Guest post by Amanda Hirsch. You can read more about Amanda on her site and follow her on Twitter.
Washington DC is cool again.
At least, that’s the word on the street now that one Barack Hussein Obama has taken up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania. Then again, some cultural gatekeepers were calling the capital cool even before B-dawg came to town.
But those of us who live here know that DC will never be cool. “Cool” is about image — what’s hot, what’s fresh, what’s new. But the images of DC culture were set in stone long ago: The Smithsonian. The embassies. The Kennedy Center.
In certain crowds, punk and go-go music might get a shout-out, but they’re treated as anomalies — not clues to a larger puzzle.
If you’re an artist here, chances are you’ll feel like a fish out of water.
Despite the fact that Washington is a city full of artists and other creative people, it doesn’t feel like it is.
And the feeling of a place matters.
Feelings drive stories. Creativity will never be DC’s primary narrative, the story it tells about itself, or to itself. Living here leaves the young, creative individual feeling constantly displaced.
Never fully rooted.
Our friends leave for New York or L.A. “It’s a transient city,” we tell ourselves, soothingly, as though the fact that people come and go is as inevitable as the tides. We get our hackles up when people criticize DC, as in the inevitable, periodic “DC vs. NY” smack down (including this one by native son Frank Rich, which I remember finding infuriating when it came out in the early aughts).
We doth protest too much. Is it possible to be happy in DC? Of course. Does DC culture go well beyond marbleized officialdom? Of course. But I do not love DC, and after a decade of living here — and three years writing about the city’s creative culture – I do not know anyone who does.
The one exception: my Mom, who lives in Maryland. She refuses to live in the city, due to its poor citizen services and because — crazy! — she wants Congressional representation. Still, she loves Washington and, as I prepare for my upcoming move to New York, I can finally understand why. Washington, perhaps, is a place best loved from afar.
As the Magnetic Fields sing in the aptly named “Washington, DC”:
Washington, D.C.
It’s paradise to me
It’s not because it is the grand old seat
Of precious freedom and democracy
No, no, no
It’s not the greenery turning gold in fall
The scenery circling the Mall
It’s just that’s where my baby lives
That’s all.
Washington D.C.!
In other words, we who’ve made our home here find much to love, but our love affairs are with people and work and lives being lived, not with the city itself. There are no love affairs with Washington the way there are with New York, or Paris, or San Francisco.
Still, as I prepare to leave DC, everything I love here comes into sharp focus. I will miss it when it’s gone.
How uncool.
**
Amanda Hirsch is a writer and performer. She earns a living as a freelancer, helping independent media companies and nonprofits strengthen their web content.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post! Personally, I think DC's been the Capital of Cool since I arrived 26 years ago… Haha, JK! But seriously, I've liked here my whole life and this couldn't be more true: "Creativity will never be DC's primary narrative, the story it tells about itself, or to itself. Living here leaves the young, creative individual feeling constantly displaced. Never fully rooted." I never really knew how to explain that feeling of not quite finding my place in DC, but this sums it up SO well. Really great article.
I just moved from DC (for the second time), played and created in it during the heady days of the 1990s, and then left for the West Coast for art school and then came back and gave it another shot. Still left me wanting. Now I'm in NYC, I hope the last move I make for a very long time.
As for the creative community displacement, I think part of the problem in DC is lack of leadership within the cultural institutions in this regard. You sort of have three nodes for creative learning — Maryland and UMD. Virginia and GMU and Corcoran. They are farflung and there's not a lot of rotating of staff and students. And the central located school doesn't have a robust graduate program and that further erodes their role.
I went to art school in the Bay Area and the art schools share a lot of staff and students. (You take a semester at a private school — then run out of money and take a semester at a public school, or two — and then come back. Or come back for grad school. Or your teachers teach at three or four different schools.)
So there's this intermingling. Chicago where I grew up is similar. And there you have the added bonus of Chicago artist professors seeding organizations and art collectives that form the core of the community that the students are involved with.
DC has this split between Federal and Local (the Smithsonian is Federal and has trouble understanding it's local role as an incubator. The Phillips was like this and that was its intention, but I think it's forgotten that role too over time.)
So it means that creatives never feel rooted to a place. I like to think this is changing in DC. But I've seen it change before (there was a hot bed of creativity in DC in the 90s too and then it all died. Thats where institutions are needed to keep things going.) People started leaving for grad school and studio spaces. And galleries in other cities. I fear the same thing happening again.
I can't help but be thrilled by something so simple as the ads in the subway, whenever I leave DC. Chicago, New York, Boston – a large portion of subway ads display wit and grace. Even the bad ones aren't so bad.
