Trump is no JFK

A sign at the protest Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie


Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Thousands turned out Friday night at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to join hands and form a human chain around the JFK building and listen briefly to politicians and others decry Trump's attempt to destroy the city by erecting ugly monuments and slapping his name on the ones which still stand before he tears them down.

"Hands Off the Arts" quickly called for a protest after Trump's plans to destroy the Kennedy Center surfaced in a photo through an airplane window. (May that photographer be nominated for the Pulitzer.)

Thousands gathered and police kept a low profile. The trio of National Guard members usually found at the Foggy Bottom Metro station were nowhere to be seen nor were any Guard members present Friday night at the KC, which, until Trump, was a lively venue for daily and evening shows, 365 days/year, now fallen silent with the destruction of its board by a fake arts enthusiast.



Before the demonstration Sept. 18, 2026, fencing went up around the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

Where there's Trump, these likelinesses will follow. At the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sept. 18, 2026/By Patricia Leslie

In case readers have not seen Trump's Tarp covering President Kennedy's name /By Patricia Leslie


Tara Hoot (center, in red) at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie


Drag queen Tara Hoot (she was!) was the moderator Friday night when Washington's Gay Men's Chorus sang and U.S. Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) addressed the crowd, saying he'd never known anyone as insecure as Trump who demands that his name go up on public buildings. 

Trump's motto: "It's my way or the highway."

Other speakers Friday night included a union official and D.C.'s Democratic congressional candidate, Robert White. 

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026, a fake Trump came to present his constant message at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie
The sign says "Take Care Of This House. Be Always on Call. For This House Is The Hope Of Us All." At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

On the way to form a human chain around the building at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie
Les miserables marched to save the union at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie


Spilling off the front plaza at the JFK Center Sept. 18, 2026 on to F Street, NW, "les misérables" joined hands to stop the destruction of the JFK Memorial. The circular buildings comprise the Watergate complex/By Patricia Leslie

Crossing Rock Creek Parkway at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie


On Rock Creek Parkway where motorists honked their horns in support of the people at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

On the Potomac River side of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, motorists sounded their horns in support of the people marching to save the center at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie
Inside the "Reach," all is quiet Sept. 18, 2026 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

At an empty hall at the "Reach" at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sept. 18, 2026/By Patricia Leslie

An empty entrance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts where millions enjoyed performances annually before Trump tore out its heart and soul, but when Trump's term ends, a heart transplant will be conducted and the center's soul, restored/By Patricia Leslie

A silent Concert Hall at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sept. 18, 2026/By Patricia Leslie
 The D.C. Activist Street Band played on with their wonderful New Orleans flavor at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie


The crowd danced to the tunes of the D.C. Activist Street Band at the "Hands Off the Arts" rally Sept. 18, 2026 to save the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/By Patricia Leslie

A photographer at the JFK Statue at the Center Friday night, the statue, a gift in celebration of the Center's 50th anniversary, Sept. 1971-2021, from David M. Rubenstein, the Kennedy Center chair 2010-2025 until he was ousted by Trump.

At the statue I met a couple from California in town for a few days who happily joined the throng, seeing signs around town announcing the event, they said. They were astonished to hear of Trump's proposed destruction of the JFK Memorial. And of the golf course. And to build the arch. 

Other people at the statue asked each other:  "Where were you when ...?"



patricialesli@gmail.com

'Blithe Spirits' land in Alexandria

From left are Cameron McBride (Dr. George Bradman), Eric Kennedy (Charles Condomine), Eleanore Tapscott (Madame Arcati), Sarah Cusenza (Ruth Condomine), and Raeanna Nicole Larson (Mrs. Violet Bradman) in Little Theatre of Alexandria's Blithe Spirit/Photo by Matt Liptak

The Little Theatre of Alexandria stages another welcome classic with Sir Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit, a comedy that’s been around longer than most (b.1941) and there's a reason for its continual return to the world's stage: It's a treat and a (sky) lark (?)! A great escape!

Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819: "Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!"

It was England and World War II when the bombs were dropping a'plenty, but its citizens needed a respite every now and then, like we all do (like now).

To the manor house, they go, some, from the “other side.”

Ruth (Sarah Cusenza) and Charles Condomine (Eric Kennedy) are hosting a dinner party in their elegant home with friends (who are real life husband and wife, Cameron McBride and Raeanna Nicole Larson) and a “medium” (Eleanore Tapscott).

Charles is a famous novelist and plans to milk medium Madame Arcati for any tips she can give him for a story he’s writing.

Things do not go as planned. Madame Arcati is anything but "medium."

