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Views on Tenleytown crime mixed as theft rises slightly

WASHINGTON- Citizens and visitors in Tenleytown expressed mixed views on crime as theft increased by a small amount in the past year, according to interviews and Metropolitan Police figures.

Theft crimes from July 2013 to July 2014 increased to 119 from 107 during the previous year in an area 1500 feet from Tenleytown’s center, according to Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department figures.

On Monday, people stepped around shattered glass outside the Best Buy store on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue. Police line tape was put up on the sidewalk outside the store. A police officer near the scene would not comment on the incident.

A shattered window of the Best Buy on Wisconsin Ave.
A shattered window at the Best Buy on Wisconsin Avenue on Monday, July 7.

Trey Polston, a 25-year-old baseball coach at Woodrow Wilson High School, hasn’t experienced crime since he moved to the area in August 2013 and said he doesn’t know any one who has. But, Polston did say he feels slightly uneasy when encountering a homeless person.

“Usually on the bench, there’s usually a guy, or two, but they don’t really mess with us too much or anything, you know? They’re just trying to live themselves,” Polston said.

In contrast, a Tenleytown native sees another group as a threat to safety: high school students. Although police statistics didn’t reveal the specific ages of crime perpetrators Carlyn Hackney said teenagers in the area can be a “potential threat.”

“Just ’cause they’re rowdy, you know, and they’re always up here in the masses,” said Hackney, a 24-year-old nanny who grew up in the area.

Amanda Corvelli, a long-time employee at American Valet, had a similar perspective to Hackney.

Corvelli has witnessed Woodrow Wilson students fighting after school and seen people stealing from the Wisconsin Avenue CVS store.

Despite those incidents, she said Tenleytown is still a safe area, especially compared to other metropolitan neighborhoods.

“I mean there’s crime, but there’s crime everywhere,” Corvelli said.

 

 

 

 

 

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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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Local art framed at the Katzen Arts Center

WASHINGTON–A photograph of SpaghettiOs hangs against the wall.

Paintings of bare women, one smoking a cigarette, line a nearby hallway.

A portrait of a cowboy, made of colors and oils, is framed and hung.

These are just some of the many works on display this summer in sixth temporary exhibits at the Katzen Arts Center on the campus of American University in Washington D.C. The works are all on loan and contribute to the museum’s international, local and political messages, according to Lucy Crowley, an administrative and marketing assistant at the museum.

“You can take pictures and even small videos,” Crowley said.

Will's picture-S.O's
A picture of SpeghettiOs stands out in the local art exhibit at the Katzen Arts Center. Photo by Will Amari.

The local art exhibition is a donation from the Franz and Virginia Bader Fund, a 13-year-old organization that gives grants to artists within 150 miles of Washington, D.C.

In order to be eligible to receive a grant, an artist must be at least 40 years and must write an essay on why it would advance their lives as an artist, according to the Bader Fund website. Donations are given out every year, with minimum grants awarded of $15,000.

The exhibit opened on June 14 and closes Aug. 17. Artists include Aaron Brown, Hadieh Shafie and Rik Freeman, all of whom are long-time painters still trying to master their craft.

“My favorite piece is this one,” said Maia Plesent, a 20-year-old who works at the museum. She pointed at one of the works done by Emily Piccirillo. It is a photograph of what looks like the branches of trees.

“All of it so strange and interesting,” Piccirillo said.

Genevieve Stegner-Freitag, 20, is a gallery attendant at the Katzen Arts Center and she feels that it is a great idea to promote artists in the local metropolitan area.

“It is a way of expressing your individual personality, who you are,” Stegner-Freitag said. “It’s fun.”

To find out more about the Franz and Virginia Bader Fund, visit the website.

Summer museum hours are 11 a.m to  4 p.m. Located at 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20016

 

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Bader Fund grants opportunities to local artists

Jason Horowitz's "SpaghettiOs with Sliced Franks." Photo by Will Amari.
Jason Horowitz’s “SpaghettiOs with Sliced Franks.” Photo by Will Amari.

WASHINGTON–“The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund: Second Act” is spending the summer at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, continuing the work of its founders to reveal hidden talent in local artists.

