Leap into spring with these fun things to do around D.C., Maryland and Virginia this weekend.
First:
Care of Magical Creatures
Locust Grove Nature Center
Feb. 28, 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Do you believe in magic? Take the kids in their costumes for a fairy tale afternoon as you learn about how magnificent nature can be, and all the special creatures that inhabit it. Tickets are $7 for children and free for parents and guardians.
Rose Jaffe: Artist Talk and Community Workshop
Washington Studio School
Feb. 28, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Come for an evening of creative discussion with visual artist and D.C. native Rose Jaffe. Topics will include art, space, activism and community. This event is free and open to the public.
DC Dining in the Dark
Abigail (1730 M Street Northwest)
Feb. 28, 8:30 p.m. to 10:15 p.m.
Have you ever wanted to eat a nice meal without any distractions? Now’s your chance with DC Dining in the Dark. You get to eat five courses in a pitch-black room, served by waiters wearing night-vision goggles. Tickets are $75.
Mucus Fest 2020
Feb. 28, doors at 8 p.m.
Black Cat
Sikk Magazine is showcasing black artists with an event that's part concert and part clothing/art vendor display. Tickets cost $20.
Free Pick
Rooting DC 2020
Ron Brown College Preparatory High School
Feb. 29, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Get your green thumb ready for a day full of gardening education workshops, panel discussions and cooking demonstrations with over 60 green businesses and nonprofits. This event is free, but there will be food and drinks available to purchase for lunch.
Black To The Future Festival 2020
Feb. 29, 1-4 p.m.
Anacostia Arts Center (1231 Good Hope Road Southeast)
This festival is "a celebration of black business, art, wellness, music, food and lives," organizers say.
ANXO Women’s Month Sneak Peek Party
Tasting Room (711 Kennedy St. NW)
Feb. 29, 1-5 p.m.
Sample ANXO's Nevertheless Dry Cider, a special release for Women's Month. This free party also will feature live painting.
Boozin' In Your Onesie Bar Crawl
Dupont Circle
Feb. 29, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Now, here is your chance to party in your PJs. Grab your best onesie and get ready to hop around the Dupont Circle bar scene. Group tickets are $18.75 each and single tickets are $24.99. Final price tickets are $39.99 the day of the event.
Macrame Rainbow Workshop
Hampton Inn Washington Downtown Convention Center
Feb. 29, 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Add some color to your weekend and learn how to make a beautiful piece of rainbow wall art. Tickets are $35 to participate, and all art supplies are included.
The Return of the Jook Joint
Prince George's Community College Largo Student Center
Feb. 29, 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Spend your Saturday night right with dancing, food and live entertainment. Tickets are $50 and include a buffet, drink ticket and souvenir mason jar.
D.C. United Home Opener
Feb. 29, 1 p.m.
Audi Field
D.C. United faces the Colorado Rapids in their first home game of the year.
Hoppy Hour: Meditation with Bunnies at Lost Boy Cider
Lost Boy Cider (Alexandria, VA)
March 1, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
What is better then a relaxing morning of yoga? How about yoga while snuggling adorable bunnies? If this experience sounds like an amazing idea to you, then hop on over with your yoga mat and join. Tickets are $30 and include a beverage after the yoga session.
National Museum of Women in the Arts Free Day
March 1, noon to 5 p.m.
1250 New York Ave NW, Washington, D.C.
To kick off Women's Month, admission is free.
ANXO Women’s Month Launch Party
March 1, 2 p.m.
ANXO Cidery & Pintxos Bar (300 Florida Ave. NW)
March is Women's Month, and ANXO is marking it by donating to nonprofits that focus on women's issues. This party kicks off a month where everything poured will be female-made. Entry is free.
Profs & Pints: Super Tuesday and Beyond
The Bier Baron Tavern and Comedy Loft
March 1, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Politics can be messy, so why not try to figure it out together? Come for an evening of discussion about the upcoming primaries with David Barker, Director of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door.
