“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/.
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.
WHAT: The world premiere of the new series ‘Guess I’m a Ghost’ at DC Webfest as part of their American Web Series Watch Party block.
Guess I’m a Ghost is a comedy web series in eight episodes that explores coming to terms with your past mistakes, making amends, and how we both perform ourselves and find out about death through social media. Tonally, the series is a mix between High Maintenance and The Good Place. Using both naturalistic and absurd comedy, the show looks to see how we grieve over imperfect people we think we knew, but maybe didn’t at all. Diane…wasn’t the best friend. She liked to bend the truth and look out for number one. After embarrassing herself at a party, she’s killed in a ride-share accident when climbing into the front seat to charge her phone. Then, because of a mistake in the afterlife, she’s sent back to earth and forced to haunt those she could’ve treated a little better, and might owe her an apology themselves. The series features an original score by Leslie Hong of Haybaby, and will be released in full online on April 29th, following a screening in Los Angeles on April 27th.
WHEN: Saturday, April 13th at 6:00pm
WHERE: MakeOffices Glover Park – 2201 Wisconsin Ave. Suite #200 Washington DC 20007
HOW: Festival programming passes start at $45
Pearl Dive Oyster Palace’s Annual Crawfish Boil is right around the corner!
The venue will be offering up a feast of Crawfish, Corn on the Cob, House Made Andouille Sausage, Coleslaw, Cornbread Muffins, Roasted Potatoes, Wood Grilled Oysters, Pulled Pork Sliders, Hush Puppies, Abita Beer, House Wine Pours, and Hurricane Punch!
All you can eat and drink!
Learn how the next generation of Baltimore’s artists and leaders are harnessing the power of creativity to tell their stories. As part of the day’s activities, attendees can create their own museum memes, buttons, and custom banners, learn how to screen print with Jubilee Arts: Youth in Business, and make a personalized zine with Baltimore Youth Arts. Special guests include the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore Ceasefire, and Open Works. Performances include screenings with Wide Angle Youth Media, musical ensembles with two Arts Every Day schools, and the Lethal Ladies of Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women step team.
The day’s festivities include Behind the Façade, a program of original monologues by Baltimore School for the Arts theater students. Performed in 1 West Mount Vernon Place, this performance brings to life the range of people, enslaved and free, who made Mount Vernon their home in the years before and after the Civil War.
Presented in collaboration with Arts Every Day. Special thanks to MECU of Baltimore and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts.
WHERE:
Walters Art Museum
600 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
WHEN:
Saturday, April 27, 2019
11 a.m.–4 p.m.
The DC Chocolate Festival is back this Saturday, May 4, 2019 from 10:00 am till 5:00 pm.
This event brings together over 30 chocolate vendors and thousands of chocolate lovers for a day of tasting, talking and learning.
A celebration of artisan and fine chocolate from the Mid-Atlantic and beyond, the DC Chocolate Festival is at La Maison Francaise, Embassy of France (4101 Reservoir Road NW).
And it will bring together both chocolate makers and chocolate enthusiasts for a day of tastings and educational micro workshops.
The DC Chocolate Festival features over 30 chocolate vendors with incredible chocolate confections, treats, beverages, and craft chocolate bars from across the local area and the world!
In addition to delectable tastings, the DC Chocolate Festival offers chocolate documentaries & film screenings, books signing, talks, workshops for kids and adults and many more!
Click here for tickets.
Proceeds from Collector’s Night Art Sales are split 50/50 between the artists and WPA, whose share goes to supporting its artist driven programs through artist honoraria, travel, artwork production, and other direct program costs.
May 15, 2019
Sidney Harman Hall
8 p.m.
General Admission Tickets: $20
Student Tickets: $10
Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Michael Kahn invites theatre-lovers to the second event of a series of intimate conversations about his career in D.C. as he prepares to retire. Open, unrehearsed and off the record, invited speakers will swap anecdotes and share memories about Michael Kahn’s 33 years directing at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. The discussions focus on three distinct eras in STC’s history and chronicle D.C.’s changing theatre scene. This second Michael Kahn and Friends: Off the Record will focus primarily on the formation of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in its second location: the Lansburgh Theatre (1992-2006).
