Bestselling author of Me Talk Pretty One Day and other satirical gems David Sedaris returns with the acerbic humor, social commentary, and outlandish stories that transfixed a sold-out audience at his last Strathmore show. Sedaris is one of today’s most observant writers addressing the human condition, which he details hilariously in his latest book, Calypso, described as beach reading for people who detest beaches and required reading for those who loathe small talk. Fans will love to hear these stories live as the Grammy-nominee and New York Times best-selling author brings heart and hilarity to the stage.
“The Arts, Identity and Societal Inclusivity” Pop-up exhibit and conversations organized by the Arts for Global Development, Inc aims at facilitating an open, safe and creative environment to talk about identity, diversity as well as those issues that communities tackle on a day to-day basis especially in the context of voluntary and involuntary mobility of millions of people who are scattered across the globe.
The arts provoke thoughts and encourage people to embark upon issues that are sometimes hard to come to terms with. Contemporary artists often examine their identities by using themselves or aspects of themselves as a starting point to tell a story or address a larger issue like “acceptance or belonging”. During this event, one such contemporary designer and a multidisciplinary researcher Neba will showcase her fashion-art pieces that introduce unique and spiritual methods and folk pieces from her ancestry and upbringing.
Along with Neba’s one day/pop up exhibition called “Feast”, the Sandy Spring Museum Director, Allison Weiss and Cameron Okeke from Urban Institute will be sharing their experiences of how they’ve used the arts, from communicating the stories of displaced people to building creative and safe places in broken communities around the US.
“We certainly live in interesting times where social tension is rising in this ongoing “us and them” discourse. With this event we aim tobring our community together and use creativity as a means to broaden our perspectives. We do hope the works and discussions will inspire and encourage everyone in taking actions that support inclusion, ” said Nil Navaie, the founder and president of Arts for Global Development, Inc.
“The Arts, Identity and Societal Inclusivity” Pop-up exhibit and conversations event will be held at the Fridge Arts Gallery (516 8th Street SE, Washington DC) on April 4th from 5:30 – 8 pm.
The event is free, however RSVPs are recommended via http://www.art4development.net/.
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.
The 6th Annual Best Buddies PROM – two parties with one purpose – is a dynamic twist on the DC gala that features both student and adult receptions. It will be held Friday, April 5 at The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. This joyous night of music, friendship, fundraising, and making memories for young people with and without Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) will be the highlight of DC’s spring event season. PROM2019 will treat students of all abilities to a spectacular evening which is also a fundraising event for adults who believe in the mission of inclusion. Best Buddies was founded 30 years ago by Anthony Kennedy Shriver at Georgetown University. Tickets are on sale now at www.BestBuddiesProm.org.
“This year’s PROM will push us to surpass one million dollars in monies raised since we began PROM in DC in 2013… enabling us to open 64 friendship chapters in Virginia and Washington DC schools, support 25 (adult) Jobs participants at integrated workplaces, and facilitate leadership development opportunities for nearly 200 individuals with IDD,” said Karen Glasser, Regional Director of Best Buddies Capital Region. “We can’t wait to celebrate this $1M milestone with our Best Buddies family!”
The lively evening will be hosted by Tommy McFly, Best Buddies Capital Region Advisory Board Chairman and host of The Tommy Show. Music and Entertainment will be provided by crowd favorite, DJ Neekola, and performers from the Pelonkey Agency. The Reagan Building’s beauty will be on display with decor by Design Foundry elevating the PROM goers’ experience.
Students are the stars of the evening. Adults will also enjoy their own celebration, including a complimentary open bar, delicious passed hors d’oeuvres by Reagan Building Executive, Chef Xavier Deshayes, and an exciting live and silent auction. In addition, some of the region’s most celebrated chefs will lend their time and culinary creations to an exclusive VIP reception prior to the event. PROM is the perfect place to witness Best Buddies’ mission of social inclusion first-hand.
The Choral Arts Society of Washington’s Chamber Singers and Youth Choir, together with the New Orchestra of Washington (NOW) and the Aeolus Quartet, will immerse their audience with soundscapes and projections in a subterranean musical experience for Into the Light. Presented on Friday, April 5th and Saturday, April 6th at 8:00pm at Dupont Underground, this unique concert will make use of the shimmering acoustics of the space. The program will present Steve Reich’s Different Trains, a choral and double string quartet arrangement of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, and a new piece by Choral Arts’ Artistic Director Scott Tucker inspired by the acoustics of the venue, amongst others.
The performance will use the entirety of the Dupont Underground, a former belowground streetcar station which has been transformed into a public artspace. The setting will be particularly apt for the presentation of Reich’s Different Trains, a three-movement piece composed for string quartet (Aeolus Quartet, NOW’s Quartet-in-Residence) and sound effects, inspired by Reich’s train travel while living as a young American Jew during the time of the Holocaust.
