News Room

Beautiful Day, a nonprofit organization and RHLCT grant recipient, were honored to host Congressman Gabe Amo and Under Secretary Elizabeth Allen.

Congressman Amo, recently elected to the US House of Representatives, is the son of immigrants from Ghana and Liberia and has a particular interest in the issues that newcomers to this country face. Elizabeth Allen serves as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs under Secretary of State Antony Blinken. She has traveled all over the world and understands how challenging it can be when people are uprooted from their homes and forced to adapt to a new culture.

Both the Congressman and the Under Secretary were in Rhode Island to celebrate the first anniversary of the Welcome Corps Program, which helps Americans sponsor refugees, and we’re thrilled that they included Beautiful Day in their itinerary.

Our guests began their visit with a tour of our kitchen where they met  some of our trainees and practiced making granola in our gigantic mixing bowl. Then they toured our packing/shipping area where they checked out our walk-in cooler, practiced sealing bars on our sealing machine, and spoke with the press about the many ways that refugees contribute to the US economy and enrich the cultural life of their communities.

Finally, our guests proceeded into our conference room to hold a roundtable discussion with refugees. This part of the program was closed to the press and included refugees from our partner organizations (Refugee Dream Center, Women’s Refugee Care, Catholic Social Services and Dorcas International Institute) as well as from Beautiful Day. This was a special time for refugees to tell their stories and let the Congressman and Under Secretary know about their struggles and triumphs as they adjust to life in the US.

We feel privileged to host people like Congressman Amo and Under Secretary Allen who are so interested in learning about resettled refugees’ experiences and eager to support the organizations that serve them. We’re glad that we could include our partner organizations since we’re proud of the work we do together to support refugees in Rhode Island. And we were happy to have Baha Sadr, State Refugee Coordinator, and Adderlin Bailey, State Refugee Health Coordinator, join us as well. We hope that our guests left with a renewed commitment to continue advocating for refugees back in Washington.

In fact, this has already begun. Just last week, Congressman Amo testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. When speaking of refugees, he said: “We should welcome those who want to be integrated into our society as friends, neighbors and business owners who contribute to our economy and rich cultural life.” And he mentioned Beautiful Day as one of the organizations helping to make this possible. To view a 1-minute clip from his testimony, click on the link below.

In the meantime, special thanks to everyone who helped plan and organize this event, especially the team in Washington who worked so tirelessly to make the visit possible.

Beautiful Day, a nonprofit organization and RHLCT grant recipient, is helping to ease refugees into the workplace. Since 2012, the organization has taught about 175 refugees valuable job skills while offering them paid work making granola.

On November 15, 2022, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) inaugurated the second phase of its Silver Line mass transit rail service connecting Washington Dulles International Airport with the Nation’s Capital. Among the riders on the first train out of the airport was Jeff Fairfield, Executive Director of The Ruth and Hal Launders Charitable Trust.  In remarks made later that day at the Metro station serving Reston Town Center, Mr. Fairfield referred to the long-held vision of the late Hal Launders of bringing rail to Dulles. “As a steward of his legacy, I never harbored any reservations about his trust vigorously supporting the rail project”, Fairfield said. One of the founders of the Committee for Dulles and a visionary who saw how Dulles Airport could be an economic engine for the region, Hal Launders understood the importance of rail transit to the long-term success of the airport. The engineers who designed Dulles Airport reserved right-of-way in the median of its access highway to accommodate a future rail line, a prescient decision thus making this project feasible even though prior proposals had never gained traction.

Jeff Fairfield, Executive Director of RHLCT, awaits his ride on the Silver Line.

Beginning just before the dawn of the new century and continuing until now, RHLCT and its predecessor entity, the Ruth Launders Marital Trust, have consistently supported extending the Metrorail system to Dulles Airport and beyond. Representatives of RHLCT testified at countless public forums and hearings in support of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, contributed its finances, time, and effort to establishing a local real estate tax district to supplement project financing, and encouraged the multiple stakeholders whose collaboration insured its fruition.  Initially sponsored by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, in 2005 the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority assumed responsibility for construction of the extension to be operated, upon completion, by WMATA.  Federal transit grants, taxes levied on Dulles Corridor commercial landowners in Fairfax and Loudoun counties, together with funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia and toll revenue paid by motorists using the Dulles Toll Road, combined to underwrite the roughly $6 billion capital cost of the rail extension.

Jeff Fairfield, Executive Director of RHLCT, rides the first Silver Line train leaving Dulles Airport for the Ashburn station in Loudoun County.

