Editor’s Pick: The DC Center’s Spring Cocktail Celebration
The DC Center's Spring Cocktail Celebration will support the upcoming relocation and new space renovation.
Washington, D.C. will be all abuzz with positive, queer-friendly vibes, and its houses and buildings awash in rainbow flags and decor during the month of June. Yet that should pale in comparison to the stimulating rattle and infectious hum emanating from a sizable portion of the city’s LGBTQ community itself.
The extra feeling of joy on top of the perennial sense of Pride will stem from the new LGBTQ Community Center, which is currently being built, with completion targeted for “mid-2023.”
The new space in Shaw, in a building still under construction at 1827 Wiltberger St. NW, will be about 12 blocks from the current 14th and U Street location. It will be significantly larger, with over 6,600 square feet of space, which will serve as joint home to both existing operations of the DC Center and also the Capital Pride Alliance.
The move will allow the Center to increase its community and service outreach and implementation — and also offer the opportunity for other LGBTQ nonprofits to sublease space, including the Wanda Alston Foundation, Rainbow Families, and G3 Associates.
The blueprint for the new location features dedicated therapy rooms as well as wellness spaces for meditation, yoga, and counseling, an expanded and state-of-the-art cyber-lounge, plus a larger food pantry, for the community food distribution program, coupled with a larger Community Closet, providing room for more free apparel, a cordoned-off dressing area, and individual lockers for temporary storage — all a boon for the financially strapped, unhoused, or displaced community members. In addition, all restrooms will be gender-neutral.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity for The DC Center to more fully expand our support offerings and provide vital and integral wraparound care to and for our LGBTQIA2s+ siblings,” says Kimberley Bush, the DC Center’s executive director, in a press release.
“Collectively and collaboratively, we will better serve the LGBTQ+ community and combine resources to provide a much-needed safe space to gather that provides access to food, clothes, educational programming, and care, as well as professional development assets such as computers and conference rooms,” adds Capital Pride’s Executive Director Ryan Bos.
With the work continuing and plenty of building expenses remaining unaccounted for, the DC Center has moved to inaugurate a Spring Cocktail Celebration, with funds raised going to support the upcoming relocation and new space renovation. The event is also being promoted as making attendees “the first to have a sneak peek at the spectacular new floor plans and office layout.”
Entertainment will be provided by local drag celebrities KC B. Yoncé and Ricky Rosé, who holds the title of Mr. Trans Puerto Rico 2023. The two will serve as the event’s unofficial queen and king. Meanwhile, DJ Jake Maxwell will set the mood with his “kinetic sounds” and spinning skills. Light appetizers will be provided. Attire, to quote the invitation, is “fun, fabulous, funky, saucy, smart, or snappy — just come as you are!!”
Thursday, April 13, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Dupont Underground, 19 Dupont Circle NW. Tickets are $20 for general admission, with an open bar from 6 to 7 p.m., or $50 for VIP, granting an open bar all evening, a free t-shirt, and a swag bag. Visit www.thedccenter.org.
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