A few words of Martin Luther King regarding Shaw

I have been looking for a speech I had of Martin Luther King’s made on March 13, 1967 for Model Inner City Community Organization (MICCO). Because the King Center is famous for cracking down on what they believe to be their copyright, I did not post the whole speech.

Back in 2008, I posted portions of the speech. I’ll repost it here.

Of course, we all recognize that if we are ultimately to improve psychological and physical conditions for minorities there must be total elimination of ghettoes and the establishment of a truly integrated society. In the meantime, however, all those working for economic and social justice are forced to address themselves to interim programs which, while not totally changing the situation, will nevertheless bring about improvement in the lives of those forced to live in ghettoes. And so, whiel [sic] many of those steps may lead to limited integration, those which do not must clearly be seen as interim steps until the objective situation makes a more fundamental approach.

and later

… Labor, Housing and the Office of Economic Opportunity, ought to work with the people of Shaw in developing, coordinating and concentrating their various programs upon social and economic problems of this area.

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking at a March 13, 1967 rally for Shaw

Dr. King has become an avatar, where people have projected on their own visions of what he’s supposed to be and ignoring who he actually was. Maybe some organization’s crackdown on other’s printing his words played a part in that. Dr. King preached integration but it seems so many now are pushing for segregation and celebrating the ghetto that King wanted to eliminate.

Halloween reminders

Okay some quick reminders about Halloween tonight:

If you don’t want people coming to your door, turn off your porch light, draw your curtains/drapes, and lower the lights on the first floor.
Yes, people trick or treat. Ask your neighbors what it was like last year.
Yes, adults and teenagers not in costume will come to your door. That is why I get crappy candy, just for them. The good stuff, the Reese’s, the Snickers, and the like go to the people in costume.
Trick or treating starts around 6:30-7PM and I stop giving out candy around 8:30-9 when the uncostumed to costumed ratio gets to be a bit much.

3rd Annual Health Fair- July 28th

Last year there was a very nice vegetarian spread. I write this as unapologetic meat eater. Anyway, heads up there will be a big ole health fair on the 1600 block of 4th St NW on July 28th.

As I remember there was a professional masseuse last year for the massages. And there is a lot of fair stuff- face painting, moon bounce, etc.

The big deal about the fair is that the three sponsors, 4th St Fellowship, Mt. Sinai, and Masjid Muhammad would all have health fairs at different times. So for the past couple years they combined their powers, to create the biggest Truxton Circle health fair, ever. I’ll be there, mainly to nosh on free vegetarian food.

Holy Crap this is close- ANC 5E-05

Holy Crap!

Seriously.

Holy F’ing crap. Just a 2 vote difference. Your vote may be a drop in the bucket in citywide elections but it means a lot in ANC races.

First. Is this even legal? Ms. Robinson-Paul appeared twice on my ballot. She ran against Kenyon McDuffie, the current councilman for Ward 5 under the name Joyce (Chestnut) Robinson-Paul. That I expected, as it was in the Voter Guide that was sent out. But I was taken aback when I saw her name again when I went to vote for my ANC Bradley A. Thomas. I was under the impression Bradley was running unopposed. Was this mentioned at yesterday’s BACA meeting (I was home because the kid was miserable and I didn’t want to abandon my spouse for a meeting)?

Second, WTF?

Fitness Studio Crawl: #SweatInShaw

I’m not going to do this often, posting press releases, but I support healthy living, and the improvement of Shaw. So here it is.

Fitness is the Focus during #SweatInShaw Studio Crawl, 09/16/18

September 4, 2018–Washington DC- DC’s booming Shaw Neighborhood is well-known for its bustling culinary and cocktail scene and is also a hub for entertainment, with anchors such as the Howard Theatre and 9:30 Club. In recent years, the steady growth of residential development has prompted an influx of health and wellness options diversifying the neighborhood’s offerings and adding balance for residents and commuters. #SweatinShaw, an upcoming neighborhood promotion, provides a chance to explore many of the wellness options available in Shaw in one afternoon. The event features a “studio crawl,” day of pampering and fitness swag. #SweatInShaw will showcase the neighborhood’s fitness studios, promote a well-rounded fitness routine, and identify multiple options to fit individual goals; specifically, in preparation for transitioning fitness routines from summer to the fall and holiday seasons.

The event will take a place on Sunday, September 16, 2018 from noon-4:00 pm. #SweatInShaw attendees will choose a “Sweat Track” (Strength, Core, Sculpt, Stretch) which consists of three classes for the afternoon from the seven participating businesses. Attendees will check in at the #SweatInShaw Zen Lounge powered by M.Y. Lifestyle, located at The Colonel (1250 9^th Street NW). M.Y. Lifestyle is an experiential marketing and event firm whose motto, “Own It. Love it. Live it. It’s Yours.” is brought to life through fitness and lifestyle events, as well as youth coaching and mentoring.

At the #SweatinShaw Zen Lounge, guests will receive brunch featuring salads from CAVA in Shaw, continental breakfast from Buttercream Bake Shop, spritzers by Zurena, facials and a DIY clay mask bar for individual skin types by Skin Scholars, plus complimentary massages amidst relaxing music and rooftop views. A $75 #SweatInShaw ticket grants access to all the above.

