A New York nonprofit is holding pop-up brunches on Route 1 in Woodridge, D.C., just south of Mount Rainier, to help refugees in the area.

Emma’s Torch, named for the poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty, will serve brunch at 2212 Rhode Island Ave. NE, the home of Foodhini, a delivery-only restaurant in Washington, D.C.,

Refugees who are learning the culinary arts help serve a New American family-style brunch in a laid-back atmosphere with the goal of helping them to learn how to work various jobs in the dining industry ranging from waiting tables to cooking to clean-up.

The menu is prix-fixe, which means one price covers the entire meal, with pay-what-you-can tickets ranging from $35 to $75. You can specify any diet restrictions when buying a ticket.

Seatings are available from 11 to 12:30 p.m. or 1 to 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays in June and July.

Emma’s Torch has previously held pop-ups at La Cosecha and Union Market.

Tickets are available here.

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The Route 1 corridor’s newest mural in the making celebrates influential rockabilly musician Link Wray, who got his start playing local shows.

Located on Otis Street in Mount Rainier, near two other recent pieces of public art, the mural is being worked on by Brentwood artist Jay F. Coleman.

Along with his brothers, Wray was part of the house band for “Milt Grant’s House Party,” a local DC teen dance show in the vein of Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand.”

They also toured local dance halls, regularly playing at the Route 1 venues like the Hyattsville Armory and the Bladensburg Firehouse. At one show at the Armory, a Hyattsville teen named JoAnne Sales was even asked to dance with a then-unknown Bobby Darin.

At another show, Wray improvised a guitar riff that came to be known as “Rumble.” The song, an instrumental because Wray had lost part of his lung to tuberculosis and couldn’t sing, became a top 20 hit.

The song became hugely influential on bands as varied as The Who and Led Zeppelin due to its pioneering use of tremolo and distortion. Because the title could refer to a streetfight, it also became the only instrumental song ever banned on radio in the US.

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Hyattsville installed a solar- and wind-powered sculpture at a city park that allows users to charge cell phones, tablets or anything else that uses a standard USB port.

Located at Hyatt Park at 3500 Hamilton St., the 18-foot-tall EnergiPlant is shaped like a tree, with four broad green leaves that are covered in solar panels topped by a wind turbine.

Power generated by the unit is stored in batteries inside four benches that stick out from the center of the sculpture which also contain two USB outlets each for public charging.

While large, the sculpture does not feel out of place next to similar whimsical pieces in the Hyatt Park playground.

The 800-pound sculpture is sturdily built to deter kids from climbing up the main plant stem and can survive wind speeds of up to 110 mph.

In the event of an emergency, the city can quickly dismantle the sculpture and move it into storage. The benches also can be used for advertising to generate revenue to offset their cost, although the city for now has only posted public service announcements.

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Another little free art gallery has come to the Route 1 corridor.

Located just off the Mount Rainier circle next to city hall on Municipal Place, the freestanding wooden structure contains a tiny gallery where residents can put their own miniature paintings.

It’s similar to little free art galleries in University Park, Edmonston and Brentwood.

The city worked with Maryland nonprofit Operation ARTS Foundation, which aims to foster community interaction through art, to build the gallery, called Art MAGNET, short for Mini Art Gallery Neighborhood Entertainment Tour.

The motto: “Make tiny art. Take tiny art.”

On a shelf at the bottom of the gallery are free two-by-three inch boards that can be used as canvases for your own art. The panels can be used with oil or acrylic paints, chalks, crayons, pencils, markets, glue or glitter and are good for stamping, block printing and collage as well.

The art magnet display was made possible with support from Maryland Milestones and the Prince Georges Arts and Humanities Council and sponsorship from the town of Edmonston and the Gateway Community Development Corporation.

Apart from the little free art galleries, the Route 1 corridor is also home to dozens of Little Free Libraries, several little free food pantries and even a Little Free Art Shop for people looking for art supplies.

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Just before the Civil War, an enslaved man working in a foundry off what is now the Route 1 corridor helped cast the bronze statue on top of the U.S. Capitol.

