to be. It's funny. When I was leaving Trinidad, I told my neighbors I was moving to Southeast. They thought I was crazy because they thought it was dangerous. When I tell people here that I moved from Trinidad, they thought I was crazy for having lived there because they thought it was dangerous. It's interesting how the news shapes perception of neighborhoods in this city.

"When I got here, my neighbor and I started the Historic Anacostia Block Association. It is a neighborhood civic association created to keep residents aware of whats happening in the neighborhood and serves as a vehicle of folks being able to meet other residents in the neighborhood. We’ve had a lot of success, especially in getting grants to fix up the outside of people’s homes. We brought over $1 million to the community through that effort. That, and other experiences here, inspired me to run for the Ward 8 Council seat against Marion Barry in 2008. I didn’t have a lot of money and support initially, but I did have my two legs. I went to every neighborhood twice and knocked on every single door. When I knocked on those doors, I learned one of the great things about campaigning, which is that you never know who is going to open the door. I had a lot of great conversations with people. I got yelled at, too. Running against Marion Barry, you need to have thick skin. I came up short, but I would do it all over again. It was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had and has made me a stronger person.

"One of things I learned from running for public office is that it's all about building relationships. People have to get to know you and trust that you will deliver on your promises. There are a lot of people here who appreciate what Marion Barry did for them in the past. What was amazing to me, though, was that when people talked about Marion, they talked about the past, not the present. I ran my campaign on making our future better.

"After the election was over, I reached out to a number of people I met in Wards 7 and 8 about creating an organization to get people involved and active in developing a better quality of life in these communities. In November 2008, we met at my home and talked through the organization concept, which is now River East Emerging Leaders (r.e.e.l). One of the things that was consistent theme during these conversations was that we didn’t like how the outside community looks at Wards 7 and 8. People think of them as crime-infested and poor, with youth hanging out on the street and killing each other. That was not our experience, and we wanted to change the perception of how people look at us and in part how we looked at ourselves in some cases. Our mission statement is to meet people we don’t know and engage them in constructive conversations, learn from each other, and empower residents to improve their communities. We started with no money or political power, just an idea and it has really grown."

Learn more about Charles Wilson and the River East Emerging Leaders here.

John on the D.C. Metro Area Ghost Watchers

"I grew up in Lansdowne, Maryland, in a house that I believe to be haunted. I was about 11 when my parents and I started noticing a lot of activity there. The cat would attack things that weren’t there. We heard hammering noises in the basement. I would go to the top of the basement stairs and it would stop. As soon as I left, it would start up again. The one that really pushed me over the edge was hearing a large crashing noise coming from the basement that sounded like broken glass. I went downstairs and there was nothing there. That pretty much convinced me that the house was haunted. I asked my neighbors about the former tenants of our house. One was a carpenter who died, which is probably where that hammering sound come from. That was my first investigation.

“I then joined the military and did 20 years of service. I got out at age 38 and was not ready to retire. The experiences from my childhood really stayed with me, and I contacted the head of the D.C. Metro Area Ghost Watchers (DCMAG), Al Tyas, about joining the team. He was retiring and ended up giving me the team in 2006 after we did a few investigations together. The D.C. area in particular has a lot of folklore and history around hauntings. Some people believe that Abraham Lincoln haunts the White House. There is also supposedly a demon cat near Congress that predicts doom. Since joining DCMAG, I’ve had some pretty intense investigations. Getting my hair pulled by a ghost was my first physical encounter with a spirit. You just don’t believe that it is happening, but, after a while, you get used to it. Each spirit has something that he or she can do particularly well.  Some can pull hair, some can talk, and some can make footsteps. I even played hide-and-go-seek with the ghost of a child once. 

“There are a couple of theories about why ghosts do this. One is that they don’t know that they are dead. Another theory is that they have unfinished business and are not going to leave until it’s done. This could be something like a ghost finding his murderer.  Other people believe that they just don’t want to leave. That’s like the guy who built up his farm his whole life and finally got it to where he wants it to be, and then he dies. Then, someone else moves in and he gets angry. The other theory is the fear of being judged by God. That could apply to a lot of prisoners and people who didn’t have time to repent during life. They would rather stay in Purgatory than go to Hell. Those are all just theories, though.

"In our work, which we do for free by the way, we use a number of tools to search for spirits, but there is no such thing as a ghost detection tool. Some of the tools we use are closed-circuit televisions, lots of audio recorders and parabolic microphones, Geiger counters, and all kind of meters that measure energy. The body runs on electrical current and, according to Einstein, you can neither create nor destroy energy. When you die, all of that energy has to go somewhere, so we look for that. I am also trained in psychic self-defense, which is teaching people to recognize when you are under attack by a spirit. These places where we work are negative atmosphere environments. A lot of times, you can absorb that energy and it impacts you.

"Before doing this work, there was something missing from my life. Now, things feel right and I am doing what I love. I think that ghosts have taught me more about life than living people have."

Learn more about DCMAG here. 

Sherri on Hair-Flair for Hope

"My family goes back three generations in Washington, D.C. I went to Florida for college, but couldn't take the heat and lack of culture there, so I moved back to this area. I transferred to the University of Maryland and got a job as a DJ. At the time, I was all rock and roll and had a pink mohawk. After school, I cleaned up a little and took a job at IBM. I started off in administration and ended up as a systems engineer, which is something that none of my friends know because I don't have a cell phone and people think of me as a technophobe. I was actually a Unix systems engineer.  