Jeff Fairfield enjoys his ride on the Silver Line.

In July 2022 The Ruth and Hal Launders Charitable Trust, acting through its real estate subsidiary, Arrowbrook Centre, LLC, dedicated the historic Laura Ratcliffe-Hanna House, along with the 4-acre parcel on which it sits, to the Fairfax County Park Authority. The oldest part of the two-story wood frame farmhouse with its tin roof dates to the early nineteenth century. Following the Civil War, Laura Ratcliffe-Hanna, an ally of the Confederate cause and a friend to Colonel John Singleton Mosby, after first expanding its living space, took the house as her residence until her death in its interior living room in August 1923.  A second and final expansion included a family room, two bedrooms and a bathroom built in the mid-20^th century. The dwelling is one of the few remaining examples of 19^th century architecture remaining in Fairfax County.

Laura Ratcliffe-Hanna House

RHLCT purchased the house and land from Mr. and Mrs. David I. Meiselman in 2006 for $5 million subject to the right of Mr. and Mrs. Meiselman to remain in residence until their deaths.  Mr. Meiselman died in 2014; his wife in 2021. Mrs. Meiselman was a vocal advocate for preserving the house as an historic artifact, a dream now realized. A small portion of the former Meiselman land is now part of the Arrowbrook Centre development, but the house and bulk of its surrounding grounds were transferred to the Fairfax County Park Authority pursuant to a zoning proffered condition.  At the time of the dedication, RHLCT also granted the Park Authority $115,775 to fund an endowment for the upkeep of the house. The Park Authority has plans to add the dwelling to its inventory of homes in its resident curator program.  Under this program, an individual pays fair market rent to occupy and maintain an historic home with a duty to periodically open it to visitors at specific times over the course of the year.

NOVEMBER 2, 2022 –

Blessed Unrest News Flash! 
Blesses Unrest has got several new projects in the works, a big birthday celebration to invite you to, and exciting updates about their ongoing work.  But first, save the date for…

The Blessed Unrest 22nd Birthday Soirée!
Sunday, December 11th at TheaterLab

You won’t want to miss this evening of live performance, the inside scoop about upcoming plans, and mingling with our glamorous ensemble.

Coming Up, Chasing Exposure
Blessed Unrest has been offered a Gallery Series Residency at TheaterLab to perform our next devised work, Chasing Exposure, December 9th-18th, 2022.  Specific dates and times to come.

When truth is suppressed it gains power and momentum.  Where in a woman’s body does that power live?  And when it is finally released, where does it go?  What is the sensation?  Disquiet?  Hysteria?  Or something far more sinister?

The Untitled Othello Project

Sacred Heart University has courageously committed to supporting The Untitled Othello Project in a THREE-YEAR residency!  We’ll be spending one week out of every month working in their wonderful facilities for the foreseeable future.

Untitled Othello Project

The Tennessee Williams Annual Review

Battle of Angels has made another appearance, but this time in the Tennessee Williams Annual Review by the inimitable Bess Rowen.

Battle of Angels, Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival

Battle of Angels

Photo by Maria Baranova

“Burr’s production of Battle of Angels took the view of a genre-expansive Williams in a staging that explored and reveled in the ways physicality communicates in a live performance… interpreting the text of Battle of Angels more like a musical score played by and on the bodies of the performers than a written playscript. This was not a dance, or even dance theater piece; and yet the stylized choreography was a beautiful way to honor Williams’s expressionist influences and works.

“In addition to its visually striking tableaus, this production included another crucial visual component: the presence of BIPOC actors in key roles. Casting Black actors in the roles of Val Xavier and Vee Talbot shifted the stakes of the play in a number of important ways. Burr’s and Mitchell’s innovative treatments and especially their attention to physical communication and proximity gave both Williams works—neither of them the playwright’s strongest—new life and, dare I say, wings.”

– Bess Rowen

Blessed Unrest Ensemble Training Has Resumed!
(And even I, Jess Burr, get to play…)

Jess Burr – Ensemble Training

Please stay tuned for more thrilling season announcements!

You Can Play, Too!

Beyond attending shows and celebrations, if you are able to make a contribution to Blessed Unrest, all donations are fully tax-deductible.

Please contribute via PayPal, Venmo, credit card, or send a check to Blessed Unrest, 530 West 45th Street, Suite 4G, New York, NY 10036.

THANK YOU!

While we’ll be putting the fun into fundraising with The Blessed Unrest Birthday Soirée on 12/11, we’d like to celebrate two organizations that have very generously helped to fund our upcoming season.

