Events/Things To Do

On Thursday, February 11 at 7:30pm EST, the Folger’s O.B. Hardison Poetry Series presents poet Maurice Manning sharing his work alongside recent Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith for a virtual reading from President Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington D.C.

Tickets for this virtual event are currently on sale. The suggested ticket price is $15, with a minimum, pay-what-you-can price level at $5. Tickets can be purchased at the Folger Box Office at 202.544.7077 or by visiting www.folger.edu/poetry.

After the virtual tour of the Cottage, Manning and Smith will read from their work in a round-robin
fashion (a few poems each in response to the other poet). Manning’s latest collection Railsplitter is
told in the posthumous voice of President Lincoln. Smith’s most recent book, Wade in the
Water takes an unflinching look at the ravages of slavery, the lives of Black Civil War soldiers and
America’s history on race, gender, immigration, and more.

Tracy K. Smith is the author of Wade in the Water; Life on Mars, winner of the Pulitzer
Prize; Duende, winner of the James Laughlin Award; and The Body’s Question, winner of the Cave
Canem Poetry Prize. She is the editor of an anthology, American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time,
and the author of a memoir, Ordinary Light, a finalist for the National Book Award. From 2017 to
2019, Smith served as Poet Laureate of the United States. She teaches at Princeton University.
Maurice Manning’s first book, Lawrence Booth’s Book of Visions, was selected by W.S. Merwin for
the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Manning’s other collections include The Common Man, a finalist
for the Pulitzer Prize in 2011, and One Man’s Dark. His current book, Railsplitter, is his seventh
collection of poetry. A former Guggenheim fellow, Manning teaches at Transylvania University in
Lexington, Kentucky and for the MFA Writer’s Program at Warren Wilson College.

Single tickets and subscriptions to the 2020/21 season of Folger Poetry—through May 2021—are
currently on sale. Subscribers have virtual access to all 2020/21 readings and to the archive of those
readings.

The Art League’s Patrons’ Show Goes Virtual for 2021

This year The Art league presents Patron’s Show 2021: Virtual Edition!, an online version of the perennial favorite that art lovers from near and far can safely attend via Zoom on Saturday, February 20, from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m.

The Patrons’ Show is the League’s biggest fundraising event of the year and offers seasoned and new art collectors an opportunity to select from over 600 works of original fine art donated by Art League and Torpedo Factory artists. For each ticket drawn, ticket holders acquire artwork valued anywhere from $225 to thousands of dollars.

The Patrons’ Show is now open for viewing during regular Gallery hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5:00 p.m. It is anticipated that the first two weekends of February will be busiest, so during this period there will be scheduled and timed viewing slots to ensure a safer environment.

Art lovers can also view the Patrons’ Show virtually on Flickr, and check back periodically to see what is added as we get closer to the show. Art Thief, the exclusive mobile app of the Patron’s Show, is available to download free on iOS devices. It lets you see all of the artworks and list and rank your favorites.

This year ticket holders make and submit a list of 75 or more of their top picks into an artwork list portal that the Patrons’ Show algorithm will pull and match with a ticket holder’s choice when their name is called on February 20. Selections can be edited and resubmitted up until the event begins.

The 2021 Patrons’ Show will broadcast live from The Art League Gallery. Don’t miss your chance to gain fine art while supporting a great non-profit organization and community of artists! Tickets are on sale until they sell out.

The Tea: Black Alley
In this online series, women musicians perform original work on the first Friday of the month. Conducted over a cup of tea, each session includes a short interview exploring the artist’s creative process.  The Tea proudly welcomes Washington, D.C.-based band Black Alley.

Black Alley has been pushing the art of music to its rhythmic limits. Determined to create a unique musical elixir, Black Alley has taken the finest ingredients of rock, hip-hop and go-go to create their own genre-bending sound called “hood rock.” The band is one, each musician surrendering to the union of sounds, each delivering music from their soul, while in dialogue with one another through their instruments. Each member of this collective is essential to the workability and funkability of the unit.

WHERE
Online, via Facebook and nmwa.org

WHEN
Friday, March 5, 12–1 p.m.

PRICE
Free. No reservations required. Add to your calendar here.

In Dialogue: Smithsonian Objects and Social Justice 

Thursday, March 11, 5 p.m.

Online via Zoom

Heighten your civic awareness through conversations about art, history and material culture. Each month, educators from the National Portrait Gallery will partner with colleagues from the Smithsonian and other institutions to discuss how historical objects from their respective collections speak to today’s social justice issues.

What are the qualities of great leadership? Together with educators from the National Air and Space Museum and the National Women’s History Museum, we will celebrate Women’s History Month by exploring this key question in relationship to portraits of activists Sojourner Truth and Sylvia Rivera, and pilot Bessie Coleman.

Free— Registration required

Oyez, oyez, oyez! Shakespeare Theatre Company’s annual Mock Trial, “the funniest, most entertaining event in Washington” (Roll Call) is now in session—virtually. On March 11, at 7:30 p.m. ET, audiences are invited to hear a mock appellate argument before a panel of judges, based on a legal issue arising out of a re-imagined plot point of The Winter’s Tale. Audiences will be able to watch the proceedings online and even cast their own judgment before the panel renders their verdict.

Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale has more royal scandals than four seasons of The Crown: accusations of adultery, jealous spouses, feigned deaths, a potential war with former allies, a hungry bear, and a statue brought to life.

Focusing on the royal rift between King Leontes and Queen Hermione of Sicily, this year’s Mock Trial scenario A Winter’s Tale of Marital Woe: Who’s to Blame? finds the Queen’s frenemy Paulina paying out of pocket after keeping the monarchs separated for sixteen years. Paulina will appeal the decision of the court, claiming piety for Apollo caused her to imprison the Queen and offer her alternative facts about the state of the royal marriage.

United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer will preside over the panel of judges, including Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Makan Delrahim, Former Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, and Andrew Weissmann, Jenner & Block LLP, Former General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, will serve as the Advocates for the Trial. Pamela Talkin, former Marshal of the United States Supreme Court and the first woman to hold this position will serve as the Marshal. Abbe Lowell, Winston & Strawn LLP, one of the nation’s leading white-collar defense and trial lawyers and a longtime member of Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Board of Trustees, will moderate. More participants will be announced soon.

Tickets to watch the Virtual Mock Trial are $30; free for current students. Please RSVP here: https://www.shakespearetheatre.org/events/virtual-winter-mock-trial-2021/

On Monday, March 15 at 6:30 pm ET, Folger’s O.B. Hardison Poetry Series, in collaboration with the Embassy of Ireland, welcomes Irish poet and writer Doireann Ní Ghríofa to read from her work—in both Irish and English—in a live virtual reading.

Her prose debut A Ghost in the Throat was awarded Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.

Following the reading, she will be joined in conversation with poet LeAnne Howe. The two poets will discuss the special and long-standing connection between the Irish and indigenous communities of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

The online reading will be followed by a moderated conversation with Doireann Ní Ghríofa, LeAnne
Howe, and Teri Cross Davis, Poetry Coordinator at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

The
Honorable Daniel Mulhall, Ambassador of Ireland to the United States of America, welcomes the poets.
East City Bookshop is the online bookseller for this event.

Tickets are $5-$15 and can be purchased at the Folger Box Office at 202.544.7077 or by visiting
www.folger.edu/poetry.