Category Archives: DC

April 8, 2014 · 2:57 pm

New food writing: “Passover, with a strictly biblical flavor”

I’m pleased to share my article “Passover, with a strictly biblical flavor,” my first piece in the Washington Post Food section. I hope you enjoy it!

As I mentioned before, you can also catch me tomorrow from noon to 1 in the weekly online chat Free Range on Food. I’m honored to be invited, even if my fingers shake on the keyboard every time I think about it! Softball questions welcome.

Many thanks to the gracious and knowledgeable people I interviewed, the daring friends who tasted my recipe trials, and to everyone who gave me feedback.

Thank you for reading, and happy Passover!

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April 6, 2014 · 9:18 am

Free Range on Food, with yours truly

The table is set for an online chat about food and maybe even my own recipes and writing on Wednesday, April 9. Pictured here are Karaite-style matzah and a green take on maror.

The table is set for an online chat about food and maybe even my own recipes and writing on Wednesday, April 9. Pictured here are Karaite-style matzah and a green take on maror.

Friends,

I’m pleased to announce that on Wednesday, April 9, I’ll be a guest on the Free Range on Food chat with The Washington Post. This weekly online Q & A features WaPo food editors and staff writers, as well as the occasional freelancer like myself. An article I wrote about Passover will appear in the newspaper that same day. Readers can tune into the chat from noon to about 1 to ask about food, drink, and maybe even my piece.

Here’s the site to bookmark: http://live.washingtonpost.com/free-range-4-9-2014.html. And here’s what you’ll see when you go there before the chat:

Joe Yonan is editor of the Food section; joining us today are deputy editor Bonnie Benwick, staff writer Tim Carman, Spirits columnist Carrie Allan, Smoke Signals columnist Jim Shahin and Beer columnist Greg Kitsock. Guests: Washington Baker Teeny Lamothe, author of “Teeny’s Tour of Pie: A Cookbook”; freelance writer Rhea Yablon Kennedy.  [<—Yep, that’s me right there, just a few phrases removed from the editors of the Food section]

Check out past Free Range sessions if you’re curious about what they look like. See you there Wednesday at noon!

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February 22, 2014 · 4:45 pm

March 2014: Videofreex go to Washington

A picture of my dad, Chuck Kennedy, throwing snowballs in Lanesville, NY, circa 1970. Gotta love the snow suit.

My dad, Chuck Kennedy, plays in the snow in Lanesville, NY, some time in the 1970s. Gotta love the snow suit. Photo courtesy of Bart Friedman.

No one knows whether springy or snowy weather will greet these events, but I look forward to going. Cross posted from Videofreex.com.

Videofreex and friends are coming to Washington, D.C. in March. Join us for two events.

1) On Sunday, March 9, the National Gallery of Art will host a screening of Videofreex material and a talk by Videofreex members Skip Blumberg and Parry Teasdale, along with Tom Colley of Video Data Bank.

Early Video Pioneers: Videofreex with Portapaks

Sunday, March 9, 4:00
 p.m.

East Building Auditorium, National Gallery of Art

6th St. and Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC

FREE

2) The next day, the work of the Videofreex and their contemporaries comes to the DC Arts Center. The event will debut a new edit of the compilation Videofreex Pirate TV Show and feature video from the landmark May Day protest of 1971.

Videofreex and the May Day Video Collective at DCAC (Facebook event)

Monday, March 10, 7:30 p.m.

DC Arts Center, 2438 18th St. NW,  Washington, DC

Tickets: $8    Ticket reservations: 202-462-7833

After party to follow nearby. Contact us for information.

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November 26, 2013 · 12:58 am

Alternatives to Black Friday

A crowd shuffles into Target at the DCUSA mall in Columbia Heights. Photo by Gridprop on Wikimedia.

A crowd shuffles into Target at the DCUSA mall in Columbia Heights. Photo by Gridprop on Wikimedia.

Last week, an international student in my class declared that Thanksgiving is a terrible holiday — a time when people are killed.  “What do you mean?” I asked, madly searching for some explanation. I recalled that suicide rates spike during the winter holidays, but I didn’t think that was it.

The student then explained that she’d learned about the origins of Thanksgiving and how it arrived amidst a virtual genocide of indigenous Americans. The other students and I had to admit that was true. This mortality-Thanksgiving connection is, indeed, part of U.S. history. Then, as the discussion continued, another student helpfully pointed out that it wasn’t just a dark spot in our past.  In very recent memory, post-turkey shopping turned deadly.  It happened again last year. The international student wasn’t at all surprised.

“Will you have a chance to experience a Thanksgiving dinner in the U.S.?” we asked the foreigner. Perhaps. She’d been invited to one, but said she feared to venture out of her dorm room that day. The international student was only half kidding. Continue reading →

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September 28, 2013 · 9:45 pm

Thanks for a great Fair!

