Go Enjoy These Warm February Events
The DMV is expecting spring-like temperatures for the last weekend of February (take that Punxsutawney Phil), with temperatures in the mid-70s on Friday and Saturday and the mid-40s on Sunday. Get out and enjoy it with one or more of these happenings.
Metro’s SafeTrack Surge 12 winds down this weekend, concluding on Tuesday with the Blue Line reopening on Wednesday. But for this weekend, the Blue Line and the Arlington Cemetery station remain closed, with free shuttle buses running between Pentagon and the cemetery. Red Line trains single track between Van Ness and Friendship Heights from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday with trains every 20-25 minutes. After 9:30 p.m., trains will also single track between Silver Spring and Forest Glen (Friday)/Glenmont (Saturday) with trains every 30 minutes. On Sunday, trains single track between Silver Spring and Forest Glen beginning at 10 p.m. with trains every 20-25 minutes. Orange Line trains single track between Cheverly and New Carrollton with trains every 18 minutes. Silver Line trains will also operate every 18 minutes. Yellow and Green Line trains run on regular weekend schedules. Yellow Rush+ trains will operate between Franconia-Springfield and Mount Vernon Square.
Yayoi Kusama’s All the Eternal Love I Have for Pumpkins is included in the Hirshhorn’s new display. (Photo: Hirshhorn)
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors
Lose yourself in the psychedelic world of Yayoi Kusama, one of the world’s greatest artists and a Japanese woman who specializes in immersive art. Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors is a celebration of her 64-year career and promises to be 2017’s essential art experience. Her mirror rooms, large-scale paintings and child-like installations will all be on display in an exhibit that is sure to draw large crowds and lots of Instagram posts. Enjoy an unprecedented chance to discover six of Kasama’s dazzling mirror rooms at once, alongside whimsical installations, vibrant sculpture and large-scale paintings making their U.S. debut. You must secure a timed pass to enter the exhibit.
Feb. 23-May 14 from 10 a.m-5:30 p.m. at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Seventh Street and Independence Avenue SW. Admission is FREE, but timed passes are required!
Alexandria Restaurant Week
Alexandria Restaurant Week runs from Feb. 17-26.
(Image: Visit Alexandria)
Alexandria Restaurant Week wraps up this weekend with 70 restaurants offering two dinner options and three lunch price points. Restaurants offer a $35 three-course dinner for one or a $35 dinner for two, giving you multiple ways to check out such old favorites as Vermilion, Restaurant Eve and Cheesetique. It also gives you a chance to sample new restaurants, such as Hen Quarter, Northside 10, Live Oak and Vola’s Dockside Grill. More than 30 restaurants will also offer lunch specials at $10, $15 or $20 per person.
Feb. 17-26 for lunch at dinner at participating Alexandria restaurants. Dinner is $35 and lunch is $10-$20. Find participating restaurants here.
Atlas Intersections Festival
In Specific Gravity, the Circus Collective of San Diego fuses contemporary circus arts, physical theater, and spoken word to explore the experiences of forcibly displaced persons, using the concepts of displacement, buoyancy and specific gravity as metaphors. (Photo: Circus Collective of San Diego)
The Atlas Intersections Festival brings the best of D.C. arts and artists to the stage and H Street with performances, experiences and happenings that combine theatre, dance, music, vocal, choral, opera, visual arts, video, film, writing, sculpture, photography, circus, spoken word, public art, community art and art space activation of all kinds into two weeks of intellectual excitement. Discover how art, culture and connection happen on H Street. This weekend’s activities include a free Family Fun Day from 10 a.m.-noon Saturday with youth-oriented performance and activities that will fill the lobby with music, balloons, clowns, an instrument “petting zoo” and more. Also, Snark Ensemble’s The Comic Roach: A Roadhouse Picture Show, combining black-and-white silent movies with a band and emcee (9 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday) and Clown Cabaret’s The Heist, a physical comedy in which three of the worst robbers ever try to rip off a piggy bank (10:45 a.m. Saturday).
Feb. 24-Mar. 5 at various times at The Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $10-$25.
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis: All Rise
Wynton Marsalis performs at Strathmore Friday and Sunday.
(Photo: Rob Waymen)
The ambition and genius of Wynton Marsalis is on full display in All Rise, a homage to American music that cuts across genres to embrace blues, jazz, classical and world music. Expect big band passages, a touch of New Orleans swagger and impassioned blues riffs. Marsalis’ magnum opus features the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, National Philharmonic and 150 gospel singers, including the Morgan State Gospel Choir and the Choral Arts Society of Washington. The concert is part of Strathmore’s Shades of Blues Festival. Both performances include a pre-concert lecture 1 1/2 hours before the show with Damien Sneed, a Marsalis mentee and award-winning musician, that covers key elements and inspirations for each movement and highlights Marsalis’ signature sound.
Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 26 at 4 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. Tickets are $65-$175.
