Saturday: Rebellion and Aesthetic Expressions With Phuc Tran and Elizabeth Ai at MLK Library

On Oct. 5, two authors from different corners of the literary world, Phuc Tran, author of Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In, and Elizabeth Ai, author of New Wave: Rebellion and Reinvention in the Vietnamese Diaspora, sit down with moderator Thuy Dinh to discuss their shared experiences. The core theme of their work is self-preservation as they both navigate what it means to be Asian American in today’s world. Both of their books interrogate the cycle of intergenerational trauma and cultural displacement—while celebrating the Asian American diaspora and experience. But the pair are more than just writers: Ai is a prolific director and producer of several documentaries and films and Tran is a practicing tattoo artist and Latin teacher. Dinh is a critic, author, and editor-at-large for the Vietnamese Diaspora at the Asymptote Journal. A book signing will follow the talk. Rebellion and Aesthetic Expressions book talk starts at noon on Oct. 5 at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G St. NW. dclibrary.libnet.info. Free, but registration is suggested. —Meg Richards

Saturday: Meshell Ndegeocello Honors James Baldwin at the Strathmore

 The late novelist, playwright, and essayist James Baldwin was born 100 years ago and died in 1987. This astute observer on race relations, queer issues, and humanity once noted in his writing that his thoughts were exemplified in part by the Black spiritual lyric: “God gave Noah the Rainbow sign/ No more water, the fire next time!” When Baldwin wrote that in 1963, he was spelling out the destructive post-flood fate the United States would face if Americans don’t learn from the country’s past and condemn bigotry and racial segregation. On No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, singer and multi-instrumentalist Meshell Ndegeocello, with the help of her guitarist and co-producer Chris Bruce and a handful of other musicians she often works with, gives us a race and gender history lesson and guidance on love and hate via music and spoken word. (The project also features poet Staceyann Chin and author Hilton Als.) The music is penned by Ndegeocello and her bandmates and half of the compositions feature sung or recited verses that include quoted excerpts from Baldwin. Based in New York for years, Ndegeocello grew up in the D.C. area, briefly playing bass for Rare Essence and others before moving on to her solo career that brought her some ’90s hits and much critical acclaim. This latest album has its roots in a 2016 theatrical effort she created and presented in Harlem called Can I Get a Witness? The Gospel of James Baldwin, which was based on his writings collected in his book The Fire Next Time. While the lyrical messages about the unending inhumane treatment of Black people—from enslavement through to the murder of Tamir Rice—are appalling and painful, Ndegeocello and her vocalists are steadfast in their desire as Chin chants assertively to “Find courage to speak for them.” The clever musical composing uses acoustic and digital instrumentation influenced by multiple eras of Black music to create ethereal jazzy funk. The track “On the Mountain” vocally goes from Als’ spoken word over squawking jazz horns to operatic soul via singer Justin Hicks, while the “The Price of the Ticket” is a ballad with acoustic guitar playing rooted in early 1960s Odetta-style folk with Ndegeocello plaintively asking a cop to put down his gun that is aimed at her. Other songs use Baptist church organ and gorgeous vocal harmonies to convey riveting emotions and to present Baldwin’s personal and timeless themes. Meshell Ndegeocello: No More Water / The Gospel of James Baldwin starts at 8 p.m. on Oct. 5 at the Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Ln., North Bethesda. strathmore.org. $28–$74. —Steve Kiviat   

Ends Soon: Ikxisuluntuk (Swollen Foot), a Live Radio Play at Dandelion Collective DC

