What's happening, updated every Wednesday.
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See this in a more scannable Google doc.
On sale now! Events in the ~ future ~ that you may want to buy tickets for before they sell out:
Thee Sacred Souls (9/17), Taylor Tomlinson at 6th&I (9/23), all things go (9/25-9/27), Charli XCX (9/28), Two Door Cinema Club (10/11), tunes: Rebecca Black (10/15), JPEGMAFIA (10/21), Beck (10/25), Dana and Alden (10/29), Slow Pulp (11/9), Julia Jacklin (11/10)
Wednesday September 9
See Sting before he was famous!
Suns Cinema is screening “Quadrophenia,” a 1960s film (with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes) that is inspired by The Who album of the same name. Featuring Sting in his debut role, this film is full of punk, grit, and… music? (7pm)
What’s more punk than the punk show at the public library?
It’s your last chance to brag to your co-workers and friends when they ask about your evening plans that you’re headed out to DCPL’s monthly summertime rooftop show featuring local bands. See you up there? (6pm)
Jazzfest isn’t over until I say it is
Couldn’t afford the $130+ tickets for Jazzfest’s mainstage last weekend? Lucky for you, NOLA-style the Experience Band and Show is delivering second line energy for a pay-what-you-can fee. (8:30pm)
Also || author talk: R.F. Kuang, punk at pocket, looney tunes rediscovered, local tunes: prometheu$, Crossroads Farmers Market, embroidery class, doc screening: breaking the west, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom opens at Round House Theatre, Screening: The Most Beautiful Deaths in the World, collage the new moon, NASA’s the moon base, MoCo movie at Rhizome, fall yoga at Omni Shoreham
Thursday September 10
If you had the chance to change your fate, would you?
The Fool is a comedy show at Black Cat that’s pairing a tarot reader and a comedian: Willing volunteers get a reading alongside a gentle roast. Remember… fortune favors the brave. (7pm)
Step aside, there’s a new Dorothy in town
This musical reimagines The Wizard of Oz as an immigration story. Dorothy becomes Reina, journeying from El Salvador to America and gathering friends on a classic hero's journey. Catch it on premiere night or anytime through October 4. (7:30pm)
Also || script to spotlight, Fresh Produce's open mic for producers, funny farm, psychedelic assisted therapy, short film: One Call, America: The Game, 50s-themed comedy night, dinner fundraiser for Nepal
Friday September 11
You’re going to want to stay up for this
It’s Art All Night! Stay out until midnight and stroll along:
It’s getting funky downtown
Hometown heroes Strutman Lane, an eight-piece funk band, are throwing a free concert at Nat Geo’s courtyard. Be ready to make this face when that horn section hits. (5:30pm)
Also || Camp Merry, tunes at pocket, beyond belief at 6th & I, finding awe at NGA, anti-capitalist coworking club, cosmic mirrors, pay what you can: 9/11 song cycle
Saturday September 12
The drip is handwoven
The GW Textile Museum is throwing an all-day festival celebrating the traditions of the Andes like dance, weaving and natural-dye demos, and crafting. There will also be adorable llamas and sheep to hang with. (10am)
It’s Pie-o’clock somewhere
It’s the annual pie baking contest in Takoma Park. Bring your favorite seasonal pie to be judged. (Do you think they’ll accept my key lime pie?) If you’re not a baker you can buy a slice of pie after or enjoy the market! (10:30am)
Also || book of stories, DMV girls hockey weekend, Rosh Hashanah lunch, New Synagogue Project for the High Holidays, tunes at the hamilton, lunch at 6th & I, high holidays at 6th & I, Bethesda Row Arts Festival, beer in the garden, screening: The Dream and the Lie, Space Festival, consequences of surveillance 25 yrs after 9/11, art all night in chevy chase, vintage swap, art all night: logan circle, andrew sa at pie shop, tunes: She Says, Korean food tour of NoVA, coalition-building and solidarity, strawberry milk creative market, pay what you can: 9/11 song cycle
Sunday September 13
Ghost reenactment potential
ClayFest DC is taking place at Brookland Arts Walk with over 25 local potters, hands-on clay activities, live demos, and raffles. Get your hands dirty, support local artists, and take home a mug you’ll absolutely justify needing for your collection. (11am)
Step into her watery realm
When you draw the High Priestess in tarot, you tap into the intuitive, the mystical, the tacit. Collage your own version of the Second Major Arcana at the Living Room. (3pm)
Also || steph phest 2026, community bike ride, Bethesda Row Arts Festival, victory bike ride, finding awe at NGA, screening: Napoleon, beginner friendly mahjong class, sound bath, blend your own face oil, The Stories in Our Bones, study hall at rhizome, sunday commons market, stevie wonder nights at songbyrd, talking death over drinks, bookshop bingo, adams morgan day, pay what you can: 9/11 song cycle, opening reception: in gray
Monday September 14
If you miss this event, you’ll have vinaigrette
Learn how to make your own home-brewed vinegar at Edgewood Community Farm. You’ll learn what a vinegar “mother” is, how to avoid mold, and how to make your own flavors. (6pm)
ACAB includes Charlie Swan :(
Join the socialist night school and Alec Karakatsanis for a discussion of his 2025 book, Copaganda. See how propaganda distorts our views of crime and safety and how we can resist it. (6:30pm)
Also || book club: lost in translation, dune and messiahs, screening: brailled it, EJ and Health Disparities Symposium, local tunes: Baltimore Avenue, autumn welcome mat painting, chat with an astronaut
Tuesday September 15
This comedy show is monumental!
