Forget the Fourth: DC Does Dischord, Sixth Sense in a Cemetery, and More City Lights for July 3–10
Friday: Yesterday & Today: DC Does Dischord Release Party at the Black Cat D.C.-based label For the Love of Records is putting on a show to celebrate the release of their new compilation album. Entitled Yesterday & Today: DC Does Dischord, the LP is a tribute to the area’s hardcore punk heritage by some of…
Lavender Evolutions Creates Third Spaces for QTBIPOC Washingtonians
Some of the best ideas are born in the living rooms of D.C. group homes. Lavender Evolutions, the ever-growing D.C. collective, began as one of those ideas. While living together in the Petworth home, lovingly referred to as the Giant Peach for its vibrant peach-painted facade, Madi Dalton and Leslie Tellería continued the group house’s…
FIGHTMASTER, Orville Peck Close Out Pride: City Lights for June 27–July 3
Thursday: Mdou Moctar at the 9:30 Club The Nigerien guitarist has come a long way from his first U.S. tour in 2017, when his whirlwind immersion in Washington culture included a gig at the Library of Congress and a three-day residency at Episcopal High School before culminating in a headlining performance at the Black Cat.…
Crosswords and Ethio-Jazz: City Lights for June 20 Through 27
Thursday through Sunday: Letters to Kamala and Dandelion Peace at Universal National Memorial Church Voices Festival Productions presents the world premiere production of two plays by Wisconsin-based playwright Rachel Lynett, Letters to Kamala and Dandelion Peace. Directed by A. Lorraine Robinson, the show is staged in the basement theater of the Universal National Memorial Church…
Tekno, Trees, and 10,000 Dreams: City Lights for June 13 Through 19
Friday: Munit Mesfin at Lubber Run Based in the D.C. area, Ethiopian-born vocalist Munit Mesfin is skilled in multiple genres. She plays some gigs strictly focused on Ethiopian music, as well as Roberta Flack tribute shows and family performances with Munit and Z Lovebugs, but she’s a member of global music ensemble Project Locrea. In…
Pride Weekend May Be Over, But the Events Continue
Take a nap, drink some water, and wipe the glitter from your eyes—or don’t. D.C.’s official Pride Weekend may have concluded with Sunday, June 9, but as we always say, June is a marathon, not a sprint. With 20 more days left of Pride Month, we’ve rounded up some especially great events aimed at offering…
Alice Randall, Blvck Hippie, Pride: City Lights for June 6 Through 12
City Lights welcomes you to Pride Month. As per usual you’ll find our regularly scheduled event previews below, but if you’re looking for something a little—or a lot—more queer, check out Blvck Hippie below along with the first half of City Paper’s 2024 Pride Guide. For parade and festival lovers, this is the weekend. You…
Brazilian Guitar Masters, Bill Evans, and More: City Lights for May 30 Through June 5
Friday and Saturday: Brazilian Guitar Masters Festival at Miracle Theatre and Catholic University This weekend offers an opportunity to hear Brazilian masters of guitar from two different generations, who each bring their own unique songcraft touches: Yamandu Costa and João Bosco. Costa, 44 is a Latin Grammy-winning instrumentalist who plays a seven-string acoustic guitar rather…
Dragula and Lots To Look At: City Lights for May 23 Through 29
Saturday: Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Season 5 Tour at Fillmore Silver Spring Unless you’re a Ministry devotee, you may not realize every day is Halloween. Unless you’re a drag aficionado over the age of 30, you may not realize there’s an entire drag ecosystem outside of RuPaul’s World of Wonder. If the Venn diagram of your…
Beyond the Parade: A 2024 Pride Guide to D.C.