D.C. Distillers Festival
The D.C. Distillers Festival on Saturday features more than 20 craft distilleries. (Photo: Craft Hospitality)
The first D.C. Distillers Festival will gather producers of vodka, rum, gin and bourbon together for a day of celebrating spirits. More than 20 craft distilleries, including local success stories like D.C.’s Joseph Magnus and One Eight, will pour more than 60 craft spirits. You can purchase tickets for one of three two-hour windows, and your ticket includes unlimited spirits, chats with distillery reps and live jazz music in a speakeasy-style environment. The 1-3 p.m. session features the Tongue in Cheek Jazz Band, while the Foggy Bottom Whomp Stompers perform at the 4:30-6:30 p.m. and 8-10 p.m sessions. Burlesque dancer Cherie Sweetbottom will also perform at the 8 p.m. session. Food will be available for purchase. Drink up!
Feb. 25 from noon-10 p.m. at Long View Gallery, 1234 Ninth St. NW. Tickets are $85 for general admission and $140 for VIP admission (one hour early admission) for the 1 and 4:30 p.m. sessions and $95 and $150, respectively, for the last session.
Cooking Up History: Food and the Great Migration
Chef Jerome Grant from the National Museum of African American History and Culture cooks up dishes that signify the culinary changes that came about due to the Great Migration of African Americans. (Photo: National Museum of American History)
The monthly Cooking Up History series features a guest chef and Smithsonian Food History host Jessica Carbone preparing a meal and discussing the history behind the ingredients. For this month’s event, Jerome Grant from the National Museum of African American History and Culture joins to cook up dishes that signify the culinary changes that came about due to the Great Migration of African Americans in the early to mid-20th century. A dish inspired by the demonstration will be available for purchase in the museum’s Stars & Stripes Café after the program.
Feb. 25 at 2 p.m. at the National Museum of American History, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Admission is FREE!
D.C. Rollergirls
The D.C. Rollergirls kick of their 10th season on Satiurday.
(Photo: DC Rollergirls)
D.C. Rollergirls launch their 10th season facing off against the Free State Roller Derby Black Eye’d Suzies (yep, you read that right) in intense roller-rink action. The 40-minute event will also pay tribute to two legacy D.C. Rollergirls teams. Expect fast-paced, physical action as these ladies determine the queens of the derby.
Feb. 25 at 4 p.m. at the D.C. Armory, 2001 East Capitol St. SE. Tickets are $15.
The Urban Scene: 1920-1950
The People Work – Evening by Benton Spruance is part of The Urban Scene: 1920-1950 at the National Gallery of Art. (Photo: National Gallery of Art)
The new The Urban Scene: 1920-1950 exhibit gathers 25 black-and-white prints that showcase artists’ interpretations of America’s burgeoning metropolises in the early to mid-20th century. As cities and their populations grew, so did the spectacle of their appearances. Recognized artists such as Louis Lozowick and Reginald Marsh depicted the modern age in both its glory and anxiety, and you can experience their pivotal works in this fascinating display. Also included are prints from lesser-known artists including Mabel Dwight, Gerald Geerlings, Victoria Hutson Huntley, Martin Lewis and Stow Wengenroth are included.
Feb. 26-Aug. 6 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday at the National Gallery of Art, Sixth and Constitution Avenue NW. Admission is FREE!
Ice Yards
Ice Yards, the all-things winter festival, returns to Yards Park on Sunday, even if the weather isn’t so winter-like.
(Photo: Kaz Sasahara)
Longing for a little snow and ice? The annual adults-only Ice Yards winter wonderland heads to the boardwalk at Yards Park, with ice bars, interactive ice games and activities, igloo pods and music by Jeff from Accounting, White Ford Bronco and DJ Jerome Baker III. Sample local beers, boozy snow cones, frozen hot chocolate, frosé and food from area restaurants.
Feb. 26 from noon-5 p.m. at Yards Park, 301 Water St. SE. Tickets are $10 and include one drink.
Laoban Dumplings Pop-Up
Laoban Dumplings will pop up at On Rye in Chinatown Sunday afternoon. (Photo: Laoban Dumplings)
Laoban Dumplings, a new pop-up, takes over On Rye’s Chinatown storefront after the sandwich shop closes for the day. A featured collaboration dumpling consists of a Reuben dumpling using On Rye’s house-seasoned pastrami wrapped in Laoban’s marble rye dough. More traditional offerings of ginger-chicken and shiitake-bok choy dumplings will also be available.
Feb. 26 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at On Rye, 740 Sixth St. NW. Dumplings are four for $6.50.
And the Winner Is…
D.C. Film Society will hold its annual Oscar viewing party Sunday at Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse. (Photo: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
This Sunday is the Oscars! If you would like to cheer on your favorites with a group, the D.C. Film Society is having its 25th annual And the Winner Is… Oscars viewing party. Watch the Oscars broadcast live on the big screen. See if you can pick the winners in the Predict the Winners contest and test your knowledge in a trivia contest. All proceeds benefit Filmfest D.C., as will a silent auction featuring theater, event and movie tickets, plus movie posters and other items signed by visiting filmmakers and actors including a Manchester by the Sea poster signed by nominated writer and director Kenneth Lonergan and DVDs and poster of I Saw the Light signed by actor Tom Hiddleston. The auction is cash or check only.
Feb. 26 starting at 7 p.m. at Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse, 2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington. http://www.dcfilmsociety.org/oscarparty1.htm Tickets are $16 for members and $21 for non-members in advance or $15 and $20 at the door, respectively, cash or check only.
