On Thursday, November 29, 2018 in the Main Hall of Union Station, a consortium of partners including Washington Performing Arts, the Royal Norwegian Embassy, the Norwegian-American Chamber of Commerce—Mid-Atlantic Chapter, the Bach Project, and Union Station present a holiday celebration event, with performances by local artists, the annual Norwegian Christmas tree lighting, an appearance by Santa Claus, and culminating in a simulcast of Yo-Yo Ma’s performance of J.S. Bach’s complete cello suites live from the National Cathedral, presented by Washington Performing Arts in memory of Isaac Stern.
For more than 20 years, Norway has presented a Christmas tree to the people of Washington, in recognition of its strong friendship with the United States and in gratitude for America’s assistance during and after World War II. This year’s Christmas tree is made possible by Equinor, Kongsberg Gruppen, Nammo Inc., Innovation Norway, and Insitu Inc.
Complete Schedule of Events
Norwegian Christmas Tree Lighting (6pm)
Featuring the Washington Performing Arts Children of the Gospel Choir and a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus
Mars Urban Arts Initiative Holiday Pop-Up Concert (7pm)
Featuring the Howard University Gospel Choir & more
Washington Performing Arts’ Mars Urban Arts Initiative and Brightest Young Things present a holiday pop-up concert that showcases some of D.C.’s beloved hometown musical acts, including the Howard University Gospel Choir. Throughout the evening, guests will also have a chance to learn about global holiday traditions and J.S. Bach’s music from organizations like the Royal Norwegian Embassy, the Norwegian-American Chamber of Commerce – Mid-Atlantic Chapter, the Library of Congress, and D.C. Public Library.
Simulcast: The Bach Project at Washington National Cathedral
Yo-Yo Ma Performs Bach Cello Suites (8pm)
Live audio/video feed from Washington National Cathedral
In Memory of Isaac Stern
Yo-Yo Ma’s sold-out performance of Bach’s cello suites at Washington National Cathedral, presented by Washington Performing Arts, will be simulcast at Union Station in conjunction with the annual Norwegian Christmas Tree Lighting, a beloved Washington, D.C. holiday tradition. This concert simulcast is part of Yo-Yo Ma’s Bach Project, a two-year journey to perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s six suites for solo cello in 36 locations around the world. It is an undertaking motivated not only by Yo-Yo’s six-decade relationship with the music, but also by Bach’s ability to speak to our shared humanity at a time when our civic conversation is so often focused on division.
The Library of Congress will present a display of treasures and manuscripts relating to J.S. Bach and Yo-Yo Ma’s career at Washington National Cathedral, in conjunction with Yo-Yo Ma’s performance.
Free, registration encouraged | Family-friendly
http://tinyurl.com/
Yo-Yo Ma’s performance at Washington National Cathedral is made possible in part by the generous support of
Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather, the Linda and Isaac Stern Charitable Foundation, and Daniel Heider.
The simulcast is made possible by Yo-Yo Ma’s Bach Project and the Mars Urban Arts Initiative, which is generously supported by Jacqueline Badger Mars and Mars, Incorporated.
These events are part of Washington Performing Arts’ global programming initiative, The World in Our City, which provides perspective on what it means to be a citizen of the world through a unique arts-based lens. Special thanks to Her Excellency Shaikha Aisha AlKhalifa, Spouse of the Ambassador, Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain; Jennifer and Brian Coulter; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; Jan and Marike Paulsson; Mary Jo Veverka; Michael Frankhuizen; Karin’s Florist.
Constant Contact, a leader in small business marketing, has partnered with Unique Markets to present a pop-up holiday marketplace featuring DC’s local designers, artists, and emerging brands.
The event takes place Sunday, December 9th at Dock 5 at Union Market (1309 5th St NE) 11AM to 6PM.
It’s a great way to find unique gifts for everyone on your list and support your local community while enjoying DJs, DIY projects, kid’s activities, holiday photo booths and more.
