Weekly Arts Round Up, November 5, 2020
By • November 5, 2020 0 1550
Want to draw dinosaurs or make street art? Have we got a stream for you! Among other options: string duets at the Kennedy Center’s Reach campus and a Beltway-themed audio play. The headings below link to more information.
On Nov. 5 at 8 p.m., Dance Place will live-stream “Where Am I? A Panel of Perspectives on Persistence and Optimism.” Erin Foreman-Murray, a dancer and choreographer who teaches in AU’s Department of Performing Arts, will moderate a panel of D.C.-based artists working across multiple dance disciplines and genres, including Jessica Denson, Anastasia Johnson, Shruthi Mukund, Estela Velez de Paredez and Britta Joy Peterson. Admission is free.
Natural History Museum: Family Webinar
During the free webinar “Natural History at Home: Dinosaur Drawings,” on Nov. 7 from 11 to 11:45 a.m., two of the world’s top paleoartists, Bob Walters and Tess Kissinger, will teach participants how to sketch their own dinosaur drawings. The pair will also talk about how they use scientific evidence to create their art and answer questions. Required materials: paper, pencils, an eraser and markers. Registration for this National Museum of Natural History program is requested, but not required.
Library of Congress: Online Performance
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Veterans History Project, on Nov. 7 at 8 p.m., the Library of Congress will premiere the song “In Love and War,” with lyrics by Roxanne Seeman and music by Charles Fox, on Facebook and YouTube. Performed by singer Hannah Goldblatt and pianist Elise Solberg, the piece is dedicated to the Greatest Generation veterans.
Kennedy Center: Sunset Concert
On Nov. 10 at 5 p.m., National Symphony Orchestra violinists Deanna Lee Bien and Jing Qiao and cellists Eugena Chang and Britton Riley will give a concert from inside the Kennedy Center’s River Pavilion, part of the Reach campus. The program includes cello solos by David Popper and like-instrument duets by Jean-Baptiste Barrière, Béla Bartók, Charles Auguste de Bériot, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and Reinhold Glière. Mask-wearing is requested. A limited number of seats in the pavilion will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. After that, concertgoers can sit on the lawn in chairs (provided) or on blankets. Those who sit on the lawn will be allowed to picnic.
U.S. Botanic Garden: Online Talk
Abra Lee, founder of Conquer The Soil, a gardens, fashion and culture brand, will give an online talk presented by the U.S. Botanic Garden, “Yard of the Month: Plants for Civic Engagement and Transformation,” on Nov. 10 at 6:30 p.m. This walk through history will outline how ornamental planting has gone beyond bragging rights and transformed communities. Admission is free but preregistration is required.
National Building Museum: Online Lecture
On Nov. 10 from 6:30 to 8 p.m., as part of the National Building Museum’s Spotlight on Design series, Eran Chen, founding principal of New York architecture firm ODA, will give an online lecture about ODA’s exploration into new fractal forms in architecture. Projects to be covered will include the Wharf and West Half apartments in Southwest D.C. and a new mixed-use development in Astoria, Queens. Tickets are $10, $5 for members and free for students.
Muralists and graffiti artists from Mexico, Berlin and Kabul will participate in a free online dialogue, “Street Art Around the World,” as part of Planet Word’s monthly Divercities series, on Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. The event — presented in partnership with Shared_Studios, a global collective that will locate one of its live, full-body, audio-visual environments at the museum — will focus on the power of street art as a mode of civic engagement, as an exercise in freedom of expression and as a channel to tell stories of a community.
Olney Theatre Center will release a new episode of “The Melissa Gilbert Learning Hour,” a free podcast by Olney’s wardrobe supervisor, on the morning of Nov. 11. The topic will be flamboyant stage actress and civil rights supporter Tallulah Bankhead.
Anacostia Museum: Streamed Performance
The Anacostia Community Museum’s free #TakeTimeThursday on Nov. 12 from 2:30 to 3 p.m. will feature guest psalmist Tia L. Singleton performing songs of encouragement and inspiration. A D.C. native who was a backup singer for Yolanda Adams and Angela Winbush, Singleton also traveled with Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Barry Manilow, Patti Labelle and Micah Stampley. She currently holds positions at Union Temple Baptist Church and Ark of Safety Christian Church.
DC History Center: Virtual Conference
A forum for discussing and promoting original research about D.C.-area history since 1973, the D.C. History Conference will take place online this year on Nov. 12 to 14, co-presented by the DC History Center and American University in partnership with other local history organizations. On Nov. 12 at 6 p.m., Brandi T. Summers of the University of California, Berkeley, will open this year’s conference, on the theme of “Echoes,” with the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Lecture: “Traces of a Chocolate City: Blackness, Urban Aesthetics and the Politics of Gentrification.” The full program is available HERE. Basic registration is $20 and all-access registration (including virtual tours of the Anacostia Community Museum, the Heurich House Museum and President Lincoln’s Cottage) is $35.
In “Kings” by Sarah Burgess, directed by Marti Lyons for Studio Theatre, newly elected Rep. Sydney Millsap (Gina Daniels) refuses to play by the rules of special interests — or those of her own party — and collides with a lobbyist (Kelly McCrann) who backs winners. The cast also includes Rick Foucheux, Laura C. Harris and Brian Quijada. An audio adaptation of the play, part of Studio In Your Ears, is available for complimentary streaming through January.
