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Let it GLOW, Georgetown!
(Photo by: georgetownglowdc.com)
PomPom
Experience the 6th edition of Georgetown GLOW, presented by the Georgetown Business Improvement District, the region's only curated exhibition of outdoor public light art installations from December 6, 2019 through January 5, 2020. Set against the historic backdrop of DC's oldest neighborhood, it's a whole new way to shine.
Works will be it from 5:00 – 10:00 pm nightly.
In addition to the month-long exhibition, more than 50 of Georgetown’s national retailers and small businesses alike are offering in-store promotions and special events throughout GLOW.
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Santa's in Georgetown Dec. 8
You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to Georgetown!
Have breakfast with Santa at Volta Park on December 8th from 10:00 am till noon.
Volta Park is located at 1516 34th Street in Georgetown.
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RENT: Still Powerful, Still Relevant
It has been over twenty years since the Pulitzer and Tony Award®-winning masterpiece RENT opened on Broadway. RENT was first seen at the New York Theatre Workshop in 1994. On January 26, 1996, RENT opened in New York City off-Broadway before moving to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre on April 29, 1996. I was lucky to have seen it in New York and many times in the ensuing years including the London production, and consider myself lucky to have seen this powerful production. It packs the same powerful punch it did when I first saw it.
(Photo by: Courtesy Amy Boyle for National Theatre)
Joshua Tavares, Shafiq Hicks
When it opened on Broadway it was hailed as brilliant and today it is still brilliant and speaks truths to so many diverse audiences around the world. RENT is based on Puccini's La Bohème and follows for one year the lives of seven young artists who are struggling to make it in New York. Together they are faced with issues that still resonate with today. They fight for acceptance as same-sex couples, face homelessness, struggle with AIDS, and making it in a society which doesn’t always accept them. But despite this it is a play about hope and love. They face their struggles together as friends and through it all the love comes shining across the stage powerfully and you end up loving them all as you cry for them and laugh with them and hope for them. They remind us how important friendship is and how important it is to open oneself up to love.
This play is about the music. Classic songs like "One Song Glory", "Take Me or Leave Me", "I Should Tell You", "Light My Candle", and "Seasons of Love". All sung to perfection by this incredibly talented cast. It is impossible to single any one of them out they are all so good. Cody Jenkins as Mark Cohen, Coleman Cummings as Roger Davis, Aiyana Smash as Mimi Marquez, Shafiq Hicks as Tom Collins, Joshua Tavares as Angel Dumott Schunard, Kelsee Sweigard as Maureen Johnson, Samantha Mbolekwa as Joanne Jefferson, and Juan Luis Espinal as Benjamin Coffin III. The tour also features Zare Anguay, Rayla Garske, Lexi Greene, Ysabel Jasa, Caira Asanté Lakota, Stephen Rochet Lopez, Benjamin H. Moore, Carlina Parker, James Schoppe, Jason Tyler Smith, Kevin Stevens and Sam Van Vleet.
The production is based on the original direction by Michael Greif (Tony and Drama Desk Nominations, RENT), and re-staged by Evan Ensign. Original Broadway creatives Marlies Yearby (Choreography), Angela Wendt (Costume Design), and Tim Weil (Music Supervision and Additional Arrangements) are joined by Jonathan Spencer (Lighting Design), Keith Caggiano (Sound Design), MiRi Park (Associate Choreographer), and Matthew E. Maraffi (adapting original scenic design by Paul Clay).
I would say to anyone who reads this, “Don’t miss this great show”. It will only be here at National Theatre through Sunday, November 17th so get your tickets now.
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Arturo Sandoval Live at Blues Alley Nov. 14-17
Arturo Sandoval will be performing live at Blues Alley November 14 through 17, 2019. Purchase tickets here.
A protégé of the legendary jazz master Dizzy Gillespie, Sandoval was born in Artemisa, a small town in the outskirts of Havana, Cuba, on November 6, 1949, just two years after Gillespie became the first musician to bring Latin influences into American Jazz. Sandoval began studying classical trumpet at the age of twelve, but it didn’t take him long to catch the excitement of the jazz world. He has since evolved into one of the world’s most acknowledged guardians of jazz trumpet and flugelhorn, as well as a renowned classical artist, pianist and composer.
