Events Calendar

Adams Morgan is the best place to go on a date in DC — whether you’re a mom and daughter out for ice cream, a first date, or a married couple celebrating a double-digit anniversary. For eight weeks in February and March, local restaurants and shops are providing discounts and fun packages for every relationship: a date for every love.

Enter to win three amazing “date packages,” including: 1) The Anniversary Package, including a night at the LINE DC Hotel, drinks during live music at Songbyrd Music House & Record Cafe, and a dinner at Roofer’s Union.2) Girls’ Day Out Package: Start with the epic drag brunch at Perry’s Restaurant, then some lingerie shopping (with discounts!) at Le Bustiere Boutique, and a glass of bubbly at Jug & Table. 3) Popping the question? An elegant dinner at the renowned Mintwood Place, an affogato at Pitango Gelato, and a night at the LINE DC Hotel.

Visit www.admodatenights.com to enter the drawing; and receive a discount code to access specials and promotions at dozens of date lineups. Nearly two dozen date packages present the best eats, treats, sweets and activities in Adams Morgan for relationships at every stage — for the first date, the whiskey drinker, the oenophile, the comedy lover, or a full family affair with a stop for cookie dough after a fun-filled afternoon. More giveaways will be announced throughout the 8-week period. Explore dozens of creative Adams Morgan Date Nights to spice up your love life, with live music, dance, comedy and fabulous restaurants. www.admodatenights.com

Opening reception for artist Anne Cherubim’s current series of paintings inspired by aerial views, satellite imagery, and the cosmos, with a particular interest in changing coastlines due to climate change – February 7th, 2019, 6:30-8:30pm. Anne Cherubim’s current series of paintings is inspired by aerial views. Featuring abstract, colourful, textural canvases, the paintings depict imagined views inspired by real life. Metallic paint causes images to shift depending on how the light hits them, or where the viewer is standing. Reception is February 7th, but show remains on exhibit through April 30th, 2019.

Opening reception for artist Anne Cherubim’s current series of paintings inspired by aerial views, satellite imagery, and the cosmos, with a particular interest in changing coastlines due to climate change – February 7th, 2019, 6:30-8:30pm. Anne Cherubim’s current series of paintings is inspired by aerial views. Featuring abstract, colourful, textural canvases, the paintings depict imagined views inspired by real life. Metallic paint causes images to shift depending on how the light hits them, or where the viewer is standing. Reception is February 7th, but show remains on exhibit through April 30th, 2019.

Damien Echols is a ceremonial magician. He spent over 18 years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit, and is the subject of four documentaries, including the Paradise Lost Series. Since his release Damien has written several books, the most recent of which: High Magick: A Guide to the Spiritual Practices That Saved My Life on Death Row was released last year. Damien will be in conversation with his friend: comedian, writer, musician, actor and man-about-town Dave Hill. Presented by BYT Media. More festival details at: deathbecomesus.com

Doors: 6:00PM / Show: 7:00PM*

*Showtime is subject to change

Age Restriction: 16+ Unless Accompanied by a Guardian

This is a General Admission Seated event.

Accessible accommodations should purchase a General Admission ticket and will be taken care of at the venue day of event.

Norm Macdonald is best known for his 4 year stint on Saturday Night live where Chevy Chase noted he was the best anchor to ever grace the chair. He is a favorite guest on Late Night shows, having performed the final stand-up set ever on David Letterman. Mr. Letterman referred to Norm as the funniest man in the world. Conan O’Brien also lists Norm as his favorite guest. After leaving SNL, Norm starred in 2 movies, one being the cult classic “Dirty Work” and also appears in many Adam Sandler films, including his first “Billy Madison”, where Norm played Adam’s best friend. Norm also starred in 3 television series. This year he became a judge on “Last Comic Standing” as well as portraying Colonel Sanders in an avant-garde Series of spots for KFC. His tour-de force anti comedy roast of Bob Saget became an instant classic, as well as the five- minute “Moth Joke” on Conan which received a full one-minute laugh. These, though, are only experiments Norm tries out on TV appearances.
It is still Norm’s stand-up which is his pure gift. His 2011 Comedy Special “Me Doing Stand-up” was hailed by The Guardian as one of the best Stand-up Specials of all time and Comedy Central name him in their top 100 comedians of all time. Norm retires all material he has used on specials and guarantees that no two shows will ever be identical. If you know Norm Macdonald, but do not know his stand-up, you do not know him. He is a stand-up comedian who must be seen to be believed.

