Weekly Arts Round Up, February 4, 2021
By • February 4, 2021 0 1088
Get into a February frame of mind with red works of art at Washington Printmakers Gallery and poetry programs streamed by the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Folger Shakespeare Library. For details on these and other events, click on the headings below.
Washington Printmakers Gallery: Members’ Show
The Winter 2021 Members’ Show at Washington Printmakers Gallery, on view through March 7 at 1641 Wisconsin Ave. NW and online, is “Red,” an exploration of the color of fire trucks, barns, blood and love. The participating artists are Lila Oliver Asher, Robert Burgess, Sally Canzoneri, Clara Young Kim, Rosemary Cooley, Marie-B Cilia De Amicis, Amy Guadagnoli, Robert S. Hunter, Ron Meick, Nina Muys, Keith Palmer, Deborah Schindler, Norman Strike, Matina Marki Tillman and Sandra Chen Weinstein. Gallery hours are Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. and by appointment, with masks required.
Shakespeare Theatre: On-Demand Performance
“All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain,” a one-man show written and performed by Broadway actor Patrick Page, is available from Shakespeare Theatre Company for on-demand streaming for 72 hours after purchase. In this 80-minute piece, adapted from the works of Shakespeare, Page explores how the Bard created the treacherous characters — notably Macbeth, Iago and Claudius — that generations of playgoers have loved to hate. Tickets are $25.
Smithsonian Associates: Online Class
Musician, broadcaster and historian Ken Avis, guitarist with acoustic world-jazz band Veronneau, will present “Jazzing the Capital,” the first session of a Smithsonian Associates online course, “Music City, DC,” on Feb. 8 at 6:45 p.m. Sharing film clips and recordings, Avis will discuss what made the city a jazz mecca, with special attention to the Howard Theater and venues along U Street’s “Black Broadway,” also describing how the music changed over the 20thcentury. Tickets are $30 ($25 for members); $70 ($60 for members) for the full series. The other two sessions are: “The Country Music Capital” (Feb. 22) and “Rocking the Capital” (March 8).
African American Museum: Online Poetry Workshop
On Feb. 9 from noon to 1 p.m., the National Museum of African American History and Culture will offer a free online poetry workshop, “Persona Poetry + Phillis Wheatley,” led by Museum Specialist Tulani Salahu-Din and international slam poetry champion Anthony McPherson. Participants will look at examples of persona poems — in which the poet speaks through an assumed voice — and spend time composing an individual work inspired by the life of Phillis Wheatley, the first African American author of a published work of poetry. No experience is necessary.
Also on Feb. 9 from noon to 1 p.m., the National Museum of Asian Art will offer a free online talk by Stephen Allee, associate curator for Chinese painting and calligraphy: “Ink Plums on the Stone Moat: Two Yuan Dynasty Paintings from the Chinese Imperial Collection.” The plum tree (Prunus mume), which typically blooms during the twelfth lunar month, around the time of the Chinese New Year, has long represented the transience of beauty, courage in the face of adversity and the promise of rebirth. Allee’s talk will focus on two Yuan dynasty momei (ink plum) paintings in the handscroll format made by artists with different stylistic approaches.
American Institute of Architects: Online Symposium
The Washington chapter of the American Institute of Architects and George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation and Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship will host an online symposium, “Remaking our Third Places: Rethinking Retail,” on Feb. 11 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The presenters — retail technologist Ricardo Belmar, Steve Carboni of Rappaport Co., CORE Principal Allison Cooke, Atlas Brewery CEO Justin Cox, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development John Falcicchio, dRMM Co-Founding Director Sadie Morgan, Scott Parker of Scott Parker Brands, Studio 3877 Partner David Shove-Brown, Farmers Restaurant Group founder Dan Simon, Gautham Vadakkepatt of GMU’s Center for Retail Transformation, Department of Small and Local Business Development Director Kristi C. Whitfield and Wiencek + Associates President Michael Wiencek — will address the question: How do we preserve and rebuild a viable retail industry in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area? Admission is $110, $85 for members and $50 for students.
National Cathedral: Online Film Program
Taking its name from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s remark that, while the nation had come “a long, long way” in its quest for racial justice, it still had a long, long way to go, the Long, Long Way Film Weekend at Washington National Cathedral examines narratives of race and prejudice over time. Part 1, on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m., will be a conversation between Greg Garrett, author of “A Long, Long Way: Hollywood’s Unfinished Journey from Racism to Reconciliation,” and Canon Theologian Kelly Brown Douglas. Part 2 will take place on March 3 at 7 p.m. The minimum donation is $5.
Folger Library: Virtual Tour and Poetry Reading
On Feb. 11 from 7:30 to 9 p.m., following a virtual tour of President Lincoln’s Cottage, poets Maurice Manning and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith, a recent poet laureate of the United States, will give a live reading of selections from their work that speak to the words and actions of Abraham Lincoln. Manning’s latest collection, “Railsplitter,” is in Lincoln’s posthumous voice. 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 with regard to race, gender and immigration. Tickets are $5 (minimum) to $15 (suggested). Copies of “Wade in the Water” are available for online purchase from East City Bookshop, an independently run, women-owned bookstore on Capitol Hill.
Natural History Museum: Online Event
“Dancing the Milky Way,” on Feb. 12 from 1 to 2 p.m., is an interactive online event in which Kim Arcand from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and dance artist Kylie Murray from Local Motion Project will demonstrate how data collected from space can be transformed into sound and body movement. Participants will get out of their seats to respond to the stars, dust clouds and energy of the Milky Way. Admission is free.
As part of the Art League’s spring online course offerings, Mark Thomas Anderson, who earned his MFA at Boston University, will teach a five-session “Basic Drawing” course for adults beginning Feb. 12 from 7 to 9 p.m. Students will develop the ability to “see” as artists, learning to use line, value, gesture and perspective to draw still lifes and landscapes in pencil and charcoal. Tuition is $120. A kit of supplies is available for online purchase and can be shipped or picked up curbside at the Art League store in the Torpedo Factory, 105 North Union St. in Alexandria, Virginia.