Post dinner, she becomes a big scarlet macaw (whose colors Madame matches), sweeping around the room, landing momentarily at one spot or another before flying to her next perch with a wingspan of almost four feet, while the other adults in the room sit in amazement, mouths ajar.

Katie Weigl is Elvira in Little Theatre of Alexandria's Blithe Spirit/Photo by Matt Liptak

Madame conducts a séance and unwittingly summons the ghost of Charles’s first wife, Elvira (Katie Weigl), who died young, after only five years of marriage.

And here she comes, through windswept doors, the sassy Elvira, dressed all in grey, a long flowing gown with cape and face color to match.

Like all ghosts, she flits around the stage, rushing left to right and back again, throwing her hands in the air and seeking to disrupt Charles and Ruth’s marriage.

Charles is the only one who, initially, can see and hear Elvira, her teasing which begins to create havoc in the Condomines’ household.

Ruth can hear Charles speaking to Elvira and thinks his words are meant for her.

Charles to Elvira: "I could drink you under the table."

Ruth: "There's no need to be aggressive, Charles. I'm doing my best to help you."

A few minutes later, Charles tells Elvira to "shut up!"

Ruth: "How dare you speak to me like that!"

(Ms. Cusenza’s Ruth is splendid, talking to a wall or sofa or portrait on the wall, the piano, wherever she thinks Elvira sits or stands, not an easy task to perform with someone who is not there but is there. [Huh? You have to be there.])

Soon, there’s a murder and now there are two ghosts, each in ghostly grey apparel and caked in heavy grey makeup (which made me wince to think about removing it. Maureen Roult designed the hair and makeup).

Just what a man needs: Two wives screaming at him simultaneously after a brief interlude in a menage a trois ahead of chaos. (May I suggest to a producer that he or she exchange principal roles so the wife endures two ghostly husbands?)

The setting is absolutely divine, darling (by Julie Fischer), the parlor of a 1930s luxurious home where the servant, Edith (Caroline J. Berger) runs hither and yon or slows (per Ruth) to serve tea and refreshments to gents and ladies whom costumers Jean Schlichting and Kit Sibley have dressed to the nines: the women in floor length silken gowns with gloves and fancy jewelry, the men in equal getup.

Which ghost “wins”? Come, blithe spirits, see and laugh at them.

The biggest “star” of the night was the superb acting by all the characters, no disappointments by nary a one. Hats off to director Ward Kay, assisted by Liz Isbell.

Other crew members are David Correia, sound; Ken and Patti Crowley, lighting; Maureen Dawson and Jennifer Rhorer, stage managers; Olivia Hinebaugh and Misty White, combat and intimacy directors; Meredith J. Ludwig, producer; Monique Morman, technical director; and Emilie Pade, properties.

I’ll have one of those cucumber sandwiches, if you please and thank you.

What: Blithe Spirit

When: Now thru Sept.19, 2026, Thursday – Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sunday matinees, 2 p.m.

Where: Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe St., Alexandria, VA 22314  

Admission: $30 (fee, included)

Duration: Almost three hours with one intermission

Audience: Mature teens on up

Language: A few “adult” words sprinkled here and there 

Parking: Park for free on the streets or at the nearby Capital One Bank. 

For more information: Box Office, 703-683-0496; boxoffice@thelittletheatre.com

patricialesli@gmail.com 

Something for everyone at the Women's Museum

Marlo Pascual, Untitled, 2014; National Museum of Women in the Arts, gift of Tony Podesta Collection/By Patricia Leslie

Another view of Pascual's Untitled, 2014, showing the scale/By Patricia Leslie

The National Museum of Women in the Arts has something for everyone and coming up are free days, Sept. 6 and Sept. 9, the first Sunday and the second Wednesday of the month, when there's no charge for admission.

From large photographs of Marlo Pascual’s renderings of a woman’s face encased inside a broken cracked glass or another woman's face covered by cardboard, to more traditional fare like Lavinia Fontana’s 16th century portrait of a wealthy bride, guests find much to trigger interest and conversations.

From Remix: The Collection, Lavinia Fontana, Marriage Portrait of a Bolognese Noblewoman, (Livia de'Medici Bandini?), c. 1599, oil on canvas, National Museum of Women in the Arts, gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay; frame funding by Texas State Committee.

Marlo Pascual, Untitled, 2009; National Museum of Women in the Arts, gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection/By Patricia Leslie

Marlo Pascual, Untitled, 2014; National Museum of Women in the Arts, gift of Tony Podesta Collection/By Patricia Leslie

Marlo Pascual, Untitled, 2011; National Museum of Women in the Arts, gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection/By Patricia Leslie

In addition to Pascual, the museum features Burnished: Pueblo Pottery, 24 clay ollas, seed jars and bowls from the museum’s growing collection of American Southwest pottery (but hurry up since this exhibition closes Sept. 27, 2026; on the first floor).