Sandoval is also a renowned classical musician, performing regularly with the leading symphony orchestras from around the world. Arturo has composed his own “Concerto for Trumpet & Orchestra”, which can be heard on “Arturo Sandoval: “The Classical Album.” Arturo has performed with the foremost orchestras in the country as well as abroad and recorded John Williams’ Trumpet Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra. His classical artistry has earned him the respect and admiration from the most prestigious conductors, composers and symphony orchestras worldwide.
Arturo Sandoval’s versatility can be heard on recordings with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Woody Shaw, Michel Legrand, Josh Groban, Tony Bennett, Bill Conti, and Stan Getz to Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka, Rod Stewart and Alicia Keys amongst many others. He has performed with John Williams with the Boston Pops, and in the Super bowl with Tony Bennett and Patti LaBelle.
Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient
10 time Grammy Award Winner
Emmy Award Recipient
6 Time Billboard Award Winner
2015 Hispanic Heritage Award Recipient
2016 Honorary Doctorate recipient in Fine Arts from The University of Notre Dame
“Born into poverty in Cuba and held back by his government, he risked everything to share his gifts with the world. In the decades since, this astonishing trumpeter, pianist and composer has inspired audiences in every corner of the world and awakened a new generation of great performers. He remains one of the best ever to play.”
–Barack Obama (presenting Arturo Sandoval The Presidential Medal of Freedom
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A Musical That Holds True--Then & Now
RENT, the Pulitzer and Tony Award winning masterpiece, returns to the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, November 12 through Sunday November 17.
The musical follows, for a year, the lives of seven artists struggling to follow their dreams without selling out. Now doesn’t that sounds familiar – for yesteryear and nowadays.
The shows at National are:
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 pm.
Friday and Saturday at 8 pm.
Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 pm.
Sunday evening at 7:30 pm.
The shows run about 2 hours and 35 minutes, including one intermission.
Tickets may be purchased at TheNationalDC.com, by calling1-800-514-3849, or in person at the box office open Monday-Friday from noon til 6 pm., and two hours prior to every performance. The theatre is at 1321 Pennsylvania Ave., NW in downtown D.C.
The show had its world premiere off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop in February of 1996 then transferred to Broadway in April of the same year.
RENT won the 1996 Tony Award for Best Musical as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This RENT 20th Anniversary Tour is produced by Work Light Productions.
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'War and Pieces' at Hillwood Now
Explore Dutch artist Bouke de Vries’s contemporary interpretation of the eighteenth-century banquet table at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens through April 5, 2020. A remarkable ceramic centerpiece, created from thousands of white porcelain fragments, in the form of an epic battle transforms the dining room at Hillwood. Inspired by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century centerpieces crafted in sugar and porcelain, War and Pieces is a contemporary response to this tradition.
(Photo by: hillwoodmuseaum.org)
In the seventeenth century, wealthy households decorated their tables with extravagant sugar sculptures that replicated allegorical scenes, architectural follies, or classical figures. By the eighteenth century, artists augmented or replaced the decorations with porcelain, including that by Meissen and Sèvres, early porcelain manufacturers who used skilled confectioners as their first modelers.
War and Pieces comprises seven sculptural vignettes, created in both sugar and porcelain, along with pieces of plastic toys. “It’s a battle between the Ancien Régime of sugar and porcelain with the plastic elements the modern interlopers,” de Vries said of the work. Six of the scenes represent Roman war deities Mars and Minerva doing battle, with Minerva usually dominating and declaring victory. Both figures use table utensils as weapons as they stand among decapitated figures and severed heads–what de Vries calls “Hummels gone wrong”—and the broken remains of ceramic dinner plates. The focal point of the work is a weightless mushroom cloud standing two feet tall and nearly four feet in diameter and surrounded by numerous portrayals of the crucified Christ as well as Guan Yin, the ancient Chinese bodhisattva of mercy. At the top of the cloud, an angel cries. Besides war, chaos, and aggression, the installation also features humor and beauty, undermining classical symbols in a satirical and critical way.
