Youngkin participates in March for Life

Dr. Sia Sobhani has been told that he is no longer considered a US citizen because he was mistakenly granted citizenship when he was born, and now must reapply, in his office  on November 22 in Vienna, VA.

The Washington Post

HANDOUT on 12/12/23

The bronze head of the Robert E. Lee statue rests on its side on a table. Behind it, a foundry worker, out of focus and obscured by a protective face shield, thick sleeve and work gloves, brings an electric tool along the hairline of the statue's head, separating the face from the rest of the head. A white light surrounds the tool as orange and yellow sparks shoot away from where the tool makes contact with the metal.

Ranch from Misty of Chincoteague Saved

HANDOUT on 3/13/23

For The Washington Post

Virginia Elections

Devon Henry talks about statue removal in Richmond

The battle over book content continues in Virginia

petersburg

A line of moving trucks driving down a street, as well as one single-family house being built by construction workers, on a street filled with other single-family houses.

local-missingmiddle-comic


VABOARD

Photographer

Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton will not seek reelection. 

for The Washington Post

School Shooting Newport News

Wounded Indian statue

Woman Who Lost Her Son and Husband Returns to the Scene of the Terrible Crime

Staff Photographer

handout

Back underground with Hazel the tunnel boring machine, on April 19 in Alexandria, VA.

Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

It was one of the first warm days last year, and Cat Janice and her son were bopping around in the car. Then the words popped into their heads.

“Dance until you love me,” they sang, over and over again.

They would goof around to that line frequently over the next few months, often while Janice drove. The words eventually became the basis for the latest — and possibly last — song from the D.C.-area alt-pop singer: At 31, Janice is in hospice with an aggressive form of cancer.

Facing the end of her life, Janice wanted to publish the song that began as a bonding moment with her 7-year-old and direct the single’s proceeds to him. She raced to release the music on Jan. 19, the day before her birthday.

“I did not even know if I was going to be alive when this song came out, at the time. So I just kind of did it, and now here we are,” said Janice, born Catherine Janice Ipsan. “And honestly, it’s a miracle.”

The song, “<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@cat.janice/video/7321188503738420510" target=_blank>Dance You Outta My Head</a>,” has since soared to the top 10 tracks on iTunes and been used in more than 34,000 TikToks. The users <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@itsme_lisap/video/7326595827101601066" target=_blank>sharing it</a> range from young adults to people whose accounts identify themselves as “GramaCarolyn” and “Grandadjoe.” Several have posted in other languages, including French and Ukrainian, encouraging others to share the song in support. Even singer Jason Derulo commented on one of Janice’s videos that he was praying for her.

Many of the people sharing the single said they felt a personal connection to Janice’s story. For Sophie Soraya Hamidi, 18, her experience with lymphoma made her want to support a fellow cancer patient. She used the song in a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sophiesorayaa/video/7325937963987193118" target=_blank>TikTok</a> that showed her getting bloodwork done.

“Listening to this song, ‘Dance You Outta My Head,’ is kind of a way for me to say, ‘I’m going to not think about this cancer,’” she said.

The song’s success has had a ripple effect. David Zierler, owner of the Las Vegas-based Handwritten Records, which worked with Janice on an album last year, said the hit has spurred people to discover more of her music.

“They’re not just listening to that one song,” he said. “They’re following her. They’re following the story.”

“I did not even know if I was going to be alive when this song came out, at the time. So I just kind of did it, and now here we are.”

Janice grew up in Annandale, the daughter of a former DJ who taught her children to love the Beatles and Pink Floyd. As a child, Janice played violin in a local orchestra and later spent hours writing songs.

Her brother, Will Ipsan, said she used to escape to her bedroom  to tinker at the piano while the family was playing board games. When he eventually joined her upstairs, she would still be immersed in the music.

“There she is at her piano, playing some Lana Del Rey song, staring out the window,” said Ipsan, 27.

Janice was working as a geospatial information scientist and building her career as a singer when her life changed dramatically in 2022. An unusual lump in her neck turned out to be sarcoma, a rare cancer. She withdrew from her master’s program in coastal geology and limited her work hours while she made regular trips to New York City for treatment.

