Still Life with Robin: Too Bad You Can't Be in 15 Places at Once!

National Arboretum

by Peggy Robin

Today’s column, featuring a panoply of events on in DC this Saturday, is a supplement and a “look what got left out” listing/follow-up to the Get Out! Events column posted on Thursday, April 25.The Saturday entries in that column showed just six happenings, which I’ll recap here:

Saturday, April 27 from 9 AM – 1 PM, Site of Imagination: The Park ‘n’ Shop in Cleveland Park - A Humanities Truck Interactive Exhibit. A neighborhood landmark, the Park ‘n’ Shop is viewed as innovative by some and outdated by others. Join the Humanities Truck to learn about the history of the Park ‘n’ Shop and development in Cleveland Park. Reflect with invested Cleveland Park residents on the past, present, and future of this neighborhood. Free admission. Look for the Humanities Truck on the west side of Connecticut between Newark and the Uptown Theater.

Saturday, April 27 from 10 AM – 5 PM, French Market, Book Hill in Georgetown. Free. Dust off your berets for the 16th Annual Georgetown French Market, as the charming Book Hill neighborhood of Georgetown will transform into a Parisian-inspired open-air market along Wisconsin Avenue from O Street to Reservoir Road! Free admission. For times of performances, info about giveaways and children’s activities, go to: https://www.georgetownfrenchmarketdc.com/ and click on “Schedule of Events” at the top of the page. (Also on Sunday from 12 - 5 PM)

Saturday, April 27 from 9 AM - 12 noon, Community Cleanup and Spring Beautification at Turtle Park.  The Friends of Friendship Park will host a community cleanup and spring beautification day at the park, located on the corner of 45th and Van Ness Streets. Help pick up trash, collect broken toys, clean up the landscaping and replace mulch and sand where necessary. Please bring your own rake! Coffee and bagels will be provided to volunteers. Stick around after the clean up ends at noon to enjoy some ice cream, provided by Friends of Friendship Park (noon to 2 PM). More info: http://turtlepark.org/events/#event7

Saturday, April 27 from 10 AM - 5 PM, DC Public Library Author Festival. Local writers and authors are invited to attend the DC Author Festival at the Library of Congress James Madison Memorial Building located at 101 Independence Ave. SE. Enjoy workshops, discussions, social activities and professional development. The DC Author Festival is presented in partnership with the Library of Congress. Featured Speaker (1:30 PM): Michael Twitty, James Beard award-winning author of The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South (in the Mumford Room). More info: https://www.dclibrary.org/dcauthorfest   

Saturday, April 27 at 1 PM, The Lincoln Conspiracy and the Trial that Made History. Jamie Stiehm, a Creators Syndicate columnist, discusses how the plot to assassinate President Lincoln - and others - was conceived in Mary Surratt’s boarding house - known as  “The Nest in Which the Egg was Hatched.” Free. At Georgetown Library, 3260 R St. NW, https://www.dclibrary.org/node/63426

Saturday April 27 at 2 PM, Lecture: Shakespearean Music, presented by Carl Yaffe, Lecturer in Music Theory and History at the Levine School of Music in DC. You will learn about the music during Shakespeare’s time and the music inspired by his writings. Participants will also listen to several samples of such music. Followed by Q&A. Free. At Georgetown Neighborhood Library, 3260 R Street NW. More info: https://www.dclibrary.org/node/63376 

Now I see I should have added NINE more events to that column. So I’m doing that now. So many significant holidays. Like Arbor Day (two important events on that theme). And Independent Bookstore Day. And Finding Reno (the lost community, not the winding road!) And the Georgetown House Tour. And books and cats and a whole lot more! Let’s take them in alphabetical order:

Anti-Racist Book Fest at American University is the first and only book festival that brings together, showcases, and celebrates the nation’s leading antiracist writers and helps to prepare the writers of tomorrow. This year's festival, from 9 AM – 5 PM, primarily features authors of anti-Black racism and its intersections. Panels are topically organized with two authors and a moderator, and are followed by book signings. There is also a course of workshops for writers with leading book editors and literary agents. Free workshops will be held for educators and youth, and on photography and self-care. The National Antiracist Book Festival is a ticketed event – tickets for sessions range from free to up to $250. All proceeds from ticket sales will go toward the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. Get tickets at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/national-antiracist-book-festival-tickets-58283302928. At American University Washington College of Law, 4300 Nebraska Avenue NW. From 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM. More info: https://www.american.edu/centers/antiracism/book-fair/

