Poem for Saturday, Lincoln Theatre, Days of Future Past

Black Broadway
By Holly Bass

for the 10th anniversary of the Movement poetry series

I was walking down this lovely street called U
also known as Black Broadway
self-proclaimed world's most jazziful byway
checkin out the partays
as the music slips under my skin

This road so black and beautiful
sidewalks wide
make it easy for hips to glide gracefully
as brothers sweetly croon...
(to the tune of Moody's Mood)
"Can I go, can I go, can I go...
Shorty, you are the one who makes me lose my control..."
Well, it's easy to dream when you’re feeling the scene
a little jazz & gogo, jazz & gogo, jazz & gogo on U Street
Sardines… and pork & beans! whaaaat?
Sardines… and pork & beans!

Some things change, some things stay the same
Mango's is Jin, Kaffa House is gone
But Ben's Chili Bowl and the Lincoln still stand strong
Duke Ellington became a condo
the Langston Room pays homage though
and the Movement carries on
with the jazz & gogo, jazz & gogo, jazz & gogo on U Street

Sunny days, chasing the clouds away
friendly neighbors where we used to play
can you tell me how to get
how to get to
U Street

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Friday was a very nice day -- mid-50s, mostly sunny, apple blossoms bursting all over the neighborhood. I had to start the morning with my annual physical, but unlike last week when I had to wait an insane amount of time for my blood tests, there was almost no waiting and all the tests were pretty good (I need more vitamin D and less processed sugars). Then I stopped at the mall to pick up a birthday card and went to see the Montgomery in Bloom exhibit, in which the Nordstrom wing gets decorated with artificial flowers, giant beehives and birds' nests, hedges full of butterflies, and a grape arbor.

I did some work in the afternoon, walked in the park, then came home for dinner with Paul and X-Men: Days of Future Past with him and Cheryl (still my favorite of the films; Logan is probably strictly speaking a better movie, but this one is less depressing and it's so much fun to see the combined casts, especially the Jackman-Fassbender-McAvoy scenes, plus "Time in a Bottle"). From the Rick Astley concert, here are some photos of the Lincoln Theatre, built for vaudeville audiences kept by out of other theaters by racist policies at the center of DC's Black Broadway: