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The bands play on: Fort Reno concerts start after controversy

Fort Reno Park concert stage readies for performers after controversy nearly stopped it. Photo by Brenda Vega.
The Fort Reno Park concert stage readies for performers on Monday, July 7 after controversy nearly stopped the annual event. Photo by Brenda Vega.

The decades-old Fort Reno concert series kicked off Monday after security costs threatened to cancel the annual community event this year.

The event, which has been held annually since 1968 and takes place at Fort Reno Park in Tenleytown, was abruptly cancelled June 26, generating backlash from community members and a plea to reopen from D.C.’s Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.

But, concert organizers and the National Park Service reached a compromise that has the concert back on this week to the satisfaction of locals like Owen Kibenge who thinks it’s a great community event.

“I think that it adds color to our community,” said Kibenge, 39. “I like hearing the bands play.”

Kibenge believes that community events, such as the concert series, are important to create close ties among the people in the Tenleytown area, which is in Northwest Washington, D.C. Kibenge also stressed the need for these social occasions which serve as important family events, while at the same time serving the needs of the community.

“One hundred percent, we need those community events,” Kibenge said. “They attract a diverse crowd of people.”

And Kibenge feels the diversity that community events attract is beneficial to Tenleytown. Others agree.

A change.org petition filed to allow the concert to continue reached 1,500 signatures within two days of the cancellation. And a Twitter campaign using #savefortreno garnered other passionate responses. One Twitter user wrote: “So glad that so many people worked so hard to #savefortreno. It is by far my favorite DC institution.”

But other Tenleytown residents were unaware of the event and the controversy surrounding its cancellation.

Menelik Walker, 22, an employee at Whole Foods in Tenleytown, hadn’t heard about the community concert series.

“I find it odd,” Walker said, about the apparent lack of advertising for the concerts. An email sent Monday to the concert organizers was not returned.

Walker believed it was strange he hadn’t heard people discussing the events at Fort Reno Park, and felt it was surprising he hadn’t heard anything from social media, or through traditional advertisements like fliers.

Haddy Gale, 22, another employee at Whole Foods, said she missed advertising and information about the concert, too.

“I hadn’t heard about it,” said Gale, who works but doesn’t live in Tenleytown. “People that live here might hear from friends but I don’t know.”

For those who do attend and look forward to the annual event, the Fort Reno concert series has become a part of local tradition and serves as a platform for feeding the creative need of the community.

“Music is the cup of wine that feeds the cup of silence,” Kibenge said. “I want to drink music all the time.”

 

 

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Brink and Boundary: a multi-sensory experience

WASHINGTON—At first glance it appears to be any ordinary elevator. But it’s actually a work of art.

The ceiling of the elevator is covered with a photo of a plane in flight.

A similar story is told in the emergency stairwell. It appears to be nothing special, but it, too, is a work of art. Walking down the staircase, Alberto Gaitán’s media exhibition is heard but not seen.

Brink and Boundary is a unique artwork exhibition showing at the Katzen Arts Center on the campus of American University in Washington, D.C. All of the different pieces in the exhibition possess multisensory features that set them apart from more traditional forms of art.

Brink and Boundary also makes use of the Katzen Arts Center’s non-exhibition spaces–ones that are “overlooked and forgotten”–such as the emergency stairwell, the elevator, the entryway, and the barrier surrounding the main entrance.

Located within the entryway of the Katzen Arts Center is an auditory exhibition piece that invites visitors to link to a mobile app on their smartphones.

“You had the dream? You had the dream again?” said a voice from an app.

“Yes I dreamed I was choking and couldn’t breathe,” replied another voice.

Halsey Burgund’s piece entitled “Hotel Dreamy,” does not have a physical side but exists digitally in a smartphone application or in a touchscreen terminal, both of which are only able to be used within Katzen Arts Center.

“Hotel Dreamy” is an auditory piece of art that explores dreams and the ways people interpret their dreams.

Burgund’s piece has a unique form of interactivity. The piece allows users to contribute their dreams–using the smartphone application–and their own meanings behind them. Each visitor to the exhibition has the opportunity to help make the exhibit even more unique.

Away from the entryway and “Hotel Dreamy” is Adam Good’s piece “Untitled.”

Does text taken from a from another document and remixed still hold true meaning?
Does text taken from a from another document and remixed still hold true meaning?

