Get Out! - The Events Column

We wanted to share some events and activities that list members might be interested in. Have a great weekend -- and week beyond, too. If you know of an event that should be in next week's column, email us at events @ fastmail.us.

Have a happy New Year!

Bill Adler and Peggy Robin
Publishers, All Life Is Local
Cleveland Park Listserv
www.cleveland-park.com 

Friday, January 4 at 8:30 PM. David Grinspoon, chair of astrobiology at the Library of Congress, discusses the human role in earth's evolution. Free, sponsored by the Philosophical Society of Washington, DC. In the Powell Auditorium of the Cosmos Club, 2170 Florida Avenue NW. More info at http://bit.ly/TxseyE

Saturday, January 5 from 10 AM to 2 PM - Branches Tree Experts will recycle holiday trees in the Murch Elementary School parking lot at the annual fundraiser to benefit the Murch boys' and girls' basketball teams. For a donation of $5 dollars per tree, you can take a bag of mulch home or contribute the mulch to Murch for use in the school's educational gardens. The players will help you move the tree from your car to the shredder. Murch is located at 4810 36th St. NW between Davenport and Ellicott Streets.

Saturday, January 5: The Performing Arts Training Studio is holding an Open House from 12 Noon to 2 PM to celebrate its new location in Columbia Heights/Pleasant Plains, at 733 Euclid Street NW. Prizes, face painting, and the opportunity to audition for the new pre-professional acting troupe. Auditions for teens 13-16 are from 9 AM - 11 AM. Please prepare a 1 minute monologue and bring a current picture. More information at www.performingartstrainingstudio.com.

Saturday, January 5 at 8 PM, piano concert by Alexander Paley, performing works of Liszt and Weber. Free. Westmoreland Congregational Church, 1 Westmoreland Circle.

Saturday, January 5 at 2 PM, It's Superhero Saturday at the Mount Pleasant Library. This Saturday, find out who will come out on top: Batman or Bane? Screening of the latest Batman movie starring Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway, in the meeting room on the main floor of the library (movie rated PG-13). Free and open to all.

Sunday, January 6 starting at 10 AM, history hike in Rock Creek Park for ages 10 and up. A park ranger will lead a 2 mile hike to a Civil War fort, a poet's cabin, and an historic creek ford. Meet at the Rock Creek Nature Center, 5200 Glover Road. Free.

Sunday, January 6. Three Kings Fiesta. A bilingual festival of song, dance, and storytelling, with a procession of live animals starting at 1 PM at the corner of Park Road and 14th Street NW.  Shows at 11:30 AM and 2:30 PM at the GALA Theatre, 3333 14th Street NW. Free tickets given out from 10 AM to 12 Noon. Please bring a small gift for a child.  More info at www.galatheatre.org.

Sunday, January 6, 7 PM, Pierce Mill in Rock Creek Park. Warm up this winter and burn your Amazon boxes in the first annual Amazon Box Bonfire, sponsored by the National Park Service. It will be a fun evening of warmth and recycling. The Park Service wants to help you clear out your front hall of Amazon boxes that arrived during the holiday, and you do, too. Bring the kids, because marshmallows will be a-roastin'! Sticks for marshmallows will not be provided because this is the weekly fake event.

Monday, January 7 from 7 PM to 9 PM, "An Evening with Poets on the Fringe," presented by the Glover Park Village at Stoddert Elementary School and Rec Center (second floor library), 4100 Calvert Street NW. Free.

Tuesday, January 8 at 7:30 PM, Opening event of the National Symphony Orchestra's week of over 30 free events throughout the U St. Corridor/Howard University/Shaw/Logan Circle. The big events are the Opening Event at the Howard Theatre on January 8 at 7:30 PM. Then on Wednesday, January 9 at 5:30 PM, it's the "NSO In Your Neighborhood" Chamber Concert at the DCJCC. On Saturday, January 12 at 3 PM, Family Concert at the Lincoln Theatre with Kodjo Nnamdi, and on Monday January 14 at 7 PM, the full NSO performance at Howard University's Cramton Auditorium. For the complete calendar with locations and details go to: www.kennedy-center.org/nso/community/NSO_iyn-schedule.cfm

Wednesday, January 9 at 7 PM, author Gail Spilsbury talks about "A Washington Sketchbook: Drawings by Robert L. Dickinson 1917-1918." Presented by the Friends of the Tenley-Friendship Library, 4450 Wisconsin Avenue NW. Free.

Wednesday, January 9 at 7 PM, the Friends of the Chevy Chase Library will host a discussion of the book "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky."  Free. At the Chevy Chase DC Neighborhood Library, 5625 Connecticut Avenue NW.

Thursday, January 10 at 7:30 PM, Dr. Dan Shapiro holds an interactive parent workshop, Sleep Problems in Infants and Young Children, at the DCJCC Parenting Center at 16th and Q Streets.  To learn more and register go to: http://thejdc.convio.net/site/Calendar?id=135821&view=Detail

Thursday, January 10 at 7 PM. Meditation workshop led by Karen Silverman. Free. Georgetown Library, 3260 R Street NW.

Thursday, January 10 from 10 AM to 11:50 AM, "Waging War on Corruption." Journalist Frank Vogel will talk about fighting abuse in public office.  Sponsored by the Osher Lifeong Learning Institute of American University. At Temple Baptist Church, 3850 Nebraska Avenue NW.

Two new children's programs at the Tenley-Friendship Library beginning next week: On Wednesdays (1/9, 1/16, 1/23, and 1/30) at 4:00 PM, kids in Grades 2 to 5 can be Dewey Decimal Detectives. Each week, children can explore a different section of the library's non-fiction collection with book talks, read-alouds, crafts, games, journaling and more.  On Thursdays (1/10, 1/17, 1/24, and 1/31) at 4:00 PM, new readers are invited to Read-Along Story Time, just for kids who have started learning to read. The first book will be My Friend Is Sad by Mo Willems. Please register for these sessions by email to kathleen.fitzgerald @ dc.gov. There is no obligation to attend every week.