While we’re all still crying ugly tears that Matt Smith (my first Doctor) didn’t make it to Awesome Con this year as originally planned, I’m here to tell you that there is so much more to this Con than the big name celebrities. Here’s my secret sauce to a great convention that isn’t the Main Stage programming:
On Friday, April 26, 2019, legendary television host and recipient of the Kennedy Center’s 2014 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Jay Leno returned to the Kennedy Center with fantastic funny stories to share to a sold-out audience. It was my first time seeing him live), but I grew up watching him on late night television. I also loved my seating arrangement because I was introduced to the gorgeous Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New York star Sonja Morgan who was also in town for the weekend of the White House Correspondents dinner.
Lou Ferrigno is a legendary actor and bodybuilder who has won over fans since winning his first major title in 1973, and he’s kept going ever since. Many of us will remember watching him on “The Incredible Hulk” as the titular green character, a favorite of many Marvel fans. Ferrigno has taken on many roles, from a slave trader in “Star Trek Continues” to a starring as himself in “King of Queens.” Lou Ferrigno will be coming to the sixth annual Awesome Con, Washington D.C.’s version of Comic Con, where fans of pop-
Ivy City brewery Atlas Brew Works is proud to partner with Washington DC’s Comic Con Awesome Con debuting Hop Bot, a limited-release pale ale canned exclusively for the convention and available for purchase at local restaurants on Monday, April 22, and the brewery’s Tap Room starting Friday, April 26, while supplies last.
On June 21, 2019, the Newseum will unveil a new exhibit, “Seriously Funny: From the Desk of ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.'” The exhibit will explore the impact Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” had on American politics and the press through four presidential campaigns, two wars and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
More than 50 artifacts will be on display, from “The Daily Show” and the satirical news shows it inspired, as well as print publications that reported on the show’s influence. The exhibit also features an original Newseum-produced film that goes behind the scenes at “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.”
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has partnered with Smithsonian Books to release A Is for All the Things You Are: A Joyful ABC Book. The alphabet board book was created to help children develop healthy racial identities and to find joy in diversity and inclusion.
On Friday, April 12, 2019, Social Art and Culture and Think Local First DC in partnership with We Act Radio, present the Creative Entrepreneur Capital Summit. The Creative Entrepreneur Capital Summit is a one-day four-panel workshop with experts in business, pitching, creative capital, and entrepreneurship. The Creative Entrepreneur Capital Summit serves to educate the DMV creative economy on the concepts of social change and profitability.
For the third consecutive year, President Trump called for the end of federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in his annual budget request to Congress. The Creative Coalition strongly rejects the President’s annual call to end federal funding for the NEA. Congress must again reject these shortsighted cuts proposed in the President’s budget request and instead increase funding for the NEA.
The model collection of Kurt Kuhn, founder and owner of Modeler’s Miniatures & Magic, will be donated to the Museum of Science Fiction, the world’s first comprehensive science fiction museum, beginning with a full scale replica of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This model will be on public display for the first time at the Museum’s annual convention, Escape Velocity, in May 2019 (for images of the collection, please see link below).
I kicked off celebrations for Women’s History Month by hearing from an inspirational and trailblazing woman: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court and only the third woman to hold that title out of the 111 Supreme Court Justices in U.S. history.
In September, Justice Sotomayor published two books for young audiences, TURNING PAGES: My Life Story and THE BELOVED WORLD OF SONIA SOTOMAYOR, both also available in Spanish. The event itself was a family-friendly one, with a bulk of the audience made up of school-aged children and those of Latino heritage.
