But this sharp play suffers from problematic casting.

Hugh Masekela and Vusi Mahlasela, two South African musical luminaries, bring peace and a party to D.C. this weekend

To honor the ailing icon on what’s known as “Mandela Day,” TransAfrica, the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists will hold a celebration tonight in D.C.

An interview with João Silva, the New York Times photographer who lost both his legs below the knees in October 2010 after stepping on a land mine while on duty in Afghanistan.

Upbeat storytelling is difficult to get right. It’s far easier to make people cry than it is to make them laugh — comic timing is an elusive gift possessed by very few people, far fewer than the number that think they have it. But even taking the quest for laughs out of the equation, it’s much simpler to create realistic-feeling tragedies than it is to depict inspirational stories that don’t feel bathetic and contrived. What White Wedding is trying to do shouldn’t work. This is a sunny road comedy, bookended with romance, which attempts to put a hopeful face on the future of race relations in a country where state-sponsored racial oppression is less than a generation in the past.

Even in South Africa, the bar is often the place to watch. Photo by Austin Danforth.Austin Danforth, reporter with The Alexandria Times, is in South Africa for the World Cup. This is Danforth’s third travel dispatch for DCist from his trip; read his others here and here. I was primed to write a post about getting out and seeing more of South Africa, aside from soccer games and the Johannesburg suburbs. Then Landon Donovan scored…

Blow that horn: inside Soccer City on Monday afternoon, after the Netherlands beat Denmark, 2-0. Photo by Austin Danforth. Austin Danforth, reporter with The Alexandria Times, is in South Africa for the World Cup. This is Danforth’s second travel dispatch for DCist from his trip; read his first here. During the World Cup, the soccer gets underway at around 1:30 p.m. local time. It’s an all-day affair, running until about 11. Once it’s over though,…

Photo used with permission under a Creative Commons license with Axel Bührmann.Austin Danforth, reporter with The Alexandria Times, is in South Africa for the World Cup. This is Danforth’s first travel dispatch for DCist from his trip. Keep an eye out for more. By the time I successfully navigated check-in and security at JFK in New York City on Friday morning, more than a year of planning, studying and financial wrangling actually meant something. It…

There is a pool that sits by the ocean in Sea Point, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. Like most public pools, it is a place where a diverse cross-section of the community come together to relax and to play. Unlike many other locations, however, South Africa is a place where the concept of “coming together” is still taking some getting used to. The difficulties of a country reversing years of forced separation…

The big news this week came on Tuesday, as the Washington Project for the Arts announced it was officially splitting from the Corcoran Gallery of Art at the end of 2007. The success of the partnership has boosted the WPA to a place where they can function solo once more, and are currently setting up shop in Dupont Circle. The Post has an excellent summary of WPAC’s history. >> The Arlington Arts Center is our…