SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 2010
KLMNO Grover’s Corners meets Congress Heights hart from C1
dents will also have a DVD to keep. The 1-hour 5-minute produc- tion was screened for students and families Thursday night at the UPO Petey Greene Center, with Hollywood-style velvet ropes and a red carpet rolled out onto Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. Some students were skeptical
of Schwalb’s choice. But as they grew familiar with the story, they came to see the play not as a quaint period piece but as some- thing that spoke universally to them about the fragility of life and the need to value every mo- ment. “Cherish life. You never know
when it’s going to be your time to go,” said Renita Williams, 17, a Ballou High School senior and Hart graduate who plays Emily — renamed Wynter — the young bride destined to die in child- birth. Two years ago, her older sis- ter Terry died of asthma. As they rewrote and rehearsed, the sudden losses in their own lives sent ripples through their
work. In March, Hart’s popular dean of students, William Brock- enberry, 45, died during heart surgery. On May 26, Eugene Dix- on, 17, a close friend of a couple of cast members, was fatally shot outside an Oxon Hill pawnshop by a man with whom he had an ongoing dispute, police said. “Life’s too short. Can’t spend it
angry, holding grudges,” said Jes- sica Carpenter, also a Hart gradu- ate and a senior at Luke C. Moore Academy.
Students also saw “Our Town”
as a way to bring Southeast — re- named Southside in their retell- ing — to life for those who know it only from headlines. “We have more churches than liquor stores, although many people think it’s the other way around,” one of the Stage Managers says in the play. And although bands such as TCB, MOB and CCB have taken the place of Junkyard, Backyard and Northeast Groovers, “Chuck Brown is forever,” the narrators say in unison. Asked what she wanted audi- ences to take away from the pro- duction, another Stage Manager,
Maryum Abdullah, a Ballou sen- ior and Hart graduate, said: “I want them to take away from this that Southeast D.C. is not just hard and dangerous, that things can get creative in this part of town.” In addition to the annual play,
Schwalb publishes quarterly edi- tions of student writing in “hArt- works,” believed to be the coun- try’s only inner-city middle- school literary magazine. The pain in the poetry can be searing, and Schwalb flags the school’s so- cial worker when she senses a plea for help within the verse. Counselors, in turn, refer to Schwalb students who might ben- efit from writing as an outlet for their grief or anger. She has been a rare constant at
Hart, where just under 18 percent of the 528 students tested demon- strated reading proficiency on the 2009 DC-CAS exam. Through sev- en principals and at least three complete staff changes, she has tried to engage kids, some of whom are “hanging by their fin- gertips.”
“Our kids all have something to
say,” Schwalb said. “What you re- alize is that they have the skills to make art.” Among them was De- Onté Rawlings, shot to death by an off-duty D.C. police officer in 2007 after he allegedly got into a gun battle with police over a sto- len minibike. He was 14. Schwalb said DeOnté would come into the writing class occasionally, when- ever Schwalb could entice him from “hallway studies.” The connections with her stu- dents endure after they leave Hart. On any given afternoon, there are as many Hart alumni as current students working after school on poetry or stories. Al- though they’ve gone on to high school, they return to Schwalb’s class to work on the next edition of the magazine, or the next play. James Tindle, a senior at Book-
er T. Washington, a public charter high school, said “friends and Nancy” keep him coming back. “This neighborhood is not ex-
actly the ideal neighborhood,” said Tindle, an aspiring actor and writer. “But this is where I grew up. Hart is like our place.”
turqueb@washpost.com
KATHERINE FREY/THE WASHINGTON POST
Gregory Seymour Jr., one of the actors in “R Town,” arrives with his mother, Deidre Gaymon, for the screening.
S
C5
Salahis’ polo match returns to Mall, but inquiries persist polo from C1 Stephanie Bosch, another Dis-
trict resident who brought her boyfriend to the event, was also a first-timer at a polo match. “It’s entertaining — it’s something to do on a weekend in Washington,” she said. “But I did buy the tickets before I realized it was run by the Salahis.” The event, held in West Poto-
mac Park, featured food from vendors including Tandoori Nights and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. There was a silent auc- tion offering dozens of signed photographs, sports jerseys, and musical instruments from enter- tainers and musicians — a guitar listed as being autographed by Paul McCartney had a minimum bid of $1,050 — but three hours after the gates opened, it ap- peared that no bids had been placed on any of the items. In years past, the Salahi-run
event has featured matches be- tween a team of U.S. players and another team from elsewhere. England was the first, then Italy and Australia. Sponsors such as Land Rover and Cartier flocked to the first event. But as news of the couple’s troubles with ven- dors and dozens of lawsuits be- gan accumulating across the re- gion, sponsors became fewer. India’s embassy signed on as
an official sponsor last year. But after the couple attended the White House state dinner for the Indian prime minister without an official invitation, turning the event into a national scandal, the embassy withdrew. The “Government of India/ Embassy of India are not associ- ated with the America’s Polo Cup event in any manner,” Rahul Chhabra, spokesman for the Indi- an Embassy, wrote in an e-mail Friday. Yashpal Singh, president and
chief executive of Mendocino Brewing Company, the parent company of Kingfisher, said Fri- day that his company also dropped out of the event at that time. He said the Salahis persist- ed in using Kingfisher’s name and logo in advertising. “We are not sponsoring this
event and have informed the peo- ple managing this event of that,” Singh said Friday. “We have sent legal notices to this effect, and he keeps on advertising us as a spon- sor. I don’t know what world he’s living in.” The event did have a sponsor —
the Washington Times, according to Sam Dealey, editor of the pa- per. “We have had a successful part- nership for three years, and the America’s Polo Cup has always
PHOTOS BY LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST
At right: Michaele and Tareq Salahi host America’s Polo Cup on the Mall Saturday. The event lost sponsors after the couple crashed the Obamas’ first state dinner in November. Above: This year’s match was between a team from the United States and one from India.