Established in 2001 in accordance with Virginia Bader’s will, the Bader Fund provides a minimum of one grant annually to visual artists of at least age 40 living within a 150 mile radius of Washington, D.C. “Second Act” gives the public another look at the art produced by grantees over the past 13 years.

Maia Plesent, a gallery attendant, believes that the fund benefits artists’ development.

“The money goes towards the artists to expand their repertoire and explore new mediums,” Plesent said. “So I think it’s a great way to allow artists to learn and improve their art.”

The exhibit offers a variety of artwork, something that Plesent said makes it interesting.

“I enjoy how different everything is, there’s so many different mediums, so many different types of art in this exhibit,” Plesent said.

Rik Freeman is a narrative painter whose oil on canvas painting Samba na Praia is travelling with “Second Act.”  His art falls on the Bader Fund’s unique spectrum due to its ability to tell stories, a skill which Freeman picked up as a child in Athens, Georgia.

Yukiro Yamaguchi's "Energy," made of hand-cast resin and stainless steel wire. Photo by Melanie Pincus.
Yukiro Yamaguchi’s “Energy,” made of hand-cast resin and stainless steel wire. Photo by Melanie Pincus.

“I would ‘overhear’ grown folks’ conversations and feel their emotions, read a book, listen to music, and there’s a movie going on in my head,” Freeman wrote on his website. “This fueled my artistic style as a narrative painter.”

Stories like Freeman’s can be beneficial in applying for a Bader Fund grant, a process requiring artists to provide a detailed resume and a 1,000-word proposal outlining what receiving a grant would mean for their lives and work as an artist.  This process ensures that selected artists’ “ability to concentrate on their art would be enhanced by receiving a grant,” according to the Bader Fund’s website.

Olivia Whitener, 17, and a participant in a summer program at AU, was unaware of the “Second Act” exhibit at Katzen, but doesn’t think that the fund’s efforts to recognize older artists are necessarily optimum.

“These people should be established,” Whitener said.

However, she still appreciates some benefits of acknowledging a different age group.

“People often support younger artists,” Whitener said. “It’s encouraging people out of the norm.”

To find out more about the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, call 202-885-1300, or visit the museum at 4400 Massachusetts Ave. N.W.

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Health care costs and access still an issue, worry in D.C.

pharmacist
Rosaline Ngachie in a CVS pharmacy in Tenleytown, D.C.

WASHINGTON- Alex Epperly is a doctoral biophysiology student who enjoys learning about the human body and health.

However, when it comes to a health care plan, he believes it is a political game.

“I think they’re (Congress) playing softball too much with insurance companies,” Epperly explained. “Too much back and forth.”

Sunday marked the first day that Epperly would no longer be protected by his parents’ health care plan. He is on his own now, paying for his cheaper plan that would only protect him in cases of like a severe car crash or a heart transplant, he said. Starting Monday, he began paying $200 a month for the health care plan that only covers catastrophic illnesses.

Like Epperly, most people interviewed in Tenleytown on Monday, agreed that the biggest problem with health care is that the people who need it most, can’t afford to get it, leaving some nervous about the future.

Some 16-year-olds like Jauan Durbin know a great deal about the battle for affordable, effective health care. Durbin, who typed on a computer in the local Tenleytown Library, expressed his worries that he would not be able to afford an adequate health care plan. He believes Congress represents health care companies’ best interest, not the people.

Durbin has heard of the Affordable Care Act, sometimes referred to as Obamacare which allowed people to stay longer on their parents’ plans, and is insured by his parents. However, once he turns 26, he doesn’t know if he is going to pay for health care or not.

“It should be my choice to pay or not to pay,” Durbin said. “People should just mind their own business.”

On the corner of a busy Tenleytown street sits a CVS pharmacy where Rosaline Ngachie, 49, works as a pharmacist. She meets with many ill patients daily, and comes across few who are without health insurance.

“Half of the time they are covered and they get sick,” said Ngachie.

When asked about how the people without health insurance pay, she said “We give them a discount card.”

Many people frequent the pharmacy in CVS for all sorts of reasons.

