"There’s a richer literary history here than we usually give ourselves credit for," says Kim Roberts, a D.C. poet who's spent the last five years gathering evidence to prove that point. Last week, Roberts and collaborator Dan Vera, a poet and author, launched dcwriters.org, an impressive compendium of more than 120 dead authors who called the [...]

The Corcoran has just announced a new contemporary program called NOW at the Corcoran, a series of one- and two-artist exhibitions that presents new work addressing issues central to the local, national, and global communities of Washington, D.C.
Which is an interesting concept, since the series launches on Sept. 11 with Spencer Finch, a Brooklyn-based artist, [...]

I got some flack from a friend the other week when I all but anointed local boy Joe Pug the savior of folk music. His counterargument—aside from my insinuation being broad to the point of inanity—was a Swedish rambler by the name of Kristian Matsson, otherwise known as The Tallest Man on Earth. Matsson opened [...]

Social commentary, especially in music, is a tricky act: too blunt, audience rolls its eyes; too fine, audience scratches its head. "Whitman once explained that poetry's not supposed to confuse people," Joe Pug–local boy and folk icon-in-waiting–said in an interview last summer. At the same time, musicians that merely trot out talking points or shout [...]