Friday and Saturday: 13th Annual Elvis’ Birthday Fight Club

Every year, for two weekends only, Elvis Presley briefly comes back to life to host a bizarre, glamorous, and utterly original fight show. Catch him and his D-list celebrity sidekick, Kittie Glitter, this weekend as they oversee raunchy and ridiculous fights between unforgettable characters, like Godzilla, members of the Supreme Court, Vladimir Putin, and more. Put on by Astro Pop Events, a D.C.-based group of artists and performers that specialize in unique and offbeat entertaining, the show is intended to be subversive and playful. Kate Taylor Davis, wearer of many hats, including producer, director, and writer, has been part of the show since its inception 13 years ago. She describes the production as completely ridiculous, and that’s exactly why she can’t wait for this year’s unlucky anniversary show. Davis says it originally started as an experiment: “We had this date that happened to be Elvis’ birthday that we were going to do a burlesque show … and we were like, ‘oh, we should do something a little more interesting.’” After just three rehearsals, Davis and her crew came up with an action-packed burlesque affair that doesn’t take itself too seriously—“it was far better than it had any right to be,” she says. The show is now so popular that people come in from across the nation to get a peak at Elvis, Kittie, and the rest of the famous and infamous brawlers. To keep new and old audience members on their toes, the fight list is kept a secret until show time, but you can always count on Streaking Lincoln to make an appearance, which is exactly what you’re picturing. Viewers will also get to see a host of talented burlesque performers, including Delilah Dentata, Candy del Rio, Cherie Sweetbottom, Callie Pigeon, and Betty O’Hellno. If you miss the D.C. showing, the fight club heads to Baltimore’s Creative Alliance on Jan. 12 and 13. The 13th Annual Elvis’ Birthday Fight Club shows at 7 and 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 5 and 6 at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW. astropopevents. $33–$45. —Abby Grifno

Opening Saturday: George Lorio, Oluwatoyin Tella, and Dan Ortiz Leizman at IA&A at Hillyer

George Lorio is not trying to trick you. Yes, the American artist’s sculptural depictions of trees—stumped, curved, cracked, and ornamented—do appear so breathlessly detailed that they look alive, or at least like a once-live trunk, now dead, transformed into a rotting, intricate home for insects and burrowing animals, slowly decaying to refurbish and nurture the forest bed. But the skilled prowess or intimate study necessary to capture the whimsy of a woodland with such realism is not Lorio’s primary focus. Rather than the unfailing wonders of trompe l’oeil, it is what the woods represent—life, vitality, resilience, decay—and how human destruction and climate change affect these magnificent organisms, that captures Lorio’s interest. “These constructions are fictions of trees, stumps and logs,” Lorio says. “They are not renderings but reinterpretations of living forms.” In other woods, the sculptural creations are evocations of wood fauna, intended to spark the imagination of the audience, the forest-wanderers. Wood pellets and shards surround the sculptures, highlighting the theme of environmental degradation. But in these handmade, inventive works, the product of one solitary artist’s collaging and rebuilding, inspired by and composed of felled trees, is a brave ode to renewal, encouraging a more active, hopeful, rejuvenated approach to restoration. Lorio’s works, on view at the IA&A at Hillyer (a nonprofit initiative from the International Arts & Artists organization) are part of three new artist showcases at the gallery this January. In addition to Lorio, Oluwatoyin Tella will exhibit her signature indigo figures that portray the dialoguing aesthetics of contemporary Black Diaspora with that of precolonial Yoruba. And Dan Ortiz Leizman’s immersive “NUCLEAR” installation explores queer pregnancy, evoking an imagined dystopia where, in the face of destruction from war and radiation exposure, asexual pregnancy is the norm. While working across different themes and mediums, all three artists have at least one thing in common: looking to the past to question the present and render a more equitable, imaginative, hearty future. Newly Selected Artists: George Lorio, Oluwatoyin Tella, and Dan Ortiz Leizman opens Jan. 6 and runs through the 28 at IA&A at Hillyer, 9 Hillyer Ct. NW. athillyer.org. Free, donation suggested. —Emma Francois