And then I come back to the DC Metro, where the ads are uniformly insipid. Stock image, plodding copy, reflex blue background. Client and designer both expect mediocrity.
count my wife and i as lovers of DC and artists that feel supported by our community.
i love how dc gets compared to major cities (nyc, chicago, seattle), but dc itself is a small city. less than 600,000 people. i mean at a point not all that long ago, nyc was the largest city in the world. yeah dc cant really touch the culture that resides around that. yet, people still talk about dc.
its a very livable city. dc doesn't over power you. its small and human scale. you can walk the entire city.
but it still has an amazing concentration of arts and culture. many universities, embassies, consulates, free museums and cultural centers. its very rich. and a lot of it is free to the public.
so is dc cool? no idea. but is it a good place for artists? to me, yes.
i think for artists, creativity is always the primary narrative, wherever they are. i do wonder though about the feeling of creativity and actually being creative.. actually creating something.
anyway, people feel what they feel, and ultimately you gotta run with that, i just wanted to add some dc love.
Good post, but I always thought DC was a great blend of old and new, my best friend lived there for about 5 years when we were in our 20s and everytime I visited we always had a blast exploring the nightlife…it's only been a few years but I guess things can change rapidly.
T.
Scenic, interesting point about DC's size… I hadn't thought about that. But I've had smaller places cast their spell on me, too…
For me I honestly think it's the design of DC that ultimately keeps the city from being a place I love…I love cities where I can wander and lose myself, where one corner entices you to the next street and on and on. That doesn't happen here.
And also, for whatever reason, I don't know or encounter people gushing about "oh you have to check out this awesome new restaurant" or "this great new exhibit" — in Brooklyn, for example, you have all these people who just think Brooklyn in the best place on earth, and as a newcomer, that kind of passion has an effect. In DC, I never sensed that kind of energy about the place itself.
Maybe it comes down to the fact that I grew up here, though, and my lack of love is more about me than it is about DC…who knows.
But I'm glad you guys love DC, and DC is lucky to have you :)
this is why I strongly dislike so many folks in dc. DC can be cool. DC is what you make of it. Don't fall in love with DC? then leave. I wish everyone who dissed DC so much would just leave.
anyone can love any place they live. if you don't love dc then move on out, there are plenty of people that truly do love the city with it's transient nature and all.
and as for re: checking out new restaurants and art exhibits and what not:
you haven't found the right crowd of people. I'm constantly bombarded with creative, exciting things to do in dc and multiple things to do pretty much every night of the week that even for as small as dc is it does have plenty of options, it just depends on how hard you are to work to find them or get a network to tell you about them.
There are young folks making a creative dc, there are some of us willing to stick it out because of our love for the city and we're building our own community, and yeah we're still hopeful and don't want to make the move to the other impersonal cities like nyc and l.a. and that's why we're still here.
I responded briefly on CreativeDC and have taken a bit of time to think through your full post here and the back-and-forth in the comments.
A quick note on size: In some ways it does matter…in others, not so much. As Sean mentioned, DC teeters on the edge of 600,000 residents (at the peak in the 1950s we had just over 800,000 residents—comparing either number even to the borough of Brooklyn, which in the 2000 Census had nearly 2.5 million residents is a game of apples-to-oranges). Of course, the DC metropolitan area is significantly larger than the city-center, with some estimates hovering around 5.2 million….Sean’s done a great job of explaining why this is really skewed comparison.
What I hear you saying is that the place didn’t put a spell on you, but that the people did. Why the gulf between people and place? What specifically about the place doesn’t do it for you? Surely it goes beyond the latest exhibit or restaurant—both come and go in all cities?
I’ve known you for over 5 years now—in fact, I’m shocked that my passion for the city comes as a surprise to you. You’ve put up a great fight in trying to see beyond your impressions of what others see as “DC culture.” But I wonder if you inadvertently sabotaged yourself by viewing DC’s culture through the very lens you were trying to break. Punk and Go-Go are not anomalies; they are both creative expressions very ingrained in the artistic and day-to-day culture of DC. The city has served as a nurturing incubator for some of the world’s most renowned jazz musicians since, well, jazz became jazz. Poets and performing and visual artists have found and continue to find a tight-knit community that is in many ways more internally supportive than those found in larger cities.
Perhaps more importantly to the cultivation of a great place, folks every day expend their sweat equity in starting and maintaining organizations with missions for making their city a better place. For me, the bulk of my passion comes from watching and participating in the grassroots movements that residents—both long and short term—dedicate their time and energy to. Close to our hearts, Washington Improv Theater’s umbrella organization, the Cultural Development Corporation, started this way. Of course, I am enamored by all the day-to-day work Washingtonians put into simply lifting up their communities, arts related or not.