And, in several galleries on the third floor are old and new NMWA accessions in Remix, with Fontana's portrait and many more, through Jan. 16, 2028.

From: Remix: The Collection, Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), Jeune femme en mauve (Young Woman in Mauve), 1880, gift of Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long

From: Remix: The Collection, Lois Mailou Jones, Arreau, Hautes-Pyrenees, 1949, oil on canvas, National Museum of Women in the Arts, gift of Gladys P. Payne. 

The museum’s permanent collection supplies the featured presentation, Marlo Pascual: Making Something Out of Something, in the small galleries on the second floor with 17 works by Pascual (1972-2020) which she made between 2009 and 2014 using “found” materials she obtained from vintage shops and from Ebay.

It's the first solo show in 15 years of Pascual's works, the artist's life cut short by cancer at age 47.

From: Remix: The Collection, Alison Saar (b. 1956) Scorch Song, 2022 of wood, found mini skillets, nails and tar and Lavinia Fontana's Marriage Portrait of a Bolognese Noblewoman, (Livia de'Medici Bandini?), c. 1599, both from the collection of National Museum of Women in the Arts/By Patricia Leslie

From: Remix: The Collection, Suzanne Valadon (1865- 1938) Girl on a Small Wall, 1930, National Museum of Women in the Arts, gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay

Lisa Holt and Harlan Reano, Jar, 2025; Natural clay with acrylic paint; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Bequest of Sandra A. Kruzman. This exhibition closes Sept. 27, 2026/By Patricia Leslie

From: Remix: The Collection, Sarah Bernhardt, (1844-1923), Apres la Tempete (After the Storm), c. 1876, marble, National Museum of Women in the Arts, gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay/By Patricia Leslie

From Remix: The Collection, Beverly Penn, (b. 1955), Maelstrom, 2011; bronze; National Museum of Women in the Arts, funds provided by the Geiger Family Foundation/By Patricia Leslie

Detail of Beverly Penn, (b. 1955), Maelstrom, 2011/By Patricia Leslie


Pascual mingled used photos (none she took herself) with various household products (candlesticks, glass, cardboard, lamps, lumber) to produce her unusual sculptures.  (I call word "recycling," but nowhere on any web site about her works did  the word appear, I am guessing because it is not refined or sophisticated enough for the art world. Please correct misimpressions.)

Initially, none of her pieces works uplifted or inspired me who found them profoundly depressing, but the more I read about Pascual, and given my propensity to recycle as much as I can, I grew to admire her art. 

It took a while.

As many of Pascual’s images are of women, Virginia Treanor, NMWA senior curator, says on the museum website that "it is hard not to view her works as commentary on the objectification of women that such 'overtly constructed' [the artist's words] imagery sustains."

(None of the 17 pieces on view that I recall contained a man or a boy or either of their images.)

Treanor continues: “The transformation of the images into large, stationary objects, which often serve as support for domestic objects like lamps or candleholders, seems to bring the absurdity of ‘woman as object’ to its inevitable, irrational conclusion."

From a different generation from Ms. Pascual, I could not help but think: IF she thought today’s woman in a man’s world is tough, she shudda lived in the 70s! And, of course, eons prior to that. No doubt, our progeny will look back on these eras of sexism and wonder what artists were talking about. (Applause.)

The museum says some of her works are humorous.

Which ones?  I suppose I took them all too seriously.

NMWA does caution that Pascual's "process...can be unsettling, as viewers perceive an emotional tension between beauty and destruction."

My interpretation focused too literally on the subjects, like two actual candle sticks protruding from a nondescript black and white photo of two emotionless women.

As Pascual explained her approach to found objects, “I’m not destroying them. I like to think I’m giving them a new life.” (Recycle, anyone?)

Ms. Treanor goes on: “The exhibition not only introduces visitors to the work of this visionary artist but also preserves Pascual’s legacy."

Please, write soon and tell me what you think!

What: Marlo Pascual: Making Something Out of Something. See the website for programs and talks.


When: Now through Feb. 28, 2027. The museum is open Tuesday through Sundays, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Where: The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005

Admission: $16, adults; $13, D.C. residents and those over age 65; free admission for members, those under age 21, and disabled persons and attendant. Free admission on the first Sunday and second Wednesday of every month.

For more information: 202-783-5000 or 800-222-7270 and visit nmwa.org.

Metro stations: Metro Center (exit at 13th Street and walk two blocks north) or (better) walk a short distance from McPherson Square.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Get on the bus to NYC and Whitney's Biennial!