Seventeen rounds of chemotherapy later, doctors offered some much needed good news: Janice was cancer-free.  Kyle Higginbotham, now her husband, said the couple bought a house in West Palm Beach, Fla., ready for a change.

That new chapter never came. The cancer roared back a few months later, and this time, it was in her lungs.

Meredith White

But Janice continued to make music, performing in shows and recording her aptly named album, “Modern Medicine.” She documented her experience with cancer on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@cat.janice" target=_blank>TikTok</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/cat.janice/?hl=en" target=_blank>Instagram</a>, gaining followers who were there as much to support her through her illness as for her music.

In the fall, Janice entered a competition with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers that paired her with the Tony Award-nominated songwriter Max Vernon. They spent the next few weeks on video calls, fleshing out the song that Janice and her son had begun to create — and ended up winning the contest.

By December, Janice’s health was deteriorating quickly. She and Higginbotham, who had gotten engaged in August at her album release party, decided to accelerate their plans to marry.

Jahi Chikwendiu

“We’re coming up on Christmas,” Higginbotham recalled, “and the conversations with the doctors just started to change from, ‘We think we can beat this thing,’ to, ‘It’s moving very fast.’”

Perspective: Losing my son taught me a simple rule: When someone is mourning, say something

They wed on Dec. 28 at the church where her parents had married years earlier — Janice adorned in a shimmery gold dress and crown. Although she had to remain seated during the ceremony, Higginbotham said she was able to summon enough strength to walk down the aisle.

@LADYBAGUETTE

Janice entered intensive care a few days later. Realizing she may not survive much longer, she decided to release a final track that would honor her connection with her son, Loren. A musically inclined child and a big fan of his mom’s songs, he often helps Janice with music videos and wanders into her home studio to offer his opinions.

Janice also wanted her final song to have a positive message. She had plenty of sad or sassy tracks in the vault, she said, but sharing those didn’t feel right. “Dance You Outta My Head,” by contrast, focuses on dancing until you forget someone you don’t want to think about.

“She just wanted everyone to dance and remember her in that way,” Ipsan said. “And remember her as someone who got you up off your feet, dancing — out of your mind and into your body.”

Janice usually spends a month or two preparing a song for release, but she knew she didn’t have that kind of time. She skipped working with her usual label and released the track independently.

“Dance You Outta My Head” became public just before Janice’s birthday on Jan. 20, when friends and family surprised her with a party in her hospice space. Surrounded by glittering disco balls and gold balloons, Janice marveled at being alive.

“Truly,” she said, “I feel blessed by God to be able to have this moment with my son.”

The support from loved ones and fans has buoyed Janice during what may be her final days. When she woke up in the middle of the night one day to see her song taking off on iTunes, she screamed with excitement — prompting her friend to run into the room, thinking something was gravely wrong.

Janice is undergoing radiation, which her brother says has bought her some time, and <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/catherine-beat-cancer" target=_blank>the family is fundraising</a> for her continued treatment.

But Janice knows this song may represent the end of her music career, and she hopes her legacy will be that she always stayed true to herself in her music and other creations.

“Any art that I’ve left behind, whether it’s pottery or painting or whatever, has just been an expression of myself and just been me,” she said. “Here’s me, you know?”

American University, MA in Journalism and Public Affairs

University of Notre Dame, BA in American Studies

Marisa Iati is a general assignment reporter at The Washington Post — a role in which she has covered the coronavirus pandemic, police shootings, foreign wars, the White House and more. She joined The Post in 2019 and previously worked at the Star-Ledger and NJ.com in New Jersey.

Marisa Iati

Dying of cancer, D.C. area singer Cat Janice releases last song

the-washington-post

From hospice, an alt-pop singer releases her final song — for her son

name

washpost

prism://prism.query/local-states,/local/virginia,/local/virginia/vapolitics,VA&limit=20

Virginia

The Washington Post is your source for Virginia news. Find breaking news, political reports, school information and check Virginia traffic and crime reports.

Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning.

D.C., Md. & Va.

The Washington Post offers breaking local news, weather and traffic information for the DC, Maryland and Virginia metro areas, plus information about school districts, crime, government, religion, the lottery,restaurant reviews and obituaries.

From hospice, alt-pop singer releases what may be final song — for her son