Historic Greenbelt’s New Deal Café has long been known for its outstanding music programming and has even won local awards for it – notably the Washington City Paper’s “Best of DC” award for “Best Place to Experience Live Music.” The credit for that goes largely to its Music Coordinator, Amethyst Dwyer, who held that position for seven years until her recent retirement.

After an extended shutdown because of the pandemic, the Café’s music program is back in full swing – now with new Music Coordinator Caitlin Gompf. Caitlin is a musician herself, has performed at the Café and is a big fan of the venue. Her July line-up is impressive for its breadth – from blues, jazz, folk and soul to rock, reggae and world music – as she’s lining up new bands along with long-time favorites. Check out the Café’s online Calendar for the most current line-up of events.

The Cafe’s kitchen is also under new management, with a new menu of delicious and affordable food for all tastes and diets – everyone from vegans to carnivores. And it’s now open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, seven days a week. Some key Café traditions remain: a wide selection of local craft beers; a friendly, welcoming vibe; and plenty of free parking.

Come check out the community-owned, not-for-profit New Deal Café and discover what makes it such a hidden gem in our region. You can learn more about the New Deal Café in Greenbelt, Md. by visiting its website.

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Construction is underway on the new 22,000-square-foot Bladensburg public library at 4820 Annapolis Rd., which is slated to open in 2024 and will join new library branches including in Hyattsville and Laurel.

The Prince George’s County Memorial Library System is in the process of choosing two pieces of public art — a bowsprit-like sculpture at the entrance to the children’s section and nautical-themed wall art for the interior.

The library was previously located on the same site in a 1920s-era building that had once been home to an elementary school.

Designed by Gant Brunnett Architects, the new building will feature a number of modern touches similar to the Hyattsville branch, including a makerspace, indoor and outdoor fireplaces and solar panels and electric-car charging stations.

It will be the first county building that is certified LEED Silver, the third-highest level of environmentally conscious designed recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Drawing on the area’s maritime history, the library is designed to suggest the outline of a ship and will have a number of nautical touches inside, including a ship’s wheel, dinghy-shaped reading nooks and a wooden dock.

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A new eatery on the Route 1 corridor is bringing seafood to the birria taco craze.

The most popular dish at La Michoacana, which opened at the miXt Food Hall in Brentwood in April, is a salmon birria taco dressed with a fish-stock consommé, as well as the shrimp tacos and quesadillas.

That makes sense, given that the eatery is named for the coastal Mexican state of Michoacán, but you can also get standards made with chicken, steak, marinate pork or vegetables.

Owners Avelino and Jaime Romualdo Valdez ran a food truck that has traveled around the greater D.C. area for the past two years before setting up a stall at the Brentwood food hall which has already drawn a lot of attention.

The addition helps keep tacos on the menu at miXt, where the popular Little Miner Taco recently opened its own standalone restaurant across the street.

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The nation may have officially marked Juneteenth this week to commemorate the end of slavery, but for enslaved people in Prince George’s County, it did not come in June of 1865.

While the country has largely come to mark June 19 in remembrance of emancipation, the date actually refers to the announcement of a military order proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas in 1865.

But the timeline was much different in Prince George’s County, which had the highest population of enslaved people of any county in Maryland at the onset of the Civil War.

When the war began, President Abraham Lincoln was wary of pushing border states like Maryland too hard on the question of slavery, and emancipation initially progressed much more slowly here. In the first year of the war, state lawmakers even voted in favor of a move to bar the federal government from abolishing slavery.

In nearby Washington, D.C., enslaved people were emancipated on April 16, 1862, which led to large groups fleeing south to freedom from Prince George’s County.

As the war dragged on, slavery became more central to the fight, but Lincoln still stopped short of forcing border states to move on the issue. The Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect on January 1, 1863, freed enslaved people in states that had seceded, but did not include Maryland.

It was not until 1864 that the state finally moved toward emancipation, as Unionists held a constitutional convention aimed at reducing the power of Confederate sympathizers. The new constitution abolished slavery, but the drafters decided to put it to a public referendum first.

On October 13, 1864, the vote was held. At first, it appeared that the pro-slavery forces had narrowly defeated the new constitution, but the tide turned when absentee ballots from Union soldiers serving in the war were counted, and they were overwhelmingly in favor.

On Nov. 1, 1864, slavery officially ended in Maryland, just one month before Congress approved the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. But the constitutional amendment didn’t go into effect until Dec. 18, 1865, when it was ratified by the states.

Some small local celebrations over the years have marked Nov. 1 as the end of slavery in the state, and state lawmakers have periodically debated naming it Maryland Emancipation Day, but Juneteenth has gotten more attention.

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Residents of the Route 1 corridor are invited to help paint a new mural on an underpass at the West Hyattsville Metro Station.

Beginning at noon on Saturday, June 18 at the station at 2700 Hamilton St., the mural painting will be led by Hyattsville residents Iman Abdul-Ali and Skuda Gold, who were chosen by a jury from a pool of 13 submissions.

The outline of the mural uses a grid technique that essentially allows members of the community to paint-by-numbers. The design features organic and geometric shapes representing the area’s nature and wildlife.

Guests are invited to bring bottled water, sunscreen, and outdoor chairs. Staffers on site with speak Spanish, and children under 14 are welcome with the supervision of an adult. The event will end at 5 p.m.

A similar event was held in 2017 at the West Hyattsville Metro, which is at the center of a major new development of shows, apartments and row homes.

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As of this week, Federalist Pig has closed its food truck at 5504 Baltimore Ave., as construction gets underway for its upcoming sit-down location in Hyattsville.

This past Sunday, the popular barbecue joint served its last food out of the Fedmobile in the parking lot of its new home next to the car wash.

Spokesman Justin Omidian told the Hyattsville Wire that the long-planned sit-down restaurant was postponed due to changes in the industry during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We had to shift our opening strategy once the pandemic hit,” he said. “It created a big shift in the restaurant industry.”

Federalist Pig first eyed the 2,500-square-foot former tire shop across from the Shoppes at Arts District Hyattsville in 2019, hoping to use the larger space to smoke more meat for there and its Adams Morgan location.

The new restaurant is expected to open as early as this fall. The timing may end up working out anyway, as construction is now underway just south of there on the Canvas Apartments, a new mixed use complex.

As recently reported, co-founder and pitmaster Rob Sonderman recently won another award from the prestigious Michelin Guide.

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By Alex Miller, Hyattsville Resident and Local Artist

If you look away every time you see the City of Hyattsville’s flag, you are not alone.

In many ways, the flag is poorly designed and breaks nearly every rule of good flag design according to the experts, known as vexillologists.

It is anything but simple, the first principle of good flag design. And yes, it has a flag within the flag and it uses words and a seal. But if you were ever able to get close enough to read that tiny text, you would see it boldly proclaims our city to be a “good” place to live. Not “great”. Not “amazing”. Not “inspiring”. But just . . . “good”.

My neighbors, we deserve better.

A group of Hyattsvillians have come together to create a new, beautiful, and symbolic HVL flag design that we can proudly fly.

Featuring a symbol of wisdom, creativity and the complexities of life, the Ananse Ntontan in the middle is a perfect visual representation for the incredible people who live in Hyattsville.

The three horizontal stripes converging into a single point represents the many people from different corners of the world who come together to form this amazing community of ours. The colors are straight from the city’s own palette – “Hyattsville red” and “white.”

Join us in beautifying the city and making the old flag a thing of the past.

To learn more, visit: www.newHVLflag.com

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