I wish you all the best, just as I do every other friend who has moved on from DC—I hope you find the place that best suits you. And I do wish we could have spent more time getting to know each other better. But please don’t leave on a note that to me is a best saddening (“Washington, perhaps, is a place best loved from afar”) and at worst misleading and untrue (I do not know anyone who [loves DC]….Our love affairs are with people and work and lives being lived, not with the city itself. There are no love affairs with Washington the way there are with New York, or Paris, or San Francisco”). I’ve been to each of those cities. I’ve found them wondrous in their own ways, and I take note of what I can bring back to DC, itself an international city skilled in sharing with and learning from cities across the world.
Most importantly, I love coming home to the place—and people and work and life—I love.
I used to live someplace else that made me feel the same way you feel about DC. I decided to leave, though I have many friends who remain there to this day. When I left, I had my reasons, but I didn't tell the people who stayed it was because their town was lacking. I thought that because they were my friends, they might take it personally — me, opining that their choice of hometown was somehow inferior, unimaginative. I thought it would come off as rude and superior. Now I know I was right to keep my reasons to myself.
DC's problem isn't that it's cool. Have you seen the rest of America? Of course DC is cool. It's less cool than New York, but the very fact that we're compared to and expected to measure up against New York, instead of being lumped in with the Witchitas and Salt Lake Cities of the world, tells you all you really need to know.
I have lived in the rest of the country, and trust me: DC is cool.
Er, that first sentence was supposed to read "DC's problem isn't that it's NOT cool."
D'oh.
Wow, so many wonderful responses, I could write pages!
Amanda – your post has made me think about where I have lived and where I am now (NYC) and if there is truly just one place that fits me. I think it has transformed over time and while I imagine that I'll live in NYC for a very long time – primarily because of the city's access to everything culture – I'm trying to be open to the changes that may come. Wonderful post and so glad to have you on TJCC!
Amanda,
Good luck in NYC! While I love DC, I agree that the creative vibe is not that of other cities. The first time I went to the Press Club, I was bewildered at the conservative dress and stodgy environment – it was the place of writers! Here, I had thought, I would feel at home. There is an air of old time patriarch in DC, and for many, that can be enough to run the other way. For me, I enjoy the intellectual energy, and, even the lack of trendy dress in the streets. I have to admit, though, I do love to escape to NYC when I'm needing to let my hair down :) Good luck! I enjoyed meeting you at the AIW conference.
Thank you, everyone, for your comments! I find myself returning to the metaphor of city as mate. I married DC when I was still ready to see other people; I never really loved her.
I tried to make it work, but ultimately, I need to be true to myself, and move on. Trying to convince me to love her is like trying to convince me to love the really nice guy who has a lot of things going for him… you can't talk a person into love.
Still, the person, or city, who isn't right for me – might be someone else's dream come true. It all comes down to feeling.
The fact that some of the people I know in DC love it, and I didn't realize it – maybe that says something about me as an observer, or about how they express their love – more subtly, perhaps, than the people I know from Brooklyn, or Boston, or Texas, who shout about their love from the rooftops.
All I know is, I'm ready to love the place I live.
I generally find that people shout their love of [x] from the rooftops because they desperately need to be cool by association. New Brooklynites' discussion of their dynamic and bohemian surroundings may as well be accomodated by their pointing two thumbs directly at their own face and winking.
Amanda,
I happen to love DC too, and have a lot of pride in our city. I even opted to get the DC flag tattooed on my wrist. We've never met, but if you're from the area surely you've noticed others in town with the same tattoo? I'm guessing they wouldn't all agree with your statement that "DC is a city best loved from afar."
I love New York, but growing up in Jersey, moving to NYC was what a lot of my classmates did…getting the apartment in Brooklyn became almost cliche. I suppose I wanted something different, and I found it when I moved down here.
Perhaps its the grass-is-greener phenomenon. You grew up in DC and now find that NY calls to you. I grew up near NY and find that DC called to me. People change as well…a lot of my friends that moved to NYC in the 90's complained after 10 years that the city had changed or that Gulianni killed the city's edginess. Perhaps I'll feel the same about DC eventually and finally head to SF, who knows. All I know is that right now I'm pretty happy here and continually impressed with the speed at which the city is transforming for the better.
Everyone is different, and everyone has a place that fits them the best. I don't doubt that you are speaking honestly when you say that you don't love DC, I just take issue when you imply that no one else does either.