On May 15, audiences are invited to join Michael and STC Affiliated Artists Philip Goodwin and Floyd King, actor Wallace Acton and former Managing Director Jessica Andrews as they discuss their favorite performances onstage, backstage antics and offstage tales. After six years in residency in the Folger Library’s Elizabethan theatre, in March 1992, STC moved midseason to a new performance space: the 451-seat Lansburgh Theatre, which provided more flexibility and space for STC’s growing audience. At the time the Penn Quarter neighborhood was not considered desirable by many; since then, STC has helped drive its revitalization.
During the Lansburgh years, Michael Kahn continued his tradition of color conscious casting with the famous “photo negative” production of Othello featuring Sir Patrick Stewart in the titular role. He founded the Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University to prepare the next generation of classically trained actors in a one-year intensive MFA program. Michael Kahn’s electric and condensed version of Sophocles’ The Oedipus Plays earned international acclaim and was later remounted in Athens. During this juncture, STC’s reputation was growing so much that the Clintons attended Twelfth Night, becoming the first First Family to attend a regional theatre company production.
ABOUT THE INVITED SPEAKERS
WALLACE ACTON played the titles roles in STC productions of Richard III, Hamlet, Richard II, and Peer Gynt, garnering Helen Hayes Award nominations for the first two performances. Other notable STC performances include Ariel in The Tempest, Silvius in As You Like It, Octavius in Antony and Cleopatra, Porter/Doctor in Macbeth, Feste in Twelfth Night, Mosca in Volpone (Helen Hayes nomination), and a Helen Hayes winning performance as Richard/Peter in Henry VI.
JESSICA ANDREWS served as the Managing Director of Shakespeare Theatre Company from 1990-1994; her previous positions in Washington, D.C. included several years of experience working as director of the theatre program at the National Endowment for the Arts. After leaving Shakespeare Theatre Company, she joined the Arizona Theatre Company, and worked there for many years as a Managing Director, Executive Director, Director of Major Gifts, and returning twice as an Interim Executive Director. She retains the honorific Emerita Executive Director.
STC Affiliated Artist PHILIP GOODWIN is a star of stage and screen, in movies such as The Pink Panther, The Pink Panther 2 and Diary of a Country Priest. At STC, he turned in Helen Hayes award-winning performances as Brutus in Coriolanus, Questenberg/Gordon in Wallenstein, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Mayor Stockmann in An Enemy of the People, and the lead role in Timon of Athens. He has appeared in Broadway productions of The Diary of Anne Frank, Tartuffe and The School for Scandal. Off-Broadway performances included the Fool to Kevin Kline’s King Lear in King Lear, and the Drama Desk-nominated Henry VI in Henry VI.
A longtime fixture on the Washington, D.C. theatre scene, STC Affiliated Artist FLOYD KING most recently appeared on the Sidney Harman Hall stage in the Helen Hayes-nominated Camelot as King Pellinore. Other notable STC roles include Postmaster in The Government Inspector, Verges in Much Ado About Nothing (mainstage and Free For All), Geronte in The Heir Apparent, Phipps in An Ideal Husband, Feste in Twelfth Night, Parolles in All’s Well That Ends Well, Pandarus in Troilus and Cressida, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Fool in King Lear. He has appeared on stages throughout Washington, D.C., and is currently an instructor at Academy for Classical Acting.
Boasting the city’s best restaurants, one-of-a-kind animal demonstrations and inspiring conservation stories, ZooFari: Bite Night, a benefit for wildlife sponsored by GEICO, returns to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo on May 16 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Hosted by Friends of the National Zoo, this year’s event promises to be a glamorous night of dining, drinking, bidding and dancing—all to support the Zoo’s important mission to save species.
“We love hosting ZooFari every year,” said Lynn Mento, executive director of FONZ. “What makes it so special and popular is not just that the food and drink are amazing, but that you’re enjoying the restaurant tastings in this beautiful setting where you have the chance to see animals, and meet some of the world’s leading conservation scientists. It’s a unique combination of great food, great drink and helping to save the planet … that’s a pretty good night!”