“Honey this is your blood to take and make and take and make flow,” the words appear on blue stickers stuck to the

glass walls surrounding the main entrance of the Katzen Arts Center.

Using words that were taken from a scholarship piece by Felix Gonzales-Torres, Good explored whether or not context is essential to understanding words. If words are removed from their original context and arranged in a different way do they still retain their original meaning? This is a question Good tries to answer.

Moving inside the museum’s exhibit space, another artist had a different take on the multisensory exhibition.

Hasan Elahi chose to make use of one of Katzen’s elevators to present his piece entitled, “Sky.”

“Sky” makes up the entire ceiling of an elevator in the Katzen Arts Center, and presents the image of a plane in flight against a gray sky.

The empty sky leaves the viewer wondering about the fate of the flight and “turns the elevator into a mobile site for reflection and a charged form of sky-gazing,” according to the promotional brochure for the exhibit.

The last piece of art in Brinks and Boundary has its entrance on the third floor. In his piece, Gaitán presents a seemingly empty staircase with a loud-high-pitched-acoustic noise.

The audio exhibit called, “Untitled,” is a three-story staircase descending from the third-floor to the first.

As the listener enters the stairwell, they are immediately hit by the high-pitched ringing. This, combined with the echo of their footsteps, creates a sensory overload for the listener, forcing them into a state of hyper sensitivity.

This hyper sensitivity helps provide the viewer with a sense of meditative calm and lets them fully take in the exhibit.

For more information on the exhibits at the museum this summer, visit the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center’s website.

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Celebrating America’s birthday in the nation’s capital

WASHINGTON— Students and locals interviewed on American University’s campus Wednesday said they will be celebrating the nation’s 238th birthday this coming Fourth of July with fireworks and barbecues.

D.C. local and American University student, Emily Whitworth, 19, usually has a traditional barbecue with her family, but this year decided to try something different.

Whitworth is going to a rooftop party with friends, and is excited to watch the National Mall firework celebration from the party, she said.

AU student Victoria Prybyl, 20, from Ithaca, New York, has never been in D.C for the Fourth of July, and is excited about celebrating in the nation’s capitol for the first time, she said.

“I am going to the National Mall with the Discover the World of Communication students,” Prybyl said.”[We are going] near the Washington Monument to watch the fireworks.”

American University sophomore Barbara Martinez, 19, plans on spending her Fourth of July by going to a party with her friend from back home in Queens, a borough of New York City.

Martinez, grew up in Queens and remembers previous Fourth of July celebrations spent on top of her apartment building watching the Manhattan Firework celebration, she said. Martinez also bakes with her mom as another part of her Fourth of July traditions.

“She had like this Fourth of July pie specialty,” Martinez recalled. “She made [it] with strawberries and blueberries to look like a flag.” 

Some D.C residents are still unsure of their plans however.

“I have nothing concrete yet,” Steve Cross, an American University alum, said.

Cross will spend his Fourth of July either in his hometown of Baltimore or in D.C, but either way, Cross will still cook Baltimore steamed crabs, his traditional Fourth of July barbecue food, Cross said.

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Steve Cross poses in front of the quad at AU’s campus. Photo by Andrew Gold

In past years, Cross has also traveled between D.C and Baltimore to see firework celebrations. In a “good year” Cross manages to see up to 10 different fireworks shows in D.C or Baltimore, according to Cross.

Fireworks are not for everyone though, according to AU maintenance worker, Ceasar Caicedo, 46. Caicedo does not plan on attending any firework shows or celebrations. Instead, he plans on celebrating the holiday by taking his kids out of town on a camping trip, where they will have a barbecue, Caicedo said.

Jason Lee Carter, a D.C. local, 34, also plans on spending his Fourth of July with his kids and nature, Carter said. He wants to spend his holiday “floating and fishing” along a river located in the D.C area, according to Carter.

For some D.C residents, however, it’s business as usual on the Fourth of July.  AU student, Alanna Holstein, 20, will be spending her holiday working as a sales associate in Georgetown, Holstein said.

Construction worker, Gordon Schaeffer, 54, also will be working this July Fourth, but might have a cookout at the end of the day, he said.

The Fourth of July has a range of meanings for residents across the D.C area, but AU junior Alex Mazzarisi feels that friends and family are an important part of the celebrations.

“The Fourth of July means celebrating our country’s independence and a great time to get together with friends and family,” Mazzarisi said.  “It’s a great bonding holiday for everyone.”