Weekend Round Up April 16
• May 11, 2015

Forms of the Journey

April 16, 2015 at 6 p.m. | Free | media@allweartstudio.com | Tel: 202-375-9713 | Event Website

All We Art is pleased to announce the exhibition, “Forms of a Journey,” featuring artists Félix Ángel, Marta Luz Gutierrez and Jesús Matheus.

Public reception will take place on Thursday, April 16, 2015 from 6 to 9 p.m. (Please RSVP to media@artseedc.com). The three artists share their work as part of their experience as individuals committed with creation, as well as the journey that started several decades ago when they migrated to the United States.

Address
1666 33rd St NW

2015 Spring Art Walk

April 17, 2015 at 6 p.m. | Free | chris@neptunefineart.com | Tel: 202-338-0353 | Event Website

The Georgetown Galleries on Book Hill invite you to our Spring Art Walk: Friday, April 17th, 2015 from 6 – 8 pm. Nine galleries will host an evening stroll and launch their fine art exhibitions in the most beautiful part of Washington, D.C. Add to your collection and please join us for a night of art, fun, and refreshments.

Address
1662 33rd Street NW

The Sum Total of Our Memory: Facing Alzheimer’s Together

April 17, 2015 AT 1 p.m. | $11 | Tel: 703-960-1970 | Event Website

When Barbara Klutinis’ husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s she had no idea how she was going to get through the ordeal ahead of her. After joining a support group and hearing the stories of others going through the same thing, Klutinis realized she was not alone. Inspired by the experience, she decided to make a documentary about the lives of couples suffering from the disease.

Address
Angelika Film Center
2911 District Ave.
Fairfax, VA 22031

Opening Reception: Layered Memories: The In-between paintings by Karen Silve

April 17, 2015 at 6 p.m. | Free | gallery@callowayart.com | Tel: 202-965-4601 | Event Website

After spending the summer in the South of France, Karen Silve reflects on the differences between older and new memories. Her seductive, painterly abstractions reveal a unique expression of harmonious colors: bright and joyous, warm and sensual, cool and luscious. On view April 17 – May 23, 2015.

Address
Susan Calloway Fine Arts
1643 Wisconsin Ave NW
Washington, DC 20007

Global Citizen Earth Day Rally

April 18, 2015 at 11 a.m. | Free | Event Website

The Global Citizen Earth Day Rally will take place from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on the National Mall. The event features a free concert with performances by My Morning Jacket, Train, Fall Out Boy, Mary J. Blige, Usher and No Doubt. It is hosted by Will.i.am and Soledad O’Brien. Speakers throughout the day will include Don Cheadle, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.

Posey Quilt Exhibition

April 18, 2015 at 11 a.m | $5 | info@dumbartonhouse.org | Tel: 202-337-2288 | [Event Website] (http://dumbartonhouse.org/archives/2990)

2015 from April to Labor Day, Dumbarton House will display the “Posey Quilt,” an early 19th century American pieced quilt made of silk dress fabrics from a number of early American women and Posey family members. The exhibition will highlight the eight women believed to have owned the dresses used in the quilt, as well as the Posey family and its long tradition of passing the quilt down from mother to oldest daughter.

Address
Dumbarton House, 2715 Q Street, N.W.

“Partners in Crime” presented by FilmFest DC and TECRO

April 18, 2015 at 5 p.m. | $13 | Tel: 202-234-3456 | [Event Website](http://www.filmfestdc.org/filmView.cfm?passID=59)

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States will join FilmFest DC in presenting Partners in Crime. The screenings will be held both on Saturday, April 18, at 5:00 p.m. and on Sunday, April 19, at 3:00 p.m. at the Landmark E Street Cinema.

Partners in Crime is a 2014 Taiwanese thriller directed by Jung-chi Chang following his debut feature, Touch of the Light (Taiwan’s foreign-language Oscar entry in 2012).

