Step Afrika! launches its 25th anniversary at the Music Center at Strathmore with a retrospective of the Company’s best-loved works on Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 5 p.m. The performance continues Strathmore’s rich collaboration with Step Afrika!, started in 2014, to celebrate step by showcasing some of the art form’s best 
performers annually on its hallmark Music Center stage. The performance includes selected works from Step Afrika!’s history, including Wade,Passing 25, and Nxt/Stp: Hip Hop. The wide range of work demonstrates the versatility of step, connecting it to hip hop, African American spirituals, and South African traditional and contemporary dance forms. Dem Raider Boyz Step Squad of Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Prince George’s County will open the show; the troupe achieved national notoriety on NBC’s reality-competition show World of Dance in 2018. For more information call (301) 581-5100 or visitwww.strathmore.org.
Step Afrika! was founded in 1994 as the first professional company dedicated to the tradition of stepping. It now ranks as one of the top African American dance companies in the United States. The Company blends percussive dance styles practiced by historically African American fraternities and sororities, African traditional dance, and influences from a variety of other dance and art forms. Performances traditionally integrate song, storytelling, humor, and audience participation.
In 2019, Step Afrika! will launch its first tour in Ukraine and will return to South Africa in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the historic election of President Nelson Mandela. Step Afrika! has performed at the White House for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, headlining their Presidential Black History Month Reception, and is also featured prominently at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in the world’s first stepping interactive—a video installation where patrons can learn the basics of step straight from Step Afrika! instructors. They also brought a step showcase to New York’s famed theater district for the first time, with a three-week, sold-out engagement at the New Victory Theater.
Juliet Eilperin, the Senior National Affairs Correspondent for The Washington Post has been chosen by the Environmental Film Festival (DCEFF) for their inaugural “Excellence in Journalism” award. Eilperin, a DC native, and author of two books, has worked at The Washington Post’s national desk for 20 years, covering the White House, Congress and a host of domestic and international policies. Her work has often centered on environmental issues.
“We are pleased to honor Juliet and to present her with our first ever Excellence in Journalism Award,” said, Christopher Head, the Executive Director of the Environmental Film Festival. “The theme of the this year’s festival is “The Fierce Urgency of Now” and Juliet Eilperin’s excellent journalism has helped to pave the way for understanding what’s at stake and what our government is or isn’t doing at this moment of environmental crisis.”
The Annual benefit will take place on February 7, 2019 at the Austrian Embassy (3524 International Court, NW) and will be hosted by Ambassador H.E. Doctor Wolfgang Waldner.
“Austria is strongly committed to environmental protection and sustainable energy,” said Ambassador Wolfgang Waldner. “We are very honored to host this year’s Environmental Film Festival Benefit Reception at the Austrian Embassy.”
Many of the benefit’s co-chairs, host committee and honorary host committee will be on hand for the evening and the Austrian Cultural Forum will also be a presenter. The DCEFF will run from March 14-24, 2019 and will present more than 120 films from around the globe. Tickets for the reception can be purchased here.
The Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (DCEFF) is the world’s premier showcase of environmentally themed films. Since 1993, our mission has been to celebrate Earth and inspire understanding and stewardship of the environment through the power of film. Each March in Washington, D.C., we host the largest environmental film festival in the world, presenting 100+ films to audiences of more than 20,000 and collaborating with over 110 partners, including museums, embassies, universities, and theaters. The festival is one of the leading annual cultural events in Washington, D.C., winning the 2017 DC Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Creative Industries.
Chocolate Festival
Saturday, Feb. 9, and Sunday, Feb. 10; 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian holds its annual Chocolate Festival in February. From the blossoms of the cacao tree which grows in Mesoamerica, the Maya culture developed chocolate. This program will introduce visitors to indigenous symbols and images representing cacao throughout pre-Columbian history and invite participants to make an art-inspired piece. Participants will enjoy the music of Guatemalan Marimba with Marimba AWAL and join Grupo Los Tecuanes (Mixtec) as they share the process of turning cacao into chocolate. Executive Chef, Mitsitam Native Foods Café, Freddie Bitsoie (Diné), will demonstrate various recipes inspired by chocolate. Limited tastings will be available during the demonstrations. Families and children can participate in different activities in the imagiNATIONS Activity Center, including make-and-take a cacao pendant using the Mayan glyph for cacao (chocolate).
Crêpe Day: Celebrate La Chandeleur!
Saturday, February 9, 2019, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Enjoy crêpes, storytelling, art projects, and more amidst Hillwood’s spectacular gardens, magnificent mansion, and exquisite French treasures.
