Watha T. Daniel-Shaw
Neighborhood Library

Sonny Stitt, jazz sax legend, passed away in D.C. thirty years ago this summer. An avid disciple of Charlie Parker's, Stitt developed his own style, which influenced John Coltrane and a generation of others.

Stitt's name comes up time and again as a bebop/hard-bop mainstay, but one can't ignore his blues and ballads. We can conclude Ellington would say Stitt's playing is "beyond category."

Victor Estes is an artist, musician, and poet.  In honor of National Poetry Month, we featured the works of young people who frequent our library.  I sat down to talk with Victor and ask him a few questions about his creative process.

Boys Cry Too
By Victor Estes

The sense of leaving is not enough.
The art of dreaming balance the scale of believing
Who am i? the number one question
In my book of unanswered prayers.
Im not a stone
I do break
        A fallen angel who heart been broken
Im just as loving as you boys cry too.
Another sad song to make me feel better.
But still apart like the comfort in my heart.
Cant leave still captive by these things
Yes I do bleed, I bleed alone.
A bird without wings

“Your right tire is low on air, Mimi,” my friend said authoritatively. Nonplussed, I peered at the circular mass of rubber that had hugged potholes and puddles and hub cabs, but had never once embraced a single portion of my thoughts.

Until, however, one recent and fateful day when I got a flat so severe I could barely make it to the curb in time to call AAA to rescue me from sheer terror (it was my first flat and I had no idea what was happening). The AAA technician patched up my tire, but neglected to tell me I needed to put air in it. And why should he? Possessing the ability to detect a semi-deflated tire is apparently sort of like breathing, or telling time: every functioning member of society somehow knows how to do it. Everyone, it seemed, except me.

“Should I get it replaced, then?”  I asked nervously, trying to calculate the cost of one tire by how many pairs of Warby Parkers I could have purchased instead.

“…Uh, Mimi,” he trailed off, with that mixture of concern and condescension only friends of several years can get away with. “Tires are filled with air. When they get low on air, you don’t replace them. You just add more air.”

D.C. is known as the heart of harDCore and GoGo, but bluegrass?

Most folks don't realize that since the '50s, D.C. has been the urban center for bluegrass. First were the Stoneman Family and related groups like the Bluegrass Champs. During the '60s and '70s, the Country Gentlemen and the Seldom Scene brought a new brand of forward-looking, innovative bluegrass not only to audiences around Washington, D.C., but around the entire country.