Address
555 11th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20004

Cantate Chambers Singers featuring HU’s Afro Blue: A Concert Meditation on Civil Rights in America

April 19, 2015 at 5 p.m. | $35-45, $15 with student ID, Ages 18 and under free | exec@cantate.org | Tel: 301-986-1799 | [Event Website](http://cantate.org)

Closing its adventurous 30th anniversary season, Cantate Chamber Singers hosts jazz a cappella virtuosos Afro Blue in a concert tribute to the rich musical heritage of the Civil Rights Movement. Featuring classic spirituals, jazz, and the timely world premiere of Rise by Judah Adashi, with text by Tameka Cage Conley. With a special appearance by journalist Gwen Ifill. Tickets available at www.cantate.org, 301-986-1799, or at the door.

Address
Metropolitan A.M.E. Church
1518 M Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005

Bill Clinton Speaks at Georgetown University
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Former President (and potential first man) William Jefferson Clinton spoke Tuesday, April 21, at Georgetown University. Clinton’s hour-long speech meandered at times, touching on foreign policy, his time as president and even the Whitewater scandal. The talk, the third of four Georgetown lectures by Clinton taking place over several years, didn’t touch explicitly on his wife’s presidential campaign. (His topic was how Americans have a responsibility to shape the country into a better place than it is today.) Clinton had previously told Town & Country Magazine that his role “should primarily be as a backstage adviser.” On Thursday, April 23, Clinton’s ex-world-leader-buddy, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, will speak at the university at the invitation of Georgetown’s Global Futures Initiative.

Edens Unveiled: The 87th Georgetown Garden Tour
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Every year, eventually, spring comes to Washington.

The long-awaited season is an outward-bound explosion, an effusion of nature, basking in our admiration and seemingly pleased with itself for making it all look so easy.

Spring is bulbs, petals, digging shears and gardening shovels, blossoming trees, snaking vines, perennials and tulips and the fluttering, scooting, climbing critters that gad about in this profusion of natural wealth.

Here in Georgetown, spring is again the season of the Georgetown Garden Tour – the 87th annual – presented by the Georgetown Garden Club, an affiliate of the Garden Club of America, on Saturday, May 9, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A tea with light refreshments will be served by garden club members from 2 to 4 p.m. at Christ Church, 3116 O St. NW.

Every garden tour is an opportunity to engage with one of the aspects of Georgetown that make it special, and so attractive to visitors. The tour offers ticket holders the chance to see – and take in with deep breaths – eight gardens, four each on Georgetown’s west and east sides.

“I believe that the garden tour and the garden club have had a tremendous effect on Georgetown. It’s very important to the community,” said Barbara Downs, a member and former president of the Georgetown Garden Club. “The proceeds alone have gone a long way to help preserve the natural quality of Georgetown, not just gardens, but foliage, trees, parks, places where we gather.”

Over the years, the Georgetown Garden Club, with proceeds of the tour and other fundraising efforts, has contributed to what it describes as “the greening of Georgetown, the tree-lined streets and the public parks.” Beneficiaries include Book Hill Park, the Georgetown Public Library, Montrose Park, Volta Park, Rose Park, Tudor Place Historic House and Garden, Trees for Georgetown, Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy and the Student Conservation Association.

This is about natural beauty, aided and abetted by particular people’s penchants for digging, growing, designing and beautifying, sometimes with the help of professional designers. Right here on earth, gardens mingle soil, trees, flowers, vegetation, pathways and works of sculptural art into an infinite variety of singular places.

This is not for just for show, but for civilized comfort, a way of living and looking. Here is where you can sit in an artful patio, to read, to commune, to dine, to enjoy a glass of wine in a space of one’s own.

Downs’s own garden has “a Japanese, Asian feel,” she said, and includes a bubbly fountain for birds, dogwoods and spring flowers, including irises and tulips.

To some extent, the annual garden tour always carries with it elements of mystery and serendipity. The yearly trek to homes and gardens in Georgetown reveals more than one secret of Georgetown living, not only the gardens themselves but the actual size and depth of the residences. This is revealed in the house tour, too, but the experience of patios and gardens adds to it.

From the view of a passerby, Georgetown’s homes always hide themselves a little. It’s hard to apprehend the actual size, the spaces, the depth and length of a house, not to mention its close proximity to others. (This does not include most mansions, which are very bold and rarely hidden.)

Tour sites range across Georgetown: 1248 30th St., 2824 O St., 1642 29th St., 3025 P St., 3413 P St., 3417 P St., 3314 O St. and 3327 N St.