Participating wellness studios offering classes during #SweatInShaw include:

· Urban Athletic Club: Premier strength and conditioning facility (804 N Street NW)

· The Yoga Shala: Ashtanga, Hatha, and Vinyasa Yoga (1550 7^th Street NW)

· District Pilates: Private and group classes using Peak Pilates Reformers and Chairs (1302 9th Street NW)

· Reformation Fitness: TRX/FIT, Beat Bike, Pilates, H.I.I.T., Group Reformer, Yoga (1218 9^th Street NW)

· Fuel Body Lab: Pilates, Barre, Tabata, Trampoline, Group Reformer. (1228 Blagden Alley NW)

· Off-Road DC: Bike. Box. Build. (905 U Street NW)

· Solidcore: Pilates classes intensified (1821 7^th Street NW)

Recap: $75 includes three classes from participating fitness and wellness centers on September 16, 2018 from noon-4:00 pm, along with relaxing music, brunch bites, spritzers, massages, facials plus workout and wellness swag at the #SweatInShaw Zen Lounge. Tickets available at:

SweatInShaw.Eventbrite.com

About Shaw Main Streets

Shaw Main Streets was established in 2003 to encourage and support economic revitalization and historic preservation along the 7th and 9th Street, NW commercial corridors. The organization has attracted and supported over 350 new businesses to the central Shaw commercial district, resulting in the creation of thousands of new permanent jobs. Nearly $3 Billion in commercial and residential development have been facilitated by Shaw Main Streets’ efforts. Shaw Main Streets won the 2016 Great American Main Street Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street Center. Shaw Main Streets has developed two mobile apps promoting neighborhood businesses, DineinShaw and ShopinShaw, available for both the Android and iphone platforms. Shaw Main Streets is a designated DC Main Streets program and is funded in part by the Department of Small and Local Business Development, Muriel E. Bowser, Mayor. For more information, visit www.shawmainstreets.org.

Countdown to the Community Health Fair Sunday July 29th- CPR “Staying Alive”

So three Truxton Circle houses of worship, Masjid Muhammad, Mt. Sinai, and the hosts Fourth Street Friendship 7th Day Adventist are all getting together to promote health with topics covering teen depression and suicide, diabetes, and screenings. This will happen on this coming Sunday at 1611 4th St NW.

One of those things will be a nice little review (well a review for me since I’ve taken CPR classes) of CPR. This will take place in the Above Dining Hall at 1:30 and 3:30. Part one will be calling 911 with Shuron Abdullah M.Ed, MS, HCM, RRT. Part 2 in two parts with CPR Instructors “Push hard and fast” with Romone Watkins, and “Stayin’ Alive” with Danny Rosette. Get your hands on a dummy and possibly come to the rescue of a relative, friend or co-worker.

Baby adoption

Spouse and newly adopted son — The Help and Babyman

As some of our friends and neighbors know, my spouse (the Help) we are in the adoption process. Babyman (formerly the Helpless) has been in our home for 6 months and just recently got released from ‘legal risk’. I suspect Mayor Muriel Bowser’s newly adopted child may be under legal risk, so besides her usual privacy, she’s probably not at liberty to say much.

I was pleasantly surprised to read that our mayor has adopted an infant. So congrats to Mayor Bowser on joining the process and good luck. She’ll need it. She’ll also need a strong support network and some live in help. The Help and I act like a tag team in the care of Babyman. In those early days before Babyman was sleeping through the night, even that had me working at half power running on a few hours of sleep. She might be able to deal with a few nights of no sleep but after about a week of almost no sleep because the screaming bottle feeding poop machine, something horrid happens to your brain. When that happens, you really need your support team. For us that was our relatives, neighbors, church members, co-workers, and any person who offered to babysit.

Mayor Bowser get used to being an old mommy. Forgive people who mistake you for your child’s grandma. I do and it’s not worth my time getting upset. I’m in my late 40s and my spouse will be 50 before Babyman turns 1. I’d like to think patience comes with age and we’re calmer than younger parents. We’ve been told Babyman is a very calm easygoing baby. I’m not sure that is him or us, but for now, I’ll take the credit.

We’re not done with the process. We’ve got to go to court and appear before a judge in some random area of Maryland. I guess Mayor Bowser will have to deal with legal risk, then once both the birthparent’s parental rights are severed, and the adoption agency/lawyer gets the paperwork in order she too will go before a judge who make her a full fledged mommy.

Welcome to the club Mayor Bowser, as a parent you will see the city in a whole new light.

Things to do before your basement floods again

So there was that storm several days ago and we’re fine. After many years of getting a little to a lot of water in our basement, for a variety of reasons, we’ve learned some lessons and we’ve shared them with friends and I’ll share them with y’all.

A retired former co-worker of mine thanked me for recommending having a hand pump (go to Amazon and search “hand bilge pump”) on hand. She used it to deal with her flooded basement because the water overwhelmed her sump pump. I’ve used mine when we got a storm that took out the electricity. No electricity, no working sump pump. This didn’t do the same job as the sump pump, but helped a bad situation not be worse.