This exhibition marks the second time that the grand dining table at Hillwood features a contemporary interpretation of earlier centerpieces. In 2009 and 2010, as part of the exhibition Sèvres Then and Now, the table featured the Sèvres 1979 centerpiece called Ruins of Egypt, a whimsical take on monuments from antiquity crafted in biscuit porcelain.
Called a “masterwork” by art critics, War and Pieces has toured venues in Europe and Asia since 2012. Hillwood will become only the third venue in the United States to display the work.
Hillwood Museum, Estate & Gardens is located at 4155 Linnean Ave NW.
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Celebrate Georgetown's Little Folks at Annual Gala Nov. 1
The Little Folks School, an arts-focused preschool in Georgetown is marking their 47th anniversary with an Annual Gala on November 1, 2019.
(Photo by: Little Folks School)
Head of the school, James Gilroy tells The Georgetown Dish, “Little Folks is an extraordinary school for our youngest learners. I'm fortunate to be a part of a teaching community that puts the child at the center of their work each and every day. The warm, safe, and engaging classrooms are vibrant with enthusiasm, laughter, and curiosity. I have the pleasure of welcoming our students, parents, and care givers each morning with a hug, handshake, or high-five, a true highlight of my day. We stay true to our philosophy of allowing children to learn, play, create, and explore."
(Photo by: Little Folks School)
The Gala helps raise money to support facility upgrades and maintenance, financial aid, and professional staff development. Recent improvements include new flooring in the classrooms, repainting of the building, and new windows.
The school’s philosophy is rooted in commitment to the needs of the whole child and follows a curriculum focused on students developing a sense of independence, cooperation, and responsibility. Through their mixed-age classes, they support an atmosphere where students learn from one another, explore the world around them, and solve problems creatively while discovering their unique interests, talents, needs, and skills.
(Photo by: Little Folks School)
You may often see little ones walking up Q Street to Volta Park or up Wisconsin Avenue to the library. With their students coming from all over the DC Metro area, their community continues to grow and extend past their walls on Q Street.
To instill a sense of greater community, Little Folks has established a tradition of giving back through community service as part of the school curriculum. These efforts include: a monthly “Sandwich Patrol,” providing food for the homeless, an annual food drive through So Others Might Eat (SOME) and creating 100 holiday gifts bags for homeless children through the Early Learning Center at Martha’s Table in Southeast, DC .
(Photo by: Little Folks School)
Little Folks School at 3247 Q Street in Georgetown
For more information, to purchase tickets and/or make donations, visit Little Folks School.
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Poncho Sanchez Live at Blues Alley July 18-21
Legendary percussionist, Poncho Sanchez will be performing live at Blues Alley July 18-21, 2019.
For more than three decades as both a leader and a sideman, conguero Poncho Sanchez has stirred up a fiery stew of straightahead jazz, gritty soul music, and infectious melodies and rhythms from a variety of Latin American and South American sources. Poncho Sanchez was born in Texas on October 30, 1951 into a large Mexican-American family (rumor has it that his 13-year old mother fled to the U.S. after hiding under the bed as revolutionary Pancho Villa stormed her village), but grew up in the Los Angeles area, where he was weaned on a broad range of Latin and non-Latin popular music.
Inspired by the conga playing of Cuban great Mongo Santamaria, he honed his skills as a percussionist and broke into the limelight at the age of 23 when he joined vibraphonist Cal Tjader's famed Latin jazz ensemble in 1975. Poncho performed with him until Tjader's untimely death in 1982. A year later, he began his unprecedented 23-year relationship with Concord Records, which has produced two dozen recordings, a Grammy Award and several Grammy nominations.