I'm sorry you didn't find enough restaurants, exhibitions, and other things to do when you were living here- I've had the opposite experience here thus far. The only advice I can give you on this point is that the Internet is your friend. Check out the event calendars at ReadysetDC or BrightestYoungThings and you'll see that that there are literally dozens of events every night of the week. Check out Metrocurean or DCFoodies and you'll see that there are new restaurants opening up every day. If you're not picking up on buzz around town, then you're just not looking.
Anyway…best of luck in NYC, and let us know how many NY flag tattoos you come across! ;)
Chris, fair point. I'm not qualified to pronounce that no one loves DC. But I truly didn't realize that I knew people who loved it. I never got the feeling that anyone I knew here loved living here. (Jaime, I knew you originally moved here b/c you loved your visit when you were a teen, but I didn't know you loved it now. I knew you were very engaged in the community, but I didn't see that as enthusiasm or passion for the place. Again, this is maybe my own failure as an observer.)
I know all the sites you list, Chris. I've been writing a DC blog myself, for over 3 years, at CreativeDC.org, trying to inspire and showcase creative living in the city. So I know it's there. I just don't FEEL the passion or pulse I'm looking for – I can chronicle artists and galleries and restaurants etc, but I don't feel like I live somewhere where people are really excited about these things. But maybe, again, I've been viewing the city through my own set of glasses, as someone who grew up here, and that's limited my perception…
I wish more people who loved DC *would* shout about it from the rooftops, to help change DC's image (in so many people's minds) as a dull, buttoned-up place full of government drones. I took up that fight myself for a while and then realized I was trying to convince myself as much as anyone else. Some of you who really truly love the place – don't keep it to yourselves. Bold declarations of love don't need to be suspicious :)
Full disclosure: I'm a contributor at ReadysetDC. Shouting from the rooftops is exactly what we're trying to do with our blog and through our events. From our mission statement:
"ReadysetDC is a blog + collection of creative projects aimed at creating awareness of everything amazing in DC, including urban development, culture + art. We seek to be a source of inspiration + a spark for discussion.
DC is an exciting place to be right now. While the reputation of the Nation’s Capital is buttoned up + boring, the actual city is quite the opposite. While the national media has portrayed DC as the workplace for only politicians, lobbyists + lawyers, the reality is that the creative class is booming + an urban renaissance continues to progress."
Apparently we struck a chord. We get a steady stream of emails from residents who share the same love for the city asking if there's a way they can contribute creatively to our cause.
That being said, to each their own. I'm most interested in urban design issues: taking back public space from cars, reinvesting in neighborhoods, and creating lively, unique streets and public spaces. DC has without a doubt the best blogging community in the country when it comes to these issues, and the urban policy that is shaped right here in DC affects every other city…yes, even New York. This, along with the incredible DJs, bands, and street artists coming out of DC these days are why I love my city so much. Your interests are likely completely different than mine, and based on them, NY could be the city where you belong. Again, to each their own.
This will probably echo what some others have said. Apologies for the cliche, but beauty – and by extension coolness – is in the eye of the beholder. So i don't think it jives to pronounce DC as uncool (or lacking a certain vibe, etc) without acknowledging/implying that it is in fact simply your opinion. That's why it sounded a little strange when you claimed to speak on behalf of all in DC (or at least DC artists). Whether or not your friends had pronounced their love of the city to you is beside the point. Just another perspective… best of luck and keep writing!
Amanda,
This is fabulous! I am so glad we connected, so glad you reached out via our blogs, and SO happy you wanted to post this guest piece of TJCC. I loved my time living in DC, too. And the good thing is that it's only a short train ride from NYC. Can't wait for you to get to the Big Apple!
Amanda!
So glad to read your post!
Ok, so I am a Boston girl that moved down to DC to attend AU. And may I add I am a triple eagle (therefore, I lived in D.C. for a while!) I was always empowered to move to NYC formally but never made it my home, instead I landed in Dubai. I tell people here that I am from the East Coast Corner of the US (the best of all three!) AND ALL THREE I AM! I am homesick often for the my beloved east coast and I will always be part of the limo-liberal east coast posse, as my husband likes to call it. However, YOU are right! D.C. is cool again! As an American living in the Middle East, I can finally be honest and say I am from D.C. again, and people smile! There was a long time that it was not even SAFE for me to tell people where I was from! I got screamed at in Rome – just for showing my US passport as I.D.
It feels great to SCREAM from my roof top, in the Arabian Gulf, wearing my B-dawg t-shirt! I AM AMERICAN! Gosh, now I feel home sick again and want to hit U St., get a half smoked at Ben’s and watch the sunset near the capital! Thanks for posting!
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