The Comet is Coming is the soundtrack to an imagined apocalypse. In the aftermath of widespread sonic destruction what sounds remain? Who will lead the survivors to new sound worlds? Who will chart the new frontier? 

In a warehouse somewhere in London 2013 a meeting would take place between three musical cosmonauts. They would pool their energies to build a vessel powerful enough to transport any party into outer space. King Shabaka (Sons of Kemet, Melt Yourself Down), Danalogue and Betamax (Soccer96).

Together they chart a path based on the encoded language of Sun Ra, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix and the BBC Radiophonic Workshops from which the band’s name emerged.

It is after the end of the world, the stage is a spacecraft, the mic is an accelerator. brace yourself for The Comet is Coming.

You may know Billy Jensen as the tireless writer who helped finish I’ll Be Gone in the Dark after his friend Michelle McNamara passed away. Jensen is also a true crime investigative journalist focused on unsolved crimes and citizen detectives. After 17 years of writing about unsolved murders, he became fed up—and came up with a system for solving murders himself. He has been referred to as the world’s first “digital consulting detective,” and it’s this expertise that led him to write Chase Darkness With Me: How One True Crime Writer Started Solving Murders, which will be released this April by Audible. If you’re interested in Jensen’s world of DIY detectives–and want to know how you too can solve crimes–then this is the show for you! Presented in collaboration with Audible. Presented by BYT Media. More festival details at:deathbecomesus.com

Doors: 8pm / Show: 9:30pm*

*Showtime is subject to change

This is a General Admission Seated Event.

Age Restriction: 16+ Unless Accompanied by a Guardian

Accessible accommodations should purchase a General Admission ticket and will be taken care of at the venue day of event.

“You get a singer like this once in a generation or two.” – Wynton Marsalis on Cécile McLorin Salvant (as told to the New Yorker)

Now with a second “Best Jazz Vocal Album” Grammy to her credit—awarded this year for Dreams and Daggers—Washington Performing Arts audience favorite Cécile McLorin Salvant makes her triumphant return under the banner of the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival, fronting a quintet of rising stars: Melissa Aldana (tenor sax), Bria Skonberg (trumpet), Christian Sands (piano/music director), Yasushi Nakamura (bass), and Jamison Ross (drums). “Ms. Salvant has it all,” the New York Timesmarveled, “perfect pitch and enunciation, a playful sense of humor, a rich and varied tonal palette, a supple sense of swing, exquisite taste in songs and phrasing, and a deep connection to lyrics.”

Featuring
Cécile McLorin Salvant, vocals
Bria Skonberg, trumpet
Melissa Aldana, tenor saxophone
Christian Sands, piano & music director
Yasushi Nakamura, bass
Jamison Ross, drums

Join Cold Case expert Paul Holes (of Golden State Killer solving fame, most recently) and HLN’s Jax Miller & Sarah Cailean, as they discuss strategies and investigation techniques in relation to a new HLN Original Series that explores a harrowing and unique missing persons case that is currently evolving into a much larger story of unsolved murder, cover- up and corruption.  Presented in collaboration with HLN. Presented by BYT Media. More festival details at: deathbecomesus.com

Doors: 6PM / Show: 7PM*

*Showtime is subject to change

Limited VIP Meet & Greet Tickets available

– Includes General Admission Seating + a Pre-Show Meet & Greet

Age Restriction: 16+ Unless Accompanied by a Guardian

This is a General Admission Seated event.