For tickets visit: Unique Markets Holiday Tour Note – you can continue to link up with these DC small business vendors and great gift ideas at this website –https://www.uniquemarkets.com/
VIDA Fitness is relieving the DC area of gift-giving anxiety by bringing fun, local retailers into their studios for a Holiday Bazaar this December. The Holiday Bazaar will be open to the public on Wednesday, December 12 at VIDA’s City Vista location and again on Thursday, December 13 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at VIDA’s U Street location. Retailers include District Distillery, District of Clothing, Dani Marie Artistry, Prescription Chicken, LuLaroe, Grape Intentions, Freres Branchiaux, Milk Bar,Snowing in Space Coffee, Metal and Stone Creations and Bicycle Trash. All local merchants will provide a discount and distribute free samples.
WHO: VIDA Fitness
Vendors Include:
- District Distillery
- District of Clothing
- Prescription Chicken
- LuLaroe
- Grape Intentions
- Freres Branchiaux
- Milk Bar
- Snowing in Space Coffee
- Metal and Stone Creations
- Bicycle Trash
WHAT: Holiday Bazar
Register: vidafitness.com/bazaar
WHEN: VIDA – City Vista
Wednesday, December 12
5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
VIDA Fitness is relieving the DC area of gift-giving anxiety by bringing fun, local retailers into their studios for a Holiday Bazaar this December. The Holiday Bazaar will be open to the public on Wednesday, December 12 at VIDA’s City Vista location and again on Thursday, December 13 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at VIDA’s U Street location. Retailers include District Distillery, District of Clothing, Dani Marie Artistry, Prescription Chicken, LuLaroe, Grape Intentions, Freres Branchiaux, Milk Bar,Snowing in Space Coffee, Metal and Stone Creations and Bicycle Trash. All local merchants will provide a discount and distribute free samples.
WHO: VIDA Fitness
Vendors Include:
- District Distillery
- District of Clothing
- Prescription Chicken
- LuLaroe
- Grape Intentions
- Freres Branchiaux
- Milk Bar
- Snowing in Space Coffee
- Metal and Stone Creations
- Bicycle Trash
WHAT: Holiday Bazar
Register: vidafitness.com/bazaar
VIDA – U Street
Thursday, December 13
5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Hello! On Friday, January 18 at 7 p.m. Laurie Halse Anderson, author of the critically acclaimed and bestselling young adult novel Speak, will be at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast celebrating the launch of book’s 20th anniversary edition, which hits shelves on January 15. Laurie will be in-conversation with National Book Award-winning author Elizabeth Acevedo.
#1 bestselling author Alyson Richman will be visiting Washington, D.C. to promote her new release, THE SECRET OF CLOUDS (Berkley Hardcover; February 19, 2019).
Alyson Richman is known for her sweeping, poignant works of historical fiction like The Lost Wife. Now, Richman pens a story of love and loss about a Ukrainian immigrant family living in New York following the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear plant.
Saturday, March 9, 2019
In Conversation with Pam Jenoff
3:30 PM
Politics & Prose
5015 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Free and open to the public
In THE SECRET OF CLOUDS, Katya, a rising ballerina, and Sasha, a graduate student, are young and in love when an unexpected tragedy befalls their native Kiev, Ukraine. Years later, after the couple has safely immigrated to America, the consequences of this incident cause their son, Yuri, to be born with a rare health condition that isolates him from other children. Maggie, a passionate and dedicated teacher, agrees to tutor Yuri at his home, even though she is haunted by her own painful childhood memories. As the two forge a deep and soulful connection, Yuri’s boundless curiosity and unique wisdom inspire Maggie to make difficult changes in her own life. And she’ll never realize just how strong Yuri has made her—until she needs that strength the most.
O.B. HARDISON POETRY
Vinegar and Char: Verse from the Southern Foodways Alliance
Three poets from this culinary anthology, Sandra Beasley, Sean Hill, and Atsuro Riley, read work that delves into the shaping influence of history, culture, and identity—and celebrates the glory of food itself. This evening is in conjunction with Before ‘Farm to Table’: Early Modern Foodways and Cultures, a Mellon initiative in collaborative research at the Folger. Reception and book-signing to follow the reading.