While many enslaved people helped build the Capitol, Philip Reid is perhaps the best known for his role in creating the “Statue of Freedom” crowning the top.

Born around 1820, Reid was bought as a young man in Charleston, S.C., for $1,200 by self-taught sculptor Clark Mills, who saw that he had “evident talent” in the field. He came with Mills when he moved to D.C. in the 1840s.

Clark Mills foundry

In D.C., Mills built an octagon-shaped foundry on Bladensburg just south of Colmar Manor where the Freedom statue was eventually cast.

Working together through trial-and-error the two successfully cast the first bronze statue in America — an equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson — after winning a contest, despite any formal training.

In 1860, the two won the commission to cast the Freedom statue. Reid was paid $1.25 a day for his work — more than the $1 the other laborers received — but as an enslaved person was only allowed to keep his Sunday pay, with the other six days going to Mills.

Reid was highly skilled at the work. When it was time to move the plaster model of the statue, an Italian sculptor hired by the government to help refused to show anyone how to take the model apart unless he was given more money, but Reid figured out how to lift the sculpture with a pulley to reveal the seams.

Between the time work on the Freedom statue started and the final portion installed, Reid received his own freedom. He later went into work for himself, where an author wrote that he was “highly esteemed by all who know him.”

You can see the plaster model of the Freedom statue in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor’s Center.

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An award-winning sanctioned racing event in Greenbelt is drawing nationally known cyclists.

This week, notable DC cyclist Sam Boardman joined the Route 1 Velo training race at 6565 Greenbelt Rd. in Greenbelt Park, which is managed by the National Park Service.

Route 1 Velo, a USA Cycling affiliated club in the greater D.C. area that’s based on the Route 1 corridor, helps support races locally and works regularly with the area’s Special Olympics team.

The cycling club’s training races on the 1.4 mile loop of recently repaved national park service roads are held on Wednesday evenings from May 3 to June 28, and are open to the public, with elite and novice levels for men and women. In some form, this race series has been in existence since 1980 making it one of the oldest cycling races in the area.

This year, roughly 150 racers have come each week, a huge jump from last year.

“The pandemic probably had something to do with that,” Route 1 Velo’s secretary Brandon Fastman told the Hyattsville Wire. “But we’ve also put more effort into publicizing the races this year.”

Riders are informally timed, and race results are recorded with USA Cycling only by order of finish. There is a points system for riders and awards for series winners in each category, which encourages riders to consistently come to each week’s race.

Along with the Hyattsville Cyclocross, the Greenbelt races are a mainstay of the Mid-Atlantic Bicycle Racing Association circuit and a huge part of the Route 1 cycling scene, with sponsors from Arrow Bicycle and Trek.

Riders mostly come from the greater D.C. area, with some regulars from Baltimore and Annapolis and occasionally as far as Hagerstown and even Philadelphia. In recent years, other champion cyclists have participated in the race including Justin Williams.

Fastman said that the races are also important because it’s getting harder for cyclists to find road races.

“Road races are dwindling,” he added. “They are very expensive to put on and they require communities to accept temporary disruption of their thoroughfares. So it’s really cool that we can provide the cycling community a reliable venue for weeks on end throughout the spring and summer.”

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A mother-and-daughter team have opened a locally source charcuterie board stall at miXt Food Hall in Brentwood.

Chefs Jazmine and Trinna Moor, owners of District Boards, say their curated boards are designed to replace the “chips and salsa and a six-pack” that people offer guests at a party.

Their boards include vegan, paleo, pescatarian and gluten-free options and customers can add any of their popular sides like vegan artichoke dip or caviar as well as mocktails.

Options include a Mediterranean tapas board, a “brunch in bed,” a farmer’s board with local cheeses and free-range pulled chicken salad and a sweetheart board with cheesecake bites, pound cake and baked brie.

The Moors, who are from the Petworth neighborhood of D.C., said they use local farms such as Deep Roots, a black-owned farm in Brandywine, Md., that uses sustainable practices.

“I wanted to highlight the most interesting flavors and textures our area has to offer,” said Jazmine Moor.

You can see the entire menu online at the District Boards website. District Boards is open 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 8 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

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