We are honored to have been supported by The Samuel H. Scripps Foundation since 2009.  SHS funds time-sensitive projects to shift the public conversation and drive policy change, and they have been hugely significant to our being able to thrive and take risks in artmaking over the years.

We’ve also received funding from the Ruth and Hal Launders Charitable Trust since 2018.  Particularly in the wake of the past two years, their support has helped to assuage the uncertainty of not only how to survive, but of how to continue making vital work.  Read our blog post here.

Playing Hard In Our Work

Playing hard in our work.

Blessed Unrest is an unusual organization in that we are a large company of creators who have been working, training, and honing our crafts together for anywhere between two and 22 years.  This allows us to go deeper every time we engage with the work.  It allows us to play hard.  Thank you for being a part of this community.

Blessed Unrest’s work is supported by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, MAP Fund, SHS Foundation, Ruth and Hal Launders Charitable Trust, A.R.T./New York Creative Space Grants supported by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Midnight Oil Collective, and the generosity of individual donors. Blessed Unrest is a member of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York, and the Network of Ensemble Theatres.

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 – The 2022 summer concert series at Arrowbrook Centre Park concluded August 27 with a performance by the brass ensemble “Brass 5” featuring hits of the Big Band Era of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. Launched in 2012 with a single performance date, the Arrowbrook series celebrated its tenth anniversary this year having lost the 2020 season due to the covid-19 pandemic.  Attendance this summer was greater than ever with more than 900 people, an Arrowbrook record, enjoying the show by indie rock group Nada Surf on July 30.  In a survey of outdoor summer concert venues in the Washington area, the Washington Post observed that in its first decade the Arrowbrook Park series “…has grown to host 90-minute sets by artists such as Nada Surf (July 30) and Bill Kirchen (Aug. 20) – bands that are more likely to headline the Black Cat or Birchmere [indoor paid venues] than to play for free in a Fairfax County park.”  In its July 29 edition of Weekend Going Out Guide, the Post featured an article on the Nada Surf show the following night at Arrowbrook with the headline: “A Nada Surf show? For free? Outdoors? Yes, yes and yes”. 

In a body of work spanning a quarter century, Nada Surf, led by lyricist Matthew Caws, reflects on the search for human connection from the lonely indecision of youth toward a nascent wisdom gleaned through the tumult of life. In its 9th studio album, Never Not Together, the band highlights the virtues of patience, empathy, and love.  “Empathy is good, lack of empathy is bad, holy math says we’re never not together,” Caws declares at the end of “Something I Should Do,” a crashing power-pop track with an insistent melody that adds urgency to his thoughts about 21st-century life.  Bill Kirchen has devoted his life to rock and roll beginning with his days in the band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen with its top-40 hit “Hot Rod Lincoln”.  Recognized for his mastery of the Fender Telecaster electric guitar, Kirchen, known as the “Titan of the Telecaster”, is just as proficient on many other musical instruments including the trombone which he played to the delight of the Arrowbrook audience on August 20.

The Arrowbrook concerts are part of the county-wide Summer Entertainment Series (SES) administered by the Fairfax County Park Authority.  The Authority’s mobile stage known as the Showmobile arrives at Arrowbrook Park every Saturday afternoon between Independence Day and Labor Day to host the evening show starting at 7:30 p.m.  The Ruth and Hal Launders Charitable Trust underwrites the expenses of the Arrowbrook series through its periodic cash restricted grants to the Fairfax County Park Foundation, the Authority’s charitable arm supporting the parks of Fairfax County.  While the Park Authority selects and books the performers, RHLCT has throughout the history of the series encouraged summer programs featuring a mix of musical styles and genres including musicians performing original works along with both popular cover and well-established bands the public would not normally hear for free. 

JULY 10, 2022 – On June 10-12, 2022, the Trustees of the Ruth and Hal Launders Charitable Trust met for their annual meeting at the Norman Bird Sanctuary in Middletown, RI. Guest speakers from the Kendall Foundation, CLF, Beautiful Day and Hope’s Harvest were invited to speak about the Root Causes of Hunger.  A presentation regarding the Implementation of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the RHLCT was also covered.  Below are links to all of the presentations:

JUNE 16, 2022 – Beginning on July 9, 2022, at 7:30 pm, the Fairfax County Park Authority will resume in-person concerts at Arrowbrook Park in Herndon, VA each Saturday of the summer. The series is free to the public and will feature a variety of musical acts from folk to funk and everything in-between.  Gather your family and friends, pack a picnic basket and enjoy the simple pleasure of being under the stars while enjoying good music. The Ruth and Hal Launders Charitable Trust is a proud sponsor of the series. Click on the image below for a concert flyer and complete schedule of events.