met its obligations to the Wash- ington Times and vice versa,” he said Friday. “We anticipate an- other great sponsorship.” Bill Line, a spokesman for the
National Park Service, said the Salahis had been granted a per- mit to host the event on the Mall two weeks ago, after “many, many meetings and conversations.” Like nearly all of the thousands of people who hold events on the Mall each year, the couple was re- quired to post an insurance bond — $3 million in this case. “They have been informed that if there is damage to that field, we are going to be tapping that bond,” Line said.
Business concerns were not an issue for Saturday’s crowd. Tareq Salahi told the crowd that Costa Rica had “won the bid” to chal-
lenge at next year’s event, beating out France, New Zealand and South Africa. There was a round of cheers, and then the match started. Perched at the side of the field in director’s chairs were trophy presenters Sarah Keys and Pris- cilla Noel, models who said they are also players for the Baltimore Charm of the Lingerie Football League. Dressed for the after- noon in a summer dress, heels and a black hat, Noel said she did not know much about polo but was loving the afternoon. “There’s a trophy in there
worth $20,000,” she said, gestur- ing toward the tent behind her. “I just don’t want anyone to hit it with a polo stick when I’m hold- ing it.”
tuckern@washpost.com LOCAL DIGEST VIRGINIA
North Potomac Yard project advances Alexandria’s City
Council
unanimously approved the $3 billion to $4 billion North Po- tomac Yard project Saturday. The rezoning allows for a new
Metro station on the Blue and Yellow lines and 7.5 million square feet of commercial, resi- dential and retail space on the 69-acre tract of land on the for- mer railroad depot property abutting Arlington County. A high-capacity transitway,
new street grid, parks, a school, hotel and other amenities are slated for the area. Much of the
construction is based on final federal and city approval of the estimated $240 million Metro station. The city has established a financing plan to build the sta- tion.
— Christy Goodman
Arlington bus rides will cost more
The Arlington County Board voted Saturday to increase its ART transit bus service fares from $1.25 to $1.50 with a Smar- Trip card. The new fares take ef- fect July 1. The board said the increase will help cover the doubling of ri- dership since the last fare in-
crease in 2004 and will pay for fuel and maintenance. Paratransit riders on the STAR system will see an increase, too. Local trips will increase from $2.50 to $3.00. Trips inside the Capital Beltway were raised $1 to $4 and regional trips increased by $1.50 to $8.50.
— Christy Goodman THE DISTRICT
Changes at New York and Florida avenues
New traffic patterns designed to ease the perpetual congestion at New York and Florida avenues will take effect Sunday. First Street NE will become
one way southbound from Flori- da Avenue to New York Avenue. Florida Avenue will be limited to one-way traffic westbound be- tween O and First streets NE. Eastbound Florida Avenue traffic will be detoured to First Street. Drivers can go left at New York Avenue and right on O Street to return to Florida Avenue. — Ashley Halsey III
Expect Key Bridge delays Sunday
Southbound traffic on the Key
Bridge may be slowed Sunday as the District Department of Trans- portation closes one lane be- tween 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. to con-
duct a safety inspection of the span over the Potomac River. DDOT said temporary signs
and traffic-control measures will be in place to direct motorists, pedestrians and cyclists around the temporary closures. DDOT said traffic in the bridge area would be monitored and lane clo- sures suspended if significant backups develop.
— Ashley Halsey III MARYLAND
New stars, stripes license plates
Maryland’s standard-issue li- cense plate takes on a new look Monday.
Gone is the basic black-and- white plate, to be replaced by a War of 1812 motif that depicts the stars and stripes flying over Fort McHenry with bombs bursting in air.
The black-and-white plates
won’t disappear — vehicles that have them can keep them — but when people apply for new plates, they will get the 1812 mod- el.
Those who want the new-style
plates can order them for an ad- ditional $20 when their license plate comes up for renewal. The two other styles — a farm scene and a heron — will contin- ue to be available.
— Ashley Halsey III
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158