The sun is shining, Partiful invites are popping, outfits are coming together, and across the city rainbow flags are flying. It can only mean one thing: Pride is upon us! Here in the nation’s capital, Pride festivities begin Memorial Day Weekend with DC Black Pride—one of the largest and greatest Black Prides in the country.…
Nicole Chung, Zodiac Suite, and More: City Lights for May 16 Through 22
Thursday: Nicole Chung at People’s Book Author Nicole Chung continues to take the DMV by storm with an event celebrating the paperback release of her bestselling 2023 memoir, A Living Remedy. Chung will be joined by Clint Smith, the D.C.-based author of How the Word Is Passed and an Atlantic columnist. Chung has done many events…
Seeing Green Through Dance, Dog Film Fest, and More: City Lights for May 9–15
Friday: Zine Workshop at People’s Book Even as the world becomes increasingly digital, zines (small-circulation magazines) persist as a common method of information dissemination and storytelling. In recent years, political movements have used zines to counter online disinformation and surveillance tactics and people across the globe have turned to zine creation to document their experiences…
La Perla, Jazz Greats, and More: City Lights for May 2–8
Thursday: Belle and Sebastian at the Anthem Don’t forget this show highlighted in last week’s City Lights: After Belle and Sebastian’s Sarah Martin graduated from university, she took a job in a local bookshop. “My mum was like, ‘Yeah, but what are you really going to do?’” Martin tells City Paper. “I was like, ‘No,…
Anna Deavere Smith and a Chocolate Festival: City Lights for April 25 to May 1
Thursday: Oneohtrix Point Never at Howard Theatre Don’t forget this show highlighted in last week’s City Lights: “Daniel Lopatin, who performs and creates under the moniker Oneohtrix Point Never, constructs sample-heavy, synthesizer-forward compositions that conjure a sense of tuneful existential dread.” Friday: Mariah Stovall at Lost City Books As a literary agent, Mariah Stovall is…
ENNIO, Art Films at NGA, and More: City Lights for April 18–25
Opens Friday; With a Wine and Chocolate Party Saturday: Ennio at AFI Silver After graduating from Rome’s Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia with a degree in composition, Ennio Morricone found himself in a condition familiar to many of those who study the creative arts: educated, talented, and broke. He took odd jobs playing trumpet on the…
New Worlds, Atmosphere, and More: City Lights for April 11–17
Opening Sunday: New Worlds: Women to Watch 2024 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts I wrote about this exhibit for March’s Spring Arts Guide, but after seeing it in person it felt especially important to boost my recommendation of New Worlds: Women to Watch 2024. During the press tour, Katie Wat, chief curator…
Curtis Sittenfeld, District Dreamers Film Fest: City Lights for April 4 to 10
Thursday through Saturday: The DC History Conference at MLK Library The 50th annual DC History Conference will offer presentations from historians, journalists, graduate students, and current and former area residents with specialized knowledge on the myriad aspects of D.C. life from the 1700s to the present. Thursday night, April 4, the event kicks off with…
Washington Women in Jazz Festival: City Lights for March 28 to April 3
Saturday and Sunday: The 14th Annual Washington Women in Jazz Festival Though the 14th annual Washington Women in Jazz Festival has already hosted multiple events this March, it is closing out the month with a hopping, final weekend. Saturday starts off with a live recording of the Washington Women in Jazz podcast the Turnaround and…
Revolutions, Plant Sales, and Cider: City Lights for March 21–27
Thursday, Saturday, and Wednesday: Women’s History Month DCAF Fundraiser at ANXO Cider ANXO Cider is honoring Women’s History Month with a ton of events at their Brightwood Park location, housed within Brightwood Pizza & Bottle, raising funds for the DC Abortion Fund. Upcoming March events include Wednesday wine tastings accompanied with music by local DJs…
New Work From Justin Weaks: City Lights for March 14–20
Saturday and Sunday: The Music of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church Although romantic-era composer Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847) received the same education as her famous younger brother Felix Mendelssohn (best known for the ubiquitous “The Wedding March”), even her own father declared her musical output as “only an ornament” to her calling…
Bratty and Soomin Ham’s Photos: City Lights for Feb. 29–March 7
Thursday: Bratty at Songbyrd On the opening track of TRES, the third album by 23-year-old Culiacán, Mexico, native Jennifer Abigail Juárez, the singer-songwriter confesses over a gentle acoustic guitar that she wants to “Write a new album/ One that’s really worth it.” That sort of frankness and insecurity, narrated in Juárez’s sweet soprano voice, has…
Last Wednesday, Rhett Miller: City Lights for Feb. 22–28
Thursday: Last Wednesday at Quarry House Tavern Most fledgling high school musicians who want to rock out find a few friends to jam with in a very accepting parents’ basement or garage and that’s about the extent of their music career. Last Wednesday, a Maryland-based rock quartet, have long graduated past the garage door, playing…
A Gatsby Party and Billy Dee Williams: City Lights for Feb. 15–21
Thursday: Billy Dee Williams at MLK Library If the mere mention of the movies Brian’s Song, Lady Sings the Blues, and Mahogany makes you break out into Eddie Murphy’s Nutty Professor II hand-clapping “Billy Dee! Billy Dee!” then the arrival of Billy Dee Williams’ autobiography, What Have We Here? Portraits of A Life (out now),…
Deap Vally, Topper Carew: City Lights for Feb. 8–14
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…
El Laberinto del Coco, Bonnie and Clyde: City Lights for Feb. 1–7
Thursday: El Laberinto del Coco at UMD’s Clarice Smith Center El Laberinto del Coco is a 2017-formed Puerto Rican group led by percussionist Hector “Coco” Barez that melds powerful Afro-Puerto Rican bomba percussion, jazzy Latin horns, and Santana-esque guitar, with Latin pop and rap vocals. Bomba is a folkloric Black Puerto Rican style of music…
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