March 25, 2021 – Sadly, early this year we lost our good friend and colleague John H. “Jack” Webb.  Jack had served as a Co-Trustee of The Ruth and Hal Launders Charitable Trust since its formation in 2006.  Previously he was a co-trustee of the Ruth C. Launders Marital Trust following the death of his uncle, Hal Launders, in 1996.  He played a key role in the planning and administration of the Charitable Trust beginning with the advice and encouragement he gave Hal at the end of his life. Jack skillfully assisted in the contract negotiations involving many of the Trust’s land sales starting with its sale in 2007 of 15 acres for $45 million.  He chaired the Trust’s Finance and Investment Committee; his considerable business and financial expertise was an asset of the Trust.  Most importantly, his calm temperament, easy-going personality, and occasional display of a dry wit were the hallmarks of his many years of admirable service.  He will be greatly missed.  Following his passing, the remaining co-trustees unanimously elected Jack’s daughter Whitney as his successor.  She will become a Launders Trustee on May 1, 2021.

January 4, 2021 – On December 18, 2020, Arrowbrook Centre, LLC closed on a set of twin ground leases with affiliates of SCG Development Partners, LLC (“SCG”) to add affordable apartments to the diverse housing choices available at Arrowbrook Centre.  When completed in late 2022, Ovation at Arrowbrook will contain 274 dwelling units available for lease to tenants earning between 30% and 60% of local Area Median Income (AMI). The building will also include roughly 36,000 square feet of retail uses including restaurants and shops.  It will overlook a pedestrian plaza, adjoining streetscape, and a stream valley nature preserve. The 4.6-acre parcel under lease fronts on Centreville Road to the immediate right of the main entrance to Arrowbrook Centre.

“The decision by the trustees of the Launders Charitable Trust to move forward with Ovation at Arrowbrook reaffirms the Trust’s prior commitment to fostering of low-income housing as one of its charitable purposes”, said Jeff Fairfield, Executive Director of The Ruth and Hal Launders Charitable Trust.  I commend the trustees for their wisdom and foresight, and I salute the key contributions of federal, state, and county government which have made this project financially viable.”  Fairfield also expressed appreciation for the work of the many professionals at Pennoni Associates, Inc. of Herndon and DCS Design of Tysons, Virginia for their outstanding efforts in formulating the design and securing the approvals for Ovation at Arrowbrook and its supporting infrastructure.  Fairfield added: “A special accolade is due the management of SCG who have repeatedly demonstrated through its many housing developments nationwide that housing affordability and excellence in design are not incompatible.” 

For more on the key role played by Fairfax County Government and its housing authority in advancing Ovation at Arrowbrook to a reality, see the press release of the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority accessible via the following Internet link:  

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/housing/news/2020/affordable-arrowbrook-apartments-moves-forward 

Founded in 2006, The Ruth and Hal Launders Charitable Trust (“RHLCT”) is a charitable family foundation headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.  RHLCT is the sole member and owner of Arrowbrook Centre, LLC.  For more information, see arrowbrook.com.

May 1, 2020 – The Trustees of The Ruth and Hal Launders Charitable Trust (“RHLCT”) held a virtual special meeting in April 2020 and voted unanimously to authorize an out-of-cycle round of grants in light of the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. In taking this action, the Launders Trustees instructed the Trust’s staff to simplify and expedite the grant application and funding process to lessen the burden on applicants and their staffs. The Trustees also directed that grants be limited to public charities which RHLCT has previously supported and which serve vulnerable populations adversely impacted by the current public health crisis. The initial round of these special grants totaled $100,000, and it was completed in record time. In some instances, the time span from application to the grantee’s receipt of funds was reduced to as a few as 7 days. A few of the grantees receiving these emergency grants were the following charities:

FeedMore, Inc., Richmond, Virginia – $25,000;
The Jonnycake Center, Inc., Peace Dale, Rhode Island – $20,000;
Doorways for Women and Families, Arlington, Virginia – $10,000;
Boca Helping Hands, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida – $10,000;
Alpha-Omega Miracle Home, Inc., St. Augustine, Florida – $10,000; and
Achievement Centers for Children and Families – $10,000

A second round of emergency Covid-19 related grants is planned for later this spring.

The Ruth and Hal Launders Charitable Trust is a family foundation headquartered in Herndon, Virginia and is governed by a five-member Board of Trustees.