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.
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/
On February 18 at 7 pm, Chef Todd Gray will host the first annual Not Wasted Dinner, a tribute to the organizer’s collective mission to eradicate food waste in the hospitality industry. The dinner is a collaboration of diverse yet like-minded chefs who will create a four-course dinner made from “trash ingredients” like roots, stems and cuttings.
“As we celebrate our 20th year in business, we’re more committed than ever to taking dramatic steps to decrease the restaurant’s carbon footprint. The dinner will be both educational and delicious–showcasing how you can utilize otherwise wasted ingredients and have a sumptuous dining experience at the same time,” said Ellen Kassoff, co-owner of Equinox Restaurant.
The evening will also feature an interactive discussion with an enlightened group of esteemed panelists to discuss and guide us all in ways we can reduce, reuse, and recycle for a brighter, more promising environmental future.
Confirmed panelists include:
- Amanda Stone, World Wildlife Fund
- Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, Together We Bake
- Hilary Landa, Ad Council
- Laura Monto, Sodexo
Panel moderator: Lesly Baesens, DC Food Recovery Working Group
Guest Chefs
- Todd Gray, Equinox Restaurant
- Michelle Brown, Teaism
- Gregory Payne, Sodexo
- Robert Wood, SuperFd Catering
Special “Trashed” cocktails — using forgotten bits of bar fruit in syrups, garnishes, and mixers — will be crafted by Peter Grimm, Equinox Restaurant’s Bar Manager and Mixologist.
Tickets are $65 and may be purchased at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
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
Women chefs, authors, culinarians, innovators and entrepreneurs will have a Shark Tank opportunity to present their ideas to a panel of professional experts as Les Dames d/Escoffier’s DC Chapter presents Pitch Fest, Saturday, March 9.
Local food entrepreneurs in retail, marketing and public relations will form the panel and will judge the pitches. The entrepreneurial winner will receive three hours of consulting services from the panelists plus a gift certificate to Michelin-starred restaurant Bresca.
Aviva Goldfarb, marketing executive and founder of “The Six o’ Clock Scramble” will moderate the panel that will include Stacey Adams, president and founder of Annapolis’ Tastings Gourmet Market; Susan Callaghan, chef and lecturer at University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Jill Collins, founder of hospitality PR firm Jill Collins Public Relations Group.
The brunch and presentation experience will be held at Mission Navy Yard from noon until 3 pm. Tickets, at $35 including brunch, may be obtained at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dc-pitch-fest-march-9-2019-noon-3-pm-tickets-55413950618
Food innovators wishing to make their pitch may sign up at https://tambrastevenson.typeform.com/to/N9TqWL
Les Dames d ’Escoffier Pitch Fest
Saturday, March 9, 2019
Noon – 3 pm
Mission Navy Yard – 1221 Van Street SE (corner Van & N Streets, across from Nats Stadium)
$35 includes brunch and presentations
SMITHSONIAN at 8, in collaboration with Francophonie DC and La Maison Francaise at the French Embassy, presents La Grande Fête, the closing celebration of the 2019 DC Francophonie Cultural Festival.
WHEN: Friday, March 29, 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
WHERE: La Maison Francaise at the Embassy of France, 4101 Reservoir Road, Washington, DC
Get ready for a spectacular party with a French accent. The annual Francophonie Cultural Festival spotlights the music, art, literature, film, cuisine, and customs of French-speaking countries and regions from across the globe. Its closing celebration, La Grande Fete, is always magnifique, and this year’s bash is no exception.
Beginning at 7 p.m., launch into a world tour of francophone cultures. Sample food and drink from more than 30 embassies as you explore each nation’s unique attractions and traditions.
Guinean singer/songwriter Natu Camara performs live with an energy that keeps you on your feet. Natu’s dynamic and mesmerizing voice is a fusion of soul, Afro-Rock, folk and pop. Combined with unique and joyful stage presence, she is sure to make for a memorable addition to this year’s La Grande Fete. Les the DJ will spin music from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and plenty of destinations in between. Don’t miss this chance to experience the best of the French-speaking world—all without leaving home.
General admission $40
Tickets must be purchased in advance (no sales at the door).
For tickets and further information the public may call 202-633-3030 or visit www.SMITHSONIANat8.org.