Sunday: Emily Wilson on The Iliad at Politics and Prose

Calling all “classics girlies” and “guys who think about Ancient Greece and Rome too much”: Make sure you stop by Politics and Prose to see legendary classics professor Emily Wilson on tour for her new translation of The Iliad. As every news article must note, Wilson was the first woman to publish a translation of The Odyssey in 2017, creating a definitive version of Homer for the 21st century. Her translation of The Iliad (that’s the one with the Trojan War), released in September, has been equally well-received as a clear and beautiful interpretation of Homer’s original epic poem. Given the Cambrian explosion of Greek mythology-inspired works coming out, it was about time for new translations of Homer and his OG Greek God shenanigans. Wilson, who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the most respected classicists in the field and has produced translations of Seneca, Aeschylus, and Sophocles. In addition to being technically brilliant—her translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey are entirely in iambic pentameter and conform to the original number of lines in Ancient Greek—Wilson’s translations are known for being simultaneously progressive and truer to the “original” text. Wilson does not use the euphemisms and Christian influences added by centuries of Western translations but also manages to give the original Greek new meaning by offering simple and clean language. For modern readers obsessed with the classics or casual readers who want to learn more, Wilson’s translations are a must. After a lifetime of stodgy translations written by Victorian men, this is a breath of fresh air—maybe reading this version would’ve kept me from giving up on the Iliad after 20 pages when I was in high school. Wilson will be at Politics and Prose on Sunday, where she’ll read some of her translation aloud, as is intended by the oral tradition of Homer’s epics. Emily Wilson on The Iliad starts at 3 p.m. on Jan. 7 at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave NW. politics-prose.com. Free. —Tristan Jung

Sunday: Milarepa Dorji, Liam Grant, Dechen at Rhizome

It’s 2024 and Rhizome, the small community art space, is still located and active at a house in D.C.’s Takoma neighborhood. As its website says, “There is a contract to build apartments on the property,” but Rhizome expects to stay where it is “at least through the first half of 2024.”  For adventurous D.C.-area music fans,, this is a good thing. Take Sunday’s intriguing triple bill. Milarepa Dorji is the Maine-based, electric guitar-playing son of Bhutanese improvisational guitarist Tashi Dorji. The younger Dorji employs his dexterous fingerwork and affects pedals to create discordant instrumental songs that meld post-punk, jazz rock, and avant-ambient sounds. New England-raised acoustic guitarist Liam Grant uses a fingerpicking, John Fahey-like style to play blues, country, and South Asian raga-rooted instrumentals. While less noisy than Dorji, Grant uses repetition and drone to make his approach equally challenging. Opener Dechen (aka Ellen McSweeney), who recently finished spiritual training in a Buddhist monastic community, is a local musician who plays acoustic guitar, violin, and ukulele and sings her own artsy folk compositions in a high, earnest voice. She’ll be accompanied by classical bassist Alex Jacobsen of the National Symphony Orchestra at this gig. The triple bill starts at 7 p.m. on Jan. 7 at Rhizome, 6950 Maple St. NW. rhizomedc.org. $10–$20. —Steve Kiviat 

Ongoing: Mini Memories: Souvenir Buildings at the National Building Museum

Much like the objects it spotlights, the National Building Museum’s exhibit of small souvenir buildings packs a lot into a small space. The one-room exhibit features some 400 miniature buildings from 70 countries, part of a 3,000-piece collection that architects David Weingarten and Lucia Howard assembled and then donated to the museum. The exhibit’s prefatory wall note acknowledges that many of the items are “not necessarily the best examples of architecture,” and that’s for sure; examples include a humdrum Ford plant in Belgium, a bunch of ordinary-looking banks, and a midwestern grain elevator. The items were produced for all kinds of purposes (swag for employees, gifts for tourists, home decor) and they depict structures from lots of eras (from the Great Pyramid of Giza to the Eiffel Tower to Dubai’s contemporary skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa). But the most striking diversity is in material. The miniatures are rendered in at least 20 different mediums, ranging from Bakelite, wax, and repurposed currency to bronze, silver, and terra cotta. (The porcelain and cloisonné examples tend to age more gracefully than the metal ones.) Each state—except, for some reason, Montana—is represented by at least one example. The exhibit is definitely more kitsch than art; how to explain a miniature of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in an unexpected shade of pink? If I had a favorite, it might well be the replica of the classic Los Angeles restaurant, the Brown Derby. The restaurant’s eponymous bowler shape makes the replica on display a case of art imitating life imitating art. Mini Memories: Souvenir Buildings from the David Weingarten Collection will run through 2024 at the National Building Museum, 401 F St. NW. Thursday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. nbm.org. $7–$10. —Louis Jacobson