Cross-posted from DC State Fair

Thank you to everyone who came out today to celebrate DC talent at the DC State Fair in the heart of the Barracks Row Fall Festival. And congratulations to the winners of all 19 contests!

Want to relive the day or catch up on the events? Our fourth annual Fair is all over social media — both in words and pictures. Take your pick:

A special thank you goes out to our contest coordinators, judges, and volunteers. You made it all possible!

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September 5, 2013 · 6:27 pm

DC State Fair contests open: Think of this as my White House video announcement

Okay, it's a public library panel, not a national broadcast. But you get the idea. Photo by Stuart Levy

Okay, it’s a public library panel, not a national stage. But you get the idea. And note the DC State Fair t-shirt. Photo by Stuart Levy.

Pundits have used a lot more red ink lately, marking Xes on the days when President Obama doesn’t hold a press conference. One hundred and fourteen days here, 101 there. Only a Russian-protected leaker and a red line in Syria could staunch the scribbles, bringing Obama officially before the press an astonishing two times  in August. Otherwise, it’s X, X, and X.

What Obama does instead is push out constant social media blips and almost daily White House videos.

So think of this as my trendy White House video-type announcement about a matter of great interest to the public:

The DC State Fair contests are now open.

The media haven’t caught wind of it yet, as far as I know. Yet news of favorites like the Pie Contest, Honey Contest and Homebrew Contest has zipped around D.C.

Now that you’re in the know, go ahead and check them out.

And to everyone celebrating Rosh Hashanah today, shana tova! May your year be filled not only with luscious desserts and homemade beer but also the sweetness of peace and inspiration.

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August 21, 2013 · 6:10 pm

Cyberspace and the community

What a week.

Thanks to cyberspace, my dear DC State Fair just garnered overwhelming community support on our Kickstarter campaign.

I also have the Internet to thank for both the topic and mode of publication for my latest story on Elevation DC, “Cyberspace connects DC with the businesses next door.”

The 50th anniversary March on Washington that I plan to join on Saturday came together largely online. As I write this, buses and vans of participants are no doubt coming together all over the country through a frenzy of emails. Continue reading →

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July 24, 2013 · 7:37 am

Eat Local First all week

July's Tomato Haul

Photo by Flickr user statelyenglishmanor.

Right now, D.C. is celebrating Eat Local First Week, organized by the independent business booster Think Local First. On Monday, I grazed and gazed at the kickoff party with locally-sourced restaurant offerings and flash talks by heroes of the D.C. foodshed (including author Forrest Pritchard and community garden organizer Josh Singer), not to mention the eleganti of the District’s entrepreneur scene. The most summery and close-sourced dish was tomatoes three ways from Cedar. Featuring vegetables and microgreens plucked from the restaurant’s own rooftop floating in smoked gel (not as pretentious as it sounds, really!), Cedar served up D.C. heat and love all in a tiny pastry shell. Tonight, women forging new paths with local food initiatives will have their chance to compete for the Femivore award.

The rest of the week is packed with events for foodies, farmers and brew hounds. My favorite? Farm-to-Table Restaurant Week. I’m taking votes on where I should make my reservations.

On Saturday, July 27, the whole thing culminates in the Farm-to-Street Party at Union Market in Northeast D.C. I’ll be there representing the DC State Fair. If you’re local and love local, I’ll see you there.

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July 15, 2013 · 9:21 pm

Concert herb


Live concerts and herb go together like Woodstock and Yasgur’s Farm. Now, the band Guster is giving that idea a new meaning with a quirky concert giveaway–basil seeds. As I write this, the band is probably sitting at a solar-powered tent in its Eco-Village, aglow from its set before Ben Folds Five and Barenaked Ladies at the Merriweather Post Pavillion.

I just had to share this tidbit about the band’s tour.

It gets better, though. This is part of an overall greening effort complete with a commitment to feed the band local food as they travel. Not only that, but I can see myself grooving to the band’s recent acoustic album in my garden. “Strings and string beans” has a nice ring to it, too.

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July 10, 2013 · 5:17 pm

Gaining Ground covers new territory

Gaining Ground book cover

I recently had a new literary experience. Usually, both fiction and nonfiction touch on familiar emotions and universal struggles—even if the actual milieu is alien to me. Take, for example, Elissa Altman’s Poor Man’s Feast (Chronicle Books, 2013), which I just started reading and already know will make me nearly miss many a metro stop. In this story, I grasp and learn from this editor-turned-memoirist’s search for love and satisfaction in life. The environment of the Altman family’s Thanskgiving/Chanukah feast accessoried with candied-violet-topped pumpkin flan and $100 scotch, on the other hand, isn’t exactly my grandfather’s green beans with slivered almonds. Continue reading →

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