Daily through Sunday: Awa Sal Secka’s Ladies of Jazz at Signature Theatre 

Inside Signature Theatre, the songs of Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, and Sarah Vaughan are being channeled and echoed through the voice of Awa Sal Secka. The performer and playwright, who was born in New York and raised in a Gambian household, has been performing locally since she moved to the area in 2005—her first show at Signature was roughly seven years ago, when she played an apostle in Jesus Christ Superstar. Today, She and her powerhouse vocals that span two-and-a-half octaves are paying homage to the women who defined jazz. Secka opens the show with “Take the ‘A’ Train,” which was written by Billy Strayhorn and performed by Vaughan alongside other jazz greats, including Duke Ellington. Another classic Secka performs is “I Put a Spell On You,” along with other songs from Simone’s discography filled with anthems for the Civil Rights Movement. That includes “Mississippi Goddam,” which was originally written in response to two 1963 events: the murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama; many of the lyrics were censored upon its initial release. Secka will also sing from the repertoire of Nancy Wilson, whose musical career spanned five decades. The 16-song set highlights some of jazz’s most prominent and prolific musicians over the past century. Awa Sal Secka’s Summertime: Ladies of Jazz runs July 31 through Aug. 4 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. sigtheatre.org. $46. — Heidi Perez-Moreno

Saturday and Sunday: The Latinx Movement Festival at Dance Place 

People of the Latine diaspora tell their stories from infinite angles, which is exactly what Mexican American movement artist and choreographer Gabriel Mata hopes to champion with his inaugural Latinx Movement Festival. The two-day event features performances from six dance collectives and movement artists, including Carne Viva Dance Theatre, Xochipilli Dance Company, and Latina Jewish interdisciplinary artist Amelia Rose Estrada. These performances tell stories of identity, the restless feeling of being displaced in unfamiliar environments, and seeking connection to one’s history and culture. Mata, who moved to the D.C. area seven years ago and has since graduated with a master’s in fine arts from the University of Maryland, will perform a duet with Estrada that the two choreographed with the hope of reclaiming their bodies and identities as queer people and immigrants. Another performance, titled “Nepantla: Magia Ancestral,” looks at Mexican folklore’s connection to nature, but also bodily expression and magic, while also examining how it relates to the present day. Choreographers Julio Medina and Salome Nieto, performing as a duo, seek to tell a larger story of what it’s like to feel displaced as people of Mexican descent living in the United States. There will also be free community workshops led by some of the performers teaching bachata, butoh, and sabor, which will take place Friday, before the festival officially starts. It took a year and a half for Mata to bring his vision of creating a safe space to celebrate the diversity of the local Latine dance artistry to life. Such spaces, he says, are rare in the D.C. area. Being in its first year, Mata hopes to see momentum from the festival create support, feedback, and guidance for the next one. He’s also open to feedback and discussion around using the term “Latinx”—a source of sociopolitical and cultural tension—in their name. The Latinx Movement Festival runs Aug. 3 through 4 at Dance Place, 3225 8th St. NE. danceplace.org. $30. —Heidi Perez-Moreno

Sunday: The Mountain Goats and New Pornographers at Wolf Trap

Every year Wolf Trap manages to bring together a unique pairing that audiences didn’t know they needed. A highlight of this season is the one-night-only co-headlining show featuring North Carolina’s the Mountain Goats and Vancouver, BC’s the New Pornographers. The two bands take different approaches to what falls under the large umbrella of indie rock. The Mountain Goats’ erudite bent comes from prolific singer-songwriter John Darnielle’s high-concept riffs on underexplored subcultural corners. What type of person is into collecting knives? How does it feel to be an old professional wrestler? They’ve got an album for just about any tangent. The New Pornographers, however, take a much more straightforward approach, layering their saccharine pop hooks on top of wry, complicated sentimentality. Together, the evening can be seen as a coronation of the mid-’00s indie-rock boom that finds itself continuing to thrive and settling nicely into the green manicured pastures of the amphitheater establishment. The Mountain Goats and the New Pornographers play at 7 p.m. on Aug. 4 at Wolf Trap, 1551 Wolf Trap Rd., Vienna. wolftrap.org. $43–$133. —Matt Siblo

