Friday: An Evening with Topper Carew at AFI Silver

You may have to be a native Washingtonian of a certain age to remember Topper Carew. The filmmaker’s most visible product in pop culture at large may be D.C. Cab, the 1983 hit comedy that starred Mr. T, Gary Busey, Irene Cara, and a host of others as a group of ragtag drivers who navigated the city streets and gathered at iconic D.C. locations like the Florida Avenue Grill. But the Howard University alumnus played a more crucial role in the cultural history of the Nation’s Capital. In 1966, at a storefront in Adams Morgan, Carew founded The New Thing, the first of what would be multiple venues that became a focal point for Black artists, from local favorites like jazz legends Lloyd McNeill (who designed the venue’s flyers with local artist Lou Stovall) and Andrew White to national artists like Stevie Wonder, who in 1967 performed a free concert in the heart of the neighborhood. The venue was also an educational hub, with McNeill teaching art to neighborhood children. The New Thing existed from 1966 to 1972, but its influence has been felt throughout the city ever since. This weekend, the American Film Institute Silver Theatre and Cultural Center presents An Evening With Topper Carew, with screenings of key works and discussion with the man himself. On the program: “This Little Light of Mine,” a 19-minute film that was recently delivered by rocket to the International Space Station. Consisting of children’s choirs singing the title song, the film is also being broadcast continually from the ISS to ThisLittleLightofMineinSpace.com. Also on the program is Carew’s short documentary about the New Thing; and, last but not least, the feature D.C. Cab. The screening is presented in conjunction with American University’s new exhibit, New Perspective on the New Thing: A Photography Exhibition Documenting DC’s Revolutionary Community Arts Center, 1966-1972, on view through March 17. An Evening with Topper Carew starts at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 9 at AFI Silver, 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. silver.afi.com. $8. —Pat Padua

Friday: BSO Fusion: Notorious B.I.G. x Tupac x Mahler at Strathmore

From the very beginning, hip-hop has been an art form that remixes from disparate sources, even from that exemplar of old dead White guy elitism: classical music. Many hip-hop heavyweights, including Nas, Busta Rhymes, the Beastie Boys, and Wu–Tang Clan, have sampled the likes of Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It’s only fitting then that the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s most popular music series BSO Fusion is offering an evening of Resurrection Mixtape, fusing Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the works of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., including such classics as “Hypnotize,” “Dear Mama,” “California Love,” “Juicy,” “Keep Ya Head Up,” and “Everyday Struggle.” Both rappers were superbly talented: Biggie was a brilliant freestyler, one of the most polished MCs with an unmatched flow, an impeccable ear for rhyme, a storyteller of mafioso excesses with a distinctive and disarming lyrical delivery. Tupac was the sensitive poet laureate of hip-hop with T.H.U.G. (the hate u give) emblazoned across his torso like armor; he was the rose that grew from concrete, a public intellectual and activist who addressed injustice and inequality including racism, police violence, and poverty in his verses, offering a righteous voice of resistance, community, and struggle. Two of the most formidable legends of hip-hop history—infamous for their public feuds during their lifetime—are forever united in their early, violent deaths only six months apart. In “So Many Tears,” off his final album released while he was alive 1995’s Me Against the World, Tupac offered this chilling prophecy, one of the many lyrics he composed about death: “My every move is a calculated step, to bring me closer/ To embrace an early death, now there’s nothing left.” Likewise, Biggie’s debut album was titled Ready to Die (1994) and his double album, Life After Death (1997), was released only two weeks after his murder. Each artist, however, has had an incredibly artistic afterlife, transcending into the pantheon of America’s greatest musical artists. The five movements of Mahler’s most popular work Resurrection Symphony (c. 1888-1894) comprise a funeral scene, full of loss and longing—asking “Is there life after death?” Conductor Steve Hackman, the mastermind behind BSO’s Fusion series, provides a fitting memorial for these three legends and a new framing of the legacies of Tupac and Biggie, whose lyrical influences and cultural contributions are forever interwoven into contemporary hip-hop. A trio of vocalists, electric bass, and drums will join the symphony for this transformative evening. (You can also see the show on Feb. 10 at Baltimore’s  Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.) BSO Fusion: The Resurrection Mixtape starts at 8 p.m. on Feb. 9 at the Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Ln., North Bethesda. my.bsomusic.org. $35—$70. —Colleen Kennedy