Accessible accommodations should purchase a General Admission ticket and will be taken care of at the venue day of event.

What if you could do a “prom-over” and recreate all of the magic of prom night while supporting our KIPP DC KIPPsters on their journey to and through college? KIPProm is your chance! Join us for an evening of great company, awkward dancing, and spiked punch as we rally behind the next generation of Washingtonians. All proceeds directly support KIPP DC’s KIPP Through College & Career programs designed to empower KIPP DC alumni and propel them onward to lives full of choice and opportunity. Ages 21 only, please.

VIP Dinner tickets include access to the VIP pre-event cocktail hour, passed appetizers, seated gourmet dinner, inspirational programing, dessert lounge, open bar, and the KIPProm dance party.  Prom Dance tickets include passed appetizers, dessert lounge, open bar, and admission to the KIPProm dance party.

There’s a great scene in The Last Waltz – the documentary about The Band’s final concert – where director Martin Scorsese is discussing music with drummer/singer/mandolin player Levon Helm. Helm says, “If it mixes with rhythm, and if it dances, then you’ve got a great combination of all those different kinds of music: country, bluegrass, blues music, show music…”
To which Scorsese, the inquisitive interviewer, asks, “What’s it called, then?”
“Rock & roll!”
Clearly looking for a more specific answer, but realizing that he isn’t going to get one, Marty laughs. “Rock & roll…”
Well, that’s the way it is sometimes: musicians play music, and don’t necessarily worry about where it gets filed. It’s the writers, record labels, managers, etc., who tend to fret about what “kind” of music it is.
And like The Band, the members of Railroad Earth aren’t losing sleep about what “kind” of music they play – they just play it. When they started out in 2001, they were a bunch of guys interested in playing acoustic instruments together. As Railroad Earth violin/vocalist Tim Carbone recalls, “All of us had been playing in various projects for years, and many of us had played together in different projects. But this time, we found ourselves all available at the same time.”
Songwriter/lead vocalist Todd Sheaffer continues, “When we started, we only loosely had the idea of getting together and playing some music. It started that informally; just getting together and doing some picking and playing. Over a couple of month period, we started working on some original songs, as well as playing some covers that we thought would be fun to play.” 
Shortly thereafter, they took five songs from their budding repertoire into a studio and knocked out a demo in just two days. Their soon-to-be manager sent that demo to a few festivals, and – to the band’s surprise – they were booked at the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival before they’d even played their first gig. This prompted them to quickly go in and record five more songs; the ten combined tracks of which made up their debut album, “The Black Bear Sessions.”
That was the beginning of Railroad Earth’s journey: since those early days, they’ve gone on to release five more critically acclaimed studio albums and one hugely popular live one called, “Elko.” They’ve also amassed a huge and loyal fanbase who turn up to support them in every corner of the country, and often take advantage of the band’s liberal taping and photo policy. But Railroad Earth bristle at the notion of being lumped into any one “scene.” Not out of animosity for any other artists: it’s just that they don’t find the labels very useful. As Carbone points out, “We use unique acoustic instrumentation, but we’re definitely not a bluegrass or country band, which sometimes leaves music writers confused as to how to categorize us. We’re essentially playing rock on acoustic instruments.”
Ultimately, Railroad Earth’s music is driven by the remarkable songs of front-man, Todd Sheaffer, and is delivered with seamless arrangements and superb musicianship courtesy of all six band members. As mandolin/bouzouki player John Skehan points out, “Our M.O. has always been that we can improvise all day long, but we only do it in service to the song. There are a lot of songs that, when we play them live, we adhere to the arrangement from the record. And other songs, in the nature and the spirit of the song, everyone knows we can kind of take flight on them.” Sheaffer continues: “The songs are our focus, our focal point; it all starts right there. Anything else just comments on the songs and gives them color. Some songs are more open than others. They ‘want’ to be approached that way – where we can explore and trade musical ideas and open them up to different territories. But sometimes it is what the song is about.”
So: they can jam with the best of them and they have some bluegrass influences, but they use drums and amplifiers (somewhat taboo in the bluegrass world). What kind of music is it then? Mandolin/vocalist John Skehan offers this semi-descriptive term: “I always describe it as a string band, but an amplified string band with drums.” Tim Carbone takes a swing: “We’re a Country & Eastern band! ” Todd Sheaffer offers “A souped-up string band? I don’t know. I’m not good at this.” Or, as a great drummer/singer/mandolin player with an appreciation for Americana once said: “Rock & roll!”