On the east side, you’ll find a garden with pavement patterns in brick and limestone and columns of small bamboo. In another garden (a wrap-around) are fig trees, crepe myrtles, oakleaf hydrangeas, Italian pots. Yet another has a contemporary design, with grass steps, crepe myrtles in tubs and modern sculpture. In a large, historic garden in the center of the village, by a sweeping lawn with a pool, stand a large wall clock from a church tower in Provence and a marker showing Georgetown’s old boundary line.

On the west side, you’ll find a curvilinear, multilevel garden, with niches, an armillary sphere and a fishpond with aquatic plants. Nearby is a brick-paved garden with a French touch, including an aerial hedge, water features, hornbeams and espaliered camellias, all framed by a lattice fence. Elsewhere, a former carriage house offers an arched entrance with a wooden gate (once for horses), a tap pool and a hot tub. Another home features walks, gravel and a terrace. The owner’s love of plants is evident in three beds showcasing perennials, ferns and knockout yellow roses, as well as in the mature trees.

This year, the Georgetown Garden Club has published a book that not only serves as a companion to the tour but stands on its own. “Gardens of Georgetown: Exploring Urban Treasures” was written with great, understated grace by Georgetown author Edith Nalle Schafer.

Schafer, a genuine Georgetown citizen and treasure herself, has been a chronicler of Georgetown life for many years, through books, stories and essays. She has a gift for getting to the heart of what makes the village special. Her egalitarian style celebrates the village’s permanent things: buildings, churches and art, sidewalks and steeples, temperature and weather and the way all those things endure amid changes great and small.

Last week, the Georgetown Garden Club held a reception and book signing at the home of Jerry and June Libin on P Street. The evening, the place and the people there were a kind of reflection in miniature of what house and garden tours are about. After a slight drizzle during the evening, Libin, a noted tax attorney, stood in his own garden of trees, foliage, space and a covered pool and said, “I always love it out here after the rain. Everything feels fresh and new.”

“Gardens of Georgetown,” with spectacular, detailed photographs by Jenny Gorman, is a broadly painted but sharply detailed view of Georgetown as reflected in its gardens. In the book, Schafer defines our need for gardens, their purposefulness.

There is philosophy in this book. Sights are described directly with an economy of words that never lack impact. This goes for narrative text and for the photo captions that Schafer has helped along with quotes from philosophers and literary types (from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Virginia Woolf and the always astute “Unknown”).

Yet amid the pages, Schafer is her own best philosopher. She doesn’t need much help to describe what the photographs reveal. Her writing manages the difficult feat of being both pragmatic and entirely, hauntingly lovely.

Gardens are like that, too – having the all-at-once qualities of the necessary and the truly priceless. In digging up dirt, planting and contemplating the results, we manage to make art and gain a satisfaction properly enjoyed under trees, by a fountain, at night with the air fresh from rain and memory.
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Second Life: Jim Graham Does Adult Entertainment
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Former D.C. Council member Jim Graham is taking on a new career. He is now special events director at the House, a strip club on Georgia Avenue NW. A supporter of adult entertainment during his time on the Council, Graham proposed legislation to make it easier for strip clubs to open.

The club’s gay-night series debuted Sunday, April 19, with a show called “Rock Hard Sunday.” Cover for the debut was $15, a third of which was donated to Whitman-Walker Health, which provides primary-care services to the LGBT community. The Washington Blade reported that the male dancers were going to make good use of Graham’s signature accessory, the bow tie.

“They are going to put them on and at some point they will dispose of the bow ties in the audience,” Graham was quoted as saying. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.” Graham is also in charge of the Thursday night series, which features nude male dancing for women.

“I wanted something that was fun, and quite honestly, I want to make a buck or two,” he said in an interview with NBC Washington about his new job. (Once upon a time, Graham attempted to get his current employer’s liquor license revoked.) In addition, Graham is working as a consultant for Clean and Sober, a nonprofit that aims to help those recovering from substance abuse.

Mother’s Day Weekend Highlights
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Bacchus Wine Cellar (1635 Wisconsin Ave. NW) has the perfect bottle to lift Mom’s spirits this Mother’s Day. The wine cellar is helping you celebrate by offering 15% off all weekend, plus in-store tastings of white, red and rosé wines Thursday through Saturday, 5 to 8 p.m., and Sunday, 1 to 6 p.m.

