Interview with Osha, September 12, 2021

Okay, so would you mind telling us about a space, or place? Location?

I am so–I'm so grateful for this opportunity to talk about my hometown of DC and Adams Morgan in particular, which I tell everyone who will listen all around the world, is the most international place in the world per capita. Within three blocks you can experience authentic food and cultures from literally all over the world. And I don't know of another place in the world like that. And these are mostly independently owned family businesses from the people of that culture, speaking the language, making the authentic food. I paid my way through college in Adams Morgan cocktail waitressing about 30 some years ago, but I'm dating myself. Someone's gotta. And, coming back home to DC after having been away for the most part for 20 years in Florida, taking care of family, I'm very grateful for the things that have remained.

There are several places in Adams Morgan along in the heart of Adams, Morgan. 18th Street that are still there like Madam's Organ, let's see. Oh, Heaven and Hell back in college. I thought, if I got an option, I'm always going to Heaven. And the jazz is still going on there in the middle level. They don't call it Purgatory, but it's in between Heaven and Hell called Green Island now. So that's wonderful that same jazz group led by Peter is still going. Thank God. And the music is so, so epic and the variety of music that you can find along 18th Street.

It's sad to see certain places like Cafe Lautrec gone, but at least the mural is still there. And then my friend who has the Moroccan shop, the two-story Moroccan shop, which is like being in another dimension with all the African masks upstairs and all the things from Indonesia and Morocco and different parts of Africa. I know his rent has gone up to an exorbitant amount and the fact that he's able to still hang in there. Thank God.

So, I did the, I've done my best throughout corona times to make my way around and give all these businesses, some support, basically having a world tour of cuisines and gift shops, etc. Just hoping that, you know, maybe my 25, 30, $40, purchase can help them keep the lights on and it's so good to see. We're about a year and a half into crazy corona times. And it's good to see that almost all the businesses that I've known and loved and recently are still going.

So I just encourage everyone to support this world in a relatively small region because if we don't, we could lose it. And this is a beautiful historic place with historic charming buildings with all different colors and shapes. It's an architects—I think it would be an architect's dream to come here from anywhere in the world and just explore the architecture. Because you never know we could lose it with DC being the most gentrified city in the nation. Things are changing very quickly and we're losing a lot of the beautiful buildings and green spaces.

So I just encourage everyone to come here, and enjoy it while it lasts and if you can't tour around the world because it's complicated with flights etcetera. You can have a world experience, you can stay at an accommodations Airbnb or hotel right around Adams Morgan. Never even get in the car and have a world tour and experience or world cultures. So thank you for listening.