“We can usually predict what people will need before they come in,” Ngachie said. “Allergy season is big and after big holidays you have Pepto and heartburn.”

When asked whether everyone should have health care, Ngachie replied, “You should because you never know what will happen to you unless you have a CT scan of your body.”

Other people in Tenleytown have a slightly different take on health care.

Nan Ivy, 66, grew up in Atlanta, Georgia before moving to Tenleytown.

When she was in her 20s, Ivy lost her parents’ health coverage and went for an extended amount of time without any kind of health insurance because it was too expensive.

“In Atlanta there’s a hospital that’s tax-funded,” said Ivy. “I went there whenever I was sick and couldn’t go to a doctor.”

Once she got a steady job, things improved for Ivy and after a while her job provided her with the health insurance that she needed.

Now she faces a new problem with health insurance.

“I have a daughter,” said Ivy. “She lives in Florida and she didn’t get Obamacare. I told her to, but she didn’t listen.”

Ivy had a difficult time trying to speak about the topic because it was so upsetting to her.

“She’s so sick,” said Ivy. “She’s so sick and no one will help her. I don’t know what to do.”

People like Ivy’s daughter, who is in her late 20s, struggle on a daily basis without health insurance, and even though they may be ill, or in need, no one will help them because they aren’t insured.

Ivy is “disgusted” by the lack of health care assistance in the U.S.

Ivy said, “Senators and congressmen get free health care and I don’t know why we can’t.”

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Messages hidden in metal

WASHINGTON—Splatters of paint, hardware formed in unconventional ways, a message hidden within metal.

These are what consist of BK Adams’ latest exhibit, Mynd Alive, on display this summer at the Katzen Arts Center on the campus of American University in Washington, D.C.

In his artist statement about his works, which are outside in the sculpture garden at Katzen, Adams says, “I present to you Mynd Alive Sculptural Exhibition. Each sculpture tells its own story as do WE…Enjoy.”

In a piece titled “Ladder Me,” Adams forms a chair and places it high on a pole, almost like it’s the grand prize.

A paint splatted chair sits high upon a pole in BK Adams’ sculpture, “Ladder Me.” Photo by Courtney Allen.

In Adams’ writing about “Ladder Me,” the overall message of the sculpture is that before you relax in life, more important things should get done first. Adams’ sculptures speak volumes of color, spirit and individuality.

A message of self-empowerment is displayed in Adams’ “Where Do I Belong.” Similar to “Ladder Me,” the sculpture is of a chair placed high on a stand.

Next to the picture of “Where Do I Belong” in a booklet of his work found at the Katzen Arts Center, Adams’ writes, “If U want 2 B a Teacher, Shoot 4 a PRINCIPAL. If U want 2 B a Lawyer, Shoot 4 a JUDGE. If u wanna B SOMEBODY, shoot 4 YOURSELF.”

A work by BK Adams on display at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. Photo by Courtney Allen.

Adams, a Washington, D.C.-based artist born in 1972, is self taught. He takes experiences from earlier years to mold his artwork.

According to his biography, located on Adams’ website, “Adams considers himself a Thinker, foremost. It is important to the artist that all of his work has meaning—that it shares a story.”

His works are among six visiting exhibits at the museum this summer, according to Lucy Crowley, an administrative and marketing assistant at the museum.

To find more information about BK Adams, visit his website.

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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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Stand out pieces at the AU Museum at the Katzen Arts Center

WASHINGTON—Pieces of artwork at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center are all special in their own light but some may just have another dimension to them. Literally.

Two pieces of work by Hadieh Shafie especially stand out because they actually stand out.

Both pieces feature paper handwritten and printed with the word “love” or “passion” in Farsi. The first piece titled “26000” pages was created in 2011 and features colored paper rolled up to make circles of various different sizes, and colors from all across the color spectrum. The piece is part of Shafie’s Katab Series and is owned by Shafie.

The second piece stands out even more than the first. Handcrafted in 2014 the work named “Spike 6” is made out of both acrylic and paper and features the acrylic and paper in a seemingly random arrangement that pops forward toward the center of each circle.