Treat mom to a sparkling brunch buffet at Café Milano (3251 Prospect St. NW) from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The brunch costs $95 per adult and $35 per child (12 years and under), which includes endless Prosecco for adults, tax and gratuity. Make a reservation at 202-333-6183.

Daily Grill (1310 Wisconsin Ave. NW) is featuring a special Mother’s Day brunch menu on Sunday. Specialties will include bottomless brunch cocktails, Texas French toast with fresh berry compote and lobster pot pie. All egg dishes include Daily Grill’s special Aunt Ronda’s Monkey Bread. Make a reservation at 202-337-4900.

The Grill Room at the Capella Hotel (1050 31st St. NW) is giving away a pair of vouchers for brunch at the Grill Room for Mother’s Day. To be entered to win, follow these steps: “like” the Capella Facebook page and the contest post, leave a comment about why your mom (or a mom in your life) is special and share it on your Facebook page.

Mothers boat for free with the purchase of another boat rental at Key Bridge Boat House (3500 Water St. NW).

Olivia Macaron (3222 M St. NW) is offering a chance to win a gift box of 24 macarons for Mom. To participate, you must “like” the Olivia Macaron Facebook page and contest post, then comment, mentioning two lovely ladies you’d like to honor this Mother’s Day (they must be on Facebook). The winner must pick up their macarons at the store May 8 through May 10.

Visit the DIY station at Paper Source (1019 M St. NW) on May 9 and create a special card for Mom. The store will provide materials and instruct you in the techniques to make the design of your choice. The Make-and-Take experience comes with a 10% discount applicable to your other in-store purchases that day. You can also take 25% off each additional Mother’s Day Card Make-and-Take purchase.

Rí Rá Irish Pub (3125 M St. NW) is hosting a special Mother’s Day brunch. Reservations for large groups will be accepted from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Each reservation will receive complimentary Baileys Buns, a sticky and sweet homemade indulgence. You can make a reservation via email by contacting marycatherinecorson@rira.com.

Tudor Place (1644 31 St. NW) is offering 10% off plant purchases at the Tudor Place Plant Sale from May 8 to May 10.

New Traffic Signal Timing Begins Friday for Downtown, Georgetown
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The District Department of Transportation has announced that it will implement new traffic signal timing plans for almost 650 intersections in the greater downtown Washington, D.C., area. The so-called timing optimization will be start 8 p.m., Friday, April 24, and continue throughout May.

This is expected to reduce motorist travel times and reduce emissions and fuel consumption, DDOT says. It will improve traffic flow, reduce transit running times and optimize pedestrian crossing times. The citywide signal optimization initiative started in 2012, and it will enhance D.C.’s entire traffic signal network of more than 1,650 signals by the end of 2016.

The project will be done in various downtown areas. A few intersections in Georgetown along M Street and Wisconsin Avenue are included in the effort. The project area boundary also includes 23rd Street NW to the west, North Capitol Street to the east, U Street and Florida Avenue NW to the north and I-395 to the south.

DDOT says it will be monitoring and making adjustments to the traffic signal timing operations, throughout April and May. DDOT advises motorists to use caution in these areas as drivers become acquainted with the new signal timing patterns.

Visit goDCgo.com

The Second District’s New Commander
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Melvin Gresham was promoted to commander of the Second District on April 6. He formerly served as a captain in also in the Second District under Commander Michael Reese.

Gresham has previously served in the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Patrol Districts, as well as the Narcotics Branch and the Special Operations Divisions.

He joined the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department in October 1984. Commander Gresham is originally from Prince George County, Maryland and attended the University of Maryland’s University College, where he majored in Criminal Justice.

“I am an advocate of community policing and believe that the police should know the citizens in the community that they serve,” Gresham said. “It is the only way for the police to become part of the fabric of the community.”

The Second District neighborhoods include Chevy Chase, Cleveland Park, Foggy Bottom, Georgetown, Palisades and Spring Valley. Several embassies are also locating in this region.

While total violent crime has decreased in the last year, Commander Gresham faces increased levels of other crime, including burglary and theft as he begins his new role.