Sunday: Donnell Floyd at MGM National Harbor 

When Donnell Floyd officially retired from go-go at the end of 2019, his farewell show exceeded all expectations. Along with an array of local stars, Stevie Wonder and rapper Doug E. Fresh joined Floyd on stage to celebrate his 40 years of contributions to go-go culture. During his 18 years with Rare Essence, Floyd rapped on and co-wrote the band’s biggest hits of the ’90s: “Lock It,” “Work the Walls,” and “Overnight Scenario.” Initially a saxophone player for the band, Floyd also became Rare Essence’s second mic rapper. Dubbed “The King of the Go-Go Beat” after another Rare Essence hit, Floyd went on to lead 911 and other popular go-go groups. In 2017, he took his band Team Familiar to Nigeria to perform for the Yoruba king known as the Ooni of Ife. While his retirement from go-go felt inconceivable to longtime fans, for Floyd, it was inevitable, mostly due to his aggressive vocal style. But even after Floyd debuted his well-received R&B band, Push Play, occasional returns to go-go have also been inevitable. In 2022, Floyd joined Rare Essence at the MGM National Harbor for a 45th-anniversary reunion show. On Sunday, Floyd returns to go-go one more time for a night billed as “King of the Go-Go Beat: One Night in All White” featuring the fabulous Ms. Kim, Rappa Dude, Frank “Scooby” Marshall, Jasen “O” Holland, Darrin “X” Frazier, Michael Arnold, Marcus “dotcom” Young, Sean Geason, and Darryl “Blue-Eye” Arrington. Driving the beat will be Eric “Bojack” Butcher on drums and Milton “Go–Go Mickey” Freeman. According to Floyd, he has received nearly 50 solid offers from area promoters eager to put together a go-go concert. He chose Tricky, Inc.’s Mark Pendergrast due to his interest in an elaborate production. “I wanted to have a great state-of-the-art production,” says Floyd. “I saw this as an opportunity to increase my legacy while putting together an incredible show for people.” One Night in All White starts at 6 p.m. on Aug. 4 at MGM Grand Ballroom, 101 MGM National Ave, Oxon Hill. markpendergrastevents.com. $65-125. —Alona Wartofsky

Ongoing: Isabella Whitfield’s Best Regards at Hamiltonian Artists

There’s an uncanny quality to the works of D.C.-based artist Isabella Whitfield, currently displayed in a delicately balanced arrangement at Hamiltonian Artists. Many of the sculptures depict commonplace objects rendered in incongruous materials, often paper. Subtly surprising, her works come across as sleight of hand or pulling one over on the viewer: a paper life vest seems to actually be inflated, and a sea of papercast utility signs in pastel Tupperware hues looks as sturdy as the real thing. Call it pulp fiction. Whitfield is also a papermaking associate at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center and seems to delight in inverting expectations, creating objects that are harder or softer than their real-life counterparts and making permanent things temporary (or vice versa). One piece is particularly unexpected; it’s easy to miss if you’re not cross-referencing with the image list. Tucked tight into a corner up in the ceiling, “How to stop a cycle” is a tiny cutout of scrap metal showing a horse and a pegasus facing off. It begs for a closer look, but it’s tantalizingly out of grasp. All the works in the show warrant closer inspection, both to figure out how they’re constructed, and to pick up on some of the finer details of their presentation. The show’s title, Best Regards, is a nod to a commonly used email sign off that can be genuine or passive-aggressive, used to express actual goodwill, annoyance, or thinly veiled disgust. Getting such a salutation can be destabilizing—does this person hate me or are they just professional?—and similarly, Whitfield’s works leave the viewer turning over the seemingly simple things. Best Regards runs through August 10 at Hamiltonian Artists, 1353 U St. NW. Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. hamiltonianartists.org. Free. —Stephanie Rudig