Sunday: A Benefit for Jim & Marianne Robeson at Saint Mark Presbyterian Church

Jim Robeson has been an acclaimed recording studio engineer since the 1980s, working with local artists including country-folk singer Mary Chapin Carpenter, folk and children’s music duo Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, and the all-women a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock. “In the 1980s it was not always easy for women to find respect in the recording studio,” Fink tells City Paper via email. “Jim went above and beyond, becoming a mentor and a friend.” Robeson, a country-rock musician turned engineer who worked from 1980 to 2014 at Bias Studios in Springfield, Virginia, and since then in his Gaithersburg home studio, has won two Grammy Awards with Fink and Marxer, and been nominated for one with Chapin Carpenter. Those awards, however, haven’t made Robeson independently wealthy. When his wife, Marianne Robeson, had serious health issues in 2023, Jim stopped working for five weeks and served as her full-time caretaker. He’s working again but the couple have bills from her time in a hospital and rehabilitation facility, as well as incurring expenses as they make their home more accessible. In an effort to support the Robesons, some local musicians including Fink and Marxer, have set up a GoFundMe and a benefit concert to raise money for the couple. The fundraiser is a late afternoon show that will take place several hours before the start of the Super Bowl, and will include a who’s who of veteran acts with connections to Robeson. The bill includes folk singer Tom Paxton, whose 1960s civil rights songs were covered by Bob Dylan, and others. Some additional participants include Scottish music fiddler Bonnie Rideout, and bluegrass act the Seldom Scene, whose twangy mountain music and high-pitched vocal harmonies got them weekly gigs at the Birchmere for a time. The benefit concert for Jim and Marianne Robeson starts at 4 p.m. on Feb. 11 at Saint Mark Presbyterian Church, 10701 Old Georgetown Rd., Rockville. imtfolk.org. $30. —Steve Kiviat

Wednesday: Deap Vally and Sloppy Jane at the Black Cat

Whether you’re heartbroken, hell-bent on revenge, not into the whole Hallmark vibe, or you simply prefer to spend Valentine’s with your dearest and queerest femme friends, the Black Cat’s got a show for you. L.A.’s Deap Vally are a pounding bluesy rock duo with howling and thrashing guitarist-vocalist Lindsey Troy and primal drummer Julie Edwards. These Vally girls gone bad played the scene for well over a decade, opening for artists such as Peaches, Muse, and Wolfmother, while releasing three albums: Sistrionix (2013), Femejism (2016), and Marriage (2021), in addition to their “Deap Lips” collaboration with the Flaming Lips. But this tour is their swan song as they have decided to have one big last party before calling it quits. Opening act Sloppy Jane are a punk rock chamber ensemble led by Haley Dahl with an amorphous team of musicians joining various projects and recordings. The first Sloppy Jane album, Willow (2018), is lo-fi, staticky riot grrrl perfection: lots of bite, full of piss and vinegar, and so distorted it’s barely listenable (in all the best ways). But Dahl’s next effort, Madison (2021), is a whole other beast, showing the evolution of Sloppy Jane’s sound, and released on former bassist Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory label. Madison are an avant-garde chamber pop project recorded in a natural echo chamber: the musicians dragged their instruments—including a piano—deep into a West Virginia cave to record the haunting, atmospheric, softer sound. If you’re less into Nora Ephron rom-coms and maybe more into the cannibalistic, lusty fantasies of Yellowjackets and Bones and All, then this is the Galentine’s Night for you, and a chance to say farewell to Deap Vally. Deap Vally and Sloppy Jane play at 6 p.m. on Feb. 14 at the Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. blackcatdc.com. $22–$99. —Colleen Kennedy 

Wednesday: Casablanca at Angelika Pop-Up

It’s been 82 years since Casablanca premiered, but its status as a classic movie romance has endured. Starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in their most famous performances as reunited ex-lovers in Vichy-held city of Casablanca, it’s one of those films people end up seeing one way or another. So why not go see it at the Angelika Film Center Pop-Up at Union Market on Valentine’s Day? Like many Golden Age classics, Casablanca has been referenced, copied, and parodied enough times to make much of its original message a cliche (the original Star Wars trilogy is considered a direct descendant by some). But, the film has two things going for it: It’s paced like a good action movie, it flows before viewers, and its overarching message of hope and love triumphing has lasted through time. Casablanca is not the most complex film—its simplified characterizations of refugee crises and imperialism, along with a thinly veiled commentary on the flaws of American isolationism, are rightly seen as “schlocky romanticism,” as film critic Pauline Kael once put it. But that’s Hollywood, as they say. Casablanca is still a great Date Night movie; and the very manageable 102-minute run time is something modern filmmakers could take cues from. Plus there’s a signature gin cocktail at the concession stand that you can pretend is from Rick’s Café! Casablanca screens at 7 p.m. on Feb. 14, at Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St. NE. angelikafilmcenter.com. $13. —Tristan Jung