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.
To launch an inaugural collaboration between City Winery and Supreme Core Cider, the two brands will host Ivy City’s “Resolution Breakers Ball” on Saturday, January 26 – a ticketed tour of each facility followed by two indulgent winter staples – cider and mac ‘n cheese. The $25 ticket is valid from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and includes shuttle transportation between the venues, as well as:
- 3 cider tastings
- 1 cider cocktail
- 3 wine tastings
- 2 bowls of mac ‘n cheese
- Live music
Attendees will also be entered to win Supreme Core Cider swag with a 4-pack of cans, and a pair of tickets to a show at City Winery. Tickets to the “Resolution Breakers Ball” can be purchased online at www.resolutionbreakersball.eventbrite.com.
On Thursday, Jan. 31, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will partner with the French Embassy and the Judy and Peter Blum-Kovler Foundation to present the first Washington, D.C., edition of the Night of Ideas, a global marathon of ideas that will activate La Maison Française with talks and performances by today’s leading thinkers and creators, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019, 6:30 p.m.–12 midnight.
In addition to renowned Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as keynote speaker, speakers include including art critic, curator and Marcel Duchamp expert Bernard Marcadé; French philosopher Manon Garcia; artificial intelligence specialist Eric Gaussier; Senegalese economist and writer Felwine Sarr; author and national correspondent for The Atlantic Franklin Foer; privacy and public policy expert Dipayan Ghosh; the George Washington University Debate & Literary Society; and Smithsonian Year of Music co-curator Huib Schippers.
Dynamic performances from French visual artist Frédéric Nauczyciel and American voguing performer Marquis Revlon’s Marching Band Baltimore Project will punctuate the beginning and end of the event. The night will also include an interactive poetry performance by Les Souffleurs commandos poétiques, an instrumental interpretation of paintings into music by violinist David Schulman and a spoken word presentation by poet Charity Blackwell. Guests will also enjoy pop-up art activations and in-gallery DJ performances throughout the night.
The event is free and open to all.
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Sign up as a single or with a friend – up to two “couples” can enjoy a spin on the climate-controlled gondola together to ease the awkward first moments!
How does this work exactly? Participants will fill out a short form and they will be matched with their ideal candidate for a spin in the wheel. Sign up as an individual or as a duo, and be matched with either a solo rider or another duo; up to four people can ride in one gondola on the wheel. Get to know each other while soaring 180′ over the Potomac! Ice breakers provided.
What happens if there is no love connection with the designated “wheel mate?” No worries, all participants are invited to a mixer at the AC Hotel following their wheel ride, to enjoy a happy hour (with two complimentary drinks), light hors d’oeuvres and meet other participants.
- Date: Thursday, February 7
- Time: 6:30-9:30 p.m.
- Location: Flight Deck at the Capital Wheel (located at the very end of Capital Wheel’s pier) with a mixer to follow at the AC Hotel National Harbor (156 Waterfront St, National Harbor, MD)
- Cost: $20
- Ticket includes: One spin on The Capital Wheel, two drink tickets, hors d’oeuvres, swag bag, one raffle entry.
Must be at least 21 years old to attend.
*It may be chilly outside but it’s always a comfortable 72-degrees inside the climate-controlled gondolas at The Capital Wheel!
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/
Henri Samuel: Master of the French Interior
Tuesday, February 12, 2019, 5:30-8 p.m.
Acclaimed design historian Emily Evans Eerdmans will discuss the groundbreaking and inspiring interiors of Henri Samuel, one of the most important French interior designers of the twentieth century, tracing his designs from the 1920s to the 1980s.
Please note: This is the first program in the Great Homes and Gardens lecture series.
4155 Linnean Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20008