"To me, Latin jazz is the world's greatest music," it has the melodic and harmonic sophistication of jazz and American standards, and the flavor and energy of Latin American music. What I'm most proud of is that this music – while it may sound exotic at times – is from America. It was born in New York City, when Chano Pozo met Dizzy Gillespie for the first time in the mid-1940s. They created something that didn't exist before in this country. I'm very proud to take this music all over the world all the time." Poncho Sanchez
Purchase tickets here.
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Summer at Dumbarton House
Throughout the summer, Dumbarton House Museum in Georgetown will host an array of interesting and educational events that connect neighbors and visitors to its important past. A highlight is Dumbarton at Dusk, a series of free, after hours events with music, pop up exhibits, food and drinks.
“Our museum captures what it was like to live in our nation’s capital in the earliest days,” explained Scott Scholz, deputy director and curator. “By inviting the community to our museum and grounds through interesting and unique programming, we are providing a new way to learn about and experience our city’s and nation’s history.”
Dumbarton House, a Federal style home built in 1799, and its stories stand today because of the foresight and commitment of a group of women who refused let its history die—The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America—which is also headquartered at Dumbarton House. Dumbarton House helps capture the untold story of the birth and maturation of Washington, D.C., and the nation through its museum, gardens and programming.
Summer events are an important way Dumbarton House engages the public to learn about the history of the period, house, city, and nation. Here are some calendar highlights:
- June-August--Every Sunday 10am – Yoga. Enjoy yoga classes in Dumbarton House’s gardens. Free
- May 25 12-2 pm – Walking Tour: In-TREE-guing Georgetown. Starting in the gardens at Dumbarton House, the tour explores the trees that line Georgetown streets. $20
- June 11 7:30-9 pm – Chamber Music Concert (Free)
- June 12-14 6-9pm – Picnic Theater Company Presents: The Great Gatsby. Picnic to this Roaring Twenties live action performance of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel. $15 in advance.
- June 20 5:30-8 pm – Dumbarton at Dusk. See Dumbarton House in a whole new light with live music, cash bar, light refreshments, and more. Free
- June 29 12-2 pm – Walking Tour: Georgetown Undercover. Investigate the clandestine corners of Georgetown where covert activities took place. $20
- July—Every Wed 7-11pm – Jane Austen Film Festival. Grab a blanket and watch Jane Austen’s timeless love stories under the stars in the historic garden at Dumbarton House. $6
- July 18 5:30-8 pm – Dumbarton at Dusk. See Dumbarton House in a whole new light with live music, cash bar, light refreshments, and more. Free
- July 20 10:00am-3pm – 8th Annual Day of Archaeology Festival. Dedicated to the archaeology, history, and preservation of the DC area, this fun-filled, family event features archaeologists, mock-excavations, crafts, food, and 3D printed artifacts. Free
- July 29 12-2 pm – Walking Tour: Georgetown After Dark. In 1962, DC legalized hard liquor for the first time since 1917. Learn about the growth of Georgetown’s bustling night life. $20
- August 24-25 10-3pm – Dolley Days. To mark Dolley Madison’s stop at Dumbarton House on August 24, 1814, during the burning of Washington, enjoy free admission, historic lawn games, and ice cream! Special guided and self-guided tours offered. Free
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Oliver Lee Jackson Paintings at NGA
The National Gallery of Art (NGA) is hosting an exhibition of Oliver Lee Jackson paintings in the East Building, mezzanine level through September 15, 2019.
American painter, printmaker, and sculptor Oliver Lee Jackson (b. 1935) has created a complex body of work which masterfully weaves together visual influences ranging from the Renaissance to modernism with principles of rhythm and improvisation drawn from his study of African cultures and American jazz.
Oliver Lee Jackson: Recent Paintings presents 18 paintings created over the past 15 years, many of which will be shown publicly for the first time. Jackson’s often large-scale paintings blend figural elements of bodies pointing, kneeling, drawing, and playing instruments with colorful abstract compositions and vigorously worked surfaces.
Each painting creates a space and world of its own, captivating viewers and challenging them to spend time with the mesmerizing works. Born in St. Louis, Jackson taught at California State University, Sacramento, for many years and now lives and works in Oakland, California.
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