Washington Performing Arts’ Mars Urban Arts Initiative and Dupont Underground, in association with 8 Arts & Culture, present an evening of music and shopping, featuring some of Southeast D.C.’s finest performers, artists, and small businesses. This Southeast D.C. takeover of Dupont Underground features Mars Urban Arts Initiative Ensemble-in-Residence VeVe & tha Rebels, fresh off their Kennedy Center debut, headline the evening with an eclectic and intimate set of Afro-folk music that interprets the contemporary African-American experience in Washington, D.C. Entaty Music spins the grooves that make you move. Experience the “Ground Up” visual art installation produced by Tendani, exploring the gentrification and displacement of longtime DC residents, and shop the 8 Arts Pop-up Shop—local small businesses offering apparel, jewelry, home goods, bath and body products and more.

Co-presented by Washington Performing Arts’ Mars Urban Arts Initiative and Dupont Underground, in association with 8 Arts & Culture. The Mars Urban Arts Initiative is generously supported by Jacqueline Badger Mars and Mars, Incorporated.

(Accessibility Notice: Please be advised that, at present, Dupont Underground is not wheelchair-accessible; patrons must access the venue via a flight of stairs. We regret any inconvenience.)

Watch VeVe & tha Rebels’ November 2018 performance at Millennium Stage

Wine & Crime is a hit true crime / comedy podcast, you know and love. What you didn’t know is that it started in part because Amanda, Kenyon, and Lucy bonded over their love of Forensic Files. Join them as they chug wine, screen and chat about their favorite FF episodes, and unleash their worst Minnesota accents! PLUS: fun, girly things to do before and after. Presented in collaboration with HLN, the exclusive TV home of FF. Presented by BYT Media. More festival details at: deathbecomesus.com

Doors: 8PM / Show: 10PM*

*Showtime is subject to change

General Admission Only

Accessible accommodations should purchase a General Admission ticket and will be taken care of at the venue day of event.

Elizabeth Alexander and Manthia Diawara in person

Two artists — painter Ficre Ghebreyesus (1962 – 2012) from Asmara in Eritrea and filmmaker Manthia Diawara from Bamako in Mali — meet metaphorically in this program focusing on their work. Political refugees, activists, scholars, artists, and storytellers, both men settled in the United States and found themselves working odd jobs, joining the African American community of poets, and hunkering down within their own artistic practice. Ficre Ghebreyesus’s epic painting The Sardine Fisherman’s Funeral centers on the abebuu adekai, the figurative coffin of the Ga people in Ghana, replete with symbols, historical references, and Eritrean iconography expressing a depth of feeling for the power of the sea. Manthia Diawara’s film An Opera of the World (2017), based on the African opera Bintou Were, mines the Malian filmmaker’s own migration experience against the backdrop of recent tragedies on the Mediterranean Sea. Diawara’s film features contemporary philosophers and employs footage of refugees in exodus, probing cinema’s power to bear witness. Manthia Diawara and Elizabeth Alexander — poet, essayist, playwright, scholar, and president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation — discuss and contrast both of these works (Ghebreyesus’s painting and Diawara’s film) following the screening. (Approximately 100 minutes)

Join John Douglas, author of Mindhunter, as he speaks with Amanda Knox and Damien Echols about the painful journey of being wrongfully accused. Damien spent 18 years in prison wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three. He was released on an Alford plea. Amanda spent nearly four years in an Italian prison and eight years on trial before she was exonerated for the murder of Meredith Kercher. Discover how they both lived through it and came out the other end stronger. Presented by BYT Media.