Created by Angel Rose Artist Collective, Ikxisuluntuk (Swollen Foot), a bilingual Nawat and English language audio adaptation of Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King, opened last week at Dandelion Collective DC. As someone forced to study Oedipus in high school and college, I found it thrilling to see an adaptation breathe new life into the Greek tragedy. Petrona Xemi Tapepechul, managing director of Angel Rose Artist Collective, has updated Sophocles’ story to focus on Tiutećan, the city of the Gods, as it suffers a terrible (and all too timely) curse: the loss of its ancestral language. A foreigner, Ikxisuluntuk (Swollen Foot), a fluent Nawat speaker, arrives and quickly becomes the King of Tiutećan. A lifelong curse follows Ikxisuluntuk and he’s forced to beg for answers and forgiveness from the city Elders. They send Ikxisuluntuk on a journey of self-discovery, betrayal, and self-doubt. In a press release, Tapepechul says, “Today, there are less than 50 first-language speakers of Nawat alive, making Nawat a critically endangered language as declared by the United Nations.” Tapepechul notes that Oedipus has been translated into dozens of languages, “and now, we have a Nawat-language version … for our communities who are working to revitalize this language for future generations.” The play previously ran this summer at Sitar Arts Center and the Mount Pleasant Library. This time around, this important production is only doing a 12-show run so be sure to catch it before it closes. Ikxisuluntuk (Swollen Foot), the live radio play, runs through Oct. 13 at Dandelion Collective DC, 3417 14th St. NW. angelrosearts.org. $20. —Serena Zets 

Ongoing: Diane Szczepaniak at Gallery Neptune & Brown

Diane Szczepaniak (1956-2019) was a Detroit-born painter who worked as an artist in D.C. since the 1990s. A retrospective of her work at Gallery Neptune & Brown, Meditations on Color and Light, includes a watery landscape limned in creamy oils; a large-scale, Op Art-inspired watercolor featuring cheerily colored, hand-drawn squares that communicate an oddly 3D texture; and patchwork-like assemblages of soft tones. But Szczepaniak’s most impressive works play with subtle gradations of color, created by careful layering of paint. In two works, Szczepaniak lightly spreads white highlights over understated fields of blue, creating unexpectedly radiating patterns. And in nine works that comprise the exhibit’s visual core, she replicates an L-shaped form that suggests the frame of a painting or a window. Within this repeated structure, Szczepaniak pairs tones such as magenta and various shades of blue with a dreamy subtlety that evokes the paintings of Mark Rothko, or, perhaps even more, the out-of-focus photographs of Uta Barth, some of which featured fuzzily portrayed windows into the obscure distance. Meditations on Color and Light runs through Oct. 19 at Gallery Neptune & Brown, 1530 14th St. NW. Wednesdays through Saturdays, noon to 7 p.m. galleryneptunebrown.com. Free. —Louis Jacobson

Ongoing: Power & Light at the National Archives

In 1946, coal occupied a central place in the national consciousness. That year, widespread strikes at coal mines threatened not just an industry but a crucial source of energy for the nation. The Truman Administration negotiated an agreement to end the strikes, which included one provision that’s now the subject of a National Archives exhibition: a 2,000-image survey of the coal-mining industry by Russell Lee (1903-1986), a member of the federal photography corps that documented the Great Depression. The largely forgotten survey, which spanned mines in 13 states, used black-and-white photography to spotlight both the grim working conditions underground and the families’ cramped, newspaper-lined homes, with the goal of publicizing the plight of coal workers. The subjects are notably diverse—many of the people captured on film are Black, some are Asian, and many were brought into the industry in order to keep wages low. The adults project an understandable weariness, but the children remain angelic, even when pushing a baby around in a makeshift stroller made from a discarded box of mine explosives. If images like Lee’s aren’t enough of a gut punch, the exhibit delivers an even bigger one in its final panel: A 1979 follow-up survey found significant material improvements for most mine families, but many who were interviewed voiced frustration that the nation continued to view them as backward and impoverished. Lee’s work from the 1940s “may have inadvertently contributed to this lasting stereotype,” the exhibit acknowledges. Given this, what are we to think about the value of documentary photography? At this point, I have no idea. Power & Light runs through Dec. 7, 2025, at the National Archives, 700 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. archivesfoundation.org. Free. —Louis Jacobson

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