4155 Linnean Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20008
Chocolate Festival
Saturday, Feb. 9, and Sunday, Feb. 10; 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian holds its annual Chocolate Festival in February. From the blossoms of the cacao tree which grows in Mesoamerica, the Maya culture developed chocolate. This program will introduce visitors to indigenous symbols and images representing cacao throughout pre-Columbian history and invite participants to make an art-inspired piece. Participants will enjoy the music of Guatemalan Marimba with Marimba AWAL and join Grupo Los Tecuanes (Mixtec) as they share the process of turning cacao into chocolate. Executive Chef, Mitsitam Native Foods Café, Freddie Bitsoie (Diné), will demonstrate various recipes inspired by chocolate. Limited tastings will be available during the demonstrations. Families and children can participate in different activities in the imagiNATIONS Activity Center, including make-and-take a cacao pendant using the Mayan glyph for cacao (chocolate).
The UK’s only strictly orthodox Jewish stand-up comedian Ashley Blaker will be taking his hilarious new show ASHLEY BLAKER: STRICTLY UNORTHODOX (the first-ever stand-up show about life as a charedi / strictly orthodox Jew)across the United States this winter, with a stop in Washington, DC on February 10, at Sixth & I, 600 I St NW.
Ashley Blaker is quite possibly the most successful stand-up comedian you’ve never heard of. He is an internationally acclaimed comedian who, with his black suit, white shirt, beard, large skullcap and sidelocks is the only strictly orthodox stand-up in the UK. In STRICTLY UNORTHODOX, he’ll hilariously take on why Jewish holidays are so different to everyone else’s, how orthodox Jews manage in the workplace when they cannot shake hands with people of the opposite sex and why Jews around the world are just downright obsessed with sushi. His routine on bad driving and awful parking has audiences uproarious with laughter.
Mr. Blaker is fresh off the heels of having performed a five-week, 35 performance Off-Broadway run that was raved about by The New York Times, New York Post and Fox News. He has previously performed two sell-out tours of the UK (Ungefiltered and Meshuga Frum)to great acclaim and toured his comedy across Israel, South Africa and Canada as well. When he started performing in the USA, it was in a sold-out run at New York’s Gramercy Theatre. He has also performed a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Previous to starting stand-up, he was a producer and writer for TVand radio and is most famous for unleashing Little Britain on the UK masses. He has also worked with Matt Lucas on And The Winner Is (BBC Radio 2), The Matt Lucas Awards (BBC One), Rock Profile and Pompidou (BBC 2). Black Hat Productions (Ashley’s production company) is currently making several new series for BBC Radio 4. He attended high school with Matt Lucas and Sacha Baron Cohen and has worked alongside some of the biggest names in British comedy such as John Oliver, James Corden, Russell Brand, Graham Norton, Michael McIntyre and many more. His debut solo radio show Ashley Blaker’s Goyish Guide to Judaism aired in May 2018 on BBC Radio 4. He will soon be touring Australia.
Whether secular or religious, you don’t want to miss Ashley’s hysterical take on what it means to be STRICTLY UNORTHODOX.
Tickets are$30 and can be purchased online at https://www.sixthandi.org/event/ashley-blaker/
Get Snowed Inn with The Children’s Inn at NIH on Feb. 23, 2019. Join the perfect DC après-ski party and dance the night away with a live DJ or finish unwinding from the holiday rush by relaxing in a ski lodge setting, with friends old and new. What else? Enjoy unlimited drinks created by the area’s best mixologists, plus a wide range of appetizers and bites, bid on unique experiences offered through a silent auction, play games or create a small gift to lift the spirits of a child staying at The Children’s Inn. It’s great to get Snowed Inn!
Website: www.childrensinn.org/
Mardi Gras Extravaganza DC will be coming to The Showroom [March 5, 2019] on Fat Tuesday from 6PM-10PM. Join the co-chairs – N’awlins native chef David Guas and chef Spike Mendelsohn, along with Gina Chersevani, one of the most beloved mixologists in the DC area, and Bruce Pike of Pike Productions known for elaborate event productions. The all-you-can-
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Colleen Murphy of Blue Duck Tavern
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Tracy O’Grady of 1789 Restaurant
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Lauren Matthews of Urbana
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Kelsey Burack of DBGB Kitchen & Bar by Daniel Boulud
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Chef Ruth Gresser of Pizzeria Paradiso
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Georgetown Cupcake
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Hank’s Oyster Bar
