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Mikaela Lefrak

Latest Stories (5)

Small company puzzles out delivery logistics with sudden demand

Dec 25, 2020
How 2020 created a thriving market for one Black-owned company in Washington, D.C.
Puzzle Huddle founder Matthew Goins in his family’s living room, which currently doubles as a warehouse.
Tyrone Turner/DCist/WAMU

Theaters and dance companies scramble to survive this holiday season

Dec 9, 2020
Arts organizations have had to cancel or reimagine their blockbuster holiday shows due to the pandemic.
Faith Lee rehearses the role of Clara in the Maryland Youth Ballet’s 2020 version of “The Nutcracker.”
Courtesy of the Maryland Youth Ballet

Washington clothing designers want a fashion industry for the capital

Jan 2, 2020
Small-scale designers and boutique owners in the nation’s capital are trying to build the city’s fashion industry from the ground up.
Stacey Price owns Shop Made in D.C., a local boutique that sells clothing, accessories and art by Washington designers.
Mikaela Lefrak

How public-private partnerships fund national landmarks

Oct 3, 2019
The monuments on the National Mall in Washington D.C. memorialize the country’s wars and great leaders, and one might assume that the federal government pays for all of them. But they’re actually funded in large part by private citizens. Take the Washington Monument, which recently reopened after three years of renovations. The view from the […]
Birds fly over The Washington Monument.
Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

At a Starbucks located near a college for the deaf, all the baristas know ASL

Nov 29, 2018
Starbucks designed a store specifically for deaf and hard of hearing people.
Sign language interpretation major student Nikolas Carapellatti (L) signs with deaf Gallaudet University student Rebecca Witzofsky outside the first Starbucks café staffed by employees who are partially or fully deaf and capable of communicating in American Sign Language in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 23, 2018.
JIM WATSON / Getty Images