Dee Dwyer

3 weeks ago | wamu.org | Dee Dwyer |Sarah Kim

When Beverly Smith was growing up in Southeast D.C., she says the house was always full of children. It wasn’t just her eight siblings. “I can remember as a child waking up, and there’d be somebody’s child at the foot of my bed,” she recalls. Her mother, Mary Grace Smith, took care of all of them. When Beverly Smith had friends over, her mother would make sure they had dinner too. “She always fed the community,” Smith says.

2 months ago | wamu.org | Dee Dwyer |Sarah Kim

For two months and counting, the people of Ward 8 have had no councilmember. They’d already made their choice in November. Trayon White, who was arrested in August by the FBI for allegedly accepting bribes and kickbacks worth $156,000, won nearly 84% of the vote. White had represented them for eight years. What he’d done for their community during those eight years, many felt, could not be erased by the charges he faced.

Mar 19, 2025 | wamu.org | Sarah Kim |Tyrone Turner |Dee Dwyer

The sound of its destruction was incessant. Removing the mural with its big yellow letters will take more than a quick repaint – it’s a weeks long process. The first steps: summoning the police to ensure the process goes on without any disruption  – then removing the bollards. On day one – March 10 – you could still see the letters under the construction workers as they drilled away over ‘MATTER,’ and laid the bollards down one by one. By the morning of day two, ‘MATTER’ had become a pile of rubble.

Feb 12, 2025 | wamu.org | Sarah Kim |Dee Dwyer

When Danuelle Doswell and Mignon Hemsley met in 2016, they soon realized they had a shared passion for many things: music, fashion, food – and plants. “We were always sending each other pictures of our plants,” Hemsley says. She recalls a 20-foot long pothos Doswell grew when she was living in New York. “And we always shared so many tips on what our families taught us.” Hemsley says her grandmother likes to use coffee grounds into her plants; Doswell likes tea bags.

Dec 20, 2024 | wamu.org | Dee Dwyer |Sarah Kim

As 2024 comes to a close, Ward 8 activist Jaha Booker is trying to do whatever makes him happy – “eating, chilling, going to the go-go” –  as much as possible. “Because honestly, I feel like we about to be in for a ride,” he says. Like many residents of Wards 7 and 8, Booker is grappling with what lies ahead next year: the impact of a second Trump term on D.C.. He’s been thinking about how it may affect him as a Black trans man, how it may affect his loved ones and Black D.C. residents.