Hours: 7:30pm
Tickets: $15
Info: www.folger.edu/poetry or (202) 544-7077
Former President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, daughter of the late Governor Ann Richards, and a “heroine of the resistance” (Vogue), Cecile Richards has spent a lifetime fighting for social justice and women’s rights. After years of advocacy, resistance, and progressive leadership, she shares her story in her New York Times bestselling memoir, MAKE TROUBLE: Stand Up, Speak Out, and Find the Courage to Lead (Gallery; Trade Paperback; March 26, 2019; $16), featuring a *NEW AFTERWORD* in which Richards proposes a Women’s Declaration of Independence and calls for a new movement to transform our politics.
In MAKE TROUBLE, Richards presents a timely and important message: To make change, you have to make trouble. In her book, she illuminates the people and the lessons that have gotten her through good times and bad and the experiences that taught her how to stand up, speak out, and find the courage to lead. In the “powerful and infinitely readable” (Gloria Steinem) MAKE TROUBLE, Richards reflects on the people and lessons that have gotten her through good times and bad, and encourages the rest of us to take risks, make mistakes, and make trouble along the way.
Cecile Richards will be in conversation with Congresswoman Lauren Underwood, the youngest African American woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, on:
Wednesday, March 27
7:00 PM
Sixth & I
600 I Street NW, Washington, DC 20001
For more information, please visit https://www.sixthandi.org/event/cecile-richards-2.
On April 5, the award-winning Hay-Adams, located steps from the White House at 800 16th Street, NW, 20006, will host its next Author Series luncheon honoring David W. Blight to discuss his latest work, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, which published October 16, 2018. The Hay-Adams’ Author Series, where literary crowds honor literary masters, is an on-going event, which hosts outstanding writers in a historic setting, directly overlooking the White House at the Top of The Hay. One will enjoy exceptional food, drink and lively conversation. Tickets are priced at $90 per person (all inclusive), which includes a three-course, prix fixe menu with wine pairings: https://www.hayadams.com/
Additionally, Kramerbooks (http://kramers.com) will be on hand so guests will have the opportunity to purchase a copy of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, which Blight can sign and personalize after the luncheon. Tickets go on sale March 15 and will be available online at: http://www.hayadams.com/
WHO: David W. Blight is a teacher, scholar and public historian. He is Class of 1954 Professor of American History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including
American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era; and Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory; and annotated editions of Douglass’s first two autobiographies. He has worked on Douglass much of his professional life, and been awarded the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and the Frederick Douglass Prize, among others.
His newest book, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, is the first major biography written in the last quarter century about the most important African American of the nineteenth century. An escaped slave,Douglass became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists and writers of the era. Blight brings new information about Douglass to light in the tome, particularly the last thirty years of his life, thanks to access he gained to a trove of papers and letters in a private collection that no other historian has used in any full-length biography of Douglass. It has been recognized as a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and TimeTop 10 Book of the Year.
David W. Blight was born in Flint, Michigan. After achieving his undergraduate degree, he taught in a public high school in his hometown for seven years. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1985 with a thesis titled “Keeping Faith in Jubilee: Frederick Douglass and the Meaning of the Civil War”. Blight has been a consultant to many documentary films, including, “Death and the Civil War,” (2012), the 1998 PBS series, “Africans in America,” and “The Reconstruction Era” (2004) among others. He is also a frequent book reviewer for the New York Times, Washington Post Book World, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe, Slate.com and other newspapers, and has written many articles on abolitionism, American historical memory, and African American intellectual and cultural history.
WHEN: The luncheon will be held at the Top of The Hay on Friday, April 5, 2019, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. (doors open at 11:30 a.m.).
WHERE: The Hay-Adams is located at 800 16th Street NW, Washington DC, 20006, across Lafayette Square from the White House. The historic Hay-Adams offers guests Washington’s most prestigious address with views overlooking the White House, Lafayette Square and St. John’s Church, the “Church of the Presidents.” Consistently recognized as one of the world’s best hotels by Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Fodor’s Travel and U.S. News & World Report, the hotel is just minutes from the Smithsonian Museums, the Washington Monument, the Capitol Building, the Mall, as well as convenient to Metro stations and the convention center. For reservations or more information call (202) 638-6600 or visit their website at www.hayadams.com.