More details at: deathbecomesus.com

https://youtu.be/FTY9EbGAL9Q

A superstar of the sitar in an intimate, all-classical setting

In a reprise of her packed-house performances in spring 2017, sitar virtuoso and cross-genre adventurer Anoushka Shankar returns to her roots in North Indian classical music in back-to-back concerts at Sixth & I. Reviewing Shankar’s 2015 all-classical disc, Home, London’s Songlines magazine praised “Shankar’s sublime playing,” adding, “There’s a tangible feeling of the warm evening air, scents and heightened emotions. It’s something to bask and revel in.”

“More than just an unforgettable night of music-making” – San Francisco Chronicle

Michael Tilson Thomas makes his momentous final appearance in Washington, D.C., as music director of the San Francisco Symphony in a program featuring Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony and one of Thomas’ own compositions. German virtuoso Christian Tetzlaff, described as a “non-stop tour de force” (Independent), shines in Mozart’s Third Violin Concerto.

Casey Cavanagh

Writing a great song is not all that different from mixing a stiff drink, a symmetry that Casey Cavanagh understands well. Cavanagh, who calls Virginia home, approaches music with a deep respect for tradition, but he isn’t afraid to stir things up. His latest project, ‘Old Souls,’ distills formative memories of his twenties into four distinct tracks. It’s the work of a craftsman and a storyteller — and a tribute to the people and places who’ve made him the man he is today.

To celebrate the release of ‘Old Souls,’ Casey will be joined by a full band of some of his closest collaborators: John Giardiniere, Sam Gillett and Jeff Pober.

Justin Trawick and The Common Good

Justin Trawick and The Common Good’s debut record, “The Riverwash EP”, exemplifies the raw emotional live sound Trawick and the band have cultivated over the years playing in clubs and festivals up and down the East Coast. With instrumentation consisting of acoustic guitar, upright bass, fiddle, mandolin, and pedal steel, the band’s live performance plays fast and loose with the “Americana” genre, performing heartfelt ballads followed by raucous bluegrass melodies and even moments of hip hop verses. Written by DC based songwriter Justin Trawick, “The Riverwash EP” introduces the listener to Trawick’s unique brand storytelling with five original songs about love, loss, longing, resilience, and time pulling heartstrings of listeners young and old. Adam Levy (Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman) guest performs on guitar during “All the Places That I’ve Been”, a song inspired by Trawick’s ninety-seven year old grandmother and her stories of the World War II generation. Finally, the album closes with the band’s unique take on “Wonderwall” by Oasis, a track sure to trick the audience into thinking they’re listening to another Trawick original.

Justin Trawick has been performing in the Washington DC area and along the East Coast since 2006, citing musical influences like Bob Schneider, The Tallest Man on Earth, G. Love, Old Crow Medicine Show, and David Gray. In June of 2015, Trawick released his first single, “Goodbye”, under the band name “Justin Trawick and the Common Good”; written about the search for direction and belonging in a world that constantly feels one step ahead of you. Trawick has performed for TedxEast in NYC at the City Winery, TedxPennsylvaniaAvenue in DC at the Newseum, and has opened for over 30 national acts including Suzanne Vega, Wyclef Jean, Brett Dennen, Blues Traveler, Enter The Haggis, Bob Schneider, and Edwin McCain, and shared bills with Dr. Dogg and The Avett Brothers. In February of 2014, Trawick won “Song of the Year” at the Washington Area Music Awards for his song “All the Places That I’ve Been,” which can be downloaded on iTunes as a single along with his five other solo records and EPs. Founder of the nationally touring show “The 9 Songwriter Series” and co-founder of “The Circus Life Podcast” with guests such as Kevin Eubanks, Chris Thomas King, Ernie Halter, Yarn, and Snuffy Walden, Trawick has built a brand that extends far beyond his home base in DC.