At the 2026 Whitney Biennial, guests pondered Gabriela Ruiz's Homo Machina (Human Machine, a.k.a. Gay Machine), 2026, "a life-size digital console that functions as a self-portrait," according to the wall label/Patricia Leslie, photo

Ali Eyal, detail of Look Where I Took You, 2026 at the 2026 Whitney Biennial, painted from artist's memory of his family's last trip to Baghdad's largest amusement park before the family left Iraq at the start of the 2003 war, according to the wall label. My second favorite of the show, for the color, the subject, the movement, the grasp of the horror of war, for the human shapes /Patricia Leslie, photo

It's the show of shows hosted every other year to exhibit what contemporary artists are making now, what they're thinking, what they're doing.

One floor of Whitney's world renowned display will close August 23, but two more floors will remain open until September 7 and October 12.  

Pictured here are the works I found the most fascinating.

Young Joon Kwak, Divine Dance of Soft Revolt, 2024, accompanied by an audio, inviting viewers to find themselves in the mirrored surfaces, at the 2026 Whitney Biennial/Patricia Leslie, photo

Detail of Agosto Machado's Ethyl (Altar),  2024 at the 2026 Whitney Biennial, of materials he collected as caregiver and "unofficial activist" for many of his peers at the height of New York's AIDS crisis.  The components express "his gratitude for the love and generosity of his queer community," according to the wall label/Patricia Leslie, photo

Malcolm Peacock, Five of them were hers and she carved shelters with windows into the backs of their skulls, 2024  is a sculptural interpretation of a coastal redwood tree with texts from autobiographies of Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X, at the 2026 Whitney Biennial/Patricia Leslie, photo

It seems rather tame this year especially when compared to the shock my son, then age 12, and I experienced way back in 1997 when we ventured in the doors to be blown away by the Biennial on several floors of the Whitney's home at the time, the Breuer building, in Manhattan's Upper East Side.

It was a stunner, all right. 

Whatever and whenever, any opportunity to go to the Big Apple when the Biennial is playing is a must.   

At the 2026 Whitney Biennial, Anna Tsouhlarakis's She Must Be A Matriarch, 2023 "offers an irreverent image of a female warrior armed with a mix of the mythical, the mundane, and the humorous," according to the wall label/Patricia Leslie, photo

David L. Johnson's Rules, 2024-ongoing, was my favorite at the 2026 Whitney Biennial.  Signs from privately-owned public spaces (POPS) began popping up in 1961 after a zoning resolution permitted developers to develop taller buildings in NYC  in exchange for creating "nearby park-like" spaces for public use, developers able to install their own rules about land use/Patricia Leslie, photo

More of David L. Johnson's Rules, 2024-ongoing at the 2026 Whitney Biennial/Patricia Leslie, photo

More of David L. Johnson's Rules, 2024-ongoing at the 2026 Whitney Biennial/Patricia Leslie, photo

This year's presentation features the works of 56 artists who paint, sculpt, perform, make films and digital art. Mother and daughter, Carmen de Monteflores, age 92 (the oldest in the bunch), and daughter, conceptual artist Andrea Fraser, 60, are two of the them. 

Although the show usually includes American artists only, this year some foreign artists with a U.S. connection are included. 

Most of the artists are millennials (born 1981-1996)  and most live in (surprise!) New York or California.

Isabelle Frances McGuire's Satan in America and Other Invisible Evils: Experiments in Public Sculpture, 2026 draws on mythical American history scenes from the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts to Abraham Lincoln's birthplace in Kentucky, says the label at the 2026 Whitney Biennial/Patricia Leslie, photo

The other side of Isabelle Frances McGuire's Satan in America and Other Invisible Evils: Experiments in Public Sculpture, 2026, the right side, I think, to represent Salem villagers modeled from the video game, Doom/Patricia Leslie, photo

A view of the Hudson River from a Whitney stairwell,  looking towards New Jersey/Patricia Leslie, photo

The New York Times says the curators, Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, spent a year traveling and visiting more than 300 studios.  

 A 500-page catalog is available for $50 ($45, members). 

What:  The Whitney Biennial 2026

When:  Now through Aug. 23, 2026 and a partial display through Oct. 10, 2026. 

Daily: 10:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. except on Fridays, 'til 10 p.m.

Where:  The Whitney Museum of American Art, 

99 Gansevoort St., NY, NY 10014

How much:  Free Friday night admission from 5 - 10 pm and second Sundays, as are every day admission for all those 25 and under, but advance tickets are required. Limited admissions.

Military members and veterans are admitted at no charge and tickets for the disabled are $18 and seniors, $24.  All others, $30.

For more information: See the website or call 212-570-3614.

patricialesli@gmail.com