When standing at just the right location, a few steps away from the piece, the work seems to drift closer to the viewer as they focus and stare into the many mesmerizing spikes.

“It feels like it is coming at you,” said Melanie Pincus, 15.

The work is in a private collection.

On the second floor of the building lies a piece of work by Jess, named “The Enamord Mage: Translation #6.”

In the work, a man looks at a book, but when further inspected the painting reveals that it may be more as this painting has been built up in unlikely places such as a glop of paint that intrudes toward the viewer between two books. The piece of art does not have a flat surface and instead is jagged and rough.

“When you back up it is normal but when you get closer it pops out at you,”  said Halle Jefferson, 16.

The two pieces by Shafie will be on display until Aug. 17 in The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund: Second Act exhibition at the Katzen Arts Center at American University in Washington D.C.  The painting by Jess will also be on display until Aug. 17 at the Katzen Arts Center. It is in the An Opening of the Field: Jess, Robert Duncan, & Their Circle exhibition.

For more information visit Katzen Art Center’s website.

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Got $1 million? Tenleytown cost of living on the rise

house
A Tenleytown home in Northwest Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON— Workers in Tenleytown agreed the cost of living has increased to a rate unaffordable for the average American, according to several interviews conducted Monday.

Menelik Walker, a Whole Foods employee, said he is concerned about the high cost of real estate. According to realtor.com, home prices in Tenleytown can exceed $1 million.

“They’re beautiful homes, but I don’t know if it’s affordable,” Walker said.

The cost of living in Tenleytown, an area south of Chesapeake Street and north of Van Ness Street, is 68.5 percent higher than the average Washington cost and 98.3 percent higher than the average national cost, according to areavibes.com.

Michael Warner, an American University alumnus who sells newspapers to raise money for the homeless, said that prices of homes and necessities are similar to the extravagant costs of New York City and residents here need a high-paying job and good education to afford cost-of-living expenses.

“You have to be educated to live in D.C.,” Warner said.

Maria Harris, a worker at the Tenley-Friendship Library, said that living in Tenleytown is an acquired taste due to the high cost of living but says she still sees economic diversity.

“It’s all over the place,” Harris said. “There are people who are wealthy and others who are poor.”

Warner and Harris both agreed that even though the cost is high, the location in Northwest Washington, D.C. is convenient. Harris explained that Tenleytown is a “vibrant” place to live, and that there are many places to go and activities to keep anyone from boredom.

“Necessities are within walking distance,” Warner said. Teneleytown is an “excellent place to live.”

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D.C. residents respond positively to growth

WASHINGTON–Some residents of Washington D.C. reacted positively to the city’s population growth due to an influx of recent college graduates in search of jobs, according to interviews conducted in Tenleytown on Monday.

Julie Zauzmer, a Washington Post journalist, moved to the city in January after graduating from Harvard University in 2013. She believes the increase of graduates like her moving to Washington makes living here interesting and exciting.

“It’s obviously fantastic that people want to live in the city, it says a lot of good things,” Zauzmer said. “It’s a place that’s desirable. It’s a safe environment.”

Population growth made Washington, D.C. the seventh largest metropolitan area in the nation in 2013, according to the U.S. Census. Development resulting from things like population increases has contributed to making Washington, D.C. a popular place to live.

Luca Vallada, 17, has grown up in Washington, D.C., and said the city has evolved significantly since his family moved there 20 years ago.

“It’s really nice that the entire city is changing,” Vallada said. “The beautification of the city’s just so impressive.”

Luca Vallada comments on changes in Washington, D.C. Photo by Jacquie Lee.
Luca Vallada talks to Teen Observer reporters about population changes in Washington, D.C. Photo by Jacquie Lee.

Nick Frabotta, 60, has lived in Washington, D.C. since college, and hopes that the growth in population doesn’t come at a price. He is concerned with additional stresses on traffic making commuting more difficult but hopes city leaders have plans for the growth.

“I hope in their wisdom, they’re planning for that kind of stuff,” Frabotta said.

However, he also sees the city’s changes as beneficial.

“D.C.’s a younger city now, and I think that’s great,” Frabotta said. “It keeps everything lively.”