For this production, the performers will begin on one end of the underground space and gradually move toward the other, emphasizing the transition from darkness into light. Simultaneously, lighting effects and projections by Production Designer JD Madsen will reflect on the musical content. Further immersing the audience, movable barriers will be used to guide the audience through the performance space.
In addition to Reich’s Different Trains, the concert will present works by Hildegard von Bingen, Gregorio Allegri, Samuel Barber, Ben Parry, R. Murray Schafer, Sarah Hopkins, and Knut Nystedt. Scott Tucker’s latest composition, The Moon and Her Maidens is inspired by the acoustics of the Dupont Underground and composed to pair with R. Murray Schafer’s Epitaph for Moonlight .
“I have been looking for opportunities to present choral music in a more interactive and immersive way,” says Choral Arts Artistic Director, Scott Tucker. “We visited Dupont Underground soon after it opened. The acoustics of the space, and the theme of light and darkness are what inspired the musical program. The collaboration with Jay Brock (Production Director) and JD Madsen (Production Designer) have helped us create a full-sensory experience that will allow the audience to engage with the music with more intensity than they would find in a traditional concert.”
“We are thrilled to bring together so many organizations and artists we have long admired for this unique collaboration,” says Tad Czyzewski, Choral Arts Executive Director, of the collaboration with NOW and the Aeolus Quartet.
More information and tickets ($20) can be found online at https://choralarts.org/events/
The University of Virginia Club of Washington DC will hold its Final Four Watch party at Mission Navy Yard on Saturday.
Starting at 11 am, the two-level enormous bar and restaurant located across from Nats Stadium will have beverage and food specials for the Virginia Cavaliers/Virginia Hoos fans.
$5.50 16 oz. Bud Light
$25 for a bucket (5) Bud Lights
$5 El Jimador shots
$6 Jack Daniels and Jack Honey
$3 Chorizo Sliders
Mission Navy Yard
1221 Van Street SE (across from the center field entrance to Nats Stadium)
The Choral Arts Society of Washington’s Chamber Singers and Youth Choir, together with the New Orchestra of Washington (NOW) and the Aeolus Quartet, will immerse their audience with soundscapes and projections in a subterranean musical experience for Into the Light. Presented on Friday, April 5th and Saturday, April 6th at 8:00pm at Dupont Underground, this unique concert will make use of the shimmering acoustics of the space. The program will present Steve Reich’s Different Trains, a choral and double string quartet arrangement of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, and a new piece by Choral Arts’ Artistic Director Scott Tucker inspired by the acoustics of the venue, amongst others.
The performance will use the entirety of the Dupont Underground, a former belowground streetcar station which has been transformed into a public artspace. The setting will be particularly apt for the presentation of Reich’s Different Trains, a three-movement piece composed for string quartet (Aeolus Quartet, NOW’s Quartet-in-Residence) and sound effects, inspired by Reich’s train travel while living as a young American Jew during the time of the Holocaust.
For this production, the performers will begin on one end of the underground space and gradually move toward the other, emphasizing the transition from darkness into light. Simultaneously, lighting effects and projections by Production Designer JD Madsen will reflect on the musical content. Further immersing the audience, movable barriers will be used to guide the audience through the performance space.
In addition to Reich’s Different Trains, the concert will present works by Hildegard von Bingen, Gregorio Allegri, Samuel Barber, Ben Parry, R. Murray Schafer, Sarah Hopkins, and Knut Nystedt. Scott Tucker’s latest composition, The Moon and Her Maidens is inspired by the acoustics of the Dupont Underground and composed to pair with R. Murray Schafer’s Epitaph for Moonlight .
“I have been looking for opportunities to present choral music in a more interactive and immersive way,” says Choral Arts Artistic Director, Scott Tucker. “We visited Dupont Underground soon after it opened. The acoustics of the space, and the theme of light and darkness are what inspired the musical program. The collaboration with Jay Brock (Production Director) and JD Madsen (Production Designer) have helped us create a full-sensory experience that will allow the audience to engage with the music with more intensity than they would find in a traditional concert.”
“We are thrilled to bring together so many organizations and artists we have long admired for this unique collaboration,” says Tad Czyzewski, Choral Arts Executive Director, of the collaboration with NOW and the Aeolus Quartet.