Most animal houses will be open, and the VIP Lounge, hosted by Charles Schwab & Co., will be at Great Cats Circle, where there also will be exclusive animal demonstrations. The only DJ to spin beats and cook at the same time, DJ Chef, will entertain all attendees, as will electric violinist Ben Hoyt, Bobby McKey’s Dueling Piano Bar and a food sculptor.
In addition to providing a unique dining and entertainment experience, the event will celebrate conservation work around the globe. Smithsonian scientists will be on hand to share stories with guests about how they’re saving endangered animals. Special stations will showcase five wildlife projects supported by Conservation Nation, an initiative of Friends of the National Zoo.
A silent auction is open to the public before and during the event. The auction features conservation-themed prizes, including animal paintings, behind-the-scenes tours at the Zoo and even the opportunity to name a wild tapir.
General admission tickets include access to the general event area, as well as complimentary food tastings, beer, wine, soft drinks and water, plus live entertainment and animal experiences. Four extravagant VIP packages include access to an exclusive VIP Lounge with the finest food and cocktails, as well as special parking opportunities, express check-in and more.
Tony Award®-Winning Actress
Christine Ebersole to Host
Washington National Opera Gala
Saturday, May 18, 2019, at 6 p.m.
in the Kennedy Center Opera House
Washington National Opera (WNO) announces the addition of Tony Award®-winning actress Christine Ebersole as host and special guest artist for its 2019 Gala on Saturday, May 18, in the Kennedy Center Opera House.
Ebersole, an iconic artist of the stage and screen—who appeared in Francesca Zambello’s 2018 production of Candide at LA Opera—joins the WNO gala cast, along with previously announced headliner Christine Goerke, another iconic American voice who is currently starring as Brunnhilde in the Ring Cycle at the Met. This year’s WNO gala concert program explores the beauty and vitality of the human voice through music ranging from Wagner to Gershwin to Irving Berlin.
Christine Ebersole is known for her wide artistic range and versatility, perhaps most notably for her work on Broadway, where she won the Tony Award® twice for her work in Grey Gardens and 42nd Street. She has a distinguished list of television and film credits to her name, including The Wolf of Wall Street, Amadeus, Tootsie, andRichie Rich on the big screen, as well as Sullivan and Son, Royal Pains, Madame Secretary, and Blue Bloods. Her concert and stage credits have taken her to renowned venues across the country, and she has made numerous recordings.
Also added to the roster of talent for the gala evening are soprano Latonia Moore, who appears in the title role in two performances of WNO’s upcoming run of Tosca.Moore joins Ebersole, Goerke, and Washingtonian bass Soloman Howard.
The Gala is WNO’s largest fundraising event and one of Washington’s most anticipated events of the year. Proceeds from the Gala play a crucial role in advancing WNO’s artistic, educational, and community engagement programs. The 2019 WNO Gala honors local entrepreneur John J. Pohanka for his outstanding contributions to the organization, features Evan Rogister leading the WNO Orchestrain his inaugural performance as WNO’s Principal Conductor.
The Co-Chairs of the WNO Gala are Jacqueline Badger Mars and Camille Biros.
Tickets for the Gala concert only, starting at $45, are on sale now.
Special packages to attend all Gala festivities are available. The Gala evening will begin with a cocktail reception on the Kennedy Center’s River Terrace at 4:30 p.m., followed by the 6 p.m. Gala concert performance. The event concludes with elegant black-tie dinners hosted by Ambassadors and foreign dignitaries at embassies and residences throughout Washington, a longtime tradition of the Opera’s season-ending social gathering.
Gala Ticket Information
Tickets to the WNO Gala concert, which start at $45, are available online, in person at the Kennedy Center Box Office, and by calling (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324. For all other ticket-related customer service inquiries, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540.
Gala ticket packages start at $500 and include the VIP cocktail party and priority seating for the Gala concert. Packages that also include seating at the private embassy dinners following the performance start at $1,000. Information is available online or by contacting the Special Events office at (202) 416-8496 or operagala@kennedy-center.org.