“I believe that the Georgetown area will continue to be a very vibrant community,” he said.  “The police have to work with the community in problem solving and working together to make the community safer. I have always believed that the citizens are the eyes and ears of law enforcement.”

Hillary Clinton Finishes April Fundraisers in D.C.
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Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton visited the home of Elizabeth Frawley Bagley on 29th Street in Georgetown for an afternoon fund-raising luncheon April 30.

Previously in New York City for three receptions, Clinton visited the homes of Milly and Arne Glimcher, of Lisa Perry and of Doug Teitelbaum, according to the New York Times.

Bagley, a former ambassador, and her late husband Smith Bagley have supported both Bill and Hillary Clinton and their national campaigns. The Bagleys are known to have given more than $1 million to the Clinton Foundation, the Times reported.

Clinton also paid a visit to Frank White Jr., who was a member of Barack Obama’s 2008 national finance committee.

The ticket price for the Clinton fundraising receptions is $2,700. The money raised is to used for the Democratic primary campaign.

Mika Brzezinski Wants You to Know Your Value
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Mika Brzezinski may be the co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and a New York Times best-selling author, but she’s also leading a conversation about empowering women in the workforce. And she’s bringing that conversation to D.C. this May.

“I developed the message for 40-something women like myself,” Brzezinski said.

However, the dialogue created by her book, “Know Your Value,” has captured a far wider audience. “This message is universal,” she said. “It’s for women of all ages, stages and choices.”

Brzezinski is bringing a “Know Your Value” conference to town next month, with appearances by her “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Brooke Shields and others. The event will take place May 15 at the Marriott Marquis at 901 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Brzezinski encouraged women to enter in the “Grow Your Value Bonus Competition.” Participants must submit a video pitch explaining why they deserve a bonus in one minute or less. Videos can be submitted at msnbc.com/know-your-value. Deadline for submissions is Sunday, April 19.

“I got so much response. Women were coming up to me everywhere,” she said. “I knew there needed to be more to the conversation.”

Her next book called “Grow Your Value: Overcoming Roadblocks to Women’s Success” will be available May 12.

The “Know Your Value” tour will continue through November, making stops in Boston, Chicago and Orlando. Check msnbc.com/knowyourvalue for details and tickets to the May 15 D.C. event.

Watergate Evacuated After Parking Garage Collapse
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Updated 5:30 p.m.

A three-story, partial collapse of a parking garage occurred around 10 a.m. Friday, May 1, at the Watergate complex, prompting evacuation of buildings and a large D.C. Fire Department response, shutting down Virginia Avenue from 25th Street to Rock Creek Parkway.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser held a 4 p.m. press briefing after visiting the site of the accident and said that rescue dogs indicated no human activity at the three levels affected by the collapse but that a cadaver dog made “a possible hit.”

Two persons were hurt, and earlier Bowser said, “Not everyone is accounted for,” according to NBC News.

“The building shook a little bit and we saw a sinkhole growing in the courtyard,” said Tom Wall of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is headquartered on the 10th and 11th floors of the Watergate office building at 2600 Virginia Ave., NW. A tree and foliage fell down into the hole, as water sprayed up from broken pipes, the witness said.

A main part of the collapse was at the underground pathway to the public garage and between the office building and Watergate East. “Thank God it happened at 10 a.m.,” Wall said, “and not around lunchtime,” when the area would be more traveled by office workers and visitors. “With rubble spilling out,” the area “looked like footage from a war zone,” he said.

Office workers and residents are used to noise and construction activity, as the Watergate Hotel is undergoing a $125-milllion renovation, due for completion by the end of summer. The garage was also under construction at the time. All construction workers have been accounted for.

“Rescue crews are using dogs to search the rubble of the garage,” NBC News reported. “Special Ops and a local collapse team are searching the garage in the 2600 block of Virginia Avenue NW for any other possible victims. The D.C. Fire & EMS Department’s only search dog has been deployed to Nepal to help in the aftermath of the earthquake there. Montgomery County Fire & Rescue sent their dogs to aid at the Watergate.”

The cause of the collapse is undetermined at this time.

The Watergate complex, known for the 1972 burglary that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, lies along the banks of the Potomac River next to another Washington landmark, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

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