It may come as a shock, but Dionne Warwick balks at the idea of playing massive venues.
“I’ve basically refused to perform in arenas and coliseums,” says the 76-year-old legend. “Those things are for basketball and hockey and soccer. And I am a singer.” She prefers intimate rooms where she can connect with her audience, rooms like Bethesda Blues & Jazz, where she’ll appear next week to help the venue celebrate its 4th Anniversary.
Over the course of two nights, she’ll be performing from a seemingly inexhaustible supply of hits, in particular those from her extraordinary collaboration with composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David, songs that have become so iconic, it’s hard to imagine anyone else singing them, including “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.” Warwick’s success extended beyond her Bacharach collaborations and songs like the soaring, Barry Manilow-produced “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and the Bee Gees-penned “Heartbreaker.” Among her most cherished achievements was performing alongside Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder on “That’s What Friends Are For.” The song shot to #1 on the R&B, Adult Contemporary and Billboard Hot 100 charts and raised nearly $3 million for the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
Warwick felt a deep obligation to be a part of the project. “We were losing so many people [to AIDS], in my industry particularly,” she says, adding, “My grandfather, who was a minister, taught me at a very tender age that we’re all put on this earth to be of service to each other, and that we all need healthy people around us. And if there’s anything we can do to ensure that…it’s part of what we’re supposed to do.”
Inevitably, as with almost any conversation these days, talk turns to Donald Trump. Warwick gets audibly riled up when speaking of the new President with a penchant for childish Tweets.
“We can’t sit around and twiddle our thumbs, you know?
We need to take the initiative to be the actual citizens of these United States of America and demand the things that we know we’re entitled to and how they ought to be done,” she insists. “He has no choice but to listen. He’s not our boss. We’re his boss. He’s got to listen to us.”
Dionne Warwick appears Tuesday, Feb. 28 and Wednesday, March 1 at Bethesda Blues & Jazz, 7719 Wisconsin Ave., in Bethesda. Doors at 6 p.m., show at 8 p.m. Tickets are $115 to $150. Call 240-330-4500 or visit bethesdabluesjazz.com.
Donald Trump has targeted yet another law firm for taking up cases challenging his administration's anti-transgender policies and for formerly employing a prosecutor involved in a special counsel investigation of his 2016 campaign.
In an executive order, President Trump stripped lawyers from Jenner & Block LLP of security clearances, barred them from entering federal buildings (which could include, in some cases, federal courthouses), and pressured federal contracting agencies to terminate any existing contracts for services that they have with the law firm.
The order declares that Jenner & Block's actions on behalf of its clients are a threat to national security, undermine U.S. interests, and conduct "harmful activity" through their pro bono work.
A federal judge blocked Texas A&M University from banning a drag show from being held on any of the university's 11 campuses. The temporary preliminary injunction was issued on March 24 by Judge Lee Rosenthal of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
As a result, "Draggieland," a student-produced drag event, will go on as planned at the Rudder Theatre on the university's College Station campus this Thursday, March 27.
The pageant -- which has sold out the 750-seat Rudder Theatre every year since 2020 -- features contestants who wear clothing or makeup that often, but does not always, run counter to their gender identity. The contestants also dance and answer questions about what drag and LGBTQ culture means to them.
President Donald Trump used his address to Congress on Tuesday, March 4, to attack transgender individuals, calling transgender identity a "lie" and railing against transgender athletes, gender-affirming care, and trans visibility in the military and more broadly within society.
At one point during the speech, Trump switched from speaking about a child who was diagnosed with cancer to claim his administration was protecting children from "toxic ideologies" in schools.
He brought up the story of January Littlejohn, a Florida anti-transgender activist who sued the Leon County School District in Tallahassee, Flordia, in 2021, alleging that her child's school had discussed restrooms and name change requests with the child, assisting her in "socially transitioning" without informing Littlejohn or her husband of their efforts.
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