The voices behind Optimus Prime and Bumblebee were at D.C.’s Public Space Committee meeting Thursday, fighting to have a pair of Transformers statues in Georgetown stay where they are.
After the Georgetown Board denied Newton Howard’s push to keep the two Autobots rolled out on the D.C. sidewalk, he returned to the committee with a star-studded appeal.
Howard, a Georgetown University professor, told WTOP that the statues were built from equipment used for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease treatments.
Now, those statues are being pushed off the street.
‘More than meets the eye’
While residents testified both in opposition and support of keeping the statues stationed along the 3600 block of Prospect Street NW, it was actors from the Transformers and Star Wars franchises that drew attention.
“We all are one, out,” Bumblebee voice actor Dan Gilvezan told the committee.
He and Peter Cullen, voice actor for Optimus Prime, testified in support of the statues, adding that many people, including children, love these statues.
Emily Swallow, perhaps best known for her work as The Armorer in the ‘The Mandalorian’ space-western that takes place in the Star Wars universe, testified Thursday morning in defense of keeping the statues and what she called “the right to bear arts.”
However, community members took issue with both Howard’s response time to the request to take down the statues and the decision to keep them up despite pressures from the committee.
Tracie Themak testified against keeping the statues in Georgetown. She said that Howard was only allowed to temporarily install the figures in 2021.
Plans submitted to the council by Howard showed the statues were still in a public space and subject to removal.
“The applicant would have to submit a substantially different application … for reconsideration,” Chairman Elliott Garrett said, according to committee records.