More information and tickets ($20) can be found online at https://choralarts.org/events/
When Lisa Fischer last performed at Strathmore she brought the house down to a thunderous standing ovation. Fischer and her band return to Strathmore, this time for a fully orchestrated performance. Featured in the Oscar-winning documentary film 20 Feet from Stardom, Fischer stepped into the spotlight after a successful career as a back-up singer for the likes of the Rolling Stones and Sting. This special evening brings together Fischer and her band, Grand Baton, with musicians from the National Philharmonic to perform powerful renditions of pop favorites by Luther Vandross, Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones, and Sting.
Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign invites Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia residents to sip and sample creations from area’s most celebrated restaurants to help kids in need at this year’s Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry on Monday, April 8, 2019. Hosted at the National Building Museum, the annual tasting event will feature gourmet cuisine and libations crafted by the city’s hottest chefs, sommeliers and mixologists, uniting to raise funds to ensure all children in America have access to the healthy food they need, every day. One-hundred-percent of proceeds from the event benefit No Kid Hungry’s work to end childhood hunger in America.
Led by Chef Chair Mike Friedman (The Red Hen, All-Purpose), Pastry Chair Tiffany MacIsaac (Buttercream Bakeshop), Mixology Chair Gina Chersevani (Buffalo and Bergen, Suburbia), and Sommelier Chair Nadine Brown (Society Fair), D.C.’s culinary tastemakers will provide guests with scrumptious bite-size fare, craft cocktails and delectable desserts. Guests will also have a chance to participate in an intimate tasting with Chef Kwame Onwuachi (Kith and Kin, Philly Wing Fry) and Chef Tae Strain (Momofuku CCDC), and score hot items at the silent auction and “Giving Tree”.
Notable participating Washington, D.C. area culinary talent and eateries include:
All-Purpose | Al Dente | Art & Soul | Barrel | Beuchert’s Saloon | Buffalo and Bergen | Bombay Street Food | Buttercream Bakeshop | Captain Cookie and the Milkman | Cava Mezze | Coconut Club | Colada Shop | Compass Rose | Espita Mezcaleria | Estadio | Farmers & Distillers | Firefly | Georgetown Cupcake | The Green Zone | Hank’s Oyster Bar | I’m Eddie Cano | Jack Rose Dining Saloon | Junction Bakery & Bistro | Kith and Kin | Kuya Ja’s | McClellan’s Retreat | Matchbox Vintage Pizza Bistro | Mi Vida | Milkbar | Momo Yakitori | Momofuku CCDC| Nama Sushi | Osteria Morini | Ottoman Taverna | Oyamel | Pisco y Nasca Ceviche Gastrobar | Radiator | Rappahannock Oyster Bar | RARE Steakhouse | RASA | Royal | Shake Shack | Society Fair Spoken English | Stellina Pizzeria | Succotash Penn Quarter | Sweet Lobby | The Delegate | The Pub and the People | The Source | Tico | Truxton Inn
One in six children in America struggles with hunger, including nearly 27,000 kids in the District of Columbia. No Kid Hungry is ending childhood hunger nationwide by ensuring that kids start the day with a nutritious breakfast and families learn the skills they need to shop and cook on a budget. Since the campaign’s launch, No Kid Hungry and its partners have connected kids struggling with hunger to more than one billion meals.
In 2018, D.C.’s Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry raised enough to connect hungry kids in need with up to 2.5 million healthy meals. Local beneficiaries include Capital Area Food Bank, DC Hunger Solutions, and Mary’s Center.
D.C.’s Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry is supported by national co-presenting sponsors Citi and Sysco®, national media sponsor Food Network, and national sponsor OpenTable. Whole Foods Market is the Official Grocer Sponsor of D.C.’s 2019 Taste of the Nation and will be providing samples alongside their local vendors. This event is also made possible by the following local sponsors: Caledonia Spirits, Catoctin Creek, Chrysler Pacifica, Ecolab, Flying Dog Brewery, MacRostie Winery and Vineyards, Rémy Cointreau and Tito’s Handmade Vodka.
Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry tickets start at $100, with prices increasing a month prior to the event on March 8, 2019. For additional information and to purchase tickets, please visit: https://www.nokidhungry.org/tastedc.
This Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress and singer delights audiences in every show and role, from film and television to voiceover and stage. The public fell in love with her as Sally in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Glinda in Wicked, and in fabulous roles on West Wing, Glee, and Pushing Daisies, but it’s Chenoweth’s gorgeous jazz standards, gospel songs, and opera works that fill concert halls with her loyal fans time and again. She will perform from her latest release of American Songbook classics, The Art of Elegance, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Current Jazz and Traditional Jazz charts, and #1 on Amazon’s Vocal Pop chart. No stranger to the Music Center stage, Chenoweth starred in Strathmore’s groundbreaking production I am Anne Hutchinson/I am Harvey Milk in 2016.