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Bisnis.com, JAKARTA - PT Pelabuhan Indonesia I (Persero) atau Pelindo 1 meningkatkan kewaspadaan dan antisipasi terhadap penyebaran virus corona (Covid-19) ke Indonesia melalui Pelabuhan Internasional di lingkungan Pelindo 1.
VP Humas Pelindo 1, Fiona Sari Utami menerangkan seluruh cabang pelabuhan di lingkungan Pelindo 1 telah berkoordinasi secara intensif dengan Kantor Kesehatan Pelabuhan/Dinas Kesehatan setempat, melakukan pemeriksaan bersama kepada penumpang embarkasi dan debarkasi di masing-masing cabang pelabuhan.
Pihaknya juga melakukan pengawasan awak kapal asing yang sandar di cabang pelabuhan dan memperketat pengawasan dan kontrol terhadap seluruh kegiatan operasional khususnya di pelabuhan internasional.
“Di beberapa areal terminal penumpang Pelindo 1 telah dipasang alat thermal scanner untuk pendeteksi suhu tubuh sebagai antisipasi penyebaran virus corona, seperti di Terminal Penumpang Tanjung Pinang, Tanjung Balai Karimun, dan Dumai," katanya, Kamis (27/2/2020).
Pemantauan dan pemeriksaan penumpang dimulai dari dermaga hingga ke pintu masuk dan keluar. Pihak Kantor Kesehatan Pelabuhan (KKP), Bea Cukai, Karantina, Imigrasi, dan Kementerian Perhubungan melalui Otoritas Pelabuhan dan Kantor Syahbandar serta instansi terkait lainnya juga terus bersiaga dan berkoordinasi secara intensif dengan Pelindo 1 di seluruh terminal penumpang dan pelabuhan internasional.
Fiona menambahkan, kegiatan pemeriksaan kepada awak kapal di cabang pelabuhan internasional juga makin ditingkatkan.
Petugas KKP melakukan pemeriksaan intensif sebelum kegiatan bongkar muat dilaksanakan, kegiatan pemeriksaan ini tidak saja dilakukan pada saat isu virus corona mewabah. Namun, kegiatan rutin yang dilakukan sesuai dengan prosedur yang berlaku di pelabuhan.
"Saat kapal bersandar di dermaga dan sebelum melakukan kegiatan bongkar muat, Petugas KKP akan melakukan pengecekan kesehatan di kapal. Selain itu, para petugas lapangan baik di terminal penumpang maupun di dermaga telah diimbau lebih waspada serta selalu menggunakan masker dan sarung tangan,” ujarnya.
Pelindo 1 memiliki sejumlah terminal penumpang internasional yang berada di Tanjungpinang dan Tanjung Balai Karimun di Provinsi Kepulauan Riau, Dumai di Provinsi Riau, dan Tanjung Balai Asahan yang berada di Provinsi Sumatera Utara yang melayani penumpang internasional yang berasal dari Singapura dan Malaysia (Malaka, Johor dan Port Klang).
Sementara pelabuhan yang melayani kargo impor yaitu Pelabuhan Belawan, Terminal Peti Kemas (TPK) Belawan, Perawang, Sei Kolak Kijang, Dumai, dan Lhokseumawe dengan negara asal kargo (impor) pada umumnya berasal dari negara Singapura, Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, India, dan Cina serta negara lainnya.
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Scene from ‘The Lion King’ Recreated With Stuffed Animals in Groton NBC Connecticut
PT Pelabuhan Indonesia II (Persero) atau IPC memastikan terbuka untuk berkolaborasi dengan para mitra di bidang logistik, pelayaran, dan kepelabuhanan guna mengeksplorasi peluang-peluang baru demi mencapai keuntungan bersama.
Direktur Utama IPC, Elvyn G. Masassya, dalam acara ASEAN Ports & Shipping 2020 mengatakan, dengan kerja sama yang terintegrasi dan terkoordinasi, pelabuhan dan pelayaran di kawasan regional bisa memainkan peran kunci dalam perdagangan dunia.