Come see DC’s own version of SNL. Sketches written about DC that will be sure to make you laugh with this brand new hour of comedy from Bad Medicine. (7:30pm)
Fold for the future
Senbazuru is the Japanese tradition of folding a thousand paper cranes to carry a wish. At this fold-in, the cranes will hold a hope for a future where trans and GNC folks are fully loved, and they’ll join a growing community installation. Reserve your spot ahead of time! (6:30pm)
Also || science of longevity, author talk: Michael Don, masters degree fair, keep van free fundraiser, queer mahjong night, author talk: Susan Coll, swing dancing at the waterfront
SEPTEMBER
9/16: books about women running from houses, phone free experience, hometown dc closing event, educator night at Living Room, wine tasting at PLNTR
9/17: book talk: Kristin Hannah, soundscape at phillips collection, Teshuva workshop, tunes at rhizome, honest to goodness, tunes: Visit Neptune, book talk: Names Have Been Changed, burlesque and karaoke, screening: cow trip, Muslim Counterpublics Lab, local art exhibit, local tunes: Samir LanGus
9/18: caribbean happy hour, PARK(ing) Day, Mt. Joy, anti-rat webinar, the art of looking, art talk: Marguerite Gerard, tunes: The Sweet Spot, Drone All Night, trivia on the farm, finding awe at NGA, anti-capitalist coworking club, open mic night, Training on cooperative businesses, art at georgetown, comedy & hookah, drunk dracula
9/19: hope journey walk for autoimmune association, local tunes: muddlehead, jazz at kreeger, 50 Years of the American Folklife Center, collaborative screenprinting workshop, learn more about tarot, screening: hoop dreams, dc lifter girls picnic, local tunes: Alex Alavi & The Funky Breakfast, nerd nite, Sinophone Independent Film Festival, Korean food tour of annapolis, poetry at rhizome, comedy: thank me later, renewing urban renewal, solidarity hh
9/20: oktoberfest community sing, beyond belief, Capitol Hill tree tour (use code 730DC for a discount), The Victorians' Sexual Underworld, screening: Golub, foliage workshop, Sunday Jazz & Tea, all about oaks, bricks4dc, Mt Pleasant cat safari, walking tour of columbia heights, walk around tasting: latin spirits, jazz showcase at pocket
9/21: the critical musician, Havdalah and Break Fast, Falls Prevention Awareness Week, falls prevention week, Travel Like an Anthropologist
9/22: Psalmayene 24 at Folger Theatre, grief in process, Falls Prevention Awareness Week, talking to strangers, preventing election violence, noir screening at arts club of washington, cry baby creative, Layne Garrett at Rhizome
9/23: Taylor Tomlinson at 6th&I, burlesque: velvet hour, living room becomes writing room
9/24: tunes at rhizome, local tunes: Annie Stirling, book talk: The Refuge, comedy at as you are., the US flag in art, open house event for teachers at the spy museum
9/25: comedy: Body Language, tunes: Thesaurus Rex, violin: K8A, anti-capitalist coworking club, improv: stumped, book talk: how to kill a witch, comedy: Yasmin Elhady, where dead women go to dance
9/26: jazz in the parks, tunes at pocket, anti-rat webinar, dance and post-performance discussion at Kreeger, "Firebird" at Theatre of Harlem, The Art of Cyanotype, screening: Chicago Crossings, avoid the pro-data center party, hardcore tunes: plastique pigs, korean food tour in annapolis, author talk: Gutted
9/27: parks flea market, tunes at pocket, family square dance, fall decor workshop, screening: Life Itself, paw paw tasting and growing, memorials for troubled times, art to exhale
9/28: Charli XCX, jeff surak at rhizome, people's choir singalong, forgeries throughout history
9/29: let's go to rhizome, predicting election results, queer as craft, disoriented tropical madness at rhizome
