we must defend each other 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️❤️

Well

One of the best things you can do as an adult is realize that you didn’t actually have to stop drawing, coloring, painting, playing with clay, doing whatever else you loved as a kid. Even if you’re bad at it. Maybe especially if you’re bad at it

NEWS: In the first public poll of the D.C. mayoral race, @citycastdc.bsky.social finds that @janeese4dc.bsky.social has a five-point lead over @kenyanmcduffie.bsky.social, , just outside the margin of error. But: Ranked-choice voting could help McDuffie more; he's ahead voters' second rankings.

An @ifbookspod.bsky.social episode happening in real time, with even more gri(f)t.

water your plants yall wtop.com/weather-news...

Paul Scheer is Odysseus June Diane Raphael is Penelope Jason is every single other character in the book, monsters included

*when you’re down Anacostia and see the Big Chair*

Carrie Mae Weems, 1990

FDA's Marty Makary is on thin ice with the White House, the GOP, industry, staff, and the public. My latest: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Especially with the solution being making urban districts more suburban/rural which will predictably lead to people insisting they can only be held by a moderate white guy.

would be a mistake to think of this and the other Memphis-related news item as completely separate stories

A year after DOGE’s cuts, six FDA staffers describe the work they never thought they’d leave www.statnews.com/2026/05/07/f...

1/x: I absolutely LOVE Habitat for Humanity, so please don't get me wrong, but when I talked to them about building their houses accessibly from the start, they said no. They did have a program to modify houses they had build later "if it becomes necessary." But that misses the point.

Incredible. DOJ, in court, tells Judge Reyes "no closure notice has been issued" for the East Potomac golf course. Moments later the judge is handed a note saying that closure signs are on parts of the golf course today. There's a reason the presumption of regularity is gone.

Editing is a skill, being well-edited is a gift, having to choose between one's voice or palatability is a scam (ask me how I know). You deserve to grow as an artist with the support of genuine mentors, and your work deserves to exist beyond a closed newsletter ecosystem that leaves us all poorer.

Go meet your neighbors outside this weekend at... 🎸 Adams Morgan Porchfest 👂️ A sound art installation at the Hirshhorn 🚒 DPW’s Truck Touch More events in our full list:

DC native!! 👏🏾👏🏾 Go Hailey!!

It’s always fun spotting these DC celebrities around the library. If you don’t know them—this is Go-Go and Punk, just being themselves.

Without by Joy Harjo www.divasofverse.com/2026/04/with...

Anacostia sunrise in a seven

Burchett is right: the most DC thing ever *is* a member of Congress blaming the city for something he and his colleagues did themselves.

This Saturday 👇

This is real dirty work by @dcpolicedept.bsky.social and @mayorbowser.dc.gov: a juvenile curfew zone that surrounds just a playground, rec center, ball fields and pool that REMAINS OPEN after the curfew is in effect. The whole point of these facilities is to be a place for kids to go?!

DC doesn’t want to be a part of Maryland or Virginia and neither Maryland or Virginia wants DC to be a part of them. Statehood now.

ACAB except fashion police

So, Park Police did this. They were hi-speed chasing someone who was ON FOOT and they rammed into a civilian vehicle absolutely destroying it, crashing through a stop sign, another parked car, over the sidewalk, through a home's fence and retaining wall and into their front yard. At 13th & MD NE.

For the first time in over a decade, D.C. is facing an open mayoral race — and it’s coming at an uncertain time. Get the answers *you* need to (ranked-choice) vote for mayor at our April 20 forum with @washingtoninformer.com, Spotlight DC, + @dcpubliclibrary.bsky.social. RSVP for free tickets:

One of D.C.’s greatest strengths: Our multitude of planners and organizers who make sure there’s always something interesting happening around town. Our latest guide will help you find something to do any day of the week, any week of the year:

what are we putting on the menu for Opening Day* (*new season of Taskmaster)?

A few have suggested that some aspects of this mission--joy, international teamwork, diversity--are being played up to stick it to the hateful attitude of the administration. But I don't think it's that. I think it's just that those things are essential to and inseparable from a mission like this.

If you're interested in more on the business model that took over TV as streaming ascended, I talked to Parks & Rec/Good Place creator Mike Schur about this model, a "bait & switch" & how all this affected the medium/writing for TV (from 2020 but still relevant): www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/20...

Dr. Howard is absolutely correct. When I made my post about the Pfizer vaccine trial I had assumed they were doing a head-to-head with an another vaccine. I assumed incorrectly. The placebo-controlled trial of Pfizer’s COVID19 vaccine was unethical and forced upon them by Vinay Prasad.

Hey, you! @51st.news is looking for a new reporter. Are you obsessed with D.C. news, history, culture, sports, events, or quirks and curiosities? Are you excited to tell stories about interesting local people and places? Apply!

pro tip: nats finally opened the district tickets portal for dc residents. you can get a home opener ticket for $25. sunday vs dodgers just $9. can't forward or resell these. www.mlb.com/nationals/ti...

it's friday.✌🏽if you made it to today, keep going.♥️

Perfect timing

Aaaaaaaaaand we’re back

Today’s Scratch newsletter is a personal essay on being a Black critic at the end of arts criticism by @latriagraham.bsky.social. Come for the killer lede, stay for the dream deferred.

Only way I can describe S2 of Deadloch is to say that it contains more creative uses of the c-word than an interview with BOTH Gallagher brothers from Oasis (complimentary, weirdly??!!). Anyway it remains Deadloch & I love my chaotic Australian murder queers & all performances remain outstanding! 🐊🔥

We're about 25 new members away from reaching our goal to be able to expand The 51st's newsroom! If you've been waiting for a sign to join, this is it!

New: It's the first collab between @boltsmag.org & @51st.news. Need I say more? OK, fine, it's about ranked-choice voting coming to DC:

I swear every dystopian tech development is like "Hey, are you OK with being this much not-a-person in our eyes? How about this much? One or two? <clicking noises> OK, how about now—one or two?" like I'm at the devil's optometry office.

Still pissed about the Washington Post layoffs? We’ve got a proposal for you... We're building an independent local newsroom by and for D.C. In the final week of our fundraising campaign, your gift can be DOUBLED thanks to a generous $80,000 match. Here's where to give:

Super excited for tomorrow: the first collab between @boltsmag.org and the great folks at @51st.news!

Kilauea is fountaining again: Episode 3 of this eruption. V-cams 2 and 3 give good views; V-cam 1 is in a fog (w/occasional clicks that I bet are falling ash). These episodes haven't been lasting long—a few hours to maybe a day. So look fast! www.youtube.com/@usgs/streams

NEW ICE violated dozens of court orders in Minneapolis. Here's why -- and what happened to the people they detained: www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

It's an extra good time to support us, we're in the last week of our campaign to be able to expand our newsroom to meet this moment: 51st.news/bigplans