Baca Juga: Pelindo II Rangkul Operator Pelabuhan Asal Rumania
Elvyn mengatakan, Indonesia merupakan salah satu negara kepulauan terbesar di dunia. Sebagai salah satu operator pelabuhan terbesar di Indonesia dan kawasan regional, IPC berkomitmen untuk memperkuat peran sentralnya sebagai trade facilitator, yang memberikan energi pada mata rantai logistik nasional dan regional.
"Sejak tahun 2017, IPC mendedikasikan Tanjung Priok sebagai pelabuhan transhipment. Di Pelabuhan Tanjung Priok, kami mengonsolidasikan kargo di kawasan untuk dikirim langsung ke berbagai benua, antara lain Amerika, Eropa, Australia, serta China dan beberapa negara Asia Timur," jelas Elvyn Masassya dalam keterangannya, Kamis (27/2/2020).
Layanan direct call, lanjut Elvyn, menunjukkan bahwa Pelabuhan Tanjung Priok mampu beroperasi dengan standar pelayanan dunia, yang didukung infrastruktur modern dan digitalisasi yang sistematis. Untuk memperkuat kapasitas layanan, IPC mengoperasikan terminal baru, yaitu NPCT-1 di Kalibaru, Tanjung Priok. IPC juga sedang mengembangkan Terminal Kijing di Kalimantan Barat, yang akan memperbesar akses perdagangan regional dan global.
Terkait Konferensi ASEAN Ports & Shipping 2020, Elvyn menuturkan acara seperti ini sangat penting, mengingat banyak hal yang bisa didiskusikan untuk meningkatkan kapasitas operasional dan pelayanan.
"Konferensi ini menjadi forum untuk bertukar informasi serta berbagi pengalaman dan praktik terbaik di bidang logistik, pelabuhan, dan pelayaran dari berbagai belahan dunia," ujarnya.
Setidaknya ada 35 pembicara dari kalangan pelaku bisnis transportasi dan logistik dunia yang akan mendiskusikan isu-isu perdagangan dan investasi. Selama tiga hari, sekitar 400 perwakilan pemerintah dari berbagai negara, para pengambil keputusan, pelaku bisnis transportasi dan logistik, serta tenaga profesional kepelabuhanan dan pelayaran berkumpul dan membahas penguatan konektivitas global.
"Konferensi ini tentu juga akan membuka berbagai peluang kerja sama di bidang maritim, logistik, dan perdagangan," jelasnya.
Elvyn menambahkan, dunia makin kecil dengan adanya lompatan teknologi informasi. "Industri pelayaran dan bisnis kepelabuhanan tentu terdampak, dan lompatan industri 4.0 harus dimanfaatkan agar operasional makin efektif dan efisien," pungkasnya.
At a club on Sixth Street just before midnight on a Saturday, there is anarchy: A woman dressed as a mermaid climbs onstage in front of the DJ booth, holding a large inflatable ice cream cone. Someone licks it. A man on the dance floor is dressed as Santa Claus; a woman wears furry, white bell bottoms.
These misfits punctuate the thrumming house music. Beat. Santa Claus. Beat. Mermaid.
Then a disco ball emerges – a disco ball on a stick. The man carrying it dons a fur hat, sunglasses and a black kerchief around his neck. He fits in among the chaos because he’s just that: a shimmery oddity, a “sparkly unicorn,” as one friend describes him.
His name is Yorkie Louie, but he’s crowned himself the "Godfather of Clubbing." An anonymous listener wrote to KUT’s Hi, Who Are You? project about him: "‘Keeping it Weird’ is embodied by @godfatherofclubbing. Never met him, but regularly see him on the dance floor."
We wanted to meet him for ourselves.
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'It Was Like Freaksville'
At 67 years old, Yorkie goes clubbing every weekend, typically with a crew called Vibe Vessel. The 20-somethings behind the operation throw dance parties throughout the city, many of which Yorkie promotes on his Instagram account.