Arbor Day at Oxon Run Park. The free, family-friendly event organized by the DC Department of Transportation’s Urban Forestry Division will celebrate the existing trees in DC’s largest city-maintained park and provide opportunities to plant new trees. The day also features tree climbing, do-it-yourself birdhouse workshops, nature walks and bike rides hosted by Capital Bikeshare and Washington Area Bicyclist Association. The local jazz and go-go band JoGo Project will perform at noon. Participation in activities is first come, first served, with sign-up sheets at the Welcome Booth. All ages are welcome. Attendees are encouraged to bring folding chairs since seating is limited. Children 5 to 18 may climb trees, after parents sign a waiver. On from 10 AM – 3 PM at Oxon Run Park, 13th Street and Valley Avenue SE. More info: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/arbor-day-festival-tickets-55278571696?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

Arbor Day Plant Sale and Garden Fair at the National Arboretum. At this Arbor Day event you can buy a tree (well, a shrub or some other potted plants) and take it home with you. Free admission for all from 12 noon to 4 PM (there’s a members only time from 9 AM – 12 noon for Friends of the National Arboretum). Experts will be available to help buyers find the best plants for their garden, and the Washington Revels Gallery Voices perform madrigals and other songs as they rove the grounds from 11 AM – 2 PM. Proceeds go to the Arboretum. If you can’t make it on Saturday, the event is also open on Sunday from 9 AM – 4 PM. The National Arboretum is at 3501 New York Avenue, NE. More info: https://www.fona.org/gardenfair/ 

Family Fun Day at Katzen Arts Center at American University. Fun for all ages! All activities are free and inspired by current exhibitions. Create hands-on art projects, explore art with a scavenger hunt, take a tour with one of our guides, listen and participate in storytelling and music-making, and more. Free, please register in advance and check-in at the door. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/family-day-at-the-american-university-museum-tickets-57426684760. From 11 AM – 3 PM. American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW.

Finding Reno (& The People Who Called It Home). Hosted by Humanities Truck – free and open to the public. Tenleytown’s Fort Reno Park was once home to Reno City, a thriving African American community. Finding Reno explores the story of Reno City and the daily lives of its residents. The public is invited to participate in the remembrance of the community by investigating historic images from the town and contributing to a conversation about the history and legacy of Reno City.  Neil Flanagan will be giving a tour at 6 PM. At Fort Reno Park, Chesapeake Ave and Fort Drive NW.

Georgetown House Tour, http://www.georgetownhousetour.com/ is here to make you jealous of all those gorgeous elegant historic homes….until you consider the hordes of visitors jockeying for the tour, gaping at stuff, clogging the narrow sidewalks, and parking their oversized SUVs wherever they can find a spot, legal or not -- and then you are glad you don’t actually own one of these homes. But well worth the ticket price of $40 to $55 to do the looky-loo thing! And it benefits charity of course. Tickets are available for purchase (or pickup after online registration and payment) starting at 11 AM at St. John’s Church, 3240 O St. NW, and the price includes admission to a Parish Tea (between 2 – 5 PM) and a panel discussion with designers and architects. The discussion about the neighborhood’s residential design with four well-known Georgetown architects and interior designers starts at 3 PM at the church. 

Independent Bookstore Day – and the first ever DC Bookstore Crawl! Bookshops across the city will be featuring limited-edition merchandise, discounts and other festivities. Politics and Prose, Busboys and Poets, Bridge Street Books, East City Bookshop, The Potter’s House, Wall of Books, Capitol Hill Books, Solid State Books, Loyalty Bookstore and Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe are all participating. Get all the details here: https://www.dcbookstoreday.com/ and here: https://www.facebook.com/DCBookstoreDay/. One free drink at Peregrine Espresso, too. Check participating bookstores for hours.

Meow DC Day – the first event of its kind in DC! From 10 AM – 5 PM, come to Dock 5 at Union Market, 1309 5th St NE for cats, cats, and more cats. Through exhibitor booths and adoptable animals and expert speakers to demonstrations and free giveaways, guests will walk away from the event feeling fulfilled about their love for cats. Tickets $45 at the door – benefit the Humane Rescue Allliance. More info: http://www.humanerescuealliance.org/MeowDC 

Spring Open House at DC Art Glass Studio. Free and open to all from 11 AM to 5 PM, at , 1322 Corcoran St. NW. DC glass artist Robert Wiener began making art in 2002 after taking his first art glass class at the Millennium Art Center in DC. He eventually left his day job in accounting and finance to pursue art. The Open House also continues on Sunday from 11 AM – 5 PM. More info at: https://www.facebook.com/midcityartists/posts/new-work-at-mca-member-robert-wieners-art-glass-studio-stop-by-his-spring-open-s/10157517076887176/ 

Thanks to the very informative DC Line daily e-newsletter for the alerts to a number of the items in this list - https://thedcline.org/2019/04/25/the-dc-lineup-for-this-weekend-indie-books-arbor-day-and-heaps-of-history%EF%BB%BF/ 

If all of the foregoing does not make you grateful to live in DC, then please, get out of town!

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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.