“All through my working life, I was always searching for this really creative career. I worked at a number of big organizations, but always felt like a fish out of water. Then I got sick a number of years ago and had to leave the work force. I spent ten years flailing around and had no focus. I was spending a lot of time at home and started making colorful wigs out of yarn because I always dressed slightly out of the norm. I started making them for my friends who were in the arts and began holding wig-making workshops. 

“At the time, I lost a number of people to cancer who meant a lot to me. One in particular was Kimberly ‘Kaihea’ Rupp.  She told me that she wished she could come to one of my workshops and make a wig, as she had experienced hair-loss at the time of chemotherapy. At the time, I hadn't figured out how to attach the wig to a bare scalp. I have always regretted that I didn’t figure out how to make her a fabulous wig, but I named this project in her honor. Now we make wigs on bandana-shaped wig-caps. 

“Cancer is a really frightening thing, and I wanted to find a way to make women and children feel like rock stars. I think that people who lose their hair to medical treatments go through a period when they are grieving about their own loss, especially after chemotherapy.  We are all walking canvases of art. I have always believed that the face deserves a proper frame of hair. More than anything, our hair is a simple representation of what our attitude is on the inside. I hope that on the days when people who are ill feel like they don’t have a lot of light, these wigs will help them illuminate their beautiful inner colors.

“Now I wear my wig most of the time. Originally, I did it because I thought it looked cool. I wear it in solidarity with people who have gone through something more terrifying than I can imagine. This project has given me something to identify with after feeling so devoid of life for so long after I had gotten sick. With this project, I feel plugged into life again.” 

Learn more about Hair-Flair for Hope, Sherri's organization, here. To donate money, materials or time, email Sherri at info@hairflairforhope.org.  

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.

Councilmember Tommy Wells on Getting the Love Back

“I first came to Washington in 1983. I was about 27 years old and was just graduating with a Master's in Social Work from the University of Minnesota. I couldn't figure out where I wanted to go, but I knew that I didn't want to go back to Alabama where I grew up. I went to talk with a professor whom I thought very highly of to ask what he would do in my situation. He said, 'I would go to Washington. Washington is the most exciting place I have ever lived.' Being quite easily influenced, I worked a little bit that summer and then sold my car, a little Honda station wagon, and bought a one-way ticket to Washington. As I walked out from Union Station on September 6, I just fell in love with Washington that very moment. It was a beautiful day and the buildings were such heroic structures. My heart raced a little bit then and hasn't ever stopped.

“In 1985, I took a job as a child protection social worker for D.C. That early experience taught me a lot about Washington and the neighborhoods that most people had never been in. Starting in 1985. the city essentially went broke and that was the beginning of crack and the AIDS epidemic. That led to an explosion of kids coming into foster care. At the same time, because the city was going broke, there was a hiring freeze on social workers, so the caseloads were exploding. I had over 40 kids and families in my caseload, but had colleagues who had from 200 to 500 kids.

“I remember that there was a young man in my caseload who tested positive for HIV at 15. I needed to find a home for him, but group homes would not take him. I found a gay AIDS activist in the city who said, ‘I will do it.’ I took that information to the government, but the city never paid him or did its part to support him. We had a crisis and the government could not respond. The system wasn't there to help kids with HIV and AIDS. These kids ended up in group homes, which are essentially orphanages, instead of foster homes. In response, when I ran the Consortium for Child Welfare, one of the first things I did was to write grants to create a recruitment program for people who were willing to be foster parents for children affected by HIV. That was a powerful experience because I was just moving a couple of gears and it changed the whole machine. Now kids were going directly to families. Some of those kids were even adopted and most went on to live healthy lives. Experiences like this made it clear to me that I was more drawn to systemic change rather than helping people one at time.

“There are two things that ultimately impacted my decision to run for political office. One is that, with time, I was providing more of a leadership role to social workers in the city, which made me more of a public person. The other thing is that during the late 80's/early 90's, D.C. became the murder capital of the world. I would read the paper on Monday morning about the egregious things happening in my ward and didn’t want to leave the house. I would feel so dark, gloomy, and fearful that these awful things were happening.

“I wanted my neighborhood to be better, so I ran for Advisory Neighborhood Commission. Even though it is only Advisory, I really felt like I was making a difference. It introduced me to a lot of public policy issues that affect our world. Because of my concern about kids, I ran for School Board and won in a District that was over 75 percent African-American. It gave me hope that if people recognize they want a better future in D.C., they will give you a chance regardless of your race. I love Washington and to get the love back was just an extraordinary experience.

“At the school board, I mandated that all students had to be fully immunized. At the time, 20,000 out of 60,000 kids had not gotten their immunizations. It was a powerful feeling to see how you could have an impact on a child's life through elected office. When Sharon Ambrose was not running for reelection in Ward 6, I saw an opportunity to continue to make major systemic changes. I felt good about electoral politics and ran to be a member of the Council.”  

Councilmember Wells was first elected to the City Council in 2007. He is the Chair of the Committee on Human Services and currently sits on the Committee on Economic Development, the Committee on Public Services and Consumer Affairs, and the Committee on Health. Tommy is also Chair of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Human Services Planning Committee, Chair of the DC Safe Routes to School State Network, and the incoming Chair of the Chesapeake Bay Local Government Advisory Committee. Learn more about Councilmember Wells here.