“Hi kids, it’s another hot one on Planet Austin,” Yorkie says in one video posted last July, as he encourages people to spend the night at a party on Sixth Street. (Yorkie calls his younger friends his kids or grandkids; they call him Pop-Pop.) “But I’m here to tell you this Saturday, it’s only gonna get hella hotter.”
In these videos, you can hear Yorkie’s native New Yorker: Yorkie becomes Yawkie. He was one of seven kids born and raised in the suburbs of Long Island, but he described Manhattan as his playground. The family spent weekends in Chinatown, Central Park and the Lower East Side.
“Back then it was very Hasidim,” Yorkie says. “It was like really going back in time to the old Jewish delis with the big barrels full of pickles, and there were things hanging all over the place from the fire escapes.”
By his mid-20s, he decided to leave New York and move to San Francisco, where one of his sisters lived. It was the late 1970s and the city was full of hippies and punks, of Harvey Milk, Jim Jones and the Dead Kennedys. Yorkie showed up wide-eyed.
“It was like Freaksville,” he says. “Everybody was just being themselves, and I just loved it.”
At work in his new office, Yorkie met a man with curly auburn hair named Michael Faino.
“He had a big, huge personality and everybody loved him.”
Yorkie did, too, eventually, and they became a couple. But after a few years in San Francisco, the couple decided to move to New York. The nightlife just couldn’t compete.
“I was in my 20s,” Yorkie says. “And the clubs closing at 2 o’clock was like, what? I just needed to go back home.”
'The Government Just Didn't Care'
Back in New York, Yorkie started working at a shop in the West Village. Just blocks away and a decade earlier, men and women rioted after police raided a gay club, the Stonewall Inn. The six days of protest came to be known as the Stonewall Riots, a significant moment in the fight for gay rights in the U.S.
Yorkie eventually opened a clothing store in the neighborhood, called Reckless NYC.
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“It was a total club kid store,” he says. “No one came into the store because they needed something, because we didn’t have anything that anybody needed. We had things that you wanted.”
Yorkie worked at the store during the day and went clubbing with Michael and his friends at night.
“It was fun, it was hard, it was everything,” he recalls.
But soon, people around him started getting sick. It was the early 1980s, the beginning of the AIDS crisis. The New York Times published its first story on the disease in July 1981, under the headline: “Rare Cancer Seen In 41 Homosexuals.”
“They didn’t have a name for it,” Yorkie says. “They were calling it 'gay cancer' in the beginning.”
By 1982, the year Yorkie moved back to New York, hundreds of people had died from the disease. That year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the mortality rate was as high as 60%. But it would be years before President Ronald Regan would publicly acknowledge AIDS.
“The only people who were dying from AIDs [were] gay people and drug addicts," Yorkie says, "and the government just didn’t care."
As scientists struggled to understand the disease, Yorkie says, he watched people around him waste away.
“I lost every single one of my friends to AIDS,” he says. “You just have to sit and wonder, 'Why am I here?'”
In 1993, more than 10 years after Yorkie moved back to New York and more than 15 years into their relationship, Michael passed away. Yorkie says after watching friends spend years drifting in and out of hospitals battling AIDS-related illnesses, Michael died less than two weeks after his first hospital stay.
Yorkie closed his store and left New York.
“I went back to San Francisco, because that’s where I had met him,” he says. “I just wanted to go back to a place where it was happy for me.”
According to friends, Michael’s death became a defining moment in Yorkie’s life.
“He talks about eras,” Roxy Van Der Lelie, one of Yorkie’s best friends, says. There's before Michael, with Michael and after Michael. "He carries Michael’s spirit with him now."
'I Literally Became Invisible'
In San Francisco, Yorkie fell in love again and began to get his life back.
But then the city that had been a haven for so many began to change. Tech companies set up their headquarters, attracting more and more high-paid workers. As The New York Times reported last year, gathering places for the LGBTQ community shut down amid rapidly rising property values.