Another thing that helps are sandbags. I once loaned some sandbags to a neighbor… who never returned them and when we got a big rainstorm, water that filled our basement well came through the door. I had loaned the neighbor bags that had hung out in front of the rarely used basement door. So after that little basement flood, we got some more sandbags and sand. So there is a decent number of sandbags at the door and sandbags near the rain gutter outlet diverting water away from the house.

As I mentioned, we’re fine. We also have a basement flood alarm, and in never went off. We got lucky. If we weren’t lucky, we would have dealt with the flood with things that we have on hand, below is a list of things to have when water gets into the basement.

hand pump
box fan
newspapers (and stuff to hold down the newspapers as the box fan goes)
dehumidifier
wet dry vac
towels
sandbags

If water has a bad habit of getting in your basement these are a few things to have before the water comes, because neighbors may not be able to loan you these things. It is wonderful when they can and they are not dealing with water problems in their own house.

Remembering the April 1968 Riots

Though I moved to Shaw in 2000, I have some memories of the neighborhood prior to that because my aunts attend Shiloh Baptist at 9th and P. As a teen and a twenty-something visiting from Florida, I would get dragged to the neighborhood.

The scars from the ’68 riots were unavoidable and looming 20 and 30 years after the fires. The boarded up vacant buildings that outnumbered the occupied spaces was the character of 7th and 9th Street. Depressing, sketchy and dirty were other characteristics of the area before it shifted into full gentrification mode. It has taken 50 years to heal, mostly. There are still vacant buildings and nothingness at the corner of 7th & Q, the Shiloh side of 9th St, and other spots, so not completely.

Ray Milefsky (RIP) before he passed was working on tracing what was damaged on the block where he lived during the riots. I found this and shared it with him.

From what I can tell 0 meant no damage and 3 meant severe damage. Anyway, Ray had a theory that the riots were like a kristallnacht, since a number of white businesses damaged were Jewish owned. So the Jews in Shaw were removed.

Recent events with the Ward 8 councilman making an off hand remark about Jews controlling the weather, is a fair reminder that the African-American/Jewish relationship hasn’t been perfect. There were complaints about these white owned businesses and post riot reports of damaged properties revealed that the business owners weren’t too keen on the neighborhood either. For many the riot was the last straw and for others not being able to get or renew their insurance prevented them from coming back.

The riot transformed the neighborhood. Spots that once held stores or commercial properties later became apartments. There were other transformations, but I’m unsure to whom or what to give credit. The city and urban planners scaled back their grand plans to bulldoze the neighborhood, but earlier efforts by local leaders probably should receive credit for that, but the riot added something to that dynamic. It also weakened the neighborhood leaving it ripe for the redevelopment/ gentrification that came 30 years later after the neighborhood failed to rebuild and recover.

The Washington Post did a great feature this week on the 1968 riot. The graphics are excellent and the stories well written.

A Tale of Two Art All Nights: Shaw v North Capitol

The Help and I hit two of the Art All Night events this weekend, Shaw and North Capitol Main Streets. Two days later and I am still tired.

Shaw Main Streets had more businesses sponsoring and hosting events and was bigger. There were a dizzying amount of events and things to do, fifty-seven things according to the event map. I picked 3-4 things to go to and the streets were packed. But then again, it’s the U Street/ 7th Street corridor on a Saturday night, of course it is packed. Rooftop bars were busy. Most bars were busy, rooftop or not. There were artists making art on the street, there were performances by musicians , there was way too much to choose from, which is why I chose three things on my way back to my house so I could hit the North Capitol Main Street’s Art All Night.

North Capitol was smaller with only eight venues and less crowded, more my speed. North Capitol is where I spent most of my energy and time. We met up with a friend and his three kids at the silent disco sponsored by Quiet Events. Unlike last time we did the North Capitol Art All Night where there was a silent disco, the headphones were free (leave an adult’s ID or credit card) this time and I think that made a world of difference. Three DJs helped too. So with that set up my friend was able to bring his three kids and other parents also brought their kids and danced like silly people in a vacant lot that will have a building on in the coming years. The music wasn’t exactly kid friendly, but remembering as a kid I didn’t think too deeply about the lyrics of most pop songs, it probably was okay.

After feeling our age we went to two venues in the Truxton at North Cap and Florida, then trekked over to the Shaw venues at Lot 42 and the Shaw Library. Which by the time we got there with 3 kids in tow (way past their bedtime) Lot 42 was even more crowded. I had gone to the Shaw library because I needed to find a bathroom….. and as a side note, I did not notice any porta potties. While in line at the library for a bathroom with only two stalls, some poor woman was struggling, visually struggling to hold it in. For large events, this can be a problem. Okay, back to the Shaw event. Because I had gone to the library I saw what was going on in the basement and ran into a librarian who mentioned the library was open and you could check out books. Awesome. Our gaggle went to the library where the kids engaged in making art.

After 11PM we all headed home. I was dead tired. My phone said I made over 18,000 steps. Those are the most steps I think I’ve ever made.