9/30: music improv at rhizome, journaling with crystals, this cursed beautiful land, yoga at the farm, Educator Night at East City Bookshop, workshop: metal embossing
OCTOBER
10/1: local tunes: Magic Item w/ Dr. Horsedoctor + Rain Shears, tunes: Magic Item, author event: Portrait of a Witch Undone
10/2: eli winter trio at rhizome, tunes: The Tumblers, finding awe at NGA, anti-capitalist coworking club, heart of the matter, Immigration Film Fest
10/3: pianist Élisabeth Pion, screening: Stories and Pictures By, home rule fest, Swap Palooza, city within a city, MUNDIAL: Culturas Sin Fronteras
10/4: author talk: Audrey Goldberg-Ruoff, DC fall classic 5K & Half, screening: While We Are Here, Killick Hinds at Rhizome, finding awe at NGA, Secret Door Museum, tunes: ÊXSZA
10/5: john grisham at 6th & I
10/7: michael douglas at 6th & I
10/8: cookbook talk at 6th&I, Coco Smith at Rhizome, art: Change Ringing, KINDA EVIL at pie shop
10/9: local tunes: Eliza Tebo w/ Integriti Reeves + Melanie McDowell, anti-capitalist coworking club, local noise at rhizome, author talk: find me where it ends, local tunes: emotional world
10/10: Chelsea Wolfe at 6th&I, Afterglow: Stories that linger, hip hop: EPIK HIGH, screening: Primary, Painting in the Kreeger Sculpture Garden, afterglow: stories that linger
10/11: moony w Wall Carpets, screening: If You Lived Here You Would Be Home Now
10/12: the italian job, tunes at rhizome
10/13: grief quiltmaking
10/14: tunes at rhizome, hair workshop for girldads, violinist Itzhak Perlman, singer-songwriter Taisha Estrada
10/15: comedy at Sixth & I, local tunes: Boat Burning
10/16: parks line dancing, Black Women and Shakespeare, finding awe at NGA, anti-capitalist coworking club, 10 years of building solidarity
10/17: local hip-hop: DFG Ju w/ Tolento Jones, screening: Maysles Films Inc., Tregaron Unplugged, textiles 101
10/18: Simone Dinnerstein at WPA, Ruth Bader Ginsburg Memorial Recital
10/20: cocktails for a cause, O.B. Hardison Reading with Cornelius Eady, revisioning internal rhetoric, jason calhoun at rhizome, the room where it happened
10/21: Raphael Rogiński at Rhizome
10/22: local tunes: Theron William
10/23: beatbox battle, give a shuck, anti-capitalist coworking club
10/24: tunes at rhizome, book talk: art & water, linocut workshop, Niladri Kumaar at WPA, eye on the prize at NGA, mindfulness and sketching in the garden, Sphinx Virtosi & J'Nai Bridges
10/25: parks flea market, screening toni cade bamabra school of organizing
10/27: profs & pints: Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
10/28: Silas House at East City
10/30: anti-capitalist coworking club, night of the living SHRED
10/31: screening: Titicut Follies and A Couple
NOVEMBER
11/1: Mary in Ecstasy at NGA
11/4: sound at rhizome
11/6: OFFSITE duo at rhizome, finding awe at NGA
11/7: nervous verbs, local tunes: Boilersuit
11/8: finding awe at NGA, making art through grief
11/9: Rick Steves at Sixth & I, book talk: spy school
11/10: Julia Jacklin
11/13: love isn't blind, finding awe at NGA
11/14: Red Brick Weekend, comedy for a cause, finding awe at NGA
11/15: monet: life in letters, finding awe at NGA
11/18: tunes: frances of delirium
11/21: try writing a song, metal showcase at the pocket
11/28: echoes of doubt at rhizome, tunes: Emmett & the Dead Ends
11/29: parks flea market
DECEMBER
12/4: HUMP! Film Festival, finding awe at NGA
12/5: HUMP! Film Festival, pas musique at rhizome
12/8: hbd emily dickinson
12/9: sneak peak at folger's english christmas
12/11: English Christmas for the Ages
12/12: finding awe at NGA
MARCH 2027
3/2: hamlet at folger
MAY 2027
5/18: comedy of errors at folger