“I just saw the whole neighborhood change and even the younger gay guys that moved in never said hello,” Yorkie says. “I would say hello to them and they would just ignore me and go running away. And I literally became invisible.”
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He felt ignored by a city that had once embraced and restored him. The loss felt profound.
“I think it probably echoed a loss he felt when he lost Michael and New York,” Roxy says.
Yorkie said he became a shut-in, refusing to leave the house other than to go to work. His partner, Clyde McConnell, suggested a move: What about Austin, Texas?
“That’s when I just blew up,” he says. “I’m already feeling the rope around my neck. I can never live in f------ Texas.”
But Yorkie became increasingly desperate to leave San Francisco, and in 2015, he and Clyde moved south.
His friend Kiki Avilez says Yorkie is good at knowing when to reinvent himself.
“I think he's good at, or has found a good way, to let go and be able to move on,” she says.
'Welcome To Planet Austin'
Landing in Austin in his early 60s, Yorkie didn’t know anyone but Clyde. The two still loved to go clubbing and were regulars at places on Sixth Street like the now-shuttered Ethics Music Lounge and Kingdom.
One weekend Clyde had to work, so Yorkie went out by himself.
“My plan [was] to walk into the club, get my beer and walk onto the dance floor and go right in front of the DJ so I could not see what was behind me," he says. "So, if people were pointing at me or laughing at me, I wouldn’t know.”
Instead, people went up to him and said they loved his energy and his dance moves. Yorkie started making friends, including many of the younger people who would come to found Vibe Vessel in 2018. He started to build a community he could welcome others to: “Aliens, freaks, misunderstood, bullied, dreamers … come on in. You have a home here.”
“Welcome to Planet Austin,” he likes to say.
Despite Yorkie having the spirit of a 24-year-old, Kiki says, he often serves as a sort of sage to the younger clubbers.
“He reminds people: hydrate, take care of yourself,” she says. “The reason he’s been able to last so long is because he takes care of himself.”
Yorkie often dances alone at the club. His moves aren’t flashy; his body hums, his legs steady and rooted, with most of the movement coming from his upper body. He wears sunglasses with a third lens above the eyes, sometimes called "third eye" glasses.
Roxy says he talks to himself.
“He’s like, ‘That’s right mother------,” she says, laughing. “'That’s right, we’re freaks.’ He’s just like preaching and letting go. Usually he’s wearing glasses so he can keep his eyes closed.”
On the dance floor, Yorkie says, he often conjures up friends he used to go clubbing with, like Michael. Many of his club friends say dancing is a way to forget, to let go; but Yorkie says sometimes dancing is a form of reminiscing.
“I’ll just do a little move that I’ll remember they did,” he says. “They’re all living through me.”
Yorkie has grieved the losses of Michael, New York and San Francisco. Friends say he works hard to stay positive.
"He’s so grateful to not be sad anymore,” Roxy says. “As a person that’s been sad, once you’re not sad, all you want to do is not be sad again.”
"He's so grateful to not be sad anymore. As a person that's been sad, once you're not sad, all you want to do is not be sad again."
The grief he’s experienced gives him a knack for finding people who look lost. Take Roxy, for example: The 26-year-old moved to Austin to be with a partner; when they broke up she felt adrift. She went out with friends and met Yorkie on the dance floor roughly three years ago.
“I was on the dance floor really getting down, feeling it, and then there was my mirror in front of me doing the same exact thing,” she says. “I don’t even know if we even spoke. I think we might have just started hugging or something really dramatic. From that moment on, we were just friends.”
Yorkie is quick to hug, quick to laugh, quick to dance. And, because he’s deemed himself the "Godfather," quick to give advice:
“Tips for clubbing! One is you have to rest up. Two, you have to hydrate. Three, you have to eat something. And four, you need to fireproof your shoes,” Yorkie often says.
“And then you’ll be ready to hit the floor.”
Got a tip? Email Audrey McGlinchy at audrey@kut.org. Follow her on Twitter @AKMcGlinchy.
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