Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. appears as the setting for a passage at Locke Hall, Howard University, where administrative work on a list of young Black women is set against the narrator’s memory of a failed attempt to alter Kenny’s behavior. The location anchors a scene in which institutional planning and personal recollection meet.

Identification and Setting

The passage is headed “Locke Hall, Howard University” and “Washington, DC,” placing its action at the university in Washington, D.C. The text supplies no broader description of the city or of Locke Hall; the location is established through this heading rather than through an extended account of the surroundings.

Work at Locke Hall

At Locke Hall, the narrator opens a spreadsheet of young Black women considered in need of “fixing.” One entry concerns teachers at a women’s college in Atlanta. The narrator regards that group as unfamiliar territory and notes limited experience working with women in their forties compared with women in their twenties and thirties. The dean’s request remains in play because Dick has not rejected it, leaving the narrator feeling unable to refuse it either.

Kenny and the Failed Formula

After printing the spreadsheet, the narrator looks toward the McMillan Reservoir and remembers Kenny. The recollection centers on the effects of a hair-grease formula that was intended to change temperament: Kenny’s expression and voice had become markedly flat. Imani had assured the narrator that the effect would be limited to temperament, but the outcome exceeded that expectation. The narrator reflects that it took years to develop a less harsh formula.

Narrative Significance

The setting connects a university-based administrative task with the ongoing effort to intervene in the lives of Black women. The spreadsheet’s neutral, procedural form contrasts with the narrator’s memory of Kenny and the consequences of the earlier formula. Washington, D.C. therefore serves as the location for a passage where the language of organized intervention is unsettled by remembered evidence of harm.